I reckon my ever faulting headache inducing Wanadoo Livebox has emitted it’s last faint wifi signal … I came in tonight, fired up the MacBook, hit the Safari browser button and was promptly fed the old “Sorry … You are not connected to the Internet” shite.

So then I performed the classic I.T. move of switching it on and off again … Nada.

Ach!

I’ve got to phone Orange to cancel my Internet anyway (on account of me leaving this dump soon) so I’m just not gonna bother going through the heartache and frustration of listening to one of their technical support staff telling me over and over again to try the same thing I had already tried before.

Them and their procedures – NONE of them know what they are talking about – they are just reading the laminated sheet that they’re given on day one at the call centre – MONKEYS!!!

But when I ring to cancel my account I hope they have got the decency to ask what I thought of the service … Because when they do I will say 4 words and 4 words only …

YOUR ROUTERS ARE SHITE

So lately, I’ve been having issues with my interwebz, to where I have to reset my modem/router pretty much every other day, maybe even every day, and a thread on my local car forum led to me testing my newer D-Link router that I had bought to replace the bricked Linksys that I had before.

I had a Linksys WRT54G Version 2 router that I’ve had since the Version 2 first came out, and I’ve never had a problem with it.  One day, I had an issue with the modem, so I had to power cycle that to get it to work again, and in doing so, I would normally power cycle the router right after so that all the signals go through and work correctly.

That day, for whatever reason, I thought it was a good idea to press the reset button on the back of the router, which basically returned the router to factory default settings instead of just power cycling itself.

Seeing that, I said “oh wtf?” and went ahead and logged into the webgui and tried to change the settings back to the way they were right away.  Upon the first “save settings” click, it froze, and when I power cycled it, it wouldn’t power back on anymore.  The power light would just keep blinking.

Fast forward to yesterday, and I was determined to give it a try to try and revive, or un-brick my Linksys, as I had narrowed most of my problems to the D-Link router that I had.

Friend of mine gave me a few webpages with different methods to revive the router to check out, and the more easier ones didn’t work, and I literally came to the “try this as the last step because there is only a 20% success rate” step, the step right before “put on your coat and go down to Best Buy and buy another one” step.

It involved opening the router’s casing up, finding the flash chip on there, locating a specific pin, and using a copper wire to ground that pin to the antenna base.  However, the pin is so small, that I actually had to separate the strands and just use 1 strand of wire to touch the pin, while the other end of the wire, I just twisted all the strands together and touched it to the antenna’s base.

This step, however, I would highly suggest that you have a second person to help you, because you need to hold that wire on that pin, and only that pin, while you ground the other end to the antenna, which will take up both of your hands, and while you’re grounding it out, you need to plug the router in to give it power, thus completing the circuit and grounding the pin out.  I had Krystal plug in the router, while I held the wire in place, all the while looking at the cmd screen’s continuous ping attempts to see if it will give me a “TTL=xxx” response.  Right as Krystal plugged in the router, I started getting TTL=100 responses, so I started the TFTP process to load the new firmware onto the router.  Soon, it was back up and running!

It was an awesome feeling, and I literally felt like I was doing the equivalent of using defibrillators on the router to shock it back to life  lol

Thus the title.

PS – I will put up the guide that I used to bring it back to life on my next post.  Gotta run to the in-laws’ to prepare Thanksgiving dinner!

Happy Thanksgiving y’all!

Win a 52” HD TV, netbook, iPod & more!

One (1) Grand Prize Package: A Samsung 52” HD TV, an Acer Aspire One Netbook, an iPod Touch, a NETGEAR® Digital Entertainer™ Live media player, a NETGEAR® The Ultimate Networking Machine router model WNDR3700 and a NETGEAR® Stora device (RRP U.S.$3,097). Eight (8) Weekly Prize Packages: Each consists of NETGEAR® Digital Entertainer™ Live media player, NETGEAR® The Ultimate Networking Machine router model WNDR3700, and NETGEAR Stora device (RRP U.S.$569). Total RRP of all prizes = U.S.$7,649.

All you have to do is FOLLOW @Netgear on Twitter during the sweepstakes! But you can also fill out an entry form.

Contest Ending Date : 5:00 p.m. EST/10:00 p.m. GMT on 19 January 2010

RUT-105 är en trådlös 3G router med HSUPA stöd. Routern har även ett inbyggt trådlöst nätverk, WLAN, med 54 MBit/s hastighet för att minimera behovet av kabeldragning lokalt. RUT-105 hanterar 3G med hastigheter upp till 7,2 Mbit/s nedladdnings och 2,1 Mbit/s uppladdningshastighet i 3G nät med HSUPA stöd. 3G routern har en Ethernetport med DHCP-stöd för lokalt nätverk. Nätverksporten kan dessutom användas som spänningsmatningsport via PoE, Power over Ethernet.

“Med en 3G router kan installationstakten ökas och såväl installations- som driftskostnaderna minskas i jämförelse med trådbundna lösningar som ADSL. Under hösten har vi märkt en ökad efterfrågan av inbyggt trådlöst nätverk i våra 3G enheter i vitt skilda sammanhang. Det kan handla om allt från att servicepersonal vill kunna logga in i ett lokalt nätverk vid underhållsarbete, till ombordnätverk för kollektivtrafik eller multimedialösningar för matvarubutiker och serviceställen säger Mikael Flodström, Försäljningschef på Induo”.

This is caused by our server provider SoftLayer. They need maintenance them CISCO Router.

Emergency Data Center Maintenance – FCR04.DAL01 [11/30/2009]
Date: Monday, November 30, 2009 (11/30/2009)
Start Time: 02:00 CST (08:00 UTC)
End Time: 03:00 CST (09:00 UTC)
Services affected: Public Network
Location: DAL01
Duration: 1 hour
More info about this schedule maintenance:
(This is copied from SoftLayer tickets.)

The following notification is to inform you of an EMERGENCY MAINTENANCE event on the SoftLayer Technologies IP Network. Due to the severity, the time frame between this notice and the maintenance window has been shortened.

Start Time: 02:00 CST (08:00 UTC)
End Time: 03:00 CST (09:00 UTC)

Summary:
SoftLayer Technologies in conjunction with Cisco Systems have identified a service impacting bug in the current IOS version running on this router. A vendor recommended upgrade has been provided as a resolution and needs to be implemented immediately.

Original Issue Reference:
With the introduction of 4-byte ASNs (Autonomous System Numbers), a newly devised method of injecting a specifically crafted prefix into the global route table allows for the BGP process to be reset on older IOS code.

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/707/cisco-sa-20090729-bgp.shtml
https://forums.softlayer.com/showthread.php?t=4585

Customer Impact:
During this maintenance, customers will notice a complete loss of connectivity to their servers on the frontend network (public network). Backend network (private network) connectivity will NOT be impacted during this maintenance. While the upgrade duration is scheduled for 1 hour, we only  as the routers reload and fully converge. Again, this will NOT impact the backend network (private network) for customer servers.

A notice will also be posted in the portal prior to the maintenance, during the maintenance informing you of the progress, and after with completion details.

If you have any problems with your connection to your services after this maintenance window, or if you have any questions regarding the maintenance at any point, please call us at 214-442-0603 or open a ticket in the customer portal.

We appreciate your patience during this maintenance and welcome any feedback you may have.

SoftLayer Technologies
Network Engineering

Yes, with the advent of summer, and more sunny days, hardware *does* fail.
I just recently fried two sticks of RAM, as I pulled them out of my PC they were so hot I burned my fingers. Serves me right for having so many Hard Drives in there without thinking about fans.

You may be in a similar boat, if you PC blue-screens and restarts, maybe it just won’t turn on, all are common symptoms of PC’s that are now overheating.
What can you do about it? Well to find out if your PC is overheating, grab either Speccy or EVEREST Ultimate (Trial). EVEREST is nice as it can be left in the system tray while you carry on working.

If any of your parts (Such as HDD, Motherboard, CPU or Graphics Card) are over 50 degrees for a desktop, or 60 degrees for a laptop, they’re probably getting a bit too warm for prolonged use. Naturally laptops run hotter, and some can quite happily sit between 50-60 degrees their whole life, but if possible you want to keep it cooler.

What can you do about it?

You might need to pull the sides off your PC and use a can of compressed air to blow out the dust / cobwebs. You can pick up a can of compressed air for around $30 from Dick Smith Electronics (Product code N1238). Yes, that’s $30 but if it saves you having to replace a few hundred dollars worth of parts, it’s worth it right?
Note: Do NOT use your vacuum cleaner. It’s far too easy to knock the parts, the brushes can cause damage, and to be safe you’d have to hold it too far away for it to be truly useful. Use compressed air.

Now, take your PC outside, perhaps on your garage floor or driveway with both sides off, stand it up, and blow into all the fans and around the circuitry. Be sure not to knock anything and you’ll be just fine.

What about your Router? Well if you cannot afford to replace your router with one that’s less prone to overheating, try moving it out of direct sunlight, or off the floor. You could try having a mini desk-fan blowing over it, or some people have even had good results using a Plate Stand to put their router on. If you’ve gotta get a fan on your router, it’s on it’s last legs and will need replacing sooner rather than later. See my previous blog posts for information on what routers are decent and what routers you should avoid, such as the freebies that many ISP’s give away.

If you’re still having issues with your PC overheating, restarting or freezing, then try posting on PressF1.co.nz and seeing what they say.

If this has been helpful to you in any way, please drop me a line and say Hi, share your thoughts, I’d love to hear from you

Wi-Fi,  sesuatu yang makin populer akhir-akhir ini. Hanya dengan bermodal laptop atau gadget (PDA, handphone, handheld console game) yang memiliki fitur wireless lan atau Wi-Fi anda dapat berselancar dunia maya atau bertukar data di area yang menyediakan Hotspot. Sebuah loncatan teknologi yang cukup tinggi dimana dahulu orang terkoneksi dengan internet harus menggunakan kabel.

Beberapa waktu lalu saat aku di terminal untuk pulang ke kampung halaman, melihat sesuatu yang menarik di jendela sebuah bus tujuan Cilacap PO EFISIENSI. Di jendela itu terpampang tulisan “Wi-Fi”. Yup, bener banget tuh bus ada Hotspot di dalemnya. Yang jelas seru banget kalo kebosanan selama perjalanan terlewati dengan berinternet ria.

Terus kalo pengen menghadirkan Wi-Fi di mobil pribadi kita gimana tuh? Apa mungkin? Yuhuu.. Jawabannya sangat mungkin!!!

Wi-Fi atau Wireless Fidelity adalah sekumpulan standar yang digunakan untuk jaringan lokal nirkabel (Wireless Local Area Networks – WLAN). Dan saat ini Wi-Fi lebih banyak digunakan untuk mengakses internet.

Dan untuk membuat hotspot ini, dibutuhkan sebuah perangkat bernama router yang merupakan alat penghubung jaringan komputer, yang fungsinya mengirimkan paket data melalui sebuah jaringan atau internet menuju tujuannya. Dan proses inilah yang dikenal sebagai routing. Router juga bekerja membagi jaringan network sekaligus membangun sambungan Wi-Fi-nya ke perangkat – perangkat yang bakal tersambung.

Tapi yang perlu diingat, pada dasarnya kinerja routing bukanlah untuk menangkap sinyal internet dari ISP (Internet Service Provider). Apalagi sinyal dunia maya ini merupakan sebuah layanan langganan, yang mengharuskan adanya proses daftarisasi pengguna. Karena itu untuk mendapatkan jaringan ini, router harus dibantu sambungan kabel telepon rumah atau kantor, dan juga melalui fasilitas sambungan kartu operator selular, via mobile modem yang saat ini banyak dijual.

Karena itu, hal ini pun juga berlaku jika membicarakan basic pembangunan sebuah sistem Wi-Fi di mobil. Sebab secara teknis hanya memerlukan router, mobile modem dan kartu jaringan operator selular saja. Dan jika itu sudah terpenuhi, maka memakai laptop, ponsel dan gadget lainnya dimobil yang tersambung internet, sudah bisa dijabani dengan lancar.

Tapi karena router yang bakal dipake bukan spek buat mobil, powernya harus di-inverter dulu ke (arus AC, Red) 220V. Selain itu, penempatan router ini juga harus diperhatikan. Sebab jangan sampai antenanya yang membagi sinyal Wi-Fi dari modem mobile yang berisi kartu operator itu, terhalang benda padat yang keras, yang akan mengurangi kualitasnya.

Paling ideal taruh di belakang (bagasi)i. Oh ya, saat ini banyak model dan merek router yang beredar di pasaran. Harganya sendiri berkisar Rp 2-4 juta. Dan untuk aplikasi di mobil, silakan ambil yang keterangan spesifikasinya tertera tulisan mobile router.

Sedangkan untuk mobile modem yang dimaksud, adalah modem dengan yang berbentuk USB, dan menggunakan sim card operator selular sebagai jaringan internet-nya. Modem mobile ini udah banyak kok yang jual. Biasanya harganya Rp 1 jutaan tergantung model dan kemampuannya. Tapi pilih yang speknya 3,5G. Ada 3 besar pilihan operator sim card selular penyedia layanan internet GSM yang rekomen digunakan. Masing-masing XL, Indosat dan Terkomsel.
MENGGUNAKAN MOBILE GSM 3G ROUTER

Selain menggunakan cara diatas, ada cara yang lebih simpel dalam penerapan router GSM 3G. Salah satunya menggunakan produk Huawei D100 Wireless Router. Perangkat ini berfungsi mengubah koneksi broadband wireless internet GSM/3G menjadi sebuah pemancar radio wifi yang bisa dikoneksikan ke beberapa PC/Notebook (sebagai client) secara bersamaan. Sehingga PC/Notebook yang terhubung ke alat ini dapat menikmati koneksi internet dengan basis kecepatan internet 3G/HASDPA berkecepatan tinggi.

Router ini hanya memerlukan tambahan sebuah modem GSM 3G bermerek Huawei. Jika sudah memiliki modem 3G Huawei, tinggal colokkan saja ke router ini dan kita langsung memiliki sebuah Wi-Fi area.

Tak seperti router spek rumahan yang input powernya 220V, router mobile ini input powernya 12V 0.5A  yang pada bawaan pabriknya dilengkapi power adaptor dari 220V ke 12V. Kita tak perlu memakai adaptor ini lagi, hanya perlu membuat/mencari adaptor ke lighter mobil yang dayanya sama-sama 12V. Sehingga tak memerlukan inverter 220V lagi. Ada pula tipe lainnya yaitu Prolink PWH2100-3G GSM/EVDO CDMA Wireless Router yang selain bisa menggunakan modem GSM 3G merk apapun juga dapat menggunakan modem CDMA EVDO. Harga keduanya sekitar 1 jutaan belum termasuk modemnya, bisa didapatkan di Modem Jogja.

5 THING IMPORTANT ON IT

•    Sama seperti layanan on the spot. Sebagai penyedia server Wi-Fi, hardware hanya sekali beli, tapi buat layanan internet-nya, membayar langganan perbulan dari kartu operatornya.

•    Walaupun sinyal pancaran router secara teoritis bisa mencapai 50 meter, namun penggunaan di luar mobil akan terganggu. Salah satunya akibat pemakaian kaca film.

•    Untuk menjaga sinyal Wi-Fi dipakai orang-orang yang tak diundang, mengaktifkan fitur protect sangat disarankan. Dan hal ini bisa diatur dari router-nya.

•    Meskipun dari 1 router sinyal Wi-Fi bisa dipakai ramai-ramai, namun idealnya cukup 3-4 gadget yang tersambung ke internet. Sebab semakin banyak pembagian kpbs-nya jadi lebih kecil dan melambat.

•    Kekuatan sinyal internet sangat dipengaruhi banyaknya sinyal operator yang dipakai. Bisa saja di basement, pegunungan atau daerah terpencil.

Sumber

Well, I did a few mister fix-it jobs today. I went and fixed my buddy Mike’s router. He managed to brick it, so we had to unbrick it and he put some damn beta firmware on the thing. Of course, he couldn’t get it to work after that. The main reason for this was because the router wasn’t giving a MAC ID to his cable modem so the stupid thing wasn’t doing the network handshake. I set it up to do it and it wouldn’t hold it, then I realized what firmware he had on it and told him to shut his mouth for five minutes while I fix it. Anyway, I got some stable firmware on it and it function beautifully now.

The other fixit job I had to do was a stupid php error controller. A buddy of mine messaged me in IRC asking why it wouldn’t work. It didn’t take me too long to figure out what he did. His variable for telling if a 404 error was there or not was $404. Excuse me, but you can’t start a php variable name with an integer. I changed the variable to $e404, and when he gets back on to see what I did, it will work unless he has other messed up scripts he didn’t show me interacting with it.

I’ve been in a pretty pissy mood today. I don’t know what’s gotten into me. My stomach feels like a boiling kettle that’s about ready to explode. Well, there is one good thing about me being a little off my kilter, my brain seems to work much better and I spot mistakes much faster. Too bad I have to feel like shit and have the mindset of a total jack-ass to work this efficiently. I”m going to take some medicine and try to get some sleep now. Maybe I’ll be feeling better in the morning.

If the button says “Sweeeeet” then good on you for doing the right thing and using OpenDNS. If it says “Get Started” then read on!

Man if I had a couple of bucks every time I’ve heard that, I’d be so rich by now. Fact of the matter is, it’s unfortunately far from the truth, and many ISP-provided routers truly suck.

I work with VoIP, and running a Voice call over the internet may be easy with Skype, and you may be OK with choppy calls, but when you’re running an enterprise-grade telephony system, you don’t have the same tolerance for bad quality. Same for Home users, you should not have to put up with daily restarts!

What does that have to do with you? Most probably everything! If you’re here it’s likely because you’re having issues with your internet, and either you think it’s related to your router, or I’ve referred you here from PressF1.

So let’s clear the air about a few routers:

The D-Link DSL-302G is quite possibly the worst router of all time. They should be all be burned in one great big bonfire and D-Link publicly mocked for them.

Dynalink have their overheating RTA1320 that gets so hot the plastic melts and changes from light cream to a rusty looking orange or brown. It’s unfortunately a bad choice in router too.

Telecom have been giving away a 2Wire 2070-series Router and Thomson TG585v7 modems. They’ve got some of the worst web interfaces I’ve ever used, but at least they’re semi-reliable. Again though, they must be cheap routers if they mass-produce them and Telecom gives them away. $199 value? Whatever! Nobody in their right mind would spend $199 on them!

Orcon with their HomeHub / BizHub router which is a Siemens SX-763. Best mentioned so far, but again far from the quality that a router should be. It’s locked-down so you can’t change the USB port or VoIP settings, it doesn’t overheat, but for a VoIP router it doesn’t handle VoIP well at all.

The Belkin N1 is overpriced and fails to deliver in so many ways. I’m not sure why, but around 60% of all the N1’s I’ve dealt with just seem to have packed up and died. Their ADSL performance / reliability was mediocre anyway. suffering from irregular reboots.

The Netgear DG834G has firmware issues, wireless isn’t reliable, average broadband performance and reliability, but to be honest it’s probably the most reliable router I’m recommending people avoid

Linksys, yes I love Linksys stuff but man did they mess up badly with the WAG160N. That thing falls over almost as much as the Dynalinks. Sure, I’ve seen ADSL Sync speeds go up when compared with the likes of a Telecom Thomson TG585 by around 3m/bit, but that means nothing to me if it’s not going to function day in and day out reliably.

What’s the solution then? So many bad routers out there, most free, what can you do about it?

Well don’t take the free stuff that your ISP gives away. There’s a reason why it’s free, and that’s not because it’s a good, quality router!

Tell me what I SHOULD buy then? What are good routers?

If you’re a home user or small-business and want an all-in-one solution that “just works”:
NetComm NB6Plus4Wn

If you’re a geek or a business, or perhaps you want a little more control over your router, maybe you give your internet connection a hammering, or if you want QoS (Quality of Service) to prioritize VoIP / Gaming above other traffic, then you want:
A Linksys AM300 in Halfbridge to a Linksys WRT54GL running Tomato Firmware

Please drop me a comment and say Hi, let me know if this has helped you or got you thinking in any way, or perhaps if you’ve got one of the routers then just say so. Always happy to hear from readers.

Cheers

Chill.

Jag är lite nyfiken på vem det är som läser min blogg och bor i Plano Texas…  Eller så ärdet nån som har en ISP som routar genom HP´s kontor där.. 

Hur som haver så är jag nyfiken..  Någon ??

\ M

[Jonathan Ward's] pcb mill is as impressive as it is inexpensive. Twenty-six plywood parts, labeled A-Z, are used to assemble the machine along with the customary precision rods, stepper motors, and router assembly. His bill of materials prices the unit at $458.18, a small price to pay in order to forgo a multi-step etching process.

His test board shows some fairly fine pitch that could turn out most home-project circuit boards. We’ve contacted [Jonathan] regarding the specifics of milling the plywood parts out of a 2 foot by 4 foot sheet of plywood. Watch for an update with any information he’s willing to share. We hope he’ll make the milling files for the plywood parts available so that you can build a copy of the device for your own use.

[Thanks Charles]

It was definitely a weekend revolving around the new tool (understandably), from the pickup/delivery organising on Friday, the assembly (and getting it into the shed) Saturday, and commissioning it with some real tasks on Sunday.

If you were wondering how I was going to fit a 2.5m x 1m tool in my workshop, well, you were not the only one!  With a large pry bar!  Archimedes once remarked (paraphrasing) that with a firm place to stand he could move the Earth (with a long-enough lever that is).

Makin' a Hole

Clearing space was a combination of moving the jointer to where the router table was, removing the corner bench and in future the sanders will (potentially) be on roll-outs from under the Torque, and the router table met an untimely end, with the top being amalgamated with the TWC.  A hole was born.

The Torque arrives in its new home

I did try the TWC along the back wall, but lost too much access around the unit.  The MDF top has yet to be added – will do so some time this week.

That 1300mm arm is huge – I’m going to fit the 600mm (or 900mm) arms for the majority of the jobs, and the 1300 will get used only when I need that much extension.  For some workshops it probably would remain, but that is the one compromise on space I will have to make.  Sure looks nice here (by the end of the weekend it sure ended up rather dusty!)

Adding the Router Table

Here I have added the router table (with Incra Positioner/Fence) to the end where there is some dead space (because of the way the tools are carried on the left side of the arm), so this really utilises that area. I’ve moved the bandsaw further back so I have adequate access to the router table, and it isn’t hard to swing the entire unit out from the wall if I need more in-feed area.  Since this photo, I have also replaced the first module of the top with a plain cast-iron wing – it won’t be a two-router table now (well it is, but one is overhead), and I’ve shortened the cast iron top to 3 wings from the original 5.  The MDF of the rest of the bed will be at the same height, so there is no shortage of area for the positioner now!  At 2.5m long, this may be the largest router table in the world!

The clamp roof

The clamp wall was a problem, both getting access to the clamps, and also having them interfere with the X axis of the TWC, so they have been moved to the roof.  If the clamps are any good, then it won’t be a problem where they are!  Added benefit – partway through a clamp-up, if I need another I just reach up!

Temporary Triton Mount

One minor glitch I had (and it will be rectified by the end of the week), is the router mount had support posts for a Makita (I think), and not the Triton – the Triton needs both a larger diameter and a longer post.  Converting the Triton to fit the table took a few seconds, as did reverting it back to standard operation.  I was surprised just how easy it was – a single circlip.  So that I could make use of the router before the parts arrive, I added the old Triton quick-release plate from the original Triton router table.  The setup is rather flimsy like this, but it got the job done.

Oven Doors

First job was the oven doors for the kid’s kitchen – setting the stops for the size of the opening, then routing it out.  I also used the same method for cutting hinge mortises.

Oven Shelf

The second job was creating the shelf in the oven.  Rather than just a plain shelf, I didn’t want the inside of the oven to look like a cupboard, so I cut parallel slots through using a 1/2″ straight router bit, and moved the whole setup 30mm for each pass.  Again, something that could have been done other ways, but this was a very simple (and accurate) method.  It’s like using a machine with a built-in, adjustable jig.

So that was all I had time for in the end, but already it has been demonstrating for me just how functional the concept is.

If you go to Google news today and type in the word “router” – you will see approximately 2,150 news articles and just about all of them have to do with the Federal Aviation Administration and the huge flight debacle that occurred yesterday.  It’s unlikely that you would not know about it by now, even if you are like me and rarely ever fly anywhere.   The story was on most network news programs and people all over are talking about it.

What hits home for me, however is that there is some guy in charge of that router.  His or her day probably started like any other day – coffee, breakfast whatever.  I guess in reality, it was probably a team of people – but still.  Just another day when people are thinking about weekend plans and the latest movie openings and suddenly all heck breaks loose.

If you think everything will go back to normal, it won’t.  It will never be “normal” again or should I say, the normal these people knew is now gone forever.  The long-term problem with any kind of failure like this is that once enough managers, and in this case probably politicians, get involved the day to day routines of anyone in that department will be scrutinized time and time again.   It’s not just a router – it’s ALL of the routers, all circuit boards, all computer systems.  Everyone has something to say about it from flight attendants to college professors.

Here is just one quote from an AP article printed in the Star Tribune:

“A good communications system should have enough redundancy that a failure shouldn’t hurt it that badly,” said Michael Ball, a University of Maryland professor who specializes in aviation operations research.

I’m not disagreeing with him or any other critic, I am only stating that whatever life the people in charge of that router had – is gone now.  Every day will be filled with questions, interrogations and requests to put together and follow all kinds of new checklists so that hopefully it won’t happen again.

Won’t happen again is a phrase people love to say in these situations.  “Let’s see that that doesn’t happen again” or “Let’s take steps to make sure this never gets to this point again”.  “Let’s” – that means “you”,  Mr. System administrator.

Has this ever happened to you?  Maybe you are a system administrator who oversees a small or medium-sized network for your organization.  You get paged because something has failed and even though you are able to turn the issue around quite quick and restore everything to working order – you still get called into someones office or boardroom and you have to:

(1) Explain the issue
(2) Explain how you fixed the issue
(3) Explain why the issue occurred
(4) Describe how you will never let this happen again
(5) (and this is the best) Defend every other machine, device, and program you or your department has ever touched, looked at, reviewed, purchased, or installed – because maybe, just MAYBE they are all ready to break as well.

And you get to do that every single day for the rest of your time there.

Excellent…

Asus Wireless ADSL Router DSL-G31

Nowy router firmy ASUS wyposażony jest w łatwy w obsłudze interfejs użytkownika EZ UI, dzięki któremu nie trzeba czytać instrukcji obsługi ani instalować sterowników z płyty, żeby poprawnie skonfigurować urządzenie. DSL-G31 oferuje bezprzewodowy transfer danych z szybkością do 54 Mbps w sieci lokalnej oraz z prędkością pobierania wynoszącą 24 Mbps po podłączeniu do łącza ADSL. Router posiada także specjalny system optymalizujący przepustowość łącza internetowego EZQoS, a dzięki opcji EZ UI Network Map użytkownicy mają kontrolę nad wszystkimi urządzeniami w sieci lokalnej.

interfejsy WAN: ADSL2/2+ (RJ11);

ilość portów WAN: 1.00 szt.;

interfejsy LAN: 10/100 (RJ45);

ilość portów LAN 10/100: 4.00 szt.;

wbudowany przełącznik [switch]: tak;

wbudowany modem ADSL: tak;

standard ADSL: Annex A;

wbudowany punkt dostępowy Wi-Fi: tak;

zarządzanie: WWW;

wbudowany serwer wydruku: nie;

klonowanie adresu MAC: nie;

odkręcana antena: tak;

1x WAN (RJ11) | 4x LAN (RJ45, 10/100 Mb/s) | wbudowany modem ADSL (Annex A) | Wi-Fi: 802.11g (54Mb/s)

Cechy produktu:

Quando si apre la confezione di un disco LaCie bene o male si sa già quello a cui ci si troverà di fronte: un prodotto il cui design – salvo rarissime eccezioni – sarà stato curato da Neil Poulton e che darà l’impressione di essere più solido della media.

Questo disco di rete d2 Network non fa eccezione: l’estetica è la stessa che conosciamo da tempo per tutta linea Network, il case è realizzato in un confortante alluminio grigio scuro.

Le piccole dimensioni obbligano purtroppo a usare un alimentatore esterno, anche se questo non dovrebbe essere un grosso problema perché parliamo di un disco che nella grande maggioranza delle installazioni resterà sempre al suo posto, a fianco di un router domestico.

L’ordine in cui svolgere le operazioni – o perlomeno quello che per noi ha funzionato senza intoppi – è il seguente: collegare il d2 alla porta di rete prescelta, accenderlo, aspettare che si completino le operazioni di inizializzazione e che la luce del Led blu frontale resti fissa.

Fonte: www.macworld.it

You know by now that I believe in keeping things as simple as possible when it comes to information technology. It is very easy to dive into a subject and feel that you are drowning in the details of do’s and don’ts. Network security is a good example of a topic that has many levels of detail, threats on all sides, and a bewildering array of options for protecting your company’s network. Even the descriptive words are frightening: hack, worm, phish, spoof, denial of service attack, malicious code, spam, Trojan horse. And when you learn that 90% of businesses and government reported a security breach in 2002, and 80% reported a resulting financial loss, the whole issue can seem overwhelming.

Where to begin? The first thing to do is not to rush in and throw money at the problem and hope you get it right. Putting in a $199 firewall router by itself won’t solve anything; if it is not configured, you may as well put in a lock and leave the key in the door. You need a plan.

Take the time to create a coherent and comprehensive approach to network security. This will help you identify where you are in terms of security, what threats hold the greatest risks for your business, and what you should do in response. Your integrator should be able to help you with this task. It will also help you avoid focusing on something that may sound terrifying while overlooking something else that is a more realistic threat to your specific situation. Think KISS – Keep It Simple Security.

So how do you create that important approach? There are plenty of resources available in articles and sites to help you understand the potential threats, the areas you need to consider, and how to select the best protective measures for you. You might start with Microsoft’s small business Security Guidance Centre; scroll down and click on the “Quiz” to see a good overview of security concerns and issues for small companies. Another resource is this chapter from the book, Executive Guide to Information Security: The Threats, Challenges, and Solutions. And this article reviews 10 major threats to network security and how to prevent damage to your system.

Network security does not have to be complex. It does need to be the simplest appropriate system for your situation. Start with covering the basics and build on that solid ground. Then as your company’s security needs grow, your KISS system will grow with it.

At Chill we take the heat out of IT. No matter what pressure you are under, we will always keep our heads and make sure you get back up and running as soon as possible. So don’t sweat – Chill IT. Click here for more information on our consulting services.

ROUTER HSDPA HUAWEI E960

Highlight

• Supporting two working modes of the wireless gateway and USB modem
• Supporting the HSDPA at a rate of 3.6/7.2 Mbit/s for downlink and 384 Kbit/s for uplink
• Built-in WCDMA and WLAN high gain antenna, which supports receiving diversity and equalizer
• Supporting Web-based management, parameter presetting, and plug-and-play
• Ultrathin and artful ID
• User-friendly design of indicators
• Supporting three placement methods: desktop, desktop inclining, and wall-mounted

Spesification:

STOCK : TERSEDIA!

PRICE :

IDR 1.500.000/US$160

Asså, gaaaaaaaaale va seeeeegt internet är inne här inne. Bara för att avståndet till routern är megalångt. Jag vill att det ska funka bra ju! Det var likadant i mitt förra rum… Åh, vad fuskigt det är!

(ja, jag tog bilden från google; sökte på “sur” och tog den tredje bilden)

Men nu ska jag i alla fall plugga lite matte. Banken gick bra tidigare, men jag är lite fattigare för det… Lyssnar på Britney Spears’ “Amnesia” just nu. Den é gó!

Buenos días; mirad, quiero comentaros algo, en realidad a los clientes de ADSL de Telefónica.
Uno de los paquetes más extendidos ahora mismo es el de 6MB, ¿bien? hay promociones que permíten ampliarlo a 10MB por unos meses manteniendo la misma cuota. Pues visto esto nos vamos al apartado de la factura en el que dice Servicios no asociados a Puesto. Ahí vemos que aparecen desglosados el servicio ADSL y el Equipamiento y en este último tenemos Escritorio, 3′50€ y Protección Antivirus y Firewall, 6′00€.

A mí no me han instalado ningún antivirus ni ningún firewall. Y no quiero que lo hagan, me las apaño con lo que tengo. Y como resulta que llamando al 900101010 de Atención al Cliente puedes darlos de baja, el Escritorio y la Protección Antivirus con el Firewall porque son servicios extras que ellos ofrecen, he rebajado 11′02€ la factura típica.

Bueno, yendo un poquito más allá, si llamas para decirles que te quieres dar de baja para volver a darte de alta y poder acogerte a la oferta que has visto en su web entonces te descuentan un 50% durante séis meses… esto junto con lo de antes hace que de pagar un mínimo de 58€ pases a pagar ¡¡23€!!, IVA incluído y llamadas a móviles a parte. Yo creo que está bien la cosa.

]]> http://williambuell.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/installing-lamp-on-ubuntu/ Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:15:41 +0000 William Buell http://williambuell.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/installing-lamp-on-ubuntu/

I worked 20 hours straight to prepare an old Gateway tower with 280 gig drive for an Ubuntu 9.10 install. The Gateway was hopelessly unbootable in Windows because of some operating system problem (not hardware problem). I realized that I should drop down to C: and type format, to just reformat the entire drive which took about 30 minutes. I forgot that I should have typed FDISK first, to set up the necessary partitions, but it was too late.

I downloaded an ISO image for GNOME partition and burned it to a bootable CD.

I booted the GNOME partition utility. It took me literally hours to guess at what I should do.

Finally I realized that Ubuntu expects THREE partitions. The first is referred to as ROOT but the actual name you give it in the partition process is simpl “/” (forward slash omitting the double quotes).

The second partition will have NO name, but you will designate its format TYPE as swapfile, and that will become the system swap file.
The third partition is called /home.

I had no idea how much space to allocate, so I gave 512 for root and 512 for swap, and the huge remaineder for /home.

The software warned me that root and swap were too small. Just for the heck of it, I changed root and swap to 5000, and it worked.

Then it took me dozens of tries installing Ubuntu. I had a 2008 Ubuntu disc and a 9.10 disc I had created last week. Time after time, I would boot from each one, say INSTALL UBUNTU, and it would chug away for a long time, and then die with no messages. FINALLY, but why or how I dont know, the 9.10 unstall brought up an Ubuntu desktop with what looked like all kinds of error messages. There were TWO icons on the desktop which I had never seen before. One said EXAMPLES which I never looked at. I was about to give up in dispair when I decided to click on the icon marked Ubuntu. AS IT TURNS OUT, that is the icon which COMPLETES the install process, and it first brings you into its OWN partition software. I cant exactly remember what I did next. I do remember that GNOME partition utility offered me literally 20 DIFFERENT format types to choose from for each partition (one of which is swap-file). I had no clue what to choose. I did some google searching on my other machine (and you NEED a windows machine attached to the internet to look these things up). I discovered that format type ext3 is good for Debian Linux (and Ubuntu is a flavor of Debian) so I went with ext3.

Finally, I had a working bootable pure Ubuntu 9.10 machine.

My next Sisyphean agony task was to connect it to the Internet. The tower already had an Ethernet card. I was informed that IF I connected a cable from the ethernet to the router, then Ubuntu would automatically sense the ethernet connection and configure it. The ethernet board DID light up and pulse when I connected the cable to my Westell router. But Ubuntu never recognized it. Later I read that only certain ethernet cards will be automatically recognized, so I guess the one in my tower was not a compatible one. My next choice was to try and get my Belkin USB WiFi adapter working. I went to ADMINISTRATION -> SYNAPTIC PACKAGE MANAGER and keyed ndiswrapper into the search. I was prompted to place the Ubuntu install cd into my drive. It kept giving me errors. I placed my Belkin adapter install cd in the drive and looked around for the ini driver file, but could not see it. Finally, out of despair, I plugged the Belkin wifi adapter into the USB and LIKE MAGIC Ubuntu recognized it, asked me to choose a connection and enter the WEP key, which I have now done many times with other machines and during the Wubi Ubuntu install on Windows. So now I had a working Ubuntu machine connected to the Internet.

I went to J&R computer store up the street and found a $10 USB 4 gig memory stick by http://www.dane-elec.com which is REALLY cheap. I recently discovered that the Sancor memory sticks that I love actually have a lot of SOFTWARE on them, which only works under windows, AND if you have a password set on the device, then Ubuntu wont even read it.

I had to go into synaptic manager and search on usb for some installs. Again, it was trial and error, and I dont know what finally made it work, but finally, Ubuntu recognized the memory stick.

TODAY, I had to meet my step-son near at Borders Book Store next to Penn Station. This was lucky for me, because while I waited for him, I browsed the computer book section on the second floor. I found a $9 small Linux handbook reference of commands by Daniel J. Barrett (O Reilly publishers) so I got that to practice all the hundreds of Linux commands that I dont know but need to know.

I browse various books on Ubuntu and Mysql.

I found the key thing I needed to know for my next project, to install LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL PhP) on my new Ubuntu desktop.

All one needs to do is enter TERMINAL, and key in

sudo tasksel

(you will be prompted for your system password next)

A task selection window will pop up with many packages available for install, one of which is LAMP. Now here is a mystery that took me an hour to solve. You can arrow down to highlight LAMP, but you dont have a clue in the world as to how to CHECK it for install. Google revealed the secret: YOU SIMPLY PRESS THE SPACE BAR AND IT IS MARKED CHECKED FOR INSTALL. Then you press ENTER and the install proceeds, Apache, MySQL and PhP. You will be prompted for the MySQL admin password.

Next I wanted to install phpmyadmin to administrate mysql, creating databases, tables, etc. I went to SYSTEM-> Synaptic Manager and searched on phpmyadmin. I think there is only one. BUT HERE IS A SECRET. Once your LAMP install finishes, then power down and boot back up; otherwise, certain files will remain locked by processes and the phpmyadmin install will fail.

Once phpmyadmin installs (and you will again be prompted for that pesky password), then you can open firefox and key in http://localhost/phpmyadmin

You will be PROMPTED FOR A USER NAME AND PASSWORD. This is tricky and confusing. You have to key in the user name “root” without quotes, and then give the password that you have been using all along throughout this. Now you are in phpmyadmin, and you can go to Privileges, and create a new user and give him all possible privileges.

Then, I found a $50 book, also by O’Reilly, entitled
“Head First – PHP & MySQL”. THIS book looks like the perfect way to teach myself how to develop php mysql applications which will have proper security (which is a very complex topic).

I didnt purchase that book tonight, because I wanted to come home and see first if I could sucessfully install LAMP and phpmyadmin, which I just now finished.

The Head First book gave me links to try the book on line free for 45 days. Money is kind of tight, so I decided to see how far I can go without any additional purchases, but if I get things working, I will buy the book one day. It is interesting that O’Reilly also offers a link to an on line university which can grant degrees in computer science.

I signed up at Oreilly for a trial access of the electronic version of the above-mentioned book.

Here is something I tried which crashed my Ubuntu. I wanted to copy the introduction to the book, from the OReilly site, and PASTE it into an Open Office Document. The first time Open Office died, and the file was shown as requiring recovery. I did the recovery, opened it again with Open Office Document, and then the whole Ubuntu system crashed. I rebooted, and had to go through a long complicated reconstruct procedure. I thought perhaps I would have to install everything from scratch, but fortunately, Ubuntu repaired itself. Moral to story is paste into GEDIT and save, which I guess eliminates whatever hidden characters are in the webpage which cause Open Office to crash the system.

There, I found a link to download all the source code from the book.

I downloaded the zipped file of all the source code.

Next, I went to the source code for chapter 1. They have a beginnning version (which I guess you make changes to, and then a final version).

I tried to copy and paste report.html to var/www which is where apache wants to find pages loaded from local host. I was not allowed to paste because I do not have superuser priviliges. So, I went to terminal and typed SUDO GEDIT, which gets me into gedit with super powers, so I can now navigate to the unzipped code in my DOCUMENTS in a special folder I created, open report.html, then do a save as to var/www.

THIS WORKED, because now, when I open Firefox and key in localhost/report , it runs the Chapter 1 example webpage.

FOR MY NEXT TRICK, I must figure out how to copy a chapter 1 tutorial image of a dog (fang.jpg) from the location where it unzipped (in a folder in my Documents) and copy it into var/www where I do not have Admin privileges. SO, I open my OReilly handbook of Linux commands and find the CP command. I open a TERMINAL session and key in SUDO CP which I know will executed it with super admin privileges, but NOW I do not have a clue as to what the PATH names are for the file source and destination.

I am permitted to copy fang.jpg from the unzipped file into DOCUMENTS, just to simplify things.

Using PLACES -> COMPUTER, which brings up the FILE BROWSER, I first navigate to home/Documents and I RIGHT CLICK on the fang.jpg image, and click on PROPERTIES which will SHOW ME that the path is
/home/bryan/Documents/fang.jpg (I use bryan as my user name, but that is my step-son’s name). Next I do the same right click trick on any file which is already in var/www such as report.html, and I discover THAT path, which tells me that the command I should issue in TERMINAL is

sudo cp /home/bryan/Documents/fang.jpg var/www/fang.jpg

BUT IT HANGS… NOTHING HAPPENS.

Then I realize that I should close my other applications, because they are somehow LOCKING UP something that the CP command needs. Sure enough, once I close a bunch of applications, the SUDO CP command asks me for the PASSWORD and then copies fang.jpg to var/www

I can now bring up the image by opening Firefox and typing

localhost/fang.jpg

into the browser address field.

NOW that fang.jpg is in var/www, if I once again open Firefox and type
localhost/report.html

the exercise 1 page loads and also shows the picture of the little dog fang.jpg

I still need to copy report.php and style.css from the place where they unzipped to var/www. Since I can launch gedit with sudo and have superadmin powers, I may open them in that fashion and do a save as.

I ran the finished example, hoping that it would actually send me an email.

I realized that I must examine my php.ini and somehow reconfigure it. I went to some pains to locate that file, but did not post notes as I went, and now I must reconstruct what I did. I still have not succeeded in getting the app to actually send an email through php. But I feel it is more essential for me to move on to other lessons in the HEAD FIRST book.