Category: Compgeeky

Fair Warning: this is a light “techie post”. Nothing heavy, just an equipment upgrade yarn.

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So, my very nice Netgear WPN824 802.11b/g MIMO router began being a bit finicky about accessing its web management interface, and, wanting to demonstrate excessive over compliance with keeping my own network equipment up to snuff, since it gives me extra ammo to rub in my ISP’s face *heh*, I purchased a Linksys WRT160NL 802.11b/g/n router to upgrade my lil network with.

Note: the Netgear was showing no packet losses across my home network, and was seemingly rock solid otherwise; in fact, it will serve nicely, I think, as a “breakout” switch, with the DHCP and wireless functionality turned off. Oh, and I’d switched my cable “modem” (it’s no such thing. It doesn’t modulate/demodulate; it’s a specialized router, for heaven’s sake!) earlier as well. The “old” one still works perfectly well, but my ISP can’t complain about my equipment.

Well, the Linksys router seems to be nice enough and all. Son & Heir has a snappier connection via the wireless n adapter in his Asus G71Gx-A1. (*sigh* I have to watch the envy factor. It’s a seriously cool machine 🙂 Oh, the link’s to the “A2”–whose only real difference is Win7 instead of Vista.)

Still, it could have been a better experience setting the thing up. *sigh* It took nearly an hour–yes, an hour!–to configure wireless connectivity on my Wonder Woman’s Toshiba. Don’t ask. OK, since you did (in my dreams nightmares *heh*), I’d been using the Intel Proset Wireless Management tool to manage the Intel chipset 802.11b/g adapter in her notebook. Why? Because Windows wireless management tool sucked dead bunnies through a straw on that adapter, the Toshiba maagement tool that came with the notebook… worked well on a different adapter that had come embedded in the original motherboard (which was changed out by Toshiba last year under warranty), but was even worse than the windows tool for the Intel adapter in this mobo.

Well, the Intel Proset tool could NOT negotiate with the Linksys WRT160NL any better than the built in Windows tool or the Toshiba tool could. That meant… installing the Linksys tool. And THAT meant installing the WHOLE Linksys management router management package, NOT just a wireless config tool. And for some reason, it took 30 minutes to install the frickin’ Linksys software! Un. Be. Lieveable.

*sigh* Once it installed and I jumped through a few (well, a BUNCH of–man! I’m not trying to make off with the crown jewels here!) hoops, all was well. Finally. But. Getting Son&Heir’s ASUS notebook on the wireless Netgear network had been a major pain in the neck (well, actually an anatomically lower region, if you get my drift), so what, thought I, was this going to be like?

Toddled off and got his password (again–I always forget the thing and I will NOT write it down :-)), fired up the monster and… yep. Windows found the wireless network and volunteered to attempt to log on. I clicked to insert the password (which I had handy on a thumb drive) and… that was all. Muuuuch easier than the last time on his computer. Tearing my hair out on my Wonder Woman’s–a computer that’s always managed to negotiate credentials relatively simply in the past, once I used the right management tool to do so.

Well, all is well now, except for my ISP’s woeful service. On again/off again. Good stuff, then, packet losses apparently out the wazoo (well, they can’t say where they’re lost, that’s for sure–or at least haven’t bothered to find out where *sigh*).

Now, if only I could figure out why the storage link on this thing is not configuring the way the documentation says it should… Yeh, neat lil function–if I can get it working correctly: a USB connection for an external drive. I can “see” the drive I installed and create shares, etc., from the router, but not from any of the computers. Yet. Just one more thing to tinker with. (It’ll be a media share when I get it working correctly, a place to dump shows I’ve recorded so others can view them on their computers. Oh, and a bunch of mp3s and such for Thanksgiving and Xmas family time. Just pump ’em through whatever computer’s set up in living room, kitchen/dining room, etc. Easier than burning another mix CD and playing it through the EC in the living room only.)

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Ah, *thumps head*. The external drive issue? *sigh* It’ll require a reboot over to the Linux side of this box and a session with PartED to fix the issue. See, although the pdf “manual” that came with the router said Not One Word about it, the NTFS formatting on the drive I connected Will Not Do. No, it MUST be formatted using FAT32! What?!? That’s an extremely inefficient file format for large hard drives! Did I say “extremely”? Oh, I can attach the thing to an older computer running an older version of Windows (XP, even) and reformat the drive as FAT32, but I want a non-destructive format. There’s data on that drive, after all. Sure, sure, I have that data duplicated–backed up–elsewhere, but really, a destructive format? That’s for the birds!

So, since I no longer have a current, good non-destructive disk management software that can reformat an NTFS disk to FAT32 on anything but a Linux box, and because this is the fastest Linux box in the house (when it’s booted on that “side”), it’s

1. detach the drive from the router
2. reboot into Ubuntu
3. attach the drive to this computer
4. start PartEd and go to town.

Now, that’s not an onerous task, but it would’ve been n ice for the documentation to say so up front, and not require that I dig through a bunch of obscurantist support pages to find it out. Oh, well. Wait. I have another drive the same size (and make and NTFS file format *sigh*) attached. I guess I could just switch those out after reformatting “this” one (which has very little data on it). Then *sigh* swap out data. But of course, I’ll still need to either take it to an older Windows machine to reformat the drive or boot into Linux, because Win7 (and Vista) disk management will NOT format a drive using FAT32. Nope. The only choices are NTFS and exFAT, which will NOT be seen as FAT32 by the router. Or, and I suppose this would be the most efficient tack, I could simply clean off the little data on “this” drive, swap it out for the other and use the Linksys management interface to format the drive. I suppose. *sigh*

Oh. Well. Another day. 🙂

Because I’m now a part time Windows user (but I mostly support Windows users), I find the Windows Secrets website and newsletter invaluable in staying current with some cool features and rare “gotchas” that populate the Windows world. And it’s nice to know that Brian Livingston (who happens to be the author of the book that gave me my first real introduction to Windows… after I’d been using it for a while already *heh*) still has his sense of humor after some hardware failures took the Windows Secrets website down for 48 hours this week:

If you’re a subscriber, you remain a subscriber. If your paid sub expires on Dec. 31, you’re darn tootin’ it still does. If you purchased a lifetime subscription … well, we can’t tell you the end of your lifetime, but we didn’t know that before the crash, anyway. [emphasis added]

Jolly joker.

At least weekly I check for sites with tips on computer security for the average user (translation: Windows user :-)) or thump myself on the head and ask, “What have I been doing that would be useful to others but that I’ve not gotten around to sharing?” *heh* Here’s a site that popped up on my radar not long back:

http://www.eset.com/threat-center/security_help.php

ESET’s security tips page is unusual for a security software vendor in that it does not directly tout its own wares and still gives good advice. The email and financial security tips are especially notable. ESET’s NOD32 Antivirus has a very strong reputation in computing circles, though, so if you’re in the market to buy security software, its internet security suite would be one place to look. For Windows users, ESET also offers free online scanning that is very thorough and doesn’t have the stumbling blocks some online scanning tools place in the way of less technically adept users. It is slow, though, precisely because it is very thorough, I imagine. Use it or another online scanner like Trend Micro’s once in a while as a “second opinion” to whatever anti-malware product(s) you already use.

http://www.eset.com/onlinescan/

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Another site offers a highly welcome freebie from Microsoft: Microsoft Security Essentials I have been using/testing out this product on a Windows box for a short while now, and it performs remarkably well. While I don’t normally recommend running two anti-malware programs loaded at the same time, Microsoft Security Essentials doesn’t even seem to cause any conflicts with my primary anti-malware software. I know of some folks who’ve been testing it since it was in early release (beta) who are technically competent enough to listen to and who also profess to use it as their primary anti-malware defense, now. Free from Microsoft. Be sure, if you decide to use it, to download the correct version for your machine. Microsoft will scan to determine your Windows validation.

And another freebie from Microsoft that I highly recommend: the Microsoft Password Checker. Use it to test the strength of your passwords. My suggestion for memorable, moderately strong, passwords is that you have passwords that are eight characters or more in length composed of mixed upper and lower case letters and some numerals that do not correctly spell any word. To make them memorable, use place names, geographic features from places you’ve visited but not lived, or corruptions of old addresses or telephone numbers (more than 20 years out of date, if possible). Make sure each of these is misspelled or otherwise NOT possibly “cracked” with a “dictionary attack”. I think if you follow such a procedure, you’ll find some moderately strong passwords that are also memorable. Change passwords for online sites, routers exposed to the internet and computers that are open to visitors or the public regularly.

Computer security expert Rick Hellewell has this to offer:

[You] may want to ensure that all of their application software is current. One tool to do this, which has been discussed before, is the free Personal Software Inspector program from the anti-virus company Secunia, available here. This is a program that you will download and install, and it will scan the programs on your computer for current versions. Links in the program will help you install the updates, sometimes with minimal interaction. Secunia also has an on-line scanner here, which does require Java to be installed. I have used the PSI program, and the on-line scanner, and can recommend either.

Application updates are an important layer in malware protection. As is recognizing “social engineering” attacks (‘Your computer has a virus” popups, for example), operating system updates, and other safe computing practices.

I didn’t include the links Hellewell had in his text, because both are accessible here. I have used the PSI program and have found it to be useful, as well. A recent scan reported the usual suspects *sigh*

Yep. Internet Exploder. Still the world’s “least good” major browser, although it does suck less than previous versions. Oh, what wasn’t reported as “insecure”? The other two browsers I use regularly: Opera and Firefox. Heck, even Safari passed.

And this, from a lesson learned the hard way by Jerry Pournelle,

…Roberta’s XP system was infected, probably through a forwarded link to a New York Times story; the Times article contained a popup advertisement that said it had detected a virus, and offered a program to remove the virus. Roberta knew better than to click on the “download” button, but she did click on the little red x up in the right hand corner of the message. That, of course, invited the virus to download, since the entire message was one big button. I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating: if you get any such message, don’t try to close the message window. Use Task Manager to close the whole browser.

Yes, such popups can be a real pain in the neck (although most folks seem to feel the pain in an anatomically lower place), and even dangerous. Task Manager is accessed in Windows by the CTRL+ALT+DEL key combo. In Vista and Windows 7, you’ll be offered a page with options to choose from that includes “Start Task Manager” as an option. This article, from Microsoft, explains how to use this great tool that’s included with all current Windows installations. (Note: if you are on a business network, your IT department may have disabled access to Task Manager.) Better? Avoid all such popups by using Firefox or Opera as your primary browser, either of which can be more easily configured to kill most, though not all, such popups. Vista and Windows 7 have an added layer of protection from such “drive by” installations, though, in User Access Control prompts that nag users about software installation. In such cases, the nagging can save you quite a bit of hassle, though, so appreciate it. 🙂

*heh* I’ve wanted to use the term “interwebs” for a while but just didn’t have a good place to drop it in…

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This is just a drive-by hit on my least favorite browser. On the Win7 “side” of this computer, my IE8 title bar reads, “M$ Internet Explorer–not quite as sucky as earlier versions, but still, do you REALLY want to use this pig?”

The answer, of course, is “No, and I only do so when someone has a question about what to do as a result of their lazy, poorly-considered decision to use Internet Exploder.”

😉

Again, Warning: May Bore You To Tears Compgeeky Gripe ahead. See further down the page for other posts. 🙂

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What’s with these folks? I can’t even get a SpeedTest.net page to fully load without (many) multiple reloads, and though I can get PingTest.net to load after a few tries, it returns:

This after nearly a week of “not too bad” on the interruption of service front. Yep. Once again my ISP says they’ve fixed their problem… and haven’t.

Oh. Well.

(BTW, it took a couple of hours to post this, with autosave unable to even save a draft or uploading of the image you see here working until after about eight attempts (with complete system/network reboots and all the other things I could do to attempt to wake up the ISP’s servers.)

Micro-mini-update: 4 days later. Worse today. Two calls to phone support. One, the gal wouldn’t take the ice pick out of her ear and kept saying she couldn’t hear me (riiiiiight; she responded when she wanted to). The next, the guy didn’t try that ploy, but, although he could see drops on my line, he could do nothing, as usual, but schedule a tech to come by and waste both my time and the tech’s to simply tell me–AGAIN–that there’s no problem in my equipment and that the problem’s still on their end… *sigh*

There’s more at “Automated Facebook Attack Underway”.

And see http://linkscanner.avg.com

Y’all be careful out there.

Warning: Geeky-gripey stuff. Page down or go elsewhere for other content. 🙂

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The ongoing saga of my ISP deciding to take customer connection complaints seriously… perhaps. For two whole days now (TWO WHOLE DAYS!!!), I’ve had decent to very good connectivity. Wow. That’s a surprising change for the better. I even have a mid-level “customer care rep” calling me every few days asking if things are getting better and fluffing my appreciation (such as it had become) for the ISP’s services. This a.m., no email timeouts (so far) and no endless page reloads needed. Yet. And good upload/download speeds. For now. We’ll see.

Yeh, still feeling a bit testy.

Well, my ISP’s service is still “not as advertised,” but I never really expected that it would be. But apparently, griping and complaining and keeping it up until one gets results is the ONLY way to get results with my ISP, now. Once? Great service. Recently? Like pulling eye teeth. Even the service techs who drop by are getting a bit exercised. Tired of having to deal with problems they keep submitting for folks higher up the food chain to deal with–folks who have been killing customer connections left and right for the past few months under the claim that they’re “improving service”.

Not around here. My complaints–though backed with more tech knowledge than most that have been submitted from this area, and there have been MANY–have been essentially the same as everyone else from this service area… and no matter how the local techs have kept pressing for solutions that are out of their hands, it just needed much more heat coming regularly and without ceasing from customers to apparently finally get someone to stop sitting on their thumbs.

“Apparently” I say, because at least I have solid connections now (haven’t checked with others locally yet), but service has apparently improved from time to time in the past few months, only to fail outright or become unusably slow without warning–and without the ISP knowing part of the system’s down until being flooded with customer service calls (“Our call system is full; please call back later” or simply phone numbers that don’t work are not things a customer without service likes to hear… )

But for now…

Not bad. Not as advertised, but not bad at all. For now. (Of course, earlier today? Notsomuch good. Not at all, at all… *sigh*)

But for now, it’s not sucking dead bunnies through a straw. For now.