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5251

Living Room / Re: OS Re-install Tips?

« Last post by 4wd on April 04, 2009, 08:11 PM »

What kind of tweaks? 

-CleverCat (April 04, 2009, 02:56 AM)

well I removed Windows Media Player (you can remove IE as well, but that seems risky to me)

-tomos (April 04, 2009, 01:19 PM)

IE is normally removed from my nlite install and has been for at least 2 years.  NOTE: You can generally remove IE but not IE Core.

The only problem I have ever seen by doing this was those programs too stupid to use the default system browser and were hardcoded for IE......those programs don't live long on my system, usually a matter of minutes.

This problem becomes even more exasperated when you don't have a defined default system browser, (eg. I only use Portable Firefox), you soon strike quite few more stupid programs that don't just say to the system, "Here's a URL link, do something with it."

But the number of problems it has bypassed by having no browser as far the system is concerned has made it worthwhile to me.

How can yet another "toolbar" be installed into your browser when you have none?

I really hate the default xp theme so I removed that (I know it wasnt necessary to actually remove it but I enjoyed that )

I use the LE5 theme in Black Compact by default but sometimes I'll switch to Codename Opus in Dusk Compact.

I set it up so as on start that it would logon directly (probably not secure but ..)

That method is as secure as your house is, so there's nothing wrong with it.  If you don't trust the people in your house then you have a problem.

Attached is the latest nlite session file I've just done, (ie. yesterday), not as drastic as I usually do but still enough to get the XP Pro SP3 install disk down to 333MB.

NOTE: It's designed for a single user system so some functionality regarding multiuser environment has been removed, eg. there is no "Run As" on program context menus.

There are themes integrated that you probably don't have, (including the two mentioned above), so you'll need to go to that section of nlite and remove them.
I'm not into all the Eye Candy animation crap that XP provided, (otherwise known as W@nk Factor ), so almost all of that is disabled except for menu/mouse/icon text shadows.

Also, if you're not using XP Pro SP3 as the base then quite a few other components won't apply but it should give a decent basis for what you could do.

It should give an XP that will install and work.
No browser, (since I use Portable Firefox from another partition), still has OE although I usually remove that, (I use Portable Thunderbird), no drivers for hardware other than CPU and basic IDE, (most SATA can be put into IDE mode until drivers are loaded to provide added functionality, ie. AHCI and RAID), since I integrate drivers for my hardware at a later stage.

If you want an install CD that has drivers for just about any hardware you use, then visit DriverPacks and integrate the LAN, WLAN, Mass Storage, Chipset and CPU.  Add in the Graphics and Sound if you really want a "no-post-install-driver-experience" but it will blow out the size of the install CD somewhat.

5252

General Software Discussion / Re: accurate log file of uptime - even if power turned off

« Last post by 4wd on April 03, 2009, 06:59 PM »

Providing you don't clear out your Event Log too often then use the handy-dandy Uptime command from your friends at Microsoft

uptime /s will give you all the time/date of all boots/shutdowns, Total Reboots, Meantime Between Reboots, Total BSODs, System Availability, lots of other things plus Total Uptime since the start of the log.

And it will work across a network.

Use uptime /help for more info on what it can and can't do, especially the heartbeat function which may suffice for what you require.

UPTIME, Version 1.01
(C) Copyright 1999, Microsoft Corporation

Uptime [server] [/s ] [/a] [/d:mm/dd/yyyy | /p:n] [/heartbeat] [/? | /help]
        server          Name or IP address of remote server to process.
        /s              Display key system events and statistics.
        /a              Display application failure events (assumes /s).
        /d:             Only calculate for events after mm/dd/yyyy.
        /p:             Only calculate for events in the previous n days.
        /heartbeat      Turn on/off the system's heartbeat
        /?              Basic usage.
        /help           Additional usage information.

5253

Living Room / Re: Need some help to capture a streaming video please.

« Last post by 4wd on April 03, 2009, 06:43 PM »

4WD, there's an email on the way to you. I'd edit your post to mangle your email address if I were you though in case a spambot picks it up

-katykaty (April 03, 2009, 12:33 PM)

Thanks.

It's OK, that's just one of at least 6 GMail addresses I use and it's only for appearing on forums or registering with websites.

I have it set to IMAP and just look at the headers in the Inbox with Thunderbird, no other folder gets looked at.  If I start getting too much traffic on it I'll just dump it and register a new one. 

Addendum:  I've grabbed your torrent, thanks again Katy!

5254

Living Room / Re: Need some help to capture a streaming video please.

« Last post by 4wd on April 02, 2009, 10:02 PM »

Which FLV player did you use?

I used a piece of software from Nirsoft to get files from the cache. While that worked I got the files but were not able to do anything with most of them.
Until I used a specific FLV player which showed them without any hick-up.

Can't remember the name of the player, but if you want I can take a look....when I get home.

-Shades (April 02, 2009, 09:16 PM)

I was just using the Adobe Flash Player plugin for Firefox.

Trawling the cache was the first thing I tried but I couldn't find anything remotely near the size of the FLV, (~24MB), the biggest was only about 3MB, (I flushed the cache before trying it).

I even did a search of all my drives for files created within the last 30 minutes with no luck.

I then assumed that it was downloading straight to the player which was decoding in RAM on-the-fly which seemed to be born out by the fact that whenever I jumped to a different spot in it, (after I had run through it completely once), it would have to download that section again rather than just using the cached file.

5255

Living Room / Re: Need some help to capture a streaming video please.

« Last post by 4wd on April 02, 2009, 07:34 PM »

Doesn't mouser's very own URL Snooper do this sort of thing?

-superboyac (April 02, 2009, 07:26 PM)

I actually tried that and it did come up with URLs but not knowing exactly what I was looking for I failed miserably 

Blame to tool wielder not the tool.

5256

Living Room / Re: Need some help to capture a streaming video please.

« Last post by 4wd on April 02, 2009, 07:10 PM »

It worked  

I can send on the .flv to you - suggestions?

I've created a torrent for it but not sure how to send you the torrent either as it's not one of the allowed filetypes  

-katykaty (April 02, 2009, 03:58 PM)

Thank you very much!!!

Not using Orbit I failed to notice the Grab++ thingy when I did try it  

If you'd like to send me the torrent I think you can usually get away with renaming the extension from .torrent to .cab, at least it works for other files that fall afoul of email restrictions, (archives with executables, etc).

Otherwise, I'll delve more closely into Orbit and have a go myself.

Thank you once again!!

5257

Living Room / Re: OS Re-install Tips?

« Last post by 4wd on April 02, 2009, 06:53 PM »

Might be worth a try, either as a replacement for MozBackup - or a...er..backup to it?

-40hz (April 02, 2009, 03:26 PM)

why all the big fuss about thunderbird mail
copy the profile folder, restore as in the link I gave above. seems the easiest and most secure to me ...

-tomos (April 02, 2009, 04:08 PM)

Use the portable versions of Firefox and Thunderbird and just copy/archive the whole directories.

5258

Living Room / Re: OS Re-install Tips?

« Last post by 4wd on April 02, 2009, 06:47 PM »

...
nlite/vlite trimming is a really nice thing, also because it allows you to easily integrate drivers, hotfixes/servicepacks and create unattended setups - saves a lot of time.
...

-f0dder (April 02, 2009, 09:39 AM)

Thing is on PCs I get the OS is preinstalled and they don't provide an install CD/DVD.  HP doesn't seem to go to any pains to tell you how to get one either. vlite insists you copy the install DVD to the HD afaik. Seems kind of risky to reinstall the entire OS just to find out, like if I bought such a DVD, if the thing works before I make a system image for reinstall.  Have you run into any work-around for us underprivileged that don't get the DVD with the machines?

-MilesAhead (April 02, 2009, 01:45 PM)

It's doable, but a bit of a pain. A quick Google should point you to some how-to's. It's a fairly involved process you'll need to go through to make an XP install CD.

-40hz (April 02, 2009, 05:06 PM)

Actually it's rather easy and took me less than 20 minutes excluding writing the CD, (most of the time spent waiting for it to copy the files to another directory).

Create XP install CD has all the info you need, read it through first before attempting it, it will make it go all the more smoother.

And of course, test the CD before you need to rely on it.

EDIT: Dang it!!  I really should read the whole thread before replying 

No, it's not possible with Vista AFAIK.

5259

Living Room / Re: OS Re-install Tips?

« Last post by 4wd on April 02, 2009, 06:54 AM »

Think about partitions.

-tomos (April 02, 2009, 06:36 AM)

Why would I want to partition my hard drive? It's only 120GB. Advantages?

-siouxdax (April 02, 2009, 06:42 AM)

What matters the size of the drive?
My Acer TravelMate has a 40GB HDD and it's partitioned 20/20 by default.

My OS partition is never bigger than 20GB and is usually only 16GB.

For one thing you can at least keep your data on a different partition to the OS which means that the next time you install the OS your less likely to write over your data because you forgot to back it up.

For another, I use only portable applications wherever possible, by putting these on the 2nd partition I don't have to copy them back after a OS reinstall - they run perfectly well from the 2nd partition.
All my games are installed on the 2nd partition because they rarely need a full re-installation after the OS has been re-installed.

The only things that reside on my OS partition is the OS and those programs that require a normal installation.  Everything else is ready to run without requiring re-installation.

5260

Living Room / Need some help to capture a streaming video please.

« Last post by 4wd on April 02, 2009, 04:38 AM »

This is probably very easy for those who do it regularly, (or are addicted to online video  ), but I'm not one of those people.

I'd like to capture a video from the TVO website that is an interview with the Ice Pilot we had on our cruise but I'm not having any luck finding the URL to download or capturing the stream using various programs, (eg. Replay Media Catcher, BitRecorder, etc, etc).

The direct SWF URL is Ice Pilot interview which will cause Firefox to load it into the flash player and play it, trying to download just results in a 37kB file, (the actual file length is about 24MB according to BitRecorder which captured the data stream but couldn't save it as a meaningful FLV).

The full URL to the relevant page is interview.

So I'm hoping someone in DC land can give me some help with it please.

5261

General Software Discussion / Re: When was your last BSOD? I'm betting it was a long time ago

« Last post by 4wd on March 31, 2009, 10:54 PM »

Yesterday, XP Pro + SP3.

Didn't take much notice of how it occurred, running one program then went run another and bang!

Programs ran fine together after a reboot, so just some transient alignment of the planets - the usual thing that causes XP to BSOD.

5262

Living Room / Re: BIOS Level malware attack

« Last post by 4wd on March 28, 2009, 07:02 PM »

... (except of course on motherboards where the flashrom chip can be removed from the motherboard - most seem to be directly soldered on, though).

-f0dder (March 23, 2009, 04:05 PM)

And any motherboard that has dual BIOS chips since the 'backup' BIOS is generally non-writable, (well, at least on the Gigabyte boards), so you can always cross-flash the normal boot BIOS back into the hacked BIOS.

IIRC, the Gigabyte boards also default back to the non-writable BIOS if something out-of-ordinary is detected in the default boot BIOS, (I'll have to read my manual a bit more I think).

5263

Living Room / Re: Do you guys have any experience with routers? because i have some questions

« Last post by 4wd on March 23, 2009, 02:20 AM »

Sorry I haven't got back to you sooner, other commitments got in the way as usual 

19 of march update: Looks like i jumped the gun again, since monday i have been having frequent disconnects.The DSL and internet lights of my router go off for hours and they light up again after some time which can take hours, what's funny it's that when the internet comes back now it's back 100% not like before which was slow. My ISP went beyond useless yesterday when i got in touch with a guy that told me that he couldn't do anything, i really hate my ISP now. Today i tested the router's ethernet cable with the notebook to see what happenned, no change. Same thing when i swapped the cable (i had a spare) that goes from the router to the phone socket on the wall, no change. I have also noticed that the internet tends to come back when i try to call my ISP, i dunno if it's just a coincidence or if god likes to screw with me but i though it was worth mentioning. Sorry for presenting you with this problem 4WD when is my ISP that should help me, maybe i am being too soft with my dealings with them and should scream or something.

-gexecuter (March 15, 2009, 08:29 PM)

Just from the symptoms you're describing, (barring a hardware fault with your ISPs DSLAM or the router), my vote goes with a cable fault of some kind.

I don't know if your ISP is also your telephone service provider, (TSP), but I'd be reporting a fault on the line of "intermittent disconnection" for your phone calls to your TSP, at the very least it should cause your telephone line to be tested from the exchange for faults such as Low Insulation Resistance (usually caused by rainy weather and poorly weather-proofed cable joints), High Loop Resistance (usually poorly done cable joints) and Excessive Line Capacitance (too many phones plugged in or some idiot has paralleled it with another unterminated cable pair).

If your TSP is really on the ball, (or at least halfway decent), they will also send a tech out to check the wiring connections at your house and check/change the phone.

The fault you're reporting isn't exactly true, (ie. it's happening on the ADSL not the phone), but since your ISP is absolutely useless, (they should have reported a possible cable fault to your TSP), then I'd have no compunction about reporting a fault on your telephone.

Just do not let the telephone people know that the fault is really to do with your ADSL otherwise you'll probably get charged a callout fee, (that's if you aren't already, here in Australia it depends on how much you pay per month for the service as to whether it includes free fault repair).

If they send a tech out, get friendly, offer him/her a cuppa and ask questions about your service like you're interested   (Unless they're the uncommunicative, "P!ssoff, I'm working." type.)

eg.
Is my phone line copper all the way back to the exchange?
Just out of interest, was my line within acceptable limits for Loop and Insulation Resistance?
Where is the exchange, I don't remember ever seeing it?

From the brief visit I recently had to Chile, I found the people to be rather helpful.  Of course, I was a tourist blundering about not someone who actually helps to pay their wages.

The 'noise margin' and 'output power' are fine however the 'attenuation downstream' is, to put it bluntly, crap.  A figure of 56db means you're receiving just under 1/500,000 of the signal strength as sent from the ADSL equipment in the exchange.

That sucks, maybe that was the cause of my problems but we can't really know for sure since this is the first time i have ever done that test. Does having my sister's notebook connected to the router affect the test somehow? i am gonna run the test tomorrow with the notebook off to see if something changes.

Won't make a difference, those are purely the figures from the line side of the router back to the exchange - it doesn't take into account anything connected via WLAN or LAN.

Depending on how far away it is will help determine where the problem might lie, (eg. if it's <3km then the fault is possibly crappy wire joins or faulty equipment).

You could try unplugging the phone line from the back of the router 3 or 4 times to clean it's connection, the same where the line from the router plugs into the box on the wall.  Plug/socket connections tarnish over time and that can introduce resistance into the circuit.
It could be that the ADSL filter itself has developed a fault or that any joins along the length of cable from the box on the wall all the way back to the telephone exchange have gone high resistance

I didn't know that stuff about ADSL1 and ADSL12 at all. The next time i am in town i might ask around about that special building, it could be kinda awkward asking my ISP directly. I may try unplugging the phone lines once in awhile to clean tough how do you actually clean it thoroughly?

Not knowing what type of plug/socket they use in Chile, the best/easiest way would be to (un)plug the plug half a dozen or so times, this is normally enough for a decent "clean" - more than I usually do.

One other thing, on the Maintenance->System Status page there's a button marked 'Show Statistics', click on it and watch the stats for the WAN Port - ideally you don't want to see any Errors there.

When my connection was down i actually went there, it changed between "down", "initializating" and "up", there was a bunch of other stats like packages i think. Oh yeah i forgot to take a pic of that page and send it to you like i did the others, do you want it too?

It would be interesting to note whether it was reporting any errors and if that count kept incrementing.

BTW, did the ISP provide the Zyxel and still they own it or did you actually buy it as part of their package ?

5264

Living Room / Re: Do you guys have any experience with routers? because i have some questions

« Last post by 4wd on March 12, 2009, 04:18 AM »

So just now the internet came back however it's not like before, some pages won't fully load and some won't load at all until i make a manual reload. Anyway i went to Maintenance->System Status and i got the IP, netmask and VPI/VCI info, there was also a default gateway that read N/A. I dunno if that's important.

-gexecuter (March 11, 2009, 08:42 PM)

Default Gateway is just an arbitrary name entered to identify the ISP, it could be anything or blank, (N/A).

The ATM Loopback test has failed every time that i have tried it. I also did the Upstream/Downstream Noise Margins test and here what i got:

Upstream Noise Margin
noise margin upstream: 25 db
output power downstream: 14 db
attenuation upstream: 31 db

The figures for 'noise margin' and 'output power' are OK but the 'attenuation upstream' is a little high but still acceptable.

Downstream Noise Margin
noise margin downstream: 33 db
output power upstream: 12 db
attenuation downstream: 56 db

The 'noise margin' and 'output power' are fine however the 'attenuation downstream' is, to put it bluntly, crap.  A figure of 56db means you're receiving just under 1/500,000 of the signal strength as sent from the ADSL equipment in the exchange.

From the Whirlpool forums:

[Select]

Noise Margin (AKA Signal to Noise Margin or Signal to Noise Ratio)
Relative strength of the DSL signal to Noise ratio. The higher the number the better for this measurement. In some instances interleaving can help raise the noise margin to an acceptable level.

6dB or below is bad and will experience no synch or intermittent synch problems
7dB-10dB is fair but does not leave much room for variances in conditions
11dB-20dB is good with little or no synch problems* (but see note below)
20dB-28dB is excellent
29dB or above is outstanding

* Note that there may be short term bursts of noise that may drop the margin, but due to the sampling time of the management utility in your modem, will not show up in the figures.

Line Attenuation
Measure of how much the signal has degraded between the DSLAM and the modem. This is largely a function of the distance from the exchange. The lower the dB the better for this measurement.

20dB and below is outstanding
20dB-30dB is excellent
30dB-40dB is very good
40dB-50dB is good
50dB-60dB is poor and may experience connectivity issues
60dB or above is bad and will experience connectivity issues

I think my ISP is in Santiago , Chile which according to google maps is at a distance of 120 KM. I have no idea if these results are good or bad tough, probably bad considering my bad connection.

That's their head office - where they hide, charge you money and provide little support.

If your internet connection was provided from Santiago you wouldn't have any internet at all - the maximum effective distance at which ADSL1 can be used reliably is about 7-8km.  ADSL2(+) can extend that a little but not much.

Your ADSL connection is provided over your phone line from the local telephone exchange to your house - somewhere in your town there will be a rather drab building, (or possibly in the back of the post office if the building is big enough), marked Telephone Exchange.  Someone around town should be able to tell you where it is, (Police, Fire Depart., etc).  When you find it, measure the shortest distance between it and your house on your bike or in your car, (the actual distance the copper cable runs will be longer).  Or just ask the company who provides your phone service how long the cable run between your house and the exchange is - you might get someone helpful who'll tell you.

Depending on how far away it is will help determine where the problem might lie, (eg. if it's <3km then the fault is possibly crappy wire joins or faulty equipment).

You could try unplugging the phone line from the back of the router 3 or 4 times to clean it's connection, the same where the line from the router plugs into the box on the wall.  Plug/socket connections tarnish over time and that can introduce resistance into the circuit.
It could be that the ADSL filter itself has developed a fault or that any joins along the length of cable from the box on the wall all the way back to the telephone exchange have gone high resistance

My Router lights have always been green, i don't think i have ever seen them being amber. They flash tough. Oh sometimes the DSL and the internet lights would be off.

My fault, I assumed the 660 series would have the same colour LEDs throughout the different models.

The router is connected to a little box on the wall in my room, the box has a wire that goes to another other room where the only phone of the house is located. The box (i dunno how to call it) has a slot where you can put another phone line and that's pretty much what i can tell you about the box.

Sounds like a central ADSL filter/splitter, same as I use.

Sure tomorrow i'll send you screenshots of the router's configuration pages, hopefully you were joking about that stuff.

And thanks for helping me out 4WD.

No problem.

One other thing, on the Maintenance->System Status page there's a button marked 'Show Statistics', click on it and watch the stats for the WAN Port - ideally you don't want to see any Errors there.

5265

Living Room / Re: I'm BACK!! (was: Greetings from the Atlantic!)

« Last post by 4wd on March 11, 2009, 04:29 PM »

I think 4wd needs to share with us the info for his Travel Agent because it looks like an incredible trip.

-mouser (March 11, 2009, 03:44 PM)

Best Flights - For the Round the World airfare which was at least AU$1000 cheaper than a return flight to Sth America.
Vacations To Go - They sell cruises at discounts worldwide, (unlike some who only deal in the USA or UK).
Tucan Travel - Turkey
Kumuka - Iguazu Falls
Kumuka - Lake Titikaka

The flight, cruise and tours were selected off of the internet or brochure and then the info taken to Flight Centre who claim they will beat any price you can find.

The good thing about the internet is that it keeps travel agents honest

We got the cruise cheaper than the advertised price on Vacations To Go, it worked out to ~US$80/day for an outside cabin.  For a 20 day cruise, (especially to Antarctica), that's an absolute bargain.

4wd

PS. Only 300 35mm photos taken......plus 6 hours of miniDV and 4501 digital photos.

5266

Living Room / Re: Do you guys have any experience with routers? because i have some questions

« Last post by 4wd on March 11, 2009, 03:20 PM »

Thank you so much for replying 4WD and good timing too since i have a certain internet problem that hopefully you (and other people too) could help me with, i finally found the router's password which i hope would let me fix this annoying problem. I am just going to repost what i already had written awhile ago, take a look:

Recently i have been having a lot of problems with my internet and my ISP is basically useless since every method that they have suggested has failed. Basically sometimes when i go to a webpage i get redirected to "http://192.168.1.1/zCfgTryAgain.html" and get the Following message:

Object Not Found

The requested URL '/zCfgTryAgain.html' was not found on the RomPager Advanced server.


if i try any other site is the same thing and i also can't download anything so for all intents and purposes i have no internet. This used to happen before but for only minutes however recently it has lasted for hours even i reboot the PC and the router. After doing a google search the only thing i could learn is that the "http://192.168.1.1/zCfgTryAgain.html" is shown when the DSL line is not up which doesn't me help at all. My router is a Zyxel P-660HW-T1 v2 and i have the password for it so i was wondering if any of you could help me in figuring out the problem. I have also attached a screenshot showing all of you what i see when my internet is down.

-gexecuter (March 11, 2009, 10:10 AM)

When it happens access the router's interface and go to Maintenance->System Status, under the WAN Information you'll have your IP, netmask and VPI/VCI settings - if you haven't, the router hasn't connected to the ISPs equipment.

You can also go into Maintenance->Diagnostic and do an ATM Loopback test, it'll say it was successful if there's a connection.  The ATM Status should also show something besides all 0's, eg. your rxRate and txRate will be higher than 0.
Also check the Upstream/Downstream Noise Margins - if they're too high then either you're too far from the phone exchange or your phone line is noisy due to crappy joints, (trust me - I was a telecommunications tech for 19 years, even though you may not be able hear any noise on a normal phone call it doesn't mean it isn't there, it could just be affecting the frequencies that ADSL needs).

I live pretty close to what was the 7km limit of ADSL and I know I'm on copper cable all the way.
My figures are as follows:

Upstream Noise Margin
noise margin upstream: 31 db
output power downstream: 12 db
attenuation upstream: 17 db
tone   0- 31: 00 00 00 00 00 00 22 22 23 32 23 23 22 20 20 00
tone  32- 63: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone  64- 95: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone  96-127: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 128-159: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 160-191: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 192-223: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 224-255: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 256-287: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 288-319: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 320-351: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 352-383: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 384-415: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 416-447: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 448-479: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 480-511: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Downstream Noise Margin
noise margin downstream: 13 db
output power upstream: -1 db
attenuation downstream: 36 db
tone   0- 31: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone  32- 63: 45 56 66 55 55 55 55 55 55 55 54 55 44 44 44 44
tone  64- 95: 04 44 44 44 44 44 44 33 33 33 33 33 33 33 23 33
tone  96-127: 33 32 32 22 33 22 22 33 32 22 22 22 22 22 22 33
tone 128-159: 32 32 22 22 23 33 33 22 02 32 22 22 33 33 33 33
tone 160-191: 22 32 32 22 22 22 22 20 00 00 00 00 02 22 22 22
tone 192-223: 22 22 20 00 22 20 20 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 224-255: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 256-287: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 288-319: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 320-351: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 352-383: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 384-415: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 416-447: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 448-479: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
tone 480-511: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

Edit: oh yeah i also remembered that a very long time ago my isp changed my modem into an USB one because i couldn't connect to the internet with the regular modem, i think it was a problem with my ethernet port on my PC that screwed things because i never had a problem with the USB modem so i am wondering if this time it could be the same thing since the router uses the same ethernet port.

That page comes from the router, if you're getting it then your ethernet connection to the router is working fine.  But you can test it easily by plugging in your sister's laptop to an ethernet port on the router, if you get the same thing then it's not your PCs ethernet port.

EDIT: Oh yeah, one thing that's helpful is the little light on the front right of the router that tells you the status of the ADSL line.
Flashing Amber - Normal, data being tx'd or rx'd
Solid Green      - No ADSL connection.
Amber but occasionally flashes Green - No ADSL connection.
Green but occasionally flashes Amber - No ADSL connection, attempting renegotiation of connection.

Basically, when you're having your problem watch the ADSL status light for a couple of minutes.  If it flashes green occasionally or is solid green then your ADSL connection has failed due to something, (possibly just a crappy plug/socket connection on the line lead).

Also, while I think of it, how is your router connected to the phone line ?
ie.
a) Is it plugged directly into a socket with all your phones having individual filters, or
b) Is it plugged into an ADSL filter/splitter and there are no individual filters on your phones.

If you don't mind, you could go through your router's interface pages one by one using a screen capture program and then send the pages to me at [email protected] (one of a few disposable GMail accounts I have).  I promise I won't use the information for evil purposes¹.

BTW, to discover the password for your ADSL connection you can do the following:

Using Firefox:
1) Install GreaseMonkey add-on.
2) Go to http://userscripts.o...g/scripts/show/16033  (Visible Password)
3) Click the Install button
4) Right-click on the monkey in Firefox's status bar and make sure Visible Password is enabled - it will have a tick next to it.
5) Access the router interface and go to Advanced Setup->WAN->WAN Setup where the password will be revealed.
6) Take note of it and the Username, these are required if you end up resetting the router to factory defaults.
7) Disable Visible Password in GreaseMonkey.

1. Yeah, right 

5267

Living Room / Re: Do you guys have any experience with routers? because i have some questions

« Last post by 4wd on March 11, 2009, 05:56 AM »

I hope you are having fun in your vacation 4WD!

-gexecuter (January 12, 2009, 08:23 PM)

All over now bar the paying of bills but it was very fun!

I dunno what electrical problem in my house is actually, all i know is something when we start some devices (like microwaves, electrical water heaters,etc.) the power goes out. It reallly hasn't caused much trouble since no stuff has been burned so it's just very annoying.

Sounds like too many items on the one electrical circuit or a dodgy electrical connection, either a socket or join.

I did what you told me and put 4 matchboxes below the router, low tech but it works.

Another idea would have been to mount it vertically to a wall using the screw holes on the back.  But I've found the low-tech method works just as well.

My ISP is indeed telefonica chile, i did try their name as the password with no luck. I dunno what username and password are you talking about.

Your ADSL connection requires a username/password to work correctly, for instance, without it you might not have access to your ISP's DNS servers which will make accessing any web sites quite hard, (as I just found out due to the screw up with my landline and change of ISP).

The only password that the tech guy gave was for connecting to the wifi in the notebook. If you mean the user/password that i had to use before i had the router then yes i do have that.

If you look at the pic, the two items marked with an asterisk are what's required, these are normally different from any dialup username/password you received.

I don't plan resetting the router anytime soon but one thing is tempting me, the Media Bandwidth Management is for splitting the bandwith right? i could use that to give my PC and the notebook a 50/50 % of bandwith each right? that could be really useful.

It's more for prioritising bandwidth, for example, I have a PC that does nothing but download from newsgroups 24/7/365.
It uses max bandwidth all the time, however, in Media Bandwidth Management I have set that PCs IP so that its Bandwidth Budget is 100kbps and it has a low Priority of 1, which basically means any other traffic has a higher priority and the bandwidth of that IP will be reduced to 100kbps in the event of another PC browsing the web, fetching mail, ftp xfer, etc, etc.
It's also set to borrow bandwidth from the Parent Class, (LAN 100Mbps), so if there is no other traffic it can hit the max bandwidth of 256kbps, (I only have 256/64 ADSL).

The pic below is of the settings for the Child Class NNTP under the Root Class of the LAN Media Bandwidth Management.



I just don't understand why your ISP is so anal about letting you have the information you need to be able to set up the modem/router for your circumstances.  Being able to access the routers will also tell you if any other bandwidth leeching PCs are connected - although you could try using NetScan to detect any strange PCs if you think there's one connected.

5268

Living Room / Re: I'm BACK!! (was: Greetings from the Atlantic!)

« Last post by 4wd on March 11, 2009, 02:44 AM »

Bumpity bump

EDIT: I should have said the original post has been updated.  Forgive me, I was drunk from information overload after having no real internet for 2 months.

5269

Living Room / Re: Greetings from the Atlantic!

« Last post by 4wd on February 14, 2009, 01:11 PM »

Thanks for the comments folks, currently just arrived in Turkey, (after 24+ hours and 3 flights), and I really should be asleep as our tour starts tomorrow.

I'll try and update it later on if I get enough time one night after whatever the day has brought.

yes,
and there all in Peru except the icy one - lol  - so I should have said - oh to be in Peru, (or Chile or even muggy Paraguay Shades!)

-tomos (February 08, 2009, 11:31 AM)

Naughty!  The first one is Brazil

Peru wasn't muggy but Chile, Argentina and Brazil, (especially), were.

The Falklands were sunny and not windy for a change apparently.

5270

Living Room / I'm BACK!! (was: Greetings from the Atlantic!)

« Last post by 4wd on February 07, 2009, 04:53 PM »

Hello fellow DCers!

Your worst nightmare just happened......I have returned!

To be honest, I would have returned sooner but our highly efficient national telecommunications giant, (Telstra), took it upon themselves to cancel my landline 3 days after leaving Oz because their computer screwed up.  Which meant that my ADSL went inactive and just to add insult to injury my ISP decided to sell off their Home ADSL to another company, so it has taken me a week dealing with a new company to get it working again.  Sh!t always happens when you aren't around to fix it.......damn that Murphy!

Anyhow, I can sum up the cruise in just one word: Too Much FOOD!

It seems like they could feed a small third world country with the amount of food on this ship.

Anyway, the furthest south reached was 65deg 12.5' S, 77.8 miles from the Antarctic Circle.

Pictures are scaled to 50% or less, (largest panorama was >60000 pixels wide).

Iguazu Falls - From the Brazil side, (some of, I don't have a lens 100 meters wide to capture it all in one shot)

Lake Titikaka - From Taquile Island (540 steps to the dock)

Machu Picchu - From the Inca Trail

Cuzco's Plaza del Armas - From our balcony at the hostel

Osorno volcano at Puerto Montt, Chile.

Antarctic from a comfortable cruise ship, (when not outside in -40C wind chill taking photos).







The calcified falls in Pamukkale, Turkey.

The cave houses of Goreme, Turkey.

The Cistern, (underground water storage), in Istanbul.


Haven't had any time to check anything new here on the forums.

For your enjoyment I'll attach a sort of travel diary that is actually a conglomeration of emails I sent home.  If you think of it as a comic strip you won't go far wrong

Cheers,
4wd (back home in need of a holiday)

5271

Living Room / Re: What may you be missing?

« Last post by 4wd on January 10, 2009, 09:13 PM »

Of all the things I've lost over the years, I miss my mind the most.


(Wish I knew who originally wrote that since it's easily the truest statement.)

5272

Living Room / Re: make family tree in Visio - manually or automated via db?

« Last post by 4wd on January 10, 2009, 08:54 PM »

Attached are samples of the main types and they each have their own options to change how they look.  The easiest way would be to just download the software and grab the sample GEDCOM files at the Simple Family Tree site, import them and then have a play.

-4wd (January 09, 2009, 10:19 PM)

@4wd
- do you mean I can use the files from "Simple Family Tree" programme in the "Personal Ancestral File" programme ??
- sounds versatile!
(just double checking as I passing on the info, thanks!!)

-tomos (January 10, 2009, 12:50 PM)

Simple Family Tree and virtually all other family tree programs have the ability to either directly read, (as in SFT's case), or import/export the data as GEDCOM files.

GEDCOM files are nothing more than a text file with various fields for the data and was specifically designed, (by the creators of PAF), as a means of genealogical data interchange.

In PAF just go File->Import, it'll prompt you to create a new PAF database, give it a name and enter some basic info, (preparer's name, etc, etc), then select the xxxxx.GED file.

It'll start importing individuals and present you either with it's standard view or a log of any errors encountered, (which it will for "The Kings of Europe.ged" file off the SFT site but it will still display the basic tree).

From there you can edit entries, print reports, etc to get a feel for it - it's a pretty easy program to get around in without having to resort to the docs.

5273

Living Room / Re: Do you guys have any experience with routers? because i have some questions

« Last post by 4wd on January 10, 2009, 07:24 PM »

More and more I realize that the internet now is both the biggest convenience and the biggest curse on the planet.

This thread is another painful reminder of the prodigious amounts of money and time wasted on trying to make our machines safe.
[/gof]

-cranioscopical (January 10, 2009, 10:47 AM)

Watch out Ehtyar!

He's gunning for 'El Presidente de la lámina de estaño sombrero brigada'¹, just like kartal.

1 - Blame Google Translate if I screwed up.

5274

Living Room / Re: Do you guys have any experience with routers? because i have some questions

« Last post by 4wd on January 10, 2009, 05:58 PM »

gexecuter, there are two other things that affected the 660HW-61 that you can try before having to get into the config:
1) It's susceptible to power blips, it'll go into TTM1.  Try and put it on an UPS if you're in an area with supply fluctuations.
2) It's susceptible to heat.  Under the middle base it gets warm and then just stops communicating.  Either support it at both sides on something, (I use 2 matchboxes - hi-tech, huh), or mount vertically to let air flow and cool it.

-4wd

Funny that you mention power blips since in my house the power goes out very frequently. Something about the electrical sockets. I wish i could afford an UPS but i can't.

-gexecuter (January 10, 2009, 04:50 PM)

I also have semi-frequent power blips/brownouts, (of course they only happen when I'm not here), as I mentioned above somewhere I also have a PC that's on 24/7 downloading from usenet.  So when the power blips, the router could go down and the PC stops downloading until I can get to it to power cycle the router.

I also don't have an UPS, (one of those things I haven't got around to), but I have minimised the effect of power blips when I'm away, (as I will be in about 18 hours for 7 weeks), by doing the following:
1) the router is plugged into a time switch that's set to power off at around 0100 and then power on 15 minutes later - this will get it out of TTM.
2) the PC is set in BIOS to power on at AC restore and power on at a fixed time every day.

This combination has allowed it to weather 3-4 months of me being overseas without a problem.

Although, if the problem is in your electrical house wiring then you have bigger problems.  I have a rental property that kept blowing the controller in the central heating, we thought it was the grid supply fluctuating and had a surge protector fitted to the supply/meter board.  It happened again, except power was lost to half the house.

It turned out to be one power outlet in the family room where the wires hadn't been properly secured/screwed in from new, (it was only built 8 years ago).  Vibration caused intermittent connection, which caused intermittent surges through that circuit, (which just happened to have the central heating controller on it), and bang.......there goes the controller.

We got off light, it could just as easily have started a fire.

About the heat stuff, i think i could come with something. even tough i can't think of something right now.

Come on, four matchboxes, one at each corner - you only need to raise it about 12-20mm

btw any of those two issues can affect my speeds?

Not that I'm aware of, both my mate and I run the P-660H(W)-61 and these are the only real problems we've found with them.  I even bought one for my parents i.l.o. these minor faults because it's features far outweigh them for the price.

However, without knowing how your ISP has set up the config it can't be ruled out that something in there is affecting it, eg. they've turned on Media Bandwidth Management with the wrong settings.

PS: i don't think my ISP would give me router's password because when the tech came to my home he said i couldn't change the Wifi network password or something like that.

Can I ask who your ISP is, (also, have you tried your ISP's name as the password) ?

This is why I really hate having to use 'their' equipment, (which I'm not, but I had a choice), however if you know the username/password and basic settings for the ADSL then you can do a factory reset by, (IIRC), pushing in the button on the back while powering on the router, hold the reset button for 10 seconds then release.  The router should go through it's diagnostics and start up with no internet connection, you should be able to enter the config then using '1234'.

Then enter Wizard Setup, you'll need the following info:

Mode:               Routing
Encapsulation:    PPPoE    (usually)
Multiplex:           LLC
Virtual Circuit ID:
                 VPI: 8
                 VCI: 35

The bottom 3 values, (Multiplex, VCI, VPI), you need to get from your provider - the ones I've given are a general default.

On the next page:

Service Name: Telefonica  (just guessing )
User Name:
Password:
Obtain an IP automatically
Connect on Demand  Max timeout 7200
NAT:              SUA

You need the 'User Name' and 'Password' from your ISP, the other options can be changed once a connection is established.  Once you click Next it should connect, (IIRC).

As I mentioned above, I'm off for 7 weeks shortly so any questions later than about 1800 AEDST today will incur a delayed response

5275

Living Room / Re: Do you guys have any experience with routers? because i have some questions

« Last post by 4wd on January 10, 2009, 12:11 AM »

I'm not sure hiding the SSID is a good idea - it might make your network more interesting to hackers? "Ah, here's somebody who knows how to turn that off, they must have something interesting to hide". Especially if combined with weak protection like WEP or WPA-1. Same goes for MAC filtering.

-f0dder (January 09, 2009, 11:41 PM)

Interesting to hackers, maybe...but mainly to keep Joe Public from arbitrarily logging on and knocking off a bit of your bandwidth.

Btw, what's the timeframe for cracking WPA-2? I thought that even with the latest GPU stuff, we were talking at least months with a decent passphrase?

The problem is very few people use decent passphrases and I doubt whether the majority of people who are knowledgeable enough to turn on any form of WiFi security protocol bother to use decent passphrases.

And once set, how many people actually bother to change it occasionally ?

So if a hacker wants to get in he probably has a very large time frame within which he can try and achieve it.

Here the Pyrit guys talk a bit more about it, giving an example time frame based on a 2006 NIST whitepaper.

All-in-all, I think the following is the best solution for people who want to steal your bandwidth - it'll probably annoy them enough to go elsewhere.
My neighbours are stealing my wireless internet access.