Archive for the ‘geek’ category

Rain Gauge

June 6th, 2010

Courtesy eham.net

I am sad to report the demise of my original Acu-Rite 00896 Wireless Digital Rain Gauge purchased in Jan 2009 (see earlier review). Readings became erratic and if they were to be believed I would now be under flood water. » Read more: Rain Gauge

Netgear Router on O2 Broadband

April 25th, 2010
Speed Test Maidenhead

Speed Test Maidenhead

I changed the ADSL router from the O2 supplied Thomson TG585 to a Netgear DG834Gv3. » Read more: Netgear Router on O2 Broadband

WiFi On Tour

April 20th, 2010

Just checking in from the Avon Causeway hotel. Their WiFi is so slow it must be running on ISDN or dialup! » Read more: WiFi On Tour

PPP Multilink

April 18th, 2010

I wanted to find out a bit more about how to configure and test ppp multilink (ppp over parallel links). It gets a mention in ICND2 but nothing specific on configuration. I’ve encountered it before for ISDN dial-ups from Congo and Zyxel routers so naturally I’m curious to see how it’s done the Cisco way. Multilink ppp balances the traffic equally over the links at layer 2 whilst allowing the layer 3 in each router to treat the parallel links as a single link. » Read more: PPP Multilink

Cisco OSPF to Windows Server

April 12th, 2010

As part of my CCNA studies I’ve been experimenting with routing protocols. One test I carried out was to see how easy it would be to get OSPF exchanging routes with Windows Server 2003.

» Read more: Cisco OSPF to Windows Server

PoE Non-Standards

April 12th, 2010

I’ve been looking into Power Over Ethernet to feed power to Cisco Wireless Access Points and (other vendor) VOIP phones. I’ve found a few interoperability issues.

» Read more: PoE Non-Standards

Cisco Config needs Internet Explorer

April 12th, 2010

I found that when trying to configure a Cisco 1130AG Wireless Access Point I was getting strange effects using Firefox. For example, the second part of the quick start page was missing. Same for Safari on my Apple Mac.

» Read more: Cisco Config needs Internet Explorer

CCNA

December 25th, 2009

CCNA Lab I’ve been slowly progressing through CCNA for a while now, proof that you can teach an old dog new tricks. ICND1 was mainly basic theory and an introduction to Cisco IOS command line – I surprised myself by passing 604-822 at the first attempt.

Here is my lab – a selection of switches and routers. These should allow me to do all the simulations I need for ICND part 2 and maybe beyond…

I’ve learned and implemented some new (to me) concepts from this, although practical applications have not been with Cisco equipment, I’d prefer to call them vendor neutral so far. The most interesting project was converting  a FreeBSD ntp server that used multiple network cards.  I updated this to use 802.1Q tagged vlans using an Allied Telesyn switch.

I’ve even discovered that you can do RIP and OSPF routing in Windows :0

O2 Broadband Updated My Router!

October 31st, 2009

I’ve had the O2 Broadband (ADSL2+ LLU) installed for a year now and during that time it has performed flawlessly apart from the previously documented reboots which are tolerable.

» Read more: O2 Broadband Updated My Router!

Solwise 3G Router – a bit iffy.

August 28th, 2009

Impatient me wanted a 3G router so I can create a mobile Wi-Fi for various devices when I’m out and about.

My first choice was the Netgear MBR624GU but I needed one by yesterday and was unable to find one in stock anywhe

The alternative was the Solwise NET-3G-3GWIFIMRD. This looked like a fairly anonymous no-brand badged up and as it supported my 3G dongle I decided to give it a go. Solwise were very efficient with their order and delivery process and the item was delivered to my place of work the next morning.

» Read more: Solwise 3G Router – a bit iffy.