Computeractive has just published a web version of my print feature on using the web to cut motoring costs
Sunday, 28 February 2010
Friday, 26 February 2010
Review: Netgear ProSafe FVS318G VPN Firewall
My reviews of the Netgear Prosafe FVS318G Gigabit VPN Firewall have just been published by IT Reviews and V3.
Update: A couple of people have asked me whether this router supports MAC spoofing. Yes, it does - I set it up on my cable broadband which requires the MAC address of an ancient long-dead NIC.
Update: A couple of people have asked me whether this router supports MAC spoofing. Yes, it does - I set it up on my cable broadband which requires the MAC address of an ancient long-dead NIC.
Find it on Amazon:
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Seismic lines on Google Maps
I suppose not many people can point to something on Google Maps and say 'I made that!'. But I've found a couple of rather prominent examples from my past life in seismic exploration, one in Libya and the other in Yemen.
The first is from my time with SSL in Libya in 1982. It was my first posting as Party Chief, running a seismic crew (Party 140, working for Shell) in a huge, remote and completely inhospitable area of basalt slap-bang in the centre of the country known as the Harugh-al-Aswad ('black mountains', I think).
View Larger Map
What you can see if you move around the map a bit are parallelogram-shaped arrays of 18 blobs, arranged along intersecting lines. The blobs are holes each made by a couple of kilos of dynamite exploded on the surface of the basalt. Each array was detonated simultaneously and sequentially along the line, with arrays of geophones (a special kind of microphone) planted in the ground along the same line. It made a hell of a racket and, as you can see, a hell of a mess. The lines stretch for miles and miles in a loose grid pattern - it was a technique known as swath shooting, if I recall correctly.
The terrain was truly foul. In these pictures it looks far too pleasant - you can't see the ever-present fine dust or feel the back-shattering lurches as you drive over the boulder fields.
The second example I found was from my time as a consultant in Yemen in the early 1990s. As Yemen is riddled with seismic lines, it was quite hard to spot until I remembered that the company I was working for (Crescent Petroleum was the client, Western Geophysical the contractor) used a unique method of bulldozing triple lines across the desert. These stand out like a sore thumb when you spot them.
View Larger Map
These lines are created by a pair of D7 bulldozers plus a D8 if I recall correctlyserves, and are only needed to make a rough-and-ready track for the seismic vibrator trucks to move along. These machines are used instead of dynamite, and they create sound waves using a flat metal plate on the ground that's made to vibrate using a heavy vertically-oscillating metal weight (driven by an awful lot of complicated hydraulics and electronics) - they're faster and safer but, at least in this kind of terrain, a lot messier. Here's a video of one in action.
Sadly there's no alternative - if you don't clear the rocks (and don't be deceived, this terrain isn't much better than the Libyan basalt, according to my back) the vibrators can't safely lower the plate that transmits the vibrations into the ground. You need a good coupling with the ground to transmit the energy.
The reason there are three lines is that there were four vibrators split between two of the lines, with the other line for the geophones and access for the support vehicles. The idea as far as I can recall was to keep the vibrator array compact - normally you'd have the four vibrators strung out in a single line. You can see the arrangement in this photo of the vibrators working through a nice sandy bit - the cables attaching the geophones are just visible in the foreground.
Here's another photo of the vibrators in action, clearly showing the triple lines:
So that's my contribution to future archaeologists - it's probably not something to be proud of, but if nothing else I can honestly say that I've left my mark on the world.
You can find out more about my life of planet-wrecking at A Life Of Science And Adventure
The first is from my time with SSL in Libya in 1982. It was my first posting as Party Chief, running a seismic crew (Party 140, working for Shell) in a huge, remote and completely inhospitable area of basalt slap-bang in the centre of the country known as the Harugh-al-Aswad ('black mountains', I think).
What you can see if you move around the map a bit are parallelogram-shaped arrays of 18 blobs, arranged along intersecting lines. The blobs are holes each made by a couple of kilos of dynamite exploded on the surface of the basalt. Each array was detonated simultaneously and sequentially along the line, with arrays of geophones (a special kind of microphone) planted in the ground along the same line. It made a hell of a racket and, as you can see, a hell of a mess. The lines stretch for miles and miles in a loose grid pattern - it was a technique known as swath shooting, if I recall correctly.
The terrain was truly foul. In these pictures it looks far too pleasant - you can't see the ever-present fine dust or feel the back-shattering lurches as you drive over the boulder fields.
The second example I found was from my time as a consultant in Yemen in the early 1990s. As Yemen is riddled with seismic lines, it was quite hard to spot until I remembered that the company I was working for (Crescent Petroleum was the client, Western Geophysical the contractor) used a unique method of bulldozing triple lines across the desert. These stand out like a sore thumb when you spot them.
These lines are created by a pair of D7 bulldozers plus a D8 if I recall correctlyserves, and are only needed to make a rough-and-ready track for the seismic vibrator trucks to move along. These machines are used instead of dynamite, and they create sound waves using a flat metal plate on the ground that's made to vibrate using a heavy vertically-oscillating metal weight (driven by an awful lot of complicated hydraulics and electronics) - they're faster and safer but, at least in this kind of terrain, a lot messier. Here's a video of one in action.
Sadly there's no alternative - if you don't clear the rocks (and don't be deceived, this terrain isn't much better than the Libyan basalt, according to my back) the vibrators can't safely lower the plate that transmits the vibrations into the ground. You need a good coupling with the ground to transmit the energy.
The reason there are three lines is that there were four vibrators split between two of the lines, with the other line for the geophones and access for the support vehicles. The idea as far as I can recall was to keep the vibrator array compact - normally you'd have the four vibrators strung out in a single line. You can see the arrangement in this photo of the vibrators working through a nice sandy bit - the cables attaching the geophones are just visible in the foreground.
Here's another photo of the vibrators in action, clearly showing the triple lines:
So that's my contribution to future archaeologists - it's probably not something to be proud of, but if nothing else I can honestly say that I've left my mark on the world.
You can find out more about my life of planet-wrecking at A Life Of Science And Adventure
Monday, 22 February 2010
Farewell extender, hello media PC
Time to start yet another shopping list
I've finally had enough of my Linksys DMA2100 Media Center Extender. It's worked fine for 18 months or so, but it breaks down so regularly with Windows 7 that it drives me nuts. It's got the latest firmware, although because it's a discontinued product, that means it's 1-year old firmware. It's connected via Ethernet (don't even think about Wi-Fi if you value your sanity) and chugs along fine until it randomly stops with a blank screen, frozen images or stuttering audio.
Perhaps my network is the problem - I did notice that it was slightly better when I was reviewing a gigabit router; I have eight network devices plugged in, but they're not gobbling bandwidth and network utilisation rarely exceeds 10% even when everything's going full tilt. It could even be a lack of horsepower in the router (the Fritz Box I mentioned recently), but that's not something I can do much about and frankly, I don't care anymore.
There are non-performance related issues as well, such as not being able to watch the Sky Player Media Center plugin on an extender (I don't really need it, but it owes me £20..), or play DVDs or Blu-ray discs directly from the PC. So I'm going to build a dedicated Windows 7 media PC, based around the Intel Core i5-750 that Intel kindly donated last year as part of a cancelled PR event.
The motherboard I fancy is an Intel microATX model, the DH55TC 'Tom Cove', mainly because it's one of the cheapest microATX models around (it's about £75) with all the features I need, chief of which is a PCI slot for my old dual-tuner Freeview card.
The case is a bit more difficult. I can't spend too much, but I want one that will fit in the telly cabinet fairly unobtrusively. There's almost room for a standard ATX desktop case, but I spotted two cheapo models on Ebuyer - the top one's an ATX from Trendsonic, which looks a bit naff but has plenty of room, comes with a PSU and only costs £40.
The other is a more expensive (£49) microATX model from Ewsdn (the HTPC-410) that doesn't look quite so ugly (well, at this price it's all relative..) but needs a microATX power supply, so I'll have to budget another £20 or so for that. I don't particularly trust the look of that optical drive cover, though.
Luckily I have a spare graphics card, Blu-ray drive and hard disk (yes, I'm a compulsive hoarder - it broke my heart flogging a cartload of my old tech junk at a car boot sale last year) and I have an unused copy of Windows 7, so all I need is some RAM - 2GB of DDR3-10600 will be fine for my purposes, which is about £47 from Crucial at the moment. So in total, for a layout of either £160 or £190 depending on which case I go for, I can say goodbye to the Linksys extender and hello to Blu-ray playback and - hopefully - no more frozen documentaries. If you've any better (that is, cheaper) ideas on the case, let me know.
Update 16/10/2010: I went ahead and built the PC using the Intel board and Ewsdn case. The case is outstandingly well-constructed, looks very professional and the metal DVD cover plate works fine. It's all a bit cramped inside, and you need to think about cable routing and airflow, but in the end I sorted it all out. I used a BeQuiet microATX PSU.
It's given me many months of problem-free service, although for some reason the Intel board keeps throwing up CPU overheat warnings via the Intel Desktop Utilities monitor. These usually happen on standby or shutdown, so I'm guessing they're spurious and not critical. In normal use temperatures are well within spec, and the two small fans in the case are practically silent, as are the CPU and graphics fans.
So overall I'm very happy with the components, and especially the pricing. Here's a pic I took of the finished article.
I've finally had enough of my Linksys DMA2100 Media Center Extender. It's worked fine for 18 months or so, but it breaks down so regularly with Windows 7 that it drives me nuts. It's got the latest firmware, although because it's a discontinued product, that means it's 1-year old firmware. It's connected via Ethernet (don't even think about Wi-Fi if you value your sanity) and chugs along fine until it randomly stops with a blank screen, frozen images or stuttering audio.
Perhaps my network is the problem - I did notice that it was slightly better when I was reviewing a gigabit router; I have eight network devices plugged in, but they're not gobbling bandwidth and network utilisation rarely exceeds 10% even when everything's going full tilt. It could even be a lack of horsepower in the router (the Fritz Box I mentioned recently), but that's not something I can do much about and frankly, I don't care anymore.
There are non-performance related issues as well, such as not being able to watch the Sky Player Media Center plugin on an extender (I don't really need it, but it owes me £20..), or play DVDs or Blu-ray discs directly from the PC. So I'm going to build a dedicated Windows 7 media PC, based around the Intel Core i5-750 that Intel kindly donated last year as part of a cancelled PR event.
The motherboard I fancy is an Intel microATX model, the DH55TC 'Tom Cove', mainly because it's one of the cheapest microATX models around (it's about £75) with all the features I need, chief of which is a PCI slot for my old dual-tuner Freeview card.
The case is a bit more difficult. I can't spend too much, but I want one that will fit in the telly cabinet fairly unobtrusively. There's almost room for a standard ATX desktop case, but I spotted two cheapo models on Ebuyer - the top one's an ATX from Trendsonic, which looks a bit naff but has plenty of room, comes with a PSU and only costs £40.
The other is a more expensive (£49) microATX model from Ewsdn (the HTPC-410) that doesn't look quite so ugly (well, at this price it's all relative..) but needs a microATX power supply, so I'll have to budget another £20 or so for that. I don't particularly trust the look of that optical drive cover, though.
Luckily I have a spare graphics card, Blu-ray drive and hard disk (yes, I'm a compulsive hoarder - it broke my heart flogging a cartload of my old tech junk at a car boot sale last year) and I have an unused copy of Windows 7, so all I need is some RAM - 2GB of DDR3-10600 will be fine for my purposes, which is about £47 from Crucial at the moment. So in total, for a layout of either £160 or £190 depending on which case I go for, I can say goodbye to the Linksys extender and hello to Blu-ray playback and - hopefully - no more frozen documentaries. If you've any better (that is, cheaper) ideas on the case, let me know.
Update 16/10/2010: I went ahead and built the PC using the Intel board and Ewsdn case. The case is outstandingly well-constructed, looks very professional and the metal DVD cover plate works fine. It's all a bit cramped inside, and you need to think about cable routing and airflow, but in the end I sorted it all out. I used a BeQuiet microATX PSU.
It's given me many months of problem-free service, although for some reason the Intel board keeps throwing up CPU overheat warnings via the Intel Desktop Utilities monitor. These usually happen on standby or shutdown, so I'm guessing they're spurious and not critical. In normal use temperatures are well within spec, and the two small fans in the case are practically silent, as are the CPU and graphics fans.
So overall I'm very happy with the components, and especially the pricing. Here's a pic I took of the finished article.
Friday, 19 February 2010
How to get live TV in Media Center without a tuner
I love Windows 7's Media Center. The Vista version isn't bad either, and both are light years better than the original Windows MCE 2005 product. Of course, to get the full PVR functions for TV you need a tuner card, but there are a couple of free add-ons that let you watch live TV and radio, streamed over broadband, from within the Media Center interface.
One is TunerFree MCE, which not only streams live TV services but also gives you catch-up content from the BBC, ITV C4 and Five. If you're in the US, it supports Hulu, too. It works pretty well, although the interface is a bit clunky.
Another is the TVCatchup plugin which is at the moment a very basic and incomplete tie-in to the TVCatchup web service. It works fine for live streaming, though. According to the website, it is developing a desktop application with PVR capabilities, but there's no sign of that yet. There is an iPhone streaming service, available at http://www.tvcatchup.com/iphone.html.
If you just want free live TV on your desktop, Zattoo is a great free app, and isn't just limited to UK channels.
One is TunerFree MCE, which not only streams live TV services but also gives you catch-up content from the BBC, ITV C4 and Five. If you're in the US, it supports Hulu, too. It works pretty well, although the interface is a bit clunky.
If you just want free live TV on your desktop, Zattoo is a great free app, and isn't just limited to UK channels.
Thursday, 18 February 2010
Tom Tom offering 12 months' free LIVE services
Press release from Tom Tom:
The Tom Tom XL costs around £200, and the GO x50 models start from around £180 with the GO 550.
From today until Easter weekend, TomTom is offering all new customers free LIVE Services for a year when they purchase a TomTom XL LIVE or TomTom GO x50 device - a saving of £95.
Combining TomTom HD Traffic™, safety cameras, fuel pricing and Google search, TomTom’s LIVE services improve your daily drive using real time routing information, allowing you to make the right decisions to suit your journey.
TomTom LIVE Services are available with all TomTom’s connected devices currently on the market, including the new TomTom GO x50 LIVE series.
The Tom Tom XL costs around £200, and the GO x50 models start from around £180 with the GO 550.
E-books need innovation, not bling
While looking at the video and article from Wired in my previous post, I came across the Wired preview of its upcoming iPad version of the magazine, and I sighed. It's yet another Adobe-powered 'look at what we can do' digital rendering of a print product with interactivity, embedded videos, 360-degree animations and all the digital bling we see every time someone mentions the word 'e-book'.
When will someone stop these people just trying to replicate print on a screen? I don't care how funky the 2-axis scrolling is, or how cute the page browser is. All this stuff has been done to death, and still looks awful, even if you ignore the readability issues. Coloured text on black backgrounds? You can (just) get away with that on a high-contrast piece of paper, but not on an IPS LCD screen. Have they chosen screen-friendly fonts? I don't know, but I think I can guess the answer. Yes, it is using Wired's design values, but a magazine that prides itself on its long-form articles needs people to be able to read that content, especially when they're paying handsomely for the privilege.
Wired has an innovative print product, so if the publisher is a true innovator, why does the electronic product have to look like print? The Wired website doesn't, even though it could, for very good reasons - it's designed to fit in with how readers use the web. If the iPad just offers a touching experience rather than a reading experience, what's the point? OK, advertisers might be able to show off their wares in a prettier way, but they can already do that in Zinio, Olive, or many of the other many e-book platforms. Yet few of them choose to except perhaps in a handful of popular eye-candy publications like Dennis Publishing's Monkey or iGizmo.
If you take a look at Google's 'Living Stories' concept, which it has just made open source and available to any publisher, that's much more like it. It's a clever way of displaying content in a way that's only possible on the web. It doesn't look as funky, although it could no doubt be tarted up, but in terms of reader experience it's miles ahead.
Perhaps Wired's iPad edition is better in he flesh than it looks in the demo. Somehow I doubt it, which is a crying shame both for readers and for the struggling publishing industry.
When will someone stop these people just trying to replicate print on a screen? I don't care how funky the 2-axis scrolling is, or how cute the page browser is. All this stuff has been done to death, and still looks awful, even if you ignore the readability issues. Coloured text on black backgrounds? You can (just) get away with that on a high-contrast piece of paper, but not on an IPS LCD screen. Have they chosen screen-friendly fonts? I don't know, but I think I can guess the answer. Yes, it is using Wired's design values, but a magazine that prides itself on its long-form articles needs people to be able to read that content, especially when they're paying handsomely for the privilege.
Wired has an innovative print product, so if the publisher is a true innovator, why does the electronic product have to look like print? The Wired website doesn't, even though it could, for very good reasons - it's designed to fit in with how readers use the web. If the iPad just offers a touching experience rather than a reading experience, what's the point? OK, advertisers might be able to show off their wares in a prettier way, but they can already do that in Zinio, Olive, or many of the other many e-book platforms. Yet few of them choose to except perhaps in a handful of popular eye-candy publications like Dennis Publishing's Monkey or iGizmo.
If you take a look at Google's 'Living Stories' concept, which it has just made open source and available to any publisher, that's much more like it. It's a clever way of displaying content in a way that's only possible on the web. It doesn't look as funky, although it could no doubt be tarted up, but in terms of reader experience it's miles ahead.
Perhaps Wired's iPad edition is better in he flesh than it looks in the demo. Somehow I doubt it, which is a crying shame both for readers and for the struggling publishing industry.
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
New AlertMe Energy feature
The AlertMe Energy web control panel now has a 'Lamp Service' that lets you choose what the hub lights do. So instead of just changing colour with power usage, you can let it monitor the temperature in your meter box, show a fixed colour or cycle through colours in 'party' mode. Hardly earth-shaking news, but a nice update.
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Wired: Atoms are the new bits
A fascinating video and article from Wired US, looking at DIY design and custom fabrication of products.
Sunday, 14 February 2010
Loki: find your location without GPS
Are you using a PC with a Wi-Fi connection? Want to find out where you are? Try Loki, a fascinating geolocation browser plugin powered by Skyhook Wireless. This company (which I first heard about via Clive Akass's article for The Inquirer) has created a database of the physical locations of wireless access point MAC addresses that can help pinpoint your position surprisingly accurately - here in the wilds of Surrey it is only about 150m out. You can add a similar service that identifies the location of visitors to your website using the free Loki Javascipt API.
Skyhook also sells a cheap (£3) application for S60 phones called Maps Booster that augments the built-in GPS. It works very well - I bought it for my Nokia N86 and it gives an almost instant (albeit coarse) fix even if you turn off all the GPS and other positioning options. Very useful in built-up areas, too.
Skyhook also sells a cheap (£3) application for S60 phones called Maps Booster that augments the built-in GPS. It works very well - I bought it for my Nokia N86 and it gives an almost instant (albeit coarse) fix even if you turn off all the GPS and other positioning options. Very useful in built-up areas, too.
Friday, 12 February 2010
Freeview HD boxes finally go on sale
According to news from the DTG, the first Freeview HD receivers go on sale on Saturday, 13 February in the John Lewis store in London's Oxford Street. The first model available is the Humax HD-FOX T2, a receiver which will be exclusively available from the John Lewis store until it goes on wider sale at other retailers from 15 February. No pricing has been announced, but on the Humax Direct site it is listed at £179.95.
(Thanks to Nigel Whitfield for the heads-up)
(Thanks to Nigel Whitfield for the heads-up)
Thursday, 11 February 2010
Windows Home Server: a missed opportunity
I've been a fan of Windows Home Server (WHS) ever since it launched (I even stuck it on the cover of PCW that month..so much for '2008's must-have home network technology'), simply because it promised so much. Based on the robust Windows Server 2003, modified to make it almost idiot-proof, it looked like the ideal backup system for the home. Automatic daily backups of all networked PCs and Macs (using single-instance cluster-level storage for maximum space efficiency), drive redundancy, file sharing, media streaming, remote access...plenty to keep the nerds happy, but simple enough to shut that bloke down the pub up.
Well, that was the promise, and in the main it's all true. As retail models were thin on the ground and looked more like toys than serious backup servers, last year I built my own. It's been a lifesaver on several occasions, despite the annoying lack of support for my network cards on the restore CD. I've also reviewed a couple of HP's latest WHS systems for ZDNet, Computeractive and V3 (actually it's the same product with two different badges), and it was interesting to compare them to my homebrew monster. They add much more media functionality, with TwonkyMedia and iTunes servers plus an automatic MP4 transcoding service for videos.
But for all its goodness, WHS hasn't captured the public's imagination. At launch it was way too expensive for what it was, and there were technical problems with the first release that almost killed it stone-dead. With the latest Power Pack 3 those problems are long gone, and it now has full Windows 7 integration to brag about.
But in the meantime, NAS boxes have caught up with many of the once-innovative features of WHS, and have alway been noticeably cheaper. The latest WHS systems are coming in at around £400-500 for 1TB, 4-bay models, which is much more competitive. But marketing has been almost non-existent, and in the UK there are only a handful of multi-bay models available (I don't count single-bay WHS machines as 'real' because you get no drive redundancy). Making your own is one solution, but I wouldn't recommend it for the casual Sunday driver.
At the launch, a Microsoft executive told me they were going for a 'soft launch', aiming it at enthusiasts first before going mainstream. Well, it was indeed soft, with the result that very few people have even heard of it over two years later. Maybe now most of the nasty bugs have been worked out we'll start seeing more of it, but I'm certainly not holding my breath. It's a real shame to see such a good product so neglected.
Well, that was the promise, and in the main it's all true. As retail models were thin on the ground and looked more like toys than serious backup servers, last year I built my own. It's been a lifesaver on several occasions, despite the annoying lack of support for my network cards on the restore CD. I've also reviewed a couple of HP's latest WHS systems for ZDNet, Computeractive and V3 (actually it's the same product with two different badges), and it was interesting to compare them to my homebrew monster. They add much more media functionality, with TwonkyMedia and iTunes servers plus an automatic MP4 transcoding service for videos.
But for all its goodness, WHS hasn't captured the public's imagination. At launch it was way too expensive for what it was, and there were technical problems with the first release that almost killed it stone-dead. With the latest Power Pack 3 those problems are long gone, and it now has full Windows 7 integration to brag about.
But in the meantime, NAS boxes have caught up with many of the once-innovative features of WHS, and have alway been noticeably cheaper. The latest WHS systems are coming in at around £400-500 for 1TB, 4-bay models, which is much more competitive. But marketing has been almost non-existent, and in the UK there are only a handful of multi-bay models available (I don't count single-bay WHS machines as 'real' because you get no drive redundancy). Making your own is one solution, but I wouldn't recommend it for the casual Sunday driver.
At the launch, a Microsoft executive told me they were going for a 'soft launch', aiming it at enthusiasts first before going mainstream. Well, it was indeed soft, with the result that very few people have even heard of it over two years later. Maybe now most of the nasty bugs have been worked out we'll start seeing more of it, but I'm certainly not holding my breath. It's a real shame to see such a good product so neglected.
Q-Waves Wireless USB Data & AV Kit reviews
Read my reviews of the Q-Waves Wireless USB AV and Data Kits on IT Reviews, The Inquirer and Computeractive.
Note: On Friday, 12th February between 11.00-17.00, Expansys is offering the AV Kit for just £87.99, a saving of £5 on its usual price and £12 off the list price.
Note: On Friday, 12th February between 11.00-17.00, Expansys is offering the AV Kit for just £87.99, a saving of £5 on its usual price and £12 off the list price.
Friday, 5 February 2010
FritzBox fritzed
MAC spoofing capability removed from latest firmware
I've been using an AVM FritzBox WLAN 7270 VoIP/Wi-Fi/Dect router for almost two years, and it's given me sterling service. But the other day I was messing around with the settings and managed to screw it up totally. I thought I had backed up the settings, but nope, I couldn't get back into the web GUI.
A factory reset seemed the only solution, but oddly the FritzBox has no hardware reset button. The only way to reset it is by plugging an analogue phone into one of the two phone ports and dialling a special code (the code is #991*15901590* if you're interested). Bizarre, but it worked. Well, sort of.
A few weeks ago a new firmware update (version 54.04.76) was installed, which offers some great new features such as a SIP proxy and support for 3G USB dongles. When I came to restart the router, it wouldn't connect to my ISP (Virgin Media) and I realised I'd forgotten to change the MAC address to clone that of a long-dead network card. With Virgin, your account is tied to one MAC address and changing it involves so much pain that it's not worth the bother.
But scouring the menus I couldn't find the setting anywhere. So I contacted AVM support via the contact form on the website, and the next morning got a reply . Turns out MAC address spoofing has been turned off in the new firmware, and the only way to get it back is to downgrade to version 54.04.67, which was attached to the email. Excellent service (I didn't tell them I was a journalist), but what a daft idea.
The good news is that the downgrade worked perfectly and I could change the MAC address. I then realised that when the new firmware was installed a few weeks ago, it must have retained the cloned MAC address as it was still connecting fine. So I updated back to 54.04.76 and it works fine.
I can't for the life of me understand why they've turned off MAC address cloning - practically every router I've ever seen has this feature. What it means for AVM is that any broadband users with a MAC-linked service wanting to buy a new FritzBox should ask first whether AVM will make the the old firmware available - at the moment it's not available to download on the website.
The other moral to this tale is before you change your router's settings, back the damned things up.
UPDATE: Newer versions of the FritzBox 7270/7390 firmware (for international models) have had the MAC spoofing capability restored (thanks to me pestering AVM and convincing them it was still necessary), as I explain in a newer post
I've been using an AVM FritzBox WLAN 7270 VoIP/Wi-Fi/Dect router for almost two years, and it's given me sterling service. But the other day I was messing around with the settings and managed to screw it up totally. I thought I had backed up the settings, but nope, I couldn't get back into the web GUI.
A factory reset seemed the only solution, but oddly the FritzBox has no hardware reset button. The only way to reset it is by plugging an analogue phone into one of the two phone ports and dialling a special code (the code is #991*15901590* if you're interested). Bizarre, but it worked. Well, sort of.
A few weeks ago a new firmware update (version 54.04.76) was installed, which offers some great new features such as a SIP proxy and support for 3G USB dongles. When I came to restart the router, it wouldn't connect to my ISP (Virgin Media) and I realised I'd forgotten to change the MAC address to clone that of a long-dead network card. With Virgin, your account is tied to one MAC address and changing it involves so much pain that it's not worth the bother.
But scouring the menus I couldn't find the setting anywhere. So I contacted AVM support via the contact form on the website, and the next morning got a reply . Turns out MAC address spoofing has been turned off in the new firmware, and the only way to get it back is to downgrade to version 54.04.67, which was attached to the email. Excellent service (I didn't tell them I was a journalist), but what a daft idea.
The good news is that the downgrade worked perfectly and I could change the MAC address. I then realised that when the new firmware was installed a few weeks ago, it must have retained the cloned MAC address as it was still connecting fine. So I updated back to 54.04.76 and it works fine.
I can't for the life of me understand why they've turned off MAC address cloning - practically every router I've ever seen has this feature. What it means for AVM is that any broadband users with a MAC-linked service wanting to buy a new FritzBox should ask first whether AVM will make the the old firmware available - at the moment it's not available to download on the website.
The other moral to this tale is before you change your router's settings, back the damned things up.
UPDATE: Newer versions of the FritzBox 7270/7390 firmware (for international models) have had the MAC spoofing capability restored (thanks to me pestering AVM and convincing them it was still necessary), as I explain in a newer post
Thursday, 4 February 2010
Acer updates easyStore H340 home server
Refreshed and redesigned, priced from £330
Acer today announced a new version of its Aspire easyStore H340 Windows Home Server network storage device. The new H340 has a redesigned case, comes in three configurations costing from £330-430 and is powered by an Intel Atom 230 CPU and 2GB of RAM. Acer is claiming that the data drives are hot-swappable, but I don't see how true hot-swap can be implemented in WHS as Drive Extender doesn't support it - drives need to be ejected first via the WHS Console. Perhaps they just mean you don't need to power off the system - hopefully I'll soon be able to get my hands on one to find out.
It's good to see that WHS isn't being totally abandoned, although there's still a dearth of systems available. I use it myself - I built my own DIY monster last year and it's done sterling service. My biggest gripe with WHS is the restore procedure: if the generic restore CD supports your PC's network card, you're fine. If not, you have to fiddle around putting drivers onto a USB memory key - I've never had any success with the supplemental drivers that WHS automatically extracts from the PC's OS for each backup set.
I assume the flurry of activity around WHS recently is due to the release of the Power Pack 3 service pack, which fixes lots of problems, adds full integration with Windows 7 libraries, and gives you a neat archiving and transcoding service for Windows Media Center. You can read my first impressions of Power Pack 3 on ZDNet.
Acer today announced a new version of its Aspire easyStore H340 Windows Home Server network storage device. The new H340 has a redesigned case, comes in three configurations costing from £330-430 and is powered by an Intel Atom 230 CPU and 2GB of RAM. Acer is claiming that the data drives are hot-swappable, but I don't see how true hot-swap can be implemented in WHS as Drive Extender doesn't support it - drives need to be ejected first via the WHS Console. Perhaps they just mean you don't need to power off the system - hopefully I'll soon be able to get my hands on one to find out.
It's good to see that WHS isn't being totally abandoned, although there's still a dearth of systems available. I use it myself - I built my own DIY monster last year and it's done sterling service. My biggest gripe with WHS is the restore procedure: if the generic restore CD supports your PC's network card, you're fine. If not, you have to fiddle around putting drivers onto a USB memory key - I've never had any success with the supplemental drivers that WHS automatically extracts from the PC's OS for each backup set.
I assume the flurry of activity around WHS recently is due to the release of the Power Pack 3 service pack, which fixes lots of problems, adds full integration with Windows 7 libraries, and gives you a neat archiving and transcoding service for Windows Media Center. You can read my first impressions of Power Pack 3 on ZDNet.
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Monday, 1 February 2010
Google Power Meter
I've been using the AlertMe Energy gizmo for over a month now, and predictably I've become much more interested in my electricity consumption. Apart from the Google Power Meter glaring at me every time I visit iGoogle, it also emails a weekly summary of statistics.
And if that wasn't enough, the gizmo itself sits on the desk cycling through various hypnotic colours as power usage goes up and down (the best light show is when it does a firmware upgrade, though - perhaps I'll try and video that next time it happens..).
I've started to consciously think about turning things off, just to try and get my history chart on a downward trend. And this is the premise on which the gizmo - and others like it - work. But without figures for gas usage it's still only half a solution. I suppose we'll just have to wait until 2020 when we all get our government-sanctioned smart energy meters.
I've started to consciously think about turning things off, just to try and get my history chart on a downward trend. And this is the premise on which the gizmo - and others like it - work. But without figures for gas usage it's still only half a solution. I suppose we'll just have to wait until 2020 when we all get our government-sanctioned smart energy meters.
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