On Thu, Mar 25, 2010 at 10:40 AM, Lewis G Rosenthal
<os2-wireless_users@2rosenthals.com> wrote:
Hi, Greg...
On 03/25/10 02:08 am, chekmarx thus wrote :
Just as a point of reference, touching on Lewis's lack of experience with DLink wireless routers: When I needed to go wireless due to the location of the router relative to where my system was at my nephew kindly purchased for me a DLink rather than LinkSys router, which is the brand I've used to great success in the past. Not wanting to hurt his feelings and come off as a jerk, something which I do enough of :-)
LOL!
Doesn't hurt my feelings at all. Full disclosure is good for the soul. Unlike what I tell my kids, I really *don't* know everything, which was one of the reasons I started hosting these lists in the first place (yes, the list is free of all paid advertising support, and while I do get a decent pickup of new clients from keeping my name "out there," over the years, I have gleaned far more value from the information exchanged - aside from getting my own questions answered - than I could possibly value monetarily). Thanks to *everyone* who contributes *whatever* he or she knows and for sharing his or her experience, for which there is truly *no* substitute.
I'm glad to hear that the D-Link boxes have worked for you. Any particular models you'd like to recommend? are you using the stock firmware, or have you flashed it?
It's a model DI-624 and handles both wired and wireless connections. As for flashing the firmware, my general rule of thumb is "if it's working, don't mess with it ..." I used to be a fanatic about updating firmware and BIOS updates and driver updates and whatnot. But over probably the past 5 to 7 years I've been burned too many times hosing a device when updating its firmware or drivers. Which IMO is more a sign of a denigration of the programmers handling this kind of low-level code. I think the release schedules are so rushed and they probably work too many hours so a whole lot of real messy updates get issued. Look at ASUS as an example. They used to be a top-notch supplier in my estimation but their forums (and other tech sites as well) are teeming with people pissed off about their ASUS products.
George Carlin, on his AM/FM album, made reference to Dr. Timothy Leary's brother, Really Leary... I suppose when the Doctor was a boy, he may have been a tad Leary, too... (Sorry; too much work makes me punchy...)
Good old George Carlin ... I miss his brand of playfulness with the English language. Nobody IMO did it better!
at first since my wired LinkSys router ran flawlessly, but after setting up the DLink I've never had the need to touch it again. And it is on and operational 24/7 for going on nearly two-years now. Which IMO isn't too bad at all.
That's a good record. I'm guessing that you have it connected to some power conditioning or battery backup, and not raw current, and that your broadband connection is similarly unlikely to introduce any jolts or brownouts into the connections.
Sometimes I think it is *where* the router is located that cause so many failures - meaning people I know tend to bury them with paper and books and disks and so on. Not having sufficient air-flow then causes them to overheat and die as Lewis states.
Actually both devices are plugged directly into the wall outlet. When I moved here I was nearly destitute and could barely pay attention yet alone afford a decent surge protector. But that was then and this is now. Things are much better. Disability came through and while it is far from what I was earning as a System Admin it does provide to live happy, joyous, and free as long as I don't get too spend crazy.
But now that you mention it I probably should buy one. Can you suggest a 4 or 6 plug unit that would directly screw into the outlet box - meaning it would replace the dual faceplate.
LOL! Indeed, people do strange things with these little devices. They truly are toasters, sort of like the little old NetWare 3 server still hiding in a closet, under a bunch of files. Nobody seems to know where drive Q: actually "lives," because it just happens to be there all the time... Meanwhile, the 486 server is running with only the power supply fan cooling it off, and dust blocking all the air ducts. By a stroke of luck, nothing has bumped the front panel to turn it off (assuming the power switch even works anymore)... Little routers are indeed following that same path in so many places. I love the blank look I get when walking into a new office for the first time and asking where the Wi-Fi originates.
Oh I know what you mean! I cut my teeth years ago on Netware 2.x running on a 386 that was buried under a workbench in the shop of a communications company I worked at. First thing I did was down the network, pull the box and open it up. The dirt and dust buildup was totally unreal! I don't think today's gear would last in that kind of environment. Everything is designed and engineered to such a close set of specs to save money but are IMO more sensitive in general. I remember my first major mod I did on my personal computer I had at the time, a Kaypro PC using a NEC V30 CPU. I tore out the guts and added a Happauge 386-16 along with a 387 math co-processor and DRAM expansion card for running Autocad, taking the stock RAM setup from 1-meg to 4-megs, the card populated with all DIPS. Set me back something like $2500 just for the MB, RAM and card, and a Video-7 VGA video card. Remember those Video-7's? They were something else. Their VRAM-16 full-length card was unbelievably fast. Of course, that was back when buying a video card for CAD that had a dedicated GPU cost anywhere from a grand on up, depending on whether it required a separate EGA or VGA card for DOS mode or if it had a unit stacked directly onto the CAD card itself.
Ahhh ... Those were the days. Sometimes I miss it, but then I remember what it was like when I "retired" and how the whole shooting match became all about constantly updating hardware and software due to licensing requirements from Microsoft (I ended my career working for a very old top law firm here in Pittsburgh. The managing partners theory was since they were paying a high six-figures for Windows' for all workstation, then damnit, they wanted the latest and greatest version of Windows installed on all desktop user's systems) and performance metrics. When I started out it was all about taking care of the end-users and slowly over time it drifted into being a separate IT entity, where IT more-or-less dictated how things were to be. I hated having to tell 1000's of touch-typist legal secretaries who cut their teeth on either WordStar or WordPerfect that they had to start using MS Word and all that entailed.
It was brutal!
Just wanted to toss this out there ...
Thanks!
Thank you. I *always* learn something new from your posts. I can tell you're an old dog like me, well, as far as systems go any way :-)
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