2010
07.30
It is that day of the year again, the last friday of July so this could only mean that it is Sysadmin Day. In short it is time to show your System Administrator that you appreciate their work. You appreciate the effort that goes into making sure your computer works and communicates with the rest of the world. Have a read of the page linked below for more details.
http://www.sysadminday.com/
I don’t want to keep you too long, you probably have some Sysadmins in you life that you need to run out and buy gifts for, or show your appreciation in other ways.
Have a great day whatever you choose to do.
Category Uncategorized |
2010
01.21
Good News Everyone. I have my Cisco router working with my ADSL2+ connection.
Well my Netgear router finally gave up the ghost… no smoke, just a few blown capacitors. It has had a good life, it was originally bought as an ADSL1 router and firmware flashed to be ADSL2+ capable. Well this forced me to pay a lot more attention to the Cisco router. I worked through and created a config. I started with a blank config, I modified and changed things as I went to be able to get each section working before moving on to the next section. I started with get the ADSL2+ line to sync (connect) with the router. Then I worked on the NAT and DHCP, finally I worked on the port forwarding. I am excited to be able to use my Cisco 877 Router to connect to the Internet.
I have learnt quite a bit while working through all of the issues, I had my fair share. Some of the commands I used are on the page Useful Commands. I am cleaning up the config and soon hope to have a config that is suitable to post here as a guide to those that may need it.
RIP: Netgear DG632, Thank you for all the ones and zeros.
Tags: Cisco, droolix, Network Design Category Cisco |
2010
01.18
Just before Christmas I was given the opportunity to test the Telstra T90 mobile phone. I was quite impressed overall. I found that it had a good clear sound for audio quality. I found that the T90 had better reception than my Nokia E51 particularly in several places where I was known not to have coverage, the T90 was able to send and receive phone calls. It had a clear easy to read screen. Although I couldn’t test the full ability of the dust and splash resistant case, initial signs looked good with a fully sealed case, and seals around all the openings.
It wasn’t laden with features but it is a good phone none the less. It had the dual cameras, one for photos and one for video conferencing. A 2D barcode reader was a fun feature of the phone, it was a bit hard to operate, taking several attempts to “take the photo” to scan. The minimal “extra” features did make it easy to use menus and navigate around the device.
The Address book allowed number to be listed with brackets around the area code but I was unable to dial these numbers directly from the address book until I removed the brackets.
Overall a good phone. I look forward to testing the next phone.
Tags: Telstra Category Review |
2009
07.27
On the 18th of July, I installed a new server, it reminded me how good it is to have a plan going into a server install/replacement. Things seemed to go fairly well. I set up the computer in an out of the way location with a network connection. I began the file transfer, while that was happening I cleaned and setup the new area for the server, ran cables and moved the UPS. Once the files had finished copying I moved the server into place, did a final check of the new system, then proceeded to check the other PCs in the network making sure that the programs were all working correctly and network drives were mapped for each computer. I cleaned up and packed up and I was off.
Next time I think that maybe a check list wouldn’t go astray. Things like network drive mappings, programs that rely on networked information, fill in the blank areas for documentation notes could all be part of the checklist. I am sure that so many more things should go on the check list. I might work on a generic list so that I have something to start from for future installs.
After all of the hype and the work had been done, I was left with working out a way to store important information like serial numbers and activation keys, CD/DVDs, warranty information and cards for each computer. At present I am using the motherboard boxes and labelling them with the computer name, this seems to be efficient and sufficient enough for the moment.
Tags: Install, Server Category Technical |
2009
07.17
Is there an easy way to build a new computer, copy all the files and user settings from a previous computer and test all the programs? It has occurred to me that this is something that seems to be fairly time consuming. Setting up a Windows XP machine is fairly straight forward, put in the disc, boot and follow the bouncing ball. Yet when it comes to copying across user data and install specific programs it seems to be a messy process. There are programs that use SQL Databases, but the databases don’t move cleanly. Other programs that have “hidden settings”. I would love for every program created to come with a function that packs up all of the databases, settings files and any other specific “hidden” files ready to move from one computer to the next. Really how often do people change computer and would love for the next one to be set up exactly the same?
If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them.
Category Microsoft |
2009
07.07
Telstra… you would think after so many years in the game that Telstra would have their act together and be able to realise when they connect a phone that you should test the line to make sure it is working and that it is fault free.
I moved house over the weekend of the 27th and 28th of June. I asked Telstra nicely to transfer my phone across to my new place of residence and I asked Internode to do the same with my internet on Friday 26th of June. I figured I would be moving Saturday, setting up the house Sunday and keen to have my servers back online Sunday evening. This all seemed like a logical plan after all I had had this happen for me last time I moved, however I was silly enough to leave the transfer to the Monday after the move.
Friday lunchtime I received a text message from Internode telling me that my application for ADSL2+ had been rejected. Upon phoning Internode I am advised that there wasn’t an active line running to my new house. While on the phone the Internode technician checked the status of the line again and found that it was active so an application was made again to Telstra to provision an ADSL2+ connection. Depressing news then followed that it would take 4 more working days for this to go through. Saturday came and I realised that we didn’t have a working phone in the new house, it looked like Telstra hadn’t connected my phone line on Friday. After a call to Telstra on Monday it was discovered that they kindly transferred my phone number on Friday, however they didn’t think to check to make sure it was working. During the call to Telstra some guy in a call centre was able to tell us that there was a fault on the line and a technician would need to look at it. They gave us a time frame for when the technician might call around, between 3pm Monday and 7pm Tuesday. Also if they need access to our home they would leave a card at the front door.
Tuesday I get home from work still no working phone then I find tucked into the front screen door a card from a Telstra tech. “I called at 10:45am, I require access to your home. Please contact us to arrange a time to come to your home”. We phone Telstra that night and try to arrange a time… Thursday between 8am and 12 noon. This isn’t good enough I have to go to work between 7am and 3:30pm… Are Telstra going to pay me to sit at home and wait around for them to show up…?
I got a text message about 7:30pm Wednesday it was Internode… your service has been provisioned and is ready to use… That’s great… now I just have to get Telstra to finish the job and fix the line.
Once I get the line fixed I will be making a formal complaint… How have Telstra gotten away with such bad service and lack of common courtesy for so long? I mean how hard is it to connect a couple of wires give it a test and let the customer know what is going on?
Well I have a working phone line and internet again. The Telstra Tech turned up at 8amon Thursday… WOW. They checked the phone sockets. Then left to go to the exchange, the phone rang and we answered. It was the Telstra Tech, “your phone is fixed now, bye” that was it, done, we didn’t hear from the Tech again.
I followed this up with a call to Telstra to find out what the actual issue was with the phone line. It turns out that the jumper wires at the exchange had to be replaced… so Telstra really didn’t need access to the house. It is quite frustrating to think that all of this could have been resolved on the original Friday if the Technican had a little more pride in their work and checked to make sure the phone was working.
Tags: Telstra Category Uncategorized |
2009
06.11
Good News Everyone. My mail server is working. It did take an uninstall and a reinstall but I got there. The good news is that I am getting quicker at installing and configuring the Zimbra Software. I didn’t actually find the cause of the original issue, but after the reinstall it has all worked out really well. I would still like to know what was wrong but I am really glad to have it working.
As I work my way through the features of Zimbra, I will talk about some of the more stand out features. I have setup a catch all account to see what traffic is hitting my mail server. I have realised that my server only has a 20Gb hard drive, so the next thing is to increase the capacity of the storage space.
The messaging client is quite good and will come in handy as I increase the number of people using the service. It is similar to Yahoo! messenger.
Tags: droolix, Mail Category Linux |
2009
06.04
Just a quick update for the Useful commands page.
SSH
The scp Command to copy from a remote server to a local host:
scp username@sourcehost:sourcefile /localfolder/destinationfile
or
scp username@sourcehost:sourcefile username@destinationhost:/localfolder/destinationfile
Port Forwarding
Allows encrypted data streams between 2 hosts. All traffic coming to port 1234 on the client will be forwarded to port 23(can be changed as required) on the server (host). Note that localhost will be resolved by the sshdserver after the connection is established. In this case localhost therefore refers to the server (host) itself.
ssh -2 -N -f username@host -L 1234:localhost:23
Tags: Useful Comands Category Linux, Technical |
2009
05.30
So close yet so far, I have installed Zimbra on a server at home to take care of my email and messaging requirements. The install is very easy, it only takes about 30 mins, most of that time was spent waiting for things to load on the old box that I have chosen to test Zimbra on. The install is straight forward with nothing too scary however I ran into a bit of a problem during the install. It turns out that IPv6 breaks the install, once I worked this out, it was just a matter of disabling the IPv6 support on that network card and away I went. I did spend a bit of time sifting through forums and searching Google.
Zimbra is looking good, with enough flexibility for all that I need to look after. There is still more testing I want to do before I make this system live and open it up to external traffic. At the moment the web interface for both Admin console and user console is easy to use, with its very our tab browsing system which makes it easy to have a couple of windows or emails open at the same time. I am looking for to using this further and posting more about how I get on with the server and any interesting things that I might find through out the test and rollout phases.
By the way, the Zimbra Wiki and Forums are very helpful. Personally I think they could do with a clean up (maybe archive some of the older topics).
Tags: DNS, droolix, Mail, Split DNS Category Linux |
2009
05.27
Those of you with eagle eyes and inquisitive minds will be wondering why I have added a link to a seemingly unrelated web site under the blog roll. As you can imagine I am always looking for a new challenge, a way to keep my skills in check and provide a relevant area for me to double check some of my documentation and procedures. Well the truth is that it is My Mum’s Website and I am doing all of the Tech work for the site and the hosting related tasks. I used Rosemary’s Writings to consolidate some of my documentation and procedures, some of which will appear here, including Purchasing a Domain and organizing Name Servers page. WordPress has made it a lot easier to do the admin work for the site, particularly once I got the site up and running.
By hosting a slightly more demanding Web site, it has forced me to be a little more careful with testing and ensuring uptime. This has opened the door for me to do some work for other people as well. Therefore I use my blog as a bit of a test ground before I implement things on other peoples pages. So occasionally you might catch a weird theme or an unrelated plugin and you will know that I am probably just testing something. Please don’t be deterred by this… I always try to put things back to the way they should be before I finish.
At the moment I am looking for Php based website that is more Page focussed than WordPress for another job I am working on. Failing that I am looking for a way to turn wysiwyg generated html pages into php based page with css stylesheet. I am open to suggestions.
Tags: Rosemary's Writings, Web Design, Wordpress Category Web Development |
Rosemary's Writings - http://rosemaryswritings.net/