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Wifi again
by Barry Samuels 21 Dec '07

21 Dec '07

I'm baffled by wifi. I see people quoting ranges of over 100 feet or more with wireless access points inside buildings and I can hardly stretch to 12 feet. I've just done some tests using the following: Netgear WG602 v1 Wireless Access Point D-Link AirPlus XtremeG DWL-G520 Wireless PCI card Netgear WPN802 RangeMax Wireless Access Point Netgear WPN311 RangeMax Wireless PCI card With the units only 12 inches apart the results are: Link Quality Signal Strength WG602 + D-Link 70% -29 dbm WPN802 + D-Link 60% -38 dbm WPN802 + WPN311 77% -21 dbm Shouldn't I be getting close to 100% quality at that distance? With the units 12 feet apart (with some obstructions) the results are: Link Quality Signal Strength WG602 + D-Link 34% -61 dbm WG602 + WPN311 36% -61 dbm WPN802 + WPN311 31% -65 dbm Why should there be such a drop in quality/signal at that distance? How do other people get the range that they apparently do? What sort of range/signal do you get? I don't understand those minus figures for signal strength except that -21 is better than -61. What is the strongest signal that one can get using that notation? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Re: [ALUG] Wifi again
by Barry Samuels 21 Dec '07

21 Dec '07

On 21/12/07 16:33:54, Paul wrote: > On Friday 21 December 2007 10:49, Barry Samuels wrote: > > But seriously though - the house has wooden internal partition > > walls which include a 3 inch layer of fibreglass insulation. > > If it is a modern house using plasterboard & studwork construction, > you may well find the walls are lined with aluminium foil - Part of > the plasterboard construction & intended to improve the thermal > insulation of "new builds".. > > > Regards, Paul. Walls are lined with MDF not plasterboard and there is definitely no metal foil. I did find that the WAP in it's new room gave noticeably better performance by putting it on a shelf just 18 inches below the ceiling. Still only around 42% quality but better than before. -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Re: [ALUG] Discuss: Favourite Text / Programmer's Editor
by John Seago 21 Dec '07

21 Dec '07

On Thursday 20 December 2007, Paul Tansom <paul(a)aptanet.com> wrote: > One day I'll try Emacs, because it would be nice to actually be able to > compare it to Vim properly. All I ever do is fire it up and then find I > can't do anything, even get out, so I kill the process. I can never > remember the exit incantation! With Vi I had a short crib sheet for the > basics that got me going in minutes. I should really find one for Emacs > before I next fire it up! This might be what you're looking for. One day I'll try Emacs, because it would be nice to actually be able to compare it to Vim properly. All I ever do is fire it up and then find I can't do anything, even get out, so I kill the process. I can never remember the exit incantation! With Vi I had a short crib sheet for the basics that got me going in minutes. I should really find one for Emacs before I next fire it up! -- John Seago GNU/Linux Registered User No. #219566 http://counter.li.org/ () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail - against microsoft attachments /\

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Ethernet and telephone cables
by Barry Samuels 20 Dec '07

20 Dec '07

Does anyone know if it would be possible to use an existing internal telephone cable as an ethernet cable by changing the faceplates on the sockets? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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usb adsl modem with linux driver
by Peter Alcibiades 20 Dec '07

20 Dec '07

Jenny, I've not tried this, but it claims to be Linux compatible. Happened to come across it the other day when looking for something else. Might be worth a try? Fairly cheap. http://www.ebuyer.com/product/135659 "Works with any desktop or laptop computer operating system that supports a USB port, including Windows, Macintosh and Linux" Its a sort of dongle like the usb to ethernet dongles. Peter

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Discuss: Favourite Text / Programmer's Editor
by samwise 18 Dec '07

18 Dec '07

Hey, We touched on this briefly last night after the question was asked about the best Linux replacement for UltraEdit, but we didn't really get into it as we were all getting ready to stuff ourselves with Hoi Sin sauce. I thought it'd make an interesting thread. So, suggestions for favourite editors. Without getting into a flame war between vi and emacs ... what editor do you prefer for light-weight editing? i.e. not a full IDE like eclipse or KDevelop, but just for the little jobs of editing small text files. I use nano on my very old gentoo box, which is a nice console based editor that is more user friendly than vi/emacs (tho, naturally, less feature rich). I generally rely on vi for console-based editing on other machines. As for the GUI-based ones, I tried gVim but just found it too much hard work. I have run Crimson Editor under WINE for a while because it has lots more features than Kate or KWrite. I'll accept that Crimson Editor is somewhat stagnant (the replacement Emerald Editor appears to be stuck in development hell) and Notepad++ under WINE might be a better choice, but I haven't taken the time to play with it properly. So, anyone got any other favourites worth trying? Does anyone know of a native Linux GUI app that can compete with UltraEdit et al? Peter.

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IP load balancing
by Yvonne Everett 18 Dec '07

18 Dec '07

Hello Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations for IP load balancing web services on RHEL 4 systems? -- Yvonne Everett Email: ye103910(a)googlemail.com

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Upgrading Ubuntu from 7.04 to 7.10
by sagr 18 Dec '07

18 Dec '07

Hi Folks, We are currently running Ubuntu 7.04 without problems on all our PCs. I click on the little "update" icon now and again to keep our PCs up to date with bug fixes but have noticed for a while that an additional button has appeared in the UPDATE MANAGER Update screen saying that a new Distribution Release 7.10 is available. Next to this message appears a tempting little button which is marked UPGRADE. Bearing in mind that I do not currently have any means to back up the data on the PC how safe is it for me to click on the UPGRADE button? Normally when the Update Manager runs and presents me with a list of updates I simply click on the INSTALL UPDATES button and everything gets updated smoothly without problems but will a simple click on the UPGRADE button be sufficient to smoothly and effortlessly upgrade my system to 7.10 or will I be consigning myself to hours of frustration and hundreds of messages to the ALUG List trying to sort out the problems it may cause? Have any other ALUGers plucked up the courage to click on the Ubuntu 7.04 Upgrade Manager UPGRADE button? Was their upgrade as smooth and effortless as a normal update or did it turn into an Upgrade From Hell? To misquote Shakespeare: To upgrade or not to upgrade that is the question... Ny advice would be appreciated! Sagr.

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Wireless networking
by Barry Samuels 18 Dec '07

18 Dec '07

Does anyone have experience of Netgear Rangemax products? I was hoping to move my desktop into another room but that is beginning to seem unlikely. I originally had a Netgear WG602 which is a plain vanilla wireless access point and in my desktop I have an on-board wireless chip with an external aerial and I also have a D-Link AirPlus XtremeG PCI wireless card. Both receivers give similar performance with the WG602. That combination didn't give a good enough signal in the room that I want to use. My next step was to buy a Netgear WPN802 RangeMax wireless access point which is supposed to gve up to 10 times the range of a 'normal' WAP. A trial showed that it gave a signal which was slightly less good than the WG602 in conjuction with either of the two receivers. Someone suggested that I should use a RangeMax card to get the best effect so I bought a WPN311 RangeMax PCI card. That, together with the WPN802 RangeMax WAP gave results that were no different from the original setup. Surely Netgear can't get away with stating that that combination will give up to 10 times 'normal' if it does not improve performance at all? Am I doing something wrong (apart from buying Netgear)? -- Barry Samuels http://www.beenthere-donethat.org.uk The Unofficial Guide to Great Britain

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Wireless networking
by Peter Alcibiades 18 Dec '07

18 Dec '07

I've installed three homeplug sets and 5 wirelesses. The three homeplugs were working within a minute of unpacking and plugging in. I got them from Solwise, and basically they stayed tthat way. Two of my own early plugs failed, one outside the guarantee period. This was the first one, and the only one that had any problems, but it was early days for homeplug. Solwise cheerfully replaced them by return mail, and on the second occasion when I told them they were outside guarantee, the answer was 'Oh don't worry about it'. Its super easy to tell what's happening with the Solwise: you either have three lights or you don't. And you just plug in a spare, assuming you have one. If it works, you know. Of the wireless ones, only one has been trouble free either to get working or more worrying, keep working. This one is with a Buffalo wireless router going into a Cable modem. The others had a variety of issues and were from several suppliers, and with Mac and PC both. Two worked perfectly, but later stopped working (and they are remote, so I don't know why). One gave all kinds of mysterious intermittent problems. One worked fine on a Mac, worked with a laptop, and then stopped working first on the laptop and then on the Mac. I asked the owner if he wanted me to come by, but he said he was fed up and bought some Solwise units which he did himself with no problems and wondered why he had not done that sooner. The latest wireless to go poof did so last week, after working fine for a year, and with no change of the connected computers. The problem is, some elderly lady is on the phone from a remote city, and its very hard to either get a coherent description of what's happening, or be sure that what you ask to have done is really happening. This is with wireless. On the other hand, look at the plug and tell me how many lights are on is very easy. So I now tell people: (1) get homeplug (2) get it from Solwise (3) you really want wireless, then -get the Buffalo - that is, get a separate access point not a wireless modem/router -get a man in. I don't do that anymore.... The netgear 5 port wired modem router has been fine. I've put in three or four of those. The great thing is it runs cool, it seems very reliable, and the user interface is easy for people to use. By contrast, the bargain wired router/modem from ebuyer works fine once its in, but heaven help the ordinary user who tries to set it up. Well, just my own experience. Peter

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