Bridge your wireless network with a WRT310N v2 and Airport Extreme
In my living room are two devices that require internet and of course, both don't have wifi. My DirecTV DVR and Bluray player. I decided to figure out a way to bridge my wireless network into the living room from my office where my Apple Airport Extreme router is. Before I made the incredibly wise decision to purchase my airport extreme, I had a Linksys WRT310N v2. It was a piece of shit, plain and simple. Connections dropped all the time, wireless would cut out, internet would, router would crash. I wasn't the only one facing issues with this router, there are a lot of reports online with similar problems. The Linksys went back into a box and in my closet, replaced by the airport extreme. Now, four months later, I dug my WRT310N back out of the closet to see if I could use it as a bridge.
The OS running on the router (routers are computers by the way, they have processors, memory, and an operating system) that Linksys built didn't include any bridging. Probably because they sell devices specifically for wireless bridging. What is wireless bridging? Wireless bridging allows you to connect one wireless router to another wirelessly, then use that device to connect to the internet. That means the router in my office sends a wireless signal to the router now in my living room, the router in the living room gives internet to the DVR and Bluray player through ethernet cables.
Internet --> Airport Extreme Router --> "NO WIRE to" Linksys WRT310N --> Bluray + DVR
This can be done with any wireless router to any other wireless router, but my guide is for an Airport Extreme and WRT310N v2.
1. Setup the Airport Extreme. This needs to be setup so that we can be sure all the wireless settings match on both routers. This is important to create the bridge between the two networks. Keep in mind that each router creates its own network. The airport extreme has a network it is already sharing with other devices and the Linksys router will create a new one. To get them to talk to each other you need to create this bridge.
2. Open the Airport Extreme Utility and click on manual setup. Now click on wireless. Change your settings to the following.
Radio Mode: 802.11a/n - 802.11b/g
Radio Channel: Manual
Click on Edit and change the 2.4GHz channel to "11"
Wireless Security: WPA2 Personal
Make sure you know your wireless password.
Click on update and then wait for your airport to reboot.
3. Now you need some new firmware for the Linksys router. We're going to be using DD-WRT, custom firmware built for Linksys routers to unleash their full potential.
4. Each step below is VERY important, make sure to perform each one as instructed. This comes from a post on the DD-WRT forums.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=416238&sid=a9d7629a6ddd2ec0549e62ab5f665194
Converting a Virgin 310nV2 to DDWRT:
1. While on, push and hold down the reset button continuously for 30 seconds, unplug the power while continuing to hold for another 30 seconds, then plug back in while continuing to hold reset button for a final 30 seconds. (90 second button hold-down time)
*This is called the 30/30/30 reset, it can be used on almost any router to reset to factory defaults.
2. Go to http://192.168.1.1 from a computer, and instead of the normal linksys control panel you'll see a "management" window with 2 options, to upload a new firmware and reset the NVRAM. Click on 'Reset NVRAM' to reset NVRAM. Wait a few seconds, then unplug the router for several seconds, then plug back in.
*To be honest, I never did this step. I just did the 30/30/30 reset. So don't worry if you don't get this screen, just make sure you do the 30/30/30 reset properly, that is the most important step.
3. Go to http://192.168.1.1 again, and this time use login 'admin' and password 'admin' to login.
*If admin and admin don't work to login then your 30/30/30 reset failed. If you never changed your default user name and password, shame on you.
4. *This step is best performed on a PC using Internet Explorer. I don't know why, the upload just works better. I ran into issues with Firefox and Safari on my Macbook. On the firmware update tab (found under administration), select (download the file and save it to your desktop) ftp://ftp.dd-wrt.com/others/eko/BrainSlayer-V24-preSP2/02-03-10-r13832/broadcom_K26/dd-wrt.v24-13832_NEWD-2_K2.6_mini_wrt310nv2.bin and hit upload. After the upload completes, wait 3 minutes to let the router 'settle down' after the 'upgrade successful' message.
5. Now unplug your router for a minute, then plug back in. Go to http://192.168.1.1 and you should see DDWRT's control panel, don't touch anything yet. Wait about 2 mins before heading to step 6.
6. Repeat Step #1 (30-30-30 Hard Reset).
7. Go to http://192.168.1.1 and you'll once again see the Linksys management screen. This time hit 'Erase NVRAM', unplug and plug back in your router. (Don't skip this step!)
8. Your done! Finally go to http://192.168.1.1 and enter the username and password you wish to use.
*I used admin for the user name.
5. Now follow the steps in this guide to setup the router to bridge with your Airport Extreme.
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Repeater_Bridge
Skip anything to do with virtual interfaces, this isn't necessary since we are just creating a bridge. If you really want to, you can run through those steps and you should be able to connect wireless devices to this router as well; using it as an extender of your existing wireless network. But if you are just going to connect devices through cat5 (ethernet) cables then it isn't necessary and adds more complication to the setup. Remember KISS.
When you get to step 7 in the guide use these settings instead.
Local IP Address: 10.0.1.2
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 10.0.1.1
DNS: 10.0.1.1
The reason we are using these settings is because this is what the airport extreme is using. Remember that once you apply all these settings you will need to connect to http://10.0.1.2 for the web interface. Below are some additional screenshots of the settings.
After the settings are applied give the router 3 minutes to calm down. Technically it sounds silly but it does help. After 3 minutes, unplug the router, let is sit another 60 seconds, then plug it back in. Connect a computer or laptop with an ethernet cable and test the connection by trying to get to the internet. If you use a laptop, make sure to disable your wireless connection.
Once everything is tested and working move the router into your living room and connect any network devices. Like Playstations, Xboxes, DVR's, and Bluray players.
More on Wincache + WordPress + IIS 7
I just found this blog post on iis.net and applied it to my WordPress site. The site does seem a lot faster but it could be the car wash effect. You know, when you get your car washed and somehow it makes it faster. Also known as the gas tank effect.
http://blogs.iis.net/ruslany/archive/2010/03/05/make-wordpress-faster-on-iis-with-wincache-1-1.aspx
Windows 2008 + Railo + IIS 7
I recently had the pleasure of figuring out how to get Railo working for a customer. Unfortunately the internet doesn't convey my extreme sarcasm in saying the word pleasure. It was not pleasant. For one, there is very limited documentation. So limited that it's hard to determine what version you should install. Despite all this I managed to figure out the basics in a few days and get some sites up and running. There are still a lot of things that confuse me, but I'm not about to figure all those out. I just wanted to get it running. Fortunately for anyone who is reading this I kept some notes on what I did, hopefully they help you in your endeavor.
First, download Railo server. Go here http://www.getrailo.org/index.cfm/download and scroll down, then download the exe under Railo server.
Run the installed, I chose to install in C:\Railo to keep things really simple.
After it's installed try http://localhost:8600/railo-context/admin/server.cfm on the server. Don't get excited, I've never had a problem getting that running. Don't set anything up yet or add DSNs. I'm not sure if this is true but the admin is different for each site. At least I found that if I added a DSN under localhost it would not show up for the site. More on that later ...
Open IIS and add a script mapping to your handler mappings.
Script: *.cfm
DLL: C:\Railo\win32\isapi_srun.dll
Name: CFviaRailo
Within handler mappings click on edit feature permissions from the right hand side and allow EXE. This is bad for the whole server so I recommend doing it on the sites individually.
If you are using Windows 2008 R2 x64 make sure the application pool for the site is set to allow 32bit apps and also set it to no managed code.
Open resin.conf in C:\Railo\conf. Find the line:
<!-- configures a deployment directory for virtual hosts -->
Above that line put the following.
<!-- configure IIS sites routing by host -->
<host id="your-domain-name.com" root-directory=".">
<web-app id="/" document-directory="C:/inetpub/wwwroot/file-path"/>
</host>
Do the same for any other sites that will run Railo. Restart IIS (cmd --> iisreset) and the Railo server in services.
Now, in a web browser open the Railo admin under that site. Hopefully everything works for you. The URL would be "http://your-domain.com/railo-context/admin/server.cfm. You should be asked to set an admin password. After you do that and login add your datasources, setup the mail server, turn off debugging, and any other settings you like. With all that done your site should run as long as it doesn't require something Railo doesn't offer.
Like I said this is very basic and I did this for some relatively simple websites. I'm not sure if this is correct or recommended.Keep in mind that Resin is the web server, it is running the Railo sites and the CFML. IIS is simply passing the cfml to resin/railo. Just like normal CF/Java.
Some other links that helped me.
http://blog.durhamcons.com/post.cfm/railo-3-0-community-resin-3-1-and-iis6-learn-from-my-mistakes
Leave a comment with any questions you have and I'll try and help.
PHP 5.2.13 + IIS 7 + Wincache
MikeSaysMeh dot com is now running on PHP 5.2.13 with IIS 7 and Wincache. Its pretty easy to install, just download the Non Thread Safe version of PHP 5 from here. http://windows.php.net/download/ and download Wincache from here, http://www.iis.net/expand/WinCacheForPhp. Install PHP, add wincache extension, run. Its really that simple. Just make sure you use the non thread safe version of PHP or else you get fastcgi crashes. Another tip, if you're running into errors open a dos prompt and run your page from there. You should get a warning box or error message that will be easier to follow. IE:
C:\PHP>php-cgi C:\inetpub\wwwroot\info.php
If you're using Win2k8 R2 make sure yer app pool is allowing 32bit apps.
One of the other things I noticed is that php now compiles, its slow to start (like asp.net) but once its going it zooms along.
DotNetNuke Install WebResource.axd Error IIS 7
I'm testing an install of DotNetNuke on IIS 7 and ran into an error when trying to start the site.
The WebResource.axd handler must be registered
I tried following some guides online to add the handlers to the >system.webserver> section which is there for IIS in the web.config but I couldn't get them to work so I just switched the application pool to classic mode. I'd rather run in integrated, I hate running something as up to date as DNN on an IIS 7 server in basically IIS 6 mode; but for now this works. So to get around this error just switch your app pool in IIS 7 to classic mode and then restart it. Below is a guide on how to do that.
http://support.gearhost.com/KB/a381/change-managed-pipeline-mode-in-iis-7.aspx
Dell Zino is Mac Mini competition?
Pretty interesting little PC from Dell. If only it came with blu-ray it would make a killer media PC, same with Apple.
The Dell Zino HD sporting options like a dual core AMD CPU, up to 8GB RAM, 1TB hard drive (7200rpm as well) and a Radeon 4330 with 512MB RAM, surely at least WoW capable. This would make an excellent media PC and they start at just $249. Dell should also go with a slot loading DVDRW.
Whereas the Mac Mini here starts at $599, but it does feature slightly better hardware. Intel Core 2 Duo, DDR3, etc. I know the Mac mini is WoW capable because my Macbook is. And that is always important. Apple store reps response when I asked if I could get a blu-ray player for my Macbook "everyone streams everything now." Yes we all stream, but no one streams f'n blu-ray, jesus. I just want to be able to bring my BD's with me on trips, or to school 
I wonder what awesome small form factor cases are available. Maybe I can finally make a tiny inconspicuous media PC/Mac. I wonder if my old macbook can handle 720p?
ISAPI Rewrite 3.x with WordPress and IIS 7
I recently moved my site over to a Windows 2008 server running IIS 7 with PHP running in FastCGI. Decent speed improvement but I have some more work to do, more on that later. Maybe I'll even include an install guide for PHP in FastCGI with IIS7. In the move I forgot to setup ISAPI_Rewrite which re-writes my URL's into more friendly and readable text. Great for search engines and people alike. Since I had to setup ISAPI_Rewrite all over again I decided to run through a brand new install. Here is a quick and easy guide to get you started with ISAPI_Rewrite on IIS 7 for Windows Server 2008.
1. Download and install ISAPI_Rewrite from Helicon. http://www.helicontech.com/download-isapi_rewrite3.htm. You can use the lite version but this means your rules will need to be written in the global httpd.conf / .htaccess file, you will not be able to setup per site rules. I suggest buying a license and using the full version with the 45 day trial if you have multiple websites you will be using this with. Download the manual install version since its easiest.
2. After downloading run the installer and extract the files to C:\Objects\ISAPI_Rewrite3. If you purchased a license your license info will go into C:\Objects\ISAPI_Rewrite3\httpd.conf file.
3. Open IIS (Start Menu --> Administrative Tools --> Internet Information Services.
4. Navigate to the site you wish to use ISAPI_Rewrite with and double click on the ISAPI Filters module. Click on add on the upper right hand side.
Filter Name: ISAPI_Rewrite
Executable: C:\Objects\ISAPI_Rewrite_3\ISAPI_Rewrite.dll
5. Now you need to create a .htaccess file in the root of your domain. The root is the content location for the domain, where all of the web files are.
Find the webroot of your site in IIS by clicking on basic settings.
You can easily create a .htaccess file with an FTP client since Windows Explorer doesn't like files without a name. I use Filezilla and so should you. Connect to your site with filezilla and upload a simple text document. Right click on the doc and click on rename. Type in ".htaccess" for the file name.
6. Back on the Windows 2008 server navigate to the root of your website and open the .htaccess file with notepad. Insert the following rules.What this will do is allow you to post a custom permalink as well as make sure that all visitors are directed to "www" dot your domain name. Basic search engine friendly stuff, good for SEO. You can of course customize this to your heart's desire, I am just including the most basic rules right now.
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} (on)?
RewriteCond %{HTTP:Host} ^(?!www\.)(.+)$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (.+)
RewriteRule .? http(?%1s)://www.%2%3 [R=301,L]
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(\d+)/[^/]+/?$ index.php?p=$1 [NC,L]
The rules you need to add to the .htaccess file in notepad
7. After you save the file login to your wordpress admin and navigate to Settings --> Permalinks. Click on custom and type in /%postname% this will make all your post URL's look like "http://www.your-domain-name.com/title-of-your-blog-post. You can also add in other custom tags like %post_id% but I like just having my domain name followed by my blog title. Call me a minimalist. Permalink tags here.
Permalinks in your WordPress admin settings
8. Make sure to save your settings and your done. To see this in action click on one of your blogs. Here is an example of mine.
http://www.mikesaysmeh.com/how-to-dump-transaction-log-in-mssql-2008
Notice my domain name includes "www" and the blog title is directly after the domain with dashes. Looks nice huh? Leave a comment with a link to your own blog and begin some track backs. Maybe more on that later ...
How to dump transaction log in MSSQL 2008
The old command "DUMP TRANSACTION [db_name] WITH NO_LOG;" no longer works in SQL 2008 to dump the transaction log. Instead I found a GUI work around. I don't like it as much but it works for now until I find something better. If I do, I'm not a DBA anyway.
1. Open SQL Management Studio and right click on the database you need to dump the trans log and click on properties.
2. Click on option from the left hand side and then click the drop down next to "recovery model" and set it to simple. Click ok.
3. Right click on the database again and go to Tasks --> Shrink --> Database and click ok on the popup window. You can also read it and change some options but the defaults work fine. Do that for files as well (Tasks --> Shrink --> Files).
4. Right click on the database one last time and go to properties then options and set the recovery model back to full. Because if you leave it on simple and your SQL server crashes you would loose any transactions not flushed back into the DB.
Review of Comcast High Speed vs Qwest DSL
Compared with Comcast high speed the download and upload rates of DSL are drastically slower. You don't notice it as much in web page loading but you do when downloading music, games, movies, patches, updates, etc. However it was easy for me to simply time large downloads during the night or at points when I was willing to wait. My only annoyance was when I was updating my mp3 player from Napster and was waiting on the MP3's to download before a bike ride. Poor planning on my part but it took twice as long as with Comcast.
Before making the commitment to Comcast I tested download speed with Qwest and Comcast active at my apartment at the same time. Both times I tested were on the same computer with a wired connection with a test to the same location. Comcast got down speeds around 20Mbs and up at 4Mbs. Qwest was consistently 4Mbs down and less than 1Mbs up. This is obviously a gigantic difference in speed. The higher speed lines from Qwest are unavailable in my area, the plan I have is the 7Mbs. My Comcast plan is the normal one with powerboost.
In more practical testing I tried a download from ati.com which I always get great speeds from. The rate with Comcast was a steady 1MB/s with burst sometimes reaching over 2MB/s. That's MB/s with a capital B meaning Byte instead of bit. I used Internet Explorer for the download which measures bandwidth in Bytes per second. I then tested the same file with Qwest and got a steady download rate of 500KB/s with a burst up to 1MB/s.
Despite the difference in speed Qwest has superior service and is much less expensive. Without special deals Comcast is $70 per month just for the internet. Qwest is $45. Suddenly learning patience and planning downloads at night isn't such a big problem. Add tot hat they offer DirecTV for another $40 per month with a better channel lineup and you have a winner. Except the service at DirecTV is absolutely horrible. SO for a time I even had a combination of Comcast TV and Qwest DSL. It wasn't the best way to spend my money but I was getting what I wanted.
With that said I called Comcast and got a deal. I told them what I could get with Qwest and they basically matched it. Internet + TV for $80 a month and I get HBO (that I never watch). All in all I was very satisfied with Qwest and if it weren't for the deal Comcast gave me I would still be with them. Especially if DirecTV had better customer service.
You can also find some actual test results on my previous blog post.
http://www.mikesaysmeh.com/index.php/2009/10/comcast-vs-qwest-speed-test/
Classic Gaming with DOSbox and Simcity 2000 on Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Mac OS X
My love for Simcity began in the early 90's with Simcity Classic. My family had just moved to Colorado from Omaha and we were staying with my uncle while they finished work on the house. I was first introduced to it when my uncle let me use his super fast 486 PC. I would sit for hours playing, and then let the game run by itself while my budget went up. I engrossed myself in every aspect trying to figure out the perfect measure of industrial, residential, and commercial lots. When Simcity 2000 came out my family's PC was too slow to run it. I saved up every penny from babysitting and mowing lawns so I could buy a Sega Saturn, then I bought Simcity 2000. What followed were more countless hours building massive cities and trying to populate them with the Arcologies which were cities within cities. All this was followed by Simcity 3000, Simcity 4, then Simcity 4 with the Rush Hour expansion pack. A game I still play today more than any other. In fact you can now download hundreds of custom buildings and add-ons making the game even more incredible and realistic.I even have Simcity on my iphone.
Custom mods, add-ons, buildings, and maps for Simcity 4 Rush Hour / Deluxe can be found on these sites.
But I'm not writing about the newer version of Simcity today. Because I recently fell back in love with Simcity 2000 and I can still play it on Mac OS X, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 with DOSBox. (Even in Win7 x64!)
Anyone who hasn't used DOS before are going to need to know a few commands first. DOSbox is a DOS emulator so all the commands work just the same but DOSbox also comes with some new ones for mounting CD's, folders, etc. DOSbox for me has worked great with SC2k out of the box, so to speak. I haven't had to change anything with the settings or setup a config file. Here are some simple instructions.
1. Download DOSbox for whatever OS you are using (http://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1) and install it.
2. Downloads Simcity 2000 (http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/82/SimCity+2000.html its free!) After you have downloaded it extract the files into a folder called SC2000 and put that on the root of your C: drive.
3. Run DOSbox and type int he following command at the Z:\ prompt. "mount c c:\sc2000" (without the ""). This will mount the sc2000 folder as the C: drive so you can navigate to it in dosbox. Another option is to create a folder on C: called DOSgames and put all your games in there within separate directories. I currently have one with Simcity Classic, Simcity 2000, and Simant.
4. After the game folder is mounted you can navigate into it by typing "c:" at the z:\ prompt. This will automatically move you into the c mount. You can then type "dir" to get a directory listing and find the exe you need to run. Or just type "sc2000" to run the game.
A few other commands for browsing DOS:
cd is change directory. Example would be "cd C:\sc2000"
cd \ will take you to the root.
cd.. will go up one directory
I leave you with some wonderful images of Simcity 2000 in action.
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- Some downtown!
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- Airport!
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- Seaports!
But what about Mac? Follow the instructions above, download DOSbox for Mac OS.
Put the sc2000 folder in your user directory. For example \users\mkauspe\sc2000. (Above the doucments and downloads folder).
Use the command "mount c ~\sc2000" instead, it will mount that sc2000 folder in the users directory as C:\.
Game plays the same with music and sound!
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