Monday, March 08, 2004
WLAN
Bought a new Wireless Router on Friday. I know its *only* 11MB, but as the internet is only 768Kb, its enough for surfing. I bought the ACER offer from Mediamarkt. You get the 4-port Wireless Router and a PCMCIA Wireless Card and a USB Wireless Dongle for €79 which is about 50 UK Pounds. Plugged it in, typed in the WEP key that I want to use, configured the client, everything working within 5 minutes. Not using it to connect directly to the internet though, for that I use IPCOP (a free linux firewall with some impressive features, the main one being that it is running on a P75/32Mb/120MB HD). Before getting this router, I was having problems connecting from one end of the apartment to the other end (where my other WLAN is). Now I can connect from anywhere, including the notebook in the bedroom (is that Geeky or what?)
Server Problem
Also had a problem with a Lotus Notes server running on Windows 2000. For some reason, small files could be copied without any problems, but as soon as it got over about 800 Mb, it was coming up with an error message just before the end of copying telling me that there wasn't enough system resources. Did all the usual stuff.... stopped 3 billion services running on the machine, still no difference, even after a reboot. Solution? Time and Time again, the solution is always the same. I reinstalled Service Pack 4 for Windows 2000. All problems gone. Lucky for the Admin really, he wanted to get HP to swap all Hard Disks as the problem was to do with writing to disk. Phew.
Outlook Express Problem
An easy request, I though.... Export Outlook 2000 contacts into Outlook Express. There's even a technet article about it. Unfortunately, it doesn't work by default on a German machine. The problem is that Outlook exports in "comma-separated" and Outlook Express thinks that it can import in "comma-separated". Unfortunately, Outlook Express relies on the seperation character defined in the regional settings in the control panel. This is by default a semi-colon in German, and not a comma. Changing this value in the Control Panel allowed me to export and import without any headaches.
Weekend Sport
And what a weekend it was. Semi-final of the FA Cup. Fortunately, DSF (A german sports channel) had both games on Saturday, and BBC had the Millwall game on Sunday, so I only missed one game. Unlucky Fulham, and well played Tranmere. Arsenal were in a different class. I noticed that they shortened Portsmouth to POR for the scoreline. Wonder why they didn't use the first four letters of Arsenal for their name on the scoreline :-). Typical Ferrari and Schumacher, they were in a class of their own in Melbourne (yes, I woke up at 4 am to watch it). Roll on Malaysia.
Bought a new Wireless Router on Friday. I know its *only* 11MB, but as the internet is only 768Kb, its enough for surfing. I bought the ACER offer from Mediamarkt. You get the 4-port Wireless Router and a PCMCIA Wireless Card and a USB Wireless Dongle for €79 which is about 50 UK Pounds. Plugged it in, typed in the WEP key that I want to use, configured the client, everything working within 5 minutes. Not using it to connect directly to the internet though, for that I use IPCOP (a free linux firewall with some impressive features, the main one being that it is running on a P75/32Mb/120MB HD). Before getting this router, I was having problems connecting from one end of the apartment to the other end (where my other WLAN is). Now I can connect from anywhere, including the notebook in the bedroom (is that Geeky or what?)
Server Problem
Also had a problem with a Lotus Notes server running on Windows 2000. For some reason, small files could be copied without any problems, but as soon as it got over about 800 Mb, it was coming up with an error message just before the end of copying telling me that there wasn't enough system resources. Did all the usual stuff.... stopped 3 billion services running on the machine, still no difference, even after a reboot. Solution? Time and Time again, the solution is always the same. I reinstalled Service Pack 4 for Windows 2000. All problems gone. Lucky for the Admin really, he wanted to get HP to swap all Hard Disks as the problem was to do with writing to disk. Phew.
Outlook Express Problem
An easy request, I though.... Export Outlook 2000 contacts into Outlook Express. There's even a technet article about it. Unfortunately, it doesn't work by default on a German machine. The problem is that Outlook exports in "comma-separated" and Outlook Express thinks that it can import in "comma-separated". Unfortunately, Outlook Express relies on the seperation character defined in the regional settings in the control panel. This is by default a semi-colon in German, and not a comma. Changing this value in the Control Panel allowed me to export and import without any headaches.
Weekend Sport
And what a weekend it was. Semi-final of the FA Cup. Fortunately, DSF (A german sports channel) had both games on Saturday, and BBC had the Millwall game on Sunday, so I only missed one game. Unlucky Fulham, and well played Tranmere. Arsenal were in a different class. I noticed that they shortened Portsmouth to POR for the scoreline. Wonder why they didn't use the first four letters of Arsenal for their name on the scoreline :-). Typical Ferrari and Schumacher, they were in a class of their own in Melbourne (yes, I woke up at 4 am to watch it). Roll on Malaysia.
