Failure is the Key to Success

The Netgear FVS124G router has settings to allow it to pick up the time from NTP (Network Time Protocol) servers.

I initally set this to my local NTP server with a backup on an online one. However, there is no way to manually set the time initially. When you power on the router the date is set to 1st January 2005. The problem with this is that using NTP will only correct a small time difference; 3.5 years is a big large to correct.

I had almost given up on resolving it when I thought to try connecting using telnet to the router.
The user name and password for the telnet session are the default admin credentials (not the ones I had changed for the web interface). Once connected, press Ctrl C, then type Cli (Capital C is important). This gets you to a unix type shell. Then cd config cd sntpc show This will confirm that the time is sychronised and gets around the large time differnece. Then type exit and logout.

The bonus of fixing the time is the firewall logging now works properly.

Tags:netgear fvs124G,ntp netgear

Back in June, I saw on the Mediaeval Baebes website that they had a new album coming out in October. I know it was announced back in March, but they don’t have a RSS feed on their site, so I only check for updates when I remember. The first 1000 pre-ordered copies of the album would get a numbered limited edition with two bonus tracks. Knowing that I would buy it anyway, I placed my order, not expecting to be in time for the limited edition. When I got confirmation of my order, there was no indication that it was the limited edition, so I resigned myself to the fact that I was too late and cursing their lack of RSS feed yet again.
At the beginning of September there was an official announcement that the release date had been pushed back to Spring 2009, but those who had pre-ordered would receive theirs ahead of official release, hopefully mid to late October.
Continue reading » Mediaeval Baebes new album – Illumination

Tags:illumination,Katharine Blake,mediaeval baebes