Setting the time on Netgear FVS124G router

by Ian Posted on October 18, 2008

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.

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Mediaeval Baebes new album – Illumination

by Ian Posted on October 18, 2008

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.
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Big thumbs up for Farworld: Water Keep

by Ian Posted on September 28, 2008

Water Keep (Farworld)On Wednesday, I collected Farworld: Water Keep from the post office. This is the new book from J. Scott Savage that I posted about a couple of months ago. Water Keep is the first in a five book fantasy series called Farworld. J. Scott Savage has published several other books, but this is his first young adult book and first fantasy series.
Although it is aimed at young adults, I found myself enjoying it immensely. As with almost every other fantasy book, there will be elements that are similar to other writer’s fantasy worlds, but it didn’t read as a copy and stood well on its merits. Aspects of it reminded me of J.R.R Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ and Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman’s ‘DeathGate Cycle’. The characters, creatures and locations weren’t over detailed, but sufficiently enough to guide your imagination picturing the story as you went along.

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Birds galore

by Ian Posted on September 7, 2008

long tailed titWhile we were on holiday at Center Parcs, we bought a bird feeder at the Nature Centre and then added a pole to put it on. They are made by CJ Wildbird Foods, and were very reasonably priced. After we got home we were looking at their website and found that they only charge £2 delivery for orders under £50 and free for orders over. We wanted to add a base to support the pole and also got a variety pack of the peanut cake tubes and a squirrel resistant peanut feeder. I had them delivered to work and they arrived on Thursday; I’m glad I did as the box was enormous, it only just fitted in the car.

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Our visit to London Zoo

by Ian Posted on August 24, 2008

Yesterday we went to London Zoo; we were going to visit a couple of weeks ago when I was on holiday, but I went down with a streaming cold, so we put it off. The weather forecast for yesterday had been looking good all week, so we got up fairly early.

The kids were excited, they hadn’t been on a train before and there was the zoo as well. We travelled from Hemel Hempstead station rather than Luton, it’s a smaller station and made the London change easier. We had previously bought a Family and Friends Railcard which gives discounts on family rail fares. It would have made a bigger saving if we had been travelling during the week as originally planned, but still saved us some money. We only had to wait about 5 minutes on the platform for the train and were able to get seats as the train wasn’t full at all. After about 35 minutes we arrived at Euston and (after a toilet break for the kids at 30p a visit,) changed onto the Northern Line underground for one stop to Camden Town. I had printed out the zoo’s directions for getting to them, but didn’t need them as it was signposted from outside the station. It took about 15 minutes to walk from the station to the zoo and then we were there. After presenting our Friends of ZSL passes we were in. Time to take my obvious camera bag out of my plain backpack.

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