Failure is the Key to SuccessFailure is the Key to Success

My network router. RIP

by Ian Posted on August 26, 2007

At lunchtime today Jo mentioned she was having trouble connecting wirelessly to our network. This has happened a few of times in the last couple of weeks, but retrying or in one case restarting the router resolved the issue.

Not today! Wired connection was working fine, but there was no wireless. After resetting the router and re-entering the configurations, I had intermittant wireless, but now no routing of wireless connections to the internet. Also, it was no longer logging any connection details.

I have had the router since February 2005, so it has been on for most of that time continuously. I updated the firmware from the default Linksys to Hyperwrt when I got it which gave me the ability to log the incoming and outgoing firewall connections and messages. This has had its uses; a few weeks ago I was able to identify a test signal from my VOIP service that was trying to connect every few seconds.

So, unexpectedly, I had to go out and buy a replacement router this afternoon. Linksys routers used to run Linux. There is a great support for 3rd party firmware upgrades to the Linux based routers, one good site for this is Linksysinfo. Unfortunately, a few years ago, Linksys changed their routers from using Linux, which means the 3rd party options are now limited.

I now have full connectivity restored, but have had to sacrifice the logging ability as this isn’t part of the standard firmware.

Posted in Computers, Hardware | Tagged network router | 4 Comments

Spam Spam Spam

by Ian Posted on August 26, 2007

Spam, don’t you love it. I just about had it under control in my inbox. My spam filter was tagging most of it and moving it to a spam folder. About 30 a day were being tagged and only 4 or 5 would get through.

This morning my inbox looked like a bomb site. It appears that somebody has been sending spam forged as coming from accounts on my domain. Throughout the day I have received over 450 emails bouncing ‘my’ spam messages from locations all over the world. I’ll have to start making checks now to make sure that I haven’t been blacklisted anywhere.

Posted in Computers | Tagged spam | 4 Comments

Found my Great Grandmother’s Brother in India

by Ian Posted on August 26, 2007

One of the people in my family tree is Charles Moulden. He is my great-grandmother’s brother, he is also Lyall‘s grandfather’s brother. When Lyall and Diana were over last year we worked through a lot of family tree information and Lyall was telling me that he thought Charles had been in the army and had died in India.

I was able to find him in the 1881 census aged 8 with the rest of the family. I had trouble finding an 18 year old Charles in the 1891 census, but I did find a 20 year old Charles Moulden as a private in the 5th Lancers in barracks. I wonder if he inflated his age to sign up. The 5th Lancers did serve in India, so this looked to match what Lyall had told me.

A couple of days ago, I was searching the army death returns indexes on FindMyPast and found the following entry for Charles Moulden:

Moulden, Charles, 21 Meerut 1892 p129

After a bit more searching it appears that the 5th Lancers were in Meerut, India in 1892, so it looks like this may be him. I’ll have to do some more research, but at least I have some facts that match what was thought.

Posted in FamilyTree | Tagged 5th lancers, family tree, moulden | 2 Comments

My father’s trip to Africa

by Ian Posted on August 22, 2007

Talking with my mum this evening, we got talking about family tree and my grandfather. I was talking about where I found him on a boat to Lagos and my Mum mentioned that my grandmother Lillian had traveled out to Africa to be with him and had taken my father with her. It was while he was there that my father had caught malaria. I knew that my father had had malaria, but I always assumed it was while he was in the Navy. I’m not sure whether it was Nigeria or Sierra Leone that they travelled to yet.

The Findmypast site still only has the passenger lists up to 1929 at the moment, but once the 1930’s are up I will have to look for Lillian and my father as well as my grandfather.

Posted in FamilyTree | Tagged family tree, hedges | 2 Comments

Quality of car dealerships

by Ian Posted on August 22, 2007

It’s a while since I have had a rant about car dealerships. I had my Volvo MOT’d a couple of weeks ago. It went so smoothly, that I forget to even put a post up about it.

Jo’s Toyota Avensis had an engine management warning light come on, so she contacted Steven Eagell Toyota in Luton to get them to check it out and resolve it. Although the next service wasn’t due until October, she asked them to do the service now, as being school holidays it is easier to have them collect the car and return it when finished. Otherwise, it would mean me taking it to work and having the fun with the Milton Keynes branch of Steven Eagell Toyota that I have previously had with MOTs and garages , Car Window 2 and Car Window 3. She also asked them to get a replacement drivers side sunvisor as the plastic hinge/mounting bracket had broken.

So, anyway they evidently collected it this morning without any issues and called her this afternoon to say that all the work was done and to get her to pay for it. When she asked what the story with the engine management light was, she was told that it was the oxygen sensor. After the car had been returned, she was looking at the paperwork and noticed that she hadn’t been charged for the oxygen sensor. This was the first she knew that the fault hadn’t been repaired. She rang the garage and spoke to the deputy service manager who explained that the car is safe to drive and that they will get the part in, but it will be the other side of the Bank holiday. Jo has impressed upon them the need to get this resolved before the end of the school holidays. They did confirm that the sunvisor was broken, and I thought it was supposed to separate into two parts and fall off the car , that is also on order. They seem to have grasped the concept of investigate fault, but the final part of communicate the findings to customer is lacking.

Jo did agree tonight that when it comes time to replace the Avensis, it is unlikely to be another Toyota; not because the car is bad, she loves the car, but because the dealer network is appalling.

Posted in Car, Rants | Tagged poor communication, toyota dealer | Comments Off

What’s on your computer desk?

by Ian Posted on August 20, 2007

OK, I’m sat at our desktop typing this, so here goes panning from left to right:

2 drive mounting rails from an old server
2 dvd cases with home movies of the kids
17″ monitor for desktop computer
stack of CDs in rack (some computer and some music)
Jo’s digital camera in it’s case
left speaker for desktop
port replicator for laptop
autoloader tape drive for backups with right speaker for desktop on top
mouse mat with wireless mouse
surgemaster under monitor power distribution unit with 2nd 17″ monitor for desktop
2 stacks of CDs balanced on the corner of the desk