jgc :: digital scrapbook

Resolving internet connection problems

jgc — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:03:26 +0000

In the last month or so I’ve fixed about 4 separate cases of computers not being able to access the internet. I thought it was worth a brief notes on the different cases, and the solutions, to help others who hit problems.

The various problems:

Neighbour’s laptop - apparently couldn’t do anything.
Dad’s PC - couldn’t browse the web, but one (and only one) email account was working.
Martha’s Vista laptop - apparently could connect to wifi network, but couldn’t do anything on the internet
my iPod Touch - could connect to wifi network, but couldn’t do anything on the internet

My general approach was the same in all cases:

What does the system think it’s connected to? For this I use ipconfig /all (Win) or ifconfig (Mac) to look at what network adapters are active, the IP addresses, the DNS servers it’s trying to use, and the gateway addresses. Some experience is needed here to work out what these imply. I’ll try and post a flowchart here at some point that helps with this.
If it’s connected to a broadband router OK, is everything not working or just some services? Here I use something like ping www.bbc.co.uk to see if basic DNS lookups are running, and ping 212.58.251.195 to see if basic TCP/IP services are connecting out through the server to the internet.
If these are OK, which higher level services are working (if any)? In Dad’s case, just email, but in all the others’, nothing at all.
Is there some sort of filter getting in the way? These could be “proxies” designed to help connections in/out organisations with restrictive networks (eg, schools, colleges) or firewalls being too aggressive or playing up.

In the neighbour’s case it was a proxy setting that had got turned on (which she then remembered about), which was redirecting internet requests to something that didn’t exist. A quick look under Control Panel > Internet Options > Connections found it and turning it off cured it immediately.

For dad it was his firewall misbehaving; turning that off restored the internet. A quick reinstall has hopefully cured the problem.

Nowhere near as easy for the laptop and iPod problems at home. One Mac laptop was fine on the home wifi, but the Vista one wasn’t, which made it sound like the laptop. A full hunt around showed that it was connecting OK to the router on wired or wireless, but all internet operations were failing, despite no proxy or firewall problems.

I was stumped. After much fiddling with some advanced ideas on dynamic allocation of receive windows and netsh tcp global configuration, it still wasn’t working. Grrr.

Reluctantly I looked again at the Sky router. All settings seemed fine. I tried turning authentication on and off, and fiddling with different wireless settings - all to no avail. As a last resort I tried nuking the box - restoring the factory settings. Bingo! the laptop and iPod then worked! This shouldn’t have worked, but clearly shows that the Sky Router can get itself into a state where it doesn’t service all connected clients.

Apple’s iPod Touch

jgc — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 13:37:46 +0000

I’ve been the very happy owner of the slightly updated iPod Touch for a few weeks now, so I thought I’d review how it’s gone so far.

However, it seems Apple is behaving badly, making life very difficult for would-be developers of apps to run on the iPhone/Touch. There’s bnen plenty of discussion about …, but now it seems that even rejections from the App Store are now covered by NDA. So some developers will now invest in the tools, spend many days or months struggling to develop something, have little ability to test it for real on a iPhone, submit it to Apple, have it rejected (maybe without a reason why), and not be able to tell anyone else about the whole process. Seriously, Apple, are you trying to put people off writing for the platform? I’ve not yet seen any convincing comment on why Apple are acting in this way. (Probably no surprise, given so much is covered by NDA.) This view is echoed by Dan Moren.

It will make it particularly difficult for small outfits, or hobbyist developers, to run the risk. Larger corporates will better be able to stand the risk. But still, is this any way to drive innovation?

You must have a reason, Apple, so please tell us.

[Edit: Between me writing this and me posting it, Apple have loosened the NDA somewhat. Good, but still no real reasoning why they did it.]

Not prepared

jgc — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 13:05:14 +0000

Mitch Joel has a fantastic post over at SPOS called 8 Reasons Why We’re Not Prepared For The Future. Using some data from recent enrollments at a college in the USA, he predicts:

1. Percentage of applicants who applied online last year: 89%.
2. Students in the class of 2012 who registered computers, iPhones, game consoles, etc. on the campus network by the end of the day on August 24th, the day they moved into their dorm rooms: 370 students registered 443 devices.
3. Number of students in the class of 2012 who brought desktop computers to campus: 14.
4. Number that brought iPhones/iTouches: 93.
5. Total number of students on campus this year that have landline phone service: 5.
6. Mac or PC? Of the four classes currently on campus the classes of 2009 and 2010 are more likely to own Windows, while the classes of 2011 and 2012 are more likely to own Macs.
7. Average number of emails received per day: 180,000.
8. Percentage of email that arrives on campus that is spam: 94%.

His main point is that

It’s painfully obvious that the workplace is not ready for these types of graduates. If you think blocking Facebook and access to YouTube is going to increase productivity, take a look at how these future employees work and what their expectations are/will be…

Very pertinent where I work. How relevant is it to youthwork, and in a few more years, the rest of what we do in our churches?

A classical treat

jgc — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 11:33:30 +0000

A real treat - Martha’s favourite concerto and one of my favourite symphonies and at our favourite concert hall the same night. Wonderful playing from the CBSO under the baton of Xian Zhang.

The concert started with Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite, which I’d not heard before, but is gentle and beautiful.

Michael Collins was the soloist in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto. The music just emerged as if he was thinking it into existence, not having to coax it from a single-reed wind instrument, with interesting register issues. Seriously impressive, and no wonder his recent recording of this has been winning awards.

And then after an interval, the orchestra doubled in size and the organ added in order to tackle Saint-Saens’ great 3rd Symphony. I was hoping for a little more volume and passion in places, but the speed was just right, and the orchestra wonderfully clear and precise. I heard lots of tones and ideas that I’d not heard before, and I realised just how many great ideas Saint-Saens brought to it, particularly interesting rhythmical differences between different instruments. No wonder that he was reported to say about it “I have given all that I had to give. What I have done I shall never do again.” Which he didn’t. Fantastic.

Xian has made the “improbably journey from a small town in China to the New York Philharmonic” [NYT] and then on guest engagements with lots of other orchestras. She didn’t draw much attention to herself whilst conducting, or in the various entrances/exits in the applause at the end, but she certainly drew some great playing from the CBSO. Difficult to know how much this is down to her, as they are a fine group, but I’d certainly be keen to watch her at work again. Shame we missed “Maestro” where she was apparently one of the tutors.

More good Toronto finds

jgc — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 13:14:36 +0000

We took it easy in Toronto, spending some time just reading and people watching in Queens Park: sitting around in the warmth in shirtsleeves just makes us feel good.

Other good finds include Tim Horton’s (a chain of very good value coffee shops which are half-way to being cafes as well) and Second Vinyl where we spent a happy hour finding lots of second-hand jazz and classical CDs. The former are quite common around the city; the latter is at 10 Wellesley St West.

Urbana Coffee was also a rare find at 1033 Bay Street, having free wireless, friendly service, and fair trade coffee, unlike the Starbucks everywhere around.

Finally, we had a lovely meal listening to light jazz (and more Elton John!) at Le Saint Tropez in the Theatre district, as recommended by Trip Advisor.

Two good Toronto finds

jgc — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:33:46 +0000

We thought we should try some sushi at some point, and walked past Grand Ichiban Sushi at 345 Adelaide St West at a hungry point. We were impressed with the Bento that we had, and how it was presented. I don’t think we had really graduated to proper sushi with this - certainly everything was cooked - but it reminded us again how great miso soup is, and that we need to find the ingredients when we’re back home.

We then spent a long time in Lorne’s Coats - a store simply selling women’s coats, with lots of enthusiastic and helpful staff. Recommended, if that’s what you need - at 101 Spadina Ave.

Less good was discovering that the Ontario Art Gallery is shut for redevelopment - only after we’d walked there. Still, it will clearly look rather special on the outside when its ready in November. Bit late for us, though.

US road trip radio

jgc — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 04:05:54 +0000

We’ve done at least 12 hours in the car so far, and without any CDs on us, we’ve listened to a lot of radio. We’ve listened to some rock, soft rock, country and Christian stations so far. UK artists get more of an airing than we were expecting, with Phil Collins/Genesis and Elton John particularly standing out. Remembering that there’s no such thing as US nation-wide radio stations (I think) we were surprised to almost always be able to find a Christian station somewhere on the dial. Shame that no Bruce Cockburn music was played yet, but at least a great Rich Mullins (RIP) track was

A wonder to behold

jgc — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 03:17:09 +0000

As predicted by everyone, the Falls at Niagara are amazing - they should be one of the wonders of the world. Also as predicted, the area has turned into rather a tacky resort, but most of it can be ignored easily. The place I reckon is good for the American psyche - with the views and falls themselves better on the Canadian side. Lots of photos, but here are just 1 of each of the falls …

We can confirm that Niagara-on-the-Lake is a great spot, very popular it seems with honeymooners. Lots of posh boutiques and restaurants. We stayed in the Kia-Ora B+B, which felt better than all the hotels we’ve used so far. Lovely decor, very friendly hostess, and a gourmet breakfast. 5 stars!

It also hosts Jet Boat Niagara, which takes people on boats up the Niagara River to near the Falls, over a number of rapids. Not as white knuckle as expected, but still good fun, complete with a few exhilarating fast 360-degree ‘Hamilton’ turns.

Relaxing in Toronto

jgc — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 02:48:03 +0000

We’ve arrived in Toronto and decided we needed a relaxing day, so we just chilled. Only one interesting photo: the view from our hotel window, looking west over the university area …

Massachusetts drive

jgc — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 02:47:21 +0000

Today we drove most of the way across Massachusetts from Fall River to Lenox. We knew we’d be a few weeks early for the best of the fall colours. aren’t yet at their height, but still many trees are turning, and its wonderful driving through tree-lined roads, enjoying the colours and the sunshine.

We made a great little find, detouring a few miles off Route 9 near Worcester to stop in Howe State Park, part of Spencer State Forest. The visitor place wasn’t open, but we just stopped next to a mini waterfall and had lunch listening to the stream and watching the leaves being to drop from the trees.

Loads of familiar place names in MA: Gloucester, Worcester, Oxford, Shrewsbury, Nottingham, Bedford, Cambridge, Plymouth, Bristol … I write this in Ware (where!) having stopped at a Friendlys for a drink. This was a throwback to a US family holiday 20+ years ago, where the only places we ate seemed to be Friendly’s.

After a long drive we landed up at Lenox, within walking distance of Tanglewood, the summer home of the Boston Pops Orchestra. (Also home to another great memory from a family holiday of old.) Shame we’re a few weeks too late to hear them. But the place we’re staying - the Apple Tree Inn - has some fantastic views over the surrounding hills.