CF2 TechNotes Blog

Working on the Road

curtis_franklin — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 02:37:14 +0000

In my last post, I promised two secrets that are making my life better. Here, I deliver…

First, an engineer in for an upcoming review for InfoWorld told me a secret of the BlackJack. I can’t say it’s been my very favorite phone up until now, but he showed me how to convince it to act as a wireless modem for my laptop. Joy! Now, I can get work done anywhere I can find a high-speed data signal (which is most of the places I tend to travel). Since I have the unlimited data plan, I figure AT&T can get only so ticked off at me. After all, bits are bits.

Next came a critical revelation about an important application one of my publications uses to manage articles. Since joining the pub, I’d been told that a VPN connection was required to reach the app and, for various reasons, I had to use the pub-supplied laptop for the VPN connection. On a phone call earlier this week, a fellow editor let it slip that no VPN connection was actually required. I checked, and he’s right! Joy, again! I’ve had to do just a bit of application hacking, since the publication is still using Office 2003 and I’m using Office 2007, but I’ve managed to get everything working and I can feel my stress level dropping dramatically. To be able to get necessary work done wherever I am is a gloriously liberating feeling.

That’s it–I’m now more mobile, with my cell phone and single laptop giving me an office-in-a-messenger bag. I’m altogether too pleased with the situation, but it’s put a nice glow on the week.

It Seems So Simple

curtis_franklin — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 15:27:39 +0000

So, I’ve go the new ISP happily shoveling bits at my network. During the crossover to the New Boss, I changed the address space for my network–the old one was odd, and made some sense when I established it six years ago, but times change and I was ready to get into lockstep with the rest of the non-routable private-network world. For most of my network end-points it was simple, since they politely ask the DHCP service for an address when they need one. For certain items, though, I had given them addresses they’d held since the network started. Among the hard-coded; wireless access points. Getting two working units has proven to be far more of an adventure than I’d imagined.

One of the access points was easy, if time-consuming. An earlier version of this Cisco AP had to be kick-started a couple of times, but it came around and is now happily singing tunes from both the 802.11a and 802.11b songbooks. My other access point was and engineering sample from another vendor and I can’t for the life of me figure out how to reconfigure the thing. It’s at least five years old and has served well, so it’s time to let it put it’s little rubber feet up and rest. After all, how hard can it be to buy a new access point?

Pretty damned hard, as it turns out. If I wanted an wireless router, I could have my pick from shelves full at either Office Depot or Best Buy. The thing is, I don’t want a wireless router–I want an access point. I don’t want a pre-N or draft-N access point (though I may change my mind after I review a few), and I’d really like one that has both 802.11b/g and 802.11a. They simply can’t be found on any mass-merchant shelves. I suspect I’ll end up buying one of these Linksys units–even though it’s not the latest and greatest, it fits the bill and I’ve seen a similar AP at work in another network.

I know I’ve said this before: I understand that the network in my home/office is unusual. With that said, I can’t believe I’m the only person who wants a nice, simple access point. I’m thrilled with the way my current router/firewall setup is working, and I don’t want another device that thinks it should be doing the DHCP and NAT chores sitting in the mix. Sigh. I’ll look forward to reporting success later on.

Business VoIP Report

curtis_franklin — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 16:41:40 +0000

One of the other newsletters I work with is Business VoIP Report. It comes out as a push newsletter every Wednesday, with the information up on the web site shortly after it goes out to subscribers. I’ll put a reminder to post links in my to-do list, and everyone will get to see the extent to which I ignore my to-do list.

IT-Wireless Newsletter

curtis_franklin — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 16:26:07 +0000

One of the newsletters I put together is IT_Wireless. Most recent edition is at the link, with a new version every Monday. I’ll try to remember to link to each new one, but if I don’t, feel free to subscribe.

A Big Wireless Collective

curtis_franklin — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 19:24:06 +0000

Once in a while, an idea that appeals to our sense of shared purpose and community comes along. Fon is one of those ideas–you share your bandwidth with Fon members passing by and, in return, you get to share their whenever you go a-roving. If you like the idea, now’s the time to hop on the bandwagon because they’re offering free wireless routers to celebrate their first birthday.

Now, before you order you should check your user agreement with the ISP (there are some that will get grumpy about sharing bandwidth) and, if you’re in a business, you should check the applicable laws on secure wireless access points. If you’re cool with both of those, though, this seems like the sort if idea that could make the wireless world a little happier for all of us.

A Few Networking Tips

curtis_franklin — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 20:50:03 +0000

One of my wishes for Vista is better peer networking. I was thinking a lot about that after a recent family support call. As usual with these issues, a new computer was brought into the Windows peer network, and suddenly computers that had been happily cooperating couldn’t (or wouldn’t) talk to one another. I’ve run into this at various times over the years, and can’t say that there’s been a consistent cure for the problem.

In the most recent case, the cause turned out to be the most basic: a firewall hadn’t been properly configured. Most firewalls (and you know you should have one installed on each machine) don’t configure any “safe” zones outside the machine itself. We had to tell the firewall that the home network was safe and, having done so, the networking proceeded in good order. If you’ve verified that your firewall is set up properly, then one of the following sources might do the trick:

Now, it should go without saying that you should try the fixes that don’t involve going into the registry first. I’ve done a fair amount of registry hacking over the years, and I hesitate to recommend it to any but the most experienced users.

More iPhone News

curtis_franklin — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 14:36:19 +0000

If you can’t wait to learn more about the iPhone than you get from the Apple web site, then the folks at Gizmodo have got you covered. They’ve actually put their hands on one of the sexy phones, and you can tell that they like the unit. Me, I’m just jealous that I don’t rate a review unit…

A ProCurve Review

curtis_franklin — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 03:37:22 +0000

I review Procurve SMB switches for InfoWorld. While switches at the home office/small business level are generally in the realm of commodity, I’ve found that I’m much more comfortable with a managed switch–I like being able to see what’s moving across my network and having control over what goes where. The price is really coming down on some very good switches, and this review picks out some of the issues that I’ve found important.

It’s a Phone

curtis_franklin — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 20:55:01 +0000

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Steve Jobs used his keynote address at the MacWorld Expo to unveil the iPhone. It’s a slick-looking device that Apple has positioned to be iPod, cell phone, and Internet communicator (web and e-mail) rolled into one. The bad news is that it will almost certainly become the cool-geek status product for the next few months. The good news is that it should ignite a serious battle of manufacturers building better and more feature-rich mobile devices.

What’s Your Nightmare?

curtis_franklin — Sat, 06 Jan 2007 03:27:14 +0000

Most of the security problems that get big press notice effect desktop computers or enterprise servers. While these issues can be serious (especially if they lead to consumer’s private information being released), they pale in possible impact to the havoc that can be wrought by exploits of network infrastructure hardware. News.com has reported on Cisco’s release of information on two vulnerabilities in the gateway hardware that enables Network Access Control (NAC). The good news is that there haven’t been any expoits reported that take advantage of the vulnerabilities. The bad news is that known vulnerabilities go unexploited for only so long, and there are hundreds of organizations that patch their infrastructure code on a long-duration cycle.

The takeaway here is to make sure your infrastructure hardware is updated with the same sort of urgency most of us save for our laptops and servers. If you have Cisco gear and want to check out the original notice, you can find it here.