Easy, but worth viewing the screenshots: IPredator – Setting up a PPTP connection on Mac OS X Lion.
Although: I should follow Don’t use PPTP, and don’t use IPSEC-PSK either (via: CloudCracker blog)
–jeroen
Archive for the ‘Hardware’ Category
Setting up a PPTP connection on Mac OS X Lion
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/07/05
Posted in Apple, IPSec, Mac, Mac OS X / OS X / MacOS, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, MacBook, MacBook Retina, MacBook-Air, MacBook-Pro, Network-and-equipment, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, Power User, PPTP, VPN | Leave a Comment »
Don’t use PPTP, and don’t use IPSEC-PSK either (via: CloudCracker blog)
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/06/24
A while ago, I had to connect to secure data over PPTP.
It reminded me of this post from about a year ago: via Divide and Conquer: Cracking MS-CHAPv2 with a 100% success rate (now archived at the wayback machine).
Their main point:
MS-CHAPv2 can be cracked within less than a day (and that time will only get less).
Their short conclusion “basically PPTP is dead, and IPSEC-PSK is worse” leads to the recommendation:
This leaves either an OpenVPN configuration, or IPSEC in certificate rather than PSK mode.
Longer quote: Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in IPSec, Network-and-equipment, Power User, PPTP, Security, VPN | 3 Comments »
ASUS RT N66U did not update DDNS with changed IP addres
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/06/11
Today my router had an IP-address change, but didn’t update the DynDNS.org information in my My Host Services | My Dyn Account. Which meant I could not “phone home”, as I didn’t know the new IP-address**.
Lesson re-learned:
During initial router configuration, watch the router logs, as you might have accidentally updated the DynDNS.org by hand, not by your router
Had this in the ASUS Wireless Router RT-N66U – General Log:
Jun 11 08:01:53 notify_rc : restart_ddns Jun 11 08:01:53 ddns: clear ddns cache file for server setting change Jun 11 08:01:53 ddns update: connected to members.dyndns.org (204.13.248.111) on port 80. Jun 11 08:01:53 ddns update: server output: HTTP/1.1 200 OK^M Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 06:01:53 GMT^M Server: Apache^M X-UpdateCode: X^M Content-Length: 7^M Connection: close^M ^M notfqdn Jun 11 08:01:53 ddns update: malformed hostname: myhostname
The problem: hostname should not only be the name of the host, but the FQDN of the host. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in ASUS RT-N66U, Network-and-equipment, openSuSE, Power User, SuSE Linux | Tagged: computer, ddns, ip address change, software, technology | 2 Comments »
More ESXi5 installation steps
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/06/10
(note: part of this post is unfinished, but I wanted to make sure all the links are publicly accessible, so I posted earlier and incomplete)
I already did a few ESXi5 postings (they apply to 5.1 as well) of which the most important are:
- Creating vSphere 5 ESXi embedded USB Stick (failed at first in HP XW6600, but with MBR partition table it works)
- Screenshots: Creating vSphere 5 ESXi embedded USB Stick with MBR partition table
Time to finish up some additional installation steps (with a big thanks to Matthijs ter Woord):
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Posted in BIOS, Boot, ESXi5, ESXi5.1, Hardware, HP XW6600, Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Power User, PowerCLI, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi, Wake-on-LAN (WoL), Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2000, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, Windows XP | Leave a Comment »
Fonera FON2100A: Why is the MAC address online different than the one found on my router? (via: Fon Support)
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/06/07
From the FON tech support pages:
Why is the MAC address online different than the one found on my router?
Philippe
posted this on March 08, 2011 09:29
If you look at your router information in your user area at fon.com, you will notice that the MAC ID is different than the one found at the bottom of the Fonera.
This is nothing to be worried about. Both MAC IDs are associated with the same Fonera. The MAC ID in the user area is associated with the FON_ signal.
The MAC ID found at the bottom of the Fonera refers to the LAN port.
Specifically for the FON2100A, there are 2 MAC addresses based on the sticker on the bottom of your FON:
- MAC address on the sticker = MAC for WAN,
for instance 00:18:84:XX:YY:f6 - MAC address for FON_FREE_INTERNET WiFi = sticker+1,
for instance 00:18:84:XX:YY:f7 - MAC address for MyPlace WiFi = sticker+2,
for instance 00:18:84:XX:YY:f8
001884 is the OUI for Fon Technology S.L.
You can find that for instance at MAC Address / WWN / Vendor Lookup – WintelGuy.com –.
–jeroen
via: Why is the MAC address online different than the one found on my router? : Fon Support.
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Posted in Network-and-equipment, Power User | Leave a Comment »
Fonera Simpl Get Started : Fon Support (FON2100A)
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/06/05
So I won’t forget where the FON2100A instructions are: Fonera Simpl Get Started : Fon Support.
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Posted in Fonera FON2100A, Network-and-equipment, Power User | Leave a Comment »
ASUS Wireless Router RT-N66U – General Log: full of “protocol 0000 is buggy, dev eth0”
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/06/05
Not sure what happened, but my log appeared to be full of these messages:
Jun 5 12:46:56 kernel: protocol 0000 is buggy, dev eth0 Jun 5 12:47:02 kernel: printk: 61 messages suppressed. Jun 5 12:47:02 kernel: protocol 0000 is buggy, dev eth0 Jun 5 12:47:06 kernel: printk: 132 messages suppressed. Jun 5 12:47:06 kernel: protocol 0000 is buggy, dev eth0 Jun 5 12:47:11 kernel: printk: 544 messages suppressed. Jun 5 12:47:11 kernel: protocol 0000 is buggy, dev eth1 Jun 5 12:47:17 kernel: printk: 163 messages suppressed. Jun 5 12:47:17 kernel: protocol 0000 is buggy, dev eth0 Jun 5 12:47:21 kernel: printk: 115 messages suppressed. Jun 5 12:47:21 kernel: protocol 0000 is buggy, dev eth1 Jun 5 12:47:26 kernel: printk: 275 messages suppressed. Jun 5 12:47:26 kernel: protocol 0000 is buggy, dev eth0 Jun 5 12:47:31 kernel: printk: 644 messages suppressed. Jun 5 12:47:31 kernel: protocol 0000 is buggy, dev eth1 Jun 5 12:47:36 kernel: printk: 866 messages suppressed. Jun 5 12:47:36 kernel: protocol 0000 is buggy, dev eth1 Jun 5 12:47:41 kernel: printk: 750 messages suppressed. Jun 5 12:47:41 kernel: protocol 0000 is buggy, dev eth0 Jun 5 12:47:46 kernel: printk: 665 messages suppressed. Jun 5 12:47:46 kernel: protocol 0000 is buggy, dev eth1 Jun 5 12:47:51 kernel: printk: 766 messages suppressed. Jun 5 12:47:51 kernel: protocol 0000 is buggy, dev eth1 Jun 5 12:47:56 kernel: printk: 625 messages suppressed. Jun 5 12:47:56 kernel: protocol 0000 is buggy, dev eth1 Jun 5 12:48:01 kernel: printk: 782 messages suppressed. Jun 5 12:48:01 kernel: protocol 0000 is buggy, dev eth0
Note sure what caused it, but others have had it in the past as well.
Other symptoms:
- br0 network becoming slower and slower on download speed (but not on upload speed; in the end I had 0.5 megabit downstream and 5 megabit upstream)
- br0 ping times twice as high as normal (around 30 milliseconds on SpeedTest.net in stead of 15 milliseconds)
- WiFi (especially 2.4: eth1) becoming impossible to connect to from new connections
- packet drops
I thought they were caused because of me experimenting with a Fonera 2100A -> TomadoUSB experiment, especially since my FON access point was limited to 1 megabit.
But as soon as other users started to use the LAN, I got speed complaints about the slowness.
I’ve been running the ASUS RT-N66U in Firmware Version 3.0.0.4.260 with Operation Mode:Wireless router for quite a while now, but I also noticed that it had rebooted itself recently, as the was Uptime 0 days 20 hours when I started digging in the log.
The worst I got:
| Ping (milliseconds) | Down (megabit) | Up (megabit) | WiFi connection to |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31 | 0.4 | 0.9 | ASUS RT-N66U: 2.4 Ghz |
Time for a Reboot to see if it gets any better.
Later:
After a reboot the situation turned to normal:
| Ping (milliseconds) | Down (megabit) | Up (megabit) | WiFi connection to |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | 90 | 10 | ASUS RT-N66U: 2.4 Ghz |
| 17 | 9 | 8 | Fonera: MyPlace |
| 17 | 3 | 1 | Fonera: FON_AP |
| 15 | 2 | 0.6 | Wireless-N 3G Router |
| 15 | 1.5 | 0.7 | RT N66U TomatoUSB 2.4 Ghz |
–jeroen
via: ASUS Wireless Router RT-N66U – General Log.
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Posted in ASUS RT-N66U, Hardware, Internet, Network-and-equipment, Power User, SpeedTest | 2 Comments »
A few notes on Google Reader replacements that I’m testing
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/06/03
Almost 3 months after the Powering Down Google Reader announcement, most Google Reader users will have been looking for alternatives.
If you were whining, Stop whining about Google Reader, then take some action.
Before switching away from Google Reader, be sure to export the data through Google Takeout then download the export.
Read How to painlessly export your Google Reader feeds | News | Geek.com for more information.Note that the subscriptions.xml in the download is in fact an OPML file.
Until early may, I was waiting for Announcing Digg Reader to become a real reader, but gave up.
Right now I’m experimenting with a couple of replacements, so here are some notes: Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in Google, GoogleReader, Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Power User | Leave a Comment »
I love my keyboard; why did they hide “Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys” in Windows 8 and 7 so far away?
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/05/22
Despite the radically different first look, lot’s of Windows 8 is the same as in Windows 7
So this Windows 7 trick works just as well in Windows 8:
This is how you get the underline character to show for Alt and other keyboard shortcuts in Windows 7 (the link shows you how to do this with the mouse, but we are keyboard lovers, are’t we?):
- Press the WINDOWS-U combination to open the “Ease of Access Center”
- Under Explore all settings, select “Make the keyboard easier to use” by pressing TAB a couple of times, then press ENTER to select it.
- Press ALT-N to select and check “Underline keyboard shortcuts and access keys” under ”Make it easier to use keyboard shortcuts”
- Press ALT-O to fire the OK button action.
- Press ALT-F4 to close the “Ease of Access Center”
Done!
–jeroen
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Posted in Keyboards and Keyboard Shortcuts, Power User, Windows, Windows 7, Windows 8 | Leave a Comment »
Screenshots: Creating vSphere 5 ESXi embedded USB Stick with MBR partition table
Posted by jpluimers on 2013/05/03
A long time ago, I promised steps how to install VMware 5 ESXi using the MBR boot format.
The steps with screenshots are below, but first some background information.
As of VMware ESXi 5, GPT (short for GUID partition table) is the default partition table used by VMware ESXi.
Disks smaller than 2 TB can boot with MBR, but GPT It is a requirement for disks bigger than 2 TB. GPT also needs a UEFI compatible BIOS.
Some older BIOSes (like those of my HP XW6600 machines: still running strong after many years of fine service) do not support GPT.
Luckily, weasel (the open source Operating System Installer that VMware ESXi uses) can be forced to use MBR using runweasel formatwithmbr.
Forcing MBR is a 2-step process.
- Get to the boot prompt: press Shift+O when the progress bar appears
- Running weasel with the MBR option: after the “runweasel”, type a space, then formatwithmbr
Below are the screenshots of a VMware ESXi 5.0.0 installation I did this way.
But it works equally well in ESXi 5.1.x
After writing this post, I found out about ESXi 5 Won’t Boot From USB which solves this exact problem for an HP XW8600 configuration (those are slightly larger machines than the XW6600 I have, but the architecture is the same).
Screenshots
Click on the image or link for larger screenshots, or view the series here at Flickr. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in BIOS, Boot, ESXi5, ESXi5.1, Hardware, HP XW6600, Power User, UEFI, Virtualization, VMware, VMware ESXi | 1 Comment »
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 