Marvin’s Place

Yesterday, one of my colleagues asked me to help her setup their home network. The have a desktop (Windows XP), a Toshiba laptop (Windows Vista Basic), PLDT DSL, and Linksys wrt54g.

I was able to setup the router to dial the DSL modem (Alcatel modem) via PPPoE. Setup of the wired connection (for the desktop) was a breeze. Was able to surf the internet in seconds.

Setup of the wireless (for the router side) is not problem. But when I got to the laptop (running Vista Basic), It wasn’t detecting the wireless signal.

I am not familiar in setting up wireless connection for Vista. My first encounter with Vista wi-fi setup was with my brother-in-law’s Acer laptop (also Vista Basic). I find it very hard to configure (that was in our home network where in I am no having problem connecting a Latitude D620 running on Windows XP wirelessly) and whenever I got a connection, when I restart the Vista laptop, it can’t pick up my home wi-fi anymore, so I have to manually configure that again.

My wireless setup was this. Router’s SSID is hidden, WPA2 Personal, AES.

On the acer laptop, I was able to connect by disabling the proxy settings on IE and Firefox (maybe set by the seminary for their wifi). But still, when restarted, connection won’t come back.

On the toshiba laptop, it was totally head-busting. Even after configuring the wireless signal manually, it won’t connect. I can’t detect the wireless signal for the first 30 minutes. It detected it after I manually configured it (un named network protected). However, it still shows that it is disconnected. It was able to detect the wireless signal of a nearby net cafe (SSID not hidden) as soon as the laptop is turned on, but as for the Linksys router, it won’t.

I tried changing broadcast channel but still no go. Went to unprotected network but still no go. I discovered that the laptop was set to a static IP. I changed it to automatically acquire IP and I thought that would solve the problem. But still, can’t connect. I tried restarting everything but still no go.

I was about to go to online chat with Linksys when I tried to enable the broadcast of the router’s SSID. I restarted everything (modem, router, laptop, desktop). And boom, the Vista was able to detect the Linsys router immediately. It was able to connect to the router and the internet after entering the passkey.

I restarted everything again and it is working fine now.

So, I did a research. this site brought me some intriguing answer. It says that hidden SSID is a bad wireless security measure (against the common knowledge that hiding your SSID will add security to your wi-fi network). And it also says that I should enable “Connect even if the network is not broadcasting” option on the wireless network setup so I can connect to a hidden SSID (which I thought it was refering to connecting even if the router is not broadcasting “wi-fi signal” not the SSID).

The author is a tech from MS itself. And there were actual research that hiding SSID for security was a myth. And it is actually a violation of 802.11i specifications and guidelines when you hide your access point’s SSID. As for my part.

I also thought about that (hiding SSID a security myth). But I don’t know why I still applied that to the networks I setup. I have never encountered problems with that before (XP, Ubuntu) only on Vista. Well, maybe, I’ll change the way I wireless network now. I’ll let the router/access point broadcast its SSID to avoid problems, breaking standards and stop believing in myhts :).

“The old axiom remains true: security by obscurity is no security at all”

After a few months, at last, my application for a leave was approved. It was last August 22, 25 and 26 (Friday, Monday and Tuesday). 23 and 24 are my rest days (Saturday and Sunday. So technically, I had 5 continous day of no work (of course, the 3 are paid leaves). I was able to accomplish some things during this times.

Firday (22), me, my wife and my son went to the mall. Not to buy groceries or much stuff (we bought some things though), but the main purpose of the trip was to bring our son for fun. We brough our son to some kiddie arcades (those stationary toy cars that wiggles). Then we went to buy milk and some stuff at the grocery and a cross stitch book from a booksale (my wife’s addicted to cross stitching). Most of time we’re just walking (which is very hard since my boy doesn’t want to walk) and sight seeing. We came home around 8:30 in the evening, and I am exhausted (I came from work in the morning, no sleep yet). After eating dinner, we’re already at bed.

Saturday (23), we’re just home (sleeping, watching TV). Afternoon me an my wife went out (to buy some diapers, ate on a fastfood chain) for a few hours). Nothing much happened that day. (Except that I was preparing for my Sunday message).

Sunday (24), 4th Sunday of our church month long 15th anniversary celebration, I was the speaker. My topic was church growth based on the New Testament Church (Acts 2:41-47). Main focuses are “devoting themselves to the apostle’s teaching” (discipleship in the church), “to the fellowship” (fellowship, treating each other as brothers), “and to prayer” (prayer in the church). My main point was church growth comes from inside the church. The attitude of the members inside the church will be the attitude of the church. How people see that (people outside the church) will be their response. The New Testament church people was respected by the people and “the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved”. (More on this once I’ve finished the English translation of my script).
Afternoon, we went to my former church (celebrating their 20th anniversary). Met with members I knew (friends, lot of new members). Didn’t stay for long since my wife tooth is aching and we are going to my place (to visit my father, celebrating his birthday on 27th). We went there and stayed till next day.

Monday (25), National Holiday in the Philippines (National Heroes Day). Not feeling well. Watched some old movied with my father and wife. My cousins playing with my son. We left 6 in the evening. Arrived home around 8 in the evening. Went to bed at 9.

I tried to keep away from the computer most of the time. I want to spend more time with my family.

Tuesday night (26), we watched CSI (Las Vegas) Season 3 (watched 4 or 5 episodes).

Wednesday morning classes for Pre-school was suspended due to typhoon, so my wife has no work. We just slept till afternoon. I woke up at three and prepared to go to work.

It was a long vacation. Spent time with my son and wife and also some time with my father and other relatives from my town. Also met with old friends from former church.

Now, I am back at work. Only three days left for this week. On Monday, I am on leave again (well, our whole department, it’s Labor Day in US and sales is closed. So, it’ll be a long weekend again.

After long time of failed leave applications, I was bombarded with official leaves. Happy, at last, I was able to sleep properly.

Maybe I’ll reformat my computer this weekend (prep for Linux installation).

Soli Deo Gloria.

We have an old AMD Duron 800mhz (overclocked to 1ghz) computer at home. It has 512 mb memory and a staggering 32mb legacy NVIDIA AGP video card.

The AMD processor only has 64kb of L2 cache, and this makes the computer crawl (as in really crawling). The video cards power is too low to properly run Adobe Photoshop (or any photo editing software). And the monitor we’re using (an old Giant Optics CRT monitor) is already busted (dimmed, and red laser is not working anymore).

I am planning to do some home business (photo editing/scanning/convertion, layout for greeting cards/invitation, typing jobs, etc.). But this computer hinders me to do things properly.

Problem is, as much as I would like to purchase a new system, I still don’t have the budget. Sometimes I did wish that someone would send me a new desktop a laptop (which is impossible).

Anyway, just thinking out loud.

Soli Deo Gloria.

I posted a prayer request last July 29 for Rev. Prince Santos. These are the updates.

(Good news) His wife’s operation (caesarean section) was successful. They have a new baby boy.

(Sad news) His mother died this morning (Manila Time) from cancer.

Please continue to pray for them. That God comfort them and give them strength.

Thanks.

Soli Deo Gloria.

I’m celebrating(?) my first year at work today (August 6).

it was August 6 of 2007 when I stepped in here in the company. It was my first (real) job. I never expected that I’ll reach 1 year at work.

Been with two departments (switchboard, now sales). Been on the top of the ranks, and also been at the bottom.

Nothing to celebrate really (except that I was able to endure grave yard shift struggles) because I am currently looking for a daytime job.

Anyway. I am thankful to God cause I learned a lot from this job.

Soli Deo Gloria.

(Have to get back to work)

Liberty Presbyterian Church is conducting its month long anniversary celebration this August. The theme is about commitment and spreading the Word of God.

There will be eating fellowships every after service and everyone is encouraged to invite a friend to attend, not just the anniversary, but permanently, in the church.

However, our first day of celebration was met with a bit of unexpected situations. (1) A vehicle by one of our members (they use it for their business) was stolen. Good thing is they really have faith in God and was able to carry on with it. (2) Our Pastor was not able to finish his message due to mild food poisoning. He went to a wedding last Saturday. And the worst effect took place during Sunday morning. He was sent to the clinic in the afternoon. Some of his friends who were also in the wedding sent him a message that they also had the same situation. Good thing it’s not serious and was able to go home the next day.

Still, God is good.