Hardware

Ok the backup saga has rumbled on for close to a year now, but I finally decided on my solution last week and it looks fantastic!

I was heavily influenced by the register’s review, and an email from their sales team.

I’ve purchased a MyXerver 1TB along with a 1TB USB drive to run to it, and after the ParcelForce saga I now have them installed, I couldn’t have chose better as they look exactly the same when unpacked (just one in black and one in white!).

After unpacking I plugged in the MyXerver and started to write this post, given that the instructions said it could take anywhere between 1 and 3 minutes to boot I was impressed that by the time I’d finished typing the previous line it was booted and ready for use!

As the adminstrator I had to run the setup utility disc. I decided (unlike my usual self!) it might be wise to follow the instructions at this point..

The wizard looks fairly self explanatory, so let’s get started.

It appears to have recognized MyXerver correctly.

I’ve opted for a fixed IP, just in case I need to enable port forwarding on my router to this box (it will make life far easier if I do this from the onset I suspect!).

Next came the timezone and naming, I resisted the temptation to call it something humorous and left it as MyXerver, I was surprised to find it wanted to know my Workgroup name – not sure why at this stage!

Mission accomplished – I opted not to setup Flash Map as I wanted to keep this proprietary software as far away from this solution as possible (having had to install a CD for every machine with Netgear’s SC101).

Interestingly, the instructions told me to visit http://myxerver to configure the box further, in Firefox this resulted in a 404 after trying to visit http://www.myxerver.com and in IE it was simply a 404 – Page not found. Putting the IP address into the URL seems to have the desired effect though.

Alien Autopsy psp I managed to login and configure the device – I’m sure you don’t need to see all of that info!

Learning

I’ve discovered why it wants to know my workgroup, it has the ability to use Network Neighbourhood for mapping network drives with the users regular username and password – now that I like!

So that means each user has a private area, great – what about the global public areas that I want to dump photo’s and the link into?

This is found in the “Shares” section, and before too long I’d got a shared drive setup and 40GB of Photo’s transferring from my old NAS to this one, a process that took around 2 hours.

NAS > Backup Solution

I know what you’re thinking, I said this was my backup solution, and all I have at the minute is a new 1TB NAS. Here’s the best bit, I plugged in the 1TB USB drive to the back and configured and incremental backup from the NAS to the USB that will copy all changed files every morning at 6am…

Job Done!!

If you found this post useful, why not buy me a coffee or a beer (depending on the time of day obviously!):

Bare Witness hd Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man full movie I was quite impressed with this today from MAKE Magazine, it’s a USB Motion detector!

It’s not sycin’! It’s passed on! This router is no more! It has ceased to be! It’s expired and gone to meet it’s maker! It’s a doorstop! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed it to the shelf it’d be propping open the door! It’s routing tables are now ‘istory! It’s a chunk of metal! It’s kicked the bucket, it’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-ROUTER!!

Ahh… I feel so much better!

What am I talking about? – My router that’s what!

My Netgear DG834Gv2 has faithfully served myself and the business for many years (it’s quite a mature router), never so much as letting out a whimper in disgust as traffic is flushed through it for several hours a day and then it is left silent and lonely.

Then unceremoniously at 9:10am on a beautiful morning several weeks ago, it stopped – logged out of the internet and gave up the ghost – never to sync again! Unfortunately it went through this moment quite alone, and to all eyes (well my ISP) it looked like it was just having a little rest!

This caused some confusion (for me not the router!), and I promptly got on the blower to my internet provider, “Do you have any problems in my local area?” I tentatively asked… No, nothing – not so much as a BT man running over a line, or a friendly little lightning strike on the exchange.

Several line tests and some confusion about what our phone number really was (I knew BT would have some part in this mess!), I was asked to perform a further diagnosis on my equipment:

• New Filters
• Plugged into the Master socket (with nothing else on the line)
• I asked whether a new router test should be necessary (apparently not – I was reasonably thankful – I didn’t want to upset the current router showing it it’s understudy in the cupboard whilst it was in such a fragile state!).

Stand clear! – Charging!

Before I know where I was, I was sat on the hall floor, master socket in pieces with the router and my EEE PC, performing a post-mortem on my equipment.

Nothing, it could of course be the line…..

That’s when DigiDave came to the rescue. not two weeks prior I had gained an understudy for my router – a FREE router from DigiDave – no box, no manual – just the router and power supply – postage was all it cost me!

I shielded the Netgear router from the sight of me plugging in the 2Wire space age looking router….

photo credit: Christian Frausto Bernal

3 minutes, that’s all it took to get it up and running! 3 minutes!

Having spoken to my ISP and declared my router officially deceased I was advised to work back through the system, when I explained what I had done – they quietly agreed to sign the death certificate.

Pining for the Fjords?

The 2wire router performed rather splendidly and soon became a permanent fixture in the office…But it appears to be pining for the Fjords (or something else entirely), every evening as the darkness descends it starts to log in and out of t’internet. It’s a little unsettled, bless, but there’s not time for emotion with a router (especially when I’m getting told off for it’s poor performance!!).

I’ve read tales of the Signal to Noise Ratio going up at night, either way I think the time has come to replace it with a new router (especially now I’ve tried reflashing the firmware on the router and it is completely doorstooped) – something equipped for the job in hand! Another Netgear methinks – now what revision is the DG834G on now……..

I love my EEE PC, it’s small and ideal for everywhere I want to take it! Now it appears that you might just be able to get one for free!

According to Coolsmartphone News Orange are about to offer them free of charge with their data dongle packages – giving you a USB data dongle, and 3GB of Bandwidth for £25 per month over 24 months.

That actually brings the price in at £600 over 2 years (nearly twice what I paid for mine), but I guess at least you’ve got it online semi-permanently without worrying about it too much!

photo credit: Keiron Skillett

Does yours pop-up in the bottom right of your screen (just at that annoying moment where you need to get to the thing that’s hidden by it!?!?). If so take a look at J4mie’s GMail Notifier Lamp.

photo credit: greg westfall

I’d been debating one of these Asus EEE PC’s for a while, particularly after talking to Dan and him saying his was one of the best things since sliced bread. So once we’d booked our holiday and I knew I’d want to take the D-SLR and a laptop in the same bag, I was ready to order one.

I put it off a little bit I guess because I knew the new EEE PC 900 was coming out with a bigger hard drive capacity. So on release day I went hunting for one – I should have realised! I’d forgotten how annoying it can be to be an early adopter and not being able to get your hands on the technology!

I carefully watched sites for stock, at one point I rang a company to check they’d got stock – they had – by the time I walked back to my desk to order it online they’d sold out again!!!

Then finally on the evening of the 21st of May I managed to get my order in!

Now I’m used to dealing with huge e-commerce sites (Amazon etc), or even eBay sellers who don’t want negative feedback – invariably payment is taken and my goods are dispatched the following day, at a push the day after that is normally acceptable.

I know, I know the bank holiday weekend got in the way, and yes I know I’m an impatient so and so….

But here we are a week later – 28th May and I still don’t have my new toy!! I do however have their questionnaire about whether I’m enjoying my new product – I haven’t replied – YET! Payment was taken but I have been assured that my order is still undergoing “Processing…” and when it is dispatched I’ll get an email with tracking notification. I’ve had my suspicions about whether they really have the stock or are drop-shipping, but the company in question assure me they have the stock.

Today’s reply from them said:

I can confirm that your order was sent for packing and it is expected to be dispatch soon. Once the order has been dispatched, an email confirmation will be sent to you.

In the meantime, please feel free to contact us if you have any additional questions.

Just one, my friends, why is this taking so long!? Apparently my order has undergone various stages of processing including “Quality Control”, I can just see two guys sat at a desk examining my address:

“Do you think that sounds like a reputable area Jim?”

“I’m not sure Bill, let’s get it up on Google Maps”

“Hmmmm fields nearby, looks good – give it the rubber stamp and pass it on to see if his email address looks ok, they’ll check him out on Facebook”

More on this when EEE PC actually arrives!

UPDATE! UPDATE!
The status on the website no longer says “Processing…” It’s “Awaiting Courier Pick-Up”…. I just hope the courier doesn’t drop it!!!

I had a look at the EEE PC at the weekend, it looks kind of cool and weighs virtually nothing…

I know, I know, I know – it was designed for the younger market, but this laptop has infinite appeal for almost any IT professional, at sub 1kg with a solid state disk?

I quite liked the OS that was installed, but a friend suggested installing XP on it (and upping the disk to 4GB or buying a 4GB version) as then it will support everything XP supports, which means I can plug my phone in as a USB 3G modem – that’s the key thing. I could feasibly get away with this being what I take on holiday (sorry Em – no DVD’s anymore?!).

What are peoples thoughts, does anyone have one?

Some notes on websites I’ve found with info that may be considered useful going forward:

• Tnkgrl mods the Asus to have internal Bluetooth
• Ivancover’s guide to a variety of Asus upgrades (Bluetooth, USB, GPS, Flash etc).
• I found the PC Advisor review interesting, and agree with the weakness that it doesn’t have an internal modem just a phone socket, so I’d need to get a USB link to my phone working – under XP or the Linux built in OS. Tracey and Matt appear to have had the same concern, and found JKKMobile’s review of inserting a 3G modem, I think I’d be happier just knowing if it would support my HTC Trinity out of the box with the Linux OS, or whether I’d really need to install XP.

I was interested to read on The Register in the comments section:

Asus tells me the 3G upgrade’s coming by the end of the year and that it’ll be offered on its own, as an upgrade technical users can perform themselves.

There’s no word on price yet.

Anyone waiting the 8GB model isn’t likely to see one before the new year – Asus’ Eee PC production is current focused entirely on the 2GB and 4GB models, I’m told.

The other colours – pink, green and blue – will be coming in 2008 too.

Although an expansys thread suggest a utility I hadn’t heard of before , WMWifiRouter, which appears to work in WM6 and WM5 AKU 3.3 – looks like my WM5 has AKU 3.0. I installed the trial software and it ran, but wouldn’t work – I’ll try again later with some support advice they’ve given me!