Insomnia...

Can't sleep. I don't know why. The kids have moved up their departure for California and Shannnon's parents to tomorrow. They'll be back after the first of the year.

I have come to the conclusion that either (a) the Administrator password never expires in Windows 2000, which sort of makes sense, or (b) it expires after a longer period of time than elapsed in the case of my two units.

It turned out my memory of the Win2000 login simply needed a jump-start. Both machines are up and running.

The DSL Router issue has run into something of a snag. It would appear I need my ISP's DNS IP, the IP of the default gateway, and the subnet mask. Calling tech support for this info gets me a cheezy answer, to the effect that only customers with static IPs need that info. (I'd gladly pay the extra $20 for a static IP, but today - as opposed to yesterday - the folks at the business office insist that the only way to get one of those animals is to sign up for an account that affords one 5 static IPs for about twice the basic rate. I'll have to call again Monday, I guess.)

I'm using the Web client to post this, and the "lag" between typing and having what I type appear on a screen is annoyingly long. I think I will go and download an LJ client for this machine.

Cheers...

Lieberman and McCain... at it again!

A piece on one of the news shows yesterday morning features Katie Couric speaking with Sen. Lieberman about a bill that he and McCain apparently have introduced, to establish a non-partisan commission to investigate the causes of the September 11 attack, with the purpose of identifying what could have been done to prevent it. Ostensibly, the idea is to make sure nothing like that ever happens again.

It sure sounds like a rational thing to do, unless you understand the way the world works.

That "non-partisan," for example, is likely intended to mean "people who have no axe to grind," but in reality, any such commission would really have nothing but people with axes to grind, both on a partisan level and on a turf level.

Moreover, since hindsight is generally 20-20 or better, there would be no dearth of proposals as to what "could have been done" to prevent a small group of people from coordinating such an attack.

The bill may be good politics, perhaps, but it's a bad idea.

Cheers...

Missing something...

Well, I must've been both awake and asleep earlier this morning. The LinkSys docs made little sense, but I tried to follow them anyway. My Windows box ended up rebooting so often due to changes in network configuration that it had a hypnotic, relaxing effect on me, and I decided to go to sleep again. And did.

The router has a default internal IP address of 192.168.1.1, which is easily reachable from one of my Windows 2000 boxes. The router appears also to be equipped with a rudimentary DHCP capability, which threw me for a while because the instructions assume that any computers on the internal network are going to have their IP addresses assigned dynamically, and thus the instructions tell you to set up TCP/IP functionality for DHCP on all internal machines.

I assume I can assign each machine its own internal IP address and simply disable the DHCP capability in the router, but that remains to be seen.

I would also venture go assume that the router also cares not a hang as to what operating system powers the entity on the other end of the Ethernet cable, so I may be able to program the thing from my Linux box.

* * *
I've been typing this from the store. Galina, it turned out, also could not sleep last night, due to heartburn. I left her asleep this morning when I left for the store. Drew came by soon after to pick up his last paycheck of the year. He and Shannon (and Huntur) are taking off imminently.

Customers are coming. Gotta go.

Cheers...

It took a while...

I finally got out of the store around 1 pm. The highlight of the day was the customer from New York (on the basis of post cards he sent) who had just the slightest Slavic accent and whose handwriting was characteristically Russian.

"Hmm," I intoned, glancing at the post cards as I threw them into a USPS box, "Russian handwriting."

The fellow's eyes nearly popped out of his face. "H-How do you know?"

"It just looks Russian, is all," say I, in my best country-bumpkin imitation. (Some claim it is no great stretch.)

I am a meanie.

* * *
After more false starts than you'd find in an auto junkyard, I finally got the router hooked up to my home network. Let me see, what do I want to remember of the saga that might be of interest to fellow sufferers?

Something bad happened to my old Dell 120, requiring, I think a reinstall of Windows 98. No time for that now, though. In brief, the network card wasn't being recognized (it didn't appear if I did a 'route print' command, and I could not add it with the 'route' command).

So, I brought down my eSlate from upstairs and tried to have it speak to the router. Unfortunately, the router's default IP address is 192.168.1.1 (with a netmask of 255.255.255.0) while the eSlate's networking parameters are, um, different (hint: my netmask is 255.255.255.224).

No connection.

So, I hook up one of my new Dell machines which establishes communications with the router immediately. I change the router's default IP address to match the scheme used by the eSlate. Success, except now, the Dell can't talk to the router anymore.

I reattach the eSlate. No joy, even after fiddling with what I think are the appropriate commands to have the eSlate "see" the router. So, I reset the router to its default state (press recessed button, recite proper incantation, and sacrifice a ...). Reattach the new Dell. This time, I'll leave the default IP on the router alone.

It turns out that the DHCP server built into the router has assigned the new Dell an IP address of 192.168.1.100. It turns out the router's DHCP service can be set to start at a certain point (100 is the default), which means that I can leave all of the static IPs I've assigned to the machines in my office.

Opening the floodgate to the Internet is pretty darned easy. As far as I can see, there is no need for any kind of special software; certainly there is no need for Windows to get connected, as the router does the job just fine (remember to enable PPPoD). I was one happy camper when I could get something off of the Internet using the new Dell.

Next step: connect my desktop, which is networked to a hub via an old 3Com Ethernet card that's equipped with a BNC connector.

I eventually figured out that if I connect the "Uplink" port on the router to one of the ports on my ancient hub, then my desktop (and in theory, the rest of my motley collection of hardware,... I haven't tried yet) can "see" the router, assuming the appropriate gateway address (i.e., the router) is entered on each machine.

One last obstacle. Though my desktop could ping the heck out of my router and the new Dell, I could not ping anything "out there." It eventually dawned on me that there was no DNS on my desktop (I could ping the DNS servers by IP address).

Eventually, by fiddling with this and that, I figured out that if I elect to allow the router to assign my desktop's IP address via DHCP, then it will also set up the DNS for the machine as well. Seeing as I have elected to keep a static IP on the desktop, it would appear I must also fend for the desktop's DNS as well. I solved that little conundrum using the Gordian knot method: I entered the previously snarfed addresses of the DNS servers currently serving my new Dell's connection by hand as a setting for my desktop's TCP/IP connection.

I shall have to do the same (set 192.168.1.1 as the gateway and enter DNS information) for other machines on the network.

It may not be pretty, but it works. The next step, when I get to it, is going to be to do a thorough test of net access from a Linux box. There are some router capabilities that are going to make that fun.

Cheers...

Zion is back up....

The old Dell, whose name is 'zion' (for reasons that become dim as time passes), is back up. Rather than reinstall Windows, I simply yanked and reinstalled the software for the Winbond card. Now it sees the Internet beyond the router just fine.

Watching 'Virus' on the Sci-Fi Channel... about the only perk of having the kids gone for ten days is going to be watching their Dish Network.

Cheers...