IT BS thread

It happens way too many places.

 

Happy SysAdmin Day to ourselves!

http://sysadminday.com/

(cool site, see the photos part)

 

A quick question for you IT guys, our router (older lynksys, wireless g) i think is starting to die, over the last few days we'll get kicked off the internet and our wireless name isn't on the list of networks to join.
If i unplug the router and plug it back in after 30-40 seconds i can join network no issues, does this sound like the router failing?

If we replace the router is it worth it to go to wireless n? we have 5 laptops and 7 i devices on the network, plus a wii.

 

Yes (sorta) and yes.

Wireless routers, especially older ones, ESPECIALLY cheap shit like Linksys ones, are notoriously finicky and have to be hard-powered often. I see this all the time at small offices down here.

Most users have learned from here...even a SMALL hiccup, issue, question, or hell just turn it off along with your desktops on Friday nights and turn it back on on Monday. The *first* troubleshooting step with almost ANY issue with that Linksys crap is 'hard power' it.

The wireless N is worth it, even on fairly inexpensive routers. Makes up a nice change in signal strength as well as speed.

 

It does kind of sound like the router is having issues. I would update the firmware on the router first. Sounds like the router may have a memory leak and hangs after so much up time or traffic.

New routers are cheap. If you go that route, pick up the N device. It will work with all your devices still but allow you to upgrade if you want to take advantage of the N features.

 

When I was using my WRT54G, I would sometimes have to back up the config, and then restore it. It would usually work fine for months before I needed to do that again.

 

Or you could install Tomato on it to breath some new life into it.

With all the wifi stuff you have, a modern router would be a better idea.

But, from your description of the problem, it sounds like you could get by with either a simple firmware upgrade or a Tomato install (do this only if you're comfortable doing this kind of thing).

 

Thanks guys, it cut off today when dad was home so he decided to go get a new one, local wally world has one of these in stock so he's going to pick it up.

 

A new one is prolly your best bet, if y'all can afford it.

Tomato is great, and using things as long as you can is great, but for the amount of devices and the throughput between them, a new one really is the way to go.

FYI, please RTFM when you get it and pay attention to where you put it. Shame to get a decent WIFI point and put it behind a refrig or next to a microwave

 

I definitely will, and i won't put it next to either one.

 

More wattage! Longer distances and you can replace your microwave! My router is in a bad spot, surprisingly I still get decent distance with it. I only need it to cover my apartment though. I have a Cisco/Linksys E3000

 

Well, dad just called from wally world and said that they didn't have the one we decided on so he wanted to know about this i told him the little bit i know about the newest (?) form of wifi, and he decided to get it.

 

The page there is woefully short on detailed information. Kinda like I could label curare as "all natural" and "pesticide free" and "organic" but you still wouldn't want to eat it

But, if I grok the meanings correctly, its essentially just a slightly higher end version of what you were looking for in the first place, so it *should* be good for ya.

Should.

 

We are trying to use Windows Steps Recorder to capture a sample of an entire day's worth of work from one of our customer service reps. We were hoping to fire up steps recorder and have them click through all the stuff they did in our ERP system (creating sales orders, credit memos, looking up customers, all that stuff), then have steps recorder fire out the result. Unfortunately, it caps out around 20 pictures even if you set the max capture to 999.

does anyone have a better alternative to steps recorder?

 

So, the wifey-poo decides to give me one of those open-ended, non-specific, totally not an order orders the other day.

She says, "Xaks, I'm tired of the damn fan noise. Get that gorram computer out of here!"

(Since the yout moved in last year, and my office/computer room became her bedroom, the file server/shared disk machine has been on the dresser in our bedroom, as the only upstairs switch was bolted to my desk. She was not pleased with this arrangement)

"But, honey, this is best place I can put it. The fans aren't THAT lou..."

*ducks thrown pillow

"I don't care where you put it, just plug it in someplace else. And get it out of sight, I'm tired of looking at that plain black box."

"OK honey, I'm on it!"

$6 dollars at the hardware store for a sheet of pegboard, some zipties out of the back of the truck....

*fiddles around

Ta-da!

Kitchen wall mounted 4TB NAS.

 

Very impressive piece of work...

 

Personally, I think if I was married, my wife might kill me if I put that in the kitchen. Some women I know actually enjoy time in the kitchen, and they might not like the extra noise in there! Don't you have like a guest room or office?

My two cents. I like it though, nice and simple board! I wish I had the $$ for a 2 TB server.

 

I did have a guest room / office, and that got taken over by the kid.

Besides, the thing is only noisy at bootup when the fans spool up to 100% as part of POSTing.

Once its running, you basically have to stand right next to it or look at the lights to tell if its on or doing anything.

 

Oh, I should mention that my wife's version of ugly would be quite different for computers - is it open like that all the time, or what? She'd hate looking at that thing...

and women... if that was so quiet, then why did you have to move it? lol

 

Yea, its open just like you see it all the time. The ceiling fan in there keeps any dust from settling on it and is plenty to keep it cool.

And, since I'm the one in the kitchen 99% of the time, she rarely lays eyes on it. That's why I kinda tucked it back between the china cabinet and the cupboards.

Although, I started seeing some sector read errors on that green-labeled 2TB HDD this morning. I may have to yank that one and swap in a different one when I get home tonight. I've got a scan/repair running now but it'll be a while before its done...lots of sectors to read on that large a drive...