Tomato!

I wanted to take a few minutes and post about Tomato Firmware which I’ve installed on my Linksys wireless router. Since my router much like some of the linksys routers uses open source technology these things are able to be hacked with better software, all which is totally legal. Of course this voids any warranty one might have but when you pay £40 for a router I don’t think you’re worrying too much about a warranty. With the Tomato Firmware installed my £40 wireless router turns into a £400 wireless router. It provides things like VPN capability, DDNS, bandwidth monitoring/Usage Graphs, QoS, various wireless and general LAN tools, and enterprise grade wireless security. I’ve also found it to be much more stable than the DD-WRT

firmware most people, myself included, have been putting on their routers.

I’ll touch on a few of the things I like most. Like I said before it’s stable. The DD-WRT firmware just seemed to lock up all the time on me, it also was kicking my parents computer off the network all the time. Since adding the new firmware to the router I’ve to have a complaint from them in that department. The wireless security features are top notch. It allows everything from WEP (why?) to WPA 1 and 2, using Pre-Shared-Keys or a radius server if you really need that kind of security. It also allows for mixed modes, as in allowing WPA clients and WPA 2 clients, with the highest of encryption schemes for you to choose from. My current setup is in WPA/WPA2 Personal mode using TKIP /AES encryption. This way I can connect to the network with WPA 2 using AES encryption and my parents, who’s wireless card is lacking in the security features, to connect with WPA using TKIP encryption. I’ve been outside most of the day and haven’t dropped a connection yet with the router all the way on the other side of the house. Even using the highest encryption doesn’t seem to effect anything. If range was the problem I could always increase the power to the antenna, another feature provided by the Tomato firmware.
One more thing before I go. I wanted to mention the bandwidth monitor/graphs provided by the router. This feature allows one to view current, daily, monthly, yearly graphs and charts of all bandwidth used. The downside to this feature is that if you reboot the router for any reason, power loss, your parents think unplugging and plugging the machine back in will make their Internet work, whatever the reason, you’ll lose all your logs. Word to the wise, backup your current logs via the handy backup feature on the router before changing your logs to be stored on a share. Luckily I thought to do this, because current logs aren’t transferred when changing where they are stored. In addition, there’s a check box under where you select where to store your logs, make sure that is checked to create a new storage file on your share. Once that is done just restore the backup you made previously and you’re good to go.

Well that’s what I’ve been researching this month.

Freeride Mountain Bike Jumps

I've taken a real interest in Mountain-biking over the past few months, not to the extent of these guys though...holy crap!

Capiiiital

This week I've been to visit our glorious capital, for a course with work unfortunately. Although it has been a good course and nearing the end of it I can say that it's an area of development I'd like to pursue.
One thing I noticed when arriving in London was just how extremely chaotic it is, I mean the rush at lunchtime, you'd think we'd had the 4 minute warning and I think I will be having nightmares about the tube for the next 10 years hehe. I can see why people visit though, it's quite a site when you're walking through and looking at the attractions, in my case without looking where I'm going but that's another story.
So much so I will definately be returning to really go over the place with a fine tooth comb, but in the company of the girlfriend, which I have missed like mad being down here on my tod and can't wait until I get back on Friday to give her a hig bug, or something like that :)

Anyhow that's what I've been up too this week.

Pint of blood anyone?

So I went to give blood today for my fourth donation. All was going swimmingly until I had to lay down and actually start giving, as the nurse decided the vein that has been used for the past 3 donations had a pulse, so a different one had to be selected. A little weird I though as I've never had any problems giving from that one before, but I kept schtum and let her continue.
She found one just to the right and started to drain me of my livelyhood...err blood and then the fun started. Firstly the machine was malfunctioning so the blood had to be measured by weight and not by the computer as usual, then my blood didn't want to come out of this new vein so they thought it would be good to jiggle the needle about (ow!) which did bugger all to help and just plain hurt. The problem was two pieces of tight tape that were holding the valve to my arm restricting the flow, which is nice to know...

Needless to say it was an absolute nightmare and I sometimes wonder why I bother to donate, when you get nothing apart from a large bruise :(

I will however continue, as no matter what people say it does make you feel like you've done something that will possibly save a life.

Noah takes a photo of himself every day for 6 years.

Thought this was an amazing video, just goes to show how much you can change, or not in 6 long years. Freaky.

May!

Well it's been a quiet month, I've been putting in a good few hours on the Snowbourn server (LoTR Online) which is still really enjoyable, mostly down to the excellent game community and the fun in gaming with someone (Girlfriend ^_^) . It does do a great job of making time fly too, a whole afternoon can dissapear so quickly, but it is good fun.

Apart from the gaming, not alot has been happening. I will get back to you soon.

7 Days in.

Well I have completed my 7 day free trial of Lord of the Rings Online and I am impressed. I mean if you after a mainlyPvP; 40 man raid focussed MMO then I don't think this one's for you, but if you do enjoy some really nice story driven questing, smooth graphics and an extremely friendly and helpful community then wait no more!
I do enjoy playing the game, and the fact I've got my better half playing too adds to that enjoyment as you're never questing on your tod, which can and will put you to sleep if you do it for too long. However, I do miss the PvP elements of DAoC days, which do make an MMO much more appealing to me atleast and I think it would be nice to have that choice.
I think I shall be giving Age of Conan a try come October '07, with it's PvP orientated style and most definately dabbling with Warhammer Online come '08. In the mean time though I shall continue with LotRO.

So that's what I've been up to the past week.