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I stumbled across these shirts while looking for something else.  Finally, something made for guys like me!

(The title is from one of their shirts.)

In my continuing saga with wireless networking I’ve learned quite a few things.  I’d previously mentioned that I was having trouble keeping my wireless network up and running.  I originally suspected interference from a wireless phone, perhaps in the house next door (which had new residents).  It turns out that it wasn’t a wireless phone, but a combination of faulty equipment and other interference.

After waiting about three weeks for my Wifi Detector(¹) to arrive, I was finally able to use it to get a reading during an outage.  What I found surprised me.  I was getting no signal whatsoever, because the router/AP was going offline.  The router I was using was a Linksys WRT54GS v2 that I purchased in late July to replace my old WRT54G v1 that had died while I was on vacation.  The old one had been rock-solid up to its untimely death after two years of service.

Guessing that something was amiss with the router, I went ahead and obtained a WRT54G v5 (²).  This one had the exact same symptoms as the other one.  I started doing some Google searches and ran across some interesting forum entries about the WRT54G[S] line.  Some people had been experiencing overheating that caused intermittent wireless outages and reboots.  They cured it in some cases using fans and heatsinks (and one guy even tilted his router up so that heat would flow better).  Another thread found that there appears to be a bug in the ethernet driver in the router that causes it to lock up after a certain amount of data had flowed (and/or when it was under heavy load).  Many users were able to very accurately predict failure by copying large files.  The router would lock up in the same place each time (although the amount of data flow varied).  Finally, one user found that there was a certain byte sequence in the data stream that would cause the router to lock up and reboot.  He was able to reproduce the problem with only a 1600-byte file.

Needless to say, I was less than thrilled with this, so after a morning spent with intermittent disconnects I went over to Staples and acquired a Belkin Pre-N router.  Installation was not pain free, as the thing has some weird quirks with regards to setting it up in AP-only mode (I found myself having to use a laptop with an ethernet cable and switch cables between the LAN and WAN ports after changing to AP mode).  It turns out that it needed an upgrade to the firmware to work correctly as an AP³.  Once I had that ironed out it seemed to work quite well, though.  The MIMO technology seems to provide better signal coverage as my office bridge was reporting 100% signal, where it had only gotten 76% with the Linksys. 

All seemed well for about a week.  Then I started having intermittent slow-downs and an occasional disconnect.  Some browsing on the bridge showed that during these periods it was seeing other networks in the area:

What’s interesting is that these networks don’t show up most of the time.  At the time this snapshot was taken, the bridge was working fine, even with the other networks visible (note the 100% signal strength).  What I noticed during the outages is that the signal strength on my network will go down to between 70% and 50%, and the 2Wire network will show up.  If the 2Wire isn’t visible, I don’t have any problems. 

A little digging on Google unearthed a possible explanation.  Some 2Wire AP’s are capable of transmitting at 400mW.  It is my understanding that “normal” AP’s transmit somewhere between 100-200mW.  However, it would seem that since my network is on channel 1 and the 2Wire is on channel 6 that there shouldn’t be a problem.  It turns out that this isn’t completely true.  The typical bandwidth for wireless-g is 44MHz (or so I’ve been told), which means that it uses frequencies from 22MHz below the channel center to 22MHz above the channel center.  This means that for 802.11b/g that channels 1,6, and 11 almost touch each other (e.g. channel 1 is at 2412MHz and channel 6 is at 2437MHz; adding 22MHz to channel 1 gets you to 2434MHz).  Here’s a diagram (borrowed from the IEEE 802.11b-1999 document) of the channel layout in North America.

Typically, the adjacent signals should not interfere with each other, because the IEEE specification shows a -50dBr signal strength at +/- 22MHz from the channel center, as shown in this diagram:

However, since I only seem to have trouble now when the 2Wire is operational, and since it’s capable of transmitting at much higher power than usual, I can’t help but wonder if something is out-of-spec on the 2Wire that’s causing interference on channel 1.  Although -50dB is a significant difference in power, it should be noted that it is a relative measurement.  If you take a 400mW signal and attenuate it by -50dB, it’s still greater than a signal at 200mW attenuated -50dB.  I’m not a radio expert, though.  I know just enough to be dangerous.  But my empirical observation is that the 2Wire is the likely culprit, and I’ve seen some information via Google that suggests that others are having similar problems.

Now it remains for me to see if I can pinpoint the house with the 2Wire unit and encourage the user to move the device to channel 11.  At least that would give some breathing room for my network, and perhaps show once and for all whether the 2Wire is the problem. 

Previous entries:
Channelling Annoyance
Wired to the Channel

¹ I suppose I shouldn’t complain too much, but I think Amazon’s free shipping has spoiled me for free shipping offers from other companies.  Amazon usually delivers early on their free shipping offer (or at worst they will be right on time with their estimate).  In this instance, with Buy.com, I thought perhaps the item was lost, since I got a shipping notice on 10/12 and didn’t get the package until 10/28.  In fact, I was just about to initiate a “lost package” request with them when I read their conditions.  You have to wait 21 days on a “budget shipping” item to report it lost.  If I was more cynical I’d suspect they do this on purpose to encourage you to purchase their other shipping options…

²  Linksys has a habit of keeping the same model number and just adding a revision code on the bottom of the router to indicate what hardware revision you get.  With the WRT54G[S] series, sometimes those revisions can be fairly drastic.  Version 5 of the WRT54G series has a much smaller motherboard, less flash memory, and a new operating system (VxWorks instead of Linux).  Further, because of the changes, it will not work with alternate firmware, such as DD-WRT.

³  Why would you buy a router and use it as an AP?  Fios TV requires me to use the D-Link router they supplied, and it’s a wired unit.  Further, it turns out that it’s often less expensive to buy a wireless router than a AP.  I’m not sure why it’s that way, but that’s the way it is in the marketplace (perhaps because in the home/home-office segment more people buy wireless routers than AP’s?).

While the ramifications of the explosion are trivial in comparison, a wet dog is best regarded as a ticking timebomb.

I don’t generally follow sports, but it’s been hard not to hear about the Congressional steroid hearings and Rafael Palmeiro.  Looks like he’s going to get off without an indictment.

But if it’s a crime to lie to Congress, why isn’t it a crime when they lie to us?

Sony is being sued by the State of California over their nefarious hidden rootkit that is installed from some of their music CDs. 

I hope Sony gets a good spanking over this.  It’s not that I advocate stealing music, but that I am absolutely opposed to having (buggy) software installed on my system without my permission.  What’s worse is that this software will only inconvenience regular users.  Anyone who is really interested in stealing and reselling the content will be able to get around the copy restrictions.  And this will remain true as long as CD-Audio remains a viable format.  There is a well-defined format (Redbook) for how audio CDs must be arranged so that they can be read by CD players.  As long as Redbook audio is on the disk, there will be a way to access it and rip it.  The Sony rootkit worked by hooking the CD driver so that Windows can’t see the audio portion of the “protected” disks.

This sort of thing is one of the main factors in my decision to strictly use my Linux system for ripping CDs.  The Linux CD driver is not confused by having both data and music on the CD, and my ripper (Grip) uses cdparanoia, which is also capable of overcoming bad sectors and other disk anomalies.  It’s not as user friendly as iTunes, but it’s much safer and robust as well as being immune to silly Sony rootkits.

I rip every CD I buy, and so far I have not encountered one that would not rip.  If I ever do, I will return it as defective.

Update:  Well, that didn’t take long.  A trojan has already been spotted that takes advantage of the Sony rootkit to hide itself.

Sony-BMG’s rootkit DRM technology masks files whose filenames start with “$sys$”. A newly-discovered variant of of the Breplibot Trojan takes advantage of this to drop the file “$sys$drv.exe” in the Windows system directory.

“This means, that for systems infected by the Sony DRM rootkit technology, the dropped file is entirely invisible to the user. It will not be found in any process and file listing. Only rootkit scanners, such as the free utility RootkitRevealer, can unmask the culprit,” warns Ivan Macalintal, a senior threat analyst at security firm Trend Micro

The malware arrives attached in an email, which pretends to come from a reputable business magazine, asking the businessman to verify his/her “picture” to be used for the December issue. If the malicious payload contained in this email is executed then the Trojan installs an IRC backdoor on affected Windows systems

An entry from The Fat Guy about being ticked off by a noisy group in the departure lounge reminded me of the last flight I took from Chicago to DFW.  We were delayed after landing because we were early and the plane in front of us at the gate was late in leaving.  I was seated in the next to last row, which isn’t far from where the flight attendants sit on a 777.  The guy in the back row was going nuts because the flight attendants were talking practically non-stop for the 30-40 minutes we were sitting there.  It was both annoying to have to listen to them and unprofessional, as they were talking badly about some passengers they had encountered on earlier flights (not that these passengers probably didn’t deserve to be talked about, but it’s probably best not to do it where other passengers can hear; that little curtain at the back of the plane isn’t soundproof).

The first time this creature visited me, I was standing in the kitchen with the lights off and I saw something dart across the window from the corner of my eye.  At first I thought perhaps I’d been watching too many episodes of Ghost Hunters, but then it came back and I realized it was some sort of salamander. 

Now I’m used to it hanging out on my kitchen window or sometimes the bathroom window.  It shows up just about every night now.  As long as it remains outside, it’s a welcome visitor.  If it comes inside, all bets are off. 

( Yes, the outside of that window is dirty, although the 4x zoom and flash make it appear worse that it really is.  Anybody know a good window cleaning service?  ‘Cause I don’t do windows.  )

Am I the only one who wondered if perhaps Kirstie Alley didn’t gain weight specifically for her Jenny Craig contract?  It’s not like she’d be the first actor/actress to gain weight for a part.

Or am I just too cynical?

They don’t call Texas the “Buckle of the Bible Belt” for nothing.  I was not surprised that Proposition 2 (PDF) passed, although I was a little surprised at the margin.

Here is the exact text that was added to the Texas constitution by this vote:

     SECTION 1. Article I, Texas Constitution, is amended by adding Section 32 to read as follows:
     Sec. 32. (a) Marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman.
     (b) This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage.

At a personal level, I did not like this amendment for several reasons.  First, I personally know several gay couples and have a hard time institutionalizing a ban on them formalizing their relationships, regardless of whether we call it marriage or civil unions.  Primarily, though, I thought the addition of subsection (b) was going too far.  If someone wants to “protect marriage,” as the proponents of this amendment were at great pains to hammer into our heads at every opportunity (when they weren’t quoting scripture), they didn’t need the second part.  Further, the phrase “similar to marriage” held great concern, in that it seemed to hold the potential under the right legal challenge with the right judge to perhaps invalidate some private contracts (which are legal documents, after all) which are the only avenue that gay couples have at this time to arrange the logistics of their relationships. 

It turns out that the enabling legislation does address this issue.  However, it does so in a way that does not give the finding the same force as the above amendment.  Here’s the text:

SECTION 2. This state recognizes that through the designation of guardians, the appointment of agents, and the use of private contracts, persons may adequately and properly appoint guardians and arrange rights relating to hospital visitation, property, and the entitlement to proceeds of life insurance policies without the existence of any legal status identical or similar to marriage.

I’m not a lawyer, but my understanding of this is that by including this finding it provides a “judicial hint” should a court have to make a ruling in an area affected by this amendment.  Still, I’m concerned that because it’s phrased as a finding it doesn’t necessarily become law, and we all know that we can’t rely on judges these days to necessarily follow common sense or even the wishes of those who wrote the original law.

I suppose only time and court challenges will tell whether this problem will actually come up.  It also leads me to wonder if this could be a hook to allow SCOTUS to invalidate the amendment, if it could be found that it violates some clause of the U.S. Constitution.  I suspect that it’s not likely, but who knows?

Proponents of gay marriage now have a serious uphill battle ahead of them in Texas, because it will require convincing about 30% of those who voted to change their minds after somehow managing to get a bill through the Texas legislature.  And I don’t think this can strictly be seen as a partisan thing.  To get the kind of margin by which this amendment was passed it appears that this was an issue that crossed party lines.  So simply electing Democrats to replace Republicans won’t be sufficient.  Most Texas Democrats (outside of the big cities) are fairly conservative (and are probably considered raving right-wingnuts by the national Democrat party).

Update:  Dan Morgan (via Stephen Green) says something that I’d been thinking in the back of my mind.  In short, the argument is that this sort of relationship is here to stay and it’s only a matter of time before it gets recognized, mainly for the sake of any children involved.  Perhaps a good area of attack for the gay marriage supporters to change public opinion would be a campaign to show real people and children who are harmed by lack of a formalized relationship mechanism in the law.

Today is election day.  That means that we will have the governor’s election in one year.  On the Republican side Carole Keeton Strayhorn is challenging Gov. Rick Perry for the nomination.  Unfortunately, the fight has already started, with Strayhorn running attack ads on Perry.  Further, there are a couple of Democrats who have already announced, not to mention this guy (and his CMT reality show).

Frankly, I’m not sure what to make of Strayhorn.  She seems like a crap-stirrer, which can sometimes be a good thing, depending on whether the particular crap in question needed stirring.  I guess I’m going to get plenty of opportunities to find out what she wants me to believe over the next year.  I suppose sometime around the end of October next year I’ll actually get around to researching her true views.

I fear this is going to be an especially long and bitter year as “One Tough Grandma” attacks “Gov. Good Hair” at every opportunity.