Paul A. Luzzi

March 2, 2011

Well, this turns out to be the first post this year, but there has been much activity just not a lot of posting about it. Most recently I took a troublesome print server out of the mix. I was using a Linksys WPSM54g to USB connect my HP LaserJet 2550 color laser printer to the network. The printer comes with parallel and usb connections, and when connected via either method to a pc, it was flawless. But using the USB connection to the WPSM54g was troublesome. After any settings change on the WPSM54g, the USB link would drop. And after every single print job, the USB would drop. To restore, I had to unplug the usb from the WPSM54g, then power cycle the WPSM54g, then plug the USB back in again. Simply pulling the USB alone wasnt enough, nor was power cycling the WPSM54g. What I found did work, is to pull the USB from the printer side, wait 2 seconds, then reinsert. But that was too much to tolerate for every print job – especially now that its network connected. The resolution was to get a Linksys WPS54gu2 which offers both USB and parallel connections. Setting up the parallel made all my problems go away and now it never loses connection.

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December 21, 2010

Well, completed a few laptop updates today. Using Acronis True Image, I swapped a dv9008nr and dv9208nr (bad wireless), and similarly swapped a dv9825nr with a dv9812us (bad sound card).

Also repaired my 4PSA DNS Manager tonight. 4PSA was very responsive to my question about why it expired when they claim that its free up to 10 zones. They send me a link to their site where they have the free 10 zone key and then I was able to get a license to get going again.

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December 13, 2010

Added memory to the Untangle IPS server so that its now at 1Gb per recommendations. Also, since it sits in a rack, on its side, and get quite hot – I’ve removed the “top” cover now so that it will vent better. Hopefully this will stop some of the overheating issues.

Also turned the two “in room” fans down to 50% flow and see how that works through the winter.

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December 6, 2010

Canceled my Verizon DSL circuit today. Times they are a tough. On another note, I think I’m killing my 2.4Ghz HPa746c which is currently my untangle server. I already smoked my HP a712n somehow, so now its just a parts donor, but somehow I need a good untangle server. So I guess its time to compile a box from all the salvage yard stuff I have laying around.

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November 21, 2010

Lost the HP-a712n today. So that’s one more for “the pile”. It will be replaced with the dv9208nr which has no wireless – so I guess its technically an upgrade in a way.

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November 8, 2010

Buy D.Y.’s book ! That’s it.

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October 19, 2010

Officially switched from Vern desktop manager to VirtuaWin desktop manager in my windows desktops. I tried a bunch of the ones seen here, but in the end, it was VirtuaWin that I liked best. VirtuaWin doesn’t have the memory constraint issues like Vern did, and runs without hack/mods in Vista and Win7. Transition takes a few days of getting used to but now its just second nature.

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October 14, 2010

Worth noting – an APC ups repair process : http://www.joeteck.com/apc-repair.htm

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October 7, 2010

Well, after making such a big stink about how great untangle is, I have to say – the reliability of the host I setup is questionable. The last two days, I’ve woken to find my “network” is down, and its because the untangle host is frozen. So I’m going to try and build a another standalone to be the untangle server, and see if it gets better. It stinks though because by now I’ve been doing some customizations, setting hosts to be on “pass” lists, setting up QoS, etc. But this HP PC that I’m using won’t stay up more than 20 hours now and that just wont cut it.

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September 30, 2010

Well, a bit of a headache to get the connectivity right, but the job is done. The “untangle” server is now in place. Its setup in bridge mode, and takes the firewall’s inside interface, and connects to the outside interface of the untangle box “IPS”. Then the internal side of “IPS” connects to the core switch. Now everything passes through the IPS, and it can catch spam, phishing attacks, virus, and plenty of other good stuff – all before clogging up my email. This should help in many ways – so the testing is now underway.

One thing worth noting about IPS – in the spam area, I chose not to drop the emails at the IPS, but instead mark them as spam and forward them through. That way I can see all the emails IPS is catching in my regular email client’s “junk” folder. So I can tell if its good, or catching any false positives. Assuming its as good as I anticipate, in a month, I’ll change the “mark” option to “drop”, so that they don’t come into Zimbra at all.

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