If you have 2 modems in your home network and they’re both in the same IP range, make sure only one of them is performing DNS lookup.
Ran into this the other day when I set up an ancient modem as a WiFi access point. I had to perform a factory default as no-one knew the login password. What I didn’t notice was that the default re-enabled the modem’s DNS function and it was now fighting with the Livebox to provide a DNS lookup server. As the ancient modem was looking at a long defunct DNS server address, it didn’t work very well and the result was intermittent internet access across the home network.
This has been a Public Service Announcement on behalf of The Why Isn’t This Poxy Thing Working Party.
Never, ever built a PC for someone else as EVERYTHING that goes wrong with be YOUR fault.
Wine gets poured into the case : Your fault
Lightning hits the house, killing every electrical appliance: Your fault
Owner deletes all the security software you installed and proceeds to visit all sorts of hooky websites, infecting their PC with every virus, Trojan and piece of malware known to man: Your fault
Owner uses the free Windows upgrade option from 7 to 10, but somehow chooses “Clean Install” instead of “Upgrade” and wipes their hard drive: Your fault
I tend not to admit to my computer background these days. Not because I don’t want to help out but because, usually, I can’t. I was a programmer, not an IT geek. The computer was a tool, nothing more. Similarly, I can drive a car but can’t fix one.
The problem is, and I don’t blame anyone for doing this, people assume that because I worked on computers that I can fix them. I can’t, not as a rule. I’m just as likely to make things worse as fix them. The truth is that I’m as clueless on Windows and, to a lesser extent, networking as just about everyone else.
Plus, Windows can be a hornet’s nest. I’ve had techies, back in the day, that’d come up to me whilst I was working and say they just needed to change or upgrade something on my work station… I’d stand aside and the clicking commenced…
…click, click, click’ … ahh… befuddled looks…
…I’d go and make myself a coffee…
…click, click, click, “that shouldn’t happen” they’d say, starting to get agitated, more random and increasingly desperate clicking
…x hours later, I’d get my PC back
I’ve enough knowledge to know to leave well alone. What can start out as a well meaning intervention can end up biting your bum. I’ve not been there but I won’t do that.
However I got into programming because of an interest in electronics, and somehow always wound up doing a bit of sysadmin as well. Eventually you pick stuff up.
Windows is too opaque half the time, no way of finding out what is going on - which isone of the reasons that I prefer Linux.
I had the devil’s own job of installing some software for a new keyboard in the past week. It was one of those schemes where yu download a small installation program which then pulls the main software down & installs it.
It just froze and refused to download anything.
Turned out (after I got some heavyweight debugging tools at it) that it was picking up an old proxy setting and half using it (i.e for some HTTP access but not other bits).
I’m not sure an average user would have had the old setting lingering but I’m pretty sure they would not have been able to work out why the download was not happening.
@jwall just as a matter of interest, what is your preferred OS these days?
I (and quite a few others on SF) use Linux in one of its various guises (mine is Ubuntu).
I absolutely hate Windoze (with a passion) and as a software developer myself (in the past) it’s a heap of bloated over-promoted rubbish.
We used to have a notice in my hardware engineer’s office - “Plug and play all day”!
That’s exactly the same with me. I got my first soldering iron in 1975 and did all sorts of things. Introduced to my first computer in 1978. Started a degree in Computer Science and Microelectronics but left after a year and started working as an Hardware engineer who knew also did some software. That morphed into a Software engineer who understood hardware. Along the way, I worked on all sorts of different things and so had to pick up at least the rudiments of lots of different related disciplines. I was a bit of a magpie in that respect.
Linux Mint on the home laptops. I’ve ‘distro hopped’ over the years but settled on Mint now. I’ve a few Raspberry Pis doing things; file/media servers and players, etc. Plus one that does network ad blocking (obviously SF is whitelisted) Those run flavours of Unix. I do a bit of scripting every now and again, to keep my hand in, mainly automated backups, nothing sophisticated.
I’m much happier with the Unix command line than I am with anything Win GUI. That said, I do have an old Win10 PC that I power on in the instances I need it.
I am a long time Arch Linux user, not used a windows computer since winme days.
If you fancy a trip down Linux memory lane I recommend https://soft.lafibre.info/
they have loads of old Linux ISO’s, Any of which you can burn to cd/usb or use in virtual box. Have fun.
Same here, but mine was a Sinclair ZX80 . The Nascom 2 was a pretty good machine. A friend of mine mounted his on a large lump of marine ply. I also upgraded my early BBC Model A to a Model B, which wasn’t very difficult really as all the DIL ICs already had sockets. Most of the soldering required was for the external sockets, along with some wire mods.
I think I was too ham fisted to appreciate the finer points of using a soldering iron… so I avoided it but Vanessa seemed content to do so - best left to the experts
She did most (if not all) of the wiring of plugs in our household too…
I realised my limitations at an early age (or was I just a lazy bastard?)
Although I do still have a decent iron and all the paraphernalia, I’ve only used it once in 3 years as the eyesight and coordination are a pale imitation of thier former selves. That was recently, building a little Bluetooth serial port dongle for my telescope mount. It was a lot more difficult than it should have been
. The Nascom 2 was a pretty good machine. A friend of mine mounted his on a large lump of marine ply. I also upgraded my early BBC Model A to a Model B, which wasn’t very difficult really as all the DIL ICs already had sockets. Most of the soldering required was for the external sockets, along with some wire mods.
