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After a few hours of frustration trying to get the Dell Wireless 3300 Print Server to hop onto my wireless network, I finally figured out the problem. I was using WPA-PSK in AES mode on my wireless router. Apparently, this little gem (if you have a compatible printer) only likes TKIP. After I made this change it connected without a problem.

This print server works very well, but you have to have a compatible printer. In fact, if you have one of the printers this was intended for, I would recommend using this to anything else. I know for a fact it works great on a Dell 1710 and a 962 (Photo All-in-One).

Update: 01/28/2009
Before you venture off this way, let me give you a bit of advice that may save you some time and frustration. If you can, take the 7.2 router back to where you bought it. If you have a family member or a friend of a friend who needs a new router and doesn't need the dd-wrt stuff, give it to them. Then, go out and buy a Linksys WRT54GL. These are the Linux based routers Linksys released that support third-party firmware updates. They are technically a re-release of the v4 WRT54G. I found out about this a while back and have been very happy since.

A few months ago I gave my old Buffalo (WHR-HP-54G) router to my uncle in law. A few days later I went online to purchase a new router and was very disappointed to find out that they were temporarly unavailable in the US. Since I could not buy my favorite router, I decided to use an old laptop and try out IpCop.

I must say I was very pleased with IpCop. The installation was quite smooth even on an old notebook with PCMCIA cards. Unfortunately, after some time of testing, I decided to go back to DD-WRT. The notebook was just too old and too run down to run reliably, so against my better judgment I bought a Linksys and got DD-WRT back up and running.

I bought a WRT54GS (WRT54G with SpeedBooster) from my local WallMart. (I happened to see it while I was browsing around in the electronics section and it was priced relatively low ($59), so I decided to give it a try.) I wasn't sure if that particular model was going to run DD-WRT, but I took it home anyway. (I felt pretty confident I could get the original firmware back on it and take it back if I didn't like it.)

When I first opened the box I was little worried as the version number on the bottom of the router read v.7.2. I had never seen this in any of the routers, but a little search on the internet revealed that 7.2 was most likely a "quick-fix" release to version 7. I went ahead and followed the instructions for loading DD-WRT on a v7 router. (DD-WRT's wiki does not list the version 7.2 on their compatible devices list. Technically, one could say v7.2 is a version 7, but I'm pretty sure they would have the specifically listed it, so I'm going to assume they don't know if it works or not.) Everything installed ok and I'm now an "almost happy" owner of a new Linksys router. I still don't like that Linksys crippled their WRT54G/S.

So, if you need a new router and happen to find a Linksys WRT54GS with serial starting CGNE, then you can flash it with the latest release candidate of DD-WRT. Below you will find the links to everything you need for this specific version of the router.

INSTRUCTIONS
VXWorks Killer
DD-WRT Micro

I was looking throught my junk drawer, and I found some old, USB flash drives. The shells were scuffed up and pretty beaten up from being attached to my keychaing for a long time, so I decided to change it out, and here is what a came up with:

As you can see, I removed the old shell and wrapped the flash drive board with electrical tape.

It actually works quite nicely! They are much thiner so they fit better in the usb slots, and I really like the feel of the tape. The only problem I thought I might have was overheating, but so far it's not an issue.

Had they been identical I could have used different colors to tell them appart, but as they are of different shapes, it's pretty easy already. I should have thought of this earlier, but I could have put in some string to create a loop at the end. I suppose I could unwrap the tape and insert the string, but maybe I'll do it some other time.

WikiPedia: Link
Here is one that I really like: Link

Symptoms:
FTP client disconnects from the FTP server after a long file transfer.

Cause:
While the file is being transfered on the data channel, there are no commands sent on the FTP command channel. Therefore, the FTP command channel connection exceeds the inactivity timeout set in the IP Filter and is disconnected. When the file has finished uploading and the client tries to send the next command it fails causing the FTP session to terminate.

Resolution:
Change the TCP timeout to a larger value.

Note: In DD-WRT versions prior to v24, the max value for TCP timeout is 3600 seconds. For large file transfers, 1 hour can easily be exceeded. The value can be changed, but it must be changed from the DD-WRT terminal. (Telnet, SSH into DD-WRT) Version 24 of DD-WRT allows the value to be changed from the GUI, up to a maximum of 86400 seconds.

Network Diagram Shows the final configuration.

Below is a chart showing the progression of the DD-WRT settings on both ends and the associated symptoms before I found this problem. Please note that the timeout has to be changed on both sides. In other words, a single file upload cannot consume more time than the smaller of the two tcp timeout settings. (The UDP setting is included because of P2P. You want these connections to timeout in a relatively short amount of time to keep your router from being overloaded from peer connections.)

I was searching the internet for a particular item when I came upon weirdstuff.com.

Looking around the site I was amazed to find they sold old processors; from 386s to Pentiums to AMD K-6s. They have several i386s clocked at an amazing 16Mhz and even 20Mhz. I’m sure some day we’ll look back at the days of only one core in a cpu. Perhaps, in the days of Kilacores and Megacores…

I’m not sure if there would be anybody out there that would still buy one of these processors. The only reason I can think of is to revive that old computer they kept from their hey day, maybe to recapture a little of the glory.

Anyway, head on over to weirdstuff.com and take a look at this page.

I have been looking around the internet looking at computer cases and power supplies, etc. I came across Ultra Products. I decided to purchase a power supply from them because my old 500W CompUSA brand power supply died on me after about four years of use, or abuse, well, let’s just say that the CompUSA power supply gave all it had and then some before a capacitor exploded. So, I came upon this company and I am really impressed with them. (This is the power supply that I bought for $65.99 on ZipZoomFly.com.)

Well, I’m getting ready to invest in an Intel bundle and I was doing some research on the motherboard which is a MicroATX form factor board. I e-mailed Ultra tech support asking them about any issues I may have with the power supply and the motherboard (600W power supply with MicroATX…don’t want to kill the motherboard) and within one hour I had a very knowledgeable guy respond to my question. In contrast, I also e-mailed Intel, and who knows when I’ll get a response from them!

At any rate, I also looked at a computer case that Ultra makes. You can check it out at TigerDirect.com They have much more information, including a video.

Bottom line…Ultra makes good products and has excellent tech support!

3dGameMan.com has incredible reviews.

Just check out the link below. You won’t be disappointed!

http://www.3dgameman.com/content/blogsection/4/103/

If you get a chance, take a look at the about page.

Update: 9/13/2007 – I few days ago I bought a Buffalo WHR-G125 for a new client. It was for sale at Circuit City with a rebate, so it ended up costing only $25 dollars! I installed DD-WRT v24 RC2 and it works great!! Has a faster processor than the WHR-HP-G54, and for that price, you simply can’t get a better router!

Original Post:

Linksys WRT54G version 4 or below with DD-WRT firmware = AWESOME, but hard to find…
Linksys WRT54G version 5 with DD-WRT firmware = NICE, but hard to find…
Linksys WRT54G version > 5 = OK, but only good for your grandma…

Linksys WRV200 = TOTAL CRAP! Don’t belive me? Check the Linksys support forum and see all the trouble people have had with it.

All the trouble I had with the WRV200, coupled with Linksys’s crippling of the WRT54G with every new release, has lead me to dislike the company and their products.

Replacement:

Buffalo WHR-HP-G54 any version with DD-WRT firmware = FANTASTIC!!

Picked one up from Circuit City. With the mail-in rebate it was about $50. DD-WRT installed super easy, and works perfectly!

Bottom line…if you need a new wireless router, buy a Buffalo WHR-HP-G54…and don’t forget to install DD-WRT.

Update: 8/30/2007 – The price has come down about $6 since this article was posted.

Original Post:

Well, I ran across Q6600 Core 2 Quad CPU, and besides all the great things that we’ve heard about Intel’s new line of chips, the one thing that stood out the most was the price?!?!

On ZipZoomFly.com the price for this processor is $286.00 and free shipping. This is great news because you can actually build a Quad Core desktop PC for less then $1000. Hopefully the Extreme edition will come down in price too, currently around $970.

This is my first post here, but there is more coming.