Joe and Jamie's Blog

Saturday was an exciting day. Not only did we have the MLS game to go to, but Verizon came to install FiOS for our TV and internet. I am very happy we finally are getting digital cable plus consistent internet speeds with great upload speeds. You can view my post where I was very disappointed with Time Warner here.

The installation process took around four hours for completion. That includes the guy running the cable from the pole to the house, mounting and activating the box on the house, and then checking the signal strength to each TV before plugging in the cable boxes. We are lucky that the FiOS terminal is the pole right in front of our house, makes for an easy setup when you are the main pole for the area.

Our installer Darrell was very neat and knowledgeable. He did an excellent and thorough job. I have some pictures of him connecting the wire to the pole and the box on the outside of the house. I helped him where I could since I am interested in all that sort of stuff. Learned a lot about how they deliver the fiber that day.

I haven’t been home all weekend besides just being here for the install to know how great the TV service has been. I know its nice to finally put our HD TV’s to use. Today I really tested the internet. I have been uploading and downloading files all day to see if the speeds slow down at any point, and they don’t. We have the same download speeds as Time Warner, but ten times the upload speed. We got the internet bundle with the 20/5MB speeds. What is great is they can always increase the speed dramatically if I want and guarantee the speed consistently. Here is the new speed test from www.speedtest.net while on FiOS.

Time to head down to the Time Warner office now and return the equipment.

Over the past few months the internet has really dragged at the house. It has gotten so bad that it takes me hours just to do simple downloads from the web server that I used to do in minutes. I can’t even stream radio and get on a server at work without my email disconnecting and the stream stopping. Watch an online video? HA! It’s more like watching someone stutter for thirty minutes.

So after numerous speed tests and quadruple checking the network at my house, I started up a chat session with Time Warner to troubleshoot my Road Runner modem. I have emailed them before, but they just pretty much ignored what I said and said I was getting what I pay for, which I wasn’t. Now I am paying for a 10MB download and 512KB upload. Yes the upload is horrible but the next level plan is too expensive. I was getting 1-1.5MB download speeds and 256KB upload speeds. So 1/10 the download speed I was paying for. To me I left I was on dial-up on crack, which still is slower than a turtle.

Seven technicians later and after following their stupid instructions (they refused to listen to me after I repeatedly told them I was a network admin and not someone who knows nothing) I finally was told I had to move to the next department, which was phone only. That right there was a waste of an hour and a half plus eight trips to the basement to reset the modem. Needless to say I told every single technician to check the modem for fragmentation and errors, but none of them did. I pick up my phone and call the number I was given to call and I get that lovely computer lady “This call cannot be completed from your area”. Now I was furious. Not only did I spend over an hour with idiots that refused to listen to me, but now I am directed to a phone number that doesn’t work at all. I was then given the main number, so I called that.

After being on hold for near thirty minutes, I get someone in Texas who cannot help me at all. She transfers me to the New York office, only for me to be on hold some more. Finally I get someone. Before I am sent on a wild goose chase I left my frustration out until she gets the point I’m pissed off and had enough. I tell her to check the modem since no one else has yet. She puts me on hold and comes back thirty seconds later and says “Your modem is no good, you need a replacement”.

I nearly threw the phone through the wall. I spent over two hours on chats and on the phone to have someone do what I said to do from the very beginning. UGH. Since the Time Warner office is a few blocks from me I chose just to go down there rather than wait a few days for a technician. I somehow squeezed out a thank you and hung up.

Today I went down to the Time Warner office and exchanged my modem. I came right home and plugged it in. Below are the before and after speedtests. I am now getting 20MB+ download speeds consistently, as my 512KB upload speed. I am happy now, but I really cannot wait until my Verizon FiOS gets here. We are ordering it this week and scrapping Time Warner, just like every smart person with FiOS in their area should do. Not only is it better TV and internet, it’s cheaper.

Moral of the story, don’t ever call Time Warner support unless you know nothing about the internet and networks. If you do, you will only wind up with a migraine, a broken cell phone, and a cell phone shaped hole in the wall.

Speedtest results with the old modem:

Speedtest results with the new modem:

Speedtests courtesy of speedtest.net

I purchased a little present for myself last week, something I have been wanting for awhile. I bought an internet security firewall router, a SonicWALL TZ 180. These devices are more of a business class type router. They are simple to configure like  a Linksys or Netgear, but due to the pricing and annual security license subscription its out of most home users league.

SonicWALL TZ 180 Internet Security Appliance

I work with these devices and larger models at many of our clients. We have actually started using these over Cisco routers because of the added security features. The SonicWALLs actually stop spyware, viruses and other malware before it even hits your internal network, kind of like Symantec for your router. This is a huge help because your computer based anti-virus can only do so much sometimes to try and stop malware. The SonicWALL is great for business environments because it will check incoming and outgoing traffic for malware, so no computer on your internal network can start spamming the world and getting your mail server blacklisted.

I chose to get this device for extra security. All of my computers are clean and always have been, but that is because I am an experienced computer technician, so I know what to do and what not to do. This SonicWALL stops other computers from potentially making my network unsafe and securing my very valuable documents on my hard drives now that I am pretty deep in some web development.

To read more on the SonicWALL TZ 180 please visit their website here, or just go to www.sonicwall.com to view their other products. If you are interested in purchasing this device, or similar ones, you can do so here.

Apparently for a reason that has yet to be told to me my server was down for 8+ hours today. I have never been so frustrated before. I asked many times and never received and answer besides “hardware issue” which annoys me even more. I mean don’t they have a fail-over routine or and sort of BDR device. No reason why if it was going to be 8 hours and I complained as many times as I did that I couldn’t have been moved to another server temporarily. True more work for them, but that’s what I pay for.

I apologize to all my readers out there, this was beyond my control.

So after all this, as soon as my plan comes up for renewal say bu-bye to this host. This was the last straw.

Mozilla will eventually be launching the awaited Firefox 3. There is already tons of hype about it everywhere.

Mozilla is taking this to the extreme and setting the precedent for a new category in the Guinness World Records. They want everyone to download it on the first day it comes out. Their download logs will be picked apart by Mozilla and Guinness and the record will be set for anyone else to try and break from that point on.

When Firefox 2 came out, there were 1.6 millions downloads in the first 24 hours. Let’s help make 3 even more.

Go to http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord or either of the buttons below and pledge!! They’ll even remind you to download it when it is released, which the date hasn’t been made public yet. You know you’re going to download it anyway, so pledge and help keep America #1 on the pledge list!

Don’t cheat and download it many times, let’s all be a part of a legitimate World Record.

I decided to go with forums rather than blogs for the network administration help sites that I was designing. Forums are just easier for people to sign up and post their own topics, as well as making it easier to categorize everything.

For the last five days I have configured the phpBB forum that I have running now on NetworkAdmin.INFO. Please visit the site and feel free to ask any computer or technical question you may have. If I cannot answer it I surely have the resources to get the answer.

I hope this venture turns out well. I spent some pretty price money on old domain names to try and help this out and I would like to see it prosper. Over the weekend I will be posting as many help fixes as I can to try and fill the forum up a bit and make it look alive. I have some minor tweaking to do still and some SEO work, but nothing that will change or affect the forum.

VISIT NETWORKADMIN.INFO

I bought some more domain names this weekend. I was bored and stuck in front of a computer which never leads to anything good. I have had some idea of creating informative blog sites on basic computer and networking troubleshooting tips and guides. I started snooping around GoDaddy for some catchy names and found that they were all taken, like always. Some domain names were available for a premium price of two grand, but I don’t have that kind of cash to blow right now, especially when I don’t have time to make the site bring that much money in fast.

Here’s some of the names that I purchased that were surprisingly available for regular price:

• networksystem.us
• systemnetwork.us
• techadmin.us
• networktechnician.us
• systemtech.us

I picked up the same domains with different TLD’s (top level domains) along the way, whatever was available.

I wanted to get a few other domains, but they were too pricey. I searched around and found Sedo.com, a huge domain name aftermarket. Sedo.com allows you to actually bid on the site with the owner, rather than just pay the price posted on GoDaddy. After a few days of haggling with owners that wanted thousands for sites with absolutely no traffic at all out there, I obtained these two sites this morning:

• networkadministrator.org
• networkadmin.us
• systemadministrator.biz

What is great about networkadministrator.org is that it is seven years old and had a page available, it was not just owned without a site up. This means that it should be known to search engines and possibly already bookmarked by others and have links out there. You don’t make it in this business without links. I am in the process of getting the domain transferred to me now. There are a few more I am interested in, just have to keep beating the price down, hoping the owner doesn’t close the negotiations. [UPDATE] Just bought systemadministrator.biz while I was posting this for a fair price for a four year old domain, made for a fun night.

For these sites, I think I will start out using blogs to host the content. They are easy to set up and use, as well as free. The person who created this blog here as a whole slew of blogs, some free and some really nice premium templates. I really like a few of the templates at Blog Oh! Blog. You can check out the templates here.

I am out for now, going to start uploading the main templates now!

On Friday I was working for a new client in Albany. They are getting a brand new server, APC and network switch.

My job was to mount the new switch and connect the data cables from the punch down that was done by the telephone company.

The first picture is what was done by the phone company.

Here is what it looks like after I mounted the switch and 2 wall mount racks. These racks are really neat. They hug the wall saving space, especially good for this project since the closet is going to be used as a kitchen and storage area. They are pretty inexpensive too, only $200 for each. A 4 post 8 foot rack with shelves costs anywhere from $1,250 – $5,000 or more, depending on brand, number of shelves, accessories, etc, etc. You can check out these wall mount shelves on Dell’s page here.

The wires on my side are a bit of a mess, but that’s only because we didn’t receive 1/2 the cables we needed. We have small cables coming so we can make it look neat, had to use 15 foot cables in the meantime. Just waiting for the server and APC unit to finish their setup then it’s on to configuring the desktop machines on the new network.