Computer Support - Adventure (Rated PG): Supporting tech-nol-o-gy. Yep, that's a computer alright. - Powered By Bloglines

Support computer software, applications and networks hardware

Computer Support - Adventure (Rated PG): Supporting tech-nol-o-gy. Yep, that's a computer alright. - Powered By Bloglines I saw the post on hardware reviews, they're not bad. They're not fluffed up with an angle to sell and computer or network hardware or having been sponsored by anyone to say good or bad things on particular hardware or software computer devices or applications. It seems that person is really a technician or engineer that supports the computer software, applications and networks hardware (and other computer desktop hardware - can't leave out the printing wows that everyone has gone through). It really seems that person really works in the tech field and is posting for real stuff from a regular technician's or hardware and software integrator perspective. A site that has some honest reviews of software and hardware is http://www.bloglines.com/blog/puppet/ . The writer isn't a tech writer, you'll realize that right after the first reading but does have a flair and natural ability to write. That is important because as the reviews or computer desktop and server hardware is written about, the author isn't trying to play to any audience, isn't getting paid by anyone to write about their computer or network products, the author is just writing about the things they have experienced while working and applying computer desktop, server, backup and network technologies. 

Backup and network technologies

 Other opinionated article and site regarding computer and networking technologies can be found that may have an opinion about computer and software and other such topics but if you notice they'll be commercial sites with commercial adds about computer desktop or server and networking hardware and software on the pages and more often the writers are paid to write about some product. So you want an opinion from someone who was paid to provide it? Does that make sense? The writers on article sites or promotion (PR) sites often promote sites or products have a vested interest in what they are writing they've been often paid to say good things and in many cases to even just talk about the product. Another site that's not a paid opinion site. The author hasn't been paid to say things about the product (at least not from what I can tell - the site doesn't seem commercialized) http://remotesupport.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!4332AD0A933BC068!166.entry http://remotesupport.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!4332AD0A933BC068!166.entry For software that will enable remote desktop support and online server remote support through the web - Desktop Remote Support Software

Netgear PS121 Print Server - USB to LAN

The Netgear PS121

Easy to Use: The external USB interface makes connecting as close to a no-brainer as one can get. The ports, ethernet, the USB, and the power and none of them look similar enough to each other for home users to even connect cables to the wrong ports. The Smart Wizard install assistant makes it fast and simple to install on all latest and popular versions of Microsoft Windows. You can manage the print server or servers remotely with an easy, Web browser interface. Once setup, you can share a USB printer on your LAN without ahving to share your computer.

Ordering Part Number (United States) : PS121NA

The Netgear PS121 Printer Compatibility

Printer Compatibility List - http://kbserver.netgear.com/kb_web_files/n101216.asp

Sorry for such a long delay since my last post. I know many of you have been wondering what happened. I have a simple answer, I had to work in the Hawaii islands for a customer and unfortunately, after work hours were not spent blogging about computer components and my experiences with them. The project I was working on in the Hawaaii Island went great.

Yes, you heard right, Hawaii - it was ... awesome.

So back to the regular old stuff, not like there wasn't any of this in Hawaai but it's different there. A sustomer had gone tot he local retailer and picked out a print server for his USB printer. Well, actually picked it our for him online and told him what to get next time he was at the store. That's neither here not there.... So he has this print server from Netgear, the PS121 model, that's to replace the HP JetDirect that took a dive. That jet direct lasted a long time. It's one of the old dark grey 3 port jet directs.



The PS121 has DHCP enabled to pick up an ip address automatically once plugged into the network and to power. Now you may be thinking, if you've done enough of these little dopey devices, how am I going to find the ip address to connect to it. Well, Netgear has done the right thing. They provide on the cd a neat little utility to find the ps121 and it does very well in fact. Once found on the LAN, you can configure it with a static ip address. The Netgear utility that comes on the cd finds the Netgear ps 121 print server and connects to it allowing a reconfiguration of the IP address.

The other really nice thing I liked about how Netgear thought this little printer server gem out, was that you can configure the computer that's going to use the printer over the network with a local TCP/IP port. Yes, aside from the first computer, I did not run anything from the ps121 installation cd. That was great. I just added the printer to all the other computers in this small office and was done.

Netgear PS121 Print server. So, if your looking for a print server for your USB printer, look no further. For about 40 to 50 bucks (that's USD bucks, please check you local currency rate exchange for your costs...) , you can have any printer on the LAN. Take the the USB cable out of the computer and plug it into this little network printing wonder.

For PC Remote Support Software - https://www.4remotesupport.com/

Desktop Support Software - https://www.4remotesupport.com/

Computer Remote Support Software - https://www.4remotesupport.com/

VoIP Qos through Sonicwall Firewalls

I often find myself having to troubleshoot or install VoIP applications for customers. During the course of both installing or troubleshooting the voice quality, I get to see what various networking equipment manufacturers are doing to support this rapidly growing technology and tool for office to office communication and often office to customer communication.

Some networking equipment vendors have embraced the voice of data networks technology and have increased support for their product lines to accommodate it by building in the tools to make the technology work. Others have introduced product lines and offer special support including remote support to help the end-users or VARS deliver the best quality of voice.

One of the vendors which I just had the pleasure of troubleshooting network voip issues on was Sonicwall. The model the customer is using is the TZ170.


They have the enhanced firmware (operating system) installed version 3.2 which supposedly has QoS features and VoIP features in built into the system. They do indeed have some VoIP features, functionality, and configurable items built in but they are mostly designed for SIP and H.323. These are standard protocols that are commonly used in voice over data systems. One of the problems I found with the built-in features was theat mostly were designed to assist in voice data packets getting through the firewall and NAT routing features. But what if the voip solution is designed to work through a VPN? They completely missed that part. These features were useless in the site to site VPN such as the one I was working with.

This customer has multiple tunnels from their main location which has a PBX switch to several of their remote offices that also have PBX switches. They can transfer calls between the phone system and also of course be able to call each other saving money on toll calls. One of the most annoying things I found with these the TZ170 firewalls is while configuring the unit through the web GUI or even just viewing, any page refresh causes the current voice streams to choke. The quality of the sound deteriorates while working on the system itself. I already mentioned that their features for voice over data are useless in a vpn to vpn environement and their bandwidth management is awkward and clumsy.

Enterasys 1800 series routers

I've posted ab out Adtran Netvanta and cisco routers in the past. I'd like to add another manufacturer to small b ut prestigious list of router manufacturers that I've posted my 2cents about.

I recently had to configure two Enterasys 1805 branch routers that were to be installed by the customer in a point to poi nt configuration. This customer had just recently added another office a state away and was looking to get that new office on the main corporate LAN. They also have a VoIP application so not only was their regulate end-user data going to be connected b ut also their ip based phone systems .

The Entarasys was ordered and purchased by the customer and shipped to my office to be configured. Once configured, they were to be shipped back to the customer and they would do the physical cabling and installation.

The model was heavy in weight which I tend to like in networking equipment because it gives a feeling that the device is not just a cheap peice of plastic garbage. Although, I must add that lightness does not mean the the device will not work or is junk. I'm just a little old school and like the feel and sense of reliability from the weight of metal. An example of light not necessarily meaning not effective or reliable is the Adran NetVanta 3200 series. That device is very light but works very well.

The interface is industry standard which means that it looks and feels like Cisco. Con configuration of the WAN interfaces differed slightly and took a little adjusting to get going . The 1805 come with a fixed LAN interface and a NIM slot that can handle to Network Modules. I of course in each of the two routers used up one for the point to point connection. They have firewall and VPN features of which I used neither. They have SNMP for monitoring and their speed was very decent. While looking o nether web site , I found the data sheet for the using and one of the things that I found interesting and have not easily found from other manufacturers is the MTF (Mean Time Before Failure). for this unit it was rated at 72 ,000 hours - not bad at all.

It was a very inexpensive router and fairly easy to configure and get going. The only complain I have for this unit is the no shutdown command did not have the desired results. What I was looking to do and I'm fairly certain that I've done it on Cisco routers before , is issue a no shut command on the router's interfaces so that after they've been shipped back to the customer they could plug them into a live T1 and the interface and protocol would come right up as active. The routers did not do this so the customer had to login using the provided console cable and run the command.

Overall I give the router a thumbs up.

Remote Desktop Screen-Share

Remote Support Software

I found this a site that provides an online remote support solution: Wait...before you click away. I know everyone knows the name brands of remote support software that provide you with computer remote access over the web, but this one although it doesn't have an IT household name does the job like the others. In fact, it let let's technical support and IT pros provide remote assistance software for their end-users on the cheap. No, it's not just another executable with an IP address compiled into it for downloading. 

Dynamic Remote Support System

They have a bit more dynamic on-demand remote support system that let's you make changes to your own configuration if you need to. So let's say you get one of the other brands of computer remote control packages for remote tech support software with screen-sharing that works over the web that has a static configuration and then you change ISP providers. Your out of luck. Sure you could have Dynamic DNS setup and that's good to but that's another piece of software running on your system and other id to maintain and another point of failure. Yes, point of failure. If you switch from cable, let's say, to DSL or visa versa, you have to get a new program. One can argue that you do not because of DDNS, but what if you want to provide online computer remote support software from another network. Use 4remotesupport for remote desktop access support to resolve the issue at https://www.4RemoteSupport.com .  Now you have to get that same service running on the other network and the next and the next. Their system, although it works just fine with DDNS, it doesn't need it. When you sign-up for an account you get a login to their site, not unfamiliar as many site have this, and a user page. 

Configurable Networks Settings

On that user page you configure your networks settings. That's right, for many of you who have looked into software like this it's the same information you provide to the other site that have a static remote support solution. But the big difference here is that you don't wait for your pc remote support executable to be changed and of course to get charged again. It's on the fly. Change you config and instantly the same customer that you had provided on-demand pc remote support for just a while ago from another network now is connecting to the new network. You may be thinking that you need to have all your users go to their site to get remote assistance over the web from you. No, not at all. They have an executable program too that you get at no additional cost and it's dynamic too. Pretty Cool!! I'm going to work with it some more and post back with more information.