d00dism

So, the WRT54GC router arrived on Monday. Seeing as it was my birthday, it was like a gift to myself. I immediately started playing with it, turning on WPA2 and putting in a password from Steve Gibson’s excellent WPA password generator.

Being the obsessive compulsive software upgrader that I am, I decided to flash its firmware. Keep in mind that I’ve flashed many network devices including an original Airport Base Station, a Linksys BEFSR41, a D-Link DI 624, a D-Link DI-524, a Motorola WA840G, a D-Link DWL-G810, and a couple other routers. I can’t list the others because usually I was upgrading the firmware of some stranger’s unprotected router over the wireless connection. Yes, I am a daredevil.

All that said, when I attempted this (totally routine and over a wired connection) upgrade, it failed. I’m not talking about simply needing to retry it or having to reset the router and try again. I’m talking about an amber powerlight complete meltdown. I got walked through the reset procedure by two separate Linksys tech support people (even though I’d already done it). Finally, they told me to return it to Amazon for a replacement.

When the new one arrives, I’m going to try it again even though it’s tempting fate. If it fails again, I’m going to be a little suspicious.

This is going to sound like a terrible plug. I know it.

I’ve been having some issues with my D-Link DI-624 router. In particular, now that I’m using WPA, my Powerbook will suddenly lose connectivity even though the signal is full. It’s frustrating. Disconnecting and reconnecting restores connectivity for varying amounts of time.

I’ve always had good experiences with Linksys routers. However, because of that record, they tend to cost more than the competition. The WRT54G has been hovering steadily at $40, while the WRT54GS is sticking at $60. I was beginning to give the WRT54G some serious thought (particularly because of the ability to use alternative firmware). However, that ability has been lost in the latest revision of the product.

I looked at their MIMO offerings, but I can’t justify $132.99. That’s when I stumbled upon the WRT54GC compact wireless G router. I’ve read that it runs on Linux, making it theoretically hackable, but I can’t confirm and the source code hasn’t been released.

Perhaps the neatest thing about this router is its size. It barely has enough space on one of its edges for four LAN ethernet ports, a WAN port, and a plug for the power adapter. I finally bought it as an impulse buy because it dropped in price to $30. It’s a good thing networking equipment isn’t placed next to the candy at the checkout in grocery stores.

Update: Apparently Amazon has stopped offering the WRT54GC through their warehouse. You can still get it through their affiliates, but the price is now $55. Buy.com currently has it for $30 with a $10 Mail-in-Rebate. Best Buy has it for $30 after a $30 Main-in-Rebate and it comes with a $10 Gift Card (making the effective price $20). I personally don’t want to deal with rebates, so I avoided that offer.

Update 2: It’s back at Amazon again for $30 with no rebates.

I have a lot to be thankful for this year and I’m glad that I’ll be able to celebrate that with my family today.

I hope all of you are in good health and have much to celebrate. Don’t forget to save room for some pie!

Ever since Woot sent me a Motorola WA840G by mistake, it’s been augmenting my parent’s wired network as a wireless access point. It’s been working great for their needs (connecting my old Pismo via its Airport card).

When I got home today for a Thanksgiving stay, I decided I’d update the firmware on all their network devices. The old Linksys router’s firmware hasn’t been updated in quite a while. That’s fine because the thing is rock solid. The Motorola access point had a new version with many new features, so I updated it.

Other than having to configure everything again, it all looked good. That is until my brother told me that my old Powerbook couldn’t connect. I tried turning the card off and on again and restarting. No dice. I decided to turn everything off and then on again. Of course, that’s when Charter decided to have some issues.

Regardless of those issues, I should still have been able to connect to the access point with the old Powerbook. I couldn’t. I thought maybe I had turned off 802.11b compatibility (the Pismo has regular Airport while my current Powerbook has Airport Express). Visiting the WA840G’s configuration page showed that it was set for “compatibility” but the other options were “performance”, “LRS”, and “802.11b only”. I’ll be damned if I could figure out what “LRS” stood for, but it afforded extra compatibility for 802.11b clients according the description.

Once that was set as the operating mode, the Pismo connected to the access point perfectly. I really wish this was explained better in Motorola’s documentation, but it’s worth noting for those having problems, even if I don’t know why it works.

Technorati Tags: wireless, 802.11b, motorola, airport, lrs

John Gruber recently wrote about why going to a single computer (a Powerbook) is going to work for him in Full Metal Jacket. Naturally, his new philosophy reflects his personal needs. He does take a look at the opposite viewpoint using a single example (Jonathan Rentzsch), but his needs are overly specialized and overly rare. There are many more reasons one would want two machines.

Tether

To start, the big assumption for this article is that the user wants or needs a laptop. The reasons are fairly unimportant. I personally started with a laptop because I wanted mobility.

Being able to sit in bed, watch TV, or even (gasp) go to the bathroom with your computer is liberating. As if being able to move it around weren’t cool enough, I bought my first Powerbook when they first got Airport. I shelled out the big bucks for the card and Airport Base Station ($129 for the card if I remember correctly, $300 for the base station).

I seriously freaked my roommate out in college when I instant messaged him from the toilet for the first time. This is all very gratuitous, but I think it makes the point that laptops are simply cool. You want one.

Gaming

Traditional logic dictates that laptops are poor for games. As Mac game guru Peter Cohen explains, a Powerbook can be sufficient for the large majority of games.

I actually do a lot of my gaming on a PowerBook G4, 17-inch model with 1.5GHz processor, 1GB RAM and Radeon Mobility 9700 graphics (with 64MB VRAM). This is effective enough for a lot of games, although the Radeon Mobility comes up short dealing with games that have really advanced pixel and shading effects or tons and tons of polys.

He then hits on why a Powermac (or desktop) is still essential for gamers that like to live on the edge and play the latest games (as well as have some future life for future games). They simply have power that laptops can’t match. Their future also isn’t so bright.

Expandability

You simply can’t compare a laptop to a desktop when it comes to upgrades. They can’t hold nearly the same amount of RAM (and the RAM for laptops is more expensive). You can’t replace the video card. You can’t put PCI cards in laptops. Heck, you can’t even get big hard drives to put in laptops.

If one wants the ability to add a massive amount of storage or use more interesting hardware peripherals, desktops (and Powermacs) are still where it’s at.

Power

Let’s not mince words or pretend not to notice. The performance gap between Mac Powermacs and Powerbooks is massive. Hell, an iMac G5 will beat the piss out of a Powerbook. Even a Mac mini will give it a run for its money in several areas.

Until the Intel Powerbooks arrive, users with performance concerns need an iMac or Powermac. The Powerbooks may be nothing to sneeze at compared the machines of yesteryear, but they just aren’t that string.

Center of the Universe

I like having a Powermac stationary right on my desk because of the above reasons partly. Another part is that I use El Gato’s EyeTV DVR. I couldn’t use it to do anything but watch live TV or record while I was at the computer and had it tethered to the cable outlet. Again, we’re back to the tethering issue.

I’m actually thinking about getting a Mac mini to leave on all the time and pick up a lot of the Powermac’s responsibility. However, that won’t be enough for me to move to a Powerbook full-time as I’ll want an Intel Powermac to dual boot with Windows.

Your mileage may vary, but there’s still plenty of reason to use a laptop and desktop, at least for the time being.

Technorati Tags: laptops, desktops