Turn a D-Link DIR-655 Router into a Secondary Access Point

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D-Link

My house has unique networking challenge.  I have a primary single-story structure built in 1915, and a separate, secondary structure that we have remodeled into an entertainment/game room.  Running ethernet cable throughout the old house was problematic enough.  The studs, wall plates, and headers were not standardized and predictable like newer homes.  Running ethernet outside of the house was required for some rooms.  I then ran a 150-foot shielded category 6 ethernet cable (suitable for underground installation) along with the power lines that feed the game room.  I had two D-Link DIR-655 Wireless N routers, and I wanted the first one to be the router connecting to our Time Warner broadband connection.  I wanted the second DIR-655 to act as a switch and wireless access point in the game room.  This sounds like it should be easy enough to accomplish, but by default the two routers want similar IP addresses and do similar things, so if you have them both powered on the same network at the same time, you might find yourself administering one router one second and the other router the next!

I found a post on the D-Link forums that provides step-by-step direction to make this configuration as simple as possible.  It’s such a useful set of instructions I am going to summarize it here:

  1. Plug the power into the access point router. Connect one of your computers to the router (LAN port) using an Ethernet cable.
  2. Open a web browser and enter http://192.168.0.1 and press Enter. When the login window appears, set the user name to Admin and leave the password box empty. Click Log In to continue. (Note: these are the D-Link default values.  If you have changed the default IP address or Admin password, substitute the appropriate values)
  3. Click on Advanced and then click Advanced Network. Uncheck the Enable UPnP checkbox. Click Save Settings to continue.
  4. Click Setup and then click Network Settings. Uncheck the Enable DHCP Server checkbox. Click Save Settings to continue. Ensure to disable all of the following options as they will be no longer needed or usable while using this mode: Virtual Server, Application and Port Forward Rules, Access Control and Web Filters, SPI and Firewall, WISH and WPS.
  5. Under Setup or Basic/Networking, enter an available IP address (192.168.0.50-.59 is recommended by D-Link) and the subnet mask of your network, usually 255.255.255.0 or .255. Click Save Settings to save your settings. Use this new IP address to access the configuration utility of the access point router in the future. Also turn off or disable other features on the access point router (Port Forwarding, Firewall, WISH, WPS and any email logging). Save the settings. Close the browser.
  6. Connect an ethernet cable in one of the LAN ports of the access point router and connect it to one of the LAN ports in your host router. Do not plug anything into the Internet (WAN) port of the router that your turning into an access point. Use the LAN ports only.
  7. You may now use the other 3 LAN ports of the access point router to connect other ethernet devices and computers (it acts as a switch). To configure your wireless network, open a web browser and enter the IP address (192.168.0.50) you assigned to the access point router. Recommend using Mixed G and N or Single G or N modes.  That’s it!

dir-655-2

The author provided another good tip: You can use the same SSID between the host router and the access point router. Make sure you do not use the same channel. Host router set for 1 or 6 and the access point router set for 6 or 11. This works perfectly at all times and your wireless card will select the AP with the best connection. This will enable you to walk around with your laptop/wireless device and only have 1 connection configured and always have the best signal strength connection where ever you are located in the house.

Garmin Updated BaseCamp Software to Version 4.1.2

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Garmin BaseCamp 4.1.2 - v.4.1.2 - 50.87 MB

Garmin has released version 4.1.2 of the BaseCamp software, which includes 11 fixes from version 4.1.1.  BaseCamp is software to view and organize your maps, waypoints, routes, and tracks and send them to your Garmin device.  It works very similar to MapSource.  BaseCamp displays topographic map data in 2-D or 3-D on your computer screen, including elevation profiles. Then you can view and rotate the maps from any angle.

Features:
  • View 24K or 100K topographic maps and other topographic data.
  • Displays maps in 2-D or 3-D, including elevation profiles.
  • View and rotate maps at any angle.
  • Create waypoints and routes on your computer and transfer maps, waypoints, routes, tracks and geotagged photos between your computer and device.
  • Transfers satellite images to your device (with the purchase of BirdsEye™ Satellite Imagerysubscription).
  • Shows animated playback of routes and tracks over time.
  • Supports geotagged photos.
  • Easily organize data into folders.
  • Prints full-page, color maps.
  • Exports user data for viewing in Google Earth™.
  • Includes advanced geocaching support; can import data from geocaching.com.
Changes made from version 4.1.1 to 4.1.2:
  • Fixed an issue with Basestation mode
  • Fixed an issue where BaseCamp would not remember the positioning of the toolbars correctly
  • Fixed an issue where the Custom POI symbols from POI files where incorrect
  • Fixed an issue with the address search
  • Fixed an issue where refreshing a search was using the last location on the map, not the current one
  • Fixed an issue where Cutting (Ctrl-X) a photo on a device would delete the photo and prevent the user from pasting it
  • Fixed an issue with some Asian language map products
  • Fixed an issue with deleting track points
  • Fixed an issue with route creation in a folder
  • Fixed an issue where the hand tool was not always set as the default tool
  • Fixed some menu inconsistencies between find results, context menus, and map popup menus
System Requirements:

Windows Requirements:

  • IBM-compatible computer running Windows XP Service Pack 3 or later
  • Microsoft® .NET framework 3.5 SP1; a current version of .NET will be installed if needed
  • A video card that supports OpenGL version 1.3 or later to view 3-D terrain

Mac Requirements:

  • Intel-based Mac running OS 10.6 or higher
  • 1024 MB or RAM (2048 MB recommended)

Make Your AMD-Based Video Card Fill Your Flat Panel Display When Using a HDMI Cable

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AMD Radeon GraphicsI have been building my own PCs at home for the last twenty years.  My current system includes an XFX CORE Edition HD7850 video card and an Asus VE276Q 27-Inch LCD Monitor.  I recently decided to switch the DVI cable, which I have used for years, for a HDMI cable.  The switch was easy enough; all I had to do was replace the cable, then tell the Asus flat panel that I wanted to display output from the HDMI cable.  I noticed however, that even though this is a 1080p monitor and the 7850 can easily output 1080p, that the Windows desktop did not extend to the edges of the screen.  Everything looked correct in the ATI Catalyst Control Center – all components were running at 1080p.  So why wasn’t Windows utilizing the whole Screen?

It wasn’t a Windows issue.  There is a setting in the ATI Catalyst Control Center that resolved my issue.  In the ATI Catalyst Control Center (I’m on Catalyst Version 13.1 and Catalyst Control Center Version 2012.1219.1521.27485), I expanded My Digital Flat Panels, then chose Scaling Options (Digital Flat Panel).  My system was set at about an 8% underscan.  I merely moved the slider over to a 0% overscan and clicked apply, and I was using all of my flat panel’s real estate again.

SAS Framework Data Server

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SASComparing my SAS 9.2 and 9.3 Enterprise Business Intelligence (EBI) environments, a notable difference between daemons started by the sas.servers script was identified.  In 9.2, we had a SAS Table Server daemon.  It was not available in our 9.1.3 EBI installation, and was released in the 9.2 version.  Apparently SAS removed it from the 9.3 architecture, but a new daemon, the SAS Framework Data Server, was introduced in its place.  There is scant documentation available on support.sas.com about utilizing or administering the Framework Data Server.

What is SAS Table Server?

from the SAS 9.2 Table Server Administrator’s Guide

The SAS Table Server is a data server that provides scalable, threaded, multi-user, and standards-based data access technology in order to process and seamlessly integrate data from multiple data sources. The server acts as a hub that provides clients with data by accessing, managing, and sharing SAS data as well as several third-party relational databases.

What is SAS Framework Data Server?

from the SAS 9.3 Intelligence Platform Middle-Tier Administration Guide

The SAS Framework Data Server is a database server that is the default location for middle-tier data such as alerts, comments, and workflows, as well as data for the SAS Content Server and SAS Service Parts Optimization. The server is provided as an alternative to using a third-party DBMS. The server cannot be used as a general-purpose data store.

SAS ODS: {thispage} and {lastpage} and PDF Output

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saslogo

When developing new reports, we typically give the end users a choice of output formats to choose from.  The SAS Output Delivery System (ODS) provides a versatile framework to transform the results of SAS procedures into consistent, high quality reports in formats that are widely used by information consumers: HTML (HyperText Markup Language), PDF (Portable Document Format), RTF (Rich Text Format), Microsoft Excel, and others.  The majority of our reports (run as stored processes surfaced in the SAS Information Delivery Portal) contain tabular output, which is generally displayed to a user in HTML format with the option to download that data as a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

Some reports are designed to be formatted as a document, and include large amounts of ODS text, tables, and graphs.  We generally use ODS functions such as {thispage}, {pageof}, or {lastpage} to display the page number or number of pages in the document.  When using RTF as our ODS destination, the creation of a Microsoft Word document could not be easier.  We did run into one issue when using the PDF output destination, however.  Due to the configuration of printer drivers on our computer systems, the page numbers were not showing up in our documents, because SAS was unable to determine a default page size and margins.  We contacted SAS Technical Support and they pointed us to SAS Problem Note 31703 as a possible fix.  Tech Support solved our problem – we added the –uprint and –uprintmenuswitch options to our autoexec.sas configuration file and restarted our object spawners and our PDF documents included page numbers!

Want to know more about the SAS Output Delivery System?  Go to the Base SAS ODS Focus Area or download the Output Delivery System Tip Sheet.

Locating the Log Files for the SAS 9.3 Middle Tier

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SASI have been doing some maintenance recently on one of our SAS EBI installations and needed to review the logs generated by the middle tier.  At some point any BI administrator will have to do this, so here are the default locations, directly from SAS:

The log files for the SAS 9.3 middle tier are located in the following directories:

Application Servers

Red Hat JBoss

  • /JBoss-home-directory/server/SAS-JBoss-server/log/server.log
  • /JBoss-home-directory/server/SAS-JBoss-server/log/boot.log

Oracle WebLogic

  • If WebLogic is started as a service, a UNIX daemon, or a batch process, the location is
    /WebLogic-home-directory/user_projects/domains/domain/servers/managed-server/logs/server.log.
  • If WebLogic is started using the Node Manager, the location is
    /WebLogic-home-directory/user_projects/domains/domain/servers/managed-server/logs/server.out.

IBM WebSphere

  • /WebSphere-home-directory/AppServer/logs/server/SystemOut.log
  • /WebSphere-home-directory/AppServer/logs/server/SystemErr.log

WebDAV Server

  • SAS Content Server:
    /SAS-configuration-directory;/Lev1/Web/Logs/SASContentServer9.3.log

SAS Web Applications

  • SAS Admin:
    /SAS-configuration-directory/Lev1/Web/Logs/SASAdmin9.3.log
  • SAS BI Dashboard:
    /SAS-configuration-directory/Lev1/Web/Logs/SASBIDashboard4.3.log
    /SAS-configuration-directory/Lev1/Web/Logs/SASBIDashboardEventGen4.3.log
  • SAS BI Portlets:
    /SAS-configuration-directory/Lev1/Web/Logs/SASBIPortlets4.3.log
    /SAS-configuration-directory/Lev1/Web/Logs/SASJSR18RemotePortlets4.3.log
  • SAS BI Web Services:
    /SAS-configuration-directory/Lev1/Web/Logs/SASBIWebServicesforJava9.3.log
  • SAS Information Delivery Portal:
    /SAS-configuration-directory/Lev1/Web/Logs/SASPortal4.3.log
  • SAS Logon Manager:
    /SAS-configuration-directory/Lev1/Web/Logs/SASLogon9.3.log
  • SAS Package Viewer:
    /SAS-configuration-directory/Lev1/Web/Logs/SASPackageViewer4.3.log
  • SAS Preferences:
    /SAS-configuration-directory/Lev1/Web/Logs/SASPreferences9.3.log
  • SAS Remote Services:
    /SAS-configuration-directory/Lev1/Web/Logs/RemoteServices.log
  • SAS Shared Apps:
    /SAS-configuration-directory/Lev1/Web/Logs/SASSharedApps9.3.log
  • SAS Stored Processes Web Application:
    /SAS-configuration-directory/Lev1/Web/Logs/SASStoredProcess9.3.log
  • SAS Web Report Studio:
    /SAS-configuration-directory/Lev1/Web/Logs/SASWebReportStudio4.3.log
    Note: Beginning with the second maintenance release for SAS 9.3 (TS1M2), the log is named SASWebReportStudio.log
  • SAS Web Infrastructure Platform Client Access:
    /SAS-configuration-directory/Lev1/Web/Logs/SASWIPClientAccess9.3.log
  • SAS Web Infrastructure Platform Services:
    /SAS-configuration-directory/Lev1/Web/Logs/SASWIPServices9.3.log
  • SAS Web Infrastructure Platform SOAP Services:
    /SAS-configuration-directory/Lev1/Web/Logs/SASWIPSoapServices9.3.log
  • SAS Workflow Services:
    /SAS-configuration-directory/Lev1/Web/Logs/SASWorkflowServices9.3.log

In my case, I was looking for my Websphere application server logs.  And as I should have suspected, my System Admin did not have the application servers or the log directories installed in the typical locations, so I had to do a little hunting.

Version 4.0.4 of the Garmin Communicator Plugin Available

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Garmin Communicator Plugin v4.0.4 - v.4.0.4 - 17.98 MB

Garmin International, Inc.Garmin updated its Communicator Plugin on November 14, 2012 to the 4.0.4.0 version, an upgrade from version 4.0.3.  The Garmin Communicator Plugin is a free internet browser plugin that sends and retrieves data from Garmin GPS devices.  The Garmin Communicator can send and retrieve data from any supported website.

  • Garmin Communicator supports Windows XP and later
  • Supports Internet Explorer 7+, Firefox 3.6+, Safari 5+, or Chrome 8+
  • This download only supports Windows computers. For the Mac download of Garmin Communicator Plugin click here
  • This software requires Windows Media Player 11 or greater (a free download from Microsoft).

Changes made from version 4.0.3 to 4.0.4

  • Modified aviation updates to work on all platforms

Garmin’s Communicator Plugin page is located at http://www8.garmin.com/products/communicator/

Forward Emails to Multiple Addresses with cPanel

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I had an email address that was set up for a group of users in my organization.  I wanted forward incoming email that was sent to that address to all of the individuals in the group.  I initially logged into cPanel (11.30.6),  browsed to the Mail section, and chose Forwarders.  I chose Add Forwarder, but the Destination only provides a single-line text box for input.  Because of that, I assumed that I could only forward from a single address to a single email address.  To accomplish the task, I chose to create a mailing list in cPanel, which did the job, but also required all of the issues of maintaining a mailing list.

Recently I needed to create another group email address and I was determined to find a more elegant approach than using a mailing list.  I dove back into cPanel and just began adding forwarders using the same Address to Forward, but changing the Destination for all of the individuals in a group.  I sent some test emails to ensure that it worked, and it did.  The problem was solved, but it sure seemed like an odd implementation in the cPanel interface.  Subsequently I Googled this situation, and came across a blog post stating that in the background cPanel actually creates a single forward entry within the operating system.  So it doesn’t look pretty, but it is efficient.  Maybe in the next version of cPanel they will provide a multi-line text box for the forwarding destination to make forwarding to multiple email addresses more straightforward.

Version 4.0.1.0 of the Garmin Communicator Plugin Available

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Garmin Communicator Plugin v4.0.1 - v.4.0.1 - 14.23 MB

Garmin International, Inc.Garmin updated its Communicator Plugin on January 9, 2012 to the 4.0.1.0 version, an upgrade from version 3.0.1.  The Garmin Communicator Plugin is a free internet browser plugin that sends and retrieves data from Garmin GPS devices.  The Garmin Communicator can send and retrieve data from any supported website.

  • Garmin Communicator supports Windows XP and later
  • Supports Internet Explorer 7+, Firefox 3.6+, Safari 5+, or Chrome 8+
  • This download only supports Windows computers. For the Mac download of Garmin Communicator Plugin click here
  • This software requires Windows Media Player 11 or greater (a free download from Microsoft).

Changes made from version 3.0.1 to 4.0.1:

  • Added 64 bit browser support
  • Fixed workout and profile transfer issues with eNewLeaf
  • Fixed workout transfer issue with FIT devices like Forerunner 610.
  • Fixed Windows XP only transfer issues with FIT devices.

Garmin’s Communicator Plugin page is located at http://www8.garmin.com/products/communicator/

Version 3.0.1.0 of the Garmin Communicator Plugin Available

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Garmin Communicator Plugin v3.0.1 - v.3.0.1 - 7.03 MB

Garmin International, Inc.Garmin updated its Communicator Plugin on August 2, 2011 to the 3.0.1.0 version, an upgrade from version 2.9.3.  The Garmin Communicator Plugin is a free internet browser plugin that sends and retrieves data from Garmin GPS devices.  The Garmin Communicator can send and retrieve data from any supported website.

The plugin works with IBM-compatible PCs running Windows® XP or Vista operating systems with Internet Explorer 6+ or Firefox 1.5+ Intel-based or PowerPC G3 or later Mac OS 10.4 or later with Firefox 2.0+ or Safari 2.0.  It is not compatible with Windows 2000 computers and will not install and/or function properly.  It is not compatibe with 64-bit browsers, but it does now support Google Chrome!

Changes made from version 2.9.3 to 3.0.1:

  • Added support for new devices
  • Added support for detecting association between memory card and its host device
  • Fixed issues related to detecting and updating GTU 10 devices

Garmin’s Communicator Plugin page is located at http://www8.garmin.com/products/communicator/