Linksys WAP54G: Warning

If you have a Linksys WAP54G wifi router and you want to update the firmware and you live outside the US, make sure you download the correct non-US version.

On Monday (six days ago) I upgraded the firmware on our router (a BEFSR41) and access-point (a WAP54G) to the latest versions. In the case of the A/P this was version 2.02.7. Everything worked fine.

Today it just stopped working. After six days! Connections wouldn’t authenticate and I couldn’t access the A/P’s configuration screens to diagnose the problem. After a couple of very frustrating hours I finally nailed it, thanks to this page opn dslreports. Somewhat surprisingly, there is a difference between US and international hardware. Non-US hardware needs a special international version of the firmware. A non-US device will allow you to upload the US-specific firmware, but operation will be erratic. To find non-US firmware it, click ‘International’ on the Linksys home page and navigate to the product downloads via an unnecessary flash page. The UK version (1.08) of the firmware is here. The solution is described at dslreports.

Argh.&nbsp

Pointers

Flipstart PC. Ultra-portable PC with a 1GHz CPU, 30gig hard disk, 1024×600 screen, and running full Windows XP. Gotta have one. (Via The Inquirer)  #

Kuro5hin: We Are Morons: a quick look at the Win2k source. A quick, superficial look at the style and content of the leaked Windows 2000 source. The malignant hive-mind that is K5 does its thing. #

NY Times: Facinating article on the work that goes into “finishing” the tone of new  Steinway pianos.

Quote: Lord Butler

Lord Butler: “You have to be selective about the facts … It does not follow that you mislead people. You just do not give the full information … It is not justified to mislead, but very often one is finding oneself in a position where you have to give an answer that is not the whole truth.”

(This is the same Lord Butler who is now investigating government intelligence gathering before the Iraq war.)&nbsp

Okay, so whats going on here?

Nothing for months, and then all this … stuff suddenly appears. What’s going on I hear you ask?

  1. I bought a copy of Uru in mid-November and didn’t do much of anything else apart from play it. God, it was great.
  2. Even without Uru, commuting (currently averaging 2? hours/day) leaves me with little time for blogging. My current blogging software only works from home, and I don’t seem to be spending much time there at the moment. I keep notes of things that I’ve found interesting, hence the recent “pointers” postings, but its just linking to other blogs.
  3. I’m finally doing what I should have done six months ago: writing my own blogging software. This takes even more time that I don’t really have, but its getting there. I currently have an XML-based “filing system”. I’m going to layer some services – feed generation, article sorting, etc. on top of that. The actual output will be generated from inline ASP.net code in a similar way to the current CityDesk setup. There’ll be a rich client (with href deployment) that I can use to post from any PC with the framework installed. I may also have a minimal web interface for situations where I don’t have a .net-enabled machine available.

So that’s the story. I’m sorry for the loss of service, and I hope I’ll manage to keep something going until the software gets built. In the meantime, hang-in there. Okay? &nbsp