Trip to India – Working the Gadgets

One of the most disorienting thing this trip is that my iPhone did not have service. From the AT&T site, I should be able to roam in Bengaluru. While it does see all the carriers available, it couldn’t connect to any of them. In my original research, one of the things many people suggested was to unlock the phone and get a SIM card there. I wish I had done that. I really had no idea how much I rely on the phone until this trip.

I packed a great deal of items for the trip. Some were useful but others turned out to be irrelevant.

I brought 2 220V-to-120V transformers (purchased from Radio Shack) on the trip and ended up not needing them at all. Both notebooks’ power supply can accept 220V and most of the sockets I’ve encounterd can accept US style plugs. The phone can be charged via USB.

While most outlets that I encountered accept multiple shape prongs, the plug adapter (to convert the shape of the plugs) was actually useful. Newer U.S. two prong plugs is directional with one blade wider than the other, not all the outlet I encountered can handle that. Likewise, the 2-prong extension cord was useful. I was going to bring a power bar but all of them are 3-pronged and the ground pin would not have fit into any outlet.

I had a Linksys Travel Router but it crapped out so I had to pick up another in India. Now I have a router that doesn’t work in the U.S. Oh well, it is the price I pay for sanity. The model I picked up was a Belkin N150 (The model number is actually F6D4230-4). For some reason, the iPhone and the Dell Mini 9 could not both connect to it via Wi-Fi at the same time. I didn’t messed around with it too long so I just kept the Mini 9 on wired. It wasn’t optimal but it wasn’t a permanent solution so I wasn’t going to spell more than 30 minutes on it.

The RJ45 cables were useful. So were the iPhone-USB cables. The Microsoft blue laser mouse worked perfectly for 2 weeks without needing battery so I didn’t need the corded mouse that I brought. The movie drive was useful to keep myself entertained. Multiple SD cards helped transferring files back and forth between the machines. My electric shaver is also switchable to 220V so charging it wasn’t an issue.

Overall everything worked except the iPhone and the router. Next time I can pack lighter.

Oh one thing I forgot. India has severe power supply problems. Power outtages occurs multiple times daily. It is even a normal expectation from businesses. Most power outtages recovers quickly (30 seconds to a minute). But the frequency is somewhat alarming. I don’t think there is anything a traveler can do. Carrying UPS is not exactly convenient. At the end, the only good approach is to use battery powered devices over pure AC devices whenever possible.

Adventure in a Linksys WRT54G2 router

Over the years, I’ve used many different routers.  They were consumer grade, served their purpose, and eventually died.  That role was occurpied by 3 Linksys WRT54G in the last 7 years.  The symptom of their demises were always the same.  The lights are on but no one can get to the Internet.  We have to reboot it (pull the power, let it sit for a bit, plug it back in) to get it towork again.  Sometimes we have to do it once a month, as the frequence increased to once every day or so, it is time to replace it.

This time is no different.  But the world has moved on, even IEEE had finished rectifying 802.11n.  So I decided to see what’s out there.  And man, there were a lot.  Linksys, Belkin, Netgear, etc. all comes with different industrial labels with the 802.11 family, the n, the g, the b, and they all add their own proprietary twists with commerical sounding moniker: MAX this, SUPER that, Fi this, Wi that.  It was mind-boggling to me.  I can see why regular consumers are lost.

First thing to decide was the industry standard.  802.11b was old. 802.11g had been around for a while and were fairly reliable.  802.11n was merely about MIMO (multiple in multiple out).  Based on where we are and the fact that the we weren’t experiencing any horrible interferences from microwaves, neighborhood routers, etc.  I’ve decided that 802.11n was not worth my money.  Of course, us not having any devices that can use the n standard played a part in the decision.  Removing the n took the more expensive choices out. 

We ran CAT5 throughout the house before we moved in so each room has a drop.  And we have mobile devices that can use wifi connectivities.  The end tally was: 2 XBox 360s on wire, 2 desktops on wire, 2 notebooks on wireless, 1 docking station on wire, 1 netbook on wireless, a Samsung Blu-Ray player on wire, 3 NAS on wire, 2 iPhone/iPod Touch on wireless, and the occasional visitor machine or 2.

Based on all that. There were still 3-4 choices from each manufacturers.  Reviews were not glowey for any of them.  For every positive response, there is a negative one.  So it is simply the lesser of all evils.  I wasn’t too big on Belkin (bad taste from the iPhone car rig) so it was either Netgear and Linksys.  (BTW, Linksys is actually the consumer level brand of Cisco, in case some smarty pants are trying to edumacate you.)  Instead of choosing, I bought one from each: A Linksys WRT54G2 and a Netgear WPN824NA.  One will be the backup if the other craps out.  They arrived today and setup ensues.  I’ve decided to use the Linksys first and give it another chance.  The Netgear will sit in the box waiting for its turn. 

It used to be that you need to read some instructions before doing this stuff but no, not any more. They want you to install the CD FIRST!!!  There are stickers and labels in big red bold fonts saying you MUST install the CD first!!!! !!!!! and !!!!! and !!!! and !!!!

NO! I refuse to load more crap on my PC.

I screenshotted all the existing settings from the old router, went into the closet and disconnected it.  I can hear all the computers in the house screaming, “Arghhhhh I lost my Internet connection, the sky has fallen, run, save yourself!!”  Reconnecting was simple.  CAT5 from the cable modem to the new router, CAT5 from the main switch to the new router, power cord, done!

Physical placement was awkward.  The old blue boxes from Linksys were meant to be stacked and they stacked well.  Only short cables were needed to connect one to another.  But this thing looks like it was meant to sit on a desk.  Why?!  Routers are meant to be in a closet, don’t make it some fashion statement for your office.  *sigh* I zip tied it to a rail instead.

Linksys WRT54G2 mounted

The rest should be simple … or so I thought.

The setup was indeed simple.  The setup was virtually identical to the old router.  Same defaul 192.168.1.1 address, same default password, same menus, same everything.  With the exception of the new security option, everything else is the same.  Got it all setup.  Let’s go see if there is any updated firmware or otherwise from Linksys.

And then the trouble begun.  The Linksys site took 3 minutes to load.  Of course, it could just be the site itself.  First test is Google.  Even Google took 10 seconds to load.  Hmmm… this could be a problem.  Microsoft.com, Netflix, Amazon, Facebook, all with extraordinarily slow load time.  No, this IS a problem.  It could be RoadRunner.  Plug the old router back in.  Nope, everyhing works fine.  It IS the new router.  Hmmm, the bad reviews could be right.

Reseach on the net show this to be a common problem.  I had no choice but to go back to Linksys’ site.  After a good 10 minutes and 3 pages later, I found a firmware update.  The router comes with 1.5 burned in.  The new version is 1.5.01.  The release notes mentioned Windows 7 compatibilities.  What?!  Hmmm, could be.  Never thought a router and an OS will pick on each other.  Clicked download and went off to lala land.

I woke up from a nap and looked.  Holy cow, 1.6 MB download (not GB mind you) had not completed in 3 hours.  That should have taken 5 seconds!!  If this firmware doesn’t fix this thing, it will be returned.  The download was finally done after dinner.  Got it installed, rebooted.  Whew!  Everything seems to be working now.

All the sites now loads properly.  The 1.6 MB firmware file downloaded in a few seconds as it should.  All the wireless devices are connecting properly.  So I can call this one done.  Now, let’s see how long it last.