Red X’s on Network Shares, UAC Prompts

Mark Berry January 15, 2013

My Windows 7 desktop was showing red X’s next to each mapped network drive. Clicking on the drive let me browse the files, but the Red X remained.

Configure a WDS Bridge on a Tomato Guest VLAN

Mark Berry March 24, 2012

I’ve been happily using my Tomato router with a guest wireless VLAN isolated from my main wired LAN. I described the setup here. Now, I want to bridge a second router using the Wireless Distribution System (WDS). Setting up a Netgear WGT624v3 as the bridged router was a challenge in itself, so I wrote that up here. But once I got bridge mode working, I was somewhat alarmed to find that the bridged router was getting IP addresses from the main (supposedly secure, wired) LAN, not from the wireless VLAN, even though it was connected wirelessly! Especially considering that bridged mode on the Netgear only works with WEP security, I definitely needed to get the bridged router off the main VLAN and onto the guest wireless VLAN.

Use a Netgear WGT624v3 as a Bridge

Mark Berry March 24, 2012

There are several articles and lots of confusion on this topic out there. Here is what worked for me.

First, let’s clarify terms.

Set Up VLAN and Site-to-Site VPN with Tomato

Mark Berry November 14, 2011

I wrote recently about setting up guest wireless with the Tomato router firmware. I also needed to be able to use site-to-site OpenVPN between two routers running Tomato. I’m using a “Toastman” build that includes both VLAN and VPN functionality, but how can I use them at the same time?

Can’t Ping Server after Changing Router

Mark Berry November 12, 2011

After installing a new router, I was no longer able to ping my Hyper-V server. Why not? The router sits at the edge of the network—how could it affect pinging on the local LAN?

Set Up Guest Wireless with Tomato

Mark Berry November 4, 2011

I’ve been learning Tomato router firmware. This open-source firmware can enhance a low-end wireless router with some pretty advanced features.

One of my goals was to set up my wireless for guest-only access, i.e. not connected to my internal LAN (which are all hard-wired connections). Here’s one way to do that.

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Resolves Network Dropouts

Mark Berry June 18, 2011

A few months back, I purchased a Lenovo ThinkPad Edge running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. From the beginning, I had frequent issues with applications crashing due to lost connections to the server.

KVM Extender “Cannot Display This Video Mode”

Mark Berry June 10, 2011

My Belkin F1D084 ver. 2 Cat5 KVM Extender was working pretty well until I upgraded to Category 6 for the in-wall cables. I was still using Category 5 for the patch cables between the wall and the devices. But now the remote Dell E172FPb monitor was displaying “Cannot Display This Video Mode.” Huh? Is the KVM Extender unable to handle the higher-quality connection? Does it not like the mixture of Cat 5 and Cat 6?

Of course I discovered this on the same day that the server’s NICs and its DRAC were offline, meaning that all three methods of remote control were useless. I had to actually log on to the server at the console. Imagine.

The fix for the KVM extender was a classic Doh! moment:  when replacing a patch cable, push the cable into the KVM Extender until it clicks. The rubber snag guard on the cable was keeping it from sliding in all the way without a little extra push.