Not all routers are created equal

A mentor once instilled in me the following mantra:

"it shouldn't be that hard".

In other words technology should "just work".  (Unfortunately we all know this is not entirely true all the time.)

Yet I try to live by that mantra, and not get sucked in by the "complicated fix". But over the last three days, I have been doing battle with routers - or more specifically one router in particular. A Cisco WAG310G.  I installed successfully as the end point for a VOIP solution.  [That part went very well, by the way and WAS simple].

However, in trying to get a VPN to work through the new router, I'd forgotten to apply the check the simple things first...  (no, not "is the damn thing plugged in?",) but, "did you read the spec of the machine to see it can do what you are asking it to do?". The answer is "no".

In my defence, the fact that the router had the GRE47 protocol as  a service that could be chosen for pass-through, would have indicated ( I would have thought) that the router was capable of VPN.

I mean, is not a VPN a simple, basic requirement of all modern routers?

One would have thought so.

To confound matters, I was also blinded by the oft and varied reports of Win7 and the troubles of getting a VPN to work with that new beast. The old, stable XP-based VPN was still working fine - even with the new router installed. (But actually it, too had stopped and I hadn't noticed).  grrr

On the support site for this router - there is a prominent link on How to setup a VPN.

http://www.linksysbycisco.com/ANZ/en/support/WAG310G

A much more helpful article has screengrabs that show the missing VPN tab in the security settings of the router's gui:

http://linksys.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/linksys.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=4239

and if you are "encountering difficulties" try:

Encountering Difficulties Connecting to the VPN Tunnel Using a ADSL Gateway

not that this will help if you don't RTFM !

Keeping a Win7 printer share shared to XP SOLVED

Just when I though Win7 was infallible - Vista-like inconsistencies appear where you least expect them...

I needed to share a printer off Win7Pro to an XP Home machine. Despite all the best efforts going both the old-fashioned way [create identical userid and password on both machines], and the new way every says it's done: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-7/share-files-and-printers-between-windows-7-and-xp/.

No cigar. I still got prompted for the userid and password after each restart. (As reported by lots of other posters.)

However, it occurred to me that by mapping a shared folder using a simple net use batch file, the user id and password if valid for the share, would eliminate the need for it again when reconnecting to the printer share.
Voila.
It worked.
net use z: \\win7pcname\foldershare /user:win7pcname\username passwordhere

Now put THAT in your pipe and smoke it win7 !

XNET & HHA

A couple of years ago when were shifting the Office for HHA we decided to have a look into a VOIP system. After deciding on XNET from World Exchange we haven't looked back.

A big concern for any business is that the phones keep working and it has taken us this long testing the XNET VOIP offering to get to a stage were we trust it enough to recommend it to our customers. We have now signed a reseller agreement with XNET and will be offering their services to our clients.

The first thing that attracted us to a VOIP system was not the cost, which is what attracts most people, but the flexibility of the system. Once voice data has been turned into IP data it makes it a lot easier to manage. We have the most basic XNET package but with that we get features of a PABX which 10 years ago would have cost thousands.

PABX's also become a lot simpler. Standard computer hardware can now be used to route voice traffic within your business, voice menus, Automated call systems, recording phone conversations and a whole lot more. At a fraction of the cost of traditional systems.

If you are interested in giving a VOIP system a go give us a call.