Hello Linux, Bsd, Unix Freaks !
I find yourselves lucky that I am here spending a good amount of my time on a sunny Saturday to enlighten you about wireless connections and Lee Narx.
Really seriously deeply truly, I am now both proud and resentful about writing this article, partly because I am divulging precious information that took me a pretty damn long while to understand.
But when I think of all the wonderful things the community has done to get Linux to where it is today, I feel compelled to contribute at least something to change the big overall picture of computing. Know the butterfly effect theory ?
Okay, there are nitwits and then there are nitwits all across the internet. This has to do with me trying to get my Lee Narx box to communicate with my Linksys router outside of my room wirelessly. As many of you freaks probably already know, Lee Narx and be both wonderful and crappy to work with. It's wonderful because it's free, and to a certain point it has now become usable as a desktop system. It's crappy because there will always be cryptic commands to issue via the terminal, and also it's lacking important drivers on the back end.
Now the real problem began when I was using a USB Linksys wifi adaptor on my Linux box ( surprise surprise ), and sure enough the driver is simply non-existent on Linux. I cannot download any driver for it ( and believe me, I have tried ) and using ndswrapper over the Windows driver is simply too troublesome and unnecessarily complicated. Hence the only choice I have now is to use the ethernet card ( network card ), with a cable running through the house.
Either that, or I get an adaptor that is in the Linux list of 'driver ready' devices. Now while this is a possibility, it's an idea that did not resonate well in my head. Does this mean that I am now hooked to a particular device, and that I need to hunt all over town for this specific card just to get my wireless working ? What if Linux decides to remove the driver in future releases ? Then I will probably be forced to switch cards again. No sir.. there must be a better solution than this and to using wires. Glumly, I sat back and thought deeply on my next move. I have been eyeing Linux for 10 years more, waiting for the right time to finally switch to it fully but each time there are obstacles, painfully annoying obstacles such as this that keeps holding me back.
After a whole lot of thinking, then an idea finally came to me. Linux has always been very stable with LAN cards, and their detection of it is almost always perfect. What if I can use a LAN cable from my ethernet card to a device that will talk wirelessly to my router ? Then I need not even bother with a device driver for a USB device or a PCI device or any device for the matter. All the box needs to do is communicate over its network card (note: not wireless/wifi card ) and the wireless device should bridge the connection to the router.
After a bit of searching on the internet, I finally became satisfied with my research and next thing I knew, I purchased an Access Point device by 3com. This device can act as an Access Point, A Repeater, an AP Client, and A Bridge.
What this wireless device has is amazing. It is fully contained in itself, and you only need to hook in your network cable from your box to its only ethernet port, and access its web based interface to configure it. Once that's configured, it will wirelessly connect with your other access points ( in this case, my router ), and forward all the data to and from its ethernet port, now connected to my Lee Narx box. Amazing, isn't it ? I set it up as a client access point device so it acts as a wifi adaptor, but since it is self contained, it needs no driver at all.
What this implies is that it is operating system independent. It should work on all operating system that can communicate over a local network. Fantastic, eh ? I now enjoy wireless connection on my Linux box without having to worry about drivers, chipsets, wrapper drivers, etc...Those are for the true geeks..For me, I have elegantly and permanently achieved my objective by spending somewhere about $110 USD on this access point device.
Thank you folks. I sincerely hope that I was of help to at least some of you. Do feel free to contact me for advice if you face trouble in setting things up.
Friday, January 25, 2008
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Pride, Noses, The Bearded and The Short Chinese
Pride does many things to a man. It showers one with dignity and a sense of achievement. It also provides one with a feeling of self-respect and personal worth.
Then there is an often spoken line, "walked with your nose high in the air" and there again, I began analyzing the meaning of that phrase. As you may know by now, my concentration span for something as trivial as this is as short as an eyeblink. Yes, it was a heartbeat before, but now I am playing with different words and don't you try scrutinizing my wordplay, young fella.
As proverbs and confuscious sayings are often recited by bearded men and short Chinese, I so read its meaning with curiosity and a snicker, but no longer than a nose twitch.
Hmm.. do proud people really walk with their noses up in the air ? No, of course not. At least, I didn't think so, not literally, no, my friend. Not before I met my Danish employers whom I've had the pleasure, mispleasure and then misfortune of working with for a year. Anyhow, these are well to do people, people with money and class and most amusingly, high noses.
There was a day when I saw my Danish employer, Allan strutting into the hotel lobby, a proud man as there ever was one and to my fascination, his head was titled at an angle so that his nostrils were exposed, front facing to anyone who was walking towards his direction. And mind you, it wasn't a natural tilt and the way I observed, it must be uncomfortable for him and most likely disgusting for nostrils spectators.
This has lead me to believe that there is more to bearded men, the short Chinese and the balding philosopher than meets the eye. Apparently to me, their little riddles and cliches while amusing and oftentimes bewildering when read at face value, may indeed hold hidden meanings that when deciphered may well provide much insight, amusement and even appreciation for the selected few.
Then there is an often spoken line, "walked with your nose high in the air" and there again, I began analyzing the meaning of that phrase. As you may know by now, my concentration span for something as trivial as this is as short as an eyeblink. Yes, it was a heartbeat before, but now I am playing with different words and don't you try scrutinizing my wordplay, young fella.
As proverbs and confuscious sayings are often recited by bearded men and short Chinese, I so read its meaning with curiosity and a snicker, but no longer than a nose twitch.
Hmm.. do proud people really walk with their noses up in the air ? No, of course not. At least, I didn't think so, not literally, no, my friend. Not before I met my Danish employers whom I've had the pleasure, mispleasure and then misfortune of working with for a year. Anyhow, these are well to do people, people with money and class and most amusingly, high noses.
There was a day when I saw my Danish employer, Allan strutting into the hotel lobby, a proud man as there ever was one and to my fascination, his head was titled at an angle so that his nostrils were exposed, front facing to anyone who was walking towards his direction. And mind you, it wasn't a natural tilt and the way I observed, it must be uncomfortable for him and most likely disgusting for nostrils spectators.
This has lead me to believe that there is more to bearded men, the short Chinese and the balding philosopher than meets the eye. Apparently to me, their little riddles and cliches while amusing and oftentimes bewildering when read at face value, may indeed hold hidden meanings that when deciphered may well provide much insight, amusement and even appreciation for the selected few.
Revenge is a dish best served cold
Often times I have pondered upon the meaning of the proverb - "Revenge is a dish best served cold", but as my thoughts tend to stray from the last meal I had to having a direct line to God from the phone in my room, the quest for its meaning vanishes in a heartbeat.
But tonight was different and I did manage to linger more than a moments worth on that thought, long enough to look up its meaning which much to my regret gave me further thoughts to ponder upon...
From the gathered opinions of lesser beings, I finally pieced up the fragments and concluded that if one were to take revenge, it must be done when one is calm so as not to act hastily and in a foolhardy manner. Only then, will revenge be more calculated and have a higher chance of succeeding.
Interesting proverb that one. Now that I have written my first blog entry, my heart is beating again. Maybe next time, a longer heartbeat for a longer article.
But tonight was different and I did manage to linger more than a moments worth on that thought, long enough to look up its meaning which much to my regret gave me further thoughts to ponder upon...
From the gathered opinions of lesser beings, I finally pieced up the fragments and concluded that if one were to take revenge, it must be done when one is calm so as not to act hastily and in a foolhardy manner. Only then, will revenge be more calculated and have a higher chance of succeeding.
Interesting proverb that one. Now that I have written my first blog entry, my heart is beating again. Maybe next time, a longer heartbeat for a longer article.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)