Linksys Extender (continued)

Okay, so I am not the most consistent blogger in the world. Give me a break as I have three young children that demand a ton of my time. I sit on my computers all day long and then I usually try to avoid them in the evening. The boys are bathing (swimming) in the big tub so here I sit in the bathroom with my laptop.

I wanted to finish the Linksys Extender story. Needless to say I got it working and found a workaround for my ripped DVD's. A little format change and voila' I can stream them to the Media Extender (DMA2200) and the big screen. Anyways, I had the 2200 for about 2 months and then it stopped working. I didn't mess with it for a while and finally last week I called up Linksys and they sent me out a new one. So, I am back at it. The problem is it only sheds light on the fact that I need to go in and edit my photos. Lots of red eye fixing and rotating of photos as many are on edge.

Windows Media Center & Linksys Extender

What a whipping! I consider myself fairly technical but I have just placed myself in the hands of Linksys... UGGGGHHH. This is the company that employs 1000 Indian support personnel with names like Sunny and Fred, Yeah Right! I have a Linksys WRVS4400N which is an Gigabit N VPN Firewall router. I had been running it with WPA Personal2 security and had been having issues with my XP Pro desktop machine and an older Dell 1300 USB wireless adapter. On my network I could see and ping my Vista Desktop and XP Pro. Laptop without an issue. Sharing resources and drive/printer sharing to and from my XP Desktop was intermittant. I also have an additional Netgear Wireless router setup as an Access Point. I never put two and two together to realize that when I was connected to the Netgear I could see from my other PCs the XP Desktop but when it was connected to the Linksys I could not. Now that you know that my story really begins.

With my Vista Ultimate and Windows Media Center I decided what a great thing it would be on Friday evening at about 8:00pm to begin the installation of my brand new Linksys Media Center Extender (DMA2200). I told my wife how cool it will be to watch our videos, photo slide shows, listen to our CD collection, and best of all watch those DVD's I have backed up on my Vista box. You know I had to prove to her why I just spent $300+ on this little toy and add to that a $100 HD TV Tuner PCI card to the Vista box. Wooo Hooo, I am ready to go. This will be a breeze! Plug it in, connect to the 4400N router wirelessly and voila' I could do it all and all this before 9:00pm on a Friday evening. Hah! Yeah Right! I wasn't dreaming was I? Wake up Kev! It is never that easy is it. NOPE!

8:30pm: Okay, the Extender is out of the box and plugged into the TV downstairs.
8:35pm The Extender is on.
8:40pm The wireless connection to the 4400N is complete (cool, that was a snap)
8:41pm Cool, a code from the Extender to input on my Vista box upstairs
8:41pm Run upstairs (I am feeling great, this really is a snap)
8:45pm Inputting the code from the Extender into Windows Media Center and press Go!
8:45pm Come on baby, that Microsoft circle wait cursor is kinda cool when you stare at it
8:46pm "Windows Media Center cannot find your Extender" huh? It is connected to the router and has an IP address!
8:46pm I am smart, this is easy, downstairs I go!
8:50pm Let me try this again... New code... upstairs I go
9:20pm After 4 new codes and 4 more trys, no connection! So much for my playing.
9:25pm Google Search. "Media Center cannot connect to Extender
9:25pm Google Result. "ping your extender's IP" Oh geez, why didn't I think of that, DOH!
9:26pm Ping 192.168.0.10...Request timed out. Hmmm
9:27pm Log into 4400N... Hmmm I see the Extender right there in the DHCP table?
12:50am After 20 more changes to the router, taking the Firewall down, assigning a static IP to the Extender, I still could not ping the Extender.
12:55am Let's try to connect the Extender to my Netgear Router!
1:00am Bang, there it is, ping 192.168.0.200 (static) Hurray, it works.
1:03am Media Center asks me in setup "Do you want to tune your performance on your network?" Oh sure, lets see how good a wireless G router can be... Oh crap! Barely good enough to stream radio. Hmmm, that won't work!
1:15am I've got to go to bed.
1:30am Zzzzzzzz

Stay tuned for the conclusion...

Inspired in '08?

I woke up early today before the sun came up. For some reason I do that off and on no matter how late I go to bed. I could hear the nursing sounds of Lauren and the soft sleepy breathing of my wonderful wife beside me in bed. On the other side of the room I could hear the light snoring of a stuffy nosed little boy. Michael had woken up some time in the night and navigated to our room and the little pallet we have for him. He hasn't been there in the past few nights so I am not sure what disturbed him in this night. No sign of Nathan in the room so I knew he was fast asleep in his own bed. Ahhh my little family was safe and sound for one more night.

My brain began to jump into thinking mode right away dang it! Immediately I knew no more sleep this day. What was on tap today? I began to go through what I knew for sure was going on today...Well lets see, Audra had to teach Sunday School at 8:00am and the boys would be in their respective Sunday School classes. Should I get myself going right away? Be efficient and take Lauren to the 8:00 Mass so Audra could go to 10:00am mass without the kids? That worked well last week. Sure, why not, I'll try that again. What else... hmmm? At about that time my brain shifted to how amazingly blessed we are. My brain shifted to some things that recently have given me a little clarity.

Lately I had been reading the blog of my ex-wife. A blog that is outlining her trip to Europe with her son and a friend, a blog that is a lifelong wish, a wish with a sense of urgency, Ann's wish. What a strange thing you may ask... why keep up with your ex-wife? Well, I have a new perspective on that relationship. It had to occur in my life. I would never be close to where I am now without it. It prepared me enormously for the rest of my life. More on that later... Anyways, my ex-wife has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer... ugggghhh! She found out this past July and not long after got in touch with me. The two of us hadn't spoken in over 8 years but she managed to get in touch with me to tell me her unfortunate news. I was a little perplexed by the contact. To this day I wonder why she decided I should know her news? Not that I am not interested in her life. This was a person whom I knew very well but a person who betrayed my trust to the core... interesting how so much good can come from a unpleasant event. It is just that so much life has occured since we last spoke and our paths have totally diverged. No matter what happened between Ann and I, I think deep down she is a good person. She is a good person with a young teenage son (from a second marriage) that from what I know she has raised him on her own. Please keep Ann in your prayers that she may find health, peace, and happiness in whatever may come. At any rate hearing from her has been interesting for me and gave me a perspective of what faith, hope, love and forgiveness can do for one's life.

Perspective for me has also come in the form of some incredibly busy and productive work. I am aware that things can change at any time but with hard work comes good things... I have been fortunate to have two partners that I added recently to my business that have a lot of knowledge, work ethic, personal ethics, drive, and their skills complement my skills. We'll see what is in store for my business in '08 but the year is starting out great.

So, my early morning thinking got me out of bed and on to my laptop to begin writing. So what will I do with my realizations? I think I will try to do many good things this year and one is to begin writing about it.

San Juan Shuffle?

One of the first questions is why San Juan Shuffle? Well, while fishing on the San Juan River in Northern New Mexico it has been known that some fisherman will perform this act. Not only is it illegal but unethical as a fisherman to shuffle your feet on the bottom of the river so as to stir up the bottom dwelling organisms that are life sustaining to the trout. A "San Juan Shuffle" may create a feeding frenzy of sorts and thus make fishing in the immediate area much better. So, hopefully with this blog I will do a bloggers version of the San Juan Shuffle and attract others to post comments and participate in my blog. The biggest difference is I don't intend to do anything illegal or unethical here but who knows ...we'll see?