#002 One small fight with a WET610N

2010-06-16T11:29:00.000-07:00

In this modern Internet world of malware infections sometimes what seems to be something ends up being different than what you thought. A perfect example of this is a problem that I received a service call for this past week.

The customer of ours at Winterhoff Internet Solutions was complaining that she could not get email or her banking website to work, but the rest of the Internet seemed to be working fine. The first thing that came to my mind was a BHO or LSP infection from some form of malware on her PC. But wait, it was affecting all 3 pc's of her home office but not the wireless laptop, and everything worked fine a day ago.

The Basic Diagnostics

Now she has my attention. Since I installed her network I know that she has a Road Runner cable account, one Linksys wireless router and a Netgear Prosafe router behind that to separate her home network from her business network. Being the big fan of OpenDNS that I am, I was sure I set the Netgear to use the OpenDNS servers. Maybe that was the issue, I thought to myself. A simple ping test proved that was not the problem. I could ping from any PC on the business network to any of the websites that were failing. I could even ping the POP and SMTP servers that were timing out. So all I know is that to some IP addresses port 25, 80, 110 are not being routed correctly.

Getting Serious

I’m now kind of bummed out, because I can go no further without going on site to reset or flash the routers to see if they are causing the issue. When I got there I power cycled the network equipment and nope...that did not fix it. Then I started checking logs: the Linksys is routing they way I expect it to, but the Netgear never received the packet.

What Went Wrong

My eureka moment, it’s got to be the bridge! Originally the client did not want any cables run from the wireless router upstairs and the business network downstairs. So the solution was a wireless bridge (which worked well for five months). The Linksys Wireless Bridge WET610N set up was pretty smooth the first time so I flashed it with the updated firmware, but the problem still persisted even after I re-set it.

The Fix

It only took 30 minutes the next day to relocate the wireless router and cable modem to an adjacent room downstairs, and run 50 feet of Cat5e cable.

Lessons learned: don’t buy a Linksys Wireless Bridge WET610N, and next time just keep on insisting that we run the cable! Also Cisco - Linksys does not offer refunds on the junk they sell.

#001 Social Media: Lots of Questions & Lots of Hype... But whare's the BEEF!

2010-06-06T21:01:00.000-07:00

Justification of social media is in some markets dubious at best. Many micro businesses find it very difficult to measure their ROI (return on investment) in their social media campaigns. Yet many "Twitter Gurus", "FaceBook Gurus" and "social media experts", will make wild claims about the success of these marketing campaigns. Some will get downright defensive and spit out claims that it's about human interactions and not the numbers.
One problem with that narrow mind-set is we do it for the marketing efforts of business, and that is why they are selling their consulting services to us. Another problem is conducting business for the mass majority of us is all about "human interactions". The mega businesses of the world might need lectures about "engagement", but the real questions are...

Where is the business logic?
Are my margins better?
Are my customers happier?
Do I have less time and more work?
What is value of this social media conversation for the business?
Is it worth it to most of my clients or just some?
If building a true community is so difficult and failure rate so high, why try?
I don't work for free, and social media takes time, how can they say it has no cost?
I'm I relevant or irrelevant?

I have found these to be some of the most pressing questions faced by micro business, and yet the "experts" would have you abandon your instincts and take it on faith that it will work. If all marketers lie (tell stories) then why shouldn't we believe they are just trying to press a "greed trigger" to get you to buy in? The answer to that question is, it might just work for you.

Check back from time to time and I might just answer these questions.

Wininets' Blog

#002 One small fight with a WET610N

#001 Social Media: Lots of Questions & Lots of Hype... But whare's the BEEF!