Well my ADSL speed and latency seems to be back to normal now. Pages are loading as they should and I seem to be getting quite good speeds as well.
Less annoyed now.
ADSL Connection Still Flaky…
Still very annoyed that my ADSL connection is still very flaky this morning. Sometimes pages load really quickly, then the next click to another page times out!
Very annoying.
Retro
The BBC has published a series of photographs of retro technology which people are still using today.
ADSL Sloowwww
Today my ADSL internet connection was really really slow.
I initially thought it might be something at my end, but a quick check of my ISP’s status reports showed that they were having issues with a specific gateway (and it was the gateway I was connected to).
Despite turning off my router (as recommended by my ISP) intially my speeds remained poor and with little connectivity.
A few hours later it does seem back to normal. With such poor connectivity it makes me realise how dependent I am on my internet connection for everyday stuff, as well as entertainment and information.
Frozen Upgraded Parallels
I started Parallels on my iMac and there was a new update, which (as I thought I have the time) decided to download and install.
Well it took ages to download the disk image and when it finally did get downloaded, I am guessing it did not mount correctly as first Parallels froze and then the whole Mac.
Generally when an application fails to behave properly on a Mac, you can shut it down even force it to quit, but everything else continues to work. Today with Parallels that wasn’t what happened.
With the whole Mac not working, I gave it five minutes and then holding down the power button forced the iMac to shut down.
I restarted the Mac and everything seemed to be okay.
I mounted the Parallels disk image and ran the upgrade installer, which worked fine, and then updated my virtual XP machine which also went fine.
Not sure what went wrong, but XP on Parallels is now working fine.
Wireless just went…
So there I was about to write a new blog entry when my wireless went down (again). Quite weird in that I could ping other devices on the network (even use VNC) but could not access the router via a browser or even ping it.
In the end I just unplugged the router and the Airport Express, waited ten seconds, and then plugged them back in again.
Now working.
Sharing Files
On my main tech website I have a what others have called “useful” guide to sharing files between Mac OS X and Windows XP.
Sharing files between an XP PC and a Mac running OS 10.4
Of course one of the key issues for me now is that Microsoft have released Vista and Apple have just released Leopard (10.5) which means that my guide is out of date by two operating systems.
I do now have a Vista PC, but it is running Vista Business Edition which is “tweaked” for networking by Microsoft, whereas the Vista Ultimate Home Edition is not, therefore I think I am going to have to write two guides, one for Business and one for Home.
However I don’t yet have Leopard, partly as there isn’t a huge amount there for me to upgrade, but also I am not sure if all my peripherals and applications will work under Leopard. I remember having issues and problems when I upgraded my old G5 PowerMac from Panther (10.3) to Tiger (10.4) and some applications stopped working properly.
So eventually I will be upgrading my guides once I have bought the new operating systems.
Nikon Coolpix P5100 Review
Digital Photography Review has posted a review of the Nikon Coolpix P5100 and it didn’t go down well with the reviewer.
Ultimately, for us, the P5100 was a disappointment, but not a surprise.
I really like the Digital Photography Reviews as they are so thorough including sample and comparative shots, if you want to get a camera, I would check the review on Digital Photography Review first before anywhere else.
Wireless Connectivity Issues
Recently I have been having a few issues with the connectivity of my Airport Express base station.
I have had to power cycle the base station a couple of times now, as the wireless network just seemed to stop working.
My Airport Express is quite old now, I bought it when it was first released and on the Apple Discussion Forums there have been quite a few people who have had issues with their Airport Express units “dying”.
I am not sure why I am losing connectivity, there doesn’t seem to be a pattern.
I am not too worried as I have a spare wireless base station or two hanging around, it’s more the hassle of reconfiguring the wireless network and all the clients.
Oops
When checking to see if something works, one of the first things you should do is check that all the cables are plugged in…
There was me thinking my EyeHome had died, the reality was that I had previously unplugged all the cables (except the power cable) in preparation for changing my under-television configuration.