Blackhat SEO – Esrun

Slingbox sucks

I bought a slingbox early this year. Watch and control your sky/cable box over the internet from anywhere in the world. Great!

After a couple months of using it, it started to play up, not connecting to the network and such like. Usually a reset would fix this.

About 9 months on and the box now refuses to connect to the network and won’t even reset. Before contacting Sling Media for support, I take a look around online and found forums full of people with the same problem. A hardware issue that means replacing the unit. Sigh, not ideal. After leaving it plugged in (not working) for a few weeks, I came back and now no lights come on. The unit is dead.

I call up Sling support but am told that they can’t help me until I register the product online. Why they can’t do it over the phone I don’t know, not a great start. After registering online, I call back and am advised that the product only has a support/warranty period of 90 days. I’ve never bought an electrical product before that didn’t have at least a 1 year warranty! If I want any support now, I need to pay 29.99. Thing is, It’s quite clearly a hardware fault so even if I pay this rip off charge, I won’t get anywhere unless they agree to replace the unit.

If possible, buy an alternative to the Slingbox or other Slingmedia products. Their support is practically non-existent and based on the number of people complaining about the same hardware issues, there’s obviously common faults. If there support had actually made any kind of attempt to help then I’d have considered buying another one, even with its faults. But now there’s no chance I’ll pay out more cash for any Slingmedia product.

Restart OS X Dock

For the last 6 months or so, I’ve run into the same problem across a range of different mac computers. I go to change an application or open a finder window and it just wont work.

I have a second window changer installed which is called witch. I highly recommend using this if you don’t already since it lets you change to a specific window rather than just an application.

I originally thought the issue was with Finder but after a bit of searching, it turns out to be a problem with the Dock. I looked around for apple scripts which could restart Dock but the only one I could find was a bit hit and miss in its success. So I put together my own very simple script.

Simply create a new apple script and put in this:

do shell script "kill -HUP `ps -aux | grep Dock | grep -v grep | awk '{print $2}'`"

Save it to your desktop and next time your system stops letting you change windows and such like, simply run this script and it will restart your dock.

I used to reboot every time this happened so I’m glad I finally got around to putting a proper solution together.

Ubuntu Gateway / Access Point Server

I’ve been wanting to play wifi king for a long time. Providing free wireless internet access to a reasonable sized area. Finally I got to have a play.

The basic idea is to have a server which shares the internet from a standard connection (e.g DSL) to anyone who connects wirelessly. “You mean a wireless access point, why can’t I just buy a £30 wireless AP?”

Well..

Benefits of running our server over buying a standard wireless access point (AP):

Many run of the mill wireless APs fail under high traffic – With our server, we can use a better processor and increase RAM as required.

Caching – If you’re serving a lot of users then you can save on bandwidth and speed up users browsing experience by using a caching proxy like squid. Basically, when one user views a video on youtube (depending on your squid cache file size settings), squid makes a copy of it and then serves its copy to any future requests. This is quicker than downloading it from youtube and serving it to the client again. You can configure file sizes and cache file life time.

Filtering – For bandwidth saving or corporate reasons you can setup a filter with squid to block access to certain sites, certain types of site or content-type. For example you could block access to youtube or block all video files completley.

Advertising – You can incporporate your own advertising into sites that you’re serving. If you wanted to get into the nitty gritty then you could monitor traffic and serve ads based on user behavour (like phorm, I guess)

What do I need?

The great thing is, to do something like this, you don’t need any pricey hardware.

What you need:

1. A computer and operating system (In my case, Ubuntu 9.04)
2. A network card that uses our connection from the ISP
3. A wireless card that supports ‘master mode’ in linux.

1) The box I’m using in this example was originally used as my desktop system and is far more powerful than what you realistically need. I prefer using laptops (especially when going to and from work) so I’ve converted it for this project.

The specs are:

Processor – Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4ghz 8mb L2 cache
Motherboard – Intel BLKDG35EC
RAM – 8gb (4 x 2GB Kingston DDR2 PC800)
HD – Western Digital 320GB 7200RPM SATA
Graphics – Nvidia Inno3d 8600GT PCIE 512mb S-video/DVI/VGA
Network – Onboard gigabit ethernet, TP-LINK TL-WN651g
Case – Basic case
Power – ACBEL INTELLIGENT POWER 610W ACTIVE PFC

I’m running Ubuntu 9.04. For this example, I’ll be assuming that everyone is running Ubuntu 9.04 but it shouldn’t vary that much between different linux distros.

2) I’m using my onboard network card connected to a DSL modem. I actually want to replace this step with an internal PCI modem but I’m having trouble finding a suitable card right now.

3) This one took me a long time! I originally hoped I could use USB wifi adapters since this would make it easier to use many to service a big wireless area. I have tested many usb wifi adapters and had no problem getting them to act as access points/’master mode’ in Windows XP but not in Ubuntu! (For those interested, I had best success with adapters using the r8187 chipset).

It was a bit easier finding a PCI wifi card that would work in master mode. The easiest thing to do is find any card which uses an Atheros chipset and use madwifi drivers (explained later). I loaded a few local computer shop websites and then checked their stock against the madwifi compatibility list. I eventually ended up with a TP-LINK TL-WN651g.
Configuring the server

The first thing to do is install Ubuntu. Download the ISO, burn to DVD and install. I won’t go into detail on this because there’s nothing to do really.

Configure the network card to take connection from our ISP

Open a terminal and edit /etc/network/interfaces by adding the following:

#isp
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

This assumes that you’re plugging this network card into a source that’s running a DHCP server such as a standard router/DSL modem. If you run ‘/etc/init.d/networking restart’ you should now be online, great!

Configure DNS

Since we’re going to act as an access point, we need to enter the DNS servers we’re going to use. You can enter your ISPs DNS servers or free ones like those provided by OpenDNS. In this example, I’ll assume you’re going to use OpenDNS.

Open a terminal and edit /etc/resolv.conf so that it reads as the following:
nameserver 208.67.222.222
nameserver 208.67.220.220

Configuring the wireless card with madwifi drivers

To get the wireless card to act as an access point we need special drivers known as madwifi. To set this up I simply plugged my pci wireless card into the server and then (in gnome session) I clicked ’system>administration>hardware drivers’ where it automatically searched for drivers and offered me ‘Alternate Atheros “madwifi” driver. I simply selected and enabled this driver.

After this, I run the following command in a terminal:

apt-get install madwifi-tools

This installs a package of tools we need to configure the card as an access point.

To force the card to always go into AP mode, we’re going to edit file ‘/etc/modprobe.d/madwifi' by adding the following to it:

options ath_pci autocreate=ap

After adding the above, we’ll run ‘modprobe ath_pci'

Configure wireless card to setup access point

Again we’re going to open a terminal and edit our /etc/network/interfaces file by adding the following:

#wifi ap
auto ath0
iface ath0 inet static
wireless-mode master
wireless-essid linksys
address 192.168.1.1
network 192.168.1.0
netmask 255.255.255.0
broadcast 192.168.1.255

If you run ‘/etc/init.d/networking restart’ and scan for wireless access points from another computer, you should now see an access point called ‘linksys’. We’re not done yet though! If you connect, nothing’s going to happen.

Configure the server to route the traffic from the wirless through our ISP connection (eth0)

In terminal run ‘echo boxer > /etc/hostname’

Edit ‘/etc/hosts’ to look the same as:

127.0.0.1       boxer   localhost.localdomain   localhost
192.168.0.100   boxer     server

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1     ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

Make a new file ‘/etc/init.d/iptables’ and copy the following into it:

#! /bin/sh
echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
iptables -F
iptables -X
iptables -t nat -F
iptables -t nat -X
iptables -t mangle -F
iptables -t mangle -X
iptables -P INPUT ACCEPT
iptables -P FORWARD ACCEPT
iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o ath0 -j MASQUERADE
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

To make our new file executable, run ‘chmod +x /etc/init.d/iptables’ and then to make it run on startup run ‘update-rc.d iptables defaults ‘

Install DHCP server

We need to install a DHCP server so that when clients connect, they’re given an IP address. To do this, run

apt-get install dhcp3-server

After this is installed, edit ‘/etc/default/dhcp3-server’ so that INTERFACES=”ath0″

Next, add the following to the bottom of file ‘/etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf’

authoritative;
subnet 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
range                           192.168.1.100 192.168.1.200;
option domain-name-servers      208.67.222.222,208.67.220.220;
option routers                  192.168.1.1;
default-lease-time              600;
max-lease-time                  7200;
}

Reboot

Everything should now be installed and setup. Now we reboot, cross our fingers and hope everything worked.

Conclusion

I want to update this post with how to install and configure squid as a transparent caching proxy (no need to configure the clients). Right now this just feeds traffic straight through.

I also want to keep working on getting USB wifi adapters working in ‘master/AP’ mode since this would greatly help servicing a large area. Imagine, you can use multiple cheap USB wifi adapters with a different range of antennas connected.

I’m not a linux guru and a lot of this information I’ve learnt/collated from different forums, sites and such like. I can’t see that I’ve missed anything out but let me know if you run into any problems.

Another Euro Drive

Woooo! Well It looks like I’ll be doing another drive across mainland Europe in January

The first time I did a drive across Europe I didn’t even bother taking a camera but the second time I did a little post on it with some pics.

I actually found an old MP3 which I recorded the night before I went on the drive. At the time I was doing SEO for an insurance company and because I wanted a break and I’m impatient I booked the ferry for the next day! The night before I saw my friend and we had a few drinks and he sang this on the fly.

The great thing about Europe is once you’re in, that’s basically it, no hassle! Just drive anywhere at anytime without any problems.

I’m torn between attempting a long drive to somewhere like Russia or visiting multiple countries. I like the idea of driving to Russia and back because its quite a challenge since its such a distance and you travel through a fair amount of countries but I wouldn’t really have time to do anything in the countries but have a quick nap before moving onto the next.

If however I decide to visit multiple countries then I’m thinking something..

Ferry from Dover(UK) to Dunkirk(France)

Dunkirk to Frankfurt(Germany)

Frankfurt to Zurich(Switzerland)

Zurich to Rome(Italy)

Rome to Geneva (France)

Geneva to Paris(France) or Dunkirk(France)… depending on timing

Not an easy drive to do in a short time (7 or 10 days) but that kinda makes it more challenging

If you have any suggestions on places to visit or changes to the route then feel free to comment! Nothings set in stone.

Namecheap checkout referal

I actually can’t beleive this! I had to renew some domains in Namecheap so I sign in and choose to use funds already in the account. Should be a 1 minute job I think..

I get an error saying my checkout request was invalid.. so I hit back and click proceed again.. same error. Then I decide I have no choice but to read the error. You must have referral data turned on! WHAT THE HELL!? I have my browser referal data disabled in firefox and I can’t believe there are people out there using referal data for checkout/basket systems.

Get with the times namecheap!

Quick post

This is just a quick post with no real seo focus.

To start with, I have a special promo for Boysstuff this week! 25% of anything in their catalog. Okay their prices are a little high to start with but with 25% off they’re pretty good! Just use the coupon code RTN25 before 31/03/2008.

The old saying is that the way to a mans heart is threw his stomach.. the way to an SEOs contacts or knowledge also seems to be the same way as I recieved a box of kitkats today from SEOIdiot as a bribe lol! He knows I would tell him anyway but he does like to have his little jokes. So thanks for that

I’m going to be doing a few posts on targeted offline spamming</strike> I mean advertising soon. I’m sure everyone has thought about it before so keep an eye out for the future posts

I’m also going to start offering online versions of some of my scripts so you can use them quickly online without having to download them and put them on your own hosting

ukskydiving.com moan

Update: I have now made a few trips to the north london parachute centre without being able to jump. They stuff many people into each day then send a bunch home each time. AVOID THEM!

So 2 days ago I book a sky dive with ukskydiving.com who are “North london parachute Centre”.. North london my arse, it’s in March, Cambridge and cost me a ridiculous 4 hours travelling (1 hour into London then 3 onwards) and the ticket from London to March station was £77! What a joke, they want people to use public transport but its dog slow and costs a fortune. Fuck the environment, I can’t afford to care for the environment with prices like these.

The guys at the airfield said the weather has been terrible and unsuitable for days so I’m not sure why ukskydiving.com let me book it just 2 days ago knowing full well it was absolutely more than likely I’d be wasting my time and money. What a load of bollocks.

Its my birthday and I’ll cry if I want to

Well It was my birthday and I turned upto the office to find a tin of strongbow, carlsberg and blackcurrent to make a snakebite in the morning wahey!!!!

I went out with good old mates in the evening to nandos, keeping it real with good quality and well priced food. Although the alcohol is a little over priced. A mate bought me the new radio 1 live lounge CD so I tried to get them to play it while we ate the food but supposedly the CD is “incompatible” with their CD system… rightttttt…

After the food we went onto a quality bar in Southend and bought a couple bottles of laurent pierre champagne. After buying a couple bottles of the champaigne and some shots they were happy to play my CD and put on some tunes which other people in the bar obviously weren’t enjoying all that much.

I went to the bar again at about 11:20pm and they wouldn’t serve me because their licence only went upto 11PM but after offering the bar guy £20 ($40) her sold us another bottle of champaigne which was cool, even if he did get all pissy about one poxy broken glass.

After the bar we went down to the casino and I logged my friends in as guests and we continued to drink ciders, shots and lagers.

I pulled one of the bouncers to a side and asked about strip clubs.. there was two He recommended and one was in Southend. Unfortunately the Southend one had already closed at half midnight so we drove to the Basildon one but when we arrived there they wouldn’t let us in because only half hour was left at the club so I offered some money to get in but they wanted £40 ($80) per person to get in, even though some other people were allowed in without hassle. So I told them they were trying to mug me off, especially since there’s only 30 mins left and it got a little lary. After two big guys and a smaller guy told me I should just leave I was happy to just say “Okay you were trying to mug me off but I know when it’s time to leave” so that was the end of my night.

It was a good birthday keeping it real in Southend

Random: Moro reflex

Well this post is a bit of a random slightly drunk post… but hey its my blog so I can do that!

I was browsing Digg earlier and came across a story about the Moro Reflex in babies. So most people I have tried to talk to about this think I’m just crazy but oh well! It seems to be that when babies are born, for a long time they have this reflex where if they’re dropped they put their arms out straight away, it’s presumed to try catch something to stop themselves falling. It’s quite interesting and quite funny at the same time.

Example video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2508818082092298520

Anyway, I was in the bathroom this evening and looking in the mirror, I stumbled back in a tired/sleepy way and straight away my arms went up. It really made me laugh.

So there you go, a sad and random post.

Macbook pro warranty

Well some readers will remember that about 10 months ago I purchased a macbook pro and have been using it pretty much constantly since and it has been a joy. Unfortunately along the way a few problems did start to appear.

Macbook pro pitting paint

After about 2-3 months of using the laptop it started to develop loads of little black dots where my palms rested, pretty much wrecking the appearance of the laptop. I called to report this to apple expecting them to offer to fix it but instead they told me it was a cosmetic issue which wasn’t covered by warranty. This got me pretty mad considering their warranty states defective materials and If you ask me it wasn’t upto the task of what it was built for and certaintly didn’t last a reasonable amount of time before becoming damaged which to me indicates it to be a defective material! The problem is discussed throughout the internet but apple refuse to accept it as a problem. Anyway I figured that it doesn’t really impact the use of the laptop other than the resale price and of course appearance if used in a meeting or such like so I decided to just ignore it and carry on. The image below shows the problem, although mine was much worse than this.

Fading paint on strip under keyboard on macbook

Soon after another issue appeared which is a strip just under the keyboard which also started to show paint issues. Again I ignored this since I knew what the responce from Apple would be.

Red light coming on when unplugging headphones from macbook

Sometimes I would unplug my headphones from the laptop and a red light would come on where you plug in the 3.5mm headphone jack and it would disable my speakers. I searched for this problem and found out it was a little switch in the hole which enabled/disabled digital output for fibre or something like that. To get around this you simply plug in and remove the headphones several times until it resolves itself.

After experiencing a few more issues I decided to take the laptop into an apple store before the 1 year warranty ran out. Handy tip for those thinking about buying a mac… buy from a John Lewis store and you will get an extended warranty of 2 years.

Right hinge worn out

Macbook latch doesn’t work causing it to not close properly

Optical drive wont eject disks (Resolved by blowing into the drive and then hitting eject, oddly enough!)

When I showed the “genius” my macbook he said it was the worst condition he’d ever seen a mac laptop in and that he’d been working there for many years. I tried to explain that I used the laptop every day and wasn’t just your average user but he just said “Well most people use their laptops everyday”. Oh well, I couldn’t be bothered to explain the different between those who use their laptop and those who really use their laptops, if you get what I mean. He argued that the issues were cosmetic and unlikely to be covered by the warranty but to leave the laptop with them and they’d let me know. He asked me to sign a form which confirmed that I was leaving the laptop with them and that I had declined the £30 backup, I duly signed the form and left the shop with my laptop in their hands. I declined the backup because the harddrive has only just been replaced with stock HD so doesn’t contain any sensitive information, just the operating system.

Anyway, I left the store after about 30 minutes of talking to the genius and giving him all the information about me and my macbook. I got into my car and started to read through the form he got me to sign and it had some text about possible charges and T&C in faint on the back. I was a little annoyed that he advised the form was simply to confirm I was leaving it with them and declined the backup when infact it discusses possible fees etc. Okay fair point you should read all documents in full before you sign them but when someone explains to me what the form is that I’m signing then I generally just accept what they say and sign the document, especially when its somethign so trivial like warranty issues. Annoyed about this and the fact that they were arguing issues which i consider to be covered within warranty I wrote to(well, emailed) Steve jobs on saturday and this morning I recieved a call from a rep on his behalf who spoke to the staff in the apple shop and sorted everything out for me.

Provided it has all indeed been sorted out then I think I’ll buy the new imac when I go to pick my macbook up. I’m a little annoyed that I have had so much hassle getting warranty issues resolved because I have had ipods replaced with pretty much no questions asked in the past so I expected a similar level of service. If there are continuing issues with this warranty claim then I’ll probably not buy the imac just out of principal. I can get dell systems for half the price and with next day business replacement for half the price of the mac systems. Okay I admit it will not look or feel as nice but I reckon I could get over that knowing that if/when something goes wrong they will be on it straight away. You can install mac os x on a standard pc now anyway so that’s not a problem! Get a bog standard dell system, install os X, plug in a mighty mouse and mac keyboard, job done