By Travis Whidden on 3/8/2010 3:18 PM

Cox Las Vegas said for 1 year, I can get the 50 meg services at the price of the service I have now (80 / m).  Sounds like a good year ahead!  I ordered up my Motorola SURFboard SB6120 on Newegg for 100 bucks.  I wanted to have something to compare against, so here are my current speed tests on my Docsis 2.0 with the 18 meg service.  I live in the 89129 area code.

I should have the results in a few days for the new modem.

By Travis Whidden on 3/8/2010 2:20 PM

Newegg just dropped me off a nice 2TB disk.  (2/8/2010).  Here are the HD turn results:

Not to shabby.

By Travis Whidden on 7/13/2009 9:25 AM

Vonage has been very reliable to our companies over the past couple years. We have 4 sip trunks through them.  Today however we were getting 1500 ms response times to the Vonage sip server they had us using (sphone1.voncp.com). This is totally unacceptable in a VOIP environment. Our Asterisk server would not work at this point. After about 2-3 hours on the phone this morning, I convinced the Level3 Vonage techs to give me an alternate address to try (it took 2-3 hours to get to the L3 guy.. I was on the phone with the L3 guy for 10 minutes). The IP (var1.voncp.com) worked like a champ. They are doing some kind of DNS round-robin or something to rotate the IPs for load balanncing, so it rotates between different IP address's. I found that one of them had < 20 ms response times from my datacenter. I talked to the Vonage L3 tech, and he said there is no problem if I wanted to use just that one IP instead of a DNS name. So, if you are having some latency problems with Vonage, ping var1.voncp.com several times until you get an ip that has a low latency, and configure your server (I'm using trixbox asterisk) with that IP. Here are some of my results:

[root@trixboxxxxxxx asterisk]# ping var1.voncp.com
PING var1.voncp.com (69.59.252.178) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from proxy-var-outbound-01b.kewr0.s.vonagenetworks.net (69.59.252.178): icmp_seq=0 ttl=53 time=85.0 ms
64 bytes from proxy-var-outbound-01b.kewr0.s.vonagenetworks.net (69.59.252.178): icmp_seq=1 ttl=53 time=84.4 ms
64 bytes from proxy-var-outbound-01b.kewr0.s.vonagenetworks.net (69.59.252.178): icmp_seq=2 ttl=53 time=85.2 ms

--- var1.voncp.com ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 received, 0% packet loss, time 1000ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 84.777/84.803/84.830/0.292 ms, pipe 2
[root@trixboxxxxxxxx asterisk]# ping var1.voncp.com
PING var1.voncp.com (69.59.227.134) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from proxy-var-outbound-1c.klga1.s.vonagenetworks.net (69.59.227.134): icmp_seq=0 ttl=47 time=94.9 ms
64 bytes from proxy-var-outbound-1c.klga1.s.vonagenetworks.net (69.59.227.134): icmp_seq=1 ttl=47 time=94.8 ms

--- var1.voncp.com ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 received, 0% packet loss, time 0ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 95.820/95.820/95.820/0.000 ms, pipe 2
[root@trixboxxxxxxxx asterisk]# ping var1.voncp.com
PING var1.voncp.com (69.59.240.64) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from proxy-var-outbound-1a.klax2.s.vonagenetworks.net (69.59.240.64): icmp_seq=0 ttl=55 time=23.6 ms

 

The ONLY caveat to this whole thing, is you will have to get to a L3 Support team so they can update some XML files in their system that tell inbound calls how to route to your system. Mine worked right away, but some other Vonage numbers that we had forwarded to that inbound sip didn't work at all. After they updated their servers (took only minutes), everything was fine.

I hope this helps some of you Vonage sip trunk subscribers.  They really do have a fantastic service.  We bought our sip trunks from http://www.asterisk-vonage.com/

$175 a month for unlimited in, 5000 out, and unlimited simultaneous calls on one sip trunk (many providers do not allow this). Nice not to have to worry about a roll over ;)

By Travis Whidden on 5/14/2009 3:58 PM

This tutorial will show you how to accept multicast traffic on a specific adapter. Windows NT doesn't allow for Multicast traffic on a multi-homed system on all adapters - only the first one to boot.  This is a problem for people who have applications that require multiple networks but need multicast on a specific network.  In my field of work, this happens in surveillance systems where many NVR/DVR providers multicast packet delivery to hosts.

The FASTEST way to get multicast traffic is to plug the Ethernet cable that will contain the multicast traffic into the first network adapter on your server.  This tutorial is going to show you how to switch the boot priority of the Ethernet without the need to be onsite, without having to modify the registry manually, without having to use RAS (Routing and Remote Access).

Open up your network connections. You should see something like this:
Quick Command: Start->Run->ncpa.cpl

Notice how my network named "Pelco" network was listed second. This is because someone plugged the cable into port 2 on the server. Unfortunately, Port 2 now is the adapter where multicast traffic will come from.

To change the boot priority so that the "Pelco" network boots first, click on that "Advanced" tool bar option. (I know, I never noticed it there before ether).

Click "Advanced Settings"

Now, Change the Adapter and Bindings - the top most item boots first, and next down the line boots next:

Now, I am not sure if its needed or not, but the boot priority seems like I would need to reboot it.  Maybe they don't call it "boot priority" but, that's how I look at it.  Once you reboot, you should now be getting Multi-cast traffic on that first adapter (well, 2nd adapter made to boot first).

Happy Multi-casting!

By Travis Whidden on 8/23/2008 7:20 AM

 

wow.. just wow.

By Travis Whidden on 8/20/2008 6:46 AM

 

Just nuts. 

By Travis Whidden on 8/13/2008 6:58 AM

Yea, ummm... I am down with this.  

 

 

I just put in a Cisco 3640 router with several FastEthernet ports.   Going to use my Cisco 806 at my office.

I pay for the top tier service from Cox, but my mom and father in law have the low service and they get these same speeds?  Well, I am still very happy with this.

Maybe one day, we will have 100/100 speeds.. or even better 1000/1000 speeds!

 

Travis

By Travis Whidden on 5/2/2008 3:33 PM

OK, so many of you may have ran into the same problem that I have had trying to set up a number from the sip provider VoiceStick.  My specific application requires that I buy 50 - 200 DID numbers. I did a lot of searching, and found a few providers that I wanted to try.   These people at VoiceStick were very helpful and seemed to have the most support for non-24 hour services from what I could find anyways.

Now, the only things I can see being a problem with VoiceStick is that they don't do the following:

1. They give you an IP address instead of a DNS name to point at their server.  If they ever change, well, lets just say you would be in trouble until you found out about the change
2. They don’t have any kind of network fail over option so like if their network goes down, or they cant hit your server, it wont forward to another number
3. No 24 hour support options - If you are down over the weekend, lets hope they know about it.

A huge advantage is that you can buy there .99 cent DID number, and only pay one cent per min on the usage.  So if you have a call center, a number that cost more means you are doing some good calls on it. Lets hope the telemarketers stay away.

After some short and quick email correspondences with VoiceStick, I got the details needed to setup my TrixBox with their SIP server.  It worked right away, and the quality seems to be very nice!

Settings:

 

Now, the kicker is you need to adjust your /etc/host file to include the following line:

72.5.80.116     i2telecom.com

Once that is setup, your system will be registered without any issues!  In and outbound work just fine.

Hope this helps --- lets just hope they don't change the IP address of the server any time soon!

By Travis Whidden on 1/26/2008 12:17 AM

I am seriously happy that I could move my vista partition to another hard disk.  I recently just bought a 750 gig Western Digital that has nearly double the read and write speed.  I didn't want to go and re-install Windows Vista for the 3rd time this month.  My new computer is just smoking fast, but hey, disk IO is very important also.

So, I did a quick Google search, and I found some people saying it could not be done, reinstall.. blah blah.  Then I saw in a thread.. it was the very last post.. "use Gparted".  I was like "what is gparted" so my Google search changed to looking for this new tool.

I downloaded it. It was an ISO. I burned it to my CD, and away I went.

Now, at this point, I was prepared to re-install windows if it came down to it.  I would recommend you do a backup, although I think you will be ok without.

The program includes a screen shot option, but I didn't use it.  I am going to give you the instructions from memory if you are trying to do this yourself.

Some more links before we get started:
GParted home page:  http://gparted.sourceforge.net/index.php
GParted screen shots: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php

 

1. Download "GParted" from sourceforge.net: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=115843&package_id=173828
2. Burn the ISO (using something like Nero)
3. Shut down your computer
4. Install your new hard drive
5. Make sure your computer is set to boot of CD-ROM - keep the freshly burned disk in your cd drive.
6. Let the program boot up. I selected the first option, and things went perfectly.
7. A nice GUI will boot.. and you are now using the GParted tools.  This is very powerful and you can toy around with some cool stuff including a nice shell
8. Go to the disk that contains your Windows Vista Partition (/dev/sda1 usually)
9. Right click on the disk, and click "Copy"
10. Go to the destination disk that you want Vista to be on (or any OS really) and right paste.
11. Apply the changes.  This will take a while, depending on the size and data content of your disks.  It took my 30 gigs of storage about 10 - 20 minutes to transfer
12. Right click on the new disk and select "flags" and click on the "boot" check mark which will make that partition bootable.
13. Double click on the exit button at the top left.  Shut down
14. Open up your computer, and put your primary disk on SATAII0 or what ever port you can to make it be the first drive in your system
15. Attempt to boot your machine.  If your windows vista starts up and throws a huge error that it cant find the boot files.. dont sweat it.  If it boots right up.. you dont need the rest of this tutorial.

The following is if you rebooted and your windows system did not start.  Just whip out your Vista Install disk.  You will love this new feature of their installer.

1. Pop in your Vista CD
2. Boot into the Vista Installer
3. Click on "Repair Windows" -- This is cool. It detected my problem, and fixed my system to point at the right device.  My old windows was Dynamic, so I assume it pointed the boot to the new basic disk.
4. Click on "update and restart"
5. Pull your Vista CD out of your CD drive.

If all worked out.. you will now be on the way to booting your Windows Vista on your new hard drive.

I used this tool GParted to also resize my 60 gig partition to 120 gigs.   I don't usually install anything on the OS partition, but stuff that has to be re-installed on a Windows re-install usually gets placed on that drive.

My admin at my hosting company (www.amhosting.com) will be very pleased that I used Linux to fix a Windows Issue. He is hardcore, and is always getting me to use new linux tool sets.  He has saved my windows windows machines a couple of times using other cool Linux tools. I am actually becoming very fond of Linux.  If I was not obsessed with the new UI and performance of Vista, I may be doing an Ubuntu desktop.

Good luck.  This really was a cool tool to use. 

By Travis Whidden on 1/25/2008 10:48 PM

I am nerding out here.  I recently just bought a Core 2 Quad Core 2.4.  The price for these processors has dropped amazingly low.  I am a huge newegg.com fan also.  I bought everything I have from them.   Even pickup up a nice Gigabyte P35 board.. with 8 SATAII ports on it. Well, this post isn't about my computer, but more about my new hard drive I just picked up.  I was reading online that this hard drive is out performing some of the top line hard drives.   I almost bought the Raid Ready drive for my personal machine (well, I did, but I canceled it).  The only real difference is the firmware on the Raid Raid drive designed for hardware raids (plays nicely with it), the nice 5 year warrantee instead of 3, and the fact that they only do 8 hours of testing instead of 24 on this drive.  Well.. that's fine with me. I did a full Q/A check on it using badblocks in linux. So, here is the cool stuff. My Computer Spec: Quad Core 2.4 4 GB 1066 DDR2 Memory 1.75 TB storage (Would have been 2, but a 250 died on

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