Siemen's SE567 is the worst gateway

So I've been using this POS gateway for over half a year and I am fed up with it. I originally got this router when I signed up for the Telus Enhanced Internet (or something like that). Sign-up isn't really correct actually because I was already with Telus, but they were having a promotion and I wanted in because it was so cheap. Anyways, at the time I was already using a gateway from 2wire. A good gateway with no real problems.

So when I get my internet upgraded I was told I didn't have to do anything because I already had a gateway and I should just keep using the internet. So when it was upgraded the day they said it would be, my internet connection became SUPER SLOW. WTF? You call this enhanced speed? So I figured it might a gateway problem so I decided to switch to the SE567 POS gateway. Instantly, things went really quick and I was like good solved that problem.

Only a few days later, I suddenly became unable to connect to the wireless internet. It appeared once the wireless internet was encrypted, my vista laptop would no longer be able to connect. No other computers had problems. All my XPs, and Linux machines no problems. Only vista computers had problem.

So I literally resorted to using cable and stealing...no wait...borrowing wireless from my neighbours. This worked for a bit until my neighbours wireless started disappearing or I was just wasn't able to connect to it. So I finally decided to stop procasinating with the issue and try to tackle the problem once and for all.

I read article after article about trying to solve this problem and then tried solution after solution...none of which worked. Pissed off I just decided to switch back to my old router in hopes that the old speed problem wouldn't suffice. And once I did, the internet speed was fine and more importantly I could connect to the internet!!!!

So just some conclusions:

1. I really don't know what caused the problem. Could be Vista, the router itself, the encryption (no encryption lead to no problem with access), ethernet hardware which in term means DELL because all the vista laptops were Dell...too many factors


2. Siemen's SE567 gateway is a POS

Sharing a folder between Vista Host and a Ubuntu Guest

So to share a folder between the two OS (note the OS host and guest), first go to Devices->Share folders and then share the folder you want from your windows system. And then give it a name. Note the name that you give it as this becomes your sharing_name.

Next thing you do is go back to your Ubuntu guest OS, and then open a terminal. Then make a directory somewhere to share as your mounting point. With a command like this:

mkdir /mount_point_name

Then go into the folder and then type this command:

mount -t vboxsf sharing_name .

The sharing_name is simply the name of the sharing folder you specified earlier when you were in Devices->Share Folders

VirtualBox

I've been recently getting into virtual machines for work and for school. Mainly because I needed a solution to the problem that a lot of Bioinformatic (what I study for those who don't know) programs run on linux machines. I've grown up using windows and still quite a novice at linux as I only really started using it a year ago. Previously, I had a setup a dual boot on my PC running Vista and Ubuntu. However that didn't work so well because I always had to restart my machine just to get into Ubuntu or vice versa.

And thanks to a client who requested I test out some webpages in IE6 which I couldn't because I had Vista which comes with IE7 pre-installed (for those who don't know, you can't downgrade IE7 to IE6). I had to resort to a virtual machine to install windows XP just so I could test out the site in IE6. Frustrating!

Anyways, most virtual wares are quite expensive except for one: Virtualbox which is free! And it is a great piece of software too supporting many host OS and guest OS. I got it installed and setting up my guest OS was a breeze thanks to a very simple wizard.

When installing the Ubuntu guest OS, I took a Ubuntu LiveCD (I had previously burned this) and popped it in and followed the wizard. During the installation it got stuck at 82% saying it was configuring apts for a good like 15 minutes. I thought it had hanged on me, but it finally it got passed it. I noticed the network adapter was running so it was using the internet to search for applications? Not sure what would happen if the network adaptor was disconnected. In any case, it took a while so you should be prepared to wait a while too when installing.

A better idea is to actually download the latest version of Ubuntu as an iso onto your host machine. And then when you first start your guest os it will ask how you want to install it. You can then choose the CD-ROM and mount an image onto and install from there.

After installing, it would be wise to get the "guest additions" as this improves like mouse handling and the resolution. You can this by going to:

Devices ->Install Guest Additions

And then you should use an image on the desktop which means it has been mounted into the CD rom. And then open up a terminal and type:

sudo /media/cdrom/VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run

It will do some setup and then once it is done restart the virtual machine and you'll use the changes instantly!

Thank you Virtualbox!

Update:

I've found that when you run the ubuntu update, it will end up nullifying the guest additions. And then when you try to re-install the guest additions, it will complain about linux-headers build-essentials needing to be updated.

The way to solve this: sudo aptitude install build-essential linux-headers-`uname -r`

Where `-uname -r` is the version of the linux kernel. Apparently, you can just enter uname -r and it will enter the linux kernel version number for you. But I couldn't get it to work. So I ended up using entering uname -r in the terminal to get the version number displayed and then manually entering that into the command. So it ended up being something like this:

sudo aptitude install build-essential linux-headers-2.6.11-generic (something like that). And should install everything you need. And then try to re-install your guest additions and it should work.

NTLDR is missing error

Just when I thought the worst of my PC problems has passed, I recently had to deal with this "NTLDR is missing" error. This stands for New Techology Loader. What the problem is it is unable to find the master boot record to figure out which partition has the operating system. Apparently a very common error though I've never faced it in my life.

I was also in a predicament since I was in Hong Kong at that time and had none of my recovery disk CDs (why on earth would I bring them anyways?). With another laptop on hand to help me (thank goodness) So I did some searching on the internet and found a helpful site:

Windows Vista Recovery Disc Download

I could download just the recovery portion of the Vista Operating system disk and use that recovery portion. I went ahead with this, and then followed this tutorial to fix the problem.

Only problem was when I got to the part where it says:

bootrec.exe /fixmbr
x:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt60 all /force

The second command using bootsect.exe is NOT found on the recovery disk!!! I don't understand why they would tell us to use a command on the disk and not have the command in the ISO. I then tried to do some troubleshooting and download the bootsect.exe file itself, and then attempted to modify the ISO image to add this bootsect.exe. Tutorial on how to do this can be found here. To no avail, I ended up corrupting the ISO and never getting it to work. In the end, all the solutions the tutorial provided failed.

What happened in the end was I just waited until I got back to Canada. Then I called Dell to explain the situation. After some lengthly and pointless troubleshooting questions and steps, I just ended up reinstalling the whole operating system again.

UGHHH!!! I am starting to hate Dell and PCs. The case of getting a MAC as my next laptop is growing stronger.