Oct 2006
Online paid library with Safari Books Online
25/10/06 10:11 Filed in: Books
So it has now been two months since I have been a paying client of the Safari Books Online library and overall I have been a happy client.
They have a wide selection of technical books for online reading. Although they have various subscriptions I use the $20 a month to read up to 10 books per month. For $30 you can read up to 20 books and for $40 those with too much time on their hands can read as much as they like.
Personally I was only able to get through one 650 page book in a month though I did browse 3-4 others for some quick information. The 10 books max is enough for me.
Reading the books is not difficult but you must be online because each time you turn the page you need to go back to their website. With some books there is the possibility to download PDF versions of a chapter in exchange for a token (they give you 5 of these free per month with the option to buy more). I have only tried this once but it was such low quality I could barely make out the screenshot graphics and the text formatting was horrendous.
Aside from the PDF problems, there are many good features... searching for content in and through multiple books, ability to leave bookmarks to remember where you were, hide the navigation bar for full screen reading, and the possibility to zoom a page to whatever is comfortable.
So, at the end of the day its cheaper than buying the book but if I do like the book I can usually buy it from them at a good discount.
They have a wide selection of technical books for online reading. Although they have various subscriptions I use the $20 a month to read up to 10 books per month. For $30 you can read up to 20 books and for $40 those with too much time on their hands can read as much as they like.
Personally I was only able to get through one 650 page book in a month though I did browse 3-4 others for some quick information. The 10 books max is enough for me.
Reading the books is not difficult but you must be online because each time you turn the page you need to go back to their website. With some books there is the possibility to download PDF versions of a chapter in exchange for a token (they give you 5 of these free per month with the option to buy more). I have only tried this once but it was such low quality I could barely make out the screenshot graphics and the text formatting was horrendous.
Aside from the PDF problems, there are many good features... searching for content in and through multiple books, ability to leave bookmarks to remember where you were, hide the navigation bar for full screen reading, and the possibility to zoom a page to whatever is comfortable.
So, at the end of the day its cheaper than buying the book but if I do like the book I can usually buy it from them at a good discount.
Airport Express extends a wireless network
22/10/06 08:04 Filed in: Apple
Problem, one of my desktop systems has a bad wireless card and I want to skimp on buying a new wireless card. Available tools, my Trendnet 411BRP wireless bridge and an Airport Express from Apple. Eventually both worked but with a few quirks.
It seemed an easy fix, the Airport Express has an Ethernet interface and I could just make it a client of the main Trendnet Access Point and connect the Ethernet cable to the desktop's unused Ethernet interface. The little difficulties started soon afterwards.
It appears that the Airport Express disables the Ethernet interface whenever it is a client of another Access Point. However, it could be activated if it was EXTENDING an existing network. Normally extending the network is just to make the signal stronger because the two wireless devices work together using pretty much the same configuration.
Apple's instruction manual only mentioned this working with other Apple products but since it used a process called WDS (Wireless Distribution System) which the Trendnet device also supported I figured it would be worth a try.
After hooking everything up, the extension was not working but I could talk with the Airport Express device. On the Airport side I received an error saying that Channel Autodetection could not run with WDS. Okay, I set the actual channel of the Trendnet Access Point without any problem.
Fortunately the Apple side of things was pretty well documented. So I already knew I needed WDS to work to reach the Ethernet and now I had to pick the channel. I was getting worried about the Trendnet device because it's documented support for WDS was all of two lines of text in the manual saying it supported it. Since the Apple portion was at least funtioning I thought it time to look at the Trendnet side.
Sure enough, a hidden nugget of information surfaced. Although my device had next to nothing written about it and WDS, a TEW 450APB was clearly stated as NOT supporting WPA encryption over WDS links. I was using WPA on both sides. After reconfiguring everything for 128bit WEP in place of WPA, all worked fine.
So in summary:
Apple Airport Express will deactivate its Ethernet port if it is used as a client to an Access Point
The Airport Express network extension feature can work with non-Apple products
When making a WDS wireless extension make sure that the radio channel be manually configured as the same channel on both wireless devices (and possibly the SSID are configured to be the same too which the Apple manual said should be the case and so that is what I am using in my working setup)
Some versions of Trendnet products (my 411BRP for example) do not support WPA over WDS extension links
A lot of work to avoid buying a new network card. On th plus side, nNow my Airport Express not only extends the coverage of my wireless network but its Ethernet port shares the remote Internet connection with my desktop computer.
It seemed an easy fix, the Airport Express has an Ethernet interface and I could just make it a client of the main Trendnet Access Point and connect the Ethernet cable to the desktop's unused Ethernet interface. The little difficulties started soon afterwards.
It appears that the Airport Express disables the Ethernet interface whenever it is a client of another Access Point. However, it could be activated if it was EXTENDING an existing network. Normally extending the network is just to make the signal stronger because the two wireless devices work together using pretty much the same configuration.
Apple's instruction manual only mentioned this working with other Apple products but since it used a process called WDS (Wireless Distribution System) which the Trendnet device also supported I figured it would be worth a try.
After hooking everything up, the extension was not working but I could talk with the Airport Express device. On the Airport side I received an error saying that Channel Autodetection could not run with WDS. Okay, I set the actual channel of the Trendnet Access Point without any problem.
Fortunately the Apple side of things was pretty well documented. So I already knew I needed WDS to work to reach the Ethernet and now I had to pick the channel. I was getting worried about the Trendnet device because it's documented support for WDS was all of two lines of text in the manual saying it supported it. Since the Apple portion was at least funtioning I thought it time to look at the Trendnet side.
Sure enough, a hidden nugget of information surfaced. Although my device had next to nothing written about it and WDS, a TEW 450APB was clearly stated as NOT supporting WPA encryption over WDS links. I was using WPA on both sides. After reconfiguring everything for 128bit WEP in place of WPA, all worked fine.
So in summary:
Apple Airport Express will deactivate its Ethernet port if it is used as a client to an Access Point
The Airport Express network extension feature can work with non-Apple products
When making a WDS wireless extension make sure that the radio channel be manually configured as the same channel on both wireless devices (and possibly the SSID are configured to be the same too which the Apple manual said should be the case and so that is what I am using in my working setup)
Some versions of Trendnet products (my 411BRP for example) do not support WPA over WDS extension links
A lot of work to avoid buying a new network card. On th plus side, nNow my Airport Express not only extends the coverage of my wireless network but its Ethernet port shares the remote Internet connection with my desktop computer.
