Erich Beyrent :: Beyrent.net

We had a situation at work where a Windows XP computer had a completely corrupted installation of Internet Explorer - the browser simply was broken.  It is not incredibly obvious, but it is possible to reinstall Internet Explorer without having to try and fix the operating system itself.

From the Start menu, select “Run” and entering the following command:

rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 %windir%\Inf\ie.inf

You will need to have your XP CD available.

This command line is not the easiest thing in the world to type, so for those with weak typing skills, a small VBScript that will execute the command for you can be downloaded here.

Save the file to your hard drive and double click it to run IE Setup.

Of further interest:

• How to Reinstall or Repair Internet Explorer and Outlook Express in Windows XP (Q318378)

tags: internet+explorer, repair, windows, xp

Recently, I came across Redmond Magazine, which is geared towards people who administer Microsoft Windows on a daily basis.  Columnist Doug Barney wrote an editorial regarding Microsoft alternatives in the desktop arena in the March 2006 issue (pp. 4), which I have to take issue with.

Barney compared Macintosh OS X and Red Hat Linux to Windows XP, which I do not feel is a fair comparison.  Red Hat Linux is not, nor was it designed to be, a desktop operating system.  Red Hat’s biggest strength is the server market, and because of this, does not require the crutches that a normal desktop environment must provide to help people with all skill levels accomplish their goals.

A much more suitable comparison would have been Ubuntu Linux, which is specifically geared for the end-user experience.  I have been a Windows user for a very long time, and I can honestly say, I have never seen a Linux operating system as easy and fun to use as Ubuntu.  Installation is extremely easy, and the mechanisms provided for installing software from the desktop is top-notch.  I feel that novice computer users could easily use this operating system, as the interface is very intuitive.

It comes prepackaged with OpenOffice2, which is a very capable (and free) Office replacement.  Firefox is installed by default, as is applications for businesses, the arts, and home productivity.

It seems that a big portion of the media only considers Red Hat as a viable Linux operating system, which could not be further from the truth.  I urge you to take a look at Ubuntu (website) and give it a fair review.

tags: desktop+environment, linux, macintosh, microsoft, openoffice, operating+system, os+x, red+hat, redmond, ubuntu, windows, xp

So now I finally have things working with my new Vonage service, but it required some additional configuration.

In my previous post, I made some changes to IP addresses on my routers to get everything connected.  However, something was not quite right - when talking on the phone, the sound would fade in and out, and was basically unusable.  I also noticed that I could only get DHCP addresses on one of my routers, and only if I was directly connected to it.  Clearly, this was no good.

So, to recap, my network layout is like this:

I have a cable modem, addressed at 192.168.1.1.  Directly attached to it is a Linksys WRT54GX wireless router, addressed at 192.168.1.3.  I have another router, a Linksys BEFSR41 addressed at 192.168.1.2 connected to the wireless router via cross-over cable, and the Vonage Linksys RTP300 router also connected to the wireless router via cross-over cable.  Its address is 192.168.2.3.

I logged into the BEFSR41 router, and disabled DHCP.  I was getting conflicts by having two DHCP servers on the same subnet dishing out address to multiple clients.  At this point, I could only get an address if I was physically connected to the wireless router, which still had DHCP enabled.  That’s when I discovered the Advanced settings on the BEFSR41 router.

First, I had to go the Dynamic Routing table, and set the working mode from Gateway to Router.  I then set Dynamic Routing TX and RX to RIP2.  This changed the behavior of the router, and made it act more like a switch, leaving my wireless router to act as the sole gateway on my home network.

Surprisingly, I discovered that my Vonage phone service suddenly became usable.  The sound quality was fantastic, there was no dropped sound, and no chirpiness to the sound quality.

Life is once again happy.

tags: dhcp, dynamic, gateway, linksys, rip2, routing, switch, voip, vonage

After speaking with friends and colleagues, I recently was convinced that Vonage was a stable enough product to switch phone service to.  For those of you who don’t know what Vonage is, it’s a complete phone service provider, over the internet instead of traditional phone lines.  This technology is known as VoIP, which stands for Voice Over Internet Protocol, and Vonage charges half of what more of the traditional phone carriers are charging.

About five days after signing up for the service, I received my Vonage router in the mail, which is basically a Linksys router branded by Vonage (cable or DSL broadband access is required by Vonage).  The router itself has four LAN ports, two phone ports, and a dedicated port for connecting to the cable modem.

The router comes pre-configured with a standard class C IP address of 192.168.15.1.  Vonage expects that in most cases, the user will simply connect the router to the cable modem and all will be well.  However, I am running a wireless 802.11G router with SRX400 technology, and when I connected the two routers together via crossover cable, I was unable to ping either device, and could not get on the internet.

I quickly decided to change the IP address on the Vonage router to be 192.168.1.4, keeping my wireless router at 192.168.1.3.  This failed to change the level of connectivity.  The documentation made mention of configuring static routes on the Vonage router in the case of multi-router configurations.  However, I had no success with this either.

After fooling around with the settings for about two weeks off and on, I finally broke down and called the Vonage tech support, and ended up speaking with Samesh in Bangalore, India.  After learning my tiny network topography, Samesh instructed me to change the IP address on my Vonage router to be 192.168.2.3.  She then told me to go to the MAC Address Clone tab in the router configuration utility, and clone the MAC address of the router.

Once the router rebooted, I was instantly connected.  Because of my pedestrian understanding of networking principles, I don’t understand why that specific IP address works and is able to connect.  I also don’t understand why I cannot ping the Vonage router or otherwise connect to it while connected to my wireless network.  If anyone can provide a concise explanation of the reason for this, I would love to post your comments as a follow up.

tags: bangalore, voip, vonage, class+c+network, networking, tech+support, wireless