Power Protection and Data Backup

July 23rd, 2008

It could happen to anyone and it happened to me.

A couple of weeks ago my little internal server PC refused to boot up. I had all of our office PCs backing up to its hard drive as well as some other important data so I took the hard drive out and put it in my workstation to retrieve the data off it and then my workstation wouldn’t boot up either. Hmmm…

It turns out both PCs (both connected to the same surge board incidentally) had blown motherboards. Not quite a total disaster and after just a day of mucking about later we were up and running again. Thankfully nothing was lost apart from a day’s work.

But it could have been much, much worse…

I started thinking about house fires and burglaries where the PCs might be lost forever. Insurance would cover the hardware but some of that data would be irreplaceable and could even mean the end of my business, so I needed a better backup solution for starters.

What I was doing was a good starting point where I have all the important data from all the office workstations backing up to a spare hard drive in a PC, but I needed to go one step further and have that copied to a 3rd source and that’s the beauty of the NAS (network attached storage) devices that many manufacturers now have on the market. These are basically enclosures with hard drives inside (hard drives are usually not included. Check manufacturer specifications for details and supported hard drives) that you can connect to a PC network. They show up on the network in “My Network Places” the same as a PC does so you can drag & drop files across or use a scheduled backup application like ezbackitup or windows backup. (I like ezbackitup because it only backs up files that have changed since last time, doesn’t compress and retains the same directory structure so it’s easy to find and retrieve single files).

A small NAS enclosure can be hidden or placed anywhere you like to make it an unlikely target for thieves and at the same time be easy to grab and chuck under your arm if you need to vacate the premises in a hurry. They start small & cheap to suit home and small business owners right up to rack mountable units with RAID and other options.

Click here to check out available NAS devices from my online shop.

The next problem was to deal with why those motherboards blew in the first place. We get quite a few surges in my house that we’ve never been able to get to the bottom of. (They tend to happen early in the mornings when everything’s turned off and no one’s even out of bed. Electricians are mystified). Since the surge protection board didn’t save them in this case the obvious solution was an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).

A UPS is basically a battery pack plugged into a power point to keep the battery charged, while any PCs or other devices plugged into it run off the battery power. If the power fails the PC keeps running for however long the battery can last and then will automatically shut the PC down safely before the battery is depleted. (There’s a serial or USB cable between the UPS & PC and software to facilitate this process). How long the battery lasts is dependant on the size of the battery and what you’ve got plugged into it. The cheaper ones tend to give a “clean” power supply to your PC and just enough battery power to automatically shut the PC down safely in the event of power failure.

I chose a Powerware 5110-1000A (currently selling for $237.60 at my online shop) which should give me 10 - 20 mins of power for my PC and 2 monitors in the event of a blackout but I’ve configured the software to shut me down after 5 minutes just to be on the safe side (which is generally heaps of time to make it outside to flick the circuit breaker back on anyway). It passed the first test with flying colours so was money well spent.

Choosing the right UPS for your situation can be confusing but Powerware have a great UPS Selector on their website to take out the guesswork. Click here to check it out.

Click here to check out the range and prices of UPSs from my online shop. I like Belkin and Powerware brands because they back their products up with connected equipment warranties and I get favourable feedback from my customers about them.

A couple of quirks worth mentioning with the installation of my shiny new Powerware 5110-1000A: The manual mentions removing the front cover to connect the battery lead prior to plugging it in. My cover was connected by a couple of screws which weren’t mentioned in the manual and my battery lead was already connected when I did get the cover off. A bit of unnecessary confusion there…
The other issue not explained was before installing the shutdown & monitoring software you need to install the UPS drivers. Without doing that first it won’t be able to detect the UPS so it can do its thing. I assumed the driver installation would be part of the same application but that wasn’t the case. It has to be done manually first.

All in all a valuable lesson learned from something that could happen to anyone any time. I strongly advise not to delay putting off doing something about this stuff.

Sort it out today!

Windows Update problem with Zonealarm

July 12th, 2008

A recent Windows Update has caused a problem for Zonealarm users by blocking Internet access. I received this newsletter from SecureTec (the Aussie distributors for Zonealarm) with the workaround -

Some ZoneAlarm users who have installed Windows Update KB951748 have been unable to access the internet. ZoneAlarm by Checkpoint are aware of this issue and are working to provide a permanent solution. As a temporary work around for the time being, we would recommend uninstalling the Windows Update. We have provided information below to uninstall this update.
1.) Click Start -> Control Panel
2.) Open Add or Remove Programs
3.) Check the checkbox at the top to Show Updates, if not already checked
4.) Under Windows XP - Software Updates, click Security Update for Windows XP (KB951748)
5.) Click Remove
6.) Click Next on the Software Update Removal Wizard
7.) Click Finish to restart

Regards, SecureTec Technical Support

New D-Link products

June 30th, 2008

New D-Link products added to OzTechnologies today (click the pics for prices, availability and more info)

Storage  
DNS-343 4-Bay Network Storage Enclosure for SATA Hard Drives
Multimedia  
DSM-330 802.11G Wireless DivX Connected HD Media Player
Wireless Adapters  
DWA-110 802.11G (11/54MB) Wireless USB Adapter
   
DWA-510 802.11G (11/54MB) Wireless PCI card
   
DWA-610 802.11G (11/54MB) Wireless PCMCIA card
Router combos  
DKT-PCIG DIR-300 router + DWA-510 802.11g PCI card combo
   
DKT-USBG DIR-300 router + DWA-110 802.11g USB adapter combo
Wireless Access Points  
DAP-1150 Wireless G Access Point
   
DWL-2700AP Outdoor 2.4GHz (802.11g) Wireless Access Point/Bridge
   
DWL-3140AP Web Smart 802.11g PoE Thin Access Point
   
DWL-3500AP Wireless Switching 108G Access Point
   
DWL-7100AP Tri-Mode Dualband 802.11 a/b/g Wireless 108Mbps Access Point
   
DWL-7700AP Wireless AG Outdoor AP/Bridge
   
DWL-8500AP Wireless Switching 108 AG Dualband Access Point
Wireless Antenna  
ANT24-1202 12 dbi Outdoor Omni-Directional Antenna

Linksys WAG160N cashback offer

June 19th, 2008

Get $30.00 cashback on a Linksys WAG160N 802.11N Wireless modem.
Click here for product & purchasing info.
Click here for how to claim the money.
Promotion ends 31/7/08.

Problems with XP SP3 & some routers

June 13th, 2008

Dave from digitaldna.com.au reports the following:

A bit of feedback for you. I bought one of the 2820s off you just recently. I nearly ended up RA’ing it. I tried to access it using 3 different PCs/Laptops with IE7 and with Firefox and could not successfully browse to it. What made it particularly frustrating was that:

- I could ping it
- I could Telnet to it
- I could putty to it
- I could do a firmware upgrade to it ( I loaded it with 3G Beta)
- I could NMAP port scan it

I found an obscure Billion post that reckoned XP SP3 was playing havoc with Billion Routers. Guess what, XP SP3 plays havoc with Draytek routers as well and it also plays havoc with a Dlink DIR-451 I was trying to configure. All my 3 PCs/Laptops that I used were SP3.

Alas the remedy to these issues was not a very pleasant one. I had to use a Vista PC running IE7 (or Firefox) to configure the Draytek (and the DLINK) !! Draytek acknowledge that there is an issue with SP3 - it is a Microsoft issue obviously; they just need to nail down the details enough for Microsoft to HotFix it.

So, to all your customers, you may wish to warn them that XP SP3 does not play nicely with Billion, Draytek or Dlink routers!

BTW once I got the Draytek configured via Vista, the XP SP3 network behind it worked fine. I just can’t use SP3 to access it to configure it.

We are using a Vodafone 3G card as an interim measure for a client until their ADSL arrives - and it works really well - very easy to get up and going. Nice box that 2820.

Update: Latest feedback from Draytek is they can’t reproduce it in their labs. I could reproduce it no problems at all on 3 separate PCs.

Draytek 2930 series out now

June 12th, 2008

Draytek Australia have just released the new 2930 series which should fill a particular market niche. These have many similarities to the 2820 series but with a stronger focus on VPN capabilities at the expense of some of the other features enjoyed by the 2820 series. While having fewer features they do pack a bigger punch so are priced a little higher than the 2820 series as well.

A quick comparison of the top of the range 2930Vn model vs the 2820Vn: 

 

2820Vn

2930Vn

10/100 LAN Ports

3

4

10/100/1000 LAN Ports

1

0

VPN Endpoints

32

100

WAN Ports

1 ethernet + 1 phone port for ADSL

2 x ethernet

Built-in ADSL modem

Yes

No

USB Print Server

Yes

No

Accepts 3G modem

Yes

No

802.11n wireless

Yes

Yes

FXS ports for VoIP

2

2

FXO ports (PSTN failover for VoIP)

1

0

Rackmountable

Yes (with kit)

Yes (with kit)

Click here to check out the whole 2930 range pricing and options from OzTechnologies.com with links to the OzCableguy reviews for more information.

D-Link Gigabit Rackmount switch 20% off specials ending soon

June 11th, 2008

The following D-Link switch specials end at the end of June. So if you were thinking about grabbing one do it soon!

(Click the pics for more info and purchasing)

D-Link  DGS-1216T — 10/100/1000 16 Port WebSmart Desktop or Rackmount Switch $312.40  (Normally $385.00)
   

 

D-Link  DGS-1224T — 10/100/1000 24 Port WebSmart Desktop or Rackmount Switch with 2 mini GBIC $432.30  (Normally $535.70)
   

 

D-Link  DGS-1248T — 10/100/1000 48 Port WebSmart Desktop or Rackmount Switch with four combo SFP expansion slots $884.40  (Normally $1114.30)

Current specials at OzTechnologies

May 2nd, 2008

D-Link DIR-615 802.11N Wireless Broadband Router with 4 Port Switch

$99.00
 (Was $119.90)

   

 

Minitar MN54GCB-RC 802.11G Wireless PCMCIA Card

$19.00
  (Was $26.40)

   

 

Billion 7300G 4 Port + 802.11G Wireless Router with built-in ADSL modem

$99.00
  (Was $107.80)

   

 

Billion 7401VGPM 4 Port + 802.11G Wireless Router with built-in ADSL modem + VoIP (1 x FXS + 1 x FXO)

$155.00
  (Was $163.90)

   

 

Billion 7404VGPM 4 Port + 802.11G Wireless Router with built-in ADSL modem + VoIP (2 x FXS + 1 x FXO)

$199.00
  (Was $209.00)

   

 

Billion 7404VGOM 4 Port + 802.11G Wireless Router with built-in ADSL modem + VoIP (2 x FXS + 1 x FXO) + VPN

$249.00
  (Was $265.10)

The following products are reduced to clear -

Telequip DSL009 Inline Filter Socket for Wall Phones

$8.80
  (Was $11.00)

   

 

D-Link DWL-G122 802.11G Wireless USB Adapter

$36.30
  (Was $41.80)

   

 

Billion 7402LM 4 Port Router with built-in ADSL modem, SPI Firewall & QoS

$134.20
  (Was $145.20)

   

 

Billion 7402GLM 4 Port + 802.11G Wireless Router with built-in ADSL modem +  SPI Firewall

$159.50
  (Was $171.60)

   

 

Billion 7402GM 4 Port + 802.11G Wireless Router with built-in ADSL modem, SPI Firewall & VPN

$218.90
  (Was $235.40)

New Linksys products

April 18th, 2008
  Wireless Routers & modems

 

 

WAG160N 4 Port + 802.11N Wireless Router with built-in ADSL modem & SPI Firewall

$145.20
  (Due 27.05.08)

   

 

WRP400 802.11G Wireless Router with VoIP

$125.40

   

 

WRT100 802.11G RangePlus MIMO Wireless Router

$89.10

   

 

WRT160N 802.11N MIMO Wireless Router

$123.20

   

 

WRT310N 802.11N MIMO Wireless Router with giga-switch

$173.80

  Wireless adapters

 

WPC100 802.11G RangePlus MIMO Wireless PCMCIA Network Card

$40.70

   

 

WUSB100 802.11G RangePlus MIMO Wireless USB Adapter

$47.30

  Redundant Power Supply

 

RPS1000 380W Redundant Power Supply Unit

$962.50

  NAS

 

HDT0000 Single NAS drive tray that can accommodate approved vendor SATA hard drives

$44.00

   

 

HDT0004 Set of four NAS drive trays that can accommodate approved vendor SATA hard drives

$132.00

   

 

HDT0250 Single NAS drive tray pre-populated with a 250GB hard drive

$284.90

   

 

HDT0500 Single NAS drive tray pre-populated with a 500GB hard drive

$492.80

  Switches

 

SLM2024 24 port 10/100/1000 Gigabit Smart Switch with 2 combo SFPs

$478.50

   

 

SLM2048 48 port 10/100/1000 Gigabit Smart Switch with 2 combo SFPs

$924.00

   

 

SLM224G4PS 24-port 10/100 Stackable Smart Switch with 4 Gigabit Ports and PoE

$529.10

   

 

SLM248G4PS 48-port 10/100 Stackable Smart Switch with 4 Gigabit Ports and PoE

$918.50

Note: Prices are only valid today only and may vary later. Click the images for current pricing.

New Billion & Minitar products

April 18th, 2008
Billion P102 HomePlug AV 200 Desktop Starter Kit, includes 2x BiPAC 2070

$187.00

     
Billion 3012G 802.11g Wireless USB Adapter

$29.00

     
Minitar MVA11A Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA) for VoIP

$79.00

Note: Prices are only valid today only and may vary later. Click the images for current pricing.