RE: What do you work as?

I work, now, in datacomms as a network engineer. Essentially I install, diagnose, troubleshoot and (sometimes!) fix problems with companies’ computer networks and comms links.

Some people reckon its just another boring computer job, but I like it and launching into a full technical discussion of how the internet actually works is a great way to get out of bad parties and to make annoying relatives go away qickly and politely!!!

Regards,
Steve

RE: Computer network question!

GYZL,

It largely depends on the broadband provider is the only good answer I can give you without knowing which youre planning to use. The provider that my company supports has a way of limiting the access a customer has to one or, in a few cases I’ve heard of, two machines. This is done by locking in the harware code that is on the network/ethernet card in your pc to the broadband modem and disallowing any others.

Software packages exist that set up whats called a “proxy server” which essentially makes all requests to the internet appear like theyve come from the one pc, with the valid hardware address, that the broadband modem will accept.

Basically the best advice I could give you would be to get the hub and patch cables and see what happens, it could be youre in luck and you’ll get away with it. If not send me a mail, if no-one else pipes up with a better answer, and I’ll see what I can do to find the right software for you, ok?.

The other thing I’d warn you about is that broadband does have a bit of an achilles heel at the moment in that it is a shared bandwidth technology. This means that if you, for example, live on a terrace with ten other houses and they all have broadband, and are using it simultaneously, then you have to share the broadband connection with all ten other users i.e for a 1 megabit broadband connection the equation is 1Mb/10 = 100Kbps for every user. Worth asking your provider about and seeing if you can find out who’s got it in your street!.

Let me know if you need help with anything ok?

Cheers,
Steve

RE: Name your five all time favourite songs!

Favorite songs, no order possible as it depends on the mood I’m in!

1, Dire Straits – Brothers in Arms
2, Bryan Adams – Summer of ’69
3, U2 – Van Deimens Land
4, Train – Drops of Jupiter
5, Stain’d – Outside

Steve

RE: Pics of your city, please.

Liverpool, well, the nicer bits anyway!
Attachments:

RE: The Blair Dossier

Alternatively, perhaps he could have stated that MI6 have in fact recruited Saddam Husseins chief gardener and he managed to read Iraq’s current WMD inventory off SH’s desk through a window. That way citizens could make their own minds up about the veracity of reported information and sleep happier in their beds at night.

When the gardener got strung up and tortured to death people could even take that as providing extra credence to these kind of intel reports huh? x(

So far we’ve had an ISS report, Iraqi defectors reports and the reports from the UNSCOM inspectors stating that they knew they didnt get everything. All these sources largely state similar or supporting conclusions to whatever intel assets are in place and are obliquely referred to in the dossier.

Is it so hard to accept that all these corroborate for a reason i.e that the report is accurate as far as it goes?

RE: The Blair Dossier

Ja,

post your email address and I’ll mail it to you in .pdf format if you dont have it already.

Steve

RE: Whats your fav classic car?

Arthur you are one sick puppy! 😀

As to favourites the AC Cobra would be on my list, but, having heard of its kill ratio of uninitiated drivers, I dont think I’d like to own one!. The Jaguar E-Type would be in the top three also BUT my absolute favourite has to be, for its balance of power and sheer elegant style, the Aston Martin DB5.

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RE: Weird site

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 05-09-02 AT 07:42 PM (GMT)]I work with the equipment from the company that, as the site quaintly puts it, “rhymes with Nabisco” (Cisco Systems!). I recognise all of this equipment and could extract much vengeance with that “power hub”.

As Frank says the act of feeding mains voltage and current through most electronic equipment will have swift, and quite unrecoverable, effect – networking gear especially so. To put it into context the signals that travel out of your PC’s network port are, at the most basic level, simply changes in voltage from -5V to 0, if memory serves, in certain sequences that represent data to the network card/device.

Suddenly having +240V shoved in would be akin to trying to take a drink from a water fountain and having the average flow from Niagra Falls come out!!!.

This, for me, confirms the fact that a bored or annoyed techie can be one of the most destructive forces on the planet. Great find Frank – the lads in the office are really going to love this one!!!

Cheers,
Steve