The Red Brick Times

All Celtic, all day. WUMB in the Boston/Eastern Massachussets area streams a Celtic music channel. They also have folk music channels that feature contemporary folk, L'Air Du Temps ("world music with a French accent"), traditional folk, and X-streme folk ("making up new music styles").

Now that I finally switched to a DSL line yesterday, I don't have to listen in bursts as the dial-up link re-buffers every 10 seconds. It is a slow DSL line (256K down/ 128K up), but it is not that much more expensive than I was paying for the dialup each month. I went from $19.95 per month (dialup) to $24.95 per month (DSL) with the first six months at $19.95.
Posted 7:45 AM by Andy (9) comments

       Comments:

A month or two ago I was at a friends house while he accessed the net through a dial up account. Sooo sloooooow. To him it was normal, to me unbelievably frustrating. Andy, you'll never go back.

# posted by  whatley : September 07, 2006 12:06 PM
 
Nice channel. I've been listening to X-Stream Folk most all day.

# posted by  whatley : September 07, 2006 2:13 PM
 
It is just the right speed to keep me from picking up the 16-ounce Estwing reprogramming ripping hammer and adjusting the computer's personality. When I was using the old computers and the dial up together. I had to hide the hammer before I started lest I be arrested for silicon littering, and creating a public nuisance. I didn't want to meet officer Obie.

# posted by  Andy : September 08, 2006 9:17 AM
 
Question: I logged onto the account tools section of the Century Tel site and saw the message: "Your current IP is being added to the mail server for access for outbound SMTP mail traffic. Access could take between 3-5 minutes to be added. Your IP will be active for 45 minutes and then will be removed. If you need access after the 45 minutes, you will need to return to the Web page to obtain access again." Does that mean that I will not be able to send email without waiting for 5 minutes each time I log on?

# posted by  Andy : September 08, 2006 9:22 AM
 
I've never seen a message like that before. My best guess is that this is in effect to provide you a window of access to create new mail accounts (and whatever else their "tools" utility allows you to manipulate when logged in) and does not have anything to do with basic send/receive when using a mail client (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.). Most broadband providers allow a user to create several mail accounts.

# posted by  whatley : September 08, 2006 1:56 PM
 
Yes. Up to 5 email addresses. Makes sense. Thanks. No WiFi since I am plugged in at one location. I know you set your LAN to minimize port intrusions. The Xp firewall has several exceptions listed, but the scope on each is set to subnet only and not all connections/internet. The LAN data shows a default gateway, an IP address (subset to the default), and a subnet mask IP (completely different decades). Can I manipulate these to increase security?

# posted by  Andy : September 09, 2006 10:51 AM
 
The nice thing about (most) DSL modems vs. cable modems is that DSL modems have NAT (Network Address Translation) as well as port blocking capabilities. Those two things together are about 90% of a firewall and all home users typically need.

NAT: There are two types of IP numbers; public and private. There are two IP ranges that make an IP number private: 192.168.x.x (x meaning any number) and 10.x.x.x. These two ranges are not routable by the internet and any device using one cannot be seen by the world. They're for internal LAN use only. Your DSL modem has a public IP number on it. It has to so your ISP can see and route to it. NAT means that it doesn't pass that number, or any public number, along to your computer. It gives your PC a private number that only the modem can see, thereby rendering your PC invisible to the world (a very good thing). When you request a web page or mail or whatever your modem TRANSLATES the private number making the request (from your PC) to a public one (its own internal one), retrieves the information, then retranslates the IP number and sends the data back to your PC. To verify that NAT is working properly go to a command prompt and enter "ipconfig" (no quotes). You'll see three numbers; gateway (the modem) which should begin with either 192.168 or 10, your PC (first octets matching the gateways, last number different), and a subnet mask (a different number, most typically 255.255.255.0). If you don't have a private number assigned to your PC you'll need to access the modem and do some configuration.

Port Blocking: Whoo boy, this one's kind of tough to explain (and my typing finger is tired). Tell ya what. Go here: https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
You'll see a page with your public IP number (the modem), You'll also see a "proceed" button. Press it then follow along ("common ports" and "all service ports" tests being the most important). This should give you a good idea whether your modem is port blocking or not. If not you'll need to configure the modem to do so.

# posted by  whatley : September 09, 2006 11:38 AM
 
Here's something else you, proud owner of a new PC, might find handy:
Step by Step: Get Any PC, New or Old, Ready for Everyday Use

It's a little techy, but not too bad.

# posted by  whatley : September 09, 2006 11:53 AM
 
Poifect! Something to keep me busily fiddling about and not bothering you with geeky questions! Thanks!

# posted by  Andy : September 09, 2006 3:19 PM
 
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