Apple "Networking" with Linksys 101 aka stab me in the face with piece of fruit

So the girl and I have a pretty robust network in our house - I mean we're both computer science engineers, so that's to be expected. But we decided that due to one of our laptop hard drives dying, it's time we had a remote backup solution, and also something that could extend our network better than the Airport Express which streams music wonderfully but drops our WDS connections randomly. Gee thanks Apple. So we settled on... Apple's AirPort Extreme! It provides updated security, dual antennas, can be used as a Time Machine backup when a hard drive is plugged in, and should extend our network (plus I get another Apple sticker, thanks guys!). The task at hand: Extend our wireless network using an AirPort Extreme Base Station and the Linksys WAP54 wireless access point. Piece of cake right?

Wrong. My first idea was to put the APEx on the other side of the house low and extend our existing hidden, mac filtered, WEP (I know, I know, our DS's need them, shush) network. Turns out Apple HATES WEP (as they should, seriously) - the only security I could use was WPA & WPA2. Knowing Apple, I held the Option key and clicked again - well lookie there, WEP (Transitional Network) appeared! Okay, I'll enter my 26 character WEP key... doesn't work, only wants a passphrase. Holding Option and clicking any and everywhere does not reveal an entry box to put the 128-bit key. Fine, I'll figure out the passphrase that produces my specific WEP based on this piece of knowledge of how using a 13 character phrase's ascii results in a key... except I need to enter special characters like ∫ & Œ which the AirPort Extreme does not like in it's little box. Terrific. I could change the WEP key by using a passphrase, but then I'd have to change all like 50 of my devices from one dump security model to the same... if I have to change them all, I'd rather go to something more secure that just making a lateral change. So, what if I make the APEx my new base and use the old Linksys WAP54 to extend? Screw WEP, I need WPA2 anyway - let's do it!

Wrong. So I set up the APEx with this whole new network using dual banded 5 GHz a-n/ 2.4 GHz b-g (looking forward to juicing up some blazing speed) using WPA2, and then go to the Linksys WAP54 and tell it to be a wireless repeater. I push site survey, point to my new network and push connect... Nothing happens. Switch browsers, try again - error. WTH. Switch browsers again (having multiple browsers is so wonderful...) to try again - it works by adding the mac address of my APEx but it's red indicating no connection. A bit of Googling turns up that YOU CAN'T USE WPA IN BRIDGED MODE. What. The Hell. Now what?

DD-WRT (robust open firmware for Linksys and other routers) to the rescue! After navigating to the hidden firmware page and flashing the latest beta build via the router database page, I was rocking... and had no idea what to do next. After intense fighting for hours, I found this simple walkthrough of setting up a wireless repeater bridge - and I was finished in 5 minutes, with WPA2 working perfectly. SWEET.

Lastly, I grabbed a 2TB green WD My Book, deleted the default FAT32 partition and created a HFS+ with Journaling partition using GUID (by default most large hard drives are using MBR partition schemes which Time Machine can't use) and plugged in - *poof* a giant, gigabit & USB 2.0 speed data drive is out there for general and Time Machine use! DOUBLE SWEET.

So that is that - we've finally updated to real network security and have a backup plan regularly running (daily not hourly) and it only took two days to get it all working (if we had these links it would have taken 30 minutes, heh). Now let's hope I don't have to redo entering 50 mac addresses if a new APEx comes out tomorrow... ^_^

New Apple tech tomorrow before Windows 7 release? Sheeeeeeeeiiiiiiiit.

I'll make this simple. Apple is announcing it's financial results on Monday, October 19th. Windows 7 comes out Wednesday, October 21st. What to do on Tuesday, October 20th? APPLE TUESDAY THAT'S WHAT! We should see new Mac Minis and iMacs since they've been out of stock for a while, and allegedly (according to Mac Rumors) new Mac input devices such as a touch sensitive trackpad and mouse... and a new cheap white plastic MacBook. I hope this new MacBook is 700 bucks, then Microsoft's Laptop Hunter ads will have to be redone again :) Also, I hope the MacBook Pros get a slight spec bump because I'm buying (yes I've been saying that for 3 years but I'm serious this time)! I hope they do NOT release a new AirPort Extreme Base Station as um I just bought one and spent two days getting the thing to work! Luckily, the dood at the Apple Store said I can return it up to 14 days even if it's open... Whatever happens, I feel money is going to leaking out of my pocket on Tuesday... fingers crossed (I've given up on Blu-ray, heh).

Long live the King of Pop

I'm still in shock. Michael Jackson, undisputed King of Pop, is dead at the young age of 50 as of June 25th @ 5:26PM EDT. He didn't even make it to the average theoretical black man maximum age of 54, and according to Moonwalker he could turn into a car AND a robot. No pun intended, my world has been rocked. You see, Michael Jackson, while world renowned for his heavenly tenor voice and physics defying dancing, was especially powerful to young black children such as myself. I vividly remember being in second grade watching and listening to this guy, who looked like me, doing things on television and radio that no other black man had ever done before. I had posters, t-shirts, I occasionally wrote my name as Robert Jackson to be silly, I won the 'Thriller' LP at a Champ's Rollerdrome Thriller event and even took a picture with my Michael Jackson glove on. One of the most significant memories I have of MJ was the first time I saw him moonwalk - "Mama, Daddy, did you see that?? How did he do that??". And we all rushed out to the garage to try it ourselves. That moment solidified his superstardom at the Motown 25 the world over, and was a lock for me as a fan for life.

Sure, his personal life shenanigans would get in the way of what I loved him most for - his music. His bloody brilliant musical talent. It is becoming increasingly rare to find genius songwriting and vocals skills - most of what I hear on the radio is tired, cookie cutter, repetitious, sampled to hell and just poorly written. Michael Jackson delivered on all aspects, even after 'Thriller' albeit not as consistently, keeping in mind 'Thriller' is the number 2 album of ALL TIME to this day. One of my first compact discs was 'Dangerous', and I used to test my audio equipment with 'Jam', but then letting it continue until 'Keep It In The Closet' played, but then letting it go to 'Who Is It' and 'Give Into Me' - those songs are hauntingly exceptional. I remember the time... when I bought 'HIStory', my best friend and I would ride around in my Buick singing all of the classics together, and then I would play 'Scream' and 'They Don't Really Care About Us' for my co-workers at the game store. I still remember my manager literally jumped back when the guitar really kicks in on that song. And I smiled that MJ could still bring it to an older white man. While his final album, 'Invincible', didn't sell like previous efforts, it was still a work of art for me. The title track (gosh, so good), 'Break of Dawn', 'Whatever Happens' and surprisingly 'Butterflies' are songs I play regularly. I played 'Heartbreaker' for a friend because one of the lyrics sounds like her very distinct name, and I still sometimes call her Heartbreaker :) My bro and I would fire up his music and dance and see who could lean the lowest - I don't recall who won :) It's all aboot the music - being a young black man, his music inspired and influenced me greatly, to go and make something of myself, and I still get goosebumps when listening to MJ's tracks - I may swell up into tears the next time I hear 'Billie Jean'.

So that is that - I'm not on suicide watch but I just can't believe Mr. Moonwalk has passed on. One of the most influential black artists, if not arguably the greatest entertainer of all time, has left us. It still hasn't registered in my brain that he is gone - my emotions are all over the map. I first heard the news from a buddy on AIM on my BlackBerry - he just said "MJ died" and I refused to believe it was Michael Jackson - especially since I had JUST been at CNN.com before leaving work. I tried to bring up CNN (while driving, yikes) to figure out if he was pulling my leg but literally the Internet was NOT working. All of the talk aboot the Internet slowing down to a crawl I was personally experiencing. Then the phone calls, texts, emails, FBs, and BB messages started pouring in. I had arrived at my grandmama's house as it was lightening and storming outside and her TV was showing that two icons had passed on - Farrah Fawcett (who had the most perfect smile EVER) and Michael Jackson. My grandmama was in as much disbelief as I was. I still am. I mean, not that long ago I was at a bar with my wife and 'Shake Your Body Down To The Ground' came over the speaker box - The Girl and I started dancing and I went to iTunes to purchase that song realizing it was missing in my collection. That prompted she and I taking road trips and going through his entire collection from Jackson 5 songs to current (final) album. And neither of us complained - we danced in the car, turned it up and enjoyed - dare I say looked forward to - our next automobile outing so we could queue up the next MJ record. Great times. This was days ago. It's going to be difficult to queue up that next album. But when we do, I'm positive it'll jam.

Prayers for the family, friends and fans, may he rest in peace, God bless.

Hello World!

My first blogger weblog blog post - hello world!