Running P2P applications in Vista and ever see this message coming up? In your event viewer, the exact wording is ‘TCP/IP has reached the security limit imposed on the number of concurrent TCP connect attempts’.

Microsoft has implemented a change in the TCP/IP stack since XP SP2 to limit the number of ‘half-open’ (incomplete/syn packets) connection attempts per second to keep your computer from being used by dangerous programs such as worms that scan the internet to infect more systems.

I stumbled on this feature(?) only today as I don’t use Vista. Fortunately, if your P2P applications are suffering, there is a patch. You can download it from here.

I hate having to pull a hard drive out of a case to check what the jumper settings are for Master, Slave etc.

Not knowing the exact model of this Maxtor one I came across today, I though I’d ask my friend Google. I found a page with most (if not all) of the Maxtor and Qantum drives listed that I would ever need. Handy site to bookmark.

Check it out here.

My terminal emulation program of choice is PuTTY. It’s a small, simple but very functional piece of software. My only gripe with it has been that it doesn’t have a facility for multiple sessions or tabs - like Secure CRT for example.

But today I found something that does the job. It’s call the PuTTY Connection Manager.

The features are as follows (copied straight from the website):

* Tabs and dockable windows for PuTTY instances.
* Fully compatible with PuTTY configuration (using registry).
* Easily customizable to optimize workspace (fullscreen, minimze to tray, add/remove toolbar, etc…).
* Automatic login feature regardless to protocol restrictions (user keyboard simulation).
* Post-login commands (execute any shell command when logged).
* Connection Manager : Manage a large number of connections with specific configuration (auto-login, specific PuTTY Session, post-command, etc…).
* Quick connect toolbar to quickly launch a PuTTY connection.
* Import/Export whole connections informations to XML format (generate your configuration automatically from another tool and import it, or export your configuration for backup purpose).
* Encrypted configuration database option available to store connections informations safely (external library supporting AES algorithm used with key sizes of 128, 192 and 256 bits, please refer for the legal status of encryption software in your country).
* Standalone executable, no setup required.
* Localizable : English (default) and French available (only when using setup version, standalone is english only).
* Completely free for non-commercial, and personal use : PuTTY Connection Manager is freeware.

I must say it works quite well. I tend to have multiple SSH sessions to devices at once and it handles it quite well.

I thought I’d do a little research on the Linksys WRT54G wireless router, of which I own two of. I find them to be a very stable and reliable unit.

The WRT54G, WRT54GS, WRT54GL, and WRTSL54GS are popular Wi-Fi router products from Linksys. The devices are capable of sharing Internet connections among several computers via Ethernet and wireless (802.11b/g) data links.

The WRT54G was first released in 2003. The WRT54GS is nearly identical except for additional RAM and SpeedBooster software.

Linksys released the WRT54GL in 2005 to support third-party firmware based on Linux, after the original WRT54G line was switched from Linux to VxWorks, starting with version 5. The WRTSL54GS is similar to the WRT54GS, while adding additional firmware features and a USB 2.0 port (referred to as StorageLink) which can be used for a USB hard disk or flash drive.

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WRT54G history lesson

Just made the switch to Linux from Windows (or even OS X?) and are having trouble finding software similar/equivalent to what you are used to?

Yes, the linux learning curve is steep but rewarding when you do start working it all out.

Here is a good website that lists the Windows/OS X software and the linux equivalents.

In a lot of cases there are multiple options which is good. You aren’t tied down to one thing which you may not like.