"Network Error" with DynDNS on SonicWALL

If you are getting a "Network Error" message with DynDNS on your SonicWALL, try this:
https://support.software.dell.com/kb/sw11246

Setting up Raspberry Pi with IRLP

It's been a little while since I posted anything here, but I've been working on a new hobby lately.  Amateur Radio.  One cool thing that I've been working on is using a Raspberry Pi with IRLP.  I didn't see a lot of steps of how to set this up online, and made some mistakes along the way.

Here's a link of items you'll need:
http://www.irlp.net/pi/

I already had a Raspberry Pi, and SD Card. I bought another charger and USB sound card through eBay.  You'll find better prices for 2amp chargers if you search for phone chargers instead of Raspberry Pi chargers.  The only thing I bought from the above link was the IRLP board and the modified parallel cable. 

I also purchased an already assembled cable that goes from my Yaesu FT-8800r to the IRLP board from here:  http://www.irlpcables.com/

I purchased the USB sound card on eBay.

Shipping speed was reasonable, considering I ordered all of this the week of Christmas from different sites.  Once everything came in is where I got a little confused.  My install was a little different than the recommended.  I had a setup that I liked already on my SD card. 

I made backup of what I already had on the SD card with my Ubuntu notebook with the following command (just in case I hosed my card). I followed the instructions here (the date command didn't work, so I renamed the backup to the current date manually): http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=91&t=46911

I took a peak at the IRLP Debain installer for the Rapsberry Pi to see if there was anything that would conflict with what I already had installed.  It removes a LOT of packages, but nothing that I thought would cause an issue with what I already had installed.  Here's how it worked for me and my Yaesu FT-8800r:

1. Follow the steps here to grab the debian installer for IRLP that's been tweaked for the Raspberry Pi: http://www.irlp.net/pi/directions.txt  I didn't remove my Pi user, I left it there, but when root was used in the directions, I used root.  I didnt upgrade anything either as i had already done so about a month ago.

2. Right when it said that it was going to install IRLP (after it goes through and removes packages), I quit the installer, ran the shutdown command as root, and then removed power from the Raspberry Pi.

3. I then connected the IRLP board to the Raspberry PI.  If you take a look at the cable that goes into the GPIO part of the PI, ensure the red part of the ribbon cable is towards the top of the GPIO board (the red cable when inserted onto the GPIO pins should be in the direction of the SD card, and not the yellow video jack).

4. To get the COS working with the Yaesu FT-8800r, move the jumper to high (near the H not the L).

5. Plud power back into the Pi and turn it back on.  Once you can get back into the Pi switch the user to root (if you logged in as Pi).  Change your directory to "/root".  You should see the installer for Debian in there, it'll be called irlp-install-debian.  You can run it like this: ./irlp-install-debian  That'll take you to where you last left off before you installed the hardware.

6.  The next part is going to walk you through essentially activating your IRLP board with the powers that be and will run a very basic test to check to see if things are running OK.  You'll need to know the name you used when you purchased the board, your call sign, the date of purchase of the board, and an e-mail address.  The IRLP installer will also rename the hostname on the Pi and assign you a node number.  Once done, I rebooted again just to make sure things were registering OK since I was using a non-typical install.

7.  I logged into the Pi via SSH.  Checked to see if I could ping out OK and if my other programs ran OK.  The next step was to run some more tests on the board to ensure things ran OK. 

Next is to run a sound test.  Ensure to plug headphones into the USB sound card to ensure sound works OK.  Type in alsaconf.  You should hear the old Linux test sound.  If that all works OK, plug your radio cable back into the sound card and run the following commands to ensure that communication is running OK between the board, pi, and your radio:

If you're still logged into the pi as root via SSH, switch your user to repeater:

Su repeater

Type in: /home/irlp/bin/readinput
And hit Enter.

Now (this is the part I misunderstood).  On the Yaesu FT-8800r you have to make two adjustments.  Ensure that you're listening at the rate of 1200 bps.  To make this change, go to Menu #26 and ensure it's at 1200 bps (it should be that by default).  Then drop into Menu #27 and change to where you want to monitor for IRLP data (Main, Left or Right).

Once you've done that get another radio (I used my HT) and key up the frequency your monitoring on your radio.  For me, it was the frequency I was montioring on "Main".  When you key up, you should see that on SSH, it will say COS Active, and the COS LED on the IRLP board will also light up.  Once you unkey, it will say COS Inactive and the COS LED will unlight.  Key up again, and start pressing DTMF keys, and you'll see the DMTF LED light up on the IRLP board, and output on the SSH session saying which DMTF keys were pressed.

After that test, press Control-C to kill the readinput command.  You can then type the next commands to see if the IRLP board can key your radio:

/home/irlp/bin/key

Check to ensure your radio is keyed up.  If that worked, then unkey:

/home/irlp/bin/unkey

Check to ensure that your radio is now unkeyed.

After that you've successfully installed IRLP and ensured that your radio and IRLP board and Pi are communicating with each other correctly.

The people at IRLP should email you a response soon letting you know officially what your node info is.

I haven't got any further than this.  Once I get to play with it more, I'll upload any "gotchas" to my blog.

Mess Kits

Today, I bought 3 mess kits for camping / my family's earthquake it.

Here's my take on them.

1. Wyott Mess Kit

I bought this one used for about $18. It's a genuine U.S. G.I. mess kit. From the stamp, I believe it's Vietnam War era. Made in the U.S. It's the heaviest of the bunch, and feels sturdy. No dents on it, but it has some light scratches on the bottom of the frying pan. I washed it (you know, it's used...I dont't know where it's been). I filled the frying pan portion half ways with water and put it on a stove top to boil to see how it would react. The burner was set to high, it began boiling water in about 5 minutes. No scorching on the bottom that I could see, no scorching on the sides or discoloration inside. I let it get to a rolling boil and then removed the pan from the burner and began to dump the water out. The handle was not hot, it was barely warm. I was careful dumping it out in case the handle gave way....it didn't. The handle isn't made to lock the pan in place, gravity and weight should keep the pan exerting pressure on the handle. Just dont't tip the pan where you dont't want the water to go and you'll be alright. One thing to note, it was a cold night, and when I began to pour the boiling water out, the water would "hiss" when it touched the cooler parts of the pan. After I poured the water out, the pan began to cool down quickly and in about a minute was warm to the touch. The portion where the handle connects to the pan took the longest to cool off, a little less than minutes. After all was said and done, there was no discoloration, scorching, or malfunction.

2. Mil-Spec Mess Kit U.S. Style

This is very similar to the Wyott mess kit in apperance, except shinier. It's made in China, and is 304 Stainless Steel. It was for about $14. It is slightly lighter than the Wyott. While it works the same way, the eating tray isn't a perfect fit on the handle (when holding the entire mess kit with one hand - pan on one side, tray on pan handle), a good fit, but not perfect like the Wyott. Also when locking the kit up, it doesnt lock as snugly, still locks sufficiently just not as snugly. I washed it and then put it to the same test. It boiled half a pan of water in about 5 minutes, didn't scorch during boiling, made the same "hiss", took the same time (~ 10 minutes) to cool off, and had the same hot spot where the handle meets the pan. No malfunctions, no scorching, no cave-ins, no discoloration. It actually locked in place better when I was done with it than when it did prior to boiling. Not sure if that's a good thing or not. You get what you pay for, and this isn't bad. It's not as good as the real deal, but what it lacks, you wouldn't miss if you didnt have the genuine one anyway.

3. StanSport 5-Piece Cook Set

With this you get, from smallest item to largest: a plastic cup, a boiling pot with cover (mini dutch oven), plate, and frying pan with handle. Made in China. The whole kit was for about $12. The frying pan is lighter than the other two mess kit frying pans and thinner. I washed all the pieces in this set, and tested 2 pieces. The frying pan wouldn't balance on the burner when it was empty, it had to go on the burner with the water already in it to keep itself balanced. The frying pan boiled water faster than the other two mess kits, I'd say about 3-4 minutes. The PVC coating on the handle did not melt, and the handle was not hot, just warm. No cave-ins, discoloration, or scorching. Same test on the pot. It boiled water in about 3-4 minutes, did not scorch or cave-in. It DID slightly discolor inside where the water level was when boiling. It's a slight discoloration. The little pot is neat in that the carrying handle somewhat locks in place, though I didn't quite trust it when I was moving the pot filled with rolling boiling water. Both the frying pan and the pot cooled off completely in about 5-6 minutes. The pot handle didn't get too hot either. The kit doesn't fit quite right when you put everything away as a clamshell. The handle just barely locks around everything, the pot and cup bounce around inside, and the plate slides a little. This kit gives you a lot for the money, isn't perfect, but in the end seems to get the job done.

I will be testing these out cooking over an open fire through out this year and will update with any new findings.

Vlingo on OG Droid

Have you heard of Vlingo? It's an application that works with Android, iPhone, Blackberry, and Nokia and allows you to transcribe emails, text messages and make phone calls with using your voice. It can also read your e-mails and your text messages to you using SafeReader, a setting within Vlingo.

Some people have been having trouble with getting Vlingo to read text messages or e-mail on Android. Here's how to do it.

1. Download Vlingo from the Android Market Place.
2. Open Vlingo
3. Tap your phone's menu button
4. Tap "Settings"
5. Under "Behavior", tap "SafeReader settings"
6. Ensure "Play texts" is selected.
7. Tap "Play email" to put a check mark on it.
8. Tap "Email accounts" to add an email account.
You can add a GMail, Windows Live Hotmail, Yahooo! Mail, AOL/AIM Mail, or "Other" email account. If you click "Other" you have to manually specify your account settings. It supports IMAP, and POP3. IMAP and POP both support SSL and TLS and allow you to change the port. You can add more than one email account.
9. After you've setup your account, go back to the Vlingo main page. At the top left of the screen you'll see a speaker. If it has an "x", that means SafeReader is turned off. Click on the speaker to turn on SafeReader (it should now have sound waves next to it, and you should hear a voice that says, "SafeReader is now turned on").
10. Vlingo should now read back your texts AND emails. It will read both texts and emails to you in regular mode, and InCar mode as well.

It seems that it will not read back to you over Bluetooth. It will respond to you over speakerphone.

If you have a BlueAnt Q2 it reads EVERYTHING back to you over the Bluetooth headset. I just got mine, tested and it works!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As far as I can tell after a couple of hours of searching, this is the only app in the Android Market Place that "reads" back your emails to you. It seems to read my work emails OK.

As of December 2011, Nuance is moving to acquire Vlingo. I'm optimistic that this is going to improve Vlingo (my hope is that they will be able to get Vlingo to speak through Bluetooth).

Test it out, and let me know what you think, or if you have found a better app on Android.

Setting up Motion for Fedora 13

Here's a quick and dirty for getting Motion setup with an old AipTek Pen Cam on Fedora 13.

Don't use the RPM, install from source:

Go here: http://www.lavrsen.dk/foswiki/bin/view/Motion/WebHome and download latest version.

Then:

cd /usr/local


tar -xvzf /path/to/motion-3.2.x.tar.gz


cd motion-3.2.x


sed -ie 's/ret = 2/ret = 0/g' video_common.c


./configure


make


make install


cp /usr/local/etc/motion-dist.conf /usr/local/etc/motion.conf


vi motion.conf

Look for webcam_localhost and change it to: off

save motion.conf

motion -n (to run in non daemon mode to test)

Use your web browser locally first and check http://yourip:8081

You should now see live stream of your video.

kill motion (Ctrl-C)

Run it again in daemon mode and test again.

Error 500 After Migrating From IIS6 to IIS7

I was getting an error 500 after migrating from IIS6 to IIS7 using "msdeploy". I couldn't figure out why for a while. Database was OK, proper app pool for ASP was there, and all was referencing each other OK, or so I thought.

The key was to get a better handle on the error. Testing externally I kept getting the generic 500 error. I tried adjusting how the error is shown under ASP for IIS7, but this didn't work.

I read on Experts Exchange to add IUSR to the security of the site and allow it view, read, and write. This didn't work either and I had to revert back.

After further reading, I saw that if I test from the browser locally on the server hosting the site, I should get a better error. BINGO!

Now I get: http error 500.22 0x80070032

This can be due to attributes in web.config being invalid (apparently security and other things were changed in IIS7, so certain attributes will BREAK when carried over from IIS6 to IIS7). Fret not! You don't have to manually go through and change things to get it to work. You can use an application to do that for you. :)

Here's a link that sums up how to do this nicely: http://www.prolificnotion.co.uk/use-appcmd-to-migrate-web-config-from-iis6-to-iis7/

For those who don't want to click, here it is below:

Run this to get the site identifier from your troubled site:

%systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\APPCMD list sites

This will dump info about your sites, you want to look for whatever is in between quotes (the identifier).

Ex.
SITE "MyMostAwesomeSite" (id:2,bindings:http/*:82,state,Stopped)

So in this case the site identifier is MyMostAwesomeSite.

The next step is to run the command that fixes the attributes in web.config:

%systemroot%\system32\inetsrv\APPCMD migrate config "MyMostAwesomeSite/"

If all goes well, you'll get the following response:

Successfully migrated section "system.web/httpModules"
Successfully migrated section "system.web/httpHandlers"

That's it! Test, and hopefully all is back to normal again.

Changing Drive Letter with MSDeploy

I've been doing a lot of migrations from IIS6 to IIS7 recently. This is a handy way of changing the drive letter when using Microsoft Web Deploy to import a site into IIS, say from drive C:\ to D:\

A Full Command Changing the Source Directory of the Archive "msdeploy-site" From "C:\" to "D:\":

Note: That there are no carriage returns, it's one long string.

C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy>msdeploy -verb:sync -source:archivedir=D:\msdeploy-site -dest:metakey=lm/w3svc/1863507787 -replace:objectName="metaProperty",scopeAttributeName="name",scopeAttributeValue="Path",targetAttributeName="value",match="c:",replace="d:"

The "replace" here looks for "c:" and changes it to "d:", which will now put the archive under d: when it was originally on c: on the source server.

Excerpt of the relevant part of the command:
-replace:objectName="metaProperty",scopeAttributeName="name",scopeAttributeValue="Path",targetAttributeName="value",match="c:",replace="d:"

Just change the drive letters of "match" with the original drive from the source server and "replace" with the destination drive on the new server.

Now, let's say you wanted to test this command before you ran it. Well then you do this:

C:\Program Files\IIS\Microsoft Web Deploy>msdeploy -verb:sync -source:archivedir=D:\msdeploy-site -dest:metakey=lm/w3svc/1863507787 -replace:objectName="metaProperty",scopeAttributeName="name",scopeAttributeValue="Path",targetAttributeName="value",match="c:",replace="d:" -verbose -whatif

The "-verbose -whatif" will run the command as a test in verbose mode in the command prompt and let you know if there are any issues it runs into and allow you to confirm that the drive letter destination is correct. You can also output this to a file using " > output.txt"

Let me know how this works out for you.