3g Speed Test
May 12, 2008
Did a broadband speed test by connecting up by Nokia E51 with bluetooth to my macbook. The net connection is from Dialog Telekom. It's a tech dinosaur that boasts of a 3.5g network.
Actually I was quite suprised by the result. The network is pretty quick. But how come the upload speed is close to 1mbps while the downlink is only 50? I suspect the download speed would probably be faster if I had used a USB cable instead of bluetooth. Bluetooth as we know it is limited to 1mbps but a faster version is not far off.
Posted by raditha at 5:04 PM
One more look at SPF.
May 10, 2008
Our mail servers were being spammed and joe jobbed to death and I decided to apply the qmail SPF patch. It was configured to just insert the SPF header rather than rejecting mails.
As it turned out, most of the spam (that were so obviously joe mails) didn't have a reject header created. Apprently very few system administrators have bothered to create SPF records for their domains. Thus the qmail SPF as a spam filter turns out to be ineffective. It had to be removed anyway when the goodrcptto patch was installed because they were not compatible with each other.
Now it's time to take another look at SPF, this time we are creating our own SPF records so that joe jobs with forged sender addresses associated with our domains will be rejected by other mail servers. I am not keeping my fingers crossed though. If sysadmins haven't rushed to create DNS records it's unlikely that they would have added SPF support to their mail servers either. But there is no harm in trying.
Posted by raditha at 2:04 AM
E51 and Asterisk Revisited.
May 8, 2008
In the middle of the night there was a power failure and the Asterisk server I had configured was shut down. When it restarted the Nokia E51 wouldn't connect to it (it's set to automatic connect). I tried manual connect but the phone just seemed to wait for an eternity before saying could not connect.
Then I realized that Nokia is to mobile phones what Windows is to computers. They both need frequent reboots. And yes after the E51 was rebooted, the phone automatically connected to the asterisk server.
It was time to revisit the old desktop and try to install a softphone on it. This time I chose X-Lite. Installation and configuration was easy but there is a problem with the audio. What's spoken on the E51 doesn't get through to the desktop but it works fine in the other direction.
Posted by raditha at 1:46 AM
Thawte and Java Code Signing.
May 7, 2008
When it comes to java code signing it seems we have to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea (Thawte and Verisign). Unfortunately they are two sides of the same coin. Thawte is owned by verisign.
Their prices though are slightly different, with thawte's been lower (but still outrageous). It wouldn't matter if they treated their customers right or had a website that worked or had sufficient documentation on it. They have compensated for that by hiring a bunch of stand up comedians as their support staff.
I have renewed code signing certificates often enough to know how it works (even though there is no documentation to speak of on the Thawte site). First up I created a CSR using Keytool and had it tested using the form on their site - It passed the test.
Next I enterd my credit card information and hit submit? what do I get a blank page. Now I am unsure whether the transaction has been processed or whether there has been an error. I waited 24 hours (giving sufficient time for the credit card online statement to be updated) before trying again. Same result. Now I write my first mail to thawte.
A little later I try again using the Safari browser (earlier I used firefox on OS X). Still the same result. Then I try again - this time with Camino? The thawte site stubbornly refuse to produce anything more than a blank page. Now I send my second mail.
Then it's time to try it out on linux no prizes for guessing the result - a blank page. Now it's time for a third email.
Posted by raditha at 12:34 AM
Nokia Crashes Fedora
May 6, 2008
The last time my desktop running Fedora Core 6 crashed was when I plugged in my old Nokia 6151 using the DKU 2 cable. That phone is now dead. I wondered what might happen if I plugged in my new E51.
The E51 does not come with a DKU cable. It has a mini USB cable. The kind that you normally see on Digital Cameras. I didn't even bother the take the cable out of the box. The cable from my Nikon D70s will do just fine.
So what's the result? Exactly like last time. It crashed.
Posted by raditha at 12:49 AM
May 12, 2008
Did a broadband speed test by connecting up by Nokia E51 with bluetooth to my macbook. The net connection is from Dialog Telekom. It's a tech dinosaur that boasts of a 3.5g network.
Actually I was quite suprised by the result. The network is pretty quick. But how come the upload speed is close to 1mbps while the downlink is only 50? I suspect the download speed would probably be faster if I had used a USB cable instead of bluetooth. Bluetooth as we know it is limited to 1mbps but a faster version is not far off.
May 10, 2008
Our mail servers were being spammed and joe jobbed to death and I decided to apply the qmail SPF patch. It was configured to just insert the SPF header rather than rejecting mails.
As it turned out, most of the spam (that were so obviously joe mails) didn't have a reject header created. Apprently very few system administrators have bothered to create SPF records for their domains. Thus the qmail SPF as a spam filter turns out to be ineffective. It had to be removed anyway when the goodrcptto patch was installed because they were not compatible with each other.
Now it's time to take another look at SPF, this time we are creating our own SPF records so that joe jobs with forged sender addresses associated with our domains will be rejected by other mail servers. I am not keeping my fingers crossed though. If sysadmins haven't rushed to create DNS records it's unlikely that they would have added SPF support to their mail servers either. But there is no harm in trying.
E51 and Asterisk Revisited.
May 8, 2008
In the middle of the night there was a power failure and the Asterisk server I had configured was shut down. When it restarted the Nokia E51 wouldn't connect to it (it's set to automatic connect). I tried manual connect but the phone just seemed to wait for an eternity before saying could not connect.
Then I realized that Nokia is to mobile phones what Windows is to computers. They both need frequent reboots. And yes after the E51 was rebooted, the phone automatically connected to the asterisk server.
It was time to revisit the old desktop and try to install a softphone on it. This time I chose X-Lite. Installation and configuration was easy but there is a problem with the audio. What's spoken on the E51 doesn't get through to the desktop but it works fine in the other direction.
Posted by raditha at 1:46 AM
Thawte and Java Code Signing.
May 7, 2008
When it comes to java code signing it seems we have to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea (Thawte and Verisign). Unfortunately they are two sides of the same coin. Thawte is owned by verisign.
Their prices though are slightly different, with thawte's been lower (but still outrageous). It wouldn't matter if they treated their customers right or had a website that worked or had sufficient documentation on it. They have compensated for that by hiring a bunch of stand up comedians as their support staff.
I have renewed code signing certificates often enough to know how it works (even though there is no documentation to speak of on the Thawte site). First up I created a CSR using Keytool and had it tested using the form on their site - It passed the test.
Next I enterd my credit card information and hit submit? what do I get a blank page. Now I am unsure whether the transaction has been processed or whether there has been an error. I waited 24 hours (giving sufficient time for the credit card online statement to be updated) before trying again. Same result. Now I write my first mail to thawte.
A little later I try again using the Safari browser (earlier I used firefox on OS X). Still the same result. Then I try again - this time with Camino? The thawte site stubbornly refuse to produce anything more than a blank page. Now I send my second mail.
Then it's time to try it out on linux no prizes for guessing the result - a blank page. Now it's time for a third email.
Posted by raditha at 12:34 AM
Nokia Crashes Fedora
May 6, 2008
The last time my desktop running Fedora Core 6 crashed was when I plugged in my old Nokia 6151 using the DKU 2 cable. That phone is now dead. I wondered what might happen if I plugged in my new E51.
The E51 does not come with a DKU cable. It has a mini USB cable. The kind that you normally see on Digital Cameras. I didn't even bother the take the cable out of the box. The cable from my Nikon D70s will do just fine.
So what's the result? Exactly like last time. It crashed.
Posted by raditha at 12:49 AM
May 8, 2008
In the middle of the night there was a power failure and the Asterisk server I had configured was shut down. When it restarted the Nokia E51 wouldn't connect to it (it's set to automatic connect). I tried manual connect but the phone just seemed to wait for an eternity before saying could not connect.
Then I realized that Nokia is to mobile phones what Windows is to computers. They both need frequent reboots. And yes after the E51 was rebooted, the phone automatically connected to the asterisk server.
It was time to revisit the old desktop and try to install a softphone on it. This time I chose X-Lite. Installation and configuration was easy but there is a problem with the audio. What's spoken on the E51 doesn't get through to the desktop but it works fine in the other direction.
May 7, 2008
When it comes to java code signing it seems we have to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea (Thawte and Verisign). Unfortunately they are two sides of the same coin. Thawte is owned by verisign.
Their prices though are slightly different, with thawte's been lower (but still outrageous). It wouldn't matter if they treated their customers right or had a website that worked or had sufficient documentation on it. They have compensated for that by hiring a bunch of stand up comedians as their support staff.
I have renewed code signing certificates often enough to know how it works (even though there is no documentation to speak of on the Thawte site). First up I created a CSR using Keytool and had it tested using the form on their site - It passed the test.
Next I enterd my credit card information and hit submit? what do I get a blank page. Now I am unsure whether the transaction has been processed or whether there has been an error. I waited 24 hours (giving sufficient time for the credit card online statement to be updated) before trying again. Same result. Now I write my first mail to thawte.
A little later I try again using the Safari browser (earlier I used firefox on OS X). Still the same result. Then I try again - this time with Camino? The thawte site stubbornly refuse to produce anything more than a blank page. Now I send my second mail.
Then it's time to try it out on linux no prizes for guessing the result - a blank page. Now it's time for a third email.
Nokia Crashes Fedora
May 6, 2008
The last time my desktop running Fedora Core 6 crashed was when I plugged in my old Nokia 6151 using the DKU 2 cable. That phone is now dead. I wondered what might happen if I plugged in my new E51.
The E51 does not come with a DKU cable. It has a mini USB cable. The kind that you normally see on Digital Cameras. I didn't even bother the take the cable out of the box. The cable from my Nikon D70s will do just fine.
So what's the result? Exactly like last time. It crashed.
Posted by raditha at 12:49 AM
May 6, 2008
The last time my desktop running Fedora Core 6 crashed was when I plugged in my old Nokia 6151 using the DKU 2 cable. That phone is now dead. I wondered what might happen if I plugged in my new E51.
The E51 does not come with a DKU cable. It has a mini USB cable. The kind that you normally see on Digital Cameras. I didn't even bother the take the cable out of the box. The cable from my Nikon D70s will do just fine.
So what's the result? Exactly like last time. It crashed.
