LLDP and SIP

Recently, I was tasked with making a SIP endpoint work with LLDP and HP Procurve switches. Originally, I was going to use Polycom endpoints, but to my disappointment, these do not support LLDP-MED with the Procurves. After working with Voip Supply, we decided on a Aastra 53i endpoint. After receiving the endpoint, I updated the firmware (which is freely available off http://www.aastratelecom.com) and put it in /tftpboot on its SIP proxy server. It downloaded and installed, and viola! LLDP-MED worked flawlessly! I hope that in the future Polycom will support LLDP, but for now these Aastra’s work well, and are quite simple to set up in Asterisk just like the Polycom’s I’m used to.

Xinerama, GLX, and Ubuntu 8.10

I have four 19″ monitors running off a 7600GS and a 5300. This worked fine in Ubuntu 8.04, however my xorg.conf coughed up in 8.10. I finally found out why. Apparently with the new Xorg and Nvidia drivers, if the GPUs are that disparate (a 500 and 700 series), then Xinerama cannot be run with the glx module loaded. You need to add Disable “glx” in your Modules section. This does slow down graphics intensive apps a bit (ie games and the like), but I really just want the screen space so its no big deal for me. You need to be running the same chipset GPUs to enable glx with Xinerama with latest Xorg and Nvidia drivers.

Just a pro tip – hope it saves someone a couple hours debugging Xorg.

Step by step guide to setting up a Windows PPTP VPN client in Ubuntu 8.10

I just upgraded to Ubuntu 8.10 yesterday, and found that the standard method for setting up a PPTP VPN with NetworkManager didn’t work. I followed these steps to get my VPN working. Also note that this helped out a lot, I suggest looking there if this solution doesn’t work for you.

1) You need to install the PPTP plugin for NetworkManager: sudo apt-get install network-manager-pptp

2) Left click on the NetworkManger icon in the top panel (its in the notifications area) and select “VPN Connections -> Configure VPN”

3) Click “Add” and choose PPTP when it asks for type. Fill out the form with the following values:
Connection name:
Gateway:
User name: “NTDOMAINNAME\yourusername”
Leave everything else BLANK, included the NTDOMAIN field.

4) Go to the advanced tab and select “Use Point to Point encryption (MPPE)” also unselect PAP, CHAP, and MSCHAP.

5) Close the menus by clicking “Ok”

6) Go to a terminal as a normal user and type gconf-editor. Go to system->networking->connections->1->vpn

7) Right click on the window and select “New Key”, and add a key called refuse-eap, make it of type “String” and put “yes” in the string field.

8 ) Close gconf-editor and click on NetworkManager, you’ll see your VPN connection, click on it to activate and enter your domain password when prompted.

Hope this helps people who are having issues with PPTP VPNs on Ubuntu 8.10. Leave a comment if it didn’t work, and I’ll see if I can help. Also, tail -f /var/log/syslog can be helpful.

So I read a very interesting blog post on NY Times “Proof” blog the other day, and just wanted to add some thoughts. The link to the blog post is here. The author makes some interesting points, and it got me thinking about why I drink, and why I think moderation is much more enjoyable than getting trashed every night.

I didn’t really start drinking until my freshman year of college, and I quickly discovered I didn’t like light beer or cheap booze. I’ll never touch SoCo or 5 O Clock ever again. My sophomore year, a good friend introduced me to some better beer, and I started experimenting with mixing some basic drinks. Soon I discovered how to make a martini and an Old Fashioned. After a while, I just started using high quality ingredients to make a couple close friends really good drinks before we went out.

For me its not about the quantity, its all about the quality, granted I’m a college student, so there is a balance to that (ie I buy a lot of Skyy and not a lot of Grey Goose). There is a point where the cost is too much for a non noticeable taste difference. I do tend to spend a bit too much money on Irish Whiskey, but I have started a collection of sorts, and 2 fifths remain unopened. Another thing I released, is that I’m what they call a “cocktail geek”, I just really enjoy the act of making a perfect drink and the smile on the face of the person I hand it to. In a small way it makes my day every time.

I also always make sure I drink in a social situation, unless I’m just having a beer with homework or something of that nature. I’ve found that even in a college environment, moderation is generally more attractive than getting sloshed out of your mind. Think about it, who would you rather talk to: the person who’s had 3 too many or the person sipping some single malt on the rocks?

So to sum up, I guess I drink because I really enjoy making good drinks, and I really enjoy hanging out with friends. Does this mean I have to drink every night? No. Do I? Generally, yes. Its all about a balance. A beer a day may make you an alcoholic, but I think if you can choose not to have it, you are still in the realm of being a casual drinker. Also, if you can drink one or two at the bar just to have a good time with some buddies, instead of going there every night until last call because you are a regular,  you are probably better off.

With that I’m off to enjoy a beer and some whiskey with a friend. Cheers!

A little about me and why I decided to start one of these things

Blogging. So I’ve tried it before, we’ll see how it goes this time around. Previously, I have concentrated on certain topics and only blogged about those, I find that I get sort of tired of this after I while, so this time I’m not going to limit myself, and I’m just going to blog about whatever comes into my head. I’m not really concerned if this isn’t really interesting to read, I find writing things down is a good way to think about problems. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to read these a few years from now and smile at some of this stuff. Now I’ll tell you a little about me and some of my hobbies.

I am a 21 year old college student (that makes me a junior) at Michigan Technological University, majoring in Computer Networks and Security Administration. MTU is located in Houghton MI. We have over 240″ of snow already this winter, so that’s the kind of place it is. I’ve never really been into winter per se, so spending 4-5 years up here didn’t seem so appealing that first winter my freshman year. Since then I’ve gotten used to it and as much as I may hate to admit it, this place is growing on me as the years go by. That said, I don’t really intend on staying here after I graduate, but we’ll see that’s still a bit down the road.

I work for a small, local IT company across the Portage Lift Bridge in Hancock called Up and Running. I am the lead VOIP technician, as well as the Systems Administrator. My job can be extremely stressful some days, especially with course work and all. I’ll spend some time talking about the lessons I’ve learned at my job so far in future posts, I’ve always thought that I’ve learned more in the workplace than I have in school. I love to see the instant results of my work. Doing VOIP is interesting because of this: if a user sees that the phone is down, the reaction is instant, whereas with a computer being slow or shutting down the reaction is less severe and generally not as noticeable. Because of this, I’m really always on the job, 24/7. Up and Running is very good about team communication though, so I have workflows in place to handle emergencies if I am in class, so in theory I never have to miss a class to work. While that doesn’t always work out, generally it hasn’t been too horrible. I’m sure I’ll spend plenty of time in the future talking about VOIP as well.

When I’m not at work or school, you can probably find me hanging out with my close friends or down at the local bar. I love mixing my own drinks and enjoying a good brew. I mix a mean double shot extra dry vodka martini, and red/amber lagers are the beer of choice. Recently I have started drinking Irish Whiskeys, my collection so far includes, Tullamore Dew, Michael Collins Blended, Bushmills Original and Black. I don’t consider myself an alcoholic because I don’t actually need to have a beer every night or anything – though I usually choose to. I plan on spending some time blogging about this as well.

The rest of me is pretty much all geek. I’ve been using Linux since I was about 12 years old (although I just broke down and installed Xp on my laptop last weekend). I used to program a lot in Lisp and Java, but have since gotten away from that, honestly I enjoy telecommunications so much more. I do like doing some web development, but I’m not so good at layout design yet. Recently I’ve been spending a lot of time learning SQL and PHP. I am renowned amongst coworkers and friends for having a “command center”, my home workstation is a dual core beast with 4 19″ monitors and ~2TB of storage. This is not overcompensating for anything ladies. You need >8 monitors for that.

As far as religion goes, I don’t really consider myself religious at all. I was raised Catholic, and for various reasons that will make up a whole post of their own I found myself outgrowing that during high school. I do dabble in some Wicca once in a while, but I’m too skeptical to take it seriously at this point.

I love comic books too. Picked them up in high school and read everything back then. Currently the only monthly I still follow is Spawn. I really identified with that character and the story. The artwork blows me away every single month. My parents bought me the hardcover Watchmen book for my birthday, and rereading that story has me pretty pumped about the upcoming movie.

Granted, I can’t tell you everything about me in one little blog post, but those paragraphs sum up the main current things. If I had to sum it up in one sentence I’d say that I am a analytical, skeptical geek that loves beer, martinis, going fast, and steak. I hope you’ll stick around and pop by once in a while. You might find some tasty drinks, or a two page rant on SIP vs POTS, or just a dump of what happened during my day. You might really appreciate this blog if you go or know someone that goes to MTU, work in IT, or just like tasty beverages.

Peace out until next time!