Blag

Time for all the frugal, miserly, el-cheapo diehards (damn, whats the name of that guy in the Christmas story?) to rejoice!

Cheap deals selection for the bored geek:

• $9 TP-Link 5dbi Wifi Antennas
• 50% off Scanpan cookware at Myer
• $79 Norton Internet Security 2009 @ Big W + Further $20 cash back!
• $96 Norton 360 v2.0
• $12 24x 375ml Crate of Coke/Diet Coke/Zero/Fanta/Sprite
• $12 250psi Air Compressor @ Big W and K-Mart
• $0.05 Pack of 5x 64 page exercise books at most stores
• 25% Cash back on Microsoft Hardware
• $11 8GB USB Flash Drives
• $20/30/40 cash back on Symantec software
• $7 Cadbury Chocolate Fondue Sets
• $17 50-pack AA batteries
• $29 Wireless-g USB Adaptors
• $22 Verbatim Spindle 50 DVD+R at Dick Smith Electronics
• 25% off TV Antennas at Dick Smith Electronics
• $29 Ex-demo printers
• $179 Western Digital Essentials 1TB External HDD USB2.0
• $0.89 32 pack Sparklers
• $40 Car (Auto) 12V to 240VAC Inverter 150W
• $39 DVD Player
• CD/DVDs from $2+ at JB Hifi
• $105 Billion 7402VGO ADSL2+ VPN Modem/Router at JMG Technology

Of course, there’s the usual boring stationery/clothing/furniture sales on as well.

The Netcomm NB5Plus4 ADSL2+ Modem Router. The perfect example of German engineering and precision.

Whoops, did I say German engineering and precision.? I meant cost cutting and poor design.

The modem/router is useless. It constantly crashes, and I have to reboot it up to several times a day. Symptoms include:

1. Forgetting what DNS is, whenever you run bittorrent, or any other program which opens many network connections simultaneously. The only way to access websites is by entering in the IP address directly
2. Refusing to route any data whatsoever when the ambient temperature exceeds 25*C
3. Overheating and locking up whenever the throughput is higher than ~ 1mbps, or when you stream multimedia or download large files
4. Internal web server/user interface not responding to commands after the modem has been left on for more than ~ 7 days
5. Throughput slowly decreasing over time to the point where the LAN connection is dropped, especially noticeable when transferring large files between PCs
6. Freezing, and refusing to do anything when there are more than 5 clients connected at a time
7. Randomly disconnecting computers

Rather than rant and rave unproductively, I shall point out its flaws… before melting a hole through the f!@% thing with thermite.

There are two problems with the router – insufficient RAM, and poor enclosure design, leading to overheating.

Whenever you open multiple network connections (e.g. Bit torrent, which may open hundreds at a time), the router chipset, or CPU, in this case the Texas Instrument AR7 chip can not handle the load, and in combination with the limited ram available, simply crashes or drops connections. Think of it as like running Windows Vista on a Pentium 200mhz with 8MB of RAM. It would have cost Netcomm all of… 40c more to upgrade the RAM and cache size, but they decided to reduce costs and make an inferior product.

Also, the enclosure which Netcomm designed for housing the circuitry is unsuitable, as it provides inadequate ventilation. Like conventional PCs, the router also crashes when overheated. It looks as though Netcomm has gone for style over functionality, though to be honest, it looks like rubbish anyway.

While upgrading the RAM and cache is not possible without extensive effort, a simple hackjob fix would be to either remove the top of the enclosure, or to fit the chipset with a heat sink and drill additional ventilation holes in the case.

*NB: I think Oz Techeducate (www.oztecheducate.org) (the site providing free blog hosting for me) was run using a NB5Plus4 router several months ago, when they had server issues and had to resort to a backup link. Explains why the backup was frequently offline too… crappy router :@

Seeing as I’ve been getting a lot of hits from Whirlpool users, for all you those who have ended up here looking for the firmware updates, or help with Bit Torrent and/or NAT, try sending a Whim to Quentin (Rep for Billion/Minitar). His profile is at: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-user.cfm?id=87096

Related: Billion 7401VGP R3 (http://theparanoidtroll.com/blog/?p=155), More (http://theparanoidtroll.com/blog/?p=242)

Heh, call me a fanboi, but Internode now has the 2nd largest ADSL/ADSL2+ network coverage in Australia.

Yep, almost as large as hellstra (telstra).

They have access to Agile (their sister company), Optus and Telstra DSLAMS, which achieves near full coverage of Australia. It’s also a godsend to those on unprofitable exchanges where Telstra is the only ISP to have DSLAMS installed, or those on RIM/CMUX’s who could previously only achieve 3mbps, if they didn’t sign up to Bigpond – Internode’s pricing undercuts both Optus’s and Telstra’s own internet plans.