Set Up Space-Saving, Permanent Gmail and Reader Tabs in Firefox.

Here is hoping that you can prevent your next computer disaster by reading the following article and implementing one of the programs before it happens. Good luck!

Five Best Free System Restore Tools.

Teach Parents Tech.

In my previous post, I went over how I created a weatherproof Wi-Fi camera rig. I decided to write a separate entry about how I got Wi-Fi signal to the camera during the construction process of my new home.

This project was installed about a year and a half ago and has been functioning since. There have been times I needed to reboot the repeater throughout the year, so it’s not like you can install it forget about it (unless you buy commercial products, not a Linksys). You also have to keep an eye out for growing shrubs and trees, since that will limit your signal over time.

First up, you’re going to have to have access to an internet connection (DSL/Cable). I had the luxury of having my parents near by, so I didn’t have to deal with any neighbors trying to secure an internet connection during construction (check your area and see if anyone has their wireless wide open… you might just want to repeat that signal).

I hope this post gives you some ideas as how to easily setup an access point outside your home. Maybe you have a park across the way that you’d love to work at, but can’t because you need to be connected… this project can surely make it possible.

Lets begin.

The Parts List:

• A HyperLink 8db Compact Omnidirectional 2.4ghz Antenna or a HyperLink 8db Patch Antenna
• 2 Linksys WAP11’s 802.11b Access Points (or any newer models that support repeater mode)
• 1- 10”x10”x4” PVC enclosure from Home Depot
• Misc PVC parts for Antenna Mast attachment, PVC Glues, Silicon, etc
• Double-sided foam tape
• A few power tools… drill, screw, etc.

If doing Power-Over-Ethernet (not repeater mode), you’ll also need:

• Cat5e Connection Box
• Volt Meter (to check cable resistance)
• Cat5e cable (outdoor direct burial type)
• New power supply to accommodate length of cat5e cable

You’ll need to find an enclosure that will fit your access point. Most of the time, the case is bigger than the actual electronics inside… so if you are having trouble finding a case, you can always dismantle the access point/repeater, however, this will void your warranty. For my WAP11, I took some measurements and headed to my local Home Depot. I found they had a 10”x10”x4” PVC box that looked perfect for this project.

I wanted the status LEDs to show thru the bottom of the enclosure so I had to remove the front of the WAP11. The photos above show how I did this. I took the front part and stacked it on the back of the WAP11. This gave me some support and the height was perfectly in the middle. I marked and drilled the 3 LED holes. I filled them up with clear silicon so the LED lights could still shine thru. I also attached some double-sided foam tape so I could secure it in the enclosure.

In the photo on the right, you can see the complete naked enclosure. My first attempt was to have a full outdoor Access Point. To do this, you need a wired ethernet connection and power. So I took the PoE (Power over Ethernet) route. That worked for about a year, but, because I didn’t used outdoor grade cat5e cable when I buried it, one day it suddenly stopped working. I think a rat ate it or it just corroded. If you are planning on doing PoE, then you’ll want to follow the detailed how-to instructions provided on the NTCwireless site and BE SURE TO USE outdoor rated Cat5e cable!! If you don’t want to deal with volt meters and ohm’s law, the check out Hyperlink’s PoE solution.

The 8db compact Hyperlink omnidirectional antenna I used has a mast attachment, so I bought a 2” PVC pipe and cap and attached the antenna to that. I only attached one external antenna, so I’m not doing a true diversity system like the Linksys originally had. You can turn off the other antenna or keep it on… your tests may yield different results. Omnidirectional is great if you want to spread the 8db signal over 360 degrees. Sometimes you want to use a directional antenna. Let’s say the park you want to check email at is right across the street, and the the picnic table 30 degrees to the right. You could use a patch antenna and blanket just that area with a full 8db. So instead of an 8db (or whatever) omnidirectional antenna, which spreads that 8db over 360 degrees, you can give a 30 degree spread more of the 8db signal.

Next, I attached all the cables to the WAP11 and powered it up. Again, if you are setting your system up as just a repeater, then all you need is power. If you are setting it up as an outdoor access point, then you’ll need to provide power and ethernet. Having done both, I like the repeater method. It’s easier than running a cable… but you spend more because you need another WAP11 to act as the main access point.

After I mounted everything inside, I found an area I thought would work the best and did all the network setups. Then I ran some tests. Depending on tree coverage and any structures, there is pretty good coverage… it can only get better with more access points and/or bigger antennas. Flat, clear areas do better than hilly, treed areas (trees suck up the signal and metal structures reflect) For now, the coverage is pretty much want I need… but I’m thinking about putting a Wi-Fi Amplifier on the repeaters. That should really light up the block… and maybe even a visit from the FCC!

Below is an “artists rendering” of my signal spread. My terrain is a bit hilly, so I don’t get the same coverage as if I were on flat lands.

Total cost? Under $500.

They want to keep me because I’m extremely smart and on top of it, but punish me because there are things I can only do at night and choose to include those hours in my required 45 per week. I’ve gone from salary to hourly as a punishment, but the very reason they want to keep me may be the reason they put me back on salary.

When this happened, I knew that I would at least get overtime, or rather should, since anything over 40 hours a week is defined as overtime. With a little help and direction from my wonderful fiance, I found out that even salary people are entitled to a form of overtime. Hell, that means I have quite a bit of backpay coming then.

Here’s how it works, if you are hourly, then anything over 40 hours worked in a normal week is overtime, which is required to be paid as time and a half. Salary is a bit different, but it works something like this, you have your standard pay, you divide that across your agreed hours per week, then anything over 40, you take half your figured hourly rate and you will have your overtime pay.

Here’s the catch, there are limits to who gets overtime. If you make over $100,000 per year, you can’t get overtime. It is all straight time, whether you are being paid $50 an hour, or are salary.

If you want to read about it, here is the pdf that I originally read on.

Google’s documentation is, for the most part, excellent. Most of the company’s services have help centers with feature overviews, tutorials and problem solving guides. But of course you need to be online to access that wealth of information.

However, as Ionut Alex Chitu over at Google Operating System discovered, it’s easy to append an extra word to the help center URLs and get a download of all the help files. It won’t work for every service, but if you append ?fulldump=1 to the address of a Google help center you should get a massive HTML file with all the info you need.

From there you can just convert the HTML to a PDF file and save it on your local disk for offline access. Check out the Google Operating Center post for some direct links to each of the help centers with the fulldump bit appended to the URL.

See Also:

• Google Calendar Gearing Up For Offline Features
• Rumor: Offline GMail Arriving Later This Year
• Zoho Writer: Now With (Limited) Offline Functionality

Organize your family’s essential information in case of an emergency

My mom had a minor stroke last week and was unable to speak. (She’s fine now, thank God.) But when it happened, we had no idea where her “stuff” was – her insurance info, her bank accounts, even the location of the keys to her house was a mystery. Ultimately, we were able to get everything pulled together, but it was a waste of precious time that we could’ve spent on other, more important things.

If there’s ever a time when you don’t want to be caught unorganized, it’s in the middle of a health crisis. You need certain documents on hand and ready to go when you’re in situations like these. Today I’ll show you how I’ve gotten my procrastinating booty in gear (finally) and made my very own essential information kit.

What do you need?

It took a crisis like this for me to realize that if I or my spouse ever become incapacitated, whoever comes behind us and tries to figure out paperwork is basically up Sh*t Creek without a paddle. So! First, I had to figure out what exactly it was I needed to have on hand. This would be:

• Up-to-date medical insurance information
• An updated will
• Power of attorney information
• Life insurance info
• A basic guide to your bank accounts – numbers, passwords
• A basic list of bills in case someone else needs to help you pay them
• Doctor and vet info
• Spare keys for both house and car

Now, this was just my list for me and my family. You can customize it as you see fit, but these were the most pressing items I had to track down for my mom last week. I’ll probably add to this list as time goes by, but it’s a good start for an essential info kit that your family and friends will be able to utilize in order to help you more completely.

Best ways to organize your info

Obviously, some of this information is not going to be able to go onto a computer, and that’s actually (believe it or not) a good thing. Not everyone who will be in charge of taking care of you should you be medically incapacitated is the computer-savvy ninja that you are, so let’s make this as simple and easy access as possible. You have a few options that are written in order of what works best:

• First, start a paper trail: All your paperwork in one file in one place couldn’t be easier. Make copies and hand them to your significant other and one (or two) friends and or family members that you trust, literally, with your life.
• Next, scan and save: Y’all still have scanners, right? Scan those essential documents in and save them to your hard drive, a CD, and a USB stick. Label everything, and give simple directions on where this information can be found to your already mentioned friends and family. Make sure that they understand how to access this information – don’t assume that they can figure out how to use a CD drive or a USB.
• Lastly, store it on the web: This is technically one of the ways that I’m advising you to store your essential info, however: do NOT use this as the only way. Please. I’m begging you. There are a myriad of online storage options available to you, including the multi-faceted Gmail, and it’s a pretty easy and secure option for making sure your stuff is all in one spot. This particular option is advisable after you’ve completed the paper trail and electronic backup; be absolutely sure to write down where this information can be found in case you can’t help out yourself. Definitely, this is a super backup option, but I’m putting extra emphasis on the “backup” part of that sentence.

Don’t put this off

Last week was a wake up call for me, to put it mildly. I don’t ever want my loved ones to be put in the frustrating position of scrambling for paperwork for me, and I’m pretty sure you don’t either. For more information, I invite you to read the following resources; but please feel free to chime in with your essential paperwork strategies in the comments as well.

• Organize paperwork on your Mac
• One way to digitize and centralize paper documents
• How to organize your financial documents in a filing cabinet

Wendy Boswell is Lifehacker’s Weekend Editor and is getting organized this year whether she likes it or not. Subscribe to her feature series Technophilia using the Technophilia feed.

Nobody seems to mind Gmail’s bots reading through their email, and it seems to be widely okay that, for the convenience of putting your data on someone else’s server, you trust them to play nice with it.

That seems like a bizarrely trusting security model. It reminds me of the trusting design of SMTP, which worked great at first but, as it turned out, did nothing to inhibit spam. I think distrust should be the default.

When I played around with gmailfs, a clever hack that lets you mount all six-plus gigs of free Gmail storage as a Linux filesystem, I didn’t like the idea of Google having my data. So I wrapped it in encfs, which transparently encrypted everything I put on Google’s servers.

Likewise, when backing up to a third-party host, I use duplicity, which encrypts incremental archives.

Before smart people would consider keeping their password database remotely hosted, they’d want to feel pretty secure. Clipperz, an online password manager, manages that by doing JavaScript encryption, in the browser, so that the host never has the unencrypted data, ever. They can’t use it themselves, they can’t leave it on a bus, and they can’t be subpoenaed for it.

The “zero-knowledge” algorithm and protocol are designed to be fully auditable by the user. Here is a detailed explanation of how it works. The JavaScript crypto library they use is open-licensed and freely available.

I’d love to see that sort of security become standard for any web application that stores user data! Till then, there’s FireGPG.

See Also:

• Encryption Still Good; Sleeping Mode Not So Much, PGP Says
• Google Health Wants to Digitize Your Medical Records
• Border Agents Can Search Laptops Without Cause, Appeals Court Rules
• Yahoo Trumps Google With New Data Retention Policy

It turns out there are some better ways to get your word documents into snappy, relatively cruft-free HTML without resorting to hand coding. Productivity Portfolio has a few suggestions, including the ever-popular, make-Gmail-do-it-for-you technique. In other words, just e-mail yourself the Word doc and then use Gmail’s “View As HTML” option to generate some much better looking code than the standard Word output.

Also in the list of suggestions is the Word HTML to sane HTML converter Textism, which promises to strip “Microsoft’s proprietary tags and other superfluous noise from Word-generated HTML documents.”

There are some other methods and tips in Productivity Portfolio’s post, but many of them will require you to actually own Word, Dreamweaver or other software packages.

[via Lifehacker]

See Also:

• Industry Leading Publications Reject Office 2007 Documents
• Zoho Viewer: Spare Your Colleagues The Pain Of Bulky E-mail …
• Developers: Google Adds Docs & Spreadsheets API

Picture this: You find yourself sitting in a hotel room that does not offer wireless internet… As you look out the window, you spot that the three hotels & a Starbucks across the street advertising “Free Wireless Internet” — if only you had known this when you booked! You fire up your wireless card, but the signal just is to weak to keep a consistent connection. What are you going to do?

Enter “The Predator”.

The predator is a modified wireless router connected to a high-powered antenna and running custom firmware to actively seek out open wireless connections. Once they are found, it will test them for internet connectivity and then join and repeat the one with the strongest signal to secured wireless connection that YOU control. =)

*Note: It is illegal to use a wireless access point that you are not authorized to use.

Materials Needed:

(1) Buffalo WHR-HP-G54
(or other DD-WRT compatible router with upgradeable SMA Male Reverse antenna)
(1) HyperLink 2.4GHz 14.5 Yagi Antenna with N-Female Connection.
*Note: If you plan on using this antenna ONLY for a “predator” order it with an Reverse Polarity SMA Plug.
(1) Reverse Polarity SMA Male to Male N-type adapter.
*Note: The use of adapters lowers the effective range of the antenna, however I preferred to order my antenna with a standard connector for re-use in the future.
(1) Sears’s Ultra-Cheap camera tripod
Misc screws & Velcro mounting strips
Step 1 : Preparation
Create an “Working Directory” on your workstation were you can store all required files. Windows users, I would suggest you make c:\predator and OSX/Linux users I would suggest ~/predator.

Windows users in a DOS prompt type:
cd\
mkdir predator

OSX/Linux users in a command terminal type:
cd ~
mkdir predator

Then download the “AutoAP” firmware into this directory. I-Hacked members can download this firmware directly from this link, others will need to download from Sourceforge. Once downloaded you should now have a file:

dd-wrt.V24_AAP-0130-generic.bin

Next, plug in your WHR-HP-G54 and connect your computer to it via a Cat5 network cable. It is important that you are directly connected and do not ever attempt to flash your router via a wireless connection.

If your WHR-HP-G54 is brand-new (or unmodified) its ip address will be 192.168.1.11. Verify that you can ping (or hit the web interface @ http://192.168.11.1) this address before moving to step two.

If your router has been modified it might have a different IP address, and I would suggest restoring it to its factory default settings before moving forward. To reset press the red INIT button on the bottom of the router for 15 seconds. Do not let go of the INIT button until the red DIAG lights up or flashes. The restore process can take up to two minutes.

Step 2 : TFTP Flash upgrading the firmware
On the computer that is directly connected to the router, open two command windows.

In the first command window, ping the router permanently
ping –t 192.168.11.1
(OSX/Linux hosts do not need the -t parameter)

and you should see if it responding, e.g. like this (notice the ttl=64)

64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=2.90 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=0.264 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=1.44 ms

Now in the second command window, change directories to where you saved the AutoAP firmware. (cd\predator or cd ~/predator) Type out the following command, but DO NOT HIT ENTER:

tftp -i 192.168.11.1 put dd-wrt.V24_AAP-0130-generic.bin

Now, we need to put the router into tftp update ready mode by rebooting the router. When power is first applied to the router, it enters a debug mode where it will accept tftp upgrades. Pull and re-insert the power, and watch for it to enter the debug mode. In the ping window, you will see the ping response will stop momentarily, and then finally restart like this: (notice the ttl=128)

From 192.168.11.1 icmp_seq=1 Destination Host Unreachable
From 192.168.11.1 icmp_seq=2 Destination Host Unreachable
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=3 ttl=128 time=2.90 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.11: icmp_seq=4 ttl=128 time=3.50 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.11.1: icmp_seq=5 ttl=128 time=0.90 ms

Once it comes back, check to insure the TTL has changed to 128. If it is responding to your pings with 128 TTLs, the router is ready for the TFTP upgrade. Finally press enter on the command you typed out in the TFTP window. You may have to try it a couple times to get the timing down correctly. If the router does not come back with ttl=128 you may have to reset the device using the reset button.

When the upload is successful WAIT AT LEAST THREE MINUTES. (BE PATIENT! DON’T RESET THE ROUTER!) Seriously, go grab a beer or something — let it set for awhile, the device needs to install the new custom firmware.

After the three minutes have passed, unplug and replug-in your router. The router will now be running a custom version of DD-WRT with AutoAP installed and responding at the IP address 192.168.1.1 (you may have to renew your ip address first to be in the 192.168.1.x subnet)

Step 3 : Configure the predator
Connect to the web-interface by opening your browser and going to http://192.168.1.1 and login with:

username: root
pw: admin

First we need to do a hardware factory reset after the successful flash. Go to Administration / Factory Defaults / Check “Yes” to Restore Factory Defaults and click SAVE. This will reboot the router. (If it doesnt, manually reboot it)

Once the router returns, log in. We now need to enable “Universal Wireless Repeater Mode”

Go to tab “Setup”, sub-tab “Basic Setup”:

Change Router Name to WPRED (or whatever you want to call it)

Change Host Name to WPRED (or whatever you want to call it)

Change “local IP address” to a unique subnet (different than device you wish to repeat), such as 192.168.69.1.
Click SAVE. This should reboot the router. (if not, reboot it)

Point your browser to the new IP address (http://192.168.69.1) you chose in the previous step. (you may need to change/renew ip address) Login and go to tab “Security”, sub-tab “Firewall”: Uncheck all check boxes and THEN set firewall to “disable”. Save settings.
Then go to the Wireless Tab and change the Wireless Mode to Repeater. Clear SSID field and hit save.

Next add a Virtual Interface, this will be the Wireless SSID that YOU will connect to. (bridged to the open access points)

Set SSID to: IHPred (your choice)
*Note: The SSID with “predator” in its name seems to make neighbors with kids understandably uncomfortable, I would not suggest doing that.
Check SSID Broadcast (your choice)
AP Isolation – Disabled
Network Configuration (Bridged)
Then click SAVE.

Go to tab “Wireless”, subtab “Advanced Settings”. Set “Preamble” to “Short” and “Xmit Power” to higher than default (I use 200). Click “Save Settings”.

Finally configure and enable the “Predatory” features of your device. Go to tab “Wireless”, subtab “AutoAP”.

Check “Enable AutoAP”
Log type to your preference (html output) *See note below

Scan Frequency to 60
Max APs to Track to 10
DHCP Renew Timeout to 15
Find Open APs to Enable
Internet Checking to Enable
URL to check to www.google.com
Enable WEP Checking to Enable (if you have WEP encrypted APs you want it to join)
Add any WEP keys you have

Add any BSSID or MAC addresses you do NOT want the AP to associate with
Click SAVE.
*

Note: When set to ‘syslog’, AutoAP will send all logdata to syslog. Depending on your log level settings, you will see more or less data. AutoAP has quite a bit of log data it sends, however if your log level is set to high, the router should only send out important autoap notices, like new connections, disconnections, or errors. If set to low, it will show you debug data. When set to ‘html’, the log data is written to a file available via the web interface at http://RouterIP/user/autoap.htm. This log is kept trimmed to autoap_logsize lines.
Reboot your router. Wait for about 1 minute. At this point the router should be fully configured to be running in “Predator” mode. However before you start assembling it, take a few minutes to verify everything.

In one of your command windows, type:

telnet 192.168.69.1
(or whatever you set the IP address to)

Login using root/admin and type:

ps | grep autoap

and make sure that you see something similar to the one below (look for /bin/autoap)

If you do not see this, reboot your router and check again. If you still do not see it:

(This step should not be needed)

First make sure that you are typing the command right, copy and paste it. If you STILL do not see it, Log back into the web interface, go the the “Administration” Tab, “Commands” sub-tab. Paste the following command box:

/bin/autoap &

Make sure you hit the “Save Startup” button. (and not the “Save” button) Reboot the router, wait 1 minute and repeat the telnet “verification” step. Once you can verify that autoap is running on startup, you can unplug the router and move to the final step.

STEP 4 : ASSEMBLING THE PREDATOR

Connect the “L” mounting bracket that came with the Hyperlink antenna making sure that the connector cable is opposite the protruding bend. (see later pictures for clarification if needed)

Mount the Antenna assembly to the cheap tripod using some nuts and bolts you have laying around in that screw jar you have — I know that if you are reading THIS SITE you know the one. I would assume that every “cheap” tri-pod has different mounts, just make sure that the antenna assembly mounts securely and semi-level. You may need to drill a hole in the antenna assembly “L” mount to ensure that you use two mount points. I was able to use two long screws, and on the rear screw I used a nut and a washer as a spacer.

Then mount the WHR-HP-G54 to the top of the antenna assembly mount. Removed the screw found underneath the informational sticker (see below), and then using a slightly longer screw and some velcro strips, secure the router on top. Your predator should be looking pretty evil.

Finally, remove the stock Buffalo antenna and connect the hyperlink antenna to the router using the adapter if you chose to use one.

Congrats, you now have a wireless predator on your hands. Aim your antenna towards the area most likely to have open access points and let it sit for about 5 minutes.

When your predator powers up, it will start scanning for open access points, testing each one for internet connectivity and then finally will join the one with the strongest signal strength that can reach the internet. Then it will make this connection available to you via the AP SSID that you set previously.

Join the AP SSID that you created earlier. (IHPRED) If everything worked right (and there is available open wireless access points) you should have internet access. I suggest visiting what ever log you configured to see how it is working. If you chose the html log format visit http://192.168.69.1/user/autoap.htm.

Finally lock down your predator like you would do any other Access Point. Change the default admin password, enable SSHd & disable telnet. Enable WPA encryption if you want to protect your newly “acquired” internet access.

Note: Even if you enable encryption, your traffic can still be monitored (sniffed) via the link between the predator and the open access point. If you happen to know the WEP key of a particular AP, you can add it to the WEP keys section at Wireless”, subtab “AutoAP”. The predator will now attempt to try to join WEP encrypted networks using that key.

Additional Pictures:

Credits:
DD-WRT

http://www.dd-wrt.com/dd-wrtv3/index.php

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Universal_Wireless_Repeater

AutoAP

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Autoap