Jamie's Random Musings
Various thoughts and adventures, including but not limited to Linux, Windows XP and Widows Vista, and assorted bits of hardware new and old.
Friday 14 March 2008, 2:28 PM
A Few Minor Windows XP Glitches
As I expect Vista SP1 to be available soon, and XP SP3 not long after that, I suppose I will be playing "disc jokey" with my laptop again before long. I've been meaning to mention a couple of odd things I have come across on my Lifebook S6510, so I'd best get it out of the way now. These problems are occurring now, with the laptop running XP Professional.
On a typical day, I use three different means of accessing the Internet from my laptop. At home I use Wireless-N, with a Linksys WRT350N router and the laptop built-in Intel 4965AGN adapter. At the office I use 100 Mb wired via the office DSL line, and I am required to use a fixed IP address on that connection. In the train and/or bus between the two, I use HSPA/UMTS/EDGE/GPRS via a Sierra Wireless AirCard. The problem with this comes up because of the fixed address (and therefore fixed default gateway and fixed name server) on the wired ethernet interface. If I make a fresh boot at home, everything works just fine. But if I then suspend/resume Windows, it somehow decides that the wired ethernet needs to be considered, and it adds that default gateway to the routing table, which then causes me not to be able to access the internet even though the wireless interface is working just fine. The only way around this is to change the wired interface to automatic addressing (DHCP), which then cleans out the routing table. Not a big deal, but irritating, since I keep having to change it back and forth between DHCP and fixed at home and at the office, and that was something I thought I would be able to avoid when I got wireless working.
I have port replicators on my desk both at home and at the office, and I have a PS/2 keyboard on each of them. Again, if I make a fresh boot in either location, everything works just fine. But if I use the laptop without the port replicator (on the train/bus), and suspend it, then put it on the port replicator and resume, it will frequently, but not always, not see the keyboard on the first try. If I suspend and resume again with it in the port replicator, it will usually, but not always, see the keyboard on the second try. Again, not a big deal, but irritating.
jw 14/3/2008
On a typical day, I use three different means of accessing the Internet from my laptop. At home I use Wireless-N, with a Linksys WRT350N router and the laptop built-in Intel 4965AGN adapter. At the office I use 100 Mb wired via the office DSL line, and I am required to use a fixed IP address on that connection. In the train and/or bus between the two, I use HSPA/UMTS/EDGE/GPRS via a Sierra Wireless AirCard. The problem with this comes up because of the fixed address (and therefore fixed default gateway and fixed name server) on the wired ethernet interface. If I make a fresh boot at home, everything works just fine. But if I then suspend/resume Windows, it somehow decides that the wired ethernet needs to be considered, and it adds that default gateway to the routing table, which then causes me not to be able to access the internet even though the wireless interface is working just fine. The only way around this is to change the wired interface to automatic addressing (DHCP), which then cleans out the routing table. Not a big deal, but irritating, since I keep having to change it back and forth between DHCP and fixed at home and at the office, and that was something I thought I would be able to avoid when I got wireless working.
I have port replicators on my desk both at home and at the office, and I have a PS/2 keyboard on each of them. Again, if I make a fresh boot in either location, everything works just fine. But if I use the laptop without the port replicator (on the train/bus), and suspend it, then put it on the port replicator and resume, it will frequently, but not always, not see the keyboard on the first try. If I suspend and resume again with it in the port replicator, it will usually, but not always, see the keyboard on the second try. Again, not a big deal, but irritating.
jw 14/3/2008
Previous
