Cristian Bradiceanu

Starting this morning the Internet link is very slow, with 10-40% packet loss and 1.5 second RTT. This could be due to Qtel’s PCCWBTN link down starting after 8 a.m. AST. Traffic is routed via AS6453 (Teleglobe), which is heavily overloaded and oversubscribed. Of course, the FLAG Telecom link is not used for ADSL subscribers. So, the 2 MBPS ADSL link (largest residential package available in Qatar) real speed is around 200 kbps. This reminds me of home Internet access ten years ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_submarine_cable_disruption

Two separate oceanic cable systems in the far East were severed around 0800 hrs GMT on January 30 2008, greatly impacting both Internet and voice traffic to the region. A third cable was cut at 0559 hrs GMT on February 1 2008.

http://www.dailywireless.org/2008/01/30/oceanic-fiber-cut/

“YouTube not available” error message is shown on the iPod touch display when a proxy server is configured.

I see a 404 error message for http://iphone-wu.apple.com/feeds/standardfeeds/ in squid logs.

Same problem reported on Apple Discussions.

Thanks to Sling Media, I can watch all cable and Pay-TV stations in Qatar, streamed directly from my home over the Internet. I can even remote control the Set-Top Box.

Sling Box (classic) connections: analog antenna (tuner) - cable, Composite input - UPC STB. The setup will be complete with a DVD HDD recorder (connected to S-Video input and also to the STB).

The new Sling Box Pro is on the way from amazon.co.uk.

Checkout on https://www.enomcentral.com/checkout.asp

We are unable to process this transaction because we are currently not accepting orders from this IP.

Incriminating IP was 86.125.5X.XX.

The old Linksys WAG54Gv2 died so I replaced it with a brand new Belkin F5D7633uk4A. Everything working fine except two SIP accounts on my Siemens Gigaset S450 IP (”Authentication error”). Also I got authentication errors and SIP 408 Timeout with X-Lite using the same SIP accounts.

Also, Belkin web interface can not manage static routes, which is bad.

Version info:

Runtime Code version F5D7633-4Av1_UK_1.00.17
Boot Code Version 1.0.37-5.15
Hardware Version V1.0J3
ADSL Modem Code Version A2pB018e.d16f

Looks like there’s a transparent SIP proxy running on the router. I could ssh with admin username and web interface password to the router. Finally found siproxd running!

How to disable siproxd:

siproxd disable
save
reboot


How to add a static route:

route add IP NETMASK GATEWAY
save


All available commands:

?
help
logout
reboot
adsl
atm
brctl
cat
ledctrl
df
dumpcfg
echo
ifconfig
kill
arp
defaultgateway
dhcpserver
dns
lan
passwd
ppp
remoteaccess
restoredefault
route
save
swversion
wan
ping
ps
pwd
siproxd
sntp
sysinfo
tftp
wlctl


I signed up with rsync.net for an off-site filesystem. Opted for geo-redundant version (automated nightly replication to other site) located in Zurich, Switzerland. Very fast speed from Europe and Qatar, good speed with US hosts. Very easy to use from Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Linux and Windows (rsync, ftp, scp, sftp, ssh, WebDAV). Direct integration in Finder, just use “Connect to Server” and enter the hostname address with https. On Linux and FreeBSD 6.x sshfs works like a charm. Easy to install on FreeBSD using ports, just cd /usr/ports/sysutils/fusefs-sshfs and run make install clean.

Just replaced my C450 IP with S450 IP, mostly for multiple SIP accounts support.

Good things:
- can connect to up to six SIP accounts at the same time, plus gigaset.net
- can map SIP account and fixed line to DECT phones (both outgoing and incoming calls)
- reasonable DECT coverage
- NAT traversal using STUN
- works with asterisk
- S45 handset can be registered to multiple bases, allowing you to chose base or just best signal base

Bad things:
- can not choose what SIP account to use for outgoing calls on a call-by-call basis
- gigaset.net calls never worked for me
- R-key does not work with SIP
- no MWI (Message Waiting Indication) for VoIP calls
- slow handset response sometimes (tested with S45, C45 and C46 handsets)
- no automatic phonebook synchronization between handsets

One very interesting feature would be the possibility to use the Phone Line as a regular FXO port, allowing PSTN-to-VoIP and VoIP-to-PSTN calls.