As of Apple’s Snow Leopard release, it has broken Orange Mobile Partner, the application for the E160e dongle from Huawei that Orange supply to their mobile broadband customers. I mainly used the built-in Huawei 3G modem on my Windows/Linux netbook, but I wanted to use it on my Macbook. So I was searching around for a solution, and it’s actually pretty simple to get it working;

1. Insert the dongle into your Mac.
2. When the window opens, copy “Orange Mobile Partner” to the desktop.
3. Right click it, choose ‘Show Package Contents’.
4. Browse to ‘Contents/Resources’
5. Run ‘MobilePartner.mpkg’
6. Follow the installation wizard.
7. Reboot your Mac when done.

Now you should be able to get Orange Mobile Partner running, and the appropriate drivers installed, so you can use the internet on the go!

You don’t have to do this every time you wish to use it, just go to Applications > Orange Mobile Partner > Orange Mobile Partner then insert the dongle. It should say ‘Detecting SIM…’ or something similar.

I have been using TVersity Media Server for well over a year now, and to be completely honest it has served my needs well. I have over 250GB of television shows and films stored on my file server, most of which my PS3 can play flawlessly over my 100Mbps network.

However I emphasise “most”. TVersity has always failed me when it comes to *.MKV (Matroska Video) files. Perhaps it is because they are 1080p or 720p, I don’t know.

It doesn’t matter though. I’ve switched to PS3 Media Server. Not only is it open source, it plays my *.MKV files! With my file servers aging 2.0GHz Pentium processor, it stuggled with subtitles, so I turned them off – I’m not hard of hearing as such.

Not only this, but streaming of other file types like my XviD or DivX encoded video files is much smoother. I would only recommend, if possible, to use a wired network, because the throughput on wireless is only sufficient by a small margin for video streaming. So if you’re a TVersity user, why not give PS3 Media Server a try?

I have now recieved both of my hardware firewalls. Just on a side note, they came in monumentally huge boxes, which were packed full of either paper shreddings or those polystyrene packaging “peanuts”, I later found out they’re called.

I have recieved my serial cable for the WatchGuard and am planning to run m0n0wall on it. I have found out that it is possible, so that should be useful. It all boots up fine, albeit the CPU fan is rather loud. I have temporarily unplugged it, but when it is running properly then it is obviously paramount to have sufficient ventilation, so I’ll plug it back in. Here’s a picture of the device;

Now onto my next firewall, the NetScreen. It too powers up fine, but it has no fans, hence its really quiet. I am waiting for my serial cable to arrive in the post so I can do a factory reset on the device because it cannot currently be seen on the network. Once it works, I shall be using it as my main firewall. The ‘untrused’ port will be a RJ45 cable directly from the router via the upstairs-downstairs link, then ‘DMZ’ will go to a switch which will connect the servers and the ‘trusted’ port will connect to another switch which connects to the wireless access point and other wired machines. Here is a picture of it;

I will update you again when I have had the opportunity to use them both properly.

I posted recently about me planning on upgrading my home network, which I am now pleased to say I successfully have.

I have not had the chance to test/install either the WatchGuard Firebox or NetScreen firewall appliances I have purchased, as such I will post about them at a later date. However stating that, due to ample planning, everything went as expected, as no nasty configuration issues or anything. The connectivity between machines is much faster now, and when syncing my 1TB data drive on my PC with the data on my file server, I have been able to achieve 99% network utilization, according to Task Manager.

Due to the configuration I have created, when I get my WatchGuard Firebox and NetScreen appliances, I will be able to test them and deploy them in such a way that client computers require no configuration in order to use them, because they will sit between the central switch and the router – with the central switch being the only thing actually connected to the router directly. This means that should I choose to filter out specific known websites, such as malware or ad servers, the changes will be network wide without having to fuss with proxy servers.

The only problem I can possibly foresee is if we experience a powercut (and we’ve been having them too often just recently), of course this would have knocked everything offline before the upgrade, but it seems like an even more of an annoyance, to make sure the links, firewall and servers all come back up, as opposed to just the servers before. Without any of these critical components, the network will be non-functional. However the switches and wireless access point should hopefully come back up immediately.

I have taken some images of my equipment;

You can click on them to view bigger versions. You’ll notice that I have annotated the bigger versions with information.

P.S. The equipment is sitting on a HP printer. This is connected to SERVER2 (file server) and is accessible over the network.

EDIT (6/5/10): The wireless access point is no longer the Belkin one. It was too unstable for me (i.e. web interface kept dropping until reboot). I now use a rock solid Netgear router set to AP mode. It has never failed on me, ever. The Belkin is used, when it works, as a wireless repeater downstairs to boost the signal to those laptops. Finally I have installed a 30cm tall antenna, as opposed to the small ones that usually come with routers. It has improved coverage significantly.