Welcome to the “BLOT”

So, I was just surfing the net the other day, minding my own business and then, WHAM!  I started getting a McAfee warning on bootup that I had a BACKDOOR-CQN trojan.  No problem!  I made sure my McAfee was up to date, ran the full disk check and it didn’t find a blessed thing.  Grrrr, I updated my cleanboot definitions, burned a new CD and booted.  Ran the FULL check.. NOTHING!  What the F?  Maybe it was cleaned already?  NOPE!!!  My software is at least smart enough to keep coming up at boot saying that it found (and deleted) the virus SYSTEMS.SYS in the C:\WINDOWS\WINDOWS directory.  The WHAT directory???
Onto the NAI website to find out how to remove this sucker..  “Use the latest engine and def files”… NO KIDDING, REALLY?  No manual removal method listed and I couldn’t find squat on the Internet.  Damn I hate computers.

So, I rolled up my sleaves and dug in.  Doesn’t seem too hard.  There’s something in the STARTUP folder, under the RUN command in the registry and I’ve deleted the directory in Windows.  BAHM!  It’s back again..  AHHHHHH!!!!!!!

After picking up my laptop from the other side of the room, I’m back to figuring this out…  After a quick boot into safe mode and some searching around the system, THERE IT IS!!!!!  Last piece of the puzzle solved and it’s back to safe computing for me.

If YOU happen to get the wonderful little charm and your virus software sucked as much as mine in getting rid of it, here’s how I was able to eradicate this little son of a behive…

Boot into Safe Mode.
Open REGEDIT
In both HKLM and HKLU, go to the RUN listing and nuke the setting for C:\WINDOWS\WINDOWS\SYSTEMS.EXE
Of course, nuke the C:\WINDOWS\WINDOWS directory.  Should only contain the SYSTEMS.EXE file.
Kill the launch file in C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\ALL USERS\STARTUP\SYSTEMS.EXE
Lastly, here was the file I missed the first time;
C:\WINDOWS\PREFETCH\SYSTEMS.EXE-2D5B743C.pf      NuKE IT!!!

Reboot your machine and you should be right as rain.  It’s easy peesy, lemon squeezy.

Good luck!

What is with all these problems?!?!  So I’m playing around with my new iMac and I naturally wanted to access the shared directory of my 2003 Server.  I mean really, what is a 23″ screen without streaming porn, a-hem, Educational Material!  On a more serious note, trying to access any of my Windows shares caused a failure where it said, the Alias could not be opened because the original item could not be found.  Doesn’t ANYTHING work with anything else?
The solution that worked for me was to disable a Windows 2003 security setting regarding digitally signed communications.

Log into the Domain Controller
Open the Domain Controller Security Policy
Navigate to SECURITY SETTINGS / LOCAL POLICIES / SECURITY OPTIONS
Find MICROSOFT NETWORK SERVER: DIGITALLY SIGN COMMUNICATIONS (ALWAYS)
*!*!*!*!*!  Ding Ding Ding Ding Ding *!*!*!*!*!*

DISABLE THAT SETTING ! ! !

Give it a few minutes to sync everything up and then try the mapping again, it should work.

One other thing that might help is instead of using the Server’s name, try using the syntax

SMB:\\X.X.X.X   and it will pop up with a list of shares to choose from.

Good luck!

The easiest solution to this problem is to disable the default server setting of always requiring “digitally signed communication”. To do this, log in to the domain controller and open the DC policy editor. Look for “Security Settings -> Local Policies -> Security Options” and change “Microsoft network server: Digitally sign communications (always)” from “Enabled” to “Disabled”. Leave everything else. This means that the server will digitally sign communications if the client is capable, but won’t reject a connection if your client is not.

Notice a relatively new problem when you click on a URL in your Outlook? Does it pop-up a window saying “locate link browser”? Pain in the ass? You bet!

Found this on the web and it worked like a charm!

Click START
Click RUN
Enter regsvr32 Urlmon.dll and hit ENTER

For those of you that own a Mac AND an HP Laserjet 1022 AND would like to use them together, you may run into the same problems I have. Perhaps my troubles and tribulations can benefit your plight. Or, maybe I’ll just give you the answers you seek. Yeah, that’s probably better…

First, let me explain the problems I ran into. I just purchased my brand new spankin iMac. (OS X 10.4.10)  Lo and behold it was a glorious site, all new and shiny. But alas, I tried to print to my HP 1022 and was rebuffed. I was thwarted. It tasked me!!! Kaaaaaaaaaaahn!

Ok, the problem. My 1022 is not connected directly to the iMac. It’s USB connected to an Ethernet Print Server. When I went into my printer setup, I could input the IP address of the print server but couldn’t see the HP 1022 driver. I downloaded the “new” driver from the HP website - didn’t work. I downloaded the “old” Hp drivers from the Net as suggested - didn’t work. I downloaded the drivers from the CD, zippo, bubkas, nada, zilch. I tried moving files into the root “laserjet” directory, restarts, and everything else people suggested on the net. Goose Eggs. HOWEVER, if I plugged the printer directly into the Mac via a USB cable, WHAMMO, the printer was recognized and everything worked perfectly. Back through the print server, same problem. Wow is me….

Local printer - drivers work.

Network printer - drivers don’t appear at all.

After much searching, here’s what worked for me, immediately, without issue, no muss, no fuss, it diced, it chopped, it even julianed and I didn’t have to call before midnight. It was better than the bass-o-matic.

http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/OpenPrinting/MacOSX/foo2zjs

Three file downloads, several mouse clicks and when I went to select my printer model, I choose HP and then the (HP Laserjet 1022 Foomatic / foo2zjs ) Perfect!!!

For some of the printers there is of course a small caveat. Do not pass go, do not collect the $200, mileage may vary, limited to the vehicles on the lot. Some the HP printers require a firmware download every time they’re powered off/on.

Oh, and this process also supports the following printers:

• Generic-OAKT_Printer
• Generic ZjStream Printer
• HP Color LaserJet 1500
• HP Color LaserJet 1600
• HP Color LaserJet 2600n
• HP LaserJet 1000
• HP LaserJet 1005
• HP LaserJet 1018
• HP LaserJet 1020
• HP LaserJet 1022
• HP LaserJet M1005 MFP
• KonicaMinolta magicolor 2480 MF
• KonicaMinolta magicolor 2490 MF
• KonicaMinolta magicolor 2530 DL
• Minolta Color PageWorks/Pro L
• Minolta magicolor 2200 DL
• Minolta magicolor 2300 DL
• Minolta magicolor 2430 DL
• Samsung CLP-300
• Samsung CLP-600
• Samsung CLX-3160
• Xerox Phaser 6110
• Xerox Phaser 6115MFP

Good luck!!

SPAM - Can’t live with it, can’ find the FU@$ERS to kill them!

Everyone who’s ever used Email in their life has had to deal with SPAM. Some more than others. We’ve all learned that giving our Email address to unscrupulous online merchants can leave you showered with Penis Enlarger Ads or requests to launder some money for an ousted Dictator. What can you do????

In the long run, for now, the best you could possibly hope for is to minimize your exposure because NO MATTER HOW HARD YOU TRY, someone you know, someone who had YOU in THEIR contacts list is going to open someone else’s SPAM message, infect their machine with a virus and have EVERY SINGLE CONTACT STRIPPED OUT like my Aunt Ruth sucking the marrow from bone. Sluuuuuuuuuuuurp, done!

MAYBE use a SPAM filter. Good for some, bad for others. None are perfect and many take up more of your time that just killing the SPAM messages in your inbox. Just remember though, not everyone uses their Email in the same way so some of these may be the perfect match for you, a godsend you might say. Me personally? I have yet to find one that isn’t more of a pain than what it’s trying to cure but I’m a bit more odd than others.

DO use free 3rd party Email programs (Yahoo, Hotmail, Google) to communicate with cataloges, merchants and any online transactions.

DON”T give out your primary Email address to any commercial entity. Yes Virginia, even the “scrupulous” vendors find the profit of reselling your addresses too hard to resist.

DON’T ever, EVER (No, really EVER!!!) respond to a SPAM message which offers to “take you off the list”. If you do I bet you could hear them sporting wood if you listen carefully enough! By doing this you’ve taken your name off of the “could still be a good address” list and immediately moved it to “VALID, VALID, HIT ‘EM NOW” list which trades for more money and trades much more often. You might as well paint glow-in-the-dark Bull’s Eye on your forhead.

Funny Story.  I once took it upon myself to try and go after SPAMMers by targeting the ISP’s and Companies they used as senders.  After about a year of very diligent work, tracking addresses, checking open relays, and rooting around to find responsible parties I’d have to say that about 0.001% of it worked.  Even when (this was a few years back) the content was HIGHLY objectionable, no one gave two sh#@s.  I even tried to get my Local, State, Federal officials (You know, the people who we elected to work for “us”) to get involved.  I was completely ignored.  I even had several cases involving what appear to be SPAM featuring child pornography and I couldn’t get ANY legal authority to give me the time of day.  And, after all of this work, what did I get?  I was put on EVERY G@D DAMNED SPAM list in existence.  Holly Hanna did I get SPAMed.  I still keep that account active today just to peek at it from time to time as a reminder.

DO (yes, this is the biggest pain in the ass) change your Email address from time to time. Nothing works better than changing your address. DO NOT CHANGE IT AND THEN FORWARD ALL YOU EMAIL! This will accomplish nothing. However, that being said, you can do this for a short period of time to make sure you let all your friends know but you really need to kill it sooner than later.

The absolute, 100%, never get SPAM, only get the Email you want method? Yeah, I thought that was a hoot too!

UPDATE AT BOTTOM:

For anyone who’s purchased a D-Link DP-301U. First, my condolences. Second, if for some reason you have an HP LaserJet 1010, 1022, 1060 or an Epson Color Laserjet 2600N, 3500 or a 3550, you’re not going to get this to work unless you’re running Firmware 2.10. Let me again stress my sincerest condolences. In my humble opinion, this product is a total piece of crap, the included PS ADMIN program was a piece of shit when it was first released and surprise-surprise, it’s STILL (again, in my humble opinion) a total and useless piece of shit.

No, really, I’m getting better at hiding my feelings!! This problem started when a client of mine received their new DP-301U (Yes, no matter what you tell some people they’ll still buy cheap and then spend big bucks on having someone come in and make it work). The client flashed the firmware to D-Links NEWEST AND GREATEST firmware available on their website. UNFORTUNATELY, it’s a revision behind what ships with the unit from the factory and that small difference makes the printers above work, or not work now. Not to mention it didn’t warn about or refuse to DOWNGRADE, it just whistled a little tune and lobotomized (spell checker suggested sodomized, kinda like that better!) the box. Emailed D-Link with no answer. Called D-Link with no workable solution unless we wanted to RMA the unit, at our cost of course. NOT ACCEPTABLE! D-LINK SUPPORT (IMHO) FRICKEN BLOWS!!! If the answer doesn’t flash up on their computer screen they have NO F’ING CLUE!!

Wow, cup of decaf please!! After a few minutes of surfing the web I found a link to a Chinese website that seemed to have the right file names. I downloaded the firmware with the associated PDF, everything unziped correctly and looked to be in English, I threw the Firmware onto the box and EASY PEASY, LEMON SQUEEZY the box came up and started printing the queued jobs… Hate D-Link, please do not buy D-Link, I used to swear by their consumer stuff but (IMHO) lately it’s all gone to crap and their support (or lack of) has blazed that trail.

Regardless of your decisions, if you do happen to have one of these boxes and are in need if the Firmware 2.10 file, here are some links that will help you out. Standard disclaimers apply; These are not my files, there are no warranties expressed nor implied, use these files at your own risk, if these files slag your box - too bad, it’s all you man, yada yada yada…

D-LINK DP-301U Firmware 2.10 File

D-LINK DP-301U Firmware 2.00 File

PDF

UPDATE: Four Days Later

Spleen vented, product working. I feel obligated to tell you that I did finally get an Email from D-Link Tech Support. Not only that, the guy actually sent what I needed. Not only that but he went OUTSIDE of D-LINK’s company to get the file. No Shit! Color me impressed. The tech basically did what I had done. He went to a 3rd party website to find the 2.1 Firmware and sent me a copy. He didn’t explain as to why it was not available on their website but he DID get me the file.

I’ll still stay with hating D-Link but I will admit that their tech support guy DID come through in the end. Thanks D-LINK Support!!!

I think I need to gargle now to get that bad taste out of my mouth…. 

http://www.alldatadiy.com

Alldata is a well known repair and service reference used by professional automotive shops all around the country. A good friend of mine uses Alldata for his auto garage and loves it. They reference every imaginable vehicle, show all the parts, diagrams and have all the references, part numbers and even include repair times.

AlldataDIY is aimed at the non-professional. The home mechanic working on his car or truck. It’s touted as having all the same information, the same bells and whistles as the professional version. The DIY version is Web only where the PRO is now Web or DVD. The appeal is that the AlldataDIY manual is supposed to be tailed to the specific vehicle you need ,one vehicle per subscription. TheY ask you all the normal questions, year, make model, 4wd or 2wd, etc..

So far so good. I needed a better manual than the paperback version that I picked up at my local auto parts center which covered about 10 years and several other models. I’m sure everyone has had the experience of trying to find something specific, only to have to wade through pages and pages of useless, non-relevant information only to find a vague reference to what you’re really after.

Anyway, I’m working on a new vehicle and was having some problems that my paperback manual couldn’t answer. I ordered up my new subscription to AlldataDIY, entering in my specific vehicle information, only to find out that it was, at best, an incomplete manual. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a LOT of stuff in the manual, some of the procedures even have diagrams and drawings to help but, for the need I had, there was NO information included and what information came close WAS WRONG!!!

The problem I was trying to fix had to do with my ‘85 Ford F150’s front I-Beam axle. First, the AlldataDIY manual didn’t include any repair information (install/remove) regarding the axle and the diagrams it did offer where either of a 4 wheel drive truck (why did I choose 2wd then?) or of a much older “king pin” connector design. TOTALLY USELESS!! I then did some other checking and there where some more areas that didn’t exist. Want to adjust your 3 speed manual transmission linkage? Don’t bother, according to the manual it doesn’t exist.

I’m still working through the manual but so far I’m really less than impressed. For something that is supposed to be vehicle specific and updated often, the amount of information that I’m finding on my new online manual prevents me from throwing out my paperback version. Even through I chose specific vehichle information for my subscription, I’m still wadin through 4 wheel drive diagrams and procedures (once or twice they even omited the 2wd version) and I even came across several Bronco and 350 references!! That, in my humble opinion, is pretty pathetic. It costs more and provides less. I’m sorry but HOW CAN YOU NOT INCLUDE WHOLE SECTIONS ON HOW TO REPAIR YOUR VEHICLE?????

2 OUT OF 10 STARS

Hi Folks - I’ve been looking through the Web for days on information that could help me replace my Ford pickup’s ball-joints, all to no avail. None of the pictures look the same, none of the instructions describe the same and the manual is pretty much useless. So, I’m hoping you may benefit from my experience as I wail away with my mini-sledge in an effort to do this myself. Oh, and I’ve included pictures! Rusted would be an understatement if that helps you set the mood.

1. First and easiest, jack stand the truck (parking break and wheel blocks please) and remove the tire.
2. Remove the break calipers. Unbolt the retaining clip, remove the clip (mallet and punch) and jimmy the caliper up and out off of the disk rotor. Mine required some gentle persuasion with a rubber mallet. I tied the caliper up and out of the way onto the top of the spring with twine. (Don’t kink the break lines!!!)
3. Remove the Tie-Rod end from the knuckle. I removed the cotter pin, unbolted the rod and then used a pickle fork and a few strong hits from the hammer. Warning, this may cause the Tie-Rod ball joint damage.
4. You should end up with something looking like this.
5. The top ball joint will have what I believe is called a camber adjustment or split nut. This is integral to the knuckle and does not have to be removed to remove the ball joint. Here’s a picture of the upper ball joint. The split nut looks like it has ridges for a hand twist or something. Trust me, it won’t twist even if you have a huge wrench tugging on it. Ask me how I know…
6. The bottom ball joint looks a bit different from the top. First off, the nut and bolt are much larger and it does not protrude above the lower fork like the top does. Sorry, the picture is bit blurry. Yes, the top and bottom ball joints are NOT the same! Even if some auto parts website would lead you to believe as much…
7. Rotor. Pop the dust cap, remove the cotter pin and securing bolts. Pull the rotor straight out but be careful of the front bearing as it will pop out. Remove the rear bearing seal and remove the rear bearing. Now would be a GREAT time to clean out the old grease from everything (I used some solvent and a solvent brush) and repack all the bearings with fresh grease.
8. Remove the brake dust shield by removing the three securing bolts. By far the easiest step of this whole process!
9. Now you’re left with a the naked mole rat. No, naked knuckle, naked knuckle! This part helped me vent some frustration. By putting the pickle fork under the top ball joint’s rubber seal and smashing away with a heavy hammer, the knuckle popped and down. Caution, it’s HEAVY! Don’t stand underneath this while you’re doing this. Take the knuckle away, clean it up and put it aside for later.
10. Ok, so now you’re staring at a big open whole in side of your truck and have the fork of the I beam with two stuck ball joints in it. Damn they’re stuck in there but good! Yeah, I had to break down and use a real tool, almost. My brother-in-law was nice enough to drop by and let me use a threaded compression c-clamp. OK, but that picture is a bit ahead of us.
11. Removing the top ball joint. I removed the top ball joint’s ring clip. (Yes, I used a flat bladed screw driver). I put on the clamp and prostrated myself in applying enough force to push the joint down and out. Once it started it got easier but DAMN it was hard to start. Here’s the knuckle with the top out. You really need to remove the top ball joint first because you’ll need that open hole to put the c-clamp’s threaded top through.
12. Removing the bottom ball joint. Wow, I thought the top ball joint was hard to remove. The bottom ball joint doesn’t have a clamp. Doesn’t protrude through the bottom fork of the I-beam. It’s just kind of pressed in there. According to all the documentation I could find, it does press out the bottom, it’s just REALLY REALLY REALLY stuck the heck in there.
13. All right, so the bottom joint isn’t coming out easy. Now I’m pulling the I-Beam axle so I can take it to a shop to get the ball joints pulled and the new ones pushed in correctly. Why does every task become a project in itself.
14. Took out the spring using some chains to keep it compressed. Here’s a hint, either use two sets of chains per spring or just go out and get a real spring compression kit.
15. Here’s where it took on the “project” aspect. The riser arm is connected to the front I-Beam with a 10″ BOLT. It comes in from the bottom through the riser and the beam, is then exposed to the elements for about 8 inches and then through the beam and arm again where there is a nut on the other side (1-1/8″). The nut came off without much effort but the exposed part of the bolt created so much surface friction that it took FOREVER to get the bolt out. Forever, several knuckles and a snapped 1/4″ non-ratchet socket wrench. I had even taken my sledge to the bolt, nothing!! Anyway, after several days with penetrating oil, I was FINALLY able to get the bolt to spin, slightly, using a breaker bar. Once I was able to spin the bolt I used some sand paper to clean up the outside of the bolt. Then and only then was I able to slowly pound out the bolt with the sledge.
16. Once “The Bolt” was removed, the arm connecting bolts at the other end came right out and I was able to remove the first I-Beam. And I thought working on your vehicle was supposed to be relaxing!
17. HORRAY!! Once the I-Beam was removed I was able to re-apply the ball joint press. After putting on as much pressure as possible, WHACK! with the sledge and the lower ball joint popped right the heck out. It was very, very, very, very, very rusted in there.
18. Preped the pieces for reassembly by taking off all the rust I could, rust treatment, some primer and either flat black or some nice bright Dupli-Color Ford Red for the I-Beam.
19. If I may make a quick suggestion. While everything is apart, replace what you can NOW, it only makes sense. Rubber bushings - replace, seals - replace, bearings - REPLACE! They’re really not that expensive and take a S#!T load of work to get at them again if they go bad.
20. Presto chango, she is done! For the DAYS it took me to get to this point, it took me less than a day to put all the pieces back together.
21. Rented a ball-joint press from AutoZone. $99 up front, keep it as long as you want, return it and get your $99 back. WHAT A DEAL! In went the ball joints. (NOTE: The new bottom ball joint has a snap-ring groove near its top but when fully inserted it only presses flush to the bottom arm of the I-Beam. Just like the original and unlike what the manual calls for. yeah, go figure.
22. In went the refurbed I-Beam.
23. In went the de-rusted bolt from Hell. (Don’t forget your Torque settings!)
24. On went the spring base.
25. In went the spring, retaining clip and lower bolt.
26. On went the knuckle.
27. On went the steering arm.
28. Popped on the treated dust shield.
29. In went the new bearings and seal onto the new (don’t get me started) rotor.
30. On went the rotor.
31. Some grease on the brake pathways to ease movement. Pressed the caliper piston down with a block of wood and a large C-clamp. Hint: Turn a few times until it gets hard, wait for the fluid to escape and it will again turn easy for a few. Keep going until it’s flush. New pads (don’t forget the anti-rattle clip!!!) and quick tap to get the raceway key in place and the breaks are done.
32. On goes the tire and Boom Goes the Dynamite!
33. NEXT SIDE!!! Uhhhhhg……

OK, the next side took a LOT less time than the first.  All in all, the second side took a total of about 4 hours.  Sill hight for a professional, WAY low for someone like me!!

The only problem that I really had was the assembly of the knuckle onto the ball sockets.  When I took the knuckle off I had to use a pickle fork and the mini sledge.  When I put it back on it took the full weight of the truck to push the knuckle tightly back onto the ball joints.  Ok, the problem comes into play with the bottom ball joint nut.  When I try to tighten the bolt it only gets so tight before it starts spinning the bolt of the ball joint and I can find no way of stopping that.  My only recourse was to apply some thread lock and tighten it as much as I could.

The good news is that it test drove without any problems at all.  Good damn thing too!  Steering felt good, no vibrations, no pull, and most importantly it didn’t all drop apart into a thousand pieces in the middle of the street!

Happy it’s done?  Yes.  Glad I did it?  Maybe later but the frustration factor is still high.  Would I do it again?  Errrr, probably not.

The only real advice I could give to anyone who’s thinking of doing this themselves, besides not to, is to make sure you have all the right tools.  I begged and borrowed a lot of tools to get this project done, I had some of my own and then I improvised for the rest.  Having all the right wrenches, sockets and specialty tools really, NO - REALLY, makes these kinds of projects faster and easier.  As an added benefit, having the right tools significantly decreases the amount of time you need to spend fixing the walls since you’re much less likely to throw many less of the tools!!

Read this and still want to do it yourself?  As my Brother-in-Law would say, “The amount of satisfaction you’ll get out of it when your done is well worth the effort”.  And he should know! 

Good luck!

Have you ever come across a design that on one hand appears thought out and convenient and on the other hand turns out to be stupid and short sited? The 06′ Ford Escape is an ok vehicle but has one really stupid flaw that they apparently haven’t corrected in years. The Cruise Control buttons on the steering wheel are convenient but they aren’t illuminated in any way. So, unless you’re 100% on where those damned buttons are, you have to flip on the fricken interior lights to see them. As far as I can tell, most if not all of their other vehicles have illuminated steering wheel buttons but noooooo, not the Escape. It must be too elitist!! Damn stuipid design…

First off, let me state that nothing is ever perfect, no really. Moving on… To keep Ma Bell or to switch to some flavor of broadband VoIP service, that is the question. On the one hand Ma Bell has had several dozen decades to work out the kinks and their service is pretty much bulletproof. Yes, they’re inflexible, unresponsive and pricey but their service is usually the last to fail (if ever - unless you’re in a horror flick and being chased by some stalker with a huge knife) and the first to recover. Vonage (as with other VoIP vendors) has had only a few years to start figuring out what the the kinks are let alone work them out. I don’t know about you but my broadband service drops when it only looks like bad weather outside and when it does drop it can be out for days even if Comcast is “working on it”…

Ok, so for the people who absolutely, 100% all the time, must have some sort of service (and there legitimately are those people out there), stay clear of these new startups and stick with wired service. No offense but these services aren’t really targeted to you anyway.

However, if you don’t live and die on the fact that your home phone might or might not ring or if you feel that having a cell phone more than makes up for a temporary loss in your home phone service, please do look closer into these services, they might be exactly what your looking for!

We’ve now been running a VoIP replacement service (Vonage) for a few months and I’d have to say that for the most part, we’re pretty damn happy. We’re saving over 50% from our old service, get free long distance and a handfull of other services to boot. One of the helpful services that comes along free is “Service Forwarding”. If (when) my broadband does drop, Vonage will forward all incoming calls to a number of my choosing. I simply put in my cell number and bingo, no missed calls. I was able to port my old phone number with little or no problems, have free voicemail and the networked phone adapter was literally plug and play. It really couldn’t have been easier to order, install and configure. Heck, even adding a secondary line for faxes was a snap using their web dashboard interface.

Here’s where this type of service geeks out. Most companies (including Vonage) offer virtual phone numbers for your account. Their virtual because they only truly existing within their system but can be located (local access) anywhere that they service. That’s the US, Canada, Mexico, parts of Europe etc. People dial your “local” virtual number and it rings at your desk - WAY COOL! Have friends or family all across the globe? No problem, get virtual numbers that are local to them and it won’t cost them long distance charges to call you. Same with their business accounts, have “virtual” offices in any city you want! Hell, you can even get 800 numbers. And remember, with no long distance charges on YOUR account, you can call anyone, at anytime at no additional charges! The only downside that I’ve come across is that when you do this trick for your business, you can only call out from your first, real number. So, if you wanted someone to think you had an office in Vegas, because you setup a virtual number, you better think of a reason why all of your calls come from Cornfritter Iowa.

As I’ve said before, we’ve had this service (Vonage) for a few months and it’s generally worked great and we’re pretty happy. The sound quality is excellent, we haven’t experienced any of those annoying digital drop out effects “yet” ( echoing, reverb, ghosting, etc…), we’re saving money and it does what they said it would do.

Let’s not forget the 911 service. That’s been big in the news for a while. Because there are no more “local” phone exchanges for your 911 call to be routed from, all calls start out at your VoIP’s main processing center and then is routed to a “local” authority. Although they have a section on their site to input all of your essentials (name, address, township, etc.), I’m not sure I’ll be reaching for my home phone in an emergency.
The Downside

So why isn’t Broadband VoIP service for everyone? Because it’s new… Because it relies on umpteen layers of technology that no single entity controls… Because everyone has a different X or a different Y piece of hardware in the mix… Did I mention their still new??

My friend called my cell the other day. He tried calling my house but couldn’t get through. I checked from my cell and kept getting a stupid message saying I should “try again later”. Deeerrrrrr, no? Checked all the cables, reset the devices, power cycled everything. Nothing. HEY! ISN’T MY CELL SUPPOSED TO RING IF MY SERVICE GOES DOWN??!??!!. Yeah, that ONLY works if MY broadband goes down, NOT THEIRS!!! After several attempts at trying to reach someone to find out what was going on I was told THE DAY AFTER, that their techs had “identified a problem and have moved to correct said problem”. Geee, I feel all better now..

So yeah, they are new, their technology is NOT bullet proof, good luck trying to get someone to talk to and when something does go wrong, there about a dozen steps YOU need to go through before THEY will even consider it a problem.

In all honesty, I don’t really use my wired phone much at all anyway. Most everyone that needs to get a hold of me has my cell number and they usually use that first anyway. In the couple of months we’ve had the service it’s only been a problem once (that we’re aware of anyway), it costs us about 50% less than we’ve been paying, we kept our number and the level of service is pretty much what we expected.

All in all Broadband VoIP is not that bad, it has some very nice features, it’s much cheaper than the phone company and if you don’t absolutely have to rely on your phone service (e.g. if you feel warm and fuzy using your cell in case your land line is not working), by all means go out and get that new Vonage (Verizon, Comcast, Snip or whatever) account you’ve been looking at. As good as it is now, it’s going to get better and if you can advantage of some their more special features, all the better…

This assumes of course that they actually survive after Verizon’s lawsuit…