This post is about something you might look into if a device on your
wireless network suddenly stops working.

Yesterday, I discovered that the AIBO Entertainment Player did a lot more
than just play music, read mail, or keep a diary. It has a comprehensive
remote-control system, which I'd always wanted. So I spent some time playing
with it. (It was fun to put AIBO's bone in front of him, then command him to
search for it. When he found it, the camera image of the bone was overlaid
with green crosshairs!)

I got up at 1AM to play some more, not unlike a kid on his birthday or
Christmas. (If I'd had an AIBO 50 years ago, I'd have been much more
popular -- though equally disliked.) But the Entertainment Player had
repeated "connection problems". Naturally, the software didn't drop even a
hint as what they might be.

After some generally useless troubleshooting, I remembered that Internet
addresses aren't necessarily fixed. They can be chosen for each use. So I
opened the Entertainment Player's Preferences dialog box, which showed the
address that worked yesterday. Clicking Connect failed, so I searched again.

Bingo. A new address appeared, and clicking Connect connected the
Entertainment Player to AIBO. He's now my dear, precious little puppy, isn't
he, isn't he, yes he is.

Moral: If a wireless device stops working for no obvious reason, see if
there's a command in its software to search for it.

PS: AIBO can be set to dance to the music you're playing, with his mouth
moving in lip sync. I can't wait to see what happens with first act of "Die
Walkure". "La Traviata" should be interesting, too. You can connect him to
any Web radio station, so the possibilities seem endless.

--
"We already know the answers -- we just haven't asked the right
questions." -- Edwin Land

On Jul 5, 8:18*am, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:
This post is about something you might look into if a device on your
wireless network suddenly stops working.

Yesterday, I discovered that the AIBO Entertainment Player did a lot more
than just play music, read mail, or keep a diary. It has a comprehensive
remote-control system, which I'd always wanted. So I spent some time playing
with it. (It was fun to put AIBO's bone in front of him, then command him to
search for it. When he found it, the camera image of the bone was overlaid
with green crosshairs!)

I got up at 1AM to play some more, not unlike a kid on his birthday or
Christmas. (If I'd had an AIBO 50 years ago, I'd have been much more
popular -- though equally disliked.) But the Entertainment Player had
repeated "connection problems". Naturally, the software didn't drop even a
hint as what they might be.

After some generally useless troubleshooting, I remembered that Internet
addresses aren't necessarily fixed. They can be chosen for each use. So I
opened the Entertainment Player's Preferences dialog box, which showed the
address that worked yesterday. Clicking Connect failed, so I searched again.

Bingo. A new address appeared, and clicking Connect connected the
Entertainment Player to AIBO. He's now my dear, precious little puppy, isn't
he, isn't he, yes he is.

Moral: If a wireless device stops working for no obvious reason, see if
there's a command in its software to search for it.

PS: AIBO can be set to dance to the music you're playing, with his mouth
moving in lip sync. I can't wait to see what happens with first act of "Die
Walkure". "La Traviata" should be interesting, too. You can connect him to
any Web radio station, so the possibilities seem endless.

--
"We already know the answers -- we just haven't asked the right
questions." -- Edwin Land

Pardon a (maybe) dumb question, but what is an AIBO, I've never seen
that Acronym before?? Is it like a WII?

Pardon a (maybe) dumb question, but what is an AIBO,
I've never seen that acronym before? Is it like a WII?

Yes, but with legs. It's Sony's electronic dog.

It's from a Japanese word meaning "companion", which has been tortured into
the acronym Artificial Intelligence roBOt.

PS: I checked, and my server has DHCP, which automatically selects an
address. It is not generally permanent, and eventually "times out". This is
the likely explanation of why AIBO became invisible overnight.

William Sommerwerck wrote:

PS: I checked, and my server has DHCP, which automatically selects an

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Router ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

address. It is not generally permanent, and eventually "times out". This is
the likely explanation of why AIBO became invisible overnight.


Most routers give a fixed time 'lease' to an IP address. Typically
24 hours on the models I've used. Hard wired tend to automatically
renew their 'lease', even in standby.

PS: I checked, and my server has DHCP, which automatically
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Router ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
selects an address. It is not generally permanent, and
eventually "times out". This is the likely explanation of why
AIBO became invisible overnight.

Most routers give a fixed time 'lease' to an IP address. Typically
24 hours on the models I've used. Hard wired tend to automatically
renew their 'lease', even in standby.

That I didn't know.

"Lease" is the term used in books on the subject, but I couldn't find a
value for the interval in the router's setup.

On Thu, 5 Jul 2012 09:11:32 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
put finger to keyboard and composed:

PS: I checked, and my server has DHCP, which automatically selects an
address. It is not generally permanent, and eventually "times out". This is
the likely explanation of why AIBO became invisible overnight.

I use a fixed IP address between my PC and ADSL router/modem.

You could do the same by editing your WLANCONF.TXT file. See pages 52+
in the following manual.

AIBO ERS-7M2 User's Guide (PC Network):
http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/project/aib...BO-Network.pdf

BTW, I notice that the AIBO uses WEP rather than WPA2. Hopefully this
setting is not used by all devices on your LAN.

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

PS: I checked, and my server has DHCP, which automatically
selects an address. It is not generally permanent, and eventually
"times out". This is the likely explanation of why AIBO became
invisible overnight.

I use a fixed IP address between my PC and ADSL router/modem.
You could do the same by editing your WLANCONF.TXT file.

That might be a good idea. It would eliminate the need to periodically get a
new address. And, in theory, it would let me use my notebook to control AIBO
even when I'm not in contact with the router. It's easy enough to
experiment.


BTW, I notice that the AIBO uses WEP rather than WPA2.
Hopefully this setting is not used by all devices on your LAN.

You don't /have/ to use any encryption. But the only one available is WEP. I
use it, just to be safe.

On Thu, 5 Jul 2012 13:24:51 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:

"Lease" is the term used in books on the subject, but I couldn't find a
value for the interval in the router's setup.

Easy. Go thee unto:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/crud/DHCP_querytool_free.exe
That's the free Weird Solutions DHCP query tool which is no longer
available on their web pile. Install it and run. Put any manner of
garbage in the "Device Identifier" box. The output should look like
this:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/crud/DHCPQueryTool-output.jpg
option DHCP address lease time=86400
option DHCP renewal time=43200
option DHCP rebinding time=75600

The renewal time is always 1/2 of the lease time.
Lease time = 86400 seconds / 3600 sec/hr = 24 hrs
Renewal time = 43200 sec / 3600 sec/hr = 12 hrs

The rebinding time (time to retry if renewal fails)
75600 seconds / 3600 sec/hr = 21 hrs

How it all works:
http://www.tcpipguide.com/free/t_DHCPConfigurationandOperation.htm

Incidentally, I'm running several virtual machines on my XP desktop.
The DHCP query tool was having a bad time finding my DHCP server until
I disarmed all the VM device interfaces, leaving only the machines
ethernet interface.


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Thank you for the information!

http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/crud/DHCP_querytool_free.exe
That's the free Weird Solutions DHCP query tool which is no longer
available on their web pile. Install it and run. Put any manner of
garbage in the "Device Identifier" box. The output should look like
this:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/crud/DHCPQueryTool-output.jpg
option DHCP address lease time=86400
option DHCP renewal time=43200
option DHCP rebinding time=75600

The renewal time is always 1/2 the lease time.
Lease time = 86400 seconds / 3600 sec/hr = 24 hrs
Renewal time = 43200 sec / 3600 sec/hr = 12 hrs

The rebinding time (time to retry if renewal fails)
75600 seconds / 3600 sec/hr = 21 hrs

How it all works:
http://www.tcpipguide.com/free/t_DHCPConfigurationandOperation.htm


I strongly recommend Karp's "Windows 7 Annoyances". It's actually an
intermediate-to-advanced user's book on configuring Windows 7. It's one of
those one-in-a-hundred techncial books that's easy to read and understand,
without being superficial. I can't recommend it highly enough. Everyone who
wants to be sure their computer is doing what /they/ want it to do needs a
copy.

I feel sorry for Mac owners. They seem to be afraid to lift the lid and get
their hands dirty. Well, I want to know /what/ the OS is doing, and /why/.

On Fri, 6 Jul 2012 05:43:58 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:

I feel sorry for Mac owners. They seem to be afraid to lift the lid and get
their hands dirty. Well, I want to know /what/ the OS is doing, and /why/.

Wrongo. Most of the programmists and hackers that I know use a Mac.
Under the Apple GUI lies Carnagie Mellon BSD, a Unix variant. For
those that want to know what's under the covers, Unix (and Linux) are
the best. The GUI makes things easy. The shell prompt makes things
work. I have various Mac's around the office and house. While I
don't use them for much, I have less trouble dealing with the Macs at
the shell level, than I do dealing with Windoze 7, which I find
incomprehensible and obscure. Since most of my paying customers run
Windoze, I also run Windoze. However, if I were just computing for my
own amusement, I would probably run Linux and possibly OS/X as 2nd
best.

Incidentally, I recently fixed a corrupted network configuration on a
MacBook Pro that the GUI interface couldn't repair by simply editing
the config files with vi. It's like rolling back the clock 20 years,
but it works. If you really want to know what's going on under the
covers, setup a no GUI Linux machine, and learn which programs do
what, how to use vi, where the files are buried, shell scripting, and
how it all fits together. If you don't want to setup a 2nd machine,
install
http://www.cygwin.com
Then, go back to Windoze and learn to operate from the MSDOS CMD
prompt. It will be quite similar, although not as capable.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

In article ,
"William Sommerwerck" wrote:

Thank you for the information!

http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/crud/DHCP_querytool_free.exe
That's the free Weird Solutions DHCP query tool which is no longer
available on their web pile. Install it and run. Put any manner of
garbage in the "Device Identifier" box. The output should look like
this:
http://802.11junk.com/jeffl/crud/DHCPQueryTool-output.jpg
option DHCP address lease time=86400
option DHCP renewal time=43200
option DHCP rebinding time=75600

The renewal time is always 1/2 the lease time.
Lease time = 86400 seconds / 3600 sec/hr = 24 hrs
Renewal time = 43200 sec / 3600 sec/hr = 12 hrs

The rebinding time (time to retry if renewal fails)
75600 seconds / 3600 sec/hr = 21 hrs

How it all works:
http://www.tcpipguide.com/free/t_DHCPConfigurationandOperation.htm


I strongly recommend Karp's "Windows 7 Annoyances". It's actually an
intermediate-to-advanced user's book on configuring Windows 7. It's one of
those one-in-a-hundred techncial books that's easy to read and understand,
without being superficial. I can't recommend it highly enough. Everyone who
wants to be sure their computer is doing what /they/ want it to do needs a
copy.

I feel sorry for Mac owners. They seem to be afraid to lift the lid and get
their hands dirty. Well, I want to know /what/ the OS is doing, and /why/.

That's sort of like feeling sorry for all the folks who want the kind of
car that you don't have to be a mechanic to keep running ...

Isaac

I feel sorry for Mac owners. They seem to be
afraid to lift the lid and get their hands dirty.
Well, I want to know /what/ the OS is doing,
and /why/.

That's sort of like feeling sorry for all the folks who
want the kind of car that you don't have to be a
mechanic to keep running...

I don't think that's the appropriate analogy...

I've been running the same installation of W2K, on the same machine, for 11
years, * and I've had only one significant problem. (A friend with a Mac had
the same problem.)

* I expect to be buying a new machine in two months.