Wireless issue

[irneb]

...and the OP was about open source, and as far as I know open source means free ware...

Not strictly true. Opn Source means that the source code of the program (or app) is available for everyone to see. Thus if the programmer added some cr@p-ware features to it on the sly, other programmers could easily spot the criminal behaviour.

FreeWare (OTOH) is 99.99999999% of the time NOT open source. Especially those try-and-test games you mention (these are actually closer to ShareWare). They're there to give you a test for the real thing to entice you to buy it. And then since most people simply keep on playing the 1 or 2 "free" levels, the programmer tries to make money from something else (like adding adverts - ala google idea).

Actually there's not that many true Open Source apps on either Apple or Android (nor BB). One I know of is Waze. But I can't think of another just now. All the other "free" stuff are cr@p-ware riddled.

As a sample, I've got only the stuff I buy or the OS Waze app on my Galaxy Note 2. Even uninstalled the cr@p-ware Samsung put onto it out the box. Now my only "spam" is SMS's and the odd telemarketer, oh and of course those infamous emails. But I've noticed those only start up after I have to give my cell no. / email for things like banking / purchases / etc. That get's sorted through the built-in block this number feature in the call-log and message manager. The guy sitting next to me at work is getting a telesales call every 5 minutes on his 5S, and he still can't get the "blocking" app addon to work properly. It's rare that I get one a week now after "training" the number blocking.

[irneb]

Good day. We have 4 wireless devices in our office.

To get back to the OP. These "devices" I assume are wireless access points (WAP) to your LAN. I know the usual setup is like this, and I've always thought it to be a bit stupid. It's as if you have 4 different access points, i.e. separate wireless networks.

You can set your laptop/notebook to connect to any one of the 4 automatically. But still, it will only connect to the stronger if the other one is totally unavailable. And the precedence order is not that automatic either, so it tries to connect to the one it "thinks" is your preference - whether it be the weaker link or the stronger makes no difference. Only once it notices that the "preferred" WAP is unavailable does it try the next one down the preference order. Similar goes for phone / tablets.

IMO the idea about repeaters is a much more advisable approach to this physical roaming through a wireless fog. Get yourself a fast and powerful WAP and then augment that with needed repeaters. Only issue might be that total wireless speed could go down since a repeater is connecting wirelessly to the main WAP and then passing data to-and-fro - causing a bit of extra lag and using up one extra wireless slot. Don't know if a repeater could be connected through a cable to the WAP - that would make these concerns a moot point - can't think why it's physically impossible to do so.

[Dave A]

Don't know if a repeater could be connected through a cable to the WAP

That was the way I had it set up. And if you think about it, it's the best way to do it as the need for repeaters is driven by wireless signal strength in the first place

[irneb]

FreeWare (OTOH) is 99.99999999% of the time NOT open source.

Actually here's a list of OS apps for Android: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...d_applications

Note their license agreements: Stuff like GNU, Apache, BSD means that they have to make their source code available for all to see. And some of those means anyone can re-use their source (even modified for other purposes). That's the main reasoning behind OS, i.e. rather than have each programmer re-invent the wheel each time they want to do something, use a tried and tested piece of code. It's not about making the program free, it's about enabling better programs by reusing more efficient, robust and effective code in less time and effort, and also to allow for a great many programmers (and user testers) to contribute to the code to make it even better.

Theoretically OS means the program is a lot better than a commercial closed source app because of all these reasons (reuse of other OS programs, orders of magnitude more programmers "can" work on it than even a company like MS could even hope to employ, code is constantly checked and re-checked for bugs and efficiency, etc.). Practically it's not as simple as that: programmers generally don't get paid for these, changes need to be agreed on, more people in a non-autocratic "organization" means more disagreements, etc. In most instances OS relies on donations, or some charge for support. Lots of OS projects have "forked" due to disagreements about the course of the program (e.g. Open Office and LibreOffice). As a sample of something which is true open source and used throughout the world, look to Mozilla's Firefox internet browser - it's one of the top 3 browsers available (Chrome and IE being the other two - if you take usage into account).

[HR Solutions]

So over the last few weeks/months Telksom adsl has DIED !!!! and now gatvol of Telkom with all there excuses that I am too far from their exchange .......... Can anyone please tell me where I can get a plug in 3G wifi router ?? (reasonably priced)

[IanF]

Try Afrihost Mobile
I bought the 2 sim phone from them and get 1gb data a month on my phone. It runs on the MTN network.

[Houses4Rent]

I have a Telkom Premium Combo router, old, but it works. Now I suspect its not that well working anymore.

After load shedding I have to restart it a few times as it suddenly disconnects. Now more and more often I have to reboot it even after running it for hours.

Additionally it keeps forgetting its WifI setting and switches the Wifi off by itself. I have to keep switching in back on.

And now I even cannot get into it anymore via http://10.0.0.2/ while the internet still works.

How can that be? I know little about such things, but I thought http://10.0.0.2/ is a direct connection between my PC and the router and should always work with or without internet connections.

Can anybody shed some light in this please?

[CLIVE-TRIANGLE]

From the command prompt, run IPCONFIG and just make sure that 10.0.0.2 is the Gateway. If not then just point the browser that IP.

If that doesn't work then I have no clue.

[Houses4Rent]

10.0.0.2 is definitely correct, now it works again for a change. I complained to my ISP this morning and they did something (reset?). So far so good. If that fails they say I must call again and they kick Telkom to stabilise the line.

[Sparks]

See if you can update the router software.