http://blog.hosting4unow.com/ A collection of technical observations, tips and tricks. en-us Nucleus CMS v3.32 � Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://blog.hosting4unow.com//nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://blog.hosting4unow.com/ http://blog.hosting4unow.com/index.php?itemid=21
The symptoms I experienced are everything working as they seem they should when connecting to the meeting; however the actual meeting content window never appears on the screen.

I tried lots of things, including downloading the WebEx connection logger utility, uninstalling and reinstalling WebEx, and so on. It is worth noting that when troubleshooting, to manually end the WebEx process, the process name is "atmgr.exe" (32 bit). Nothing changed the issue at hand.

Checking Windows Event Viewer led me to the solution, however. Under System, there were logged dozens and dozens of Schannel 36888 "Red X" entries starting right as I began trying to join the Webinar.

Googling for Schannel showed that this service is related to TLS connection negotiation. So there must have been a failure related to this.

I then remembered reading about a new attack against TLS, called "The BEAST" by security researchers. Suggested mitigation was to check the "Use TLS 1.1" and "Use TLS 1.2" boxes in Internet Options per The Microsoft Security Advisory. However, I took the additional step of unchecking the "Use TLS 1.0" option.

As soon as TLS 1.0 was enabled again, the WebEx meeting launched immediately as expected. It appears that at the time of this article, WebEx services are not compatible with the later TLS versions.
]]> Tech Tips http://blog.hosting4unow.com/index.php?itemid=21 Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:59:36 -0700 http://blog.hosting4unow.com/index.php?itemid=15
In the article after the jump, I answer 2 questions that came up recently when working with some FLAC files (the latest Nine Inch Nails album generously provided free of charge by Trent Reznor). The first question is how to play the files using MPC-HC (my preferred media player) and the second is how to convert them to MP3 for playback on my iPhone.

There are two tools needed to accomplish these goals. For playback in any DirectShow enabled player (including MPC-HC and Windows Media Player), download the Open Codec Pack from Xiph.org. This pack will also add support for OGG, Theora and VP8 filetypes.

For conversion to MP3, there are lots of options. But a free, reliable option is to download the FLAC tools. Use these to decode the FLAC file to WAV, and then use CDEX or any common MP3 compressor to convert to MP3. Note that the "FLAC frontend" program seems to be best run in compatibility mode (Windows XP SP3) on Vista or Windows 7.
]]> Tech Tips http://blog.hosting4unow.com/index.php?itemid=15 Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:35:23 -0800 http://blog.hosting4unow.com/index.php?itemid=12
One device that falls into this category is the Dell TrueMobile Wireless 1450 USB. This adapter is a quality 802.11g device and is available cheaply secondhand through eBay or Amazon. But it is not officially supported under Vista. Click read more to find out how I got it working under 32 bit (x86) Vista. I was not able to make the device work under 64 bit Vista, unfortunately.Step 1
The first thing to try with any unsupported device under Vista is to download the latest XP drivers and give it a go. The XP drivers for the TrueMobile 1450 USB are found here.

Even running the driver setup with compatibility mode turned on, I was unable to get the device working this way. The device appeared in device manager but always had an error about not starting. Googling the error code suggested that the reason for this was that Vista strictly enforces the USB specifications when talking to USB devices. Drivers that are not coded to this spec can have trouble starting. So perhaps an alternative Vista (or XP) driver that is closer to spec will be able to drive the device.

Also, the Dell driver, even if it could be made to work, installs additional services and applications. The built-in wireless support in Vista is pretty robust, and I'd prefer not to add additional 'cruft' needlessly.

Step 2
Knowing that wireless devices are made with only a handful of chipsets, and, in general, the driver for one device using a certain chipset will often work for another device of the same chipset, I decided to hunt for a similar device from another manufacturer. The is complicated by the fact that manufacturers will often use the same case and model number with the cheapest chipset available at the time. Sometimes the core chip can be discerned by googling, other times (in the case of this Dell device), it is not so clear.

The easiest way to find out if it is not clear otherwise, is to simply open the device up. The TrueMobile device opens easily with a screwdriver (only some hotglue and plastic clips hold it together). Then its secret revealed, it has a Conexant/Prism chipset inside.

Step 3
Now to Google for a device of similar vintage/chipset that may work. It turns out that Linux guys do a lot of this type of research to make their devices work since manufacturer support is limited or non-existent. To that end, there is a terrific page at rapla.net that contains a list of the major chipsets and the devices that use them. Click here to have google list the subdomains for each chipset type since the site does not appear to have an overview page, at least not in English.

Looking at http://conexant.rapla.net/, there is quite an extensive listing. None of the devices listed appeared to have Vista supported drivers available at first glance.

Step 4
I decided to try XP drivers from the bigger names on the list, in hopes they would 'play nice'. After some searching, The D-Link DWL-G122 device seemed the most promising. I first tried the Rev D drivers that advertised Vista support, but no joy. Then I tried the driver set for the older Rev A. Looking through the folder, it contained PrismA02.sys - this was the same driver file as the Dell driver set contained, so I knew I was on the right track.

After plugging in the device to my Vista box, I cancelled the auto-installation wizard. Then going to device manager, right clicked the device and selected to update the driver files. I clicked 'browse my computer for driver software' and then 'let me pick from a list of device drivers already on my computer' that gives the option of browsing for the device type. I selected 'network adapter' as the device type, then in the resulting window, clicked 'have disk'. I browsed to the subfolder of the D-Link drivers that contained the PrismA02.sys. I unchecked the box for 'show compatible hardware' and 4 revisions of the D-Link device showed as available options. I selected the A2 revision and allowed the wizard to continue, saying ok to any prompts about driver signing or incompatibility. See this forum post for screenshots of this method of "force-feeding" driver installation.

The device installed flawlessly and I was able to connect immediately to my home network using WPA with no issue. No helper programs, just a clean and simple working wireless device.

Download the D-Link drivers here

Note that the driver must be manually installed as in Step 4 each time the device is plugged in to a different USB port.

Finally note some alternative solutions proposed in this Dell support forum that I found after writing this article. These solutions work based on similar principles.]]> Tech Tips http://blog.hosting4unow.com/index.php?itemid=12 Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:13:30 -0700 http://blog.hosting4unow.com/index.php?itemid=8 Universal Sports on channel 39.3. The channel shows current and classic Olympic-type competition.


]]> Entertainment http://blog.hosting4unow.com/index.php?itemid=8 Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:41:51 -0700 http://blog.hosting4unow.com/index.php?itemid=4
I found out a lot about flash video. To see how the playback was accomplished, click the read more link below.Step 1
Googling 'FLV Player' netted several results. These seemed to playback the file fine and work well as a 'quick and dirty' solution. However, many use an ActiveX control for playback which hinders performance and limits functionality in that window resizing is limited, post-processing filters can not be added, and so forth.

Step 2
My preferred media player at the moment, is Media Player Classic. In particular, I use the MPC-HC (HomeCinema) build which provides support for DXVA - accellerated x.264 video (think Blue-Ray, HD-DVD and MKV files). This player is included in the CCCP (Combined Community Codec Pak) which installs the necessary support to handle the vast majority of media content found on the net.

To playback content in MPC using its internal filters, they must be enabled. I enabled the FLV option under both transform and decoders. Then I opened the file - I got audio playback but no video. MPC did not bring up an error screen about 'pins' not working, so I knew the chain of filters and codecs was valid. So why was the video not displaying?

Step 3
I decided to change the preferred output filter in MPC to the FFDShow video decoder, which is included with the CCCP. Upon playback, the behavior was the same. Could FFDShow and MPC's internal filter both have issues with this file?

Step 4
I reasoned that if things were working but not behaving as they should, that I may have run into an actual software bug. I downloaded the latest builds of FFDShow and installed them (the version included with CCCP is fairly old). I checked for updated builds of MPC and there were none available. Still no joy!

The solution
Seeing in the FFDShow 'stats' window that the video was being processed, and frames were being processed, I knew that there must be a problem upstream of the video decoder. In MPC-HC with Vista, the preferred configuration is to use the EVR Ouput option - this shows up in the filter list during playback as Enhanced Video Render. A bit of googling led me to an old changelog for MPC-HC that mentioned a 'black screen' problem displaying certain colorspaces using the EVR under Vista.

It seems that for whatever reason (probably due to Aero and the new windowing engine in Vista), display of YUY2 and other Packed YUV colorspaces does not function properly in Vista with MPC. The nature of the flash file I was attempting to play triggered this color space in both the internal decoder and the FFDShow decoder.

MPC does not appear to have a way to change the ouput colorspace of its internal video decoders. Luckily, FFDShow has an option to do just this. I disabled all of the Packed YUV color space outputs and the video played flawlessly.
]]> Tech Tips http://blog.hosting4unow.com/index.php?itemid=4 Fri, 29 Aug 2008 10:43:29 -0700