A couple of days ago I was having problems with my Internet connection but I’ve solved them tonight. I put my networking hat on (I used to write embedded software for routers and network switch equipment) and worked through a few steps to diagnose the issue … MTU.

By default my router (Linksys WRT54G running DD-WRT v23) had an MTU set to Auto (1500), I changed this to Manual (1400) and everything came back to life and works perfectly. Later  I read in a couple of forums that old Telewest customers (like me) are now having some of our traffic routed over the old NTL network, which is not as good as the Telewest network, in order to balance the load. I guess one of the NTL routers doesn’t like 1500 byte packets or can’t deal with packet fragmentatoin correctly.

Either way problem solved and just before Intrepid Ibex is due out

Tonight I’ve only been able to connect to some websites i.e. I can connect to ubuntu.com, linux.com but not osnews.com or ubuntuweblogs.org ??? Last month I was upgraded to 10Mb cable on VirginMedia but I was able to connect to all sites until tonight. The strange thing is 2 friends of mine are also with VirginMedia yet they can access the websites fine? We all live within 5 miles of each other.

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

This is going to mess with upgrading to Intrepid Ibex which is due out in a few days

Respect and Kudos Jono!

The long awaited “Denied by Reign” by Severed Fifth has been released today under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike license.

How is it ?

In a word … AWESOME. Amazingly it’s pushed Machine Head’s ‘The Blackening’ and Lamb of God’s ‘Sacrament’ to the bottom of my playlist.

Where can you get it ?

Download it from here in MP3 or OGG format (Torrents also available) and spread the word. I’ve got my copy and I’ve already sent it to my brother and a few mates who think it’s bloody brilliant. What you waiting for.

I’ve just finished installing Ubuntu Hardy (8.04) on my Acer 9303WSMi and first impressions are “WOW”, which is what Vista was meant to do but didn’t!

I have to agree with K.Mandla it’s so easy. Before I started I had a couple of requirements which I wanted Hardy to meet, mostly getting my hardware to work.

Hardware results :-

• nVidia Geforce Go 7300 – Works perfectly with ‘nv’ and ‘nvidia’ drivers. Full 3D and Compiz Fusion.
• Realtak HD AC97 Audio – Works perfectly.
• nVidia 10/100/1000 LAN – Works perfectly.
• Atheros AR5005g with WPA – Works perfectly.
• Acer Orbicam (Bison USB 2.0) – Works perfectly.
• Texas Instruments SD Card Reader – Works perfectly.
• Suspend and Resume – Works perfectly.

After installation I only needed to do 2 things in order to complete the installation.

1. Go to System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers to enable the full 3D driver for the nVidia card.
2. Go to Applications -> Add/Remove and Show “All available applications” and search for “Ubuntu restricted extras”. After installing this Flash, Java, MP3, DivX and WMV (amongst others) support was complete.

Compared to Vista this laptop is a speed-demon now. Everything is so responsive. Over the next few days I’ll be really hammering this laptop to see how well Hardy stands up. In the meantime I’ve added an entry for the Acer Aspire 9303WSMi on the Ubuntu Wiki to keep a record of what works and what needs testing.

Woohoo. Congrats to everyone at Canonical and the Ubuntu Development Teams. Ubuntu 8.04 is out. I’m currently downloading both the 64-bit desktop and 32-bit server disks so I can install them tonight. Happy days.

Update: I’ve successfully upgraded my server from 7.10 to 8.04. Hardy rocks. It was the most painless upgrade I’ve ever done. I’m loving Ubuntu more and more. Next up wipe Vista from my laptop and upgrade it to Ubuntu 8.04 too. I don’t think I’ll be needing Windows any more.