This was the sunset on Saturday night from my sofa

As you probably know by now all computers on the Internet use IP addresses. The basic idea is that every computer needs a unique address, a bit like a postal address. This is so the data you requested or sent gets to the correct computer.
Along time ago when computers first started using IP addresses, people got a bit annoyed at having to remember IP addresses of everyone’s computers. So a system was invented for the Internet to convert IP addresses to names, and names to IP addresses. The name of the system is DNS (Domain Name System), its just like a big telephone book.

Most computers have a little IP Address telephone book located on the hard drive for converting ips to names but normally its not used, as its better to use the DNS on the internet. But, if you want to, you can still use it to block some websites.

Every time you use a browser and go to a site, the very first thing your computer will do is check the little telephone book on your computer (it’s not actually called the little telephone book, it has a much more catchy name, the “hosts file”). Wow great name, well that’s it, the hosts file.

So, you could add a website address to the hosts file and give it the ip address of the wrong computer, or the better way is to use the ip address of itself. That way the request will never go anywhere, the ip address used for the local computer is always 127.0.0.1.

It would be in a loop, so for instance, add www.bannedwebsite.com to the host file and it redirects to itself!

Here’s how you do it:

On a windows XP machine the hosts file is located at  :C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\

The standard windows hosts file looks like this:

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a ‘#’ symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host

127.0.0.1       localhost

Add your site you want to ban and the hosts file could look like this:

# Copyright (c) 1993-1999 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a ‘#’ symbol.
#
# For example:
#
#      102.54.94.97     rhino.acme.com          # source server
#       38.25.63.10     x.acme.com              # x client host

127.0.0.1       localhost
127.0.0.1       www.bannedwebsite.com

Remember, anything starting with a # is ignored.

On a Mac its in the “etc” folder. To find that you need to open the Terminal application. You will also need to be logged in as root.



Those guys at the iPhone dev team have released a new Jailbreak for the latest iPhone OS.  If you try to use it I found that it just hangs, yes I know the website will be over loaded but even using a mirror site I still had problems.

The fix I found was to go into the Settings/Safari and clear the History , cache, and cookies. Then try the Jailbreak again.

Run the jailbreak from your iPhone safari browser here www.jailbreakme.com or if that’s busy try http://jailbreakme.modmyi.com

If you need to check your iPhone or iPod touch water damage indicator follow these instructions:

Remove the headphones from the device

Use a light and look directly down the headphone  socket

At the base of the socket is a water detector (it’s just plastic or paper that changes colour)

RED means water damaged

WHITE is no water detected

(The iPhone 3G and 3GS have an additional detector located at the bottom of the case near the screws)

If it’s white then take it back to apple and get it swapped out (Don’t tell them it got wet)

If it’s red then forget taking it to Apple. (I wonder if you could open the iPhone / iPod Touch and change the red detector for a white piece of paper?  If anyone manages to succeed let me know!

You can try and remove the water from it by putting the iPhone in a sealed bag with some uncooked rice. The rice will absorb the moisture over some time if you leave the iPhone in the bag and in a warm place.

Here’s how you do it:

Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until you see the red slider. Normally, this is what you would do to power down your iPhone or iPod touch. In this case however, when the slider appears, release the sleep/wake button and then press and hold the Home button.

If that won’t work, try this:

How to Restore the iPhone

If you still have no success with the reset the only other option is to do a restore using iTunes. This will wipe your iPhone but should get it working again, follow these steps to get the iPhone into Restore mode.

Step 1. Turn off iPhone

Step 2. Hold down the power and home button.

Step 3. When you see the Apple logo, release the power button but continue holding the home button down.

Step 4. Open iTunes and wait for it to tell you that it’s in restore mode.

Alternative Method:

Step 1. Connect iPhone to USB then listen to the sound when it connects and disconnects.

Step 2. Hold the home and power buttons until you hear the disconnect sound then release power button.

Step 3. Wait until you hear another sound then release home button.

Step 4. Open iTunes and wait for it to tell you that it’s in restore mode.

It will help US soldiers find the enemy and each other, let’s hope it will also stop ‘Friendly Fire’ incidents.

The iPhone hardware will be modified for the battelfield and the device will be able to multi task, one thing that the current iPhone won’t do (Apple restricted it to single tasks to save battery life).

I have my domain name since about 1998 and a few months ago my domain name went offline.

After some checking of the whois record I noticed that the domain was in a “Suspended” state,  and after a few days would be set to “available” meaning anyone could buy it!

I found this out by calling Nominet and was told that they had been contacted by a company querying my domain details.
My problem was that my name in the whois database was my nickname and not a full correct name. I did this way back in 1998 as I didn’t want to advertise my name in the whois record.

I was told by Nominet that not using your full name is against there T&C’s and would result in the domain being released to the public if i didn’t update it. Luckily I managed to update the whois record before the domain was released (after some frantic phone calls and emails to Nominet.)

I asked Nominet why it took so many years to find my name was wrong. The answer is that companies exist that trawl the whois records to find nice domains and that have user records that are against the Nominet T&Cs.
Once they submit their findings, Nominet give about one week for you to change them. If you don’t, then the company gets the domain at a knock down price and you have no way to get it back!

So the moral of the story is KEEP YOUR RECORDS UP TO DATE so any problems and you can be contacted!

Do you download Songs, Video or Software free from the Internet? Or if someone uses your Wifi without your knowing.

Your soooo fcuked if this UK bill is passed.

You may or may not have heard about this new Bill that’s going through the UK parliament at the moment. You might think that politics is boring and nothing ever affects you. Well, most of the time I would agree with you, BUT not this time!

This boring Bill, if approved, will mean that if your internet connection has been shown that you have downloaded any copyrighted material, be it songs,videos or software you will really be in the shit.
Not just a “slapped wrist” in the shit , I mean really “in the shit” so much in the shit that you will be doing jail time and paying a £50,000 type of  “in the shit”.

If that was not bad enough, and doing jail time for most people really is a no no, then the really scary part is that some if this can happen WITHOUT you ever going to court!

So much for UK democracy! But there is still a chance it can be stopped, if many people need to keep this in the news with Blogs, Tweets and emails to your MP’s.

The Bill looks like, if it goes through, will come into effect in two parts.

Three strike policy where your internet connection will be cut off after two warnings. A maximum fine for file sharing of £50,000. It also forces ISP’s to spy on you with a fine of £250,000 for any that don’t cooperate.

The scary part is set to come in, in 2011. This includes the power to disconnect file sharers without judicial review. It would also give the Secretary of State, Lord Mandelson himself the power to change and amend the provisions of Copyright, Designs and Patents Act (1988).

The UK ISP TalkTalk has taken a public stand against this bill with a website and a manifesto making pledges to its customers:

1. Unless we are served with a court order we will not surrender your details to rights holders. We are the only major ISP to have taken this stance and will maintain it.
2. We will continue to fight this draconian legislation as it makes it way through Parliament.
3. If we are instructed to disconnect your account due to alleged copyright infringement we will refuse to do so and tell the rights holders we’ll see them in court.

Please do all you can to keep it in the news, tweet it, write on Facebook, talk to your mates do anything legal. (Don’t climb on the houses of parliament and unfurl a huge banner against  “Mandy’s” bill as that’s a bit extreme, no wait… great idea   do it !

If you only do one thing about this, sign the Number 10 Petition against the Bill
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/dontdisconnectus/

Also You can write to your MP at http://www.writetothem.com
Send them a constructive email explaining that the bill is outrageous and should not be allowed etc

Send Lord “Mandy” Mandelson a message http://threestrikes.openrightsgroup.org

Using BT’s own speed checker my ADSL line got the following result, I responded to my fault ticket and after waiting days for them to get back to me i realised  it’s time to move to a faster ISP.

I have been with Plusnet (formally known as Force9) for years, but the problems all started when they introduced “Traffic Shaping“. This is supposed to slow down Bit Torrent and other file sharing activities and allow their network to function. Also Plusnet have grown from a small ISP to one of the UK’s biggest and always advertise on TV (The weather update after the news in London).

I can only assume that because Plusnet/BT subscriber base now exceeds 4.7 million they are now too big and don’t have enough bandwidth, meaning people like me now suffer with very slow connections.

I would rather pay a little extra and have a smaller ISP that can supply the unfiltered, non-packet shaped connection at a reasonable speed. After checking I have found a small ISP called idnet.net that seem to offer some great unfiltered packages with a good download limit.

Thought about registering www.plusnetsucks.co.uk but too late, it’s gone already

BUT

If you unlock your handset and place a non-O2 sim into it, you will still have to honour the remainder of the minimum term on your contract.

Still not bad, might be something to do with o2 losing the exclusive rights to the device meaning Vodafone and Orange can now offer slightly cheaper deals.

Reasons I can think of why you should do it:

• Add value to your iPhone if you need to sell it
• No more hacking your iPhone it’s totally legit
• Firmware updates no longer have the possibility of killing your phone!
• It’s FREE

It’s a no brainer, do it now before they change their mind.

Read more here

http://shop.o2.co.uk/update/unlockmyiphone.html