BSC Technology Consulting

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 14:45:00 +0000

BSC Technology Consulting is primarily a Quality Assurance with over two decades in the Software Development, Integration, Testing and IT industry.

Based in DelMarVa, BSC Technology Consulting covers Philadelphia, Wilmington, Newark (DE), Cecil County, Harford County, and the Greater Baltimore Metropolitan area.

We have the knowledge and expertise necessary to:

Diagnose the problem
Recommend a Solution
Customize the Solution to the customer needs or capabilities

BSC Technology Consulting offers a wide range of services tailored to each individual client's level of need. Affordable pricing and availability separate our technician's from the major brand vendors.

BSC Technology Consulting also has an Entertainment Division that is just kicking off (Havoc Productions). Inquire within for samples of products, manuscript development, and other Entertainment needs.

Contact us today for a free estimate/consultation:

(410) 343-7246
bsctech@vtext.com
bsctechnology@comcast.net

Linksys!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:46:00 +0000

No posts lately, been busy traveling and working. Haven't had too much going on in the BSC world. I did end up replacing my home Linksys router/modem. It was constantly loosing connection to the cable input. This was dropping my Vonage router out of commission too, so my first thought was that the Vonage adapter had gone bad. I got a new Vonage adapter, and it soon started acting the same. I installed the Surfboard modem, thinking it might be the load from the cable connection coming in. Nope. I then installed a D-Link Draft N Wireless Gigabit Router along with the standard Motorola Surfboard. That seemed to do the trick. I had the surfboard sitting in a dustbin in my storage closet, and the D-Link router cost @ 80 dollars. I fought with this thing for 3-4 months and it was merely $80 dollars away (the answer).

I thought that when Cisco bought Linksys that it would improve the shoddy performance and longevity. They are easy to setup and configure, but then they go belly up after a couple of years. I will stop recommending Linksys to customers until I come across a better performing product from them.

Another Linksys WRT54G problem

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:37:00 +0000

My latest job was at the Fiore Winery here in Harford County, MD.

It was a similar problem with the TECHLAB 2000 call, except that none of the WRT54G routers worked (no NATng or Wireless). The only way to get an Internet connection was plugging directly into the modem.

After a myriad of troubleshooting techniques (updated firmware, reset to default firmware, swapped routers) it appears that the issue is with the ISP.

The cable modem had recently been swapped out, and that is when everything started going south.

Unfortunately, it was left up to Mike (the sales manager) to contact the ISP to verify a number of red letter items that were just now coming to light:

There was supposed to be a static IP assigned, which does not seem to be the case.
The connection was not allowed to be split at all, even when the router was setup for static IP.
There was a second modem at another building on the property that did not work at all (no Internet activity).

Of course, Linksys support wasn't a whole lot of help either. I was on with them on two separate occasions, and they mostly had me doing the same or similar things I had already done.

This case will be left open until further communication from the customer.

Linksys WRT54GS not connecting via LAN to Internet

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:49:00 +0000

Ran across this issue at TechLab 2000, a friends shop in Baltimore. After doing some exhaustive physical troubleshooting (checking the 16 port hub back end, looking for incorrectly wired cables, checking the Windows and McAfee firewall settings), I figured my best shot was to do more Internet research.

This made absolutely no sense why the configuration would work for months, and then over the span of a week, peter out on him. Wireless connection worked to the Internet, and the LAN connected PCs could get to network shares, but not Internet. As a 'quick' fix for the day, I stuck Wireless G PCI card in the PC he used for processing online orders, and left a little frustrated after @ 4 hours of work.

Later on that evening, I did some investigating and stumbled across this forum noting an almost identical problem. The Wireless and LAN connections worked fine for quite sometime, and then magically, just stopped working. I emailed the store owner and mentioned that this maybe the cause of the issue, even though the case history of his particular issue was pointing me at a 'new' setting that would have changed his infrastructure (i.e. Firewall exception or a Microsoft Update). I asked if he could email me the Version # on his router and login to the router web GUI and give me his current Firmware version (things I should have done the previous day, but did not). I sent him the link from Linksys' site detailing how to get all this information. Let's just say this was a bad move on my part.

He promptly returned with a response and I started to mitigate how this problem would be resolved. Keep in mind, the band aid of the Wireless card was working, so the shop was functional at this point.

Here is my first email:

You probably have Version 5 router, since it goes 1.50.6. The latest firmware for that one is 1.52.5, which resolves a host of issues. It is possible that things were working fine and then it crapped out. Linksys offers free technical support, so if you don’t want to wait for me, you can call them and have them walk you through upgrading the firmware. I would do it after hours and you would want to backup your current configuration. It could take a couple of hours to get everything back to normal. I have done firmware upgrades before, and they never seem to get things back to normal quickly.

Here is an email back from the owner:

It's version 6 and i downloaded 1.52.5 firmware, but how do i install it? And do you think the wireless is preventing the wired router from working?

And here is my immediate response to his question about how to install it:

That is possible as well. You could try reversing it – going to the wired router first with the DSL line and then sending a cable over to the Wireless router.

Installing the firmware is kind of tricky. There are instructions on their website on how to do it, but you want to make sure you back it up properly in case you have to go back to your previous configuration.

I then get a call from him an hour later stating that the configuration won't load and everything is down now (mind you, this is during business hours). Unfortunately, I was still working another job and on my way to a viewing, so it was impossible for me to do any phone support or on hand support for the issue. I was worried about his business suffering, but at the same token, I had warned repeatedly to wait to do this move, as it could backfire or may not fix the problem to begin with. Luckily, I received an email the following morning:

The wireless is all taken care of - the firmware's upgraded and all that. Everything's set up. Magically everything seems to be working now. As of this morning.

First Lesson Learned: when in doubt, check for firmware upgrades for Linksys routers, and even if the configuration hasn't changed, it could magically stop working the way it used to.

Second Lesson Learned: Tricky does not equal STOP, NO, and DON'T, which is obviously what I should have said.