Thomas's Blog

Configuration of an Instar Webcam and Linksys Router for Intra- and Internet (DDNS) Access

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:00:00 +0000

So, here is the problem at hand: I've bought myself an Instar 3010 webcam. The latter connects to my home WLAN. For practical reasons, you want

to have a static IP address inside your network so that you can access the webcam always via the same address - like http://192.168.1.90 - and do not have to scan through the current DHCP table to find the webcam's IP address assigned by the DHCP server (which could change everytime you boot one of the devices), and
to have a fixed address that allows you to access the camara from outside your home network; this means that you need

to configure your router / firewall of your router to allow external access for that particular device (identified by the static IP address defined under 1.) via a dedicated port, and
to set up a DDNS service like dyndns.org.

I'm using a Linksys WAG120N router. What I'm explaining below should work for most Linksys routers. Actually, I've also some Linksys WRT54G routers whose admin UI is basically the same. Furthermore, I believe that the infos below can be easily transferred to most other routers too.

Step 1.a.: picking a static IP

What I'm describing here is basically taken from the instructions on this website. Follow these steps:

Pick an IP address within the range of your router BUT outside the range of the DHCP server. Linksys routers are per default configured so that

the router itself (gateway, DHCP server etc.) have address 192.168.1.1, and
the DHCP server assigns max. 50 addresses starting from 192.168.1.100 to 192.168.1.149.

Consequently pick an address outside those ranges, e.g.

192.168.1.2, or
192.168.1.90, or
192.168.1.200

Let's assume that we pick 192.168.1.90.

Step 1.b.: setting the static IP

Now

go into the admin UI of the Instar webcam,
namely to Network
and there to Basic Network Settings.
Uncheck Obtain IP from DHCP Server
and fill the address fields as shown:

For later, it is important to pay attention to the Http Port setting - here 80 - as this port needs to be released for external access in association with the address 192.168.1.90. See step 2.a.

Step 2.a.: port forwarding

As mentioned: now let's configure the Linksys router to allow external access via port 80 to the device under address 192.168.1.90. To that end

go to Applications & Gaming,
and there to Single Port Forwarding,
create the following entry

Step 2.b.: DDNS setup

First, I've set up an account with dyndns.org, namely the free service. Here is an example to acquire a dynamic external domain name thomas-webcam.dyndns.org:

With this, you can return to your Instar webcam's admin UI. Remember that you should now find it under http://192.168.1.90 as defined above!

go to the Network menu,
go to DDNS Service Settings,
under Third Party DDNS choose dyndns.org as the DDNS Service,
add the entries as indicated; qwertz is the user that you have created with dyndns.org:
Go to Network, there to UPnP Settings and enable Using UPnP to Map Port. UPnP should also be enabled in your Linksys router (which it is by default).

You can check if things have worked out alright by going to your webcam's admin UI, to the System menu and there to Device Info. Under DDNS Status you should read something like DynDns Succeed http://thomas-webcam.dyndns.org. You should now be able to access your webcam via http://thomas-webcam.dyndns.org from outside your home network.

Please leave any advice, hints on what can be defined in easier way etc. as comments!

Wild Garlic (Bärlauch)

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas) — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 14:10:00 +0000

Wild garlic in Walldorf's Hochholz

These days, it is the start of the asparagus season and the closing of Bärlauch (ramsons or wild garlic) season.

Partial Solar Eclipse 4 Jan 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 13:13:00 +0000

On 4^th of Jan, it was possible to watch a partial solar eclipse in central Europe. Here, you can see a map by the Verein Astroinfo indicating the area of visibility. I took the photo to the left with my iPhone from a spot in the north of the Black Forrest. Admittingly, the photo does not live up to the eclipse which was much more impressive in reality. BBC provides a nice collection of photos of the eclipse. The next good event visible within Europe will be a total lunar eclipse on 15 June.

Snow on 20 Dec

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas) — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 10:14:00 +0000

Alvaros Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 20:22:00 +0000

http://albaritono.blogspot.com/

La Eva Pinera de Benissa

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas) — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 12:47:00 +0000

Here is a Spanish article on Eva Pinera de Benissa, a prehistoric painting located close to the CV-749 near Pinos - you will find a sign post beside the road that indicates where to stop. It is a 5 min walk uphill - see below.
The figure is surrounded by a fence for protection. As the text of the article describes, it is one of the earliest female figures in the area (hence the name Eva), dating back around 6000 years. It has been restored in 2010. The 'surname' Pinera is derived from the proximity to Pinos. The association of philatelists in Benissa will issue a special stamp picturing Eva Pinera.

PS: Here is a more recent article on the discovery of additional paintings close to Eva Pinera.

El Buitre de Benissa

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas) — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 13:53:00 +0000

By Apuntes desde Benissa

This is simply a story that I've found this morning and that I've laughed about: a vulture keeps Benissa - a village in La Marina Alta busy. The mayor, local police, animal specialists etc have visited the vulture. Have a look at this article that describes how the vulture was fed with meat bought in the local supermarket. Afterwards they tried it again with somniferous meat which the vulture rejected as it already had a full stomach :-) Here is a list with more references including photos:

Las Provincias: Un buitre se instala sobre una nave en Benissa y pasea por la N-332
Las Provincias: Un buitre burla el dispositivo de captura de la policía en Benissa
Blog Apuntes desde Benissa: Un buitre en Benissa
Blog Apuntes desde Benissa: Espectacular fotografía del buitre leonado de Benissa
Extraña aparición de un buitre leonado
Blog Curioso Mundo: El Buitre
yet another photo on Flickr

PS (8 Nov): Have just spotted that the vulture has been captured and brought to a place to recover: Adiós al buitre de Benissa. Seems to lead to a happy end. Here are more references including a video on YouTube:

Blog: Adiós al buitre de Benissa
Las Provincias: Un trozo de carne con sedantes ayuda a capturar al buitre de Benissa
a video on YouTube
some photos of the capture effort
CBN: Gänsegeier endlich eingefangen
CBN: Besuch beendet

Mobile WLAN Router / Hotspot

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas) — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 10:50:00 +0000

Just to add to the many entries below on mobile internet connection: one of my most recent gadgets is a Huawei E5 WLAN router. It looks like a mobile phone and it is basically a 3G mobile phone for your WLAN enabled devices. You simply need to get a SIM card. The advantage is that via that one single device multiple clients (various notebooks, iPad, iPod, ...) can connect to the internet. So you need only one SIM card and all family members can connect at the same time.

So far, the experience with with the E5 has been very good. The internal antenna seems to do a good job in acquiring 3G connections.

Mobile Internet via 3G Router and External Antenna

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas) — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 08:05:00 +0000

I've extended my mobile internet access infrastructure and added an external antenna in order to assert a 3G signal so that the Huawei E970 router (T-Mobile webnwalk Box IV) does not switch to GPRS. So far, the experience has been excellent: in contrast to the E970's internal antenna I've permanently a 3G signal (HSDPA) and thus a fast mobile internet connection. Still, the external antenna had to be directed properly; a first attempt (inappropriate direction) yielded only unstable results.

Here is an alternative for an internal 3G antenna that you can install close to your desktop.

Configuration Info for Mobile Internet Access in Spain

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas) — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:16:00 +0000

Surfing through the internet and looking for the option I've found this link which is very useful. Here is the replicated config table:

Operador	APN	Usuario	Clave
APN Movistar	movistar.es	movistar	movistar
APN Vodafone	ac.vodafone.es	vodafone	vodafone
APN Orange	internet	orange	orange
APN Yoigo	internet	[vacío]	[vacío]
APN Simyo	gprs-service.com	[vacío]	[vacío]
APN Jazztel	jazzinternet	[vacío]	[vacío]
APN Másmovil	internetmas	[vacío]	[vacío]
APN Pepephone	gprs.pepephone.com	[vacío]	[vacío]
APN Euskaltel	internet.euskaltel.mobi	CLIENTE	EUSKALTEL
APN Telecable	internet.telecable.es	telecable	telecable
APN Ono	internet.ono.com	[vacío]	[vacío]
APN R	internet.mundo-r.com	[vacío]	[vacío]
APN Carrefour	CARREFOURINTERNET	[vacío]	[vacío]

Here is simply another, less complete list.

Innovation

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas) — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:26:00 +0000

In a recent interview published in Computerworld, SAP's co-CEO Jim Snabe has given a good definition of innovation:

[...] people often confuse creativity with innovation. They think having great ideas is innovation. We believe having great ideas that don't impact business is not innovation -- they're just great ideas. And so the ability to bring great ideas to consumption is key [...]

Running Routes on Run.com

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:52:00 +0000

A few weeks back, while staying in New Orleans and looking for a suitable running route nearby my hotel, I've discovered the Run.com site which lists a lot of suggestions all over the world.

For New Orleans I've picked this route which evolved to be excellent given the warm weather, the humidity and the fact that I stayed really downtown (i.e. with no parks or green places nearby). Still, it takes you a little bit along the Mississippi and through some residential areas of the French Quarter.

I've added 2 routes myself:

List of (mostly DB-related) Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:08:00 +0000

Here is a list of blogs that I find useful to consider if you are interested in DBMS developments:

DBMS2 by Curt Monash - analyst's blog and as such a mix of technical and commercial analysis
DBMS Musings by Daniel Abadi (assistant professor at Yale) - academically oriented blog but still tracking industry developments
Database Column by folks around Vertica like M. Stonebraker, D. DeWitt et al. - mostly technical but partially promoting Vertica's products
CACM blogs - wild mix of computer science topics
10x Software Development by Steve McConnell (author of Code Complete) - some good articles on software engineering; others mainly promote services of his consulting firm

Overview of my SDN Blogs 2008/2009

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:30:00 +0000

The complete list can be found here. These are the ones from 2008-2009:

Performance Study: Web Intelligence on top of SAP BW
(11 November 2009)

This is a kind of sequel to the blogs I've posted earlier this year. A long-term SAP customer provided real-world example that shows the performance improvements that have been achieved through the joint efforts of the WebI, ODA and BW development teams.

Comparing SAP BW and an Oracle DW
(14 April 2009)

This blog looks at the situation of a customer who migrated his hand-crafted Oracle data warehouse to SAP BW. It is a tangible, real-world case that contradicts many of the alleged pros and cons of the differing approaches to data warehousing. Beside TCO, the new SQL interface on SAP BW allows even for a surprising 1:1 comparison regarding query performance.

Faster Universe-Based Access To BW via MDX
(16 March 2009)

Business Objects's semantic layer can expose cubes as OLAP universes to client tools like WebIntelligence (or WebI for short). This applies to OLAP servers like Microsoft's Analysis Services or Hyperion's Essbase but also to SAP BW. There is a component called OLAP Data Access (ODA) that retrieves data via MDX - a query language for multi-dimensional data sources. In the case of BW, the ODA component connects to BW's OLAP BAPI. This connection has now been optimized and streamlined in order to improve the interoperability. This blog gives some insight in what has been done and what the effects are. It complements the blog on the two options to access BW data via universes.

SQL Access to BW via Data Federator
(6 March 2009)

In another blog, a number of improvements have been discussed regarding universe-based access to BW infoproviders. One major new option is that it is now possible to access BW infoproviders via SQL. Technically, this has been achieved via Business Objects's Data Federator (DF) that includes SQL engine running on top of federated data sources - one of those can be a BW 7.01 system. This blog provides some more insights into that approach.

Better Performance For Universe-Based Access To BW
(6 Mar 2009)

This blog introduces two new pieces of development shipping with BW 7.01 SPS3 that significantly improve the performance when using Business Objects WebIntelligence on top of NW BW.

Native Excel 2007 On Top Of Netweaver BI 7.0
(29 January 2008)

Using Excel in the context of BW is nothing new: (1) there is BEx Analyzer and (2) there is the native pivot tables inside Excel that connect via OLE DB for OLAP (ODBO) to BW. While (1) has mostly been the option of choice, option (2) has tended to be sidelined. The latter is significantly changed with Excel 2007 and NW BI 7.0.

Linksys WRT54G router as a repeater in an existing LAN

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas) — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:02:00 +0000

This is yet another chapter of my home networking experience. It has taken me some time to figure out this (fairly simple) procedure. So I'm summarizing it here in case someone else intends to do the same thing, namely to add another router to your existing home LAN, e.g. due to the lack of free ports (on your existing routers) or as you want the additional router to cover areas that are currently not covered by the existing WLAN. So, this is what you need to do:

Most important thing: link the router up not via the WAN port but via one of the LAN ports.
Disable DHCP on that router.
Set the WRT54G to router mode instead of gateway.

By the way: I believe that this works similarly with other routers and is thus not restricted to this Linksys model.

Web sites for running competitions

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas) — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:22:00 +0000

Unregularly, I participate in running competitions and I somehow like to try to join one when I'm abroad in order to see how things work in the respective country. So here is my collections of links:

Germany
Spain
US
- Running USA - click on Event Calendar
- Active.com
- Athlinks.com

3G (UMTS) and GPRS Settings for Germany

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:41:00 +0000

Here is a great page describing the configuration necessary to access the internet via the most popular German mobile network providers. Extremely helpful.

Vodafone UMTS Laptop Karten Einstellungen

APN	web.vodafone.de
IP-Adresse	dynamisch
Primärer DNS	139.7.30.125
Sekundärer DNS	139.7.30.126
Einwahlnummer	99**1#
Benutzername	-
Passwort	-
AT-Kommando	AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","web.vodafone.de"

UMTS Verbindungs-Software Vodafone

T-Mobile UMTS Laptop Karten Einstellungen

APN	internet.t-mobile
IP-Adresse	dynamisch
Primärer DNS	193.254.160.1
Sekundärer DNS	-
Einwahlnummer	*99#
Benutzername	frei wählbar
Passwort	frei wählbar
AT-Kommando	AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet.t-d1.de"

UMTS Verbindungs-Software T-Mobile

O₂ UMTS Laptop Karten Einstellungen

APN	surfo2
IP-Adresse	dynamisch
Primärer DNS	62.134.11.4
Sekundärer DNS	195.182.110.132
Einwahlnummer	99# oder 99***1#
Benutzername	-
Passwort	-
AT-Kommando	AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","surfo2"

UMTS Verbindungs-Software o2

e-Plus UMTS Laptop Karten Einstellungen

APN	internet.eplus.de
IP-Adresse	dynamisch
Primärer DNS	212.23.97.2
Sekundärer DNS	212.23.97.3
Einwahlnummer	99**1#
Benutzername	eplus
Passwort	GPRS
AT-Kommando	AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet.eplus.de"

UMTS Verbindungs-Software e-Plus

3G (UMTS) Internet Connection via a Simyo SIM Card in Spain

noreply@blogger.com (Thomas) — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 17:24:00 +0000

So, this is my most recent "IT experiment": for years, I've been wondering how to have a decent (acceptably fast) internet conenction in my parents' house in Spain. Obviously, you can get DSL and stuff there too. However, as the house is occupied only during 2-3 months per year there would be too much of stand-by costs involved. Finally, I've found a non-expensive way to achieve what I've been looking for. This blog describes what I have installed in case someone else is interested and wants to do the same or something similar.

Here are the "ingredients", i.e. the equipment, I've used:

a T-Mobile webnwalk Box IV - approx. €133
- This is a LAN / WLAN router
- It connects to the internet via 3G (UMTS) or GPRS (in case that the 3G signal is too weak) by using a SIM card.
- Not so important but useful: a normal, analog fixed-line phone can be plugged in too so that you can use the phone + router as a normal phone.
a prepaid SIM card from Simyo Spain
- Simyo currently offers 100 MB/day for €1 or 500 MB/month for €5.
- Beware that things become more expensive once you pass the 500 MB/month threshold.
- If the signal allows the connection is 3G.

So what do you need to know in order to configure the 3G router:

APN: gprs-service.com
phone number: *99#
Leave name and password blank
As the PPP authentification method use CHAP. Please note that this is not the default but this is essential. Otherwise it won't work with Simyo in Spain. It is different with Simyo in Germany.
Here is good description (in Spanish) on how to connect to the internet via Simyo.

Ok. I hope this works for you. Let me know if you have any comments or advice on how to improve this setup.