What I did this week (in reply to Andrews 'plaint about quietness)

In article , Mark Rand writes

:^)

I've been tunnelling to some of the darker recesses of the workshop, clearing tut, prior to moving the back wall back eight feet to make the thing bigger.

I have discovered many tools I'd forgotten I own, one or two I'm fairly sure I've never owned, and a spider that I decided to leave in peace, in case I woke it up and it bit my arm off...

So far I've made a start on a 5" gauge Metro tank loco - the castings and drawings have been seasoning in a box for about 12 years and the laser cut frames are about six years old!. I have managed to drill the frames and buffer beams and get the inner frames erected. However, i'm on a 'hate Martin Evans' thing at present. Anyone out there built a Metro?

That now makes four steam locos either under construction or undergoing major overhauls!

I've also acquired a Dickson toolpost - intended for a Colchester, but now sitting happily on the top slide of my Harrison L5.

I now need to get on with some serious wheel turning - the Metro needs wheels and I have another axle to machine for the Bournemouth Society's prototype two-man riding trolley.

Other things - I'm 'clothing' the replacement boiler for my Marie-E. This was a Christmas present from my wife. In 41 years of marriage this is the only useful Christmas present she has ever given me!

A present of a new genuine Honda exhaust system for my 400/4 F2 from my eldest son in the USA has given more enthusiasm for the restoration of this classic.

Nigel Eat>

In article , Dick Ganderton writes

*Blink*

That's one heck of a present! They're normally on the shelf behind the Rocking Horse Shit, just next to the Hen's Teeth aren't they?

I know a guy who has a good supply of 400/Four[1] parts, by the way. Drop me a line if there's anything you're looking for, and I'll put you in touch. He's a real enthusiast.

[1] Apparently you have to write 400/Four because the number 4 in Japan is considered unlucky, since it sounds like "death". Apparently... ;^)

That's China where 4 is considered unlucky, not Japan (I work for a Japanese company and many of our products have a '4' in the model name). Martin

Apart from the whole family going down with the Norovirus/winter sickness which seems to be rife in this area (no complaints about that after seeing what's going on in the rest of the world, & it does save you from over-indulging at Christmas!), I've been trying to set up a wireless network at home (to include the workshop, just so it's sort of on topic). Fumbling in the dark really, though - can anyone point me to a *useful* online resource for info on these things? I've found very little through Googling. My computer (win2000) is connecting OK, except this morning it wouldn't, and sometimes emails won't go out so something ain't quite right. My laptop, also on 2000, worked straight away without any fiddling at all. My son's, on W98SE, connected to the router OK but nothing beyond that. He's even done a clean install of W2000 but no joy. I even went to WH Smuts yesterday hoping there'd be a mag on sale with idiot instructions, but no luck. No MEW either, though I'm never sure when it's due out. Unfortunately the router's instructions are written for someone with an intimate knowledge of the subject :-(

Happy new year

Tim

In article , Martin Whybrow writes

Ah! Is it?

Every day's a school day. :^)

You need to open your browser and look at the router/modem on-line to see if the settings are correct. There will be an IP address for the router/modem in the instructions, that will enable you to get into the settings menu. In particular, there are various settings for your internet connection/ISP etc which must be right.

The cards for the external machines should be OK with Win2K and be recognised.

Suggestion: Set up the local area network part first and get all the machines talking to the router, and note that you have to set sharing and permissions for any drives on those machines that you want to access from other machines.

We went cable on our home (5 machines) and office (3 machines) networks, and apart from a few initial glitches it works fine.

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

That's where a lot of the difficulty lies - the manual is written only for those who understand the whole thing, & makes no distinction between the stuff where default settings are perfectly OK, and those where human intervention is essential.

I've got it all working now with 3 machines (two more to add eventually), *except* that I can't send emails from any of them :-(( I'm guessing that's something to do with the internal firewall in the router, but the manual is worse on that than anything else. Tried the shop where I bought the router("call us if you have any problems"), supposed to be open today but they must have all gone home early :-(

Thanks Peter (& others)

Tim

The email programme(s) will be looking for a connection. In Agent, you need to tick the box that says "Use existing connection if open" or words to that effect. (It actually says "If another connection is open, use that instead") That stops the email programmes dialling out on the land-line modem or looking for that connection in the first place.

Once that has been established, the programme(s) should send emails normally, assuming that your internet connection is already established. With broadband you don't need to dial out, so all the dialling setups are disabled in "Network & Dial-up Connections' (Start, Programmes, Accessories, Communications, Network & Dial Up Connections)

With a dial-up connection it gets a bit more complex, especially if you want to be able to connect from any of the units on the router, but it can be done.

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

I have the connection, receiving emails OK (Eudora 6.2), checked the smtp details with my ISP, etc, etc. Still no joy.

Cheers Tim

If you are receiving mail through Pop3 then your connection is obviously OK, SMTP is for outgoing, check that the Eudora settings are OK for 'not so obvious' things.

I haven't got a copy of Eudora here to play with on your behalf, but there is one on the PC at home. I'll have a look later when I get home tonight and see if there is anything 'obvious'. In fact, I'll do it now, shouldn't be too long on broadband.

Hmmmm.... it's a big file isn't it (9mb+)

Known bugs:

1. Eudora sometimes thinks there's an Internet connection when in fact there isn't.

That won't help!

I'll have a play with the settings and see what happens :-))

Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Luton, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

I have written an email server that you can download, even if it is just for test.

It actually sounds like your outgoing SMTP port is blocked by your router. This is port 25.

If you are running XP or win2K, then go to a command prompt and type ipconfig /all (winME and prior, type winipcfg then click the button to show all details)

Your DHCP Server will probably be the same as the default gateway. The default gateway IP is your router. You can then open your browser and type in this IP address to enter your router. (Some routers may require telnet instead)

Your router may or may not have a password configured. (Usually safe as they only allow anon access from the local network). Have a look in here for the port settings. Also have a look for blocked IP addresses.

Failing that, NTL have a networking newsgroup that could help (assuming you are on NTL.) Just look for networking in your newsreader.

Hope this helps.

Dave.

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Not cheap, either! His mother had a recent windfall and decided to send him some money as a present, so, with the sinking Dollar he told her to order an exhaust system for me as a present and send him the change. His present cost him half of what he had expected!

Even rarer are back mudguards - they rot out something terrible and have been unobtainable for years.

The 400/Four has been sitting around for 20 years but I connected the battery from my 5" gauge Y6 tram loco to the buike's battery leads and, lo and behold evrything worked! Push the button and the engine turned over. I squirted some starting spray into the carbs, rigged up a small petrol tank and after several attempts it started and ran. Not bad!

Nigel Eat>

snip

Thanks Peter & others.

Odder & odder, I find I can send mail via the awful Outlook Express, so it's probably not the router after all, but not via Eudora, I've checked that the main settings (servers etc) are exactly the same as I'd been using under W98SE with a USB ADSL modem, tried several slight variations on these but no effect. S'pose I could try Opera (my main browser) or Agent for email instead, but I've used Eudora for years & have been happy with it.

Cheers Tim

In the Options menu, the last item down is Internet Settings. ALL of these should be unticked as far as I can see, you definitely do not want the first one which says to use Dial-Up Networking.

Agent is good and has worked out of the box for us for 5+ years now, highly recommended. Opera ditto with a few caveats on some websites which don't like it, but the freedom from Microsoft-targetted problems is worth it. Eudora looks expensive as well, $49.95 seems a lot.

Peter

I use both Agent & Opera, but neither for emails as I've used Eudora for that since first getting on line (about 8/9 years ago AFAIR). It went through some versions which tried to be too clever for their own good, the older ones were better, but this one seemed ok until last week! I've never paid for it, there's a free version which carries ads, I just don't see them. It seems that there must be a setting somewhere which is wrong, but I haven't found it yet.

Cheers Tim

The results which don't look certainly right to an innocent like me are:

Primary DNS suffix: (blank) IP Routing enabled: NO WINS Proxy enabled: NO

Connection-specific DNS suffix: (blank)

I don't know enough to know whether they're right or wrong.

Done all that, the problem for me is that most of what I see is meaningless to me :-(

Onetel (& U-net)

Thanks

Tim

I note that you say above that you can send mail from OE. ISTR that Eudora has an import option for the settings from OE. It may help if you haven't already tried it.

--=20 Angelo

They look normal. That is exactly the same as on my system.

Does your Default Gateway and your DNS Servers have anything in them? These should be the same on all your PCs.

Is your Lease Expired date prior to now? If so, then for some reason, the IP address lease has not renewed itself. If XP, open the command prompt and type ipconfig /renew (win ME/98 etc, open your winipcfg and click renew.)

Can you telnet from your machine to the mail server? telnet smtp.domain.com 25 (Note, the domain is the full name of the SMTP server, the 25 is the port). You should get a response back, probably starting with 220. (In fact, that SHOULD be 220). If not, then it is a problem with your connection, if you do get a response, then it is deffo your email program. (either corrupt or incorrect settings)

Hope this helps. Dave.

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