Defenestrated

HOWTO: Fix Bonjour failures when using an Actiontec (Verizon FiOS) router

Update (2/14/11): After living with the configuration below for some time, I started seeing some familiar problems reappear on our network - the Remote app being unable to connect, Air Video unable to stream consistently, and our AppleTV being unable to connect to the media server. So I scanned around a bit more and found this guide. Turns out that the Actiontec router's NAT table (NAT table=network address translation table, the place where the router stores network addresses so computers can find each other on the network) is tiny and easily overflows, resulting in systems being unable to find each other over the network. There's no solution to this other than to stop the Actiontec being in control of NAT, and the only way to do that (as far as I know) is to take all control of the network away from that router. Problem is, the Actiontec is your gateway to Verizon's service but, fortunately, this excellent guide shows how to configure the Actiontec so a different router can do all the heavy lifting. I've done this with an Airport Express and it's working like a charm -- I've now got faster download an upload speeds (like 10MB/s faster!), and a much more configurable network. One downside: following the guide will break your FiOS video-on-demand and TV listings services...unless you follow some of the comments in the guide, in which case you'll probably be okay. But as we don't use either of these features in our house, I couldn't care less!

Preface: There are a lot of solutions on the web that purport to fix this problem. This is the solution that has worked (so far) for me.

Background: We'd always experienced extremely spotty Bonjour networking services on our home network. Bonjour is an Apple networking technology that allows services to discover each other. iTunes, Apple TV, and other Mac OSX and iOS services all use Bonjour. The problems we experienced included:

1. Unable to connect reliably using Screen Sharing
   
2. The Remote iPhone app could not connect reliably to iTunes
   
3. The AirVideo iPhone app could not reliably stream from the host OSX machine
   
4. Macs on the network could not discover Bonjour-networked printers

I'd done a lot of investigation into this already, and had changed out our Linksys router's software for DD-WRT, amongst other measures. Nothing seemed to help. In the interim, we switched Internet provider from Cox Cable to Verizon FiOS. Verizon supplies a wireless router as part of their installation, so I decided to take a closer look at that router to see if it could help solve some of the problems.

Turns out that the Actiontec routers (I have a MI424WR) seem to cause many people problems with Bonjour, including the kinds of behavior I list above (Google "Bonjour router actiontec" to see what I mean). To solve the problems, people have recommended that changes be made on the router to disable or enable multicasting, change network MTU values, and so on. After some experimentation, I found that none of the above worked. A firmware update appears to be available for the router via Actiontec but Verizon hasn't yet made it available for download; you can check on Verizon's authorized updates here. (Firmware updates may or may not be installed automatically by your router; check your settings on your router by going to Advanced -> Firmware Upgrade.)

I noted, however, that when my MacBook Pro was plugged into the router via Ethernet, all the Bonjour services seemed to work just fine, whereas a wireless connection continued to experience problems.

Solution: So it appeared that the problem had something to do with the wireless side of the network. I decided to turn off any services I didn't need; 802.11b wireless networking support was no longer used on our network, so I turned it off. As soon as I did that, Bonjour services were available on the wireless network to all devices! And, so far, it's continuing to work just fine.

If you're experiencing similar behaviors as those listed above and have an Actiontec router, do the following:

1. Login to your wireless router (usually at 192.168.1.1 on your home network)
   
2. Click on Wireless Settings
   
3. Click on Advanced Security Settings
   
4. Click on 802.11b/g Mode (at the bottom; it looks like bolded text)
   
5. In the drop-down box, select "802.11.g Only"
   
6. Click Apply
   

If your network does require 802.11b support, you might try selecting "802.11b Only" rather than "802.11g Only" in step 4 above, but I can't test that on my network to know if it works or not.

I hope this works for you!

I'm not afraid of being stung by the naval's

Mike from New York called with the first two paragraphs from Anton Chekhov's Ward Number 6:

And here's what Google Voice made of it...

"Hey Dave, this is Mike. I'm gonna read what number is 6517 bye bye first time please. And I'll tell ya distance mall log, sort of. iProfits forces. Bronoff not 1,000 while 10. This is rusty the Chinese tumbling down the steps at the front door going away with, of the progress. Norma traces left. It's from blog fees hospital at the back. It looks out to be open contract, which is separated by the gray hospital fence with Nelson. It is about point up where the fence lucky, so the peculiar desolate dot the second milk, which is on the part of our hospital and prisoner buildings so I'm not afraid of being stung by the naval's come by the no foot path that leads to log on to see what's going on inside opening. The for store we walk into the entrance get on the walls of my books job every sort of hospital rubbish last letter about next is both had addressing against trousers receptionist boots and she's no good for anything halters and it's about the PIN keeps mixed in crumpled up motoring and getting out of 6 weeks now. Thank you."

And if you want to read the actual text for yourself, you could do a lot worse than go here.

GV: Ohh Erica I shall be too late!

Seems like Maureen's on a roll! This time, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...

And GV said...

"hi david it's maureen again i thought i'd try one more time this is alice's adventures in wonderland andy's is the first 3 paragraphs alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by your sister on the bank and having nothing else to do once or twice she'd pete into the booker sister was reading but they had no pictures our conversations in it and what is the usable books thought house without pictures of conversations so she was considering in around lines as well as she could for the day in major very sweet being stupid whether the pleasure of making it daisy chain looking forward to travel to getting up and taking it easy when separately a white rabbit with paid on his rent close by her it was nothing still very remarkable about that nor did alice think it's still very much of the wait to hear the rabbit's a to itself all we are ohh erica i shall be too late the when the rev it actually took a watch out of the waste code pockets and look at it and then i read on alice starting to recede forward slash to cross your mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either but we still talk or watch to take out of it and burning with curiosity she want across the field after it i was just in time to see it popped on the larger rabbit hole 100 H in another moment alice went down after it the and"

Nest it with the AFLAC I believe

Maureen tried to read The Tale of Two Cities...

And GV said...

"hi dave this is maureen and i'm going to read the first paragraph of charles dickens' a tale of 2 cities it was the best time is it was the worst of times it was the age of wisdom it was the age of fullest nest it with the aflac i believe it was the at book of in could you already it was the season of like it was the season the darkness it was this bring up the whole it was the winter of despair we had everything before us we had nothing before us we're all going direct haven't we were all going direct to the other way in short the period with so far like depressant period that some of the noisiest the store eddie's insisted on it's being received for go to for evil in this approaches degrees of comparison only then that was the first paragraph of charles dickens' tale of 2 cities"

Stupid Google Voice transcriptions

I just tried Google Voice for the first time today, and it's a really interesting service, including the ability to automatically transcribe voicemails so you can pick them up in e-mail or on the web. I have a heavy English accent (nothing bizarre, like Brummies, but definitely not American, either) so I did a little experiment by leaving a voicemail for myself. Here's what I said:

"I'm just trying this out. Google Voice seems pretty cool but, you know, I'm not so sure if it can try andhandle the really complicated things that one wants to do with voicemail. So I thought I would say things like efficacious, and stupendous, and deliberative, just to see how the transcription might work. On the other hand, it could be really good, and I'll be amazed, and astounded, and flabbergasted by just how good the transcription could be. I'll also look forward to receiving the message in e-mail, and if the e-mail is good then maybe I'll transition all of my phone calls to Google Voice. It's difficult to say. But, one way or another, Google is going to take over the world, and I intend to be there when they do."

And this is what Google Voice thought I said...

"i'm just trying this out to avoid seems pretty cool but you know i'm not so sure if you can try and handled it really complicated things that one wants to do with voicemail so i thought i'd say things like applications and stupendous and did with crickets just to see how the transcription might work on the other hand it could be really good and i'll be in the east of this down did flabbergasted i just have a good the transcription today i'm also i look forward to receiving the message in email and if you email is good then maybe i'll try and get all of my phone calls to google voice the fact the war in iraq google is going to take care of the will i'm going to be there when they did"

If you'd like to try making Google Voice sound silly, call 202-525-6817 and leave a message! I'll post the interesting ones here.

UK government advocates open source

This is truly fantastic. The UK government has decided that, where there is little price difference between open source and commercial products, open source should be selected due to its inherent flexibility. The initiative is also promoting re-use of product evaluations, and has created an open forum where the public can view and contribute to the action plan. Great stuff!

Watch "The Damned United"

Even if you've never heard of Brian Clough or Leeds United, The Damned United promises to be as good as Frost/Nixon. Clough remains one of the most divisive figures in English football, even though he's been dead for years. This tells the story of his 44 days in charge of Leeds United and, written by Peter Morgan (who wrote The Queen and Frost/Nixon) and starring Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, and Jim Broadbent, it's got the story and cast to be truly special. Just like Cloughie.

Get this widget!

Medals medals medals

Team Great Britain did fantastically well at this year's Summer Olympics, beating all expectations and winning an unprecedented number of medals....even if many were in "The sitting down sports," as our Australian cousins noted.

However, Team GB has also done extraordinarily well in the Paralympics, as this table shows, coming second only to China in the medal count.

I'm not sure what Brits are putting in their tea these days, but it's working.

Can We Have A Referee?

The English Football Association has launched a campaign to improve how referees are treated in football. Part of that campaign is this fantastic video that features some very well-known ex-players and (some not so well-known) celebrities. Genius.