What the hell is this WGA trying to do?

That day I tried to browse using Firefox with my laptop, then my F-Secure Client Security popped up this alert on an unauthorized attempt to connect some site. After reading the alert, I was puzzled, it said that WgaTray.exe was trying to act as an Internet Server, WGA, which is the short form for Microsoft's notorious Windows Genuine Advantage. No doubt my laptop is using an original, genuine, licensed, whatever you call it, copy of Windows XP Professional Edition. So I'm not getting this due to what piracy issue, or anything related to it.


First, I was trying to access Maybank2u.com.


Then I tried Google. Notice Maybank2u.com went timeout when I chose to deny its access.


Same goes with Dictionary.com.


YouTube anyone? Dictionary timed out too after I clicked Deny.



And finally it showed me this, it's an UDP protocol, notice the IP address, Any IP address?! You gotta be kidding...

The interesting part is, which ever site I tried to browse using Firefox, WgaTray.exe will try to connect that site too. If I choose allow, it will load the site, if I clicked deny, the page will eventually went timed out, what the? WGA prevents Firefox to access internet in this case? At first I thought those sites has what affiliation with Microsoft, which to help them verify the genuineness of the user's copy of Windows, but soon I gave up that idea, because when I tried to browse the same site with Internet Explorer, nothing happens. I didn't get any alert from my client security, and the site loaded perfectly. This is indeed strange...


It works like wonder when using IE!


Time for some video... Eerrr.. with IE? No way!


What the hell is this WGA trying to achieve here? I googled around, but couldn't find any info on this, perhaps my well known poor searching skill failed to obtain any result... So any experts out there has any idea?

I have auto update turned on, and Windows will automatically install what ever updates for me, who knows what the hell it installed for me that causing this! Dang!

My Yahoo! Mail Beta layout screwed up!

That day I accidentally dragged the border of the left frame in my Yahoo! Mail Beta, and it expanded wider. I tried to drag it back to the original size, but no prevails.

Then another day, I accidentally double click the border of the mail listing frame, again, it expanded longer to the bottom, then this itchy hand of mine tried to double click it few more times, it continued to expand until it reached the bottom and can't expand anymore. As you can guess, no matter what and how I tried, I can't make it back to the original height.


Oh yeah, the fat and the tall... sheeshh!

And there, my main Yahoo! Mail layout now completely ruined and screwed. I can no longer previewing the mail at the bottom, only able to read them from a new tab.

Any expert out there has any idea how to fix it? Ya, it happens only in my workstation Firefox, no problem on my laptop or other browsers. Probably clear the cache or the browser settings or something can help? I am thinking to revert back classic version then change back to this Beta one, no idea whether it works or not though...

UPDATED:
Solution found! I discovered that Yahoo! kept the layout info in your cookie! So, clear or delete your Yahoo! Mail cookie will restore back the original layout!


Look at the Content field of my mail.yahoo.com cookie, that should be my layout info.


I deleted the cookie and everything back to normal! HOORAY!

SLI in da house!

Setting up a SLI system has always been most gamers' dream, ever since the original version 3dfx Voodoo series. After nVidia acquires 3dfx, they recreate this dream a couple of years back in their famous GeForce line graphic card.

Eerrr.. what's a SLI? Simply put, it's just a technology to let user uses 2 similar graphic cards as 1. Imagine having 2 engines in a car, how fast can this baby goes? Hahaha! Wouldn't it be expensive? Yupe, like everything else in the world, this is just another using money to buy time/performance idea, a luxury toy, that's why I call it a dream in the first place.

When I bought my rig around 2 years ago, I already have this idea to setup a SLI, of course I'm that loaded, couldn't straight get 2 graphic cards in 1 go, but the system specs were definitely toward this idea. The card I bought is Leadtek Winfast PX6600 GT TDH, best affordable mid range card at that time. Around 2 years later, I got myself another one, second hand, which cost almost 4 times cheaper when I first bought it. Sigh, everyday things obsolete, and computer stuffs are the most significant of them.

I got the other card plugged in, and connected them with the SLI bridge. After booted into Windows, it detected the extra card and setting up the driver, but when I tried to go in the Display properties, it doesn't show any SLI thingy, that's odd. A quick check to the motherboard manual, found out that I need to adjust some jumpers so enable it, hahaha, should have check thoroughly first.














SLI in da house!





























Notice the copper fan underneath the graphic card, that's the troublesome heatsink fan.

After restarted, things seem to be in order now, there's a SLI menu to enable the setup, so far so good. Now of course time to test out the performance, I loaded up 3DMark05, a 3D graphic benchmarking program, and proceed to the tests. Wow, the frame rate showed almost 80% increment, which is really good! And when I was excited and satisfied with the result, suddenly a "beep beep beep" sound snapped me awake. It was from my motherboard, sound like this usually means there's something wrong with your hardware. I quickly canceled the test and jump back to Windows, and the screen was showing my motherboard chipset, the nForce 4 SLI, having a whopping temperature of 71 degrees celcius!!

Previously the heatsink fan on this chip was dead, and I had to replace it with another one as recommended in the motherboard forum. The temperature after I installed the new heatsink fan was not much different with the dead one. Now it proves I did a bad job installing it. The heatsink is not really designed for the motherboard so it's kinda loose. Sigh, now I had to redo the whole process again, and this involves taking out the motherboard from the case, remove the heatsink, clean it and attach it again, which is damn troublesome!!

This time I stick the thing in a different position, which seems quite secure even after the graphic card plugged in above it. The temperature monitor shows a figure of around 60 degrees, good, acceptable temperature after CPU overclocked and SLI enabled.

Finally I can proceed to test my baby in action! Here's some result I've got:


How many people has the chance to setup a SLI? Most of them just thinking better upgrade to a better card instead of spend more on obsolete model. But frankly, it's really cool when seeing 2 cards in action, I've experienced it, I've done it, and that's what matters.

Dog shit luck!

Today is Selangor holiday, went to pasar with mum and my niece, had my favorite meehoon soup there, and went back around 11am something.

My internet was still in that half working condition, unable to access some web sites, and can't login to MSN. Damn, by that time, I was certain it's my router modem fault, which caused by the new firmware I updated. With nothing better to do, again, I started to working on all the settings in the web interface of my router, hoping to solve the problem.

After an hour of trials and errors, it seemed nothing much I can do with this firmware, I have to accept the fact that it's not working, at least for me. With no other choice, I turned to the Solwise's router firmware. After flashed, the familiar web interface displayed once again when login to the router. I tried to load the websites that I was not able to get in when using the RouterTech's firmware. Great, everything seemed back to normal, I can access them as well as login to MSN messenger. Suddenly, this stubborn and greedy thought came to my mine: "Probably now if I flashed back to the RouterTech's firmware, it will work too?" Thinking of if it couldn't work also, I can still use back this working Solwise's firmware, I flashed my router, again.

Did I succeed? No, I still can't access some websites and can't login using that stupid MSN messenger. So, I guess that's bye bye to this great firmware. For the 3rd time today, I updated my router's firmware again. Hhmmm... why the login page still the orange, yellowish RouterTech's layout? Dang, why was it still remained the same firmware? I was sure the flashing process was successful! OK, OK, maybe some glitches, flash again should clear things up, so I flashed, and flashed, and flashed! 3 times in a row, but I still getting this bugger page! I was started to get frustrated, I turned to an application that is found on the RouterTech forum, developed by the router chip maker, Texas Instrument, the TI Remote Application, a Windows program that interacts directly to the router, which has options to update the router's firmware, settings, etc.

This app has quite confusing UI, I tried to setup the environment again, but nothing happened. Without any info and help, I was on trials and errors again. My frustration had reached a new high, with clouded mind, I just simply chose a firmware file that came along with this app, which I was not exactly sure whether it's working for my router or not. And suddenly the program collapsed, showing the Windows exception message. My heart dropped along with it, I went to check the router, all lights were on, OMFG! I screwed the damn router! I tried to switch off and on again, same. Fortunately I can still access the router with that TI Remote Application, but now I was getting this "Flash erase failed" message! Wow, did I somehow screwed the flash memory?? I tried and tried and tried, the switch network function was still there coz I can access my sis's PC, just that the router and modem function totally gone due to corrupted firmware.

"I screwed up, now no choice but to buy a new router and modem. The Linksys combo Chean just bought is my first choice. But dang, gonna spend few hundred bucks again!" This was what in my mind over and over again at that time. I was tired and frustrated, I just stopped everything and went to play a few hours game. Hahaha! After that, I decided to try one more time. First, I accidentally uploaded the settings I backup when I first tried to flash the firmware, then I was like what the heck, try the RouterTech firmware and see. To my surprise, I didn't get the "Flash erase failed" message, it proceeded with the erase and flashing process. Successful! My eyes almost popped out when I saw this, and quickly went to check the modem, restart it, oh yeah, everything back to normal!

I was so glad!

Somemore with bonus, now I am using the RouterTech 3rd party firmware with enhanced features + I was able to access all websites and MSN again, everything is working fine now! HOORAY!!

P/S: Probably I will write a step by step firmware upgrade guide for the Aztech 600ER router modem later...

Upgrading my Aztech 600ER router modem firmware

On Saturday, because all alone at home and nothing better to do, I went to google and searched for any firmware update for my router modem, the Aztech 600ER. This bugger has giving me nothing but disappointment, slow auto connection, sluggish web interface, sometimes can't even load the page out after switch it on for few days. All these even makes me wondering my BT so slow whether because its uneffective routing/load balancing or the damn TMnut!

This was not the first time I tried to search the firmware, but this time, I decided to be more patient, and browsed those results one by one. To my surprise, I found something in Lowyat.NET forum that has something about this modem firmware. It appears that there's a company known as Solwise, has a router modem, with the same model code, as my Aztech, the Solwise SAR-600ER. Both of them using the same chipset, technologies, specs, even the design is exactly the same! Damn you Aztech, can't even come out an unique model of your own?!

One of the forumer suggested to upgrade the Solwise's firmware, which is exactly same as the Aztech, except it's newer and should be better. OK, sounds good, when trying to download the firmware, there's a link to another website, it turns out to be a 3rd party made firmware! Wow, 3rd party firmware always provides more features and frequent bug fixes! Without hesitation, I ventured to RouterTech.com, a site that provides updates, infos and self made firmwares for the AR7WRD and AR7RD type router. It appears that many company is using 2 of these chips for their router modem, including my Aztech 600ER, which is an AR7RD type, and the firmware should be suitable for routers of these types.

So I read through some related articles and posts, until I think I have enough knowledge to flash the firmware and rescue infos in case anything went wrong. OK, the deciding moment, I started the flashing procedure... Well, so far so good. After rebooting the router, it showed the RouterTech screen at the login page! And this was the starting of my nightmare. I continued to struggle at guessing the username and password, both in the web interface, and telnet terminal, it was really a frustrating process! The environment settings that suppose to be there were not there, I need to telnet to the router back and forth, restarting again and again to make things work!

With hours of struggling, finally everything seemed to be what it supposed to be. Now time to MSN and report my successful adventure to my friends... WTF?! I can't login to MSN messenger, try MSN.com, it just forever waiting, and some of the websites too, including RouterTech.com, which means I can't get any further info for my problem. I can connect using GAIM, but not MSN Messenger. Probably TMnut issue? Coz I did experience similar case before. So I decided to wait for another day...

Whole day has passed, and I yet to able to load those websites, nor login to MSN using MSN Messenger, this doesn't look good...