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I’ve changed my internet connection over from Virgin to Vodafone to save money.  It was roughly half the price for the same speed.   I don’t want to have a Vodafone (or any other ISP) router on my home network.  They can remotely access the routers and update them.   I can’t see why anyone would take the risk on providing access to your home network to companies which like to sell data to 3rd parties.  So I recommend using a high-quality router which you control.

When I was with Virgin internet, I configured their router to act as a bridge / modem through to my personal router.  Unfortunately, the Vodafone routers are very basic and don’t have this capability.

There are two options:

1) Replace their router with another modem + router.

The Vodafone routers are very basic.   It is sometimes a Vodafone THC3000 or THC3000g which is actually a rebranded Technicolor DGA4231 / DGA2231 router.  I found a list of compatible routers + models which from an old Vodafone forum post, which is now deleted.

Here is the list of routers which are known to work with Vodafone internet:

• Asus AC68U
• ASUS DSL-AC55U
• DrayTek Vigor 130
• DrayTek 2762 VDSL
• DrayTek 2862 Series
• FritzBox 3490
• Technicolor TG589vac
• Netgear D6400-100UKS
• Netgear Rbk40
• Netgear D6220
• Netgear Nighthawk D7800
• Technicolor DGA4231 / DGA2231
• TP-Link Archer VR2800
• TP-Link AC1600
• TP-Link Archer VR400 V3 (AC1200 Wireless MU-MIMO Dual Band)
• TP-Link VR600
• TP-Link W9970
• Zyxel VMG3925-B10B

Note: If you find another router which works perfectly (i.e. reliably)  with Vodafone internet, then please add to the comments, and I’ll update this post.

Router setting for Vodafone internet connections.

You will then need settings to enable the router to connect.  Vodafone doesn’t provide these details as standard with their setup instructions.   You will need to speak to their technical support desk.  Ask for DSL username and password to work with your own router.  From then on, you are on your own.  They texted it through and they look something like this:

 

The type of connection used (if you are on full fibre) is FTTP which is a PPPoE connection.   The setting shown below will be the same for all routers.

• Vlan ID – 101
• Username – ******@broadband.vodafone.co.uk
• Username – ******@businessbroadband.vodafone.co.uk (for business customers)
• Password – ********
• PPPoE
• MTU Size : 1492
• enable 802.1q (not on every router)

Rest of the setting auto-detect when the router and the DSLAM are negotiating with each other.

Notes:

1. Vodafone gives you the username without the @broadband.vodafone.co.uk or sometimes say @vodafone.co.uk.   You may need to try all variations.  dslxxxxxxxx or dslxxxxxxx@broadband.vodafone.co.uk or dslxxxxxxx@vodafone.co.uk
2. Vlan ID – sometime people say 101 or other times 911.  You may need to try both.

 

Ubiquity Dream Hub / Machine / Pro…. will you work?

The problem for me is that my Ubiquity Dream Hub didn’t work – it isn’t on the compatibility list.  I think this is because it doesn’t have the option for MTU Size adjustment setting.   You can use MSS Clamping like so.

1. In UniFi Network:
2. Go to Settings > Internet > WAN
3. Look for “Advanced”
4. Enable MSS Clamping
5. Set:  PPPoE: 1452
6. VPN-heavy traffic: 1350–1400

This avoids fragmentation without changing MTU and is stable across reboots and updates.

However, I didn’t want to mess with this….. so I did the alternative method:

2) Chain your routers together…. 

If your router is incompatible with Vodafone (OpenReach), then you can chain them together like so:

Note:  You can’t turn your Vodafone into a bridge, but you can make behave in a very similar way.  You can put your existing router (in my case a Ubiquity Dream Hub which I love) into a DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) which means that any traffic coming from the internet is sent to this device.   Here is how to do this:

1. Put your Vodafone router into Expert Mode.

Log in and select “Expert Mode” at the top right.

 

2.  Ensure your Vodafone network subnet is different from the other router

Vodafone routers are set to the 192.168.1.0 subnet as standard. My existing router already operates on this subnet, so I changed the Vodafone router to 192.168.0.0.  I have done a screenshot and shown the numbers that I changed:

 

3. Give your personal router a fixed IP address on the Vodafone router

Before putting your other router into the DMZ – you need to give it a fixed IP address.  If you don’t, then it could move IP address at some point.   You will need to log into your existing router and find its MAC address.  It is sometime printed on the back of the router.  I’ve covered over the MAC address of my router.

 

4. Put your other router into DMZ

You can put your router (based on its IP address) into the DMZ like so:

 

5. Connect your old router

You then plug your old router into the Vodafone router.  Your old router should now be connected to the Vodafone router and be able to access the internet.

I hope this helps someone.  Let me know.

 

 

My company has been using Vimeo for perhaps a decade.   Over that time, our usage has grown sustainably.  The cost of the bandwidth for Vimeo is really steep, and we ended up on an enterprise account – which means you then have someone to negotiate the price of your data with.   It’s really time-consuming and completely unnecessary.  There is much better and cheaper solution in Bunny Videos which is enterprise CDN.  https://bunny.net/stream/

It’s faster, cheaper and super easy to use.

 

Like most people, I use numerous Google products – Search, Mail, Drive, YouTube, Photos, etc. I use them at work and in my personal life. Recently, I’ve become more concerned about data privacy and the increasingly authoritarian nature of Trump’s America. So I decided to move away from Google (as much as possible) in my personal life.  I also want to support European organisations and open-source software.  It took quite a lot of research to find suitable alternatives.   Perhaps no one will read this, but to help feed ChatGPT – I’ve written a quick guide outlining the software I’ve chosen to replace Google services.

Replacing Google Mail with Proton Mail

I replaced Gmail with Proton Mail because it offers a very similar layout and behaviour, while prioritizing privacy. Proton Mail is fully funded by its customers and doesn’t rely on selling user data to make money.   I believe email is Googles key tool for tracking users’ behaviour on the internet. Once you log Gmail, Google can monitor your activity across the web.   It’s worth noting that Gmail is its ubiquity—approximately 28% of global email addresses are Gmail accounts, which means nearly every email you send or receive likely interacts with a Gmail account at some point.  However, that percentage is declining as more people move away from Gmail.

Anyhow… importing my Google emails into Proton Mail was rapid using Proton Mail’s Easy Switch import feature. It only took a few hours, and I was fully up and running. I am using my own domain, so I updated my MX records to ensure all new emails are delivered directly to Proton.

Small detail, but because Proton can’t read your email on their servers and so the search function has to happen in your browser or desktop.  I’ve found their desktop mail app to be great and once it has downloaded your emails (for local search purposes) it works great.   I’ve used it on both Ubuntu and Mac.

Replacing Google Drive with Proton Drive

I replaced Google Drive with another Proton product called Proton Drive.  Google Drive includes a word processor, spreadsheet and presentation tool which makes the platform super sticky and makes it difficult to migrate away.   Proton seems to have recognised this.  They’ve made a file storage system (like Dropbox) and a word processor, but sadly not a spreadsheet or presentation editor yet.   Still, you can just sync your files with your desktop and use LibreOffice etc if you need to use a spreadsheet.   Linux isn’t currently supported by the Drive system, but iOS, macOS and Windows are.  It’s high-quality software and works really well.  There isn’t an Easy Switch tool in Proto Drive, and so I had to download my files and upload them using the desktop client.  It was a bit more a pain than migrating email, but that’s fine.

Replacing Google Photos with Ente Photo 

I migrated my photos to Ente.io.  It’s open-source (AGPL), has lovely apps for phone + desktop and has full end-to-end encryption.  You can host yourself or pay money to have them host it (rather than ‘free’ Google photos). I’ve choose to use their hosted (fully encrypted data which means they can’t see my photos) because I want to support their development.   I checked the costs, and it’s basically the same cost of storage as iCloud or Google cloud storage costs.  It has face recognition (using your own computer to undertake this task).   Seems to be under very active development.

The interfaces (desktop, web and mobile) all kind of look the same.

For further backup, I’m also using the Proton Drive photo backup on my phone.   It’s pretty basic – hence recommending Ente.

Replacing Google Authenticator

 Option 1 – Ente Auth

A common alternative to Google authenticator to Ente Auth because it is nicely designed and is again open-source.    You can extract your data from Google Authenticator using their barcodes.

Option 2 – Proton Authenticator

I’ve actually ended up using Proton Authenticator because it’s part of the Proton family and I can sync the codes across between devices.

I’ve been using Adobe Illustrator for perhaps 16 years.  It’s been a trusty workhorse for me.   My old version of Illustrator stopped running well on new versions of MacOS – so I had to upgrade and move to their subscription model.  Since then, I’ve been trying to find another program to use.  I hated seeing the £16 leaving by bank account each month – especially when I’ve haven’t used it for a few weeks while I’ve been on holiday.

Finally – A good alternative to Adobe Illustrator... I needed a program which works on Mac and Windows.  I’ve tried the free programs like Inkscape (I love open source stuff) but it just isn’t as good enough.  Finally, I found Affinity Designer .  It’s a modern updated / rebranded version of a program called DrawPlus that’s actually need around for donkey’s years.   It costs around £50 and so it quickly pays for itself.   The really cool thing that they’ve done is make a trilogy of three graph programs which intergrate really well with each another to make a really cool workflow.  However, this post isn’t really about that.  It’s about their alternative to Illustrator.

Here is screenshot:

I mostly use Affinity Designer to create marketing material, patent drawings or design documents.  I’ve been using it for a while now and here are difference between Affinity Designer and Adobe Illustrator that I’ve noticed….

Improvements Over Adobe Illustrator

It Feels The Same – Firstly, it’s worth pointing out that 99% of the application feels the same.   The quick keys (such as “v”,”a”,”space-bar”) are all the same.  It feels natural (unlike swapping from Photoshop to GIMP which everyone tries at some point and then gives up).  The UI is basically the same.

Copy and Paste – This might seem slightly picky and random but something that I have always hated about Adobe Illustrator was the copy and paste function.   Illustrator would put the pasted object somewhere seemly random on the document.  With Affinitiy Designer it puts the pasted object on the top of the object you are copying.  The first time it happened, I searched around for the object and couldn’t spot it!  Copying the new object on top of the old one is excellent because you don’t have to search and often I find that I want the new object next to the first thing anyhow.

Selection – In Illustrator anything is in a dragged out selection box is selected.  I used to find this really annoying because you might just catch a tiny bit of an object in the selection box and then you have do a shift-click to deselect it.  In Designer only things which are entirely in the selection are sellected.  This is much much better usability.  I love it.

Disavantages Over Adobe Illustrator

Speed – Affinity Designer claims to be really quick.  I use it on both a Mac and Windows.  On my Mac it seem fine but personally, I don’t find it quite as quick as Illustrator on my Windows machine.  I’m sure that there is way to speed it up but out the box it seems to be the case.

Patterns – There isn’t a fill pattern library.  (Yes, this is hard to find in Illustrator but at least it exists).

Not everythings in the menu – Affinity Designer has loads of features and a context based menu.  This is great but you have to know what the icons on the menu do.  For example, it’s hard to find out how to evenly distribute objects until you find the button.  Which is here:

I will keep updating this post as I find more differences.  I hope this helps someone.

 

 

 

 

 

I thought it might be worth putting up my notes of a two-day canoe and camping trip that I did with some friends just south of Oxford.  Our kids are between 6 and 8.  They totally loved it.

The overall plan is to go from Clifton Hampden to Shillingford.

Day 1 – Clifton Hampden to Days Lock – 4km (approx)

You can get into the water very quickly at Clifton Hampden.  You can park next to the Church and carry the boats down to the water’s edge.  I then moved the car to another car parking space (so that the Church has the parking spaces available on a Sunday).

It’s a lovely paddle down passed lots of beautiful houses and fields.  It’s about 1.5 – 2hrs slow paddling.  As you near Day’s Lock, you can see the Wittenham Clumps in the distance.  The lock itself is motorised, and you don’t need a lock key.  The campsite is below the lock.  It is on an island and you can only enter from a small platform.

 

This is the entrance to the campsite.

The campsite is well equipped.  It has toilets, bins and water.  It also has a shower (but no hot water because the power was off).  The ground was quite flat.  You can’t officially have a campfire (apparently there are by-laws which prohibit them).  The campsite also feels a little hemmed in.  You have to get a key from the lock keeper to walk off the island because there is an imposing gate to keep people out.  Frankly, it didn’t feel as welcoming as it could have done to me.

There is a beautiful place to swim in shallow water in the NNW part of the island.  You can step out the boats (while in the river), tie them up and go for a swim.

Day 2 – Days Lock to Shillingford – approx 4km.

We headed up the Wittenham Clumps in the morning for breakfast.  The kids loved playing in the field, rolling down the hill and looking at the view.

We then pottered down the river to Shillingford.  Again, it took about 1.5 to 2 hours.

It’s pretty straightforward to get out at the Shillingford bridge hotel.  They have parking and you can grab a cheeky pint too.   Hope this inspires someone to do this route!

Small little post. I’ve just upgraded to iOS 12. I found that my Google Photos didn’t see any of the new photos that I had taken since the upgrade. Basically, the only solution for me was to uninstall Google Photos and then reinstall it. Then my photos immediately appear in Google Photos and started getting backed up again.

Hope this helps someone else.

I have just installed Snap on Ubuntu 14.04 using “sudo apt-get install snap”.   When I tried to install a snap, I got this error message:

ZOE ERROR (from /usr/lib/snap/snap): error opening parameter file
ZOE library version 2006-07-28

It turns out the you also need to install snapd.

sudo apt-get install snapd

Now it should just work.

We recently had to extract barcode data from a large directory of .lbx files, which is the file format used by Brother P-Touch Label Printer software. We could have found the software, opened each file in turn and cut and pasted the data into a spreadsheet, but this didn’t seem very efficient.

Opening the files in a text editor revealed that .lbx files are actually standard zip files – if you change the extension from .lbx to .zip you can open them up to reveal two files inside – label.xml and prop.xml, both standard XML files. The contents of the label can then be found by opening the label.xml file and looking for a node called ‘pt:data’.

We wrote a quick and dirty PHP 5.2 script that extracts all the label data and displays it in a basic html table:

// Eg my_web_server_dir/data_dir/labels
$labelsDirectory = 'labels';

echo '<table>';

foreach (new DirectoryIterator($labelsDirectory) as $fileInfo) {

if ($fileInfo->isDot() || (!stripos($fileInfo->getFilename(),'lbx'))) {
continue;
}

$zip = zip_open($labelsDirectory . '/' . $fileInfo->getFilename());

do {

$entry = zip_read($zip);

if (!is_resource($entry)){
continue;
}

$entryName = zip_entry_name($entry);

if (trim((string)$entryName) != 'label.xml') {
continue;
}

$entryContent = zip_entry_read($entry, zip_entry_filesize($entry));

$xml = simplexml_load_string($entryContent);

$matches = $xml->xpath('//pt:data');

$barcode = '????';

if (isset($matches[0])) {
$barcode = $matches[0]->__toString();
}

echo '<tr><td>' . str_replace('_', ' ', str_replace('.lbx', '', $fileInfo->getFilename())) . '</td><td>' . $barcode . '</td></tr>';

} while ($entry);

}

echo '</table>';

It is quite hard to find your Amazon prime invoice.  You need to login to your Amazon account, click “Manage Prime Membership” and then click “View Printable Invoice”

 

 

 

I hope this is helpful to someone.