The power of Lok Box

I attended a technical training for Lok Technology at the 3rd floor office of IDS in Creative Building. It was just infront the Strategy tower, so it is only a walk away from our office. The training location was on the Qualacom Datacenter conference room. It was conducted by Russ Grant, the technical consultant and a former technical manager of American Airlines.

The product was more of an all in one network appliance which covers all basic network services needed for an ISP operation. As they say it is like a ISP solution in a box. With one box you can have a bandwidth manager, firewall, intrusion detection, router, proxy server/web cache, billing server, RADIUS, etc. It is like a box of network goodies rolled into one. Imagine putting up an ISP with only 1 box in your rack. Of course, as a technical guy, we always ask about its performance. In a appliance like this, we always ask, in what service does it perform best? As a bandwidth manager and a firewall? As a proxy server and RADIUS? Or just as a billing server. But with altogether you run them all, then we ask about its limitation, reliability and mean time before failure. It is basically a new box, although its inventor Simon Lok a very popularly known scientist-genius, who was noted by his colleague as tech crazy, for using a 3D eye glass as his monitor, is quite long in the networking business already.

The training was quite informative, mostly discussing the features of the Lok Box. With all those features, i dont think 2 days is enough if we would like to discuss everything. But in summary, configuration is very simple. A GUI console accesible by a web browser and then you read click, read click. Hmmm, those CCNA fanatics will never like this box, typing commands on the console is quite cool than clicking on those window based console hehehehehe.

The training ended 2 pm, and I have go back to the office. Friday, i was told to visit CommunicAsia exhibits to source out some network solutions available in the market. Then, at friday afternoon, i was told to stay because Bangladesh visitors are coming, and i have to present Lok box. Then, night came, nobody came..of course it is the last day of CommunicAsia, those guys are already drunk and prancing around bars and clubs before going home to their country.

Well....we still have the Net to surf.........

kay bisaya man gud

haay kakapoy ba aning kinabuhia, sa balay inenglis, sa opisina eninglis napod kay wala man ta kauban nga pinoy. wa na ako englis nahurot na, usahay lami kaayo magsinggita ug bisaya para makaistorya pod ko. Usahay tawn magistorya ko ako kaugalingon para lang makabisaya ko. Naa pod ko mga kadula ug badminton, puro pod tagalog, dili gihapon ko ka bisaya, haaaay kakapoy ba ani. Usahay matingala ko ani mga intsik diri, mga sapian man unta pero pirti kahilig ug mugbo nga sinena. Maorag ang mini o micro ba tawag ana, pirti kauso, pastilan kita tawn nga gikan sa layong syudad, mag cge na lang pangag-ho.Ho!!! Naa poy uban diri nga pirit kahilig ug high tech na apil bakos naa gadagan dagan nga LED nga suga. Pastilan magkatawa na lang ko ako ra usa, kulang ani nila antenna sa ulo para mahimong robot.

Sa tinood na lang gabidlion nako cge kaon aning pansit nga sabaw nila, dili nako kasabot sa pagkaon. Tungod tawon sa ako kaignorante, pa sosyal lagi order pod ko Korean food daw, pastilan pirti kahalang, lami kaayo isyagit ug tabang, ug lain pa ra ba diri kay ang drinks lahi ug palitan nga corner, pastilan pirti nang halanga, galuha na ako mata. Mao lagi na magbasa basa, unsaon nga inintsik man pod nakabutang didto unsaon nako pagkabalo nga halang tu.

Bilib pod ko diri kay ang bus didito ra jud mohunong sa bus stop. Ako nga ignorante lagi, pag abot sa bus doul sa ako gipuy-an puypuy dayon maorag pinas ba, tweeet tweew!! ayay dili amn diay pwede, gitan-aw ra tawn ko sa driver nga natingala. Hulat pa tawn ko pila ka minutos ayha nihunong ang bus didto sa sunod nga bus stop. Mao!!! baktas napod ko pabalik. Samot ta kaniwang ani diri.

Ganahan pod ko diri, kay uso ang sapyot! heheheh sa pilipinas maulaw ta inshirt kay wa lagi ta sampot, apan diri pastilan kadaghan ga insert, way mga sampot. So kita para sunod sa uso, inshirt pod ta, tutal daghan bitaw mi sapyot...hehehe lipay pod ko.

Naa pod ni mga indiyan diri, nga wala ko kasabot ngano pirti kabaho sa ilahang mga ilok. Moarag wala gani sila kaila unsa nang tawas, basta hapon na ting pamauli, pastilan maorag lami na kaayo dili moginhawa sa bus. Mo utong na lang ka pagayo, hangtod ka mga mo kaging para dili nimo masimhot ilaha ilok.

Pero ako lang pansin, pirti ka mga slim ani mga intsik diri, kargado man gud sila ug baktas. Uso kay baklay diri, mao na baklay lang pod ko. Dha tawn sa ato kada corner sakay, tapos hunong bisan asa, diri tawn kung imo opisina isa ka kilometro sa bus stop, wa ka choice baktas ka paingon didto. Gusto ka hatod didto, sakay ka taxi nga pirti kamahal. Plete sa bus 65 cents, sa taxi paglingkod nimo 2 dollars na. Sa ato 60 pesos na. So baktas na lang ta...para tipid.

Haay ok na, napagawas na nako ako bisaya.....diri na lang ko kutob.

My own corner in the office

From Suntec City Tower One, we have transferred to International Business Park. The Strategy last Monday. I have spend my whole Sunday afternoon, putting all the PC of my colleagues in their respective cubicles. And I was happy since I was given my own cubicle and a table, not really a big one but having your own private corner to work is much better. The office was really big, wide and beautiful, with all the view of the garden around us. It is like working in the center of the park, where you see the plants, birds and the small fountain from your table. It was really nice, much better since the company's CEO has declared one big room at the side of the conference room as my IT laboratory and testing room. Hmmm at last, before in Philcom i have place myself in server room just to have a test area, and here they are giving me the whole room. Well, the problem as of now i still dont have nothing to test except for a lone win2000 server, 2 wireless access point, 1 small USB voip gateway and a lot of UTP cables. Well, the only difference is that i have my own laptop to use, a silver color with white plastic outline DELL Inspiron 630m, which makes it like a MAC notebook from afar. To make it more MAC-like i use the FlyakiteOSX to change the Windows theme. Hmmm, everybody in the office were asking me then, why i am using Mac.

Late this afternoon, i have spent my whole time trying to think ways how to crack the administrator password of the Win2000 server given to me. I ended asking the help from KLUG mailing list. While waiting for their response, i also made my own googling around the net, looking for the solution. Burn a CD with EBCD software, and boot it up. Reset the machine adminstrator password to none and reboot Win2k server to directory server restore mode and then go to registry and edit some keys as instructed by www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

the badminton fever goes on

I was invited by my indonesian room mate for a badminton tournament at Bukit Gumbah Sports hall this morning. Didi my Indonesian friend, decided that we walk in going to Sports Hall. The view in going there was quite beautiful and nice, especially the lake beside the road.Then at the sports hall, there were 6 Filipinos also waiting for us. They are SAP programmers/administrators working for HP, Levis, Creative Tech, Sony and Panasonic. I am with a software developers group and i am the only one who works with hardware. The badminton was good enough with the 3 Filipinos who are quite good and my Indonesian room mate Ari was also a good smasher. I was still adjusting to my brand new Yonex Carbonex 8000 racket at this moment..heheheh...in CDO, this racket was just a dream. However, i still want to have that 200SGD racket which cost 13K in Philippines...hopefully. Well, at least for now i am happy that i can play badminton now to ease my homesickness.

Whats in a name?....Kristian

at last after 4 days and i am back in Singapore. We go by bus and only paid 30Ringgits for the one way trip. Actually, Malaysia is just a bridge away from Singapore. It was always raining hard in Kuala Lumpur, so we have to take a taxi cab wherever we go. People in Malaysia were generally a mixed race of Malay, Indian and Chinese. Since, we Filipinos has the same facial features with them, it always ends up that they talk to me in Malay language. Well, i just smiled and sheepishly telling them " No Malay, only English". But one thing that really suprises me when, i was asked by our Malaysian colleague by my name. I answered. "I am Kristian". "Ahhhh, he quips. "Your name is very familiar, you know Jericho?....Pangako Sa Yo? My God! i never realized that Jericho Rosales was so popular here that everyone knows her character name in that telenovela Pangako Sa Yo. They were smiling and telling me, how they watched everyday Pangako Sa Yo every night with their family. It was quite a surprising information for me, however it puts a little pride in my face for such recognition by one of our actors Jericho Rosales.

Well, also i remember last time when my Indonesian roommate told me how popular is Christian Bautista in Indonesia. At least, our fellow countrymen have brought pride to us through their talents. Perhaps, if i go to Indonesia soon, my name would still be very familiar...hopefully.

The amazing Petronas Twin Towers of Malaysia

Wow!!! was all i can say....it was really quite amazing and a spectacular sight at night.  It is a world landmark for Malaysia, and it is really beautiful, specially at night with all those lights. We are to meet that night a guy from an ISP based here in Malaysia, for a dinner meeting. So we walked around together with my colleague looking for a good place to eat. It was quite really amusing because my Indian friend is looking for spicy foods, while I am for the non spicy ones. Two different taste from two different worlds...At last, we meet the guy and his technical manager at Suria KLCC. It is a crescent shaped restaurant located at the foot of the Twin Tower. Really, as i was looking up the towers, i know i have only seen this in the Internet, but now here i am dining at its very foot...hmmmmm lucky me...perhaps.

We stayed at Micasa hotel, a 5 star all suite hotel in Kuala Lumpur. It is really a good place, and we paid about 200Ringgits per night for the accomodation. It was quite expensive really when you convert it into peso but in Singapore dollars, it is the cheapest yet high class suite already. The room is very wide with all the amenities inside, even a complimentary chocolate bars.It is one room that i have never sleep in before. In Manila, it would cost you 2000 for a night just to lay on that bed. Yeah, nice bed, nice room and nice place, but we have come here to work, so not really to enjoy the sights. Perhaps next month i have to come back here for a site survey on this hotel. We are currently talking with our partner here in Malaysia, to connect this whole place to the Internet wirelessly. So many foreigners are living here and you bet, Internet is one service that they would like to have.

TrainSignal CWNA Video

I tried searching for Wireless reference with Bitlord and i found one torrent on Train Signal Wireless. It is one of the best training video i have watched so far when it comes to wireless. I have spend my whole afternoon watching the videos...I am quite alone today because my two Indonesian room mates were out watching the movie Xmen 3. The demonstration on Netstumbler, AirMagnet, Airdefense and Qcheck were quite very interesting. Also the demo on WEP and WPA cracking using the AirCrack tool. Well, i have to prepare my clothes for I have to be in Lavender MRT by 7 am. I can take a bus going Bukit Batok and has to spend 30 minutes in MRT I guess to arrive there. Malaysia is just very near Singapore and you can take a bus in going there. Well, gotta sleep now........

Malaysia Trip

I was told by our Sales Manager that i have to prepare for a Malaysia trip this Monday. We will be meeting an ISP there who has a project in a 5 star hotel. The project is wifi hotspot for all the 290 rooms, 3 restaurants, 2 conference rooms and the whole building lobbies. We have to convince this ISP that we are the experts on this kind of thing...brrrrr and do you know who is the expert they were referring to?.....ME.

The letter send to them reads like this,..our wireless technical specialist will be coming also to discuss technical details on the project. I have done test on 10 different radios but hotspot as big like this..not yet. But, again...once technical always technical...It is just a matter of signal mapping, getting the location of access points, getting signal strength and plotting the signal into a diagram. AirMagnet surveyor is the expert on that, although it cost 2000 USD. So for this trip, i just have to use Netstumbler to get SNR, Signal Strength, Noise margin, etc.

Well, i dont have a digital camera, so no pictures for this Malaysia trip, but somehow i am quite sure i will be going back there for many times. Hopefully, we got this project so i have something to be busy about for the whole year.