Getting your Wireless Router to work with Windows 7

Posted on April 5, 2009 by Glen McNamee

Since my Windows XP install has been misbehaving lately, I have been experimenting with using Windows 7 as my primary operating system. I’m doing this as I’ve had a play with the public beta of Windows 7 and I like it, it’s a massive improvement on Windows Vista, and because being an early adopter of Windows XP worked out very well for me.

I did have one rather problematic issue. My wireless router would been randomly become unavailable for wireless connected devices, and I could not connect to the Wireless Basic config webpage via my main PC which has a wired connect to the router. A reboot of router would resolve the problem, but only temporarily.

After a bit of investigation I discovered that the problems was with Internet Protocol Version 6. IPv6 is enabled by default in Windows 7 however a lot of older routers, such as my Linksys WRT54G, do not support it. To prevent this issue I need to disable IPv6 in Windows 7. I suspect this will be a common problem for people moving from Windows XP to Windows 7 so I’ve including a quick how-to guide below.

How to disable IPv6 in windows 7.

Open up the Network and Sharing Center (via the item on the task bar or the control panel)

Under View your active networks click on Local Area Connection.

Click on the Properties button

Untick Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) and then click OK.

This will disable IPv6 and therefore resolve any IPv6 related router problems.

Update

Very popular post this, so I’ve added some extra information.

This post was written for people migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7, however the advice above should also work for Windows Vista as it also supports IPv6.

If you continue to have problems check for other devices on your network (Laptops, etc) that may use IPv6 and disable it on them too, if this doesn’t work then check out the Router Manufacturer’s Website. (e.g. WRT54G)

Playing PC games with a Wiimote

Posted on February 22, 2009 by Glen McNamee

I’ve found out recently that it is possible to use a Wiimote to play PC games, so I thought I would share.

What you’ll need

A Wiimote
A Bluetooth Enabled PC (or Bluetooth Dongle)
BlueSoleil bluetooth software (this method doesn’t appear to work for me with Microsoft’s own Bluetooth Stack)
GlovePie

Connecting the Wiimote

Make sure your Bluetooth is turned on.

There should be a Bluetooth Places icon on your desktop. Click it.

Before connectting the Wiimote, it needs to be discovered and added to bluetooth places. This needs to be done once for all Wiimotes you are planning to use. Just click the Search Devices icon. A torch icon will indicate that the software is searching for bluetooth devices.

Now press buttons 1 and 2 on the Wiimote. This will put the Wiimote into discovery mode, so that bluetooth software can find it. A new bluetooth device, called Nintendo RVL-CNT-01 will appear in bluetooth places now. If you have problems getting your Wiimote connected, try pressing “1″ and “2″ on the wiimote first and then click on the “Search Devices” icon.

Right click on the icon and choose Connect.

A window should pop up, stating that the software is trying to connect to the Wiimote. Again press 1 and 2 on the Wiimote.

When the connection attempt is successful, the blue parts of the Nintendo RVL-CNT-01 and the My Device icon will turn green. The Wiimote’s LEDs will continue flashing.

Configuring the Wiimote

You Wiimote is not connect to your PC, so now you need to configure it using GlovePie

Extract the GlovePie zip file to a new directory.

Run the GlovePIE.exe file you extracted.

Choose File > Open from the GlovePIE menu, and load the TestWiimote.PIE file.

Press the Run button. The title bar should say “[Running]“, the Run button should change to a stop button, and the “debug” box should appear next to the stop button.

Move the Wiimote around and see if the values in the debug box change. They should be horizontal, vertical, and forwards-backwards movement in that order. Gravity also affects them.

Go to any program (notepad will work) and try pressing the buttons on the Wiimote. They should emulate the appropriate keys on the keyboard.

When you have finished, click the Stop button in GlovePIE.

Once you confirm this is working you can try one of the many other GlovePie Scripts in the Wiimote Scripts directory, or you can define your are own script as I have done below.

These keys can be defined however you want (check the wiili forum for more details). When you are happy press the run button.

You should be able to configure the Wiimote to do almost anything. You can even use the Wiimote to play emulated games. Early today my son and I have been playing Wizball and International Karate using WinVice and Golden Axe and Gauntlet using Kega Fusion.

Pong to Kong

Posted on February 20, 2009 by Glen McNamee

pongtokong1 During this weeks school half-term holidays the boy, my big sister and I visited the Pong To Kong exhibition at Dorman Museum. This exhibition traces the origins of electronic games in 1972 up to the present day. (The title would suggest it goes from Pong (1972) to Donkey Kong (1981) but I guess they couldn’t find a modern game to rhythm with Pong)

It has lots of computers, consoles and handhelds on display (Over 100) and even lets you try out some. Computers such as the Philips G7000 (I had one of these), C64 (surprisingly the king of computers does not have pride of place, or a crown or anything), Spectrum (a 48k rubber keys type, my favourite), BBC micro, but interestingly no Amiga or ST.

All the major game consoles are also on display in generation order, from Magnavox Odyssey and Atari 2600, to Sega Master System and Nitendo Entertainment System all they way to Playstation 3 and Wii (although curiously the XBox 360 is missing despite the XBox being displayed in the generation before). There is a lots of handhelds from the Game and Watch to the Nintendo DS via the Atari Lynx and the bizarre Nintendo Visual Boy.

The exhibition also has a stand briefly looking at how a modern game is made; the development of the microprocessor; and the history of Blitz Games Studios, a British independent games developer set up by the Oliver Twins best known for creating the Dizzy series of computer games.

The pnly problem I have with the exhibition is that is a bit small, but other than that I would recommended if you are on Teesside before it closes on 28th June 2009 you should go and see it especially if you have kids (the boy loved it).

A busy month and a new camera.

Posted on July 30, 2008 by Glen McNamee

July has proved an eventiful month. Work has taken me to Colnbrook, Attrichingham, Blackpool and Lytham (twice) and The family and I went away this weekend to Legoland for our Second (ahem) trip in the last year, getting the last drops out of annual passes before they run out.

Hopefully you’ll have noticed In the last post that I took a large number of pictures, this is because I got myself a new digital camera. I bought this Samsung NV4 as I think It is a great looking camera, with a good number of features and doubles as a mp3/video player as well, so I’m very happy with it.

I bough it last Friday as I wanted a new camera because the battery in my old Sony 3.2MP camera had packed in, and this one was much smaller and sexier camera. I also wanted it before I went away for the weekend and so I could take pictures of both the Legoland trip and the Holiday to Ireland I am on next week.

Yes, I am on holiday in Ireland next week, but don’t worry, the blog will still be updated.

Thanks, Apple!

Posted on July 21, 2008 by Glen McNamee

Not only do I have to install crappy Quicktime when I update iTunes (which I only use because it’s the only decent podcast client available), but you also ask me if I want to install Safari. That would not have been so bad had you not installed it anyway even though I had I clicked ‘no’.

Shove that and your overrated iPhone up Steve Jobs’ arsehole.

My cable connection.

Posted on June 4, 2007 by Glen McNamee

My cable connection today is very very slow. It's seems Virgin Media are doing some 'Planned Maintenance' which has reduced my 20Mb line (of three days) to about a .5Mb Line.

Speed

Swines.

Belated Happy New Year!

Posted on January 8, 2007 by Glen McNamee

We stayed in on new years eve this year. It seems staying in is the new going out, as a lot of other people I know didn’t bother going out either.

Anyway I promised you a new years resolution update, so lets first of all look at last years resolutions – and how well I did.

Stop downloading specialist video files – Failed, I stopped and restarted several times.
Everyday is a school day. Study for my ITIL and take the exam in February and keep going after this. – Passed(ish), I took and passed the ITIL exam, but no in February. No other learning was done
Spend less time mindlessly browsing the Internet – Failed, miserably. I'm worse than ever now.
Keeping going to the Gym, and find some more activities to do. – Failed, miserably. Bearly went to the gym at all this year.
Clear my Debts – Failed, I payed of some debt, and worked out a plan to clear the rest.
Improve social skills – Failed, miserably.
Stop fucking swearing (boom-boom) – Failed, miserably.
Improve my Basic English skills. – Failed, miserably.

And here this years goals, there is a lot more of them.

Read, Read, Read – Try and read 50 books by Christmas
Blog More – A least one update a week
wake up when my alarm clock goes off (The most difficult task in the world to me)
Spend less time fooling around on the net and more time actually working
Exercise regularly – Need to exercise daily and go the gym at least once a week
drink more water – (Drink less Tea and more water)
learn. learn. learn something everyday
get out of debt – (by paying off credit cards and not buying anything I don’t need)
stop procrastinating
be more patient (be less short tempered)
be more social

I also have these as long terms goals, but I don’t think I’ll get them done this year;
Buy a House
Perform stand-up comedy (perhaps I’ll never do this one)
Write comedy
Write a book and have it published

As I promised last year I'll keep you updated.

Repartition?

Posted on January 4, 2007 by Glen McNamee

Aye, after several hours of waiting Partition Magic deleted my Data partition. It's completely unrecoverable as I was attempting to merge it with another partition. So I've lost all my website work, Music (including the only copies of stuff I wrote), emulators and and ten thousand odd roms.

Cocks.

Well this update has been a while coming

Posted on August 30, 2006 by Glen McNamee

Originally I planned to tell you things about further problems with the car and the computer (After praising for Overclockers.co.uk for their RMA process, it’s seem I was mislead by their lazy Support Staff. Thus they have wasted both my time, money and patience. I definitely do not recommend Overclockers as they are a bunch of cocks), but something much more important has happened over the last few days which I'll tell you about in a bit.

No More Home Internet Problems

Posted on April 21, 2006 by Glen McNamee

So a nice ntl man came to my house on Thursday and replaced the trusty five year old Motorola Suftboard 4100 with an ntl 250 cable modem which is only about a quarter of the size, and he also replaced the overly large cable I had roped around the back of desk with a much shorter one.

Which means my home internet works again. Hurrah!

Glen McNamee

My Personal Blog

Category Archives: Technology