Thorny Issues

Get Usage Stats from Netgear DG834G Router

2009-09-03T14:43:00.009+01:00

After being on the receiving end of an FUP violation from Demon for about 3 weeks, I decided that I’d write a utility to monitor my own Broadband usage, seeing as Demon does not provide this facility.

Initially I tried off-the-shelf applications like PRTG and Router Stats but they did not fit the bill for various reasons, not least the poor SNMP support on the DG843G router.

Then I stumbled upon a telnet reference that extracted the upload and download stats from my router.

After hacking some vbscript about a bit I produced the code below. Now, before you flame me for my poor code let me just say that I am not a professional programmer and only attempt this sort of thing once in a blue moon.

The purpose of the code is to log the router’s stats to a text file on a regular basis. This file can then be imported into Excel (or another application of your choice) for graphing etc.

The code produces a three column text file that looks like this:-

06/09/2009 08:00:00    2566906384    420938933
06/09/2009 08:15:00    2567674326    421835475
06/09/2009 08:30:00    2571321533    425060305
06/09/2009 08:45:00    2571606416    426546073
06/09/2009 09:00:00    2571722487    430474825
06/09/2009 09:15:00    2571827612    430826412
06/09/2009 09:30:00    2571883066    431213154
06/09/2009 09:45:00    2571932634    431365976
06/09/2009 10:00:00    2572103375    432212404
06/09/2009 10:15:00    2572240782    432670760

The Date/timestamp is a single column, the uploaded, and the downloaded byte counts are tab separated.

Setting the Task Scheduler to run this script every 15 minutes does the job for me.

A little manipulation in Excel enables me to produce usefull charts, like this one:-

Step-by-step guide to set this up:

1. Create a folder called C:\Utils

2. Go to http://tech.dimac.net/ and download the free "w3sockets" DLL.

3. Unpack the above into C:\Utils and run "SocketReg.exe

4. Create a text file called C:\Utils\RouterUsageStats.vbs

5. Copy the code , below, into this file

6. Edit the file and change the router address to your own.

7. Activate the Netgear's Telnet feature by going to http://192.168.2.1/setup.cgi?todo=debug

(substitute the address with your own). This will produce a page saying "Debug Enable!"

8. Double click C:\Utils\RouterUsageStats.vbs to run the script

9. Check the C:\Utils folder for a new file called "C:\Utils\Usage.log"

10. If the above works OK then setup a task schedule to run the script as frequently as you want.

11. Your data will accumulate in the above log file

12. I use Excel to model this data

RouterUsageStats.vbs
' '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
' The following code extracts both upload and download byte counts
' from a Netgear DG834G router and writes them into a log file.
' Schedule this utility to run from Task manager every 15mins
' (for example).
' NOTE: this utility relies on a DLL file, "socket.dll" - which can
' be downloaded free from http://tech.dimac.net/ - It is called
' "w3sockets".
' Output is appended to the bottom of C:\utils\usage.log
' Each line looks like: "02/09/2009 22:15:00 455400415 501201425"
' The two numbers being cumulative totals for uploads and downloads
' respectively.
' 2/9/09
' '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Dim w3sock, contents, TxTotalBytesStart, TxTotalBytesEnd, RxTotalBytesStart, RxTotalBytesEnd
Dim TxTotalBytes, RxTotalBytes, DataLine
Const ForReading = 1, ForWriting = 2, ForAppending = 8
Set w3sock = CreateObject("Socket.TCP")
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
w3sock.DoTelnetEmulation = True
w3sock.TelnetEmulation = "TTY"
w3sock.Host = "192.168.2.1:23"
w3sock.Open
w3sock.SendLine "cat /proc/avalanche/avsar_modem_stats | grep ' Total Bytes:'"
' the above line extracts the following from the router
' '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
' cat /proc/avalanche/avsar_modem_stats | grep ' Total '
'
'
'
' BusyBox v0.61.pre (2008.06.11-10:37+0000) Built-in shell (ash)
' Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
'
' # cat /proc/avalanche/avsar_modem_stats | grep ' Total '
' Tx Total Bytes: 396768076
' Rx Total Bytes: 332285881
' #
' #
' '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
w3sock.WaitFor "Rx Total Bytes:"
'Wscript.echo w3Sock.Buffer
w3sock.Close
Set outfile = fso.OpenTextFile("c:\Utils\usage.log",ForAppending,true)
contents = w3Sock.Buffer
' '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
' Parse 'contents' for TX and RX numbers
' '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
TxTotalBytesStart = 16 +(InStr(contents, "Tx Total Bytes: "))
TxTotalBytesEnd = InStr(TxTotalBytesStart, contents, Chr(13))
TxTotalBytes = Mid(contents, TxTotalBytesStart, (TxTotalBytesEnd - TxTotalBytesStart))
RxTotalBytesStart = 16 +(InStr(contents, "Rx Total Bytes: "))
RxTotalBytesEnd = InStr(RxTotalBytesStart, contents, Chr(13))
RxTotalBytes = Mid(contents, RxTotalBytesStart, (RxTotalBytesEnd - RxTotalBytesStart))
' '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
' Assemble & output data to log file
' '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
DataLine = Date &" "& Time &chr(9)& TxTotalBytes &chr(9)& RxTotalBytes
outfile.WriteLine DataLine
outfile.Close

Volume Shadow Copy Service VSS_E_BAD_STATE 0x80042301

2008-11-22T15:11:00.020Z

Update 28/11/09 - see here
If you have been racking your brains trying to resolve this error:

ERROR: COM call "m_pVssObject->GatherWriterMetadata(&pAsync)" failed.
- Returned HRESULT = 0x80042301
- Error text: VSS_E_BAD_STATE
- Please re-run VSHADOW.EXE with the /tracing option to get more details

Then read on...

After much fruitless research I realised I was not going to find the answer to the above error online and so began to go through Microsoft's Volume Shadow Copy Service SDK, v7.2, something I had avoided as I am not a programmer.
Like most problems the solution is simple if you know where to look. The Volume Shadow Copy Service uses vshadow.exe but although this file keeps the same name it is different for XP, Vista and servers.
The following table, extracted by doing a search for all instances of the file in the above SDK should help you identify which one you need

vshadow.exe VSSReports 185 KB
vshadow.exe debug-server 760 KB
vshadow.exe debug-xp 724 KB
vshadow.exe release-server 344 KB
vshadow.exe release-xp 288 KB
vshadow.exe obj-chk\amd64 387 KB
vshadow.exe obj-chk\ia64 679 KB
vshadow.exe obj-fre\amd64 356 KB
vshadow.exe obj-fre\ia64 662 KB

The 344KB Server release version seems to work on Vista as well
The 288KB XP version only works in XP, not Vista
Interestingly the 185KB version found in the "VSSReports" folder works on Vista but not XP

Running the wrong version will generate the cryptic error and most references to this error send you off on a tortuous debugging path.
Simply using the correct version should solve the problem

Deleting Photos from the Wii Message board

2007-04-09T11:57:00.000+01:00

Having recently been lucky enough to purchase a Wii, I say lucky enough, because these things are scarcer than hen’s teeth – I had been trying to get one since November 2006.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not a game freak. In fact the last time I seriously played a computer game was way back in the days of DOOM – the original version, and remember nearly falling off my chair with fright when playing the game late at night and being jumped by a pink monster that was hiding behind a trapdoor in a darkened tunnel!

Anyway, I digress, I bought this Wii primarily to tempt my son off World of Warcraft, which he has been so addicted to that I hardly see him. From that point it has been a raving success and now I seldom get to watch TV, but at least he is out of his room.

My point is that after playing with the Wii for a bit I began to explore it’s other abilities and had fun doctoring a picture and then uploading it to the “Message board” only to find that there didn’t seem to be a way to delete it from the board. Searching the manual and Nintendo site didn’t help, but then I came across a message by “Player Joe” in a forum on “neoseeker.com” (http://www.neoseeker.com/forums/index.php?fn=view_thread&t=866035 ) which suggested that the day the picture was posted would be recorded in the Wii message log and deleting this logged message would also delete the picture. It works, so below I summarize the steps needed to do this:-

Procedure to delete a photo from the Wii message Board

1. Click on the photo in the message board and note it’s datestamp.
2. Go to the Wii menu
3. Select the Message Board icon at the bottom left
4. Click the calendar icon at the bottom right and navigate to the above datestamp
5. Find, select and delete the picture posting message
6. Go back to the Photo Channel and view the message board photos and check that your photo has been deleted.
Hope this helps

Amazing security strip - NOT!

2007-02-17T12:11:00.000Z

Here is an interesting thing.

I got a letter this morning enclosing a security code under an adhesive strip, with instructions to inspect the strip for tampering and to notify them if this was the case. The code was to give me access to a web site and the strip had not been tampered with.

Before removing the strip, I thought I’d try reading through it by holding it up to the light, both from the front and back but could not read the code. Then I decided to scan the strip into my computer … Below is a portion of the original scan, then again the same image with gamma turned up to maximum, and lastly with contrast maximised…

What amazing security !