Troubleshooting ICS between Windows7, Windows XP , Linux etc

Internet Connection Sharing has always been a pain in the a$$ for me. There has been numerous hours which went in vain trying to connect between all combinations involving Windows7, Windows XP and Linux. Though I got them connected once or twice, I could not decode the exact methodology. Each time trying to use ICS ended in broken keyboards, fists etc. After many attempts I at last found out the reason the exact modus operandi to use ICS.
I am not going into a step by step instruction of enabling ICS, which are alredy given here. I will just help you out from the most common issues faced.

Here I am explaining the scenario where, your internet is connected through the wired LAN, and you wan't share that using your WiFi. Your wired connection is in Windows [XP, Vista, 7 etc] and you want to share it with any other OS.

• Here, first you have to create a WiFi network from the host. This should not be a problem, and if at all it is, try to use [Open, WEP] authentication, instead WPA2 etc because these may not be compatible over all OSes.
• There may be a scenario where the Ad-Hoc network is created, but internet is not being shared. This can be checked by these steps.

1. Goto the client PC, and goto the command prompt and type ipconfig. You will get the ip of the PC, note that.
2. Now create a shared folder in this PC.
3. Now goto the host and type \\ip-of-client. Now if you can see the shared folder, you network is established. Only internet is not shared.

• Now to get the internet shared, you have to the following. Goto the properties of the wired connection, [the connection from which you get internet], and goto the sharing tab. There you have to enable internet sharing.
• Sometimes,, this sharing itself would not be available/present. This maybe because, the sharing is enabled in any other connection. [Only one of the connection's sharing can be enabled]. So, disable this connection first and then enable sharing in the other connection.
• Now reconnect the WiFi, this should get the internet working.
• In, Windows7, you may have to choose which connections internet need to shared. There you have to choose the wired LAN [or the network which gives internet].

I already wasted a lot of hours trying to get ICS working, and there is a general notion that internet sharing through ICS is inconsistent. The fact which I inferred is that documentation and wizards on this topic is very scarce. If you have any doubts please post in the comments section and I would be more than happy to help.
-codevalley

6 Reasons why Chrome OS does not impress me!

Today morning as I logged into GMail, the first thing I noticed was the missing beta tag, which was a part of GMail and Google Apps, all these years. Moreover, since I could not find any visible changes in GMail,I checked the Google Blog, but something entirely different caught my attention. 
A post by Sundar Pichai titled "Introducing the Google OS" caught my attention instantly. I was excited many folds, and hurriedly went through the post. But frankly, I was left disappointed. Chrome OS seemed nothing but a thin Linux Kernel which will startup with Chrome browser. It may look exciting for a bunch of net addicts who can't wait for a minute or two until the system boots up. But think, you can ONLY surf, nothing else. 

So here are 6 reasons, why Microsoft will be more interested in Iran Elections than Chrome OS: 

Google is desperate
With Bing creating waves in the search market held by Google for years, they are trying to give Microsoft a slap back. This is further emphasized, when Google hastily removed the beta tag from its WebApps without any apparent changes. And on top of that, two back to back blog posts, one about the beta tag and the next about the new Chrome OS, all within a span of 24 hours. Also, Google did not give any technical details about this new OS, no system architecture, did not name any of the manufacturers' name, which they referred to as "partners", and announced they would launch this within an year. How can they get developers interested within this short span, if they don't provide these details?

Is this a breakthrough Concept by Google? Big No!! 
There are many Linux distros which already does whatever Google has mentioned in the blog. And there are many other WebOSes, which are still struggling to make a mark. So, this is a well tried out concept that Google is trying to reinvent. And Google does not have the best tools for that either. Atleast Chrome is not the best browser around! 

Where are the Applications? 
Are Google Apps, GMail and iGoogle, the applications you want to use all time? What if you want to design a logo with Photoshop or any other image editor? Or if you want to watch you movie? Or what if you want to play some 3d Games? No, you have to wait for few more years maybe, when the Web evolves to support these. 

Peers already have a headstart 
If cloud computing market is what Google is aiming to capture, they are a tad too late. Because Microsoft already has a very rich and multi-layered Cloud platform called Azure, with a huge developer base, SDKs and beta applications. And it has been almost a year since Ubuntu announced its Cloud Computing plans. And every now and then we hear new WebOSes sprouting from nowhere like G.ho.st and Desktoptwo. So, the race is not going to be easy even if Google has a solid plan. 

 No huge market to capture
If you look at the OS market, things are pretty much in balance. With Microsoft is holding most of the home and corporate market, Apple is ruling the Multimedia market, and Linux flavours occupying a slice of Servers and Developers. Now, who are the potential end users for Chrome OS? Net Addicts who don't do anything else? And would that come to 0.01% of the market?? I doubt!

No internet, no OS. 
From the information released by Google, what we can understand is Chrome OS, will be a packing of a thin Linux Kernel and Chrome running atop. That is, as you start you system, you will see the Google Homepage in a few seconds. And, if there is no internet, you can see a "no connectivity" error. And, OS stops there. Does it look great for home? Enterprise? Maybe, some hobbyists may use this to expand their collection. 

Above all these, I feel Google is losing its way. It is holding on to some keywords like Linux, OpenSource, Free, No evil but are failing to impress. They already declared Android will not be restricted to phones, but netbooks also. Today, they have announced Chrome OS and Android will not share anything other than "Made by Google". Also, it has been quite some time, since Google presented something really Innovative.
Maybe, the "Google" tag and the hype created can deliver some business to Google. I don't see anything beyond that.
All said, I might be proved wrong when Google announces more details. Till then, I would say, Chrome OS is a side effect of Bing Success. 
 
-Codevalley
 
PS: I started a new venture and was busy with that, and could not do justice to my blog. Anyway, I will try to be more regular. If curious about my venture, check these links: ESquare Labs., 24bar7Host

Browser comparison with end user benchmarks!

Ever since Internet Explorer 8 released, I was excited about the situation in the browser market. The war is on! But how close it is? As I am using only IE8 in my Windows 7, and also have it in my Windows XP, I got used to it. And felt it is giving a decent performance. Whenever I search for browser comparisons, all I get is browsers compared with SunSpider test, Acid test etc. I am not saying it is not the right way to go, but I wanted a browser test done, the way we use it. Another reason for the same was the Microsoft's statement that, thought IE8 has a slower Javascript engine, in practical usage, it outperforms its peers. So, I made a few test cases, based on everyday usage patterns.

The subjects

I took 6 major web browsers for this test. They included, IE8, Safari, Firefox 3.0.7, Firefox 3.1 Beta, Google Chrome and Opera. The results were quite surprising, at least for me. More of that ahead.
The tests were done on a modest AMD Sempron 2800+ PC carrying 1GB RAM running a Windows XP Service Pack 3 over a 512KBPS internet connection. Each browser was tested as a fresh installation with other browsers uninstalled, but Internet Explorer 6 that comes with XP was never uninstalled. 5 trials were conducted for each test and average taken as the standard result.

Tests
Installing time: This includes the total installation time taken from the moment you click the installation executable. This includes the time taken for restarts and other system operations if any. In this test clearly Internet Explorer was bound to lose. As we all know it would take at least one restart. So the contest came down to the rest 5. Surprisingly Chrome took relatively longer time to get installed even without a restart, and Firefox Beta was lightning fast. You can see the exact results in the table.
Loading time: The amount of time the browser takes to load itself (with no homepage) from the moment the browser icon is clicked. Firefox has a bad reputation of being very slow to startup. But again Firefox 3.1Beta proved that wrong, being the fastest. Opera loaded a fraction of a second slower. IE 8 loaded almost 10 times slower than the latest firefox.
Browsing test: I randomly tested the browser for a few websites which I browse the most. Many of which had a considerable amount of AJAX built in it. So this could also be possibly be looked upon as the Javascript efficiancy test. The websites I used were:

http://www.news.com/

http://www.yahoo.com/

http://www.igoogle.com/

http://www.orkut.com/

http://www.gmail.com/

http://www.yahoomail.com/

http://www.espnstar.com/

http://www.cricinfo.com/

The winner varied from site to site. Though majorly IE8 was the slowest, Chrome also shared the place. Firefox 3.1Beta beat everyone with a huge margin, the same way IE lost huge margins. Other browsers exchanged places, pretty uniformly between them. But, the most unbelievable result was that of yahoomail. Firefox Beta took just 3.5 Seconds to load the mail page, while Chrome, IE and Opera took around 25 seconds, while Safari was ready in 17secs and Firefox 3.0.7 loaded in 7secs.
Memory Usage test: This is something every naive user might not be very interested in knowing. Each browser uses different methods to handle tabs. While Chrome uses entirely different process to isolate each tab and manage crashed tabs, IE does the same maintaining them in a single process. Safari was the lightest here using just around 25 MB, while firefox 3.0.7 was the fattest using almost 120Mb. Both Chrome and Opera used less than 100MB, while other used around 110Mb.
Multiple tab load time: This is to test the amount of time taken to load multiple tabs together, for browsers which support restore tabs upon opening. So, Chrome, Safari and IE8 does not qualify for this test. Again Firefox 3.1Beta made it no contest, while Opera and Firefox 3.0.1 clocking almost the same.
So that were the tests. The winner without any doubt is Firefox3.1. Though I am not a great Mozilla fan, I have to bow to it. And unfortunately, my favorite IE lost the race by a few yards. Other browsers were neck to neck, with no clear winner.

Other general remarks about each of these browsers include,

IE 8 still has problems with some sites including GMail.

Google Chrome does not even lets you decide where to install.

Opera had problem with back/forward navigation. In some cases, it does not happen at all.

Safari is generally very fast, but even if when you make it the default browser, links open in the previous default browser.

In terms of browsing speed Firefox 3.1Beta is a killer, Chrome is fastest from the rest of the lot.

How to use this table: This table shows how slow the other browsers are, compared to the fastest. For example, in the Installation test, if IE 8 has 23.2 compared to Firefox Beta's 1, means IE takes 23.2 x times the time taken by Firefox. So it shows the relative slowness of the browser to the fastest.

So, that is all about. The tests shows IE 8 is in average 5 times slower than Firefox 3.1Beta. The ranking goes like this.

1. Firefox 3.1 Beta
2. Firefox 3.0.7
3. Opera 9.64
4. Chrome 2.0.169.1
5. Safari 4 Public Beta (528.16)
6. Internet Explorer 8.

In closing note, thanks to my sister for helping me carry out these test cases.

-Codevalley

Microsoft tag! The next era of advertising?

I came across something called Microsoft Tag for the first time when I was checking out free applications to download for my Windows Mobile phone from Microsoft's website. Microsoft tag was vaguely described as a barcode reader. So, I just downloaded it, and tried to read some barcodes with it, which it refused to. Then I went to internet to find what is Microsoft Tag.



Technically, Microsoft tag, is a multicolor barcode technology developed by Microsoft, which uses colored triangles to store information in the form of an unique ID. So, if you are thinking what is use of this unique ID, the answer is that the mobile phone application that scans and decodes the tag, will send this ID to the Microsoft server, from where it can get more information about the ID. Like websites, phone numbers, e-mail IDs etc.
But what makes it different from the conventional barcodes is that a cameraphone can read Tags from different distances. From wall posters, hoarding, computer screens, wrappers, anywhere. The publisher would get the statistics of who the person who has read his tag. So it is like a new way of advertising. If your mobile phone can get the position information along with the tag, the publisher can give you local results based on your location. So, you get the information you want, the publisher can target the customers in a better manner.


The great thing about Microsoft tag is that it is free (at least till date) and anyone can get a tag for himself and configure to his website or blog. I have already got a t-shirt printed with a tag which directs to this post. Fun eh?
The catch is that technology is still in Beta, so maybe once it is out of beta, it may not be free anymore.
Let us see how Google responds to this?


Get your tag here.
Microsoft Tag home.

-codevalley