Thursday 12 December 2019

Once Upon a Time There was a Bee

Some results from talktotransformer.com, all starting with the same prompt: Once upon a time there was a bee.

A Murderous One

Once upon a time there was a bee. A beautiful bee with a beautiful crown of flowers. It was such a bee that you couldn't kill it because it was a beautiful bee. It had such a pleasant fragrance and the most wonderful sound. But one day, it started to sting. You couldn't do anything because you were so stung. It was terrible to see it, you could hardly take it in. You didn't know what to do, but you tried to kill it and you failed. Finally, when it became impossible to control the sting, the bee was finally killed. So now there's a bee that you don't kill because it's a beautiful bee, and it's so lovely that you have to kill it. Then the bee is so horrible that you can't kill it, and so you have to kill it. You have to kill it. You have to kill it. That's what this whole book is about. You have to kill it. You have to kill it

A Transformational One

Once upon a time there was a bee. Then the bee became a wasp, and the wasp became a spider, and the spider became a scorpion, and the scorpion became a centipede, and the centipede became an ant, and the ant became a human being. And it happened, that in the midst of that great mass of diversity, each individual insect became a member of this vast family."

If these "bastions of humanity" are to be believed, then it's important to note that the United States was founded as a British colony and that every U.S. President since its inception has been a British subject.

However, since the United States is the only country on earth that still has a standing army (and we know what happens when an army is abandoned by its commander), one might wonder why it would choose to "liberate" itself from an enemy of the British crown by establishing a foreign colony.

A Disturbed One

Once upon a time there was a bee. It was a beautiful bee with a beautiful name. It didn't sting anybody, it didn't sting me or my kids or anybody else. It was just a lovely bee.

The bee was named Vanessa. And it was beautiful.

And then one day the bee died.

The next day the bee died.

Vanessa died.

The bee died.

Vanessa died.

Vanessa died.

Vanessa died.

Vanessa died.

Vanessa died.

The bee died.

Vanessa died.

Vanessa died.

Vanessa died.

Vanessa died.

Vanessa died.

Vanessa died.

Vanessa died.

Vanessa died.

Vanessa died.

Vanessa died.

Vanessa died.

Vanessa died.

Vanessa died.

A Scientific One

Once upon a time there was a bee. It was pretty small, a few millimeters across, but there was a big beehive on its back. It had a huge, thick, black combs. When you stepped inside, the bees in the combs would fly away and then you'd have to pick them up. They were huge. You could get so much honey by holding the comb in front of you and letting the bees work. The honey was like honey from a honey pot. It was so sweet and delicious. It was a special kind of sweetness, which was the main reason I became a beekeeper.

What did you do after your beekeeping job?

I decided I would be a scientist. I wanted to be a chemist because I thought it was much more interesting than beekeeping. I took some chemistry courses at the University of Texas. I took a physics course and a microbiology course, but I didn't finish them. But when I finished them,

A Fairy-Tale One

Once upon a time there was a bee. And that bee was very good to his queen. And the bees said: "We can't have him anymore." And they went into the garden and threw him out.

A woman was sitting in a garden. She was very beautiful to look at. She was humming a beautiful melody. The bee flew by her and landed in her lap.

And the woman said: "Come back to me, honey."

And the bee said: "I can't come back to you again. I'm a busy bee."

Then the woman said to the bee: "If you want to have the bee back, just promise to come back to me. If you do, I'll give you something nice to eat."

And the bee said: "If that's what you want, I'll be back."

But the woman thought to herself: "It's a promise that I can't make."

And so

Tuesday 29 October 2019

Fiddling with Old WiFi and DSL Hardware

The Problem

Some time ago, AAISP supplied me with an EchoLife HG612 broadband modem and a separate Technicolor TG852n WiFi hub, to be connected to each other by Ethernet. Since the phone socket is at the back of the house but I wanted the WiFi signal to be strongest at the front of the house, I put them in separate rooms and connected them with Ethernet-over-power devices. All was well till I also needed connectivity at the back of the house, where the WiFi signal is almost non-existent.

I found that a device with a wired link directly to the modem did not work: it could not talk to devices connected to the WiFi. The WiFi hub was configured to serve DHCP, while the modem was not. As far as I can tell, the problem was that the WiFi hub would not serve DHCP to a device connected via the modem.

The Solution

It's possible to set up the broadband modem to act as a DHCP server, and then turn off the WiFi hub's DHCP router. That way, every device on the network – whether wired to the WiFi hub, wired to the modem, or wireless – can get an IP address from the modem and end up on the same subnet, so they can all talk to each other. But neither step is straightforward.

Set up DHCP on the Modem

Enable the Web UI

(These steps are derived from AAISP's instructions.)

  1. Download a version of the HG612 firmware whose Web UI has been enabled. A suitable version is called bcm96368MVWG_fs_kernel_HG612V100R001C01B030SP08_webgui and is available in this repository. It has an MD5 hash of 5d6cb9987c52f4e687c624a614adaa29.
  2. Factory-reset the modem and use that file to flash its firmware, by following the instructions here.

Set up the Broadband Connection

  1. Set up wired connection from a computer to the LAN2 socket on the HG612.
  2. Give the computer an IP address of 192.168.1.100.
  3. Log in to the Web UI (192.168.1.1) with username/password admin/admin
  4. Under Basic->WAN->ptm1.101:
    • WAN connection: Enable
    • Service list: INTERNET
    • Port binding: Disable both LAN1 and LAN2
    • Connection mode: Route
    • Connection Type: PPPoE
    • User name/Password: as provided by the ISP

Set up the LAN


  1. Under Basic->LAN:
    • IP address: 192.168.1.1
    • Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
    • DHCP Server: Enable
    • Start IP address: 192.168.1.2
    • End IP address: 192.168.1.250
    • Primary DNS server address: 4.4.4.4
    • Secondary DNS server address: 8.8.8.8

Disabling DHCP on the WiFi hub


  1. Work out what the IP address and admin username/password of the TG852n will be after the not-quite-factory reset. These vary according to the supplier, because it is set by a file called isp.def that is not removed by the use of the reset button.
    • For AAISP they are 192.168.1.254 and Administrator/admin.
  2. "Factory"-reset the TG852n by pushing a pin into the reset hole till the power light turns orange.
  3. Set up a direct wired connection from computer to the TG852n (any port other than 4).
  4. Log in to the Web UI (Only works reliably via wired connection to port (other than 4). May require multiple login attempts.)
  5. Under Home Network->Interfaces->LocalNetwork:
    1. Configure (top right)
      • Use DHCPv4 Server: No
      • Use Stateless DHCPv6 Server: No

Bonus Points: Adding an extra WiFi hub

I acquired an additional TG852n as a result of Demon Internet shutting down. Since I already had one of these, I thought it would be simple to add another, to provide a strong WiFi signal at the back of the house. I was wrong.

For Demon Internet the WiFi hub's default IP address and admin username/password are given as 192.168.254.254 and admin/DemonCPE.

No amount of resetting and fiddling could convince the device that its IP address should be 192.168.1.x and not 192.168.254.x. Eventually I guessed that I would need to remove the device's isp.def file. To do that I would need to use FTP. I couldn't find an FTP server on its port 21, so I thought I would telnet into it instead and see what I could find. Of course, OSX no longer comes with a telnet client, so first I had to download inetutils and build my own. Luckily that did work straight away. With the help of a TG852n CLI Guide still available from Demon, I tried a service system list and found that the FTP server was running, but on port 2121. Finally I could FTP to the hub, delete the offending isp.def and get back to a known state.

From that state it was simple to use the Web UI to set the TG852n's IP address to 192.168.1.253 and turn off its DHCP server. Then I set up the WiFi to match the existing hub's details (though on a different channel). When I plugged the additional hub into the same switch, it worked!

Finishing up

While I was checking that the two WiFi hubs could each see any devices that were connected to either of them, I noticed some extra IP addresses assigned to their MAC addresses. It turns out that, as shipped, these hubs are set up to act as media servers over UPnP and Windows Networking. I took the opportunity to turn those off for now. Finally, I changed the admin login details so that they all matched.