Wireless

For those who don't know what the PreCallDiagnostic Tool is, make sure to check out the description here:
The PreCallDiagTool is an application that reports expected audio quality as it relates to the network effect. The tool should be installed on any desktop or laptop PC that suffers from inconsistent network connection quality. The PreCallDiagTool can provide a quick check of the current network conditions and also preserve a history of quality data to let users profile their network performance over time or other conditions. The tool is particularly useful for home/mobile users and users using WIFI access points.


The diagnostic application first shipped with the OCS 2007 R2 Resource Kit.

On a good note, this was a welcome addition to my arsenal of debugging voice quality and network quality of end user machines.
On a bad note, it was 64-bit only and a good majority of the Office Communication deploys are to 32-bit operating systems.

Thankfully, they've released a 32-bit version of this application but the documentation on the syntax and use of the tool is particularly sparse.

For the 32-bit version of this application:
When extracted, the application install files are copied to %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2\PCDResKit\PreCallDiagTool\

For the 64-bit version of this application:
When extracted, the application install files are copied to %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2\ResKit\PreCallDiagTool\

To install the application, you need to run PCDSetup.exe with elevated rights.
After installation, the application resides in %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft\PreCallDiagTool\
If you happen to install the 32-bit version on a 64-bit OS, replace %ProgramFiles% with %ProgramFiles(x86)%.

If you want to configure the application during first-run use, you will want to execute the program with elevated rights because the program will store the XML configuration file in the same directory as the executable. Anytime you want to use the in-program configuration options to change the setup, you will need to run this program elevated, unfortunately.

Typically, I've gotten used to just editing the XML file (PreCallDiag.xml) using Notepad.

Hopefully I am just being dense in the configuration of this tool, but I cannot seem to figure out how to specify a username or password within the PreCallDiag.xml file. This is when you would want to specify UseDefaultCredentials to false. You would want to do this for computers that are not joined to the domain or that have a different log in username than the current user. Does anyone know how?

Looking through the executable for configuration keywords, I did spot two undocumented XML keys, namely ServerUri and ServerPort.

I believe the proper syntax, if you want to set the key UseSipAutomaticConfiguration to false, is the following:

add key="ServerUri" value="youredgeserveravname.contoso.com"
add key="ServerPort" value="443"


Anyway, the program seems to be a bit finicky but when you have it running, the screenshot ends up looking like this:


You also end up with a debugging text file called precalldiaglog.txt and a much more interesting file called precalldiagMetricsLog.txt which includes the data collected while the program was running.

I'm just trying to highlight some of the lesser known documents that are coming out now that Windows 7 has been released - everyone else does a great job of covering the major downloads so I don't typically clutter up my blog with those type of announcements. This also is a good time killer when stuck in an airport lobby.

In particular, here is a good document explaining the changes related to 3G/EVDO/etc mobile broadband drivers with Windows 7:

Windows 7 mobile broadband drivers use the new features introduced by Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) 6.20. In Windows 7, mobile broadband devices integrate differently with Windows 7 than they did with Windows Vista® and Windows XP, when they appeared to the operating system Ethernet or dial up networking/modem devices. This paper discusses important changes in the mobile broadband drivers for Windows 7. This information applies for the Windows 7 operating system.

Download the document from here.

If you browse the long list of updates for this Outlook 2007 SP2 update (which can be applied to Outlook 2007 SP1 from the looks of it), you'll notice a fairly innocent looking fix:

"When you are running Outlook 2007 and Office Communicator 2007 on a client computer, Communicator unexpectedly creates persistent Outlook connections to Exchange Server."

This is a bit of an understatement because I've noticed a difference in the number of connections (logical and physical) even when Office Communicator isn't involved with Outlook 2007.

To give an example, this is what my connection status dialog box (outlook /rpcdiag) looks like before:


After:


Take into consideration, many times my Internet connection is over an EVDO Rev A data line and the importance of this change skyrockets. I want every little extra bit of bandwidth left for other applications if at all possible.

As pointed out by some of the Exchange gurus at Microsoft, the connections listed in those dialog boxes represent the 'logical' RPC connections back to the Exchange server. The actual amount of physical connections (as in, connections viewable by doing a 'netstat -a -n -o' and filtering for your Exchange client access server) will drop by a smaller amount.

Either way, this has sped up Outlook a considerable amount even compared to unpatched Outlook Service Pack 2, which is leaps and bounds faster than any previous Outlook 2007 version.

This has the potential of reduced bandwidth usage and reduced connection counts on your Exchange server and/or ISA setup. Overall, a great update so far.

Read more about the update and request the binaries here.

Thanks go out to Gary Cooper for pointing out this Outlook update.

Finally a simple link that you can remember to grab the mobile edition of the Office Communicator, whether it is for your SmartPhone (WinMo Std), PocketPC (WinMo Pro), or a Java based phone.

Just go to http://www.getcomo.com.

This is a relatively new blog site and has a lot of great information about drivers and applications for EVDO/UTMS/3G adapters in Windows 7. Having a hard time getting proper support from Sprint/Verizon/AT&T/HP/Dell/etc? Go to this site first!

And on an even better note, there are actions underway to do away with most of the 3rd party connection software tools that seem to be the root cause of most of the Windows 7 connection issues.

The following manufacturers are on board: Acer, Asus, Birdstep Technology, Dell, Ericsson, HP, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Huawei Communications Technologies, Option, Qualcomm, Sierra Wireless, Smith Micro, T-Mobile International, and ZTE.

You can read more about this announcement here.

Thanks go out to Patrick Elliot for the heads up on both links.

These wireless chipsets are commonly found on Dell laptops and many other OEM add-in cards.

Thankfully, the functionality bcmwltry.exe provides has been implemented in the operating system now with the newer service packs. You can simply rename %windir%\system32\bcmwltry.exe to %windir%\system32\bcmwltry.exe.bad without any ill effect. In certain circumstances, the process would leak 2GB+ of RAM within a few hours.

There are reports that the newer versions of the Broadcom drivers do not leak memory with bcmwltry.exe, but I see no reason for keeping the executable around.

You can read other people's trials and tribulations with this here, and here.

I do not try to sound like a Broadcom basher on here, but I am amazed at the amount of issues that have shown up over the past few years related to their wired and wireless drivers. Their hardware seems very solid, and I'm hoping they are working on improving their QA process for software drivers.

If you are not offered Vista SP1 from Windows Update, and you are using an Intel WiFi card (typically with model numbers of 4965AGN/4965AG or 3945ABG/3945BG/3965ABG/3965BG), please grab this full generic "reference" driver package from Intel to fix your wireless issues, here. 99.99% of the time, these drivers will work on any laptop or desktop with these chipsets.

Originally spotted here.

In general, if you are running a version of the wireless drivers with a revision date older than 2008, you should install this driver package ASAP. Although it doesn't specifically mention it in the release notes, many little quirks and problems have been resolved, including the Vista SP1 "blocking" issue.

Just to make sure Vista SP1 doesn't get a bad reputation due to this, the "block" was put in place on purpose due to a bug in the wireless driver package, not the OS.

Apparently, this started on March 2nd, 2008. Anytime you go over 5GB in a month, you get slapped with $0.49 per MB charges.

I signed up a few years ago when they were first rolling out EVDO nationwide. My account still shows "Unlimited", although based on the fact that they were sued in the past on their definition of "Unlimited", I will be watching my bill closely the next few months.

I predict a mass exodus away from Verizon's EVDO plans if they continue to do this. Why? 5GB a month is extremely easy to go over in a month's time.

Mind you, we're not playing World of Warcraft or downloading BitTorrent content. This is strictly web content, e-mail, and an occasional RDP session which I must do for work from time to time. Even so, when I do "work stuff", I typically try to use my work phone for the data usage.

Sprint has been aggressively rolling out EVDO in Ottawa county due to the broadband agreement they reached with the county and AllTel is all around us otherwise. Even though I enjoy EVDO Rev. A speeds, I will drop Verizon like a bad habit if they try to retroactively apply these new charges to our account. It isn't what we signed up for, and it is not in our contract.

Sprint and AllTel have good roaming agreements for EVDO and they don't have these excessive charges.

If Verizon Wireless was the only provider in the area, we'd be "stuck with them", much like our cable situation. We have Charter cable available in our neighborhood but it is analog only. I am curious if the 2009 digital TV cut over will affect the "analog only" situation, but I suspect they are not going to upgrade us anytime soon. There is plenty of interest in our neighborhood for cable modems but that never seems to change their plans.

I'm not necessarily excited that Verizon won most the VHF spectrum if they are going to do business like this.

I would love to have FIOS, but I suspect that will not happen anytime soon either, due to the fact that we don't have DSL available out here.

Ultimately, Verizon is punishing customers that have no other choice in Internet broadband. Hopefully, the free market will show them that "The Network" is easily replaceable, and other providers will move into Verizon dominated territories. It seems to be happening, little by little.

Not too long ago, our house was "stuck" with, at best, 1xRTT speeds on our cell phones for data connectivity. Verizon finally upgraded the tower near our house last fall and we've been living in EVDO Rev A heaven ever since. Now, it looks like Sprint is going to be upgrading their towers in our area too, and blanketing the county with more EVDO goodness.

You can read more about it here.

They are not kidding when they say that a majority of the county previously had NO broadband options. No cable modems. No DSL. No wireless vendors (WiMax / etc).

I'm always nervous using the Verizon EVDO service because of their vague terms-of-service that can kill your connection/subscription if they decide you are using too much bandwidth. Thankfully, Sprint doesn't really care how much bandwidth you use as long as you are paying them.

I am hoping they roll out EVDO Rev A like Verizon has. The upload speeds are much better than standard EVDO Rev 0. On most days, I get nearly 150KiB/sec on our EVDO Rev A connection. It also helps that I have a crazy external antenna connected to my EVDO modem and router (the Thinkpad 240 that refuses to die).

Never heard of Twitter? I'm not sure of the best way to describe it other than semi-instant messaging on your mobile phone. It is a handy way to blast out your 'status' or 'what you are up to' to a group of people with a simple text message.

I am sure their website explains it better, but anyway, there is now an Outlook plug-in so that you can Twitter from within Outlook. It is called OutTwit.

Pretty neat. I just wish I knew more people that used Twitter.

I don't remember where I found it but this is a great site for finding cell phone towers near your home or business. Punch in an address and it shows a Google map of results. I have no idea who runs it but it is a cool site.

For example, I didn't know there were this many towers around us:

After 3 years of suffering with 1xRTT for a home internet connection, EVDO Rev A finally went live on our local cell tower. For the past few months, our phones had been flipping back and forth between EVDO and 1xRTT but could never sustain a connection on the faster network.

That changed sometime in the past few weeks and thankfully, I was able to run down and grab an EVDO Rev A card to replace my aging and dying Motorola V265 which had faithfully pushed packets since 2004, 24x7x365.




I had been looking into Wilson repeaters and power boosters to get the distant EVDO signal but now it looks like I don't need to go through that mess. The speed difference between EVDO Rev A and 1xRTT is amazing.

I did connect an external antenna up to the Novatel U720 and it boosted my reception quite a bit. The Thinkpad 240 that I use as a router only has one USB port, so I used a powered USB hub to plug both cables from the USB modem in. The modem can operate off of just one USB port but I need all the signal fidelity I can get, so I am using the booster for 1 amp of powered goodness.

3 years of waiting for better than ISDN speeds at our house is finally over!

I was unsure where exactly to put this, category-wise, but I was always curious what exactly was added to Streets and Trips 2008, without marketing-speak, which I tend to dismiss over "real user" reviews.

Well, here is a good real user review and it looks to be a pretty good upgrade overall.
It is nice to see the FM receiver as an option for gas price updates and traffic information.

I admit I use this program more often than I really need to sometimes. I don't have the 2008 version yet but I plan to pick it up shortly. It is a lot of fun to use on an airplane to see exactly where you are while flying. Thankfully, it doesn't freak out when the MPH goes above 100. It does freak out the flight attendants sometimes when they see a glowing blue object in the airplane window.

5 issues relating to wireless authentication are fixed with this hotfix.

1. IEEE 802.1X authentication that is based on Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) switching may fail.

2. In a wireless profile, the information about the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) method that is selected in a user interface may be incorrect.

3. A wireless profile that an independent hardware vendor (IHV) provides may be corrupted after you use the wireless profile user interface to edit the profile. When this problem occurs, you may receive an error message that Windows Explorer has crashed.

4. Every time that you roam to a different wireless access point, you are prompted to provide a user credential. This problem occurs even if you have saved the user credential.

5. You registered a Protected Extensible Authentication Protocol (PEAP) method that the IHV provided. When you try to authenticate against an Internet Authentication Service (IAS) server, the server may reject the authentication, and the IAS server may send an error message that the authentication has failed. The Onex.dll file crashes when this problem occurs.

I'm not a big fan of this. The strangest part of it all is that people recently went from having an AT+T branded cell phone on a Cingular network service, and now in the upcoming weeks, they will have a Cingular brnaded cell phone on an AT+T network service.

Someone on the SA forums summed it up best by saying, "Remember that part in Terminator 2 when the T-1000 was frozen and smashed apart, only to reform a few minutes later? Yeah, that pretty much describes the fall and rebirth of Ma Bell."

That is how I feel about it too. Of course, if this somehow means that FiOS will reach my house, my opinion will change but I doubt that will happen any time soon.