[ale] OT: What the hell is XSS in Comcast land?

[Alex Carver]

On 8/12/2013 13:23, Ron Frazier (ALE) wrote:

> I see what you're saying.  I don't know why, but commercial consumer
> routers just seem to get dodgy periodically.  They all had their
> firmware updated when I bought them, and then again if I know there's
> a reason to.  Otherwise, there they sits.  I have it on my list to
> tinker with alternate firmware, but for now have neither the time nor
> available compatible devices to mess with it.  I hesitate to add yet
> more devices that I have to learn to configure and patch.  Dealing
> with the periodic changes to several pc's and several vm's keeps me
> quite busy.  I do appreciate the suggestions though, and find it
> interesting that the alternate firmwares are that much more stable.
> The comcast box doesn't seem to be quite as flaky as the routers, but
> it too seems to like a reboot on occasion.

Consumer firmware is exactly why I replaced the firmware in the router 
the moment I bought it.  It's especially important considering I use 
features that Linksys' own firmware does not support (changing port 
number when mapping, supporting multiple IPs on WAN, etc.)  Installing 
is fairly trivial now, plenty of tools for multiple operating systems 
and OpenWRT now has Lua scripts to give you a web configuration system 
so you technically don't have to fiddle with terminal access.  It took 
me almost as much time to set up the wiring for the firmware as it did 
to install the firmware itself.  Customizing took a little time but for 
most applications it's not bad.

> By the way, my whole HOUSE cycles it power 1 - 3 times / month due to
> electrical storms, at least in the summer.

That's called a very bad provider.  When I lived in south Florida (which 
is Florida Power and Light across most of the state), power outages in 
the summer were rare.  Maybe one per summer but more likely one every 
other year.  Brownouts were a bit more common and I get them where I am 
now, too.  But full outages 1-3 times per month is beyond reasonable. 
Then again, it's Southern Company/GA Powerless so you get the shaft.


> Not directly related to what you said, but I find it helpful to cycle
> power to UPS's about once a month to let them do their self test (if
> so equipped) on the batteries.  You don't want the SLA batteries to
> get stale and die prematurely.  They need some discharging and
> recharging on occasion.  The self test may drain 5% from the battery.
> I think it's a good idea to periodically drain them substantially as
> well.  From what I've read, a used lead acid battery, but not abused,
> is a happy lead acid battery.

Decent UPSes self test automatically without user intervention.  All 
three of mine self-test weekly (I hear the click when it switches to 
battery) and I don't need to pull the plug on them to do it.