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

[Scott Castaline]

I lived in S. Fla for about 28 yrs (actually 25 as in the late 70's I
live in CA for about 3) from 70 to 98. We used to call FPL Florida Flash
& Flicker. When I was working for Harris Computer Systems Division in
Ft. Lauderdale (aka Ft. Liquordale), power outages were very common at
least anywhere between 1 -3/week. My department wasn't hooked up to the
generators, so when hit our tech stations were dead. FPL also was
commonly called Florida Plunder & Loot. In the late 80's I do have to
admit that they were finally improving. Power fails were down to 1/month
when I moved up here in 98.


On 08/12/2013 04:36 PM, Alex Carver wrote:
> 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.
> 
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