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Networking

Using D-Link 865L as AC wireless access point for Asus RT-N66U

by Ben
written by Ben

I got a superb wireless router which i bought 2-3 years back and it is Asus RT-N66U.
I recently switch to another ISP which gave me Dlink 865L wireless router but I really want to use my RTN66U as my default router.

I occasionally do some internal file transfer between my computer and my NAS and i hit the speed limit of the aging 5ghz wireless N band.

RTN66U doesnt support wireless AC but DLink 865L does.
So why not use 865L solely for AC band while using RTN66U for the b/g/n band?

This tutorial will teach you how to extend your existing router and use Dlink 865L (or other dlink routers i believe) purely for wireless AC.

First of all, connect your laptop/computer to the Dlink router only and do the following first:-

1. Disable UPNP.
Go to Advanced -> Advanced Network and uncheck ‘Enabled UPNP IGD’ or similar options

advanced-network

2. Disable wireless N and only enable AC band (optional if you still want to use dlink wireless features).
Under SETUP-> Wireless Settings -> Manual setup, disabled 2.4GHz Band and enable 5GHz Band. Set 802.11 Mode = Mixed 802.11ac. For my configuration, i select channel 44 as it is less congested in my area.

wireless-network

 

3. Disable DHCP server.
Go to SETUP -> Network Settings and unchecked DHCP Server option.

network-settings

4. Update your Dlink router IP Address and set it as part of the network with your default router.

[See above screenshot]

My Asus RTN66U network configuration is as below.
IP Address: 192.168.1.1
Subnet: 255.255.254.0

Hence, i configure my dlink as:-
IP Address: 192.168.1.2
Subnet: 255.255.254.0

Configure IP address and subnet by going to Setup->Network Settings page.

5. Once you done the above, connect your dlink router (LAN port) to your default router LAN port. Note that you should connect dlink’s LAN port to your router LAN port. You should not connect to your dlink WAN port.

6. Reboot dlink and it is done.

Bonus: You can also use the other 3 LAN ports in your dlink router for other devices as well. Hence, saving the need to buy additional switch

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Codingsymfony

Migrating Symfony1 to Symfony2: Weekend 1

by Ben
written by Ben

Before i start, i am not a Symfony pro.

I have a day job and i am updating my website on my freetime (usually on the weekends).

Its been 2-3 years ever since i last update my other website.

Hence, this timeblog is not really for experts looking for answer here but more of keeping a record of how i update the framework so that i do not need to ‘re’-read the whole cookbook/tutorial again.

I hope you may find some useful information from my blog here. If do, please drop some comments here.

…

Read the overview and tutorial briefly from symfony website and its time to install one clean copy in my development machine

Installed latest XAMPP

And the composer

And as per Symfony’s instruction, enter

composer create-project symfony/framework-standard-edition path/ "2.5.*"

to install symfony framework to your machine.

Next, add the virtual host to your apache and get it started


<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1:8000>
ServerName www.hostphotocontest.com.localhost

DocumentRoot "G:/Websites/hostphotocontest/hostphotocontest_site_sym2/Symfony/path/web"
<Directory "G:/Websites/hostphotocontest/hostphotocontest_site_sym2/Symfony/path/web">
# enable the .htaccess rewrites
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>

ErrorLog "D:/xampp/apache/logs/project_error.log"
CustomLog "D:/xampp/apache/logs/project_access.log" combined
</VirtualHost>

Make sure the website(e.g www.hostphotocontest.com.localhost) is added to your hosts file so that when u load www.hostphotocontest.com.localhost in your local browser, it is actually calling apache 127.0.0.1 to load the symfony

OK. Website loaded but it keep showing error.
Right. Production is not setup yet. I need to load DEV environment instead.

Hence, i load http://www.hostphotocontest.com.localhost:8000/app_dev.php/ in my browser instead (read ‘app_dev.php’).

Website loaded. Installation is good.

And i spend the rest of the weekend in re-designing my website with bootstrap.

End of Weekend 1

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Codingsymfony

Symfony 1 to Symfony 2

by Ben
written by Ben

Finally have some time to update one of my personal website (http://www.hostpohotocontest.com) from Symfony 1 to Symfony 2 framework.

Below are the noticeable differences i encounter when migrating to Symfony 1 to 2.

I will update this list from time to time whenever i have the time and energy to do so.

The Good

  • The concept of the framework is similar to Symfony 2.
  • Unlike Symfony1, which multiple applications (e.g. frontend and backend) using the one single framework API, everything in Symfony 2 is bundles. The frontend twig, is a bundle, the framework is a bundle.
  • There is no ‘plugin’ concept. Everything is a bundle.
  • Twig looks good. Write lesser code for view layer.
  • Most of the generator are still available in Symfony 1
  • Composer makes installing third party bundles easy!
  • Want to overwrite or extend third party’s controller without updating their codes directly? Yes it can be done easily in Symfony 2. This is good in the sense that if you update third party bundles, you can be assured that your own ‘manual override’ codes still remain intact.

The Bad

  • sfguard is not available in Symfony2. Yes. its a nightmare to migrate this over, especially that the encyrption implemented in symfony 2 is different.
    • I found a a replacement of sfguard = FOSUserBundle bundle. Will update my progress on this along the way
  • If you are using timestampable fields like me (i.e created_at, updated_at, deleted_at), these features does not come with Symfony2 by default, you need to install a DoctrineExtension bundle from STOF

The Ugly

  • You need to re-code everything over. The directory structure and the codes are totally different in Symfony 2.

And… I will keep track of the weekends i spent on re-writing my codes over.

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magentophp

aheadworks Blog not showing up or empty in Magento

by Ben
written by Ben

I recently set up a new Magento website from fresh and then install a new theme follow by installing aheadworks blog extension.

Everything works fine until I installed the blog extension and I encounter a 404 not found page in backend.
I logged out and login in backend and able to see the blog admin page. Fine.

I then check out my frontend store and i couldnt see any blog link on top or bottom.
I tried visiting /blog page but it shows an empty page.

Googled online and found out that the extension only install the files to the magento default folder.
If you are using custom theme, you would need to copy them to your theme folder.
Below are the folders/files to copy

app/design/frontend/default/default/template/aw_blog
to
app/design/frontend/[THEME FOLDER]/default/template/aw_blog

app/design/frontend/default/default/layout/aw_blog.xml
to
app/design/frontend/[THEME FOLDER]/default/layout/aw_blog.xml

skin/frontend/default/default/aw_blog
to
skin/frontend/[THEME FOLDER]/default/aw_blog

Flush/Clear your cache and try again

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magentophp

Mystery weird Magento behaviors have finally been resolved… due to base64_decode being disabled by web hosting!

by Ben
written by Ben

For a few months after i have upgraded to 1.6.x and to current 1.8.x, i have been facing the following issues/behavior in backend admin

  1. Searching by fields in every view(Sales, Order, Catalog, etc) are not possible. All searches will return all result back. It seemed as if filter is not working!
  2.  Dashboard graph is not working. It shows broken images regardless of any selection.
  3. Reports that require to input a date range are not working. It keep showing ‘No Records’ even if i refresh the statistics
  4. Even to the extend of doing fresh install of Magento (i tried 1.8.1) also gives the same errors above

And the clues i have are

  1. phpinfo() shows that base64_decode has been disabled
  2. Log files keep showing the following errors
Warning: base64_decode() has been disabled for security reasons  in MYAPP/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Helper/Abstract.php on line 365


Undefined index: title  in MYAPP/app/code/core/Mage/Reports/Model/Resource/Report/Collection.php on line 187


Warning: base64_decode() has been disabled for security reasons  in MYAPP/app/code/core/Mage/Core/Model/Encryption.php on line 144


Warning: base64_decode() has been disabled for security reasons  in MYAPP/app/code/core/Mage/Adminhtml/controllers/DashboardController.php on line 95


I never thought that the base64_decode php functions would indirectly cause all the problems i faced until i recently ask my web hosting company to enable it back.

To my surprise, all the functions are working properly now and i have finally close this issue.


If you encounter the above behaviors or issues, you may want to check if base64_decode has been disabled by your web hosting company. You can do so by creating a php file with a phpinfo() in it.
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magentophp

Magento 1.8.1 Javascript Undefined error when placing order

by Ben
written by Ben

I just recently upgrade one of my magento ecommerce website from 1.7.x to 1.8.1 and one of my customer feedback that he encounter a javascript undefined error upon checkout.

After some comparison with the base folder of magento 1.8.1, i figured out that you need to amend the following page.

app/design/frontend/default/THEME_NAME/template/checkout/onepage/review/info.phtml

Search for the following line or similar

echo $this->getUrl('checkout/onepage/saveOrder');

and change it to

echo $this->getUrl('checkout/onepage/saveOrder', array('form_key' => Mage::getSingleton('core/session')->getFormKey()));
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