Defraggler - a useful defragmentation utility.

Quick one for anyone that needs a free but very useful MS defrag tool.

Defraggler far better than the inbuilt MS utility, runs very happily on desktop and server versions.

Piriform Defraggler

Its free but they do accept donations, and have various other useful little apps on the site.

Untangle with BT Infinity

Sorry for the delay, as promised here is a quick run down of how to ditch the BT fibre hub and just use the mini fibre nte with your own router.

This guide will focus on Untangle, as that as the security appliance we use, however it should be very easy to configure to your hardware.

To start with take the BT supplied cable from your mini NTE to router, unplug from fibre hub and place into untangle WAN port. Store BT fibre hub somewhere of your chosing (I opted for cylindrical floor based storage also used for empty cups, sandwich wrappers etc.).

First the simple protocol, set your WAN port for PPPoE.

Then add your username and password. For home connections this may be generic, for the business version you will need the BT supplied information.

If you have a dynamic IP address all that should remain is to restart the Mini NTE (this takes a while to establish its connection so dont panic) click renew lease from within Untangle for the WAN port and you should be done, simples.

If you have static IP addresses just add them in as above, set any port forwards you need and job done, all should be working.

Hope this helps those who had similar experiences to myself in asking a certain large provider for advice on using their products.

BT Infinity Broadband and Untangle

So a little while ago we decide to upgrade our "Oh crap" fail over broadband line to BT's latest and greatest Infinity offering. Its fairly quick but it most certainly isn't a replacement for a leased line, not even close.

Packet loss horrendous, and trying to use it to upload files via vpn to a remote ESX hosted ms server, forget it. 60MB file failed 4 times, infinity at this end, 100 mb leased line at the other. Call me a skeptic but i'm not about to start blaming the leased line even a little bit.

On the plus side infinity very fast for downloads, and cheaper than our historical BT broadband offering by around £20 per month. No major cost saving but every little helps I guess.

The physical delivery is via a mini fibre nte into BT's fibre hub. Well it was, the BT hub now back in its box where it is staying. Theres a fair amount of noise on the web that you can't use your own router with infinity, YOU CAN! All you need is a cable router that supports PPPOE, and you connect that to the mini NTE, which is to all intents and purposes a modem.

Next post will give a few more details on connecting an Untangle server direct to the mini NTE for all firewall and routing duties.