Recently I have discovered that many of these sources are now going offline. The thing is about this router, even though it has been around since at least 2004, is that it is still in use and more importantly, still available to purchase, yet hardly changed in price.

So, the purpose of this article is to provide you with information on how to customise your Netgear DG834G router. I hope you find it useful.

The web interface provides little scope for customization, however it is possible to put the router in a debug mode.

To enable debug mode, you simply visit the following URL in your web browser:

http://192.168.0.1/setup.cgi?todo=debug

Note: Where “192.168.0.1″ is, put your router’s IP address.

This will allow users on the LAN to connect to the router via telnet to the embedded Linux system running BusyBox.

telnet://192.168.0.1

Note: Again, where “192.168.0.1″ is, put your router’s IP address.

If that isn’t enough, the more adventurous can replace the built-in firmware with the customer firmware such as OpenWrt or openDG834.

I have one of these routers running at home myself, however I had to configure it in a fairly unique way to pass all handling to my server (which now acts like a router), because I could not figure out a native way to forward from the external IP on one port (eg: 8080) to an internal IP on another port (eg: 80). I also experienced a problem when using the latest firmware from Netgear where I was unable to connect remotely to anything within my network.

To overcome these issues I’m considering either reconfiguring my router using a custom firmware or buying a Vigor 2820 router for when broadband fails. Either way means downtime, which is something I like to avoid.

If you have any useful information, please feel free to add it as a comment on this post. If you have a complex question, you could try the Netgear forums for this router.

There’s loads more information out there, more than you probably care to investigate, much of it can now only be found via the web archive, so I hope you find this useful.

Resources:

• The Little DG834G Page (archived)
• Hacking the Netgear DG834G (archived)
• walliteam.com hacking the DG834 wiki (archived)
• Mike’s DG834 Firmware Page (archived)
• OpenWrtDocs/Hardware/Netgear/DG834GT (old wiki)
• HOW TO use the Netgear DG834G ADSL Modem/Router
• Netgear DG834v2 Hacking Page
• Asinine Monkey’s DG834GT Page
• OpenWRT Netgear DG834G Forum (Archive – read only)
• DGTeam unofficial custom firmware
• Steps to Flashing a Sky Netgear DG834GT Router

If you do find this article useful and want more information, let me know and I’ll see what I can do! Thanks!

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Outlook Express won’t print.

I log in and take a look. Everything seems normal, and normal documents appear to print.

However, when I click the print button or go to File > Print nothing happens. Strange.

They are running Windows XP Professional SP2, with IE6.

All you have to do is go to Start > Run and issue the following commands:

regsvr32 vbscript.dll
regsvr32 jscript.dll

Once this is done, restart Outlook Express/Internet Explorer, and go ahead and print.

This isn’t the first time i’ve seen this issue, so I thought I’d note it down for next time.

Source

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Everything I print only needs to be in black and white, and anything else I can print onto the HP Photosmart 3110 All-in-one that I have located in the room on another machine.

So now it’s time to get serious, I decided to use a Samsung ML-4500 laser jet I had lying around spare.

Only, how do you install this thing on Windows XP?

Yes, I plugged it in, powered it up, and connected the printer cable to my machine’s LPT port.

It’s not plug and play so I had to invoke “Add Hardware” from within control panel.

It knew what it was straight away and detected it as a “Samsung ML-4500″, but displayed the “Unknown device” icon next it.

No driver can be found, “cannot install this hardware” is displayed… Time to locate the driver…

First port of call is the Samsung USA website after a quick google for “Samsung ML-4500 XP driver”, which displayed the FAQ “ML-4500 I Don’t Have Windows XP Driver And Cannot Print.“, and an ML-4500 Driver (20030828190257140_20010927112109ML4500English.exe) is provided.

Downloading this driver, I find that it’s a setup process, which doesn’t work, and I get the following error:

An error occurred during the move process: -115
Component: 2000DIR2
File Group: 2000_DIR
File: C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\w32×86\2\ssgk2.dll

A quick google tells me that i’m not alone with this problem, however, the results are outdated… So what now?

I decide to visit Samsung’s site directly, and SEARCH. There I found a download center page for the ML-4500. There the ML-4500 Printer Driver (ver.1.61) (20050617120952218_ML-4500series_english.exe) is provided.

This downloads and runs fine, but strangely installs to “C:\Windows\Samsung\ML4500″.

At this point, if it has worked correctly, you should find that in “Printers and Faxes” under control panel, you now have a new “Samsung ML-4500 Series” printer.

Going into properties, and printing a “Test Page” should prove that it worked successfully!

I know I have quite a few ML-4500’s lying around different places, so I’m certain this will be useful to me in future, if not others…

Final thought: Why don’t hardware manufacturers SEO their sites especially their driver downloads? This could all have been avoided if the right results showed up in the first place.

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As part of the software installation it appears to install a piece of software called “HP Software Update”.

Unfortunately this causes me an error:

Product: HP Software Update — A newer version of this software has been found on your system. Setup will now exit.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

I tried to find this, I could not, I tried to uninstall it, it kept making reference to a “HP Software Update.msi” or “HPSoftwareUpdate.msi”, which did not exist, it couldn’t find the uninstaller, then was removed from the list.

It seems this software was once installed here: “C:\Program Files\Hewlett-Packard\HP Software Update\HPWUCli.exe”, but not any more.

What I need to do is find the latest version of this software, install it, then uninstall it, so I can complete the install of the driver disc of the new device.

Easy right? Wrong…

I can’t find this ANYWHERE! So I tried using google on hp.com searching for “HP Software Update”.

I eventually came across a page on hp’s website entitled HP Software Update, which contained a file entitled sp34261.exe, the page says it’s version “4.0.5 A”, released 2006-12-22, but as of 2007-11-29, it’s version “4.0.5.7″.

Downloading and running this file extracts the setup to “C:\swsetup\sp34261\”. This appears to contain files such as “HP Update.msi” and “HPSU306Stub.msi”.

When running the setup sequence it asks for “HP Software Update.msi” and looks in “C:\WINDOWS\Hewlett-Packard\Setup Files\HP Software Update\{BB4EE741-CA46-4345-A3B7-1AECBFAB0AFE}\”, this does not exist.

It seems like it wants to run this first to uninstall it, but obviously it can’t as it doesn’t exist.

I cancelled, I get the following error:

“Error 1714: The older version of cannot be removed. Contact your technical support group”

The only two options I can think of are:

• Find out what version of “HP Software Update” this is, and locate that “HP Software Update.msi“
• Remove all entries of “HP Software Update” in the registry forcing the installer to think it’s never been installed.

Doing a little bit of research this is what I found in the registry:

HP Software Update 3.0.5.001 ({15EE79F4-4ED1-4267-9B0F-351009325D7D})
version: 50331653
version (major): 3
estimated size: 3882
install date: 20050418
install source: C:\WINDOWS\Hewlett-Packard\Setup Files\HP Software Update\{BB4EE741-CA46-4345-A3B7-1AECBFAB0AFE}\
uninstall cmd: MsiExec.exe /X{15EE79F4-4ED1-4267-9B0F-351009325D7D}
publisher: Hewlett-Packard
contact: http://www.hp.com/support

I guess I need to find a copy of the installer for “HP Software Update 3.0.5″, which appears to be impossible.

I was able to find another HP Software Update for version “4.0.5 B”, released 2007-02-08, which contained a file entitled sp34794.exe.

A bit more searching and I found yet another HP Software Update for version “3.0.7.014″, released 2006-06-06, which contained a file entitled sp26727.exe.

This one seemed promising as it was labelled on the install as “HP Software Update”, the version 4 is labelled as “HP Update”. However, I was soon to find it gives me the following error:

Your system does not meet the minimum requirements for this update. Update has been cancelled. (0)

Possibly one of the most useless error messages I’ve ever seen! But perhaps we can use it’s “HP Software Update.msi” to uninstall a previous version…

I wonder what HP has to say about all this… That’s right, nothing, not without registering the product which requires me to get the serial number…

So with a little help from an outsider, I managed to solve it, these are the steps I took:

1. Open “Add/Remove Programs”, uninstall “HP Update” (if listed), also try and uninstall “HP Software Update”.
2. Download, and iInstall Windows Installer Cleanup, once installed, run it and select “HP Software Update”.
3. Run “regedit” and locate “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall”, find anything under that, that says “HP Update” or “HP Software Update”, it’s usually in the “DisplayName”.
4. Download and run patch Resolves “Fatal Error 1714″ during software install (FixErr1714.exe)
5. Download and run HP Update (sp34261.exe)
6. Download and run HP Scanjet Full Feature Software and Driver (setup_full_7650.exe)

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There’s many ways to recycle your computer hardware. The most common methods are as follows:

• Charities
• Recycle centres
• Manufacturers
• Traders

Charities

Although there are many charities out there (check your Yellow Pages), there are very few charities dedicated to recycling computer hardware, however they do exist, and they are as follows…

• The IT Resource Guide For UK Charities and Non-Profit Organisations
• Computers for Charities
• Recycling for Charities

From the above sites you can find a whole load of companies offering to recycle your computer hardware.

Other charities include:

• Oxfam
• Friends of the Earth
• Computer Aid

Recycle centers

There are hundreds of them, ring up your local computer shop (see Yellow Pages) and ask them if they recycle computers for charitiy, or you can check the following lists:

• Reuze.co.uk – what to do with your unwanted IT equiptment
  
• IT for Charities List of Recyclers
  
• Waste Online – Computer recyclers
  
• Recycle Computers

Specific recycling centers include:

• Enviro-PC
• Airdale Computer Recycling
• Recycle IT 4u

Manufacturers

Many manufacturers will have a recycling policy, here are a few:

• Gateway
• HP
• IBM
• Dell

If your manufacturer isn’t listed above, simply contact them and ask them what their “recycling policy” is.

Traders

Never just throw away your computer equiptment, even if its no longer any use to you, it may be useful to someone.

Try and sell or trade it…

• eBay
• cex
• Your local computer shop
• Your local IT expert

Also see: Recycle, reuse, or donate? What should I do with my old PC?

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I decided to investigate and began wiggling the AC adaptor at the back in the DC jack socket, which appeared to become lose.

My next idea was to take the laptop apart to take a closer look at the DC jack to see where the problem lay.

The first thing I did was to find the service and maintenance manual on the manufacturers website. I managed to locate the Service and Maintenance manual for the HP Pavilion 4100 series in PDF form, this document can be used for many other laptops as they are all built in a very similar way.

I began following the instructions for “removing the motherboard”, which requires following the instructions for removing other parts first. This is a long process, and can take some time.

To make sure I knew which screws were for what and where, I took a few empty egg boxes, and labelled them as I put the screws in. This will make it easier to locate the right screws when I reassemble the laptop.

After spending some time to get to the motherboard and safely remove it, low and behold the connector had come away from the motherboard, but was sometimes still touching hence why sometimes it worked and other times it did not.

I also discovered that the housing had cracked, and with a little wiggle the top came off, and I could now see the exact problem.

My next step was to work out what to do next with this laptop. This laptop is quite old, and is most definitely outside its warranty period. However I knew what the problem was and had a few ideas on how to fix it.

I decided to contact HP for their suggestions, and while I waited I searched eBay for a supplier of parts for the ze4111s, I located a company who had some parts. I contacted them about getting a replacement motherboard for the laptop, and they suggested that the replacement would be £60. To me that is excessive, probably about 1/3 of the total value of the laptop, it’s not worth it.

I finally got hold of someone at HP, who suggested I contact a service centre, who I found out, charge an absolute fortune! I explained to them that it would not be worth my while and besides I know what the problem is.

I tried resoldering the connector from the housing of the DC jack to the motherboard, but the moment I put the AC adapter into the DC jack the housing would break and force the connection to break.

Upon further examining the motherboard, I discovered that the jack could be safely removed from the motherboard providing I could unsolder it from the underneath where it connects to the motherboard in three places. Not a problem, I’d just require a replacement jack.

I went on to explain this to the HP contact, who provided me with the following details:

I would like to inform you that as per HP policies if the issue is with
power jack then you have to replace the motherboard. However, for your
information I would like to say that the Power Jack on some Notebook
models can be replaced. So, please visit the following Web site to to
know more information about the power jack on the Notebook:

http://www.compaqrepair.com/guide/Compaq_motherboard_ac_power_jacks.htm

OR

http://www.laptopjacks.com/service.php

OR

http://www.aacomputerelec.com/categories.asp?cat=8

NOTE: The URLs above will take you to a non HP Web site. HP does
not control and is not responsible for information outside
of the HP Web site.

Once you visit the We site, contact support of the web site and check
for the availability of the power jack for your model.

Then take the notebook to nearest Local Service Center and get the power
jack replaced.

This was most helpful, I discovered that clearly it can be done, and there are replacements out there!

I also found this thread, and figured that if this guy could do it, I could do it too.

I found that the sites above were charging a fortune for the replacement jack, so I checked all my usual suppliers for components including Maplin, no such luck.

Then, a brainwave, I could cross reference google with eBay and see if anyone had mentioned a jack for a ze4111s recently. So that’s what I did, and soon discovered the seller “laptop18000“, and their shop “GOOD DEALS IN” based in the USA, but sells DC jacks for laptops for very cheap compared to the previous offers.

“Sounds good to me!”

From here its simply a case of de-soldering the old connector from the motherboard, soldering the new connector, then putting the laptop back together. Problem solved!

Meanwhile, the laptop remains in pieces…

In conclusion, don’t throw your laptop away, don’t pay excessive amounts getting someone autherised by HP to fix it, don’t pay more than you have to. DO IT YOURSELF!

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It had the following error: “Parts inside your printer are at the end of their service life. See your printer documentation.”

After a little searching I discovered that most people were saying that “It is simply not worth repairing”, however, I took that as a challange, and decided that if I was going to throw it away anyway I might as well try to fix it first.

Before long I located a page on fixyourownprinter.com’s forum, which had plenty of details about similar issues.

This is the process I used after reading details on that page:

1. Unplug the power and USB cables from the printer.
2. Prepare your work area by putting scrap paper down. Have some spare, just incase. You may also require tissue paper. It is also recommended you use protective gloves as the ink will stain your skin for quite some time.
3. Unscrew the screw at the back of the printer.
4. There are two or three tabs at the back and two at the front. Gently push them in, and then using a bit of force pry apart the cover.
5. At the back of the unit you need to locate some white pads, or sponge type things, initially they will seem fine, but they will infact be full of ink. You need to grab a pair of pliers and pull them out one by one, there should be four, put them on your scrap paper.
6. Take the scrap paper with the pads on to your sink, turn on the hot tap and hold each one under the tap using the pliers until the water runs clear. If you have protective gloves on it may be worth squeezing the water out also.
7. It is recommended that once you have done this, you let them dry.
8. Now return the pads back into the printer.
9. Put the printer back together, (mind out for the paper alignment, and give it some force), not forgetting the screw at the back.
10. Plug in the USB and power cable and turned it ON. (Yes the lights will still flash)
11. Download and install the SSC Service Utility for Epson Stylus Printers.
12. Select your printer and model number (There is no Stylus C42 UX, so select Stylus C4x), then close the window.
13. If it asks if you replaced with the pads; say “YES”. Then close the window.
14. You will see a SSC Service Utilitiy icon (it looks like a printer) in the system tray (next to your click), and LEFT click.
15. A menu will appear, from here you can click on “Protection counter” (its a red cross), then “reset protection counter”.
16. Turn the printer power OFF, wait 10 seconds and then turn it back ON.

Done!

Additional troubleshooting…

If you have problems with paper feed, take it apart again, check everything is in place correctly, push things together tightly, and put it together again.

If you have trouble with print quality, open the lid, clean any ink residue, use the SSC Service Utilitiy to clean the heads.

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