Fiber was the third type of internet connection I had after dial-up and ADSL. Even though I was just 14 years old at the time the fiber was set up, it felt as it was the Christmas eve when I was 5 years. I already knew back then fiber was the future of computer communication and a 10Mbit synchronous line would soon be upgraded.

 

The Black Box

However, one thing has been remaining silent since the setup of the fiber connection. The gateway (or modem/home central as some call it) has no admin panel and the documentation seemed to be close to none on the internet. The gateway was an Allied Telesis iMG616BD and had only Fast Ethernet ports. The fact that it had only Fast Ethernet ports means I can send and receive max 100Mbit through my current fiber cable unless my ISP (Eidsiva Bredbånd) gives me a new gateway and upgrades the equipment on their end. The fact I did not get any way of entering any admin web-panel on the modem or find any documentation on the device encouraged me to find more information, as this was a black box on my network I barely knew anything about.

Microsoft has decided to migrate their instant messaging service Windows Live Messenger into the Skype platform. This was something I assumed where going to happen when they bought Skype a few years ago. However, I would thought it would be the other way around. More and more people are also moving from MSN to Skype, and most people ask me "Wtf, are you still using MSN?" as I have contact with many people over MSN. There are also some (really) good reasons why I prefer MSN instead of Skype when it comes to IM.