I've Had It With Wireless

So, once again my desktop's wireless adapter isn't working. The internet works when plugged in via Cat 5e, but via WiFi I keep seeing the connection lost screen. This happened a few weeks ago, and I've gone through three USB adapters in less than three years. Trust me, it's getting more than a little annoying.

So, I head over to Microcenter, not wanting to wait to ship anything. I park myself in the networking department, committed to finding an answer. The Powerline gear they had was expensive, with a Netgear model at $159 for two adapters, and another one that looked kind of old for $99 that only did 14 Mbps. While I was deciding on which direction to go in, the associate for the area comes by. I figure I've got nothing to lose, so I ask for a consult. I describe the setup (cable modem, Belkin pre-N router, pile of USB keys for router one floor away), and he's as puzzled as I am why these things are wearing out so quickly.

He asks me if the network is encrypted, and I tell him that I run WPA, and that besides, I turn everything off when I'm not using it for the ultimate in security. Now, he's really scratching his head. His opinion of Powerline gear is not too high, and he encourages me to just buy another wireless USB adapter as my experience is less than typical.

All right, I decide to give it one last try. Both Netgear and Lnksys G models are on sale for $39.99. He says "Linksys is made by Cisco, and they're the ones who build the whole internet. You can't go wrong with them." Apparently, I can, but I had known that little factoid already, but was curious if it translated to their consumer products. I left the store with this, rationalizing that hopefully in 2009 there will be new standards for WiFi N networking, and Powerline, and if I get another 10 months out of this, then it will be clearer to buy into a new standard with all new gear for a new and improved network. So much for that plan.

I got home, and loaded up the Linksys, following the instructions. I entered my WPA key, and was instantly impressed with the included software that had some little useful tidbits, with things like the uptime, and the maximum thoroughput that I haven't encountered on previous gear. However, we have a new record, as within 2 minutes, the key was completely dead, and wouldn't connect to my network again. Put it in the return pile, and I got that sinking feeling that WiFi just isn't my cup of tea anymore for connecting my desktop.

Annoyed, I thought through the issues. No 2.4GHz even in the house. No microwave on. Theoretically, how do I know it's not the router? Well, I brought the notebook and with its internal wireless it connected fine, until that crashed, but that's another story. However, the old Buffalo key worked last night once again, so I think it's an intermittent problem.

I'm at a loss to know what to do at this point. I'm even thinking about getting an electrician to come and pull some Cat 5e which would solve the problem, but the budget isn't going to support that, and it's not my forte (something about not wanting to destroy the whole house to solve one problem comes to mind).

I decided to head on over to Amazon and get an idea of what the more current Powerline networking gear looks like and costs. I'm definitely out of my element here, and while I know plenty about WiFi, Powerline is a bit of a mystery, and I have no direct experience with it. Here's the standards:

-HomePlug 1.0 — Released June 2001 — Specification for connecting devices via power lines in the home. Theoretical speed of 14 Mbit/s.
-HomePlug 1.0 Turbo — Faster, unofficial specification for connecting devices via power lines in the home. Theoretical speed of 85 Mbit/s.
-HomePlug AV — Released December 2005 — Designed for transmitting HDTV and VoIP around the home. Theoretical PHY datarate of up to 189 Mbit/s.

Turns out that the one at Microcenter for $99 was only the 1.0 spec which is kinda slow. I was glad I hadn't jumped without some research. Over on Amazon, I found this from Actiontec, and the price was more in accordance with the 1.0 Turbo spec. I'm ready to order it, but then I spot its big brother. All right, lets get serious, and stop playing around with the toys. This looks pretty good, and it supports the faster speeds which should easily outdo my cable modem's 15/2 connection with bandwidth to spare. It also is encrypted (like anyone is gonna break into this anyway), and there are users that state that it has performed across wires on separate circuit breakers (our own Bill clued me in to that issue, see here).

At any rate, I ordered the faster one from Amazon. Will this be any better than WiFi? I have no idea, but it would be hard for it to be worse at this point. Stay tuned for the review.

Jonas

If you're as unsatisfied with your WiFi as I am, these are the two affordable alternatives that I encountered, and I bought the faster one.

WiFi Disconnect

It seems that the rule of thumb on the longevity of USB WiFi adapters is right around six months to a year, and it's rare when something makes it past that. After nine months of trouble free use, last night my Buffalo USB wireless adapter disconnected, and wouldn't reconnect to my router. Annoyed and frustrated, I'm looking at my options, and looking for advice.

Of course, the obvious is to go and buy a new one. Checking the prices, to buy an equivalent would go for somewhere between $30 to $100, with $40 to $60 as the "sweet spot." My research last year suggested that these USB adapters rarely go past a year. It's kind of frustrating because the routers are built much better, and last much longer than that. I kind of would like to solve the problem more permanently. Too bad the N specs never seem to get finalized!

Part of me would like to take a break from wireless, and go hard wired. For me, that means I need to bring the computer closer to my cable modem, or to run Cat 5e cabling through my walls. As the wiring job is probably beyond what I can comfortably do, I am considering swapping my notebook with my desktop. I recently got my notebook's wireless working with the WPA encryption so at least it's a possibility.

Another part of me would like to give some type of powerline networking a go. While this technology that uses electrical wiring to connect got a bad name early on, it apparently has made some strides, and might be a viable alternative. Apparently there is not one standard for these things, which of course gives me a little hesitation. Also, for what they are, they are more expensive than many of the wireless solutions out there. Still, maybe there is something that just seems cool about sending the network through my existing electrical wiring. Anyway, I'm considering this type of product.

Ok, time for some audience participation. Anyone have any experience with powerline networking? Is it good enough to ditch WiFi? Am I better off switching my computer's locations and not buying anything waiting for the standards to be finalized? All opinions welcome!

Jonas

Optimum WiFi Update

Just a week ago, I was posting how Cablevision's Optimum's WiFi offering seemed like the wrong direction for the company, and the wrong technology to get the job done. Apparently, that didn't stop them, as over on Cable Rant, they've spotted the hardware being installed to get the job done.

I have to say that I'm a little surprised that they would be moving so quickly on this. After all, while this will run each subscriber $100 to roll out, how is it benefiting Optimum? Do they really think that there are that many non-Optimum subscribers that would willingly pay for WiFi access across the service area? And how much are they willing to pay for this when there are plentiful smartphones with unlimited data plans, not to mention a new iPhone in the wings?

On the other hand, it appears from the hardware pictured in their post, that these WiFi routers are relatively small, and simple to piggyback onto their existing network. Could be a good backup for when the cable goes out.

Jonas

Optimum Wireless?

So, now that I'm an Optimum triple play customer, I've been paying more attention to their news lately (previously I was focused on Fios). Anyway, I spotted this yesterday:

Cablevision added a new wrinkle in their competitive fight against FiOS today. While discussing their first quarter earnings in a conference call this morning, the company announced they intend to offer free Wi-Fi to all of their customers within two years. Non-customers will be able to access the network for an as-yet-undisclosed fee.

Apparently this will cost about $100 per customer to put into place. I'm kind of at a loss to understand why they would do this.

First of all, Optimum is in a heavy Fios area so in order to compete they need to do three things: add bandwidth to keep their internet access as fast as fiber, add HD channels to keep up with Fios and satellite (which they're already behind satellite and will fall behind Fios at the rate they're going), and keep the cost down as we're in a down economy and folks are looking to cut costs. Notice that I don't mention wireless access in this mix.

It's pretty clear to most folks that while WiFi is an amazing technology, and ideal for wireless access in most homes, but it just doesn't have the range to do more than that. To do a whole municipality has proven cost prohibitive in most areas, with very few successes. To do all of Optimum's service area is quite ridiculous. To do anything less won't add much to what we have now.

It's not that I wouldn't want to have internet everywhere. For people that only rarely travel, they could dump their pricey cell phone plan, and get a Skype WiFi phone. For an affordable price, it's an easy way to have access to VoIP calls while on the move. I would also imagine that an iPod Touch would be a great gadget with WiFi everywhere.

However, WiFi has too limited a range. They'd have to put a wireless router on every utility pole of their catch area, and this is not gonna happen. Their data network is already overloaded, and routinely slows down from the "BitTorrent effect" everyday when school lets out. Do we need more devices on this network?

My guess is that they're trying to compete with Verizon that won the wireless auction, and will likely roll out devices to make use of it. Maybe there will be a "quintiple play" at some point from Verizon: phone/internet/TV/mobile phone/mobile data, and Optimum wants to be ready to counter it?

The bottom line as I see it is as follows. If Optimum wants to get into the mobile data/phone business, they're gonna need a different technology than WiFi to link their users to their network (eg: WiMax). In the meantime, they should focus on improving their fundamentals, and offering a compelling service at a more reasonable price. So far, they got that right with their triple play as they got me to willingly part with some cash.

Jonas

Mobile Spam, Part III

This is the continuing saga of trying to block the increasing spam text messages from my cell phone which uses T-Mobile for its service. If you’re just joining us, check out Part I and Part II before reading the conclusion.

After waiting for three days to get onto the T-Mobile website, I navigated over to “Communication Tools.” From there I selected “Spam and Email Filters.” Great, I was finally on the correct screen, which was no small achievement at this point!

First I selected the option that I could only receive messages from other cell phones. I figure that most text spammers are sending their stuff through the email system, and not from keying it on the tiny keyboard on their phone, so that should cut things down to size as a starter move.

Next, remember that the T-Mobile guy said that I couldn’t block all text messages? While that may be potentially true, I figured out a way to practically do it. What they intend for you to do is to generate keywords to block that if the message contains those words, it gets identified as spam. While this sounds great in theory, we all know from our email accounts that it never really works. I’ve had spam email blockers on all of my accounts for years, and yet I still receive hundreds of spam emails every week, just like many other users.

Rather than selecting keywords that then identify the email as spam, I went another route. I decided to set it up that the text message would only go through if it contains a certain phrase. That phrase is equivalent to a random twenty character string, which makes the Wargames code look easy to guess. So while I can’t block the text message service completely, this should raise the bar high enough to keep anything from getting through.

While there was an option to have the messages forwarded to an email account, I chose the discard option. I already have plenty of spam, and I don’t need any more. I hope this helps some other folks out there, as since I did this, I have received no further mobile spam messages.

--Jonas

LoFi WiFi

I had often heard the nightmares about home networking, but thankfully, I have never had anything close to a nightmare, at least in this department. Recently, I did have some difficulties, and after some research I'd like to share the findings.

Just to refresh everyone, my home network is based around a Verizon DSL connection. This connects to a Belkin pre-N router, you know the one with the three antenna on top, and as far as distance covered, is still one of the better choices out there reportedly. I've been running it with WPA security lately. I use two USB connectors (Belkin N1 and Zyxel AG225H) to connect my computers. This week, I was really considering running some Cat 5e ethernet cable through the walls.

Networking is the kind of thing that works well- until it doesn't. Around six months ago, the Zyxel adapter would consistently take a break after 20 minutes of surfing. I mean that it would lose the connection, and take a while to recover it. As I also had the Belkin one, it ended up in the bottom of a drawer, and the alternate one did the job. Now this week, the Belkin N1 adapter, which has run very trouble free over the last several months conked out. Out of every minute, it was connected for around 20 seconds, and reconnecting to the router for the other 40 seconds. I was clicking on the browser reload button more than a few times, and surfing was difficult, at best. (Don't even get me started on what it took to upload this week's NudgeCast...).

Anyway, stuff breaks, and so the plan was to buy something new. Great, a new toy in a shiny shrink wrapped box! The Microcenter circular had arrived, and I spotted a true bargain, a WiFi USB adapter for the amazingly low price of $7.99, after rebate. My experience with rebates notwithstanding, I still was very tempted. however, after some research into this adapter from a lesser known networking company (Trendnet), I decided to pass. It looks like mixed reviews at best, with particular difficulty with networks involving encryption, where it seems to drop the ball, big time, and frustrate many folks. Well, as they say, cheap can be very expensive.

This prompted me to look up just about every WiFi USB adapter on the market. First of all, it seems that those notebook cards work the best, followed by the USB adapters, and the PCI adapters are the worst, generally speaking. Also, there's not too much testing of the uSB adapters. Most networking reviews focus on the router, and for the writeup, they typically connect via a notebook card adapter. That's great for being mobile to test a router's range, but it leaves the USB adapter as an afterthought (which it probably is).

Also, much of this is still proprietary. While 802.11b and 802.11g are open standards, there's any number of speed boosting technologies that fall under various names of "rangemax," "speedboost" or "turbo mode." However, for any of this to work, all of the gear needs to be from the same manufacturer. Most home networks are more of a hodge podge of gear bought at various times from several manufacturers as needs changed and developed. As I didn't want to spend $100 on this adapter, I was looking for something older, but that often means the drivers are old too. It seems that nothing gets really fixed, they just release a new product, even when the older one doesn't work right.

After going through a ton of user reviews on both NewEgg and Amazon, a few trends can be observed. The first is that no piece of networking hardware works for everyone, no matter the price. Plenty of folks are frustrated when a fair amount of this stuff never gets up and running. There is also a constant debate whether we should be using the included software, or to let Windows manage the settings, with folks firmly entrenched in both camps. Next, these USB adapters seem to get quite hot with use and stop working until they are cool again. It's no mystery that there is a lot of tech in that little thing, but some folks are resorting to fans on them to keep the connection up! Finally, there are plenty of people that claim that the adapter stops working after six months to a year. My own experience would confirm this.

So, what's the answer? I'm not sure there is one. Many of us need the wireless as it's still easier than remaking the house to pull cables through. If it's going to stop working, I'd suggest one with a longer warranty, and keep our receipts. Also, I'd rather not pay too much for one of these, as this way when it doesn't work, it won't be as painful. Typically in this situation, I end up buying one of the less popular models, as it has less written about it, and therefore, less negative. Be that as it may, I did make a purchase, and look for the review over on TNL-R in a week or two. I don't want to endorse anything until I've had a chance to use it for a while.

--Jonas

PS: If you've had one of these adapters die in a few months, or experience the heat problem, I'd love to hear about it. This info shouldn't just be buried in some list of NewEgg customer reviews!

TMobile Update

So after being promised yet another call back from TMobile that never happened, I decided to call again. This time when I got "tier one" tech support on the phone, I told that them to kick me up to "tier two" which they did. I figured that after this many tries, I could skip the folks that simply couldn't help me.

When I got the tier two associate, I gave her my "trouble ticket" number. She returned with some excitement that she had some "good news" for me. I made sure I was sitting down, and she informed me that a new tower was planned for the dead spot I had described. Then the other shoe dropped- it was going to take 120 days!

I suppose that there is light at the end of the tunnel, but that wouldn't help me for quite some time. It is also often difficult for the companies to get permits to put up towers, so I'm quite sure it will take longer. While she could hardly contain her enthusiasm, I could contain mine.

She then told me about the new WiFi router plan that TMobile is rolling out. Perhaps that could fix my network coverage issue? Is this the new plan- for the consumer to provide their own coverage? I'm not impressed with that idea.

Then I find out that Sprint is ditching their customers that call fifty times a month. Maybe TMobile will do the same. So does that mean that I only need to call 48 more times this July to get out of my contract?

--Jonas

TMobile,...The Saga Continues

So after being promised a call back from the TMobile folks about my tower roaming issue, and of course not, I called one more time today. Each time that I have to navigate their voice menu tree it gets more frustrating- I had to call three times today to get to speak to someone.

Today's person was pleasant enough, and she took my ticket number. However, even after talking to her supervisor, we're still no further along to a resolution. Apparently, nothing has been done about the lack of roaming. This is after almost a month for those of you keeping track of this with me.

The best she could do is that a new ticket was generated, and I was yet again promised a call back by Friday with an update. A few minutes later, I received a text message that indicated that there would be some type of tower "upgrade" to my area very soon. Call it what you want, but this sounds like more of a repair to me than an upgrade. Poor coverage could be tolerated when we got out first cell phones a decade ago, but not in the current year.

Once again, we'll keep you posted how TMobile is doing, but so far I'm not impressed after several cumulative hours on the phone (that's my landline as the cell phone is still dropping calls).

--Jonas

Update: TMobile

This is starting to become the ongoing saga with my cell phone carrier. As I still hadn't heard what was going on with the lack of roaming, and my monthly bill didn't have the promised credit (although it did have some), I decided it was about time to reach out and touch someone.

I spent over twenty minutes on the phone with TMobile, but it least it was better than the 40 plus that has been the usual as of late. It would seem that the folks that I speak to need to speak to a manger to do just about anything which explains the slowdown across the process. They did promise to deliver on the full credit promised, but I have to wait for next month's bill- maybe they're hoping I'll forget.

I also inquired about the roaming issue, namely that the phone doesn't roam onto the other networks. Not only is there still no answer to this, but today they couldn't even find the issue in the computer. Even when I gave them the tracking number, they still couldn't provide any information. Kinda weak, no?

The service rep promised to call me back tomorrow with some more information as to what is being done on this issue. I'll keep ya posted, but don't hold your breath for a quick resolution, because I'm certainly not...

--Jonas

iHype For the iPhone

Well, here we are on the long awaited day that the iPhone would be introduced, June 29th, 2007. There has been no shortage of coverage of the device, and the "iHype" is just about everywhere. During this last week, this little mobile device has dominated the tech news by a healthy margin.

I wrote a piece about the iPhone several months back, and for the most part, my initial conclusions have not changed. The one exception is the battery life, which Apple appears to have gotten under control, and makes the device eminently more usable.

I still think the darn thing is simply too expensive for what it is- a phone. And not even a great one at that. I saw on the news the other day the four screens that must be gotten through in order to be able to place a simple phone call, and I'm frustrated just watching it. In this day and age, $500 to $600 for a phone, with a built in iPod Nano is just not that exciting to me. I spent a similar amount of dough on my last computer parts order from NewEgg, and that money is much better spent to me. Not to mention that the service contracts are also way overpriced in typical Apple fashion. Sixty bucks a month for 450 minutes has got to be the most overpriced plan in the industry, and it's the cheapest one!

Sure, save the comments. I realize it's more than a phone, and we can be connected all the time to the internet, the one real "killer app" that this device promises to deliver in my mind. And don't even get me started that the AT&T Wireless data network is one of the slower ones, and they would have been better off with another company. When the commercials show this thing flying through web pages, they're doing it via WiFi, which you don't need an iPhone for anyway, my Palm T/X does that just fine with no monthly fee.

Many of us that cover technology are relieved that in a few days, all of this iPhone nonsense will fade back into the background. I would like to see some elements, such as the larger screen and WiFi connection incorporated into the new iPod. They've been very mum about the sixth generation device because they don't want anything to detract away from iPhone sales, and the lucrative contracts. Now that the iSheep can stop camping out, and get on with their lives, it's time to get back to something I find more interesting.

--Jonas

T-Mobile Update

After some major cell phone issues last week, and some less than informative answers from T-Mobile’s service line, I’m happy to report that over the weekend and this week the cell tower has been mostly up and running. There have been some times where there was no coverage again, but overall it has been more up then down.

However, things are not quite perfect. When I complained about the tower outage, I also complained as why my roaming capability for my quad band phone doesn’t get onto the neighboring network. They promised to have an engineer look into things, and get back to me within 72 hours. After more than double that time period, I have yet to hear anything back, and the dead spots, that there are towers from competing companies in. Not good. (As an aside, I sent a copy of last week's story to their media relations department. They called me back on my cell phone, but I had a lot of difficulty hearing the callback number they left. I returned the call to my best guess of the number, but it only said that due to heavy volume it wouldn't go through- four times! Also, the received calls on the cell phone only was the general 800 number for the company so we're not exactly communicating).

Also, the supervisor on Thursday was going to call me back to follow up on the issue, and determine the final credit. He did not, nor anyone else from the phone service center. Also, not good.

In this era where the cell phone carriers are all pretty much the same, in that the contracts are similar, and the plans are very similar, the only thing to distinguish them is some level of service. Unfortunately, T-Mobile is not doing well in this area. I’m thankful the phone works again, but they really could do better overall. When my contract comes up next year for renewal, I'm going to think long and hard before just signing up again for this.

--Jonas

Locked Down!

When Is Wireless Security Too Tight?

I've had my WiFi router hooked up for a while now, but I never got around to setting up the security features. Yeah, I know, this is less than good, but I figured none of my neighbors were really that computer savvy, and my router is in the basement to reduce the range. Also, I used the ultimate security feature- I shut the whole thing down when I'm not home so that it's 100% secure.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, I decided to lock it down, and I started to realize how vulnerable I had theoretically been. First of all, I named my wireless network for the brand of the company, Belkin. By doing this, all someone would need to do is go to the Belkin website and see what that company uses for an URL, type that in within range of my router, and they would be ready to get right in. There is a password to enable one to change settings, but I never bothered to set that up either. And of course, I didn't bother to setup any encryption protocol. In short- this was not the way to do things no matter how nice my neighbors are as one never knows who might be wardriving by.

So, I changed the name of the router to a different company to confuse would be hackers, and setup an administrative password to guard the settings. So far, so good. When choosing a wireless security protocol, it's a choice between WEP and WPA. The WEP (wireless equivalent privacy) is the older standard, but just about everyone agrees that it's real simple to break into, and offers almost no resistance to those that would want to get it. This is because the same key gets transferred back and forth, so that a diligent cracker will be able to grab the key. This leaves us with WPA (WiFi Protected Access) which is much more secure as a different key gets generated each time (kind of like "rolling code technology" for garage doors and car remotes). So I setup the router, and my desktop which uses a recent USB adapter, and had no problem with the WPA encryption. So far, so good, and I felt better about the security situation.

While I did this, my notebook was out of town on a trip to Texas. I decided to connect it to the internet this week, and it was a no go. Despite knowing the code for WPA, I couldn't get it to connect. I first tried the built in wireless, but it appears that the Averatec 3250HX's built in WiFi doesn't support WPA. I next tried the Belkin router card that goes with my router. I even tried removing the driver and reloading it. Apparently it does support it, but only if Windows manages the settings. While I get an option for a WEP key, there isn't one for WPA. It's kind of strange, but the choices get grayed out. I was about to accept the fact that maybe it would be just easier to plug it in directly to the router, but then I tried one more USB WiFi adapter from Zyxel. For whatever reason, this one worked fine with the WPA, and I could enter the key and get online with no issue. This is a better solution than having to nuke things and try reloading in the hopes that one of the settings got screwed up. Weird, huh?

So, that is the tech adventure of the week. I'm starting to wonder if I would have been better off leaving the router open and not wasting time with this. Perhaps that is why there are so many open networks out there. At least I proved that my network is secure- maybe a little too much at this point.

--Jonas

I Spoke Too Soon...

After my initial positive experience with T-Mobile earlier this week concerning my cell tower outage, I've been soured to the entire experience. Here's the inside scoop...

When they first told me that the tower would be down for another two hours, it sounded reasonable, and I could surely understand that everything electronic needs to be serviced/upgraded/fixed or whatever they do to their equipment. The only problem is that the two hours came and went, and the service didn't return.

On my next 45 minute phone call to the service line on the next day, I graduated from the regular crew, to what they call "Tier Two" technical support. These folks told me that it would be up in three hours. All right, these were the "next level" folks, so they should know. They assured me that their engineers were working hard on the problem, and understood the hardship of having no mobile phone. While it was reassuring, long after three hours, I still was not connected. I powered off the phone and went to bed hoping that the engineers would be working through the night.

Well apparently they went to bed too. Or maybe they need to ship a part from Djibouti or Nepal or somewhere that FedEx doesn't deliver from. At any rate, today's folks, including the supervisor on service could only tell me that it is an open item, and that they were working on it, and gave me no estimate when it would be fixed.

I find this rather unacceptable. With the recent problems with my landline, I really need the mobile phone as a backup, and now it's not working at all from the house, and for several miles in any direction. The only consolation that the company will give is that will refund me $5 per day for each number that has no service. That hardly seems to compensate me for the 45 minutes (no exaggeration!) I've spent daily with them over the last three days troubleshooting their network and explaining my difficulties to the next person who is in another state.

At this point, I'm not sure what to do. I really don't wish to endure another three week outage like I did last summer. I'm paying for service that I'm not receiving. If this continues into next week, I think I'll insist that they let me out of my contract and try someone else. It really can't be worse than no service, no?

--Jonas

Annual Cell Tower Issues

Over the last year, I've had decent cell phone coverage by my house, although there are still too many deadspots not too far down the road. You may recall that last year the cell phone tower in my town went down for a three week duration last summer. Still, for whatever reason, I've stuck with T-Mobile through it all.

Now with the warmer weather, I noticed that again today that I had no bars of coverage on my cell phone. In another area, I had full coverage. Ok, it must be the tower again.

I went ahead and called t-mobile, yelled "English," my phone number, and other verification data into the phone until I got to an account representative. This was the Tier One person. While she tried real hard, she gave up and kicked me up to the next level before too long.

The second tier tried to make the phone roam onto another network. I kept pointing out that I have free roaming in my plan, and there are other providers in my area, and why didn't my quad band phone make friends with a new tower. She didn't know, but she put in a requisition with the engineers, and they will text me when they figure things out. More importantly, she told me that the cell tower would be up in two hours. I wasn't holding my breath.

While it took closer to three hours, and my usual four bars of coverage has dwindled to one to two, I will say that the phone is at least more than a paperweight again. Compared to last year when they only wanted to sell me a new phone, this was much better this time around.

As the cellular phone market consolidates, and increasingly the providers all have many of the same phones and similar contracts, one key way to distinguish themselves is with service. Assuming the cell tower is up and running tomorrow, T-Mobile appears to be doing tons better than last year. Then again, they had nowhere to go but up.

--Jonas

Digital Convergence: Is 2007 Finally the Year of the Digital Home?

Introduction

After many false starts, this may finally be the year that our computers and television sets converge. For years, this has been desired, both by the manufacturers and the masses, but it remained out of the reach of most. However, let’s talk about some of the recent product trends making this happen.

Sometimes Simpler Is Better

For those wanting to watch television on their PC, that used to mean a TV tuner card. Unless from a few manufacturers, they tend to be buggy, and need a dedicated PCI slot. As many folks are not comfortable with opening up their desktops, that already restricted its use to the handful of us that are. With notebooks outselling desktops, clearly a different solution was needed.

Manufacturers have responded with USB TV tuners. These devices either work only from an OTA signal, or have an input from a coax cable allowing it to tune in a cable signal. Some of the larger ones also have composite inputs so they can digitize analog content from a VCR or analog camcorder. As a class of device, they are simpler to use, and affordable. This is one example of a bridge being built to get television content onto the computer. Once there it can be viewed live, or saved for later viewing. While the USB port, even in 2.0 form, and a notebook’s hard drive are not ideal for HDTV content, in lesser screen resolutions it is adequate. The Hauppaugue Win-TV 950 exemplifies the product category.

Going the Other Way

The real challenge has been getting digital computer content into the living room. While just about everyone has a DVD player (and when they sell them in the supermarket for $30 there’s no excuse not to have one!), there’s still a lot of digital content that hasn’t made it off of the hard drive. Making that a little more difficult is that most folks don’t have Cat 5e Ethernet cable running in their living room and behind their TV.

One simpler route for convergence is to find a DVD player that can handle more than just DVD’s. Some of the fuller featured players will playback mp3’s, WMA’s for audio, add in JPEG’s of images, and DivX for video. If it will play back all of these formats than just about any content on the hard drive can be converted to one of these formats with the right software and enough processing horsepower and brought from the desktop computer to the living room. However, while this works well for an evening of music, or a preplanned vacation slide show, it won’t allow streaming YouTube videos without a considerable investment of time and know how to make this possible.


Another route is to bring the “mountain to Mohammad.” Plenty of new flat panel televisions have a VGA input. Whether from a dedicated home theater PC, or an occasional hookup of the notebook, this is another example of digital convergence. While computer parts in the living room may not pass the significant other’s test for home cleanliness, it will clearly get the job done. The latest digital TV’s are enabling this as the last time I tried this trick with a 20” tube TV and a composite video port, the video was watchable, but the text was not quite readable and even finding icons became a challenge.

The omnipresent iPod, can also be a vehicle to bringing the content to the TV. Take an iPod Video, add in a docking station with outputs which hook into the set, and it’s a go. While the video quality is not quite HD quality, the audio and images should be fine. Some of the solutions also feature a remote control, and are stylish making this a cost effective way to go, that doesn’t appear cobbled together, and that passes muster with the significant other without looking like a NewEgg warehouse exploded in the living room.

The latest entry into the field has been the media extenders. While Apple TV has garnered the most enthusiasm (or at least press), there are plenty of Windows variants, like those from Netgear and Hauppaugue. As a class, they tend to be expensive, and hard to justify for only an occasional use. They also have their own set of issues in terms of supported file formats, and user interface. They use a wireless connection to connect to the desktop in the other room which eliminates the lack of wired Ethernet cable, it also brings in the issues of any WiFi network setup in terms of signal dropout and interference, and limited bandwidth for streaming video content. While I think this category of device is here to stay, I look forward to more mature products in this segment.

Conclusion

While it has taken plenty of time to reach this point, things are finally coming together. Wireless bridges are becoming more stable. There is also more content on the internet that is suitable for group viewing on a large screen. As that content grows through sites like YouTube, then there will be a need for more seamless integration, and a variety of products will meet that need.

--Jonas

The Network Hub- A New Class of Device?

For at least a while now, there's been not that much new in wireless networking, unless we count the latest iteration of "not-quite-n" hardware. While I saw something about this a few weeks ago, the new Belkin Network USB Hub was officially announced today.

While Belkin's last attempt at a USB hub was a disappointment, I'm hoping things are better this time. Rather than using some new type of ultra wideband networking, with limited range, this time they're taking a more generic approach. The plan is to use this across an existing WiFi router, and allow a group of USB peripherals to be plugged in, and shared by users on the network. I think this would work well both for small offices, and families.

In my house, for example, I'd love to be able to leave my printer, scanner, and an external hard drive all in the basement by the wireless router. Apparently, this new Network Hub can accommodate up to five devices that can be accessed one at a time, all at the speed of your router. Then from upstairs I could print, or access the hard drive conveniently. Scanning a single page, my most common scanning task, should work as well without having to hook directly into the computer each time like I do now which gets real old, real fast.

Of course, the jury is still out, but looking at the specs, I'm hoping that this is the direction that WiFi networking is taking. I may eventually get less wires beneath my desk if this type of device works as well as I think it might.

--Jonas