Digital Dad®

Boosting my Buffalo

I recently moved a few systems around in my house.

I took the creaky Dell (256Mb RAM) and put it behind the TV, hard-wired into my router. It's now used solely as a music/photo server using Windows Media connect. I use my Xbox360 to pull the photos from it.

I took the Sony liquid-cooled hyper-threaded monster from behind the TV and put it down the hall in my office. I also put Vista on it and officially retired it from Media Center PC duty. Since I am not wired down the hall I have a PCI WiFi card (802.11g) with a little antenna thingy on it.

However, the signal down there is weak. I heard that WiFi signals travel better down than across so tried connecting my cable modem and router upstairs, right over the office. Lo and behold - no change! So much for that theory.

I moved it all back and went on eBay and bought an antenna for my Buffalo router. They sell them on eBay for about $15 and it just plugs in the back.

Sure enough, I basically doubled my signal strength. Small victories keep me going!

And the PepperPad goeth . . .

I wrote about the PepperPad last year when it was introduced at Demo2004. Neat idea - a simple well built tablet to use for email, web browsing, etc. around the house. Ran Linux and Firefox.

I never ended up buying one like I thought I would, and I guess I was not alone. The thing died in the market and PC Mag just named it one of the worst products of 2005.

Achoo.

Getting the new house (un)wired

We are now unpacking vast quantities of boxes in the new house here in Washington.

Rather than keep DSL, I decided to go for Comcast cable internet service. My motivation was based on two factors:

1. DSL requires a dedicated clean line to get good speeds and your then tethered to that dedicated line for your DSL modem
2. Microsoft had a deal with Comcast (yes, item #2 probably holds more weight)

In any event I gave them a shout and the Comcast guy was over (pretty much on time!). It took him little time to drop in the modem and activate the account, although he suggested I install the "Comcast software package" as well - no thanks. Just the IP, ma'am.

My strategy at the new gig here was to drop the modem and my Buffalo router inconspicuously behind a TV in a reasonably central location and use a cable splitter to feed the cable modem. That was easily accomplished.

I powered up the Mac G4 in the new kitchen and the built-in WiFi found the Buffalo no problem. A single cable from the Mac to the wall for power - that's it - very beneficial when you have a one year old at around that level pulling on every cord in sight.

Downstairs I powered up the Dell with my Buffalo card - again AP found no problem. The notebook roams freely as well.

I ran a bandwidth test on the Dell down here and I'm at about 1117 Mbps. Not bad - that tops my Walnut Creek DSL connection by just a bit.

I haven't tested the signal distance yet, but the Buffalo router has an input for an external antenna. I have a "barn" at the back of the property that I plan to outfit with a 200" High Def overhead projector connected into an xBox 360 - but more on that later!

Pigeon-net

Great story here about how a bunch of memory cards were strapped to pigeons to see if they could beat out the ADSL transfer rate between cities.

Will the innovation never cease!?

Auld Lang Syne for Linksys

It's not often that two products from the same company fail so definitively.   I was using a Linksys 54G router at home and also the Linksys NSLU2 Network Attached Storage.

Within a few days of each other they failed. The router power just went off - dead. Not sure if it was the power supply or what. The NSLU2 simply cannot be recognized on the network.

I had already replaced the Linksys 802.11g PCI card in my downstairs PC with a Buffalo card, so I stopped by my local Fry's and picked up a Buffalo AirStation. It cost me about $80.

After some quick connections I powered it up and it has worked like a charm ever since.

Linksys just makes low quality gear and I'm tired of it.

New Year's resolution - no more Linksys!

Gateway's Wifi DVD player - a great deal

I haven't tried one of these things but i did get an email that they are on sale for an incredible price - $108 shipped. The deal details are here.

Looks like you can connect it to your WiFi set-up and stream photos, movies, music, etc. Here is a review.

It's also progressive scan so it should display some great film-like DVD imgaes if your TV set supports progressive scan output.

More streaming, plus storage

Here's a new thingy from Viewsonic. Most people know them from their monitors, but they're now into the "wireless media" business, which means moving music, photos and video around your house, via WiFi.

The WMA100 hooks up to your TV and enables you to display photos, play music or, most interestingly, play videos that are stored on a hard drive somewhere (another PC on your home network, for example). The twist here is that Viewsonic appears to have optimized the system for videos.

The use case here is that you have a library of home movies that you have stored on a hard drive, imported from your DV camcorder and you want to show them on a TV. Traditionally you'd have to find the right DV tape, hook up the camcorder to the TV and play. With the WMA100 and imported digital video clips you can just select titles and play.

I'm sure the movie industry isn't too happy about making it this easy, but them's the breaks.

Also, the WMA100 plays not only MP3 files but AAC files as well, like those from iTunes (well, not exactly, you would need to to remove the copy protection from the ITunes purchased content for the music to stream properly. The negative here is that I don;t want to turn on my TV to play music, but it's a nice adder.

Showing photos is an interesting use case - I could use this thing to show my 8000 digital photos that I've been gathering since my 5 year old son was born.

An associated device is the Viewwonic WMG120 - it's a WiFi router like you may already have but it adds a 120 GB hard drive. In this case you store all of your photos, music and video right on this box, instead of a PC. Might even be a good network backup system, but I haven't seen the software yet.

The pricing isn't clear yet but they seem to be moving in the right direction. The home video on demand idea is very interesting....all my home videos are stuck on tapes somewhere!

Praising the Buffalo

I picked up a new 802.11g card a couple of weeks ago and recently got around to installing it.

It's a PCI card that I use for my "server" PC downstairs in my office.

I previously had a Linksys card in there that was "Wireless G", which means not 802.11g standard and therefore not the best connection or throughput to my 802.11g router. In fact, Linksys didn't even have a software upgrade to make it a fully certfied 802.11g card - the perils of being on the cutting edge! Boo Linksys.

I picked up a Buffalo WLI PCI G54, which comes with a short PCI card and an external antenna and cable. This enables you to position the 802.11 antenna from behind the PC to a better location. The whole thing was only $27 at my local Fry's.

After opening the PC box it just took a few minutes to install. I booted up, loaded the driver CD and it worked like a charm, much faster than the old Linksys card. I placed the antenna up and away from the PC and mounted it on the office wall..

One of those rare, painless, upgrades.

Working from home, or actually Starbucks

I was working from home yesterday. Actually, rather than sit in my tiny "office" (an old closet under the stairs), I usually drive a couple of blocks to my nearby Starbucks. Once my kids know I'm in my little office it's tough to get a continuous stream of uninteruppted time, nevermind the screaming in the background during phone calls. I think we've all been there.

Starbucks gives me a power outlet, a relatively unused WiFi connection and an endless supply of caffeine. I just wished they would turn the music down a bit. I can go for a couple of hours there and get quite a bit done, usually listening to my iPOD instead of the "Coffee Tracks" or whatever is playing.

I was even able to go home at lunch time and take my kids to the zoo. Dad is a hero!

I buy a five pack of "logons" from T-Mobile at $50. They come in very handy when travelling as well (Admiral's Clubs and a variety of airports). You can log in as many times as you'd like for that day. They have an "all you can eat" monthly fee but based on my usage that doesn't make sense for me.

Some people think that the days of paid WiFi are coming to a close. It turns out that the vast majority of the expense of installing the system is the payment and support part. I heard that Starbucks needs like 20 logons a day per store to break even, which seems quite high given that the base sttaion/router is less than $200 and I imagine the monthly network fee is less than $100. But if you have to pay the payment system, pay the tech support person on call, etc. then there goes your profit.

Therefore you can argue that WiFi in retail shops should be free, which is the cheapest way to set it up, and then you make money on people drinking a bunch of coffee. Sounds good to me!

The other trend is the establishment of what people call "mesh networks" of WiFi coverage. This means that an entire neighborhood is blanketed with WiFi coverage, so all those little coffee shops on main street will now have they pay to play systems negated by this wide area free service.

Interesting. In any event I certainly woudn't buy into an annual WiFi plan at my local shop.

Getting wireless at home

Speaking of broadband, if you have a DSL/cable connection at home and have more than one PC or device to connect, you should get a wireless network set up ASAP.

Setting this up and questions around it have been a recurring topic for the Digital Dad. People with problems with their wireless LANs tend to gravitate toward me for some reason.

However, it really is not too difficult to set up these days - a DDUS of 3 if you read the manual. Without proper documentation you are in DDUS 5 land with little chance of escape (see earlier post on Digital Dad Usability Score).

I set up my first wireless LAN around 1999, using a Wireless WebGear unit that claimed 2Mbps speed. Fortunately we lived in a VERY small house in San Francisco so I could actually get coverage all the way to the living room (if I sat on the right side of the couch). Just the fact I had any connection wirelessly was fantastic.

That was in the days before 802.11 standards, or what is sometimes knows as WiFi. The idea was to create some standards so that your WiFi enabled devices (notebooks etc) could communicate with WiFi base stations (boxes that connect to a wired network, or each other).

No there is WiFi everywhere and of course a nasty rash of standards to thoroughly confuse everyone. I won't go through them all here but there are ones to keep in mind:

802.11b - provides up to 11Mbps access between your PC/notebook/etc and the wireless base station

802.11g - provides up to 54Mbps access between your PC/notebook/etc and the wireless base station and will work with 802.11b gear. However, I have found that when you mix 802.11b and 802.11g gear, you get terrible speeds, 5Mbps or less. So it works, but not well. I believe this will get fixed in the future.

802.11a - provides up to 54Mbps access between your PC/notebook/etc and the wireless base station but doesn't work with 802.11b or 802.11g gear.

Then there's 802.16 and all of that but that's not something to bother with now.

Keep in mind that your DSL/cable modem connection to the internet is probably running at 1Mbps at the most, so going from 11Mbps to 54Mbps will not improve your internet access speed, only the speed between computers on your wireless network.

Getting back to reality, you need just a few items to get a wireless network running at home:

Base station - this box has an antenna on it to communicate with the wireless devices and connects with a cable to your DSL modem. Make sure it has a router built-in - that enables you to connect multiple devices through it and provides some security through what is called a "firewall". There are base stations without routers in them but stay clear of those unless you want to set up a repeater (another post). You should pay less than $100 for this.

WiFi card - this can be a PC Card, antenna with a USB connector on it, or a PCI card you put inside your PC. Many new notebooks come with WiFi built-in, which is great. You should pay less than $50 for this.

Two Ethernet cables - one usually comes with the base station, but check the box. I suggest a second one for set up purposes.
You should pay less than $10 for this.

You hook up the base station to the DSL/cable modem with that ethernet cable and then I suggest hooking a PC, via that second ethernet cable, to the base station. This way you can make sure your internet connection is working before you try the wireless connection.

If that all works you can disconnect the PC and connect in the WiFi card (in what ever form). Remember you need to install software that comes with the card. Follow the instructions on how to do that and all should be well.

The device will look for what is called an SSID, which is the "name" of your base station and also your wireless network. There is the option to either broadcast that SSID or not. If you want to share your high speed connection with the neighborhood you can broadcast it. Otherwise, do not. Also, I suggest changing the SSID name from the default "linksys" or whatever to something else. Again, if you do not your connection could be shared by the neighbors.

Those are the basics and I'll dig into more details in future posts. By the way I suggest you do all of this after your kids go to bed. There is nothing like having a four year old continuously ask questions over your shoulder while you set up a wireless network!

April 28, 2004 in Wireless networking | Permalink | Comments (4)