Early adopting is not only for computers and cell phones anymore.  New technologies can be purchased prior to their maturity in many categories.   Television and Home Theater for example.  I have been planning on upgrading the house to HD for quite some time now.  I would have been on the bleeding edge there, but I didn’t have the cash.  I had planned for months to buy new TVs for the kids this Christmas and they have always wanted to record programs in their own rooms which is really a gift for myself.  The gift of free space on the DVR.   When I saw DirecTV’s ‘Whole Home DVR‘ service I was ecstatic.  This would allow me to upgrade the DVR in the living room and allow the kids to record and watch shows from their rooms and they would also have HD.  Not that they care about or notice the difference in tons more pixels per inch, but hey, I am a geek.

Quickly I will explain the intentions of this service.  Basically the new way the satellite wires are run allows for communication between the receivers (new HD ones only).   So the HD receivers in the kids rooms can browse the recorded programs on the DVR in the living room, schedule shows to record, delete shows, play, pause, rewind, etc.   This concept is awesome and I was able to get it working to its full potential rather easily with some troubleshooting and expert help from my friends at MSAT Electronics.
The reason I am writing this article besides gushing over the new toys available to avid DVR mongers is a few show stoppers that I believe everyone should know before considering this service.
The first thing I noticed was a problem with Video On Demand or ‘CinemaPlus’.   This was another service that I was very interested in using now that I have my new HD-DVR.  This service uses your household Internet connection to download programming using your HD-DVR for almost instant viewing.  I like this because I love movies and don’t have any time to mess with recording them.  This would let me watch some movies that are not on Netflix instant that are currently being played on DirecTV without waiting for their scheduled time to come and pass so my DVR can scoop it up.  The problem is that when the receivers are talking with one another about playlists and DVRish things the HD-DVR is connected to a network and has an address so the other receivers know where to look for it.  When you connect the Internet to the HD-DVR it also needs an address so my router knows where to deliver the Internet.   These HD-DVRs can not have more than one address!  Which makes sense not being able to connect to two different networks simultaneously.   For this there is a solution (yay),  but it’s not free (boo).    There is a piece called a DECA converter which will bridge the two ‘networks’ together.   Basically connecting the anti-social receiver clique to the rest of the world.   I called DirecTV to see if I could procure this item free of charge to allow me to enjoy all of their services at once.  I even used the leverage of having access to more may per view programming when connected to CinemaPlus.  They stood firm and stated the part was $25, but could not be sold without installation which is $49.99.   $75 is way to much to pay for downloading stuff, besides if I connect the Internet to the HD-DVR and reboot it connects to the Internet and I can download a bunch of stuff and then disconnect and reboot and the kids can record again.   So $75 for less aggravation.   The part can be purchased for like $65 at other places, but that’s still crazy.
The Second problem that I would have seen sooner than 3 days after installation if I wasn’t disconnecting the kids to download Beverly Hills Ninja in HD and such is the HD-DVR only supports 1 (one) remote viewing receiver at a time.   Remote viewing is playing something that has been recorded on the HD-DVR in the living room from one of the kids rooms.  If they both want to watch something they recorded or I downloaded at the same time tough cookies.   This really got me motivated to write this article.   So the DirecTV ad is misleading unless you pick it apart like some poem from 1899 in lit class.   It says that you can watch 2 recorded shows while recording 2 other live TV programs simultaneously, which you can.   What they fail to depict clearly in their many videos and diagrams is that one of the recorded shows would have to be watched on the HD-DVR and the other could be remote.  The kids can watch live TV all the time because they do have their own receivers in their rooms, but it would have been nice to know before I bought them HD Receivers that cost THE SAME as Standard Definition DVRs which they would be equally as happy with.  I thought it would be less wasteful to eliminate duplicate recordings because of which room we would want to watch them in.  So it is all my fault for geeking out on new technology instead of filling the basic need.
Going forward I can add another HD-DVR in the bedroom and the kids will be able to watch one thing from there and one thing from the living room, but guess what will happen.  Duplicate recording will be needed in both the living room and the bedroom just in-case two remote viewers are needed, just like before when there was duplicate recording when just in-case we wanted to watch it in a different room.  To summarize, Whole Home DVR service does little or know good for a home with 4 humans who may want to watch television in their own separate rooms.   Being DVR mongers only makes it worse.  What I should have done is just get everyone their own DVR, but what I will do now is inform everyone I can so my mistakes can be learned from.

Some Links:
DECA Router Package, Last on page (This is all I need because I have all 24 series receivers)
DECA Wiring Diagram, Notice you need yet another piece if your receiver is less than 24 series

UPDATE 1/2/11:
I contacted DirecTV and let them know that even the large picture on the center of the whole home DVR service page shows four televisions watching the same show from one HD-DVR.  This is impossible unless 2 of the TVs are not even using the whole home DVR service and just watching the show live on whatever channel it is playing.   Phone support offered me a credit on one of the HD receivers if I were to return BOTH and buy TWO new ones that did what I need.   So… DirecTV misleads with advertisement and has no return policy whatsoever and acts like they are doing you a favor when you get to throw $100 in the trash when their service does not do what it appears to do in all of the advertisements.  They said that’s all they can do so I will just have to suffer with equipment that does some of what it was advertised and none of the argument prevention with the warring DVR mongers of which I payed cash.

Posted in Home Theater, networking - 3 Comments

With today’s technology there is great emphasis on media creation and files are getting larger by the minute. Even the kids’ music players are recording video. This media is often also irreplaceable. As I always say, “If it’s not in at least two places it might as well not exist.” Backup is imperative, but where to put it all.
In this post I would like to talk about whole house backup. There are many solutions both local and in the cloud for individual machines, but what about the kids and other machines in the house that store valuable one of a kind information. If you pay a subscription fee for online backup you need to get one for each machine or buy enough space to hold it all.  If you have a large centralized backup location in the home or office then everyone can copy their stuff to their own folder on that space.  If you still need off site backup to quench any paranoia for a natural disaster wiping out both your source computer and the backup because they are in the same location then you can  purchase just one subscription for the whole house because technically you only have one device to backup.
The central storage would have to be on all the time, so not everyone can use a computer unless they are going to leave it on.  There are also devices now that are basically hard drives that connect to your home network.  These can be left on all the time and hopefully go to sleep when not in use.  These devices usually come with some software to load on all the machines in the house to automate the process of copying the files to the central backup.  You can also use other software like Norton 360 which has a backup feature built in.  You can pick important folders like My Documents, Pictures, Music, and Videos.  The software can be set to run daily or weekly to copy the files to the backup.   The files on the central storage device can be accessed from all of the devices on your network so when one of your computers is down or in the shop you can access its backed up files from one of the other computers on the network with ease.  If you ever had to recover from a system crash you would just have to reinstall whatever backup program you were using, like Norton 360, and then tell it to restore from the central device.
A note about backing up programs.   Most windows programs need to be installed from their original media and can not be simply copied to a backup source and copied back.   The installation media places files in multiple locations within windows along with letting the system know about any special configurations need and registers custom code libraries to run the program if needed.  If you would like to backup the programs along with your files I recommend creating an ‘image’ of your system and storing it on the central device.   An image is a snapshot of your entire computer and works like those discs a computer manufacturer uses to ‘restore’ your system.   The image would take your entire system back to the moment you created the snapshot.  This is an excellent backup because if your system were to crash you could take it from blank to fully operational with all your programs, data, and settings by restoring from your image.   To accomplish this you only need to get better software like Norton Ghost or Acronis Backup.  I recommend still backing up your files to the central location in case you just need a few things recovered without wiping your system back to a previous date.  You can set your new image making software to make a snapshot maybe once a month or manually make a snapshot every time you install a new application. Place this image file on the central backup drive for safe keeping.  Remember these whole system images will be enormous in size containing everything on your main drive in your computer.   Your central backup will have to have twice the size of each main hard drive you will be backing up.   So if you have 4 machines with 250GB hard drives then you should get at least 2TB for your central backup to be sure you have plenty of space to copy everything.  In the past I only used system images for creating my own ‘system recovery’ set after installing windows, drivers, and my initial applications when building a new machine.   Now that huge drives are dirt cheap I can finally attempt to make an image of my current configurations.  I will let you know how it goes.

Here are some links:
Norton 360

Norton Ghost

Acronis True Image

Seagate GoFlex Network Attached Storage

Posted in Home Computing, networking, Software, Uncategorized - No Comments

I have not been much of a security guy in the past, but with new dangers around every corner I have been spending more time in the category. I was reading an article recently and I had one of those why didn’t I think of that? moments. Well to sum it up I had to update my wireless security because the long funky password that I knew was strong enough to sentry anyone who would care to access my network doesn’t matter. Apparently the passcode is transmitted attached to data when the wireless network is in use and there are a few fairly easy to learn methods of extracting the code from the transmission. Once you have the code you can access the network at any time. So the solution for now is not to use good ‘ol WEP shared key security anymore. The newest one on my router is WPA-2 and it has a nice big space for a secure code. Since you only have to enter this when you are connecting a wireless device for the first time you can make it long and complex. I used a phrase with some punctuation and capitalization play.
In addition to an increased level of wireless security WPA is also ready for the wireless N standard. I am guessing it is not that obvious in the setup instructions that N does not support WEP because I have heard from a couple people who had to spend some time finding out the hard way.
So it’s time to move on. Sorry WEP, it’s not you, it’s me.

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Wouldn’t it be awesome if wireless routers had enough power to provide coverage to an entire home regardless of interference, distance, or building material.  Don’t trust the pictures on the box people.  Try it out yourself.  The best way to get the most coverage in your home is to setup your router in a central location on top of a shelf or desk where it is elevated above the furniture/appliance level.  Wireless technology is a line of sight transmission. The signal will not change direction to go through a doorway or open area seeking the path of least resistance.  It will try to go directly from point A to B attempting to penetrate any material in its path.  Many consumers that I speak to have either the problem where the router can not be conveniently located in a central area or they have building materials in their home that attenuate the transmission.   There are many solutions available at the retail level as this problem is growing more popular.  There are replacement routers that boast a larger range.  There is the  new ‘N’ wireless technology that has a wider range of coverage.  Yes, they do have a larger range, but yes they are still affected by the same physical obstructions that you may have.  There are signal repeaters called range expanders where you place the new box within your area of decent coverage and plug it into a wall outlet and it will forward the signal further.  This actually works in many cases, but there is no real way to tell if it is working or monitor its quality of signal so there is a question of reliability.  There are even devices that will send the signal over your power lines from one room to another which I haven’t really seen a good working model.  There are so many variables as far as age of household wiring, interference, junction boxes that degrade signal, even separate breaker panels within one home.  You could either continue to make trips to the electronics store making exchanges or just face the fact that a wire needs to be run.  Look to commercial installations for an example.  If they need to cover an indoor area they do not use a wireless router with a huge antenna on it.  They use what is called an access point.  An access point simply has one connection for a wire that connects to your router.  You can configure it to have the same name and security information as your router and it expands your coverage.  It is similar to a range expander as it needs to be plugged into power, but it is more reliable because there is a physical connection to the network.  Also, you can place this new bubble of connectivity as far as you can run a wire.  An out building for example.  Get help on this one, but you can bury a outdoor rated network wire out to your workshop, shed, gazebo, boat house, whatever as long as it has a power source.  So my recommendation would be to get a good Linksys router maybe with expanded range or the new ‘N’ technology and try it out.  If the signal does not reach where you want it to go and you can’t move the router then skip right to the access point.  It usually costs the same as the hoaky alternatives, but run a wire instead of the labor of traveling to and from the store.

Posted in Home Computing, networking - No Comments

Many still believe that each computer system needs every attachment and accessory for that workstation to complete the tasks it has been purchased to do.  There are ways to save time, space, and money that are now much more affordable.   Networks are not just for office buildings anymore.

With the drastic increase in broadband coverage and the drop in technology prices, networking equipment for the home is mass produced and more affordable than ever.  Powerful home networks already exist in broadband connected homes everywhere.  These networks can be used  for more than just sharing the plentiful internet connection.

In this article I am going to touch on some of the advantages of networking the different kinds of retail printers.  There are basic printers with just a USB connection, wired network capable, wireless capable, and bluetooth printers.  A common misconception is that you need to purchase a wireless printer (more expensive) to print wirelessly from a laptop.  As long as the printer is connected to the network there are options to print wirelessly even if it is not a wireless printer.  In fact if you would like to have your printer in the same area as your broadband connection and router I recommend to use the wired network connection for a faster, interference free link.  It is the computer you are printing from that needs to be wireless to print over the network from the couch, not the printer.  Granted there are some situations where the wireless printer would be preferred as if you need to put the printer on the opposite wall from the router and would like to eliminate running wires around the room or if you would like to put the printer in a more centrally located area because your new found ability to share this printer has family members coming from all reaches of the house to gather their prints.  If you have an older printer that just has the usb connection you still can print wirelessly, but it requires some configuration to share the printer across the network from the computer to which it is attached.  Aside from the extra configuration, another negative would be that the attached computer or host would have to be powered on and functioning for the wireless clients to print.  Bluetooth connected printers can be shared in a similar manner where the host would have to be on and within the bluetooth pairing range to the printer for others to print.

The overall advantages to networking your existing or purchasing a network capable printer in my opinion are costs.  In the past consumers would attempt to purchase all the same printers to only have to buy one type of ink cartridge.  Networking solves this by all users sharing one set of ink.  With the rise of ink prices and the lowering of printer prices a household can wait untill all of the ink is depleted in the various printers around the house (may only be one or two).  Calculate the cost of replacing all that ink and use that amount to purchase a new networkable printer that comes with some ink.  Also, it seems as though there is a trend that the higher price the printer is the lower the cost per page on ink it runs.  Sharing one slightly more expensive multifunction printer will save on overall ink purchases in this way.  Even the amount of household clutter can be reduced by having that many less printers and desks to put them on.   Some laptop users may remove the desk from the picture all together.

There is a good chance you can do more with the technology you already have…

RSL Tech may be the place you finally learn how.

Posted in networking - 1 Comment