23 Oct 2010
When one wireless access point is not enough coverage what can you do? There is no place in the house where the wireless access point is strong enough to use from everywhere that you want to use it. There are wireless signal boosters but many times they still do not boost the signal enough.
You could add multiple wireless access points. Then connect to the one with the strongest signal depending on where you are. Of course you’re using security…right? WPA2? Does that mean keeping track of different access points as well as different pass phrases?
The easy way is to give them all the same SSID. The SSID is the name of the wireless access point when you’re computer looks for available wireless. Use the same security, like WPA2 and the same pass phrase as well. That way you can move between the different wireless access points seamlessly.
That will almost work. Set each wireless access point on a different channel. There are 11 channels to choose from but we can’t just use 1, 2 and 3. The wireless signals bleed over to adjacent channels. Skipping a couple of channels works best, like 1, 5 and 11. It can get a little tricky if a neighbor’s wireless is within range. You will have to find channels that don’t clash.
13 Sep 2010
When my iPhone 3g was first updated to iOS 4.0 (after the hour plus upgrade, multiple reboots and the long time to sync contacts and calendars), well it actually performed pretty good. It was responsive…for a while. After a week though the iPhone lost its zip. The iPhone 3g apps were as slow as I’d been reading online.
The impulse to go out and get the iPhone 4 and be done with the performance issues was strong. The iPhone 4 had its antenna problems. The complaints, reviews and spin by Apple and competitors made it hard to see through the smoke. The iPhone 3g worked, kind of, so I waited for the smoke to clear. When friends with an iPhone 3g asked about the iOS 4.0 upgrade I warned them to hold off.
I’ve had plenty of experience with software upgrades. Most of the time the new features need newer, faster hardware. But there was no great need to upgrade now. For a couple of months searching forums and twitter produced tweaks to eek more responsiveness from the iPhone 3g.
iOS 4.1 came after hearing positive chatter for a couple of weeks. The upgrade didn’t take as long as version 3 to version 4. When the upgrade was complete the iPhone 3g was a lot better than before.
The battery life sucked for a couple of days. After another power cycle that improved too.
27 Jun 2010
via Anti-virus is a Poor Substitute for Common Sense — Krebs on Security.
I have seen this for years.
Symantec and McAfee offer different opinions but then they make billions of dollars while not keeping you safe.
A decent anti-virus is necessary. The bloated mega-security suites do not catch the malware, these suites slow down your computers and they cost too much.
I attribute the safety and reliability of my work network to shared responsibility. I do the most I can do to keep the network safe. My co-workers’ contribution is as important. If there are questions we talk.
That’s common sense.
24 Jun 2010
The upgrade went slow but without errors. With FIOS the download happened fast enough. Counting the iPhone restarts it took just under two hours. I did the upgrade from the MacBook Pro but I doubt that made much difference.
After the upgrade all the apps appeared to work except email, contacts, calendar. I use ActiveSync with Google Apps for domains for email, contacts and calendar. None of that was syncing. I kept the IMAP connection to the netsnbytes.com domain after starting ActiveSync. IMAP was just disabled. The iPhone processed email normally with IMAP enabled. The ActiveSync interface is the problem.
Google iPhone forum had reports of many issues. A Google rep mentioned system maintenance. The number of iPhone owners upgrading to iOS 4 overloaded Google’s ActiveSync. It seems to work in some areas but slow.
The calendar and contacts began syncing around 10:00 pm. No email yet.
I am using IMAP to get email for now.
Update 6/27: By Wednesday email flowed normally with the ActiveSync interface. I disabled IMAP again.
Many of the iOS 4 updates do not work on the iPhone 3G. Not enough memory. CPU too slow. Those features cannot be enabled.
The iBooks app is too slow on the iPhone 3G. Stanza works fine even after the upgrade to iOS 4. I like how Stanza works for my ebooks from Pragmatic anyway. The Kindle app works better than iBooks on my 3G phone too.
Over all my iPhone 3G feels more responsive since the upgrade to iOS 4. I read a lot of posts complaining about the opposite – slowing the 3G to a crawl.
Update: I spoke too soon. My 3g is definitely slower. Disabling Spotlight searches and some unused features helped some.
15 Jun 2010
I listened to a talk on Internet security last week. The speaker was great. He was entertaining and informative. He talked about the cost of employees wasting time surfing websites. He asked, was it worth it to block websites.
Facebook includes Farmville, Mafia Wars and other distractions. Twitter, Meebo and AIM are quick outlets for gossip.
The speaker had a simple spreadsheet to calculate the cost per year wasted on web browsing. Here’s a web version if you want to play with some numbers.
(EMPLOYEES x AVERAGE_RATE x HOURS_PER_WEEK_GOOFING_OFF x WEEKS_PER_YEAR = COST)
An organization needs more than just plugging in a few numbers but it can help. If an employee is intent on taking a break and you block the favorite time-wasting website there is always Solitaire and countless other distractions.
There are lots of reasons to filter porn but it is a great idea from a security point of view to filter. A huge percentage of the porn sites also deal malicious software.
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