Theory Patch » Kevin

Respect Thy Neighbor’s…. WiFi

Kevin — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 04:29:31 +0000

Hey! Did you know that when two wireless routers operate on the same channel they throw interference at each other? Which in turn degrades the quality of both WiFi networks? Also, did you know that most manufacturers ship with their own default channel? So if both you and your neighbor have a Linksys, Netgear, etc. router then you are likely interfering with each other. There's a simple resolution to this problem. Find out what channels the WiFi networks in your area are using, then change yours to a channel that is not being used.

For part one you can use this tool, it runs in a browser via Java and will help you diagnose your WiFi situation. In order to change your router's channel you will have to log into it's administration console, find wireless settings, and change to an unused channel. Typically your routers access can be found by going to http://192.168.1.1 or http://192.168.0.1 . However, if that doesn't do the trick you can always consult your routers manual.

Enjoi less WiFi interference and better WiFi reception!

Soluto; Anti-Frustration Software

Kevin — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 20:30:52 +0000

What is it?

After you install Soluto on your computer it keeps track of all of the programs that load when you start your computer, keeps track of how long each program takes to load, graphs your boot up length over time, and it shows you whether or not each program can be turned off our delayed in booting. The theory behind it is great! Most people will notice that over time their computer gets slower and slower. One of the leading causes of this is that the longer they have the computer, the more programs they install, and therefore the more programs end up running at boot time. Soluto seems like a good way to keep track of that. I've only used it for a couple of days, so I can't attest to the long-term graphing. Check out the screen shot below to see how boot up programs are organized. The orange boxes on the left represent 'potentially removable' and the gray boxes on the right are keepers. I had another few boxes on the left marked as 'no brainers' for removal but... they've been removed!

Where do I get it?

Head on over to Soluto's web-site.

Buy.com Will Rip You Off

Kevin — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 23:07:55 +0000

I was recently in the market for an elusive projector lamp. Of course our typical vendors did not have the item stocked. So, I went to buy.com and attempted to purchase the lamp on their site. Well once I got to the finalize order screen the process froze. The web-site buttons became unresponsive and I couldn't move the process along. So, I went and ordered the lamp part else where.

A week later a lamp arrived in a non-marked box. (It wasn't even the right model lamp that I was looking for in the first place) After some digging I found out that they had also billed the debit card, BUT they never sent a confirmation email and there was not an invoice in the box. So I gave them a call. Their support wasn't any help either. They apparently have to contact the reseller that sent us the lamp to 'check on their return policy'. Needless to say, we opened up a case with MasterCard...

Hopefully, you can learn from my mistakes! Stay as far away as possible from Buy.com. Here's why...

Their web-site breaks
They don't send order confirmations
They send out the wrong part
They can't give you a refund
They suck

Virtual Clone Drive

Kevin — Thu, 27 May 2010 17:13:12 +0000

Looking for a clean alternative to Daemon Tools for working with .iso files? How about giving Virtual Clone Drive a spin? It's freeware, it doesn't come with bloat-ware, and it allows you to mount and use .iso files. Need I say more? Head on over to their web-site to download.

Auto-IT a Geeks Scripting Language

Kevin — Tue, 11 May 2010 17:21:31 +0000

Interested in deploying an installation package to 100 computers but don't want to select 'next, next, I do not want to install tool bar, install' on each computer? Package the installation up with an Auto-IT script. Using Auto-IT you can write a script that will launch your installation, select options or enter key presses, and finish the installation for you. Learning how to script in Auto-IT can save you a lot of time if you have a large number of computers to support. Also, if you are familiar with scripting or any other programming language you should find Auto IT easy to write in. I was pleasantly surprised at how straight forward the functions are. If this kind of automation sparks your interest, head over to Auto-IT's web-site to check it out.

Poynt; an app for your smartphone

Kevin — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:05:10 +0000

Have you ever wished that you could get directions to local movies, restaurants, and other businesses from your phone? Ever wish you could figure out who the hell keeps calling you at 3 a.m. from a phone number you don't recognize? How about checking your phone to find out which gas station has the cheapest gas in relation to your current position? You can do all of that and more with poynt. I have it installed on my Blackberry and it's one of the most useful free applications that I have. It's simple to use. You search for businesses near your current position using GPS. Then, you map directions to these places using Google Maps or Blackberry Maps. It works as advertised, and is very useful. I had no idea how handy it would be until I started using it. If this sparks your interest check it out here! (I believe this runs on iPhones as well)

Feedly; my new favorite Firefox plug-in

Kevin — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 15:52:58 +0000

Let's face it. Internet Explorer is out, and Firfox / Chrome is in. Recently I've been on a Firefox kick due to it's ease of use and plentiful plug-ins available. My new favorite plug-in is Feedly. It creates a custom RSS start page for you. Basically, you feed it all of the news web-sites that you usually read and it will condense them down for you in an easy to read magazine like page. The best part for me was that I was able to log-in to my Google account, and it automatically pulled in blogs I had added to my Google reader. I also like how it adds an icon near the firefox URL browser bar for easy access (as shown below). So if you are interested in an awesome RSS reader head here to get it.

GigaTweaker for Windows 7

Kevin — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:17:15 +0000

I was pleasantly surprised with GigaTweaker. It does a nice job of wrapping up system tweaks that are spread all around your system. Rather than look for them all manually, you can use this program which puts them into a few basic groups: Administration, Display, Customization, Communication, and Maintenance. There are too many tweaks available for me to list them all here. All I can really say about the program is that it works well and you should head to download if you are interested in trying it out. Remember, this only works for Windows 7.

One 'tweak' that sparked my interest is under Customization -> System. There you can set Windows to execute the Desktop, Taskbar, and folders to separate Windows processes. That way, if explorer ever freezes up on you performance recovery should be smoother. I've made that tweak, but can't say I've had a noticeable difference in performance. Everything ran smooth before the change and is running smooth after. If it works like advertised though... this may be a valuable tweak that more users should be aware of.

GigaTweaker

Netgear WNR3500L Wireless-N Router Review

Kevin — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:10:50 +0000

Recently, I traveled through the intertubes on over to my favorite online electronic reseller newegg. While I was there I noticed that they had the Netgear WNR3500L on sale so I did some research. I read some decent reviews that spoke to the routers hardware. A few things that stood out for me..

Four gigabit ports (upgrade over my old 100MB)
USB port for network sharing (no more leaving a PC on just to share files)
Wireless-N with up to 300 Mb/s
Double Firewall
Support for guest wireless
WPA/WPA2 supported
3 internal antennas
Total throughput monitoring and logging

All these features made me a bit envious. My old router was an old school wireless g that lacked most of those features. While all these things sounded great, the icing on the cake was the WNR3500L's support of a Linux kernel. Given the fact that it runs on an open-source platform that means a few things. Each component that the router runs is developed by different partner companies (usually making them better) and the router supports DD-WRT, Tomato, OpenWRT, and other linux based open source firmware. Given the full feature set that the router ships with, and the fact that different components are developed by specialized companies, I don't think I'll ever have need to flash the firmware to DD-WRT or anything similar. However, if I wanted to... I could!

Another great thing about the fact that this router is open sourced is that it is backed by a user community. My Open Router has plenty of how-to guides and feed back from other users of the router. If the router interests you, you can check out Netgear's product page here.

LAN Centers

Kevin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 23:12:08 +0000

There's nothing better than being able to reach to play a video game with someone and be able to reach over a few feet and punch them in the arm when they kill you at your spawn point five times in a row. Hold that thought, I just though of something better. Being able to punch the opponent in the arm while you are surrounding by other gamers, all the mainstream gaming consoles, neon green lighting, and techno music. Yep, punching the opponent in the arm just got better. That's why I love LAN centers! Over the weekend I paid a visit to my local game center, Crazy Penguins, and had a blast. Played everything from Call of Duty to Mario Party on the Wii. So, if your tired of gaming alone, look up your local LAN center and pay them a visit!