networking – Page 12 – Graves On SOHO Technology

Video Conferencing & Volcanic Ash

April 22, 2010
Michael Graves
networking, Video, VoIP

The volcanic eruption in Iceland, and its associated ash cloud, has certainly been a major topic of discussion this past week. My brother and his wife were caught in France on vacation. Their two week skiing vacation has become three weeks, quite unexpectedly.

Further, while we were focused on the NAB convention in Las Vegas three of my UK-based associates ended up extending their stay in the US by over a week, unable to get flights home. I suspect that I’m not the only one wishing that we had pushed forward with our plans to install room type video conference systems in Cambridge and Burbank. Those systems would certainly have been very handy this week.

CSPAN Interview On The New National Broadband Plan

The FCC's Blair Levin, Executive Director of the National Broadband Initiative, discusses reactions from legislators, the telecommunications industry and public interest groups to the plan. This will ultimately effect us all, so it's good to stay informed as the matter…

A Tale Of Wonky Wifi Part 4: A Doubleheader Featuring 802.11B/G vs N, And WLAN vs Mesh

February 18, 2010
Michael Graves
Broadband, networking

When last we left this story our protagonist had returned the Cisco AP to BUY.COM leaving le maison du Graves without functional wifi for about two weeks. Fortunately I was out of town a lot during that period so it wasn’t much of an inconvenience. If anything it gave me some time to evaluate my options regarding replacement gear.

I’ve noted that whereas I had a lot of problems with 802.11n type wifi APs I’d previously had far fewer issues with 802.11g type hardware. Very recently I was reminded by someone who should know that 802.11a/b/g is more mature hardware than 802.11n. This certainly rings true as my very old Linksys WAP-54G ran for literally years with no problems at all.

How I long for the Linksys of old.

A Tale Of Wonky Wifi Part 3: Wifi Access Point vs Router

There are myriad inexpensive consumer routers available that include wifi functionality, but far fewer freestanding wifi access points (AP.) I surmise that this is because every broadband connected home needs a router and wants a wifi AP, so a converged device is the most affordable approach to this marketplace. Yet in many ways it’s less than ideal.

The fact that your router and wifi access point are in one device makes that device a major possible single point of failure. It dies and your entire network goes down. While merely inconvenient for the kids coming home after school to play World Of Warcraft, it’s a whole different kind of failure if you’re a full-time home office worker who relies on internet access to be effective in your job.

A Tale Of Wonky Wifi Part 2: Some History & Seeking Advice

February 13, 2010
Michael Graves
Broadband, networking

This is part 2 in the continuing saga of my fight with replacing a dead Netgear WNR-2000 that had served a my wifi AP. Please recall that I just RMA’d the Cisco WAP4410N that was to be its replacement.

Firstly, I think that I was a very early adopter of both residential broadband and wifi. Linksys was the obvious leader in devices for this market. I bought a Linksys WAP-11 when they were brand new and fairly pricey. I wired it into my trusty Linksys BEFSR-41 4-port wired router. That device was fed by a Time-Warner Road Runner cable modem back in 1998.

A Tale Of Wonky Wifi Part 1: Netgear & Cisco

February 7, 2010
Michael Graves
Broadband, networking

One of the things that Santa brought over the holidays was a new Wifi access point. Back in November our Netgear router/AP just up and died. In fact, that was the third time in 18 months that the Netgear device has failed. It was twice replaced under warranty. On the occasion of this third failure it, and others of its kind, were not welcome to return….at any price.