DS vs WDS vs Mesh

The Internet connection starts with the Internet Service Provider or ISP. This is the company that you pay at regular intervals to get your Internet connection. Popular ISPs include Comcast, ATT, Cox, Earthlink, Sonic, and Time Warner. The Internet signal comes into your home and connects with a wire to the modem. Usually, the ISP provides the modem either free of charge or on a rental basis. This is the extend of your ISP's involvement. After this, it is your responsibility to provide your own distribution of this Internet connection by means of routers and access points. Think of the router as a splitter that enables more than one computer to use the same Internet connection. The access points are boxes that relay the Internet signal with wifi signals so that end devices like smart phones and laptops can join the network and get to the Internet without being tethered to the router with a network cable.

A collection of routers and access points that make up your local network is a distribution system. There are different types of distribution systems that can be setup according to your needs and what is possible. Each has advantages and disadvantages. If cost is not an issue and it's possible to run network wires through the coverage areas, the best setup is mesh wired distribution system. You will understand why this is after you have read what is below.

The most basic is the wired distribution system. As seen in the graphic, all of the access points are connected to the router with its own dedicated network cable. The incoming Internet signal to all of the APs is via this wired connection. This enables the APs to relay a very good signal. If possible, this is how your local network should be setup to ensure that your wifi devices get the best Internet signal. If you have a bunch of wireless routers that you want to act as APs, you need to turn off the routing function in them or else you will have one mess of a network. In general, there should only be one device that acts as a router in a network.

A variation of the wired distribution system is one where each of the APs has two network jacks. Therefore as seen in the picture, AP1 gets its Internet signal from the router and then relays this signal to AP2 with a network cable. AP2 then does the same with AP3. This daisy chain of network connection looks different than the previous wired distribution system physically, but functionally, each AP still provides great Internet signal.

Sometimes it is not possible to run a network cable between each AP. Therefore the relay signal has to be over the air. When this is done, we have a wireless distribution system as seen in the graphic below. The dotted lines represent the wireless communication between the APs. You also see that AP1 only communicates with AP2 and not AP3. AP3 only communicates with AP2 and as such indirectly communicates with AP1. Setting up a WDS is a bit more complicated because each AP has to be programmed to only accept the incoming signal from its upsteam AP. Therefore, AP2 can only accept the signal from AP1, and AP 3 can only accept the signal from AP2. This means if AP2 is offline, AP3 will not get any Internet signal, resulting in computers in the range of AP3 not getting any Internet access. Moreover, the Internet speed is cut in half as the signal is relayed. This means any computers getting their Internet from AP2 only get half of the speed compared to if they get it from AP1. This also means any computers getting the Internet from AP3 get 1/4 the original speed coming out of the router. This is why WDS should only be setup no more than 5 APs. If AP6 is needed, it should get its incoming signal via a network cable either from the router or from one of the APs much closer to the router in this chain.

WDS has no redundancy in the participating APs. This means when one AP fails, the distribution system is broken. The offline AP has to be replaced or fixed before all the down the line APs can get the signal. In a mesh WDS network, all APs communicate with each other in a non-daisy chain way. When one AP goes down, another will take over its role as long as the replacement is within range of the source signal. In a sense, a mesh network can self heal. For a mesh network to be effective, you need to pepper APs in strategic locations to maximize overlapping signals. This is why a mesh WDS network is more robust, but it is also more expensive because you need to deploy more APs. There can also be a mesh network where all the APs are connected to the router with a network cable. When an AP is offline, the flow of the Internet signal is rerouted. For example, if AP2 is offline, AP1 will communicate with AP3 via their wireless connection. While the Internet connection is maintained, the computers connected to AP3 still have their Internet speed cut in half. This self healing only works if the signal from AP1 is strong enough to reach AP3. This is why in a mesh network, the APs are placed in strategic spots to maximize this rerouting when one or more APs fail. In a sense, the Internet itself is the largest mesh network of all networks. The Internet does not shut down when one or a few Internet routers fail.

Of course, you can mix and match these network setups. You can have a WDS at one part of the network and a mesh one at another part as long as the IP addressing scheme does not create any conflict, that is, as long as data knows where to flow to reach its destination, the mixed network would be fine. Basically,mesh is used at locations where there is a high demand for wireless access. The APs in such an area also have higher horse power to handle more simultaneous connections. 

There are other variables to consider in addition to the topology. The processing power of the APs, the frequency they use, and how to handle the backhaul are just a few. In a WDS, usually the backhaul, the communications between the APs, are handled with the 5GHz frequency because of that frequency's higher throughput compared to the 2.4GHz. Distribution systems are complex networking schemes but with good understanding and good planning, they can be made to work even in the most demanding of situations like large coverage areas or high data usage demands.  

If you like to play around with mesh wireless network without having to pay too much money, then Open-Mesh is the best solution. You can get an access point from them as little as $75. It used to sell an even cheaper model, so you can probably find these on some retailer who still has this cheaper model in stock. Unfortunately, as of this writing, these APs, even the high end models, do not support features like scheduling and auto-RF. Scheduling is when you program the APs to turn on and off their signal at a certain time of the day or day of the week. Auto-RF lets you choose what channel to transmit or the APs choose it for you based on the channel that has the least interference. Currently, these Open-Mesh APs are stuck at channel 5 for the 2.4GHz and 144 for the 5GHz. Open-mesh tech support told me that these two features are in the works and should be available by the end of the year. It would be hard press for anyone to say that these 2 features are not important. They are important to have a cleaner signal and stronger security. 

Synology Media Services with Apple TV

Synology NAS is friendly to playing multimedia to your various devices such as Roku, XBox, PlayStation, and AppleTV. However with the AppleTV, because Apple's refusal to join the industry standard DLNA ecosystem instead running its own proprietary protocol Airplay, you need an intermediary device to play media files stored on the Synology NAS onto the TV to which the AppleTV is attached.

Below is an article that explains in detail on how this is done.

http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/87489-setting-up-synology-nas-media-services-with-apple-tv

One thing to be aware though. Because the Synology disk station manager (DMS), the operating system that runs the NAS hardware, supports Airplay, once the video has played, the NAS communicates directly with the AppleTV. In other words, the iOS DS Video app only acts as the initial connection between the NAS and the AppleTV. Once that is done, the DS Video app and the iDevice can be moved away from the connection or even turned off and the video file still plays.

I wish Apple would allow the AppleTV the ability to browse SMB shares such as those on the Synology NAS. This would make life a lot easier for people who own AppleTV and Synology NAS. Incidentally, Apple desktop operating systems version 10.8 or higher supports the network share protocol SMB and SMB2 by default. Its proprietary older protocol AFP is still supported+
, but you have to explicitly key that in when connecting to network shares. As such, why Apple cannot simply include this SMB support in AppleTV? One reason is Apple wants you to access media files that are on the Internet exclusively. SMB access is accessing these files locally within your home network. In other words, if the media files are stored in the cloud, you are only in possession of the files as long as you pay for their storage on a subscription. You would stream them to your devices as needed. No storage of any files locally on servers such as the Synology NAS which you purchase once and use as long as the hardware lasts. According to Apple, even with media files that you created such as home videos of your kid's birthday party should be stored in the cloud, preferably in your iCloud drive to which Apple gives you the initial 5GB of storage for free.

Simple Scanning Program

If you just want a simple scanning program to create scans from your scanner, then I recommend this.

http://naps2.sourceforge.net/

It can scan from both TWAIN and WIA scanners. These are just protocols used by scanners to communicate with the computer. TWAIN is older of the two and can be fond in both Mac and Windows PCs. WIA stands for Windows Image Acquisition. As the name implies, it is a Windows-centric protocol and therefore only found in PCs. There are other scanning protocols used by the specific scanners that are found in the driver for the scanners. This is why many scanners come with software; without this software, the computer cannot make the scans. If you have a scanner whose driver is installed just fine on your computer, but for some unknown and annoying reason, your scanning program of choice, one that does not come from the scanner manufacturer for the specific scanner, cannot detect the scanner. In short, Windows says that the scanner is detected and displayed correctly in Device Manager but when you open the Paint or Paint.NET program to tell it to scan, the scan from a device option is gray out. Most likely, the scanner is of the TWAIN variety that Paint no longer understands because it prefers to use the WIA driver model found in Windows Vista, Seven, and Eight.

This is where the NAPS2 program can help. It understands both TWAIN and WIA scanners. I was trying to scan from a Canon DR-4010c without success. Windows 7 detects and recognizes the scanner just fine, but Paint and Paint.NET refuse to scan from it. The NAPS2 program does it with simplicity and perfection.

It is a very small program, but it can do most features that a typical person wants from the scans. It does not support previews where you can adjust the scanning area. This means if the paper in question is not the typical 8.5" and 11" size, the resulting scan will have this large white frame around the document. This not a deal breaker because you can always use the Paint program to crop it afterwards. I would use Paint.NET program to crop it and (through a export to PDF plugin), save the scanned file as a PDF.

If the paper document is 8.5" and 11" or large enough to be these dimensions, then you can use NAPS2 itself to scan and save the file as PDF directly. If the scanner supports duplex, NAPS2 can do that too and save multiple scans as a single multi-page PDF. It can also save the PDF file as a single page that displays both sides of the paper document side by side aka folio. This is done if you want the PDF to be printed out on paper that can fold vertically like a birthday card.

One unexpected bonus from my testing is the PDF files this program creates are substantially smaller than those from other scanning programs. I am not sure why. I compared  the resolutions of the resulting PDF files and could not detect any degradation when zoomed in.   

SVG Files

There are two kinds of graphics: vector and bitmap. Bitmaps are based on the pixel. This means a bitmap image has a defined resolution. This means if you zoom into a bitmap image, eventually you will see the individual pixels that make up the image and the image under high zoom will appear blocky or pixelated.

A vector image is determined by mathematical equations and not by pixels. Therefore, the image can be zoomed in at any magnification and is still smooth. There is no pixelation because there are no pixels to reveal under high magnifications.

An svg file is a type of vector file. It is designed to be displayed by all modern web browsers. The advantage of an svg image file is it is very small in size. In fact, calling it a file is not even correct. Calling an svg file a file is like calling the letters in this paragraph a file. Basically an svg "file" consists of nothing more than a bunch of texts telling the browser how to "draw" an image on-the-fly. Imagine your telling the web browser to display an svg rendition of a circle. The svg code is basically a glorified equation for a circle which is as seen on the left.

Incidentally, the image on the left is a bitmap image. If you zoom in, you will see all of the static pixels or building blocks that make up the image.

If the browser supports svg, then it will display a picture of a circle. In fact, it will display a picture of a perfect circle. When you zoom into this svg circle image, the curve never shows pixelation.

Test this out with the two images on the left. At first glance, they look exactly the same. However, when you zoom in by telling your web browser to zoom in, you will see which one of them is a bitmap image and which is a vector image. As said, a vector image that is rendered in a web browser is an svg file.

In case you are curious what is the actual svg equations that would cause the web browser to render this image, just look at the HTML code that creates this post. Look for a tag that says SVG. You will see all kinds of weird texts and numbers. This is a much more complex version of the simple circle equation.

More info on vector vs bit map can be found here:
http://packetrider.blogspot.com/2014/11/a-free-browser-based-vector-creator.html

Peer to Peer Airplay

If you have a TV connected to an AppleTV and an iPhone, iPad, or a Mac computer, you can use the built-in Airplay feature to have the TV display exactly what is displayed on the iPhone or iPad. In short, what you see on the iDevice (a generic name for any portable device that runs iOS), you can see on the TV.

There are 2 ways to setup this projection: Infrastructure and Ad-hoc.

Infrastructure is when both the AppleTV and iDevice are connected through a middleman such as a wireless router. This means all Airplay traffic between the AppleTV and iDevice go through the centralized controller that is the router. While this certainly makes setting up easier and consistent, it does require an extra piece of hardware and the speed decreases because of the connection between the AppleTV and iDevice is indirect. There is also a slight performance degradation as well if you plan to project a video, resulting in some stuttering. Therefore, if you plan to stream videos that are already stored locally on the iDevice, then an ad-hoc or peer to peer connection is recommended.

The article below from Apple explains in technical details what is happening during a peer to peer Airplay connection between an AppleTV and an iOS portable device.

http://help.apple.com/deployment/ios/#/apd8fc751f59

Basically, for peer to peer Airplay to work, you need to have the required hardware. On the AppleTV end, it has to be a 3rd generation rev A Model A1469 or later with AppleTV software 7.0. On the iDevice end, it has to be a model made in 2012 or later with iOS 8. If you want to use a Mac computer instead of an iOS 8 device, then the requirement is a Mac computer made in 2012 or later with OS X Yosemite version 10.10.

Basically the AppleTV and iDevice use Bluetooth to make the initial connection. After that, wifi is used to do the actual mirroring. This means the iDevice cannot connect to another wifi signal that has Internet access. Therefore, if you want to play a video from the iDevice and have it be seen on the TV, then this video must be stored locally on the iDevice. If the device is a Mac computer running Yosemite, this is not a problem in terms of simultaneous Internet access because the computer has both wifi and wired connection. The wired connection is used for the Internet connection while the wifi one is used for the Airplay.

If you must use an iOS8 device and still need Internet access at the same time, then you have to use a physical adapter such as one below. Then it's no longer Airplay but just a wired connection to the TV directly bypassing the AppleTV altogether. This wired connection obviously removes the benefit of mobility of the iDevice. It has to stay fixed next to the TV.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD826ZM/A/lightning-digital-av-adapter

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD098ZM/A/apple-digital-av-adapter

Incidentally, the Lightning or 30-pin female connector on this adapter is used to charge the iDevice while it is being used to project the video. This is recommended if the video is played for hours so there is a drain in battery power on the iDevice.

For those technically minded, the wifi channel used during mirroring is 149 in the 5 GHz band and channel 6 in the 2.4 GHz band. Given that video streaming takes up a lot of bandwidth, during the streaming, any other wifi devices that use these frequency will see a major degradation in their usage. This is not a problem because if you have the required hardware listed to do this peer to peer connection, then the AppleTV and iDevice will be using the 5GHz band to do the transmission instead of the 2.4GHz. The fact that there are 8 non-overlapping channels (compared to 3 channels for the 2.4GHz) to choose from for the 5GHz band, interference with other wifi devices in the area is minimal.

Good Review Website

With so many websites out there that help you choose the best tech or non-tech products and the plethora of products available themselves, it's maddening to find the right product for your needs and price points. There is a website called The Wire Cutter that not only does its own in-house product testing, but their editors dig through other product review websites to get a consensus. This hive mind approach ensures that you are not taken by the bias reviews of one particular site.

http://thewirecutter.com/

I have bought products recommended by this site and so far, the items have lived up to their reputation.

VoIP Service That Is Google Voice Compatible

Basically, it enables your run-of-the-mill analog telephone to call out and receiving calls using a free Google Voice number. Other than the device itself, once hooked into a Google voice number, all calls made and received within the US is free just like Google Voice itself. However, if you want added services, you have to pay Obitalk a small fee.

http://www.obitalk.com/obinet/

Band Steering

In a typical wifi access point (AP) that can do both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz at the same time, your wireless client such as a laptop or smart phone can either connect to one band or the other, but not to both at the same time. In other words, as a start, you can associate the client to the 2.4GHz band with its corresponding WPA password. The client will remember this association so that the next time this 2.4 GHz SSID is in range, the association will automatically re-establish. You do not need to put in the password again. Then you will tell the client to associate to the 5GHz band and go through the same routine. Now, your client remembers and caches the log in credentials for both SSIDs for future encounters.

Your client device will see both SSIDs. If you name the two signals with the same SSID, this SSID will appear twice on the detected list. This "duplication" only serves to confuse you. Therefore for dual band APs, you should give each band a unique name that will tell you that one is 2.4GHz and the other is 5GHz. Examples being MyNetwork24 and MyNetwork5.

If you want to switch over from one band to the other, you have to do this manually. Certain high end APs have a feature called band steering. Basically, the AP will associate with the client at 2.4GHz first but when it detects too much congestion at this band, the AP will automatically tell the client to switch over to that of 5GHz. As you recall, the client already has the passwords cached for both bands. You do not need to do the switch manually and certainly not having to enter the password every time. Therefore band steering is a convenient way to get the best of both worlds.

The least expensive AP that I can find so far that has this feature is Engenius EAP600. At about $150, it's more expensive than the other dual band APs that can be found at half the cost, but with band steering, it's worth the extra cost in my opinion. Another access point that does band steering that also can participate in mesh networking is one made by Open-Mesh. The cheapest model is the MR600 that goes for $175.

Imagine you are in the same room as this EAP600 enjoying the faster speed of the 5GHz signal, but as you walk away, this 5GHz signal gets weaker because of its shorter wavelength nature. Eventually, the association to the 5GHz is terminated. However because of band steering, the client device will automatically jump to the 2.4GHz band and maintain the network connection. The 2.4GHz signal has longer range and less susceptible to blockage, but it is prone to interference from co-existing 2.4GHz signals. The 2.4GHz signal also has longer wavelength so less data can piggyback on its waves. Therefore, the data transmission speed of the 2.4GHz is perceived to be slower (and it is). Conversely, when you walk back into the room, the reverse will happen. The client device will re-associate with the 5GHz band to give the data speed a boost.

Below is m info on how to set band steering with a cluster of APs that support it. The video does not use EAP600 as example so I am not sure if EAP600 can be used in these clustering. EAP600 is categorized as an enterprise AP so it should be able to be managed as such.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbiYJYFSAb0

General info on band steering itself
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGmfPwbs2Jg

Introduction to Open-Mesh Access Points
http://youtu.be/1YOoT3NxgYg

Revert to the Old Avatar Switching in Chrome

With the latest version of the Chrome browser, Google made a change that is an annoyance. When you look at the upper right corner of the browser, you will see a button that is the name of your current Chrome user profile. It is there even if Chrome only has one profile. For people like me who use multiple user profiles, it is even more annoying having to do 3 clicks now to switch between profiles. The old way of doing the switch is simple: Click on the avatar, a dropdown menu shows up with all the profiles visible. Then it's a simple matter of clicking on the profile you like to use. That's it.

Now with the latest change, this process requires 3 clicks which is not that bad in itself, but if you switch profiles a lot, this becomes a big annoyance because it is not necessary to require 3 clicks to get the job done. Luckily, you can go to the location bar in Chrome, type in chrome://flags

Then do a text search for any appearance of "avatar". Go to this entry and make this setting Disabled. The user switching process is reverted to the old way.

How to Reset the Synology System

http://forum.synology.com/wiki/index.php/How_to_Reset_the_Synology_System

Sometimes you have to "reinstall" the firmware for the Synology NAS. I did it for a Synology box because there were problems that I could not fix. This is akin to having to re-install Windows. The instructions on this wiki page says that this reinstallation does not delete the data, but I made sure that the data was backed up anyway as it should be regardless.

I then hit the reset button until I heard a beep sound. I let go the paper clip. Then I hit the reset button again until I heard three more beeps. This did reset the firmware to a blank slate, requiring me to reinstall it.

The reinstallation worked. The NAS was back to normal operation. The existing data was kept intact.

There is another setting in the DSM where you can actually erase all data on all drives. It is not clear to me if this action will purge the firmware as well.

Unifi Access Point Specifications

UniFi - What are the hardware specs for UAPs?

---

 Listed below is a table containing UniFi hardware specifications.

Model	Regular	Long Range	Outdoor	Pro (UniFi AP Enterprise)	AC
2.4GHz speed	300Mbps	300Mbps	300Mbps	450Mbps	450Mbps
5GHz speed	-	-	300Mbps	300Mbps	1300Mbps
Dual-band	-	-	-	Yes	Yes
802.11 standard	802.11b/g/n	802.11b/g/n	802.11a/b/g/n	802.11/a/b/g/n	802.11a/b/g/n/ac
Range	122m (400ft.)	183m (600ft.)	183m (600ft.) or more	122m (400ft.)	122m (400ft.)
PoE limit / compliance	24V	24V	24V	48V / 802.3af	48 V / 802.3at (PoE+)
External antenna	-	-	RP-SMA	-	-
Secondary Ethernet port	-	-	Yes	Yes	Yes
Antennas	2x2	2x2	2x2	3x3 (2.4GHz) 2x2 (5GHz)	3x3 (2.4GHz) 3x3 (5GHz)

If you are interested in using the Unifi wireless access points made by Ubiquiti, the above table of info is helpful in choosing the right access points.

How to Edit Microsoft Office Documents without Having Office Installed on the Computer

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/office-editing-for-docs-s/gbkeegbaiigmenfmjfclcdgdpimamgkj

This add-on made by Google for Chrome enables Chrome to work like Word and Excel. Once the add-on is installed, simply drag and drop an Office file into the browser and edit the document. When you save the changes, Chrome offers you to save the file locally on the computer in native Office file format.

Upgrading Your MacBook Pro with a Solid State Drive

I am a strong advocate of SSD drive because it has no moving parts as seen in the picture. Yes, these drives are relatively more expensive than the magnetic drives (the drive on the left with the circular disk). However, the price difference is not so much now that these SSD drives are beyond the average person's reach. You can get a decent SSD drive at 256GB for $120. If you want more space, a 512GB SSD is around $200. In other words, SSD drives now are at 50 cents a gig, a sweet spot for many people.

Upgrading an SSD drive on a PC is relatively easy than a Mac computer. The reason being Apple wants you to buy the drive from them. There is a particular aspect of SSD that can hinder its performance. This is known as garbage collection which you can read it here in its gory detail.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Write_amplification#BG-GC

TRIM is one aspect of garbage collection that is OS dependent. Apple has its own way to implementing TRIM. Therefore you have to do some extra work if you use a SSD drive that is not "approved" by Apple including using a tool like Trim Enabler. Remember, enabling TRIM is not required to make the unapproved SSD drive work, but if you want to squeeze every bit of performance out of your SSD drive in your Mac, you have to do this.

 http://www.cindori.org

After all is done properly and your Mac has a SSD drive, you can see the dramatic difference in its performance. This is especially true with big programs like Photoshop and if you run Windows on VMWare or Parallel.

Here is the article that explains upgrading to SSD drive on your Mac.

https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4741

A Free, Browser-Based Vector Creator

Vector graphics are those what are commonly known as "cartoons". Their composition consists of sharp lines and curves. These strokes are based on mathematical equations like the ones you learn in geometry and trigonometry classes. In short, for every vector object such as a circle or a square, there is a math equation associate with it. Because of this, these objects can easily scale up or down. That is to say, re-sizing them is easy. Just change the numerical values to the math equation and you get a larger and small version of the object.

By contrast, bitmap graphics are based on the pixel. Once the pixel density is determined, scaling the graphic distorts it. A photograph of a person's face is a bitmap graphic. If you enlarge it, the picture will become fuzzy because you artificially add additional information into it when there was none. In short, you make the computer guess what parts of the face look like up close.

The best known vector-based creator and editor is Adobe Illustrator. However, for its power, it is difficult to use and like all things Adobe, expensive. Luckily, if your need for vector graphic creation is simple like creating a logo or a sign or a graphic for your newsletter, there are plenty of alternatives that are either free of charge or less expensive than Illustrator. One such alternative does not even require you to install anything locally on your computer. One such product is called Method Draw. It uses the power of HTML5 to render the objects. HTML5 is efficient so using Method Draw is a joy, making you forget that this is not a program that you have installed locally on your computer. However, HTML5 does require the latest version of the web browser like Chrome and Firefox.

http://editor.method.ac

It takes a few hours to "master" Method Draw's techniques. If you are experienced in vector creation, you will able to create graphics using it in a mater of minutes because Method Draw uses the same principles as Illustrator and other vector-based creator programs.

Two Ways to Tell if Windows 8.1 Update 1 is Installed

Windows 8.1 Update 1 makes Windows 8 even user friendly for those who either prefer to use the mouse instead of touch interface. For example, when a "Metro" app is opened, in previous versions of Windows 8, it was virtually impossible to exit the app. How with Windows 8.1 Update 1, you can simply touch the mouse cursor to the top edge of the screen and a black bar will drop down giving you to X out the app.

However, Microsoft decides not to include this info in the System page when you right click on the Start button and choose System. It would simply say Windows 8.1 or Windows 8.1 Pro.

Well, there is one simple way to find if you have Update 1 install in addition to the black bar trick already mentioned. On the Windows 8.1 Start screen, if you see the Power and Search icons immediately next to your own profile picture, then you have the Update 1 installed.

Download Windows 8.1 Setup ISO

http://www.vladan.fr/how-to-create-installation-media-for-windows-8-1-u1/

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media

The creation tool does not specify if the download is the retail or OEM version. You are not supposed to be able to buy the OEM version, also known as System Builder Edition, but some stores including Amazon sell them. Basically, this OEM version means you are a IT professional so if there are problems with the installation, you may not call Microsoft for help including if the product key does not work. Therefore, the OEM version is slightly cheaper than the retail version as seen on Amazon. I have installed hundreds if not thousands of Windows that go way back to Windows 95. I have always used the OEM version without any problems.

I installed it as a test. It is Windows 8.1 Update 1.

If you choose to create the ISO instead of burning it into a USB flash drive, it will create an ISO file as intended. If you want to burn this ISO file afterwards, use this tool called Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool.

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/html/pbPage.Help_Win7_usbdvd_dwnTool

Even though it says Windows 7 in its name, it works fine with Windows 8 ISOs.

How to Sync Any Folder With SkyDrive on Windows 8.1

Even though Onedrive is integrated into Windows 8.1, it is still a folder that has no connection to the default folders of Documents, Desktops, Pictures, Videos, and so forth. As such, when you save a file from a particular program, it wants to save the file in the default Documents folder. As said, this folder is outside the Onedrive folder so any files in the Documents folder are not automatically synced to the cloud via Onedrive.

With symbolic links, you can make these folders act as if they were inside the Onedrive folder. Therefore, you do not have to explicitly save files in the Onedrive folder. Just save them to the default Documents folder and via symbolic links and the files are stored in the Onedrive folder.

How to Sync Any Folder With SkyDrive on Windows 8.1

Disconnect from an un-mapped "drive" in Windows

In Windows, you can connect to network shares in two ways. You can map a share with any authorized credentials so that this share will appear as a drive letter in Windows Explorer. This way, not only you have a convenient drive letter like Z to work with, but you have the option to have Windows reconnect to the same share after a restart of the computer. This method is recommended if you have a password protected Windows account.

Another way is to go to the share and authenticate every time. This will not create a drive letter for the share. When you log out or restart the computer, this authentication is flushed, necessitating the need to re-authenticate.

There are times when you want to disconnect all connections to all shares for both mapped and un-mapped shares. With mapped shares, it's easy. Simply right click on the share's drive and choose Disconnect. However, with un-mapped shares, there is no apparent icon to act upon. You have to go to the command line and issue the net use command. Of course, logging out and logging back in will also release this share. However, sometimes this is not an option.

By typing net use you will see what un-mapped shares Windows is connected to.

If you want to disconnect these shares, type in

 net use /delete \\server\sharename 

The "server" and "sharename" are different for each network.

The following website has all the info you need.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16196/how-to-disconnect-non-mapped-unc-path-drives-in-windows/

If you want to run a command to disconnect all unmapped drives:

net use * /delete /yes

If you do not want to type, then you can insert this into a batch file. Simply running the batch file will execute the command.

Picking the Right Lock

Computer security is one of my interests and rightly so given that so much of our valuable information is now in electronic form. Moreover, we store more and more of this information not on our personally owned computers but on cloud-accessed computers offered by the likes of Dropbox and its ilk.

With that said, all security measures start with the most fundamental: physical security. It is the security that prevents unauthorized physical access to your valuables. In addition to padlocks and chains, physical security includes doors and windows. When you leave your computer unattended in public or semi-public areas, you would and should lock it down with a security cable anchored to something immovable like a desk. This cable is shackled with a padlock. Unfortunately, the majority of the consumer padlocks out there can be picked by someone with minimal skills and simple handheld tools. These thieves do not even need a bolt cutter to cut the shackles of locks.

An informative Youtube channel called bosnianbill with over 600 videos about locks is worth checking out. I didn't know this is such a fertile field to have over 600 videos about it. You can easily kill a day's worth of time watching these videos, but if you are short on time, the one I recommend to watch is below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsJZ_kKjXcE 

This Youtuber has a great dislike of Master locks and makes it clear every chance he gets. Over and over, he shows that he can pick these Master locks within seconds with two simple pieces of tools. Unfortunately, master locks are very popular out there in the US. If you want to secure your valuables and use Master locks, after watching a few of these anti-Master lock videos, I think you will replace them with something else mentioned in the recommended video.

Viewers from around the world would send bosnianbill, challenging him to pick them. Some of the locks are just amazing, attesting to the creativity of the human mind. The weirdest lock is the one seen in the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ey2SFHbZV8&list=UUp1orOGJwZvjLAvckyxC4Nw

Dropbox Glitch Causes File Deletion

Generally, it is good practice to have more than one backup even if the backup itself is already a second copy of the data. In the case of Dropbox, people use it as the only means of backup found out the hard way recently why this is the case. Dropbox is often used as a means to backup data because it is so convenient due to its transparency. Basically, once it is setup, it creates a folder on your computer called Dropbox. Any files saved into this folder automatically get copied onto the Dropbox server on the Internet. This means there are two copies of the files at all times. If you delete a file, its copy on the server is deleted automatically. When your computer breaks, you can go to another computer and access the same data file on the Dropbox server. If you wish, you can sync these files onto the new computer.

The recent glitch on Dropbox causes data loss. Some files are deleted on both the Dropbox server and because of its sync nature, the mirrored copies are deleted as well. Dropbox normally keeps a copy of deleted files so the user in theory can recover these deleted files. However, the problem is you may not know what files were erroneously deleted so you would not know what to recover on a timely basis before the grace period for recovery expires.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/dropbox-selective-sync-glitch-cloud-storage-deletion,27872.html

Selective Sync is a Dropbox feature that allows users to select a specific file or folder to be mirrored on the user's local hard drive. For instance, perhaps users take photos on their smartphones, and those images are automatically uploaded to Dropbox. The user may choose not to mirror those images on a local hard drive with limited storage capacity. 

According to Dropbox, the file deletion occurred when the desktop application was shut down or restarted while the user was applying Active Sync settings. The company's email said that the team worked hard to restore those files, indicating that many may not have been rescued from the dark clutches of the trash can.

So what should you do to ensure there is no data loss if you use Dropbox as your only backup? Simple actually. Because you use Dropbox, you already know exactly where the Dropbox data is. It is the Dropbox folder itself. So once in a while, you would simply copy the entire Dropbox folder onto another physical drive. Append to the name of the folder the date of the copying. So the back up folder will have the name of DropboxXX-XX-XXXX where it can be for example, 10-13-14. This will create a folder called Dropbox10-13-14. This way, you will know exactly what is in this backup folder -- all the files stored on Dropbox up until Oct 13, 2014. When the drive that contains these Dropbox folders are full, you can delete the oldest folders based on their names. Easy.

Sabrent WF-RADU Wifi Audio Receiver

Updated on January 31, 2015

Let's say you have a good pair of speakers that uses the typical 3.5mm audio jack, the type that can plug into a computer to play sound from that computer. However, instead of playing from the computer, you want to play from your smartphone to these speakers. While you can do this with an audio cable connecting to the phone, it is cumbersome with the tethering. You want to lose the cable and send the audio to the speakers over the network via wifi. You can do this with a $30 tiny device called Sabrent WF-RADU Wifi Audio Receiver. It supports both the DLNA and Airplay protocol which should make it compatible with almost all smartphones and tablets out there.

The device is small enough to fit comfortably in your palm and lightweight. It has a 4-inch tethered USB cable that is meant to power it and not for data. This means if you plug this into a computer, the computer will not detect it as a device in need for a driver. The computer will only provide it power. There is no battery in the WF-RADU so it has to be tethered to a computer or any 5-volt USB power source during its operation. I used the USB charger that came with the iPhone 5S because the WF-RADU package does not include this adapter.

The WF-RADU also has a female type-A USB port that I am not sure what is used for. I assume it is there so you can use a longer detachable USB cable with both ends of type-A. Incidentally, this kind of USB cable is not part of the USB specification standard which means it is used for specific proprietary purposes. For all the gory details of USB technology and its myriad connectors, I highly recommend you visit this online resource.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB

The Sabrent comes with a useful sheet explaining its use. If you want additional information, here is its product page. http://www.sabrent.com/category/audio/WF-RADU/

Actually, its product page on Amazon.com has the best info on using this devicehttp://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Receiver-Supports-Portable-WF-RADU/dp/B00L26YDA4/

As you can see from the Amazon info page, you can use this WF-RADU in either ad-hoc or infrastructure mode. In ad-hoc mode, you do not need a wireless router acting as middleman so you can set this up in cars whose audio system has a 3.5mm audio in jack. This ad-hoc connection can be encrypted with WPA so that unauthorized people cannot easily latch onto this ad-hoc network. However, if you are at home, it's worth your while to set this up in infrastructure mode so that your portable devices can connect to the home network including the Internet while playing to the WF-RADU. If you have a computer such as a laptop that has both wired and wireless connection, you can connect to the WF-RADU with the wireless connection via ad-hoc and to the Internet with the wired connection. This way, you can stream to the WF-RADU and still access the Internet. Or, you can get a wifi adapter so that your computer has two wifi connections: one used for connecting to the WF-RADU while the other to the Internet using wifi.

Below is a screenshot of the product page on Amazon. It basically has all the setup information you need.

    

Physical vs Logical

In computer systems, particularly in networking, there is this concept of physical versus logical. Some people have difficulty understanding the difference. This is a picture I saw the other day at a subway station. It's a diagram of the various lines that run through the tracks. As you can see, there are several train lines that run on the same physical track between the Montgomery and Van Ness stations. Then after station Van Ness, the N line goes off into another direction running on its own dedicated physical track. Likewise, the J line does the same. The remaining lines continue to run on the same track all the way to the West Portal station.

If this were a computer network, the train track is the physical aspect of the network while the various lines are the logical aspect. You can have one physical network cable that carries multiple network signals using various protocols. If this were a computer, then you have one physical computer can can do many things like playing music, accessing the Internet, and so on.

Enable Playback On Other Devices Besides the Built-in Computer Speakers

I support Synology NASes. These are amazing little file servers that are a little more expensive than a typical NAS, but they can do so many things that I still discover new uses for them. I have such a Synology NAS that has a pair of Logitech USB speakers attached to the NAS's USB port. These are puny speakers, but they are on my desk so their sound output is adequate. They get all their power from a single USB2 connector connected to the NAS.

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-S-0194B-Notebook-Speakers/dp/B005FXOEYK

Using a web-browser, I would log into the Audio Station at http://192.168.1.11:5000/audio/. (Your Synology may have a different IP address). I log in as a non-admin account that has Read permission to the Music share and use permission to the Audio Station service. While under this user, music files can play to the headphone or speakers attached to the computer, there is no option to play to the Logitec speakers attached to the Synology itself. This is annoying because I have to leave the computer on to play music. I only want is the music to be played from the Synology and the USB speakers. This way, I can turn off the computer and still can listen to the music.

It turns out by default, a non-admin user on the Synology cannot play to physically attached USB speakers or to another DLNA or Airplay playback device on the same network such as a network speaker. Incidentally, Synology supports both DLNA and Airplay.

The solution is to log into the Synology DSM as the admin. Click on the Main Menu at the top. Select Audio Station. Click on Settings. Click on Privileges. Check the box where it says USB/DLNA Render for the non admin user you want to use the USB speakers attached to the Disk Station.

Now when you log in as this non-admin user, you will see additional options for playback devices from the Audio Station. This includes when using the DS Audio app on the iPhone.

A search for DLNA and Airplay speakers on Amazon shows dozens of such speakers. In theory, any of these speakers can be used as the target for the Audio Station. If you have a favorite non-network speaker, you can buy this device to enable DLNA and Airplay for it.

Sabrent Wifi Audio Receiver
http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Receiver-Supports-Portable-WF-RADU/dp/B00L26YDA4/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1412569527&sr=8-2&keywords=dlna+speakers

Download Online Videos for Offline Playback

While sites like Youtube and Vimeo offer the convenience of watch as you download videos, sometimes you need to save these videos for offline playback as in when you have a slow Internet connection or their use in offline presentations or save them on your handheld devices to watch them while you are on the road. Youtube has many videos that are hours long which means you may pause the videos and resume watching at a later time. Therefore, offline watching is more appropriate for such a video.

While there are many sites that offer this service with my favorite being the no frill http://peggo.co, sometimes you need more flexibility such as downloading videos at higher resolutions beyond 720p. The site below offers a lot of these extra features including downloading 4k videos.

https://www.4kdownload.com/

A word of caution about downloading and installing free programs that offer video downloading. These types of programs are often ripe with malware. I recommend that you use these free downloaders inside virtual machines or if you are a heavy downloader, have a dedicated machine for this purpose, one that is not used to store any important data.

Versions of Windows 8.1

After the confusion of having to deal with the multitudes of versions in Windows Vista and Seven, Microsoft wisely has reduced Windows 8 to just 3 versions with its latest incarnation. In fact, it's really just 2 versions because the Enterprise version is not on sale to the end-users, only to special groups such as companies and universities.

• Windows 8.1
• Windows 8.1 Pro
• Windows 8.1 Enterprise

There is also the infamous RT version that only runs on ARM-based hardware. Windows 8.1 cannot run on ARM-based hardware. Windows 8.1 requires x86 hardware such as systems that has Intel and AMD CPUs. I wish Microsoft would call Windows 8.1 version Windows 8.1 Standard to make it clear from the Windows 8.1 Pro. Also, Windows RT is confusing because it also has the Desktop mode that looks just like the Desktop mode of Windows 8.1. There are rumors that when Windows 9 comes out in a few months, the Desktop mode in RT will be eliminated altogether, making RT looks and behaves like a tablet completely. I hope that with Windows 9, Microsoft will just have 1 version for everything including the Enterprise. This is how Apple does it with its OSX operating system.

Below is taken from the Microsoft website comparing the major differences between the "Standard" and Pro versions.

	Windows 8.1	Windows 8.1 Pro
Great apps built-in such as Mail, Calendar, Messaging, Photos, and OneDrive, with many more available at Windows Store.
Includes Internet Explorer 11 for fast, intuitive, touch-friendly browsing.
Keeps you up-to-date and more secure with Windows Defender, Windows Firewall, and Windows Update.
Works with new and existing Windows desktop software, including the full Microsoft Office experience (Outlook, SharePoint Designer and more).*
Comes with Windows Media Player.
Provides enhanced data protection using BitLocker technology to help keep your information secure.**
Enables you to connect to your PC when you’re on the go with Remote Desktop Connection.
Connects to your corporate or school network with Domain Join.

Synology DSM 5.0 Reviewed

Updated on Feb 2015.

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/nas-reviews/32490-synology-dsm-50-reviewed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amkdWd153u0

Update: DSM 5.1 is now available. The latest version is DSM 5.1- Build 5022 Update 2. One major new feature is the inclusion of Microsoft Onedrive in Cloud Sync. This joins Dropbox, GoogleDrive, and Baidu. Moreover Microsoft will release a major update to its maligned OneDrive service to coincide with its Windows 10 release in the summer 2015. Currently, there is no official Onedrive client for Linux from Microsoft. Synology NAS operating system, Disk Station Manager, is Linux-based. As such, the Onedrive app for Synology is created by Synology itself using the APIs released by Microsoft.

There is another app on the DSM called Cloud Station. This is a completely different app than the Cloud Sync. Cloud Station syncs designated folders on computers including handheld devices under the mobile app DS Cloud. (I wish Synology would reduce the number of names for its apps to avoid confusion so instead of calling the iOS app DS Cloud, it should be Cloud Station for iOS). DS Cloud app enables you to sync a folder on your computer to your iPhone using the Disk Station as a middleman. It is sort of like Dropbox except the data is not stored in any cloud server like Dropbox.

Y Cable Merger and Spliter Cable

Many computers including smart phones these days have the audio and microphone 3.5 mm jacks merged into a single jack. If you have a headset that also has only one jack, then this connection is fine. however, some headphone and microphone combo headset have two separate cables that requires two jacks on the device. To use such a headset, you need to get a Y adapter that merges these 2 jacks into one connector. Notice there bands on the male end has 3 bands or rings. These 3 bands are needed to carry both the sound out and the sound in.

This particular adapter is color-coded and marked with icons for speaker and microphone which make its function explicitly clear. Sometimes these visual clues are not there, so the only clue is the 3 bands.

Do not confuse this adapter with one whose purpose is to split the audio output to two speakers. For

example you want the audio of your computer to output to a pair of speakers on your desk and your headphone at the same time. Then you need a Y spliter like this. Notice the characteristic 2 bands.

Create an AIO Windows Install

This video shows you how to create an all-in-one Windows installer. This works with any copy of Windows both 32bit and 64bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm8HbfBUtHk


On a related note, read about this.

http://lifehacker.com/5438005/eicfg-removal-utility-lets-you-use-any-product-key-with-your-windows-7-disc

Webinars for Ring Central

Ring Central is currently one of the best VoIP providers. Below is the link to its past live products demos.

http://tinyurl.com/k7tskrf