blog: christmas with beta hardware

Post by **nikos** » 2008 Dec 21, 09:22

here's the comment area for today's blog rant found at
http://zabkat.com/blog/21Dec08-beta-hardware.htm

what i really wanted for xmas is this cool chair but they don't ship to greece

Iain · Post by **Iain** » 2008 Dec 21, 11:14

We had terrible problems with our wifi repeater. In the end we resorted to powerline networking. A totally underrated technology. It is almost as fast as ethernet, works through walls, involves no set up and it is secure.

http://www.devolo.co.uk/uk_EN/produkte/ ... extsk.html

Post by **nikos** » 2008 Dec 21, 11:52

i first heard about this "network through plugs" scanning the shops last month. But i didn't like it since it was only for wired networking -- your recommendation goes beyond that offering wireless too! Too bad it's only for UK plugs

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2008 Dec 21, 14:35

I read about this over two decade ago but have only seen it used for low bandwidth apps: distributed HIFi audio, lamp & utility control, etc. In fact I have network through plugs control for over 20 years for my Xmas window lights. :o

wasker · Post by **wasker** » 2008 Dec 21, 16:43

WiFi Repeater with instructions in Swedish sounds like a gray market to me -- no?

And I'm with you on HP drivers, bro! Man, this is unbelievable which unrelated crap are they going to install by default. Yahoo Toolbar is the most important part of the printer drivers, I guess...

wasker · Post by **wasker** » 2008 Dec 21, 16:44

fgagnon wrote:In fact I have network through plugs control for over 20 years for my Xmas window lights. :o

It's called "on/off" switch.

NetHawk · Post by **NetHawk** » 2009 Jan 03, 12:32

Cell phones, wifi-repeater, printer, the list goes on and on. Quality, decent product life cycles, support, sustainability are not en vogue anymore. Of course, the prices dropped so low, that you must admit you can't have it all. But I would be ready to pay more for a real quality product. And Quality doesn't necessarily mean more features. But it's hard to find these...

TiKu · Post by **TiKu** » 2009 Feb 21, 23:32

Concerning the cell phones: Take a Symbian based smartphone from Nokia. I never had any problems connecting those to a PC. You just install Nokia PC Suite and follow the instructions. Okay, Nokia PC Suite is larger than I'd like it to be, but at least it works as expected.

dunno · Post by **dunno** » 2009 Feb 22, 08:54

nikos wrote:i first heard about this "network through plugs" scanning the shops last month. But i didn't like it since it was only for wired networking -- your recommendation goes beyond that offering wireless too! Too bad it's only for UK plugs

I bought two ZyXEL powerline ethernet units in Hong Kong (they also use UK plugs) for my home in Germany, they work beautifully with plug adaptors via strip plug adaptors, speed 41 Mbps (max advertised 64Mbps). I have my noisy desktop (server) in the basment and I remote link to it through a standard wireless dsl router - > Zyxel unit with no issues.
The newer units advertise speeds of 200Mbps.
http://www.connectplayentertain.co.uk/p ... .php?id=12

http://www.zyxel.com/

my units are first generation PL100's, a bit ancient but still working, it's pure magic, all my pc's connect to the internet via one gateway, wireless and powerline ethernet. It just works and was simple to setup, and no I don't work for this outfit :D

P.S.
MY all bells and whistels smart phone doesn't always link to WLAN's, with some goddam fiddling it sometimes does, very annoying.
Sometimes hardware issues have made me so angry that I have wanted to get on a plane to go to the HQ of the manufacturer where I would love to shove the dysfunctional article under their noses and say " you make it work as advertised", but alas, I eat a bucket of live snakes instead....rant over....