The Lance J. Technoweb

Here is my strategy to stop your Facebook crapfest addiction! Enable Facebook's 2-factor authentication . Delete the Facebook App from your phone. Delete other Facebook properties, such as Instagram and FB Mesenger. Change your Facebook password to something long and complicated.  Write it down.  Clear your browser cookies on both your phone and any other computing devices. And that's it! Now it's a pain in the rear to log into Facebook.  If you find yourself trying to log into Facebook, just say "WTF am I doing" and stop.

 Today I read this on the Motley Fool in relation to Starlink: With Comcast offering 200 mbps for under $50 in metro locales in the U.S. you might not think [Starlink will be successful]. Why is the Motley Fool telling us this fabrication about Comcast pricing?  Motley seem to be merely repeating the words of a Comcast marketing strategy, not the pre-tax price customers actually pay.  Clearly no writer or editor for the MF is actually a Comcast ISP customer.  The sloppy editor will exclaim that the MF article is, on the surface, correct - in my "Metro Area", Comcast's claim is that they charge for 200 Mbps service at $49.99.  $49.99 is under $50.  But that number is incorrect, as Comcast fully states that the $49.99 is the price for a subset of a multi-year contract. The overall monthly cost is far, far higher. Comcast fully admits in their fine print that the fee for 200 mbps service is actually $92.95... not including other profits that show up ever...

I'm a Computer guy at the end of the day.  I started writing assembler code many years ago, and so I'm always interested in what is happening in the CPU industry. This year, Apple decided to quit Intel and move to its own microprocessors, the processors it has been using for the iPhone and iPad. Many thought this was a ridiculous idea.  Losing the ability of Intel x86 virtualization and competing against the most famous microprocessor company ever seems nuts. I was wrong. Apple knocked it out of the park with their new M1 SoC.  The M1 is Apple's low-end processor, but it literally leaves Intel's high end CPUs in the dust.  And I imagine that the power and capability of Apple's desktop/workstation CPUs will be even more capable. If this is just the beginning, then we have a whole new "performance war" in the microprocessor industry.  Intel and AMD will need to amp it up, because suddenly they look far behind in performance, price, and efficiency.  The only ...

I run my Roomba 500 just about every day, so you can say that I'm a heavy user.  I like the Roomba series because it works well, it's reliable, and it is easily repairable if it breaks down.  My Roomba 500 has been in operation for 8+ years and is still running strong. My Early Robot Years: I have owned four Roomba vacuums over the years.  My first robot was a 2nd generation "Sage 4110" that I bought in 2007 for $160.  It was great, but I ran it hard.  One day I foolishly ran it through mud and water and it broke down. I tried to repair it, but I was an idiot and botched the repair. I'm not sure what happened to it, but I moved in 2008 and I don't have it any more. My second Roomba was a 2nd generation "Red" model, likely a 4100, that I bought around 2010 for about $100.  I ended up leaving it to my roommate when I moved to another state. Roomba 500 series Repairs and Upgrades I bought my Roomba 500 in 2012, and it has been running strong since then....

I added an HDHomerun (HDHR) over-the-air (OTA) streaming box to my home network, bringing over-the-air broadcast TV to my computers, phones and tablets.  The HDHR is a big upgrade from my previous setup: using a simple "window mount" antenna directly connected to my TV. A TV-attached antenna is good for watching some TV for free, but the HDHR offers so much more flexibility. Figure 0: HDHomeRun on my basement wall   My original OTA TV setup was haphazard at best. It was finicky, ugly, and hard for other people at home to use. I would actually tape my antenna to a window whenever I wanted to watch OTA TV. Plus, it only worked on my TV and not with my other devices. I wanted a cleaner and more modern OTA setup. After looking at possibilities, I developed two goals: (1) bring my OTA TV into the modern Internet-connected era, and (2) set it up in a reliable and pretty way so that other family members wouldn't have to fool around with the antenna or anything else.  With that,...

My new (to me) house has an old wired alarm system.  The alarm isn't completely ancient, but it is about 20 years old.  It definitely isn't modern.  It uses an analog phone line to report alarms, has wires running everywhere, and certainly is not internet connected.  The keypads look like they are from the early 2000s. This is not what I want.  So I immediately said to myself: I need to rip this old alarm system out and modernize! A Slow Deconstruction Instead of just blindly ripping things out, I wisely decided to take my time.  After all, its good to have a plan before blowing things up. Since the house needs a lot of re-work, I decided that I can slowly remove the bits that are in my way. At some point, I'll have enough of an understanding to replace the whole system. The alarm system has 3 keypads, several motion sensors, and a whole bunch of other sensors on doors and windows.  They are all of the "wired" variety, and there is a lot of wirin...

I suddenly have a client that has been having a lot of problems with their Airport Extreme v5 (A1408) router on Comcast, and I aim to get to the bottom of it.   I was remote, my client was pulling the strings.  So I couldn't do a whole ton of diagnostics.  The goal was to get back and running as soon as possible. On the Apple Airport Extreme, "Green means Good".  Until Now. Usually, a solid green LED on the Airport series means that everything is A-OK.  But despite the green,  the Extreme didn't seem to be broadcasting its WiFi SSIDs, and the Extreme didn't seem to be talking to the modem.  It was all very sad.  In fact, both the WiFi and Ethernet of the router were non-functional. A hard (power) restart of the modem and router, connectivity came back and would work perfectly well for 5 to 60 minutes, and then the router would "disappear" again.  The router's LED and the modem lights claimed that everything was A-OK, but the lack of visible...

Today I found a report by the FCC that talks about Internet performance of the most popular US providers.  It is clear that a lot of people are having major issues with Comcast. Here's a clip of the FCC's chart that highlights upload performance by the major providers.  The FCC chart shows that Comcast / Xfinity has some of the WORST performance in the industry: See where Comcast is?  It's in the toilet, and it is not improving.  In some countries Comcast's upload rate would not even be called broadband. Although Cox looks nearly as bad on this chart, in reality Cox's faster upload performance is from 2 times faster up to 100 times faster that Comcast! Comcast and its marketing team loves to ignore the importance of upload speed.  Do you take photos?  Do you use Zoom or Skype or Google Hangouts for school or work?  How about Dropbox or Microsoft Exchange?  Do you use your smartphone on the Internet?   If so, then upload performance is CRITICA...

 I started to spend a bit more money and help things come together. PoE Switch I found a great deal and ended up buying a 10-port PoE switch. First, before we get all excited, only 8 of the 10 ports support PoE.  Secondly, it is "only" a 10/100 switch, so no gigabit for me.  I'm OK with that.  The switch was under $60, and I can always upgrade later. Laying out the Backboard I started to mount items on my backboard, including the new switch.  It took me a long time to figure out where to put the equipment: I wanted enough room to lay it all out neatly and comfortably, but I also want  efficiency.  I also want to be able to connect and disconnect items without a lot of effort.  And of course I want to be able to see status LEDs without resorting to mirrors or uncomfortable behaviors. After much trial and error, I found out that the best starting approach is to place all terminating equipment based on the building cabling.  One reality of my ba...

You likely want to know which Cable Modem you should buy for the fastest performance, lowest latency, and highest reliability.  What does a network expert have to say? But before we begin, here is the deal:  There is no "best" cable modem. Any website that lists the "best" is full of garbage.  Forget them.  They are idiots try to sell you crap. Modems should last for 5 to 10 years and almost never fail.  They do not slow down with time. They do not wear out. Any quality issues are almost always an issue with the cabling in your home and/or from the street.  Modems do go obsolete.  That is how they end up in the garbage heap. With all that out of the way, here are my strict rules in terms of what to buy.  There are NO exceptions to any of my rules. Rule 1: Buy a Modem that is "approved" by YOUR cable company Each  Cable company has a list of "approved" modems that conforms to the standards.  Definitely focus on the approved modem list, as...

My house has a security system with integrated fire alarms.  I knew there was a security alarm there, but only now do I realize that smoke detectors are part of the package. There are redundant battery operated smoke alarms mounted in roughly every location.  The system seems to be 12v or 24v, and all devices seem to be wired into the central panel. The central panel consists of a 12v rechargeable lead acid battery , used to keep the system powered even during a electrical service outage.  In addition, the central station must have all the programming in order to monitor the system and "alert the authorities". All this isn't ideal.  In the modern world, people use TCP/IP networking and wireless devices for security. This is not that.  Instead, this is a lot of complicated and sloppy low-power wiring.   So, now I have to figure out exactly what this is, and if I should keep it or replace it. Happily, the panel does specify the location of active sensors...

People talk about how 5G is here and the how everyone should dream about it. Based on my history with mobile phone tech, I call BS. Industry-driven engineering and deployment finances have nothing to do with the reality of making a service widely available to customers.  It takes many years to deploy to a level where it impacts most customers. I don't have a 5G phone yet, and that's because 5G deployment is in its early infancy, with no mature handsets on the market and ridiculously limited tower deployments.  I'm sure that'll change once the mobile phone companies experience increasing failure of their legacy equipment in the field. The LTE rollout was a mess, with VoLTE maturing years after LTE rolled out.  Let's hope the 5G deployment isn't as awful. My Timeline of Mobile Deployments 2G........: 11 Years, 1997 - 2008 3G........: 04 Years, 2008 - 2012 4G........: 06 Years, 2012 - 2018 4G (VoLTE): 05 Years, 2018 - 2023? 5G........: ?? Years, 2023? - 2034?

A few quick updates. I ended up moving my backboard from a location that was impeded by plumbing to a more accessible spot.  This change does mean extending some cables, but access to my backboard panel and power will be far easier.  It's a big win. Speaking of the backboard, I have an 8 port network switch mounted, along with a PoE injector and a giant amplified cable TV splitter.  I also mounted a power strip, which I might later replace with a UPS.  I don't plan to mount any more equipment in the short term.  I Now that my backboard has moved 8 feet away, I needed a way to drag over a dozen+ cables over 8 feet away, and most need to be extended.  Extending is easy with couplers, and  I figured my best solution for dealing with the extra cabling is to use a cable tray. Cable trays are not inexpensive (they are not free), so instead I have gutted an old light fluorescent light fixture and am using the steel housing as a poor man's cable tray.  I ...

Lots of tech things have come to an end, but some things still live on even though they feel like they should have come to an end. Our classic analog broadcast TV system here in the US ended about 10 years ago after a 70 year run, although many US cable TV companies embarrassingly still use it to transfer video to millions of customers despite its poor quality and inefficiency.  After all, US cable TV companies don't want to replace their profitable-but-obsolete systems. FAX machines seem dead, but due to the poor security of software services, coupled with a lack of legal privacy protections, FAX machines are still a staple within the medical and legal businesses. But mobile phone tech?  Yeah, that's dying on a schedule, as cell phone tech in the US is centrally controlled by the telecom oligarchy of Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile.  So given industry clout, some old and not-so-old iPhones are going to be unusable on US phone networks. The Retiring iPhones Apple made a b...

I've had a Roomba for a long time, and it's fair to ask why.  A robot vacuum cleaner seems expensive and fragile and gimmicky, but in my case Roomba is an incredible money-and-space saver. I live in a small apartment with a pet.  I have very little storage space, and I certainly have no room for a traditional bulky vacuum cleaner.  So instead I have a Roomba vacuum cleaner. Roomba as my only vacuum cleaner?  Hardly. You might now be thinking that a Roomba is not an all-purpose vacuum, and you're right.  A Roomba cannot vacuum everything, as it is restricted to the floor.  It can't clean stairs or under some furniture or the tops of the baseboard or under the oven.  So for those jobs, I have a higher-end handheld lithium-powered Dustbuster . Yes, I vacuum my place exclusively with a Roomba and a Dustbuster, and I've been doing this for many years. And now you're thinking I'm very nuts.  HOLD ON. Life with "Roombie and Dusty" My Roomba (a 500-series...

I recycle a lot of stuff that comes into my house, but I don't recycle everything.  Here is my rule: "If I don't know with confidence that it is recyclable, it goes in the trash". "Trash" in my area isn't as bad as others.  Where I live, trash is processed.  Valuables like metals are pulled out, and the remaining stuff is turned to energy.  Although incineration does release CO2, the same amount of CO2 is release when putting trash in the ground. After the incineration process, the more metals are pulled out of the ash, and the ash is turned into bricks for capping old landfills. Each locality has its own rules on what to recycle because each recycling facility has specific technical capabilities.  And these abilities can change over time.  So therefore, my first job is to pay attention to the current rules. Without overriding the rules, here's what I generally do where I live: Food containers I generally recycle food containers made out of cardboard...

Wow, it was a big WWDC keynote. Supported Hardware: Good and Bad First, the best news: Basically all devices that can run iOS, iPadOS, and TVOS version 13 will also be able to run version 14.  That's great news, as our good hardware will be able to continue with their useful lives. But in some disappointing news, WatchOS 7 will kill off the Series 1 and Series 2 watches.  Trust me, I appreciate that old hardware is hard to keep running forever.  Hardware doesn't improve with age, especially in a highly integrated device like a watch.  Still, it will be a shame to see all those old watches heading towards the recycle bin in the next five years.  Seiko's business model looks worse than ever. Similarly, MacOS v11 kills off all the 2012 Macs.  There are a lot of them, but I guess the writing was on the wall.  So they'll get a couple more years of updates, and then people will have to do something else with them.  Happily, these old beasts can easily r...

I've decided to power ahead in some areas, but to limit my spending. My main goal now is wiring, and not buying equipment that I won't need within the next six months... or that I might never need. Here are the details: Television At first I was going to buy an HDTV Streaming box with a large OTA TV antenna mounted in the attic.   I was getting excited and putting all sorts of stuff into my Amazon and eBay carts.  But I'm not nearly ready to start watching more TV in my house, and so I've decided to delay any TV-related purchasing decisions for now. Instead of buying new equipment, I'm just going to plan for possibilities.  That means prepping the building with appropriate cabling.   I learned that all of my major local TV stations are nearby (within 8 miles), and all the "weak and missing" TV stations are pointless IRN stations ("infomercial/religious/nut-job").  Furthermore, all the "weak" stations will be in the fringe even if ...

A few new ideas and discoveries In the Attic I was in the attic today just to further understand the current state of things. First, I found and removed a cable TV splitter that was up in the attic, so now my attic cable TV cabling issues are likely solved.  I still need to prove that the cables are OK with my tester, but my guess is that everything is good. It seems like I can easily run cables up from the basement via the plumbing chase.  In either case, I need to clean out the attic area and dress up the current cables emanating from the plumbing chase. I'm imagining sticking a 1 inch flex conduit down here, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea.  I need to better inspect the chase, and it's in a challenging spot both int he basement and in the attic. I plan to install a 6-position keystone plate on a low voltage frame in the attic.  This will operate as a "mini patch panel" in the attic.   I'll stick with the current "one ethernet, one coax...

After several days of work, I have Ethernet lines in many areas of the house and I understand all of my Cable TV wiring.  All of it is "dark" (not hooked up to anything at either end): Here is the Master List of Dark Cables: Bedroom 1: Ethernet to the attic, and Cable TV (shorted) to the basement Bedroom 2: Cable TV, strung outside the building to the basement telecom panel Bedroom 3: Ethernet to the attic, and Cable TV, strung outside the building to the basement telecom panel Den: Three Ethernet and Cable TV runs to the basement telecom panel. Kitchen: One Ethernet (broken) and Cable TV to the basement telecom panel Living Room: Cable TV to the basement telecom panel Basement (finished part): Ethernet and Cable TV to the basement telecom panel Other: One Ethernet from attic to basement telecom panel That's a lot of cable. But wait!  There is lots more cable near the basement telecom panel: There is a bunch of very old and/or hacked telephone wiring that once ran t...

Before I hop into the next part of the project, I want to cover my thoughts and feelings of what I want in my home data center. A lot of people have been asking me what I want in a rack system.  The basics seem easy: a standard 19 inch rack that's able to mount at least 14 U's.  Anything less seems just not big enough - routers, switches, a patch panel, power, and maybe a couple servers... it can add up.  Boy, that would look so incredible! But let me take a step back before I go down a path like that. My old Telecom Backboard was a Wreck My home telecom backboard in the basement was old-school, and it was nothing like a data center.  Instead, it was the world's worst telecom backboard, with 70+ years of sloppy modification. There were at least 22 cables hanging around the area, with about 65% somewhat attached to something else, and the other 35% left dangling.  There were a lot of bare wires twisted together, along with a few wire nuts.   The "...

My Soda Stream Jet's fill button broke, which means I can not longer carbonate water by pressing the pushbutton. This caused all sorts of grief in my household. Here is how I managed to repair my Jet to give it another 10 years of life (hopefully). First, a look at the button The fill button on the top of the SodaStream is actually a simple lever. Pressing down on the button moves a pin that does the actual work of pressing open the Carbonator's valve. Unfortunately, the axis point is fairly thin and can see a lot of stress. That's where my Soda Stream button cracked. [ I think the usage tip here is "don't over-press the button like a gorilla, it doesn't do anything but put high stress on the button."] Cracked levering point of the button The Pesky Lever Retaining Pin The Fix It was pretty easy for me to replace the button: Take off the back of the Soda Stream and remove the carbonator. Push out the the button lever's steel retaining pin. This takes qu...

My prior blog entries were all about converting my house's telephone lines for Ethernet use. Today I started to address my old home's coaxial cable tv cables. Cable TV was a huge thing from the 1980s until the 2000s, but it is a dying concept. Still, the one thing I've learned is that you need to understand something before taking out an axe.   Almost every room in my house has a cable TV outlet (some rooms have more than one). In my basement, a cluster of 9 cables appear in the telecom panel, with some connected to a giant splitter and some just hanging loose. Half the cable seems to have been run properly: inside the walls of the house. The other half was sloppily strung up on the outside of the house. It looks like most of this cable was installed 20 years ago. So without further ado, I'm going to assess what I have. Identifying and Testing each cable My first order of business was to figure out where each cable was going to, as only one cable was labelled ("att...

Welcome back. Last time I finished sorting out all my old Cat5 cable.  Now I know where all the cables go, and I know that all the Cat5 cables are usable for Ethernet.  I crimped an RJ45 connector to the ends of each cable.  But right now it is all just "dark wire" sitting in the walls.  I need to start finishing something. I removed the old wallplates when I added on the RJ45 connector to each Cat5 cable, but I won't be able to reuse them because my goal is Ethernet.  My old wallplates have the telephone style "RJ11" jacks, and most of those wall plates also have a Coax TV cable. They're going to be RJ11-style plates forever, so I put them in my box of "old outlets". And remember I also need a Coax outlet in each of my wallplates for the TV wires.  Keystone Wallplates I'm going to use Keystone wall plates, which are often used in commercial buildings and advanced home set-ups.  Keystone wallplates have from one to six small square openings so ...

In the last two posts I described my attempt to transition all of the old Cat5 cabling in my house from analog telephone use to Ethernet use.  After cutting out the RJ11 telephone jacks from each cable end and replacing them with RJ45 plugs, I was able to identify and test each cable run.  Unfortunately, about half the cables were not working. The Cat5 cable in the kitchen is connected, but one of the conductors (specifically, wire #8) is broken.  Since I don't really care much about the port in the kitchen, I'll put off repair of this cable. Sadly, all the Cat5 cables to the upstairs bedrooms are weird.  My low-end network cable tester only shows conductor #5 being healthy.  Basically none of the cables upstairs seem to work at all. My Upstairs Plan Before addressing the upstairs cabling, I want to think about why I want Ethernet in the upstairs at all.  There are a few reasons: First, the bedrooms are likely going to partially serve as home offices. ...

It's another day, and now it's time to analyze the CAT5 wiring. Last time I disconnected all the house wiring from the telephone company.  I removed all the old telephone-style RJ11 jacks.  And then I crimped new RJ45 connectors onto the cables using the 568B standard. The Plan Now I plan to identify and test each cable.  Which cable in the basement is connected to which specific wall jack?  Does that cable look healthy, with all 8 conductors properly working?  All of this requires a simple tester and running around the building. Getting the right Ethernet cable tester. A tester is important because it makes it really easy to check the basic health of a cable.  I have a very cheap tester , so it only does the most basic continuity test of a traditional cable with traditional "RJ" connectors.  My tester can't identify what exactly is wrong... it's basically "looks OK" or "something's not right", and it leaves it to me to figure out exact...