The Lance J. Technoweb

We've all seen the famous recycling symbol on products, like these: ♲♳♴♵♹ The Weird "Recycling Symbol" Surprise The "Recycling" symbol you see on packaging and products are NOT designed to have anything to do with curbside recycling.  Instead, the symbol is merely an indicator of what kind of material it is made out of. Industry plasters this symbol on many products that are to be thrown in the trash.  Industry over-applies this symbol as a "greenwashing" strategy, tricking consumers into believing that a product is recyclable when in reality it is not.  And Consumers are tricked: people WANT stuff to be recyclable, and so they throw it into the recycle bin.  Then the bad item gets blended into a bunch of other otherwise good stuff, and diminishes the entire lot. So what is recyclable?  The answer is: read your local recycling rules, and be a pessimist. If in doubt, it is better to throw it into the trash than to ruin an entire lot of recyclables. Befo...

I have several MikroTik RB952Ui hAP AC Lite routers.  They're located in closets, basements, attics, and on desktops.  Each location results in different needs in terms of power.  Happily, the hAP AC Lite is quite flexible when it comes to power.  Here I document the three different ways I have powered my MikroTik AC Lite routers. Power Solutions: Active PoE+ Splitter, Passive PoE Injector, and Standard wall adapter Standard Power: MikroTik (or aftermarket) Wall Wart The default way to power the AC Lite is by using its standard "barrel-style" power port, which is far more flexible than your typical router.  The AC Lite accepts power between 10 and 24VDC.  When using the MikroTik in a desktop configuration, I use the stock 24 volt MikroTik power adapter .  The stock adapter output specifications are as follows: 24 VDC 1200 mA  2.1mm barrel Center Positive  Passive Power-over-Ethernet solution: TP-Link Power Injector Sometimes it is useful to ...

I recently upgraded my current home Internet infrastructure with a Mikrotik Routerboard router.  My legacy WiFi equipment had been based exclusively on 802.11n, which still works well but is now two generations old.  I decided to upgrade with a " MikroTik RB952 hAP AC Lite " router, in hopes that it becomes my "personal standard" for home networking. The MikroTik home router is small, inexpensive (under $50), and highly configurable.  It is reasonably modern, with an 802.11ac radio. It runs MikroTik's RouterOS operating system, which is comprehensive, frequently updated, and provides far more capability than I need.  It also seems to be possible to run OpenWRT on this router . I was using Apple Airport routers (easy, capable, reliable, but no longer manufactured) and GL.iNet's OpenWRT based routers (flexible and inexpensive, but mine were the 2.4 GHz only models).  They all served me well with no complaints.  I figured that now was the time to try somethin...

I have two buildings on my property, and I wanted to bring Internet to my garage without pulling a wire. Previously I was using the barely-adequate reach of my house's WiFi, but it was just a little too far and it would drop frequently enough to be painful. My solution is a WiFi Directional access point - the TP-Link CP210. I chose the CP-210 because it was inexpensive. It only supports the 2.4 GHz band, but my goal was quality over performance. In all, it does this job perfectly. I mounted the CP-210 in my attic because it was easier to install that way. If I really wanted to I could mount it on the outside, but that means drilling holes and climbing a ladder and other things that I don't want to do. After all, it works great from inside - an outside mount isn't going to give me anything more except more work. I simply pointed the CP-210's antenna to my garage and that was it. Easy and effective. The CP-210 has a bunch of useful configuration options - it isn't jus...