agog

Everything you thought you didn’t need to know about PC networking and broadband Internet (Beware of Firewalls)

We are a two PC household who were early adapters of cable broadband Internet. Cox wants $8 for each extra PC so we set up one PC with a primary Ethernet connection to the cable modem and a second Ethernet connection to the second PC. This setup meant that cox could only see the primary PC. The downside was that the primary PC had to be turned on and working for the second PC to access the Internet. This was done in the dark ages when an Ethernet card cost less than $10 and a router cost a lot.

Cox then upgraded their broadband to tiers of service with 600KB, 1.5MB, and 7MB. Our prices kept going up but we weren’t told that we were now paying for 7MB service which our old modem couldn’t handle. The modem finally went flaky and we got a hold of a helpful technician at Cox who told us we needed a newer modem that was compatible with the newer tiered services. We purchased and installed the new modem ourselves. The technician had told us of Cox’s Las Vegas Data Transfer Test that measures the actual data transfer rates of a broadband connection. We decided to save $20 a month and dropped to the 1.5MB tier.

DLINK EBR-2310

Next, our oldest PC, an IBM, died, taking the hard disk and granddaughters’ pictures and movies with it, so we bought a new HP desktop with a 19 inch LCD monitor with built in speakers for under $500. The new PC came with Microsoft’s Vista Premium operation system. We decided it was time to upgrade our Ethernet setup to a DLINK wired router which can be purchased now for under $20 and allows us multiple PCs with a single Cox connection. Our second PC was running windows 2000 Professional. Getting Vista and Windows 2000 to network was the first major obstacle and I don’t recommend anyone try it. Microsoft’s Internet site is less than helpful, even their developers site and I am a retired professional. The second major obstacle was Vista’s security system. Routers have built in firewalls which you should turn on. Turn off the firewall on your PC. If you don’t the router and PC get into wars.

The new HP computer came with a trial security suite from a major vendor who will remain unnamed. This software went to war with Microsoft immediately, even with the firewall turned off. Dump this software. Cox offers its customers its own security suite supplied to Cox by a major security vendor. Its anti-virus and anti-spy-ware features appear to work well, but turn off its firewall or you’ll be back to the wars again.

I use the HDTV as the monitor for the second PC and wanted to watch instant movies from Netflix. Netflix only supports XP or Vista running Microsoft Explorer so I decided to upgrade the PC to a dual boot Vista Windows 2000 system. Microsoft has grown increasingly paranoid about software piracy and looking for installation help on the Internet is to enter a battleground between Microsoft and its users who the company seem to view as a bunch of hackers and thieves out to break their system and steal their precious flaky software. Hence, the ground keeps shifting and Microsoft now insists on being able to on-line activate (or not or to deactivate an already active system) and monitor your software forever. Its pretty scary knowing that big brother Microsoft may disable your PC at any time at their slightest whim.

After some study on the Internet, I learned that Microsoft is up to new tricks in licensing. They now offer a single machine OEM license at slightly lower prices. The fine print says that once this OEM software is installed, it is wed forever to that particular piece of hardware to the extent that if you change as few as three component peripherals on the PC the software may be disabled. The educational version requires so much proof that you are associated with an educational institution that I wonder anyone tries to buy it. Will Microsoft disable your PC if you change jobs or retire? The Vista Premium upgrade version is available to anyone currently running XP or Windows 2000 Professional (if you are not running the Professional version forget it).

Vista Home Premium Upgrade

Being budget conscious, I purchased a “new” copy of Vista Premium Upgrade on Ebay for $51 (it can retail for up to $200), about the same price as the educational version (pretty stupid huh?). The seller claimed it had never been installed (activated) and PayPal guarantees they will refund your money if you return the product within 7 days. So I received Vista in its original box and set about installing it. I was terrified Microsoft would try to destroy my Windows 2000 Professional (OEM) installation and all its software including my Microsoft Visual Studio .NET while “upgrading”, but I finally figured out how to install Vista on a separate hard drive and get it to leave the Windows 2000 alone. But when I tried to activate Vista online Microsoft refused to do so. I guess maybe the seller had installed and activated Vista before selling it on Ebay. Rather than immediately returning the package, I decided to try Microsoft’s manual activation procedure which involves Microsoft generating a long series of numbers which must be some combination of Vista’s product id and information identifying your specific PC. You then call an operator (in India judging by the Hinglish accent) who you read the numbers to and try to convince you have come by Vista legitimately. Microsoft makes you feel like a criminal out to defraud them. Fortunately, I succeeded, telling her honestly I had purchased Vista on Ebay and she allowed me to activate the software, probably simultaneously deactivating the seller’s copy if he was still using it.

NetGear WGR614

Our son has a new Toshiba laptop computer with Vista premium which a friend tried to connect to Cox Broadband Internet with a refurbished Linksys wireless router. They couldn’t get it to work and I determined that the router had broken once again, so I picked up a NetGear for less than $30. It has the same problem with firewall wars as the Dlink and when I deactivated the Microsoft firewall and removed the trial security software replacing it with Cox’s, the wireless router started working properly and the laptop can be used from anywhere in the house.

The problems with firewalls and security software needs to be highlighted in the installation instructions for routers and PCs. It took awhile and some trial and error to figure out the problems.

Everything you thought you didn’t need to know about video

After two iterations of trying to figure out the new wild west world of video, I thought some might appreciate a little of what I found helpful as most introductions are not. For more details and numbers see Wikipedia.

Desert Traveler

SHAPE OF SCREEN
The old analog TV had a standard width to height ratio of 4:3. The new HDTV has a standard width to height ratio of 16:9. All standard TVs of either type must conform to these shapes. Both formats are measured diagonally; because of their different width to height ratios a 25 inch 4:3 TV has a screen roughly the height of a 32 inch 16:9 HDTV and a 27 inch 4:3 TV has a screen roughly the height of a 37 inch 16:9 HDTV.

BROADCAST STANDARDS
The old analog standard of broadcast is the NTSC which mandates 525 scan lines, constant since 1953 and broadcast in the VHF frequencies. Starting Feb. 17, 2009 the FCC has mandated that NTSC broadcasts cease forever. Cable and satellite providers will continue to support 4:3 analog TVs with their converters for some time but they can be expected to slowly pressure subscribers to switch to HDTVs.

The new digital High Definition standard is the ATSC that mandates three broadcast formats 1080i with 1080 vertical pixels; 720p, with 720 vertical pixels, and for backward compatibility with 4:3 ratio material the 480i with 480 vertical pixels. The first sets were available in 1998 and broadcasts are in the UHF frequencies.

CABLE AND SATELLITE STANDARDS
There are no HDTV broadcast standards for either cable or satellite other than displaying images with a 16:9 shape. This means that the customer has no way of knowing how much actual resolution is being broadcast for so called “HD” channels. The FCC doesn’t care. Knowing that both media have limited bandwidth, and judging by the programming I have seen, the actual resolution looks pretty limited, I would guess something significantly less than 720i. The actual resolutions are closely guarded secrets.

PHYSICAL RESOLUTION
Each HDTV has a “native resolution”, the actual number of pixels contained in the unit. Each pixel also has a number of bits allocated per pixel to display the color. Most units have been built with less than 1080 vertical pixels because of hardware and price considerations. Our Samsung has 1360 x 768 pixels with 32 bits per pixel for color, typical in cost effective units today. Still, it is easy to see the difference between 1080i and 720i broadcasts on this set even if there are only 768 vertical pixels available on the screen. Technology purists love 1920 x 1080 physical pixel displays and pay dearly for the privilege.

TECHNOLOGY
There are four major types of HDTVs. Plasma and LCD have virtually the same characteristics today. Both are rated to last 20 years although, of course, this claim cannot be proved today after only 10 years actual experience. The LCD units are getting larger and use slightly less power. DLP projection units are being widely hyped today and they are a little less costly than LCD or Plasma. What they don’t tell you is that the lamp is rated for three years and costs $300 plus the labor cost of replacement. A lot of buyers are in for a big surprise down the road. The least developed technology is the old fashioned tube in a 16:9 shape. Once the analog NTSC sets are obsoleted next year, the tube companies can be expected to put all their energies into producing HDTV tube sets. Today HDTV tube sets remain a limited novelty.

SPECIFICATIONS
Specs are important but the most important consideration is to buy a unit that meets your own requirements. The screen size depends on how far you expect to sit from the screen. At 6 feet, a 32 inch screen equals a much larger screen seen from 15 feet away. LCD and Plasma sets appear less bright than tube TVs. Good brightness and contrast specs are desirable but more important is being able to control the light in the room. LCD and Plasma pictures also slowly disappear as the viewer moves off to the side (the viewing angle) until no picture can be seen at all. The importance of viewing angle depends on what angle you need to be able to view the picture clearly from various parts of the room. Response times are mostly important to gamers with 5-8 Ms response being adequate.

51 Elements Ready for Takeoff – 100 Miles to Tucson

ANTENNAS
Taking advantage of over the air broadcasts is important when picture quality is actually higher over the air than is available from cable or satellite. Unlike analog broadcasts where picture quality degrades with snow and ghosts, HDTV ATSC broadcasts are either received perfectly or not at all. This reverses some of the rational for getting cable or satellite as the only means of receiving a clear picture. Like cellular telephones, the number of bars representing signal strength is important. You need a bunch of bars to be able receive the ATSC program. To take advantage of the superior quality programming of over the air broadcast, you will need an appropriate antenna. This may not be as easy as it sounds and judging from the number of visible antennas in Phoenix, most people haven’t tried or haven’t succeeded in getting an antenna to work. We read that the major networks (owning TV towers and frequencies) expect to recapture market share from satellite and cable once all have converted to ATSC. Judging from the lack of antennas in the stores selling HDTVs in Phoenix, the networks better figure out how customers are expected to switch back to over the air broadcast of HDTV. The good news is that the UHF antennas will be smaller than VHF or VHF-UHF antennas.

My own experience is instructive. Our son is 6 1/2 miles from the Phoenix TV Towers mountain which you can see from his roof. A simple $30 antenna, without amplifier, mounted in his attic provides perfect reception of ATSC channels. Our house is less than 5 miles from the TV tower mountain but the entire distance is one big range of mountains and we get no signal with any antenna. We installed the biggest antenna we could find (Lowes) above our roof, supplemented by a 12dB signal amplifier pointed to the TV towers in Tucson, 98.4 miles away. With this setup we receive perfect ATSC broadcasts. Total cost was about $100. (Best of all, we avoid the Cardinal NFL Phoenix blackouts!) The lesson is don’t give up even if you need to hire a professional antenna specialist to help you. The result is free broadcast 1080i reception of all PBS, significant sports and other events, to say nothing of crystal clear soap operas. For information about the distance and direction of ATSC broadcast sites from your residence see AntennaWeb.

PC and MAC MONITOR
The HDTV makes an excellent PC or Mac monitor. I use the Samsung as my only monitor today. Combined with broadband Internet (our Cox gives us 1.5 MB downloads), you can see Internet Video and full movies (NetFlix has 6000 titles for instant viewing) on a full size TV screen. The Netflix downloaded movies are lower resolution than DVD but are perfectly adequate for most movies). Material from utube or TV programs like Charlie Rose can be viewed on demand with a size larger than on your normal PC monitor.

DVD HD DVD and BLU-RAY
Each new step forward in movie formats is accompanied by competing standards; VHS had to compete with Sony’s BetaMax; DVD (4.7GB-8.5GB) had to compete with DIVX; HD DVD (15GB-30GB) and Blu-Ray (25GB-50GB Sony) both record movies in a 1080p format. Few titles are available from Netflix, Hollywood, or Blockbuster today in either HD format. Until a winner emerges, players are designed and priced for early adapters. Blockbuster and Walmart have announced they are dropping HD DVDs and Toshiba looks like they are giving up HD DVD players (after selling a million of them). Blu-Ray players now start at about $250, but for now it is best to stay with DVD but look for progressive scan and support for 1080i compatibility. Don’t spend a more than $80 unless you want surround sound.

SOUND
Stereo is the starting point for HDTV and DVD sound. HDTV models typically support the Dolby Digital (AC-3) format up to “5.1″ surround sound. ATSC Broadcasts as well as DVDs support everything from stereo to Dolby 2.1 through 5.1. To get the full benefit of the available sound, you might want to invest in a surround sound system usually packaged with a DVD player. Surround sound is what most people mean by home theater. Surround sound requires 4 corner speakers (front, rear, left, right), 1 center speaker, and 1 woofer. This means wires all over your viewing room. Using your surround sound system with a stereo broadcast sounds like you are in an echo chamber so use it only when Dolby is broadcast. The built in HDTV speakers are usually adequate for stereo. Use sound output connectors on your HDTV to send ATSC broadcast Dolby sound to your surround sound system. A surround sound system with DVD player supporting progressive scan and 1080i compatibility should cost under $200.

INFO BROADCAST
ATSC specifies that information describing the resolution (1080i, 720i or 480i), sound (stereo, Dolby 2.1 through 5.1), call letters, and usually a name and description of the show, be broadcast along with the picture itself. This allows the viewer to easily discover the quality of the broadcast and take advantage of surround sound if it is broadcast.

CONNECTORS
Connecting your DVD, VHS, cable, or satellite converter, HDTV, sound system, PC, etc. can be challenging to say the least. The old coax connector in the HDTV is relegated to the antenna cable. Newer connectors include the component (using 3 RCA cables for red green blue) and S-Video (4 wire). Neither component nor S-Video carry sound so 2 additional RCA cables are needed for left and right sound. DVI and HDMI are new connectors that support both video and sound eliminating the need for additional RCA sound cables. Cables can be purchased to convert DVI to HDMI and vice versa. The PC or Mac can be connected using the traditional 15 pin eVGA connector. Sound may be connected through your HDTV with a mini stereo jack (like your headphones) cable. Some PCs and Macs may also have built in DVI connectors.

HDTV PRICES
Prices are steadily, if slowly dropping for HDTVs. Over the last holiday season several 32 inch LCD models were sold for $500. Their specs didn’t look too bad but they were untested by major labs so they are a bit unknown. One was built by AKAI. Top rated Consumer Reports 32 inch LCD units were available from $700 and the always premium priced but highly rated Sony units sold for $850-900. Sharp now has a 1920 x 1080 resolution 1080p 32 inch LCD unit for as low as $900.The magic number has been $400 for mass market takeoff but I don’t know when this will happen.

NOTE: NTSC 4:3 analog TVs now typically come equipped with component and S-Video connectors for hookup to newer DVD and VHS players, and to cable and satellite converters. Prices are falling fast and for good reason.