I have learned far more than I though I needed to know about DSL and other High Speed Internet (Broadband) options for people in rural areas.
My DSL internet connection has been going through periods of the DSL internet dropping out several times an hour and sometimes several times a minute. The DSL light would begin to flash and then the internet light on my DSL modem would go Red which means that the internet is not available. Phone calls to AT&T mean getting through their voice mail system and then waiting to talk with a technician. I have had the phone line people come out 3 times so far this month and the DSL technicians also have been out 3 times this month.
DSL only travels a certain distance from where ever the exchange is. DSL 6M has the shortest travel distance around 1 1/2 miles from the exchange – 3M DSL travels farther and 1.5M DSL the furthest. I do not know the distances but what I have been able to learn is that I am about as far from the exchange as is possible to receive a stable 6M DSL signal.
In the process of my phone line going totally dead and my DSL on that phone line being totally unstable I have learned about something new – at least new to me. The major cellular companies offer something called MIFI or Mobile Hotspot or it also can be called Mobile Broadband. Here is what I have learned – AT&T offers this service – you have to sign a two-year contract for $50 a month for 5G of data. I already knew I had a very good AT&T 3G connection at my house so I first went to AT&T. They are easy enough to deal with they just add a $50 a month data plan to your AT&T mobile account and you get 5G of data – if you go over 5G in a month they charge $10 for each additional 1G. They charge around $120 for the device which you pay upfront. There is a $50 mail in rebate and they said I could return it within 30 days but there would be a restocking fee. I was fairly desperate – I really needed to get online work done and orders on line processed so I added the $50 a month to my data plan, signed a two-year contract and paid for the device.
I brought the package home. Enclosed is a very small electronic box which is about the same size as a smart phone. Turned it on (it runs on an internal rechargeable battery) and within minutes my MAC Pro and one laptop was connected to the internet. These devices put out a WiFi signal which any laptop with WiFi and deal with-just go to your WiFi panel find the device and enter a security code. I caught up with some much-needed on-line work (I am an online marketer that had been without a working phone line or DSL for 3 days) The MIFI box can connect up to five computers or devices at the same time. If your computer or device has WiFi you can make this work. With the AT&T box if you are using a desktop that does not have WiFi you can plug the device to your computer with the USB cable that is included. In this configuration the AT&T device will only run the computer it is directly connected to so when directly connected you can run only the computer you are connected to.
I was able to run several speed tests – the AT&T devices was getting 1.7M to 2.1M on AT&T 3G. This is somewhat faster than I get with my iPhone from the same location. The box will run AT&T 4G LTE but I was not able to test this – 4G LTE is not available at all anywhere near where I live. AT&T is saying “LTE will be available any day now”.
Does this thing work? Yes it actually does, I had a total of four computers connected to it and the speed was certainly usable.
How much is 5G of data? That is really a very key question, for every 1G you go over 5G in a month there is an additional $10 charge. I had one computer playing an hour-long video webinar, another one streaming an internet radio audio channel, and was using the other two for “normal for me” online work, this includes web surfing, uploading images, website development, invoicing, printing shipping labels and so on.) The AT&T device has a meter that show how much of the 5G is available. During the 24 hours of having the AT&T device and using it fairly heavily for 12 f those hours the meter was showing 4.5G remaining. So I used 0.50 G. So in a fairly normal 6 day work week I would be using somewhere around 3G or somewhere around 14G in a month which means I would have to pay an additional $90 a month were I using this full-time in my normal work environment.
I got to thinking about the coverage I get with my iPhone and took the device and a laptop to an area where AT&T 3G is not available – that is pretty easy to do – all I have to do is go down the hill to where my driveway connects with the road. Edge is 0.4M to 0.6M which is totally unacceptable, this is just a little bit faster than dial-up. I then was reminded that a number of places where I go to several times a year my iPhone either will find no service or I get only Edge or I am roaming and have phone but no data service at all.
OK the AT&T box works, it got me out of jam, AT&T 3G is giving me somewhat less than 2G speed – it will in fact run at least 4 computers at the same time fairly well. I decided to run back into town and talk with Verizon – knowing that Verizon has better coverage in the areas I have to travel to several times a year. Verizon has MIFI the deal is about the same as AT&T – $100 for the box – $50 a month for 5G of data- $50 rebate – Verizon does have a 10G plan for $80 a month plus they have some no contract option – you pay around $300 for the box and $30 for 300M – that might work for a home user that is not doing much with their computer it certainly would not work for me.
The thing to know with these boxes is you must know if they will work where you are going to be using your computer and the only real way to know that is to get the device and take it to where you will be using it and give it try. So I signed up for a Verizon MIFI box and took it home. While the plans are similar Verizon has a huge plus – they let you try it for 14 days, if you do not like it or it does work for you you can bring it back and there is no restocking fee.
I had no idea if the Verizon box would work at my house or not. Turned it on and it connected to Verizon 3G – here is something to know Verizon 3G is sort of like AT&T Edge – I was getting 0.4M to 0.5M – Verizon 3Gs numbers were very close to AT&T Edge, not much better than dial-up. I did find that by changing where the Verizon box was located I was able to get Verizon 4G LTE and was getting 4-6M in both download AND UPLOAD – Verizon 4G LTE is nearly twice as fast as AT&T 3G. I took my laptop closer to town and began seeing 8-10M speeds on 4G LTE. Now that is really fast – cable internet runs at speeds like that.
Two downsides with the Verizon MIFI box, first it does not have a usage meter – the only way you can tell how much data you have used is to go online to the Verizon Website in into you account. Verizon emails you when you usage is at one half (2.5G) and again when at 3/4 used. The other down side is the Verizon box will not connect to your computer when using the enclosed USB cable – all that cable does is recharge the device from a USB port and allows access to the settings inside the box. To connect to the Verizon box you computer must have WiFi. Verizon does have a tiny device for around $20 that goes into a USB port and gives a desktop WiFi – both boxes run N wireless and so does the little USB wireless device that Verizon has. So yon can connect a desktop to the Verizon box. Like the AT&T box the Verizon box will run five computers.
Verizon has a lot more places available for their 4GLTE than AT&T does and cover a lot more of the country. I took the AT&T box back – less than 30 hours after I got it, they did cancel my contract and they did charge me a $36 restocking fee and are funding the rest.
Something to know is if you are considering an iPad the data charge is $25 or $30 for 2G of data and iPads that are come with the cellular radio cost a lot more than iPads that just have WiFi. With one of the MIFI boxes you can use your iPad and get 5G of data for $50 a month or you can travel with both you laptop and you iPad and use the MIFI boxes to run them both.
The really important thing to know is these things work. If you live in an area where DSL is not available (of course those of us in the country will probably never get cable TV so the cable option is simply not available) you might want to try out MIFI. I do suggest you try Verizon first – they have a better return policy than AT&T and they have a lot more 4G LTE coverage than AT&T has. If it works where you live this little device could give people high-speed internet service where it has not been available before. I did not try Sprint – I am certain they too have a MIFI option. I know that where I live Sprint phones show that they are on digital roam which I would guess they are roaming on Verizon.
This is an interesting option and it will depend on if you have cellular service or not and what level of data service you have. I have used “Air Cards” in the past with laptops, the price is about the same as MIFI but they only will run the computer that they are connected to and by what I was seeing the MIFI cards work better than Air Cards. I always had some major speed problems with Air Cards if I was any distance at all from the cell tower, often they would not work inside the house – just outside.
So for those of you still on dial-up in rural areas the MIFI box is certainly something to try. Also if you happen to have to stay in hotels that charge $12 to $15 for 24 hours of high-speed internet service the MIFI could be a very interesting option. Something to note is that is you do travel and you use WiFi on public WiFi spots – you know, the airport, the coffee shops, the bookstores, hotels and motels with these MIFI cards you are on your own secure cellular connection – you do not have to worry about the near by hacker getting into your laptop or mobile device. Public WiFi is often the only solution for a lot of people. These devices offer another option which is more secure and probably faster.
Tags: at&t, broadand internet, high speed internet, iPad, MIFI, Verizon, WiFi
A few day ago I called Central Payment to inform them that I was closing my store and no longer needed the Merchant Credit processing. I was told to fax in a notice to them that I wanted to cancel. A day later I got a call from one of their representatives who told me that there would be a $300 cancellation fee and that fee would be automatically taken out of my bank account. The representative said that if I got my landlord to submit a letter to them that I was closing they would refund $150 – making the cancellation fee come to a total of $150.00 – I had been a customer for 5 years and had not problems with this company - this cancellation fee made no sense to me and certainly seemed to be a total rip off. What I got back was an email from the representative – restating what had been said on the phone:
Dear Ronald Headly,
Per our conversation. In order to reduce your early termination fee of $300.00 to $150.00, we need a signed letter from your landlord stating that the business is closed. Once information is verified, we will be able to reduce your fee.
Best Regards,
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Merchant Relations
1-800-449-8012 ext. xxxx
Needless to say I was “not a happy camper” in fact I was furious – some of you may have seen the original post, and tweet – it just did not make any sense to me that I was going to get hit with a cancellation fee with a company I had done business with for 5 years and that I would have to get my landlord involved by writing them a letter that in fact my business was closed just to reduce the fee by half.
I am HAPPY TO REPORT that everything changed today!!! I got an email from Nery Espinal – Merchant Relations – Central Payment asking me to call. I phoned him —– He apologized and offered to remove the cancellation fee TOTALLY – THANKS SO MUCH NERY ESPINAL.
I can once again recommend Central Payment as a Merchant Credit Solution for in-house credit processing as I have in the past – there was a problem and Mr. Espinal made it right. Here is the email he just sent me; plus he spelled my last name correctly-that is good customer support and paying attention to details:
Mr. Headley,
It was a pleasure speaking with you this morning. I appreciate your remarks and am glad we were able to correct any misunderstandings. As per our conversation your account has been closed with no cancellation fee. You will only be responsible for the monthly processing fees for the month of October 2011.
If you don’t mind, please email me when you have addressed the postings online so that I may update my executives. Feel free to keep my information in your records should you find the need to accept credit cards again in the future.
Best regards,
Nery Espinal
Merchant Relations
Central Payment
Phone: (800) 449-8012 Ext 7369
Fax: (866) 618-8284
Email: nespinal@cpay.com
The entire post has been updated with the original link in tact so anyone clicking on the link will see this update rather than the original post – so far as I am concerned I am happy to report I have had a change of mind and the Mr. Espinal has made that possible today.
Tags: Appology, Central Payment, rip odd
The Apple iPhone event is over and at least for me there was not anything really exciting. Tim Cook the new Apple CEO led the event, with various familiar Apple presenters following up.
The live event started with some announcements of new Apple stores, then went to some hype on how well Apple is doing internationally. They then went to the iPod, some enhancement to the Nano, some improvements to the iPod Touch, including better price points.
Then a review of the new features of iOS 5 and iCloud, this is “old” information to anyone who followed the WWMD keynote this spring. The only real announcement is they now have a release date for iOS 5 and iCloud – it will be a free update available on October 14 th.
The much-anticipated “new” iPhone 5 announcement DID NOT HAPPEN. Yes Apple did announce a “new” iPhone the 4S – it appears to be just an iPhone 4 with some tweaks and enhancements. It has a faster processor, a better camera, improvements to the antenna system, faster downloads, battery life improvements – things to make the new operating system iOS5 work better. This is NOT a new iPhone – just an upgraded iPhone 4.
Sure there were some new features – there is a new voice recognition system – Apple phones are beginning to work hands free – you can now “talk” to you phone and it does what you tell it. These are some pretty interesting AI features.
Next – the iPhone will be available for Sprint and will work world-wide. That is a good thing – the iPhone will work with Sprint, Verizon and of course AT&T providing cellular service. You can now take you iPhone with you on international trips and not have to go through major changes for the phone to work.
I have an iPhone 3GS which has worked really well for me for several years. Apple today gave me no reasons at all today to abandon my 3GS and get a new phone. Certainly I will be upgrading the operating system to iOS5 and using the new features that are in iOS5 – my 3GS phone will be able to do more. So far as getting a new phone – Apple did not give me any reason to get their newest phone. I had hoped they would announce and show a brand new phone the iPhone 5 which did not happen, so I will continue to use and enjoy my iPhone 3GS until Apple comes out with something new and interesting.
Ideally when you enter a new contact, calendar or event on your Apple mobile device, this change should show up on you computer or all of your computers. If you use a MAC and Mobile Me (soon will be called iCloud) this is pretty easy to set up. The Mobile Me part of the MAC OS lets you choose what information is shared and where. You can make a change to your contacts or calendar on your mobile device and the change shows up on your MAC, of you can make a change on your MAC and the changes shows up on your mobile device. Appointments for example show up on your MAC and your mobile device.
If you use a PC and Mobile Me there are not as many choices for what can be shared through Mobile Me and the only thing this will synch with on a PC is Microsoft Outlook. If you do not happen to have Outlook or do not use Outlook for your calendars and contacts you will find that the information from you Apple Mobile device will not show up on your PC plus changes you make on your PC will not show up on your Apple device.
There appears to be a way to get Calendars and Contacts on an Apple Mobile Device using Mobile Me to show up in the contacts and calendars of G Mail. It the moment this is something I am attempting to make work. I can add events to my G Mail calendar and they show up on my Apple mobile devices, however changes made on my Apple device are not showing up on my G Mail account. I am hoping that when the new Apple IOS with iCloud comes out that some of these issues will work better. Note when the new IOS comes out everyone will have access to iCloud so hopefully it will become more transparent. Ideally when you change or add a contact, calendar event, note, and more these changes should show up on your computer and it should not matter if you use a PC or a MAC.
Tags: Calendars, Contacts, iCloud, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Mobile Me
All of the “i” devices – the iPhone, i Pad and iPod touch have the same thing in common. When you plug your device into a computer that the device is synched with the first thing that happens is iTunes will make a backup and then the device and the computer will “synch”. This means that any changes on the device and in iTunes will be updated. For the most part this works well. However the backup that happens is a backup of the device as it is at the moment. The new backup that occurs when the device is plugged in “overwrites” the last backup. What this means is that the only backup that exists is the most current backup. If you have a need to restore from backup the only choice you will have is the most current back up.
This is not a good solution at all and is easily fixed. You can and really should force iTunes to make backups that are not overwritten by whatever is on the device when it is plugged into the computer. The easiest way to do this is after the device synch has finished right click on the device name in iTunes – it will say something like “names iPhone” – like a lot of computer things when you right click there is a hidden menu. One of the choice in this menu is backup. Click on this and iTunes will made a backup of your device. This backup will show up with a date and is not destroyed when the device is reconnected to the computer and the normal iTunes synch.
It is a good idea to right click on the device in iTunes and click on this backup every time you connect your device to your computer. This way if you do happen to have a failure or disaster or get a new device, or your device gets wiped out, you will have a series of backups to choose from when you go to restore from backup. You can actually see the backup dates available by hovering over the restore from backup menu found by right clicking on the device name.
Tags: backup, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, iTurnes
I am happy to announce that my Brick and Mortar store will soon be closing. My lease will be up in November and I will not be renewing. It is painfully obvious that the economy is not going to come back anytime soon. I have been closely evaluating what I have been doing and can clearly see it is time to change my operation.
When I first opened the store I was bringing in consignment items for clients to sell on eBay, plus I was doing classes and audio video conversion as well as computer repair. I had full and part-time employees who worked at the store. When the economy failed in the fall of 2008 eBay sales also dropped. I became necessary to lay off employees and to change my business model. I had figured that the difficult economy was something that would not last long – maybe 6 months to a year. It is now three years later and it appears the economy will not recover anytime soon.
Most of what I do now is on-line marketing and internet related. I no longer need a store front, I no longer have employees that I need to provide a work place for. Being self-employed is always about change, stopping doing things that are no longer working and creating new things that are work. The store is no longer working so it is time to close and leave it behind. Everything I do now can be done from my new office in my house.
I will miss the store and working here, however I am looking forward to working from my house. If the economy gets better and or I regrow my business in different ways to where I again have employees I can always find another store or office later on. Actually with the improvements in technology I can use VAs (virtual assistants) on-line rather than actual employees at workstations at a store or office to help get things done.
My latest newsletter will going out to my clients and customers in the next few days. Click this link SEP 2011 newsletter to go to my latest newsletter.
NOTE: closing the store and moving to my house will have no effect on my online customers. I have several store fronts these days they are my online web sites. I am just closing my Brick and Mortar store and so this newsletter is really for my local walk in customers and clients. Fact is not have the physical store will help my online clients and customers. I will have more time available to put more effort into my online services and sales and clients and customers.
Tags: brick and mortar store, eBay consignment sales, eTech n Stuff, on line marketing, store closing
With all the news of voice mail hacking by a media giant in the UK that has led to the downfall of at least one newspaper I got to wondering how this could be. The media people involved did not look like geeks.
Turns out what was being done is fairly simple. Two people call the cell phone at the same time. That will put one of the incoming calls into voice mail. Once in voice mail all the hacker has to do is enter a PIN (Personal Identification Number) like on you bank card. These are normally just four digits. Even though the voice mail pin is 4 digits that is a lot of possible combinations, so how were they able to hack into the phones?
It seems that there are default PINs used – things like 1111 or 1234 or the last four digits of the phone number and here is where it gets interesting. The cellular providers enter a standard PIN when they activate a new phone. The customer is supposed to change this PIN right away to something else. It appears that very few people change this PIN and so the default easy to use or remember PIN stays on the phone. All the hackers were doing was running the default PIN once they got into the voice mail.
Bottom line Change the PIN on your cell phone – make sure you are not using the default PIN – that one simple step can make hacking your voice mail on your cell phone a lot more difficult. Of course do not use things like 1111 1234 4321 – use a mix of numbers and do not use the last 4 digits of your phone number. While this will not stop hacking it does make it more difficult for the hacker to get in.
Tags: cell phone, hacking, voice mail
When I first heard of protesters demonstrating at the funerals of fallen military people several years ago I wondered what kind of people would even think of doing anything like that. A funeral – any funeral is a time and place where family and friends are grieving a loss and attempting to put their life together to move on through that loss.
It was just unbelievable that any person or group would demonstrate and protest and invade the sacred space of a funeral or memorial service. As time went on there was more and more news about a group from Kansas traveling to military funerals and memorial services with the sole purpose to demonstrate and disrupt the service.
I support free speech, freedom of religion and the right to demonstrate, these are some of the things that make America great. While I support the rights I do not have to agree with the message. When I heard more about this Kansas group that was showing up and disrupting military funerals I could not believe they were a Christian group. While what they are doing is legal and people in this country can worship and believe anyway they want it would seem that intentionally going to funerals and grave-sites specifically to cause pain to family members and friends of someone how has passed on is just inappropriate – it is just not the time and place, family and friends deserve respect while they are grieving the loss of a loved one.
Thanks to Facebook and a friends post I learned that this so-called Christian group were traveling to Nashville to demonstrate and disrupt the funeral of a Marine Sargent who was killed in combat, protecting the freedoms we have. There was a link to a web site – I visited the web site and simply KNEW that there was nowhere else to be on Monday 13 Jun 2011 than to be in Nashville. I learned that there is a group that stands quietly holding American flags in support and respect of the families that are targeted by the disruptive demonstrators. The come at the invitation of the family. I read the article, watched the two videos on the site and discovered there is a group called the Patriot Guard Riders - I read the entire PGR site, found I agree with what they stand for and became even more certain that the ONLY place for me to be was Nashville.
Something in their Code of Conduct affected me on a very deep level, that and the fact this Marine died while upholding his belief in the United States and protecting all of our rights and freedoms. Marine Sgt. Kevin Balduf left behind a wife and two children, the very least I can do is go and pay my respects to him and his family.
OUR CODE OF CONDUCT-The most important thing you will read here. Pay attention, please:
Monday, June 13th is a memorial for Marine Sergeant Kevin B. Balduf. It is a sacred day for his family. This group will not bring shame on his funeral. We want to make it a beautiful, solemn experience that will edify his family, and honor him.
So I put up a closed today sign at the store and left for Nashville at 4AM Monday morning – got back at just before Midnight. There is a series of photos of the day and some You Tube links.
The entire day was one of the most moving experiences I have ever had. I am deeply honored to have been able to stand in respect for this fallen Marine and his family. To me the most moving part was members of Sgt. Balduf’s family and friends came out and met and shook hands, hugged and thanked ever person who came to stand and honor this fallen Marine.
Yes a small group of the radical church protesters did arrive, the law in Nashville is they must be 500 feet from the property. The police made certain the protesters followed the law. The Patriot Guard Riders effectively shielded the family and friends from the protesters. Sgt. Balduf’s family and friends were very appreciative of the people who came to honor this fallen Marine.
Actually I came to realize that were it not for the protesters, I certainly would not have heard of the Patriot Guard Riders, nor would I have taken the trip to Nashville. A number of people there said the same thing. I do respect the right of the protesters to free speech and their right to do what they do even if I disagree with what they are doing and how they do it. The bottom line is these radical protesters sparked some 15,000 people to “Like” the Facebook page, tens of thousands of people went to the web site done by Kevin Montgomery. Several thousand people showed up in Nashville to honor Marine Sgt. Keven Balduf, there are blog posts, there was news coverage, there are a number of You Tube videos. Hopefully hundreds of people became aware of the efforts of the Patriot Group Riders – perhaps a number have joined them – I did – and will certainly be at more memorials that are within driving distance. So while the protesting group is radical in their belief and tasteless in their approach what they did accomplish was to inspire a lot of people to show up in honor of Sgt. Balduf. A lot of people have become aware of the Patriot Group Riders and what they stand for and what they are doing. This Video Says it all for me
Here are a couple of a number of videos on You Tube – there are many more :
Newspaper coverage – one of several
And Finally a series of my photos – 13 June 2011 – Proud to be an American – Honored to stand for Marine Sgt. Kevin Balduf and his family, in support of all our troops past, present and future.
Tags: Marine Sgt. Kevin Balduf, Nashville, Patriot Group Riders
Today was the Keynote speech at Apple’s WWDC conference. Here are the highlights of what is new at Apple. First off was some enhancements to the upcoming new Apple Mac OS – called Lion. The new Lion OS has more gestures added which will work with the touch pad on Apple laptops and if you have a touch pad for you iMAC or MAC Pro they will work there also. It is apparent that Apple is working on making their computers work a lot like the iPhone, iPad and iPod. There are number of features in Lion to make the MACs even easier to use – Lion will be available only in the MAC App store as a download – Cost is $29 and will be available sometime in July.
Next up was the introduction of iOS5 the operating system that runs the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Lots of brand new features have been added – Notifications has been cleaned up – instead of multiple notifications they now will come into one popup that simply open to the App that generated the notification.
A new app is called News Stand where one can subscribe to magazines and newspaper that will load in the background. They also have added a direct Tweeter App making it really easy to connect with Tweeter. Looks like a number of the native apps have been enhanced. Better Mail and Safari for example.
A major upgrade is the iOS5 devices no longer need to connect to a computer - everything can be done from the device including OS upgrades. iOS5 will be available this fall. Apple is saying there are over 200 new features in iOS5 – they showed 10.
The biggest announcement today from Apple is iCloud – iCloud will be replacing Mobile Me – iCloud is FREE (those of that have been using Mobile Me have been paying $99 a year. Apple has enhanced the Mobile Me apps and added a lot more for iCloud.
For example with iCloud you can take a photo on your iPhone and it will appear on your other devices – your iPod touch, your iPad you MAC or MAC Book AND —- EVEN your PC. Same thing happens with other data like document, spread sheets and so on.
They really have cut the cord to a computer – the mobile devices back up them self via iCloud.
Your iTunes music is shared on all iCloud devices OK that was expected. Most of us have a lot more music on our devices than what we have purchased from iTunes. Apple will now let you share ALL of you music – via iCloud the cost will be $25 / year – does not matter is you have 500 non iTunes songs or 5000 or 20,000 the cost is the same.
No new hardware at all announced this time. No new MACs, (the iMac was updated a few weeks back and so were the MAC Books and MAC Pro) No new iPhones, iPods or iPads this time around. The new iSO5 will work on the same devices as iSO4 does.
Side note – one of my friends attending WWDC tweeted me that Steve Jobs is not looking well – the video of the keynote is up on Apple.com – sadly it appears his observation appears correct.
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