Posts Tagged ‘Wireless’

Too many WiFi devices and used up all my WiFi beans in my Broadband routers!

Monday, January 16th, 2017

Well the title says it all, with the addition of more WiFi Home Automation devices, it would appear I’ve used up all the WiFi beans in my Broadband Routers, or they easily get overloaded with too many devices. I’ve just added another 12 WiFi devices, and it would appear that’s overkill for a 2Wire 2700HGV and backup BT Home Hub 3 broadband routers.

2Wire 2700HGV & BT Home Hub 3

2Wire 2700HGV & BT Home Hub 3

I’ve been meaning to overall my WiFi for a while, so turned off a dedicated 2.4GHz  and 5GHz access points, and replaced with a single inexpensive broadband dual band 2.4GHz and 5GHz router from TP-LINK Archer D20 AC750 Wireless Dual Band ADSL2+ Modem Router for Phone Line Connections, those devices that have 5GHz have been migrated to the 5GHz WiFi, e.g. Amazon Echo, Nexus, laptops & iPads.

Boxed TP-LINK Archer D20 AC750 Wireless Dual Band ADSL2+ Modem Router for Phone Line Connections

Boxed TP-LINK Archer D20 AC750 Wireless Dual Band ADSL2+ Modem Router for Phone Line Connections

TP-LINK Archer D20 AC750 Wireless Dual Band ADSL2+ Modem Router for Phone Line Connections

TP-LINK Archer D20 AC750 Wireless Dual Band ADSL2+ Modem Router for Phone Line Connections

It does not look very pretty, and has the standard, LEDs for Power On, 2.4GHz/5.0GHz Enabled, ADSL Connection, Internet Connected and LAN states, this router, is on the top of a shelf, so I need to standard on a stool to check the LED status, it would have been handy, if they were visible… (ignore the whitebox in the above picture, that’s the SamKnows UK Broadband Availability monitoring box)

I’ve now got a few devices from TP-Link, a Chinese company, and the products are of good quality and inexpensive. I’ve got TP-Link  battery  power banks, and recent WiFi smart switches, all with a 3 Year Guarantee, and 24/7 Technical Support! and if you are a real Techie Nerd, you can visit the TP-Link website, and checkout the GUI Management Interface of their products, using their TP-Link emulator

TP-Link router interface

TP-Link router interface

and for shits and giggles, it has SNMP (for a budget router a bargain), you can graph traffic….

SNMP monitoring of TP-Link router

SNMP monitoring of TP-Link router

So all in all, Good value router, with 3 year guarantee, we will see if it struggles with the WiFi!

Update :- It made no difference, the end result, the WiFi radios in routers cannot cope and struggle with too many WiFi devices, in my case 30, which in the future more and more households, we will start to see the same issue….as more households embrace WiFi, how many WiFi devices are you currently using ?

So I purchased one of these – The WiFi Cure! – Ubiquiti Networks UAP-AC-PRO

Post to Twitter

What’s in your Man Bag?

Tuesday, February 9th, 2010

After a few folk on-site recently have been laughing at my “hand bag”. I keep telling them it’s a man bag which I keep my notebook in and a few other things! I’m always complaining to Lindsey about not being able to find her keys in her many bags that she uses, it’s prompted me to take a photograph of the items in my man bag!

Contents of my man bag!

Contents of my man bag!

Contents Include:-

  • Sony Vaio T1XP Mini Notebook and Sony Vaio Case.
  • Sony Vaio T1XP charger and mains cable.
  • Tom Tom GO 520 in hard case.
  • SanDisk cruzer mini 1GB flash drives (2).
  • SanDisk cruzer micro clear body 4GB flash drives (2).
  • SanDisk cruzer micro 4GB flash drive (encrypted) (1).
  • hp 4GB flash drive (encrypted).
  • Corsair Survivor GT 64GB flash drive (encrypted) (including chain and dog tag!).
  • 3 3G MF627 USB Modem with 4GB micro SD card inserted. (encrypted).
  • Cisco Aironet 350 AIR-LMC350 (patched 200mW) PCMCIA card.
  • Cisco Aironet 802.11a/b/g PCMCIA Wireless Adaptor.
  • Linksys Dual-Band Wireless 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g WPC55AG PCMCIA card.
  • Orinoco 802.11b PCMCIA GOLD Card.
  • Senoa special PCMCIA card!
  • N-type to Wireless LAN card pigtails, various types (3).
  • Canon Ixus IS 850 Digital Camera including case.
  • Flash card case including compact flash, SD, Micro SD, Mini SD, Memory Stick, Memory Pro cards.
  • HP Smart Start CD ROMs and ESXi flash modules.
  • Carrying case full of technical CD ROMs.

I’ll not complain the next time Lindsey has difficulty finding her keys!

That’s alot of tech!

Post to Twitter

Wireless (WiFi) Remote Control of X10 Modules using USB Remote Access

Sunday, December 20th, 2009
  1. The Active Home Pro software is installed on/in a virtual Windows XP Professional computer, I don’t like cluttering up my main production Workstation which happens to be Vista 64-bit Ultimate.
  2. The CM15PRO Programmable Computer Interface is connected by USB to this computer. The Active Home Pro software is the software that drives the computer interface, I’ve saved the “house file” house.ahx on my NAS (network attached storage) device, so it can be easily shared on my network.
  3. This is the clever Tech bit, USB over Network by Fabula Tech, I’ve been using this software in the virtual work I do for a few years, and it allows you to share a USB device over your network, e.g. you can plug in you USB device on one computer, and connect to it on another via your network. Very handy… USB remote access!
  4. The USB over Network by Fabula Tech is installed on the computer connected to the CM15PRO Programmable Computer Interface. We will call this the server.
USB over network

USB over network

The above snapshot, shows the USB over Network server software running, and the current USB devices attached to the server, which can then be shared, just like any resource, disk, printer etc.

USB over network device shared waiting for connection

USB over network device shared waiting for connection

The device is shared, and is waiting for a client computer to connect to it.

USB device properties

USB device properties

You can give the devices meaningful friendly names, that you’ll remember. On the client computer (remote computer), install another copy of Active Home Pro, making sure the drivers are installed for the CM15Pro. Run the USB over Network client software.

USB over Network client setup

USB over Network client setup

Select USB Device, Add, browser for the computer or enter IP address. You should see, a list of devices that can be connected to.

Client connecting...

Client connecting...

Right click the device, and click connect, if this is the first time you’ve connected to the device, you’ll get the usual, bing-bong tones, and plug N play will start and register the drives.

Now you can use your ActiveHome Pro software on another wireless (WiFi) computer, just open the *.AHX home file, from a shared location.

Client Connected to device

Client Connected to device

Post to Twitter