Tech Stuff

[Slim Cognito]

I have Xfinity internet (no cable) as we stream all our tv on Hulu, Netflix or Prime. After a year or so, we were having spotty connection issues so I exchanged my Xfinity rented router (modem? I'm not sure what the difference is) for a *newer* one. It's the exact same model and we're having the exact same issues. I'm wondering if it's just somebody else's problem, exchanged, cleaned up and given to me for a $14 month rental fee.

Then I thought it was my computer, so I upgraded my wifi adapter. No change. I spent $100 to get one of Xfinity's range extenders*. No change. I installed a new Amazon Firestick. No change.

BTW, I have the smart TV connected to the router via ethernet. I bought the ethernet adaptor for the Firestick. Still had problems so I unplugged the adaptor and went to Wifi. No improvement.

Would it benefit me to buy my own router? If so, any suggestions? It has to handle streaming. That's its most important job. I don't have to rent from Xfinity and there is a monthly charge if I use theirs.

*That is for my laptop in my office, but it still has spotty connection issues.

[Volkonski]

I have Xfinity internet (no cable) as we stream all our tv on Hulu, Netflix or Prime. After a year or so, we were having spotty connection issues so I exchanged my Xfinity rented router (modem? I'm not sure what the difference is) for a *newer* one. It's the exact same model and we're having the exact same issues. I'm wondering if it's just somebody else's problem, exchanged, cleaned up and given to me for a $14 month rental fee.

Then I thought it was my computer, so I upgraded my wifi adapter. No change. I spent $100 to get one of Xfinity's range extenders*. No change. I installed a new Amazon Firestick. No change.

BTW, I have the smart TV connected to the router via ethernet. I bought the ethernet adaptor for the Firestick. Still had problems so I unplugged the adaptor and went to Wifi. No improvement.

Would it benefit me to buy my own router? If so, any suggestions? It has to handle streaming. That's its most important job. I don't have to rent from Xfinity and there is a monthly charge if I use theirs.

*That is for my laptop in my office, but it still has spotty connection issues.

For a router- Orbi.

https://www.netgear.com/home/wifi/best- ... 6-srch-cpc

[somerset]

I've been using a Gryphon tri-band router for about six months, and I'm very happy with the performance. I don't need a mesh system for a two bedroom apartment, so the coverage is more than adequate in my application. In addition to streaming and other home uses, I use my connection to work with IC layouts, netlists and schematics, which can be very bandwidth intensive. I have a 1Gb/sec fiber optic connection (AT&T) and even with a VPN and going through Zscaler protection, I'm getting 350Mb/s download and 150Mb/s upload speeds.

https://gryphonconnect.com/

Before you spend money on a new wifi router, make sure your wired connection isn't the problem. Connect a computer directly to your existing router using a Cat 5 or Cat 6 ethernet cable, then run speedtest.net. If you're getting good download and upload speeds this way, then the problem is your wireless (wifi) connection. But if you can't get good wired performance, upgrading to a better wireless router will be a waste of money. And if that's the case, you'll need to take the problem up with Xfinity.

[noblepa]

We had a problem with our Wow! cable connection a year or so ago. We had a terrible time watching some channels.

The tech came out and connected a tester to the incoming cable and found that the signal strength was marginal. He connected the tester to the incoming feed, outside the house, and the signal strength was fine.

He then replaced just about every connection between the street cable and my cable box. This improved things quite a bit.

I agree with Somerset. The problem may be occurring upstream, before the signal even gets to you or your router. Since you say that your have replaced the router, I'd ask the cable provider to come out and thoroughly check out your incoming signal.

[Slim Cognito]

Great advice. Thx all.

[RTH10260]

Just another tip: make sure that the router can keep up with the bandwidth delivered by the cable network.

Background story: since I signed up to my local cable company in Switzerland when they started to deliver internet via their tv network i had kept my package always at the same price over a decade. About every 18 months they tweaked their services and I kept getting better and better bandwidth. So last year I opted into their Giga-speed thingy. To my surprise I did not see any jump in access speed, at least on the download side. Turns out that while their new cable modem delivered max speed, my local router showed it's age (5 years since purchase and it wasn't even the most recent model back then) and maxed out, unable to take advantage of the new high speed. Technical note: the cable modem owned by the company can also act as a router, which is how most customer will use it, but I wanted more than the limited functionality for my LAN. For me the cable modem is working in "bridge mode", just passingthru traffic to my own router and bypassing its own functionality.

[Shizzle Popped]

By all means, call the cable company and have them come check the line. Coax can be kind of finicky and one bad connection can really muck up the works. The first time my internet connection went out many, many years ago we found that a chipmunk had chewed partway through the line in a spot where he was trying to stash food. Another time we were having intermittent trouble it turned out the signal coming into the house was too strong and they had to put an attenuator on the line.

If you know what speed service you have and can hook a computer up to the router via and Ethernet cable you might run a speed test to see if you're getting close to your rated service level. This would point to a persistent problem but may or may not pick up intermittent issues. I generally use the Ookla speed test but there others that are just as good. (https://www.speedtest.net/)

There are pros and cons to renting vs. owning your router and modem. If you rent then it's easier for the cable company to troubleshoot as they don't have to work with potentially unfamiliar equipment. However, most of the equipment the cable company provides is usually nowhere near the best made and some are known to have frequent reliability issues and lousy wireless performance. I've owned my own equipment ever since I started working largely from home over a dozen years ago and the reliability of my connection became vitally important.

Assuming you have a coax connection from your provider then you'll need either a router/modem (which is probably what you have) or a separate router and modem. If you're on a fiber connection then you won't need the modem. If there's a round cable with a barrel connector plugged into the back of your router, that's coax (you may already know this but I'm not assuming anything). The advantage to a separate router and modem is that once you have the signal converted from the modem you can buy whatever router is best for your needs. In our case, we have a large house and a standard single router doesn't cover the entire house reliably so I switched us to an Orbi mesh system. You may or may not need something like that depending on your circumstances.

ETA: By the way, that chipmunk was very upset after we ran a conduit through his food stash. We put out a tray of seeds and nuts every few days that winter to help compensate.

[Volkonski]

On this date in history!

[Slim Cognito]

I need a new laptop mostly for social media. I have a ten year old win10 laptop with a 1 tb hard drive that is still 3/4 empty. It works great except for the wifi adapter. Even after buying a new USB one, it wants to default back to the in-house one so I'm ready to move it to file cabinet status and get something smaller and lighter I can carry with me when I travel. What I think I want is a tablet/keyboard combo. I don't need a huge storage unit, just fast with good wifi reception and enough room for maybe one or two, minimally invasive games like Lemmings.

If I can keep it around $500, that would be great. Any suggestions?

[Uninformed]

Not sure what really fits your bill but the following may be worth a look. Mainly Chromebooks apart from the Surface.

- Acer Chromebook Spin 713
- Lenovo Chromebook Duet
- ASUS FLIP 2-IN-1 Chromebook
- Microsoft Surface Go 2

[zekeb]

I need a new laptop mostly for social media. I have a ten year old win10 laptop with a 1 tb hard drive that is still 3/4 empty. It works great except for the wifi adapter. Even after buying a new USB one, it wants to default back to the in-house one so I'm ready to move it to file cabinet status and get something smaller and lighter I can carry with me when I travel. What I think I want is a tablet/keyboard combo. I don't need a huge storage unit, just fast with good wifi reception and enough room for maybe one or two, minimally invasive games like Lemmings.

If I can keep it around $500, that would be great. Any suggestions?

Can you turn the on-board wi-fi off in the BIOS setup? That option is usually available.

[Slim Cognito]

If someone can explain it. Does anyone have a good link? I follow directions well.

[zekeb]

If someone can explain it. Does anyone have a good link? I follow directions well.

Hold down the F2 or DEL key right after turning the computer on. Hold it until you get a BIOS menu. Some computers want the F2 key held; some want the DEL key. Mine doesn't care. Once in the BIOS setup, look for "peripheral devices" or some such thing. Keep poking around until you find WIFI. Select WIFI and change the setting from Enabled to Disabled. The space bar usually toggles the setting back and forth. Use Up Arrow and look for a way to exit and save changes. If none is found, try the ESC key. Be sure that you save your changes. Reboot after exiting.

[Uninformed]

“The Semiconductor Heist Of The Century | Arm China Has Gone Completely Rogue, Operating As An Independent Company With Inhouse IP/R&D”:
https://semianalysis.substack.com/p/the ... he-century

[Shizzle Popped]

I need a new laptop mostly for social media. I have a ten year old win10 laptop with a 1 tb hard drive that is still 3/4 empty. It works great except for the wifi adapter. Even after buying a new USB one, it wants to default back to the in-house one so I'm ready to move it to file cabinet status and get something smaller and lighter I can carry with me when I travel. What I think I want is a tablet/keyboard combo. I don't need a huge storage unit, just fast with good wifi reception and enough room for maybe one or two, minimally invasive games like Lemmings.

If I can keep it around $500, that would be great. Any suggestions?

Laptops last 10 years? I keep giving mine to one of my (grown) kids after about 3 years. I tend to buy good electronics so they're thrilled to get my hand-me-downs.

I'm a couple of years into my current laptop so I haven't done a lot of research but I just saw a very favorable review of this one. (Acer bought the rights to the Gateway name and they're sold exclusively through Wal-mart now.)

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Gateway-14-1 ... gn_id=9383

[bill_g]

Oh yeah. They last 10 years or more no problem ... if you take care of them. I have every PC and laptop I've either personally purchased, or issued from the company going back to the 80's. I still maintain some old equipment that requires them. The programs are so old, they don't run well (or at all) on newer computers. Divide by zero errors are the most common fatal flaw. Others halt turning the computer into stone.

I have a Toshiba luggable I like to drag out occassionally just to hear the hard drive wind up. It's an 86. Not a 486, or a 386, or even a 186. It's an 86 with a forty megabit hard drive, a dual three and half inch floppy drive, a walloping 750 kilobytes of RAM, two serial ports, a built in 2400 baud modem (Whoa, be still my heart), and a parallel printer port. It weighs about as much as a small child, and comes with it's own handle for convenient transport. $1000 new in 1987.

[Reality Check]

If someone can explain it. Does anyone have a good link? I follow directions well.

You should be able to disable the WiFi adapter in Device Manager in Windows.

Right click on the Windows button.
Select Device Manager.
Expand Network Adapters
Find your WiFi adapter.
Right click and select Disable.
Reboot

[Slim Cognito]

Thx everybody!

[keith]

Re: WINDOWS 11

If you have run the Win11 readiness check, and it has come up and said you need
TPM, dont panic yet.

If your machine is less than 6 years old, it almost certainly OK. You may need to upgrade your BIOS, and turn on PTT (intel) or fTPM (AMD). Then enable TPM.

Check this out before getting a new computer, unless you are really ready for one.

I'll give some links when I get home.

[keith]

GETTING YOUR COMPUTER READY FOR WINDOWS 11

OK: Here is the follow-on to my post above...

Originally, the "Trusted Platform Module" (TPM) was exactly that: a hardware module that had to be plugged in to the motherboard. They used to sell for less than $20 but are now being scalped for 6 times or more than that in some places - but you don't have to go down that road yet.

What is a TPM? And here's why you need it for Windows 11

Its worth noting that TPM has been a 'minimum requirement' for Windows 10 for years. It just hasn't actually been required yet, but Microsoft wanted hardware vendors to start making it generally available. Now its REALLY required (mostly, see next link).

This report is from 27 August: Microsoft stands firm on its Windows 11 device requirements, with one caveat

OK, so there may be a workaround for really old machines. Actually this is not properly called a workaround. IT Pros call this sort of thing a KLUDGE. You really don't want to be running your stuff on insecure and unsupported software.

Now your current machine, if it is on the supported list, (and most everything made in the last 5 or 6 years is) probably does not have TPM support enabled because you probably didn't have a serious call for it. But that TPM Support is just a BIOS setting away (two actually). (caveat: some motherboards may need a BIOS update before the TPM settings are surfaced).

Stop! Why you shouldn't panic-buy a TPM for Windows 11

Intel and AMD and ARM and the motherboard manufacturers all decided that an expensive extra hardware module was more than what the average user needed or wanted, but there were features in TPM that that average user could benefit from. So they developed a firmware substitute - Intel calls it 'PTT' (Platform Trust Technology), AMD calls it 'fTPM' (firmware TPM I assume), ARM calls their version 'TrustZone' - but ARM doesn't MAKE CPUs - they sell CPU designs, so, for example, Qualcomms' SnapDragon CPU is an ARM design and uses ARM TrustZone for their 'Trusted Execution Environment'. (Okay, more that you wanted to know, I know).

So what do you have to do to get TPM to work on your machine?

„Windows 11 requires TPM“. Don’t panic, just do this in BIOS

TL:DR:
1) Make sure your BIOS supports it.
The BIOS on my old machine (5 years maybe?) does not, but CAN. I am at BIOS version level F4 or something and need to get to F18 for that support. I haven't got around to that yet, but will before I give it to my sister in law. My new machine that I just built last week supports it already.

2) Enable the support for PTT (Intel) or fTPM (AMD) on the motherboard BIOS settings.
On my Gigabyte BIOS, the switch to enable PTT was kinda hidden in the ''Miscellaneous' settings. (which reminds me, I have to get back with Gigabyte support and tell them I found it )

Remember PTT and fTPM are optional 'versions' of TPM that are supported in the BIOS, so you have to both enable the support and then...

3) Turn on TPM
On my Gigabyte BIOS, the switch to turn on TPM was a few lines down from the enable support switch.

[zekeb]

Secure boot. TTP 2.0. UEFI BIOS. Legitimately registered copy of Windows 10 and a 12 core processor on a new motherboard. I have it all. Apparently the Windows 11 updater didn't get the memo. No matter how I tried and how many strings I pulled, my Windows 10 system would not upgrade. I took it to my local brain trust computer experts 40 miles away and they had a go at it too. It just wouldn't update. All the bells rang and all the whistles blew, but after about an hour of thrashing about and two counters going from zero to 100 percent, the computer would go into the final boot attempt and revert back to Windows 10. I ended up doing a fresh install. Don't lose any sleep gnashing you teeth being eager to switch. '11 does file management noticeably faster, but I noticed a few minor instabilities. One seems to be fixed after a cumulative update today. I don't care for the way you have to make system adjustments now. Old dogs, and I'm feeling very old the past six months, don't learn new tricks very well.

[Slim Cognito]

I know this is a reach, but I have to ask. I got a FB message from a friend who had clicked on a message she got from a friend and, yes, it was a virus. It went out to all her friends, including me, but it didn't sound right to me so I asked her and, yes, she'd been hacked. She has no idea which virus specifically but is there a safe, trusted site she can get info on how to deal with this? Or is this something that has to be done by a professional hands-on?

She's a really good friend, recently widowed, and dealing with a lot of crap from that so this is the last thing she needs right now. Also, she's a realtor and works on that computer.

[John Thomas8]

I know this is a reach, but I have to ask. I got a FB message from a friend who had clicked on a message she got from a friend and, yes, it was a virus. It went out to all her friends, including me, but it didn't sound right to me so I asked her and, yes, she'd been hacked. She has no idea which virus specifically but is there a safe, trusted site she can get info on how to deal with this? Or is this something that has to be done by a professional hands-on?

She's a really good friend, recently widowed, and dealing with a lot of crap from that so this is the last thing she needs right now. Also, she's a realtor and works on that computer.

She needs to take her Facebook account back. If she's still logged in, she needs to change the password to something massively stupidly hard (write it down) and put alternate recovery methods to her profile. Better yet, activate "two factor authentication" to help keep the account from being jacked. Having accounts on active public sites requires proactive maintenance, paying attention to friend invites from weirdos or scammers looking for info to get "free money". Then pay for and download MacAfee or other browser-protecting virus scanning.

The Internet is not nice or safe.

[Slim Cognito]

thanks. I must have clicked it unintentionally because it got me too. but I've changed passwords and turned on the two-factor thingie. And the pisser is I just updated the pw yesterday. Crap!!!!

[Foggy]

I use a whole range of tools. And I make regular BACKUPS to a 2 TB external hard drive that I keep in my car. If my house burns down whilst I am Dancing with Barbells later on this glorious November morn, I will not lose significant amounts of data that I desperately need.

HENCE, I use:

System Mechanic, an excellent overall computer maintenance program, that includes antivirus and a Malware Killer in addition to the maintenance stuff.

Hitman Pro, a program that finds any type of malware

Spybot Search and Destroy, which always finds a few things that the others missed, and lastly

CCleaner, which crawls through the registry looking for problems

So on Saturday morning I run all of these, one right after the other, and get a nice clean, highly functional computer.