I got to get on the Internet at 35,000 feet last week. Our Delta Airlines flight from San Francisco to Atlanta was outfitted with GoGo in flight Internet. I had a complimentary code to get free Internet for the flight for one device. Usually the cost is around $12 for a days use. You can always get free Delta airline info and GoGo is always having some free Internet shopping use. For example on my flight you could shop Amazon at no charge.
So how does this work?
There are two technologies available - Satellite and cell tower. GoGo mainly uses cell tower technology. They have over 100 cell towers that point upward in the US. A receiver on the plane picks up the signal and then sends out a wifi signal on the plane. Speed of this technology is comparable to 3G cell phone speed (that is better then dialup, but not much). I've checked the speed on board several planes and its never faster then 0.9 mbps (for example I have 6 mbps through Shentel cable at home). It's good for reading email, simple surfing and playing online games. Don't even think about video, though I did get tunein radio to work on a recent flight.
The other technology uses rented space on geosynchronous satellites. Row 44 is the seller of this Internet (and more) service. Southwest Airlines is the main user of Row 44 and charges $5 per flight for the service. The satellite technology has more bandwidth then the cell technology and is markedly faster. You can watch videos and live TV content on Row 44 flights. The receivers (there are 4) on the plane are more expensive then Gogo and have had some maintenance issues. Overall the Row 44 service provides what we all want - faster Internet!
While on vacation, the bed & breakfast inn where we stayed had fairly good wifi service, but spotty cell phone service. The b&b owner used two routers to cover the big house. However he had used different type routers and had left the SSID (wifi name) as the generic "linksys" and "belkin". I told the owner he needed to change the SSID name to that of his B&B. Why? Because he used security! An average user will come to his B&B and have problems logging on because most users will have previously memorized "linksys" and "belkin" sites on their pc/ipad and will have different security settings. That is why I recommend keeping those strange named SSIDs that now come with new routers (like: A09R5863Q). Once you memorize a wifi security setting its hard to change it for a particular SSID.
Also if you haven't changed your router in a while, you really need to move up to a n-band router. They are 3 times faster and cover a larger area of your business/home.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Monday, July 16, 2012
#214 - Power - the backbone of it all
The June 29th Derecho hit PCSS with a vengeance. We were without power for 5 days and Internet for 7 days. Talk about your business crushing event. Fortunately, we had just a big mess an no real damage. Our customers suffered worse and we hope everyone is back to normal. We used our laptops and found Internet at customer sites (THANKS) So this blog will be about Power. The good, the bad and the ugly!
Your friendly power provider (Dominion Power, BARC, American Electric) is supposed to provide your residence or business with alternating current power at nominally 120 volts at 60 cycles per second (Herz). When stress hits your power provider (think storms, Hot Weather, Cold Weather, etc) one of the methods of keeping power flowing is to slightly decrease the voltage you receive. Under these conditions (a brown out) you get less then 120 volts and your computer equipment gets less DC power from their power supplies.
A way to prevent brown outs from negatively affecting your computer equipment is to use an Uninterpretable Power Supply (UPS). These batter back up systems not only give you power when the power is down, they AUGMENT the power when a brown out occurs. PCSS recommends you use a UPS with all your valuable electronics.
On the other side of the power supply equations is the Surge. When lightning strikes wires a surge is transmitted through the wires and can damage your electronics. Surge Suppressors will protect you for ONE surge. The way surge suppressors work causes them to no longer provide protection after a surge hits the wire. If you have an UPS, they will likely provide protection for more then one surge. Although a severe surge can take out even the best UPS. Most of these devices have LED indicators when they are no longer providing protection.
"You get what you pay for" is very true when it comes to power protection. Cheap (less then $15) surge suppressors provide very minimal protection. When it comes to UPS, PCSS only likes Tripp-Lite and APC brands. These are large companies, with great engineers, behind their products. They meet all US Underwriter specifications and they even help write the IEEE specifications to protect the consumer.
The best thing about power being back on? Hot water? Air Conditioning? Internet? Refrigeration? Any and all of those certainly make life more enjoyable. We are a society based on Power as we were reminded in late June.
Your friendly power provider (Dominion Power, BARC, American Electric) is supposed to provide your residence or business with alternating current power at nominally 120 volts at 60 cycles per second (Herz). When stress hits your power provider (think storms, Hot Weather, Cold Weather, etc) one of the methods of keeping power flowing is to slightly decrease the voltage you receive. Under these conditions (a brown out) you get less then 120 volts and your computer equipment gets less DC power from their power supplies.
A way to prevent brown outs from negatively affecting your computer equipment is to use an Uninterpretable Power Supply (UPS). These batter back up systems not only give you power when the power is down, they AUGMENT the power when a brown out occurs. PCSS recommends you use a UPS with all your valuable electronics.
On the other side of the power supply equations is the Surge. When lightning strikes wires a surge is transmitted through the wires and can damage your electronics. Surge Suppressors will protect you for ONE surge. The way surge suppressors work causes them to no longer provide protection after a surge hits the wire. If you have an UPS, they will likely provide protection for more then one surge. Although a severe surge can take out even the best UPS. Most of these devices have LED indicators when they are no longer providing protection.
"You get what you pay for" is very true when it comes to power protection. Cheap (less then $15) surge suppressors provide very minimal protection. When it comes to UPS, PCSS only likes Tripp-Lite and APC brands. These are large companies, with great engineers, behind their products. They meet all US Underwriter specifications and they even help write the IEEE specifications to protect the consumer.
The best thing about power being back on? Hot water? Air Conditioning? Internet? Refrigeration? Any and all of those certainly make life more enjoyable. We are a society based on Power as we were reminded in late June.
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