Use QR codes to point someone to your Facebook Profile

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Facebook Adding QR Codes To Android App, Directing Scanners To Users’ Profiles? – AllFacebook

Facebook Adds QR Codes To Android App | 2D Code

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You are at the party or favourite bar and you have started to chat with someone very well. But you mention that you are on Facebook and they say that they are also on that same social network. You ask if it is OK to “friend them” on Facebook and they agree.

The next thing you do is ask for their name to search for them in your Facebook mobile app. This can be very difficult in a noisy environment or if they have a name that has a particular spelling or is one of many common names. Pick, pick, pick, pick, pick – you have found that person and are sending a “Friend Request”to them.

Now Facebook have improved on this for the latest version of their Android mobile client by using the QR code to simplify the profile-sharing process. Here, you bring up “Friends” in the drop-down menu. Then you tap “Find Friends” which shows the “People You May Know” list. Touch the “QR Code” button on the top right of your display to show a QR code that represents a link to your Profile.

If you are adding your companion to your Friends list, you then tap “Scan Code” and point your Android phone’s camera at the QR code that your companion is showing on their Android phone’s screen using this same client. This takes you to their Timeline which would have any “public” posts that are on it as well as the option to add them as a Friend.

I don’t see this as a controversial feature for Facebook because you have to be pulling up your Facebook Profile’s QR code in the presence of your companion who then has to use their device running the client app to scan that code – you are not intending to “friend them” behind their back.

This function could be taken further for businesses who have Facebook Pages or people who use Facebook Pages as a way to maintain a sanitised “public” profile. As well, if a person maintains a Page for their business or blog along with their personal Profile, the QR code could lead the user to a screen with an option to go to the Page which you then “like” to follow or the Profile with an option to “subscribe” (see only public Posts and Photos) or “add Friend” (be seen as a Facebook Friend with standard privileges).

Similarly, other social networks like Twitter and LinkedIn could implement this technology to allow people to attract followers or connections. NFC technology can also be exploited to achieve the same functionality as these QR codes for “there-and-then” access to contact profiles.

Feature Article–DLNA Media Network Series: Getting Started With DLNA Media Sharing

Updated: 13 October 2013

Pure Sensia 200D Connect Internet radioMost of us will end up with a large collection of picture, music or video files on our computers, especially if we use our computers as a large media library. It would be nice to have access to this content without having to copy it out to thumbdrives, SD cards or iPods before we can enjoy it.

As for music, this is more so as we buy music as digital-download files rather than buy physical media and copy it to our conputer’s hard disk. It will also become a trend if we visit video sites that offer video content on a download-to-own basis.

The instructions in this article are more focused with a person who is pressing a regular desktop or laptop computer running Windows, MacOS X or Linux as a media server and may be the way to go when you start out with DLNA especially if you are using a desktop comptuer.

Why share your music, pictures and video the DLNA way?

Sony BDP-S390 Blu-Ray Disc Player

Sony BDP-S390 Network Blu-Ray Player – a Blu-Ray player that adds DLNA to an existing TV

An increasing number of dedicated network media client devices are on the market and nearly all of these devices work according to the UPnP AV / DLNA media-client standards.  Most manufacturers who are selling premium table radios are supplying at least one which can pick up Internet radio broadcasts through a home network and these sets are also capable of picking up media made available to them from a UPnP AV media server. We are also seeing an increasing number of wireless speakers that connect to your home network and receive music via Apple’s proprietary Airplay system or the common DLNA system. These units can be controlled by mobile devices equipped with controller apps.

Similarly, DLNA is becoming an important feature for any well-bred “smart TV” or similar video peripheral like a Blu-Ray player or home-theatre system that is connected to the Internet. The ubiquitous Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 games consoles that every teenage boy dreams of having both work according to these standards and this feature is becoming a requirement for up-and-coming TV-connected games consoles.

By using a DLNA-based setup, you don’t need to install different media-server programs for each network-media client that you happen to buy. In some situations, you may only need to run whatever is supplied with the computer’s operating system.

Setting up your network for DLNA media

Basic DLNA Media Network

Basic DLNA Media Network

Most home, small-business and some branch-office networks don’t require any revision because they typically are one logical network that spans the premises with the router that exists at the network-Internet “edge” being the device that handles basic network housekeeping. This doesn’t matter whether the network has one or more media segments like WiFi wireless, Cat5 Ethernet or HomePlug powerline cabling.

You will need to know the ESSID and the WEP or WPA security key for your wireless network. This may be obtained through the router’s Web administration page or through your client PC’s wireless-network-setup parameters such as in Windows Connect Now. If you are connecting your DLNA media client to the network via wireless, you will need to make sure that the wireless access point or router is broadcasting the ESSID so you can pick it from a list using the device’s user interface and be sure you are “in reach” of the network. This practice would be important when you run a multi-access-point wireless network or simply to help with making sure that neighbouring wireless networks are set up properly. As well, you will need to be ready to enter the WEP or WPA security passphrase by “picking out” characters from a list using buttons on the device or its remote control.

Some networks such as the public-access networks provided by cafes and the like, including the headline “Wi-Fi Internet” that resort apartment developments provide won’t work well with DLNA. This is due to implementation of a Web-based login system as well as client isolation which doesn’t work with most DLNA-capable devices.

Setting up your PC jukebox or media server software for DLNA

Settings for ripping CDs in Windows Media Player

Settings for ripping CDs in Windows Media Player

If you are running any Microsoft Windows version since Windows XP, you can use Windows Media Player 11 or newer versions as your media server. Before you start “ripping” CDs to the hard disk, make sure the program is set to rip without DRM (Copy Protect Music checkbox in the Rip Music options tab is cleared) and that it is set to rip CDs at 192kbps WMA or 320kbps MP3. The reason I would rip at these settings is to be assured of sound reproduction that is as close to the CD album as possible. You may use the MP3 codec for maximum compatibility or WMA for efficient storage if your DLNA media clients can handle WMA.

As well, you will have to set Windows Media Player 11 to automatically permit devices to benefit from its media library. This is done by going to “Library”, then selecting “Media Sharing” and clicking on “Settings”. The “Media Sharing – Default Settings” dialog box will open whereupon you make sure that the “Allow new devices and computers automatically” checkbox is selected.

If you don’t use any sort of ratings in your media as far as sharing is concerned, you may have to select “All ratings” in both the “Star Ratings” and “Parental Ratings” options. This will make sure all media is available for all of the devices.

Windows Media Player Sharing settings for DLNA

Windows Media Player Sharing settings for DLNA

For your pictures and videos, you will have to add the folder that contains your photos to Windows Media Player’s media library. Similarly, you will have to do this for your video folders.

Linux users have access to a large plethora of media-server software such as TwonkyMedia and TVersity as well as a large collection of open-source media-server software. You will still have to use a CD jukebox program set up to rip CDs at 320kbps MP3.

Apple and Windows users who use iTunes as their CD jukebox but will need to use either TwonkyMedia, PS3 Media Server or NullRiver MediaLink. They will need to make sure that the iTunes directory is the one to be provided by the media server. Again, iTunes will need to be set up to rip at 320kbps MP3 for best compatibility and quality. The program may support transcoding to lower bandwidth settings for use whenever music is being transferred out to an iPod.

Infact, I have written up some more detailed information about setting up an Apple Macintosh computer to work as part of a DLNA-based home media network because of the increasing popularity of these computers. The article, “UPnP AV (DLNA) for the Apple Macintosh platform”, covers other media server programs that exist for that platform.

The media server would need to be set up to work with the folders that are being used as the primary folders for music, photo and video storage.  I have explained how to go about this for your music, especially if you use iTunes or Windows Media Player. For your photos and videos, you simply add the folders used by your photo management and video management software to store your images.

As well, if you, a friend or associate uses SkyDrive, Dropbox or similar cloud-based storage services to share a media collection, you may need to copy the media that you received through the sharing to your media library to share them via DLNA. Similarly, images shared through the Social Web may need to be downloaded from the service to your media folder.

The DLNA media-server programs typically index music files according to artist, album, track, genre, and some may support separate identification of composers, contributing artists (important for soundtracks and compilation albums) and other metadata for pictures and videos. Some, like TwonkyMedia, allow for alphabetical clustering and other efficient sorting arrangements. This is typically because UPnP AV / DLNA allows for the server to determine how it presents the library to the client devices.

As far as playlists are concerned, they will typically be listed in a “Playlists” collection with each playlist being its own collection in that tree. By having a playlist as a collection of tracks rather than a reference to a playlist file, it means that the media clients don’t have to be compatible with the playlist file format that the jukebox program works with.

Some of the media servers like Windows Media Player 11 or TwonkyMedia support transcoding to common file formats for situations where a DLNA media client cannot handle a particular media type. This can come in handy for file types like WMA or high-definition audio files which aren’t handled by all UPnP AV media players.

Setting up the DLNA clients

Enrolling the DLNA clients in to your network

You will need to make your DLNA media client become part of the network. This can be a simple task of plugging it in to your Ethernet network segment or into your HomePlug powerline network segment using a HomePlug-Ethernet bridge.

Integrating wireless-enabled DLNA clients to the wireless network

If you are connecting your wireless-enabled DLNA media client to the WiFi network, you will need to configure it for this network. This will require you to enter the device’s setup menu and select the option pertaining to wireless network setup. Then you get the device to search for your network’s ESSID which is commonly referred to as the SSID, Network Name or something similar. Once your device has detected your wireless network, you will be prompted to enter the WEP or WPA security passphrase. At this point, enter the passphrase in to the device. These procedures will have to be done as mentioned in the “Setting up your network for DLNA media” section.

Nearly all of the recent DLNA network media clients may use a “quick set-up” method like Windows Connect Now or WPS. This will typically involve either transferring a USB memory key between a Windows XP or Vista wireless-equipped notebook computer and the device; or registering the device with the wireless router. This procedure may be as simple as pressing a “register” or WPS button on the router and the device or copying the device’s PIN number (which would be on the device itself or in a WPS setup option in the device’s setup menu) in to the wireless router’s setup menu.

If you use MAC-address filtering on your wireless router, you will need to register the DLNA media device as an “accepted” network device. This will require you to copy the device’s wireless MAC address, which will be on a sticker attached to the device itself, in to the router’s trusted MAC-address list.

Making sure the DLNA clients detect the media server

DLNA media directory provided by server PC

DLNA media directory shown on TV screen as provided by PC

You will need to make sure that the media server program is running on the PC that has the media that you are sharing. Most such programs may run a media server component as a background task while the computer is fully on but some may require the jukebox program to be running all the time. Similarly, you may bave to stop your computer going to sleep or hibernate mode under automatic control for this to work properly.

Another thing to check is the desktop firewall software. This should be set to allow the media server software outbound and inbound access to the network as a server. The Windows Firewall software that is part of all Microsoft desktop operating systems since Windows XP Service Pack 2 makes this easy by allowing immediate access to Windows Media Player or asking you if you want to allow the application to have network access. Other third-party firewalls may require the server application to be allowed Internet access by you adding the software to their application “white lists”.

DLNA collections listed as sources on the TV

DLNA content collections listed as sources on a Samsung Smart TV

You may have to select “Network Music”, “PC Music” or something similar on most network-enabled music devices like Internet radios in order to gain access to the music library that you have made available.  Then you select the “hostname” of the PC, which may be commensurate to its standard computer name or its primary owner’s name. The DLNA client will then show the media type that it can work with. You then select that type and use the controls to select the media you are interested in.  Some devices like the recent crop of Samsung Smart TVs list each DLNA server on the home network they are connected to either as a source alongside the integrated TV tuner or external connections on that device.

Summary

Once you have your network and media-server computer set up properly, you can work with providing music and other media to network media receiver devices without much hassle.

High-resolution file-based audio–a few gaps need to be filled here

Linn Klimax DS network media preamplifier

Linn Klimax DS network media preamplifier

As I saw in the Australian Audio & AV Show 2011, there has been interest in the idea of high-resolution file-based audio as a way of conveying music that is fit to play on the latest high-end amplifiers and speakers. Equipment like the Naim NDX or Linn DS series of network media players where playing 192khz 24-bit FLAC files was second nature were being exhibited there.

Lately, Sony used the Internationaler Funkaustellung 2013 trade show in Berlin to premiere a series of hard-disk media players and music systems which are about reproducing these digital-audio files, alongside digital-analogue converters and Walkman portable media players that work with the high-resolution audio files.

Some of the recordings available in this form are either copies of the high-grade studio masters associated with new recordings or remastering efforts of classic recordings like Miles Davis’s “Kind Of Blue” or Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side Of The Moon” where the reference recording was the classic open-reel mono or stereo tape or PCM-701ES / PCM-1630 videotape (a digital recording made using a PCM adaptor and videocassette recorder) that the recording studio turned out as a master. It is an attempt to raise the standard of high-grade audio recording and reproduction above what was acceptable in the late 70s and early 80s.

Typically these files are delivered as WAV waveform files or losslessly-compressed files to the FLAC or ALAC standards. In some cases, efficient lossy formats like WMA or AAC may be used for this kind of recording. The specifications for most of these “master-grade” recordings are stereo or, in a few cases, multichannel 24-bit files with 88.2, 96 or 192 khz sampling frequency.

Downsampling and conversion for less-capable equipment

Some of the setups that I saw were based on a DLNA-based home network but the problem with most of the media servers out there is that they could only work reliably with equipment that provided inherent support for the FLAC, ALAC or similar files at the high sampling frequencies. This would typically be relegated to the high-grade equipment that would serve the main lounge area and is part and parcel of the functionality offered by most network-capable home stereo systems but there is the reality that you may use cheaper equipment for casual listening such as in the kitchen, bedroom or den.

One main feature that I would like to see would be to have DLNA media servers which are supplied with network-attached-storage units support downsampling to “CD-grade” quality for the cheaper equipment such as most of the network speakers. This could be to make available a stream that is a 16-bit 44.1khz or 48khz PCM or MP3 format for this equipment. These streams are exposed and discovered according to UPnP AV standards in order to provide best-case listening according to the equipment’s capabilities.

It is something that is part of the TwonkyMedia Server software but not all NAS devices implement the software or carry through this functionality even though were as seeing a lot of these devices have the processing power of an 2009-era netbook.

As well, if these servers offer DLNA-assisted “syncing” of music files to automotive or portable devices, they could perform the downsampling to this grade during the file transfer process if the user so wishes.  This is more so as these devices become part of the home network when it comes to handling digital content.

WAV and similar PCM-grade files to carry metadata

As for the PCM-grade WAV file which is a common carrier for linear PCM audio, this doesn’t support any metadata in its current form. Of course, this format is highly cherished by people who value high-quality sound reproduction but you work around this either with a file-folder structure that represents your content or a sidecar file which carries the full metadata.

This could be helped through the implementation of the ID3v2 in-file-metadata standard for WAV and similar PCM files. Here, you avoid the need to kludge with folder structures and don’t need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to recording and replaying WAV files.

Timecode and synchronisation issues for prosumer video

The high-resolution audio file formats will be of interest to serious video hobbyists and people who make money from film or video projects. Here, recording equipment that exploits these formats will need to work with standard SMPTE time-code data in the files along with exchanging the timecode through a small network including a Wi-Fi Direct segment.

This is important as we see the “prosumer” photography and video equipment that is valued by the hobbyists, the small-time wedding / corporate videographers and community TV groups become increasingly equipped with WI-Fi networking abilities. Additionally some of the video projects encountered by these people like weddings are anchored around musically-rich content such as live music performances, religious services or reception dances and the high-resolution audio files could do justice to this music.

This has to be easy to implement for the serious video hobbyist or small-time operator who is starting to get to grips with the concept. For example, an audio-recording device connected to a mixing desk to record a presentation or wedding could serve as a time-code master while two or more cameras with on-camera audio are used to capture video but referring to that time-code signal as their time-code.

Conclusion

As we see serious hi-fi buffs, people involved with the recording and reproduction of music and video content, along with musicians and music historians become aware of these high-grade file formats for sound data, the issue of backwards compatibility and searchability of content on the network domain will become real as these formats evolve.

Feature Article–Setting up a new router

Introduction

Netgear DG834G ADSL2 wireless router

A router that is part of a full broadband service

One task that you will need to know how to do when you set up a small network for your home or business is to set up an Internet router. This may be done when you upgrade to a newer and better router, replace one that has failed or simply set up your new Internet service. You may also have to do this if you move premises and have to deal with a new Internet service provider or want to make sure that the Wi-Fi wireless network works properly.

In a lot of cases where you have a modem-router provided by your Internet Service Provider, you may find that the router is already setup for you or you may face a “wizard-driven” setup interface to help you through the setup routine.

Router Types

Broadband Router

This common type of router has an Ethernet connection and is designed to be connected to a broadband modem, typically provided by your broadband Internet service provider.

It is the type that will become increasingly relevant as more areas enable next-generation broadband and deliver the appropriate modems for the next-generation broadband technology because these will implement an Ethernet connection.

Modem Router

A modem router has an integrated broadband modem and connects directly to the broadband Internet service. This typically describes most equipment that is connected to an ADSL service or is supplied by an increasing number of residential Internet service providers.

Newer high-end modem routers may also have the ability to be connected to an external broadband modem. This is typically to cater for people who switch over to a cable Internet service or upgrade to next-generation broadband or businesses who want a highly-resilient broadband service.

Wireless Router

A router may be referred to as a “wireless router” if it is equipped with an integrated Wi-Fi wireless access point, which most of the routers sold to a lot of households are. These units may be a broadband router or a modem router as described above.

Login Parameters

A home network will typically have up to three sets of login credentials to take care of: the Device Management Password, the Internet Service credentials and the Wi-Fi Network parameters. Most consumer ISPs who supply the router for your network will prepare a card or other aide-memoire document which has these parameters on it and it is a good idea to write out a document that has these details when you set up your home network whether you were supplied with one of these cards in the first place or not.

Device Management Password

This set of credentials contains a device-determined user name and a password as the “keys” to the Web-based setup/management user interface for your router.

Internet Service credentials

This may be of importance to most ADSL services and some cable services, but they are the credentials that are determined by your Internet Service Provider when they provision (set up) your Internet service. They are not needed with most cable, mobile-broadband and next-generation Internet services.

These credentials, where applicable, are usually the same for the duration of your business relationship with your Internet service. Even if you relocate to another location serviced by the same Internet provider, these credentials will stay with you.

Wi-Fi network parameters

They represent the “Service Set ID” (SSID) which is your Wi-Fi network’s “call-sign”, and the WPA2-Personal passphrase for your home network’s Wi-Fi wireless segment if the network has one. They can be determined randomly when you first purchase your router or as part of an initial “WPS” setup routine.

Here, I would prefer to keep these credentials, especially the SSID and the WPA2-Personal passphrase constant even if you upgrade your router or set up a multiple-access-point “Extended Service Set”. If you relocate, you may choose to maintain these credentials or create new credentials for your new location.

The reason is that you avoid having to re-establish Wi-Fi connectivity to all of your portable devices if you upgrade or replace your router.

Primary Connection Classes

WAN connection

This connection, looked after by an integrated broadband modem and/or an Ethernet port that is marked “WAN” or “Internet” provides the link to a larger network that is typically your Internet service.

Multiple WAN connections

An increasing number of high-end routers, especially high-end ADSL modem routers provide two or three WAN connections. One is typically the ADSL modem or an Ethernet port while the other may be another Ethernet port for another modem or a USB peripheral port that allows you to connect a wireless-broadband modem. A lot of the routers that implement this feature will allow you to determine one of the four Ethernet ports as being a LAN port for the local network or an extra WAN connection.

Typically this is either to provide connection to a different medium like next-generation broadband, or you can use it to “gang” two or more Internet services together for increased bandwidth, load-balancing where certain data-transfer activities are sent one broadband connection while others are sent through the other broadband connection; or a fault-tolerant Internet connection where if one of the connections fails, the other connections come in to play.

LAN Connection

These connections represent the logical network or “subnet” that represents all the devices in the home network that want to benefit from the Internet connection and other network resources offered in this network.

This is represented by up to four Ethernet connections and, in most cases, a Wi-Fi wireless segment working at best to the 802.11n standard on either or both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Some newer high-performance units will work at best to the 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard on the 5GHz band.

Other LAN connections that some of the devices will offer include a USB network interface adaptor for a regular computer that doesn’t have network ability, or a HomePlug AV powerline network segment. The latter may be offered in the form of a power-supply module that integrates the HomePlug-Ethernet adaptor and is what most of the French ISPs are using for their triple-play Internet services.

Setting up your connection

Make sure your Internet access works first

When you set up your home network, use one device, preferably a regular desktop or laptop computer for the setup routine. Preferably the device should be connected to the router via a LAN Ethernet connection or Wi-Fi with “out-of-the-box” default parameters. Then you connect your broadband connection to the router, whether this involves connecting it to your broadband modem or connecting it to the DSL, cable or other service in the case of a modem router. Resist the temptation to tweak your router’s settings beyond what is actually required to achieve connection such as to harden security or improve network performance.

If your setup is based around a separate modem, switch on that modem and make sure that the SYNC and LINK lights are steady. The SYNC light or similar light indicates that the modem has effectively made a connection with the “head-end” of your service on a media level, while the LINK or INTERNET light indicates that it has established service with the provider on a logical level. Then switch on your router.

Log in to your router and visit the “WAN” or “Internet Connection” menu on the user interface. Here, set up the Internet service connections according to your service requirements. Most cable, fixed-wireless and next-generation broadband connections typically just require you to choose a DHCP connection as your connection type for residential services.

In the case of an ADSL service or other service that has login requirements, select the login or authentication method that your service uses and enter the Internet Service credentials that were determined as part of provisioning your Internet service.

You should see the “Internet” light glow steady and the “WAN” or “Internet Connection” details update with information like an IP address. This is the point of success and, to prove it, open a Webpage like a news portal in another tab or session (window) of your Web browser.

Wi-Fi wireless for best-case performance

Here, you need to set up your wireless-network segment for best-case performance.

If your router implements external antennas (aerials) such as the typical “rabbit’s ears”, make sure these are upright so they are not obfuscated by the unit itself or other computer equipment or metal furniture and fixtures. It may also be a better practice to place the router on top of a piece of furniture to assure proper Wi-Fi performance although this may not be aesthetically appealing.

The 2.4GHz band should be set for 802.11g/n or 802.11b/g/n operating mode so as to preserve compatibility with 802.11g devices but allow best performance with 802.11n devices using this band. This is because a lot of older and cheaper consumer-electronics devices use the 802.11g technology and this technology may be still used with portable devices like smartphones and tablets in order to economise on battery life.

The 5GHz band should be set for 802.11n operation because most of the devices that can work to the 5GHz band can work on the 802.11n standard.

Establishing a two-band wireless network

This leads me to talk about the dual-band wireless network which would be facilitated by most high-end performance-grade routers.

Here, I would use a separate SSID for each band. An easy way to go about this to have one band have the standard SSID while the other band has that SSID plus a band-specific prefix or suffix like BIGPOND2346 for the 2.4GHz band and BIGPOND2346-54G for the 5GHz band. This means that you can be sure which band to select from your laptop or other client device for better performance.

Choosing vacant Wi-Fi channels

You may have to select a vacant channel for your wireless network so as to avoid interfering with your neighbours’ wireless networks and to assure best performance for your network. Some routers may make this easy by implementing an auto-setup routine which looks for the channel with the least activity and tuning to that.

But you may have to use one of the many free Wi-Fi site survey tools like WiFi Analyzer for Android or MetaGeek’s inSSIDer for Windows to determine which channels are effectively vacant in your area. These programs provide a graphical view of SSIDs with relative signal strength on the 2.4GHz or 5GHz band so you can know which channels will offer greater performance.

Setting up for security

New passwords

The first job I would do with a new router after I have got the Internet connection going would be to change the device management password away from the default. This is important if manufacturers don’t assign device-management passwords that are unique to each device they sell. Here, I would determine a password that is easy to remember but hard for outsiders to guess and use some numbers and punctuation marks in the password.

As well, change the Wi-Fi network’s SSID away from the default SSID especially if it betrays the device’s brand like LINKSYS. It is important because if a device’s brand is guessed easily, hackers can take advantage of that brand’s or model’s security weaknesses to target your network.

If you are dealing with carrier-supplied equipment, you may find that the SSID may be something like the Internet service’s brand plus an apparently random number such as BIGPOND2346.

This may be a good time to personalise your Wi-Fi network such as to have it represent your business’s brand or the purpose of the network.

Most carrier-provided routers and some retail-provided routers will have a random WPA2-PSK passphrase that is unique to each unit and this will be stuck on a label attached to the underneath or back of the unit.

If your router implements WPS where it can determine the passphrase automatically, set the passphrase using the WPS push-button setup method by enrolling a Windows 7/8 laptop or Android mobile device to the network using this method. Then log in to your router’s Web user interface and go to the WPS option to set the option that “keeps” the WPS parameters the same when you use the WPS push-button setup method subsequently, then go to the wireless-network security parameters screen to record the randomly-determined passphrase for your network. This is important if you have to enroll Apple devices or other devices that don’t implement this setup method.

If you are dealing with a router that doesn’t implement WPS functionality, make up a WPA-PSK passphrase yourself and use some numbers and punctuation in that passphrase to make a secure passphrase. Record this on paper or a computer text file and transcribe it in to the router to keep a secure network.

As you change these passwords and Wi-Fi network parameters, keep a record of these details on paper in a secure place on your premises. This is useful if you have to reset your router due to network problems and reinstate network settings, you change Internet service or are setting up new Wi-Fi-capable equipment on your network.

Making sure UPnP works from the inside only

Most consumer and some small-business routers implement UPnP Internet Gateway Device functionality by default to simplify application-specific port-forwarding requirements. This is important especially for Skype, cloud-based device features and online gaming but some poorly-executed implementations have caused it to be deemed a security risk.

The main risk here is for UPnP IGD functionality to be accessible from the Internet rather than just the LAN (home network) side. This was aggravated due to Wi-Fi networks operating on manufacturer-default settings such as no passphrase or a manufacturer-default SSID and passphrase.

The risk has been mitigated through routers that are running firmware issued over the past few years as well as Wi-Fi segments that use “random-default” passphrases made easier with WPS and “random-default” SSIDs in the case of carrier-supplied hardware. But a good test to do is to visit the Rapid7 Website at this location: http://upnp-check.rapid7.com/results/91ca51deb4effcf7dcdda7f1b02571ef to make sure that you can’t use UPnP IGD functionality from the outside. If this test fails, it may be a good idea to update the firmware and/or disable UPnP functionality on the router if you aren’t using Skype, online games or similar applications.

Even if UPnP functionality is OK, it is a good idea to run a desktop firewall on your regular computers and the recent iterations of the Windows platform have this functionality integrated. This function is also integrated in to many newer desktop-security software packages which are infact worth installing on these computers. As for mobile and, increasingly, regular-computer platforms, read this article about app stores before you head on that app-store shopping spree.

IPv6

Some of you who are on an Internet Service Provider that supports IPv6 as well as having a recent high-end consumer router or small-business router equipped for IPv6 will find that you want to go to this path. This is supported in a dual-stack mode by the latest iterations of most regular and mobile operating systems and is being supported by most small-business network-capable printers.

To engage this operating mode if you know your ISP provides the functionality is a simple task. Here, you just select a checkbox on most IPv6-capable routers to enable the dual-stack IPv6 operation. This means that you have two logical networks on the same physical bearers – one with IPv6 operation and one with legacy IPv4 operation. Some of these ISPs also offer the routing between the networks so that data can reach the legacy single-stack IPv4 equipment.

What credentials you can keep constant

Upgrade or replace router,
Change Internet service – different connection type and hardware
Change Internet service – same connection type and hardware Relocate premises
– same device
Device Management Password Optional Yes Yes
Internet Service Credentials Yes No Yes if taking same service with you
Wireless Network SSID Yes Yes Optional
WPA2-Personal Passphrase Yes Yes Yes

I have prepared a “download-to-print” A4 sheet which you can print out and fill in with your router password and Wi-Fi network details. Here, you then keep this with your paper files as a reference if you need to modify your router’s settings or add equipment to your network’s wireless segment.

Conclusion

Once you have your router set up in an optimum manner, you can expect many years out of this device working as an “edge” to your network. Here, you could expect your router to last around three to five years serving as this “edge”.

Dropcam Pro launched with better optics, dual-band WiFi and Bluetooth for $199 (hands-on)

Articles

Dropcam Pro launched with better optics, dual-band WiFi and Bluetooth for $199 (hands-on)

Dropcam Pro: A Burlier Webcam To Help You Keep Watch Over Your Home | Gizmodo

My Comments

Dropcam have revised their Dropcam Pro IP-based surveillance camera and offered for US$199. But they have offered a unit that could be considered above average for a consumer-grade cloud-supported IP camera and this is brought about by a dual-band Wi-Fi network interface, the implementation of Bluetooth 4.0 technology and the use of above-average optics and audio recording techn0logy.

Most Wi-Fi-based IP cameras that connect to the home network only work to the 802.11g/n technologies that use the 2.4GHz band. But the newly-refreshed Dropcam Pro implements the dual-band Wi-Fi technology which means it can use the uncluttered 5GHz waveband.

Impressively the new Dropcam Pro implements the Bluetooth 4.0 Smart Ready technology to add a few capabilities to it. One is to be able to use the companion mobile-platform app to enrol the camera in to your small network’s Wi-Fi segment even if your router doesn’t support WPS one-touch setup. This is an alternative to the “own-access-point” setup routine where the device becomes its own access point during the setup phase.

Another bonus is that the Dropcam Pro can work with sensor devices that exploit the Bluetooth Smart profile. For that matter, Dropcam are working on expsing an application-programming interface to allow third parties to develop hardware and software that works with this camera to add a range of smarts to it.

One highly-obvious sensor application that will take advantage of Dropcam Pro’s Bluetooth Smart Ready feature would be a door sensor which uses a magnet and reed switch to alert if a door is open. Here, the Dropcam Pro could be set up to record for a few seconds to a minute in real-time when that door is open.

The optics and microphone are above avarage for this class of IP camera with an all-glass lens and a highly-sensitive condenser microphone. This will also be a bonus for the software-based ecosystem that will give the camera some extra intelligence. Even the software offers tricks familiar to those of us who watch crime dramas and spy movies where the camera can send coarse images in its stream but can allow zooming in on an area of the captured footage.

I would see this as a race to provide highly-capable IP-based video surveillance technology to the small business and home user as these technologies trickle down from equipment targeted at the larger installations.

100 Megabit bandwidth available at La Réunion

Article – French language

Bientôt un débit de 100 Mbit/s à la Réunion – DegroupNews.com

My Comments

La Réunion has raised the bar for Internet-service value through that Département Outre Mer which is located near Madagascar. The cost of Internet was previously a sore point in that island with some pretty high prices in the order of €50-€60 for full triple-play as I previously touched on.

But Zeop have raised the bar by providing a 100 Megabit bandwidth fibre-optic service to all of their customers. But a good question to raise is how much are the residents and businesses going to fork out for this service. This is an attempt to raise the bandwidth at one of these DOM territories to what is expected at France’s mainland.

France could work harder to make all of the Départements Outre Mer be “axis points” for many international telecommunications services links, whether as “on-ramps” for submarine cables or as satellite uplinks. The local governments could work harder to improve local infrastructure as well as attract startup business in these territories making the whole of France the “switched-on” country.

The competitive next-generation Internet market in France heats up further courtesy of Google

Article – French language

La fibre optique de Google pourrait arriver en France – DegroupNews.com

My Comments

Flag of FranceAs regular readers of HomeNetworking01.info know, I have been keeping tabs on the highly-competitive Internet market in mainland France a.k.a. L’Héxagone where the call for a triple play service is €25-30 for at least 20Mbps ADSL Internet service, heaps of television channels and all-you-can-eat telephone calling anywhere in France. This also is the same country with Free offering a fibre-optic next-generation broadband service with dedicated 1Gb bandwidth for €30 in some of the major cities.

Now Google, who have set the cat amongst the pigeons in Kansas City and are about to do so in some other US cities like Provo, Utah by offering fibre-optic next-generation broadband Internet service, are pitching to this highly-competitive market as their first foray outside the USA.

They are setting up registered offices in both France and Ireland and are lodging paperwork with ARCEP (France’s telecommunications regulator) to become a legitimate operator in that market. Of course, there is still a fair bit of worry about American businesses encroaching on French territory as the country claws back its industrial self but this could raise the bar further when it comes to the provision of the next-generation broadband in this lively market.

For Google, it may also be the time for them to rattle other European markets that don’t have the same lively competition as France, such as Spain and Italy. As long as we see them light the fire for competitive next-generation broadband Internet in Europe, they could then be seen of value there.

An electric kettle that uses the Wi-Fi home network to let you know it’s ready

Article

A Wi-Fi Kettle That Messages Instead of Whistling When It Boils

My Comments

We are seeing more of the so-called “app-cessories” become available for most of the household appliances that are part of our lives. These have the household appliance and other devices gain Bluetooth to a mobile device or use the home network to link to the same mobile devices or regular computers and implement an app to add the extra functionality to these appliances. It will become the way where your iOS or Android device will become crowded out with the apps that are part of the “app-cessory” trend.

Now the electric kettle or jug has bitten this trend with a base that connects to the home network via Wi-Fi. Here, the “iKettle” electric jug works with a smartphone app that and your home network to add certain functions that drop in to your lifestyle.

For example, if you like to make that cup of tea late at night while you catch up on a favourite TV show lingering on that TiVo device or “prowl around” Facebook on that iPad on the kitchen island bench, you don’t have to worry about the loud whistle that it makes when the water’s boiled waking the rest of the household up. Instead, it effectively “pages you” through your mobile device.

Similarly, you could set it to start boiling at a known time so that the water’s ready so you can make that pot of plunger coffee when you have surfaced for the day. This is achieved using the same app exposing a timer function. This function also includes the ability to set up particular temperatures such as the 95 degrees Celsius ideal for making coffee and tea; or 55 degrees Celsius  setting for water you quickly boil up for washing dishes because the water heater packed it in.

A problem that I see with the “app-cessory” concept as it is that most manufacturers can create their own islands and not allow the devices to be exposed to control and monitoring applications and setups other than their own setup. This can avoid the idea of creating environments where a device can respond to another device in a manner to create the “lifestyle mood” or assist its users. For example, having a kettle like this could interlink with a screen to guide a person with dementia through the process of making a cup of tea or similarly, if you have your kettle full before you leave home, you could have it start boiling when you enter your alarm code to disarm your house alarm as you arrive.

At least there is the flourishing concept of making a smartphone work with appliances as a lifestyle device.

Sonos’s days as the wirelessly-distributed music system are numbered courtesy of Samsung

Articles

Samsung looks to topple Sonos with launch of $399.99 Shape M7 wireless speaker | The Verge

Samsung Shape wireless audio system  | Engadget

My Comments

Bang & Olufsen had offered a few pieces of equipment that were to put Sonos on notice, in the form of a music system, a single-piece “dish” speaker and a speaker adaptor for their Beolab “design-piece” speakers, all able to work in your home network using DLNA in some way. This includes the ability for some of these devices to be controlled by any DLNA media controller app on your smartphone, tablet or computer. As well, most of the good network-capable speaker docks and wireless speakers like the Marantz Audio Consolette and the Boston Acoustics MC-200 Air are offering this same level of controllability.

But Samsung are now joining in by offering an AllShare-based music system with an optional hub that supports Bluetooth with NFC, or Wi-Fi ability as the one who can seriously place Sonos on notice. Of course the problem with these Wi-Fi-based systems is that Wi-Fi and other packet-based technologies aren’t really good with synchronous playback although there is work with Ethernet AV to improve this situation.

So most of these companies typically require the use of their own solutions to provide the synchronous playback over these small networks whether this is with a “mesh” approach as with Sony’s Party Streaming method or a dedicated hub which the speakers are linked to like what Samsung and Sonos are using. Once work is fully done to improve synchronous playback across a typical Ethernet-driven heterogenous small network, this could open up a path for these kind of systems to flourish.

This technology would have to work across a single logical network no matter the different media used on that network and if the idea is to implement it in to existing equipment, it may require firmware updates to provide a heterogenous operating environment.

Similarly, it will also be about elegant single-speaker and multiple-speaker music systems that can be controlled using a common standard like DLNA using software the either runs on a dedicated controller or software that runs on a device that works on a common regular or mobile computing platform.

RCA to deliver an Android-powered three-piece AV system

Article

RCA’s Internet Music System blends detachable Android tablet, boombox | Engadget

My Comments

RCA is intending to turn the classic 3-piece bookshelf music system design on its head by using a touchscreen tablet as the centrepice of the system’s design.

This unit has what is expected for a bookshelf music system such as a CD player, an FM broadcast-radio tuner as well as a line input for other audio devices. But it usies an Android-powered 7” dockable tablet with access to the Google Play Store as its key feature.

When you detach the tablet from this music system, it implements a Bluetooth wireless link for sending the sound to the speakers while this tablet can link to the home network via Wi-Fi wireless technology. There is also an HDMI output so that one can put images or video like those YouTube videos or Facebook or Instagram pictures on a large flat-panel display.

Installing apps like Twonky Mobile or Bubble UPnP to this music system’s tablet will allow you to play what is on the NAS using the DLNA technology while adding TuneIn Radio, Spotify or last.fm brings online music services to the music system’s speakers.

From what I see, who know who else will put up a small music system that allows for this customisability through the use of an Android tablet.