Q&A: Secure that PC and Xbox Live Tips.

ok, I have been getting a bunch of PC questions about what I do/run to make my PC's run well, "Secure" (notice the " since nothing is secure.. ;-) ) and recover in the face of a disaster.

So in the spirit of the Q&A, if you have any specific questions, post them to the comments.

I will also post directions on how to make your router work better with the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, these are the same directions I use when my friends have issues and call me.

Stay Tuned....

Blazing Speed: Verizon FiOS

Now that Verizon has there new FiOS service available in my area, I had it installed. Let me tell you this is a totally different consumer Verizon, from the customer service to the Tech's it was a pleasurable experience. Shocking yes, I know.

Since I have underground wires, all new things are a bitch to get to the house... Verizon needed to run a conduit pipe to the house under the grass, under the brick flower bed and make it look nice in the garden.... Yes, I was concerned.... Before any work gets done a field engineer, arrived at my house, the kicker a day I was off and about an hour after I returned his call so far... So good. He arrives and draw a diagram of my house lot, grass, fence, flower box.. Etc... Does his little measurement procedure and then sits with me to explain how all will be run. What will be affected and how much grass with be ripped up. All and all not bad, for 30MB I will accept some dead grass (which Verizon did fix, within 2 days of the pipe run)

Now the day of the install arrives, and the Tech is on time 8:30am, I did not anticipate it going the 6 hours they alot, especially since I had the whole inside the house all ready pre wired with the Cat5e for phone and data waiting for them. Which of course they loved, easier job. So the install go smooth, installs the fiber to the house, cuts through the brick and the foundation no problem, gets the box in place, battery backup, power (which I also ran new BX and a plug for them the day before) . They do the phone switch to the new Fiber network, and cut the old copper connections away from the house. Still not problem, all the phones work, now its time to check the internet access... This is where is gets a bit off...

I did not want to use the free router they provide, a D-Link 624, I have a linksys in place, hacked with the latest Talisman firmware from Sveasoft, we do a speed test, and Fuck we are well bellow the 30mb...Grr, so the tech calls the support office to have the Line checked and make sure I am setup for the higher speed, the girl was helpful and says the account is good... So we move to the all famous Desktop Support, we tried a bunch of "optimization" setting for the network card, no dice... So I break out a nice new Wrt54GS version 4, to try a non hacked version of the hardware... BAM!!!! 30MB So I am like FUCK!!!! But I tell the tech its not his issues and sign the work order that I am happy and hey is off to head home before the snow get him.

To end this long story; its the sveasoft firmware, the PPPoE module needs work to achieve the speeds download though the upload is fine. When this is available, hopefully soon I will be back in business 100%, for now I have a 2 router config going to maximize the speed where it needs to be, and still alot me the features I hacked it for in the first place...

Either way I am happy..... ;-)

Gadget Whore: Zen Vision:M

The quest for my next Portable Digital Audio player (I refuse to say Mp3, to generic. lol) take me to the Creative Zen Vision:M. I have had her on backorder since before CES ( I wanted the black model), and to me it was worth the wait.


I was suffering with my 2gig nano, for months (it was free) between the constant conversion wma >> acc having to copies of my music (I have just shy of 160 GB 's, yes that's gigabytes) so I can sync easy, was fustrating, and a waste of disk space. So then this little lady caught my eye, I knew it was for me, but like all good things I had to wait. CES came and went with a very positive feel for the device, so I way happy.

Is is perfect, of course not nothing is, but its perfect for me due to its wide range of format support.

Video: DivX™ 4 & 55, XviD5, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG4-SP, WMV9 and Motion-JPEG
Audio: mp3, MP3, WMA (inc MS PD DRM), WAV w/ Album Art.
Photo: JPEG, BMP6, GIF6, TIFF6
FM and FM recording: Though now that Howard is on Sirius, not an issue.
Voice Recorder
USB Sorage, size is user selectable 1GB-16GB
to name a few...

I am good to go.... well atleast for now... lol

It's not as sleek as the ipod video, as a compareison about the size pf the Gen 2 Ipod but the 2.5 in screen is the same as the Ipod Video, but is more vibrant with better color depth.