The Smorgasbord

Consider this my “Vonage Review” and why we now have an “Internet Phone” as our “home phone”.

This post of part of The Smorgasbord Tech Reviews series!

I’ve been seeing (and hearing) these “whoo hoo, whoo–hoo–hoo” ads now for a few years (Vonage) and never paid much attention. A few years back we dumped the landline in our home and went “cell phone only”. I know lots of people that have done the same. Our phone bill used to be $60-$70 per month. Since it’s been gone we haven’t missed it much. What I have noticed though is that when my phone is charging (and it rings) – I don’t answer it. I miss a lot of calls. Sometimes I leave it in the car….or my coat….or my pants. There’s something to be said for just having a phone hanging on the wall in the same place each and every time you need it.

Now that I’ve had the experience of “not having a land line” for 2+ years, I started to think about the value of a “house phone”. I’m certainly never again paying $60-70 a month for that privilege since I only pay $105 per month for 3 cell phones with 1500 minutes and unlimited IM now. Well, I saw that “whoo-hoo-hoo” ad on TV a few weeks back again and it struck a chord for some reason – “$24.95 per month for unlimited calls…”. Really?? Unlimited? Like I can call anyone, anywhere for free, anywhere in the US 24 hours a day 7 days a week free? I went to their web site and that’s what it said. And it also said that you can get started for only $9.95 (which also seemed to good to be true).

Well, what I mean is you can get the “necessary equipment” for only $9.99. I never looked into Vonage much before because it seemed when it came out you needed some special kind of “internet phone” to make it work. You couldn’t use a regular phone from the store. That couldn’t be further from the truth now. With the little adapter pictured here you just plug in a regular land line phone and it works just like a copper line and your local baby bell! In fact, this little device is also a caller ID – AND (my personal favorite) it comes with a LAN out jack…meaning that once you plugin the phone and a LAN cable from your router there is an extra ethernet port on this device which basically acts as a switch. You could use it to plugin a laptop, and xbox 360 (or classic), a PC, Mac, whatever! I know, I’ve geeked out a bit on this, but I thought it was pretty cool. The only drawback to getting this device for $9.99 is the fact that it locks you into a one year contract with Vonage. Otherwise you have to pay $70-odd dollars for it. I took my chances, figuring I poured thousands into Verizon over the years anyway.

So I ordered this “internet phone adapter”, they call it the “Vonage V-Portal”, which essentially is an adapter to convert a normal phone for Internet use, a caller ID device, and a 1 port router as well. I had to pay for shipping, my first month of service, tax, and I think it was about $52 for me to get started. UPS delivered the adapter about 4 days later and I was ready to get started! We had purchased a 5.8 Ghz cordless phone with 3 cradles to use with Vonage. I had them charging 24 hours before we hooked everything up. We decided that the best place for phone the central phone unit and the vonage portal was in our living room. Luckily one of the corners of the room already had a hole in the floor, so I had already run a very long 100 foot ethernet cable from the other end of the house in the basement (ceiling) through the floor to the living room.

When I took the Vonage box out of the box it had a paper right on top that told me to turn off my router before plugging it in. So I ran downstairs and turned off my cable modem and router. Once I came back upstairs I plugged the phone into the wall, and the the vonage box. I plugged the ethernet in the vonage box, and then plugged the vonage box into the wall (the last thing). The Vonage box lit up like a Christmas tree, big orange display with a rotating globe saying “connecting”. It seems like it took about 10 minutes for it to get an IP address, configure itself, download an update from Vonate, turn off, and restart. Then the display just went to the date and time and looked like it was ready to go! I grabbed the phone and called my wife at work, and we talked for about 10 minutes. I never once could tell the difference between the Vonage Internet phone and a traditional copper land based phone line. We ran several tests where we downloaded all kinds of things while using the phone – but it never seemed to degrade the quality of the call. Maybe a different Internet connection would yield different results, but we’ve not had problems and the service is now just over one month old. Now, I don’t think much of it – it’s just like a regular land line to me.

With Vonage you can do something that’s really cool that you could never do with a land line. Vonage is portable, and it can work on any Internet connection anywhere. The unique thing about this is you can unplug the vonage adaptor, and take it and your phone with you to anywhere there’s a broadband connection and a LAN cable. Plug it in, and you’ll be able to send and receive calls just like you were at home! In fact, when your friend and family call – they won’t know that you aren’t at home! We went away for the weekend, and stayed in a motel with free wireless Internet. When we got to our room I just plugged in my Lan cable to the vonage box, and it connected quickly and it was ready to go! I made a phone call to test it, and it worked like a charm. Imagine if you had to visit your parents, or other relatives for the weekend. You could take your phone with you as long as they had broadband Internet!

Vonage has many different adapters, one of the newer ones if an Internet phone in a flash memory stick. It turns your computer or laptop into a phone on the go! You can certainly Vonage directly from Vonage.com, but let me leave you with a few eBay auctions. Since Vonage works with broadband connections (that have normal speeds), there are always people on eBay getting rid of their Vonage because they couldn’t afford broadband or they were having major connectivity problems. Grab a great Vonage deal in an eBay auction now!

[nms:vonage,8,0,0,smorgas.vonage]

Need external storage that’s extremely portable? I’ve wished for an external hard drive enclosure that’s wireless, and my wireless hdd guide will show you the in’s and out’s of what’s currently available!

This post of part of The Smorgasbord Tech Reviews series!

I’ve blogged a lot off an on about making your home entertainment network more user friend, and the gadgets that can help you get it done. Yesterday we were talking at home about the value of maybe getting a big external hard drive and hooking it up (wired) to one PC so the entire household could store their media on it. We’d maybe start it off with one big USB 2.0 external 500GB disk. You can get one new for around $120. I’ve written about the wireless USB hub and how you could connect multiple external hard drives or enclosures that way, and I’ve also posted about the value of a good network storage drive. But now they’re coming out with wireless hard drives that may start to change all of that…

What is a Wireless Hard Drive?

You have to be very careful when you’re shopping for a wireless hard drive, because devices that may appear to do the same thing may not. There are many, many flavors that may do many many different things – pay attention to what your needs are, the price, and value for the money. I’m going to show you some different kinds of wireless hard drives and enclosures:

The Iomega 33349 StorCenter has 1 Terabyte (1,000 GB) of storage and is a “Network Storage Device” – meaning you can plug it into your router or switch on your home or business network for everyone to share (without having it hooked to one dedicated computer). The StorCenter is “wireless” as well as wired, so all laptops and mobile devices can access it. Imagine having one device that could be accessed by PC’s, laptops, cell phones, PDA, iPhone, iTouch, or even your PSP or other mobile devices. There’s a price to be paid for all this technology, and it’s a little under $500 (as of this writing). You can get the latest price by following these links.

Iomega 33349 StorCenter 1 TB Wireless Gigabit Ethernet Network Storage

[nms:Iomega 33349 StorCenter,6,0,0,smorgas.storcenter]

You have some products that proclaim to be a “Wireless Media Player” like the MG-350HD HD Wireless 802.11G Media Player by Mediagate. This is just fancy hard drive enclosure – since the device comes sans hard drive. It does proclaim so pretty boasty features, like the ability to stream HD video via wireless up to 1920 x 1080p. It’s got all kinds of fancy connections, like L/R stereo out, and composite, component, and S-video out. This particular unit can stream video from an internal hard drive or a PC on the network and even has a remote control. So you can see that this unit (as a wireless hard drive) is very different in that it can be a set-top box OR a media gateway to access (from networked PC’s). Follow these links to find more out about this device.

MG-350HD HD Wireless 802.11G Media Player. By Mediagate

[nms:MG-350HD,6,0,0,smorgas.mediagate]

You might be interested in an Asus Wireless Storage Router which has an internal 250GB hard drive. It has a USB connector so you can connect other (wired) storage devices to it for sharing, and it even has the ability to download files from the Internet when your PC is turned off. The specs say you can download up to 7 bitTorrent files or 10 FTP/HTTP files simultaneously. For what it does, this wireless hard drive is a pretty good at half the price (and storage) as the StorCenter. You can get the wireless storage router through these links:

Wireless Storage Router

[nms:asus wireless storage router,6,0,0,smorgas.asus.storage]

If you a have a hard drive lying around, you might be able to stick in a wireless hard drive enclosure box and put it on your network (wirelessly) that way. You can get one pretty reasonably, but the two I found were only for 2.5″ drives. I hope we see more (and a 3.5″ version) on eBay soon:

[nms:wireless hard drive box,3,0,0,smorgas.hdd.box]

You can actually make any external hard drive enclosure wireless by using the Linksys Storage Link for USB Disk Drives. Just like many other devices Linksys makes to connect computer hardware to your home or business network, they make a Storage Link that will connect any 2 USB storage devices to your wireless local network. The thing that’s always sucked about external hard drives is that they have to be attached to a physical computer via USB to work, and then you have to access them through that computer on the network. If that computer is turned off or locked up – you can’t access those drives. With a Linksys Storage Link, you can put up to 2 USB storage devices on your network independant of all your PC’s. Just plug it into your router or hub (or switch) to work. Oh – you can even stick a flash memory stick or drive into one of the USB slots to share it on the network as well. This is not only great for file sharing, but an easy way to connect with many mobile devices!

Linksys Storage Link for USB 2.0 Disk Drives NSLU2

[nms:linksys storage link,6,0,0,smorgas.linksys.storage]

Wireless Hard Drive Auctions

Products and listings change on eBay all the time, so here’s the lastest auctions for “wireless hard drive” on eBay right now!

[nms:wireless hard drive -dell -360,6,0,0,smorgas.wireless.hdd]

Affordable Home Security can be yours with an IP Camera. It’s cheap peace of mind, a cool gadget, and easy to install diy home tech!

This post of part of The Smorgasbord Tech Reviews series!

Every now and then I see something and get a thought like – “Why don’t I have one of those…” or “that is so worth the money…”. It’s funny because as a kid I used to thumb through the cool new techie gadgets in popular science that were still years away and only in reach of those with a 6-figure salary. Now I see stuff online, or in a gadget magazine or tech catalog and I say “it’s about time they made that…” – and the prices aren’ t bad either!

Today my realization was that you can get an affordable IP camera! What is an IP camera you ask? It’s a camera that you can hookup to your network at your home or business and get live motion video. This would mainly used for surveillance as a security cam, but the “IP” in “IP camera” means you can access it via the Internet. You connect it to your network either wired or wireless (depending on the camera).

Intellinet Network Ip Camera, 550710

First I want to talk to you about the Intellinet IP Camera. It cost about $300 which is a bit high for an IP Camera, but it’s because of what it can do. This particular IP Camera has an embedded Linux operating system, flash memory, will email you “on-event”, and can stream (or upload via ftp) live motion video to a web site or PC. Once you set this up with a static IP – you can watch live motion video just by typing in the IP address in a web browser – no software of any kind required! Read the specs on that to find out the video quality, size of the flash memory, etc. I didn’t get much out of that page itself, so I moved on to other models…

Wireless G Network Security IP Camera Webcam AIC250W

This model of IP Security Webcam is Wireless! It’s VGA quality and you can view it over the web too, but the cool thing about this one is the fact that you can view up to 16 of these suckers at once (on one screen). Now that’s what I call affordable in-home security since each one is under $100!

Sony SNC-M3W Pan/Tilt IP Wireless Network Camera w/Audio

Sony has a nice Wireless Network IP Camera that looks pretty durable. You’ll pay a bit more for this one, but #1 it’s “Sony” and #2 it’s the first IP camera I’ve seen that captures audio. In addition to that – this Sony IP camera does pan and tilt (the first one’s don’t do that either). To use all of the features (like pan and zoom) you’ll need to install the Sony software to get everything to work.

SMC 802.11G Wireless IP Camera Pan

The SMC Wireless IP Camera does all the Sony model does, including record video and audio in MPEG 4. You can of course control the camera from a remote location (which does pan and zoom) and it also has motion detection. This Wireless IP Cam seems to be a good bet since it’s priced about $160 less than the Sony (currently).
Pan & Tilt IP Network Camera IR Night Vision, Video, Audio, Color, digital Zoom

This IP Network Camera is unique because in addition to the pan and tilt features, it has a color pictures, digital zoom, audio capture – but wait…..(drum roll) – it has NIGHT VISION!

Honestly – IP Camera’s have so many features that you have to figure out what you want to get out of it, and how much you want to spend. You might not need Pan and Tilt, so you might be able to get away with as $100 bargain IP camera. Then again, one that can be chained with many others in a multi-view display or the night vision could be what you need. In any event – do you homework before you buy. I should probably remind you that you can find a ton of great IP camera deals in auctions, check some ending soonest below!

[nms:ip camera,6,0,0,smorgas.ip.camera]

How much media is on your laptop or PC? I’m sure you have mp3′s, photos, and maybe even some video. Do you have a digital camcorder? Do you record video with your digital camera or cell phone? How many times have you wanted to watch or listen to something on your PC or laptop on your TV or home entertainment system?

We all can’t afford a “living room PC” – but I have a very affordable solution for you. The Hauppauge Media MVP is a wireless unit that you hook up your laptop of home PC to your high definition plasma or LCD TV, or even a regular CRT tube based television. With this <b>wireless audio video receiver</b> you can wirelessly transmit both audio and video from any laptop or PC in the house to your living room television or home entertainment system!

It works with either 802.11g wireless or 10/100 wired ethernet networks, and you can actually connect up to 24 MediaMVP units via wired connection, or 4 MediaMVP units through wireless. Each unit comes with a remote. When we want to watch some video I’ve edited or look at a slideshow I have to hookup a monitor cable and audio cables from my laptop – which is pretty awkward. I can’t hookup any of the other PC’s in my house to me living room PC currently because they’re too far away in other rooms. With this device, I can connect any laptop, notebook, or computer in the house to my living room or family room television. For the money – this device can do exactly what you need it to!

Hauppauge-Media MVP Wireless Digital Media Receiver

It seems like nearly everything has a memory card slot now, your digital camera, cell phone, laptop, PDA, portable PC – memory card slots are even now available in some car stereos, home entertainment systems, dvd players, and more! With all of these memory card slots what happens when they get dirty? I’ve had tape cleaners, record cleaners, dvd and lens cleaners, video game cleaners, but with all of my gadgets the one thing I didn’t have yet was a memory card slot cleaner.

I have a few digital camera’s that get consistent use, and I have had a few glitches and corrupted pics with the older ones. I’m ordering the card slot cleaner to make sure all the contacts are clean and that’s not my problem. The card slots on my cell phone are the ones I worry about the most because my cell is always out and about, in my car, outside, in my pocket, etc. My phone’s a couple year old now, so I’m going to keep the microSD slot clean for my 1GB card.

Here are some options for you if you’re also looking to protect your electronic gadget’s memory card slots!

Laserline Clear Connections Digital Camera Memory Card Slot Cleaner

XD Slot Cleaning Kit, 15 pieces (NRZC230E)

Norazza Incorp Memory Stick Cleaning Kit, 15 pieces C150E / NRZC150E

The average home has multiple computers and all kinds of digital photos, mp3′s, and documents that are about as organized as a bucket of slop. If you don’t get a central location to store and protect it – you are stones throw away from pissing away money and memories.

This post of part of The Smorgasbord Tech Reviews series!

Yesterday I talked about getting a wireless USB hub so you could setup some network storage away from your computer or laptop. Seemed like a pretty good idea – right? I have learned that can be both good and bad. Let’s say that your house has a mixed network of Windows and Linux – maybe even Mac? Now what? If you formatted your external drives yourself you have to figure out what common format all the external hard drives need to be for all computers to be able to seamlessly access them. Will you go NTFS? That’s kinda buggy in Linux. What about Fat32? Kind of wastes a bit of space there and not the most efficient for modern Windows machines. And since I don’t own a mac – I have no idea what format is best for that. Linux format?

That was problem #1. Problem #2 is that external drives are SINGLE drives. What does that mean? Well if you have 4 drives, and one fails – then you have three! The data on the failed drive is GONE! You are screwed (unless you were backing it up to yet another external drive). Oh – did I mention problem #3? With external drives they have to be connected to at least one computer on the network, and all the the other systems access the data THROUGH that computer. If that PC is turned off, or down, or being repaired, or out of the house (laptop) – you can’t access any of the data unless you hook the drives up to another system.

Ok – enter Network Storage. What is “network storage”? It’s a piece of hardware that you can stick on your network “standalone” – either wired or wireless, and all computers on the network can access it WITHOUT it being attached to any of the systems (it’s independant). The (better) network storage drives are platform independant, meaning that they can be accessed by Windows, Linux, or Mac computers without worrying about format at all. The better ones have their own internal processor and memory as well. In addition (the better ones) also are redundant and hot-swappable. Meaning they have multiple drives in the box, but if one goes bad you don’t lose any data and can replace the bad drive (without even turning it off). If you purchased a network storage for your home you would be purchasing a professional piece of hardware designed to store AND protect your data. Tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of files that are not only memories, but possibly important documents and hard earned money spent (multimedia files).

So now you know why it’s so important that you have network storage in your home – let me introduce you to some different options that might be right for you, whether you’re looking for a “network hard drive”, or “network external hard drive” there are many options. Imagine having network attached storage in your home or small business for a reasonable price!

The first thing I have to show you is the Buffalo Linkstation series of network storage devices. These drives let you access files remotely using DNS. They also support RAID-1 so you can mirror drives and prevent data loss (like I said earlier). You also get automated backup software with this type of device. It’s listed as being able to be used with both Mac and PC- Linux isn’t listed, but that doesn’t mean it can’t. Check with the company. These drives have some pretty good reviews. I’ll list 3 different options in this line below.

Buffalo LS250GL LinkStation Pro 250 GB Shared Network Storage

1TB Linkstation Pro Duo Nas Gbe 2X 500GB Raid 0 1 Web Access

Linkstation 500 Gb

[nms:linkstation,3,0,0,smorgas.linkstation]

The HP MediaSmart server line kind of goes against what I said earlier (accessible from multiple platforms), but that’s because it’s designed fo the new Windows Home Server operating system. Connect it to your router and install the software and you’re ready to go. All Windows PC’s on the network have to install the software. Then every can backup their pc, store files, etc. You can also create a web site where people can access your files remotely and you can share you iTunes library.

HP EX470 MediaSmart Home Server (AMD Live/ 64 Bit Sempron Processor, 500 GB Hard Drive)

HP EX475 MediaSmart Home Server (AMD Live/ 64 Bit Sempron Processor, 1 TB Hard Drive)

[nms:hp mediasmart server,3,0,0,smorgas.mediasmart]

The Netgear ReadyNAS is some serious business with 4 drive bays and four very fast drives. It’s plug and play ready baby, and it even has a nice digital screen on front of the unit telling you how much space is available. You’re going to pay some serious bucks for this one, as much as an entire computer maybe for the most expensive one, but it will probably outlast all the computers in your house. It’s a serious piece of hardware for people that are serious about preserving their digital data. You can get versions with 2 disks – 4 disks, or no disks (add your own).
Netgear RND4250 ReadyNAS NV+ 1 TB Desktop Network Storage (2x500GB)

Netgear RND4425 ReadyNAS NV+ 1 TB Desktop Network Storage (4x250GB)

Netgear RND4000-100NAS ReadyNAS NV+ 4-Bay Desktop Network Storage (No Disk)

[nms:netgear readynas,3,0,0,smorgas.readynas]

The ZyXel NSA-220 is a cool option because basically it’s just a box that you can add your own drives to. It has two drive bays and can take up to 2TB of data. It takes SATA drives and has support for RAID-1. It has a gigabit ethernet port, and you can access files remotely with a built-in FTP server. That’s a cool feature.

ZyXel NSA-220 Network Storage ApplianceUniversal Plug and Play DLNA Server streams Multimedia Easily ZyXEL s DLNA certified Media Storage Server model NSA-220 provides easy connection to other DLNA certified digital home devices. Just plug both the Media Storage Server and a DLNA compliant digital media theater on the home network, you are ready to watch all the photos and videos stored in the Server on your TV or DLNA mobile phone. The Media Storage Server brings Digital Home living into reality. Terabytes Capacity for All Your Storage Need ZyXEL Media Storage Server is a dual-bay Network Storage Appliance with capacity for all your storage need. Supports RAID 0.1 and JBOD, you can have maximum storage space up to 2 Terabytes. Enough for all the pictures you have taken. The built-in Gigabit Ethernet port and the SATA (serial ATA) supported drive bay allow high speed access to the vast data stored in the Media Storage server. It just not only benefits users from home, the built-in FTP server also allows remote access to the server with simple set up on the browser GUI. Multi-tier Data Protection Insure Your Digital Treasure The ZyXEL Media Storage Server NSA-220 gives you the best insurance policy you can find for all your digital treasure by provides multi-tier data protection: By supporting RAID 1, the server mirroring data from one hard drive to the other. Second, the innovative auto-copy one-button action helps users to backup data from thumb drive or external hard drive that plugged into the two available USB 2.0 ports. Thirdly, the included software back up all files in a designated directory from computer to the Media Storage Server automatically. The multi-tier data protection prevents the loss of thousands digital photographs with your precious memory and important documentation.

[nms:ZyXel NSA-220,3,0,0,smorgas.zyxel]

If you have a question or experience with your own network storage drive pros or cons – comment now!

The Register has this article about USB Cables that back the movie industry that caught my eye. I had forgotten that one of Windows Vista big selling points (ack!) was that it could “lock things down” at the hardware level. In other words, a video card could determine if you were watching pirated video or a purchased DVD and disallow viewing of the pirated one. It gave geeks and Linux fans one more reason to decry Windows, and Microsoft one more reason to be friendly with the big guns of the entertainment industry.

According to The Register article, the USB Implementer’s Forum is developing a USB cable that will not carry Hi-Def video unless it has the proper DRM. This proprietary technology was developed to control HDMI and DVI interfaces – just the ones I previously talked about that Vista can lock out. This is a new twist – being able to limit it through the actual cable!! So you worry about this big brother type of garbage and then you realize (like the article pointed out) – all a hacker has to do is mimic the encryption of the wire, OR make the device(s) believe that the cable is legitimate (when it’s not). There are ways around everything. Remember when you had cassette tapes in days of old, and you broke off the top tabs so your favorite mix tape couldn’t be recorded over? Then one day when you were hard up you just put a piece of scotch tape on top – and recorded right over that stuff.

Sometimes I get worried that I should be buying a lot of stuff up. I was paranoid like this both last year and the year before. I thought I should buy up a bunch of digital tv’s, and dvd players – stockpile some electronics that would very soon be littered with all kinds of “DRM” limiting my abilities to use them. There are all kinds of items at the “superstore” that won’t let you, for instance, copy a DVD to a DVD burner, or watch DVD’s from a different region. But there are tons of DRM and region free devices for sale online as well. There are lots of devices that you can get shipped directly to your house the entertainment doesn’t want you to know about.

A DRM’d cable just reminds that I want devices that do MORE and not LESS. If you’re a geek – you (like me) are probably more interested in a entertainment or media center device. Read my article about the HDD Player, you’ll be glad you did!

If you want to let us know about some cool DRM free gadgets – comment now!

I saw an ad from Newegg yesterday and came accross something I hadn’t seen before – it’s a USB Vinyl turntable under $100! Of course there are some of us (geeks) that still have turntables, and you can just take the line out and run it in a decent sound card to capture your songs and turn them into mp3′s. Or – you can buy this affordable solution to archive your old vinyl record collection quickly and efficiently.

This post of part of The Smorgasbord Tech Reviews series!

The reviews say that the software that comes with it isn’t the greatest – but if you buy Spin it Again by Acoustica it creates mp3′s flawlessly from your vinyl. Spin it again can also be used to create mp3′s from your old cassette tapes. The portable version below can even be battery powered or run from the wall adapter. I thought this was pretty cool anyway. Have you run accross some cool geekery that combines old school hardware with new technology? Comment now!

ION iPTUSB Vinyl Archiver USB turntable

ION TTUSB05 USB Turntable / Vinyl Archiver With Line Input