by Keith Richardson
Happy New Year! Hope your holidays were happy and heartwarming.
For three months in mid 2010, this column discussed routers and Wi-Fi at some length. My own ignorance on the subject prompted me then to quote liberally from online resources such as brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/47819.aspx which examined the latest devices and explored the differences among some of them. For more of that, please search online for updated material.
Last month, I reported on significant improvement in Shaw’s technical support in the case of my Internet connection speed blues (Find details online at todaysseniornewsmagazine.com/news/computer-chat-11/). Unfortunately, the improvement lasted only about two weeks until someone moved into our building and began using the same router channel.
At the beginning of December, we noticed that Wi-Fi connections for our laptops, iPads, and iPhones were suddenly and irritatingly intermittent. We could always reconnect for a minute or two, then the link would die. An iMac connected by ethernet cable to the DPC3825 modem-router worked fine and became my lifeline. Our “Internet problem,” clearly, lay in the wireless router part, probably the settings, of the DPC. There was a chance that the device itself was defective.
Another call to Shaw tech support led to a lesson on Wi-Fi channels and an effort to improve the DPC’s router settings to a channel that wasn’t being used by too many of our condo neighbours, most of whom are apparently using high powered Wi-Fi routers. At one point I counted 20 other networks that my computers were detecting at their full transmitting power! When the tech’s determined phone help failed to provide a solution, I asked foo a tech be sent to our home to see what could be done.
The next two paragraphs matter the most in this saga. The Shaw tech arrived (right on time), armed with an iPad and software that enabled him to check not only my modem-router, but what channels (from 1 to 11) were most in use in our building. He discerned that one channel was being used by only one other resident. He also felt that my DPC unit might be defective, so he replaced it and set up the new one for optimal performance based on his experience. He explained, however, that the Internet Service Provider (ISP)s can guarantee only the “hard-wired” (ethernet) connections to their modems; wireless is always a gamble in apartments/condos, and that Wi-Fi connection speeds will always be slower than hard wired. We should not expect the same speeds on our iPads that we get with our Macs. The age of our computers (actually the components inside them that enable Internet connection) also affects our connection speeds. And then he left: we’ve been extremely pleased with our Local Area Network (LAN) for the past two weeks. We have chosen to utilize hard wire connections for our three Macs, and Wi-Fi for iPads, iPods, and iPhones.
The next day, I visited a townhouse complex where a client was experiencing the same kind of problem with her TELUS modem-router and MacBook. It had functioned perfectly (wirelessly) at two locations in the US where she had spent much of the summer and fall, but was now displaying the same annoying intermittency we had suffered. While her husband’s wired connection to the router worked fine, her Wi-Fi connection was driving her to distraction! Not only did a call to TELUS Tech Support NOT resolve the problem, but we were told that as long as the wired connection worked, TELUS would not send out a technician to look at the problem. TELUS does not guarantee wireless connections. (Nor does Shaw, for that matter, but at least they’ll look into the problem).
Please don’t infer that I’m suggesting “TELUS is bad / Shaw is good.” Such oversimplification is foolish. I know plenty of folks who like TELUS and hate Shaw and vice versa! I’ve had effective and ineffective service from both at various times.
In the end, it turned out that the client’s situation was even more complicated than I had been aware of. I’m told that the TELUS connection box affects their Optic TV as well as their Internet. It is likely that a TELUS tech will, in the end, have to come out and untangle the mess. The bottom line, I guess, is, “Ask around. Find out what kind of service the ISPs in your area are providing, and make your own choices accordingly.” This high tech stuff requires expertise when “normal” goes haywire!
On a happier note, I’m delighted that a free Google Maps app for iOS 6 (redesigned & enhanced) has been accepted by Apple’s App store—for the iPhone at least. It’s so much better—for my needs—than Apple’s Maps app. Give Apple credit at least for being humbled enough to accept a better product from one of their main competitors!
iOS 6 for the iPhone and iPad is an important evolutionary step up from iOS 5, and I’m very happy to have it on my devices at last. My face feels so much better with its nose sewed back on….
One more curious note. Perhaps you know that Apple and Samsung have been at each other’s throats over competing mobile devices (smart phones and tablets). One might think they feel about each other as the North and South Korea seem to. Apparently not! This headline online really grabbed my attention: “Samsung exec praises Apple’s ecosystem, admits he uses their products at home.”
From the website maskable.com: “During an interview with MIT Technology Review, Samsung’s chief strategy officer Young Sohn admitted that he is a longtime user of Apple products and continues to use them at home.
“I use a Mac, actually, at home,” he said, while discussing the need for Samsung to build a better ecosystem to connect its products. “I’ve always used Mac, an iPhone, and an iPad. I also have the Galaxy. So I’m a great example.”
Sohn continued: “If you look at the strengths of Apple, in a way it’s not the product per se. It’s that consumers like their ecosystem such as iCloud. I like that my family 6,000 miles away in Korea is able to see my schedule and see all of my contacts and photos. It is sticky, but it is a proprietary architecture.”
When asked to clarify if he is still using Apple products, Sohn said, “At work I’m using Samsung devices; Apple at home, mainly because all of my systems and files are done that way. That’s sticky, you know? However, I did figure out how to sync all of my contacts and all of my schedules between the two different systems. You can do it. It’s a bit of work, but it is possible.”
Sohn, who joined Samsung in August to bolster innovation at the company, also went so far as to call Apple a “very innovative” company.
That’s pretty high praise for a competitor — especially considering that Samsung is battling Apple in courtrooms around the world and has launched a string of anti-Apple ads.
Finally, the new thinsome iMacs continued to be in short supply through December. More on them next month!