Nothing In Particular

Subjects that don't have their own home
User avatar
jack
Thermionic Monk Status
Posts: 5493
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2010 8:58 pm
Location: ɐılɐɹʇsnɐ oʇ ƃuıʌoɯ ƃuıɹǝpısuoɔ
Contact:

#9736 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by jack »

pre65 wrote: Sat Jul 28, 2018 12:58 pm Mary Berry plays drums with Rick Astley at Camp Bestival.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-44991229
No drugs or anything?
Vivitur ingenio, caetera mortis erunt
User avatar
Ray P
No idea why I do this anymore
Posts: 6294
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2007 5:18 pm
Location: Somerset

#9737 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by Ray P »

Interesting bit of audio history in the movie 'On Chesil Beach'; set in the early 1960s, the main male character visits the female's parents home and is introduced to the new stereophonic technology, which consisted of Quad '57 speakers and Quad 11/22 amps. There's a 'nice' little clip where the male character is tapping the valves.

The movie is excellent and worth catching even without the audio bit.
Sorry, I couldn't resist!
User avatar
jack
Thermionic Monk Status
Posts: 5493
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2010 8:58 pm
Location: ɐılɐɹʇsnɐ oʇ ƃuıʌoɯ ƃuıɹǝpısuoɔ
Contact:

#9738 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by jack »

Slightly fun time, long overdue...

Ditched Plus.net hosting, which was pants, and moved almost all my domains to SiteGround. Breath of fresh air. Massive company (they host over 1,000,000 domains but have excellent response times and great support).

All domains, e.g. desmith.com/.net/.org all now using LetsEncrypt free certificates (SG support LetsEncrypt directly in CPanel) - web sites now fully secured (doesn't need to be at the moment, but all done anyway), all email moved easily with the three main desmith.* domains being "equivalent" for both web access and email addresses. All email & forwarders moved too. Haven't decided what to do with desmith.me, .co, .eu & .io yet.

Made sure all code is XHTML 1.0 Transitional with no errors (by embedding the W3C Validators), except for the RevolverMaps plug-in which uses one HTML 5 tag to ensure asynchronous running. Annoying that, but out of my control.

Dropped Plus.net ADSL to my workshops too, so now using the house connectivity and bridging it to the office/workshops using Ubiquity NanoStation M5s - neat bits of kit, incredibly fast and not very expensive at all - will work up to 10km (just about enough for the garden :)). Ubiquity have some really nice hardware. Only thing I don't like is non-standard PoE... Makes a change from NetGear etc. though.

https://desmith.net/NMdS
Vivitur ingenio, caetera mortis erunt
User avatar
Mike H
Amstrad Tower of Power
Posts: 20157
Joined: Sat Oct 04, 2008 5:38 pm
Location: The Fens
Contact:

#9739 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by Mike H »

Understood possibly 40% of that. Image



In other news - bent my Ur[in]al's front disc by forgetting to take the disc lock off, driving off a camp site. Brought home by RAC yesterday. Never using a disc lock again. Albeit damaging the disc it still bent and came off, so wouldn't have stopped a thief wheeling it away (or even riding it provided he doesn't mind having just a rear brake only. Which personally I wouldn't fancy on a machine weighing 750+ lbs + rider.)

However, just by strange coincidence I happen to have a spare disc at home - how spooky is that...

Disc lock even had a bright yellow curly cord disc lock reminder stretching to the right handlebar, yet still I was oblivious. :shock:

It's all now in a bin somewhere in Wales...
 
"No matter how fast light travels it finds that the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it."
User avatar
shane
Social outcast
Posts: 3403
Joined: Sun Sep 16, 2007 12:09 pm
Location: Kept in a cool dry place.

#9740 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by shane »

jack wrote: Sun Aug 05, 2018 1:54 pm Dropped Plus.net ADSL to my workshops too, so now using the house connectivity and bridging it to the office/workshops using Ubiquity NanoStation M5s - neat bits of kit, incredibly fast and not very expensive at all - will work up to 10km (just about enough for the garden :)). Ubiquity have some really nice hardware. Only thing I don't like is non-standard PoE... Makes a change from NetGear etc. though.

https://desmith.net/NMdS
So that’s what those things are! The Rector next door installed one on her office wall a while ago pointing to its twin at the top of the church tower about 300m away.

Clever stuff...
The world looks so different after learning science. For example, trees are made of air, primarily. When they are burned, they go back to air, and in their flaming heat is released the flaming heat of the Sun which was bound in to convert air into tree.
User avatar
jack
Thermionic Monk Status
Posts: 5493
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2010 8:58 pm
Location: ɐılɐɹʇsnɐ oʇ ƃuıʌoɯ ƃuıɹǝpısuoɔ
Contact:

#9741 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by jack »

shane wrote: Wed Aug 08, 2018 4:36 pm Clever stuff...
Very importantly, we are on the top of a big hill. When lightning strikes, even if it's 100s of metres away, there's an enormous induced ground wave that can create enough of a potential difference between the house and the office (100 metres away) that if I was using a wired connection, would destroy everything connected.

I considered fibre (there's a buried alkathene pipe between the buildings), but went for a rather crappy netgear wireless bridge. That's now being replaced by the Ubiquity kit which runs at 150Mbps over up to 10km...

Another upside is all the main garden (over 1 hectare) now has WiFi...
Vivitur ingenio, caetera mortis erunt
simon
Thermionic Monk Status
Posts: 5600
Joined: Thu May 24, 2007 11:22 am
Location: People's Republic of South Yorkshire

#9742 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by simon »

On a similar but completely different note to Jack does anyone have any good recommendations for achieving good wi fi strength throughout the home?

I have a small wired network that stretches from one side if the house to the other (though the ethernet sockets are never quite where you want them!) and I've tried the modem router in a few places (limited by also having a phone socket) but can't get wi fi everywhere, and decent strength wi fi in a fair percentage of the house.

I tried a TP extender a good while back but had to set it up as a separate access point as the phones just switched from one to the other repeatedly resulting in no access at all. This isn't ideal.

Mesh wi fi seems to be the thing and deals with the continuously swapping problem, but doing some reading none of the systems seem to be universally robust and reliable. I reckon I'd probably need three or four of them to cover the whole house so not cheap either. And I'd be really annoyed if it dropped out...

Not understanding these things, is it possible to simply buy a stronger wi fi unit so 1 will cover the house? Even £200 or £300 (sharp intake of breath, but only what a mesh wi fi solution would be) might be worth it long term if it actually works and saves me a load of hassle!!!
simon
Thermionic Monk Status
Posts: 5600
Joined: Thu May 24, 2007 11:22 am
Location: People's Republic of South Yorkshire

#9743 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by simon »

Posts crossed! Is there a home sensible option, I don't need 10km range :-D
User avatar
jack
Thermionic Monk Status
Posts: 5493
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2010 8:58 pm
Location: ɐılɐɹʇsnɐ oʇ ƃuıʌoɯ ƃuıɹǝpısuoɔ
Contact:

#9744 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by jack »

I use mains borne WiFi, i.e. powerline adapters - our plasterboard is foil backed, so WiFi rarely leaves a room.

Some people hate powerline adapters as they produce quite a lot of RF "hash", but I love them 👍

https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/test-cent ... 8-3490638/

I use Devolo but they're all pretty good. Go for the ones that have both a wired and WiFi access point in same plug and also have a feed-through maibs socket so you don't lose an outlet.
Vivitur ingenio, caetera mortis erunt
User avatar
ed
retired
Posts: 5384
Joined: Thu Jun 21, 2007 4:01 pm
Location: yorkshire
Contact:

#9745 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by ed »

+1 for powerline adapters..

I've used solwise adapters since the beginning of time and never had cause to complain(they are based about 3 miles down the road from me).

The only down side is the speed issue. When I started they were 85mbps and I had 3 I think. Then I wanted to add a fourth but time had passed and the only ones available were 200 mbps...guess what, not backward compatible with the 85s so I had to buy 4 x 200mbps units.....then I wanted a fifth and the only units were 500 mbps, so, you guessed it, had to replace the lot.......

c'est la vie....progress

totally necessary though, the office is in the attic conversion so all the music is streamed from there....wifi just doesn't cut it at that distance.
There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be
User avatar
Nick
Site Admin
Posts: 15704
Joined: Sun May 06, 2007 10:20 am
Location: West Yorkshire

#9746 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by Nick »

Yep, I use a combination of WiFi and Powerline at home, not had a problem with WiFi using the latest BT hub, but I would guess using a decent netgear or TP link and finding the best place to put the router in the house would be the way to get whole house WiFi. "Jack's" post was interesting as I have been thinking of trying a pair of these:

https://www.tp-link.com/us/products/det ... PE510.html

To get WiFi down to the dog kennels for security cameras.
Whenever an honest man discovers that he's mistaken, he will either cease to be mistaken or he will cease to be honest.
simon
Thermionic Monk Status
Posts: 5600
Joined: Thu May 24, 2007 11:22 am
Location: People's Republic of South Yorkshire

#9747 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by simon »

Thanks chaps, food for thought.

I have some power line adapters, must be 10 years old, and I've reused them to get ethernet (as opposed to wi fi) to the TV box. But I get really lousy speed, even though the other power line adapter which connects to the wired net is in the same room. Even SD catchup buffers.

I can only presume the electrician wired the mains socket by the tv on a different circuit. I get similar speed whether the ethernet connection is on the downstairs ring or upstairs ring. Bum.

Anyway, back to the plot. Having read the manual for the TP Link AV1000 wi fi version I suspect that I'd either have a separate access point (so would have to manually change wi fi network which is a bind, and only what I had before with a separate access point) or if I set it up to extend the existing wi fi network I'll end up with the same problem of the phones continuously swapping between the stronger and weaker signals. Which us what mesh wi fi is supposed to handle.

Ed - I don't think you have a mobile phone to know whether this us a problem with your setup?

Nick - sounds like your foil lined walls mean it's not a problem for you either?

Oh waily waily, as an erudite gentleman of this manor might say.
User avatar
jack
Thermionic Monk Status
Posts: 5493
Joined: Wed Dec 29, 2010 8:58 pm
Location: ɐılɐɹʇsnɐ oʇ ƃuıʌoɯ ƃuıɹǝpısuoɔ
Contact:

#9748 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by jack »

All my adapters use the same SSID ("HOUSE") and it's not a problem. It's not mesh - that's very different.

Note that powerline adapters have to be plugged directly into a wall outlet, never into a socket strip, and certainly never into a strip with noise suppression 🙄

Nick - the tp-link kit you reference is almost identical to the Ubiquity stuff I use. I just like the build quality of the Ubiquity kit and prefer their management s/w.
Vivitur ingenio, caetera mortis erunt
User avatar
Ray P
No idea why I do this anymore
Posts: 6294
Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2007 5:18 pm
Location: Somerset

#9749 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by Ray P »

Powerline adaptors are great in a general domestic environment, I have several TP-Link devices, however, the 'noise' they generate ruins the sound quality of my audio system so I'm having to put in a cabled solution. I need to experiment a little more to find out the range at which they become tolerable.
Sorry, I couldn't resist!
User avatar
Nick
Site Admin
Posts: 15704
Joined: Sun May 06, 2007 10:20 am
Location: West Yorkshire

#9750 Re: Nothing In Particular

Post by Nick »

They certainly make measuring the noise floor of power supplies a problem, all you see is the burst of data at every AC zero crossing. But I have a separate network out in the sheds, so its easy to just turn that off while measuring. One day I will add some isolation and filtering to the bench supply.
Whenever an honest man discovers that he's mistaken, he will either cease to be mistaken or he will cease to be honest.
Post Reply