Archive
Wiring My Condo
Problem
I recently rearranged furniture in my condo. Doing so required me to use the wireless 802.11 G network on my iMac. I was not too thrilled with the solution; media transfers to my Tivo were extremely slow, and the connection was not as reliable as the hardwired one I had become accustomed to.
I remembered that my condo had many phone jacks throughout, so I thought I would research how my builder wired my unit, and maybe change the phone jacks to Ethernet jacks. Worse case scenario, I could at least get one 100 Mb connection from my iMac on one wall, to my Tivo under the TV on the other wall.
Solution
Turns out, the builder did a remarkably robust job with the wiring! He used Cat5 cabling and all connections went to the closet! What a blessing!
I replaced all the wall plates with new versions and terminate the cat5 cables with Ethernet keystones. I then created a small little networking area in my laundry closet. Luckily, the builder also wired the cable lines to the same location he put the phone wiring. I was able to tap into the cable line right where I terminated the Ethernet in the closet.
After some cable crimping and wall mounting I was set! My cable modem and router were hidden in my laundry closet, with hard wired Gigabit capable Ethernet jacks throughout my condo. Pretty slick! And all under $15.
Next Step: Gigabit 802.11 N router!
Formatting: Crain’s E-mail Alerts
I follow local business news very closely and Crain’s Chicago Business is an incredible source for Chicago business news. They have excellent reporting, a broad range of stories, and even a well produced daily video podcast (iTunes). However, Crain’s E-mail alerts have some opportunity for improvement. And as many of my friends and colleague know, I am a “Formatting Nazi”.
Here is a quick “1-minute” formatting improvement.
Original
Improved
The improved segment is easier to read; looking cleaner, better structured, and more professional. I made five improvements, each of which made a dramatic difference.
- Move the date below the “Top Headlines” title -> cleaner look.
- Used an Un-ordered list instead of inline, text bullets -> cleaner look.
- Decreased quantity of words in each headline -> no wrapping text.
- Standardized text sizes -> all headlines match, cleaner look.
- Used Blagojevich’s real last name, not slang -> improved professionalism.
Fixed: Windows XP Logon Logoff Loop
One of my clients caught a virus on her computer this last week. In an attempt to correct the problem, she installed Norton Antivirus 2010 before doing a full system scan using the boot disk. The first time she rebooted the computer, she got into a logon logoff loop; after entering her login information and submitting it, Windows XP would automatically logoff the account. It was at this point she contacted me and I came to help her solve the problem. [See the bottom of this post for the solution]
Fixed: LN-S4095DX Overscan
I had a problem with my Samsung LN-S4095DX cutting off the edges of the image and was able to fix it with a firmware update.
Foreign Call Center’s Inherently High Cost
© H3C Technologies Co., Limited
Last month, I spent a significant amount of time talking with representatives at two different RCN call centers; one in the Philippines, and one in the United States. I was trying to get their new invalid URL request hijacking service, also known as PoxFire, removed from my account. The situation spurred me to analyze why call centers are located in foreign countries. I also wanted to review the factors that should be considered when making the decision to export a domestic call center. After coming up with a structure that can be used to determine if a call center could successfully be exported, I applied my theory to RCN’s business model. Finally, I determined if my interactions with RCN supported my theory.
Fixed: RCN Hijacking Mistyped URLs
Late last week, I was having a problem with RCN hijacking my mistyped URLs. I was finally able to get them fixed! This post has two different distinct topics; the situation and how the problem was solved. In the near future I will post a new entry analyzing RCN’s business practices.
*Update – December 31st 2009*
I added a symptoms section and two guaranteed solutions at the bottom of this post.
ED HAYES 