The way I understand it is that the Internet Backbone network only has a few gigantic switches that connect to it. One is in or near Atlanta which is the hub city for several industries. I don't know who owns or maintains the backbone, but all those big ISP's we hear about, such as AT&T connect to those switches directly. It's not hard to imagine that companies like AT&T would have sub-networks managed by small time ISP's. One reason I can see them doing it is to get around those nasty monopoly laws. I've not seen the kind of ad to which you refer so that I don't know what they are doing in reality.
Cloud servers can be very sophisticated. When you consider who is trusting their business data to the cloud administration, you can appreciate the need for safe and secure storage with a ton of attendant services. But, it doesn't have to be that way. You can make a cloud server of your own, which is kind of what the NAS is simulating. If you had an NAS that was big enough, you could offer your neighbors shares, or storage space. That would be a way to collect subscription fees with just about no maintenance costs to you. If you really were ambitious, you can take this storage sharing idea one step further and offer shares to your local businesses. That would require a level of sophistication greater than what your neighbors would need, but it's doable for the same amount of low maintenance and cost as servicing less demanding customers. I don't know if this is what your mysterious neighbor is doing, but if you got the cash to throw into the equipment, the profits could be enormous after a certain number of clients signed up.
Smug As A Bug
Re: Smug As A Bug
I saw a huge map not to long ago that showed the major Internet trunk lines currently in use, and hundreds that are now abandoned. More than 75% of the cables spanning the ocean have been abandoned.
If I had the time and energy to learn to use a server and what was needed to make it usable by the public, I might have just done something like that. I actually considered (back in the dial-up days) of starting an ISP, after I saw how easy it was for Inlink to do. And also our BBS and Computing Club to set one up as well. But things are different now with the cable companies basically taking everything over for themselves.
If I had the time and energy to learn to use a server and what was needed to make it usable by the public, I might have just done something like that. I actually considered (back in the dial-up days) of starting an ISP, after I saw how easy it was for Inlink to do. And also our BBS and Computing Club to set one up as well. But things are different now with the cable companies basically taking everything over for themselves.
Re: Smug As A Bug
I've read were some ISP's allow (for a fee) connection by mesh networks. The mesh would be one central connection via a router/modem to the ISP and many nodes that are located in your neighbor's homes. Every home would essentially have a WiFi extender to connect to an adjacent neighbor and together your neighborhood could be one mesh connection to your ISP. The advantage is that only one connection to the Internet would serve a whole bunch of people. That connection would cost more than a single user, but is dramatically less expensive than 25 single connections, for example. The guy with the Internet connection, of course, is the administrator and must have the trust of all his neighbors. I'm not sure how popular this kind of network is, but supposedly it's not very difficult to manage. Getting your neighbors to cooperate, however, is a different story.
Simple as the mesh is there is a bit more to it than running the LAN in your house; but not much more.
Simple as the mesh is there is a bit more to it than running the LAN in your house; but not much more.
Re: Smug As A Bug
It is probably illegal to do that. Based on my experience with St. Louis County and the Electric Company.
Long before WiFi, I actually did something similar in the old Dial-Up days.
One of my Ham Radio friends showed me how to connect the other computers in my house to my computer using the Serial Ports. This way the computers without a modem could go through my computer after I did the Dial-Up.
I never really understood what he did to make it work, but it worked just fine. But we could not have more than three people on at once. No biggie, we only had two computers at the time anyhow, hi hi, My wife's and Mine! One daughter had a computer of her own, but only used it occasionally.
Debi, with her Schmartz-Fone can watch the video and sound from her aunts RING Doorbell.
My neighbor has outdoor camera's and lights on WiFi and they appear on the access point in my office, but I don't know the password to them. If I did I could have phun with him, hi hi.
Long before WiFi, I actually did something similar in the old Dial-Up days.
One of my Ham Radio friends showed me how to connect the other computers in my house to my computer using the Serial Ports. This way the computers without a modem could go through my computer after I did the Dial-Up.
I never really understood what he did to make it work, but it worked just fine. But we could not have more than three people on at once. No biggie, we only had two computers at the time anyhow, hi hi, My wife's and Mine! One daughter had a computer of her own, but only used it occasionally.
Debi, with her Schmartz-Fone can watch the video and sound from her aunts RING Doorbell.
My neighbor has outdoor camera's and lights on WiFi and they appear on the access point in my office, but I don't know the password to them. If I did I could have phun with him, hi hi.
Re: Smug As A Bug
The mesh network is legal and used for such things as hot spots in airports. There was a time when only one computer was allowed per modem but all that has changed as did the technology. The peer to peer connections via serial ports is easily duplicated with network bridges and switches but over the Ethernet instead of serial ports. What I'm talking about is all rf and suffers from the vulnerabilities all rf transmissions incur. The only reason your ISP would be concerned is due to the amount of data going over the connection point; it would exceed that which a single residence normally would use. Not all ISP's allow this, but my understanding is that a few do if you pay the price they are asking. You are simply daisy chaining a lot of subnets to a single router and not giving the cable companies any competition. They are the ones you are connecting to and would certainly appreciate the higher connection fee that goes along with this high data usage. The router expansion antennas are mounted on the house of the individual users and not on any public utility poles. There are cities which tired offering WiFi everywhere much like a public utility, but I've not seen much written about it. Apparently it didn't go over too well.
Re: Smug As A Bug
Here, if you already have Comcast, which I do, they have WiFi hot spots all around the city. Many are boxes on utility poles close to apartment complexes and shopping centers. I don't take a laptop with me anywhere so can't check how good they are.
Temp here is only up to 16 degrees, was 12 when I came up to my office, and it was only 59 up here in the office.
I've managed to get it up to 63 is all so far. And I left the two heaters on high all night too.
I have an access point here in my office, although the only thing it is used for is the Echo Dot and when I have a visitor with a laptop. The access point is hardwired to the LAN instead of being used as a repeater. And everything from my office goes through ONE Cat5e cable. It was billed as a Cat6 cable when I bought it, but it doesn't test out at that. Could be because it is 200 feet of cable with one union in it, which I hope doesn't go bad, because it is now behind the siding and up under a drywall ceiling, hi hi.
If you recall, I tried going WiFi, even added a repeater up in the attic by the air vent facing my garage. Never could get a solid signal up here. While I can pick up two neighbors at 3 and 4 bars and they are much further away. I can see a couple of further away neighbors at 1 bar.
Since I am a licensed Ham Radio Operator, I could use a 6-meter WiFi system but they are priced out of my reach by a long way. It is basically just a 6-meter repeater, so you also need a transceiver at each end, which then re-transmits on the WiFi frequency. Not even sure if that animal is still available or not. It had a write-up in CQ magazine a few years ago. It was also limited to something like 300 mbps is all.
Temp here is only up to 16 degrees, was 12 when I came up to my office, and it was only 59 up here in the office.
I've managed to get it up to 63 is all so far. And I left the two heaters on high all night too.
I have an access point here in my office, although the only thing it is used for is the Echo Dot and when I have a visitor with a laptop. The access point is hardwired to the LAN instead of being used as a repeater. And everything from my office goes through ONE Cat5e cable. It was billed as a Cat6 cable when I bought it, but it doesn't test out at that. Could be because it is 200 feet of cable with one union in it, which I hope doesn't go bad, because it is now behind the siding and up under a drywall ceiling, hi hi.
If you recall, I tried going WiFi, even added a repeater up in the attic by the air vent facing my garage. Never could get a solid signal up here. While I can pick up two neighbors at 3 and 4 bars and they are much further away. I can see a couple of further away neighbors at 1 bar.
Since I am a licensed Ham Radio Operator, I could use a 6-meter WiFi system but they are priced out of my reach by a long way. It is basically just a 6-meter repeater, so you also need a transceiver at each end, which then re-transmits on the WiFi frequency. Not even sure if that animal is still available or not. It had a write-up in CQ magazine a few years ago. It was also limited to something like 300 mbps is all.
Re: Smug As A Bug
Any WiFi NIC that I've seen is limited to 300 mbps. The WiFi 6 routers claim to be able to handle gigabytes transmission speed, but I can't say I've seen any computers that can do that. Perhaps the 5G networks for mobile phones can handle it, but that's on a different network at different frequencies than a router. I believe CAT5 wire is good up to 300' but that's only a memory from days gone by. CAT6-7 can handle higher transmission speeds but I'm not so sure about the range being any better. Regardless of how fast your network is, it can only perform as good as the worst element connected to it. So, if you have a WiFi 6 router and a 100 mbps NIC, you will not exceed the 100 megs transmission rate.
I don't think the hot spots offered by ISP's are the same as mesh networking. The hot spots are just WLAN's located in convenient places. In that case everybody is connected via a single ... hot spot. Mesh is a lot of hot spots connected together with one WLAN connection to the Internet.
Speaking of hot spots, my wife gave me an air fryer as a gift. The typical machine is dedicated to air frying technology and looks like a big crock pot. There are devices that look like small microwave ovens and typically have been sold as toaster ovens. Now and days you can get one of those square toaster overs that also has convection cooking, air frying, and conventional baking capability. That is what she got me. I know nothing about air frying and the instructions with the machine are written in six different languages. I get the same amount of information by reading any one of them, including the so called English version. I read a little about it on the Internet and the technique is quite different than any other cooking method I've been using. There are recipes for air frying as there are special recipes for convection ovens. It's all a bit of black magic and requires some experimentation to get good at it. I'm intrigued by the idea of being able to make crispy egg rolls with dry frying. They are always soggy when I nuke them in the microwave and not much better from the oven.
My gift to my wife was a wireless headphone for the television. I got Sony headphones because we have two Sony televisions and I figured I was hedging against any complications doing it that way. You would think connecting headphones to a television would be a no brainer. In theory that's the case. But, you can't believe how many different ways there are to extract audio from your television. Don't forget about the audio jacks in the cable box. Fortunately, Sony knows that even they don't stick to anything like a standard. Thus they supplied me with four different kinds of audio cables to connect to my "audio device." There are a bunch of RCA connectors on the back end of both our TV's. Some are even labeled audio L and audio R. Great. We have stereo output and the headphones are stereo. We also have a few Sony supplied cables with RCA connectors that have a standard 1/4" audio jack on one end. That's what the transmitter needs for input.
No matter what I did in the setup menu on the television, I could get no audio out of those RCA connectors on the back side. After being frustrated to the max I took the headphones and the transmitter and all the wires back to the Command and Control Center wherein my computers are located. I went to YouTube and started a track of Alice's Restaurant because I knew it was a long play. It worked. I used the cable with the !/4" connector on both ends to extract audio from my computer and input the same to the wireless transmitter. Now I knew it had to be the television.
Next I went to the second television which had an entirely different arrangement of of RCA connectors on it's backside. In this case two of them were actually labeled "Audio Out." All I got was a hum from there, but that was encouraging. I got something. It turns out the connector on the television was dirty or otherwise not functioning very well. I had to hold the plugs in place to get the audio from the headphones. Plus, I could hear audio from the television AND the headset. Hmmm
Back to #1 television. Still no audio and those RCA jacks were not actually labeled as output. Then, quite by accident, I found a 1/4" green jack on the side of the television near the power plug. Green means audio out, right? Well yes. That worked. But, doing it that way killed the audio from the television speakers. That's fine with me because I never watch the boob tube anyway. Not only did Sony change the audio connections between models of their televisions, but they also changed the way it functions. The good news is that wife is happy and I don't have to listen to loud television sounds coming from the living room. Probably also saved the cost of buying hearing aides for the wife.
I don't think the hot spots offered by ISP's are the same as mesh networking. The hot spots are just WLAN's located in convenient places. In that case everybody is connected via a single ... hot spot. Mesh is a lot of hot spots connected together with one WLAN connection to the Internet.
Speaking of hot spots, my wife gave me an air fryer as a gift. The typical machine is dedicated to air frying technology and looks like a big crock pot. There are devices that look like small microwave ovens and typically have been sold as toaster ovens. Now and days you can get one of those square toaster overs that also has convection cooking, air frying, and conventional baking capability. That is what she got me. I know nothing about air frying and the instructions with the machine are written in six different languages. I get the same amount of information by reading any one of them, including the so called English version. I read a little about it on the Internet and the technique is quite different than any other cooking method I've been using. There are recipes for air frying as there are special recipes for convection ovens. It's all a bit of black magic and requires some experimentation to get good at it. I'm intrigued by the idea of being able to make crispy egg rolls with dry frying. They are always soggy when I nuke them in the microwave and not much better from the oven.
My gift to my wife was a wireless headphone for the television. I got Sony headphones because we have two Sony televisions and I figured I was hedging against any complications doing it that way. You would think connecting headphones to a television would be a no brainer. In theory that's the case. But, you can't believe how many different ways there are to extract audio from your television. Don't forget about the audio jacks in the cable box. Fortunately, Sony knows that even they don't stick to anything like a standard. Thus they supplied me with four different kinds of audio cables to connect to my "audio device." There are a bunch of RCA connectors on the back end of both our TV's. Some are even labeled audio L and audio R. Great. We have stereo output and the headphones are stereo. We also have a few Sony supplied cables with RCA connectors that have a standard 1/4" audio jack on one end. That's what the transmitter needs for input.
No matter what I did in the setup menu on the television, I could get no audio out of those RCA connectors on the back side. After being frustrated to the max I took the headphones and the transmitter and all the wires back to the Command and Control Center wherein my computers are located. I went to YouTube and started a track of Alice's Restaurant because I knew it was a long play. It worked. I used the cable with the !/4" connector on both ends to extract audio from my computer and input the same to the wireless transmitter. Now I knew it had to be the television.
Next I went to the second television which had an entirely different arrangement of of RCA connectors on it's backside. In this case two of them were actually labeled "Audio Out." All I got was a hum from there, but that was encouraging. I got something. It turns out the connector on the television was dirty or otherwise not functioning very well. I had to hold the plugs in place to get the audio from the headphones. Plus, I could hear audio from the television AND the headset. Hmmm
Back to #1 television. Still no audio and those RCA jacks were not actually labeled as output. Then, quite by accident, I found a 1/4" green jack on the side of the television near the power plug. Green means audio out, right? Well yes. That worked. But, doing it that way killed the audio from the television speakers. That's fine with me because I never watch the boob tube anyway. Not only did Sony change the audio connections between models of their televisions, but they also changed the way it functions. The good news is that wife is happy and I don't have to listen to loud television sounds coming from the living room. Probably also saved the cost of buying hearing aides for the wife.
Re: Smug As A Bug
I do know those who use the WiFi at the restaurant, the more people who are on it, the slower the connection gets.
They used to allow something like 22 connections and now they've turned it down to only allow 8 connections at once.
I imagine there is a setting on those type of WiFi boxes to do that.
Maybe I didn't get ripped off. I thought I bought CAT6 cable when I restrung the wires before I had the siding put on. It was just a shame I had to use a connector for the two separate cables, but I made sure it was under the vinyl siding and not above the drywall ceiling, hi hi. At the time I did not know you could cut the cable ends off and solder the wires together and wrap them with heat shrink tubing, and then a sleeve over the whole cable, or I would have done it that way.
My brothers former building was over 400 feet long from the front office to the loading dock area where they handled shipping and receiving, but he had 75 ohm Ethernet cable back then too. Don't know if that is what allowed him to run such a distance.
My wife bought one of those silver boxes that look like a microwave, but it has all kinds of things it does. Air cook, rotisserie, heat bake, or a combination of heat and air cook. She likes it! Hates cleaning it up after using it though.
My wife bought Bluetooth ear buds, then she bought another set just like them, and then another set. Seems they need charged about every 3 hours if they are on all the time. She has an adapter that plugged into the line out socket that feeds to her Bluetooth ear buds, but it doesn't turn the sound off on the TV. She can turn the sound down though, but not hit mute or it turns off the line out socket too, hi hi. Oh, she also uses them with her cell phone.
I'm not a TV watcher either. Debi does tape something for us to watch together as we eat dinner, and then it goes off so we can talk for a bit.
They used to allow something like 22 connections and now they've turned it down to only allow 8 connections at once.
I imagine there is a setting on those type of WiFi boxes to do that.
Maybe I didn't get ripped off. I thought I bought CAT6 cable when I restrung the wires before I had the siding put on. It was just a shame I had to use a connector for the two separate cables, but I made sure it was under the vinyl siding and not above the drywall ceiling, hi hi. At the time I did not know you could cut the cable ends off and solder the wires together and wrap them with heat shrink tubing, and then a sleeve over the whole cable, or I would have done it that way.
My brothers former building was over 400 feet long from the front office to the loading dock area where they handled shipping and receiving, but he had 75 ohm Ethernet cable back then too. Don't know if that is what allowed him to run such a distance.
My wife bought one of those silver boxes that look like a microwave, but it has all kinds of things it does. Air cook, rotisserie, heat bake, or a combination of heat and air cook. She likes it! Hates cleaning it up after using it though.
My wife bought Bluetooth ear buds, then she bought another set just like them, and then another set. Seems they need charged about every 3 hours if they are on all the time. She has an adapter that plugged into the line out socket that feeds to her Bluetooth ear buds, but it doesn't turn the sound off on the TV. She can turn the sound down though, but not hit mute or it turns off the line out socket too, hi hi. Oh, she also uses them with her cell phone.
I'm not a TV watcher either. Debi does tape something for us to watch together as we eat dinner, and then it goes off so we can talk for a bit.
Re: Smug As A Bug
The Silver Yogi had a WiFi NIC in it at one time. I don't recall now if I passed it on to you or not. That card was a bit of an oddity for that kind of machine. Normally only portable devices would use WiFi to connect to a router, but, obviously, you can rig up any hardware for wireless. My router was no more than 8 feet away from the tower so that it was easy enough to run an Ethernet cable to it, but for some reason I've long forgotten I stuck with the WLAN for many years. I was perfectly happy with 300 mpbs, but never really did anything more exotic than YouTube. Just as I can't tell you why I put the WiFi card in the Silver Yogi, I can't tell you why I abandoned it. LOL I got myself some CAT5 cable and went into the router directly. It wasn't the quantum leap in performance I was hoping for, but it was way better than that wireless card. I never went back after that change.
The Silver Yogi also has Bluetooth capability if I recall correctly. The reason I believe it to be so is that at one time I purchased a wireless keyboard and mouse from Logitech. It was very stylish which is why I bought it. In fact I still have it stored in the basement here. The wireless keyboard ran off Bluetooth but it didn't take me too long to figure out it was a mistake. I was even less of a gamer back in those days than I am today but there was some noticeable lag when I used that Bluetooth keyboard. I complained to Logitech about it. It was the usual robotic tech support, but at one point a real human got involved. The guarantee ran for three years I believe and I was complaining to them about a year into that. The real human decided they would replace it if I send them the old one first. I could have done that if I had a spare keyboard, but I told the guy I'd be shut down without a keyboard. He made me promise to send the old one as soon as I got the replacement. Well, I went to Walmart and got something like a $20 keyboard and mouse just in case; plus it was hard wired and worked well. The replacement keyboard was not an exact duplicate because the style I had was no longer in production. They gave me an upgrade. After all that there was still a noticeable lag in response to key closures. I disabled the Bluetooth after that and switched over to gaming keyboards and mouses. Never regretted doing it. Bluetooth might have a niche in the mobile world, but like WiFi cards, it is not for desktops.
Yes all cable, even optical fiber, can be spliced. There is always in impedance mismatch when you do that but it's not nearly as bad as the mismatch cause by using connectors. Which brings up an interesting point. The rule is to avoid connectors on long runs because of the potential line loss. But, at the terminal ends the perfectly balanced line uses a connector to interface with the hardware. Guess what. There is a mismatch at that point which affects performance. Somehow that is mitigated by the connector on the other end of the cable being about the same impedance mismatch. LOL The line approaches being balanced if you load it properly, but it's never perfect.
My wife apparently has worse hearing problems than I do. That's why she wanted some headphones for the television. At bedtime she also likes to listen to the radio on which she streams Chicago stations that she likes. I tolerate it but it is difficult to fall asleep at times. Thus she started experimenting with earbuds. I guess it's not easy to sleep with those things plugged into your ears so that she abandoned them. My only experience with buds is on my Pixel clever phone. They are unique in style and came free with the phone, since I was among the first to pre-order the phone at full price. The buds are amazing as far as quality of sound goes. Mine work off the USB port on the phone but since I don't do any streaming at all, I don't use the buds. When I get a call I put it on speaker because I have a hard time understanding the caller any other way. However, I have been tempted to use the buds during a phone call just to see how well that works. Since the Android OS and now T-Mobile both filter out spam before they even ring the phone, I don't get many calls. The ones I do get are totally unpredictable. So, I think Google makes great ear buds, but I can't prove it.
The Silver Yogi also has Bluetooth capability if I recall correctly. The reason I believe it to be so is that at one time I purchased a wireless keyboard and mouse from Logitech. It was very stylish which is why I bought it. In fact I still have it stored in the basement here. The wireless keyboard ran off Bluetooth but it didn't take me too long to figure out it was a mistake. I was even less of a gamer back in those days than I am today but there was some noticeable lag when I used that Bluetooth keyboard. I complained to Logitech about it. It was the usual robotic tech support, but at one point a real human got involved. The guarantee ran for three years I believe and I was complaining to them about a year into that. The real human decided they would replace it if I send them the old one first. I could have done that if I had a spare keyboard, but I told the guy I'd be shut down without a keyboard. He made me promise to send the old one as soon as I got the replacement. Well, I went to Walmart and got something like a $20 keyboard and mouse just in case; plus it was hard wired and worked well. The replacement keyboard was not an exact duplicate because the style I had was no longer in production. They gave me an upgrade. After all that there was still a noticeable lag in response to key closures. I disabled the Bluetooth after that and switched over to gaming keyboards and mouses. Never regretted doing it. Bluetooth might have a niche in the mobile world, but like WiFi cards, it is not for desktops.
Yes all cable, even optical fiber, can be spliced. There is always in impedance mismatch when you do that but it's not nearly as bad as the mismatch cause by using connectors. Which brings up an interesting point. The rule is to avoid connectors on long runs because of the potential line loss. But, at the terminal ends the perfectly balanced line uses a connector to interface with the hardware. Guess what. There is a mismatch at that point which affects performance. Somehow that is mitigated by the connector on the other end of the cable being about the same impedance mismatch. LOL The line approaches being balanced if you load it properly, but it's never perfect.
My wife apparently has worse hearing problems than I do. That's why she wanted some headphones for the television. At bedtime she also likes to listen to the radio on which she streams Chicago stations that she likes. I tolerate it but it is difficult to fall asleep at times. Thus she started experimenting with earbuds. I guess it's not easy to sleep with those things plugged into your ears so that she abandoned them. My only experience with buds is on my Pixel clever phone. They are unique in style and came free with the phone, since I was among the first to pre-order the phone at full price. The buds are amazing as far as quality of sound goes. Mine work off the USB port on the phone but since I don't do any streaming at all, I don't use the buds. When I get a call I put it on speaker because I have a hard time understanding the caller any other way. However, I have been tempted to use the buds during a phone call just to see how well that works. Since the Android OS and now T-Mobile both filter out spam before they even ring the phone, I don't get many calls. The ones I do get are totally unpredictable. So, I think Google makes great ear buds, but I can't prove it.
Re: Smug As A Bug
Yes, the Silver Yogi has a WiFi card in it.
I tried to use it for the Echo Dot to connect to my LAN through, but never figured out a way to make that happen, which is why I bought an Access Point for up here in the office.
I don't know much about Bluetooth other than wife uses it with her cell phone.
She also uses wireless keyboard and mouse, so is keeping the battery companies yacht payments up for them.
Being a Ham and knowing I could pick up what was being typed on keyboards when my station was set up, I'm leery of anything that uses the public radio waves. But WiFi seems a bit more secure now, but I wonder if it is really.
I know on Ham Radio Coaxial cable, there is a 1 db loss for every single connector in the circuit.
So I figured it was about the same for Ethernet, and probably worse on the higher frequencies.
But I was new to LAN cabling, so didn't know what I could do with it for sure.
It wasn't until I sawed through a USB cable that went to a camera we had in the basement that I learned I didn't have to replace the whole 25 foot cable, just do a splice and it would be OK. It was, but none of the newer computers can see that old style camera I had down there. It wasn't a security camera, just the kind you could buy to set on top of your monitor. Although it never worked in that location due to the interference from the monitor itself. Worked fine if I moved it up to the window ledge though. It is recognized on Windows XP, but not on Windows 7 or higher. Probably because it had it's own driver for WinXP.
Instead of ear buds or headphones I had very nice headsets from my days of doing transcription.
My first two were only mono, but then with the last transcription unit I bought it came with a stereo headset.
But it had two separate jacks, the idea behind that set-up was so you could listen to transcription in the right ear, and monitor the telephone calls with the left ear. I bought a jack that had two mono jacks into a stereo plug for it and then I had stereo, hi hi.
Transcription headsets look more like doctors stethoscopes, and the speaker on a mono version is down where the two earpieces join in front of your chest. Pretty neat way of doing it. The stereo is similar, but has two speakers down in front of your chest.
I tried to use it for the Echo Dot to connect to my LAN through, but never figured out a way to make that happen, which is why I bought an Access Point for up here in the office.
I don't know much about Bluetooth other than wife uses it with her cell phone.
She also uses wireless keyboard and mouse, so is keeping the battery companies yacht payments up for them.
Being a Ham and knowing I could pick up what was being typed on keyboards when my station was set up, I'm leery of anything that uses the public radio waves. But WiFi seems a bit more secure now, but I wonder if it is really.
I know on Ham Radio Coaxial cable, there is a 1 db loss for every single connector in the circuit.
So I figured it was about the same for Ethernet, and probably worse on the higher frequencies.
But I was new to LAN cabling, so didn't know what I could do with it for sure.
It wasn't until I sawed through a USB cable that went to a camera we had in the basement that I learned I didn't have to replace the whole 25 foot cable, just do a splice and it would be OK. It was, but none of the newer computers can see that old style camera I had down there. It wasn't a security camera, just the kind you could buy to set on top of your monitor. Although it never worked in that location due to the interference from the monitor itself. Worked fine if I moved it up to the window ledge though. It is recognized on Windows XP, but not on Windows 7 or higher. Probably because it had it's own driver for WinXP.
Instead of ear buds or headphones I had very nice headsets from my days of doing transcription.
My first two were only mono, but then with the last transcription unit I bought it came with a stereo headset.
But it had two separate jacks, the idea behind that set-up was so you could listen to transcription in the right ear, and monitor the telephone calls with the left ear. I bought a jack that had two mono jacks into a stereo plug for it and then I had stereo, hi hi.
Transcription headsets look more like doctors stethoscopes, and the speaker on a mono version is down where the two earpieces join in front of your chest. Pretty neat way of doing it. The stereo is similar, but has two speakers down in front of your chest.
Re: Smug As A Bug
I don't recall what it is called now, but my wife bought me whatever Amazon was selling when those remote espionage monitors were first coming to market. Probably called Alexa. It was about the size of a cupcake and required a separate Ethernet line connection to the router. No doubt they figured out how to make that wireless these days, and also no doubt it's self contained. The NIC in your tower would be useless because Alexa needs a direct connection. WiFi isn't any more secure than, say, smartphones. As you noted, if it's broadcasted it's capable of being intercepted and decoded. About the only method of broadcasting that is secure would be something like spread spectrum. That technology is way too expensive for us home users. From what I understand you have the best security commonly available with your room wrapped in aluminum foil. Don't let the signal out and nobody will be able to intercept it.
Bluetooth is WiFi but on a different frequency band. WiFi is for networking and Bluetooth is for tethering. They all work off rf signals with the power and frequencies being different.
I have what they call a webcam for my tower. It's the last of its kind made by Logitech. I also have a Logitech microphone that plugs into the pink connector on most motherboards. The camera is USB and will work on any computer that has USB ports, but you do indeed need the proper drivers. The Windows drivers won't work in a Linux machine, for example. I have very little use for the camera but like it because all I need to do is unplug it from the USB port to disable it. Same with the mic. I can't do that with the clever phone nor with the laptop.
Bluetooth is WiFi but on a different frequency band. WiFi is for networking and Bluetooth is for tethering. They all work off rf signals with the power and frequencies being different.
I have what they call a webcam for my tower. It's the last of its kind made by Logitech. I also have a Logitech microphone that plugs into the pink connector on most motherboards. The camera is USB and will work on any computer that has USB ports, but you do indeed need the proper drivers. The Windows drivers won't work in a Linux machine, for example. I have very little use for the camera but like it because all I need to do is unplug it from the USB port to disable it. Same with the mic. I can't do that with the clever phone nor with the laptop.
Re: Smug As A Bug
We have two Echo devices, the first one was the Dot, which I have up here in the office now, and the other has a touch screen on it, not sure of the name of it though. Alexa is the name they gave to Big Brother listening in on our conversations, and doesn't recognize things when you ask her to do something, hi hi.
Ours work on WiFi!
That's what I have in the basement, and OLDE Logitech WebCam, Vintage only slightly newer than the Logitech ScanMan hand held 4" wide scanner, they quit writing drivers for both, hi hi.
I was looking at a WiFi security camera that needed no wires, not even power wires. It had a fairly large solar panel on the top, and a motorcycle sized battery behind the LED light array. The camera lens was a small dot in the center behind the LED light panel. I thought it was like $39.95 so picked it up, got up to the register and it came up as 239.95 so I didn't buy it. I did go back and look at the shelf again, and sure enough, what I thought was a dollar sign was the number 2 behind a line in the plastic price tag cover.
Ours work on WiFi!
That's what I have in the basement, and OLDE Logitech WebCam, Vintage only slightly newer than the Logitech ScanMan hand held 4" wide scanner, they quit writing drivers for both, hi hi.
I was looking at a WiFi security camera that needed no wires, not even power wires. It had a fairly large solar panel on the top, and a motorcycle sized battery behind the LED light array. The camera lens was a small dot in the center behind the LED light panel. I thought it was like $39.95 so picked it up, got up to the register and it came up as 239.95 so I didn't buy it. I did go back and look at the shelf again, and sure enough, what I thought was a dollar sign was the number 2 behind a line in the plastic price tag cover.
Re: Smug As A Bug
I've toyed with the idea of wiring up the house with cameras for those times when we leave the state for a few days. Most of those type systems can be rigged to use an app on a smartphone so that you can see what's happening live. I doubt that I'd ever see a burglar burgling in real time, but it would comfort me to see my house is still standing. LOL The argument against such a system is the classic one. If I can see my home from a distance of 300 miles, so can anybody else who cared to break into the system. Perhaps some of those systems are encrypted and that would be encouraging, but in order to get the app to work that alone is a monthly fee to the company selling the app. Not sure it's worth it for as often as I leave town. I am more amenable to a hard wired security system that monitors the approaches to my house from the outside. That system would need to be self-contained and not WiFi.
Re: Smug As A Bug
Apparently LoT devices are very easy to crack and get into.
I have four plug in WiFi electrical outlets designed to work with our Echo devices.
And Debi can control them from her Schmartz-fone too, hi hi.
We have three pole type lights in the TV room that are in corners behind the furniture. A royal pain to lean over furniture to turn on and off. This is why I bought this box of four plugs. They are handy because I have the three lights in a group called living room. I can turn the lights on or off individually by name, or turn all of them on and off by telling Alexa to turn on living room, or turn off living room.
Debi bought some emergency lighting bulb that look exactly like an LED replacement for a light bulb.
If the light is ON when the electric goes out, it will turn itself on.
I've been having fun with them because I figured out how they work easily enough.
They came with a socket with a push-button on off switch. Since it is just a switch, I knew if I shorted the base out by touching it with a damp thumb, I could make the light go on without using the switch hi hi.
You can only pull this trick on someone you've not pulled it on before.
Unscrew the light from the lamp, so it is off, then let someone study the lamp to see it is just an LED lamp.
And while they are not looking at me, I lick my thumb so it is wet. Then when they hand the bulb back to me, I make it go on in my hand.
You should see the look on their face when I do this, hi hi.
I have four plug in WiFi electrical outlets designed to work with our Echo devices.
And Debi can control them from her Schmartz-fone too, hi hi.
We have three pole type lights in the TV room that are in corners behind the furniture. A royal pain to lean over furniture to turn on and off. This is why I bought this box of four plugs. They are handy because I have the three lights in a group called living room. I can turn the lights on or off individually by name, or turn all of them on and off by telling Alexa to turn on living room, or turn off living room.
Debi bought some emergency lighting bulb that look exactly like an LED replacement for a light bulb.
If the light is ON when the electric goes out, it will turn itself on.
I've been having fun with them because I figured out how they work easily enough.
They came with a socket with a push-button on off switch. Since it is just a switch, I knew if I shorted the base out by touching it with a damp thumb, I could make the light go on without using the switch hi hi.
You can only pull this trick on someone you've not pulled it on before.
Unscrew the light from the lamp, so it is off, then let someone study the lamp to see it is just an LED lamp.
And while they are not looking at me, I lick my thumb so it is wet. Then when they hand the bulb back to me, I make it go on in my hand.
You should see the look on their face when I do this, hi hi.
Re: Smug As A Bug
I can tell by your brilliant light bulb story that you never lost your flare for performing magic tricks. 
IoT is about the dumbest technology available to people who love gadgets. Most of the devices that use what we call IoT perform only one task, such as lighting a bulb. But, there are things such as Internet Access Points that run on the same idea. The connection is easy to make which is why the consumer likes it. But it's just as easy for the bad guys to use as it is for the intended user. Much of the so called danger associated with IoT has to do with it's ability to rebroadcast IP addresses. Bot Nets take advantage of that capability when they launch denial of service attacks. You could be an unwitting accomplice when that happens because your device still works as you expect it to do. However, it could be attempting to connect to something other than what you expect just as well. In the case of video or control devices, all that can be put into the hands of some nefarious dudes who might want to play a joke on you, or view your surveillance video to see if you are at home or not. Some devices are password protected but many are not. Even the protected ones typically store the password in plain text in one memory location. There is no doubt about the convenience of Iot technology, but there is a lot that needs to be done by the manufacturers to protect them even half as well as they protect computers.
IoT is about the dumbest technology available to people who love gadgets. Most of the devices that use what we call IoT perform only one task, such as lighting a bulb. But, there are things such as Internet Access Points that run on the same idea. The connection is easy to make which is why the consumer likes it. But it's just as easy for the bad guys to use as it is for the intended user. Much of the so called danger associated with IoT has to do with it's ability to rebroadcast IP addresses. Bot Nets take advantage of that capability when they launch denial of service attacks. You could be an unwitting accomplice when that happens because your device still works as you expect it to do. However, it could be attempting to connect to something other than what you expect just as well. In the case of video or control devices, all that can be put into the hands of some nefarious dudes who might want to play a joke on you, or view your surveillance video to see if you are at home or not. Some devices are password protected but many are not. Even the protected ones typically store the password in plain text in one memory location. There is no doubt about the convenience of Iot technology, but there is a lot that needs to be done by the manufacturers to protect them even half as well as they protect computers.
Re: Smug As A Bug
I shouldn't admit to this, but back in the 1960's and possibly before then, many traffic lights used pulsed codes to alter their performance. They were made such that it was impossible for one way to be green while the other way was green due to the use of double throw relays. However, we learned the pulses for a few lights, and could trigger them to go from red to green, it took a few seconds because of the green light going through its yellow cycle first. It wasn't until the late 1970's and early '80's that this little trick no longer worked. Oh, and you had to get the pulses just right too!
Another thing was garage door openers. The early ones only had like 299 codes to chose from. And just like the remotes for your TVs, the service companies had a book with the codes for which serial number openers. Of course, one wouldn't know the serial number of the opener unless they had access to it. But with only 299 possible codes, it didn't take long to figure out the code for like your neighbors garage door, hi hi
Later they went to 6999 codes and then to 13,999 codes. And now they use a digitized signal, fairly unbreakable.
I don't have my ham gear set up here, but I wonder if keyboards still use the same signals as they did when they first came out with wireless keyboards. It was very easy to copy the tones and use a computer program that read those tones and converted them to the letters or keys that were typed on the keyboard.
Another thing was garage door openers. The early ones only had like 299 codes to chose from. And just like the remotes for your TVs, the service companies had a book with the codes for which serial number openers. Of course, one wouldn't know the serial number of the opener unless they had access to it. But with only 299 possible codes, it didn't take long to figure out the code for like your neighbors garage door, hi hi
Later they went to 6999 codes and then to 13,999 codes. And now they use a digitized signal, fairly unbreakable.
I don't have my ham gear set up here, but I wonder if keyboards still use the same signals as they did when they first came out with wireless keyboards. It was very easy to copy the tones and use a computer program that read those tones and converted them to the letters or keys that were typed on the keyboard.
Re: Smug As A Bug
Back in the day when you were hacking traffic control lights I recall seeing ads for devices that would do the same thing. It seemed that they would be illegal, but then I read an article in Popular Mechanics that showed how to build one of your own. I never bought one or made one to see how well it worked, but I suppose the whole system could be run on modulated rf. I figured it was all done with hard wire and cables, but I guess not. I did get my hands on what was sold as a radar detector, supposedly to warn you of any radar toting police vehicles. Those things were useless in the city because every traffic light would set them off. They might have worked on the open roads, but then I heard stories about some state troopers who would confiscate them if they saw you using one.
Likewise, in the past few years I ran into an article somewhere about how to capture the code from garage door openers and remote key systems. The range on those things is limited and you would have to be in the line of sight to intercept the signal. It takes several attempts in most cases but apparently those keyless systems are quite vulnerable. The downside is that if you have to be in the line of sight of the vehicle, you also are in the line of sight of the person who owns the car. LOL
You bring up an interesting point about keyboards. The ASCII codes are universally available, but I have no idea how they are broadcast. It's all low power and no license is required. That's about the end of my knowledge about them.
Likewise, in the past few years I ran into an article somewhere about how to capture the code from garage door openers and remote key systems. The range on those things is limited and you would have to be in the line of sight to intercept the signal. It takes several attempts in most cases but apparently those keyless systems are quite vulnerable. The downside is that if you have to be in the line of sight of the vehicle, you also are in the line of sight of the person who owns the car. LOL
You bring up an interesting point about keyboards. The ASCII codes are universally available, but I have no idea how they are broadcast. It's all low power and no license is required. That's about the end of my knowledge about them.
Re: Smug As A Bug
The Cadillac I owned for a time had a radar detector built into the rear view mirror. But by then, most of the cops were using handheld radar guns they only turned on for a split second. Unless you were lucky and they were shooting at enough cars before you got close enough for them to read you, and if the radar scanner even picked them up, which it did not half the time. I guess many were on different frequencies or something too.
I remember driving right past a pair of tri-pod mounted radar units that were on, and it did not pick up either one of them.
Both of my Blazers have an auto-programmable system for up to three garage doors.
I had all three in use in my Original Blazer, and only One in use in this Blazer.
They are easy to set up, you just hold down the button until the unit flashes, then hold up a remote key fob near it and press the button, if the flashing light changes to a solid light, it accepted the code, then it would shut off in about 15 more seconds and you could test it. I can remote start the Blazer from within 75 feet, even from inside my house or garage.
Most keyboards and meeces won't work more than about 5 or 10 feet away from the USB receiver plug, which makes people think they are safe. However, Ham's have massive antenna arrays that can pick up a super weak signal. Even those from satellites circling the earth. So the reality is, those keyboards can transmit several hundred feet, sometimes up to a quarter mile or more. But the receiver part of the system can only pick up signals from about 10 feet away.
Heck, when I was playing with computer programs to decode things like that, you wouldn't believe the number of low power signals I could pick up from around the neighborhood. Most were just things like garage door or gate openers, car unlocking signals. But many were things like Babee-Tenda devices and you could listen in on the neighbors, hi hi.
As more and more wireless things came out, some of those bands were so loaded with noise you couldn't tell one thing from another. Then of course they began switching to digital, and/or code strings which actually increased the amount of noise, but each receiver knew what to listen for.
Sorta like my Packet Radio System, listened to the 2-meter band for someones call sign, and if it heard it, it turned on their mailbox and accepted mail for them.
I remember driving right past a pair of tri-pod mounted radar units that were on, and it did not pick up either one of them.
Both of my Blazers have an auto-programmable system for up to three garage doors.
I had all three in use in my Original Blazer, and only One in use in this Blazer.
They are easy to set up, you just hold down the button until the unit flashes, then hold up a remote key fob near it and press the button, if the flashing light changes to a solid light, it accepted the code, then it would shut off in about 15 more seconds and you could test it. I can remote start the Blazer from within 75 feet, even from inside my house or garage.
Most keyboards and meeces won't work more than about 5 or 10 feet away from the USB receiver plug, which makes people think they are safe. However, Ham's have massive antenna arrays that can pick up a super weak signal. Even those from satellites circling the earth. So the reality is, those keyboards can transmit several hundred feet, sometimes up to a quarter mile or more. But the receiver part of the system can only pick up signals from about 10 feet away.
Heck, when I was playing with computer programs to decode things like that, you wouldn't believe the number of low power signals I could pick up from around the neighborhood. Most were just things like garage door or gate openers, car unlocking signals. But many were things like Babee-Tenda devices and you could listen in on the neighbors, hi hi.
As more and more wireless things came out, some of those bands were so loaded with noise you couldn't tell one thing from another. Then of course they began switching to digital, and/or code strings which actually increased the amount of noise, but each receiver knew what to listen for.
Sorta like my Packet Radio System, listened to the 2-meter band for someones call sign, and if it heard it, it turned on their mailbox and accepted mail for them.
Re: Smug As A Bug
My clever phone can see well over two dozen networks and my computer can see a lot more than that; especially the Linux systems used for penetration testing. I can't tell how far away these signals are using the equipment I have, but I understand that there are ways to pinpoint to the exact house, or close enough to it. I have little doubt that some of those routers are a half mile or more distant from me. There are websites that track devices running IoT. They have IP addresses in their database for you to explore and some of the feedback is quite interesting. Surveillance cameras are often broadcasting on the Internet and viewable by anyone with the right information/equipment. If I had the time and inclination, I'm certain I could acquire some very interesting information about my neighbors. LOL
The air is full of rf signals across the entire spectrum. It's amazing that we have not all been irradiated by now. Perhaps we have been ... and that's why the world is going crazy and attack viruses are being mutated.
The air is full of rf signals across the entire spectrum. It's amazing that we have not all been irradiated by now. Perhaps we have been ... and that's why the world is going crazy and attack viruses are being mutated.
Re: Smug As A Bug
I don't doubt that some RF frequencies are messing with our bodies in many ways.
Probably more so than all the pollution they claim is doing it.
The Ham Shack store back home, had some much newer receivers than I had, and some of them had displays that showed the signal strength of signals on both sides of the band you were on. Made it quick to jump around to see who was producing those strong signals. Seems like many of the super strong signals were on the government owned bands also, but you couldn't make heads nor tails out of what was being transmitted.
They have some very complicated equipment, that is sorta like trunking, since the signal bounces from one frequency to another, but not on anything a normal trunking scanner could follow.
And it is all scrambled on top of that too.
Back when I had the BIG Satellite Dish in my yard for the TV, I often tapped into it with my Ham Receivers to see what else was out there. Seems every satellite in orbit is sending something back to earth at regular intervals. And I'm talking about the high orbit satellites, not the low orbit they use now for Dish TV Reception. I had a lot of fun with that Big Dish until they scrambled all the TV channels, hi hi.
Probably more so than all the pollution they claim is doing it.
The Ham Shack store back home, had some much newer receivers than I had, and some of them had displays that showed the signal strength of signals on both sides of the band you were on. Made it quick to jump around to see who was producing those strong signals. Seems like many of the super strong signals were on the government owned bands also, but you couldn't make heads nor tails out of what was being transmitted.
They have some very complicated equipment, that is sorta like trunking, since the signal bounces from one frequency to another, but not on anything a normal trunking scanner could follow.
And it is all scrambled on top of that too.
Back when I had the BIG Satellite Dish in my yard for the TV, I often tapped into it with my Ham Receivers to see what else was out there. Seems every satellite in orbit is sending something back to earth at regular intervals. And I'm talking about the high orbit satellites, not the low orbit they use now for Dish TV Reception. I had a lot of fun with that Big Dish until they scrambled all the TV channels, hi hi.