Cisco Valet Plus The Flip Camcorder of Routers?

You won't see the word "router" or Linksys anywhere on the box for Cisco's Valet. No, "it's the simple way to create your own wireless hotspot." It's the router for everybody else. That's the idea, anyway.

Home networking is gross. Truth. Lots of numbers, stuff that doesn't work for reasons you can't understand. Cisco, since they make a lot of routers, knows this. Which, it turns out, is a major reason they bought Pure Digital, the makers of the Flip Camera—to make their stuff easier to use. The first non Flip product of that swallowing is the Valet, and its slightly more capable upsell, the Valet Plus.

Design

Though $100 and $150, respectively, their specs aren't impressive: No dual band, 2.4GHz only, no USB ports, and you have to plop down the extra 50 bucks for the Plus to get gigabit ethernet ports. (You also get an extra antenna and boosted input/output speed.) What you do get is an approachable looking, almost Apple-like router in the case of the Valet Plus (sorry, it's true), a USB key, and 24/7 phone support, which is supposed to add up to ease of use.

The USB key that plugs into your computer's supposed to take care of all of the hard crap for you, setting everything up after you plug the Valet in. It works, actually—within a couple of minutes of plugging the key in, two wireless networks popped up, NiceCat (secured) and NiceCat-guest (unsecured, but with a browser-based password for visitors), ending the reign of generic SSIDs, with default admin passwords ready for me to noodle with.

The rub is that the Cisco Connect software that's supposed to make the Valet easy to use—you know, part of the reason you're paying $100-$150 for fairly basic routers—also comes with the more feature-packed new E Series Linksys routers. The difference is that you don't get a USB drive in the box, you get a CD with the software (which you can use to make a USB key).

Connect handles the utter basics, some better than others. For instance, guest access is really easy to set up, but when it comes to adding new devices to the network, it's not all that helpful: "Refer to the device's documentation to learn how to connect it to a wireless network, then, on the device, use the wireless settings below to connect the device to your Valet." Which, if you don't change the password it provides for you, is a mess of unmemorable gibberish, though it offers to copy it to your clipboard.

Anything beyond basic tweaks requires a deeper dive into the purple monstrosity that is the Linksys router system menu we've known and loathed for years.

Performance

But even when you're willing to get your hands dirty, some options are automated beyond your control. Notably, you can't force the Valet to make the 2.4GHz network wireless G-only or N-only. It's a mixed B/G/N network, always and forever. So, you incur a performance penalty on wireless N since you're not able to run it as a pure N network—combined with the Valet's lesser internal specs, it's noticeable when you compare transfer speeds across a network to its more capable cousin, the E3000, which was nearly twice as fast when it was placed in N-only mode on the 5GHz band (and still slightly speedier when it was set to a mixed N network on 2.4GHz, like the Valet).

It doesn't suffer for range, though, at least in the testing environment I used. Typically, we've tested routers at Brian or Jason's houses in California, where there's lots of space, and little urban wireless interference. Instead, I put the Valet and E3000 to perhaps more brutal range tests: How well they handle the interference from a massive flustercuck of wireless networks inside a NY high rise. We're talking 30 other wireless networks at any given test point. Using iStumbler, I couldn't pick up either router more than 2 floors above or below my apartment, 50 feet (horizontally) away, but at the worst point for both routers, the E3000's 2.4 GHz band managed only a 10 percent stronger signal than the Valet, despite its vastly more impressive six-antenna array. (5GHz is notably worse at penetrating walls than 2.4GHz, so the E3000's other channel didn't come into play at the fringes of the range test.)

It's an Expensive Half Solution

For a basic router, the performance in other words, is okay. It's not suited to heavy duty file swapping and streaming, like a dual-band router (things like Netflix worked just fine.) The range is pretty respectable. And it's missing basically every power feature you'd want, but that's not really the point of this router. It's supposed to be the one your mom can setup. From that perspective, though, it still doesn't really solve some key networking stumbling points:

For instance, networked storage for backups. (I know that sounds complicated, but the basic idea, backing up wirelessly, is something even technonoobs would like to be easy.) Or even fixing the Linksys router menu we've all used forever. Why not improve it too? Or, in addition to hiding everything behind an okay bit of software (which is now standard across the whole Linksys line, devaluing it a bit) why not try to explain some basic networking too, like Nikon cameras for new photographers attempt to explain concepts like aperture?

The Valet doesn't radically reinvent the router to make networking remarkably more accessible, it just makes it easier to stumble through, as long as the demands being made of it are relatively simple, too—making the $150 asking price a bit much, up front. The one feature that may justify the cost, however, is 24/7 phone support. If it's truly decent, the support could save you a night of troubleshooting with your parents.

Easy setup works pretty well

Range isn't too shabby for a basic router

24/7 phone support

Missing power features and some manual controls, like wireless network type

$150 for a basic router is expensive as all hell

[Cisco]

Linksys E3000 Still a Lot of Router

By matt buchanan

The E3000 is Cisco's new king of Linksys routers, replacing the WRT610N. It's a pretty minor upgrade to the previous simultaneous dual-band beast, with a major exception.

Price

$180 MSRP.

Models

As you'd notice if you were a router nerd, Linksys has ditched all of the old model numbers—but the same basic stratification comes into play. E3000 is the top of a pile of new routers, replacing the WRT610N. Going down the line, you've got two lesser E series routers that both run $120: the E2100L, which runs Linux out of the box for tweakage, and it has a UPnP server too. The E2000 has selectable dual-band support and gigabit ethernet. Then there's the $80 E1000, which is the new "cheap" option for wireless N.

Verdict

It's got new software that replaces the old and busted Linksys EasyLink Advisor, making it easier to setup. In fact, it shares it with Cisco's new Valet router for that's expressly designed to be easy to use. In a nutshell, it sets the router up for you, complete with a non-"please hack me and steal my internet" SSID that's secured, and lets you easily manage basics like guest access. That's a good thing.

The problem is that the actually decent interface doesn't extend to its other feature versus lesser Cisco routers (like the new Valets), which is a built-in UPnP server that lets you stream media from whatever storage you've got plugged into the USB port. UPnP is still managed by the ancient Linksys interface that's been around for years and years and years. You just try explain to a normal person who wants to stream some movies to their Xbox what the hell is going on here.

Once you do figure it out how to set up access, it works pretty well. You can add and remove files using computer's own file browser as a networked drive, and I was able to stream music to my 360 without a hitch by merely selecting the drive as an A/V source. Video, on the other hand, never worked—for some reason my Xbox never saw them, despite seeing the server clearly. And where's the iTunes server, BTW? D-Link's laws-of-nature-defying photo frame-cum-router has one.

As you can see, it's pretty solid at moving stuff around, on par with my older WRT-600N, the two generations ago version of the E3000. (A transfer of a 1.56GB file to the attached storage took 8 minutes and 45 seconds.)

As for range, typically, we've tested routers at Brian or Jason's houses in California, where there's lots of space, and little urban wireless interference. Instead, I put the E3000 (and it's family-friend cousin the Valet) to perhaps more brutal range tests: How well they handle the interference from a massive flustercuck of wireless networks inside a NY high rise. We're talking 30 other wireless networks at any given test point. Using iStumbler, I couldn't pick up either router more than 2 floors above or below my apartment, 50 feet (horizontally) away, but at the worst point for both routers, the E3000's 2.4 GHz band managed about a 10 percent stronger signal than the Valet and my WRT600N.

All in all, you're getting a solid chunk of router for the money, since you're bound to find it cheaper than the $180 official price. It's no photo-frame/NAS/BitTorrenter like D-Link's greatest, but the E3000 has a few more router-y things it doesn't, like solid simultaneous dual-band 2.4GHz and 5Ghz wireless.

And that's what it pretty much comes down to: If you need simultaneous dual band, and don't want a Time Capsule, this is probably your router.

New software makes it easier to setup

A lot of router goodness for the money

Missing iTunes server, and other perks like BitTorrent downloaders

The storage interface sucks, and makes the UPnP feature less awesome than it could be

[Cisco]

BlackBerry BIS 3.0 Upgrade Now Live

That outage you BlackBerry BIS users may have experienced last night was the March 28 BIS 3.0 upgrade happening—in real time!

Details:

- Additional language support for Basque, Catalan, Galician, Romanian
- Increased attachment compatibility for OpenDocument presentations (.odp), OpenDocument spreadsheets (.ods), OpenDocument text (.odt), OpenDocument text templates (.ott), Windows Media® Audio (.wma)
- Improved email setup flow for HTML access that will allow BlackBerry uses to "reclaim their email address if their BlackBerry Internet Service account is ever deleted."
- xHTML Support for non-Thick Clients (allows for the use of buttons, additional fonts and color controls when users access and toggle their user settings)
- Device switch revalidation
- Hosted email address passwords

The Gmail functionality alluded to in the link above are still listed as "coming soon." Probably the 28th. [BlackBerry via BGR]

Cisco sinks funding into WiMAX-supporting Grid Net, looks to ride the 'smart energy' wave

Here's an interesting one. Just days after Cisco admitted that it was killing its own internal development of WiMAX kit, the networking mainstay has sunk an undisclosed amount of cheddar into a company that holds WiMAX in the highest regard: Grid Net. Said outfit has close ties to GE, Intel, Motorola and Clearwire, all of which have also voiced support (and invested real dollars) for the next-generation wireless protocol in years past. Last we heard, Cisco was doing its best to remain "radio-agnostic," and while some may view this as flip-flopping, we view it as brilliant; it's costly to develop internally, but buying stake in a company that's already well versed in a given technology allows Cisco to keep WiMAX at arm's reach without incurring the risk associated with building within. Beyond all that, we think that Cisco's just trying to get in early on the energy management biz, particularly after the US government announced that it would be funding the distribution of loads of in-home energy monitors in the coming years. According to Grid Net, it intends to "use the proceeds from this investment to promote its real-time, all-IP, secure, reliable, extensible, end-to-end Smart Grid network infrastructure solutions," though specifics beyond that were few and far between. Verizon mentioned that it would soon be using its LTE network for all sorts of unorthodox things -- we suppose WiMAX backers are planning to allow the same.

Digg

Grid-Net

Novatel NovaDrive cloud-based unlimited storage preview

Hold onto your hats, it seems Novatel, maker of some of the finest 3G / WiFi devices has decided to stretch its legs from connectivity into the realm of data storage. Not only is the cloud-based storage accessible through their software for Windows or Apple, but they're thoughfully built a nice mobile site so your cellphone can get in on the fun. Other notables include the ability to mail files to your file server, easy online collaboration for a team, and you can even send folks links to files who don't have access to your server and track when and if they download it. NovaDrive also touts "unlimited" storage -- though, we'd bet they'll drop the fair use hammer quick if you go too wild -- for roughly $50 a year for the personal version and $150 for the team fileserver version. Not too shabby if online storage is your thing, and even if it isn't, Novadrive has a 30-day demo that won't cost you one red cent, so feel feel to give it a whirl.

T-Mobile USA staying single for now

By Tim Stevens

We've heard various rumors over the past year or so that T-Mobile USA parent Deutsche Telekom was looking for someone to look over its fledgling American wireless provider, either in the form of a partnership or an outright buyout. Now, many moons later, the company has felt compelled to set those rumors to rest -- possibly because it couldn't find any interested parties. Rene Obermann, Chairman of the Management Board at Deutsche Telekom, believes there is room for four major wireless players in the US (T-Mo is number four, currently) and asks the question: "Why can't you have penetration rates of 500 percent or 1,000 percent?" The idea here is that, as more and more devices go wireless, people are going to need more and more wireless plans to cover them. But 10 separate wireless plans per person? That sounds 'spensive.

electronista

The Wall Street Journal

Since Apple's acquisition of Quattro Wireless in January, both parties have been keeping mum on plans for Madison Avenue domination, but now MediaPost claims to know a thing or two about the newlyweds. According to the report, Apple will apparently unveil "a new personalized, mobile advertising system" which will go by the underwhelming name of "iAd" on April 7th. The article speculates that the service could be heavily focused on location-aware advertising, though that angle could hit some snags as apparently coffee-partner / arch nemesis Eric Schmidt and a little company called Google hold patents on said functionality. Of course, something that drives a wedge between these two players wouldn't exactly be a surprise at this point -- and we'd be happy if Apple doesn't cash in on those ad-supported OS ideas it's recently had.

Really, we're not surprised to hear this may be coming, as a tipster just pinged us with info that an "AdKit" reference has shown up in a special file on Apple's public "Phobos" server. This file, which is called StoreBag, provides a public XML interface into iTunes. That interface describes how applications and web browsers can "call home" to either retrieve iTunes information pages or to request that iTunes jump to a given product listing.

What you see here is a key-value pair from that file. The URL string that follows after the "adkit-product-url" key suggests that Apple is about to introduce a way to link ads with product URLs. How will this URL work exactly? It's hard to say without any further details, which are regrettably sparse on the ground, but it suggests that ad sourced product links can be used in a similar way to affiliate-driven links.

adkit-product-url
http://ax.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/adkitProduct

Not much else is known about Apple's first venture into the ad business at this stage, but Steve Jobs has allegedly told some executives that this will be "revolutionary" and "our next big thing." Frankly, we're starting to get a little concerned with just how often the folks in Cupertino are bandying around the word "revolutionary" -- but we'll hold our judgments until after this announcement happens (if it happens at all).

MacRumors

MediaPost

Franklin Wireless intros U600 WiMAX modem, R526 and R536 mobile routers

Franklin Wireless supplies modems (primarily of the CDMA variety) to a number of carriers across the Western Hemisphere, and they've introduced a handful of rather interesting new products in that vein here at CTIA this week. First up, the U600 is an EV-DO Rev. A / WiMAX hybrid USB modem with a 270-degree swiveling USB connector for those ridiculously hard-to-manage ports (ahem, Apple), integrated GPS, and zero-CD installation -- all pretty standard features these days, and we saw a Sprint-branded unit at Franklin's booth which leads us to believe we'll be seeing it at retail shortly.

Much more interesting, though, was a pair of pocketable WiFi routers -- the R526 and R536 -- that support EV-DO and EV-DO / WiMAX, respectively. Most of the units were unbranded, but we did spy an R536 done up in snow white with a Clear logo slapped up top, so you can pretty much gather that this thing will be filling a glaring hole in Clear's lineup (right now, the best you can do is a USB modem plus the Clear Spot, which is basically a branded Cradlepoint). What intrigued us about the R536 the most was the fact that it's got the functionality of an Overdrive packed into a smaller, more MiFi-esque form factor without any of the Overdrive's bells and whistles, so it'll be a great alternative as long as it performs well and has enough juice to last a couple hours off the power grid; the 3G-only R526, meanwhile, had an Ethernet jack stuck on the side, which is kind of cool in the rare event that you need to connect a WiFi-less device and you don't want to go through the hassle of installing a new driver. The R526 launches in April (with what carrier, we're not sure) -- as does the U600 -- while the R536 should start to trickle out in May.

modem internet connection with Sony Ericsson K800

Does anyone have a Sony Ericsson K800? Have not tried to use as a modem? Kalo yet, the following information on using the SE K800 phone modem. Other equipment that I use is the data cable DCU-60, while the SE PC Suite that I use is version 6.009.00.

After all the equipment ready, and SE PC Suite is installed on the laptop, connect my SE K800 with a laptop (OS Windows XP SP3), and automated PC Suite K800 SE mendetek this phone. Next go to the Tools menu and then select the Internet Connection.

Here I created manually setting appropriate connection parameters of the card I use, namely Flash Unlimited. To start the connection settings, I click Manage your connection to enter the connection settings menu. Then click the Add New Connection icon.

We follow the wizard that has been provided, let's call the first connection we will create (in the example I gave the name of Flash Unlimited), for the Country / region: Indonesia, Service provider: Telkomsel. Next we select the network we want to use (because I will be using 3G networks, so I select UMTS), do not forget to check the I want to define my Internet connection settings manually (to enter a username, password, and APN in accordance with the card).

After the username, password, and APN we fill, we then follow the wizard process in accordance with existing default, the Context ID, PDP Type, IP Address, DNS Address (if we want to use OpenDNS, or control of Google, please replace the control panel of Address ). Finally, in the Fall-back connection, please select No (do not make a backup connection settings), or Yes (if you want to make setting up connections). At this point the connection setting process is complete.

After the username, password, and APN we fill, we then follow the wizard process in accordance with existing default, the Context ID, PDP Type, IP Address, DNS Address (if we want to use OpenDNS, or control of Google, please replace the control panel of Address ). Finally, in the Fall-back connection, please select No (do not make a backup connection settings), or Yes (if you want to make setting up connections). At this point the connection setting process is complete.

After the internet connection is connected and running well, then the SE PC Suite panel will be visible connection information that is running.

As usual, I tried to test the Internet connection using Speedtest.net and Pingtest.net. Speedtest.net results obtained from the download of 14 Kbps and 16 Kbps for uploads (still below the speed of the modem Huawei E220 I have tried before). Pingtest.net own to get a D, with Packet Loss: 0%, Ping: 254 ms, and jitter: 13 ms (this value is also under usb modem Huawei E220).

Okay my friends was that information about the use of SE K800 phone as a modem, good luck and hopefully useful.

Increase Internet Connection Speed with MTU Registry Modifications

Writing this time was about tricks internet connection, only to trick this time using the software. To be able to help improve the Internet connection speed, this time we will make modifications to the registry, about the same pace with the registry modification I have ever informed.

To trick this time will dimofikasi registry that is part of MTU (Maximum Transfer Unit). By default Windows, the value of MTU is 1500 bytes, whereas the real value of the package for the internet is 1000 bytes. Greater value is not that much faster, sometimes the opposite can be made more slowly, for that we must adjust the real value of the existing default.

The steps to adjust the MTU is as follows.

We went into the Registry Editor, for which not know how, please click Start, then select Run, then type regedit. Once entered into the Registry Editor, before you start, be worthwhile to backup first (File menu, and select Export, select where we will keep it, and name the file, this file we use when we want to restore, by selecting Import) . Next please go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ System \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ Class \ NetTrans, NetTrans in this folder we will find some other folders with a 000x (x are here representing the four digits of the folder name).

Next we see the contents of each folder, if in it there is no key MaxMTU (left column), please create a new key by right-clicking the mouse on the 000x folder, then select New, String Value and name the key to MaxMTU .

If the key has been created, or the key already exists, then we edit the value of the key by right clicking on MaxMTU key and select Modify.

Change the Value data to 1002 (before change option Base with decimal), as well as the value of MaxMTU other 000x folder, we replace it with 1002.

If we have saved by pressing Ok.

To this end MTU Registry modification process is complete, and we can try to change.

Good luck and I hope useful.

Internet connection with Nokia OVI Suite

This paper continuation of the previous writings of Knowing Nokia OVI Suite. To writing this time I want to inform Nokia OVI Suite functions in terms of internet connections. Just as Nokia PC Suite is a One Touch Access to connect to the internet via a Nokia mobile phone modem, the Nokia OVI Suite also has this feature (in the example I use the Nokia E61). There are no specific names such as One Touch Access in the Nokia PC Suite, otherwise this feature can be accessed directly by clicking Connect on the Nokia OVI Suite panel (right).

Another way to access and make it their own connection settings can also be done also through the Tools menu and then select Connect to the Internet.

Next we will be given a choice how we will make connections, whether automatic setting based on the service provided, or manually by setting the parameters manually fill. Here I select the settings manually, since I use Flash card APN Unlimited with different parameters with basic Flash.

At this point setting process is complete (according to my reply relatively simpler than using the One Touch Access of Nokia PC Suite) and we can activate the connection by clicking Connect.

Internet connection is currently active can we see the main panel Nokia OVI Suite (on the right), and from here also we can cut the Internet connection by clicking Disconnect.

Temen-temen so brief information about the function of the Internet connection on the Nokia OVI Suite, good luck.

To download Nokia PC Suite can be seen in Freeware and Software Download.