Now you may be sitting with your d-link or netgear, or even linksys router thinking ‘my router works fine’; but most likely, you are incorrect; either your resetting it too often, or the firewall menu is frustratingly limited or difficult to navigat, or maby the router itself is just not fast enough to route the traffic that your bringing in making it a bottleneck in your network speeds.

This guide will take you through what router to get, and then, what to do with it. I will go over specific firewall configurations in greater detail in another article.

Routers you can get:

-Linksys WRT-54GL; note the L at the end of that; nothing else will really do if you need to buy a brand new router, its the only one made by linksys (now cisco systems) that has enough memory to load the biggest custom firmwares.

-Buffalo WHR-HP-G54; note, this router may not be available in the US for much longer due to lawsuit.

You may be asking ‘what about my wireless-N buzzword d-link obscenity that costs $400?’, I hate to burst your bubble, but it’s likely crap and does not deliver the stable performance of either of the above routers.

So you buy one of those routers, and notice immediately that it is in fact working better, but the interface is still crap, and torrents still do weird things, and perhaps you’ve got a laptop on the top floor and the router is in the basement and if you could just get say 15 feet more range on 4 bars of connection everything would be great. Well your in luck, one of the big benefits of those routers is the ability to load customer firmware onto them. (Other routers support this too, but don’t have the excellent cost/performance of the above two).

Here are the sites for routers that support custom firmware:

http://wiki.openwrt.org/TableOfHardware - openwrt supported devices

http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices - dd-wrt supported devices

http://www.polarcloud.com/tomato - tomato supported devices.

If you don’t know why I listed three different compatibility charts, then you are only interested in the tomato supported devices.

Basically there are three major distributions of custom firmware (custom firmware is a linux based router operating system; replacing the restrictive operating system that’s on the router and replacing it with one that has features like ‘increase wireless signal strength’ and ‘change clock rate of CPU’ )

Installing custom firmware is easy and relatively painless, just got the site in question, download the firmware for the router in question, go to the routers interface, and select ‘update’ then select the firmware file that you downloaded. Click update, and your router will soon restart into the new firmware. Be VERY sure to do this through an Ethernet interface on a stable computer, and not over wireless; if the connection breaks part way through there is a chance that you will break the router, repairing from this is not nearly as easy as simply installing the custom firmware.

Security: Ok, you now have some snazzy custom firmware and are experincing untold levels of reliability and speed. But you want your neighbors to stop mooching over your wireless connection and want to make sure that your fancy new linux machine (since that’s what the custom firmware turns a router into) does not get hacked and turned into some botnet hacking the united states department of national defense

1- Put a password on your router, use a good one, like T2pOs5E notice how it uses upper and lowercase letters AND numbers interchangeably- write this down somewhere- on paper; a sticky note on the side of your monitor is fine, you want to secure your traffic against outside influence, anyone already seated at your computer who wants to compromise your router can reset the password by doing a hard reset on it.

2- Secure your wireless; there are only two options for wireless security, turn it off, or use WPA2 with TKIP and AES coupled with a strong password like above (but not the SAME as above)

Firewall :

So you have a beautifully stable, secure router; but you’d like to use torrents and not have all of them complain that you don’t have your ports open. This is a simple setup to get e-donkey and utorrent working on your machine.

First- click on start->run type ‘cmd’ and then type ‘ipconfig’- note the result; there should be a number along the lines of ‘192.168.<something>.<something>’ write that number down, your about to need it.

Go to the router’s firewall configuration page; and you want to make something simmilar to below:

Those open ports are in order:

1-Utorrent’s range of ports

2-E-donkey

3- KAD

I could go into more details with any of these setup tips, but to do so would ruin having an article that basically anyone could follow, there are dozens of resources out there for further configuration options, but the above setup will get you going to a world of routing with very few pickups and random drops, and having to reset your router every X period of time.

He claims that one of his goals for the New Years will be to purge his apartment of cigarettes, sctoch and fatty foods so he can live a healthier life. I think this demonstrates how easy it is for those of us in the tech community to lose sight of health and other lifestyle issues, even for those of us with a bit of medical knowledge.

Om Malik is the founder and senoir writer for Giga Omni Media’s network of sites - which proclaims it’s one of the leading daily online news reads in the emerging technology market place. Prior to founding Omni media, Om was a senior writer for Business 2.0 magazine where he covered telecom and broadband stories. He has also worked at Red Herring and other prestigious journals such as the Wall Street Journal.

If you would like to send Om your best wishes please leave him a message on his site.From everyone here at the newly launched Techezy website we wish you the best Om, and we’re huge fans. Hopefully we’ll be reading more from you real soon!

Background (Brief): Windows uses a sharing technology called SMB, SAMBA is a linux package that emulates SMB shares; if you want to share your folders over both linux and windows directories you’re going to want a SAMBA running.

Ubuntu actually makes this relatively easy, but leaves out a critical detail that can really upset you.   First, find the folder you’d like to share, right click on it, and go ’share’.Now here is where things will get complicated fast; so I’ll keep it as simple as possible.

WARNING: this is absolutely positively NOT secure; only do this for a public write directory inside your own network, never impliment this on sensitive information

Go to /etc/samba/smb.confadd/edit the following lines:hosts allow = 127. 192.168.  (if you know your internal network address you can specify the third octet here, otherwise ‘192.168.’ will at least give you some semblance of security)security = shareguest account = <your user account, IE the name you log in with>At the very bottom of your page there will be the new share you created earlier by right clicking; make sure the following options are on:

read only = no

available  yes

browsabel = yes

writeabel = yes

guest ok = yes

public = yes

ok; one last step, you must TURN ON samba, UBUNTU does not do this by default.pull up the shell (applications->accessories->terminal) and type the followingsudo /etc/init.d/samba startand samba starts, however it will only do this THIS TIME, it will not do it every boot.If you want this to be enabeled after every startup do the following:go to system->administration->servicesFind SAMBA (folder sharing(samba))Put a check mark beside it; and just to make sure go to proporties and make sure that there is a start in runlevel 5 and that it has the same priority of any stops proceeding it.There you can now share folders; unfortunately that was far too complex.

Vonage Canada

No Canadian voip provider review would be complete without at least a mention to the Grand-daddy all Voip providers, Vonage. Vonage has been operating in Canada since 2004, and in the US since 2001. With over 2,000,000 customers in North America they are clearly the largest non-cable VOIP service provider in Canada.

Rates:

If you’re looking for affordable, Vonage will disappoint. It is not the cheapest nor does it offer the most features. Below is a list of the Residential plans that Vonage offers:

As per the typical way Canadians get treated, Vonage Canada is actually more expensive then Vonage US. The Unlimited plan in the US only costs $24.99, but you have to be a US Resident with a valid US credit card to be able to apply for Vonage US. Although the premium unlimited plan is more expensive then the Basic plan, the plan might be worth it for people who frequently call the US or Europe. Vonage is one of the few VOIP providers who allow unlimited calls to Europe as part of their unlimited plan. Although not all European countries are included, Italy, France, Spain the UK and Ireland are.

The pros of using Vonage is that it’s a large company and thus you can purchase their ATAs or VOIP adaptors directly from retail stores like Best Buy and Futureshop, and they hopefully won’t fold up overnight. Unfortunately using Vonage does not come without its downsides. Some people have complained that it’s not possible to call some 1-800 numbers in Canada because Vonage provides an ANI that shows up as being from their office in New Jersey. This means that the 1-800 numbers detect the Vonage numbers as being from out of the country so it doesn’tt allow the calls to be completed. There is not yet any word on a fix. Another con is that Vonage has outsourced their tier 1 tech support to India and since they are overseas they have very little power to do anything. According to various complaints out in the forums they mindlessly read scripts until all criteria is satisfied and they can forward you to a higher tier of technical support.

Primus Talkbroadband

Primus is backed by a large telco, Primus Group. Their offerings are a bit more reasonable, and they have unlimited local service which Vonage lacks. Primus’ downside is that they nickel and dime you for all the extras, similar to what you would expect from the incumbent telcos. Their call quality is on par with Vonage, and in general they have pretty good support.

Hidden fees: You are charged $4/month extra if you don’t purchase the ATA or “Gateway” from Primus for a total cost of $69.95.

Pros - A lot more affordable then Vonage, and still with a large and reliable company.

Cons - Depending on calling habit all you can eat VOIP may still be more expensive then pay as you go VOIP options.

Atlasvoice (now a Division of Think simplicity)

Not a well known voip provider in Canada, but one that I have had personal experience with. Atlasvoice has plans that are a lot more reasonable then Primus or Vonage. They allow you to port your number over from your traditional telephone service provider, though they will assign you with a temporary number while you are waiting for your number to port. If you are using the service internationally and want to port from another VOIP provider, good luck. I tried to port my number both from and to Atlasvoice and didn’t have any luck. This is not just a fault with Atlasvoice, but all Canadian VOIP providers.

Call Quality: From personal experience call quality was excellent for quite some time, however before being taken over by think simplicity there was a period when Atlasvoice kept going down, and the phone was pretty much unusable. After they were taken over by Think Simplicity the service has been a lot more stable, with only one major drop out that I can remember, and that was partly my fault since they changed servers, and I was using my own device.

Pros: Allow you to BYOD (bring your own device) this is very useful since you can purchase a VOIP device that suits you, and not be forced to pay monthly rentals, or use whatever generic device they offer. However if you are scared of configuring your own device then you can also rent/purchase one of their VOIP ATAs (or VOIP adaptors). This is one of the few VOIP providers I have found that supports caller ID with name. The other small voip providers only support caller ID with number. The most important thing is that they have outgoing caller ID with name as well, again only supported by a handful of VOIP providers. Allows you to send a text message to a phone when you receive a new voice mail. Voicemail is delivered to your email, and includes the caller’s name if that information is available.

Cons: Call quality definitely not the best of the lot, prices in the middle (not the cheapest, but not the most expensive). Overall they provide an excellent service for your money.

Netfone.ca

Based out of BC Canada netfone is a small VOIP provider, but has good service and an excellent price. They support incoming caller ID with name, but not outgoing caller ID with name (only number). Their plans are really well priced, and they also do not charge taxes if you are overseas. Tech support is either via their live support panel (which I have a hard time catching them on) or via one of their many Canadian local numbers.

Call quality was on par with Atlasvoice, though they have an annoying buzzing sound just before you hear the ringing tone for the call. I have no idea why this happens, but using the same device on 5 other voip providers I do not get this sound. It must be unique to my set up with them, or some sort of problem with their set up. Either way, I’ve just learned to live with it as the call quality when calling others is perfect.
Netfone has a unique calling plan that may suit Canadians who call within Canada frequently. For only 12.95/month + taxes (if in Canada) you can call within the major cities of Canada. If you have any doubts simply follow the link and enter your number into the Free Canada calling coverage area box on the left and it will tell you if the city that you would like to call is within your free calling area.

This is the cheapest deal I have ever found for calling within Canada, especially with a local Canadian number. Netfone also support BYOD for those of you that would like this service, and if not you can rent/purchase an ATA or VOIP adaptor (same thing) from them. Their portal is pretty basic but it now allows you to enter in your credit card details (it was a pain to have to email them when your details changed) as well as allowing you to reject anonymous calls. Another thing I like about their portal is that it clearly shows you clearly your call log, including duration and the amount charged (if any).

If value for money as well as good call quality and reliability is what you are looking for the netfone.ca is your company. In the 1 year that I’ve had their service (as well as Atlasvoice and Unlimitel) I’ve never had Netfone’s service go down. Hopefully they can continue to provide good quality phone calls as well as rock bottom prices.

Unlimitel

This is my VOIP provider pick for 2007. When I had other VOIP providers I used to always have backups incase one of them went down. Though rare my experience was that it was always when you needed the phone the most, and even with a backup the price would still be less than using an incumbent phone service. Then I got Unlimitel. They have a neat little tool that you can run on a windows computer that tells you exactly what their network status is. It’s pretty much always up, except a few times when they’ve been updating the network, but even it’s usually only for a few minutes. Customer service is excellent. I’ve emailed Stephen (the owner and CEO) of the company and odd hours (cause I’m across the world, so they are regular hours for me) and he responded promptly. Any concern that I’ve ever had has been answered honestly and truthfully. Update: I have had a few rude responses from Steven, when I was quering an extra charge for a number that was supposed to be within my free calling area. Although it was for a neglibile amount, I bet you they would chase you to the ends of the Earth if you owed them even a fraction of what they owed me! Sorry Steven but you’ll have to lose a few points for customer service.

Recently Unlimitel upgraded to caller ID with name! This was the only thing holding me back from using them 100% as it’s nice to see other’s names when receiving a call. Unlimitel now supports caller ID with name, both incoming as well as outgoing. I’ve tested the feature extensively and it works well.
Call quality is the best I’ve ever had with a Canadian voip provider. I only get issues with one particular number, but all other calls are exactly like a landline. The ISP I’m using is rock solid, it’s an Annex-M ADSL 2+ connection with 21mbps downstream and 2.5mbps upstream that also gives all VOIP packets priority in their network. So any issues I have with VOIP is usually on the VOIP provider’s end as I can always double check my connection with one of my other VOIP providers. I’m happy to say that in the last year I’ve had almost zero call problems with Unlimitel.

Now the bad - they are Expensive! The charge a horrendous $18.95 a month for unlimited local calling + they charge taxes even if you are overseas (the only VOIP provider that does this). Although this charge includes all the features, such as Caller ID, voicemail to email, 3 way calling etc. it’s still up there with the bigger VOIP providers and in no way competitive with Atlasvoice or Netfone. Unfortunately though I have little choice because for me voice quality is the most important feature and they deliver on this 100%. Their website is a bit of a joke sadly, but luckily is no indication of their network quality. They currently do not have a user portal as advanced as Atlasvoice or Netfone, but I’ve been told that their working on this. These are all minor problems as far as I’m concerned because what good is a portal if your voice keeps dropping?
To save a bit of money you can also use their A la carte VOIP option. This is good for people who do not make a lot of calls. You put in a deposit of say $50, and then your balance is deducted until you top up your credit again. You only pay $2.50 per month to get a local number in the major cities ($5.50 for Cornwall, Brockville and Kingston) and then are charged a mere 1.1 cents/minute (incoming and outgoing). If you do the math $21.00 a month (including taxes) gets you over 1900 minutes! Unless you talk a lot you would probably be better off on the a la carte plan then the unlimited plan.

This is the only VOIP company where customers are consistently loyal and Ive found very few with anything bad to say about them. They support BYOD and so if you’re looking at experimenting with VOIP but are not sure that you are 100% ready to take the plug, give Stephen an email and I’m sure he will hold your hand through the process.

Notes:

Voip is not a perfect technology, it depends not only on your equipment (Modem, Router etc.) but also your ISP. If you have Rogers in Canada a lot of people have been complaining that Rogers throttles VOIP connections though I have no idea if this is true or not, before your blame the VOIP provider I would suggest trying your VOIP out on someone else’s connection - if you have a friend with Bell then plug in your VOIP box there.

Here’s a big suprise, according to a new study Cell phone users actually tie up traffic. Wow, they had to comission a study to tell us something we already knew? How many times have you seen a person, driving even with a blue tooth headset seemingly talking as if s/he were conducting some important multi-million dollar business interview while on the road? How many of you have also seen these people driving either too fast, or too recklessly?

Yet this article goes one step further, instead of simply stating the facts it attempts a bit of potty humor. According to Peter Martin of the University of Utas’s Traffic Lab, "It’s a bit like break wind in the elevator. Everyone suffers." So let me get this straight, someone driving while talking on a cell phone is a bit like breaking wind in an elevator? Really?

Here’s something else that we’ve all seen at one point or another while someone is talking on a cell phone:

"What they found is that when the drivers were distracted by a phone conversation, they made fewer lane changes, drove slower and took longer to get where they are going".

Yep that about sums up my experience with these types of drivers. I really have to wonder, if the phone conversation that you are conducting is so important, why not simply pull over to the side of the road and have your conversation there. It obviously can’t be that important if you can drive and talk at the same time.

(img src: eekabear14)

About the Deal 

For anyone who is looking to try voip or even for those that are living overseas and would like to have access to a voip number in Toronto or Montreal then this deal is for you. According to the website Freephoneline.ca is offering the first 5000 customers that download it’s software free VOIP numbers in Toronto/Montreal for life (the company’s life I’m guessing, not yours). These plans include unlimited local calling as well as free incoming calls.

Impressions 

I’ve been using the software for about 2 days now and I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Considering I can spend a few hours while talking on VOIP to catch up with friends and family in Canada I really put this service through it’s paces. The call quality was excellent, but annoyingly you have to dial the country code (1) before making a local call. As of now the service can only be used via a softphone, though some people have been attempting to use the service via an ATA, apparently no luck yet. If using a softphone I’d suggest getting yourself a comfortable pair of USB headsets as you could be chatting away for sometime. USB headsets are better then the regular kind, because you don’t have to go to the back of your computer and unplug your speakers, you can just simply plug them into any USB port on your computer, and start talking away.

Owners 

Freephoneline.ca is owed by the ISP 295.ca, who claim to have been around for nearly 10 years now. Hopefully they are more reliable then the infamous VOIP provider Sunrocket, who earlier this year closed down business because of their rock bottom (and ultimately unsustainable) business model.

The poor guys at Vonage seem to be sued almost every month. In the lastest news, Nortel filed a suit against Vonage in the US district court, in Delaware. In the suit, Nortel alleges that Vonage infringes on 12 of its patents that deal with click-to-call system, the management of archtecture of VOIP system resources, and with call-tracing methods in packet-switched networks.

This comes on the heals of Vonage announcing last month that it had reached a settlement with AT&T, only a month after AT&T accused Vonage of violating patients for systems that let users make VOIP

AT&T accused the VoIP provider of violating its patents for systems that let users make VoIP calls using standard telephone devices.

Additionally, Vonage also recently reached settlements with Sprint Nextel Corp., for $80 million, and with Verizon Communications Inc., in a settlement that could be worth as much as $120 million.

So where does this leave Vonage’s customers?

According to the latest financial reports Vonage is still hemorrhaging money like it was made on trees. They reported, “a net loss for the quarter of $65 million”. In that same time period they were only able to add, “166,000 net subscriber lines in the quarter, down from 204,591 in the third quarter and 256,000 in the second quarter”. Their marketing costs are still ballooning out of control, and have jumped to nearly, “$306, from $254 in the third quarter and $239 in the second quarter”. If you combine those loses, with the new patent infringement money they will have to pay out you could be looking at a lot of trouble for investors and customers.

More on patents

If Vonage were smart they would have done what their competitor in the 3rd party VOIP landscape, Packet8 did. Over the last 20 years they’ve been building up a collection of patents with which they can leverage the big guns. They also use their own propriatary ATA (the device that converts your phone conversation into digital packets to travel over the internet) instead of using off the shelf products. If Vonage had a few of these lying around they could perhaps leverage it against some of these other companies.

It’s the Marketing

I have to wonder why on earth does Vonage need such a huge marketing budget to get people to use their service. Small companies like Skype have become almost a home name (especially outside the US) without spending huge amounts of money on marketing. Vonage being a tech based company could start a grassroots internet organization to promote their services. Instead they are turning to traditional media and to users that probably don’t understand the ins and outs of VOIP and network set-up, and thus are seriously disappointed when it’s not as simple as a landline (ie plug-and-play). Without the huge costs per subscriber weighing them down, this ship would have left port a long time ago.

Think twice

I think people have to be careful before investing or signing up with Vonage. Look at what happened to Sunrocket a lot of seasoned VOIP users predicted their downfall because they were growing exponentially, but were also losing subscribers like flies. They closed shop almost overnight and left a lot of people without phone service. The people that finally got phone service had the nightmare of trying to port their 20 year old landline numbers out of the ether, and to their new service providers. Although Vonage is a much bigger company, and hopefully any shut down would have more notice, and be a lot more orderly I still wouldn’t trust my primary phone service with a company that’s losing money. Hopefully Vonage gets it’s act into gear soon.

*Update*

Thanks to the power of the internet, less then an hour after I wrote this post the two commentators below have provided a link that shows that the patent dispute has been settled. I wonder however if this will be their final dispute - somehow I find it unlikely.

In keeping with the concept of “Place Shifting” I decided to setup a Sling box, so that I could have access to Canadian Cable television, without actually being there. This is perfect, since I can watch the Food channel without actually having to endure the brutal Canadian winter.

That’s when I realised to my horror that I would have to get my family in Toronto to do the setup. Since I couldn’t actually be there physically I was dreading the phone call where someone would ask me, “where does this cable go, and what does this thing do.” I of course not being able to see through the internet would have to say, “I have no idea, just stick it somewhere and see what happens.”

So I requested that my family purchase the unit for me from best buy. They were having a sale at the time and they picked up a Slingbox AV for $150 CDN + 14% (can you believe it?) tax. I got the inevitable phone call asking which Slingbox to purchase, as there were a bewildering amount of choices, so I thought I’d sort that out for my readers as well and explain the main differences between the different units.

Slingbox Pro

I’d thought I’d start with the heavy hitter. The Slingbox pro is essentially the most expensive and most versatile of the various Slingbox units. The Slingbox pro supports a HD (High Definition) source, and as well it can receive inputs from three other SD (Standard Definition) sources. Unlike the other units that can only support one SD unit at a time this allows a total of four sources to be plugged in simultaneously.

So What?

Well this means that if you are watching TV from a digital cable box and someone else in the room decides to change the channel you can still tune into the cable TV via the analog tuner in the Pro. Or if you want to plug in your DVD player so you can watch a movie that someone rented, while travelling you don’t have to call home to get them to unplug the cable tv, and plug in the DVD player. So the Pro unit allows you to simply plug in everything once and then walk away. With the other units you will have to switch between the various devices you want to control.

Slingbox Solo

This unit also supports HD. The main difference I can gather between this unit and the other Slingboxes is that the HD component cables are built in, and thus you don’t have to purchase them separately, as is the case with the Slingbox Pro. So why purchase this over the Slingbox pro? Well is supports HD, but unlike the Pro can’t have four simultaneous inputs. So only purchase this unit if you really need HD and you don’t want the other inputs.

Slingbox AV

The Slingbox AV is a unit that is built for people with Digital Cable or Satellite TV. It’s does not have an analog TV tuner built in, so if that’s what you have then this is not the correct unit for you. Okay so why would you pick the AV over the Pro? Simple really, if all you want to do is watch the cable tv, and don’t care about plugging in an analog signal or about attaching your DVR or other device at the same time then the AV is the right unit for you. Keep in mind if you want to watch something from your DVR then you will have to unplug your digital cable box/satellite box before you can do so. With the Pro, you can plug them all in at the same time. The downside to the AV is that if you have plugged this unit into a digital box that someone uses often, then if you change the channel they will notice. So to make this work out you will have to purchase another digital box from your cable/satellite provider so that you can essentially watch whatever you want, when you want. Depending on who you’re with, this may incur a separate fee.

Slingbox Tuner

This version of the Slingbox is basically for those who don’t have digital cable or a satellite receiver. It only works with analog cable, and only supports one input source, like the Slingbox AV. Mostly importantly though this device does not support a DVR, so if you plan on getting one in the future then this device is certainly not “future-proof”. Another potential use for this device is if you only have a single Cable box, and you don’t want to go and purchase another one just so you can watch TV on go. You can use this device on your basic coaxial connection (where there is no active TV plugged in) or user a splitter, so that the person using the Slingbox doesn’t disturb the home tv when changing the channels.

The Setup

This is where I was pleasantly surprised. My dad, who also dabbles a bit in the technology end of things plugged in the necessary cables, and installed the CD and was up and running in no time. Below is a diagram that I found from hexus.net outlining the various connections that are required:

Essentially all that has to be done is plug to plug the Slingbox into your Cable TV box, plug the IR receiver into the Slingbox, and then plug the Slingbox into the your router. The next step involves installing a CD on a computer in your local network. This computer does not need to be on for the person who is watching Cable to be able to use the slingbox, but is nevertheless an important step in the set up process. When installing the Slingbox on your computer it generates a Finder ID and password. There are very important to the person who will be watching the Slingbox so make sure that you keep a copy of them somewhere. The final step in the set up process is for you to set up the Slingbox on the computer you will be using to watch your Cable. In my case this had to be done remotely while I was in Australia. All I had to do was go to the Slingbox site and download the appropriate software. You have a choice between Mac, PC or software for your Pocket PC or Palm based device. When you are asked for a Finder ID and password this is the time that you need the person who installed the software to give you the correct information. Make sure you log into the system as an administrator, so that you can make changes initially if you need to. If you are present in the same house as the place where the Slingbox is installed, then of course this is not required.

Visual Quality and Tips and Tricks

As all of my friends here have said, “it’s watchable”. Quality is 100% dependant on the upload bandwidth of the ISP where the Slingbox unit is installed. In the test case, this was a 1mbps cable network. The maximum streaming speed I’ve been able to get is about 800kbps, as I doubt it’s possible to max the upload bandwidth, I think that this is a pretty good speed. I do notice however that depending on the time of day, the upload can drop to as low as 500kbps. I’m assuming that this is because cable is a shared medium and there must be a bit of overselling at the node.

From this Slingbox screenshot you can clearly see not only the Streaming speed but also the default size of the Slingbox screen. Although you can maximize the screen you will lose picture quality, so it’s better if you watch the channel from as far away as possible to make the picture look clearer. The remote on the side is the same as the remote by the Cable service provider that the unit was set up on. That makes it really easy to control the channels as well as view the channel guide.

Changing channels was a bit slow, and not responsive, but I have a feeling that this is dependent on what else you are doing on your computer, as well as CPU speed and RAM. I was talking to my parents and we were trying to see if the streaming was instantaneous and noticed that there is about a 7 second delay between what they see, and what I saw on my screen.

Tips: Tip number one, instead of using the remote to change the channels, you can use the keypad on your keyboard to change channels. If you have a wireless keyboard that is a perfect way to change channels while not being close to the computer. Here is an example of a person who has figured out how to use a remote with the Slingbox.

Overall

I think that for many people the Slingbox is an excellent device. It is really useful for expatriates who do not have access to their home TV channels while living abroad. I can also see business people who travel a lot, or even students having some use for this device, though some dorms and hotels provide cable tv free of charge. The quality on the unit isn’t extremely clear but it’s sufficient for most purposes. The cost of the Slingbox itself (at least $150 + CDN) is about the same as just purchasing another Cable box (if you are going to use this to avoid purchasing another Cable box).

I was pleasantly surprised by how professionally packaged the Magicjack unit is. There is a choice of two colors, one is black in the other is pink. Perfect for that special someone in your life who cares about acessorizing your voip device. Another impressive thing is that the unit is sturdy, and not the cheap plastic that I was expecting. It’s also really small, about the size of a block of post-it notes.

As others on the web have noticed, the most difficult thing about setting up the Magicjack unit is opening the packaging. It’s almost as if the plastic has been welded together using a blow-torch. You will likely need a strong pair of scissors close by if you plan on opening this package.

Plug it in

After opening the package, simply plug the USB device into your computer and wait for the opening screen to turn up. According to the Magicjack website they currently support Windows Vista, as well as XP. As of yesterday they also support Mac, but here’s the kicker you need a PC to use it! Worse yet, they only support the new Intel macs. So in my opinion Magicjack has a long way to go before they please the Mac users out there.

After a few minutes of nothing at all a registration screen popped up. The registration information that was requested was all pretty standard, and wasn’t overly invasive. When I initially got the Magicjack I had to use this in conjunction with Grandcentral in order to get a number local number. However in the past few months Magicjack has been busy providing it’s users with a vast array of numbers, as well as the ability to change your number online. However I still recommend signing up for Grandcentral as it has a whole host of features that I haven’t seen with other VOIP providers. Also if Magicjack does go bankrupt you won’t have to worry about losing your number. I doubt the owners of Grandcentral (the all mighty Google) will be going bankrupt anytime soon. However stranger things have happened.

The good news is that although 911 registration is required, it can be disabled in a drop down menu of the main interface. This is important if you already have a land line or plan on using the service from outside the US. The last thing you want to do is accidentally hit 911 while sitting in a cafe in Madrid, and explain to the operator that the only emergency you’ll be having is the one after you finish off your Taco.

Now simply plug in a telephone into the RJ-11 port on the back of the device and then the unit is pretty much the same as any normal telephone. The people who created the device must have put a lot of thought into it because they even included a USB extension cable. this was particularly useful when I tried to plug the magicjack into the back of my over-crowded desktop.

The software is really responsive, even on my slow as molasses desktop. After dialing a number on my phone I instantly saw the response on the software, and the call went through without any hassles. A nifty thing I noticed was the ability to switch between a headset and a phone. This can be useful if you are traveling and don’t have a phone to plug-in.

It’s nice to have a VOIP product just work. I would feel confident sending this to some technologically adverse person (you know the kind that think Apple Mac is a special type of fruit) and wouldn’t have to worry that they couldn’t figure out how to make it work. After fiddling around with every ATA or VOIP related product under the sun for the last few years, this was a pleasant surprise, so thanks Dan and team.

The Guts of it - Call quality

This is VOIP? That was the reaction I got from my first test calls. Keep in mind I was using the device from Australia to call family in Toronto. Although in general my other VOIP calls are excellent, I have had some less than stellar results. After using the Magicjack for a couple of months now I’d say the call quality is up there with some of the better VOIP providers. I’ve tried Vonage US while in Australia as well as a few Canadian VOIP providers and though Magicjack’s call quality wasn’t the best it certainly was well above the bottom feeders.There were a few times when I couldn’t make calls, and these periods were really annoying. That is why I can’t recommend this unit as a complete POTS (Landline) replacement, especially if you have elderly parents or young children in your house. The unit is still in beta and from what I read on various forums this was a result of them upgrading the network to improve stability.

The Bad

So, what are my issues with Magicjack? First I hate the fact that you must have your computer on all the time. My desktop just broke and is in for repairs, since my other computer is a non-intel iBook (yes I’ve converted to the dark side) I have no choice but to be magicjack free for the next few days. I understand the need for the software service as this will be a way to generate some income for the Magicjack people. As noted in my other post though, Dan has promised that by early next year we should be able to use an ATA.

Secondly there was some talk on dslreports.com about a security vulnerability whereby someone who knew your serial number could use your credentials to make calls. However with a lack of international calling options that only one that will hurt is the Magicjack people. That’s my next beef, a lack of international calling options. I’m told that this will be fixed soon however.

Finally why don’t they ship this unit internationally? I can see a huge market for these things with students and expatriates. Imagine being freed from the price gouging land line rates as well as the hidden fees of many calling cards. Although a local number may not make you popular with the ladies, it will certainly allow you to keep in touch with friends and family while overseas without them paying for it.

General Thoughts

VOIP is a new technology and as such has it’s share of bugs. Magicjack is still in beta as well, and also has it’s share of bugs. However for the price of $40 + shipping you aren’t taking a huge risk. I’m sure the unit will pay for itself with a few months of usage. This unit will probably be popular with regular long distance callers, as well as transient people such as ex-patriates and students. It also has a niche market in people who are looking for an in-expensive second line. I can’t see it replacing a traditional phone service yet, but that may change in the future. Overall it’s worth looking into.
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VOIP Overview

With the popularity of internet Voice Over IP providers such as Skype, verbs such as “Skyping” have entered the lexicon of the average person. So it’s no surprise then that the number of US VOIP subsribers have nearly doubled according to recent statistics. With continuous pressure for innovation, many VOIP providers have come up wideband codecs that make VOIP calls superior to traditional fixed line calls..

Why is VOIP so Popular?

There are a number of reasons why VOIP may be gaining in popularity and I think that primary reason is the fixed price model. For most VOIP providers there is either a fixed monthly rate for an “unlimited” calling pattern (though quite a few providers do have a soft cap limit, which if searched for carefully in the TOS one can usually find) or a pay per call model, such as that adopted by many Australian VOIP providers. Either model though offers a considerable amount of savings when compared with the incumbent Telco of the respective VOIP provider’s home country.

Another reason that VOIP providers have been gaining in popularity is a phenomenon that I’ve dubbed “place shifting”. This is basically the fact that many people leave their home towns, home states or even home countries to relocate to areas that offer them better opportunities. Unfortunately this means that they usually have to give up their traditional land line number and thus the “local calling” rates that their friends and family once enjoyed. With any VOIP provider, numbers are ultra-portable and thus you can use your service wherever in the world you happen to be. Going on vacation in Switzerland? No problem, your family in New York can still call you as if you were next door. This is what I find truly amazing about VOIP.

The final reason is the sheer innovative features that VOIP have developed. Time based call screening is one of my personal favorites, imagine being able to simply program your phone not to ring between the hours of 10pm, and 5 am unless it’s an emergency (and the person has to press a button for the call to go through)!

The Magicjack

I must admit that this latest internet “craze” caught me head on and I find myself spending hours on the internet and forums searching for the latest VOIP gadget. I’ve seen many such gadgets come and go, but one that particularly caught my attention was the Magicjack VOIP device. I first read of this device over at dslreports where a few people had been using it for a number of months. The thing that caught my attention was the fact that this device provided unlimited US/Canada calling for $40 US for the first year and then $20 US for all subsequent years. Now if you’ve ever used traditional VOIP providers like Vonage or a Cable VOIP provider then you know the average price for VOIP is probably $20-$30 US per month.

Cost Efficiencies

Now most people probably don’t care about the finances of a particular company, or it’s founder but in the world of VOIP this is something that everyone should pay close attention to. With the recent bankruptcy of start-up VOIP provider Sunrocket making sure that your future VOIP provider isn’t some fly-by-night operation is really important. So how can Mr. Borislow afford to give away unlimited long distance calling in Canada and the US for a fraction of what larger companies are offering?

Take a look at this screenshot from Magicjack’s user interface:

(and no this isn’t a screen shot from my unit)

Targeted Local Advertising

You can clearly see that 1/3 of the interface on the left is reserved for advertising space. If Mr. Borislow woos advertisers correctly he can make a healthy profit by displaying local ads based on the numbers that call you and vice versa. This would be a revolution in online local ad targeting as I haven’t seen any other online platform that can do this well. According to Mr. Borislow over at dslreports:

” In March we will let you use your own devices and we will sell Phone numbers for just $3 a Year. “

This is excellent news, if it is indeed true. With ATA support Magicjack users will finally be freed from the chains of a computer and the whims of their OS.

Owing a CLEC

If you take a look at the parent company of Magicjack, Ymax Corp. you can see that they have some serious financial backing. It also means that Magicjack has a chance to make money on incoming calls since they are in effect their own upstream provider. Other VOIP providers basically resell the services or other larger back bone providers such as Level 3. These providers make money when they receive calls because some other company has to pay to terminate calls on their network. By owning your own network you can also cut costs because the termination of calls is on your network. Though I have no idea how extensive Ymax’s network is, I’m betting it’s pretty big and they terminate most of the calls in house to save the maximum amount of money.

No Vulture-Capitalists

Venture capitalists make technology possible, unfortunately their lack of forsight and motiviation to make a quick buck also have disastrous consequences in the VOIP world. As far as I’ve been able to gather Magicjack is privately funded and thus does not have to answer to any venture capitalists. This gives them a chance to develop their customer base more gradually and not shell out a huge amount of money acquiring new customers simply to make their investors happy.

Overall I believe that the initial $30 investment (plus shipping of course) is a mere pittance for the services rendered. Even if the entire company goes bankrupt overnight you have very little to lose by purchasing a Magicjack unit, and potentially a lot to gain if this thing get even more popular.

Tune in for Part 2 of this review where I detail the set-up of this device as well as discuss call quality and areas where I think Magicjack could improve.