Category: Networking | Scottie's Tech.Info

The Internet of Things and 5G: It’s all BONKERS!

Ah yes, the IoT, or Internet of Things.

The future is apparently filled with internet-connected everything, including dust (yes, dust).

We’re already seeing the beginnings of this brave new world, mostly in the form of smart thermostats, smart appliances, and things like Amazon’s Echo toys.

Part of this future IoT is 5G. As I mentioned in an earlier video, there is a fair amount of evidence in the form of numerous studies that 5G will be particularly bad for our health. As you’ll see, even physicists have jumped on board to sound the alarm.

And finally, a discussion of the 5G Internet of Things wouldn’t be complete without a reintroduction to everyone’s favorite forgotten topic: spycraft!

A crash course in how the internet works

Way back in 1995, I was a freshman at university. I had this new thing called “The Internet” at my fingertips.

It was cool, but I wanted to know how it worked. I asked someone, and they wouldn’t answer the question – mostly because they couldn’t answer!

Today, everyone knows and uses the internet, but people keep asking me questions about the basic concepts that make it go.

So, I figured it was about time to give a basic intro to how the internet actually works, including a simplified discussion of networks, IP addresses, ports, protocols, DNS, bandwidth, latency, and more!

How to choose a dumbphone: It ain’t easy!

If you decide to ditch your smartphone, then you have to pick the right dumbphone.

“You must choose, but choose wisely.”

There are many factors that come into play, like where you live and what wireless provider you’re using.

But it gets way more complicated than that…

2G, 3G, or 4G? And then, will 2G be around much longer with the release of 5G? What about 3G networks? How long will 3G be sticking around?

And then we have 4G dumbphones: There aren’t very many (at all), and they aren’t as Google-free as we might hope. SIGH…

Surveillance Valley: What you need to know about the Internet

I recently finished reading the book Surveillance Valley: The Secret Military History of the Internet.

Now, I’ve known for awhile that the world of high-tech – and especially the internet – doesn’t quite work the way everyone thinks it does.

We worship tech billionaires as if they’re the Second Coming, praising them for their ingenuity and standing in awe of their sheer genius.

The reality, on the other hand, is a bit more mundane.

Pretty much all the big players in the internet/tech world got where they are with a little help. And by “a little help”, I mean A LOT…

How to turn down your home WiFi’s transmit power

Your average home WiFi router or access point often has a setting so that you can reduce its transmit power level.

This is pretty handy to know given what I talked about in my earlier video, Are WiFi, Bluetooth, 4G, and 5G bad for you?

The typical range for 2.4GHz WiFi is 150ft (46m) indoors, and 300ft (92m) outdoors. For 5GHz Wifi, it’s more like 50ft (15m) and 100ft (30m). The lower you set the power, the shorter the range – but the less you are blasted by the WiFi signal!

There’s no reason to leave the transmit power at maximum if you don’t need the range… As an added bonus, lower range means increased security since it’s less likely someone else will “see” your WiFi network.

Left the WiFi on again? Not any more!

I’m not a big fan of WiFi, but I do use it from time to time.

It’s just convenient to use for some gizmos where an ethernet dongle is not supported.

Trouble is, I kept forgetting to turn off my WiFi router when I was done.

And then – two days later – I would discover I was still bombarding myself with magic 5 GHz death rays.

Not any more!!

Speed up your browsing with CloudFlare’s public DNS

Back on April 1st of this year, CloudFlare announced a new public DNS resolver service.

But in this case, it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke at all: the new 1.1.1.1 DNS service is very real and very fast!

Well, that’s nice, but what the heck does DNS do?

And how is it gonna make your web browsing speedier?

Time to switch to a HomeGroup on Windows 10

Way back in 2009, I wrote this article:

How to Determine the Master Browser in a Windows Workgroup

I also released a tool called LAN Scanner that lets you see all the puters on your local network, their IP addies, MAC addresses, and which puter is the Master Browser.

That’s great… except that recently, it stopped working!

While digging into this problem, I discovered that the traditional “Network” browsing in Windows has kind of become broken since Microsoft has officially poo-pooed (and disabled) SMB v1.

What that means for you is that if you have a home network with Windows 10 machines, you’re going to want to switch to using a HomeGroup – but there’s a catch!

What you need to know about Online Security

There are a few things you need to understand about staying safe and secure online. You need to realize what you’re actually up against.

But don’t fret, because it’s really not a big deal if you always keep in mind how things usually work.

For example, e-mail is never really safe, HTTPS doesn’t really always keep your connection secure, you can be tracked online very easily despite what most people will tell you, and you should always use some kind of anti-virus/malware protection no matter what OS you use.

And remember that the OS you use makes very little difference if you’ve taken some basic precautions… In fact, thinking you’re safe because you use Not Windows is probably a bad idea!

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