Small | Medium | Extra Large
Windows Media
Nokia N95 | Nokia N800/N810
That iPhone holder I had stuck to my head on Brief 329 is a Naja King. It’s a flexible holder that will wrap around anything including your neck for hands-free viewing on a plane. It also holds on to the iPhone really tight, but that doesn’t mean you should twirl it like I did. It isn’t meant to do that.
This fetch robot (Embedded below) started showing up on blogs Monday. It senses when a ball is placed in the launcher and automatically sends it in the fetch direction. In the video, Jerry the dog replaces the ball. We know the dogs name, but we haven’t been able to find who makes the device.
Kyocera makes our favorite mobile broadband router and they’ve just updated it. The K2 does wireless N and accepts a number of sources including Express cards, PC cards, USB modems and some phones.
Checkser.com is a checklist Wiki. It’s an interesting idea, but it needs additional features to make it truly practical. For example, I would want the ability to break a list out of the wiki and save it as my own because inevitably, things on my list will diverge from a general community list.
Pidgin is the most popular app for the Nokia N810 right now. You can download it here.
You can get a Nokia N810 for 15% off at podshowoffers.com (more details here). Use Promo Code “geekbrieftv”.
« GBTV #329 | GeekBrief.TV
GBTV #331 | GeekBrief.TV »
March 19th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Hi Cali!
SonicWall and Cisco are two possible places to look for multiple-Internet-link bandwidth aggregation, and I think there are others, also.
For example, SonicWall (with their Enhanced OS upgrade) has a firewall that will use two Internet connections. It doesn’t care what type it is, it just sees an active ethernet link. If you configure both the “WAN” and “OPT” ethernet ports as Internet access, it will use them both. There are some choices for usage, like load balanced, active/passive, etc. You can configure targets for the firewall to periodically ping across an interface, so it knows if the link went down. Not sure, but I think they have a model that uses a cellular card available.
I also know Cisco has done port aggregation on certain devices, but I’ve used the SonicWall product more recently.
Hope that helps someone out there. Take care!
March 19th, 2008 at 11:36 pm
In regards to your question about multiple WAN’s, this can be done currently with a custom setup. I don’t do this personally however I have given up on regular routers and use pfSense (BSD based). Just install it on an old computer you have around and stick as many NIC’s in it as you please. It supports multi-wan.
I believe there are some caveats though. You probably wouldn’t be able to utilize ALL the bandwidth from all the connections at once. Packets would have to be queued to run out one WAN at a time. Could also run into potential session problems with your IP address flip-flopping all the time between both connections. Again I could be wrong since I have not tried it.
Normally the reason you use a multi-wan setup is for failover. For example WAN1 (dsl) goes down, it tries WAN2 (cable).
March 19th, 2008 at 11:41 pm
I use a SMC dual WAN router model SMCBR24Q as I have 2 WAN lines (25/25 Mbps fiber and 2/1 Mbps ADSL). It should also be possible to use it for and ADSL and a EVDO connection.
I have had a few years so it may have been replaced. I got mine in Denmark and I’m not sure if you can get it in the US. Otherwise cisco makes plenty of routers with 3 or more ports. At a much higher price though.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Cali – you mentioned that the Kyocera KR2 mobile router will likely be your choice when you head out on the road. Which wireless broadband service do you intend to subscribe to? Will you be tethered to AT&T since that’s where you’re iPhone is connected or will you try another service?
March 20th, 2008 at 12:24 am
Since people have already talked about multiple-WANs in a failover type connection I though it would be best to chime in with connection muxing.
Most routers that have more than one WAN port can do basic load-balancing and failover. Failover is great for critical situations, while load-balancing is a great way to distribute multiple connections over multiple pipes.
One of the biggest misunderstandings with load-balancing is that people think if you have a 5 Mbit pipe and another 5 Mbit pipe and you load balance them then you get a 10 Mbit pipe. This is only half true, in this setup you can only max out at 5 Mbits in a single connection. If you are making multiple connections than you can make use of both connections and have a quasi-10 Mbit connection. Just not in a single connection.
If you want to be able to have a true 10 Mbit connection you would have to find an ISP that does muxing. Muxing is basicly when your connection goes out over multiple pipes to the same source and then is combined together into a larger pipe. There are very few ISPs that do this and its rather costly to begin with.
March 20th, 2008 at 12:27 am
The biggest challenge with multiple connections is routing the returning data. When data is requested through a network, it’s sent back in smaller pieces. Standard protocols (http, ftp, &c.) send the data back to the requesting address and are not well equipped for sending half to this address and half to that address. It’s kind of like sending an SASE and asking them to send the even pages to your house and the odd pages to your neighbour. It is possible, but it becomes a bit more complicated.
March 20th, 2008 at 1:41 am
Hi Cali!
kevin took the word right out of my mouth, i am communications engineer with a minor in computer systems. and making something like that isn’t impossible but there would be many expensive and especially problems with data sorting once everything is downloaded, for example
one pc one stream of download, two pcs two seperate streams of download
now the device you described would be
one pc two streams of downloads coming into one client source (pc) half the packets coming from one source and other half another source. there is alot of room programming wise for error and packet mix ups, but nothing good programming could fix but thats the only way i can see speeds increasing, but then again the processors would have to play catch up with technology like that.
March 20th, 2008 at 4:27 am
Hi Cali,
You might want to take a look at the Firebrick, which has some ‘bonding’ features, for aggregating multiple ADSL connections. But beware that if an ISP does uRPF you will have problems.
http://www.firebrick.co.uk/features.html#bonding
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_path_forwarding#Unicast_RPF_.28uRPF.29
Leo
March 20th, 2008 at 5:57 am
Yes, I did notice the iPhone holder stuck to your head, figured you’d explain at some point, you crazy girl!
Ok, seriously funny outtake, iPhone falling off holder, guess I’m not going to buy that, well, and I don’t have an iPhone either!
Loving your Bloopers, screwing up is always fun for the whole family!!!
March 20th, 2008 at 6:51 am
@ Cali, I like that dog catcher. It is truly for the lazy pet owner! It is cool from a mechanical standpoint. An engineer friend of mine posted a link to this video on his Pownce and Twitter profile. I told him that he could probably go to Home Depot and build it on his own. These engineers are smart guys ;)
March 20th, 2008 at 8:21 am
@ Cali, Several comments by Jerry’s owner point to him as the builder. He said it was difficult to build this machine. I thought it looked like a home-made contraption. Very cool!
March 20th, 2008 at 8:22 am
Hey Cali,
I noticed you have changed the font in the lower thirds. I’m curious to know what font that is and where I can get that! ;)
Love your show and thank for showing how NOT to twirl that thing! :D
Saksith
March 20th, 2008 at 9:32 am
Hey Cali I have been loving this program called things. You got me on to the GTD band wagon and this is one of the best programs I have found for keep me organized.
http://www.culturedcode.com/things/
cheers
The Canuck from the Coast.
March 20th, 2008 at 9:53 am
Cali
dog video showed on BoingBoing
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/03/17/video-tennis-ball-la.html
March 20th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
I wondered what that black spaghetti tumor growing out of your head in #329 was… Too weird!!! I’ve been a telecom engineer for almost 30 years and don’t get the obsession with being on the phone ALL THE TIME! That thing just reminds me of all the people I see with bluetooth dongles attached to their heads. GET OFF THE PHONE!! Still, I guess I appreciate the fact that these phone droids drive the telecom companies to buy our equipment!
March 20th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
on a unrelated note, I really hate the streaming vids on this site. I liked it the old way were we had a previous. Now I cannot even get it to work on firefox.
March 20th, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Cali,
I just wanted to drop a message to outline some difficulties in regards to engineering a device capable of combining two evdo network interfaces or a dsl interface and an evdo interface.
Some routers do support multiple interface options.
However…. The big issues for what I believe you would like to try and do, isn’t around designing a device capable of supporting the interfaces but rather (one) setting up routing between the broadband carrier or carriers to build bonded interface capable (merging services) of scaling throughput of N x 1 where N is the number of interfaces you are using, (two) the fact that the interfaces are actually different layer 2 protocols (refering to the OSI model (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model#Layer_2:_Data_Link_layer) and (three) because they are different “layer 2 OSI model” types, they’re networks are physically heterogeneous.
IE. typically the DSL network is physically a different network than the EVDO network “single carrier” scenario you might use encapsulation (GRE – General Routing Encapsulation) but you would need the carrier(s) to support such a design, you would otherwise be resolved to a Fault Tolerant scenario where if the DSL interface goes down the EVDO interface would become available.
In the case of an outage it would be useful, but truly gaining throughput for all sessions by bonding the network interfaces, would be difficult.
Many routers (I’ve used Cisco routers for 10 years) do support different physical interfaces today but the issue you will have when using multiple providers regardless of the interface type is with routing, that is if you want to scale (merging services) multiple interfaces to gain higher throughput for a single session.
My$.02 PS – I originally associated this post with the wrong podcast. My apologies.
March 20th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Cali, isn’t what you’re looking for kind of like 802.11 Pre-N?
My neighbor got one of those routers and whenever he started surfing he sucked my connection too and I could hardly do anything. I couldn’t figure out what was happening until Leo mentioned it on his radio show a few years ago, as he was having the same problem at his home.
March 20th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
No …she is talking about bonding WAN interfaces not LAN protocol interfaces like 802.11 ABG or N
March 20th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
@ Saksith – the font is Neo Tech. It’s the font used by Drobo.
March 20th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
You should look at the Check Point UTM-1 Edge W. It’s a little expensive but will handle 1 WAN (DSL or Cable and at least 1 USB EVDO device. It has 2 USB port and you might be able to get 1 WAN and 2 USB’s EVDO’s.
Good Luck!
March 20th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
From a protocol standpoint, there’s the development of SCTP (Stream Control Transmission Protocol), which would let you connect to the Internet over multiple connections (e.g. Ethernet, wireless, and modem simultaneously) having packets coming from any source. Paul Amer from the University of Delaware discussed his work in this area while I was still in grad school. Check out the link for a description and his very helpful powerpoint presentation.
http://csc.villanova.edu/events/view/593
March 20th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Cali,
According to the video’s description text, the ball launcher was made by Jerry’s owner because he thought Jerry might like it. It was the result of two years of development, and it doesn’t look like it’s commercially available… yet. With all of the attention he’s getting on the Internet, I’m sure he’s going to get a few requests for the plans. ;-)
March 21st, 2008 at 1:23 am
Cali,
The problem with having a router with more than in wan(Wide Area Network) port is not one of engineering but how tcp works. It is a lot harder than it sounds to get it right but it can be done. What you are looking for is load balancing router. Those are quite expensive, good one start are about 500 but if you have an older computer lying around you could add 2 nics(network interface cards) to it and run Linux and setup your own router then you could have 2 or more connections of any kind. The Linux support for EVDO is pretty good from what I have heard.
Good Luck
March 22nd, 2008 at 8:28 pm
Ms Cali, the YouTube video links back to the account of Jerry’s human, http://www.youtube.com/user/lamgngo — if you’re too lazy, you can go straight to his Send Message link at http://www.youtube.com/outbox?to_user=lamgngo
March 23rd, 2008 at 9:10 am
I have been using the NetGear Dual WAN router/switch (currently $165 on amazon) for about the past 3 years. I have both DSL and Cable Modem Internet connections. I been successful in using both fail over mode as well as load sharing mode. You just have to be careful to configure some applications (e.g. Vonage, PS-3 Games, etc.) to always connect via a default Internet connection. Businesses have been using load sharing routers for over 15 years.
http://www.netgear.com/Products/VPNandSSL/WiredVPNFirewallRouters/FVS124G.aspx
March 25th, 2008 at 6:18 pm
I’ve been having the some interest in load balancing and/or load aggregation of EVDO + DSL.
One option I saw is the XC-DPG503, but the XC-DPG503 doesn’t have EVDO inputs or WiFi output. It just has 2 ethernet WAN and 4 LAN.
I’m hoping I can plug my EVDO into MBR-400, then plug its ethernet output into XC-DPG503. And also plug in my DSL modem’s input into the XC-DPG503. Then, since the XC-DPG503 has no WiFi, I would connect one of its LAN ports into the WAN of a WiFi router.
(EVDO to MBR-400 to XC-DPG503, WAN1)
(DSL to DSL modem to XC-DPG503, WAN2)
(XC-DPG503 to any WiFi router)
That is a lot of boxes; it seems like I would have 4 boxes, when I should have 1 box that takes EVDO + ethernet, does the load balancing, and outputs WiFi. I am hoping the 4 boxes would work, but I haven’t tried it or even read about it.
I’d love to hear more info on this issue. I want to get an EVDO plan to use for mobility AND to use as a second connection in my apartment that increases bandwidth (in addition to fail-over).
Btw, anyone know anything about the unlimited data plans? I heard that only Sprint’s is actually unlimited (Verizon is 5GB, AT&T is 5GB, and T-Mobile has none) (oh and there is also Millenicom which I think is really unlimited)
March 25th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
Another thing I forgot to mention about this setup I am considering is how I would use my EVDO USB when it’s not plugged into the wired home setup adding to my DSL connection.
“Cradlepoint Personal Hot Spot – PHS300 Battery Powered EVDO Router” turns EVDO into a WiFi hotspot using a Li Ion battery powered device.
So the basic idea is that when I’m at home, the EVDO (USB modem) adds to my home DSL speed. But when I leave home, I take my EVDO (USB modem) and the PHS300 with me, giving me WiFi for my devices.
I could easily have as many as 5 WiFi devices: Nokia N810, iPod touch, AT&T Tilt cell phone, GPS, laptop.
For extra battery, I’d have a charging station setup in my car.
Just one idea to stay overly connected
March 27th, 2008 at 3:47 am
Hi guys.
With regard to you wanting to join together two network connections, we use the following router with great success…
http://www.edimax.com/en/produce_detail.php?pd_id=49&pl1_id=3&pl2_id=20
We use this router to link together two adsl connections (as we cannot afford downtime if one provider falls over) but it can load balance any connections that come in via a cat5 cable (so you could easily mix two different 3D providers for example).
Ours has been up and running for 2 years without problem.
Hope that helps. :o)
March 29th, 2008 at 12:57 am
Hi Cali,
Just recently started watching your show and I enjoy it, so I hope I am not too late but I think the slurpr is what you are looking for. I ran across this product through Popular Science magazine.
http://www.popsci.com/gear-gadgets/article/2007-11/megagoods-roundup
It’s product 163 of 169 of the “MegaGoods Roundup” and you can’t search in reverse so just visit their site, the product’s blurb is below.
http://www.slurpr.com
“Open wireless networks are great, but searching through them, dealing with weak signals, and being booted anytime the one you’re using shuts down is a pain. Enter the Slurpr, which promises to pull every available signal, aggregating their bandwidth into a super broadband connection. Caveat: The legality of this product is, shall we say, iffy. Slurpr $1,345; slurpr.com”
Pem-
Verizonwireless.com no longer offers an unlimited plan in NYC (I haven’t called or visited an actual Verizon store to double check but online they currently offer a 5Gb for $59.99 or a 50MB for $39.99) but if you can get their unlimited plan read their ‘Calling Plan Information’ which basically says if you exceed 5GB during any billing period they would reduce your speed to 200Kbps down from 600Kbps-1.4Mbps for download and 500-800Kbps for upload speed.
“If your usage on a Data Plan or Feature that does not include a specific monthly Megabyte allowance or that is not billed on a pay–as–you–use basis exceeds 5 Gigabytes per account line during any billing period, we reserve the right to reduce throughput speed to a maximum of approximately 200 Kilobits per second for up to thirty days. You may assess and monitor your own data usage during a particular billing period, including during the Return Period under your Worry Free Guarantee, by accessing My Account online, or by contacting Customer Service”
Sprint is unlimited and they don’t threaten to reduce your speed.
I am not sure about T-mobile and Cingular.
March 29th, 2008 at 10:26 am
Hi Cali and Neal,
I’m sure you guys have seen this already, but in case you haven’t, TUAW ran a story yesterday about the Naja King iPhone holder. Let’s just say its an *interesting* twist on managing your availability.
Here’s the link:
http://www.tuaw.com/2008/03/28/flickr-find-iphone-in-the-hopper/
March 29th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
I have a Linksys RV042. This is a business router with dual WAN. The only time that I did use the Dual WAN was when I was changing ISPs from Cable to DSL.
My main office has the RV082 and uses the main WAN hooked to their T1 line and they have a cable modem as a back up. The nice thing that they do is that the executives are hooked to the Cable modem to bypass company monitoring.
April 4th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Awesome show as usual!