Home WiFi Signal Woes

Many of you who know me may have been surprised by my blog posts to date. What is this? Movies, food, random posts, is this the same Nilesh? Well, for all those who may have wondered, I have unleashed my inner geek, here is a tech post.

For many months now, I have been plagued by a poor WiFi signal from my home ADSL Modem+WiFi Router. While the signal is good enough to reach about half my home, it does not reach all corners and this has been a constant source of irritation for me. I have been meaning to do something about it, however I have been hampered by the fact that my current ADSL modem is provided by my ISP and is a pretty old model (at least 3 years old). I have been looking for a newer generation modem+router that supports the 802.11N standard (for those who came in late, WiFi typically comes in 3 flavours – 802.11b/802.11g and 802.11N – leaving aside other complexities, N is the current standard and offers the best range, g is usually more prevalent everywhere and b is close to being obsolete).

I searched high and low (bear in mind this is India and that too Pune), however I could not find a suitable ADSL modem+router which supported 802.11N. Meanwhile, I got distracted in seeing whether the Olive Nexus could work with my existing Reliance NetConnect broadband USB dongle to create a hotspot, however got dissuaded when the store which sells it, itself did not make any warranties about suitability of the product. I also looked for a WiFi signal repeater, but again could not find a suitable product locally. I had almost resigned myself to living with this situation till a chance visit to a nearby Croma store got me thinking.

No, they did not have a suitable ADSL modem but they had a lot of 802.11 N capable WiFi routers. However, all of them were designed for working with Cable Modems or with a Leased Line kind of situation (possibly for offices who want to create a WiFi hotspot could find them suitable). Then I had my bright idea, why couldn’t I get a 802.11N WiFi router and connect it to my existing ADSL Modem? I tried to explain what I intended to do to the store network guy, but I don’t think he even understood what I was trying to tell him.

On a hunch, I bought it anyway (it was a Belkin N150 WiFi Router which cost about 2100 Rupees or just over US $40) and took it home. The first question was how do I set it up? The way I worked it out was that my current ADSL Modem would be the device that connects to my phone line (obviously since the Belkin was not a ADSL modem). The modem would be the primary internet gateway for the home network. I would need to suppress the WiFi capability of the modem, use the new WiFi router to connect to the modem and then have the WiFi router act as a DHCP server for ad-hoc wireless connections).

I needed to now setup the new WiFi router in a way that it thought that I had a dedicated connection to the Internet. My modem was assigned the LAN IP address of 192.168.1.1 and the WiFi router a WAN address of 192.168.1.50. Thus, my modem and WiFi router came onto the same network and my WiFi router thought that I had a dedicated internet connection, since its gateway was set to 192.168.1.1, the fact that my modem WAN IP was dynamic was completely hidden from the WiFi router. I now turned on WiFi on the router and assigned a different subnet (192.168.2.x) with its LAN address as 192.168.2.1. I used the DHCP capability of the WiFi router and devices connecting to the WiFi network got a gateway IP of 192.168.2.1. It now only remained to set the same WiFi credentials onto the new WiFi router to what used to exist on my ADSL modem and voila! devices connecting in the new setup didn’t even realise that anything had changed! My daughter who had been curiously watching me mutter to myself as I was flailing around with various wires and IP configurations was suitably impressed, more so since now the WiFi signal reached her bedroom and she no longer had to come out to the living room to connect to the internet!

I checked and the 802.11N enhanced signal now reached through my apartment. Mission accomplished! Any of you who would like further details are free to email me.

Android – LG Optimus One P500 – 2 month update

I have now been using my Android 2.21 based LG Optimus One (P500) phone for about two months now, and this post is an update on my experience so far.

At first glance, the phone does not look sturdy at all (my standards of sturdiness have been set by Nokia, whose phones are virtually indestructible), and gives a very plasticky feeling. This goes more for the back of the phone, which picks up dust very easily when left on any surface. It is a good idea to keep the phone in a cover. However don't go by the initial experience, as the phone has withstood a couple of minor falls and come out without a scratch.

Call quality has been reasonably good. I have also been using the WiFi, GPS Receiver and Mobile data (2G and 3G) features regularly and all work without a problem. The FM radio sounded a bit scratchy and reception was not very clear, however I don't use the phone as a radio, so it doesn't affect me much. I had a bit of a struggle to get 3G enabled on my phone, nothing to do with the phone the issues were all with my provider (Vodafone). However, now 3G also works well on my phone, though I don't use it much except for sync'ing my email.

I have had a lot of issues with the battery life, with my phone battery getting drained before the day was over (after being charged fully overnight). This caused me a fair bit of concern since I expect my phone to last at least for a day without having to be charged. I did a bit of digging around and I found the answer to my problems in an app called Juice Defender.

The heart of the phone is Android and to get the best out of the phone, some understanding of Android is necessary. First and foremost is to not keep applications running in the background but end them on use (in the best case they will take up only memory, worst case they will take up both memory and CPU when in the background). Next is an understanding of how connectivity options affect battery life. Primarily, one has to keep WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth OFF in order to get the best performance out of the battery. Given that all of these are embedded under various menu options, the simple solution is a neat app called Quick Settings. Download this from the Android Market, put it on your home screen and presto! you can turn the significant options ON/OFF right from your home screen in one tap.

So, the key is to have the right apps installed on your phone to ensure that you get the best out of it. Here is my list of must have apps for your Android phone:

Juice Defender – This is a must have app for the Android phone. It claims to conserve battery and after installing I have observed about a 50% increase in my battery time. I have the free version installed and as yet it has worked well for me.

Quick Settings – This app helps in turning options ON/OFF in a very handy manner without having to navigate through multiple menus.

Angry Birds – THE must have game on the Android. If you haven't played it, you don't know what you are missing. Highly addictive and simple enough to pick up within minutes, however the combination of luck and skill needed to pass (the endless!) higher levels will ensure that you don't get bored.

CardioTrainer – If you work out (walk, jog, bike, whatever) and want to record details of your workout, then this is the app for you. Again, I am using the free version which is working well for me. Great integration with GPS allows you to see the path that you followed and the ability to post directly to facebook or twitter means that you don't have to enter any data by hand. I have been using it for about 6 weeks now and it works great (except for a tendency to use the battery heavily when it is active). One tip is to reduce the frequency of GPS lookups (can be controlled from the Settings menu within the app) to about 30 seconds (I have kept it to about 10 seconds for now).

MyBookDroid – This is *not* an eBook reader, but an application that helps you to organize the books that you own, want to read, etc. What makes it really useful is its ability to integrate with a bar code scanner app. Thus, you can scan the ISBN code from a book directly from the phone (using the built-in camera) and MyBookDroid will look up the ISBN code from the internet and voila! details of your book magically appear in the app (including the book cover). Its magic! MyBookDroid is probably not the best such app out there, the killer app would be one which allows you to scan all of your books, CDs and DVDs. That would be cool.

Apart from these, one would of course install apps such as facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and dedicated apps from the news sources that you browse regularly.

New mobile - LG Optimus P500

After a few weeks of dithering, I finally bit the bullet and bought the LG Optimus P500. I had set out my criteria in an earlier blog. Its now been about a week since I bought it and my initial impressions are quite positive.

It worked well out of the box and did not require any elaborate setup. Given that this was my first touch screen phone, it took a little getting used to, however I soon got the hang of it. The interface is reasonably intuitive and user friendly. I could also get Wi-Fi working without any problems and managed to connect to my home WPA2 enabled WiFi network easily. Voice quality is quite good, however have not evaluated the speakerphone completely as of now. Camera is quite acceptable (3 MP) and photos taken are quite crisp, have not tested videos much right now.

Now to Android. I have just one word for Android - Fantastic! I don't know how we have lived without it till now ! I have Android 2.2 (Froyo) and the phone comes preloaded with a set of neat apps and of course access to the Android store. A few nice apps were the Indian newspapers app and the weather app. Standard apps like Gtalk (however I can't see myself using Gtalk on my phone), Gmail, YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are also preloaded.

I was a little wary of keyboard input using the touch screen, but that barrier was also crossed without pain (the auto switch to landscape mode when you change the phone orientation is neat). Two thumb typing is quite easy and I could reuse my skills from my Nokia E61i.

The sound quality when music or youtube videos are played is pretty good and the volume is also quite reasonable. Some minor glitches till now - the screen orientation does not always change quickly when you hold the phone sideways, I found the response a little sluggish at times. I need to explore Android more to tweak it further.

It ended up costing me about Rs. 12,500 (2 GB card included), and right now I think it is money well spent. Overall it is looking to be a very good buy and I am quite satisfied with it.

As an aside, I also bought a Samsung bluetooth headset and it can connect to two bluetooth devices at the same time which is a feature I had been on the lookout for a long time. I use two phones (one work and one personal) and when driving (especially when I am driving between Pune and Mumbai) it is a problem when I connect my headset to one phone and the other rings. Problem solved! It can have another application when you connect the headset to your laptop and your phone so that you don't miss a call when you are on Skype, etc.

Reading and Technology - II

As promised, here is my second update, after a day of light usage.

Firstly, some basics for people not familiar with eBook readers:

1. Most eBook readers do not have colour screens and use eInk displays.
2. Readers typically support PDF as the most common format followed by PUB, Kindle, etc.
3. Readers support protected content (Adobe DRM protected PDFs) - DRM - Digital Rights Management
4. There are thousands of free eBooks available for content whose copyright has expired
5. Almost all providers have either dedicated electronic stores or support formats from other stores

Now for my experience:

The default font and portrait mode were a little uncomfortable for me. Increasing the font size resulted in lines wrapping quickly and to me it was inconvenient to read. I found my optimum by switching to landscape mode and a font size higher than the default (the device comes with font sizes of S, M, L, XL and XXL - with S being the default!). This gave me a line length approximately similar to a printed book.

One issue with landscape mode is that the Previous Page / Next Page buttons go to the left of the screen. I would have preferred to have them on the right, as the right thumb would have been the most convenient way to flip pages. Hitting the button is (currently) easier for me than doing the fingertip swoosh from right to left (so beloved of iPhone users!).

So far, I have been reading short stories on the Reader, have not really tested it will a full book yet. Also, I have not seen any illustrations or diagrams on pages yet, so that is next on my to do list.

Watch this space for more ...

Reading and Technology - I

I have got my hands on a Sony eBook reader thanks to a good friend of mine (thanks Sekhar!). Given that I see myself as a traditionalist as far as the written word is concerned, I thought that it would be interesting to blog about my experiences with going electronic.

Of course, having been associated with Technology and Programming for the last 20 odd years, I am no stranger to reading on a computer, but I think there is a big difference between reading manuals and the like and reading newspapers, books, magazines, etc.

Those under 15 can safely ignore these posts since they will probably not know what I am talking about :) Those kids are the post-digital generation (did I just invent a new generation here?!) and their acceptance of technology is amazing. I have the example of my own daughter in front of me.

To start with, getting setup was a breeze. I was up and running in next to no time, including installing the library software on my laptop as well as creating a user account in the Sony reader store.

I also managed to transfer a Father Brown book from my laptop to the device, and my friend had thoughtfully included a few other books, so I am all set to go. More on this tomorrow.

Buying a new mobile (India)

I currently have two phones, both fairly old. One is a Nokia 6021 (close to 5.5 years old now!) and the other is a Nokia E61i (about 3+ years old). The 6021 is used as a personal phone and the E61i as a business phone. Thus I have Blackberry enabled on the E61i whereas the 6021 is used more as a simple phone/sms device.

I am now seeking to replace the 6021 and given that I already have a business phone, I am not looking at a high end phone but a more mid-range phone with a budget of close to Rs. 12k or lower. However given that I am so far behind the curve, I have shortlisted certain minimum features:

1. Android (ideally 2.2 or worst case 2.1)

2. Decent camera - at least 3 MP (flash would be a plus)

3. Touch screen

4. Ability to play music (given that our only iPod is usually with my daughter)

5. Integration with Social Media (at least Facebook and Twitter)

With the above criteria, I narrowed it down to three choices, Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini, LG Optimus One P500 and the Samsung Galaxy 3 5801. Though the Sony phone has good features and a best in class camera, it supports only Android 1.6 and I think it will be difficult to upgrade the OS and hence will get stuck to an old OS, thus ruling it out of reckoning. Feature for feature, the LG phone has a better spec and has Android 2.2 whereas the Samsung has Android 2.1. My only hesitation is that I have never owned either a LG or a Samsung phone (though I have used Samsung phones in the US on a business trip and they worked fine, however this experience is of 10 years ago with the Samsung flip phones that used to be available at that time), having been a die-hard Nokia user till date. I am tending to veer towards Samsung, however I would really like to hear some positive recommendations for LG which will help me to reach the right decision.

So, can you readers help me to choose ? Please give your opinion via a comment or drop me an email (please note that raving about iPhone / Galaxy Tab / etc. will do you no good since I refuse to spend more than 20k on a phone on principle!).

Thanks in advance!

PS. My prediction is that Nokia will lose market share drastically in 2011 in India since they continue to have an outdated Symbian OS for their high end phones and we can't wait indefiinitely for the Nokia OS to come out (surely it will have glitches the same as any new OS does) while the Android OS and phones mature to the next generation. Also, all Nokia business phones since the E71 do *not* support the Symbian Blackberry application (which is one reason that I continue to use my old E61i)

Updated: Jan 5, 2011:

Looks like I am right in leaning towards Samsung - read this article on CNN.