Continue reading »]]> I was recently browsing through the Amazon store for a new pair of headphones. I have countless pairs of earphones – some of which have great sound quality – but they tend to break so easily and are only goody for light use.

However, whilst browsing, it crossed my mind to have a look at some wireless headphones. I’ve previously known them to be very expensive and many of them seem to have poor build and sound quality.

However, I stumbled across a £24 pair on Amazon that had good reviews and thought I didn’t have much to lose – so I bought a pair.

It’s fair to say – considering the price tag – they’re brilliant. They aren’t branded (so those of you who like to show off their brands – these aren’t for you!), but that never seems to bother me!

The sound quality is relatively good and I was pleasantly surprised. The headphones have decent bass and don’t seem to sound “tinny” in the slightest.

They will happily connect to any Bluetooth audio device in stereo and/or mono (eg PC, iPod touch 2G or above, iPhone, any smartphone, etc) and it’s really simple to get them going. Simply hold down the multifunction key for 7 seconds (when the blue and red LEDs flash) and connect to them as normal.

I was also really impressed by the battery life. I’ve had these headphones for several days now and have used them for hours on end – and they’ve still only been charged once! They usually outrun the battery life of my iPod by miles!!

My only minor complaint is the LEDs on the device. When you’re using the headphones, a blue LED flashes occasionally. Whilst this is fine in a well lit room or outside, it can be irritating if you’re trying to use them in the dark or at night.

Other than that, they’re a fantastic pair of budget wireless headphones and seem to outsmart many of their more expensive competitors. At £24 a pair, you really don’t have much to lose.

Continue reading »]]> Ever since I bought my Samsung N145 (which I love), I’ve always been annoyed with the problem that the built in wireless adapter rarely picks up Wireless N (802.11n) at 150Mbit/s. Instead, it usually picks it up at 65Mbit/s, which can often be annoying when transferring large files over a network.

However, Microsoft released a driver update (via Windows Update) in late August 2011 which seems to have resolved the problem.

It’ll be listed as an optional update in Windows Update. Unfortunately, Microsoft have provided no direct link to download manually. However, I can tell you that the driver ID is 20442151.

Download the update, install, and with any luck the problem should be solved immediately.

Continue reading »]]> I recently decided that, as I use Skype frequently for general phone calls to standard landline calls, I should get a proper Skype headset.

I found the Topcom Butler 4012 on eBay brand new for £14.99, which is a bargain considering that its RRP is about £70.

I have to say I’m very impressed with the handset. It’s really easy to use and works very well. There are a few pros and cons which I’ve outlined below:

Advantages:

• Battery life is very good
• Works very well with Skype using the USB interface
• The drivers work with Windows Vista and Windows 7
• It comes with a selection of ringtones and customizable features
• The sound quality of the calls is very good
• It works just as if it were a normal landline phone
• Wireless range is very good

Disadvantages:

• You have to dial the country code when making a call, even if it is in your local country (ie 0044 before the number in the UK)
• Must be plugged in via USB, no ethernet port
• Comes with EU plug (that is probably just the eBay seller, but it is probably worth mentioning)

Other than that I think it is a product that will prove very handy. I use it frequently now and I have to say it hasn’t played up at all yet.

So if you’re looking for a good value Skype phone, try the Topcom Butler 4012 Skype handset.

Continue reading »]]> Do you have an internet connection or broadband supply, but no wireless router to give you wifi around the home. Well have no fear, because there’s no need to spend £50 on a wireless router if you’ve got a computer of laptop with wifi capabilities. It’ll mean that if you have broadband but not a wireless router, you’ll be able to create a wifi network and get things like an iPod Touch on the internet.

I’m going to show you how to create your own little wifi network using a Vista computer and any wireless hardware. As long as it’s capable of picking up wifi signals, it’ll be able to send them too.

Before you start, make sure your wireless hardware is on, but not connected to any wifi network.

The first thing you need to do is get your wired connection (or source connection) to share it’s internet supply with other connections. To do this, open the Network and Sharing Center, click Manage Network Connections on the left, and then find your source connection. In my case this is the ‘Nokia 3120 classic Bluetooth Modem (OTA)’ connection. You need to right click your source connection and select Properties, as shown below.

When you’ve got to the Properties dialog, you then need to click the Sharing tab, and then follow these instructions. Tick the ‘Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection’ checkbox, and then from the drop down menu, select ‘Wireless Network Connection’. Then, make sure the ‘Allow other network users to control or disable the shared Internet connection’ is also ticked (if not, then tick it), but make sure that ‘Establish a dial-up connection whenever a computer on my network attempts to access the Internet’ is not ticked. If you don’t untick it, you’ll be nagged with dial-up connection requests consistently.

This is what the settings dialog should look like:

OK, so once that looks the same as mine, just click OK. It will probably take a few seconds to respond to you, but that’s normal.

Next what you need to do, is you need to create an ad-hoc wireless connection. To do this, do the following.

Open up the Network and Sharing Center again, and this time click ‘Manage wireless connections’. When the dialog comes up, click the Add button at the top. Then, when it asks ‘How do you want to add a network?’, click ‘Create an ad-hoc network. On the ‘Set up a wireless ad hoc network’ click Next, and then on the next page follow these instructions.

In the ‘Network name’  box, type a name for a network. It can be anything really, but I’d suggest something like WIFI or something simple along those lines. Next, you need to decide whether you want security on the network. I would suggest you do since you don’t want anybody you don’t know on your wifi. Just make sure you remember the code you set. If you live in a rural area where there’s not going to be anyone using your wifi, there probably isn’t much point in setting a wifi code – just do what you think is appropriate.

When you’ve finished choosing security settings, click Save this Network, and then Next.

Your wifi connection is now active. Now get your iPod Touch, or whatever you want to get on WiFi, and then find the wifi network and connect to it.

Hopefully, after you connect, it should work as normal and you should get internet. If you don’t, check your source connections settings again. Remember, you’ll need your computer to be connected to your source connection for this to work properly.

If you do have any problems, post a comment and I’ll investigate for you.

Continue reading »]]> I managed to dig out some money lately to buy a few gadgets and bits of kit, so you’ll probably see a few reviews on various items in the next few days. But first of all, I’ve got this 9DBi wireless router antenna.

I bought it simply because the little antenna that came with my D-Link DSL-2640B doesn’t quite cut it in my house. For some reason, the signal it emits just isn’t powerful enough to cover the whole of my small house, so I decided it was time for an upgrade.

After a quick search around on eBay, I found this. It is really a pretty good deal at just £6.99 so if you are having signal problems, I suggest you get one.

Most routers generally come with either built in antennas or removable ones. You are lucky if you have a removable one, because you can upgrade it. Sadly, built in antennas aren’t replaceable so you’ll just have to live with the poor signal range or just buy a new router.

If you do have a removable antenna on your router, you’ll be glad to know that you can use a wide range of different antennas. The most common type of antenna that is fitted to most routers by default is omnidirectional. This means that they broadcast in all directions – great if your router is in the center of your house but not so great if its in the corner of the house since a good 30-40% of your wireless power will be wasted going through the wall out of your house. You can get antennas that point in one direction, but these are less common and more expensive. Unless you’re really desperate, I’d suggest you stick to omnidirectional.

Another thing you’ll need to understand is the rating of the antenna. Most routers come with an antenna of about 3-5DBi which is fine for a small modern house. However you can get antennas up to about 9DBi which are much more powerful. Bare in mind they are much bigger than 3DBi antennas and you won’t be impressed if you want don’t like the look of your gadgets. F0r example, the one I now have (see eBay link above) is 37.5cm high so it will be quite hard to hide.

They are definitely worth the upgrade though. I am very impressed with mine, as the signal range is much better and I get much fewer disconnections which is good. The only thing I’m a little puzzled about is that my router says to lower the transmit power of the router if I install a high gain antenna – but why should I, doesn’t that just defeat the point of buying a more powerful antenna? Little odd.

Anyway, so yes, if you do experience wireless signal issues try getting a new antenna. Check that you can replace your antenna before you buy one for obvious reasons. If you can, you might find this makes a big difference.

Continue reading »]]> I hate the supplied Tiscali router. It sucks. Port forwarding is stupid, there’s no DynDNS support, and overall it’s just a cheap piece of crud.

So, I decided to go and buy a new one. I needed to ideally stick to a budget of around £50, so I had a search around.

It wasn’t easy to find a router for under £50. I found out that routers are much more expensive than you think. I was rather surprised to be honest. If I’d have upped my budget  to £60 I would have probably found the task much easier – and I was thinking of doing so, until I found this.

Its a D-Link DSL-2640B ADSL2+ Wireless B/G Router. It was £45.84, but Base (the Amazon reseller) was offering free shipping. I took the offer and ordered it right away.

It arrived bright and early this morning (delivery took 6 days – which isn’t too bad as delivery was free), so I unboxed it and got the install CD going. I followed the instructions on the disc, and it was going fine within a couple of minutes.

The router comes with an install CD, an ethernet cable, 2 ADSL filters, and the power adapter.

When it was working, I then did 2 firmware updates which supposedly improved stability and added a couple of new features. Haven’t noticed much difference, but it was working fine anyway so that was no issue to me.

I’ve tested port forwarding, using other DNS servers, and using DynDNS and they all work a treat. Wireless range isn’t the best but it is fast and reliable and I’m not getting any connection drops which is great.

I have noticed that it does get quite hot, but it hasn’t overheated or anything like that so I’m guessing it isn’t going to be a problem.

Overall, I’m really impressed. I got it for £50 with change to spare, so it proves you can get a decent router for under £50. I would recommend this to anyone who needs a good router but who needs to watch the pennies a little. It totally thrashes the Tiscali router, and I’m really happy I bought it.

Nice work D-Link, and thanks to Base for the free delivery which meant I got it for under £50!

Continue reading »]]> Have you ever heard of a wireless webcam for use in the home? No, not one of those spy cameras; I mean just a normal IM webcam for video conversations? Well, if you have a PSP (or a custom firmware one) and a PSP Go!Cam, you may already have one.

A piece of software has been released meaning that the PSP system can use the Go!Cam to send a number of photos over a local wifi connection every second, in theory meaning it is a webcam. It can be used with Windows Live Messenger and Skype.

Sadly, I doubt it is actually legal as it relies on custom firmware, which Sony doesn’t approve of, so I am not going to post a link to it. However, it does show that Sony should really be doing this on the PSP. Why can’t Sony make the PSP work as a webcam – it would be very cool.

If you are a PSP owner, you’ve probably noticed that Sony have been neglecting us slightly in terms of PSP firmware updates. Come on Sony, do something about it!

Continue reading »]]> I’ve just spent 2 hours helping a friend to get Internet Connection Sharing working on Windows XP, and we still haven’t got it done!

He’s just got a Xbox 360 and he’s trying to use ICS to connect the Xbox to his computer via ethernet. In the end we just gave up and I told him to just move his router so he can plug his Xbox directly into the router rather than having to go through the PC and the dreaded Windows Firewall.

But things like this just explain why I don’t use Windows XP anymore (with exception to the very odd occasion). It’s just a pain – with Vista it’s just one click. XP is just not user friendly and its really complicated compared to Vista.

Ok Vista has it’s issues, but come on, why do people hate it so much? Ever since I got my Vista laptop I can’t live without it, and I wish people would just give it a chance.

I’m not going to bother explaining the several procedures we attempted to get it working because we’ll be here forever. But if you’re going to try to connect your Xbox to the internet via your PC… just don’t bother. Get a wireless adapter for the Xbox – I mean go through this and I think you’ll be a little more convinced the £50 is well worth the money. Or at worst, just connect the Xbox direct to your router. Or get Vista .

Just don’t use XP. If you’re still using XP, I really recommend you take another look at Vista – it’s got a hell of a lot better since launch.