Diary Revisions: 2010-03-29
Monday, March 29th, 2010Today, I either added or modified the following posts in the Tom’s Diary blog for improved brevity, clarity, categorization, decreased spelling errors, appearance, and search-ability:
Archive for March 29th, 2010
Improving iPod Touch WiFi
Monday, March 29th, 2010Well, friends, I’m sorry to report that unless you’re an engineering genius or are willing to take apart your iPod Touch to connect an external WiFi antenna (they do not provide an externally accessible port for this), there’s not much you can do at the iPod end to significantly improve its WiFi performance without negatively impacting the portability and usability of the iPod Touch. In fact, you can get far better results by modifying your WiFi network as follows:
Keep In Line Of Sight
What you can do with relative ease though, and what I have done in fact, is to assure that the iPod Touch is always in line-of-sight of the WiFi access point (WAP). It works most flawlessly when you’ve got it in the same room as your WAP. But if you’re using the Touch outside, then ideally, you’d want to place your WAP outside as well, or at least, to put an antenna out there that’s connected to the WAP. Avoid trees in the line between the WAP and the iPod Touch if possible. But don’t worry if you can’t; the signal still gets through the trees, though they will weaken it somewhat depending on their density. So, trees will reduce how far away from the WAP you can go without losing the WiFi signal.
Use Directional Antennas
Still though, even with a full-power (1 watt) WAP, you’ll do well if you get continuous WiFi connectivity beyond 300 Ft. with omni directional antennas on your WAP. Now you could buy directional, high-gain parabolic or yagi antennas and point these in the direction you’d like the best WiFi service. I haven’t actually tried this yet due to the cost of the devices, lightening arresters, and cables. But research indicates that such antennas can dramatically increase the strength and range of the signal in the direction you point them.
Keep Antenna Cables As Short As Possible
Should you decide to employ external antennas of any type, it’s imperative at WiFi frequencies (2.4 Ghz.) to use no more antenna cable between the access point and the antenna than you have to. At these frequencies, antenna cables reduce the signal that reaches the antenna by a ghastly amount if more than a few meters long.
Make a Repeater
Or you could purchase another WAP and configure it as a WiFi repeater, and place it where you want good service. As long as the repeater gets a reliable signal from the original (root) WAP, it will repeat well. I got some great success with this technique (discussed here). Keep in mind though that the presence of a repeater on your WiFinetwork will effectively halve the network’s effective bandwidth capability. So, employ this solution only if 27 mega bits per second (half of the wireless-G bandwidth of 54 mbps) still meets your network requirements. For most Internet radio listening or web browsing, this is sufficient. If you have a spare WAP you can use for this but it’s firmware does not support the repeater function, you might be able to install the dd-wrt firmware on the WAP. This program has repeater options built in.
Make Another WiFi Network
Or, if you’re put off by the repeater solution as I was, but you’d still like to employ your extra access point, then put it near where you’ll most likely connect to the Internet with your Touch, and configure it as a different SSID (a different WiFi network). Of course, you’ll need to get the Internet from your primary Internet router to the WAP. You can run Ethernet cable if possible. If not, you can utilize your power lines to carry the Ethernet signals from your house to wherever you place the WAP outside. However, these are somewhat costly.
Put The WAP Close By
Whether you go the repeater or second-network roots described above, locate the access point serving the desired area as close to that area as possible. Devices with internal antennas (such as the iPod Touch) prefer very strong WiFi signals to eliminate connection drops, especially if you wish to move around with them like me, say, on a riding lawn tractor or swinging with them in a pavilion. A WAP within a hundred feet will do much to ensure against unwanted pauses in audio and video streams playing over the network on these devices.
Summary
In short, you can most effectively extend the operational WiFi range of your iPod Touch. But your best bet is to do so by manipulating the network equipment surrounding the iPod, and not the iPod itself. They may come out at some point with WiFirange boosters for the Touch, such as what you can buy for cell phones. But until them, the above suggestions can help significantly.
Related Posts
- Improving Pavilion WiFi #1
- Improving Pavilion WiFi #2
- iPod Touch Has Weak Wifi
- Today’s Business: 2010-03-29
Classics For Pleasure
Monday, March 29th, 2010Title: Classics for Pleasure
Author: Michael Dirda
NLS Book #: DB-66597
Reading Time: 12 hours, 12 minutes.
05:00 PM: Started this book this afternoon. This is a collection of essays about ninety authors and their works, who wrote what is now regarded as fringe classic literature. I say “fringe” because as I understand the introduction, this author intentionally avoided mentioning the extremely authors (like Shakespeare and Plato) and opted for equally as enjoyable yet less well-known writers. This should expose me to many works I’ve never heard of before that might be well worth reading.
Related Posts
- Today’s Business: 2010-03-29
- Today’s Business: 2010-03-30
- Today’s Business: 2010-03-31
- Today’s Business: 2010-04-01
- Today’s Business: 2010-04-02
- Today’s Business: 2010-04-03
- Today’s Business: 2010-04-07
- Today’s Business: 2010-04-08
- Today’s Business: 2010-04-09
- Today’s Business: 2010-04-10
- Today’s Business: 2010-04-16
Today’s Business: 2010-03-29
Monday, March 29th, 2010Today’s Activities
- Shower. DONE.
- Cat duty. DONE.
- Pay all (4) pending bills. IN PROGRESS.
- Set up automatic monthly bill payments for Mom’s medical insurance premiums. IN PROGRESS.
Log
09:00 AM: I’m up. My weight did not change from yesterday. It’s still 173.5 Lbs. See here for a summary of the progress on this goal so far in 2010.
09:30 AM: Listened to more of the Best African American Essays: 2009 book overnight.
11:30 AM: Created audio journal episode: AJE-2010-03-29-11-13.
02:00 PM: Finished reading the Best African American Essays: 2009 book this afternoon.
03:15 PM: Posted three articles for Ellen Goldfon to the WPSBC Alumni Association web site.
04:00 PM: Began a new book: Classics for Pleasure. But it’s nap time now.
05:00 PM: I’m up again.
05:25 PM: Created an [Emmy] category on this, the Tom’s Diary blog. All posts that mention [Emmy], that are about her, or are letters to her, can now be found there
05:40 PM: Mom burned some toast (again), and I had to air out the upstairs here. It’s a good thing that it’s not very cold today.
08:30 PM: Watched the 2010-01-31 and 2010-02-07 episodes of NBC’s Meet The Press, as well as today’s episode of The Young and the Restless on the DVR.
08:45 PM: Recorded audio journal episode: AJE-2010-03-29-20-39.
10:15 PM: Talked with [Emmy]. Tonight found her in exceptionally good spirits, and I love chatting with her when this positive dispositions lites on her.
11:15 PM: Posted the Improving iPod Touch WiFi piece.
12:30 AM: iPodded for the past hour and a half. Listened to mostly 1970s and 1980s pop music.
12:35 AM: Now, I’m off to bed, probably to read for a bit before going to sleep. In any event, I’ll not be back on here tonight. So, good night to my readers, and I’ll write more tomorrow. Pleasant dreams.
Received Mail and Shipments
- Spring, 2010 Independent Living Aids catalog.
- Credit card offer from Chase bank. No thanks.
- Mom’s monthly medicine plan usage statement.
- Blair Senior Service, Senior Scope newsletter.
- 1 credit card bill for Mom.
- 1 Bill for Mom’s recent diabetic testing supplies.
- Mom’s pension pay stub.
- The 2010-03-04 issue of Promo Only’s EADFF music series.
- The 2010-03 issue of The Writer magazine.
- Gas bill ($305.89).
Related Posts
Today’s Diet: 2010-03-29
Monday, March 29th, 2010Today, I consumed the following items:
- Peppermint tea and diet caffeine-free Pepsi throughout the day. 0 calories.
- 01:00 PM: 1.5 cups oatmeal. 450 calories.
- 01:00 PM: Parmesan, provolone, and mozzarella Cheese. 300 calories.
- 01:00 PM: 2 cups V8 juice. 100 calories.
- 06:00 PM: 2 cups V8 juice. 100 calories.
- 07:00 PM: 2 bowls Cheerios, organic cane sugar, and organic skim milk. 800 calories.
- 07:00 PM: Multivitamin. 0 calories.
Total calories: 1750.