Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with internet

My brain hurts. So what's new?

miss lynnster — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:28:58 -0800

The title sequences and credits are looking blurry on the videos I'm posting to WordPress. I need to find out the tricks to posting the best quality video possible to my blog, but I'm new to this. Help! To show you what I'm talking about, look at the video that's currently on the front page of my site. See how the titles and credits look like crap? It's KILLING me. (Don't judge the video please. Yes, I've ordered a tripod. Don't have one yet.) I've searched the web for advice on this but haven't found any tips yet.

I'd never done this stuff before so I've been learning everything the hard way. I'm using the Modularity theme from Graph Paper Press, and it has a function to "post HD video." They say to take a MOV and save it as a FLV. I created the movie in imovie and then saved it for web (should I save it as something else? I liked the sound quality better on the "CD" format, but it was a larger file). I downloaded Sorenson Squeeze to try various formats of FLV. The file got SO much larger after it was turned into an FLV that I couldn't upload it to wordpress... I can only upload things that are less than 8MB. So that was frustrating. I tried 1MB, 2mb, 768, 512... this particular video was saved as "medium."

Since I'm a graphic designer at heart, this blurry type is physically paining me. I want to get better at this stuff so down the road it can look really good, clean, crisp, and sound nice too. Thanks in advance for your expertise. :)

Laptop connects to wireless network but not to internet

criticalbill — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 03:50:55 -0800

Laptop (running Vista) connects to home wireless network full strength but not to internet. The other laptop (OS X) connects to internet wirelessly no problem. The Vista laptop can connect the internet via ethernet cable. This seems to be a common problem but i cannot find an appropriate solution The Vista laptop is not new, but it is new to my house; it connected to a wireless network previously.

Things I have discovered while looking through replies to similar questions: The Vista laptop has been assigned the correct IP number (which has a different last digit to the OS X one). DHCP is enabled. Node type is Hybrid. The wireless adapter driver is working. When I try to ipconfig /release it tells me: The requested operation requires elevation.

Too many netbooks!

Petrot — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:21:31 -0800

So I'm looking for a netbook. I know there are many comparisons online, and questions asked on here, but I'm drowning under the amount of reviews and the different type of netbooks. Especially as there seem to be new ones coming out each month. So which one would be best for me currently? I'm really looking for personal recommendations please, but any advice would be grateful.

I'm not too concerned with battery life, as most places I go have power points somewhere, but a good battery life would be useful just in case.

Nor am I too worried about HD size. I'm happy to live with between 40-80GB if necessary.

Size of screen isn't that important, as long as it's large enough not to have to squint at webpages.

What I really, really want: VERY GOOD internet/wireless, and all aspects thereof.

Also it should be fairly fast (is that the CPU etc? Never too sure...)

I'm hopefully looking to pay between £100-£200 although a little above that is manageable.

Is there a netbook that currently suits my needs? Thanks in advance!

Latency? This. Is. Infiniteloop!

selfnoise — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:28:23 -0800

Help me try and fix my mother's weird internet/Mac Mini issue. So, my mother has a Mac Mini. This is one of the older PowerPC ones... no wireless. It's connected via a cat5 cable to a ZyXel wireless router, which is then connected to a DSL modem. The problem she has is a delay between requesting a webpage and having it start to load (in any web browser). Since I am a Windows user, I don't know much about Macs, so I am at a loss.

Pertinent factoids:

-When I go to dslreports.com and run a speed test, I get a latency of between 500-900ms, which seems really high.

-When I ping google.com from within OS X's network dialog, however, the latency looks normal.

-My netbook and another Windows PC can connect wirelessly without this issue. I also connected my netbook to the router using the same cat5 cable; no issue.

-I tried setting the DNS servers to opendns instead of the default; no change.

Apparently the system did not originally have this issue. Any ideas?

How's carsdirect.com?

Pocahontas — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:35:50 -0800

Anyone buy a car through carsdirect.com? Please tell me your experiences with an internet car dealer like carsdirect.com (as opposed to a dealer that's on the internet).

I'm not clear how using carsdirect.com is different from going to a dealership. Also, was it a pleasant experience, i.e. no haggling and were you satisfied with the process over going into a dealership to buy a car? Would you do it again?

Comcast or U-Verse for an Internet Addict

still_wears_a_hat — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:29:17 -0800

So how does U-Verse's internet service compare to Comcast's? Not in print, where they're identical, but in reality? Almost just in time for this question, I started looking into U-Verse as an alternative to Comcast for digital TV/VCR. U-Verse would definitely give me more of what I want in TV, but I'm concerned about the internet. Much as I dislike Comcast, I can't complain about the internet speed, reliability, or even support, and if AT+T isn't going to be as good, I'll stick with Comcast for everything. Getting TV from one and internet from the other is more hassle (and money) than I'm willing to deal with.

My Comcast service claims 10MPBS; I usually get around 7, which is fine for me. AT+T's small print says "speed may vary and is not guaranteed" (as does Comcast's) as well as saying that using other U-Verse services may reduce internet speed.

I'd like the AT+T TV package, but not if it means that I can't play games and listen to music while recording something on the DVR, or if it means that my internet will be overall slower, flaky, or badly supported.

I've looked at the various broadband and U-Verse forums, but am not finding the info I want, which is just - how does AT+T's U-Verse internet service compare to Comcast's for speed (assuming the AT+T 10MBPS option), reliability and support.

I'm in southeast Michigan, if that makes any difference.

Looking for websites where children can create (and print) an art project or picture on-line.

JoannaC — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:43:35 -0800

Looking for websites where children can create (and print) an art project or picture on-line. I am running a summer computer camp program for kids and need some options for students who are burned out on Kid Pix. many of them use it during the school year and want to try something different. There is a website I have used before where children can design their own 'wild self' on-line and print it http://www.buildyourwildself.com/ I am looking for other websites like this where students can make/create other things. I would prefer if they were relatively ad-free (or else, the ads are unobtrusive) but the main priority is a quality activity where children will finish it with a nice picture they can print and take home. I have googled, but am having trouble finding quality stuff! Ideas?

How can I maximize my laptop's ability to pick up wireless signal?

btkuhn — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:25:00 -0800

How can I maximize my laptop's ability to pick up wireless signal? Hi everyone,

I don't have regular internet access at the moment because I am traveling and staying at a (crappy) hotel for 2-3 months. Dialup is not an option because of the way the hotel's phones are set up - they are digital and I wold get charged for making calls anyways. My hotel doesn't have wireless internet but a nearby apartment complex does. I can just barely connect to their network on a good day, but it cuts in and out because I am on the outer bounds of the network. I have permission to use the wireless network, but I am just barely out of range. What is the best way to strengthen things on my end?

I have already borrowed a friend's Wireless USB network adapter - the one pictured here - which is about as strong as a wireless card you can buy, but it doesn't seem to pick up signal much better. I am reading stuff about making a coffee can directional antenna or pringles can antenna, but these would both involve building something, which I don't really have the tools for at my current location. Also, I don't understand how I would connect the antenna to the computer itself anyways. My laptop has an internal wireless antenna (like most laptops) with no external connector, and the Belkin doesn't have an external connector either.

So, what is the best way to expand my wireless pickup ability? I am willing to purchase additional products if necessary.

Thanks!

They can take my internet when they...you know the rest.

Jazz Hands — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:28:44 -0800

So, money is tight for many of us, my household not excepted. Belts are tightened as much as possible. Nearly all entertainment expenses cut, but we aren't giving up internet access, no way, no how. But I'm in such a rut, I haven't found anything new and interesting in ages! The post in the blue about the Sims3 blog "Alice and Kev" is what is prompting me to search out the new and interesting.

Now tell me what I should be entertaining myself with online. I like horror, sci-fi, comics, geography, trivia, history. I like to read works-in-progress stories, blogs, comic strips.

Note: I have read similar posts from the AskMefi past, and have gotten some suggestions. Oh CakeWrecks, how you amuse me so! Sites I do check out frequently: Metafilter(obviously), DailyKos, Sporcle, TWoP, several news sites, Daily Show, ColbertNation, and then just a few friends' personal blogs. See how limited my experience is?

Sharing a 3G connection

hungrysquirrels — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 12:05:26 -0800

Home networking: sharing 3G connection on XP... I've gone through some articles and stuff but still can't get it to work. Could use some help.

My desktop connects to the internet using a USB stick, which uses 3G as my internet connection. I want to share this access with my netbook so my roommate and I can be online at the same time.

The host:
Desktop running XP
Wireless and CAT5 capability not currently being used
USB 3G stick

The client:
Netbook running XP
Wireless and CAT5 capability not currently being used

I have a CAT5 hub with some cables, and a wireless router at my disposal. Wireless would be preferred, ad-hoc I think might be ideal.

I had them connected through the hub earlier, could ping each other, but still couldn't get the netbook to access the web.

I've setup home networks, wired and wireless, a couple of times, but that was using a typical broadband modem. I don't know the intricacies when the modem is USB.

If there's any clarification questions, and I don't reply, it's because I screwed things up again.

So, network gurus, what would you do? I may just be approaching it from the wrong angle, if it is actually doable.

Internet TV w/ Closed Captions?

Yakuman — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 22:17:23 -0800

Is there a Slingbox-like device that will let me send a broadcast TV signal to myself, including closed captions?

SSH through the AS12880 / DCI Iranian government-run firewall?

thewalrus — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:54:42 -0800

Iranian firewallfilter: How to make SSH traffic not resemble SSH traffic, when examined by a deep packet inspection device (Ellacoya, Narus, etc)? Other advice on specific types of VPN from within Iran also welcome. I've been following the news about Iranian Internet censorship for a few years now, but obviously started paying more attention in the last couple of weeks. There's two interesting papers examining AS12880 (DCI)'s Internet transit from Arbor Networks:

Iranian Traffic Engineering

Deeper Look at the Iranian Firewall

Misc:

Robtex page examining AS12880's uplinks to the world

Rense page, strange changes in Iranian Internet transit

What I'm wondering specifically is methods which can be taken to make SSH traffic look -less- like SSH traffic. Assume that a person inside Iran has root on a European-colocated FreeBSD or Linux system (or root on a VPS/Virtual Machine) running the latest OpenSSH. The sshd would of course be listening for incoming connections on a nonstandard port, it could be any port, or multiple different ports. If I remember right OpenSSH now defaults to SSH2/AES but can also use Blowfish. Are there any methods that can be used to disguise the initial SSH handshake and packet headers? Any special tricks from the client software end, assuming that the client (OSX or Linux) can run any ssh client that will compile on it?

Is VPN traffic (Cisco, or Juniper-Netscreen SSL-VPN) less likely to trigger flags or get blocked than SSH?

Does anyone have firsthand or secondhand experience of Windows Remote Desktop / RDP 5.1 being blocked from within Iran?

How to make the Mac play nice with my Sansa?

reenum — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:44:49 -0800

How to sync Macbook with a non-iPod MP3 player? I have a Sansa e250, and I love it. I also love my new Mac. However, I've been having a small issue with syncing music onto the Sansa.

On my old Windows machine, I used to have a Sansa folder on my hard drive and then would just sync both folders each week using a program called Allway Sync, which removed listened to MP3's and added on the new stuff I'd downloaded that week.

With the Mac, I can't find a similar program, possibly due to the dominance of iTunes.

So, Hive Mind, is there a program or method I can use to get this functionality on my Mac?

Photo Contest Set-up Help Needed

SuperErin — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 15:30:40 -0800

PhotoFilter: I need to create a monthly photo contest for my clients to participate in. Help me find the easiest way to do this. I've already seen this question, but it is from 2007, and I know things have changed many times since then. I looked at the two programs suggested, but would prefer something online that I don't have to upload to my website.

I'd like to just set the thing up, give out a link, and have my clients upload photos of their dogs and vote on the best each month. I'd prefer an actual voting mechanism, rather than just writing "vote" in the comments.

I'd prefer free, or at least inexpensive for me, free for my clients to use.

I've googled this, but there's a lot of junk to slog through, so I was hoping to get some Mefite expertise!

Thanks in advance.

Usernames, trademarks, and Facebook. Help!

krisken — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:57:26 -0800

Usernames, trademarks, and Facebook. Someone e-mailed my friend, saying that he owned the trademark to his name and has the right to demand that he turn over his username to him. He appears to be a wannabe French pop star, and his MySpace music site is here.

Here is the message:

"Hi,
We're sorry to contact you for this subject. But, we're the owner of the (NAME) trademark and we have the rights to demand everypeople using (NAME) trademark not to use it even in Facebook. to develop the singer (NAME) we need to set up a officiel facebook and we'd like to use now the www.facebook.com/name We will be most grateful if you can change your login and password to communique it to us to get the facebook address back to us. it will be better and we will not need to contact facebook directly. if you don't ask to us, we will contact facebook to defend our rights. thank you for your understanding. don't hesitate to contact us for any questions. best regards, (NAME) productions."

Um, can they actually do this? I know nothing about international trademark laws or Facebook Terms of Service on this topic, but it seems cruel that my friend would have to give up his username to a guy who only has 5000 hits on his MySpace and sings "i dream of laying my love in you."

Thanks for your help.

Montreal move in two weeks and so disconnected

nosila — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:42:54 -0800

I'm moving to Montreal (!) from the U.S. and need help with the tech-side of my move. Specifically, I'm seeking internet/cell phone provider recommendations. I'm having a hard time choosing an internet and a cell provider in Montreal. Can anyone with experience recommend either or both? I'll be there for at least three years and am willing to sign a contract for cell/internet if the terms are good. I would like to spend no more than about $75/month for either one, and cheaper is, of course, always better.

Internet: I do a lot of uploading/downloading because I collaborate with people on audio projects via the internet, so I use sort of a lot of bandwidth. I'd say 50 GB/month is the minimum. For the same reason, I require a pretty fast connection to maintain my sanity. I don't plan on having a land line, so cable is probably my best option, though I'm open to others.

Right now I'm thinking either Skynet, which looks pretty great, or Vidéotron, whose website is currently down for maintenance. (This does not bode well for them.)

Cell service: Is anyone in Quebec happy with theirs? I will probably be using Skype to call the U.S. and make calls at home, but I definitely need a cell plan as well. I don't need tons of minutes; 250-500 or so should suffice. I'm thinking of getting a Blackberry or, more likely, an iPhone, so info on good data plans would be nice also.

So far, Fido looks like the best option for me. Does anyone have experience with them? Other recommendations? I've read forum threads, etc., but I trust you guys the most.

Any other helpful info on moving to Montreal, logistical or otherwise, would be a lovely bonus. Thanks so much!

I want you to un-fix my internet!

gakiko — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:47:20 -0800

I have a TP-Link TL-WR340GD router and 2 PCs: one of them is connected to the router through wireless, the other through a LAN cable. I'd like my router to cut off my internet every day at some fixed hour without me changing anything on the 2 PCs. Is this even possible? Of course, I'd like the router to give me back my daily internet at some (later) hour, preferably again without my intervention.

Collateral damage is acceptable: I don't use the local network for anything, so it doesn't matter if the PCs can't see each other, and it doesn't matter if the wireless function of the router is disabled.

I'm also ok with running a sort of script from my PC every day, if that's what it takes. Both machines run on WinXP.

It's more important to disinternetify the cabled machine, the one connecting through wireless is not so problematic.

Print This Site

ageispolis — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 14:58:52 -0800

Can I force a "print view" on sites that do not have such a feature? I want to print some blog posts and was wondering if there is a script or something for my browser that would allow me to get a "Print View" of the post, even if that feature is not built into the blog itself. News sites allow you to do this through an actual URL that takes you to a printable version of the article (like this), but most other websites do not provide this feature. It would be much easier to just hit a button on my browser than copy/paste into a word processor. Any suggestions?

Cable line mystery

Anonymous — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:03:20 -0800

Someone's been disconnecting/cutting the internet cable wire that runs into my apartment. Why would they do this and what can I/should I do about it? About a month ago, my internet stopped working. I called my cable company and they sent a technician over. We both went up to my roof (which is always open) and saw that someone had disconnected my cable line. He didn't know why and couldn't find a reason so he added a splitter to one of them and reconnected mine.

Last week, the internet was dead again. I suspected someone had disconnected it again so I took my time going up to the roof to check it out. I went yesterday with a friend and found that the line had been cut cleanly in several places. What's going on and what do I do now? Who's responsibility is this - the cable company for having an unsecured line system or my building management for not having better security?

Some other facts:

- The lines were a huge mess up there, tangled every which way and totally unsecured. The cable guy said one day they will have to send someone to reconnect the whole thing.

- I live on the top floor of my apartment building. The cable line runs down the side of my building from the roof into my apartment through a hole near the window. This is obviously seen.

- My building is managed by a company; the actual landlord lives somewhere on the east coast. My super lives a few blocks away and is probably my only contact regarding the building.

- The door to my apartment building is often left open. I have lived here for about a year now - my neighborhood is very safe and I have never thought much about complaining. It's a small building - 9 apartments- so it seems like everyone trusts each other.

- I have been connecting on stolen wireless for the time being. My wildest idea is that someone wants me to use their stolen wireless so that they can steal my identity? Sounds too far-fetched.

What do you guys think, hive mind?

Can I get tornando warnings through email or text?

nadawi — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 19:41:04 -0800

Is there a service that will text or email tornado warnings to me? i don't watch tv. i only listen to the radio on the work commute. i'm not sure that i'll hear the sirens. it got me thinking - is there an internet warning solution?

i'm in owasso, oklahoma

Travelplan2.0

mr.marx — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 10:59:41 -0800

Looking for a website that helps me plan a 5-day vacation in detail. A lot of travel websites out there, but all of them seem focused on either a) booking and price hunting, or b) diaries.

I'd like to think there's a site that let's me add all the restaurants, sights, shops and events I find researching an upcoming trip (NYC if it matters) so I can make a day-by-day plan, complete with maps and notes.

Is there such a website? Or do you have any other suggestions on how I could plan our trip in an easy way?

Extra points for suggestions that let's me keep a mobile version of the schedule online.

Pimp my CSS please. Before I kill myself.

miss lynnster — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 11:34:41 -0800

I'm a designer and usually people do programming for me. I'm trying to teach myself how to customize Word Press themes all by myself though... and I thought I was doing pretty well. But then I had people look at it in other browsers. Yuck. Apparently it loads slowly for other people at times, the slideshow doesn't go all the way across, just all sorts of crap. I tried to do verification and there are a bunch of errors. I need to figure this out and move on!

I just really don't know how to fix any of these things. I was already proud of myself just for figuring out how to do the new stuff I've already done. My head hurts.

Can you help?

Oh, and the theme I customized for this was "Modularity" by Graph Paper Press.

What happened to The American Heritage Dictionary?

cgc373 — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:03:39 -0800

Does anyone know what happened to Bartleby.com's edition of The American Heritage Dictionary? It used to be at http://www.bartleby.com/61/ and now it's gone. It was there less than a month ago. It would be a shame to lose one of the most useful free resources on the 'net without good reason.

How can I find out if an online friend has died?

liesbyomission — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:49:11 -0800

I believe an online friend may have died, but I am not sure. I know relatively few details, but I am wondering if there is some sort of obituary or death record search I could use to confirm my suspicion. He lived in Massachusetts and his name was Matt. He was somewhere between 18-24 years of age, and I believe he may have died at the beginning of May. He suddenly disappeared and stopped responding to emails, which is very unlike him.

I found Rootsweb in a previous post, but I don't know enough information for it to be of use. If anyone knows another place to search, it would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Why are there so many French internet radio stations?

bugbread — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 07:25:25 -0800

Why are there so many French internet radio stations? On iTunes, they seem vastly disproportionate. Is there a legal reason, a historical reason, or something else?