Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with internet

I like pretty pictures to LOOK pretty!

miss lynnster — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:27:48 -0800

Most awesome, pretty and easy to figure out Flickr image gallery plug-in for Word Press? I'm having some photographers and artists provide content for my LA site, and I want to make sure they're displayed in the most graphically appealing and easy (to navigate as well as to set up) way. I'm not a programmer so I tend to like the plugins that have all sorts of cool features without me having to create them.

Up until now I've been using Picasna for Picasa, and I liked the Lightboxy gallery that it uses but I really am not thrilled with the way the image gallery shows up in the post before you click on it to view the images up close.

Thanks in advance for all of your advice. :)

Fair salary for a "Usability Testing Assistant"

the jam — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:42:15 -0800

Asking for a friend: I've been offered a position as a "Usability Testing Assistant" at an established, medium-sized (50-75 employees) web company, and now I need to provide them with salary requirements. In this position, I would report directly to the Usability Testing Director. My responsibilities would include recruiting test participants, running all tests, and communicating to the company's developers insights and feedback from the tests. I've found salary ranges for a "Usability Tester" (60k-70k), but I'm not sure if that would directly apply to me, or if this position would be considered more junior. What is an appropriate salary range for my new position? Concrete numbers or links for more research would be much appreciated!

Who has Clear WiMax?

falconred — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:52:18 -0800

Is the new-fangled Clear WiMax low latency enough for gaming? Clear WiMax has come to my town and is attractively priced compared to my current cable provider.

My only hesitation is latency issues. Searching Google, there is conflicting information regarding whether Clear's latency is better or worse than a cable internet connection. I do a lot of online gaming so latency is a big deal. With high latency, starvosthewonderchicken might finally be able to kick my butt in TF2, and that would make me sad.

I know I can go "test drive" Clear before I buy, but I wanted to know if anyone here has real life experience using Clear WiMax?

What is a security key for a wireless connection?

jaruwaan — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:37:43 -0800

My new computer can find our wireless router; it asks for a "security key" in order to connect. What is a security key? I bought a new Dell laptop, Windows 7. The icon in the tray shows a connection to our router. I clicked that thinking I would just need to enter our password. Wrong!

It does show the name of the internet connection we set up, and that the signal is strong. The only prompt is for a security key, which does not accept either the password or pass phrase that were created for this connection.

Is the security key something related to the actual router (Netgear)? The modem (Time Warner cable)? And how do I find it, whatever/where ever it is? Halp!

Internet killed the radio star

bunny hugger — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:07:09 -0800

What are some jobs that the Internet is killing, or making obsolete? I know some but am looking for more.

Internet art?

yegga — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:43:21 -0800

Internet art? I'm looking for internet art and the people behind them. To be clearer, ideas that can be put together only in the age of the internet. I mean art of the kind here: Internet Art, net.art, the work of Aaron Koblin, Golan Levin, Ze Frank.

Collectives/groups also welcome.

Most of the above are from the US, please show me some international flavors too.

Help, I need a stronger wifi signal!

OuttaHere — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:53:19 -0800

Help! I live in a basement and need a stronger Wi-Fi Connection! I live in a Basement of a townhome and pay for internet which my landlord provides via Wi-Fi.

The problem is that he has the router on the third floor of the house, and I am in the basement. It probably doesn't help that it is an old building, so there is a lot of brick and mortar. Anyways, he uses Comcast so in order for us to have a land line in our residence we would have to pay for a completely new cable package/modem etc.

In my room I am getting like 25% signal, 2 bars out of 5 pretty much, and get a really shitty and slow connection. If I move my computer out to the main room my speed and connection increases 10 fold.

Anyway, I'm not the greatest with this kind of tech stuff so I was wondering if people out there had options for me. I haven't talked to my landlord about it but wanted to confront him with some options.

Anyone have ideas, especially if you are familiar with comcast. Are those "Range Extenders" worth it? Can you add a router to a lower level somehow to increase the range? Is there anything comcast can do?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

How to send a fax via internet without a phone line or number?

Violet Hour — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:01:51 -0800

I need to send a fax, right now, without a phone line or a fax machine. I'm applying for a job and the only way specified to send a resume is via fax.

I don't want to sign up for a plan. I don't want to pick out a number, which makes something like efax not what I want. What I want to be able to do is go to a webpage, have a way to browse my harddrive from it, pick out the document I want, and send it to a number I specify. I do not need or want to be able to receive faxes, only send them.

I need it to be pay-as-I go or free, but it cannot have ads or look tacky (since it's for a job application).

I'm finding it hard to believe that something like this does not exist, but everything I can find wants me to sign up for a plan or wants me to have a phone line hooked up to my computer, which I don't.

So far the best option I'm seeing is faxitnice, but I can't tell if it has ads.

Help?

Thesis topics related to the Internet

metametababe — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:40:39 -0800

Looking for a thesis topic related to the internet and society...please help give me some direction! I'm looking for Masters thesis topics related to the internet. The topic can be anything related to the internet, from the impact of Tor on Burma to peer production methods in Wikipedia to internet security.

What questions do you have about the Internet that you wish someone would take a year and some research funds to answer?

(Any other resources you may have on generating research questions from vague ideas would be VERY helpful. (I did a search, of course, but didn't find very much.))

Please suggest books, movies or shows like Bel Canto

reenum — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:44:26 -0800

I loved the plot of Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. Any recommendations for similar books, shows, or movies? I loved how Patchett's book showed hostages and hostage takers forming a sort of community within their besieged compound.

I also remember an essay with a similar theme by P.J. O'Rourke. It involved him being stuck in a hotel with a bunch of foreign correspondents during a bombing and talked about how they coped.

Any suggestions?

Know any good blogs by high school or college age females?

Joe Beese — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:14:46 -0800

Know any good blogs by high school or college age females? It's character research for NaNoWriMo. Videos are fine too.

Setting Up Filemaker Databases on an External Hosting Site

lifeofthunder — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:59:16 -0800

Filemaker Filter. I need help publishing a database to a leased server- preferably in the way that my boss can access it on his iPhone. My boss wants to access and modify his client list from his iPhone- and it's all in a Filemaker 10 database. He's got basic website hosting at Hostway (which inconveniently enough is the most difficult hosting interface in the world), and he wants to use that plan as a jumping off point for this entire process.

We've got a copy of Filemaker Server 10 (as well as FM10 Advanced, of course), but it appears to be all about Web Publishing locally to an Apache server- can't this all just get hosted simply online? Is there a SQL solution?

Thanks, as always, are in advance.

Why are browser-based videos so slow on my computer?

dephlogisticated — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:22:11 -0800

Why are browser-based videos so slow on my computer? I can play high-quality video files off of my hard drive without any difficulty. But watching a video a fraction of the size and resolution in my browser (such as a Youtube video) results in constant skipping and stuttering, even after the video has loaded completely. Why is this? Is there anything I can do to fix it, short of a hardware upgrade?

Is Wordpress right for us?

mahoganyslide — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:20:58 -0800

I'm constructing two websites that display the progress of social science research currently underway. I need a system that allows ease of use for all involved student researchers. Is Wordpress the way to go? One of the projects had its own HTML/CSS website but the researchers were frustrated with having to go to the webmaster in order to make even the slightest changes. The webmaster then converted the website into a wiki (via MediaWiki). Although this alternative allows for easy modification, it is limited when it comes to posting multimedia content and tweaking the interface.

I recently took over the web aspect of the projects and believe that Wordpress-based websites will be the best compromise in terms of being easy to modify but being flexible enough to allow for more than just text (I have handy widgets in mind, google maps, youtube videos, etc). Unfortunately, my knowledge of Wordpress only extends to what I've picked up from various blogs raving about this platform.

My concerns are:
-will it be easy for student researches with no coding experience to login from any browser and manipulate the content? (I don't need to worry about various permissions so one login ID will suffice)
-how easy is it manipulate a standard Wordpress website that is best suited for blogs into a static page with text and pictures/videos?
-am I right to think that Wordpress is better than a wiki platform when it comes to posting multimedia content such as youtube videos?
-how does a Wordpress site handle flash animations?

I basically want to make sure that Wordpress is the better alternative to wikis and HTML websites for student researchers with no coding experience, but who can manipulate content on a web interface as if it were their facebook page.

If not, what else is out there?

Need. Internet. Back.

Beardman — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:57:33 -0800

Why can't I connect to the internet anymore? Is customer service giving me a plausible explanation? Our home internet connection has been down all weekend. We use a new and speedy 24" iMac. When we try to connect to PPPoE, it just says "Connecting...Connecting...Connecting" and finally says that it can't connect to the server. No amount of power cycles and restarts make a difference. This has happened once before, a few months ago, and changing the access password with the ISP solved the problem (until Friday).

Our apartment sucks and there is only one working phone jack, which is in an inconvenient location. Thus, we run a 15 foot phone cord from it to a normal telephone cord splitter, from which a 10 foot (filtered) telephone cord goes to the modem, and a second cord goes to our telephone.

Yesterday, my ISP's customer service guy said that the phone cord from the wall to the modem has to be 6 feet or less, or else it'll be unreliable. He correctly surmised that we often have connection issues (i.e. sometimes it says "Authenticating..." for a long time), although never before recently has it totally failed to connect, and for a couple of years we never even had the long authentication issue either.

When I told him that this issue has previously been solved by a password change, he tried that again and it didn't solve the problem. I asked him why, if the cord length is the issue, we were able to have the same setup for years without a problem. He replied that the cord can deteriorate over time.

Various forums online debate whether the length of the phone cord has anything to do with internet speed or connection reliability. Does it? Could the problem be that I'm using that splitter? Does it matter where the splitter is--i.e. should the splitter only be at the wall jack, or can I have it where it is, after the first 15 foot cord? Should I do as my ISP suggests, and either (1) replace the telephone cords that go to the modem with new ones (to solve the supposed "deterioration" problem), or (2) try to rig it up with a 6 foot cord and then a really long ethernet cable (to solve the supposed "long phone cord" problem)?

Thanks for any advice you can give me. FYI, this is in Toronto, and the ISP is Primus. (I would rather switch to Teksavvy, but when I put my number into their website it says they can't provide service to me, even though I live right downtown...?)

Would you pay to post?

bryon — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 10:57:01 -0800

I'm starting a web forum. Should I charge users? The forum will focus on a popular topic which should draw many people. I'm thinking hard about charging a nominal fee ($5) for registration. That would prevent spambot signups and discourage the casual troll from ruining everyone's fun. You know, like we all did when we signed up here. There are two potential disadvantages: 1) I would have to spend lots of time dealing with new registrations (I'd get over that), and 2) it might discourage some people who would otherwise register and be productive members. What do you think? Bonus question: if I do go with paid registration, how do I make it happen on phpbb3? Many thanks.

How to make the music stop skipping?

st starseed — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:44:10 -0800

Calling all network experts...How can I make the music on my PC stop skipping? Greetings...okay, trying to provide all relevant details: My main PC in my den/playroom stores my entire MP3 collection. It's a fine computer, and I never have any issues playing music on it.

It is one of two PCs on my home's wireless network.

The other PC on the network is out in the living room. It's a perfectly fine, not-ancient (2005 or so) laptop hooked up to my home theater system with a sole purpose of playing music through said system.

Yet whenever it's playing, about three times per song (so about once every 90 or so seconds), the song will just stop and then pick right back up about 2 seconds later. It's almost like a buffering effect...the music is playing, then it disappears, then it's back.

Does anyone know why this is happening, and if there's any way to fix it?

Potentially key details:

1. The MP3s are not stored on the laptop; they are stored on the main PC...which shares them with the laptop. (I like it this way so I only have to maintain one library.)

2. There's a wall between the den and the living room.

3. Both machines run Windows XP (fully updated with service packs, etc.).

4. The cable modem and router are always going strong.

Importers / Wholesalers advertising on Google?

Squid Voltaire — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 15:18:07 -0800

Any have experience dealing with online wholesale importers as an end consumer (i.e., not a retailer, just a guy who wants some buckles) ? I'm trying to find a cheap source of metal buckles (my boots are simply too plain--they need augmentation!) and along the way I've stumbled across tons of sites like AliBaba or China Trade Online. These folks have really neat stuff for very low prices in vast quantity. Monster Steel, it turns out, provides wholesale cock rings. My mind is blown.

They have really cool stuff, but it's pretty clear that they are set up to deal exclusively with retailers (China Trade Online has a minimum order of $1,000, the smallest I've been able to find is a minimum order of $100). I'm fascinated by this all, but have no experience in this area. I suppose my question is twofold:

1) Do you know of any place like this who would be happy to sell me $30 or $40 worth of merchandise, or perhaps $20 worth with a $20 service charge? (I'm guessing not--I assume that these places all make very little per item and thus need quantity to survive, but it is worth checking).

2) Any idea how these places feel about folks like me asking for price quotes and then ordering whatever their bare minimum is? If they deal with this sort of thing on a regular basis, cool, but I don't want to bug / create unnecessary work for them when I'm clearly not their target customer.

help me play well with others

crazylegs — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:49:26 -0800

Looking for a universally compatible word processing program that can I download for free off the internet. I'm using Open Office on my computer, which I got for free. It works fine for me but sometimes when I send files to other people they're unable to open them. As I'm applying for academic jobs, this doesn't make me look very good, to say the least. What word processing program, can I get off the internet, for free, that will be universally compatible with any other computers to which I might send files? Thanks!

No-ad internet

scewinleg — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:20:00 -0800

Is there such a thing as a no-ad internet domain? I love the days of personalized websites with no ads but I'm having a hard time digging them up these days. Any suggestions???

Vintage Internet news stories and articles?

starman — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 10:18:47 -0800

I enjoy vintage articles about the early days of the Web. Suggestions? For example, The Best Cybertech of 1999 isn't exactly from the early early days but it puts into perspective where Google was at the time.

Radical critiques of cyberspace?

jammy — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 07:02:44 -0800

If Karl Marx & Emma Goldman were arguing about the internet on Metafilter, what might they be saying? What kind of radical left analysis &/or commentary exists concerning the internet, new media, & computer technology? Looking for books, articles, essays, websites, etc...

I am most interested in work that takes relatively recent social & technological developments into account (e.g., the rise of social networking sites, mobile devices, etc., or advances in robotics & prosthetics).

Gracias!

VPN from home NAS system.

CodeMonkey — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 10:36:19 -0800

I am trying to set up my router so that I can get at my files on my 3 NAS boxes. These NAS boxes are 1) D-Link DNS323, Infrant ReadyNAS NV+, and a Buffalo TeraStation HD-H2.0TGL/R5. The router is connected to the internet via a home service cable modem so it won't have a static IP and one step is to find the IP address before accessing. I have a router (DLink DGL-4100) which says it can make a IPSec VPN or FTP using a Virtual Server (I think). There would be no other PCs on the network since I would be taking my laptop with me when I access the network. The manuals for the routers talk about FTP serving but if I get a VPN set in my router then I should be able to just browse for whatever I want that way...right? The instructions say it can be done, but how? Please give me step by step instructions the best you can for setting up the router, the NAS boxes and my XP laptop (with suggested software, if necessary) since I have looked all over the internet and can't find anything I can understand. Of course the access should be encrypted and password protected. THANKS GUYS. From the router manual. (DGL-4100):
Application Level Gateway (ALG) Configurations
Here you can enable or disable ALG’s. Some protocols and applications require special handling of the IP payload to make them work with network address translation (NAT). Each ALG provides
special handling for a specific protocol or application. A number of ALGs for common applications ar enabled by default.

IPSec VPN:
Allows multiple VPN clients to connect to their corporate network using IPSec. Some VPN clients support traversal of IPSec through NAT. This ALG may interfere with the operation of such VPN clients. If you are having trouble connecting with your corporate network, try turning this ALG off. Please check with the system adminstrator of your corporate network whether your VPN client supports NAT traversal.

FTP:
Allows FTP clients and servers to transfer data across NAT. Refer to the Advanced -> Virtual Server page if you want to host an FTP server.

Virtual Server
The Virtual Server option gives Internet users access to services on your LAN. This feature is useful for hosting online services such as FTP, Web, or Game Servers. For each Virtual Server, you define
a public port on your router for redirection to an internal LAN IP Address and port.
Example: You are hosting a Web Server on a PC that has Private IP Address of 192.168.0.50 and your ISP is blocking Port 80.
1. Name the Virtual Server Rule (ex. Web Server)
2. Enter in the IP Address of the machine on your LAN – 192.168.0.50
3. Enter the Private Port as [80]
4. Enter the Public Port as [8888]
5. Select the Protocol - TCP
6. Ensure the schedule is set to Always
7. Check the Add Rule to add the settings to the Virtual Server List
8. Repeat these steps for each Virtual Server Rule you wish to add. After the list is complete, click Save Settings at the top of the page.
With this Virtual Server Rule all Internet traffic on Port 8888 will be redirected to your internal web server on port 80 at IP Address 192.168.0.50.

From the D-Link NAS DNS-323 manual:
FTP Server
The DNS-323 is equipped with a built in FTP Server, which is easy to confgure. It allows users access to important data whether they are on the local network or at a remote location. The FTP server can be confgured to allow user access to specifc directories, and will allow up to 10 users to access the DNS-323 at a time.

This section contains the configuration settings for the DNS-323 FTP Server.
The current settings and status of the DNS-323 FTP Server are displayed here.

The FTP access for users and groups can be added and edited here.

Category Determines whether the FTP server rule will apply to an individual user or a group.

User / Group Select the group or user the FTP server rule will apply to.

Folder Browse to and select the folder or directory you are granting FTP access to. Select root to grant access to all volumes.

Permission Set the user or group permission to Read Only or Read/Write.

FTP Server Settings
Max User: Sets the maximum amount of users that can connect to the FTP server.
Idle Time: Sets the amount of time a user can remain idle before being disconnected.
Port: Sets the FTP port. Default is 21.
Flow Control: Allows you to limit the amount of bandwidth available for each user.

Most standard FTP clients like Windows FTP, only support Western European codepage when transferring files.
Support has been added for non-standard FTP clients that are capable of supporting these character sets.

Access List: Lists all defned FTP Rules.

If you are behind a router, you will need to forward the FTP port from the router to the DNS-323. Additional flltering and frewall settings may need to be modifed on your router to allow FTP Access to the DNS-323 from the Internet. Once the port has been forwarded on the router, users from the internet will access the FTP server through the WAN IP address of the router.

From the ReadyNAS NV+ manual.

FTP/FTPS
To access the share via FTP in Share security mode, log in as “anonymous” and use your e-mail address for the password.
.
To access the share in User or Domain security mode, use the appropriate user login and password used to access the ReadyNAS. For better security, use an FTPS (FTP-SSL) client to connect to the
ReadyNAS FTP service. With FTPS, both the password and data are encrypted.

From the Terastation manual.
To allow Anonymous FTP, choose Enable for Anonymous FTP Server. Select a folder to share from the Anonymous User Public Shared Folder (only one folder may be shared by anonymous FTP) and
choose whether you want the share to be Writable or Read Only. Click the Apply button to set up anonymous FTP.
If FTP Server is disabled in the Basic window, this page will not be accessible.
Anonymous FTP mode uses port 8021 (e.g. ftp://IP Address:801).

I need a crash course in the current best-practice website accessablity standards.

anastasiav — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:42:45 -0800

Give me a crash course in making our nonprofit website accessible. What are the best practices/standards? What's the lingo? I'm not building the site, but I have a meeting with the developers who are, today. They are doing this pro-bono for us (we're a community nonprofit with a goodly number of disabled users). Its important to our CEO that the website be accessible, but she hired me because she doesn't really understand the web.

I get the web fine, but I've never had to deal with this particular issue before. My first meeting with the developer is this afternoon. Help me talk with them about this issue and not sound like a N00b!

Forum Warz

mattholomew — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:39:53 -0800

For comedic purposes, I'm looking for flame wars on obscure and trivial subjects regarding consumer products. The idea came from video games and the intense passion around consoles (Xbox 360 vs. PS3, etc.), so I'd like to put together examples from other areas; e.g. cars, cameras, high-end audio, violin bow resin. Ideal examples would be highly emotional, petulant and way out of proportion to the issue at hand. Bonus points for posts that take perceived slights against the product as a personal attack or escalate into threats.