Posts Tagged ‘Broadband’
Sunday, August 26th, 2007
While the Wii has become the gaming sensation of the year, it hasn’t been without it’s detractors. One of the problems frequently levelled at the Wii is that it doesn’t play DVD’s, or any other media. A company called Orb has come up with a solution to the problem.
The process is fairly straightforward:
- Download the Orb software to your Windows PC,
- Follow on the on-screen instructions and install the Orb program,
- Set up a login account,
- Start the Internet Channel on your Wii and go to mycast.orb.com,
- Login to your Orb account,
- Browse for the audio, video or photos that you want to play.
In order to get the best from Orb, you do need a broadband connection, and your Wii needs to be connected to the Internet. Although it does work, I found that watching videos through the Orb interface is patchy, but that is more than likely down to the fact that my upload connection is terrible. Another thing – at the moment the Orb software is Windows only, but apparently they will be releasing beta versions of the platform for Mac OS and Linux next year.
Tags: Broadband, Internet, Linux, Mac, Media, mycast, orb, streaming_media, Technology, Wii, Windows
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Friday, May 11th, 2007
It looks like Babelgum is beginning to live up to it’s promises to provide quality programming. Apparently they have signed Spike Lee to produce an exclusive video called “Jesus Children of America”.
Tags: babelgum, Broadband, iptv, Media, Software, Technology
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Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
I’ve had broadband for over a year now, and in that time I’ve found that it’s invaluable. Unfortunately, not everyone in this country can avail of the benefits of broadband. Now one of the major stumbling blocks to getting broadband is about to be removed. Eircom have reached an agreement with ComReg and the other providers in relation to Local Loop Unbundling (LLU).
The latest agreement will finally allow the customer to purchase broadband services from any company without having to rely solely on Eircom to provide the phone line. Once wholesalers have full access to Eircom’s exchanges, it can only a wider choice for the consumer. The downside is that it will be at least September 2007, before LLU will be fully implemented.
Tags: Broadband, Internet, Technology
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Sunday, April 1st, 2007
If you have access to broadband in Ireland, count yourself lucky, because according to a recent EU report, Ireland is nearly the worst country in the EU for broadband Internet access. I’m sure that you’ll also be delighted to hear that we are among the most expensive too. So much for the Celtic Tiger.
At €15 per connection, Eircom is raking in the profits while the end user suffers with high contention ratios, and higher charges. The EU report lays the blame squarely at the door of our government for the lack of regulation of the telecoms sector and the complete lack of teeth goven to COMREG.
If yu want to get some idea of how bad Internet access is in this country, have a look at the forums at Irish ISP Test or Ireland Offline.
Tags: Broadband, eu_report, Internet, internet_access, Technology
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Saturday, March 17th, 2007
I was asked recently to look at a broadband connection that was acting up. All the lights on the modem were lighting up, and there was no connection to the Internet. It had been working perfectly well for several months, and there had been no changes to either computer, or modem configurations.
The computer owner had been on to his providers technical support, and they had sent him a new modem, but he still couldn’t get it to work. I called out to have a look last week. After putting in the username, password and connection settings, the modem still wouldn’t connect to the Internet. I disconnected all the phones in the house, and it worked. By plugging in the phones one by one, I was able to narrow it down to one particular phone. Turned out the problem was with the micro-filter attached to the phone. A quick swap sorted out the problem.
Tags: adsl, adsl_modem, Broadband, micro-filter, no_connection, Technology
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Saturday, March 17th, 2007
RTE have launched a new live service. Now you can watch programs live and online. You’ll need Windows Media Player or Real Player and a broadband connection. Not all programs will be streamed, but today’s it looks like they’ll be streaming all the major matches and events. Sit back and relax.
Tags: Broadband, Internet, Media, Technology
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Tuesday, March 6th, 2007
Babelgum, who are providers of IPTV services, have announced that they are to set up their international headquarters in Dublin. Apparently their decision was based in part on the fact that Dublin serves as the European headquarters for companies such as Google, Paypal, Yahoo and more.
IPTV allows you to watch television over your broadband connection, and in Babelgums case will require the installation of their software to view programming. Programming will be supported by advertising, but they do not give any details of how this will be implemented. At the moment Babelgum are looking for beta testers (Windows XP users only though), but given the woeful state of broadband in this country, are they sure they can make this work?
Tags: Broadband, Media, Software, Technology
Posted in Broadband, Media, Software, Technology | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, February 7th, 2007
After all my problems, I’ve decided to bite the bullet and stay with my original provider. While they cannot guarantee my upload connection, at least it is a connection. With the new provider, I was dependent on the goodwill of my neighbours to even get a connection, so I’ve given it up as a bad idea.
Hopefully my provider will resolve the problems with my upload speed. In the meantime, I need some sort of working internet connection, so I’ll live with it.
Tags: Broadband, broadband_connection, connection, connection_speeds, Technology, upload_speed, whatithink
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Monday, February 5th, 2007
The saga that is my broadband connection continues. I am now staying with my old provider, as I am unable to get the written permission that I need for my new provider to perform the installation of the aerial on my neighbours chimney. Having just read that last sentence, I think a recap is called for:
In 2005, I had broadband installed in the house I rent and share with a couple of friends. Because we couldn’t install a phone line, we went with a wireless provider. For €36 a month they provided a 1Mbps connection with a static IP address. The connection is synchronous – i.e. the download and upload speeds are the same. There was no download cap, so you could transfer as much data as you liked without fear of being penalised.
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Tags: antennas, Broadband, broadband_connection, connection, connection_speeds, download_speed, line_of_sight, Technology, upload_speed, whatithink
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Monday, January 29th, 2007
I had an engineer out this morning to install my new broadband connection. Before he even started, he’d hit a problem – there’s no line of sight from my house to their high-site. There is a line of sight from the house next door, but because of a bloody tree, I’m out of luck.
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Tags: aerial, Broadband, line_of_sight, Technology, whatithink
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