Thursday, April 12, 2007

SMC MEDIA ADAPTER 802.11G 54MBPS - Nice Toy for cheap

I just got two of these this week and i've been satisfied so far.

Product Description

The EZ-Stream Wireless Audio Adapter is an innovative solution from SMC for your Home Entertainment Center. The new EZ-Stream 802.11g Wireless Audio Adapter is fast and easy to install on your 802.11b/g wireless network. The SMCWAA-G features a large flip-up LCD Matrix display and an infrared remote control for quickly selecting the audio tracks or Internet music station you want. The SMCWAA-G gives you the freedom to play the MP3 and WMA (unprotected/ protected) music files stored on your PC to any room of your home. You can specify audio tracks or Internet radio stations as "Favorites" by the click of a button, so with one menu you have quick and easy access to the songs or stations you listen to most.

Was able to successfully connect to my wireless network (which even had TKIP). I had to change the key to all lower case since the unit only allows lower case letters. Build quality cheap when you hold it but you wouldn't notice it from 10 feet away. Sound quality is fairly good. Instead of plugging in my laptop to the home theater this unit does the job. Just wish it had some facility to rate the songs played. Don't know how long it will last so keeping my fingers crossed.

Bottom line: It's the best toy you can get for the money. I only spent $25 at buy.com. It's very simple to set up and easy to use. In fact, it's so simple that you don't even have to read the manual! It only takes a few minutes for this device to be hooked up on your wireless network and recognizing your music server. Decent size, bright display makes it simple to read from the couch, even in the dark, and the remote works from more than 20 feet away. The SMCWAA-G works flawlessly with the Twonky Music server (via uPnP) on RedHat Linux and MacOS X as well as with MusicMatch on Windows.

One of the downsides on the unit is clearly inability to perform alpha searches via remote control. Another annoyance is that it occasionally misreads some MP3 tags reporting characters like Ÿ!~, etc. But I can deal with it. If you don't like get something like Netgear MP101 but you're going to spend ten times more.

Nice unit. the only difficulty was it wasn't entirely intuitive on how to use the remote to enter in the wep address but I obviously figured it out.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Is you antivirus program good enough?

Recent scans using a new technology indicate that security software may not be protecting your computer system as well as you might think.

Witness this increasingly common scenario. You have installed one of the more popular antivirus programs onto your computer or network. You've had the program on your system for some time now, and indications are that it is doing a decent job of protecting your system. Then, someone comes along and offers to scan your system to see whether or not you might be infected. Curious, you allow the scan. Lo and behold, you find that you have several Trojans and other hidden menaces residing on your network, actively stealing vital and confidential information.

The reality? All one need do is look at the recent headlines. Just last week, a national retail chain was broken into by cyber thieves. As a result, confidential information on some 45.7 million credit and debit cards was stolen.

What is most important to note about this theft and others like it is that these companies thought they were protected. Most of these companies are using what they thought was the best protection on the market. Unfortunately for them, they are finding out (too late) that the antivirus and security software they purchased isn't working.

The fact that most of the antivirus and security software that most companies buy isn’t really working against today’s new breed of super-secret Internet invaders is the dirty little secret in the industry. Companies know that their software isn’t doing a good job of protecting computer systems and they are not just not saying anything.

Can you afford to take that chance?

Please take a moment to find out for yourself whether or not you are protected. Go to http://echo3.bluehornet.com/ct/ct.php?t=1320638&c=1204784185&m=m&type=1&h=406686AAF614BD11C8C89916382C095A and perform a scan on your computer.