Posts about networking Apple devices
One of my pet peeves is when someone writes about MAC computers. Mac is not an acronym. It’s short for Macintosh.* So why do so many people write MAC? My best guess is that these folks are familiar with PCs, so they apply the capitalization to Macs too. MAC is a technical acronym that you…
I use a Kasa HS105 smart plug to control a lamp in my apartment. It’s linked with Google Assistant so I can control the lamp with my voice. I’ve used this setup for over a year without any problems. Recently I started seeing very funky behavior from the smart plug. Sometimes the smart plug wouldn’t…
Working from home is the new reality under the threat of COVID-19. While large enterprises have had remote access capabilities for years, most small businesses haven’t addressed this need. Given that 34% of Americans work at a small business, it’s likely that millions of Americans aren’t able to work remotely. If you’re a small business…
While my regular clients hire MacMaven for IT and information security work, I often get calls from new clients with computing problems. An analogy could be made with plumbing. A plumber’s big jobs involve installation of pipes, sinks, showers, etc. Oftentimes a plumber is called to deal with a clogged toilet. These are the…
Setting up perfect Wi-Fi has historically been a challenge in many New York City apartments. In larger apartments, and especially pre-war apartments, the signal levels drop off precipitously in the rooms far from the router. For this reason, I always recommend in-the-wall ethernet for new construction or a gut renovation. In the cases where…
It came as a great surprise to me that Apple has reportedly disbanded its Airport engineering team. This is an unfortunate development, as the Airport and Time Capsule devices offered seamless interoperability with Macs and iOS devices. Configuration of Apple’s routers has always been a piece of cake using the Airport Utility. Anyone who has configured…
Back in 2012, I discussed Time Warner Cable’s newly instituted modem rental fee. Back then the fee was $3.95 per month. I just opened my January 2015 Time Warner bill, and it has an extra page discussing a variety of price increases. Most of the increases revolve around television programming. As the good folks at Time Warner…
Internet connectivity is mission-critical for most companies. Even a minute of downtime can have a material impact on revenue. Large organizations have extremely expensive infrastructure and a full-time engineering staff to keep their networks up. Most of the mid-sized companies we work with in New York City don’t have the luxury of spending millions…
Apparently we can expect 802.11ac wi-fi products coming from Apple soon. Hints of the protocol were found in the latest beta of Mountain Lion. While not unexpected, it would be great news to see 802.11ac this year. For low-end hardware, the protocol starts at 433 Mb/sec. Since this is Apple, we’ll probably be getting higher-end…
Telecommuting has become a viable option for employees of many large companies thanks to the availability of remote access technologies. You might have heard of some of these technologies – VPN, remote desktop, VNC, and IPsec, to name a few. What you may not realize is that you can leverage these technologies for your small…