Tag: internet

Just How Safe is the Internet

Posted onAuthorTruXter

safety

safety

The internet is just like anything anywhere. You don’t go into strange places and just lay your wallet on the table and walk around talking to people. Do you? You don’t just let some person walk up to you and sale you stuff that you do not need do you? When you drive through shady parts of town don’t you roll up your window? You don’t just pick up a random soda can and tilt it to get the last drop to fall into your mouth, do you? If some random person walked up to you and said “Hey, the police have your spouse and told me that if I collect $300 from you they will let your spouse out, and give them a steak and ice cream for your spouse’s discomfort”, you don’t just hand them your credit card do you?

No, you don’t do that.

Think of the internet the same way you do being out in public. Give nothing away until you are at a trusted website, in trade for something you actually came for. Do not impulse buy on the web. Do not impulse donate on the internet. Do not just throw your credit card number on any random website.

Stay away from shady areas, don’t just give out private information, and make sure your security and defense is up to date. The internet is pretty safe, unless you are just goofy and think everyone has great intentions.

Verizon MIFI 2200 Review

Posted onAuthorTruXter

After Disconnecting my Comcast Internet and and Cable Television and moving my television service to Dish Network, I found myself in need of internet service. I obtained a temporary use of a Verizon MIFI device. Very nice looking wireless internet device. One single button. You just connect the USB cable from the MiFi 2200 to your computer and instantly upon identifying the card, it opens as a storage device, allowing you to get the drivers right off of the MiFi 2200. Installation of the drivers is less than 3 minutes. Press the lighted button on top of the MiFi 2200 until the light on the side comes on, then open the VZ access software you just installed, and then click connect in the VZ Access manager, and you are on the internet ready to go.

Verizon Wireless MiFi 2200

Verizon Wireless MiFi 2200

Though the device allows you to connect multiple devices at one time, the 3G service, I doubt would handle much more than 1 computer. I have been seeing some very low signal reception and very slow speeds.

mifi on Verizons VZ access

mifi on Verizon

mifi bandwidth

mifi bandwidth

Though the speed test results say 1mbs, sometimes I find myself waiting like I was on dial up, for pages to load. The wait for youtube videos to load is sometimes up to 5 minutes. The monthly bandwidth cap is reached in the first week, and then this slow speed gets even worse.

For someone like me, the MIFI card is a pass. Meaning I will have to pass on getting this service.

Not much different from the results I see with my cricket phone.

Test Date: May 1, 2012 3:53:34 pm
Connection Type: EvdoA
Server: Temple, TX
Download: 2127 kbps
Upload: 794 kbps
Ping: 101 ms

External IP: xx.xxx.xxx.xx
Internal IP: xx.1xx.xx.xx
Latitude: xx.xxxxx
Longitude: -xx.xxxxx

 

Full scores:
looks: 10/10
Ease of use: 10/10
Reception: 3/10
Speeds: 2/10

Final score: 6/10

Comcast chat

Posted onAuthorTruXter5 Comments

**Warning: Angry Typos Ahead**

Today, I will be taking my Cable box back to Comcast. They have taken it too far
I have been dealing with my neighbor’s dog (she’s a puppy) digging up my comcast connection, for several months now.
I have received insane bills from Comcast And a few other issues that I don’t feel like looking up so here it is in Bing.

Yesterday I decided to try the chat thing, because phoning in my issue of the neighbor’s dog resolved nothing.

TruXter: My Issue: Neighbor’s dog digs up my cable, I have had you guys out a few times re-bury the line. I requested conduit, was told over the phone it would be used. Technicians all say it can’t be done.. I just now came in the house after covering chewed

analyst Dani Mae has entered room

Dani Mae: Hello TruXter, Thank you for contacting Comcast Live Chat Support. My name is Dani Mae. Please give me one moment to review your information.

Dani Mae: Hi

Dani Mae: Welcome to comcast

TruXter: hi.

Dani Mae: Thank you for that information TruXter

Dani Mae: May I know what would you like to do?

TruXter: Is there any way I can get a manager or a foreman to come out with the technician next time to bury my cable? and can you ask them not to request to come in my house anymore? the issue is in the neighbor’s yard.

TruXter: They have replaced the splice in my attic 3 times now as if that solved the issue. I need the cable in conduit or something that a dog can not bite through.

TruXter: The cable box is in my neighbor’s yard. 6 feet of cable gets dug up with in just house of the tech’s burying it.

TruXter: hours*

Dani Mae: To answer you suggestion about a manager, I believe that is not possible since only technician process that

TruXter: Someone needs to come out and over see this. This is the very last time I will let this happen. I will change services. I am sick of this.

Dani Mae: And about your request about conduit

Dani Mae: We do not have that, but we only can drop bury your cable line

Dani Mae: For conduit, you can buy that at your local store

TruXter: I can’t watch tv while the dog chews on the line. I can barely surf the internet that I am paying crazy fees for. this is nuts.

TruXter: You mean. with all of the customers that this company has, I am the only person?

Dani Mae: I understand that, where is your cable lines now placed?

TruXter: why did it cost me $200 to get my house connected? they used wire that I already paid for to begin with.

TruXter: the cable box is in the neighbor’s yard. 6 feet from my fence.

Dani Mae: I see, please inform the owner and let them contact Comcast, so we can schedule them.

TruXter: The neighbor and I buried the cable last time while the tech watched.

TruXter: This needs to be fixed, and someone who can make these guys give me the service I am paying so much for.

TruXter: needs to make sure it’s done.

Dani Mae: Sure

Dani Mae: Have you tried calling 1-800-XFINITY (934-6489)

TruXter: can you check my records and see I have done this several times?

Dani Mae: Sure

Dani Mae: It shows here that Drop bury has been completed as requested already

TruXter: ….

TruXter: and dog dig has already happened.

Dani Mae: Would you like to request another drop bury?

Dani Mae: And have you called already for a schedule?

TruXter: yeah sure. and when he is done, can you send him back three hours later to replace the line again because the dog is just going to dig it back up. and tell to take a lunch and come right back… Or send someone with authority to look at this and see it is a slop job and someone is milking your clock at my expense.\

TruXter: Thank god I run a website and have a good camera. This is my final month. you people are leeches.
Type Here:

After this. I called Comcast to solve the issue of the lightly buried cable in the yard with a big puppy who digs a lot, and to understand why just last month I was told that on this bill, my bill would be reduced, yet it’s still at regular $88. When she told me this month my bill would show the changes I asked why she said “because you already paid this month”. Ok. Makes sense.
So I call and start asking why my bill isn’t reduced. The lady that answered, forwarded me to another person who I assume is their “quick excuses guy”. because this dude was just out to win an argument.
I asked why my bill was regular price, and the guy said that it was because I owe $160 for not paying last month’s bill. I told him he was nuts and explained that I paid $160 last month also, and 160 the month before, and keep getting told I am late on my bill. The guy said and I quote “we bill for service before you receive service”. My eyes rattled in my head. I explained to him that every month I have been going through this, and I have not have had service. Since the dog eats my cable. The man said “then you need to speak to the neighbor” and I flipped out on him. “No, you need to get your stuff straight because I am a customer and you are providing a service, you are asking me to make this an issue between the neighbor and I. You can’t tell me that will all of the customers you guys have, I am the only person with this issue. ” Considering how many houses have dogs, there is a really good chance this has been issue on many occasions.

Now understand, the last time I talked to a technician, he was watching me and the neighbor bury the cable ourselves while he just stood there telling me I should kick the neighbor’s dog and cover the spot with rat traps. The neighbor didn’t like that, and I didn’t like that. I asked the Comcast technician why they don’t just bring 8 feet of conduit and get this over with he said and I quote “Job security, we always make sure each other has work”. At my expense no doubt.

Comcast. Your service has done me no service and I will forever refuse you. I will warn everyone I know, just how you treat Customers and how your answering team and all of your help team, are the trashiest people you can have work for you. When you guys go out of business, you might want to worry about the scum you hire, and possibly the way you treat them and tell them to treat you customers. I love your bandwidth, I hate your bandwidth cap, and I hate that your basic cable is lower resolution than any other broadcast. Local resolution from antenna is 740p minimum where I live, your basic cable is less than 480i. That is pathetic and nothing justifies charging for that.

Can’t say I will miss you when you are gone.

 

**Update**

Just got off the phone with comcast. Called to cancel my service. Man asked me why I was cancelling service. I rattled on for 15 minutes . taking maybe three breaths while trying to think of everything that has gone on since I signed up.
He was like “yeah, I would leave also, Sorry this has happenned to you, you will be receiving a credit soon”.
and that was it. no telling me I am wrong, no selling me a bigger bundle.

Doin it right. for once.

 

**Update 2**

 

Logged in to see my Comcast bill information and to make sure that all of the statements were true, that I would recieve a credit to my account and got a notice to provide a valid email address.  but in back I could see my bill. Lots of junk going on back there. Of course I tried three different ways of handling that page so I could see the bill. They all signed me out instantly.

My Comcast Bill

My Comcast Bill

 

I have no idea what is going on below that point. Could be a pot of gold, could be a bag of chewed up rubberbands.  The reason I am trying to log in is to see if  I got the credit I was told I would get, since they ripped me off of last credit, and to see if I upset someone enough they decided to change my bill up and really stick it to me. You can’t doubt people anymore in either direction. Good or bad.
Needless to say. I have not been able to scroll all the way down. That stupid pop up asking me to show another email address blocks my view.

 

**update 3**

 

All devices were taken back the day I posted this. No arguments, no denying anything. In fact i think the little lady behind teh counter kind of wanted me.

here is their big technical wall of tv screens updated from earlier this year.

ghettovision

ghettovision

Now here is what comcast says I was supposed to pay last month.

comcast bill

Comcast bill

Now… If that was in fact what I was “supposed to pay”. Then why in the blue hell would I pay this ?

comcast payment

Comcast payment

It’s as if the kid I was trying to get help from but only wanted to argue with me, decided to make it look like I am a moron and don’t know how to internet. Now, understand, my bill is usually $79 before “additional charges”. So um. $200 minus 141, but this month’s bill is only $88.06 ? What? Which idiot in that establishment is going to show me how this works, and which idiot in that company is going to translate what that guy said, to non bull %^&*  and make it make sense?

But I have to thank him for showing me I needed to open my mind. I love direct tv and uncapped 4G Internet.

 

 

Dear Verizon Fios

Posted onAuthorTruXter

Are you not in Houston?
No matter what address I type into the Verizon Fios website to see what deals are in my area, I get a notice saying that I can’t be found.

Come to Houston please. 25/25 bandwidth would crush Comcast and take half of their unsatisfied customers away.
Every person I ask information about Verizon Fios, responds with “What’s Verizon Fios?”. I tell them the deals I see online and they look at me in disbelief.

Tell me Verizon, Do you have Fios in Houston area?
I need to get away from Comcast and I need to now.
I have done months with no service because they didn’t bury the line properly. When I finally got help from them, I got offered $20 discount for last month only. Not the previous 8 months. From the start they stuck me with a $200 install fee, to use my wires. After I called about it, the girl who barely spoke English (but still answered the English line[I pressed 1 for English]) told me “I can do nothing, your bill is your bill”

The alternative is AT&T, and they are worse with customer than Comcast, and that’s a big statement. I can’t quote anything because I left their cell phone plan almost 10 years ago and vowed I would never go back again.

I am considering ditching all internet and television (except local broadcast) April 1st because of circumstances here. Which leaves me letting go of quite a few websites.

Please. Tell me Verizon, are you sporting Fios in Houston?

1 Voice Squelched

Posted onAuthorTruXter1 Comment

I was writing a book a while back “How the internet was won” .
I was explaining what I see happening and what could happen with the internet. Most of it was just me posting ideas and hoping I would go back later and clean it up. but now. I have lost the heart to even try. Because it is all coming true. From monopolizing the internet on us, to spying on us to learn how to confine us. To us making our own internet and hiding in what I called “the outweb”. but it came to a flaw. The way they persecute everyone and say that freedom fighters are identity thieves, The outweb would have been everyone who wanted freedom, but also surrounded with dirty people that no one really wants to associate themselves with. The problem there is we would be forced to censor the outweb, or all be considered “one of them”. You know that mainstream media would have said it was full of graphic illegal images and a bunch of corrupt death fetish freaks.

I’m crushed to say, the whole sopa thing, was just a name to use while they enslave the internet, one group of people at a time, in a manor that doesn’t scare everyone. Since Sopa failed, everything they had in plan, is happening anyway, using other laws to make it happen anyway.

All of these illegal arrests. all of the illegal deportations. All of this seizing of personal property from people who are not even in the country that is persecuting them.

Television tells you now what is cool. Don’t believe me? look at a Facebook. It sucks everyone complains about it yet everyone is still there. And everything on Tv and on the radio promotes Facebook. While Facebook gets your information willingly from you. Where you go, what you do, what you like, who you associate with.

April first 2012, I will be disconnecting myself from the internet. I can’t partake in this free realm gradually become just a media input device. I’m dropping my phone. I am dropping my computers. I am closing down all but three of my websites. They are paid in full for the next seven years. So they will still sit as they are.

Soon, there will be no place for people in countries with insane government, to say “hey, someone helps u, our country isn’t like the mainstream media says it is we are being mistreated” Soon there will be no place for you to sell your own personal music online and make a an income on your works, without signing with some major label that will end up making three times your income while you still make exactly what you would have made without them, because after all, we all know who controls all of this anyway. Don’t we?

I will be back next year to see how things went.

1 voice squelched.

Sad Fact

Posted onAuthorTruXter

We live here. In a wonderful country of freedom and openness. Where the people speak their mind and the press has the freedom to report the truth and anyone can create a movie or a song and get it seen. Where no one’s rules govern us and we do not govern anyone else, since we are so open minded.
This is now false.
We now close down websites that are owned by people who allow people to upload files and download files. Such as different takes and cuts of personal project videos.

 

We now extradite people from other countries, for breaking laws in our country over the internet, and we take all of their belongings from their house.

 

Sopa and pipa were supposed to pass, and this was supposed to be the first bust. The machine was already in motion.

 

This country is going to crap. Eliminate etrade so the longest reigning selfish pigs can continue being pigs.

Want to talk about a depression.

 

 

Just wait.

 

When everyone starts outsourcing EVERYTHING. because to many uppity folks want everything regulated to meet their standards if made here, and then we pay full price though no one has a job anymore because everything is politically correct and outsourced like a good zombie of a country. Then those companies go under because no one is there to bail them out, we get a chance to invest what little bit of a tax money we have, to get them out of debt.

 

You see all of this right? not just what you are worried about… look at the dominoes as they ALL fall. not just the one with the mp3 player built in it… ALL OF THEM.

The Right To Wear a Mask

Posted onAuthorTruXter

Wearing a Mask is done in many forms. It has been done for many centuries. and to many, it is held of great respect and Honor. The mask is just the simple act of hiding your identity. For security, or safety, or privacy.
Some websites seem to only allow people with real names, to participate in conversations on their website. I totally get the whole thing of not wanting people to just hide in anonymity to be jerks or trolls or irritants under 100s of accounts.
I myself have done many I.P. bans as a moderator on many websites. From forums to chatrooms. and when the person changes i.p. addresses and comes back, it takes me less effort to ban them again than it takes the irritant to change i.p. addresses. Right click…. done. And sure, it would be a whole different internet if everyone swiped their driver’s license on a machine and did a retina scan just to enter websites for particular needs. but what is the threat to security then?
There are reasons to not post your personal information out to the public on the WORLD wide web.
Ex cases:
A famous person can not just be a guy in a chat holding a witty conversation, being a regular guy without brown-nosers ruining the effect of just seeing people for who they are.
A person in a sweatshop for an seo company, doing link submissions, or something that allows access to the internet, will not be able to just log in and let people know where he is. His name hits the internet, his account gets deleted fingers get chopped off and now pedals a bike hooked up to the generator that powers the computers..
Did anyone see the news a week ago? They hanged them from a fricken bridge!!!!
Do you see all of the people who get their personal lives posted on the internet by hacker groups?
We all know the hacker groups are out to find someone who is directly, who is not innocent (for some crime hidden and covered up) and they are digging that person specific’s information, and we know the media is posting BS about what is really happening. But jeese if the Media was actually right. The internet is not ready for real names.

My mask is very old
It is so old that if in public a person yelled out my screen name, I would think they were talking to me. I would look.
I like the freedom and the leg room to let my words and emotions get saved and archived to the web, hoping to educate everyone on what I see and what I notice.

This of course is my declaration to G+ before they ban me for the name I have used on the internet including Google for many years. At least 10 years with Google on this account with this name the way it is. For privacy reasons. For my security and because it is what I am known by on the internet.

This is the gun issue. If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns.
and your mask is your only shield.

Cricket’s Free Sanyo Zio Phone Android

Posted onAuthorTruXter2 Comments

I left T-Mobile.
Yep, I jumped ship. I went back to Cricket.
The phone that I traded my blackberry 8100 in for is a Sanyo/Kyocera zio. AKA KYOCERA M6000.
Since Cricket was giving away the Sanyo Zio if you trade in your working cell phone from your current carrier, I assumed I should.
This phone is not a brand new technology, at all. This phone was originally with Sprint back in early 2010 brought to Cricket in late 2010.
I was on a plan that gave me 300 minutes of talk time at a cost of $49 a month and I still had fave fives. To now, an unlimited everything for $55 a month.
The first thing was to call T-mobile and request my account number. The guy who answered the phone put on a sincere voice and Acknowledge that he knows that typically when people ask for their account number, they are about to leave the company. The guy asked me if there was anything i was in need of, to keep me from leaving. i let the guy know that I was not happy with how I have been treated so i am looking around, and my first step is to get my account number and that I may or may not leave T-mobile. Really, that was exactly true. I could have backed out of getting my phone number ported over to Cricket, at any time. The guy kept asking questions and hesitating, So i had to get stern with him ‘ look, I am considering leaving and you holding out like this is making me want to leave even more, i just need my number and will consider all option”. He said just about everything he could think of just short of “please don’t talk to other people, you will see how good things could be”, what ever he said. I just hung up because I got my account number. and that’s all I needed.

I gave the teller my account number, in less than 3 minutes the phone was in my hand with a temporary number on it. I got a text message and it said for me to text back with a code and my old number will be moved to cricket. I tried and it did not work. After I called the help line, I realized i wasn’t pressing they ‘*’ key first. My bad. Phone number was switched over to T-mobile just like that. Whole deal took less than 20 minutes to complete.

Cricket Splash Screen on The Zio

Cricket Splash Screen on The Zio

Ok. Time to grade the phone.
The Sanyo Kyocera ZIO from Cricket, by feel, is a lot like my blackberry, smooth.

Menu on The Sanyo Kyocera Zio Phone

Menu on The Sanyo Kyocera Zio Phone

Nice and thin, slick,no buttons to interface, touch Screen, except volume and camera. I have few complaints about
the camera button. Sensitive when I am not trying to touch the camera button, but doesn’t do squat when I hit that button on purpose. Volume buttons are excellent.

Volume Button on Kyocera Sanyo Zio

Volume Button on Kyocera Sanyo Zio

there is a data/charging connection on the lower left edge.
Headphone jack on the upper left edge, and an SD card slot on the mid right. All have caps.
Large speaker at the upper back
Pin hole mic on bottom edge.
Screen feels like plastic over glass. I could be wrong as to whether it actually is, it’s just the way the Zio feels to me.
Software.
Initial Storage space 180MB
Yes this an Android 2.2.1 system on the sanyo ZIO.

zio_display

zio software display

But
The pinch zoom feature, does not happen with this phone. Tap and zoom, yes.
Scroll ball, is a bit sticky and sluggish.
Huge Screen Perfect fit for downsized (not re-sized) hd movies
Watched Diggnation, Tekzilla and life Hacker from the revision 3 website and was impressed with the resolution and quality of the images and video, Nearly never a buffer time. sometimes The revision 3 server hiccups.
Camera takes a very high resolution video, even in room lighting. (never great to have just room lighting)
Every application I tried, all work fine.
There is some bloat ware that I had to root the phone to remove. Some bowling game demo and an “uno” game.
Many applications load constantly, you can not go into settings and turn them off like you could with the g1 on android 1.6. So battery life isn’t what it could be.
Nice fade when opening and closing apps. but again, sometimes sluggish. Keyboard seems to be miss calibrated, When you press the Letter ‘o’ you get the letter ‘p’ and so on… If you are a fast texting person, you will get frustrated. Just find the letter that the Zio mistakes you typing, and hit the far corner of the button you intend to pres. Works well that way.

Internet speeds for the Zio – using speed test app from android market
upload 700k
download 400k
That is about what I was seeing on T-mobile with their “Edge”.

Reception
At home and at work, my signal fluctuates between no signal, and two bars. but with that said, I received a call from a friend while I had 0 bars and the phone call sounded fine on my end, and the person on the other end never asked me what I was saying. I never heard anything unusual or anything that would hint of a bad signal, other than the caller’s T-mobile lag. Was sad when we both were on T-mobile, neither knew when to talk.
although I find myself back in 2003, holding the sanyo Zio up in the air to get a signal enough to send a text message. I don’t remember Cricket having this bad of a signal.

Back Of The Zio

Back Of The Zio

internet 10/10
software 8/10
hardware 5/10
reception 5/10 (I gave it a poor score then added some because the phone seemed to work even with no signal)
look 10/10

Full Over all Score is 7/10

And that is enough to make me feel as if I got another great deal.

Another unprofessional review from TruXter Tech Review and the budget Tech review

Sprint the website

Posted onAuthorTruXter

That has got to be the clunkiest website I have ever tried to navigate. You have to know what catagory everything is in, and I don’t mean simple categorization. I mean to find wireless internet prices you have to know how to find the usb cards they provide and then click it to se ethe price of the card and then click into that a bit to see what plans are available for that card . meanwhile all of their images are ads from a third party advertiser. I use a script that blocks all advertisement companies so half of sprint’s website does not even show.
Sprint, if you want to sell me a phone or wireless intenet please fix your dang site. No wonder no one buys your service anymore.. They can’t.