Dropbox LAN Sync

Dropbox is so cool.

I saw this the other day and went to learn about it.

To make sure you have it, click on the Dropbox icon in the system tray. Then click on the gear icon in the top right corner and choose "Preferences."

Make sure that "Enable LAN sync" is checked then stand back.

On the Way to VoIP - Part 8

The last step in my VoIP journey was porting. As noted in the articles referenced earlier, to get the POTS number to Google Voice required moving it first to a cellular carrier then on to Google Voice.

Several authors suggested that T-Mobile was the least expensive way to do this. But I was hoping that since the POTS line was with AT&T already that moving it to an AT&T wireless service would be easier.

NOT.

Since there's a $38 fee for setting up a new line on my AT&T Wireless family plan I chose to go with AT&T's GoPhone offering with a $10 monthly plan.

I have an old Captivate that I could use for this so I went to the nearby AT&T corporate store to initiate the transfer.

BEDLAM.

The first salesperson couldn't remember how to do this and said that I would have to first get a GoPhone number then port the POTS number to it. I excused myself from him and found my usual salesperson. She made the transaction much smoother.

UNTIL.

As I stood in the store chatting with the salesperson my cell phone rang. It was the AT&T transfer department  They had an "error." My POTS line had 2 distinctive ring features that couldn't be ported. I said it was fine to drop these. He said he would make that change and put the request right back in the system. He said he expected it to be complete in 3 business days.

3 business days came and went. On the 4th business day I called the transfer department. They said that there had been more "errors." Each time the POTS group would kick it back to GoPhone. Then the GoPhone transfer department would fix the "error" and send it back to POTS. Repeatedly. Apparently the POTS group was only giving them one problem at a time.

The ETA was set at the 6th business day. My salesperson said that that actually meant midnight of the 5th day and that's how it worked out.

At 11:00 PM CDT (12:00 AM EDT) the Captivate got a text message that the port was complete. I immediately forwarded the Captivate to the temporary Google Voice number.

Within an hour Google Voice showed that it was eligible to transfer and I initiated the transfer. There were a few minor hoops to jump through and I paid them $20 using Google Wallet.

Be sure and get the account number for the GoPhone. You'll need to give that to Google Voice. AT&T calls that the BAN.

AND THEN...

Exactly 24 hours after I submitted the port request to Google Voice:

We’re writing to let you know that your phone number: xxx-xxx-xxxx has been successfully ported to Google Voice!

Finished! Or just starting?

On the Way to VoIP - Part 7

You'll recall that I implemented Quality of Service (QoS) in support of my Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) migration. And subsequently I moved my Internet connection from AT&T's DSL Extreme to Comcast's Performance Internet.

Here's what Comcast looked like via speedtest.net over the Gigabit Ethernet.

But when I connected over Wi-Fi downloads were much slower.

Hmmm. Why? Was it the router?

Remember that I was running a Cisco E2000 with dd-wrt. I'd had lunch with an old friend and he mentioned that he had moved to a new Asus router and it significantly increased his speed. I bought an Asus RT-N65U.

I installed it and ran the speedtest.net test over Wi-Fi again.

That's more like it.

Here's what Windows thought about the Wi-Fi from the routers.

My speculation is that although the E2000 supported 802.11n it looks like dd-wrt didn't enable it. Or it could have been something that I did or didn't do.

The Asus supports "2.4GHz and 5GHz concurrent dual-band transmissions with dual processor design for stronger signals and faster connection rates up to 750Mbps combined." I think that's the difference.

I haven't enabled any QoS on the Asus.

The Asus easily supports guest networks so I setup the "attwifi" SSID that I mentioned here. I haven't had any visitors come by yet but all my AT&T smartphones see it and put it at the top of their list.

On the Way to VoIP - Part 6

Going down the road with Comcast I was facing $7.00 per month to rent a modem.

OR

I could buy my own. I came across a good price on a Cisco DPC3008 DOCSIS 3.0 modem and grabbed it.

The Comcast installer didn't blink an eye about it and installed it and activated it with no questions asked.

Interestingly it looks like Comcast downloaded their own firmware onto it.

And it's fast.