The problem with Airport Networking is that it just works

The often experienced problem with tinkering is that in the process you screw things up and have to figure out how to put all back together again. Of course, it's the process of rebuilding things which leads to new insights and improvements. In this scenario, this was all about Airport home networking tinkering.  The aim of the tinkering was to do 3 things:

• Maintain a 5Ghz wifi network for all my smartphones, tablets, Macs, Media streamers and Windows PCs
• Ensure it was a roaming network for each device to pick up the best signal, regardless of where it was being used in the house (3-floors)
• Get the Airplay playback to Sonos less prone to drop out because it was connected to my 2.4Ghz wifi network

Sonos Airplay
Using the previous version of Airport Utility (5.5.6), it was very easy to add Airplay to Sonos to throw iOS device music at the different Sonos zones. While the wifi radio on the 1st generation Airport Express was turned off, I did configure it to join the 2.4Ghz wifi network running off my Billion router. Playback on the Sonos Airplay was patchy in that it would consistently cut out the signal at various points in the playback of any tracks from my iPhone.  It made no difference for which zone it connected it to and which iDevice I used. I had the same symptom of issue with Rogue Amoeba's Airfoil which I shared previously. Given that Sonos creates it own optimised mesh network to optimally playback wireless music, my suspicion was that this had to do with the Airplay part going over the 2.4Ghz network where throughput is renowned for being choppy, regardless of any channel I chose.

The 5Ghz network
The initial idea was to add 2 Airport Expresses to the 5Ghz network (Airport Extreme – 'AExt') which would add coverage to black spots in the house, due to the shorter ranges covered by the 5Ghz mode.

I set up the first 'AExp' (for the lounge) using the 'extend wireless' option for the main 5Ghz network and it was operating fine.  Issues started to happen when I tried to add another AExp (for the loft) wirelessly in the loft to similarly extend the wireless network. At first, the wireless connection simply would not pick up. After a few soft resets, I managed to get it to pick up via an ethernet connection.  Then I found it was operating the extended wireless network at the 2.4Ghz which went against my aims. I ended up setting up another wireless access point with a different name to ensure I could get the 5Ghz mode which I wanted. Less than ideal.

What I learned from this was a subtle difference between Creating and Extending a wireless network with Airport Utility. While extending is fairly obvious, Airport Utility can actually extend your network by using the Create a Wireless network option. In this instance, the new access point  simply adds new 2.4 and 5ghz channels to the same access point name. In this regard, it optimises the wireless performance of the AExp where it is located, instead of forcibly making it run to the channels of its parent base station.  The result is a change as in the screenshots below. Loft AExp – tick.

Initial set up for additional base stations
- wired and wireless

So I returned to the Lounge AExp and thought it would be relatively easy to change the connection from wireless to wired by simply adding the ethernet cable to the switch where it was located.  What I found was somewhat strange - it seemed to cause a network storm and take down the Internet connection.  Take the ethernet cable out, and in a few seconds, all access points and the internet were back.

I suspected possible causes of this easy repeatable were either IPv6 LAN traffic enabled on the Billion and being automatically picked up on the AExt and AExp's.  So I turned this off and plugged in the ethernet cable again.  All connections went down again.

Then I realised — the magic of the Airport products, is that you need to soft reset them and run the Add a new base station routine in Airport Utility. Voila, it worked. 

Throughput wise (and concentrating on 5ghz), it has been beneficial. The rather hidden 'hover over' feature in Airport Utility (Mac) shows solid connection rates for each piece of kit. For example — iPhone at 52Mbps, Galaxy Nexus 39-65Mpbs, Apple TV 3rd gen 65Mpbs, Apple TV 1st gen 162-270Mbps, MacBook Air 162-270Mbps.

Results wise, I have 3 base stations connected by ethernet, using the same access point name across each floor, each with support for 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz support. The only difference between them is the channels being used for 2.4 or 5Ghz modes.  In effect, Airport Utility has optimised their radio signal as per their respective location.

Back to Sonos Airplay

Using the same principle of soft reset to re-run the set up routine for the 1st gen Airport Express, it is also connected by ethernet to my Sonos Play S5 in the lounge, with the wireless turned off.  When I airplay audio from the iPhone or the iPad, it works – flawlessy.

So the final Airport base station network now looks like this.

All ethernet wired base stations
- even Airplay with Sonos, which plays nice!

Morale of the story?  Use ethernet for connecting each base station to your network. Get HomePlugs and Switches if you have to, and while it will cost extra, it makes for a more satisfying device connection and playback performance across the entire network.

A couple of other points of note.  TidBits editor, Glenn Fleishman's video on Airport Utility is a great introduction on the latest how to on Airport Utility.  I go even further and recommend his book available in ePub, Kindle or iBooks which goes into extra detail for running and configuring Airport product networks at home or in the office.  Recommended.

From smartphones to tablets

With more of us consuming our content on smartphones and tablets, our requirements for computing on the go are coming more refined. And our preferences are shifting all the time.

What started as uniform acceptance of 3.5 to 4 inch smartphones is changing. With the success of the Samsung Galaxy range, culminating in the extremely successful S3 and Galaxy Note, it seems Apple has responded competitively and is due to announce a 4inch (16:9) device this September according to trusted bloggers such as iMore and TheLoop. What's interesting for me, is less about the 4S to whatever the new model is going to be called, but seeing if there will be another opportunity to use a more immersive and more portable device to take around with me everywhere.

Like most of us my iPhone or Galaxy Nexus is my primary carry around device largely because driven by the occasional need to make and receive calls. I carry the iPad around for preferred consuming on the train, on flights, in the hotel or even at my desk in the office. It ends up being a strange problem, in that the the the iPad is perfect for web browsing, book reading, RSS feeds and video playback — however, it's not as portable as I'd like it to be. It's too heavy. As such, while suited to the hotel, couch or on your desk in the office, it's not the preferred experience when on the train or when needing to drop something lighter into the bag when you're on the move.

While smartphones by Samsung, Motorola and HTC have been increasing in size, it's the tablet space which I see is going to be more interesting. Many of us have developed tastes and preferences for different types of portable devices when we are on the move, dependent of course on where we will be.  The iPad has redefined what we do on the couch, but it's not ideal for the key things we want to do when on the move, largely due to its current mass and weight. And what is it we are doing when on the move in the main? Our access to the web has been redefined by apps, with the occasional visit to the web. Really you say? Think of mail, RSS feeds, tweets, eBay, video chatting, SIP calls, book reading, movies, TV shows and games. This is where I can see the 7-8" tablet is being readily accepted as the middle of the ground tablet device where another option of portability is required.

Nexus 7 by Asus. Great price, nice features
but lack of 3G is a poor decision

I spent thirty minutes just the other day with the Galaxy Nexus 7. Initial impressions were quite good. It held nicely in one hand, the screen was sharp and bright (although not taking on the Super AMOLED colour vibrancy which I really like on the Galaxy Nexus phone) and it was quick.  It packs some good processor power for the stuff I'm talking about. Of course, optimised tablet apps on Android are sparse, but in time this should change for the better. What struck me as how I think I would prefer to slip a tablet into may bag for my every day commute. I'm suggesting I'd carry this around more than my iPad.

Back to the Nexus 7, the let down was for two fundamental things. Wifi only specification — an odd decision when you think about it. When you want to catch your feeds on the the commute, you can't until you reach the internet. This is a seriously poor decision which will have put off many buyers since access to your cloud data and the web everywhere is where we're at. The second let down was more minor, but yet important — the lack of rear side camera. A glaring miss when we all now expect it.   Some commentators will say these features are reflected in the trade offs for manufacturing cost. It seems to me that v1.0 of this product has a couple of key improvements ahead of v2.

Of course, being heavily invested in iOS and OS X reduces the chances of accessing the data or applications I would want to use on Android, but the shortcomings of the Nexus 7 rule this out for me anyway. This  paves the way for a £200-250 iPad mini (or whatever it's going to be called) in September.

@TrojanKitten beautifully mocks up the expected dimensions of the
forthcoming iPad mini

So believing the rumours for a moment, the 7-8" tablet is going to to be redefined and at a price point which will sell by the proverbial bucket load. However, therein lies the delicate challenge. If you have a device which is portable enough, what happens to the use case for the smartphone itself?

For me, the next piece is then to work out how I don't need an iPhone anymore and can cost effectively manage the low number of voice calls in a neat and subtle on-person microphone sort of way. I can't imagine the major telco's or Apple or any other the hardware vendors looking forward to this.

One for the toolkit – DiskWarrior for the new MacBooks

Since replacing the Macbook recently with the 11.6 Air, I had noticed that beyond the clone backups and the cloud syncing, if the worst should happen with the on board SSD, I'd have no DiskWarrior get out clause.

A quick surf around what Mac users with the no optical drive on the Macs do in this scenario, revealed a relatively straightforward answer which I thought I would share:

• In this case, use a Mac which does have a SuperDrive on board
• Insert the DiskWarrior DVD into the SuperDrive
• Insert a good quality USB key (probably 2-4Gb storage) into the Mac
• Fire up Disk Utility
• Format the USB key as 'DiskWarriorDVD' to get it ready
• Move to the Restore tab
• Drag the DVD of DiskWarrior to the source field
• Drag the USB drive of the DiskWarriorDVD to the destination field
• Click Restore

Simply use DiskWarrior to create a bootable USB key for DiskWarrior
— perfect in the toolkit for the new MacBooks

That's it. Store the USB key somewhere you can remember.  If the worst should happen and the MacBook does not fire up.  Insert the USB key and press and hold Cmd + O until DiskWarrior has fired up.

Toolkit updated :)

Streaming to the big screen

With recent announcements in relation to the availability of Hulu Plus on Apple TV, plus the addition of AirPlay Mirroring for newer Macs on Mountain Lion, it was a good moment to check where I am on options in cutting the cord from satellite TV here in the UK. The essential aim is to be able to access web content on the big screen, ahead of UK based TV schedules.

Of course, BSkyB is very powerful in UK & European market terms, both in its variety, with agreements with TV networks and film studios, alongside their unrivalled ability to content via set top boxes, mobile and even internet subscriptions. All with DRM and related encryption technologies thrown in to boot.

Previously, I had been playing with the Boxee box.  A decent product overall, with key features such as VPN configurability to be able to access US based services such as Vudu to get 1080p movies and film shows. The only downers being in terms of the price per throw for each movie (as opposed to a monthly all you can eat price).  A complimentary entertainment source is Hulu, in the form of the Hulu Plus service, designed for consoles and media streamers with HD content baked right in.  To date, Hulu Plus has not been available on Boxee, and given its niche numbers, I wonder if it ever will be. Without Hulu, Boxee is always missing something which really transform its value for non-US users.

So if you want to get access to your Hulu standard def shows outside of the US and Japan, you turn to the web with a VPN. Enter AirPlay Mirroring. However, Apple enabled AirPlay Mirroring only on their newer Macs, due to performance issues on older ones with the newer requirements of the technology. Thankfully, outside the Mac App Store, there are other solutions.

AirParrot is an app I mentioned previously. I tested it with my 2008 iMac on 2 favoured use cases which matter to me. Namely streaming football via FoxSoccerTV and then of course Hulu. The mirroring was to my 5 year old 37" Panasonic 1080i Plasma TV to check the quality.

AirParrot streamed content from iMac to Panasonic Plasma 1080i set

As you can see from the screen shot, the quality of the stream across the LAN produces a smooth image with much of the anti-aliaising built into the TV signal processing.  Of course, what it distinctly lacks is any real sharpness or detail. But given that the source is standard definition or below web source, this is hardly surprising.

What was even more interesting is how hard the iMac was working, both in terms of packets across the LAN and how heavily the iMac CPU was being taxed.

Courtesy of iStats menus - how the iMac was working hard to
use Airplay over AirParrot

AirParrot can also allow you to extend your desktop while mirroring content.  This provides additional value in terms of being able to watch your footy or TV shows on a mirrored screen while working on your main monitor at the same time.  Seeing how taxing this is on machine resources, I am mindful of the types of apps I'd throw for doing other stuff — e.g no heavy lifting apps such as image processing or CAD drawing.

So where does this leave me?  Well for us non-US dreamers of Hulu on Boxee or Apple TV, we can still use standard definition as we had all along as long as we put our money down on a decent VPN connection.  Of course, I can sign up to Hulu Plus for $8 per month (enabled by having a US Credit Card or PayPal and a bona fide US address) and then stream via AirParrot on the older iMac or use proper Airplay Mirroring fro the MacBook Air to the TV in the lounge.  In that scenario, I would have access to HD quality streams where available on Hulu.  Beyond that, I can only hope that Hulu finally shows up on Boxee.  It's been a long time coming, given its availability on most other console and media streamer platforms, but it would certainly tick all of my key boxes to think seriously about cutting the cord on UK satellite and cable TV services.

Posted with Blogsy