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Motorola Shopping Its Network Equipment Division

Paul Lilly — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 07:14:25 -0600

Motorola has put the word out that it wants to sell off its "Home and Network Mobility" unit. The unit, which makes equipment for cable and wireless companies, is Motorola's largest division, Businessweek.com reports.

According to the latest tech chatter, a deal worth $4.5 billion could be on the table. It's unknown exactly who the potential buyer(s) might be, but the most likely bet would include private-equity firms and makers of telecommunications equipment, like Samsung, the Wall Street Journal speculated.

Should Motorola find a buyer, it would be left with two other divisions: Mobile Devices, which makes cell phones, and Enterprise Mobility, with makes bar code scanners and other equipment for corporate use,

Motorola had no comment on the rumor.

When Competition Threatens, Try Throwing a Tantrum

Bart Salisbury — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:32:23 -0500

There’s a definite object lesson here, but I’m not sure what it is. It could be that competition is a good thing. It also could be that monopolies don’t take kindly to threats to their turf. What is obvious, however, is if you need your local cable provider to do something you got to be prepared to poke them in the eye (preferably with a sharp stick).

The suburban hamlet of Monticello, Minnesota, just outside of Minneapolis, had a hankering for fiber optic cable for all its residents. The town approached it’s regional telco, TDS Telecommunications, with the request and was rebuffed. TDS didn’t see the need to make such an investment in Monticello now or any time in the foreseeable future. In response, the citizens of Monticello passed a referendum to build their own fiber optic system, which would compete with TDS’s cable service to the town.

That didn’t sit well with TDS, which promptly sued Monticello. Minnesota law sides with the city in this case, and as the lawsuit progressed through the courts the city kept winning. TDS’s intent wasn’t to block Monticello’s efforts, only to delay them. While the lawsuit was underway the city was prevented from starting construction. TDS, however, wasn’t, and began to install its own fiber optic system. When completed, TDS crowed about the technological improvements it rendered in Monticello, saying “TDS is working incredibly hard to deliver the faster speeds customers want.”

TDS wasn’t done there. It also openly questioned Monticello’s decision to build it’s own fiber optic system: “In view of TDS' development of a robust broadband platform in Monticello during the past year, it is questionable whether or not the City's feasibility study supporting its own fiber project, which was premised on no broadband competitors and on which the revenue bond purchasers relied when they secured the bonds more than a year ago, is still accurate, and whether the city fiber project is feasible today.” Way to stay classy TDS.

So why all the rigmarole, why didn’t TDS just build a fiber optic system when first asked by Monticello? Nate Anderson, of Ars Technica, reports TDS’s director of legislative and public relations said TDS wasn’t “really, really sure” the residents of Monticello wanted fiber optic. (TDS hasn’t heard of market research?) Passage of the referendum is what changed their minds. That, and the fact TDS would have a fiber optic competitor.

Anderson suggests the object lesson to be for municipalities to build their own cable networks. (Or, at the very least, inject competition into the system). Everyone in Monticello got their broadband speeds doubled: from 25Mbps to 50Mbps, without seeing a rise in rates. Similarly, the town of Lafeyette, Louisiana has managed to keep cable rates down because it offers competition to Cox Cable. And, if you are jonesing for real broadband, the city of Wilson, North Carolina has a municipal system that offers 100Mbps (while Time Warner Cable is still knuckle-dragging at 10Mbps).

Image Credit: Gen Pren/flickr

65,000 Time Warner Customers Exposed to Vulnerabilities

Paul Lilly — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:55:36 -0500

Yikes - it was discovered that a vulnerability in a Time Warner cable modem and WiFi router being used by 65,000 customers makes it possible for a hacker to remotely access the device's administrative menu and wreak havoc, To deal with the problem, Time Warner said it hopes to have updated firmware from the router manufacture to push out to customers soon.

"We were aware of the problem last week and have been working on it since," said Time Warner spokesman Alex Dudley.

The security snafu affects Time Warner's SMC014 series combo modem/WiFi router and was discovered by blogger David Chen, who writes for chenosaurus.com. Chen said he was trying to help a friend change the settings on his cable model when he discovered Time Warner had hidden some admin functions using JavaScript code. All he had to do was disable JavaScript in his browser and he could see those functions, including a tool to dump the router's config file displaying the admin login and password.

"From within your own network, an intruder can eavesdrop on sensitive data being sent over the Internet and even worse, they can manipulate the DNS address to point trusted sites to malicious servers to perform man-in-the-middle attacks," Chen wrote on his blog. "Someone skilled enough can possibly even modify and install a new firmware onto the router, which can then automatically scan and infect other routers automatically."

Time Warner said it is working to find out if the same or a similar vulnerability also affects other models.

Image Credit: SMC via Wired.com

Comcast Insists It's Here to Stay

Paul Lilly — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:01:20 -0500

Forget about all the negative attention Comcast has received this past year, the Cable operator insists it's not "a dead duck," as Web 2.0 Summit conference organizer John Battelle described cable companies in general. Not only is the company not a dead duck, but Comcast seems to think it's the reason the Web is where it's at today.

"We're going to keep investing, because we believe there are great ideas in this room and in this country and in the world," said Brian Roberts, Comcast CEO. "In the same way, it's unthinkable that a Google or a Yahoo or a Facebook or a Twitter would be happening it we hadn't made those investments (in broadband infrastructure) 15 years ago."

When pinged on what he reckons is the reason the U.S. trails some other countries in broadband technology advancements, Roberts said he didn't think that was true at all.

"We have the same equipment (as other countries), the same wires, the same infrastructure, why is the adoption different is a different question," Roberts explained.

Roberts also talked about Comcast's role in the Net neutrality debate, particularly the scrutiny his company has received over imposing bandwidth caps, saying he welcomes the criticism because "we're going to be an active participant."

Image Credit: Comcast

Vantec ezShare Adapter

Gordon Mah Ung — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:00:00 -0500

This is the Air Jordan sneaker of sneakernets

Don’t be fooled by the Vantec ezShare’s unassuming looks. This simple six-foot white cable with its Type A USB plugs on either end is actually one of the easiest ways to quickly moves files between two computers. Just plug one end into an available USB port on a box running Windows (XP and up), and plug the other end into the second box.

A Windows Explorer–like app will auto-launch on each machine, letting you drag and drop folders and files between the two PCs. If this sounds an awful lot like Data Drive Thru’s Tornado (reviewed November 2007), that’s because the two products are pretty similar. The file-explorer UI and software functionality of both products are virtually the same. It’s close enough that we have a pretty strong suspicion that the underlying chipsets and software come from the same factory in China. There are a few key differences, though.

The first is the construction. The Tornado has auto-retracting cables, making it a nice portable package. On the other hand, the ezShare works with Macs. That’s right, by plugging one side into a PC and the other side into a Mac (10.4 or greater), you get the same Windows Explorer–like view and ability to drag and drop files between the two machines. That’ll make it even easier to switch from OS X to Windows 7 this fall!

We compared our original Tornado with the ezShare by copying files between a Win XP ThinkPad T60 Core Duo notebook and our midrange Core i7 Dream Machine running Windows 7 64-bit. It was virtually a tie, with both transfer cables taking about 530 seconds to move a 9GB file from the notebook to the desktop. Actually, we’re happy to report that we could even move the large file; after we published our review of the Tornado in 2007, some people reported problems moving files larger than 4GB, and we even subsequently experienced occasional issues when using Windows XP 64-bit. Data Drive Thru was never able to replicate the problem, however. It now seems likely that the culprit was some obscure configuration of the OS, as we didn’t experience any such conflicts with Windows 7.

A simple Windows Explorer-like interface pops up on both machines when copying files.

We also tested the ezShare with smaller transfers and moved about 1.34GB of image files in 96 seconds—top-notch performance for USB 2.0 transfers.

So what’s not to like? The ezShare’s presentation doesn’t exactly impress. While the Tornado makes for a tidy package, the ezShare looks like a plain, run-of-the-mill cable. But at $27 vs. $50 for the Tornado, we’ll live with the ugly cable. And with Mac compatibility thrown in to boot, the ezShare is an obvious winner. Now all it needs to win a Kick Ass is Linux support.

And Now: A Practical Way to Use Up Extra Ethernet Cable

Paul Lilly — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 09:20:34 -0500

Any geek worth his mettle has, among other things, a bundle or three of Ethernet cables sitting in some box in a dingy corner of the basement. If you've considered tossing the cables in the garbage, don't do it. Instead, why not make a fashion statement?

That's exactly what took place in Medellin, Colombia, and could catch on if...who are we kidding, this will never catch on. Looking more like data disasters than data divas, one outfit, which was designed by students of the Pontificia Bolivariana University in Medellin, consisted of several bundles of different color cables used as a makeshift wig (see pic below). Another model appears to have covered herself in thousands of zip ties.

Take a peak here.

Second Opinion: DVR Video over FireWire

The Maximum PC Staff — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 11:00:00 -0500

Second Opinion is where readers respond to the Doctor, share their wisdom, correct him if he's wrong, and generally show the world what smart, beautiful people you are.

I can’t agree more with the Doctor regarding his advice to Michael Collins (June 2008) on a TiVo as the best option to extend your DVRing capabilities, especially for transferring recorded programs to a computer. The TiVoToGo feature is great. However, the Doctor’s advice regarding the FireWire ports of most cable DVRs is, as Dwight Schrute would say, “False!”

As to Michael’s question regarding legal issues, there are no implications. Just as the DVI and HDMI ports are protected with HDCP, the FireWire ports are protected with 5C DTCP encryption. Programs that are supposed to be copy protected are encrypted and cannot be captured with a computer, though the copy-protected content varies by market. One needs a D-VHS deck for authorized copying of such programs.

The FCC has mandated that cable DVRs must have the FireWire ports enabled. While many channels are encrypted, basic cable channels are not to be encrypted. If you find you can’t capture a basic-tier channel (including local HDTV channels), call your cable company to complain; then lodge a complaint with your local cable franchise authority (usually listed on your monthly bill).

–Kevin Onken

SUBMIT YOUR QUESTION Are flames shooting out of the back of your rig? First, grab a fire extinguisher and douse the flames. Once the pyrotechnic display has fizzled, email the doctor at doctor@maximumpc.com for advice on how to solve your technological woes.

Is a 5GB Bandwidth Cap Enough?

Chris Moody — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:24:20 -0500

It seems that in the rapidly approaching future I may have to pay extra to my ISP to download my collection of Steam based games when I upgrade my PC or wipe a hard drive. Forget about streaming movies over the net. In fact, best keep your quality internet time to surfing text pages, email without pictures, and IMing. Okay, not quite that bad, but close, if some ISPs have their say about it.

The Associated Press covered a story in which a man in New York changed from his cable company to his phone company based on the offer of a year of free service on a two-year contract, an attractive deal. Soon afterr Frontier Communications quietly updated its policies saying it would limit internet activity each month to 5GB. That’s the same figure that several other companies are trying out.

This story is particularly interesting because it’s a phone company trying the cap, not a cable company. Since in this man’s particular area the cable company is Time Warner, which is trying a pilot program in Beaumont Texas with a 5GB cap on its cable service for new users, it might not help to switch even if he can get out of his phone company contract. That is a scenario that we could see repeated in many areas if this catches on.

These scenarios are tough sells to customer that aren’t interested in having additional fees tacked on to their bills, especially after the fact. If consumers are left without a choice because all of their area ISPs are capping their downloads, it’s customers that lose out and it becomes pretty easy for ISPs to charge more money for less service. 5GB of data isn’t much at all.

Do you think this will backfire on ISPs? Sound off below.