The Logitech Squeezebox Touch is one of the 4 Logitech Squeezebox models, and the ONLY touch screen enabled wifi radio of the group. The brilliant, full-color, 4.3 inch touch screen is easy to read and gives you touch access to intuitive, flowing menus. Just touch the “My Music” or “Internet Radio” prompts or one of your many online subscription services like Pandora, Rhapsody or Napster for instant access to your favorite music.
Any available album art is displayed on the large color screen, and the “Smart Remote” actually tracks your movements. The further away from the screen you move, the larger the display becomes, allowing you easy viewing from across the room.
Being a touch screen lover (I just love the latest technology), I was wowed by the huge 4.3 inch screen in the compact Squeezebox Touch. The fact that it displays in clear, full color is outstanding. It is instantaneous in its response, and the on-screen menus are laid out in a very sensible, flowing pattern.
I really like the album art or available graphics that are displayed as you access different music, podcasts or stations. It keeps the music experience fun, and helps educate you as to what other music may be out there that you would enjoy.
Rich Hi Fi Sound
The Squeezebox Touch is designed to connect to your home hi-fi system or powered speakers. It offers “high resolution encoding support for full, rich stereo sound” which is a fancy way of saying this compact, space-saving 10 x 8.5 x 5 inch table-top stereo receiver transfers digital music to full-sound via your home stereo or other powered speakers easily.
The USB port and SD card slot allow access to all your music hardware. And there are a ton of software programmers who have created a load of apps for the Logitech Squeezebox Touch that extend its versatility even further.
In some ways it epitomizes the decision we as consumers have to make regarding streaming media. The Squeezebox is obviously focused on sound but there are other devices which are more video related. After all which is the more important to you, high quality sound or being able to learn how to access BBC iPlayer outside UK on a video media device or smart TV?
Easy Setup
I have to say though that the “pull it out of the box and turn it on” setup is dramatic. Nothing could be easier, and this step really sets it apart from the other internet radios out there. You literally unbox it, plug it in, let it find your WIFI, and you are jamming! Whether you want to listen to the BBC, live Australian Rules Football from “down under”, or any of the thousands of free internet stations from around the globe, the Squeezebox Touch takes you there.
Control from your computer is sort of clunky, so I just stuck to the remote, and everything was fine. As I moved the unit around the house, it never drifted or lost clarity. If you have a signal, the Logitech Squeezebox Touch can access your stereo system and deliver your favorite sounds to your home stereo system or other powered speaker set.
You can even use it with a proxy (although not sure about a VPN). This may sound pointless but it does give you access to streams that arer restricted to specific countries. For example using a proxy like the one demonstrated here in this video BBC iPlayer VPN not working means you can potentially access sites and streams from places like Pandora – which are currently restricted to US access only. This ability might be one for the future but it’s important to look at these things, some manufacturers are blocking access to changing network settings in order to stop this.
One customer commented: By Steve… I’ve had this for 6 months now, and it is just the greatest little music device ever. All your music, online sources, everything – in one little sleek and easy to use package that sounds great. iPeng is a must – lets you control the Squeezebox from anywhere in the house, and since I use it as a source for my Nuvo whole house audio system, that means I can listen to anything I want, whenever I want, from anywhere in the house or garden. Don’t remember what life was like before I had this! On the downside, the server SW is relatively complex, and has a glitch once in a while. They seem to be improving it, and Logitech is usually able to sort these types of things out. Nothing major, and it has never affected my ability to use it for very long.
Squeezebox Touch In Summary
All in all, the combination of color touch screen, remote, small size and internet accessibility is a great package. Rated a whopping 4.2 stars out of 5 by previous online customers, this cutting edge touch screen technology is at the top end of the internet radio market, at around $300. However, if you want the number one internet radio out there, the Logitech Squeezebox Touch is the best of the best.
In many instances hacking into a wireless network is pretty easy, so you need to make sure that your home/business wireless network is secure
Let me explain how easy it is and how you can protect yourself from your local neighborhood war driver.
The first thing you need to understand is a sport called wardriving which basically involves driving around in your car with a laptop or PDA scanning for WIFI hotspots This practice is not in itself illegal as you have not actually gained access to a WIFI network merely scanned for an AP ( access point ) which is broadcasting an SSID which is the name of your network that gets broadcasted by the AP.
Netstumbler is usually the war drivers program of choice as it gives a range of information about the AP, including SSID, GPS location of the node ( if you have a GPS device )and the MAC address of the AP.
Once the wardriver has this information its up to him what he does next. He could LEECH your internet connection and surf for FREE maybe download pornography, send spam through your connection or try to hack into your private files. Or drive off and find some more. Netstumbler will also log each AP so they can come back at will without getting lost! Remember it’s also difficult to tracks these attacks too, they could be quite a distance away and often will be bouncing their connection through an intermediate server such as a VPN or proxy. These are now relatively inexpensive and you can subscribe to one like this being used to watch the BBC iPlayer in Ireland.
So what can you do to prevent this from happening to you?
First of all TURN ON MAC FILTERING on your AP. This means that only MAC addresses YOU enter into the LIST can gain access to your AP. This by NO means secures your network, it just means that it becomes a little bit more difficult and the attacker needs to spend 5 more minutes and needs another two program’s to access your network!
First he would open up a WIFI Sniffer program such as Airopeek which sniffs the airwaves for packets of data and decodes them to give you MAC addresses on the network you are sniffing. So he now has a MAC address that is on the filter list.
He would then open up S.M.A.C a program that allows you to ‘ SPOOF ‘ ( change ) your MAC address to any other MAC address. Enter the MAC address of the one that he ‘ sniffed out ‘, and wait for that MAC address to log off the network. Then he can log on and do any of the above! What’s more it can seriously impact your network performance especially if they end up relaying Spam. Often you’ll find them using your connection to download or stream vide, perhaps to watch British TV abroad using your IP address as cover.
So what else do I need to do?
Next you need to turn on WEP which means any WIFI device that connects to your network needs a SECURE ENCRYPTED KEY to be secure choose the highest WEP you can and make yourself a KEY. This is does NOT secure your WIFI NETWORK as I’m sure you are waiting for me to say by now!
This does however make it a much more time consuming job trying to gain access to your WIFI network. The attacker would now need to open up a WEP cracking program such as KisMac. This will now depend on the amount of data flowing through your network as to how fast your WEP key can be cracked. This can take days, weeks or even months to crack but can be cracked!
Hopefully you are now aware that securing your WIFI NETWORK is very important and if you just grabbed your AP straight out of the box and plugged it in, now go and secure your network!
All devices on your wireless home network must use the same settings as your Wireless Router. WEP encryption is recommended to increase the security of your wireless network.
SSID
The SSID is the unique name shared among all devices in a wireless network. The SSID must be identical for all devices in the wireless network. It is case-sensitive and must not exceed 32 alphanumeric characters, which may be any keyboard character. I recommend that you change the default SSID to a unique name of your choice.
SSID Broadcast
Disabling SSID broadcasting can be a useful security feature. However, when SSID broadcasting is disabled, Wireless site survey tools such as Windows XP’s Zero Configuration utility will not function. It is best to disable the SSID broadcast AFTER you have configured all of your wireless network clients.
Channel
This setting specifies the default 802.11b channel used by the Wireless LAN communication. Wireless clients will scan through all available channels searching
for an Access Point.
With the new increased speeds, it’s now possible to stream all sorts of content directly to wireless connected devices not just those hard wired. For example you can stream high definition media across a properly configured wireless network to a myriad of devices. Try signing up for the free trial of BBC iPlayer abroad and you can gain access to thousands of shows and programmes on the BBC network. The following video demonstrates how simple it is:
WEP
An acronym for Wired Equivalent Privacy, WEP is an
encryption scheme used to protect your wireless data communications. WEP uses a combination of 40-bit keys to provide access control to your network and encryption security for every data transmission. To decode a data transmission,
each wireless client on the network must use an identical
64 or 128-bit key.
Note: Disable WEP while you build your wireless home network
Quick Tip: Buy an access point with a firewall installed – and don’t turn it off.
Additional Network Security Rules to Remember
Look for the SSL-enabled (Secure Sockets Layer) The leading security protocol on the Internet. When an SSL session is started, the server sends its public key to the browser, which the browser uses to send a randomly generated secret key back to the server in order to have a secret key exchange for that session.
Whenever you exchange sensitive information. this is usually indicated by a pad lock or some other visual indicator at the bottom of your browser also look for the URL in the browse window that starts with https:// – If a web page offers a secure version of the service use it. Always use secure, since it uses SSL encryption
Don’t use insecure email protocols like POP (Post Office Protocol) A standard mail server commonly used on the Internet.
Or IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) A standard mail server expected to be widely used on the Internet unless you also use SSL encryption. Check you email software and consult you administrator for more information. Usually web based email has a secure connection, but just check to make sure it start https://
Use a VPN (Virtual Private Network) if your company provides one.
Quick Tip: One of the easiest things you can do to protect your wireless home network is to change the default configuration settings on your router
Now we’ve all probably see the stories of those YouTube millionaires who prance around while millions follow them. In reality, this is probably is not suited to all of us especially those on the wrong side of 40. The reality is that when you have millions of followers it’s actually extremely easy to make money from YouTube, there’s loads of opportunities for advertising revenue and paid product placement. Getting those followers though can be very difficult and for every millionaire there are hundreds of thousands who rake in a few dollars a month from their channels.
So what’s your option if you aren’t a stunning 20 something blonde with a wacky personality and an exhibitionist streak? Well there are other ways of making money that are perhaps not as lucrative but way more predictable. You see viral is difficult to achieve, and some may say even harder to maintain. I remember several people who were all the rage a decade ago but have now faded into the annals of digital history.
The problem is that you can spend ages thinking about and creating a potential viral video but chances are it will fail. Indeed when a video goes seriously viral it’s almost always unexpected, hoped for perhaps but unexpected nonetheless. My advice is don’t try, if you have a YouTube channel aim for a certain level of quality and provide useful information. However you shouldn’t spend loads of money and effort on single videos unless you have a very flexible budget and plans on YouTube domination.
Many people who make a very good living from YouTube have learnt the hard way that the safest way to increase revenue is to keep adding videos. It’s that simple, if you keep adding videos you’re building up your potential ad revenue each time plus expanding your channel. The difficulty is that producing decent videos regularly can be hard work, unless of course you have some sort of tool.
I’ve started using something called Content Samurai which helps bypass this problem. It’s a simple program which can be used to create videos very quickly and to an extremely high standard. It was first released a year or so ago, but to be honest it was a bit basic then and I quickly got fed up of the videos it produced. However now there’s a few new features that have been added which make a huge difference to both how easy it to use and the quality of the videos.
Here’s a quick look at the program in operation – Create Videos Quickly , which you can find hosted on Youtube.
As you can see you can go from a few lines of text to a fully featured video in a few minutes. If you really went crazy then you could probably finish in a couple of minutes. Although what I like now about the new release of Content Samurai is that it’s now possible to spend a little more time and effort and really customize your presentations.
It’s true that to some extent you can spot a Content Samurai video quite easily but not all of them. There are some being produced with custom graphics, professional intros and video backgrounds that look professional quality and some. This technical video called IP address changer incorporates a brief screen cast which makes it stand out from the standard template.
The crucial fact though it to remember that you can produce lots of videos very quickly indeed and that’s it main selling point. If you get used to the software which doesn’t take long you can easily generate significant numbers of videos extremely quickly. Uploading in quantity is always a decent tactic with YouTube, some will sink, some will do ok and other videos may go viral. However you’ll never know which is which until you release them.
Here’s a Quick Guide on how to configure DHCP in a Microsoft Windows network
One of the more confusing parts of setting up a network is DHCP or more technically referred to as Dynamic Host Control Protocol.
It’s also one of the most fundamental and luckily for the beginner one of the easier tasks to complete, for almost all home user environments your Router is going to be doing all the work here.
Every computer and/or “resource” on a network has to have a unique TCP/IP address so the router can tell which data needs to be sent to which machine.
Just as every website has an address, such as: 205.205.47.18 ( the address of this site )
Although with a website that address is going to called a “public” address meaning that it’s able to be found on the internet, but the computers on your home network will have what’s called a “private” address and will be made up of one of a few ranges of addresses set aside for smaller networks. It’s the public facing address that everyone online sees and in fact determines what you can access. For example if you’ve got a UK IP address then you can access British resources, otherwise you’ll need to use a proxy like in this post – How to Watch Channel 4 Abroad.
As far as Private addresses go there are 3 sets of numbers you can use, they are:
10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255
172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255
It is your choice which to use just remember all the pc’s must use the same range of numbers in order to “see” each other.
Most vendors of routers are going to have a set of addresses they like to use and it’s easiest to simply follow their lead and continue to use numbers from the same range.
Also, IP addresses in the range of 169.254.0.0 -169.254.255.255 are reserved for Automatic Private IP Addressing. -which are address used by MS Windows if it can’t find an address from another source, so you don’t want to see this as your computers address.
To check your IP address of your computer click here IP address
All that may sound technical and complicated, however, here’s where the easy part comes in-
You could manually assign these addresses to each of your computers one by one. This technique is called “Static” addressing, and is used in more advanced set-ups.
But that’s too much work and not as efficient as using DHCP where your router will simply hand out new addresses to each new PC as it boots up and gets discovered on the network. DHCP is especially useful when you are trying to determine if your computer and router are connected and functioning.
If your computer has a private IP address then it must have gotten that information from the router and therefore they must be communicating.
So, let’s check some settings in Windows-
First, you need to verify that DHCP is turned on in the configuration of your router. For this you will need to check with the documention that was supplied with your router.
IF you can’t get to the configuration screens for your router click here
Second, you need to verify each computer is set to use DHCP. The steps for this are slightly different in each version of Windows, so follow the directions on each of the specific version of Windows because they are slightly different.The Final step is to check and verify that you have gotten a address from your router and that your computer and router are “talking.”
To do so click on the link below to check your IP address and verify connectivity.
Recent Comments