We finally have the beginnings of a media server…

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We hooked up a 2TB WD MyBook to a Cisco E3000 router. After getting the it configured, the DirecTv HD20 found the media server and some of my photos I copied over. Now I just have to figure out all the supported file formats and size restrictions. The HD20 would only display my photos after I made them smaller. That’s a huge disappointment.

How is the average Joe dealing with the new home network?

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I just got off a 30 minute chat with Cisco where we were trying to figure out why I couldn’t access the web interface on my E3000 router when it was connected to the rest of my home network. The whole conversation was a little annoying because I’m supposed to know what I’m doing.

It turns out that the underlying problem was a new DirecTV box my husband hooked up a couple of weeks ago. If you’re tech-savvy, you know that most if not all of the network-enabled devices you buy these days are shipped with a static IP address of 192.168.1.1. So I imagine there are a lot of people out there who get really frustrated when they hook up that new router or DirecTV to a network that already has a device at that address and all hell breaks loose.

I didn’t have a clue what the problem was until I had one laptop connected to the E3000, the E3000 disconnected from the rest of the network and a second laptop connected to my home network with the wireless disabled. I pinged 192.168.1.1 and it still answered — something that could only be possible if there were another device with the same IP address.

iPad: The Magazine That Works

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In a recent post, I highlighted how Flipboard has really changed the way I consume the news. What I didn’t consider at the time is that the last five years has altered the way the babies of today will expect to be able to interact with the world around them.

While I’m not convinced this one-year old was trying to pinch the pages of her magazine, the concept is not all that far-fetched.