Category Archives: tech tips

ASUS X202E hard drive upgrade instructions (replace w/SSD)

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The X202E-DH31T is a very cool little laptop and for the price ($400-$500) it is definitely one of the best touchscreen options out there! Unfortunately, it is saddled with a relatively slow hard drive and the RAM is soldered in. 🙁 PERFORMANCE TIP: replace the slow hard drive with a fast SSD. 🙂 See instructions below! *Bloatware removal is of course recommended as well  🙂 After upgrading to a SSD, commenter RJ suggested putting the old hard drive in a

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ASUS S200E SSD Upgrade Guide

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Here is a step-by-step photo tutorial for upgrading the S200E to utilize a fast SSD! 2016 UPDATE: My top SSD recommendation is the Samsung 850 EVO series. They start at around $70 for the 120GB version and they go all the way up to 2TB. Huge performance improvement vs the default HDD. RATING NOTE: while this upgrade is a little more difficult than some others, the new SSD still resulted in a HUGE performance improvement so I give this upgrade

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Jambox vs. HMDX Jam

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This comparison is still in progress… this is just the initial draft 🙂 [more photos will be added] First we will start with a comparison of performance on six different songs covering a variety of eras and genres: Listening (at moderate/normal volume levels) Jambox ratings for the following sampling of songs: Thrift Shop – this is a fun song and the Jambox does a superb job here. Everything sounds as it should. Excellent Roll Over Beethoven, Chuck Berry -overall nice

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WN1000RP default username and password [SOLVED]

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While setting up the WN1000RP to extend a wifi network, I was surprised to encounter a password prompt:   The included manual makes no mention of a username or password. So after a bit of trial and error I determined that the username is: admin and the password is: password (both user name and password are lower case) Now I am happily testing out the WN1000RP 🙂

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What ISPs are part of the Six Strikes Anti-Piracy Scheme? [answer]

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I was pleasantly surprised to read this: [M]any people assume that all ISPs are part of the agreement. However, this is certainly not the case. In fact, only five Internet providers have agreed to send out warnings to their customers. In alphabetical order these are AT&T, Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Verizon.  via Has Your ISP Joined the US “Six Strikes” Anti-Piracy Scheme? | TorrentFreak. I am of the opinion that an internet service provider’s job is not to monitor their users

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Winona MO CenturyLink internet speed test results

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For people comparing rural DSL to Exede, here are some DSL results from Winona MO: Test Date: Mar 6, 2013 12:41:29 pm Location: Winona, MO Server: Springfield, MO Download: 1207 kbps Upload: 410 kbps Ping: 39 ms External IP: 173.202.176.245 Internal IP: 192.168.0.108 Latitude: 36.99297 Longitude: -91.33641 Overall these results leave quite a bit to be desired, however, CenturyLink does not seem to impose a monthly bandwidth cap (so NetFlix works okay). Therefore, overall rating of 3/5 stars.

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Daily Exede speedtest.net results

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Here are some daily Exede internet speedtest results, I will continue periodically posting results to this same page. Please be aware that these are not necessarily ‘real world’ results… I generally find that real world raw downloads and uploads surpass these results. However, this at least gives you something to compare to other internet services! 🙂 Best regards, -JD March 17th 8:09AM CST, during another downpour of rain, Windows 7 with Chrome web browser: I was very impressed with this

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How can I monitor my monthly bandwidth usage? [OPTIONS]

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ROUTER NOTE: I have been asked what router I recommend for basic transfer (upload/download) monitoring. My router of choice is the ASUS RT-N56U: rock solid reliability, w/gigabit ethernet, USB NAS capabilities, and very fast performance. Out of the box it comes with a traffic monitor that works reliable (see screenshots below). It is not cheap, but it is well worth the price IMHO. Bandwidth monitoring can be accomplished in a variety of ways, therefore these options are organized by category: Use

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