How fast is your Internet Connection

You can test your Internet connection speed using a number of free services. Try them out and see how yours rates. It is recommended that you try a few services and connect to multiple remote servers and average the connections. Here are a few that we have used:

• SpeakEasy
• DSL Reports
• Speed.io

Remember, there are a couple of factors that can affect the results from the speed test sites.

1. Traffic on your home network. If you (or someone sharing your home network) are downloading a bunch of stuff when you run the test, you are already using some of your capacilty, and your results will be lower than if the speed test were the only connection running at the time.
2. Load on the test server's network connection. If the server you are connecting to is on a slow network, or if it is really busy, you might get slow test results. So, try several different servers, and look for the higher results.

Let us know how you fare.

PBT Goes Broadband!

On January 1, 2010, PaulBunyan Telepone upgraded their standard DSL service from 1Mb to 10Mb. Woo hoo!!!!

Prior to this upgrade, it was nearly impossible to watch any streaming video, such as HULU, MiroTV or Netflix. Even YouTube was choppy on the PBT network.

Now it is quite practical. Wonderful, in fact. You can stream a movie, download some podcasts and surf the web all at the same time. Thank you PBT!

Sorry for the long lag time...

It's been way too long since our last post. We'll make a commitment to keep things more current this year.

Test your computer for the Conficker C virus

Last week there was a lot of media hype about the "Conficker" virus. Here's some important stuff to know:

• Microsoft released a patch for this vulnerability in October of 2008
• It only affects Windows computers, not Macs or Linux
• If you keep your Windows box up to date, with patches and anti-virus, you should be reasonably well protected. That's why they release patches after all.
  

Here is a simple test to see if your computer has the conficker virus. As confickor blocks some AV sites (100+) this simple test uses your browser to see if the virus is blocking those sites. If you see all six squares you probably do not have the virus. If not you most likely have one of the conflicker series or other malware according to the links below the image.

http://www.heise.de/security/dienste/browsercheck/tests/conficker/conficker_e.shtml

I hope you computer is clean. :-)

Digital TV conversion

On February 17, 2009 (legislation is pending to extend this date to June 12, 2009), U.S. broadcast television is switching from analog to digital signals. Analog televisions using an antenna will require a converter box to receive broadcast TV after that date. Every U.S. household can get up to two coupons--each with a code good for $40 off the cost of eligible converter boxes.

It must be emphasized this change to DTV affects you ONLY if you receive your TV signal off-the-air with an antenna. Cable TV users will have no changes. I fear that lots of perfectly good TVs are going to be thrown out by cable viewers.

If you receive your signal off-air, you have 2 choices... buy a TV with a digital tuner or buy a converter box to continue using your analog tuned TV. If you go the converter box route, and it only about $60 plus the government gives you a $40 rebate, a good box is the Zenith DTT901 and many online retailers e.g. Amazon process the rebate coupon when you order.