MacMAD Blog

We saw and discussed a video tutorial podcast from ScreenCastsOnline about iTunes 9. We were using iTunes to learn how to use iTunes. Humm.

Tutorial podcasts can be a great way to learn about your Mac. They are usually brief, and usually packed with a lot of information. There is something for everybody. I’ve been using a Mac since 1984, and still learn some useful tips from some of the basic tutorials.

Apple’s own video podcasts are a great way for beginners to learn about the Mac. All podcasts are free. Podcasts were originally audio, but many now have video.

We also took a look at iTunesU and the Free on iTunes page, both accessible from the front page of the iTunes music store.

Someone asked about importing a VHS tape into the Mac. To do that you need a hardware converter box, such as the EyeTV 250 from Elgato.

Several members are using the EyeTV software or hardware to record TV programs off the air. There is a TV tuner for the Mac from Hauppauge which is compatible with the EyeTV software.

For watching all that video on your TV, you might want to use an AppleTV, or a similar set-top box, such as the one from Western Digital mentioned at the meeting.

AT&T U-verse (TV/phone/internet service) is now rolling out in the Melbourne area. The service got some good reviews from those that have it. It’s not available everywhere, though.

-Jamie Cox

Many people have problems sending email reliably from their iPhone or other mobile devices. Receiving mail is usually not a problem, but sometimes, you can’t send mail. Mail accounts at the major players, such as gmail or me.com are usually not affected, but if you have an email account from a hosting provider, or small business, you likely have seen this problem. A common symptom would be that you can send email when you are at home, connected to your home WiFi network, but can’t always send when you are on the road.

There are two problems here. First, because of the spam problem, most mail servers will no longer accept mail from just any source. For example, the RoadRunner mail servers will accept mail only if you are connected via their network. You may be a customer, but if you are connecting via, say, AT&T’s network, they will not accept your attempt to send mail.

The other problem, also due to the curse of spam, is that some ISPs are blocking port 25 which is usually used to send mail. That stops spammers from originating spam from the ISP’s network. It also prevents legitimate users from sending mail via any but the ISP’s own email servers.

The usual advice offered is to use web-based mail clients. This does work, but is less intuitive and less convenient than using dedicated mail software. Some users may also resort to sending mail from another email address that is working, even though they would prefer to use a different account. There is a better way, so keep reading.

If AT&T set up your iPhone for you, they may have configured your account to send mail via their own mail server cwmx.com. AT&T does this to help overcome this problem and prevent customer complaints. The name cwmx is from AT&T’s alter ego, Cingular Wireless, thus stands for Cingular Wireless Mail eXchange. This will work fine as long as you are sending via AT&T’s own network. However, it may or may not work when you are connected via WiFi.

The solution to both problems is fully authenticated mail servers, where the client connects via a secure protocol, and authenticates using a username and password, or other mechanism. Then, the mail server knows that you are who you say you are, and are not some random spammer. If the provider of your email account allows authenticated connections, then great, you should configure your mail software to use them, and your problems should be over. Unfortunately, authenticated mail servers are still rare, and many providers do not offer them yet. Usually they will beat around the bush, but never come right out and say they don’t support authenticated mail connections.

This problem is common enough, and annoying enough that some companies offer services just to fix it. For $2 per month, you can get an account with AUTHSMTP.com, which will allow you to use their mail servers as a relay to send mail from your own preferred email account.

However, there is still another way. If you have a (free) Google mail account (gmail), you can use Google’s mail servers to relay your email to the server of your choice. Google is really leading the way in this area. Just today (14 Jan 2010), Google made all webmail sessions automatically fully secure, in that they always use the SSL protocol to authenticate and protect your session from snooping.

Google actually sanctions this mail relay arrangement, and even provides instructions on how to do it. Here are Google’s instructions:

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=22370

The only drawback to this is that it may also display your gmail address to the recipient as well as the 3rd part email address you are sending from in the form of

yourusername@gmail.com on behalf of customaddress@mydomain.com

I think most recipients will never see this, and if they do, they will get over it.

When setting this up in your mail client, it can be confusing. Remember that for your outgoing mail server, you must use the gmail server, and your gmail username and password to get you into that server, but your incoming mail server still uses the credentials of your original mail account.

Most of this discussion applies equally well to laptops and other mobile email readers. I have tried this on an iPhone though, and know it will work.

-Jamie Cox

Bright House networks is boosting the speed for their internet customers in the Melbourne area. My connection which formerly topped out at 0.5 Mbps upload and 7 Mbps download is now measuring 0.9 Mbps up, and over 8 Mbps down. The upgrade is not scheduled to be complete until Jan 31, 2010. The improvement in upload speed is especially welcome.

Beginning some months ago, I started noticing poor performance on my internet connection. Primarily I noticed that videos wouldn’t play without stopping. I subscribe to Road Runner from Bright House Networks. On the “standard” plan I expected up to 0.5 Mbps upload and 7.0 Mbps download. But when I measured my throughput, I was sometimes getting less than 2 Mbps down. Sometimes it was better, sometimes worse. After checking my own equipment, it was time to call Bright House.

The technician came out and made some minor changes to my outside wiring. He also replaced a splice I had made in the line where a contractor had broken my cable with a shovel. My splice was pretty good, I thought, but hey, he’s a pro. His tests looked good, and he declared victory.

Things were good for a while, but the problem was back in a month. The next tech was very knowledgeable and professional. He replaced some connectors done by the previous guy. But he declared that the real problem was with the wiring inside my house. I needed a new “home run”, and Bright House would send out someone to do that.

It looked pretty tough to me, because of the construction of our 2-story house, but I figured this guy would be a pro. In a week or so, the home-run guy comes out to the house, takes one look, and says, “Sorry, there’s no way to do it on this house.”

So, I lived with the problem for a while. Performance was sometimes better, sometimes worse. Finally, I decided I needed to solve the problem with my house wiring before my internet connection failed completely. And, I did believe that the wiring in my house was old and tired. Older houses have RG-59 TV cable, which is not up to broadband requirements, especially when it gets old. RG-6 coaxial cable is the new standard. My router and most of my computer equipment has always been upstairs, and I just couldn’t see a way to get a new cable run up to that room. So, I used Wi-Fi to set up a wireless network extension from a downstairs closet to upstairs. (More about that in another post.)

I still needed to replace the old RG-59 cable between the service entrance and the closet. After spending Saturday digging a piece of pipe under the sidewalk, climbing in the garage attic, fishing a wire through the stair landing and crawling under the back porch, I had a brand-new piece of RG-6 between my closet and the service entrance. Throw in a hundred bucks for an Airport Express, and my cable modem was now downstairs attached to an impeccable piece of cable.

I declared victory — performance improved immediately and seemed better for some weeks. However, the problem has been nothing if not intermittent. Soon it came back the same way: sometimes worse, sometimes better. But now, at least I was in a good position for a visit from the Bright House tech. They couldn’t blame my old wiring anymore.

So, I called Bright House. The girl on the phone suggested using Speedtest.net, which I had been using anyway. She had me do the usual tests, bypassing my router, and then when things were still bad, she said she would reset my cable modem remotely. She did, and now performance was perfect — just shy of 7 Mbps. I was happy — they fixed it over the phone. I figured maybe the modem did need a kiss from the mothership after being moved from a location with poor signal to one with good signal.

Alas, it didn’t last. Same problem again. Soon I was calling Bright House again, and again they sent a technician. Again he seems pretty competent and confident. He replaces all the cable ends he can find that were attached by anybody but him. (I’m seeing a pattern here — each tech thinks he’s the only one who does things right.) But, he decides that the problem is the long run of cable from the pole to the house. Reasonable, since that’s the only cable left to replace. So, he starts replacing it. It’s an all-day job. He eventually gets a helper, and the two of them dig about 100 feet of trench with shovels, working in the rain, stopping only for some nearby lightning strikes. That’s dedication. I don’t know why Bright House doesn’t equip them with a more modern trenching tool than a shovel.

Again, Bright House declares victory. I asked the tech if he could swap out the cable modem just for completeness, and he would have done it, but he didn’t have one of the right kind in the truck. But anyway, performance is back where it ought to be, and the techs drive off into the sunset.

It didn’t last a week. Once again, download performance is back down around 2 Mbps. Sometimes. I could understand if it were bad in the evening when everyone is at home using the internet, but it didn’t seem to follow any such pattern.

I called Bright House again. The guy I talked to this time was the only really unhelpful person at Bright House yet. He seemed to be reading from a script suggesting that it must be my problem. He was talking down to me, trying to educate me on the finer points of networking, which I could tell, I knew way better than him. However I didn’t try to explain that to him, I just kept listening. He explained that the problem was almost certainly not the cable modem and gave some mumbo-jumbo reasoning for this. However, he let slip one pearl of information: A customer could take their own cable modem to the office for an immediate exchange. But he’s sure that’s not the problem.

I’m pretty sure at this point that the cable modem is the problem. It’s the only thing left. Aside from the Road Runner network itself, everything else has been replaced or eliminated as the problem. I put the cable modem in the car, and went straight down there, and sure enough, they swapped it for another one — few questions asked.
So, it’s been about six weeks now, and everything is fine. I’ve been testing the network every couple of days, and I always see download speed of around 6.85 Mbps — extremely consistent. I’m now getting the bandwidth I’m paying for. But it was not easy.

I wonder how much of this effort and expense for both me and Bright House could have been averted if they had swapped the cable modem earlier?

Bright House is really not horrible. They obviously have taken to heart the poor reputation cable companies have had for customer service. They are doing a lot of things right to try to correct that. They have good techs, and conduct customer service surveys regularly. They know what a Macintosh is, and don’t give Mac users a hard time.

But, I’m not thrilled to be paying the prices I am for mediocre network performance. Upload speed is particularly bad. I’m looking forward to availability of some true broadband in the area, such as Verizon FIOS. I noticed some trucks laying network cable in my neighborhood recently, and I hope that foreshadows some competition in the internet marketplace.

-Jamie