belkin Archives - The Silicon Underground

Linksys vs TP-Link

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 12:00:29 +0000

If you’re looking for the pros and cons of Linksys vs TP-Link, I have experience with both and I’m glad to share it. Linksys is a well established brand. From 2003 to 2013, they were Cisco’s consumer products division. Since 2013,

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TP-Link TL-WR840n vs TL-WR841n

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 04 Jan 2016 12:00:04 +0000

If you need an inexpensive DD-WRT compatible router, TP-Link is probably your best choice. But there are some big differences when you compare the TL-WR840n vs the TL-WR841n. I’ve been running the TL-WR841n for more than two years, so I’m familiar with

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Hillary, hackers, threats, and national security

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 16 Mar 2015 11:00:18 +0000

I got a point-blank question in the comments earlier this week: Did Hillary Clinton’s home-made mail server put national secrets at risk of being hacked by our enemies? Depending on the enemies, maybe marginally. But not enough that any security

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Cleaning up a venerable and battle-worn IBM Model M keyboard

Dave Farquhar — Sun, 27 May 2012 12:42:56 +0000

I scored an IBM Model M keyboard recently. Usually when you find 30 year old keyboards, they’re pretty dirty. Here’s how I clean an IBM Model M keyboard. I’m notoriously picky about keyboards. My weapon of choice is an IBM

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Improving DSL speed

Dave Farquhar — Sun, 31 May 2009 03:35:14 +0000

I found some DSL speed tips. They work. If you have DSL, you should read them and do the same.

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How to make your laptop more reliable (or at least die trying)

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 17 Aug 2005 23:05:15 +0000

People have been asking me a lot of notebook/laptop questions lately, so I figure it's probably a good time for me to write about them. I'll tackle reliability first, then I'll tackle upgrades.

About five years ago, I wrote and published a newspaper column titled, "10 Reasons You Shouldn't Buy a Laptop." I still think the best way to get a reliable computer is to skip the laptop and get a desktop, but since people are going to buy laptops anyway, here's what I've learned about keeping them reliable.

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Resolving an issue with slow Windows XP network printing

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 20 Oct 2004 23:13:25 +0000

There is a little-known issue with Windows XP and network printing that does not seem to have been completely resolved. It's a bit elusive and hard to track down. Here are my notes and suggestions, after chasing the problem for a couple of weeks.

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Two vendors you can count on

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 06 Jul 2001 17:18:52 +0000

Vendors. I've been trying to get out of the build-PCs-for-friends business and for the most part I've succeeded. My reasons for getting out are twofold: time and support. It takes some time to spec and build one, and if something goes wrong, I've got some responsibility for it. It's something I don't understand, because the systems I've built for myself have been reliable (I had a system appear dead that turned out just to be a corrupt MBR--I can live with that now that I know how to fix it, and it wasn't the hardware's fault) but the last two PCs I've built for friends have been horrendous.

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Airshows, photography and Linux routing

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 05 Jul 2001 17:37:35 +0000

Gatermann and I went out shooting again yesterday. More exploration of the warehouse district, and we found out that the warehouse district is a halfway decent place to watch an airshow. A couple of cargo planes buzzed us, tipping us off to what was going on, so I went chasing. I'm not the airplane junkie my dad was (few people are), but I'm still a sucker for exotic military planes. I borrowed Gatermann's telephoto lens and took shots as planes went by. A pair of vintage P-51 Mustangs zoomed by, so I got a few shots of those. A couple of modern fighters made a brief appearance, but I couldn't get them into the lens quickly enough to identify them. Chances are they were F-16s; not as common a sight as they once were, but you still see them.

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