VOIP Archives - The Silicon Underground

Does a POTS phone use the same wiring as U-Verse VOIP?

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 01 Sep 2015 11:00:12 +0000

A friend asked me a good question: Does a POTS phone use the same wiring as U-Verse VOIP? The answer is, it depends. Outside your house, no it doesn’t. But that’s not your problem. Outside, that’s AT&T’s problem. Inside is where

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Keep cordless phones from interfering with Wi-Fi

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 07 Apr 2015 11:00:39 +0000

Long ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and knights in shining armor fought them, people had landlines. And they plugged cordless phones into them. Everything was great. Then phones started using the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequencies. Wi-Fi came out

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How to ensure you never get another Windows tech support scam call again

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 11:00:18 +0000

I haven’t received a fake Windows tech support call in a very long time. A couple of the operations doing this have been shut down, but based on the continued popularity of the things I’ve written about them, I wonder if

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How to protect executives traveling to hostile countries

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 11:00:07 +0000

Slashdot ran a story about executives being targets in high-end hotels in the Far East. I didn’t realize this was a new phenomenon; perhaps I just assumed it’s been going on all along. At any rate, it’s possible to protect

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Mr. Genius Man from “Windows Technical Support” gets nasty

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 09 Jun 2014 11:00:03 +0000

I got another “Windows Technical Support” call on Friday evening. My caller ID said Minneapolis, and since I have coworkers in Minneapolis, I answered. But the guy on the other end was a long way from Minneapolis and probably doesn’t

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Windows Technical Support calls me again

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 13 May 2014 11:00:15 +0000

“Oh, so you think you’re Mr. Genius Man,” the crackly voice said, drowned out by static caused by his cheap VOIP connection. “Enjoy your broken computer, Mr. Genius Man. Goodbye, Mr. Genius Man.” So ended 23 minutes of my life

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How to ditch your landline and your phone bill but still have phones that work

Dave Farquhar — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 10:01:03 +0000

Now here’s a potentially huge money-saver. I still have phone service through AT&T that rings through old-fashioned phones (you know, like the kind you see in a museum) because there’s nobody that’s going to give me a wireless plan with

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The phone in the server rack

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 10:11:47 +0000

I spent about four years of my life working in a datacenter, administering a system comprised of about 200 computers supporting 20,000 users. I have some stories. The facility had a lot of rules, some of them extremely petty. One

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Things I wish I’d known about AT&T U-Verse before I signed up

Dave Farquhar — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 12:43:06 +0000

As I wrote earlier this week, I’m a new AT&T U-Verse customer. Prior to that, I was using old-school POTS with a DSL connection. Between the phone service, DSL, and long-distance calls, I was spending around $75 a month. So

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Android-ified.

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 00:01:05 +0000

After agonizing for a few weeks, I bought an Android phone. Specifically, a Samsung Galaxy S 4G. Being a T-Mobile phone, it’s a potential dead end, but I opted to do it for a few reasons. Why? I’m sick of

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