Moderated and reported by Jim Scheef
Q – I have a new cable modem from Charter that I cannot install. The device is an Arris TM822. When connected to the incoming cable, the modem does not get an IP address. Has anyone else had this problem?
A – A member suggested connecting directly to the cable modem without any router. This will make it easier to configure the device. Newer cable modems include router (and sometimes Wi-Fi) functionality which can complicate a home network that goes beyond “the basics.” Charter’s list of officially supported modems is here on their website. Your Arris is listed. The key in this case is likely that Charter has not added the device to your account. Until the device’s RF (radio frequency) MAC (media access control) address is recognized by Charter’s network, nothing will happen when you connect it to the incoming coaxial cable. The solution is to call Charter support and tell them you have a new cable modem. When they add the new device, they will remove the old one so the old cable modem becomes a door stop.
Q – A friend has a new laptop that uses face recognition software (FRS) as the means to log in to the computer. This is the only account on the system and s/he is concerned about how it will work, or if it will conflict with other user accounts on the same machine. They would like to add a second user account and have that account use a conventional userid and password to authenticate. Is this possible?
A – At the meeting no one had any experience with FRS as a means to authenticate a login. The only experience I can draw on is from laptops, such as IBM ThinkPads of a few years ago, that had a fingerprint scanner. This feature did not restrict multiple accounts in any way. I never saw anyone try to configure more than one account on a single machine to use fingerprint authentication, so I do not know if that was possible, however, second accounts with conventional passwords worked without any problems and I expect that this case will be the same. Another member made the point that for remote login to work, even the account using FRS must have a regular password.
Q – There have been news items about the next version of Windows that most people are calling “Windows Nine”. Rumors are that this new version will look more like Win7 and some pundits are recommending that people wait for the new version rather than use Win8. What have people heard?
A – Richard summed things up pretty well saying that it is very early to speculate about how Win9 might look, but the consensus is that it will be more “desktop friendly”. The other big rumor is that Win9 will be free. Exactly what “free” means is subject to further speculation. The press release from Microsoft that is generating all this is the coming release of the initial developers’ version. This release goes only to software developers registered with Microsoft so developers can begin testing existing software with the new operating system. Public availability is likely to be more than a year away, so I recommend everybody continue to breathe normally.
Q – How can one get Google Chrome to shut down completely when it is closed?
A – This is one of those questions we can investigate, but never really answer. At the meeting, I started Chrome, noted the running processes (four with two tabs open) and then closed the browser. It seemed to terminate all of the processes on my machine. Your mileage may vary due to configuration options and any installed add-ons.
Q – Google Chrome has an option in YouTube to change the playback speed of a video (as does IE but Firefox offers only a quality option). Does anyone know of a way to speed up the playback of C-SPAN videos as the option does not exist for C-SPAN in Chrome?
A – The playback options offered in YouTube do not seem to exist on C-SPAN. I checked both Firefox and IE. Members offered some (garbled) suggestions at the meeting. There are many programs that can capture steaming video and save it as a file on your machine. Once on disk, VLC Media Player can vary the playback speed as desired.