802.11ax Wi-Fi is Coming

802.11AX is coming and is set to be the next big consumer wide Wi-Fi standard. Wireless 802.11AX is looking to bring some exciting improvements to your Wi-Fi experience starting with speed. If you look at the spec on paper you might notice that the maximum theoretical speed for the previous standard, Wireless AC Wave 2 is 866 megabits per second for a single stream and then only 1201 megabits per second for wireless AX so it's higher but not a nearly the six-fold increase like when we went from N to AC but that is actually okay.

The theoretical maximum speeds for Wi-Fi are notoriously inaccurate anyway and real world performance can vary widely depending on range, obstacles, other signals in the air and the quality of your access point and your device.

To address this, Wireless AX aims to improve efficiency in a number of ways to give you consistently higher real world speeds than what you get with AC. Perhaps the biggest change is a feature called OFDMA (Orthognoal Frequency Division Multiple Access). What it does is chop up each wireless channel into many smaller partial channels which allows up to 30 different gadgets to talk to the access point at once over a single channel.

           

Even though these sub channels are smaller than the main channel the access point gets more flexibility allowing it to allocate bandwidth to each device based on its data needs. This should increase performance overall. OFDMA also works in tandem with multi-user MIMO. Multi-user MIMO allows an access point to address multiple devices simultaneously instead of one at a time sequentially. While multi-user MIMO was introduced for consumers with last-gen wireless-AC, wireless AX improves on it. Not only by allowing 8 simultaneous streams instead of just 4 but also by enabling it for both uploads and downloads.

Uploading photos or streaming video from a crowded area like a trade show or a concert venue with Wireless AX support should get a fair bit easier. Another cool feature is the addition of BSS color. BSS color is an identifier that is attached to each data chunk or frame to indicate what wireless network it came from. Access points typically wait to transmit if there's already another frame flying through the air. With BSS color an AP can tell which frames are coming from other networks and ignore them as long as they're below threshold of weakness to prevent interference. This should help avoid unnecessary slowdowns.

If all these improvements aren't enough Wireless AX can utilize both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands with tech companies currently trying to get even more spectrum in the 6 gigahertz range allocated to Wi-Fi.

For your battery powered devices it supports yet another new feature called target wake-up time that allows gadgets to negotiate how often and for how long they will need to transmit or receive data. This allows the Wi-Fi transponder to sleep when transmission isn't necessary which should help to preserve precious battery life once AX devices are available.

The first devices to have 802.11AX will be routers as usual with earlybird network vendors like Asus planning mid 2018 launches. Since the new standard is backwards compatible you could make the Wi-Fi upgrade early if you wanted to.

As for client devices the word on the street is that phones and laptops will probably start hitting the consumer market sometime in 2019.


References: Sebastion, L. & Martin, J. (2018, February 23) What is 802.11ax? , TechQuickie

The Top 5 Mistakes That People Make When Blaming Wi-Fi.

When connecting to Wi-Fi, people will sometimes experience slow or bad connections. That's not to say that the actual Wi-Fi is bad, but there are many other things to consider. These are my top 5 mistakes that people make when blaming Wi-Fi.


#5. Too many people using one hotspot.

     A Wi-Fi router or Access Point is a true bottleneck. Multiple users will be using the same hotspot. Take a look around and if there are more than 5 people using Wi-Fi, then chances are the connection speeds are going to be limited. These days, each person can have 4 or more Wi-Fi devices on their person at any given time. This includes, smartphones, tablets, laptops, cameras, and video game systems. Divide a single Wi-Fi connection by the number of users, times the number of devices they are currently using to connect and the bandwidth speed of the connection speed keeps getting smaller and smaller. The optimal number of devices on one AP/router should be kept at 15 or less.



#4. Distance.

     People often connect to the Wi-Fi but they don't even try to look at where the router or access point is. The farther away you are from it, the worse the connection will be. Let's say you walk into a building whether it be a store or a restaurant of some kind, and you connect to the free Wi-Fi but you are only getting 2 out of 5 bars of signal strength. You automatically say, wow this connection sucks. But did you ever take into account where the Wi-Fi is coming from? Can you see the actual access point?


#3. Noise.

     I'm not acutally talking about audible sounds type of noise. Noise in Wi-Fi terms is talking about interference from other radio frequency devices and noise most often comes from other Wi-Fi devices. So you're connected to a specific Wi-Fi network SSID but, when you were connecting to it, did you see the list of all the other Wi-Fi SSID network names in that list? Those ones are most likely interfering with your current connection. How about your neighbor next to you. Are they using their phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot to tether their connections to provide Wi-Fi hotspot for their other devices? Any other Wi-Fi network, other than the one you are trying to connect to is called a Rogue network, and can potentially cause noise and interference.



#2. Battery Life.

     How low is the battery on your device? If you are using a mobile device, like a smartphone or tablet or something compact, it usually means, the device is likely optimized for lower voltage to extend battery life and also that their Wi-Fi antenna won't be very strong to begin with. What that also means is that there is far less electricity to power the Wi-Fi antenna. As the battery drains past 50% or more, most devices will go into a power saving mode that will decrease electrical power and may also reduce the effectiveness of it's Wi-Fi. Some devices will turn off Wi-Fi entirely at a certain point.
 


#1. The age and capability of their device. 2.4 Ghz or 5.0 Ghz.

     Can your device detect newer Wi-Fi networks on the 5.0 Ghz band? If your device is less than 4 years old, then the answer is most likely yes. The 5.0 Ghz band, is the optimal way to use Wi-Fi as it will experience far less noise interference, and has a much higher connection speed. If the device can only detect and use the 2.4 Ghz band, then those connections will be much poorer and succeptible to interference almost always, and will have a much lower connection speed.



Conclusion.

People can be very quick to determine that the Wi-Fi sucks, but in reality it actually doesn't suck. All 5 of the things mentioned above need to be taken into account. The Wi-Fi router/Access Point could be the absolutely newest, fastest-speed one on the market, and people will still blame it for bad connections, rather than taking a minute to assess their own device and how it connects.

There are also other things to consider, such as the layers past the Wi-Fi router/AP, like "how fast is the actual internet connection?", and "are there problems on the rest of the wired network?"

My Newly Upgraded Gaming PC & Newly Built Streaming PC

I've been experimenting with VideoGame Streaming on Twitch and YouTube for nearly two years now since the summer of 2016. My focus was mainly to learn the technical side of how things operate vs trying to become famous on the internet. While doing so I've found that the video quality of my streams weren't up to the standard I would like them to be so just recently I decided to build myself a newer secondary PC dedicated solely for streaming videos, and processing videos. In previous years I had been using my gaming laptop to do the streaming part but have noticed that it is not quite powerful enough to get the 1080p 60fps video quality I was aiming for.

I have my main Gaming PC which I've upgraded and now I have my new secondary PC that will process the streaming. But some people may ask, "why do you have two computers for that? Can't you do it with just one?" My answer is yes you can do it with one computer, but the video quality will suffer. If a single PC has to handle the processing of not only the chosen videogame itself, but also the overhead of video processing/streaming, you are going to lose alot of frames per second within your video game.

If you have a single dedicated computer for each function, 1 for gaming, and 1 for streaming, there will be far less processing overhead and much lower chance for any dropped frames-per-second and slow-down.

So here's the breakdown of my builds so far in 2018:

PC#1 - Walt's Gaming Rig

Display = MSi Optix AG32C 31.5-inch 165Hz Curved LED Monitor
Power = CoolerMaster G750M 750 Watt
Mobo = Asus Prime X299-A LGA2066 with RGB lighting
Case = CoolerMaster Storm Stryker SE with RGB lighting
GPU = Asus GeForce GTX 1070 DUAL 8GB Overclocked
CPU = 7th Gen (Kaby Lake) Intel Core i7-7740X Quad-core 4.5 Ghz
CPU Cooler = Cooler Master MasterLiquid Lite 120 Liquid CPU Cooler
Storage = OCZ 256GB SSD + 1TB Seagate Cheetah HDD
Memory = G-Skill Trident Z RGB 32GB Dual-Channel DDR4-3866 RAM with RGB lighting
Keyboard = Logitech Orion Spark G910 Mechanical with RGB lighting
Mouse = Razer Deathadder Chroma with RGB lighting
Headset = Steelseries Arctis 5 DTS 7.1 surround with RGB lighting
GamePad = Xbox One Afterglow Prismatic with RGB lighting
MousePad = Razer FireFly Chroma with RGB lighting

PC#2 Walt's Streaming Rig

Display = AOC 27-inch 144Hz IPS Monitor
Power = CoolerMaster G650M 650 Watt
Mobo = MSi Z370 Gaming Plus LGA1151 with Red LED lighting
Case = MSi Edition CoolerMaster MasterBox 5 with Red Dragon logo
GPU = MSi GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Overclocked
CPU = 8th Gen (Coffee Lake) Intel Core i3-8350K Quad-core 4.0 Ghz
CPU Cooler = Cooler Master MasterLiquid Lite 120 Liquid CPU Cooler
Storage = 2TB Seagate Barracuda HDD
Memory = Adata XPG Z1 Gaming Series 16GB Dual-Channel DDR4-2400 RAM
Keyboard = Red Dragon Karura K502 silent soft-touch LED keyboard
Mouse = ShiRui L6 Silent-click Rechargeable RGB wireless bluetooth Mouse
Headset = Sony MDR-XB950 Xtra Bass studio headphones
GamePad = Xbox One wireless
MousePad = Razer Vespula dual-surface mousepad
Capture Device = AVerMedia LGX Live Gamer Extreme

Don't Get Duped by Fake CRA Scammers

Don't Get Duped by fake CRA Scammers. It is tax time in Canada and the deadline to file taxes is April 30th. It can be a stressful time for many as they rush to get their numbers crunched in order to file their annual income taxes. Scammers are out in full force, trying to fool you to give up your personal information, or to send them money so be careful and mindful.

The number one thing is that the Canada Revenue Agency, does not ever contact you directly. If you are getting text messages, phone calls, or automated voice phone calls from unknown numbers claiming that they are CRA or representing CRA, you can just ignore them. Or better yet, you can do what I do and call them out on it, and report their number to Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre online or by calling 1-888-495-8501.
The CRA will only contact you via secured mail with security envelopes, or via secured electronic message to your account on the Government of Canada website if you are registered.

Scammers will try to text your mobile phone and send you links to pay money.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/canada-revenue-agency-warns-of-text-message-phishing-scam-1.2296220

Scammers will call you by phone and pretend to be CRA and that you owe them money.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4128682/im-sorry-scammer-claiming-to-be-from-canada-revenue-agency-confronted-by-winnipeg-man

http://dailyhive.com/vancouver/west-vancouver-police-cra-tax-scams

Scammers will try to prey on your emotions and will try to convince you to send money. Don't do it.

DO NOT PANIC, and DO NOT SEND MONEY, and DO NOT GIVE PERSONAL INFO! Everything they are saying is fake and fraudulent. I received a message this year saying that I owe money to CRA and have a warrant for my arrest. Total bullshit. I already filed my taxes and got a return.

The government is fully aware of this and you can read their post here.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/corporate/security/protect-yourself-against-fraud.html

http://www.antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/reportincident-signalerincident/index-eng.htm

Ultimate PC Configuration - Q1 2018

Happy New Year 2018 and greetings to all. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things and am finally recovering from yet another nasty winter cough and cold bug. Let's get started with trying to come up with a fantasy PC build with some of the latest and greatest of PC parts that money can buy for the first quarter of 2018.

Here's an expert enthusiast hardware configuration for an Extreme Performance Gaming PC with some of the most current and best rated hardware components. Keep in mind that this kind of build, is not meant to be affordable, but is meant to show off state-of-the-art highest end computer performance:

Computer case:
Corsair Crystal 570X RGB
=   $ 230.00

Power supply:
Corsair AX Series AX1500I 1500W ATX 80 Plus Titanium Power Supply
=   $ 550.00

Processor:
Intel Core i9-7980XE Extreme Edition 18 Cores Processor (24.75M Cache 4.20 GHz) LGA2066
=    $ 2,500.00

Motherboard:
Asus Rampage VI Extreme w/ DDR4 2133, 7.1 Audio, Triple M.2, 10G LAN, 802.11 ad, Bluetooth v4.2, 4-Way CrossFireX / 4-Way SLI
=  $ 815.00

Memory:
G.Skill Trident Z RGB Series DDR4 3866 RAM Kit w/ RGB LED Lighting, 32GB (4x 8GB)
=    $ 780.00

Video card:
Gigabyte AORUS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Xtreme Edition 11GB 1721 MHz OverClock
=   $ 1300.00

Storage:
Samsung 960 PRO NVMe M.2 PCIe x4 SSD, 2TB Solid State Drive (3500 MB/s)
=   $ 1700.00

Monitor:
Samsung C49HG90 49in Curved QLED UltraWide IPS 144Hz Quantum Dot HDR
=  $ 2,000.00

GRAND TOTAL APPROXIMATE COST = $ 9,875.00

Why I'm A Gamer

So it's been a while since I last blogged. Life happens and I just don't have time to consistently write articles as much as I should. I'm glad I can still put down thoughts whenever I can though.

I love videogames. I love collecting them, I love playing them, and I love getting lost in a whole other world whenever I play them. I've been playing videogames almost my entire life since maybe I was only about 3 years old way back in 1982.
At that age I even had the small Nintendo handheld portables for Pinball, and Donkey Kong. My family owned an Atari 2600 and had Pong, PacMan, Space Invaders, E.T. and Frogger. My family also owned a Colecovision and I remember playing BurgerTime, Centipede, PopEye, Donkey Kong Jr., and Buck Rogers.

When the original Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) came out in 1983 my family got one and my older brothers and I would always be fighting over who gets to play next. The NES hit the store shelves and was trending so high it's popularity was soaring with the masses and almost every family household owned one. The phenomenon that was Super Mario Bros.was when I was truly sucked into the world of videogames.
In the years and decades to follow I would own hundreds more new games and several new console systems almost as soon as they were available. There's so many great and entertaining videogames that I experienced that it's difficult to sit here and name them all. If it was great and you can name it, I probably played it like you.

During my highschool years from 1993 to 1997 I had a wide range of things keeping me busy. Extracurricular sports, studying for exams, Muay Thai Kickboxing classes, and videogames were all part of my regular schedule. However, I would get a motivational booster from my eldest sibling Janet to try harder at school. I made a deal with Janet. The deal was that every time I made the Honor Roll at school, I would get a new videogame of my choice. Seeing as each school year, had 3 report card periods, I could get rewarded with up to 3 new games every year. I made it my goal to try and make the Honour Roll as often as I could which meant getting at least half A's and B's on all of my subjects to get a total grade-point-average of 3.5. I rarely ever missed the Honour Roll and kept my grades up and was always rewarded with a shiny new game for whatever system I was using at the time. Mostly like a Sega Genesis game or Super Nintendo game.

This sort of motivation and reward system carried me through all of highschool and even helped me through College 1997 - 2000 where I motivated myself to push harder and get better grades. If I got good grades, I would go out and buy myself the latest game I wanted at the end of Semester when I had time to relax and play without worrying about school. Of course the post Secondary years were mostly spent doing social things, like partying, and hanging out with friends, and talking to girls, more than playing videogames, but I always found a way to fit it into my schedule.

Yes I'm an adult and I still play VideoGames. If you don't like that fact then you are in the wrong century. VideoGames are the best form of entertainment. They are bigger and better than straight-up watching Television. The interactivity of videogames involves a whole lot more brain activity and is way more socially engaging than regular TV. The videogame industry is right up there with mainstream Hollywood movie industry.

I highly recommend watching this video on YouTube by GameRanx titled
"10 Misconceptions About Gamers from Non-Gamers"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJukS3HjYWY]

Secure Your Internet Browser Using Secure Private Modes

Mozilla Firefox


Firefox allows you to automatically enable private browsing mode via its options window. Click menu > Options to open it.

Click the “Privacy” tab at the left side of the window to access privacy settings. Under History, click the “Firefox will” box and select “Never remember history”. Firefox will prompt you to restart the browser.

Firefox will look the same but it will have the same settings it uses in private browsing mode applied.

Google Chrome


To activate Google Chrome’s incognito mode by default, you must add a command line option to its shortcut.

First, locate the shortcut you use to launch Google Chrome—either on your taskbar, desktop, Start menu. Right-click it and select “Properties”.

If you’re using a taskbar shortcut, you’ll have to right-click the Google Chrome shortcut on your taskbar, right-click “Google Chrome” in the menu that appears, and then select “Properties”.

Add -incognito to the end of the text in the Target box. That’s a space, one dash, and then the word incognito.

Click “OK” to save your changes after adding this option.

Google Chrome will now start in incognito mode when you launch it from this shortcut. If you use other shortcuts to launch Google Chrome, you will also need to modify them.


Apple Safari

The Safari browser on Mac includes an option that allows you to always open it in private browsing mode. To find it, open Safari and click Safari > Preferences.

On the General pane, click the “Safari opens with” box and select “A new private window”. When you open Safari in the future, it will open in private browsing mode.

Internet Explorer


If you’re using Internet Explorer, you will need to add a command-line option to your Internet Explorer shortcuts to activate InPrivate Browsing by default.

Locate the shortcut you use to launch Internet Explorer, right-click it, and select Properties. If you’re using a taskbar shortcut, you’ll need to right-click Internet Explorer on the taskbar, right-click “Internet Explorer” again, and select Properties.

Add -private to the end of the Target box. That’s a space, one dash, and then the word private. Click OK to save your changes.

Internet Explorer will now start with InPrivate Browsing enabled when you launch it via this shortcut. If you use other shortcuts to launch Internet Explorer, you will need to modify each one.

[reference: https://www.howtogeek.com/137466/how-to-always-start-any-browser-in-private-browsing-mode/ ]