Thunderbolt cable

[Ben]

Hi all & a Happy Easter to all our faithful readers, watch your calorie intake peoples.

Thunderbolt cable.

Okay I got this on my Face book page via' PC Technologies'  question: do we need it, what is it exactly, & from what I can see it will cost $50 as it is a separate item & does not it seems come with the new boards.

We have gone through so many cable systems, some have come through, whilst others have fallen by the wayside.

I just don't see any point in this, but maybe I am missing something.

Hopefully someone can shed some light on this newish tech.

Ben.

[Dark Mantis]

Well I must admit to this being totally new to me and I haven't even heard about it before so thanks for the heads up anyway Ben.

From a brief and cursory glance around the internet it seems this is a new specification developed by Texas Instruments and they are keeping tight hold of it for now.

If I can copy some details I found on Yahoo about it:

"The Thunderbolt high-speed interface standard supports dual 10.3 Gbps transfer lanes, aggregating PCI Express and DisplayPort into a single cable to enable both data and display over a single cable. TI is the only supplier to provide the full ecosystem of devices, allowing customers to do more by offering the right products to speed design with Thunderbolt."

It sounds like the dogs's danglies but as we all know sounding great and actually becoming a major player on the scene are two seperate things. Time will tell I guess.

[Ben]

Thanks for the reply "DM" as you say time will tell how this goes.

I swear if I have any more cables coming out of the back of my computer I will go ape****.

I already have 9 cables would have more but thanks to wireless I have cut down on some.

Ben.

[Dark Mantis]

I wish I only had nine! I'ts like a jungle back there and that is after i have tidied it up.  As you say you can clear a few with WiFi and wireless USB etc but that still leaves a lot.

[Ben]

Spaghetti junction eh?

Any way hope you have a good Easter.

I got my usual Old Gold chocolate & Rum 'n Raisin.

Ben.

PS.

Plus a new internet deal, unlimited up/downloads for $40 a month.

[Dark Mantis]

Hope that you have a Happy Easter too.

But at what speed Ben is the connection ? Unlimited up/downloads is fine but the bandwidth is more important.  Over here we can have up to 100Mbs on a normal connection. Mine is 30Mbs. They are doubling them all shortly but have sneaked in a cap also. So for really heavy users they will be limited but most people shouldn't have a problem. The cap on mine is 7GB during a six hour period before it resets.

[Ben]

I use a company called "DODO"

They have; no data limits, no bandwidth shaping, no peak/off peak times, unlimited ADSL2+.

My Modem/Router is a second hand unit I got for free (my Niece), its a Netgear DG834Guv5, if this makes any sense, as this is a grey area to me.

Haven't really tested my speeds as of yet but I have viewed video content without any problems.

How do I check the speed, looking for a clean site as the last few sites I went on had the usual crap, I had to disconnect my modem, & reset my computer plus did a full virus/malware check, just in case, as I have been bitten once before.

So is this a good deal or do you need more info.

Thanks Ben.

[Dark Mantis]

Hi Ben

Your service provider DODO ( I am not sure I would go with someone called that as it seems to be tempting fate) will have a limit to the speed of your connection. I have a couple of places I tend to use for checking what speeds I am currently getting and they are clean. Try these and see what they give you.

http://www.broadband.co.uk/broadband-speed-test/

http://www.speedtest.net/

http://www.speedtest.net/

http://www.yellowpipe.com/yis/tools/bandwidth/speed_test.php

These should give you a fairly reliable answer from anywhere in the world. If you want to test out your ping rate etc then try here:

http://www.pingtest.net/

[Ben]

Thanks "DM".

On my router status set up it says "download=21893kbps, & upload= 1017kbps. The modem/router is 4yrs old & its a 54Mbps wireless ADSL2+Modem Router

I tried some of the sites you gave me & I got; download =18.39mbps, upload = 0.86mbps. Ping 28ms.

So is this because my modem is very old?.

Ben.

[Dark Mantis]

The modem should work alright if it supports the latest standards. The figures that you gave seem about right and are a little different from here but different countries have different specs and speeds. I would ask your ISP what speed you should be getting and see what the actual  reading is. You will never achieve the speed that the ISP says you should get but it should be somewhere near.

[Ben]

Thanks again "DM".

So far I have had no trouble with it & seems to be performing well, plus my daughter likes the idea of being able to use the wireless side of it, maybe I should charge her

Ben.

[Dark Mantis]

If you are not used to having the wireless side of it though make sure that you have it secure so that nobody else can use it to access your computers. It is something that people new to wireless often forget.

[Ben]

You must be psychic or something as they had a piece on the telly letting every one know to be aware of unprotected wireless systems, I was amazed at how many homes that had no protection on their wireless systems, we have special police patrols that drive around looking for homes with non password protected WiFi, & informing the occupants.
I was lucky because mine was already protected, it had Netgears own password but with the option to change it which of course I did.

Thanks again, have a cold one on me, (do you take PayPal) .

Ben.

[Dark Mantis]

Afraid to say that I don't drink but a karma point would be appreciated instead  

Yes it is surprising how easy it is to get into many peoples systems and then into all their bank details etc etc. You might find it funny how many people actually use the same password for everything too. Not a good thing to do!

[Ben]

OK "DM" 1 Karma point coming up. (my your cheap) . What not even water?.

Yep I knew someone who used 'Password' as their password.

I have all my passwords on a separate USB drive, plus I rotate them every so often.

I try to use symbols with a mix of numbers & upper/lower case letters.

Ben