Google Phones Home

Google has made some big announcements over the past few days.

In case you’ve been living under that proverbial rock:

Up first, earlier in the week, Google Apps was released of its Beta moniker.  GMail, Calendar, Talk, and Docs are all out of beta – both consumer facing and enterprise.

Most recently we learned that Google plans to hit Microsoft where it hurts.  A Google OS will be gracing us before long.

Map your home WiFi network

I just mapped out my home wireless network using HeatMapper (via LifeHacker).  The software was dead simple to use – and even showed how my neighbors signal strenth was.  Before you use HeatMapper – use Gimp or some other image editting tool to create a rough sketch of your house/office.  Trust me.  It will make the map much easier to understand and read.

UPNP – Universal Plug and Play – Skype Issues

The latest version of Skype has implemented UPNP (Universal Plug and Play).  First lets back up a minute and define exactly what UPNP encompasses.  The goal of UPNP was to simplify home networks.

Wikipedia says:

The UPnP architecture supports zero-configuration networking. A UPnP compatible device from any vendor can dynamically join a network, obtain an IP address, announce its name, convey its capabilities upon request, and learn about the presence and capabilities of other devices. DHCP and DNS servers are optional and are only used if they are available on the network. Devices can leave the network automatically without leaving any unwanted state information behind.

One of the first things I do with a home/soho router is to turn off UPNP.

This brings me to the root of this post.  Skype  when used with UPNP turned on (on both the router and in Skype) will not close open ports on exit.   By this morning I have heard about this several time – I dug up a post about it in the Skype forums as well.

Bigger Than Life

I just picked up a new 22″ wide screen LCD for the PC.  Love at first site.