Donut417

US Customs once asked to see a phone belonging to a government employee that contained top secret data on it. The government employee worked for NASA I believe and was held up at the border until they unlocked the phone. TSA I would say is a bit worse as they are paid a crap wage and really don’t add anything of value, it’s just security theater after all.

Video streaming and game streaming are two separate things . Game streaming is heavily tied to how good your internet is. So if your only options are Cellular or Satellite then it’s not going to work well. Before you start talking about these plans happening well in to the future, the American People have invested a serious amount of money in to expanding internet access, we have not gotten a good return on our investment. I don’t expect anything different in the next decade. You also keep ignoring subscription fatigue. Every one wants their product or service to be a subscription. Eventually you get to a point where services stop growing as a result of subscription fatigue. Every streaming service is about at that point. Netflix is not doing so hot. Disney brought Bob Iger back because they also were not doing well. Wall Street up and told Paramount they should just kill their service. Hell even YouTube is having issues to the point of blocking ad blockers. The only reason these services did well before is because when a counties central bank sets interest rates at .25% it makes taking a loan a non trivial task, because you can more or less afford the little bit of interest you will have to pay. Those days however are over, interest rates are not coming down to pre inflation levels anytime soon.

Well all of this is still an issue. Internet service does suck in the US. In some instances you just have crappy connection in others you have stupid things like data caps. Ive seen how much data can be used with video streaming and Im talking no more than HD quality. So I can imagine how much data would be used with games. Everything is a subscription now days. Here's the deal. People only make x amount of money each month. Now everyone wants to sell you a subscription. Its getting fucking ridiculous at this point. I mean hell car manufactures are trying to get subscriptions now for like heated seats and shit. As far as physical media goes, you will have it forever. Louis Rossmann just did a video on Steam and them cutting Windows 7 and 8 support by the end of the year. There are people who do use older OS's to play games. One of the reason cited in the video is that the games in question ran better on Windows 7 and were much more buggy on Windows 10. With Steam support ending the person in question would no longer be able to play any games bought on Steam on that machine anymore. Its one of the issues with going all digital on the PC. If game steaming does every succeed, it wont be because I subscribed. I wont participate in that. I will vote with my wallet, which wont be the first time of me doing that.

I dont really think they can. Their business model isn't sustainable. You can't sell lifetime licenses for a low price, and $119 is a low price for what you get. I think I paid just north of $100 for a 4 tuner HD Homerun in 2019 on top of Plex, plus a NAS and 8TB hard drive. So lets say $500. I had a laptop at the time I was using for the server before it died. Then I used my old gaming PC. Hulu Live I think was $60 at the time and counted towards our data cap. So in a little over 8 months I paid off the expense of buying everything and not having to pay for Live TV. Plus Plex uses about a Gig a month in data. Dirt cheap if you ask me. The issue is most people are probably not going to subscribe to a monthly charge, im subscriptioned out at this point. But you can't indefinitely support the Lifetime license holders. Bear in mind that guide data is included in that lifetime license. Most other solutions you are paying a monthly or yearly fee.

Has any game streaming service been successful however? I recall several going under over the last few years. They keep pushing this stupid cloud gaming down our throats and it keeps failing. Why? Because large parts of America have shit internet infrastructure, or you have asshole ISP's with data caps (looking at you Comcast). Both of which would cause issues for gamers. I much rather have games locally installed. The only way Microsoft could make these games a subscription is to put them on Game Pass. OR created new MMO's with the IP's that Activision and Blizzard have and hope people will be willing to pay to play like they do WOW. The next best thing is to do like they did in Diablo 4 and sell vanity items (There is a market there, I know someone who wants half the paid items in Diablo 4).

Honestly Its going to come down to the EU. They are more regulatory than anyone. Microsoft needs to pay off who ever or convincingly make bad promises that they wont keep to the EU.

The thing is once new parts come out it's only a few months till new parts come out. In my opinion it can get to a never ending mentality that you should wait for new parts. Honestly to me it comes down to this, Does the current PC do what you need it to do today?

Got a 512 Gig Sandisk Micro SD card for my Steam Deck for like $40.

As long as you understand you will be limited on the quality of the video. Because many services dont give full quality thru a web browser.

As others have stated if you use a PC for streaming you will be penalized by streaming services. I know this because I use my Mac for streaming. But I only have a 720p TV so it doesnt much matter in my eyes.

Not suppose to do it in the USA either but......... you think that stops us?

This is not a router. It's a Gateway. It's an ONT and Router Combo. The ONT half is what would take the place of a modem for a Fiber connection. I know in the case of Docsis Coax based Internet modems even customer owned can only be updated by the ISP. This is why I choose to use a separate modem and router on my Coax based internet. This is why ISP's generally use gateways if they are renting devices out to customers. Most people are knowledgeable enough in networking to set things up, so the ISP can backdoor in to the device and set it up for their customers. People like us who have the knowledge have to figure out ways around the BS. Likely the only way around this would be seeing if they can put the device in Bridge mode or IP pass thru mode which kills the router half of the device. Then you would need a plain Jane router.

If you damage any of the conductors you may get reduced speeds to a non functional cable. Also if the cable is not rated for outdoors (UV resistant) then its likely the cable will maybe only last a few years. Also bare in mind that Ethernet cables have 8 copper conductors and will be susceptible to lightning strikes. Cat6 is rated for 5 Gbps up to 100 meters or 10 Gbps up to 55 meters.

Its kinda like the advertising agencies dont even try anymore. What happened to when ads had a cool jingle? Like the JG Wentworth commercials. Hell I could sing that jingle by heart. The fact is all the ads are now unimaginative. Also why the fuck are drug companies advertising to me? Im not going to go in to talk to my doctor and say "saw this drug on TV, think it might be a good match to me". Dont get me started on the political ads. If I didn't vote absentee I wouldn't have voted in the 2020 election, because Youtube kept serving me them damn political ads and at the end I didn't even want to vote anymore.

A NIC is a Network Interface card. While you dont have a card in your machine back in the day thats the only way to get a connection. Nowadays it's all integrated onto the motherboard. The easy way to tell what speed the devices are negotiating at is to look at the Switch. On the Right and Left side of each port is an LED. If the left side is either solid green or blinking green then its connected at 1 Gbps. If the right side is solid yellow or blinking yellow it means its at 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps. Blinking just indicates data transmission. This is directly from the TP Link manual. https://www.manua.ls/tp-link/tl-sg105/manual?p=9 However if you are on Windows 10 you can go Settings > Network & Internet > Change Adapter Options. RIght click on the adapter that is connected and select the "Status" option. That will indicated the speed. I dont have AT&T and the documentation on their box is a bit meh. But Id assume somewhere in the web interface they will have what speed each port is operating at as well. You only have Gigabit, I wouldn't put it past AT&T to have disabled that port because in their eyes no one that doesn't have 2.5 or 5 Gbps is going to use it. I cant say this is fact but Ive seen ISP's here in the US do stupid shit. This is the reason we dont rent Comcast equipment and choose to use our own. Try one of the Gigabit ports and check to see what speeds everything is negotiating at. Also what kind of Ethernet cabling are you using?

Since WIndows XP, WIndows has had a firewall and Since Windows 10, Anti Malware protection was added. I also keep the free version of Malwarebytes installed just as a backup. Another thing is Ad blockers, some time ads try to serve malware because companies like Google dont do their due diligence about who they are selling ad space to (this is kinda a controversial topic btw). Honestly though 90% of security is "YOU". If you go on sketch websites you are going to get infected. So go on legit sites and if your gut tells you something isn't right, well do use that website. Like stated above make sure your very important data is backed up.

I have one of the really old tool kits. In my opinion it's a no brainer, they are worth every penny. The tools feel solid, and at least the kit I got has all the bits I'll ever need.

Well when you connect two routers together you have double NAT. That's why the server probably had issues. AT&T doesnt support bridge mode on its Gateways, you need to setup IP pass thru mode. I personally dont know how to do it, I just know it's what you need to do if you're going to use your own router.

If that was the case I wouldn't have had AVAST pop up a few years back when I was on Facebook complaining they were sending me malware. The fact is these faceless soulless corporations dont care. They dont do their due diligence because that costs time which costs money. If they get fined it just the cost of doing businesses.

Are you connected to 2.4 Ghz or 5 Ghz?

Probably plotting against you. You should sleep with one eye open!

The only somewhat legal place to get a cheaper key is thru like Newegg or Amazon and its an OEM key. These tend to be tied to hardware more specifically the motherboard. These are pretty much the keys that Dell and HP use. The only other downside from being tied to hardware is that you get 0 Microsoft phone support, as the OEM is suppose to provide the support and you're technically the OEM if you use an OEM key. Im not sure what OEM key run at currently but I know they can be a bit cheaper. I think I seen Windows 10 Home OEM for like $80 back in the day. The "Cheap" keys come from grey market sites. Some of the keys are semi legit, but there are instances where people will purchase keys with stolen credit cards and sell them on these sties. With the grey market you can be potentially supporting criminal activity and Microsoft might decide to blacklist the key at any time.

Couple of things. Windows 10 is no longer getting feature updates. So yeah, it might be a bit more stable based on the fact its pretty much never getting anything new added. Also Windows 10 has been out a lot longer than WIndows 11, they have had time to polish it. Windows 11 they are in active development on. Meaning things are changing all the time. As far as your performance issues go, it could be a Windows issue or it could be driver related. Maybe see if you can download some older drivers or make sure you have the newest drivers. I know that drivers can effect performance. That being said I have not tried Windows 11 yet, my friend has tried it and said it felt pretty solid. The "Upgrade" I would say is any of the new features it has to offer. I haven't upgraded because my PC does not currently meet the requirements. Technically the hardware can do it, but I need to enable TPM and a few other things to install it. If WIndows 11 doesn provide what you need then go back to 10. Just bare in mind few are a couple years out from it being unsupported. BUT rumors of WIndows 12 are on the horizon. So who knows what the future will hold.

Assuming everyone has an electric dryer. Lots of people here in the US use natural gas. Our Dryer, hot water heater, furnace, and stove are all gas. We dont have a single 220v appliance and we dont have space in our electrical panel for one. The reason we use gas is because its cheaper than using electricity for everything. Yes but they are here right now. And before cars we had horses who just required food and water. Horses are no longer a prefered method of transportation for most. Instead of pushing EV's when the infrastructure isn't ready, you make the infrastructure ready. You upgrade the power grid, you install charging stations, you mandate that new homes have the ability to install a level 2 charger. You let the market decide when its time to change over, you dont force it, < redacted by moderation, politics >

Everything I have read says you get 40 miles of range over night on 120v. Generally the places that are affordable to live in and the places that pay well are no in the same area. My dad drove 50 miles a day for work. I drive like 26 miles a day, but then you add the trip to the grocery store once a week. Might have to go out and get dinner one night. Add possible a 42 miles trip to my sisters. Thats 40 miles of range each night is a very limiting factor. It would be different if we had public transits but that doesn't exist in Michgian at large. So a Level 2 charger is the only way, because I dont want to be counting my miles driven like I have to count the data we use thru Comcast each month. I can fill up my car in less than 5 minutes with gas. There are gas stations on like every corner. Thats assuming you charge to 100%. Again from what I have read, overnight at 120v is about 40 miles of range. Last I checked the goverment doesn't operate the grid, corporations do. So its more like corporate greed. But it still doesn't change the fact that if the grid cant handle it EV's are USELESS. You can't push a solution down everyone's throats that limit's what they can do. Sorry but EV's limit people. Until EV's have the support like ICE cars do they wont be accepted by everyone. Which is why I stated all those things have to improve. I know of only maybe 1 person who owns an EV. All the others are not considering one. Most Americans are also keeping their cars longer, meaning ICE is hear to stay for a long time. Hydrogen is not practical. We can get enough of it cleanly. The only way to produce a large amount of it is with Natural Gas. Unless Japan can figure out how to get a large amount of Hydrogen cleanly, its never going to be practical.