How can you tell your router is having issues?

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Becky and I have both been noticing that our Internet connection slows down whenever a significant amount of output data is moving through the pipe. Officially, our DSL is supposed to be 3000/768 kbps but any time I run a speed test, I get around 2500 kbps down which is acceptable but only get around 165 kbps up. Normally this isn’t a big deal as there isn’t normally much upstream data going on, but when Becky’s mother comes online, my systems start backing up to her system via CrashPlan. Even running "full out" I only get 165 kbps up which is far short from the expected 768 that I should be getting.

In trying to isolate this, I disconnected my entire home setup (eight devices connected via three routers) and hooked a laptop up directly to the modem. A repeat of the test gave me spec’d performance and restoring my setup (after resetting the router) gave me a good test as well, but any subsequent one was poor. I am nearly 100% certain it isn’t due to another device filling the pipe (I monitor all my systems via Cacti). Even if one was, it still is capped out at 165 kbps. I’ll need to repeat a few tests to try and isolate and identify the cause.

Everything else works as expected. I get frustrated with strange problems like this.

Update: Based on Matthew’s comment, I made sure that each of the three inside instances of CrashPlan are throttled (only one was connecting to an outside server). That made no difference. Tonight, I tried swapping out my main router with another Linksys and got the same results. I then connected my laptop directly to the modem which also had the same results. I reset the modem and am having good performance, but as I did that in the past, I’m expecting the outgoing to become poor again based on past tests.

Heading up to Macworld

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This upcoming Monday afternoon, I’ll be flying up to San Francisco to spend a few days at Macworld 2008. Back "in the day" when I worked for a small software company (Gryphon Software, makers of Morph) we exhibited at Macworld all the time, but I haven’t been there for years so I’m really looking forward to it.

The reason I’m attending this year is my company’s increasing use and support for Macs as well as me becoming more involved in supporting our cinematics group’s Shake renderfarm.

I’ll probably post one or two blog posts of my experiences and will try to also twitter what I can just for fun. You can follow me on Twitter by going to my page there.

I’m guessing the war is over

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I’m not a videophile but I do have a HDTV and since I work for SCEA, it’s not surprising that I have a Playstation 3. Since Sony is one of the members of the Blu-ray Disc Association it was no shock that they wanted to use Blu-ray for the disc format of the Playstation 3 which was released in late 2006. The other format, HD-DVD had its supporters, including Microsoft which released an add-on drive for their Xbox 360 gaming console which is normally DVD based.

The competition between the two formats also affected the movie studios who had to decide which format to get behind. Paramount supports HD-DVD exclusively and Disney is exclusively Blu-ray. Most other studios, took a wait-and-see attitude while the consumers were forced to take a gamble on one or the other or abstain until a victor was decided. Each format had its advantages and certainly had their own share of supporters and detractors. They kept their eyes on each other with player cost and movie prices remaining in-line with one another. It wasn’t looking good and many were predicting a protracted battle.

That battle may well and be over as yesterday, Warner Brothers which was remaining neutral and supporting both formats decided that starting June 1, will be releasing their new and back-catalog titles in the Blu-ray format exclusively. It’s not set in stone, but I can’t think of how Blu-ray won’t end up being the only hi-def format by the end of 2008.

I’m happy since not only does my employer have a vested interest, I have largely committed to the format with my decision to purchase all three Pirates of the Carribean movies and the Harry Potter box set in Blu-ray. Granted, they wouldn’t stop playing if Blu-ray ended up losing, but I didn’t want to have to think about getting a new disc player and have become quite accustomed to seeing movies all purdy-like.

Ahhh, vacation begins

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My work traditionally gives us the week between Christmas and New Years off and this year is no different. Not only do I get 11 days off (12/22-1/1) but the real advantage is the fact the entire office (with the exception of one of the game studios who is behind on their schedule of a springtime game) is also off which means I don’t have to worry about work piling up.

Aside from getting together with friends and family for Christmas, one thing that we are all planning is a Harry Potter marathon on Thursday as we just got the Harry Potter 1-5 box set for Blu-Ray. That should be fun.

iPhone podcast

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Of course you know that I have an iPhone and while there are a few things I can complain about (no syncing of Notes or iCal to-dos, no mail rules, "scrubbing" works poorly on long format content) I am very happy with how well it works as a phone, iPod, and portable Internet device.

If you have an iPhone or are considering one, you may want to listen to the Apple Phone Show podcast (iTunes link). It’s hosted by Scott Bourne and has Andy Ihnatko on most episodes.

It’s a decent short-format podcast that runs 30 minutes and is only once a week. Each show, they discuss recent events, occasionally cover rumors, review iPhone accessories, and share tips.

Becoming more focused

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Yes, I know it’s been quite a while since I’ve blogged. I do plan on rectifying that and I want to commit to at least do one post a week.One way that will happen is by adopting the Getting Things Done method and specifically a software package by the OmniGroup called OmniFocus. It’s currently in public beta but has been rock solid for me and there’s a new build almost every day which adds features.

If you’re in the the whole "GTD" thing and use a Mac, you may want to take a look.

Server changes

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With the release of OS X 10.5 (Leopard), I decided to take advantage of my work’s enterprise discount to purchase a license of Leopard Server for use at home. As a result, all of the peay.us services (dns, mail, and web) have been moved from the kids’ Mac mini upstairs (running Tiger client with hand-managed services) to the media Mac mini downstairs.

I believe that I got everything moved over correctly (e.g., this blog as well as the one for Kaelyn and Becky) as well as the mail services. I haven’t yet fixed my Gallery installation but should have that fixed shortly.