The Technology Vent and Rant Thread

[Blossom]

No update to hide yet. I wonder if they pulled it?

Sent from my XT1528

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Blossom

No update to hide yet. I wonder if they pulled it?

I just got an update yesterday. But it seems to be a point release - Win10 claims it is still 1709, with a later build number than before. 1803 is being rolled out in stages, and hasn't been presented to me yet.
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Dennis

[cc_in_oh]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

I just got an update yesterday. But it seems to be a point release - Win10 claims it is still 1709, with a later build number than before. 1803 is being rolled out in stages, and hasn't been presented to me yet.
______
Dennis

2 of my PC's got a 1709 update today, then after restarting, started downloading 1803. I let 1 install, so far so good, but I'll keep the other one on hold for a while.

I have no wifi bandwidth after the 1709 update on my TP-Link AC1200 adapter - had to switch to much slower internal N150 adapter while I try to figure out the problem...

Edit> 1803 changed my default audio output but that was easy to fix. I also glanced at the new 1803 features - not much there that I can see..

Edit2> Also coudn't connect to wireless printer, but for the moment at least it's back on line. Wi-fi adapter still not working, no response yet on the TP-Link support forum. Others have said that network reset fixed such problems but no luck for me...

[Blossom]

Argh!!! Mom's Dell laptop with Windows 10 does not auto connect to the internet sometimes. This results in her calling me from the nursing home and spending 10 to 15 minutes getting her to follow simple instructions.

There has got to be an easier way! A shortcut or batch file something to make that piece of crap connect easier because she never remembers how to do it herself then whines and practical cries about how it's broke.

I'm so tired of dealing with this. Every. Single. Day. Stupid Dell. Stupid Windows 10.

Sent from my Nexus 7

[Katsunami]

I wonder if this should be in this thread, or in the other Vent and Rant thread. It's about technology, but it also isn't.

At home, I use a hardware calibrated, and profiled Eizo CS240 display. (Remaining from my days as a semi-pro part time photographer.) It has a resolution of 1920x1200, and the panel is 24.1 inches.

At work I use a Dell UltraSharp U2415. It is also 1920x1200, and the panel is also 24.1 inch.

Then why does everthing on the Eizo monitor *feel* smaller, though the settings are exactly the same on both with regards to fonts and everything, while at the same time, the Eizo feels as if it's a huge display compared to the dell?

Could it be because of the wide bezels around the Eizo? The Dell is a very slim display, with three out of four bezels being just 2mm or thereabouts (the bottom one is half an inch or so), and it weighs in at around 4.2 kg. The Eizo on the other hand, has huge 1 inch black bezels, with the bottom one being 1.5 inches or so. (All the ColorEdge CS/CE monitors have this: the FlexScan EV monitors have small bezels nowadays. The competing NEC monitors also have wide bezels, so I assume there is some color technology stuff/thing that requires them..) The Eizo comes it at roughly 8.5 kg, almost twice the weight.

Could the slim/wide bezels be influencing my view, with small bezels making the screen look big(ger) and with wide bezels making the screen look small(er)? It's the only reason I can imagine.

[pdurrant]

Could it be the distance you're sitting from the screens?

[drjd]

I spent last three hours trying to connect my newly bought Xiaomi phone with my laptop through wifi, and sigh.. I'm tired!

The darn Android's File Manager can see all the three laptops connected on the network, but can not enter them saying 'wrong login or password'. The laptops can see each other on the network and can enter each other with the proper passwords. But the laptops can not even see the androids connected on network.

I have Netgear Centria WND4700 Wifi router with 2TB internal HDD installed in my home witch provides internet access to all devices. The funny part of the game is that, all the androids and Windows 10 laptops can individually access (read/write) the central storage HDD and the internet very well! What the heck! Why the phones and laptops do not behave properly with each other! A person with limited technical skills like me can only swear like a trooper in the situation.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by drjd

The darn Android's File Manager can see all the three laptops connected on the network, but can not enter them saying 'wrong login or password'. The laptops can see each other on the network and can enter each other with the proper passwords. But the laptops can not even see the androids connected on network.

What is the intended goal?

I have six Android devices here - three 7" tablets, A 10" tablet, and two phones actually used as PDAs. They run, depending on the device, Android Froyo, Kit Kat, Lollipop, Marshmallow, and Nougat.

All connect just fine with my Wifi router, and I can go online and check for app updates and the like.

File transfer is normally handled via USB cable, and the target is my desktop running Win10. For the most part, file transfer is eBooks managed by Calibre to devices, and less often, photos from the devices to the desktop for archival storage.

I have no particular need to access file systems on the desktop or laptop from Android, so I don't care if Android's file manager can see their file systems. (And there are a number of different Android file managers, so precisely how that might be done will vary.)

Why do you need to do what you mention, and what would success look like if you attained it?
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Dennis

[drjd]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Why do you need to do what you mention, and what would success look like if you attained it?
______
Dennis

Actually its not a need-based question as I rarely do transfer my books or photos or music between my computer and phone, but it is rather a theoretical question, because ideally every device connected on the same network should have inter-access to each other. When the phones and computers can access the central HDD flawlessly, why do they not access each other on the same network and map their storages as network drives?

I remember an year back or two, when I used another android phone, it's contents were mapped as a network drive on my computer, and similarly, I could access the HDD's of my computer from the file manager (eg. ES File Explorer or ASUS File Manager) apps on my phone. In fact, I want to establish an ideal network with full accessibility and sharing enabled between the devices connected on the network. This now apparently has become a task beyond my technical knowledge, I guess.

As far as the transfer of media is concerned, I can resort to connecting the phone through USB or take a longer route to first copy and paste the files to my central storage HDD and then again copying them from the destination device. But this is not an ideal situation.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by drjd

Actually its not a need-based question as I rarely do transfer my books or photos or music between my computer and phone, but it is rather a theoretical question, because ideally every device connected on the same network should have inter-access to each other. When the phones and computers can access the central HDD flawlessly, why do they not access each other on the same network and map their storages as network drives?

Ideals and reality often do not converge.

Back when, for example, I was an IT support guy whose primary responsibility was administration of some *nix servers. Users running Windows needed to access the *nix file systems. That was provided through an open source package called Samba, which could expose the *nix boxes as file systems that could be mapped as drives in Windows. Worked just fine if you ran Win2K or better. Didn't work on Win98 SE because Samba required an ID and password to authenticate, and Win98 SE didn't support the authentication method used to provide it. I had a user still running 98SE that needed access and it couldn't be provided. (The company finally bit the bullet and moved everyone to XP on the desktop, which was another can of worms.)

I remember an year back or two, when I used another android phone, it's contents were mapped as a network drive on my computer, and similarly, I could access the HDD's of my computer from the file manager (eg. ES File Explorer or ASUS File Manager) apps on my phone. In fact, I want to establish an ideal network with full accessibility and sharing enabled between the devices connected on the network. This now apparently has become a task beyond my technical knowledge, I guess.

What older phone was it, and what version of Android did it run? What model is your new phone, and what Android version does it run?

Part of the difference may be in Android. Newer versions of Android are increasingly security conscious, and this results in suddenly not being able to do things that worked before, because Android won't let you do them.

For example, one utility I've run on Android devices for years is an open source app called OS Monitor. It's the equivalent of *nix top or something like Windows Task Manager. It lists all running processes, and can order them by CPU or memory usage. As of Android 7 Nougat, it no longer works. Nougat denies permission to read the proc filesystem where that info is stored, so OS Monitor can only see it's own info. Apparently, this is the case even if the device is rooted. (And I've been unable to find a rooting solution that works for Marshmallow, let alone Nougat. So much for being able to remove vendor installed bloatware, which gets installed as Systems apps you must be rooted to be able to remove they aren't in the standard uninstall list.)

As another example, Android Kit Kat caused commotion because of how it handled access to external storage. Plug a microSD card into your device, and any app could see anything on the card. The issue is that microSD cards come formatted as FAT32 or exFAT, and FAT filesystems don't have places to store security metadata like owner or group owner belongs to, because they date from the days when MSDOS and later Windows were not multi-user and there was only one user on a system. To plug a security hole, Kit Kat imposed directory level security. The app could only see its own directory on a card. This wreaked havoc on things like file managers who could no longer see the whole card, and so much for managing files on the card.

As far as the transfer of media is concerned, I can resort to connecting the phone through USB or take a longer route to first copy and paste the files to my central storage HDD and then again copying them from the destination device. But this is not an ideal situation.

No, it's not, but how often do you need to?

Your Wifi router includes NAS storage, so you have central storage all connected devices can see and back up to. Mine does not, and separate storage storage in an external enclosure connected via USB3 is a down the road project there's no hurry about because I don't really need the capacity now.

Absent info I don't currently have, it sounds like the answer to your question is "It can't be done. Sorry." The good part, such as it is, is that you don't normally need to.
______
Dennis

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by drjd

I spent last three hours trying to connect my newly bought Xiaomi phone with my laptop through wifi, and sigh.. I'm tired!

The darn Android's File Manager can see all the three laptops connected on the network, but can not enter them saying 'wrong login or password'. The laptops can see each other on the network and can enter each other with the proper passwords. But the laptops can not even see the androids connected on network.

I have Netgear Centria WND4700 Wifi router with 2TB internal HDD installed in my home witch provides internet access to all devices. The funny part of the game is that, all the androids and Windows 10 laptops can individually access (read/write) the central storage HDD and the internet very well! What the heck! Why the phones and laptops do not behave properly with each other! A person with limited technical skills like me can only swear like a trooper in the situation.

Not sure what you mean by "Android's File Manager can see . . . but can not enter them", I assume you mean access the laptops' file systems rather than remote control them.

I do this on a couple of Android devices (Nokia phone and Sony tablet) using ES File Explorer to access Shared Folders on a couple of Windows systems. Search for something like "access windows pc files directly from android through wifi" and you should find something to suit. Hopefully there's nothing off-the-wall with the Xiaomi flavoured Android.

BR

[drjd]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

What older phone was it, and what version of Android did it run? What model is your new phone, and what Android version does it run?

Part of the difference may be in Android. Newer versions of Android are increasingly security conscious, and this results in suddenly not being able to do things that worked before, because Android won't let you do them.

My old phone was a tiny 4.2" Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S, running on Android ICS 4.1, and the present one is Xiaomi Redmi 5 running on Nougat 7.1.

I think Androids are growing more stubborn and uncompromising with Windows day by day.

Yes, at least I have the centralized HD accessible to every device and though painfully, I can still transfer the data.

Thanks for all your guidance, Dennis.

[drjd]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Not sure what you mean by "Android's File Manager can see . . . but can not enter them", I assume you mean access the laptops' file systems rather than remote control them.

Exactly, I do not mean to remote control the file system, I just wanted to access them.

Originally Posted by BetterRed

I do this on a couple of Android devices (Nokia phone and Sony tablet) using ES File Explorer to access Shared Folders on a couple of Windows systems. Search for something like "access windows pc files directly from android through wifi" and you should find something to suit. Hopefully there's nothing off-the-wall with the Xiaomi flavoured Android.

BR

I have tried ES File Explorer as well as other file managers to access the shared drives/folders of the laptops, but I can't access despite using correct login and password.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by drjd

My old phone was a tiny 4.2" Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S, running on Android ICS 4.1, and the present one is Xiaomi Redmi 5 running on Nougat 7.1.

Okay. Latest version of Android. Nougat is a pain in various ways.

I think Androids are growing more stubborn and uncompromising with Windows day by day.

Can you say "Security"?

I'm especially annoyed at OS Monitor no longer working (and the dev has given up.) Not being able to change a system directory is one thing. Not being able to read it and display data stored there is another. I simply don't get how being able to do that is a security hole that must be plugged.

Yes, at least I have the centralized HD accessible to every device and though painfully, I can still transfer the data.

You mentioned not having to do much of that, which is the only saving grace.

Thanks for all your guidance, Dennis.

Thank me if I can say something more useful than "Sorry, looks like you're stuck with it."
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Dennis

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by drjd

Exactly, I do not mean to remote control the file system, I just wanted to access them.



I have tried ES File Explorer as well as other file managers to access the shared drives/folders of the laptops, but I can't access despite using correct login and password.

The only thing I have found for my Windows 10 laptop and Andriod devices to connect together is Solid Files Explorer. It uses Samba 2.0 instead of 1.0 which my laptop refuses to use now it's updated past 1709. However you have to figure your profile username and use your password to it. There's a cmd command: "whoami" to find out your username of your Windows 10 profile. Without quotes of course.

If it's a lower version of Windows that supports samba 1.0 it's usually the firewall on the PC blocking it. On Comodo I have to remove all network zones reboot the Vista computer and then when it ask where I am choose home. This fixes that problem until next time.

Sent from my Nexus 7