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Don’t Get FAPPED, Get HNFAP –The Premier FAP Monitor for HughesNet High-Speed Internet

timm — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:55:05 +0000

Imagine you are driving down the highway and run out of gas. Surely that’s bad enough, but then you discover that you cannot refill your gas tank and are stranded for 24 hours or more. Welcome to the world of high-speed satellite internet.

To deal with this problem, we built HNFAP, FREE Windows software that acts like a smart gas gauge for your HughesNet high-speed Satellite internet. HNFAP™ (pronounced "HEN-fap") enables you to download as much as possible without running out of gas.

Satellite Internet: Best Option for Rural Customers

There are three major satellite internet providers in the United States: HughesNet, Starband and WildBlue. With satellite internet, you download and upload data via a satellite dish mounted in your yard or on your roof, similar to how DirecTV and Dish networks provide TV channels via satellite.

When compared to other means of internet access (cable, DSL, T1, dialup, etc.), satellite internet is generally more expensive, slower (except for dialup), falters during rain and snow, has a noticeable lag, doesn’t support online gaming or virtual private networks, and has strict limits on how much data you can download each day.

But on the other hand, if you live out in the country, satellite is currently the best affordable option for high-speed internet (though perhaps that will change someday with the US Rural Broadband Initiative).

HughesNet Satellite Internet

HughesNet® is a high-speed satellite internet service by Hughes Network Systems, the same company that provides DirecTV satellite TV. HughesNet is much faster than dialup, always-on, and requires no dialing in, no waiting and no tied-up phone lines. HughesNet is compatible with Windows and Mac computers and is available anywhere in the contiguous USA with a clear view of the southern sky.

I have been a happy HughesNet customer since 2006, except for one key issue…

You’ve Been FAPPED!

To ensure adequate internet access for all HughesNet subscribers, HughesNet maintains a Fair Access Policy (FAP). HughesNet assigns a download threshold for each service plan that limits the amount of data that a user may download each day. (Note that all satellite internet providers have a download limit, not just HughesNet.)

Subscribers who exceed this limit will experience a severe reduction in download speed for at least 24 hours, to the point where the Web is essentially unusable. This is known as being “FAPPED.” You can still send and receive short email messages, but Web browsing is too slow to be practical.

With the $80/month HughesNet ProPlus plan, you can download up to 425 MB of data per day. That’s about 2 hours of standard definition video or 15 minutes of high-definition video. So you can forget about using satellite internet to download HD video from Netflix during normal hours. Thankfully HughesNet provides a “FAP-Free” unlimited download period between 2-7 AM daily when you can schedule large downloads such as Windows updates and video.

But if you download too much during the day, your download speed drops to about 20 Kbps, even slower than dialup. At this speed, the CNN home page for example takes over 4 minutes to load, as shown in this chart of my internet experience:

	HughesNet Typical	HughesNet FAPPED	EarthLink Dialup
Google	0min:04sec	0:14	0:31
DevTopics	0:11	3:43	2:35
CNN	0:12	4:07	2:47
Download Speed	1087 Kbps	22 Kbps	38 Kbps
Upload Speed	97 Kbps	58 Kbps	33 Kbps

Recently HughesNet added the option to refill your gas tank once per month for free. This was a huge help. Additional refills in a calendar month will cost you $10.50 each. So you don’t want to run out of gas.

Don’t Get FAPPED, Get HNFAP!

We wrote the HNFAP software because we were tired of getting FAPPED. And if you’re a HughesNet customer, you should find it useful too. With HNFAP you can:

Download as much as possible. HNFAP monitors how much you use the internet, graphs it for you in real-time, and helps you maximize your limited downloads each day.

Avoid download penalties. HNFAP helps you avoid the FAP penalty by warning you multiple times when you approach your download limit, so you don’t have to suffer through slower-than-dialup speeds.

Detect bandwidth-hogging websites and spyware. Some websites these days run high-definition videos and ads without you even knowing it. Also, malicious websites and viruses can install spyware that use your computer to send and receive lots of data. HNFAP alerts you to large data transfers so you can disconnect your modem and investigate the problem.

HNFAP is available for FREE! There is also a HNFAP Pro Edition for $19.95 that provides:

Interactive graphs showing Available Downloads, Downloads and Uploads for Today, This Month and Last Month
Alert warnings when you download or upload too much in a short period of time
Customizable colors and alert sounds
Priority Web support
Free product upgrades

Download HNFAP
HNFAP Homepage

HughesNet is a registered trademark of Hughes Network Systems LLC. HughesNet is not associated with nor endorses HNFAP or Mini-Tools in any way. HNFAP is a trademark and Mini-Tools is a registered trademark of Mini-Tools LLC.

How to Check if a Website is Down

timm — Wed, 26 May 2010 14:27:44 +0000

The Internet is a fickle beast. Websites come and go. Connections break and are restored. With so many working parts and points of failure, it’s amazing the Internet is as reliable as it usually is.

But when things go wrong — as they inevitably do — and you cannot access a website, it can be challenging to determine where the problem occurred: your PC, Internet modem, cable connection, Internet service provider, the website itself, or any of the thousands of lines in between.

Fortunately there are free online services that independently check if a website is down:

Most services allow you to enter a domain name to determine if it’s accessible. However, CheckSite.us also allows you to enter a full URL path, domain with a specific port (e.g., checksite.us:2082), or an IP address (e.g., 209.41.89.150:2082). For websites it cannot access, CheckSite.us will continue trying the website every 15 minutes for up to 3 days. If it can access the website, it will send you an email or SMS text message.

How to Show a List of Your Facebook Friends

timm — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:53:50 +0000

The one thing we can all count on with Facebook is change. Facebook performs major updates to its user interface about twice a year. Some changes are welcome, but sometimes the Facebook UI designers make things harder than they should be.

For example, try to find a list of YOUR Facebook friends. It seems obvious that if you click on the Friends link in the left sidebar, it would show a list of your friends:

But no. You can find new friends or see status updates for your existing friends, but you cannot view a list of friends from here. But there is an easy (though less obvious) way to do it:

1. Click on the Account link in the upper-right corner of your Facebook home page.

2. Click on the Edit Friends link in the drop-down menu as shown:

3. Click the Friends link that appears under the Lists header in the left sidebar:

A complete alphabetical list of your Facebook friends will appear.

Facebook News Feed vs. Live Feed

timm — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:46:01 +0000

Today the world’s most popular social network Facebook introduced its biggest interface change since the complete revamp in March.

Gone is the Highlights section at the top of the right column of the Home page. Facebook designers learned that users were often overlooking the most important information because it was tucked away in the corner. This also makes birthdays and events more visible in the right column.

The biggest change is there are now two alternating views in the center column of the Home page: News Feed and Live Feed. The bold title at the top indicates the current view, and you can click on the link next to the title to see the other view.

News Feed

When you first log into Facebook, you’ll see the the News Feed. The News Feed automatically picks the stories it thinks are most important to you based on how many friends have liked and commented on them and various other factors. Events that used to appear in the Highlights section are now back in the News Feed. This includes when friends are tagged in photos, make friends, become fans, join a group, and RSVP to events.

Live Feed

Once you’ve caught up on the important stories in the News Feed, you can switch to the Live Feed to see what’s happening now. The Live Feed is not filtered and shows all the posts. The cool thing is it will continue to update in real-time while you are logged in, so you get a sense of hanging out at a digital party where everybody knows your name.

Like all interface changes, the new features take a little while to get used to, but I’m already liking it better. See the Facebook blog for more information.

BugSpy.net Database of Open Source Bugs

timm — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:43:44 +0000

BugSpy crawls the web in search of the latest bug reports in open source software. It tries to display only open bugs. You can search by tag or product name.

NFL Bans Twitter Before, During and After Football Games

timm — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 13:46:56 +0000

The NFL has punted the popular social network Twitter.

On Monday, the National Football League announced that players, coaches, and other team personnel can use social networks such as Twitter and Facebook during the season. However, they are prohibited from using social networks starting 90 minutes before a game, through the game, and until post-game interviews are complete.

The rules extend to people representing a player or coach, such as agents, friends and family, and even include the media covering the games.

“Longstanding policies prohibiting play-by-play descriptions of NFL games in progress apply fully to Twitter and other social media platforms,” the NFL said in a statement. “Internet sites may not post detailed information that approximates play-by-play during a game. While a game is in progress, any forms of accounts of the game must be sufficiently time-delayed and limited in amount.”

Several teams already had similar rules, but rumor has it the NFL felt compelled to create a league-wide rule after controversial Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco said recently that he plans to Tweet while playing.

This is not a surprising rule given that the NFL has always tightly controlled its product, from broadcast to merchandising to reporting. The NFL has strict regulations on who can report what from its games. Social networks like Twitter turn players and average citizens into mini-reporters who could potentially broadcast unique news about football games. You can bet that the NFL wants to control and perhaps eventually monetize that news. It’s not hard to imagine football in the year 2020 with in-helmet quarterback Tweets.

World’s Longest Poem: Written by Humans, Compiled by Software

timm — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 15:16:03 +0000

"The Longest Poem in the World" is composed by aggregating real-time public twitter updates and selecting those that rhyme. It grows at a rate of about 4,000 verses each day. This novel site was created by Andrei Gheorghe, a web developer from Bucharest, Romania.

Here is the most recent start of the poem when it had 370,866 verses:

If life were easy and not so fast, I wouldn’t think about the past
and all the sudden, life is changing and its changing so fast.
is watching Ren and Stimpy. It’s becoming a nightly habit.
I had a dream that I had a sidekick and a rabbit.
Pride pride pride and now more harry potter!
and its only going to get hotter…
and learning again…
and then….
Tired and going to bed. Good night everyone.
cup of tea and a caramel slice anyone?
and you know this working on a new song
Second day of school and still going strong
College just gets worse and worse.
Gift and the curse!
super bored and tired. cant sleep tho
And away we go…
oh no, are the bad word police after me and my potty mouth again?
Just done something a bit mad and creative. Lets see what happens then!
The Internet; where courtesy and reason go to die.
Yup im at school and i passed up a fine ass guy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, it isn’t Shakespeare, but it is a pretty cool idea. This may also go down in history as the greatest collaborative work ever.

Internet Explorer 6: It’s Time to Die

timm — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:00:07 +0000

Web designers worldwide are staging an online revolt against the Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 web browser. The designers claim that “IE6,” which was released 8 years ago but is still used by 20% of users, is “crippling the Internet’s potential and slowing down the online experience.”

The "IE 6 No More" website seems to be the hub of online dissent against IE6. The site includes code that developers can insert into their websites to encourage IE6 users to upgrade. Some websites already provide hurdles or roadblocks to IE6. For example, YouTube sends a message to IE6 users, asking them to upgrade to another browser like Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. However, YouTube will continue to function in basic mode for IE6 and other outdated browsers.

Microsoft also wants its users to upgrade to the new IE8. “Microsoft has consistently recommended that consumers upgrade to the latest version of our browser,” the company said. “Internet Explorer 8 offers improvements in speed, security and reliability as well as new features designed for the way people use the Web.”

Web developers especially hate IE6 because they have to write special “hacks” into their code to accommodate the outmoded browser. “As any Web developer will tell you, working with IE 6 is one of the most difficult and frustrating things they have to deal with on a daily basis, taking up a disproportionate amount of their time,” says the IE6 No More site. “Beyond that, IE6’s support for modern Web standards is very lacking, restricting what developers can create and holding the Web back.”

IE6 will face an even bigger challenge when the HTML 5 language is adopted by websites. HTML 5 enables websites to deliver flashier video and act more like traditional desktop applications, but it won’t run on IE6.

Story at CNN

How to Unhide a Facebook Friend

timm — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:36:09 +0000

Follow these steps to unhide a Facebook Friend that you have hidden:

Step 1. In Facebook, click the News Feed link, which is usually on the top-left corner of the window:

Step 2. Scroll the window down to the bottom of the webpage. Click the Edit Options link:

Step 3. The “Hidden from News Feed” window will appear. Click the Add to News Feed button to the right of the Facebook Friend you want to unhide:

More PC & Web Tips

Woman Sued for Her Tweet

timm — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:01:31 +0000

Beware all bloggers and tweeters: What you write may get you sued!

Chicago woman Amanda Bonnen discovered this lesson the hard way. Her 117-character rant on Twitter may cost her more than $50,000 as the result of a defamation lawsuit filed by the target of her ire. That’s $427 a letter!

Bonnen was having trouble with her landlord and complained of alleged mold in her apartment. So like many of us, she ranted about her frustration on Twitter:

But instead of addressing her complaints, Horizon Group Management filed a lawsuit against Bonnen, alleging that her statement damaged the company’s reputation. According to the complaint filed in Cook County court, Bonnen “maliciously and wrongfully published the false and defamatory Tweet on Twitter, thereby allowing the Tweet to be distributed throughout the world.”

What Horizon didn’t recognize is that Bonnen had only 20 followers on Twitter. If Horizon had simply ignored her tweet, or better yet, worked with Bonnen to resolve the matter, then likely nothing would have happened, and Horizon’s reputation would not have been affected.

Instead, by filing this lawsuit, Horizon has generated a wave of negative publicity for itself on a global scale, making headlines from CNN and Fox News TV, to the Chicago Sun-Times and Wall Street Journal, and thousands of blogs in between. Horizon has ensured the very thing they were trying to stop: millions of people around the globe viewing Bonnen’s tweet.

Horizon then took a bad situation and made it worse when Jeffrey Michael, whose family has run Horizon for more than 25 years, said to the Sun-Times: “We’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization.” Oops! I doubt “litigious” is the reputation that Horizon is trying to project. Rather, it’s likely the same reputation that most landlords seek: “Caring landlord that provides a safe, clean living environment for its tenants at a reasonable price.”

Every business and individual has the right to defend themselves against false or malicious statements. But if Horizon’s top priority was to preserve its reputation, it appears to have overestimated the reach of a single person on a social network, and underestimated what happens when a large corporation attacks a private citizen “David vs. Goliath-style” on matters of free speech.

This incident has the potential to turn into a public relations disaster like Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah’s couch and ruining his stellar career.

But now that the world is watching, hopefully Horizon will do the right thing and take all that money and effort to sue Bonnen and instead use it to address her concerns. As Hugh Grant famously demonstrated, one can make a PR blunder and still turn it around to their advantage.