Video Link courtesy of YouTube.com.

Fans of the classic science fiction series Doctor Who are reminded that the new season starts today in the United Kingdom. The first episode, entitled “New Earth” will be broadcast on the BBC at 7:15pm local time.

For those looking for a slightly spoiler-filled preview of the next season, you can find a three-minute video of all the new threats the 10th Doctor will face, along with the return of a few old friends and foes here.

Based on a few recommendations read on various web forums, I purchased a D-Link DGL-4300 wireless gaming router.

Prior to this, I’ve been using a Netgear WPN824 Rangemax wireless router.  I haven’t been having any real issues with the Rangemax, but I was curious if the promises of a more powerful processor and feature set in the DGL-4300 were true.

After a few hours of use, I’m beginning to believe the hype.  The 4300 doesn’t have the seven built-in antennas that the Rangemax does, but the device with it’s single 5dBi antenna was able to serve a full 3Mbps reliably throughout my house and even to the furthest areas of my backyard.

However, while the distance covered is comparable, the D-Link router appears to beat the Rangemax when it comes to the actual routing of information.  It’s my belief that wireless router manufacturers are currently concentrating all their development on the range covered by their wireless networks at the expense of developing the central components that handle all the information coming through the device.

D-Link calls the components at the heart of the DGL-4300 “Gamefuel Technology”.  They claim that the unit has a beefier processor than other routers, allowing packets to be processed not only quicker, but with more control.  The router, for example, allows you to create up to 256 port forwarding policies, compared to the average 10 or 20 of other wireless routers.  D-Link also states that the processor has QoS features that allow automatic prioritization of important packets, such as VoIP, streaming media and gaming traffic.
This means that the router is primarily aimed at users who don’t want their Vonage service and online games affected as much by other concurrent downloads running in the background.  Additionally, the increased ability to handle thousands of simultaneous connections make the unit a better choice for frequent BitTorrent users.

Back to some real-world performance, I tried a few of the Speakeasy Broadband Speed Test servers and came away with a good 1 to 2Mbps difference between the Rangemax and the 4300.

One other feature of the unit that is of interest to those of us with higher-end motherboards is the unit’s built-in gigabit ethernet switch.  Most other routers include four 10/100Mbps ethernet ports to connect your computer directly to the network, but the four included with the DGL-4300 will allow you to make faster wired network file transfers if you have the required hardware.
Overall, I’m going to say that the DGL-4300 is a good choice for gamers and VoIP users who are willing to spend slightly more for a higher performance router.

I’ve long been recommending clients avoid antivirus programs that include an “internet suite” such as Norton Internet Security because the included firewall software makes it very easy for the unwary to accidentally block network traffic. For most residential computer users, a router acting as a firewall tends to offer better protection with less chances of networking issues.

However, I’ve been running into a number of client who use Norton Antivirus 2006 with issues attempting to share files and printers on their local area network. The culprit, I’ve found, is NAV06’s Internet Worm Protection. This feature can mistakenly identify an incoming file or print sharing request as an attack on your computer, leading Norton to automatically block all access from that LAN IP address.

The solution I’ve found is to go into the configuration settings for the Internet Worm Protection feature and create a “Permit” rule that allows full access on ports 137, 138 and 139, which Windows uses to share files and printers on the local network.

Sometimes, a client’s protection software can be too protective.

CyberNet Technology News has a Firefox hack that may help those users of the popular alternative web browser reduce the amount of memory the program uses over time.

I had a computer support service call today that involved me setting up the free Skype program today for a client.  Skype is designed to allow any one user to talk another user anywhere in the world for free using Voice over IP technology.

Since both the client and his brother located in eastern Europe have high-speed internet connections and webcams, they were able to connect to each other instantly with both voice and video feeds.  Both families haven’t seen each other in several years due to the travel costs and restrictions, so being able to communicate so easily was very exciting for them.

As I left the two families excitedly chatting through their new video connection, I felt pretty good that my support skills were able to bring them together through a free program, an inexpensive webcam and a DSL connection.

Sadie, age 4 weeks.