Here are the international data plans from AT&T for the iPad 3G introduced yesterday in the US.
Expensive bits.
Print File List on a Mac
A recent Mac customer needed to send someone a list of files in one of their folders. We used this free PrintFinder program. You simply drag the folder you are interested in onto the folder icon at the top left of the application. PrintFinder has loads of configuration options for what to include. You can then copy the text from the preview area to the right or save it as one of many file types (pdf, word, etc).
There are other ways to save file lists using terminal commands, but I prefer PrintFinder for all its options.
DC eCycling April 24 2010
Celebrate Earth Day by Recycling Computer Equipment this Saturday
From the EPA’s eCycling Day 2010 page:
Join us in celebration of Earth Day as we host our 4th annual eCycling event. Bring your unwanted computer and computer-related equipment (computers, monitors, keyboards, printers, etc.) and cell phones for free recycling. This year, EPA and cooperating organizations will collect unwanted computer equipment on Saturday, April 24, 2010, from 10:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. at the Plateau, National Harbor (PDF) (1pg, 147 KB, About PDF) in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Don’t forget you are responsible for removing data from computers before drop-off.
Use Google Email with your Domain
Google email works with name@gmail.com, but you could also use name@yourcompany.com. To do this, you sign up for Google Apps, which is offered in Standard (Free) and Premier Editions. Go to: http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/
There are a couple of ways to do this:
The simplest is to choose “I want to buy a domain” which allows you to buy a domain through Google (which actually uses GoDaddy as the registrar and costs $10/month), which provides you a domain pre-configured to use Google services.
The other method is to use your existing domain or purchase from domain registrar service and assign the MX records to Google. Your DNS Manager or Domain Manager page from your registrar would then look like this:
The second method requires that you also verify that you own the domain by updating the cname record or uploading a file to the domain.
After pointing your MX records to Google, you can get your email by going to:
https://mail.google.com/a/yourdomainname.com
..where yourdomainname.com is actually your domain name.
Because that’s a long address, I typically set up a URL pointer so that mail.yourdomainname.com will point to the above address. This is also handled in the DNS management page at your domain registrar. The URL pointing would look like this:
If your registrar’s DNS management system does not allow such a redirect, then you can set up a redirect from your website, for example from yourdomainname.com/mail/.
VNC Port Forwarding for FiOS
Because setting up VNC with a router is tricky, I thought it would be helpful if I wrote up how to do it with the popular FiOS Actiontec router based on my recent VNC set up for a small business in Arlington, Virginia.
FiOS
FiOS is a high speed fiber internet service offered by Verizon and popular in northern Virginia. In November 2005, Verizon chose Herdon, Virginia as the second city to get FiOS after Keller, Texas. While Verizon is now stopping its expansion of FiOS into new cities, they just launched FiOS in Washington D.C..
VNC
VNC is an open source free system for remotely sharing desktops, great for remote tech support or just working on your office computer when you’re somewhere else. See my old post on the benefits of VNC.
While there are many other services for remote computer administration that are simpler to set up and punch through a router automatically, I prefer VNC because it’s free and works great once it’s configured. Also, since VNC is a popular protocol, there are clients and servers for every computer, including PC, Mac, Linux, iPhone (a VNC server is available for jailbroken iPhones and VNC clients are available from the App Store), Andriod, and more.
Setting up VNC with a FiOS Router
This is the standard FiOS router by Actiontec.
Here are the steps to set up Port Forwarding for VNC on the Actiontec router:
- Log into the router by typing 192.168.1.1 into a web browser. The default login is admin and password1.
- Once logged in, click on Firewall Settings at the top and click Yes to proceed.
- Click on Port Forwarding in the left Menu.
- Create a rule by clicking Add. Below is what a created rule looks like. You need to add a protocol and add a port for that protocol. The default VNC connection uses port 5900 and the TCP protocol.
- Click Apply. In this example, the rule will then forward everything for port 5900 to the computer at address 192.168.1.152. For simplicity, I have the office computers all using static local IP addresses.
Multiple VNC Computers and Rules
In the case of this office, I set up multiple computers with VNC. For each one, I used a different VNC display number (configured in the computer’s VNC server software). The default display is 0, which corresponds with using port 5900. For the next computer, I set up VNC to use display 1 which corresponds with port 5901. Similarly, the other computers use display 2 with port 5902 and display 3 with port 5903. I then set up a forwarding rule as above for each computer. The port forwarding list then looks like this:
Dynamic DNS
In order to access the computers remotely, you should have a free account with Dnydns.org or another Dynamic DNS service. This allows you to use yourcompanyname.dyndns.org to connect to your computer instead of having to know the IP address of your router which is changing regularly. It gives you all the benefits of a static IP address without the cost. The Dynamic DNS service can be updated automatically with your current IP address from the FiOS Actiontec router.
Click on Advanced at the top, then Dynamic DNS on the left menu to set this up as shown here: