About a month ago I set up another blog for one of my good friends. Many people kept telling her that they were unable to post comments on her blog and they kept getting a message saying that their post looked “spammy” and would not even submit at all. Until then, I didn’t realize that WP-SpamFree was blocking so many people from commenting. I just thought people didn’t care to comment on my site for the most part. That wasn’t the case…

The amount of comments on both her site and mine have really increased since I disabled WP-SpamFree on both of them.  This is just a heads up to those who use the plugin. It seems to cause more problems than it is worth. I highly recommend that if you want people to be able to comment on your site that you disable the plugin right away.

I have found that using the Akismet and NoSpamNX plugins together work great. I rarely have any comments that need moderated.  Just make sure your theme/template is coded correctly and the NoSpamNX plugin works perfectly with no modifications.

It includes all popular IM protocals such as AIM, Yahoo, etc., and now even includes Twitter.

I bought this app when it was on sale months ago for $.99. It is currently priced at $9.99. I think it is worth it, even at that price.

Click the iTunes button below to view the app.

The internet portion of the Triple Play is very good. As stated in an older blog post, I have the 20mb download and 5mb upload tier. The speeds are great, and for the most part constant. Certain times of the day when Comcast would start to lag are pretty much non existent with my Verizon service. As much as I like the quality of the service there is one major problem…the hardware. The included Actiontec router is decent, but has some major flaws. I was lucky enough to get the Gen 2 (rev. E) version of the Actiontec hardware but it still has major problems. There is a NAT table limitation that practically makes the router useless. When trying to connect to torrents or even Steam server lists, you hit the connection limit and the router locks up. Usually closing out of the program will fix it, but sometimes a restart of the router is needed. The only way around this is to run ethernet cable through the house to where the router is placed.

By installation default, the ONT  is connected to the router via coaxial cable. Because of this, you need a router such as the Actiontec to take the MoCA connection. MoCA is needed to give IP Addresses to all of the set top boxes throughout the house. Like I said, I could run an ethernet cable through my house and up to the 2nd floor where the router is, but that is a lot easier said than done. If I ever feel like taking the time to do so I might, because then I could use my own router. Even if I use my own router (D-Link Dir-655) I would still need to connect the Actiontec to it for the MoCA bridge. Currently I have my D-Link connected into the Actiontec because the wireless signal is much better and everything wired here is gigabit.

As for the television portion…I couldn’t be much happier with the service. The picture quality is amazing. It’s quite obvious how much better the quality is of FiOS over Comcast. The channel lineup is great. Having over 100 HD channels is definitely nice. The Multi Room DVR works fairly well. The main problem once again though is the hardware.  

The Motorola boxes seem to have a problem with HDMI connections, primarily with Samsung televisions. Of course I only buy Samsung LCDs. I have 4 through the house in varying sizes all HD and connected to HD boxes. One of them in particular, of course the one with the Multi Room DVR, has a major problem when trying to connect to HDMI. The image blacks out frequently because the signal is lost and it takes a few seconds for it to work again. Also, after the latest firmware update (that I also blogged about) when using Component cables the signal is occasionally lost. It much less frequent and takes only a fraction of a second for it to return, but there is definitely a problem. It just sucks to see such dodgy hardware when the service itself is so great for both the TV and Internet.

Without a doubt I am happy to have made the switch from Comcast to Verizon. The cost is much less per month and the overall service is much better. If Verizon can fix the problems with the hardware I wouldn’t really have much of anything to complain about.

I hope this post helps answer any questions of those people who are thinking about switching. If you have any other questions or comments please post them below…

At work (a few miles from my house) we have Comcast business services, so I ran a quick comparison of the ping times on 3 of the speedtest.net servers. My location is Pittsburgh, PA.

I would like to do some more testing, but these are just my initial ping results. I will also post the speed test results below. These tests were all done 3 times on each server and averaged.

As you can see below by the initial ping tests, all of them are in favor of FiOS. This is just a simple test and definitely not 100% acturate but they give a general idea. To get optimal results it would have been best for me to think ahead and get some results from my home before I canceled Comcast. But like I said before, my office is only a few miles away so it should be relatively close to the same.

Frederick, MD server:

Comcast: 38ms (16.6mb down, 1.37mb up)

FiOS: 28ms (14.6mb down, 3.56mb up)

Advantage – FiOS

Greensboro, NC server:

Comcast: 101ms (13.4mb down, 1.85mb up)

FiOS: 89ms (20.2mb down, 4.21mb up)

Once again, advantage – FiOS

San Diego, CA server:

Comcast: 187ms (10.3mb down, 1.15mb up)

FiOS: 179ms (19.87 down, 3.63 up)

Advantage – FiOS

For those reading this, if you have any specific servers you would like me to do ping tests on just post a comment and I will try it on both Verizon FiOS and Comcast Business Services.

Dropbox: online storage that just works

Simply put your files into your Dropbox folder
Get to them from anywhere
Collaborate and share photos, documents, music

View: GetDropbox.com

It’s been out of beta for a good bit of time now and I have seen absolutely no improvement at all in terms of content. I mean, who doesn’t love being able to watch Family Guy anytime you want? I definitely love the thought of it, but why would I want to sit at my computer on a regular basis and watch televisions shows that are only high enough quality to fill less than 1/10 of my screen? Maybe I’m to blame? Maybe I shouldn’t have a 24″ iMac with a resolution of 1920×1200, right? Is it wrong for me to expect something more from such a high profile site? Hell, even the massive header at the top of the main page is higher quality than the videos themselves. Am I the only person who thinks there is something wrong with that?

Instead of listing a bunch of low res clips of shows that no one wants to watch maybe they should concentrate on a few higher quality videos.

I loved the concept originally, but I just don’t see the site turning into the huge enterprise that they envisioned. I don’t see many people following and trying to make one large site for ad based video. Under no circumstances would I pick to watch shows on Hulu over the streams on ABC.com for example. At least on the individual network sites they attempt to maintain some quality in their streams.

That’s about all for this rant. Feel free to comment and tell me how wrong you think I am if you’d like.

Visit Hulu.com and decide for yourself.

Set a Guinness World Record
Enjoy a Better Web

Sounds like a good deal, right? All you have to do is get Firefox 3 during Download Day to help set the record for most software downloads in 24 hours – it’s that easy. They’re not asking you to swallow a sword or to balance 30 spoons on your face, although that would be kind of awesome.

Download Firefox during Download Day and enjoy increased security, blinding speed and cool new features that will change the way you use the Web.

View: Information on Firefox 3