Windows Experience Blog : Wireless Network

Using Play To in Windows 7 with the Linksys Wireless-N Music Extender

Brandon LeBlanc — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:04:29 GMT

After seeing Brad Brooks’ demo of Play To in Windows 7 a couple weeks ago at the New York City Windows 7 Launch Party, I decided immediately that I must use Play To in my home. I went out a picked up a Linksys DMP100 Wireless-N Music Extender by Cisco. This device is on the market today with firmware that is currently compatible with Play To for Windows 7.

Future releases of firmware for the DMP100 will enable it to be logo’d for Windows 7 which means it will have passed all of Microsoft’s internal tests and has complete functionality in Windows 7 such being see it in Devices & Printers, ability to name the device, and easier setup with wireless networks.

What you do with this device is connect it to a stereo system and/or a set of speakers and then to your network. You then can play your music to this device over your network.

The Linksys DMP100 supports Draft Dual-Band 802.11n, 802.11g, 802.11b (2.4GHz and 5GHz) and WEP, WPA, WPA2 for security. If a physical network connection is needed, it also has an Ethernet port. For connecting to a stereo or speakers, it has a RCA L/R Input, a RCA L/R Output, an S/PDIF Output, and a 3.5mm Stereo Headphone Output.

I set up the Linksys DMP100 on a shelf in my office (please pardon the Star Trek DVDs) and connected some Altec Lansing speakers to it via the 3.5mm Stereo Headphone Output.

With my D-Link DIR-655 Router, I was able to easily connect the Linksys DMP100 to my wireless network as it supports Windows Connect Now.

On my Windows 7 PC, I fired up Windows Media Player and I have a playlist for the entire Beatles catalog (I purchased ALL of their remastered albums a few months ago). To “play to” the Linksys DMP100, all I needed to do was right-click on my Beatles playlist and chose “Play To” and select “Cisco Player”. I was then able to start playing the playlist.

And while I was playing music to the Linksys DMP100, I was also able to play music and video to other PCs on my network and videos to my Xbox 360.

I will also be talking about other devices that support Play To in Windows 7 – stay tuned!

Checking out Dell’s Vostro 1500 Business Laptop

Brandon LeBlanc — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:18:00 GMT

Two weeks ago my new Dell Vostro 1500 arrived. Dell's Vostro Notebook line-up is a relatively new line-up of laptops that cater to business users. While I love the Tablet PC experience the HP tx1000 offers, I was in need for something a little more powerful. I'm the type of guy that likes to feel like I am taking my desktop PC with me when I travel.

After looking at the specs for the Vostro 1500, I decided to customize it for some added benefit. Here are the specs on my Vostro 1500:

Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 2.2GHz Processor
Screen - 15.4 Widescreen XGA+ LCD TrueLife
Memory - 2GB DDR2
Graphics - NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT 256MB
Storage - 160GB 7200RPM SATA Harddrive
Media - 8x DVD-RW with double-layer DVD-R write capability
Network - Intel 4965AGN Wireless-N Mini-card
Integrated 2.0 Megapixel Webcam
Mobile Broadband - Dell Wireless 5520 HSDPA 3.6 Mini-card (for AT&T)

With Windows Vista Ultimate (this laptop deserves nothing less), the Vostro 1500 has everything I need in a laptop and makes "going mobile" much easier. It has a Windows Experience Index of 4.6 with the lowest rating being Graphics. The rest of the scores are the highest I've seen on a laptop to-date.

For the first time, I am enjoying running at 802.11 N with the Vostro 1500. Right now as I wrote my post on the Vostro, I'm running at 130Mbps.Works absolutely amazing. My router, the D-Link DIR-625 RangeBooster N Router, supports 802.11 N but I've not had a device with 802.11 N wireless capabilities until now. The DIR-625 was part of D-Link's initial wave of devices that took advantage of and supported Windows Vista when Windows Vista launched last January.

After 2 weeks with the Vostro 1500, I'm really happy with my decision. I've still got more experiences to write about, such as using the Mobile Broadband wireless capability but I'll save that for another post. I've updated my What I Use page to reflect the Vostro 1500 - check it out.

Also: my new HP MediaSmart Server arrives this week. I plan on having a post up on rolling out Windows Home Server in my home by the end of the week. I look forward to getting the HP MediaSmart Server set up.

Images of the Dell Vostro 1500 were uploaded to my Flickr account using Windows Live Photo Gallery.Click here for the full set of photos of the Dell Vostro 1500.

Secure your wireless network with Windows Live OneCare 2.0

Brandon LeBlanc — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 04:10:00 GMT

Today, quite a few households have wireless networks that are unsecure - wide open for anyone to connect to. This could be a huge problem especially if PC's in that home are sharing important family files - like photos and documents - that shouldn't be seen by strangers. In Windows Live OneCare 2.0, a new feature is coming that will let users of Windows Live OneCare secure an unsecure wireless network in their home. I decided to give this new feature a try and share my experience.

Once I connected to the unsecure wireless network, I launched Windows Live OneCare and was alerted by Windows Live OneCare that I was on an unsecure wireless network and that it can help me to secure it. I clicked "Turn-on" and started the process. Here is a video demo of me going through the process of securing an unsecure wireless network:

Video: Demo: OneCare Wireless Security

I'd like to take a few moments to elaborate on a few things from the video. First off: the router I used to test this was *not* connected to the Internet. Most users who will use this feature to secure their router will have it connected to the Internet. Once going through the wizard to secure the router with Windows Live OneCare - the user and any other PC's on the home network should be able to access the Internet just fine. There will be no issue securing a router connected to a WAN (WAN being your ISP for Internet access).

To secure your wireless network - you are required to connect via cable (Cat-5) - which is why I needed a Cat-5 cable in my video to proceed with the process of securing my router. This is important as this prevents anyone from connecting to your network wirelessly and using Windows Live OneCare to wipe your wireless networking settings with their own settings. This is what the OneCare Team calls the "proof of ownership" check.

In securing your router - it does not completely wipe out all your settings. The settings that Windows Live OneCare changes during the securing process are the SSID, enabling of WEP security, & setting of the WEP key. After Windows Live OneCare secures your router, you are given instructions on how to set up other PC's on your home network with the new settings Windows Live OneCare enabled on your router.

This is looking to be a very useful and interesting feature for home users who are unfamiliar (and maybe uncomfortable) getting onto their router and configuring it for secure wireless capabilities.

There is a wiki setup over on Channel 9 with informaton on this feature of Windows Live OneCare 2.0 worth checking out as well.