DIY: Transforming Unstable TP-Link Archer C6 Cloud Wi-Fi Router to a Stable OpenWRT-based Cloud Wi-Fi Router

Last year in December I bought a TP-Link Archer C6 v2 Cloud Wi-Fi Router (EU make) to have Gigabit support on my Home Wi-Fi Router and also be future ready for the Internet Bandwidth upgrade. One of the reasons for choosing this model was – Dual Band Gigabit Router, MU-MIMO Support, 4 Antennas, Low Price and the most important – Cloud support. While the first couple of Firmware upgrades went on well and caused no issues, sever problems started arising from Firmware upgrades starting Mar’20 or so. The key issue was the stability issue with the 2.4 GHz Band. Devices connected to this Band will suddenly be thrown out even while the SSID would keep broadcasting (sometimes 2 – 3 times a day, sometimes in week or 10 days). After being patient for the initial couple of months, I found a Thread in TP-Link forum where many users kept complaining about this issue.

(https://community.tp-link.com/en/home/forum/topic/165494?page=50 ) 

With every firmware upgrade things went from bad to worse and other than the 2.4GHz stability issue, I also started facing issues with QoS, DDoS filtering and LAN access. Though the Router was under warranty I decided last night to go with the OpenWRT route. Though OpenWRT is a reputed non-OEM firmware, it did not have Cloud support for my Router. So with some experiments conducted on my RaspberryPi, I decided to make the Router an IoT device and install IoT services through which I could manage the Router from the cloud. Please go through the detailed instructions below if you want to make your Router an OpenWRT Cloud Router. Do keep in mind that you will loose product warranty for not using OEM firmware (though you can restore back to OEM firmware later on if required). You should also ensure that you have a Wi-Fi Router with sufficient on-board memory to support OpenWRT and other additional packages that need to be installed. 

Google Drive File Stream download for non-GSuite Users

#Google announced few months back that it will be offering #GoogleDriveFileStream even for non- #GSuite users. Surprisingly you still don't get a proper Download Page similar to #GoogleDrive #BackupAndSync. 

After some searching found that you can download Drive File Stream from one of the following links -

https://support.google.com/a/answer/7491144?hl=en

https://support.google.com/drive/answer/7329379 

Though the download file names are surprisingly different, they are the same files with the same version.

#DriveFileStream is like a Sharepoint drive mapped in #Windows #FileExplorer . Only those marked #offline will get downloaded. 

Do you really need a Google Drive Paid Upgrade?

Problem!

My Google account is more than a decade old now. 15 GB for free storage seemed absolutely fine until a few years back, when I started running short of storage space with lot of my storage lost to Google Photos. While per Google "High Quality" photos/videos are not counted against your storage space, if your photos/videos are not lucky enough to get auto-converted by "Google Backup and Sync" application to the "High Quality" format, the size of the files then get counted against your storage quota in Google Drive.

What did I do then?

I deleted some obsolete files. I then created a shared folder in my wife's Google Drive account and moved around 9 GB of archived files to the shared folder located in my wife's account.

DIY: Fixing Android "System Update" Boot Loops with Open DNS

 Few days back I received a pop-up for Software Update for my 3 year old Lenovo Yoga Tab 3. This Tab is an excellent Tab having premium looks, finish and performance. This was probably the 2nd or 3rd update I have received over the years. While the previous updates went through smoothly, this update did not happen.

The system would always prompt for an update, auto-download it and start updating a little while later. The problem starts after the Tab reboots for update. After showing the progress bar for few minutes, the update crashes on the Recovery screen (as shown in the screen shot) with a "Status 7" error. While I wanted to investigate more on the error and fix it, I couldn't do as the ab would reboot to android, download the update, reboot and this went into a loop. After googling,  found few solutions on disabling the "System Update" service, which unfortunately didn't work. Coming from a Network Admin background I realised that the best way to circumvent the System Update is to block the website from where the update is being downloaded.

Creating your UPI QR Code for easy FASTag Recharge

Let's accept the fact that we live in a world with QR codes. QR (Quick Response) codes have made our lives very simple.

So I thought of making lives simple for the frequent travellers across Toll Plazas, who will now need to recharge their FASTag's frequently. 

My now many of us know that NPCI has made our lives easy by enabling FASTag recharges seamless by transferrring the recharge amount to the UPI ID/VPA as per your FASTag linked Bank. For example: netc.@

I thought of going 1 Step above to make thing more simple. How about creating a QR code for the UPI ID/VPA linked to your FASTag. I will continue with the example of Vehicle Number MH02AB1234, which is procured through HDFC Bank.

A FASTag which arrived SLOWly!

Around early Aug'19 the news of Fastag implementation on Indian Toll Plazas had just started popping up. Being an early technology adopter of Technology I did some research and finally applied for it around end of August on PayTM. The application process was pretty simple - provide your Vehicle's Registration Number, upload the pics of your Driving License and RC Book. I received an acknowledgement of the application with an estimated delivery date of approx. 2+ weeks from the date of application. 

1st Episode: Till the date of delivery there is absolutely no notification from PayTM. I also see that a Fastag Wallet on PayTM is created for me. Just before the delivery day I receive a notification from PayTM that due to technical reasons my Fastag application couldn't be processed, without any further details provided. The notification told me that I can apply once again.

Your Smartphone laziness is increasing somebody's Business

With fall in Internet prices and more accessibility to Internet, the sale of Smartphones has also already increased. However the trend shows that most users of Smartphones whether IT savvy or not is probably not using it the right way. In spite of wide-scale popularity of Cloud-based Picture sharing services (like, Google Photos, Amazon Photos, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) and Video sharing services (like YouTube, Vimeo, Google Photos, Facebook, Instagram, etc.) only a handful of Smartphone users use the services in the most optimum way. Primarily WhatsApp and other messaging services have contributed to the larger problem of excessive data usage. 

Instead of sharing Picture Albums, Video Albums and other Pictures/Videos through the popular Cloud-based Picture and Video sharing services, most Smartphone users still continue to forward content through WhatsApp. Smartphone users also don't change their default Camera settings to reduce the resolution. My experience says that a minimal 3 - 5 Megapixel still Photo and an HD 30 fps video is more than sufficient to watch on Phones, Tabs and large screens at Home/Office. Higher Picture resolution is only required if you really want to print a large Picture (like a Banner). This not only leads to a lot of spamming but increases the Bandwidth requirements  and the Storage requirements of your Smartphone. 

A 16 GB Smartphone which was more than sufficient for regular use a few years ago is no more sufficient and most users right now seek for 64 GB to 128 GB Storage on Phone and a 4G / 20 Mbps Broadband connection to have a smooth viewing experience. Its still not too late. A simple change in your lazy habits of blind Media forwarding can make a lot of difference. 

DIY: Tutorial - Speed up your Notebook by migrating OS from HDD to SSD

In 2014 I bought an Intel i5 CPU based Asus Notebook with 4GB RAM and 1TB HDD. With Win 8.1 OS running the Notebook ran perfectly. Then came the Win 10 free upgrade, post which the Notebook dramatically slowed down. It would take almost 1 - 1.5 mins to login to Windows with all background Apps loaded. Also any resource hungry Multimedia Apps would load extremely slowly.

After hearing from few of my friends and watching some Youtube videos I learnt that you can dramatically speed-up your system not by just upgrading RAM or buying a new Notebook, but by migrating your existing Notebook's OS from a traditional magnetic HDD to a SSD. 

While from the videos looked liked the migration was simple, I must admit that with the correct information and software the migration from HDD to SSD is really very smooth and seamless. I have now upgraded to a Samsung 250GB SATA III 860 EVO SSD. Believe me it now takes me little less than 15 secs to see my desktop with all background Apps loaded. My Windows experience has completely changed and I feel as if I am using an Ultrabook.

How to smartly use your Bluetooth Peripherals with Amazon Fire TV Stick

So you have a new Amazon Fire TV Stick and some Bluetooth Peripherals like the Sony Ericsson MW600 BT Headset or say the JBL Flip 2 Speakers, then you may want to smartly want to integrate them into your Fire TV ecosystem by paring them.

One of the best feature with the Fire TV Stick as compared to few of its competitors is the availability of Bluetooth. You can pair a new Bluetooth device by going to Settings -> Controller and Bluetooth devices -> Other Bluetooth devices -> Add Bluetooth Device. 

I have paired 2 of my most used Bluetooth Peripherals and achieved the following -

1. JBL Flip 3 Bluetooth Speakers - Once paired you can play music through any of the popular Fire TV Audio / Video apps and listen to the Music even by turning off your TV. It is also useful if you have a large room and watching a video where you need to carefully listen to some dialogue. Pairing with the BT speaker enables you to bring the Audio closer to you.

Tech Review: Logitech K480 Bluetooth Multi-Device Keyboard

My Notebook started to behave erratically from past few months and I was urgently looking out for some device which could help me in leveraging the existing Tab's which I had at home and give me a Notebook experience.

What better to use than Logitech's K480 Bluetooth Multi-Device Keyboard . I had been keenly tracking this product on e-commerce portal's from past few months and went I found a lightning deal (effective price of INR 1,600) on PayTM Mall, went for it.

While the device might look small on pics, it comes in the size of an A4 size paper. Mind you, though it might not be that sleek, but definitely after using this product for few days, you will fall in love with it. By using this Bluetooth Keyboard with an iPad you can surely get most of your Desktop Publishing jobs done.

Features & Pros -

1. Solid build quality and Sturdy.

2. Cradle with Silicone coating which can hold - 1 x iPad Mini + 1 x 5' Phone or 1 x iPad 9.7' or 1 x iPad 12'. While I speak about iPad, you can use any Tab of similar size.

3. Good Tactile Keys and sufficient space between keys reduces chances of mis-typing. 

4. Can pair with devices of all known Platforms - Apple - iOS/MacOS, Android, ChromeOS and Windows.

5. Works with a pair of AAA batteries with advertised Battery life of 2 years.

6. Shortcut keys for Search, Home Screen, Frequent Apps, Media Control for all Platforms.

7. Dial Switch to connected with 1 of the 3 paired devices.

8. Dedicated keys to pair with with Androis/Windows/ChromeOS and iOS/MacOS.

9. A solid replacement for the soft touch On-Screen Keyboard to convert your Tab into a full-fledged PC.

10. Due to Dial Switch you can keep both a small Tab and your Phone on the cradle and switch typing from one device to another just by turning the dial.

Cons -

1. Power Switch at bottom.

2. Slightly heavy than expected.

3. Since this is a Bluetooth keyboard it will deplete the paired devices' Battery faster.

You may also visit the link which I have shared above and understand all features in detail from Logitech's Portal. It comes in 2 x colors - Black and White. I bought both and gifted one to a friend. If you have a Silver iPad, I would suggest going for the White Keyboard and if you have the Space Grey iPad, I would suggest going for the Black Keyboard.

If you were always planning to go for a Bluetooth Keyboard, look no further. Get yourself a Logitech K480 this Diwali and share your feedback with me.

DIY: Custom-made Smart TV using non-functional Notebook Screen

Its that time when your old Notebook after repeated trouble, conks off and you discover that the Motherboard is fried and getting a new Motherboard is not the solution owing to the price.

I met with a similar fate last year my HP Pavilion DV6 Notebook (bought in 2011) died due to overheating of AMD processor. I then found out that rather than disposing off the Notebook for a cheap price you can re-use its functional parts, one among then was its HD LED screen. That's how it struck me to build a Smart TV out of the functional screen.

Method to build the TV -

1. You begin with first dismantling your Notebook and detaching the screen from the base (search on YoutTube to learn more on this for the specific model of your Notebook). 

2. Now you need to remove the frame from the screen's bezel and carefully detach the LED screen. If you look at the back of the screen, you can find the screen's specific model number. In my case I had this screen with model number "AU Optronics B156XW02 V.2 HW4A Laptop LCD Screen 15.6 WXGA Glossy".

3. Now search "B156XW02 LED driver card" in Aliexpress. I had a seller who sold what I required. The kit consists of the LED Driver Board, 5 Key Keypad and LVDS cable (to connect to the screen). Just be sure to order the driver card specific to the screen model number, else your screen will not work and you may end up damaging your screen.

4. Once the LED Driver kit arrived, I detached the the old LVDS cable and connected the new LVDS cable with the LED screen and the LED driver board. I also attached the 5 Key Keypad with the LED driver board.

Adaptive approach towards Project Management

In today's fast-paced Business, Project Manager's play a pivotal role in the success and failure of projects. Theoretically Project Management encompasses multiple modules like Planning, Scheduling, Cost Management, Resource Management (and more..) and also involves various artifacts like Project Charter, Risk Register, Status Reports, etc. However when you talk of Project Management in IT, not all projects are of the same magnitude and complexity, and hence one needs to have an adaptive approach towards Project Management to fine tune the amount of efforts an assigned Project Manager / Delivery Project Manager spends in a project. 

In today's projectized world working on a Global Delivery Model, you will generally find one or many of the following Project Mgmt related roles depending on the size of the projects -

1. Program Director.

2. Program Manager.

3. Lead Project Manager.

4. Regional Project Manager.

5. Project Coordinator.

6. Service Transition Manager.

Best Out of Waste - Legacy Peripherals as Raspberry Pi / Kodi Media Centre Remotes

I am pretty sure that at some point in time you feel like throwing off your old Keyboards, Mouse and other legacy Peripherals. But if you have just bought a Raspberry Pi like me, think again! 

Your legacy input devices may turn out to be some useful remotes for Raspberry Pi Media Centre.

There are multiple tools through which you can have a Media Centre running on a Raspberry Pi - you have OSMC, OpenElec and LibreElec. While they all sound different, they eventually turn out to be Operating Systems to run the main Media Centre Application named KODI (earlier known as "XBMC").

OSMC and LibreElec are offered as part of the NOOBS menu(multi-boot OS loader for Raspberry Pi). I tried out both OSMC and LibreElec but finally settled with LibreElec as I found it to more lightweight and fast as compared to OSMC.

While you can use a USB Keyboard and Mouse (or a Wireless USB Keyboard and Mouse) to do the main LibreElec setup, but once all's done, you will no more require a Keyboard to operate it. In this post I share with you my experience about re-purposing legacy peripherals as remotes to operate the Media Centre.

Selecting the right Case, Power Adapter and GPIO Cable for Raspberry Pi 3

While my last post on Raspberry Pi 3 was mainly aimed towards making a custom-made Case to begin your initial Pi 3 setup, in this post I would share my experience on selecting the right Case, Charger and GPIO Cable for the Pi.

1. Case - 

Pi 3 being a niche product, its difficult to find a case in a nearby Electronic store and hence you are left to choose only from the e-commerce portals like eBay, Snapdeal, FlipKart, etc. Though there are numerous options available online, you need to concentrate on some key features before you order the case -

• Availability of a Cooling Fan and Heat Sink -  While many in the forums would say that you neither need a fan or heat sink, but after having experimented with the Pi 3 for nearly a week now I would say that it is always recommended to have both to keep the Pi 3 running cool. I found the idle temperatures of the Pi 3 without fan + heat-sink in Indian conditions to over around 45 - 50 deg C. Post using fan + heat-sink, the idle temperatures are found around 38 - 42 deg C. I would say that the fan + heat-sink cools the Pi 3 by almost 10 deg C
• Access to GPIO Pins - As you know that the Pi 3 is not just meant for Server-based computing but also for Robotics and other Engineering projects, hence a case which provides easy access to the GPIO pins without compromising the protection of the Pi 3 board is required
• (Optional) Access to the On-board Camera Port - Similar to the GPIO pins, a case with easy access to the Camera Port is preferable. But this is only required if you plan to buy a Camera manufactured for Pi
• Easy mounting case - A case where the Pi 3 board can fit with minimal screws

After keeping in mind all the above key features I went for the Case shown above bought from Amazon.

DIY: Initial Raspberry Pi 3 experience & Making a low-cost Pi Case with 250gm Butter Case

New year brought some good news for me after I finally bought a Raspberry Pi 3 to build some hobby projects (Server based and Engineering) which I had read on the Net from long. After ordering the Pi 3 I was also prompted to buy a Case with a fan since some articles and videos showed that the CPU of Pi really gets hot sometimes. 

Within a short span of 24 hours I roughly completed 3-4 projects - 

1. Using the Pi as a Portable NAS (Network Attached Storage) Server.

2. Using the Pi as Webcam Server using a legacy Desktop Webcam.

3. Connecting the Pi to Internet using a TATA Photon Plus Internet dongle.

4. Booting the Pi using a small-sized Micro SD card and a large USB Thumb Drive.

I also managed to play streaming using (using Gaana.com) and also watched HD videos on YouTube. Do note that by default the Pi neither plays Music using the Analog Audio Port, nor through HDMI. So you need to run the "raspi-config" utility (Advanced Options -> Audio) to fine tune your Pi. I also learnt that the Pi doesn't have any BIOS and hence its start-up is controlled using the "/boot/config.txt" file. 

DIY: Resurrecting your legacy PC with Android

It's almost been 5 years for me when I bought the Lenovo IdeaPad S205 10 inch Notebook having dual core AMD E300 processor. While the Notebook ran perfectly till last year, but after the Windows 10 upgrade it slowed down significantly. The slow down is also owing to the fact that the processor is quite obsolete.

So do I throw away my lovely Notebook? Not at all!!!

Thanks to the Android x86 project, you can make your Notebook dual boot and have a significantly fast running Notebook. If you just want to use it for desktop computing, Internet browsing, Music and E-mails, then you no more have to shell out any money as the Android on the Notebook just runs absolutely fast. In few of the builds I find that the Graphics is not optimized and hence the Android only perfectly works with Audio apps and you can't watch streaming videos. However the Android on the Notebook works perfectly for any kind of Casting with devices like Chromecast.

What are you waiting for? Go ahead and give your Notebook a fersh lease of life!

DIY: Restoring Windows Mobile Phone's original Firmware after a failed Windows Update

I have 2 Windows Mobile Phones - Microsoft Lumia 640 and BLU Win Jr. Recently Microsoft released Windows 10 Anniversary Update. While I was very excited to update my Lumia 640, the excitement became short lived since my BLU phone gave serious Touch screen issues post the update. The Phone sensed touch at incorrect places and was almost bricked.

I followed the Factory Reset process as mentioned on http://windowsphone.stackexchange.com/questions/1939/how-can-i-hard-reset-my-windows-8-phone-which-keys-do-i-press , but that did not work. Post the reboot the Phone continued to have the same Touch Screen issues. Later on I realized that the Windows 10 Mobile (10.0.14393.67) update for few non-Microsoft devices had failed. There was a similar problem when I update the BLU phone from Windows 8.1 to 10. 

The only option which I now had was to go back to Factory Default Firmware which was Windows 8.1 (one version lower, since I had earlier updated the Phone OS to Windows 10). Though I have done rooting and firmware upgrades for Symbian, iOS and Android devices, I had never done an Firmware fix for Windows Mobile devices. But after researching quite a bit I found a Microsoft Tool which just makes it very easy to restore your Phone's Factory Default Firmware and that too it supports non-Microsoft Phones.

Welcome to Microsoft Device Recovery Tool. You may either have an unusable Phone like mine with Touch Screen issues or a semi-bricked Phone which shows a frowning icon :-( after a failed upgrade, and does not boot. In both the cases, first install the Tool, Launch it and Connect your Phone once prompted.

After you connect your Phone the Tool first detects and displays your Mobile Phone's details and then might ask you to select the specific Model Number for your Phone. While I have a BLU Win Jr Phone, it has 2 x variants X130E and X130Q whose information can be found in the sticker printed over the Phone's Battery (after removing the back cover).

DIY: Home Video Surveillance Solution with "IP Webcam" and ivideon.com

If you have always thought about having your own Home Video Surveillance/CCTV solution without any investment, then now is the time. All you need is an old/spare Android Phone, Tripod Stand and an always-on Internet connection to achieve this.

Steps -

1. On the Android Phone install "IP Webcam" by Pavel Khlebovich from Google Play Store.

2. Open the App on your Phone and configure the following - 

     a) IP WEBCAM SETTINGS -> Video preferences - Here you can configure which camera to use (whether Selfie or Main/Back Camera), at what resolution the capture should happen, etc.

     b) CONNECTION SETTINGS -> Cloud streaming - Signup for a new account on           www.ivideon.com using the wizard.

3. Once done you can now start the inbuilt Web Server within the App from SERVICE CONTROL -> Start server.

4. You can now press the Home button to ensure that the Server runs in background. You can also configure the App so that the screen can be turned off.

The live stream is now available to be viewed on your LAN or on the net from ivideon.com/my and then logging onto your account. You can also view the live stream through Android / iOS ivideon.com App. If the Internet bandwidth at Home is limited, you also have the option to remotely stop the camera and restart it through the App. To fix your phone properly, you can use a Tripod stand to set it in correct angle and also connect a phone charger if your battery is weak.

What I taught are only few basic steps, you can customize the IP Webcam App for Motion sensing, Video recording and various other features, for which you need to explore.

So now what are you waiting for, setup your Home CCTV solution and share your experience with me.

Tech Review: HP DeskJet Ink Advantage 4675 All-In-One Printer

So finally an IoT device arrived at my home few days back - HP DeskJet Ink Advantage 4675 All-In-One (AIO) Printer. Rather than explaining things in detail I would prefer to enlist the key features. To see the technical specifications on the scan/print resolutions and printer dimensions please refer to http://www8.hp.com/lamerica_nsc_carib/en/products/printers/product-detail.html?oid=7317527#!tab=specs

Some of the key products features are -

• IoT (Inernet of Things) - It is an Internet enabled Wireless device
• It can Print, Scan, Fax, Copy and also be used from Web

Casting Videos of hotstar.com on TV through Chromecast

All television viewers in India might already be aware and might be frequently using "hotstar". Where you are able to watch recorded programs and live events (mostly Sports) either through the Smartphone App or through the Web browser.

The app continues to be promoted with the tagline..... "hotstar....go solo". Since it looks like the promoters - Star India Pvt. Ltd, want this app to be used for private viewing by individual users on their Phones, Tabs and PC's rather than having the option to cast the video on a Smart TV or a TV with a casting device like Chromecast.

Unfortunately I am big fan of watching recorded shows on big screen, rather than on personal devices. However due to the app limitation, there is no casting option available on hotstar app. I did try casting videos through PC using the Google Cast Chrome browser extension, but you may be aware that the "Cast this tab" option available with the Google Cast Chrome extension does screen replication and hence there is sync issues with Audio-Video on the TV. This is because the "Cast this tab" option merely does screen mirroring and hence the hotstar videos first get downloaded to your PC and your PC then pushes the same to the TV through Chromecast. This increases the bandwidth consumption on your Home Wireless Network causing sync issues.

After waiting for many months now I finally figured that Chrome / Chromium browser for Android now has the Cast option built-in. Hence when you view any streaming videos which are Chromecast compatible, you instantly get an option to cast the same to your TV. And yes, did I tell you that this casting is true casting and not screen mirroring. So as soon as you select the option to cast the streaming video, Chromecast immediately understands the link and the video is directly shown on the TV and the one playing on your Smartphone or Tab stops. 

You guessed it right....this is the same technique I have started using to watch the hotstar videos on my TV through Chromecast. So next time you want to watch hotstar videos on TV don't use the hotstar app, rather use the Chrome / Chromium browser and use the Cast option.