Phone charging slow? Mobile phone charging slow and how to make charging quicker.

We found charging an old Samsung S5 much slower than you'd expect. When I investigated the result was what I expected, but there were also some very unexpected results.

The first issue is the Samsung S5 was using an old mobile charger from an older mobile phone. Testing the charger showed it only charged at 0.53A, the reason the mobile phone was charging slowly. Plug a micro USB cable into another USB charger and the mobile charged significantly faster.

As this point I decided to check out a range of cables, chargers and powerbanks. This is where some of the results I obtained weren't quite what I'd expected. For example I have a nice thick micro USB cable and use it as my go to cable for charging. This cable did not provide the best result. Surprisingly, but when you think about it, not quite so surprising, the cable that delivered the highest amperage was a short cable provided with a powerbank.

To perform the tests I used the following USB charge tester. I have to say at around $5 on eBay it is a great way to check your cables and adaptors to find which cables and adaptors give you your best charging times.

In these tests I had four cables.
1. Short cable 25cm, which came with an Aldi powerbank.
2. Medium thinner cable 60cm.
3. Medium thin cable 65cm (W)
4. Long thicker cable 1m. My go to cable.

For charging I used the following four devices
1. An Aldi travel powerboard with 4 USB ports.
2. A Huawei power adaptor rated at 5V, 1A
3. A 10,000mAh powerbank purchased from Aldi. Cocoon. Two USB ports rated at 5V, 2A.
4. A 10,000mAh powerbank purchased from Miniso. Two USB ports rated at 5V, 2A

I used my Samsung S7 mobile phone as the device being tested. The mobile phone was less than half charged. Keep in mind a mobile that is near fully charged won't consume as much power at it reduces the charging rate as it nears being fully charged. Being half charged or less meant I should see the maximum amount of power being used.

Result of testing

Aldi Travel Powerboard
Cable 25cm - 1.69A
Cable 60cm - 0.63A (slightly thinner feeling cable)
Cable 65cm - 0.82A
Cable 1m - 1.21A

Huawei Adaptor
Cable 25cm -  0.92A
Cable 60cm - 0.63A
Cable 65cm - 0.72A
Cable 1m - 0.91A

Aldi Cocoon Powerbank
Cable 25cm - Port 1: 1.21A, Port 2: 1.60A
Cable 60cm - Port 1: 0.53A, Port 2: 0.63A
Cable 65cm - Port 1: 0.63A, Port 2: 0.72A
Cable 1m - Port 1: 0.24A, Port 2: 0.43A

Miniso Powerbank
Cable 25cm - Port 1: 1.70A, Port 2: 1.70A
Cable 60cm - Port 1: 0.73A, Port 2: 0.72A
Cable 65cm - Port 1: 0.92A, Port 2: 0.92A
Cable 1m - Port 1: 1.40A, Port 2: 1.40A

Conclusion

The main finding from these test is, to get the highest amperage and thus the shortest charging time, using the short cable with either the Miniso Powerbank or the Aldi travel powerboard, produced the best result.

Whilst the thicker 1m cable, which is my usual go to cable, often produced the second best result, however if combined with the Aldi Cocoon Powerbank, this would produce the worst result.

The amperage ranged from 0.24A on port 1 on the Aldi Cocoon Powerbank using the thick 1m cable to 1.70A on port 1 or port 2 on the Miniso Powerbank using the short 25cm cable.

In general using the shortest cable is best, but if you do use a longer cable a thicker cable is best. But if using a powerbank, the thicker longer cable doesn't guarantee a good result, as in this case it was the worst result with one of the powerbanks. There's really no way to know without some form of testing how the powerbanks will perform.

Overall, short of using the testing device I used above, using a short cable with a higher output rated amperage should produce the quickest charging times.

For those wondering why the length of cable matters, this is because voltage drops over the length of wire and drops with the square of the current. Increase the length of the cable and the voltage will drop. Increase the current being used to charge and the voltage will drop by the square of the current. The reason the old charger wasn't a problem with the old phone, is the old phone didn't need much current to charge. The Samsung S5 required more current so the charger no longer performed as desired. Hence the need for a charger that supplied more current, but couple the higher current with a shorter cable to give the best charging performance.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support.

Nearest train station site reorganised to show nearest first when reaching the site, then all if selected.

The Nearest Train Station web app is a series of pages to show the nearest train stations, tram stops and Vline train stations. However, when I first created this site the first map people saw was to show all train stations. Since the name of the site is Nearest Train Station, showing all train stations first didn't quite sit right.

With a bit of time available I restructured the site so the first page people now see is the five nearest train stations. If people wish to see all the train stations they can now select the all option in the menu, or the Train, Tram or Vline options in the menus. The nearest five train stations, tram stops, or Vline stations can be shown by selecting the nearest five once you've selected Train, Tram or Vline.

I hope this change makes it faster for people to find the nearest train station to their current location.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.NearestTrainStation.com.au
Nearest Train Station

Can't play 0xc00d36c4 The file isn't playable - Windows 10 Photos app

On opening a video created from a dashcam I received the message: "Can't play. This file isn't playable. That might be because the file type is unsupported, the file extension is incorrect, or the file is corrupt. 0xc00d36c4".

What was unusual is I'd already used over a hundred dashcam videos created in exactly the same way for my site Speed Camera Locations.

Whilst not ideal, I was able to get around the problem by opening the video using the VLC Media Player. I then created a new video from the VLC Media Player when I could then open and view in the Windows 10 Photos app. The next problem is even though I could view and edit the video, I wasn't able to save the edited video.

Since the end result I wanted was an edited video on YouTube that is trimmed at the start and end I decided to upload the saved video to YouTube and perform the editing on YouTube instead. It took a bit of time working out how to edit a video on YouTube but I got there and the problem was solved. The section of the video I wanted was now showing on YouTube.

I suspect there was a glitch in the video Windows 10 Photos couldn't handle, and whilst not ideal, using VLC Media Player and YouTube's editing features I was able to obtain the outcome desired.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.SpeedCameraLocations.com.au

How to remove sound from video in Windows 10 using Photos app.

Recently I uploaded a video to YouTube and much to my surprise there was a copyright claim.

I investigated and found the video had music in the background. The video was made from a dashcam video and the car radio had been playing. Didn't even notice there was music in the background.

Deleted the video and edited the video to remove the sound. I didn't know how to do this so I checked the internet. There were many suggestions such as using other products, but I couldn't help feeling the Windows 10 Photos app should be able to do something I'd consider fairly basic.

I found a few options relating to sounds, but then I right clicked on the video and found a Volume option. On the video itself is a speaker, so I decided to click on the speaker. It turned out I could mute the sound which I did and saved the video. Excellent. The sound and thus the music was gone. Just what I wanted.

The video can be seen at https://youtu.be/ZYNhIRB4giU

I hope this tip helps others.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support.

Computer not connecting to Android hotspot even though it was previously working.

Today was one of those weird days. All of a sudden my Windows 10 notebook computer wouldn't connection to my Android mobile phone which I use as a hotspot. Performed all the usual diagnostics on the computer but nothing seem to work.

I then tried to connected a spare Android mobile I had to the hotspot and had the same trouble. Reset the Android wireless settings but still no luck.

What I then decided to do was to change the hotspot's password and change it back again to the original password. Viola! Everything started to work as normal and the devices I had recognised the password and connected automatically.

At best guess I suspect the password for the hotspot for some unknown reason had become corrupt. So when all else fails, don't forget to try changing the password on the hotspot. Changing it back to the previous password means all the devices you have connecting won't need to be changed as well.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support

BMI Formula web app updated to display BMI ranges for given height.

The BMI Formula web app has always had the BMI ranges for a given height, but unfortunately that information was not displayed unless people entered a height and clicked submit. To me that meant people probably didn't know the information existed.

When I'm losing weight (I wish) I like to know what the weight ranges are for each BMI class. That way I have a goal to get into the next BMI class. It's always good to have a goal as it keeps you motivated.

I decided to display the incomplete BMI class table so people know the table will be completed once they fill in their details and click submit. Hopefully the information will be helpful to others.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.BMIformula.com.au

Microsoft Outlook uses American English in subject field when Australian English is the default setting.

Sometimes you see strange things when using computers. Ultimately it is simply someone has programmed something unexpected. Recently I noticed when I typed the word flavour, which was spelt correctly for Australian English, into the subject field of a new email in Outlook, the word flavour was marked as a spelling error.

I've not seen this before and I can't help feeling it's a recent change. The subject field is being checked using American English (which isn't correct) and the body of the email is being tested against Australian English, (which is correct).

I can only feel this is a recent change and a mistake by the programmer/s. I'm sure once they realise they'll patch the program and fix the issue.

NOTE: I did have US English installed with Australian English as the default. Removing US English made no difference.

At this time, the only way around this issue if you wish to make sure the subject of your emails is spelt correctly, would be to write the subject in the body of the message and then cut and paste the text into the subject field.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support.

Google Blogger exposing users to scammers. Reason not to use apps like Blogpress to post articles and photos to blogs.

These blogs use Google's Blogger. At one stage I decide to use an app to post articles to the blogs. Everything worked well.

For a while I've noticed images from old posts to be missing. Not good I thought. Perhaps Google's killed off another service I'm not aware of. But today things became a little more sinister. For some reason I decided to click on the missing photo to see what site it used. Much to my surprise it went to a scam site. As you can appreciate the last thing I want is for people going to my blog to be exposed to scammers.

So what's happening.

Some years ago I used an iPhone 4. I installed an app called Blogpress from the Apple store. Apple are very good in blocking scammers. So no problem there. However fast forward a few years and you can see how an app that no longer exists can be used by scammers.

What I didn't know was at the Blogpress stored photos on their own site and then my post provided a link to the Blogpress site. Blogpress has now died and gone. The photo in my post has now gone but the link is still there. The domain has now been taken over by someone else for nefarious activities. Even a search in Google for Blogpress returns a link to this site now owned by someone else. The site simply presents Google ads.

Clicking on the link in Google search results opened the following among others.

Therein lies the problem. The domain the third-party app Blogpress used and the live links in my blogs has now moved into other hands and is being used for completely different reasons. No way to report the issue to Google (as there's no real way to contact them easily) and the site uses Google's AdSense service so Google is even helping scammers make money.

Google should provide the ability to report nefarious sites people find in the Google search results. That would mean at least we can easily let Google know.

Now if like me you've found yourself in this situation, you need to go through your blogs and delete any reference to Blogpress. If you have thousands of posts this could be tedious to find every one.

To make my life a little easier this is what I did.

Export the blog using Back up content

Open the blog using Notepad

Search for src='http://photo.blogpressapp

In my case there were 14 entries.

Now for each entry you can find text that you can search for in Blogger and then delete the image. Not ideal as it takes time, but at least you have an approach.

NOTE: Weirdly some of the posts in the backup could not be found in live posts. That means some of the posts are not up for some reason in Blogger. That's a concern.

As for your images, they've most likely long gone. That's a problem with having your images hosted by another organisation. All is good whilst it is working, but always keep in mind you don't know what the future hold for the hosting company. We've seen companies like Microsoft dump hundreds of millions of users (Windows XP) as part of their business direction. Twenty million for their blogging software. If things aren't working for a company they need to close direction. Many fail and close down.

Lesson learned. Even with the experience and knowledge I have in IT, I'd not seen this before. I continue to learn which makes IT interesting. For some time it has been my desire to write my own blog software so I can incorporate posts directly in my site. Perhaps this is the bump I need.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Just how fast is Vodafone's 1.5Mbps unlimited data when you've used your plan's data.

I use Vodafone as my mobile service provider and my internet service. Gone is the landline, ADSL2+ and no need for the NBN. With a bit of planning, patience and a bit of luck, I managed to get 100GB of data allowance. That's plenty for my needs. Yes the plan also includes unlimited national calls and text, and some 2,000 minutes of overseas calls. Vodafone even offers $5 per day where you can use your allowance when overseas at selected locations. Overall a pretty good plan for $50 a month.

However, and there's always a however, once the data allowance is up the speed drops to 1.5Mbps. At least you don't get charged (unless overseas). The real question is just how fast is 1.5Mbps. I decided to use up all my data for the month and test a range of commonly used services with the restricted speed.

First general internet usage for a single user you're probably going to feel everything is OK. Writing this post for example really doesn't use much data. Browsing the web, sending emails, no real problem. It's when you want to use a lot of data such as watching videos, that's when you may find the service not good enough. Of course if there's multiple users sharing the data, that could make a considerable difference.

How much data do you get at 1.5Mbps?

At 1.5Mbps there's 8 bits per bytes and 3600 seconds in an hour. Thus in an hour at 1.5Mbps you'll be able to download around 675MB of data.

Now if you're only interested in the results jump down to the conclusion section for a summary. If detail is your thing, the following lists the tests I performed. Not quite scientific, but should give you a guide in terms of performance.

Let's see how we go.

Initially did a few tests and the results were better than expected. However as I used the service for longer I found there were more delays and pauses. I decided the best way to test was to get a feeling for each service over time.

Samsung Galaxy S7 - mobile phone

10 app for catch up TV. Works well. No stuttering.

YouTube. Works great. No stuttering or delay.

9 app watching live. Works well. Short pause.

7 app watching live. Works well at first but then fails with audio only and a white triangle with an exclamation for video stating there was a technical issue. In other words doesn't work.

Acer notebook computer. Not very powerful but usually fine.

Watching my YouTube video (https://youtu.be/E2c36V6c5OM) of the red light camera on Warrigal Rd and Batesford Rd. Works OK but quality seems a little low. Checked and the speed was auto giving 360p. 

Changed the setting to 720p HD and the video frequently paused and parts were jumped. Not really usable at all.

10 catch up. Started with jumping, stuttering, adjusted fairly quickly with lower quality. Then streamed OK with the noticeably lower quality.

7 catch up. Started lower quality, paused a few times then OK. Pauses every now and then for more data.

9 catch up. Paused every now and then. Skipped some parts.

Older Apple TV (2nd version).

 The Apple TV was set to 720p HD.

Watching 10 Play. Selected Seal Team. Watched for five minutes worked well.

Watching movie trailers many ended to pausing to get more data. Could become annoying if this happens during a movie.

The Apple TV for a movie will download a considerable amount, perhaps 10-20 minutes before starting the movie. However you never know if movie will end up pausing to get more data.

Watched a TED episode. No issues.

Set resolution to 576p. Watching trailers paused multiple times to catch up.

Watched 10 Play. Selected Seal Team episode. Watched for 5 minutes no issues.

Google Chromecast 2nd Edition - cast from mobile

YouTube videos from app. Worked without a problem.

Hayu. Very poor quality at start but quickly came good. Then performed very well. No delays.

9 app. Cast live TV. Works well.

7 app. Cast live TV. Worked well.

10 app. Cast live TV. Worked well.

Conclusion

Overall you can't be sure which services will work and which won't. It really is a matter of testing each service you use. Even different shows on the same device produced different results.

With the reduced 1.5Mbps speed it can help if possible to reduce the resolution you're using. Less data increases the chances of a good streaming experience.

Keep an eye on other devices that you may be sharing the data stream with. Other devices or people sharing your data allowance could cause issues with streaming.

Before completing this testing I felt theoretically, if the video was streaming at SD quality, the chances would be good it would work. In general this has been the case, but not necessarily with all services.

Video streaming uses the highest amount of data. If video streaming works then other services that use less data should work as well.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Update: 8/8/2019
Watched another movie yesterday, (The Ninth Gate) and worked well using Google Chromecast.

Update: 9/8/2019
Tried watching a movie (Robin Hood) on Apple TV. Took far too long to begin (much more than the 10-12 minute the message said on the screen). Time to load quickly dropped, then went up, then just went up and down and took a long time around the 8 minute mark. Decided to give up and watch using full speed.

Scam - NBN to cut-off phone service within the next 48 hours

Received a call today from a client. They'd just received a telephone call reportedly from NBN saying their phone service will be cut-off. The company had been trying to contact them for some time.

This is most likely a scam, although it could also be an overly eager sale rep trying to close a deal to get people to sign up to their NBN based service. Either way this is a telephone call you want to hang up on and then check your facts.

First in this case the NBN had only recently been installed and no notification had yet been provided on a cut-off date. Services will not be cut-off until 18 months after the NBN has been installed.

In addition you can go to the following NBN site and check when the cut-off date is.

https://www.nbnco.com.au/residential/learn/rollout-map

Enter your location and then click on the More address information link. In the information displayed you can now find the cut-off date.

It's a fact of life our telephone services are now becoming useless. Many people won't take calls now because most are scammers or marketers. Nothing the government does appears to work to stem the unwanted calls. Millions of dollars of lost income and much grief is caused by these callers. Hopefully the information provided above helps others avoid the scammers and less than desirable marketers.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

AdSense - Earnings at risk – You need to fix some ads.txt file issues to avoid severe impact to your revenue.

Participating in Google's AdSense means that you have to keep up with the changes it requires. Some changes can take a lot of work, some not so much.

The latest message I received when going into AdSense was, "Earnings at risk – You need to fix some ads.txt file issues to avoid severe impact to your revenue.". What's this all about I thought.

Not really quite sure of what ads.txt is about from an industry point of view, but it appears that as a publisher I'm giving approval to have ads from Google on my site/s. Since this is a public file it means companies advertising can also check the file. How this helps the companies avoid fake inventory I'm not sure. There's obviously something going on that I'm not aware.

Whether it makes sense or not isn't really an issue. If AdSense suggests your earnings are risk, then it's time to do something. In this case it's a matter of adding a file ads.txt to the top level of each of your sites. AdSense will even create the file for you.

With your own sites it's then just a matter of uploading the ads.txt file to the root or top level folder of your site.

Now if you also have Blogger accounts where you don't have access to the folders directly you can use the Blogger interface to edit the ads.txt file. In my case not all my blogs are listed as having an issue. Not sure why. At this time I'll only fix the blogs with issues as identified by AdSense.

I did this as follows:

Log on to Blogger
Select the blog
Select Settings
Select Search preferences

Under the section Monetisation there's Custom ads.txt. This showed as disabled.
Select Edit
Select Yes
Paste in the line from the ads.txt file provided by AdSense
Click Save changes

Repeat for all blogs with issues as identified by AdSense.

There appears to be no way to remove the warning message, "Earnings at risk", but as Google scan each site and finds the ads.txt file I suspect the error message will go.

What doesn't make sense to me is not all sites and blogs I have, have been identified as having issues. Perhaps the other sites will be identified over time. Only time will tell.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

ASUS notebook message, "battery plugged in not charging".

Recently a client's ASUS notebook computer displayed the message for the battery, "86% available (plugged in not charging). The notebook charger was plugged in.

In addition the battery indicator on the front of the notebook was flashing orange. According to the manual this means the battery is discharging and has reached 10% battery power remaining. Obviously the message and the indicator are in conflict with each other and one states 86% and the other 10% or less.

The computer was an ASUS notebook with the model number N551JX.

Fixing this problem for this computer was relatively easy and was done as follows:

Turn the computer off
Remove the battery
Press and hold the power button for one minute
Insert the battery
Turn the computer on

The ASUS notebook was fixed, charging and no message displayed in the System Tray and the indicator no longer flashed.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

MYOB AccountRight error server update required.

A client was having an issue with their MYOB AccountRight. The client found the second user was not able to access MYOB AccountRight for the last couple of weeks and received the following error message.

The client contacted me for assistance. I asked if they were under a MYOB support contact which they were. Since they were already paying for support I suggested they should first contact MYOB. No point paying for support twice. If they had further issues they were welcome to contact me back.

A couple of hours later I received a call that MYOB couldn't fix their issue, at which I point I subsequently attended their office. I'm a general support consultant and whilst I have no particular skills with MYOB, I sometimes find I fix client issues after MYOB hasn't been able to.

Whilst the client has a file server, in this case MYOB is run on one of the user's computers acting as a server for MYOB and accessed by a second user on another computer. In effect this is acting as a peer-to-peer network. Both computers were running the same version of MYOB AccountRight so the message didn't quite make sense.

On the second user's computer the first clue was in the system tray; an icon had an error. Opening the icon revealed the following.

As can be seen from this screen the icon error was related to MYOB and the add-on connector. Clicking on the link provided the information that a second version of the add-on connector needed to be removed in the Control Panel. The program to uninstall was the MYOB AccountRight API. The error disappeared from the icon, but the problem of connecting was not fixed.

Now to the main computer. Same error in icon. Removing MYOB AccountRight API and the icon error was fixed.

However, the issue of the second user connecting still existed. A couple of questions confirmed this issue started when the software was updated using the link in an email provided by MYOB. A check in the documentation showed the shortcut for the main user on their desktop should have SE (for server edition) in the shortcut description. It didn't. The client had installed the normal version of MYOB AccountRight and not the server edition.

The server edition of MYOB AccountRight was installed, the icon error returned, so the MYOB AccountRight API had to be removed again. I felt that was weird but these things happen.

Icon not showing an error and the second user could now access MYOB AccountRight from their computer as well as the primary user being able to access MYOB AccountRight. Problem solved.

All the information used to resolve this problem was found using the links and the information provided on the MYOB site. The MYOB support person should have been able to resolve this issue since MYOB knows about the issue and the information is available from the MYOB site. I suspect had the issue been escalated within MYOB the problem may have been resolved.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support.

How much data does Hayu use when streaming a show?

The help information on the Hayu site is not particularly helpful on how much data streaming shows on the Hayu service consumes.

Since the Hayu site doesn't include any real guidance, and there's no ability to change the resolution of the streaming service to a lower standard, I thought it would be good to run a test.

The show selected was from season 12 of The Real Housewives from Orange Country. The episode was 43 minutes in length.

The show was watched on an iPad which was using Wi-Fi to access a mobile phone as a hotspot.

The data used for the 43 minutes episode was approximately 1.38GB.

For a 43 minute episode of a show being watched on an iPad this is quite a large amount of data. In comparison a one and a half to two hour movie shown in SD format would use a similar amount of data.

If you're using a mobile service to watch Hayu it is important to know the data usage may be higher than expected. It is important if you're internet service has a limitation on the amount of data provided with the plan.

I hope this information helps.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Alert: Attack on Westpac's PayID

Today I read about an attack on Westpac's PayID.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/australians-private-details-exposed-in-attack-on-westpac-s-payid-20190603-p51u2u.html

At this stage I don't understand the implications of the attack, but it does appear that people using PayID can have their name determined. How this information can be used for potential fraud I don't know.

What I felt was important, was at this stage I left other people know about the attack. I hope the information helps.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Optus outages today really made for an unproductive day.

Today was like any other day. Nothing extraordinary. A couple of computers to update and install programs, but today wasn't like any other day.

The client was using Optus NBN but downloading an installing Office 365 ran like the proverbial dog. Netflix wasn't flicking, and Windows 10 updates just weren't happening.

Yet it wasn't apparent the issue was with the internet service provider. You would try accessing some pages and they'd come up as quickly as expected. But Netflix was a no show. Perhaps it was just Netflix. Then Office 365 installs took forever on a couple of slower computers. Yes I expected the installs to run slower, but it was like watching paint dry.

The problem is because some things worked as expected, it didn't appear to be the internet service provider.

It's 11:49pm and a check of the Optus site for the status returns that page can't be loaded. The main page loads fine.

Just another day at the office so to speak. That's computers for you. Patience really is a virtue.:-)

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Old Apple TV no longer offers SD rental option for movies.

Recently I went through more data than usual and whilst investigating why, I realised I'd downloaded and watched a number of 99 cent movies. I couldn't help think could these possibly have been the problem.

These movies didn't offer the choice of SD or HD, so I have to assume they ran at HD. HD can consume between 2 to 4 times as much data. A few cheap movies and bang, there goes the data and since I use mobile data, and the cost of mobile data is higher, so the movies perhaps no longer so cheap.

I then went and checked the Apple TV. This is one of the older Apple TV units that has the slim aluminium  remote control. I went though a number of new movies and not a single movie now offers the option for SD rental. Previously I'd select SD because to me the lower quality didn't make a difference and the rental was a $1 less. Now it appears Apple may have removed the pricing difference between the SD and HD versions. There's no longer a choice. The lower cost SD rental seems to have vanished from the Apple TV.

It would seem this may be a trend in the industry. A subtle price increase by removing the lower cost SD quality rental option. Google Playstore also only appears to offer movie rentals using HD. The Microsoft Store however at this stage still provides the option of SD or HD on many movies with pricing often being $5.99 and $6.99 respectively.

I did notice with the recent release of Aquaman the rental price was only $7.99 for SD, HD and UHD. I was hoping this isn't a trend towards higher pricing of rented movies. Aquaman is available for $6.99 on the Apple TV and $7.99 on Google's Playstore. It does feel like there's a subtle push to move the lowest streaming price of movie rentals from $5.99 to $6.99. Starts to make those $2 weekly rentals from the video stores look better value for money.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support

Update: 30/04/2019
I performed further testing and whilst the option to rent the SD version is no longer on each movie, if you do wish to use SD to reduce the amount of data used, you can change the video resolution from auto to 720. This doesn't seem to impact the price.

I also checked iTunes on my older MacBook Air and the ability to rent an SD movie at a cheaper price is still generally available. Some movies have a single higher pricing and select SD makes no difference.

Hayu streaming service data usage.

If you have a reality TV junkie in the house then the Hayu streadming service available at Hayu.com may be worth checking out. Hayu provides access to all the seasons and all the shows for popular reality shows like The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Vandepump Rules and many more.

However one thing to watch out for is the Hayu streaming service does not provide the ability to selected the quality of the stream. If you have unlimited data this isn't an issue. However, if you're using mobile data, or a plan with more limited data, then not being able to adjust the streaming quality could be a real, and/or costly issue.

Recently I had 28GB of data that was used in just five days. That's a lot of data and one thing I thought may be using the data was Hayu. This wasn't necessarily the case but it did make me realise I needed to check Hayu and see if I could control the streaming quality.

This is an important lesson. When reviewing streaming services it's a good idea to make sure the streaming service has the ability to set the maximum streaming quality. With ultra HD now available from some services and consuming many gigabytes per hour, you could rack up some serious data usage and possibly bills, watching streaming media at a much higher quality than needed.

This page from the NBN site provides some useful information on different streaming services and the data they use.

Hayu doesn't appear to have an option to set the streaming quality. What they do state on their site is:

Most episodes last around 42-44 minutes. On wifi we will deliver the strongest quality video which will mean that your data consumption will be higher.

For mobile we use 'adaptive technology' which means we work out what is appropriate for the device. If you are at all concerned about your mobile data usage we suggest that you only watch videos via a wifi connection.

There can be a handy clue in this information. If the software just sees Wi-Fi it may not know the data is coming from a mobile broadband device. If the streaming is using a mobile device there's a possibility this could use less data. The only way to know is to perform testing to see how much data is being used.

The real issue with Hayu is if you can't set the streaming quality, you don't have control. For some that is not an issue, but for others it may be an  issue with data usage.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support.

New Microsoft Edge now has casting.

The new Microsoft Edge browser is currently in development and the development versions are being made available to the public. I'm now using the developer version of Microsoft Edge as my main browser and will provide feedback on the browser as I find things worth sharing.

Previously the ability to cast to a Google Chromecast was listed in the menus, but did not actually work. Microsoft have now made the cast feature available. It's a little quirky to use, but overall a huge step forward for casting using Microsoft products. Yes this has been available in Google Chrome, but now it's begining to feel like Google Chrome is needed less as casting is integrated into Microsoft's product. Until now I've not found Microsoft's approach to casting was used by anyone I've had contact with.

When I say casting is quirky to use, it's really about knowing the order to select the casting. Keep in mind Microsoft has Casting in Tools, which is one level lower than Google Chrome and thus casting in Edge may not be noticed by many people.

When you open the cast option it's important to first select whether you want to cast the tab (default), entire desktop, or a file. Then select the device you wish to cast to. If you want to be able to quickly open tabs and have the new tab display on the external device, this is when using the cast Desktop option is easier. If you just wish to cast the one tab, and open other tabs in the background, this is when the cast tab option is best. I felt it was quirky as I tend to work through menus top to bottom. That is select device is at the top and then select cast desktop, but this didn't work. I would expect it should work. The sequence does matter in this case.

It should be said sequence is the same issue in Edge as it is in Google Chrome. That's expected since Microsoft is using the same open source software as Google Chrome.

Overall casting is an excellent new feature now available in Microsft's Edge browser that is currently under development.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support.

Microsoft Edge Chromium based browser early release review.

Today I read the first release of Microsoft's Edge browser based on Google's open source project Chromium was available. I downloaded the weekly updated Dev version, as Microsoft said it was more stable than the daily updated version.

So far no issues and it's already replaced the Microsoft Edge on Windows 10. Why you may ask. Because it already does a couple of things I've wanted that Google Chrome did but Microsoft Edge didn't. I might even say, even at this stage I'd probably use it as my default browser except for one thing, the spellchecker feature is not yet completed.

The following shows Microsoft Edge and Microsoft Edge based on Chromium.

As you can see the two don't look very different. That was an interesting experience to see how the front end of the old browser was reproduced for the new browser.

One thing that stood out straight away was the thinner and crisper font used in the interface. I thought that looked good.

The Home button I added as I really didn't think Microsoft would have the feature I really wanted. That is to be able to change the search used in the address bar to the search I use. I've written my own search facility that enables me to include keywords to go to dozens of sites quickly. Keywords to the top 300 sites Australians visit. Keywords I use to help others with their computers. All sites quickly available just by entering a keyword and pressing search. I couldn't get my search to work in Microsoft Edge, but I can with Edge based on Chromium, albeit I have to manually enter the details. For me that's a huge bonus. The Home button will shortly go.

Everything seems to work and whilst I've only been using the Dev edition of Microsoft Edge based on Chromium for a few hours, not a single site has given me an issue. That's pretty good for an early release.

One feature I miss still is the ability to set a new tab to open in a page of my choice. No longer an issue really since using my search from the address bar will work around that feature being missing.

My bookmarks came across from Microsoft Edge without a problem. Features I don't want I could turn off.

Because of my interest in the preferred Australian English spelling and the tools I provided I'll be interested to see if Microsoft provides the ability for me to use my spelling dictionaries. Whilst Google Chrome uses my dated dictionary work from around 2006, Google Chrome does not provide an easy way for me to include my own dictionaries. Only time will tell if Microsoft's Edge provides a better option. If it does, for me that alone will make Edge the preferred browser over Chrome. I can only hope.

I'm not really into add-ons so really can't say whether that area is good or bad. For me it's just a feature I don't use.

Other things I've liked, but aren't necessarily new, but shows how I customise my browser to suit me.

• Turn off password prompts. I don't store passwords in my browser.
• Send Do Not Track.
• Turn off sites checking for payment method.
• Turn off send data on how I use the browser
• Turn off send info on sites visited
• Turn of notifications. Do I really want to be nagged by every site I visit.
• On start up go to my preferred site, which is my search site.
• Set Australian English as my preferred and first language, even though the spelling feature is not yet available.
• Turned off the feature to continue running background apps when Edge is closed. May revisit this if its used in a useful way.
• Whether this will change but Microsoft Edge would automatically play ad videos from sites like news.com.au and that was really, really, really annoying. Those ads don't play now. Peace at last. I think we thank Chromium for that change.
• Feels quite fast even on my very low end (read cheap) Acer I use for travel and keep using when not travelling. This may change as Microsoft ads further code, but hopefully not. Feels faster than Chrome.

Whilst I have to admit I was concerned with Microsoft's change of direction with their browser, even though Microsoft Edge really wasn't a good browser, but this new browser based on Chromium already feels better than the soon to be obsolete Microsoft Edge.

Now if there was one feature I'd like in the browser it would be the ability to read a barcode and send that barcode to a site of my choice just like the search now does in the address bar. If Microsoft can keep include features designed for old developers like myself that like to dabble in code in a simple way, that would be appreciated. There's lots of people like me, but I do accept, software is for the many, not for the one as Spock would probably say.

These are my first impressions of the Microsoft Edge browser based on Chromium. Already the new browser is looking better than the old browser. If they continue down the path of making the software cross-platform, and not cripple the experience on mobile devices (e.g. limiting search engine choice) Microsoft may just win back some market share. Something they sorely need to do having gone from being the leading browser to almost obscurity.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.OnlineConnections.com.au

IT support.

PS. There's one negative I didn't mention above. Microsoft have a site where people like me can sign up and be notified of when the new Microsoft Edge is available. I signed up. So far I've heard nothing and only knew about the release through the media. This almost indicates Microsoft doesn't care, which in turn loses loyalty. If you're not going to use a mailing list to keep people informed then don't offer it. It doesn't look good. The good thing however is this loss of loyalty means we make better decisions in the long run and that's a good thing.

PPS. Another feature which is in the menus but not yet implemented is casting. If casting is implemented using Google Chromecast this will be a bih step forward for Microsoft. To date if you wanted to cast you needed to use Chrome. Microsoft option really wasn't something I found anyone using and really having to resort to plugging in a video cable to see something on the big screen is not ideal.

Update: 10/04/2019
Autoplay of videos on news.com.au site does occur. Tested this is the same using Chrome. I do wish I could turn autoplay off as a standard feature without resorting to add-ins that may or may not work.

Hostgator SSL free

A while ago I migrated quite a few sites from Hostgator as they didn't have free SSL. Paying for an SSL certificate for every site was just not cost effective. Moving quite a number of sites to another hosting service with free SSL covering all the sites for less than the cost one certificate from Hostgator just made sense.

Fast forward a couple of years and Hostgator now have free SSL available with their hosting. They've never let me know, and it's not at first clear how to use it, so I thought I'd share with others what I've found.

First, every add-on domain now has SSL available without doing anything. All you have to do is use https: instead of http: to access your site. But's there some catches.

The first is all those links out there using http: to access your site. To get around this you need to rewrite all requests to http to https.

Next you'll find Google Chrome gives you security warnings for some sites, but not for all sites. At first this made no sense. However, after a while I saw the pattern. The sites with forms would give security issues, whereas those that didn't have forms gave no issues. The reason. Remapping http to https happens on the server but there's no way for Google Chrome to know this will happen. Chrome assumes if it sees a form URL with http: there's a potential security issue. You need to update the form URLs to http:.

Once I'd made those changes that padlock appeared in Google Chrome and those pesky informational issues went away.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support.

Update: 1 April 2019
For one site, even though the lock now showed in the address bar, the layout of the page had been quite severely affected. For this site stylesheets were used to create a responsive site. The stylesheets were referenced using http: and changing this to https: fixed the layout issue.

Also this site was giving the information message "Attackers might be able to see the images you're looking at on this site and trick you by modifying them." Images on the page where referenced using http:. Changing these images to be referenced using https: fixed this warning message.

Also note there were still plenty of places http: was used on this site (links used with images, links used with php, links in menus) but these were not causing an issue. Ideally if links can be made relative this will avoid the issue with http/https. This experience shows not all links need to be changed to migrate a site from http to https. If time and resources permit, it is however better to do a full job rather than half a job. Sometimes life forces us to compromise.

SMS messages appear in Messenger

A person recently was very confused. They'd sent messages using SMS and to their surprise the messages were in Messenger, leading them to wonder if they'd sent the messages using Messenger by mistake.

The person hadn't made a mistake. They had sent and received the messages using the default SMS client on their mobile phone.

The problem for them is for no apparent reason and through nothing they believed they'd done, the SMS messages now also appeared in Facebook Messenger. Since they'd never before appeared in Facebook Messenger, this made them wonder if they had errored and sent the SMS message in Messenger. They hadn't.

The problem is something had changed. Whether through their own mistake or perhaps just as likely, an update to Messenger, SMS messages were now appearing in Messenger and that to them was confusing.

This is simple to fix. You can turn of SMS integration in Messenger through the Messenger settings.

Once the setting is turned off in Messenger, SMS messages no longer appear in Facebook Messenger.

Keeping messages separate helps those not as comfortable with technology. If messages appear to have been sent from Messenger when they haven't, this can create confusion. People often have trouble distinguishing between the various messaging technologies on their mobile. Keeping each application separate helps them grow and learn their applications. When they're ready and they want to, then they can start integrating their messaging into their preferred application, or simply continue using the applications separately. Their choice.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.OnlineConnections.com.au

IT support.

Replacement battery for MacBook Air from Amazon. Third party battery or Apple battery?

I don't do hardware repairs on computers for clients, but when my own aging MacBook Air's battery was reaching end of life, I weighed up the options. Purchase a replacement battery from the Apple store at $189 and wait quite some time for an appointment and then probably a number of days to get the replacement done. Didn't really appeal to me.

The second option was to purchase a third-party battery online. I really don't trust eBay with large purchasers, as I've found a number of suppliers are companies I wouldn't deal with again. I hadn't actually purchased from Amazon but the marketing gave me a feeling the Amazon name is important and we feel like we're buying from Amazon. The reality is you're still dealing with a third party supplier.

The main advantages of purchasing the third-party battery was code, it was $63.99, the opportunity to learn from performing the repair myself and the reduced time I would be without the computer.

I purchased a battery from the Amazon store around June, but since I was going on holiday the following month, I didn't want to take the chance my computer wouldn't work. So I waited until I returned, caught up with everything and then around September installed the battery. Nothing. Nada. No power.

Contacting the supplier was easy and they forward a list of suggestions. I suspect it was a standard list. Carried out all the tests which took quite a few hours. I let them know the serial number reported by coconutBattery didn't match the serial number on the battery. The battery reported no charge and wouldn't charge. The supplier sent a replacement battery. I didn't have to return the dud battery.

The new battery installed fairly easily, over a dozen screws and the connector was hard to position correctly, but nothing too hard. Performed the recommended charging routine I found on a YouTube video. The battery was up and running and reported 96% charged when charged fully.

Over the coming weeks I watched as the fully charged capacity dropped and within around two months the battery was storing less then 80% which is considered end of life. I contacted the supplier who then offered a partial refund of half the money. This sounded good but at the end of the day I really had purchased a useless battery. It seems a common tactic to offer a partial refund and it makes you wonder if the supplier knows they're selling products that aren't good enough. In this case I was happy for the issue to go on to Amazon, as I don't feel products that aren't what is being purchased should be allowed to be sold. I let them know that I really had a battery that was now past its end of life. The company then refunded all the money. There was no request to return the battery.

Two batteries, two duds.

For me this was a good lesson. I like to try new things because sometimes you learn something new that helps me help others. I've found a couple of businesses on eBay selling dud products so I don't buy anything big and only if I'm prepared to lose the money. The catch is if they ask you to return a faulty item the return postage may exceed the cost of the item. Cheaper to write off the purchase and suppliers know that. At first I fell for the partial refund, but now if a product doesn't work, doesn't work as it should, I simply let the suppliers know. It's then up to the suppliers what they choose to do. So far suppliers have been good. Based on comments on the supplier reviews, they most likely know their products aren't up to spec, but if people don't complain, the business wins and the customer loses. There's a lot of talk on the internet that third party battery suppliers often sell dud products. That was the main reason I tried Amazon this time instead of eBay.

Overall, whilst this did waste a considerable amount of time, the outcome has been good. Based on this experience I would not recommend clients purchase third party batteries online, but instead purchase from Apple as you know what you're getting. In my case I was not out of pocket. The MacBook Air requires a new battery and a new power supply (the cord has simply perished over time). My need now for the MacBook Air is reduced and less money was spent purchasing a light inexpensive Windows 10 based notebook than replacing the battery and power supply.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support.

Outlook 2010 won't open. Error message You need Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 or later to use the feature.

A client had issues because their browser was failing to open websites. They also wanted their computer cleaned up. The browser (Internet Explorer 9) would not upgrade to Internet Explorer 11 so they were happy to use Google Chrome instead.

The next day when they found when the tried to open Outlook 2010 they received the error message: You need Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 or later to use the feature.

The upgrade of their Microsoft Internet Explorer from Internet Explorer 9 to Internet Explorer 11 had failed. What wasn't noticed was the failure in installing Internet Explorer 11 had removed Internet Explorer 9. There was no longer any Internet Explorer available for Outlook to use.

The Microsoft site now only has Internet Explorer 11 to download and install. All previous versions have been removed. This a shortcoming of Microsoft's approach. In my opinion Microsoft should provide an archive of older versions of software but instead removes older software. Perhaps to push people to upgrading. The result is users are forced to look to third party sites to find older Microsoft software and often that means potentially exposing users to malicious sites.

The user was happy to continue to use Google Chrome as their browser. Given Windows 7 reaches end of life in under a year, Google Chrome means they'll most likely be able to continue using their computer into 2020, whilst Internet Explorer may no longer be supported. The real problem is Outlook required an active version of Internet Explorer to work.

I was able to download a copy of Internet Explorer 10 from a third party site (softonic.com) and scanned the file to ensure the file contained no malware. However, the installation did not appear to complete successfully, or at least there was no message at the end and the install screen just disappeared.

At this point I was stuck. There was probably a partially installed version of Internet Explorer 11 installed, but not working and not registered in the Registry. Next I decided to uninstall Internet Explorer 11 which can be seen in Add/Remove Programs if you show all the updates. There was a very old version of Internet Explorer 11 from around 2011 installed. Even though the computer had Internet Explorer 9 as the active browser, Internet Explorer 11 had previously been installed but not active. I ran the uninstall on Internet Explorer 11.

Weirdly what then happened was the more recent install of Internet Explorer 11 appeared in the list of software. Internet Explorer 11 still wasn't working. I ran the uninstall of Internet Explorer 11. At this point Internet Explorer 10 now became available. I tried to again install Internet Explorer 11 which again failed so it was not possible to upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer for Windows 7.

At this point the user had Internet Explorer 10 installed and their Outlook was again working. Whilst not ideal, the user had everything they wanted. Outlook was working and they were happy to use Google Chrome. The potential benefit of Google Chrome is it may continue to work when Windows 7 reaches end of life whereas Internet Explorer 11 may no longer be supported.

It is not particularly satisfying when a computer won't install all the latest updates. Sometimes however it isn't economically feasible to fix an issue and it is necessary to reach a compromise. To fix this computer may require a complete reinstall and the cost would far exceed the value of the computer, which in this case was around eight years old. The user was kept informed at all times and from their point of view, everything is working and they have a path going forward into 2020.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support

PS. If you download software from a third-party site make sure you perform appropriate scans to check the software is safe.

Check memory on a Windows 10 computer.

Having issues with a computer I thought it was best to check the memory. I previously used programs I could run CDs or download, but for some reason I wondered if Windows 10 had a program which could test the memory.

As it turned out there is such a program called Windows Memory Diagnostic. To run this program type Windows Memory Diagnostic into the search field next to the Start button. Click on the Desktop app in the list. There's two options on when to run, now or next time you restart, but since I wanted to know now, I selected the option to restart and test the memory.

The good thing is I had no memory issues, or at least any found by this program and it was much easier to use than a third party program.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support.

Turn off message/ads on Windows 10 lock screen.

Perhaps it's just me, but without notice I now get a bunch of messages on the Windows 10 lock screen that look like ads and self promotion. This feel it was just pushed on me and when that happens it tends to annoy.

The good thing is if you don't like the ads/messages on the Windows 10 lock screen you can get rid of them fairly easily as follows.

• Click on the Windows icon
• Click the Settings cog
• Select Personalisation
• Select Lock Screen

In the section Background you'll see Windows spotlight is selected in the drop down list. Change this setting to Picture and you'll see a few more options.

You'll see there's an option "Get fun facts, tips, and more from Windows and Cortana on your lock screen.

Turn this option off and the ads/messages will be gone.

Kelvin Eldridge

www.OnlineConnections.com.au

IT support.

Add Shortcut as tile on the Windows 10 Start menu

I don't know about others, but I have a number of shortcuts I've created which I run from my Desktop. For example, I have my own Microsoft Access application I use to run my business. Creating a shortcut is fairly easy. You just right click on the MS Access database file and select Create Shortcut. Rename the shortcut to something more meaningful. You can copy and paste the shortcut to the Desktop for easier access. You could also use the option Send to -> Desktop (Create Shortcut) to save a step.

However, there's no obvious way to add the shortcut as tile on the Windows 10 Start menu. Here's how to add the shortcut to the Windows 10 Start menu.

First right click on the shortcut and select Copy.
Now in the Type here to search field at the bottom left type Start menu and you'll see the folder Start Menu as an option.
Select the folder Start Menu
Paste your shortcut into this folder

If you have a particular icon you'd like to use for the shortcut, now is a good time to assign the icon. Right click on the shortcut and select Properties, then click on the Change icon tab, and select either one of the icons shown, or browse to the location of an icon file you've previously created for your own custom icon. The advantage of selecting an icon is you can more quickly identify your application from the icon.

That's it. You can now add your own shortcuts as a tile to the Windows 10 Start menu, and further, you can also use an icon of your choice.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support.

Gmail not receiving emails to a contact it previously had no problem with. Check your SPAM folder.

For years I've been sending a person emails to their Gmail account without a problem. Then around the 10th of January 2019, I sent in email containing a link for www.PavingCalculator.com.au (a calculator I'd written) and the person didn't receive the email. We were sitting in the same room.

 I thought that was weird. Over the next week or so I realised the person was not receiving most of my emails.

I forwarded one of the emails to myself and sure enough, Gmail was treating the emails I sent as SPAM.

I did some reading and found Gmail recently introduced some new technology to further reduce SPAM and unwanted emails. As this was done recently perhaps this change is what caused the false positives.

https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/g-suite/ridding-gmail-of-100-million-more-spam-messages-with-tensorflow

I turn automated SPAM filters off in my email client as I've found whilst the amount of SPAM I get is large, inconvenient, and annoying, it's certainly more of an issue not to receive an important email. For others I've found Gmail filters quite well and can add a level of protection that assists users, so there really isn't a single one size fits all solution.

No matter what the reason, this is a reminder that you should regularly check your SPAM folder with your email client. None of the automatic SPAM techniques I've seen work 100% of the time, and worse, often they'll treat email you want as SPAM and you won't be aware you've received possibly an important email.

More importantly this recent change in Gmail has affect myself and people I know, so it's a good time to monitor your SPAM folder a little more closely.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au

Landline to mobile number without an actual landline.

Our landline numbers, we love them, don't want to lose them, but it's expensive to keep paying for the landline each month.

With the NBN rolling out, those who wish to have NBN internet services, keeping the landline is fairly easy. But if you mostly use a mobile phone and only keep the landline number so others can call you, there's a couple of alternatives and it can save you money.

I'm not a fan of Vodafone, but I do use their services. Recently we dropped the landline, increased out data allowance (which is shared across  two mobiles) and moved the landline number to one of the mobiles so if someone calls the old landline number it goes to the mobile.

With Vodafone you need to be on a plan, but it only costs $5 a month to port your landline number to Vodafone and then Vodafone redirects the number to a nominated mobile on the Vodafone plan. I called Vodafone help and they didn't know about the service so expect staff not to know. Here's a link to an article on the Vodafone site and it's called the Vodafone Mobile Landline Service. If you let Vodafone staff know the name of the service they'll quickly find they do have it.

Keep in mind it takes 15 plus days for the service to be ported. In addition once ported you need to advise your old telco to cancel the service or they'll just keep charging you. Vodafone advised me I didn't need to do anything, but after the number was ported and calls were going to the mobile, I could still call out on the landline which meant I still needed to cancel the service with the old telco.

Overall apart from Vodafone staff not knowing their products, the service is working well. When people call the old landline number it simply goes to the mobile. They aren't aware and it doesn't cost them anything different from what they'd pay to call you. That is if they called your landline number for a local call that's all they pay even though the call goes through to your mobile. Also you don't pay extra for the redirection as you would if you redirect your landline number to your mobile.

The one thing callers will do is if they don't get you on the landline, they'll then try you on the mobile, which of course now the same thing.

The problem with Vodafone is you need to be on a Vodafone service. So far there's only one other service provider I've found in Australia that provides a similar service and that is Click Broadband. I've not tested their service so I have no actual experience. In theory it looks OK.

Click Broadband have a service called Landline Connect. The service enables you to redirect your landline phone number to your mobile (any Australian mobile service provider) and then disconnect your landline service. The cost is $10 a month.

As you only receive calls and can't make calls using the number there is no additional charge. Calls to the landline number are the same as calling a regular landline number. There's no additional cost for the redirect.

If you decide down the track to redirect your landline number to a difference mobile number you can put in a request with Click Broadband.

You can find details on the Click Broadband Landline Connect Service here.

Finally I just received feedback from a client  using their broker that Telstra is also able to redirect the landline number to a mobile without having the landline. What the final cost will be with Telstra however, I don't know.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support

Adsense ads no longer working on my websites. Adsense ad unit deleted.

Recently I got the following notification in my Adsense account and didn't think too much about it.

"We found your ad code on one or more sites that aren't on your Sites list. To avoid lost revenue, make sure you add all your sites to this list."

Next I found a couple of my sites stopped displaying the Adsense ads. Again I'd seen ads not display so I wasn't too concerned. Once I started checking things out more I then found Google's made a few significant changes.

One thing I didn't expect is that Google had completely deleted the Ad Units from Adsense and not added the site to the Sites list. I've never added a site to the Sites list so this must have been done by Google using a bot.

First I added one of the sites to the list of sites. This is a new change for Adsense. The Sites option has been moved higher and is more obvious. From what I've read in around October 2018 Google decided to start putting more time into reviewing new sites so now you need to add additional code to your site and the site gets reviewed as to whether or not the site is suitable for Adsense.

The second thing that happened is Google Adsense went back and reviewed a couple of my sites and found they didn't have sufficient content and were now barred from showing ads. The sites have been showing ads for years. I get the first site (https://www.Mapz.com.au) being barred as the main page really is a table of contents to the 14 sections of the site plus one external site. Not much content there so I understand Google Adsense's approach.

I went back and added more content and submitted the site but it was still barred.

The second issue is one of the sites listed is an external site (https://www.NearestTrainStation.com.au) and that site too has been barred from using Adsense. I have quite a few other similar sites that have not been barred, so linking from the Mapz site has probably resulted in the Google bots somehow associating the sites. It could also mean many of my other sites may eventually be impacted in the same way and that's very concerning.

I've always felt Google Adsense is an exposure as at any time Google can decide what you're doing isn't acceptable and you no longer have access to Google Adsense. Since I can't get the sites to meet the terms of Adsense, the simplest approach has been to use a different adveristing approach for those sites I can no longer use Adsense. Not ideal but not much I can do about it.

The real concern going forward is what will Google Adsense do with my other sites. I need a proven alternate to Google Adsense. It's always good to have multiple strategies in case one strategy ceases to work.

Hopefully since many of the sites I have, have been added to the Sites list by Google, this means those sites won't be impacted. I suspect since a bot went through the sites to add to the Sites list, that at the same time the bot was looking for non-compliance. Since the Mapz site was non-compliant, the Nearest Train Station site being linked, was found to also be non-compliant. This could be the end of it, or it could be the first stage of Google going through sites and additional sites may be found to be non-compliant. Only time will tell.

As a side note, this is the first time I've seen an impact with Google where one site has been impacted which has been linked to from another site. Other similar sites have not been impacted.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support.

Setting up Google Chromecast to a mobile hotspot on a mobile phone.

Recently I went completely mobile for accessing the internet, ditching the ADSL2+ broadband and landline. When you make a change like this you need to make sure you don't lose any services you currently use. The Google Chromecast is one such service.

Google Chromecast is relatively easy to set up normally. The hotspot in your home is usually the Wi-Fi access point, which is also your router and ADSL modem, or cable modem. Because your mobile phone and Google Chromecast connect to the Wi-Fi access point everything tends to work OK.

However, if you want to ditch the home broadband and go mobile, you need to set up the Google Chromecast to use your mobile phone as the hotspot. Therein lies the problem. When setting up a Google Chromecast the set up steps need to use Wi-Fi, this disables the hotspot, which means the Google Chromecast can't access a network.

There's an easy way to work around this issue. Set up your mobile phone as the hotspot. Now get a second mobile phone and connect the second mobile to your hotspot. Use Google Home on the second mobile phone to set up the Google Chromecast with the Google Chromecast using your first mobile phone as the hotspot and network. Once the set up is complete the second mobile is no longer required.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
IT support.