Pierre’s Lab

We created a new store called High Tech and More where you will find various selection of Electronics products such as DVD players, alarm systems as well as Cameras and Camcorders.

Instead of stopping there we added other products that make great gifts as very low price. We sell for example Bath Gift Set items that range from few dollars to several

Network Magic is a software that makes home and small office networking easy - very easy, sometimes too easy. It makes several PCs, routers, printers and devices such as digital cameras and gaming systems all talk to each other and work smoothly using only Microsoft Windows XP or Vista - it doesn’t support Linux software but that’s not a real problem as my network is mainly Windows based.

I like several feature like seeing when someone join the network - great to see the kids login in their computers. Network monitoring and very easy tools to secure wireless networks - nice to see when ‘someone’ tries to access your wireless.

I don’t use printer sharing as our 2 printers are on the network already, I don’t use file sharing as we have a mass media storage for file sharing which is now managed by Network Magic.

I love the network map, health and security dashboard - great to know when Mom’s computer needs software upgrade! Once in a while I like to measure my network speed and to know that my youngest downloads like crazy.

The general advices are a bit simplistic for me, remember it’s my job but for anyone else, they are worth the time.

Bottom line for $39.99 up to 8 machines, Network Magic is worth it!

The D-Link DIR-655 is installed and running since now 10 months. I upgrade firmware regularly, the box is on 1.10 which includes nice features such as bridge functions. Plenty of the upgrades are to get certification passed.

This wireless router gets the job done - bottom line. It never crashes, don’t loose connections unless you make configuration mistakes.

The only feature I would complain about is that the email log file function doesn’t work. But what the heck, do I need to receive lengthy emails with logs? Don’t think so.

The setup is quite easy unless you don’t have a clue. Bottom line the D-Link DIR-655 is a great router for the money.

I just purchased additional modules for my home automation system and wow… $756.00 with free shipping. I added 10 modules and that’s an average of $75 per unit, went to eBay, to 2 others ‘discount’ websites and cost is always the same +/- shipping.

I really thing that’s outrageous to charge that much for something that costs no more than $15.00 to produce.

My home automation system is now entirely based on Insteon products fully orchestrated by a VS12000 Cortexa. Both thermostats are modified HAI running through a GE zoning system.

The Cortexa unit is reachable from the internet using DDnS.org services. I can monitor, make changes to any connected devices as well as receive pages and emails in case of issue such as temperature drops. Using macros, I can shut down all lights after 7:30am as no one is home, or put lights on in the girls’ bedrooms at 6am, modify temperatures according outside temperature of if no one is home.

The bottom line is that I save money, 20% on my electricity bill and 30% on my gas bill. That’s about $100 a month or $1,200 a year. The full automation system cost me around $6,000 making 5years to recover my expense. Not really economical but I’ve access to features that make life easier.