Dongles everywhere!

In the last few revisions of the MacBook and MacBook Pro, Apple has replaced the legacy ports with USB-C ports which some think is forward thinking and others complain that their devices don't connect. Last fall, when the last MacBook Pros were announced, I was eyeing one, but ultimately decided against buying one. However, when Apple had a sale on the dongles to placate people, I thought about what I would need for my next computer. I bought a USB-C to Thunderbolt 2 adapter and a USB-C to USB-A adapter.

Fast forward to last month when Apple announced the 2017 MacBook Pros and I decided that it was time to replace my almost 5 year old MacBook Pro. I again, had the option to purchase dongles, but decided the 2 I had were all that I would need. My current setup is 2 27" Thunderbolt displays that each have 3 USB-A ports, FireWire 800 and a Thunderbolt port. With only the USB-C to Thunderbolt 2 adapter, I'm able to hook up my MacBook Pro to 1 display (second display is daisy chained) and all my devices work. When I travel, I can bring the USB-C to USB-A adapter in case I need to use a card reader.

While I may not be typical in my setup, basically 2 dongles are all I need to make my new computer hook up to all my legacy devices; this is really no big deal. Next year, however, when/if Apple releases its own displays again, they will unlikely have legacy ports. At that time, I'll get a few USB-C to USB-B cables for my scanner and hard drive dock and a few USB-C to USB-A adapters to hook my Lightning cables; total cost for all this will be maybe $30 and the cables/dongles will always be plugged into the display. Nothing to lose and a minor cost to move forward.

I'm not sure why there was so much uproar in the Mac community about getting rid of legacy ports; to me this is a much smaller deal (if any) than moving from 30 pin to Lightning because of the shear number of devices and cables I have lying around the house.

Review: ZTE Mobley

Several years ago, I worked for a company that sold Sprint service. As part of my job, a "perk" was a company issued phone and then when the MiFi mobile hotspot was released, I got one of them for experimentation and use. (I use perk lightly because having a company issued phone or device is more of a tether keeping you connected all the time.) When I left the company in 2010, my boss said that I could use the company discount to purchase a device and plan; I purchased a MiFi and had a $45/month plan for 5 GB of data. After about a year, I realized that I wasn't using the device much and cancelled the plan.

For the most part, I haven't had a need or desire for a mobile hotspot and my iPhone's mobile hotspot has worked fine when I needed it. Over the last year or so, I've heard advertisement after advertisement about "built in 4G/LTE" in cars which seemed like a way just to keep the kids in the back quiet and I ignored the ads. Earlier this year, I saw that AT&T was dropping the price of their "Connected Car" plans to $20/month for unlimited data (22 GB, in reality and then de-prioritization). Now things were starting to get interesting in pricing.

AT&T offered this plan on cars that had built in cellular, as well as with the ZTE Mobley which plugs into a car's OBD-II port. The only problem with this, for me, is that I have an Automatic plugged into the port and only being able to use the device in the car had limited utility. Luckily, I read on forums that people were buying adapters to plug it into USB or AC. Since the cables looked like someone hand made them, I decided to make my own so that I could choose the parts. I picked up an OBDII Connector Cable Pigtail and a 5v to Dc 12v USB Converter (I picked this one because any heat generated from the electronics wouldn't be right at the end of the cable). I soldered the pieces together and had a USB to OBD-II power cable.

I purchased the Mobley outright ($99) with no activation fee. When it arrived, I plugged it into my cable and into USB and it powered right up without problems. My first few uses of it were when I went to the car dealer and had to wait around; I plugged it into a USB battery (at peak power consumption, it uses something like 700 mW). It performed quite well and I got acceptable speeds without having to worry about jumping on an unknown WiFi network and dealing with my VPN.

The next test was when we drove about an hour to go camping; my wife was in the passenger seat and my son was in the back seat. My son had an iPad and was entertained for the trip. My wife started out the drive just saying that she would use her phone, but about 10 minutes down the road, she asked my son to hand up her iPad. From that point on, I think the hotspot gained a permanent place in our longer car rides! This past week we went on a driving vacation and covered about 1500 miles. The hotspot powered up when the car started (it was plugged into one of the USB ports; my car has 2 USB ports, but I bought a 2 port cigarette lighter to USB adapter, so I had a total of 4 ports) and was available wherever we had AT&T coverage which turned out to be maybe 75% of the total time in the car.

In one of the hotels we were staying, I was able to get over 20 Mbps down which to me is amazing considering my first cable modem was 5 Mbps down and the first cellular data links I worked with at QUALCOMM were 9.6 Kbps.

While $20/month seems like an unnecessary expense for times that I won't use it, I can justify the expense.

Pros

• Easy to use (just plug it in and connect to WiFi).
• Coverage wherever AT&T has coverage.
• Hard to use up 22 GB a month in normal usage (we used about 17 GB on our last trip and that was using it in the car and hotel).
• Device is reasonably priced ($99).
• Monthly fee is reasonable ($20/month).
• Automatically turns on when power is applied.

Cons

• Have to buy or make a cable to use outside of the car.
• Limited to 5 devices at a time. This seems like a lot of devices, but we had a total of 6 and some devices always stay connected to WiFi causing me to have to block/unblock a device).
• Doesn't support carrier aggregation which would support higher data rates.

Summary

As much as I didn't want to think that a mobile hotspot would fit into my usage, it has proven to be an excellent device. I'm sure that my review (except for the auto power on) would be the same with any mobile hotspot, but the price of the device and the price of this plan make the ZTE Mobley a keeper. Even though you can turn your phone into a hotspot, it doesn't stay on all the time and uses data from your plan. By having a separate device, you don't have to worry about going over your usage and being throttled and don't have to worry about turning on the hotspot.

I would be interested in trying out the other mobile hotspots that AT&T has to offer as they would look neater than my soldered set of cables and be more compact, but I have to check the terms and conditions to see if there is a problem moving my SIM to a different device and keeping the same plan.

Cleaning up a mess

Over the course of the last few years, my closet of networking equipment has grown and while everything works, it wasn't the prettiest sight. I had originally tried to color code all the cables and arrange things as neatly as possible, but it didn't quite work out. I finally got tired of looking at it (after viewing pictures of other people's clean networking racks), purchased a 48 port patch panel that had RJ45 connectors on the front and the back and a bunch of white cables of various sizes (color coding was a waste for me as it really didn't matter what went where). My original plan when I setup the rack was to use patch panels, but at the time, I was looking at patch panels that I had to terminate in the back; this would have meant a bunch of wires coming from the wall that I'd terminate in the panel. I opted to put all the RJ45 jacks in the wall and have patch cords going from the wall to the equipment.

This is the before picture (yes, I know it is blurry; didn't notice it until after I had already cleaned everything up. My son is a Michael Jackson fan and thus the song on the Squeezebox!)

By rearranging the cables such that the only cables coming out the front go from the patch panel to the switches, I was able to take the clutter and move it to the back. The back doesn't look half bad as I used shorter cables and wire tied them together.

These changes, of course, don't change the functionality of my setup, but I like how clean this looks.

Fragmented World Of Payments

Last Saturday we ran a number of errands and at the end of the day something dawned on me: I had used several different payment systems and the payment process remains awkward for most of them.

Our first stop was Walmart where the payment terminal said to swipe my card, so I did and then was told to insert the card (called a dip). Since I don't shop at Walmart all that often, I didn't realize or remember that they now do chip. It is also hard to remember or know which merchants can take NFC payments; the terminal may look like it works, but when you try it, it fails.

Our next step was the ATM; this particular ATM was a Bank of America ATM that did NFC (NFC is the mechanism by which the iPhone talks to payment terminals). I had loaded my ATM card on my iPhone to give it a try. Unfortunately it didn't work probably because I'm not a BofA customer and it didn't like the card from my phone. So I reverted back to inserting the card.

After the ATM, we went to PETCO where I was able to use my Apple Watch to buy some crickets.

Then it was Costco for gas. While Costco does chip cards in the store, it is an insert (swipe) at the gas pump. I got a few hours break after that part of the journey because my credit card needed a rest!

For dinner, we went to BJ's Restuarant. The selection is wide and my son likes it. We go there often enough that this time I decided to sign up for their rewards program. I downloaded the app and signed up. There was an option for mobile payment which was interesting. At the end of the meal, I pulled out the app, tapped on mobile payment, entered our check number, selected the tip and was presented with the option to pay with Apple Pay. That was pretty cool; I used TouchID to pay and we left (kind of felt weird not interacting with the server to pay).

After dinner, we headed to Best Buy to buy an iPad for my mother-in-law. Best Buy does NFC payments and used my Apple Watch (it took 2 transactions because the terminal froze when it came time to sign).

Recapping, in the course of the day, I used the following ways to pay, all with my credit card:

• Dip (insert)
• Insert (swipe)
• Apple Pay (on Apple Watch)
• Apple Pay in an app

I'm a huge fan of Apple Pay because of the security (merchants don't see my real credit card number) and while I don't choose places to shop based on payment option, I kind of smile every time I use it because it still feels like magic. Hopefuly in the near future, all merchants will take NFC payments.