New Wild Reeds Drop 15Jan19

New "Official Video" drop (so not the cool live, high production, I like, yet) of new tune from the Wild Reeds...

The Wild Reeds - Don't Pretend

IT Faces Fail Convergence @ Blodgett 15Jan19

On top of confirmed WiFi failures (previously reported and diagnosed) I faced more "fun" recently. Kala & I have commissioned an update of some lower level rooms at Blodgett. This is one of the only spots in this home that we have not touched; there and the kitchen (for obvious $$$ reasons)... it's just 3 rooms plus stairway but held a lot of our computer gear. Big workstations (including MLC's game setup), and my server (Win7) for images, other media, DVR system with remote access, terrestrial broadcast TV packet grabbing, IoT central, automated backup systems, local & remote FLAC music streaming, whole house printing services from any device, and much more, was in the basement and needed relocation during construction. With some trepidation, but forever technically brave, I tore down the lower level systems and networks and furniture and moved the 20TB raided server and associated peripherals to my study. To my glee it all came back up without error; I tested at a cursory depth before heading to the Nest for a weekend with friends. All good... hear you 5 X 5.

Yet, the next day, I installed KB4480970 security update from MS and all secured network file access began to fail. It is only this clear now as the server updates tend to come in massive Windows blobs of stuff. Given the near simultaneity of the move, the update, and the WiFi configuration bullshit, I thought it was me in some way. I dove again for a night or more on Win security settings and regained access to some files from some platforms, but not my Win10 audio station driving my primary headphone audio system! I took a breath and left for the mountains without full access and repair. Returning and diving again on forums, blogs and the like I discovered a similar problem described by folks installing the above-named update. WTF... how can MS crash their own security mechanisms in an update. I rolled back from the subject update today and all is recovered - yet, I need to mitigate the security damage I wrought (setting file level accesses to Everyone/Guest) to regain access before the shit-storm. MLC suggests Linux for the media server but what a day that would bring... I'm getting closer to that - or cloud services replacing everything, but that would be expensive in the LT. How can a non-tech person handle any of this shit is beyond me... why we need to put up with this is also beyond me.

Blown Radiant & Wilkes @ The Nest 13Jan19-14Jan19

Yikes, I got an alert from one of my flood sensors that it was wet in the water heater & radiant heating closet. Fortunately we were already in Summit and I immediately went down to find a leaking PEX connector and water indeed on the floor. I went to Lowe's and bought too much stuff (as insurance) to repair what I thought was wrong. The fix was completed within a couple of hours by simply replacing the 3/4" male threaded to 3/4 PEX press fit connector. Woohoo.

Once back online and again heating the Nest, Kala and I settled in to watch some of the NFL playoff games and await arrival of our good friends Tom & Leslie. We had an invent-a-cocktail I dubbed the Partysian (gin, dry vermouth, creme d' cassis, and blackberry Izze) before heading to Aurum for another gr8 meal there. Tom & Dave whipped the ladies in CodeNames upon return. Monday we hiked into the Eagles Nest Wilderness on snowshoes. Fun hike on a chilly but nice day. We went through the burn area on the way and Tom and I went to the NE side of Buffalo Mtn below the cliff, which is a 300 ft loss we had to regain (and then trod the road back to the Nest).

I also finally mounted five Joseph Tomelleri limited edition trout prints I bought a while ago. I mounted them in the "office & tying room" at the Nest. Pic is a bit dark but the mountings and prints are very cool.

WiFi Sucks In Peregrine... And Probably Elsewhere 10Jan19

Ok; we are pretty technically savvy, and Matt, Kala & I have begun experiencing some significant WiFi lags on our network in Peregrine. We embarked on analysis... a net code jock, an old net mgmt exec and a net tech prof united in pursuit of clean WiFi. It's especially bad (more frequent and more severe) on 2.4GHz but I've even experienced unacceptable delays/latency/ping times on 5GHz. We have ~40MB down & ~12MB up from CenturyLink - but here I am completely focussed on and isolating the local WiFi network... and I know that's where the problem is as my wired router connections are "full on always" and deliver only <.5msec delays and 40Mbps uploads. That is what I expect between my wired MBPro and my server on the same (bridged) net.

Wired Network Latency

At first I dove on the Nighthawk R7000 forum and found similar problem descriptions related to firmware releases - I down-revved the image and it fixed it for a bit but I was not thorough in re-experimenting. Throughput and latency were great for some time on both 2.4GHz and 5Ghz but it didn't sustain there for >10min. Debug led us all the way to taking down all our client devices and building various new networks in an attempt to assess via a one-client (on AP: either ours or a mac in ad-hoc mode) - one AP network... to isolate the cause of the intermittent "outages." Here I dedicated a 5GHz WiFi net between my AP and my MBP and saw a 90msec ping! That's acceptable maybe if I'm round trip to Himalaya... but not my own local dedicated net without other traffic on it.

Dedicated 5GHz Net Latency

On a dedicated 2.4GHz one-client net I did much worse... WTF!

Dedicated 2.4GHz Latency

Someone should make a tool or monitor for this stuff :)...  but the AirCheck, while informative, could not help us isolate. We even experienced the "bad WiFi" when re-locating our test networks to the park or the open space somewhat nearby. The 2.4GHz channels are packed and interferers must exist in great scale. The 5MHz band is better but the AFA must be beaming blockage our way. :0.

The S/N rations are ok actually... though signal drops have occurred. If my net could sustain an exclusive move to 5GHz and strictly .ac that'd maybe be OK (for a time) but so many devices are 2.4GHz only that it can't. My current working theory is, after perusing the neighborhood and diving for 2 days with many techniques including WiFi AirSniffers, many experiments and the like, is that the proliferation of devices over the last several years, especially mesh WiFi like Google's in our area, is that the air is very dirty/noisy and "clogged"... one house in our area had 8 APs and usurped the entire 2.4GHz channel 1 band with their 40MHz wide-channel settings alone. Plus, continuous monitoring of behavior has extended from cellular to WiFi by law enforcement - doubling the traffic on the air.

I've attached to several local WiFi nets of friendlies in Peregrine (names and nets withheld for obvious reasons) and am seeing the same remarkable shift from regular ~2msec latency on WiFi ~3yrs ago to sketchy +20msec or even +100msec measures. No one is playing intense games here on WiFi here as a result.

WiFi is absolutely great, but it is seemingly dying under its own success. I'm sure a more collaborative WiFi net is in the offing from Silicon Valley - one which collaborates with other nets in proximity to optimize for mutual benefit. Beware. The best would be more allocation of frequency to innovation IMO, not sales of frequency to Verizon, et. al. or access to monitored bandwidth by my government.

Please do some of your own dedicated net (best is one client to one AP but just some simple pings between phone or PC and AP as above are fine) experiments and send the anonymous results to me as Comments here or via private email - I can't tell crap[ from IP addresses!

UPDATE From Silverthorne
Even in Silverthorne, on the edge of the Arapahoe NF, the 2.4GHz band is littered with networks and Zigbee IoT, and yields highly varying latency times.

The 5Hz band is much cleaner and the response times show it in much greater consistency.

UPDATE From San Fransisco [bg]
Here in my flat, I see >100 networks available on 2.4GHz. At any location in my flat, there are always at least 3 strong signals on each of the 3 non-overlapping bands. See attached for a scan in a typical location.

As I understand it, with current protocols, the weak signals cause just as much problem as the strong ones. If your receiver can hear an interfering message, it will delay using the channel.

These folks who position their traffic at channels other than 1/6/11 are just managing to interfere with MORE traffic. And of course the 80MHz options are a disaster. They're supposed to shut themselves down when they see conflicts, but it's obvious they don't (see attached again).

To make things worse, here in SF (and many other places I think), Comcast has implemented a system where the routers they distribute to their customers include a second AP network which they use to create "public" hotspots available to their customers. This means that anywhere in SF, you will always see 5-10 Xfinity networks. Thanks Comcast for completely saturating the entire wifi spectrum. It's not quite as bad as it sounds since these networks probably aren't used much.

I'm pretty sure you know this, but there are a zillion other things that use the 2.4GHz band which could be interfering with you. Baby monitors, microwave ovens and garage door openers are notorious. And now that every freakin' piece of electronics in your house thinks it should be on the internet, there are probably lots of transmitters you don't know about or can't control.

A year ago, I decided that the only way to have decent wifi was to use a bunch of 5GHz APs. In that scenario, the low penetration is a benefit. Sadly, several key devices I use still don't have 5GHz radios.

UPDATE From Peregrine [02Feb19]
I rallied more gear and monitored for a longer time. I "tamed" or eliminated some of the hidden networks that were my fault but I can not get rid of Roku's hidden network - and it strangely follows my network as to channel. The biggest offenders in the area I see now are the Orbi77 (Logitech) with multiple APs and added hidden networks, 40MHz channels, and bad channel assignments and the Goblin (Google) with similar attributes... sheesh.

First 10th Mtn Hut Trip Of The Year 07JJan19

A hearty band set out of Crane Pk parking for the 10th Mtn Div Hut. It was gonna be a 4.4mi and 1400ft skin and shoe into the hut in cold and snowy weather. Assembled for the effort were Mitch Yohanan, Jim Yohanan, Tom Wilke, Craig Vosburgh and me. The first mile was up a road which we later learned could have mostly been avoided by driving up further (and not heeding the National Forest sign which said "Skiers Park Here"). Spirits were strong at the turnoff onto single track and jeep trails.

Right after that we lost the ~300 feet we'd gained on the road and understood the 1450 elevation gain needed for the hike - as the starting and ending elevations were only ~1200 feet different. The weather turned from cool & overcast with light snow to very cold with heavy snow, high winds and minimal visibility over the skin in...

We were fortunate to have mighty Jim at the helm as we drew near the hut but could see little from the blaze-marked trail. We were all tired and cold and Jim rocketed ahead with vigor and passion and led us right to the hut despite our having wavered a bit from rational trail choices. It was brutally cold to even verify GPS location on the last pitches. Ultimately we scored >10" on that day and evening... and slept comfortably through howling winds after chowing down and actually streaming the thumping of Alabama by Clemson.

What a difference a day makes. We awoke to a gorgeous sunrise and completely still, bluebird skies. The views of Homestake Pk and the Continental Divide were great and the snow was expected to be so as well... we planned and prepared for our morning of skiing as sun landed on the hut. We did a brief refresher training on avy beacons and finding down mates before setting out for some earned turns in the serious freshies.

We made a first lap through the trees and a second one down a cliffed area. It was a blast as Wilke went on up above Slide Lk. Real entertainment was provided by the "down to clown" youngster Mitch as he face-planted when hucking his second boulder pillow on his cliff run.

Ultimately it was time to head home and we were thankful for a beauteous day on which to descend. See ya' at the bottom.

The "descent" was more rolling than thought and I needed five changeovers to get out, along with a 45 minute crawl out of a deep creek powder stash after a bad decision. We got there and enjoyed some cold brews before hitting the nearby breweries on the way home... Periodic Brewery in Leadville and Outer Range Brewing in Frisco.

GR8 fun with great friends - thanks for coming out boys!

Sold The X Bike 04Jan19

Sold my only really light steed... the Fuji Altamira 2.1 CX cross bike at 18#. May it shred in Idaho for Ted soon. I only got ~$700 despite the bombproof build and upgrades but I was not using it (choosing the Broadax for rides it used to do). It shipped out FedEx today.

New Year - New Laws - New Trials 01Jan19

First off, HNY to all. Arcane rules have been withdrawn and now grocery stores can carry real beer. Sure they are still prohibited from carrying real wine or booze, but Costco isn't. I am all for the success of my local liquor store but they need to find access to the more esoteric varieties to progress - I am not for undue protection. To test whether the major labels would dominate the rollout, today I hit the closest Safeway to buy stuff for dinner (the burrata and heirloom salad was yummy) and to check out the beer selection. I was pleased. I scored a strong new entry from Odell, better than the Blue Dream, Can-O-Bliss (yeah, they went there) - it's a MIPA, mountain IPA, and #11 from Luponic Distortion series from Firestone. Both are worthy and the Can-O-Bliss is very good... it mates well with the negative temps and my latest CD ripping project (I found ~100 more discs I'd not yet cut to FLAC) - sheesh.

Over these chilly days I also am trialing Amazon Music Unlimited and Pandora Premium, both offered me 90 day free trials and have increased their bit rate on HD streams to 192Kbps "mp3." These are not lossless as I'd prefer but the catalogs are surely big and as my hearing deteriorates, it may be sufficient. Nah, who'd pay $10-$20/mo to listen beyond the reach?