Mac Outlook 2011 Freeze Fix

For a few weeks I have been experiencing problems getting email through Outlook 2011 for Mac. I would open up the Outlook application and outlook would freeze. I havent really had time to waste on trouble shooting it until today. In my own experience I have noticed that Mac and Windows Office goes together as well as oil and water. It just really doesnt play well with one another and MAC MAIL of all things is what I have been using. However the President of my work uses a Mac and I gotta make sure he is taken care of when his issues arise. So today I finally had some free time to trouble shoot this issue and as I mentioned before, Outlook on a Mac while convenient just has all kinds of issues. My issue specifically was Outlook freezing during startup. Basically I would open/run the the program and it would just sit there and if I was lucky it would error out and ask if I wanted to send a message to Microsoft. The first thing I thought of was like most people, Uninstall. Well on a Mac, you don’t just uninstall things. You actually have to go into the Library and delete the cache items that way. If you don’t your settings will be the same once your reinstall.

So I asked myself, why uninstall.. Just go to the Outlook 2011 database and delete the following folders.

Thats what I did
~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2011 Identities/Main Identity/Database
~/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2011 Identities/Main Identity/Data Records

Go to the above file location and delete your heart out. Everything you see can go.
Once thats completed you have to rebuild your database with a new identity. Just opening up Outlook will not do this for you but will lead you down the right path. Dont worry about the first rebuild if that was unsuccessful delete the folder it made

From there go ahead and hit the rebuild button and name it something different. Then use the default option. In my case I had to do that because for whatever reason it told me this was a duplicate name. After renaming, close all the folders that have anything to do with microsoft and open Outlook.

Go ahead and reopen Outlook. You will have a blank Outlook which is just waiting for you to enter in your email settings.

Hopefully this will help you get passed those pesky Outlook 2011 freezing issues.

Windows Updates not updating!

Have you ever had failed updates on your windows machine.. I recently ran into this issue on a users laptop and for the life of me couldnt figure out how to get passed it. After lots of trial and error I came across a few things that I think might work and that have proven to work in my case.

1. Run Microsoft Fix it.
http://support.microsoft.com/fixit/
This will do all the work for you if your lucky. Microsoft has built this tool to apply patches to known errors on windows devices. In many instances this has worked for me however in some instances I haven’t been so lucky.

2. Create a new WindowsUpdate.Bat file
Open up notepad. Copy and paste the commands below in bold and save them as WindowsUpdate.Bat
If you did this correctly the icon will change from a Notepad file to BAT file and you will notice an Icon change
regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\vbscript.dll /s
regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\mshtml.dll /s
regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\msjava.dll /s
regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\jscript.dll /s
regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\msxml.dll /s
regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\actxprxy.dll /s
regsvr32 c:\windows\system32\shdocvw.dll /s
regsvr32 wuapi.dll /s
regsvr32 wuaueng1.dll /s
regsvr32 wuaueng.dll /s
regsvr32 wucltui.dll /s
regsvr32 wups2.dll /s
regsvr32 wups.dll /s
regsvr32 wuweb.dll /s
regsvr32 Softpub.dll /s
regsvr32 Mssip32.dll /s
regsvr32 Initpki.dll /s
regsvr32 softpub.dll /s
regsvr32 wintrust.dll /s
regsvr32 initpki.dll /s
regsvr32 dssenh.dll /s
regsvr32 rsaenh.dll /s
regsvr32 gpkcsp.dll /s
regsvr32 sccbase.dll /s
regsvr32 slbcsp.dll /s
regsvr32 cryptdlg.dll /s
regsvr32 Urlmon.dll /s
regsvr32 Shdocvw.dll /s
regsvr32 Msjava.dll /s
regsvr32 Actxprxy.dll /s
regsvr32 Oleaut32.dll /s
regsvr32 Mshtml.dll /s
regsvr32 msxml.dll /s
regsvr32 msxml2.dll /s
regsvr32 msxml3.dll /s
regsvr32 Browseui.dll /s
regsvr32 shell32.dll /s
regsvr32 wuapi.dll /s
regsvr32 wuaueng.dll /s
regsvr32 wuaueng1.dll /s
regsvr32 wucltui.dll /s
regsvr32 wups.dll /s
regsvr32 wuweb.dll /s
regsvr32 jscript.dll /s
regsvr32 atl.dll /s
regsvr32 Mssip32.dll /s

From there run the script and restart

3. Open the CMD Prompt and run these commands
net stop wuauserv
net start wuauserv

This is a manual jump start so to speak of the windows updates. From here try and run the updates. In my experience this gets the updates to download and install..

Good luck

How to remove search redirecting virus

I dont know about you but I have been around too many viruses for my liking lately. The latest one I have come into contact and battled and dominated is a search redirecting virus. Essentially you go to use google search engine. When your such comes up with the links the user would click on the link like normal.  But instead of being directed to the site, the user is redirected to random sites. For example, direct tv and other random pages.

So here is what I did. Go to the files that contain the data C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\etc

Here you will find a file called Hosts and lm hosts. Right click each of the files and open with Notepad for editing purposes.

From here there should only be two entries in “For Example”.

102.54.99.98   rhino.acme.com           #source server

38.25.63.10     x.acme.com                 # x client host

If there are more entries than that go ahead and delete the additional entries. In my case I had to do this for both the Hosts and lm hosts files.

While this took care of most of the problem, my user still noticed certain search links would work fine while others were still direct to random websites. So I decided to clear out his cookies and browser history and for good measure restart. That was the final trick. Editing the host files and clearing the browser history and cookies seemed to give the user his ability to click on a link again.

As always, make sure to run Malware bytes before and after this process along with your favorite virus protection program.

XP corrupt system 32 and activation error fix

This week has been a busy week. I could bore you with the details or I can just get to the point of this whole thing. I was about to train a user on a new program when she was prompted to restart. When she restarted she received a boot error. The error was that a file in System32 had been corrupted and we needed the original boot cd to fix it. No problem just throw a XP iso CD in there and run the repair. During this process you are required to put in an activation  code..Well everything seemed to be working perfectly. UNTIL….

We restarted, we would get an error that essentially said that “You are unable to activate this product”. At this point you would see the background only. No start  button, no icons, nothing at all.. So after scratching my head PB suggested I google the hell out of that rascal. This is what I found

Boot to safe mode. From there run the cmd EXACTLY as listed

found thanks to

“http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_xp-security/this-copy-of-windows-must-be-activated-before-you/387f3367-5fc4-4aa1-937d-6788a626029d”

rundll32.exe syssetup,SetupOobeBnk

*NOTE: The “Oo”‘s in Oobe are “oh’s” – not “zero’s”  There is one space after rundll32.exe.

When I say copy it exactly, make sure to copy it EXACTLY..Keep in mind that this is case sensitive for some reason. The all powerful PB found out that even Microsoft cmd’s can be case sensitive. At least this one seems to be.  Go ahead and restart.

After restarting we were hoping we were home free. Turns out we werent. For some reason you need to have a copy of IE8 installed on the computer. So we had to go back to safe mode and install a copy of IE8. Luckliy safemode allowed us to install it. Once installed we logged back in using the administrator credentials. At this point we were still a little worried when we didnt immediately see something happen. But finally we were prompted to activate our version of XP. Turns out that all of the original drivers had been disabled so we weren’t able to get internet access to let the activation process run through. So we had to use the automated Call in option. This process was bad and only took 5 minutes. We were able to activate XP and finally get the the user up and running.

The whole reason for this article is really to help out with the solution to the problem. The icing on the cake is that the user was soooo happy, she gave my boss and I a hug. I sometimes find that I.T. is a thankless job. Dont get me wrong, having the best boss and an awesome place to work everyday is thanks enough for me. But users tend to just expect things to work and if you get a half ass thank you after fixing something thats usually a lot. But as PB said “It feels good to be the hero sometimes” It does for sure….

Whats a Set top Box?!?! Which one is for me?

You would think people who work at Best Buy or Fry’s would know what a SET TOP BOX is. After all it’s there job. But if you specifically say your looking for a Roku or Apple Tv they will usually point you in the right direction.  Set Top boxes are a digital media receiver. They stream content drawn from online or locally connected sources. Such as shared folders on a network with the ability to play such items as Music, Movies, or Pictures and have the ability to stream them with a set top box connected to your tv. They also have the ability to stream services like Netflix or Hulu. I like to think of it as an IPod for your tv. That being said there are many different makers of set top boxes and some are better than others. In most cases you can attach an external hard drive to the device and have playback what’s ever on the hard drive through the device.

Roku, offers 4 different options of set top box.

The LT. The LT version plays video in a Max of 720p so if 1080 isnt your thing and you just want to stream Netflix and Hulu this is your choice. At for 49.99 it provides enough to keep a casual user happy.

The Roku 2 HD also only plays in 720 and offers the exact same features as the LT but adds the blue tooth and an expandable memory slot.

The Roku 2  XD This version is 79.99 and comes with full 1080p functionality. So basically you pay $20.00 more for 1080 because thats the only thing different from the R2HD.

The Roku 2 XS This version is 99.99. This version of Roku offers everything Roku has to offer. A motion control remote as well as angry birds already loaded on to the little puck. But this version has ethernet and usb ports allowing you to connect a hard line or connect a external hard drive along with the rest of the features all of the Roku’s have to offer.

LG ST600 Smart TV Upgrade have a greta interface and also has plenty of apps to people happy. However the big down fall is that the device does not offer plex support. If you anything about plex you know its a game changer. While the interface is nice and playback is good, I would only recommed this for people who want to pay more for things that only like products that are half developed.

This brings me to Boxee Box. If your looking for APPS, well the Boxee has it an then some. Not to mention a pretty slick UI. This is PB”s favorite and he owns it. While I have never used the Boxee Box, I have used the interface on my computer and on a jailbroken first generation Apple Tv.  It was great, although you might need a working knowledge of SMB and file system management.  Its not user friendly in that fashion, but a Tech will love this thing.

The Boxee Box was going to be my last Box to talk about but with the emergence of the Xbox 360 as a viable set top box option I feel as though I have to talk about it. This might be my favorite box of all for its overall ability. You can game, you can watch broadcast tv. You can use it as a dvr. You can stream local files over your network. And now you can watch channels like UFC, Netflix, ESPN, youtube and now HBO GO.. It really does offer an all in one experience. With the advent of the Kinect it makes your experience even cooler. My only issue is that Microsoft makes you have a Xbox Live Gold account. Thats an extra 60  bucks a year on top of what you need to pa. But Microsoft is really behind this and constantly coming out with new and exciting content.

And last but not least is the Apple Tv 2. If you live an Apple dominated life like I do, then you can beat the little black puck. Itunes, Airplay are just some of the standard feautures that come with Apple Tv 2. With enough apps to make you happy along with the ease of use, you can’t really beat apple tv. The interface and ease of use are the biggest selling points here especially if you run an applecentric home and have an Itunes account. The downside is no 1080p support. However rumors are that apple will introduce the Apple Tv 3 March 7th 2012 alongside the IPad 3. Rumors are they would include Mirroring and Blu Tooth support along with full 1080p playback.

I’ve used all of these products and several more that I dont need to mention (Western Digital and Seagates versions). It might be a surprise, but my first option would not be the Apple Tv 2. Without Jailbreaking the Apple Tv you dont get the truely awesomeness that it can be. But taking in price and overall ease of use, I’m gonna have to bow down to the Roku 2 XD. The price point is great. The ease of use is as easy as any of the devices. The UI is the only negative for me. Its plain and wasnt upgraded from the first version of the Roku. But if you already have an XBOX 360 this has become a ONE stop shop for your TV/Movie viewing, gaming needs. With the ability to use the Xbox with Windows Media Center you can’t beat the awesome upgrades Microsoft has made since the release of the 360.

So if you already have an 360 you dont need to buy a set top box because you already have one. If you dont go and get yourself a Roku. If you live in a Mac World like I do, wait for Apple Tv 3 to be introduced next week!!!!!

ATT Uverse Internet boost

So I feel its my duty to tell some of you about ATT Uverse internet. Just to get this out of the way, I dont hate it and it wont be a bashing session at all. In fact it works great and is just as good as internet from Cable Companies. In fact it runs over fiber. Fiber is awesome and the best option you have for the price now adays. However it all depends on if your house is wired with Fiber. If not you will see a speed decrease, so paying for premium internet might not be the best idea and you should probably do speed tests so you know what speed your home can max out on.

Anyhow the main part of this article is talk about ATT’s gateway/internet. Better know as a 2wire.  Att gives you this 2wire to basically be the hub of your home. It runs your TV, Internet/wifi, and Home Phone depending on what your plan is. A lot people do not know that their 2wire setup only broadcasts it’s wifi in B and G. Its my opinion and my opinion only that if your a gamer and/or a heavy movie streamer that you need N network. So after countless attempts of using bridges and repeaters and switches I decided to add a router. The model I choose was Cisco-Linksys E4200 Dual-Band Wireless-N Router. But by doing this I had to make the 2wire gateway a Switch or a Bridge, To put this in terms that cable people can understand, essentially I needed to turn the 2wire Gateway into a modem.

Please keep in mind you can’t break this thing. You can always reset the 2wire to factory settings. Give yourself some time while doing this because while your making these changes and restarting or saving, your TV and Phone connection could go down.

How did I do this. Well here you go

If you have an existing router, start of by resetting it to its factory settings. This makes life a bit easier. If you have a brand spanking new router than you can skip that.

Make sure your router WAN interface is set to DHCP. This way your 2wire will see your router.

Plug an ethernet wire into one of the WAN slots of the router. Plug the other end of the Ethernet wire into the LAN interface of the 2wire.

Plug the power cable into the wall and let if boot up and get a DHCP address

Log into the 2wire. Go to the settings. From there the Firewall. Then Applications, Pinholes and then DMZ

Select the your router.

Click the DMZPLUS button

Save all the changes you have made.

From there restart the router or move it to your desired location.

Log back into the 2wire. Go to settings,firewall, advanced config.

Uncheck the following unless already unchecked.

Stealth-mode, Block Ping, Strict UDP Session Control. Almost all of these were already checked for me.

Check everything under Outbound Protocol Control EXCEPT Netbios.

Uncheck Netbios under Inbound Protocol Control.

Uncheck all the Attack Detection checkboxes. Again I didnt have these previously checked.

Save the settings.

Your all set from there. The great thing about this setup is that you can still use your Gateway as a switch. Now you have the ability to run a N network along with Dual Band frequencies for better overall network performance. Unfortuneltly there is not one button to check to get these settings. I wish Att and 2wire would recognize that B and G wireless is old tech and they need to offer something better or give you control over the device.

Good Luck

How do you rent movies?

So if you didnt know, I’m a big movie slut. I love TV in general, movies, tv shows, documentaries, etc etc…. So when people ask me if I use a rental service, it usually leads to a long diatribe about who I use and why. After seeing todays news that Amazon Prime just signed a deal adding 2,000 new titles I thought that it would be a great post. After all whats better than sharing my love and knowledge.

I was with Netflix. Was being the optimal word. I like most people loved paying one fee for streaming and mail service. I really started to feel bad about netflix when they started charging extra for blu ray service. In my opinion once you go Blu Ray its hard to go back. The quality is soooo much better. But I was ok with Netflix charging more for the blu discs because they cost more.  But there greed didnt stop there, they started increasing prices slowly and then regularly, but after the split of Mail and Streaming with a huge rate increase I began to look for different options. With there diminishing movie and tv show library for streaming and there seemingly lack of anything new its hard to justify there price increase. I jumped off the sinking ship that is Netflix and never looked back.

What did I go to you ask. BLOCKBUSTER.. I still feel like I’m part of an under ground cult that I should want more people to know about so it can grow and become even better, but do I really want it harder to get the movies I want. I pay $19.99 a month for three movies at a time. Basically the same amount I used to pay for Netflix mail and streaming service. However I get all blu ray for free. I also get unlimited in store exchanges. That is a topper because I think I would still be with them without it. I use the exchange service at least once a week and usually end up with new movies that I havent received in the mail. They also have Blu Ray tv shows. Like netflix, it’s not perfect. They dont offer free streaming with there service like Netflix. They offer streaming but you pay per movie and it’s hard to find a set top box, game console or internet tv that has a Blockbuster Streaming App. Netflix has this covered and dominated.

Like, Netflix, sometimes blockbuster has a hard time getting me that movie I must see now. 99 percent of the time I have a great backup plan for that. Its called Redbox. I love Redbox for that movie I can’t live without seeing right now. While they have limited locations and sometimes limited stock, there are several locations close to my home and usually have what I want in stock. The awesome thing about them is that you can reserve a movie online at a location of your choice. (if that paticular box has the movie).  Blu Ray flicks are $1.50 per movie and if your lucky you can find a code somewhere online to make that blu ray movie only$0.50.. The only downside is you have to take it back the next day before 9pm or you will be charged a late fee.

Finally you ask me, about the ability to stream shows over the net kinda like Netflix. I bought a Amazon Prime account for $79.00 dollars a year. The benefit is not only the ability to stream movies and tv shows but you get free two day shipping with the service. If your like me, I use AMAZon for just about everything so free shipping is an awesome feature and the ability to stream Movies and Tv shows in a Netflix fashion is an added bonus. The library isnt to the size of Netflix but will continue to grow.

Since everything always comes down to money I decided to do the math and added all the services I use in one year.

Amazon $80

Blockbuster $25 a month = 300 a year or so rounding up for tax.

About $5.00 a month on random Redbox movies. $60

I spend about 440-500 dollars a year on movies and tv shows.

Compared to buying everything I watch at $30-$50 dollars a movie its a bargain.

If I paid for just HBO, Showtime and Cinemax I would be Paying $540 a year to watch a lot of crap I really don’t watch or need.

This is how I get my movie watching on and I think it works best for me for a price that I can live with and I feel like I’m getting my money’s worth. In the end thats really all that matters. That you feel like your getting your money’s worth.

 

Xbox as your Cable DVR Box

I have been working on the ultimate home media theater experience. So using my XBOX 360 as a dvr is just the start of a lot of posts regarding what I consider to be am awesome home theater. PB and I are looking into ways to cut the cord if you will. For him this means getting rid of cable all together. His only road block is, his wife is addicted to the OWN network and she basically watches too often for him to get rid of cable. In my case I watch to much mindless tv like the travel channel and discovery channel. Stuff that you just cant torrent, plus I like background noise.

So my alternative is finding ways to save money on the actual cable bill. I’m not getting rid of internet. I have cut out any pay movie channels. NO HBO, Skin O Mac, showtime Stars and whatever else they have now. No extra sports packages. Sorry MLB network. Instead I’m a Blockbuster mail guy. I used to be a Netflix guy but thats an entire blog onto itself. So thats where I get my movies. I will buy the MLB package but for the apple tv, so that I can enjoy it on all my apple devices, such as Apple Tv, LG Smart Tv, Iphone, IPad. Talk about bang for your buck.

When I was moving into my new place I asked PB who his cable provider was, and he sold me hard on Att. I checked into it and it turns out it was offered in my area. So I went with them. I had previously been with Cox and Time Warner Cable and had a year stint with Comcast when I lived in the mid west and was really excited to try something new. But something even more exciting happened. I was surfing att’s website and stumbled upon a tiny section that said they were working with Microsoft to use the Xbox 360 as an alternative to a dvr box.

What was really exciting was the fact that you wouldn’t have to pay a monthly fee. Att gives you 1 dvr box for free. I can use my Xbox 360 as my second box for no additional charge and have the ability to watch tv through it. Score!!! That saves me at least 10 bucks a month if not 15 bucks a month. The only downside is that Att charges you a $99 dollar fee to use the Xbox as your cable box. This includes setup by a tech (which I did myself once it was activated), a XBOX remote and installation disc.  http://www.att.com/u-verse/explore/xbox-receiver.jsp#fbid=LcQm83M8_bi

What is even more exciting is that Att basically sent me $200 dollars worth of thank you for signing up with att visa credit cards. Which means basically I got the first month free and I basically got my money back on the Xbox 360 installation.

I can’t lie there is a downside to this. Getting to Att Uverse on the Xbox can be complicated to the point that your significant other is not happy. You do have to go to your MY APPS tab on the 360 interface and choose my apps. From there Choose Att Uverse. This takes away from just turing on the Tv and basically watching it. There is some thinking involved. Also ATT and Microsoft  both say you need an Xbox Live Gold account to view programming. Thats an extra $60 dollars a year. But you get a lot of benefits out of Xbox Live Gold account so you can basically add another benefit to the list. However, ATT did send out a letter saying they would take the cost of a live account off of my next bill. That being said, I never bought a live account, I never connected my Att account to my Xbox account and I can still watch tv for now.

If your not a Uverse subscriber hold on. Verizon and Comcast are jumping on the platform or already on board, as far as Cox and Time Warner they arent on board but only time will tell. Plus there are other options like Tuner cards that I will talk about in a future posts.

After all is said and done, if you looking to save some some especially on additional expensive DVR cable boxes which could range up to 10-15 dollars extra a month just on cable bills why not pay an upfront cost. You’ll be saving all kinds of scratch in the end.

Good Ninite

Ok so this weeks blog will be short and sweet, I used to post things like this on my facebook wall as tech tips but I figure I would just write a quick little post instead. PB will kill me if I dont get my employee review done so this week will be short.

I wanted to tell you about a  website called Ninite.com. Ninite is a collection of programs or apps that you can download from one place at one time. You need chrome, safari and firefox. Click the check marks, get the installer and in seconds your downloading and installing all three, instead of going to each website indiviually. Its a one stop shop.

Browsers arent the only option you have. Messaging, Media, Runtimes, Imaging, Documents, Security, File Sharing, Other, Utlitites, Compression, and developer tools. Some of the major apps/downloads are, Skype, Yahoo messenger, Itunes, VLC Player, Audacity, Flash, Java, Silverlight, Picasa, Sumatra PDF, Cute PDF, Open Office, Security Essentials, MalwareBytes, U torrent, Drop Box and the list goes on and on.

I know for me it saves a ton of time. When you have to go to each website and download every program individually its just a pain and really with something like this out there, why wouldnt you use it. Check it out. http://ninite.com/

I didn’t think these things worked. POWERLINE ADAPTER.

So I’m a huge movie and tv show guy. Since buying and moving into the new place I have had issues with my entire network. I choose to go with ATT Uverse which I can say I have had mixed reviews. The promotional price has been great, however I’m not a Gateway fan at all. A Gateway is basically an all in one device. Your Cable attaches to it for tv. Its also a modem. It can control your home phone. But as a topper they make it a wireless router as well. At this point I never had this before and still find it strange and I dont like having one device to rule them all. 

So after a few days, I realize that my wireless signal in the living room is terrible and fluctuates. Sometimes I will have a great signal and sometimes I wont. I also realize that this Gateway only streams B and G wireless. B & G are usually fine but I guess my living room is far enough away and there are a couple of walls in between that caused way to much interference. I tried putting a Netgear repeater in the living and while that helped my laptops get a better signal it really did nothing for my movie streaming. I would still get way to much interference which lead to constant buffering. So I attached a Cisco-Linksys E4200 Dual-Band Wireless-N Router to that Gateway and I thought my problems were solved. The repeater didnt make it any better. I took back the repeater and purchased a Linksys WES610N 4-port Dual-Band N Entertainment Bridge and to my surprise things started working. They worked well enough, so I finally broke down and bought a Mac Mini to be the hub of my home media network. I wanted full 1080p, I wanted blu ray beauty. I bought it as a gift to myself for finally graduating college with a Dual Bachelors in Networking and Network Security. 

Well, my network didnt work. As soon as I hooked up the Mac Mini, blu rays played inconsistently. Some movies would play great. Some would buffer. There is nothing worse than buffering in an important action scene. While I could get the movies to play over an Apple Tv 2. The program I use, which I’m saving to talk about in a future post, would automatically degrade the quality so that it could play properly on the Apple Tv 2. I didn’t go through all the trouble I went through to watch them in 720. I want full BLURAY dammit and because I work in I.T. it was driving me crazy that I couldnt get this going. I tried everything I could think of, I was and still am considering getting rid of ATT for Cable. No matter what I tried, no matter what setting I would use there was no getting around it. I was coming to the conclusion that I was gonna knock down some walls and tear this bitch of a house down until I got the signal I wanted dammit. 

Before I decided to do that, I decided to look into Powerline adapters. I was always under the impression that Powerline adapters would never be a great solution and were basically unreliable. But as a last option before ripping down walls, I decided to try it. I’m a big Linksys fan at the moment and I usually like keeping everything the same. Linksys router, must need a Linksys Powerline adapter. But as my boss PB has taught me, you go with what does the best job at the best price. So I looked into Belkin. Belkin is about to come out with WeMO a home plug in automation adapter which I will own and talk about in the future. Belkin to its credit had a similarly priced adapter as Linksys but with the ability to have a 500 mbps connection. The Linksys only advertised at 200 mbps. For the same price I was going to try out the Belkin. 

Setup couldnt have been easier. Although you should probably setup the adapter close to each other at first and then move the second adapter to where ever you need it. After setup, I moved the adapter to where I needed it. I then connected it to my Asus 8 port switch. Connected the internet enabled LG Tv, Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and Mac Mini. Turned on the Tv and the Mac Mini. Streamed Epic Meal Time beautifully. Streamed, a Blu ray movie that had buffering issues with my previous setup. Played a Blu Ray Tv Show that I had issues with. Left that Blu Ray TV show running and started my PS3 and tried playing Modern Warfare 3. This couldnt possible work right??? Streaming a Blu Ray movie while gaming. No way. Well I logged in and started Team Death Match and what did I see. FULLLLLL BARS. Perfect gaming. As a  reviewer of the Belkin Powerline said on his Amazon.com review “This device was my last resort”. After trying everything I can safely say this is the best solution for people who have Kryptonite in there walls like I do. If you have to go through 15 walls and 2 bathrooms and a furnace like I do you have to give this a look. It might be exactly what your looking for.

 

What I use at home or have used as talked about in my post..

Cisco-Linksys E4200 Dual-Band Wireless-N Router

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004K1EZDS/ref=asc_df_B004K1EZDS1865765?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395093&creativeASIN=B004K1EZDS

 

NETGEAR Universal WiFi Range Extender WN2000RPT

http://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-Universal-Range-Extender-WN2000RPT/dp/B003VWZE7S/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1326988338&sr=8-2

Linksys WES610N 4-Port Dual-Band N Entertainment Bridge

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0056VP0KS/ref=asc_df_B0056VP0KS1865765?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395093&creativeASIN=B0056VP0KS

Linksys Powerline AV 4-Port Network Adapter Kit 

http://www.amazon.com/Linksys-Powerline-Network-Adapter-PLSK400/dp/B006JG5S6U/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1326990484&sr=8-2

Belkin F5D4085 Powerline AV500 Network Adapter

http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-F5D4085-Powerline-Network-Adapter/dp/B005O0R9UA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1326989280&sr=8-2

Asus GX-D1081 8-Port Power-Saving Gigabit Switch

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-GX-D1081-8-Port-Power-Saving-Gigabit/dp/B00383E4TO