Last year, I posted quite a lot about smart home and what it takes to get it going. With a lot of eco system around, it gets difficult to manage.

One of the major challenge with smart homes is having different ecosystems to interact with each other. Investing in one ecosystem might be a good idea but the risk is too high. For example, I have Amazon Alexa, Philips Hue, Sonoff, Tuya, Switchbot and others in my house and its not possible to automate them in one routine. You have to create routines on each of these apps and then remember to manage them!

What if I need an automation that says if the Philips Motion Sensor detects movement in the house, do not arm the alarm at night? Well, you simply cannot with the base apps. You need an all-in-one solution that can use all these lights, sensors, switches, etc. and make them run like one ecosystem. This is very much possible with Home Assistant.

Home Assistant is free and allows you to manage your home in one central place. The only caveat here is that you need dedicated hardware to run it. You can also design nice dashboards for controls (pictured above).

I have been testing and using Home Assistant over the past few months and automating nearly everything possible. While I will not be going into details in this post, you can expect the following in the coming weeks /months!

• Home Assistant (What hardware am I using, how am I automating it and some general ideas to simplify your life)
• SwitchBot Eco System (Automating Air Conditioners, all infrared devices and routines).
• Broadlink IR devices for automating dumb a/c (using Home Assistant)

Stay Tuned and Stay Safe!

The post Smart home update 2022! appeared first on VS Online.

Let’s face it, we go into contract with our cable provider expecting everything from latest blockbusters to newer series but what we get is peanuts!

Around two years ago, I decided to cut the cord and remove my cable service but there was no easy way out of the contract, no early termination fees, so I had to pay around 6 more month of service for something which was rarely turned on. I was extremely happy when this was finally off my list of bills.

During the waiting period, I subscribed to Netflix again! I had a US subscription earlier on, accessing it through a VPN. Cancelled, re-subscribed a few more times and finally when it came to Mauritius, cancelled the US and subscribed to the Mauritius services. To my utmost disappointment, it had barely a quarter of what was available in the US. Cancelled again! I was most of the times watching Amazon Prime as I have a prime membership.

Then came January 2020 and I decided to subscribe again. Netflix has been much better since then but lacks a lot.

The Pros.

Coming back to cord cutting in Mauritius, let’s say the average Mauritian pays around Rs. 1000 for cable TV services excluding internet. That’s around Rs. 12,000 per year. Netflix with its:

• Basic plan at $7.99 per month – Rs. 335.58/m or Rs. 4027 per year (SD Quality)
• Standard plan at $9.99 per month – Rs. 419/m or Rs. 5035 per year (HD Quality)
• Premium plan at $11.99 per month – Rs 503.58 or Rs. 6043 per year (Ultra HD or 4K)

From the above, you could be saving more than half of what you are paying currently.

Another reason to cut the cord is that you can watch what you want when you want! On your phone, your laptop, your TV and your tablet anywhere you want. You can even download and watch while commuting. I am aware of the fact that some cable providers offer the ability to watch recorded shows or watch earlier played shows. They even offer apps for that. However, try to play those shows on another rival network! Hear, Hear!!

The Cons.

There is not much disadvantage for cutting the cord except if you are a serial soap watcher. The Indian type, that might cause an issue as I have not seen those anywhere online. Maybe I haven’t searched enough but I am not a fan. Indian soap does not play in my house!

Before you decide:

• Are there certain shows that I can live without?
• Is your internet speed adequate for streaming?
• Sports Fan? How will you watch?
• Is my house ready for streaming?

If you can answer yes to any three of these, you should be good for cutting the cord. But find a solution for that fourth one!

What streaming services are available in Mauritius?

1. Netflix (As from $7.99)
2. Amazon Prime ($.5.99)
3. Disney+ (EUR 8.99)

These are the primary providers that officially offer services to Mauritius. If you need anything above and beyond that, you will need a VPN. I can recommend Surfshark.

All these services unfortunately do not provide us access to the whole catalog but there are some perks to it, for example, you cannot stream Bing Bang Theory in the US but can in Mauritius. Prime is limited except for Bollywood movies, Disney+, you get Star channel but not in the US. That being said, the US or UK catalog offers much more and most of the time are one season ahead. VPN is your life saver here, but remember none of these streaming services approve the use of a VPN.

Finally, on a personal note, I have ditched cable for almost a year and a half now and never looking back. I had answered three of the questions above and just for football subscribed to the sports pack of my internet provider. Taking that into consideration and adding all my streaming service, Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ and my VPN, I am paying around Rs. 1000 more per year than what I would be paying if I still had cable. However, the benefits is just worth that extra 1K per month. The Kids are very happy with Disney+ and I with Netflix and Prime.

The post Cut the Cord in Mauritius! Worth it or not? appeared first on VS Online.

Let’s tread a little back in time, in 2007 more precisely, when I had started a blog named SouOnline on WordPress. Back then the web was just getting its full swing on content contribution by internet users. It was only the beginning of what is now a full fledged content based internet. Blogging had become a hobby which helped to express my thoughts and feelings and also a platform to publish my writing.

Since 2013, my life took a new turn where I embarked into a married life and parenthood. All those who are going through these phases or have gone through, would definitely agree that it’s a full time duty! Yet, no matter how tiring it sounds (and it is!) these are special years which you eventually cherish as they stand as years of emotional, physical and mental growth in a person’s life. However, there was not one single day where I was not in my whirlpool of thoughts. Although I had deliberately given up blogging, there were moments, now and then, where I wish I could’ve laid out my thoughts in a blog post.

Anyways, I am totally thrilled about this new blog which I am ‘co-hosting’ with my husband, Vimal. After almost eight years, things on the net are so different and it is going to be an interesting experience for which I am all keen! Besides, it is a new me writing the posts and I am all excited to share with you the new thoughts in my beloved whirlpool…

The post A whirlpool of thoughts appeared first on VS Online.

The post Welcome to our New Blog! appeared first on VS Online.

Microsoft says, “We’ve started rolling this out today to Office 365 Home, Personal, and University customers” adding that people who want to be one of the first to access the unlimited OneDrive storage can go to a special website to put themselves in front of the line. OneDrive for Business customers will be able to access the unlimited space sometime in 2015.

Microsoft added:

“While unlimited storage is another important milestone for OneDrive we believe the true value of cloud storage is only realized when it is tightly integrated with the tools people use to communicate, create, and collaborate, both personally and professionally. That is why unlimited storage is just one small part of our broader promise to deliver a single experience across work and life that helps people store, sync, share, and collaborate on all the files that are important to them, all while meeting the security and compliance needs of even the most stringent organizations.”

Source: WCentral, Microsoft

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Intel is apparently offering a way to do just that with a recently discovered USB stick that has a version of its Bay Trail-based Atom processor inside.

There’s two versions of this product available. One has the quad-core Z3735G Bay Trail chip with 1GB of RAM that can run the 32-bit version of Windows 8.1. The second has the Z3735F version of the chip with 2GB of RAM that supports the 64-bit version of the OS. It can also run Linux and Android.

The tiny stick still has enough room for two USB 2.0 ports, a microSD card slot, and a HDMI port. The stick can be bought with either 16 or 32 GB of onboard storage. Finally, there’s 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 wireless hardware inside.

Alieexpress is currently selling the 32-bit version of the stick for about $125. We would assume the stick does not come with Windows 8.1 pre-installed. What uses would you find for such a PC?

Source: WPCentral

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The app, released today, gives Android, iOS and Windows Phone users the ability to quickly share short videos with groups of friends. Unlike social networking video apps, Skype Qik is solely for messaging, similar to what Instagram Direct does for photos. In a post on the official Skype blog, Microsoft describes the app as a “totally effortless way to capture the moment, share laughs, and chat with groups of friends.”

To record videos, users simply press a large button at the center of the app screen to begin recording a video, then press it again to stop recording. Videos can be sent to groups, and any user without Skype Qik will receive an SMS message instructing him or her how to get the app, which will have already stored all videos sent to that phone number.

Videos from the app last exactly two weeks, and users have the ability to erase any videos they send, regardless of whether they’ve been seen by friends. Additionally, users can block others on Android and Windows Phone, though the feature isn’t yet available on iOS – Microsoft says it will come to that platform “in the coming months.”

While Skype Qik allows users to make videos up to 42 seconds long, they can also create five-second videos that are saved for quick responses, such as a reply that simply says “Sure” or gives a thumbs-up.

Skype Qik can be downloaded in the Google Play Store, Apple App Store and Windows Phone Store.

Source: WPCentral / NeoWin

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Samsung has been testing its own version of what a 5G network could look like and they’ve achieved some incredible speeds. Their implementation achieved download speeds of just below 1GB/s (or 7.5 Gbps) which is making us drool and wish the future would come sooner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MVZyr7-cj0

But the magic doesn’t stop there, as the company took their test on to the road and achieved equally impressive results. While testing speeds in a car moving at over 100km/h (60mph), the connection was able to download files at over 150MB/second.

Samsung used the high-frequency 28Ghz band for their network, but this implementation – and other such high frequency bands- usually have very short ranges. However, the company claims to have solved this problem by using “Hybrid Adaptive Array Technology” to boost the signal.

Source: Neowin

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Updates can be a hassle or blocking factor when it comes to Hyper-V nodes and clusters.

Many solutions exists to apply updates with administrative efforts but nowadays we need to be able to do things in IT with less or no administrative effort.

Thanks to WSUS and System Center Configuration Manager we do not need to go and download updates, they are pushed automatically and installed to the servers and sometimes we even configure automatic restarts.

But Can We Afford to Restart Hyper-V clusters AUTOMATICALLY after updates by WSUS and SCCM? CAN WE?

Most administrators will respond no as these are critical servers.

The Solution.

Hopefully there is solutions to address these issues.

Cluster Aware Updating or  System Center Virtual Machine Manager

Windows Server 2008

Since Cluster aware updating is not available in Windows Server 2008, you can use Virtual Machine Manager orchestrated updates.

VMM goes by every node and updates them one at a time, giving you the option to save or migrate the Virtual Machine, then puts the node in maintenance mode and applies the updates, and sees if restart is necessary.

Windows Server 2012

Windows Server 2012 has cluster aware updating built-in and it can be complete automated unlike Windows Server 2008. The procedure is the same as Server 2008 but here you can set when to do the updates, frequency and time. CAU will update the nodes at that specific time, placing the node in maintenance, update it and even restart and fai lback roles if configured.

Completely automated.

Hope this helps you in choosing your update solution. Technet has a lot of resources on these and how to deploy them.

The post How To: Update your Hyper-V Clusters appeared first on VS Online.

I’ve listed a few commands I often usd (I prefer powershell than the console).

1. CD to Exchange Scripts folder 

cd $exscripts or set-location “Path to Scripts folder”

2. Check Last Backup

Get-MailboxDatabase -Status | select Name,LastFullBackup

3. Check DAG Replication Status

Get-MailboxDatabaseCopyStatus

4. Start Dag Maintenance

StartDagServerMaintenance -servername “nameofserver”

5. Stop Dag Mainatenance

StopDagServerMaintenance -servername “nameofserver”

6. Redistribute Database to main server.

RedistributeActiveDatabases.ps1 -DagName “dagname” -BalanceDbsByActivationPreference -ShowFinalDatabaseDistribution -Confirm:$false

7. List all Exchange Servers

Get-ExchangeServer

8. View Queues on Server

Get-TransportServer | Get-Queue

9. Verify Exchange Services Status

Get-Service | Where {$_.DisplayName -Like “Microsoft Exchange*”}

10. Update address book after creating new users

Get-Globaladdresslist | update-Globaladdresslist

Get-Addresslist | Update-Addresslist

There are a lot more and I will try to list them. But these are the main onesI use.

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