You’ve likely heard of the many smart assistants available today, like Siri, Bixby, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and others. While they all have their strengths, in my experience, only Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant truly excel when it comes to smart home integration, thanks to their extensive range of compatible devices.

I’ll focus mainly on Amazon Alexa, or simply Alexa, as I have been using it for over eight years now.

Does Alexa work in Mauritius?

Yes and no. I’ve had Alexa in my home since 2016, witnessing its evolution from barely supporting Mauritius to gradually making progress. However, there’s still a considerable way to go.

Officially, Alexa does not yet support Mauritius, but with the right know-how, you can navigate around this. Although Amazon states that the international version is necessary for it to function outside supported countries, that’s not entirely accurate. Let’s dive in!

The Alexa App

Before you even consider using Alexa, you’ll need the app on your phone. Unfortunately, you won’t find it in the App Store or Play Store. For Android, it must be sideloaded, and for iPad and iPhone, you’ll need a US iCloud account. But don’t worry, once downloaded, it will update normally when required.

Setting up is straightforward – just log in with your Amazon account. I recommend setting your country to the United States, or you can choose Mauritius to simplify the process for your smart devices. Keep in mind, though, that Mauritius isn’t fully supported, so it may have difficulty recognizing locations.

Which Echo device?

Decide how you want to start, big or small! Is sound important to you or you want to test the functionalities of Alexa?

If you want to start small, get the latest generation of the Echo Dot. They usually run for $49.99 but you can get them for $29.99, $24.99 or $22.990 when on sale, which is most of the time.

The 5th generation Echo Dot performs excellently. You can use it to ask for the time, set alarms, play songs from Deezer or Spotify, listen to the radio, control your smart home devices, set reminders, build a grocery list, and much more. It also features an indoor temperature sensor.

On the other hand, the 4th generation Echo is pricier, typically costing $99.99, but often goes on sale for $69.99 or $79.99. Although it shares the same shape as the Echo Dot, it’s significantly larger and boasts superior sound quality, easily surpassing my first smart speaker, the Harman Kardon Invoke. It also includes an indoor temperature sensor and a smart hub. As of last year, it supports Matter, allowing it to act as a bridge for all smart home devices compatible with the ZigBee protocol, including Philips Hue bulbs. I’ve been using the Echo for quite some time and am very satisfied with it.

I personally own a lot of Alexa devices, from the second generation Echo dot to the fourth, the Echo 4th generation, Echo Auto, Echo Show and Echo Buds. I am primarily invested in the Amazon ecosystem.

Quick Start Guide

Once you have everything you need, it’s time to get started. It’s always a good idea to keep your account settings to the US, but change your device location to Mauritius in the settings, which is now supported. This way, you’ll be able to get weather updates, approximate traffic information (Alexa accurately estimates travel time without traffic), and sometimes nearby restaurant information.

After setting the location, ensure your time is correctly set, and change the measurement units to Celsius and kilometers. Once these adjustments are made, you’re good to go. You can then start asking Alexa to perform various tasks for you.

Conclusion

Using Alexa in Mauritius is entirely feasible if you know how to get the app, and it can be incredibly helpful. Many manufacturers in Mauritius now offer devices compatible with Alexa, making it a valuable investment not just for yourself, but for your entire home. Alexa assists with reminders, alarms, time, radio, and even proves beneficial for kids. Alexa can spell words, help with homework, and introduce new vocabulary, making it a fantastic educational tool. My kids interact frequently with Alexa, which aids them in managing smart home devices without needing to touch electrical outlets. Alexa wakes them up and helps with their to-dos.

Additionally, Alexa routines are an excellent feature, automating tasks like announcing bedtime, turning off lights automatically, and scheduling times to play radio stations.

I hope this has provided you with more insight into Alexa and assisted you in making an informed buying decision.

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The personal computer landscape has been constantly evolving and some of us are still sporting the first to eighth or ninth generation of Intel processors. If you have anything older than that, then you definitely need to upgrade.

Before we actually dive in and from personal experience, if you have a second generation processor or higher, you definitely can run this for a few more years or until Windows is no longer supported. I am going to concentrate on Intel processor here as I have less experience with AMD and this post tackles upgrading current hardware only without a major cost.

The sample PC specification listed below, that was built back in the days, could easily run a few more years if upgraded.

• Intel 2nd generation core i5 or i7
• 4GB RAM DDR3
• 250GB+ 5400 or 7200 RPM hard disk
• Intel H or Z series motherboard
• 400 watt power supply
• Nvidia or AMD graphics card 512 GB or 1 GB.

Using the above specification, today, with Windows 10 would definitely make you pull your hair! Luckily a simple upgrade to an SSD will have a major impact and you will see a boost.

Upgrading your PC for AAA game titles, then this post is not really for you unless you are on a very tight budget and need to use what you have. Before going further, it is important to understand what can be upgraded or if it is worth the upgrade.

Hard Disk Upgrade

Like I mentioned above, upgrading to an SSD will improve the speed of your PC in terms of booting and normal usage. SSDs are faster and have crazy speeds compared to typical HDDs, with moving parts. An SSD does not have moving parts! Crazy speeds you say, an SSD has!

Let me get one now! WAIT! WAIT! Before embarking on an SSD change and getting the greatest and best out there, get to know your specifications first. Having an old PC, we will not have an M.2 SSD slot (wait, what?), you will have SATA on your motherboard maybe up to 6 of those nice SATA ports. There are tons of SATA SSD out of there, so any of them will work! Typically, yes but you need to look at your motherboard specifications to see whether you have SATA1, SATA2 or SATA3! In simple layman terms, SATA1 is 150MB/s, SATA2 is 300MB/s and SATA3 is 600MB/s. SSDs nowadays are 500+ MB/s read/write speed.

So how does it compare? If you have SATA1, upgrade is a no go as you will not be really seeing an improvement over the normal speed of 75 to 100 MB/s of 5400 and 7200 RPM drives. If you have have SATA2, you can opt for lower specification SSD like Kingston or if you have SATA3, go for the big boys like Samsung, Western Digital amongst other.

Once you have got your SSD, you will need to tackle moving your data to the new SSD or through a clean install. I always prefer a clean install. Migration is a topic for another day.

Memory upgrade

If you have 4 GB or less RAM or Memory as we prefer to say it, you will need to upgrade it. I believe 8GB is the bare minimum to run a stable or performing computer. Unfortunately, getting new DDR3 might be tricky or expensive but you can find used ones on sale. You can also get them new from part resellers but these might cost a few more bucks. In terms of memory, it is important to look at your motherboard specifications to know what type of memory is needed. Either PC3-800 to PC3-1600. Anything above that, I consider a risk to our current setup as it may result in an unstable system. If your motherboard has native support for above PC3-1600, then go for it.

Power Supply Upgrade

Whilst upgrading your power supply is not really necessary, you need to make sure that you have a true power rating power supply. Applications are demanding nowadays and to cope with that processor cores draw more power from the motherboard, you need to ensure that you have enough juice to supply the processor. Hence a true power rated supply is needed. A 500 watt power supply should be enough if you are not planning to throw in a power hungry graphics card. Nowadays, you have the option to choose between, modular, semi-modular or normal power supply. A modular or semi-modular allows you to power only devices that you need. In short, no power supply cables to hide later. Good power supply brands include Corsair, Cooler Master, Asus, amongst others.

Graphic Card Upgrade

I believe most of you are waiting for this part. Graphic card plays a major role in a PC specially if you are looking to game. Here are a few things you should know.

• Your PC even as old as it is can run most graphic cards but will be limited by the processor.
• Choose your graphic card carefully, do not go for cards over 2060 models if you gave 2nd to 6th generation processors.
• PCI express are backward compatible so if you PC has a PCI express 2.0 slot, a PCI Express 3.0 graphic card will mount but will operate at reduced performance.

Lastly choosing a graphic card is not something that we can cover here as it depends on what you will be using it for. But if you are going to use if for light gaming, such as Fortnite, and do not care about huge graphics settings, anything from a GT 1030 to GTX 1660 would do. Although the later would be very expensive at the time of this article.

Extending the life of your PC!

The above are the major upgrades you can perform on your PC to get it running at a decent and acceptable speed without too much of complaining. Remember, we are extending the life of an old PC here. Additionally, you might want to invest in a good cooling system and a good case to keep things fresh in your setup. These can seem like non-needed but a PC running cool will extend the life of its components. Add fans if your case supports it. You can add a lot of them but make sure you have an input and output setup. That is, cold air in and hot air out, like an exhaust system.

If you can, invest in a AIO liquid cooling system. This will greatly help your CPU not run hot and extend its life again. I have personally seen phenomenal temperature drop since I moved to AIO cooling. This solution will have a cooling head that is bolted to the CPU, fans and a radiator to cool that liquid. It comes in 120, 240 and 360mm size for the radiator and fans.

Finally, choose a good case that has plenty of space and can handle all the fans that you wan to add in. You might want to add some bling if you wish, like RGB fans or light strip.

Final thoughts

I have been running a Core i7 2600 and and MSI Z68 motherboard since 2011 and I had decided to scrap it and buy a new one last year. Then I thought why not try an upgrade! The first thing I did is buy an SSD off Amazon. That was an awesome decision and I found myself with a fast PC that can boot under 15 seconds to the desktop. I also upgraded to a GT1030 MSI graphic card as my Radeon HD 6670 died. I added some cool RGB fans and an AIO with a Thermaltake case to top it up and I have a workhorse workstation.

You can use UserBenchmark: PC Speed Test Tool – Compare Your PC to do a before and after test to see the difference.

Finally, upgrading can have its benefit when you will be finally moving to a new generation PC like the 12th gen or so. You can always re-use parts that you have upgraded such as SSD, power supply, fans, AIO Cooling, graphic cards and the case to keep cost down. In this scenario you are not spending too much on a new PC.

A side note on PCs older than 8th generation, Windows 11 is not supported and you will need to upgrade to a newer generation with TPM to use it. There are unofficial ways of installing Windows 11 on unsupported hardware but with an upcoming release, you will soon find a message on your computer saying hardware requirements not met.

Windows 10 will continue to run on older generation processors until 2025.

Happy upgrading!

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I recently had to research about how to get Alexa to run routines based on temperature and the results were not so great.

There are many reasons one might want to have routines based on temperature. These could be to counter heat waves / summer heat or to get some heat during cold nights of winter. In Mauritius, it is becoming quite the standard to have air conditioner(s) in every house for those who can afford it.

I recently had to replace an AC in the kids room and wanted to buy something smart but not too expensive and found the Gree Pular series with WiFi and Alexa capabilities. No more needs to be said.

It is quite good actually, being able to ask Alexa to turn on/off the AC, set the desired temperature or turn on heat or cold. Then came winter and I needed a way to automate the heating so the kids could stay warm at night. It gets pretty cold!

How to get the AC to turn on the heat automatically when the temperature drops?

I tested this with an Alexa 4th generation Echo and a Philips Hue Motion Sensor. (Yes, the Hue motion sensor has inbuilt temperature.) There are some catches though. You can’t query Alexa about the temperature on it – I haven’t been able to do so until now. The only way to see the temperature is through Apple Homekit or Home App.

To setup the routine, go to your Alexa app

• Select routines from the menu
• Enter a name for the routine.
• Under When this happens, select Smart Home
• Find your Echo device that has an inbuilt temperature sensor. Mine is the Echo 4th Gen
• Then you will get the option of selecting what type of routine you want, either above or below certain temperature, adjust with the slider and click on save
• Then under action, set the smart device you want it to control and what actions you want done.
• Don’t forget to set a time for it as well.

A few things you should know.

I have had a tough time getting the routine to kick in. It seems that it always needs some kind of motion to trigger it. Once triggered it works fine.

I had to find another solution as this method is unreliable.

The real deal!

I went on to research more and didn’t getting much results as there are limitations with what can be done with temperature routines. Then I found Sonoff Temperature Sensor. The SNZB-02 is a ZigBee device that works with Sonoff Bridge (I don’t have a Sonoff Bridge). My Echo 4th generation has an inbuilt ZigBee hub and I wanted to use it.

I thought I would give it a try and I am glad I did. This thing works great. It is a very small device that you just stick and forget.

How to setup the Sonoff SNZB-02

Follow instructions on how to setup and power on from the package, but do not link it to you ewelink account. This is important.

• Put the device in pairing mode and ask Alexa to find new devices. Note that you need an Alexa device that has built-in hub compatible with ZigBee.
• Once device is found, rename it.
• Go to all devices and find the sensor and click on it, you should now see the temperature and an option to create a routine.

• The steps are the same as the Hue sensor but this time no motion will be required to trigger it.

Limitation!

While this works great, there is one thing that I believe Alexa is not able to handle. Let’s say you have the routine set to turn on heat when the temperature is below 24 degrees during specific hours. If that hour comes and the temperature is already below 24 degrees, the routine will not trigger as the conditions have not been met.

I believe Alexa expects the temperature to decrease from 24+ to 23.9 or something else. I do hope that they get this fixed or if a workaround is available do let me know.

.

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That! is prying eyes. I am not saying that they can access the devices on your network or can they? That is quite the debate.

How can you secure it?

It’s actually quite simple if you have the right equipment or have some advanced knowledge. Most people I know completely trust their ISPs. But I don’t.

First of all:

1. Always change the default password of the router – Don’t have it – Call and ask! (192.168.100.1 or 192.168.1.1 is the default IP if you need it.)
2. Change the wireless password – It’s there on the box and at the back of the router. Never keep the default.
   • Go to WLAN Section
3. If you’ve got the skills, change your local IPs to something different, although having access to the router, ISP will see every configuration on the router!
   • Go to LAN Section

Those are basic security but if you want to really secure your network – Try this

What you need:

1. Some Basic IT Skills
2. A Wireless Router.
3. A RJ-45 Cable.

How to setup it up?

1. Setup your new router – Most routers come preconfigured and are ready to use, so you might just need to change the default password and enable the WiFi with your desired configuration – WPA2 or WPA3 recommended. I personally use a TP-LINK Archer C2300 bought from Amazon US. Change the IP address for your local network if possible.
2. Once your router is setup, find the perfect place for it. Take the RJ-45 cable and plug it into any port of the ISP router and the other end in the WAN port of your new router. This is very important else you will just be extending the ISP router.
3. Connect to your new WiFi and make sure that you can access the internet. Check the speed and you should be good. If you are using a tp-link router, there is an app called Tether that can be used, it allows for speed testing and wireless configuration from the app.
4. Connect to your ISP router (192.168.100.1 or 192.168.1.1) , find the wireless section and disable it (you won’t need it as your new wireless router will be providing WiFi). Limit the number of IP the ISP router can lease, I have it to 2 (for TV purposes).
   • Go to WLAN and Unselect Enable WLAN
   • Go to LAN and Select DHCP Server configuration, Set the Start IP and End IP Address.
   • If you go back to the Status page and Select DHCP Information, you should see only 1 IP listed – the new wireless router.
5. Reconfigure all your wireless devices to use the new WiFi
6. Voila! you now have a wireless network secured from your ISP.

The technical stuff

I strongly believe that privacy on my home network is a must, I have many smart devices in my house including Alexa, Hue and others and I just want to keep them as safe as possible from prying eyes.

From the opening lines of this post, I was not comfortable at all knowing that my ISP was able to see stuff on my home network, it kinds of invade my privacy right there – not knowing what they can see or access. From my understanding talking with them, it seems that every client or subset of clients is part of a network VLAN which defines what the can all access. From my knowledge if anyone is on the same VLAN as me and if I am not protected, they should be able to access my stuff.

Hence the decision for me to secure my network, in order to access or see anything pass my wireless router, the person would need to know the IP of my inside subnet and the password to get on the wireless router. Note that the router here has inbuilt firewall protection, anti-spam and anti-virus. I do feel quite protected .

The next improvement would be to add an internal firewall. Firewalla seems to be a good fit.

The Cons

The only downside of this configuration right now is double NAT. It does not bother me as I no longer have any inbound services or NAT rules, but if you decide to follow the above, take that into consideration.
I do play online through my xBox and see no real latency.

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Here’s how to do it.

Open Registry Editor as Administrator (If you are not comfortable with Registry Editor, do not attempt this, it could damage your Operating System). #

Registry Editor is opened by typing regedit.

Go to the following location.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\TerminalServer\WinStations\RDP-Tcp\PortNumber

Find PortNumber

Double Click on it. Click on Decimal

Enter your new port and click Ok.

Quit Registry Editor

Restart your PC.

Next time you connect enter your IP followed by the new port number and Remote Desktop should work fine.

Ex: 192.168.1.1:8900

If you do not want to change your Remote Desktop Port but want to access your PC from outside you can modify the outside port number only. This configuration is done on your firewall rule.

Internal Port: 3389

External Port: 8900

Destination IP: Your PC / Laptop

Protocol: TCP

Next time you access your Remote Desktop, you would type: 192.168.1.1:8900 (substitute the IP with the public IP or hostname).

Enjoy.

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The easiest option is to create an account on noip.com and download and install the NOIP DUC and let it run from your pc or laptop and access it anytime.

I know a lot of you think that teamviewer is the best option. Teamviewer is good but it is also a bit slugish and it does not give you the same experience as you want.

A bit of research and I was able to have a setup where I can turn on/off my PC / laptop whenever I want and access it. This helps in keeping the PC / laptop cool and does not go much on electricity.

Here is what you need to get this setup going.

1. PC or Laptop supporting Wake Up on LAN (you need to enable that in your BIOS)

2. Teamviewer account (Web interface is important here)

3. PC or Laptop should be connected to your livebox with a Network Cable Rj-45

4. A NOIP.com account (free for upto 3 hostname).

Here’s how to set it up.

I will not cover the WAKE UP on LAN enabling and noip.com account registration, I am assuming that you have done that.

Step 1. 

Teamviewer

Install and configure TeamViewer and enable remote access to it. Define a password.

Click on Extras and Click on Option

Click on Wake-On-LAN and Click on Configure

Click on Public Address and enter the host name you created in NOIP.COM. Leave the Port 9 as it is.

Step 2.

Lievbox Configuration

Login into your Livebox normally 192.168.1.1 (hope you changed that :P)

Before you go ahead you need to make sure that you have given your PC / Laptop a fix IP or reserve it in the DHCP Configuration of the livebox.

Go to advanced setting, enter your password.

Click on Network and click on NAT/PAT

Create a new rule with the following settings. Make sure to enter your correct IP for the laptop or PC.

You will notice that I have created a rule for port 9 UDP for Wake Up on LAN and Port 3389 for Remote Desktop from Outside.  (To make it more secure change the RDP port or change the port you are coming from outside, here’s how to).

Step 3. 

NOIP Configuration

Go to Advance Setting on your Livebox, enter your password.

Click on Network

Click on DynDNS

Select Service, NO-IP

Enter the hostname you created in NOIP.com

Enter your username – Same as your noip.com login

Enter your password – Same as your noip.com login  (this should be a plain password, the livebox does not understand special character, serious limitation here, make sure your password is long enough).

Click Add.

Refresh the page and you are good to go. You should see last updated.

You should now be able to check your access, from a smart phone or from another PC outside your network / home, try to connect via RDP to your noip.com hostname and it should work. (Do not forget to enable Remote Desktop on your PC).

Step 4. 

Turning on your PC from outside your network. 

If you have a software that can send the wake up on LAN command to your PC, that will work fine but if you do not have on, go to www.teamviewer.com click on weblogin and enter your username and password.

You should see your computer there, click on Wake Up and You are good to go.

Enjoy your Remote Access.

Questions do not hesitate to ask.

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