Connecting audio

Before we launch into this week's main topic, we need to revisit an issue we covered a few weeks ago. In a recent column we discussed a way to get an OS X system to talk to a Windows 2003 Server acting as a domain controller by disabling the default security policy that is set to always encrypt network connections, which OS X doesn't support. The fact the OS X's SMB services don't support encryption is ridiculous, and it is remarkable that Apple hasn't addressed it yet.

But is it a good idea to do this? Of course, not! Sending passwords across the wire in clear text is never a good idea except in limited-access, noncritical systems.

A couple of readers wrote in to suggest we warn you, but here's our thinking: We assume you are all smart and if we suggest a way to do something you will consider it in the light of the specific issues in your environment. So, to make those readers happy: Do not use that technique unless you have a clue.

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Before we launch into this week's main topic, we need to revisit an issue we covered a few weeks ago. In a recent column we discussed a way to get an OS X system to talk to a Windows 2003 Server acting as a domain controller by disabling the default security policy that is set to always encrypt network connections, which OS X doesn't support. The fact the OS X's SMB services don't support encryption is ridiculous, and it is remarkable that Apple hasn't addressed it yet.

But is it a good idea to do this? Of course, not! Sending passwords across the wire in clear text is never a good idea except in limited-access, noncritical systems.

A couple of readers wrote in to suggest we warn you, but here's our thinking: We assume you are all smart and if we suggest a way to do something you will consider it in the light of the specific issues in your environment. So, to make those readers happy: Do not use that technique unless you have a clue.

Anyway, last week we wound up confessing that we have a disaster area around the stereo in the kitchen because CDs don't get put away.

After our frequent complaints about not being able to find misplaced CDs Mrs. Gearhead asked, "Couldn't you put all of the CDs on some kind of digital thing, then we could get rid of the CDs, and you could stop grumbling about not finding them." OK. Sounds easy enough . . .

The first problem was that we don't have an Ethernet connection in the kitchen. As we didn't relish climbing through the attic or navigating the crawl space to install one, we figured that connecting from the utility room to the kitchen using wireless would be the answer.

Alas, here in the Gearhead Bunker our walls were built in the 1940s using plaster laid up on a 1-inch-square wire mesh. The consequence of this construction is that every room is a Faraday cage.

A Faraday cage blocks radio transmissions that are at wavelengths longer than the pitch of the mesh the cage is built from. This means that there's a whole range of equipment that won't work in the Gearhead Bunker.

For example, the performance of cordless phones that operate at 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz (wavelengths of 4.92 and 2.03 inches, respectively) is seriously degraded, as is 2.4GHz wireless LAN gear - 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n - and 5GHz 802.11a and 802.11n LAN equipment (a wavelength of 2.36 inches).

We used Netstumbler and a VAIO T250 laptop to check out how much the bunker's walls attenuate Wi-Fi signals. Between the kitchen and the dining room, we measured a loss of about 15 decibels from one side of the wall to the other. This equates to a power loss of about 32%. By the time we got to the living room, we had a 40-decibel loss, which equals a loss of about 99.99%!

Why cell phones (which work at frequencies of 800MHz to 900MHz, or wavelengths of 14.76 to 13.12 inches, and 1800MHz to 1900MHz, or wavelengths of 6.56 to 6.21 inches) operate in the Bunker isn't clear - if you have an explanation, please let us know.

So, wireless wasn't going to work. Ah-ha. What about powerline networking?