From what I’ve managed to dig up, there aren't really any other real contenders in the smart monitor market here in the States. I'm leaning toward either the Samsung Galaxy A5 27" or the 32" model, but I really need to see them in person first to figure out if that FHD resolution is going to be a dealbreaker for me. The upside is having built-in speakers and easy access to Netflix and YouTube, though it does feel pretty limited in other ways.
I strictly need a monitor, not a TV, which really narrows my options down.
I'm wondering if it might actually be smarter to just pick up a standard monitor with a higher resolution and pair it with a dedicated Android box. That way, I could essentially build my own "smart monitor" setup by hooking up some speakers along with a wireless keyboard and mouse.
Does anyone here own a Samsung Galaxy A5 or an M7 smart monitor? I’m wondering if it plays nice with an Android phone from a different brand. Every review I’ve come across features someone using a Galaxy S21 (predictably), so nobody seems to mention how they work with other Android devices. As far as I can tell, this is the only smart monitor on the market—or am I missing something?
Even though they checked everything from my device all the way to the router, up to the attic, and even out to the terminal on the pole, about six months ago they concluded that any signal loss between the terminal and the attic was negligible. They blamed the router connection instead, specifically the line running from the attic to the router, which was using an old cable. So, we replaced it with a new phone line. But when the technicians came back recently because of the drops and slow speeds, it turned out the issue was actually at the terminal. They ended up switching me over to a different terminal and told us we used the wrong cable—that we should be using specific UTP Cat5e.
Honestly, I’m just going to leave it as it is. If the issues persist—and they already are, since the connection is slow even if it isn't dropping entirely—I'll just call them back and let them deal with fixing their own AT&T cabling.
I don't actually use UTP to connect my router to my computer; everything runs over Wi-Fi.
That’s technically an option, sure, but I'd end up with zero signal on the ground floor.
So, the bottom line is that the current standard phone line can stay as it is. The technicians were just pushing me to install UTP so they could rule out any possibility of the issue being on my end.
So, we went ahead and did it. We ran a new phone line, but the technicians are insisting it's just a standard thin phone wire. They’re claiming I really need to be using a 0.5 or 0.6mm UTP cable—specifically Cat7 or Cat8—for the run from the attic to the router. I picked up a cable that already has RJ45 connectors on it, but then I noticed the port on my router is actually an RJ11 slot. It looks like I'll have to crimp new RJ11 connectors onto the cable, join the wires, and then just splice the other end in the attic and tape it off. The plan is this: once I swap out that new phone line (which was only installed six months ago!) for the UTP cable, if the connection still acts up, they'll have to look at replacing the actual line coming from the utility pole to the house.
My contract is for 50 Mb/s, but I rarely see anything close to that. Most of the time it's under 10, and occasionally it even dips below 5 Mb/s or just drops out entirely.
Sure, UTP runs between the router and the computer, but that’s not really what we’re getting at here. We're talking about the connection between the router and the line coming from the utility pole where I'm tapping in up in the attic. An RJ11 cable plugs directly into the DSL port on the router.
They haven't swapped this thing out in at least four or five years—probably longer. Before that, they used to replace our router pretty frequently whenever we ran into issues.
The cable I picked up is a Transmedia Cat.7 SFTP, TRN-TI25-5PL.
The setup is still using copper wiring; fiber isn't on the horizon just yet. They actually moved me over to a different line because the previous one was getting hit with way too much interference. We ran a new cable from the attic down to the router, but the techs on-site are claiming it’s just standard telephone wire and suggesting I stick with UTP instead. Meanwhile, the folks over at Protis were the ones who sold me the SFTP mentioned above.
Thanks a lot for the advice. Honestly, the technicians from AT&T are a bit of a disaster—they just show up on-site and start poking around at the interference issues without much luck. How am I supposed to plug that cable (RJ45) in when the DSL port on the router is actually a tiny jack (like a standard phone line)? If I'm not mistaken, that's an RJ11.
Meanwhile, up in the attic, it's just a direct wire-to-wire connection, no connectors at all.
Also, is SFTP cable basically the same thing as UTP?
I hope it’s okay if I jump in here; I couldn't find a better thread for this.
Does anyone know where I can pick up some UTP cable? I need about 5 meters, specifically looking for 0.5 or 0.6 thickness with solid cores, Category 7 or 8.
Micro Center doesn't have what I need, and as far as I know, Best Buy is out of luck too.
The technicians from AT&T told me I'd need this specific type of cable to connect my router to the wiring up in the attic.
Where can I pick up some boxing gloves for recreational use? Nothing fancy needed—just looking for something affordable that isn't total junk. Naturally, my first stop was Pride.com, which seemed great at first glance. But when I went looking for their store hours, I ran into a mountain of amateurish writing on their site that immediately turned me off. To make matters worse, the online shop and their physical storefront on Main Street seem to operate completely separately; prices vary, and everything feels disconnected. Then I hit a real kicker: I found a policy stating, "A customer also has the right to a price reduction if they aren't satisfied with an item, by deciding for themselves how much the discount should be." WTF?? Is this a flea market where you just subjectively decide what things cost? On top of that, I couldn't find any info on shipping costs. I added an item to my cart hoping the shipping would show up, only to get another shock: all the listed prices exclude sales tax, which wasn't even mentioned. They just tack the tax on in the cart, and you don't even see the final total until you register. I did a little digging and found old reviews from back in 2011 claiming they sell low-quality junk and even mislabel brands, sometimes selling knockoffs.
I'm not sure if the stuff about the knockoffs is true, but something definitely felt off while browsing their site, and it steered me away from buying anything. I’d happily buy from anywhere else if I could just find a place with a decent selection. What have your experiences been like?
It wasn't actually a power outage. I just flipped the switch on the power supply off and back on—a pretty stupid move, honestly, but you don't really think straight when you're losing your mind. I’m convinced the PC just isn't recognizing the keyboard, which is why nothing is working. Like I mentioned earlier, everything was functioning perfectly fine once I was at the desktop, except for the keyboard.
Starting a new thread here since the old ones are getting pretty outdated.
I have a desktop setup that was working perfectly fine until I decided to clean my room. While moving things around, I bumped the desk and slid it back into place. When I went to power everything up, the keyboard wouldn't respond. I checked the back and realized the cable had been yanked out of the port because it got caught when I pulled the desk away. So, I plugged it back in (it's a PS2 connection), restarted the computer, and... nothing. Total silence. I checked under the Device Manager, but there's nothing listed there. To make matters worse, the PC lost power, and since the CMOS battery on the motherboard is dead, I need to hit F1 to continue just to get into Windows. Now, I'm stuck in a loop where I can't even get into the BIOS. Every time I plug it in, the lights on the keyboard flicker for a split second and then die. Nothing works—even the Num Lock won't toggle.
I've inspected the pins, and they don't look bent. The smartest move would probably be to test this keyboard on another machine or try a different keyboard on this one, but I don't have anyone nearby I can borrow gear from for a test like that.
It’s an old-school Microsoft keyboard, the standard kind. This is a 21st century problem, right? Any advice? The PC itself is pretty mediocre; it's just a basic machine used for Microsoft Office tasks, so I'm not looking to sink a ton of money into it.
Has anyone actually managed to successfully order an Express shipment through the website? I can't get past the checkout stage to save my life. No matter what I do, those pickup time fields just stay red. Even though I’m based right here in Washington, D.C., it won't accept any time slot I select. Apparently, there's some rule saying it only works if the sender pre-pays and you pay cash on delivery—which is exactly what the note says—but I tried that too, and still nothing. What is the point of having a website if you can't actually use it to book a service? I honestly don't have the patience to sit there for 20 minutes every single time just waiting for a customer service rep to pick up the phone.
I ended up trying it on my laptop and it went through perfectly fine, but for some reason, it just fails every time I try it on my phone.
Just following up on my previous post. So, they told me an HP driver would swing by for the pickup by 6:00 PM, but nobody showed up. Not even by noon the next day. I called customer service, and the woman on the line gave me some vague answer about how they probably just hadn't made it out there yet. Well, past 6:00 PM rolled around and still no sign of anyone. I called customer service again, only to be told the package had actually been picked up yesterday. I mean, seriously? If it was picked up, why am I staring at it right now? After some back-and-forth, she contacted dispatch and apparently there was some glitch in the system—it was marked as "collected" almost immediately after I booked the service, which is why no one ever actually came to get it. So where does that leave me? Now I’m expected to waste even more time and energy filing formal complaints? Honestly, I’m speechless. I have no idea what HP is even doing lately. And don't even get me started on how they handle the actual packages; they toss them around during loading like they're nothing more than dodgeballs.
Up until now, my experiences with the postal service have been mostly fine, especially using their express pickup. But lately? It’s been a total disaster. On Wednesday night, I called to schedule an express pickup for a package. They didn't show up until Thursday. Then, I check the tracking on Tuesday only to see the carrier never actually delivered it. The recipient was losing their mind waiting, so they just gave up and went down to the local FedEx office to grab it themselves. They finally got the package on Tuesday. So now, I've been sitting here for a full week waiting for the carrier to bring me the COD cash. We're talking nearly two weeks from the moment the package was sent to when I actually see the money.
Last night, I tried to send another package. I figured I'd just do it online to save some hassle. I filled everything out, hit "add" to finish the order, and suddenly the pickup window fields turn bright red. No matter what dates I select, the system rejects them. I ended up calling their customer service line—which, by the way, they charge you just to call—and sat on hold for about 13 minutes. When I finally explained the issue, the guy gave me some nonsense excuse about how every local post office has different operating hours. I asked him, "What does that have anything to do with scheduling a pickup?" He eventually told me to dictate the details so he could manually process the order for me. I asked if that meant I'd lose the 15% web discount since I wasn't technically using the site. He said no, so I had to wonder: what's even the point of having a website if it doesn't actually work? Fine, we did it his way. He promised a carrier would be there for the pickup by 6:00 PM. They never showed up.
Look, I get it. I know firsthand how bad things are at the USPS right now—terrible organization and a massive staffing shortage—but this is getting ridiculous. You shouldn't have to deal with this much stress and wasted time just to ship a box. By the time you're done, you're already too frustrated to care if the package even arrives intact, or if it shows up at all.
My PC got stuck in the Windows error recovery loop, and I just can't seem to get past it. My plan is to pull the hard drive out, pop it into an external enclosure to back up my files on another machine, and then just wipe everything and do a fresh Windows install. Where’s the best place to pick up a cheap SATA-to-USB adapter? I don't mind if it's used. I haven't had much luck finding anything decent on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace.
Edit: I'm actually not sure which specific HDD is inside this Dell Inspiron.
Yeah, I'm not looking to just overlay subtitles; I actually need something that will hardcode them directly into the video. I tested this on my TV and it works fine when I toggle the subtitles via the remote, but that’s not my use case. I’m trying to play this on a device that strictly supports the .avi format but won't recognize .srt or any other subtitle files. Even when the filenames are identical, it just won't read them, and I have no way to turn them on. I gave Handbrake a shot, but it takes forever (and I doubt there's a faster way to get what I'm after), plus the trial version cuts off after 50% of the file.