Matt’s Desk: Editor’s Blog

I’ve waited a very long time for this day: Amazon Instant Video is now available on the PS3.

That means if you have a PS3 and are an Amazon Prime Member, you now have access to thousands and thousands of TV shows and movies for free, right from your television.  If you’re not a Prime member, you can still buy or rent movies and TV episodes for a fee.

Here’s how to get started.  On your PS3, go to the TV/Video Services menu and select the new Amazon Instant Video icon; this will install the required software.  Once installed, the new application will run.  Select Register Device from the main screen.  This will display an alphanumeric code unique to your PS3.

Now, head over to Amazon.com and click the Begin Registration button.  Enter the code. After a few moments, you’ll be asked to update your One Click payment settings (for rentals and purchases).  Next, you’ll choose a purchase PIN so that you can prevent unauthorized purchases from guests, children, etc.

That’s it!  You’re done and ready go roll.  Enjoy!

Don’t have a PS3?  Want Amazon Instant Video on your TV?  Either nab a PS3 or a Roku box to get started.

Mozy (a Pocket PC Central advertiser) has announced that it will no longer offer an unlimited backup plan to its new customers. New capped plans have been put in place, starting at $5.99 for 50GB of storage.  Current customers on the unlimited plan will continue to enjoy the feature until it’s time to renew – then, it’s goodnight Irene to all you can eat backup – at least on Mozy. 

But don’t expect Mozy to be alone in this move.  As hard drives grow ever larger (there are now 3TB internal hard disks), users have less reason to conserve space by deleting files. And as video rips become higher in quality, and digital cameras capture more and more (often useless) megapixels, users’ media libraries are exploding in size.  Expansive storage trends at lower prices are great for consumers, but a nightmare for online backup providers.

Is it only a matter of time before Mozy’s largest competitor, Carbonite (also an advertiser), follows suit?  That company already caps file size and bandwidth, but continues to offer unlimited backup. 

The good news is that you can continue under new caps with reduced pain.  Simply prioritize what you backup, delete or burn-to-disc files you probably won’t ever need or want, and keep your system as free of bloat as possible.  While this can be a chore, it will not only help with you exist in a new world of online backup caps, it’ll also make your system more responsive.

-M

Though it may not seem so at first glance, networking is perhaps the most fundamental aspect of our personal computing lives. Whether you’re using PCs, tablets, smartphones, eBook readers or game consoles, connecting these devices to the outside world via the Internet is the linchpin of their utility. And those connections are the province of the home network.

All too often home networks and the connectivity they allow are treated like a binary thing, a thing that either works or doesn’t. But this is not the case. Networks are complex and highly susceptible to weakest-link-in-the-chain bottlenecks. Put another way, there are many factors that can keep your Internet connection and home network for working well, even if it is, at the end of the day, working.

So I wanted to spend some time covering a few basic Internet and home networking truths and tips to help you get the most of your connection, inside and out.

Yesterday I was helping a friend with his computer after a clean install of Windows 7.  After each reboot, the Network and Sharing Center showed two active networks: the Work network – a wired LAN connection which was supposed to be listed – and an Unidentified Public network, which was not. 

The result of having these two active networks was limited access, i.e. no Internet connection.

To temporarily resolve the problem, I could disable and re-enable the LAN card after each reboot in the Device Manager, which would cause the unidentified network disappear and the Internet connection to be restored.  But the problem reappeared after each reboot.

The cause in my friend’s case (I discovered after half an hour of Google-aided research) was a secondary Default Gateway value of 0.0.0.0, which was showing up in the IPCONFIG readout before each re-enabling of the LAN card. I do not know the cause of this error, but it appears many users are reporting experiencing this problem in Windows 7 with several types of LAN cards and other networking hardware.

I was able to correct the problem on his Windows 7 PC with the following solution:

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