Google Voice & Video - Network Activity

The Windows Resource Monitor provides expanded details of CPU, memory, disk and network activity. A link to the Resource Monitor appears on the bottom of the Windows 7, 8 and 10 Performance tab of the Task Manager. This older article describes briefly the features and displays of the first 4 tabs of the Resource Monitor.

During this morning's conversation on 3740 kHz I joined a Google Hangouts session with W4BXI and explored the Resource Monitor a bit more than I had previously. I looked at the Network Activity tab to see the usage of the Google Talk plug-in that provides voice and video for Google Hangouts. Below are 3 partial screen shots showing the levels of network activity for both voice and video.

This first view shows network activity with a table of processes on the left. (Click on the image for a larger view.) Separate columns show send, receive and total Bytes/sec. For the voice activity in progress you see the average receive rate of 6,856 Bytes/sec. By clicking the check box to the left of googletalkplugin.exe its activity is highlighted in orange on the graph to the right. The receive activity corresponds to 8 x 6,856 = 54,848 bits/sec or 54.848 kb/s, which is very low on the 1 Mb/sec full scale graph.

This view shows the greatly increased average send rate of 61,170 Bytes/sec when I started sending live webcam video. The average rate corresponds to 489,360 bits/sec or almost 1/2 Mb/s. The graph on the right shows the variation in data rate as I was moving the camera around.

This view shows the data rate dropping on the graph when I stopped sending video. Due to the averaging time for the data on the left side, the send rate had not yet settled back to its voice-only rate.



I hope you will think of the Resource Monitor program the next time you are wondering about what is going on in your Windows computer.

- John

Passwords & Two-Factor Authentication

During a recent morning on 3740 kHz we discussed the two big Yahoo email breaches and the need for effective password use and management. A detailed Q and A about the Yahoo breaches is available in this article by Brian Krebs. Today we depend upon online accounts for many purposes. Our most important accounts (e.g. finance-related) must have strong passwords that are not reused at other sites. A good way to meet these requirements is by use of a password manager. (Paper records are also popular, but require manual typing of login details and secure handling.) Below are links to two (of many available) password manager programs that have good reviews from security analysts and journalists. Both are free and have versions for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android.  If you have not used one, I suggest that you try one with one or more of your existing logins to explore the features.

• LastPass
• KeePass

You can find these and many others reviewed in many web articles such as the following:

• The best password managers for PCs, Macs, and mobile devices
• The Best Password Managers of 2017

Several programs provide automatic fill-in of username and password blanks on web sites that you log into. Some or most can use secure cloud storage to make it easy to access your password data from multiple computers or mobile devices. These programs can also generate a complex, random unique password of any length to use with each online account.


Note that use of any password manager requires you to choose a strong master password since it must protect all of your stored passwords.


For additional security you should consider two-factor authentication (2FA) which requires entry of an additional piece of information when a login is attempted from a previously unknown device. This is strongly recommended for online accounts that involve your financial matters. Below are links to articles that discuss how two-factor authentication works and why you should use it.

• Multi-factor authentication
• Two factor authentication: what you need to know
• Websites that support 2FA

At the very least, you should make sure that your important / finance-related online accounts use unique and long passwords. Password complexity is important too, but if you must sacrifice complexity, use longer length. For an appreciation of the importance of password length see this article by Steve Gibson. With a password manager you can use long and complex passwords since you are not burdened with manually typing them in at each login.

Your comments and questions are welcome.

John

Twin Panadapters

Click above to enlarge.

This screenshot shows the simultaneous capture of panadapter views at WA5MLF and W4UOA this morning. A QSO at 3745 kHz had one station that was strong enough for Carl to hear as splatter in the 3740 pass band. See Carl's screenshots here for better views of the effects at his location.

The station was not strong enough to be heard at WA5MLF below 3742. John's screenshot (panadapter with waterfall) shows some other random noise below 3740 (we were not transmitting at that time). The wiggly line around 3742 on John's waterfall display is RFI from an APC UPS in the other room.

- John

Google Hangouts to W4BXI and W4UOA

This is a screen shot from my PC yesterday morning, showing simultaneous Hangouts -- one for the audio to/from W4BXI's rig and the other showing W4UOA's panadapter in operation. Each Hangout is in a separate web browser. I added labels in yellow italics to all windows. Click on the image for a full size view.

- John WA5MLF

Google Hangouts: Video + Phone

A recent update to the Hangouts app removed or lost the ability to add phone users to a video (computer-to-computer) hangout. Many Hangout users complained about this change, and a forum posting provided  a way to run the older Hangout app to regain the phone calling feature.

Here is a summary of the process:

1. In your web browser address (URL) box, type g.co/hangouts.

 

2. Add users by:

• email invite
• call a phone (use keypad icon)
• share hangout link (e.g. via chat session)

3. Enter a phone number (or a contact name)

 At any time after starting the Hangout using g.co/hangouts, computer or phone users can be added by clicking the "people+" icon to get the window shown in step 2 above.

Lightning damage to antenna

On July 14 my multi-band dipole antenna had a lightning encounter of some degree. Below are some photos showing damage to the feed point and the surge arrestor that is mounted on the outside wall of the garage.

 Here is a view of the feed point after I lowered it to eye level. The front part of the Ladder-Loc mount was blown away, but the electrical connections are intact.

Later I found two pieces of the front part and put them in place as shown in this photo. I have not found the other pieces.
The front part of a new unit might fit in place of the one that was damaged, if the dimensions have not changed much. I could simply secure the feed line and use the back part as is, without a front.

 This photo shows the inside of the balanced line surge arrestor, model AS-309H from Array Solutions. The referenced PDF file gives specs and explains the design features.
The feed from the antenna enters at the bottom, connected to the two long machine screws. At the top end of each screw a gas tube protector and a 1 Mohm resistor connect to a ground lug. The resistor provides a path for static charge to bleed off. A capacitor at the top of each screw connects to the balanced output lugs for the portion of feedline that enters the house.

Here is an annotated close-up of the area that shows the visible damage. Click on the photo for a better view. The two resistors have normal readings. I plan to replace both gas discharge tubes. The two capacitors are not shorted, based on ohmmeter readings, and don't appear to be open, based on transceiver operation and SWR readings. They may have changed somewhat in capacitance and should probably be replaced, too.

At the transceiver end of the feedline, I inspected the balun and found no visible damage. Ohmmeter readings revealed no shorts or grounds.







Update: In February of 2017, when adjusting the lengths of the dipole legs, I found additional evidence of the lightning hit at the southwest end of the dipole. See the two photos at the end of this posting.

John

LIGO

On June 18 I enjoyed a visit to the  Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) installation at Livingston, LA. You can see an aerial view of the facility at this page.
To learn about LIGO, see the links at this page.

I was part of a tour group arranged by the Baton Rouge Amateur Radio Club. Our tour started one hour ahead of the normal monthly public tours. Our tour guide was Dr. Amber Stuver, a research scientist who has been working at LIGO for the past 8 years. We started at the LIGO Science Education Center, viewing two video presentations and Dr. Stuver's presentation with Q and A. Then we walked over to the main building to visit the control center where staff members use a room full of computers and monitors to oversee and control the operation of the system.  The detection of a gravitational wave event is not recognized in real time by the system operators. Analysis of the collected data from this facility and the Hanford, Washington facility leads to the identification of events. Two have been announced as of this writing. This article in Science News includes an audio player (see "Chirp, Chirp") for hearing the waveforms associated with the two announced events.

Below are additional views from our visit to the control room. The observatory is not currently operating, since it and the Washington state companion installation are undergoing  modifications to boost their sensitivity, to enable detecting more events. They are scheduled to resume operation in the 4th quarter of 2016.

I labeled the top 3 monitors to match the small label seen on each. They represent 3 different frequency ranges, corresponding to the types of vibrations that each displays. The graphs move from right to left, with new data added to the right side at 1-minute intervals.

System diagram displayed on a large wall monitor.

While looking at the various monitors in the control room, I recognized the presence of Apple and Linux desktop user interfaces. Our guide confirmed that those are the operating systems in use for the system. In a later question from a club member we learned that Matlab and Python are the main software environments used for data analysis. It would have been interesting to see some of the laser, optical, and detector hardware, but I don't know if those are ever included on public tours.

We returned to the Science Education Center to explore more of the hands-on exhibits there. Many of them involved aspects of wave behavior in various media.

Here is a photo of a Giant Slinky that is probably 25 ft long. It is suspended from vertical wires, allowing it to flex horizontally when the visitor moves a lever connected via a vertical pivot. This photo was taken before our tour started. The education center had many visitors when we returned from our tour as lots of folks were waiting for their tours that started every 20 minutes or so.
Below are additional photos showing other exhibits and the many afternoon visitors.

On our way out I took this photo where you can just see part of the concrete structure (near center, between trees) that houses the evacuated steel tube comprising one of the two 4 km (2.5 mile) tubes that form the laser paths of the interferometer. Many photos, graphics and videos are available on this gallery page.







Our guide encouraged us to return for another visit when the facility is operating.