[5G Microcells / Small Cells Antennas Public Right-of-way Siting Legislation – Aura – BC Hydro – Bills – Carl Grimes – Cell Towers – Center for Safer Wireless Action Alert – Circadian Rhythm (Sleep) – Clover Morell – CMP – Community Broadband.ca – Copper Landlines – CRTC – Data – Doctor Martin L. Pall – EHS Microwave Radiation Sickness – Electricity Cut Offs – EMFs – Environmental Illness – Equinox Cracks – Ethernet (Wired) – FTTP – HB 1258 & SB 405 – Geomagnetic Storms – Hacking – Health – How to Disable Shaw Wi-Fi Modems – IP Addresses – ISPs – Julie Genser – Legal Costs – Leslie Lawrence – Mary Cordaro – MCS – Melinda Honn – Monopolies – NASA – Oona McOuat Letter re Connected Coast & Wired Fibre Optics – Pamela Reed Gibson – Paula Baker-Laporte – Power Outages – Privacy – Rallies – Ralph S. Northam – Reshelter – RF Microwave Radiation – Routers – Safe Homes – Security – Smart Meter Testing re False Readings (Higher Consumption) – Solar Flares – Studies – Telecoms – Telus – Utility Regulators – Wildlife – William J. Rea – Wireless | BC – Olds, Alberta – Snowflake, Arizona & Maine & Virginia, USA] & (videos) & Websites
1) In the USA, there is an organization whose goal is helping people with environmental sensitivities live in a safe home. A very interesting group of people on their Board.
(click on photos to enlarge)
2) In Maine, electricity bills are increasing dramatically. Are smeters to blame? Unless there is independent testing, no one will know. The utilities there, like BC Hydro, “offer” to take the smeter into their pristine lab to test and, of course, the smeters always are just fine. Electrical Engineers have said that these smeters are cheap computers and, like other computers, reboot when removed from the base. Their settings revert to factory settings. Any problems will disappear. They need to be tested in their base, where they are, to test for interference among other things.
Time for Action on Outages, High Bills
“But this is not the most severe winter ever, so some huge increases seem to be caused by more than usage. CMP, for example, has removed the prior year’s monthly usage from the bill, making ready comparisons impossible. That deletion makes it more difficult to accept the explanation that it’s all a matter of usage.
One obvious culprit is the meter. Utilities have installed so-called “smart” meters, supposedly because they will allow customers to manage their usage better, obtaining greater efficiency and lower costs. While that promise mostly goes unfulfilled, it has worked well for utilities that can eliminate meter reader jobs.
During a major, recent nor’easter, smart meters turned out to be dumb. They could not highlight outage locations very well, nor did they provide good data to the central office, which would help it efficiently assign repair crews. Despite their shortcomings, a big part of the meter’s cost is recovered in a customer’s rates and will be for many years.”
http://www.timesrecord.com/news/2018-03-16/Opinion/Time_for_Action_on_Outages_High_Bills.html
3) Groups are organizing all over the USA to fight the loss of control of public rights of way and the right to negotiate siting of microcells. This from Virginia. We need to organize rallies and protests outside MLA / MP constituency offices to make our voices and concerns heard.
“If either bill becomes law, telecommunication companies will have the right to place cell antennas on every utility pole. Right now they are installed on cell towers or building roofs. The result is your home will likely be subjected to wireless radiation day and night, and the antenna could be right outside your bedroom window. Your ability to escape wireless radiation will disappear in Virginia.”
4) A terrific letter by Oona McOuat in Prince Rupert’s paper about the advantages of internet access via fiber optic cable right to the home, and inside the home, via hard-wired cable. Please share widely.
Bringing fast and healthy internet to coastal communities
How will local officials, including First Nations leaders, connect their communities
5) Strong solar storms are occurring and could cause people who are sensitive to have problems, as well as others. Even people who are not normally sensitive may suffer some physical effects, e.g. dizziness.
6) Below in Letters is additional information about disabling Shaw’s Wi-Fi’d modem, provided by one of our technical members.
Letters:
My old non wireless modem failed after less than 5 years. Phoned Shaw and arranged to pick up a new one. Unfortunately, all new Shaw modems are wifi equipped. Had a bit of a tussle with the service rep on the matter when I told him that my turning the wifi off at home was not good enough as I knew from firmware updates and software updates they may take everything back to the defaults with the wireless on. Finally, he told me I could ask for the modem to be in bridge modem which you have to ask for and they can do at the office. So far, the new modem does not seem to be transmitting but I have noticed the power supply is much dirtier and has an appreciable reading.
I assume all ISP have the ability to disable the wifi permanently if you ask for it – it may take a bit of words to get them to do it but I assume it is possible with all of the providers.
From a security from hacking perspective, the new modem has a feature I will not use and recommend no one else does either. My old modem had only 1 ethernet (wired) connection, the new modem/router has 4. One should never use more than 1 connection (yes, connecting several home routers would be okay but why would you) to the ISP supplied modem and if more wired connections are needed, use a home router. One may still be able to find a home router that does not radiate (usually a few $ cheaper). If only wireless enabled ones are available, make sure when you buy it you know how to turn the wireless off (not all will let you turn it off – if in doubt, ask the store to show you how). Only plug your computer(s) into your home router, never the ISP supplied modem. Using a home router will increase your computer security but you still need a firewall.
I recommend using both the operating system supplied firewall and a separate one as hackers all know the way past the operating system firewall. A separate firewall from some random source makes the work of the hacker harder as they have to get past the impediment of the home router, the complexities of the system firewall and then be versed on the complexities of your own firewall; most will give up and go for low hanging fruit and bother some other computer instead. This also will stymie the script hackers that use a purchased script to enslave hundreds or thousands of computers at a time.
Changing the private network address on one’s home router is also a good plan and there are additional tweaks, depending on the router, one can do to enhance security.
Each layer of security also adds a layer of complexity for the user and uses a bit of computer power, so I do not recommend more than I mentioned here which will probably not impact one’s computer use too much.
If you follow these recommendations, it is relatively unlikely your computer will be hacked – no guarantees.
There is one point I forgot to mention. For most, it will make no difference but for super fast gamers, if one wants fast connection speeds they will need to buy the more expensive home routers at 100+ if they want Gigabit connection speeds. My old, and probably most other people’s, home router is 1/10 that and works well enough for me to watch movies on my computer – gave up on TV over a year and don’t miss it. My connection is fast enough to watch 2 YouTube movies simultaneously.
Also for those on a budget, my Shaw connection is an old grandfathered connection that is about half the speed of the ones they offer now and much cheaper than their new victim price.
For those concerned about connection speed, there are 3 pinch points a user can control:
1. Most computers of the last 10 years are good for the maximum speed of 1 Gigabit and at this time there are no faster connections available.
2. Unless one pays a premium, their router is only good for a 10th the speed the computer is. Unless I had 5 or 6 computers on the internet simultaneously, or a gaming enthusiast, the low price router is all one needs. If one looks around they will find a router for less than $20.
3. One’s internet connection – the more you pay, the faster the connection but no sense paying for a faster connection than your router can handle. Most homes probably don’t need more than the lowest price options they can get. Don’t let your service providers talk you into a higher priced package – if your home router/modem/computer are the pinch points, you will receive no benefit other than having less money to worry about.
= = =
IP Addresses – https://www.iplocation.net/public-vs-private-ip-address
Shaw Wired & Wireless Modems – https://community.shaw.ca/docs/DOC-1297
Telus Wired Modems – https://www.telus.com/en/bc/support/article/experiencing-slow-speeds-wired-connection
(video 03:17) MODEM vs ROUTER !! What’s the difference between them !! by Tech Inc – YouTube – April 06, 2017:
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-HbZwtZN2I
(video 02:39) How to set up a wired network by butterscotchcom – YouTube – September 07, 2010:
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HppQyv5z47k
Sharon Noble
Director, Coalition to Stop Smart Meters
“A government has no conscience. Sometimes it has a policy, but nothing more.”
~ Albert Camus