A batch of Australian-style power adapters (Type I) arrived with today’s shipment of Dovado UMRs. The 12V power adapters are suitable for both the Dovado UMR and Dovado 3GN, so we can now supply customers in the following countries:

• American Samoa
• Argentina
• Australia
• Brazil
• China
• Cook Islands
• East Timor
• Fiji
• Kiribati
• Nauru
• New Zealand
• Papua New Guinea
• Tajikistan
• Tonga
• Uruguay
• Uzbekistan
• Vanuatu
• Western Samoa

With Australia in mind, Dovado have recently* added supported for the ZTE MF636BP and Maxon BP3-USB modems as supplied by Bigpond.

*at time of original writing, 24 March 2010

When you come up against a brick wall problem like this, sometimes some time out with a cup of tea and some chocolate biscuits can give you the thinking space you need

At first I suspected that there was an issue with the adapter (a Linksys Wireless-G PCI with Speedbooster), so I tried one of the Xtreamer adapters we stock, but it encountered the same error:

Windows is unable to connect to the selected Network. The Network may no longer be in range.

The PC was running Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and it turns out that a hotfix update from Microsoft is required in some cases to successfully connect to WPA2 networks. If you have the time, I suppose it might be worthwhile going the distance and installing Service Pack 3 (SP3) in this situation, but for a quick resolution just use a PC with working connectivity to visit the 917021 hotfix page and download the update onto a memory stick or whatever. You may have to run Windows Validation to complete the download.

1. Press power once to put the Popcorn Hour into standby or to wake it up from standby
2. Press power followed by DELETE to fully shutdown the Popcorn Hour
3. Press power followed by EJECT to reboot the Popcorn Hour

1. User guide
2. Quick installation guide
3. Power supply and (UK) mains cable
4. Remote control
5. AAA batteries
6. HDMI cable
7. USB cable (A – B)
8. Short USB extension cable
9. A-210 unit
10. A bag of little screws for an internal SATA drive

The Popcorn Hour C-200 is more than twice the size and weight of its smaller siblings, the A-210 and its earlier incarnation the A-200. This video has a comparative look at the physical look and feel of the three current video streamers from the Popcorn Hour stable.

So apart from this more impressive stage presence, what else do you get with the C-200 for its heftier price tag?

• RF remote control – for the dedicated couch-potato, it can be tedious for the remote control to insist on a line-of-sight infra-red path to your television equipment. The RF remote control on the C-200 guarantees that each button press has an appropriate response from the Popcorn Hour equipment.
• LCD front panel – a small but useful display to show what’s currently playing on the C-200
• 4 USB ports – maybe you want the WiFi dongle, external hard drive, blu-ray drive, dvd player
• front panel buttons – in conjunction with the LCD display panel, these buttons let you control the C-200 without a remote control. Let’s face it, remote controls go missing all the time.

The NMT Applications comprise the following services:

• BitTorrent client for managing torrent download/uploads
• SAMBA server – windows-compatible network share
• NFS server – linux/MAC-compatible network share
• FTP server – accessing disk space via File Transfer Protocol
• myiHome server
• UPnP AV server
• UseNet client – managing torrents via UseNet

In order to install NMT Applications on your USB-attached storage, you need to use the Popcorn Hour
Fresh install option in the wizard. This will completely re-format your storage device, destroying any data thereon. It is therefore important to archive any important data files off your USB storage device as they won’t be there anymore when the process is complete.

An active internet connection on your Popcorn Hour is required for this process.

1. Go to the Setup screen
2. Choose Maintenance
3. Select the NMT Setup Wizard
4. Use remote UP arrow to select Fresh Setup
5. Choose the storage device (probably only one listed)
6. Set ext3 (the only option) as storage device format, this is a Linux filesystem format
7. Accept the warning about removal of all contents
8. Choose Online as the source of NMT Applications
9. Accept the terms and conditions

The process takes 2-3 minutes depending on the size of your USB-attached storage. Afterwards you will have a new NMT Applications screen among the Setup screens.

1. Go to the setup screen
2. choose Maintenance
3. then select Check for firmware update

If there is a firmware update available, you will be prompted to accept the Terms and Conditions on-screen and the download and install process will take just a couple of minutes. It is important to leave the hardware well alone at this stage. The Popcorn Hour player will automatically restart when it has finished the firmware installation.

The TellStick will soon be available to buy online here movingWiFi.com (worldwide delivery) and from Commsoft Ltd (Ireland).

In England, the relatively new Clas Ohlson stores should have the TellStick in stock. At the time of writing Clas Ohlson currently have stores in:

• London – Croydon
• London – Kingston
• Manchester – Arndale centre
• Reading
• Watford

with new stores opening next week in:

• Leeds
• Liverpool

This is a very useful resource when shopping around for a mobile broadband service – if you’ll be using your mobile broadband dongle in one particular location, you’ll want to check out which operator has the closest UMTS mast as distance from mast is probably the most important factor determining the speed of your connection. Connection speeds also fluctuate depending on the number of users using the mast at any one time.

Typical search result from http://www.sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk

• WEP (64-bit or 128-bit hex or ascii keys)
• WPA-PSK (pre-shared key, 8-63 chars)
• WPA Enterprise (radius server)

WLAN -> AUTHENTICATION screen