New Router

Recently we acquired a new router (a tp-link TL-WR841HP), currently attached to the router supplied for free by our Internet provider. Here is what Gemini had to say about the TL-WR841HP:

The TP-Link TL-WR841HP is a high-power wireless N router designed to provide extended Wi-Fi coverage and penetration, particularly in environments with obstacles that can weaken standard wireless signals.   

Release Date:

While specific global release dates for all hardware versions can be varied, information suggests the TP-Link TL-WR841HP was initially available around August 2013. Subsequent hardware versions have been released since then.

Specifications:

• Wireless Standards: IEEE 802.11b/g/n   
• Wi-Fi Speed: Up to 300Mbps on the 2.4GHz band   
• Antennas: Two detachable high-gain antennas (often 5dBi or 9dBi depending on the version)  
• Frequency: 2.4 - 2.4835 GHz
• Ethernet Ports: 4 x 10/100Mbps LAN Ports, 1 x 10/100Mbps WAN Port
• Working Modes: Router Mode, Range Extender Mode, Access Point Mode
• Wireless Security: 64/128/152-bit WEP, WPA/WPA2, WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK   
• WAN Type: Dynamic IP, Static IP, PPPoE, PPTP, L2TP, BigPond
• DHCP: Server, Client, DHCP Client List, Address Reservation   
• Quality of Service (QoS): WMM, Bandwidth Control   
• Port Forwarding: Virtual Server, Port Triggering, UPnP, DMZ
• Dynamic DNS: DynDns, Comexe, NO-IP   
• VPN Pass-Through: PPTP, L2TP, IPSec (ESP Head)   
• Access Control: Parental Control, Local Management Control, Host List, Access Schedule, Rule Management   
• Firewall Security: DoS, SPI Firewall, IP Address Filter, MAC Address Filter, Domain Filter, IP and MAC Address Binding   
• Buttons: WPS/Reset Button, Power On/Off Button, Wi-Fi On/Off Button
• External Power Supply: 12V DC / 1A
• Dimensions (W x D x H): Approximately 9.0 x 7.5 x 1.9 inches (227.5 x 190 x 48.3mm), though this can vary slightly by hardware version.    

Advantages:

• Extended Range and Wall Penetration: The primary advantage of the TL-WR841HP is its high-power design and high-gain antennas, which are intended to provide a stronger signal and better coverage, including the ability to penetrate walls and reduce dead zones.   
• Multiple Operating Modes: It offers flexibility by supporting Router, Range Extender, and Access Point modes, allowing it to be used in various network setups.   
• Easy Setup: The router is generally considered easy to set up, often with the help of a setup assistant or the TP-Link Tether app.   
• Affordable: Compared to more recent and higher-specification routers, the TL-WR841HP is typically an budget-friendly option.
• Detachable Antennas: The detachable antennas allow for potential upgrades to higher gain antennas if needed.   

Disadvantages:

• Limited to 2.4GHz Band: It only operates on the 2.4GHz frequency, which can be congested in many environments, potentially leading to interference and lower speeds. It does not support the faster and less congested 5GHz band.
• Fast Ethernet Ports: The presence of 10/100Mbps Ethernet ports means that wired connections are limited to 100Mbps, which can be a bottleneck for faster internet connections or local network transfers. It lacks Gigabit Ethernet ports.
• Older Wi-Fi Standard: As a Wireless N (802.11n) router, it does not support the newer and faster Wi-Fi standards like Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) or Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax).
• Potential for Overload: Some user feedback suggests that the router can struggle with a large number of connected devices or heavy bandwidth usage, potentially leading to speed drops or instability.
• Inconsistent Performance (based on some user feedback): While designed for high power and range, some users have reported inconsistent performance, including unexpected speed drops or connectivity issues over time, which could be related to firmware, hardware versions, or environmental factors.

Summary of User Feedback Regarding Performance:

User feedback for the TP-Link TL-WR841HP is somewhat mixed but often highlights its strength in providing extended wireless coverage, especially in larger homes or areas with physical obstructions. Many users appreciate the improved signal strength and ability to penetrate walls compared to standard routers. The ease of setup is also frequently mentioned positively.

However, a recurring theme in some user reviews and forum discussions is the potential for performance inconsistency and speed limitations. Some users have reported experiencing significant drops in speed, particularly when multiple devices are connected or under heavy load. Issues with the stability of the connection over time have also been mentioned by some users, occasionally requiring reboots. The limitation to the 2.4GHz band and the 10/100Mbps Ethernet ports are also noted as drawbacks by users with higher internet speeds or those requiring faster local network performance. Despite these criticisms, many users find it to be a cost-effective solution for extending basic internet connectivity over a wider area. 

With a release date of August 2013 this router is clearly OLD but it was the one recommended by the technician and cost about A$50 so it was cheap. It does the job of penetrating those areas of the house where the signal previously struggled to reach and that's what was wanted. The longer 2.4GHz band is what's needed to penetrate the thick walls within the house. Actually the router supplied by the Internet provider does operate in the 5GHz range so that is available if needed.

Figure 1

Figure 1 shows the results of an Internet speed test and we see that data is being downloaded at 26.1Mbps compared to the router's Wi-Fi speed of 300Mbps which is more that 10 times faster. Having a faster router is not really going to make much difference obviously.

Google's NotebookLM

I played around with Google's NotebookLM to create a podcast about psychopaths created from a variety of websites and YouTube videos that I'd linked to as source material. See Figure 1.

Figure 1

Click on this Link to listen to the podcast which is 22 minutes long. It can be downloaded as a 60MB wave file. The site also creates a Study Guide, FAQ, A Briefing Doc and a Timeline. I gathered the source material rather hurriedly and obviously the more time spent in gathering the sources the better. Of course, AI could be used to help in this regard. Overall this was a fun exercise and I'm sure that I'll experiment with NotebookLM further.

ADDENDUM: Another podcast etc. was created for me on the theme of Chess Champions. I used Gemini Deep Research to gather the sources and this was the result (link).

Spreadsheets and AI

I notice that there are several sites offering spreadsheet capabilities in combination with AI so that users need very little knowledge to carry out reasonably challenging tasks like creating pivot tables. One such site that I tried yesterday was quadratic and, after signing up to the site, I copied and pasted some data from the b-table of a sequence in the OEIS. Figure 1 shows what the data looked like.

Figure 1

However, Figure 2 showed what happened when I pasted the data in.

Figure 2

This was extremely annoying and didn't make any sense. I used the site's AI to fix the problem but the fix was tedious and only temporary. The spreadsheet was determined to keep messing up those cells on rows 11 and 12. I liked the site because Python code can be inserted directly into cells but the site obviously has glitches and it's also very slow to load. 

So today I'm trying a different but similar site called Bricks. I carry out the exact same task and see what happens. At first it made a complete mess of it and lumped all the date into cell A1 where I'd pasted it in the first place. At least quadratic had enough sense to put the data into the first column. However, I asked the AI in Bricks to fix the problem and it did. Figure 3 shows the result.

Figure 3

So I was satisfied with that, although I got the message that I only had 99 of 100 trial AI messages left. I hope that's just for the day and not for all time*. To be fair Google Sheets does exactly the same thing as Bricks and then it's very hard to fix without the AI. I'm encouraged to use Bricks again for more complex tasks than the very simple one attempted here.

* It turns out the free plan is as described in Figure 4 with 30 trial AI messages a month, that's only one per day!? The premium plan of $20 per month allows 500 AI queries per month and collaboration with up to 200 team members. This seems very stingy to me.

Figure 4

Gormenghast

I'm currently rereading "Titus Groan", the first novel of the Gormenghast trilogy, and I thought it would interesting to test out Google's Gemini using the following query:

Can you describe the appearance of a fictitious person who appears suddenly and asks for directions. The description should be in the style of the characters that appear in the Gormenghast trilogy.

I was quite impressed with the response. Here it is:

A figure, seemingly extruded from the very fog that clung to the courtyard stones, materialized before me. Not quite a man, not quite a shadow, but a damp, rustling presence. His coat, a patchwork of what might have once been velvet and now resembled desiccated bat wings, draped to the cobbles, trailing a faint, earthy scent. His face, glimpsed beneath a hat woven from what looked like dried reeds and raven feathers, was a landscape of deep, shadowed hollows and jutting, bone-like prominences. One eye, a milky, opalescent orb, stared fixedly, while the other seemed to have retreated into a fold of skin, leaving only a twitching, purplish scar. His hands, gnarled and speckled with a strange, verdigris-like substance, clutched a crumpled, damp parchment. A voice, thin and reedy, like the wind whistling through a broken flute, rasped, "The... the path... to the... the Obsidian Stair? Which... which way?" His lips, cracked and blue, barely moved, as if the words were being forced through a sieve of bone. 

I'd been prompted to do this after reading an article by a writer on technology who had been mightily impressed with AI's ability to write short stories.

Second Rapid Game

My second rapid game (10 minutes with a 5 second increment) ended disastrously but I had a dominant position until I ran into time trouble. Figure 1 shows the situation before I lost my rook. I only six seconds remaining.

Figure 1

As can be seen, I'm a rook up but two pawns down. All I needed to do was to protect my rook but when seconds remain you do silly things. My opponent had the luxury of 2 minutes and 27 seconds and that made all the difference. This loss cost me a hefty 119 rating points, which seems rather excessive. and took me down to 1608 which is embarassing but it shouldn't be too hard to work my way back up provided a learn to manage my time better.

My response to White's initial e4 was the Pirc Defense characterised by d6. I quite like this response but need to research it further. The YouTube channel Journey to Grandmaster is promoting it heavily via a playlist of 11 videos. See Figure 2.

Figure 2

First Rapid Chess Game

My first chess game played in the rapid format resulted in a loss on time. This was unfortunate as I had a superior position. Figure 1 shows the position after Black's 37th move where his Rook checked my King. I was already under time pressure and instead of simply taking his Rook with my Knight, I retreated my King to g1. Had I taken the Rook, Black would have captured my Knight with his Queen (not his Rook) and there would have been an exchange of Queens. Black's recapture with the Rook would have resulted in checkmate.

Figure 1

In any case, I was subjected to a withering Kingside attack early on that I managed to escape from using Black's own Rook pawn for cover. Figure 2 shows the final position when I lost on time. As can be seen I was a piece and a pawn up.

Figure 2

My rapid rating is now a tentative (because so few games played) \( \textbf{1727} \) and so my future opponents will be weaker than Misterx47 who was rated at 1920. He gained 3 points and I lost a massive 88 points. So I'll now work on getting my rating closer to 2000.

Shocking Chess Defeat

Yesterday I suffered one of my more humiliating chess defeats, losing four games in a row to an over-the-board player. In my defence, I was playing someone who makes a habit of playing 5 minute blitz games online and so my opponet was well practised. In contrast, I was not. I occasionally play online games against a computer with no time limit but rarely play humans online in any format.

I don't like defeats and so it seems obvious that, if I'm not to suffer further defeats (and my chess partner has threatened to return), I must raise the quality of my playing through constant online practice. To that end, I'll need to resume using lichess.org and choose a suitable time format. I think the 10 minutes with a 5 second increment is probably the best format for me. the 5 minute games I find too stressful.

I'll give it a go anyway and see how it works out. It's the best and quickest way to improve my playing and it's something that I should have done years ago. I'll use this blog site to report on my progress. I'll play on my laptop initially as I find the small screen on my phone difficult to use, although I guess this is something that I need to overcome as well. This constant play also gives me a goal, namely to improve my rating. In some ways, it's no different to playing Wordle and trying to improve my statistics for that game.