Let's talk Internet & Connectivity

00:00 What are we going to talk about today, Rich? We're going to talk about networking. And what's networking mean, from a tech point of view? 00:11 Internet access, and access to the interweb. So, uhm, and we thought we'd talk about this because it is a big problem for a lot of people, but also it's a big problem for us. 00:24 Because, basically, look, you know, we're running, we're running a, you know, a POS app on a, on an iPad or on an iPhone. 00:34 But it is reliant on internet connectivity. Uhm, and so, you know, there's a lot of caching and whatnot on the, on the iPhone, but the whole thing about, you know, with Wynan, is that it's got so many smarts and half the smarts are around club membership, for example. 00:53 So, club pricing rules, ah, well, first of all, who are the club members? Yeah. What are the pricing rules? What prices do they get? 01:01 And one club member, the way, you know, with Wynan's got a lot of, ah, pricing sophistication, but it, uhm, you know, you can have, ah, one member with five different products. 01:12 for 20 different products, and you can't do all of that locally. It's got to go, it's got to go back to the server and say, hey, what, what's the price? 01:22 Uhm, and obviously, too, with, uhm, with credit card transactions, too, that's all got to go off to, to, uhm, that's got to go up, up into the cloud and say, hey, is this credit card legit and whatnot? 01:34 So, basically, networking is a big problem for a lot of people. So, we thought we'd talk about it and make a, make another video. 01:39 Uhm, uhm, and this is the thing, is that, too, is, even though we're replacing our old POS, you know, there were, there were some frustrating things about our old POS, you know, a bit clunky and too many steps. 01:53 Uhm, but, uhm, uhm, making, or compounding those problems, though, were, uh, shitty networks. Uhm, and, you know, we'd cop the blame for it, but, but the thing was, like, in all reality, like, 95% of the time when someone was complaining about, uhm, the POS not working, it was because of, sometimes it 02:16 was us, sometimes there was a bug, but most of the time it came down to internet problems, uhm, I remember, like, the Christmas, uh, the day after Boxing Day a few years ago, um, there was, uh, someone rang us up and said, look, the POS isn't working. 02:34 And, and we were like, well, we haven't received a hundred other phone calls, so, uhm, and we can see other people are doing transaction, so it's something to do with you, and when it's something to do with you, it's your internet. 02:47 Um. Now, internet can mean not just NBN, it can mean a couple of things, right? Um, so, and they came back and they said, no, it's not the internet. 02:58 The download speeds, you know, the download speeds are great, it's workin' fine. Um, and basically, we were troubleshooting for a couple of hours, and then it literally got to a point where I just said, you know what, can you send me a photo of your, of your modem Wi-Fi router, to send me a photo of 03:16 the bottom of it, and of which they did, and so I googled the model number, and saw that, that router was a 2012 model, it could handle two wireless connections. 03:27 Right. And I was like, As in two devices. As in two devices, I was like, how many devices have you got on the network, and they're like, like, 15? And the thing was, It was that, um, when she was doing a speed test, it was downloading a good speed for her device. 03:45 Um, but, because it could only handle two wireless connections, it was kicking off, it was kicking off, um, the pause, in order to do her speed test. 03:56 Um, so we said, look, get everyone off the network, and everything. Things started working again. There you go. Um, so, the other thing about connectivity is that, like, you know, uh, we have never not been able to solve it. 04:10 Um, or we or, um, we or the people we put people in touch with, have never not been able to solve the problem. 04:18 And especially now with things like Starlink, like, really, there's no, there's no excuses about work. But there's, um, there is now literally no reason why you can't have great, great internet. 04:31 Um, so this is very much a solvable problem and, um, we encourage everyone to do everything they can to solve it. 04:39 Because it's a little bit like, I think it's a little bit like, um, you know, I've said to someone once, you know, you don't get, you don't get mad at the washing. 04:49 The washing manufacturer, when the water gets switched off, like the washing machine needs water, um, you, you do, you can't operate without electricity these days, you can't operate a business without running water, you can't operate a business without internet. 05:07 Um, and it's not just us, you need the internet for, it's everything else you need. It's a fundamental, so that's it. 05:13 Yeah, so you mentioned Starlink, and I know many people know what Starlink is, but just for those who don't. Um, yeah, so Starlink is, um, Starlink is, um, Elon Musk's, uh, business, so part of SpaceX, basically, um, a constellation of a few thousand, or even tens of thousands, of, um, low earth orbit 05:37 satellite. Light's up in the sky, um, and basically, um, now, um- You can get internet anywhere on the planet, right? 05:45 Literally anywhere on the planet, so, um, and I've not to sort of jump ahead, but I've bought over Christmas holidays, I bought a Starlink dish, which is the size, literally the size of my, like, that sort of, that sort of rectangular shape fits in. 06:01 My backpack, um, they had a half price sale for $2.99, and, um, because I was going camping with the boys, um, but I needed to still have access to, to, um, things for work. 06:15 And, um, this place where there was no mobile reception at all, like, literally the SOS would, you know, the SOS would come up. 06:25 And, um, Starlink, 209 bucks for the hardware, one off, um, 80 bucks a month for, um, for a 50 gig plan. 06:36 And it's the instructions, it's awesome. The instructions are, plug it in, point at sky. And it, and it, and and I was getting like, I was getting faster internet in the middle of the bush, um, then I'd do, On NBN at home. 06:51 So I'm a, I'm a, I'm a fanboy of Starlink. Um, so, um, I do, I do point a lot of people in that direction. 06:59 Um, so I thought, though, what we could do is just explain a little bit about networking as well. Now, I am not a networking specialist. 07:07 Um, but, um, you know, there are people way more clued in to this than me. Um, and- We don't do this- this type of work, um, and- but we can certainly point you towards people who do. 07:19 Um, and as I say, we've never had, um, we've never had someone who hasn't been able to solve the problem. 07:25 Um, so, when we're talking about networking and internet, like, you know, the internet, there's really, um, three things we're talking about. 07:36 Um, So you've got- you've got the internet, right, which is, you know, the stuff up there, um, and then to access the internet, you've got a modem, and then you've got a Wi-Fi, and then you've got the device that is presenting the internet- Your computer, your phone. 07:56 Your computer, your phone, your iPad. So there are three things, um, three things happening. up. Um, and when people have bad internet or have connectivity problems, it could be any of those three things, um, that could be causing the problem. 08:11 So, for example, um, your modem might be c- like Telstra might have- might be having a bad day. So that- that could be a cause. 08:20 Um, more common- more commonly is your- uhh. Thumbs up. More commonly, uhh, Wi-Fi. Um, so, uhh, Wi-Fi is a big problem. 08:32 Um, and we've got all sorts of examples of, you know, you can have- and, you know, you can say, I've got a Wi-Fi. 08:37 You know, I've got Wi-Fi. Um, but you might have Wi-Fi, but Wi-Fi doesn't travel through sandstone- big sandstone walls that are that thick. 08:49 Um, it doesn't travel through tin roofs and tin- tin walls. So, for a tech dummy like me, can you explain how Wi-Fi works? 08:58 Because I have troubles at home with my modem sometimes, and I think, uh, is it the weather? Is it- is it because there's too many things blocking it? 09:05 How does it work, essentially, in a nutshell? Okay, so, again, layman, like, sort of, what, peak layman. Um, so, um, Wi-Fi, imagine, imagine, this is a Wi-Fi box, and this is a meeting out radio waves. 09:21 Um, so, if I put, you know, so radio waves are going out, and you're standing over there, so the radio waves need to travel from this box to you. 09:32 Um, now, if I put a sheet of corrugated tin between- between you and the Wi-Fi router, the radio waves, uh, will have a really hard time penetrating that. 09:44 Um, if I put a brick wall, um, in, it will have a hard time penetrating that. But then, an interesting one, which we've seen before too, is that if- if this is a Wi-Fi terminal, and this is a Wi-Fi terminal, and this one's radio waves are going in this direction, and this one's radio waves are going- 10:02 in that direction, the radio waves can actually, I don't know if I'm saying this correctly, but they can- they're out of phase, they cancel. 10:07 They kind of cancel each other out, I think. Um, and so, yeah, so it's not just like, you know, I've got a Wi-Fi, I've got a repeater, and, you know, it should be working. 10:17 Um, it's like, yeah, there's even, like, positioning and stuff. So- so if you've got a big sell-a-door, um, the Wi-Fi signal, depending on your actual embita, or your modem, your thin transmitter, um, might be strong, might be weak, and we wouldn't know. 10:35 So, we might be thinking, well, hang on, why doesn't the Wi-Fi work down at the other end of this hell-a-door? 10:40 Yeah. Um, for instance. Yeah. How do we solve that? So, uh, so, you know, in the, in the early days of Wi-Fi, you'd, you'd get your- you'd get your- box from Telstra, and, and they'd say, hey, it's got a Wi-Fi router built in Happy Days. 10:55 Um, and so that single box would push radio waves out, but those radio waves would only reach so far. So, like, so for example, at my parents' place, the Wi-Fi router is in the sunroom. 11:07 Um, and right down the other end of the house, you'd get like one bar of Wi-Fi and things would slow down a lot. 11:14 Um, these days now you've got mesh networks, so a mesh is kind of like, you've got Wi-Fi punching out a signal, uh, then a node which picks up that signal and then repeats it, and you can have mesh, um, you know, so you can copy your whole place in, in, in, so I did buy one from home and I guess it works 11:38 . . . the similar concept. Um, so if you've got to sell a door and that's to say you're running the new vent in their app, which is reliant on that connectivity, that signal, but you've got your customers outside on the terrace and you're having a glass of mine and they want to, you want to make yourself 11:53 to them right there, but you might want to think about getting that repeater, which is only, I think I paid 40 bucks for it. 11:59 . Oh yeah, I mean, there, there, there are cheap ones and expensive ones. . . Um, it's, again, it's one of those ones where I wouldn't scream out on it. 12:05 Um, and like, look at home, I use a Google, a Google mesh, which was like, um, alright, back in the day, it was like 300 bucks. 12:16 Um, there's a, um, pretty much the, the best in the business is a brand called, um, Ubiquiti, uh, which Matt is like a rash. 12:27 Um, but the other thing is like the outdoor areas, like, so you might have the, you've got the modem and, and the main router inside, um, inside the cell at all. 12:37 Um, but then you do a lot of service outside the cell at all. And between the router and outside, you've gotta be the, yeah, big concrete wall and, or tin roof. 12:49 Um, and so that's Where you'd run a, you know, you'd get someone to run a cable, a physical hard cable, um, from the box, um, yeah, stick it through a hole outside and then you'd get a waterproof, um, a waterproof and specifically designed outside, um, blaster. 13:09 I reckon I could do that. You don't need a technician to install that, do you? Yeah, you can. Uh, yeah, I mean, you can, but. 13:14 But, um, yeah. But don't skim. Don't skim. Yeah, I mean, and look, there's, um, another client of ours, see the other thing is it's not just, it's not just, um, the device is too, like, it can even be just the cable. 13:29 Okay. Um, so like, um, the shitty cable, you got a shitty result. Well, these guys told me, um, so we had a, um, we've got a client who. 13:38 You had huge problems with their, with their internet and Wi-Fi. And, um, and, um, the guy who fixed it was telling me, he's like, no, no, we've got a, we've got a machine, we've got a device that you can plug the cable in. 13:53 Uh, so basically, like, if a rat has chewed through a cable, or they, the rat might have chewed through three quarters of the cable, this device. 14:02 It's called detect that it's the cable that's causing the problem. Um, so there's, as I say, there's like, there's a ton of things that could be going wrong, um, when it comes to network connectivity problems. 14:15 And, and analogy I sometimes use is, um, is, uh, where I say, like, you know, if you think, we all need air to breathe, right? 14:26 So if you sort of, go, right, we need air, we need the internet. So if we go, if we go, the internet is air. 14:32 Um, so the cellular is a house. Um, we've got to get air into the house through the front door that's your modem and then once the air is in the front door, you've got to circulate it around the house. 14:53 Um, which is, you know, so for that, you use ceiling fans, which is your Wi-Fi. So, um, so if you sort of say, alright, well, um, my internet's not working. 15:05 The front door could be jammed, um, or the ceiling fans might not be going, um, or even, you know. Or even the devices that you're, you, you're working off might not be, might not be, might have a problem as well. 15:20 Um, so, yeah, so that's kind of a bit of a, a way to think about it. Um, generally, as I say, like, there's, you can solve this now. 15:30 Um, so pretty much everyone's got NBN, but, um, I've never had a great experience. I've got, I've got fiber to the premises now. 15:42 Okay. And it's still crap. Um, so, um, yeah, so I'm, and I'm paying for an extra plan and, and the kids watch TV and, and my video calls drop off. 15:53 So don't, I, I don't have much love for NBN. Um, in saying that, some people might not actually know how to do a speed test. 16:01 Oh yeah, so, um, a speed So a speed test is, you know, where you're testing the speed of your internet. 16:06 Umm, quickest and easiest way to do that is just to go to fast.com. F-A-S-T.com. Um, and you literally go type in F-A-S-T.com and visit the URL and it'll just instantly do a speed test. 16:21 It spits out a number. And it'll spit out a number. And the thing is too, is that actually it's worth bearing in mind too, that when we're to- talking about internet, umm, you've got download and upload. 16:31 So, umm, in the early days of internet, it was all about download because we're all, we're all downloading songs or movies or we're downloading a web page. 16:41 Umm, but then, and the telcos just knew that everyone was obsessed with download and everyone knew what download was. Umm, but then when cloud stuff came out, umm, to get things into the cloud, you had to upload. 16:57 Umm, and so, umm, Telstra and all about they all talk about download speeds. No one talks about upload speeds. Umm, but, funnily enough, umm, well actually, but now you are starting to get some people talk about upload speeds. 17:14 So, for example, I was he brought and I saw they have got a plan where umm, you can get the thousand download, uhh, the thousand down and the, you know, 30 up. 17:26 This is megabytes per second. Megabits per second, yeah, or you could get umm, the 500, or the 600 down and the 600 up. 17:35 And frankly, umm, yeah, because It's like, you know what It might be getting, you might be getting 200, 600 or a thousand down, but if you're getting 5 up or 10 up, then, yeah, and you gotta remember that your point of sale or all your computers, everything you're doing, is two ways. 17:54 So like, umm, so you might go, oh, yeah, that downloaded, that, that, sort of, all the prices came through really quick, but when I told it to do something, that when, It wasn't really slow, umm, and so that could be, you know, that could be, umm, to do with your download and upload speed. 18:10 Another speed issue I've discovered when I get this at home a lot, because I've got an older modem, umm, and it, it's sometimes, I have to unplug the modem or reset the modem, because I'm experiencing, umm, really slow speeds for some reason. 18:24 Yeah. And that has fixed the problem and also sometimes, I'm just, umm, restarting the computer to get rid of all of the stuff running in the background that you don't know that's running. 18:34 Yeah. And also, I've noticed this hail for help. Yeah, I must say, I pretty much never restart my modem, but I should. 18:40 Umm, I was up at Mum and Dad's and Dad was like, oh, the internet's just for some reason to stop working. 18:44 And it took me about 45 minutes until I just went, oh, maybe I should try unplugging the, I'm plugging it. 18:49 And I, umm. I'm. Plugged it and restarted it and hey, it all started working again. Umm, so yeah, there's all, there's a plenty of cobwebs a little bit. 18:58 Yeah, yeah, there's always, there's always something. Umm, so, umm, so, umm, the other thing is that like, umm, your iPad, umm, you know, because your iPad, like a computer, it's got, it's got, umm, a hard disk, you know, it's got storage and it's got RAM. 19:15 Umm, so, quite often, umm, iPhone, you know, all, all tablets and, and phones will go really slow when their storage is full. 19:27 So if you've got a, you know, if you're taking all the, if you're taking, like, lots of 4K video with your phone and storing it on your phone, umm, and you've got a 60. 4 gig phone and you've got 63.8 gigs used. 19:43 That phone will slow down really, uh, really bad. Um, the other thing is, actually talking about upload, is that, that, uh, won't really, you know, the day after Boxing Day. 19:56 So yeah, they had good download speed for that device, but also, umm. The router kind of goes, Alright. Who needs it? 20:04 And there might be a phone going, well, I'm trying to do something over here and we go, alright, well, you need it, it sounds like you need it more and, and this, this device isn't, doesn't, is kind of sitting idle, so I'll, I'll kick that off. 20:18 So you think about two days after Boxing Day. Um, and I'm just, you know, I'm just, um, you know, I don't know for a fact because I wasn't there. 20:27 But, um, I was, I was presuming or guessing that perhaps this, this, you know, one or two staff members came in with their phone in their pocket and that's been joined to the Wi-Fi previously. 20:41 So they walk in, phones in their pocket, um, and their phones got, you know, half an hour or ten minutes or whatever of four. 20:51 Okay, video footage that was taken on Christmas Day and, um, and it hasn't been connected to a Wi-Fi since and now they walk into the cellular and the phone goes, ah, a Wi-Fi network. 21:03 I'm now going to sync all of this up to iCloud automatically and so maybe the, the, um, that wineries, uh, modem went, ah. 21:13 Okay. This, this person's phone. It needs access to the internet because they've got to upload this, this, um, video to cloud and, and the pause doesn't need as much as this, so I'm going to kick the pause off. 21:25 Um, I mean, again, I don't know that for a fact, but that's kind of how it works. So, um, so, um, other things, uh, so, you know, for an example like that, a dedicated Wi-Fi network just for the pause. 21:39 Yeah. Okay. That's it. Is, is a bit of a sort of like 101. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and that way, if need, you know, if you are having troubles, you can turn off every other network, except the pause network. 21:51 Don't share the password. Yeah. Um, turn off the guest Wi-Fi network. You don't need a guest Wi-Fi network. No. People don't use it, do they? 21:58 No. Um, um, you don't need a guest network, so turn that off. Uh, um, and- I don't know about obstructions and things. 22:07 Yeah, like, I mean, um, even, I mean, god, someone up in the hunter, um, they had the Wi-Fi router under the, under the bench, under the bench, and the bench had this, um, like two mil thick, um, stainless steel, uh, top. 22:25 Yeah. Um, and sorry. I just, I got the router and took it out from under the bench and put it on top of the bench, and things started working a bit better. 22:34 Yeah. Um, another big one is Spotify, um, or streaming services. Yeah, Spotify and streaming, so basically, um, if you're having internet problems, don't stream music, um, because again, the router's gonna go, ah, the device running Spotify. 22:52 Um, or, you know, and even the app on that device, I need to prioritize Spotify because that's using more than the app that, that's trying to complete a transaction. 23:00 Right. Um, so don't stream Spotify, like, you know, go into, when, when, when it's after hours, go into Spotify, download a couple of hundred songs, so they're on the device, and that way you don't need to stream it. 23:14 Um. So that's, that's a big one. Even staff just using, um, social media, um, in their lunch break because they would never do it during hours, but, um, the, the idea of, um, you know, it's, it's all competing for, for a certain bandwidth, right? 23:31 Yeah. And if you're limited, if you're rural, which a lot of sellers are, you really got to be mindful at this stage with the technology, the way it is, and, and the signal, um, the way it is. 23:40 Even though styling is a great option, some people won't get it straight away, you've got to be kind of mindful that, um, yeah, you can't just run everything, can't have everything going all at once. 23:50 No, well, I mean, cause again, if you think about, you know, the, the air coming through the front door, if there's a problem with the modem, or there's a problem with the ceiling fans, um, the air that is coming in the front door is going to get quickly gobbled up. 24:04 The thing that needs it the most. Um, so if there's only a little, if there's only a little trickle of air coming through, um, you need to, where the point of sale is the primary, um, has the primary access to that air. 24:18 Um, now, you know, and, and Matt, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm just going, you know, styling solves everything. Matt is, you know, Matt will say, you know, Matt says, and Matt is one of our guys who knows more about this than I, and he's like, look, you don't need styling, but, um, but, you know, I just, 24:36 you know, tick, done, job done. Um, look, styling. Um, uh, I'm paying, so at home, I'm paying, you know, the cheapest NBN plan, I think I'm telling you, say the 89 or 99, it always seems to go up. 24:50 So, I was paying 99 dollars a month for NBN, and it was crap. Um, so then I paid for the, we got fired to the premises, and so then I paid for the extra speeds, and now I'm paying 129. And I get the extra speed, but I also, but I still seem to have all these problems still. 25:08 Um, styling is 149. So, for an extra 20 bucks a month, like, cause that's the thing, like, yeah. Okay, to get the Starlink kit, it's, you know, it's $800, but they're always on sale. 25:22 Like, they're on sale right now, so you can get the Starlink, the whole Starlink kit and caboodle for 399. Right. 25:29 Um, the, the Starlink, um, mobile one that fits in your backpack, that's normally 600, I'll go that for 299. So, um, so you don't have to spend tons of money. 25:39 Um. Thank your time. And it's a one off expense, but then the monthly fee, look for, for 20 bucks or 30 bucks or 40 bucks extra than what you're paying. 25:48 Again, like, if you had a business with no electricity, you wouldn't think twice about spending another 40 bucks a month to solve your electricity problem. 25:57 So that's why it's like cool to spend the money and just, just fix the problem. Yeah. And I think sort of, MBM versus Starlink, I'm a- you know, you can have a debate about that, but, um, I think there might be a little bit of, it might be a little bit telling that Telstra is now selling Starlink. 26:15 Right. Um, so you can, you can access Telstra, but it's, but it's, you know, Telstra's reselling Starlink. Um, but also Starlink, um, we've had a couple of times where people go, we've got Starlink and it doesn't work. 26:28 Right. Um, and so, uh, in one of those examples, the dish was facing, uh, south, instead of north. Right. Um, in another case, the dish was pointed straight towards, um, a row of trees. 26:43 And, um, so, you know, it's not reaching the satellite, so it's got to talk to a satellite, right? Yeah, well, even when I, now, when I went camping, um, when I went- camping with the boys, so yeah, I had Starlink, and, um, and, um, I started out with it, sort of, I had it on the camper, kind of pointing 27:02 as, as straight up as I could. Um, but, there was a tree, you know, we were right next to this tree, so, there was a lot of clear sky from sort of here onwards. 27:12 Um, but every now and then it, it, it said, uh, obstruction. So I literally got it, and I tilted it that way, and everything, everything, uh, worked better, because I was in a, you know, I was in a campground with a lot of trees, um, but if you, um, you know, but if you either put the thing up high, 27:32 or put it out in the middle of the vineyard, they're all waterproof as well, obviously. So they work in the rain, they work in cloudy conditions, so. 27:40 Hot conditions. Yeah, yeah, all the elements. Even, I mean, in the U.S., the, um, I saw that, um, the styling dish has actually got a heater in it. 27:50 Alright, so when the, when they get a big dump of snow, it can melt it. It melts it. So yeah, it's pretty cool. 27:59 So, um, and then of course, um, you've got, um, you've fire. Okay. Okay. Back up, 4G, 5G. And obviously, that's not, um, that's not a solution for everyone, cause there's just some people where, um, where you don't get access to it. 28:14 Um, but, um, even sort of 5G, those, it's actually quite, um, it's almost everywhere now, too. And, um, I'm gonna, I'm gonna b********* this, this as well, but the difference. 28:29 Between 4G and 5G, I think I'm getting this right, is that the, uh, 5G is faster, um, because it's, you know, the, the, um, the, the bandwidth, or the radio waves are smaller. 28:42 Okay. So there's smaller band, there's smaller radio waves, um, But they don't go as far. 28:55 Okay. Um, so like, on a modem, you've, or on a router, you've got 2.4 gigahertz and 5 gigahertz. So 5 gigahertz is faster, but 5 gigahertz won't punch through a, uh, a brick wall as good as a 2.4 gigahertz. 29:13 So I think 5G is faster, but it, uh, uhh. But there was something about it where it was like, and I, don't quote me on this because I might be wrong, but I think 5G was like, they did something where it went faster and went further. 29:28 Really? I think, maybe. Um, but long story short, that's why we also say, you know, get, get the divide, get an iPad with a simming tray. Um, as a backup, just in case. Um, so. Well, while we're on the topic of, you know, devices connecting and things like that, um, I've always is curious to know what's 29:49 it evens 12.