Communications and Entertainment

Downstairs Shared Space
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Communications
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Laptop Computers
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High Speed Internet

We supply access to the Internet to all tenants using a Bell Fibe high speed 25 MBit connection, a firewall and provide a wired Ethernet 10_Base-T receptacle in each rental room. There are no wires running down the halls and taped to the floors, nothing to trip on, and much more reliable.

This is one of three outlets in our media access outlet. They look like this:

The center outlet is usually location of the Internet connection receptacle. It is labeled "Cat 5".

You will also find two of these in the Living Room.

All connections are located behind a firewall that is enabled in the wireless access point device.

We also provide a 802.11/g wireless network for our tenants. We operate the network using the highest level of security available, to protect you and ourselves from unwanted access. We use WPA security, which is only available for Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Vista and beyond.

If we have tenants that use MACs, and they are OS-X 10.3 or later, then these will work seamlessly for Internet access. If you use a laptop, and use Windows XP you may be able to set up the connection to automatically switch to use our network when at home and the school's network when on campus. We can also enable 802.11/b for older11 MBit wireless equipment.

All of the Internet access services are included in the rent. Your only cost is to provide the cable from the media outlet jack to your computer. Each tenant may choose a different item of the furniture in their room, and so they need a cable of the appropriate length. They will cost about $12 at Staples (conveniently located just over a mile away.) This cable is the only item that is subject to wear, and it may be wise to have a spare stored away in case of problems.

Use of the Internet: This is provided as a service to facilitate school work and communicating with friends and family. We insist that the Internet connection MUST only be used for legal purposes, this is part of our rental agreement. Other limitations apply to fairly provide bandwidth for all users, such as peer-to-peer software must only be used overnight, and we apply traffic shaping to give intractive use of the Internet a high priority, and may block or slow down daytime use of P2P software and large downloads.

If you have never connected your computer to a high speed Internet connection, or to a home network, you may not have an Ethernet NIC card, or a 802.11g Wireless LAN adaptor card. These can be purchased nearby. We can help you with choosing the right equipment to buy and we can help you install and configure these if you are not certain how to do it.

Confused about wired or wireless? I suggest if you have a desktop computer, you use a wired connection and if you have a notebook, then you use a wireless connection.

We would recommend Linksys Wireless-G PCI Adapter model WMP54G-CA for a desktop computer and a LinkSYS WPC54G PCMCIA cards for a laptop for use with our wireless network, since our WAP is a Linksys device. The choice of a wired Ethernet LAN adaptor for a desktop computer is less critical. I have had best results with 3-COM cards.

Shared Computer

We have a desktop computer that is located in the LIving Room for use by all of our Tenants. This is using Windows XP Professional SP3. This provides everyone with:

There is no charge, we just ask you to replenish the printer consumables. We will sell you blank bulk CD-Rs one at a time, but at our bulk purchase cost when we buy 50 or 100 in a package.

You can print remotely from your room, you only need to go to the Living Roomto pick up the prints.

Television

We provide a basic cable wiring to all rental rooms. We also provide a 32" HD 1080P TV connected to a broadcast antenna, for everyone to use. There is a DVD player connected to the same TV. This TV also has analog game input, as well so it may be used to connect to older games console using baseband video and stereo audio cables. This is all included in your rent.

You can also have a HD TV in your room, at no extra charge. We have two HD LCD TVs that we supply for use in our two largest rooms. We have an over the air antenna which is available in each room at no charge, and all stations are high definition. This broadcast TV antenna receives 10 English stations, and four French, all broadcast in digital HD. You may bring your own TV, but it must be a HD capable and have a digital turner, or it will not receive any channels.

 

We also have an older DVD player that can be borrowed from us to use in a Tenant's room to hook up to their TV. This uses the less convenient component + 2 RCA cables for sound hookup, and does not have HDMI capability. This is for sharing among all the Tenants, and not for exclusive use by one Tenant.

If you wish to bring a HD TV for your room, then also bring an appropriate length of coax with F-series connectors on it to connect your TV to the cable connection in the media outlet receptacle. We don't recommend bring a standard definition TV, as it will not work, there are no analog stations in our area..

We also recommend that if you are purchasing a new TV to bring, that you select one with a headphone/earphone jack so that you do not disturb others late at night. A headphone jack is commonly available in 13 to 19" TV models intended for bedroom use.

We require that all A/V entertainment devices and computers be silent or inaudible after 11:00 at night, so that you do not disturb others.

Telephone

Private telephone service is not included in your rent, and is not provided unless you make specific arrangements for service.

You can use a cellular phone, and purchase an unlimited evenings and weekends plan, and have family members call you during the evenings to avoid paying long distance charges. Another way is to use a phone card for long distance calling, combined with an unlimited evenings and weekends plan. There is a convenience store at a gas station a 3 minute walk away that is open 24 hours which sells a variety of phone cards .

For the adventurous, if you can get your family and close friends to use Skype, you can use free VOIP telephony using your computer. You can also pay a fee and make low cost outgoing calls to regular wired phones all over the world. We suggest that you get this working with at least one friend or family member before you come here. We have had several students from Europe, and they each used Skype and did not have any problems with it.

VOIP notes: