General Gaming Article |
- Newegg Daily Deals: AMD A10-5800K System, WD Black 4TB HDD, and More!
- Turtle Beach Targets Gamers of Every Platform with Recon 50 Series
- Mozilla Wants You to Test Tracking Protection in Firefox 42 Beta
- Microsoft Makes Baidu Default Search for Edge Browser in China
- How To Set Up NIC Teaming (Link Aggregation)
| Newegg Daily Deals: AMD A10-5800K System, WD Black 4TB HDD, and More! Posted: 24 Sep 2015 12:16 PM PDT Top Deal: Summer is officially over, folks. The back-to-school season is in full effect, and that means less time to do the things you like to do. It also means you might not have time to build a budget box for Aunt Mabel, who says she wants a machine for surfing the web and posting to Facebook. No time? No worries, just check out today's top deal for an AMD A10-5800K Trinity System for $250 with free shipping (normally $308; additional $5 mail-in-rebate). This system comes with an AMD A10-5800K quad-core APU clocked at 3.8GHz with Radeon HD 7660D graphics, MSI A68 motherboard, 8GB of Kingston HyperX Fury RAM, 256GB SanDisk Z400s SSD, and a Logisys CS136BK case w/ 480W PSU. Other Deals: 2x Seagate Barracuda 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive Bare Drive for $150 with free shipping (normally $180) WD Black Series WD2003FZEX 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive for $110 with free shipping (normally $119 - use coupon code: [BTEWD1522]) WD Black Series WD3003FZEX 3TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive for $145 with free shipping (normally $150 - use coupon code: [BTEWD1523]) WD Black WD4003FZEX 4TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive for $190 with free shipping (normally $196 - use coupon code: [BTEWD1524]) | |||||||||||||||||
| Turtle Beach Targets Gamers of Every Platform with Recon 50 Series Posted: 24 Sep 2015 10:21 AM PDT Low frills, low price headset The iPhone 6s isn't the only piece of tech gear coming out tomorrow (September 25, 2015), so is Turtle Beach's new Ear Force Recon 50 series, which is a new line of headsets for PC (Recon 50), Xbox One (Recon 50X), and PlayStation 4 (Recon 50P). Turtle Beach didn't go all out with its new Recon 50 line. Instead, this is a budget headset line with a $40 (MSRP) price tag and lightweight design -- according to Turtle Beach, the over-the-ear Recon 50 weighs just seven ounces. Inside the earcups are 40mm Neodymium speaker drivers. Turtle Beach says they deliver "sizzling highs and thunderous lows," while the synthetic leather-wrapped earcups provide improved bass and noise isolation. At $40 retail, we're a bit skeptical of Turtle Beach's claims here. The Recon 50 also has an adjustable, high-sensitivity boom mic (non-removable), along with in-line controls with Mic Mute and Master Volume buttons. Though it's pitched at PC gamers, the Recon 50 can plug into any system with a 3.5mm audio jack, be it a tablet, smartphone, and so forth. If this is something you're interested in and you absolutely can't wait until tomorrow, Turtle Beach is accepting pre-orders for the Ear Force Recon 50 on its website. | |||||||||||||||||
| Mozilla Wants You to Test Tracking Protection in Firefox 42 Beta Posted: 24 Sep 2015 09:50 AM PDT One step closer to being invisible on the web There are certain websites you might not want others to know you visit. Whether it's shopping for a surprise gift, signing up for Justin Bieber's fan club, or (more realistically) surfing porn sites, what you do on the web is your business, except that websites try to make it their business, too. That's where private browsing modes come into play. Taking it a step further, Firefox 42 Beta adds "Tracking Protection" to the mix, one of several experimental features it wants you to try out. Mozilla's theory is that "users have a greater expectation of privacy when using Private Browsing" in Firefox. It says users have provided feedback to support this notion, and so it created a feature in Firefox's Private Browsing mode that blocks certain page elements. "Most websites rely on many different 'third-parties' — companies that are separate from the site you're visiting — to provide analytics, social network buttons and display advertising. These third-parties sometimes include page elements that could record your browsing activity to create profiles about you across multiple sites and Private Browsing with Tracking Protection in Firefox Beta blocks some of these page elements," Mozilla explains. According to Mozilla, Firefox 42 Beta is the only mainstream browser that protects users from website tracking in such a manner. If you want to give it a go, install the beta, click the menu button, and click the New Private Window icon to launch a Private Browsing session. A Control Center screen should appear that confirms Tracking Protection is on -- just surf the web as you normally would at this point. To disable it on a specific website, click the Shield icon on the left side of the URL bar. This brings up the aforementioned Control Center where you can choose Disable protection for this session. | |||||||||||||||||
| Microsoft Makes Baidu Default Search for Edge Browser in China Posted: 24 Sep 2015 08:22 AM PDT Giving Bing the boot Forget about the search engine wars, Microsoft decided that getting as many people possible on Windows 10 is more important than increasing Bing's market share, at least in China. With that mindset in place, Microsoft partnered with Baidu to have the company's search engine take the place of Bing as the default search and homepage in its own Edge browser. In reality, it's not much of a concession for Microsoft. Bing isn't very popular in China to begin with, but with "hundreds of millions of PCs" operating Windows in China, there's a big opportunity to expand Windows 10's reach by appeasing the local crowd. "With over 600 million active users, Baidu is one of the most frequently used Internet gateways in China," Microsoft stated in a blog post. "Together, we will make it easy for Baidu customers to upgrade to Windows 10 and we will deliver a custom experience for customers in China, providing local browsing and search experiences. Baidu.com will become the default homepage and search for the Microsoft Edge browser in Windows 10." The deal also gives Microsoft access to Baidu's new Windows 10 distribution channel called Baidu Windows 10 Express, which will make it easy for Chinese Internet users to download and upgrade to an official version of Windows 10. There are already around 10 million users running Windows 10 in China, though hundreds of millions more are using previous versions, including pirated copies. Microsoft also inked a deal with Xaomi, the leading smartphone maker in China. to adopt Windows Azure as its cloud services provider for its Mi Cloud. | |||||||||||||||||
| How To Set Up NIC Teaming (Link Aggregation) Posted: 24 Sep 2015 12:00 AM PDT There are times when having a bit more performance is better. Actually, who are we kidding? Having more performance is always better. In the case of networking, this is especially true. You can never have enough bandwidth. There will be some, though, who argue that x number of megabits or gigabits per second is "more than enough." We refer to this as the "640KB mentality." All of today's motherboards ship with at least one gigabit Ethernet port. Some premium boards come with two. Of course, you can always add more by installing add-in NICs, and there are motherboards with more than two, but for the sake of this article we're referring to consumer motherboards. So, what exactly is link aggregation? In a nutshell, link aggregation (or trunking), is the fine, delicate art of combining two or more physical Ethernet links into a single logical link. So if two 1Gb/s ports were aggregated, you would get a total aggregated bandwidth of 2Gb/s. Note that we use the phrase "aggregated bandwidth." Think of link aggregation in terms of network link resiliency rather than total available throughput. In that sense, if one physical part of the logical link fails, traffic will failover to the remaining active links. Where you will see increased bandwidth is when you have multiple origin-destination IOs. For example, if you're transferring a file from one PC to another over a 2Gb aggregated link, you'll find that the total maximum transfer rate will top out at 1Gb/s. Start two file transfers, however, and you'll see the benefits of aggregated bandwidth. In simple terms, link aggregation increases the number of lanes on a highway but it doesn't increase the speed limit. What this equates to is if you want true higher throughput, moving to a fatter pipe—like 10GbE—is the only way to go. For the majority of home networks, setting up link aggregation serves little to no advantages. However, if you're employing a NAS that has multiple Ethernet ports, it may support link aggregation and you'll have some benefits there. So, how do you do it in a network? First, you're going to need a switch/router that supports link aggregation (LACP, 802.1ax/ad, etc.). Unfortunately, most consumer-level switches and routers do not support link aggregation, so you'll have to link into business-level products, which will carry a premium. Second, your PC needs to have two Ethernet ports, and whatever device you want to connect to needs to have at least the same. Assuming you have the hardware requirements covered, you'll need an operating system that supports it. Windows 7, 8.1, and 10 for consumers don't have link aggregation features baked into them. Microsoft requires that you use Windows Server instead, or you'll have to use vendor-supplied drivers that have link aggregation features (such as Intel PROSet tools). Linux and OS X have built-in link aggregation features. After you've satisfied all the prerequisites, here's how to do it. We used the following setup:
Configuring the networkFirst, our NIC is a 10GbE Ethernet adapter from Small Tree that's fully compatible with Windows, OS X, and Linux. You can get a 10GbE adapter with SFP+ connections, but for the sake of network compatibility, Small Tree sent a 10GBASE-T (RJ45) version. If you're going for the ultimate in performance though, we recommend going with SFP+ connections, as 10GbE pushes the limits of CAT6 and RJ45 connectors. Small Tree also has SFP+ adapters available if you want that kind of setup. Keep in mind that SFP+ switches are even more expensive than RJ45 switches. Next up: setting up the switch. You'll need a switch that supports link aggregation, whereby there's management capabilities that will allow you to bond individual ports. The Netgear ProSAFE XS708E comes with a utility that allows you to bond specific ports. Depending on your switch, you'll have something similar for teaming up ports like what you see in the image above. The above switch isn't a managed switch, so the tool to set this up comes separately as a standalone application. Your switch may have a web interface. Windows Server 2012 R2Unfortunately, NIC teaming isn't natively available in consumer versions of Windows, so we'll have to use Windows Server and in this case, it's Server 2012 R2. To do this in Windows Server, open the Server Manager. From there, click "Local Server" and you'll see an option called "NIC Teaming." Click the option that says "Disabled" and you'll be presented with the teaming configurator: You'll see both of your NIC interfaces listed under Adapters and Interfaces. Now, select both interfaces, right click, and select "New Team." In the window that pops up, you'll be given a field to name the new logical interface, as well as to select additional properties related to protocol. The protocol you choose depends on the type of switch you have. Give it a name and click OK. For maximum compatibility, select "Switch Independent" under Teaming Mode. Once that's done, you'll end up back in the main NIC Teaming window where you'll see your newly named logical interface comprising your two physical interfaces. Easy! If all goes correctly, both your physical connections will indicate an active state, and you can see the transmission details below, although there's no stat for packets lost. OS XIn OS X, setting up an aggregated link is a bit more straightforward, and doesn't require special tools or third-party drivers—the feature is baked into the default Network preferences. To set it up, open System Preferences and go into the Network options. You may have to click the padlock icon to make the options available. Click the small gear icon and select "Manage Virtual Interfaces..." A drop-down menu will appear. Click the + button and select New Link Aggregate. You'll be presented with a list of your physical interfaces, where you can select the ones you want to bond. Tick the boxes for the interfaces you want to combine, and select Create. Don't forget to give it a name. If all goes well, the two or more physical interfaces you bonded will disappear from the Network interfaces list, and instead be replaced with the logical bond you just created. It's especially good if the light turns green. To see how your connection is doing, select the logical interface and click Advanced. You'll be able to see its status as well as configure other options such as IP address, DNS, etc. To remove the aggregated bond, simply select it in the main Network interfaces window and click the minus (-) button. You'll then need to re-add the individual physical interfaces. LinuxOne could say that the Linux environment is the most straightforward of all OSes in which to create a logical bond. Open a terminal window (and of course, the same commands apply if you're not using a GUI), and type in the following: modprobe bonding Here's a breakdown of what that command means: modprobe bonding: this loads the bonding driver. If you want to configure how the bonding actually operates, you'll want to modify the /etc/modprobe.conf file to include the bond you want to create and define its properties. Open the .conf file and add the following lines: alias bond0 bonding max_bonds: defines the number of bond interfaces to create. To see how your bond is operating, issue the following command: cat /proc/net/bond0/info And you should get the following output: Bonding Mode: load balancing (round-robin) |
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