NosillaCast Apple Podcast · Technology with an EVER so slight Apple bias

NC #1075 Record Your Own Review, Sandy's Smart Outlets, Everything Tech is Broken, Andy Dolph on Zoom Webinars for Remote Events

·1 hr 15 min

1. NosillaCast Apple Podcast #1075 centers on Allison Sheridan’s week of home-automation fixes, network troubleshooting, and a long interview with Andy Dolph about remote event production. 2. Allison Sheridan is the host, Sandy contributes a recorded smart-outlet segment, and Andy Dolph joins as a long-time listener and Special Events Coordinator for Learning Space Technologies at the University of New Hampshire. 3. The episode asks what happens when a home full of gear, a kitchen repair, and university Zoom production all need attention at the same time. 4. Allison opens by saying there will be no live show for three weeks because Christmas, New Year’s, and CES are back to back, and she says the next live show will be January 11. 5. She also says she needs help for an early January 2 episode and points listeners to a new recorder-review page on podfeet.com under “support the show.” 6. Sandy’s segment explains how three Meross smart outlets handle an iron in a sewing room, a lamp used for presence simulation, and Christmas tree lights. 7. Sandy says the iron outlet turns on in the morning, off at night, and off again when she leaves home, while the tree-light outlet turns off when the last person leaves and back on when anyone arrives. 8. Allison says she uses smart outlets for safety, and she notes that Sandy’s tree-light setup gives “double coverage” by combining schedule control and geolocation. 9. Allison says the house recarpetting was followed by a hidden kitchen water leak that started as a hiss and ended with the south wall torn out, a pipe replaced, and heaters and dehumidifiers running. 10. She says the timing was especially bad because five family members, including one two-year-old, were due to stay with them in about a week. 11. The Frontier problem began when a 1GB Dropbox upload stalled at 53 percent after 1 hour and 15 minutes, despite gigabit Fios service. 12. Allison says hardwired tests showed only 200 Mbps down and 4 Mbps up, while the Eero app falsely reported more than 900 Mbps down and nearly 300 Mbps up. 13. She says Frontier support eventually told her to “bounce the data port,” and the speeds returned only after power-cycling the outside converter and the Gateway Eero. 14. Allison says the repaired connection came back at about 800 Mbps down and 700 Mbps up, which matched what she expected from the service more closely. 15. The August smart lock problem involved a door that the app thought was open even when it was closed, which prevented auto-lock from working. 16. Allison says rerunning the lock-and-door-sense calibration with the door open and closed fixed the August lock in a few seconds. 17. The Eufy E340 doorbell story includes dead batteries, missing live video, working recorded clips, and a reset button that was hard to see because it sat on black plastic with black lettering. 18. Allison says resetting the Eufy app flow restored live video and indoor ringing on the home base, although the same battery and live-view problem later returned. 19. Andy Dolph explains that remote event production at UNH became necessary during the pandemic, and he describes Zoom town halls, lighting people with key/fill/backlight, and coaching faculty on camera eyeline and microphone placement. 20. Listeners who manage Zoom events, home studios, or smart-home gear will get the most from this episode, while people who want only one topic or no troubleshooting detail may skip it.

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