Q-See Security Cameras by q-see.com do not work: problems with Internet Explorer 9

After you have already wasted your money purchasing what looks like a good security system, the 8 camera QT426 Q-See Security System, you quickly realize that it is impossible to access remotely.
So, you will struggle to install it in your home. That will take about $600 to install the cameras and a lot of reading and work to get them to work on your DVR that they supply. You'll have to purchase a TV to view the camera images and then spend weeks through trial-and-error learning how the system works because the instruction booklets are worthless. They are written by geeks with no sense of how normal people live, act and operate.
Then, you will spend weeks trying every possible configuration to access your new system that you spent a fortune trying to install, only to discover that the Q-See Security Camera System doesn't work with Internet Explorer 9. And, when you call Q-See to ask, they will tell you that you have to hire a professional installer to help you. When you call the professional installer to help you, they will offer to do the work for a mere $2,500.
You will also download a software program that will cost another $30 to $100 to "Port Forward," which allows, supposedly, outside access to your computer system so you can view the cameras remotely. (It doesn't work folks. Q-See did all this as a joke on you.)
If you already purchased the system, you are out of luck. Although Comcast has announced plans to offer their own security system for the home that works with the Internet. You can disconnect and through out the DVR and then purchase their security camera DVR. Then you will have to clip all of the wires and then install new connectors that fit. That's tricky in and of itself.
In then end, you will go out and purchase a new security camera system from another manufacturer because Q-See Cameras do not work.
You will spend a lot of money, wasting a lot of money, to discover that on your own if you are foolish enough to have wasted your time trying to figure this garbage Q-See Camera system out.
Although you can always write off the lost money, realizing that Q-See has the worst possible technical support ever will only make you that much more angrier.
--- Ray Hanania www.hanania.com

AOL was once the best email system, now it is the absolute worst

I don't know what happened to AOL but at one time, it was one of the best email systems out there. It was free. It dominated the internet landscape. And it worked.
These days, AOL has become spam central. Worse, the system is corrupted. When you used to be able to have 7 usernames, now you can't access them. If you want help, you have to pay.
People complain all the time that AOL doesn't work. You lose emails. Their help system is a failure. New emails don't register and don't work. 
Honestly, I wouldn't pay a penny for the service. and you shouldn't either.
-- Ray Hananiawww.hanania.com

Counting your pennies with Skype -- turns out you have to

Skype is a wonderful online software program that lets you connect for free computer-to-computer to others who have Skype accounts. And, it also allows you to use your computer through Skype to call telephones around the world for a small fee.
The fee Skype advertises is 2.3 cents per call in the United States, land lines and cell phones. The rates vary for countries around the world.
Sounds pretty simple.
The problem is that Skype isn't always honest. It's kind of like one of those movies where a low level bank employees figures out a way to take a few pennies from each transaction and steal them to another account. Eventually, those few pennies build up and make a fortune. In the movie "Office Space," that exactly what three of the company's employees did.
But that's not what Skype should be doing, and it does.
Recently, Skype sent me a note saying that if I did not use my "Skype Credit" (which is like a bank you can put into your account to cover any calls you make, they were going to remove it. All I had to do was call any number even if it is just for "one second" and the credit would remain good for at least six months (180 days).
Sounds simple. Okay. I'll waste my time to accommodate their needs.
I have $11.59 centers in credit on my account. So, I figured I'd call my cell phone on my table in front of me.
It worked, as it always does.
But I noticed that my credit dropped from $11.59 to $11.52. That was a 7 cent call. A lot different from the 2.3 cents they advertise to get people to use their system.

Call landlines and mobiles worldwide from:

2.3¢/min

That's their Ad on their web page!

The actual cost of the call was $.072 or 7.2 cents.

By my math -- and I went to the Chicago Public Schools folks -- that's a difference of 3.9 cents above what they advertised.

How many people have an accounting department to go over every call they make to insure that Skype is being honest. We're not banks. But Skype apparently thinks we are. And they must also think that we don't care about a few pennies.

But, it's not about the pennies as much as it is about the principle of honesty.

-- Ray Hanania
www.TheMediaOasis.com

Few things work as promised, but Hauppauge's HD Video Recorder for Windows is Phenomenal

I wanted to have a system to be able to record programs off of my Comcast Cable TV DVR, but Comcast and the video industry have done everything they can to deny homeowners from recording live broadcasts with today's new technologies like the Blue Ray DVD players.

I've tried everything and nothing worked, until I came across the Hauppauge's HD Video recorder which literally not only allows you to grab High Definition video right off your TV set through your Comcast Cable Box (on any box, DVR or satellite slave), but it also allows you to copy anything you watch on TV, movies, news and more.

Many times I want to be able to watch a movie on my cell phone or on my iPad that I have purchased on Comcast Cable's Pay per View system.

The Hauppauge HD Video recorder does it seamlessly and in high quality. Wow!

Better yet, it is simple to install. And, it was the Comcast people at Best Buy who told me about it and recommended it. Okay, I can forgive Comcast for the way it has transformed from a great cable TV system to a greedy everything by the dollar system -- they literally will offer a movie free on one channel and try to make you pay $2.99 to see the same "OLD" movie on another channel, all at the same time.


The system comes with a HD PVR. It offers those 5-pin multi-color HDMI video cables  with plug in to the back of any Comcast Cable Box and then plugs in to the HD DVR box from Haupauge. You then connect the Hauppauge HD PVR Box using a USB cable they provide -- Hauppauge provides ALL the cables you need, unlike Sony, Samsung and most other systems that make you go out and buy the necessary cables at additional costs -- to a USB plug on your computer.

Then, you install the software which loads up a Recorder program and even a Comcast Cable TV Program Guide which is updated instantly online.

Turn on your TV and cable system, find a movie you want to record -- a TV show, anything -- and then run the software with the Hauppauge HD PVR plugged in to a power source. Load the recording software and it open a video window that displays the exact same image on your computer that is on the TV, with a two second delay. Lower the volume on either the TV or the computer, and hit "Record."

Video files are large so I suggest you purchase a 1 Terra-byte standalone USB port hard drive (about $90 or so at Best Buy) and save the file which is in MP4 format there.

The program also allows you to create a DVD of the recording you just made, or just save it for future use.

This is a NECESSARY PURCHASE folks. You can't live without. It is the absolute best option considering that they are now going to be producing gadgets and gizmos to allow you to get around the ridiculous treat-me-like-a-criminal recording obstacles and barriers that the greedy movie and cable TV industry is insisting to impose on us.

Seriously, folks. We pay a monthly subscription for what? So that we can watch loads of worthless commercials on Cable TV (cable TV was supposed to be paid and free of commercials) and then pay more to watch most movie options. That's double billing.

Go out and get this. And if you can't find it, go to www.HaupPauge.com and order it online. It will literally be the best $199 you have ever spent.

It has other options, too. You can connect it to your XBox system and record your game play or record video through your system.

Here's what the manufacturer writes about this NECESSARY FOR A DECENT LIFE piece of equipment:

HD PVR: the ultimate high definition video recorder for video game play plus cable and satellite TV
Record your video game play in HD onto your PC's disk drive. Or record your favorite TV shows from your cable or satellite TV set top box in HD. HD PVR has a built in H.264 high definition recorder. Great video quality, great system performance!

HD PVR: $199.-

New! HD PVR Gaming Edition, with all the cables you need to connect your Xbox 360 or PS3 game console. Special price: $199.-!

Now available from Fry's, Best Buy and Micro Center stores in the U.S.
In Canada, you can buy HD PVR at Future Shop, Best Buy Canada and London Drugs.

-- Ray Hanania
www.TheMediaOasis.com

MaxMySpeed.com (CyberDefender Corporation)

Last year (December 2010) I saw the commercial about getting my computer fixed for free from MaxMySpeed.com (Cyber Defender). I went to the site, downloaded the software and was told that my computer was slow, but to actually have it fixed, I had to pay the $44.

I did and was disappointed.

Click here to read my original post.

After complaining and getting no satisfaction, I removed the software. It was worthless.

Click here to read my follow up post.

MaxMySpeed.com officials then tried to respond to my blogs claiming I would not post their comments (not true. All of their comments were posted. But because I am a journalist and they are not, I posted their entire response not just in the comment section but also as a new blog post.

Click here to read their response in the blog post.

In their response, they urge readers to decide for themselves by going to the Better Business Bureau's Cosumer Protection Website Trustlink.com.

Click here for a link to the BBB Consumer Protection Review of CyberDefender/MaxMySpeed.com.

You can go there and read my very angry review of what they just did.

My recommendation is to NOT do business with CyberDefender or MaxMySpeed.com.

Clearly, after the dispute and complaint and my official request to cancel the software, they have proven themselves to be very untrustworthy.

3:15 PM:
I'm on the line with a representative and they indicated they would "Opt Me Out of the Auto Renewal" and would refund my money. At least they are being fair. We'll see if they keep that promise!!!!

3:30 PM: I received an email fromt hem confirming that the account will be closed and their second billing will be refunded. BUT, the refund is only $37.61, which means they are taking $7 for their hassle.

 Your refund in the amount of $37.61 will be applied to your credit or debit card.

That's pathetic!

Do not do business with them. Pass this web page link along. I've tried to be fair and their software doesn't do anything to speed up your computer. They buy huge commercials and are so willing to harass people for $44.

Not only are they untrustworthy - they charged me for an automatic renewal without even asking me, sending me a notice or even giving me the option to cancel when I already canceled in a high profile way a year before, but you don't even get the full refund when they credit your account. They're obnoxious (as evidenced by their insulting and dishonest response to my reporting.)

I'm proud to be able to expose them for what they are. Losers!

(I'll be talking about this lousy product on my Sunday morning radio show. Tune in.)


Click here to view another complaint about Max My Speed and Cyber Defender.)

-- Ray Hanania

The iPad and iPad2: They're great for fun and passing the time, but not much for productivity

I write five columns each week, two for the Jerusalem Post and Creators Syndicate on Middle East topics and three for local Chicagoland newspapers. I also write six blogs on specialty issues (SuburbanChicagoland.com, OrlandParker.com and more).

That's in addition to the high intensity media and press release writing I do for a half dozen clients, including several that are constantly in the news.

I purchased and iPad earlier this year believing that I could take my writing more mobile. The iPad had something I couldn't easily or affordably get from my reliable Dell laptop, nationwide wireless service. Oh, they do offer nationwide wireless through the Clear network and others. But the charge is over $50 a month. That's felony grand theft. Way too much, especially considering I already pay for a cell phone and Internet access in the home. So far, no one has come up with a consolidation plan to let me get one nationwide wirless service for the cell, the home, and the computer. Affordable.

Internet access for the iPad is only $25 a month. So it was a natural.

But when it comes to writing, no matter what the App that you download (free or for purchase), the touch screen keyboard is unreliable.

I even moved up to an iPad2 thinking it would improve. Well, the iPad2 has new gizmos on it -- mainly the camera (front and back) but not much else. No worry though for me. My son and wife love the first iPad and they use it often for productive things like playing Angry Birds, skeetball and some puzzle games. Yes, the iPad is very good if you have time to kill and want to entertain yourself. You can even watch a movie on it, if you could get the iPad to more easily load your movies without having to pay the exorbitant prices from iTunes.

But for me, it is all about writing.

The iPad2 has the restrictions imposed by the late megalomaniac Steve Jobs who spent his life trying to do everything he could to control your life. He wanted to control everything for computer consumers and eliminate the need for you to have a brain where you might think for yourself. Why do that? Making his 1984 commercial a real farce. Steve Jobs was more about Big Brother than Big Brother himself. In fact, Big Brother could have learned a few things about how to more efficiently control people from Steve Jobs, the master controller.

One of the biggest disadvantages for the iPad2 user is the on-screen keyboard. It doesn't work unless you are a slow and cumbersome typist. I type fast, at "the speed of media" which means that I write to keep up with the requirements of producing news and opinion content. When you get into the fast-paced typing speeds, the iPad simply can't register the letters fast enough. So you end up with jambalaya text. Parts of words strung together without spaces -- the least sensitive in the space bar. So if you plan on using the iPad to type live comments from someone you are interviewing, it's not good enough.

Worse is the problem with iTunes and the management of the content on your iPad. I have purchased many writing Apps. None of them fulfill my needs at all. I have one called iA Writer, which I have found comes close. But still, the keyboard is deficient. It lacks all the keys I need so I am constantly having to have to switch screens in the middle of writing from letters to numbers and characters. Some characters you must have in writing and many are on the iA Writer Keyboard without having to switch. But not enough.

Obviously, no one at Apple knows how to write to communicate. They can't even write an operating manual. There is none to be found anywhere.

I do like the iPad2 as a new way to read books. I can set the brightness and contrast and even the size of the letters. That brightness makes it easier to read. So, instead of writing myself, I am relegated with the iPad to reading everyone else's writings. I guess that would be great if I were a megalomaniac computer Big Brother tyrant. But I am not. I have more respect for the needs of human beings. Simple things, like being able to communicate efficiently.

There are no Apps that allow me to easily post to my blogs. Apple hates Windows and PCs so the iPad doesn't work well with Blogger.com (which is owned by Google) and it doesn't allow Flash because Steve Jobs had a hard-on for Adobe. I hate Adobe, too, but not enough to have gone to war with them. I am forced to use their PDF reader and Flash, which is one of the most efficient onscreen video systems available. Everyone uses it, except for Apple maniacs.

So when it comes to writing, -- I've won many awards including 4 Lisagor Awards, a Sigma Delta Chi Award and being named Best Ethnic Columnist in America from the New America Media, among others -- I have to turn to my laptop.

I did waste $99 plus tax to purchase an iPad2 keyboard, which makes the tablet format bulky and difficult to hold. It seems to me that if I have to make the iPad into a laptop just to do quality writing, doesn't that defeat the whole concept of the tablet design?

The iPad does have one other redeeming value, though, that the laptops lack. It has a battery that last up to 8 hours or more. My laptop only lasts about 2 hours. Despite the Dell Propaganda that it will last up to 5 hours, it does not.

So, I will look foolish connecting the iPad2 keyboard to the iPad2 using Bluetooth, and also charging both with separate chargers -- why can't they both charge together when connected? It doesn't make sense. But nothing computer techies design makes sense because in truth, computer techies are not human beings. They are Martians without brains. And they don't know squat about the real needs of the average consumer, and a few who are not so average, too.

-- Ray Hanania
www.hanania.com

Beware of Q-See camera surveillance systems from CompUSA

The Q-See brands of security cameras are a scam. The 8 camera set with an internal 1 Terbyte Harddrive sells for about $900. It claims to have an "easy" setup on the internet. But the truth is, the set-up is impossible and invovles more than 30 confusing steps.

Clearly, Q-See was setup by a geek with no commonsense who doesn't use or need a security system and involves software designed by high tech software programmers who have normal life. The system is inoperable.

Now, they give you a card to call someone to install your system. But the cost is unbelievable, more than $200 per camera, plus another $1,500 to configure your computer system.

Here's the problem. It takes 10 days to set up your home system so that you can make the cameras display on a flat screen TV monitor. Then, it takes another 10 days to configure the DVR that manages the cameras so that you can access the video images "internally" through your home network. What that means is that they allow you to view the camera images on the TV monitor AND they allow you to use an iPad (after downloading the Super Cam HD system software after paying the unbelievably rip-off price of $10.99) so that you can use the iPad to view the images WHILE YOU ARE IN YOUR HOME.

How stupid is that? Okay, maybe it's a convenience but for $10.99 after spending $900. Forget about it. It's stupid like the idiot who designed this system.

But that's not the biggest problem with the Q-See QT$ DVR systems.

If you want to access the system from OUTSIDE of your home network, you have to follow 50 steps to configure your system so that your "router" forwards your port to only God knows where.

Are these people moronic or what? The most idiotic waste of money system I have ever purchased.

Don't buy it. You can't configure your own system. It is impossible because the "User Manuel" they provide to manage the 16 Channell CIF@480fps & D1 @ 120fps Digital Video Recorder is a worthless piece of garbage.

The User Manuel for the QT426 -- have you figured out that with all these numbers it is a scam to just take your money? -- is worthless. It has100 pages of worthless instructions that cannot be configured by any normal human being.

So, if you are going to purchase a home camera security system, DO NOT PURCHASE the Q-See models. Honestly, you will be wasting your time. Or, you will have to be wealthy like Steve Jobs (the king of consumer abusers) to afford having one of the Q-See technicians to come over and set it up for you. And the cost of them coming to your home is over $2,500 to set up their worthless system.

You are better off going to ADT and purchasing one of their remote camera systems that works better and costs far less and have security monitoring linked to the local police station.

The bottom line is that the Q-See QT426 and all of its other models do not work at all.

You might be tempted to try and follow the directions but the directions are worthless and lead you to a dead end.

For example, they try to get you to go to their web page at www.q.see.com. There, you will set up a "free" account that is even more worthless. It does nothing. You set up a domain there, to do what? Once you have their domain address, it does nothing.

I urge you not to buy this or any other product from Q-See systems. You do not want the misery of knowing you wasted your money because you will not be able to set up the system. You will have to pay the Q-See moron geeks to do it for you and you don't want to waste that money.

You will also waste your time trying to get "Port Forwarding" enabled. It doesn't matter if you have the IP address for the DVR or for your router. It will not forward. And, to make matters really worse, this is the instruction manuel they provide for "simple and easy port forwarding" instructions.

Click here

Don't even waste your time. I can't say it enough.

-- Ray Hanania
www.hanania.com