Tech Sense November 2026

November Hodgepodge

This month I provide a mix of various topics that I hope you find interesting. 

 

Blocking Text based SPAM Messages

Last month we discussed SPAM.  This month I will start with some common ways of blocking text messages that you do not want to receive.  The first method, when a message you do not want arrives, respond with STOP in all uppercase.  To not respond to any future messages from this source.  If you have an Android phone, you can select the three-dot menu and hit “Block and Report SPAM” option.  This will prevent any further text messages from that number.  Finally, will go back to the three-dot menu and select “Trash”.  This doesn’t remove the message for 30 days.  To remove it immediately go to your picture and select it.  That menu will also have a trash button.  Select that button.  Select all of the messages you want deleted and then select the trashcan with an X on it.  This will permanently remove all of the selected messages with no way to recover them. 

Older Android versions offer a “Delete” option instead of “Trash”.  Unlike Trash delete effectively removes the message immediately making it inaccessible.  However, the data will stay in memory until overwritten by newer data.

I am not an Apple user, but I understand Apple has a filtering system to block unknown text and callers.  However, my understanding is that this will also block unknown calls from schools, Doctors, Pharmacies, and other organizations that may have a legitimate need to call you but are not in your phone book.

 

Power Outages

We have had issues with power outages and lightning strikes for the entire 36 years that we have lived here in Beltsville.  Over the years, we have added protection. For example, we have installed a full-house surge protector to prevent electrical surges from destroying our electronics.  This has worked pretty well for us.  Most lightning strikes haven’t presented any problems.  Same with transformer explosions and burnouts.  When we did get a direct lightning hit all of our electronics survived but we did have to replace the whole house protector, but the warranty covered it. 

I have also added Uninterruptable Power Supplies (UPS) to my office to keep my computers from losing data when the power goes out.  This has been very useful.  Frequently we get short power breaks that may last 10 to30 seconds.  This is long enough to cause the computer to reboot or hang the program I am working on.  It also causes me to lose my Internet connection or drop phone calls on my VOIP phone.  The UPS doesn’t stay on for hours but normally will keep things going for 5 to 10 minutes.  Just long enough to keep things running or give my device enough time to shut down gracefully.  Definitely with the $60 to purchase. 

 

Television vs Streaming

I decided to turn my cable box on last week for the first time in a year to check the weather in western Florida.  I had forgotten that I dropped most of the cable channels like Weather Channel.  So, I turned off the TV and found what I was looking for on the computer.  I haven’t watched any programming on broadcast TV for nearly a year.  In general, I don’t watch sports and I don’t like anything with commercials.  Instead, I watch streaming channels.  My choices are Netflix, the Disney+/Hulu bundle, and Prime.  I pay a little extra, so I don’t have to watch commercials. 

I may do a short subscription (7 to 30 days) on a specific stream to watch a specific program.  I got a good deal for another commercial free for a year at $24 and no commercials and I will probably drop it at year end unless they extend the deal.  I also subscribe to one other channel because my wife gets a half price commercial free deal with shows we both enjoy. 

I am now considering dropping all my cable programing since everything I enjoy watching is available for less than the cost of the bare bones TV on my minimal cable service.  I can always add an antenna in my attic to get my local channels.

 

Dual Internet

This is my story about how I ended up with dual Internet service providers.

I like what I do and I often don’t sleep at night.  Sadly, my primary Internet provider likes to turn off my signal at 2:00 AM when I am working on my computer.  I also went through a period, where this company was providing very unreliable service.  My telephone service provider was also bugging me to change from my copper line to a FIOS phone connection.  The phone company had become very poor at maintaining the copper lines, so I finally decided to change over to FIOS and added Gigabit Internet (in both directions) at the same time.

Now I have two primary networks in my home.  One carries two networks, one for Internet of Things (IoT) the other for family computers.  The other one has my computers, my Raspberry Pi’s, and extra channels that I use to move things over when the other network is down. 

This has worked well for me.

 

Next Time

Next month will be my Christmas episode and I expect we will discuss the cost of buying new computer gear.