Author: admin

What is DHCP Lease Time and how long should it be?

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Update: Almost 2 years after I wrote this article, it remains one of the most popular on the website, so I put together a brief video explaining what is written below, for the more visual learners out there. Enjoy! 🙂

Original post below:

When you’re initially setting up a router, one of the things you might skip over is the DHCP Lease Time setting. It’s typically measured in minutes, but how long should it be set for? What are the advantages or disadvantages of longer or shorter lease times?

In the average home router, your lease time is set for about 24 hours (1440 minutes). Some people set 8 hour leases, some prefer up to a week! The DHCP lease is how long a device reserves an IP address on your network. The DHCP reservation is the key. The device can leave the network, but the reservation can still be in place, depending on how long you set the lease time.

It’s a little confusing, so let’s use a few real world examples Continue reading “What is DHCP Lease Time and how long should it be?”

How to play .264 video files solved, player here!

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I recently came across the need to play video files saved as .264. After much digging, it seemed I wasn’t alone – and the most common users of these files were people who recently purchased security cameras and were trying to open the video files saved on Micro SD cards from their cameras! You would think an H.264 video codec wouldn’t be so hard to find, but for some reason nothing I tried allowed me to play the file. After some additional research, I found that the company Zmodo is the most common camera manufacturer to do this, and they provide a download of their Zmodo Player software. On the page I link to, as it appears currently, you don’t need to choose an analog or a network product, just look below at the list of “popular tools” and download the ZMD Player / ZPlayer software.


Just in case they change their website and my link is dead, you can try to search the web for ZModo’s latest version – but if it is needed, the current version as of the time of publication on this article, ZPlayer_1.0.15.0_Setup.exe, is mirrored here on our website.

The Back Order – Going WAY back

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The Backorder was a feature I started in 2009. It was a way for me to declutter my list of games I need to play. For the last three years, I have been playing fewer and fewer “contemporary” games. For the last 18 months or so, I have been “in transition” – the majority of my possessions in boxes. I recently had the terrifying yet fulfilling experience of purchasing a home of my own. I’ll be paying on it for many years, but unboxing and settings things up, pulling out sealed game after sealed game the I still need to play – it’s lit another fire. The backorder list is HUGE, but I’ll be making my way through it sooner, rather than later. Not only contemporary games, but other gems I have picked up in the last few years and just tucked away, or PC games I’ve picked up on digital sales.


My back order list is as follows:

  1. Gears of War Judgment – Xbox 360
  2. Portal 2 – Steam
  3. New Super Luigi U – Wii U
  4. Spider-Man – Atari 2600
  5. Uncharted 3 – Playstation 3
  6. 7th Guest – Steam
  7. 11th Hour – Steam
  8. The Walking Dead (Telltale) Season 1 – 400 days – Xbox 360
  9. The Walking Dead (Telltale) Season 2 – Xbox 360
  10. Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze – Wii U
  11. Halo 2600 – Atari 2600
  12. Bioshock Infinite – Steam
  13. Wario Land – Virtual Boy
  14. Grand Theft Auto V – Xbox 360
  15. Perfect Dark – Nintendo 64
  16. Castle in the Darkness – Steam


Not to mention all of the Xbox 360 GAMES WITH GOLD promotional downloads that came out in the last year or so, or other games that I would be interested in catching up on like The Witcher series of games. On top of that, the plans I have are finally moving forward for more content coming soon! But first, I’m going to POWER through these games as quickly as possible!

How to export your entire Last.FM Listening and Scrobble history data

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If you were anything like for the last decade, you listened to a lot of music. I had the AudioScrobbler plugin for WinAmp, so that I could use their data tracking to help me discover new music. Then Last.FM bought AudioScrobbler and I got on board with their service, which used Scrobble data from thousands of users to help you discover other music you might like, long before services like Pandora or Beats tried to create a custom channel for you. But now that it looks like Last.FM is on the way out, and that data may still be relevant to you. You may be wondering how you can export your last.fm Scrobble history? Somebody made it quite easy for you. Continue reading “How to export your entire Last.FM Listening and Scrobble history data”