OverClocked Remix is a website dedicated to hosting remixed versions of your favorite video game music. The music is created by all independt artists, the majority of which really know what they’re doing. The best part about this website, is that it’s all FREE (although donations are accepted). Yes, thousands of your childhood memories, remixed to cater to your more adult self. Be careful though! It’s not called “OverClocked” for no reason. Some of the Sonic The Hedgehog and remixes have over 50 playcounts on my iTunes, my favorite being Theme of Chaos by Leebro.

For those of you who are not as enthusiastic about remixed versions of already electronic music there are quite a few selections of live versions as well. One of my favorites is a single song that consists of about five to ten versions of Gantos’ theme from Chrono Trigger. There are also jazz versions of Donkey Kong Country and rock versions of Super Mario Bros.  Didn’t see any of your favorites here? Just search for your video game of choice and rock on to the nostalgia that follows.

That being said, the latest phase of the AION beta has come and gone. This time, boasting both Elyos and Asmodian territories of up to level 35. Did I partake in any of this goodness? Hardly, which virtually negates anything I am about to tell you…. It seems a bit cruel and twisted that NCSoft would decide to do the beta in a series of weekends. When ironically for the working stiff, weekends pose the biggest threat to gaming. Monday to Thursday are the best days. Because Friday to Sunday are designated to forget what I had to do the week before.

Anyways, by the time I actually sat down to start playing AION, I still had router issues from a previous post I have made here. Needless to say, “Channel 6” on your router is a magnet for interference. Mainly because all other routers, and cell phones start on channel 6. After hitting up a better signal, I was able to get AION going in the responsible hour I had left before the work week started again.

In this time I can tell you one thing I noticed right away, leveling is a lot faster. Seems that (NCSoft) took the comments made by the players to heart and took the hardcore grinding elements out, allowing me to score a half level with very little effort before it was time to log off. This isn’t Ragnorok by any stretch of the imagination, and thank god.

I should also mention that once my connection issues were resolved, AION was running A LOT smoother than in previous beta weekends. How much better? Well enough for myself to notice that I wasn’t rubber banding back to previous locations. Also the casting was improved and the navigation system that alters your stats based on the direction you are walking was a bit crisper too (I need to find the exact name for that mechanic).

The game is still as sharp as ever. I still get impressed every time I boot up the game and see the character selection screen. It’s just a damn good looking game with a really familiar mechanic. I’ll be sure to post later once I start getting into the PvP aspect of it. As we are all interested to see how PvPvE is going to play out.

I should have seen this coming though. My new place is an old remodeled Victorian flat. The router sits on the top floor, and at the other end of the house, on the floor below, sits my humble network of computers, laptops and xbox360’s not soaking up any of that sweet sweet signal. The router we have is a Netgear WPN824 v3 RangeMax purchased by my roommate, “Joshie-Boy,” who did a great job buying the thing by making sure the box had the most checkmarks compared to the other routers. I don’t blame him for not knowing what he purchased. After all, this shit is confusing. And my lack of connection isn’t the router’s fault. Not only does this thing have to drop a signal through the floor, but it also has to compete with old wiring, asbestos (good chance it’s still in there), and of course led in the old paint. I’m probably going to get cancer real soon but that’s a different story all together. I worked out a plan, if I could get some sort of access point to clean up the signal I could put that downstairs appropriate to where the router is upstairs, and that could fix the problem…

I went ahead and ordered the Netgear WPN802v2 Wireless Access Point (referred to as the WAP from here on out) off of NewEgg. I could have perhaps gotten something better, but I don’t like to mix brands when it comes to networking. I will admit that this thing has some torque to it. But I, like an idiot, didn’t realize that a WAP and a BRIDGE were two separate things. The WPN802v2 first and foremost, is built as a WAP that is connected by some cable into the wired router. I went ahead and tried that first by injecting the WAP into the router, doubling the signal. It solved my problem, but the signal was still weak, and wasn’t as fast as it could be. And like most of my tech peers, I wasn’t about to settle for second best.

After a little research online I found that my idiocy was spared by Netgears “Repeating” function which was compatible on both the router and the WAP. I activated the function on the router, making it the “master” which would then broadcast packets to the WAP “slave.” Kind of like the old boot ups with multiple hard drives. I then set up the WAP to take signals from the router, using the MAC address of its master to relay signals back upstairs. I thought maybe I would have to put in the network pass phrase, but this isn’t needed as the job of the WAP is just to rebroadcast the encrypted signal of the router, and not so much stay “connected” to it. And bingo, this fixed the problem. Clean crisp signals downstairs, without having to pass through copious amounts of led and other hazardous materials that will eventually kill me the longer I stay here.

So let’s conclude the good, the bad and the ugly. The good in all of this, is that it worked. The signal is strong, and the technology is reliable. I have a handful of other flat mates who use the internet about as hardcore as myself, and then complemented me on the new found speed downstairs. The router and the WAP physically match, and have a cool blue orb on the side that adds a nice futuristic feel. This also serves as a pretty decent nightlight in the middle of the night which shines on an awkward step that people always trip on. For those who hate the flashing lights, this is a feature that can be turned off.

Now the bad. There is virtually no reading material on this wireless “repeater”/bridge function. Everything I found existed on the internet, most on tech forums, which if you are “sans the internet”, then you are shit out of luck if you don’t already have a tech background to begin with. This WAP was really designed for a wired network which really comes as a shock given how everything is moving to wireless. You would think there was something in the box that would explain how to do this.

Now the ugly. If you don’t have a tech background, don’t do this. In fact, running a hard cable downstairs would probably be more worth it than trying to setup the wireless repeater function. This technique requires MAC addresses and other things that are relatively foreign to the average person. It also requires a little network topology logic to figure out how you are going to build your network (thank you Cicsco Networking academy for that one). Also the biggest kicker… and I mean this one really takes the cake, is that you have to configure your computer to 192.168.0.231 network to even modify the settings on the WAP. And then once you save the basic settings, merging itself with the existing network, it changes its IP address! Kicking you out of its admin and leaving you sitting there for 5 minutes saying “WTF” as you try to log into it over and over. I was able to find the WAP again by logging into the router and looking at what it was connected to. But what the hell, Netgear? You think a normal person is going to figure this out? Hell no. No wonder they just discontinued these things.

This device is pretty nifty. I’m glad I got it and was able to resolve my problem. But on the flip side…. I’m glad I knew what the hell I was doing. At least, I think I know what I am doing. The WPN802 doesn’t acknowledge any connections so I had to run an internet speed tester to prove that the packets are sending back and forth between the two devices. I wouldn’t suggest this to the novice. Actually, I wouldn’t suggest most home networking to anyone on account that it can get so confusing, and everyone company does it differently. Sparing you all from a soapbox speech, just take a look at the directions next time and ask you if it’s easy enough that an idiot could do it. Netgear, Linksys, Belkin…. All of these guys dropped IP configuration with their DHCP’s and TCP/IP settings on the public like we all knew this stuff before hand. It’s like the manual writers didn’t have a focus group try and install these things. They make the devices and shiny and white, with very “human” verbiage on the outside of the box. Then when you get inside they forget to tell you that when you save the settings, this crap is going to change it’s IP on you and bury itself into your network topology. Don’t know what an IP is or why we use them? Oh well to bad, so sad.

Home networking has some serious things to smooth out before they start giving these out to the average consumer. Excuse the rant, but I am just trying to look out for the little guy. I like the WPN802v2… but for the love of god, and all this is holy, get a professional to help you out and bribe them with a batch of cookies or a pizza and some beer or whatever.