If you’ve been following the ongoing situation with my home wireless network, then you might be aware of the different methods I’ve tried to harvest a fast, reliable connection throughout my home. I have two AirPort base stations and am constantly having signal issues resulting in slow speeds and unpredictable connectivity. All I want is for my connection to be fast and consistent from the basement all the way up to my home office.

Recently, I received an email from Dennis (a member of the LockerGnome community) making me aware of a plan that allows two AirPort base stations to share the same network and Internet connection without creating an issue between them. To my surprise, it worked.

This setup is called “roaming” which allows you to pass between base stations without dropping your connection to the Internet. By doing so, you effectively double your available wireless coverage area giving you consistent speed throughout your home. Here’s what I needed to do to set up my Apple AirPort base stations to do this:

• Connect all of the AirPort Extreme Base Stations and Time Capsules to the same subnet on your Ethernet network.
• Give each device a unique name.
• Give each device the same network name and password.
• Set up the devices as bridges. (More information on how to set up Apple’s AirPort as a bridge can be found here.)

AirPort wireless devices are configured by default to bridge the connection between an ethernet network and a wireless AirPort network. This means that your wired network is connected to your wireless network through the AirPort device, allowing your wired systems to communicate and share resources with wireless ones.

Once you’ve got everything configured, you should be able to pass through rooms without the two base stations battling it out with one-another and causing interference. They theoretically would work as a team on either 2.4GHz or 5GHz.

This setup is working for me in my home office, and it may work for you. If you know of a better solution to the problem of keeping a solid wireless connection going throughout your home, please email me and let me know. I’m always looking for a better way to increase performance without having to spend an extreme amount of money to do so.

How to Set up Apple’s AirPort for Extreme Speed

Recently, I “downgraded” my Comcast service from Business to Residential – largely because I got more speed for less money, and I wasn’t anticipating coming anywhere near the 250GB cap. I hate artificial ceilings, but that’s the price I pay for paying less of a price?

I know I don’t knowingly download 250GB worth of data every month – I’m not THAT hardcore.

However, that 250GB cap is for all transfers (upload AND download) – and it’s not just for email and Web browsing, but everything. EVERYTHING. I was reminded of this when I read the article by another local boy about how Comcast is totally screwing him. Completely.

Since I record a TON of videos for YouTube, and most of my production is remote, I rely on Dropbox to better facilitate content for the channel. I connect to Dropbox from more than one machine (and, yes, LAN sync is always on). Either way, I push a lot of bits down the pike (before editing) – and a lot of bits get pushed back to me (after editing).

Tonight, as I was recording more videos for the YouTube, someone suggested that Dropbox was causing me to push my limit:

I’m guessing that user is 100% correct. I immediately disconnected Dropbox from one of my computers and cleared out certain folders (without realizing ramifications, causing further consternation). Video is bandwidth intensive – and not just when you’re wanting to watch it. I know I have likely pushed and pulled extraneous gigabytes of video data in these two weeks on Comcast’s Residential Class service.

Thank goodness my offsite “online backup” option stopped working a while back, or I’d have been in twice as much trouble by now. Could you imagine? I mean, how frequently do you see online backup services advertised everywhere? I wouldn’t recommend an online backup service if you’re dealing with a data cap, that’s for sure. No way in hell.

So, to put a finer point on my alarmist headline: be forewarned about using ANY KIND OF data-intensive service (like Dropbox or any online backup option).

Comcast – ease up there, dude. You’re screwing some of us out of very useful services.

I realize I’m probably more of a business user at this point, but your new Business Class prices are nowhere within the realm of reasonable – that’s why I “downgraded” (and got better speed in the process). Y’all need to set up some kind of in-between “Producer” or “Prosumer” level. We don’t want your Exchange or email crap – we just want no data caps for us to push legitimate traffic around.

I’m obviously willing to spend money – we all are. But you have to match our needs better (especially if we have “no choice” but to go through you as a broadband provider for home).

Now, I should also take this time to tell you that Comcast really isn’t horrible – at least, not the people I’ve dealt with. They accidentally turned off my service for 24 hours this week. A technician saw me flagged as a former Business subscriber and he accidentally killed all of my services (TV, Internet) – until I tracked someone down later that day to get to the bottom of the problem. By the following afternoon, they realized it was their issue (since my business connection existed at the same place as my residence). Comcast is now going to offer me a refund for some outstanding charges. It was their mistake, but they cleaned it up – with a good degree of speed and candor.

Seems like they’ve got another mistake on their hands, here, by ignoring power producers who aren’t pirating anything. I doubt anybody at corporate is going to pay attention to my plight – and they’ve obviously done their best to ignore Andre’s. If you’d like to read more about what happened to another Seattle-area Comcast subscriber, he’s detailed the literal post mortem in a complete ‘Day After’ blog entry.

There is no competition with Comcast – they’re pretty much the only game in town in certain areas of Seattle, and that sucks (for consumers and power users, at least). I don’t even want to get into the headaches my neighbors have had with the problematic Netgear routers Comcast keeps passing off for them to use. That’s another battle for another day.

*knock knock* Anybody there?

Comcast 250GB Cap? Avoid Dropbox or Online Backup!

I admit it: I’m a huge fan of the animated GIF. Don’t worry, though – I’m not going to embed any in this post, because the chances of you wanting to see an animation after reading that headline are slim.

There’s nothing wrong with the GIF image file, itself – it’s just that when frames are spliced together into a single GIF file, the resulting animation may be jarring to some (especially when used as a web page background).

In most browsers, you can simply tap the ‘Esc’ key to halt the sequence (since turning off support for GIFs altogether is never advised). Google Chrome, however, doesn’t currently support such a feature – so, until that happens within the browser itself, there are a few Google Chrome Extensions you might try using:

• Stop animations
• Pause! Pause! Pause!
• Paused!

If you care to test any one of these scripts, here’s a page with a simple animated GIF to try. Did the extension work for you?

I was prompted to assemble this post after one too many people complained that they didn’t want to see any more animated GIFs cluttering up their Google Plus experience. They may still appear in My Google+ Profile from time to time, but that shouldn’t stop you from following me (especially with these extensions installed).

How to Disable Animated GIFs in Chrome

Setting the right wireless channel on your router can make a big difference on how well your Wi-Fi connection works. While most users may be just fine with whatever the default settings may be, others can experience frequent packet drops resulting in the appearance of an unstable or even unusable connection.

These issues can be caused by a number of factors. Other networks, electronics, and even your neighbor’s equipment could be interfering with your router’s ability to maintain a solid connection with your various devices. This interference can cause confusion between devices similar to a couple trying to carry on a conversation at a crowded location. While you may be focused on the person in front of you, making it easier to hear them than the background, an occasional shout or holler can interrupt the conversation and break the chain of communication.

If you’re having occasional problems with your wireless connectivity, you might consider switching channels and giving the new space a try. A good method for testing the new setting is by doing a speed test and comparing the results to other channels. Run the test several times in order to determine consistency in cases where problems may come and go frequently.

More popular Wi-Fi channels tend to be the best to avoid as they are usually the most crowded and prone to interfere. These include 2, 6, and 11 which are commonly used as defaults on some of the more prominent router brands. If your router gives you the option of allowing it to automatically find and set the best channel for you, this is usually the best way to go. The router will check each channel for traffic and connectivity potential before deciding on what it determines is the best option for you.

One useful tool for figuring out which channel is best in your specific location is a Wifi analyzer. This can come in the form of a dedicated device or an app for your smartphone that uses a Wi-Fi connection. Android has a popular free spectrum analyzer available to it aptly called “Wifi Analyzer“. This program checks various channels on the spectrum and allows you to do connectivity checks as you switch between them.

This is just one of several tips and tricks that can help you improve the stability of your wireless network at home. What are your wireless tips? Do you know any tricks that can help strengthen the connection?

Are You Using the Best Wireless Channel?

Networking is complicated. Businesses often spend a great deal of their available revenue on their IT department in order to keep their various systems talking to each other. At home, small and medium sized networks are becoming more and more common as our devices begin to integrate the net in to what they do.

In the past, you would connect a modem to your computer and that was the extent of your networking needs. If you had multiple computers, you may have invested in a second network card and switch, hub, or even a full-on router if you really wanted to go all out. Now, having a router in your home is as common as having a television set.

What happens when you want to utilize your router’s Wi-Fi capabilities, but the signal degrades between the upstairs and downstairs areas of your home? My solution to this problem was to set up two base stations with default settings and it appeared to work. Unfortunately, we experienced serious packet loss as a result.

Brandon and Jake tackled this problem at my home office and their solution was to set up a Wireless Distribution System (WDS) which used one of the base stations as a primary and the other as a remote. This creates a unified operation between the two base stations which helps manage and improve the flow of traffic between my wireless devices.

They recommend using two matching routers (in brand at least) for this setup in order to be sure that they are using the same variation of the WDS standard. You also want to make sure that they are using the same wireless channel. In addition, it would be a good idea to avoid the default channel (whatever it may be) on your device as most users keep their devices on default which may cause interference.

How to Increase Wi-Fi Speed

Archaeme over at LockerGnome.net asked, “I hear a lot of people complaining about Comcast (service, throttling, etc.), but why don’t they use another ISP?“ This is a good question, and the answer may surprise you.

Even in this modern Internet age, a good Internet service provider is hard to come by. In most areas, service is only available from a select few with a single provider dominating the market. There are hundreds of small companies out there offering “unlimited” bandwidth and advertising high-speed connections at a low price only to fail at delivering on their promise. So, why is good broadband service so expensive?

Frankly, it’s a matter of there not being any real competition in the market. Many users are trapped with their providers unless they want to risk less reliable service in exchange for a slight discount. In a growing number of apartment complexes around the country, managers are making deals with ISPs to offer very slight discounts to their tenants in exchange for exclusivity with the community. To the tenant, it means they can only receive wired service from a single provider, meaning if they want to change – they may actually have to move.

4G providers offer wireless hotspots at budget rates with 2-year plans. More often than not, the service (unlimited or not) is throttled by the provider who then blames network congestion on the seemingly constant slowdown. This doesn’t stop them from throwing large amounts of money on marketing in order to add more users to an already overwhelmed platform. Not only that, but 4G service isn’t available everywhere, so any plans you have to travel with your broadband connection will likely end in disappointment.

Overall, I’ve been happy with the service I’ve received from Comcast. I spend a significant amount of money each month for a fast business-class connection that keeps me online with very few problems. However, as long as Comcast remains the only real reliable service provider in my area, I’m at their mercy as far as pricing is concerned. If they raise their rates, I can’t jump to another reliable company because there isn’t any real competition.

You do have options, all of which suck – but I’m not here to tell you how to solve the problem and retain the upper hand. That’s impossible, so long as you believe your ISP is overcharging you. Sadly, you can:

• Use your capped Internet connection sparingly. Sorry.
• Switch to a wireless ISP, which will likely diminish your throughput and aggravate you more.
• Reallocate your monthly entertainment budget to cover more broadband.

I don’t know what else to tell you other than: we’re in the same boat.

Why is Good Broadband Service So Expensive?

AlexCrowley1995, a member of the LockerGnome community, posted the question, “What would you consider a ‘popular’ blog?” This is a good question, and that may have many answers.

A blog’s popularity is relative. You could be popular in a group of ten people or millions, depending on what you’re trying to achieve. A blog in a small niche, such as LEGO, can be very popular with a relatively small audience while a video gaming blog is a small fish in a much bigger pond.

Tech blogs are a dime a dozen, and there are more of them in the wild than anyone could ever reasonably keep up with. The chances of someone starting a tech blog from scratch and making it to a point where they might be considered popular are fairly poor. However, if you zero on in a niche and produce good content consistently, you may very well have a good chance of reaching that point within your field.

The LEGO blog may never capture the same numbers as a giant in a broader niche, or become a household name, but it could become a leading resource for fans of LEGO and anyone interested in reading about specific sets featured on the blog. Even though you’re catering to a smaller audience than the blogs that cover every kind of toy out there, you are capable of providing much more detailed coverage which provides a value the larger blogs may not be able to compete with.

This works in much the same way as a sporting goods store that opens next to a giant superstore. Sure, people will probably go to the superstore and pick up sporting goods, but their employees may not be trained to the same level in that specific department as the staff at the smaller niche store. That small niche store may never be as popular or do as much business as the superstore, but they have a real chance at becoming the most popular source of sporting goods in the area thanks to their ability to provide the best value in a specific market.

So really, being popular is relative. A popular blog can be considered so even if they don’t rival the sites that top Alexa and the other traffic metrics sources out there.

Blog Popularity is Relative

The other day, my friend Bill Boyd posed the question on his blog, “Will Hashtags Work in Email?” This is a good question, especially considering how these tags can be used to organize content and discussions between larger groups of people. So, what is the future of hashtags?

Hashtags have become an icon of social interaction as they have evolved from being simply a workaround to allow people to carry an open conversation about a specific topic to a supported mechanism within networks including Twitter and Empire Avenue. These tags allow you to assign a topic or trend to your post which others, talking about the same topic can easily find and respond to.

If you’ve been following my posts on Twitter, you may have noticed that I use hashtags frequently. I use them, in part, to allow people that follow me to easily discover others who are talking about a similar topic. These tags can also help others find you, as they seek out users with similar interests.

These tags can also be found in YouTube. Around the time of their fifth anniversary, YouTube added limited support for hashtags including: #LOL, #FTW, #OMG and #FAIL. When you click on one of these tags, you’re taken to a page that shows others that have used the same tag in their comments.

Oddly enough, Facebook doesn’t currently support for hashtags in terms of giving them extra functionality. While you can use them in your posts and interactions with others, they really don’t do anything special at this point in time. This may be linked to the closed nature of Facebook as opposed to the widely open and public Twitter feeds. Still, the idea of hashtags being available and supported within a network of friends could be useful.

I believe that hashtags have a universal appeal which reaches beyond Twitter and Empire Avenue and could be implemented in a way that benefits users of social networks, and even email, well in to the future.

What is the Future of Hashtags?

A member of the LockerGnome community sent in the question, “As more and more of our programs become web apps, do you think speed and processing power is losing importance in the computing world?”

As more and more of our programs are becoming web apps, the importance of processing power comes in to question. Is processing power becoming less important?

Web apps typically require very little in terms of actual hardware speed to run. In fact, the majority of the computational work is done by the host in the cloud. This leaves your system with the simple task of displaying the data and giving you a method to make changes.

Internet speed seems to be the thing you notice first. A slow connection to the web can put a huge damper on your experience in more situations than mediocre system specs. In today’s world, you need a fast Internet connection.

There are several types of users that will still require faster hardware. Gamers will still hunger for the biggest and the best systems as graphics continue to increase in complexity. Gaming worlds are becoming large enough to require more RAM and CPU speed.

Video and photo editors also benefit from better-equipped systems. HD video takes its toll on slower systems during editing and encoding. Programs like Motion and After Effects are incredibly huge CPU hogs, and there is no question that a slower system would bring their efforts to a crawl.

Still, for the majority of average users out there, having a faster Internet connection will have more of an impact on their experience than the latest and greatest CPU. This may be one of the biggest reasons behind the widespread acceptance of netbooks and nettop computers with underpowered processors and lackluster specs. These machines are extremely slow by today’s standards. All they really need is enough power to run a browser.

Which would you rather have: a slower computer and a super fast Internet connection, or a super fast computer and a slow Internet connection?

Is Processing Power Becoming Less Important?

iTechnologyz, a member of the LockerGnome community, asked, “Do you think YouTube is causing piracy?”

To me, the answer is both yes and no. It would be foolish of anyone to state that YouTube is either completely original or pirated content. Pirates will find a way around algorithms one way or another. YouTube has taken strong steps to combat piracy, though it is certainly not free of it quite yet.

It does, in the sense that YouTube has made it so simple to upload media to the web and share it with the world without any actual costs involved. This process is pretty simple, whether or not you actually own the content you’re sharing with the world. The ease of use, in terms of sharing this media, has certainly contributed to piracy.

Does this mean YouTube is causing piracy? People have been pirating media since the means of doing so have existed. Long before the days of digital bits and even the printing press, people have been copying other’s works and distributing the copies outside of the control of the content creator. YouTube isn’t the cause of piracy, but it does have a hand in making piracy easier to do.

Piracy, in this case, isn’t limited to content sold on retail shelves. This also includes someone downloading original content off one channel and uploading it to their own. This can lead to loss of income and control over something someone has created. For many content creators on YouTube and other content sharing sites, their work is their primary source of income. That income allows them to keep doing what they do.

Recently, YouTube has started allowing for Creative Commons licensing to be added to original content. This means that you can mark your videos as creative commons, which will allow other users the freedom of taking your content and reposting it on their channel.

If you would like to do something with our content, please feel free to drop me a line through my email address or you can contact me on Twitter, Facebook, and Empire Avenue. You’d be surprised at what we’ll say yes to, just as long as we know what you’d like to do.

Does YouTube Make Piracy Easier?

Fraser Cain from Universe Today emailed in the question, “Will smartphones and face recognition destroy anonymity? Now that pretty much everyone has a smartphone, and face recognition is pretty good, and everyone has put photos of themselves on the Internet, are we about to have a complete loss of public anonymity?”

Imagine taking a picture of a person on the bus and getting a full record of their entire existence. Perhaps you’re snapping a picture of two people having dinner at a restaurant. This couple turns out to be a businessman and his secretary, rather than him and his wife. A system like Facebook’s facial recognition may identify the couple and out them, inadvertently.

Many would argue that this is already happening. Have you ever tuned in to a TV show or YouTube video of someone recording a celebrity or even an average Joe doing something embarrassing? I always assume that when I walk in to a public place, I’m being recorded. Just about everyone has a camera, and that camera is within a second or two of being fired up and recording, or even live streaming. With this in mind, you sort of resolve yourself to always being on your best behavior.

There is a live streaming video coming out of the home office 24/7. After some time and a few adjustments, I got used to it. I know it’s there, and most importantly, it’s there by choice. Taking pictures of specific people in public places without their knowledge and/or permission and posting them online is, on some level, an invasion of privacy. Having control over what you put out there is important. Do you really want the world to know that you’re buying toilet paper at 3:00am because someone with a smartphone decided it would make a funny addition to their Facebook album?

When you’re out in public, it’s safe to assume that you’re going to be recorded at any given time. While that hasn’t always been the case, it certainly can be today. Anything you put out there, whether it be videos you make or things you do in public, can and probably will be tracked.

I, along with many people, have used services like Foursquare and Facebook places. We do these things in order to gain points or discounts at various locations. What it may be harder to understand is you’re making a very public record of where you are and when.

It’s neat to think about being able to aim a camera at someone’s face and automatically have it recognized along with all the contact details associated with that person. Society is not currently ready for that though technology may be. Within ten years, that can certainly change. For better or for worse.

Yes, facial recognition in conjunction with smartphones and various software can lead to the destruction of anonymity. This may not lead to a complete breakdown. This is a natural result when we have all these tools to put ourselves out there and it’s met with software that can take this information, consolidate, process, and put it together.

Identity theft is a big deal. Anyone can walk in to a store and say, “Hi, I’m Chris Pirillo.” This has happened before, and a verification system that tracks true identity and matches it to your digital self could be used to prevent this from happening in the future.

Where this kind of system can be appealing, it’s important (if not more important) to protect anonymity. While there are situations where it is is essential for you to be able to place a name and face behind a particular effort, there is a power behind not always revealing one’s self.

There is a delicate balance that must be maintained. For every reason systems like these may be useful, there is a counter-argument against any further stripping of anonymity.

Are Smartphones and Social Networks Killing Privacy?

Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed

A community member named Justin recently asked if any of us even use the WWW part of web addresses any more. Back in the olden days, companies and individuals alike would give out their web addresses a little differently. It was common to hear “dub dub dub” or “triple w” before the actual web address. This was due in part to browsers needing to be told that they were entering a web address on the World Wide Web.

Thankfully, we don’t really need to use those W’s any longer. You can just type the name of the site and the .com or .org or whatever site it is you are trying to reach. I know that it wasn’t difficult to type out WWW first, but why should we have to? I cannot honestly think of the last time that I have typed those at the beginning of a URL.

I hate seeing when a site hasn’t done their redirects correctly. You have to do proper redirects in order to keep your Google site rankings. Those ranking are important people. When using the WWW in the URL, web servers reply with an http 301 (moved permanently) status code and points to the redirected main page – without those W’s. When search engines crawl the site using the WWW URL, the 301 status code tells them they should index the non-www URL instead. Sadly, many sites don’t redirect one or the other. This confuses things, and causes engine crawlers to index both types of URL’s. You may think that you are getting double rankings… but you’re actually hurting yourself and negating everything you’ve built up.

I don’t use the W’s, no. As a matter of fact, if I find a site that won’t load without using them, I will shoot an email off to the webmaster. Not taking the time to put those redirects in place is only hurting yourself and your site – not me.

How do you type websites and addresses into your browser? Do you put the WWW at the beginning of the URL out of habit, or are you saving yourself time by leaving them out?

Do You Still Type WWW in a URL?

Would you like to meet me? Are you interested in meeting other geeks; especially ones that are interested in Empire Avenue? How about meeting the real CEO of Empire Avenue, e(DUPS)? Perhaps you just enjoy beer and are looking for something to do on a Wednesday night? Well, thanks to an upcoming Seattle-area Empire Avenue shareholder meetup which will be taking place next week, you can experience all this and more.

On Wednesday, June 22, 2011 from 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM (PT), you can join e(PIRILLO) and e(DUPS) for a meetup that will enable you to connect with other Empire Avenue users in the Seattle area and beyond. This all takes place at Gordon Biersch Brewerey and Restaurant in Seattle, WA.

It’s free to attend, though you can purchase a VIP “ticket” through Eventbrite. With this ticket, you get a free drink, validated parking, plus you’re entered to win available door prizes. Plus, it will cover your gratuity to make sure those service people helping us are getting tipped. No revenues from this event will be kept by either Chris Pirillo or LockerGnome.

This is a great way to not only meet the founder of Empire Avenue, but potentially meet some of the people you’ve been investing in (or that may have invested in you). Making new friends, learning a bit more about this incredible new social game, and connecting with other geeks in your area are just a few of the many reasons why you may want to RSVP and come down to this Seattle-area meetup. Who knows, there might be a few of your investors attending that would really like to meet you.

This event was coordinated by (e)KELLYC in conjunction with @GBSeattle. The suggested hashtags are: #EAvSea, #Seattle, and #EAv (of course). It is strongly suggested that you tweet, blog, flickr, facebook, and youtube the heck out of this event… if only to drive up your dividends.

For more information and to RSVP, visit Eventbrite here.

Upcoming Seattle-Area Empire Avenue Shareholder Meetup

In the late 80s and early 90s, BBS (Bulletin Board Systems) were set up by enthusiasts and opened up for people to connect to through a modem connection. Back then, modems were considerably slower. A 2400 baud modem was common during the height of BBS popularity, and only folks with a good amount of disposable income went for the only slightly faster 9600 baud speed modems. On most home-hosted bulletin board systems, only one person was able to connect at a given time. Larger and more advanced setups were capable of hosting multiple users at once.

When logged in to a BBS, you were able to do all kinds of things. You could play games (referred to as door games), which were generally multiplayer and allowed you to play with and/or against other people. Trade Wars 2002 (still playable in some places online) was the most popular of these games, giving users the ability to pilot starships in a Star Trek parody environment. Graphics were rare, and the ones that you did find were ASCII art (a method of using text to create an image).

Through a BBS, you could also send and receive a form of email, leave messages on forums hosted on the BBS, download software and images, and more. Just about everything you expect from a basic-level social network today was possible in one form or another on a BBS. Some systems allowed users to create their own spaces and basic profiles where their friends could leave comments and interact with you. Live chat was even possible, though the majority of chatting took place between you and the Sysop (System Administrator).

It could be argued that the BBS brought to life what would later become the foundation of social networking years down the road. As technology progressed and connections speeds increased, so did the gloss and sheen of these social tools. Today, the basic concepts of forming a virtual community remain the same as they always have, even if the packaging is a little easier on the eyes.

So, what do you think? Was the BBS an early form of social network?

Was the BBS an Early Form of Social Network?

Aside from being annoying, does CAPTCHA really serve a useful purpose? What is CAPTCHA? In short, CAPTCHA is an acronym standing for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”. It describes pretty much any automated system that attempts to determine whether or not a user is human based on a simple test.

Recently, community member Roguekiller23231 asked, “What is CAPTCHA really used for?”

When you fill out a CAPTCHA form, you’re essentially telling the website that you’re a human being capable of reading (or in some cases hearing) the distorted word, phrase, or random characters. This is one method site administrators use to keep spammers from flooding the site with unwanted content.

There are likely hundreds of CAPTCHA services and scripts out in the world today. Some are automated and rendered by the site’s server once a request is made while others can be hosted and managed by an independent service off-site.

Some CAPTCHA systems, including reCAPTCHA, actually perform a dual purpose. By solving the CAPTCHA puzzle, the human on the other end may be contributing to the digitizing of books for online distribution. With reCAPTCHA, a series of characters may be selected by their servers that automated systems have a hard time identifying. Once solved, the solution is submitted and added to the digitized copy of the book.

Unfortunately, spammers have found ways around CAPTCHA. One popular method is hiring a team of people in another country to solve the CAPTCHA barriers for the spamming system. They are presented with a new CAPTCHA every time their system comes across one. Once solved, they move on to the next while the spam gets sent to the site automatically. Other ways of bypassing the barrier include finding flaws in implementation that can allow a system to go around the CAPTCHA entirely and through more advanced character recognition software.

With this in mind, there are many useful alternatives to CAPTCHA out there. If your site is built on WordPress, you may find a solution in plug-ins such as Akismet, Challenge, and others. These alternatives either provide a barrier that delays and/or deters a spammer from making their comment, or allows them through and flags potential spam for moderation. Unfortunately, no system currently available is absolutely foolproof short of moderating every comment with a human being prior to it being allowed on the site.

What is CAPTCHA?