We added roku streaming sticks to all our rentals in our vacation rental
properties. Makes them universally streamable.
My sister said it would save over 200 a month on a cable bill. I was shocked.
----- Reply message -----
From: "Ken Hohhof" <[email protected]>
To: "'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group'" <[email protected]>
Subject: [AFMUG] I must be from the wrong generation
Date: Tue, Jun 16, 2026 11:21 AM
I think streaming devices are moving from sticks toward boxes. And of course
Roku will now be Fox/Roku. Chromecast is gone. Google TV Streamer has an
Ethernet port, I guess it still has USB for power. USB-C, and it comes with a
power supply. Fire TV still has sticks, although it seems there’s a Cube now.
Roku still has sticks, but the Roku Ultra is like the Google TV Streamer. I
guess there’s Apple TV and Nvidia Shield. And ONN for the budget minded. From:
AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Adam Moffett
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2026 9:58 AM
To: 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] I must be from the wrong generation
Maybe the thing I should be reflecting on is the fact that I regret their TV
not having a USB port to power the Roku. I was maybe 15-16 years old when I
started seeing USB on PC's, and there were almost no peripherals for it. The
idea of a TV with a USB port would have been ludicrous at the time. When I was
in elementary school, you could still buy a black and white TV, and we actually
had one in the kitchen. My mom used it to listen to a show on it while she was
making dinner. Put a USB port on that sucker and plug in the Roku. I'll need
to stop at Radio Shack and find an HDMI to analog two-wire antenna converter.
From: Adam Moffett <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2026 10:50 AM
To: 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] I must be from the wrong generation
I hope so by now. On theirs you can turn off the TV and then turn it on a few
hours later and multiple episodes of your show played while the TV was off.
It's a Roku Express, but I'm not entirely sure how old it is. Old enough that
I think it only does 2.4ghz WiFi. Maybe I'll just buy them a new one.
From: AF <[email protected]> on behalf of [email protected]
<[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2026 10:47 AM
To: 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] I must be from the wrong generation
I presume once the HDMI port goes idle Roku stops streaming.
From: AF <[email protected]> on behalf of Adam Moffett
<[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2026 6:28 AM
To: 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] I must be from the wrong generation
When I was still involved in fixed wireless I had the same feelings as Ken
about constant streaming for nobody. Airtime is finite. Channel capacity is
finite. Their electric bill doesn't concern me, but their constant data usage
for something frivolous does. Another one is if you have a Roku that isn't
powered from a USB port on the TV. If you turn off the TV without stopping the
Roku then it sits there streaming and auto-playing the next episode while the
TV isn't even on. My parents have done this. They have an older Roku Express,
and a TV with no USB ports. I'd hope by now they have something in the Roku to
detect if a monitor is not present on the HDMI port and stop automatically, but
the one they have doesn't do that.
On FTTH we don't have to care about the data usage......at least not for now.
When they come up with an application that actually uses a gig we'll have an
issue.
Side note on the IPv6: We've departed from ARIN standard and delegate a /60.
They still have up to 16 subnets if there's ever a reason to use them.
From: AF <[email protected]> on behalf of Dennis -- LTI Engineering via
AF <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 2026 7:46 AM
To: 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' <[email protected]>
Cc: Dennis -- LTI Engineering <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: [AFMUG] I must be from the wrong generation
Well in all fairness, the TV draws, what 10 watts or something stupid like
that. Back in the day, light bulbs would draw at least 40, sometimes 60 watts,
and the big bad boys drew 100! 😊 Kinda the same way I feel about IPv6.
Why give a customer a /48, when they will just use maybe one /64. Its
wasteful, they would be using ..00001% of what they were given, and therefore
99.9999% is wasted. This occurred before, when we handed out /8s like crack.
I do understand the size but STILL, just is wasted. I still go around my
house, turn off lights, yes they are LED, but still do it. I still yell at my
son when he leaves a door open. As far as fido and cats needing sound, umm.
Mine sleep all day unless a leaf blows past the window then they are barking at
it, and the cat never moved. Lol Dennis Burgess
MikroTik Certified: Trainer | Network Associate | Routing Engineer | Wireless
Engineer | Traffic Control Engineer | Inter-Networking Engineer | Security
Engineer | Enterprise Wireless Engineer
Hurricane Electric: IPv6 Sage
Cambium Certified: ePMP
Author: Learn RouterOS – Second EditionLink Technologies, Inc. – MikroTik & ISP
Support Services | Shop On-Line
📞 Office: 314-735-0270 or 1-866-620-0074
📡 Create Wireless Coverage with www.towercoverage.com From: AF
<[email protected]> On Behalf Of Ken Hohhof
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2026 6:44 PM
To: 'AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group' <[email protected]>
Subject: [AFMUG] I must be from the wrong generation
I remember my parents telling us to turn off lights when we left the room, and
to close the front door rather than “air conditioning the outside”. Now I get
customers who leave a TV streaming all day for the dogs while they’re gone.
That irks me because it seems wasteful. They have excuses when I suggest
playing a radio or telling Alexa to play music. I mean, if it was cats,
probably they watch the video and play with the birds and strings and stuff.
But supposedly the dogs just want something to listen to. We have a cattle
feed lot customer that plays a radio in the barns for the cows, but radio is
apparently good enough for cows. Internet is now something we don’t worry about
wasting, like leaving a light on or a faucet running. I guess I wouldn’t care
if I didn’t get tech support calls about the app on the Firestick not running
all day and they get home and there’s no TV for the dogs. What am I going to
say, give the dogs our number and have them call in when it happens? OK, Fido,
have you tried unplugging it and plugging it back in again?
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