Staying Connected Is Complicated

Going back and forth from the USA to Dubai as many times as I have this last year, it's proving difficult to stay connected in either place. I still don't have a residency visa for Dubai so technically I can't stay here more than 3o days at a time. Often I am by myself for most of the day as Neal works until 8 p.m. or later, even on the weekend. But being home in Pittsburgh by myself is not much fun either. It's also hard to leave Pittsburgh when the Steelers are in the playoffs, as these games are invariably the most interesting of the season.

We are fortunate to have a very good internet connection at our apartment. When we can watch things over the internet, this makes up for the lack of attractive cable TV offerings, very sparse when it comes to the NFL and nonexistent for watching the playoffs live. (Believe it or not, there are no Steeler bars in Dubai.) So we have been relying on our home TV via slingbox. But the picture quality is not good, and we wanted to invite guests to watch the NFL championships, so I checked out buying an internet package from the NFL Network. While not cheap--a one-week pass costs $24.99--this provides us with a high definition picture almost as good as watching an HD channel on cable. To subscribe to the NFL Network, you must be located outside the USA, obviously to protect their deals with the networks in the USA paying big bucks to carry the NFL games in the states. Not a problem in Dubai.

It gets more complicated when I try to watch other things over the internet, such as Netflix. My account allows me to watch movies instantly over the internet, but to use this my computer must be located in the USA. Netflix can tell from my computer's IP address--set through my internet provider in Dubai--that I am not in the USA. So the trick here is getting your computer on another network that gives it an address in the USA. This involves setting up a VPN, for virtual private network. There are many ways to do this, some free and some not, and I tried a few different ones before I found one that worked. For simplicity's sake, let's just say the basic level wasn't good enough and I had to opt for a higher level with encryption. When I want to use my VPN, which is not always, I open this application and it resets my IP address and directs all my internet traffic through an encrypted tunnel. This has the added benefit of allowing me to see sites that may be blocked in the UAE. So now my Netflix instant queue is available for watching in Dubai!

I also wanted to watch the Australian Open, which is not being shown on any local TV channels. ESPN3 provides free online streaming of matches live, but requires that you have an account with one of the cable companies that is carrying the coverage in local markets. This does not include my cable company in the UAE, which has no coverage, but does include my cable company in the USA, Comcast. So I have to use my VPN to give me a new USA IP address, instead of my Dubai cable company address, and then use my Comcast account to get the ESPN3 coverage. It's amazingly good and much more extensive than I would have been able to see on Comcast at home, which does not broadcast many matches live and usually only provides replays in their daily coverage.

The final complication was to hook my laptop up to our large screen TV, so we could expand the viewing audience. This involves getting an HDMI cable with a small plug that hooks into the laptop and a big one that goes to the TV. Once these are plugged in and the proper HDMI input selected on the TV, you expect the signal to transfer automatically and are disappointed when it doesn't. Turns out you have to get the laptop to go to sleep first and then wake it up for the signal to transfer. Which means you need to wait until the signal transfers to start the internet stream for the program, which may otherwise get disconnected when the computer goes to sleep. So you need to use your mouse and keyboard to be able to control the computer screen as it appears on the TV set. Not too difficult as it turns out, but I had to practice a bit before I got the hang of it.

The final step was dealing with the inadequate audio levels coming out of the laptop speakers, as only the video transfers to the TV, not the sound. The TV has audio inputs (the RCA style red and white plugs) but the laptop doesn't have have those kind of outputs. It does have a mini-jack plug for headphones so I used a small cord with mini-jacks on both ends (which I had been using to play my iPhone in the car) and hooked it between the laptop and our iPod speakerdock. This works like a charm, and now we have decent audio and video for a crowd!

Needless to say, I am quite proud of myself for getting everything to work with no need to purchase any additional equipment. It's not free--I am paying for the NFL Gamepass and also for my secured VPN--but relatively cheap as these things go and also taking advantage of my Pittsburgh-based Comcast and Netflix accounts which I am paying for anyway.