Snake oil

[brainwash]

I think this quote from their site answers all the questions:

Techie Answer: The secret is with the built-in micro circuit chip working alongside the magnets. OutBooster is a smart device, meaning it also has incremental PoE injection through a long life micro battery to support its functioning.
OutBooster starts by reducing packet loss and forcing reverse magnetism (known as magnetic polarity). We have reversed the magnetic polarity to work in favor of the incoming bandwidth signal, and thus outputs a cleaner and louder signal to the rest of the network by forcing the packets out at a faster rate. Think QoS on caffeine. We then partner the above patented process with Gold plated 1000BASE-T Gigabit connections and plug and play functionality to round the hardware side out.

Anything involving magnets and/or "quantum" is hogwash.

Simple Answer: Think about having a phone conversation, but everything you said was delayed by 30 seconds to the person you were talking to AND everything they said came back with every third or fourth word instead of the full text. ... Well your Internet service works in much the same manner. Now, think about OutBooster as the better “operator” in this situation between you and the person you are talking to – your conversation is clear, instant, and louder.

Why would you want to do packet reordering, if that is indeed what it does? It will only slow down things, not speed them up.
Ok, my guess as to what's inside: a microcontroller that lights up some leds, maybe according to the activity. Rather randomly, or by an arbitrary metric, a green "boost" LED is fired, indicating the device is doing its job. 'Patented' magnets are placed near the UTP conduit inside.

I wonder if the targeted buyers are aware that this device can very well be a sniffer or a trojan for botnets.

[JoeyP]

Heard about this on the Amp Hour : http://outbooster.com/

So is it a real scam product or just an out & out scam?

That is one classic example of snake oil! Hilarious site. So many incongruent statements that it hurts my brain to read it. My bet: Out and out scam - probably just collecting lists of credit card numbers to sell to even bigger criminals. Probably will never ship a physical example of the "product" to anyone.

[cyr]

The thing in the photos looks like a standard RJ45 coupler, with a sticker on it.

At least it can be used to boost the length of your network cable...

[amyk]

If there were some sort of filtering components in there, could it have some beneficial effect on signal integrity?

[Stonent]

Heard about this on the Amp Hour : http://outbooster.com/

clearly bullshit, probably an empty  box or some components that do nothing.

I tried to order one to teardown (and x-ray) but got a refund with bullshit explanation about not shipping internationally until they "get their patent registered" and that they'd not yet updated their website to remove the international option.
 
Also tried getting someone (who has a big online presence) to order one for me & they also got a refund with a strange explanation.
Can find nothing online from anyone who has actually seen one.

So is it a real scam product or just an out & out scam?

Don't know but their product info page does say they ship internationally.

It doesn't have any valid technical base though. Ethernet CAT5e cable is rated to 1Gbit or 350MHz for 100 Meters.
There's nothing you can do to make that better.

[Stonent]

If there were some sort of filtering components in there, could it have some beneficial effect on signal integrity?

Maybe just looping it through a small ferrite bead?

[G7PSK]

I have just been looking around Google and can find no reference to any patent for the outboster just links to the outbooster site  and references to other names in relation to outbooster.

[amyk]

Apparently they've also tried crowfunding.

[JoeyP]

If there were some sort of filtering components in there, could it have some beneficial effect on signal integrity?

Maybe just looping it through a small ferrite bead?

You guys are trying too hard to find a way to believe that it might work. It's pure snake oil. One of their claims is that if you have a weak signal (e.g. an analog issue on the RF side of the modem), that this device will somehow speed up the transfer rate on the digital side of the modem. Think about it. That's a non sequitur.

[mikeselectricstuff]

If there were some sort of filtering components in there, could it have some beneficial effect on signal integrity?

None that would do anything useful, however if there was something inside, at least they'd have more chance of fooling  stupid people into believing it did something.

[brainwash]

There aren't any signal integrity issues, this is supposed to go between your modem and your router. In a typical home that's between 0 cm and 10 meters. Plus, ethernet does not really have a signal level/integrity, it either works or it doesn't, unlike wifi. Again, I'm talking about a typical setup, no need to go into details.

[c4757p]

Plus, ethernet does not really have a signal level/integrity, it either works or it doesn't, unlike wifi.

Not to give this thing any help with its bullshit - but you could definitely call your distance from "it doesn't work" the signal level, even if most Ethernet transceivers don't measure or report this.

[brainwash]

It's the frame error rate that drives auto-negotiation, so it's pretty much proportional to the noise level and inversely to the signal level. I very much doubt connectors and cables are a problem in a SOHO environment. If they are, this device has hardly any chance to improve on anything.

If it was the days of BNC cables and connectors then I might have "bought" it (the joke). I was stretching hundreds of meters of cables back then between apartment buildings to share our internet connection and it sucked when the terminator came off at one end or the cable was not properly crimped.

I don't know why I'm diving so much into this, it's absolutely clear that it does nothing, even IF there is anything in the box. Modern-day routers have a lot of capabilities and if this was an issue it would have been sorted out already. Heck, my current modem/router is many times smarter than the first PC I owned.

[CodyShaw]

I feel like whenever someone makes a commercial for their product with that super fake "hand speedily drawing" video enhancement, it's gotta be bullshit.

[MasterOfNone]

So my broadband speed is rated at upto 60Mbs and my Ethernet connection to my Cable Router is rated at 100Mbs. So increasing the speed of the Ethernet connection between my PCs and Cable Router will improve my internet access speed even though the bottleneck in my system is between my Cable router and ISP, not between my Computers and Cable Router. And even if my Broadband speed was a lot lower this device would still improve my connection speed, not by tackling the bottleneck in the system but by increasing the speed to the bottleneck.
I might order two and put them in series, because maybe just maybe my internet connection will be so fast I’ll be able to post things before I’ve actually written them, or see things before they have been posted. Wait why buy only two when I could be looking at next weeks lottery results

[eevblogfan]

not just that ! ... damm ... he put Mains through the wrong way    ( notice that only after he connected the "vacuum cleaner " ... the lights came on ... stupid ass 




ohh .. and he's camera work 

I guess I should ask : Why the hell  is he even try ?

[Orpheus]

I feel like whenever someone makes a commercial for their product with that super fake "hand speedily drawing" video enhancement, it's gotta be bullshit.

Really?

That's a serious question. I've been a fan of the RSA Animate style for years, long before it was cool (I'd been blown away by "scribers", who do this live at speaking events, long before that.)

I ask because I'm planning a project which may go to Kickstarter, and plan to use RSAnimation as the backbone of my video. Am I blinded by my own long fondness of this style? Is it 'over'?

[PStevenson]

My friend likes finding youtube videos that he knows will annoy the living piss out of me and he came across this one
about audiophilery
the guy hosting the videos makes those ridiculous cables and talks about needing faraday cages for crosstalk prevention etc.
but what made me want to share it with you fine people is the video he did on "tweaking CDs"
now I'm sure a lot of you are aware of the coating the rim of CDs with a marker to make them sound better - the origin of which was an april fools joke gone awry printed by some hi fi or electronics magazine back when CDs were new.

well he has done a video explaining how to "tweak" CDs to make them sound "cleaner" using this method.

now watch and enjoy this youtube channel of utter shit http://youtu.be/bodniyBVABQ

[sync]

now watch and enjoy this youtube channel of utter shit http://youtu.be/bodniyBVABQ

From the same channel:
Build your own high-end power cord. With solid core wire!
Yeah, "Burning down the house" sounds much better now!

[brainwash]

That guy seems genuinely nice and has a bit of knowledge as well, even admitting a bit that 'audiophile' means convincing yourself that a lot of money should bring improvement. Shame he believes in his stuff, it's like humanity lost another being. I honestly believed it was a joke, given the channel name, wacky intro and CD hack.

I have a really nice friend that is into electronics and mechanics as well and is well-versed. However, he has been repairing and tuning his beat-up bike for a few years now, each time claiming a 10-100 horsepower increase. That bike should be well over 1000 by now.
I had a nice girlfriend once who convinced herself of many things since childhood. It's a shame she had to go, but one loose screw meant a possible breakdown down the road.
We have a word for them: liars. It they believe it it doesn't make it true.


Mild offtopic but I was 90% convinced the practice of adding decreasingly small filtering caps in parallel to power supplies was falling into the same category as audiophile. Same thing was happening with rectifier diodes. Now I'm not really sure, in fact I'm leaning the other way, given that both caps and diodes have inverse proportional bandwidth given a capacity/amperage. Still not sure how that works with 50/60Hz but maybe someone can enlighten me.

[bitwelder]

now watch and enjoy this youtube channel of utter shit http://youtu.be/bodniyBVABQ

Yay! Uploaded in June 2009, 7 thumbs-up, 8 thumbs-down. I call it a success 

[brainwash]

The guy with the socket and vacuum cleaner had a ratio of likes/dislikes of ~33/66 which is kind of scary. That means that one third of the audience is completely retarded. You can see the ratio by going foolscreen () and clicking the little "i" button at the top.

[Mysion]

Make it 10 thumbs down!

[crisr]

I think this quote from their site answers all the questions:

Techie Answer: The secret is with the built-in micro circuit chip working alongside the magnets. OutBooster is a smart device, meaning it also has incremental PoE injection through a long life micro battery to support its functioning.
OutBooster starts by reducing packet loss and forcing reverse magnetism (known as magnetic polarity). We have reversed the magnetic polarity to work in favor of the incoming bandwidth signal, and thus outputs a cleaner and louder signal to the rest of the network by forcing the packets out at a faster rate. Think QoS on caffeine. We then partner the above patented process with Gold plated 1000BASE-T Gigabit connections and plug and play functionality to round the hardware side out.

_ Must... reverse... proton beam... polarity... 
_ Are you sure it will work, Egon?
_ It's one shot in one thousand, but it's our only chance!

[David_AVD]

Yesterday I was looking for the 3G stick for my laptop so was searching every pocket of the bag.  The laptop and bag were bought 2nd hand a few years ago.

Anyway, I found something interesting in one of the more inaccessible pockets.  At first I thought it was an RFID tag, but a quick Google search turned up this page:

http://www.qlinkproducts.com/Scripts/prodView.asp?idProduct=98

After a short read, I was left thinking WTF !!!!