Networked visited by University of Michigan


Recommended Posts

55??  Dude pool is $15, scanner is $15..  and Could is $30 if you have already bought something from them - see at the bottom existing customers, put in one of your activation codes and you get all discounted prices

 

discount.thumb.png.0f9ff8f9f877e1d3e96e6

 

 

if you don't like cloud then don't buy it it for your other machines - but you can pick up pool or scanner for $15 for another machine.  I have pool/scanner on my server and just scanner on my desktop.

 

As to version I have the current 2.2.0.651 Beta of the pool.  You need to click into the pool options under the Pie chart...

 

As to "I have the Amazon Cloud Service, which I can't use with it."  And what is that exactly?  They clearly state they support Amazon Cloud Drive and S3...

 

What does garage space and broken into have to do with space???  Next time maybe they will sill your server?

 

 

7 hours ago, Jared- said:

You don't have a ridiculous amount of space....

For a home network, I think 30TB or so is pretty ridiculous. Most users won't even use 2TB of space.

 

 

Also, when websites fail to load; it says "DNS_PROBE_FAILED", dunno if that helps anymore.

what says "DNS_PROBE_FAILED" your browser?  What browser? What are you using for dns??  Your router?  Maybe its overloaded doing dns.. Did you sniff to see what your 100KB(b) was?

 

When you get this error did you do a dns query with nslookup or dig or drill or host or whatever your fav dns tool is?

18 minutes ago, BudMan said:

what says "DNS_PROBE_FAILED" your browser?  What browser? What are you using for dns??  Your router?  Maybe its overloaded doing dns.. Did you sniff to see what your 100KB(b) was?

 

When you get this error did you do a dns query with nslookup or dig or drill or host or whatever your fav dns tool is?

I'm using 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 for my DNS on the router. Should I not use them?

 

Chrome is the browser I use for nearly everything, FireFox if it requires Java, and if FF doesn't work, I use Edge *shudders*

 

I haven't had the time to sniff, I got home late from work last night, I'll try those commands tonight or tomorrow when I'm at work. Need to re-setup RDC, for some reason all my computers don't respond to it.

those are what you use on the router, but your client points to your router?  And your router forwards to those. The dns in many off the shelf routers suck ass to use the technical term ;)  They have limited resources in both memory and cpu and if they get asked a lot, they choke on it.. p2p clients can do a ###### load of queries.  Your ftp server might be doing a PTR for every IP hitting it..  Many other services are doing queries, etc..

 

So when it gets overwhelmed it fails to return anything to your client asking to go to www.domain.tld, so your browser chokes and gives you errors.

 

If your having issues with resolving, from a cmd line try asking your router, then try asking something outside your router like your 8.8.8.8 or do a direct query to the authoritative server for that domain, which you can find via whois or if dns is somewhat working via a NS query for the domain, then query those directly.

 

 

20 hours ago, BinaryData said:

Yeah, I knew i'd eventually be port scanned, however I wasn't expecting to be hit from tons of addresses. Since I posted this, I've had nearly 100 hits from different IPs, the Michigan one has hit me, even though I blocked the parent /16 address, including the two it lists on its site. BudMan and I are discussing firewall options, as well as a switch upgrade.

Not surprising TBH, there are a buttload of people doing it. Never underestimate the determination of basement dwelling script kiddies looking to fill their time with mindless vandalism xD

1 hour ago, BudMan said:

those are what you use on the router, but your client points to your router?  And your router forwards to those. The dns in many off the shelf routers suck ass to use the technical term ;)  They have limited resources in both memory and cpu and if they get asked a lot, they choke on it.. p2p clients can do a ###### load of queries.  Your ftp server might be doing a PTR for every IP hitting it..  Many other services are doing queries, etc..

 

So when it gets overwhelmed it fails to return anything to your client asking to go to www.domain.tld, so your browser chokes and gives you errors.

 

If your having issues with resolving, from a cmd line try asking your router, then try asking something outside your router like your 8.8.8.8 or do a direct query to the authoritative server for that domain, which you can find via whois or if dns is somewhat working via a NS query for the domain, then query those directly.

 

 

Hmm.. I have Sonarr, PLEX, and Deluge installed, those are the only apps connecting to the outside world, Sonarr is localhost only. PLEX is only used locally, but I do have it setup for streaming outside, just for myself.

37 minutes ago, Javik said:

Not surprising TBH, there are a buttload of people doing it. Never underestimate the determination of basement dwelling script kiddies looking to fill their time with mindless vandalism xD

Very true. 

Also, I have 1 Year sub to Amazon Cloud Services. I can't find the information needed for the Amazon S3 deal. Looks like it may not be supported. It says it is, but i can't seem to find the access key and all that.

 

No worries though, I could get the program they have setup, to run everytime something new is added to J:/

4 hours ago, Javik said:

Not surprising TBH, there are a buttload of people doing it. Never underestimate the determination of basement dwelling script kiddies looking to fill their time with mindless vandalism xD

You do realise that the scanning is probably  happening on already compromised machine, right? It's not like someone is sitting there watching.... 

 

If you've got other machines not working as expected on your network, I suspect you've got something configured incorrectly. 

1 hour ago, Jared- said:

You do realise that the scanning is probably  happening on already compromised machine, right? It's not like someone is sitting there watching.... 

 

If you've got other machines not working as expected on your network, I suspect you've got something configured incorrectly. 

Mm.. Just my main desktop, I can double check with my laptop too..

 

I'll do the DNS Check as well, if I can remember the damn commands.

Edited by BinaryData

Well.. Looks like my router IS doing DNS. It lists 192.168.1.1 as the DNS, yet the router has 8.8.8.8 / 8.8.4.4 listed for DNS? I hate networking, it hurts my brain too much.

 

If there are specific commands I need to run to get you useful information, let me know. 

"I hate networking, it hurts my brain too much."

 

Your in the wrong field of study then... ;)

 

Dude your router is running a name server, forwarding caching name server to be more correct..  Your desktop asks it hey what is the IP for www.neowin.net, your router ns app that is running looks in its cache, nope no record there - let me ask the servers I was setup to forward too.. googledns in your example..  Your routers ns software sends a query to googledns and asks hey what is the A record for www.neowin.net..  Google then has that cached or it would then forward or resolve it and send your router back its answer..  Which then your router would return to your desktop, all normally with in a few ms..   Your router would then cache this entry for the life of its TTL (time to live) and the next time your client or some other box on your network asks your router for www.neowin.net it would have to forward it.. it would have it in its cache and return it very quickly.

 

Now when your network for whatever reason is sending lots and lots of queries to your router, it sometimes gets overwhelmed and barfs and now nothing going to be able to resolve because you all ask the router for where you want to go..  Now your desktop once it asks for www.neowin.net and got an answer it will cache that locally for the life of the ttl that you got from your router, that was whatever the ttl was on it when your router looked it up from google.  So your client doesn't have to ask for it again until that expires..   So you might not notice if your dns on your router takes up dump, if it comes back up quick enough, etc.  Unless your trying to look up something new while its down.

 

So while you could have 10ge up and down for a pipe, if your not able to resolve anything because the name server you ask is down, then your 10ge is pretty much useless..

 

As to commands already listed quite a few of them.. Which dns tool do you like best, what OS are you using to troubleshoot? 

 

Simple nslookup

 

D:\>nslookup www.cnn.com
Server:  pfSense.local.lan
Address:  192.168.9.253

 

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    turner.map.fastly.net
Address:  23.235.44.73
Aliases:  www.cnn.com

 

See how it came back as non-authoritative.. That is telling you it was from cache.. but with little else for info other than you see it got that info from my pfsense.

 

Now dig on the other hand give you WAY more info in the query.

digquery.thumb.png.6207181cd44488cde78a4

 

You can see what the actual ttl is left for those records, it also returned the actual authoritative NS for the record looked up.  Shows you how long my server took to respond, size of the total query, timestamp.  etc.. etc..  The dig tool provides way more info than your simple nslooup.  And is a much more rounded tool for troubleshooting dns with.   But without understanding basic concepts of how dns works - then its all just magic and could give you all the cmds in the world not going to help you find your problem if you don't actually understand what your doing or what the results tell you.

 

As to your amazon services..  You mean AWS console login??  As you can see they have lots of services - that are different then their home user products..

aws.thumb.png.27387f8149bc4e67fe5965e8ee

 

What exactly do you have a subscription too??  You do understand that amazon has many different products for storage..  See the box I highlighted above, I use glacier that is not S3 either..

glacier.thumb.png.0d9056f87621a91944c6d1

 

While I don't have anything setup in S3

S3.thumb.png.a42d737755b2143fbec15f82652

 

This is completely different than what you would get with your prime membership..  So what is it you exactly have access to for storage from amazon??  And I will download the trial of the cloud pool from stablebit and take a looky see to how to connect..

 

This is the cloud drive they support

clouddrive.thumb.png.f623bf0c0895406bfc5

 

This is the free photo one you get with prime, but if you want to store more stuff then you need subscription for that.

 

clouddrivestorage.thumb.png.0b7cf5147a00

 

 

 

Ok, so I'm trying to use the Amazon Cloud Drive. It asks for Access Key, would that just be my normal password? Figured it out, Google was unhelpful, however I did notice StableBit has a forums, haha. An older topic resolved my problem. You have to enable experimental files. I'm wondering if Amazon will like me uploading 9TB of data. :p

 

I created a 10TB Cloud Drive, with a 1GB Cache size. This is kind of nifty, actually. 

 

You have to click on the Cog Wheel -> Troubleshooting -> Enable Experimental Drives.

 

So, this is what I'm getting for my DNS.

 

Screenshot_2016-02-06-10-06-35.thumb.png

 

Forgive me, I'm on my phone because my work won't allow RDC Programs. I screwed up my RDC when I re-installed Windows. So, this is what I'm stuck with using.

 

I'll try more stuff later. TeamViewer is being stupid on my phone.

so your client is pointing to more than 1 dns?  And 1 is not answering and 192.168.1.1 is not answering either..  And you don't have any reverse zone setup for 192.168.1.0/24 or since its down it is not resolving that. See how pfsense.local.lan is what it shows for my dns IP.

 

C:\>dig -x 192.168.9.253                                                     
                                                                             
; <<>> DiG 9.10.3-P2 <<>> -x 192.168.9.253                                   
;; global options: +cmd                                                      
;; Got answer:                                                               
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 54889                    
;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1      
                                                                             
;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:                                                        
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096                                        
;; QUESTION SECTION:                                                         
;253.9.168.192.in-addr.arpa.    IN      PTR                                  
                                                                             
;; ANSWER SECTION:                                                           
253.9.168.192.in-addr.arpa. 3600 IN     PTR     pfSense.local.lan.           
                                                                             
;; Query time: 0 msec                                                        
;; SERVER: 192.168.9.253#53(192.168.9.253)                                   
;; WHEN: Sat Feb 06 16:34:02 Central Standard Time 2016                      
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 86

 

From what you posted your internet would be pretty much useless because you can not resolve anything.. What does you client have for dns?  Pointing to dns that doesn't have the same info is pointless..  Your local dns 192.168.1.1 should have all your local records, that say googledns is not going to have a clue about so if you want to resolve local stuff then all you should point to is your local dns.

 

Do a directed query to say google dns 8.8.8.8 or 8.8.4.4 or opendns or 4.2.2.2 always seems to answer - run by level3

 

C:\>dig @4.2.2.2 www.cnn.com

; <<>> DiG 9.10.3-P2 <<>> @4.2.2.2 www.cnn.com
; (1 server found)
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 3381
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;www.cnn.com.                   IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
www.cnn.com.            158     IN      CNAME   turner.map.fastly.net.
turner.map.fastly.net.  21      IN      A       23.235.40.73

;; Query time: 18 msec
;; SERVER: 4.2.2.2#53(4.2.2.2)
;; WHEN: Sat Feb 06 16:38:33 Central Standard Time 2016
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 80

 

or

 

C:\>nslookup
Default Server:  pfSense.local.lan
Address:  192.168.9.253

> server 4.2.2.2
Default Server:  b.resolvers.Level3.net
Address:  4.2.2.2

> www.cnn.com
Server:  b.resolvers.Level3.net
Address:  4.2.2.2

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    turner.map.fastly.net
Address:  23.235.39.73
Aliases:  www.cnn.com

 

4 minutes ago, Jared- said:

TL;DR You've been dicking around with your network and it's configured incorrectly. Factory reset your stuff and start again. 

 

All the jargon above is only going to confuse you more. 

Nope. The only thing I've changed in the last 2 weeks is ports. One of our Network Admins suggested I might be breaking the NAT Tables with having so many ports open.

"I might be breaking the NAT Tables with having so many ports open."

 

What??  Do you have like 1000's of them open?  10s of thousands?  You do understand that the state table of your router handles every session.  Forwarding a few freaking ports is not going to put any extra load on anything..

 

So you did a directed query in the first one... Why did you do a query against ns1.google.com ??that is what 216.239.32.10 PTR says it is??

 

And your second one - yeah doing an empty query to your dns should return the root servers..

6 hours ago, Jared- said:

TL;DR You've been dicking around with your network and it's configured incorrectly. Factory reset your stuff and start again. 

 

All the jargon above is only going to confuse you more. 

You've already re-installed Windows on your new box? Wow. 

 

You've got a configuration error somewhere, I'd start with your router.

Edited by Jared-

So Its 730 am in the morning here, I am not really doing anything on the net yet.  Just reading some stuff, wife is sleeping.  Nobody else here.. And currently 199 states open on my firewall. Its current size setting is 201000 of them.. So this is normally about 10% of the Ram on the firewall..  I have 2GB assigned to the VM so that makes sense.  Would depend exactly what firewall your running.  Every connection is going to normally have 2 states per connection..  So Currently I could have about 100,000 connections open before I would start to see trouble..

 

states.thumb.png.93294bc9db88fea51a63c1a

 

But you running a ftp server killed your router because of states??  I find that really really unlikely unless your got some real POS router??

 

There are some cheap off the shelf routers that could choke on a p2p connection... You running p2p as well?? Which can ramp up the number of connections for sure..  What is your router??  Here is a chart of number of connections of different off the shelf routers tested..

 

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/router/bar/77-max-simul-conn

 

If you scroll way down there are some that have like 4096 connection limit...  You could prob eat that up with a couple of torrents running for sure..  But the many of them are over the 40K connections, which you would think would be more than plenty for any home sort of connection..  Can you even view how many your router has in its state table?

8 hours ago, BudMan said:

"I might be breaking the NAT Tables with having so many ports open."

 

What??  Do you have like 1000's of them open?  10s of thousands?  You do understand that the state table of your router handles every session.  Forwarding a few freaking ports is not going to put any extra load on anything..

 

So you did a directed query in the first one... Why did you do a query against ns1.google.com ??that is what 216.239.32.10 PTR says it is??

 

And your second one - yeah doing an empty query to your dns should return the root servers..

Well, the FTP in passive mode wouldn't take anything less than 1,000 ports. I could've configured it wrong, but I had 50,000 - 51,000 open specifically for that. I've disabled it, nothing changed from that.

Like I've stated before, I really don't know what I'm doing. I've never had a problem like this before.

 

Here are my open ports:

 

open_ports.thumb.png.2e0cca6cfcda01ff25e

6 hours ago, BudMan said:

So Its 730 am in the morning here, I am not really doing anything on the net yet.  Just reading some stuff, wife is sleeping.  Nobody else here.. And currently 199 states open on my firewall. Its current size setting is 201000 of them.. So this is normally about 10% of the Ram on the firewall..  I have 2GB assigned to the VM so that makes sense.  Would depend exactly what firewall your running.  Every connection is going to normally have 2 states per connection..  So Currently I could have about 100,000 connections open before I would start to see trouble..

 

states.thumb.png.93294bc9db88fea51a63c1a

 

But you running a ftp server killed your router because of states??  I find that really really unlikely unless your got some real POS router??

 

There are some cheap off the shelf routers that could choke on a p2p connection... You running p2p as well?? Which can ramp up the number of connections for sure..  What is your router??  Here is a chart of number of connections of different off the shelf routers tested..

 

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/tools/charts/router/bar/77-max-simul-conn

 

If you scroll way down there are some that have like 4096 connection limit...  You could prob eat that up with a couple of torrents running for sure..  But the many of them are over the 40K connections, which you would think would be more than plenty for any home sort of connection..  Can you even view how many your router has in its state table?

My router is this one; TP-Link N750

7 hours ago, Jared- said:

You've already re-installed Windows on your new box? Wow. 

 

You've got a configuration error somewhere, I'd start with your router.

Soon as I'm done port scanning my own IP, or if it cancels out, I'm going to change something. My DHCP page didn't have any DNS Servers listed. Which was originally there when I set it up.

 

 

Quote

C:\Users\BinaryData>nslookup
Default Server:  google-public-dns-a.google.com
Address:  8.8.8.8

> nslookup cnn.com
Server:  cnn.com
Addresses:  157.166.226.26
          157.166.226.25

DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
DNS request timed out.
    timeout was 2 seconds.
*** Request to cnn.com timed-out

Ran it while it was having a hiccup.

 

Edit:

 

Never seen this "Toredo" before. Though, Google said this is a 6to4 tunneling, appears to be ok? Though, I'm not running IPv6 on anything, and I don't think our ISP is, but I could be wrong.

what_is_this.thumb.png.184e2910cbf97c810

Edited by BinaryData
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Can you give an example of when you would want to use Rufus over the other or vice versa? Just wondering which is the "best".
    • Oh no...the wallet is already screaming. So many games and so little time. Being old and responsible is awful!
    • LibreWolf 152.0.2-1 by Razvan Serea LibreWolf is an independent “fork” of Firefox, with the primary goals of privacy security and user freedom. It is the community run successor to LibreFox. LibreWolf is designed to increase protection against tracking and fingerprinting techniques, while also including a few security improvements. This is achieved through our privacy and security oriented settings and patches. LibreWolf also aims to remove all the telemetry, data collection and annoyances, as well as disabling anti-freedom features like DRM. LibreWolf features: Latest Firefox — LibreWolf is compiled directly from the latest build of Firefox Stable. You will have the the latest features, and security updates. Independent Build — LibreWolf uses a build independent of Firefox and has its own settings, profile folder and installation path. As a result, it can be installed alongside Firefox or any other browser. No phoning home — Embedded server links and other calling home functions are removed. In other words, minimal background connections by default. User settings updates Extensions firewall: limit internet access for extensions. Multi-platform (Windows/Linux/Mac/and soon Android) Community-Driven Dark theme (classic and advanced) LibreWolf privacy features: Delete cookies and website data on close. Include only privacy respecting search engines like DuckDuckGo and Searx. Include uBlockOrigin with custom default filter lists, and Tracking Protection in strict mode, to block trackers and ads. Strip tracking elements from URLs, both natively and through uBO. Enable dFPI, also known as Total Cookie Protection. Enable RFP which is part of the Tor Uplift project. RFP is considered the best in class anti-fingerprinting solution, and its goal is to make users look the same and cover as many metrics as possible, in an effort to block fingerprinting techniques. Always display user language as en-US to websites, in order to protect the language used in the browser and in the OS. Disable WebGL, as it is a strong fingerprinting vector. Prevent access to the location services of the OS, and use Mozilla's location API instead of Google's API. Limit ICE candidates generation to a single interface when sharing video or audio during a videoconference. Force DNS and WebRTC inside the proxy, when one is being used. Trim cross-origin referrers, so that they don't include the full URI. Disable link prefetching and speculative connections. Disable disk cache and clear temporary files on close. Disable form autofill. Disable search and form history...and more. Download: LibreWolf 64-bit | Portable 64-bit | ~100.0 MB (Open Source) Download: ARM64 | Portable ARM64 Links: LibreWolf Home Page | Addons | Screenshot | Reddit Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Hands on with iFlyTek AINote 2 E-Ink tablet: insanely thin and smart by Taras Buria During Amazon Prime Day 2026, iFlyTek is offering its E-Ink tablets with big discounts. The AINOTE 2 is now available at 20% off, allowing you to save quite a lot on one of the thinnest E-Ink tablets out there. I was offered a chance to look at the device, so here are my impressions. The AINOTE 2 is a large 10.65-inch E-Ink tablet that strikes you the moment you take it out of the box. It is extremely thin. At just 4.2 mm, this tablet is at the edge of what is possible for a device with a USB Type-C port. It is also very light, which makes it comfortable and enjoyable during long reading sessions. The tablet has a gold metal chassis with the front and back made of plastic. The back also features four rubber feet that prevent it from sliding around your desk when writing. Besides a USB Type-C port and an LED indicator, there are two buttons mounted on the top edge: a power button with a built-in fingerprint scanner and a dedicated AI button. I would say the fingerprint scanner is quite mid. Given that iFlyTek positions the device as a digital notebook, it makes sense to have a biometric scanner to protect sensitive information. However, it is not the fastest fingerprint reader, and sometimes it fails to recognize my finger. I assume that is due to the tablet's insane thinness. A dedicated AI button is an interesting choice, especially in the middle of the top edge. I can see this button being useful for those who heavily rely on AI and use it frequently, but I cannot help but think its placement is impractical. Having it on one of the longer sides would make so much more sense. The AINOTE 2 is a very pretty device. Gold finish with thin chassis and nearly symmetrical front bezels create a fantastic combination, and iFlyTek cleverly hides the front chin with a section that looks like an extension of the screen, housing two touch-capacitive buttons: one for AI and one for quick notes. This section can also scroll pages when you swipe from the middle to the left or right. It is a cool idea, and very handy when you need to scroll tens of pages at once. AINOTE 2's elegant look extends from its exterior to its software. The user interface is very clean and not cluttered with an abundance of buttons. The tablet prioritizes the note-taking experience, and when you unlock it, it defaults to the list of all notes and folders. Additionally, there is a separate "Schedule" section with your calendar, tasks, memos, and other productivity features. You can connect your Outlook or Google account or use a local calendar. The tablet has quite a lot of AI features powered by OpenAI's GPT-5 and Google's Gemini 3. Besides a standard app with all your chats, you can invoke AI by pressing its dedicated button and dictating your request. It is not limited to just chats. It works with the built-in calendar, and you can tell it to create events, tasks, notes, and more. Additionally, AI features are integrated into the built-in notepad, allowing you to summarize notes, ask questions about your notes, and more. The tablet can OCR handwritten text in different languages (about 120 languages, which is very impressive), and it surprised me with very good accuracy. Voice note transcription is also available, including a "multiplayer" mode where the tablet detects each speaker. Unfortunately, the AINOTE 2 has no built-in speakers (even though it somehow makes a tapping noise when you flip pages using the Quick Bar), so the only way to listen to something is to connect a Bluetooth speaker or headphones. However, there are four front-facing mics for dictation, voice notes, AI chats, and more. Unfortunately, certain features require a Pro subscription that costs $5.99/mo or $59.99/year. Those include offline voice transcription, access to better AI models, the ability to edit notes on a PC or mobile app, and extended service coverage similar to Apple Care. It is a bummer to see yet another app, especially in a device that costs $649, but at least they give a free 90-day trial so that you can see if the benefits justify the price. As for the reader, it supports PDF, EPUB, TXT, MOBI, AZW3, DOC(X), XLS(X), PPT(X), JPEG, JPG, and PNG. The app is quite customizable, with features like text contrast/boldness/size adjustments, margins and spacing customization, and the ability to load custom fonts. Plus, you can annotate books with the stylus, add text notes, and use AI to work with them. Just keep in mind that most AI features require an active internet connection. Like with other E-Ink tablets with Android inside, you can load any other reader you want from the Google Play Store or a third-party source. Despite its hefty price tag of $629 or $519 by the time of publishing this article during Prime Day 2026, the AINOTE 2 has quite modest hardware inside. There is only 4 GB of RAM and about 42GB of storage. It is powered by the RockChip RK3576 processor with 8 cores at 2.2 GHz. Given that the tablet runs Android 14 and has Google Play, you can install Android apps, but do not expect much from this thing performance-wise. As for the battery, there is a 4,000 Li-Ion battery, which, on full charge, lasted me for about one week of active daily use of reading and note-taking. The screen has a resolution of 1920x2560 pixels, which equals 300 PPI, a perfect spot for a sharp, nice-to-read display. It supports EMR styluses that do not require charging, and I have to say that the note-taking experience on this tablet is fantastic. Stylus lag is nearly imperceivable, creating a very natural, paper-like feel. The stylus comes in the box (including two extra nibs), and it features an extra button for various actions and an eraser on top. It magnetically attaches to the tablet and stays safely secured. The stylus has a very nice coarse texture, and thanks to using Wacom tech, you can swap it for any other EMR pen if you wish. The AINOTE 2 has no front light, and because of that, the display sits very close to the screen surface, reducing the distance between the stylus tip/your finger and the display to a minimum. No front light is certainly an inconvenience in certain scenarios, but the screen makes up for that with a seriously impressive paper-like feel and writing experience. In dark conditions, you will have to find a lamp, but the good thing is that the screen has a solid anti-glare surface that diffuses light. The display has two modes: Crisp and Fast. Crisp ensures the image stays, well, crisp and sharp, while Fast speeds up refresh rate and response by toning down display resolution and making everything a bit more jagged. In my testing, I only used Fast mode when browsing the web for a much faster render time. The iFlyTek AINOTE is an impressive device, but it's not flawless. A few things disappointed me during a week of using it. Software localization has a bunch of not necessarily broken, but certainly awkward, machine-translated English. System navigation is not good, as there is no universal "Home" gesture. To go to the main page, you have to swipe up and then press the Home button from the multi-tasking window. There are many gestures for various actions, such as display cleanup, screenshot, undo/redo, but no back/forward or Home gestures. I really hate that the tablet won't let me update its software without creating an iFlyTek account first. Finally, privacy could be a concern for some, as most tablets' features require an active internet connection, an iFlyTek account, and sharing data when using AI. If you can overlook its quirks, some of which could be addressed with software updates (I received two with massive changelogs over a single week), and accept a $519 price tag (with a discount), you will be happy with the AINOTE 2. However, if you do not need that many AI features in an E-Ink reader or you want something a bit more affordable, you'd better look at cheaper competitors from BOOX or Amazon, such as the BOOX Go 10.3 Gen 2 or the Kindle Scribe, which is currently 24% off during Prime Day sales. Buy iFlyTek AINOTE 2 on Amazon - $519 | 20% off with Prime What I liked What I disliked Very impressive hardware Beautiful design Fantastic display with an EMR stylus Supports offline voice transcription Easy-to-use software Clever, useful, and well-made AI features A fingerprint scanner Very expensive Some features require a subscription Poor system navigation Mandates a user account No speakers Privacy could be a concern Note: iFlyTek provided the review unit without any editorial input or review guidance. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
    • Look up "greed". If you are willing to buy that it's only inflation, I've got a bridge to sell you.
  • Recent Achievements

    • First Post
      kinowa earned a badge
      First Post
    • Rookie
      krychek57 went up a rank
      Rookie
    • Grand Master
      Jaybonaut went up a rank
      Grand Master
    • One Year In
      Philsl earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Dedicated
      Scoobystu earned a badge
      Dedicated
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      416
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      168
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      132
    4. 4
      Xenon
      73
    5. 5
      Michael Scrip
      73
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!