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For good or for bad the Internet has had an incredible impact on things that we thought we would never see the end of like Yellow Pages! Find out who the victims and victors are in this interesting article from PC World. (Ed Rudel) …
Network Problems and Wireless Networks
Everyone is going wireless or has a home network. Are you considering it? Learn more by accessing some of the sites listed below.
Home Networking – Here is a site that provides loads of Home Networking “How-to’s”.
How Stuff Works – Great site to find out how stuff works. Great for kids. Check out the Computer Stuff and Home Networking sections.
WindowsNetworking is a wonderful site one of our listeners turned us on to. Great tutorials, articles, and how-to’s with excellent descriptions and graphics.
TechTutorials provides in-depth articles on all your Windows XP networking questions (even those you have not thought to ask). Excellent resource. …
Securing Wireless Networks
There have been a lot of changes in the home Internet access market. In the early days, we had dial-up modems that would allow home computers to access the Internet. The advances in the modem speeds were slow and it was years between any increase in speed.
Now, there are many high speed Internet access choices are available: cable, DSL, satellite, and even using the electrical grid.
The problem is no longer how to get access to the Internet, but “how to get all of the computers in the home access to the Internet”. The answer: a wireless router.
Home wireless Internet access seems to be all the rage. Why, because setting up and getting the darn things working is so easy. Like magic, you can have all of those home computer surfing the Internet faster than it takes to burn dinner. Most Wireless Access Points (WAP) provide not only the rabbit-ear antennae for wireless devices (PCs, notebooks, PDA), but four or more real network ports for existing wired computers.
Wireless Access Points (WAP or just AP) are inexpensive, you have many choices, and they are easy to setup. They are practically Plug and Play – actually …
Wireless Router Home Install Notes
Most people purchase a wireless router because they have an existing home PC connected to a high speed ISP (Internet Service Provider – cable or DSL) and want to connect addition computers. Common manufactures of wireless access routers include Linksys, D-Link, Belkins, Netgear and Microsoft. Purchase a router with at least four “real” network ports (very little difference in price).
The wireless router is connected between the DSL/cable modem and the original home PC. It will be connected to the cable/DSL modem and all other computer will connect to the router (wired or wirelessly). This usually entails unplugging the network cable from you existing home computer and connecting the cable to the wireless router’s WAN (Wide Area Network) or Internet port. Then, your home computer will connect to one of the available network ports.
The following are some comments, notes, and “lessons learned” that I have accumulated over the last couple of years concerning the installing and configuration of Home Wireless Networks. This is by no means intended to be an all-encompassing document.
Check the bottom of this article for link to how to secure your Wireless Router.
Cable/DSL Modems and the Wireless Router – …
| The Internet Advisor Toolkit |
Windows Updates Your computer should already be configured to automatically download Windows updates. In case it is not, or if you would like to double check, click on the Windows Update link. If you want to download a Windows operating system Service pack without using the Windows update site you can go to the Microsoft Service pack site.
Anti-Malware Scanner software (free)AntiVirus softwareRootKits scannerBootable Cds / Live CdMicrosoft Office Alternative Suites Microsoft “Fit it” solution Center – Automatically diagnose and repair common software problems in Windows, Internet Explorer or other Microsoft products with Microsoft Fix it solutions Application Installer – NiNite, a website that allows you to install dozens of commonly installed application, utilities, and pluggins in one pass. A must use if rebuilding a computer and you find yourself visiting site after site downloading and installing software. Internet search Tips and Tricks 4/9/2011 – How to improve your Internet search experiance. To fully protect your Windows PC, you will require four additional software components. At The Internet Advisor, we have provided links to a number of FREE (and respectable) resources. |
Ctrl-Alt-Del – Items in Task Manager
Have you ever pressed Ctrl-Alt-Del on your PC, looked in the Task Manager Processes tab and wondered what all those programs currently running were?
Well, I have found a couple of sites that attempt to identify all those application running in the background. These should help you identify applications or services and give you clues as to if it is part of the operating system, a device connected to your computer, or installed software. After you identify it, then you can make a decision on if you need to uninstall and reinstall some software, update or reinstall a devices software driver, or prevent the software from loading …