I have discussed topics such as backing up your data and securing your computer to protect your personal information on your computer. The one topic I have not discussed is protecting your actual computer hardware. This is just as important as backing up your data as leaving your physical computer unprotected can cause you to not only lose data, but also replace your system.
In this post I will talk about an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), what it is and how it can protect your computer from harm.
I recently published a post titled What is USB? where I briefly mentioned the problem of new computers only have USB ports. For many this may not seem like a problem, but for those that have devices that don’t use USB, this can be a problem.
For those with older printers that connect only to the parallel port, and you would still like to use that printer, I will provide instructions on how you can connect that old printer to the USB port in this post.
Last year, someone I know updated his desktop PC. Once we begin to connect all the peripherals such as the keyboard and mouse we noticed something was missing: the serial ports. The only ports included in the desktop were USB ports.
In this post I will provide a brief overview of USB, provide a brief history and discuss what exactly a USB port is used for.
I recently had to install a new hard drive in a computer that was about 2 years old. Before purchasing the new hard drive I needed to determine the interface the hard drive uses. There are currently two interfaces in existence today: PATA (IDE or EIDE) and SATA.
For newer computers, you will probably find SATA, while in my particular instance it was PATA. In this post I discuss both PATA and SATA by provided a brief background, the different ATA specifications and how devices are connected to each interface.
Recently I noticed a 1TB (terabyte) external hard drive on sale, and thought it would be great for storing my digital photos and digital videos. A terabyte is 1000 gigabytes so it is quite large, at least by today’s standards. When I looked closely at the box for the hard drive I noticed that it mentioned RAID 0. I have been noticing desktop hard drives taking advantage of RAID, which was traditionally reserved for servers.
In this post I will provide a brief overview of RAID, how it started and the various levels of RAID.
Some time ago I wrote a post titled Securing D-Link DI-524 Wireless Router. In that post I outlined the steps needed to secure that particular wireless router.
Reseting the router to the factory defaults will delete any changes you have made to the router, including any security settings. This should be used as a last resort.
The steps involved in reseting the router is simply pressing a button located on the router. The image below (courtesy of D-Link) shows where the button is located.
Location of the D-Link DI-524 Reset Button
To reset your router, use the following steps:
Press the reset button for 10 seconds. You can use a small object, such as a paper clip to hold down the button.
Do not power off the unit while the router is being reset.
The unit should now reboot, and once the WLAN light stops blinking the router should be reset.
Open up your Web browser and enter 192.168.0.1 in the address bar.
For the login, enter admin as the ID and leave the password blank.
This post has provided the instructions you can use to reset your D-Link DI-524 wireless router. If you are having problems with your router, try reseting the router to the factory defaults, and then make the changes again and see if the router starts working.
One of the most popular pages on Technically Easy is the post titled Securing Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router. In that post I outlined the steps needed to secure these particular wireless broadband routers to maintain your wireless network security.
The one problem I didn’t mention is how to reset the router back to the factory defaults. You may need to do this if you forget your router’s password or made a mistake and you can’t connect to the router. In this post I’ll outline two methods you can follow to reset your Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G router.
Reset Button
Note:
Resetting the router to the factory defaults will delete any changes you have made to the router, including any security settings. This should be used as a last resort.
The first method involves simply pressing a button located on the back of the router. The image below (courtesy of Linksys) shows where the button is located.
Linksys WRT54G Reset Button Location
To reset your router, use the following steps:
Press the reset button for 30 seconds.
The settings should now be returned to the factory default settings, meaning any changes you had made would be deleted.
Open up your Web browser and enter “192.168.1.1” in the address bar.
For the login, leave a blank ID and enter “admin” as the password.
The second method involves logging into the Web administration pages of the router. Use the following steps to reset the router using this method:
Open your Web browser and enter the IP address of your router. By default, the address is “192.168.1.1”.
Enter your user ID And password when prompted. Hopefully this has been changed, but if it hasn’t, the default is no ID and “admin” as the password.
At the top of the Web page, click “Administration” and then “Factory Defaults”.
Beside “Restore Factory Defaults”, click “Yes”.
Now click the “Save Settings” button at the bottom of the Web page.
Your WRT54G wireless router should now be reset to the factory defaults. Ensure you follow the steps outlined in Securing Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router to secure your router and for securing a Linksys wireless network.
Summary
This post has provided two methods you can use to reset your Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G router. If you are having problems with your router, try to reset the Linksys WRT54G to the factory defaults, and then make the changes again and see if the router starts working again.
You should also consider using a VPN once you have reset your router. Over at VPNTeacher.com you can find out how to install and use a VPN on your computer.
I recently experienced a problem that looked like a DNS error. The error appeared in the web browser after trying to load a Web page. I have never seen the error message before, but after reading the message it was easy to determine it had to do with domain name servers.
After doing some testing, and then research, I was able to find a solution to the problem.
