Any posts that pertain to specific hardware, but aren’t being reviewed, can be found under this category.
I remember when I first connected to the Internet I used a 56Kbps modem over the phone line. Back then, that was considered fast as many users were using 14.4Kbps or 288Kbps modems. Since then, however, the Internet has evolved and so has the connection methods.
In this post I explain broadband, and the various types of options available to a home user. This post will not touch on all options, but it will explain the types of connections currently common today.
One of my most popular posts is titled Connecting Multiple Computers to Broadband which explains how to connect a router to your modem to allow many computers to connect to your Internet connection. The post explained the simplest method of connection multiple computers, but there are other ways to connect multiple computers.
I will explain several other methods that you can use to connect computers to one Internet connection.
I have talked about computer components before in my post titled How to Buy a New Computer but it provided a quick overview on what to look for in a computer. I decided to go into more detail into some of the components that you will find in a typical computer.
I have written several posts with regards to securing your wireless network connection. In many of those posts I have talked about choosing WPA over WEP, and briefly explained why I do that. In a post titled Network Glossary of Terms I provided a simple definition for both security protocols.
I have decided to expand on those definitions by providing a more information post about WEP and WPA. Hopefully, this post will help you better understand how a wireless network is secure.
I have written several posts regarding networking your home computers to the Internet. With more and more people using broadband as their Internet connection, it is becoming more common to see home LANs to allow multiple computers to connect to one Internet connection. To setup a network, it is also important to understand some of the terminology used so you have a better understanding of what is involved in establishing a home LAN.
In this post I will provide a glossary of networking terms (alphabetically) that you will see when creating a home network. This will be helpful when you configure your router but are unsure of a specific networking term.
AES – An acronym for Advanced Encryption Standard. A symmetric encryption algorithm used to protect data. This is aimed at replacing DES. It is one of the encryption options for a wireless network when WPA or WPA2 is used.
DHCP – An acronym for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. This is a communications protocol that allows network administrators manage and automate the assignment of IP addresses through a network. Every time a device connects to the network with DHCP it can be assigned a different address.
DNS – An acronym for Domain Name System. This is a system that translates the Internet domain names into their respective IP addresses. This information is usually stored in a database and a service will then lookup the IP address for a specific domain name. When an address is type in a Web browser, a DNS lookup is performed to find the actual IP address.
Gateway – A network point that acts as the entrance to another network. The router acts as the gateway to your local network, when you access the Internet through the router.
IP Address – Short name for Internet Protocol Address. This is a series of four numbers separated by dots, for example 192.168.1.1. Every computer connected to a network has its own unique IP address.
LAN – An acronym for Local Area Network. This is a network that covers a small, local area such as a home or office. A LAN network can be configured to transfer data at a high rate of speed.
SSID – An acronym for Service Set Identifier. A unique keyword of up to 32 characters (letters or numbers) that a wireless network card can connect to. For home users, this identifier can be set within a wireless router. This SSID of a wireless network can be broadcast to all computers within range of the signal to allow the computers to connect to the network.
TKIP – An acronym for Temporal Key Integrity Protocol. A security protocol designed to replace WEP on wireless networks without replacing legacy hardware. If can select TKIP when you specify WPA within your wireless router.
WAN – An acronym for Wide Area Network. Unlike a LAN, a WAN covers a much larger geographical area, and is usually comprised of one or more LANs.
WEP – An acronym for Wired Equivalency Protocol. A security protocol that provides a minimal level of security for a wireless network. It has flaws that skilled hackers can exploit. Use WPA if both your router and computers of capable of using it.
WPA – An acronym for Wi-Fi Protected Access. This is a replacement data encryption method that replaces the much weak WEP protocol. It is an improvement over WEP because it uses dynamic keys when encrypting the data. This is done by utilizing TKIP to encrypt the data.
I discussed establishing good wireless network security in a post titled Securing a Wireless Network, but now I will discuss securing the Linksys WRT54G wireless-G router. I currently have a Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G router. When I work from home I use this router to connect to work through VPN, and have done it without any problems. It has made a great cable router for my broadband connection.
The big issue with wireless networks is security. As anyone with a wireless network card within a few hundred feet of your router can connect to your router. To prevent this from happening, it is important to secure your router.
Note:
If you need to reset your router back to the factory defaults, then please read How to Reset the Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Router.
To secure your Linksys WRT54G wireless router, follow these steps:
Note:
If you have changed the IP address of your wireless router, enter that into the address bar. By default, the address is 192.168.1.1.
This option will assign a specific number of IP address to computers. If more than this number of computers tries to connect to your router, they will not be able to.
You won’t get the settings saved page again because the URL in the address bar is not longer correct. Since you have changed your connection to HTTPS, it you need to specify that in the address when you connect to the router setup.
If you get a security error, ignore the error and continue to the Web page.
Make sure you write down this key somewhere, either on a piece of paper or in a text document on your computer. You will need this information when you connect to your wireless network.
Now you are all done securing your wireless router and network. All you need to do is connect to your network, and enter your “WPA Shared Key” exactly as you specified it. I won’t go into detail on how to connect to your wireless network, as I will save that for another post.
Question: How come we didn’t disable the SSID broadcast? Won’t that help with securing my wireless connection?
Answer: It has been mentioned many times that disabling your SSID broadcast will help secure your network. The reality is that those who attempt to get into your wireless network will be able to easily pick up or SSID whether it is broadcasted or not.
You may also have problems connecting to your wireless router if you disable the broadcasting of your SSID. I keep it enabled.
Question: Why don’t you filter who connects to your wireless router using the MAC address by turning on MAC address filtering?
Answer: This is another tip you may see on the Internet about securing your wireless network. There are a few problems with turning on the MAC address filtering.
The first problem is that a hacker can easily spoof a MAC address, and therefore bypass the MAC filtering. The second is that you need to manage the MAC addresses of all network cards attempting to connect to your router. Since it really doesn’t provide a lot of security, it is just easier to keep it turned off.
Question: Why do you specify to use WPA – Personal first, and not WEP?
Answer: The reason is that WPA is much more secure than WEP, and therefore you should use that security mode over WEP. An experienced hacker can easily crack WEP encryption so it doesn’t provide as strong security as WPA. If you can’t use WPA, use WEP because it is still better than nothing.
After following the steps, you should now be confident knowing that you have established a good wireless network security which provides a secure Internet connection through your Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G router.
Do you ever wish that you can get more out of your battery? Maybe you would need just a few minutes to finish that long document you have been working on? You may already be carrying the power cord and an extra battery, but if you won’t be near AC power for the next several hours, wouldn’t you like to get the most out of you battery?
This post will provide several easy tips that can help you get more time out of your battery.
Change your power plan. Windows allows you to select various power plans for when your laptop is plugged in or when you are connected to AC power. These plans will usually include the ability to power down the display or the entire PC after a specific length of time.
Reduce display brightness. The display consumes more power than any other hardware in your laptop. You can reduce the amount of power consumed by the display by reducing the brightness. Just make sure that you are still able to clearly read the screen without difficulty.
Turn off WI-FI if you don’t connect to the Internet. Turning off your WI-FI connection if you don’t need it will help reduce the amount of battery that is needed. This is also a security method as no one can then connect into your computer.
Turn off sounds. If you are working in a public place, have sounds play on your laptop can be annoying to those around you. The sounds also require CPU and power to play, so turning off the sounds can save your battery.
Switch to classic Windows. Many people like the look of the new Windows Vista, but I’m not one of them. I prefer the classic gray-coloured Windows, which is what I run on most of my computers. The new Windows Vista Aero look requires more graphics processing to display, so it uses more power. Switching to the classic look is much easier on the battery.
Disable background processes. There are many processes that run in the background to help maintain your computer. Processes such as a virus scan (disable the actual scan, but not the program), defrag program, and others that are running consume CPU resources, which in turn drains your battery. You can run these processes once you have access to AC power.
Turn off devices that you aren’t using. Any USB device that is connected to your laptop uses power just be being connected. Disconnect any of the devices that your aren’t using to conserve your battery life.
To help with conserving battery life, you should download Vista Battery Saver.
Buying a new computer can be very confusing if you don’t know what you are looking for. There are many components that make up a computer, and you may not know exactly what you need to include in your computer. For example, how much memory or hard drive space will you need, or what type of graphics card?
In this post, I will discuss the various components of a computer and provide a rough guide as to what you will need for each component.
If the processor is the brain of your computer, this is the heart. Everything in your computer connects to this single board of chips, which makes it the most important piece in your computer.
When it comes to a motherboard, I tell people to make sure they get a brand name motherboard, as cheap motherboard could cause problems in the future. Brand names include Asus, Abit, Intel, and Gigabyte. If the motherboard in your computer is from one of these companies, then you are off to a great start.
Recommendation: If you are not into gaming, photo or video editing, any new motherboard will suit your needs.
For those that perform the above mentioned tasks, find a motherboard that supports a fast front-side bus (FSB) speed (800Mhz+), and multiple graphics cards.
The CPU is the brains of your computer. It is a chip that plugs directly into your motherboard. Unlike a motherboard, you are pretty much guaranteed to buy a brand name processor from either Intel or AMD. Processor speed is measured in Megahertz (Mhz) or Gigahertz (GHz), where 1000Mhz is equal to 1Ghz. The larger the number, the faster the processor.
Recommendation: For those that do gaming, photo or video editing, but the fastest procesor you can afford, preferably a processor with at least two cores. For everyone else, any of the current processors will be more than fast enough to suit your needs.
When your operating system and applications are loaded from your hard drive, they are stored in the memory of your computer. When looking for computers, the memory is called RAM (Random Access Memory). RAM is extremely fast compared to your hard drive, which is why your applications a run from it. Unfortunately, unlike your hard drive, you don’t have nearly as much RAM.
Recommendation: Many computers come with at least 1GB (1 billion bytes) of RAM, which is the minimum I would recommend. In this case the more memory you have in your computer the better.
The quality of graphics your can now display on your computer is remarkable. Graphics cards have really advanced significantly in the last 10 years, as well as requiring more power and memory. Some high-end graphics cards can cost more than a new computer, but a blazingly fast. Each graphics card has its own on-board processor and memory to allow your computer’s processor and memory handle the actual application. Most graphics chips are produced by nVidia and ATI.
Recommendation: For those that play games you will need the most powerful graphics card you can afford. I would recommend that you use two graphics cards in your computer, as long as your budget allows.
Any graphics card on the market today can handle the day-to-day tasks such as surfing the Web and reading your e-mail.
A sound card does exactly what is says: provides the sounds to your speakers or headphones. There are many different sound cards for your computer but if you want a brand you can trust, check out Creative Labs sound cards.
Recommendation: This part of a computer is not important unless you play many games or do video editing. For most people, even the sound included with your motherboard (if it is included) is all you would need.
Network cards, whether wired or wireless, allows your computer to connect to other computers. If you have broadband, you will need to ensure that you have a network card. Most computers sold today automatically include a network card, and some have one built-in to the motherboard.
Recommendation: If you are looking for a laptop, make sure it includes a wireless network card along with a wired one. If you look at desktops, you can go with a wireless card as well, however, if you are connecting to a wire or modem that will be beside the desktop, stick with a wired network card.
Hard drives are the massive storage devices within your computer that contains your operating system, applications and your data. The disk space of each hard drive is measured in Gigabytes (GB), which is equal to 1 billion bytes. For hard drives, I usually stay with brand names because you know your hard drive will perform without issues. Companies such as Western Digital, and Seagate are two that produce quality hard drives.
Recommendation: Stay with the brand name hard drives, and get the largest hard drive you can afford, especially if you like games, edit photos or videos. You may also want to look into external hard drives for backup purposes.