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Broadband Internet Connection – Troubleshooting
Many times as I connect to the Internet I realize that I don’t establish a connection. My modem and router (Linksys BEFSX41) are on and connected, but still I can’t reach the Internet. The purpose of this post is to discuss the steps I take to bringing my modem, router and computer back online.

Note: This post assumes that you know how to log into your router and know where specific settings, such as the IP addresses are displayed.

Reset the Equipment

Before changing the settings, you should first reset all equipment as the first step. The following steps describe the order to reset the equipment:
1. Turn off the computer.
2. Turn off or unplug the router.
3. Turn off or unplug the modem.
4. Wait 5 seconds.
5. Plug in the modem and wait for it to come back online.
6. Plug in the router and wait for it to come back online.
7. Turn on the computer and login.
8. Click Start->Run.
9. Type cmd in the Run dialog box and press OK.
10. At the DOS command prompt type ipconfig /renew.
11. Check to see if you once again have a connection to the Internet. If you can’t get an Internet connection then continue on to the next section.
Checking Router Connectivity

In this section we will check to ensure that the router has an IP address from your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
1. Open up a Web browser and navigate to your router setup.
2. Once the setup loads, navigate to the page that displays the IP address assigned by your ISP. For my Linksys router is shown by clicking the Status menu item.
3. There may be buttons or links to release and renew the IP address. First, release the address, and then renew it. For my Linksys router, I first click the DHCP Release button and then the DHCP Renew button.
4. An Internet or IP address should now be displayed in the page. If it doesn’t, then check to ensure that the router is connected to the modem and perform the previous step again. If you still don’t get an IP address then skip the next steps and continue directly with the next section.
5. Click Start->Run.
6. Type cmd in the Run dialog box and press OK.
7. At the DOS command prompt type ipconfig /renew.
8. Check to see if you once again have a connection to the Internet. If you can’t get an Internet connection then continue on to the next section.
Computer to Modem Connection

This section will determine if you can actually get an IP address from your modem, which would mean that there is a problem with the router. Follow the next few steps to perform the connection:
1. Disconnect the cable connecting the router and the computer from the computer.
2. Disconnect the cable connecting the modem and the router from the router.
3. Connect the cable from the modem directly into the network card in your computer. Plug the cable into the same location as the router was connected into.
4. Click Start->Run.
5. Type cmd in the Run dialog box and press OK.
6. At the DOS command prompt type ipconfig /renew.
7. Check to see if you once again have a connection to the Internet. If you don’t then call your ISP technical support number and inform them of a problem. If you do, then there may be an issue with your router. Continue to the next section to see if the router problem can be fixed.
8. Before continuing, however, ensure that you plug in all the cables as previous to following the steps in the section. This means that the connection should be: modem->router->computer.
Troubleshooting the Router

Up to this point we have reset all the equipment, tested the router, and the modem. It has been determined that the problem may be with the router. This section will attempt to solve the issue.
1. If you closed the Web browser from a previous section then open a Web browser and navigate to your router’s setup.
2. Navigate to the page containing your Internet Setup. For my router it is the first page that is displayed.
3. Your setup hear depends on your ISP. Since I have cable as my Internet connection I make sure that setup is set to Obtain an IP automatically. If you have broadband dialup, you may need to select PPPoE and specify a user name an password. Check with the documentation provided by your ISP to determine which setting you should use.
4. Ensure that DHCP on the router is enabled.
5. Ensure that the number of IP addresses managed by the router can accommodate the number of computers that will be connected to it.
6. Save any setting changes you made.
7. Click Start->Run.
8. Type cmd in the Run dialog box and press OK.
9. At the DOS command prompt type ipconfig /renew.
10. Check to see if you once again have a connection to the Internet. If you can’t, then continue to the next step.
11. At this point you should try resetting the router to factory defaults and try the previous four steps again. Please read the documentation that came with your router on resetting it.
12. If it still doesn’t work then there could be a hardware issue with the router. If you just bought it, return it to the store and get a new replacement. If it is an older router, you may need to buy a new one.
Summary

This post described how to troubleshoot a broadband Internet connection. I hope that the tips provided here have help to solve connection issues that you may be having.
July 11, 2007
Overview of Various Image File Formats

There are many different image file formats in use on Web pages today. Each file format has its advantages and disadvantages, and can be used for specific images. For those that use digital cameras you may be familiar with one format, while you may have heard of others.

In this post I will provide an overview of the different formats including their advantages and disadvantages.

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September 17, 2007
Securing the D-link DI-524 Wireless Router
I recently created a post titled Securing Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G router in which I provided step-by-step instructions on securing the WRT54G router. The Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G router is a popular router, but it isn’t the only one on the market. In this post I will discuss how to secure another wireless router, the D-Link DI-524.

Note:

If you are having trouble with the administrative pages for the router, try using the Internet Explorer Web browser. The administrative Web pages for the router seem to work better in Internet Explorer.

Securing Your Wireless Router

Note:

If you need to reset your router back to the factory defaults, then please read How to Reset the D-Link DI-524 Wireless Router.

To secure your D-Link DI-524 wireless router, follow these steps:
1. Open your Internet browser and enter the following in the address bar: http://192.168.0.1.
2. Enter the user ID and password for your router. If you haven’t changed it, the default user ID is “admin” and the password is “blank”. We will change it later if you haven’t already changed it.
3. We will first change the administrative password. First click the “Tools” tab at the top of the page. The “Admin” page should be displayed.
4. Within the “Administrator Settings” on the right, enter a new password for the administrator beside “New Password” and then again beside “Confirm Password”.
5. Click “Apply” at the bottom of the page. The next time you access the administrative options, you will need to enter the new password with the “admin” user ID.
6. Next, click the “Home” tab, and then select “DHCP” on the right. The “DHCP Server” Web page should now be displayed.
7. We will now limit the number of IP addresses assigned by your wireless router. Count the number of computers that will connect to the router, and change the “Ending IP Address” to allow that many computers to connect.
8. Click “Apply” at the bottom to save your changes.
9. Now we will secure you wireless connection to prevent others from connecting. Under the “Home” tab, click the “Wireless” option from the left.
10. Beside the “SSID” option, enter the name for your wireless network connection.
11. This is where the steps are different depending on which revision of the DI-524 you are using. Beside “Security”, if you see “WPA-PSK”, then you should select that option, and then go to step 14. If you see a dropdown list, select “WPA”. If you can’t connect using “WPA”, then select “WEP”. Using “WPA” will provide a much more secure connection that using “WEP”. For more information about WEP and WPA please read Wireless Security: WEP and WPA.
12. Click “AES” beside the “Cypher Type”.
13. Make sure “PSK” is selected beside “PSK/EAP”.
14. Now you must get very creative. Specify a long “Passphrase” with a mix of upper and lower case letters, numbers and punctuation. Once again, please read Creating Secure Passwords for tips on how to do this. In this case the longer the better.
15. Enter your passphrase next to “Passphrase” and again beside Confirmed Passphrase.
16. Click Apply to save your security settings.
17. Now you are all done securing your wireless router and network. All you need to do is connect to your network, and enter your “Passphrase” 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.
Wireless Router Security Connection Questions

How come we didn’t disable the SSID broadcast? Won’t that help with securing my wireless connection?

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 do you specify to use WPA – Personal first, and not WEP?

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.

Summary

This post provided step-by-step instructions on securing your D-Link DI-524 wireless router. After following the steps, you should now be confident knowing that you have a secure wireless Internet connection.
September 24, 2007
The Most Useful Laptop Accessories

Modern laptops are miraculous devices in their own right. With a laptop, you can have the world at the fingertips at any moment through the internet. You can create documents wherever and whenever you want, or read and e-book, or play games. The extreme convenience of mobility has changed our society forever.

However, many people are unaware that laptops are capable of even more. There are many laptop accessories that improve a laptop’s performance, make it able to do more tasks, and increase its practical functionality. Here are a few of the most useful laptop accessories.

Web Cams/h2>

Most of the uses of web cams are obvious. They allow a laptop user to provide a streaming video from their location or elsewhere. They can also be used to record videos or take pictures. Most commonly, they are used in video chat applications like Skype. A decent web cam can now be purchased at a very reasonable price, and is very easy to install. Many simply need to be plugged into a laptop USB port, and then they’re ready to go.

Cooling Pads

Some laptops generate a lot of heat, especially high performance ones that are processing a lot of tasks and information at once. This can be extremely uncomfortable if you use your laptop where it traditionally belongs—on top of your lap. Cooling pads are used to provide a barrier between the extreme heat radiating from a laptop and your flesh. They also cool the laptop itself, decreasing the odds of it overheating and getting damaged.

Wireless Mouse

Sometimes, using the touch pad on a laptop can be very inconvenient and impractical. For those of us used to the traditional computer mouse, there are now options available for laptops. Using a wireless mouse is usually very easy. Simply plug in the USB receiver and the mouse is ready to go. And since most of them now operate on laser motion trackers rather than a spinning ball, you can use them on almost any nonreflective surface.

Carrying Cases

Even the sturdiest laptops are usually pretty delicate. A well-padded carrying case can make the difference if a laptop is dropped, which happens most during simple transportation anyway. A good carrying case can definitely be a worthy investment.

Adding accessories to your laptop can help you be more productive or provide more flexibility to help you get your work completed.

February 15, 2011
A Simple Guide To The Tech Behind Online Video

H264 has been the bratty high school cheerleader for a while now; it’s popular just because it is. It produces very small compact file sizes (no one likes a fat cheer leader) and it doesn’t compromise on quality (no one likes an ugly cheer leader either). Like any popular cheerleader, this codec also comes with a trust fund and some very over protective parents. Okay the analogy is starting to get silly now.

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March 29, 2011
Help! My Sidebar is Displayed Below My Content!
Since I have been designing my own WordPress themes, I have learned a lot of create CSS-designed themes and how the various elements on a page interact with other elements. It has been frustrating at times to position elements in the correct locations, but it is because of this frustration that I have managed to learn how to create my themes.

The one common problem that I had when I started designing my themes, and it seems it is a common problem to many people, is that of my sidebar dropping below my content when displaying my page. The cause of this problem is that the widths of my content and sidebar divisions were larger than the entire container they were rendered in. I thought I had the calculated the widths correctly, but what I thought was the width, wasn’t the true width of the elements. This post explains how you can easily debug such a problem.

A Few Things To Help Follow Along

I find that the best way to learn is to do things myself. I will be showing you some HTML/CSS code in this example, as well as using a Firefox extension. So you can also try things for yourself, you should use the following steps:
1. If you don’t have it installed, install the Firefox Web browser, open Firefox and then install the Firebug extension.
2. Download this example HTML file (in zip format), and then extract it to any directory on your local computer. Once downloaded, open the HTML file in a text editor, as well as opening the file in FireFox.
Once you have done the above steps, you can now follow along in this post.

The Width Example

In the example HTML file that was provided above, you will notice that there are three elements defined in the file (shown between the <style> tags), container, content and sidebar. The container element is the main container and will contain both the content and sidebar elements. The content is displayed on the left, while the sidebar is displayed on the right. You should see this in your Web browser.

You will also notice that each element has a defined width attribute. The container element has a width of 900 pixels, the content element is 600 pixels wide, and the sidebar element is 300 pixels wide. As it stands, you should be seeing the content element and the sidebar element side-by-side, because they have a combined width that is equal to the width of the container – 900 pixels.

To show this fact in Firefox, use the following steps:
1. Right-click the text in the content section and select “Inspect Element”. A new window on the bottom will open. Stretch the bottom window up if you don’t see much of it.
2. On the left of the window is the HTML code, while on the right is the information about the selected element. On the right, click the “Layout” option. This will display a boxed representation of the selected element.
The layout diagram for the three elements is shown (combined), in the image below.

Example Elements Layout Diagram
(Click to enlarge)

By clicking on the container, content, and sidebar elements you can easily see the width of the elements in the Layout diagram. Let’s make some changes to the CSS to see the impact.

When Width is Not What You Think

The width defined in the CSS styles is not always what you think it is. The width that you define in the stylesheet is the width that will contain the contents of the element, but it isn’t the total width of the element.

To prove this point, make the following change:

[code language=”css”]
#content
{
background-color:#ccc;
float:left;
padding:1px; /* Make this change */
margin:0;
width:600px;
}
[/code]

Now refresh the file in the Firefox browser. What you will now notice is the content element is above the sidebar element.

In the left Firebug window, click on the content element. The layout diagram in the Firebug window still shows the content element as having a width of 600 pixels. If the width didn’t change, how come the content and sidebar elements are no longer beside each other?

The total width of the content element has changed with the addition of the padding. We have added 2 pixels of padding (1 pixel on the left and right) to the element, so the true width of the content element is now 602 pixels and not 600 pixels.

You can now see the additional 1 pixel padding in the layout diagram of the Firebug window to the left and right side of the content element. The layout diagram that indicates the padding is shown below.

Content Element With 1 Pixel Padding
(Click to enlarge)

Adding the width of 300 pixels to the sidebar to the 602 pixels for the content gives a total width of 902 pixels, which is now wider than the container width of 900 pixels. Because of this, the sidebar element is “squeezed” out of alignment, and is now below the content.

If you were to change the margin attribute of the content element to 1 pixel instead of the padding attribute, the result would be the same. The same result would also happen if you were to add a border to the left or right of the content element.

Changing those same attributes (border, padding, or margin) of the sidebar element would have the same effect, as well.

Therefore, the true width of an element is defined as:

true width = [width] + [border (left and right)] + [padding (left and right)] + [margin (left and right)]

By using the Layout option in the Firebug extension for various elements, you can easily see the values for the above calculation for any element. You simply add them up to get the total width of an element.

The next example shows how we can determine the total width of an element when the three attributes are assigned. The CSS styling fo the content element is shown below.

#content
{
  border:1px solid #000;
  background-color:#ccc;
  float:left;
  padding:5px;
  margin:2px;
  width:600px;
}

Using the Firebug Layout window, we can now see that the total width of the content element is now 616 pixels. The diagram that shows the calculation is displayed below.

Content Element With Total Width Calculation
(Click to enlarge)

If you are having trouble with displaying various elements side-by-side on you Web pages, you should use the Firebug Firefox extension to verify that the total width of the elements can fit properly in the containing element. By using the Firebug extension, along with its layout feature, you can easily calculate the width of the various elements by simply clicking on them in the code.
April 15, 2011
Is Microsoft Becoming a Less Relevant Brand?

In the late 90s the biggest talk in the world of technology was always about Microsoft, and the products that they were releasing. Windows was the dominate force in operating systems, and Microsoft Office had a stranglehold on the office suite of products. Internet Explorer began challenging, and eventually surpassing, Netscape’s offering in the Web browser arena.

That was 15 years ago, and today things are much different. So different in that Microsoft seems to be an after thought when it comes to technology news. Apple and Google are now the companies that generate the most buzz in the headlines. They are releasing new products, and software on an almost weekly basis. With all the buzz surround these two companies, has Microsoft become a less relevant brand in the technology world?

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July 11, 2011
5 Tips for Surviving a Social Media Disaster

Social media has become an integral part of every business plan. In fact, businesses that aren’t using social media platforms can expect to fail due to lacking online visibility and customer loyalty. However, using social media isn’t always blissful. One wrong Post or Tweet can ruin your brand in a matter of seconds. In the last year alone, large companies such as United Airlines and Chrysler have taken a beating because of poor social media management.

Disgruntled employees and angry customers can quickly take their thoughts to the web which can tarnish your brand for life. But a social media disaster doesn’t mean you should shut your doors for good. In fact, even those who have suffered from a disaster are still able to recover.

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January 6, 2012

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