5 Wi-Fi Tips For Home Or Office

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Today people use a lot more than their computers to access the internet. Devices like smartphones, TVs, game consoles, iPods, tablets and more might need a reliable internet connection to function properly. A poor internet connection is not only bad for entertainment; it could impair the productivity of a business. If you’re using an internet connection for business purposes, here are 5 tips to get the most out of your Wi-Fi.

Linksys WAG54GS ADSL2+ Modem Router (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

What Is The Best Wireless Solution For My Business?

Determining which wireless router for your SME or large enterprise can prove to be a confusing and time consuming task.  The numerous reviews coupled with the latest introduction of 802.11ac routers make the purchase of a wireless access point a complex experience.

Wireless Router (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Choosing the best router for your business can be simplified if you understand exactly what you are buying.  The vendors which manufacture routers will make huge promises in terms of router performance, connectivity, coverage, and the capability to handle data intensive tasks.  Then you read the conflicting consumer reviews which may or may not offer reliable information which results in a confusing and frustrating effort.

There is a high probability you are likely more confused after doping research than when you started.  Additionally, many businesses are questioning whether or not they should consider an 802.11ac router which is the newest connectivity standard in an effort to prepare for the next generation of wireless devices.

What to Do If Your Broadband Connection Goes Down

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A wireless broadband connection is one of the best things ever invented. Having a wireless signal allows you to take your computer or mobile device wherever you want without having to disconnect from the Internet. This means that you can watch TV in the living room while you check your Facebook page or type your paper in your room where it is nice and quiet. However, what happens if you were to lose your broadband wireless connection? What steps can you take to ensure that you still have an Internet connection?

Make Sure That There Is Nothing Wrong With the Modem in the Computer

Most computers and mobile devices have a modem built into them. This allows you to connect to the Internet automatically as soon as you turn your mobile device on. If your computer is not connecting to the selected network, it could be that the modem inside your computer is not working. Attempt to troubleshoot the issue by running a network test on your computer. If other devices in your home are connecting to the Internet, you can be sure that there is a problem with your specific device. Make sure that you have the right network password and restart your computer to see if that helps.

Check the Router to Make Sure It Is Working Properly

If there are no issues with your computer, you should next check the router to see if there is an issue with your wireless signal. Unplug the router, wait roughly 10 seconds and then plug the router back in. This should allow you to get your signal back. While your router is not going to last forever, there is a greater chance that the Internet connection simply crashed. Many wireless broadband users have reported to their Internet provider that they have had intermittent crashes. The good news is that these issues should only last for a few minutes before resolving themselves.

You Can Always Hardwire an Internet Connection

If all else fails, you can always hard-wire a connection to your computer. All you have to do is connect an Ethernet cord to the back of your computer. The other end of the Ethernet cord will plug in to the back of the router. This will allow you to have a broadband connection even if you are not able to get a wireless signal. The only downside is that you are not going to be able to use your computer at a distance longer than your cable. You should prepare yourself to either move your laptop or move your router to a more convenient location. 

Wireless broadband allows you to use your mobile device or computer wherever you want. However, you can never be sure that your signal will work when you need it to. When your wireless signal is down, it is important to understand why it is down. Fortunately, it can be easy to troubleshoot your wireless issues and get back to using your computer wherever you want to.

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Eric Underhill acknowledges in this article that even broadband services like those from tesco broadband can sometimes let us down.

Four Ways to Protect Your Home Computer Network

A home network is no longer the high tech curiosity that it was when wireless routers first appeared. Today, the average American family has its own wireless network. These networks make our life extremely convenient, but that convenience comes at a cost. Remember when you were a kid, sleeping over at your friends, and you’d get scolded for sneaking snacks out of the pantry? These days it’s the neighbor boy sucking up your bandwidth (or worse) that you have to watch out for. 

Here are the top four ways to protect your home network from an outside invasion, whether they’re after your bandwidth or your checking account number.

1. Change the default name and passwords on your router’s administrator settings.

This is different than the password for encryption (see below). This is a step many people forget, and not doing so could allow a hacker to gain unrestricted access to your router and essentially all computers on your network.

Image via Wikipedia

2. Always enable network encryption on your wireless security settings. 

It seems silly to even mention this, but there are still people who don’t understand that leaving their networks open is just asking for trouble. Security settings encrypt your data and block bandwidth thieves from taking a free ride on your network. In the olden days, WEP encryption was the industry standard. These days, WEP is easier to crack than a Reidel wine glass. Always set your network to WPA encryption or higher.  

3. Disable the SSID broadcast on your router. 

By doing this, you are essentially making your broadcast signal disappear. A passerby or neighbor scanning for available wireless networks on their cell phone or laptop will not see your router on the list of available networks. You can configure your own computers and devices to automatically connect to your router even if it doesn’t show up on a SSID scan.

Image via Wikipedia

4. Regularly monitor on your network to check that there are no unwanted guests. 

Most routers come with software that provides these monitoring tools. Be sure to install and use them.

As the speed and sheer amount of digital information on the Internet increases at an exponential rate, more and more activities that were once traditionally performed in the real world are now taking place in virtual space. It’s can be hard to remember general safety rules, but if you follow these steps and stay vigilant, you’ll have done much to protect your home computer network. 

Technology happens to be one of John's favorite things to write about. If you'd like to find out more about Home Network, please visit  http://www.netgear.com/(enter categories) happens to be one of John's favorite things to write about. If you'd like to find out more about (category), please visit website.com

Related articles

• Overview of Home Networking (thefamilyhelpdesk.com)
• How do I: Secure my home wi-fi network? (independent.co.uk)
• Secure Your Wireless Router In The Short Term By Assigning It An Aggressive Name (makeuseof.com)
• Setting up a Wireless Network in Your Home - P3 (rydertech.com)
• Wireless Router (computrnetworking.wordpress.com)

Computer 101: A Dual Band Wireless Router

The wireless router is an important part of wireless network for home and office used. But getting the right wireless router can be a really tough job. As always you need to know what is your main requirements to get the right wireless router for your needs. Would you like more basic information about the dual band wireless router? Would you like to learn a little bit additional information with regards to just what a dual band wireless router is? You have surely come to the right place, if so.

Here in this short article, we’re going to discuss the dual band wireless router generally and a few things that you should absolutely keep in mind. When it comes to the dual band wireless router, there’s a lot of data that you can educate yourself on and if you’re searching for information and facts, you will definitely want to read over these details.

                                                          Image via Wikipedia 

With regards to connecting to the web, a dual band wireless router certainly is the preferred tool that a majority of homeowners as well as businesses will require. This is simply because the dual band wireless router is considered the most efficient method to connect your computer to the web, whether it’s a personal computer or perhaps a business computer. Anytime you are within the range of the wireless router, a dual band wireless router will provide you internet access.

One of the most important things to think about in relation to dual band wireless routers is security. In most cases, individuals will set up a password to protect their wireless internet and be sure that it is secured. For free, anyone within the range of your wireless router may use your internet if it is unsecured. This is definitely not a good thing because the security of all of your interactions on the internet and the security of your computer generally speaking is not something that you will want to mess around with. You have to be extremely careful as a myriad of hazardous things can occur like people hacking into your e-mail or your social networking accounts, viruses, etc. It’s always better to be safe than sorry.

Image via Wikipedia

When you are utilizing a dual band wireless network, another reason you definitely want to make sure that your wireless internet is secure is simply because you do not want other individuals utilizing the web for free when you have to pay a monthly fee for it. That is hardly fair, and you’ll find that lots of people may take advantage of you.

When you are considering dual band wireless routers, one more thing you have to bear in mind is to make sure that you obtain one that has received great customer reviews. You can check out the particular dual band wireless router that you are thinking about. Then you can search all the pages and read different customer reviews on the net. Make sure that other people have had excellent results with their dual band wireless routers prior to making a decision about which one to get.

Two very important things that you need to be guaranteed to consider are getting the right dual band wireless router and making sure that your internet is secure.

Among the best ways to establish the very best wireless routers is to study a number of the various dual band router reviews. You will then be capable of making a knowledgeable selection.

Setting up a Wireless Network in Your Home – P2

In setting up a wireless network in your home we need the Broadband internet connection from your Internet Service Provider, then another device called a Modem which was discussed in detail on my last post is also needed, this device will be provided by your ISP when they setup and configure the internet connection on your home. Now we go to that third device that we will need to complete the setup of the wireless network in your home. But before we go there added information once your internet connection has been setup and the modem configured properly by the ISP of your choosing you can now test the internet connection by connecting your laptop or desktop to the modem via a cable patch. This means you will need a cable with connector at both ends to connect to the modem, since the modem has no capacity to distribute the internet connection by itself and only one computer can be connected to the modem via the cable patch. This cable patch should be included together with your modem. This will allow you to verify your internet connection via your laptop or desktop.

Now since our objective is to setup a wireless network in your home we will need one more device that will allow us to distribute the internet connection and allowing our entire internet capable device to connect without using a single piece of cable or wire. For these we need a wireless router, the function of these routers is to distribute the internet connection via radio signal or via cable connection. Which can be both achieved via this device called a Wireless Router. Now why do we need to include the word wireless, because there are two kinds of router the wireless one and there is the cable only router. The main difference of the two is that the other one the cable only router has no antenna therefore it cannot send radio signal and therefore cannot distribute internet connection to any computer or internet capable device. This type of router is mainly used in business where the need for wireless connection is not required or necessary. Now what is a wireless router?

Wireless router

A router sends information between your network and the Internet. With a wireless router, you can connect computers to your network using radio signals instead of wires. There are a few different types of wireless network technologies, including 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g. We recommend using a router that supports 802.11g because it is fast and provides a strong wireless signal. The wireless router is the one that is going to distribute the internet connection in your home to all devices within range typically 150 to 300 feet but may vary depending on the structure present in the area of location where the router is located. Now by connecting a wireless router on the modem the wireless router will now be able to distribute the internet connection in your home. 

But wait will my neighbor also get connected as well? The answer to that is a big YES they will be able to get an internet access if they are near you or typically within the range of the wireless router. To solve this problem we need to secure our wireless router. Now wait a minute how to I do that? I do not know anything about wireless router. Some say that is it easy to setup a wireless router in your home, well I say it is not because there are a lot of configuration inside a router and first of all a technical background of accessing the router via the internet protocol address is require before one could access the configuration of a wireless router. It would require a couple more articles to write about setting up a home wireless router because we need a lot of information regarding what is the common configuration used for most type of router available for home used.  For now get a qualified technician to setup your wireless router and to make it secure allowing only you and your household member to have access to the internet connected in your home. Once the wireless router is properly setup and secured not even your neighbor can have access to the router to your internet connection. Because if they try to connect to a secured wireless router they connection will require them to inter a password that will grant them an internet connection. 

Try as they may if they do not know the password for connection they will not be able to connect therefore giving you a piece of mine that you and only the member of your family will be able to have access to the wireless router. Another when setting up all your wireless enabled devices to connect to the router for the first it will require you to input a password for the connection once this is verified to be correct then your device will registered and every time you open your laptop, tablet and Smartphone they will be able to connect immediately to the wireless router automatically. The password verification is only done once; this is on the first time connection only every succeeding connection by the registered device will be dome automatically. Also only new device will be required to register for internet connection to the wireless router. How about for desktop computer, how will it connect to the wireless router? More on my next post.

Continue to Part 3 of this post:


Quick Tips:

Positioning the wireless router

Put your wireless router somewhere where it will receive the strongest signal with the least amount of interference. For the best results, follow these tips:

• Position your wireless router in a central location. Place the router as close to the center of your home as possible to increase the strength of the wireless signal throughout your home.
• Position the wireless router off of the floor and away from walls and metal objects, such as metal file cabinets. The fewer physical obstructions between your computer and the router's signal, the more likely that you'll be using the router's full signal strength.
• Reduce interference. 802.11g networking equipment uses a 2.4 gigahertz (GHz) radio frequency. This is the same frequency as most microwaves and many cordless phones. If you turn on the microwave or get a call on a cordless phone, your wireless signal might be temporarily interrupted. You can avoid most of these issues by using a cordless phone with a higher frequency, such as 5.8 GHz.

Computer 101: Computer Network basic

In today’s age and time, the computer network has evolve into a system that has integrated every available devices capable of plugging itself therefore becoming part of the bigger collection of computer devices that has been connected.  But before we proceed let go back to the basic of computer network. What is computer network? Better yet what is the proper term to describe a computer network.  There are three correct and right term to describe a computer network. Yup there are three, this is because the location or land area where the network is very important in describing the kinds of network.

Local Area Network

For a computer network located on a single building big or small, it doesn’t matter how many floor’s are there as long as it is in one building then it can be classified as a LAN or Local Area Network. Now the word LOCAL is pretty straight forward you already know what it means. Before we go into the other two types of network we will focus on this network the LAN. What basically is a LAN, as the name implies it is a network located on a small area typically a building whether large or small but one single building only. Remember scope of the location for a LAN is one single building only. If there are two or more building then it is no longer a LAN but the next type of network called a MAN or Metropolitan Area Network.

 But let’s focus on the LAN. What are the components of a LAN? The basic components of a typical LAN are the workstation, server and network component such as HUB, SWITCH and ROUTER. This is the BASIC components, which mean there are other computers of a more highly developed LAN. But the first two basic component of a LAN is the workstation and the server. What are they and how do they function in a LAN. First the WORKSTATION, well it one can also be called the client, terminal, node and other term that a person uses to gain access the information stored on a server. Those terms that have been mentioned all describe the function of the computer that a person uses to do his/her work, process job, access data, store’s data from the or to the server. A basic example of this is the LAN in an internet café where. People paid for certain length of time to use the computer on that internet cafe to play network games, do a typing job, read the online version of their favorite news paper, read their emails, chat or talk online with their family or friends. Still other do documents printing, image capture or scanning an image to upload it online via your favorite social site. Look for jobs, watch a favorite movie or video or download all kinds of stuff from the internet or just simply looking for information.

 

All of the things mentioned above and much more cannot be achieve or it cannot be done without using a workstation, client or a terminal.  So basically it is a computer that a real person uses to get information or do a job in a LAN or network. Now for the server which located at the other end of the communication line. The server is basically a computer that holds all the information. A person needs to use a client or workstation to access this information located on the server computer. Imagine if in an typical office where there are ten worker that need different types of information and as stated before all this kind of information is located on the server, but they do not have a network. So getting that different type of information will take time because each worker will to take in turns to use the server. But with a network and each ten worker has each own computer to access the server simultaneously as compare to individually using the same computer directly. Then more time is save and more job is done is a short possible time consumed.

That is the basic function and role of these two kinds of computer on a LAN or network. Yes they both computer’s but the hardware and software component is very different, the server is the more stronger or powerful one because simply put it, it need s to be because it function require it to accommodate simultaneous job request from the workstation or client computer. It has more memory; larger hard drives faster processor and a bit different set of software installed in it compare a more user friendly software installed on a workstation or client computer. Not all people in a company can used or has access to the server directly, only one or two person is allowed direct access or usage of the server computer, compare to a workstation or client computer where almost all employee in the company can use these type of computer. More on this topic on my next post.