Last week I discussed the basic steps in extending your network beyond just computers. We started out with adding printers to a network. This week I’ll discuss adding Network Attached Storage (NAS) device to your network. A NAS device, in simple English, is a disk drive that is attached to your network instead of to a specific computer. Because it is...

A home or a SOHO network was unheard of just a few years ago. Only big companies had them. The few people who owned more than one computer at home used floppy disks to transfer data between them and an advanced (in those days) feature of Windows called Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) to share a modem in order to connect to the Internet. Then came the...

When I turn on my laptop at home and look for available wireless connections, I see a dozen of them. That’s not surprising given the number of broadband connections in my neighborhood, each of which comes with a free wireless router. What’s surprising is the fact that all of them, except a couple, are unsecured. Some of them still have the...

If you own more than one computer, chances are you already have a network. These days, most broadband service providers throw in a router with a new connection. Typically it has four slots on the back, which means that you can connect up to four computers to the Internet simultaneously without adding any other hardware. Once you connect a second computer to the...

It is quite easy to build a wireless network these days. Most broadband service providers throw in a free wireless router with installation. All you need is a wireless network adapter in your computer. If you have a late-model computer, especially a laptop, it probably has wireless networking already built in. If not, just stick in a USB wireless network adapter...

Every time I buy a PC I suffer from buyer’s remorse. Not because I buy the wrong thing, but because a new smaller, faster, meaner, cooler, and cheaper model hits the shelves a week after I make the purchase. Now I am a techie and I know what I am buying. But if you are not a techie, deciding which PC to buy for your business and when to buy it can be an...

With the number of identity thefts skyrocketing, most people are reluctant to part with their personal information online. The trouble is, almost anything you do online requires parting with some personal information, or at the very least, tolerating some invasion of privacy in the form of cookies and server logs. People who visit your web site face this dilemma...

Last weekend, a friend gave me a frantic SOS call. His computer was taking for ever to start up. Once it started, it took for ever to start an application. So he tried to reboot it. It took for ever to shut down. And my friend went on for ever telling me what his computer took for ever to do. A quick visit over to his place revealed the problem: he had enabled...

The web is just not a safe place any more. People take all sorts or measures to protect themselves from online threats — firewalls, antivirus and anti-spyware software, phishing filters, popup blockers, anonymizers, and anything "anti" that I may have forgotten; you name it, people have installed it. But even after all these fortifications...

Despite steps that everyone seems to be taking against it, e-mail spam shows no signs of abetting. As methods to counter spam get more sophisticated, so do spammers. Here is a concise guide to combating them. Choose e-mail service provider that filters spam on the serverIf your ISP does not filter spam at the server level, it is time to give it a boot. If you...

Although small businesses seem to be gravitating towards web based e-mail, such as Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! Mail, good old Microsoft Outlook still has a faithful following among those who want offline access to their e-mail. This week I have a few tips for exploiting Outlook’s features for working more efficiently. 1. Use Outlook As A Document...

These days, there is no shortage of online office suites. They come with all sorts of features. Google Docs & Spreadsheets only has a word processor and a spreadsheet, for example, while Zoho has almost everything imaginable from a word processor to a CRM application. But few suites, especially free ones, can boast about database. One possible reason for...

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 goes into effect this year. It extends Daylight Saving Time (DST) by four weeks. For years, DST has begun on the first Sunday of April and ended on the last Sunday in October. This year onwards, it will begin on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday in November. Most people take DST changes in their stride. They...

Buying a good inkjet printer is not rocket science but nor is it a trivial matter. Most people get burned by a couple of inkjets that they thought were great deals before learning their lesson. In buying an inkjet printer, you must consider three factors:Print Quality Printing Speed Cost of replacement cartridgesPrint quality is measured in dots per inch...

Protection of privacy and security on the Internet has received plenty of press in the last several years. As a result, an increasing number of small businesses are equipping computers and networks with firewalls, anti-virus suites, anti-spyware programs and rootkit detectors. But there is a weapon in the privacy-protection and security arsenal that most big...