Yesterday in the mail I received my brand new Linksys WRT54GL. I bought one after going through a whole boatload of crap with Wireless N. Before continuing, my suggestion to anyone that reads this is to buy a WRT54GL now before they’re taken off the market. It’s 60 bucks very well spent and it you wait too long, you won’t be able to buy one new...

Digging into the incredibly useful NirSoft freeware utilities, today we take a look at SmartSniff Packet Sniffer. SmartSniff is a network monitoring utility that allows you to capture TCP/IP packets that pass through your network adapter, and view the captured data as sequence of conversations between clients and servers. You can view the TCP/IP conversations in...

There are many "elite" bloggers that state that the future of everything concerning internet communications is in the browser. I’ve heard "in the browser" so much in the course of 2009 that it now annoys me to even hear it. Why? Because as far as usability is concerned, doing everything in the browser is a step backwards. All-in-browser...

There is no doubt that social networking is an improvement in the way we communicate on the internet, as it allows for people to connect in ways not possible prior to it. For example, Facebook allows to search people by name; this is much easier compared to connect with old friends, family members, acquaintances, coworkers and so on. However, social networking...

The vast majority of you out there have an IPv4 type address. This is the type we’re all familiar with, that being the four octets of xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx. Many of you also know the difference in IPv4 classes as well, such as the fact that home wireless routers assign Class C addresses. Something that has been a legitimate problem ever since the internet as a...

Wi-fi theft, as in the act of stealing someone’s internet connectivity by breaking into a wireless network, has been around ever since we first started using wireless routers. Before covering the topic of how likely you are for wi-fi theft, I’ll first say that wi-fi security has never been that good. If one is desperate enough to steal your signal,...

For many, there will come a time when you’re "connected" to too much stuff on the internet. You know you’re too connected when you simply can’t keep up with everything you’re signed up for. Whether it’s email subscriptions, RSS feeds, YouTube channels, MySpace/Facebook friends, AIM buddies and so on, all this information...

When it come to any OS that’s *nix-based, there’s a lot I don’t complain about compatibility-wise due to the proprietary nature of a lot of computer hardware. For example, if I had a Microsoft wireless keyboard that had Windows-only features on it and it just would not work under Linux, would I get upset about this? Not at all. It’s a...

1000BaseTX: Ethernet specification for unshielded twisted pair cabling that is used to transmit data at 1 Gbps (gigabits per second) with a distance limitation of 220 meters per segment. [hidepost=1] 100BaseT: Ethernet specification for unshielded twisted pair cabling that is used to transmit data at 100 Mbps (megabits per second) with a distance limit of 100...

A router is any device that acts as a gateway between 2 or more separate networks. In our case, that means that the local network is connected to the Internet, and vice versa. The router ignores traffic local traffic or traffic it is not configured to handle, but when Internet access is attempted from within the local network, it springs into action. With NAT...

Sharing files and folders between computers is one of the most common applications for a network. You can share single files, folders, even whole drives (bad idea!) if you want to. Sharing a folder is convenient because you simply have to tell Windows to share the folder rather than tell it to specifically share every file in that folder. Windows will...

I have discussed previously in this book how IP addressing and DHCP servers operate. If you are interested in some of the technologies behind this, back up and have a read. For now, let’s just get down to business and get you sharing an internet connection. The first thing you might need to do is configure your router. The good thing here is that many routers...

Q: (Wired/Wireless) All my router’s lights are on and will not go off. When I try to connect to the router, no network connectivity is present. What should I do? A: On all routers there is a “reset” option. It is a button physically on the router. If after a reset this does not work – power off the router, wait ten seconds and then turn it back...

This chapter is a video presentation. [hidepost=1] [flv:http://pcmech.s3.amazonaws.com/BYON/06_setting_up_networking_software.flv 610 458] [/hidepost] [hidepost=2] Download video (MOV) [/hidepost]

In order to get your PC’s to talk, it is necessary to perform some simple configuration. Here are the items that will need to be visited:IP Addresses. Each network adapter needs to have an IP address. Luckily, this functionality is usually taken care of automatically by your switch or router. Installation of Microsoft Network Client software. This is the...

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I discussed previously the benefits and the downfalls of a wireless network. Now, let’s put one together. Installing Wireless Adapters In order to access a wireless network, each computer needs to have a wireless adapter installed. As discussed previously, there are different styles of them available. Each one comes with instructions for installation and this...

This chapter is a video presentation. [hidepost=1] [flv:http://pcmech.s3.amazonaws.com/BYON/05_setting_up_networking_hardware.flv 610 458] [/hidepost] [hidepost=2] Download Video (MOV) [/hidepost]

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