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Wireless Security: WEP and WPA 2007-10-03 08:00:00 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.About Wireless
Network SecurityNetworks have been around for many years, and with the advent of broadband Internet connections, they have also appeared in homes. Many of these networks were simple LANs with probably two computers connected by a cable. All that was really needed was applying security within the operating system, a software and hardware firewall and all was good. Unless someone connected directly into your network using a cable, your network was relatively safe and secure.For the past many years,
Web Site Design Tips 2007-10-01 08:00:00 Like many of you, I have been surfing the Web for many years and have visited hundreds of Web sites. I have found Web sites through search engines, e-mails, and other Web sites. Many of these Web sites have a great layout and provide very valuable, useful information. Others are more complex to navigate and don’t really help with anything.In this post I will provide several points that I think makes a Web site great. Many of these points are common sense, and can easily be implemented.Points to Keep in MindEasy Navigation - This is a very important point, and one that will determine whether I stay and visit more pages. It is important to ensure that your visitors can easily find their way around your site. This can be a simple menu list on the left or right side of the Web page, with the content right next to it. You can even have a menubar at the top of the Web page for more important categories.Readable Text - Many sites now try to use a very small font size. The author of th Read more:Web Site
Regular Computer Maintenance 2007-09-28 08:00:00 A little while ago I wrote a post titled How To Keep Your Computer
Running Smoothly where I explain several tools you should install and use to help keep your computer running. In this post I will provide step-by-step instructions on what I do to keep my computers running without any problems.Cleaning HouseChances are you probably know a pat rack, you know the person who can’t seem throw anything away. When it comes to computers, most of us are probably pack rats as well. We have a large number of files on our computer that we probably will never need in the future. Use the following steps to reduce the clutter on your hard drive:Click Start->Run to launch the Run dialog box.At the command prompt, type set temp. You should now see the location of your temporary directory appear on the screen.Open Windows Explorer (Windows Key+E) and navigate to the directory show from the previous step.Press CTRL+A to highlight all of the files and folders and press Delete.Your temporary directo Read more:Maintenance
Introduction to Cascading Stylesheets (CSS) 2007-09-26 08:00:00 In a previous post title Designing Web Pages: Tables or CSS, I briefly talked about using CSS to layout the content of a Web page. I didn’t go into detail about how CSS files are used in conjunction with Web pages or even how they are created.In this post I will provide a simple introduction to cascading stylesheets and how you can link them to an HTML file.Overview of a CSS fileBefore discussing how to create a CSS file, it is important to provide a quick overview on stylesheets. Cascading
stylesheets (CSS) are nothing more than simple text files that define the look of a Web page. Before CSS files, you would define fonts and colours within your HTML file. When you use CSS files, those definitions would be stored in a CSS file and removed from the HTML file. You can then link a CSS file, or even multiple CSS files to a single HTML file.Using CSS files to define the look of your Web site has a few benefits. The first is that you can now change the look of your entire Web site by s Read more:Introduction
Securing D-link DI-524 Wireless Router 2007-09-24 08:00:00 I recently created a post titled Securing Linksys WRT54G Wireless
router in which I provided step-by-step instructions on securing the WRT54G router. The Linksys WRT54G 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.Securing Your Wireless Router
To secure your D-Link DI-524 wireless router, follow these steps:Open your Internet browser and enter the following in the address bar: http://192.168.0.1.Note: If you have changed the IP address of your wireless router, enter that into the address bar. By default, the address is 192.168.0.1.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.We will first change the administrative password. First click the Tools tab at the top of the page. The Admin page should be displayed.Within the Administr
Designing Web Pages: Tables or CSS 2007-09-21 08:00:00 There is some debate recently about the best method to design and layout a Web page. Traditionally, HMTL tables have been used to handle the layout of a Web page. Today, however, a new layout method is gaining more popularity which uses CSS (Cascading Stylesheets).Which method is the best way of designing a Web page? I will explain both methods in this post and provide my own opinion. This post, however, won’t explain how to create the HTML files as I’ll save that for a future post.Using HTML Tables
If you view the source of many Web pages on the Internet, you will probably see the entire layout of the page constructed using tables. Tables have been the main method of providing the layout of a Web page since they were first introduced. They make it easy to provide a header, footer, and content sections to a page.Recently, however, many Web designers have been declaring that tables should only be used to display tabular data. This makes sense as many applications, such as Excel Read more:Designing
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AOL Users – Multiple IP Addresses 2007-09-19 08:00:00 A few days ago I was in a forum and someone mentioned that they noticed a discrepancy in their Web server logs. A visitor to their Web site was an AOL user, but they appeared to be making several requests from different IP addresses.If you are on dialup, you will probably get a different IP address each time you connect to your ISP, however, it won’t change as long as up don’t log off. How did the AOL user have multiple IP addresses even if they didn’t log off? I will explain that phenomenon in this post.AOL Proxy ServersUnlike regular dialup users, AOL users don’t get assigned an IP address that will show up in a Web server’s log file. This is because when an AOL user makes a request over the Internet; the request goes through what is known as a proxy server.A proxy server is a server that acts as an intermediary between a user and the Internet. This allows an enterprise to control security, caching and provide administrative support. The proxy server is the access point Read more:Multiple
Overview of Various Image File Formats 2007-09-17 08:00:00 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.GIF FormatI will begin with one of the oldest formats in use on the Internet today. The GIF name is a acronym for Graphics Interchange Format, and was first introduced by Compuserve in 1987. This is a popular format next to the JPEG format and is still used on Web pages today. Digital cameras, however, don’t use this format because it only supports 256 colours.There are currently two versions of GIF in use: GIF87a (the original version) and GIF89a. The GIF89a version supports multiple images in stream which allows you to create animated GIF images.Advantages - One advantage to a GIF is that it uses lossless Read more:Overview
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Network Glossary of Terms 2007-09-14 08:00:00 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.Networking TerminologyAES – 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 Read more:Glossary
, Terms
Vista Power Saving Settings - Increase Laptop Battery Life 2007-09-12 08:00:00 In a previous articles titled Conserving Your Laptop
Battery Power I listed several tips you can use to help conserve your laptop battery. The tips in that post can be applied not only Vista
, but also previous versions of the Windows operating system.In this post, however, I will discuss a new utility within Vista to help you get even more time out of your laptop battery.Vista Power OptionsSimilar to the previous versions of Windows, you can access the power options for Vista from the control panel. To access the options use the following:Click Start Menu->Control Panel->Mobile PC->Power Options.Within the dialog you will see several default power options. You can simply click one of the options to use the power settings associated with it. Each power option has different battery life and performance features.When you increase the battery life you usually take a performance hit. When you increase the performance of your laptop, you will usually reduce the battery life of your lapto Read more:Saving
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Securing Linksys WRT54G Wireless Router 2007-09-10 08:00:00 I discussed securing your wireless network in a post titled Securing a Wireless
Network. I currently have a Linksys wireless router model WRT54G. When I work from home I use this router to connect to work through VPN, and have done it with out any problems.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.Securing Your Wireless Router
To secure your Linksys WRT54G wireless router, follow these steps:Open your Internet browser and enter the following in the address bar: http://192.168.1.1.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.Enter the user ID and password for your router. If you haven’t changed it, the default password is admin. We will change it later if you haven’t already changed it.You should now see th
Stop Programs from Running When Windows Starts 2007-09-07 08:00:00 One of the many complaints users have of Windows
is the slow start times they may experience. Some of the time, the slow start time is due to the number of programs that are loaded when Windows starts up. These programs will sometimes create an icon in the system tray near the time in the lower right part of the screen. Others may load but give no indication that they are loaded, except when viewing the processes.There may also be times when one of the applications causes your system to crash. The reality is that most of those programs don’t need to start up, but are there to make your life easier. In this post I’ll explain several ways of preventing those programs from loading when Windows starts.Microsoft System Configuration Utility (MSConfig)This is one of the handy utilities included with the Windows operating systems. It was first included with Windows 98, and it is also included with Windows ME, and Windows XP. For those on Windows 2000, you can copy the msconfig.exe vers Read more:Programs
What is a Device Driver? 2007-09-05 08:00:00 You have probably connected several devices to your computer, a printer, scanner, or digital camera, and sometimes Windows would recognize the device without difficulty. Other times, however, the device was now recognized by Windows, and you couldn’t use the device.The reason Windows couldn’t recognize the device was because it didn’t have a device driver for it. This is required by all devices that are connected to your computer, both internal and external. In this post, I will describe what a device driver is, as well as what it does.Interacting with HardwareThere are many types of hardware that you can connect to your computer. Hardware such as video or sound cards are connected directly to the motherboard inside of your case, while printers and scanners are connected externally into one of the ports. The problem is how does an operating system know how to talk to the hardware if it is all different. Answer: through the use of device drivers.A device driver, or just driver Read more:Device
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How to Organize Your Digital Photos 2007-09-03 08:00:00 If you are like me, then you probably have thousands of digital photos stored on CDs/DVDs or a hard drive. There doesn’t appear to be any problems with the way you store you digital photos, until you need to find a specific one. At this point you remember how you stored your old printed photos in a shoebox in a closet somewhere and had no idea where a photo could be found.In this post I’ll explain the method I use to organize my digital photos in an easy and efficient manner. I am able to find a specific photo or all photos of someone within a few minutes, if not seconds.Photo Organizing SoftwareBefore beginning to organize your digital photos, it is important to first get photo organizing software. This type of software usually saves your photo information in a database for quick retrieval. The organizer may also have the ability to backup, edit and print your photos. In this post I’ll just discuss the organizing portion of the software.There are many applications that are cap Read more:Digital
Understanding Digital Camera Features 2007-08-31 08:00:00 Digital cameras come with many features that can affect the quality of your pictures. All digital cameras have a set of standard features, while the more advanced cameras also include additional features. I will discuss some of the important features that affect your pictures, and recommend settings that you should use.Picture SizeDigital cameras usually allow you to adjust the size of a picture. The size of the pictures is usually specified in pixels and usually in the format length x width. For example, a 6 megapixel picture will be indicated as 3000x2000.There are many reasons you may want to select a smaller picture size. One reason is to fit more pictures on you memory card. The smaller the picture, the less storage space it needs. The second reason is to target a specific output device. You may want to take smaller pictures if the pictures will only be sent via e-mail or displayed on the Web.I recommend that you always take pictures at the highest possible setting. The price Read more:Digital
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Digital Camera Memory Cards 2007-08-29 08:00:00 The digital camera has changed the way people take pictures. It is now easier to take a picture, decide if we want to keep it, and delete it if we don’t. Some cameras even allow you to apply effects to your pictures, such as colour replacing. How are digital cameras able to do this? Pictures are stored as files on a memory card that you load into your camera.There are many types of memory cards on the market today, and different digital cameras require different memory cards. Some cameras even allow you to use two types of memory cards. What is the difference between all the types, and which one is better? This post will describe the various popular memory types and discuss their differences.What is Flash Memory
?Before we look at the various cards, it is important to understand what I mean I say flash memory. You may be familiar with computer memory (RAM) or hard drive space, which have been around for many years. Both of these storage mediums have their advantages and disadvantag Read more:Digital
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Types of Digital Camera Batteries 2007-08-27 08:00:00 I mentioned in a previous post, About DigitalCamera
s, I mentioned that you should always buy two sets of rechargeable batteries. In this post I discuss the two most common rechargeable batteries used by digital cameras, although there are other types of rechargeable batteries on the market.Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH)Although research into the NiMH system began in the 1970s, these batteries first began being used commercially around 1990 and are currently used in digital cameras in AA form. In the early days of NiMH batteries, the metal hydride alloys were unstable so the desired performance characteristics were not achieved.In the 1980s, new metal hydride alloys were developed that were stable enough for use in a cell. By the late 1980s, the energy density of the NiMH batteries had gradually improved.The metals used in NiMH batteries are environmentally friendly and have a high energy density, which have contributed to its success.The fast charge time of a battery is 2 to 4 hours. T Read more:Digital Camera
Windows Vista Web Sites 2007-08-24 08:00:00 I recently bought a laptop with the WindowsVista
operating system. I have used most of the Windows operating systems in the past and currently use Windows XP on all my systems, but because Vista looks and feels different, I have had to relearn a few things. I decided to search the Web for information regarding Vista, and have compile a list of links that will hopefully help you.I realize that there are many more out there, but I will update the list if I discover more links.Microsoft Windows Vista
Home Page – The official Microsoft Web page for the Vista operating system.Black Viper’s Web Site – A great site with a lot of information about the Vista services. It also provides step-by-step instructions on how to install Vista. I highly recommend you check out the site.Windows Vista Tips & Tricks – A PC magazine Web page that lists 15 tips for Windows Vista. It’s not a comprehensive list, but does provide some good tips.Vista Made Easy: 50 Tips And Tricks – This page c Read more:Sites
, Web Sites
What are Web Feeds? 2007-08-22 08:00:00 A Web feed is used extensively on the Web especially for those who own a blog. They provide a means to distribute the contents of a Web site to subscribers. There are, however, two main types of feeds that can be used to send the sequentially and updated content from a Web site. This post will describe the two feed types and how someone can use them.RSSThe RSS (Really Simple Syndication) (RSS 2.0) feed started out first as Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91), which then became RDF Site Summary (RSS 1.0 and RSS 0.90). All formats are specified using XML.The first version of RSS was first used in March 1999 on the My Netscape portal and has since been modified by various people and corporations. This has led to some incompatibilities and issues between the various versions, which I won’t go into detail here.AtomThe second popular type of Web feed is the Atom feed. Similar to RSS feeds, Atom feeds are also specified in XML. This type of feed was developed because of the many incompatible ver
Conserving Your Laptop Battery Power 2007-08-20 07:22:00 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 con Read more:Laptop
How Long Will a CD-R Last? 2007-08-17 07:08:00 I recently wrote a post called Backing Up Digital Photos where I outlined the various backup media you can use. I discussed the advantages and disadvantages of the various media. After the post I decided to talk more about the longevity of a CD/DVD, since that is probably the most used media for backups.Parts of a CD-RBefore discussing how long a CD-R will last, it is important to discuss what a CD-R is made of. The most obvious component of a CD-R is the clear plastic disk, which is usually made from some kind of polycarbonate.The reflective part of the CD-R comes from a metal foil that is glued to one side of the polycarbonate. A protective paper or plastic label will usually cover the foil in the expensive CD-R, while the foil may be the top portion of the CD-R for lower cost brands. This foil can come in many colours, but silver (aluminum) or gold are the most common.The data on the CD-R is stored on a dye that is between the upper surface of the polycarbonate and the reflective me
Understanding White Balance 2007-08-15 08:00:00 When taking pictures with a digital camera you may notice that sometimes your photos have a colour cast to them. Many people keep their cameras on the auto setting, which attempts to remove the colour cast, but may not always work.Digital cameras have the ability to change what is known as the "WhiteBalance
" (WB). This setting attempts to offset the colour produced by a specific light source to make the colours as true as possible. This post will discuss what white balance is, and how to use it.Auto White Balance (AWB)When a digital camera is set to auto one of the settings that is automatically adjusted when a picture is taken is the white balance. In many situations, this setting can produce good results, but in others it may not.Auto white balance can produce great sunny, cloudy and fine indoor shots under normal circumstances. Under abnormal circumstances, such as a winter scene with a lot of snow or a white sandy beach, the pictures may not produce the best photos. The Read more:Understanding
How Encryption Works 2007-08-13 08:00:00 Everyday there are possibly millions of transactions made that involve the exchange of personal information. Obviously, those that provide that information would like to know that the information they send is safe and secure. On the Internet making information secure is handled by encrypting the data before it is sent, and decrypting it once it reaches its destination.This post will describe the encryption process and how it is used to keep information safe.Definition of Encryption
Encryption is the process of encoding data to ensure that unauthorized parties cannot view it. When data is encrypted, the data is first passed through an algorithm and is converted into cyphertext, which is the encrypted data. To accomplish the encryption, a key or code provided by you is used to encrypt the data, which will make the encryption difficult to crack.There are two systems used for encryption: Symmetric-key encryption and Public-key encryption (asymmetric). The next section will discuss the two s Read more:Works
How Digital Cameras Work 2007-08-10 08:00:00 Over the past few years the digital camera has become very popular with everyone from the amateur photographer to the professional. The digital camera provides the ability to instantly view a photo and either delete or keep it. How is a digital camera able to take and store a photo without the use of film? This post will explain how a digital camera is able to do that.The Image SensorDigital
cameras include a digital sensor that converts light into electrical charges. There are two types of image sensors found in digital cameras: charged coupled device (CCD) and complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS). Most digital cameras use a CCD image sensor so we’ll focus on that type.The CCD has millions of elements that are light-sensitive. Each one of these elements represents a single point in the picture, which is called a pixel in computer terms. For example, a 6 megapixel camera would have approximately 6 million pixels. A megapixel is equivalent to 1 million pixels.When light hi Read more:Cameras
How to Buy a New Computer 2007-08-08 08:00:00 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.MotherboardIf 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 Read more:Computer
Introduction to HTML 2007-10-12 08:00:00 I recently wrote two posts regarding designing Web sites: Designing Web Pages: Tables or CSS and Introduction
to Cascading Stylesheets (CSS). The information presented in both of those articles may be advanced for those just starting out with creating Web pages.I decided to create this post to provide an introduction to HTML and create a Web page. This post will create a very simple Web page that you can then display in a Web browser.What is HTML?Everyone who is online has heard of HTML, but may not know exactly what it is or how it is used on the Internet. HTML is an acronym for HyperText Markup Language. It is the primary language of Web pages. It is not a programming language, such as C or Visual Basic, as it is not compiled into a program. It is simply a markup language.A markup language is used to display text and other information about the text. The other information about the text can include anything from size, font to weight and position. For examples of the different way
E-mail Frauds and Scams 2007-10-10 08:00:00 For many years now security experts have been warning others about fraudulent e-mails and scams. Even after the warnings, there are still people who are taken in by these frauds and scam artists. The cost to those who are taken in can be hundreds of thousands of dollars or even their entire identity.In this post I will discuss the types of scams and frauds that are mostly used in e-mails and ways to avoid them.PhishingIn the past you may have received e-mails from a trustworthy institution asking to confirm some details about yourself. These details can include everything from a user ID, password to your account or PIN number. These e-mails are sent by scammers looking to steal important information from you. This is known as phishing.Phishing has been around for many years, but has now entered the security spotlight as more users get caught in the scams.Usually someone will receive an e-mail from a reputable company asking the user to confirm some important information about themse
Creating MP3 Files from a CD in Media Player 2007-10-05 08:00:00 For many years now MP3 music files have become mainstream. With the enormous number of MP3 players on the market, it seems everyone owns one. It is hard to walk down the street and not see anyone listening to their MP3 player. There are many people out there who may not know how to create their own MP3 files from their CDs.In this post I will provide a step-by-step tutorial on creating MP3 files from your CDs using Windows Media Player. I chose this application because it is readily available on any Windows system.Specify MP3 OptionsBefore we begin creating MP3 files it is important to first ensure we have set some important settings in Media Player. If you haven’t already done so, please start Windows Media Player.To set the MP3 options, use the following steps:Right-click an empty portion of the top toolbar to display a menu.From the menu select Tools->Options. The Options dialog box should now be displayed.Click the Rip Music tab.Under Rip music to this location you can specify th Read more:Creating
Introduction to Computer Components 2007-10-19 08:00:00 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.The ProcessorThe first component I will look at in a computer is the actual brains of system. You may have heard of Intel and AMD, which are the two companies that produce processors for a computer.A processor is simply a complex computer chip that contains millions of transistors and is responsible for carrying out instructions. The number of instructions that a processor can carry out is dependent on its speed.Processors are usually rated in hertz (Hz). The speed of a processor today is usually rated in gigahertz (GHz) or 1 billion hertz. The larger the number, the faster the processor. Some of the new processors include more than one core that allows more instructions to be processed at one time with a slower speed. A two c Read more:Introduction
, Components
Digital Photo Workflow 2007-10-17 08:00:00 I have taken thousands of pictures with the two digital cameras I have owned in the past 5 years. I purchased my first camera in 2002 and quickly began learning how best to take pictures. The camera was a Canon G2 and I learned about and began using the RAW file format when taking pictures. I then acquired the Canon S3 IS but it unfortunately didn’t have a RAW file format, so I quickly learned to make do with taking pictures in the JPEG format.Although my file format has changed I still like to tweak my pictures. I do this because I am not the greatest of photographers so I like to make some quick edits to my pictures. In this post I will provide an overview of the workflow I use to make my pictures ready for printing.Camera SettingsI have my camera setup up differently than most people. You don’t have to setup your camera the same way as mine to use the workflow, but I thought I’d mention this here because it will make your pictures look different.Set the white balance.I always Read more:Digital
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