The next factor to consider in designing your WLAN is to determine how many devices you want to connect wirelessly. You may want to connect everything right off the bat or start out with a few devices and expand as your budget allows. Or you may be adding a few wireless elements to an existing [...]

While discussing default settings, I mentioned changing default administrative passwords and IP addresses. These two steps are important to help protect your access point. If you fail to do these things, it can be easy for an intruder to take control of it. Once he does that, he grants himself legitimate access and circumvents all [...]

Simply put, antenna theory is boring. If I were to go into great technical detail about how antennas work, your eyes would glaze over and you’d eventually start snoring. Because it’s not my goal to create a 400-plus-page sleep-aid, I’m going to keep this description very simple. Of course, simple is a relative term. Still, [...]

Yes! I can get a watch just like Dick Tracy had. (Now all I need is a flying car, and I’m all set.) Well, the watch is almost like Dick Tracy’s; for now it’s a receive-only device, but it’s still cool. Starting in the fall of 2003, Microsoft began rolling out its MSN Direct service, [...]

Okay, I know, now that you’re convinced that wireless is really better, you’re ready to run out to your computer superstore, hand over your credit card, and start plugging things in. But before you can get to the “how to do it” part, you need a little more of the “how does it work” stuff. [...]

With all the media coverage that computer crime gets, you might think it was the number-one cause of data loss. It isn’t, but many people and organizations focus their energy on securing their systems against crackers and script kiddies and often ignore the more likely threats to data. Do you want to know what the [...]

Many broadband routers have firewalls built into them. This is good because it adds an extra layer of security between your WLAN and the Internet. However, the firewall can occasionally get in the way of gaming by blocking software ports that a game wants to use. Ports are numbered connections that computers use for different [...]

Securing your laptop is the simplest way to deter theft. Thieves want to pick up a laptop and walk away. They don’t have time to fight with a cable and lock, and don’t want to be seen doing so. I’ve heard the argument that any thief with a set of bolt cutters can cut the [...]

Before you start investing time and money extending the range of your WLAN, you need to determine two things: where you already have connectivity and where you want connectivity. You may already have adequate signal strength to sit by your pool and check your e-mail without having to buy any more equipment. The easiest way [...]

You have a huge collection of CDs and you wish you could have instant access to all of them without having to sort through stacks of discs. What can you do to avoid this? You can rip your entire CD collection to MP3 audio files. Because MP3 audio is compressed, it takes up much less [...]