Archive for March, 2010
How To Securely Configure A Wireless Router As A Public Access Point
Mar 31st
There are many reasons for wanting to set up a wireless public access point. You may want to provide your customers with free or paid Internet access or you may want to provide Internet access to your building and its common areas.
The first thing you need to know is that by just adding a wireless router to your network and allowing anyone to connect to it will put your own computers and network at risk. You need to separate your public and private network so that wireless users cannot access your local area network. You will need two routers. One that has a DMZ and one that you will use for your public wireless access point.
Battle of the Net books. HP 5102 takes the cake.
Mar 30th
I recently laughed at a colleague of mine who was using a net book. It was nothing special but it was a lot easier to do what we needed to do on location from the net book then from my Windows Mobile Device. Don’t get me wrong I can do pretty much anything from my Touch Pro2 by remote desktoping into my desktop computer.
From the netbooks we are able to do everything natively running all my apps right from my memory stick. So I went looking for a netbook. And I did not want to spend $1000 on a netbook when I could buy a small laptop for a little more. I decided this would be a sub $400 purchase (the same price as my phone). I would be using Windows 7 Starter edition which all the models have and I will only be looking at 10.1 inch screens.
HP was kind enough to let me review their new Mini 5102. I have previously seen their 5101 last year. You can find that review here. I really liked the look and feel of it. It is a metal case, a water resistant keyboard (and little ones have a hard time prying off the keys!) PCWorld saw one with an awesome blue metal casing here.
It has a built in web camera and mic for Skype as well as Bluetooth and wifi. The screen is 10.1 inches which takes some getting used to. It is using a Intel Atom N450 processor, 1GB of DDR2 memory, a 160GB 7200RPM hard drive. The pre-loaded HP tools are awesome. And I think I will be getting my netbook with a handle which by the way is ingenious!
The device weights a little more than 2.5 pounds. I was able to get about 4 1/2 hours out of the 6 cell battery which is more than enough for me but I would keep a spare battery with me just in case. The options that I have on 5102 run about $399 putting it right around where I wanted it to be. To check out this model on Amazon click here.
But I decided to check out two other options first; Dell and Asus.
The Dell model is their mini 1011 it also comes with a 10.1 inch screen and most of the other specs are the same. Yet the keyboard felt flimsy compared to the HP and the 1 gig of memory seemed to get sucked up instantly by the operating system. The battery was rated at 8 hours but I saw the same 4 1/2 that I got from the 5102. The Dell does have the built in web cam and microphone.
The screen also seemed darker to me. To top it off I learned that the memory is not upgradeable and the machine gets unbelievably hot! If you don’t believe me check out the reviews on Amazon. The Dell Mini 1011 goes for $344.96 available from Amazon here. It is $60 less but will give you headaches in the long run. The device weights 2.85 pounds.
And last I checked out the EEE PC with the same processor, memory and screen size the Asus seemed to fair the best in battery life but It had a lot to do with it’s automatic smart profile changing which was not so smart. It will dim my screen when it feels it should which as a writer I hate.
I don’t like machines making choices for me! It weighed in at 2.65 pounds. Check it out on Amazon here.
So I will be getting myself a HP 5102 in the near future! I absolutely love it. I think the touch screen, carrying handle and SSD would make it awesome but a little too rich for my blood at around $900. I might be a little biased seeming 90% of my equipment is HP but they sure do make awesome devices!
Use Keyboardr to use your computer without a mouse.
Mar 25th
This is a really interesting search engine that caught my eye today which I happened to stumble upon and I really like it. I have been using Google or Live search for years now with an occasional visit to Yahoo. There have not been any great innovations in the search engine realm in years. But this is something I can sink my teeth into.
It is no secret that I love to use my keyboard – no matter if it is typing out console commands, browsing in dos or command line ftp. It might be the inner geek in me but I still love it.
That is where Keyboardr comes in. You simply browse to their site and start typing.
How To Build A Dream House Online With FloorPlanner
Mar 24th
Congratulations! You have decided to start designing a home and you are looking for somewhere to start. There are many free services that will help you build your dream home but one of them REALLY stands out as being an excellent tool in building, designing and displaying your floor plans.
FloorPlanner is free for personal use and they have paid accounts for professional designers or someone looking to create a lot of floor plans. Let’s see how it works and get you started building the home of your dreams!
Daylight Savings Time has you one hour behind? 2000, XP and Vista
Mar 15th
Is your Windows machine telling you it is 1 hour behind? After daylight savings time your computer can switch back to it’s prior time. Even after changing it manually it changes back when it syncs to an alternate time source like Active Directory.
When you run net time from a command line you see your incorrect Current Time and the correct Current Time from the server.
After some searching and Googling as to why this one workstation is being troublesome and the rest of the network is fine. I found a update that was needed on the computer. My WSUS server thought it had pushed it out to all my clients but this one slipped through.
To solve your issues go to this Microsoft Daylight Saving Time Help and Support URL here. I needed to download KB955839 to fix my issue. And without restarting the machine it was magically all better! I thought I would save you some time on how to fix the one hour behind bug…
Ultimate list of Windows 7 Tips and Tricks
Mar 11th
Here are some of the best tips and tricks for Windows 7.
Windows 7 Features Walkthrough
Want to learn what is new in Windows 7? The How-To-Geek has put up a comprehensive screenshot tour, which walks you through the new features in Windows 7. Take a look at what you should expect from Windows 7 beta to learn more.
10 Things You Should Know Before Installing Windows 7
Windows 7 is in beta, and there are bound to be several things which will not work. The Windows 7 center has a list of 10 things you should know before you install Windows 7.
Dual Boot Windows 7 With Windows XP and Vista
Adam Pash from Lifehacker has put up a nice tutorial using which you can dual boot Windows 7 with Windows XP and Vista.
What are Windows 7 System Requirements?
Windows 7 is not as resource hungry as Windows Vista, and you can run Windows 7 on a really low configuration. Learn more about the Windows 7 System Requirements.
