Networking and Wi-Fi

If your physical infrastructure is in good shape, or you’re using a fast cable broadband service, there’s little else you can do in the way of repairing to improve your broadband connection performance, but ensuring that Windows is set up optimally for good network performance is one way of eking out a bit more speed …

If you want to get the most out of your router, for wired and home plug (power line) networks, check the network activity icon in the taskbar to see if a PC is connected at 10, 100 or 1,000Mbits/sec, if it’s stuck at 10Mbits/sec, which happens with older network cards that can’t auto-negotiate these settings correctly, go to the device manager, right click on the network card and select properties, select the Advanced tab and select the link Speed/Duplex Mode property. If 100Mbits/sec/Full Duplex is available at this point, select it to improve performance, this is a potential bottleneck for high-speed broadband packages, if you’re using a Wi-Fi router, inspect how many other wireless networks you can detect from inside your home, for the best detection, use a free utility such as network stumbler (www.netstumbler.com), most 802.11g Wi-Fi router will let you choose between 11 different channels, but there are …

TransferJet wireless technology under development by major camera makers, is intended to make wireless transfer of images between devices easier, now Toshiba is getting behind the wireless standard, having shown off laptop that uses the technology at the consumer electronics show in January, the companies pushing the technology tout transferjet (www.transferjet.org) as being more than 100 times faster than Bluetooth and transferring data between devices needs no pass code or pairing (as Bluetooth requires). Place a camera with TransferJet on the Toshiba laptop’s palm rest and it will automatically sync files on the camera with the laptop’s hard drive. The new technology can achieve throughput of 357 mbps, fast enough to support streaming video from camcorder and expects same impact on battery life, but not a significant one, the company plans to embed the technology in laptop and external devices in the fourth quarter of this year. Source : PC …

Your working in company grows whose need to establish a network to connect the staffer to one another and the internet, at this point, your staffer uses a collection of Macs, Linux and Windows, with graphics specialist favoring OS X, the software developers relying on the tools that come with Linux and everybody else preferring Windows, fortunately three operating system can communicate and coexist on single network, by using suitable off the self equipment and the various operating systems built-in tools, you can connect your heterogeneous hardware to universe in short order. Hooking Up Printer Printer that connect directly to the network via Ethernet constitute one of the most brilliant innovations ever, simply plug a printer in and turn it on and soon you have a device that’s available to every computer on the network, to find and install a network printer in windows, go to control panel, open printer …

Setting up wireless network can be fairly easy, but considering the wide variety of wireless technologies on the market, choosing the right product for your network needs can be daunting. In its most basic form, a wireless network consists, the base station can be a router that acts as a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) server, provides security and contains port for wired clients; it can also be an access point that allows wireless connectivity to an existing wired network, the client is typically a laptop with an integrated Wi-Fi adapter or a wireless PC Card adapter, many desktop motherboards now features integrated Wi-Fi components as well, but older PCs may require a wireless USB adapter or an internal wireless networking card, you’ll need broadband connection such as DSL or cable and the appropriate modem to share internet connectivity throughout your home of office. Choosing a Standard With the 802.11n …

When it comes to connecting to a network or the Internet, your connection method can change on a daily basis. If you’re well-traveled, your connection may even change on an hourly basis. Considering all the possibilities, it’s a bit surprising that problems don’t crop up more often than they do. We list some of the more common problems and a few ways to tackle them. DHCP Connections The most common wired Ethernet configuration, for home and work, is a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server that automatically assigns IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. This is perhaps the simplest connection method, as well as the least likely to cause problems. When you connect to an Ethernet network with DHCP, all of the essential properties are automatically configured for you.

So you’ve got a brand new laptop at the office. Maybe you’re really lucky and got a Tablet PC. Whatever model or brand you got, it almost certainly includes wireless support. Now you can work from anywhere in the office or campus without having to find an available network plug. Your IT department will handle setting up your new laptop for the work network. Make sure they show you how to connect to the network when you’re on the road or outside the office. They probably have specific instructions or software you need to use to make a virtual private network (VPN) connection to the network. But when you bring your new wireless laptop home, you’re in charge of making it work with the wireless setup you have there. And if you want to work from your neighborhood coffee shop, that’s up to you too. In this column, I’ll help …

1. ENABLE WIRELESS ENCRYPTION Enabling Wireless encryption is essential otherwise every one within your Radio Frequency (RF) range (and remember the Wireless network world record distance is 125 miles!), at best can capture your traffic compromising surfing habits, gathering usernames and passwords and at worst sharing illegal images or hacking over your Wireless network for which you are legally responsible. DO NOT USE WEP (WEP is trivially broken) DO NOT USE A DICTIONARY BASED WORD FOR YOUR WPA/WPA2 PSK DO USE WPA2 (BEST) or WPA (NEXT BEST) WITH A NON-DICTIONARY PSK Note: Use AES encryption where you can, it’s the strongest available. 2. DISABLE SSID BROADCAST Ensure you disable the SSID broadcast on you Access Point this will hide your Wireless access point from casual WARDRIVERS. While it is still trivial for a proficient WARDRIVER to determine the SSID it makes him/her work that little bit harder and there may …

This chapter describes the details of addressing for both IPv4 and IPv6. Network administrators need a thorough understanding of both types of addressing to administer Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networks and troubleshoot TCP/IP-based communication. This chapter discusses in detail the types of Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) addresses, how they are expressed, and the types of unicast addresses assigned to network node interfaces.  After completing this chapter, you will be able to: Describe the syntax for IPv4 addresses and address prefixes, and convert between binary and decimal numbers. List the three types of IPv4 addresses, and give examples of each type. Describe the differences between public, private, and illegal IPv4 addresses. Describe the syntax for IPv6 addresses and address prefixes, and convert between binary and hexadecimal numbers. List the three types of IPv6 addresses, and give examples of each type. Describe the differences …