In How to Fry a Wireless Router or Two, I wrote about my brother’s experience frying a pair of wireless modems in a lightning storm. Last week, I talked about what had happened, why it happended, and what he could do to prevent the problem in the future (this was the third set of routers, plus he lost a computer motherboard in that storm).

This week, we’ll look at his network layout, and why he could not get the network to set up properly.

To summarize the situation, he has an office an a shop, with computers on his network in both locations. Some connect via wired connections (Ethernet), while others use wireless connections. His Internet cable comes into the office first.

In the past, he first used Linksys wireless routers. Then DLinks. This time, he chose Belkin wireless routers.

The incoming cable (standard cable-company RG6 coaxial cable) connects to the cable modem.

Then, the cable modem connects to the WAN (wide area network “Internet”) connection on the router.

The local wired ports on the router…

Continue reading How Can One Cable Modem Work With Two Wireless Routers?

Reader Olle wrote to ask a remote access question:

Hi! I read your article about editing videos remotely with GoToMyPC. I\’ve tried doing that but it doesn\’ work. I cannot even play a vidoe and see the video remotely. But I can do everything else like trabsfereing files and more. Is it a setting issue? I would Like to ask you kindly to guide me on this issue. I appriciate an response.
Thank You Kind regards Olle

Remote access to your own PC, or to other PC’s you manage on your own home network, can be a great way to do many tasks.

On my home network, since I use firewall programs on each PC (all are using Sunbelt Personal Firewall) and the home network is segregated from the Internet by my cable/DSL router (a Linksys BEFSR41), I don’t hesitate to use non-encrypted remote control software within my network. I use the free versionn of RealVNC to do this.

On the other hand, for remote access across the Internet, I think you’d have to be crazy to do that with an unencrypted connection (which possibly could be monitored by someone else!). For remote access across the Internet, I’d choose GoToMyPC because of its speed and encryption. You can try a 30 day free trial of GoToMyPC (for one PC) or GoToMyPC Pro (for multiple PC’s). There are also paid versions of RealVNC that include encryption, so they’re another option.

Continue reading Remote Access Software Question

Reader Peter wrote me about his cable Internet access:

Well, I finally made the jump to cable broadband (after some very good help from all you people). Everything works great, and I’ll never go back to dial-up. I do have one question, though.

After I turn off the computer for the night, should I also turn off the power to the modem and to the router? I’ve had them for almost a week now and haven’t turned them off. On the same note, should they be turned off if I’m gone for an extended period of time, say a weekend or a whole week?

Continue reading Disconnecting Your Cable Internet Access

If you don’t already have a home computer network and want to set up one, it’s easy. In fact, it’s so easy that I recommend that ANYONE using a high-speed Internet connection should use a router for the added security that it gives their computer.

A wired or wireless router (wireless routers normally have 4 wired Ethernet ports, also, in addition to being able to communicate wirelesly) is pretty much a plug-and-play device.

Most of the time, you don’t really need the directions provided with the cable/dsl wired or wireless router, except for configuring wireless security settings — or if you have a DSL connection.

If you have a cable Internet connection (at home) or an Ethernet connection (at home in some areas…

Continue reading Creating a Home Computer Network

OK, you have a new computer and you’ve made the decision to keep your old computer, and you want your spouse and children to be able to do email and surf the web without demanding your computer.

Let’s assume you already have an existing home computer network — if you don’t, the first article in this week’s online newsletter is for you…

There are two basic ways that computers on home networks can get the IP addresses and other network data they need in order to communicate with each other: we can enter the data into the configuration screens, if we want to use static (unchanging) IP addresses, or we can set the router to assign IP addresses dynamically using DHCP.

Continue reading Adding a Computer to an Existing Home Network

I’ve read some recent mailing list comments that were complaining about the huge differences in upload and download speeds in residential Internet service pacakges from cable companies and phone (DSL) companies.

The writers always point to the ISP’s commercial package offerings as proof that “they could give us highspeed uploads, too, if they chose.”

Unfortunately, though, the writers aren’t considering that there are technological forces at work, not just the marketing plans of the Internet service providers.

Many times, the complainers wish to host their own web servers on their residential ISP service, or they want to be able to upload data (video, audio) to others via some type of server (peer-to-peer or other) or even to upload large quantities of data to online backup services.

Of course, they want to do this on their cheap residential service…

Continue reading Cable and DSL Speeds – What’s wrong with this picture?