The actual life of a laptop battery will vary with computer usage habits. For most users, it is not uncommon to experience differences in battery life, of anywhere from just under one hour to over two hours in each sitting. If you are experiencing shorter battery life cycles, say 10 to 15 minutes, it may not yet be time to order that new battery.

There are several factors to take into consideration when determining if the time has come to replace your battery. This information may also apply to that new battery that you have recently purchased, that has been giving you fits. The two primary things to consider when troubleshooting battery problems is Usage Habits and Battery Memory. We will cover both in their complexities in just a moment, but first, let us take a look at what you should expect from your battery’s life cycle.

NiMH batteries usually last 1.5 to 2.5 hours.
LiION batteries usually last 2.0 to 3.0 hours.

These are average results and the results will vary greatly depending on your system’s conservation settings, the temperature of the room and the climate that you are operating your computer in. As a general rule, your Lithium Ion battery will last much longer than your standard Nickel Metal Hydride battery.

Now let’s take a look at the various usage habits to consider when troubleshooting your laptop’s battery. These processes are very similar to the way that your portable stereo uses batteries .. just think how much faster your stereo eats batteries when you are playing the CD or the tape deck, as opposed to when you are just playing the radio.

The more you use physical devices — which require more electricity to operate — the more of the battery’s power you can expect to consume. The devices that create a larger power drain are the hard drive, the floppy drive and the CD-ROM.

When the computer is able to use its physical memory resources to store information, the computer will use less of the battery’s power, since the process is mostly electrical in nature. However, when the processes you are using exhaust the physical memory resources available to your system, the system will turn to virtual memory to continue the process at hand. Virtual Memory is designed to extend system memory resources by building a memory swap file on the hard drive, and then transfer needed information between the hard drive and the physical memory as required. Since the hard drive is a electricity hog, the use of virtual memory becomes an electricity hog by proxy.

Two other processes that engage virtual memory on your computer are computational programs and the calculation processes used by spreadsheet applications and database programs. Both of these items engage the processor to a greater degree as well, which in itself is a consumer of electricity. Because they both compute and calculate large quantities of information, they will also increase the amount of electricity that your laptop will consume.

Other physical devices that cannot be left out of this discussion are audio and display devices. As far as audio devices are concerned, speakers require electricity to run and the software that is responsible for producing the sound does so by processing information. The display panel consumes electricity as well. In fact, the brighter the screen appears, the more electricity that it is consuming. You may turn down the brightness on the screen, thereby conserving more electricity than you may have considered possible. And when considering the battery drain caused by video devices, don’t forget the effect that graphics programs will have on your system. Video applications can have an intense effect on your electrical needs, due to its usage of computation, calculations and virtual memory.

Battery Memory is an odd little creature. The concept of battery memory is reminiscent of Pavlovian Conditioning. Do you remember the story about Pavlov and his dogs? Pavlov would serve his dogs food and when they realized it was dinner time, he would ring a bell. After some time of conditioning his dogs, all he would have to do to get the dogs to salivate, was to ring the bell. Battery Memory is a lot like that.

Battery memory is where the battery becomes conditioned to run for less time than it is designed to run. Say for example, you run your computer on battery for an hour and then you plug it back in to let it recharge. The battery will become conditioned to run only an hour before it runs out of juice.

To correct Battery Memory problems, you must completely drain the battery and recharge it. To completely drain your battery, you must go into your Windows Control Panel and select Power. Then you must turn Power Management Off. Next, you must go into your BIOS and make sure that if there is a power management setting there, that you turn it off as well. In most cases, once you are inside the BIOS, you will highlight Power Management and press Enter. Then locate the item Hibernation at Critical Battery, and by using the Minus sign, change the setting to Off. Once these steps have been completed, then use your Escape key to return to the top level menu, and select Save Settings and Exit.

Once you have completed turning off the power management in both the BIOS and the Operating System, you must unplug the computer, turn the computer on and let it run until it completely runs out of electricity. Then you should charge the battery for 12 hours. At the end of the charging cycle, then run the computer again until the battery is dead, and then charge the battery for 12 more hours. You should repeat this process four times, before returning the computer to its original power management settings.

As far as battery usage goes, it is recommended that you should use the battery once every two weeks, and keep the battery in the system so that the AC adapter can keep the battery charged at all times. It is also recommended that if you don’t use the battery for more than two weeks, you should completely discharge the battery and store it at room temperature.

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Inkjet printers were born in the 1980s, replacing the popular dot matrix printer. Inkjet printers drop droplets of ink onto printer paper to produce text and images. The drops of ink are actually smaller than the width of a strand of hair, so don’t expect to actually see individual droplets on your printouts. It’s not like the older dot matrix, which produced much larger drops of ink.

There are several major printer technologies- the two largest categories being impact and non-impact. As you probably guessed, impact printers work by actually touching the paper to produce text and images. Dot matrix printers fall in this category. Non impact printers never actually touch the paper. Both inkjet and laser printers fall into this category.

So what makes an inkjet printer work? There are several key components found in all inkjet printers that make them tick. The most important and fragile piece of any printer is the print head. It contains the ink-emitting nozzles. The ink cartridges hold the actual ink that is fed into the head. The stepper motor powers the print head, propelling it back and forth across the paper. A stabilizer bar ensures that that the movements of the print head are controlled and precise.

Paper is fed into the printer via a feeder. The paper is pulled inside the printer by several rollers. Of course, none of these components would function without power. Most printers use standard power supply. Your computer talks to the printer through interface ports, most commonly, the USB port.

Bill Smith is an expert on printers and ink cartridges. Visit http://www.buythebestbuy.com to learn more about printers.

The performance, capabilities and performance of laptop computers have for many years been lagging behind the desktop, but all that is changing.

Today’s advanced laptop computers are noted as having equal capabilities as modern desktop PCs, although there is often a noticeable time delay for the top models. Over the past decade, the difference in processing power and performance between laptop computers and desktop PCs has narrowed considerably.

At the beginning of 1995, the difference was around three to six months. Customers today insist that their laptops have similar capabilities and specifications as their desktop and also demand more features and processing power. In other words they want the things that make mobile computing painless and hassle-free. As well as becoming a replacement for a desktop PC the advanced laptop computer should provide the same flexibility in configurations and expandability.

A fully featured laptop uses advanced technologies such as mobile Pentium, PCI, plug and play, lithium-ion batteries, and hot docking to give users the same capabilities as their desktop computers. As users became familiar with their laptops they demanded that their mobile computers have the same functionality as their desktops. Thus began the emergence of ever more faster processors, high resolution wide-screen displays, bigger hard drives and multiple external devices.

The advanced laptop computer of today features capabilities such as instant-on. Instant-on is a feature that allows users to put their laptop into a power-conserving state and later resume working exactly where they left off. Advanced laptop computers focus on size, power, compatibility and performance. Some of the main objectives of advanced laptop manufacturers are power management, performance and compatibility. These manufacturers are fully aware that their customers expect their products to not require frequent recharging. Power consumption must be managed wisely, otherwise the heat generated by the components could affect reliability, functionality and ultimately, customer satisfaction. Their products are also expected to achieve other goals, such as reliability, quality and user convenience.

The keyboard controller of an advanced laptop performs many tasks so that the Pentium CPU can remain focused on compatibility and performance. Some of the tasks performed by the keyboard controller are - keyboard scanning, support for three PS/2 ports, status panel control, battery charging and low-voltage monitoring, communication and tutoring, temperature sensing and thermal feedback control, docking station control and power on/off control.

Because of the highly complex jobs it has to undertake, the keyboard controller of a laptop computer is based on flash memory so that the programming can be altered in the field as well as the EEPROM and system BIOS.

The next decade could well see laptop development overtaking that of the desktop PC.

Sam Carlton is the owner of LCD-Monitors-Info.com and an expert in PC hardware. Visit http://www.lcd-monitors-info.com for more info.

All in one printers, also known as multifunction printers (MFPs), are printers that also can copy, scan, and in some cases, fax. These machines perform all of these functions, generally using a single set of ink cartridges for both printing and copying. They are not much larger than stand-alone printers, making them a great tool for small home offices.

You can find an excellent all-on-one Epson printer for under $200 – a steal if you ask me. Have you ever priced a copying machine? Good luck finding one for under $750. These little gems produce high quality printouts and color copies that are indistinguishable from the originals. You’d think that these machines would “drink” ink – I was pleasantly surprised to find that this is not the case. The copying process uses about the same quantity of ink as the printing process.

Most MFPs offer high resolution, photo-quality printouts without sacrificing speed. This makes them ideal for the amateur photographer, the average home owner, or even the college student who needs to print thesis papers and PowerPoint presentations. You can’t imagine how helpful it is having a copier in your home. For a few extra dollars, you can pick up a printer with a built in copier and never have to run to Staples again.

The printer market is so competitive right now that you can probably score a significant rebate on an all in one printer. Recently I’ve seen rebates for as much as $50 off new Epson all-one-printers. Check around, do some price-shopping, and you too can experience the luxury of a low-cost, home copier/printer.

Bill Smith has written hundreds of articles about printers and ink cartridges, some of which can be found at http://www.buythebestbuy.com.

Hard Drive and Multimedia Drives: Today, we will investigate the new SATA drives. This hard drive does not come in the Compaq Presario SR1617CL-B; however, this is one of the technologies that you should be aware of when doing comparison shopping. SATA stands for Serial ATA. SATA is being touted as the next generation replacement for IDE drives (a.k.a ATA, PATA Ultra DMA). The SATA hard drives are designed to deliver 150 Mbytes/sec transfer speed. This gives you a big boost from the 133 Mbytes/sec you get from the best ATA-7 drive commonly referred to as Ultra DMA-133. Surprisingly, the every day performance of the SATA drive has been about the same as the ATA predecessor.

One of the significant technological features is NCQ. NCQ stands for native command queuing. NCQ employs an algorithm called Rotational Position Ordering (RPO) to speed access to the data. I know all this acronym soup sounds “geekie”; therefore, I am going to simplify this tech talk for you.

Imagine being in a hardware store. You have a list of items that you need to purchase. In front of you are several aisles. The items on your list could be on any one of them. The first item on your list could be on aisle 3 and the second on aisle 17 and the third on aisle 1. You get the picture? This is very inefficient. If you go in sequential order down your list, you could end up going back and forth between the first few aisles and the last few aisles many times.

Well, NCQ using RPO fixes this inefficiency problem. NCQ using RPO, if it were a shopper like you, would reorder the list of items according to the aisle. In other words, all items on aisle 1 would be at the top, all items on aisle 2 would follow, etc. You can quickly see that all of the back and forth traveling would be stopped allowing you to get the list of items in a more timely fashion.

There are more details about SATA that could be discussed such as the 33% improvement reported by Seagate attributed to the NCQ technology versus SATA drives without the NCQ technology; however, when buying a computer, here is what you should know: in the real world of home office - small office desktops, SATA only shows significant performance gains when the system uses RAID technology which is seldom used in these environments.

In summary, although the hard drive manufacturers are excited about SATA, the average home office computer with a single hard drive does not benefit enough to justify the increased cost of the SATA drive. It is December 13, 2005 as I write this article so in the future as the price gap closes it may well be worth it. If you are planning on having a server with several users and a SATA RAID configured server, in that case, the benefits will abound. In my next article, I will pull the covers back on the multimedia drive community.

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So you know a little bit about tape backup, but you’re wondering how to set up a tape backup strategy for your business. Well, let’s take a look at 3 simple steps to setting up a complete backup solution.

Step 1: Purchase your tape backup hardware

Firstly, purchase the tape backup hardware. If you need to perform file server backup (or Exchange Server backup or SQL Server backup) for small business, then one of the following tape drives should suffice:

* Travan cartridge drive (up to 10 Gb)
* DDS tape backup drive (up to 20 Gb)
* DDS tape backup drive with hardware data compression (up to 40 Gb)

Then purchase the necessary tapes for your backup rotation strategy. A good Grandfather-Father-Child variation will require 10 tapes or 14 tapes.

Step 2: Purchase your tape backup software

When it comes to tape backup software, one option is to use NTBackup — the standard Windows backup program. The problem with NTBackup is that it is too hard to use. While an expert should be able to schedule backup jobs using NTBackup, what you really want is something a novice can setup in minutes.

What you really want to do is invest in some quality backup software for your business? Well, if you run a small business, you’ll want to avoid those expensive brands! They’re designed for large corporations. You should really be looking for software for tape backup that does everything you need, but is affordable at the same.

Look for a backup program that’s designed specially for small business instead. Look for a product that is advertised as being simple to use. Remember, you don’t want software that requires an expert to run it. Download a trial version of the backup software and try it out for a month or so. If everything works smoothly and you’re happy with the product, go ahead and make a purchase!

Step 3: Continually perform your backups

So you’ve attached the tape drive to your server and installed the software. You’ve configured the software to run your tape rotation scheme and everything’s raring to go. So how do you go about performing backups?

Well, at the end of each working day, put the tape into the drive. And as obvious as this sounds, the correct tape should be placed in the drive. For example, placing the "Week 2" tape instead of the "Week 3" tape in the tape drive will reduce the effectiveness of your tape rotation strategy! Your tape backup software should take care of the rest.

In addition, you should monitor the results of each backup to check for errors. For example, if a tape wears out and data cannot be verified, you need to take action and replace that tape. If some problem prevented a backup from completing, you need to know about it so that you can re-run the backup the next morning.

Be sure to also follow your manufacturer’s guidelines for drive cleaning and maintenance.

Final notes

As strange as this seems, you should be at the mercy of your tape backup software. And the more control it exerts over you, the better! Let me explain…

NTBackup assumes that you insert the correct tape and it doesn’t inform you of any errors. You are responsible for selecting the tape according to your tape rotation scheme, and the onus is on you to read result logs and discover if any errors occurred.

This means that the file backup process is tedious and prone to human error. A complete solution for tape backup should take charge of your backup strategy for you.

A tape backup software should email tape rotation instructions and the results of backups to you or your secretary, making your task far simpler and minimizing the chance of human error. Select the right server backup software and you’re already most of the way to implementing a complete tape backup strategy for your business.

Linus Chang is a backup expert and the lead developer of BackupAssist — backup software that is simple and affordable, and perfect for small and medium businesses. Protect your Windows servers, including SQL Server and Exchange Server, to tape, REV drive, hard drive, NAS and more, at a fraction of the cost of other backup programs. Transforms NTBackup into a script-free and simple-to-use tool.

Ciso PIX Security Appliance.

Cisco PIX Security applications can enforce policies on users and applications.

Cisco PIX can protect you from many different network and Internet based attacks.

Cisco PIX offers secure connectivity, using methods such as SSHv2 Secure Shell Two and VPN virtual private networks.

This is fairly easy to setup.

Cisco PIX can provide you with secure VOIP voice over internet protocol. IPSec or Internet Protocol Security IPSec can be setup for VPN’s.

Cisco PIX Security appliances provide multiple layers of security. This hardware/software based solutions is designed to look for anomolies aka weird traffic thats not normal on your network, which could be an indication of a attack.

There is over thirty different engines looking for different attack signatures.

The current version is Cisco PIX appliance version 7.0

Here are some of the feautures:

You can rollback previous configurations in IOS.

QOS- Quality of Service

You can update software on the fly with bringing down the hardware. No rebooting.

VPN client security

Layer 2 transparent firewall.

This is really interesting 3G mobile security services.

You can configure the firewall to block instant messaging, point to point networking P2P.

You have the ability to block applications trying to tunnel thru your network with encrypted traffic.

Cisco PIX provide rich statefull packet inspection PIX can protect your voice, data, and video traffic.

Version 7.0 also supports IKE or Internet Key Exchange.

Everything can be managed from Cisco Adaptive Device Manger which can be console and web based.

Benjamin Hargis CEO Phuture Networks http://www.phuturenetworks.com
http://www.computersecurityadvice.com/

You just poured hours upon hours into a lengthy research paper. All that’s left to do is print it out. And that’s the easy part, right? Sure looks easy from the user perspective, but it’s actually quite complicated. A series of critical processes kick off as soon as you kit the OK button.

The first thing that happens is your software application (MS Word, Excel, etc) sends the data you want to print to your printer driver. The printer driver is nothing more than some software that translates data into a format that your specific printer can understand. When you buy a new printer, it generally comes with a CD. On that CD is the printer driver software you need to enable your specific printer to talk to your computer.

The printer driver takes the translated data and physically sends it along to your printer. It’s able to connect to the printer via the USM connection interface. Much of the data received by the printer goes directly into the printer buffer, where it is stored. By storing the data within the printer itself you’re able to finish the print job quickly.

If you just turned your printer on for the first time in a while or if the printer has been standing idle for a while, the printer will run through a series of diagnostic tests. Some of these tests check he availability of ink, while others clean the print heads.

Once this preprinting step completes, your printer brain sends a message to the paper stepper motor telling it to engage the rollers and feed paper into the printer body. As the paper is being fed into the machine, the belt pulls the print head into “ready” position. When the paper is perfectly positioned, the print head goes to town, firing droplets of ink at the paper. With incredible speed and accuracy, the print head travels back and forth across the page spewing colors. When it reaches the end of the page, the stepper is quickly engaged, advancing the paper forward. This process continues until the print job is complete.

Bill Smith is a printer expert. Visit his website at http://www.buythebestbuy.com to learn more about printers and ink cartridges.

Get Ready, Get Set, 1-2-3…….Go! Word of Mouth Is If You’re Looking To Save Money On Your Printer Inkjet Cartridges, Then This Article Is Just As Serious As Your Printers Paper Jam!

Have you been paying way too much for your ink cartridges and can’t bare the expense?

Not anymore, from this day forward you won’t have to pay that ridiculous overcharged price.

Wouldn’t you like it if you knew about some humanly known supplier that could help you save money on your ink cartridges? Of course you would, your overhead would literally be sliced in half when it comes to cartridges.

Those of you who been through self experience, after buying just a few ink cartridges, you could have bought yourself a brand new printer. I’ve been through it, and if you read the rest of this article, you will save more than just money, future migraine headaches too.

It’s insane! Totally unrighteous!

Where’s the math in that equation?

Another words; how can you be charged so much money for something that doesn’t last as long as the dollar amount you end up spending to begin with.

Nor does the representative at the store or where you’ve bought from in the past share with you the dollar amount it will cost you just in the ink cartridge alone. You end up making this discovery months later down the road. By then you’ve exceeded the terms within the return policy.

When there’s a will, there’s a way. You’re seeking the ink spot which has been hiding from you for as long as you’ve owned your printer(s).

I can imagine end users being sick and tired of paying top dollar for your inkjets. I can advise this to you, there are reliable places to cut your costs down right to the root. You can do this without having to give up on quality.

Believe me, when you run out of ink it means another trip to the retail store and worst of all, it becomes another expense causing the pinching of a thorn in your wallet prickling its way through. Ouch!

Be certain in knowing the exact kind of ink you’re buying otherwise it can cost you and your printer. Plus, you’ll know the cartridge before placing it back into your printer.

For printer buyers, before purchasing a new printer, you must find out how much you can save on your ink cartridges before buying the actual printer. Sometimes your ink costs more than your pretty little printer.

I suggest you look into this research further. I’ve managed to put together the sand castle for you and wave you in the direction to the rabbit hole. Get ready, get set, 1-2-3…….cartridges crisper than a carrot is at hands reach.

This tunnel is your underground trench on how you can save money with your inkjet cartridges. What I’ve done is put together some more information for you to review. There’s only so much I can write within this article.

Proceed with your printer ink adventures by crawling through the tiny cartridge cracks within the Internet.

In description of, Joseph Mercado is known as The Internet Marketing Tyrant. He specializes in the consumable market involving studies on inkjet cartridges. http://www.YourHpRep.com

Wireless Networking, Part 1: Capabilities and Hardware

These days it isn’t uncommon for a home to have multiple personal computers, and as such, it just makes sense for them to be able to share files, as well as to share one Internet connection. Wired networking is an option, but it is one that may require the installation and management of a great deal of wiring in order to get even a modestly sized home set up. With wireless networking equipment becoming extremely affordable and easy to install, it may be worth considering by those looking to build a home network, as well as by those looking to expand on an existing wired network.

The first installment in this two-part series of Tech Tips will provide an introduction to the basic capabilities and hardware involved in wireless networking. Once that foundation has been established, we’ll take a look at a few setup and security related considerations that should be addressed once the physical installation is complete.

Capabilities

The basic standard that covers wireless networking is the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ (IEEE) 802.11, which is close kin to the wired Ethernet standard, 802.3. Many people will recognize 802.11 more readily when accompanied by one of three suffixes (a, b, or g), used to specify the exact protocol of wireless networking.

The 802.11a protocol first hit the scene in 2001, and despite a small surge in recent popularity, it is definitely the least common of the three at this time. The signals are transmitted on a 5 GHz radio frequency, while “b” and “g” travel on 2.4 GHz. The higher frequency means that the signal can travel less distance in free space and has a harder time penetrating walls, thus making the practical application of an 802.11a network a bit limited. The maximum transfer rate, however, is roughly 54 Mbps, so it makes up for its limited range with respectable speed.

As mentioned, 802.11b and 802.11g networks operate on a 2.4 GHz radio band, which gives a much greater range as compared to 802.11a. One downside to being on the 2.4 GHz band is that many devices share it, and interference is bound to be an issue. Cordless phones and Bluetooth devices are two of many items that operate at this frequency. The range of these two protocols is about 300 feet in free air, and the difference between the two comes down to speed. 802.11b came first, released back in 1999, and offers speeds up to 11 Mbps. 802.11g first appeared in 2002 and it is a backwards compatible improvement over 802.11b and offers speeds up to 54 Mbps.

On top of these protocols, some manufacturers have improved upon the 802.11g standard and can provide speeds of up to 108 Mbps. This doesn’t involve a separate protocol, but just a bit of tweaking in areas like better data compression, more efficient data packet bursting, and by using two radio channels simultaneously. Typically, stock 802.11g equipment is not capable of these speeds, and those interested need to shop for matched components that specify 108 Mbps support. I say “matched components” as this is not a standard protocol and the various manufacturers may take different approaches to achieving these speeds. In order to ensure the best results when trying to achieve these elevated speeds, components from the same manufacturer should be used together. For instance, only Netgear brand network adaptors rated for 108 Mbps data transfer should be used with something like the Netgear WG624 wireless router (http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=WGT624NAR).

Considering your typical broadband Internet connection is going to offer data transfer rates of 10 Mbps or less, it can be seen that even 802.11b would be more than adequate if you just want to surf the web. Sharing files on your LAN (Local Area Network) is where the faster protocols will really make a difference, and comparing the prices of 802.11b and 802.11g components may show that there is little to no difference in selecting a “g” capable device over a comparable “b” capable device.

Hardware

Access Point – Wireless Access Point (WAP) is the central device that manages the transmission of wireless signals on a network. A base access point may be capable of handling up to 10 connections, and more robust APs may be able to manage up to 255 connections simultaneously. The D-Link DWL-1000AP+ (http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=37) is an example of a wireless access point capable of 802.11b transmissions.

Router – In somewhat technical terms, a router is a network device that forwards data packets. It is generally the connection between at least two networks, such as two LANs, or a LAN and ISP’s (Internet Service Provider’s) network. For our purposes, and for the sake of simplicity, a wireless router is basically an access point with the added feature of having a port for sharing a broadband Internet connection. The D-Link AirPlus G (http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=DI524-R&cat=NET) is an 802.11g capable router that provides access for numerous wireless connections and four hard-wired connections to one WAN (Wide Area Network Internet) connection. A typical router for home use will generally cost less than an access point, and via settings within the firmware, can be used as just an access point anyway. Wired or wireless, all the computers using the router can share files over the network, as well as sharing a broadband internet connection. Communication between wireless computers (or a wireless computer and a wired computer) will max out at 54 Mbps, while communication between wired computers will take full advantage of the 100 Mbps provided via the 802.3 protocol.

Network Adaptor – A network adaptor is required for every computer that you would like to be connected to the wireless network. Many laptops, such as this Sony Centrino 1.5 GHz (http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=PCGZ1RA-R&cat=NBB) now include a wireless adaptor built in, so no extra hardware is needed. For those with systems that don’t have wireless capabilities built in, adding them is fairly simple, and can be done using a variety of connections. Desktop computers can go wireless by adding a PCI slot network adaptor such as the 802.11g capable D-Link DWL-G510 (http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=308). Notebook users can easily add wireless connectivity by using a PCMCIA adaptor, such as this 802.11g capable device (http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=PBW006-N&cat=NET). And for truly convenient plug-n-play connectivity to wireless networks, USB adaptors such as this 802.11g capable dongle (http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=80211GWUD&cat=NET) are available.

Antenna/Extender – These items are not essential, but given the specifics of a wireless environment, they may be helpful. Devices such as the Hawking Hi-Gain Antenna (http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=HAI6SIP-N&cat=NET) or the Super Cantenna (http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=SCB10&cat=NET) serve the purpose of increasing the wireless signal strength, and therefore extend the range of a given wireless network. Not only can a large area of open space be covered, but the signal quality may be improved in structures with walls and floors that obstruct the signal transmission.

Final Words

In this Tech Tip, we took a look at the basics of wireless networking as it relates to capabilities and hardware. In the second part of this two-part series, we will look at some of the basic setup and security considerations that should be addressed. The physical installation of a wireless network may be exponentially easier than a wired network, but the more difficult part is setting up the software and security to make sure everything stays up and running without incident.

Jason Kohrs
Computer Geeks tech tips and computer help