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BT Broadband
Approximately 4 million people in the UK use ADSL with an extra 2 million using a cable connection, meaning 6 million people in the UK have an always-on internet connection. Of these over 1.7 million are subscribed to BT’s broadband package, making...
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Free, Legal Music Online
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Google Catalogs - Old fashioned mail order meets high tech search
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How Using A VoIP Phone Service Can Cost You Your Life
VoIP Phones are all the rage. These Internet phones are becoming increasingly popular with the general public as well as among the technologically gifted avant-garde i.e. geeksRus. Chances are high you know someone who uses one or you may even use...
Searching for the right ISP?
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STREAMING MEDIA - Leveling the Playing Field for Small Business -
Statistics tell us that there are 5,000 new websites coming on-line everyday! And, sadly, they all have one thing in common...they are all starting to look the same. Our company, pursuing its own marketing efforts, has the need to look at...
Understanding The Broadband Service In The 21st Century
If you are contemplating broadband service for your Internet
connection, you may have a general idea as to what is involved
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VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) - An Overview
You've probably at least heard of the word "VoIP", even if you
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VPN - Overview Of Virual Private Networks
Virtual Private Network is a network within a network. This is very popular with businesses that have people working remotely. Basically what we have here is a utilization of the network already provided by the internet. The internet infrastructure...
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Always-On Networks Created with a Wireless Router
If you're using a wireless network with Windows' built-in
Internet Connection Sharing, you're probably quite happy with it
-- but there's a problem. The problem is this: the computer the
modem is connected to needs to be turned on before any of the
other computers can get Internet access! It's alright for a
while, but it gets annoying really fast. I had one of these
annoying setups at home for years and the moment I upgraded to
using a router was like a breath of fresh air. Now my son does
not complain every time I need to reboot or do extensive
maintenance periods. His machine could not care less weather my
machine is active or not.
So what should you do about it? Well, a wireless router is the
answer to your problem.
What is a Wireless Router?
A wireless router is basically a small, low-powered computer
dedicated to nothing but providing Internet access to your
wireless network. Once you've got a wireless router, you can
connect any of the computers on your network to the Internet
anytime, regardless of which other computers are switched on!
Because this is the only thing the wireless routers do, they
don't usually need any configuration to get started.
Choosing a Wireless Router
When you're choosing a wireless router, you should consider the
same things as you would with any other wireless equipment:
range, speed and standards. Remember, though, that speed is far
more important with a router than it is with other equipment --
the router might be providing Internet access to more than one
computer at once, meaning that it needs to have enough speed to
share between them. When it comes to standards and range, on the
other hand, it is pointless to get anything better than your
current wireless equipment has -- you won't see any improvement.
It's probably worth noting here that the Linksys WRT54G router
is fast becoming a standard. It's the most popular router out
there, and it's the easiest to use out of the lot. It's not as
cheap as some of the others, though, so it's still worth
shopping around. As ever, the most important thing is to read as
many reviews of what you're buying as you can.
Installing a Wireless Router
Wireless routers are designed to work easily out of the
box: in
most cases, it should be a matter of plugging the router into
the power supply and then connecting it to your cable, DSL or
other modem. That's it -- in 99% of cases, you're ready to start
using your wireless Internet.
Sometimes, though, there might be more things you need to do.
The most common problem is that your ISP uses special software
to confirm who you are before giving you access to the Internet.
This is called PPPoE, which stands for Point-to-Point Protocol
over Ethernet. It's basically a way giving you broadband access
while still requiring you to enter a username and password
first, and you need to go through a short process to use a PPPoE
connection with a wireless router.
Most routers support PPPoE, but you'll have to read the manual
and do some fiddling. You may also have to download an update
for your router's firmware (on-board software) from its
manufacturer's website.
Problems with Wireless Routers
Wireless routers generally solve more problems than they cause
-- but there are still some problems that you may need to work
around.
One that a lot of people run into sooner or later is that there
are some programs that require a direct Internet connection for
some functions. Using a wireless router instead of Internet
Connecting Sharing at least lets you use these functions if you
configure it, but it can be a pain. Wireless routers have
built-in firewalls that only allow data through on certain ports
(for example the web port, 80, and the email port, 110), while
keeping all the others closed.
Although programs that require you to open ports become rarer
every day, you might need to do it at some point. Your router's
manual will tell you how to do this if it comes up.
I hope you enjoy your new wireless router -- I know I enjoy
mine!
About the author:
Original Source: Articles-Galore.com
Information supplied and written by Lee Asher of CyberTech SoftShop
Suppliers of
SuperLinker - Hyperlinking Technology for the 21st
Century.
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