PCTips Box

Why upgrade? Chances are you have bought something online with a credit card, used internet banking, or dealt with confidential information on your computer. If you use a wireless router with anything less than WPA2 encryption, your information may not be as secure as you think.

“WPA2 security is definitely worth the modest amount of effort required to set it up. The original WPA security standard can be cracked with relative ease unless you use a passphrase that is longer than 20 characters and is not merely composed of words that can be found in a dictionary.” [Quote from the PC World article: Wireless Tips: Your Wireless Network Needs a Security Update]

1. Check current devices for compatibility. Your router and wireless network card may already support WPA2; Google your devices and find out. If they do, download the latest drivers for your wireless network card and update the firmware on your wireless router (very easy to do, but follow the manufacturer’s instructions carefully). (more…)

The first thing that you will have to make a decision on while planning out your home network is will your network will be wired or wireless. The notion in each case will stay put the same where in all your computers will join up to a central router, which will talk the connections to your ISP from side to side a cable or a DSL modem.

It is a frequent fact the wireless home network provides much more expediency than wired networks. They do not necessitate cabling and permit users to move from one room to another with freedom. But wired networks are more secure and dependable and if you can use again the existing phone lines or the electrical wiring, then the cost of installing new cables are reduced radically. (more…)

Microsoft Windows XP was designed to make it easy to connect computers together and to give you access to everything the Internet has to offer, while still keeping your computer as safe as possible from potential threats.

After you add your computer to your home network, you’ll be able to print to a printer on your home network (the printer will no longer need to be attached directly to your computer) and access the other computers and devices connected to your home network. You’ll be able to share files, which means you can get data from any computer you connect to the network. You can even share one Internet connection among all your computers. (more…)

Let’s say you have a computer that’s connected to the internet via a broadband modem. This guide shows you how to share that computer’s internet connection (turning it into a router) with other computer(s) in your house without using a router or even a network switch in some cases.

Two Computers
If you want to share an internet connection with one additional computer on your network you’ll need an addition network (LAN) card installed on your computer if your broadband modem connects to your computer via a network (LAN) card.

If your broadband modem connects to your computer via a USB cable you probably won’t have to purchase an additional network card because one will be available. (more…)

The following guide allows you to wirelessly sync an iPhone with Amarok in Ubuntu 7.10, including adding, editing and playing songs and playlists.

Note :- it requires a jailbroken iPhone.

Step1 :- Set up the iPhone

On your iPhone:

Click Settings → General and set Auto-lock to Never. This will ensure the iPhone keeps the WiFi connection open.

Click Settings → WiFi and select your WiFi network. Click the Static button and change the IP Address to something outside the dynamically assigned range of your network. For example, if your wireless router normally assigns 192.168.1.1 - 192.168.1.5, try 192.168.1.10. This will ensure your iPhone is always contactable at the same address for syncing. (more…)

We have been receiving mails from several readers that they are not able to login to Windows. As soon as they login, the windows show applying your settings, saving your settings and logs off automatically without logging in. This situation is really very troublesome and gets onto the nerves of a person who needs his computer badly for some important work.

The main reasons behind this problem is a corruption in the registry key which holds the value of the files which are executed while login to windows. This registry key can get either replaced with some incorrect value or it might get corrupt due to some virus / trojan activity. Lets see how to fix this issue.

We need to remotely access the infected computer from another computer on same network. Then we need to correct the registry key for userinit under winlogon. (more…)

Windows Easy Transfer Companion enables you to automatically transfer your most important programs from your Windows XP-based PC to your new Windows Vista-based PC. The software will move more than 100 of the most popular programs, as well as many others that you may have installed. You have complete control over selecting which programs to transfer, so only the programs you care about will move. The software will alert you if some programs may not be able to transfer, or may not transfer with high confidence. Most security software is not able to transfer due to technical reasons.

Easy Transfer Companion is designed to be used in addition to Windows Easy Transfer which is part of Windows Vista and automatically transfers your data and settings. (more…)

How safe is your wireless network? If the answer is you don’t know, then you really should head over to the Pure Networks website and carry out their free Network Security Scan. Of course it’s a prelude to selling your something, in this case an application called Network Magic, and there’s a link to a free trial, but there’s no obligation and it really is worth the visit for the free security scan, which raised a couple of issues on my system, which I thought was pretty tight.

Network Magic provides easy-to-use wireless network security. No messing with confusing router administrative screens  just a few clicks and your wireless Internet is locked down.

PLUS - With the award-winning Network Magic software you can: (more…)

I have already published one post on How to fix slow opening of my computer and delayed contents display here.

There are still some issues like connected network drives when you use office at your work place.

Like in my office when I login at my system at my work place, according to the user policy every user is connected to the network drives at the server location.

These connection to the network drives make my computer more slow at the time of opening.

Let see how can you disconnect network drives. (more…)

How much do you know about your PC? Yes, I know Windows tells you about the hardware and you can see what programs you have on the All Programs list, but that’s just scratching the surface. What, for instance, is the make and version of your PC’s BIOS, what peripherals are attached, how much of your memory is in use, when was your PC first switched on and how many times have you booted it up, what is the make, model number and size of your hard drive, and just how many programs are still on your PC that you’ve forgotten about? (more…)