As a frequent traveler, I use public WiFi networks at places like Starbucks on a regular basis. Public WiFi security is a major concern, because most places run their free public WiFi in a wide open state. This means that when you sign on to most services in your local coffee shop, you're allowing anyone else on the network to potentially gain access to your email, your bank account, your Facebook profile, or anywhere else you go online. Some of the risks are potentially mitigated by using a secure HTTPS connection whenever possible, but on an open WiFi network you still need to take additional security precautions. Ideally you should create your own private network that runs securely on top of the WiFi network. It's easier than you think and requires a quick and easy free software install available to anyone with Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux.
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"When I'm trying to use my wireless network from either my kitchen or bedroom, the signal seems to be much weaker than in other parts of the house. What can I do to make my wireless Internet signal stronger in those parts of the house?"
Wireless networks are like most other radio waves in that things can cause interference and make the signal weaker in an uneven fashion. For instance, in your kitchen, it could be that the direct path for the wireless signal attempts to go directly through your heavily insulated refrigerator, which translates to massive signal dropout. Wires in the walls and the walls themselves all add to a dampening of the signal. There are a couple things you can do to make your wireless Internet signal stronger.
"I want to print to a printer in another room from my MacBook. Is there any way I can print wireless from my MacBook or do I need to get a long cable?"
There are a number of factors that will determine the best way for you to print wirelessly from your MacBook, but none of them should result in you needing a long cable. A printer connected to anther computer can typically be connected to using network printing. If the printer is standalone and connected to your network, you should be able to locate it on the network. Or if neither of those options is available, you can setup the printer for wireless printing using a wireless network adapter.
Michelle writes, "My aunt wants the Internet however she doesn't want a phone line and she doesn't want cable. Do you know of any internet installation with this kind of setup?"
Piggybacking Internet service as DSL over a phone line or high speed cable service are the two easiest ways to have Internet access, although they aren't the only solutions. Depending on where your aunt lives, there may be several ways for her to access the Internet without either of these more traditional Internet access solutions.
If your aunt has a cell phone, one option would be for her to add a data service plan to her existing cell phone plan. You'd need to do some research to make sure the phone she has will work for this, but essentially, in this scenario you simply connect the cell phone to the computer via either USB or Bluetooth and the computer uses the cell phone as a modem to connect to the Internet. For some phone plans, this can be a reasonable way to connect. In other cases, particularly in rural areas, this is a painfully slow way to get Internet access.
A second common option for connecting to the Internet, typically available in major metropolitan areas only, is wireless Internet service. You need a wireless card in your computer for this to work and then you have access wherever you are in the wireless Internet provider's coverage area throughout your city.
Another option would be to get Internet via satellite service. Most of the major satellite providers offer some kind of Internet service. This is likely the most expensive of these options and may not seem attractive if you are avoiding other services like DSL and cable.
"I've been a PC user for years and recently got a new Mac. I know I can map a network drive between two Windows computers, but how do I share files with my Mac?"
Mapping a network drive is frustrating even between two PCs. The drive map occasionally gets disconnected and you can't always get the stuff you need do to permissions issues. I prefer to use a secure sharing method Brandon recommended called FolderShare. It's currently the easiest way I've found to consistently share files between my Mac and Windows machines at home (or from anywhere). Microsoft is the creator of FolderShare, which means it's not likely to go out of business anytime soon. It's also free, making it a highly cost effective way to share files. Here's how to set up FolderShare.
Installing FolderShare Support
Before you can share files with FolderShare, you need to install a small utility on each computer you want to access, which you download from FolderShare. After installing the utility, it will prompt you to setup an account. Repeat this step on both the Mac and PC you want to access files from.
You define which computers get access to FolderShare and which files are shared in your trusted network, meaning that any files you share will be accessible only from your login credentials. After installing the utility on each computer, you can define resources on each computer that stay in sync with each other.
All the connections to FolderShare are encrypted, so there's no risk of anyone else access your data (unless you're stupid and choose an easy password). This increases security if you're connecting over a wireless network, because the encrypted data will not be sniffed the way it could be if you were merely mapping a drive. And the reliability of the sharing is far greater than what you get with mapping a network drive.
Another useful feature is the ability to share files securely with friends. In addition to sharing files with your own computers, you can choose to share specific files with friends, who then get the same encrypted access to the files you specify. This comes in handy if you collaborate with people in other cities, or if you simply want to share files easily with someone else. Four permission levels make sure you only allow the access you want to files, Reading, Adding new Files, Changing and Deleting Files, and Changing Permissions on Files.
"My Xbox 360 is on the 1st floor and my router is upstairs on the 2nd floor of my house. What are my options for connecting my Xbox 360 to my network?"
If your router is wireless, you could simply get the Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter and connect (assuming you have a decent wireless network signal between floors). I'm in a similar situation. My Xbox 360 is upstairs and my router is downstairs. For a long time, I've used the Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter to play games and stream video to my Xbox. Sometime recently (possibly after my wife got her iPhone), the wireless network seemed to hit a point where too much traffic was causing hiccups in streaming video. I recently switched to using an Ethernet over Powerline solution, which has solved all the problems with my video streaming. Here's a video showing how Ethernet over Powerline works:
I'm currently getting enough interference on the wireless connection in my house that I wanted a better solution for connecting my Xbox 360 to my network. Corinex sent me one of their GameNet units to review and so far I'm reasonably impressed. You basically connect one of them to a wall outlet near your game console, with the other connected to a power outlet near your router. Ethernet cable connects the hardware to your network and you're in business routing network traffic over the power lines in your house. Since connecting the GameNet hardware, video clips that used to occasionally buffer over wireless now consistently play smoothly, even when streaming them from a wirelessly connected computer. If your broadband modem and any of the computers or game consoles you want to network are on separate floors of the house, this is a highly effective way to get your network connection to the places you need it most without any rewiring or fighting wireless signal drop out. At $169.99 for the 2-outlet, 2-cable package, I think you might have better luck buying a competing Ethernet over Powerline solution from ebay. That said, I'm giving a strong recommend to this type of solution for anyone who has several PCs or game consoles spread out throughout their house. Watch the video below to see how it all works:
"Can a generic USB network adapter be used, or is the Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter required to connect the Xbox 360 to a wireless network?"
The short answer is you need the Xbox 360 Wireless Network Adapter to connect your Xbox 360 to your wireless network. None of the generic USB network adapters work with the Xbox 360. There are a couple of other options for getting connected without re-wiring your house or buying the official Xbox 360 wireless adapter by using some alternative hardware.
"I'm trying to find out what the IP address my ISP gives me is? I have Comcast but I can't seem to find my IP address? Where do I find my IP address from Comcast?"
There are several ways to find out what your IP address is no matter who your ISP happens to be. If you have a router connected to your Cable or DSL modem (which you should for all kinds of security reasons), you can generally look at an information page in the router's web interface to find out the IP address provided by your ISP. This requires logging into your router from a browser. A faster way to access your local IP address is to pull up one of the many sites that display it for you. There are hundreds of these sites out there. I set one up because I check my home IP address before I travel so that I can access my home computer using Remote Desktop. If you type ipdevilgirl.com (yes, it's a silly name) into your browser, you can very easily answer the question What is my IP address? with the answer displayed at the top of the page.
I'm changing locations often enough I finally decided it was easier to get a BroadbandConnect card than deal with the hassles of various networks failing in the middle of something important. If a dedicated fast connection isn't in your budget, but you still want the convenience of quick configuration, NetSetMan may be the tool you were looking for. Instead of editing network settings at home, at work, and elsewhere, NetSetMan helps you perform on the fly network configuration, saving time in setting up your network connection as you move from place to place. Two awesome features are storage of settings for default printer and configuration of network drives, so you never end up printing to nowhere or slowing down your Windows Explorer as you wait for non-existent resources to timeout. Store up to 6 different locations, including IP address, DNS, subnet mask and default gateway. If you need a corporate solution or more than 6 location settings, there's also a pro version of NetSetMan with additional volume licensing options. [Windows 2k/XP/Vista $0.00]
