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November, 2001 Diablo Blue Page 3 |
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Even though Winproxy does provide a firewall and antivirus software built into the software (for an extra subscription cost) I was concerned about security. Additionally, the machine acting as a server (the one with two NICs) has to be on for anyone else to have access to the net. There is a little drag on that system as a result. Winproxy comes in different flavors depending on the number of machines you want to have simultaneous connections to the net. Lastly, my wireless connection was not as fast and the range not as large as I would like. Plus, it’s fun to get new toys. I bought a Linksys ( www.linksys.com) EtherFast cable/DSL wireless router. Setup was very simple and straightforward. Hookup the router to your computer, type in the router’s IP address and walk through the installation. It took less than 10 minutes. The built-in NAT technology acts as a firewall, protecting you from hackers. Configurable as a DHCP server, the EtherFast Cable/DSL Router acts as the only externally recognized Internet device on your local area network (LAN). Since the unit also has the wireless transmitter/receiver in addition to its four ports, it works with any Wi-Fi compliant wireless card. Unfortunately, my old Symphony card was too old to work with it. I therefore had to buy a new pc card for my laptop (I bought the Linksys card to insure compatibility). Once again, setup was very simple with the included driver disk. The benefit is better range with its diversity antenna and definitely better speed (up to 11 mbps). I do miss the Symphony software which let me toggle between the wireless settings and the laptop’s NIC settings for going from wired to wireless. I solve this problem in one of two ways — either remove the card or disable the card in the control panel. Of course, there is available shareware which allows you to toggle between different NIC settings which I will explore. I ran Steve Gibson’s Shields Up ( www.grc.com) to test my security, and the new router makes my network invisible to the outside. Be sure to change the built in router password and consider a firewall on each machine anyway; I have heard of hacking of Linksys routers. (I am not sure I would be a target but...) My upgrade seems worth the trouble. In addition to some longer range and speed on the wireless portion, I don’t have to go downstairs to turn on the “server” if I decide to go out on the net from an upstairs machine. I also found that several pieces of software that hiccupped through the proxy server are now working. The cost of the router with wireless and 4 port switch was $179, and $99 for the PC Card adapter. This compares very favorably with just buying a switch and then a separate wireless setup. All in all, a good upgrade! |
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There's no wrong way to do something right. Kevin Schumacher proves it with another way to get around those "no right click" Web pages. "I was recently re-reading back issues and noticed a GnomeTIP on ways to get around scripts (at the time, the suggestion was to hit CTRL+N to open a new window, or to use File/Properties). Well, as I recently discovered, there is an even easier way. This was only tested in Internet Explorer; it should work on any Web page. First, left-click and hold. While doing so, right-click. This seems to confuse the browser; yet, up pops your default context menu! You can do anything you normally do - including view the page's source or save an image." Well, you could do that anyway, just not as quickly or easily. To circumvent most of those dialogs, all you have to do is click File/Save As/Web Page, complete. Hey, have you ever used the other Save As option? The one where you could save it as a Web Archive, single file? Perfect for when you want to send a complex HTML document via e-mail without having to worry about attaching more than one self- contained file. And yes, you can open it up in Notepad since it's just a text file with MIME encoded components with originating URLs. Nifty! See the Daily Lockergnome Tip on the DVPC Web site at www.dvpc.org/swsupport.html. |