I answered a question recently from someone who was using WEP (the so-called “Wired Equivalent Privacy”) encryption on their wireless network. They were considering changing to WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access). The real answer is that they need to change to the second generation of WPA — WPA2. The biggest question in their mind was whether [...]

In IP Addresses and Security, I wrote about how the Internet works — your computer has an IP address, your intended destination has an IP address, and both have to know and use the IP address of the other in order for communication to occur between them. The article was in response to a reader [...]

Why have a Wireless Network? By using a wireless network, you can share your Internet connection between computers that are not in the same room, without running wires from one room to another or from one end of the house to another. Wireless Networking Flavors * 802.11b – 11 Mbit/second, the original “consumer” wireless. This [...]

Are you safe when you use the wireless network at your local coffee shop or airport? Maybe. Maybe not. Are you accidentally sharing your files on your computer? Is your computer “trusting” connection attempts from the other computers at the hostspot? A reader asked me To improve security when using Wi-Fi at a coffee shop [...]

Why should I network the computers in my home? * Convenience, so you can share files and/or printers and/or the Internet connection * Backup, so you can copy critical data files (e.g., your Quicken data) to the other machine for backup * Computer access, so you can surf the Web while your spouse or kids [...]

First, be sure to connect to the router using an Ethernet cable for your configuration work – otherwise, with the first change, you’ll get locked out. If you are using wireless to login to the router, if you get locked out, you’ll have to wait for the router to time out and close that login. [...]