If we look at the router, it is really an amazing machine that is capable of fascinating feats for which we should be grateful for, I mean this little network tool makes our lives SO much easier. If we did not have the router, where would we be? Think about it, while you walk across the office to deliver something that could have been handled on a wireless network.

It all started back in Stanford with Bill Yeager who created the first router, which allowed for the wireless internet to blossom, as well as open many doors for the future. Yeager was asked originally to connect various departments at the school, he did much more than that. Back then they were only running on 56kb of memory, look how far it has have come!

Now that you know a little bit more about where router’s come from, let’s talk on improving that sometimes weak signal which is everyone’s enemy if you use wireless.

1. Place the router away from the wall. The signal that is being given off the router is too high to go through walls very good, and until we start using the television white space which is a much lower signal but can travel through walls, it is best that you position your device to a more accessible spot. Try placing the router in the middle of the room, house or office. It will be able to reach all the computers trying to access it better.
2. Keep it off the floor. If you put the router on the floor, the signal being sent to other networks will surely be slow because it is not able to receive the data packets being sent back to the router from your computer.
3. Do not put the router near metal objects. This is self-explanatory, metal objects can deflect signals and interrupt them, causing that annoying warning sign to piss you off.
4. Use a hi-gain antenna. The router comes with a regular antenna that sends a signal in all directions, if it is placed in your office then half of the signal is going out the window! A hi-gain antenna focuses on a certain direction, a better choice if you have a desktop computer.
5. Still weak? Try another type of router. This is called a wireless repeater, you still need your router, but the repeater will take the strong signal it gets in the office, and transmits it to the living room to supply the same strong signal to your laptop while enjoying the news.

If all else fails, just turn the router on and then wait for a couple minutes, then turn it on again. Resetting the router will boot it up again, it usually works to get a good signal after reset.

I don’t know about you, but I am sick of that stupid yellow sign that blocks my internet and keeps me from accessing work, finishing emails, and all the basic tasks the internet allows me to do with ease. Thanks to these tips though, I will never have that problem again. After all, ignorance is the only real problem, everything else is just details.

Email has been the first choice for communication, mainly in business, replacing the telephone. This AirTrans commercial is a funny one explaining this trend.

But there is a figure on the horizon, and it is in the shape of an ‘F’: yes, Facebook is coming out with another idea to make messaging better. Not that it isn’t better already, I mean we have come along way from lighting signal fires and dialing a rotary phone, but how much more can we communicate better, faster, easier?

Well, let’s email Facebook and see what they have to say.

I haven’t heard back from them, but I got an instant response on Facebook, and this reveals the appeal for Facebook to combine email with instant messaging: contact. Everywhere you go online or anywhere that is related to sharing business, videos, music, ideas, advertising, you see a link to put it on Facebook. It is a connection that goes where email cannot go.

So when CEO Mark Zuckerburg remarked about comments concerning the revamp of the social messaging system Facebook and how it will be the ‘Gmail killer’, he said “It’s not email.”

What is it? The new Facebook will allow you to get email on Facebook. Wow, after all the virus and hack breakdowns that Facebook has had, I am surprised they are tempting such a thing. We will probably be hearing about people being hacked and having to call Geek Choice to clean up all the viruses on your computer, but until then if you live life on Facebook then this new edition will fit the bill perfect.

Email and instant messaging are becoming the normal ways to communicate, talking is awkward, email is less personal and you can put your thoughts down easier to communicate better.

By combining the two, the new Facebook will grab multiple types of communication such as email and turn it into a more real-time messaging service. Say you use Gmail to get messages from clients and since you run your business on getting updates from customers instantly online; receiving fast updates beats out regular email since you will get all you need on Facebook.

To wrap this up, Facebook is just looking to pioneer out from the boundaries of their target market, almost like Google has been doing for the past couple years. They are looking at voice-chat and new ways to communicate.

Talking face-to-face is just boring, it is so much more fun writing it down and adding a smiley face!

Say someone wants to know what you are up to. By tracking the electronic foot prints left behind by email, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, or even just account activity, they can learn a lot about you in a short amount of time, about the time it takes to load a page. The world of today where there are no walls and information is out there flying around can be a dangerous one, if you are not careful.

The information that is out there can be grabbed by people search engines like Pipl, Spokeo, and CVGadget. It is not illegal, they are doing nothing wrong in the eyes of the internet police, but it does invade our privacy even if the information is out for people to see. It is like putting your dirty laundry out in front of the house, even clothes with small stains, the fact remains that our personal stuff can be easily accessed by anyone. Creepy.

So what can you do about it?

Put a stop to the mountain of information on you that is being collected by these search engines as you read this. First check out for yourself how much is out there by searching your name. Rapleaf is a provider with an open tool to let you see everything, while the other search engines only let you see bits and pieces. By going to that site you can actually manage what people see about you. No more spying from your ex-girlfriend or boyfriend, no more parental espionage, no more privacy pillaging! By ‘Opting-out’ on Rapleaf’s website, you can permanently delete all that saved information that Rapleaf has on you.

Another way to stop prying eyes is to adjust the privacy settings. This means going to all the sites connected to your email address and changing them individually

• Amazon: Wish Lists are made public by default. To change that setting, go to this page and select the option to sign in. You can then view any Wish Lists associated with your account and designate them as private.
• Facebook: Once signed in, look under the ‘Settings’ tab at the top of the page to find the privacy control panel. Click the Profile option to set parameters regarding who can view your content.
• MySpace: Click the My Account button at the top of the page after logging in, then click Privacy to adjust your settings. Bear in mind that your age and location are typically displayed publicly even if your profile is set as private, as was the case in one of the examples cited in “They Know Your Dark Secrets…And Tell Anyone.”
• Pandora: Your playlists are public unless you specify otherwise. Once logged in, click Account at the top of the page, and then follow the option to edit your profile info. From there, you’ll see a checkbox that you can select to make your profile (and thus your playlists) private.

By doing this, you prevent search from sites like Pipl and Spokeo from getting into your private information like what music you like, who your girl or boyfriend is, where you live, the list goes on and on. Take back control of your privacy. Don’t let weirdo’s or people who do not need to see your personal life get the best of you. Who knows what people will do with information like that. You can protect your privacy even when you are on the web, these are ways to catch those spiders crawling around looking for trouble.

The future is here. Rockmelt is here to reinvent the web. The primary purpose of Rockmelt is making the browser able to keep up with your friends, consume information, and search faster. It works on Windows and Mac’s right now for desktops and laptops. A Beta version is being released today, you can download it at rockmelt.com. If you go to the site, you will see an icon asking if you would like to be ‘Invited’ to use Rockmelt. Wow, it looks like this new browser is V.I.P. status, and you get on the list until they are  ready to let you in.

What is cool is that the CEO of Netscape, Marc Andreeson who helped start the Netscape Communications Corp., is fighting back against the same web browsers that put him out of business. He is doing that by funding these two men who founded Rockmelt, Eric Vishria and Tim Howes, and they are looking to change the way we use the internet.

In an interview with them on YouTube, they gave a sneak peak at the features of Rockmelt and what the catalyst is for the change. Instead of just an ordinary web browser like Chrome or Firefox where you click on a search link, wait for it to load, and then go back to the search page, Rockmelt turns the internet into a magazine enabling you to ‘turn the page’ so to speak. This sounds like a new era in the Internet age. Everything is on the internet, and it seems like everyone is on Facebook, so by integrating these two into one browser, Rockmelt can open the door to new ways to game, commerce, or just socialize.

The test of the browser was actually performed through Google’s web browser Chromium, but it can be used through Firefox or Internet Explorer. One requirement to be able to use the features of Rockmelt is having a Facebook account. If you have an account, and you get invited, then you are able to look at your friends to see who is doing what on a side-panel. On the other side-panel to the right is your favorite sites that you visit the most, and in between is the ‘magazine’ style search engine and a faster way to surf.

Netscape is back in action by sneaking in the back door with a whole new way to browse the web. Do not be surprised to see this type of browser become the main stream of using the internet.  Be sure to check out YouTube’s video of Rockmelt, as well as sign up to get into this new and exciting way to use the internet.

The world of Wi-Fi has come a long way since its inception 11 years ago. Today there are over 700 million users with 1 billion devices hooked up to it increasing at a rate of 8 million new devices a year. Stores everywhere offer the easy use of Wi-Fi with 750,00o hot spots around the globe; getting plugged in and surfing the net on your phone, laptop, iPod, and iPad makes business, communication, and life better.

Life keeps on getting better with the new concrete technology of Wi-Fi Direct.

Wi-Fi Direct offers peer-to-peer(P2P) connections between your devices without a traditional Wi-Fi access point or network. In other words, you can connect right to a friends portable game system like PSP and play a game real-time as long as you are within 200 yards of each other. Or you can send a picture from your camera that has Wi-Fi Direct to a digital picture frame or printer, instantaneously.

This is perfect for a businessman or a salesman who has a laptop or smartphone with Wi-Fi Direct enabled to publish a presentation right to the customer’s office without any wires or physical connections. How easy is that!

A little history of Wi-Fi:

The first ever wireless Internet network showed up at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh six years before it spread all over the world in 1999. Most colleges now how access to wireless networks.

The name Wi-Fi stands for Wireless Fidelity, like Hi-Fi or High Fidelity audio equipment, and does not mean anything at all. It is just a little catchier than the actual name: “IEEE 802.11b Direct Sequence”. It was coined by a company who worked for the W-Fi Alliance. People see the name Wi-Fi everywhere and it has become the standard for internet connectivity because of its interoperability. That means that two or more systems can exchange information, and with the use of Wi-Fi it is done simply over wireless networks.

What about security?

Wi-Fi Direct is so new that the drawbacks and glitches are yet to be discovered, a trial and error technology, but the advantages are vast. The makers behind the new technology say that Direct is saturated in security protocol and is protected enough to stop attacks. Others disagree, because any device can become and access point. You will just have to have faith since it is so new and coming out into the world. We shall see what happens in the future with this technology.

This is a technology that has unlimited possibilities for business, pleasure, and everything in between when it comes to access and communication. Imagine, no more will you have to suffer the music of Starbucks just to get to your email, or put up with limited access because of a weak connection.

Chris Capossela , who is the Senior Vice President of the Microsoft Office Division, has this to say on a new product that might interest users of Microsoft Office, and businessman who either own a small business or work in one.

“This is just the beginning; Office 365 allows us to take the Office suite and all the servers that go along with it, and move those to the Cloud with a world class productivity service. That really will define the next generation of productivity,” said  Capossela.

It looks like the world of computers and internet is improving for the better. Major factors involved include ease of use, how fast it is, and results. Microsoft Office 365 delivers every day of the year, hence the name.

“No other online service can provide the rich productivity capabilities of Office 365, the ease of use and depth of services, combined with the communication and collaboration of Exchange Online, SharePoint online, and Lync Online, deliver incredible benefits for organizations of all sizes,” said Betsy Webb, who is the General Manager for the Microsoft Office Division.

Small businesses that do not have formal IT staff but have big business needs for communication and collaboration will find a home here. Office 365 provides services for small businesses who want to get up and running in minutes.

You can share your work right with others with the broadcast capabilities of Powerpoint. Make a presentation on your laptop at the office and have that sent to the people who cannot make the meeting.

Sharepoint Online  allows every employee of your company to have their own website, a sort of Facebook that allows each employee and employer to find each other and connect in ways they could not before.

Certain abilities like PC to PC communication are great for small businesses. Employees are able to work across distances with audio and video conversations, Microsoft Office 365 creates an easy living world in your business.

Here is a look at the specifics.

Microsoft Exchange Online is designed for organizations who want to get the benefits of cloud-based email without sacrificing the business-class capabilities that Exchange Server has been providing for decades. Built on the same technology as Exchange Server 2010, Exchange Online provides organizations with the latest capabilities including built-in archiving, optional Conversation View, and MailTips, along with powerful web-based tools for managing online deployments.  With Exchange Online, Microsoft handles the ongoing maintenance, patches, and upgrades of the Exchange infrastructure while providing IT administrators the control and flexibility they require.

With SharePoint Online the services are there for you to make life easier. Manage and share personal documents and insights with colleagues using ‘MySites’, a great feature like Facebook. Keep teams in sync with shared document libraries, task lists and calendars with Team Sites. SharePoint allows you to stay up to date on company news, events and business updates with Intranet Sites. Another good feature is the ability share documents and insights securely with partners and customers using Extranet Sites.

The last feature is called Lync Online. It is a next-generation cloud communications service that connects people in new ways, anytime, from anywhere. Lync Online provides intuitive communications capabilities across presence, instant messaging, audio/video calling and a rich online meeting experience including PC-audio, video and web conferencing. Transform your interactions with colleagues, customers and partners from today’s hit-and-miss communication to a more collaborative, engaging, and effective experience.

All in all, if you have a small business and already use Office 2007, the upgrade to Cloud could mean increases in productivity and results. Personally I have not checked out this Cloud business, as it is only in Beta form right now. It looks promising, with the future of communication happening today, I would check it out.

For whatever the reason, Windows 7 allows you to decide just which applications users of that shared system can open.

This feature is not available for users of Windows 7 Home versions.

First, you want to click on the Start button and enter “gpedit.msc” in the search box. Press Enter.

Then, you’ll want to go to User Configuration Administrative Templates System. Once there, look under “Setting,” where you will then double-click on “Run only specified Windows applications.”

You” have to set that to “Enabled.” Then, in the Options section, click on the “Show” button.

Doing so will pull up a “Show Contents” window in which you can enter only those applications you want users to have access to. Once you’ve completed the list, click “OK.” Close out of the Local Group Policy editor.

With that done, you have now set restrictions on which applications users of your computer can avail themselves of. Should someone try to use one that isn’t included on your list of allowed applications, they will see the following message:

If you’re someone who monitors which applications are being used on your computer, this a great feature that will assist you in that regard.

Though many us will be traveling over the holidays, we’re still bound by our responsibilities at work, with wireless access keeping us connected to the office wherever we find ourselves. Even if you’re not obligated to work during your vacation, you might still be one of millions who’re hopelessly addicted to the internet, needing access on the fly.

If you’re looking for free WiFi access while traveling, PC World has compiled a wonderfully informative list of nationwide businesses offering WiFi access, distinguishing those that charge from the establishments offering such access for free.

As someone who requires internet access at all times, for both personal and business matters, it’s nice to have this resource as the holiday season approaches.

If you’re similarly dependent on immediate WiFi access, you can find their WiFi Guide for Travelers here.

If you’re someone that feels uneasy when messing with the settings associated with your router and internet connection, you might be interested in an extremely easy-to-use application that gives you an opportunity to test Google’s Public DNS and determine whether its benefit outweighs whatever hassles you might fear from switching over to it.

It’s called the Google DNS Helper, and its purpose is to allow users a chance to test out multiple public DNS servers to determine which ones introduce a noticeable improvement over the speed of your current DNS server.

Using it is simple, with just two options for users to worry about, saving them the stress of having to wrangle with their network settings. With just one click, this application switches you over to Google Public DNS, saving your current DNS settings before doing so. You’re now able to browse the web with your new DNS settings, having only to click the other button if you ever want to return to your original configuration.

If you’re interested in trying out Google’s DNS solution, this is a convenient – and, more important, safe – way of doing so if you’re someone who’s wary of tinkering with your router and network.

Grab it here.