Upgrading a Netgear Wireless Router Instructions

Prerequisites:

• AT&T DSL
• Wireless Netgear Router

 I recently upgraded my netgear G router to N. I didnt have the install CD, but you dont really need it. Below are the step by step instructions.

1. Find out what your AT&T DSL username is. It is the email address that they created for you when you set up the DSL account. (e.g. bob@att.net)
2. Find out what your AT&T DSL password is. It is different from your AT&T email password. If you dont know it, call AT&T support.
3. If you filter by MAC address, take a screenshot, print out, or pdf the page of MAC addresses. PDF is the best option as you can copy and paste the MAC addresses later.
4. Turn off the DSL modem, router, and computer.
5. Replace router with the new one.
6. Turn on Modem and wait about 2 minutes until the DSL light is on.
7. Turn on router.
8. Turn on computer.
9. Open your browser and go to routerlogin.net.
10. Login with the default username and password which is usually "admin" and "password".
11. Under Basic Settings, enter the AT&T DSL username and password gathered from steps 1 and 2.
12. Upgrade the firmware under Router Upgrade.
13. If you use OpenDNS, under Basic Settings, specify the primary DNS ip to 208.67.222.222 and the secondary ip to 208.67.220.220.
14. The final step is to secure your wireless network.

Wireless printing

Interested in getting one of those wireless printers so that you can print wirelessly? Why bother when you can do exactly that right now? Assuming of course you have a desktop computer, a laptop and a wireless router. For those of you who have set up wireless file sharing with the instructions from my previous post, then you should have no problems at all, although it is not a requirement.

1. On your desktop PC, go to Start--> Settings--> Printers.



2. Right click on your printer and select Sharing.



3. Click the "Share this Printer" radio button.



4. Enter a share name. ie. epsoncx8400



5. On your laptop with wifi, go to Start-->Settings-->Printer and double click on Add a printer.



6. You can either search for the printer on the network or you can just "Connect to this printer" by specifying the printer share name ie. \\yourdesktopname\epsoncx8400
   Replace "yourdesktopname" with your desktop's computer name. If you dont know what that is, right click on "My Computer" icon and select properties. Click here for some helpful screenshots.

Thats it. When you print from your laptop make sure you choose to print from this shared printer or set it as the default printer. Lastly, the only caveat with this solution is that you must have your desktop machine powered on when you print from your laptop.

Wireless File Sharing

Ever want to transfer files wirelessly from your desktop to your laptop or vice versa? Let me show you how its done.

Most likely your home network has a desktop, laptop, and a wireless router. Your desktop is hard wired into the router and your laptop is wirelessly connected to the router.

Instructions:

1. On the desktop computer, choose a folder that you want to share. If you want, you can choose to share your entire C: drive, but I would not recommend doing so. In any case, for this example lets just share your "My Documents" folder.
   


2. Right click on the My Documents folder and select Properties.
   


3. Select the Sharing tab and look under the Network sharing and security.
   


4. It might tell you to go through some wizard, but just try to enable the sharing without going through any wizards.
   


5. Check "Share this folder on the network" and "Allow network users to change my files" boxes. If you check the 2nd box of allowing network users to change my files, you must be very careful. By checking this option, you will be able to change, move, or delete files on your desktop computer from your laptop. If you delete files located on your desktop from your laptop, there could be no way of recovering these files.
   


6. In the Share name field, type in something descriptive like "my documents on my dell desktop", then press ok. Thats it for the desktop computer.
   


7. On the laptop, go to Start button then Run. Type in "\\yourcomputername". In otherwords, replace yourcomputername with the actual name of your desktop computer. You can find what your computer name is by right clicking on My Computer and selecting properties. So for example if your desktop computer name is called "dell510" then you would type "\\dell510".
   


8. A window should pop up and you should see the shared folder. That it! Now you can move files back and forth. Or even open up and change files located on your desktop with your laptop. All wirelessly!

Eye-Fi Wireless SD Card

I've told you before that I love anything wireless that makes life easier right? Well, here's a cool new product that will blow your mind. Okay, it might not blow your mind, but its still cool. I dont know why I never thought of it :) Currently, you download your pictures from your digital camera using a USB cable. Its not too hard, but does take time especially if you take a lot of pics. Anyways, if your digital camera uses an SD card, you're in luck. With the Eye-Fi Wireless SD Card, you can wirelessly transfer your pics to your computer. Of course you will need to have an existing wireless home network. But who doesnt? :) One thing that I try to do is use my wireless network for everything. Right now, I have my Tivo, Wii, and laptop connected. And later on Ill add on more wireless enabled electronics. Centralizing all of your wireless products to your computer home network makes things much easier. Not only can you control things via your computer, but it can also enable these products to be online which is really powerful. Whoa, how I digress. Anyways, back to the Eye-Fi. So from reading the reviews, it looks like it automatically syncs when the card is in range of your home network. Cool! In otherwords, you can transfer your pictures without even thinking about it. All you have to do is turn on your digital camera and be in range of your router. GENIUS!

More Info

Free Tech Support Question #1

Do you have questions about computers, software, networking, or the Internet?
Any problems or issues? Want some recommendations?

Let me see if I can help. Depending on how many responses I get, Ill choose one to answer.
You can ask a question by posting a comment to this posting. Try to be as SPECIFIC as possible. Ask away!

ANSWERED!
Since I only received 2 questions and they are quite similar I will answer them both.

Question #1:
John said...
How do I tell if any of my picture files has a virus in it? My computer is slow starting up but I didn't install programs to start immediately at boot-up. I notice that when I format my computer, it's fast again, but once I install the pictures it becomes slow.

Answer:
"How do I tell if any of my picture files has a virus in it?"
- Its hard to know if you've been infected with a virus unless something actually goes wrong with your computer. In otherwords, you could have a virus on your computer now and you wouldnt even know it. My suggestion is to install antivirus software and perform a scan. The scan will tell you whether or not you have been infected with a virus. I have listed 3 free and good antivirus software in a previous post - http://www.rogerchew.com/2007/04/my-favorite-free-software.htm

"My computer is slow starting up but I didn't install programs to start immediately at boot-up."
- Now let's not jump to conclusions about your computer being slow to boot up and having viruses. They could be totally separate issues. You might have thought that you didnt install programs to start immediately at startup, but think again. Many software programs have tiny little helper programs that run at start up. Quicktime, Real Player, iTunes, HP printer software are to name a few. I have some tips for getting rid of programs that run at startup but Ill save that for another post.

"I notice that when I format my computer, it's fast again, but once I install the pictures it becomes slow."
- Formatting your computer is of course last resort and probably will fix 99% of your problems. You dont install pictures. I think you meant that you download pictures on your computer hard drive. Having many pictures should not slow down your computer much. The only way it would slow it down is if you had so many pictures that it takes up most of the space on your hard drive. If you start getting warnings that you are running out of hard disk space, then you probably have too many pictures on the drive. The hard drive needs a good amount of free space. The more free space that you have, the better your hard drive will perform.

Question #2
Janine said...
My computer has picked up several viruses recently, and I've cleaned them off using various software programs. The pop-ups have stopped now, but how do I know that all the viruses are gone and not embedded somewhere else? Would you recommend that I reformat the entire hard drive to be safe?

Answer:
Let's not get confused between viruses and spyware. Usually, pop ups are most likely caused by spyware. Its much easier to get infected by spyware than viruses. For viruses, you pretty much have to do something intentional like open up some .exe attachment from your email. Spyware is a different story. You can get spyware from just visiting a bad web page. In some occasions, you can have both viruses and spyware. In otherwords, you can have viruses that install more spyware on your computer and vice versa. In any case, you should install the antivirus software to scan for viruses and install antispyware software to scan for spyware. I've listed recommendations of free software on both of these in my link above. I highly recommend Spy Sweeper for removing spyware as well as protecting your computer. Its not free (annual subscription fee), but if you are always having spyware issues, its well worth it. Again, reformatting your computer is the last resort. If you have thoroughly scanned your computers with all the software I recommended and nothing is found, then I wouldnt worry too much about it.

Securing your wireless network

If you use a wireless router, I have some suggestions on keeping your network more safe and secure. It will also prevent others from "smooching" off your internet connection. A year or two ago, I went anywhere with my laptop and was able to get a wireless internet connection from a neighboring, unsecured wireless router. It was so easy, I didnt even have to configure anything since Windows XP automatically connected to the strongest signal. All I did was turn on my laptop and voila...I was online. Today, to my surprise, wireless routers are actually being locked down and secured. Is your's secured? Here are some simple tips that can be done in your router configuration.

1. Change the default username/password - If someone gets on your wireless network, it would be easy for them to log into your router using the default username/password and then they can mess with your DNS settings. That would potentially give them full control over the sites you visit.
   
2. Dont broadcast SSID - That way people cant even see your router.


3. Use maximum encryption - I think the most secure now is WPA2. WEP is not that secure.


4. Filter by MAC address - This takes a little more work and management, but is probably the best thing you can do to secure your network. Even if someone knows your SSID and password, they still wont be able to get in. By specifying this option, the router will only allow access to laptops that you specify. To find the MAC address on your laptop, just go into your command prompt and type in "ipconfig". Make sure you choose the MAC address of your wireless card and not your ethernet. Yes, that means everytime, you have a new laptop or your friend/family brings their laptop over, you will need to add their MAC address to the router's allowed list.

Read this article on more ways to secure your wireless network. But I think the ones I mentioned above are good enough. Anything more might be overkill.