If all goes well, I hope to go back to posting here every Wednesday, and if I have the time on Fridays. If you have anything you would like me to write about please let me know.

“A Picture is worth a thousand words,” so it is said, and in this article I am going to show you how to make your dull and boring windows folders, logon picture, and wallpaper much more interesting, inspirational, and elegant, because not only does it look really cool, but will also personalize them too. Best of all it only takes minutes to do each one.

My 10 tips below will help you get the best out of your wireless network, and give you peace of mind knowing that you will be secure while you surf the net in peaceful bliss.

1. Upgrade your access point. If you’ve had your wireless access point for over 2 years, then go to the manufactures website and check to see if there are any new firmware updates. New updates sometimes increase performance and enhance security features.

2. Make sure you have Service pack 2 installed on your PC if you are using Windows XP. You can download SP2 from this link. If you are unsure whether you have SP2 installed on your PC, then right click My Computer > Properties, on the General tab you will see under System what version is installed.

3. Are you using the right drivers for your wireless network card? Most users don’t install the drivers that come with the network card and use the generic drivers built in Windows XP instead. These drivers only have basic features and you might be jeopardising your networks security, you might not be getting the fastest speed from your network card. If you can’t find the original drivers then go to the manufactures website and download them.

4. Whether you use 802.11b (11Mbps) or 802.11g (54Mbps) your network will very rarely reach the maximum speed. Why? Mainly due to interference and how far away your PC is from the wireless access point.

5. What can you do to keep your network speed as fast as possible? Keep your PC and Access Point away from wireless phones and microwaves as they use frequencies close to the 2.4Ghz used by wireless networks.
If possible put your wireless access point near the centre of the room and off the floor as its signal is spherical, this will give a better reception, and try to avoid working through thick walls or metal frames as the interference will weaken or even block the signal.

6. Extend your Wireless network. If you find that you work quite far from your Access Point and the signal strength is very poor, then you can purchase a wireless extender which can replace your Access Point and network cards antenna, these can be purchased from most computer stores or Amazon. If you like tinkering then take a look at this great video to extend the antenna.

7. Another way to Extend your wireless network is with a repeater. Place the wireless repeater halfway between your wireless access point and your computer, and you’ll get an instant boost to your wireless signal strength. Various wireless repeaters come from ViewSonic, D-Link, Linksys, and Buffalo Technology

8. Secure your Wireless network. If you’re are using WEP, change it to WPA, read an earlier article I wrote ‘How Secure is Your Wireless Network’

9. Print Wirelessly. You can buy wireless printers or print servers, which means that you don’t need a dedicated PC for printing, you can print from any pc in your home and you don’t even need to be in the same room. Wireless printers and print servers can be purchased from most computer retailers.

10. Check your Network Performance with Qcheck. This free utility is excellent for checking and testing your wireless network connection. If you find that your wireless connectivity is poor, move your Access Point around and Qcheck will show you the best position in the room to place it. It can also test the network speed between 2 PCs, test whether a network can support multimedia traffic, and much more. Click on the link for more info.

4. Then type cd \ this will take you to the root directory, to clear the screen you can type cls, this is optional, you should now see this screen

5. Now type netstat and press the spacebar, then type –b (it will look like this “netstat –b”) hit enter and you will see a list of any active connections (that is any applications connecting to the internet), these are shown on the left hand side of the screen within the [ ] brackets, if you are only connected to the internet with nothing running then you will have very little showing on Netstat. However if you have an antivirus program running you might see something like [ashwebSV.exe] or [nortonSV.exe] but that depends on the antivirus software you have and if its trying to connect to the internet at the time.
6. If you have anything else running and you don’t recognise it or it just doesn’t look right then do a Google search to find out what it is, if it is Spyware, Malware or something else then get rid of it using your Spyware application (and I hope you have one installed).
7. Another good tip is to run Netstat every now and again without closing your applications to keep a check on what applications are connecting to the internet.
8. If you want to, you can copy the Netstat list to a text file by typing netstat then space –b another space then type > space then type netstat.txt (which would look like this “netstat –b > netstat.txt”) on the command line and this will copy the netstat list to your root c: drive. All you then have to do is open My computer and click on the C: drive and you will see a file called netstat.txt click on it and you will see the Netstat list.

My 10 tips below will help you get the best out of your wireless network, and give you peace of mind knowing that you will be secure while you surf the net in peaceful bliss.

1. Upgrade your access point. If you’ve had your wireless access point for over 2 years, then go to the manufactures website and check to see if there are any new firmware updates. New updates sometimes increase performance and enhance security features.

2. Make sure you have Service pack 2 installed on your PC if you are using Windows XP. You can download SP2 from this link. If you are unsure whether you have SP2 installed on your PC, then right click My Computer > Properties, on the General tab you will see under System what version is installed.

3. Are you using the right drivers for your wireless network card? Most users don’t install the drivers that come with the network card and use the generic drivers built in Windows XP instead. These drivers only have basic features and you might be jeopardising your networks security, you might not be getting the fastest speed from your network card. If you can’t find the original drivers then go to the manufactures website and download them.

4. Whether you use 802.11b (11Mbps) or 802.11g (54Mbps) your network will very rarely reach the maximum speed. Why? Mainly due to interference and how far away your PC is from the wireless access point.

5. What can you do to keep your network speed as fast as possible? Keep your PC and Access Point away from wireless phones and microwaves as they use frequencies close to the 2.4Ghz used by wireless networks.
If possible put your wireless access point near the centre of the room and off the floor as its signal is spherical, this will give a better reception, and try to avoid working through thick walls or metal frames as the interference will weaken or even block the signal.

6. Extend your Wireless network. If you find that you work quite far from your Access Point and the signal strength is very poor, then you can purchase a wireless extender which can replace your Access Point and network cards antenna, these can be purchased from most computer stores or Amazon. If you like tinkering then take a look at this great video to extend the antenna.

7. Another way to Extend your wireless network is with a repeater. Place the wireless repeater halfway between your wireless access point and your computer, and you’ll get an instant boost to your wireless signal strength. Various wireless repeaters come from ViewSonic, D-Link, Linksys, and Buffalo Technology

8. Secure your Wireless network. If you’re are using WEP, change it to WPA, read an earlier article I wrote ‘How Secure is Your Wireless Network’

9. Print Wirelessly. You can buy wireless printers or print servers, which means that you don’t need a dedicated PC for printing, you can print from any pc in your home and you don’t even need to be in the same room. Wireless printers and print servers can be purchased from most computer retailers.

10. Check your Network Performance with Qcheck. This free utility is excellent for checking and testing your wireless network connection. If you find that your wireless connectivity is poor, move your Access Point around and Qcheck will show you the best position in the room to place it. It can also test the network speed between 2 PCs, test whether a network can support multimedia traffic, and much more. Click on the link for more info.

1. Open files with one click. Save yourself some time by single clicking on folders and files rather than double clicking on them. Less clicking means less chances of getting RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury).

If you want to change your clicks to one, click Start>My Computer. Under the Tools menu, click Folder Options. Now click the General tab in the dialog box, click Single-click to open an item (point to select), and then click OK. This makes everything in Windows exactly one click faster.

2. File or Folder properties. If you need to quickly view a file or folders properties then hold the Alt key as you click on it.

3. If you want to quickly close a program or file then hold down the Alt key and press F4.

4. Live a little and change your pointer scheme. Now and again I like to change my pointer and cursor scheme, as you can get sick of the same one, and it’s very easy to do. Click Start>Control Panel (make sure you have the classic view showing or you will not see all the icons in the CP) then click on Mouse, click the Pointers tab and browse the available themes. Select one that you like, and then click OK.

5. Adding new pointer schemes. To be honest I find the Pointers and Cursors that come with Windows are a bit boring and could do with a bit of spicing up. This is where Cursor XP from Stardock comes in, this great free little application installs more appealing pointer schemes. All you have to do is click on this link download the file and then install the program, once installed click on the mouse icon and you will see a new tab labeled ‘CursorXP’ click on this and change your pointer to something more exciting. You can even download additional pointer schemes.

6. Hide your Taskbar. Do you find the taskbar too intrusive at times? All you have to do is right click it choose properties and select Auto hide and also select Keep the taskbar on top of windows, and then click on OK. When you need your taskbar just drag the mouse to the bottom of the screen and it will appear.

7. System Restore Point. If there is some software that you would like to try out, why not create a System restore point before you install it. Then if you decide that it is not what you need, uninstall the application in the normal way and then go back to the System Restore Point that you created to make sure that it is thoroughly deleted from you PC.

8. Moving Multiple Files. Do you sometime have a lot of files that you need to move from one folder to another? Then all you have to do is hold down the Ctrl key and click each file that you want to move and then drag them across to another folder. You can also select a block of consecutive files by clicking the first file and then press and hold the Shift key, then click on the last file and you will find that all the files in between are selected.

9. By default Windows XP only allows you to open one My Documents folder, or one My Computer folder, (also My Network Places and the Recycle bin) at a time, however if you hold down the shift key as you click on the folder you can open as many of these folders as you like.

10. Add a map drive icon. If you have more than one computer running Microsoft Windows XP connected to your home network, you can share folders between them so you can open files on one computer even if they’re stored on another. To make it easier to connect to a shared folder, you can add a Map Drive button to your Windows Explorer toolbar. This button provides a fast link to the shared folder.
To add a Map Drive button
1. Click Start, and then click My Computer.
2. Right-click the toolbar, and then click Customize.

3. The Customize Toolbar dialog box will appears and in the Available toolbar buttons list, click Map Drive, and then click Add. To be able to remove mapped drives using a toolbar button, select Disconnect, and then click Add.

The Map Drive button appears on your toolbar. To map a network drive, click the Map Drive toolbar button. The toolbar button has exactly the same effect as clicking the Tools menu and then clicking Map Network Drive.

What tips do you have that makes XP easier to use?

5. Gmail encryption as the name suggests this plugin encrypts all your emails and stops anyone from viewing them, even Google. It is a Greasemonkey script and for anyone who hasn’t heard of Greasmonkey, this is a Firefox extension that allows you to customize the way webpages look and function. Hundreds of scripts are already available for free. And if you’re the tinkerer sort, you can also write your own. Here is the link for more info and to download. I have entered Gmail encryption at number 5 as in my opinion it is the hardest plugin to install and configure but worthwhile if you need to use it.

gmail-encryption.jpg

4. Drag and drop is an add on for when you need to attach a file in an email. Rather than trying to browse for the file which can be quite annoying it allows you to drag and drop files directly into the attachment box, very handy as you can drop multiple files into it.

3. Gmail Manager allows you to logon to multiple Gmail accounts at once and receive new mail notifications. It displays your account details including unread messages, saved drafts, spam messages, labels with new mail, space used, and new mail snippets, it is highly customizable and all within Firefox.

gmail-manager.png

2. Gmail skins allows you to customize various settings on Gmail for example the colour, and its layout, see below for more features:

* Change the colour/skin of your inbox
* Integrate your Google homepage alongside your inbox. This allows you to view weather reports, rss feeds, news headlines flickr recently added, Google calendar module etc from your inbox.
* Easily insert images from your Picasa web album into your emails.
* Insert smileys/emoticons and images in to your emails.

1. Gmail Drive, this is my top unofficial app (it is actually a Shell Namespace Extension) and works pretty well. It creates an internet hard drive (or virtual drive) which is displayed in Windows Explorer and you can drag and drop your files onto. If you logon to your Gmail account you will see that all the files you have put in your virtual drive will appear as attachments. The link that I have supplied explains how to keep your inbox folder declutted.

gmail-drive.gif

There is another plugin that I have come across but have not tried it yet, and that is Better Gmail. On the web page it states this is ”A comprehensive suite of Gmail enhancements, including skins, saved searches, keyboard macros, secure access, attachment icons, attachment reminders, label colors, signature floating and more.”
I would be interested to know if anyone has used this Add on.

Had a chance to try any of them?

What do you think?