If you live in an apartment or a townhouse complex and use a wifi-enabled router, there’s a good chance that one of your neighbour’s just might be freeloading on your connection. Using your browser to access your router is moderately difficult but it’s absolutely necessary if you want to prevent strangers from snooping around your networked computers or using up your precious bandwidth. Here’s a brief rundown of how it’s done.

There are many brands of routers out there. Every single one comes with a CD that contains the product manual on it. First thing to do is find the CD and read the manual. I’ll wait. (It’s there, under your copy of Twitter for Dummies.)

Because there are many types of routers out there, I’ll give you a rundown on my router, a D-Link DIR-65. I can access this modem from any browser on any computer in my home. First, I open any browser and type 192.168.0.1 in the address slot. My browser takes me to the login window. TIP! There’s no sense in encrypting your wifi unless you also lock your router using a password. Believe it or not, I can access many routers around the Internet and change the settings on them simply because the user hasn’t changed the default password. For my D-link, the default password is ‘admin’, same as the username. I’ve changed the password to something much more difficult to hack, believe me. Once you’re into your router, change the password in the Tools menu.

Once you’ve done that, you have to turn on the wifi and encrypt access to it. Basically you set up a long password that any wireless adapter must use before it can gain access. On the D-link, there is a Wireless Wizard that you can use to handle this for you. I’m not going to get into the fine details, other than to say that if you simply accept the default settings, you should be fine. A true hacker can access your wifi even if you use a powerful password. Robbie, your next door neighbour’s son, probably isn’t up to that level…yet. What you are doing is locking out everyone who isn’t a complete nerd hacker. You’re safe as long as you don’t live beside someone from the CIA.

The other side of this locking thing is to set up each wireless computer with the new settings. Every computer is different and the wireless adapters are different, too. Some router settings won’t be accepted by your adapter so be prepared for some configuration errors. Tweet me with specifics if you run into trouble. I’ll try and set you on the right path.

Here are some resources for you:

Default Passwords of most modern routers are here: http://www.phenoelit-us.org/dpl/dpl.html

D-Link Routers : http://www.dlink.com/default.aspx

Linksys/Cisco: http://homesupport.cisco.com/en-ca/support  (Hey, Cisco! Remember that? )

Netgear: http://www.netgear.com/

If you’ve lost your manual you can download a copy from the manufacturer’s site. Once you’re into the router through your browser, you’ll be surprised at how much they all look kind of the same. With a little bit of common sense and rooting around, you can set up many things. Remember to save your current configuration before you start adjusting things. Don’t worry about really screwing things up. If you do, there is a reset button somewhere on the router to put everything back to the way it was when it was new. A paperclip and good eyes are all you need to reset the router. Tweet me if you really screw things up.

That’s it for now. Nothing really earth shattering here but if you’re using DSL or cable, now is a good time to learn about your router. Don’t blame me if your neighbour wastes all your bandwidth, you’ve been warned! Oh, I should tell you that a friend of mine had her neighbour set up her wifi connection. Sure, he locked the wireless with a password but he kept the password and freeloaded on her Internet for years. It wasn’t until I reset everything for her that she managed to lock him out. What a great guy, right?

Thanks for reading. Here are some screen captures for you:

Now that the United States and Canada have moved to 100% total digital broadcasts for TV signals, it’s time to save  yourself some money. Sure, cable and satellite can offer you hundreds of channels but honestly, how many do you watch? Unless your kids are addicted to Mythbusters or you’re a total sports fanatic, here’s how you can watch broadcast television for free.

Every TV sold these days has an ATSC tuner. All that this means is that you can stick a cheap antenna on your wall or roof and watch TV. With a basic UHF bowtie, the kind that used to sit on the rabbit ears with a little clip, you can receive stations that are close to you. With a bit more work, and a very basic and cheap antenna, you will be able to receive stations that might be up to 100 miles away. Here’s an antenna that will set you back $14.99 here in Toronto:

This small unit, pointed almost due south, picks up more than 30 stations, some as far away as about 90 miles. If you know the Toronto area, you’ll know that we’re on the border with Lake Ontario between us an Buffalo. While the channels come and go, depending on a few weather variables, I can always get CBS, ABC, FOX, NBC, CTS, CBC, CTV, PBS as well as many independent stations. I can even receive stations from Rochester, a full 94 miles away. Here’s a snapshot of part of my channel list:

To get started, check out this link and find out how many stations you might be able to receive. TVFool has everything you’d ever need to find stations, aim your antenna and calculate distances to the respective towers. Enter your postal code or zip code and a visual will be created for you. Here’s mine :

Unless you live in the boonies, you should be able to receive a decent number of channels. The tuners on modern LCD or Plasma TV sets are pretty damn good for the price. The best part about digital signals is that you pretty much get them or you don’t. There are no waves or double images which plagued analog reception in the past. In a real heavy rainstorm I sometimes lose the Buffalo channels outright or they will be pixelated. Even then, they pop back in again frequently. Here is a photo of my antenna setup:

I used an approximate height of 35 feet on TVFool to find the stations or channels in my area. I think it’s a bit less than that, actually.

If you’re not a real handy person, you don’t even need to get up on the roof to set these things up. A small antenna against a window that faces the station you want will suffice, as long as the transmitting tower isn’t ridiculously far away. On my Hauppauge tuner in this computer, I have had perfectly clear signals with an old bowtie antenna right here in my basement office, believe it or not.

With this setup, you won’t get ESPN or HBO or any of the full cable channels. However, depending on where you are, you might get some channels that aren’t available on cable, I get several, so there is a definite yin and yang to this. The point is that you also won’t be paying through the nose for compressed HD channels. All of the stations that I get are in full, glorious HD, transmitting the full signal not the compressed signal that you get with cable. The difference is startling. A side-by-side comparison of cable signal compared to an OTA signal might shock you. With cable, you’re really paying for something you’re not getting.

One last tip, use RG6 for your antenna to TV tuner connections. Don’t use RG59. Make sure your connections are solid and you’re on your way to TV freedom. Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks for reading!

Using the screen capture key is a quick and easy way to save part of a website or image in a website that may be locked by the owner. Quite often you will see this in Flickr and other photography websites. You might right click on the image to try and save it but a little menu will tell you that ‘this photo can’t be saved’ or something like that. Well, we can certainly get around that hurdle…in two different ways, actually.

The first and easiest way is to use the Print Screen key. It’s up on the top right of your keyboard, third from the right on mine. If you use a laptop, you might have to search for the ‘Prt Scr’ key and you might have to hold the ‘Fn’ (function) key down at the same time. It’s like that on my Compaq netbook.

Once you press the Print Screen key, Windows takes a snapshot of whatever is on your monitor(s) at the time.  If you want to save part of what you see, you have to paste the saved image into an image program.

As you may know, I use Irfanview (read my past posts about Irfanview linked from the main page of this blog.) For convenience, I always keep one image file on my desktop. Once I hit the Print Screen key, I open the image that’s on my desktop (it doesn’t matter what it is) and then press the Ctrl key and the V key at the same time (simple copy and paste). The image that Windows has saved temporarily is pasted into Irfanview. Now it’s a simple matter to crop the full image to save only what I want.

Once you see the image from your monitor in Irfanview, place your mouse on the top left corner of the part you want to save and drag the cursor down and right. You’ll see a square/rectangle shape forming. When you get to the other edge of what you want to save, let go of the mouse and press the Ctrl key and the Y key at the same time. Voila! Your image is now much larger on the screen. Hit the Ctrl and S keys at the same time (simple save) and save the image to your computer.

The other way to save an image is to turn off Java but that might be more difficult. When Java is running, any website can lock it’s photos, specially those side-scrolling fashion sites…the ones with all the hot babes? You know? Hahahaha. Turning off Java in your browser will allow you to save any image that is protected that way.

If the site is showing photos using Shockwave, something like the American Apparel site comes to mind, you can’t save them any other way except by using the Screen Capture technique that I’ve just described. Here are some screenshots to illustrate what you might see.

Thanks for reading! Comments are welcome.

Follow me on Twitter: @_BrianMahoney

Tweet

I’d have to do a chart or table to show all the different settings that you could use to hide your ‘stuff’ on Facebook but here are a few short tips that will help.

If you don’t want ANYONE to see what you post, like maybe you’re waiting for some big moment to pop it on someone, make sure your sharing is set to ‘only me’. Whatever you do, don’t tag anyone, even if the item is shared with only you.  Because:

Even if an item is shared with only one other person and you tag it, any of your friend’s friends can see the item and comment on it plus they can tag it and share it. Remember, even if the item is shared ONLY WITH ONE OTHER PERSON. The tagged person cannot remove the tag, only the original poster. 

OK, caps lock is off and bold is gone. The key to all of this, as I’ve said before, is not sharing, it’s tagging. Tagging opens up your tagged items to everyone.

Here is a tip that will help  you keep stuff private. Two tips, actually.

1. Don’t tag anyone on anything. Send a private message to someone if you have something that is vital to share. Or:

2. Post the item by itself (a photo works best for ths) and tag that one single item. No one else will be able to see your other items, just that one thing.

HOLD THE PRESSES : Facebook, just this moment, seems to have fixed the loophole. I’m going to end this now (and go for a swim) but I’ll leave this up until I can confirm that the sharing loophole has been sealed. I spent a few hours sorting all of this out, while doing a few other things too, and I don’t want to waste this beautiful writing! Hahahaha.

Thanks for reading.

Tweet

Follow me on Twitter: @_BrianMahoney

I had just driven the kids to school and was pulling into the driveway. Billie Holliday and Mad Dog Michaels were hamming it up on 92.5 as usual. I didn’t hear the first part of what Billie said. Her voice had kind of a giggle in it, which I now realize was nervousness or fear, as she told us that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. I can’t remember what crossed my mind, whether I felt that it was terrorists or not. I don’t think I realized that the plane in question was a full-size people-carrying jet airliner.

I didn’t pause on the main floor for any length of time, instead I raced down to the family room to catch the news on CNN. For the next few minutes I sat stunned as I listened to the coverage. At some point, the second plane hit. I can’t remember if I actually saw it or just heard the announcer say it, but at that point in time I knew it was terrorists.

Immediately after the second plane hit I called in to work. At that time I was a kitchen designer for the Home Depot. Coincidentally, the person who answered the phone was Faiika, a very conservative Muslim. I didn’t say much, just that she should tell the store manager to turn on CNN in the meeting room. We had a satellite dish that was connected to the Home Depot network but we could also get CNN. Faiika put up a bit of resistance but I insisted that she tell management to get the hell into the meeting room and hung up.

The full impact of what had happened gradually set in as the day wore on. We heard about the other planes, the other crashes and there seemed to be constant threats and rumours every few minutes. Most of this is now a blur, except for the part where the two towers fell…like vertical domino stacks with one floor knocking down the next. At that time we didn’t know about the asbestos that was being blown across Manhattan or the poor souls who jumped from above the flames to their deaths. None of us knew much about anything then, it was a simpler time, a time when we trusted governments and trusted each other. It’s all different now.

As the lists of the dead came out over the next few weeks, I checked the names of the Canadians who were missing or certified as being lost forever. One name popped out, that of Ralph Gerhardt. Back in my car sales days, I had sold the Gerhardts two cars, and remembered them very well. Hans, Ralph’s dad, had even sent me a Christmas card or two after the sales. Part of the reason I remembered them was that the whole family seemed to be very together, very close and exceptionally polite. Hans was the manager of the Sutton Place Hotel at that time and I could sense his professionalism as well as his strong influence on his sons, Ralph and Stephan. The two boys were car nuts and one of them, perhaps it was Ralph, used to visit me every time he brought the car in for service. His loss brought the events of that day much closer to home. When I think of 9/11, I think of the Gerhardt’s loss as well as the unimaginable pain that these events brought to the world. I’m sure we will all take a moment to reflect on 9/11, not only this year but every year.

Thanks for reading.