How to Turn Wi-Fi On or Off With a Keyboard or Desktop Shortcut in Windows

Some laptops come with “Wi-Fi” function keys or switches that can quickly enable or disable your Wi-Fi. If your PC doesn’t have one of these, though, you can make one with the tools built into Windows.

You’ll need to start by creating a desktop or start menu shortcut. Once you’ve done that, you can invoke it with a keyboard shortcut, if you like.

How to Turn Your Windows PC Into a Wi-Fi Hotspot

Windows can turn your PC into a wireless hotspot, allowing it to share its wired or wireless Internet connection with other wireless devices. But how you set it up that depends on what version of Windows you’re running. Here’s how it all works.

How to Block Application from Accessing the Internet with Windows Firewall

Most of the time we want our applications online and connected to both our local network and the greater Internet. There are instances, however, when we want to prevent an application from connecting to the Internet. Read on as we show you how to lock down an application via the Windows Firewall.

How to Find Your Router’s IP Address on Any Computer, Smartphone, or Tablet

Your router’s web-based setup page allows you to change various settings — like your Wi-Fi network’s name and password — and view information. You’ll need your router’s IP address to access it.

On Windows, this is called the “default gateway” address. Macs, iPhones, and iPads simply call it your “router” IP address. Other devices may just call it your “gateway” address, or something similar.

5 Different Two-Step Authentication Methods to Secure Your Online Accounts

Many online services offer two-step verification or two-factor authentication. Enable this for an account and it’ll require more than just your password to sign in. You’ll also need something else — and there are many different types of additional authentication methods you can use.

Different services offer different two-step verification methods. But, when you set up two-step verification, you’ll often be able to choose between a few different methods. Here’s how they work and how they differ.

Is WIFI a Silent Killer?

 

Wi-Fi: a wireless network in which you can connect to many devices without the use of cables. Nowadays Wi-Fi is found everywhere. The mobiles phones benefit mostly from it, and the companies which make them have specific instructions for the services so they do not damage our health.
Wi-Fi: a silent killer that kills us slowly
Our wireless devices like phones and tablets use routers to connect online. The router emits WLAN signals – electromagnetic waves that can cause a lot of damage. We ignore this fact because we practically have no knowledge of it. Given time, these signals harm the body. A study conducted by the British Health Agency has proven that routers hinder the growth of people and plants.
- See more at: http://www.weeklyhealthylife.com/wi-fi-a-silent-killer-that-kills-us-slowly/#sthash.1eTc2j8W.dpuf

In this modern world of technology the Wi-Fi network is everywhere around us. It is really a revolutionary way of connecting many devices without using any cables. The biggest benefit from this kind of connecting have the mobiles phones, but the companies that produce them have specific instructions for the services on how to make them not harmful to our health.

How to Set Up a Camera to Monitor Your Home When You’re Away

Whether you’ll be away from home while travelling or just during the workday, you may want to keep an eye on it. Solutions like Nest’s Nest Cam (formerly Dropcam) try to make this easy, but there’s more than one way to do this.

We’re not focused on full security systems with alarms and other features here — just cameras so you can keep an eye on your place with live streaming and video recordings.

How to Create an Image of Your PC Before Upgrading to Windows 10

 

Windows 10 is the biggest and most aggressive Windows rollout to date. Before you take the plunge you need to image your hard drive so, should you wish to return to the familiarity of Windows 7 or Windows 8 you can do so with the click of a button.

Note: This tutorial details how to create a bit-for-bit backup (a disk image) of your current Windows system disk so that you can later restore your computer using that image. If that’s not what you’re looking for and you’d like to actually copy your disk bit-for-bit over to a brand new hard disk (a disk clone) we’d encourage you to check out our detailed tutorial on the matter.

How to Check Your Router for Malware

Consumer router security is pretty bad. Attackers are taking advantage of lackadaisical manufacturers and attacking large amounts of routers. Here’s how to check if your router’s been compromised.

The home router market is a lot like the Android smartphone market. Manufacturers are producing large numbers of different devices and not bothering updating them, leaving them open to attack.

How are MAC Addresses Unique?

With the huge volume of Internet connected devices that have been and will continue to be produced, how is the uniqueness of any ‘given’ MAC address enforced? A Network user asked, "Again and again I have read that devices are uniquely identified by their MAC addresses, but how are MAC addresses determined? And do they tell us anything about the devices they represent? How is the uniqueness of MAC addresses enforced?

How are MAC Addresses Determined?
Vendors are given a range of MAC Addresses that can be assigned to their products by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). MAC Address are assigned to Vendors in various sized blocks as appropriate.

• The IEEE offers Registration Authority programs or registries which maintain lists of unique identifiers under standards and issue unique identifiers to those wishing to register them. The IEEE Registration Authority assigns unambiguous names to objects in a way which makes the assignment available to interested parties.

You can go to Vendor/Ethernet/Bluetooth MAC Address Lookup and Search to find the vendor given a particular MAC Address or find a MAC Address Range given to a vendor.
Devices are Uniquely Identified by Their MAC Addresses
This is incorrect. Devices are not uniquely identified by their MAC addresses.

1. In the past vendors have intentionally or by mistake assigned the same MAC Address to multiple devices.
2. It is possible to change the MAC Address presented by most hardware to the OS, an action often referred to as MAC spoofing:

• MAC spoofing is a technique for changing a factory-assigned Media Access Control (MAC) Address of a network interface on a networked device. The MAC Address is hard-coded on a network interface controller (NIC) and cannot be changed. However, there are tools which can make an operating system believe that the NIC has the MAC Address of a user’s choosing.

Duplicate MAC Addresses

• Manufacturers re-use MAC Addresses and they ship cards with duplicate addresses to different parts of the United States or the world so that there is only a very small chance two computers with network cards with the same MAC Address will end up on the same network.
• MAC Addresses are ‘burned’ into the Network Interface Card (NIC) and cannot be changed. See ARP and RARP on how IP addresses are translated into MAC Addresses and vice versa.
• In order for a network device to be able to communicate, the MAC Address it is using must be unique. No other device on that local network subnet can use that MAC Address. If two devices have the same MAC Address (which occurs more often than network administrators would like), neither computer can communicate properly. On an Ethernet LAN, this will cause a high number of collisions. Duplicate MAC Addresses on the same LAN are a problem. Duplicate MAC Addresses separated by one or more routers is not a problem since the two devices won’t see each other and will use the router to communicate.

Source: Media Access Control
Further Reading
FAQs: The Registration Authority

What to Do When You Forget Your Wi-Fi Password

You may have misplaced a Wi-Fi password, but your laptop probably remembers it if you’ve connected in the past. If not, you can always grab the password from your router itself or reset the Wi-Fi passphrase and set a new one.

These tricks allow you to recover the passphrase to any network you’ve connected to in the past from your laptop. You can then easily log into those networks from other devices or share the password with your friends.

How (and Why) to Change Your MAC Address on Windows, Linux, and Mac

Each network interface on your computer or any other networked device has a unique MAC address. These MAC addresses are assigned in the factory, but you can change, or “spoof,” MAC addresses in software.

MAC stands for “media access control.” MAC addresses are also commonly referred to as physical addresses or hardware addresses, because they correspond to a hardware adapter.

How to Detect if Someone's Stealing Your WiFi

 

It may be hard to imagine, but just a mere 20 years ago, the Internet was nothing more than a novelty -- a way for incredibly smart college professors and researchers to share information, and for a few people to network across the newly developed World Wide Web. E-mail was nothing like it is today. The primitive e-mail systems found at universities or even through accounts offered with the first Internet service providers (ISPs) such as Prodigy and America Online were often difficult to use.

What Exactly Is a MAC Address Used For?

Every piece of hardware on your local network has a MAC address in addition to the IP address assigned to it by the local router or server. What exactly is that MAC address for?

Can Connect to Wireless Router, but not to the Internet?

Have you ever run into the situation where you could connect your laptop to your wireless router, but could not browse the Internet? There could be several things going on in this kind of situation, either your computer has a problem or the router cannot connect to the Internet via your ISP.

So if you’re able to connect to a wireless network, but can’t get out to the Internet, then first check to see if it’s your compute or the router. You can do this by trying to connect to the Internet from another computer connected to the same wireless network.

View Saved Wi-Fi (WPA, WEP) Passwords on OS X

Just about everybody who has a laptop has probably connected to several different wireless networks over the course of time. I tend to travel a lot and take my laptop with me everywhere I go, so I literally have over a hundred wireless networks stored on my Mac. This is great because I can easily connect to those wireless networks whenever I’m in range again, even if it’s 6 months later.

25 Computer Networking Tips

 

Running a home network is pretty essential in this day and age.

Thankfully, modern hardware and software has reduced the complexities of configuring networks down to a few setup screens, and the relevant hardware often comes free with an internet connection.

If you have multiple computers, the chances are they're already talking to each other, either through wires or wirelessly. However, while your home network might be up and running, optimising it takes some doing. Follow our simple tips to extract the last drop of juice from your network hardware.

How to Enable Face Recognition Login With Windows

The face recognition is a good authentication system which makes your confidential files or folders more secured. Having the face recognition login system with the Windows computerensures that no one can break into your system without you as there is no chance of stealing your log-in password. In the earlier of this decade, this was a myth for the general computer users since the use of webcams or any security camera with compute was rare.

The Best Alternative File Managers for Windows, Mac, and Linux

Most people use their operating system’s included file manager, but many geeks prefer third-party file managers. After all, Windows Explorer doesn’t offer tabs, a dual-pane interface, batch file-renaming tools, and more advanced features.

Secure your WIFI connection wherever you are, with ‘WIFI Protector’

Do you worry that your WIFI borne personal information will be intercepted? Are you concerned with the security of unsecured WIFI networks that you use at coffee shops and other ‘public’ venues? If so, WIFI Protector may be the answer to your paranoia prompted prayer for protection.