1. Change channel number

Wireless routers operate on a fixed channel. Since most routers ship with a pre-selected channel, the wireless signal may interfere with other routers in the vicinity that are operating on the same channel.

Changing the wireless channel from the factory default is a good starting point if your wireless signal strength is poor.

2. Give the router space to breathe

The biggest advantage of a wireless router is that it can penetrate doors and walls – but that doesn't mean you can just stuff it next to a wall or cordless telephone, or use it as a stand for your stack of DVDs. Treat it with respect.

Try to keep it in a central location, away from other wireless devices; make sure it's not in direct sunlight; lift it off the carpet; and ensure its vents and air holes aren't covered.

3. Improve reception

Try as you might, you'll find it's sometimes not possible to put the router in a good spot. One way around the problem is to buy a router with multiple antennas and point them in a variety of directions covering your home.

Alternatively, if you've already got a router, check whether it's possible to upgrade its antennas to something stronger. However, don't get disheartened if your router doesn't have any antennas. A wireless repeater compatible with your router is a perfect solution.

4. Use WEP

Running an unsecured network will earn you brownie points from neighbours and hackers with cars, but that's about it. Wireless routers support a variety of encryption methods, such as WPA and WEP, but these aren't enabled by default.

WPA2 is the most secure method at the moment, but before deciding on an encryption method, make sure your network cards and adapters support it as well. Bear in mind that older machines – and games consoles such as the Nintendo DS – don't support WPA.

5. Restrict access to specific PCs

If you really don't want to use encryption, you can force your router to only connect to specific PCs. Your router identifies each computer by the unique MAC address of its network gear. Feed it a list of MAC addresses to connect to and you save yourself the trouble of entering a password each time you log in.

The disadvantage is that you'll have to add the MAC address of any new computer before it can get on your network – which is probably a more annoying way of getting things done.

6. Disable SSID broadcast

All wireless routers have a Service Set Identifier (SSID) that identifies them to network computers. Routers from the same manufacturer generally ship with the same SSID; 'Netgear' or 'Cisco', for example.

You should first change the SSID to something unique to set your router apart from those of your neighbours. Then, once all your hardware has been set up, it's better to turn off broadcasting the SSID altogether. This ensures your router isn't displayed in the list of available networks, and won't be a target for potential hackers.

7. Keep the firmware updated

Router manufacturers keep working on firmware, even after hardware has been shipped. In addition to tweaks in the user interface, new versions might make better use of the various components in the router, or add extra features.

Just like with an operating system, it's a good idea to upgrade the firmware of the router regularly – check the manufacturer's website for a new version. In the good old days, there was the risk of a botched firmware upgrade bricking your router, but it's a lot safer today.

8. Familiarise yourself with the router manager

All routers ship with a browser based manager. To use many of the tips in this article, you'll have to log in to this interface – try typing 192.168.1.1 into your web browser for the most common location.

It's a good idea to familiarise yourself with the various options and settings you can tweak from within this software. Many routers also have detailed documentation that's updated regularly, so hunt out the latest manual online.

9. Check your connections

There's nothing more irritating than receiving a 'cannot connect to remote machine' error. To ensure a solid connection, use Ethernet cables where possible. It's also a good idea to check the connection between the two PCs with the ping command.

To do this, simply open a command line and type, for instance, ping 192.168.1.2. You'll need to replace the address given here with that of your target machine. Ping works identically on Windows, Mac and Linux.

10. Forward ports

Many servers and applications – for example, file-sharing software, FTP servers and music-streaming servers – need to serve people outside the network. These applications accept connections on specific ports.

With port forwarding – check your router's interface – you can poke holes in your router and ask it to direct incoming traffic on a particular port (or, if you wish, a range of ports) to a specific computer that's on the network.

11. Change DNS providers

DNS is what fetches you a website by translating the human-friendly address, such as www.pcplus.co.uk, into a bunch of machine-friendly numbers. It also displays the '404 page not found' error, corrects misspelt URLs and finds the fastest route to a web server that hosts the site you want to visit, along with lots of other cool things.

Generally, it's up to the ISP to put up a DNS server. However, there are other free services as well, including the likes of OpenDNS and Google Public DNS.

12. Use USB adapters

These days, it's difficult to find a laptop or netbook without a built-in wireless module, but if you've used one, you'll know that they can't always be relied upon. Network cards with antennas are the best option, but they're really only suitable for desktops.

If you really need both mobility and assurance, make sure you get a USB adapter. Most of them ship with a Windows driver, but many work out-of-the-box on Linux as well.

13. Enable Dynamic DNS

The Dynamic DNS feature enables you to connect to your computer remotely. Back in the day, when real-estate on the web was expensive, it was a wonderful option to show off your HTML skills and host your own website.

Now, by associating your dynamic IP address with a domain name, DDNS enables you to connect to the internet-exposed home computer from anywhere in the world. In addition to enabling the feature on your router, you'll also have to register with a dynamic DNS provider, such asDynDNS.org.

14. Save power with Wake-on-LAN

What's the point of keeping a print server on when there's nothing to print? The smart way to save energy is to use the Wake-on- LAN feature of the network card. Thanks to this, you can put the machine to sleep after it's been configured to wake upon detecting network activity.

15. Encrypt your online activity

With the range of snooping tools now available, it isn't safe to do anything online without covering your footprints. There are lots of tools that promise to encrypt your online activity, making it completely unintelligible to anyone who might be listening in.

Some of the best ones to try are the Enigmail plug-in for Thunderbird,Psi for Google Talk and FireGPG, available for Gmail.

16. Get a Firewall distro

You can configure a firewall on a Windows or Linux machine, and there are also a bunch of third-party software firewalls available. However, building a firewall isn't easy. If you're serious about putting one up, download a dedicated firewall distro, such as Ebox.

17. Install the software

Ebox is distributed as a Live CD ISO and there are VirtualBox/VMWare images as well. It's based on Ubuntu Server 8.04. You can also pull in Ebox packages to a standard Ubuntu Server 10.04 installation. You can find it atwww.ebox-platform.com.

18. Configure settings

Ebox can be adapted flexibly to your network. You can use it to restrict services that can be accessed and slice the network to keep some areas more secure than others. The distro runs a browser-based interface for adding, removing and configuring the components.

19. Filter content

Besides the firewall, intrusion detection (via Snort) and filtering content (via DansGuardian) are two other highlights of the distro. DansGuardian can also plug into the ClamAV antivirus scanner and filter content based on known virus signatures.

20. Exploit other features

In case you're still not satisfied, Ebox can also act as a gateway and provide a host of other services. It bundles various applications that enable you to turn your network into a VPN, host XMPP chat sessions or run a Postfix mail server, a Squid web proxy and more.

21. Turn on UPnP

Universal Plug and Play helps smart devices that support UPnP to discover each other without any user intervention. Once turned on from within your router, UPnP enables a compatible infrared device, a Bluetooth phone or a FireWire camera to see and talk to each other.

22. Write files remotely

The most logical use of a network is to share files. This is the job of the SMB protocol. Thanks to it, you'll be able to write files to a remote network share via Network Neighbourhood. On Linux, the SMB protocol is implemented by Samba.

23. Share printers remotely

In addition to sharing files, SMB can be used to share printers attached to a Windows machine. Once configured via the Windows Control Panel, a printer can be used to accept print orders or even be managed from a remote machine, irrespective of its operating system.

24. Format shareable partitions as FAT

PCs running Windows can easily see each other and share files. For Linux or Mac machines, ensure the partitions are formatted with the FAT filesystem. Create them as Samba shares and they'll show up under Network Neighbourhood.

25. Plug in USB drives

Once, if you wanted to share files on the network, a network-attached-storage, or NAS, device was the best bet. Not any more. New routers enable you to plug in one or more USB devices that are automatically accessible by all the users connected to the router.

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HIDE FULL DRIVE PARTITION.

It is often seen that many people want to secure their data from other users or their friends. For this purpose they use different methods to hide their data but all these tricks are not reliable. BUT now I am telling you a secure method to hide full drive. You can put all your data in a drive and after applying this trick you will be able to hide full drive. To learn this trick, follow these steps.

• First of all logged into administrative account.
• Click on start, open run and type “CMD” and press enter.
• Type “diskpart” and press enter.
• After few seconds diskpart utility will appear.
• Now type “list volume” to show list of volume and press enter.
• Select the Drive or volume that you want to hide. If you have four drives C,D,E,F, and you want to hid “D” drive, then type “select volume 1”  and press enter.
• Now in the next step type "remove letter D" to hide this drive.
• Close CMD and open My computer to check…drive D is not there…
• Now if you want to show the hidden drive then in step 7 type “assign drive d” and check “My computer”. Drive is back now.
• Excellent trick, try it now.

image (hide system drive)

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Some time an error occurs while you are using XP. A little dialogue box appears asking if you want to send report to Microsoft for this accident or not? Mostly when we press the button “Don’t send” The software we are using, turns off and we do not get any chance to save our working data. You can solve this problem simply and after this process you will not see this error box again. Just follow these steps.

  

Right click on “My computer” and click on ‘Properties”

On system properties dialogue box click on ‘advance tab”

Click on the error reporting button.

Click on “Disable error reporting”

It’s better for you to Place checkmark on “But notify me when critical errors occurs”

Now click Ok.

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It is common observation that some times our computer slows down due to low performance of hard drive. This problem happens due to the slow performance or poor speed of hard drive. When we say about poor performance, actually we mean, poor speed of reading/writing of hard drive. This problem can be solved by increasing the hard drive speed. Follow these steps to solve your problem.

Click Start menu and select run.

Now type (sysedit.exe) in run and press enter.

System configuration editor will appear.

Here you can see some multiple windows but you will select (system.ini).

This window contains a line (386enh)

Now after this line type (irq14=4096)

Now close this window and save it.

Reboot your computer now.

You will surely feel better performance of your computer.

Enjoy.

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Some time you install fresh Operating system in your computer and then you install Browser, google chrome. After installation you try to open gmail, yahoo, or facebookin google chrome but you do not see your required page and see a message “Server Security Certificate is not yet valid”.  Then you also try to open the page by clicking on “continue anyway” but the result is same.

Infect this problem occurs due to incorrect date and time of your computer. By synchronizing your system clock you can solve this problem.

I will tell you the best solution of this problem. Just follow these steps and after completion you will be able to login to facebook, yahoo, gmail etc.

Click on Start Menu and then control penal. 

Open Date/Time setting 

Adjust correct date and time according to your region. 

 Open "Internet Time Zone" tab.  

 Click on "Update Now" button. After clicking on button, It will start synchronzing your internet server timing. 

After 7-8 seconds you will see a message, "The time has been successfully synchronized with time.windows.com on 07-07-2013 at 5:09PM. 

Done

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CodeAcademy

CodeAcademy aims to make learning how to code fun, and they do this by making all of their courses game-based in nature. The site offers “tracks”, which are series of courses grouped around a particular topic or language. Course offerings include JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Python, Ruby, and JQuery. Registration is free, and once you get going in a class, you start to earn points and badges as a way to keep you motivated. No certificate or credits are offered here, however, the interactive classes make complicated concepts seem not as intimidating. CodeAcademy also runs CodeYear, a year-long collaborative effort to get as many people learning how to code (one lesson per week) as possible. More than 400,000 people have signed up at the time of this writing.

Google Code University

Learning how to code from the team behind the most popular search engine in the world? Seems like a pretty good deal. Course content here includes information on Computer Science, Programming Languages, Web Programming, Web Security, even Google APIs and Tools. Google Code University is free and does not require registration; classes are offered via recorded video lectures, talks, problem sets, exercises, documents, and slides. Computer programming language courses are mostly introductory in nature, and include languages such as Python, C++, Go, and JavaScript. No certificates or credits are awarded with the completion of these classes.

P2PU

Peer to Peer University (P2PU) is a collaborative experience where you’re meant to learn in community with others. Registration and courses are totally free. There are several “schools” within the P2PU organizational framework, including one for Web-based programming backed by Mozilla, creator of the Firefox web browser. As you complete courses, you can display badges on your website or social profiles. Courses include WebMaking 101 and Programming with the Twitter API; no developer certifications are offered here, but the courses are well executed and worth taking a look.

HTML5 Rocks

HTML5 is quickly becoming the language to know for cutting edge developers. HTML5 Rocks is not necessarily a coursework platform; rather, it’s a massive database of informational resources on anything and everything to do with HTML5, from nuts and bolts to semantics to storage. Pick what kind of HTML development you’d like to focus on from three different groupings: mobile, gaming, or business, and you’ll get a comprehensive hub of tutorials, articles, and in-browser simulators to get going on HTML5. No credits or certifications are awarded here; registration and use of the site is totally free. Examples of information offered here include web application frameworks, debugging tools, and compatibility resources.

The Code Player

If you’ve ever wanted to be a fly on the wall and watch over the shoulder of someone who really knows what they’re doing with HTML5, CSS3, or JavaScript, then The Code Player is for you. Click on any of the video offerings, and you’ll first see the proposed code snippet in action; for example, a gauge chart written with Canvas and Javascript. Click on “play walkthrough”, and here’s where it gets really interesting: a screencast of how the code was written, along with background information and comments. The end result of the code is also included if you just want to copy and paste for your own project.

RubyKoans

Want to learn Ruby in a very Zen-like fashion? You’ll want to check out RubyZoans, a simply arranged series of Ruby tutorials that aim to teach the Ruby language, syntax, structure, and common functions and libraries. A (free) download of the Ruby framework is required in order to get the most out of these classes, which are all completely free.

Stack Overflow

Stack Overflow isn’t a place for free classes, but if you’re looking for advice/help/shoulder to cry on for nearly any coding issue you might run into, than this is the right place. Thousands of developers use Stack Overflow to trade ideas, collaborate on common problems, or simply help each other out in a snag. Coding languages discussed here are plentiful, ranging from C# to jQuery to Python to CSS. Stack Overflow isn’t just a programming forum, however; it’s also a collaborative website built and maintained by those who use it (much like Wikipedia) with the goal of being an authoritative resource on all things code.

Scratch

While Scratch, a project of the MIT Media Lab, is aimed for kids, anyone who wants to dive right into the basics of programming will find this site enjoyable. Scratch is a programming language meant for creative Web projects: games, music, art, stories, animations, etc. Learning how to use Scratch is an exercise in logic, which is a foundational building block for any code language out there. Scratch is free to download and fun to learn; once you’ve made something with this platform, you can upload it to the Scratch gallery and share it with the world.

Apple Developer Center

As one of the most popular companies in the world, Apple offers a huge hub of resources specifically for developers who might (or might not) be familiar with their apps, devices, or web browser. From this core of information, anyone can access basic coding tutorials as well as much more advanced information, all for free.

Android Developer Center

If you’ve ever thought about developing for Android, a mobile platform with millions of users in nearly 200 countries all over the world, than this nucleus of everything you ever wanted to know (and more) is what you’ve been looking for. There’s something for everyone here, including the absolute beginner who has never coded in his or her life. SDKs, API documentation, design guidelines, etc. are also available, as well as training modules offered for novices to advanced users.

MobileTuts+

Mobile development is where it’s at on the MobileTuts+ site. There are a vast variety of high quality tutorials and articles here for mobile developers, ranging from Windows Phone SDK to cross-platform development to HTML5. There’s also the occasional insight with working mobile developers who give you a glimpse at what successful development technologies and strategies they themselves are using. The site is nicely organized into sections, so you can find tutorials, articles, tips, or videos quite easily.

Programr

Learn and practice your coding right in your web browser with this interactive site. There are several ways you can use Programr to learn something new or brush up on coding you already know and love: visit the Training Labs, where you can practice programming by solving real world exercises, take on one of the coding Challenges, check out one of the 2000+ apps that have been made by other Programr users for inspiration, or enter one of the ongoing Contests. All of the information here is free, and a wide variety of coding languages from Java to SQL are offered.

edX

edX is a collaborative effort between Harvard University and MIT to bring free online courses from both institutions to the Web for anyone to take advantage of. Classes from Harvard, MIT, and Berekley are offered here for free, with more universities joining in the near future. Certificates of completion are awarded at the time of this writing for free; however, a “modest fee” for these certificates is planned for future students. Classes are somewhat sparse right now, but the origin of the classes as well as the informational content is well worth a look; for example, you could try Software as a Service from Berkeley, Introduction to Computer Science from Harvard, or Introduction to Computer Science and Programming from MIT – all for free.

YouTube EDU

YouTube, along with millions of cats-doing-stuff videos, offers a hub of educational content with offerings from organizations such as NASA, the BBC, TED, and many more. If you’re a visually oriented person who learns by watching someone else do something, than this is the place for you. You’ll find coding-related videos under the Engineeringcategory; course offerings range from Intro to Computer Science to Web Development to Database Management. These are meant to be standalone informational offerings rather than part of a cohesive course; however, if you would like to dip your toes in a subject and want to get a quick video introduction from leaders in the field, this is a good solution.

Processing

Processing.org is a central place for Processing, “is a programming language, development environment, and online community that since 2001 has promoted software literacy within the visual arts.” Everything you need to learn this language from the ground up is here, including a free download of the software platform, tutorials, example code, and a forum for when you really get stuck.

Eloquent Javascript

Whether you’d like to learn JavaScript from the ground up, or merely brush up on a few fundamentals, then you’ll want to check out this website. It’s actually based around a full-length book, and is browser-based with game-based interactive tutorials that let you see what JavaScript can do in a fun and intuitive way.

Code Avengers

Get your inner superhero on with this fun, game-based site that offers comprehensive courses on HTML, CSS, and Javascript. No registration is required, just click the “Get Started” button and you’re off and running. For example, the JavaScript 1 course is 40 short lessons with five tasks that you must complete in each lesson before moving on to the next. Each module also offers interactive challenges and a quiz to test your newfound skills. Cool features: a glossary that is instantly available for whatever node you’re currently working on, a notepad application if you want to take notes, and a list of Code Avengers keyboard shortcuts so you can easily navigate within the website. Classes are free.

Code School

Not all the courses offered at Code School are free, but there are several good ones that are (and you might just be tempted to take a paid one once you run through one of the classes!). The first thing you’ll notice about Code School is how well everything is designed – it’s just a very aesthetically pleasing site. Code School delivers all classes within your web browser via video lectures, various coding challenges and quizzes, screencasts, and intuitive coding tutorials where you get hands on with what you just learned. Each class has at least five levels, and all challenges/quizzes must be solved before you can advance to the next level. Once you get to the end and unlock the final level, you’ll receive a cool badge and potentially win some swag – like discounts off your next Code School course.

Hackety Hack

Hackety Hack is meant for people who have had zero previous programming experience; however, if you’ve been meaning to learn Ruby and you’d like to do it as painlessly as possible then this might be a good spot for you. You’ll be using the Shoes cross-platform toolkit to go through the lessons and figure out how to use Ruby effectively; once you get going you can upload your project to the Gallery of programs that other users have shared and show off your expertise.

Learn Code The Hard Way

Okay, yes, the title of this website is a little bit less than inspirational. However, this is definitely one of the most useful sites on the Web for learning code: C, Python, Ruby, SQL, and Regex. All of these languages are meant to learn using in-depth instruction found in a book for each coding platform. The “hard way” is basically this: learning each exercise in depth, making the code run, and not moving on until you’ve mastered what you’re currently looking at. The books are free online to read within your web browser; you can also choose to purchase them for a nominal fee if you’d like to keep them.

Alice

Just like MIT’s Scratch (another entry on this list), Alice is primarily aimed at the younger set who want to try their hand at programming. However, anyone who wants to give coding a go or simply flex their skills in another kind of environment will enjoy this particular platform. Alice is educational software that teaches students how to program in a 3D environment. Animations or games are the focus here, with tools and materials intended to encourage logical thinking, problem solving, and of course, computer programming. Alice was developed and is maintained by Carnegie Mellon University. The downloads and teaching materials are free, and it’s a great introduction to object-oriented programming, as well as fundamental coding concepts.

Google it

While all of the resources listed here are fantastic in their own right, there are still many more too numerous to list, for whatever coding language you might possibly be interested in learning. Here are a few Google queries you can use to narrow down what you’re looking for (hat tip to Tech Recipes for the more complicated search strings here):

“learn (insert coding language here)”

Believe it or not, this is an incredibly powerful search string, and will bring up a solid first page of results.

inurl:edu "python"

This tells Google to search within the URL keeping the search parameters to only .edu sites, looking for the coding language Python.

-inurl:htm -inurl:html intitle:"index of" +("/ebooks"|"/book") +(chm|pdf|zip) "python"

Now we’re getting fancy. Basically, this tells Google to find book or e-book directories with Python books in them, in several different formats. You can also look for specific publishers, like this:

-inurl:htm -inurl:html intitle:"index of" +("/ebooks"|"/book") +(chm|pdf|zip) +"o'reilly"

Or specific disciplines of study:

-inurl:htm -inurl:html intitle:"index of" +("/ebooks"|"/book") +(chm|pdf|zip) +"software development"

Bottom line: there’s a lot of free learning out there

As you can see, there is literally no end to what you can learn online, in the comfort of your own home at your own pace. You’re never too young or too old to start picking up new skills, and the latest employment studies are showing that people who know how to code – and code well – are some of the most highly desired by employers, making coding a viable, valuable skillset to have especially in a turbulent economic landscape.

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Below is an HTML color code picker script that resembles the Adobe Photoshop color picker. Using this online tool you can select the color you want to use in your web page or blog. Your browser must have JavaScript enabled in order to use this tool, if enabled use the middle multi-color scroll bar to scroll up or down to the color you want. If you want to select the shade of color, click the shade you want in the large shade box. Finally, the color code will appear in the bottom-right corner # box. If you want to keep that color, click the text boxes below the color picker and then select the color and then click the alternate box to begin with a new color.

 

R  H  
G  S  
B  V  

#  

 

#  ____ 
#  ____

The above HTML color code picker is using code

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