How To Set Up an Ethernet LAN

You don’t have to be a network engineer to set up an Ethernet LAN at home or in a small office. But it will require some knowledge of the hardware devices involved and a little planning.

1. Figure out your network wiring scheme. A LAN will involve numerous cable and power connections. You don’t want your home or office to look like a jungle of cables. First determine where the computers in the network will be positioned. Next find the central location for the router or hub and modem. The modem connects to the telephone line, the router/hub connects to the modem, then all the computers connect to the router/hub. Given this sequence, what would be the best place for the router/hub? You have to make sure that the Ethernet cables from computer to router/hub can be laid out neatly, running tightly along ceiling or floor and wall corners.
2. Connect the router or hub to the modem. The router/hub has one or two ports labeled ‘uplink’ or ‘modem’. These are the ports that connect the device to the modem. An Ethernet cable is used for this connection. Ethernet cables are also called RJ-45 network cables. Don’t confuse them with telephone line cables which have thinner wires and smaller jacks. Telephone line cables are only used for connecting the modem to the telephone box.
3. Connect the computers to the router or hub. Each computer needs to have a network interface card in order to be networked. This hardware component is now standard in all CPUs. They are either integrated into the motherboard or are PCI cards slotted into the motherboard. In either case their ports can be found at the back of the CPU tower. Their ports look exactly like the ones on the router/hub and thus also use Ethernet cables for connection. Each computer will need one cable running from it and plugged in to one port on the router/hub. The router/hub ports will be numerically labeled. It’s important to note which computer plugs in to which port on the router/hub so it will be easier to troubleshoot later on if connection issues arise.
4. Configure the computers’ network settings. You will have to configure each computer so that they are all recognized as part of the network. For Windows-based computers the settings are available on the Network Connections directory. Click on the ‘Connect to’ options from the Start menu and choose ‘Show all connections’ to open the Network Connections window. Choose the ‘Set up a home or small office network’ option displayed on the left panel. The Network Setup Wizard will open. Simply follow the step-by-step instructions on this Wizard. The important choices to make are to set the connection as TCP/IP and that the computer should ‘Obtain an IP address automatically’.

All the computers in a LAN share the bandwidth of a single Internet connection. Consider applying for a subscription package with a larger bandwidth to avoid any slow downs in operation.

How To Change your Startup Menu in Windows Vista

When you buy a new computer, chances are that it comes with various default programs and applications. Some of these are useful, such as antivirus software and security suites. Some are intrusive, though. In most cases, these take up memory, hard drive space, and—worse—these take time to load. These are often called “bloatware” or sometimes even “crapware” because they are installed by default, but you might not want them to start up with your computer.

Ideally, Windows Vista and Windows 7 will take about one and a half minutes to boot up from a cold start. This means that within that period of time, you should have a working desktop, and you can already launch applications that you want. However, with the bloatware that comes with new computers, some take two to three minutes to boot up. Some might even take longer. This can cause serious productivity losses if you want to be able to work right away, after hitting the power button.

You can either uninstall them from the Control Panel, but you can also remove them from being automatically started up. Fortunately, changing startup items in Windows Vista is simple, with the aid of a few built-in Windows applications.

• First, you can use the MSConfig application to change the startup items. This application is actually included with Windows XP onwards, so you can fine-tune or tweak your system as necessary.
• Click the Start menu and then “Run …” Then type in “msconfig.exe” and then press enter. Alternatively, you can hit Windows key + R to bring up the Run window.
• By default, User Account Control is active, so Windows Vista will ask you to confirm if you want to run MSConfig. Click “Continue” to give Vista permission to run the application.
• Click the “Startup” tab. You will see a list of applications that run with startup by default. The ones with checkmarks start when you open your computer. Uncheck the applications you want to disable. Then, click OK or Apply. You can exit without restarting if you don’t need to reboot for now.
• Additionally, you can also look for the Startup menu. Simply right-click on the Start Menu, and then click “Explore” or “Explore All.” Browse down to “Programs” and then “Startup.” Chances are, if you have already removed items using MSConfig, they will no longer be here.
• If you want applications to run when you start Windows, you can copy shortcuts to the Startup folder.
• If you want to re-enable applications with MSConfig, simply check the checkbox so they will run on startup.

When changing your startup items, take care not to remove essential components of your computer. For example, your antivirus software would usually be included in the startup items on MSConfig, unless it is listed as a Service. Disabling it on MSConfig will render your security weak upon startup. If you are unsure, try disabling the items on your MSConfig startup tab one at a time, so you can see the effect of taking out certain programs, before choosing to customize your startup.

How to find the IP address of the email sender in Gmail, Yahoo mail, Hotmail, AOL, Outlook Express, etc

When you receive an email, you receive more than just the message. The email comes with headers that carry important information that can tell where the email was sent from and possibly who sent it. For that, you would need to find the IP address of the sender. The tutorial below can help you find the IP address of the sender.
Note that this will not work if the sender uses anonymous proxy servers.
Also, note that if you receive an email sent from a Gmail account through the web browser, you may not be able to find the real IP address because Google hides the real IP address of the sender. However, if someone sends you a mail from his/her Gmail account using a client like Thunderbird, Outlook or Apple Mail, you can find the originating IP address.
Lets begin this. First of all, the IP address is generally found in the headers enclosed beween square brackets, for instance, [129.130.1.1]

Finding IP address in Gmail

1. Log into your Gmail account with your username and password.
2. Open the mail.
3. To display the email headers,
   • Click on the inverted triangle beside Reply. Select Show Orginal.
4. You may copy the headers and use my IP address detection script to ease the process. Or if you want to manually find the IP address, proceed to 5.
5. Look for Received: from followed by the IP address between square brackets [ ].

   Received: from [69.138.30.1] by web31804.mail.mud.yahoo.com

6. If you find more than one Received: from patterns, select the last one.
7. Track the IP address of the sender

Finding IP address in Yahoo! Mail

1. Log into your Yahoo! mail with your username and password.
2. Click on Inbox or whichever folder you have stored your mail.
3. Click on the Subject of the email you want to track and right-click. You should get a menu like this.
   
4. You may copy the headers and use my IP address detection script to ease the process. Or if you want to manually find the IP address, proceed to the next step.
5. Look for Received: from followed by the IP address between square brackets [ ].
   That should most likely be the IP address of the sender.
   If there are many instances of Received: from with the IP address, select the IP address in the last pattern. If there are no instances of Received: from with the IP address, select the first IP address in X-Originating-IP.
6. Track the IP address of the sender

Finding IP address in Hotmail

Hotmail has been integrated with Windows Live, or vice-versa. And the format has changed. Here is how you find the IP address of the sender.

1. Log into your Hotmail/Windows Live account with your username and password.
2. Click on the Inbox link on the left.
3. Under the column that says "Sort by", find the email that you want to track and right-click on it. You should get a menu that has something like Mark as read, Mark as unread, and so on. The last option in the menu should be View message source. Select it.
   
4. You should see the email headers now.
5. You may copy the headers and use my IP address detection script to ease the process. Or if you want to manually find the IP address, proceed to step 6.
6. If you find a header with X-Originating-IP: followed by an IP address, that is the sender's IP address
7. If that doesn't work, look for Received: from followed by IP address within square brackets[].
8. * If you have multiple Received: from headers, eliminate the ones that have proxy.anyknownserver.com.
9. Track the IP address of the sender

Finding IP address in AOL

1. Log into your AOL Mail AIM account with your username and password.
2. Open the email that you want to track.
3. On the top row, click on Action and in the drop-down menu, select View Message Source
   
4. It opens a new page with the headers. Once you have the headers, look for the IP address that follows X-AOL-IP:. That should be the IP address of the sender.
5. Track that IP address of the sender

How To Connect Two PCs with Serial Cable

Two PCs can connect to each other without the use of network interface cards. This method is called Direct Cable Connection (DCC) and can be established through the use of a serial cable.

Plug in the serial cable on the serial ports of the two PCs.
Serial ports are located at the back of a desktop PC's casing. Even modern computers that have Ethernet and USB have at least one serial port free. It looks like a rectangle with 9 pins in it. Check for these serial ports in both PCs and see what type they are. 9 pins mean a male connector while 9 holes means a female connector. Serial ports could also come in the 25 pin/hole variety. Use a serial cable that can fit in to the type of serial ports the two PCs have. Depending on the serial ports, you might need to add an adapter to the cable, possibly to change a female connector to male one or a 9 pin/hole to a 25 pin/hole connector.

Set up the Host computer.
The Host computer is the PC that has the needed information; it will be the source. Access the Control Panel then click on Network Connections. On the left-hand panel of the succeeding window, under the heading Network Tasks, choose the 'Create a new connection' option. The New Connection Wizard will open up and the following are the steps you have to take.

a) Choose 'Set up an advanced connection'. Click Next.
b) Choose 'Connect directly to another computer'. Click Next.
c) Choose 'Host' as the role of the computer. Click Next.
d) Choose 'Communications Port (COM1)' as the connection device (drop-down list). Click Next.
e) Choose a user from the list to establish who has access to the connection. Click Next then Finish.

You will notice that in the Network Connections folder you will now have a new item labeled 'Incoming Connections'.

Set up the Guest computer.
The Guest computer is the PC that needs to access and retrieve information from the Host. The steps for setting up the Guest computer is the same with the Host with some exceptions. When asked to choose a role the 'Guest' option must be clicked. Afterwards you will be asked to name the connection. Here you have to type in the name of the Host computer. After this, the following steps will be similar once again to the Host set up and you only have to pick the same choices. The new item that will appear on the Guest computer's Network Connections folder will be labeled 'Direct Connection'.

Once the connection and configuration is complete, the two PCs can now communicate and transfer files via the new connections available in their respective Network Connections folder.

How To Find Available IP Addresses

An Internet Protocol address or more commonly known as an IP address is very important especially if you want to connect other devices to your computer such as another computer, a console used for gaming, printer, scanner, etc. Basically, an IP address is likened to the language that computers have so that they will be able to communicate with each other and stay connected. Each device has its own IP address so that it will be able to easily connect with another device. However, there are also IP addresses that are still available and can be used.

Here is how to find available IP addresses:

1. Click the "Start" menu that is usually found on the lower left on your computer. It may sometimes also be the pearl shaped with Windows logo also located on the lower left. Click "Run". A window will then open letting you open a folder or run a program on your computer depending on what keywords you type.
2. Type the keyword "cmd" (not including the quote marks) on the dialog box located next to the word "open". Then click "OK." Doing this will open the command prompt which is a window with a black background and white texts are in it. If you follow this step correctly you will see that window.
3. In the command prompt, type in "ipconfig" (not including the quote marks) right where the cursor is. This process will let you see your IP address. Press "Enter" after typing. Several lines of text will pop up on the screen. Do not panic as this is normal. After the lines have stopped popping, your IP address will be seen in one of those lines. Search for the line of text that says "IP Address." Your IP address will be the group of numbers located after the "IP Address". For example 192.168.2.1. That will be your personal IP address used by your computer.
4. After that scroll the window down and on the flashing cursor located below all the lines of texts, type in "ping 192.168.1.x" (without the quote marks). You will notice that the first seven numbers are the same as your IP address as that located on the upper portion, and where x is equivalent to the number you that you want to see if it is still available. For example, the number 8. What you will type will come out as ping 192.168.1.8
5. If what you typed is still available to use, the result of the command prompt will come out saying "destination host unreachable". If it is not available and is already in use by some other device, it will try to connect with the device.

An IP address is commonly used by computer technicians to know where a certain computer is located if ever they want to find out about the location of a computer. It is also used by the higher authorities to search for clues in certain cases involving computers.