Dumali

Likely the single best piece of code written for the true computer enthusiast. This is a person I define as having multiple machines, running different operating systems.

Synergy will allow you to have a virtual KVM switch, that is, to switch between monitors with a click. Meaning you can use one keyboard and one mouse to use multiple machines at the same time. You simple click the representative box and poof that is the machine you are working with, you can cut and paste from one machine to another.

A little confusing, so here is a video for clarity! This is awesome!

Netstumbler is absolutely brilliant for Windows wireless users. It is a full featured tool that can find wifi SSID’s. This knowledge alone will allow you to connect to an open node, if you know its there.

Sometimes people will drive around with a device thats running NetStumbler to map a section of the city and see what signals are avaialbel out there. This is known as wardriving.

this could also be used to verify network configurations. You can test your own and see what other networks are using.

You can find other causes of wireless interference. If you can pinpoint it you can change channels or move your access point.

You can track down and hopefully stop “rogue” access points and scoundrels bridging your connection.

If you are running WindowsCE get ministumbler. If you are a Mac user, iStumbler is for you.

Here is a great tool for you to monitor your network traffic with. Its called NetMeter and it obviously measures the amount of bandwidth in use.

It is stable and resource efficient. ( I like zoning out watching the little graph.)

The best use I have for this one is when traffic seems to go slowly, fire it up and see why. If your download is going at 30 kpbs but your NetMeter is showing 400 kbps, you have a serious problem. Its definitely the first line in your network defense troubleshooting.

If you are tired of guessing your home computers internet address, there is a solution to it.

In fact many ISP’s wont guarantee your IP adress will not change, and if that change occurs while you are on a trip you have next to no recourse on how to contact your home machine.

There is a free service offered by DynDNS that will allow you to assign a hostname to your machine allowing you to access it irregardless of its numerical IP, or your location.

I could see this being a great thing for people with private FTP servers, or a small website they would use privately. You can have your own ThisismyPC.com and for the fantastic price of free.

Now for the king of all things wireless, DD-WRT. DD-WRT allows you to put in a new control panel. a Control panel that lets you have almost complete control over your wireless device, in fact this can be used to turn your wireless router into a wifi repeater.

This kind of creative thought and unrivaled coding is not a product of Microsoft! This is a Linux technology. If it works well, its Linux.
Installing DD-WRT will unlock tons of configurations options you never knew existed before, and obviously your routers creator did not want you to have. Now your can make your router fast, and secure and to do things beyond its intended purpose. Get brave, get DD-WRT installed.

It is possible to get a stronger signal using tinfoil, because the tinfoil will rflect the signal into a direction that you want it to and not let it disperse into an unneeded direction. Busting out the Reynold’d wrap will be significant in this case.

Its a very cheap and very effective method to fix a problem that would normally require a comparatively expensive high decibel booster antenna, of course to even make use of the expensive booster antenna you would need to have a router that had removable antenna’s to begin with.

Foil gets around these obstacles. Your homemade parabola will do better than what you can buy in the store.

If you ever find yourself in a hotel room with 2 laptops and 1 Ethernet port, you needn’t worry.

You can actually plug one into the Ethernet port ad have the wired laptop broadcast the wireless signal to the unconnected laptop, converting your wired laptop into an ad hoc access point.

For safety’s sake be sure to disable “Internet Connection sharing after every session, as it would enable people you may not want to connect to your laptop if you were in a malicious environment.

The fantastic no cost wifi detector NetStumbler program for Windows will discover all the wireless access points around your location, even if the SSID is NOT broadcasted, even if they have passwords or a weak signal. This is perfect for wardriving or even searching for internet cafes.

If you are a Mac user, google for MacStumbler.

You should stop broadcasting your network’s name. If they don’t know the name they would be hard pressed to attempt to connect. Go into the admin menu and turn off the SSID broadcast. Now your access point wont show up in the list of available networks.

This is not a failsafe method of protecting your network it is simply an additional layer of protection. People with advanced skills and tools will still be able to access it given enough time. This will only keep it off of the average persons listing. Of course 90% of users are “average”.

A lot like WPA, you can dictate who and what can connect to your access point. You must create a list of devices, along with their net cards MAC addresses that you want to allow. Then by default all other devices will be refused. This control will likely be found at 192.168.1.1 as well, in the administration section of the configuration.