Network Router: Hidden Features

Network Router: Hidden Features

 

The wireless router, which you're using, has a variety of hidden features, and practically, they can be digging-out from the router's configuration page to work better the web interface.

Keep in mind that different routers has different features and you may not have all the features as explained below. The features will also be in different locations with different names in the configuration page of the router. 

Accessing Web Interface: The majority of routers has web-based configuration pages, which can be accessed from the web browsers, as long as you were on the same network of the router. To access router's web interface, you've to enter router's local IP address into the web browser's address bar. To find the IP address, Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Center. 

      

To view the status of the connection click Local Area Connection. 

Look for the IPv4 Default Gateway, which is the IP address for your router, and enter this IP address into your web browser’s address bar.

Now, log-in with the combination of user name and password to access the configuration page. Almost all the routers, probably, may using log-in credentials as its default combination; so, check the manual to get the credentials or perform a web search with router's model and number, if you really do not know the credentials. After logged-in, you can view and browse the router's configuration pages then configure it's settings.

Who is on your network? The router's configuration page reveals a option to know 'who is connected' on your network. The option will be in the sections of Status or Wireless or somewhere else - under a button named 'Wireless Clients Connected'. 

You may also view all the activated devices on the network. A table, named DHCP Active IP Table, will provide the Clients Host Name, IP Address and  etc.,

And if you give meaningful names to your computers and devices then the names will also be shown in the list, which helps to verify only the approved devices are connected.  

Wireless Channel: You may modify a variety of wireless network settings from router's web interface, specially Wireless Channel. Modifying wireless channel of router will speed-up the Wi-Fi service. If other wireless networks in your area, probably, using the same wireless channel of yours, then the interference will result a slower performance. So, changing wireless channels will be resulted a good performance of Wi-Fi.     

Note: Before modifying wireless channels, you should analyze the local area networks to get the best wireless channel, which has the least interference. For Wi-Fi, you may use Wi-Fi Analyzer for Android, which available in Google play and for Windows, inSSIDer utility. Both utilities will scan the networks of local area and provide the best wireless channel. 

QoS (Quality of Service): Many routers contain QoS, which ensures better service to prioritizes the traffic in order to provide a better experiences such as Internet phone calls or video conferencing. This is useful to prevent a user, who may slowing down the entire network. QoS features are configurable; so, you may even be able to prioritize one computer’s network connection over others.

Port Forwarding, Port Triggering and DMZ: Router provides several ways to set up a computer as a server to use certain services such as peer to peer file transfers or some forms of VoIP. By default, the feature Port Forwarding may allow you to open a specific port on the internet. 

Routers use Network Address Translation (NAT),  which is a process of modifying IP address, to share a single IP address to multiple computers. When an incoming traffic, through Internet, reaches the router then the traffic will be discarded because the router has no idea to which computer the traffic has to be forwarded. But NAT acts as a firewall and prevents those incoming traffics to reach the computer. By modifying routers settings may also be able to block some specific types of out-going traffics. 

DMZ (De-Militarized Zone) is a subnetwork, which added an additional layer of security, to the Local Area Network (LAN) where incoming traffics were forwarded to DMZ. DMZ forwards all the traffics to a specific computer and the router works as a firewall.       

DDNS (Dynamic Domain Name System): Routers web interface, generally, has the pages for DDNS, which lets you assign a fixed host and domain name to a dynamic Internet IP address. (If you already have a fixed IP address, then you don't need to use DDNS) DDNS is useful when you are hosting your own website, FTP server, or other server behind the Gateway. Before using this feature, you need to sign up for DDNS service at a supported DDNS service provider.

Access Restrictions: Router offers several options such as to control network traffics, block specific vulnerable websites and even accessing Internet in a scheduled timings. Some routers may even allow you to set up the scheduled timings to per computer basis, which limiting only specific system.

To set up parental controls visit: How to set up parental controls

Re-Boot: If you face any problem on network issues, then the router has to be re-booted by pressing either the re-set button, available on router, or unplug the router from power. You may even find a convenient reboot button on the configuration page of your router, so you may reset the router from here, too.

Using Third-Party Firmwares: You may install a variety of third-party router firmwares to know more about the router. Before installing these type of firmwares, you've to check whether your router is supporting these types of firmware. Some firmwares are popular in providing additional features, which were not generally come with your routers. 

OpenWRT is a popular router firmware, which described as a Linux distribution for embedded devices, allowing to access Linux shell and installing software on the router, which works efficiently.

This article doesn't cover all the features of your router rather you may go around web-based configuration pages to get full benefits of your router.

How To Trace Your Laptop, In Case You Lose It!

How To Trace Your Laptop, In Case You Lose It! 

 

"Find My Mac" is a service from Apple to track a lost / stolen Mac computer. But Microsoft doesn't supporting such an equivalent service for its Windows PCs, including Tablets that even running on Windows 8. 

The users of Windows would like the ability of tracking their laptop, which ever become lost or stolen, then install some third-party software. There were several paid services offering for this solution; however, there are also some better free services available. 

All tracking services work similarly after installing a piece of software on your device then set-up an account with service. If you lost the device, then visit the website of appropriate service, and log into your account to view your device location and control it remotely. 

Remember, it would be more difficult to track a laptop than a smartphone - because, a smart phone will probably be connected with data network and in standby mode. So, a smart phone could able to communicate its location while a laptop may be powered off or not connected to Wi-Fi, then the laptop would not be able to send a report.

LockItTight (LiT) is an open source tracking software, which lets you precisely locate and monitor your Windows computers and Anroid phones.

 

In case your computer was lost or stolen then you can access the reports from any computer and able to find where it is, who is using it and how. With all these information, the chance of retrieving your lost computer is greatly increased.

 

Prey also an open source tracking software, which lets you keep track of your laptops, Android phones and even tablets whenever stolen or miss placed.

It offers tracking Apps, too, for Android and iOS that enables using one service to track all of your devices. 

Prey has paid Pro-Plans and Basic tracking services, which is completely free of charge. The free basic service allows you to have three devices linked to your account and storing-up report for ten locations per device. After installing Prey, you’ll be prompted to create a new user account or enter your current user account details.

 

After logged into your account, Prey runs as a Windows service by default. It may also be configured from Start Menu > Program File > choose Prey Folder.

 

By making the service to check frequently, will allow you to get reports quickly and you ever lost your device. To activate this option, go Options for execution then modify Frequency of reports and actions.   

Track the Lost Laptop: Go to Prey website and log into the same account credentials that you've registered. Now, you may view your computer and any other devices, if you already have registered on your account.
 

If you really lost the laptop, then you've to click it's name from Prey control panel.

Now from Main tab, move the slider from 'OK' to 'Missing'. Prey only tracks the device, when it is missing and does not track the location, constantly. Geo option should also be enabled that makes the laptop's internal GPS hardware (or nearby Wi-Fi hotspots names) to report the location. Click 'Save changes' button. 

After this process, a message will be displayed as 'Tracked, waiting for report'. Now Prey software on your laptop will connect the server of Prey. The server checks the status of your laptop then receive a message and generate as a report. You may receive only an alert, if the laptop is switched on and connected over net. There is also an option 'ENABLE ON-DEMAND', where you may request an immediate report; and this option wouldn't work in the free version. However, if you wait for few minutes, the free version will work for your report.         

Once the report arrives, it will be in the Reports tab. The report having the info that you've selected such as laptop's Geo location, IP address, network status and even a screen shot. These info may help you to get the laptop back or it's an evidence to make complaint that your laptop has been stolen.

Blue Screen of Death

 Blue Screen of Death

Blue Screen of Death (or Blue Screen of Doom) BSOD - is a worst type of computer error, when Microsoft Windows encounters a critical system error that causes the system shut down, to prevent damage. 

What causes BSOD: Blue Screens are, generally, caused by poorly written device drivers or malfunctioning hardware, such as faulty memory, power supply issues, overheating of components, or hardware running beyond its specification limits. 

By default, Windows will create a memory dump file when a blue screen error occurs. Depending on the OS version, there may be several formats could be saved in a range of 64kB "minidump" to a "complete dump", which is a copy of entire contents of physical RAM. 

The memory dump file may be debugged later, using a kernel debugger. A debugger is necessary to obtain a stack trace, to determine the true cause of the problem. The information on-screen will be limited and thus it may hide the true sources of the error. 

Windows restarts when a BSOD occurs: Without apparent reasons, if a system restarts, itself, then you may observe it is blue screening problem. By default, Windows automatically restarts the system, whenever it encounters a Blue Screen of Death. Whenever a blue screen appears, a detailed error message will be displayed, and you can disable the automatic reboots of BSOD by the following steps.

Disabling Automatic Reboots of BSOD: Right click on Computer icon and choose Properties. 

System's info window will open. Now click on Advanced system settings. 

Now System Properties window will open; from this window choose Advanced tab then click the Settings button of Startup and Recovery portion. 

 

Now Startup and Recovery window will open. Tick mark of the box Automatically restart should be removed from the portion of System failure. Click OK.

Next time when you get a BSOD, the screen will be stopped and you may read then be able to write the error message. 

How to view BSOD information: NirSoft BlueScreenView is a free application, which helps to scanning the minidump files during BSOD and displaying the crash report.

        
BSOD's report will also be displayed in the Action Center of Windows 7 and the newer versions of Windows, as well. If anyone experienced a blue screen, then check the solutions by opening Action Center.

Windows will analyzing BSOD and other errors that system has experienced; but before showing reports, Windows, itself, has about to fix the problems.  

Tips to tackle BSOD: BSOD may occurred by several ways and following tips will helpful to tackle the problems when you experienced with blue screens. 

1. System Restore: If the system has experienced a blue screening, recently, then use System Restore option to roll-back system's software to a previous state. If this works, then you will recognize that it's software problem. 

2. Malware: Scan the system for malware, which digs deep and hooks the Windows kernel that cause system instability. 

3. Drivers: Improperly installed drivers could also be lead the system to crash. Download the latest drivers from the hardware manufacturer websites and install them. 

4. Safe Mode: If the system runs a blue screen, every time, when switched on then try to booting in safe mode. In safe mode, Windows loads only the essential drivers; and other installed driver, which causes Windows to blue screen, is doesn't work in safe mode. And you may, also, fix the problem from the safe mode. 

5. Hardware: Faulty hardware and errors on system memory or overheating of system may also lead the system to blue screen. 

6. Reinstall Windows: Reinstalling Windows is the right option, which will erase the existing system software and replace with a fresh one. After reinstallation, if the system continues, again, to blue screen  then assume it's a hardware problem.

How To Set-Up Parental Controls On Your Home Network

How To Set-Up Parental Controls On Your Home Network

Web filtering is a way to restrict the web, especially, for young children preventing them from roaming into the bad corners of the Internet. Parental controls can help to filter the web by blocking inadvertent access to inappropriate websites. 

There were several ways to configuring parental controls through the router of your home network to built controls on Windows or third-party software. Remember, teenagers are adept in finding their ways to break the controls, if they wish. 

Your Router: Remember, many routers doesn't supporting parental control option, but configuring parental control through a router is the best way, because the router works as a choke center where all the internet traffics of your network flows through, and setting up parental controls will allow you to perform web filtering not only to the devices on your network but also laptops, smartphones, tablets and even game consoles with built-in browsers. 

If the router has this option then it will be indicated on the box and there will a catalogue, too. Go to the router's web-based configuration pages and set-up the parental controls for your network. 

If the router doesn't supported the parental controls option, then you can use OpenDNS to set up parental controls on any router. To make activation on router, you should have to change the router's DNS server settings to use OpenDNS. 

OpenDNS is a service that allows you to set up an account and configure web filtering, which protect your children on computers, gaming consoles, mobile devices and more. Through this service you may choose different sites to be blocked and the sites you blocked were redirected a message 'The site is blocked', when trying to open from your network. For more information about changing your router’s settings, refer to its catalogue. 

Further, if you want a particular device on your network not to be filtered then change its DNS server settings manually; so, the device would not be engaged OpenDNS service.  

Windows 7 has built-in parental controls, which control timings to a user account can be logged into the system and what programs could be used. This is awesome and helpful for your kids, when they using separate user accounts on your system. But Windows 7 does not supporting web filter. However, Microsoft, still, offers a free program for Family Safety, which allows to set up web filtering on Windows 7. Installing Microsoft Family Safety program on your Windows 7 system then you could be able to manage its settings. This program is a part of Microsoft’s Windows Essentials package.
      
Windows 8 has integrated parental controls along with time limits of Windows 7 and program access controls with web filtering feature and more new options. So, you can manage the settings and view the reports from the same Microsoft Family Safety program. Make tick on the box of 'Is this a child account?', when setting up a new user account on Windows 8, then this account will be identified as a child account and managed by the Family Safety website.  

 
Third-Party Software: Most of the Internet Security Suites come with built-in parental controls and if a security suite is installed on your system then go and verify whether the security suite has built-in parental controls. 

Dedicated parental control solutions, with pay, are available on net. Many free solutions for web filtering, also, available on net. 

Norton Security offers a free Norton Family parental control application that seems to be widely recommended. Try doing a search online and you may found plenty of solutions that would be fit your needs.

Is Your PC Really Needs Defrag?

Is Your PC Really Needs Defrag?

If the PC went slow, everyone of us become uneasy and searching solutions to make the system faster! The solutions you may get from your friends or even from any PC technicians. They all may telling you to defrag the PC.

But the PC really needs a manual trigger of defrag in these days?

Before going into this article, you should know 'what is defragmentation?'. Defragmentation is a process of maintaining file systems, which reduces the amount of fragmentation that organized the mass storage device into smallest number of contiguous regions (fragments). This utility keeping the smaller files within a directory, as they're often accessed in sequence.

Vista or Windows 7: The system, running either Vista or Windows 7, is already scheduled to run defrag, on a regular basis - generally 1 AM every Wednesday. 

The configure schedule for Defrag will be shown in the Disk Defragmenter window, including the last run with fragmented progress.

Above picture shows the disks has been defragmented few days ago with 0% of fragmented, which means schedule of defrag is working fine.

The scheduled timing rule has an exception, when the PC is switched off every time, i.e., the PC is not in idle mode, then the defrag task will not get a chance to run; in this case defrag should be started by manually. 

Windows XP is around 10 year old version; so, by default, it doesn't supporting any automatic defragmentation, instead you may defrag the system by manually in a regular basis. 

If you're using the system heavier as for downloading, deleting, creating or writing and so on, then you need to defrag once in a week and for light use, it may be for once in a month. 

There were couple of steps to perform defrag in XP.  

Start > Run then type dfrg.msc click OK.

             

Alternately, open My Computer, right-click on Local Disk then select Properties.

 

From the Local Disk Properties window, open the Tools tab, then click  Defragment Now.

Disk Defragmenter will open and you may analyze the drive to view a report.

 

Above said is a manual process and if you wish to arrange by a scheduled process (like Vista or Windows 7), then create a task. Control Panel > Scheduled Tasks.
  

The Scheduled Task Wizard will open and select the required program to run, and our case is Accessibility Wizard. 
 

Type %systemroot%\system32\defrag.exe into File name field then click Open. 

 

Assign a name for the task and note, 'defrag' will be the default name, so you may fix any name as you wish. 

Choose the radio button of 'Weekly' as to perform this task then click Next.

 

Now select the time and day for the task you want to start. 

For 'Start time' enter - 1:00 AM, for 'Every ..... weeks' - choose 1, and 'Select the days(s)' - choose Wednesday.

Remember: the settings we made, here, is the default settings of Windows 7. 

 

The user name of default will automatically be entered, and you should enter the correct password and confirm it again then click Next.

Now a window will open with a message 'You have successfully scheduled the following task' - which means everything is done correctly, and tick the box 'Open advanced properties for this task when I click Finish' then click Finish. 

When the Advanced Properties open, fill in the Run field with- C: -after the text- defrag.exe -included a space then click OK.

One more step have to do from Settings tab for the Idle Time has to be adjusted as your PC wake-up and run the task. 

Now you’ll be prompted to fill the log-in credentials again, then click OK.

Now an icon, named Disk Defrag, will be placed on your Scheduled Task.

When it runs, the Command Prompt screen will open and run an analysis to complete the defrag process.

The process will running in the background of the system and you may view the running process via Windows Task Manager.

Now your XP system is arranged for an automated scheduling defrag process as like Vista and Windows 7.