As Wi-Fi hotspots are mushrooming all over the world, they let people have the chance to get rid of those inflexible network cables and surf on the net wirelessly in the WLAN. However, a high-performance wireless Internet access is not an easy thing for some users, because when contacting with your wireless network, your wireless network adapter may probably meet a lot of strange failures, which may seriously affect your networking experience if you don’t fix them in time, and the blue screen is one that among those common failures.
If blue screen shows on your computer immediately after you installed a wireless network card, above all, you need to check whether the net card driver you installed is compatible with your operating system, for example, if your driver is only available in Windows 2000, but you have installed it in Windows XP, well then your computer would be more likely to have a blue screen. Therefore, make sure you have installed the correct network card driver.
If your driver is compatible with your system and has been installed properly, you need to go through the installation of this network adapter, and check whether it has inserted to the right slot or port properly, for if you pull out the card from its PCMCIA port on the motherboard or its USB port just a few seconds after plugging it, blue screen would lightly happen, because frequent pullout and plug may make network adapter’s corresponding port confused and fail to identify this adapter. Additionally, if you pull out your net card suddenly when its LINK light is blinking, that would also leads to blue screen, or even worse, your computer or your network card’s port would be damaged.
By: Molly Smith
Posts Tagged ‘Usb Port’
Home Networking
February 4th, 2010
Setting up Your Home Network
As society and technology change, it’s becoming common for homes to have more than one computer. When an existing computer is a few years old, parents will often take advantage of today’s lower prices, purchase a new computer, and pass the old one down to the kids.
Suddenly, there’s a need for a home network, so all computers in the house can share an files, printers and an Internet connection. Fortunately, setting up a basic home network is not rocket science. To start, you’ll need a router which becomes the central point of your network. Most office and electronics stores offer home networking kits with a router, ethernet (network) adapters and CAT-5 networking cable.
If your computer was assembled in the past five years, it probably already has an ethernet adapter. Check the back of the system unit for a port that looks like a telephone jack, but slightly bigger.
If you don’t have an ethernet adapter, you can purchase one (about $20) and install it yourself. You can also use a special ethernet adapter that plugs into a USB port, if you can’t stand the thought of opening your system unit to install an ethernet adapter.
Wired or Wireless Networking?
You’ll need to connect each of your computers to the router with a cable, or go wireless. If you want to use wireless connections, you’ll need a wireless router and a wireless adapter for each computer. Most laptops have a wireless adapter built in, most desktop models do not. If you need a wireless adapter, you can purchase one that installs inside the system unit, or get a USB-style adapter.
Having a wireless network eliminates the need to string unsightly cables all around the house, but it can also create a security risk. Wireless networks are often configured by default to allow access to any computer that attempts to connect. So an Evil Hacker driving by with a laptop (or even your neighbor) might be able to tap into your Internet connection or poke around your hard disk.
Fortunately, wireless security encryption is easy to set up. See my article Wireless Security for step-by-step instructions.
Network Configuration
Whether the network signals travel through wires or through the air, network resources must still be shared so that other computers can access them. If you are running Windows XP or MacOS X, all you have to do is connect your computers and high-speed modem to the router, and Internet connection sharing should just work like magic. If not, restart the cable modem, router, and the computers (in that order) and see if that does the trick. If you can’t access the Internet from one or more computers on the network, consult the manual that came with your router.
One nice side benefit of having a router is that they have firewalls built in to the hardware. Firewalls protect you by hiding your computers from network attacks, but still allow you to surf the web and handle email. So after installing a router, you can turn OFF the Windows firewall and any other software-based firewalls you may have running.
Sharing Files and Printers
Sharing files and printers on a Windows network is also pretty painless. To share a printer, go into the Printers section of the Control Panel, right-click the icon for the printer that needs to be shared, and choose Sharing from the resulting menu. By assigning a name to the shared printer, the owner allows other computers on the network to access the printer by browsing using their Network Neighborhood (or My Network Places) icons. Access can be restricted to only some computers or users through the use of the Security or Permissions options on the Sharing screen.
The same concept applies for shared file and folders on a network. For example, if you want to share a collection of MP3 files on a home network, just browse to the folder using the My Computer icon, right-click the folder name and choose Sharing. After assigning a name to the shared resource and setting Permissions other computers on the network can access that resource via Network Neighborhood or My Network Places.
By: Bob Rankin
Setting Up a Wireless Satellite Internet Network
January 7th, 2010
There are several advantages of going wireless with your internet service. You can network your home or office computers easier, you aren’t tethered to the wall and you can access the internet on multiple computers at the same time. If you are interested in going wireless and you are also interested in satellite internet service, then you may want to set up a wireless satellite internet network.
The first step is to subscribe to a satellite internet service. These services are broadband so they are generally going to work with wireless networking equipment that has traditionally been used to create wireless networks for land based broadband internet services. The three top choices for satellite internet service are StarBand, HughesNet and WildBlue.
While you are waiting for your satellite internet service to be installed, you will want to buy all of the wireless networking equipment that you will need. First of all if you don’t have a computer that has an internal wireless networking card already built in then you will want to either buy one that does, or you will want to buy a wireless network adapter. Next you will need a wireless router.
After your satellite internet system has been set up you will be ready to connect your wireless network. To start with, connect your satellite internet modem to the router. The router will then send signals to your computer via infrared signals. Configure your router following the instructions that came with your router.
If you are using a wireless network adapter you will want to plug this into a USB port in your computer. Otherwise your computer should receive the signal using its internal wireless card. Turn your computer on and follow the instructions that came with your satellite internet system to set up your account if your technician didn’t already do this for you. That’s all there is to it.
By: Sarah Freeland
