Question: Elza asks, "I want to add two laptops to my High-Speed Internet. I already have a wireless router, but these computers will be in another room, so is that all I need?"
Answer: Good question Elza. Whenever you need to connect another computer to your high speed Internet, you need a router, like you already have. The router has four ports for wired connections and wireless connections for as many computers as can receive the signal. Now, that "receive the signal" can be the tricky part. If you can, locate your router as near to the center of the house as possible. Or if you only use your computers in one area of the house, then locate it near there. In most houses, you can get an acceptable signal to go about 50 feet or so. The actual range you get will depend on the composition of the walls between the router and the computers. Your footage will vary, but the closer the better. Going between floors of in a multi-story house is another issue. The computers that are on a different floor from the router may have problems connecting, and will generally be less reliable, but it should work. What happens sometimes is that people forget the information they used to set up their routers initially. The things you need to know or remember are: Your SSID – this is the name of your wireless network. If you don't have security set up on your wireless network, this is all you need and Windows can tell you that. If you do have security set up on your wireless network, then you also need to know your security key. The security key will be long and cryptic if you let the software that came with your router set it. If you set it up, you should know what it is. I can't be too much more specific because you find several security protocols in use out there, each with its own standard for the key. The newest of the Linksys routers save or offer to save that information in a file on your computer. If you saved the information, you can just open that file and find the information you need. We'll have a link in the show notes for default router passwords.
Cool Site: MoonZoo: This week’s site is MoonZoo.org. It's a site where you can explore the moon as never before. NASA has a satellite in orbit around the moon called the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. It has been sending images of the moon's surface back for a while and these images have been put online at Moon Zoo. The images from the satellite's camera have enough resolution to enable you to see, if you're careful, the Apollo landing sites and other space exploration stuff that's been left there over the years. You can even see Neil Armstrong's footprints as he explored the Little West crater, which gave us our first look into a lunar crater. There's a tutorial where you can see how you can help NASA analyze the orbiter's photos. There's a forum and a blog - common features of many websites now. You can also find a timeline of moon exploration, how the moon has been seen in culture and history, just about anything you might want to know about the moon will be here. Great for homeschoolers.
Cool Gadget: Verbatim Insight 500GB External Hard Drive: Over at PC Mag.com we have a great back-to-school gadget: the Verbatim Insight 500GB External Hard Drive. External hard drives are great for college or high school students who often have big papers to write. Sometimes these papers have pictures and even videos attached to add to the bulk. The thing about this drive that makes it cool is an exterior display that tells you how much free space is left on the drive, even when the drive is off. Now, the display only updates when you plug or unplug the drive. It fits in a shirt pocket and has only one mini-USB plug for the included cable. It has a 5 year warranty and unlike some other external drives that have a free space meter, this one doesn't require drivers to make the display work. They run from $85-125. We'll link to PC Mag's review in the show notes.
It's All "Geek" To Me: Trojan Horse: This week's term is Trojan horse. In Greek mythology, the city of Troy was besieged for years and had always been impenetrable. So, the Greek soldiers, apparently admitting their inability to breach the city, left a large wooden horse outside the city gate and withdrew. The citizens believed it to be a peace offering and brought it inside the gate. That night, Greek soldiers hiding within the horse came out and opened the gates so their comrades outside could conquer the city. In your computer, a Trojan horse program works similarly. It masquerades as something that's not harmful, but hides its intentions. Once installed on your computer, usually with your permission, it begins to download and install other software without your permission. Trojan horse programs won't replicate themselves like viruses do but then again, they don't have to.
