Discover new ways to make your computer friendly! April, 2009

Useful Bits

It shouldn’t be so difficult! How many times have you said it? How many times have you heard me say it? Well, there are lots of ways to make it easier, and whenever I come across one, I’d like to share it with you here.

If there’s something you’d like explored or a question you’d like addressed, let me know – serendip80@rammb.com

Tybee Island. Paradise! Every day! A great place to live, and a great place to visit, but what if you still have business to take care of? We may be several miles from the mainland, but we’re still connected!

For wired connections, let’s not even think about dial-up, although there are still a few people who use it. Most of the residents and businesses, though, get their direct connection via either DSL from AT&T or from Comcast, our cable service provider.

When we’re not at home, though, there are still plenty of opportunities to get that internet fix, to tweet, blog, check out video, crank up the internet radio, what-have-you, all via WiFi. More and more shops and restaurants are providing free WiFi for their customers, and the hotels and motels give connectivity for their guests. Nearly all of the rental properties provide wired and 802.11 wireless in the home. A year ago, I could turn on my laptop at home, and it would be myself and one co-worker down the street with a wireless connection. Today, in my downstairs office, I can connect to either my own or my neighbors WiFi. Upstairs in the kitchen, I have the choice of 11 different neighbors, in lesser or greater levels of security – but that’s fodder for another article!

A year ago, I made the rounds on the island and found the majority of all the businesses and establishments already WiFi ready. Today, we have our own Internet café on Tybrisa, and there are even more opportunities at hand to connect. I will keep an updated list here along with this article. For now, the listing is definitely incomplete, although I am making another island tour to see what sites I can find! Please let me know if I’ve missed your business, or if you’ve visited an establishment not on the list!

So, you’re on the road, maybe for the first time, away from your familiar Internet Service Provider, and you’re not sure how even to get connected via wireless. Some of you know more or less, so bear with me while I go through the steps. This particular set of instructions is for Windows XP systems. I will provide a more apt description for Windows Vista at a later time – for now, use the “Network Sharing Center” to find the “connect to a wireless system”. These instructions should provide rough guidance.

1.     Turn on the hardware: Every laptop model has a unique method for turning the wireless on. Some simply have a hardware switch, while others don’t even have a physical switch but control the wireless device only through software. Whether you’re looking at your computer case or for a controlling icon somewhere on your computer, the pictograph to look for represents a radio tower and the radio waves emanating from it – something like this: . Switch it on if it’s on a physical button. If it’s software, try right-clicking on it to see if “Enable Wireless” is one of the options in the context menu. If not, try “Open” or double-clicking. This action should open the wireless control program so you can turn it on.

2.     If it’s on, there should be a light in or near the button, or perhaps an icon in the lower right hand corner of the computer screen that now shows the service is enabled. There are again many ways to get connected to a wireless provider, but the following method should always work. Click the START button, usually in the lower left of the screen. You should have the option to double click to open the Control Panel.

3.     At this point, there are even two choices in Windows XP:

a.     If you have the standard Windows XP view enabled, a blue background with only a few icons on it, one of the choices in the Control Panel should include Network and Internet Connections, and there you will find, somewhat redundantly, Network Connections. When you open Network Connections, if your wireless device is operating, you should see Wireless Network Connection.

b.    If you have the “classic” view turned on, the relevant Network Connections is presented directly, though you may have to scroll around to find it. Again, you will see Wireless Network Connection when you open this up.

4.     Double click the Wireless Network Connection icon to open it up and click the View Wireless Networks button. You should see a list of one to several SSID’s, or service set identifiers, listed.

5.     If you do not see this list, click Refresh network list to populate the listing.

6.     There will be some descriptive information telling you more about the network and a set of familiar bars to indicate the signal strength. If you know about security, and have the code needed to attach to a secure network, that is your best choice. For most casual browsing purposes, that is not a requirement, however. You should look for an open, or unsecured, network that has the best signal strength in the list.

7.     Click that network identifier one time, then click the Connect button. You should see a bit of activity in your systray, the lower right portion of your Start menu.

8.     After a bit of a delay, the status information will change to Connected, and the button will change to Disconnect, in case you want to detach from this network.

That’s it! You can now open your browser and surf the net, read your email, and so on.

See the next section for a preliminary list of wireless establishments.

As always, you can contact me at serendip80@rammb.com for further assistance when in doubt!