How to be an ISP: January 17, 2010 No Comments
Build your own hot spot
By Dong Ngo
If you go to the CBS Interactive building at 235 Second Street in San Francisco and turn on your laptop, you will find an access point called “CBS_Interactive_Public” that offers free wireless Internet access. That’s a typical example of a hot spot.
However, it doesn’t take a tech news company or even an organization to create a hot spot. You can do it by yourself. It’s easy and fun, and–if you want–you may even make money from it.
In the last few years, the amount of devices that have built-in Wi-Fi has increased tremendously. In fact, despite the economic downturn, the sales of Wi-Fi chipsets have been constantly rising.
However, the Wi-Fi feature of these devices is useless on the go, unless there’s a hot spot.
What’s a hot spot?
In general, a hot spot provides users’ unfettered access to the Internet via one or more wireless access points.
The cost for using a public or private hot spot can vary. For example, CBS Interactive’s headquarters, or many schools or community centers in big cities like San Francisco or New York, offer this service for free. Companies, such as T-Mobile, hotels, or other organizations may charge membership fees.
We’ll tell you how to set up your own hot spot, from determining your coverage area to installing and controlling access to your network. However, before we begin, make sure your ISP lets you share your Internet connection. Some companies don’t care, while it may be a violation of your Terms of Service with others.
Who you want to connect Where you want them to connect What your ISP’s connection-sharing policy is for your service Which network resources on your network require protection from hot-spot usersFollow these five steps
Step 1
Determine hot-spot coverage: The goal of a hot spot is to cover a public area with an 802.11 signal. Most of the decisions about how and where to mount your access point and what antenna to use will depend on your desired coverage area.
For small areas close to the physical location of your access point, a standard device such as one offered by your service provider or any wireless routers you can get off-the-shelf would do the job. Among those reviewed by CNET, Draft N (or 802.11n or Wireless-N) routers are faster and offer larger coverage than 802.11g routers.
However, if you want to provide coverage to a municipal park a mile away, you will need to attach a more sensitive antenna and establish a line-of-site connection between your access point and the hot-spot location.
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| 802.11 | Operates at 2.4GHz; the lowest common denominator of the IEEE wireless LAN standards; provides bandwidth of only 1Mbps; equipment based on this older standard may be hard to find. | |||||
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| 802.11b | Operates at 2.4GHz; backward compatible with the older 802.11 standard; delivers bandwidth of up to 11Mbps. This once-popular standard is becoming obsolete and routers/access points based on this standard are hard to find. | |||||
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| 802.11g | Operates at 2.4GHz; delivers bandwidth of up to 54Mbps; backward compatible with 802.11b; currently has the largest user base, especially in mobile handheld applications. | |||||
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| 802.11n | Also called Draft N; operates at 2.4GHz and 5GHz ; currently a draft specification awaiting ratification by the IEEE; delivers bandwidth of up to 300Mbps; backward compatible with 802.11g and b (when operated at 2.4Ghz); we expect this standard to co-exist with 802.11g as the standards of choice. | |||||
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| Bluetooth | Operates at 2.4GHz; is a short-range, low-bandwidth solution designed to connect peripheral devices without the use of cables; is not compatible with any of the above standards; is not well suited for hot-spot deployment. | |||||
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Quiche January 5, 2010 No Comments
Pie Crust
- 2 Eggs Beat
- 1/4 Cup of Milk
- Spinach/Broccoli Sauce
- Onions Sauce
- Salt + Pepper
- Cheese Sharp/Swiss
The V Phone – Mobile VoIP App for the iPhone January 4, 2010 No Comments
Watch a video and learn how to use the vPhone on a Mobile device.
Earthlink Access on the iPhone – Webmail January 3, 2010 No Comments
Users often ask if they can access the EarthLink Web Mail site (webmail.earthlink.net) using the browser on their mobile phone or other hand-held device.
Generally the answer is no, as the browsers on most mobile devices are not supported by Web Mail. It may work for you in some cases but we don’t really support it, and the display format of Web Mail is not set up for small screens. However, your mailbox IS accessible from most mobile devices using the email software (POP3 application) that comes on the device. If your device has email software, then the settings to use are:
- Outgoing server set to smtpauth.earthlink.net
- Port for outgoing server set to 587
- Authentication is required for sending (outgoing), and enter your full email address for the login, not just the username part.
- Incoming server set to pop.earthlink.net (or pop.mindspring.com or pop.otherdomain). Account type is POP.
If your address is not @earthlink.net then you can look up your exact server names here for any domain we support.
If your software does not allow setting the outgoing port to 587, you can try entering the server name as
smtpauth.earthlink.net:587
all on that line. If that doesn’t work, you will have to use the outgoing mail server provided by your phone provider instead of smtpauth.earthlink.net.
In the future we may provide a WAP site for accessing email from mobile browsers. In the meantime, use any email program on your mobile device instead of the browser.
Slot Cars – Scalextric Digital Slot Car Club in London December 6, 2009 No Comments
LondonScalextric Lovely Track and lots of fun had. I wish one day to build a nice track like this.
Take a look at one of their Videos
Attitude Reflects Leadership December 5, 2009 No Comments
In my opinion, organizational leadership one of the keys to the success of our country and our future. I was surfing the web and came across a video clip from the movie, Remember the Titans, in the clip the white and black players are at a crossroads–they are on the same team, but are not playing together. It is a classic adaptation of attitude reflects leadership or top down leadership. It is amazing to see organizations change toward the attitude of the leader. www.absolutepresence.com
Test Robo Photo September 23, 2009 No Comments
Several Family shots. 
MODX/CMS – Problem with friendly urls June 5, 2009 No Comments
Problem:
I’ve turned on friendly urls in the admin section of modx, when I try to view a page which should show the name of the file eg: about as opposed to id?23 the page doesn’t showup.
The Fix:
1. required mod rewrite should be enabled…
2. Make sure you renamed the ht.access to .htaccess?
The Industry’s 10 Best IT Certifications January 7, 2009 No Comments
IT pros tend to have strong opinions when debating the value of professional certification – and views become even more polarized when it comes down to a discussion of which certs are meaningful. Erik Eckel put together a list of the accreditations he believes currently hold value for IT pros.
IT certifications boast numerous benefits. They bolster resumes, encourage higher salaries, and assist in job retention. But which IT certifications are best?
Technology professionals generate much debate over just that question. Many claim vendor-specific programs best measure a candidate’s skills, while others propose vendor-independent exams are the only worthy way of measuring real-world expertise. Still other observers believe the highest-level accreditations – Microsoft’s MCSE or new Architect Series certification, Cisco’s CCIE, etc. – are the only credentials that truly hold value.
Myself, I don’t fully subscribe to any of those mindsets. The best IT certification for you, after all, is likely to be different from that for another technology professional with different education, skills, and goals working at a different company in a different industry. For that reason, when pursuing any professional accreditation, you should give much thought and care to your education, experience, skills, goals, and desired career path.
Once a career road map is in place, selecting a potential certification path becomes much easier. And that’s where this list of the industry’s 10 best IT certifications comes into play. While this list may not include the 10 best accreditations for you, it does catalog 10 IT certifications that possess significant value for a wide range of technology professionals.
#1: MCITP
The new-generation Microsoft Certified IT Professional credential, or MCITP for short, is likely to become the next big Microsoft certification. Available for a variety of fields of expertise – including database developer, database administrator, enterprise messaging administrator, and server administrator – an MCITP validates a professional’s proven job-role capabilities. Candidates must pass several Microsoft exams that track directly to their job role before earning the new designation.
As with Microsoft’s other new-generation accreditations, the MCITP certification will retire when Microsoft suspends mainstream support for the platforms targeted within the MCITP exams. By matching the new certification to popular job roles, as has been done to some extent with CompTIA’s Server+ (server administrator), Project+ (project manager), and A+ (desktop support) certifications, Microsoft has created a new certification that’s certain to prove timely, relevant, and valuable.
#2: MCTS
The new-generation Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) helps IT staff validate skills in installing, maintaining, and troubleshooting a specific Microsoft technology. The MCTS certifications are designed to communicate the skills and expertise a holder possesses on a specific platform.
For example, candidates won’t earn an MCTS on SQL Server 2008. Instead, they’ll earn an MCTS covering SQL Server business intelligence (MCTS: SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence), database creation (MCTS: SQL Server 2008, Database Development), or SQL server administration (MCTS: SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance).
These new certifications require passing multiple, tightly targeted exams that focus on specific responsibilities on specific platforms. MCTS designations will expire when Microsoft suspends mainstream support for the corresponding platform. These changes, as with other new-generation Microsoft certifications, add value to the accreditation.
Daily Links December 12, 2008 No Comments
- http://new.myfonts.com/ Cool place for Fonts to Purchase
- http://www.fontlab.com/
- http://www.dafont.com – Cool place for Free Fonts