Terry's Computer Tips - Newsletter
September 30 , 2007

Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter
http://www.terryscomputertips.com
A computer tips newsletter for users of PC's.

Volume 3, Number 16 — Sunday, September 30 , 2007

Part 1  | Part 2

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IN THIS WEEK'S ON-LINE ISSUE:
   1.   Wireless Internet Gateway Issues
   2.   Updates Last Week
   3.   Changing Your Windows Password
   4.   Why do I recommend a particular program?
   5.   My Computer Security Software Recommendations
   6.   Feedback from Readers
   7.   Recommend my Terry's Computer Tips Newsletter to Your Friends

Welcome to the on-line edition of my Terry's Computer Tips newsletter.

My emailed newsletter is sent weekly to individuals who have subscribed to the newsletter. Click here to subscribe. It's free!

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If you find an email in your Spam folder or Bulk Mail folder that you really want to receive -- be sure to click on their button to reclassify the email in their system. It will help you and it will help others.

1.  Wireless Internet Gateway Issues

If you're like me and use a notebook frequently at home, you probably have it set up with wireless networking. Or, you might have run an Ethernet cable from a cable/dsl router.

My notebook is normally wired to my home network. If I want to take it to another room or outside, I'll turn on the radio in it. Then, I'll unplug the Ethernet cable and carry the notebook wherever I wanted to go.

Unfortunately, although we can actually make multiple connections to the network from one computer (usually one for the wired connection and one for the wireless), the computer still remembers which should be its "gateway" for talking to the network and the Internet.

When I do the sequence of steps I mentioned, my computer remembers that the local network and the Internet are accessed via my wired connection — even though I just unhooked the cable.

The best way to do it would be to unhook the Ethernet cable first, and then turn on the wireless card's radio. That way, the computer will configure itself completely to the wireless interface.

The other way, when I forget to do the right thing, is to run a short .CMD file of commands. In the old DOS and early Windows days, this was called a Batch file (.BAT). Now, it's a Command file (.CMD).

First, let's look at the "ipconfig" command.

The ipconfig command runs in a Windows command window (Start > Run > cmd). As output, without any of the additional options, it shows the network adapters it found and some of the data about the, especially the IP Address, the Subnet Mask and the Default Gateway. Notice that the Default Gateway for both adapters is 10.47.15.1, which is the local network IP address of my wired router.

I created my "reset_ip.cmd" command file and put a shortcut to it on my desktop. I could store it anywhere, as long as I use the shortcut (and as long as the shortcut points to the right place).

Just double-clicking on the icon runs the Command file. It releases all the IP addresses currently assigned on the computer. Then, it renews (creates) them. The Pause command is so that the window stays open so that I can confirm that the commannds were successful.

Let's look at the what happens if I run this while both wired and wireless connections are live.

Notice how the connections were killed (and have zeroes as their data). At that point, I would have no ability to get to the network.

Now, notice that the renewed connections read exactly as they did before. When requesting an IP address, the operating system really says "please give me IP address ___.___.___.___ if it's available, otherwise give me another one."

Finally, let's see what happens when I run the same Command file after I unplug my wired connection. First, I'll unplug the Ethernet cable. Then, when I try to contact the Internet (say with my web browser or email), I can't. The computer remembered that the wired Ethernet card was route to get to the Gateway.

Notice that the Gateway IP address is still the same. But, now the computer knows that the wireless connection is its route to get to the Gateway.

My little Command file reset_ip.cmd easily restored my connection to the Internet.

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2.  Updates Last Week

Microsoft (operating systems, email, web browser, office suites):
Microsoft releases almost all updates once per month, on the second Tuesday. This week did not include Patch Tuesday.

Firefox (web browser, http://www.mozilla.com, free):
No new version this week. Version 2.0.0.7 was released on September 18, 2007. This was a security update.

Opera (web browser, http://www.opera.com, free):
No new version this week. Version 9.23 was released on August 15th. This release of a recommended security upgrade, in addition to having several other changes and bug fixes.

Netscape (web browser, http://browser.netscape.com, free):
No new version this week. Version 9.0b3 (beta version) was released during the week ending August 18, 2007.

SeaMonkey (web browser, email, HTML editor, newsreader; http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey; free): No new version this week. Version 1.1.4 was released on August 3, 2007. This was primarily a security update.

Eudora (email, http://www.eudora.com):
No update last week. Version 7.1.0.9 was released October 11, 2006. Eudora is now free, with no ads and no "paid mode" option.

The first beta version of v8 (v8.0.0.b1) was released week, available from http://wiki.mozilla.org/Penelope .

Mozilla Thunderbird (email, http://www.mozilla.com/thunderbird, free):
No new version this week. Thunderbird version 2.0.0.6 was released on August 1, 2007. This is primarily a security update.

OpenOffice (office suite — spreadsheet, word processor, presentations, graphics, web design; http://www.openoffice.org; free): Version 2.3 was released during the week ending September 22nd. This includes new feature as well as bug fixes.

3.  Changing Your Windows Password

Subscriber Beth Peacock wrote last week to ask:

Good Evening Terry! I have a question which is expanding on your article regarding passwords.
When my computer was set up by my tech, the password used was saved so that I wouldn't have to key it in every time. I would like to change that now, so I do have to key it in to gain entry. I operate windows 2000 professional and windows xp. How would I go about making this change?
Thanks for all your help!
Beth

There are a couple ways to set up Windows to require a password — and they're a lot easier than setting it up not to require a password.

In Beth's case, she wants to have to enter the password in order to log in to Windows.

First, she needs to make sure that Windows really is set to use a password. When there is only one user set up and when that user does not have a password, Windows will boot straight to the Windows Desktop.

If you create more than one user account in Windows, you'll have to log in as one or the other. This may be with a Windows 98/2000-style log-in screen or with an XP-style user icon dis

play. You'll also have to log in if you only have one account, but you set it with a password — and that's what Beth wants to do.

The easiest way that should work is:

1. Go to Start > Control Panel > User Accounts
2. Select the user (if you're using XP's Category View, you'll have to select either "Change an account" or User Accounts again before picking the user)
3. Select "Change the password"

If the user doesn't have a password (which is the more likely answer, since Beth is not having to enter it), she can do the old three-step —

1. go into the User Accounts setup under Control Panel, select the user that you use, and change it NOT to use a password
2. reboot
3. go into the User Accounts setup under Control Panel, select the user that you use, and change it to use a password

Be sure to use a different password than before to make sure that Windows doesn't accept the old one.