Showing posts with label Tips and Tricks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tips and Tricks. Show all posts
I've been using Mozilla Firefox for over 2 years now, and over the course of this time, I've gathered a list of the most useful extensions I've been using since I begun. These plug-ins might not be the best, nor the most useful, but they are my favorites and thought I might introduce them to you.
1) DownThem ALL!
Let's face it. The download manager in Firefox is, well... lame. Its resume support is buggy, it doesn't support downloading by filters. It's just a basic download window. If you often download files, try getting DownThem ALL! or DTA. It's a full download manager in-built into Firefox. It's resuming and queuing facilities are great and fully working. You can also download many files of custom type (eg. all JPG's on a site) at one go. It also supports downloading by breaking into sectors/chunks which accelerates downloads. Its DTA-OneClick does what its name suggests: one-click downloads.1) DownThem ALL!
Do not confuse with the FlashGet download manager. FlashGot allows you to transfer downloads to your favorite download manager. Say you like using an external download manager. You can have FlashGot transfer the download to it, and you will be prompted by its "Add new Download" window. It also works with .torrent files. Basically, it allows you to use many external download managers with firefox without having them capture each and every download link. You can selectively send links to them for downloading.
3) Download Helper
DownloadHelper allows you to download embedded content from websites, but is most useful for downloading videos off Youtube and many of its clones. It will search the page you are browsing to look for embedded files, namely video files. If it finds something, its icon will colourize (it's black and white when nothing is found). You just need to click on it, and you will have a list of downloadable content. I've not been able to make it work with DTA though. That would have been great. You can still download normally, copy the link, then put it in DTA.
4) Tabmix Plus
This plug-in is very famous, and adds many new and innovative features to Firefox's already powerful tabbing features. You will get such features as protecting tabs from accidental closing, re-open closed tabs, size your tabs, colourize them, put a progress bar on them, and define what happens when you click, right-click and middle-click on the tabs or tab bar. It's difficult to explain the extent of its features, so go check it out. In short, it allows you to fully customize the way tabbing works in Firefox. Another useful function: It allows you to drag text links from the main window to the tab-bar for opening.
5) Session Saver
If ever you have wanted to save a number of opened windows or tabs for later viewing, or even to load them at every starting of Firefox, this plug-in is for you. Sometimes, I need to save a group of tabs which I find interesting, and want to open them later. Session Saver allows you to save your session and re-open it later on. You can also define a session consisting of tabs and windows, and you can have that session restored every time you start Firefox. Eg. You can have Firefox load your favourite blogs at start up.
6) Brief
Brief is very useful if you like to read RSS and other kinds of news feeds. It's an all-in-one reader that manages your feeds, refreshes them and displays notifications when there are updates. You can have it open in a new tab, and it's all built in. The left part shows your feeds, while the right part shows the contents. It has many options such as the useful "mark as read on viewing" feature. I like Brief over other Feed readers because its features are grouped in one tab, and clicking on a feed opens it in Brief's tab, not other new tabs so it doesn't interfere with my browsing.
7) Greasemonkey
Greasemonkey is quite an innovative plug-in that allows you to add scripts that in turn add new functions to sites. For example, there are numerous scripts that allows you to "clean-up" a site to remove content such as ads and animations, making the site more user-friendly and easy to use. It may also add other functions such as direct links to parts of the site. Basically, it allows you to execute custom script/codes to give you new functions for your sites. You can find many scripts at UserScripts.org ready for use.
8) Bookmark Duplicate Detector (Bookmark DD)
As its name suggests, Bookmark DD warns you about adding bookmarks as duplicate. It checks your existing bookmarks, and if the one you are currently adding already exists, it warns you and give you its existing location. This plug-in has allowed me to regain considerable order in my bookmarks. You can also have it scan your existing bookmarks to check for duplicates. It warns you on adding new bookmarks automatically, if ever it finds an existing match. It can also help you backup your Bookmarks file.
9) FEBE
A very useful plug-in that allows you to backup Firefox almost as a whole. It backups your plug-ins, themes, bookmarks, settings and other stuff, and puts them in a folder of your choice. Then, if ever you have to re-install Firefox on a new PC, you can just bring that folder with you, install FEBE there first, then have it restore the backup. After a restart of Firefox, you will have your old settings, bookmarks and everything else. It can also automatically backup your stuff, and you can choose what you want to backup, and where you want the backup to be stored, and how it should be named.
10) Linkification
Linkification has a simple use. It makes text links clickable. For example: http://www.google.com. If you had Linkification installed, that google link would be clickable. You'd no longer have to use copy-paste to address bar to go there.
11) Snap Links
Initially, this article would have contained only 10 plug-ins, but while finding links, I came across this one. Snap Links allows you to draw a rectangle around multiple links, and open them in new tabs, new windows, bookmark them, download them and a number of other operations. Very useful when you come up with a site with multiple links and you want to open all of them without clicking on each of them. Eg. Here itself, you could have opened links to all of the 11 plug-ins at once if you had Snap Links installed.
That's all for now folks. Try checking out these plug-ins. They are very useful. But remember, abuse of Firefox plug-ins will slow-down your browser and greatly increase its memory usage. So use plug-ins moderately! :P
DownloadHelper allows you to download embedded content from websites, but is most useful for downloading videos off Youtube and many of its clones. It will search the page you are browsing to look for embedded files, namely video files. If it finds something, its icon will colourize (it's black and white when nothing is found). You just need to click on it, and you will have a list of downloadable content. I've not been able to make it work with DTA though. That would have been great. You can still download normally, copy the link, then put it in DTA.
4) Tabmix Plus
This plug-in is very famous, and adds many new and innovative features to Firefox's already powerful tabbing features. You will get such features as protecting tabs from accidental closing, re-open closed tabs, size your tabs, colourize them, put a progress bar on them, and define what happens when you click, right-click and middle-click on the tabs or tab bar. It's difficult to explain the extent of its features, so go check it out. In short, it allows you to fully customize the way tabbing works in Firefox. Another useful function: It allows you to drag text links from the main window to the tab-bar for opening.
5) Session Saver
If ever you have wanted to save a number of opened windows or tabs for later viewing, or even to load them at every starting of Firefox, this plug-in is for you. Sometimes, I need to save a group of tabs which I find interesting, and want to open them later. Session Saver allows you to save your session and re-open it later on. You can also define a session consisting of tabs and windows, and you can have that session restored every time you start Firefox. Eg. You can have Firefox load your favourite blogs at start up.
6) Brief
Brief is very useful if you like to read RSS and other kinds of news feeds. It's an all-in-one reader that manages your feeds, refreshes them and displays notifications when there are updates. You can have it open in a new tab, and it's all built in. The left part shows your feeds, while the right part shows the contents. It has many options such as the useful "mark as read on viewing" feature. I like Brief over other Feed readers because its features are grouped in one tab, and clicking on a feed opens it in Brief's tab, not other new tabs so it doesn't interfere with my browsing.
7) Greasemonkey
Greasemonkey is quite an innovative plug-in that allows you to add scripts that in turn add new functions to sites. For example, there are numerous scripts that allows you to "clean-up" a site to remove content such as ads and animations, making the site more user-friendly and easy to use. It may also add other functions such as direct links to parts of the site. Basically, it allows you to execute custom script/codes to give you new functions for your sites. You can find many scripts at UserScripts.org ready for use.
8) Bookmark Duplicate Detector (Bookmark DD)
As its name suggests, Bookmark DD warns you about adding bookmarks as duplicate. It checks your existing bookmarks, and if the one you are currently adding already exists, it warns you and give you its existing location. This plug-in has allowed me to regain considerable order in my bookmarks. You can also have it scan your existing bookmarks to check for duplicates. It warns you on adding new bookmarks automatically, if ever it finds an existing match. It can also help you backup your Bookmarks file.
9) FEBE
A very useful plug-in that allows you to backup Firefox almost as a whole. It backups your plug-ins, themes, bookmarks, settings and other stuff, and puts them in a folder of your choice. Then, if ever you have to re-install Firefox on a new PC, you can just bring that folder with you, install FEBE there first, then have it restore the backup. After a restart of Firefox, you will have your old settings, bookmarks and everything else. It can also automatically backup your stuff, and you can choose what you want to backup, and where you want the backup to be stored, and how it should be named.
10) Linkification
Linkification has a simple use. It makes text links clickable. For example: http://www.google.com. If you had Linkification installed, that google link would be clickable. You'd no longer have to use copy-paste to address bar to go there.
11) Snap Links
Initially, this article would have contained only 10 plug-ins, but while finding links, I came across this one. Snap Links allows you to draw a rectangle around multiple links, and open them in new tabs, new windows, bookmark them, download them and a number of other operations. Very useful when you come up with a site with multiple links and you want to open all of them without clicking on each of them. Eg. Here itself, you could have opened links to all of the 11 plug-ins at once if you had Snap Links installed.
That's all for now folks. Try checking out these plug-ins. They are very useful. But remember, abuse of Firefox plug-ins will slow-down your browser and greatly increase its memory usage. So use plug-ins moderately! :P
If, like me, you do a big amount of searching on various sites, Firefox includes a nifty, in-built tool that should greatly facilitate your searching. This tool is called "Add Keyword for this Search".
How to use it? The process is simple and is described below. What it does? It allows you to search directly from your address bar, and to any custom search engines you will define. It may not work for all (eg. Yahoo didn't work for me), but works for most.
Steps:
1) First, find the search you want to "tag" as I will refer to it. I am using google here.
2) Right-click on the search box and select "Add Keyword for this Search"
3) You will be presented with this window. Type the name of the search engine in the Name field. Eg. Google. In the Keyword field, type a word or letter that you will use to identify Google. You might choose something like "goog" or even "g" as I did.
4) Save the bookmark in your chosen folder. I saved it in the Quick Search folder. If you don't have one, you can create one in Bookmarks - Organize Bookmarks.
5) Now, to make use of your new tag, simply type your Keyword in the address bar, followed by your search query. I used "g testsearch" as I wanted to search Google for the query "testsearch".
6) As you can see, Google returned results for "testsearch".
7) Now, you can go to your favourite sites, and tag their search boxes. This makes searching easy and direct from your address bar. I find this method easier than adding custom search boxes to Firefox.
8) Some useful sites you might want to tag, and suggested keywords:
- Google: g, goog, ggl
- Google Images: gi, ggli, googi
- Wikipedia: wiki, wp, enc
- Ebay: eby, eb
- Amazon: ama, az
- DeviantArt: da, dart
- Last.FM: lfm, lf, fm
- Youtube: you, yt, ytb
You can define almost every search engines and your own keywords. Go figure which sites you want to "tag".
Hope this tip helps you. Comments appreciated! :)
Title sounds weird right? It is! The trick is that even if your headphone doesn't have a microphone, you can actually speak into the earpiece (the thing you put over your ear to listen in) and it will act as a microphone. I know it sounds strange, but it's tried and tested, and worked with most headphones I tested with. I mean headphones, NOT earphones!
It worked with my cheapish China-made headphone, so give it a try if you want.
How to make it work?
Steps:
1. Plug in the "out" jack, usually green in color, into the microphone hole, usually pink or red, in your soundcard or laptop.
2. Step 1 is correct! I'm not dumb! I said, plug the line-out jack into the line-in socket! :P
3. To test it, fire up Windows Sound Recorder or any sound recorder you might have at hand. Try Audacity if you ain't got anything. It's freeware.
4. Now, increase your volume either in windows, or on the headphone itself, or even both. Just set all mixers to high.
5. Speak into the headphone's earpiece. Righhht... Strange huh? Try! You should see Sound Recorder picking up a sound. I'm not joking! Proof: (You can't know how much I had to maintain my shout to get a good shot! :s )
6. You can try speaking into the right and left earpiece to see which is better.
7. Save the sound and replay it. You should hear what you said in your recording.
My guess on how this trick works:
When you are using the headphone normally, the line-out is plugged into the line-out socket and all, your soundcard sends electric pulses which represent the sound, and a membrane vibrates creating the sound.
Here you are reversing the process. When you are speaking into the earpiece, your voice makes the membrane vibrate. This vibration is translated into electric pulses and sent to your soundcard. Since you have the line-out (that feeds the earpieces) connected to line-in, these pulses are interpreted as an input signal and your voice gets recorded. If you hadn't reversed the jacks, ie. line-out to line-in socket, it wouldn't have worked.
And yeah, don't bother plugging your line-in (microphone) into line-out socket. Your mic cannot play sounds! :P
Try it for yourself. If you got any question, or comments, you are free to comment! :P I wanted to share this trick that I read somewhere, maybe on a forum, I forgot! :)
PS: I know there is now a huge delay in my postings! Uni resumed and I am kinda busy. I will try to post as often as possible, but no promises! :)
Has it ever happened to you that you have 2 firefox clients running on one computer, and you wanted to access your bookmarks from both clients? That is, one bookmarks file, shared by many Firefox instances? I did.
I was running Kubuntu, and Vista, and wanted my bookmarks to be available in both OS. I also wanted that, if I add an entry in Kubuntu, it should also be available in Vista. After some googling around, I found these steps. They allow you to set where you want the Bookmarks file to be stored, instead of just inside your Profiles folder.
Normally, under Windows, it'll be somewhere in Applications Data -> Mozilla, and under Kubuntu, it'll be hidden inside your Home folder. Maybe ~\.mozilla or something. Now, you do these steps, and you can have your bookmarks shared. I set Vista's bookmarks as the main file, and Kubuntu will access it as shared. Do these steps.. Oh I forgot.. with this technique, you can also share bookmarks between different browsers, not just Firefox. Eg. You might share bookmarks between KMeleon and Firefox.
1. Close Firefox.
2. Determine where your Bookmarks file is located. Under Vista: C:\Users\[username]\App Data (hidden folder) \ Roaming \ Mozilla \ Firefox \ Profiles \ [yourprofile] \ bookmarks.htmlFor Kubuntu, I think it's: ~\.mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\[yourprofile]\bookmarks.html.
3. Re-open Firefox. In your address bar, type "about:config" without quotes. No http://www nothing. Just "about:config". Press Enter. You'll see a lot of lines. Don't panic. These are your complete firefox and extensions options. (Tip: Feel free to look around and see to what extent Firefox can be customized. Don't play around too much though. Change at your own risk.)
4. Right-click on one of the listings (any), and select New - String from the menu.
5. Type: "browser.bookmarks.file" and click on ok. No quotes again.
6. Next, type in the path of your Bookmarks file. Refer to step 2. Press ok.
7. Restart Firefox and it should have access to the file you pointed to in step 6. Now you can share bookmarks between different user profiles, and different OS.
I wonder if this trick will work if the file is located on a network.. Gotta try that! :P
Another great software through Lifehacker!
I've always been looking for a small and simple program that docks to one side of my screen, and acts like an icon-container for my frequently-used icons. I wanted something simple, easy to use, auto-hiding, customizable, light and of course, free.
I've been through loads and loads of these "Launchbar" programs, but every one of them seemed to lack one or another feature from what I wanted. That was until I found a really cool (I mean it, really cool) and useful program called RunMe that allows you to create a customizable (real customizable) sidebar launcher. I mean it, this thing is really powerful! Check the screenshot:
As you can see from above, RunMe is themeable, is dockable on any part of the screen, remembers its dock position, has loads of customizable effects (the Show Delay option is really important, more on that later), and some other options. See above pictures for more details.
RunMe, as seen from the first cap, supports loads of things, including icons, folders (which can be made to act like menus), and other commands, like the Run box. Overall, RunMe is ZOMGly powerful. Try it out for yourself!
The site says WinXP only, but I tested it on Vista and it works fine. No problems till now.
About the Show Delay option: It is the setting that determines for how long the mouse must be held over the side of the screen for RunMe to show. Set it resonably high if ever you dock it on the right side of your screen (like me), else it pops out as soon as you try to access your vertical scroll-bar, which is not nice. Oh yeah, it has Always on Top too! :P
Go try folks! It's malware-less! Or what you might call "safeware", if ever the term exists.. :D
I just found a nifty trick from Lifehacker which allows you to get a list of all drivers on your computer. It lists available drivers, including installed. It works with Windows XP, 2003 and Vista. Check it out:
Start - Run - Type "cmd" - click Ok - Type "driverquery" without quotes - Press Enter
Tada! You now have a list of all drivers you currently have!
Also, check "driverquery /?" for help. You will find that apparently, it can query drivers installed on remote machines too! Quite cool, isn't it? :D
Go experiment now, kids!
Some of you folks out there must be having a wireless or WIFI connection at your place. If you have MyT, the LiveBox has it included. I don't have it, but I have a Netgear router that gives me wireless access throughout my place. I've gathered some tips which might help you improve your wireless network, specially it's reception throughout your wireless zone.
1. Position your Wireless Access Point (WAP) / Router centrally
Always place your WAP or Router in a central location of your wireless zone. If you want to have wireless access in your whole house, try placing the WAP/Router in a room which is almost in the middle of your house. Avoid placing the router in corners of the room. If possible, place it away from walls for better performance.
2. Keep your WAP off the floor, table-top and away from metal objects
The floor is not the best place for a router, since furnitures will tend to distort the signals, nor is the table-top which places it near your computer devices. These too will tend to distort the signal and degrade performance. The worst thing is metal objects. They literally absorb the signal and greatly affect range. Never place anything metallic near, or on your WAP/Router.
3. Use a more adapted router antenna
Most WAPs/Routers come with omni-directional antennas that broadcast in all directions around your wireless device. This can be a good thing if your router is in a central location of your wireless zone. However, if it is in a corner of your place, and cannot be moved, most of its transmission power is wasted when the broadcast is sent outside of your place. In that case, you will want to change the omni-directional antenna, to a directional antenna (sometimes called a Yagi antenna). These broadcast predominantly in one direction. You can then orient it to suit your needs. Eg. Point it at a room where you will need wireless access. Also, you might invest in Hi-gain antennas which have longer range.
4. Replace your wireless adaptor
As technology evolves, adapters get better. Therefore, you might want to buy a new one. This will certainly increase the range. I experienced that personally. Using a USB adaptor, I used to get Poor Signal rating, reported by Windows. Now that I updated it to a newer one, I get Very Good.
5. Use a wireless repeater or a secondary WAP
If you want to furthur extend the range, you might want to use a Wireless Repeater. It's a device that takes the wireless signal, amplify it and re-transmit it. This extends the range to about twice the normal range. However, WAPs/Routers don't like their signals being repeated, and some data might get corrupted. According to me, a better solution is to get a second WAP, configure it normally, but set it's "Gateway" IP address to the primary WAP/Router IP address. You can then place this WAP in range of the primary WAP/Router. This will extend the range even furthur, without the need for repeaters. The secondary WAP will connect to the primary WAP/Router wirelessly, and send all its data to it. Please note that both devices must be on the same network, eg. 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.2 for the 2 devices.
6. Change your wireless channel
WAPs/Routers can broadcast on several channels of different frequencies in the order of GHz. Channels 1,6 and 11 are fairly common. If you use the same channel, and several other people are using that same channel in an area, there is interference. Eg. your neighbor and yourself might be using the same channel. To reduce interference, change the channel from the default value to something else apart from 1,6,11. You can normally do that in your WAP/Router configuration panel. Check your manuals if need be. You don't need to change anything on your computer(s). It will detect the channel change automatically.
7. Update your firmwares
Firmwares are softwares found inside your hardware devices, which allow the user to change settings and manage the devices easily without tinkering with hardware things. It is always a good thing to update your firmware often, so that you have the latest features, bug corrections and improvements. You can usually get firmwares from your manufacturer's website. Read the update instructions, and do the update. Your updated firmware will often provide much better performance. However, even if it is easy to flash, note that an improperly updated firmware (flashed device) can often stop working, or completely die. If you don't know what you are doing, don't do it. That is, DO AT YOUR OWN RISK!
8. Switch from 802.11/a/b to 802.11g/n
These are just standards that use different technologies and frequencies, so don't bother about them. What you need to know is that 802.11 represents Wireless Networks, and the letters represents standards, with "a" being the slowest, and "n" being the fastest (till now). Always buy equipment that supports at least 802.11g for better performance. 802.11n is still a draft standard which will be official estimated Sept. 2008. You can already get "Draft-n Ready Device" WAPs/Routers out there, but these are a bit more expensive.
Protocol..........Speed(mbps)..........Range/indoors..........Range/outdoors
802.11............2...............................20m................................100m
802.11a..........54.............................35m................................120m
802.11b..........11.............................38m................................140m
802.11g..........54.............................38m................................140m
802.11n..........248..........................70m.................................250m
9. Use equipment from a single manufacturer
Always try to use equipments bought from one manufacturer. Eg. if you have a DLink WAP, use a DLink adaptor. This also for other manufacturers. This is because devices from one manufacturer might not be well supported by another, so better get something which will ensure compatibility, and thus performance. A simple example is the 108Mbps devices from Netgear. This is an unofficial standard, and only available if you use a Netgear 108Mbps capable WAP/Router and a 108Mbps adaptor from Netgear. Other adaptors cannot get the 108Mbps speeds. They will be restricted to 802.11g's 54Mbps.
10. Check Transmission Power
With most adaptors, there is a feature that allows you to set the Transmission Power of your adaptor. This applies particularly to laptops. Your OS will usually set the Transmission Power to low/medium/power-save to conserve battery. However, this will also degrade your wireless network receptivity. Check your transmission power. It is usually in Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device manager -> (your Wireless Adaptor name) -> Advanced -> Transmit Power. This is under Windows. I still haven't tested that under Linux. Updates on that later. You might want to set it at maximum, but if you are on a laptop and on battery, it will drain significantly faster. You might want to set it at 3 (medium) when on battery, and on 5 (maximum) when plugged-in. You can also adjust these settings under Power Management for laptops. If you can't find it, check your manuals.
I hope this small guide might be of some help to somebody who wants to improve his/her wireless network.
1. Position your Wireless Access Point (WAP) / Router centrally
Always place your WAP or Router in a central location of your wireless zone. If you want to have wireless access in your whole house, try placing the WAP/Router in a room which is almost in the middle of your house. Avoid placing the router in corners of the room. If possible, place it away from walls for better performance.
2. Keep your WAP off the floor, table-top and away from metal objects
The floor is not the best place for a router, since furnitures will tend to distort the signals, nor is the table-top which places it near your computer devices. These too will tend to distort the signal and degrade performance. The worst thing is metal objects. They literally absorb the signal and greatly affect range. Never place anything metallic near, or on your WAP/Router.
3. Use a more adapted router antenna
Most WAPs/Routers come with omni-directional antennas that broadcast in all directions around your wireless device. This can be a good thing if your router is in a central location of your wireless zone. However, if it is in a corner of your place, and cannot be moved, most of its transmission power is wasted when the broadcast is sent outside of your place. In that case, you will want to change the omni-directional antenna, to a directional antenna (sometimes called a Yagi antenna). These broadcast predominantly in one direction. You can then orient it to suit your needs. Eg. Point it at a room where you will need wireless access. Also, you might invest in Hi-gain antennas which have longer range.
4. Replace your wireless adaptor
As technology evolves, adapters get better. Therefore, you might want to buy a new one. This will certainly increase the range. I experienced that personally. Using a USB adaptor, I used to get Poor Signal rating, reported by Windows. Now that I updated it to a newer one, I get Very Good.
5. Use a wireless repeater or a secondary WAP
If you want to furthur extend the range, you might want to use a Wireless Repeater. It's a device that takes the wireless signal, amplify it and re-transmit it. This extends the range to about twice the normal range. However, WAPs/Routers don't like their signals being repeated, and some data might get corrupted. According to me, a better solution is to get a second WAP, configure it normally, but set it's "Gateway" IP address to the primary WAP/Router IP address. You can then place this WAP in range of the primary WAP/Router. This will extend the range even furthur, without the need for repeaters. The secondary WAP will connect to the primary WAP/Router wirelessly, and send all its data to it. Please note that both devices must be on the same network, eg. 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.1.2 for the 2 devices.
6. Change your wireless channel
WAPs/Routers can broadcast on several channels of different frequencies in the order of GHz. Channels 1,6 and 11 are fairly common. If you use the same channel, and several other people are using that same channel in an area, there is interference. Eg. your neighbor and yourself might be using the same channel. To reduce interference, change the channel from the default value to something else apart from 1,6,11. You can normally do that in your WAP/Router configuration panel. Check your manuals if need be. You don't need to change anything on your computer(s). It will detect the channel change automatically.
7. Update your firmwares
Firmwares are softwares found inside your hardware devices, which allow the user to change settings and manage the devices easily without tinkering with hardware things. It is always a good thing to update your firmware often, so that you have the latest features, bug corrections and improvements. You can usually get firmwares from your manufacturer's website. Read the update instructions, and do the update. Your updated firmware will often provide much better performance. However, even if it is easy to flash, note that an improperly updated firmware (flashed device) can often stop working, or completely die. If you don't know what you are doing, don't do it. That is, DO AT YOUR OWN RISK!
8. Switch from 802.11/a/b to 802.11g/n
These are just standards that use different technologies and frequencies, so don't bother about them. What you need to know is that 802.11 represents Wireless Networks, and the letters represents standards, with "a" being the slowest, and "n" being the fastest (till now). Always buy equipment that supports at least 802.11g for better performance. 802.11n is still a draft standard which will be official estimated Sept. 2008. You can already get "Draft-n Ready Device" WAPs/Routers out there, but these are a bit more expensive.
Protocol..........Speed(mbps)..........Range/indoors..........Range/outdoors
802.11............2...............................20m................................100m
802.11a..........54.............................35m................................120m
802.11b..........11.............................38m................................140m
802.11g..........54.............................38m................................140m
802.11n..........248..........................70m.................................250m
9. Use equipment from a single manufacturer
Always try to use equipments bought from one manufacturer. Eg. if you have a DLink WAP, use a DLink adaptor. This also for other manufacturers. This is because devices from one manufacturer might not be well supported by another, so better get something which will ensure compatibility, and thus performance. A simple example is the 108Mbps devices from Netgear. This is an unofficial standard, and only available if you use a Netgear 108Mbps capable WAP/Router and a 108Mbps adaptor from Netgear. Other adaptors cannot get the 108Mbps speeds. They will be restricted to 802.11g's 54Mbps.
10. Check Transmission Power
With most adaptors, there is a feature that allows you to set the Transmission Power of your adaptor. This applies particularly to laptops. Your OS will usually set the Transmission Power to low/medium/power-save to conserve battery. However, this will also degrade your wireless network receptivity. Check your transmission power. It is usually in Control Panel -> System -> Hardware -> Device manager -> (your Wireless Adaptor name) -> Advanced -> Transmit Power. This is under Windows. I still haven't tested that under Linux. Updates on that later. You might want to set it at maximum, but if you are on a laptop and on battery, it will drain significantly faster. You might want to set it at 3 (medium) when on battery, and on 5 (maximum) when plugged-in. You can also adjust these settings under Power Management for laptops. If you can't find it, check your manuals.
I hope this small guide might be of some help to somebody who wants to improve his/her wireless network.
Some random tricks about Firefox...
1. If you want to load Google, Yahoo and Youtube at the same time and at every start of Firefox, is it possible??
Yes it is! And it's simple to do at that. Here are the steps and taking Google, Yahoo and Youtube as example. Substitute with what you want.
Now, when you load Firefox next time, the addresses you type, separated by the | symbol will simultaneously open in new tabs.
2. Scrolling with your keyboard
You can use these shortcuts to browse up and down in a page, in addition to the arrow keys:
3. Custom Search Keywords aka. Quick Search
There is a very good function in Firefox that allows you to define custom keywords to search directly from your address bar. Take for example, you want to search for something on Youtube or Ebay. Ok, you can use the search bar, but you'll have to add custom searches first.
A simpler method is:
That'd be all for now...
1. If you want to load Google, Yahoo and Youtube at the same time and at every start of Firefox, is it possible??
Yes it is! And it's simple to do at that. Here are the steps and taking Google, Yahoo and Youtube as example. Substitute with what you want.
1) Open Firefox. Then go to Tools - Options - Main Tab
2) In Startup frame, select Show my Home Page3) Now in home page field, type (without quotes, italic text only) "http://www.google.com | http://www.yahoo.com | http://www.youtube.com"
3) To open the same pages, but a 4th blank tab, use "http://www.google.com | http://www.yahoo.com | http://www.youtube.com | about:blank" without quotes. Note that about:blank opens a blank tab / window.
Now, when you load Firefox next time, the addresses you type, separated by the | symbol will simultaneously open in new tabs.
2. Scrolling with your keyboard
You can use these shortcuts to browse up and down in a page, in addition to the arrow keys:
Space Bar: Scrolls downAn essential trick for people who want keyboard-only browsing.
Shift + Space Bar: Scrolls up
3. Custom Search Keywords aka. Quick Search
There is a very good function in Firefox that allows you to define custom keywords to search directly from your address bar. Take for example, you want to search for something on Youtube or Ebay. Ok, you can use the search bar, but you'll have to add custom searches first.
A simpler method is:
1) Go to your site. Eg. Youtube. It should have a search engine.
2) Right-click the "Search" field and select "Add a Keyword for this Search"
3) In "Name", add something meaningful, eg. Youtube Search.
4)The next field, "Keyword" is important. Here, you should type your keyword. For Youtube, it might be "tube" or "yt" or something short and nice to type. For Ebay, it might be "eb" or "bay". It depends on what you like. Type your keyword and proceed.
5) Select Quick Searches in the "Create in" dropdown menu. It makes sorting Quick Search bookmarks easier to sort and find.
6) Now, when you need to search for something on your site, you type the keyword in the address bar (delete its contents first), followed by your search term. Eg. assuming keyword for youtube is "yt", you'd type "yt test" in the address bar to search for "test" on Youtube. No http or www in the address bar when you are Quick Searching...
That'd be all for now...
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