pctoolbox.co.uk » Networking

The Do’s and Don’ts of Social Networking

Alex — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:00:22 +0000

Some key tips to help keep you safe on social networking sites…

Where do you access Facebook?

Alex — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:00:06 +0000

Our poll this month was ‘where do you access Facebook?’ Bosses pleased to see that most people are checking their facebook pages at home rather than at work with a staggering 47% just viewing it from home. Second up was people viewing their pages from both home and work. (Click on the image to enlarge)

21% of voters said they don’t check facebook at home or at work so I’m guessing they don’t have an account? If you don’t know what facebook is and would like to find out more check out our post on it from back in 2007…Facebook – What’s it all about?

Don’t forget to become a Fan of Brandstar on Facebook!

What are some of the new features in Windows 7 Professional?

Alex — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 08:00:08 +0000

People are forever asking us ‘What’s new about Windows 7 Professional?’ Here’s a few of our favourite Windows 7 Professional features!

Windows XP Mode	Run many older Windows XP productivity applications in Windows XP Mode
Domain Join and Group Policy	Easily and more securely add windows 7-based PC’s to a domain network. With Group Policy customers can better manage the security and costs of multiple PC’s.
Encrypting File System	Encrypt files and folders to protect confidential information ranging from customer information to financial data
Location-Aware Printing	Windows detects whether the user is at work or at home and automatically sends the documents to the right printer
Presentation Settings in Windows Mobility Center	Users can apply options to help ensure optimal PC behaviour during presentations (e.g. automatically turning off instant messages from Windows Live Messenger or Microsoft Office Outlook notifications)
Remote Desktop Host	Access documents and programs on a computer remotely from another computer
Offline Files	Work offline and automatically synchronize between PC and network content

Staying Connected … linking wordpress facebook and twitter

Grae — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:13:36 +0000

I think it is safe to admit that I am not the only one who has a wordpress blog, facebook account and a twitter profile, all of which get updated from time to time. Some more regularly than others and some with the same info!

In fact I have three wordpress blogs! Brandstar, PCToolbox and a Personal Blog. I also have a personal and business twitter profile and I was thinking, there must be a way of linking all this! After a bit of digging I found, there is!

Basically I decided that I want to get information, updates and more off the WordPress and Facebook accounts and published on Twitter. It seems like the logical way round to me.

The key tool for doing this is TwitterFeed as it makes it nice and easy with just these steps

Register for a TwitterFeed account (you only have to do this once and you can then link lots of RSS feeds to twitter through your TwitterFeed account.)

Link to your Twitter profile, (make sure twitter is open in another tab), then in TwitterFeed choose ‘Create New Feed’ and choose Connect your feed to your Twitter account
Give the Feed a name
Link to the RSS Feed of where the information is coming from! (more info below)

Ok, so the last bit might be the hardest for some people I admit. On WordPress you just have to look for the icon that looks like the orange one to the right (some themes have varied the style and colour but should be recognisable) or you can go direct to the feed by typing /feed after the blog address … e.g. for PCToolbox it is www.pctoolbox.co.uk/feed and the brandstar.co.uk feed is www.brandstar.co.uk/wp/feed (the wp is teh directory wordpress is installed in).

Facebook doesn’t make finding the feed that easy … so follow these instructions and you will be away

Log into Facebook
Click notifications in the bottom right hand corner of the screen
Press ‘See All’ when the notifications pop-up appears
Under all the tick boxes you will see ‘Your Notifications’, click that
You will then see a big list of ALL your notifications, this could be the feed you want, but if you just want YOUR status updates like I did then keep reading
The URL in the address bar at the very top will read something like “http://www.facebook.com/feeds/notifications.php?id=123456789&viewer=1234567891&key=t4654562v&format=rss20″
You need to change the word ‘notifications’ that I have bold-ed above to read ‘status’ so the URL reads similar to this “http://www.facebook.com/feeds/status.php?id=123456789&viewer=1234567891&key=t4654562v&format=rss20″
Hit ENTER and that will show you all your Status updates, copy that URL from the address bar and that is you FEED when you are setting up TwitterFeed to send info to Twitter!

I hope that helps, enjoy, have fun and stay connected!

Grae.

Norton 360 vs AVG Internet Security

Alex — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:00:49 +0000

Over the next few weeks we are going to run a series of comparisons between different Anti-Virus Software. In these comparison post’s we’re going to show you the main features that the two products provide and then tell you which we think is better through our rating system. Our ratings are worked out by the amount of ticks the product has. Further points are awarded for faster download, simpler/better installation and cheaper price. This time it is Norton’s 360 v3.0 vs AVG’s Award Winning Internet Security v8.5.

Feature
Download Time	Average	Fast
Installation	Quick but slightly tedious (you have to register for a second time.) Doesn’t help you set up the general running of the software.	Takes an average length of time. Quite extensive and helps you set up the basic features of the software.
Antivirus Technology
Identity Protection (Including Phishing Protection, Checks Links, Keeps you details safe whilst shopping online, etc)
Antispyware
Backup Software
Automated Virus Updater
Protects against Viruses, Bots, Spyware, Rootkits, Worms, Trojan Horses, etc.
Online Storage Available?
Helps Secure and Monitor Networks
Download and Instant Messenger Screening
Firewall Protection
RRP	1 Year: £59.99 2 Years: £109.99	1 Year: £39.14 2 Years: £58.71
Available to Download from Brandstar?
Overall Rating	9 out of 14	12 out of 14

So to conclude, from our investigations and playing around with the two software’s, we can announce that we think AVG Internet Security is the better software of the two. It may not have any backup software within the package but it works out cheaper to get AVG and then buy yourself a decent back up tool and external hard drive.

Next time we’ll be comparing AVG Internet Security with McAfee Total Protection.

Cannot Find Windows Home Server

Grae — Wed, 27 May 2009 08:55:20 +0000

We came across a problem today that we have come across before, but each time forget the solution, so…time to document it!

Scenario – new machine to add to the WHS network. Shoved the connector disc in and follow it through, but after entering the password we get the message “Can’t find the windows home server” try this…and non of the suggestions work. Sound familiar?

The cause is a simple one when you think about it like we did…we have had the WHS running for a few months now, and as with all Microsoft products there have been updates both to the server and the connector software!

The software that came on the disc no longer works and therefore you have to use the stuff on the server…so do this on the machine you are trying to connect to your home server

Start and Run
\servernamesoftwareHome Server Connector Software
Double click the ‘setup.exe’ file
The connector installation process will run and you will get connected!

Easy once you know how (if you remember!)

Top 3 ADSL Wireless Modem Routers

Alex — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 08:00:23 +0000

Here are our Top 3 ADSL Wireless Modem Routers:

Linksys WAG160N – This is the ‘new’ type of wireless technology. The router is excellent, easy to setup, and made by Cisco so has bags of features if you need to do things like VPN pass-through or just want to set it up to be able to Remote Desktop into one of your machines from elsewhere. The range is good, if not better than any of the other Wireless N routers we have used. If you’re interested in the Wireless-N Technology have a read on Wikipedia. This product is currently priced at £69.94 which is a really good price!!
Belkin 125g Wireless Router – Now this is a fairly old router, we have been using these for a couple of years now, and for home users or if you aren’t connecting to a Server then this is a brilliant router. It is under £45, it has a fantastic range, definately the best we have seen on a router of this price and they last, we’ve got a number of clients running these and we have had no problems what so ever with reliability. This really is a contender for first place. It is only Wireless G+ so no the new N Technology and the 125 speed only works if you have a compatible adaptor, but still just for the great range I would recommend this router.
Linksys WAG 54GS – Yes another Linksys router, but they are by far the best and also some of the cheapest from the big name brands! This one is excellent for networks that don’t require a long range but require all the features of a Linksys router as mentioned for the WAG160N.

Do you have any Wireless Routers you can recommend?

Windows Home Server – Books

Alex — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 08:00:05 +0000

At the end of last year we mentioned that we would be writing a range of posts about Microsoft’s Windows Home Server and I thought that a good place to start would be recommending some books.

There are two that we suggest you start with, your experience with networks and servers will depend on which one will suit you best.

The first is “Windows Home Server User Guide”, this will allow you to setup the server and get client machines connected with shared files, printers and more. If you are new to networking and/or servers then this is the book to start with. It talks you through the basics to get you fully functioning Windows Home Server easily and relatively quick.

The second is “Windows Home Server Unleashed”, this again goes through the basics but it goes a lot further as well. If you are familiar with networking and have some server experience then we would say this is the one to go for. It takes you through doing a lot more than the first book….but then it is probably 4 times the size!

So there we go, that is the first step, get the book…oh and the software…if you don’t have the software then download a trial.

More Windows Home Server posts coming throughout 2009!!

Microsoft Windows Home Server – Brilliant!

Grae — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:46:50 +0000

For the past couple of months here in the office we have been testing Microsoft’s Windows Home Server and we are very impressed! So much so that we plan to run a whole bunch of tutorials, reviews and tips in the new year for this!

We’ll be covering things like –

What Windows Home Server (WHS) can do for you at Home
What WHS can do for you in a Small Office Environment
WHS & Backing Up
It’s limitations when compared to Small Business Server
Buying Advice
Ways to extend your WHS
Accessing your Home Server’s Shared Files and Computers remotely
and More…

So book mark this category on pctoolbox.co.uk ready for this great new section for 2009 !

Wireless Network Planning – Step 3

Grae — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:15:41 +0000

This is the third and final step of the Beginners guide to wireless network planning, and this step is an optional one. So far we have looked at:

If you find that your wireless network doesn’t stretch as far as you need it to then you can extend it!

Firstly, it is good to use equipment from the same manufacturer of your router/access point. Because if you require assistance they are more likely to help you setup two of their devices and often you can take advatages of features like Linksys Speedboost if you have all their equipment.

These are meant to be quick tips and so I have found a page on the Microsoft site that is better than i could do here so why re-invent the wheel, checkout what they say about Improving your Wireless Signal

So there we go, a short and simple series in planning a wireless network, but I hope it has helped a few beginners get going, or at least understand what is going on with their wireless network