Here is something you can try out for fun. Take your wireless-enabled laptop to any locality in Calcutta. Search for a Wi-Fi network and you will be surprised to find several in the vicinity. People fed up with the tangle of wires have begun switching to wireless Internet in droves. But most are not careful enough. Try to connect to any wireless network in range and you will be surprised to find that you can surf at will at broadband speed for free at someone else’s cost. Not only that, you can even rummage through your careless neighbour’s files once you are connected to his or her network!

Users are increasingly forgetting to enable WPA/ WEP encryption in their wireless routers. Wireless LAN security is of utmost importance. Bank transactions and transmitting of credit card numbers are often done online; if the network is not secure data can be stolen.

WEP stands for wired equivalent privacy. It specifies a shared secret 40- or 64-bit key to encrypt and decrypt the data. To enable WEP/ WPA security on your wireless router, you need to connect the cable from the router directly to your PC’s ethernet port. I am assuming you have successfully set up your wireless router to connect to the Internet. Here is how you can set up a secure wireless network with a NetGear router.

Open Control Panel in Windows XP and click on Network Connections. Click on the wireless Internet connection icon, then on Properties. Select Internet Protocol and again select Properties. On the next dialog box enable “Obtain an IP Address Automatically” and “Obtain DNS Server address Automatically”. Open Internet Explorer and type http://192. 168.1.1. Log in using “admin” as the user name and “password” as the password.

Click on Wireless Settings. Under Security Options, choose WEP with an Encryption Strength of 64 bit. Choose a passphrase (any word that you will remember). Then click on Generate. You will find that four keys have been generated. Note these down in Notepad and save the file in a folder. Key1 is the one you will require the first time you connect to the Internet. So keep this handy. Click on Apply and router will restart.

Now you are on a secure wireless network. The security setting for a Linksys wireless router is similar, but less complicated. You need to connect the router to the ethernet port of your PC and follow the same steps. Log in using “admin” as username and again “admin” as password. Click on the Security tab and choose a passphrase. Click on Generate and stow away the Keys in a safe place.

I really like my wireless network at home. You can take your laptop to any room and surf freely. Not only that, I can wirelessly access files on my desktop too. It makes work a lot easier. But you must take the security precautions to prevent neighbours from mooching your bandwidth.

Transform your Dataone: Despite BSNL Dataone’s fast Internet of 2 mbps, it may often happen that you type in a web address and stare blankly at the screen waiting for the page to load. This is because the addresses you put in your browser have to be translated to numerical addresses used by computers.

Therefore, www.wikipedia.org resolves to 207.142. 131.203. This resolution is done by DNS (Domain Name System) servers. Every time you send an email or visit a web page, you are sending data to a DNS server.

BSNL’s DNS servers are 61.1.96.69 and 61.1.96.71. Most DNS servers on the Internet are very slow and overworked. This is also true of the DNS servers given to us by BSNL. That is why the Internet seems very slow on some days or certain hours during the day.

A simple tweak, however, will transform your surfing experience. Follow these steps if you use Windows XP —

Go to Control Panel and click on “Network Connections”. Choose your connection from the “Network Connections” window. Click on the “Properties” button. Select “Internet Protocol (TCP /IP)” and click on “Properties”. Click on the radio button “Use the following DNS server addresses” and type in 208.67.222.222 in the “Preferred DNS server” and 208. 67.220.220 in the “Alternate DNS server” fields, then click “OK”. Restart.

If you are using a Linksys wireless router do the following —

Visit the router’s IP address (http://192.168.1.1) in a new browser window. Enter the Network password. (Username “admin” and password “admin”) Type in 208.67.222. 222 in “Static DNS 1” and 208.67.220.220 in “Static DNS 2” fields. Click the “Save Settings” button. Restart your computer and router.

There will be a distinct improvement in your surfing speed. These DNS servers are provided free by OpenDNS. In case of any difficulty in configuring your router, go to www.opendns. com for detailed instructions.

Send in your computer- related problems to askdoss@abpmail.com The solutions will appear soon