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6-2-05
As I promised last week, I’m going to explain in this issue how a broadband router takes your external IP address (the address of your cable or DSL modem) and directs the correct traffic to multiple PCs and laptops on your home network. Get some mints folks, that bated breath is strong ;)
The basic function of a router is to “route” Internet requests from an internal address to an external one, then direct the external response to the proper internal address.
To explain this I’m going to set up a theoretical network with a Linksys router connected to a modem from Insight. For this theoretical network I’m going to assign an external address of 12.203.113.x where x changes every time you reset the modem, and the internal address range is 192.168.1.x, where x changes every time you reboot your PC or laptop.
Before I go any deeper I must first explain “ports”. On any given Internet connection there are 65,537 ports, which act as kind of a mailbox for your IP address if you think of that address as an apartment complex.
Last week I mentioned that the IP address of your PC acted as a sort of street address for the Internet. The port numbers act as sub-addresses for different programs on your PC. As examples the standard SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) port is 25. This allows your mail client to send emails and the address would be 12.203.113.x:25. The incoming (POP3) protocol would use 12.203.113.x:110. As you can see, the number after the colon breaks off from the external address and includes the port (or apartment) number.
With the idea of internal and external addresses and port numbers in mind, you can see how the router works.
The PC with internal address 192.168.1.105 requests the waiting email from the mail server at Insight. The router takes the outgoing request from 192.168.1.105:110 and switches the output to 12.203.113.x:110, making a note of the internal address that made the request. When the input comes back the router takes the signal from 12.203.113.x:110 and sends it to the network computer at 192.168.1.105 on port 110. The internal computer then gets its incoming email.
This scenario only applies to outgoing requests. Incoming requests require some special handling called “port forwarding” and an internal address that doesn’t change.
First you need to pick an address that won’t cause any conflicts with automatically assigned addresses. Most routers assign addresses in a block of 100, which leaves a lot of unassigned area for you to use. Since my hypothetical PC has .105 as the last octet I can assume that this router is using 192.168.1.100-199, so for my permanent address I’m going to use 192.168.1.85. That’s a smidge below the assumed range so there’s a bit of a buffer.
To do this I’m going to go into my Network Connections screen. In XP you get to this by right clicking on My Network Places and choosing Properties. Then you right click on Local Area Connection and choose Properties again, then select the TCP/IP and click on Properties yet again. Now you can assign an address. Tick Use the following IP address and type in 192.168.1.85. The next field is the Subnet mask, which defaults to 255.255.255.0. The last field is the Gateway, which is the address of the router. The default in this setup is 192.168.1.1.
Click OK, then OK and close the Network Connection box and if you can still open a web page you’ve successfully configured your PC for a static internal address.
The example I’ll use here that needs port forwarding is TightVNC, which is an open source remote desktop application. Think of it as a free PC Anywhere. After you install the program and set the username and password you need to forward ports 5800 and 5900 to the target PC.
There are two sides of each port (UDP and TCP) and the VNC software doesn’t specify which type to use so just forward both. Log into the router (type 192.168.1.1 into the address bar of Internet Explorer). Once there forward 5800 and 5900 TCP and UDP to 192.168.1.85. Save and log off and now you can log into your computer from any browser on any computer.
Now that most of you are asleep, I’ll wake you up gently by saying router setup is extremely easy for most home uses and you can brag to your friends that you know how they work. Just don’t brag too much, or the neighbors will want you to come forward their ports ;)
Kevin Mefford, Editor
A new variant
of Bagle is on the loose, and it hasn't become any nicer:
http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=163702396
More
people than ever are buying music online, but illegal downloads
are still as
popular as ever:
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=11732&Page=1&pagePos=6
AOpen
has introduced a mini-PC that looks just like the popular Mac
mini---but, of
course, this is not the Wintel response to Apple's
innovation or
anything:
http://www..theregister.co.uk/2005/06/02/mini_vs_mini/
ICANN
wants to create a ".xxx" top-level domain, thus creating
an
easily-identifiable haven for adult sites. Does that mean sites
like
"whitehouse.com" are going away? Seeing is believing:
http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/73429/icann-turns-its-attention-to-xxx-adult-domains.html
Copy
us on the good stuff ;-)
Matthew Dattilo
www.thepcgurus.com
www.opaquelucidity.com
This week's
extension can become one of the handiest ones you've ever
seen, especially
if you are a big fan of using another program to gather
weather information
for you. ForecastFox is the one that you will be
shown this week and
hopefully it will quickly become a favorite of
yours, just like it has
become a favorite of mine. You have your
browser open for most of the
day, right? Well, instead of using extra
processor and memory to power
a second app, why not save the computer
that little bit of wear and plug the
forecast right into your browser.
First of all, you will need to head
over to the extension page for this
one:
https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?application=firefox&id=398
and go ahead and do the usual bit of
installing it. It's a really
simple install, and there's not much
configuring to do afterwards.
First, go to Tools -> Extensions and
pick ForecastFox from the list.
Next hit the Options button at the
bottom of the Extension Manager.
The main ForecastFox screen will come
up, and the first thing you will
want to do is put in what city you live
in. That's as simple as
inputting your ZIP Code into that box.
Next, if you really want to get all you can out of it, you'll want to go
through the whole list of options in the left hand pane and configure
them all to your liking. I suggest turning on everything as you are
going through the Severe Weather, Radar, Current Conditions, Today's
Forecast and Extended Forecast sections, enabling all the little
subsections on the right hand side as you click through the
categories.
Under the Today's Forecast section I suggest setting the
Enable Display
Parts to both Day and Night, and telling ForecastFox to
switch to
Tonight's Forecast after its 3PM daily deadline. I also
suggest setting
Extended forecast to 1 day beyond today, and to show both
day and
night. This way, when you come into work in the morning you
have
today's and tomorrow's weather sitting there in the status bar, waiting
for you as you look at your morning fare of websites. Note: These are
all suggestions, and if you want the full notes on how to configure this
little tool e-mail me back, or take a look on
http://forecastfox.mozdev.org.
Also of note: ForecastFox uses Accuweather.com for its weather
forecasting. This caused a little stir with some early adopters who
were used to the Weather Channel feed. The way it was explained
Accuweather gave ForecastFox a lot more data than TWC, and provides more
liberties to be taken with it. I personally used Accuweather for my
weather already so for me, it was no problems at all.
Things of note
with ForecastFox: In the status bar where you see your
weather display pop
up, if you configured the radar to be displayed,
hover over the green
circle, and you will see a semi-live picture of the
radar in your
area. Just big enough to see if there's rain, not big
enough to see
your house from. You can also hover over all the other
displayed
pictures and tool tips will pop up showing the time and day
being talked
about, and the weather forecast for that time period.
Happy weather
watching, and happy browsing!
Daniel A. Williams
daniel@thepcgurus.com
If this keeps up I’m going to start calling this section Program Update of the Week. Ad-Aware is out in version 1.06 this week with a slightly new interface and a couple of new features.
The biggest change is the inclusion of a Scan Summary tab after a scan for malware. The Critical Objects tab is still there but the Summary shows “Families” of malware, much like Spybot Search and Destroy does. Instead of looking at a list of every single bad file on the PC you get a list of the family of file and the number of entries found. Just check the family name (Gator, DoubleClick, Tracking Cookie etc.) and proceed as usual.
The Summary also lists Negligible Objects (the MRU lists) which you can pretty much ignore unless your PC is used by multiple people and you don’t want them to see the last document or file you opened, your last search item etc.
The other change I noticed was the little Bug icon after the scan that indicates malware found is now an exclamation point, but the good old electronic fart sound is still there ;)
Get it from http://www.download.com/3000-2144-10045910.html?part=69274&subj=dlpage&tag=button
Q: This wireless technology is so cool! My
question is: how far, and I
mean physically, can a "hot spot" cover.. how
much area? For example,
the Louisville Free Public libraries are designated
hot spots now,
right? I am not currently a laptop owner, but this
wireless technoloy
really makes me want to buy one.
A: It depends on the place and how they
configure their network. Many
places like Browning's, Highland Coffee, Park
Place, and Artemisia
have 1 wireless router. They get about 100ft (if you are
lucky). My
home network gets about 100ft through a few houses, walls, etc…
Other
places, such as UofL's main library and corporate networks,
have
numerous routers placed about their structures allowing people to
walk
from point to point and not loosing a connection but their
networks
will not travel too far from the building. In theory a
wireless
network should go 1500ft line of sight but my opinion is 300ft is
the
limit unless the router is 'tweaked'.
Johnathan P.
Durbin
jpdurbin@jpdurbin.net
http://jpdurbin.net/
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