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Showing posts with label Computers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Computers. Show all posts

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Making Older Desktop Pc Wireless

Okay so your looking for information on making a desktop PC wireless. You'll be happy to know that just about any desktop PC can support a wireless internet connection. Even older desktops can connect to the internet via a wireless internet connection.

First, make sure your desktop PC is in good working order. What I mean by good working order is just to make sure the desktop PC is free of unwanted spyware and other harmful files which could make a desktop computer's wireless connection slow down to a crawl. If you plan on making an older desktop PC wireless then you should really scan your computer for spyware and infections because the last thing you want is something stealing all your system resources when you don't have very much to begin with.


WHATS NEEDED TO MAKE DESKTOP PC WIRELESS

Let's start by assuming you already have an internet service (not dial-up) and are cruising the web with ease. You should have a cable modem connected to your desktop PC. If this is the case, then you're ready to begin your wireless setup. If you don't have an existing internet service and a cable modem then you'd better stop reading this because a wireless internet connection on your desktop PC can't be accomplished legally without them.



MAKING PC WIRELESS - WIRELESS ROUTER

First, before anything, you need to purchase a wireless router. If you've never owned a wireless router before then grabbing the most expensive model probably won't benefit you all that much unless you plan on receiving a wireless internet connection from inside of a multiple story building. In this case a more expensive router will offer a few features that are worth the extra money.

Remember when you go ahead and purchase a wireless router in hopes of making your desktop computer wireless you'll be happy to know that you'll be halfway done with your mission for wireless internet on your desktop. The only thing left is a wireless PC adapter.


MAKING PC WIRELESS - WIRELESS DESKTOP ADAPTERS

It's actually very easy to add a wireless desktop adapter to your comupter's arsenal of computing tools. There are two different types of wireless networking components that you can choose from. They are as follows.


1. Wireless USB adapter

2. Wireless PCI adapter

*both wireless devices are packaged with a setup CD-ROM which quickly installs everything needed to configure and use your PC's wireless internet connection.



A wireless USB adapter is the easiest way to make a desktop PC wireless. The cons of using a wireless USB adapter are the signal strength which is considerably weaker than a wireless PCI card. Most people experience no problems with signal strength as long as they stay within range of the wireless router that's sending out the wireless signal.

Basically, installing a wireless USB adapter plugs into any available USB port. In reality, it only takes a matter of seconds to plug in a USB adapter and start using the internet without the wires.

The second wireless device that can make desktop computers wireless is called a wireless PCI (PCI = white slots inside a computer) card adapter. This device enables high performance wireless connectivity for your desktop PC with extended range.

Installation is not as hard as you might have thought. Simply remove the side panel from your desktop PC and insert the wireless PCI card into any one of the white slots inside. There is only one way the card can be installed. Reading the directions that are included when you purchase your wireless networking device is by far the best thing you can do to ensure a smooth installation and launch of your wireless connection.MAKING DESKTOP PC WIRELESS

MORE WIRELESS HOW TO INFORMATION

In the future I will most likely go into further detail about each networking component. Check out this page if you have any further questions about  making a desktop pc wireless.
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Types of Computer Hardware

Computer hardware is a physical part of a computer that executes within the hardware. It is unlike computer software or data that can be frequently changed, modified or erased on a computer. Computer hardware is not frequently changed and so is stored in hardware devices such as read only memory (ROM) where it is not readily changed.

Most computer hardware is embedded and so is not visible to normal users. Below are the different types of hardware's found in a computer.
  • Motherboard: It is the central or primary circuit board making up a complex electronic system such as a computer. A motherboard is also known as a main board, logic board or system board.
  • Central processing Unit: A CPU is the main component of a digital computer that interprets instructions and process data in computer programs.
  • Random Access Memory: A RAM allows the stored data to be accessed in any order. RAM is considered as the main memory of the computer where the working area is used for displaying and manipulating data.
  • Basic Input Output System: BIOS prepares the software programs to load, execute and control the computer. Power Supply: Power Supply supplies electrical energy to an output load or group of loads.
  • Video Display Controller: It converts the logical representation of visual information into a signal that can be used as input for a display medium.
  • Computer Bus: It is used to transfer data or power between computer components inside a computer or between computers.
  • CD-ROM drive: It contains data accessible by a computer.
  • Floppy disk: It is a data storage device
  • Zip Drive: It is a medium capacity removable disk storage system.
  • Hard Disk: It is a non-volatile data storage system that stores data on a magnetic surface layered unto hard disk platters.

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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

How does anti-virus software work?

How does anti-virus software work?
An anti-virus software program is a computer program that can be used to scan files to identify and eliminate computer viruses and other malicious software (malware).
Anti-virus software typically uses two different techniques to accomplish this:
Examining files to look for known viruses by means of a virus dictionary
Identifying suspicious behavior from any computer program which might indicate infection
Most commercial anti-virus software uses both of these approaches, with an emphasis on the virus dictionary approach.
Virus dictionary approach
In the virus dictionary approach, when the anti-virus software examines a file, it refers to a dictionary of known viruses that have been identified by the author of the anti-virus software. If a piece of code in the file matches any virus identified in the dictionary, then the anti-virus software can then either delete the file, quarantine it so that the file is inaccessible to other programs and its virus is unable to spread, or attempt to repair the file by removing the virus itself from the file.
To be successful in the medium and long term, the virus dictionary approach requires periodic online downloads of updated virus dictionary entries. As new viruses are identified "in the wild", civically minded and technically inclined users can send their infected files to the authors of anti-virus software, who then include information about the new viruses in their dictionaries.
Dictionary-based anti-virus software typically examines files when the computer's operating system creates, opens, and closes them; and when the files are e-mailed. In this way, a known virus can be detected immediately upon receipt. The software can also typically be scheduled to examine all files on the user's hard disk on a regular basis.
Although the dictionary approach is considered effective, virus authors have tried to stay a step ahead of such software by writing "polymorphic viruses", which encrypt parts of themselves or otherwise modify themselves as a method of disguise, so as to not match the virus's signature in the dictionary.
Suspicious behavior approach
The suspicious behavior approach, by contrast, doesn't attempt to identify known viruses, but instead monitors the behavior of all programs. If one program tries to write data to an executable program, for example, this is flagged as suspicious behavior and the user is alerted to this, and asked what to do.
Unlike the dictionary approach, the suspicious behavior approach therefore provides protection against brand-new viruses that do not yet exist in any virus dictionaries. However, it also sounds a large number of false positives, and users probably become desensitized to all the warnings. If the user clicks "Accept" on every such warning, then the anti-virus software is obviously useless to that user. This problem has especially been made worse over the past 7 years, since many more nonmalicious program designs chose to modify other .exes without regards to this false positive issue. Thus, most modern anti virus software uses this technique less and less.
Other ways to detect viruses
Some antivirus-software will try to emulate the beginning of the code of each new executable that is being executed before transferring control to the executable. If the program seems to be using self-modifying code or otherwise appears as a virus (it immeadeatly tries to find other executables), one could assume that the executable has been infected with a virus. However, this method results in a lot of false positives.
Yet another detection method is using a sandbox. A sandbox emulates the operating system and runs the executable in this simulation. After the program has terminated, the sandbox is analysed for changes which might indicate a virus. Because of performance issues this type of detection is normally only performed during on-demand scans.
Issues of concern
Macro viruses, arguably the most destructive and widespread computer viruses, could be prevented far more inexpensively and effectively, and without the need of all users to buy anti-virus software, if Microsoft would fix security flaws in Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Office related to the execution of downloaded code and to the ability of document macros to spread and wreak havoc.
User education is as important as anti-virus software; simply training users in safe computing practices, such as not downloading and executing unknown programs from the Internet, would slow the spread of viruses, without the need of anti-virus software.
Computer users should not always run with administrator access to their own machine. If they would simply run in user mode then some types of viruses would not be able to spread.
The dictionary approach to detecting viruses is often insufficient due to the continual creation of new viruses, yet the suspicious behavior approach is ineffective due to the false positive problem; hence, the current understanding of anti-virus software will never conquer computer viruses.
There are various methods of encrypting and packing malicious software which will make even well-known viruses undetectable to anti-virus software. Detecting these "camouflaged" viruses requires a powerful unpacking engine, which can decrypt the files before examining them. Unfortunately, many popular anti-virus programs do not have this and thus are often unable to detect encrypted viruses.
Companies that sell anti-virus software seem to have a financial incentive for viruses to be written and to spread, and for the public to panic over the threat.
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