evening all,

how do i encrypt my wireless access point please,it was very easy to setup !!!!i guess the next stage is the hard part......

Thanks for all the help.

Mega...

Mega

Are you using 802.11a or 802.11g?

Optomist,

802.11B 11Mbps using Win2kpro on Access Point and Winxp home on laptop if that makes sense !!!!

Thanks for the help.

Mega...

Mega

I can only give you rough details as I have not used a Win2K access point.

On your W2K box open the wireless network adaptor properties, click the wirless tab and open connection properties. There should be boxes for Network Authentication which should be set to shared, Data Encryption which sould be set to WEP and a box for the network key. It may be possible to set the length and format for this which can get tricky. You need to enter a long (around 40 characters from memory) random string. It's best to choose this string before you change anything, save it to a text file which you can then copy to your other machine.

You then need to set your XP machine to the same settings and hopefully you will have a secure connection. Once you have it working you may be able to specify which Physical or MAC addresses your Access Point will connect to. You can find the address of your XP machine by typing "ipconfig /all" followed by enter in a command prompt window.

Yo may also have the option of hiding the SSID of the access point which makes it more difficult to detect the network. I don't use this as it has caused me problems and anyway any decent hacker will still find your network.

Remember that it is possible for a determined hacker to crack any 802.11b security if they are in range of your network.

Optimist,

Thanks for the info,is it a case of encrypting to stop people using your internet connection foc or gaining info from your pc or both ????

Mega...

Mega

Both but the most important is data security. If someone managed to tap into your network, they could read any info sent between the computers and depending on your firewall settings they would also have access to your hard disks. If you were to lockdown your computers to stop access you would lose file and printer sharing.

Allthough it is possible to crack the WEP encryption, a knowledgable hacker would have to get within 100metres of you so don't worry too much but use 802.11g for better security.

Silly q, been tring to disable the ports in ZA but can't find away to do this???

When i switch my lap top on i get about 20 error messages, something like...
Maintain offset in no node
Child resources not found
I keep closing all the boxes and they dissapear but if i switch off and on again they return?

Dallios

I'm not sure what it is without further details but would suggest starting in safe mode and running the AV and Sbybot scans to eliminate the possibility of a virus.

Assuming that is not the problem, run MSConfig from the run command and dissable all of your startup programs. If that stops it then enable them one by one until you find the problem program.

Now here's a strange problem. In order to create a shortcut, I drag and drop the 'My Documents' folder to my desktop where they happily stay all day. When I next re-boot, it disappears! I'm sure it didn't used to do that. How do I create a permanent desktop shortcut to this folder please?

This is well hidden.

Go into display properties, select Desktop tab then click the Customize Desktop button. You now see an option to display the My Documents icon.

Optimist - You're a star! I think I'd have spent many a moon on that one! Thanks.

a problem with my e-mail (outlook express)
i can receive mails but for some reason i cannot now send,i have not changed any settings or added a program,i have no viruses (have run nortons and AVG),
i have temp stopped nortons firewall and the AVG email scanner and still no joy,my firewall (nortons 04)has been set to permit on OE program,i have even set up a new mail account and still the same,cannot send out but can receive,
anything else i should check brfore the call to NTL,

many thanks

steve

scussy - you have my sympathy having had OE problems myself but here it sounds as if your ISP server is down and nothing you can do except open a new account with a different ISP.

having a bit of a problem with my new Dell 20" 1600x1200 resolution screen with stockwatch and streaming trades. When I scoll down am getting gaps in data , little boxes on the left out of position and a general half finished jigsaw effect. Refreshing the page clears it but is there anything I can do to put this right. Scrolling text like the traders page there is no problem. thanks.
using bt broadband

Have you got the screen correctly identified in Control Panel/System and set to one of the resolutions it supports natively?

Kayak , on "display properties" is set for 1600x1200 as screen 1 and 60 hertz.
Going to Plug and play monitor properties, says it is working OK

Also check that the model and name of the screen are correctly identified, and check the manufacturer's website for the latest driver.

Kayak , thanks , will do

Kayak , where do I look for "model and name of the screen" - have been in the Device Manager but nothing there?