Well, I went ahead and bought a Belkin (Universal it says on the box) wireless range extender. Needless to say it won't work with my Netgear router :-(

After speaking to the Belkin techies they say that my Netgear router has an 8 character network key and I need to contact Netgear to get it changed to a 10 or (I think) a 26 digit one.

Personally I don't feel inclined to do this as I'm wondering if I'm just opening up a can of worms.

Anyone know if these network keys on routers are changeable and if so is it easily done?

Apologies if this has already been asked on this board:

Does anyone know if an internal ADSL (Broadband) modem is available for laptop computers, please? I know that external USB connection modems are available, but would prefer to install internally if possible. Thanks in advance. (Don't really want to go the WiFi route at the moment).

Timeliner

Your new disk must have at least some, most probably all, of the data intact because it goes through the initial boot sequence.

I'm not familiar with Hard Drive Inspector but are you certain that it can handle such large disks? What does the Win XP disk manager utility say about the disk? Whoch program did you use to clone the disk?

If you cant access it from within windows, you should be able to run the repair console to get the data off it. Make sure you use the SP2 repair console.

Harrycat

I've not heard of such a device, but why would you want one? Broadband can only be used from one location so there is no downside in using an ADSL Router/Firewall.

You could use a USB ADSL modem but these tend to be harder to setup and keep going and anyway IMO should be banned as they are not secure enough.

Thanks, Optimist.
What I am trying to do is use a PC & a laptop in the house. PC is upstairs, laptop is downstairs, so if both have an ADSL modem I thought that, so long as one of them is switched off, the other would work (connected to a BT Line box via ADSL filter & telephone cable).
I still believe, rightly or wrongly, that hardwire is much more secure than WiFi, so prefer to connect to broadband via ADSL modem plugged in to the computer.
I have learnt this morning however, from Maplins, that two modems can't be plugged in the same BT line (even if one is switched off).
I also believe a router requires different cables from the usual telephone ones, so that is going to complicate things a bit.
Question is then, how to get two computers to work in the same house using cables? Presumably via router?

HarryCat

Since they are perfect for your needs, you really ought to look into using the Devolo Adapters, which I mention above.

You need three adapters:-

One for the modem - to put the broadband signal into the 240v mains supply wiring system.

One for your PC - to take a broadband signal out of the 240v mains and into your PC.

One for your laptop in the bedroom - to take a broadband signal out of the 240v mains and into your laptop.

Note how you only need one modem but you do need three adapters.

They are absolute simplicity itself to install. They are secure and there is no configuring to be done as all of this stuff is automatic. You don't even have to tell the modem how to dial out if you use an Ethernet cabled rather than a USB cabled modem.

Here's one type of installation:



Here's another. Note this is more 'wireless' than the first but still utilises the 240v mains supply to get the broadband round the house:



(I went for the 200Av adapters myself so as to get some high data transfer rate futureproofing)

This Devolo stuff is also called 'Homeplug'. I suppose one can see why, eh?

Harry

You are correct that hardwire is more secure (and more reliable) than WiFi, unless you use a standalone ADSL modem. What you need is an ADSL Roter/Firewall - make sure you get one with 4 ethenet ports.

If possible, plug the ADSL side of the router into the phone socket nearest to your incoming line. The router will probably come with a short network cable, but I bought a 60ft one from Maplins sometime ago for arounf 15. You can then lay the cable round the house or if your clever feed it through the cavity wall. Make sure you don't put any tight bends in the cable.

As reards the router, many models now come with WiFi as well. These are easier to get and thre price premium is not very much. If you get one of these and don't use the WiFi, you should change the default settings, set a security key and/or dissable the WiFi.

Harry

I have in the past looked at the adaptors that Doc mentions. They will work, but for the price you could probably get a tame BT engineer to run the CAT 5 network cables round for you.

Also, their security is questionable. It may be that no one has a similar system near you so it would be safe but it would be like broadcasting a WiFi signal over the power system, and I bet the security has not been thought through as well? as with WiFi.

Edit Should you pay to get network cables installed, go for CAT6, they would be more futureproof.

Cheers guys. Food for thought.
CAT 5 is the cabling that was mentioned by Maplins.
Having just renovated the house, replastered, redecorated, recarpeted, rewired etc etc, I am not too keen to start pulling it all about again.
Re WiFi, although people keep talking to me about safe encryption now, I still hear of people's bandwidth being hijacked, so I am still reluctant to go that route.

If you use the WPA security option on WiFi it is fairly secure so long as you use a strong key, but it is not as good or as fast as a wired connection.

If you use WEP security, that is possible to crack fairly quickly, and anyone who bothers to do it, is unlikely to be after your internet bandwidth.

HARRYCAT:

I don't think that you should be a scaredycat about wireless. The obvious solution to what you need is simply an ADSL wireless router. Typically, these have four wired Ethernet ports and an 802.11b/g wireless connection which is quite capable of being made adequately secure. They also have a builtin firewall capabiltity in that they perform NAT (network address translation) which effectively hides your computers from the outside world.

Securing the wireless connection requires a little bit of reading the instructions, and perhaps a little help from your friends -- which you will readily get here.

Yes, routers use standard Ethernet 'drop' cables (called CAT 5 in the trade) and are not the same as telephone cables but that doesn't complicate anything, they're just different.

I agree with Optimist about USB ADSL modems. Nasty little things, best avoided.

MM

Harrycat

About 3 or 4 years ago I went to 2 computers. To do this I bought a
Netgear RP1114 router(modem in, 4 outputs).Prior to this I was using
the free version of Zone Labs Zone Alarm, so did not need to buy a
router with firewall.Installed the same on the second computer and
on testing with a security site, both seem safe.
A must,I think, are SpywareBlaster(passive nasty stopper) Spybot S&D
(active scanner) and Adaware. Also I use Grisoft AVG.
Update and scan every weekend.Since then I've had 2 nasties removed
by Spybot and 2 or 3 tracker cookies each week removed by Adaware.
Mind you, I use Win2000 so am probably below the radar of hackers:)
Also the input to my modem is cable.

mac
mac

Thanks all.
tyketto, I have Zone Alarm & recently had a Trojan which disabled Zone Alarm (as per the technical details once detected) & got in to the exe. files in system32 of Windows XP. Imo, Adaware is naff, as it only detects threats on demand, not proactively, & then it only seems to find tracking cookies which you can delete manually anyway. AVG I also have which I think is very efficient. FPROT from FRISK is also pretty good (Icelandic anti-virus software).
As you say, I think the router is the way forward, but running the cables is going to be a chore! Still, no pain, no gain eh?!!!

i have just started using SUPER ANTISPYWARE
its the free one and find it good.

Optimist

I was unable to access the hard drive.
However I used a program called ERD Commander which did the job, and I was able to transfer the data to the original hard drive and reformat the new drive. I have now managed to get it back up and running now and just about reinstalled my software.

Thanks for your help.

3 days ago all my media files worked great I could even watch live streaming in IE not a problem, now after a WMP update to 11 nothing works, reinstalled all codecs, even rolled back to WMP 9 then 10 I only get sound, and no picture, and then it works sometimes, but if I try the same file again nothing ;-( installed all the latested codecs and video card drivers, checked for viruses but nother seems to work

HELP !!!!!!!!!

What are the RECYCLER files used for? Not Recycle Bin.
A friend of mine had a Norton alert and it pointed to an executable file in the Document & Settings/.../.../.... etc. Norton couldn't remove it so we did it manually. First to the desktop recycle bin and then deleted it from there.
Norton now shows the same exe file in the recycler file. Are these used by System Restore and the like?
Is it now safe? Can it be removed from recycler? Or the actual Recycler files deleted?

Edit: Found the answer myself ta.

Nero 7

recently my Nero 7 software has suddenly slowed down when burning cd/dvd's normally takes 10mins now over 1 hour, anyone got the same problem or a suggestion on to fix it?

I need a reader to access a Newsgroup.

IE seems to send me to Outlook and I can't get that to work. Anyway I prefer to avoid Outlook as people say it is the biggest target for the virus brigade.

Can anyone recommend a free newsgroup reader please?

TP

You might like to try FeedReader and see if it fits the bill? It is Free, by the way.