kayak,

*grin*

Advice rather than a problem. I am just setting up broadband in my new home. Can anyone advise whether you lose performance with a wireless set up rather than ethernet connection to modem I had previously. I am thinking of buying a Dlink 714P Gateway/ Modem for my broadband service. Also I assume you can connect your wireless gateway using an ethernet cable. As well as the wireless card? Thanks in advance. Or can someone direct me to a specific thread I have missed ....

David

Wireless connection to broadband should work fine but if you are using a wireless connection between two computers you will find that the connection is slower than with ethernet.

Most wireless gear is shipped with security disabled. Make sure that you are happy with the security.

david2000, you need to think of the bottlenecks, most broadband is much faster than a normal ISDN link or a modem link or a GSM connection, however its slower than a wired 10Mbs ethernet and much slower than 100mbs or giga ethernet. Wireless ethernet is slower than the above wired ethernets but still faster than most broadband. So in terms of ultimate speed using wireless in perfect conditions wont slow down your PC. BUT...... Wireless if often not used in perfect conditions and the performance degrades depending on several factors including distance from the base station and whats between the base station and the PC.

So to answer your questions performance should be fine and yes you should be able to connect to the gateway with a wired connection as well.

approx relative speeds slower -> faster
GSM modem (modile Phone)
GPRS (mobile phone)
PSTN modem (normal modem with telephone line)
ISDN type connection (ISDN or home highway)
ADSL type connection (BT openworld broadband)
Cable Modem type connection (cable companies)
Wireless connections (802.11 a b and g)
Ethernet connections (10,100, giga etc)

However there is some overlap in particular the ADSL and Cable connections are available at different speeds and cable may be available at much faster connection speeds in some areas (US for example).

Also if you have several PC's on your home network and you deal with large files (eg video) then I would suggest that you use a mixed wireless and wired network. Wireless should be fine for normal day to day internet use.

I should point out that I do not currently use wireless, I will soon but the faster 802.11a and g products are olny just becoming mature.

Thanks, for thae info Spaceman. I intend to wire the main PC in my office, and use the wireless for my sons PC upstairs which I can use as a backup if anything happens to mine downstairs.. So I think you have helped me a great deal there and the decision is made. Thanks again.

http://www.via-air.co.uk/resultstypebysup.asp?supplierid=1&type=11

This is the unit I am thinking of. I will only need 1 wireless antenna to start with. I would appreciate your views on it both positive and negative...

David, I have had a DLink 714P+ since last November, connected to my cable modem.

I started off using it in wireless mode, in conjunction with a DLink PC card in my laptop. It was great for working in different parts of the house, but the signal strength does drop off quite quickly when you get away from the base unit.

After a while I noticed a much more annoying problem though, and this has caused me to remove the wireless card and go back to Ethernet. Every now and again the wireless link would be lost. This was with the laptop on my desk around 2 metres from the base unit... I tried downloading the latest firmware and this seemed to improve the situation in that, even though the signal still disappeared from time to time, it could be restarted without having to power down the cable modem, DLink base unit or laptop. This was still not reliable enough for trading though, so I stopped using the DLink in wireless mode.

At the moment I'm using it with Ethernet and I can't remember it losing connection once. I'm getting a second laptop soon, and I'll use the wireless card again - but I wouldn't risk it for critical tasks like trading.

Another issue: I couldn't get the print server to work. However, my printer is not on DLink's list of printers that have been checked and confirmed as working, and I was only half-heartedly trying to see if I could get it to work because I don't really need it.

Have you seen the Practically Networked site for reviews and user comments?
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/list.asp?p=3

D2000, I had a quick look at that device and I think it will work fine. However I would like to see a review or two and I would do a few searches to see what other think of it. Personally I would probably not buy a 802.11b device as they are the slowest of the current bunch (but still fast enought for ADSL). Wireless is still not fully mature (in my opinion). I would probably go for 802.11g but the standard has only just been ratified.

I tend to use the magazines PC World and PC Pro to get down to a few devices which I select from. PC Pro has a thing called the A-List and in my experience this contains good products, i cant get at their web site at the moment but if you get a chance have a look there.

I am sure the Dlink 714p+ would work fine but the price seems possibly a little steep for 802.11b.

I seem to have partitioned my hard disk by mistake. I'm using Windows XP but have just about had a gutsful of it and intend returning to Windows 98. When I do I intend formatting the hard disk but how do i format it so that i only have one partion ?

Cheers

Dil I was going to mail you some stuff on it but I think you will find all you need here;

http://www.hardwarecentral.com/hardwarecentral/tutorials/109/26/

Using FDISK and FORMAT will delete your old partitions for you.


Neil

Cheers robber , much appreciated.

Dil, have you thought of w2000 instead? only ask because 2000 is more secure than the earlier offerings. I use 2000 on all my machines.

Dil

I have to agree that Win2K is a lot better than Win 98 but WinXP should be just as good.

When you installed WinXP did you upgrade or reformat the disk? A clean install is better so long as you don't mind losing everything.

The easiest way to format your C drive is to boot from the installation CDROM and you will be asked which disk you want to use. You can then delete the existing partitions and reformat. Always use NTFS file system with Win2K and XP.

Definately do a clean install with WINXP
Nowadays you can buy a new fast 7200 spin speed hard disk for around 50. Install the WinXP on this and keep your old files, pictures and Emails on the old drive for transfer after.
And as a clone backup with a program such as ghost when you have the new drive all set up and working as you wish.

Found this In the Daily Telegraph.

http://hccweb1.bai.ne.jp/~hcj58401/



Restoration
Restore files which are deleted from the recycle bin by mistake. Conversely, delete files completely.

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[OS] Windows 95 Windows 98 Windows Me Windows NT Windows 2000 Windows XP
Freeware
[Platform] IBM-PC/AT Compatible PC [Author] Brian Kato

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D O W N L O A D


REST2514.EXE 193 KB

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Restore files which are deleted from the recycle bin or deleted while holding down the Shift key by mistake.
Conversely, this program has another function that makes it almost impossible to restore all deleted files.
You can use it after deletion of confidential documents, embarrassing files and so on.

You don't have to install it, so it doesn't leave any garbage in the PC.
(You can also run it from a floppy disk.)
Even if a file seems to be restored, there is no guarantee that the contents are correct.
After you run the program, please check the files.
You can probably restore it correctly if the drive has enough free space
and if it's just after deletion.
If you restore a folder, there is no guarantee that all files or folders which used to belong to the folder will be in it.
If you can't find them in it, please search and restore them one by one.
If you still can't find them, it's impossible to restore them.
It will be almost impossible to restore any deleted files if you run the complete deletion function.
To be exact, fragments of deleted files can be in last clusters of existing files or allocated and unwritten files.
(Note that this function is not suitable for TOP SECRET information.)
Even if you find the information of completely deleted files, their contents must be erased.
If you want to erase the information too, please run the function again.

When you use the restoration function, I don't think you will encounter any damage due to bugs, since the function doesn't write anything to physical sectors.
However, the complete deletion function replaces physical sectors.
Therefore, I confirmed that it worked without any problems by testing many times.
As there is a rare possibility of damage or loss, please run the function at your own risk.

In the last week I have gone to Blueyonder Broadband,and in the last week Norton Antivirus has told me in a popup yellow box that I have been hit with three virus.
A BAT.Mumu.A.worm
B w32.valla.2048
c w32.randex.d

When Norton has told me I have these virus I have done a full virus scan that has said no virus present.
Could anyone tell me if I have these virus onboard and if so the best way to get rid of them, and the best way of protecting myself I have all the critical updates for W2000 installed, also in the last week I have only opened attachments for trading statements.

TIA

Sputnik

Sputnik, please note that I do not use Norton Anti Virus.

It is possible for the virus scanning software to give incorrect warnings and this does sometimes happen after new files have been installed. This is because legitimate files can sometimes contain fragments that are the same as fragments of viruses. However I dont think this is as common as it used to be as most of the virus scanning software has been improved.

I use the trend housecall online virus scan when I check my machine, I suggest that you do a scan with that, if that says no infection, as your norton scan does, then I think you can be fairly sure that you are OK.

Trend housecall is at http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

Spaceman

Thanks for the reply. I went to the site you mentioned the 30 day free trial wants you to uninstall norton first, with my knowledge of computers being low I am reluctant to do this. I will try and make contact with you at Clitheroe.

Regards

sputnik

Sputnik, Oh could be, I dont run Norton (or any other full time virus checker) it may well not like Norton running. I just hit the 'Scan Now' button from the page and it downs loads a small java app and runs. Hopefully catch up with you tomorrow, just look for an aging bald short fat bloke and that will be me!

Spaceman

It will be like looking in a mirror:-)