Category: Wireless

Limiting Use of Your Bandwidth!!

Paul

With the Recent Comcast deciding to declare how much of bandwidth you can use.  I decided to talk about how to limit your bandwidth.  So Here are some tips and tricks to get the most out of your bandwidth:

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Chapter 1 — Understanding your Wireless Router : This is a must.  This chapter talks about how to access your router and and how what is an IP!!

Chapter 2 — 10 Ways to keep your wireless router Secure — This one will help with those pesky neighbors who are leeching of your internet and Bandwidth!

Chapter 3

  • Turn off Auto Update to Unimportant programs : Having several programs checking for updates can start to add up.  Although this is a small amount of bandwidth.  It will give your that extra amount.

  • When not using your Internet turn off your Modem : This one is the most useful because when your not using your internet just turning off the modem will prevent you from using to much bandwidth.

  • Use a program like AppSnap to update your programs : Having told you that you should stop auto-updating on some of programs.  Here is how you can update manually.  This little program will check most of what you have installed on your system and will let you know which ones have available updates.  This should be done once a week or every other week!!

  • Use a Program like GoodSync to perform backups : Know that some people have backups in the cloud this will greatly reduce the amount of bandwidth your system will use to upload to the cloud.  Get an E3 Amazon account and use the program to back to E3.

  • By an External Backup Hard Drive : This option is also good for people who have the need for all the bandwidth possible.  Buying an external hard drive for use as backup is also a good idea so that way you don’t depend on your internet bandwidth.   Just remember when you do a backup take it off site just in case of a fire or earthquake or something like that.   Might be time to buy a Safety Deposit Box, and use that.

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In an Upcoming post I will be discussing the program or tools you need to  monitor your bandwidth!  This is going to be a must for thos who need to monitor you monthly bandwidth per month.  I will be looking into some of the options available to you for free.

Understanding your wireless Router

Paul1 Reply

Two things to understanding your wireless router is: secure your router and figure out what you router IP is. This can be difficult because a variety of routers use what they called the internal house IP’s.  Check this site out for several brands of Routers, to figure out your router IP:

http://www.answersthatwork.com/Download_Area/ATW_Library/Networking/Network__4-List_of_default_Router_Admin_Passwords_and_IP_addresses.pdf

BTW you can see the default user and password for most of them, so that tells you how important it is to change those ASAP. <VERY IMPORTANT>

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Now what are these used for? I’ll break it down for the novice users, these are used for your location router. A router monitors the network and directs traffic from the Internet to the computer needing that information. It then has to figure out which computer is asking or sending out packets. How does it know each computer, the router uses its’ own internal ip. It gives each computer a number, usually like something like this:
For Example, A Belkin Router:

  1. 192.168.1.2

  2. 192.168.1.3

  3. 192.168.1.4

  4. so on until 192.168.1.255

Although you will probably not get to the last one if you did, the router would then use  192.168.2.2, 192.168.2.3, 192.168.2.4, and so on same as the ones up there but it would add a 1 to the 2nd ip number. So what does this tell you. Each computer has it’s own internal IP for the router. Onces the router sends out the information on the net, it strips the internal ip and puts your private ip instead, this way the Internet knows where to send the requested packets or information too. Then like I said the router does what it needs to do to get your information to the right computer.

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Now why tell us about internal IP’s? It is to better understand how your router works for you to get what you need to do out of it. Now you might be asking how do I access the router directly from a browser, that’s simple.  You would just put in your internal IP, use the list that I provide you to find out your internal ip and direct your browser there.  Some routers have what I call a self DNS, that is if you put in the address bar “http://dslrouter” or “http://cablerouter” you would be taken to your routers setup page.  Althought this isn’t on all routers it however is on some of them to better make it easier for you to get to it.
Refer back to my previous post on 10 ways to keep your wireless router secure!

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10 ways to keep your wireless router secure!!

Paul2 Replies

I have been doing quite a few router reworks. I’ve got a wireless G router from my DSL provider and Have had problems with someone in my neighborhood trying to get onto my router. They were trying everything. I wanted to give you some suggestions that would help you keep your secure and have some piece of mind!!

  1. Turn off Signal Identification (What your router name is)– By turning of the signal so no one can see the broadcast name will greatly make it harder for anyone to get onto your router.

  2. Change your router identification – Creating a unique router identification will also make it harder for anyone to guess router identification. Keep the identification something that is unidentifiable to the location where you live.

  3. USE WPA and not WEP – WEP has been cracked so if at all possible use WPA encryption and that too will make it harder for an unwanted guest.

  4. Use a Random Password Generator (Roboform an generate secure random passwords) [“Use one these promo codes to get it cheaper”] – By using a random password you prevent hackers from guessing the Network password of your WPA key.

  5. Change your Admin name account, if you can. – Some Admin accounts can be change to something else. The default admin is the most widely used one.  Change it to something ONLY you will know. You will increase your security also that way.
  6. Change the default password and Use the Random Password Generator (Roboform) [“Use one these promo codes to get it cheaper”]– Same as tip 4 but the is a must every time I get a new router or have to reset my router.

  7. If your not expecting to have a lot of laptops on the network turn on Media Access Control filter – Preventing unauthorized computers from connecting to the wireless router helps you lock down the router!!

  8. Update your BIOS – If you have a flash bios on the router update that. There may be know vulnerabilities of old routers that hackers can use to gain access.

  9. Turn Router Firewall to Medium – They say having a hardware firewall is harder for any viruses and Trojans to get in or out. It also helps to prevent hackers from gaining access to the router.

  10. Back up your configuration – Some routers let you back up your current configurations in case you need to restore the configuration if you have to reset the router. This will make it easier to restore the router to your preferred specifications.

This isn’t all you need to do but this will get your going on the right track.  If you want to check out the routers firewall.  Go to GRC Shields up and do a battery of tests on y our connection.  The more prepared you are the harder it is for a hacker/unwanted guests to get on your network.  If you have any suggestions that you want to throw my way just post a comment or go to my About me page and email me!!