I was on vacation last week, and didn't write a column. Actually, I have thought about recycling old columns when I am away (it seems all the really major columnists do that). But I should have written one about buying a PC during the tax free weekend. Gosh knows, I got enough phone calls!
I actually wasn't away, although in some ways I wish I might have been. Alaska sounded like a good idea. Perhaps the South Pole. But, no, it was Beach Week - the annual family reunion held here on Oak Island. Now I do feel bad for the 37 people who came in this year (not counting me and my wife) who had to pack and suffer the indignities of Route 95 coming in from up North. (Actually, the new Rt. 140 helped quite a bit for those of my relatives who bothered to read my directions.) And I know it was a lot of effort for them to pack and unpack.
But we have our own burden to bear as our house is the repository for all the beach equipment - chairs, boogie boards, noodles, tents, kites, umbrellas, and all the accessories. So Saturday afternoon I (literally) loaded up the pickup and took all the stuff over to beachside, and the next Saturday we picked it all up, washed everything, and attempted to find a place to store the stuff here at my house. And, strangely, there was more stuff to haul back then we took there in the first place!
So all that work and fun didn't leave much time for a column.
But one item of computer interest did come up. I did a column last February on the proliferation of wireless networks, and that you really should secure yours if you have one and also try to choose a frequency (channel) that would not cause interference with your neighbor's wireless networks. You can find my old columns online at www.bobseidel.com.
Apparently, some of our beach neighbors didn't read the column. My relatives had no trouble finding and using an open wireless network. All they had to do was to open their notebook PCs (thank you Microsoft for finally getting the code right) at the kitchen counters at their rentals, and they were on the Internet. And the network was called Linksys, and on channel 6, and of course not secure - the default settings for a wireless router right out of the box.
Along similar lines, one of my clients at the foot of Howe Street in Southport has been having some issues with their wireless network. I turned on my wireless network "sniffer" and found that there were now four or five good strong wireless signals that could be detected from the second story of their building. One was using the same channel that I had set up for my client, so I changed the channel again.
I see the issue of wireless interference getting more and more critical, especially as more advanced wireless technologies roll out that use more than one channel simultaneously - in effect lowering by half or more the number of available channels. When I have encouraged new home builders to put in network wiring while the studs are still open, the answer I often get is that it's not a problem - they are just going to go wireless. Sure, you and all your neighbors.
So, to repeat: you should always configure your router from the manufacturer's defaults. Change the wireless network name (SSID), change the channel from the default of 6, and turn on WEP, WPA, or one of the other wireless security modes. But if you are building new, put the network wiring (CAT5) in while you can.
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport - Oak Island area. You can visit his Website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail questions or column ideas to him at bsc@bobseidel.com. For specific inquiries, please call Bob Seidel Consulting, LLC at 278-1007.)