How to Use Your Laptop as A WiFi Router in Windows 7

Some times you need to have a wireless network when you don't have a wireless router. But what you may not have know is that your laptop (or possibly desktop) could do it all along...for free!

You will need a computer with:
- Windows 7
- A LAN port and Wireless Card

1. Right-click your network/WiFi icon on the taskbar and select "Open Network and Sharing Center"
2. Click "Change adapter settings"
3. Make sure your network cable is plugged into your laptop or desktop and your modem or router. 4. Right-click "Local Area Connection" and select "Properties".
5. Select the "Sharing" tab. 6. Check the "Allow other network users to connect though this computer's Internet connection" checkbox and click OK.
7. Right-click your network/WiFi icon on the taskbar and select "Open Network and Sharing Center" again.
8. This time, select "Manage wireless networks".
9. Click "Add".
10. Select "Create an ad hoc network".
11. Enter an name and password for your personal WiFi network.
12. Left-click your network icon and make sure you're connected to your new ad-hoc network that you created.
13. Connect your any other WiFi enabled device to the network you specified with the password you created.

Note: If you want to use your computer with a normal WiFi network, you need to go back and uncheck the setting in step 6 to disable sharing of the Local Area Network.

Ahren's Essential Firefox Add-Ons

Today I shall share with you the Firefox plugins that I always install every time that I have to reinstall Firefox. So here goes:

Adblock Plus
http://adblockplus.org/

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When I browse the web on someone else's computer or a computer at school, I sometimes have to take a step back and remember that the web actually does have ads! This plugin is amazing, it even removes ads from within youtube videos.
To still support the web however, they have an option to keep unobtrusive ads such as simple text based ads and I encourage you to keep this option enabled. An option I always disable is: show tabs on flash and java. When enabled, this puts a small button to potentially block an element on every flash and java element on a webpage, something that I find to be quite annoying since ABP already takes care of practically every flash based ad that you'd want to get rid of. There is also a version of  ABP for Chrome as well.

Xmarks
http://www.xmarks.com/

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Xmarks is a genius add-on for syncing your bookmarks. Not only does it allow you to sync your bookmarks between multiple computers but it is cross-browser platform as well supporting Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Safari. I personally use it 1. to back up my bookmarks 2. to sync between the two browsers that I mainly use (Chrome & FF) and 3. to sync between my main computer and others that I use. 


Add to Search Bar
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/add-to-search-bar/

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If you like using the search bar up in the top right of Firefox for more than just Google, this add-on is a must. It allows you to add practically any search box on any website FF's search box. So simple but very helpful.

Textarea Cache
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/textarea-cache/

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A pure lifesaver! One of the most frustrating things is when you are in the middle of a post...and Firefox crashes! Instead of losing all of your post, Textarea Cache keeps a log of what you are typing and it's all available when you load up Firefox again.

InvisibleHand
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/invisiblehand/

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If you do any shopping online, especially stuff that has a model number, this is a great money saver. It detects items on many pages and searches to see if it is available cheaper on a different site. If it's available, InvisibleHand will pop up and let you know!

Web Developer Toolbar
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/web-developer/

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A webdeveloper's best friend. This toolbar contains many tools to help. From editing CSS directly on the page so you can immediately see changes, to disabling a variety of things to help troubleshoot, to resizing the page to see what it might look like for users with other-sized screens this add-on is key for anyone working in web dev.



Honorable mentions:

Foxytunes
http://www.foxytunes.com/

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I often install foxytunes but not always. It allows you remotely control a very wide variety of media players directly from your browser while browsing. I find that feature helpful every once and a while but what I end up using it the most for is an alarm clock. It has a feature where it will turn on your music at whatever time you have specified. So I just have it play my "Wake up" playlist in iTunes.

Firebug
http://getfirebug.com/

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Another addon for web developers and although I haven't used it too much I realize that it's quite good. It's comparable to Chrome's "Inspect Element" option it allows you to gain more information and improve webpage design and functionality. 

Emailing Print Quality Pictures in Picasa

Let's say you want to be able to send higher quality prints to someone via email through Picasa so they could print them out if they so wished (and the printed images won't be grainy – assuming that the image was from your camera or something).... here's how!

Click Tools and select Options



Select the Email tab and slide the Size for multiple pictures slider all the way to the right so it says 1600 pixels. This setting should allow a high enough picture resolution to print a 4x6 at good quality.




If the person you are sending the images to needs to print the images in a size larger than a 4x6, you will need to do the following:

• Make sure that Size for single pictures is set to Original size
• and send the images one by one (one picture per email)

Once you have selected the image(s) that you wish to send, click the email icon at the bottom of Picasa, select your preferred email method/client and send the email as normal.

I hope this helps you in your image sending conquests!

As always, if you have any questions of how to accomplish a certain task, please let me know and I will try and help you out and probably do a tutorial on it.

Windows 7: Disappearing Windows Mystery ~ Quick Tutorial

A client of mine, recently experienced troubles with her new windows 7 computer where all of her windows would disappear and just show her desktop. It turned out that her mouse was traveling over to the bottom right of the screen and hovering over the "Show desktop" button. (Which by the way is a very handy button to minimize all of your open programs and show your desktop.)

If you are experiencing a similar issue, here's how to fix it. :)

- If you right click the rectangular box at the very bottom right of your screen, it gives you the option to "Peek at Desktop".
- If you uncheck that option, your windows won't disappear when your mouse hovers over it.


Another fun tidbit that's handy to know, on most menus (most typically ones that you right click on) the menu action that is bolded is the default action if you click or double click on it. For instance, if you right click a file, for the most part, you will note that the open command is the thing that is bolded. In this case, "Show desktop" is the default action.

I can haz job?

Today was a day filled with ups and downs. The biggest one for me was this:
I decided to call in about the paid IT internship that I saw here at my school. The call went well and since I was on campus, I was asked if I could just bring over a copy of my resume...which I promptly did. When I walked into the room, I encountered a geeks dreamland: servers whirring, tons of components in various states of repair including open desktop towers lying around, and much much more. I went back into the technological lair to talk to the person who would interview me.

Fixing my computer outside of its case.

He was a very laid back and very cool man. The interview was part interview/part geek-talk session which made me very happy. Everything about it was awesome and upon my leaving, he asked me to get him my work study paper, which I said I would do. I realized this might be a problem as I finished my financial aid application late and sure enough, it was. I went to talk to financial aid and was told that my request would probably not get processed until the end of the quarter and a long with that, my work study funding. One of the things I hate most in life is getting really excited then being let down, and this majorly happened today.

I decided to email him tonight though and let him know the situation, and upon wonderful suggestion of my godfather, I suggested to the employer that I would work for free until my work study kicked in, yes, this is how bad I want the job...I want it for more than just the pay. I am a techie through and through and I love helping people and this will give me an outlet for both! :)

Please keep your fingers crossed for me. I'd love this so much!


P.S. On a techie/helping people note: if you have any tech questions send them my way. I will try to help you and if it's a good one, I may do a tutorial on it. :)

How To Use Twitter as an RSS Reader

I this tutorial has been helpful to you. I am open to doing more tutorials. If you have anything that you want to know how to do, send me an email at the address mentioned at the end of the video.

Enjoy -DJ Ahren