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Getting A Handle On Windows For Wireless Anything...Written By John Heron, President of Marinenet Data Systems, Inc. Depending on who you ask about the success of Wireless Internet greatly depends on preparing the computer to operate as efficiently as possible. In an age where there are no limits to what unscrupulous website owners, data mining companies and the like, might install in your computer without your knowledge, you must protect yourself. Good news is that there are many inexpensive software solutions to limit the impact of items that will slow your computer down or render it useless for narrow bandwidth wireless. Just a matter of figuring out which software is right for you and installing it. Windows XP has become the main operating system by virtue that all new computers come with a base version installed from the factory. But... is it well suited for wireless out of the box? Not really... Reason is wireless, limited nature of it's narrower bandwidth (Compared to a DSL or cable modem speeds) is expected to convey large amounts of data over a limited bandwidth wireless channel. So where to start? It is very important to prepare your computer for wireless BEFORE going wireless! Attempting to download Windows Updates and other programs takes forever via wireless so do this on the fastest land connection you can! A Windows computer that has not been checked out for Windows Updates as least once a month is in trouble. Why? Hackers love to find faults with Microsoft product and attempt to exploit it whenever possible. In turn, Microsoft builds "fixes" which are made available for installation ONLY via Microsoft's Windows Update service which is part of all Windows computers. Microsoft will NEVER send out spam e-mail announcing some new "fix" so ignore any e-mails that tell you different! Computers that have been used in some kind of service for browsing the web or picking up the family e-mail are bombarded by data mining software that hides in your computer and sends back reports of all your Internet activity every time you make an Internet connection... robbing you of limited bandwidth is wasted on such activity and loosing your privacy too. MarineNet Wireless has discovered a company called Lavasoft that has created a program (Ad Aware) to remove this "Spyware" and bring back performance. Visit them at: www.lavasoftusa.com or download their free personal version by Clicking Here. While connected to the Internet, install it, check for Ad Aware updates and run it. Don't be surprised by the amount of "Hits" you get the first time out! If your a avid Internet user like myself, could be as high as 200!!! New computers should also load this program and use it from time to time... For new computer owners, there are some basic programs/services that do not come with the basic computer like the ability to "un-zip" programs or, read an Adobe document ".PDF" file, that really should be added now instead of attempting to do it wirelessly!!! WinZip at: www.winzip.com and Adobe Document service at: www.adobe.com are very useful and both offer free readers or evaluation versions. It has been reported from many sources that Microsoft has left open many doors (Ports) that could possibly be abused by giving hackers or un-needed Windows services a way to chew up much needed bandwidth. We were made aware of xp-AntiSpy, a program that once installed, selectively turns off these ports and services in your computer, giving hackers little chance to exploit them and in general streamlines, simplifies the services offered by Windows 2000 and XP. Goto their German/English website: www.xp-antispy.org for installation instructions or you may download the "English Version" Click Here (Exe File) As you move the cursor over the list, it will tell you what they do. Basic "Firewalls" are a "must have" on broadband Internet connections these days as again the potential of hackers acquiring your identity every time you connect to the Internet. A Firewall program puts a protective bubble around your connection and in theory, makes you invisible on the Internet. There are many flavors of Firewalls and as an example, Zone Alarm by Zone Labs offers a personal Firewall giving you basic protection. Goto their website: www.zonelabs.com or download their basic "Free" Firewall Here but always consult the manufacturers website for more details. Sofar we have "Plugged up" many holes in our computer setup and it would not be complete without a Anti Virus program. ISP Services such as MarineNet Wireless provide methods of virus scanning at the server so any mail you get has already been run through the mill of detecting and removing viruses. However, you can never be too careful and if your checking e-mail accounts other than your MarineNet account, there are some ISP's that do not provide this service! Like Firewalls, there are many choices and levels of protection. An example of a basic "free" anti-virus program and service gaining popularity is AVG at www.grisoft.com Other more common companies like Norton Antivirus at www.symantec.com or McAfee at www.nai.com to their AntiVirus products page will give you an idea of what you need. Finally, we come to what e-mail settings or services should we use in programs like Outlook or Outlook Express when wireless? When at all possible... Make sending and receiving in "Plain Text" the default. Disable "Preview Panes" that allow worms and viruses that attach themselves to HTML a thing of the past!!! Note that in speed tests via wireless, HTML takes 60% longer on average to send mail than Plain Text or, to put it another way... Better than half the connect time was spent sending Fu-Fu flowered backgrounds, smiley faces or those really cool multicolored fonts and not the message! Bottom line, sending and receiving in Plain Text mode drastically reduces chances of getting viruses and minimizes the amount of time to process e-mails. There are many ways to secure your e-mail program as a look at the search engine Google will show. Type in the words only: " securing outlook and outlook express " gives you some good ideas on what to turn off or on. The same rule applies for other e-mail programs like Eudora or OperaMail Once ALL of the setup issues listed above are addressed, it's time to install MarineNet's FastSuite which offers many layers and methods of compressing any and all data traveling to and from your computer. This is VERY important as we want to get as much speed possible through our slow (Compared to home DSL) wireless connection. All of the above steps will help insure that there isn't loss of data speed due to hitch hiking spyware programs or viruses that would rob data speed. This is certainly a benefit when on a wired connection too! Once you have filled out the MarineNet Wireless application form for Satellite, cellular or land dialup Internet services, you will be instructed where to proceed and join in the way wireless Internet should be! MarineNet Wireless has offered the above as a guide to what we have found works consistently. We do not have a stake in any of these programs or services used as examples. Questions or installation help with them should be directed to the respective company... not MarineNet. As a service to our personal and corporate customers, we offer professional services to update, setup and test computers that are going wireless for $200.00 each plus shipping. Sometimes it makes more sense to do this because of time constraints or, not being comfortable with computer setup's as described. We do a good deal of business setting up computers so don't be shy! Once done, these computers are ready to run on any wireless platform by just clicking a button an off you go! If you wish to take advantage of this drop us a mail Here. Please allow one week. All the best. John Heron MarineNet Wireless shipping address is: Attn: John Heron Marinenet Data Systems, Inc. 500 North Delaware Blvd. Jupiter, Florida 33458
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