Tag: wifi

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Home networks – some notes

I’ve written and talked about this subject on a number of occasions. I’ll bring these together in one place, before delving into the specifics of router configuration which prompted the subject for the meeting on Feb 4th, 2021.

For many of us home networking means WiFi, and the first article I wrote was on the subject of “Flaky WiFi” on October 11th, 2016. Members of the group had commented on their WiFi connection appearing to drop and in this article I tried to explain how all the bits and pieces hung together and how you could test your network to see it was working the way your Internet Service Provider (ISP) was proclaiming it should be!

Then, later on (January 26th, 2017), we discussed “Broadband speeds, WiFi routers (their type and security), and extenders or boosters” and as the title suggests we focussed on networking in the house and how it is provided by Internet Service Providers, such as VirginMedia, BT, Sky or TalkTalk.

I described “How the Internet works” in this post on June 29th, 2017, with links to a few videos and policy documents which hopefully explain the topic better than I could. Not much has changed since then; IPv6 is still to appear in the domestic market, so we still use IPv4 for internet addressing.

Finally, on July 27th, 2020, I wrote about “Improving home network performance” which is really what I’m going to revisit in this post.

So … what do you need to take a look at?

On your router:

If you’re using an integrated modem/router – often called a hub, typing in the IP address 192.168.1.1 will bring up a screen something similar to this …

… mine is different because I’ve disabled the router functionality so that I can use my own router – a Netgear Orbi Mesh Network – so to just access the modem part of MY hub I use the IP address 192.168.100.1. You can see from the above that only the Modem is active.

So for most users with an integrated modem/router, the first thing you need to be able to do is to access your Router’s Admin Dashboard. This article explains how to do it using the cmd prompt in Windows, but it is probable that your hub/router has an application you can start to do this, or that you can access it from a browser window. For most you would just enter the IP address 192.168.1.1 and supply the UserID admin and the password that I’ve created – the default is quite commonly ‘password’, so you ought to change that!!!

The above screen is for my mesh network, but non-mesh would be similar. Clicking on Internet will give you the ability to change some of the settings for your connection.

Of these the most useful to change is the Domain Name Server (DNS) – these are the servers that translate a URL (eg just-thoughts.com/) into an IP address. I've chosen to replace the default DNS supplied for my VirginMedia (ie 194.168.4.100) Hub (I've disabled the router functionality on the SuperHub so that it only acts as a modem) for two servers run by Google (1.1.1.1 and 8.8.4.4). The reason I've done this is that these servers are replicated around the internet and will almost certainly be closer to my router than VirginMedia which I think the closest one is in Bristol.

All the other settings can probably be left as they are. The next option is where you configure the name of your network and the channels you’re going to use.

If you don’t like the name supplied to your network by your ISP, you can change the SSID. I did to make it a little more meaningful. You should then consider changing the 2.4Ghz Channel. If you can set the channel to Auto – you should do so because generally the router will then find the best channel for your network. If that’s not possible and you have found your WiFi to be “flaky” due to you and your neighbour using the same Channel(s), try setting the channel manually to one that’s not being used. The article I mentioned before describes how you can find the best Channels for a Mac, and this one identifies a Windows Tool that does the same thing – there’s a Download link at the bottom of that documentation. Here’s an article that describes all the possibilities.

Generally 2.4GHz has a wider range of signal but lesser bandwidth (throughput), and 5Ghz the opposite – shorter distance, but higher bandwidth. On my system my 2.4GHz channel gives me 400Mbps and the 5Ghz channel 866.7Mbps.

You’ll want to look at your Security Options and make sure that you choose the best for the devices that you’re going to connect to your router. Generally, for a home network, WPA2-PSK [AES] should be sufficient.

This article from the Apple website provides a very thorough and detailed examination of what settings you should deploy for your router, and why. Worth a read, even if you’re not an Apple Fanboy!

On your device …

Make sure the security settings match that you’ve just set on your router; remember the SSID and Password you’ve created, and re-connect to your network.

And that’s about it … I hope. Questions??

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All things Google (and more) – 13th February 2020

Boot-up

Visit to Barclays Eagle Labs – now arranged for the next meeting – 27th February. Here’s some more detail about what they’re all about.

As part of Barclay’s community commitment,  we have also opened a new office in Cardiff designed to help businesses grow and start up in Cardiff. Great for budding Entrepreneurs (which statistics show can be high in the over 50s)  and inventors. Part of the Eagle Lab office hosts  a “Maker Space’ that houses laser cutting, vinyl printing, 3D printing, electronics equipment including soldering etc. It has a distinctly digital feel too with a really switched on Engineer running the lab. I will contact them to discuss what is actually available there and suggest things you might be interested in.

I have  13 confirmed attendees. I’ll contact Ashley Croome (the switched on Engineer) with details of who’s coming and discuss whether we need to split into two groups, or just stay at one. After the Science Group visit he advised me … “For group sizes, with the science group we had about 10-15 per group and that seemed to work really well as it wasn’t so overcrowded that people didn’t get a chance to ask questions, and try things like the VR we have set up here.”
The venue for the visit is:
Barclays Eagle Lab, 1st Floor Brunel House, 2 Fitzalan Road, Cardiff, CF24 0EB

Next meeting after Eagle Labs is on 12th March, then Paul will lead on 26th March and 23 April. I’m assuming there will not be a meeting on 9th April because of Easter. I’ll be back after that … for a while at least 🙂

Whats Up with WhatsApp – an interesting discussion about how you can “trick” an Android tablet into believing it’s a phone (without a SIM) between Margaret, Jim, Paul and myself. I’m not sure I’m completely the wiser, but it revolves around a solution for an Android tablet that Paul had already described (which works for him) and is also described in this post and on an iPad this post describes how to do it. If you want to see the WhatsApp log of the chatter and confusion, look here.
Undo Send function in Gmail (from desktop, not mobile) setup in Gmail Settings > General, selectable from 0 -30 secs, so not as long as I thought.
Clearing Off-Facebook Activity and a video to help you.
The death of Adobe Flash – Apple puts the boot in.
We had a question about Exporting email from Tiscali (TalkTalk) from Ann, who was concerned she might lose her old emails. It looks like the most useful way of doing it is to setup POP3 Forwarding of an Email account into Gmail – in Gmail > Settings (gear wheel) in the browser …

… get the correct settings for your server, as in …

and as long as you’ve selected Enable POP for all mail (even mail that’s been downloaded) and as long as your email provider supports POP3, your email should be downloaded from that server and into Gmail.

Gear Guide

Has anyone bought, or obtained anything recently they’d like to tell us about? It doesn’t have to be a computer, laptop, tablet or phone – just something that’s digital, ie used a computer processor in some way?
Here’s a provocative thought … what applications do you use that depend largely upon the use of a peripheral? Are you using the best application for that hardware? Perhaps you don’t have any choice, but if you do perhaps you should choose the most appropriate application for the hardware.
Jim updated us on his broadband upgrade using his new Router liked to a SIM-card (have I got that right, Jim?). He’s also purchased a dongle to watch live Freeview TV. This is not connected to the broadband, but it might cause his battery to lose power a bit more rapidly than it did before.

Apps Galore

That slot in the meeting where members are encouraged to share their experience (and possibly excitement) at a new app they’ve started using for their smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop machine.
OpenStreetMap – creating maps for collaborators – a couple of examples – Canals and Railways, Land use and Buildings, but what about creating a shared Google Map ?

What’s IT all about?

That occasional slot in the meeting when we might do a bit of explanation of terms used in Computing, or in the use of digital devices.
Mesh Networks – which ones are members using:
Paul – BT solution
Don – Deco M4, with TP-Link AC1200
WiFi Reception – interesting fact … the range of the WiFi Router decreases as the signal frequency increases. However, the inverse also holds true, namely the closer you are to your WiFi router the greater the bandwidth you have as signal frequency increases. Therefore in a big house, maybe you need to employ 2.4Ghz; in a compact house it’s a good choice to use 5Ghz and maybe even employ a router that supports tri-band – which might give the best of both worlds!

The main topic

I use Google apps on my desktop and mobile devices – and I’m an Apple fanboy! However, it’s just come to my notice that a couple of Google developments have passed me by, which have caused me to think about whether I might be better to use more Google apps on my Apple mobile devices, rather than the native Apple apps
I rely on Gmail and Calendar. I have done for years. It’s a family joke – “if it’s not in the Google Calendar – it’s not happening”. I have been caught out  few times. I also use (and will continue to use) Google Maps extensively for mapping, the Apple version is not quite there yet, but it’s improving!
I have used Google Hangouts and Paul and I have tried to get that working – but it’s impractical to even try and demonstrate it at this location 🙁
We have looked at Google Assistant, as a way of interfacing with the virtual world, but I haven’t embraced it – probably because I still rely on the native Apple mobile apps and Siri is the way into these; but, it would have to be said, probably not as well as Google (or Amazon – Alexa).
But now I’ve become aware of Tasks, which you can access from Gmail, and  Calendar and if only it interfaced completely with Google Assistant – I think I’d be making the switch to using more Google apps on my Apple devices, but, and there’s always a but … why does Google makes things so difficult! Just remember there’s Google Keep (for notes) and Google Reminders (for reminders); and … you always have to remember Google have the nasty habit of dropping things just after you’ve got used to using them – Reader, Picasa and Google+ to name but three! Let’s have a look!