13-inch Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet Ultra could have 4K display and 6GB of RAM?
A rumor of newly discovered details for a forthcoming Sony tablet has some crazy high-end specs. Are they too good to be true?
The Xperia Z4 Tablet Ultra rumors read like a fanboy fantasy.PadNews
Sony could introduce a 13-inch, 4K Android tablet as early as January, if the latest details prove true.
Not only is it rumored to be big, the tablet could potentially also pack some downright crazy hardware, like a 12.97-inch display with a 3,840x2,400-pixel resolution. Indeed, this means we could be in for a 4K Ultra HD screen with a 16:10 ratio.According to information obtained by Chinese websitePadNews, a slate known as the Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet Ultra is looming on the horizon.
Keeping with outlandishly top-shelf features, the Xperia Z4 Tablet Ultra is also listed as having 6GB of RAM, twice the 3GB threshold we see in today's top devices. Let's just say we're skeptical.
Other specs may include a 2.86GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor, 64GB of internal storage and a 12,100mAh battery.
While it's entirely possible that Sony will soon introduce some sort of tablet, these details read more like a fanboy wishlist than like a feasible product for early 2015. Sony has a CES press conference slated for January 5, which would be a good time to introduce a new tablet, especially one as high-end as this rumor claims it will be.
It was another terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week for Sony, and we learned even more as reporters sifted through a trove of stolen documents from the Hollywood studio.
President Obama holds a press conference during which he discussed Sony Pictures' decision not to release "The Interview" in the wake of the alleged North Korean hacking scandal.Leigh Vogel, WireImage
Fallout from the destructive breach of Sony Pictures' computer network on November 24 and the struggle against the deluge of leaked internal documents has stretched from Tinseltown to DC and beyond.
President Obama on Friday said Sony "did the wrong thing" when pulling the movie at the heart of the breach, "The Interview," from theaters. Earlier in the day, the FBI said it had concluded North Korea was behind the attack. Hackers had broken into Sony's computer network and leaked thousands of emails and financial documentsrevealing the Hollywood studio's secrets, demanding that the comedy about assassinating North Korea's leader be kept from release.
Some of the revelations have been merely interesting, a few have been shocking invasions of privacy, while others could damage individual reputations.
From backbiting executives to backroom deals, here are nine more things we learned about Sony. These revelations have been reported previously in a variety of publications.
1) Hell hath no fury like a Google scorned
Google was apoplectic at the prospect of Sony and the other Hollywood studios attempting to resurrect proposed Internet content-restriction laws -- the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). Google general counsel Kent Walker wrote a scathing blog post.
"[O]ne disappointing part of this story is what this all means for the MPAA itself, an organization founded in part 'to promote and defend the First Amendment and artists' right to free expression,'" Walker wrote. "Why, then, is it trying to secretly censor the Internet?"
2) Google will fight The Law -- but will it win?
As part of the efforts to resurrect SOPA's intent through nonlegislative means, Google revealed that Mississippi state attorney general Jim Hood sent the search giant a 79-page subpoena. Google says it is similar to subpoenas discussed in leaked Sony emails, and the company plans to fight back.
3) State Department gave two thumbs up to "The Interview"
Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton, aware of the sensitive nature of some of the material in "The Interview," screened the comedy to a US State Department official and received a stamp of approvalmonths before it was due in theaters. The unnamed official even signed off on the ending, depicting the assassination of Kim Jong-Un.
4) Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel needed a hug
Spiegel was so upset when his personal emails to Lynton, who sits on Snapchat's board of directors, were exposed he had to go for a walk. "I felt like I was going to cry all morning," he said in a statement to Snapchat employees and on Twitter, so he said he went for a walk where he ran into a high school teacher. "She gave me a huge hug. I really needed it."
5) Even Kanye must pitch
Apparently, Kanye West is in "The Interview" for a hot minute. Perhaps it's connected to West's creative director Elon Rutberg pitching Sony Pictures co-chair Amy Pascal on a film. "[W]e have a major film project coming up that involves both cinematic and technological innovation, so I naturally thought Sony and wanted to reach out," he said, according to the Daily Beast.
6) QR codes are worth more than Google Glass
More Sony emails revealed Snapchat acquired several startups, including $15 million for one making an Internet-connected headset similar to Google Glass, and another for $50 million whose technology reads iBeacons and those pixelated black-and-white boxes called QR codes. QR codes, really.
7) Mark Zuckerberg really, really hated "The Social Network"
We knew Zuckerberg was no fan of the movie about Facebook's origins, but we didn't know until Sony's emails were exposed that Zuck tried to kill the flick outright. "I said to Zuckerberg when he tried to stop 'The Social Network,' 'No one wants their sophomore year in college examined or portrayed,'" Lynton is said to have written in one email, reported Business Insider.
8) And for my next witness, your honor
Next up in court: Sony employees, both current and former. The first lawsuit alleging Sony mishandled the personal information of employees by not having better computer security has been filed.
9) Costliest "Interview" ever?
The stars of the movie that led to the hack that kicked this whole thing off were well-compensated. Seth Rogen was paid $8.4 million, and James Franco got $6.5 million. All told, $44 million was spent on a movie that may never be seen, according to Bloomberg.
Or will it? Following President Obama's comments on Friday that Sony made a mistake by cancelling the film's scheduled release, Sony Pictures sent a statement to the press saying it was looking at "a different platform" for making sure "The Interview" isn't left on the cutting-room floor.
How to set up PlayStation 4 Remote Play on your Xperia phone or tablet
If you own one of Sony's high-end Xperia phones or tablets, you'll be delighted to know that you can stream PS4 games straight to your phone. Here's how.
Aloysius Low/CNET
Sony's latest flagship phone, the Sony Xperia Z3, comes with a new feature -- Remote Play. While it wasn't available when the phone was launched, Sony recently turned it on. If you own a PlayStation 4, you'll be able to stream games to your phone and play those games with either a PS4 DualShock controller or with onscreen controls.
If you already own the Xperia Z2 or Z2 Tablet, the good news is that Sony has enabled Remote Play for those devices as well. And while modders have managed to get Remote Play working on other devices, that involves a bunch of work that most people won't bother with, since it involves rooting and flashing certain files to trick the app into thinking it's running on a Sony-certified device.
Anyhow, if you already own the official devices, here's how to get started. I used the Xperia Z3 for this.
Setting up
Setting up is really easy. First, you'll need to download the PlayStation Remote Play app from the Google Play Store. Remember how I said it doesn't work if you don't have a compatible device? Google Play won't let you download the app unless you do.
Once you have the app installed on your Xperia phone, you'll need to ensure that Remote Play is turned on in your PlayStation 4 settings. Navigate to Settings > View Controller Guide > Register and turn it on.
Screenshot by Aloysius Low/CNET
When you first start up the app, it will ask if you want to connect the PS4 DualShock controller to the phone. If you only have one controller, I suggest skipping this step for now. This is because you may need to use the controller when setting up and if you only have one, you won't be able to do so since it will be locked to the phone until you pair it again to the PS4. That said, you can return to doing this any time by clicking on the settings button in the app.
Before you begin pairing the Xperia phone and the PS4, make sure both devices are on the same home network, then hit the search button on the app. If the phone doesn't detect the PS4 (like in my case) automatically, you can still use a number code to pair up your devices.
Ideally, you'll want the PS4 to be on an Ethernet connection, but Remote Play will still work even if both devices are on Wi-Fi. Also, if you're away from home, you can also connect to the PS4, though it's best not to do this with a mobile connection as it will chomp through your data plan. Connecting this way does take a while, so it's really not recommended. Latency was also an issue -- it takes ages for your input instructions to be relayed back and forth through the Internet.
If you have a fast connection, you can also make the video quality better by heading to Settings > Video Quality for Remote Play and switch it to High.
Ta-da! All set up and ready to go.Aloysius Low/CNET
One controller to rule them all
To get the best experience from Remote Play, it's best to use the DualShock controller with the phone. You can buy a clip-on mount, the Game Control Mount GCM10, that lets you attach your Z3 to the controller, though this method can be tiring after a while as the combined weight is fairly hefty.
Just simply stick the Z3 to the suction cup and you're all set to go.Aloysius Low/CNET
I suggest putting the phone somewhere you can see, such as on the table, and holding the controller normally. It's also best to have a dedicated controller if you think you'll be using Remote Play a good deal, since it's quite tedious to switch between pairing with the phone and the PS4.
If you choose not to use the DualShock controller, the Remote Play app does have onscreen controls, but they take up quite a bit of screen real estate, and aren't very useful for fast action games such as Call of Duty.
Aloysius Low/CNET
What you can expect?
While streaming quality was generally smooth, the whole process is really dependent on your router being able to handle the load (especially if you choose the highest quality stream). Depending on the action on the screen, you may see artifacts and noise that aren't apparent in the original on the TV.
Also, if you're trying to aim on the comparatively tiny display in first-person shooters, good luck. Unless you have exceptional eyesight, you'll be squinting most of the time or holding the screen really close to make things out.
Of course, if you're using Remote Play on the larger Z3 Tablet, that shouldn't be a problem. Smaller screens are less of an issue with games such as Driveclub, in which you're just driving a car around.
Sony and Android
Sony will keep this exclusive to its own devices for now (it needs to, given the company's dismal mobile business results), so it's unlikely you'll see this feature appearing on other Android handsets any time soon. That includes those that have been certified PlayStation-compatible, which only means they're able to use DualShock controllers to play Android games.
Here's an easy way to turn your dSLR into a DIY webcam for PC.
First, you will need to check that your camera is compatible with the software for this tutorial. It's called SparkoCam, and works with most Canon and Nikon dSLRs. Check the list at thebottom of this pagefor your particular model.Maybe your webcam is broken. Or maybe, you just want to try something fun with your dSLR. Here's how to turn your dSLR into a webcam for PC.
Step one: Download SparkoCam and install on the PC.
Step two: Connect the camera to your PC using a USB cable. This is usually a microUSB or miniUSB to full USB cable, and one comes with your camera. Turn on the camera and let drivers install if necessary.
In SparkoCam under the Device tab, you should see the software auto-detect your camera. You can change the preview resolution and the video bitrate. Under the Effects tab you can add overlays to the video image if you so desire.
SparkoCam also allows you to change the exposure to adjust aperture, shutter speed, ISO and white balance. Make sure to set the focus at this stage, otherwise the person on the other end will see you as a blur.
Screenshot by Lexy Savvides/CNET
If you're feeling particularly adventurous, you can click over to the Effects tab in SparkoCam to add cute overlays like glasses, hats or masks to the image.
Step three: Start the chat software (such as Skype). Go to Tools > Options, then select Video Settings. Choose the SparkoCam option as your webcam input. You should see the image from the dSLR on screen.
Step four: Find a microphone to record sound, or use your PC's internal mic. You can't use the dSLR's internal mic for this, unfortunately.
Step five: Chat away! The free version of SparkoCam is fully functional but comes with a big watermark, so if you like what it does, $30/£19/AU$36 unlocks the full version. Choose the standard license for SparkoCam and choose either Canon or Nikon.
2014 welcomes the Net's new names: .beer, .farm, .nyc and much more
New Web and email address options exploded this year with 469 new top-level domain names. Next year, Google, Amazon and 10 others will bid for rights to oversee .app.
In 2014, people registered about 3.6 million domains using hundreds of new addresses like .berlin, .pizza and .florist.NTLDstats
In 2014, the renaming of the Net has begun in earnest.
A dramatic liberalization of the Internet address system means that people can set up websites and email addresses ending in .photography, .london, .gift, .beer and .restaurant. And since they started arriving early in 2014, the virtual land grab has begun in earnest.
Starting in February, 469 of these new names arrived, says the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ( ICANN), a nonprofit organization that oversees the system. As of December 18, people have registered 3.6 million Internet domains using the new names, according to a tally by GreenSec Solutions' NTLDstats site.
The addresses are called generic top-level domains (GTLDs), and their debut is part of ICANN's years-long plan to introduce new virtual real estate on the Net. There were only 22 such domains beforehand -- the familiar .com, .net and .org among them -- but now it's time to get used to a huge number of new alternatives.
With the GTLD expansion, people can identify themselves by profession -- for instance, .photography, .florist, .realtor, .pizza and .plumber. They can indicate where they live or do business -- for instance, .nyc, .paris, .london and .berlin. And they no longer have to rely on Latin-based alphabets and keyboards, which is why the very first new GTLDs that arrived were in Russian, Chinese and Arabic.
In France, an ad exhorts people to register Internet addresses ending in the new .paris domain name.Stephen Shankland/CNET
The new Internet domains also brought problems, however, by increasing the potential for brand name trademark violations. Whether for thesedefensive reasons or for better promotion or branding possibilities, 13 of the 15 biggest US brands have applied to use their names. Those include .apple, .google, .ibm, .microsoft, .ge, .mcdonalds, .intel, .cisco and .amazon. Coca-Cola and Disney are holdouts so far, according to the Trademark Clearinghouse, a new group established to iron out domain-name disputes and, when possible, nip them in the bud.
How new TLDs arrive
There are three big steps to bringing a new name to the world. First, an organization must apply to ICANN -- paying a $185,000 application fee -- to operate a registry that will make the new domain available. Second, ICANN must approve it, a process that can involve auctions when multiple parties want the same address. Third, companies like GoDaddy and 1and1 Internet, called registrars, enable customers to register subdomains likemagicam.photos or tinyfield.farm.
ICANN only accepted applications for a few months, but that was enough for 1,930 applications. The top applicant was a startup calledDonuts, which sought to operate registries for 307 domains. Next on the list were Google (101 applications) and Amazon (76 applications).
Those eager to get on board with a registry of their own will have to be patient. The next application window likely will open in 2017 or 2018, according to Akram Atallah, president of ICANN's global domains division.
The single-most popular new top-level domain is .xyz. The new names arrived in 2014.NTLDstats
What are the most popular new GTLDs? The top one, by far, is .xyz, which drew more than 726,000 registered domains, indicating that there's a lot of demand for an open-ended term. Next, in descending order of popularity, are .berlin at 154,000, .club at 140,000, .realtor at 85,000, .wang at 84,000, .guru at 76,000, and .nyc at 59,000, according to the Trademark Clearinghouse.
It's remarkable growth, but it should be put into perspective. As of December, there were 915,780,262 websites on the Internet, according to a monthly tally by NetCraft. Note also that not all registered domains have websites associated with them.
Dueling for domains
There's contention over some top-level domain names. The most hotly contested is .app. Google, Amazon and 10 other organizations are vying to operate the .app registry. Such disputes are settled through auctions, and the .app auction is set for February 25.
Those auctions can be a lot more expensive than the $185,000 application fee and the $25,000 a year that registries must pay ICANN. On Wednesday, Johnson & Johnson won a six-party auction for .baby with a bid of $3,088,888, and the Canadian Real Estate Association outbid one rival to claim .mls by paying $3,359,000.
Other hot GTLDs coming up for auction include .inc with 11 applicants, .blog with nine applicants, .movie with eight applicants, .store with seven applicants and .game or .games with six applicants. Another item of note: Because ICANN prohibits domains that sound similar, another February 25 auction will pit .unicorn against .unicom. The contenders are China United Network Communications Corporation --China Unicom for short -- and European computing company Unicorn.
Many more will deal with GTLDs by registering their subdomains. Prices vary, but one Web-hosting company, OVH, charges €0.99, or $1.22, to register a .ovh domain for the first year and double that to renew. Curiously, that business got its start when company founder and Chief Executive Octave Klaba announced the .ovh domain as an April Fool's prank in 2009 but still attracted 22,000 registration requests.
"We want to make domain names accessible to as many people as possible, and always at the best price. That's why .ovh will be one of the most affordable extensions on the market," the company said.
It's true that domain names are mere labels -- convenient collections of letters, numbers and punctuation to get us the data we want on the Internet. But given the excitement and friction surrounding the new domain-name program, it's clear those names hold great importance.
With the market for cloud storage services starting to get crowded, we take a look at how to get as much storage from the different providers as possible.
Jason Cipriani/CNET
Editors' Note: This article was originally published April 24, 2012, and has been updated to reflect current offerings.
If 2014 isn't known as the year of wearables, it could be known as the year of cloud storage. Between updates to Google Drive and Dropbox, and revamped offerings from Apple's iCloud Drive, Amazon's Cloud Drive and Microsoft's OneDrive, access to cloud storage is now easier and cheaper than ever before.
Even with the cost of storage continuing to decline, free storage is something that's hard to pass up. Let's take a look at how to get free space from your favorite storage providers. If you want to upgrade to more than just the allotted free space, check out Sarah Mitroff's in-depth comparison of the big four cloud storage services.
iCloud Drive
First, let's get the service that doesn't offer any additional storage sans payment outside of the initial allotment: iCloud Drive. Apple gives iCloud users 5GB of free data, but anything beyond that you're going to have to pay for. You can view the monthly storage plans, which range for $0.99 to $19.99 per month here.
OneDrive
Microsoft's OneDrive service is free for the first 15GB of storage space, with opportunities to earn an extra 8GB by backing up your photos using the mobile app (worth 3GB), and inviting friends to sign up for the service. For each friend that signs up, you'll get 500MB of storage (with a max of 10 friends for a total of 5GB).
While the total allotment of free OneDrive storage caps out at 23GB, paid Office 365 subscribers can take advantage of unlimited storage once the new allotment is completely rolled out.
Amazon Cloud Drive promotion for Prime members.Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET
Amazon Cloud Drive
Amazon's Cloud Drive service remains free for basic users, with a base of 5GB free storage space. However, Amazon Prime members are able take advantage of one important upgrade - unlimited, free photo storage. Technically it's not free since it requires a Prime membership, but as yet another perk added to the service, one can get away with considering it a freebie.
Regular files, including music and videos, are still restricted to the 5GB of space.
Box
Box offers 10GB of free storage with for its basic personal accounts. You can, however, earn free storage by installing its app on specific devices. As of May 2014, the list of eligible devices can be foundhere.
Some more notable devices found on the list include Sony Xperia, LG phones and tablets, HP Windows PCs, Dell and Samsung ATIV tabs.
The amount of free storage unlocked varies based on the device and you use to sign into your Box account.
Google Drive
Google Drive users are treated to 15GB of free storage space. The space is used in combination with the attached Gmail account, which can be problematic for those with a large email database.
In lieu of paying for additional storage, you can unlock an extra 100GB of free space by signing into your Google account on a Chrome OS device and visiting this link. The added storage, unfortunately, has an expiration date of two years.
Google also has offers granting users of select Motorola, HTC and Kensington devices more storage. You'll need to visit this page and select your device type to learn more about added storage and the redemption process.
Dropbox
Dropbox storage options, both paid and free.Screenshot by Jason Cipriani/CNET
Lastly is Dropbox, arguably the leader in promotions for free storage. By now you likely already know about the free 2GB of storage included with each account. And you likely already know you'll need to complete the getting started guide to unlock more space. Referrals are also an easy way to earn more space, along with connecting your Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Another method is to use Dropbox's Carousel app to backup your photos. By installing the app and setting up the app, Dropbox will grant you 3GB of extra space. You don't actually have to use the app, unless, of course, you want to.
Mailbox is another Dropbox app that offers free storage in exchange for using it. Link your Dropbox account to the Mailbox app and bam, 1GB of data is automatically added.
It looks like HTC Android users using a device running Sense 5.0 can sign into the Dropbox app and earn 23GB of free storage through the end of 2014.
Samsung device owners have the ability to earn 48GB of extra storage, depending on your device type and when you logged into the Dropbox app. Be sure to read the fine print, which outlines how long the data is good for (one or two years)
Home networking explained, part 2: Optimizing your Wi-Fi network
CNET editor Dong Ngo answers questions about how to optimize a home Wi-Fi network.
The top of the fireplace in the living room is a good spot to leave your Wi-Fi router for best coverage.Dong Ngo/CNET
Editors' note:This post is part of an ongoing series. For the other parts, check out the related stories.
Wrote my last post on the basics of home networking, in hope that I will receive less user email asking about the matter. Alas, since then I've received even more! The good news is that nobody is asking about what a router is anymore.
Let's start with the ways that probably won't cost you anything, other than a little bit of time.Instead most of the emails this time asked about how to have the best Wi-Fi coverage at home and avoid "dead zones." With that in mind, here are a few thing you can do to make sure you get the best out of your Wi-Fi network.
1. Placement Location
A wireless router (from here on in this post, it will be addressed as "router" for short) broadcasts Wi-Fi signals away from it in all directions. Think of the signal coverage as a globe with the router being right in the center. Outside of this globe, clients won't get a signal. This globe, however, is not exactly spherical; one of the reasons is because the signals are generally turned to go out more horizontally than vertically, and like all radio signals, they tend to spread laterally and downward the farther they are from the broadcaster. That said, the best place to place your wireless router or access point is in the center of your home and elevated.
To take advantage of this, use the telephone jack (or coax cable outlet) at or near the center of the house, preferably on the upper floor when applicable, to connect to your modem and then your router. If need be, hire an electrician to create a new outlet in the right place. If it's not possible to move the phone jack or run coax cable to where you want, use a long network cable to connect the router to the modem, leaving the modem where the jack is and the router/access point at the center of the house. (In my experience, it's actually quite easy to run cables above the ceiling, or under the house).
Surroundings: A wireless signal works best outdoors in an open environment. Since it's not possible to have that indoors, you can improve the signal a great deal by making sure the immediate surroundings of the router/modem are clear, especially in the directions you want the signals to reach. This means you don't want to leave the router in a closet, or put it between a big TV and a wall. The best place to leave the router is in midair, but since that's quite hard to do, the second best thing is to put it on the surface of a desk, or mount it on the wall when applicable. Generally, all physical objects, such as walls, glass doors, and so on, weaken Wi-Fi signals, some more than others.
Though this might be common, stashing your router/access point in a close corner and in th emiddle of other electronics like this reduces its range a great deal.Dong Ngo/CNET
Antenna positioning: With a router that comes with external antennas, you can slightly tweak the above-mentioned globe of coverage. Generally you want the antennas to stay vertical if you want the signal to go wide (which is the most popular usage). If want the signal to go deep into the basement and up to the top floor, set the antennas to stay horizontal. Note that this only works relatively, and with some routers, you might not experience any difference at all whichever way you set its antennas. If the antennas are detachable, it's likely that you can replace them with high-gain antennas (most of the time this means bigger ones), which noticeably helps increase coverage. (You might also be able to increase the power of the antennas, hence the range, by attaching to it a piece of aluminum foil curled up into a parabolic shape.)
For routers with an internal antenna design, there's nothing you can do. Modern routers, especially N750, N900, and 802.11ac routers, however, generally come with very powerful and smart antennas that essentially increase their power toward the direction of connected clients automatically, using a technology called beamforming.
2. Equipment
Now that you have placed your router properly and still don't find enough improvement, it's time to check the equipment. Get ready to spend some money.
Router: Ideally you just want to have one wireless broadcaster at home and for most homes, a single router is good enough. That said, if you have a small house and the router (put in the middle) can't cover every corner, it's time to consider replacing it. I'd recommend one on these lists.
Many wireless router can also work as an access point. In this case its WAN port is used like a LAN port.Dong Ngo/CNET
Access point: A separate access point is an ideal solution for a large and sprawling home, one that you can't put the router in the center, or one with a deep basement, with an existing router. Basically, you want to put the second access point at the location where the signal of the existing router can't reach or gets really weak. A typical example of this setup is where you have the main router in the living room and the second access point in the basement.
Now the trick is to connect the access point to the router. Ideally, you want to run a network cable from the router to the access point (you want to connect the access point's LAN port to one of the router's LAN ports). If this is too much of a job, you can resort to power-line networking.
Note: Many routers can also work as an access point and will indicate this in its list of features. In this case the router's WAN port will work as a LAN port. In fact, for the secondary access point scenario, it's best to use two identical routers, one as the main, and the second as an access point for the far side of the house. This way you don't have to learn about two different devices.
Power line: A power-line adapter basically turns your home's electrical wiring into network cables; this is more clearly explained in Part 1. In the case of the separate access point scenario above, you can use a pair of power-line adapters, such as the D-Link DHP-510AV. Connect one of the adapters to the router and the other to the access point, using network cables. After that, if you want to make your home network seamless, name the Wi-Fi network (or SSID) of the access point the same as that of the existing router. In this case, make sure you use the same security settings (encryption key, method, and so on). Or you can also keep them as two separate Wi-Fi networks for easy management.
There are also power-line adapter kits with a built-in access point, called power-line range extenders, such as the Netgear XAVNB2001. In this case, you don't need to get the second access point/router.
In addition to power line, you can also opt for a pair of MoCA adapters. MoCA stands for Multimedia over Coax Alliance, and similar to power line, turns coax cables (those used by cable TV) into network cables. MoCA adapters are great solutions for homes with multiple cable outlets in different rooms. I don't have a lot of experience with MoCA, however, since it's not possible to test those at my office.
Range extender/repeater: These are wireless devices that can connect to an existing Wi-Fi network and then rebroadcast that same network's signal farther. Most of these devices support Wi-Fi Protected Setup and can connect to the existing router with the push of a button; after that, you can just put one at the edge of the existing network's Wi-Fi range and have that range increased.
I am not a fan of this type of device because of a few reasons:
First, it's hard to gauge their effectiveness; you need to put a range extender/repeater relatively close to the existing router for it to have a good connection with the main network, but at the same time far enough for it to really extend the range. It's very hard to find the sweet spot for it to be effective both in terms of range and connection quality.
Second, the repeater basically duplicates the existing Wi-Fi network with one of its own, and as mentioned above, Wi-Fi signals are broadcast in all directions. This means devices in the area where the two networks overlap have to deal with interference and signal saturation. This is especially bad for the 2.4Ghz band.
That said, a range extender/repeater is still the fastest way to relatively extend a Wi-Fi network's coverage.
You can easily find out a home network router's IP address by running the ipconfig command from any connected computer.Dong Ngo/CNET
3. Settings One of the problems with Wi-Fi networks is the risk of losing your bandwidth to unauthorized users. This part helps you secure your network and optimize it for speed. Note that it's slightly more advanced and might seem intimidating to novice users. But you will be a novice no more if you go through with it. This part is only recommended for those interested in learning more about networking.
Rule of thumb:Make sure you back up the router's configuration settings before making changes. This allows you to restore it to previous settings in case something goes wrong.
With the exception of networking products from Apple, most, if not all, other routers and access points on the market comes with a Web interface. This means that from a connected computer, you can open up the router's management Web page by going to its IP address. Unless you have changed it, the default IP address is generally printed on the bottom of the router, or on its user guide, and tends to be in this format: 192.168.x.1.
It's easy to find out your router's IP address; here are the common steps to get to any home network's router's Web interface:
Step 1: From a connected computer (running Windows Vista or 7), click on Start button, type "cmd" in the search area, then press Enter. (If you use Windows XP, you can navigate the Start Menu and run the Command Prompt item.)
Step 2: Now in the black command prompt window, type in "ipconfig," then press Enter. You will see lots of information displayed in the window. Find the string of number after Default Gateway, that's the router's IP address.
Step 3: Type that IP address in the address bar of a browser, such as Firefox, and press Enter; now you are at the router's Web interface. You will have to log in with an account. The username is almost always admin; for the password, check the router's manual or ask the person who first set up the network for you.
The Web interface offers a convenient and extensive way to manage a router's or access point's settings.Dong Ngo/CNET
On the Web interface, the following wireless settings will help your network stay safe:
Network name and password: Most if not all routers come with a default Wi-Fi network name (or SSID) and password; you won't want to use those. This is mostly because that reveals to advanced users which router you have and that, well, you don't know much about networking. Changing the SSID and password to your liking also helps you remember them better.
Hide your SSID: By default all routers broadcast the Wi-Fi network name. This makes it convenient since clients can "see" them. Hiding the SSID makes your Wi-Fi network invisible to others. The only drawback is that you have to manually type it in when you want to connect a new client to it. There's a trick for it: turn the SSID on briefly when you want to connect a new client, once that's done, hide it again. Note that hiding your network's name doesn't help much against advanced hackers, however, since there are tools that help you easily circumvent this.
Use WPA 2: Using the WPA 2 encryption method helps both increase the security and the speed of the Wi-Fi signal. The only catch is that WPA 2 might not be compatible with older clients. Most new clients released in the past few years support WPA 2, however. You can try using WPA 2 first and if some of your clients are unable to connect, switch it back to WPA.
In addition, once you have accessed the router's Web interface, there are many other settings that you can try. For safety, there are also MAC address filters, Internet filtering, and so on. Note that a router generally takes about a minute to restart to apply new settings.
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