When I moved into my new apartment this month I noticed that the phone line outlet was on on opposite side of the apartment relative to my computer. Since I was using a Cat5 cable to connect before it would not be a viable solution in the new apartment. I ordered an Airport Extreme card for my Mac Pro, but in the meantime I had no method to connect to my wireless network. I did some googling and found that there is a way to use your iPhone as a wireless adapter. The software is called WSID and requires a jailbroken iPhone as well as some ssh knowhow. There is a readme file with instructions so if you can follow them then go for it. This little hack works well and kept me connected to the internet while I waited for my Airport Extreme card to arrive. Below is the link to the file, which is tiny by the way (13.5kb).
wireless
Help a friend – Wireless range extender
Today my friend Bandar helped me think of another new segment to by blog. I call it Help a friend. Since I am the techie between all my friends a lot of people ask me for help with computer related problems. Sometimes the direct answers of which can not really be found on google since they can be very specific. So I thought what a great idea for a segment on my blog; help a friend out, and possibly others online while also adding more proper content to my site!
Today Bandar asked me about extending his wireless throughout his home to some dead spots upstairs, and wanted to know whats the easiest way without having to plug a lan cable to his existing router. After doing some research I found that you can do it many ways, either by hacking an old router to use DD-WRT firmware. Or by buying a wireless repeater/extender. After quickly going to newegg and searching for wireless extender (wireless repeater didn’t yield too many results) I organized the results by best Rating. The best rated product for the job by neweggers was the Encore ENRXWI-G IEEE802.11g 54Mbps Wireless LAN Extender. According to most reviewers it’s easy to setup and does the job just fine. A quick view on the product page of encore usa provides this information for wireless extension.
Extender Mode
Place ENRXWI-G within the range of your current wireless network. Subsequently, ENRXWI-G can pickup signal from the wireless router (or access point) and transfer the signal further away than the original coverage area. You have thus effectively extended your wireless network without wiring or complicated configuration. Also, you can improve the reception at dead spots, areas characterized by poor signal quality, by placing ENRXWI-G between the dead spots and the wireless router.
Anyways thanks Bandar for giving me an idea for another great segment. Hopefully it will stick around!