Ask A Geek

Q: I live in a hotel that has a WiFi system and my computer connects to it at 54 Mbps. The download speed ranges between 4 Kbps to 48 Kbps, depending on how many people are online at any given time. The system is connected to the Internet via a DSL line with a max download speed of 1 Mbps. What would the best way to increase my download speed be?

A: You are lucky in this case because WiFi and broadband are measured using the same units. Many times things in the computer world are measured in different units like MB vs Mb or KB vs Mb and it is difficult to tell what is going on. In this case WiFi and broadband are usually measured in Mbps so you can compare apples to apples, as some people would say. In this case your WiFi connection is 54 times faster than your DSL connection so it is very unlikely that the problem is the DSL connection. However, with that said, you should always verify that is the case and here is how we can do it. Read the rest of this entry »

Q: What can I do to avoid going through my cable provider to get the Internet on my laptop?

I am trying to avoid purchasing an internet plan with my cable provider as they have quoted a hook up fee of $149.00. For wireless which should be illegal. Is there a wireless card available for laptops to connect ?

Q: I don’t have internet at home and frankly I can’t afford it. Will purchasing a wireless card allow me to access the internet on my computer? Its not an old computer I don’t think( M1330 dell, 3GB).

I’m just confused and I do have an unlimited data on my phone. The thing is if I can in fact use these cards to get internet am I limited to what I can buy? I have a Sprint phone and a Dell computer. So will I have to get a Sprint card?

How much do these things usually run and what determines the type of card I should purchase? All I really want is unbroken internet access so that I can watch a youtube or netflix video online. I want to be able to watch it all the way without any pauses or freezes. I am really tired of just using the internet from 8-3 at work. I use the public transportation so would I be able to use this card on the bus?

Someone suggested the cheapest broadband service and then get an internet adaptor so that I don’t have to fuss with a wireless card.

But what is “broadband’” and is that something I will have to get from like comcast or AT&T? I want avoid their outlandish prices.

A: Broadband really just means a fast internet connection and currently that would include cable and DSL for residential customers. There are a few other options but those are the most available options right now.

Your unlimited data plan on your Sprint phone is not really unlimited. If you read the contract it is limited to 5GB of data transfer. To put this in perspective this is probably 4 or 5 Netflix videos. Read the rest of this entry »

Q: I have an older HP PC with windows 95. Can it handle a broadband Internet carrier? If not could the computer handle a windows upgrade to a version that is 2000 or newer?

Q: I have a HP desktop with windows XP. I am currently using dial up and I am moving. Was wondering if it is possible to use a wireless card, like for laptops, in the desktop for Internet and what do I need to do this?

Q: Can you control the speed of your broadband internet connection if the person with the hub is some else in the house? Also can you download a speedometer to watch the speed of your connection almost constantly

Q: I am running Windows XP Media Edition and connect to the internet using Road Runner. Recently I added their wireless networking feature to connect with my laptop as well as my desktop, which is wired. About a month ago, I started seeing IE6 Refuse to recognize the connection after about 30 min of inactivity. The only way to get it to recognize the connection is to log-off, and log back on. Throughout this time, the laptop can connect without issue. After running a full suite of virus and spyware checks, now IE won’t work at all. I can log on with Netscape, but after 30 min of inactivity, it flakes out as well. Any thoughts?

A: There are a couple things that I would try. The first is to run a free program called HijackThis.

If this does not help I would try shutting down both machines and rebooting your cable modem and router making sure to leave them off for 30 seconds so that they reset properly and then bring them back up and start your computers.

If neither of these options work for you it might be time to ask Road Runner technical support to help but first please provide answers to the following and we will see if we can help you resolve it first.

Did this just start happening when you added the wireless network?

What brand and model of modem and router are you using?

What type of network card is installed on the desktop machine?

Sounds as if there is a setting in one of the pieces of equipment that might be causing the problem.

Q: We live in a rural area where our only options for getting on the internet are to either use dial-up or use Verizon’s wireless broadband service. Verizon’s wireless broadband service is the faster of the two options but since we have two computers we would like to try to share the connection between them. We talked to customer support at Verizon to see if we could connect the USB720 broadband modem to a wireless router but they said they do not support this. So now we are trying to figure out if it is possible or if there is another alternative that we could try besides paying another $59.99 a month to get another account for the second computer.

A: Verizon is correct in a way. There is no way to just connect your USB modem to a wireless router and have it work because the USB modem needs to be connected to a computer. However, once the modem is connected to your computer you can share the connection using connection sharing.

In order to do connection sharing you must either have an Ethernet card or a wireless card in the computer that has the Verizon broadband card in it. If you have a WiFi card in both your computers then you will be able to setup an adhoc network, which just means the two wireless cards will talk to each other instead of having to spend money on getting a WiFi router.

I am going to direct you over to the Microsoft site on how the exact steps to set this up but it is really easy there are just too many steps to list here. The page you want to visit is http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306126 and it will walk you though the entire process of setting up your connection so you can share it with others on your network.