MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [April 20th]” plus 10 more |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [April 20th]
- Share, Share, Share… Spread The Word!
- Save & Stream Everything You Share Online With Sharetivity
- Allow A Visitor To Send A File Via Email HTML Form With PHPMailer
- 5 Cool Android Apps with GPS Activities For Kids
- Hot Tech Deals [April 20th]
- 8 Websites to Check Out The Buzz on Open Source Software
- 5 Solid Tweaks to Optimize Your Computer For Gaming
- How To Dissect & Assemble PDF Files Using Preview [Mac]
- A Newbie’s Guide to Jailbreaking [iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad]
- How To Set Up A Wi-Fi Network To Play LAN Games With Your Neighbors
| Cool Websites and Tools [April 20th] Posted: 20 Apr 2010 08:31 PM PDT
These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed. NEW: Download MakeUseOf iPhone App. FREE! Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Share, Share, Share… Spread The Word! Posted: 20 Apr 2010 07:30 PM PDT
To show you a website or a software program you can make use of is our number one priority. This time around, we would like something from you. Something really easy and simple. That is to share MakeUseOf articles you find useful with others. That’s really the best way for you to show your appreciation for our work. It’s quick and super easy to do.
As you can see, there are options to share the article with your friends on Facebook, Twitter (retweet), StumbleUpon and Digg. Also, there is a ‘ShareThis‘ button which lets you share the article on several other social networks as well as giving you an option to email the link to someone.
You might not realize it but this has a major impact on our daily workflow and the popularity of MakeUseOf.com. So if you’re an avid reader and like what we are doing, please make sure to always share the articles you find useful with friends. Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 17,000 fans already!
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| Save & Stream Everything You Share Online With Sharetivity Posted: 20 Apr 2010 06:31 PM PDT
Sharetivity allows you to share your content on all of your social networks – including email – at once, while bookmarking it at the same time. This enables you to keep track of all of your sharing in one place, as well as see everything your friends have shared. No longer will you have to log in and out of many services to find that one link you shared 2 months ago.
You can install Sharetivity to your browser as a Share+ widget. It supports Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome. Save & Share Your Content At The Same Time
Say you’re reading an article and you decide you want to share it with a friend. Just click on the Share+ browser widget and a box will appear for you to create your email. Once the link is sent, it will automatically be saved in your stream under MySharetivity.
If you click on the Post|Bookmark tab on the box, you will be given the option to post to the various social networks/social bookmarking services you use. You can select the 8 services you want to see each time you use the widget. There are 58 sites to choose from, including Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, Google Buzz, LinkedIn, Digg, Stumbleupon, FriendFeed, and AIM.
If you don’t want to share the content you can still save it by just clicking the Post to: Sharetivity option. This will bookmark the article in your stream. Find Your Saved Content Later OnIf you go to your MySharetivity page, you will see a stream of all of your recent shares/bookmarks, along with the date and time they were posted or saved. If you’ve been using the service for a while and want to find an article you’ve shared in the past, you can use the search feature to find it.
Once you’ve located the content you’re looking for, you can open it up and save/share it on a different service of your choosing. Selective Sharing: Cut & PasteIf you want to save or share just a piece of the article you’re reading (good for clipping notes), you can use the cut & paste feature on Sharetivity. Just launch the Share+ widget like normal and click on the Cut & Paste link.
It will take you to an Article Snippets page that has the article broken down into paragraphs. You can select which sections you want to save/share as well as any pictures within the article. Click Done when you’ve finished your selection and you can choose how you would like to share the content. See What Your Friends Are SharingIn Sharetivity, you can see what your friends have been sharing and bookmarking. You can view this under MySharetivity – either on the Sharetivity website or right within the Share+ widget.
Every time your friends share interesting content your stream will be updated so you can view what they’ve shared and possibly share it yourself. You can change the privacy settings to allow who can see what you’ve shared from the Dashboard. View Popular News by Adding Publishers
Can’t find anything worth sharing? Just go to your Sharetivity Dashboard and look under Popular News. You can add publishers to populate this feed with news stories.
Once you’ve made your selections, stories will appear in the feed, along with how many times they’ve been shared. What do you think of Sharetivity? Will you be using this app to share/bookmark your favorite content? Leave a comment below! Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras. Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Allow A Visitor To Send A File Via Email HTML Form With PHPMailer Posted: 20 Apr 2010 04:31 PM PDT
If you just need to get feedback through text fields, or to record a visit – take a look at Abhigyan’s article on different ways to get a guestbook on your site. If you just need a form with text fields so your visitors can provide feedback or send in requests and comments, take a look at the article I wrote on free contact form generators that should do the trick.
Methods To Send A File Via Email HTML FormThere are plenty of reasons why you may need your website visitors to send you a file. Maybe you’re accepting job applications and resumes. Maybe you are a publisher and want to provide a fast way for authors to submit their short stories. Regardless of the reason, instantly transmitting files is both a convenience and a security hazard, so it has to be handled the right way. There is an element of the FORM tag that lets you upload a file to your server through the POST method. You will need a script (ACTION) to process it and store it in a directory on your server. W3Schools provides a really useful example of how to do this using PHP, which I thought was well laid out and easy enough to follow if this approach suits you. However, while I’ve always preferred PHP over other scripts, I don’t really feel safe letting my visitors upload a file to my server. There are ways that you can make the process more secure and block spammers, but I still get a bit uneasy about the potential for viruses or other nasty files. For this reason, I really prefer having the form submission get packaged up in an email and sent off to me. My email system has an excellent virus scanner for file attachments, so I know I can carefully handle files using this approach. This is why I turned to the free solution called PHPMailer-FE. This is one product that’s part of a larger open source project (please donate if you use the form!)
I decided to go with a pre-developed solution, because in all honesty, even though I know how to create a form and pass it to a script that I could write to process the information – why reinvent the wheel when there are such well developed packages already out there, and PHPMailer is absolutely one of them. Download & Configure PHPMailerWhen you download the Zip file, you’ll discover 3 folders – _lib, DOCS and sample_forms. Now, the developers offer an amazing amount of documentation on their site and in the developer forums. But, to be honest, you don’t really have to change a whole lot to get a simple form working on your site. In the “sample_forms” directory, you’ll find a few examples that the developers already created for you. In this article I’ll install the sample form.html and get it working with just a very few minor configurations. If you don’t have the ability to edit files on your web hosting account, then skip below to the edits before uploading the files. Otherwise, you can upload the files first.
Keep the same directory structure, and make sure that the HTML file with the form is only one directory up. If you want otherwise, you’ll have to change how the form references the PHP script (see below). Actually – I messed up when I uploaded, you really only need the _lib folder and the HTML file – the DOCS folder is simply for your information.
Go into the _lib folder and edit the form.config.php file. This is where you can really fine-tune how your form behaves. The only required edit is to configure where the post is going to go. I’ve also added the “subject” field, because I want to use this form on multiple websites, and when it arrives in my mailbox I want to know where it came from – the Subject line will tell you that. To enable any of these features, all you have to do is remove the comment code “//” and you’re good to go. An Example Of The Form In ActionTo demonstrate the form, I’ve copied the example form.html onto my website. This is what it looks like.
I love this…look how simple the form is, and you can embed it anywhere you want on your webpage. It has “required” field functionality so the user can’t submit the form without at least offering their name and email address, and of course it has exactly what we’re looking for – two upload fields where the visitor can attach up to two files. Here’s what the sample FORM code looks like (this is the form you’ll embed into your own web page).
There are two ways you can take this. Either copy all of the code in the form.html sample file from the <style> tag down, or you can pluck out just the FORM elements and insert them into your own customized form, formatted the way you want. This is most likely the approach I will take. The only critical part of this is that the “action” should point to the location of the “phpmailer-fe.php” script. Now that I’ve got the form.html ready to go, and the form configuration file customized to send to my email address and include a subject, it’s time to test and see what happens. I went to the form and submitted just my name, email, and attached a picture of a wolf. A second or two after submitting the form, this is what arrived in my Inbox.
You’ll notice that the email header has the sender as the email address entered in the form, and the subject line tells you which website sent the form. Best of all, take a look at what’s attached to the email.
Sweet! So, with just a couple very minor configuration file edits, you can now allow your visitors to send a file via email HTML form – and you didn’t have to write a single line of code. Customizing The Behavior Of Your FormBefore concluding, there is one little thing that’s important to modify if you want the form to appear professional. Currently, upon successful submission, it refers the visitor to this funny-looking web page by default.
That animated “Processing…” bit is actually just an animated GIF – there’s no magic behind it. This page is defined in the form.config.php file I referenced above. To customize the response pages, just open up that file again, remove the comment slashes “//” for those fields and replace the”replyemailfailed.html” entry and the “replyemailsuccess.html” entry with your own customized success or failure webpages.
I would definitely suggest going through that config file and exploring all of the ways that you can tweak how this form behaves. PHPMailer is a very versatile and useful pre-packaged form processing script that you can use for a wide variety of purposes on your website. Why reinvent the wheel when someone has already invented such a well-made and powerful car? All you have to do is get in and drive! Do you have a use for PHPMailer on your website? Do you use your own tools or techniques to easily add forms to your site where visitors can attach files? Share your insight in the comments section below. Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers! Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 Cool Android Apps with GPS Activities For Kids Posted: 20 Apr 2010 02:31 PM PDT
Let’s take a look at a few GPS activities for kids, where technology can actually encourage the kids to get out for some fresh air. The first couple of tips I would like to share are a bit on the educational side. Education can be fun with an Android phone, a sense of adventure and a little fresh air!
Learn About The SkyYou can use your Android phone to stargaze. I ran into this app called Sky Map which is an astronomy app for Android users. Here is a video about it : It apparently uses Android’s GPS, compass data and date and time to make it work. The idea here is that you can begin stargazing with your children as an educational and fun hobby that will bring everyone outdoors without all of the books and charts. Very cool if you ask me. Use Wikipedia To Plan A Field TripWho doesn’t remember going on field trips as a kid? I remember looking forward to the trips because it meant a break from class, some fresh air and an adventure. With the Quickpedia app you can find places nearby to take a trip to.
With the option to discover Wikipedia entries nearby, you’ll be sure to find something worth checking out and learning about with the kids. This app could also work while on a long road trip and you want to take a quick detour to take a break. You can check for nearby entries and see if there’s an adventure worth taking the kids on. And yes, Wikipedia can be fun. The next few GPS activities for kids are some ideas for having fun. They can be educational too but the bend is more towards getting fresh air, exercise, and having an adventure. High Tech Follow The LeaderAnother way you can use your Android phone to arouse the kids’ interest in the outdoors is an app called “My Tracks”, reviewed previously by Evan of MakeUseOf.
You could actually make a cool game out of it. Have someone making the trip to record it and then play follow-the-leader and have everyone else try to follow the same path, wherever it leads. Depending on the path taken, this could be interesting. GeoPhoto HuntUse My Maps Editor for your Android phone and set up a geophoto hunt. The My Maps tab in Google Maps allows you to customize your own personal maps. My Maps Editor, which is free in the Android Market, allows you to modify your personal maps on the go using your Android phone.
Using this app you can map out a route of places or objects as you go. My advice? Map a route with specific points along the way and have them find the places or objects using the GPS coordinates alone. Have them pose for a picture at each point. The challenge from this game should prove to be very fun for all. Create Your Own Geocaching AdventureTake that last idea a step further. Ryan just did an article about geocaching using his new Android phone so I won’t go into it again except to say that you can take that idea and make your own personalized geocaching adventure.
Give them the GPS coordinates to the first location where they’d have to look for the container containing the coordinates to the next location. This will make it a private affair and will give you more control over how the containers are hidden and what they may find in the containers. Any way you do it, with today’s technology we can now get the children excited about getting outside. In the warmer months, drag the kids away from the screens of the televisions, video games and computers and let them get some fresh air and exercise and maybe even learn a thing or two. What ways have you used technology to get children outside? We NEED Your Comments!!! Please do share your thoughts in article comments. Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted: 20 Apr 2010 01:30 PM PDT
For more fresh hot deals, visit our Hot Tech Deals page, which is constantly updated.
Image credit: Modified from Svengraph’s icon set Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 17,000 fans already!
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| 8 Websites to Check Out The Buzz on Open Source Software Posted: 20 Apr 2010 12:31 PM PDT
Can anybody deny that these three (among many others) have not only changed the way we do our computing, but they have also become game changers? That's a huge dent in our mind space which otherwise is dominated by products from Microsoft and Apple. These three are flag bearers of the open source software movement. Many others are running alongside (Apache Web Server, Symbian OS, OpenOffice, Arduino etc). Heading back to Wikipedia, we come to understand that the thinking on open source had existed since long before the internet gave the word a place in the dictionary.
Open source software is different from free software. But at the user level, for the layman, this distinction assumes less importance. Open source allows you to rewrite the code if you want to; free software does not and it comes with certain rights for the developer. Most times, open source software is the seed for free software. So let's check out what's happening in the open source community. And as we look at these eight open source websites, let's believe in Linus Torvalds' vision – "the future is open source everything…" SourceForge
You will find a mention of it in our archives as one of the better professional sample code websites for programmers. It is its bookmark worthy quality that takes it to the top of any list of open source projects. It is the world’s largest open source software development website. The sheer numbers – 2 million registered users and 230,000 software projects say that aloud. For a developer, it is the Mecca with its range of tools that covers hosting, software support (trackers, forums, mailing lists, etc), distribution tools, and finally the help of a large community to fall back on. As a downloader, you can browse through the software categories, or select using the most popular or most active tags. Codeplex
Codeplex is Microsoft's open source project hosting website. It has a large concentration of projects built around .Net. It also hosts a few projects which have non-open source licenses attached to them. Codeplex allows shared development in one project. Support is provided with tools like a proprietary Codeplex source control software, wikis, and discussion boards. As of January, 2010, the site hosts nearly 13,000 projects. Google Code
Google Code is a repository for Google's APIs of its various products such as Google Maps, Google Earth, AdSense, Adwords, Google Apps and YouTube. Currently the site hosts nearly 250,000 open source projects. You can download open source code and patches. Google Code has unique features like a mentoring program for university students (Google Summer of Code) and the Google Code University where students can learn new developments in technology. Freshmeat
In their own words, Freshmeat has the web’s largest index of UNIX and cross-platform software, themes and related 'eye-candy', and handheld devices software. Mac users can find nearly 3,600+ projects related to their OS. Users can keep track of what's new in Linux and UNIX by browsing through the nicely tagged projects. The articles on new software developments also keep users in the know. Freshmeat is owned by Geeknet, which also has Sourceforge.net in its lineup. Open Source Living
OS Living is a neat collection house of open source software covering all major OS. The site has three areas – Archive, Community and Sourced. The Archive is the searchable index of open source software that is contributed by the open source developers. The Community is the forum where open source fans thrash out their ideas. Sourced is more like a blog bringing you news, views and updates from the world of open source. Ohloh
Geeknet seems to have a lot of fingers in the open source pie as this is another community style website from their stable. With the important difference that Ohloh does not host open source projects. It is more like a public directory of the open source community and the software they develop. Ohloh also has some tools which can be used to map out the trends in the open source universe. You can compare projects and measure the amount of activity that project is having. For example, you can see which language is the most popular in open source development. Also like a social site, you can follow developers whose work you are interested in. Tigris.org
The tagline of this web resource reads – Open Source Software Engineering Tools. It has a few concentrated categories mostly around software development. The software may not be really useful for the average user, but computer students can find a lot of niche tools and reusable code in the categories mentioned. The Free Software Directory
The Free Software Directory is a project of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and UNESCO. It is a categorized index of free software that runs on free operating systems (GNU and Linux). FSD advocates the use of free software and through its activities seeks to counter restrictive policies such as Digital Restrictions Management (DRM). There is no free lunch; so goes the popular saying. The abundant availability of free and open source software thankfully belies the fact. Just imagine a world where open source did not exist. It would have been such a narrow existence. Are you a devotee of open source software? Pitch in your vote in the comments. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 Solid Tweaks to Optimize Your Computer For Gaming Posted: 20 Apr 2010 11:31 AM PDT
Of course, there’s a good chance your computer isn’t even running at its optimum performance. A cluttered hard disk or outdated graphics card can go a long way to slowing down your gaming system. Below are a number of tips to optimize your computer for gaming, and allow you to play more games with your current set up. Have a slightly outdated computer? There might still be some hope for you!
1. Regular (Preventive) MaintenanceAlthough this seems rather obvious, a lot of people still neglect to maintain their hardware. Like with a car, if you don’t take care of it, it’ll slowly start to deteriorate. There are a few things we need to optimize your computer and to take care of it keep it up and running. Hard Drive SpaceFirst and foremost, make sure you still have some space left on your hard drive. I know a lot of people who operate at, or even above 95% of maximum storage capacity. Not only does this give you little breathing room, your computer will also run slower because of it. Admit it, you don’t need half of what’s stored on your hard drive right now. So get rid of it. DefragmentingWhen using a hard drive, space is used wherever available. As such, some files are fragmented all over the disk. The defragment utility analyzes your hard drive, and attempts to consolidate those fragmented files, in an attempt to optimize your computer and speed up your system.
You can find the Disk Defragmenter under Start -> Accessories -> System Tools. Optimally, you can also set a defragmenting schedule. This is done by default on a number of computers, but double checking doesn’t hurt. Installed ApplicationsThe same story of the hard drive is true for applications. More installed applications results in a slower running computer. Go to Control Panel -> Uninstall a program and get rid of all those applications you once installed, but in fact rarely use. Updates Updates UpdatesContrary to popular belief, not all Windows’ updates are intended for your displeasure, discomfort, or to keep a tab on your every digital move. Some of them actually improve your system’s performance by fixing known bugs. Imagine that! It’s often best to let the update utility do its thing. If you’ve got your Windows updates turned off, at least check them manually once in a while. 2. Efficient Use Of Processing PowerA computer, although an amazing piece of engineering, can only run so many tasks. Modern games can already be incredibly complicated, so there’s little sense in straining your system. Use common sense in determining what is possible. Unless you’re on a very slow system, Notepad probably won’t hurt, but at least shut down Photoshop and MS Word before firing up that MMORPG.
Look in your system notification bar at the downright corner of the screen to view programs that are running in the background. Although they aren’t visibly performing any tasks, they’re still leeching off your processing power. Close down as many of those as you can, but leave sound and graphics controllers alone. A final tip. Do shut down your instant messaging program. Even on stronger systems, an aggressive message notification can minimize your game at critical moments, exponentially increase your ping (the response time between computer and server, ‘lagging’ is caused by this), or even outright crash your game. If necessary, there are special in-game messaging alternatives like XFire, Ventrilo and Steam. 3. (Custom) Graphics Card DriversYour graphics card is an essential part of your gaming system. It does the heavy lifting when 3D graphics are rendered. As such, it’s an absolute must to keep your graphics drivers updated as well.
Although the chip sets are predominantly made by ATI or NVIDIA, the graphics cards themselves are sometimes built by secondary companies. Check your box, or on the graphics card to get the necessary details and go to your manufacturer’s website to look for the latest drivers.
In case your graphics card has trouble keeping up, you can always use custom gaming drivers. Omega Drivers have added customizability, and a number of optimizations and internal tweaks to give them that extra edge over normal drivers, which “are often tailored for synthetic benchmarks”, according to the Omega Drivers headsman. 4. Put Your PC In ‘Gaming Mode’ With Vista ServicesVista Services (don’t be fooled, the application works like a charm on Windows 7 as well) is a nifty little freeware system optimizer. Alas, we’re only going to use it for one specific feature; Gaming Mode.
As expected, gaming mode temporarily optimizes your computer for playing games. This is done by shutting down a number of trivial and unnecessary Windows services. This will give your computer that extra boost for playing games. Other features of the Gaming Mode will help you close unnecessary programs and tune down Windows visual effects. 5. Tinker With Your Computer’s HardwareAre you still stammering on the lowest possible graphics configuration, and do none of these software solutions seal the deal for you? Perhaps it’s time to upgrade your PC’s hardware. A great place to start out is our free PDF guide on How To Build A Gaming PC, even if you’re just looking to replace a part or two.
Don’t feel like you’re up to tinkering with your own PC? You can nearly always find help in your local hardware store, or one of the bigger ‘offline’ franchises. It’s a sad fact that gaming hardware gets outdated quickly. Do you have any other tips for our fellow gamers? Let us know in the comments section below! Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Do share our articles with others! It’s really important to us. Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How To Dissect & Assemble PDF Files Using Preview [Mac] Posted: 20 Apr 2010 10:31 AM PDT
I can’t recall what topic I chose, but I still remember cutting out columns of words and pictures and gluing them on sheets of almost-white stencil paper. I insisted on doing everything myself, and even though the result was terrible (said my mom to my daughter who recently had a similar assignment) I remember having so much fun.
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| A Newbie’s Guide to Jailbreaking [iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad] Posted: 20 Apr 2010 09:30 AM PDT
Jailbreaking an iPhone, iPod Touch or an iPad is a rather simple procedure although it can be confusing for a new user to understand. What exactly is jailbreaking and why do you need it? Is it an application? Where can you download it? All of these questions and more will be answered in this very article.
Why is this important to you? Well, mainly because this is a perpetual movement and you need to be aware of who’s ahead of whom — the hackers or Apple. And since we love jailbreaking, we’re rooting for the hackers. Now, we may begin understanding the entire jailbreaking process and what you’ll need to know in order to stay jailbroken. Let’s start with the basics and define the term ‘jailbreak’. Actually, it pretty much explains itself — to break out of jail. By default, you are confined to using the applications available only in the iTunes App Store. You’re not allowed to customise your device aside from re-arranging the position of the applications and changing your wallpaper. It’s like being in jail. You have no freedom to modify your iPhone’s settings, tweak the theme, edit the carrier’s name, change the default message tone or add third party applications. But by jailbreaking, you’re set free from Apple’s restrictions. Jailbreaking is a process which will enable full write access on all partitions of your device. By doing so, you will be able to modify the operating system to allow visual customisation, third party apps, system modifications, replace the default audio files, and other goodies like unlocking and activating your iPhone. Jailbreaking is always the first and most important step to freedom. To allow this article to be an evergreen source of reference, I won’t be stating which devices can or cannot be jailbroken. Instead, I will forward you to this wiki — locate your device type, figure out which firmware version it’s running (by going to Settings on your device, tap on General, then About and scroll down to Version) and whether or not it can be jailbroken. If your device cannot be jailbroken, then you’ll have to play the waiting game until the hackers release a solution. If your device can be jailbroken, iClarified will show you how — click for tutorials related to the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. How do I know if I’m jailbroken?It’s easy. If you have successfully jailbroken your device, there will be evidence of a third-party installer application. At the time of writing, Cydia is the standard installer application found on most jailbroken devices. It will allow you to browse through a repository of third party applications, tweaks, utilities and modifications; and helps you to install them onto your device. Another installer is Icy, and an even older one is Installer.app — both of which have been discontinued.
PrecautionsIf you have somehow managed to pluck up the courage to jailbreak your device after reading this article, be sure to find the right method for the right device for the right firmware. Inappropriate jailbreaking may render your device into a “brick”. Taking the term literally, that means your device will be as useful as piece of brick — it won’t turn on. Jailbreaking will also void your warranty, so I reiterate — make sure that you know what you’re doing. If you have successfully managed to jailbreak your device, congratulations! Breathe the fresh, free air. You’re now released from Apple’s deadly grasp. A couple of things to note. Remember when I told you that this is perpetual ‘cat-and-mouse’ chase? I wasn’t kidding. Every time Apple releases an update, you must resist the temptation. Do some research and make sure that the firmware that you’re updating to can be jailbroken. Find out if a jailbreaking tutorial exists. If not, find out roughly when it will be released and wait for it. I hope that this article proves to be helpful for those who still find it too scary to jailbreak their devices. It’s not that nerve-wrecking once you get the hang of it. And trust me, the benefits of jailbreaking definitely outweighs being tied to a confining operating system. Questions? Please direct them to the comments section below. Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf fan page on Facebook. Over 17,000 fans already!
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| How To Set Up A Wi-Fi Network To Play LAN Games With Your Neighbors Posted: 20 Apr 2010 08:31 AM PDT
We each have different Internet connections. Personally I have a 15/MBit connection to the Internet but some of my friends had slow DSL hookups and one of them was even on dial-up! Can you imagine that people are still using dial-up where broadband is available? Talk about a blast from the past! So connecting over the Internet to play was just out of the question. We needed a faster connection!
The next step was to figure out a way to connect all of them to the same network without running cables from apartment to apartment. We decided to use Wi-Fi. Most of the apartments were close together. They would be able to access a central wireless router in an apartment near the middle. But we had one apartment that was not getting a very good signal two floors up.
In determining how to set up this WiFi network, I could have upgraded to a Wireless N router from the wireless G router I was using but all of the machines except one only had 802.11G adapters. So to keep things simple and cheap we stuck with the 802.11G. Then I was able to throw a Range Extender into the mix and boost his connection and after a few hours of trial and error we were able to get our game going from the comfort of each of our respective homes.
I will walk you through how how to set up this WiFi network. Your first job will be to find the central point between all of the houses or apartments. Take an educated guess and try it out. We want a central point so all the machines will get the best wireless signal possible. We will then put a wireless router in that central location. You want both antennas on your router pointing in different directions and away from walls or other obstructions. Remember this has nothing to do with your Internet connection so this will be a totally separate network. We will set up the wireless router to broadcast a SSID (Service Set Identifier). Name it something that you will easily be able to recognize. Then set up any security protocol of your choice like WPA or WPA2 to protect your network from outsiders. After setting up the wireless router, turn on the other computers that will want to connect to your wireless LAN to play. If they do not have wireless cards in them you will need to purchase or acquire one for each machine. Scan for wireless networks and see what kind of signal you are getting from the router. If you have more than 3 bars you are golden. You can see an example of the wireless network selection box below. The first network listed is my Internet connection and the one at the bottom with the 3 bars is the router that was set up four doors down. I have three bars to connect to it and it works wonderfully.
If you do not have at least 3 bars you can try moving the router to another location or adding a range extender. You can follow this post on how to set up a range extender. What that will do is take the weakest point of your new network and boost it. The extender will be broadcasting for your wireless router and relaying the information back to it seamlessly. You can still connect to a network with one or two bars but you might experience a lag. This means while people are shooting at you – you are a sitting duck waiting for your screen to refresh!
If you already have a wireless connection to the Internet you will need to disconnect from it and connect to your new gaming network (at least while you want to play). If you have a wired Internet connection you should be able to run both connections simultaneously. When you are all on the same network you will be able to play any type of network game with each other and transfer files as an added bonus! Back when Internet connections were expensive (more so then now anyway) we used this to share not only a network but also Internet access! How do you set up your WiFi network? Do you do something similar? We would love to hear about it in the comments! NEW: Download MakeUseOf iPhone App. FREE! Similar MakeUseOf Articles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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