Tag Archives: internet

Guide: A simple way to make a WEP key

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There are too many people around who have their wifi routers unsecured. Why? Well there are horrible people out there who think it’s right to connect to your wifi. Believe it or not, it’s stealing and if you are caught you will get in trouble.

It’s a really good idea to set up a security key for your wifi. It is simple to do and will save you a lot of hassle. OK, if you live in the middle of a field in a rural area, chances are that there won’t be any wifi-jackers (that’s what I call them) anywhere near you, but you never know.

I get questions from quite a few people about making a good, secure wifi key that’ll keep those unwanted wifi-jackers away. Most routers automatically set up a WEP key when you set them up, but they can be hard to remember and annoying when you need them regularly.

I say the same thing to everyone – there is an easy way to create a simple easy to set a key to remember. An important date you you (such as a birthday) and and another important 2 digit number (such as your house number). I suggest you have it like this:

DDMMYYYYHH

KEY: D – Day, M – Month, Y – Year, H – House number.

So, if my birthday was on the 12th of June 1978 (it isn’t, seriously!) and my house number was 9, I’d set it like this: 1206197809.

You won’t forget it, I promise. As long as you remember the structure you’ll be fine. I find it a really simple way to make a good, secure WEP key. As long as you don’t tell anyone else that it’s the structure of your security key, you won’t get any unwanted intruders chewing up all your bandwidth and getting you into trouble with the law.

Microsoft announces no internet browser preloaded in Windows 7

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Microsoft has announced today that Windows 7 will not be sold with an internet browser in Europe.

That means that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer will not be included by default, giving the user the chance to make their own choice on which internet browser they would like to use.

Microsoft has recently been in a little trouble for promoting Internet Explorer too much and not giving other browsers a chance, so it would appear that Microsoft are just trying to avoid getting penalised again.

When Windows 7 is released, European users will have to download their own browser – however Microsoft has said they will still recommend Internet Explorer, even if it isn’t included.

To be honest this has surprised me slightly – this is the first time since Windows 95 that Microsoft has decided not to include Internet Explorer, but I am happy that all of the internet browsers out there will get a chance.

3 (Three) Mobile introduces free texts and internet on Pay As You Go

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3 (Three) UK Mobile has today introduced free texts and internet to users topping up. It looks like a really nice addition to pay as you go on Three and has definately made me glad to be on Three.

From today (June 2nd 2009), 3 are giving away free texts and internet usage every time you top up.

Here’s how it goes…

Mobile Internet

From now on, you get 150MB of free internet access with every top up no matter how big or small. You must use it within 90 days.

Free texts

This is how it goes:

  • Top up £5 and you’ll get 25 free texts to use within 90 days. You can only top up by £5 online.
  • Top up £10 and you’ll get 300 free texts to use within 90 days. Top up online and you’ll get an extra 300 texts (meaning 600 in total).
  • Top up £15 and you’ll get 500 free texts to use within 90 days. Top up online and you’ll get an extra 500 texts (meaning 1000 in total).
  • Top up £20 and you’ll get 1000 free texts to use within 90 days. Top up online and you’ll get an extra 1000 texts (meaning 2000 in total).
  • Top up £25 and you’ll get unlimited free texts to use within 90 days, whether you top up in a shop or online.

It’s so amazing and I’m very happy about it. It almost makes Pay As You Go better value than contract now! The best bit is that you get 90 days to use your free rewards, rather than the cruddy 30 days most mobile providers give.

I can’t get over how good it is and am trying to top up now to get my first reward! Thanks 3!

BT accused of throttling speeds on iPlayer and YouTube

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According to a range of news sites, BT has been accused of throttling speeds to sites such as BBC iPlayer and YouTube during peak hours, on their option 1 internet package, without placing a clear warning to users.

Many customers have recently complained that speed limits have been put in place for sites that use video streaming during peak times. According to BBC News, users of the Option 1 BT Internet package will find video streaming site speeds limited from 5pm right through to midnight.

I personally don’t like it when internet companies throttle speeds, but BT certainly isn’t the only company that does this. I use Tiscali as my ISP and I am most certainly throttled for high demand websites between peak hours. BT definitely is not the only company to be blamed for speed throttling.

I do think that ISPs need to do something about speed throttling – I really hate it and think it is very unfair. Most ISPs claim that they only throttle to make sure that everyone gets a fair share of the available internet bandwidth during peak time, but if ISPs can claim 8MB broadband and make you pay for it, then 8MB is what you should get all the time. If ISPs can’t provide 8MB broadband during peak time, then they should either upgrade the stone-age copper cabling we have now or just not advertise 8MB broadband in the first place. Instead, they just rip us off, advertising features they simply cant provide.

Tiscali to be bought by Carphone Warehouse

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It was announced this morning that Tiscali, a large internet service provider that supplies 1.76 million people with internet, is about to be sold to the Carphone Warehouse for in excess of £236 million.

The Carphone Warehouse hopes to merge Tiscali into it’s current broadband service within the next 2 years, however they have said that Tiscali email addresses will be spared.

Tiscali has recently lost customers as they seek other broadband companies with better customer service.

This is not the first time Tiscali have been on the market. In fact, they’ve been on the market for over a year now, and they’ve had talks with Sky and Vodafone although both potential deals fell through.

Tiscali is currently suffering with the large amount of debts it is currently in.

When the Carphone Warehouse and Tiscali are merged together, the Carphone Warehouse will supposedly have more than 4.25 million broadband subscribers and that will place it 2nd in the broadband market.

I’m currently using Tiscali as one of my ISPs and to be quite honest the longer the wait for them to merge, the better. I am quite happy with Tiscali’s current internet plan and I hope that their current plan isn’t overwritten. Their current 8MB broadband is really decent value, especially baring in mind that their fair usage policy states that they won’t get at you for your usage unless your nearing 100GBs per month in bandwidth – and that’s tonnes. TalkTalk’s similar current plan has a 40GB usage and costs £17.74 per month, however Tiscali’s up to 100GB usage plan costs just £14.99.

So the longer the better in my opinion. But that’s where Tiscali is heading anyway.