GuruNews, Volume 9 Number 32, 9-3-09

Thu Sep 3 18:11:25 PDT 2009

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Vol. 9, No. 32                           

9-3-09

1 Mobile networking 

2 Since when does he talk like that?

3 Internet at 40, Sony/Google shenanigans, Gmail blackout, another URL shrinker, Feds and the Web, charitable IE8

4 Send To makeover

5 Office goof

I get occasional emails asking about using laptops and netbooks at work and at home on different networks.  Some business networks have assigned, or static, IP addresses to better monitor who is connected, who might be infected with something etc.  Some networks have wireless access, some require you to connect with an ethernet cable, and some use domains.

Regardless of the network type, you often have to make manual changes over and over as you move around and an email question a few weeks ago led me to write a simple little set of batch files to switch between static and dynamic IP addresses.

These are simple little commands that you can copy and paste into Notepad to make your own batch files if you’ve run into this problem.  It could also be handy if you and your spouse/significant other have broken all ties to wires and want to share a “cellular” connection, or whatever they’re calling portable phone networks these days.

In order to do this you use the command line tool “netsh”, short for net shell.  It’s like a DOS prompt for network components and is handy for a number of things, including manually resetting the Winsock in case it gets corrupted and knocks you offline.

Before you do these batch files you need to make a list, even if it’s only a short one, of which network adapters you need to reassign and what the settings are for any static IP networks you need to join.  Keep in mind this won’t work if your workplace uses a domain.

To start with, make one to set the adapter of choice to DHCP, which is what most home networks and wireless hotspots like coffee houses and so on use.  It assigns the IP address of your laptop automatically when you connect.

For a hardwired network you would use the command:

netsh interface ip set address "Local Area Connection" dhcp

For wireless you use:

netsh interface ip set address "Wireless Network Connection" dhcp

Copy whichever command you need to use and paste it into Notepad, then click Save As.  Change Save in to Desktop and change Save as type to All Files.  Now change the File name field to something appropriate such as home.bat or homewireless.bat and click Save.  

If you need to reset both make two files with the proper command in each one.  For this purpose you should have only one command for batch.

For the static IP you’ll need to use:

netsh interface ip set address "Local Area Connection" static 192.168.0.54 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.1 1

Change the IP, subnet and gateway (first, second and third octet) to whatever you need and change the connection type to "Wireless Network Connection" if applicable.

That trailing 1 (note the space) is called a Metric and has to do with assigning the order you attempt to connect to multiple gateways.  Just leave it at 1 and call it good.

Save that as work.bat or whatever seems appropriate, also to your desktop,  Now you can just double click work.bat when you get to work and home.bat when you get home.  Obviously you can make as many of these as you need for multiple locations and name them accordingly but it makes the changes very quick and easy.

If you’re going to use these for sharing a cell connection you’ll want to use different names and decide whether to hardwire the laptops together or go wireless.

You’ll also need to decide on what you want to use for an IP range, since you’ll be setting your own, and probably get a third party program like AnalogX Proxy for the machine that will make the actual connection.

I’ll cover that option in more depth later if readers ask for it but it’s not a common configuration.

OK, that’s enough geekiness for this week!

Kevin Mefford, Editor

pcguru at microdome.net

Terry Wise

www.ratland.com

Tech News of the Week

The Internet turned 40 on Wednesday, and what a long way it has come:

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/09/02/happy-40th-birthday.html

Sony will start shipping computers with Google's Chrome web browser installed:

http://tinyurl.com/mg8zn4

GMail went down for a over an hour Tuesday, causing email users all over the world to panic.  It took no less than three brown paper sacks to quell my hyperventilation:

http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/more-on-todays-gmail-issue.html

VapURL helps shorten your links, but with an interesting twist on what you see from TinyURL.  The link goes away after a certain number of clicks or a certain amount of time elapses:

http://www.vapurl.com/

And despite what you may have been forwarded in an e-mail this week, President Obama is NOT wanting to be able to shut down the internet for the sake of national security:

http://tinyurl.com/lqkxf9

And finally, if you haven't upgraded to Internet Explorer 8, go to the following link and download the installer.  By visiting this site and downloading through it, Microsoft will donate 8 meals to Feeding America:

http://www.browserforthebetter.com/ (download site)
http://hungeractionmonth.org/ (Feeding America site)

Keep us plugged in to the best on the web!

Daniel A. Williams

daniel at thepcgurus.com

Download of the Week

The lowly yet handy Send To menu (which appears on the context menu when you right-click a file) makes it simple to do common tasks (like moving a file to a folder or attaching one to an email) without first opening an application. Send To Toys gives added power to this menu with handy functions that include opening a dialog to specify a folder for copying, moving, or creating a shortcut to the selected file, opening the Run box or command prompt window with the selected file or folder on the command line, putting the selected file on the Quick Launch bar or in your Favorites as a shortcut, adding the files name and path to the Clipboard, attaching the selected file to an email automatically addressed to a default recipient and more. Send To Toys Control Panel makes it easy to add or remove items from the Send To menu.  It is free to download here: 

http://tinyurl.com/lxnvks 

Carlita Lupino

Cards57 at gmail.com

Email Question of the Week

Q:  I just downloaded Microsoft office 2007. I was trying to make a copy of the programs and accidentally I think removed word, at least I can't find it any where. It is not on desktop as shortcut nor listed in the start menu. Is it still there somehwere? How do I find a list of the programs and software? If it is not there how do I go about reloading it?

A:  It should still be installed, you may have just lost the shortcut to it.  Go to Start > Run and type in 'winword' without the quotes.  Word should start if it is installed correctly.  If it does, you can make another shortcut by going to My Computer, double clicking on C:, then Program Files, then Microsoft Office, then the folder with the biggest number on it (I believe the Office 2007 folder is 12).  Find winword in this list (should be one with the blue W icon), right click it and go to Send To > Desktop (as shortcut).  Then go out to your desktop, and try that shortcut out.  You can rename it to say something other than winword if you like, by right clicking on it, and going to Rename.

Hope this helps, and e-mail back if you have questions

Daniel A. Williams
daniel at thepcgurus.com

Contact info and legal stuff

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