Book Reviews and Money Saving Tips

Atheros wireless network adapter owners beware! You may have an Atheros adapter in your laptop and not even know it. If you do, return this router now since it appears that Linksys routers do not work with the Atheros wireless adapters. There is a work around but it takes the router to the slowest most mundane aspect of the router. With that being said, after 4 hours of tech support, 97 minutes of my cell phone minutes and 4 chat sessions I was able to get the easy setup to work. At this point I am shell shocked and don’t even want to look at the router let alone test more features. I liked the USB port on the router for sharing storage and wanted to test it with a printer but frankly the 4 hours of my life that went into the basic setup was 3 ¾ hours more than I had hoped to spend. So it may be a good router if you have some other wireless adapter but you sure don’t want this if you have an Atheros wireless adapter in whatever you are trying to co...

I tend to research tech ad nauseum.   My  venerable 3-Com switch was showing some intermittent issues.   I was getting drop off and I connected my PC directly to the cable modem and the drop off disappeared.   So I added in my 3-Com and it was back.   I tried several other old switches I had and none were seamless.   Since they were all at least five years old, I bit the bullet and bought the E1200.  The router got four or five stars on several online rating sites.   PC Mag had an article that mentioned it no less than three times as a good value.   It is not a high end switch/router but it is ranked as worthwhile.  I would have to disagree with that ranking.  I do not have any wireless N devices so that is moot.   It is quicker than the 3-Com and configuration was truly simple.  After I installed the router I turned off the cable modem, turned it back on and Viola! The in...

I haven’t used this but it looks pretty sweet. I’ve got a buddy who has two computers but no network. He wants to share his printer wirelessly. His new printer had Bluetooth but neither his desktop or laptop has Bluetooth. For a whopping $12.99/computer at Amazon he can add Bluetooth capability. From Belkin’s site: This small adapter simply plugs into one of your computer's USB ports, and with just a press of a button, quickly connects you to the latest Bluetooth wireless technology. The Mini Bluetooth Adapter easily pairs your mouse and keyboard to your computer, and also communicates with headsets, printers, phones, and other devices enabled with Bluetooth technology. For PC Users:Windows® 98, 2000, Me, XP, or Vista® For Mac® Users: Mac OS® X v10.2 or higher Note, Windows 7 is not supported. (but then what is?) As usual this is not a paid blog but if you click on the Amazon link, I will get a commission. If several hundred of you click on it, my commission will ...