PC Troubleshooting Guide



Here you will learn about the computer troubleshooting tips, how to fix hardware errors, networking how to, and learn how to fix the software errors. Troubleshooting the computer problems is a very vital role of the system administrators, hardware technicians and system specialists. Every hardware component in the computer system has its own configurations methods and troubleshooting techniques. If you use a computer at your home or in office, this guide will be wonderful help for you in diagnostic and troubleshooting your basic computer problems.

There are some basic techniques and you should be aware of them. If you encounter a slow boot up problem, there are some basic tips and by implementing these tricks you can increase the speed of your computer and laptop. 

How to Speed up the Computer



1. Windows Defragmenter utility: You can use this utility by using this path Start > Programs > Accessories > System tools > Disk defragmenter. This is built-in utility in Windows operating systems and this will automatically analyze the empty disk space on the hard disk and defragment and all scattered files.

2. Shutdown Unnecessary programs: By using this path Start > Run > Msconfig > Startup, you can close all unwanted programs at the Windows startup and this will automatically increase the windows loading time and speed of the computer will also be increased.

How to Troubleshoot the Computer?



Here you will learn the basic troubleshooting methods of your computer.

1. Trial and error: When you find a faulty component in your computer, first of you check it with the other computers so that you can make sure whether the fault is in the component or not.

2. Check cables: In case of any device failure, check all the cables of your computer such as data cables, power cable, internal circuitry cables etc and make sure that all the cables are plugged in and working fine.
3. Hardware settings: Check the hardware settings in the CMOS and in the device manager of the system and make all the device drivers and up to date and all the cards are plugged in properly.

4. Notice changes: When you notice a software or hardware error in your computer, determine what was changed before the problem occurred.

5. Event viewer: Use the event viewer utility by going to Start > Control panel > Administrative tools > Event viewer. In the event viewer you will find the error or warning messages associated with any faulty hardware or software.

6. Make notes: Troubleshooting is big learning option and we can learn a lot when we face any kind of troubleshooting in our computer. Make notes including the error messages and their solutions, so that you have a record that how a certain problem occurred and how did you solve it.

Data Recovery Tips



Accidental loss or deletion of the critical data of your organization can cause big problems for you and for your company. If you are a system administrator or a hardware technician and responsible for your company’s data, it is your duty to equip yourself with the great system restore and data recovery utilities and if you are empty handed and you encounter such problems, there can be big financial loss for your company in case of completely removal of data and wastage of precious time. Following are the few tips for recovering the lost data.

1. Use some good data recovery utilities such as File recovery, Recovery My Files, R-tt and a free utility Handy Recovery.

2. If you are responsible for the data and system administrations, use backup tapes drives and regularly take backups of your server’s data.

3. Use UPS and diesel generators if power failure occurs regularly in your area because sudden shutdown can crash your server and other systems.

4. Make a clean humid and dust free environment for your server room.
 

Diagnostics with Beep Codes



Following are the beep messages associated with the IBP bios.

1 short beep specifies a normal post

2 short beeps tells about POST errors that can be find on screen.

Continuous beeps indicates power supply and other cards errors.

One long and short beep indicates system board problems

3 long beeps defines keyboard errors

No system beep tells about power supply errors.
 

Wireless Communication Mediums


As the world is going from Wires to Wireless, The technology and speeds of wireless communication is also going leaps and bounds. The wired network often goes too congested and offers a hindrance to mobility needs of the users.

With wired Networks, although security features and speeds are yet unmatchable by the wired networks, yet the inability to being flexible is what causes the wireless mediums to gain more public attention.

There are many sorts of wireless networks that make that data communication possible both over long range and small range. All of these networks operate over different frequencies and a channel Gap between different frequencies avoids the collision between them impossible.

The major types and functions of major wireless mediums are described as follows.

Microwave Communication is the most common wireless communication medium and is spread widely across the world. Most of the wireless access points and wireless devices work on microwave communication.

This sort of communication works in Mega Hertz frequencies and offer speeds of 2 Mbps to 20 Mbps. The operating range spans to 30 kilometers which can be extended with the help of wireless regenerators.

This communication medium is not only cost effective but widely used as well in not only computers but cellular communication as well.

Bluetooth is another wireless communication medium operating over short distances. It has a normal range of 11 – 30 meters between two connecting devices and have spends between 10 kbps to 1.2 mbps. Bluetooth is very useful in indoor communication of small area networks.

A Bluetooth network is sometimes also called a Home area Network. This kind of network is cost effective as well. Although it can cross the walls yet it can not obtain high speeds and is disturbed by various factors.

Infrared is one of the most primitive forms of wireless communication. The biggest draw back with infrared communication is the line of sight problem. At the point where Microwave and Bluetooth are scattered in circles around the base stations, Infrared Networks need to have the two devices in line with each other with an angle of +_15 degrees. Different Wireless devices can be joined together through a common access point and scattered across different devices.

Automatic discovery and mobility are the most important appealing features of Wireless Networks. You can stay connected while on the go for over. The inter access point device handling is possible making the wireless network more easy to use and flexible.

Satellite communication is also covered in Wireless communication but less applicable under this category because it not only operates over very long distances but their frequency ranges differ widely as well.

With the help of wireless networks, it is possible now to send and receive data and stay connected at all times even during travel. Wireless communication is changing the look of data communication for ever and it is going at a high pace. 

What is WAN Optimization?

Here you will learn WAN Optimization techniques and you will study that how optimizing the WAN can improve the performance of your network applications.  Remote and centralized storage is a big challenge for the organizations.  Additionally extra security features are required for secure communication from users to the applications. WAN optimization products accelerate the boost the performance of broad range of shared network applications that are shared by a larger number of enterprise users.  Most of the enterprise networks use WAN optimization appliances to cut the cost and network congestions. 

Typically these devices reduce the traffic congestion by 10 to 20 %. On the other hand wide area data services reduce the traffic congestion by 60 % to 90 %.

How to Optimize WAN

Networks play an important role in the businesses and if the network is slow so is the business. For improving the performance there are different techniques and products are on the rise such as route control products, content delivery networks, load balancing technology, multicasting and caching.

The other techniques and methods that are involved in improving the performance of the wide area network are CIFS proxy, HTTPS proxy, media multicasting, bandwidth management, web casting and WAFS.  Deployment of the wide area network optimization appliances at the data center and the branch sites boosts the network and distributed application performance with the minimum efforts.

Improving applications performance over the networks has become the ultimate goal of the organizations.  Varying network types and applications require different solutions.  WAN accelerators and WAFS optimize the data that travel over the longer distance.  Traffic over the wire is optimized through streaming, compression, prioritization, local and centralized caching and other methods.

Optimization Techniques

The optimization software and hardware use the following techniques to boost the performance of a network.

  • Staging data on the local cache
  • Compressing and prioritizing data
  • Streamlining chatting protocols.

Vendors

The following vendors provide the WAN optimization products and appliances.

  • Cisco
  • Juniper
  • Blue Coat
  • F5 Networks
  • Silver Peak
  • River Bed
  • InMage
  • Peribit

Most of the products provided by these vendors are the hardware based and some are the combination of hardware and software.

Juniper offers the following Networks Application Acceleration Platforms.

  • WX Platforms

This platform is used to increase the application performance, application and data prioritization, WAN capacity and this platform delivers compressed output that travels at the speed 64 Kbps to 155 Mbps.

  • WXC Platforms

WXC Platforms holds the on-board hard drives that are used to store the repeated data and that ultimately increase the WAN capacity by 100 folds.  WXC Platforms support the disk capacity from 40 GB to 3 TB and WAN links from 128 Kbps to 155 Mbps.

  • WX CMS

WX CMS platform is used to manage multiple WX platforms and WXC platforms from one central location.  There are easy monitoring and configuration tools in this platform.  The main feature of the WX CMS is the application performance, WAN utilization, bandwidth allocation and QOS.

What is WAN Networking


In this section you will learn the basic overview of the wan networking overview, wide area communication methods, lan, atm, sonets and x.25 protocols.. There are three basic types of computer networking LAN (local area network), MAN (metropolitan area network) and WAN (Wide area network). A wide area network is a geographically dispersed large network. A wide area network can be privately owned or rented. A WAN covers a large geographical area such as a city, province or a country.

A widea area network may consist of a multiple LANs or MANs. The world’s most popular wide arae network in the world is is the internet. WANs are the corporate network that utilizes leased lines.

Wide area networks generally utilize much expensive equipment. The main communication technologies that are included in the WAN are SONET, Frame Relay and ATM. The computers that are connected to the WANs are generally connected through the public networks and they can also be connected through the satellites.

WANs are used to connect the computers in the one part of the world with the other part of the world. So the users and computers from the different parts of the world can communicate with each other. Many WANs are generally built for one organization. Other types of WAN networking are the Internet service providers that connect the LANS or individual computers to the Internet. WAN networks are built using the leased lines and a router is connected to the one end of the WAN and a hub is connected to the other end.

With this hub a number of computers and other hubs and switches are connected. Among the other methods of building the WANs are the circuit switching or packet switching methods. The general protocols and the communication technologies that are involved in the overall wide area networking/communication are TCP/IP, SONET, MPLS, ATM and X.25, which closely works with frame relay. Typical a WAN consists of a number of interconnected switching nodes.

Networking Methods

Networking is a complex part of the computing and it covers the broader range of the IT industry. All the communication in the world including satellite communication, mobile communication, internet, telephones and WANs is due to the networking. There are two main types of the networking.

Local Area Network (LAN)

A local area network is relatively covers small space and provides services to a small amount of people. A local area can be divided into two major types, peer to peer and the client server. Depending on the number of the users a network is configured. Among the few examples of the peer to peer networks are small office network and home networks. On the other hand, in the client/server networking model all the client computers depends on the server for resources like (modem, printer, scanner, cd-rom) and they are connected with the server. The servers in the client/server networking model works in different capacities like single service server and multiple service servers.

Wide Area Network (WAN)

A wide area network is a network where are large number of the resources are deployed in a very wide geographically area. The best example of the WAN is the internet itself which is a largest network in the world.

In order for communication to take place between the computers the mediums must be used. These mediums can be cables, Routers, Repeaters, Ethernet, Protocols and switches etc. These different mediums make the data communication possible in different scenarios.

Types of WANs

There are two basic types of Widea Area Networking.

A computer network is set of computers and devices that are connected with each other. Examples of the networks are the Internet, local area network, Wide area network and satellite networks.

Centralized WANS:

A WAN that consists of a server or a group of servers in a central location to which client computers connect, the server provides the most of the functionalities of a network. Many banks, large stores, large schools and universities use centralized WAN. A centralized wide area network may have a number of the servers in the centralized location.

Distributed WAN:

A widea area network that consists of the client and server computers that are distributed throughout the WAN, the functionalities of the network are distributed throughout the WAN. The internet is an example of the wide area network.

The impact of Wide Area Networking on business

In this age of information, data communication (sending and receiving data) over a long distance is a necessity. There have been number of technologies developed that enable networks and their users to communicate with each other, and exchange data easily even if they are at the different end of the world. Geographical area is no more a matter in today’s communication age. Because of this the communication through WAN has been become vital. Wide area networks make it feasible for the companies to have a single network, which will connect their several offices and departments. Companies, banks, large organizations often have their offices spread over a large distance. Without wide area networking the people of a multinational organization can face difficulties to communicate with each. WANs are important in connecting institutes they are very far from each other.

The main purpose of the wan is to establish a secure, fast and reliable communicate channel among the people who are widely away from each other. Wide area networks are often privately owned networks. A wide area network uses many types of network devices such as WAN switches, access servers, CSU/DSU, modems, ISDN terminal adapters, routers, multiplexers, ATM switches and other networking devices. An example of the WAN is SURFnet, which is a research network and that connects the universities and research centers of the Netherlands with each other.

What is iPhone?


IPhone by Apple is a GSM supported internet enabled mobile phone that has the multimedia functionalities.  IPhone also introduces the new multi touch interface in the mobile phones.  IPhone combines all the heavy weight technology and revolutionized the mobile phones history.  The current price of the iPhone is the $399 for a 8GB model.  Portable media player and digital camera are also included in it.

Features

IPhone provides a variety of features and some of the common features are below.

Multimedia

IPhone provides the excellent multimedia features. It can sort its multimedia library by Artist, songs, composers, genres, albums, podcasts, audio books and play lists.  IPhone users can directly download the songs from the ITune.

Internet Connectivity

IPhone has built-in Wi-Fi features, which enables the it’s users to connect to the internet through a wireless career.  The web pages are fully displayed with the iPhone. Though it does not support Java or Flash.

Text Messages

For sending the text messages there is a virtual keyboard on the screen, which has dynamic dictionary, automatic spell checking and predictive word capabilities.  The photo albums, web pages and photos zooming are other best features.

Email

IPhone has the advanced email and voice mail features and it supports POP and Yahoo, Gmail, AOL Mail and .MAC mails.  The supported email attachments are JPEGs, PDFs, Word and Excel Documents.

Wireless Connectivity

iPhone has built-in support for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technology.

MAPs

Google Maps are supported by the iPhone even without the GPS data.

The other common features and specifications of the iPhone includes it has 2.0 mega pixels digital camera, battery life is about 5 hours for the video, browsing etc and 16 hours for the playback, built-in support for IMAP and POP mail, supported operating system is OS X, weight 135 gms, screen size 8.9 cm, 802.11 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support and storage is about 8 GB flash memory.

Weather repots, stocks, world clock, maps, photos, iPod, safari, YouTube, Multitasking and iTune synchronization are other best features of the iPhone.

An Introduction to the Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity)


Here you will learn how to setup wifi network, how wireless fidelity works, hotspot security, vpn servers. Wi-Fi or wireless fidelity is meant for to be used when referring any type of 802.11 network, whether 802.11, 802.11a and dual band. Any products tested and approved as Wi-Fi certified by the Wi-Fi alliance are interoperable with each other.  

Typically, any Wi-Fi product using the same radio frequency will work with each other even if not Wi-Fi certified. Formerly the term Wi-Fi was used only in the place of the 2.4 GHz 802.11b standard in the same way Ethernet was used.

Wi-fi short for wireless fidelity refers to a set of wireless networking technologies and more specifically referred to as any type of 802.11 network, 802.11b and 802.11a and dual band. The word Wi-Fi was built by an organization named as Wi-Fi alliance. A product that undergoes the Wi-Fi alliance analyses is given the name Wi-Fi certified.

Wi-Fi rapidly gained the fame in the United States with the access point. These devices tested by the “Wi-Fi alliance” are used around the world and allow users to have Wi-Fi capable device like a PDA or Laptop to connect anywhere there is availability of Wi-Fi access point. There are currently three standards that are used to signify the speed of the connection. Both the 802.11a and 802.11b are the capable of 54 Mbps with 802.11a additional features. The most common standard is 802.11b/second because it can transmit the data at 11 Mbps.

All these Wi-Fi connections are fast enough to allow the broadband internet connection. Wireless Fidelity is a fastest growing wireless technology that will probably be as common as phone lines and electric devices. Wi-Fi adds great levels of convenience and high level of production.

Wireless fidelity is planned to be used with the wireless devices but it is most commonly used for internet access. With Wi-Fi you can connect computers in your home, office or anywhere without the need of wires. The computers can just connect to the network that uses radio waves.

How does W-Fi work?

Wi-Fi is the wireless technology to handle the networking/communication. Wi-Fi allocates internet connection globally and to be transmitted by the radio waves. Radio waves are the main cause of Wi-Fi. Radio waves are transmitted from antenna and Wi-Fi receivers pick them up. When a user receives the Wi-Fi signals, a wireless internet connection is produced and a user is prompted to provide the user name and password if required to establish a wireless connection.

What is Wi-Fi Security?

Wi-Fi maintains certain security issues. WEP or Wired Equivalent Privacy is used in the physical and data link layers. It was planned to provide the wireless security by protecting the data, while it transmits from one point to another. Wi-Fi networking usually maintained inside a building premises. The data transmission in the Wi-Fi is protected by Wireless LANs but due to the fact that data travels over the radio waves so there are chance that data can be exposed and capture.

How to secure your WiFi network?

When you buy a wireless router you might find an Installation CD by vendor that CD with guide you through a wizard on setting up router. Here are some suggestions that how can you setup security on the router without using the application software.

1. Open a new browser.

2. You may now type IP address of the router in your browser. The step here is where you can get the management system of the router. Due to different vendors, you need to lookup on your router’s manual for the IP address usually it may be 10.10.10.01, 196.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1, 100.100.100.1 or something similar to those matches and the default password of the router. Every router management console is different from each other. Try exploring around and find the appropriate section to manage.

3. You should never forget this step to setup an administrative password. The step to set here is often not located in Security section; you will need to take a look at the utilities, user management or system settings. Find it and change the password immediately for any user account.

4. Enable Wireless security. To turn on your encryption look under the wireless security tab. The step over here will need you to either use WPA or WPA-PSK and this will only appropriate if the devices on your network supported it. Otherwise you will need 128-bit WEP. For WPA or WPA-PSK, you would have to type pass phrase/password into a piece of paper and transfer to thumb drive so that you can set the password in the client’s machines.

5. Change your SSID. You should not make your SSID this will be probably a default SSID, normally those who do not configure their SSID will have their router name such as “linksys”, “belkin”, “dlink” etc. Try changing it with someone menacing, which will be threat for them to connect. Like virus geek, virus spreader. Remember that you will need this SSID when you browse through the network from your client machines. You can find these settings in the section of Channel or SSID.

6. Save your configurations and settings by pressing the save changes or save settings button. You will need to save every change that you will make to the router in order to it can take effect and probably you will have to reboot your router multiple times.

Congratulations, finally you have covered the basic settings for your Wi-Fi network

Wi-Fi Hotspot Security: Using VPNs

There are numerous security issues regarding the use of the public wireless networks but all of which can be overcome. One of the solutions for users, as brought up in Wi-Fi Hotspot security, is to use the VPN (Virtual Private Network) to secure the real time traffic of the Wi-Fi hot spot users. Many small to large businesses provide their employees with the VPN access.

Although this access is typically put in place for employees to have the remote access to the corporate network in order to access the files and documents remotely. If you don’t have access to any VPN servers, create your own. By doing this you can remotely access the files from your office as well as other devices such as Wi-Fi video camera to keep an eye on the things while away.

When using the software-based VPN server features in Windows XP Pro, the PC running the server has to be powered-on to access the home network from the Wi-Fi hotspot. VPN routers can cost as low as $70 to $130 and the popular models are Linksys, WRV200 and WRV5G.

VOIP Security System– How To Implement Security


Internet telephone system is becoming very popular. Today most enterprises, multinational organizations and corporate offices prefer to setup VOIP for its robust features such as low cost and excellent service. VOIP (voice over IP) has become among the most growing IT technologies. VOIP converts your voice into the digital signals. With the VOIP you can make a long distance calls at a very affordable cost as compared to the regular phones.  

However VOIP has security concerns because as the digital voice signals travels through the internet, it can be intercepted and it has become easier for the hackers to get the credit card information, financial data and other secure data if a good firewall system is not enabled in the infrastructure of the VOIP.

If a good security system is not enabled then hackers can send viruses, spam, interrupt the voice communication and even they can spoil the billing system to make free calls.

These security threats are the major concerns of the VOIP service providers and they are increasing the security by tunneling and encryption methods to block the hackers and unauthorized access to a VOIP network. Despite all of these threats Voice Over IP is still a cost effective, robust and reliable system for the voice communication over the long distance.

With the convergence of voice and data, the security vulnerabilities that can be applied to data also applied to the voice. VOIP requires constant vigilance and monitoring the network for suspicious activities such as virus, spy ware, monitoring the operating system and VOIP hardware, unauthorized access and hacking.

To implement VOIP security system, you need to make a careful planning before you setup it. A US technology research firm predicts that the IP phones sold ratio from 9.9 millions in 2006 will grow 45.8 millions in 2010. According the survey of this technology research company, the 40 % of the corporate offices don’t have any security plan deployed with the VOIP setup.

Preventing the unauthorized access to the network is the first security measure in preventing a network. The second most important step is to encrypt the voice data and IP traffic with the IPsec and advance encryption standard (AES).

Another security method is to limiting the voice data to the single VLAN and it will make the voice traffic hidden from the network users and hence it provides an additional layer of the security. VLAN also help prioritize the VOIP data over the other network traffic. While implementing VLAN consider placing VLAN equipments behind a separate firewall so that no one can cross the VLAN boundaries and to get unauthorized access. Be sure that the firewall technology should support the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and the International Telecommunication Union's H.323 protocol. Building redundancy can help in avoiding the hacker’s attack and devices failure.

Enterprises should strive to follow the best security practices to avoid any possible security attack. Voice Over IP is an application, which has to become the part of the network so good security practices should be in place. The VOIP vendors have started to implement the media and signaling encryption features into the devices.

Satellite Communication Technology


Most of the communication today from Satellite TV Channels to GPS and Inter Country Communication to GPS runs on Satellites. Satellites are man made devices that revolve around the earth’s orbit for specific purposes. Satellites have made our life a whole lot easier. The main reason for this is that satellites do cover a huge geographical section of earth and this is the reason why a single satellite employed in earth’s orbit can serve a lot of users at the same time.

Satellites move in round orbits. A satellite’s orbit can not be elliptical around the earth. There are three types of satellites around the earth’s orbit according to the distance from earth.  

The types are LEO (Lower Earth Orbit), MEO (Medium Earth Orbit) and GEO (Geo Stationary Earth Orbit). In Lower Earth Orbit, the satellite moves at 315 to 350 kilo meters above the earth’s orbit. In LEO, 45 satellites are required to cover the complete earth’s orbit. At any given point, 3 or 4 satellites are accessible from any point on earth.

In MEO, a satellite is around 19,000 kilometers around earth’s orbit. The examples of medium earth orbit satellites are weather satellites that record the Earth’s atmospheric changes and send them to earth.

The most important are Geo Stationary Earth Orbits, also known as GEO Satellites. These satellites revolve around the earth in complete synchronization with the earth’s movement around itself.

GEO Satellites are exactly 35,786 kilometers around the earth’s orbit. These satellites revolve exactly at the same speed as our earth and seem stationary in their orbit. Due to their height from earth, they seem like at the same position and do not deviate from their path. Satellite channels are transmitted from GEO satellites.  3 – 4 GEO Satellites can cover the complete earth’s crust and cover a huge geographical area.

Satellites play a key role in communication around the earth. The most essential part of earth centric satellites is their power system. All the satellites have huge wings which contain solar cells. The satellites use the sun’s solar energy to power them and perform every day routine activities. Satellites have two frequencies. One is uplink and the other is downlink. Satellite takes the uplink in the form of a beam pointing towards it and it spreads the rays downwards with a downlink frequency. In the middle time, it modulates and demodulates the frequency spectrum and performs specific functions on the data.

The other important part of the satellite is propulsion sub system. Propulsion subsystem is responsible to keep the satellite in its orbit. Whenever the satellite deviates from its original orbit, the rocket fuel in the Satellite’s Propulsion subsystem propels the rocket to come in the correct orbit. This is the reason, why satellites have an average life of 8 – 10 years because the amount of rocket fuel isn’t too much to support for ever.

Introduction to XDSL


Today XDSL, cable modem and wireless network solutions are used to connect the high speed networks without the much cost that is associated with the dedicated circuits and frame relay network technologies. XDSL collectively refers to all DSL (digital subscriber’s lines). DSL or XDSL is a technology that allows the data transmission over the regular telephone lines.  XDSL is a coding technique that allows digital signals up to 50 Mbps over the copper pair cables. The XDSL technology assumes that digital data does not require to be changed into analog and vice versa.  Instead digital data is transmitted to the computers directly as digital data.  XDSL technology uses more bandwidth on the regular phone lines.
 
In order to utilize more frequencies and bandwidth XDSL equipment must be installed at both ends and the copper wire between the two devices.  Video on demand is a relatively new service that can be offered on the XDSL cable.  The “X” in the XDSL signifies that there are different flavors in the DSL technology. XDSL provides the direct link and network communication between the customer and the career.

DSL is widely used in the telecommunication networks and in the broadband services to the corporate offices and the home users. DSL technology uses different modulation techniques such as two binary one quaternary, discrete multi tone, quadrature amplitude modulation, career less amplitude and phase modulation.  These modulation techniques are standardized by the international standardized organizations.

The associated flavors and the common types of the DSL are HDSL, XDSL, VODSL, ADSL, VDSL and SDSL (Single pair digital subscriber lines). DSL technologies also known as last mile technologies because they are used for the data transmissions from the DSL stations to the subscriber’s home or office.

XDSL with the lower data transmission rate like 1.5 Mbps is being used in the residences.  The high data transmission XDSL provides transmission rate up to 50 Mbps and is being used in the business sector and the VDSL.

In operations XDSL is similar to the ISDN lines because both operate over the copper telephone lines (POTS).  XDSL provides high speed for the data/signal transmissions i.e. up to 32 Mbps for the upstream and the 32 Kbps to 1 Mbps for the downstream speed.

XDSL is a high speed connection but on the downside it has some distance limitations.  Among the other limitations include bundling of wire, line impairment and only a small number of people can be benefited from the XDSL over the existing copper base.

There are some other types of the XDSL, which includes VODSL (Voice DSL) and VDSL.  Voice traffic has high priority over the data traffic to ensure the quality of service and the data transmission rate up to 1.5 Mbps.  Other the other hand VDSL (Very High Bit Rate DSL) supports 13 Mbps to 55 Mbps over the twisted pair cable.

Introduction To Wi-Max


Wi-Max is a broadband wireless network technology and it is a direct competitor of Digital Subscribers Lines (DSL). Wi-Max stands for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access. It has different standards such as 802.16a, 802.16e and 802.16d. A group known as Wi Max forum formed in 2001 to observe and promote the Wimax standards. Among the board of directors of WiMax forum are Intel, Sprint, Samsung, BT, Motorola, FujiTsu and ZTE. 

Wi-Max is the next step of Wi-Fi and it provides the maximum speed up to 70Mb/sec. Wi-Max services are of two types wired and wireless. In the wireless services come Wifi Wi-Max 802.16 and WPAN.

Further under Wi-Fi comes WLAN that covers less distance as compared to Wi-MAX. The main difference between the Wi-Fi and Wi-Max is that Wi-Fi is a base band and Wi-Max is a broadband.

Wi-Max provides quad services such as phone, video, voice, data and cable TV. Wi-Max provides more quality and speed and the data transfer rate can be up to 70 Mbps. The 802.16d standard supports directional antenna base equipment i.e. user has to have a static connection and it does not support the roaming users. The 802.16e standard supports the small chips embedded in the motherboard. It is comparatively a cheap solution because no extra equipment would be required to make a Wi-Max connection.

The manufacturers that want to design the motherboard with the built-in Wi-Max card must have to obtain Wi-Max certification, which is given for the conformance and interoperability. The range of the Wi-Max is about 30 miles from the base stations. Wi-Max communication system depends on the cells that can travel up to 48 KM.

The main standards of the Wi-Max include 802.16a that has limited access, 802.16d that provides high speed and 802.16e is portable and provides the best broadband quality. Wi-Max supports fixed, nomadic, portability, simple mobility and full mobility connections. The devices that operates in the simply mobility are PDAs and smart phone and the devices that operates in the full mobility are the laptop, PCMCIA, PDA and smart phone.

The devices that make the Wi-Max network are CPE, OSM, Access points and microwave backhaul. CPE talks to the Access point by using the Wi-max standard. Base station offloads the traffic on the city POP by using the microwave backhaul.

Wi-Max is the best solution for the banks, business, multinational organizations and the corporate sectors. By creating the VPNs many corporate organization can enjoy the high speed wireless networking.

The deployment of the Wi-Max is similar to the Wi-fi. The Wi-Max access point sends signals to the Wi-Max receivers, which is placed at the top of the room at the subscriber’s end. Quality of service (QOS) is some issue with the Wi-Max because when more users gain access to the access points to towers. Wi-Max is an ideal wireless network communication system where is distance is not favorable for the wired networks. Wi-Max supports a wide range of the frequencies up to 66 GHz.

Wi-Max was initially designed to provide a high speed network access to the MAN (Metropolitan area network). Wi-Max wireless technology is also compatible with the cellular networks and it can access any cellular tower easily. Wi-Max has a great potential to eliminate the use of wired networking system.

The Bluetooth Technology


Bluetooth is a short range, wire free, secure and international standardized wireless technology that provides wireless communication system between the Bluetooth enabled devices in a short ranged network. Bluetooth technology is a short range wireless technology that was developed by the collaboration of mobile phones and IT companies such as Nokia, Intel, Toshiba, Erickson and IBM. Bluetooth develops short range wireless connections between the laptops, handheld pcs, wireless communication devices and mobile phones. Bluetooth is only available to the personal area networks in an office or a home network.

It reduces the usage of power as compared to the Wi-Fi. Bluetooth is an international standardized technology that is used for the wireless communication between the Bluetooth held devices such as mobile phones, digital camera, laptops, desktop computers, keyboard, mouse, mp3 players, video cameras and other devices.

Bluetooth is free technology and it is provided by the mobile phone operators who are having the capability of GSM and CDMA technology. Bluetooth uses radio waves frequency as a medium and is suitable for the 1, 10 and 100 meters distance. Every Bluetooth enabled devices such as mobile phones, laptops, digital cameras, video games consoles have built-in microchip. There are about more than 1800 members of the Bluetooth consortium from all over the world. Every GSM and CDMA mobile operates must provide the features of the Bluetooth technology to its users. Like the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi uses the same frequency but the power consumption of the wi-fi is high so it produces more powerful signals.

Bluetooth uses radio waves that operate at 2.4 GHz bands. The personal computers must have built-in dongle in them to use the Bluetooth technology. Bluetooth is also used to transfer the files from the mobile phones or PDA devices to the computers. Also, in a meeting if you want to share the digital business cards among the participants of the meeting you use Bluetooth to transfer the files. Microsoft Windows XP with the service pack 2 has the built-in support for the Bluetooth technology. Bluetooth defines the wireless standards to maintain the secure data communication.

The master Bluetooth device can communication with the seven other Bluetooth enabled devices. Different devices support different standards of the Bluetooth technology. The research on the advanced Bluetooth is in progress for the Bluetooth version 3.0 to provide the high speed connections.

Bluetooth technology also provides support for the VOIP technology. The Bluetooth headset provides the wireless extension to the Bluetooth devise. A typical Bluetooth device consist of RS transceiver, protocol stacks and base bands and It does not require to install the additional drivers to use the Bluetooth technology and it can connect all the office peripheral such as computer with printer, computer with scanner and computer with laptop. Among the other advantages of the Bluetooth technology is the automatic synchronization of the desktops, mobile phones and other Bluetooth held devices. Another popular use of the Bluetooth is in the cars and automotives. The most commonly Bluetooth held devices are mobile phones, personal computers, laptops, headsets, access points, car kits, speaker phone, streaming video, MP3 players, SIM cards, Push-2-talk, PDA and digital camera.

By this technology, mobile data can be used in the different applications. It provides the speed of 1-2 Mbps. Bluetooth’s small microchip can be built in the devices and it can also be used as the external adapters and used for the different network communication devices. Bluetooth enabled devices can change their frequency very rapidly so they can be saved from the external interference. Bluetooth enabled devices have built in security features and they use pin code and 128 encryption. If the two wireless devices follow the Bluetooth standards they can communicate with each other without any external devices or wires. The more enhancements are in progress in this technology to provide most robust, state-of-the-art, high speed and secure connections to the mobile users.