DIY Highlights

Any 'techspert' will tell you that the first thing you should do after powering on your wireless router is to set the security options to avoid unwanted intruders on your wireless network. WPA2 is the best means to secure your wireless router currently available on consumer level networks. While there are several security options on your wireless router, the consensus is that WPA2 gives the best protection for both home and enterprise networks currently available.

It's great having a wireless network via your router, but it's important to make sure your network is secure. There are a number of ways available in the router, to make your network safe and secure. Our goal is to show you the best ways currently available and not bog you down with terminology.

The SSID of your network is a funny way of saying "friendly network name." An SSID helps you to find your network when you're trying to connect new devices. Changing your router's name has the benefit of making it easier to find for family and friends you want to allow to connect. However, changing your router's SSID from the default name has the added benefit of deterring would-be hackers by giving them one less key piece of information about your network.

In setting up your home network each computer and device that accesses the network must have it's own IP address. If you want to get really involved with managing the IP addresses on your home network, you can assign IP addresses and IP address leases manually. For most of us though, it's much easier to turn this job over to a process called dynamic host configuration protocol or DHCP.

The first step in securing your home network is to familiarize yourself with your router's control panel. First, you'll want to find your router's IP address and login to your router. There are some common router passwords that manufacturers use so if you haven't changed your router's password, you'll find it in the documentation that came with it. In this 10-part series is to take some of the mystery out of the router and allow you to be comfortable with it... it's not as hard as you may think

A guide on repairing the Hard drive and superdrive (optical drive) on an Intel iMac.

Watch the latest and greatest videos created by our users and uploaded to the WinkSound community. In this session Live Programmer/Musical Director for Depeche Mode Kerry Hopwood explains how they use Ableton Live to mix their live show, Generatemusic shows us how to make loops from vinyl samples using the flex tool in Logic Studio and Skingsdoc helps us understand the concept of audio compression within Pro Tools.

When creating a password for your computer, your online bank account or your email, you need to balance a strength with making sure you'll remember. The most secure password is useless if you forget it and the most easily memorized password is useless if it's cracked. Here's how to create a strong password you won't soon forget.

Before we can attach a second monitor to our MacBook or MacBook Pro, we'll need to figure out what, if any, display adapters we'll need. Different generations of MacBook and MacBook Pro use different connections; DVI, MiniDVI and if we cast our memory back, VGA too. Michael Callahan demonstrates how to determine which connector your MacBook Pro has on board. With the right adapter, you can even connect your MacBook or MacBook Pro to your TV.

Anyone that uses a computer every day has experienced that sinking feeling; you realize that an important document, presentation or report is sitting on your computer at home... not on the notebook you have at hand. If you set up virtual network computing (VNC) on your home computer, it's easy to connect to your Mac remotely from anywhere there's an Internet connection.