Computer Hoax

How to Set up a Linksys Wireless Router

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 3 Mar 2010 03:08:00 -0800

For a beginner, it is really hard to set up a wireless router with a Windows client. Linksys routers come with a step-by-step Setup Wizard which makes setup and configuration easy to understand. Once the initial setup is complete, it's simple to customize the configurations.

Before we go to the step below are the things you will need:

Linksys wireless router
DSL or cable Internet connection
Ethernet cables

Set up a Linksys Wireless Router
1. Choose and purchase a Linksys router, taking into account your budget and computing habits.
2. Attach the antennas to the Linksys wireless router.
3. Place the router in a central location, making sure it's not surrounded by metal. (A signal can't be obtained through metal.) The router should be located so that the distance between clients (computers) is somewhat equal. This will create a better connection.
4. Plug the Ethernet cable into the "Internet" port on the back of the Linksys router.
5. Connect a computer to the router by plugging another Ethernet cable into the Ethernet port on your computer and attaching the other end to one of the available ports on the back of the router. You can choose any port except the one labeled "WAN."
6. Plug the router into an electrical outlet.
7. Wait for the power light to stop flashing, at which time the router is finished booting up. While the router is booting, the power light will be blinking. This process may take a few minutes to complete.
8. Reboot your computer so it can access a new IP address from the router through the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).
Configure the Router
1. Open your web browser, type " http://192.168.1.1/ " into the address bar and hit "Enter."
2. Use "Admin" as the username in the pop-up box and leave the password blank.
3. Connect to the Internet and click on "Internet Setup."
4. Select your connection type from the drop-down menu. Choose "DHCP" for cable modems or "PPPoE" for most DSL modems. If you are unsure of these options, check with your ISP.
5. Set a service set identifier (SSID) to identify the router and change the password.
6. Encrypt your wireless connection using a Wireless Encryption Protocol (WEP) key. Under the "Wireless Security" option, enter a passphrase and click "Generate." This will generate a password which will need to be used by any client connecting to your router.

Yahoo Messenger Shortcut Keys

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:36:00 -0800

Below are the list of keyboard shortcuts for Yahoo Messenger (YM) and Yahoo Mail.

Yahoo Messenger:

General Use Shortcut Keys

Windows Key + Y – Bring Yahoo Messenger to Focus, works even if Yahoo Messenger is sitting in the system tray.

Ctrl + G – Buzzes the contact you are chatting with.

Ctrl + H – Show or Hide offline contacts in main messenger Window.

Ctrl + Shift + P – Open preferences window.

Ctrl + M – Provides a option to send a Instant message.

Ctrl + T - Provides a option to send a SMS message.

Ctrl + L – Provides a option to make a call.

Ctrl + K – Provides options to Call a phone number.

Ctrl + Y – Send a email message.

Ctrl + Shift + A – Provides options to add a contact.

Ctrl + Shift + 0,1 or 2 – Switches between different messaging formats provided by Yahoo Messenger 9 and above.

Esc key – Closes a active message window.

Ctrl + D – Sign out of Yahoo Messenger.

Ctrl + Shift + D – Sign out of Yahoo Messenger client and sign in to your mobile device.

Ctrl + Shift + F8 – Change your display Image.

Ctrl + Shift + C – Send you contact info in a active chat window.

Ctrl + Shift + M – Send you messenger friend list in a active chat window.

Ctrl + Shift + R – Request contact details in a active chat window.

Messaging Window Editor Shortcut Keys

Ctrl + B – Toggle bold on or off, or convert selected text to bold.

Ctrl + I - Toggle italic on or off, or convert selected text to italic.

Ctrl + U - Toggle underline on or off, or convert selected text to underline.

Alt-A - Opens the cccount page

Alt-C - Opens call menu

Alt D - Opens contact details

Alt+E - Ends active call

Alt+H -Holds active call

Alt+R - Resumes call

CTRL+L - Call PC

Alt+L - Call back

Alt+M - toggle mute

Alt+S - Save to address book

ALt+V = Adjust volume

Set Multiple Home Pages In Firefox

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:35:00 -0800

Did you people ever wish to set-up multiple home pages in Firefox ?
If you said yes, then you are at the right place. Here’s the way to do this little but useful little trick.
Suppose you would like to set your Blog, Google and Facebook as your homepages. Then try this tweak in Firefox to set multiple homepages. This is what you should do:

Set Multiple Home Pages In Firefox

1. Go to Tools>Options>Main

2. In the When Firefox starts drop down menu choose Show my home page

3. In Home page give your homepages separated by a | (pipe symbol

e.g.

http://computer-hoax.blogspot.com//|http://www.google.com|http://www.facebook.com/

Now next time when you start Firefox all of your three home pages will be displayed simultaneously.

Surf Without Any Internet Browser

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:27:00 -0800

Ever find yourself sitting in front of a computer where Internet Explorer or Firefox was blocked by IT Administrator – and restricted you from installing any software? If that PC is running Windows XP, then there is chance for you to still surf Internet. Just follow these simple steps:

Surf Without Any Internet Browser

1. Open Calculator, Start> Program Files> Accessories> Calculator or press Windows+R and type ‘calc’ in the run box, click OK.
2. In Calculator, go to Help> Help Topics.
3. Right click on the left hand side of the title bar and click on ‘Jump to URL’.
4. Type in the URL and make sure include the ‘http://’ at the beginning.

NOTE:

Basically what you are looking at is Internet Explorer 6 inside a help window, but this version of program isn’t quite smart as Internet 6. This was tested in Windows XP SP2 with Internet Explorer 6 and I’m not sure whether it will works in Internet Explorer 7 installed computer

6 MSN Messenger Tricks

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:08:00 -0800

My last post was about yahoo messenger tricks now it's time to introduce to those who are fun of using the online communication through internet, the messenger tricks. So enjoy guys.

MSN Messenger Tricks

These tricks require that MSN Plus! Live is installed on your PC:

1. Sending Continuous Nudge

You might have experienced this before: one of your friend on MSN messenger keeps sending you non-stop nudges continuously, until you can hardly do anything on your MSN messenger. When you try to do the same back to him, you get the message "You may not send a nudge that often". If you have this experience before, I bet you will be desperately trying to find out how did your friend do those annoying stuff while you are not able to the same. And the answer is you need to install the NudgesToolsScript in order to do this. Just download the script and execute it (double click the .plsc file.. you will get a warning message.. just check the the check box that says "I accept the responsibility of installing this script" and click 'Import'). After installing the script, you will now be able to send continuous nudges to your friend with no delay. If you really want to annoy any of your friend :P, type "/sendnudge 1000 100" (without the double quotes) and hit enter. Your friend will then get 1000 nudges every 100 milliseconds! By the default setting, your own chat window will also be vibrating when you send nudges.. To prevent vibration on your own chat window, do this: go to Tools > Option > Messages, and uncheck the "Allow me to send and receive nudges" checkbox so that your chat window will not vibrate when sending nudges to your friend. To stop the nudges, type "/stopnudge" and it will stop immediately.

2. Find out if somebody has blocked you on MSN

This is probably one of the most frequently asked question: how can I know if someone has block me on MSN messenger. There are lots of online services out there which claims to be able to check if someone has blocked you. As far as I know, many of them contains some sort of spyware, and will intrudes your MSN and sends annoying automated messages to all of your contacts. So instead of using those so called MSN block checker, here's a manual way to check if someone has blocked you:

1. Register a new MSN account. Use a different nick name so that no one can recognize that it's you.
2. Sign in to MSN on both your actual account and your new fake account. Having MP!L installed, you can sign in to 2 separate session of MSN simultaneously using different account.
3. Add the contact that you want to check using your new account. If at anytime, someone appears online, or accept you into his/her contact on the new account, but appears offline in your actual account, he/she has blocked you.

This seems to be a more troublesome way, but it saves you from being intruded by spyware, and most importantly, it works.

3. Cool effects on MSN display name

This is a cool trick that enable you to easily edit your display name and make it looks cooler. Install the script NameEditor. Then go to the script button (somewhere on the top of the messenger), and choose NameEditor > Edit Name. The Name Editor window will appears, which which enable you to fill in some cool effects for your display name. This will easily make your name stand out among all the names in your friends' contact list.

4. Check Gmail with MSN Messenger

The original MSN Messenger will only alert you when you receive an email in your Hotmail account. With the Gmail Checker script, we will also be receiving incoming email alert for Gmail account. A pretty useful feature to be added to MSN Messenger!

5. Let your keyboard's LED alert you when you have incoming message

This is a cool script that will flashes your keyboard's LED, and plays a beep sound from your laptop when you receive incoming MSN message. Just install the script KeyFlasher, and start playing around with the script configuration. You can specify which LED to flash (Num Lock / Caps Lock / Scroll Lock), the speed of the flashes, amount of the flashes, etc.. Simple and fun!

6. Easily translate the text in chat window

Another very useful and cool script to be installed on your MSN messenger is the GoogleTranslator. You can easily translate the text in your chat window into another language by just hitting F5 on your keyboard. As the script name suggest, this script is using Google's translator to do the translation.. which means it supports multiple languages translation! A really useful script.

10 Yahoo Messenger Tricks You Shouldn't Miss!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:38:00 -0800

This tricks are to those who are fun of using yahoo messenger every time they want to communicate with their friends and love one's while surfing the net. Likewise those who want to spend their past time chatting with their newly found friend on the net. You will find this tricks awesome!

10 Yahoo Messenger Tricks You Shouldn't Miss!

1. Finding an invisible user on your yahoo messenger list:

Want to find out someone who’s hiding from you? You can easily do so by going to Yahoo Invisible Checker. All you need to do is type in the Yahoo! ID and the particular users status will be revealed.

2. Run Multiple Instances of Yahoo Messenger on same system:

Some of you might be having more than one yahoo ID would like to log in simultaneously. Here is an easy way to do it without installing any sort of software. You just have to edit the registry and voila there you go. Follow the instructions from here.

3. Invisible Nickname In chat rooms

Just go to edit profile and in the nick name type a (space character) on it just press Alt 0160 ( or ALT+255 ) and save it.

Now go to any yahoo chat room and you’ll notice that your nick name is empty. [Alt+0160 is a keyboard shortcut for space]

4. Removing Ads from your Yahoo Messenger

If you are using Yahoo Messenger 8.0, then you can disable ads by following the below steps:
1. First close the Yahoo Messenger.
2. Save this .bat file and execute it.
NOTE: You won’t be able to enter the chat rooms if you use this patch.
This above fix doesn’t work for Yahoo Messenger 9 Beta. Here’s a way to disable the ads in Yahoo Messenger 9:

1. Make sure the Yahoo Messenger isn’t running, if it is then just close it.
2. Now backup the following file C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\YahooMessenger.exe (create a new copy)
3. Download HxD hex editor.
4. Open C:\Program Files\Yahoo!\Messenger\YahooMessenger.exe in the hex editor
5. Now go to the offset 295928 (in HxD: Search/GoTo)
6. Look at the right column and replace y from “y.m.s.g.r.a.d.s” with p
7. Save the file and close HxD.

NOTE: This approach breaks Yahoo Messenger’s terms of service.

>> If nothing works try launching this file.

5. Yahoo! Smiley Codes!

You can make use of all smileys including hidden ones in your messenger by using YEmotePLUS plugin.

6. Change the Yahoo Messenger Title Bar

You can change the text that appears at the very top of the yahoo messenger window by editing the ymsgr.ini file.

1. Go to Program Files\Yahoo\ and open ymsgr.ini.
2. Then at the end, type this:
[APP TITLE]
caption=YOUR TEXT
3. Change YOUR TEXT to whatever you want it to say. Then save the file and close messenger. When you restart messenger you will see your new message.

7. Creating Custom Profiles for Chat

You can create custom profiles with different name, sex and other details from Yahoo Create/Edit Profiles. You can use these for chat services only.

8. Online Status Changer and Manager

HyperIM is currently the best status changer & manager for Yahoo messenger available at present. You can download it from here.

9. Retrieve Yahoo! Messenger Display pictures

Y! Display Pic will retrieve yahoo users even if they are offline or invisible. You can download it from here.

10. Access Yahoo Messenger Chat archives while offline

You can access your Yahoo chat logs using Yahoo Message Archive Decoder. It reads Yahoo! Messenger archive files (.dat files) and presents them in a format that you can read. It decodes the message archive without logging in (offline mode and no passwords required). You can download it from here.

15 Awesome Google Search Tricks

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 9 Nov 2009 12:56:00 -0800

Most of us use Google search to search on various topics, products, tips, etc. No doubt it’s one of the best search engines available out there. In order to search something we simply enter the keywords in the search bar and search for stuff but did you ever know that there are several built in functions within Google which makes searching stuff even easier. Some of you’ll know about them. But well if you don’t, then here they are:

15 Useful Google Search Tricks

Google calculator:

Google search can be used as a calculator. It can calculate anything from the simplest math to the most complex equation. All you need to do is just enter the math in the search box and hit enter. You can use the following functions:

+ : add

- :subtract

* :multiply

/ :divide

^ :to the power of

sqrt : square root of a number

Dictionary Definitions:

You can define any word by entering “define:” following the word. For example define: ignoble

Google will display a list of dictionary definitions for that word.

Search for a specific title:

Suppose you came across a great article which you really liked but unfortunately forgot to bookmark it then you can find it easily with the help of Google provided you know the title of the article. Here’s how you do it:

Let’s say you read an article “Women talk three times as much as men” then you can search for it by typing “intitle: Women talk three times as much as men”

Google Convertor:

Using this feature you can convert units like millimeter into inches, kilometers into miles, liters into ml, etc. You can do so by typing ‘25km in miles’ for converting km in to miles, ‘50litres in ml’ for converting litres into ml, and so on.

Compare currencies:

Google’s search has an inbuilt currency converter. It allows you to perform any currency conversion. All you need to do is just enter the conversion you’d like done into the Google search box and hit “Enter” or click the Google Search button. For instance: “1 USD in INR”

Weather Updates:

You can easily know the weather condition of a specific place. In order to find out, all you need to do is just enter the place name followed by “weather”. For ex: “london weather”

Search for specific file types:

There are various kinds of files available over the net. Searching for a specific file type isn’t really easy. But using this tip you can easily search for a specific file type.

For instance if you want to search for a guide, let’s say a ‘Guide to Building a Successful IT Career’ in ppt format. You can make use of the “filetype:” function. So in order to search for the PPT version of the guide you can enter in search bar ‘Guide to Building a Successful IT Career filetypept’

Search on a particular website:

If you want to search for something from a particular site using Google search then you can do so by using the “site:” feature. Here’s how you do it:

Let’s say you want to search for cloverfield DVD on Amazon, you can do so by typing “cloverfield DVD site:www.amazon.com”

Get the local time anywhere:

Wanna know what time is it in London now? You can ask Google by typing “what time is it London” in the search bar. You can also enter “time (location)” without the quotes.

Remove unwanted search results:

Suppose you wanted to search a Harry potter book review but you ended up in getting reviews of the movie rather than the book. Well in this case you can make Google to exclude the movie results from the search. You can do so by adding “-movie” at the end of the term. For instance: “Harry potter Chamber of secrets -movie” This will give search results excluding the movie- The chamber of secrets.

Search for URLs:

You can even search for URLs in Google search.For instance: “Women_talk_three_times_as_much_as_men”. You can also use “.” “-” instead of “_“. The search will bring up results with the URLs containing the above words entered.

Track flight status:

You can also track a particular flight status. All you need to do is just enter the airline and flight number into the search box and hit enter. You’ll get the arrival and departure time of the flight right inside Google’s search results.

Search Google groups by the subject line:

You need to be in the google groups search page before attempting this query; otherwise it might not work correctly. Using the “insubject:” function you can search google groups by the subject line. For instance “insubject:windows xp fast shutdown”

Find related sites:

Suppose you find an interesting website and you would like to find some other alternative to this site then you can do so by using “related:” function. For instance if you want to search an alternative for google.com you can do so by entering “related:www.google.com”

Find links to a specific URL:

You can find the webpages which have a link to a specific URL using the “link:” function. This is really great as it will help you if you own a website, you can easily find out the pages linking to a page in your site. To use it, you need to enter the whole URL after “link:”

For instance “link:http://www.cnn.com”

Well that’s it for now, hope you liked them. If you know more feel free to mention them here.

Whois Lookup service:

You can also search for information on a particular domain name. Just type in “whois domain.com” and hit enter. You’ll get to see the creation and expiry dates of the domain.

Suggests words, phrases and their results:

This is really helpful if you aren’t able to spell a particular word or you would like to know the results a particular word would contain when searched.

23 Coolest Firefox Tricks

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 8 Nov 2009 06:57:00 -0800

Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. Installation of Firefox is simple and does not in any way shape or form hinder PC performance. It sits as a completely separate entity to IE, allowing both web browsers to work in perfect harmony on one PC. Mozilla Firefox even allows you to migrate all of your IE favorites, so it can’t be that risky a proposition to install.

Now a days, almost everybody's favorite open-source browser, Firefox works amazing. By adding some of the awesome extensions available on the web, this browser even gets better.
But don't you know that there are several hidden tricks that you must know and learn to make this browser cooler, faster and even more efficient. You better try this for yourself guys and unleash the power of this browser.

23 Coolest Firefox tricks

1. More screen space.

Make your icons small. Go to View - Toolbars - Customize and check the “Use small icons” box.

2. Smart keywords.

If there’s a search you use a lot (let’s say IMDB.com’s people search), this is an awesome tool that not many people use. Right-click on the search box, select “Add a Keyword for this search”, give the keyword a name and an easy-to-type and easy-to-remember shortcut name (let’s say “actor”) and save it. Now, when you want to do an actor search, go to Firefox’s address bar, type “actor” and the name of the actor and press return. Instant search! You can do this with any search box.

3. Keyboard shortcuts.

This is where you become a real Jedi. It just takes a little while to learn these, but once you do, your browsing will be super fast. Here are some of the most common (and my personal favs):

* Spacebar (page down)
* Shift-Spacebar (page up)
* Ctrl+F (find)
* Alt-N (find next)
* Ctrl+D (bookmark page)
* Ctrl+T (new tab)
* Ctrl+K (go to search box)
* Ctrl+L (go to address bar)
* Ctrl+= (increase text size)
* Ctrl+- (decrease text size)
* Ctrl-W (close tab)
* F5 (reload)
* Alt-Home (go to home page)

4. Auto-complete.

This is another keyboard shortcut, but it’s not commonly known and very useful. Go to the address bar (Control-L) and type the name of the site without the “www” or the “.com”. Let’s say “google”. Then press Control-Enter, and it will automatically fill in the “www” and the “.com” and take you there - like magic! For .net addresses, press Shift-Enter, and for .org addresses, press Control-Shift-Enter.

5. Tab navigation.

Instead of using the mouse to select different tabs that you have open, use the keyboard. Here are the shortcuts:

* Ctrl+Tab (rotate forward among tabs)
* Ctrl+Shft+Tab (rotate to the previous tab)
* Ctrl+1-9 (choose a number to jump to a specific tab)

6. Mouse shortcuts.

Sometimes you’re already using your mouse and it’s easier to use a mouse shortcut than to go back to the keyboard. Master these cool ones:

* Middle click on link (opens in new tab)
* Shift-scroll down (previous page)
* Shift-scroll up (next page)
* Ctrl-scroll up (decrease text size)
* Ctrl-scroll down (increase text size)
* Middle click on a tab (closes tab)

7. Delete items from address bar history.

Firefox’s ability to automatically show previous URLs you’ve visited, as you type, in the address bar’s drop-down history menu is very cool. But sometimes you just don’t want those URLs to show up (I won’t ask why). Go to the address bar (Ctrl-L), start typing an address, and the drop-down menu will appear with the URLs of pages you’ve visited with those letters in them. Use the down-arrow to go down to an address you want to delete, and press the Delete key to make it disappear.

8. User chrome.

If you really want to trick out your Firefox, you’ll want to create a UserChrome.css file and customize your browser. It’s a bit complicated to get into here, but check out this tutorial.

9. Create a user.js file.

Another way to customize Firefox, creating a user.js file can really speed up your browsing. You’ll need to create a text file named user.js in your profile folder (see this to find out where the profile folder is) and see this example user.js file that you can modify. Created by techlifeweb.com, this example explains some of the things you can do in its comments.

10. about:config.

The true power user’s tool, about.config isn’t something to mess with if you don’t know what a setting does. You can get to the main configuration screen by putting about:config in the browser’s address bar. See Mozillazine’s about:config tips and screenshots.

11. Add a keyword for a bookmark

. Go to your bookmarks much faster by giving them keywords. Right-click the bookmark and then select Properties. Put a short keyword in the keyword field, save it, and now you can type that keyword in the address bar and it will go to that bookmark.

12. Speed up Firefox.

If you have a broadband connection (and most of us do), you can use pipelining to speed up your page loads. This allows Firefox to load multiple things on a page at once, instead of one at a time (by default, it’s optimized for dialup connections). Here’s how:

* Type “about:config” into the address bar and hit return. Type “network.http” in the filter field, and change the following settings (double-click on them to change them):
* Set “network.http.pipelining” to “true”
* Set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “true”
* Set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to a number like 30. This will allow it to make 30 requests at once.
* Also, right-click anywhere and select New-> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and set its value to “0?. This value is the amount of time the browser waits before it acts on information it receives.

13. Limit RAM usage.

If Firefox takes up too much memory on your computer, you can limit the amount of RAM it is allowed to us. Again, go to about:config, filter “browser.cache” and select “browser.cache.disk.capacity”. It’s set to 50000, but you can lower it, depending on how much memory you have. Try 15000 if you have between 512MB and 1GB ram.

14. Reduce RAM usage further for when Firefox is minimized.

This setting will move Firefox to your hard drive when you minimize it, taking up much less memory. And there is no noticeable difference in speed when you restore Firefox, so it’s definitely worth a go. Again, go to about:config, right-click anywhere and select New-> Boolean. Name it “config.trim_on_minimize” and set it to TRUE. You have to restart Firefox for these settings to take effect.

15. Move or remove the close tab button.

Do you accidentally click on the close button of Firefox’s tabs? You can move them or remove them, again through about:config. Edit the preference for “browser.tabs.closeButtons”. Here are the meanings of each value:

* 0: Display a close button on the active tab only
* 1: (Default) Display close buttons on all tabs
* 2: Don’t display any close buttons
* 3: Display a single close button at the end of the tab bar (Firefox 1.x behavior)

16. Build your own Firefox search engine

Want to power up Firefox's search box? It's easy to create your own search engine, so that you can rifle through any site from right within Firefox. Adding a search engine that has already been written, of course, is easy. Click the down arrow to the left of the search box, select "Manage Search Engines," then click the "Get more search engines" link at the bottom of the screen. From the Web site that appears, click the search engine you want to install, and you're done.

There are plenty of sites that don't have prebuilt search engines, though. No problem: It's easy to build your own search engine. First install the OpenSearchFox add-on. Then, when you're on a search site, right-click the search box and choose the Add OpenSearch plug-in. From the screen that appears (shown below), type in the name that you want to be associated with the search engine, add a description of the search engine and click Next. Then click Finish, and the site will be added as a search engine that you can choose like any other -- by clicking the arrow to the left of the search box and selecting the engine.

Building your own Firefox search engine. (Click image to see larger view)

Note that as of this writing, OpenSearchFox doesn't work properly with Firefox v. 2.0.0.10 or 2.0.0.11, although it may be fixed as you read this. When you use the add-on in v. 2.0.0.1 or 2.0.0.11, you'll get an error message after you click Finish, although in some instances, even if you get the error message, the search engine will still be added.

17. Use keywords to speed up your searching

Don't want to go to the trouble of adding your search engine -- or you can't get OpenSearchFox to work properly? Here's another way to do an instant search. When you're at a site, right-click on its search box and select "Add a Keyword for this Search." Type in a name for it and an easy-to-remember shortcut (for example, hp for the Huffington Post blog site). Then click OK. Now, to search the site, go to the Address Bar, and type in your shortcut, followed by a search term, such as hp Clinton. You'll search the site, just as if you were there. Note that on occasion, the search won't work properly, but it will on most sites.

18. Use keywords to speed up bookmarks

Visiting your favorite sites using Firefox's bookmarks is far too much of a chore -- do you really want to do all that mousing around? Instead, you can use keywords to instantly jump to any site you've bookmarked. To do it, after you bookmark a site, right-click on the bookmark, select Properties, type in a short keyword (or even just a letter or two) in the keyword field and click OK. Now, to visit the site, type in the keyword in Firefox's address bar, and you'll jump straight to the site.

Adding a keyword to a bookmark. (Click image to see larger view)

19. Put your own graphic on the Firefox tool bar

If you don't like the plain background of Firefox's tool bar, don't worry -- you can put your own graphic there. Type the following into the userChrome.css file and put the graphic that you want to use, background.gif, in the same directory as userChrome.css. The graphic can be any name and any type of image file supported by Firefox.

Here's the code to use:
/* Change the toolbar graphic */
menubar, toolbox, toolbar, .tabbrowser-tabs {
background-image: url("background.gif") !important;
background-color: none !important;
}

The graphic you use will automatically be scaled to fit the tool bar. For example, if it's small, it will be tiled.

20. Hack the stop, back and forward buttons

Are you a minimalist? Does it annoy you that there's a big fat Stop button on the Firefox tool bar, even when there's nothing to stop? And how about the Forward and Back buttons -- if there's no place to go forward or back, would you like them simply to disappear?
You're in luck, because it's simple to do. Add these lines below to userChrome.css. Note that even after this trick, the buttons will appear when there's a use for them. For example, when a page is loading, the Stop button will appear, so that you can stop loading the page; it just won't appear when a page isn't loading. And the Forward and Back buttons will appear when there's something to go forward or back to:

/* Remove the Stop button when content isn't loading*/
#stop-button[disabled="true"] { display: none; }

/* Remove the Back button when there's nothing to go back to */
#back-button[disabled="true"] { display: none; }

/* Remove the Forward button when there's nothing to go forward to */
#forward-button[disabled="true"] { display: none; }

21. Move the sidebar to the right

Firefox has a sidebar for viewing your history or bookmarks. It normally displays on the left-hand side when you choose View-->Sidebar. If you prefer, though, you can have the sidebar instead appear on the right, by typing this code into the userChrome.css file:

/* Place the sidebar on the right edge of the window */
hbox#browser { direction: rtl; }
hbox#browser > vbox { direction: ltr; }

After hacking userChrome.css, you can make the Sidebar appear on the right, instead of on the left.

22. Change the search bar width

Don't like the width of the search bar on the upper-right hand corner of Firefox? No problem -- it's easy to change. All you need to do is specify the width you want, in pixels. Use this code in userChrome.css to tell the search bar to be 600 pixels wide, but you can, of course, use whatever size you want:

/* Make the Search box wider
(in this case 600 pixels wide) */
#search-container, #searchbar {
max-width: 600px !important;
width: 600px !important; }

Here's the normal-size search box ...

... and here it is, after the hack, 600 pixels wide.

23. Remove menu items

Are there menu items -- for example, Help -- that you never use? If so, you can easily make them disappear. To remove the Help menu, add this to userChrome.css:

/* Remove the Help menu */
menu[label="Help"] {
display: none !important; }

You can remove any of the other menus as well. Use the same syntax as above and substitute its name (File, Edit, View, History, Bookmarks or Tools). So, for example, to remove both the Help and Tools menu, you'd add these lines to userChrome.css:

/* Remove the Help and Tools menus */
menu[label="Tools"], menu[label="Help"] {
display: none !important; }

Here's Firefox with the normal complement of menus ...

... and here it is, minus the Help and Tools menus.

Computer Hoax

How to Set up a Linksys Wireless Router

Set up a Linksys Wireless Router

1. Choose and purchase a Linksys router, taking into account your budget and computing habits.

2. Attach the antennas to the Linksys wireless router.

3. Place the router in a central location, making sure it's not surrounded by metal. (A signal can't be obtained through metal.) The router should be located so that the distance between clients (computers) is somewhat equal. This will create a better connection.

4. Plug the Ethernet cable into the "Internet" port on the back of the Linksys router.

5. Connect a computer to the router by plugging another Ethernet cable into the Ethernet port on your computer and attaching the other end to one of the available ports on the back of the router. You can choose any port except the one labeled "WAN."

6. Plug the router into an electrical outlet.

7. Wait for the power light to stop flashing, at which time the router is finished booting up. While the router is booting, the power light will be blinking. This process may take a few minutes to complete.

8. Reboot your computer so it can access a new IP address from the router through the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).

Configure the Router

1. Open your web browser, type " http://192.168.1.1/ " into the address bar and hit "Enter."

2. Use "Admin" as the username in the pop-up box and leave the password blank.

3. Connect to the Internet and click on "Internet Setup."

4. Select your connection type from the drop-down menu. Choose "DHCP" for cable modems or "PPPoE" for most DSL modems. If you are unsure of these options, check with your ISP.

5. Set a service set identifier (SSID) to identify the router and change the password.

6. Encrypt your wireless connection using a Wireless Encryption Protocol (WEP) key. Under the "Wireless Security" option, enter a passphrase and click "Generate." This will generate a password which will need to be used by any client connecting to your router.