W.A. Mozart

The difference between my site and other sites is that classicalweekly.com goes right to the good part; many people I know like certain parts of a classical work but don’t want to hear all of it.  So with this site I’ve selected a particular movement of a classical work to introduce, as opposed to the entire piece.  If after hearing the first movement of Beethoven’s fifth you decide to go ahead and hear more (like the animated fourth movement), that’s great.  but if you just want to hear a little, then stick with what I’ve posted.

Each week I will post a new work, along with my comments, a YouTube video of the selected portion,  and an Amazon affiliate link to  the version of the work I like best (one of the great things about Amazon.com, especially with classical music, is that you can really get good review of an CD before you buy it).

I just launched it this week and to start I’ve put up 5 diverse works of music.  So if you are interested in learning more about classical music or just getting gentle weekly nudge, check out the site and subscribe to the newsletter so you can receive the weekly updates.  And for those of you gurus out there, let me know if you think of a great work that I should have on my list.

cable modem -> wireless router -> desktop or laptop computer

While this article isn’t completely comprehensive and doesn’t go into the step-by-step details of solving every problem, this article will provide you with a wireless network troubleshooting outline to help diagnose your wireless internet problem.

First Identify the Parts
Before we troubleshoot any network connection (wired or wireless) we need to generally understand the components involved in the process. These parts are:

1. Cable Modem – this is the device that provides the connection. Usually there is a coaxial cable (the round thick one with the pin on the end) that goes from your wall to this box.  If you’ve ever setup cable TV then you’ve used one of the coaxial cabled.   The cable modem  usually will have many flashing lights (it will have more lights if you have cable and phone service coming from this same modem).  Note that the internet connection goes into the cable modem via the coaxial cable mentioned above, and leaves or comes out of the cable modem via an ethernet cable (the ethernet cable is the one that has what looks like a big phone connector on the end).

2. Wireless Router - This is the device that allows you to split your connection among multiple wired and wireless computers.   It receives a signal from the cable modem via the ethernet cable, and can connect to other devices via the wired connections (usually 4 of them in the back) or via the wireless connection (which of course, we cannot see).

3. Computer or laptop. Actually this can be any device that is cable of receiving a wireless signal (such as a laptop or desktop computer, an iPhone, and even my old iPAQ handheld which I do miss very much).

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What Can Go Wrong

When trying to figure out why your connection isn’t working, it’s important to understand the possible point of failures (POFs).  One of the most important questions I or any other technician will ask you is, “Did it ever work?”.   Suffice it to say that if a connection was once working and now all of a sudden isn’t working, is a much different story than if the connection never worked at all.  Let’s look at each device and see what can go wrong with each one:

1. Cable Modem:

POF: lost signal from the cable company. If this is the reason for failure, most likley the lights will no longer flash in the correct way or be totally off, and your phone service (if also supplied by the cable company) will probably not work, as well. Note that providing internet and phone requiers a much stronger signal than serving TV, so just because your  cable TV is working, doesn’t mean it’s still not a signal problem.  There are plenty of times that I’ve lost my internet connection and still had super high-quality HD on my TV.

SOLUTION: Check your wires and/or call cable. It’s rare that an individual wire will fail (E.g the coax or the ethernet cable) but it’s an option worth exploring.   But if all of a suddenly the lights stop flashing on the modem, it’s most likely a signal problem with your connection that is on cable’s end of things.  Try tightening the coaxial cable and unplugging and re-plugging-in  in the modem.   An intermittent problem is usually from a wire (e.g. it works and then fails every once and a while) or from the cable modem itself, but a total failure is likely to be from a loss of signal.

2. Wireless Router:

There are multiple POFs from a router so let’s take a look at each one:

POF: The router is broken (and yes, this HAS happened to me). In this case neither a wired or wireless connection will work. (Actually in my case the flash memory in the router died making it impossible to save any of my settings, so now this router serves as a switch on my network — but I digress).

SOLUTION : Look to see if the router is still flashing its usual lights.  If it isn’t, try unplugging the router and plugging it back in.  Some people (and Comcast tech support)  insist that in order to properly reset a lost connection (wired or wireless) that you must first shut down the cable modem, the router, and any machine that needs to get a signal (an IP address) from the router.  In doing this, once everything is off, count to 10 (yes, really) and then turn on the cable modem.  Once the proper lights are flashing (or are solid and on depending upon your company and model), turn on the router.  Once the router is up and running, then turn on the laptop or computer and see if it works.

POF:  There is a problem with the wireless connection only, but the wired connection works fine.  This situation is an easy one to test out.   Go ahead and test a wired computer and see if it works.  In my house I have multiple wired ethernet connections so if my wired connection is working but my wireless isn’t , then I know there’s something wrong with the wireless connection.  If you don’t have a wired connection from the router, you can plug in a ethernet cable to one of the ports on the router (usually numbered 1,2,3,4) and connect the other end of this cable to the ethernet port on the laptop (or whatever device you are troubleshooting).  If you can get on the internet on this wired machine, then you know that the cable modem and router are working and it’s likely a problem with the computer that’s trying to get the wireless signal.

POF: You can see the wireless router from the laptop or desktop but you cannot connect.
SOLUTION: Check to make sure that you are using the proper security settings.   If you can browse a list of available networks and you can see your wireless router (e.g. you can see the name [or SSID] or your router) but you still can’t connect, make sure that you have the correct password or other security settings.   You may want to disable all security on the router temporarily (you can read about how to secure your linksys wireless router in this article) so you can rule out security settings as the problem.

3. Computer/Laptop:

POF: The wireless radio (wireless network card) is not turned on or the connection is disabled.
SOLUTION: Windows uses the wireless radio to create a wireless network connection (in the same way it uses an ethernet card to create an ethernet connection).  Using Windows or software installed on the machine (e.g. Intel and HP sometimes have utilities to turn the wireless radio on and off), make sure the wireless radio is turned on.   Also make sure that the “Wireless Network Connection” is enabled.

POF: Your security software is blocking internet access.
SOLUTION: Check to make sure that your antivirus or security program is not blocking the internet.  I’ve had three situations where the security software had a “block all internet traffic” settting enabled, and that was causing the problem. Trend-Micro and ZoneAlarm (and other programs ) can do this.  An easy way to check is to find the security software icon in the bottom right of the screen (where the time and other icons are) and right-click on the icon.  Hopefully there will be an option that says “block all internet traffic” or something similar; make sure this option is disabled (or enabled depending upon what it says exactly) — use common sense.

POF: There is something wrong with the overall network settings on the laptop.
SOLUTION: Try to use a wired connection and see if the problem persists.  If you cannot get a connection even with a wired connection, it may be time to ask for help or call tech support for your laptop.  Sometimes it’s as simple as turning the machine on and off (or turning on and off the modem, router and computer as described above) — but after all of these steps if you cannot connect with a wired connection, there may be something corrupt in the network settings or possibly a virus.

If you’ve tried everything and still have no success, then it may be time to speak with technical support or ask for some assistance, and you can always post a comment here and I will try to help, as well.

Good luck!

I do it this way for a number of reasons:

1) Since I do sometimes move a lot of data, I’d rather let the desktop machine stay on for all of the time that’s required to upload the data to the online backup server. My laptop is great and reliable, but why put more burn on the laptop than needed.

2) While I do trust the zero-knowledge policy of SpiderOak (I refuse to use any online backup service that has direct access to my data), I don’t necessarily trust their synchronization feature. To be fair to SpiderOak, I haven’t found a backup service whose sync feature I do trust.

Most of these services seems to store versions of your data, but I’ve yet to see on that lets you do a true left/right synchronization check with approval. One of the big criticisms I have of some online backup services (other than the privacy part which I’ve covered at length in previous posts), is the functionality such that if I delete a file on my desktop, then the backup software will automatically delete the file on my backup. My problem here is that I don’t want anything on my backup account being deleted unless I explicitly allow it to be deleted. Furthermore, I don’t want to go hunting for versions of files that may or may not exist.

With my two-step system, I have 100% control of my synchronization and true certainty that my desktop files are exactly mirrored on my online backup. So for those of you who are using an online backup service — any online backup service — how do you handle synchronization and know for SURE that your data is being mirrored properly and that the service’s algorithm isn’t making decisions for you?

1.  In the Tools menu select “Internet Options”.

2. In the window that appears, you will see your current home page listed.  In the example below it’s “www.cnn.com”.  To change the default home page, just type in the name of the new site you want to serve as the home page.  Make sure it’s in the format “http://www.somewebsite.com” (without the quotes).

Then hit “Apply” or “OK”.  You may need to restart Internet Explorer to see the change.

Remember — if your home page changed unexpectedly then this change may be the result of a virus, and simply changing the home page back will not solve the problem.  Be sure to do a thorough virus and malware evaluation of your computer  to get rid of any infections that may be present.

A:  It depends. Generally speaking,  the addition of RAM will make your computer faster because most consumer-level computers are sold to minimize cost, and thus come with a minimum amount of RAM.  Here are some general guidelines:

1. If you have Windows  XP or Windows Vista  and you are doing anything more than basic email and internet browsing, then I recommend running your machine with a total of 4GB of RAM.  Windows XP and Vista max out at 4GB of RAM (technically this statement is only true for the 32-bit version but if you don’t know which version of Windows XP or Vista that you have, then the odds are that you have a 32-bit version).  RAM is not that expensive these days so maxing your machine out to 4GB is cost effective and productive.  You will most likely see a difference in your machine’s performance, especially if you are doing any kind of work with digital photography, music or graphics

2. Those of you with Windows 7 face a different dilemma.  Most new consumer machines are running Windows 7 64-bit (recall Windows 7 comes in a 32-bit and a 64-bit version).

The major advantage of Windows 7 64-bit is that you can now add more RAM than the traditional 4GB Windows XP/Vista barrier (see #1 above).  The question is “do you need it?”.

If you are doing basic email or internet work it probably pays to bring your computer up to 4GB of RAM, as Windows 7 is a memory intensive operating system and certain features will perform better with more RAM (e.g. Aero — though Aero performance is also contingent on your video card, as well).  Past that you probably won’t see a difference.

Now if you are doing more than the basics — digital photography, video editing, or gaming, it pays to bring the machine up to more than 4GB or RAM.  8GB of RAM is usually a good starting point, but it makes sense to look at the software you are using to see if the program can use this extra RAM.  For example, while Photoshop is a program that will benefit from having lots of RAM, the 32-bit version of Photoshop in Windows 7 won’t be able to use this RAM — only 64-bit versions of software will be able to use the extra RAM.  So if you are going to add RAM past the 4GB mark, take the time to speak to the manufacturer of the software you are using to make sure that a) the software can take advantage of the extra RAM and 2) that you have the correct version of the software to do so.

This type of filtering is an added level of security, as even if someone does have your network password, they still need to have a machine with a MAC address that’s “on the guest list”. Note that you can also restrict MAC Addresses as well, so if you know a MAC address that you don’t want on your network, you can specifically exclude it.

Before we can enable MAC Address Filtering, we have to know how to find a MAC address. This post goes over how to find your MAC address in Windows.

Now let’s head to the router to enable Mac Address Filtering.

1. Login to your router as usual.  If you forgot how, look at this post — it’s about how to change your SSID but it goes over how to login to your linksys router.

2.  Head to the Wireless settings and select “Wireless MAC Filter”

3.  In the menu that appears…

Click “Enable”.  And then select either the “Prevent” or the “Permit” option.   Personally I use the “Permit” option as that’s just like having a restricted guest list.

Then click on the “Edit MAC Filter List”. Go ahead and type the MAC address for each machine you want to allow on your network to the list. Press “Save Settings” at the bottom when you are done (I’ve blued out my MAC addresses in this image).

That’s it. Any questions?

1. Change the default router  password.  Here’s a post that explains how to change the default  router password.

2. Change the default  SSID.  The SSID is the router’s “name”, and for a linksys router is set as “linksys” as the default.  Change the SSID to something else — it doesn’t have to be complex but don’t leave it as linksys.   Here’s a post on how to change the SSID on a linksys router.

3. Once you’ve setup the other computers on the network, disable the SSID to hide your network.  Note that more modern machines can see networks with no SSID, but this step is an easy one to do and can still  help secure the network.

4. Setup WPA2 security (tutorial to come).

5. Enable MAC Address filtering MAC Address Filtering is a way to restrict access to your network by using a network card’s unique ID, or MAC Address.  The process is like having a restricted guest list for a party, and only people who are on the list can come in.

With these steps in place you can feel more comfortable about the security on your wireless network.

1. Open the  Command Prompt (shell).   Do this by going to START->RUN.  In the box type in “cmd” and hit enter.

2.  Then type “ipconfig /all” in the command prompt.

3.   You will then get a long list of entries and numbers.

Note that if you will have entries for your ethernet card and your wireless card.  In this case you want the physical address of the wirless card — since you are securing a wireless router.  Take a look a the two red arrows — you will see “Wireless LAN…” and “Ethernet adapter Local…”.

Look under the “Wireless LAN…” heading and find where it says “Physical Address”.  This is the MAC address of your card.  It should be in this format:

A1-4C-D3-01-42-5a

(I’ve greyed out my details here).

That’s how you find a the MAC address for your wireless adapter in windows. Any questions?

Exploration
For just the basics, Picsasa is great.  Unfortunately it doesn’t handle any real level of metadata processing, so despite it’s great feature set, Picasa wasn’t an option.  I even tried to look at Adobe Bridge, but being a browser and not a cataloging program, Bridge, too, was out.  I then jumped up and took a look at Lightroom.  A nicely designed product that does fulfill my feature requests, but also comes with a $300 price tag.  Enter IDImager Pro

IDImager
Part cataloger, part organizer, part metatagger, part image-editor, IDImager is a jack-of-all trades image management program that costs a very reasonable $100.  Because I primarily use Photoshop for my editing needs, I won’t focus as much on the software’s image-editing ability.  But suffice it to say that it’s there and it’s powerful.  In this review I will talk more about the other features of the program that make it great; these features alone, however, make the program quite valuable.

Categories
IDImager is based around categories, and the catalog system is basically a large, fully-customizable hierarchical keyword system.  Adding and removing categories to a single or multiple images is easy and can be done with a simple drag-and-drop.  The software also creates automatic “holding” catalogs for each import and download session that you have.  I find this staging feature very helpful, as I don’t always know what my categories are going to be (or I don’t feel like adding the categories at the time that I import).  As you’ll notice in the image below, the program is configured with quite a few default categories that allow you to quickly find your images.  Also look at the Import and Download Sessions under the Auto Catalog  category heading.  Note that you can also view your file structure if needed under the Catalog Folders heading.

Metadata Explosion
One of the most important things to me in a management program is the ability to really control metadata.  On this note IDImager doesn’t disappoint.  Applying metadata is a snap, and can easily be done for single image, multiple images, or directly on import (more about download/import later).

A fantastic feature that I would not have found had I not started to read the manual is the Stored Group.  A stored group is basically a stored procedure (for you SQL types), or an area that remembers a specific search.  So if you search your 4-star “vaction” pictures often, then you can store that selection as a stored group and quickly get to it whenever you need it.

Two (or More) Programs in One
One of the things I was doing by hand was my RAW to DNG conversion and I didn’t have a great sytem for metatagging on import; the download feature of IDImager quickly solved this problem.  The software allows you to import images and download. I’ve found the download feature to be more powerful than the import one so that’s what I use.

When you open the download interface it’s like having a built-in importing program at your fingertips — there’s no need for a separate import/download application and via the downloader you can  apply pre and post processing instructions, copy to an alternate location on import (a feature of many DAM systems).  And of course you can convert your RAWs to DNG and apply keywords on import.  Further, you can also automatically create a portfolio (a virtual catalog, collection or album depending upon your preferred nomenclature) on import, so you can start your organizing immediately.

And if you have more than one person taking pictures in the family (or in the office) you can setup multiple download profiles. Do you need individual profiles for different photographers (or family members), different cameras, or clients?  Want a profile that downloads .JPEGs with a certain author with one set of lables, and a second profile that converts RAW to DNg with a different author and makes a portfolio? No problem.  Setup the profiles for what you need them to do, and then come back when you need them.

Seeing Double
I’ve had a multiple monitor setup since I can remember, and IDImager rewards we dual-monitor folks by allowing the palletes to be moved to the second screen.  You can always stretch Picasa or Bridge across two monitors (who wants to do that?), but IDImager is designed to reward you for having a lot of screen real estate.

Batch Management
One of the best things about advanced digital photo management programs is the ability to perform batch tasks on multiple images. Here, too, IDImager is up to the task.  There’s an entire batch section where you can apply effects, crop the file, and rename your images, among a ton of other options. Showing the entire list would make this post too long) but here’s a small sample:

More Documentation then you can Handle
IDImager is one of the most strongly documented programs I’ve ever seen. There’s a 500+ page manual, a wiki, and a active forum to help you along with the program as you learn.  Even if you are not a reader of instructions, and you like to dive right in with software, I strongly recommend reading the quick start guide.  IDImager is intuitive enough to run without reading a word, but you’ll miss out on way to much if you don’t do some reading.

Network Support
A big gripe of many photographers is the lack of network support (browse the Lightroom forums to see what I mean) .  IDImager can run transparently on your desktop (e.g. you won’t see any database related things floating around). but if you want a true database-driven solution over multiple machines, the program supports the use of SQL Server as well (and according to post on the forum the free, SQL Express is supported, too).

A Version of Apple Aperture for Windows?  No, but Close to it.
For those of you who’ve looked cross-platform to find a DAM photo management solution for the Mac, you’ve probably found iPhoto, Lightroom, and Aperture (I’m not mentioning Photoshop because Photoshop is not a cataloging/DAM program).  Like many PC users, if Aperture were available for the PC, I’d probably be using it.  I do have a Mac workstation, but because the bulk of my network is PC (and I already own Photoshop for the PC) I use the PC for my digital photo management.   For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, Aperture is Apple’s “advanced” upgrade to iPhoto, and it is often loosely compared to Lightroom with its feature set.

Now as we all know, Apple does not port Aperture to the windows platform, but the point I’m trying to make here is that IDImager is the closest program I’ve seen to an Aperture equivalent on the PC.  There are differences, as IDImager does not have some of the post-production features that Aperture has (e.g. Photo Books), but for a general feature head-to-head, IDImager comes pretty close.

Versions
IDImager comes in a Personal version and a Professional version; there is also a Professional version with SQL Server support for those who need it.  The company’s website has a great comparison-matrix so you can see the differences bewteen the two versions.  The Personal version is loaded with features but for a few dollars more the Professional is worth the upgrade.

Summary
IDImager is a powerful piece of comprehensive digital image  management software that can handle the majority of your digital photography needs.  With its tremendous list of features, intuitive interface, and substantial documentation, in my opinion IDImager serves as a good alternative to Adobe’s Lightroom; and for those of you who wish there were a version of Apple Aperture for Windows, IDImager may be the way to go.  Add networking to the mix and you’ve got yourself one heck a of a program.  But don’t take my word for it — download a trial version and see for yourself.  And do yourself a favor — read the quickstart guide to really see how powerful this software is.

Disclosure. I originally approached IDImager Systems about writing a review of IDImager.  I was given a license to use the product.

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