OT: Computer Networking

Atrocities · #1 April 7th, 2007, 07:49 PM

I was wondering if any of you know how I would go about setting up a home network? I want to rip all my dvds to one computer, put all my music onto it as well and then have wireless access to those files from any computer on my network. Is this possible? What do you think I would need in order to accomplish this?

Also for you FireFox users, is there a way to permanently set the page size so that I don't have to increase the text size manually every time I open FF? On the LapTop the font size is way way way to small and I have to size up two or three X in order to be able to see the text.

Thanks.

PvK · #2 April 7th, 2007, 08:08 PM

A wireless router (and wireless network cards for each computer, assuming you want to do it wireless) would do it. The router is what plugs into the Internet, and then shares it to the computers on your local network, also protecting them from many direct attacks. Though do set up security on the router and your computers so you're not allowing anyone in radio range to access your computers...

For FireFox, I'm not sure. All I see is Tools/Options/Content/Fonts&Colors, which lets you set default font size, but it's not as good as Opera's Zoom feature, and might not have any effect on pages which set font sizes...

Fyron · #3 April 7th, 2007, 08:31 PM

FF has a minimum font size (under the advanced button) which affects every font, regardless of how it is set. "zoom" is overrated, but available for most browsers via plugins.

Slim Server is an excellent way to stream music over a network from a central store (or even over the internet).

VLC can play movie files from another PC on the same network.

Windows Media Player 11 is supposed to have network streaming capabilities as well, but I'm not sure if you have to access it from a PC with windows media center or not...

se5a · #4 April 7th, 2007, 09:25 PM

or just stick all your music in a shared folder and access it from whatever music player you are using

Will · #5 April 7th, 2007, 10:01 PM

Quote:

Atrocities said:
I was wondering if any of you know how I would go about setting up a home network? I want to rip all my dvds to one computer, put all my music onto it as well and then have wireless access to those files from any computer on my network. Is this possible? What do you think I would need in order to accomplish this?

Also for you FireFox users, is there a way to permanently set the page size so that I don't have to increase the text size manually every time I open FF? On the LapTop the font size is way way way to small and I have to size up two or three X in order to be able to see the text.

Thanks.

Like was already said, if you want to do a wireless home network, get a wireless router and wireless cards for all the computers that do not already have them. If it's an all Windows network, you're pretty much done; set up all the computers to be in the same workgroup, turn on folder sharing for the folders you want to be on the network, and optionally map a drive letter to the shares. If you have linux boxes or macs, use samba sharing on those.

I have a home network with one Windows PC desktop (which I hardly use anymore), an old dell laptop I bought from a friend that's running Ubuntu, and a powerbook. The dell I use as a fileserver, and I have itunes on both the powerbook and the desktop point to the share as their music directory. I use the desktop for basically only PBW turns these days, and my daily use computer is the powerbook. I have kinda paranoid security on the wireless... set up 128-bit WEP encryption, set a MAC filter on the router to only accept connections from the two laptops, turned off SSID broadcast.

Firefox, go to about

fig. Filter on font.minimum-size, set the value to a minimum font point that you want.

Fyron · #6 April 8th, 2007, 01:10 AM

Why resort to about

fig when there is an easy control in the options ui?

Will · #7 April 8th, 2007, 05:23 AM

Because it's a lot easier to describe how to do it in about

fig than to walk through how to find it in the gui?

Fyron · #8 April 8th, 2007, 02:03 PM

Even though I already described where it was in the UI?

Azselendor · #9 April 8th, 2007, 08:48 PM

WEP encryption is a Piece of S***. The keys are easily hacked and can only withstand 10-15 minutes from your amatur hacker, only a couple of minutes or less if you're facing a dedicated attack.

Upgrade to a WPA standard, install a good firewall, and -if possible- reduce the signal power of your wireless transmitter by as much as possible. The average wireless router from big box retailers has a range of 150-200 feet and most of your neighbors are less than that.

Atrocities · #10 April 8th, 2007, 10:00 PM

Thanks guys you all have been a great help.