Sandy Gibbs needs an easy way to shut off the home’s Wi-Fi network to discipline a teenage daughter and then turn it back on later when the disciplinary period is over. Is there an easy way to manage this? Our readers have a few suggestions. → Discuss – How to Temporarily Disable Wi-Fi at Home → More – Can Wi-Fi Be Turned Off for Computers and Routers? → See also – When Should You Power Down Your Network?... 

They are called stumblers and finders . Apple has decided that some of these helpful Wi-Fi network detection tools no longer belong on its App Store. As Macworld points out, the group of Wi-Fi stumbler applications removed this week use private iPhone programming techniques (called APIs ) that Apple has specifically prohibited in third-party apps. A stumbler performs a network scan for nearby wireless hotspots . Other Wi-Fi finders do not perform... 

One of the popular videos on YouTube recently features Jennifer – a Wi-Fi pirate who recently lost open access to her neighbor’s network and complained about it publically. Does she really not realize that stealing someone’s bandwidth is an ethical gray area, or is this all an act? Watch the video and judge for yourself. → More – Woman Calls Tech Show When Her Stolen Wi-Fi Disappears (mashable.com) → Watch... 

DNSSEC is an extension to the Internet Domain Name System (DNS) . DNSSEC improves computer network security by adding extra intelligence to DNS that validates Internet domain names and addresses. Organizations around the world are gradually enabling DNSSEC to help prevent so called DNS cache poisoning attacks on their networks. This week, Comcast became the first ISP in the U.S. to announce support for DNS SECurity . If you are a Comcast customer,... 

SIMFi is the name of a new kind of SIM card for cell phones, one that incorporates a built-in Wi-Fi radio. With the right software installed, SIMFi effectively turns a cell phone into a wireless hotspot . It’s a bit like Eye-Fi except instead of dealing in photos, SIMFi can manage a general-purpose wireless connection. The announcement comes from Sagem Orga, a relatively small international firm that develops technology for mobile smart cards.... 

High school students in Ardmore, PA, and around the United States are getting a crash course in the remote activation of webcams, courtesy of the Lower Merion School District. The District has been sued by students and parents in response to allegations that one student was captured on video engaging in questionable behavior (eating candy, dealing in drugs, or something in between, …  Read More →

The Kneber botnet made news this week when NetWitness announced the discovery of a large cache of stolen data. Botnets like Kneber silently take over networked computers and manipulate them across the Internet for nefarious purposes. Kneber is specifically known for its ability to steal personal user names and passwords from people when they log in to popular Web sites. Did you use any of the 74,000 computers affected by Kneber? → More –... 

As reported in the New York Times, students at Empire High School in Vail, Arizona (USA) have been enjoying mobile Internet service on one of its buses since last year. Installing Wi-Fi on a bus is hardly a new idea. Nor is “The Internet Bus” likely to win a beauty contest with San Francisco’s (see: The Connected Bus . Nevertheless, it seems the students have not only embraced the technology but also used it for productive purposes,... 

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is a standard computer network protocol for handling outgoing emails. An SMTP server is simply any computer designated to handle requests from email clients for sending messages via this protocol. To use an SMTP server, an email client must be configured with the server’s name or address. Typical SMTP server names are smtp.comcast.net or mail.btinternet.com. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) normally maintain... 

A traditional BlackBerry is the well-known mobile email device so popular with governments, some large corporations and other institutions who carry on a lot of conversations (or at least pretend to). A high capacity private data network managed by its parent company Research In Motion (RIM) powers the BlackBerries. So many people rely on the BlackBerry that any RIM network outages tend to generate big publicity. And because the network is both... 

Ever since Microsoft Vista was released a few years ago, our readers have reported various problems getting their Vista computers to share folders with other Windows PCs on the local network. In this current example, ‘SilverSagess’ observed some unusual settings on their network including an IP address of 192.168.15.100 and a DNS name of an Internet provider they no longer subscribe to. If you’ve recently moved to a different residence,... 

On 3 December 2009, Google launched its Public DNS service. Google Public DNS is a free Internet name resolution service similar to the free version of OpenDNS . Both Google DNS and OpenDNS are designed to speed up and help secure the Web browsing experience by leveraging a fast worldwide network of DNS servers . What’s the difference between these two services? As of now, OpenDNS is  Read More →

[via dailywireless.org] – How much network bandwidth does it take to transmit high definition video of a world famous event? If you said 1.5 Gbps , you have correctly pegged the size of the feed Level 3 Communications plans to deliver for Super Bowl 44. The broadcast of Super Bowls in previous years required compression at the site before uploading to the broadcasting station, but this time Level 3 expects their fiber optic cables to handle... 

Doug, one of our readers, can no longer send email from his computer. After some troubleshooting, he has isolated the problem. “Turns out that my IP address has been blacklisted, but not my fault. The ipconfig /release and renew commands do not change the IP address.” “Are these the only ways to get a new IP address, being 1) get a static address, 2) shut down the network for a week or 72 hours, or 3) change ISPs?” Is there... 

A Princeton undergrad and his advising professor recently published the results of their survey on BitTorrent file sharing. ArsTechnica claims the majority of files being shared over BitTorrent are movies and music that are likely being shared illegally , and the data from Sauhard Sahi indeed seems to confirm that. It’s too bad we can’t find more productive uses for such excellent P2P network technology than just (mostly) pirating stuff....