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Archives: February 2004

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Sat Feb 14, 2004

How to Buy a Great Wireles Network

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We all have people on our holiday lists who seem to have more computers than they know what to do with. If you have someone on your list like that - or if your household has more than one PC, but you don't want to spend the time or money attaching them all with wires - the solution is simple. Get a wireless network. It hooks up all the computers in a house, and lets everyone share a single high-speed connection. Here's how to buy (and for the gamer in your house, you'll also find advice on how to wireless connect a gaming console for online gaming as well).

To put together a network you need a wireless access point, which connects to your broadband modem, and connects all your PCs to the Internet and to each other. And for each PC you'll have to buy a wireless network adapter, which connects them to the access point. The wireless hardware is commonly called WiFi, although techies know it as 802.11 technology. There are a few types of 802.11 hardware - the older and less-expensive 802.11b, which connects at up to 11 megabits per second; and the newer and more expensive 802.11g, which connects at up to 54 megabits per second. A word to the wise: Those numbers are only the networks' rated speeds. As a practical matter, figure you'll connect at about half those rates. More...

How to Buy a Great MP3 Player

:. Articles

The music lovers on your holiday gift list have one thing in mind: a portable MP3 player. Listen to the little voice inside their head, and you'll hear them screaming, "I want my MP3!"

If you're in the hunt for a top-notch MP3 player at the best price this holiday season, you need help figuring out the specs and what to buy. First consider the player's memory capacity. Here's one instance where bigger is better. If you're willing to pay up around $200 to $300 price range, go for at least 20GB and perhaps even more. For example, you can get the Nomad Jukebox Zen NX with a 30GB hard drive for as low as $255 With that size hard disk, you should be able to store just about any entire CD collection on it, up to roughly 10,000 songs! More...

 

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