A MAC address, abbreviation for Media Access Control address, is a unique identification number, assigned by the manufacturer in computer networking to network adapters and it contains the manufacturer’s identification number. In order to find the MAC addresses on one’s system, all is needed is to follow a few steps. Firstly, click on the Start button on the taskbar and then select Run. Secondly, type command in the space provided and then presses the Enter button and then you need to type “ipconfig/all” in the command window and press Enter. In the resulting information, the line labelled physical access address will be the MAC address.

The advantage of filtering MAC addresses in your PC is that even if the hackers manage to obtain your password, they won’t be able to access your network, thereby excluding the hackers’ devices from gaining access to your wireless network. Therefore, it provides much additional security to one’s network. There are specific instructions to be followed in that respect. First of all, you need to make sure which are all the devices which you want to gain access to your wireless network. This may not only include computers but other media devices as well like cell phones, wireless printers etc. Then log into your router and then click on the wireless tab on the screen. Then click on the Wireless MAC filter tab on the lower right and then click on “Enable under Wireless MAC filter”. Then the next window will take you to a screen where you’ll have the enable and disable choices to allow PCs to gain access to your network or prevent PCs listed from accessing the network.  Here you need to click on the “Edit MAC Filter” option. Thereby you can add the MAC addresses of devices which are allowed on your wireless network. After you’ve entered the addresses, you can culminate by clicking on “Save Settings”.

Apart from following these steps to enable a security driven network, there are some things that need to be borne in mind, the most important being that MAC addresses, being the unique identification numbers that they are, cannot be changed as they are encrypted into the hardware of the system. Secondly, you need to take the MAC addresses of people whom you know and who use your network regularly so that they can be added to the list.

Filtering MAC addresses may not be a foolproof or a perfect way to enable security to one’s network. But it does improve overall Wi-Fi security to a great extent, thus proving to be a more than helpful method.

Initially software is to be loaded from the server on to the network and the server which does this is usually found broadcasting a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) request. However this booting from the network is just a start image of the process of installing and Operating System (OS). But, for installing an OS a startup disk is a must requirement for formatting the PC and creating startup files.

After you have completed your booting over the network, now comes the time to install your Operating System over the network. For a Windows XP user the ways are going to be this way. Since the over network installation mainly comes in to play when Floppy/CD-ROM or any other source of Input or Output service is not functioning properly. Over the network installation is advantageous because one can simultaneously install several copies of XP on to the other computers if they are despaired. Before beginning, one has to copy all the files of i386 directory on to the hard drive and enable it’s sharing over the network. After the i386 folder has been shared, search for your drive over the network.

NET USE Y: \\Computername\Sharename. One can replace the ‘Computername’ with name of Net BIOS (Basic Input output service) of your computer and ‘Sharename’ with the name of the directory in which you saved the files of i386. By switching to the network and at the command prompt dialogue box type Y:\i386\winnt where the letter ‘Y’ stands for your actual drive letter. This will initiate the installation of operating system. Then you will be taken to next screen where you will have to prompt for the location of your installed files. There you can type Y:\i386 and can bypass the screen by typing the following syntaxY:\i386\winnt /s:Y:\i386, where /S takes to the location of the start up files, which u had done before as booting over the network. Setup will then go for modification of master boot records, by changing the required startup files to BOOT.INI, NTDETECT.COM and NTLDR and followed by copying setup files to the temporary folder on the hard drive. The folder’s name can be as follows : $WIN_NT$.~LS or $WIN_NT$.~BT. When file copying will be complete then a blue screen will appear which you have to then follow to complete your Installation of OS.

Thus, network booting and installation is not only a method that is helpful when your CD-ROM/FLOPPY DISK or USB ports are despaired and not functioning properly, but also when you want to go for booting and installation in many computers’ in one go.

A central location must be switched over with gigabyte network switch like a hub or router. Since each computer will be requiring a network line running in to the central location, hence a before hand assurance is a must for turning the setup practically possible. The Ethernet card should be plugged in to the empty port of the switch including the server along with the entire computer available on the network. The cables should be ran to each system and plug in Internet modem Ethernet cable too in to the switch to avail the sharing service.

Plug in the Ethernet cable to each computer as well as to the server and to take maximum merit of ample gigabyte speed, a networking card is capable of handling the gigabyte speed is required. To check your computer’s networking card’s detail. A Microsoft Windows OS user must find it this way. Right-click on the ‘My computer’ icon on your desktop, a dialogue box appears which shows ‘properties’ option at the last, click on ‘properties‘, then a dialogue box appears click on the ‘Hardware Tab’ and you will see certain options on it and then click on the ‘Device Manager’ tab which then display the details of the devices attached to your PC. The ‘Network adapters’ option will give you the detail about the networking card attached to your PC.

After you’re done with plugging in and checking up your network adapter details and the final but the most important step remains to setup your server network in order to enjoy ample and robust facilities on to your network. You have to run the ‘Network Configuration’ wizard, which you can directly find on to your ‘Control panel’. A Windows based user must follow this way, click on start followed by a click on the control panel option. A dialogue box appears which has ‘‘Network Configuration’ option available in it. Click on the wizard and the tool will automatically detect the network and types of computers on it. If you printer & files share then network name will be asked by the wizard. The moment the wizard gets completed , restart your PC and you have your Server Network setup done on your PC.

Thus, Server network not only helps one to enjoy ample speedy performance for downloading & browsing, but can also allow one to share files and printer on the same with a robust network a must requirement to do so.

NAS holds a dominance over DAS ( Direct Attached Storage) in terms  NAS books it own position on the network as its own entity and file sharing on NAS becomes easier and simpler as compares to DAS. Since DAS is only a simple extension on the available network. Moreover data availability is increased potentially on the NAS unit due to its clustering and redundant arrays of independent or inexpensive disks (RAID) capabilities. NAS increases the performance because file serving is mainly done by it and not by the network server which has other responsibilities too.

NAS unit offers flexible network based data storage to home consumer due to which NAS unit devices have seen great fall in prices in recent years as it takes the computer clients to a place with huge amounts of data available for them to choose from. Due to which NAS is more useful than a general centralized storage entity. The NAS market witnesses consumers flocked up towards the multi media data centre mainly. For NAS user there are devices available with single and multiple drives thus allowing higher data protection with greater capacities.

Storage area network (SAN) is often contrasted with NAS. NAS actually emphasizes on a system and storage while the SAN is mainly concerned with block based storage leaving the file system. But , a combo of NAS-SAN is actually aids by providing protocols of block level by SAN and file level by NAS from the same working system.

NAS unit uses are immensely useful since it’s a centralized management it aids by maintaining a back up over the network and the same data stored on NAS can be accessed by a large no. of client’s servers. Above all, with disk space management it reduces the time of client server administration.

Thus, NAS besides providing an instant access to the PCs’ with the same shared files it also aids to store and share all of your data securely by creating a central place for it.

Steps to improve the performance of Mac PC

You just need to stick to following steps to make your Mac PC run faster:
Check the disk space of your PC. Most Mac PC comes with 160 Gb hard disk drives. Check for the available space, if it is less than 50 % then you have to start cleanup of PC.  There are lots of files you are not using currently or since a long time. Just search them and delete them. Do not forget to empty the recycle bin after deletion. You can also move these unused files to an external hard disk. Sometimes you store hundred of GB of audio, pictures and video files on your PC. It is better to move these files to external hard disk. You should give your PC some space to breath.

Many people open many programs at one time and it makes the system very slow. We recommend you to close or terminate some programs you are not using. The Mac PC has only 1 or 2 GB of RAM, so keep that thing in mind and it has not any video card also.  We also recommend you to close some of the tabs in Mozilla and the performance will get automatically improved. You can also add 1 more GB of RAM for improvement.
Mac OS comes with SAFARI internet browser. We recommend you to use Mozilla Firefox instead of Safari. Firefox is a free software and comparison to your default browser; it is faster, reliable and secure.
In Mac OS, they provide “Dashboard widgets”. They used to take more RAM space and     system memory, so try to disable all the internet widgets. These internet widgets consume lots of RAM space and always give alerts.

Advantage of a faster and secure Mac PC

A faster and reliable PC is always joy to work with. You want a fast and good response from your PC so it’s better to make your PC faster and strong. You can add additional RAMs, external hard disks to store additional data. We recommend you to use 3 GB RAM as Mac OS is a UNIX based operating system; it will improve the performance of Mac PC.

To fulfill the requirement of high network traffic and multi tasking, this network cabinets are high end CPU and processor and because most of the power consumption of these devices are dissolved into air in the form of heat, they create stress on the cooling mechanism of your Data Center.

So it is very important to keep this network components cool as overheated devices will lead to system failure and life of the component.

The situation also dangerous as the damaged caused by overheating is always not so evident.

It may lead to sudden system failure or node failure or even a series of downtime over a specific period of time.

Ways to keep networking cabinets cool

Today’s computer inventories are designed to keep cool environment for server and network by keeping high end cooling system raised floor air cooling mechanism. However, this is not only the way to keep the problem away, you should keep this is mind that each networking device should have appropriate ventilation as no cooling system will be effective in the absence of adequate ventilation and even if the inventory is cool the device will not have the option the vent out the heat they are generating and this will lead to the overheating issue.

The device temperature depends of so many factors like the size and shape of the cabinet, door formations, and components used in the cabinet.

It takes a specific amount of airflow to keep any equipment cool and the guidelines are provided by manufactures but it is not sufficient to keep the environment in safe structure but there are some other ways through which you can keep the overheating problem away.

Temperature monitoring

This is the best way to keep a check of the problem before it arises. To ensure that all the equipments are working under the require temperature range, you should have a temperature monitoring system installed which will alarm before the problem goes out of control.

Equipment and fan placement

Do not ever over burden the CPU by trying to attach too many servers. It is always recommended to keep 75 % to 80 % of the capacity. Apart from that you can also increase the ventilation by installing extra fans. Proper circulated airflow keeps the cool and spreads the cooling effect of air conditioner to all corners of the area.

It is easy, you just need to keep in mind to not to stuff the inventory and CPU with too much. Always keep a margin in the capacity of CPU usage, data center inventory and the components used in the network cabinets.

These simple things can keep the overheating problem away in the Networking cabinets.

To wirelessly connect a Laptop you should know the Security key of the network and once you know that you can connect your computer to the network. Once the connection gets established your computer becomes a part of the network and functions the same way as a directly connected computer would. So basically there is no difference of connecting your computer through a LAN cable and then accessing the network printer, or connecting your laptop wirelessly and then accessing the same. Once you are connected to the network then go to the Control Panel and open Printers. In the printer window, click on the Add Printer option, so that the Add Printer wizard starts. The first screen of the Wizard is the Welcome screen so just click on next. In the second screen you have to select what type of printer you would like to add and in this case we will select the second option which is A Network Printer and click on Next. In the second screen if you know the correct name and path of the printer then select the second option and enter the path and name of the printer, else you can select the first option which is Browse and then click on next. In the browse screen you will see your entire network where you can browse to the printer and select it and click on next. Once the connection gets established depending upon your network access rights, printer access rights and local installation rights, you will see the printer installation happening and in a while the printer icon will get added in your printers list.

This way the network printer gets installed on the Laptop which is connected the same network wirelessly. Now whenever you have to use the printer make sure that you are connected to the same network and just select the printer name while printing from the Print dialog box and give the print commands. All you might need to do after giving the command would be to get up from your seat to collect the print-outs.

A network is nothing but an interconnection of two or more computers which share hardware like router or Ethernet cables. Networks are very useful in home or business, because it is very useful to share files, folders and applications.

Steps to connect a Mac to a PC on a local network

There are simple steps to share a Mac and PC on LAN. Both the systems have internal networking to accomplish the connection. Here are the some instructions which will guide you through all setup:

First step is to setup the Window for file sharing. Go to explorer, right click on each folder which you want to share and click on properties. Go to the sharing tab, check the box for the folder on the network and name the folder that will appear on Mac. Now click OK. In Mac PC also you have to do some settings in system preferences. Go to system preferences dialogue box as an administrator and select “windows sharing” and “personal sharing option”. You must your Mac workgroup same as Windows workgroup to avoid conflicts while sharing.

Now get your PC IP address, if your computer has a name then remember that also.

Now go to Mac and at the top of the screen you will find “GO” menu there you need to select “connect to the server” option. Now you will see a server address box, type “smb: //’ followed by IP address and PC name and click “connect”.

Now you will see system authentication box. Enter you windows username and password to access folders.

After performing all these actions, use the drop-down box in the next dialogue box that appear to search the available shared folders. Click “OK” Select the shared folder and. You are able to access that folder on Mac PC. You can copy and open all the folders on Mac PC.

Tips and warnings

Mac is not able to read executable files i.e. files with .exe extension and other windows exclusive programs. It is better to use computer name instead of IP address because IP address tends to change every time. Turn off firewall in your PC or configure it to allow IP address. We can share only files and folders in Mac and Windows PC not applications.

How much sever cooling is sufficient

To deal with server cooling failures, you should know what is the correct amount of cooling to save your server from any accident?  One should also be aware about how the cooling works in servers.  It is a simple physics theory that cooling is directly proportional to the heat generated by electric equipments. Power consumption is related to the number of amperes drawn by the equipments. More the amps generated more the cooling required. You can easily calculate the power consumption and based on that you will know the cooling required. A simple CPU server generates 1 amp or 120 watt power. Now multiply power requirement by 3.4 BTU/watt to calculate the power requirement. Based on this theory, you can say if a server is drawing 120 watts then it will require 408 BTU/watt cooling. We recommend you to hire a specialist or HVAC engineer to know how much and which type of cooling is required.

Simple methods to deal with server cooling failures

It is very important to take quick and right decisions when server cooling failure occurs. To prevent further problems and longer productivity of server you have to move in right direction.  We try to give you right guidelines to prevent server cooling failures.

The first step is to call your HVAC engineer or maintenance people. They are like first aids for your sever and you should also ready with detailed description of problems. Be ready with vehicles because if they need any spare parts then every second counts!

You should aware of the impacts of failures and how long your server last after the failure. Be ready with the service level agreements of your cooling environment. You can also take the service of spot coolers. They are expensive and good for short term cooling.

When critical temperature reached, try to shut-off all non essential servers. Development servers are not necessary when production takes place and you can also open windows and doors to cool the environment.

Now last but not the least make sure you’re ready with all backups ahead of time.

The best way to prevent server cooling failure is to design for future and always ready with backups plans.

You will think that why should I waste my time for recycling? You can also throw away your old PC to a garbage box but that will certainly be dangerous for you and the environment. Recycling is very easy task to do. As a responsible citizen, you should recycle your wastes.

Steps to recycle a computer

Go to a reputed recycler and ask questions about recycling process. He should be able to tell you where to send hardware for recycling. You can also send scraps to the nearest recycle center. He will also tell you about wiping of personal data from hard disk.

Many PC companies like HP, Dell or apple organize recycle programs. You can parcel your PC to them at free of cost. This is the easiest way to recycle your used PC. If you have a purchased a new one then they will not take single money. It will cost you some if you want to recycle but the cost is reasonable. It includes only shipping and handling fee.

The oldest and ultimate way to recycle a PC is to donate it. You can donate it to the nearest school or a charity organization. It will not recycle only hardware but someone is going to use the whole computer. Donation will also make someone happy and make a big difference to his life. A number of non-profit organizations are also available who will help you to donate it to the right place. One more thing is very important before donation is to test the PC. You should be sure if it is working properly or not.

You can also take help of eBay rethink program. They provide number of FAQ you will get to know lot of recyclers in your city. Beside your PC, you can also recycle other electronic items.

After reading this article you may think that recycling is not a cakewalk but it is also not tough though. You just have to spend some time and a very little money over this process. You are also helping earth to keep earth green. You also feel proud when you will see someone is using your computer because of your good deeds.