Ronald Pacchiano

I use Microsoft Outlook 2003 for sending and receiving e-mail. While I’ve used other e-mail clients in the past, in my opinion, Outlook is far superior to them. Unfortunately it’s not perfect, and I do have one particular problem with it that I find especially annoying. It doesn’t happen all of the time, but every […]

I was wondering if you could tell me if the terms HomePlug and HomePNA mean the same thing? I’ve seen them used a number of times, but I’m not quite sure what they mean. Is it just another way of describing power-line networking? Well, you’re half right. HomePlug networks are used in houses […]

I recently relocated to an area that offers high-speed Internet access, and I’ve decided to jump on the broadband wagon, so to speak. My next step is choosing which connection type I want to go with: Cable modem or DSL. Some of my friends have cable and some DSL, but both claim to have the […]

I’m trying to set up peer-to-peer wireless network between two desktop computers. One is running Windows XP Home Edition and is equipped with a NetGear PCI wireless card. The other is running Windows XP Media Center with a D-Link USB wireless adapter. Both cards look like they’re configured correctly and are coming up as working […]

Not to long ago I purchased an older Dell Latitude laptop computer on eBay. The unit arrived in perfect condition and with Windows 98 installed on it. Since it had enough memory — and this being the year 2005 — I decided that I would upgrade the system to Windows XP. The upgrade went fine […]

I’ve read many discussions on DSL routers, but I can’t find any information regarding DSL modems. My ISPs provided me with an internal DSL modem, and I don’t believe I can share the ISP connection with another PC or Mac because of the fact that’s it’s an internal model. I could buy an external DSL […]

I’ve wanted to set up VPN access to my home network for sometime now. So this past weekend I went to Best Buy to pick up a new router. While reading through the router specifications, I noticed that some of the routers were labeled “VPN” while others were called “VPN Passthrough.” At first I thought […]

More on Small Business Networking Originally posted on April 18, 2005. Updated on July 25, 2011  I have a small business network that’s been in place for many years, and we’re finally getting around to a long overdue replacement of a dozen or so old desktop computers. The technician doing the work says that our […]

My home network is made up of three computers connected by a Linksys BEFSR41 router, and all of the PCs run a different version of Windows. One computer runs Windows 98 SE, another runs Windows 2000 Professional and the last is equipped with Windows XP Professional. NetBEUI is the default protocol for the network, and […]

I just purchased a used D-Link DI-784 router from a guy on eBay. After I received the router, I connected it to my network. The router appears to have DHCP enabled because it assigned an IP address to my wired PC, and I was surfing the net in minutes. Configuring my wireless notebook, on the […]

I was hoping you might be able to help me with a sporadic problem I’ve been experiencing. I have a PC running Windows XP Home Edition connected to a DSL line. Until recently, it had never given me any problems. My birthday had just passed and my uncle bought me a D-Link DI-624 wireless router. […]

In my office, I have a cable modem that provides high-speed Internet access for two computers. The cable modem connects to a D-Link AirPlus Xtreme G DI-624 4-Port Wireless Router. One PC connects to the router using an RJ-45 cable, the other to a D-Link AirPlus Xtreme G DWL-G520 Wireless PCI Adapter, which resides about […]