Effective and Efficient Web Searching with Google

By now, there aren't many internet users who haven't heard of Google. Google is the top ranked search engine on the planet at this point in time.

However, most people don't use the advanced search and information finding features that google offers.

This week we'll review some of the features of Google that make everyday activities easier.

1. Site Search (site:)

Let's say you have a Dell notebook and you want to find out the specifications of your notebook (for example, I have a Dell Inspiron 6400).

You can specify a search that only searches the Dell website like this:

Dell Inspiron 6400 specifications site:www.dell.com

Which gives these results: Here

As you can see, only pages on www.dell.com are returned as results.

2. Currency Conversion

If you deal in foreign currencies, you may have a good site already, like www.oanda.com. But google can give you quick conversions by doing a search like this:

1USD to CAD

Which returns the results Here

The important thing to remember is to put the number of dollars (or whatever currency) as the first currency, then put "to " to complete the search.

3. Measurement conversion

With google you can convert metric to imperial, or vice versa, much like the currency converter.

This search:

565 litres to gallons

results in this: Here

4. Stock Quotes

Google search also has a built in stock quote function. Currently it only works for stocks on the US stock exchanges.

For example if you search:
RIMM

You get stock quote for Research in Motion on the NASDAQ: Here

5. File Type search

This one is particularly useful. Let's say you're looking for information about cookbooks, but you want cookbooks that are in PDF or Word Document format. You can narrow your search by defining the filetype like this:

cookbook filetype:PDF

Which gives the results: Here


As you can see, Google has done a great job making common everyday queries easy and accessible to even novice search users. These functions can even be combined. Let's say I want to search for PDF files related to my dell 6400 on the dell site. I would do this search:

Dell Inspiron 6400 filetype:PDF site:www.dell.com

This would return results of all the PDF files about the Inspiron 6400 on dell's web site.

For a full list of features and advanced search abilities of Google, check out this page: http://www.google.ca/intl/en/help/features.html

That's all for this time.

Regards,
Ben

Installing a Router Properly

How many clients have I been to that have a router? Probably around 95%. How many have them properly setup with optimal security settings? About 5%.
The problem with setting up your own router is that, yes, they're easy to plug in and get working, however in most cases you're leaving yourself wide open to security vulnerabilities.
The most common problem is that the wireless network has not been secured - anybody can sit outside your home or office and use your internet connection. So what's the problem with that you say? Well, if they use your internet connection to perform activities or visit web sites that are not legal, it will get traced back to you. When that person accesses the internet, there's no way to tell which computer on your network requested the page, just that your modem did. The other major vulnerability is if you have file or printer sharing enabled. If you do, your files and folders are exposed to the person using the computer, simply by them clicking on "My Network Places" icon and browsing the network. I've been at several clients where I've shown them that I could actually sit out in their parking lot and start printing pages to their printer from outside using my laptop and no special techniques.
There are many other features that get unused on the router if not properly setup, like DHCP Reservations, MAC Address Filtering, Web Access Policies and Schedules, Firewall optimization, IP address range minimization to name just a few. Also, a lot of people are still using WEP encryption when they should really be using WPA or WPA2 for optimal security. WEP encryption (and the associated wireless password) can be cracked quite easily with easily available downloads.
So what routers do I recommend? For home users and small offices I really recommend the D-LINK DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router ($169.00+tax). This router is rock solid reliable, has wireless 'n' technology (6x the speed and 4x the range of current wireless 'g' standard) and is backwards compatible with wireless 'b' and 'g' technologies. It also has Gigabit LAN speeds (1000Mb/s) versus the current 100Mb/s standard. What that means is you can, at optimal network conditions, transfer files and data between computers on your network at over 50MB/s (about 35 floppy disks per second). Now that's fast!
For small businesses with 5 or more computers I really recommend the Cisco 800 or 810. Cisco is THE brand in routers. Their products are extremely reliable, extremely customizable, and can meet the needs of any business who can't afford downtime. They usually run between $550-$750 and you'll probably never need to buy another router again - that is, it's more likely that you'll have a change in networking requirements than the router will stop working.

Until next time,
Ben