Expand the Range of your Wireless Network with any Old Router

The wireless range offered by your router will vary depending on which Wi-Fi standard it supports - is it 802.11g or 802.11n compatible? - and whether there are any walls around as that will obstruct the Wi-Fi signal.

The 802.11n routers, also known as Wireless N routers, typically have a higher Wi-Fi range but even if you get one of these, the wireless signals may still not reach certain areas of your home - like the corner study or the bedroom on the first floor – as there are just too many obstructions in the form of walls between your laptop and the router.

Expand your Wireless Network's Range with an Old Router

What should you therefore do to ensure that the Wi-Fi signals are available in full strength in every corner of your house?

You can easily extend your Wi-Fi network with some additional hardware - like Wi-Fi repeaters and Wireless Access Points - but if you want to save a few bucks, just get hold of an old wireless router that you no longer use and connect it to your existing router using an inexpensive Ethernet cable.

Our premises is around 100 feet by 200 feet with plenty of walls (see the above illustration) and yet there’s wireless Internet access available in almost every part of the house.

The setup is extremely simple. All I have is a main Wireless-N router connected to the ISP provide modem. Then there’s a second wireless router (Wireless-G) that is connected to the main router over an Ethernet or Cat-5 cable.

Use a Second Router as an Access Point

Let’s call our routers OBAMA (the router that you are already using with your wireless home network) and PALIN (the second router that you want to add to increase your wireless range).

A: Note the Settings of the Main Router

Step 1: First we need to determine the IP address of OBAMA (our existing router). Copy-paste the following command in the Windows Run box and note the value of “Default Gateway.” That your router’s IP address.

cmd /k ipconfig

Let’s assume the router’s IP address is 192.168.30.1. Also make note of the Subnet Mask value which is usually 255.255.255.0.

Step 2: Open your web browser and type the router’s IP address, that you determined earlier, into the address bar. If you are using IE, you might want to add http:// to the address else IE may throw an error.

You’ll now have to provide a password for accessing the router settings. This will vary depending on your router’s manufacturer – just Google for “<brand name> default router password” or try the standard combinations like admin/admin, admin/password and admin/<blank> (no password).

Step 3: Once you are in the settings of OBAMA router, switch to wireless settings and make a note of the Wireless mode, the SSID and the channel.

If you have protected your Wi-Fi with a password, also note down the security mode used (WPA, WEP or WPA2) and your secret passphrase.

B: Configure the Second Router

Step 4: Next we need to configure PALIN, our second router.

First reset the router PALIN to factory defaults by hard-pressing the reset button for about 10 seconds. Now  connect PALIN to your computer using the Ethernet cable. Put one end of the cable in any of the LAN ports available on the router and the other end to your computer’s Ethernet port. Make sure the router is powered on.

Step 5: Open the browser and type 192.168.1.1 – the default internet IP address of your PALIN router. If you are not using a Linksys router, try 192.168.0.1 which is the default for Netgear and D-Link routers.

Once you are in, you need to change the values of the default SSID, Wireless mode, the channel, the security mode and the passphrase such that they match with your OBAMA router.

Then go to Setup –> Advanced routing and change the current mode from Gateway to Router. Next disable DHCP Server since our primary OBAMA router will handle the task of assigning IP addresses to devices connecting to the wireless network.

Finally, change the IP address of the PALIN router to any free address in your LAN. For instance, if the IP address of OBAMA router is 192.168.30.1, you can safely assign 192.168.30.2 to PALIN. Also make sure that the Subnet mask is the same as determined in Step 1. Save settings.

C: Connect the Two Routers

Now that we have configured the routers, it’s time to connect them with wires.

Your existing OBAMA Router probably has five (1+4) ports – the WAN port here (or the Internet port) should be connected to the ISP provide modem as before. Pick any of the available LAN ports on the router and connect it to any of the LAN ports on the PALIN router using an Ethernet cable. That’s it.

Now that everything is setup, you can connect your computer and mobile devices to the second router using either a wired connection (the three ports are still free) or over Wi-Fi.

Since we have assigned the same SSID and security settings to the second router, you don’t have to configure anything on your laptop as you move around the house*. Also, as we are just expanding the reach of an existing wireless network and not creating a new one, all your shared folders, music libraries, photos, and other files will be accessible from all computers and mobile devices that are connected to the home network.

[*] You may also split your existing wireless network by connecting a router. This method will create an additional wireless network and the two won’t be able to see or talk to each other.

YouTube Releases New Statistics on Mobile Traffic, Monetization, etc.

YouTube has updated their press page and it offers some new statistics around YouTube’s Partner program, mobile growth, monetization and more. Here’s a quick summary of the key new stats:

#1. YouTube users upload the equivalent of 240,000 full-length films every week. In other words, 60% more content is getting uploaded to YouTube when compared to the previous year.

#2. Over 3 billion videos are viewed a day while YouTube mobile gets over 320M views a day. YouTube’s mobile traffic continues to grow at an impressive rate - up 60% since January this year. I wonder if YouTube has figured out a way to monetize their mobile content.

#3. 150 years of YouTube video are watched every day on Facebook and every minute more than 400 tweets contain YouTube links. Google doesn’t exactly say how many YouTube videos are watched on Facebook.

#4. YouTube is monetizing over 3 billion video views per week globally but over a third of YouTube's total monetized views come from Content ID. To give you an example, if Sony finds a trailer of one of their own movies illegally uploaded on to YouTube, they can choose tomonetize the video instead of asking YouTube to remove it.

#5. YouTube has 20,000+ partners around the world and hundreds of YouTube partners are making six figures a year. I doubt if the amateurs are making that kind of money on YouTube but a more encouraging news is that the number of YouTube partners making over $1,000 a month is up 300% since 2010.

#6. Over 12 million people are connected and auto-sharing to at least one social network.Google has been actively pushing users to connect their YouTube accounts with Facebook and Twitter but I think the 10+ million users of Google+ may have also played a role here.

And finally, here’s a follow-up to Rebecca Black’s Friday, the music video that went on to become one of the most disliked videos on YouTube ever.

Gmail Adds Read Receipts in Google Apps Business

Would you like to know if the sales presentation you just sent to your boss and other co-workers has been read or not? Now you can if you are using Gmail with the Google Apps for Business edition.

Like Microsoft Outlook, Gmail has enabled email tracking in the Business edition of Google Apps to help users know the exact date and time where their email was opened and read by the recipient(s). Read receipts aren’t sent automatically, unless enabled by the domain administrator, and it for the email recipient to decide whether or not they would like to notify the sender that the message was delivered and read.

How Read Receipts in Gmail Work?

You may choose to send Read Receipts to senders within your organization, where everyone is on Google Apps, or even to external addresses that may be on different email system (like from Gmail to Microsoft Outlook).

Here’s a quick walkthrough on how you can track your emails with  Gmail using Read Receipts.

Step 1: The sender, while composing a new email message, checks the “Request Read Receipt” option.

Step 2: The email recipient opens the message and when he is done reading, Gmail pops-up a notification asking whether or not they would like to send a read receipt to the sender.

Step 3: If the recipient agreed to send a read receipt, the message in the sender’s inbox will be updated automatically with the exact date and time when the message was read.

Read Receipts for Personal Gmail Accounts

How to Record Skype Calls on your iPad

Skype, the much loved app for making voice and video calls, is now available for the iPad as well – download a copy from your country’s iTunes store. The iPad app can be used on both Wi-Fi and 3G networks and, like the desktop version of Skype, you can also send text messages and place calls to landline and mobile numbers from the iPad.

The Skype app is compatible with the original iPad and the newer iPad 2 though you would need the latter model for making video calls. One big advantage of using Skype over the built-in FaceTime app is that it lets video chat even with friends who are outside the Apple iMac/iPhone/iPad ecosystem as Skype is available for all popular platforms including Windows, Linux, Android, Symbian and more.

How to Record Skype Calls on iPad (or iPhone)

While there are plenty of software tools around for recording Skype calls on a desktop, the process of recording Skype calls on an iPad or iPhone is a little bit different.

You initiate a call over Skype, switch to an audio recorder app and hit the record button. The technique works because even if you put the Skype app in the background, the call won’t disconnect. The other option is that you launch an audio recording app first and then switch to Skype so the recording happens in the background.

So which app do you use for recording Skype calls on the iPad.

My personal favorite is Quick Voice – this is a free voice recorder with a minimal interface and you can you record audio of unlimited duration. The only limitation is that you cannot run Quick Voice as a background app and second, if the audio file size exceeds 5 MB, you can’t transfer it out of your iPad.

If you want to have the Skype app running in the foreground during the recording – like when you are doing a video call – you may consider getting a copy of Voice Recorder orAudio Memos. These are inexpensive voice recording apps for the iPad that have no limits and support background recording.

Take Notes while Recording Skype Calls

If you would like to jot down notes during a Skype call on an iPad, the recommended apps are Evernote (in the free category), Audio Notes, Sound Note and Notes Plus. With Evernote you can only type notes using the built-in keyboard while the other apps will also let you both type and draw freehand on the screen during the recording.

Finally, one unlikely but great contender in this category of Skype recorders isScreenChomp. This is a digital whiteboard app that also records audio with drawing and exports everything as one video file.

The workflow is pretty similar. You launch the Skype app, initiate a voice / video call, then switch to ScreenChomp, or any of the other note taking apps, and start recording. Simple but there are obviously certain limitations. 

One, you may only record voice calls using the above methods and if you are doing a video call on Skype, only the audio portion of the call will get recorded on your iPad.

Second, if you are using headphones during the Skype call, only your side of the conversation will get recorded since the built-in iPad microphone won’t hear the voice coming from the other side.

Video: Skype for iPad

You Can Save the New Gmail Ads

Google is testing a new and completely different format of ads inside Gmail as was first spotted by Richard Waters of the Financial Times.

A thumbnail image of the ad appear in the sidebar, a place normally reserved for contextual text ads, and clicking this image will open a larger version of that ad in the same Gmail window.

Richard writes:

The small box in the upper right hand corner, which has a thumbnail image in it, was all that appeared alongside the original email. The text advertises an upcoming movie, “One Day”.

Clicking on the box opened the larger image inside an email. At the top left (not shown here) the user is given three options: Save to Inbox, Forward and Dismiss.

Gmail users then have an option to save these ads in their Inbox – in case the ad has a shopping coupon that you would like to use later – or they can forward the ads to a friend (won’t that be annoying?). If you dismiss the ad, it would disappear from your inbox forever. Interesting!

Create a Mail Merge with Gmail and Google Docs

A mail merge program helps you send personalized email messages to multiple contacts in one go. Each message has the same content but some parts of the message can be customized – like you can greet each recipient by their first name.

Who needs Mail Merge? If you are organizing a party at your home, you can send personalized email invitations to all your friends with the help of mail merge. A person like Steve Jobs - see the following video - can use mail merge to effortlessly invite hisinner circle for the launch of a new product.

How to Create Mail Merge with Gmail

Microsoft Outlook with Word has Mail Merge functionality built-in but if you are a Gmail  or Google Apps user, you may still use mail merge easily with the help of Google Docs.

And though the Mail Merge program using Google Docs, this is not limited to Gmail users. If you have linked your Hotmail or Yahoo! account with a Google Account, you may use that or any non-Gmail address with Mail Merge as well.

Mail Merge with File Attachments - Step by Step

This new version of Gmail Mail Merge program offers support for rich-text (HTML) email templates, you may add file attachments with the outgoing messages, there’s an option to BCC emails to yourself and better overall usability. Let’s get started:

Step 1: Open this Google spreadsheet and create a copy of the same in your Google Docs account (File –> Make a Copy).

Step 2: Under the new “Mail Merge” menu, click on “Reset” to clear the canvas and alsoauthorize Google Docs to access your Gmail and Google Contacts.

Step 3: Open Google Contacts and create a new Group with all the contacts who you would like to send a personalized email. Alternatively, you may simply add the recipient’s name and email addresses manually in the Google Sheet.

Step 4: Click Mail Merge –> Import Google Contacts and type the name of the Google Contacts group that you created in Step 3. Google Docs will now automatically import all the relevant Gmail contacts into the spreadsheet.

Step 5: Fill the various fields of the email template (highlighted in white).

5a. You can compose an email template in rich text using the HTML Mail tool and then copy-paste the generated HTML code into the message body field of the Google Sheet.

5b. If you would like to add an attachment to your email messages – say a PDF file or an Office document – just upload that file to Google Docs and copy-paste the ID of the file into the Attachment ID field. You can find the ID of a Google Docs file in its URL.

Step 6: Go to the Mail Merge menu again and click “Start Mail Merge” – the status against the names of your Gmail contacts will change to “OK” for all email messages that were successfully delivered through Google Docs.

That’s it! You’ve just completed your first mail merge through Gmail and Google Docs.

Please note that Gmail has a daily sending limit and any messages that are dispatched using the Gmail Mail Merge program also count in that limit. You can send a maximum of 500 messages in a day and if you exceed that number, Google can temporarily lock your Gmail account.