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Laptop's Control Panel shows wireless connection options

By JOHN TORRO
Published August 29, 2005

Q. I read all the time about stealing wireless signals with the wireless cards. I also see that downtown St. Petersburg has a Wi-Fi area, as do some hotels and motels. I may be slow and a novice at this, but I don't know how to sign on in these areas. I had Verizon DSL at one time, and I purchased the D-Link wireless setup. If I go to downtown St. Petersburg with my D-Link Air Plus card in my laptop, can I sign on through my CompuServe account? I'm not sure how this works. Are these places online all the time? Can I just open up my laptop and sign on in these areas? Doesn't my wireless card have to match the frequency of the base? I am confused about all of this.

A. Before we get to how to do it, let me repeat our official position: If you find a wireless hot spot, please make sure it really is free and open for public use. We don't endorse jumping in on any open network, whether it was intentionally left open or not. Now, your wireless card acts just like a radio receiver. Just like a regular radio will automatically pick up signals within reach, your wireless card will do the same. You can check to see which networks your card is picking up by going to Control Panel, double-clicking Wireless Network Connection and selecting View Wireless Networks. From there you can choose whichever networks have a strong enough signal for you to connect. This has nothing to do with your Internet service provider. Of course, for you to connect, the network would have to be open or you would need to enter the key information when prompted. Many of the hotels and motels will give you the key information when checking in. You want to make sure your firewall is active to keep others off your PC.

Q. Clicking on My Computer (Windows XP Home), I'm missing any indication that I have a thumb drive, camera, etc., plugged into any USB port. The only way to view or access these devices is to create a shortcut on the desktop, such as E:\, F:\, etc. They also can be accessed through Admin Tools, Computer Management, Storage, Disk Management. Device Manager does recognize the devices when inserted in the USB ports.

A. This can happen if you add a removable device, and the next letter already is assigned for some reason. Try this: Go to Control Panel, Performance and Maintenance, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Disk Management. Find your device that should be labeled as a removable disk. Right-click it and choose Change Drive Letter. Then assign it a drive letter past whatever you may already have.

Q. My computer (Windows XP) is only a year old, but I keep getting a message that I am running low on space. I cleaned files and defragmented, but got very little back. I don't know where a lot of things came from. How can I find out what I can delete without messing up something?

A. Without seeing the PC and its files, it's hard to tell you what should go and what should stay. I would stay away from the Windows and Program Files directories as a general rule. First, try running the Disk Cleanup Wizard (My Computer, right-click the C drive, Properties, select the General tab and click Disk Cleanup). Examine the options that it presents for possible disk savings. Select the ones you want and then let it run. Next find what and where the biggest files on your system are: Click Start, Search, Files or Folders. Click All Files or Folders and then the More Advanced Options link. Then click the "What Size is it" link. Click the "Specify Size (in KB)" link. Use the "At least" option and enter 10,000. This will return all files over 10 megabytes. Of course, this does not tell you which files you can delete, but it will at least give you a good idea of which files are taking up the most space on your system. By using the file name, directory and file properties, you should be able to find out what the file is and possibly whether you can safely delete it. If you are not 100 percent sure, leave it alone. Any files with a .DMP suffix usually can be deleted. These are dump files that Windows creates whenever it has a crash. They are large andgood candidates for deletion.

[Last modified August 26, 2005, 08:44:03]