Network too Slow?

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Ever wonder why your network is slow? Well, could somebody else be using it and not telling you? Well if so or if not, then I have a tip and/or trick to help you figure that question out. Ethereal will help you find out who is using your network that you are paying for.

Sadly you have to install another program, WinPcap, which is a packet capture library Ethereal relies on. Basically what WinPcap does for Ethereal is it allows Ethereal to accept any packet it sees.

This is just an introduction and if you want to get right to it, scroll to the last paragraph of the article. Once both are installed, run Ethereal. To see if WinPcap is working, click the capture pull down menu and then Interfaces, and if the packets are increasing you are a go. Once you are satisfied, press the capture button and at the same time open a website (i.e. Google). Go back to the capture window and see as the number of packets increasing. Stop the capture a little later and navigate the website to one which provides third party ads, such as Spiral Frog. Once you've found a website like that, start a new capture and then end it later. You'll see different websites show up under packets captured. This is an example of what Ethereal collects when you open Spam email.
If you want to report spammers then all you have to do is open Spam right after you start a new capture and then stop the capture once images are loaded. Try and find the IP address of the server that connected to your computer.
Finally the whole point of this article. Leave Ethereal on for an evening or more and come back and display the "conversations". Sort it by 'address A' and look for unknown data from IP addresses, websites, and email servers. Hopefully you won't have to have a word with your neighbours.

 

Apple iMac

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I have to give credit to Apple for doing so much in so little time. As my previous post mentioned, Apple has just introduced a new line of iPod products. The Nano, Classic, and Touch all along with the Shuffle and iPhone. Now they've decided to revamp there all-in-one desktop called the iMac. It now has an even sleeker design with a newly redesigned keyboard that comes equipped with two USB 2.0 ports; one on each side at the rear. The problem with this is that most USB drives will mess up the balance of the keyboard since it is so low. Some of the improvements are a better screen quality which is thinner and all around nice. I learned also that the quality of the package is better using anodized aluminum chassis instead of the old polycarbonate plastic.

Since this iMac is all in one, you won't see slots destroying the looks of your computer. Instead, there is one screw on the bottom of the screen that gives you access to most of the slots like DDR3 RAM which the iMac uses. For $1799US you will get a 24 inch iMac with a 2.4-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7700 processor, 1GB of memory, a 320GB Serial ATA drive, ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro graphics with 256MB of GDDR3 memory, and a slot-loading SuperDrive DVD burner. Some extras you can get are up to 1TB of storage, 4GB of memory, and a 2.8-GHz Core 2 Extreme processor. Connectivity capabilities include gigabit ethernet, AirPort Extreme 802.11n (draft) wireless networking, integrated Bluetooth 2.0, and an infrared receiver for use with the included remote control.
The base price however, is $1199US and has a 20inch screen, a 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 1GB memory, 250GB hard drive, 8x double-layer SuperDrive and ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB memory.