Phil Bradley trawls the internet to find the answers to this month’s readers’ queries.
Q This isn’t a question about internet searching, but about connecting. I’m setting up a wi-fi system, and I’m concerned about the security aspects. Can you offer me any advice please?
A I could offer advice, but to be honest it’s not an area that I’m expert in. I did however do some hunting around the net for you (using search terms such as wifi wi-fi security lan network networking and so on) and there are lots of really good articles. However, the one that caught my eye was ‘How to secure a wireless LAN’ from Daily Wireless (www.dailywireless.com/features/secure-wireless-lan-021507/). It’s not perfect but it’s well written and easily understandable.
Q I’m trying out this Facebook thing and I’m not really getting on very well with it. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be doing or how best to use it. Can you give me any tips?
A Facebook is the current flavour of the month and people are joining it in ridiculous numbers. I’ve played with lots of these networks and the important thing to remember with this one is that it’s really good if you want to keep tabs on your friends and colleagues. See what they’re doing, what their interests are, sharing resources and so on. It’s also pretty good for wider networking and discussing things in groups. I’d start by going to the search box (top left corner of the screen) and searching for a topic that interests you – you’ll probably find several groups that discuss it and you can join them. One of mine is the Library 2.0 Interest Group for example and there are lots of useful discussions taking place there.
It’s also worth looking at the different applications you can add – again, run a search and click on the ‘applications’ tab to see what can be added. (Try a search for books – there are applications that allow you to list what you’ve read, are reading or intend to read, and you can share and swop this information with your friends.) Take a look at Facebook’s help pages (www.facebook.com/help.php) and an interesting guide site is at www.facebooktalk.com/
Q I love playing around with Flickr (www.flickr.com) and often see some fun things to do (creating posters or calendars for example). Is there a collection of these in one place that I can refer to?
A Point your browser at fd’s Flickr Toys (http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/) which has almost 40 different applications you can play with.
Site of the month
My site of the month is a humorous one this time around. It’s the Lolcats site (www.lolcats.com) and is an ever-growing collection of amusing photographs of cats with different captions. As well as being funny, it’s interesting to see that an entirely new form of grammar and spelling has arisen as a result of the captions. Start with my picture of my cat, Mrs Whiskers (www.lolcats.com/view/10294/), and then overload on cuteness!
Phil Bradley is an internet consultant, trainer, web designer and author. Visit www.philb.com for free information on internet introductions, search engine articles, web design tips and a host of other free information. New: 3rd edn of The Advanced Internet Searcher’s Handbook is now available! If you have any questions about the internet send an email to philb@philb.com with the subject header ‘column query’.
Updated: 19 September 2007