By us I mean the consumers who have to endure countless ads that often have no direct connection with the product being advertised.  Sure, during the Super Bowl companies come out with some pretty entertaining commercials, but other than that we just seem to be going through the same thing over and over again.

The latest commercials I wish would go away are presented to us by dear old Microsoft.  Now I have to admit to being slightly amused when Bill Gates does that little shimmy during the first commercial with Jerry Seinfeld, but since then I think the commercials are just too boring.  When you think about it, do those commercials provide any information whatsoever that would prompt someone or keep someone from buying the next operating system from Microsoft?  Computers and computer software isn’t really even mentioned so what’s the use anyway?

I started this mini-rant so I will tell you what the use is.  Microsoft had to come out with something that popped to compete with Apple’s ads.  I don’t know how Jerry Seinfeld does that and I don’t know what their latest commercials, where people claim to be a PC, actually do to further their cause either.  Speaking of furthering their cause.

Microsoft, in my humble opinion, has the most powerful marketing ever known to man.  They shouldn’t care that another company has whole 10% or whatever share of the market.  They are the giants of the computer industry and Apple has only made a small dent in their share of the market.  What other company can churn out so many flawed products and still have such a large share of the market.  What if Nike had the marketing of Microsoft?  Could you imagine a more powerful Nike with more of the athletic apparel market?  Well as popular as Nike is, having the marketing success of Microsoft would make them even more popular – that is pretty hard to imagine.

Commercials, on TV, are just played out to me.  God bless whomever has to feed their families by coming up with some of this stuff.  I guess they don’t realize how smart many consumers are today.  We have the Internet and we have so much product information at our fingertips, we would be crazy to just go out and buy something based on a dumb commercial.  Or would we?

Here is something to think about.  I would be willing to bet that many people in the TV business and advertising have a Tivo/DVR at home.  Think about that for a second.  Does that really make sense?  Hmmm.

I know some of you don’t need this, but believe or not there are those out there who do and we (people who understand it) can help them.  Wireless networking is hardly anything new; if you have a laptop you are likely to have a wireless network at home.  I’ve recently ran into several people who didn’t know how to configure their wireless router and I think it is something the owner should have a handle on.  Additionally, my router (A Belkin, the simplest in my opinion) somehow messed up last night and I had to re-configure it.

I want to just look at some concepts because all routers are slightly different and I couldn’t possibly cover them all.

Configuration - Every router that I’ve set up needs to be connected physically to configure – most of them come with a network cable (ethernet cable or CAT5) in the box.  If not, you can buy one at Wal-Mart, Circuit City or Best Buy.

If this is a re-configuration, you will more than likely need to reset the router to factory defaults.  This can be done easily by using a paperclip or ball-point pen to push in the reset button that is on the back of the router.

You will be able to configure your router via an Internet browser (IE, Firefox, etc.).  Most of the time you will go to the address bar and type in either 192.168.2.1 or 192.168.1.1.

This is important.  Your router probably came from the factory with a blank password.  If you are configuring for the first time or re-configuring, don’t forget to change this.  I know from experience, recent experience.

LAN – Your Local Area Network (LAN) is the first thing you should set up.  Again, don’t get too intimidated by all of this.  You will see some DHCP settings which is where your computers, all of them, will get their IP address from.  Make sure it is enabled and you shouldn’t have to do much else.

Wireless – This is the big one.  This is why you have this router to begin with.  First thing you will have to do is come up with a SSID or a name for you wireless network.  Think of a name that is totally arbitrary and even your next door neighbor wouldn’t associate it with you.  Call me cautious, but I don’t want someone to be able to know which wireless network belongs to me.  Knowing your network will get someone half way to getting into your network.  Once security is set up a password will be required.  If someone knows you they can begin to try passwords like you phone number, your dog’s name, etc.

Don’t worry too much about the channel.

You need to choose your security.  Keep in mind this is only for your wireless connections.  If someone can physically plug into the back of your router it is safe to assume you trust them.  You will have to choose WEP or WPA for security.  I use WPA because it is the newer method and supposedly superior.  After choosing this, you will need to come up with a password.  Once someone finds your wireless network, they will be forced to enter the password you choose.  Like I said before, if they have no idea whose network it is, they will have to start randomly entering passwords.  Make your password somewhat difficult to guess, but don’t forget it.

Odd and Ends – There are additional settings, but you should be up and running with what we’ve covered so far.  The added benefit of all of this is you will have a couple more dollars in your pocket if you didn’t know what was going on with your wireless router before.  The Geek Squad and the Firedogs get paid decent money to do what we’ve covered.  Now you shouldn’t have to pay them.

I mentioned Belkin before as my router of choice.  I’m going to be a little biased and say if you see a D-Link router in the store, run fast.  If you see Netgear approach with caution.  If you see Linksys, I don’t know what to tell you.  My experience with Linksys is the configuration wasn’t as easy as Belkin and the range wasn’t what I needed at the time.

If you live someplace where range of your wireless network is important – townhouse or a house with a basement – look for MIMO.  MIMO stands for multiple in, multiple out and normally has a better range than other routers.

Another benefit of Belkin – I’m not a paid sponsor – is their dummy lights.  When my router goes out, I can look at the router and tell where the problem is.  For instance, last night something was actually wrong with the Internet connection.  These lights really help the troubleshooting process and I think some other manufacturers have started to use something similar.

Sorry if this is old hat to you, but I feel like there are some people out there who need to know this.

Calm down, I’m talking about Internet browser wars!

Let’s jump right to the point of this post: you owe it to yourself to possibly use another Internet browser than the one you are currently using to view this site.  I would assume you are using Internet Explorer since that is the most popular browser available.  I would go so far as to say many people probably wouldn’t even be using IE if it didn’t come on computers loaded with Microsoft operating systems.  Yes, it is much improved, but it still has some serious issues.  Enough issues to allow some other browsers to gain ground in the market.

Firefox is the number two browser available and you owe it to yourself to at least give it a shot.  The huge upside associated with Firefox is how configurable it is.  There are plug-ins and themes that fit almost everyone’s needs.  It just seems to have it all.

I use Apple computers a lot and I have to mention Safari.  Yes it is an Apple product and yes you can download it and use it (for free) on your Microsoft-based PC.  It is touted as the fastest browser around and that may be accurate.  I’m not going to lie to you and say it has as many features as Firefox, but for my use it seems to be a little more stable.

I don’t have a lot of experience with Opera, but some people will use nothing else.  It has tabbed browsing like the others and that is about all I know about it.

The bottom line is, the browser you are using right now might not be the best browser for your needs.  You may find, like me, that one browser is not enough to meet all your needs.

Go ahead, get in on the browser war.