Some computer/network related tips for new comers

[Ni Ye]

1 Which public computer lab can display Chinese characters?

Link Hall.

Computers in Center of International Students and Health Center can
not. Characters show up like boxes.

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2 How can I Type Chinese characters without IME?

Use computers that can display Chinese first.

Open
http://www.yuzi.net/tool/Importpy.htm
using your web browser, e.g., IE or Firefox.

This is a web page based IME. Your can copy and paste after the
characters show up.

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3 How can I use IM without a computer?

ATT wireless phones have mobile version MSN(live), AIM, Yahoo!, etc.
installed. Other carriers may have similar programs. Please keep in
mind that EACH IM MESSAGE you sent via phone charges you $0.1.

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4 Is online bank secure?

For HSBC, it is. Their web interface uses SSL which is an encrypted
transfer protocol. Generally speeking, using public computers to log
on online bank is risky. Spyware "pre-installed" in these computer can
log your activities and steal your login information. Most of the
computers in the public lab are managed by an auto protection scheme
so it is not easy to install spyware on them. Nevertheless, avoid
public computers for online transactions.

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5 How to temporary use Internet while waiting for ISP to install and
activate your own connection?

If you are using a laptop and the laptop is equipped with wirless
connection, you can try your luck. There are people using a wireless
AP/ router without encryption. You can search and connect the
unsecured ones. To get a better signal, try at locations like windows,
balconies. You may also carry your laptop, walk around and check other
apartment buildings.

Since this kind of connection is not encrypted, you were at risk of
being sniffed. Many non-ecryption applications like MSN conversations,
http web pages including web emails could be easily seen by anybody
within the signal range if they are using sniff techniques.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_sniffer

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6 How to securely share Internet connection

Once you have your own connection, you can buy a wireless router to
share this connection. I do not recommend you to use the one ISP (like
Time Warner) supplied, cheap deal routers or used historical models.
These cheap craps can afect your actual download speed and connection
stability. This is not because of the physical connection bandwidth
e.g. 54M. This is because the poor MCU/CPUs inside these craps. They
cannot handle too much network traffic at once. I'd use basic Linksys
models, WRT54G, WRT54GS. If you want to program the router yourself,
you may want to try WRT54GL, which is a linux based model.

The security of wireless router can be easily enforced. For most
models, you can easily setup the secure protocol ether using the setup
disk in the box or manually log on to the web interface of the router.
When choosing encryption scheme, WPA2 TKIP/ASE is prefered. WEP is
obsolete, it can be cracked and expose your network traffic to risk.
Most router web interfaces need password, the default one for linksys
is admin/admin. They are in the manual.

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7 Buying a laptop?

Most Chinese students use Lenovo Thinkpad T (Former IBM), maybe it is
because of the price difference between China and US. Many Americans
use Apple or DELL, some use Thinkpad or HP. Most Indian pals use huge
DELLs.

Thinkpad T is good, but might be ugly or heavy in someone's view.
Apple is pretty, but I don't think it is as robust as Thinkpad T. This
MacOS is better than Windows. DELLs are cheap craps. But most people
don't need a so durable laptop, thus DELLs could be a good choice.

If you decided to buy Thinkpad, you can go to
www.lenovo.com/cpp
, many people knew the latest passcode. I bought a Thinkpad using epp,
they keep sending me new cpp passcodes. The price is 15% off by
default. Combine with coupons, you may get 25% off in cpp.

If you decided to buy a macbook, go apple.com, search education, use
syracuse university, you can get some discounted prizes.

For DELL, check www.dealsea.com, they always have deal popout.

The Amercian labor day (early Sep.) might be a good chance to buy new
laptops.

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8 I've recieved my new laptop, but some Chinese characters do not show
up.

This is because the default code page in Windows is set to "English
US". You do not have to reinstall a Chinese version Windows. All you
have to do is go to control panel, go "Regional and Language
Options"(XP) or "Change Display Language" (Vista), find "Language for
non-unicode applications"(XP) and "Change System Local" (Vista). Set
it to "Chinese (PRC)". Reboot. You can also enable Chinese IME in
these setup windows.

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9 Software?

EECS students have MSDN AA logins. Which is a lot of Microsoft
software (Including Windows, but no Office) for free to download. Ask
helpdesk at ecs.

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Ni, Ye

[Hui]

Very helpful! Thanks so much.

On 7月16日, 上午3时30分, Ni Ye <nyny...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 1 Which public computer lab can display Chinese characters?
>
> Link Hall.
>
> Computers in Center of International Students and Health Center can
> not. Characters show up like boxes.
>
> --
> 2 How can I Type Chinese characters without IME?
>
> Use computers that can display Chinese first.
>

> Openhttp://www.yuzi.net/tool/Importpy.htm

> For DELL, checkwww.dealsea.com, they always have deal popout.