Friday, 8 December 2017

Explained: What is an IP address and how can I find it?

Did you know that every device that’s connected to the internet uses something called an IP address?
IP stands for internet protocol and it’s a sequence of numbers which acts as a unique identification code. Think of it like a phone number which lets computers communicate with each other. Here we explain how IP addresses work how you can discover yours.
What is an IP address?
A standard IP address (which is known as the IPv4 protocol) consists of four sets of up to three digits, usually represented as XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX. Everything that’s connected to the internet has an IP address and, since they run on computers that are also connected to the internet, websites have one, too.
Try entering ‘193.113.9.164’ into your web browser’s address bar to see where it takes you.
How do I find a website’s IP address?
Web addresses aren’t what you think they are – URLs such as bt.com are only there for our benefit as they’re easy to remember, but actually these web addresses correspond to an IP address as well.
So when you type bt.com, behind the scenes it’s actually going to 193.113.9.164. This is thanks to something called the Domain Name System, or ‘DNS’, which translates IP addresses into character-based URLs.
You can find the IP address of any web site using Windows’ Command Prompt. Search for “command prompt” on a PC. When the Command Prompt window opens, type ping the web address, for example: ping bt.com and press the Return key. The IP address of the web address you used will then be displayed.
What is your computer’s IP address?
Your computer’s IP address is assigned by your ISP and you can find out what it is by visiting www.whatismyip.com. The site will also show which city and country you’re in, and the name of your ISP. IP addresses are allocated on a per-country basis and ISPs then allocate them to customers based on geographical location.
This information can all be gleaned from an IP address, so never be alarmed if a web site appears to know your whereabouts.
IP addresses and home networks
The IP address shown by www.whatismyip.com is that of the device connected directly to your internet connection and, in most cases, this is a home router. ISPs only assign one IP address to each customer, but when several devices are connected to the same router, each also needs its own IP address to distinguish it online. Routers get around this problem using something called network address translation, or NAT.
In simple terms, a router assigns its own internal IP address to every device that’s connected to it, usually of the form 192.168.XXX.XXX. The router then keeps track of these internal addresses when they communicate with the internet to ensure that the correct web page, for example, is delivered to the device that originally requested it. You can see your router’s NAT settings (sometime referred to as DHCP) in its settings.
Find an internal IP address
If you’re having problems getting a computer online at home, establishing its internal IP address (or lack of) will tell you if it’s successfully connected to your network. Open a Command Prompt by searching on your PC, type ipconfig /all and press Return.
A long list of information will appear - look for the line “IPv4 Address” to find the internal IP address assigned by your router. If there isn’t one, or if it doesn’t begin with “192.168.”, then the computer isn’t connected to your network.

Over Charging Bad For Your Phone Battery Life?

The answer is mystery for years. Probably most of us have a common doubt on this particular problem. Some say that over charging may damage your phone’s battery life. Some may argue “But, the purpose of the battery is to charge and discharge”, then what’s exactly over charging meant. Over charging doesn’t means charging the battery above its capacity. But, exactly what happens when charging and discharging, the ions in the battery moves back and forth, during this process the battery generates heat. This is the actual problem while charging.
During dissipation of heat some ions in the battery began to drain out, then the process of charging cycle begins again. This continuous process may cause swelling up the battery size and damages battery life, but now we needn’t worry about these swelling in batteries because technology has a solution to it.
But we should worry about the heat that is generated during the process of charging. Sometimes there is a rare possibility that our phone might blow. The answer for this question is: Does your battery gets damaged if it continues to charge even after it’s full capacity? Finally, the myth is busted. Your phone is smarter than you think. Once it’s fully charged, it automatically stops charging. So stop worrying about your phone.
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Thursday, 7 December 2017

Motherboard, expansion discs and memory: Discover what's inside your PC

Upgrading a PC is a straightforward task, but it does depend upon some skill with a screwdriver and some familiarity with its hardware. Fortunately, it’s easy to see what’s inside a desktop PC by simply removing the case and taking look — a luxury that laptop owners, unfortunately, can’t enjoy.
Before you begin
Most desktop PCs have a case that can be opened by removing a few screws on the rear panel and a screwdriver usually isn’t required — just make sure that the PC is unplugged before you start.
It’s also worth investing in an anti-static wrist-strap (£2-6) before ventu
Disk drives and power
What you see inside a PC depends on how big the case is, how many components it has and how neatly it’s been assembled. At the very least, you should see one of more ‘drive cages’ behind the front panel that holds the CD/DVD and hard disk drives, with cables coming from the back of each — these may be wide or narrow, depending on the age of the PC.
The cables can be disconnected and the drives removed from the cages (usually after undoing some screws) if one needs to be replaced.
You’ll also see a large metal box at the back of the PC where the mains cable connects. This contains the power supply and several other cables emerge from this to connect to other parts of the PC — including the various disk drives at the front.
Even when the PC is unplugged, its power supply can still be dangerous, so while it’s safe to disconnect its cables from other parts of the PC, leave the power supply itself alone.
Expansion cards
Below the power supply you may see one or more ‘expansion cards’, or you may just see the empty expansion slots on the motherboard they plug into.
A graphics card is a type of expansion card (one with a large fan and/or metal heatsink, usually) and it’s held in place with a screw at the back of the PC’s case. The back edge of the graphics card pokes through a hole in the back of the PC’s case so that a monitor cable can connect to it.
Other expansion cards use a similar arrangement and you may see power cables from the power supply connecting to some of them.
The motherboard
Expansion cards plug into slots on the PC’s motherboard, which is the large circuit board that covers the bottom or side of the case. Disk drives and other components connect to this so that they can communicate with the rest of the PC, so don’t be surprised to see it covered with cables.
You may also see a large fan, usually with an elaborate heatsink, on one part of the motherboard — this is the cooling system for the processor that sits beneath it. In turn, the processor plugs into a square socket on the motherboard, although you probably won’t be able to see this under its fan.
Memory slots
Long, thin memory modules — ‘DIMMs’ — are also slotted into the motherboard. There are usually at least two slots and at least one will be occupied, although this depends on how much memory is installed. The slots have a small slip at each end to hold the memory module in place.
Ports
The back side of a motherboard also pokes through the back of the PC’s case to expose its various ports — USB, network and so on — although these are only visible from the outside. The back of the case also often has a large fan to suck warm air from the inside, keeping the PC cool, and there may also be one on the front to suck cool air in.

Increase Battery Life

These days, we get a lot of our work done on laptops, which means battery life is a huge priority for any laptop user. Wouldn’t it be good, then, to learn how to prolong the life of your laptop battery? Here are a few useful tips to do just that.
They can’t be overcharged, even though you leave your battery plugged in for a long period of time. When the battery hits 100%, it’ll stop charging.
Leaving your battery completely drained will damage it. Batteries have limited lifespans. So no matter what you do, yours will age from the very first time you charge it. This is because as time passes, the ions will no longer be able to flow efficiently from the anode to the cathode, thereby reducing its capacity.
Besides its being naturally prone to deterioration, your battery can degrade due to higher-than-normal voltages, which happens when you keep your battery fully charged at all times. Even though a modern laptop battery cannot be overcharged, doing so will add a stress factor that will harm your battery.
Both extremely high temperatures and low temperatures can also reduce battery capacity and damage its components. The same goes for storing a battery for long periods of time, which can lead to the state of extreme discharge. Another factor is physical damage. Remember that batteries are made up of sensitive materials, and physical collision can damage them.
Now that you know some facts about your laptop battery, it's time to learn how to delay its demise: Never leave your battery completely drained. Don’t expose your battery to extremely high or low temperatures.
If possible, charge your battery at a lower voltage. If you need to use your laptop for a long period of time while plugged into a power source, it’s better to remove the battery. This is because a plugged-in laptop generates more heat which will damage your battery. When you need to store your battery for a few weeks, you should recharge your battery to 40% and remove it from your laptop for storage. These are just a few tips on extending the life of your hardware. There are many more ways you can maximize your hardware efficiency and extend its longevity.

Wednesday, 6 December 2017

How to Charge Your iPhone Faster

When your iPhone’s battery is depleted, it can’t charge fast enough. Being stuck without your phone often means being stranded without social contact, your map, your music library and your video game collection among other things.

The iPhone doesn’t have quick charging technology built-in like some Androids do, but there are a few things you can do to make your iPhone charge slightly faster. The less your iPhone is doing, the faster it’s battery will recharge. This is why many believe switching your phone into Airplane Mode helps it charge more quickly, since this cuts off the phone’s ability to connect to the Internet and fetch information. If you still want to receive texts and calls while charging, there are some other settings you can change to make your iPhone charge faster. Turning off Wi-Fi, lowering the screen brightness, and disabling app notifications can help.

Apple also says removing your iPhone’s case may help it preserve battery life, especially if it’s overheating. If you have an iPad charger readily available, try charging using it to charge your iPhone to speed up battery replenishment.


Phone Battery Runs Quickly,why and how?

A common question we tend to hear all the time is "Why does my phone battery run down so fast?" Below we present a fairly detailed explanation for this and provide a step-by-step guide you can follow to help you control the situation.
Whether an Android or any other phone or tablet, most devices tend to have a common issue that is related to the operating system. Below are key reasons why your device runs out of battery power too quickly and what you can easily do instantly to make your battery last longer.

Firstly, it is very important to close apps completely rather than just tapping the home button. Many apps continue running in the background in a sleep mode. They continue to consume energy. Consider whether the apps in your phone actually work in your region. If not designed for your region or if not needed, best to uninstall. Consider uninstalling apps or removing widgets you don’t need or hardly use. Online connection: Best to turn off your mobile data when you don’t need it. Internet connection tends to suck up a lot of juice especially when your phone performs background tasks that may not be necessary, such as checking for updates. Online versions of the apps don’t tend to use as much battery power. Best to log off and close out when not needed. You can always update your mail box manually when necessary.

Recharge your phone at between 40% and 80%. If your phone regularly runs from being full to empty, this can quickly degrade and damage it over a short period of time and you’ll soon find that you’ll need to regularly recharge your phone too often. phones are programmed to connect automatically to a network and will continuously try to do just that. The relentless effort inevitably drains your battery. Useful tips include removing the SD card and reinserting it. If the issue continues, back up your data and do factory reset. Observe the behaviour before and as you reinstall apps one-by-one. This will help you determine if the problem is caused by bad battery or if its App related.

Nonetheless, if you need your phone on full power all the time for work or business, then it makes sense to get a reliable power supply.


Tuesday, 5 December 2017

Boost your laptop’s battery

If your laptop seems to run out of juice far too quickly, try these nine power-stretching tips to help make the battery last longer
Battery technology has improved considerably over the last few years, but few laptops can still last a full working day between recharges.
There are some steps you can take to stretch out battery life for as long as possible when you’re away from a power socket, and while this list of tips won’t have a dramatic effect, they will still make a noticeable difference.
Check out the video above to find out more.
Tip 1: Reduce the screen brightness
The bright lights behind a laptop screen are one of the biggest power drains, so keep the brightness low when running on battery alone.
Laptops have keyboard shortcuts to adjust screen brightness, usually accessed by pressing the Fn key, so learn them and use them.
Tip 2: Reduce the screen time-out
Set the screen to turn itself off after one minute or so of inactivity. In Windows 7 and Windows 8, search for Power options from the Start menu or Start screen, then select Choose when to turn off the display in the dialog box that opens. Go to On battery - Turn off the display and select 1 minute or 2 minutes.
Tip 3: Set the standby time
Leaving a laptop running when it isn’t being used also wastes battery power, so set it to go to sleep after a short period of inactivity - it will wake up as soon as you press a key. In the same Power options dialog box opened in Tip 2, change the Put the computer sleep option to around five minutes - anything shorter risks the laptop sleeping while you’re trying to use it.
Tip 4: Turn off wi-fi and Bluetooth
Unless you’re connected to a wireless network when you’re out and about, turn off your laptop’s wi-fi wireless network connection - it’s another power waster.
There may be a keyboard shortcut for this, or you can right-click the wi-fi icon in the Windows Notification Area at the bottom left of the screen (switch to Desktop mode in Windows 8 for this) and select Open Network and Sharing Center.
When the dialog box opens, click Change adapter settings on the left, then right-click the icon for Wireless Network Connection and select Disable.
You can disable Bluetooth in the same way — and reverse these steps to re-enable wireless connectivity.
Tip 5: Close unused applications
Just because Windows can run several applications at the same time doesn’t mean you should. Keeping several applications open at once places an extra burden on the laptop’s processor and uses up valuable memory.
Windows will start to use hard disk space as ‘virtual’ memory when the laptop’s actual memory is full, and this too uses extra power. Close any applications and web browser tabs that aren’t being used, and consider a memory upgrade if your laptop only has 2GB RAM - this will make it feel a bit faster, too.
Find out how much RAM your computer has by heading to Control Panel –System and Security – View amount of RAM and processor speed.
Tip 6: Keep cool
Laptops usually have no problem keeping cool when they’re working hard, but having fans spinning to suck fresh air through the case take their toll on battery life. So always ensure your laptop is well ventilated when running on battery power and that any vents on its sides and underside aren’t obstructed.
Keeping these vents free from accumulated dust also helps ensure the laptop’s cooling system runs efficiently, which in turn improves battery life.
Tip 7: Unplug peripherals
It goes without saying that not using an unplugged laptop’s built-in CD or DVD drive when running on battery power will extend battery life, but so will unplugging any other peripherals.
Anything plugged into a USB port, for example, uses a small amount of power, so use the trackpad when you’re on the move rather than plugging in a mouse. Disconnect USB flash drives as soon as you’ve finished using them, too.
Tip 8: Carry the mains adapter with you
One sure-fire way to make your laptop last longer when you’re away from home or work is to plug it into a power socket. It’s surprising how many businesses will let you do this if you ask, and some trains and planes also have mains sockets just for this purpose.
This does mean carrying the power adapter with you when you go out, but the bit of extra weight could be well worth it if you’re likely to be away for longer than your battery might last.
Tip 9: Check your battery’s age
Finally, if your laptop battery doesn’t seem to last as long as it used to, it could be that it’s nearing the end of its life. All rechargeable batteries have a finite lifespan and this is reduced each time it’s recharged.
If your laptop is more than a couple of years old and you frequently use it away from mains power, then the battery could be on the way out as the constant recharges and drains take their toll. A new replacement will work wonder.

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