3 Reasons Your Broadband Connection Isn’t Fast Enough and How to Troubleshoot

A slow broadband connection is a common problem and there can be any number of reasons behind it. Some of which you can’t do anything about, such as the weather, or the distance from your home to the nearest exchange.
However, very often the problem with your internet speed can be addressed and it’s simply a matter of discovering the problem and then fixing it.

Is Your ISP Coming Clean?

Firstly, call up your ISP and ask them to tell you the actual speeds you are getting from them; this will help you to determine where the fault lies, with them or you. However, be aware that this can be frustrating and convoluted as ISPs tend to insist you’re getting those speeds, even when you’re experiencing a slow connection.
A common problem is that some broadband internet providers advertise ‘speeds up to …’ which may not be available in your area. Before committing to a contract, you should do your homework and find out about other people’s experiences, either in your area or by doing some homework online – which is the ISP most complained about for this problem? The information can all be found online.
Ofcom can help here; the way that internet speeds are advertised is now being more rigorously enforced by the telecoms ombudsman and ISPs are required to follow a code of conduct to ensure consumers are not misled.

Is the Internal Wiring in Your Home Up to the Job?

Before you call your ISP, arm yourself with as much information as possible; starting with your router. By plugging your router directly into the phone socket where the line comes into the house, you can establish whether the speed is roughly the same as if you plug it in elsewhere. If you find that the speed is vastly improved then it suggests degradation via the internal wiring in your home; if this is the case then your ISP will charge you should you call them out to investigate.
Ideally you will keep your router plugged directly into the phone socket. If this is not a viable option then you may want to consider rewiring, so that the line from the phone socket to the router is as short as possible.

Bandwidth – Times and Other Users

Bandwidth can seriously affect your broadband speed and this is often due to the time of day that you access the internet. Outside of office hours are very busy times and so if you can avoid these, your speed should increase.
Other considerations to bear in mind here are whether there are a lot of connected devices in the home. Are your teenagers upstairs streaming YouTube content, or is your other half watching iPlayer in the next room – all of this will affect bandwidth and slow down your connection.
Consider making an agreement with the rest of the family on streaming content and ensure that all of your device’s security software is up-to-date – sometimes a malware infection can use a considerable amount of bandwidth as it communicates with outside servers.
Of course there are other reasons, but these are the most common and it’s wise to check these out before calling out an engineer, which could result in making you poorer.

Ways You Can Hide Your Public IP Address

Question: Ways You Can Hide Your Public IP Address

When connecting to the Internet, your home computer (or network router) is assigned a public IP address. As you visit Web sites or other Internet servers, that public IP address is transmitted and recorded in log files kept on those servers. Access logs leave behind a trail of your Internet activity. If it were possible to somehow hide your public IP address, your Internet activity would become much more difficult to trace.

Answer: Unfortunately, it is not technically possible to always hide the public IP address of a home network. An IP address enables devices to locate and communicate with each other on the Internet. Completely hiding the IP address of a device would render it invisible but also unusable online.On the other hand, it is possible to hide public IP addressees from most Internet servers in most situations. This method involves an Internet service called an anonymous proxy server.

Using an Anonymous Proxy Serve

An anonymous proxy server ("proxy") is a special type of server that acts as an intermediary between a home network and the rest of the Internet. An anonymous proxy server makes requests for Internet information on your behalf, using its own IP address instead of yours. Your computer only accesses Web sites indirectly, through the proxy server. This way, Web sites will see the proxy's IP address, not your home IP address.
Using an anonymous proxy server requires a simple configuration of the Web browser (or other Internet client software that supports proxies). Proxies are identified by a combination of URL and TCP port number.
Numerous free anonymous proxy servers exist on the Internet, open for anyone to use. These servers may have bandwidth traffic limits, may suffer from reliability or speed problems, or might permanently disappear from the Internet without notice. Such servers are most useful for temporary or experimental purposes.
Anonymous proxy services that charge fees in return for better quality of service also exist. These services are designed for regular use by households.

Related Tools for Hiding Your IP Address

Several related software tools (both free and paid versions) support anonymous proxies. The Firefox extension called "switchproxy," for example, supports defining a pool of proxy servers in the Web browser and automatically switching between them at regular time intervals. In general, these tools help you both find proxies and also simplify the process of configuring and using them.The ability to hide an IP address increases your privacy on the Internet. Other approaches to improving Internet privacy also exist and complement each other. Managing Web browser cookies, using encryption when sending personal information, running a firewall and other techniques all contribute toward a greater feeling of safety and security when going online.

Send Fax From Google Drive

Google Drive is a new service upgraded from Google Docs and in coming days all Google Docs accounts will be upgraded to Google Drive. Therefore my topic is send fax from Google Drive. It's an online storage service from Google and it offers 5 GB free space.

There are situations when you don't have a fax machine and you have to fax an important document. In this situation you must know how to send fax without a fax machine.

Sending Fax From Your Google Drive

I have given two methods that you can use to send fax from your Google Drive. Here are two methods explained.

1. Use HelloFax to Send Fax from Google Drive

In this method you have to add an app from Chrome store so it is better to use Chrome if you are choosing this method. Other browsers will also work but Chrome is a better option.

• Go to Google Drive and log into your account. Now click Create >>More >> Get more apps.

• It will take you to the Chrome app Store. From there hover your mouse on HalloFax app and install it.

• After installing it go to Create >>More and there you will HalloFax installed. You will also see HalloFax app on the main screen.

• Open this app and you will be able to send fax for free.

1. Use GinzaFax to Send Fax

Go to ginzafax.com and click on the Free Trial.

• Now click on the Gmail User?.

• Enter your Google Drive username and click Submit. It will ask for permission, click allow and it will open the main page of GinzaFax.

• Click on the Send Fax tab and there you will see the documents of your Google Drive. Select the document which you want to send and enter the fax number and click Fax.

Automatically Publish Your Blog Post to Your Twitter and Facebook Account

Today in this article I am going to tell you that how you can automate your blog post to get published on your Facebook and Twitter account. The process is quite simple and you just need to select the service you want. Here I will give you only three services from which you can select one on the basis of your preference and ease. The first one is Twitter Feed, it gives you the option to publish your blog post to your Twitter and Facebook account. The second service is Dlvr.it (deliver it), it gives you the option to publish blog post to three social networks, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. The third and last service is IFTTT (If Then That This). This service gives you the lots of option from publishing your blog post to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to other options.

So lets start with the first service that is Twitter Feed.

1. TwitterFeed:

Twitterfeed is a popular service to automatically publish your blog post to your Facebook and Twitter account. To do this you need to authenticate your Facebook and Twitter account from twitterfeed. To get started sign up for twitterfeed account. Now log in to your account and from your dashboard click "Create New Feed". Now the second step is to enter your Feed Name and Blog URL or RSS Feed URL in the given columns. Se below:

Click Image to enlarge

Click Image to Enlarge

You can also check advance setting if you want to change it. In advance setting under Post Content option select Title only option if you are creating it for Twitter because Twitter supports only 140 characters. After entering the Feed name and Blog/Feed URL click continue to 2 step. In step two you have to select the service you want, whether Facebook or Twitter. I will go for Twitter, so after selecting the Twitter it will ask for authentication click the authorize button and allow it to use your Twitter account. You have done it, now every time you publish a new blog post it will be there in your Twitter account.

2. Dlvr.It:

This is the second service. The full meaning of Dlvr.it is Deliver It. This service allows you to automatically share your blog post to three social networks, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It also works on the same basis and very easy to use. Create an account and enter your Blog or Feed URL. Now select the service you want, I will go for Twitter.

Select the Twitter button and it will ask for permission, allow it and click finish. After that it will start importing your blog post to your Twitter account.

3. Ifttt

The full name of this service is "If Then That This". It is little bit same as the above mentioned services but the difference is that it gives you lots of options to play with. I will only tell you how you can setup for for your blog. I will connect my blog to my Facebook page, so that whenever I publish a new post in my blog it goes there on my Facebook page automatically. For this you need to create and log in to your ifttt account. After logging in click create new task option on the top right corner or the big button you see in the image below.

Click the button and follow the steps. In the second step click the RSS feed icon, since I am going to connect my blog to my Facebook page. Now select the first option 'New Feed Item' and enter your Feed URL and click create trigger. In the third step select the channel, I will choose Facebook page.

Select the Facebook page in the next step and click activate, now it will ask for permission allows it and you have done.

Download Webpages in PDF format

Sometimes you want to download a webpage or want to share your favorite webpage with others, but due to lack of proper tool you cannot do it. But now you can download a webpage and not only download but you can share it too on Facebook and Twitter or send it via email. You can download your favorite webpage in PDF format. All this you can do by using a simple Firefox Add-on called "Joliprint". This add-on is very small and easy to use.

Download and install it in your Firefox and after installing it you will see an icon beside the search bar of Firefox.

Click the icon and you will get a webpage in a PDF format ready to download and share.

Features of Joliprint

• It is a simple but quite powerful. It can save title, text, images, etc into a sharp looking PDF with a single click.

• You can create PDF from a single page article, a multi-pages article, or select a Google Reader, Instapaper or ReadItLater list.

• Joliprint does the job very nicely and create a beautiful PDF with links of webpage intact.

• After creating PDF you can download, share or send it via email to your friends.

• You can easily send your PDF to various reading apps like iBooks, Evernote, GoodReader, Dropbox, etc to read it later on iPads or Android Tablets

Download this: Joliprint