icloud login via the web

Most of you may be familiar with logging into iCloud through your iPhone or iPad. However, you may not know that its also possible to log in to icloud via the web using your apple id and password. Icloud login via the web gives you access to the following functions:

1. Email - Web Based iPad-like email client. Send and receive email. 
2. Contacts - Working replica of the contact app on the mac
3. Calendar - Working replica of the calendar app on the mac.
4. Notes - Working replica of the notes app on the mac
5. Reminders - Working replica of the reminders app on the mac. 
6. Find my iphone - Locate any ios or mac device associated with your account. 
7. iWork - Download all of your iwork documents saved to icloud. 

This is a very useful collection of web-apps if you ever find yourself needing access to your iCloud data when using someone else's computer. 

How to extend your wireless network

I work in a small office that recently purchased a building across the street to provide warehousing and additional office space. We had a challenge to connect that building's network with our current network. There are a number of ways to go about doing this including vpn and remote desktop. However, the building is close enough that we decided to extend our wireless network to the new building.

We did this using products by amped wireless. The first step was to connect a wireless access point to our current router. The amped wireless access point AP 600EX comes with 30 feet of power over ethernet cable to easily hook into your router. It is also weatherproof so it can be mounted indoors our outdoors. We mounted ours indoors near a window pointing directly at a window across the street in the opposite building.

In that building, installed a wireless range extender (repeater) also from Ampedwireless.com (AP600EX). We pointed this device directly across towards the other device in order to maintain a line of site. This device picked up the signal from the access point and re-broadcast it throughout the new building. I was also able to plug in an ethernet cable and route that to a switch in the new building to extend the connection via ethernet too.

The advantage to this set-up is that the new building is able to share the exact same network that the main building uses, which is much more convenient that setting up alternative connections that route through the internet. Its also relatively inexpensive for a small office. The repeater and access point together were just over $300 on Amazon.com

How to rank #1 in google

How do I rank #1 in google? This is a question asked by everyone who has their own website. A #1 ranking in google can be the equivalent of a pot of gold. But this also depends on ranking #1 for the right keyword. Anyone can rank #1 for an obscure phrase that nobody ever searches for. But ranking #1 for a highly searched keyword can be very difficult and extremely competitive. There are many many factors involved including domain name, domain age, quality of content, number of links from authoritative sites, and the overall quality of your site. Google's intention is to push the most relevant content to the top of the search pile. And the listings at the top get the most visitors.

There are many techniques to rank high, but no easy answers. And google is constantly tweaking their formula in ways that can dramatically affect your ranking. While strategies exist, the dominant factor in winning google is killer content. If you have killer content, people will link to it. The more people link to it, the more exposure your site gets and the higher you will rank. No one will link to crappy content from a high quality site.

The niche of your website is also important. Some areas are so competitive and entrenched that there is very little chance or ever rising to the top. Chances are you will never rank #1 for the keyword tv. Find an area that you are knowledgable about but that is also an area that is underserved.

Exact match domain names can give you a boost but only for a very narrow keyword search. And most likely the vast majority of great domain names are unavailable.

Small links to your site can help but big links really matter. And you only get big links by having great content. Don't expect Engadget to link to your tech blog unless you have something truly unique for them to link to. Again, your primary focus should be on content.

Finally, as you build your brand, more and more of your traffic will come direct. When you want news, do you google CNN or type in CNN.com. The brand can eventually become more important than the search engine.

How do you rank #1 in google? Focus on the quality of your work. If you can become the best in your own niche, you will have the best chance of rising to the top.

IT Tip of the Day

Here's a tip for anyone setting up IT in a small office. When you are setting static ip addresses, its crucial to start a spreadsheet of all devices on the network that use an ip address and keep track of those addresses. This includes not only pcs and notebooks, but printers too. You may be able to get away with randomly assigning an ip address and forgetting about it if you just have a few pc's, but what happens if your business grows. Eventually you will lose track of those ip addresses and then you will have a mess on your hands. It can be very cumbersome to go to every device on the network and check the ip address.

What is a ip address:

An ip address is a number that identifies a unique device on your network. In an internal network, each device will have its own unique ip address identifier. This can be either static, or dynamically assigned by your router.

You will also have an internet ip address that will also be either static or dynamic. Static is important to have if you plan to do any sort of remote desktop services set up on your server. Whats my ip? Visit www.whatismyip.com to find out your current internet ip address.

Another type of ip address is your default gateway ip address. This is the address of your router that you use to access the internet.


How to find ip address:

Ip address lookup is different depending on what type of device you are using. In windows, there are a couple of ways to find it. You can open a command prompt and type in ipconfig. You will need to mostly likely look for your ipv4 address. This will also list your default gateway ip address if you have one.
Another way is to go to the network sharing center, then network connections. Click on your network device then click change settings of this connection in the menu bar at the top of the window. In the pop-up box, select Internet protocol version 4 and then click properties. You will see the ip address listed below.

How to change ip address:

You can change an ip address in this same window. Just type over the ip address that you see listed below. Make sure you record this ip address along with the workstation id in your spreadsheet so that you don't accidentally assign the same ip address to another workstation. 

Google rant

I love google. They have some amazing products. But there are a few things about google that have frustrated me lately.

Take this blogger app, for example, that I am writing this post with. It's a very well done app, but unfortunately on the iPhone it won't save my login. I have to type my email and password in everytime. Many google apps on the iPhone started as simply wrapper apps for the mobile website. This has been changing lately. The new gmail app is built from the ground up. But there are still quite a few apps that are half-baked.

My other rant is regarding the search engine ranking for this blog. Some keywords I rank very highly for, while others I am nowhere to be found. I've found lately that while I rank highly on bing and yahoo, google seems to ignore me. Why does google hate me and bing love me? I understand page rank and domain authority and the importance of links, but I still don't seem to be gaining any traction.

Google is an amazing company and one of my favorite products. But sometimes I feel like I love them more than they love me.

RCA Universal Remote Codes: Still effective?

In the old days, RCA Universal remotes dominated the universal remote category. They were inexpensive, and they had the ability to control thousands of devices. However, programming these remotes were burdensome and required looking up special numerical codes for each device you wanted to control and then entering these codes into the remote. It was painful, but reasonably effective. If you wanted a more advanced remote, you needed to venture into the custom market. 

That changed when logitech released its harmony remote control, which allowed you to plug your remote into your laptop and simply enter the name of each device you own. The harmony remote would examine its database and automatically program the remote for each of your devices. You could even take that a step further and easily program scenes, which would allow to press watch tv for example, and the remote would turn on each device you needed for that task and adjust the necessary settings and inputs for you. It could even dim the lights if you had a remote controlled dimmer. 

The newest trend is the wifi remote app, which allows you to download an app designed to control a specific device over wifi. For example, the LG remote app allows you to open the app and control your lg tv over your home wifi network. The advantage to this is that you can control your device from any room in your house, and you always have your remote (your smartphone) in your pocket. However, the disadvantage is that you often need to open a unique app for each device you own, which can be burdensome. 

Delete Cookies

If you want to delete cookies, you will need to do this in each browser that you use. I'll show you how below. Here is a definition of a cookie according to wikipedia,

 A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie, is usually a small piece of data sent from a website and stored in a user's web browser while a user is browsing a website. When the user browses the same website in the future, the data stored in the cookie can be retrieved by the website to notify the website of the user's previous activity.

 Some users see cookies as an invasion of privacy. However, they can also be useful for tasks such as security authorization when visiting secure websites. 

If you don't want any cookies at all, I would recommend using a browser with a private or incognito session. Google's chrome browser has an incognito browser that blocks cookies entirely as you browse.  However, you may find that for many tasks, certain websites will be unusable, particularly those with that require extra security. 

If you don't want to take it to this extreme, you can just periodically delete cookies from your browser. 

In Chrome, go to settings, advanced settings, and select the clear browsing data under privacy. You can select delete cookies and other site and plug-in data and then hit the clear browsing data. Make sure to deselect any other data that you don't want deleted. 

In Safari, select Safari, preferences, remove all website data. You can also hit the details button just below to select only certain sites to delete cookies from. Finally, you can choose the always button under block all cookies to eliminate cookies entirely from your future browsing sessions.