40 Points. Due April 12. Ends April 19.
Reading:
Start a new Word document called HW6 and answer the following questions.
1. You're thinking of setting up a home wireless network. Shop on the Internet for the items listed below. For each, give a URL that points to a description of the item, the manufacturer, model, and price.
a. Wireless router
b. Wireless network card for desktop computer
c. Wireless network printer
2. Choose between the wired and wireless options for your home. Describe which one would work best for you and why. Discuss the way your living space is set up, the costs, security issues, if you are a gamer, etc.
3. Cable companies offer high-speed Internet that is faster than the phone company. But the phone company is fighting back with something that is much faster than cable. Go to www.google.com. Click the News link at the top of the page. Search for FIOS.
a. What is FIOS?
b. Why is it better than cable?
4. Harbor College has wireless access points for students in the Library, Cafeteria and the Associated Students above the bookstore. Shop on the Internet for a new notebook computer you could use on campus to connect to this network. Give the URL, manufacturer, price and features (processor, hard drive size, memory size, screen size).
5. Bluetooth is taking off. Many PC peripheral devices now use Bluetooth EDR, the latest Bluetooth standard. Do an Internet search for Bluetooth EDR. Describe the device and give the URL.
6. If cable or DSL are not available, satellite is an option for broadband Internet access.
a. What hardware do you need to install on your home?
b. Search for a satellite Internet provider. Give the name, URL and monthly cost for the service.
7. Go to http://whatismyipaddress.com/ .
a. What is your current IP address?
b. Look at the information on the page. How does the web site know your physical location?
c. What can you use to hide your IP address and what are the risks of doing that?
d. What is a dynamic IP address and why are they used? (see textbook p. 306 and web page)
8. Cox cable serves San Pedro, Rancho Palos Verdes, the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Orange, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach. Time Warner serves most of the other South Bay areas. Go to http://www.timewarnercable.com/SoCal/ or http://www.cox.com/ocpv/.
a. Which company's web site did you visit?
b. Describe a pricing plan for cable Internet.
c. Describe a pricing plan for digital phone service (can be combined with cable Internet).
d. You just purchased an HDTV. How much will it cost to get digital phone, Internet and HDTV (more than just the local channels)?
9. Businesses, hotels, airports and entire cities are increasingly offering wireless Internet access for their customers. Do an Internet search to find a specific Southern California location that offers wireless Internet (not phone companies or colleges).
a. What kind of business is it and where it is located?
b. Is the access free or is there a charge?
c. Copy and paste the URL where you got the information.
10. The Boolean operators AND OR NOT can be used in keyword Internet searches.
a. In a Google web search, type the following: Ponzi AND Madoff AND fraud
About how many total results were there?b. Now try this search: Ponzi OR Madoff OR fraud
Now about how many results were there?c. What is the difference between OR and AND?
d. Now modify the search to: Ponzi -Madoff AND fraud
What did the minus sign do? If you can't tell by looking at the results, go to Google's search help.
11. In a Google web search, enter the following search phrase: natural gas car
a. About how many total results were there?
b. Modify the search phrase to put a tilda ~ directly in front of the word car. A tilda says to match synonyms. About how many total results were there now?
c. What is an obvious synonym that Google used for the word car? (Look at the bolded words in the results)
d. Modify the search to put double quotes around the phrase natural gas. Why did this change the results?
12. Go to http://www.divxmovies.com and find the answers to the following:
a. What is DivX?
b. Why do you need a codec?
c. Use the links on the DivX site to find a good site for downloading movies. What is the URL of the site you chose and why did you choose it?