Elementary School

With a wireless connection, your children won’t be confined to your home office or family room to get online. Your computer can be stationed anywhere in the house and the family laptop can travel from room to room with your children, allowing you to offer up homework help while preparing dinner and, at the same time, keeping a close watch on online activity.

High School

After-school activities have left students as busy as the average CEO, putting homework time at a premium. A home-based wireless network lets all the computers in your home share one internet connection so while your son is working on a book report, your daughter can surf her favorite Web sites without fighting.

College

Forget meeting at the library or the local coffee shop to cram for an exam, today’s study group is going mobile and all your student needs is a cell phone and a laptop. Many cell phone carriers now offer cellular modems for laptops that allow high-speed access to the Internet anywhere your son or daughter’s carrier has cell phone coverage. Coupled with new wireless routers, your son or daughter can share their connection among multiple computers just as they would at home, letting them create fully mobile, multi-person study groups just about anywhere.

Not to panic… most connection issues can be resolved by following a few simple steps.

STEP 1: RESTART YOUR COMPUTER
Most simple issues can be solved by rebooting your computer. Give it a try. If that doesn’t resolve your issue, let’s move to STEP 2.

STEP 2: MOVE YOUR COMPUTER CLOSER TO THE WIRELESS ROUTER
If you find that this resolves the problem then you may need to add a wireless repeater . If you’re still having trouble connecting, time to move onto STEP 3.

STEP 3: “POWER CYCLE” YOUR NETWORK
To power cycle your network just follow these instructions in order as they appear:

1. Turn off your computer(s)
2. Find your DSL/cable modem box (it’s the one with the phone line or TV cable attached) and unplug its power cable from the outlet.
3. Identify the router box (usually has 5 or so jacks a little larger than your phone) and unplug the power cable from the outlet.
4. Wait one minute with everything unplugged
5. Plug in the DSL/cable Modem (Remember it’s the one with the phone line or TV cable attached) and wait until all the lights turn on. This will take a minute or two.
6. Plug in the router and wait for all the lights to turn green. Again, this will take about one minute.
7. Turn on your computer(s) and go to www.GeekSquad.com/SpeedTest to test your connection.

If you’re still having trouble after following all these steps you’ll probably need some advanced troubleshooting help.  If you need help from Geek Squad have a couple of options:

• If you have at least one computer connected to the network, talk to one of our Virtual Agents.
• You can 1-800-GEEKSQUAD to arrange an on site service visit.

1) Check your laptop’s wireless card on/off switch. You wouldn’t believe how often this is the problem. There’s usually some sort of indicator light to show when the wireless card is on or off (often next to a symbol that looks like a tower with parentheses around it something like (( i )) ).

2) If the WiFi is on but your computer won’t pick up any wireless networks, you might want to check with some official nearby to make sure the network is enabled. Or even check with a neighbor to see if they’re having trouble.

3) Should you be able to see a WiFi network but not connect, try a) temporarily turning off your firewall, b) turning the wireless card off then back on, c) checking to see if there is a password and d) making sure you have input a method of payment for the service (if required). If all else fails, try restarting your computer all together.

4) Can’t get to one Web site but other Web sites work fine? Certain Web sites might be blocked. File sharing ones usually are, and on airplanes in particular, voice-over-IP services (telephone via internet) and music streaming sites are usually blocked.

One more thing to keep in mind when accessing WiFi on the go is that laptops have batteries and batteries can go dead. Make sure your laptop is charged prior to leaving the house. For airplanes, you should check with your airline to see if they offer “travel power” on board. This typically will be in the form of cigarette-lighter adaptors. You may purchase one of these adaptors from your laptop manufacturer’s list of approved accessories. If you choose to purchase a generic adaptor instead, please be sure to read the packaging carefully and match the voltage/amperage of your existing adaptor.

I hope these few tips help keep you connected while on the go. If all else fails, always remember to pack a book – it’s a good backup to no WiFi!

• Location – a hotel close to the attractions I wanted to visit

• Features – WiFi for the laptop. After all, even vacationing geeks like to have Internet access at the end of a long day touristing.

Here are a few things that may help simplify your travel this summer:

Map Out Where You Want to Stay

I knew I was going to the COSI science museum in Columbus, Ohio and the US Air Force Museum in Dayton. So, I pulled up both locations with Google Maps. From there I could easily search local lodging by “Search nearby” and typing in “hotels.” If the area you’re looking to stay has Google Streetview, you can even check out what the street outside your potential hotel looks like.

After you land on a hotel, check prices using both the national chain Web sites for the hotels, and through travel Web sites like Expedia or Orbitz.

Update Your GPS

Having a GPS in your car for any road trip seems like a no-brainer. Getting lost on a long drive is annoying and can suck up a lot of time. Before you go, make sure to update the firmware on your GPS – updating firmware by downloading the software updates from the manufacturer’s Web site and then connecting your GPS to your computer via the provided USB cable.

Updating the firmware on my inexpensive Garmin nüvi 255 provided access to a great new feature called “ecoRoute” that added a “Less Fuel” route preference option in addition to the usual “Faster Time” and “Shorter Distance” options.

A Well-Prepared Geek is a Well-Rested Geek

Through a little prep, my week away was great and didn’t break my budget. Even better, it made for a good learning experience to provide tips to my Geek Squad clients on how they can use all the tech tools around them to make their time away the best time ever.