I’ve noticed that Gmail has last account activity feature already, I’m not sure though when it was implemented but one thing for sure, it is very much helpful to those people including myself who always wonder if somebody somewhere accessed my Gmail account without my knowledge.

If you scroll down to the bottom of your gmail mailbox, you should noticed the “last account activity” just below the mailbox page number linked to activity details.

When you click on the “details” link, a window would pop-up and you will see a list of IP address which the account was accessed from. If you knew your IP address then it should tell you if there has been an unauthorized access to your Gmail account.

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The Linksys RE1000 Wireless-N Extender lets you repeat the wireless signal of any Access Point or Router to provide Internet connectivity in hard to reach areas via a wired or wireless connection. The Linksys RE1000 acts as an extension to your router or access point so you can connect multiple devices to it.

Linksys RE1000 wireless-N range extender can be set up manually by accessing its web-based set up page, by using the Cisco Connect software if you have it installed in your computer, by using the setup CD that comes with the device or using the Wi-Fi Protected Setup on the RE1000 if your router also supports WPS feature.

How to Access the Web UI of RE1000

Note that the default IP Address of the Expander is 192.168.1.1 accessible only using the 2 method

1. Using an Ethernet Cord, connect the expander directly to your computer. This type of connection is highly recommended for a more stable connectivity to the RE1000.

1.a. Open a browser and access 192.168.1.1 (no username and password is admin).
1.b. Go to the Basic Wireless settings tab to configure your SSID and Security.

NOTE: The SSID and network key or password is case sensitive. If your range expander’s Channel settings do not match with the router’s Channel, the range expander may not work. The SSIS should also be with the same with the router.
1.c. Save the settings

2. Direct Wireless Connection
Using your computer’s wireless capability, look for the default Network Name (SSID). Connecting to the range extender’s default Network Name (SSID) will enable your computer to communicate with the extender wirelessly.

NOTE: The default SSID of your Linksys range extender is LinksysExtenderXXXXX. Where XXXXX is the last five digits of its serial number.

Do the same steps in accessing the RE1000’s setup page ones you have successfully connected to LinksysExtenderXXXXX.

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To all Cisco E-series users out there, here’s an idea about the CCS or Cisco Connect Software that came along with your router upon purchase.

Main Menu - Computers and Devices

Use this option to connect another computer or device to the router. The number of devices connected to the router is displayed (There are x devices connected to your router). If you wish to add a device, just click on the ADD DEVICE at the right bottom of the menu to open figure 2 below.

Main Menu – Guest Access

Go back to figure 1 to see this option. Guest Access provides Internet access only; it does not provide access to the local network and its resources . For example, the guest computer cannot print to a printer on the local network or copy files to a computer on the local network . Guest Access helps minimize exposure of your local network . To give Internet access to friends or family, provide the guest network name and password displayed on this screen. When a guest wants Internet access in your home, have the guest do the following:

1 . Connect to the wireless guest network, which is the name of your wireless network followed by -guest.
2. Open a web browser.
3. On the login screen, enter the password of your guest network. Then click Login

Main Menu– Router Settings

Still on Figure 1 – Use this option if you wish to personalize or edit some router settings. Your current router name is displayed on the same menu box.

The name of the router is displayed (this is also the name of your wireless network) . To change the name, click Change and go to “Change Router Name or Password”. Router name should be a name of 1-32 character. The password that protects access to the router’s settings is displayed (this also protects wireless access to your local network) . To change the password, click Change and go to “Change Router Name or Password”. Password should be 8-23 characters.

Main Menu – Parental Control

Parental controls restrict Internet access for up to five computers. For the computers you select, you can block or limit Internet access to specific times as well as blocking specific websites. Parental controls restrictions are being applied to x device(s) The number of devices with Parental Controls restrictions is displayed. To block a specific website, see this example, to block www.example.com, enter example.com on a line/field. If you are using Parental Controls for the first time, you are asked to create a Parental Controls password. This password helps ensure that only authorized users can access Parental Controls. For information on creating the password, refer to “First-Time Use of Parental Controls”.

Note: The latest version of Cisco Connect now is 1.4 with the added features indicated below:

Build 1.4.11160.2
- Added support for USB printers on E4200
- Added support for USB storage on E4200
- Added Latin America support for E1200 and E1500

Build 1.4.11145.0
- Added support for USB printers on E3200
- Added support for USB storage on E3200

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Recently, I had my hands on a problematic macbook pro that often freezes up for unknown reasons, then, just as I disabled its wireless device directly from the terminal as the device isn’t responsive when I tried to turn it on through its graphical interface, it freeze up so I have to hard reset it. When it boots up and after all the services were initialized came another problem, it’s not showing up the login screen anymore and the login window server just keeps on re-spawning. It only displayed a blue screen too with the wheel icon spinning endlessly.

I then restarted the macbook pro then start it on a single-user mode (press command + s on start-up) to find clues for the problem using the commands below.

tail -200 /var/log/system.log | more

Using the above command, I found out that loginWindow service keeps on exiting and throttling while hinting to an authorization file access problem, meaning it’s not able to read the authorization file for some reason. The system.log showed this error when I checked it:

Login Window Started Security Agent
Login Window - Returned from Security Agent
AuthorizationRef returned errAuthorizationDenied. Exiting

To fix this problem, replace the /private/etc/authorization file by the authorization~previous file that is also located on the same folder which is /private/etc. If you have an OS X install disk around then you can mount and copy the authorization file from /Volumes/osx/private/etc/authorization and replace the corrupted file.