My New Smart Wi-Fi Router & Windows 8.1 Tips ‘n Tricks

After mowing the back lawn yesterday morning and knowing it was going to get up as high as 90F by early afternoon, I called it quits for the day as far as work went. Even though it was Canada Day and a national holiday, all the malls and big box stores (except Costco) were open for business as usual. Since I put the purchase of the Nest Learning Thermostat on hold for a bit, that meant I still had a Future Shop Gift Card burning a hole in my pocket – but, not for long.

My new Linksys Smart Wi-Fi Router AC 1900 – it’s fast and powerful

Over the past few weeks I’ve been looking at getting a new router that would take advantage of the new extreme hi-speed internet we upgraded to month or so ago as well as handling our ever growing home network. After considerable research and a lot of cost rationalization I decided on the latest and greatest in wireless networking standards and opted to jump up from my old Linksys ‘N’ wireless to the new ‘AC’ protocol by buying the Linksys Smart WiFi Router AC 1900.

The AC 1900 has 4 GB LAN ports, a USB 3.0 and dual eSATA/USB 2.0 ports

There are a legion of router review sites that have gone into hi-end geek talk about gigabytes, protocols, MPS speeds, 5ghz and all kinds of other words designed to impress their fellow geek-talkers. For me, I’ll just say this new router is a beast with impressive specs, remarkable speeds and exceptional connectivity. The 1900AC is totally different from previous high-end routers by Linksys: It's the most powerful router on the market, and it delivers. But, it’s expensive– $279!!

This is a map of my current home network that is part of the AC 1900 software

The setup was extremely simple. All I had to do was unplug my old router, plug in the new one and then go through the setup instructions sent to my web browser. I was done and had all of our network devices connected in less than 20 minutes. The 4 wired LAN connections on the back of the router provide Gigabit Ethernet ports--which are 10 times faster than the Fast Ethernet ports on my old ‘N’ series router. The difference in speed was noticeable immediately.

One of the features I insisted on in a new router was access and control of the router from anywhere just by using an iPhone or iPad.

The WRT1900AC features SMART Wi-Fi software to monitor and control your network anywhere and anytime. It also has a Network Map smart tool that provides an intuitive at-a-glance view of your entire network (see map of My Network above).

If you’ve been reading my blog lately, you might notice a trend I have going about buying Wi-Fi enabled devices for our home. Thus the Nest Learning Thermostat and now this router. When we’re down in Palm Springs I don’t want to lose connectivity to things like heating, security cameras, alarms or anything else simply because something went wrong with the router.

With this iPhone app, as long as the power is on I’ll be able to access the router, reboot it if required and configure the settings to get it working again no matter where I happen to be.

There are too many other bells and whistles on this router to detail here. The biggest bell though is probably the high cost of this router. I’ve never paid this much for a router in my life. However, as the AC standard rolls out the cost of AC routers by Linksys, Asus and D-link will drop dramatically. AC routers with fewer features and speed are already available for under $150. A good router can definitely do as much to increase performance as fast Wi-Fi and/or broadband.

A Few Windows 8.1 Tips ‘n Tricks

Right-click anywhere on the Task Bar (bottom of display) and click Properties

It seems that more and more people are buying new computers with Windows 8.1 installed. That’s good as 8.1 is an excellent, easy to use, secure and powerful operating system. But, it is new and to many it just feels different. So, over the next few days and maybe weeks, I’m going to feature a series of simple, easy to use Tips ‘n Tricks that might make your switch to Windows 8.1 more enjoyable. The first one I’m going to talk about is the “Task Bar” – that bar with the icons at the bottom.

After clicking on the Toolbar tab, you’ll see that I’ve checked the boxes outlined in red. The Show Windows Store Apps on the taskbar. You can now pin the Windows Store apps too to the desktop taskbar. Moreover, whenever these Start Screen apps run, you will see their icon in the taskbar. This makes the process of running these apps a lot easier as you don’t have to constantly switch back to the Start Screen.

Also, you can now temporarily view the desktop using Peek. This can be useful for quickly viewing desktop gadgets and folders, or when you don’t want to minimize all open windows and then have to restore them.

By default, Windows 8.1 still boots to the Live Tile-dominated Start Screen. You can change this by enabling the new boot-to-desktop mode. Go to the "Navigation" tab in the Taskbar and Navigation menu, and select "When I sign in or close all apps on a screen, go the desktop instead of Start." This way after login you’ll be taken directly to your familiar looking Windows desktop.

The Show my desktop background on Start is one I don’t use but some of you may prefer it. With this box checked, when you go to the Windows 8.1 Start (Tiles) screen whatever desktop background you happen to use will show up behind the Windows 8.1 tiles. If it’s a photo then that’s what will show up so there isn’t so much of a jarring contrast when you switch to the Start Screen.

These are just a few simple tips you can try out to see if you like them. If not, then it’s very simple to revert back to the way you had it configured initially.

More Windows 8.1 Tips ‘n Tricks to come.

Mason was out waving the flag yesterday to celebrate his first Canada Day!

Thanks for visiting!