wifi

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which I answer Mac-related questions sent in by our readers.

This week, readers asked questions on how to fix a problem with the system crashing whenever printers are accessed, how to get custom or manually installed fonts to appear in Microsoft Office, and where the wireless monitoring windows went in the system's Wireless Diagnostics utility.

I welcome contributions from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: Printer access crashes the system. MacFixIt reader jmackane asks:

WiFi Photo Transfer makes the process of moving images between iPhone and desktop as easy as a few quick clicks, streamlining a once-frustrating process. For whatever reason, moving images between an iOS device and your computer has long been an unnecessarily complicated process. For those with a Mac it was okay, but for PC-users, in iTunes, it required a third-party software or direct transfer of the images. WiFi Photo Transfer removes that extra layer of difficulty and allows you to move photos with a few, easy-to-follow steps.

WiFi Photo Transfer makes it possible to bypass transfer issues and simply access … Read more

Power line networking -- the technology that enables electrical wiring to transfer data -- is about to get a lot faster.

Broadcom announced on Monday what it claims to be the industry's first HomePlug AV2 power line system-on-a-chips (SoCs) that deliver up to 1.5Gbps data speed. That's about three times the speed of the top existing power line devices.

HomePlug AV2 is the next-generation power line standard that uses an extended frequency band of up to 86MHz, while HomePlug AV was limited to 30MHz. In addition, HomePlug AV2 supports Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) -- a technology … Read more

Broadcom is ramping up more chips designed to support 5G Wi-Fi, aka 802.11ac.

The chipmaker today announced its first 5G Wi-Fi combo chips designed specifically for entry-level consumer devices, meaning PCs, notebooks, tablets, and smartphones. Combo chips offer Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and FM radio all in one package. This second generation of 5G Wi-Fi chips includes the same features as Broadcom's current lineup but integrates more components to keep costs down.

"This 1x1 design lowers cost while still delivering dramatic speed, power and performance, empowering a broad new user base to effortlessly stream HD video, and significantly increase … Read more

Linksys announced today that two more Smart Wi-Fi routers have been added to its EA series. This is the company's first product announcement since it was sold to Belkin by Cisco last month.

The two new routers are the Smart Wi-Fi Router AC 1200 Advanced Multimedia (model EA6300) and the Smart Wi-Fi Router AC 1600 Video Enthusiast (model EA6400).

Both of these routers are true dual-band and support the 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard on the 5GHz band. Late last year, Linksys began shipping the Smart Wi-Fi Router AC 1750 HD Video Pro (model EA6500), and it's still the … Read more

GOM Media Player for Windows handles most of the more common video formats, including MP4, AVI, MKV, and more. It comes with a sleeker, more media center-focused design and packs plenty of codecs under the hood to play just about any media format you throw at it.

The initial installation is standard, like any other Windows product: accept a couple terms, set a destination folder, and choose to opt in or out of an offer from AVG. After installation completes, GOM will guide you through an optional setup process to optimize initial use based on sound and monitor setup.

You'… Read more

You're in the middle of a city park. You're at a rest stop on the side of the road, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Or maybe you're simply in your living room. You turn on your computer and have instant, secure access to the Internet without requiring any network cables or log-ins -- or even any payment to an ISP.

Yeah, right.

Ubiquitous, free, and safe Internet access is a long, long way off, and many skeptics believe such a day will never arrive. The glass-half-full among us will point out that the number of people … Read more

More likely than not, at some point in your ownership of an Apple device, you've wanted to load a file directly to it, either for storage or to access it in some capacity - a PDF, a video or a folder of tools. While you can load images through iPhoto, and music, videos and documents in iTunes, the interface is limited and you can't create folders or other storage tools to keep your files organized. USB & Wi-Fi Flash Drive Free solves that problem by turning your iOS device into an on-the-go flash drive alternative that you can … Read more