I am trying to VLOOKUP reference data with around 400 seperate Excel files.
Is it possible to do this in a quick way rather than doing it manually?
Sunday, 9 February 2020
How can I VLOOKUP in multiple Excel documents?
Enable Windows 8 on-screen keyboard on desktop PC
Is it possible to use the tablet style on-screen keyboard on a Windows 8 laptop PC? I've found the 'Ease of Access' version which runs as a desktop window but (particularly in windows store apps) would prefer to use the docked version which only appears when a text entry field is selected.
Here's the scenario: I mostly use my laptop in the traditional desktop mode, but occasionally plug it into my TV and use a wireless mouse to operate it using Netflix and other windows store apps.
find - Is there a way to give focus to Chrome search result?
It is well known that one can use Ctrl+F to find textual content in the webpage, but after I found what I need, is there a way to give focus to the search result, so that if the result is a link or a button, I can quickly click the link/button by pressing space/Enter?
Answer
In Google chrome, you can start a search in the active tab by pressing Ctrl+F Or F3, input the text you want to find and press Enter to find
You can loop through the search results by pressing the Enter.
Once you found the text you want, if its a link or a button, you can navigate to it by pressing Ctrl+Enter
Hope it helps.
Saturday, 8 February 2020
Excel Scatter Chart with Labels
I have three columns of data. Column 1 has a short description, column 2 has a benefit number and column 3 has a cost. I can create a cost/benefit scatter chart, but what I want is to be able to have each point in the scatter chart be labeled with the description. I don't care if you can see it on the chart or you have to roll over the point to see the description.
Using AppleScript to Enable Snow Leopard's Text Replacement Feature
I currently use Quicksilver with a Plugin and Trigger in concert with Snow Leopard's text replacement feature (for frequently-used combinations of hashtags, due dates and other parameters) to quickly send tasks to Remember The Milk (http://www.rememberthemilk.com).
Unfortunately, I have to click "Text Replacement" from the right-click menu of the text entry field in order to use that feature. I'm suspecting that I can add some AppleScript to the Trigger as a work-around to do that automatically. If so, what would be the best way to go about this? Would I need to use GUI scripting?
windows 7 - Find all past desktop IP addresses
Is there a way to find some type of log file that saves all IP address that were assigned to a desktop?
I changed an static IP of a desktop (switched it to DHCP) of mine and i can not recall what the ip address was. Does windows log what it was anywhere?
Answer
Interesting question...
At the very least, the DHCP server should log all the addresses it hands out, if logging is enabled.
Im looking to see if its logged on the client side anywhere, but Im not seeing anything.
Program that logs the CPU usage in Windows 7
Is there any program that logs the CPU usage of all programs? I want to know, over a period of one month, which programs use the CPU more intensely.
Answer
Windows has this built-in. It's called the Performance Monitor. Create a data collector set to start collecting performance data.
virtualbox - Why Virtual Box won't give me option to create 64 bits guests?
My host is x64 bits Windows 8.1.
I downloaded the latest Virtual Box (4.3) and I'm trying to create a VM with a 64 bits Ubuntu OS (ubuntu-12.04.3-desktop-amd64).
When I go to New VM wizard, it doesn't give me option to select "Ubuntu (x64)" as I have seen in other people's screenshots, only just "Ubuntu". As a result, the ISO can't boot. I tried in another PC and Virtual Box gives the x64 variants to most listed OS...
Control Panel shows x64 OS, x64 processor. My host laptop is a Sony Vaio VPCZ22UGX/N, Intel® Core™ i7-2640M processor. CPUz shows Vx-t is available on my processor, of course.
Here is what I tried so far:
I enabled IO APIC as required in the docs.
I have virtualization enabled in the BIOS. It works fine in VMware.
Check that Hyper-V is not running or even installed on my Windows. Same for VMware.
I also tried running the command:
VBoxManage modifyvm [vmname] --longmode on
for that VM, but no change.. I think the issue is really that I can't select x64 variant of the Ubuntu OS for that VM. Other people seem to indicate that's a requirement, but I don't get that option for some reason.
I spent a lot of time and can't find what's wrong... Anyone knows what could be missing here?
Thank you very much!!
Eduardo
Unable to change the Java update settings in Windows 7 control panel
Java updates are necessary but they are so frequent that i am now tired of it. Besides, I need to do simple work on my PC and the requirements for Java are seldom.
Today, I went into the control panel of my system(i.e Windows 7 32-bit) and then clicked the Java tab. The java config window appeared and in that selected update tab and then unchecked the check for updates automatically checkbox. Clicked on apply and then ok. To resure, I opened the Java config window again but the settings were not saved. Still the checkbox was in selected state. Why is this happening ? I am logged-in as administrator only.
Please tell me how to turn off the automatic updates for Java in Win 7?
Answer
The root cause of this problem is the Policy registry key. The user with administrative privilege can only change this registry key value.
- Open Command Prompt as administrator: in Start menu type
cmd, right-click on cmd.exe and select Run as administrator. - In Command Prompt window type
C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\bin\javacpl.exe(this is for Windows 7 64-bit with Java SE 7). - On Update tab uncheck option Check for updates Automatically.
Source: Why are the Java update settings not saved in the Java control panel?
audio - Accidentally removed own NTFS rights from volume in Windows 7
I am using Windows 7 and my hard drive is partitioned to C: and D: drives. Yesterday I tried to limit some permissions for other users to volume D and accidentally denied everything for group "Users"
Now I can not access the drive even if I am administrator to the local computer. I did not touch the administrator permissions. I can not get to the Security tab of the volume because it says "Access denied".
How can I reset NTFS permissions or get my permissions back? Option is also, if possible, to backup my data to USB drive with some software and format the disk to start over.
I have tried:
- Booting to safe mode
- CMD: takeown /F D: /R
- Changed the drive letter to F: No use and reverted to D.
Thank you for your help!
bash - How to pipe command output to other commands?
Example:
ls | echo prints nothing ( a blank line, actually ). I'd expect it to print a list of files.
ls | grep 'foo', on the other hand, works as expected ( prints files with 'foo' in their name ).
What I do in these situations is something like: ls | while read OUT; do echo $OUT; done but this is rather cumbersome.
Why does piping work with some commands, but not with others ? How can I circumvent this issue ?
Answer
There is a distinction between command line arguments and standard input. A pipe will connect standard output of one process to standard input of another. So
ls | echo
Connects standard output of ls to standard input of echo. Fine right? Well, echo ignores standard input and will dump its command line arguments - which are none in this case to - its own stdout. The output: nothing at all.
There are a few solutions in this case. One is to use a command that reads stdin and dumps to stdout, such as cat.
ls | cat
Will 'work', depending on what your definition of work is.
But what about the general case. What you really want is to convert stdout of one command to command line args of another. As others have said, xargs is the canonical helper tool in this case, reading its command line args for a command from its stdin, and constructing commands to run.
ls | xargs echo
You could also convert this some, using the substitution command $()
echo $(ls)
Would also do what you want.
Both of these tools are pretty core to shell scripting, you should learn both.
For completeness, as you indicate in the question, the other base way to convert stdin to command line args is the shell's builtin read command. It converts "words" (words as defined by the IFS variable) to a temp variable, which you can use in any command runs.
microsoft excel - Making line charts so the line goes through all data points
I've got data based on over 50+ years for various products. Not all products have data for each year, so the line is not always shown from point to point - Excel bug or is there a work around?
I've created a line and X-Y scatter charts to show the movement (quantity sold) of these products over the years. It works well, except where the data points are too far apart i.e. 1965 and then 1975. For some reason there is no line.
It's not perfect data because of the missing years, but I can live with that, I just want to see the trend, and not just sporadic dots; squares or crosses.
Any help or links greatly appreciated.
Mike
Answer
Hopefully the following image is self-explanatory:
The complete command sequence in Excel 2007 is:
- Select your chart
- Select Chart Tools → Design on the Ribbon
- Select "Select Data"
- Select "Hidden and Empty Cells"
- Select "Connect data points with line"
- Select OK.
networking - DNSMASQ not answering DNS queries from routed subnet
I have two sub-nets connected together using two DD-WRT APs - The remote AP is in Client-Routed mode so it has a separate subnet its IP are 192.168.2.1/24 and 192.168.0.5/24. The local AP is in AP mode The DD-WRT DHCP settings are in forward mode for the remote AP
I have DNSMASQ setup within the first subnet on IP 192.168.0.2/24 it is also the DHCP server for the second subnet - this works and my remote clients get the correct router. The DNSMasq machine can ping the PC on the second subnet and the reverse is also true I can also RDP from a PC on the first subnet to the PC on the second subnet - so it appears to me most of the first to second subnet comms is working
My problem is DNSMasq does not send DNS replies to the second subnet - it does work to the first subnet. Can anyone suggest why?
One thing to note is that the route for the second network was on the gateway device (192.168.0.1 ) but I found this dropped many packets - so each of the first sub-net devices has a local static route for the second subnet added to it.
route add 192.168.2.0 mask 255.255.255.0 192.168.0.5
I've yet to test the DHCP assigned route at this point due to my current problem
This is a sketch of what I have 
DNSMASQ Config
# Configuration file for dnsmasq.
domain-needed
bogus-priv
addn-hosts=/etc/dnsmasq.hosts
# so don't use it if you use eg Kerberos, SIP, XMMP or Google-talk. This option only affects forwarding, SRV records originating for dnsmasq (via srv-host= lines) are not
# suppressed by it.
filterwin2k
dhcp-range=set:house,192.168.0.1,192.168.0.254,infinite
dhcp-range=set:backyard,192.168.2.1,192.168.2.254,infinite
# Change this line if you want dns to get its upstream servers from somewhere other that /etc/resolv.conf
resolv-file=/var/run/dnsmasq/resolv.conf
# server=61.9.134.49
# server=61.9.133.193 setup the default gateway
dhcp-option=tag:house,option:router,192.168.0.1
dhcp-option=tag:backyard,option:router,192.168.2.1
# option 42?
dhcp-option=option:ntp-server,192.168.0.2
expand-hosts
domain=wilson.lan
dhcp-range=192.168.0.100,192.168.0.150,12h
dhcp-range=192.168.2.100,192.168.2.150,255.255.255.0,12h
# DO NOT Set The route to that network Done on Gateway
#dhcp-option=121,192.168.2.0/24,192.168.0.5
#Send microsoft-specific option to tell windows to release the DHCP lease when it shuts down. Note the "i" flag,
# to tell dnsmasq to send the value as a four-byte integer - that's what microsoft wants. See
# http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/library/a70f1bb7-d2d4-49f0-96d6-4b7414ecfaae1033.mspx?mfr=true
dhcp-option=vendor:MSFT,2,1i
# Set the DHCP server to authoritative mode. In this mode it will barge in and take over the lease for any client
# which broadcasts on the network, whether it has a record
# of the lease or not. This avoids long timeouts when a machine wakes up on a new network.
# DO NOT enable this if there's the slightest chance that you might end up
# accidentally configuring a DHCP server for your campus/company accidentally.
# The ISC server uses the same option, and this URL provides more information:
# http://www.isc.org/files/auth.html
dhcp-authoritative
# Log lots of extra information about DHCP transactions.
log-dhcp
Answer
Ok so after reading the manual better I need to add in something to override the default of only answer local sub-nets (--local-service) a default option which has no negation so for example I tried
listen-address=192.168.0.2
However as resolve.conf has the line
nameserver 127.0.0.1
my change stopped DNSMASQ answering queries from itself - so strangely enough the DNS server no longer could resolve any dns name whilst all other machines were successfully using it as a dns server. I fixed this by adding the following line instead
listen-address=192.168.0.2,127.0.0.1
as I could not work out a simple way to fix what resolveconf was doing
networking - Docker unable to pull images
On running the docker command, I get following error:
docker run hello-world
Pulling repository docker.io/library/hello-world docker: Network timed out while trying to connect to https://index.docker.io/v1/repositories/library/hello-world/images. You may want to check your internet connection or if you are behind a proxy..
I am getting following CURL output:
curl -v https://index.docker.io
* Rebuilt URL to: https://index.docker.io/
* Hostname was NOT found in DNS cache
* Trying 54.152.78.181...
* Connected to index.docker.io (54.152.78.181) port 443 (#0)
* successfully set certificate verify locations:
* CAfile: none
CApath: /etc/ssl/certs
* SSLv3, TLS handshake, Client hello (1):
* Unknown SSL protocol error in connection to index.docker.io:443
* Closing connection 0
curl: (35) Unknown SSL protocol error in connection to index.docker.io:443
So how will i pull my machines now?
Now getting following message:
Unable to find image 'hello-world:latest' locally latest: Pulling from library/hello-world 03f4658f8b78: Downloading a3ed95caeb02: Downloading docker: x509: certificate signed by unknown authority.
Update(obfuscated keys):
running following command gives output:
~$ openssl s_client -connect index.docker.io:443
CONNECTED(00000003)
depth=1 C = US, O = GeoTrust Inc., CN = RapidSSL SHA256 CA - G3
verify error:num=20:unable to get local issuer certificate
verify return:0
---
Certificate chain
0 s:/OU=GT98568428/OU=See www.rapidssl.com/resources/cps (c)15/OU=Domain Control Validated - RapidSSL(R)/CN=*.docker.io
i:/C=US/O=GeoTrust Inc./CN=RapidSSL SHA256 CA - G3
1 s:/C=US/O=GeoTrust Inc./CN=RapidSSL SHA256 CA - G3
i:/C=US/O=GeoTrust Inc./CN=GeoTrust Global CA
---
Server certificate
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----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-----END CERTIFICATE-----
subject=/OU=GT98568428/OU=See www.rapidssl.com/resources/cps (c)15/OU=Domain Control Validated - RapidSSL(R)/CN=*.docker.io
issuer=/C=US/O=GeoTrust Inc./CN=RapidSSL SHA256 CA - G3
---
No client certificate CA names sent
---
SSL handshake has read 2914 bytes and written 421 bytes
---
New, TLSv1/SSLv3, Cipher is ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256
Server public key is 2048 bit
Secure Renegotiation IS supported
Compression: NONE
Expansion: NONE
SSL-Session:
Protocol : TLSv1.2
Cipher : ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256
Session-ID: 111E09F815E121C7EA7E7FD0C07C4AC31FFDE4E13AD9BA926AFF03A2E267130C
Session-ID-ctx:
Master-Key: 78A4ABC11BFCCA245F4B3FE8BDA0C0BC3A10D3E9BB447838B06D8BB16DA1553DBBCBFE03408AF34FB7D0CA5E3E7E8D40
Key-Arg : None
PSK identity: None
PSK identity hint: None
SRP username: None
TLS session ticket lifetime hint: 300 (seconds)
TLS session ticket:
0000 - 57 92 4f 5c a0 41 ab d9-62 2c b1 05 66 b5 bc 79 W.O\.A..b,..f..y
0010 - c8 32 a1 b0 f3 df 3d e7-c8 8d 0b 62 b2 6f 2b 99 .2....=....b.o+.
0020 - 80 e1 60 73 19 67 bd c5-bf 4c 61 26 ca 3c 4d bd ..`s.g...La&.i...
0090 - ea ca 71 3e 9a 64 e8 23-dc f6 77 b4 6a 59 ac cd ..q>.d.#..w.jY..
Start Time: 1456385623
Timeout : 300 (sec)
Verify return code: 20 (unable to get local issuer certificate)
---
I tried following commands but in vain:
sudo update-ca-certificates sudo service docker restart
Also following command results:
# update-ca-certificates
Updating certificates in /etc/ssl/certs... unable to load certificate
140587866932896:error:0906D06C:PEM routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line:pem_lib.c:703:Expecting: TRUSTED CERTIFICATE
unable to load certificate
140365960205984:error:0906D06C:PEM routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line:pem_lib.c:703:Expecting: TRUSTED CERTIFICATE
WARNING: Skipping duplicate certificate cacerthaxx.pem
WARNING: Skipping duplicate certificate UbuntuOne-Go_Daddy_Class_2_CA.pem
WARNING: Skipping duplicate certificate UbuntuOne-Go_Daddy_Class_2_CA.pem
4 added, 0 removed; done.
Running hooks in /etc/ca-certificates/update.d....done.
root@Data-Server:~# update-ca-certificates -f
Clearing symlinks in /etc/ssl/certs...done.
Updating certificates in /etc/ssl/certs... unable to load certificate
140706921281184:error:0906D06C:PEM routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line:pem_lib.c:703:Expecting: TRUSTED CERTIFICATE
unable to load certificate
139841225197216:error:0906D06C:PEM routines:PEM_read_bio:no start line:pem_lib.c:703:Expecting: TRUSTED CERTIFICATE
WARNING: Skipping duplicate certificate cacerthaxx.pem
WARNING: Skipping duplicate certificate UbuntuOne-Go_Daddy_Class_2_CA.pem
WARNING: Skipping duplicate certificate UbuntuOne-Go_Daddy_Class_2_CA.pem
177 added, 0 removed; done.
Running hooks in /etc/ca-certificates/update.d....done.
How do I recover data from my presumably dead hard disk
I have a Seagate ST3500620AS (Barracuda 7200.11) hard disk:
- SATA
- 500GB
- 7200 spindle speed
I've used this disk for about 2 years now. But today it happened that my computer wouldn't wake up from sleep state. I hard turned off my computer and after turning it back on, I couldn't load the system and after some time of waiting a message came up, that OS can't be loaded from the network.
Checking my BIOS settings I can see that disk is not recognised by it. I unplugged it, put in another disk which got recognised just fine.
Then I tried connecting faulty disk to a different computer via USB (because I have a SATA-USB dock for a portable Seagate) but it didn't get recognised by the system either. I also run Disk management in case disk wasn't partitioned or anything so it would be recognised but not displayed in Explorer. No luck either. Disk doesn't show up anywhere...
So my conclusion is that this disk is now officially dead (RIP my working friend)... But I'd still like to recover more than valuable data from it. Bank certificate is just one of them...
How can I do anything to get to this disk's data? Is there any software that can actually bypass BIOS and access a device directly? Is that at all possible on an everyday machine? Should I start thinking of a data recovery service provider that would do it for me and recover valuable data?
Additional notes
- Disk physically isn't completely dead because on power-up it spins-up, heads get positioned (by the sound of it).
- Network related boot is most likely initiated by computer BIOS, because boot priority is
HD > Floppy > Network...
Answer
Sounds like you've been bitten by the BSY bug (the drive event log location has been set to an invalid location by an off by one error in the firmware). This contains a reference to your model being affected. At one time, you could send the drive into Seagate and they'd revive it by updating the firmware, you'd end up paying only for shipping. Hopefully they're still doing that. If not, you can do it yourself (another link). If you've got more of theses drives, get the firmware updated while they're still operational.
Update
Here are some additional links. This one seems to be a good general introduction that discusses the cabling / voltage requirements for communicating with the drive. This one has more details / discussion.
Windows 7 Licensing - Old Computer to New
I'm now a Mac user, but used to have a Windows laptop that I upgraded from Vista to 7 quite a while back (2 years now). I've not used the machine since I got my Mac, and wondered if there is any way of deactivating the license so it can be used on another Windows box (desktop) that I'd like to do some experimental stuff with, to save me purchasing anew?
It was an upgrade only license, but there is Vista on the box I want to upgrade, too.
Answer
Retail licenses (full and upgrade) of Windows 7 are transferable. With an upgrade license, the new computer must also already have a valid license.
Referring to the Windows 7 retail licenses:
2: INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS.
a. One Copy per Computer. You may install one copy of the software on one computer. That computer is the “licensed computer.”
b. Licensed Computer. You may use the software on up to two processors on the licensed computer at one time. Unless otherwise provided in these license terms, you may not use the software on any other computer.
c. Number of Users. Unless otherwise provided in these license terms, only one user may use the software at a time.
d. Alternative Versions. The software may include more than one version, such as 32-bit and 64-bit. You may install and use only one version at one time.
15: UPGRADES.
To use upgrade software, you must first be licensed for the software that is eligible for the upgrade. Upon upgrade, this agreement takes the place of the agreement for the software you upgraded from. After you upgrade, you may no longer use the software you upgraded from.
17: TRANSFER TO ANOTHER COMPUTER.
a. Software Other than Windows Anytime Upgrade. You may transfer the software and install it on another computer for your use. That computer becomes the licensed computer. You may not do so to share this license between computers.
b. Windows Anytime Upgrade Software. You may transfer the software and install it on another computer, but only if the license terms of the software you upgraded from allows you to do so. That computer becomes the licensed computer. You may not do so to share this license between computers.
How can I stop Excel from eating my delicious CSV files and excreting useless data?
I have a database which tracks sales of widgets by serial number. Users enter purchaser data and quantity, and scan each widget into a custom client program. They then finalize the order. This all works flawlessly.
Some customers want an Excel-compatible spreadsheet of the widgets they have purchased. We generate this with a PHP script which queries the database and outputs the result as a CSV with the store name and associated data. This works perfectly well too.
When opened in a text editor such as Notepad or vi, the file looks like this:
"Account Number","Store Name","S1","S2","S3","Widget Type","Date"
"4173","SpeedyCorp","268435459705526269","","268435459705526269","848 Model Widget","2011-01-17"
As you can see, the serial numbers are present (in this case twice, not all secondary serials are the same) and are long strings of numbers. When this file is opened in Excel, the result becomes:
Account Number Store Name S1 S2 S3 Widget Type Date
4173 SpeedyCorp 2.68435E+17 2.68435E+17 848 Model Widget 2011-01-17
As you may have observed, the serial numbers are enclosed by double quotes. Excel does not seem to respect text qualifiers in .csv files. When importing these files into Access, we have zero difficulty. When opening them as text, no trouble at all. But Excel, without fail, converts these files into useless garbage. Trying to instruct end users in the art of opening a CSV file with a non-default application is becoming, shall we say, tiresome. Is there hope? Is there a setting I've been unable to find? This seems to be the case with Excel 2003, 2007, and 2010.
Answer
But Excel, without fail, converts these files into useless garbage.
Excel is useless garbage.
Solution
I would be a little surprised if any client wanting your data in an Excel format was unable to change the visible formatting on those three columns to "Number" with zero decimal places or to "text." But let's assume that a short how-to document is out of the question.
Your options are:
- Toss a non numeric, not whitespace character into your serial numbers.
- Write out an xls file or xlsx file with some default formatting.
- Cheat and output those numbers as formulas
="268435459705526269","",="268435459705526269"(you can also do="268435459705526269",,="268435459705526269"saving yourself 2 characters). This has the advantage of displaying correctly, and probably being generally useful, but subtly broken (as they are formulas).
Be careful with option 3, because some programs (including Excel & Open Office Calc), will no longer treat commas inside ="" fields as escaped. That means ="abc,xyz" will span two columns and break the import.
Using the format of "=""abc,xy""" solves this problem, but this method still limits you to 255 characters because of Excel's formula length limit.
browser addons - How do I get Firefox to return to the previous tab when closing a tab?
In Opera, when closing a tab, focus returns to the most recently used tab, while in firefox, it returns focus to the right-most tab. I find that the Opera behaviour is almost always what I want. Is there anyway to get this behaviour in Firefox?
Answer
Use add-on Tab Mix Plus It will do this and much more.
Friday, 7 February 2020
Failing DVD playback on Windows 7 x64
System: Windows 7 Home Premium x64, brand new HW.
The machine rejects to play a few DVD-s. It is consistent on what to reject. Some DVD-s are fine, they are always fine. Some are rejected, they are always rejected.
All DVD-s played fine on my old XP machine.
The DVD-s are also backed up as ISO files on the hard drive, and can be played via virtual DVD drives. The result is the same. The non-tasty DVD-s are rejected, the tasty ones are accepted to be played via the virtual drive.
I have installed no extra codecs or player software besides Winamp and iTunes for movies. So I just use the default Windows Media Player and the codecs shipped with Windows 7.
Some more hints: The computer has been purchased in Europe, as well as the DVD-s, so I do not believe that this is a region issue. One of the DVD says in it title NTSC, but I have no idea how could digital DVD content be NTSC (or PAL).
Answer
try an alternative media player that doesn't require any codecs to be installed (e.g. SMPlayer) and see if the problem persists.
if you get the portable version, it doesn't even have to be installed on your system, can be used from a USB stick. SMPlayer works with Windows x64.
How to Improve Wireless Networking Range
I have a cable modem which is also a wireless router. I have this modem in my bedroom and the signal is strong in there, but when I go to another room of the house, the signal goes weak. Even in some rooms, the signal is so weak that I cannot have a nice connection, so my Internet connects and disconnects every 30 secs.
How can I amplify my wireless signal? Should I buy some powerful router? Or there is some wireless amplifier stuffs ?
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