Everything About Router and Modem Default IP Address on Different Operating Systems

What is a Router and Modem Default IP Address?

The setup page of your PC permits you to alter various settings (for the example, the name and passphrase of the Wi-Fi) as well as to view certain information. For this, we need the IP address of the router. But, let’s start at the beginning: all modems and routers have web-based interfaces and as a result, they are configured by a web browser. There are some modems and routers which can be accessed by their name, but all of them are accessed by way of the IP address. So, in order to have full access to a router, you need a username and a passphrase, although you cannot even get a prompt for this if you don’t know the IP address.

What is an IP address?

An IP address always consists of 4 numbers which are separated by full stops. A common home network uses an IP address which begins with the following line of numbers - 192.168. Most commonly, a router will possess an IP address like for example 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.2.1.

Who knows the IP address?

In the case that the ISP (or Internet Service Provider) which you use has installed the router and modem, the provider knows the IP address as well as username and the passphrase for these devices. It is the experience of most techies that providers never disclose the information about the address to their customers directly. On the other hand, if you installed the router yourself, the IP address can be obtained from the documents given by the manufacturer (sometimes the address can be found on the router bottom, on a label).

How can we find the default IP address?

However, after setting up a network, every device on it can show the router’s IP address if we do what is necessary. This information can help:

WINDOWS:

The IP address of the router is the “Default Gateway” on Windows. There are a couple of ways of finding this address, this being the first one: use the command ipconfig in a window for Command Prompt. The other way is this one:

1. Open Control Panel (on Windows 10, this is done by right-clicking Start and choosing Control Panel).

2. Then click on View network status and tasks in Network and Internet.

3. Further, click your connection name to the right of Connections (the top-right corner of the page).

4. Then hit the Details button in the window that comes up and look for the IP address on the right of the IPv4 Default Gateway part.

On iPhone/iPad:

Open the app Settings, tap in Wi-Fi, and tap the name of the Wi-Fi network you are using. The IP address of the router will appear to the right side of Router.

Mac OS X:

Click on the Apple menu at the top of the screen (on the bar) and choose System Preferences. Then click on the icon called Network. Choose the network connection (Wi-Fi and a wired Ethernet connection). Then tap on the Advanced button which is located on the bottom, and click the tab TCP/IP. What you will see is the IP address of the router shown on the right.

Android:

It may sound strange, but the Android system offers no way of viewing the information on the network connection. Some third-party apps for Android show this information. What you need to do is install any one of it, tap in View and choose AP list. The top of the screen will show this header: Connected to: [Network Name]. Then tap on that, following which a window will be shown with some more info about the network. The address of the router is located on the right side of Gateway.

Linux:

The information we need is really easy to find with Linux desktop, as most Linux desktops have an icon in the notification area. Click on the network icon and choose Connection Information. You will be able to find the IP address next to Gateway or Default Route.

It is possible to find this address, the Internet Protocol one, on all other devices as well, as all devices which let you link to the network and see info about the network connection usually display it. All you need to do is look in the settings for network connections and look at the Gateway address.

Author Bio:

Masha Winget, owner of 192168ll.net is a technology writer & blogger by profession. She loves to write articles for many online communities, blogs, & websites related to computer tips & new technologies.

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Windows vs Mac OS X vs Linux: Which is the most secured operating system?

What ever might be the operating system you are using, you need to be aware of the methods to counter malware and viruses. Malware is actually programmed to take advantage of particular exploit in a particular operating system. Malware coded for one operating system won't affect the other. For example, malware coded for windows machines won’t infect Mac OS X machines. Likewise, the virus that deletes driver files on Windows XP won’t affect Linux as the drivers for these two machines are totally different.

By this, we can say that the security of the computer depends on the operating system your are using on it. Everyone would like to have a secured operating system on the board but prefers what they know about well. What operating system is secured by the fact and what’s weak? Let’s see the contradiction among the most used operating systems in the world Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, that are believed to be secured than one another.

Exploring Security Vulnerabilities in Windows

Windows, after 95, 98 and 2000 editions of operating systems, truly tasted success with Windows XP only. The changeover it brought compared to its previous versions made XP Microsoft’s best product in early 2000’s. The simple user interface and capability of running on older systems made XP a lovable operating system for users.

Windows XP was not only the most lovable operating system but also a secured one. Security loop holes in previous versions are closed and enhanced the ability of handling certificate errors. The introduction of the Windows security center in XP service pack 2 made it easier to keep track of defensing status of the computer against malware and viruses.

Windows XP has got older now. The ten year old operating system has been hacked relentlessly over the years. The popularity of the operating system has become a choice for hacking as it was used by most of the computer users.. Thus, the most lovable operating system has become a vulnerability for itself. The security holes found in XP were declared non-patchable by Microsoft experts.

Meanwhile, Windows vista, which made its debut in while XP was still ruling the world, also received bad feedbacks as it was not compatible with the older systems like XP. The users of XP had found it difficult using vista with whole new interface and revamped operations. Adding to that, the graphical interface started to expose annoying bugs while using. Though some security features were fixed by then, vista couldn’t win the hearts of XP minded people.

The drastic failure of vista had inspired Microsoft to develop Windows 7 eliminating the bugs in it and providing a moderate support for older systems. Although, one couldn’t run Windows 7 on 512MB RAM systems which are very good at running XP. But Windows 7 offered wealthy new features, including features related to security.

For example, User Account Control(UAC) was introduced in vista and also continued in windows 7. When the UAC was first introduced, it was mocked in the media - Apple even made an advertisement about it. That’s an odd move because OS X has similar functionality, and because UAC is very important when it comes to security. It protects your PC by ensuring that programs cannot gain elevated access privilege to your system without permission. Prior to UAC, malware could easily do this without the user ever knowing the wiser.

Microsoft had made improvements to it and made windows notify every important security information to the user. The security center is revamped as Windows Action Center now. A windows user would notice it in the system tray with a flag icon showing the security updates and information from time to time.

Later, Microsoft introduced Windows 8 with whole new design again. This operating system was made more secure, closing the loop holes in Windows 7 and with revamped metro interface. This operating system is compatible with both the touch and non-touch screen devices making it a all-in-one operating system.

Windows Defender in Windows 8 is made a powerful security tool than in Windows 7. It protects the Windows 8 computer like anything. Defender is simply the best anti-malware and anti-virus tool one can have on their computers. Once you install Windows 8, you no need install third party antivirus software again. This shows Microsoft’s concern about security in the evolution of its operating systems to fight against secured operating systems like Mac and Linux.

Though Microsoft  is making their operating systems most secured from version to version, hackers have got a way with them in finding vulnerabilities.

Exploring Security Vulnerabilities in Mac OS X

Mac OS X was introduced in early 2000s i.e., before Windows XP was introduced. Apple made it so differently that a Windows user will definitely find it difficult to get customized to it, if switched. Apple focuses on big updates unlike Windows service pack updates. So far Apple came up with minor security updates in its later versions of Mac OS X after the primary release. This earned a reputation that OS X offers security far beyond windows.

Regarding security, there is no malware that could affect Mac OS X. After a close examination, it was found that OS X was exposed to less number of vulnerabilities compared to Windows, that too most of them from the internet.

Over the time Apple released more than 100 security patches for Mac OS which are a lot less than Windows. This doesn’t mean that Mac is not a secured operating system. This UNIX’s heritage operating system need root level authentication to make changes to files and programs thus making it a trusty OS on expensive Apple machines. Windows mocked this feature by introducing UAC which is not completely entertaining the purpose it was developed for.

However, an unfortunate number of users seem to believe that OS X is immune to security threats due to its relative obscurity. While there is a degree of truth to this, security threats for OS X computers do exist and can be just as damaging as those that target Windows. The security of Mac OS X is also hampered by a slim selection of security suites.

Exploring Security Vulnerabilities in Linux

Windows and Linux live at two opposite ends. A Linux computer is a alien machine to a Windows user. Linux machines won’t have friendly GUIs where as they have top priority in windows operating systems. So people who are customized to use windows computers can’t put hands on Linux.

But, Linux is more accessible now than it has ever been in the past. Free Linux operating systems like Ubuntu and Jolicloud offer a graphical user interface that is robust and provides a basic functionality of a PC.

Linux like Mac OS X need a authentication to change the root directory files and program settings. Linux also benefits greatly from security by the way of obscurity. The Linux user base is small and, to make matters worse for malware, the user base does not cling to a particular variant of Linux. Although the underlying code is often the same, there are subtle changes to different variants of Linux. Many advanced users code their own custom features on Linux. This makes attacking Linux users in-mass a difficult and also pointless proposition. If you’re looking to harvest credit card numbers, targeting Linux is not the way to go.

This doesn’t mean that Linux cannot be attacked. The desktop versions of Linux expose minor security vulnerabilities. But these vulnerabilities are not patched as quick as on Windows. However, Linux machines are attacked less frequently and these frequent attacks are minute and are negligible.

Conclusion

Incase of security, Mac OS X and Linux are best choices than Windows. According to the statistical information of security threats and exposed vulnerabilities, Windows operating system exhibits more weakness compared to Mac OS X and Linux. The reason why windows is vulnerable is because it is the most used operating system in the world and so hackers targeting it.

Windows computers have powerful anti-malware and antivirus tools inbuilt to protect in from potent attacks. So a windows user would be aware of security issues of the computer. Microsoft is working hard to push windows in those most secured operating system category. So Windows is not totally out of race by this point.

Whatever it may be, coming to the end of the jar, windows is yet a vulnerable OS that most hackers choose to target. Windows users are most likely to be impacted by security threats than Mac OS X and Linux till now.

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How to Install Windows 7 or 8 in Linpus Linux machine?

Some new laptops comes along with Linpus Linux operating system. Though this Linux version of the operating system will not have features like Windows, people still choose to buy laptops with Linpus versions. The reason why, is the bottom line of the story, ‘to reduce price'. Laptops with Windows versions literally costs 4-5k extra bucks over the Linpus version of Linux.

Buying a product with desired configuration and for lesser price than the actual is a smart move. But remember, the smartness lasts till you don’t spend an extra rupee/dollar after that. If you are not familiar with Linux, you would find it difficult installing Windows operating system in Linpus environment and would regret buying the machine for a second.

I’ve faced such problem once and found a simple solution after a lot googling. The Linpus machine would take you to some where after the boot that makes you feel casted away. Don’t worry, the process will go smooth and will pick you up from the casted away island.

Booting in Windows environment

Before you boot your computer in Windows environment, make sure you had the bootable Windows 7 or 8 DVD or any other similar source for booting Windows.

 

Get Windows 7 Professional Now

 

In these times of Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 technical preview, Windows 7 professional stands out as the most used operating system after Windows XP from Microsoft.

 

 

1. Restart your computer by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del in Linpus environment.
2. Keep pressing F2 or any other similar button that brings up BIOS options. Look for boot priority settings and change the first boot priority to ‘DVDRAM’ if you are using OS DVD or ‘Removable Media’ if you are using Bootable USB.
3. Insert DVD into DVDRAM or plugin Bootable USB to the computer.
4. Save settings and exit. The computer will restart and while booting it will ask you to hit any button to boot computer with DVD you have inserted(In some laptops, the ‘press any key to boot into DVD’ text may not be shown. Instead, a blank underscore(_) will be shown blinking for a couple of seconds. In that case also, press a key within 2 or 3 seconds).
5. Then your computer will be booted into Windows environment. Don’t rush to the drive options and format the drive or delete the partition.

Note: Remember that you can boot into Windows environment but the actions on drive or drive partitions will not be considered.

Formatting Linux Partitions with Windows

Booting into Windows environment alone won’t bring you full control over your computer. Remember that the hard disk would be formatted with Linux before Linpus installed in it. So to install Windows, we must re-format it in Windows environment.

Formatting options that are available while installing Windows 7 or 8 aren’t helpful at all.  You must format the Linux partitioned HDD with Windows command prompt. To do so,

1. Restart the computer into Windows environment again.
2. Wait until the ‘Install Windows’ screen is shown.
3. Press Shift+F10 to bring up the command prompt.
4. Now type the following commands one after another,Type ‘diskpart’ and hit enter. A new DISKPART prompt will be opened.

Type ‘help’ and hit enter.

All the commands for DISKPART will be shown. Of them, we’ll be using SELECT command only. Using of other command options are up to you.

Type ‘select disk 0’ and hit enter. (disk 0 means disk zero).
Now type ‘clean’ and hit enter. This command will clean all the previous formats that are made using different other operating systems.

Close the command prompt window and proceed to the windows installation. Now format, delete or create partitions as per your requirement.

Please like and share this article if it helped you! Comment below if you had any problems regarding the processes.

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Ultimate Guide for Using Bash Shell in Linux: Novice Approach

Sometimes, things just don’t work. What do you do if the GUI desktop stops responding to your mouse clicks? What if the GUI doesn’t start at all? You can still tell your Linux system what to do, but you have to do it by typing commands into a text screen. In these situations, you work with the shell , the Linux command interpreter. The bash shell, the default shell in most Linux distributions.

Using Bash Shell

If you’ve used MS-DOS, you may be familiar with COMMAND.COM, the DOS command interpreter. That program displays the infamous C:\> prompt. In Windows, you can see this prompt if you open a command window. (To open a command window in Microsoft Windows, choose Start>Run, type command in the text box, and then click OK.) Linux comes with a command interpreter that resembles COMMAND.COM in DOS, but it can do a whole lot more. The Linux command interpreter is called a shell.

The default shell in many Linux distributions is bash. When you open a terminal window or log in at a text console, the bash shell is what prompts you for commands. Then, when you type a command, the shell executes your command.

Just as there are multiple GUIs (GNOME or KDE) for Linux, you have a choice of shells besides bash. For example, some people prefer the C shell. You can easily change your default shell by using the chsh command.

In addition to the standard Linux commands, bash can execute any computer program. So you can type the name of an application (the name is usually more cryptic than what you see in GNOME or KDE menus) at the shell prompt, and the shell starts that application.

Understanding the syntax of shell commands Because a shell interprets what you type, knowing how the shell processes the text you enter is important. All shell commands have the following general format. (Some commands have no options.)

command [option1] [option2] . . . [optionN]

Issuing such a command is commonly referred to as a command line. On a command line, you enter a command, followed by zero or more options  (or arguments). These strings of options, the command-line options (or command-line arguments) modify the way the command works so that you can get it to do specific tasks.

The shell uses a blank space or a tab to distinguish between the command and options. This means you must use a space or a tab to separate the command from the options and the options from one another. If an option contains spaces, you put that option inside quotation marks. For example, to search for my name in the password file, I enter the following grep command (grep is used for searching for text in files):

grep “Emmett Dulaney” /etc/passwd

When grep prints the line with my name, it looks like this:

edulaney:x:1000:100:Emmett Dulaney:/home/edulaney:/bin/bash

If you create a user account with your username, type the grep command with your username as an argument to look for that username in the /etc/passwd file.

In the output from the grep command, you can see the name of the shell (/bin/bash) following the last colon (:). Because the bash shell is an executable file, it resides in the /bin directory; you must provide the full path to it.

The number of command-line options and their format depend on the actual command. Typically, these options look like -X, where X is a single character. For example, you can use the -l option with the ls command. The command lists the contents of a directory, and the option provides additional details. Here is a result of typing ls -l in a user’s home directory:

total 0
drwxr-xr-x 2 edulaney users 48 2010-09-08 21:11 bin
drwx------ 2 edulaney users 320 2010-09-08 21:16 Desktop
drwx------ 2 edulaney users 80 2010-09-08 21:11 Documents
drwxr-xr-x 2 edulaney users 80 2010-09-08 21:11 public_
html
drwxr-xr-x 2 edulaney users 464 2010-09-17 18:21 sdump

If a command is too long to fit on a single line, you can press the backslash key (\) followed by Enter. Then, continue typing the command on the next line. For example, type the following command. (Press Enter after each line.)

cat \
/etc/passwd

The cat command then displays the contents of the /etc/passwd file. You can concatenate (that is, string together) several shorter commands on a single line by separating the commands by semicolons (;). For example, the following command

cd; ls -l; pwd

changes the current directory to your home directory, lists the contents of that directory, and then shows the name of that directory.

Combining shell commands

You can combine simple shell commands to create a more sophisticated command. For example, suppose that you want to find out whether a device file named sbpcd resides in your system’s /dev directory because some documentation says you need that device file for your CD-ROM drive. You can use the ls /dev command to get a directory listing of the /dev directory and then browse through it to see whether that listing contains sbpcd.

Unfortunately, the /dev directory has a great many entries, so you may find it hard to find any item that has sbpcd in its name. You can, however, combine the ls command with grep and come up with a command line that does exactly what you want. Here’s that command line:

ls /dev | grep sbpcd

The shell sends the output of the ls command (the directory listing) to the grep command, which searches for the string sbpcd. That vertical bar (|) is known as a pipe because it acts as a conduit (think of a water pipe) between the two programs , the output of the first command is fed into the input of the second one.

Controlling command input and output

Most Linux commands have a common feature , they always read from the standard input (usually, the keyboard) and write to the standard output (usually, the screen). Error messages are sent to the standard error (usually to the screen as well). These three devices often are referred to as stdin, stdout, and stderr.

You can make a command get its input from a file and then send its output to another file. Just so you know, the highfalutin term for this feature is input and output redirection or I/O redirection. The following table shows the syntax of common I/O redirection commands.

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Troubleshooting Graphical Login Screen in Linux

Every time I installed Linux on an older PC, the GUI installation worked fine during installation, but then the graphical login screen didn’t appear when I rebooted the PC for the first time after installation. Instead, I ended up with a text login screen or a black screen with a small ‘X’ in the middle, or the boot process seemed to hang with a gray screen. If this problem happens to you,here’s how you can troubleshoot it.

 

 

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete to reboot the PC.
The PC starts to boot. You get to a screen where GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader) prompts you for the operating system to boot. (If the distribution uses LILO as the boot loader, you get a text prompt.)

2. For GRUB, press the A key to add an option that tells the Linux kernel to boot to a prompt. For LILO, skip this step.
The GRUB boot loader then displays a command line for the Linux kernel and prompts you to add what you want.

3. For GRUB, type a space followed by the word single and press Enter. For LILO, type linux single and press Enter.
The Linux kernel boots in a single-user mode and displays a prompt that looks like the following:
 

sh-3.00#

 

Now you’re ready to configure X.

 

X uses a configuration file (XF86Config-4 or xorg.conf, depending on the distribution) to figure out your display card, your monitor, and the kind of screen resolution you want. The Linux installer prepares the configuration file, but sometimes the configuration isn’t correct.

 

To quickly create a working configuration file, follow these steps:

1. Type the following command:

 

X -configure

 

The X server runs and creates a configuration file. The screen goes blank and then the X server exits after displaying some messages. In Fedora, the last line of the message says the following:

 

To test the server, run ‘X -config ///etc/xorg.conf.new’

 

2. Use a text editor, such as vi, to edit the ///etc/xorg.conf.new file and insert the following line after the line Section “Files”:

 

FontPath “unix/:7100”

 

In Fedora, you must also change /dev/mouse to /dev/input/mice.
3. Type xfs & to start the X font server.

 

4. Try the new configuration file by typing X -config ///etc/xorg.conf.new. If you see a blank screen with an X-shaped cursor, the configuration file is working fine.

 

5. Press Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to kill the X server.

 

6. Copy the new configuration file to the /etc/X11 directory with the following command:

 

cp ///etc/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf

7. Reboot the PC by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete or typing reboot.

 

If all goes well, you should get the graphical login screen.

 

The X configuration file created by using the -configure option of the X server does not display at the best resolution. To fine-tune the configuration file, you have to run a utility to adjust the display settings after you reboot the system. Which utility you use depends on the Linux distribution, but most distributions include a utility that enables you to configure the video card, monitor, and display settings through a graphical user interface.

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How to Create a Linux Bootable Flash Drive in Windows

Although you can create a bootable flash drive using a number of command line methods in Linux, the simplest technique uses Windows. (I realize that it might sound like heresy to suggest making a Linux boot from Windows, but most users interested in a Live USB implementation of Linux probably run Windows.) Follow these steps to create a bootable flash drive:

 

1. Go to http://fedorahosted.org/liveusb-creator and download the liveusb-creator program.

 

2. Install the liveusb-creator program.

 

3. Open the folder where liveusb-creator was installed.

 

4. Double-click the liveusb-creator program to run it.

 

 

5. Under Target Device, select the flash drive.

 

6. Choose where the image (the ISO file) will come from.
If you have a slow Internet connection, you can have one Live CD from which you pull the ISO file. If you have a faster Internet connection, use the download option to access a current ISO file.

 

7. Set the Persistent Storage amount.
This is the amount of storage space allocated to the installation that will always be available. I suggest a value of at least 300MB for the average user. (I don’t know why this defaults to 0MB.)

 

8. Click the Create Live USB button and sit back.
You can watch the progress. Be prepared to wait ten minutes for the process to complete. Two folders are created on the drive: syslinux (less than 7MB and responsible for the booting) and LiveOS (the size depends on your storage setting).

 

9. Close the application and test the newly created bootable drive.

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