We explain port forwarding and triggering, firewalls and traffic filtering, the DMZ and other broadband bits you should know.

David Moss tackles misbehaving com ports and resolves a windows share issue.

PC Authority has secured a $350 discount for readers on Dell’s new 27” monitor.

Price: $ 159.00 Its easy to get on-line with this external modem - just attach it to a spare USB port, install the software and connect to the Web. The SwannSmart USB modem uses the fast

David Fearon explains how to save energy and hassle by converting your old Windows XP PC to a virtual one that you can run on your Vista machine

Leigh Dyer explains how to do it, including pairing and sharing Blueooth devices under GNOME.

The time for gift giving is almost upon us, and whether you celebrate Christmas or not, Australia will be shutting down over the Christmas break.

Stuart Andrews shows you how to set up and maintain the perfect backup routine.

We rank the top 7 old school video game theme songs of all time, with a little help from Youtube.

Print 6 x 4in photos from the comfort of your desk. We take a look at five miniature digital darkrooms

Can Acer really compete with Dell, HP and Toshiba? PC Authority analyses Acer’s new direction.

Halo 2 is going to be an exclusive for Windows Vista, but won't use DirectX 10. Something's up.

It's big, portable and laughs in the face of hardcore number crunching.

Protect your LAN and allow internet traffic through to your webserver with a demilitarised zone (DMZ) on your network. Simon Edwards guides you through the process in SmoothWall.

Find out who's trying to get into your system. Simon Edwards show's you how to make sense of SmoothWall's log files. 

I received the following email from G. Hutchinson this morning: 'I was reading another PC magazine the other day, and found an article on the USB specs. The item mentions that USB 1.1 has now been re-named 2.0 and there are now three USB 2.0 'specs'. There are USB standard (old USB 1.1), USB Hi-speed and USB Flat Out -- my son read the article and said it was not true. Are you aware of the situation?'

Four years ago, I saw a picture of a very beautiful desktop interface, called 'Enlightenment', running on an Operating System called 'Linux'. I didn't know much about either, but I downloaded and installed Linux anyway in order to run that fine looking user interface. Thanks to that early interest, I now enjoy a wonderful job designing and maintaining networks in which Linux often fills an important role. There's no better way to learn something new than for it to be enjoyable. With this in mind, I'd like to present Mike's Hopefully nifty guide to having fun with Linux.

In Java, you write in the Java language and you deploy into the JVM. Compare this to a traditional Microsoft way of programming.You could program in C or C++, or you could code in VB. Or if you were w

In many ways Itanium represents a change for Intel. Having dominated the desktop PC processor market, the company hopes that its 64-bit silicon will become the de facto choice in the next generation o

Some items just don't fit any other category, but their looks, features or quirkness scream 'Christmas Gift Idea'. From everyone's favourite AI dinosaur, Pleo, to the groundbreaking Tivo PVR, we think we've got a little something for everyone.