If your printer has a built-in ethernet adaptor, adding your printer to your network is a snap. These instructions are appropriate for most HP printers with an ethernet adaptor. The instructions will differ slightly for those with an external print server. Here’s what you do:

1. If you use MAC address filtering on your wireless network, you will need to add your printer’s MAC address to your router configuration. If you don’t use MAC address filtering for your wireless network, you can skip to Step 4.
2. To get your printer’s MAC address, first print your printer’s configuration settings.
3. On the display menu, push the Menu button until you get to the Information Menu. Click the Item button to the right until you get to the Printer Configuration display. Hit Select.
4. Look for the printer’s hardware address on the configuration printout.
5. Using your web browser, login to your router’s configuration. Add your printer’s MAC address to the MAC address filtering area.
6. Perform a cold reset of your printer.
7. Remove the LAN cable.
8. Press & hold the Online/Go button while turning it on & continue to hold it until the display shows Cold Reset, then release it, wait for Ready, then turn it off again.
9. Connect the LAN cable and

Simple tip for today is how to add icons to the Desktop. It seems a lot of people I encounter are unaware of how to do this, so it was worth posting.

Put icons on your desktop to ease access to programs, folders, and files that you frequently access.

If the current shortcut is on your Start Menu:
Open up the Start Menu, Programs folder and find the shortcut you want. Hold down right-click and drag it to your Desktop. A little menu will pop up. Choose ‘Copy Here’.

If the shortcut isn’t on your Start Menu:
Right-click on the Desktop and go to New -> Shortcut. This will launch a wizard. Browse to find the .exe file you want (try looking under C:\Program files\{program name}\), name the shortcut, and follow any other on-screen instructions.

Vista’s Network Identification “feature” has been one thing that has particularly annoyed me with Vista but I haven’t heard that much hub-bub about it around the blog-o-sphere. I’m not one of those people that has been complaining non-stop about Vista, the Network Identification is just one thing that has been a consistent thorn in the side. Unfortunately, this also seems to be in Windows Server 2008, although I haven’t had any problems yet.

To summarize the “feature” and problem: Any time Vista recognizes that you’re on a new network (say the router changed or you’re connecting to a new wireless access point) it prompts you to know whether the network is Private or Public. If it’s Public, it locks down the firewall and removes exceptions for security reasons. That is not my problem with it however. That’s fine. I have Vista installed on my desktop machine, it is never venturing out on public wifi or anything like that.

My problem is that the feature does not work. I have had multiple hang-ups with my network where it will just go as an “Unidentified” network. It