How-to turn your Windows 7 laptop into a wireless hotspot

Sharing your Windows internet connection via software has traditionally been a tricky business.
There are programs that can help you do it, but they're often awkward to set up, and prone to complicated security and reliability issues, so most people don't even try.
But that could all be about to change, thanks to a new Windows 7 feature called Virtual Wi-Fi.
The idea is a simple one: the operating system can virtualise any compatible wireless adapter, to make it appear as though you've as many additional adapters as you need.
The effect is dramatic. Once it's set up, then any Wi-Fi compatible device that can connect to you - another desktop, laptop, or an iPod Touch, say - will immediately be able to get online, by sharing your internet connection through a duplicate of your wireless adapter.
Getting this working isn't too difficult, either, as long as you can get over the first hurdle: finding a virtual Wi-Fi-compatible driver for your wireless adapter.
Intel's latest 32-bit and 64-bit drivers now include support, as do various others for Atheros, Broadcom, Realtek and other big players, but these don't apply to every chipset. Check the support site for your wireless adapter to see what's available.
If you're in luck and manage to find and install an up-to-date Windows 7 driver for your adapter, then the next step is to set it up, and for that you'll need an elevated command prompt. Click Start, type CMD, right-click the Cmd.exe link and select "Run as Administrator".
Now type the following command:

netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=MyNet key=MyPassword

and press [Enter]. Replace "MyNet" with the name you'd like to use for your custom network, and "MyPassword" with a password that's a little harder to guess.
Still at the command line, type

netsh wlan start hostednetwork

and press [Enter] to fire up the virtual adapter.

Now click Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Sharing Centre > Change Adapter Settings, right-click your internet connection and select Properties. Click the Sharing tab, check "Allow other network users to connect...", choose your virtual Wi-Fi adaptor - and that's it.
Any nearby Wi-Fi enabled device should see a new network appear with the SSID you defined above. They'll be able to connect to it using your password, and can then immediately share your internet connection.
While it's worth knowing how to do this manually, if it's something you do often then you'll probably prefer a simpler solution.
You could speed things up a little by creating a batch file to run the netsh commands, perhaps, but for a really easy life we'd recommend you install Virtual Router. It's compact, free, and will automate the whole process for you with the minimum of hassle.

CD-DVD Drive Laser adjustment

The light wavelengths involved with CD/DVD are in nano-metres. No CD/DVD is manufactured so that the centre hole is exactly in the centre and that the CD/VD is exactly flat. The deviation will always be more than a DVD wavelength. So the laser 'floats' - that is to say as it follows the minutely wobbling and pitching groove, it reads the reflected light coming back, merging part of it with it's own beam and measuring the phase difference, the result being applied to an algorithm that tells the laser to adjust in either plane. With CDs it is far less critical and a single collecting diode is used to measure this deviation. With DVD there are four diodes that examine the pahse difference of the reflected light so that much tighter adjustment can be made as the groove is followed.

 The laser assembly is mounted on a sled which runs on two round steel runners. The azimuth adjuster screw - the one on the left side of the assembly) will tilt the assembly slightly by lifting one side off its rail. Experiment shows that the potential range of adjustment is very large; normal CDs and DVDs will read reliably over several turns of this screw.

However, DVD-Rs and CD-Rs exhibit a very different range of adjustment. DVD-R is most critical due to its much shorter wavelength. When Sony set the machine up originally, the setting was probably made with a 'standard' DVD because this (and CD) was all the machine was ever going to play .

Now that we are using CD-R and DVD-R, this adjustment is much more critical. Proceed as follows, with the PS2 already open - at your own risk of course:

1/
Carefully remove the top of the CR-ROM drive, four small screws.

2/
Power up and eject the drawer. Don't look into the laser lens, infra red is invisible and can cause retinal damage (it's probably safer to switch off when the cover is off the drive).

3/
Put a tiny drop of white correction fluid (or similar) on the screw to keep track of its position. You can feel how 'loose' the screw setting is by holding that side of the sled and seeing how much play there is. (This 'play' is deliberate, the screw must NOT be
tightened up so that the sled cannot move.)

4/
Put an 'iffy' disk (DVD-R) in the drive. Put the drive's cover back on, no need to fit the screws, a small coffee mug stood on top will suffice. See how good the 'boot' is.

5/
Eject the disc, remove the cover and move the screw clockwise a little. KEEP A NOTE OF WHAT YOU'VE DONE. Try again. Be
patient. Once you have found the position where boot will not happen, go the other way and find the other 'no go' end of the range.

6/
Keep going until you have a range of positions (probably less than half a turn) where the boot is best. Set the screw in the middle of that range.

7/
Verify that normal DVDs and CD still work OK. They should work, probably even better than before (if you'd notice).

CAUTION: If you tighten the screw up tight then the sled will not be able to move and you may damage the sled motor or mechanism

ONE FINAL POINT: Look closely at the diagram and you'll see grease on the rails. That needs to be their in order to keep things running smoothly and to prevent friction effects.