Don’t like the idea of your neighbors rudely snooping on the wireless signal you slaved to pay for from the lazy comfort of their living room? It’s not just about slowing down your connection; while they’re downloading Mad Men via bittorrent, you could be on the hook for their actions.

Microsoft wants you to invite all your geek friends, family, and neighbors over and host your own Windows 7 House Party and you wont have to go it alone because Microsoft has joined forces with House Party, Inc. to assist you along the way. Each host will receive a FREE copy of Windows 7 Ultimate and a party pack.

BitTorrent is a file sharing protocol that allows files to be broken up into much smaller pieces. When you begin downloading a file using the BitTorrent protocol you are considered a ‘peer’. A peer is a client that only has a portion of the file available for upload since they haven’t completed the download yet. A seeder is a client who has the entire contents of a file available for upload. A torrent file holds all the information necessary for your BitTorrent client software to to find the different parts of the file or files being distributed. A swarm is the group of seeders and peers sharing the same torrent file.

It amazes me how many people still don’t understand the importance of securing their wireless network. Sharing your broadband Internet connection with your friends and neighbors is cool! But you need to be smart about it. If my neighbor wants to borrow my internet connection all they have to do is ask and I will be more than happy to help out. I will even come set it up for them. But A geek like myself sends a lot of sensitive information around the internet and I am not willing to do this on an open or unsecured network.

The fastest way to install Windows 7 is from a USB flash drive . There are many ways to do this and this guide was written to work with most setups. It is also possible to install Windows 7 from a USB DVD drive that has it’s own dedicated power source but it’s usually not possible to install an operating system from a DVD drive that is only powered by the USB port. This is because the ports do not provide power immediately upon powering up the PC.

If i’m going to have my laptop stolen I at least want to be the coolest geek in town and walk into the police station with a photo of the thief!