IPv6? You would have seen this term everywhere, almost anywhere. Why? What’s so special? Web Analysts says World IPv6 Day is nearing, and what I would say is Internet is running out of addresses. Almost 4 billion IP addresses have now been assigned to various institutions and now that leads to the crisis we are facing right now.

IPv6 is the new version of the Internet Protocol which allows a lot more devices to connect to the Internet, easily.

Technically speaking, IPv6 is the sixth revision to the Internet Protocol and the successor to IPv4. Mostly similar to IPv4 and this one provides unique and numerical IP addresses necessary for Internet-enabled devices to communicate. IPv6 is capable of solving the crisis since it utilizes 128-bit Internet addresses, whereas IPv4 uses 32 bits for its Internet addresses.

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Using Google To Check IPv6 Readiness

Google has a simple test page to allow users to check whether or not their current browsers, systems, and networks are capable of handling the impending changeover.

You can use this simple test page for testing your browser’s IPv6 Readiness.

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23:42:00

One of the tricks to improve WiFi signal is to avoid interference caused by household appliances (e.g. microwave oven) and WiFi channel overlapping.

To avoid interference from household appliance, just keep your Wi-Fi router away from potential culprit. To deal with Wi-Fi channel overlapping, you’ll need to find out Wi-Fi channels used by neighbors and change your router to use different channel.

How to check what Wi-Fi channels are in used? Here, let’s assume there is no WLAN network using hidden SSID.

On Android, I recommend this intuitive app called Wifi Analyzer. 

On Windows, you can use a built-in but not so intuitive console application called netsh to gather wireless network information like SSID, signal, channel, WLAN network and radio type, authentication and encryption protocol, AP MAC address, etc. 



To simplify the command output, I use findstr to filter out network information other than ssid, channel, and signal:

netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid |^
findstr /I /R "^ssid | channel | signal"

You can copy and paste it into Command Prompt to execute. The ^ character is DOS escape character that allows me write a long command line into multi-line fashion.

If you paste it into a cmd script file, then you may want to add another line for pause command (after findstr line):

netsh wlan show networks mode=bssid |^
findstr /I /R "^ssid | channel | signal"
pause

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23:39:00

How to open elevated command prompt in right click context menu? In Windows Vista and Windows 7, there is this “Open command window here” option to execute cmd.exe with normal privilege if you press and hold the SHIFT key followed by right click on a folder.

However, there is a trick to open true administrator Command Prompt by just right click on the folder without having to press SHIFT key or whatever.

Trick to open elevated Command Prompt with right click



The trick is tested on Windows Vista SP2 and Windows 7 (should be applicable to Windows Server 2008).

In addition, this trick is actually a Registry hack, i.e. you have to make change in Windows Registry (leave now if you are not comfortable with it):

1) Press Windows key or click the Start button, type cmdand press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER key to open a elevated Command Prompt window. Not get it? Try this:

Alternative: Click Start button, type cmd, right click the cmd.exe shortcut appears atop the Start menu and select “Run as Administrator”.

2) Copy these lengthy reg.exe commands, one by one, paste it to the opened elevated Command Prompt and press ENTER key to execute (see also “How to enable copy and paste in Windows 7 Command Prompt“):



To display new option in the right click context menu of directory:

reg add HKCR\Directory\shell\Runas /ve /t REG_SZ /d "open ELEVATED command prompt at this working directory" /f

The action or command to execute when that new option is selected:

reg add HKCR\Directory\shell\Runas\Command /ve /t REG_SZ /d "cmd.exe /k \"pushd %L ^&^& title Elevated Command Prompt Window\"" /f

To display new option when right click on a disk drive, CD/DVD-ROM drive, USB drive, etc:

reg add HKCR\Drive\shell\Runas /ve /t REG_SZ /d "open ELEVATED command prompt at this working directory" /f

The command to execute when that new option in right click context menu is selected:

reg add HKCR\Drive\shell\Runas\Command /ve /t REG_SZ /d "cmd.exe /k \"pushd %L ^&^& title Elevated Command Prompt Window\"" /f

Easier one-click to apply Registry hack

If those commands look complicated to you, just download this Registration Entries (.reg) file and double it to run:
ElevatedCmd.zip
[ md5 checksum (.zip): e94fc460bf480265670330203cb0c3cc ]
[ md5 checksum (.reg): 8a76ef862374e65bc9229ad6c32a58fe ]

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23:32:00

The Windows netstat command can tell you the association of network connection and executable file, i.e. which application (program) is using the network connection port.

To get this information, you need to run this commandnetstat -anqb in an elevated Command Prompt window(the -b option requires elevated privilege). 

Obviously, it gives what we want, but the output format is not easy to read or filter. So, let’s fine tune its output withGNU awk and grep for Windows.

Now, install that two GNU programs, then copy and paste these 3 lines to elevated Command Prompt window and press ENTER to run:

netstat -anqb |^
awk "{if ($1 ~/TCP|UDP/)printf \"\n%s\", $0;else printf \" %s\",$0}" |^
egrep -vw "LISTENING|TIME_WAIT|CLOSE_WAIT"

The netstat output should look better now, similar to this one:



NOTE: If you want to save that 3 lines in batch file (e.g. ListConn.cmd script file), you need to change each of the % character to %%, i.e.:

netstat -anqb |^
awk "{if ($1 ~/TCP|UDP/)printf \"\n%%s\", $0;else printf \" %%s\",$0}" |^
egrep -vw "LISTENING|TIME_WAIT|CLOSE_WAIT"

To explore Windows netstat command option, execute this command netstat /?.

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23:26:00

You’ve just bought a new Dell computer came with pre-installed Windows 10 and there is no legacy COA (Certificate of Authenticity) attached to the chassis. In fact, Dell does not distribute COA since Windows 8.

So, where/how to find your genuine Windows 10 product key should you need to reinstall the OS afresh (not using recovery CD/image) to get rid of bloatware? Don’t worry – you don’t really need to know the key, because the Windows 10 installation and activation process will automatically refer to BIOS for OEM product key (if there is one) – according to Dell official knowledge base:

Starting Windows 8, the Windows product key is burnt into BIOS at factory. The Windows installation and activation processes will refer to the BIOS automatically.

If your curiosity is to find out that key anyway, Windows 10 does provide a native way to retrieve this OEM product key from BIOS too (if it’s there; otherwise, it shows empty value of this OA3xOriginalProductKey property):

wmic path softwarelicensingservice get /all /format:list | findstr OA3

OR:

wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey

NOTE: If you want to use a different Windows 10 edition product key during installation on a computer with OEM product key embedded in BIOS, you won’t find it prompt you for that. You can, however, change product key after installation, even it has activated automatically. Just go to Windows Settings app > System > About > look for option to change product key or upgrade Windows edition.

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23:24:00

You’ll need to change product key if you want to upgrade Windows 10 edition (e.g. from Home to Pro).

There are few ways to do this in Windows 10:

Method 1 – type either one of these commands in an elevated Command Prompt window:

slui

OR,

changepk

OR,

changepk.exe /ProductKey new_product_key_here

Method 2
Click Windows button > type Activation > click the Activation shortcut appears in searching list > click Change product key button.


Windows 10 edition upgrade matrix – with reference toWindows 10 upgrade paths.

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23:20:00