Windows only: User-friendly network monitoring utility Look@Lan quickly displays information about your local network such as the percentage of machines online and the operating systems installed on them. With automatic network configuration detection and a quick start wizard, you can be up and running seconds after installing the program. Look@Lan has audio notification of changes to the network and you can configure it to send email notifications about changes as well. Look@Lan can limit scan ranges based on IP address, network adaptor, or port types; it comes with ping, traceroute, and a tree-based network viewer built in. Here's what some of Look@Lan's graphs look like.

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Handy do-it-yourselfer computerguru365 turned a network-capable laser printer into a wireless printer by mounting a small Wi-Fi router inside its case. This is a really cool mod: After installing a network card, he found space inside the printer to mount a small router (running the DD-WRT router firmware, no less), wired up and mounted LED lights, and tucked both the power and Ethernet cable hook-ups inside. This project's not for the timid, and not really necessary, as you can just set the router on top or near the printer—but the result looks really good. (Of course you'll get better bandwidth by keeping the antenna outside the printer.)

Windows only: Avanquest Connection Manager, previously a $US30 app, is now a free utility that could be seriously convenient for laptop users. The app lets you create profiles for your different wi-fi or LAN connections, changing email, printer, and network drive defaults depending on where you hook up, along with security settings and other concerns. The app's basic connection-chooser is also more user-friendly than Windows' own somewhat plain built-in version (though that might be what some road warriors like about it). The trade-off for its "free"-ness appears to be ads for other Avanquest software scrolling across the top, but I find them pretty easy to ignore. Avanquest Connection Manager is a free download for Windows systems only.

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I'll be honest -- when I hear the phrase 'business networking', I visualise being cornered by an insurance salesperson in a US airport. But cynicism aside, Brisbane business consultant Geoff Kirkwood offers a suggestion in a recent interview for networking more effectively: concentrate on a handful of people who can actually help you find new clients, which he refers to as "referral partners". Kirkwood gives the example of a marriage celebrant partnering with limo drivers and florists; each has customers the others could use. I'm not sure I'd want to cough up money for those kinds of introductions (which is the basis of Kirkwood's business), but the concept seems sound. Would it work for you?

Writing things down, on paper or on-screen, is the best way to make sure you remember important info and tasks, but sometimes you've got to rely on your plain old brain to keep essential data sorted and handy. Whether it's a client's name, a password or combination you want stored only in your head, or answers for an upcoming test, there are plenty of techniques and tools to help you lock in important stuff and pull it out when needed. After the jump, we round up some memorable memory-boosting hacks. Photo by furryscaly.

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We all know that networking can be vitally important, especially for freelancers and those with a bit of salesmanship to their jobs, but gigantic conferences like SXSW Interactive or O'Reilly Emerging Technology can seem like imposing behemoths, and even smaller gatherings can be frustrating if your crowd-working skills aren't up to snuff—which certainly holds true for your morning editor. There's always another chance to book a room and pin on a name tag coming up, though, so I turn to our more networking-savvy readers and ask: How do you set goals or keep focused on getting something worthwhile out of your time at conferences and seminars? What kind of must-have goods do you bring? Do you plan to meet certain people ahead of time, or are big gatherings a chance to play it by ear? Let's hear your advice, war stories, and suggestions in the comments.

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If you're a freelancer, or you work on project-based environment, you know what it's like to have downtime between projects. Often when you deliver a project or meet a deadline there's a temptation to reward your hard work by slacking off before your next project kicks in, but the Urban Muse blog offers up six ways to make good use of that downtime for networking and bringing in more business for yourself.

• Take a good look at your website and see what you can update. Can you refresh some of the copy, add new client testimonials or new content to your portfolio?
• Update your profile on social networking sites - the professional ones like Facebook and Linkedin, not the fun ones!
• Catch up on your blog reading - commenting is a great way to extend your network.
• Email your favourite clients - to catch up, share a link to an article they might like, and let them know you're scouting around for a new assignment.
• Take a class to improve your skills - perhaps in an area that will let you extend your current business. ie a writer could take a photography class, to be able to sell photos to accompany their stories.
• Pitch, pitch, pitch! The more pitches you write for new business, the better you'll get. Especially if you ask your clients for feedback on both successful and unsuccessful pitches.

On Monday we covered how to ping any server from the Firefox address bar with a quick search bookmark. If your fingers Ctrl+L faster than they launch a terminal window, there are four more quick searches that can turn your address bar into a network command line. After the jump, download a bookmarks file of quick searches for whois, traceroute, email (via Gmail), and domain lookups as well as ping.

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More devices in your living room have Ethernet ports than ever before, but you can't plug them into the network if your router's in the other room. When your Wi-Fi access point is in the home office but your TiVo, Xbox, and media centre are screaming for network love under your TV in the living room, you want a wireless bridge (also known as an Ethernet converter). A wireless bridge catches your home network's Wi-Fi signal and provides ports where you can plug in wired devices near it. Let's take a look at how to wire up your living room using a wireless bridge.

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Windows only: Freeware application WirelessKeyView recovers the wireless network keys saved to your computer by the Windows Wireless Zero Configuration service of XP or the WLAN AutoConfig service in Vista. As with any password-finding tool, this can be put to use both for the powers of good or evil, but we trust you'll stick to good—say when you're doing tech support on your parents' laptop and they can't remember what their Wi-Fi password is. WirelessKeyView is freeware, Windows only. Got more password cracking needs done? Crack your Windows password with Ophcrack, or roll up your sleeves on your network passwords with Cain and Abel.

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