T2W Trading Community

• Networking
  Not as complex as it might first sound, creating a Local Area Network (LAN) in your home can reap substantial benefits if there is more than one PC, and more than one of you want to use the internet at the same time, or if you want to share files between computers.

  Most modern PCs should come equipped with what’s called an ethernet card – this is a device that allows PCs to communicate via a LAN. In its simplest form, a LAN will consist of two PCs hard-wired together via a cable that goes into the ethernet card on each machine. If you have Windows XP, there is a network wizard which does most (if not all) of the work for you – establishing a connection between the two PCs to allow them to communicate. The “host” PC is then either connected directly to the modem, or both PCs are connected to a router, which in turn connects to the modem (as shown below).

  
  Originally, all LANs were hard-wired – physical connections between each client – and this is still popular today; but becoming much more common is wireless networking.

  As the name suggests, there are no cables involved. The PCs can be in two separate rooms, there’s no need for drilling holes through walls and if you have a laptop, you can even take it into the garden and stay on the network (assuming you don’t sit too far down the garden – the typical range without a relay is about 100m maximum, and this can deteriorate rapidly when there is no line of sight between the router and the client PC).

  For an excellent guide on how a LAN operates, and how to set one up, click here.

• WLAN Security

  Unfortunately, wireless networks are not as secure as wired networks. The problem is that the underlying communication medium – airwaves – are open to intrusion, making it the equivalent of having an ethernet port for all and sundry to access at the front of your house. Most wireless routers that you buy from the high street will use default settings, in order for it to be easy-ish for you to install on your PC. Sadly, this means that anyone else with a wireless device that is configured to use the default settings will also be able to access your WLAN, so you need to take steps to prevent this from happening.

  There is a useful guide on securing WLANs here which is full of handy hints and tips.

• Backing Up
  Its one of those things that will “never happen to you” - until it does. Let’s imagine a friend gives you a CD ROM they’ve been using, and tells you it will do things you never thought possible. So, you pop it in the CD drive, run the program, and for whatever reason the PC falls over with its legs in the air. “No problem,” you think - “reboot!” But instead of your friendly Windows desktop, you get a black and white screen with a message something like this: "Disk boot failure, insert system disk and press enter".

  Now, you really wished you’d backed everything up now, don’t you?

  It’s a worst case scenario above, but if you can get into the habit of backing up your program files and data on a fairly regular basis, even if the worst happens, you’ve got some of your data – even if its not the most recent – backed up somewhere.

  
  

  If you have a reasonably modern PC, chances are you can burn a CDROM. This is one of the ways of backing up your data, although the more data you have, the more CDs you’ll need and the longer it will take. Naturally, if you choose to back up only some of your data, it might not take long at all.

  

  You can also back up your data to removable media, such as a USB Hard Drive or Tape Drive. This can be somewhat quicker than CDROM, with current USB 2.0 standards allowing data transfer of up to 480MB per second. The older USB standard, 1.1, which comes with Windows 98, ME and 2000, has a maximum transfer rate of 12Mbps.

  

  Another method of backup is web backup, which enables you to zip or otherwise compress a file, and send it via FTP (File Transfer Protocol – a method of sending files over the Internet) to a server on the web which will store your data in the event that you need to restore from it at some point.

• UPS Power Supply

  If you’re serious about your trading, you might also want to think about buying a UPS. This is your own mini power supply in case you happen to be in the market in the middle of a power outage. “How often does that happen?” I hear you cry. Well, try telling that to anyone who was trading on the US East Coast on August 14, 2003, when the power station at Niagara Falls failed. Admittedly that’s another worst-case scenario – but there must have been hundreds of traders who were cut off at the knees that day.

  

Hardware Recommendations

Based on a recent survey on the site, over 90% of participants use Windows machines for their trading. As such, I have based my recommendations on Windows PCs. That’s not to say you can’t or shouldn’t use an Apple Mac for trading, but bear in mind the possible limitations for trading applications if you go down that route, or try to speak to a trader who uses a Mac.

I have also based these recommendations on someone buying new hardware with which to trade – obviously you can trade successfully with older equipment than I have listed below, but I have tried to factor in all the points I have mentioned about upgrading for future use.

• Minimum

  • Windows XP Operating System
  • 80GB Hard Drive
  • AMD Athlon XP or Pentium 4 Processor, 1.4GHz and upwards.
  • 256Mb RAM
  • 64MB Graphics Card
  • CD or DVD Re-Writer
  • 17-inch Monitor
  • Speaker System
  • Quality Inkjet Printer
  • 56k Internet Connection

  
  

• Recommended

  • Windows XP Operating System
  • 160GB Hard Drive
  • AMD Athlon 64 or Pentium 4 Processor, 3.0GHz and upwards.
  • 512+Mb RAM
  • 256MB Graphics Card with Multi Monitor Capability
  • CD or DVD Re-Writer
  • Dual 17-inch TFT Screens
  • Speaker System
  • Quality Inkjet Printer
  • ADSL Connection
  • USB 2.0 Backup Device
  • UPS Power Supply