Quick Keyboard Shortcuts
The average computer user relies on the mouse heavily throughout their day. In reality, switching between mouse and keyboard is slow! By learning a few keyboard shortcuts, you can dramatically reduce 90% of back and forth mouse nonsense.
There are a few types of keyboard shortcuts. There are global keyboard shortcuts built directly into Windows, such as copy and paste. These are cross-application functional and the most important shortcuts to remember. Then there are accepted standard shortcuts, such as opening new tabs in a web browser. These shortcuts, while compatible across related software, may have totally different functions in other applications. Last, there are proprietary shortcuts, which only apply to one program or software vendor (i.e. Adobe Photoshop). Because there are thousands of programs with hundreds of proprietary shortcuts, they are very difficult to remember. I will be going over very little, if any, proprietary shortcuts in this article.
Throughout these categories, the shortcuts will be listed by importance.
Global Shortcuts:
- Ctrl+C
- Select text or files and use this command to copy. Replaces mouse movement: Right click > Copy.
- Ctrl+V
- Pastes what was just copied or cut. Replaces mouse movement: Right click > Paste.
- Ctrl+X
- Select text or files and use this command to cut. Replaces mouse movement: Right click > Cut.
- Alt+Tab
- While holding alt, repeat pressing the tab key. Each time you press tab, Windows will rotate currently open applications. This easily switches between programs in seconds. Replaces mouse movement: clicking each program individually from the task bar.
- Alt+F4
- F4 being a function key at the top of the keyboard, this shortcut will close any application. Replaces mouse movement: pressing the red X at the top right of the window.
- Ctrl+P
- Open a print dialog box. Replaces mouse movement: finding the printer icon and clicking it.
- Ctrl+Z
- Undoes the last preformed action. Replaces mouse movement: Edit > Undo.
- Ctrl+Y
- Redoes an undone action.Replaces mouse movement: Edit > Redo.
- Ctrl+Alt+Del
- On home computers, this function will open your task manager, which can be used to close a frozen program. On business computers, a menu will provide the ability to lock the computer, change your password, open the task manager, or other miscellaneous actions. Replaces mouse movement: whole bunch of stuff.
Start Button:
Your keyboard Start button, located between your Alt and Ctrl keys, can be used to launch many Windows functions. Because you can use these any time, they are technically considered global shortcuts. However, they deserve a category of their own.
- Start Button
- Opens your start menu. Replaces mouse movement: clicking the on screen Start button.
- Start+L
- Locks your computer. Replaces mouse movement: Start > Shutdown > Lock Computer.
- Start+D
- Show the desktop. Press again to restore all application windows. Replaces mouse movement: minimizing all of your open windows.
- Start+Tab
- 3-D version of Alt+Tab. Requirements: Vista/W7. Replaces mouse movement: clicking each program individually from the task bar.
- Start+F
- Search your entire computer for something. Replaces mouse movement: Start > Search.
- Start+E
- Opens "My Computer". Replaces mouse movement: Start > My Computer.
- Start+P
- New! Opens a projector menu to allow for screen sharing. Requirements: Windows 7. Replaces mouse movement: a whole bunch of stuff.
- Start+R
- In this case, I saved the most useful for last. Start+R opens a Run dialog which can launch things that do not have a keyboard shortcut of their own. For instance, any time I want to visit a website, I use the Run dialog. To do this, open the dialog and just type "www.whatever.com" and press enter. In seconds, you have just opened your web browser directly to a website without ever using your mouse! A few other run commands you may find useful:
- calc - opens the calculator.
- notepad - opens a little notepad to scribble notes.
- C: - opens your main hard drive.
- In this case, I saved the most useful for last. Start+R opens a Run dialog which can launch things that do not have a keyboard shortcut of their own. For instance, any time I want to visit a website, I use the Run dialog. To do this, open the dialog and just type "www.whatever.com" and press enter. In seconds, you have just opened your web browser directly to a website without ever using your mouse! A few other run commands you may find useful:
Internet Shortcuts:
These shortcuts are accepted as a standard, regardless of web browser. However, these are not built into Windows and therefore not global shortcuts. Some tabbed chat programs, such as pidgin, also take advantage of the first two shortcuts.
- Alt+T
- Opens a new tab.
- Ctrl+W
- Close a current tab.
- F5
- Refresh the screen. Useful when a website does not load correctly.
- F11
- Kiosk/full screen mode. Useful when playing a web game. Hides taskbar from screen.
While these are the most common, there are hundreds (not all cross-compatible). Please visit one of the following pages for more shortcuts for your browser: Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Chrome.
Memory Upgrades
DDR2 240-pin Memory Module
One of the most common mistakes when building or upgrading a computer is the memory. What type? How many pins? What speed? Registered or unregistered? Single or dual channel? Any skilled computer expert can tell you the answers to these. I'm going to show you how to do this yourself and how to save money at the same time.
Identify your current memory - One way to upgrade your computer's memory is to identify what is currently installed. I use a program called CPU-Z to do this. When you first open the program, be patient while it collects information about your computer. Once it has finished, view the Memory tab for a general overview about your RAM. Take note if your Memory is Single or Dual Channel (top right field).
The next tab to the right, SPD, will give you a breakdown of each individual module. The first thing to notice is the very top line, mine says DDR2. That's the type of memory. Next is module size. If you are replacing your memory, this is not important. Max Bandwidth is the speed of your memory, mine says PC2-6400. The program will also identify if your memory is registered/buffered. My values for registered/buffered are blank, which means I have unregistered/unbuffered memory. Otherwise, I would have to purchase registered/buffered memory.
The last thing to identify is the pin count or physical size of the RAM. Basically, you have two sizes for each type. Normal desktop size and laptop size. For my upgrade, DDR2, there is a 200-pin laptop module and a 240-pin desktop memory module. While laptops always use the 200-pin, you may want to double check your desktop. Certain desktop motherboards, especially those in smaller form factor systems, actually use the 200-pin style.
There are still two pieces of information missing, maximum memory and fastest speed supported by my computer. If I order more memory than my computer supports, the memory is not going to be compatible with my computer. Furthermore, while I could order memory the same speed as the current memory, there may be faster memory available. This faster memory would directly increase the speed of my system. But before we can solve these problems, we need to identify our motherboard.
DDR2 200-pin Memory Module
Identify your motherboard - To find your motherboard model number, open CPU-Z again. Navigate to the Mainboard tab and write down the Manufacturer and Model. Mine is a Dell 0GM819. A quick google search will reveal the motherboard specifications. Most motherboard specifications will flat out tell you everything, completely eliminating the need for using CPU-Z. Unfortunately, OEM motherboards can be vague. For instance, the only specification published about my motherboard regarding RAM is "4 Dual Channel DIMM Support for up to 8 GB of DDR2 memory". Fortunately, this has revealed the overall maximum amount of memory my computer supports. However, I still have not identified the fastest speed supported by my motherboard. While I could very easily order less than or equal to 8GB DDR2 240-pin PC2-6400 Unregistered/Unbuffered Dual Channel RAM at this point, I may be missing out on faster memory modules which would improved the speed of my computer.
If all else fails (or how you should really be doing this) - If you still have missing information, such as the fastest speed supported by your system, there is one last method. Go to Crucial.com and use the drop down boxes to select your system. It will bring up a page much like this one. Find the section titled `Manufacturer Specifications`. The speeds supported by your motherboard will be listed in the box on the left. Apparently, my motherboard supports PC2-8500, PC2-6400, and PC2-5300. Had I not checked, I would not have ordered the fastest memory available for my computer.
To be completely honest, I always use Crucial.com to identify memory, and suggest you do as well. However, don't purchase memory directly from Crucial.com. Usually NewEgg and other online electronic stores sell it for much cheaper. While the CPU-Z method explains each aspect of the memory module, it takes more time and requires additional research. But now that you understand all of the factors involved with memory, use Crucial.com confidently, instead of fooling around with google searches and motherboard manuals.
How to purchase - After identifying your memory, head over to your favorite online electronic store and search. Based on our research, my search query would be `DDR2 PC2-8500 240-pin`. You can refine the search by including the size, such as 2GB. Before purchasing, make sure the memory module meets your computer's Single/Dual channel and Registered/Unregistered requirements. Good luck!
A warning regarding 32-bit memory limits - If you are running a 32-bit operating system, the maximum memory your computer will support is 4GB. You can install more without a problem, but your computer will not utilize it. In order to support more than 4GB of memory, please switch to a 64-bit operating system.
Preventing “Brown Outs”
Everybody has heard of a power surge, but most people will give you a funny look if you say brown-out. While a surge is a sudden jolt of extra electricity, a brown-out is actually a loss in electricity. And surprisingly, I have seen more damage to electronic equipment from brown-outs than from power surges. This may be due to the fact that surge protector power strips are cheap, while the hardware necessary to prevent a brown-out is not.
When a brown-out occurs, partial power is lost. This causes lights to dim and eventually "brown out" before power is completely lost. These few seconds of partial power can do serious damage to your computers, televisions, and other electronic equipment. Every component in your computer requires a specific amount of electricity to function. When full power is lost, the device shuts down fairly safely. But when partial power is lost, the device struggles to operate on limited power. Because it was designed for normal power, this scenario has a high chance of destroying the device. Imagine putting rubbing alcohol in a car engine. The device, in this case an engine, would be operating on a power source outside normal specifications. Result? Blown head gasket.
In order to prevent against brown-outs, use of various Battery Backup Systems is recommended. These systems, created mostly by APC and CyberPower, can protect your electronic equipment at a fraction of the cost to purchase a new computer. My personal preference is APC, but CyberPower is a little cheaper. To make things simple, both companies' sales teams will assist you by explaining their systems and which best suits you. The general rule of thumb is to pick up a ~400Watt system for a single desktop computer and monitor. If you are including extra equipment, such as a router and modem, allow for an extra ~50Watts. Make sure to purchase a model that comes with a USB cable and software, which will put your computer in Hibernation mode in the event of an extended power outage (these battery backups can run out of power if your main electricity goes down for too long.)
The product I use most often is the APC BE650G. At $89.99, you are not going to find a better buy for protecting your desktop computer and monitor. If you are running Windows XP, Vista, or 7, just plug in the USB wire and you are done; no need to even install the software. My second choice would be the CyberPower CP1000AVR. It only runs $79.99 for slightly more Wattage, but it uses a serial connection instead of USB.
Quick Tip: If you are using a laptop computer, you only need a simple surge protector power strip, not a battery backup.
Incorrect Time and Date on Domain Computers
I was doing maintenance work on a computer when I noticed that the clock was ahead by about five minutes. I went to change the clock, but that did not fix the problem. (Time immediately reverted back after a Windows Update reboot). I then remembered that the primary domain controller controls the time on every machine in the domain, and sure enough the rest of the computers were ahead by about five minutes. I am extremely anal about the time after experiencing the results of sloppy timekeeping.
During the last switch to daylight savings, my BlackBerry's time was not correctly syncing with Verizon and I unknowingly adjusted my car and wrist watch to it. While I was five minutes early for everything, I kept thinking that the world must be experiencing serious time problems - my GPS and television show times were wrong! I couldn't understand what was happening. I googled in hopes others were experiencing the same problem, thinking this was some widespread issue. It sounds laughable, but when you adjust every clock in your house, car, etc. - you live by that time. Fortunately, I figured the problem out before publishing some asinine article about how the world was experiencing a time delay.
With my recent time drama in mind, I considered this domain-wide time problem and decided it was worth resolving. My first instinct was that the battery in the domain controller needed replaced. Since it was after hours, I simply powered down the machine and changed the battery. These come in handy, so I usually have a few in my work bag. After booting the machine, I adjusted the clock and assumed all was well. Unfortunately, when I returned two weeks later for maintenance, the clock had again drifted by a few minutes. Subsequently, all of the computers in the domain had incorrect times. Time to start pulling hair out? Maybe not yet.
Something else to consider is the Microsoft NTP settings which come default on Microsoft Windows computers. What is the address? Ntp.Microsoft.com? Whatever it is, I am fed up. Obviously something changed my correct time and synchronized it with the wrong time, or maybe it isn't synchronizing at all. Regardless, I was able to enter the following commands into the command prompt to solve the problem.
net time /setsntp:pool.ntp.org
net stop w32time
net start w32time
The first command tells Windows which NTP server you want to use. The second two commands restart your time service. All of the computers on the domain now abide by the correct time.
Special Update: Another Blackberry Outage
Microsoft isn't the only company experiencing technical problems this month. In an attempt to prevent outages on Christmas, Reasearch In Motion has been upgrading their equipment over the past couple weeks. Unfortunately, the upgrade process has caused issues instead of preventing them.
The problems are cross-carrier and global, according to PC World, in an article published during one of the outages last week. While that problem has since been resolved, a new issue brought the entire network down today.
Because today's outage is not making headlines, I assumed this was something on my end. After exhausting all common troubleshooting, I contacted Verizon technical support. The Verizon tech explained that RIM had been issuing bulletins to Verizon throughout the day, with the most recent at 4:30PM EDT. This bulletin stated that over 50% of Blackberry users were still experiencing an outage.
Verizon warned that this problem will continue indefinitely as RIM works to correct the issue.
Electronic Software Purchases from Microsoft Rendered Useless
Microsoft's online portal for software downloads, eOpen, has been causing IT administrators headaches this month. It all started on December 5, when the site went down for a scheduled upgrade. However, instead of coming back online two days later per the maintenance schedule, it was down for an entire week. Microsoft obviously does not care how this has impacted our industry. We have deadlines and cannot just sit around, waiting for our product keys! But that isn't the most aggravating part, Microsoft forgot to include an Add Agreement section to their new eOpen site.
This means if you have purchased electronic software from Microsoft or a Microsoft Reseller, you will be unable to claim your software. This is not being told to customers before they purchase, nor is there a warning on the eOpen website that new agreements are not accepted at this time. Instead, Microsoft lets you wander around the new eOpen site until you become aggravated enough to call. If you can suffer through long hold times, you will be instructed by a Microsoft rep that it is a known issue and the problem will be resolved eventually.
So please be advised, as of December 22, new software purchases are still unable to be activated. Consider waiting on projects or purchase hard media until this problem has been resolved.
Dell Precision R5400 with XP Pre-Installed
One of my customers have all of their office computers located in a rack, instead of under their employees' desks. This frees up desk and floor space as it is a pretty tight area. However, they were just laying desktop computers on their side instead of installing rackmount-capable systems. Fortunately, Dell sells one line of rackmount-capable workstations, Precision R5400.
Dell Precision R5400
The Precision R5400 is about twice the cost of a typical office computer, but you get some serious bang for your buck. Dual processors, better quality motherboard, RAID controller with mirrored hard drives, and high end video card. When compared to a desktop computer with similar specifications, it is actually very reasonable in price. And because Dell also offers a client-side device to remotely connect all of your workstations, you can easily eliminate all of your office computers to give your employees more space. Other solutions exist that do this as well, such as terminal server thin clients. But thin clients aren't powerful and create single points of failure for everybody.
Over the past year we have purchased five of these and none of them were ordered within a month of each other. Surprisingly, every one had the same serious problems (lock ups, freezing, blue screens). Our issues became so compounded that our Dell ticket was escalated to the highest level of support. When you reach that level, you are assigned a specific tech who works with you every day until the problem is resolved. Our tech's name was David G. and he worked with us for about a week and a half until the problem was resolved. This does not include the two months time I personally invested in this issue before calling tech support.
Before I tell you the solution, I want to reemphasize that these computers were not purchased at the same time or even in the same month. Out of the box, all of the computers had the same issue, which didn't necessarily appear immediately. I now believe that the issue is a bad Windows XP image that Dell is using on these computers. When Dell sells computers, they don't have techs clean installing Windows, installing drivers and preloading software on every single one. That would double the cost of your computer. Instead, Dell has a tech do an install on one computer, which is then cloned (imaged) and applied to the rest of the computers. While it is possible for single instances of these computers to get corrupted installations, it is very rare for a master image file to have problems because it would affect so many computers. Below are a few of the error messages we received on all of the machines.
- The driver nv4_disp for the display device \Device\Video0 got stuck in an infinite loop. This usually indicates a problem with the device itself or with the device driver programming the hardware incorrectly.
- The nv4_disp display driver has stopped working normally. Save your work and reboot the system to restore full display functionality.
- A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. The problem seems to be caused by the following file: CLASSPNP.SYS. PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA.
- The device, \Device\Ide\iaStor0, did not respond within the timeout period.
Dell had me install every version of every driver from the Intel Matrix Device to the nVidia video card. OEM drivers, Intel drivers, nVidia drivers, Windows Update drivers - you name it, we tried it. Each time it would stop a current problem (lock-ups) and create a new problem (blue screens). But in the end, the real solution was simple - Recreate the RAID array and clean install Windows XP using the most recent drivers from the Dell website.
I know this sounds trivial, but when you have multiple computers in a domain running loads of software, starting fresh is not something any tech really wants to do. Especially if you miss a file in the backup process, because it's gone. When you are migrating from one computer to another and you lose some files, you can always retrieve them from the old system. But I digress, this solution did completely resolve our issues on all of the computers.
My warning to everyone is not to stay away from this system, as it is a great platform. Instead, clean format these particular systems before you install anything on them. And while I have not ordered any preloaded with Vista or Windows 7, I can assure you that I would probably clean format those two operating systems just in case.
Active Directory: Joining a Domain
All IT Professionals cross their fingers when joining a computer to a domain. This is because everything has to be perfect; one mistake and it fails. In this guide, I will attempt to explain important settings, which are often configured incorrectly. Be mindful of the DNS information provided below. Incorrectly configured DNS settings account for 90% of Active Directory problems.
- Your first DNS entry in your TCP/IP settings must be your Primary Domain Controller. If you only have one domain control, your secondary DNS server should be blank!! By including DNS servers from outside of your domain, it is extremely possible that your computers will fail to register with Active Directory's DNS. Initially, a secondary outside DNS server will not cause an issue. However, this will cause you major network resource problems down the road. If you did not have the correct DNS settings, restart your computer after making the change. This will ensure you are registered with DNS. If you use DHCP on your network, please update your DHCP server to give out the correct DNS information to your clients!
- On your Primary Domain Controller, your primary DNS setting must be 127.0.0.1 (alternatively, it can be the actual IP address of itself). The only time you have a secondary DNS server is if you have more than one server running Active Directory, otherwise it should be blank. Place ISP provided DNS IP addresses in your actual Administrative Tools: DNS snap-in, otherwise all computers on your network will only resolve local addresses.
- You need to be able to ping the name of your Primary Domain Controller. If you ping SERVER1 and do not get a result, first try to ping the IP Address manually (i.e. ping 192.168.1.10). This will help narrow down your point of failure. Are you even able to get onto the Internet? Unless you are doing some weird VPN or building-to-building configuration, make sure your netmask, network, and gateway are the same as on the server.
- Try disabling the firewalls on both the server and the client computer. While on XP machines this can be done by killing the service, I have seen Server 2008 and Windows 7 machines completely lose network access when the Windows Firewall Service was shutdown. To prevent this from happening, use the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security window to manually turn off your firewall instead of killing the service.
- When joining a domain, you can enter just the domain name (i.e. "contoso") or you can enter the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) "contoso.local". Sometimes a computer will not let you join unless you use the FQDN, but other times it fails until you drop off the ".local". Make sure to try it both ways.
- It's not a bad idea to install all of the Microsoft Updates on the server as well as on the client computers, including any optional group policy client side updates.
- If all else fails, sometimes the File and Printer Sharing protocol, located in the Network Adapter settings for your Primary Domain Controller, must be uninstalled and then reinstalled. This is done by unchecking it in the properties of your "Local Area Connection", restarting your server and then rechecking it again. I have only had to do this one time in my entire career.
- If you do not see an option to join a domain, you are most likely running a Home version of Windows. You need to have Windows XP Professional, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows 7 Professional or Windows 7 Ultimate in order to connect to a domain.
If you encounter any errors or problems that this guide was unable to resolve, please post your error message below. One of the techs here will be more than happy to give you some pointers and help you resolve your issue.
How Tiger Woods Should Have Cleared His Blackberry Call Log
Thursday, November 26, 2009 - Tiger Woods is frantically erasing his call log on his Blackberry Tour one at a time, because he cannot find the "Erase All" button. He manages to get some of the numbers erased, but there were too many mistresses to delete before his wife snatched the phone. The result? A desperate call to a mistress asking her to change her voicemail message, two broken windows and lots of unwanted media attention.
Most people never have to erase their call log, but there may be times that it is necessary. In a move to defy logical reasoning, Research in Motion has decided to burry this feature on all modern Blackberries. To save you from frustration, follow my short guide below and your phone will be evidence free.
- Navigate to your "Message Center"
- Press the Blackberry Button
- Select "View Folder"
- Scroll down and select "Phone Call Logs"
- Scroll to the very top and highlight today's date
- Press the Blackberry Button
- Select "Delete Prior"
If only Tiger had realized that sooner!
Modern Warfare 2 Router Configuration
Anyone who has played Modern Warfare 2 for PC will tell you how aggravating multiplayer can be without dedicated servers. There is no way to "host" a game. Instead, the game pings all of the available lobbies, finds about 60 or so games currently available at your connection speed, and randomly joins one for you. You do not get to make a decision either way in the matter. Once in the lobby, the game will ping any players who are accepting connections and appoint the player with the fastest ping time as host.
This method seems like it would streamline online gaming. In a way, it does. However, if you are in the unfortunate majority that have "Strict NAT", you will be relying on other players for a decent, lag free and stable connection. When I get a chance to play, I am on for maybe an hour or two at most. When I was "Strict NAT", I would usually spend around 25 minutes of my gaming experience getting booted off games because the host left or due to excessive lag.
When the host leaves and nobody else can accept incoming connections, the lobby closes. But if you have "Open NAT" and the host leaves the lobby, the game is migrated to you. The result could not be better, hours of gameplay without downtime or disconnects.
When you load the game, the left hand collumn will display your current NAT restrictions. If yours says "Open" then your router is properly configured and allowing incoming connections. There is nothing you could benefit by reading this guide, except gain a bit of knowledge about networking and routers. Unfortunately, most players are greeted instead with a red "Strict" notice. Below this notice is a link to Infinity Ward's NAT page. The page is extremely vauge, stating that your router must support UPnP and to "visit your router manufacturer's website."
If you have enabled UPnP on your router - great. But that's not what I'm going to show you how to do. Before we begin, you first have to understand how your local network is setup. If you are like me, you already have ports forwarded to your main workstation and understand how this works. But for everyone else who has never had to do this, any device attached to your network (i.e. your computer) can be configured as either DHCP or a static IP address. Typically, computers are configured as DHCP. This sevice allows your computer to automatically receive an IP address when you plug into the network, which means no configuration is required. Unfortunately, when your IP address is automatically configured by DHCP it can change without warning. In order to follow my guide to setup your game for "Open NAT", your IP address cannot change or you will one day turn on your computer to find that you are now in "Strict" mode again.
To resolve this issue, go to the Run Dialog (Start+R), type `cmd` and press enter to open the Windows console. When it appears, use the `ipconfig /all` command to see your network information. Write this information down for later. Now, open your web browser and type in the information listed next to "Default Gateway". This is typically 192.168.1.1 for linksys routers. Do not be alarmed if your gateway is a completely different address, not all routers are created equal.
The website that appears is actually the configuration page for your router. If you have never been here before, the default password is probably "admin". For a full list of default router passwords, please visit this site. If all else fails and you cannot get into your router, try using the pinhole size reset button located on the physical box itself, which will reset it to the default password. If you are at work, your network administrator probably has a more complicated setup and you will need his help. Wait, why are you gaming at work?
Navigate through this site and look for information regarding the DHCP server. There will be an entry known as the DHCP range. Most routers have range of 100 through 200. This means that if your router address is 192.168.1.1, then the router will automatically assign network devices addresses between 192.168.1.100 and 192.168.1.200. Write that information down in case we need it later. While you are in the DHCP section of the router configuration, see if there is an option for a "Static Lease". A static lease lets you lock the DHCP setting for a particular device, preventing the address from ever changing. If you can find this option, set it for the device that currently has your IP address (which you should have written down when you ran ipconfig moments ago.)
If you cannot find that option, don't bother wasting too much time on it. Instead, look at the DHCP range and pick an address OUTSIDE of the range. (Do not pick the address of the router or anything above 254 as they will not work.) For instance, if your range is 192.168.1.100-192.168.1.200 with a router address if 192.168.1.1, you can pick anything from 192.168.1.2-192.168.1.99 and 192.168.1.201-192.168.254. I will pick the number 27 because 1.27 is my birthday. Write that number down on a piece of paper and minimize the router web configuration.
Open the Run Dialog (Start+R), type `ncpa.cpl` and press enter. This will open your Windows network adapter settings. Right click on your "Local Area Connection" that is currently connected and select "Properties". If you are using a wireless connection, first run ethernet to your computer. Tip: if you are on Windows Vista/7, disable the checkbox next to IPv6 unless you absolutely know you use it. Click on your TCP/IP settings for IPv4 and then press the "Properties" button located to the lower right.
Change the top radio button to "Use the following IP address:" and enter in the address you decided upon earlier. I decided upon 192.168.1.27. The rest of this information can be safely carried over from your hand written copy of ipconfig. The only thing that you may leave blank is the very last entry for an alternative/secondary DNS server. When you have finished, hit OK a few times and those windows will close. Don't be scared if it hangs for a second, your network stack is adjusting itself.
Back to the router web configuration - find a section in the menu referring to "Port Forwarding", "Application and Gaming", or "Services" (this will vary depending on your router). A table with a bunch of fields will appear. Enter your IP address into the field for the destination address, which is usually the first field. Your IP address is either the static address we just set, or the DHCP address you locked if your router offered that type of configuration. The two other fields that need filled in are the packet type and port range fields. The type of packet is UDP and the port is 28960. If your router has a checkbox for "Enable", you will have to check that as well. Save the changes!
Back on your computer you will need to configure your local firewall as well. Because you are using a router as your gateway firewall, you can safely turn off your Windows firewall. For Windows XP users, go to the Run Dialog (Start+R), type `services.msc` and press enter. Scroll down to the Windows Firewall Service and select it. Right click and select "Properties". First, press the "Stop" button. Then, select the Startup Type drop down and go to "Disabled". Press OK and close the Windows Services screen. For Windows Vista/7 users, click the Start button and just start typing `firewall`. The first result that appears will be the Windows Firewall, click it. Go through the options and disable the firewall completely.
As long as you are not running some type of additional firewall such as Norton Internet Security, you should now be ready to game online uninterrupted. Enjoy.
Geek tip: If you are using a home brew linux router for your network, like the one in this guide, you will need to use iptables to configure port forwarding for Modern Warfare 2. Here is the correct iptables syntax to get you gaming, assuming that 192.168.1.27 is the address of your computer and eth0 is your WAN address: iptables -t nat -I PREROUTING -p udp --dport 28960 -i eth0 -j DNAT --to 192.168.1.27