Once a week we round up some reader questions from the Ask How-To Geek inbox and share the answers with everyone. This week we’re looking at using multiple Wi-Fi nodes at once, changing the GRUB boot order, and speeding up the slow Silk browser on the Kindle Fire.

Can I Connect To Multiple Wi-Fi Nodes At One Time?

Dear How-To Geek,

Is there anyway to connect to multiple Wi-Fi nodes at one time using a single Wi-Fi card in order to merge the connections and boost speeds?

Sincerely,

Wi-Fi Binder

Dear Wi-Fi Binder,

While it is possible to do what you’re asking, the return on investment is pretty low in nearly all circumstances. There is an old and unsupported package from Microsoft, for example, that allows you to tune your Wi-Fi card to multiple access points at one time. It does this by essentially building a virtual layer between the operating system and the hardware, and then navigating all the communication choices within that layer via a series of virtual Wi-Fi cards.

You can read more about Microsoft’s VirtualWiFi here,  download the package here and read about installing it here.

How Can I Change the GRUB Boot Order?

Dear How-To Geek,

I have multiple operating systems on my laptop, but their boot order in the boot loader is a huge pain. Right now if my laptop boots unattended, the top choice is XBMC Media Center, the second choice is Ubuntu, and the third choice is Windows 7. This means if I boot my laptop and don’t pay close attention, it boots into XBMC! I don’t want to uninstall the other operating systems, I just want to move Windows to the top of the list. How can I do that?

Sincerely,

Boot Load Madness

Dear Boot Load,

Your complaint is a common one, so common in fact that we have a step-by-step guide to helping people re-order their GRUB menu. You’ll need to boot into Linux to do it, but once you tweak your settings you’ll have Windows 7 at the top of the list in no time.

How Can I Speed Up the Browser On My Kindle Fire?

Dear How-To Geek,

So far I’m enjoying my Kindle Fire, but the web browser seems so incredibly slow (even compared to the little browser on my phone)! Is there anything I can do to fix this? Either I’ve got a screwed up installation or this is a widespread problem!

Sincerely,

Web Crawling

Dear Web Crawling,

You’re not imagining it—not by a long stretch. The speed of the built-in Silk browser has been a primary complain about the Kindle Fire since its release. We messed around with our office Fire and found we could greatly increase speeds with a few simple tweaks (such as disabling plug-ins and turning off load acceleration). Check out our guide here to see a full walk through for the tweaks.

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