The Content Composer Org

To Wire or Not to Wire

Wireless networks are en vogue, but your installation won’t be successful unless you chose the right type of network and set it up properly. Wired networks require that each computer be connected via a wire to a central location, called a switch or hub. This often involves installing cables through walls and ceilings and can present a challenge for anyone.

If the computers in your home or office are all within 500 feet of each other, a wireless network might be for you. A wireless network has no cables. It can connect computers on different floors of a building or even across the street. Aside from the obvious benefit of not having wires, wireless networks are more convenient since the setup, configuration, and reconfiguration can often be done within minutes, without extensive planning.

Wireless networks, however, are not as fast as wired networks. If you play computer games or want to view streaming video or other high-speed multimedia, a wireless network might not have enough capacity. But, if you just want to check e-mail and view web pages, a wireless network is a good choice. To install a wireless network, you need a Wireless Access Point and a wireless network card for each computer. You will need to buy a wireless network card for each desktop computer, although most newer laptops come equipped with one.

Security is not a large concern in a wired network, since someone would have to physically connect to a wired network to break in. In wireless networks, a car parked outside with a laptop could easily connect to your network if you don’t have proper security in place. To prevent this from happening, encrypt your wireless network connections, or set a password to access the network, or do both.

If you decide to use a wired network, consider whether you will install it yourself or hire a professional. If you have a small number of computers that are all situated very close to one another, you may be able to buy pre-assembled network cables and connect them yourself. If you need to wire multiple floors and lay wire through ceilings and walls, you need a professional installation. If you go this route, it is best to begin with a floor plan of your office or home, determine what your current needs are, and consider how the network design can be adapted to future needs. A professional installer should be familiar with EIA/TIA standards, local wiring and electrical codes, and making custom cables. Network cabling professionals are often judged by the neatness of their work, because sloppy cabling is more apt to deteriorate over time, harder to manage, and poses more of a fire risk.

Having a wireless network or a wired network is not mutually exclusive. Many small offices have a wired network in addition to one or more wireless networks, depending on their needs. Wireless networks are continuing to get faster, more secure, and less expensive. Wired networks will continue to coexist with wireless networks, often in the same homes and offices.

Deryck Richards is the founder and managing partner of Desktronix. With an extensive educational background in computer information systems, Deryck currently manages hosting and data center operations for Desktronix. He also provides system administration and technical support directly to small businesses as he has since 2000. His areas of expertise include networking, Windows, Linux, and Macintosh systems and he is the author of The Guide to Technology for Small Business. For more information on Desktronix, visit www.desktronix.com

The world of computers is constantly changing. It is one of the only industries that is different from month to month. If you’re in the market for a new PC, there are continually new options available. To get the best bang for your buck in computer technology, you may want to consider building your own PC.

Those with a little know how in the computer industry can save themselves tons of money by building their own computers. Companies such as Tiger Direct and mwave.com offer components that can create a top of the line system for a fraction of the cost. These stores offer all of the necessary components that reside in the “case” or main unit of the computer.

These include the motherboard, processor, cooling fans, hard drive, memory, keyboard, mouse, video and sound cards. There are motherboards available with integrated video and sound but not all do.

When you are buying a motherboard, make sure to check whether you will need to buy a separate video and sound card. Also make sure that the motherboard you are buying has extra slots so you can expand your system.

Another key to remember when building your own computer is to make sure all of your components will work together. Manufacturers make specific models to work together, so you may want to buy your parts from just one brand.

If you are going to use your computer to surf the Internet and play computer games you are going to need extra pieces. At minimum you will need an Ethernet card, CD/DVD drives and a graphics card. You can also benefit from gaming ports for joysticks or other game controllers.

The hardest part about building your own PC is installing the motherboard and the Operating System. This is the first step toward creating the unit. You must physically put the components into the case using screws. Begin with the motherboard and then connect your processor. Add the memory into the memory slots and install any necessary drives.

Once you’ve installed the drives, you can put in the install CDs for your operating system. Most PCs will guide you through the set up process to install the operating system. After making sure the operating system is up and running, put in your other devices one at a time.

Although it may be quicker to install all of your additional hardware at once, you want to test each piece as you go to make sure that piece is in good working order.

Even though building your own PC can give you a better computer for less money, the process is not for everyone. As a compromise, computer companies like Dell and Gateway allow their customers to custom build PCs on their website.

A customer can choose from different options regarding speed, memory and special portals. The additional benefit of buying from a company is that the PC is normally under a guarantee. You can also take advantage of technical support. This may be the best option for someone who has extra money to spend to get the custom components that they want.

D. David Dugan personally helps to maintain a computer shopping site at http://www.greatpcdeals.com as well as a Spyware Information site at http://spyware.dugancom.com

One of the latest services that is growing steadily is “email to phone”, whereby you can receive email messages by voice over the phone, or send voice messages as emails from any phone – cell phone, satellite phone or a regular land line.

When I first heard of this, I wondered, “Why would I want to listen to my email instead of reading it?” But I soon learned that there are a great many people who can stay in much better touch receiving email messages by phone. Here is a list of the top ten reasons I have complied to use an email to phone service:

Email to phone for busy people on the run

1. You can pick up a message any time, any where, even if you had not planned to. Have you ever had that eerie feeling there was an urgent email waiting for you? Now you can relieve your curiosity, deal with the email and feel 100% assured that landing the sand trap was not a result of email anxiety.

2. Receiving emails by phone is ideal for a busy person on the run. Between the meetings and the restaurant and the cab, a busy person does not always have the time to sit down in front of a computer. But he always has time for his cell phone (You might have noticed this in restaurants, theatre shows, etc.)

3. International travelers have a great use for email to phone services, as they cannot always foretell the availability of a computer or an Internet connection, nor how much time they might have between flights, meetings, etc. This way, they can keep monitoring all their urgent messages wherever they end up, and delayed flights will no longer mean delayed business.

Email to phone for constant access

4. There are some places where you just can’t plug into your computer (or would not want to). On a boat, for instance. With email to phone messaging, you can receive email while you relax on a boat, far from an Internet connection. And yes, it IS relaxing to know you don’t have to fret about a missed email that could bring down the company or cost you your job.

5. On a hunting or fishing trip, you might often find yourself with no Internet connection. And you certainly won’t have a computer with you (I hope!). But you might have cell phone access. And if one of your hunting buddies does drag along his PC from home, you can tell him to get an email to phone service instead.

6. Check in at the cottage, without lugging a computer around. Need I say more. It is indeed relaxing to know you don’t have to fret about a missed email that cost you your job. It is NOT relaxing to have to open your eyes to look at a computer monitor.

7. There are also many countries where Internet access is not reliable, even in parts of well-traveled countries. Who needs Internet for emails, when you can receive them by phone?

8. Indeed, even in your own country, there might be areas you frequent that are outside of the digital coverage area, where SMS and text messaging are unavailable, such as driving through deserts or mountains. Even with analog coverage or a regular phone line, you can keep monitoring your email.

Special monitoring email by phone

9. Some people need instant alerts, and have to be in touch even while in the lunch room or traveling between meetings. IT support people, who subscribe to a website monitoring service are a perfect example. If a company’s website goes down, the CEO won’t be pleased if 45 minutes later the IT manager says, “Sorry, I was out to lunch.”

10. Some people have the misfortune of having to communicate with high-tech show-offs like me who use email to communicate. For these unfortunate people who might otherwise be forced to adapt to 21st century technology, email to phone messaging rides to the rescue. “Hah! Now I can listen to email messages on my cell phone. And they thought they could force me to adopt modern technology. Hah! I sure fooled them!”

There you have it – my top ten reasons to use email to phone services. Amazing how new ideas can turn even a stone-aged telephone into a technological leap forward. Imagine what they’ll do with boulders next.

David Leonhardt is a web site marketing consultant from Canada and a freelance copy editor. Read more information at an email to phone web site or read the email to phone FAQ

In sharp contrast to warranty options on desktop PCs, consider advising your clients to purchase the maximum extended warranty coverage they can with a new notebook PC purchase. Even beyond a potential hard drive failure on a notebook, consider the cost of replacing the LCD screen.

Potential Costs for Replacements

Unlike a conventional PC monitor, notebook PC LCD screens are highly specialized for particular notebooks. If a client needed to replace a standard 17″ or 19″ monitor that’s out of warranty, your client would generally have no problem finding equivalent products at local retail outlets for relatively modest prices of about $200 to $300.

For a notebook PC LCD screen, your clients would almost never find the parts in stock locally. And the LCD screen, related assembly, and cable purchased separately easily could run $1,000 or more.

Ask Questions

As a consultant, you should ask questions of your client and the warranty provider before making any recommendation. For example, ask:

Are the notebook PCs that your major clients own typically used more in the office or in the field?

Can you get a copy of the notebook PC system warranty statement?

How does the notebook PC warranty statement differ from the desktop PC warranty statement?

Does the warranty specifically include or exclude certain hardware components?

Are there any warranty restrictions regarding replacement of the hard drive or LCD panel?

What is the duration of the included warranty coverage?

Is your PC vendor the one selling and honoring the extended warranty policy? If the extended warranty is subordinated to a third party and the third party goes out of business, will your PC vendor still honor the warranty?

The Bottom Line about Notebook PCs

So because of the risks of hard drive and LCD screen failures on a notebook PC, buying an extended service plan becomes a no-brainer for most of your clients. This is also the primary reason extended warranties on notebook PCs cost a lot more than comparable extended warranties on desktop PCs.

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Joshua Feinberg helps computer consultant business owners get steady, high-paying clients. Learn how you can too. Sign-up now for Joshua’s free audio training program that shows you how to use field-tested, proven Small Biz Tech Talk tools.

Having a notebook or laptop provides the freedom to be truly mobile. You can work in many places and situations. But this brings an annoyance: if you move your notebook between various different networks, you always have to change network settings.

Recently my employer has issued me a brand new notebook. When I came home at the end of the day, I had to disable DHCP, set up an IP-address and DNS configuration. Next morning I needed to reverse my configuration to work at my office. The real headache began when I went to our customer site…

SWITCHING NETWORK SETTINGS ON THE FLY.

There are three ways to switch a notebook between networks with one click. First is to use a built-in windows feature of saving and loading network settings. This way is for experienced users. Second is by using Windows XP “alternate configuration” feature. The third way is to use third-party utilities like Net Profile Switch, IPSwitch etc. Let’s discuss all three.

WINDOWS “NETSH” UTILITY.

Windows 2000 comes with the “netsh” utility that gives you the possibility to “dump” all network settings into a file which you can later use to restore your complete Network settings.

To Save the current Settings use “netsh -c interface dump >netset1.txt”
To Load the Settings again use “netsh -f netset1.txt”

Create a dump file for every Network that you use (e.g.., netset2.txt, etc.) and create a desktop shortcut for every Network.

Pros: -
Cons: hard for inexperienced users, does not deal with switching a proxy server in a web-browser, mapping network drives etc.

WINDOWS XP “ALTERNATE CONFIGURATION” FEATURE

Windows XP contains the “Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) properties” dialog box, which has a tab “Alternate Configuration” in it. You can specify “alternative” settings, which would be used when the “default” settings are not accessible.

Pros: simple
Cons: does not deal with three or more networks, no proxy switching etc.

“NET PROFILE SWITCH” UTILITY

Another way is to use the “Net Profile Switch” utility from Jitbit Software (http://www.jitbit.com/). This tool creates a profile with your configuration settings, and you can easily switch between locations by activating a profile with one click. Net Profile Switch not only switches the TCP/IP protocol settings but also switches the proxy-server settings of your Web Browser (Internet Explorer or Firefox), Windows Firewall settings and maps/unmaps network drives for each location. There a free non-commercial edition of this tool available.

Pros: multiple locations, proxy settings, drive mapping etc.

Alexander Lee is an IT-consultant, Microsoft Certified Solution Developer, Database Administrator.

LCD televisions can be seen in popular flat display TV’s that are not Plasma. These tellies came out ahead of plasma and classically less costly presently when put side to side with the respected Plasma brand names. LCD TVs are the most liked variety of TV & are now an apt stand-in for your prehistoric television set. LCD televisions present the most refined Hi-Definition tellies with remarkable picture & build quality obtainable to procure at present. Catch Digital Direct’s cheap HD Ready LCD TV offers!

It’s a little known detail that LCD elements in actual fact go way back to the year eighteen hundred and eighty eight when the method of liquid crystallization were at first made public by the Aussie scientist Friedrich Reinitzer.

LCD TVs are traditionally procured in 15 inch and 32 inch dimension, nevertheless larger dimension, as large as fifty inch and even sixty inch are accessible to buy if you crave. Nonetheless, as you go for massive screens or high-range consumer products, they will in reality cost a large amount more. It’s also worth making a note that for enormous televisions you would be recommended to use excellent quality brackets, or a specifically design mount that could easily cost up-to one-hundred and fifty pounds further.

LCD TV’s are traditionally made up in three different selections like standard definition (SD), enhanced definition (ED) & high-definition (HD) TV’s. LCD televisions at the moment turning out to be increasingly more widespread as a car customisation gadget, as the fans of the stylish MTV TV program “Pimp My Ride” will be familiar with. LCD televisions at the moment available with refresh rates as low as 5ms. Although this technology is still a significant time off from being amazing, LCD TVs are improving each & every day. Therefore, LCD TV’s are gradually becoming more admired day by day.

Do you remember the last time you used the FDD drive of your computer, and for what? Chance is if you have used it then it would be for some emergency booting of the computer, or for recovery of your broken OS. Meaning you would have not used it for data transfer using this medium.

Currently this magnetic medium is fast getting replaced by the “flash Rom” drives that we also know by Pen Drive or USB Drive. This new medium is killing the old magnetic medium for its reliability, speed and ever growing capacity.

Historically the secondary storage is always in the realm of change. Technology and needs are always pushing the medium smaller, faster, more reliable, secure and of expanding capacity. Just like some 10 years back the 5.25″ dives were replaced by this 3.5″ drives for smaller size and larger capacity.

History

History of secondary storage is quiet interesting, as it has seen the use of papers to silicon to optical medium. With each generation it gets better, faster and smaller is size and always increasing the storage capacity.

Paper Punch Card
Paper Punch cards used initially as the first external storage device. It used paper card/roll with holes as data. Meaning a hole was zero, and no hole was one. Programmers used to punch the card for providing input. Card printers were there to punch the output for storage.

Floppy Drive (8″)
Once the magnetic media started to be used for storage, paper media was quickly made obsolete. Magnetic disks of round shape emerged as the standard for secondary storage device. It became very popular as it was more robust and handy than the paper roll, and could store more data.

Floppy Drive (5.25″)
Further advancement in the material and magnetic technology provided better density and provided much higher storage capacity in smaller area. Now the disks also started to become double sided providing even more data storage area in the same size disks.

Floppy Drive (3.5″)
This media peaked with the 3.5″ FDD that was small and sturdy enough to be carred in the jeans pocket. Its case also provided cover even for the area that is used for reading, resulting in more protection from dust and humidity even when the floppy was not in any cover.

Zip Drive
This drive released in 1994 by a company called Iomega was capable of holding 100MB of data. This also uses the magnetic coating like the regular floppy disks, but of higher quality and of superior technology. Due to this it needs specialized drives for reading and writing on this media. This made it a good backup drive (like tape drives), but not good for using it on any machine. Currently generation of Zip Disks can hold upto 250MB of data.

Flash Drive (USB Drive)
Also known as Pen Drive is the next revolution in secondary portable storage device. Initially emerged with couple of MB storage capacity, it quickly gained attraction due to its solid state rugged construction and its capability of being used on any computer equipped with USB port. Initially it needed a specific driver to be installed on the earlier OS in order to be used, but later, due to its universally open standard and rise in use of the USB port, its support was provided natively in the OS. (Windows/Macintosh/Linux supports it natively out of the box).

So now virtually nothing more is needed for this drive to work if you have a computer with a standard USB port. Though the manufacturers are also providing additional features to the hardware like encryption, but these features generally requires additional software/driver to be installed in order to be used. And since there is not much standard for these features yet it is mostly device specific and is largely ignored for its lack of compatibility.

This standardization of protocol has lead to not only popularity of the USB flash drives, but has also provided a common way for other media to act as drive via this protocol. So now there are storage products making use of this standard to become USB drives (also called USB Mass Storage). Example includes:
– USB Hard Disk Drives
– Zip Drive with USB interface
– digital camera acting as an USB drive for accessing the photographs directly on any computer
– PDAs like Palm that already connect to the computer using USB acts as a USB drive for accessing the data stored in its memory and SD/MMC Card
– Mp3 players that doubles as USB drive!!

The list of applications are getting bigger and bigger, ultimately making this drive a very popular and successful.

Currently 1 GB USB flash drives are available, and bigger drives are on the horizon.

Portable USB HDD
As mentioned above this medium is also getting popular and is popular mainly for higher speed and capacity than what is currently provided by the USB flash drive. On the flip side it is still fragile (as having moving element) and bulkier than the flash drive.

Holographic Drives
Last but not the least is this future product. This is the media of the future that uses technology that is still in its infancy – holography. Though holography and holograms are not new and was discovered in the late 1940s, but its application for data storage is something very new. A company called InPhase Technologies is one of the forerunners in this field that has prototyped disks that can hold 200GB to 1.6TB of data. This technology uses lasers for reading and writing the data.

Why FDD is dying
Using this 1.44MB floppy disk drive was always bit unreliable. We can all recall the “Sector 0 Bad” error, and myriad number of utilities supporting various recovery and advanced modifications like:
– One marking sectors bad (NDD – Norton Disk Doctor and its surface scan (ultimately acquired by Symantec and is part of its Norton Utilities Toolset right now).
– Another very popular utility was to create another zero sector if the actual one was gone bad.

So what is remaining in the way of death of this magnetic medium? Only time!

As of now few features still needs the magnetic floppy disk drive, like for booting for the first time, or for upgrading BIOS of the motherboard etc. This is due to it’s (FDDs) easy of programming at the lower level and more importantly for its inbuilt support in the BIOS program. So as soon as the modern BIOS start supporting the USB drives (motherboards have now started to come with this support) the floppy days are numbered.

Current Support of USB Devices by the Motherboard/BIOS
The current motherboards and BIOS have started the support of USB drive as boot device. Meaning you can have your whole operating system on this device, or simply use it as the bootable floppy (imaging carrying your whole work including the programs and applications on a small keychain). Depending on the mode of usage resources are available on the Internet for configuring your USB drive. Please checkout the links provided below where it provides tips and tricks of doing so.

Speaking of easy of use of using this feature, the problem lies with the (Windows) OS right now that does not support making the USB drive bootable. It does allow you to format the USB drive and choose the file system format, but Make Booteble option is not present at all. Never mind as there are lot of tools and utilities available (for all popular OS) that supports making it bootable, though you will have to struggle a bit.

Future
As you see there is very little need of Floppy Disks for any use/operation and is getting replaced fast by the USB drives. Already major computer vendors have made FDD as optional feature. Now the time has come of the USB flash drive over the demise of the FDD.

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