#107 Maintenance is Essential

If you didn't ever change the oil on your car would you be surprised if the car engine seized? What about if you never painted your house would it be a shock if the wood became rotten? Well if you don't perform some minimum maintenance on your PC, you'll likely have some problems. The first maintenance is basic cleaning and keeping our PC in a place that won't cause problems.

I hate to see PC's sitting on the floor. Several reasons: 1. PCs get abused by kicks, vacuum cleaners and pets. 2. Being on the floor lets spiders and dust bunnies into the PC case. When I've done maintenance on PCs that have been on the floor they are filthy inside. This can lead to overheating and possible electrical short. Get those PCs off the floor!

You should clean your keyboard and mouse monthly. Use one of the air can blasters to blow out the dust from your keyboard. Use a damp cloth to clean your mouse. Use that same damp cloth to clean your monitor screen. Run your Printers cartridge cleaning utility every other month. This is usually found as a program in the All Programs listing.

Windows has a system utility called Disk Cleanup you need to run every month. Click on Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup. This will get rid of those files that you don't need. Every 4-6 months you need to run the disk defragmenter so keep your hard drive running smoothly (All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter). Once a year run a hard disk scan and fix any errors - Start, My Computer, right Click on C:, Properties, Tools Tab, Check Now, check Automatically fix errors.

After all that run your virus scanner and anti spyware program. That should complete your Fall maintenance! Happy Computing!

#106 - the leopard lies in wait

I've done a lot of complaining about the new Windows Vista. I'll be taking a closer look at the 4 flavors of Vista and what components they have later this week. Today I want to talk about the new Apple operating system - Leopard, due out October 26.

Apple's Leopard comes out this week and although most of my customer don't have Apples, I thought it might be fun to talk about what Apple thought was important in its new operating system versus what Microsoft was important. Microsoft had security first and foremost in mind when it designed Vista. Yes, they throw in some graphic tid bits (that slow things down nicely!), but by and large the only POSITIVE aspects of Vista are its security features. Just to let you know how that is going, Microsoft has had an update to Vista EVERY Tuesday since its launch to fix security issues...

Leopard on the other hand has over 300 changes that really don't point to any one feature as a major update. It does add the "Time Machine" that lets you recover files or folders that have disappeared. The Desktop has a 3D dock that holds your most used programs. It also adds the "Stack" feature that vertically shows you the files you recently have used in each docked application. The ever popular Finder now looks like iTunes (Finder is the Mac version of My Computer). You can set up "Spaces" that hold applications, folders and files that you are using on a project. Networking is a bit more simple (it wasn't at all hard in the old Tiger OS). There are strong Parental Controls that let you place limits on Internet access for kids. Lastly, if you have one of the new Intel based MACs, the Boot Camp program that allows you to run Windows on a Mac is included in Leopard. You still have to get a Windows CD with key to make it work.
Requirements for Leopard are:

Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5, or PowerPC G4 (867MHz or faster) processor

512MB of memory

DVD drive for installation

9GB of available disk space

It looks like my 2 year old Mac Mini will take the update. I'm not sure that I will get it at this time. I only have a 60GB hard drive and I have 23GB of music on it so this may be a bit much size wise. Actually what I would like to see out of an Operating system is Quick on, Quick off, and fast Internet browsing. I'll check out Leopard and see if it can do those things.

#105 Setting up and Securing your wireless network

Our last blog talked about setting up your home/small office network. If you have that straight and have purchased a wireless router, you need to set that up to protect your files and the speed of your Internet connection. Don't protect your wireless network and don't be surprised if someone starts to "borrow" your Internet and makes an attempt to see your files.

Most wireless routers come with a setup CD that they ask for you to run before turning it on. Some work OK, others leave a lot to be desired as far as security is concerned. If asked in the setup routine, always change the password for the router (password or admin is the default and everyone knows that). If they offer you to set up security take the WPA (WiFi Protected Access) encryption. This option makes anyone trying to get on your network have to know the special Code you set up.

If you don't get those security options then you'll have to tough it out and do it manually (or call Nick!). The setup program for your router is located in the routers memory and can be accessed by typing the IP address of the router into Internet Explorer or Firefox address bar. Most routers default to 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1. How do you know which one? For Windows XP Click on Control Panel, Network Connections and then double click on Local Area Connection or Wireless Connection - Which ever you are using. Then click on the Support Tab. Viola! You will see your PCs IP address and the Gateway (ROUTER!) IP Address. Type the Gateway address into your browser address line.

You will be prompted for a User Name and Password. This information should be in your Routers documentation. Its usually generic admin or password. When you get in the Router Setup program you need to change the wireless security to WPA and change the password to something you will remember unique. Be careful when you are changing items in the Router setup program. You can completely disable the Router. Good news is that most routers have a hard reset button. Questions? Email or Call Nick!

#104 - Setting up your Home Network

If you have more then one PC at home or if you have a laptop a home network makes sense. its nice to be able to move around the house (and outside your house) and still get your email and be on the Internet. Setting up a home network doesn't take a lot of work, but keeping it secure and troubleshooting that network isn't as easy.

In this blog lets talk about setting up a network to share files and printers. In the next blog we'll discuss securing the network - especially a wireless network. The router takes your Internet and spreads it out over the network. The switch allows for more then one PC to be on the network and assigns an IP (Internet Protocol) address to each PC so that they can be seen by the other PCs. We like Linksys, Belkin or Netgear router/switches. Simple to set up and generally reliable. They all have 4 ports for PCs, which is plenty for most homes. The router/switch can support just wired connections or wired AND wireless connections (a wireless router)

After getting your router/switch, follow the directions to set it up. Usually this is a matter of putting in a CD and following the directions. Now you have to connect your PC's to the router via Ethernet cable or by having a wireless adapter (most new laptops have this internally). Once you are connected to the network you have to setup a workgroup and then share something on your PC (folder or printer) so that you can work with other PCs. Note these instructions are for Windows XP only.

You set up a workgroup by right clicking My Computer, then Properties. Then Click on Computer Name and Change. Now pick a name for this PC and then choose a workgroup name. Note the workgroup name MUST be the same on all PCs, but the PC name should of course be different for each PC. After clicking OK you have to reboot the PC. To share a folder or printer you need to go to that printer via My Computer, My Documents or in the case of a Printer - Control Panel, Printers and Faxes. You then right click on the item and then Sharing and security. From here you may have to tell the system you want to share Items (just share!) Eventually you'll get to a box that says share this Folder/Printer. Give it a name and you are ready to Network. This procedure has to be done on all Networked PCs.

Now you can double click on My Computer, My Network Places and View Network Computer. Viola!

Next up Wireless security.

#102 The Blog is Back!

After a month off, I've decided to take a new tact with the blog. I'm no longer putting PC info in my newsletter to shorten its length. I'm going to direct people to the Blog and change the content here to be more helpful and less opinionated, though with me that probably isn't a goal, more of a wish! (grin)

If there is a topic you would like for me to tackle, leave me an email at pcss4u@aol.com or if you can click on the Comment word below and leave one. I hope this will drive a bit more viewers to the blog and make it a bit easier to write, since the topics will be more factual and in my case, less creativity required. We don't want to tax my right brained head!

Thanks for your support!