#130 Protecting your PC

Our good friends at AVG have upgraded their antivirus protection software. Good news is they still have a free version and the new version (8.0) has spyware protection built in. You can download the new version here: AVG 8.0 Free Before you install the upgrade I recommend you uninstall at least the antispyware version of AVG. Go to Start, Control Panel, Add or Remove programs and find the AVG antisypware program in the list. Then click on Remove. Now you can install the new version. Its a fairly large download and not recommended for our dial up customers.

So what other protection do you need? Its good to delete your cookies when you close Internet Explorer. In IE click on the Tools, then Internet Options. Click on the Advanced tab and then scroll through the list till you see Security and under it you'll find this item: Empty Temporary Internet Explorer files folder when browser is Closed. Make sure it is checked then exit out.

We recommend you defrag your hard drive once a year {Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defragmenter}. You should do a Disk Clean up once a quarter {Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Cleanup}. One warning: DO NOT DO THE COMPRESS YOUR FILES OPTION.

Back up your files at least weekly and daily would be a better idea. If you need help in setting up a backup system let us know (that's how we pay the bills!).

Turn your PC off every night and if you aren't using the Internet at night shut down your Internet modem (a surge strip works great to shut everything down).

Make sure you are updating Windows with some regularity (Start, Control Panel, Automatic Update) and that your Windows Firewall is active {Start, Control Panel, Windows Firewall}.

#129 - Microsoft the company that keeps on giving

So what has Microsoft done for you in 2008? Well they did delay the forced retirement of Windows XP, at least for a while. Vista has been a big disappointment in sales and XP is actually outselling Vista in the market place. So do they pull the plug on come June 30? Keep tuned here and we will let you know.

Microsoft released Service Pack 1 for Vista with not much fanfare in May. I can see why. I updated the Lenovo laptop I have with Vista on it and notice no difference. Still slow to load and shut down and it can crawl at times. Microsoft removed the Search button on the Start menu for some reason, but you can still use the search box found at the top of every open folder. That might take some time to get used to. Performance is supposedly faster, but not much. Copying files is faster, but still about the same speed as XP. That is the question I ask. Other then security what is better about this operating system? Nothing and that's why its going over like a lead balloon in the market place.

Microsoft has sort of released Windows XP Service Pack 3. Many computers can't upgrade due to a glitch in compatibility with of all things another Microsoft Service - (RMS). No loss there since there seems to be NOTHING worthwhile to most users in this last service pack for XP. It's not faster, safer or even more fun to use. Mostly techno geek stuff that you will never use. So don't worry about upgrading your XP.

Another great month for Microsoft, don't you think?

#128 - Saving Energy - Some Truths

Energy and Technology are interwoven together so much so that you can't talk about one without the other. Today lets take a look at some ways to save energy that not only helps your pocket but the planet.

Your mom was right! Every time you leave a room you should turn the lights out. I saw a very entertaining Mythbusters show on the Discovery channel that studied light energy usage. No matter if it was florescent light bulbs or incandescent. Unless you jump right back into the room ( I think 3 seconds was the longest time) you should shut them off to save!

I've advocated for years that PC owners turn their PCs off if they won't be using them for an hour or more. Leaving a PC on 24/7 is NOT being a good steward of our energy resource. If you leave your PC and are planing to come back pick the Stand By mode that essentially shuts your PC down. If you haven't already changed, PLEASE get rid of your old CRT monitor and change to the slim LCD varieties. The energy savings are tremendous.

Great I'm turning my stuff off. I'm saving a lot right? Ah yes, but you might be able to save more if you REALLY turn them off. That means turning them off by cutting off electricity at the source. For PCs and peripherals that means turning off the surge suppressor when you leave for the day. Most modern PC equipment has a "sleep mode" that still draws a small bit of energy. Multiplied by millions of homes the energy used when a piece of equipment is supposedly turned off is great. So if you are going away from home or going to bed, turn off your surge protector to save the most.

Several ways to save energy at home include insulating the house every 10 years. Installing set back thermostats and programming them for your usage. Changing from incandescent to florescent light bulbs. Checking out the energy efficiency stickers and comparing them when buying an appliance. Having your heating/cooling system checked periodically for energy issues. Replacing that air filter in your heating/cooling system regularly. Not many high tech solutions but certainly ones we can implement!

#127- Green is the hot color

After a week of Earth Day I sat back and thought a little about how conscious I am and my customers are of environmental concerns. How many recycle? How many buy recycled materials? How many have switched to CFL light bulbs? Have any started to use cloth bags for shopping?

I don't see many hybrid vehicles in the Alleghany Highlands. Honda and Ford sell them here (no Toyota). We do have a regional recycling of Paper, Cardboard, Plastic and maybe Glass. I sit on the board of the organization that recycles in the area (Jackson River Enterprises), but I'm not sure why the maybe. I would guess there isn't strong demand for recycled glass material. If its profitable to recycle JRE will do it aggressively. Ah the profit motive. The problem with recycling is that the state hasn't pushed the equation enough to make it profitable. In a capitalistic society its profits that drive decisions.

Our wonderful Virginia legislature has denied adding a deposit on glass bottles for 10 years in a row. A simple law that would get a big litter problem off our streets and create jobs. Many other states have a similar law so its not like its experimental legislation. San Fransisco has banned the sale of plastic water bottles. Maybe a deposit on them would help solve the problem. Stores charging for plastic bags would push people to use reusable cloth bags. Cost is a great motivator.

As a card carrying tree hugger, I urge all my customers to do more in their lives to conserve the resources that we have. What has this got to do with Technology? We'll see in my blogs during May!

#126 - How should one Email?

I'm not talking about Email etiquette. I'm talking about what Email service should I be using? How hard is it to change? Why should I change?

As I have mentioned before, I use AOL for my email and until this year I have been very pleased. AOL updated their version to 9.1 and took some of the flexibility out of AOL email. I still think the service has some nice features (groups, good SPAM protection, the ability to say what email is saved on your PC and what isn't), but with the changes I'll remain neutral as to recommending it to our customers. If you have it and like it stay with it!

The services I don't recommend are those that use Outlook or Outlook express. They automatically download ALL your email to your computer. The good, the bad and the very ugly. Why would you want to download SPAM and Spyware email? You don't but if you use a email service (ntelos, tds, verizon, comcast) that you use the Outlook programs then you indeed do download all that stuff.

Services I like are Gmail and Yahoo mail. These are free email services that keep the emails on their site and let you leave them there forever. I use Gmail and it does a nice job of keeping SPAM out, but it does get a bit cumbersome organizing all those saved messages. You don't have to load a program on you PC like you do with AOL, so that's a plus.

So what should you do? Well if you aren't swamped with SPAM and haven't got a virus from you email then keep on using what you are used to. If you are getting a bit fed up then take a look at Gmail, Yahoo mail or even AOL free.

#125 Charging for the Internet

One of the true mysteries of hoteldom is why the least expensive hotels (La Quinta, Holiday Inn Express, Marriott Courtyard) provide free Internet service and the most expensive hotels (Crowne Plaza, Sheraton, Hilton) charge for it. I guess the answer is because they can. Think about how much money they make on that service. The normal charge is $10 per day per room. I don't know about you, but for a dedicated line I pay around $30 a MONTH. What's more amazing is that you know it doesn't cost the hotel $30 a month for Internet service per room. Actually the cost is more like $5 per month per room. So it is like printing money. What can we do about it? Unless forced to stay in an Internet Charging Hotel, I don't. If I do have to stay in one of those nasty charging hotels I always complain about it on the satisfaction survey. Still when you are printing money you usually don't care what the rabble have to say. Remember how they used to charge out the roof for long distance and local calls? Cell phones ended that. Satellite wireless may eventually end this rip off someday.

#124 - Wireless Security

My wireless connection at home isn't secure. I share it with a neighbor when they are in town. My other nearby neighbors don't use wireless, but that may change. If I see a car parked in my front yard with a guy hunched over I'll know whats going on. Security of your data should be important to us. What can happen if someone gets on your network? They can see all your files. That means steal the files, change the file and ultimates crash your computer if they wish. Even if you don't care about your files, you should care about your PC. (PCSS visits are welcome but can be costly!)

Securing your wireless network isn't the easiest thing to do. There are two parts of the security. #1 is to secure your wireless router. If you haven't changed its default password a hacker can easily get to the router and change ALL your settings including security. Even sneakier is for them to just pick up your security settings, thus opening up your supposedly secure network without you knowing. To secure the router you have to go to the routers built in management console. This differs per router, but you should have gotten documentation from the router manufacturer on how to do this (you can generally get that info from the manufacturers web page). Then you need to go to the security or setup section of the console and set a password. Make it a strong password with numbers,letters and symbols. Write it down so you won't forget it! After setting the password the router will reboot and you'll have to enter the new password to get into the console.

While you are in the router you should go to the Wireless security section and make sure security is turned on. The best security choice is WPA. Any security is better then none, but WPA is stronger and less likely to be hacked then the old WEP standard. I've seen WEP hacked in under 10 minutes with the right equipment. When you set up the security you'll be asked to give a passcode or you will be given a security number. Write these down, because your wireless devices will now need the code to get on your network. You'll also have to give the code/number to anyone you want to use your wireless network.

If you have questions or need help, we are here to oblige!

#123 - Monday Reflections on reliability

Its a cool Monday after Easter in the Alleghany Highlands. My computer, printer and monitor started up without incident. Now that may not seem like a huge Woohoo moment but computer reliability is very important to the world.

Back in the early days of hard drives, keeping them running over a year was a big accomplishment. Just last week a customers hard drive crashed after 5 years of pretty heavy use. The drive sent out warning noises and even some funky error messages before passing on. The customer wanted to know why the hard drive ceased to function. The expectation has changed from I know its going to crash to Why do they crash?

Hard Drives are the key to all PCs. They are disks of metal spinning very fast (7500rpm in a desktop) with a magnetic head positioned millimeters from that spinning disk. Several mechanical and electrical components that can (and will) fail. The tolerances are very fine, the machining of the components exacting and fit and finish precise. Mean time before failure is 4-5 years of continuous operation. Modern marvels if you ask me, but still the main reason PCs crash.

Now if a desktop hard drive is amazing think about the laptop hard drive. One third the size with teeny tiny components. They get bumped all the time, put in strange positions and subject to extremes in temperature seasonally. Mean time before failure is approximately the same in portable hard drives. Now that is amazing. Actually a laptop hard drive is fairly easy to replace and if you get a new one they usually are faster speeding up the whole laptop.

#122 - Working on the web

The latest rage on the web is office applications there. Not only do you save your files on the web, but your word processor, spreadsheet and calendar are run on the web and not on your PC. Benefits of being online include never losing your data (they keep it an back it up). Being able to access your data anywhere there is an Internet connection. Not having to worry about software upgrades (done on the web!). You also can use a MAC, PC or Linux machine to run literally all these applications.

There are literally thousands of applications now on line. The Google apps that we discussed in a previous blog: Blog #84 were some of the first and still are the best, but there are many more apps now online. You can convert to a PDF file, Edit Photos, do translations and of course play games. Here is a site with a listing of many of the applications: Web Application List Site

So how good are these applications and should you use them? We've tried many of the Google apps and though they are workable, we'll stick with Word, Excel and Outlook. The online Office wannabes are OK for sharing files with others but you'll be searching for features as soon as you try them. Life is really to short to have to learn more word processing commands. It took me 10 years to forget all the WordPerfect function commands I learned in the 80s!

Some of the applications are real good, like the Yahoo Babel Fish translation tool and the photo sharing sites (Snapfish & Shutterfly are our favorites). If you think you would like to try some go to the Web Application site above or the Google program site here Google World.

I do all my blogging online using google Blogspot. I type it up on line and then save it there. Its a wonderful example of a web based program that is intuitive. Now if Microsoft starts to move their applications to the web I may follow. They would have to run at least as fast as what I have now. I would like to have something different then Outlook. I really liked the Lotus Organizer program I used for 15 years. I hated to move to Outlook but the latest Palm software won't sync with Organizer, sigh...

Let us know if you like any of the online applications!

#121 - Technology in Mexico

I just got back from 8 days in Mexico. Click here for a link to the visit blog. Here are some thoughts on technology there.

I had wireless Internet at both hotels we stayed at. It was free in the smaller town of Actopan, but it was a secure site so the desk clerk had to give us the pass code. In Mexico City, the wireless was pay as you go, but you could use a US provider such as Boingo ($10 US per day or $21 for the month). Speed seemed similar to US wireless sites, with busy times when they were slower and times (6AM) when they seemed very fast.

Cell phones were everywhere and people on our trip that got International access had the same "can you here me know" issues in the country. Two of the guys from Charlotte on the trip had Blackberry units and could get the Internet and email if they had telephone service.

I saw lots of old PCs and CRTs in the country areas. None of the people we were helping had PCs or cell phones (and you wouldn't think they could afford any with earnings of less then $5 per day). All of the staff people from Habitat had cell phones, though when I asked only a few had PCs. They had access to PCs in their office. Laptops seemed more rare though we saw several in our restaurant in the town of Actopan. There were many Internet cafes near middle and high schools. The cafes all had old PCs and CRT monitors. I believe they all had broadband Internet (I didn't see any dial up connections). We even saw painted adds for Internet cafes on very old lean to type buildings.

Not many laser printers were around, just inexpensive inkjet printers. The printed receipt I recieved from both the Actopan(small town) and Mexico city hotels were from inkjet printers and could barely be read (using the ink to the last drop).

I didn't see alot of computer stores, though that may be more what sections of town that I was in. I did go to an open market in Actopan and saw several people selling old Palm PDA units and lots of AC adapters (the blocks you plug into the wall) for all kinds of items. They were just on a folding table and obviously very used.

With the lack of PCs around, you would think Mexico would be an ideal place to export the old PCs, printers and monitors. I'm not sure that is happening, but I constantly get questions from customers on what to do with their old PCs.