Computer Problems - Tips For Online Technical Support

When your computer is creating problems and you cannot find the solution, you want someone to do it for you but then you notice that your warranty with the manufacturer has expired and you cannot get technical support from them. In such case the best thing you can do is search for online technical support.

Some tips which can help you with the selection of an appropriate online technical support services are:

1. Check different kind of technical support companies and go ahead with the one which has a better service at appropriate charges. It is useless to pay a lot of money for something which you will use just once or twice.

2. Get the proper support from proper people, do not sign up for software support if you are facing the problem with the hardware. If you are facing a software issue it will be more advisable to contact the hardware service companies instead of software solution providers.

3. Sign up for trial plans first to check the quality of support provided to you. Do not end up paying too much for something which was least useful. Do make sure about the terms and conditions with the technical service provider

4. Ask questions if the technical expert knows about your issue. Do not let them experiment with your computer, it can lead to more loss than the actual problem.

5. Do explain what is wrong with your computer. Do not expect the experts to guess everything happening on your computer.

6. The technical expert may ask for a remote administration of your computer. If you are sure of safety and security of your personal data, do allow the expert to handle the computer remotely as that reduces the time and effort on both the sides. Make sure you do not keep your personal information open at the time of remote connection has been established.

7. Check for different packages on different websites if you are taking online support. If you have been facing regular problems with your computer it will be better to sign up with the long term plans and if you have been facing least problems or it is the first time you are into trouble, it is more advisable to sign up with the small term or one time plans.

8. Do check the cancellation of membership and recurring charges policy if any. These can be quite useful when you are not satisfied with your present technical support company.

9. Online services are mostly available at all times and beneficial in terms of cost. These services cost less than asking a technician to visit at your place or taking your computer to some technician.

10. Try to find support from individuals or a direct expert if you are happy with their services. This provides a goodwill for you as well as the expert, they will remember your issues from the past and also provide the relevant solution relating to whatever trouble you are facing.

11. Do not swipe your card online or pay the companies without knowing what you are paying for and what are the exact charges in total. Be careful of the fine prints.

Victor Robinson is a technical expert with http://pro-versions.com and provides technical support along with many other individuals who have joined hands and come under one roof to start a new trend of technical support for Software and Operating System problems by their vast experience.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Victor_Robinson

Update Your Network With Data Center Automation Solutions

If you've ever worked as part of an IT team or been the brains behind such an operation then surely you're aware of data center automation. Unless you've been isolated in the same server room for the last decade you know that automation has changed how IT departments are run, helped to make them more productive and have helped make business application and their servers more reliable. However as most of us stay with one company for years at a time it can be easy to get pigeon holed and what you may not know is that many of the companies that do automate often do so improperly or operate on such a grand scale that they often end up with to much, not enough, or the wrong tools.

All too often when a company makes the decision to automate or further automate their networks and systems they form ostentatious plans without ever considering just how much automation they actually need. These businesses often end up spending a great deal of money on tools that either won't be compatible with their networks or tools that simply won't deliver the goods. It has become common for businesses that decide to automate to try and do so on the cheap. Both those that try and cut corners and those that go to far always have two things in common in that they both spend an exorbitant amount of money and almost always must restart the process.

Performing analysis and research on both an IT department and a network is where the process should start once the decision to automate has been made. From here smart IT professionals and business owners will spend time looking over various vendors and automation solutions. This process can take several months and should be a lengthy process if an individual wants the automation process to work for their business. Those interested in pursuing automation need to wary of vendors that will try to oversell their services and products as well. With all of the benefits that automation brings with it, it's not hard to fall prey to an overzealous sales person.
Once the proper tools and a trusted vendor have been chosen an IT department should be dissected to determine if they are capable of handling the implementation process. Reason being, many companies mistakenly purchase the tools needed for automation only to find that their team of IT professionals is to inexperienced to complete the project or will improperly complete the task. This leads to more spending, more time, and if a business is not careful, a loss of clientele. A majority of companies that offer automation solutions also make available, things like consulting services and in some cases send out their teams to assist yours during and after the implementation process.

Data Center Automation is a process designed to streamline IT departments, make them more productive, and help trim IT budgets. The process rarely fails for businesses that put automation into practice though when it does, it can almost always be attributed to overeager executives most of whom lack knowledge of the process and see only dollar signs at the end of the automated tunnel. Taking the time to break down and acknowledge what your business and its network really needs can determine whether or not automation will work for you. As they say, Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is an automated network.

Kimberly Green Provides Insight to the ever evolving world of data center automation solutions. Suggesting you find out your options before selecting an automation solution for your data center.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kimberly_Green

10 Free Programs That Should Be on Every Presentation System

Over the past few years the quality of open source software has exploded. Some of the most useful programs that I use daily didn't cost me anything. I could live without Microsoft Office, but you'd have a fight on your hands if you took Wordpress or any of my Google apps. Anyway, here is a list of the top 10 free and open source programs that should be a part of every presentation system. Oh, by the way, I know that this list is all Windows software.

Here we go, in no particular order...

1. Google Picassa

This program is as handy as a pocket on a shirt. Besides reading just about every type of file known to man, (Even RAW images from my Cannon Digital SLR!) it organizes everything quickly and easily. Can't find that announcement graphic or background that you know was there last week? Open Picassa and all of the graphics on your system will fly by at the scroll of a mouse.

In addition to it's ability to read, organize and find video and graphic files on your system. It will convert, resize, crop, rotate and color balance quickly and easily. I can't count how many times I've been given a picture for a wedding or a graphic that needs the contrast or brightness tweaked for the projector. Two clicks in Picassa and you're gold.

2. VLC Media Player

If there is a better video player out there, I don't know what it is. This thing plays everything. If VLC doesn't play it, it probably can't be played. Most presentation programs have a limited amount of videos that they can play. That awesome divx or mpg4 video you really want to use will probably not be accessible to your presentation system anytime soon. Enter VLC. Not only will this play just about every video you throw at it, but it will, more than likely, play it better than your presentation program. It will even play files without installing codecs. It even has a mac version.

Open the video in VLC, drag it to the presentation screen, click "view>full screen", open an external console, pause the video where you want it to start, voila. Media Shout will take control of the presentation screen and then when you need the video, minimize Media Shout so that it will give up control of the second monitor, play your video, then maximize Media Shout for your return trip.

Is this a bit of a kluge? Yes. Does it work? Absolutely. Is it much better than spending an entire day trying to convert the mp4 into something that might or might not play in your presentation program? Indubitably.

3. Audacity

Audacity is still one of my favorite quick and easy audio editing and recording programs. Does the wedding coordinator want the first part of this song, then the chorus of this song and then the ending of still another song? Does the music director for the children's production want to end the song before the chorus repeat? Do you have a 30 second rain loop that you need to loop for 10 minutes? Enter Audacity. It is quick, easy and does a great job. You'll need to download the LAME mp3 converter for it to fully function but, since LAME is open source as well, we'll just put them in the same category.

I wouldn't use it to master an album, but for a podcast, mp3 edit or basic file conversion. It's "audtastic" (I'm sorry, that was LAME)

4. Winamp

Ok, this may make me old school but I still haven't found a better program for playing music and making nice, matched cross fades between the songs. (Winamp with a cross fade plug in) will do a great job with your pre show music. There is nothing worse than dead air between songs during pre show background music. (Ok, something might be worse, but it is pretty annoying). Now, I'm sure I'm going to start a flame war about what is better. I'm open to suggestions but, for now, winamp still rocks.

5. Virtualdub Mod

VirtualDubMod is based on the famous video editing software VirtualDub by Avery Lee. Born as a unification of several existing modifications, a lot of new features have been added, including support for the matroska container format. What audacity is to audio files, Virtualdub is to video files. While I wouldn't use it to edit a movie, it's perfect for quick fixes and touch ups. Plus, it's free.

6. GSpot

Great, we just lost our "clean" status. I'm going to try and resist making some Jr. High level joke about searching...(I already blew it). I didn't name the program, but it has saved my bacon more than once. GSpot is a small program (about 1MB) that doesn't even need to be installed. When you run it, it will load it's list of codecs (currently over 250) and when you open a video or audio file with it, it will tell you everything there is to know about the file. Resolution, audio codec, bitrate, video codec, virtually everything you need to know about the video or audio file is there. Want to know the native resolution of that video? Want to know if that file is Cinipak or Sorrenson compression? GSpot to the rescue. Since it's so small it will easily fit on a thumb drive.

I think I got through that nicely.

7. Logmein

Ok, this isn't really a program, it's an online service but it is free. Logmein is an awesome internet computer access program that might just become your favorite utility. If you need to have access to your presentation computer from across the internet, Logmein is your friend. There is a free version and a professional version. The free version basically gives you the ability to remotely take over the target computer and operate as if you are sitting at the system. The Professional version adds many IT Manger utilities.

If you manage or support presentation systems in multiple locations, use Logmein to either save you the trip or save you from the "help desk by braille" blues. You know help desk by braille..."Ok what do you see now? Right, click on File...it's in the upper left corner...yes it is...sorry, next to Edit...there now..." We've all had to do it. Now, just tell them to load logmein and you take control of the system and troubleshoot, configure and edit all from your own computer.

The only thing that the free version of remote control lacks is file transfer. Which brings me to the next program.

8. Orb

Ok, Orb rocks. I'm an evangelist for Orb. It does so many cool things that I don't have time to get into all of them (think slingbox, only better, only free). I love Orb so much, it's my browser homepage. If that's not a loving commitment, I don't know what is. While Orb is supercoolawesome, it doesn't seem to offer your presentation system anything. Sure it will stream divx movies to your XBOX 360 (I know right?) and change the channel on your DirecTV and stream the feed to your phone (seriously!) but what is it doing on this list?

Orb will also allow you to browse your remote system drives and transfer files between computers. This fills in the gap that the free version of Logmin leaves open. Forget that graphic in your office? Need to push a video to multiple computers in multiple locations and it's too big for email? Orb is my solution.

Now, there might be 10 different ways to transfer the files easily, but none of them come with orb.

9. Zambar

Ok, it's a website and not a program. But I was short one. So sue me. (No, really don't sue me I have enough troubles) Zamzar takes the place of a video conversion program that normally would be in the ninth spot on the list. There, I justified it. There's a whole discussion on zamzar in another post so I won't get too far into the discussion but, zamzar is an online service that will convert anything to anything. Even online video feeds from youtube, revver or daily motion will convert to avi or mpg. There are two immediate advantages to it being online, you don't need a big fast computer to do the conversion and it is platform independent. I've used the browser on my phone (which I'm sure isn't fast enough to perform the conversion in our lifetime) to upload and convert files. Check it out.

10. Windows Defender

While I wouldn't recommend any free anti virus programs, I do think that windows defender does a great job. I haven't run any tests or system comparisons but, WD seems to catch what it is supposed to catch while at the same time (and this is the important thing) not taking up too much of my system resources. The newest version has won me over and is back installed on all of my windows systems. There might be better antispyware software, but not better FREE anitspyware.

Well, that's my list, let the flame wars begin.

http://www.techgeeklibrary.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brent_Young

Information Technology Enhances Productivity

he world is so dependent on technology today that it has become an expected component in our daily lives. We depend on it at home, in school and at work. The use of technology in the office has become commonplace.

From the fax machine, to the telephone, the printer, the copier machine, the computer and the internet, technology is enhancing the productivity of professionals, educators, and students everywhere. It has become so commonplace that most offices today would cease to operate effectively without it.

The most used forms of technology are the computer and the internet. We use them in place of the telephone to send email. They're used to quickly send copies of documents instead of the using a fax machine or copier and hand carrying them to our co-workers. The combination of the computer and the internet enables individuals to fax documents and even make telephone calls. Skype is a perfect example of this technology.

Access to information technology has turned into a necessity for prosperity and economic development worldwide. Underdeveloped countries are increasingly becoming equipped with computers and access to the internet, allowing them to communicate with the rest of the world and strengthen their economies.

Many years ago when computers were being introduced to society, people were concerned that they would have a dehumanizing effect. To a certain extent that might be true because we often use email to communicate in the office rather than calling or visiting our co-worker on the next floor or even down the hall, but the positives outweigh the negatives. With the ability to quickly share and process information, and effectively perform in-depth research, most of us might wonder how businesses ever managed without the existence of the computer and the internet.

The Blackberry and other hand-held time-saving devices bring added convenience and increased productivity to professionals whose work extends beyond the office.

So many other forms of technology exist that enable professionals of all educational and skilled backgrounds to produce products and services that it would otherwise be impossible.

It has been stated that an estimated 40 percent of U.S. productivity growth between 1995 and 2002 has been credited to the existence of information technology. Computers and the internet give a voice to all who has access to them and the numbers are growing by leaps and bounds.

Monica Davis is Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Exceptional Magazine (http://www.exceptionalmag.com). She has over 20 years of stellar and award-winning performance serving the federal government and private sector. She is also the creator and former executive producer and host of the award-winning Extraordinary Everyday People television talk show.

Exceptional Magazine is a self-improvement publication that recognizes people for their extraordinary accomplishments, contributions to society and their courage to overcome adversity. It also provides informative and articles that help people of all backgrounds change their lives both personally and professionally.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Monica_Davis

How to Print Money With Your Scanner

Ok, scanners don't technically print. You aren't technically getting the most out of your scanner right now, so I guess you will have to forgive me. Think about it, what do you actually do with your scanner?

I will give you 10-1 odds it's just a one-trick pony for you. You use it to capture images, don't you? You've captured Fluffy at the local dog park, Jimmy's picture with great-aunt whatshername, the trip to Sea World in '81. What if there's more? What if you could harness the power of your scanner to save you huge amounts of time and money at home and work?

You can, because I've done it. In fact, last week, I saved my company 200 hours of labor. Even paying minimum wage(which we weren't), that brings the total saved to over $3000. At first glance, this figure doesn't line up with basic math. $7 x 200 = $1400, not $3000. How did I do it? The answer lies in economic theory, and a really old technology.

Opportunity cost(or total cost) is a basic economic theory which calculates not only how much the visible costs are, but what it costs you not to do something else. The most common illustration is a college education. If you pay $20,000 a year in visible costs, the cost of not working a full time job could be running you $18,000 in hidden costs. Thus, the total cost of a college education is actually $38,000 a year. The same goes for saving money. Not would you save your company $1500 in visible costs, by implementing the strategy I did, you may have made them an additional $1500 by using that time in a more productive manner. Now you see why I call it printing money.

The technology I used to get these results is called OCR or Optical Character Recognition. OCR is not a new at all. The first patent for the technology was filed back in the '20s In fact, it has been around in machine form since 1955. The US Postal Service has been using it since the '60's. Essentially, it converts printed text or writing on a page into digital form. That was the extent of the technology's abilities for a great deal of it's lifespan. The field has seen some great strides since then, including automatically formatting email addresses into hyperlinks, duplicating exact replicas of page structure(including columns and breaks), and PDF support.

Maybe you don't see how this could benefit you. Okay, I'll run you through a few scenarios, and show you how you'd save that time and money:

Uses for a Business:

• Invoices sent as pictures: I cannot stand it when someone sends me a bill of lading or a packing list, and I can't select the text. Just run one of these images through OCR software, and you automagically have text you can copy, paste, or otherwise manipulate for another document.
• The Trade Show Directory: Have you ever gone to a trade show, and received that massive directory of attendees? Maybe you wanted to get their names and addresses into your mailing system, or you just want their email addresses for your contact list. What if I told you that you could scan and digitize that 1200 page document in as little as 3 hours? At our company we did. We now have a digital directory of all suppliers and buyers in our industry, for the entire continent of North America, and we did it in just 3 hours.
• That Old Rolodex: Ah, yes. The trusty Rolodex. You may have replaced yours with an email contact list, or maybe you still keep it closely by your side, in case a natural disaster strikes. You can put 6-8 of these cards on the scanner at the time. In a little while, you will have a fireproof version of your contact list. You could even sync it to your email contacts.
• Business Cards: These things are the hardest in the world to keep up with. They are easy to lose, and they make a mess on your desk. OCR is able to accurately recognize the itty-bitty type, and turn it into something legible and usable. You can throw 8-10 on your scanner at any given time, and go to town.

There are a ton of other uses for business, but I can't go through all of them here. Let's turn our eyes toward uses for school and home.Uses for School and Home:

• The Book Report: Don't you dislike typing in long passages for book reports? I know I do. A quick run through the scanner, and you'll have a ready-made quote to plunk down in the middle of your paper
• Lost Papers: How many times have you printed out a paper, and accidentally deleted the original on your hard drive? Once again, run it through, and you will have an editable copy in minutes.
• Contracts and Legal Documents: OCR makes it easy to modify a buyer or seller's agreement before sending it back to your realtor or lawyer, even if has just been sent as an image or hard copy.
• Digitize your signature: This is not technically an OCR feature, but I will throw it in as a freebie: Put your signature on a white sheet of paper using black ink. Scan the paper. Using GIMP or Photoshop, remove the white background. Save as a .png to preserve the transparency. The next time you need to sign a document you are typing, insert this image into OpenOffice or MS Word. Email the doc, knowing you never had to waste the paper to print it.

Are you convinced now? If so, let me tell you what you will need to make sure you can convert your text:

1. You need a TWAIN compliant scanner. Most scanners released within the past 8 years or so follow this specification. Unless your scanner is really ancient, you shouldn't have a problem with this
2. OCR Software: Most of the time, the software is installed along with the drivers for your scanner, and is completely free. Manufacturer versions are not often as full-featured as If you want a cheap solution, and are willing to settle for 97% or so accuracy vs. 99% percent, you can go with a free, open source option like GOCR. While I am not usually a big fan of commercial software, I will pay for a great package. If you are looking for software for your company, I recommend Omnipage Pro. You can pay 500 bucks for their current version, or pick up an earlier release for on Ebay like I did. It's easy to use, and super fast.
3. While not necessary, I highly recommend a scanner with an automatic document feeder, or ADF. This will make scanning large books a breeze, along with freeing you to do other things while the software does it's magic.
4. I would also recommend a larger amount of RAM, as images can be quite memory intensive. The less time the application spends accessing your hard drive, the faster the processing will go.

Now that I've given you some ways to save time and money, go invent some ways to do even more. If you find a way to print money, do me a favor, and make an anonymous deposit to my account.

Kurt Hartman is out to save you time and money. While he is no Clark Howard, he has a few tricks up his sleeve. He currently is Head of Employee Training at BuyBigTires.com.
BuyBigTires.com is a leader in selling off the road tires They also use a scanner quite a bit. Go figure.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kurt_Hartman

The Big Three For Compact Flash 300x Cards

High speed flash cards, high capacities and only three major companies have them. 300x compact flash cards are the fastest in the market but there are not many who make them. The cream of the crop can be found in this article.

The Transcend Extreme Speed 300x CompactFlash card is one of the fastest available in the market. It is designed specifically for professional photographers but the CF card can be used with anything that is compatible with it. Since it supports Ultra DMA mode operation, it can support very fast transfer speeds of up to 45MB/s. DMA stands for Direct Memory Access which allows the CPU to operate more than one function at a time during data transferring. In a sense, having Ultra DMA would speed up the flash drive because the CPU doesn't have to copy each piece of data from the source to the destination.

So far, there are only 3 major companies that have released these high speed flash cards which are Lexar, Transcend, and Sony where Transcend is the only one that offers a 16GB capacity. Supposedly, all of them can transfer as fast as 45MB/s which are why these CF cards are so expensive. Transcend's flash card sticks out mostly due to the fact that it has an advanced Error Correction Code which correct errors during data transfer automatically. With that function in place, you don't have to worry about the integrity of the pictures that you take. However, you may have to use a third party image recovery software if your card happens to stop functioning.

Lexar's compact flash card includes Lexar Image Rescue 3, which is an image recovery software, when you purchase it from them. I don't know how well it performs but to have this is a short sigh of relief for most consumers because sometimes they might forget to back up their images and lose all their data. Although it includes the software, it shouldn't mean that you should not back your files but it provides a mean of recovery just in case something does happen. Sony also provides support when it comes to image recovery; however, you have to send it back to them to recover the images for you.

Overall, the performance of the compact flash cards is very similar to each other. What make these different from each other are the services that come with the product. I still think Transcend's 300x CF card would be a great choice because of the price. Currently, Lexar is selling the 8GB for $199 but Transcend sells their 16GB for $218.99. You can find it at shop.transcendusa.com for that low price. Each of these companies have been established long enough to have credibility so, you should not worry about the quality of the product. It is entirely up to you to see which one is the best option.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Nguyen

Maximize Your Bandwidth - Get Your Money's Worth!

By default windows XP and Vista will actually limit how many half open connections your computer can have open at a time. A half open connection refers to when you are trying to connect to a network but you need to wait for that network to respond giving you the go ahead. This can become a problem when you want to open multiple connections at the same time. If you want to run any sort of Peer 2 Peer file sharing applications this can drastically affect your transfer rates and the speed at which your are able to connect to peers.

Lets say your computer is still set up in the default settings. When you try and transfer a file in the P2P program you will have a maximum of 10 half open connections at a time. So when your program returns to you a list of 50 peers, you can only try to connect to 10 of them at a time. This means that before you can connect to all 50 peers you have to wait for the first 10 to respond then the next ten, and so on. Where as if you were able to attempt all 50 at once you would automatically connect and start downloading to the peers that respond quickly while still waiting for the rest to respond. With a limitation of only 10 half open connections you might be waiting for slow servers to respond for a while before even trying to connect to the faster servers or users.

In this article I will show you how to open up more of these connections on your computer enabling faster transfer rates and teach you how to optimize this number for your computer. You may think that if I set this number to infinity then you will get unlimited transfer rates, but this is not true. The reality is that more connections after a certain point can actually reduce the speed of your computer as it will get bogged down with too much information all at once.

Although if your really know what you are doing you can adjust the number manually yourself, but the easiest way to adjust it is with a patch. The patch is found here:

http://www.lvllord.de/?lang=en&url=downloads

It's a simple DOS based program that will write to your TCPIP.sys file. If you are at all apprehensive about messing anything up then copy and back up this file first It's really easy to use, just download it, run it then set the number of half-open connections you will allow. That's it. Simple right?

By default the program is set to adjust your new limit to 50, this is probably okay for most people. For those of you really looking to get the most out of this adjustment then you can increase this number a bit but there are a few things to consider.

1) How fast is your computer? The higher the number of half-open connections you allow, the more resources your computer will need to handle them, cranking this number up a couple hundred will require more from all parts of your computer and will actually slow it and your transfer rates down. Instead of devoting the most resources to your full connections and downloading the new file they are spent on opening new connections. With a fast computer your can stretch this number up a bit (maybe another 100). Trial and error will dictate if your computer can handle it.

2) Are you on a router? Chances are your router can only hold so many full connections and half open connections at a time. When you reach your max your router will likely crap out and disable or reset all your connections on the network. This value for the routers can vary depending on the quality of your router. For your average cheap home router you can probably handle a combined total of about 250 connections for everyone on your network at a given time. If for instance you have 4 or 5 computers doing P2P on your router 50 half open connection is probably about all it can handle after you factor in the actual number of full connections each computer might have(this can be a lot too).

3) Your internet connection isn't likely a large factor in this but if you have a super fast computer with no router you still might see some limitations with your internet connection as either the company you are with will not allow that many open connections or they can't handle it. All that is likely to happen in this case is your connection disconnects then attempts to reconnect.

Happy surfing!

Geoffrey Vaughan - High School Teacher and Web Developer. Owner and operator of http://www.MrVaughan.com - Resources for for High School students and teachers in the area's of Computers and Technology.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Geoffrey_Vaughan

How to Make Your Computer Run Faster - Find and Repair Disk Errors

You can check the integrity of the files stored on your hard disk by running the Error Checking utility.

As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing (such as file saving) difficult, or even impossible. The Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors, and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced. If they are misplaced or have gone bad this tool will fix these errors. This tool can dramatically help increase your computers performance.

If you use your computer daily, you should try to run this utility weekly to help prevent data loss. It will also aid in your attempt to make a computer run faster! Depending on how often you use your computer you might even want to use this tool twice a week. If you work on it all day for school or work you will definitely want to consider doing it up to three times a week.

To run the Error Checking utility:

Important: Be sure to close all files before running the Error-Checking utility. It can also make a computer run faster!

1. Click Start, and then click My Computer.

2. In the My Computer window, right-click the hard disk you want to search for bad sectors, and then click Properties.

3. In the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab.

So go ahead and do this now, its a sure fire way to make your computer run faster almost immediately!

Use this method and my ten ways on how to make your computer run faster
You will find videos, screen shots and step by step instructions for even the most novice computer users. Also visit my homepage at computerht.com for my computer how to tutorials and guides. My other computer how to's include videos, screen shots and step by step instructions as well.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brooks_Carver

Buying a New Computer - What's the Big Deal!

Asking for the price of a new computer is like asking the price of a car. Although all cars
have four wheels, a roof and an engine, the similarities stop there. With computers, as
well as different brand names available, there are many combinations of different
component specifications (e.g. processor speed, amount of memory). Professionals can help you translate the technical jargon, but there is a large non-computing side of the equation to ensure that you are getting the best value for your money. So how do you know if the money you are spending on technology is a wise investment? We look at some of the questions that drive the IT recommendations that as experts make to our customers.

The current picture

We start by getting an understanding of the way your business currently runs. This includes factors like how many staff you have and what percentage of them rely heavily on a computer to perform their daily tasks. How many locations you have and how transient are your staff between locations or 'on the road'? How is information currently stored and shared between people, considering both internal staff and the interaction between your customers and your business? Do your business processes rely on faxes or duplicate forms? How are your supply-chain relationships managed?

Any challenges

What frustrates your staff the most about their work? What do you feel is the biggest challenge holding your company back? It's important to get a clear picture of any issues so we can determine if a technology solution can help, or if it's really an underlying business process problem. New technology won't necessarily help if it's not supported by a strong business driver, processes and staff education.

Your future plans

What is on the horizon for the next 12 months? 2 years? 5 years? Are you looking to significantly expand or decrease your operations? Are you thinking of selling your products on the Internet? Are there any major changes in your industry that you need to take into account (such as the impact of digital technology on businesses like camera film processing and traditional printing presses)?At home.

A similar process can be undertaken if you are looking at technology for your home. What do you use your computer for now? Would you be happy with email and word processing, or do you have a teenager who would like to play the latest computer games?

This is a very brief overview of some of the puzzle pieces that we take into account when we make a technology recommendation. Once we have a clear picture of your needs, we can sift through the many options available and confidently recommend a solution that will fit your unique situation. Think about the questions we have raised and if you can't find the answers talk to an expert it may save you time and money.

Nick Roche is the National Director of Computer Troubleshooters Australia, part of the worlds Largest IT Service Franchise with over 450 location in 25 countries across the Globe. Specialising in supporting IT for Small Business & Home Offces. For your local Computer Troubleshooter see your country website;

Australia - http://www.comptroub.com.au

For all other countries visit - http://www.comptroub.com

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Round Up Your Files So Your Computer Can Access Them Faster

You've more than likely heard the word "defrag". But what does it mean and should you pay any attention to it. It's hard to pay any attention to it if you have no idea what it is, why you should do it and what benefits are involved. Let's have a look.

"defragmentation (or defragging) is a process that reduces the amount of fragmentation in file systems. It does this by physically reorganizing the contents of the disk in order to store the pieces of each file close together and in order (contiguously)."

"Reading and writing data on a heavily fragmented file system is slowed down as the time needed for the disk heads to move between fragments, and waiting for the disk platter to rotate into position, is increased. For many common operations, the performance bottleneck of the entire computer is the hard disk; thus the desire to process more efficiently encourages defragmentation. Operating system vendors often recommend periodic defragmentation in order to keep disk access speed from degrading over time." - source wikipedia

So it's obvious that regular defragmentation of your hard drive is desirable. You should aim to do this every couple of months, depending on the amount computer usage. Follow the steps below to defrag your hard drive.

1. From your desktop click on the Start button and select Run

2. Type dfrg.msc in the blank field. This will open the Disk Defragmenter window.

3. On the bottom left side of this screen is a button called Defragment. Click on it. The first phase Disk Defragmenter performs is analysing your hard drive to determine whether or not your hard drive needs to be defragmented. If it does it will start the second phase automatically which is to defrag your hard drive. If your hard drive does not need defraging then a message will display so. Try again in a couple of months.

4. When defragmentation has completed put the next run in your calendar so you do not forget.

Well I hope this has increased your knowledge Disk Defragmentation and maintaining your computer in a optimum state.

http://www.elscomm.com.au Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rene_Els

Unlimited Local and Long Distance Calling For Less Than $2/month!

No that's not a typo, Its real. A new gadget now allows you to make unlimited calling to anywhere in the US and Canada for $20 a year, That's about a buck and a half per month. That's incredible. This revolutionary piece of equipment allows this, It's called the MagicJack. It's really simple. Their are only 3 things required. A home phone, The MagicJack and broadband internet service.

MagicJack

How this works:

This thing couldn't be easier to use, You plug it into your windows computer USB port. The software takes about 30 seconds to load (First time use requires brief account activation). Plug your homephone line into the MagicJack and your ready to go. The call quality is good, It's not as good as a regular landline but for the price you really cant go wrong. Think about it, For what your probably paying for a month's worth of service you could use that for a whole year using this. The only downside I can see for this is that you must have your computer plugged in and running to be able to make and receive calls. This is a small price to pay though for UNLIMITED local and long distance calling.

I am in no way affiliated with this product, I own one myself though and it's amazing. I recommend everyone picking one of these up, It costs $40 and the first year of service is free. ($20 after that)

Check out the MagicJack official website by clicking the following link.
http://www.magicjack.com/6/index.asp

Be sure to check out my tech blog for more articles like this. Tips and tricks, Info on the latest gadgets.
http://www.sexyclan.net/tech

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jake_B

Some Basic Concepts of Fiber Optic Loss Testing

When testing loss in a fiber optic link, some basic principles must be kept in mind all the time.

1.The testing wavelength should always be the same as the working wavelength. Because optical fiber loss varies with light wavelength, you will get incorrect result if your measuring wavelength is different from the actual working wavelength. For example, if a system is designed for 1550nm but you test it with 1310nm light source and power meter, the result will not be correct.

2.The testing light source should be the same as the intended working lightwave equipment light source. If the system is designed for a LED source, you should test it with a LED source. If the system is designed for multimode laser light, you should use a multimode laser light source for testing. This is also true for single mode laser light source.

Fiber optic equipment used in a loss testing

In a basic loss testing setup, four types of test equipment are needed. They are the light source, the power meter, the reference patch cables and the adapter (mating sleeve).

Here are some considerations when choosing your equipment.

The light source should have the same wavelength as the operating equipment, proper mode (multimode or single mode, should be same as the operating equipment), type (LED or laser, same as the operating equipment) and proper connector.

The power meter should have the same wavelength as the light source, proper connector and calibrated.

The reference patch cables should be high quality with know loss, proper connectors and be the same type as the fiber plant being tested.

The adapter (mating sleeve) should be with high quality ceramic sleeves and be proper type (FC, SC, LC, etc).

Understanding dB (decibel) in fiber optic loss testing

As in any power measurement, fiber optic light power measurement unit can be expressed in milliwatt (mW), but a more convenient unit is dB(decibel).

Decibel (dB) is most often used in electronics testing. It is the ratio between two levels. One level is the input and the other level is the output. The ratio is calculated in logarithmic as explained below.

For power measurement, dB is defined as: dB = 10 x log(output power/input power)

So for example, after a fiber link, the output light power level becomes 50% of its input, the loss of the link will be 10log(0.5)= -3 dB.

Since dB is actually a ratio, it has no absolute units. So from above measurement sample, we have no idea of the actual power, may it be 0.1 mW or 1 mW.

That is why we have another unit dBm. It is the ratio of the measured power to 1mW of reference power. It is defined as: dBm = 10xlog(measured power/1mW)

So for example, a 0.1mW light power expressed in dBm will be 10xlog(0.1mW/1mW)=-10 dBm.

From above we know that dBm is a absolute unit, we know exactly how many mW it is.

For fiber optic loss testing, decibel is the most often used unit since it is much easier to work with. Why? Because two dB values can be simply added or subtracted. For example, a total fiber link may have three sections, each has loss of 0.5dB, 5dB and 0.5dB. The total loss can then be easily concluded as 0.5dB + 5dB + 0.5dB = 6 dB. You can try to convert it to actual milliwatt and you will see that I am right!

Colin Yao is an expert on fiber optic communication technologies and products. Learn more about innerduct coupler, innerduct for fiber, plenum inner duct on Fiber Optics For Sale Co. web site.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Colin_Yao

Screensavers - What They Can Do For You

Most people might think of screensavers as just a bunch of animated scenes or beautiful pictures sitting on their PC desktop. A screen saver is far more however. You may be surprised to learn that behind the scenes a screensaver is helping you in more ways than one, such as:

Stress Buster

With many of the relaxing screensaver themes available today, simply watching can reduce your stress levels significantly. In particular, many of the nature screen savers which include sounds can be an escape from today's hectic pace and noise.

Monitor Protection

Screensavers help protect your computer screen from image burn. When the same image is displayed on the screen for a long period it can burn permanently into the screen. This was the original reason for screensaver development. Although screen burn is not as much of a problem these days, some of the new LCD screens can still be affected by it. Having a nice screen saver will give you added protection just to make sure.

You may realize by now that downloading a screensaver for your desktop is a good idea; which it is. However, there are a few things to consider. Because a screensaver is typically an executable file, there are risks you should be aware of, namely spyware, viruses and trojans. All these little nasties can be packaged into the screen saver file and infect your computer when you install it.

Choosing a Safe Screensaver

The best way to protect your PC from spyware and viruses is to follow these simple steps:

1) Image Quality

Does the preview screensaver have high quality images or animations? While this is not always true, in general high quality animations or images are more likely to be produced by a genuine business.

2) Website Address

You may find screensaver download banners and links on a wide variety of websites. However, take note of the website where you are taken to for the download. For instance you may click on a banner on a web page which takes you to the main screensaver download site. If the download site looks unprofessional or has a dodgy web address then it could be risky to download any of their files.

3) Guarantees

Most of the better quality screensaver download sites will prominently display some sort of virus and spyware guarantee. While you can't solely rely on this it is a good general guide when choosing a screensaver download site.

By using the three points above together you stand the best chance of protecting your system from viruses and spyware when downloading screensavers. The reason that screensavers where originally developed is not as much of a problem today as it was. However, as with many things, they have evolved to have other purposes. Grab yourself a nice screensaver today and de-stress, enjoy the show, and be happy.

For top quality, safe screensavers visit free screensavers Many popular themes to choose from.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Colin_Wolfenden