Buy Computer

Buy Computer
By Kathryn Lively

As you browse various websites to learn more about how you can finance a new

desktop or laptop PC, some questions may arise if you aren't familiar with how financing works. Is it like paying for a computer with a credit card? Similar, yes, but in this case you are applying for the credit needed to take home one particular item, rather than a card that lets you buy multiple items. Is it like buying a house with a mortgage? Again, yes, only where you may need to offer a down payment on a home, some businesses will let you finance the computer you want for no money down.

Financing is defined as a means of obtaining the resources to purchase an item, then paying back the loan in a set time period for a set monthly or weekly fee. In most cases, people turn to financing when buying a house, a boat, or a car, but there are instances when financing may be needed to purchase other necessities. For example, furniture stores may offer financing plans to people who wish to purchase entire room sets, and yes, there are business that sell computers and accessories with similar plans.

You may be asking yourself now, why not just buy a

computer on a credit card? While a convenient method for some, it isn't for everybody. With interest rates as they are, the price of a purchased item on credit will fluctuate as the rate on the card increases - a person will definitely end up paying more than what the item is worth. Also, consider the fact that not everybody will qualify for certain credit cards and rates. You may receive numerous mailings proclaiming that you are prequalified for this or that card, but it is still possible to be turned down for credit, and missed payments on present cards will show up in your credit score. So when you do try to buy a house or a boat and alarms ring when your credit history is brought up, you know you're in trouble!

So how then, you wonder, can one qualify for financing with a smaller business? Smaller businesses take various factors into consideration, of course, as you apply for a loan through them. Most importantly, they look at employment status - do you generate a regular enough income to be able to make monthly payments? If you are in the military, you may find it easier to apply to credit on the basis of your employment. That you are taking in a steady wage from the government tells a business owner that you are good for the money you will need to pay back, and from there a reasonable payment plan can be made so you can enjoy your PC now and pay as time passes. With some businesses, your pays tub could be the ticket to owning a nice computer.

If you are interested in learning about financing, living on a budget, and other news of interest to military, you will find a wealth of information on the Internet to that respect. The Computer Connection, for one is proud to offer low financing plans to military personnel looking to buy PC desktops and laptops, and we assist civilian government workers and others as well. Such companies can be beneficial to military and civilian personnel who need a computer for work and leisure, yet need to budget their payments.

Computer Local Area Networking

Computer Local Area Networking
By Sukhsagar Prajapati

If you want to transfer some of your data files from one computer to another in your office what will you do? One option you have is to take a floppy or CD and copy the data into it from source computer and go to destination computer and download the file in it. This method is very much time consuming and also you cannot copy the data more then 1.44MB in floppy and around 800MB in CD.

What if you have more than 2GB or more data to transfer? Here we can use LAN. A LAN is a group of two or more computers that can share information and resources. You can have 1000’s of computer in your LAN depending on the size of your organization as long as the computers are kept in one building or location. Here I am going to tell you how to build a small Local Area Network of 5-10 computers. First of all we need to know the equipments that are required to setup a LAN.

Computers: - Obviously you need 2 or more computers to build a network because one computer can not make a Network

Cables: - Depending on your network size and utilization you can select the category of the cables. For a small network you can use CAT5 cable which supports 10/100Mbps speed. However you have option to purchase Cat 6 Cable also which support speed of up to 1Gbps. Here I will use CAT5 Cable.

Hub / Switch: - This is a device the will be put in a central location and all the PCs will connect to it. These devices can be of 4, 8, 16, or 24 ports. They come with more ports also. These days switches are being used everywhere as they are more advance then HUB.

NIC: - Network Interface cards are required for you PCs. Here also you have option to get a card of 10/100 or 10/100/1000Gbps speed. Again it depends on your requirement and budget. One end of network cable will connect to NIC in your computer and another end will go to switch.

Note: - Most of the computers these days comes with built in network card so you don’t really need to purchase NIC if you already have one on your computer’s motherboard.

RJ45 Connector: - These are small jacks that need to be punched at both ends of cables. You don’t need to buy these connectors separately because readymade cables are available in market but of course if the desired length cable is not available then you will have to get the RJ45 Connectors and punch them at both ends of cable as per the cabling standard.

Once you have all the equipments you are ready to do connectivity among your computers and some windows settings. Follow the steps below to get your network up and running.

Step1: - Open your computers one by one and install the NIC. As I mentioned above if you have built in network card on your computer’s motherboard then you don’t need to do this activity. Better you buy PC with built in network card this way you can save lots of time.

Step2: - Connect all the computers one by one to your hub/switch. Once you connect all the computers just power on the switch.

Step3: - Now you have you to do some settings in your PC. All the PCs should have a unique identification so that another computer on network can identify it. Just in human beings we know people with their names, in computers they identify each other with their unique IP Address. These are 32 bit octets in the form of 0 and 1. We write IP address in the decimal form like 192.168.1.1. You have two options to provide IP address one is manual by sitting on each computer and typing the IP address and another is through DHCP Server. You can say DHCP server as a service of Microsoft Windows 2000/2003 Server, which automatically provide IP address to computers as soon as they boot. For a small network of 10-20 PCs you don’t need DHCP server but for big network it would be very confusing and time consuming to provide IP address manually. In our scenario you can give IP address manually because we are setting up a network of just 10 PC. Now log in to PCs with administrative privilege and follow the steps below to give IP address to PCs.

a. Click on Start – Settings – Network Connection and then double click on Local Area Connection.

b. From the new Window click on properties and on the new window scroll down to select Internet protocol TCP/IP. Double click on it or click on properties to give IP address.

c. On the opened window give an IP address in the space provided. Just below IP address there is an option of subnet mask. As soon as you will give the IP address the subnet mask will come automatically depending on the Network Class you have selected.

Once you are done just save the settings by clicking on apply and OK. Repeat all 3 steps above on all your computers but remember to give unique IP address to each computer. You can check the connectivity among the computers by running a command called PING on each computer. Just go to command prompt and type ping IP ADDRESS (For example Ping 192.168.1.1) you should get reply from another computer which has the IP address 192.168.1.1, remember the PC you are trying to ping should be switch ON. If you get a message saying REQUEST TIME OUT that means the PC you are trying to ping is switch off or there is some problem in the connectivity. So you will have to check it.These settings are enough to get your LAN up and running how ever in IP settings page you have some more options that you can define as long as you have installed these services in you network. For example DNS, Gateway or WINS.

Computer

Computer

From Wikipedia

A computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a list of instructions.

The first devices that resemble modern computers date to the mid-20th century (1940–1945), although the computer concept and various machines similar to computers existed earlier. Early electronic computers were the size of a large room, consuming as much power as several hundred modern personal computers (PC). Modern computers are based on tiny integrated circuits and are millions to billions of times more capable while occupying a fraction of the space. Today, simple computers may be made small enough to fit into a wristwatch and be powered from a watch battery. Personal computers, in various forms, are icons of the Information Age and are what most people think of as "a computer"; however, the most common form of computer in use today is the embedded computer. Embedded computers are small, simple devices that are used to control other devices—for example, they may be found in machines ranging from fighter aircraft to industrial robots, digital cameras, and children's toys.

The ability to store and execute lists of instructions called programs makes computers extremely versatile and distinguishes them from calculators. The Church–Turing thesis is a mathematical statement of this versatility: any computer with a certain minimum capability is, in principle, capable of performing the same tasks that any other computer can perform. Therefore, computers with capability and complexity ranging from that of a personal digital assistant to a supercomputer are all able to perform the same computational tasks given enough time and storage capacity.

Computer People

Computer People
From Wikipedia

A succession of steadily more powerful and flexible computing devices were constructed in the 1930s and 1940s, gradually adding the key features that are seen in modern computers. The use of digital electronics (largely invented by Claude Shannon in 1937) and more flexible programmability were vitally important steps, but defining one point along this road as "the first digital electronic computer" is difficult (Shannon 1940). Notable achievements include:

Konrad Zuse's electromechanical "Z machines". The Z3 (1941) was the first working machine featuring binary arithmetic, including floating point arithmetic and a measure of programmability. In 1998 the Z3 was proved to be Turing complete, therefore being the world's first operational computer.

The non-programmable Atanasoff–Berry Computer (1941) which used vacuum tube based computation, binary numbers, and regenerative capacitor memory.

The secret British Colossus computers (1943), which had limited programmability but demonstrated that a device using thousands of tubes could be reasonably reliable and electronically reprogrammable. It was used for breaking German wartime codes.
The Harvard Mark I (1944), a large-scale electromechanical computer with limited programmability.

The U.S. Army's Ballistics Research Laboratory ENIAC (1946), which used decimal arithmetic and is sometimes called the first general purpose electronic computer (since Konrad Zuse's Z3 of 1941 used electromagnets instead of electronics). Initially, however, ENIAC had an inflexible architecture which essentially required rewiring to change its programming.

Several developers of ENIAC, recognizing its flaws, came up with a far more flexible and elegant design, which came to be known as the "stored program architecture" or von Neumann architecture. This design was first formally described by John von Neumann in the paper First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, distributed in 1945. A number of projects to develop computers based on the stored-program architecture commenced around this time, the first of these being completed in Great Britain. The first to be demonstrated working was the Manchester Small-Scale Experimental Machine (SSEM or "Baby"), while the EDSAC, completed a year after SSEM, was the first practical implementation of the stored program design. Shortly thereafter, the machine originally described by von Neumann's paper—EDVAC—was completed but did not see full-time use for an additional two years.

Nearly all modern computers implement some form of the stored-program architecture, making it the single trait by which the word "computer" is now defined. While the technologies used in computers have changed dramatically since the first electronic, general-purpose computers of the 1940s, most still use the von Neumann architecture.

Computers using vacuum tubes as their electronic elements were in use throughout the 1950s, but by the 1960s had been largely replaced by transistor-based machines, which were smaller, faster, cheaper to produce, required less power, and were more reliable. The first transistorised computer was demonstrated at the University of Manchester in 1953. In the 1970s, integrated circuit technology and the subsequent creation of microprocessors, such as the Intel 4004, further decreased size and cost and further increased speed and reliability of computers. By the 1980s, computers became sufficiently small and cheap to replace simple mechanical controls in domestic appliances such as washing machines. The 1980s also witnessed home computers and the now ubiquitous personal computer. With the evolution of the Internet, personal computers are becoming as common as the television and the telephone in the household.

Modern smartphones are fully-programmable computers in their own right, in a technical sense, and as of 2009 may well be the most common form of such computers in existence.

Computer Support

Computer Support - Cleaning Your PC Registry
By Michael Baker

Have you noticed that your PC becomes slow after a while? Even when it has to make simple operations like opening applications, it can become very annoying. Almost everybody has these problems sooner or later, but you shouldn't worry, they can be fixed. You can do it weekly to make sure everything works good.

Registry: presentation and usage

The pc uses the registry to instruct itself in order to operate; these files will eventually take a lot of memory. When making an operation like saving, moving, or installing, you are left with empty registry keys or file locations.

These registry modifications act like a burden on your pc, making it run slowly and keeping it from finding the stuff it needs. The solution to this problem is cleaning the registry; you can do this manually or with software, but which way is better?

Choosing the right way to do it

When you don't know exactly how to do this job, you might risk making the problem worse. The software, however, is another thing. It scans your pc and informs you about the errors it can repair; it's also a great method to save some time. If you notice something unusual with the new registry, you can just back up to the old registry.

Do PC registry repair software have any risks?

Most people never had problems with software this type; however, you can always roll back if problems appear. Some people run it every week, because the pc registry may have errors even when little time has passed, so no wonder your computer works slowly if you never cleaned your registry. Buy PC registry repair software and learn how to improve your pc performance.

Buy PC Satellite

Where to Buy PC Satellite online TV
By Robert Kamau

1. How to buy a download of reliable online TV computer software cheaply

There are very many options on the internet when it comes to online satellite TV softwares for your computer or laptop. The trick is getting genuine software that will deliver what it says it will. The internet is one place that you want to be sure before making any purchase of any product be it a consumable or any software.

2. Getting the best software for your computer for online

The best way to find good online computer television software is to look for worthwhile reviews from articles. These will help you share the experiences with people that have previously used some of this software. Once you have settled on usually the most installed computer TV software, then you can visit their website for a quick download. Look for softwares that have very high image and audio quality. In addition, they should a have a respectable number of online TV channels that you can get on your PC.

Everybody wants to buy a computer TV software that works and at a discount price. The good thing is that most of the PC online free TV softwares cost an average of between $37-$50. The price is more or less never above $50 for the basic type of softwares. There are other higher upgrade softwares that cost up to $100 for example the Platinum PC2007 Edition.

3. Getting to watch your PC on satellite online TV for free

When you have downloaded your copy of the PC software, you are able to watch even CBS live online TV in your PC at home or in the office. Other available TV networks for American citizens and others include the fox news channels, CNN and BBC for the UK citizens. In addition there are many other channels from over 70 free world counties around the world. In most cases if you are looking for a TV in your local language, you will most certainly get a TV channel that is covered in your own language.

One of the most common and widely downloaded software that I have personally downloaded is the PC 2007 Elite Edition. This is the basic version of the PC 2007 Series and only costs a measly $50. The software comes with over 3000 online TV channels broadcasting in range of languages including English, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Portuguese and many more other free world languages.

To watch a free demo of the PC 2007 Elite Edition, follow the links given below until you get to the vendor’s website.

Wireless Computer Networking

Wireless Computer Networking

By Tim Kridel

If your company is like most, wireless computer networking has quickly evolved from a nice-to-have perk to a mission-critical solution. The catch is that wireless computer networking is easier said than done, and that’s why many small and medium size enterprises are looking to hosted solutions as a way to get handle on costs and still give employees plenty of features.

One obvious benefit of outsourcing wireless computer networking is that you don’t have to invest in software licenses and a server. Although servers are relatively inexpensive, the license fees aren’t.

But those server and license costs are only part of the equation. The other part is support costs, which include staffing up, or even creating, an IT department to help employees with tasks such as configuring and troubleshooting their computers and wireless computer networking service.

Those support issues and costs can quickly get out of hand if there are a lot of variables, such as employees who need to check e-mail while roaming in another country, or employees who are scattered around the country and getting service from different wireless carriers.

“As soon as everybody in the company isn’t on the same wireless network, or in different geographies, you need to start thinking about whether to go with a dedicated hosting company,” said Dave Granan, general manager of the enterprises mobility solutions group at Nokia, which provides hosted wireless computer networking services to more than one million users.

Outsourcing also shifts the burden of deploying the latest and greatest server-side technology to the hosting provider. However, hosting providers rarely sell smart phones too. So to leverage some server-side improvements, such as the Direct Push feature in Microsoft Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2, enterprises may have to upgrade their handsets, such as to Windows Mobile 5.0. “In general, the newer the OS, the better the experience,” said Don Dimon, general manager of MailStreet, a hosting provider that focuses on the delivery of on-demand messaging and collaboration solutions for small and medium-size businesses.

Notebooks

Notebooks

How much has the notebooks landscape changed from last year? Well, for one, last year dual core notebooks processors didn’t even exist yet. Now, users can truly multitask – like surf the web while running a virus scan in the background – without having to suffer through slowdowns and pauses.

Meanwhile, more and more people care about mobility when shopping for notebooks. They want to be able to check e-mail on the sofa one minute and stream Internet radio in the bedroom the next. In fact, the very definition of what’s considered a mainstream machine is shifting from systems with 15.4-inch wide screens to ones with 14.1-inch screens and smaller. After all, it’s easier to zoom in on a display than it is to shed a pound.

The notebooks we’ve handpicked for our Best of the Year awards stand out in several ways. Apple’s Sexy black Mac Book, for instance, makes the best case yet for switching operating systems (even if Windows Vista arrives on schedule). And HP’s Pavilion dv6000t proves that you can get a striking design and dual-core power without breaking the bank. High-definition DVD playback on notebooks is still in its infancy. But Toshiba’s Qosmio makes the splurge worthwhile with its ultra sharp display and HDMI output.

Computer Crashes

Computer Crashes by Viruses

By Jesse Miller

In an era where computer technology and software appear on an average day basis, it's no wonder that malicious programs never seen to fall behind. Such programs can compromise the security of your files and most probably ruin you work. Spy bots have a way of compromising security when you least expect it without even realizing it. The best way to remove them is my using a free removal tool such as Spybot Search and Destroy witch I might add is pretty good. It has the ability to detect and remove any invaders leaving you computer ready of ongoing work.

If you have no idea where you can find this software, just run a search on spybot download and you will be surprise of the results. As a matter of fact there are several tools that can render your computer free of spy ware or spybot. It's up to you to decide weather you chose one over the other, after all it's your security at risk.

Never the less, when protecting you computer from spybot software of God knows what, do an extensive search on the software at hand in order to get a better understanding of the way it works and from what king of threats you're protecting yourself. No one enjoys loosing data and loosing time recovering them, why should you make is exception. Please take my advice and keep away-unwanted harmful software by installing spy ware detection tools that will guarantee the integrity of you computer file system.

Laptops Notebooks

An Introduction to Pink Laptops Notebooks

Michael M. Tan

Women adore everything in pink, including their laptops. Laptops notebooks because they know that's the easiest way to attract women to buy their product. Fairly often, a girl would give up the performance and functionality for a fancy pink laptop. It comes as no surprise; who wouldn't rather be showing off a shiny pink laptops notebooks manufacturers such as Dell, Sony and Fujitsu are making pink color notebook at their local cafe rather than the black or gray one.

Dell is one of the famous brands in the laptops notebooks computer industry. White, gray, and black are the only few laptops notebooks colors available from Dell in the past. Luckily, this is not the case anymore. Dell as one of the pioneer has offered a wide diversity of color options for their laptops. Pink is especially one of the bestseller laptops among all. And with Dell, you will never need to worry about the quality... here's the proves: PC World named Dell their "Winner of Best Buy"; PC Authority awards Dell the "Winner of the A-List"; and the XPS M1330 from Dell even received 37 awards in 2007!

Besides Dell, Sony is another company that offers pink color laptops notebooks with stylish design. The Sony VAIO models, which are available in pink colors, include the TZ, SR, NR, and CR series. Compare to Dell, the Sony VAIO laptop have higher style, higher spec, and of course higher price. Most of them have a starting price of $1000 and above, with the exception of CR and NR series. The most appropriate place to inquire the detail specs and price for the Sony VAIO laptops is the Sony official website, and if you purchase a VAIO laptop from Sony official site, you could even personalize it by engraving your name or other wording of your choice on the laptops notebooks!

A new trend in the laptops notebooks industry, starting from last year, is the netbook, which refers to a category of small-sized, low-cost, light weight, lean function sub-notebooks optimized for Internet access and core computing functions. Asus Eee PC is the first netbook brought in to the market, and since its release, the blush pink version of Eee PC is noted to be the best seller in most retailers. This year, a series of new netbooks from other brands such as MSI Wind, Acer Aspire One, Fujitsu Amilo Mini, Lenovo IdeaPad S10, etc. were introduced. From what we observed, almost all of them are/will be available in pink. So if web surfing, word processing, and other core computing functions were all the tasks that you will be doing on your laptop, a pink netbook would be a great alternative to think about. There is a great deal of information out there regarding netbook on the Internet. Make sure to do some research before getting one.

Laptops

The Day My Laptop was Stolen Almost Killed My Business

Harald Anderson

One of the worst feelings I have ever had was the day my laptop
The laptop can be replaced. However the loss of critical DATA was the biggest risk my business has ever faced. was stolen.

When I recovered from the experience I asked myself the question….”what can I learn from this disaster?” The lesson is simple, loss of data is the largest threat facing any business.

There is nothing that can prepare you for the feeling of loss and the dread that comes with knowing that your personal data is gone forever. While it is very inconvenient and can be very expensive to replace the laptop itself, NOTHING can replace the hours of hard work that is represented by the data stored on a modern computers hard disk drive.

Whether you own a laptop for personal use, or have one for business reasons, there are many, many, items that are sitting there on your hard drive that are simply priceless. We don’t often think about the little bits of ones and zeros etched into a spinning magnetic plate as being critical elements in our lives, but no matter what you use a computer for, you most likely have literally megabytes (at least) or even gigabytes of data that you can not afford to lose.

For personal computer users there are mp3 play lists, emails, personal photo albums, and other important files that we all save on our hard disks. For the professional computer user, the stakes are higher…perhaps it’s the accounting data for your company’s 3rd quarter earnings, the PowerPoint presentation you will be giving to the CEO on Thursday afternoon, or the proposal that needs to be sent to the European office A.S.A.P. These “intangible” bits of data play a critical role in our professional and personal lives, whether we like it or not.

Even the most experienced of computer users can take for granted their personal data stockpiles. This is where data backup storage comes into play. No matter how careful you are with your hardware there is always the potential for disaster to strike and rob you of your critical information, and the best way to ensure the integrity of your data and the hard work it represents is a well thought out online secure data backup solution.

By securing your data using an online secure data backup provider you are ensuring that your data is safe not only from circumstances beyond your control, such as laptop theft or natural disasters, but also safe from user error and prying eyes. An online secure data backup solution keeps your data safe and sound in a secure, offline location and is as simple to set up as the applications you are used to installing on your machines.

If the safety of your critical files is important to you, you should consider using an online secure data backup for your important mission critical files.
Don’t let a disaster strike before you start thinking about remote data backup…

Your DATA is your LIFE. Protect your laptops data!

Computer Repair

Computer Repair Tools

By: Thomas Morva

Have you ever found yourself up to your elbows in computer wires and chips using your wife's toenail clippers to try and nip off an extra wire? You think you might be able to get your project complete before midnight, when you suddenly realize those clippers aren't going to work without taking out half your motherboard. Substituting computer tools with household things never ensures that your computer is repaired. Still, most people will try almost anything to save money. However, in the case of good computer repair tools, you should never skimp on quality or specialty.

There are millions of computer repair service provider companies who render great support providing all the necessary computer repair tools. Most computer repair tools are available in economical tool kits. They are durable, precision-engineered, demagnetized, and ideal for routine maintenance, upgrades and general repair. There are a number of computer repair tool kits companies offering their kits at remarkably low prices. These durable, precision-engineered, demagnetized tools are ideal for routine maintenance, upgrades and general repair.

An outstanding selection of superior Ultra tools comes in a handsome, rugged carrying case for easy portability. There are tools made of some rare and unusual elements to meet your needs in the most convenient of ways. For instance, Obsidian, also known as volcanic glass was used by primitive people to make tools. All tools are fully demagnetized to protect your computer's hard drive or magnetic media from damage, and each tool is conveniently stored in a custom designed case.

Computer Laptops

Computer Laptops and the PVP effect

Tom Fox

Roll over lumbering desktop computers, the limber laptop is here, and it's here to stay! For a while now notebooks have outstripped their ageing desktop PC siblings, easily winning the gold medal in the computer sales Olympics. We will illustrate how the PVP effect has contributed greatly to the increase in popularity of computer laptops.

(P) Portability:

Firstly it may be stating the obvious, but people buy computer laptops because they can take them anywhere. Office workers need no more be confined to their claustrophophic cubicles. Instead those statistic charts and data reports can be compiled on a train, in the comfort of an armchair, or even on the beach! Portability equals flexibility, but alas this hasn't always been the case. Today’s ultra portable computer laptops have a come along way since the bulky, sewing machine sized machines of the late seventies and early eighties. IBM built indeed one of the first portable computers, and this machine (IBM 5100) weighed in at a hefty 50lbs! Today's corridor warriors would have trouble lugging that puppy from meeting to meeting, unless of course they subjected themselves to an intensive dose of steroids :)

(V) Value:

In the seventies the aforementioned IBM 5100 would have set you back a staggering 20,000 dollars. Today a top of the range IBM ThinkPad can be bought for around 3000 dollars. Cheaper ThinkPad’s can often be obtained for well under a thousand dollars, especially if you don't mind purchasing a used or refurbished model.

(P) Performance:

Many computer laptops today come fitted with Centrino processors, which offer superb performance and improved battery life. What is Centrino I hear you ask? Well this is Intel's name for their new computer laptops technology that combines their Pentium M processor, 855 chipset and the Intel PRO/Wireless 2100 WiFi 802.11 network interface. Computer laptops fitted with these processors are usually lighter because of the smaller components used.

Couple this attractive feature with wireless networking technology and you have a powerful technological package. Wi-Fi is short for "Wireless Fidelity" and its usage is growing quickly amongst home users, office workers, even coffee shops. If you enter Wi-Fi areas with a properly equipped notebook, you can access the Internet at broadband speeds.

Computer Maintenance

Computer Maintenance

By Deryck Richards

#1 Understand What Services You Are Purchasing

Before authorizing any services to be performed, discuss what the consultant will do and how much it will cost. If you are purchasing more than $300 in services, ask the consultant for a written estimate or a fixed-price for the project.

#2 Repair vs. Upgrade: Understand the Differences

Ask yourself how much it would cost to just buy a new piece of equipment or software instead of servicing the old one. Because of how quickly computer parts are updated, it may be less expensive to purchase new hardware or software. Ask your consultant about the maintenance costs for the old product versus the new one and whether the new product would have any features you would be able to utilize.

#3 Determine What You Should Do and What the Consultant Should Do

If you are cost-conscious when working with a computer consultant, determine which services the consultant will perform and what you can do by yourself. For example, if you are adding a new computer to your wireless network, the computer consultant may install the wireless network card and set up appropriate security for the network. You may be able to save money by installing software and configuring basic services such as e-mail.

#4 Ask Your Consultant for Advice Before Making Software or Hardware Purchases

Most consultants offer free advice by phone or e-mail. When purchasing something new, ask the consultant whether it will be compatible with your system, what the warranty options are, which vendors offer the most robust products, and where to buy for the best prices.

#5 Choose the Best Support Method

Many consultants charge for phone and on-site support, but not for e-mail. E-mail is quick and easy because you will be doing the work under the consultant’s guidance. In many cases, if the consultant charges for phone support, it may be more efficient to schedule a service call because the consultant will be doing the work and can see the problem directly instead of giving you guidance over the phone.

#6 Get Training

Many on-site service calls can be prevented if you ask the consultant to show you how to fix the problem. For example, a router may drop your Internet connection occasionally. If you know how to restart the router, you can avoid having to wait for a service appointment and paying for repair service. Printer problems are often repetitive and generate many unnecessary service calls. Don’t be afraid to learn about the details – it will often be much easier than you think.

#7 Determine Who Will Purchase Equipment

When purchasing parts for service, determine whether you or your consultant will purchase the parts. Often it may not be a good idea for you to purchase them, because your consultant may have exact specifications for the product that must be purchased and often will have sources to buy at the lowest prices.

#8 Determine How to Protect Your Technology Investment

Extended warranties are very effective for printers and laptops which break often but of little use for routers and desktop computers. Having proper firewall and anti-virus protection can prevent your computer from virus infection. Talk with your consultant about maintenance for your new software or hardware.

#9 Be Prepared for Your Service Call

Organize your original software CDs, usernames, passwords, and account information. If you do not have this information prepared before the consultant arrives, the consultant will spend billable time locating this information, which will increase your service fee.

#10 Understand the Consultant’s Qualifications and Experience

For complex systems and niche areas such as Linux, Macintosh, Cisco Routers ask the consultant what their qualifications and prior experience are. This can make a huge difference in your bill because if you hire a generalist, you will likely spend money training them before they can do the job. If you hire a specialist, the hourly rate will be higher, but the work will be done faster and often more cost-effectively.

#11 Demand Written Documentation if Necessary

If you absolutely cannot have any downtime or another consultant or service provider may need to access your system, demand written documentation from your consultant for all work performed. This should include all technical specifications, system configuration, usernames and passwords.

#12 Understand the Consultant’s Policies

Many consultants bill a minimum of one or two hours for on-site service calls. Some charge for phone support while others don’t. Some offer fixed-price services. By understanding the policy, you can structure their work in a way that is most cost-effective.

Computer Problems

Slow Computer Advice

By Jay M.

If you have a slow computer this article might interest you. I have been helping my neighbor working on cleaning up his computer . It had become real slow and was locking up. So, I started my normal routine of cleaning up a computer. The first thing I noticed was that there were three different versions of software to speed up Internet connection or optimize a PC. It appears that over four years of use the problem kept getting worse and he was desperately looking for a solution. All these types of programs do and can have a use but his problem had nothing to do with the speed of his Internet connection. What his computer really needed was a clean up and the configuration of the systems in the computer optimized. I wanted to just point this out because I could not believe how much money he must have spent on software that really did not address his issues. The real problem was the years of use and the lack of maintenance on his PC. Do not get me wrong though, there are situations that the software he had purchased would have been useful.

The first culprit was his installation of McAfee was trying to attempt to update and was not registered so it could not complete. So, I disabled that and continued on my way. The first place to look is on the bottom of the screen by the date and see all that is loading at start up. One of the biggest things that slow down a computer is a thing that load at start up that you are not using. A great deal of programs when installed have an option to load at start up and you really only want them to load when you are using them. You should look into the options and disable this feature. There are some however that must and should load at start up. Here are some examples of ones that should not load. But these are suggestions, if you use them a lot and have problems with them disabled turn them back on.

• Hp Printer Options and Picture Software
• Adobe Acrobat
• MSN Messenger
• Weather Bug
• Down loadable from websites
• Internet games
• Cd Writers
• Tool bars
• This list can go on forever and not all are bad. Just be aware of what is loading.

An awful lot of things we download from web sites have tracking that loads and monitors what you are doing on the web and then traffic advertising to you. You cannot completely avoid this but you can minimize it. This is the reason there are so many spy ware removal software out there. Now, the next step is to take a look at the Programs Menu in the Start Up folder. If there are things in there that you do not want to load delete them. They are just shortcuts for the most part and if you need one back it is in the recycle bin and can be restored. Just to give you a hint I only have my Logitech monitoring cordless keyboard and mouse battery life and my QuickBooks Update. When I finished with my neighbors PC he had none and he is pleased as punch with the computers improvement. He almost went out and bought a new PC and now he is thrilled he does not need too!

The next step I go through is removing unused and unwanted software. It is unbelievable how much advertising type software comes loaded on a PC you buy in the stores. The majority is designed for you to spend money. I remove as much as I can from the computer, if you have not looked at it in years why leave it there and the add and remove programs tells you when you last accessed the program. This so far is really the basics and the crucial points that will increase your computers speed. Now, wait a few days or weeks and use your computer and if you are happy with it clean out the recycle bin. Then go to the Programs Menu and Accessories and do a disk clean up and then a defragment of your computer drives and you will be in good shape.

Good Software for Speeding Up a Slow Computer and Configuration Assistance I have been using the Registry Easy program for a while now and really like it. I monthly scan my PC and it stays real nice and fast because the directories are clean. When I first used it I had 1135 errors and it finds about 400 a month and keeps things clean. My Neighbors PC had over 4000 errors just to give you an example and he is learning how to maintain his own PC from what the program shows him with all its options. This program will also take care of spy ware and has many good options for computer optimization. This is a good choice for a novice PC user to help keep their computer fast and efficient.

Computer Repair Services

Computer Repair Service

By Thomas Morva

Computer repair services are best fitted for offices and other important business firms where there are quite a number of machines. There are countless companies and service providers who repair computers for industries and offices.

Computer repair services can be classified under the following heads:

(a) Organizations who render technical support to offices and homes.

(b) Online courses on computer repair services to help an individual gather information about the computer and acquire knowledge on various aspects of both the software and hardware.

(c) Organizations as well as various websites also provide support by sending various compact discs and DVDs

There are also IT technicians seeking work who will work with businesses who their services, this is handy if you don’t need a full-time IT staff but still require occasional service. Simply go to the website, punch in your ZIP code, and computer repair will immediately list technicians in your area, including their rates, hours, ratings and reviews.

Computer repair services are readily available in local computer repair shops. But there is a risqué factor involved in hiring someone local who may not have the necessary expertise to get the computer fixed correctly. Therefore, it is always advisable to call an experienced and reputable computer repair service provider to get the best of services. Most computer repair service providers are diligent and solve any sort of technical problems with great dexterity. They specialize in delivering leading edge solutions for the technology side of your business or home. Most also offer IT outsourcing, network support, service contracts, computer repair, printer repair and related technology consulting services to small and medium sized businesses.

Notebook Computers

Advantages of Notebook Computers Over Desktop Computers

By Pooja Kumari Lapasia

Computer usage has increased over the years. Now it has become a mandatory requirement in most professions. Students are also increasingly dependent on computers for their project and research work. The desktop computer is known for its all-rounded performance, higher configuration compatibility and relatively cheaper pricing. On the other hand notebook computers have an advantage for its compactness and mobility factors. Though both these forms of computers are known for their uniqueness and serve different audience but the notebook computers have the ability to eclipse over desktop computers.

Technological advancements are welcomed but they are respected when they can be mobilized. Desktop computers have been made smaller through laptops while retaining most traits. Any notebook computer can perform the tasks of a basic desktop computer and it can be enhanced as per the user wishes. Earlier it wasn't possible to upgrade a laptop but now with increased innovations, a laptop's RAM (Random Access Memory) can be enhanced up to 4 GB for enabling superior performance. Notebook computers are expensive as they integrate all the components of a desktop computer into one compact machine.

The storage capacity of the notebook computers was a big limitation but now even that has been considerably diminished through the usage of flash memory. This kind of memory takes up very less space and stores lots of information. Notebooks with 250 GB memory are now available in the market. Notebooks enable wireless internet access through Wi-Fi enabled hotspots and their portability adds to their major advantage. The battery backup of the notebook computer allows its usage even without dedicated power-supply. All notebooks use LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screens, which are better and brighter in viewing. Notebooks have combined host of features like finger print reading for security issues, inbuilt camera for chats and taking photos, DVD combo drive for playing all types of file formats and much more.

There are different kinds of Laptop computers available to suit varied requirements. There are the basic desktop replacement notebooks, which have a large screen display with loaded features. There are gaming notebooks, which are configured for hi-end games. There are designing applications based notebooks, tablet notebooks for easier portability and the low budget student notebooks. Thus a user can have defined usage and then buy the required notebook from a trusted computer store. Many online stores also offer great deals on notebook computers and accessories.