|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
Basic Computer Maintenance
One of the most common questions computer users ask is, "How do I maintain my computer and keep it running great?" A computer is a lot like a car?it costs more than you think it should, it starts going down in value as soon as you bring it home and it requires regular maintenance to keep it running smoothly. Here are a few basic guidelines required to help keep your PC out of the shop: ?Always use a surge protector! Power surges, spikes, lightning and brown-outs are all things that can literally burn up your computer & its peripherals. Save yourself lots of money in repairs by buying a decent surge protector (AKA power strip) for your computer and use it. A UPS (uninterruptible power supply), though slightly more expensive, is even better. Also, realize that these power strips can only take so much?once they get hit with a large spike of voltage, they can lose their protective capabilities. If yours is over 3 years old, consider a replacement. ?Always use up-to-date virus protection! Everyone should know about this by now, but we often see computers with either no virus protection at all, or anti-virus software that's badly out-of-date. Nothing can wreck your computer faster than a virus (except for maybe electricity, like we mentioned above), but with a small investment in good anti-virus software and making sure you set it to update itself daily, you can easily protect your computer and your critical data from being trashed. Norton & McAfee are the most popular brands, but there are others?some are even free for personal use. Here are some links you can visit for more information: McAfee Anti-virus - http://us.mcafee .com/ Norton Anti-virus - http://www.symantec .com/nav/nav_9xnt/ AVG Free Anti-Virus (for home users only) - http://www.grisoft .com/doc/40/lng/ww ?Be careful what you install on your computer! This is another thing many people overlook. Installing lots of programs on your computer is a lot like putting a bunch of rowdy children together on a playground?some of them may not play well together. A good rule of thumb is "if you don't need, don't install it". This is especially true when you surf the web. You will likely get bombarded with pop-up ads trying to get you to install all kinds of free utilities they claim your computer can't live without?most of these are spyware, adware and junk. These little programs can slow down your system, collect personal information without your permission and sometimes even cause your computer to crash. Rather than pay a technician to clean up your computer when it's a mess, it's a better idea to keep it clean from the start. For a more detailed list of computer maintenance tips, you can download this free PDF file from our website (free Adobe Reader required for viewing): Home Computer Maintenance Guide - http://www.eternitek .com/bin/PC_Maintenance.pdf ------- Donnie Schexnayder is a ministry technology expert. He holds industry certifications from Microsoft and CompTIA and has over 10 years experience in supporting churches and Christian ministries with technology. With a mixture of passion and expertise, Donnie helps ministries advance their mission of bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth by using cutting-edge technology. Donnie lives with his wife and 2 children in Colorado Springs, CO. Eternitek :: Advancing Christian Ministries Through Technology
|
|
|
|
Wordpress Plugins Maybe you always wanted a feature that hasn't been available in the latest release of Wordpress. What you can do is either install a 3rd party plugin or write your own custom code to extend the features of Wordpress. Digital Cameras: How Many Pixels Do I Need? With the bewildering number of digital cameras on the market, it's increasing difficult to know where to start for your first purchase. One of the major determining factors of the price of a digital camera is the number of pixels. Nowadays, even 5.0 megapixel cameras are affordable, even for casual snapshots. Cisco Certification: A Survival Guide To The Cisco Cable Jungle One of the most confusing parts of beginning your Cisco studies is keeping all the cable types separate in your mind, and then remembering what they're used for. This often occurs when a CCNA or CCNP candidate starts putting together their own home practice lab, and they suddenly realize that they have the equipment to run labs, but not the cables. Temporary Fixes to Spyware, Ad-ware, and Virus Infections So you've got some spyware, ad-ware, or viruses on your system. For whatever reason, you are unable to get ahold of a virus detection & removal program, or a good ad-ware scanner. Maybe this certain infection has disconnected you from the Internet. Such viruses do exist. Microsoft Great Plains Dexterity Customizations Microsoft Business Solutions is on the way to popularize it's ERP systems implementation. Right now such products as Microsoft CRM and Small Business Manager (cheap version of Microsoft Great Plains, based on the same Great Plains Dexterity runtime and DYNAMICS.DIC dictionary) are targeted to self-implementation by in-house IT group. This is short article, written in question/answer/FAQ style to give IT Director/Controller balanced top level information on Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains implementation. If you have decided on Microsoft Great Plains as main accounting and ERP system you need to know some technical details on Great Plains installation and implementation and what is going on behind the scenes. As of right now the current version is Microsoft Great Plains 8.0. Plus you probably should know about programming language of Microsoft Great Plains - Great Plains Dexterity The Benefits of Open Source If you are a building a website or a forum, chances are you are using a web editor or paying for message board services. The costs of using these "out of the box" products can add up, especially if you are trying to grow your business. Let's look at some good "open source" options for you to consider. You may be surprised at how much money open source can save you. 5 Ways to Speed Up Your PC No matter how fast your processor and regardless of how much ram you carry, there comes a time when you realize your computer just doesn't run as fast as it did when you bought it. The Help Desk When you think of a help desk, what do you picture? Do you see a large desk with an elderly woman sitting behind it pencil behind the ear? Maybe it has a computer or two? Of course the person is smiling, but you know it's not going to be much help to talk to them. Now, transform this image to the computer help desk. Now, erase those images and focus on the computers. The help desks of the internet are much more computer powered and, as it should be, helpful! Home Video? Bring it On So you got yourself a digital camcorder. If you want to be able to edit and produce awesome home videos, you'll need some tools. Refurbished Computers on the Internet What is a Refurbished Computer? What Exactly are Screensavers? - part I After reading this good article you will know some important information about screensavers and their history. You will find out how screensavers are different from other applications and what advantages you'll have if you use them. If you have a laptop or a notebook you can also find useful things. Portable Technology: Getting to Know the Treo Up until the recent past, those who wanted to take advantage of a mobile phone, data organizer, wireless e-mail with text messaging, web browsing and a digital camera had to have separate units for each. With today's technology comes the Treo ? offering all of those features in one small hand-held unit. These pocket-sized marvels even offer a fully functional standard keyboard, enabling users to fulfill all of their communication needs as they would from the PC at work or home. Best of all, it's incredibly easy to use! Consumer Electronic Information: The Basics of the DLP Projector Projectors have come a long way in the past few decades. The desktop fossils that were once used to show home movies or classroom filmstrips are a thing of the past. With today's technology, you can now experience a projected movie that emulates a full-blown theater flick, without the time, effort and hassle of standing in line at the local cinema. Customize Your Portable Player with an MP3 Player Accessory Everywhere you look today people are listening to personal audio players. And many look for ways to personalize and/or enhance their experience. That's where the mp3 player accessory comes in. USB Drives - What to Look For in a USB Device Those small USB drives have so many names, pocket drives, thumb drives, USB Pen, Jump drives, and several other names, but when it comes down to it, we are all talking about a small portable, reusable storage media that fits in the palm of your hand! 404 Error Pages: What Are They And How Do You Create One? We've all seen them, you've been browsing a website and you click a link and nothing loads apart from the words '404 Error' along with the usual stuff. Compile .BAT Files into Native Windows Applications (.EXE) Since the DOS days, batch files have been one of the most convenient and immediate ways to accomplish certain tasks. Even today it's possible to find some remarkably sophisticated utilities written as command-line batch files. Are You Well Protected? Winter?the official start of the cold and flu season. Though, technically speaking, things got started a little early. Close to a million computers, mostly home PC users, have been infected. 5 Simple Ways To Increase Your Computer Speed & Help Your Computer Run More Efficiently! If you're a computer expert, you'll probably already know about these tips (hopefully this will provide you with a little reminder). If you're not an expert, don't worry - these tips are simple, and don't require a lot of computer experience. FTP - File Transfer Protocol Explained File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a protocol that is part of the TCP/IP suite. It is the standard for transferring large amounts of data from server to server and from servers to clients. There is a very good chance that you have downloaded files from FTP sites many times, though it may have seemed you were only downloading from a website. FTP allows you to transfer files over a variety of hosts with different operating systems and file systems. There are so many FTP servers on the Internet, some are private with secure logon names, other ones are public with anonymous logins.
|
|
