Make your computer run smoother...

If you have a computer then with time you will have definitely some problems with it. If you want the latter to happen less frequently it is recommended to fulfill several simple steps. In addition it should be mentioned that you don’t need to be a computer expert in order to perform these procedures. Of course, your computer will never be the new again, but still you may prolong its life. 

The first thing you should do regularly is disk cleanup. It’s not a secret that each time you enter the Internet, delete some files, and open any attachments your computer records your activity. To the best of our knowledge, mainly these file are not harmful and they do not take much space. But, on the other hand, if you perform many actions every day sooner or later your computer will have not enough free space as it will be filled with these files. As the result your computer will slow down significantly. In order not to allow this you may use the Disk Cleanup program which comes with Windows. This utility will remove all unwanted and unused files from your computer. As the result you will get more storage space on your computer that may be now used by more useful files and programs. One of the important things for you to know is that you should perform such cleaning regularly. For example, if you use your computer every day and perform rather complicated actions, it is recommended to perform the disk cleanup at least once a month, and then your computer would run smoother.

As you should perform regular disk cleanup, you should do regular defragmentation of your computer hard drive. This procedure will help you to arrange your files. As the result your computer will start working more efficiently. The reason is that each time you add or create and then remove the program – there appear some free spaces. So next time when you try to add some program it will be written to the free spaces. That’s why the computer will need more time to perform the required operation. The Disk Defragmentation option you will also find in your Start menu. It is not recommended to use any other programs while defragmentation. Besides it is quite easy to operate and afterwards you will see that your computer runs smoother.

When you start noticing that strange things happen, as well as there appear the inappropriate pop-ups, some odd icons etc – this may mean that you have adware and spyware on your computer. These are the files that may be downloaded to your computer and you may not know it. Unfortunately they are here in order to steal some information: for example, your browsing preferences, as well as your passwords and credit card details etc. Mainly this information is provided back to the site or to the third parties. Besides, such adware and spyware significantly slow down your computer performance. But, don’t worry: you can easily remove them from your computer. Just use one of the free anti-spyware software. Or email me to receive the best anti-spyware software(or any protection software you need) just for $12.

Thanks for reading this. Email me if you have more concerns at jack_store@rocketmail.com

Do you think viruses are only bad programs that can damage your computer??? Learn about Spywares and Adwares and protect your computers from them!!!

It’s not a secret that we cannot imagine our modern life without computer and Internet. These are, perhaps, the best inventions of the humanity. Here you may find any kind of information just by one click. You may freely communicate with your friends, relatives, colleagues and other people. But not everything is perfect here as not all users have verifiable credentials. Sometimes with the internet there come some unwanted programs or as they are also called adware and spyware. The thing is that they may be in your computer and you wouldn’t know about it. They may do harm to your computer and you personally as mainly they track your browsing preferences and ma even steal you password or bank and credit card details and provide it to the interested parties. To the best of our knowledge, mostly such interested parties are advertisers, who use this information in order to send you then spam. That’s why in many cases it is quite urgent to find the right software which would remove such spyware and adware from your computer. Besides, if there some adware and spyware on your computer it may significantly slow down the performance of your computer. In some cases these software may change your files and data. Unfortunately most people think that such programs may be found on the specific so-called adult sites so such people are not careful while using other sites, that’s why their computers are potentially at risk. We have every reason to believe that even big corporations like to use such information in order to understand the purchase and spending habits of their clients. That’s why they have so-called public privacy policies. So when you think that you are just safely visiting a site, actually there is a great chance that this site has scanned your habits without your knowing it. It would be useful for you to know that every time you enter any site it collects some common information and this may influence upon the performance of your computer. Of course, you cannot compare the impact of the adware with the virus but in fact it will slow your computer performance and in severe cases, may even render your machine virtually unusable.
You can easily understand that you have adware and spyware on your computer, if during browsing of the site there appear different pop ups. The latter are intended to direct you to the other site by some attractive picture or so. But as soon as you will visit this site, the spyware or adware gets to your computer. Sometimes even you may send your friend a link with the spyware without you or your friend knowing about it. That’s why it is rather important to protect your computer. Of course you may be cautious while opening e-mails and especially the attachments. But as well you may install anti-spyware software and scan your computer for the presence of such programs and remove them from your computer.

Nowadays as the Internet and other networks are greatly developed computer viruses are distributed rapidly and intensively. Everyday several new viruses capable to damage considerably your computer system arise. Anti-virus specialists work hardly to make updates their software against new viruses as soon as possible. The viruses can get inside computer in different ways. That is why there is no simple method to protect system. Only series of measures can give you reliable protection from the infection. Below are 9 steps to protect MS Windows based PC system from viruses.

1. Make regular backups. It should be said that there is no absolutely safe way of protection. Virus creators regularly find holes in new computer products to use them for infection of computer systems. Some dangerous viruses can considerably damage data files or even erase entire file system. Make regular backups of your data files to separate file storage device. It can be separate hard drive, flash card, compact disc or another file storage device which you choose. To ease the procedure you can use some automatic backup software. And be ready if the system will die because of virus infection.

2. Be ready to reinstall your system if it dies because of viruses. Get distributives of your operation system and distributives of software which you use and keep them together, for instance, on a set of CDs not far away from you. In this case if virus infection will cause unrecoverable system failure you can rapidly reinstall your working medium.

3. Protect your network connection with Firewall. Firewall is a software which blocks suspicious potentially dangerous connections to preventing viruses from network to penetrate into your system. Windows XP system has quit simple but reliable built-in firewall. You can enable it as follows. 1) in Control Panel, double-click Networking and Internet Connections, and then click Network Connections. 2) Right-click the connection on which you would like to enable firewall, and then click Properties. 3) On the Advanced tab, check the option to Protect my computer and network.

If you need more flexible control of connections with network you can get and install more advanced firewall software like Norton Personal Firewall or Outpost Firewall. If you use this software you have ability to permit or to block particular connections and to monitor network activity.

4. Use antivirus software. Install antivirus software which will scan your system searching and erasing viruses on a regular basis. Click this link to find about the best anti-virus protection you will get today.

5. Regularly update operating system. Windows has built-in automatic update service. It regularly contacts Microsoft server to find updates and notifies you if updates are ready to be installed. Updates are important because hackers regularly find holes in operating system which are often used by virus creators.

6. Don't install and don't run suspicious software. Check new programs which you are going to install with anti-virus software. Don't download software from suspicious websites. To download software always seek website of software creator or official distributor. Do not open applications received by email from unknown persons.

7. Limit access to your computer. Protect enter to system with password.

8. If you use Internet Explorer, consider moving to another browser. As IE is the most distributed browser today virus creators actively use defects in its security system to infect computers. Infection may arise if you will visit webpage which contains invisible harmful code. You are more safe if you use less known browser only because virus creators do not pay much attention to it. Major IE competitors Firefox and Opera browsers provide now the same comfortable interface and range of services for working on the Web.

9. Use spam protection. Viruses are often distributed via email. Switch on spam filters in your email box to block spam receiving. If you need assistance with using of the filters you can ask your email service provider.

Something about Image Resolution and its concerns

A question I’m currently receiving on a weekly basis is ‘how many pictures will I be able to fit on this’ when a customer is referring to the size of memory card or USB Flash Drive.  Understanding image resolution and size is important in this digital age and although the intricacies are incredibly complex, the basics are pretty easy to get to grip with.
What is Image Resolution?
A pixel is a unit of programmable colour on a computers display and by combining many of them together we are able to create an image; the term resolution typically refers to the number of pixels that are used in this process.  On the whole, the quality of the image will increase with a greater number of pixels as we are able to store a greater amount of detail.
How is Resolution Measured?
Resolutions are generally expressed in two different formats – either the pixel dimensions of the image are given or the total number of pixels used in its creation.
Most digital cameras express their maximum resolution in terms of megapixels (millions of pixels) that can be used to create an image; an 8 mega pixel camera would be able to break a picture down in to 8 million pixels hence giving a higher resolution that a 5 mega pixel camera.
The resolution of a computer image on the other hand is usually expressed by giving the number of pixels present on a line and the number of lines used in the image.  For example, an image measuring 1600 x 1200 would contain 1600 pixels per line and a total of 1200 lines giving a total of 1,920,000 pixels (1.92 mega pixels).  As the image contains a greater number of horizontal than vertical pixels we can assume this picture would be landscape rather than portrait.
How does Resolution affect File Size?
The more pixels an image contains the larger the file is likely to be; this is due to the fact that storing information relating to 10 million pixels is liable to require more space than saving a lower resolution 1 million pixel image.
There are several other very important factors to consider:
File Format – Over the years there have been many different image file formats, each introducing new advantages and disadvantages and covering them all would take an article in itself.  The two you are most likely to come in to contact with when using a digital camera are JPEG (smaller images that often include compression) or RAW (Completely unprocessed images files which are of a higher image quality but also substantially larger)
Colour Depth – Along with the total number of pixels that constitute an image, we also have to consider the potential number of colours each pixel could be.  If, for example you save your image as a ‘line art’ image where each pixel can be either black or white then the amount of data required to store this information is less than if you set a colour depth of ‘true colour’ where each pixel could be one of 16,777,216 potential colours.
Compression – Many image formats, such as JPEG allow you to adjust the amount of compression that is utilised when saving the image.  Compression can work in a number of different ways but ultimately it works to minimise the amount of data required to save the image.  This is usually achieved by looking for areas of commonality (for example a shape or pattern) and saving the description of that area which the computer can then later reproduce when reloading the image rather than defining each individual pixel.

Thanks for reading this. If you have any more concerns then please email me at jack_store@rocketmail.com

Talk on 802.11n Wireless Networking

It’s been years in development of 802.11n Wi-Fi that have quite changed our experience with the wireless network.

Presently the majority of the wireless hardware you will buy (routers, wireless network cards, printers etc) will use a networking specification called 802.11g which has a maximum speed of 54Mbps. This maximum speed is being increasingly seen as inadequate as applications become more complex and require more bandwidth.
The successor, 802.11n is being ratified to increase both the speed and range of wireless devices however it should be noted that due to the time the IEEE Task Group n have been arguing about the intricacies, equipment manufacturers got bored and decided to run with the draft specification. As a result, the fact that 802.11n is becoming ‘official’ is unlikely to change a great deal as hardware utilising the new standard has been available for some time now. Although these devices have been produced working on the draft specification, the reality is that there are very few differences between this and the anticipated final ‘official’ release.
Essentially based on the current 802.11g standard, 802.11n uses some new technology and tweaks to give Wi-Fi more speed and range. The most notable part of this technology is called ‘multiple input, multiple output’ or MIMO for short. MIMO uses several antennas to transmit multiple data streams simultaneously rather than a single antenna transmitting just one stream of data. This allows more data to be transmitted in the same period of time while also increasing the potential range of the network.
Other technologies include payload optimisation which results in more data being transmitted in each packet and channel bonding which can use two separate non-overlapping channels at the same time to transmit data. The result is all this is achievable data transmission rates of around 100Mbps and double the potential range of 802.11g.
There are no security enhancements as they simply aren’t needed; the WPA2 encryption standard provided by existing network hardware is considered by most to be ‘extremely secure’.
It’s worth checking the box of any network equipment you have purchased in the last couple of years as you may find it is already compatible with 802.11n and simply needs setting up correctly. It goes without saying that in order to benefit from the faster speed both the transmitting and receiving devices both have to support 802.11n; A 802.11n router working with a 802.11g laptop will result in slower 802.11g speeds.
At present ‘n’ rated hardware is more expensive than the older ‘g’ standard however not prohibitively so; our ‘n’ rated wireless router typically retails for around a tenner more than the £25 ‘g’ rated equivalent. Of course, if you are already happy with your wireless network and the upgrade will mean replacing perfectly functional hardware it is certainly worth considering whether your needs warrant the faster hardware.
At present 802.11n will only be required by those with blisteringly fast broadband connections or those that regularly copy large volumes of data across a wireless network however it will soon become the norm. If upgrading your hardware, therefore, it may well be worth paying a couple of extra pounds now to ensure that you remain future proof.

Thanks for reading this. If you have any concerns please email me at jack_store@rocketmail.com