Computer And Internet Tips

SanDisk Cruzer Glide 128 GB USB Flash Drive is the best buy if you are looking for huge capacity USB drive. But if you need some performance & a speedy drive I'll propose Corsair Flash Voyager Mini 32Gb. 

At SanDisk Cruzer Glide 128 GB USB Flash Drive its amazing to be able to back up three desktops and two laptops. Backing up data is so convenient with these products. Portability is key. Back-ups of your important docs, pics, musics and videos. Really great flash-drive. This flash drive was "as advertised" and meets all of your expectations. Nice to have this little gadget to put data on that you can take anywhere you may happen to be going.

Seagate Desktop HDD 4 TB SATA 6Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive ST4000DM000 is excellent buy if you are looking for a great Hard Drive and large amount hard drive space for your PCs. I have been using external (desktop type) hard drives for awhile now, I've had quite alot. I really wanted to network all my storage in one so I ventured into NAS arena. This is the first drive that I bought, did some research and found this guy "the work horse". Excellent speeds No shut downs, no lags. I've bought 2 of these from Amazon, they came quickly and the package was ok. They are working perfect. Really easy to install. The hard drive works. No issues. It's fast and suited to my purposes. Solid, expected performance, no complaints. It is so nice to have such a large amount of hard drive space. Finally I can store all my images and home videos in once place. I am happy with them and will buy more as soon as possible. 

Great Hard Drive : Seagate Desktop HDD 4 TB SATA 6Gb/s NCQ 64MB Cache 3.5-Inch Internal Bare Drive ST4000DM000

The Windows 8 Mail app works automatically with your Microsoft account, but you can also add Gmail, Yahoo, and others. The Windows 8 Mail has a nice, clean interface and works with a variety of e-mail accounts, including Gmail and Yahoo! Mail. If you have a Gmail and Yahoo Mail account and would like to add your account to Mail app, follow the steps given below.

Step 1 : Switch to Start screen and then click on Mail app to launch the app.

Step 2 : Make sure you're logged in to Mail with a Microsoft account. If you're using a local account to log in to Windows 8, you'll need to log in to Mail with a Microsoft account before you can add other e-mail accounts.

Apps you install from the Windows Store don’t slow down your PC, so you don’t need to close them. When you’re not using an app, Windows will leave it running in the background and then close it eventually if you don’ t use it. But if you really want to close an app, Windows 8 does not provide a readily apparent method of terminating an app like they do on a normal Windows application. There is no X button ike we have become accustomed to in Windows desktop applications and most apps do not provide a way of quitting them. Here are the methods you can try closing down Metro apps in Windows 8.

Tip: You can also use the Ctrl+Shift+Esc keyboard combination to automatically open the Task Manager from any screen in Windows.

To close the app, simply left-click once on the app name and then click on the End Task button. Task Manager will immediately terminate the app for you. If you wish to see more details on how much memory or CPU a particular app is using before you terminate it, you can click on the More Details option.

WD Elements 3 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive are the right answer for simple, reliable add-on storage. Simply plug one in to a USB port and start saving your photos, music, video, and files. Installation was was truly "plug and play". It is simply took it out of the box, plugged it in, and it was immediately recognized by the DVR and formatted.

This is a great external hard drive if you're not going to move it around a lot (which wasn't my intention anyways). Western Digital and Seagates are my hard drives of choice. This Drive Works as advertised. Plenty of space for everything, and very easy to set up. Outstanding performance and quality. They run forever with no issues. Quiet, black & Stealthy. Can carry your entire data base with you.

 

• All types of viruses and spyware
• Online identity theft when you bank or shop
• Bad files and websites when you browse and share
• Phishing scams
• Theft of your personal information
• Hard-to-remove infections
• Spyware
• Spam
• Social network threats when you socialize
• Loss of files due to a hard drive crash or other mishap
• Slow PC performance

When you browse the Internet, Norton will tell you which sites are safe and which are not. For example, if you Google something, let's say General Petraeus, since he is in the news as I write this, when the list of results come up you will see a little green box with an "ok" in it. If you mouse over this green box you will see a report about the website. Here you will see a summary. It might say something like, "Site is safe." Great! You can look down at a list of specific factors:

• Computer threats
• Identity threats
• Annoyance factors
• Ecommerce safety threats

It will also tell you the status of the sites transaction protection and privacy protection, and if relevant, whether the site is a legitimate business. And if this does not satisfy you, you can click on a box to get a full report.

 

Norton 360 2013 gives you control over many settings, so if you want to customize your security settings, you can easily do this. If you go into your control panel you will see four boxes:

• Security
• Identity
• Backup
• Tuneup

If, for example, you click on security, you will see several options:

• View details
• Run scans
• Run live update (this will tell you, for example, that your definitions were updated 6 seconds ago)
• Manage firewall
• Run Norton Insight

Norton Insight is a nifty little program that speeds up your scans by determining, as they put it, "a trust level for the files that belong to well-known applications." Trusted applications are excluded from security scans. With Norton 360 2013, many things take place in the background while your computer is idle. For example, with regards to Insight, "The processes that are related to Norton Insight run when your computer is idle. This way, the system performance remains high while you perform tasks on your computer."

Under your firewall settings, you can set program rules, traffic rules (or block traffic altogether). You can go into the details of events monitoring as well. As Norton points out, "Intruders can gain access to your computer in the following ways without causing firewall alerts to appear:

1. Launching and manipulating safe programs without your knowledge
2. Attaching to a safe program without getting detected
3. Launching trusted applications in hidden mode through command-line parameters
4. Injecting code into other applications' processes
5. Modifying the URL of an Internet browser through Windows messages
6. Bypassing firewall inspections by penetrating the Windows TCP/IP layer to send and receive data
7. Using the documented interfaces that Windows Active Desktop provides to transmit data outside the network
8. Using keylogger programs to monitor the keystrokes of a computer user, thereby gaining access to a user's personal information
9. Instantiating controlled COM objects to manipulate an application's behavior

So as you can see, you can take as much responsibility for the nitty gritty as you desire, or simply allow Norton 360 to do its thing as unobtrusively as possible (and I personally find it pretty unobtrusive).

The Norton 360 2013 software is just what your PC needed. Great anti-virus and software for making your computer run faster. It's easy to use, install, and silently protects your computer from all the nasty threats out there. This is a good program for the price. It does a good job of scanning for files you don't want. Once you have registered your first Norton 360, maintained the updates, then all you need to do for the next year is to enter the new key code and your present program is extended and already up to date. Iwould recommend this program. Just don't enter the new key code until you old one is rewady to expire. Any sooner will just shorten the overall time period. This product does all that I want it to do. Keeps multi PC's cleaned up and safe. Do not need any other software to keep your PC tuned. I recommend it to everyone.

BIC America F12 12-Inch 475-Watt Front Firing Powered Subwoofer. If you want bass and value, then this sub is for you. This sub is an incredible value. It performs very well for movies and musics. Sounds great for a small price. This subwoofer is pretty dang big, bigger than what i was expecting. Very solid build, the wood is real. The grill plate is heavy, solidly made and protect it well. I have to keep this unit turned down pretty low, it rocks the neighborhood. The rating for this sub is a solid 5 stars.

Bass is nice and tight. Had to do a few adjustments, just as anything new. Bass goes low and integrated with my current system very well. Around 23hz I was able to hear bass, watching Prometheus was a treat. The opening scene really will test your subwoofer ( or subwoofers ), no distortion and bass was low and engulfed me in the movie. I would definitely recommend it to anyone that would like to get a richer sound out of their Home audio system. You won't be disappointed. It makes movies and music sound great. installation itself is very easy, but make sure to select the right parameters on your receiver to enjoy it correctly.

This is probably one of the top 3 subs that you can regularly find for $200 or less. If it's on sale, buy it. It has more than enough power for small rooms, and enough power for medium rooms. Works great for movies, and works well for music if your front speakers can go 80hz or lower. The downside is finding good room placement. You have to experiment a little to get rid of any "boomy-ness" from your listening area.

Buy this sub with confidence that it is very good for the money, however you might want to only buy directly from Amazon as they are the 800 pound gorilla and they have the clout with their suppliers to fix things immediately if not sooner.

Shop Amazon's New Kindle Fire

Building The Computer. If you want to build your own Computer, you need to spec up your computer before making any buying decisions about computer components. The main thing you need to know is what you want to use the computer for. There is no point at all in using the cheapest components if your goal is to play World of Warcraft or any of the latest popular games. There is no need to build a computer with extreme specification if it is going to be used to type letters, play some solitaire and keep your receptionist occupied. Most people who build their own computers are either trying to save a few pennies or are wanting a computer for a specific purpose like video editing or gaming.

Now that you've got a better understanding of what goes into a computer, it's time to actually choose and buy the components you're going to use. In this lesson, I will show you how to most effectively pick out your parts. The article is supposed to be about the minimum requirements to build a working Computer. You will need:

1. The Case

If you want to buy a case, you need to know what size case you choose should match the kind of motherboard you're buying. If you're going for a very high performance computer with many drives and expansion cards, a full tower is probably overkill for most users. I recommended, Antec and Cooler master both make some of the best cases on the market.

2. The Motherboard

As you look at motherboards, you'll want to pay attention to quite a few things. Here are some of the more important features:

Socket Type: Your socket type (such as AMD's "AM2" socket, or Intel's "LGA 1155" socket) determines which processors you can use with that board. So, if you've already narrowed down the kind of processor you want, this is a good first step to narrowing down your motherboard. Look for a model with a socket type that matches your processor to ensure that the two are compatible.

Size: Motherboards generally come in three sizes: Mini ITX, Micro ATX, and full ATX. The more advanced features you need, the larger the motherboard will need to be, which will also determine the size of your case (and final machine). Generally, your motherboard will be dependent on these other factors, but if you absolutely need a super small machine, you'll want to filter your choices to reflect that.

Number and Types of external Ports: Look at the ports available on the motherboard. Do you need a lot of USB ports? You'll either want a motherboard that has them or enough PCI slots to support extra USB adapters. Do you need HDMI out? If you aren't getting a graphics card (and you're planning to use your computer with a monitor), you'll need graphics integrated with the motherboard. Do you want fast Gigabit LAN? Some motherboards only have 10/100, which won't give you fast enough speeds. Do you want any new, super fast USB 3.0 ports? If you want to take advantage of any USB 3.0 peripherals, you'll need compatible ports on your motherboard. If you're set on a motherboard that doesn't have a feature you need, you can add most with expansion cards, but life is always easier if the motherboard has them built in.

Amount of supported RAM: If you plan on having a lot of RAM in your machine, you'll need a motherboard that supports it. If you're overclocking your processor, you also want to check the top RAM speed your motherboard supports, since you'll probably have to boost your RAM speed when you overclock.

Integrated Graphics: If all you're going to do is browse the web, use Microsoft Office, and perform other simple tasks, you may be better off choosing a motherboard with integrated graphics. You only need to shell out for a separate graphics card if you're playing video games, and maybe if you're playing HD video (though some integrated graphics chips can even do that nowadays). If you're getting a separate graphics card, it doesn't really matter if your motherboard has integrated graphics or not.

Number of SATA Ports: This determines how many internal hard drives and optical drives you can have. For most builds, this is only really a concern if you plan on having a lot of drives in your computer (like if you're building a server or a NAS).

Number of PCI Slots: You can only have as many expansion cards as you have PCI slots, so if you want a dedicated video card (or two), a dedicated sound card, extra USB ports, extra LAN ports, a Wi-Fi adapter, or other expansion cards you need to make sure your motherboard has enough of them.

Chipset: Your motherboard's chipset determines a lot of the more advanced features it has. Some chipsets support overclocking, some do not. Some support SLI and Crossfire (using multiple video cards in tandem), some do not. Others are better for turning into Hackintoshes. If you didn't understand any of the things I just said, you probably don't need to pay too close attention to this but if you want certain advanced features, chipset will narrow your selection considerably.

Brands Recommend : ASUS, GIGABYTE, and MSI are probably the biggest name in motherboards. However, BIOSTAR and ASRock are well known for good budget boards, if you're trying to keep the cost down.

3. The RAM

Memory (RAM) in today's world a minimum of 2 GB is essential, 4 GB or 8 GB is better. You can buy for 2 GB first if you are trying to keep the cost down. You can upgrade your system memory then if you have budget. If you are buying RAM, the first thing you do is look at the motherboard's spec list. Most RAM nowadays is "DDR3", which is the latest generation of RAM. Popular Brands for the best RAM on the market are Crucial, Corsair and Kingston. You won't find a huge difference between brand.

4. The Graphics Card

If your motherboard does not have it on board a Graphics card will be required. Brands recommended : NVIDIA and ATI (now branded as AMD). MSI and ZOTAC are also popular choices, as are ASUS, and Sapphire.

5. The Hard Drive(s)

Hard Drive, A range of hard drives from 250 GB to 3 TB are available at present. Brands to recommend: Western Digital, Seagate, Hitachi, Samsung, and Toshiba are all good choices.

6. The Optical Drive

Optical Drive, in old school tech the CD drive, today you will be looking at DVD Writers or Blu-Ray. Brands recommend : Samsung, Sony, and LG are all great manufacturers.

7. The Power Supply 

The power supply is actually one of the most important choices in your build. This is not an area you want to skip. Reviews on the net are rarely useful, either, with the exception of a few reputable sites like Jonnyguru.com. The best you can do is buy from a good brand.

8. Keyboard and Mouse

9. Monitor

The components above will give you to build a working PC, to add sound a set of speakers and a sound card if the motherboard does not have one on board.

Upgrade Laptops System Memory.It's not as hard as you might think to upgrade your laptop's memory and only requires one or two tools and a little research to do it. Instead of taking your laptop to your local computer repair shop, and spending money to have it done, why not do it yourself? 

This guide will show you how to upgrade your laptop's computer memory. Installation of RAM is one of the easiest way to speed up your computer as only hardware installation is needed, without the need of any software. It is also relatively inexpensive to upgrade compared to other parts.

Here's the steps how to upgrade your laptops System Memory :

After you've bought the manufacturer specified memory for your laptop along with the amount of memory you want to upgrade it to, all you need to do is install it. Just follow the steps how to install and upgrade your laptop system memory below :

1. Save your work, shut down your computer, and close the display.
2. Disconnect all external devices attached to the laptop (like printers, flash drives, and headsets).
3. Unplug the A/C adapter from your computer.
4. Turn the laptop upside down on a flat surface.
5. Remove the laptop battery
6. Loosen the 3 screws on the memory module compartment
7. Lift the compartment cover away from the computer
8. Remove the existing memory module(s)
To remove the memory, all you have to do is push out on the silver rails that run up both sides of the memory stick. The "rails" have a little bend or nodule that click in to the side of the memory stick (95% of the time this rail system is used, but a few manufacturers use a different system on some of their laptops. But, all in all, the different configurations are easy to figure out). Just use your fingers to push the rail out to the side simultaneously on both sides and the memory stick should pop up. Caution, don't try to force it out with any metal tools, if your fingers are too big, use a toothpick or some other plastic (like a credit card) to move the rail to the side, one side at a time, while gently lifting up on the memory stick. If it still won't release, try pressing down on it, or you might try to gently wiggle it a bit to see if that will loosen it up.

9. Insert the new RAM module into the compartment
To install the new memory, Insert memory stick (copper pin side down) and in to the memory slot. The memory slot has a built in crossbar that corresponds to a slot cut in to the memory module, be sure to line these up. Make sure the module is seated all the way down in to the on board slot, then gently push down until you hear a click, don't force it. Sometimes you might have to move the rails out a little bit to get the memory to seat correctly.

10. Align the tabs of the cover with the notches on the computer and close the cover.
11. Tighten the screws on the memory compartment.
12. Replace the battery, reattach the external devices, and plug the laptop back into the A/C outlet.


Now you're all done! Fire up your laptop and go to your Computer icon on the desktop or from the start menu, right click, select properties at the bottom of the drop down menu to bring up the System window, and check the "Installed Memory" line to see the new memory you've just installed.