Networking has been made easier
Posted by admin on Jun 26, 2009
If you can plug in a power cord and ethernet cable, you can set up a powerline network. Start by plugging a powerline adapter into a wall socket. Don’t use filtered power strips or surge protectors, though, because they will interfere with the network connection. Next, run an ethernet cable from the powerline adapter to a free LAN port on your router.
Now plug a second powerline adapter (or a powerline switch containing multiple ethernet ports) into a wall socket in an y room where you want access to the powerline network. After a few seconds, the two powerline devices will recognize each other and become connected.
You can then connect any device that has an ethernet port to your network. In the living room, for example, you can hook up a video game console, DVR, Windows Media Extender, or network media player. You can even hook up a Wi-Fi access point to bring coverage to a previously dead area.
The only installation issue you are likely to have is poor performance due to bad circuitry. In an older home, outlets that do not have proper grounds or shielding may have severe interference problems.
Click her for more information…
Wipe an Old Hard Drive
Posted by admin on Jun 25, 2009
Nothing can complicate your life quite as thoroughly as identity theft. So before you well your old PC or return a dead hard drive, keep one important fact in mind: Deleting files does not guarantee that they are gone for good. To erase your hard drive properly, you can’t just toss the files into the Recycle Bin and empty it – you need to overwrite the data on the disks as well. I could get all technical at this point, but instead, just go to www.dban.org and download Darik’s Boot and Nuke, a free boot-disk utility that securely wipes any hard drive using any one of several tried-and-true methods. Once DBAN is done with your disk, you can be sure the data is gone.
Of course, nothing beats smashing the hard drive with a 2 pound hammer, but at least your drive will still be useable if you use DBAN. If that procedure seems a bit too technical for you, and you can always bring the drive to your favourite computer repair shop and have them do it for you.
Windows 7 – Are you ready?
Posted by admin on Jun 24, 2009
So, when Vista was released, most of you decided to wait until the next version of Windows before you upgraded. Was that a smart idea? Maybe.
Basically, Windows 7 is Vista was some enhancements. Our in-house tests have proved that it is much faster than Vista and has some really neat new features. There is a machine here on display with Windows 7 installed if you want to come in and check it out.
Two neat additions is the Remote Media Streaming (allows Windows 7 PCs to share media with the outside world) and Windows XP Mode (is a free add-on that runs a full virtual copy of XP within Windows 7).
To find out if your computer is ready for Windows 7, you can use the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor from Microsoft.
To find discussions of upgrading from XP to 7 visit find.pcworld.com/62985
To view Microsoft’s plans for rolling out the new OS, visit find.pcworld.com/62987
