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Riding Shotgun with Rick

Reader/Listener Challenge

We work extremely hard at creating tips, reviews, and other content for our web site. However, we often feel like we are the only ones who use the information. I often think, "If a tree falls in the woods, does it make a sound? And if we post an important article or tip, will anyone read it?"

My challenge is to the regular readers of our site and listeners to our program who do peruse the site, follow our tips, and take our advice. We need you to start a grass roots movement to get eyeballs over to this site and utilize the information that is here and leave comments to help us improve upon what is here as well. We have designed the site's content to be helpful to anyone who uses a computer, but mostly computer users who tell us they are beginners or just learning. However, we also believe that more experienced computer users can use our site to help out their family and friends who get constant questions about their computers. 

A Fourth Utility?

Water, gas and/or electricity, and telephone service have been widely available for years and present in almost every household in America. In the past few years, I have noticed that households with Internet connections now panic almost as much with an Internet outage as they would with a power outage or water leak. The Internet has truly become the a 'fourth utility'.

We all use the Internet now as a communication medium and the ultimate reference device. When it slows down, act erratic, or fails, we tend to worry about it almost as much our other three utilities. You can keep your fourth utility humming along problem free by following the advice we have laid out for you on this site regarding Internet security and troubleshooting. 

GoDaddy.com email snafu

Ran across a strange situation today that I hadn't seen before. The customer has domain (your own personal name) email hosted through the popular godaddy.com service. Often times they can't receive emails from each other or from customers because the emails were getting returned to the sender saying "this user does not accept non-Western character sets or encoding". 

A character set in computing contains letters, numerals, and symbols that make up a font. Every character has a corresponding number that the computer tracks it with. This is a simplistic explanation of how character sets work in the computer world, but the best I can do for this article. 

A word for our Dial-up readers (and our high speed Internet emailers)

Lately, I have helped many dial-up computer users get their email unclogged. It became clogged because their friends and family who have high speed Internet sent them messages that were way too big for email. Usually these messages contained either large digital photos or video jokes or messages that bring dial-up users email to screeching halt. 

DIAL-UP USERS:

  • You absolutely need to know how to check your email using your web browser (this tip explains how ).
  • When email stops coming in or you see messages repeating themselves, it is time to check your email as above and then delete any messages that are larger than 500 kilobytes (kb). This will allow your email to flow again into your email program
  • Inform the offending parties that send these overly large messages that your system can't handle the volume and to please remove you from their forward lists.

HIGH SPEED USERS:

Never assume it’s your problem

I think we have talked about this before, but it bears repeating. When your Internet connection stops working suddenly or seems to be acting strange, don't immediately assume it is a problem on your end. Often times it is not a problem with your system at all. If this happens to you, follow these steps instead:

  1. Turn off your computer (and high speed modems and routers if you have a high speed connection)
  2. Wait about two or three minutes then plug everything back in and try your connection again.
  3. Do not fiddle with any settings if you didn't change anything before the problem. 
  4. If you still don't have Internet access, wait about an hour or two then try again.
  5. If you still don't have a connection, then it is time to call your provider and report the problem. IF you haven't changed any settings on your end, don't let the tech support people talk you into changing anything. Remember, your connection was perfect a little earlier. 

For high speed Internet connections, read our tip for troubleshooting your connection for more information.  

Second Tier Support

I bought a Logitech Harmony 880 universal remote last March for our rec room. Since I have five devices and five remotes that control those devices, this remote promised to replace all those various remotes. You know the ads…it's as easy as 1, 2, 3. Well, six months later and many hours of fiddling, I still can't get the remote to do everything it is supposed to do. Today I threw in the towel and called Logitech tech support. Luckily, I only had to listen to two sets of instructions to push certain numerals on my phone to reach the desired service. I then sat on hold for about 15 minutes and talked with a very nice gentleman for over 40 minutes. At the end of the conversation, he told me that my case would have to be "elevated to second tier" support since he couldn't solve the problem. Now I must wait "at least one business day" to be contacted by this new level of support at Logitech.

We need a new Internet Appliance

i-openerAt one of the first, now defunct, Comdex computer shows that I attended in the late 90's, I attended a round table discussion on Internet Appliances. This was a huge buzz word at the time, but unfortunately it was ahead of its time. An Internet Appliance did only two things…browse the Internet and email. The picture I'm showing in this story was known as the Netpliance from a company called I-Opener. The idea was great, but at the time Internet connections were dial-up only and the Internet had not attained a true critical mass of users.

You don’t HAVE to log into AOL or MSN

Many AOL and MSN users have converted to either cable or DSL high speed connections over the last few years. This tip is for all you AOL and MSN broadband users.

IE7 LogoWhen I work with a high speed AOL or MSN user, habit guides their mice to the AOL or MSN icon. With a high speed connection, you do NOT need to log in to the service's browser if you just want to look up something on the web. Instead, decrease the time and steps it takes to get to the web by more than half by simply double-clicking on the Internet Explorer icon (pictured) from your desktop or Start menu. This will transport you instantly to the web. You only have to sign in to the AOL or MSN software if you want to check your email. Heck even that is optional, but that's a tip for another day.

Moving to a new computer requires patience

I've helped many new people this fall move to a new computer. Like moving to a new house, it takes time and patience before everything gets just right on your new computer. It is important to know that you can't simply hook up a new computer and start using it. You need to uninstall any unwanted software, properly configure and update your security software, setup your Internet and email connections, and then most importantly, transfer your data from the old computer to the new one.

Inevitably, when I work with a new computer customer, I get the deer in the headlights look when I if there data is backed up or know what data they want to move and where it is stored. You have heard me mention many times how important file management and backup are, but I have also mentioned that this is the most difficult part of computing to learn and understand. Many computer users can get by not learning about files, folders and backup for years, but when moving to a new computer, this will make the transition a lot tougher and longer. 

Palm handhelds still rock

Palm has shifted focus the last few years to smartphones (like the Treo I'm writing on right now), but they still manufacture and sell PDA's (portable digital assistants). I helped a customer setup a new Palm Tungsten E2 today. I set it up so that she could sync (transfer data from computer to PDA and vice versa) between both her Windows desktop and her Mac laptop…very slick. Now she has the option of accesing her calendar, address book, notes and much more from any of the three devices.

Palm handhelds; they organized and changed my life. It will take a true miracle device for me to fall out of love with Palm.