One of my client’s today had a problem with slow and frequent disconnects with her wireless Internet (wi-fi) in her home. Upon my investigation, I discovered that her computer had hooked onto a neighbor’s weak, unsecured signal and was ignoring hers. After connecting to her signal, the wireless was strong and didn’t disconnect.
To make sure that you are connected to the wireless signal you think you are:
This will be the fourth article I have posted about the Zonbu computer company (read previous Zonbu articles here). Since my last report, I helped setup a second Zonbu laptop and visited with my first Zonbu customer today. The second Zonbu owner bought his for his wife who enjoys mainly email and Internet and had no need for an expensive machine. He and his wife found the computer easy to operate and extremely capable for their needs.
In visiting with my original Zonbu client today, all we did was talk about basic computer learning issues…no computer or security issues. The laptop is working well and fitting her needs perfectly. She had the occasion to talk with Zonbu support on a few occasions and found them to be extremely helpful and patient.
One of the things we did today was setup an Epson printer with her laptop that she received from a friend. As many of you are painfully aware, setting up a printer in Windows can take up to 20 minutes in some cases because of the gargantuan installs the manufacturers throw at us these days. Here’s how the Zonbu printer setup went (and all Linux printer setups for that matter):
Woo hoo! As I left for work this morning I looked at my indispensable Palm Treo 755p and saw a site that is usually reserved only for vacations to larger cities than mine…or Craig, Colorado. I saw TRIANGLES!!
Triangles in the world of the Sprint Palm Treo indicate that I am in a high speed zone for my Sprint data plan. Since many cell phones have the capability of accessing email and Internet content, carriers have expanded their networks, slowly, to allow for higher and higher speeds.
Sprint offers two levels of data speed in their network. For years, I have toiled (tongue firmly mounted in cheek) under the capacity of checking weather, directions, movie times, email and more with my Treo at maybe fast dial-up or ISDN speeds…indicated by the little arrows above my signal indicator.
When Sprint rolled out their high speed network a few years ago, my hamlet was not included. My phone has been capable of the new speeds for more than a year, but unless I traveled to a metro area or the smaller town of Craig, Colorado (which I drove through once about six years ago) I could not access the higher speeds which approach a strong DSL connection like speed.
To make a long story short, my day was smoother, the sun was shinier, and the wind was windier today with my Treo 755p by my side happily sucking in Internet data at speeds probably 5X faster than yesterday. Triangles…my new favorite shape.
After almost 13 years of battling security problems on Windows machines, I’m finally seeing the light of day and recommending Mac’s and Linux for many computer users. It will be a long journey convincing people that there is life beyond Microsoft.
For those who bang away with Microsoft Windows computers,and have problems with Slow Computer Disease (SCD), pop-ups, viruses and other problems, I present the following sage advice:
I’ve learned that when it comes to spyware/adware (THE major cause of SCD), if it takes more than an hour to troubleshoot and solve, you will be WAY AHEAD of the game to:
1. Backup your data
2. Reformat the system, and resinstall Windows
This weekend, an emailer asked the question of how to use the backups that we describe on our site. An excellent question I’m sure others have had as well.
Over the years, I laid out step-by-step methods for backing up your email address book, favorites/bookmarks, and even your email. To use these backups, simply use the “Import” function to bring them back into a new installation of a program or even a new computer.
Today, I helped a new customer order a Zonbu computer. I first wrote about this interesting computer about two months ago. I offered to setup these machines up for free for the first three people in our area that buy one. After much deliberation and research, the customer (KC) and I decided that this computer was really the right decision for her needs.
She bought the laptop Zonbu, and I can’t think of anything that this computer won’t be able to do for her. She plans on doing some traveling with it (it has wi-fi built-in). She wants to possibly add a digital camera at some time (it has a good picture manager utility and editor already installed). Of course she plans on using the Internet for research, entertainment, and email (the Zonbu has arguably the best browser installed…Firefox and excellent email programs as well). She might want to play a few games (Zonbu has over 15 installed including Sudoku, Mahjongg, Solitaire, Freecell, and more). In addition to all these things, the Zonbu boasts a world-class word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager, database, calendar program, web editor, desktop publishing software, DVD player, music player and organizer, and over 30 games and countless accessories. AND it includes 24/7 support via either telephone or email or chat. AND it includes program and operating system updates automatically maintained via the Internet and a built in web backup system. And this system does not require you be a security expert because it doesn’t require anti-virus or anti-spyware software.
Is this starting to sound good to you? It should, but wait how much does it cost? $1,000?
Every time I show a computer user how to use the tab feature of their browser (found in Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, Opera, and Safari), their eyes light up and they can’t believe what I showed them is real. Today was another such day. I helped an extremely knowledgeable young lady with her computer, and somehow the conversation drifted into searching the Internet. She nearly fell off her exercise ball when I showed her the trick.
A resent consumer reports article compared cell services and Sprint ranked last among the top four services across the board. I use Sprint and have never had any real troubles. I have also found that the coverage is great whenever I travel. They also have the best price for data and their rates are reasonable.
I am not writing this in defense of Sprint though. I am pretty upset with American cell service in general.
Currently cell phone service business models are built on a foundation of using gimmicks to get a customer to buy then punishing them for long term loyalty by raising prices and excluding them from promotional deals.
Software upgrades can cost you much more than they help you. Very few computer users need to upgrade any software, except for daily updates for security software.
Today, I helped a couple who became frustrated after updating from AOL 9.0 to 9.1. They relayed to me that they went ahead with the upgrade because of the promise that AOL would be easier and faster with the upgrade. After the upgrade, AOL changed their Internet Explorer and Firefox home pages, made getting to email more time consuming, and even lost some of their bookmarks.
It didn’t take long to get them back to their familiar 9.0, but they were extremely frustrated by the changes made to their system.
Moral of the story: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it nor upgrade it.
I am resurrecting this great tip from my archives. This tip first appeared about four years ago on the show and then the web site. I wanted to share it again because of our new listeners and the extreme usefulness of the tip.
Printing information from the web can sometimes be frustrating. A long web page yields reams of paper when you only wanted a couple of pages. Read on to learn how to print only the pages you want!
Firefox/Internet Explorer/AOL
Highlight the part of the page you want to print with your mouse
Click on File —> Print