Skip to content

Internet

Unplugged and loving it!

When I talk about wanting to live in the 1800's, people are always surprised. A tech guy, an expert wanting to live in a time when the Pony Express was high tech? It's true I tell you. As much as I love technology, I also see how much time it can eat up as well. On our old fashioned road trip vacation, I took my laptop (used it twice for a total of about fifteen minutes), my GPS (used it once), my beloved Treo (used once, although I checked for signal multiple times), my MP3 player (never used it), and our portable DVD player (I watched one movie on it, but my son used it in the car while we drove).

I intended to use the computer more and submit Shotguns for our site, but wi-fi was extremely hard to find in the places we stayed and visited. And when I did find it, it was either for a fee or required me to hike to the hot spot…I didn't need it that bad. In fact, I actually enjoyed being "unplugged" for nearly 11 days and didn't miss Google, voice mail, SMS, email or any of it. I crave information and love the Internet for information gathering, but I also thoroughly enjoy exploring new places, meeting new people, and driving new roads (Northern Nevada is UGLY). I think that if I had the means, I would have no problem separating from technology and seeing the world in my Eurovan with my family. But since I don't have the means, I will continue to gather information on the web, SMS my friends, check email periodically, and continue to marvel at what technology continues to roll out every day.

Oh, one piece of technology that I did take and use extensively was my digital camera (Canon S2IS)…I took more than 900 photos of Oregon and Northern California…none of desolate northern Nevada.

New business model, same old AOL

I noticed in the news that AOL has officially made all of its services free. They have also lowered their rates to $9.95 for dial-up service.

Their pitch is that all of their content including email is now free. They are really trying to get people to sign up for their free email.

So, I figured, what the heck. I will sign up for it if it's free. Just so I can review what a free AOL service is like.

If you haven't heard us say it before, AOL is not an Internet provider. Perhaps they were at one time, but today their specialty is advertising. They charge subscribers for a service that's primary purpose is to show those subscribers advertising. Every link in the AOL software is advertising based. Whether you click on shopping, weather, Internet security or news, every link in the AOL program is put their because someone paid for it to be there.

Vacation hair cut

Rick's vacation hair cut

When we go on vacation (especially camping), I don't like to waste time trimming my beard and shaving, so I usually shave the beard off. This year I did that again…and a little more. Now, I can spend my extra time monitoring my home surveillance equipment with my Treo!

Even though I have been on vacation, I still plan on submitting articles to our Shotgun series. Most will probably have a travel theme to them (like my wireless hints yesterday). I will be traveling with my MP3 player (Rio Nitrus), laptop (Averatec ultra-portable), digital camera (Canon S2IS), and of course my cell phone/portable Internet and email/maps/calendar/camera phone/a million other things (Palm Treo 650). We also loaded up the bikes for their first foray outside of Colorado. Surely all of this technology and madness will present ample opportunities for some good Shotgun fodder.

Castellini on Computers gets bumped again

The radio business is just that. It's a business.

I recieved a call this week from the station manager to let us know that AM 1100 KNZZ is going to be bumping the first half hour of our show off the air locally. It seems that there is a new local real estate show that is paying to be on starting at 11a.m. every Saturday.

Listeners will still be able to listen via the Internet and call in to the show at our regular number, but KNZZ has made the decision to not air our show for the first half hour.

As you will likely recall, they just started airing our entire program a few months ago after cutting the last 30 minutes off to run colon and prostate health infomercials.

Traveling with wireless Internet

If you travel with a laptop computer and like to use wireless Internet at hotesl, coffee shops and libraries, it helps to know a simple troubleshooting technique or two for finicky wireless connections.

  1. Make sure your wireless access is enabled. Many laptops have a button or switch that shuts the wireless network off. 
  2. Restart your computer. Many times, restarting the computer will allow the connection to happen.
  3. If still no connection, talk to someone in the building about your problem and ask them to restart their wireless router. If they aren't sure how, you can let them know that simply unplugging the power from the back of the router and then plugging it back in will do it. Takes about 20 seconds.

These three techniques will get you out of a jam more often than not and make you a happy wireless Internet traveler.

Solving email problems

When you are having trouble receiving or sending email, here are a few tips to help keep the mail flowing.

  • Never assume the problem is on your end. If you were sending email perfectly a few hours earlier or even yesterday, DO NOT CHANGE ANY SETTINGS on your computer. Instead, shut the computer off and try again. If nothing still, shut off the computer and wait until the next day. When you have tried these two steps and still have a problem, then call your email provider to ask what may be happening.
  • If you are receiving email, but are unable to send, check to make sure that your email didn't get stuck in the Outbox. Sometimes we mistype an address and that will stall the email.
  • If you use dial-up and get disconnected from the Internet every time you check email with Outlook Express, click Tools –> Options from the menus. Click the Connection tab and uncheck the box that says "hang up after sending and receiving.
  • Attached pictures are too big when viewing/printing. Use this tip .
  • You receive a Red X where a picture should be. Read our Red X tip here .
  • Again for dial-up users especially, if you get the same email over and over, and no new ones come through, it usually means a 'stuck' email. This occurs when an email is too large to come through quickly and you disconnect before it finishes downloading the email. In this situation, learn to use your email service's web mail function so you can view your email on the web based interface. Then delete any email that is more than 1000 kilobytes (1 megabyte). Or you can read the message via the web based interface.

I am sensing a theme here

I am sensing a theme with my work lately. Late last week I had to tell a client that their entire hard drive had crashed and nothing was salvageable.

Today I taught some computer classes for the local Parks and Rec. I enjoy teaching these classes because I get to tell people about the importance of things like backup and broadband Internet.

After that class my first client had just bought a new computer and she needed me to transfer data. She had replaced her old computer because it kept locking up and giving her errors.

As I transferred her important files I discovered what had been causing the problems. Her hard drive was nearly dead and many of her files were gone completely.

Watch the lights

Since many of us are now using high speed connections to the Internet, we run into new problems. A customer of mine called me today and said she couldn't get email any more. When I asked if she was connected to the Internet, she thought she was. Knowing she had DSL, I asked how many lights were on the DSL modem (thingy from the phone company that connects the computer to the Internet with a cable running from phone line to it, and then another cable from it to the computer). She saw three lights on her particular modem, an Actiontec, which should have a minimum of four lights on it.

The solution:  unplug the power from the modem for about fifteen or so seconds, plug it back in and wait for about a minute or so until the four (or five if wirelss is enabled) light up. We waited, she checked her email and presto, it worked.

I should have trusted my instincts

I teach my kids to trust their instincts when making decisions, taking tests, and dealing with people. I try to do the same, but sometimes my brain (or maybe ego and curiosity) gets in the way. Over the past few years, we have talked at length about computer security and the dangers of not being secure.  After spending many hours hunkered down over an infected computer and trying to get overwhelmed computers fixed, we have come to a conclusion about fixing some of these problems. In some of the worst cases, it is cheaper and quicker to backup up the necessary user files then format the hard drive and start over with a fresh install of Windows, its updates and the proper security software.

Another reminder

For nearly ten years, I have preached the importance of keeping your anti-virus software up-to-date. Two of my clients today alone were not keeping their software updated and problems arose because of it. Every month more than 500 new viruses are released by hackers and their ilk. If your anti-virus software doesn't know about these new problems (via updates), it can't protect your computer from them.

If you have a high speed Internet connection, chances are very good that your software is staying updated by itself. However, you need to check it at least weekly to make sure the program is updating. When you open any anti-virus program (we recommend AVG and vigorously oppose the use of Norton), you will see a date next to a section marked "Virus definitions or database". This date should never be more than two week old. If it is, initiate an update immediately.