Thread: Computers 101

OK, so I feel that I need to start a thread that answers some of the most common questions I've heard or been asked. These range from simple to fairly complex.

To begin, I've been a computer geek since my very first computer (used them before this, but got into it about this time) an Apple II-C. Now, it didn't have HDD, didn't have much of anything, a monitor, keyboard, and a 5 1/4 floppy drive. It came with I believe five disks (game disc, system disc, and don't remember what the other ones were). My first real toy was a x86-286 with 40MB HDD, 612KB ram, god knows how much video ram, 5 1/4 and a 3 1/2 floppy drive, and of course, keyboard, mouse, MS DOS 5.0 and a 11 year old kid that liked figuring out how things worked.

Later when I was about 16, I got an Acer with an AMD K5 166Mhz CPU with 16 MB of ram with shared video memory. In 1998, I had been out of school for 2 years, and sitting playing with computers I thought "hey, I'd like to do this for a living". Started researching for what was required to be a PC Technician, and A+ certification came up over and over. Not having a lot of money, I voted for a couple of books and some hands on experience with an uncle-in-law that happened to have his own computer company. $120 and about 6 months later, I registered to take the test (paying I believe it was around $200 or $250) and December of 1999, I became A+ certified.

For another year I worked for my uncle, for no pay, just so I could gain some experience (and of course, while I looked for a computer job--was already working). Anyways, over the course of the next four years, I became an Apple Certified desktop technician, and logged many hours configuring, designing, and pulling CAT5 (and even some coax) cable for networks--fairly simple compared to the real Network folks out there, from peer to peer up to using routers, hubs, switches, Configuring Apple Servers for over 100 Macs in a school, along with keeping about 300 other PC's (non-macs) up and going etc...) Never got the pleasure of working with Novell (other than client setup) or MS server software. Worked for one company during this time, along with another 2 years of working for myself putting ads out and working on my own customers computers.

OK, now for the questions:

1) Why has my computer gotten so slow lately?

This can be many things, but commonly (especially lately) this is caused by too many programs starting at start-up. I've seen customers that had over 100 programs (Yahoo IM, AOL IM, MSN IM, ICQ, Quick-time, those type of programs) running in the task bar. Even with a GB of ram, it don't take much to cause a system with this much stuff running to slow. Not to mention the amount of time it takes to load all of those programs.

The other common cause of slow downs is spyware (using term loosely here, meaning any software meant to run in the background without users permission, so that it can share or steal info and send it out across the web--viruses excluded, though they can do this, typically, they are only there to cause themselves to spread even further). And though excluded from my idea of Spyware, viruses can wreck havoc on a computer and therefore cause major slow-downs.

Slow downs can also be hardware related. Down to having too much dust inside of your computer (though with this one, about 70% of the time, even cleaning dust won't do you any good, because dust can cause short circuits, and possibly cause components to fail). Over-heating, loose stick of ram, loose IDE, power, or SATA cable, bad power supply, failing CPU and/or motherboard. Bad or failing HDD can cause some slow downs, because seek time is increased because of failure, though HDDs usually fail all at once (no warning about 50% of the time, the other 50% have a very short warning in my experience that's is why it is so important to do backups!)

2) If I don't browse porn sites, why do I need anti-virus software?

Yes, I've been asked this. Simply, it don't matter what web-site you browse, it don't matter if all you ever do is check your e-mail, you need anti-virus software at a minimal. First, a simple e-mail can contain a virus, and second, all web-sites can be hacked and or hijacked and infected with a virus(es). In relation to this question, I'd like to add another tidbit. Don't matter what anti-virus software you got, if you don't keep it up to date, it cannot protect you from new viruses. The people that have nothing else better to do than sit in their basements and write viruses, while making them more and more of a headache, also try to mask them from anti-virus software, and therefore the need to keep it up to date. Viruses will slip right through, and infect your computer if your virus definitions are 6 months out of date (heck, sometimes 1 month out of date).

3) What is best for X?

Here is the question of all questions, how much of a computer do I need if I'll mostly use it for e-mailing/browsing? How much for the latest and greatest games? Etc...

Well to answer this question, if the person isn't tech savvy, I'd tell them, look for a Desktop that is about $600 excluding monitor for general use, and $2000 for games or heavy ended applications. Not that one of Dells $400 computers wouldn't do what they want--general use--it is because you want a little head room, above what the customer wanted to cover a little future.

Tech savvy? Why would they be asking? If they are savvy, they'd know what they needed. My only suggestion to someone in the know, build your computer for future expansion. Research motherboards, get the one with greatest upgradability. Don't just get the motherboard that you need for the processor your going to get, get the one that will let you upgrade to a better processor in a year and half or maybe two years. With this of course, you might not be able to predict what will happen in a year, Intel might switch their socket AGAIN, and now your left with limited upgradability (Socket 775 would be obsolete and only processors that are new or can be found will be for new socket/slot). The point is, try to go for upgradability, not only with CPU, but memory, HDD's (SATA and IDE or SATA only, either way if you pick the right board, you could have 8-10 devices, of which burners, players, etc. are included. How much HDD space do you need, will it ever be used as a media server? etc...).

4) Should I upgrade to Vista (in the past Windows 98, 98SE, ME, XP, 2000, etc.)?

IMHO, when it comes to the OS, especially with MS operating systems, most shouldn't upgrade for at least a year after new software comes out. Even then, be warned, some of your stuff might not work and/or it might work differently than you like. Typically, I'd follow this same rule with other software, but non-os software is a little easier--not to mention quicker--to recover back to old. Generally, a person has to look at the expected benefits of upgrading and decide if it is worth the risk.

5) Is it OK to leave my computer running all the time?

Generally yes, if there are no electrical storms or electrical problems, yes. If it is storming, it is best to shut it down, because if the electric goes out and computer didn't shut down correctly, there can be data lose. Not to mention, the chances of surges are greatest during these times. Yes, even with surge protector, your computer can get fried.

Common comment I hear is that it is harder on the components to shut computer down and start it up all the time than it is to leave it on all the time. And though this is somewhat true, most of the time, doesn't shorten life span of computers (mostly, power-supply). At least not enough for most to care. Lets say you leave computer on all the time, and lets say that gives it an extra year over one that gets shutdown all the time. However, with computer on all the time there is more heat, and with heat there is more strain on computer, which reduces life span by 6 months. So in the end, you've gained 6 months over computer that gets shut down every day. Of course, there is no way you can be sure how long anything last. Two identical components (same brand, same model, even same lot) can have different failure rates in the same environment. But typically, my experience has shown no real gain with leaving computer on all the time. So does it hurt? No. Does it help? Maybe, maybe not.

6) Do I need to back up my data? or Do I need a backup drive?

The question I always ask customers that ask this question is "Do you have anything that if you lost tomorrow you would be upset?" Sometimes requiring further questioning, like "Do you have pictures that you would miss if you lost them?" or "Any documents that you would have a hard time without?" etc... Usually, almost everyone, says yes to at least one of these questions, which is the answer to rather or not they need to do backups.

Now, to answer second question, do they need a back up drive. I've had customers that did backups every week, but they backed up to their HDD, and therefore when HDD crashed, they lost everything, and wondering why I couldn't recover data from their back up. CDs, second HDD, tape, even floppies are much better than a single HDD. For very important data, it is best to have more than one backup, have a backup of the backup, in two different locations, so that if one fails, there is a backup. Fire burns down office, destroying computers and tape backups. Without second backup in second location, millions in transactions would be lost.

All for now, please feel free to add. Just wanted to start a FYI/FAQ if you will. I'd like topic to stay on computers (all Intel based now--used to be Win-Tel and Mac, now I guess Win-Tel and Mac-Tel, LOL--but Apple computers included. I realize not many questions yet, however, I feel like this is a good start.

Good job Tony. That should help many people on here.

Nice primer, Tony.

I'd just like to add that for #1,
CCleaner

is very good freeware, though they certainly wouldn't be hurt if you choose to donate, that can be run on a weekly, bi-weekly, or at least monthly basis to clean out useless files and check for issues on your machine. Keeps my PCs running along nicely.

Item 5 can be greatly expanded. The biggest caveat that I can offer is that a lot of your hardware drivers are going to be a serious problem with a new version of Windows. Unless you have very mainstream equipment, you may have significant troubles with printers, scanners, cameras, flash drives/readers and other devices that you might assume wouldn't be an issue.

I'm shocked by the number of USB key drives that don't work consistently.

Folks: I moved the "Vista sucks" posts into their own thread
so this one can stay on topic as a FAQ about computers. I think it would be great if others would add posts to this thread expanding on the FAQ that has been developed so far.

Question: I just got a new router and wanted to setup port fowarding for programs such as torrent software to download the latest linux ISO file.

Answer: Here is the step by step guide. First all of this information is available at a great website called PortForward.com but I will give pictures of the entire process for setting up port forwarding for Azureus. Also note that I'm assuming that you have your router installed and have your computer working and on the internet via the router.

Now within this guide you will need to select your specific router and software program.

Now the first thing we must do is setup in my case Windows XP to use a Static IP address. So first we must check if Windows XP is using DHCP or a Static IP.

1. First bring up the Control Panel.
2. Click on Network and Internet connections.
3. Click on Network Connections.

If your control panel is in classic view skip steps 1 and 2 and double click the Network Connections Icon.

4. Click on Local Area Connection and look towards the left of the window to see more details....note you may need to scroll down some.

Here is a screen shot of step 4.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachme...1&d=1181178522

In my case it says in the screenshot assigned by DHCP. Even if your computer doesn't say this I'd suggest you follow the next steps either way.

5. Click Start and next click Run. This will bring up the RUN dialog box. Enter cmd in the run box and press Enter. This should bring up a command window with a prompt in a black background.

Here is a screen shot of step 5.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachme...1&d=1181178522

6. Type "ipconfig /all" without the quotes.

Here is a screen shot of step 6.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachme...1&d=1181178522

7. Now write down on paper the following information but note the results for you may be different and most likely will.

IP Address
Subnet Mask
Default Gateway
DNS Servers

Now that we have this information we can setup Windows XP for a static IP.

8. Follow steps 1 and 2 "or" step 3 to bring up the Network Connections window.

9. Right-Click Local Area Connection and select Properties.

Here is a screen shot to show you what you should see after doing step 9.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachme...1&d=1181178522

You should see the Local Area Connections Properties Dialog box after finishing step 9.

10. Click on Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)....Note click on the text and "not" the checkbox.

11. Once Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) is highlighted in blue click the Properties button just below it.

Here is a screenshot showing what you should see after finishing step 11.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachme...1&d=1181178522

12. Fill in the information your wrote down on paper into the proper fields within the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties Dialog box.

Here is a screenshot showing everything filled in correctly but note the information you wrote down on paper may differ so use "your" information and not mine okay.

Screen shot of completed step 12.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachme...1&d=1181178522

Once step 12 is done click OK out of all the windows.

Everything above will only need to be done once and I will end this post like this and start a second post on setting up specific programs. Everything done above was for configuring your computer to use a static IP.

Now setting up the port for a specific program. First I highly suggest you create a port above 50,000 as most of the common default ports that programs use are being blocked by many ISPs making them useless.

Also all of the steps you take within your specific router control panel will be the same for all programs you will setup port forwarding for. The only thing you must do is pick a port number and make sure the same number is entered into both the program settings and the router itself under its port fowarding section. Also you must make sure that the IP address you enter into the port forwarding section within your router is the same IP address Windows XP shows under Network Connections. Don't worry this will all make sense once you finish this guide.

So now onto setting up Azureus for port forwarding.

13. Log into your router's configuration panel using your router's user manual.

If you don't know how to complete task 1 above please visit the following link below.


http://www.portforward.com/routers.htm

This page will show a list of brands and models. Most if not all routers will list the model number on them so look at your router if needed.

In my case I have a netgear WGR614v4 router so I just need to enter into my browser the following below.


http://192.168.0.1




Here is a screen shot of step 1 for my router so note your router may vary.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachme...1&d=1181180838

You may need to enter the username and password. If you haven't changed them look in your routers manual for the default username and password. In my case for my router the defaults are admin (user name) and password is the password. Of course my password has been changed from the default.

Now that I'm within my Netgear control panel this is what I see in the screenshot below.

I blacked out the IP address and such that were provided by my ISP for security reasons.

14. On the left hand side I clicked on Port Forwarding. Once the port forward page is loaded I would click the button that says Add Custom Service.

To setup Azureus I need to create two custom services with the following information entered in for each service.

Custom Service 1

Service Name = Azur1
Starting and Ending Port = 6881
Server IP Address = 192.168.0.2

Custom Service 2

Service Name = Azur2
Starting and Ending Port = 49155
Server IP Address = 192.168.0.2

Here is a screen shot of both Custom Service 1 and 2 below. Just click Apply after entering the information for each service. Once done I would just click the logout button.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachme...1&d=1181180838


http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachme...1&d=1181180838

So we are down to the last and final step.

15. Launch Azureus (latest Vuze version). Click the advanced button towards the top right hand side of screen just below the search box.

Now click on Tools....Options and this should bring up the port box on the right hand side.

The box you want should say Incoming TCP/UDP listen port to the left of it.

Enter 6881 in this box if not present. If you still cannot download a torrent and getting the green face thing than your ISP has blocked port 6881. In this case instead of entering in 6881 just enter the other port number your created under Custom Service 2 which would be 49155.

Here is the final screenshot below.

http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachme...1&d=1181180838


Please note that guides for setting up tons of programs using your specific router can be found at the following link below.


http://www.portforward.com/routers.htm




Just select your brand and model by clicking on the model text. This will bring up another page with an entire A-Z list of software programs. Just click on the name of the software program you want to use and it will bring up a detailed step by step guide on how to configure both your specific router and the software program itself.

I hope this guide can fill anything in that is confusing on PortForward and I also hope that my guide can help. I'm bad at guides and tend to make them more complex than really needed sometimes.

Originally Posted by bidger`

Nice primer, Tony.

I'd just like to add that for #1,
CCleaner

is very good freeware, though they certainly wouldn't be hurt if you choose to donate, that can be run on a weekly, bi-weekly, or at least monthly basis to clean out useless files and check for issues on your machine. Keeps my PCs running along nicely.

Sounds worth checking out. thanks

Originally Posted by harshness

Item 5 can be greatly expanded. The biggest caveat that I can offer is that a lot of your hardware drivers are going to be a serious problem with a new version of Windows. Unless you have very mainstream equipment, you may have significant troubles with printers, scanners, cameras, flash drives/readers and other devices that you might assume wouldn't be an issue.

I'm shocked by the number of USB key drives that don't work consistently.

Even some mainstream devices have issues with Vista. Pre XP versions of Windows (consumer versions) all were pretty much the same, drivers for 95 worked for 98 and ME, and in some cases 98 drivers worked on 95 machine. The reason why, drivers were loaded in a similar fashion, and OS's were pretty much the same for the exception of how intergrated IE was in them and visual enhancements.

With XP, drivers had to be written (some already written for 2000 (and some 98 drivers) worked, however, 2000 didn't have near the device support of 98 so the remainder had to be written for XP specifically). With XP's launch, there was a greater amount of hardware and software support, and therefore less issues with driver and software support than with Vista. Vista, though similar to XP, is different, and therefore drivers for most everything, not to mention various software (even JAVA for petes sake) had to be re-written to work. Instead of waiting until re-write was done, Vista was released, without much of a hardware and software library.

I'd say Vista had the worse launch (as far as device and software support, even OS X IMO did better at launch), even ME, IMO the worst of all OS's, was nothing more than a re-written 98, and therefore all software and device drivers worked. Now, I do believe, Vista has the potential to become the best yet (I still like 98, though over the years XP has grown on me). Vista just had a rough start.

Regardless of how the release of software, especially the operating system, goes, it is almost always better to wait. I've always installed new OS's on my computer so that I can learn them, however, I wouldn't recommend running out and buying them until they've been on the shelf for a little bit. Almost always, there are issues, some worse than others, but always issues.