Google AdSense Overview

Google AdSense is the program that can give you advertising revenue from each page on your websitewith a minimal investment in time and no additional resources.

AdSense delivers relevant text and image ads that are precisely targeted to your site and your site content. And when you add a Google search box to your site, AdSense delivers relevant text ads that are targeted to the Google search results pages generated by your visitors search request.

Keyword Importance
The actual domain name of your website may be included as one of the factors considered by the large search engines in determining whether your web site is relevant for a specific keyword. As a result, including the mostsearched keyword for your business in the domain name itself can increase your sites relevance in search result pages SERPs. The PromotionWorld Keyword Suggestion Tool is a great resource for figuring out which keywords are the most important for your business, and thereby can be considered as an important part of your domain name.

There are of course many examples of seemingly irrelevant domain names that perform exceptionally well on search engines. The domain name of Google is a perfect example. Search engines use complex algorithms to determine a websites relevance, so remember that this is just one of many factors.

AAAlphabetically Speaking
Since the dawn of the phone book, there have been countless new businesses created with oddsounding names designed to push their listing to the top of the page. Most listings in search directories also use alphabetical order for sorting websites, so there are now countless domains that start with numbers or the letter A. A quick search of Google shows the Army Aviation Association of America, American Association of Advertising Agencies, and AAAA Surplus all jockeying for position. This is not a key factor for search engine optimization, though. The value of creating a great brand exceeds the advantage of being the first on alphabetical lists with a nonsensical domain name.

Think Branding
Building a great brand should be a primary goal of most online businesses. The almighty Brand is among the companys core assets. Since a strong presence on the Internet is becoming more and more important for even traditional businesses, the right company name and URL choice can be vital to your businesss success. Choose a name which is easy to remember, easy to pronounce, and does not infringe on existing trademarks.

The goal of corporate branding was eloquently summarized by the band Cake

We are building a religion
We are making a brand
Were the only ones to turn to
When your castles turn to sand

An easytoremember domain name is a valuable tool for your business promotion and recognition. The name doesnt need to have a great meaning if you are committed to building a brand, then your Google could be FUBAR without a lot of work.

Including hyphens in a domain name has its pros and cons. A wellplaced hyphen can help compound words to appear more clearly to people, but it can have a negative affect on your overall branding strategy. This is just one of the many reasons why CocaCola can be found at Coke.com as well as CocaCola.com and CocaCoke.com.

Marketing Niche
Understanding your potential market is vital to a good understanding of the value of a potential domain name. Find out who your competitors are in the market first. Than consider how you will try to differentiate yourself youre business from your competition. Knowing your marketing niche will help you to navigate the vast jungle of potential domains. CheapCowboyBoots.com is a very different positioning statement than BestCowboyBoots.com, for example. One of the best ways to evaluate how you will position your company on the market is to use the PromotionWorld Keyword Suggestion tool to find the keywords your potential customers are using today to try to find similar businesses.

2. Hot n Heavy Web Site Consummation

Building your new web site is an exiting adventure. The act of creation is a rush whether you are using silk sheets or style sheets. Before you start with your new web site, however, you must make sure that youve laid the proper foundation for future success. Search engine optimization should be on your mind even at the formative stage of your web site to insure your success and to prevent you from having to rearrange the site structure for SEO.

CustomerCentered Development
You can consider your target audience and market niche when guiding the development of your web site. Is your audience Internet savvy, or are they newbies Will they read complex instructions and navigate to find information, or do you need to sell a simple and direct message quickly Let your site user profile influence the structure and complexity of your web site.

The ABCs of HTML
It almost goes without saying that it is important the website developer to have good knowledge on HTML and the basic rules of website development. Beyond the basics, however, keep in mind that many design decisions will have a direct effect on search engines will analyze your web site. Eye candy like Flashbased navigation can be fun to develop, but search engines wont be able read information contained in images, Flash inserts, and other kinds of web site window dressings. Try to stay away from using too many effects since this can harm your search engine readability.

Clear Paths for Crawling Spiders
Search engines are continually scouring the Internet and processing web pages to provide their users with the best information possible. This process involves the use of automated programs, commonly called spiders, which continually crawl the web. It is important that your web site is built in a way that is easy for the spiders to find information. Clean, welldefined and simple code structure is a must for SEOfriendly HTML. Obsessing over tidy code may seem a bit analretentive, but it is important to have HTML that can be easily processed by web browsers and search engines alike. Be sure the HTML is implemented with all key structure tags placed in the right order. It is especially important to understand the right placement of the Meta Tags, tables and heading structure.

Google Commandments
SEO techniques specific to the Google search engine will be discussed in detail in the second installment of this tutorial, but keep this immensely popular service in your thoughts even during the creation of your web site. Google gives an advantage to sites which are well organized and easily classified. Cleanliness may be its own reward, but improved placement within the Internets leading search engine should motivate even the most sloppy web master to scrub HTML clean.

The other vital tenet from the Book of Google is the Internet is built upon the free transition of information. Google rewards web sites that give the users the opportunity to move easily from page to page, site to site. After all, Google wants to be sure that Google users can easily come back to Google. This means that the back button in the browser must work on all pages of your web site. The God of Search Engines will punish you if you stop their users from going back to search results.

Blinded by Flash
Macromedia describes its powerful Flash application as a powerful tool that

...allows designers and developers to integrate video, text, audio, and graphics into immersive, rich experiences that deliver superior results for interactive marketing and presentations, elearning, and application user interfaces.

Flash can be a great tool for creating innovative, dynamic web sites, but it is a doubleedged sword. Many experts agree that improper use of Flash will cause significant trouble with the search engine optimization. If a spider cant crawl your web site because key navigation is hidden in a Flash insert, your placement on that search engine will suffer tremendously. Use the effects moderately to avoid harming your site. A flash introduction may seem like an attractive design decision, but it can create a significant barrier to your site content.

The focus of your web site must lead you in every stage of the development. Starting with a good development and promotion will deliver results in the future and will pay back your efforts.


3. Wonderful Web Design and Sensational SEO

The graphical design of your web site will be a key building block of your business image. Design is one of the most core decisions in creating of your corporate image because it creates an instant, visual representation of your companys presence. Design decisions must carefully balance aesthetics and usability, but mind though that it is equally important to consider search engine optimization in the design phase. Certain design decisions can have a disastrous impact on your placement in search engines. We will therefore merge the two in a discussion of designspecific SEO requirements in the remainder of this section.

Surveying the Landscape
Do you want to know what design conventions may work well in your industry Look first to your competition. Look closely and critically at your competitors to evaluate what design elements have been successful in the past. You can use search results to gauge which sites have better optimization. Keep in mind, however, that the most successful competitors will likely be better positioned in search engines because of the factors that made them successful, not necessarily only SEOspecific activity.

The graphical design of your web site will be a key building block of your business image. Design is one of the most core decisions in creating of your corporate image because it creates an instant, visual representation of your companys presence. Design decisions must carefully balance aesthetics and usability, but mind though that it is equally important to consider search engine optimization in the design phase. Certain design decisions can have a disastrous impact on your placement in search engines. We will therefore merge the two in a discussion of designspecific SEO requirements in the remainder of this section.

Surveying the Landscape
Do you want to know what design conventions may work well in your industry Look first to your competition. Look closely and critically at your competitors to evaluate what design elements have been successful in the past. You can use search results to gauge which sites have better optimization. Keep in mind, however, that the most successful competitors will likely be better positioned in search engines because of the factors that made them successful, not necessarily only SEOspecific activity.

4. An Ode to Structurally Sound Web Sites

The homepage of your web site may be the doorway to your online business, but the structure of the site behind the door is just as important as its curb appeal. An intelligent structure to the subsections of web site is the cornerstone of search engine optimization. To implement the right optimization process, you should follow these guidelines First, define the right linking structure and hierarchy for your site. It is great to have a site filled with great information, but that information has to organized into If you have several categories, well structured with different content areas, be sure to link the toplevel categories in the navigation on your Home page. The entry page of your site is the most important not only for the visitors; it is of great value to the spiders and thus needs to present all the linking requirements carefully completed. Secondly, you need to adapt the site code to be easily read.

Navigating Charted Waters
It does not matter how much great information your web site contains if it is impossible for visitors, and visiting spiders, to find it. Navigation is your greatest tool to helping everyone find the pots of intellectual gold hidden beyond your homepage. Your visitors are like treasure seekers in your siteisland. Make their journey easy and entertaining for making them come again. What you can actually do In the menu navigation you can set all the links to your major inner content category groups, services, features, content groups, forums and promotions. When you choose which links to put in the navigation bar, you need to have a clear vision of your site structure. A wellorganized home page is good both for your user retention and for the search engine spidering. Talking about the navigation links, we can consider the importance of the top line path navigation. This thing is the way you to lead the spider and the visitors into your content, allowing an easy followup of the site structure. Remember that every page of your site needs to have an easy access both from and to the home page. This can be achieved either by linking your logo to point the Home page or setting a Home link in the top of the page.

Outbound Linking
While linking, always consider the importance of the links outbound and inbound links on/into your home page. Many experts recommend that you find up to 10 sites in your industry with good Alexa.com positioning and Google PageRank and exchange links. Some webmasters will even buy links on especially popular home pages. The outbound links may be as important as inbound links. Search engines sort the sites by similarity and the outbound links can be a great help. For example if you set a link to http//www.myfavoritecompetitorsite.com, the search engine spider may relate your sites as content of similar category. You can read more about Google PageRank and Alexa.com to find out why these are important for your search engine optimization and how the Alexa.com toolbar function as a mediator in the Internet.

Tables
Using a tablestructured layout can make your content easy to find understand. The use of tables on a web page allows you complete control over the look and format of a page. Tables are especially useful in creating clear navigation sections, a great way to help users intuitively find the core logic of your site organization. Tables are also well accepted by Google for their ability to put organization in the content. You will see later in this tutorial how you can use tables to improve your search engine visibility.

To be most effective, the table structure of your site needs to be especially clean and wellorganized. Arranging your content in tables will allow the spiders to find the logic of your content organization. How it can happen When your table structure follows the content logic, your content will be spidered and classified better. If you have for example text descriptions for every product, you can set in the table name the name of the product or the name of the category group. Use equal table names and structures for your equal content units. Here is a code example of a beginning of a well structured table

Demystifying URLs
Dynamic web sites, managed by complex Content Management Systems CMS, offer the webmaster greater flexibility and efficiency over handcoded HTML. The use of a database allows your data to be easily stored, processed, and output. A databasedriven system also your content units to be easy delivered for displaying using many search criteria and in multiple formats. Showing the searched information every time the user performs selects to request it , will allow your site to gain more popularity and to increase the user retention indicators.

The URL structure concerns the most important part of the optimization process. If your URL type is
http//www.yoursite.com/content.phpid43
you can make it more readable by moderewrite.
This way your URL will read
http//www.yoursite.com/2005/0112content.html

The automatic URL rewriting is one of the very cool new methods you can use to prepare your pages for an easy indexing. Go to our URL part to learn more.

Frames
Frames are considered not to be search engine friendly. Using frames you will cut your site from creating of different page addresses. Since the number of pages is counted for the site value and relevancy in the SERPs, you need to create as many pages as you can. Using Nonframed site will facilitate your users as well when they use Add to favorites or copy your URL to specific page, since in the framed sites all the pages adopt the home page address.

5. Top fold issues

Living Life AbovetheFold

Internet marketing folk describe the section of a web page that is visible without scrolling as being above the fold. This is the sweet spot of a web page; the section that every visitor will see. The actual size of the page that will appear without scrolling varies by screen resolution. A page on a monitor set at 1280x1024 will show more than a page on a monitor set at 640x480. Marketing gurus obsess over the minimum targeted resolution of potential customers because advertisers want to see there ads.

The prime virtual real estate of AbovetheFoldville is also the most logical place to put your logo and the primary navigation of our web site. The important information always belongs near the top of the page as possible. This placement has a side benefit for Search Engine Optimization search engines also consider the top fold as a priority by reading the page code starting with the header.

Like Fish, Text is Best Served Fresh
The Internet is filled with stale, moldy web pages. Keep your web site updated frequently and post these text updates proudly above the fold. These updates will keep your page interesting to visitors and will have a direct effect on the frequency of Google spider visits as well. You need to update your content and links both to attract your visitors with new information and to allow the spiders to consider the changes. A changing page is more visited and thus better indexed. Remember the Golden rule in optimization the more frequently you update your web site, the more frequently it will be frequented by visitors and spiders alike. And what could be better than more people and more spiders

Links
Links in the top fold are of greatest importance. Why they are so influential The top fold links are valuable for reasons we explained partly above. They are the keys users and spiders will use to reach your content. Thus you will have to define what the most important part of your site is you need to lead the visitors to. The outbound linking section here is recommended only if you are sure that you change the link information at least daily. This way you will keep the visitors to your site, making them back for more your picks to other interesting topics on other sites. You may found that I am talking always about the user part of your site, while considering the search engine optimization issues. You need to understand that the traffic and specifically the user retention are of the most important factors for your search engine visibility.

The Invisible Value of Images
Images play several roles in search engine optimization. The appearance of images is naturally important to the overall look and presentation of your web site. But beyond the superficial value, carefully named images can also serve a dual role in search engine optimization. One trick is to use relevant keywords in the name of the images. For example, if your company is a SEO software company, link the images with relevant SEO terms like searchengineguide.gif and seoarticle.jpg. Even the name of directory and subdirectories can contain meaningful keywords.

6. Navigation
Navigation is of the issues most important for your site visibility. The navigation to your main content areas is of double importance when it is in the top fold.

The frequent indexing will be provoked by a frequent update of your content and a clear structure of your interlink structure.

Here the network sites have an advantage in creating more interlink options in the network which will lead to increase in your Google PR. Be sure the links to your pages are in the top of the pages and not hidden in javascript. When you open the page by View source, you will see the code display in the order the search engine spider will read it. Remember this top fold navigation tips and apply them carefully.

7. Site map

The site map has long been a staple at large, commercial web sites, and for good reason. It is of essential importance for making sure that search engines are finding all of your web sites content during every crawl. A good site map can also be an important way for your users to find information on your site. The site map page should ideally be at the following URL

http//www.yoursite.com/sitemap.html

It is important for the site map to be in the main site directory so search engine spiders can easily find it and follow the links. This will guarantee your main site content is instantly accessible to spiders and humans alike.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/large-fast-choosing-right-hard-drive-size-a-4081.html One necessary and extremely important component of computers is the hard drive.  The hard drive stores your games, applications, music, pictures, videos, and documents.  As such, you should be sure the notebook computer youre thinking of buying has a hard drive that can give you the storage and performance that you need.

 

There are two important considerations when looking at hard drive specifications for your computer notebook

hard drive size and hard drive RPM.

 

Hard Drive Size

 

Hard drive size simply refers to the data storage capacity of a hard disk drive.  Desktop computer hard drives offer sizes of up to 500 gigabytes GB, while notebook computer hard dives offer sizes of up to 160 GB.  Notebook computer hard drives are more expensive than desktop computer hard drives with more than twice the capacity of the notebook hard drive.  This is due to the engineering difficulties inherent in making highcapacity hard drives for the smaller notebook computers formfactor.

 

A notebook computers hard drive size indicates how much data a notebook computer can store.  If you are interested in storing large amounts of movies, pictures, or music, you want to go with a larger hard drive to avoid running out of space.

 

A hard drives size has very little to do with its performance, unless the drive is almost full.  The Windows NTFS File System requires a minimum of 10 of the hard drive to be free space for optimum performance, and it frequently requests as much as 15.  This means that, on a 40 GB drive, Windows prefers that you use a maximum of 3436 GB, leaving 46 GB of space unused.  On a 160 GB drive, Windows prefers that you use a maximum of 136144 GB, leaving a massive 1624 GB unused.  If you start to go over these Windows storage limits, you may notice your computers performance taking drastic hits.

 

Hard Drive RPM

 

Hard drive RPM is a hard drives rotational speed, measured in revolutions per minute RPM.  Desktop hard drives now have speeds as high as 15,000 RPM.  Notebook hard drives, on the other hand, currently have an RPM ceiling of 7200 RPM.

 

A hard drives RPM indicates how fast the drives spindle will move or how fast the hard drive platters will spin.  The higher the spin rate is, the shorter the seek time and latency will be.  This translates to quicker data access and transfer.  

 

How Large and How Fast

 

The greater the free space and the higher the RPM, the better your notebook computers performance will be, so go for a slightlymorethancomfortable size and the highest RPM for your notebook computers hard drive.  A large hard drive gives you the option to expand in the future, and you can never go wrong with a notebook computer that can give you fast access to your stored data.

 

It is even more crucial that you go with the topoftheline hard drive size and RPM for your notebook computer if you are fond of computer games, you have a lot of multimedia files, or you want to be able to easily upgrade your programs.  These games, content and programs take up a lot of space.  A high RPM hard drive can also cut down on game load times, giving you more time enjoying your games and less time staring at loading screens.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/remanufacture-16002600n-color-laser-printer-toner-a-4080.html This is one of the first color laser printer toner

where HP/Canon really seems to have gone out of its way to make a toner cartridge very difficult to remanufacture. The waste chamber, which consists of the waste chamber, OPC drum, PCR, wiper and recovery blades, is plastic welded/glued together. The drum axle/bushings are permanently attached to the waste chamber. The only way to get them off is to physically break or cut the cartridge apart. New replacement waste chambers are now available that include the waste chamber, new removable drum axles/bushings, foam seals, electrical contacts and PCR holders. The kit will also contain the screws, springs and plastic pins that will be needed to reassemble the cartridge. If you want to reuse any of the above parts, you will have to cut the OEM chamber apart. The waste chamber for 2600n color laser printer toner is also very small. The aftermarket toner will have to be very efficient to prevent leakage due to the waste overflowing. When you refill 2600n hp color laserjet toner, you should notice following factors to guarantee the quality

 

1 Mitsubishi toner is one of the best choice to remanufacture hp 2600n hp color laserjet toner, physical toner powder is more suitable for refilling color laser printer toner cartridge.

 

2 High quality toner cartridge smartchip can guarantee the page yield of the color laserjet toner.

 

3 New Hanp opc drum is value to consider, because the opc drum is easily worn out.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/modern-computer-filters-offer-simple-lowcost-dust-protection-a-4079.html Computer filters

provide dust and dirt protection for your PC. A common concern is that adding a computer filter to the air inlet port near the power supply fan may do little to block dust and dirt from entering the computer unit. Modern computers have numerous internal fans and it is often difficult to differentiate between the air intake and exhaust. Some fans are used just to circulate internal air. A simple computer filter on the back of a PC is not going to work for the long term.

 

A better computer filter solution is a breathable filter bag that covers all inlet and outlet ports of a computer unit but still allows the computer to be cooled properly. Modern dust bag style computer filters protect the entire unit from dust, dirt, and other airborne contaminants. They are designed in sizes to fit virtually any computer tower

and can be installed in minutes. They work well for monitors and printers as well, both of which need clean filtered air to assure proper longterm operation.

 

Computer filters used on computer cabinets also do a poor job protecting your computer from dust and dirt in the long term. One reason is because most computer cabinets require you to open the cabinet to operate the computer, for instance to access the CDROM or floppy drive. These operational requirements allow dust to bypass the cabinet dust filter and traps dust within the cabinet which eventually will be pulled inside the PC and settle there. This is completely preventable with a dust bag filter.

 

It is very important to use computer filters with PCs used in industrial or workshop situations where dust and dirt can very rapidly reduce the reliability and lifespan of the computer. Critical computer components exposed to dust and dirt, particularly the mechanical components like the keyboard and CDROM, can cease to operate without warning, and many times cannot be repaired once damaged by these contaminants. Studies have shown that dust can fill an unprotected computer in a matter of days, causing it to overheat. And metal dust can cause circuits to shortout, introducing a new workshop hazard. Dust bag style computer filters can do a lot to minimize these issues.

 

A problem with traditional computer filters is that they are designed to capture dust without impacting the amount of air that can enter the computer for cooling. This requires them to be fairly porous with the filter designed to capture the larger dust particles and allowing smaller dust particles and other airborne particles to pass through. The small surface area of the standard filter means that the airflow must be relatively high, and dust and dirt collecting in the filter material quickly begins to restrict air flow. This problem is ameliorated by the larger dust bag, where the huge surface area of the filter translates into lower airflow speed and a larger area to spread the dust trying to enter the computer. The lower airflow speed also ensures less dust makes it through the filter material, especially smaller dust particles and airborne mists.

 

A small investment in a dust filter can provide a level of insurance that your computer equipment will operate when you need it to, and not wear out before its time. Dust bag style computer filters are especially effective, easy to install and inexpensive.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/mesh-computers-buyer-beware-a-4078.html Mesh computers account was recently placed on stop by RepairLine Ltd , all services to the manufacturer are being withheld due to non payment of account and failure to exchange parts buffer stock to allow repairs to continue.

 

RepairLine Ltd signed an agreement with Mesh computers to commence the 1 st of May 2007 the agreement was that RepairLine Ltd would provide on site support to Mesh clients and all PCs sold from the 1 st of May 2007 would be provided with on site warranty, Mesh drove the charges down with false promises of sales volume of PCs which would carry 1 and 3 year warranties, Mesh paid only 5 per 1 year warranty, 49 per 2 Year Warranty and 59 per 3 year warranty. At the time of signing the agreement Max Sherafati the owner and MD of Mesh Computers Ltd formally Mesh Computers PLC stated his sales were in excess of 50,000 units per year and 20 of those would be covered with 3 year warranty. The actual figure turned out to be around 20,000 and 5 with 3 year warranty. Mesh has made a large number of people redundant in the last year and their sales have plummeted to probably what is an all time low. They were featured for their terrible customer service on watchdog prior to arranging service to be provided by RepairLine Ltd. Despite the claims they made in a statement to watchdog that they have increased customer service staff which they have not they still have no concept for providing good customer care, the only customer care seen is when a client wants a refund or they start to take court action. The mesh offices are a now a big open space with a little gathering of people to one side, the staff and even desks have gone which is strange for company increasing its staff levels.

 

Max Sherafati took on Paul Kinsler and introduced him as the new MD, Paul however likes to be know as the acting MD or General Manager as it seems he is still operating his own Business called PK Media information on which can be found at http//www.pkmedia.co.uk . Paul likes to disassociate himself with Mesh just in case the inevitable happens and they fall. Paul, everyone is lead to believe does not want his relationship with the Media to be effected by his association with Max Sherafati and Mesh Computers. Paul subsequently took charge and Max was no longer contactable the last claims are he is in Iran living his life in his Mansion complete with servants to tend his ever need. Paul decided to make changes and stopped any systems being sold with 3 year onsite warranty, this was his first move next he introduced the idea he only wanted to pay if a client registered the warranty, under Pauls control the only 3 year warranty provision was if the customer was sold it as an upgrade and Mesh made money from it and the only warranty he paid for was if it was registered though a web page, however he still expected every machine to be covered. Later it came to light that approximately 2000 warranties had not been declared by Mesh to RepairLine ltd yet they had been expecting support to be provided, this was claimed to be a genuine mistake with the daily exports of sales data however the first time this may have been a good excuse but the situation continued and then it became obvious the reasons for the non disclosure, with no data declared RepairLine Ltd could not invoice for the cover Mesh it seemed was clearly in trouble.

 

In February 2008 Paul Kinsler representing Mesh at this time as Acting MD Management Consultant informed RepairLine Ltd that Mesh could no longer afford to provide free on site warranty for even 1 year to its clients at the cost of 5 per unit and he went on to say the decision was purely financial with no mention of any lack of service or support from the company he wanted to still offer service but the end user had to pay for it, he was informed to do this he was in breach of contract as the agreement was all systems sold would carry on site support and his subsequent action was to tender 3 months of termination. Should any one to see the actual email simply email meshrepairline.co.uk and the mail will be sent to you.

 

Although Sales were very low over the period the failure rate certainly was not and with over 30 of units failing the cost of stock to maintain the poorly built systems was huge Mesh should have arranged with all its suppliers to allow exchanges to be done direct but they failed to do so and thus eventually had to agree to carry out the exchanges from the buffer stock RepairLine Ltd had which it had bought and paid for to the value of 150K just for initial stock , Whilst it seemed we were starting to make progress and could stop spending on Stock to maintain the systems as the parts already replaced and left faulty would be replaced at long last the exchanges were replaced by Mesh with faulty second hand goods and thus the majority of systems which needed repair needed far more than one visit to achieve a stable working system with these parts. Clients could have a 1 week old computer and Mesh expected them to be repaired with old second hand faulty parts. This coupled with the poor payment history meant RepairLine Ltd placed the Mesh account on stop for what would be the 5th time in less than 12 months. All work ceased for Mesh and they are now left looking for another service provider to use who will no doubt gain little reward for their efforts. Any service provider who takes on this company should be well experienced at debt collection and the best advice would be to seek at least 100K on account and dont provide your own buffer stock it will work out very expensive and be a magical experience, new stock will disappear before their very eyes and be replaced with non usable old parts. Paul Daniels himself could not perform a better trick.

 

Mesh it seems have a terrible reputation for payment throughout the trade so it is not only service providers they dislike paying and as a result they have set up another company formed by Max along Ray the purchase manager for Mesh and Maxs brother in law Mohsen, with this new partnership MRM International Ltd was formed in May 2007 with a registered office in Kent. This is now the purchasing arm used by Mesh.

 

Whilst it is easy for everyone to blame the service provider for lack of service its is well worth remembering any service provider is only as good as the company it works with, if they are not paid, provided with faulty parts to repair systems and the manufacturer has no concept for support and customer care and is only concerned with making sales and taking your money then it is a difficult battle for any service provider to provide first class service to the end user.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/smartphone-a-4077.html Most of us are familiar now with cell phones. Theyve been around long enough and weve struggled with each new upgrade enough that they no longer mystify and exasperate the average user. So then along comes the smartphone. These go beyond what the typical cell phone can do and often act like computers. In fact, there is not one definition of a smartphone. Some run complete operatingsystem software and have a standardized interface and platform. In other cases, the smartphone simply has some capabilities that the standard cell phone doesnt have.

 

According to David Wood of Symbian, Smart phones differ from ordinary mobile phones in two fundamental ways how they are built and what they can do. However, nowadays most smartphones use an identifiable operating system such as Windows and usually are able to accept applications such as data processing software. The applications are sometimes developed by the manufacturer of the smartphone or can be made available by a thirdparty software developer with no connection to the manufacturer.

 

Most have email capability and a personal organizer. A miniature QWERTY keyboard can be added. Also, some have touchscreens and builtin cameras. Other potential addons are contact management software; navigation hardware and software; PDFreading capability; software for music, browsing photos, and viewing video clips; internet browsers; or secure access to company mail.

 

IBM developed the first smartphone in 1992 and called it Simon. It was shown as a concept at a computer industry trade show in Las Vegas that year. BellSouth sold it to the public in 1993. In addition to standard cellphone features, it had a calendar, address book, world clock, calculator, note pad, email, sendandreceive fax, and games. A touchscreen was used on this innovative new phone for selecting phone numbers. Faxes and memos could be created with a stylus using a predictive keyboard. Today it would be considered a lowend smartphone.

 

Nokia got into the smartphone revolution in 1996. Theirs was a palmtop computer and was based on a PDA model by Hewlett Packard and Nokias bestselling phone. The Nokia 9210 had the first color screen and was the first true smartphone with an open operating system. The 9500 Communicator was Nokias first cameraphone and first WiFi phone. The latest E90 Communicator has GPS. All of these new Nokias are very expensive.

 

Research in Motion RIM began marketing the first BlackBerry in 2001. It was the first smartphone optimized for wireless email use. It has been very popular.

 

The first wildly popular smartphones in the United States were the Treo marketed by Handsprings in 2002, which eventually was bought out by Palm. Microsoft also announced its Windows CE Pocket PC OS that same year as Microsoft Windows Powered Smartphone 2002.

 

Nokias NSeries of 3G smartphones were marketed in 2005 not as mobile phones but as multimedia computers.

 

Smartphones, the higher end of the camera phone market and having full email support will account for about 10 of the camera phone market in 2008. One billion camera phones will be shipped this year.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/what-rfid-tags-a-4076.html Radiofrequency identification chips often called RFID tags are passive, inductively powered chips that are used for numerous applications, from substituting bar codes on supermarket products to discovering lost dogs and cats. It is a tiny, batterypowered electronic device that can be taken around to warn its possessor that a new RFID tag has been positioned in his or her locality or that his or her tags are presently being scanned. One of the introductory RFID TAG development companies, Alien Technology leads the industry in developing highquality compliant RFID tags, readers and printers for companies worldwide. Once the RFID tag is activated, the tag decodes the incoming query and makes an proper reply by utilizing the energy of the incoming radio wave to power the chip long enough to reply.

 

Some other companies are using RFID for a large kind of applications. Some of these applications include supply chain management, automatized payment, physical access control, counterfeit prevention, airline luggage management, and smart homes and offices. The following are the most common forms of tags Label The tag is a flat, thin, flexible form. Ticket A flat, thin, flexible tag on paper .Card A flat, thin tag embedded in tough plastic for long life. Glass bead A small tag in a cylindrical glass bead, used for applications such as animal tagging e. Assorted frequencies have different characteristics that make them more useful for several applications.

 

RFID TAGS bring value and accuracy to many applications such as Compliance labeling in retail distribution centers. Highspeed processes in postal and parcel distribution. Manufacturing process control and verification, material tracking, Airline luggage identification and routing systems, and Singlepass multiple item identification. RFID technology can be utilized to raise productivity and tracking in discrete and process manufacturing. For RFID applications such as toll collection and vehicle and container tracking, the tags are used over and over for many years. The most usual applications are payment systems Mobil Speedpass and toll collection systems, for instance , access control and asset tracking. Active and semipassive rfid tags are useful for tracking highvalue goods that need to be read over long ranges, such as railway cars on a track, but they cost more than passive tags, which means they cant be utilized on lowcost items.

 

However, the ease with which RFID tags can be tracked opens up the door to invading peoples privacy. The accelerated adoption of RFID technology has produced worries with some groups involved with privacy such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union . Civil liberties groups are afraid about RFID technology being abused to invade peoples privacy; RFID tags enable unethical individuals to snoop on people and sneakily collect information on them without their approval or even knowledge.

 

RFID tag technology, a replacement to bar code technology, identifies tagged items over radio communication between an electronic reader and tags carrying data on microprocessor chips. The major disadvantages of a passive rfid tag are The tag can be read only at very close distances, typically a few feet at most. Passive RFID tags are more suitable for warehousing surroundings where there is not a lot of interference, and comparatively short distances typically ranging anywhere from a few inches to a few yards.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/britec-basic-facts-about-spyware-a-4075.html Fact 1

 

Spyware can easily be installed on a system without a users knowledge. Infections can originate from open ports in your firewall or by not having a firewall, visiting some malicious websites or installing some software that includes the spyware with its install package.

 

In many cases one infection can propagate more infections by installing other spyware software in the background without the user ever knowing something is going on.

 

Basis of this Fact

 

It only takes one open port in your firewall or just one piece of software to infect your system. After that most spyware is designed to download and install other pieces of software to infect and reinfect your system with even more spyware.

 

Fact 2

 

There is no software available that can remove 100 of all spyware.

 

Basis of this Fact

 

In a recent studies by PC world and others, tests compared 9 of the top spyware scanning and removal applications against each other. Each application was tested on a system infected with common spyware threats, and then compared against each other to see which product was best at spyware removal and detection.

 

The top three applications detected only 65 to 85 of the spyware on the test system, while all the other application detection rates were well below 60.

 

So trusting just one piece of software for spyware removal is not a good bet.

 

Fact 3

 

Spyware can make your identity information just a few mouse clicks away for criminals.

 

Basis of this Fact

 

Spyware has helped many criminals get personal information in just a click of the mouse. A special type of spyware called a key logger can record your account numbers and passwords and then send them off to the writer of the spyware program on your system. Online Identity theft and fraud now leads the way as the method of choice to rip people off as it is simple to do and the chances of getting caught are small.

 

Fact 4

 

Spyware can slow down your internet speed dramatically.

 

Basis of this Fact

 

Every piece of information that leaves your computer via the Internet has to use some of your bandwidth. A heavily infected system can send a significant amount of information out at any given time.

 

This seriously limits the availability of bandwidth for legitimate uses and the user suffers a dramatic loss of speed.

 

In many cases, spyware can turn your computer into nothing more then a zombie that relays things like spam and viruses which uses even more system and bandwidth resources.

 

Fact 5

 

Spyware takes away precious system resources from your computer, making boot times longer and overall performance much slower.

 

Basis of this Fact

 

This is self explanatory. Your system only has so many resources available to complete tasks. Every program good or bad requires system resources; spyware takes away resources from legitimate computer programs.

 

Fact 6

 

A survey suggests that over 90 of computers are infected with some type of spyware.

 

Basis of this Fact

 

90 sounds like a lot, but imagine all the stuff your computer does day in and day out. All the websites you go to and all the programs you may have downloaded. So when you know that it only takes one bad website or one bad program to infect you and then you add up all the places you could get spyware from 90 is not that surprising.

 

Fact 7

 

Some types of spyware can install programs to allow hackers complete control over your system.

 

Basis of this Fact

 

Everyday users are having their systems hijacked and used to create problems. This often results in someone from the outside using your computer to send out spam and viruses or linking with thousands of other computers to shut down websites and launch other kinds of attacks.

 

What can I do to protect my system

 

Run more than one spyware scanner on your system.

 

As stated above no scanner catches 100 of all spyware so running more than one scanner increases the chances of catching spyware on your system.

 

Scan often.

 

Scanning often makes sure you get rid of spyware before it has a chance to download more spyware or send your personal data out.

 

Keep your system updated.

 

Make sure you have auto updates turned on or go to Windows update often so you get the latest security patches.

 

Do not go to websites or download programs you are not sure of.

 

You can use the new phishing filter in IE7 to check websites and do a Google search for any new programs to check if they have been reported for spyware before downloading and using them. 

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/speed-your-with-more-memory-a-4074.html One of the factors that will determine how fast your PC runs is the amount of RAM Random Access Memory that is in your system. The reason for this is because if you have a small amount of memory for the application programs

you are running, the PC will be spending time processor time swapping information in and out of the limited amount of memory to your hard drive. Processor time spent swapping data in and out of memory is time that could be spent performing the activities of your running applications. If more memory is added to the system assuming space is available then more applications and or their data can remain in memory, reducing the amount of time wasted swapping information in and out of memory.

 

If your PC is a few years old and now appears to be running slower than it did when it was new, this is probably because new software or software upgrades that you have added to the system are putting evermore demands on the available memory.

 

If you want to get some idea if memory might be a problem for your slow PC, then check your PCs RAM usage by opening the Windows Task Manager. You can start the Task Manager by pressing CtrlAltDel at the same time and then click the Performance tab. If the figure next to Available or Free in Vista in the Physical Memory section is getting close to zero, for example if only 10 or so of your PC memory is available, you probably need more RAM.

 

In general a standard Windows XP user will find that 1GB of RAM should give them satisfactory system performance. For users who run lots of demanding applications simultaneously or they do a lot of working with digital video or other large graphics files then they should have 2GB of RAM or more.

 

If you are planning to upgrade your PC to run Windows Vista, you can run this operating system with 1GB of RAM, but for a better Windows Vista experience then 2GB of RAM is recommend.

 

Having decided that you need to increase the amount of RAM in your system to improve its performance you then have the following questions to answer

 

1. Are there any empty memory card slots available in your system

 

2. Will I have to remove some of the current memory to make room for new memory

 

3. What type of memory does your system require

 

4. Is your PC using dualchannel memory, if so then you must install a pair of memory cards for maximum performance

 

You could read your PCs manual to answer these questions and others, but the easiest thing to try first is to surf to one of the reliable RAM manufacturers website using the PC you wish to upgrade. The main RAM supplier websites have online tools for identifying the right RAM for the PC you are using to surf to their website. These tools can tell you what memory you are currently using, if you have any empty memory slots and what upgrade options are available.

 

Using these online tools can clearly show you your upgrade options and really helps your to know that you are buying the correct memory for your system.

 

When you receive your new memory you will then have to read your PC manual to understand how to open up your PC and correctly insert the new memory. One thing you should be aware of when handling memory is that static electrical can damage these memory items and your PCs other delicate circuits. That is why you should read your manual as it should explain that you must earth yourself to the metalwork inside your PC, before removing your new memory from its protective covering and adding or removing items inside your PC.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/britec-basic-guide-computer-upgrades-laptop-upgrade-a-4073.html There comes a time when your computer or laptop is just not performing as well as it used to. And since every computer or laptop owner needs his/her PC to perform multi tasks efficiently and as quickly as possible, so you think your computer or laptop is destined for the scrap heap. However, before tossing it on the scrap heap and spending a lot of money on a new PC system, perhaps you should consider some new upgrades. You will likely spend a lot less money on upgrading your notebook or computer and after the upgrade you should see big improvements in performance sometimes up to 50. With that being said, here are three upgrades users choose for their computers and laptops.

 

Notebooks and computers memory is an essential component of its internal operating system. Memory upgrades probably rank as one of the most popular upgrades for computer and laptop owners. It is also a pretty simple upgrade and one of the quickest, easiest things that you can do to boost your computers productivity and performance and that can only be a good thing plus its a lot cheaper than buying a new PC or laptop.

 

If you are planning on upgrading your laptop or computers memory, you will first need to determine how much memory your computer currently has. You will also need to find out the speed of your ram and also you will need to know how many empty slots you have for upgrading the memory. Example If there are no free slots left and you have...lets say two banks with two sticks of 512 megs of ram in the motherboard, a possible solutions is to remove both sticks of ram and replace the memory with two sticks of 1 gig ram...thats only if the motherboard can take 1 gig sticks But remember this is only if the both banks are full If your computer was new when you purchased it and you have not upgraded it yet, the information is normally provided in the user manual that came with your system. Or you can use programs such as Sandra 2008, SIW System Information. Otherwise; you will need to perform a BIOS check to see how much memory you currently have. Then you will also need to open your computers case to check the number of empty slots.

 

PCS only Another popular upgrade many people consider when there upgrading their systems is the processer CPU upgrade. Most custom built computers have room for a bigger CPU on the down side for people who brought a branded PC say from PC World...its unlikely your be able to upgrade the CPU by much if any, this is their way of making you buy a new computer.

 

PCS only If you love playing all of the high graphic intensive games that are about in the shops, you may want to treat yourself a more powerful video card; this is a very popular computer upgrade for hardcore pc game lovers. Some of the newest games need a mid to high end graphics card to play them at full level, all though the game has a card requirement to even play the game this is just a requirement to play the game at a low spec.

 

Choosing a video card can be a little confusing, though, because there are so many on the market. You will first need to check either your computer manual

or motherboard to determine which video cards are compatible with your system. Ask a computer specialist to explain the differences between the video cards if you are uncertain about your choice.

 

These are only a few of the most popular upgrades for computers. Some others include PSU, Sound Card, DVDRW, Hard Drive and Motherboard upgrades. Before scraping your old computer for a new one, be sure to ask a professional for prices and his opinion to see if an upgrade might be a more cost effective option then buying a new PC if you decide to get a new computer I would advise to get a custom built computer and not one bought from a shop. I hope this basic guide helps you out.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/approach-purchase-cheap-computers-a-4072.html The purchasing cheap computers is a task that takes a little time, but it can also save you money. Purchasing a desktop computer is a learning experience, but with a few tips, it can be moneysaving experience.

 

In general, a standard or basic computer is highly useful and will give you all you ask for everyday use. It is perfect for surfing the Internet, using email, and even composing a report or doing bookkeeping. Basic computers can also download and play MP3 music and short videos. Limited photo editing is now also common on most new computers and many are really fine for playing most games.

 

A standard cheap computer is ideal for high school, college and university students, and also for most families, office workers, and even for small businesses.

 

If youre serious about games, you may need a special video card and additional computer Memory. You need to know what computer software programs including games you plan to set up, so that you can check the software box and make sure the computer you like will meet all requirements.

 

When you know the minimum requirements for your software, you will be prepared to go shopping. And when youre ready to shop, I recommend you first look online. Using the Internet is really the very best way to compare models, functionality, and compare prices.

 

Youll find that cheap computers are available in every season of the year, somewhere. You may visit some of the retail stores online to see if they have any live sales. Online shopping also allows you to visit some other retailers that sell computers online.

 

You will find that some online stores have current models and also discontinued models that are available at a big savings year round. Discontinued computers and laptops are simply the models from last season. They are as good as any current model, but they are no longer widely available. Discontinued desktop computers can be a huge bargain but it is only worthwhile if it meets your minimum requirements.

 

As you can see, knowing ahead of time exactly your requirements means you can shop and immediately tell if any given computer is for you or not. Forearmed by knowing your minimum requirements makes it easy for you to grab the right computer at a very low cost, at the time it is available.

 

Be aware, a store may have 500 of a discontinued desktop computer or laptop computer, or they may have only 3. These 3 will likely sell very quickly, as their price is likely to be even lower because there are so few. It is best to be ready and take advantage of current discontinued models that are advertised online. In this way, the early bird catches the right computer at an especially good cost.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/apple-and-mac-is-it-for-you-a-4071.html Are you wondering what brand of computer to get Why not try getting that one with an apple on. Im sure that all of us have seen that apple logo with a bite of its upper right side and Im also sure that all of us know who it belongs to. That famous apple is the logo of none other than Apple, Inc. This company is well known for its Macintosh personal computers, the iPod and the much talked about iPhone.

 

Macintosh, or popularly called as Mac, is a brand name for a group of personal computers produced by Apple, Inc. This also refers to the operating system used by these computers. Apple first introduced Macintosh computers in 1984 but suffered a decline when a cheaper and more efficient Microsoft Windows was introduced in the 1990s. Since then more people started using Windows instead of Mac. But Apple fought back with the introduction of the iMac in 1998 and started to rise again soon after that. Today, Mac is still widely used by a great majority of people around the world and has given Windows a run for its money.

 

Apple has produced both desktop and laptops computers. Unlike the Windows operating system which can be used for any computer brand, the Mac operating system is only used with Apple computers. They have produced desktops computers with some of more common and latest models being the Mac Pro, iMac and Mac mini. They have also produced the MacBook Pro, Powerbook Powerbook Laptops and MacBook air for their portable computers.

 

The Mac Pro introduced in 2006 is a workstation desktop computer which uses Intel Xeon processors. The iMac introduced also in 2006 is a highend desktop computer which is the first Macintosh with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. The Mac mini introduced in 2005 is the smallest desktop computer to be released by Apple. This computer looks like a small box with a measurement of 6.5 by 6.5 by 2 inches. This also uses an Intel Core Solo or Intel Core Duo processor.

 

The MacBook Pro first introduced in 2006, is a 15 inch notebook pc with an aluminum casing. It uses Intel Core 2 Duo processors and has 4 GB of RAM. The MacBook also introduced in 2006 is a 13.3 inch notebook computer with a polycarbonate casing. It also uses Intel Core 2 Duo processors and has up to 4 GB of RAM. The MacBook Air introduced early this year is a 13.3 inch notebook computer which weighs only 1.36 kg and is 0.16 inches thick. This uses Intel Core 2 Duo processors and 2 GB of RAM.

 

Aside from these computers, Apple has also produced the iPod which is a digital media player and the iPhone which is a phone, an iPod and an internet device in one. The computers have the usual accessories but both the iPod and iPhone has accessories too. These accessories can serve to protect your iPod or iPod and enhance them too.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/call-management-software-hospitality-industry-a-4070.html Call accounting, the ability to track and analyze phone calls, was originally invented in the 1970s as a way for businesses to manage phone usage within their organizations. By the early 80s it had been adapted to the hospitality industry, allowing hotels and resorts to more easily track guest phone usage, recover telephone costs, and generate extra revenue through the resale of phone calls.

 

Call accounting systems can track where a phone call was made, who made the call, what number was dialed, how long the call lasted, and, using FCC tariff information, can determine the cost of the call and automatically add predefined surcharges to it.

 

During the 1980s and 90s call accounting systems were in high demand due to the fact that hotels could often generate thousands of dollars each month by marking up long distance calls. However, with decreasing calling costs and the invention of cell phones and VoIP, hotels have seen decreasing revenues from their call accounting systems and some managers think that call accounting is no longer necessary for their properties.

 

In todays world, major business and hospitality organizations strongly suggest that their properties use call accounting systems, and many require that their systems are uptodate and accurate. They do this for four main reasons 1 to recover the cost of longdistance calls, 2 to properly allocate, account for, and charge customers for phone usage, 3 to generate revenue through the resale of phone calls, and 4 to track phone calls made to and from their property for marketing, planning, and other purposes, and especially for handling and tracking emergency calls.

 

In the hospitality industry, it is often appropriate to have detailed information about highcost phone calls, wakeup calls, and in case of emergencies, where 911 calls were initiated. Without a call accounting system, hotel managers do not have the information needed to quickly resolve guest concerns and may be confronted with headaches and disgruntled customers. However, by using a call accounting system, managers can have the added security and peace of mind that they have the information needed to help their guests and to understand, manage, improve, and control telephone activities.

 

When buying a call accounting system, hotel managers have three system choices software, hardware, or webbased products. Webbased products tend to get quite expensive due to the monthly subscription fees which are based on the number of extensions and users. Software products are more flexible than hardwarebased systems due to the added capabilities of the PC, but often require large amounts of memory to store and retrieve call data efficiently. Hardware or standalone systems appear to be the most popular form of call accounting systems in the hospitality industry due to the fact that the systems are quite small and can be stored in a closet or drawer. Standalone systems, like software and webbased products, will automatically post call records directly to the Property Management System for future retrieval.

 

There are many companies that offer call accounting products, but only a few with a long history of providing quality products and customer support specifically for the hospitality industry. TEL electronics, inc., founded in the 1970s, is one of the nations leading call accounting providers for hotels, resorts, and businesses. TEL has provided systems for nearly 50,000 organizations and offers two standalone systems, the INNFORM XL and the INNFORM Plus, as well as two softwarebased systems called the INNFORM PC and the WINSENSE 32.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/properly-buying-video-card-a-4069.html If you are in the market for a video cards, It is recommended to do some research first. There are two dominant chip set

makers, nVidia and ATI, both of these hardware manufacturers have several number of reseller who in fact produce the manufactured chip sets in their cards. Among the best and well known manufacturers which come to mind are XFX, MSI, and BFG Tech. Before buying a video card, it is important to know what youre getting. As the chip sets for the manufacturers doesnt change, their features do. XFX is well known for their hardware structure which they provide with their cards in a way to maintain the internal temperature of your computer low. MSI randomly puts in the market bundled deals, which if you purchase one of their graphic cards, youll get a certain type of video game with it. Depending on the purpose of the usage, youll have to take a decision which video card manufacturer to pick.

 

XFX online deals exclusively with nVidia chip based cards can provide a very unique technical support and a lifetime warranty on the majority of their hardware. Their one of the kind program give you the option to trade in any card youve bought within the initial year for a newer generation one, and only have to pay the price difference between the two. This allows you to be part of the latest video card in the planet and enjoy all the new features that comes with it. The companys lifetime warranty is being introduced on many of their top notch products and even covers certain damages on damaged graphic cards. They will ship you the same exact card or you will be getting an up to date card with the same price range depending on XFXs stock availability. Hence, the company is among the best companies that provides a good service. Many of their products are available online at reputable and trusted reseller.

 

HIS Tech is one of the well known manufacturers for ATI branded video cards. They provide a wide variety of cards based on the ATI chip sets, They have been providing good customer service in Asia and The United States as well. Their products do not come with a lifetime warranty but instead you get a two year warranty which is very impressive, considering that active computer gamers have the tendency to upgrade their video card every year.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/designing-customised-memory-sticks-a-4068.html If you want to store your computer memory differently you can begin by getting customised USB memory sticks.

This allows you to make more out of not only saving projects and files on your computer, but also provides you with a way of keeping your USB memory sticks unique.  Knowing what you can include to make your USB memory sticks personalised allows you to start putting together the best design for your computer memory. 

 

When you begin looking into getting customised USB memory sticks, you will want to start with defining exactly what you want on the stick.  You have the ability of adding in colours, designs, graphics, names and specific lettering on to the stick, all based on what is interesting to you.  Building the right designs allows you to make sure that you are creating something completely unique. 

 

When you begin looking into customised USB memory sticks, you will want to start with finding a colour that will work for you; this includes solid colours that are common in different types of sticks.  There is also the ability to customise the colours into a pattern so you have not only the main colour, but also outlines of contrasting colours with both the graphics and the main look.  Beginning with this will help your USB memory stick to stand out from the rest of the crowd.

 

After you have the basic colours for the customised USB memory sticks, you can work towards putting the graphics and designs that you want in place.  You should keep in mind that while you can print almost anything, the USB sticks are smaller than most other items.  This means that you wont be able to see some of the details with the logo or design or may not be able to put in as much as you want with the customised USB memory sticks. 

 

The last step towards creating completely customised USB memory sticks is to add in the lettering.  When you are making this personalised, you have the option of putting in fonts, colours and styles with the names that you want on the stick.  This includes anything from your general information to a saying that you find interesting.  This allows you to make the USB stick completely yours.

 

If you want to have a way to save memory that is completely yours, then starting with customised USB memory sticks ensure that you are able to do this in your own unique way.  Knowing what to include when you create a personalised look allows you to keep the best look and to make the most out of having a custom design on the USB stick.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/finding-style-with-customised-flash-drives-a-4067.html If you want more options for file sharing, saving documents or getting the most out of an external drive then you can begin by getting the right tools. For anyone who wants to make even more out of the technology that can be used, adding customised USB flash drives into the picture can help to make even more out of the technology that you need. Understanding the options for making your drive completely personalised will begin to open doors for better memory.

 

When you begin to look into USB flash drives, you will be given a variety of options that you can add into the picture. This helps you to make the most out of not only the memory device that you have, but also with the way that your technology looks. The first thing that you can look into with the customised USB flash drives are the shapes and styles that are available. This includes different size sticks that can be used. It also includes options such as drives that can work as pens, as well as options that can work as laser pointers or other devices. This will help you to find the best look not only through the size, but also with the functions that the customised USB flash drives have.

 

After you have found the right shape, you can continue to look for the best options of customised USB flash drives by adding in different looks for the exterior area. You can begin by finding the colours that will fit your personality the best. You can continue this by putting in names, graphics, logos or other designs that help you to express your style through the memory drive. When you are designing this, you can easily come up with your own options for how you want the customised USB flash drives to look so that you know it will fit best with your style.

 

If you have decided on a complete look for the customised USB flash drives then you will want to find a place that will help you to keep your memory stick personal. There are several areas that will print custom USB sticks, all which will offer the ability to either print only one USB stick or to print a bulk amount of the same sticks. By doing this, you will not only be able to save your own memory on the sticks, but can also print custom USB drives that others can use.

 

If you want to have technology and combine it with fashion, one place to start is with customised USB flash drives. This allows you to make even more out of the drives, combined with the ability to create the look that you want. Knowing what to include with the customised USB flash drives so that you can begin to express your personal style is the first step towards creating the complete technological look that you want.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/unlocking-designs-with-customised-keys-a-4066.html For anyone who has a computer,,, there is an understanding that every program and file that is written needs to be saved with a back up drive. Typically, these are better when they are external drives that will help you to store what is needed. One option that you can look into for this is USB keys. These are designed to keep your projects and files in an external area so that you dont have to worry about redoing any of your work. If you want to make sure that you can also keep your external drive in place then you can begin by personalising it. Understanding what you need to design customised USB keys will help you to remember not only your information from the computer, but also your style.

 

When you begin to look into customised USB keys you will be given alternatives for looks, this begins with the general shape of the drives. Most of these come in smaller sizes so they are easier to carry and keep in certain places. Others will combine other aspects, such as pens. There are other USB keys that have different shapes, such as a rounder look or a more oval look. These are designed to help you in beginning to get your custom look for memory.

 

Once you have looked at the basics for the different keys, then you can work towards getting your own customised USB keys. This ensures that you are able to keep your specific key in place, whether you are in the office or at home, with a look that defines your style. You can begin to do this by getting the right colours or patterns placed on the customised USB keys. With this, you will be able to ensure that you are getting the most out of the keys.

 

After you have your colours in place you can complete your customised USB keys by putting in your own style. For most, this includes a name or graphic that is specific to who you are. You can also include information on who the key belongs to in case it gets lost. If you are looking to create more of a keepsake then adding in graphics for the USB keys will help you to keep your style in place while helping you with the memory that you need for your computer.

 

If you are making sure that you keep your external hard drives in case then you can begin by getting customised USB keys. This ensures that you are not only able to keep your files and projects in with external memory, but also provides you with extra options in creating a unique style for the technology that you are using.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/types-customised-thumb-drives-a-4065.html Making sure that you keep your storage in the right place with the technology that you use. It can make the difference between completing a project on time or not. If you are looking for a way to do this with a different style, then you can begin by putting together customised USB thumb drives. This will not only help you in keeping your storage for your computer in one area, but will also allow you to do this with style.

 

Thumb drives are the same as other types of USB sticks. The difference is that the shape is close to the width of someones thumb. This means that it will be skinnier and smaller than other types of USB drives. When you are putting together customised USB thumb drives, you will want to keep this idea in mind first so that you can put in the right lettering or graphic without taking up too much room or not looking right.

 

After you have the size measured out for the customised USB thumb drives, you can continue with determining how you want the personalised USB stick to look. When you begin to put this together you will want to start with defining the type of engraving you will get. The most common is a laser engraving which will leave a different colour from the laser as it moves into the material. You can also get insertions of words and graphics through more digital technology or engraving tools that are older. These will begin your specialized look with the USB drives.

 

Once you have decided on how you will personalise your USB drive you can continue with finding what you will be using the customised USB thumb drives for. This allows you to make even more out of the engraving you get. For instance, some engrave their USB drive for personal uses and to create a specific style to the drive. Others will use this as a promotional item for a business to help with marketing. There are also options for engraving the items for gifts for the office or for a school, all which create a different type of personalisation with the materials.

 

Making sure that you are able to keep in touch with different types of technology also allows you to use new fashion designs with your tools. Knowing how you can work with customised USB thumb drives to get the best look can help you for a variety of occasions, while giving you the best look to your drive. Finding the best way to get your name stamped into technology will also introduce you to better ways of saving while keeping style.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/create-customised-flash-drives-a-4064.html If you are looking for a way to make technology belong to your personal list of items then one gadget that you can add is a customised USB flash drive.  This provides you with a mark in technology that is yours and allows you to create a style that is unique for your style.  Knowing how to create customised USB flash drives is the first step towards making sure that the technology you have also includes your exclusive mark.

 

When you begin to create customised USB flash drives you will need to make certain predeterminations.  This allows you to make it look how you want without having any problems after you have personalised the drive.  You can begin by building a check list of things that can be included in the external area of the USB drive all which allow you to make the most out of technology that is combined with style.

 

The first set of ideas to include on your list for creating customised USB flash drives are the general style that you want to personalise.  The foundation of the different drives will have specific styles and looks that you can then add your own stamp onto.  This starts with specific shapes that are with the different drives.  This also includes colours, patterns and general looks that are made on the USB drives.  Starting with a specific look that will fit with your personal additions will ensure that you get the best look possible.

 

After you have found the general concept that you want to use you can add in the steps towards customised USB flash drives.  This begins with adding in graphics, a saying, your information or other concepts on the exterior area.  This will be brought into a printer that have the ability to digitally add the engraving or to laser print your information on the drive.  You will want to make sure that you can include everything that you want on the drive with the ability to make the information and graphics smaller or larger so it can fit on the drive.

 

With the different tools in technology, there are also ways to make sure that your own items have a label on them that belongs to you.  One style that you can include in this is with customised USB flash drives.  This allows you to make the most out of the drive, combined with the ability to personalise your technology with the look that you want.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/writing-information-with-customised-pens-a-4063.html There are several ways to help others remember who you are or to put together something that is different from the rest of the office and technology items that they have. If you want to make sure that you are putting together a different set of items then you can combine your options with customised USB pens.  These gadgets are designed to create all in one features that add into the memory for the office.

 

When you begin to look into customised USB pens it is important to start with knowing how the different pens

are designed.  Typically, there will be a USB drive on one side of the pen.  This may be attached at the back of the pen or will open in the middle of the pen.  This allows you to save the information needed on the pen.  When the pen is attached together, there is also the ability to write with the pen on a piece of paper.  The result is the ability to get two items in one. 

 

If you want to make the most out of this item then you can work towards customised USB pens.  This provides you with more capabilities towards having a unique object in the office.  Customised USB pens are a convenient item to give as an office gift or can be used if you are working on promoting your business.  The result is the ability to use the pen as a way to create memories in more than one way.

 

Looking into customised USB pens starts with finding the right way to customise the object.  With most of the pens you can begin with printing the name of something or putting a graphic on the outside.  This can help you with promotional items or allows you to create a style that completely belongs to you.  By adding in the right prints you can make sure that you have the most effective statement on the outside of the pens that will remain written on for others to remember specific concepts that apply your own ideals and philosophies.

 

For anyone who wants to write in memories, the best way to start is by combining in technology with personalised options.  One of the best tools that can be used for this is through customised USB pens.  This hybrid piece of equipment can help you to make the most out of writing, saving files and helping others to remember who you are.  Knowing the basics of this is the beginning to creating the perfect image through the items that you have.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/crucial-information-about-computer-routers-a-4062.html Using a computer is entertaining, but it can also be aggravating at times. This is usually because your idea of what should happen on the computer is different from what actually occurs while you are working on a computer. Connecting to the web and checking email is even one more great example of this

 

A computer router

could be one good way to get rid of your internet connection problems for good.

 

These computer routers can be used in a variety of situations. For example, you may utilize these computer routers for residential or small commercial use, as well as businesses requiring management of multiple computer equipment.

 

When you are planning on using computer routers for your internet connection regardless of the work environment you will need to check out which of these is best suited for the work at hand. Now you will see that it is possible to use a wired or wireless network of computer routers.

 

In either case the computer routers connect the computers that are joined with each other to the internet. Here only one primary computer needs the initial internet installation. Once this computer has been connected to the internet it is then easy to use this connection for the rest of the computers.

 

As you look at these different computer routers you will notice that you have different price range and option features to work with. In addition, you have to check out the process of installing wires from the computer router to your work area.

 

You can get lots of great features using these different kinds of computer routers. The first things that you must realize is that during there are some major installation steps that you must be use, there are many dependable benefits to be looked into with the use of computer routers.

 

If you are only using one computer, wire connected computer routers will work just fine. For now, you dont need to be concerned about being able to use your computer some place other than where you Internet connection is located.

 

Alternatively, the use of wireless routers present the ability to make use of remote places within your home or business for internet usage. The facilities offered are an incentive for going in for computer routers.

 

As most of us know while getting onto this information highway is easy, there are instances when you want to do more than just look at the various internet sites. In order to obtain quicker hookups and fast downloading time, you might check into trying a variety of models and kinds of computer routers.

 

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/wacom-cintiq-screen-editing-a-4061.html Wacom

Cintiq direct penonscreen tablet lets you take advantage of natural handeye coordination and provides the feel of natural media. Ergonomic design provides a comfortable grip and natural feel along with smooth, flat surface. The design of the Wacom Cintiq  pen minimizes the grip effort for hours of comfortable use I did not feel tired at all, even after long hours of 3D design. Optimized for a multimonitor work environment the Wacom Cintiq, gives control and precision over work and helps speed production.Cintiq is a direct penonscreen device that comes with a video control unit, which provides video, USB

 

and power connections for compatibility with notebooks, desktops and workstations. 

 

What an amazing improvement over my existing Wacom Cintiq  tablet, which has the same functionality but with a less directinput method. Being used to working with the Wacom Intuos tablet and having never felt disabled using it kept me from being overly excited with this innovative way of editing. Having control of the pen and editing directly on screen opened new doors with its ease of use.

 

It will take about 10 minutes to set up the Wacom Cintiq  12WX on your workstation so you can try it for a project you are working on.

 

It will amaze you as to how much like working with traditional mediums like paper and pencil the Wacom Cintiq  is. You will be freely making strokes that combine with the flexible digital operative. The fact you can make strokes directly on the screen and see the result right beneath provides greater control and flexibility. Being able to draw right on, the screen and see the geometry being sculpted right under the pen tip makes you feel directly engaged in the digital sculpting process. This control and flexibility allows you to speed up your design work.

 

I believe any product in the Wacom Cintiq  line will make a great investment if you are a hardcore illustrator, Matte painter, Designer or even a hobbyist. For those who like the more traditional art background and who have been working digitally, the Cintiq is an artists dreams come true. an  For it allows you to combine the advantages of your natural handeye coordination with the benefits of a digital environment. In addition, you will still have the intuitive penonpaper feel of the traditional art media

 

The one downside I found was the Wacom Cintiq tablets lack of portability not that Wacom claims it to be a portable device. It would however be nice too have ease access to this amazing platform when on the go.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/wacom-intuos3-digital-tablet-a-4060.html The Wacom Intuos3

 

Digital Tablet is perfect for photographers, designers, artists, illustrators, digital camera owners

, high school and highereducation students. From the professional designer or illustrator to the hobbyist the Intuos3 tablet will make you more productive.

 

Are you an illustrator still working with traditional mediums such as acrylics, pencils or maybe the standard pens Do you find these to be very time consuming. Maybe it is time to move on to a Wacom Intuos3 digital tablet and become even more creative and productive.

 

You may not be a professional illustrator or designer but you like to edit photos, draw or dabble at designs. Do you work with digital photos Are you constantly trashing your work only to start over Maybe you would like to change a photo into a charcoal drawing and then add you own personal touches to it. The Intuos3 digital tablet accompanied with the bundled software will allow you to make this change with just a few clicks or taps on the tablet. Using a Wacom pen tablet is intuitive because it closely resembles the sensation of working with traditional creative tools. Yet buy using the platform you can easily change or modify your work.

 

The tablet in conjunction with the pen is pressure sensitive and you have all the control or your draw as if you were using the standard mediums. Want a bold line press harder. Do you need to add a soft thin line then use less pressure against the tablet Want to change the color of the line you just drew that can be done as well.

 

The Wacom Intuos3 Digital Tablet works with over 100 software programs and each program allows you to configure how the pen will respond to your touch. Touching up digital photos has never been easier. A touch strip provides scrolling, zooming, and quick tool adjustments with the touch of a finger.

 

Several different types of pens and mice work with the tablet. I am sure you will find one to matches you drawing preference.

 

If you want to be more productive or just have, more fun as you dabble along you may want to look at getting an Intuos3 Tablet. You should see just how fast and easy completing a project can be with the Wacom Intuos3 Digital Tablet for yourself.

 

I have used the Intuos3 for a couple of years now and it is a great addition to my work station. The only problem I have with it is that I recently got the opportunity to try a Wacom Cintiq which is an on screen editing plat form and now I would like to move up to one. Working directly on screen was so much more enjoyable and gave me a true feel for what I was trying to accomplish. I have put the Wacom Cintiq on my wish list, however they are quite expensive.

 

I guess for now I will just be glad that I have my Wacom Intuos3 tablet to work with.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/reducing-costs-voip-really-save-money-a-4059.html Its often hard to determine if the promise of a new piece of technology will deliver the stated return on investment. Having been in the reseller business for over ten years, weve seen many technologies from a wide range of vendors... and how well their deployment has met the expectations of businesses.  In this first article in a series of seven, we are looking at some practical steps to reevaluate your environment with a view to cost savings. VOIP... Can it really save you money

 

Voice Over IP is often cited as a costsaving technology. But will it really save you money

 

What is it

 

VOIP Voice over Internet Protocol is a protocol used to make voice conversations over your organisations private data networks and internet connections.

 

How does it work

 

VOIP services convert your voice into a digital signal that travels over the Internet or network as data. At the destination it is converted back to an analogue signal for use with traditional telephony services.

 

Ready For VOIP

 

For organisations with multiple offices, whether it be in the same town or a different country, the answer is Yes.

 

How much do you currently spend on calls between your own offices Using IP handsets or by linking your communication platforms to each other can offer considerable savings. Other scenarios that would indicate benefits from moving to VOIP include

 

Voice recording. If you are required to record voice conversations, VOIP together with a digital recording system is a very costeffective and flexible solution .

 

Remote office reception. Due to the flexibility of VOIP systems, remote office reception provision is easy and costeffective.

 

Recabling your building. Eliminating the cost of renewing your voice cabling and just recabling the data network can be justification for a VOIP deployment.

 

However, if you are a more centralised organisation VOIP may well not be for you. Where your office to office calls are minimal, or nonexistent, the pure cost argument for VOIP will fail.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/reducing-costs-acceleration-a-4058.html WAN Acceleration

 

According to Gartner, WAN optimization is about improving the performance of business applications over WAN connections. Most networks carry a variety of types of traffic, of differing characteristics and importance. Many organizations are striving to manage this traffic to optimize the response times of critical applications

 

and reduce costs, given that bandwidth continues to represent a significant proportion of operating expenditure for widearea data networks.

 

The primary function of a Web Optimization Controller WOC is to improve the response times of businesscritical applications over WAN links, but they can also help to maximize return on the investment in WAN bandwidth, and sometimes avoid the need for costly bandwidth upgrades. To achieve these objectives, WOCs use a combination of techniques, including

 

Ensuring fair access for missioncritical applications during periods of congestion by prioritizing business critical traffic, through QoS policing and traffic shaping, for example

 

Minimizing the effects of network latency using methods like protocol and applicationspecific optimization

 

Reducing the bandwidth required to transfer WAN traffic by compressing it, for example.

 

Click here to read more from Gartner about the WAN optimization market.

 

The WOC market is maturing rapidly, but it is still dynamic with a high level of vendor innovation.This has led to different vendors offering different combinations of features. In order to ensure that the most effective solution is put in place, providing the best overall return on investment, a detailed analysis should first be undertaken. This will establish

 

The real bandwidth you are achieving

 

The real usage of that bandwidth

 

Applications and services running on your network and the protocols they use

 

Also conduct a detailed analysis of your network traffic to identify specific problems, for example, excessive latency, bandwidth over subscription or lack of prioritization for certain types of traffic.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/ensuring-successful-virtualisation-projects-a-4057.html The growing size and complexity of enterprise data often leads to poor resource utilization and administrative headaches. To achieve greater efficiencies, many organizations are turning to server consolidation initiatives that leverage blade servers or virtual infrastructures.

 

Performing an IT Audit

 

The benefits of a successful server consolidation project include the retirement of old or underutilized hardware, savings in floor space and power consumption and an overall reduction in total cost of ownership. However, successful consolidation initiatives often require considerable upfront planning, time and effort.

 

If you are planning for virtualisation, an audit of your server and storage infrastructure will help you to optimise your environment and to choose the right solutions.

 

Are you using all the software licences you are paying for Could some staff be using lower spec, lower cost packages of software Ensuring youre making the most of what youre already paying for just makes sense.

 

Auditing your desktops also makes sense. If youre planning Vista rollout then an audit of what you have got and whether your existing desktops need to be upgraded will be invaluable. The alternative route is to look at desktop virtualisation.

 

Over the past year we have delivered increasing numbers of virtualisation projects, and often corrected projects where they have gone wrong prior to our involvement.

 

An IT Audit will provide you with cold hard facts and not guesstimates with best intent. Part of the process is to initially complete a full server and storage audit to ensure an understanding of key elements such as

 

Server peak usage What we can your servers be consolidated to

 

Amount of data stored How much data do you currently have on your network

 

Daily power consumption Will help with your ROI and deliver a greener environment

 

Data location  Where is your data located and how is it being accessed

 

All of these will be accurate figures derived from your network, created over a period of time ranging from two to four weeks.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/reducing-costs-review-telephone-costs-a-4056.html One of the most overlooked ways to save money is examining your utility costs and in particular, your telephone bill. Many companies happily pay this without examining where the costs are arising. Pareto Law kicks in, and whilst most people worry about the 80 of calls, it is the 20 that hides 80 of the costs. This is normally calls from the office to mobiles. So if you really want to home in on costs, cut the calls to and from mobiles, it is as simple as that It is not unreasonable to also put a limit on how much you will contribute towards staff mobile phone costs and ban unreasonable levels of mobile to mobile/fixed personal calls.

 

Most telephone systems will allow selective call barring so a simple way to cut mobile calls, is to have all your essential mobile numbers located in the central dialling memory and bar all others. Do not shoot yourself in the foot by overdoing this though. Your system supplier should be able to do this remotely for a nominal fee. Whilst you having the system reprogrammed, have premium numbers 09XX barred unless you are happy to pay 1.50 per minute If you are using a non BT provider, you may find their off peak mobile rates are higher than BT so you can always ask for your LCR Least Cost Routing to be programmed to send mobile calls off peak to BT or another carrier instead of the daytime provider. Also, consider a call management package. These are usually PC based and cost from 300 upwards, which can quickly be recovered in savings. If your system can provide extension number data to your call provider, you may be able to get this in an Excel format to analyse manually with your bill. Not all of them can do this though. A really simple option is to get your call data output sent from the system to a printer or PC. Most systems have a call logging port but it may need to be turned on by an engineer so get this done whilst programming any of the other options. If you have the time, get an itemised bill and pick out the numbers with high call costs.

 

Let everyone know that you are homing in on call costs, particularly personal calls to mobiles as this will have an instant effect. How many of your staff have a little chat with their girlfriend/boyfriend during the day A 10 minute call will cost you over 1. If 5 people do this over a month and every day it is easy to see where savings can be made. Install a payphone which can attach to an extension of your system and they will have no excuses and you are complying with your employer obligations to allow personal calls.

 

Check how many lines you have on your system or in the building. It is surprising how many could be sitting there doing nothing other than attracting a nice hefty charge per quarter. Also, if you have 20 people, do you need 10 ISDN channels or lines Are 10 people on the telephone at any one time

 

Finally, change supplier to one that follows these rules and just remember if it sounds too good to be true, it is. Deals where you pay a monthly charge are usually bad. For 5 per month you can make a considerable amount of local and national calls especially when the supplier has hiked the cost to mobiles to subsidise the deal. He knows about the 80/20 rule as well Next time you see a deal headlining savings on national calls and the odd international route, you can smile to yourself because you know what they are up to The following is not exhaustive but comes from several years of examining scams and are things you should check for with a provider No minimum call charge, no call set up charge. No rounding up to the nearest minute. Check their normal fixed and mobile and particularly off peak rates if you call outside normal working hours as this is where claw back can occur. Maximum contract length 12 months with 1 month notice thereafter. Read all the small print, particularly for the minimum term and any roll on. For example, some contracts are for one year but roll on to another year if you do not give notice in time beware.

 

In summary, if you do the following, you are guaranteed to cut costs

 

        Cut calls to mobiles. Also consider putting a cap on what you will pay toward staff mobile phone call costs if you provide them as part of their employment. You will be amazed at how many personal calls go on your bill

 

        Bar premium rate numbers and unnecessary mobiles with system programming

 

        Install a call logging/management system or printer

 

        Install a payphone on an extension for staff personal calls

 

        Do not call 0870 numbers and get the underlying geographic number

 

        Cut the amount of lines/ISDN channels into your building

 

        Change supplier but be careful of scammers and misleading deals

 

        Do not just file your bills, examine them in detail and renegotiate rates frequently

 

        If your bill is big enough, consider using a consultant that charges by the hour. Avoid paying a of savings to a utility consultant unless you are sure that you will be the winner

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/reducing-desktop-costs-a-4055.html The traditional PC as the corporate thick client has long been at the forefront of desktop computing. It has represented a favourable compromise between functionality, performance and cost. However, a number of challenges remain 

 

Desktop Management Centralising desktop management is an extremely difficult task in the face of a broadly distributed computing environment and the corporate workforce, who increasingly require secure ondemand access to their desktop environment from anywhere. Furthermore, desktops are notoriously difficult to standardise because of the variety of PC hardware and users needs to modify desktop environments.

 

Total Cost of Ownership The relatively low cost of PC hardware is often more than offset by the high cost of PC management and support. Ongoing PC management including deployment of software, updates and patches can be labourintensive and time consuming because of the need to test and validate deployments for a wide variety of PC configurations. Likewise, the lack of standardisation and the need for support personnel to troubleshoot issues in person and onsite raise support costs dramatically.

 

Data Security Ensuring that data on PCs is successfully backed up and can be restored when PCs fail or files are lost is a significant challenge. Even when data is successfully backed up, the risk of PC theft threatens the security of important data.

 

Low Resource Utilisation The distributed nature of PCs makes it difficult to pool resources to improve utilisation and reduce costs. As a result, PCs are often less than five percent utilised, remote offices require duplicate desktop infrastructures, and remote desktop solutions may be required for mobile workers. 

 

According to Wikipedia, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure VDI is a servercentric computing model that borrows from the traditional thinclient model but is designed to give system administrators and end users the best of both worlds the ability to host and centrally manage desktop virtual machines in the data centre while giving end users a full PC desktop experience.

 

This form of desktop virtualisation provides many advantages, including

 

        Instant provisioning of new desktops

 

        Nearzero downtime in the event of hardware failures

 

        Significant reduction in the cost of new application deployment

 

        Robust desktop image management capabilities

 

        Normal 23 year PC refresh cycle extended to 56 years or more

 

        Existing desktoplike performance including multiple monitors, bidirectional audio/video, streaming video, USB support etc.

 

        Ability to access the users enterprise desktop environment from any PC, including the employees home PC

 

        Desktop computing power on demand

 

        Multiple desktops on demand

 

        Self provisioning of desktops controlled by policies

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/canon-cartridges-original-cartridges-value-a-4054.html Nowadays, printers can be found in almost all offices and homes. In fact, we can say that printers have become an integral part of the lives of majority of us, especially because most of our personal or office work is done on computers.

 

Printer ink cartridges

came into existence in the mid 1980s and since then they have successfully enhanced the printing experience of the users. There are a number of companies which manufacture Ink cartridges, but one of the companies which have succeeded in maintaining their brand popularity and name in the market is Canon.

 

Canon Ink Cartridges

have been in the market for a very long time now and the reason for their continued success in the market is the unbeatable printing experience which they provide to their users. Canon Ink cartridges are very famous among small, medium as well as large businesses as they give full value for money. Many customers even compare the Canon Cartridges with insurance for their printers as they believe that using Canon Ink Cartridges are the best way to ensure the optimum functioning of ones computer. The use of Canon cartridges also increases the life of ones printers.

 

Today, when there are so many refurbished and remanufactured cartridges available in the market, Canon Ink cartridges still continue to rule the market to a huge extent, this is because of their high performance, efficiency and compatibility factor which is absent in the Cartridges manufactured by other companies.

 

If one is not using Printer Cartridges of reputed companies like Canon Ink Cartridges, then it is very likely that the performance of ones computer will be affected. In some instances, the use of low quality Ink cartridges might result in ink and toner leakages, and might even lead to print outs of very low quality and inconsistency. However, the use of ink cartridges of reputed companies like Canon can definitely save ones computer from major malfunctioning.

 

The use of Cartridges of nonrepute might not only harm your computer, but might also force you to change the ink cartridge before it is actually used up, which might prove to be very expensive for one in the long run. The problems caused by such ink cartridges also include increased downtime, which will undoubtedly result in loss to ones business. The incompatibility of these cartridges with your printer will increase the repair costs involved and hence will rob you of the very little money which you could have saved by investing in a relatively cheaper cartridge. The use of such products is bound to leave a bad taste in the mouth of the users.

 

The Canon Ink cartridges are manufactured using the latest technology and can be used to print on almost all types of paper. If one is looking for a wonderful printing experience and increased life of ones computer, then Canon Ink Cartridges will prove to be the best choice for you.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/tips-guidelines-purchasing-toner-cartridges-online-a-4053.html The best place to shop for a toner cartridge is online. This is especially true for people who do not have the time or patience to go to the various stores to find the printer supplies which best suits their needs. It really takes a lot of effort and energy to go through the various stores physically. However, one should not get disheartened by the whole process of finding the right supplies for ones printer as there are some very good online stores which offer great deals on best toner cartridges and at the same time give you the convenience of shopping from ones home.

 

Purchasing online

 

It is very easy to find a toner cartridge of your choice online and by ordering from an online office supply dealer, one can get the ordered cartridges at ones door step. One can find the toner cartridges of all the major brands online. Also toner cartridges which are compatible with popular brands like Apple, HP, Sharp, Brother, IBM, Panasonic, Xerox, Canon, Lexmark, Epson and Samsung product lines.

 

One simply has to choose the model printer to locate the cartridges which are compatible with it, and the next step is to place an order for the selected cartridge. It is best to select a toner which is covered by the distributers warranty as it ensures that the product which reaches you is free from any damage and is in perfect condition.

 

While purchasing cartridges online, it is recommended to order a few days in advance as it will help you to save the shipping charges. Many of the online printer supplier stores only charge for shipping when the cartridges are to be delivered immediately. By ordering a cartridge well in advance, one can avoid additional shipping charges.

 

Some differentiators

 

Another very important benefit of buying toner cartridges online is that, the online printer supplier stores allows one to purchase refurbished and remanufactured toner cartridges. Though the remanufactured cartridges are relatively cheaper, there are some loopholes in the functioning of these remanufactured toner cartridges. The first and the foremost limitation of a remanufactured cartridge is that, the printer might not read the ink level properly. It might sometimes give you absolutely wrong readings like showing an empty cartridge when the ink is full. The second factor which should be considered is that the refurbished cartridges have a defect rate of almost 2 percent.

 

To sum up

 

There are a number of online printer suppliers, and some of them offer the supplies at very cheap rates, however price should not be the only factor affecting your purchase. One should always toner cartridges from reputed online stores and the ones which make the whole process of purchasing easier for you. Some online stores also give you the option of selling your old cartridge for remanufacturing purpose and hence indirectly provide you with additional savings which can be directed towards the purchase of a new toner cartridge.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/positive-side-remanufactured-printer-toner-cartridges-a-4052.html One question which very often resonates in the mind of the owners of small medium sized business and small office, home office users is how to reduce the printing costs of their businesses. If a business or an individual continues to invest in brand new printer toner and printer cartridges, then it very difficult to reduce the printing costs considerably. Also, when one is purchasing brand new printer ink or toner every time, then it is very likely that one is throwing the used product in the garbage bin.

 

Reuse, remanufacture or preowned are terms which are still alien to many users. However, if one is keen on saving some big bucks on your printing costs, then it is better for one to get familiar with these new and exciting terms. Reusing or remanufacturing normally discarded products allows one to save money, as refilled or remanufactured OEM and refurbished printer cartridges can be purchased at almost half the price of the new ones. Let me repeat this important statement Almost half the price of new printer consumable products. With many of the best of these refurbishing eco companies offering a 12 month parts and labour guarantee on these preowned inkjet printer cartridges and printer toner cartridges.

 

To produce remanufactured or refurbished products, original printer cartridges and toner cartridges are disassembled, cleaned and repaired under strict quality control measures by the reputed eco companies and then filled with premium quality ink or toner to produce remanufactured and refurbished products and printer toner cartridges that are of a very high quality. Sometimes the remanufactured products are equal to, or even excel the performance of brand new ones.

 

Some of the advantages of using refill printer kits or remanufactured printer toner cartridges are listed below When one can get the same or better quality of prints for half the price, it is always better to prefer remanufactured products as they are very cost effective and bring down the printing costs of the business considerably. The remanufacturing of printer cartridges and printer toner cartridges involve vigorous quality check as well as replacing of all the damaged parts and are manufactured to the highest standards. All the reputed companies go one step ahead by giving warranty and 100 percent satisfaction guarantee on these products.

 

The remanufactured products are 100 per cent compatible with your printer and are very unlikely to harm or damage it. The use of remanufactured toner cartridges have much desired positive effects on the environment as well. It saves the environment from the nondecaying materials like plastic, as the remanufacturing process includes the use of parts or materials which otherwise would have harmed the environment in the long run. Reputed companies like HP, Dell, Lexmark, Canon and Brother have involved themselves in the remanufacturing of products considering the positive effects of the remanufactured printer toner cartridges have on the environment.

 

Some of these reputed brands like Dell, HP and Canon are now getting involved themselves in production of the remanufactured or pre owned products in larger numbers as the use of remanufactured items reduces pollution and minimise the effect of the wastes on the environment.

 

Current trends suggest that the uptake in the use and sale of these pre owned products will continue to increase substantially especially in these credit crunch times where businesses are looking for ways to cut their business overheads and refurbished products also makes them more eco friendly, given them a win win solution.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/save-money-inkjet-printer-cartridges-a-4051.html Printers have become very affordable nowaday. Inkjet printers are the least expensive of all the printers available today. But that does not mean that an inkjet printer does not give high quality prints, in fact inkjet printers are most famous for fine detailed printing output.

 

Inkjet printer cartridges

work by holding the ink before it can actually get transferred to the printing medium which is mostly paper. The Printer cartridges of almost all the major brands can produce about 300 to 800 prints per cartridge. However, the biggest drawback of an inkjet printer is that the ink in the printer cartridges runs out very fast.

 

Since, the price of an inkjet printer is very low, it is the first choice of many of the users.  It is a surprising fact for most of us that all the inkjet printers are sold at an average loss of 20 to 50. The companys strategy in selling an inkjet printer for loss is that, the company can make a profit in the future on the sale of  printer cartridges for the product.

 

Some companies even go to the extent of selling reduced cartridge, so that one needs to purchase the replacement  cartridge

sooner than is actually required. One can definitely save some money by keeping the following points in mind before purchasing a printer  

 

Before determining on the purchase of a particular printer depending upon its quality and performance, it is also advisable to calculate the cost of the print per page. This can be easily done if one knows the type of cartridge which can be used with that inkjet printer and the number of prints which can be produced using that cartridge. If one has the knowledge of the average page yield of the  cartridge, it is very likely that one does not need to visit the printer supplies store very often for the cartridges.

 

If you have already purchased the printer and are not very happy with the high replacement charges for the cartridges, you can look for companies or online stores which offer to refill the existing printer cartridges for almost half the price. There are some reputed companies and stores which even offers product guarantee on the refills.

 

The next option to save considerable amount of money on printer cartridges of an inkjet printer would be to look for remanufactured or refurbished printer cartridges which are compatible with ones printer. While doing this, one should be cautious enough to check the printer manual for the models which are compatible with the printer. The printer cartridge which is not completely compatible with the printer might harm or damage it.

 

In order to reduce your printing costs, it is advisable to check the prices of printer as well as the printer cartridges used in it. One should also explore the options of using remanufactured printer cartridges and refilling of the existing printer cartridges to maximise the savings.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/maximise-results-from-your-integral-drive-a-4050.html When it comes to portability and Storage capacity, there are very few gadgets which can beat an integral pen drive. The very reason for the immense popularity of this device could be the several advantages which the pen drive has to offer to its users. It is also a fact that the integral pen drives are one step ahead in affordability and consistency, when compared with its traditional counterparts. An Pen drive can be used quite effectively to increase the production, sales and profit in different ways.

 

Almost all the modern Integral Pen Drives are crossplatform functional and can be used on all computers which run on Windows, Macintosh or Linux operating systems. An integral pen drive gives the user the ease of plug and play which implies that it can be actually used without installing any drivers.

 

The results which one intends to achieve form this modern gadget can be easily maximised by the best and most effective use of this device. The varied uses of an Integral pen drive includes organising, storing and sharing of various Word documents, Power point presentations, Excel spreadsheets and many other applications and programs.

 

The most reputed brands in the pen drives industry are Transcend, Kingston and iBall. These brands are not only popular because of the quality and proficiency, but also are popular because of the value for money which they provide to their customer base, as the pen drives of these companies are quite affordable and cheap. The pen drives of these known brands not only allow fast transfer of files between one computer to another, but also are quite effective in meeting all your storage needs. Pen drives are especially useful to professionals like teachers and professors who need to use different computers for their work. Because of the features like huge storage capacity, Integral pen drives are considered to be a must for all offices and homes.

 

The integral pen drives come with an integrated flash memory and hence can store and transfer even audio and video files from the hardware of one computer to another. Different pen drives come with different memory specifications, and hence everyone can select a device with a memory which best suits their needs.

 

The popularity of pen drives among professionals has proved that it is the best device to swap files across multiple computers and machines as they provide the user with the benefits of convenient and highend solutions.

 

Integral pen drive is a product which continuously changes for better with the advancement in technology. The latest pen drives are constantly evolving in terms of technology as well as shape, size and storage space and hence are popular among users. Most of the computer users have at least one integral pen drive with some capacity or the other.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/hard-drive-failure-unreadable-disk-a-4049.html Symptoms of hardware failure or system file corruption may include

 

Your computer wont boot

 

You receive error messages such as Hard disk drive failure, Hard drive disk not found, Boot disk not found

 

A secondary drive wont show up or allow you to see files

 

Heres what to do

 

Backup data if possible.

 

If youve recently installed software or made system changes, perform a system rollback if Windows will boot.

 

Perform Check Disk Chkdsk from the recovery console.

 

Check the BIOS to be sure it detects the drive.

 

Check all connections and verify no pins are loose or bent. If possible, replace the power source and cable to verify thats not the problem.

 

Run diagnostics as included with your system. If none are provided, check your hard drive manufacturers website.

 

A USB adapter kit will allow you to plug in the drive via USB, or you can install it on another system as a slave. Try to perform any of the above steps.

 

If its your C drive, reinstall Windows.

 

If it still out of service, you have to make a decision

 

If your data is not that important, you can reformat. At this point, you should be sure to keep a backup of all files as this drive may be dying.

 

If your data is valuable, you can pursue data recovery. There is software available on the internet, or if the problem is severe, you can consult an expert; they can provide an estimate in advance so you can decide whether to spend the money.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/brief-history-xerox-corportation-a-4048.html The Xerox Corporation, headquartered in Norwalk, CT, has over 57,000 employees worldwide. The company has consistently ranked among the top firms in the computer category of FORTUNE magazines Worlds Most Admired Companies list, and is in the top onethird of the annual FORTUNE 500.

 

Xerox has a strategic focus on three primary corporate and consumer markets. First is the highend production environment, including commercial printing. Next is networking solutions, in offices small and large. Finally, there is the large, growing category of its valueadded services. There are two overarching, unifying themes that cross all Xerox product and service categories, relying on the companys demonstrated, core strengths and its position as the document company. These themes are 1 color and 2 practical solutions that customize the various Xerox devices and methodologies to solve their customers problems.

 

Of the firms 17.6 billion in revenue for 2008, the U.S. market accounted for over half, or 9.1billion, while Europe totaled 6 billion. Together, Latin America, Canada and other nations around the world brought in the remainder, 2.5 billion. Not only does the company do business internationally, it wins awards around the world, as well. In fact, in 2008 alone Xerox earned more than 230 different awards for quality, innovation and service. Continuing its history of innovation, the company also introduced 29 new products in 2008, delivered to companies and individuals across a broad array of different sales channels.

 

Building on a strong foundation

 

Chester Carlson was a patent attorney and a dedicated, though parttime, inventor. He created the first xerographic image in his Queens, NY, workshop on October 22nd of 1938. Amazingly, for years he was unable to interest many people, and no manufacturers or buyers, in his invention. Business owners, product developers and entrepreneurs were convinced there was no market for copiers because carbon paper still worked just fine. An additional problem was that Carlsons prototype was bulky, awkward to use and downright messy. Some two dozen companies, IBM and General Electric included, reacted to Carlsons invention with what the inventor later called an enthusiastic lack of interest.

 

The Battelle Memorial Institute of Columbus, OH, made a deal to refine Carlsons process, which he called electrophotography, in 1944. Some three years later, the Haloid Company, a photographic paper manufacturer in Rochester, N.Y., secured a license from Battelle to build and market a copying machine using Carlsons technology. Carlson agreed with the executives of Haloid that electrophotography was too unwieldy a term, so the story goes that a professor of classical languages from The Ohio State University came up with xerography using the Greek for dry and writing.

 

The name game

 

Haloid, which in short order bought all the rights to the technology, coined the term Xerox for the revolutionary copiers, and got a trademark for the word in 1948. Early and somewhat modest success of the Xerox copiers convinced Haloid management to change the firms name to Haloid Xerox Inc. in 1958. As sales began to rise and the invention became more and more accepted, the company evolved into the Xerox Corporation in 1961. By this time, the marketplace had experienced a broad acceptance of the latest model, the Xerox 914, which was the first office copier that could use ordinary, inexpensive paper.

 

September 2009 will mark the 50th anniversary of the historic Xerox 914. Over 200,000 units were sold worldwide from 1959 to 1976, the year the firm stopped manufacturing the 914. In 1985, over a quarter century after the legendary model was introduced, Xerox announced it would not renew any more 914 service contracts in the U.S. However, a time and materials repair service was instituted, since there were still over 6,000 units in operation around the globe. The Smithsonian Institution displays a model of the Xerox 914 as a landmark in American ingenuity and inventiveness.

 

Good corporate citizen

 

Xerox is proud to have pioneered the design and manufacture of wastefree products, and considers good corporate citizenship as important as technological development. In fact, the company sees no contradiction in pursuit of both. The company has positioned itself a firm that intends to use materials and energy as efficiently as possible, in order to reduce waste and emissions in the manufacturing phase, as well as during the life cycles of its products. This is the way in which the firm intends to build its continuing history.

 

Every year, Xerox reports on its programs that save hundreds of million dollars via product remanufacturing, parts recycling and the diversion of over 100 million pounds of landfill waste. Finally, Xerox has developed, implemented and maintained serious remanufacturing and recycling programs to ensure that its printers, copiers and multifunction devices can be managed with due environmental care and concern when they reach the ends of their initial life cycles. With careful steps and proven methods, Xerox is moving into the future with the same steadfastness that has brought it to the pinnacle of success.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/protect-your-laptop-from-theft-data-loss-a-4047.html Laptops have become one of those devices that is quickly going, and in some cases, already quickly gone from something that only techies or high level business people owned to something that even a poor college student finds a way to afford.  This is simply that our lives become wrapped around these objects.  Think of the cell phone.  Ten to 15 years ago it was again only the techies or important business people that owned a cell phone.  Now even elementary school kids have them so parents can be in constant contact when necessary.

 

 We all have had the moment when we though we had misplaced our cell phone.  Imagine losing your laptop.  Not only is it a fairly significant expense, but think of the data you have on there.  You probably keep a file with account numbers, you have your family pictures stored there, maybe music, movies.  The list is a long one and an important one. 

 

Therefore, make sure you follow the recommendations in this article on how to protect your laptop.

 

The convenience of the laptop is obvious.  The computing power and versatility are equivalent to most desktop computers.  With the advent of wifi we can be on the internet almost anywhere and be emailing, chatting, writing, surfing the net or shopping, all anywhere in the world.

 

Here are some daunting statistics for laptop loss from 2008

 

Relevant Data Loss and Data Breach Statistics

 

 

 

         1 in 10 ...laptop computers will be stolen within the first 12 months of purchase.

 

         97 ...of lost and stolen notebooks are never recovered.

 

         50 ...of organizations reported laptop theft.

 

         every 43 seconds  ...a computer is reported stolen.

 

         every 3 days ... an information security breach is reported in the U.S.

 

         82 ...of all PCs will be mobile devices by 2008, increasing 4 times as fast as PCs.

 

         4,425 ...laptops reported left behind in Chicago taxis during a six month period. 

 

         56 million ...individuals affected by significant U.S. data security breaches, 2005.

 

         1 billion ...PC users expected by 2010, up from 660670 million today.

 

         57 ...of corporate crimes are linked to stolen laptops. The latest crimes of espionage and sabotage are theft of executive personnel devices to access vital financial or personnel data.

 

data source datarevoke.com

 

How Much Does Laptop Loss Cost

 

That completely depends on how you look at it and who is doing the looking.

 

Personal Laptop

 

The actual cost here is the cost of the laptop and if stolen while in the laptop bag most often this is the case then youve lost all your accessories as well.  Not to mention possibly your wallet, MP3 player, passport eek.  Obviously the actual cost of items and the intangible loss of items such as wallets, all your stored music, your passport, etc. are vastly different.

 

Business or Corporate Laptop

 

Here the intangible costs can be astronomical.  We have heard it on the news more than once and most of us have had it hit us directly with someone in the corporate world losing one or more laptops with critical customer data on it.  The cost the hardware is only about 4000, the information carried upon it was could be worth millions..

 

Of course, to get to valuable proprietary information is not the reason for all laptop thefts some laptop thieves head try to quickly sell the laptop asis. However, some data indicate that about 10 percent to 15 percent of those laptops are stolen by criminals intent on selling the data.

 

How to Protect Your Laptop

 

With this in mind, what can we do as individuals to prevent our own personal loss

 

Laptop Security Cables

 

This is one of the lowest cost and one of the most effective deterrents to theft.  As with most theft attempts, even a small amount of effort can make a huge difference.  For this to work you need to make sure that your laptop is equipped with the appropriate feature to attach a cable.  This is called a Universal Security Slot.

 

It is important to pay attention to what you are attaching the laptop and cable to.  You sometimes have to think like a thief.  If you really wanted to get that laptop could you  If you answer is yes, then you need to add more security.  Consider looping the cable through a hole drilled in the lag of the desk.  If you just loop it around the leg than all it takes is some one strong enough to lift the desk enough to slip the cable under the leg and whoosh your laptop is gone

 

Keep Your Laptop Out of Sight

 

If you are not with your laptop then it should be secured in a locked drawer or in the possession of someone you trust for the short trip to the restroom for example.  Especially if you are in a public place like an airport, bookstore, or your favorite coffee shop.  Never leave your bag alone.

 

Some laptop cases scream I have a laptop in here

 

Try to use a carrying case for your laptop that may be a bit beat up or at least not look like it obviously contains a laptop.  This may be difficult to do but can be a real effective way to have a thief move on to the next victim without bothering your precious laptop inside your ugly bag.

 

How to Protect Your Data

 

Im sure youve had moments when you couldnt locate a file that you knew you had stored on your laptop.  The feeling of panic can be terrible until you find it.  Imagine your hard drive failing it happens.  You would lose all your important files pictures, videos, everything.  

 

Therefore, first and most important is external storage.  External storage can be something as simple as a USB Flash Drive also known as a thumb drive about the size of your thumb.... or a large external drive about the size of an average hardcover book

 

The type of external storage you select will depend on your needs.  If you just keep basic files i.e. Word documents or spreadsheets, etc then a thumb drive could be enough and they are very inexpensive and can store up to 32 Gigabytes of data or if you are willing to pay a bit more they are larger storage capabilities available.  If you plan on storing large files such as lots of photos and videos then you may need to step up in capacity with an external hard drive.  They store up to 2 Terabytes 2000 Megabytes of data.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/flashdrive-essentials-a-4046.html If you are looking for useful flashdrive information, then look no further.  Whether you are interested in purchasing a flashdrive for data storage or want to learn more about flashdrives, youll want to read this.

 

Lets start with the flashdrive basics. A flashdrive is a memory storage device using for storing and transfering data that interfaces with a computer. The most common type of flashdrive is the USB flashdrive, with most new devices having USB 2.0 capabilities.

 

Flashdrives have become incredibly popular in recent years due to their extremely portable size and the amount of data that a flashdrive can store. Additionally, they work with just about every type of computer and do not require the user to install a driver or any software. Another important flashdrive benefit is that they are basically immune to dust and scratches unlike CDs, since all of the data is stored internally.

 

In addition to their functionality, flashdrives can take a variety of fun and interesting appearances. Whether you want a one that looks like a stick of gum or one that is disguised as a LEGO block, they come in nearly unlimited styles.

 

Despite being able to store gigabytes of data, flashdrives are extremely inexpensive which only adds to their popularity. In fact, flashdrives are often given away as a promotional gift at trade shows and other events.

 

Whether you are interested in backing up important data, transfering files from one computer to another, or are interested in making a fashion statement, flashdrives are perfect for just about everyone. A flashdrive is an affordable and smart investment for anyone who uses a computer.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/printer-printing-wrong-colourshelp-a-4045.html Cleaning The Printer Head. A customer of mine phoned me recently explaining that her printer, a Canon i560, was printing the wrong colours. As luck would have it, I had to pass her office that afternoon so I called in to investigate.

 

The cure was easy enough but as far as she was aware had never been carried out.

 

I simply performed a head cleaning cycle The result, Perfect image and text printing.

 

If the colours are wrong or the print becomes faint or washed out it is almost always the result of a dirty printer head. Head Cleaning is a crucial operation that should be carried out at least once a month under normal usage especially on Epson and Canon printers.

 

How To Clean The Printer Head On An Inkjet Printer.

 

1 Click on Start and go to Settings. Click on Printers and Faxes and then double click on the printer or fax machine you wish to work on.

 

2 Click on Printer or Fax at the top left and then on to Properties from the drop down menu.

 

3 Click on Printing Preferences. In the new window that opens click on Maintenance. Click on the operation you wish to perform in this case Head Cleaning and follow the onscreen instructions.

 

Some Points To Remember. Performing the head cleaning operation uses some ink. Some newer printers have a deep cleaning cycle in addition to the normal clean. This should only be used when absolutely necessary as a lot of ink is used.

 

Head cleaning can only be carried out if your cartridges have enough ink remaining. If you receive the message Ink is low, cannot carry out cleaning, you should replace the cartridge and then carry out a head cleaning cycle.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/iram-pattern-memory-a-4044.html Posing from a new era of computing concepts, consumers are overwhelmed with choices on computer architectures

. The underlining idea of performance is rapidly changing, creating gaps in efficient design.  Personal connectivity has become a constant factor of daily routines, and commerce has split into multiple playing fields forming a wireless race to an undefined venue.  It is true that multitasking is no longer tied down to our personal or office pcs but to pocket size mobile devices that stream audio and video to our delight. Consumed by multiple choices we typically do not know the reality behind the constraints of devolving such computing devices and architectures.  The goal of this paper is not only to open the eyes of the typical consumer, but to inform them of the complex constraints and issues faced by current computing demands.  Concerned mostly with mobile computing architecture, we will examine the current concept of Intelligent RAM or IRAM for short, witch offers a new concept of chipdesign for energy efficiency and performance.

 

In achieving a full understanding for the need of the new creative architectures of microprocessors, we must first fully understand different kinds of computers and there every day usage. In example, one would not own a bus pass and drive a car to work every day, similarly one would not buy a server to use as a personal computer. By understanding the different needs of the consumer and looking at the current types of computing, a prediction of the need for future computer designs can be determined. By observing the modern devises out today we can see that there are many types of computing needs.

 

Desktop

 

From the original personal computer to the high performance machines found in most homes today, personal computers are used for every day routines.  Checking your email, online commerce, paying bills, to righting research papers like this one. Its clear that we as the customers expect our home machine to be able to do a number of different tasks. But do we need to have the fasted machine, and what makes a machine fast For desktop applications the use of the billiontransistor chip is not always necessary.  Multitasking and graphic performance is more the concern than floating point performance. Meaning that the average desktop user doesnt need to be able to do an extreme amount of floating point operations at one time, leaving the multithreaded architectures in the lead for this type of computer.  These chips deliver the best performance do to there advance outoforder and advanced prediction techniques.

 

 

 

Server

 

Online commerce has become a complex multiuser processing, or parallels processing. A severer has to be able to hand a number of floating point operations at one time.  For this task the use of processors with parallism and high memory bandwidth. 

 

When we look at computer architecture we want performance based on user environment. But when you get down to it the chip must be able to use the software that is not extremely complex.  In reality simplicity built on simplicity is the goal of good design. 

 

Mobile devices

 

Mobile devises have evolved in the past 15 years, taking multiple devices that perform a single task to a devise that perform multiple tasks. Modern cell phones now have operating systems that have, video, imaging, sound, speech recognition, gaming, store large amount data, and perform arithmetic operations.  As each year passes the advances of mobile devises improve.  What do we really demand out of a mobile device  It is from this question that we can determine constants that havent changed since the creation of mobile devices size, battery life, and performance.  Size must be small, battery life must be the same or out perform the previous, and performance must improve as with the different applications in one device. 

 

The demand to constantly network is becoming an increasing demand.  Every day routines are becoming easier due to the constant demand to be able to perform computing tasks anywhere.  These routines our not just for communication but for commerce as well. The idea that faster is better is changing to connectivity and multitasking on demand is optimal. Using this reasoning computer architects are rethinking the modern chip design. A chip design for a desktop and a server is mainly concerned on processing large amounts of data at the same time. But in reality this in not necessary for mobile devices since real time connectivity is not large but small and fast. The typical realtime video would only be 8 to 16 bits long per pixel and would only need to be processed and displayed to the screen.  Compared to desktop and server environment, that has 32 to 64 bits of information that is processed and stored to memory.  Leading to the question again of performance, this question is taking on two different answers.  Each answer is pending on the type of computing. For mobile computing realtime process is more of an issue of reliability.  The ability to have Coarsegrained parallelism and small data cashes is the goal, forcing chip architecture to be redesigned. The demand for increasing bandwidth is in direct conflict with the battery size and life. 

 

Wireless devises must perform all operations with little than a 2 watt budget, compared to most highperformance processors with a budget of tens of watts.  This creates a demand for two things, more powerful small batteries, as well as a processor that consumes very little power.  Battery development has come a far way in the past but it is not cheap.  Neither is the development of a chip that consumes hardly any power.  In the near future it will be a combination of a cost efficient battery, with a powerful low powered processor. To fully under stand the effects of implementing a lower powered processor with out having to give up functionality.  We must take into effect the size of the memory on the devise and the size of the executable able to run on the chip.  Typically the higher number of tasks available on a devise the larger the software package is. Larger software means larger memory, bringing the issue of complexity into play. If the complexity on a chip is large, the executable file will be as well.

 

From the different types of computing devices the demand for a chip that compromises in multiple ways is growing. Performance should not be based on cashes bandwidth, size, or processor speed, but on bandwidth between the memory and the processor.  Since your machine is only as fast as the bus between the processor and the memory. The right solution would be to decrease the distance between them as much as possible. The closer the distance, the more region of the chip will be accessible in a single clock cycle. Another concern is time needed to communicate an operation. Since most designs for billiontransistor chips spend a great deal of time on multiple cycles communication among multiple cores or tiles.   Taking all concerns in hand IEEE purposed a new type of chip design call the VECTOR IRAM.

 

VECTOR IRAM

 

Imagine a chip that combines memory and logic.  This would not only provide a solution to communication speed but to power consumption.

 

The vector IRAM processor consists of an inorder, dualissue superscalar processor with firstlevel caches, tightly integrated with a vector execution unit that contains eight pipelines. Each pipeline can support parallel operations on multiple media types and DSP functions. The memory system consists of 96 Mbytes of DRAM used as main memory. It is organized in a hierarchical fashion with 16 banks and eight subbanks per bank, connected to the scalar and vector unit through a crossbar. This memory system provides sufficient sequential and random bandwidth even for demanding applications.

 

The base of this processor is the vector design.  Vector compilers are not as useful for performing large integer processes but are very competitive with floating point operations as well as graphic performance.  For years there have been many compliers that are vector based in the commercial environment. Using the vector design will keep the complexity for increasing allowing module design.  The main concern for the designers is the cost of implementing and testing the IRAM, since the combination of memory and logic.  To fully understand the combination of memory and logic on one chip we must look into the type of memory used DRAM how it is produced and the most cost efficient way of implementing it on the chip.

 

DRAM

 

Producing chips and memory have been two separate things in till now.  The productions of both items involve many factors and tests.  Hence combining the two would not provide a short term cost effective chip since the testing of the memory and the logic would have to be done, e.g. redundant logic testing.  But this is the price that must be paid to develop a chip of this type.  A few more disadvantages are that the amount of memory on the chip might not be enough to store an application meaning that the chip must access conventional memory, defining the purpose of the chip.  Drams refresh rate increases pending operating temperature.  If we were to bypass the idea of these constraints and just focus on the future, we would have to wonder the effects of the IRAM on commerce.

 

Since the IRAM is considered a microprocessor it will be competing with companies that have been in the microprocessor market for years.  Even more freighting is that the main producers of the IRAM will be memory companies that do not have any experience in that market.  The memory market does not have the concern of software. On the production scale the microprocessors made a year are not even close to the billion of DRAMS, the key is finding a design that exploits the memory bandwidth potential of IRAM while leveraging software developed for traditional computing.

 

Implementing parallelism into the instruction set architecture decreases the size of the software that is implemented, as well as spending less wattage on high clock speed.  Numerous testing was done on IRAM and many of its competitors for performance under different benchmarks.  Among these benchmarks were SPMV complex matrixes, Histogram histogram performance for an pixels in a 500x500 image with a base 2 depth, Mesh Adaptation a mesh with very large triangular, vertices, edges.  The overall performance of the IRAM won over its competitors, not only in performance but in using less watts/mops.  

 

As covered above in the mobile devise section, the demand for this type of computing is vastly increasing.  Adaptation of low energy consumption memory is not only the goal but near reality. Todays microprocessors tend to be energy hogs in memory loads and stores.  IRAM provides a simple solution to this with placing memory and a microprocessor on a single die, eliminating the need for large onchip cachebased memory.  The architecture implements DRAM memory instead of traditional SRAM memory, this is due to the high density of DRAM allowing more onchip memory.  The goal of IRAM architecture is to cut down external memory accesses to a bare minimum. 

 

This goal gets its motivation from the fact that the performance rate of processors increases at a rate of over 6 times faster than memory per year due to slow offchip buses, also due to the vast increase in energy efficiency of single chip processors with large onchip memory. 

 

Today there are many high performance machines that run below there peak arithmetic performance do to lack of memory bandwidth. The IRAM architecture provides a solution to this problem with the combination of DRAM and the microprocessor in a single chip.  In fact the peak memory bandwidth for the IRAM is 6.4 GB per second, witch is 510 times higher than most machines.  Due to its explicit parallelism in vector instructions higher arithmetic performance is achieved. 

 

The IRAM chip uses the MIPS architecture having 32 64bit vector registers, each register can be subdivided to operate on 8, 16, 32, and 64bit data types. By allowing the subdivision of registers the number of elements stored can be greatly increased, thus increasing arithmetic performance.

 

Address generation is very important for any microprocessor.  Memory addresses have to be checked for validation and collision before being processed. The IRAM architecture allows for 4 64bits lanes per clock cycle, only having 4 lanes limits the performance.  Performance is increased at 4 32bits lanes out performing Pentium 4 chips, but peak performance reached at this level. 

 

There are many ways of implementing memory and processors, first is the traditional way, placing large and expensive SRAM memory with a CPU in a logic process. Second is the IRAM architecture by placing CUP logic with memory.  The second choice is the optimal choice in energy and cost. By eliminating DRAM onchip we can eliminate the need for secondlevel onchip caches. First levelcaches are desirable for performance. By leaving a small onchip cache and implementing a DRAM array we can assume that mostly all memory tasks can be performed onchip with out external memory accesses.  

 

The IRAM project promises many great achievements that will provide simple solutions to on going demand for performance networking.  Implementing these ideas as you can see is the first stage, and producing the finished product in a cost effective way is the second. One thing is a fact the new and creative design idea of combining memory and a microprocessor on a singe chip is truly not go away.  Personal connectivity has become a constant factor of daily routines, and commerce has split into multiple playing fields forming a wireless race to an undefined venue.  This venue will shape the future of computer architectures.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/stop-computerkilling-dust-tracks-a-4043.html It attacks your computer like the South American army ant. Tiny, harmless looking critters by themselves, in larger numbers they can cover, kill and dissolve a full grown cow in a matter of hours.

 

Okay, maybe not exactly like that. But, wood shop and machine shop owners are experiencing the devastating effect manufacturing dust can have inside their shop computers. And they are looking for answers.

 

It doesnt take much to ruin your day, especially, when metallic dust meets sensitive electronic components. Electricity chooses to travel in the shortest route possible, and little bridges of metal dust make great short cuts. Zap WRRrrrrrr

 

And wood dust makes a great insulating blanket. Thats okay if youre lost in a big wood bin and freezing to death, but to a hard working computer it can be bad news. Heat sinks and fans attempt to dissipate the heat from within your computer, but a layer of dust can reduce or prevent this transfer of heat. Also, computer fans can malfunction when dust and grime are allowed to build up. Things heat up. Computers die. Data is lost. Business suffers.

 

Okay, whats the answer then How do you protect your computer from dust

 

The actions you are willing and able to take to protect your computer equipment from dust depend on a large number of individual circumstances. Regardless of your situation, I recommend you take a threefront defensive position and optimize for each of the following areas

 

        Computer room environment

 

        Protective computer dust barriers

 

        Computer maintenance

 

Lets look at each of these areas individually.

 

Computer Room Environment

 

Control the environmental conditions surrounding your computers. The ideal solution would be to keep your computers and monitors in a clean, climate controlled computer room. In other words, take them out of the danger area. Of course, this is unrealistic or undesirable to many shop owners, who want, or need the computers to operate in the immediate work area.

 

So what then Do what you can to control the dust and air pollutants in the shop. Use and maintain dust collectors for woodworking machines and a ventilation system for the shop area. And, if you cant move the computers out of the shop, try to move them across the room, away from welding, grinding or direct contact with billowing sander dust.

 

Protective Computer Dust Barriers

 

These include computer dust covers, dust filters, computer dust bags, and computer enclosures. Each has its advantages and limitations as described below. Determine which option is the best solution for you.

 

Standard computer covers are made by a number of manufacturers. Usually plastic or vinyl, they are cheap, but effective in keeping dust off your computers and monitors. However, they may only be used while your computer equipment is shut down. And, you must remember to put them on. Every day. In other words, they are almost useless in a busy shop.

 

Computer filters, on the other hand may be used while the computer is running. Also very cheap, these small pieces of loose mesh material are placed over fan air intakes in the computer case to remove dust from incoming air. Some have experimented with using panty hose, Brillo Pads and other household items with some success. The main drawback with computer filters is their small surface area. They clog up quickly in dusty areas and must be cleaned, or changed frequently to allow the unimpeded flow of cool air into the computer case. Another drawback is that they leave other openings in the computer case unprotected, allowing fine dust to infiltrate the CD ROM drives, floppy drives and other small openings.

 

Relatively new on the scene, computer dust bags are a combination computer cover and computer filter. Designed for the harsh, dusty and smoky conditions inherent to wood shops and machine shops, these innovative covers entirely encase the computer processor or monitor at all times, allowing the entire surface of the bag to act as a huge dust filter to remove dust from incoming air. Monitor dust bags have a seethrough, antistatic front to allow a clear screen view, and are very effective in keeping dust, wood chips and other debris out of the cooling vents. At around 20 or less, the recommended lifespan of the computer dust bag is 312 months, depending on the level of dust in the shop. A possible drawback to using the computer dust bag is reduced access to CD and floppy drives. However, it is possible to use these drives if you cut a hole in the dust bag and cover it with a door flap, which is included with the bag. You may also have to cut an access slot to use your USB ports.

 

Finally, computer enclosures are typically metal or wood, boxlike cabinets which your computer processor and monitor are placed in to protect them from the surrounding environment. A variety of fan and filter combinations introduce fresh air into the enclosure. Computer enclosures have the added advantage of protecting your equipment from blunt force trauma, such as a falling 2x4, chemical splashes and other things harmful to your computer. Filters must be changed regularly. Disadvantages include high price, greater amount of space required, and filter maintenance.

 

Computer Maintenance

 

Finally, the third part of a sound computer dust protection strategy is computer maintenance. Yes, that means cleaning. Does that scare you Its easier than you think. You dont have to buy all kinds of expensive tools and cleaning agents, and no heavy scrubbing or complicated disassembly is needed. The most important thing is to maintain a regular computer cleaning schedule. It may be as simple as opening the computer case once every three months to blow out the dust. Educate yourself on the computer cleaning basics and decide the right course of action for yourself. For a copy of the Standard Operating Procedure, Computer Cleaning and Dust Protection in an Industrial Environment, which you can modify to fit your own requirements go to www.computerdust.com. Its free when you sign up for The Computer Dust Solutions newsletter.

 

Just as numerous insects and animals perish when attacked by the army ant, a great number of computers are killed by dust every day. Dont let it happen to you. Follow the common sense ideas shown here and stop computerkilling dust in its tracks

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/computer-laptop-skins-provide-protection-corporate-identity-a-4042.html Computer laptops

are an essential tool for businesses, allowing employees to conduct business on the road. Marketing professionals have found a new marketing media, the back of the laptop. Company sponsored laptops can carry a corporate message few other media could attain. A company logo or brand can be skinned over the backside of the laptop making it a traveling billboard, allowing employees to market on behalf of its company without having to say a word.

 

Custom computer laptop skins

are becoming a new part of corporate identity programs and also protect the top of these substantial investments from nicks and scratches. Should the skin become scratched or a new promotion desired, they could be easily removed and replaced with minimal cost compared to laptop repairs.

 

Laptop skins are usually made of a composition of durable synthetic materials printed with a custom message. The materials are thin and flexible yet highly durable to provide an extra layer of protection. The material is thin so as to not add any weight to the laptop. Lastly, the protective Skin reduces the scratches you get while sliding the notebook into the case or having other computer peripherals rubbing against it.

 

Getyourskins.com has custom computer laptop eSkins with printed images for a wide variety of designs and has programs for businesses and colleges for logo and branding. These vinyl skins can be custom printed in small quantities or single orders at a reasonable cost, usually 20 to 30 each. Salespeople and Marketing employees can personalize the lid of their laptop like a mini billboard to display their message or logo and provide a more professional look during presentations and sales calls.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/little-vintage-computer-monitor-history-a-4041.html Until the early 1980s most monitors were terminals. They were boxy video display terminals VDTs combined with an attached keyboard. A terminal could be configured to work with just about any computer on the market. Not that there was a wide selection of personal computers for you to choose from.

 

Terminals were attached to computers by a serial interface. In those days, the VDT was commonly referred to as a CRT Cathode Ray Tube.

 

Before DOS, the dominant operating system OS for 8 bit computers was CP/M Control Program for Microprocessors. Early CP/M machines were originally designed to use separate memorymapped video display devices and discrete keyboards that plugged into the machines not unlike video display cards used later. The most well known was the VDM1. Terminal manufacturers recognized this lost market and began to market mainframe and ministyle terminals to the CP/M community. The sales pitch of just like a real mainframe at the time computer paid off. CP/M computers soon used terminals almost exclusively.

 

Apple II computers and the early game machines such as those made by Atari, Coleco or Nintendo hooked to a monitor not a terminal. The Apple II was built with a keyboard as part of the system. All that was missing was a monitor once the Apple II was plugged in.

 

These monitors unlike terminals looked like television sets without the tuner. In some cases they actually were television sets. Many early computers such as the Commodores Vic 20, 64 and 128, could be used with any television set with a special RF adapter that hooked to the antenna of the TV.

 

Then IBM came out with PCDOS computers, which were dubbed threepiece computers. One explanation according to a prominent used car dealer Moonie Bronstein was that many of the early marketers / hucksters advising the techies of the early computer era ,had their start in the competitive world of auto sales where such terms as 3 piecers and 4 piecers were popular marketing and sales terms. Other explanations for this marketing term was because the computers included three main components i.e. the monitor, the keyboard and the CPU box.

 

Ironically, when the IBM PCDOS computers arrived on the scene with separate monitor and keyboard the monitor connected directly to the computer. Just like the earliest personal computers through a display device connection. These new monitors used video cards that were either IBM monochrome MDA, IBM color graphics cards9 CGA, or Hercules the first third party ad on cards.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/compatible-versus-genuine-toner-cartridges-a-4040.html How do refilled toner cartridges stack up to the original brand Here are the pros and cons for both. Compatible means that the toner cartridge can be used in your specific equipment and also that it is not the Genuine Brand. Refilling toner cartridges is big business in the US and the world. Many companies choose to purchase the compatible version instead of the Original Equipment Manufacturer, OEM. Compatible can also mean completely brand new but generic.

 

In the beginning of refill cartridges there were not many options. Toner and internal replacement parts were not readily available, so the quality was not as high as one would like. In the recent years all that has changed. One of the most important components that should be replaced is the drum and the drum blade. These were designed to only last the life of the toner being used from the cartridge. If you were to reuse the original drum it would cause many print defects such as light print, marks and several other image defects. The drum blade would also create streaking and line type image defects. Think of the drum blade as a windshield wiper. When it wears out certain areas are not being cleaned and it makes it hard to see through the window In the same way certain areas are not being wiped off and you then have lines on the printed pages. We now have access to not only drums and blades but many other components that wear out and need to be replaced inside the toner cartridge. When selecting a company that refills or sells compatible toner cartridges, I would make sure that they do in fact replace the drum and drum blade, or it will not last and you will have wasted your time and money on something that was supposed to save you money in the first place.

 

False assumptions OEMs never fail

 

Having been in this business for over twenty years it seems that most people believe that if it is the original OEM toner cartridge that it will never fail. This is just not true. I have seen many OEM cartridges fail. Some from defect and some from customer induced causes. Here is a list of causes induced by customer neglect or error. Staples paper clips, paper dust, stickyback labels and placing the cartridge down on an unsafe position causing damage to drum.

 

False Assumptions Refills always leak

 

Here again we have an assumption that is just not true. In my experience, the number one cause for a leaking cartridge is paper or labels stuck up inside the drum area. This is caused by using inferior labels or dogeared paper. There are some refilled cartridges that have not been refurbished in a correct manner. Inside the cartridge is a part that is called a recovery blade. It is a thin Mylar that does exactly what it is named for. It recovers the excess toner and keeps it in the waste toner tank. If the recovery blade is old and warped, toner will fall down into the paper path and some how end up on your brand new shirt. Ever since then you swore to never use these darn refills any more

 

If you run across a toner cartridge and the price is unbelievably low it may be because the company that refilled it didnt replace all of the components that we mentioned earlier. Try and stay away from these kind of deals if you can help it. In this industry there are standards. One question to ask is if they are an ISO 9001 facility. An ISO 9001 facility has the highest standards and you can trust that they install all major components and are put together the right way. This is important, next time you are purchasing toner cartridges just ask them if they are. If they look at you kind of strange or if there is a long pause and they dont know what you are talking about, stay away from buying from them. There may be some good rechargers out there that are not ISO 9001 but for the most part this will help weed out the bad ones.

 

Pros and Cons of Compatible and Genuine Toner Cartridges

 

Compatible Pros Cost, the average savings can be 50 to 70 from OEM retail prices. If you make several thousand prints, this can really add up. Recycling benefits our world because it reduces the amount that we put in our landfills.

 

Compatible Cons You will have to make sure you buy quality compatibles or you may get a bad cartridge.

 

OEM Pros Consistency, toner yields, new parts, knowing were it came from and that it was created by the OEM.

 

OEM Cons Cost, toner cartridges can be much more expensive.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/looking-best-flash-drive-a-4039.html If youre not already the proud and happy owner of a USB flash memory drive then its about time you got one These little devices are incredibly useful, portable and very easytouse. Whether you need to transfer files between computers or youre just looking for a small and highly portable backup device these little gadgets are perfect

 

These small drives go by several different names including USB sticks, USB drive, USB flash drive, flash stick, thumb drive and jump drive.  Most of these names are not very accurate, however, chances are good that if you hear somebody talking about any one of these things, theyre talking about the same type of USB flash memory drive

 

that weve all come to know and love at least if you already own one youll feel this way.

 

How big are they

 

The reason they are also called thumb drives is that most of them are about the size of your thumb, if not smaller. As a result, you can fit these in your laptop case, in a pocket, or even put them on a lanyard around your neck no more lugging around dozens of CDs or DVDs on a business trip or to college for example.

 

How much data can they store

 

This depends on the USB flash drive that you choose.  Up until a few months ago, the largest size was a 2GB drive and that seemed massive at the time.  However, several brands now also offer a 4GB option now, and 8GB flash drives are just starting to appear on the market.  There are also a few very small portable external hard drives that use flash memory as well so these are another potential option for the prospective flash drive owner.

 

How much do they cost

 

Depending on the size of the USB flash drive that you buy and whether or not they are on sale, they can be anywhere from 10 to 120.  You can usually find a good deal on 1GB flash drives in most online stores.

 

USB flash memory is not the best option if you are looking for a long term backup of a large amount files due to the basic size constraints i.e. backing up a 300GB hard drive to a set of USB flash drives would be insanely expensive.  However, if you are looking to transfer files from one computer to another or just need a copy of important work or personal data that doesnt stretch into hundreds of gigabytes then a USB flash drive is readymade for this kind of work.

 

Another great thing about these drives is that because theyre USB based they work on both Macs and PCs without any problems. Do yourself a massive favor and invest in a USB flash drive today youll never regret your decision.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/service-contracts-part-copiers-a-4038.html If you are shopping for a new copier, fax machine or laser printer you may need a service contract to go along with it. In this article you will learn the ins and the outs of service contracts, read on

 

Welcome to our three part series on service contracts. Service contracts can vary for copiers, fax machines and laser printers, so in this series I will cover them individually in three separate articles. Just for clarification the type of machines that I am covering in these articles are the commercial types. Inkjet copiers, inkjet fax machines and inkjet printers are not covered in this article. The need for contracts on equipment such as these may not be cost effective. The equipment that I believe you should cover on a service contract are high volume copy machines that are designed to make thousands of copies, prints or faxes per month.

 

Service contracts are similar to an insurance policy. They may or may not save you money. Your costs are fixed so you will know how much per year you will spend instead of hoping that it wont break down too much or have a serious or expensive repair during the year. There are many ways of paying for a service contract. Most service companies will bill you monthly, quarterly or annually.

 

If you choose to be billed monthly, your service company will call at the end of each month and gather your meter reading. Then they will multiply the amount of copies by your cost per copy. Some copiers can also be equipped with a device that can send in the meter reading automatically each month and eliminate this part of the procedure. If you dont make many copies I would choose an annual or a quarterly billing. This is because most service companies charge a monthly billing minimum and you might end up paying more. Another reason to choose quarterly or annually would be the job of having to write a check each month and deal with getting the meter readings. On an annual contract make sure that you keep an eye on how many copies you produce or you will be paying for copies that you dont use or you may have to renew too soon.

 

Cost per copy

 

Cost per copy is the most common way of determining the price for service contracts. Each time you make a copy the meter clicks just like the odometer on your car. Many shoppers buy their machine according to the price of the cost per copy, since the service contract costs can often exceed the price of the copier. An average cost per copy is around 1.5 cents per copy. This could be lower or higher depending upon some variables. How many copies you make per month. What type and age of machine that is being covered. Environment plays a part because if it is in a dirty environment it will need twice as much service than a machine that is in a clean environment.

 

Figuring copies per month or per year

 

Determining the amount of copies per month is the most important information you will need when shopping for a service contract. If you have an existing copier that has been on a contract for awhile then this will be easy. Just look at your history. You need to also take in account for any slow downs or increases in copying that your company is experiencing. If you do not have a history there is a way of estimating. If you know how many reams of paper that you use per month you can multiply by 500 because there are 500 sheets of paper in a ream of paper. This will get you in the ball park.

 

Coverage

 

Understanding what is covered and what is not covered is very important to find out before you purchase a service contract. Many service contracts do not cover Staples, Paper and document feeder belts and there may be some others so check with your service provider. Does the contract include supplies Some supply items are toner, developer, heat rollers and drums. Find out what the hours they are available and days of the week that they operate. Which holidays do they take off What is the response time Is their four hour response time more expensive than their next day service Most service contracts do not cover abuse or neglect. So be cautious with those paper clips and staples as they can cause an expensive repair and it probably wont be covered. Get all of this in writing then there will not be any surprises.

 

Accessories

 

Some companies charge extra for each individual accessory. Such as, an automatic document feeder, finisher, and large capacity cassettes. Some may still be charging a flat rate for each unit but I dont see this too often.

 

Scanning

 

We live in a new age and with digital copiers you can now scan to your computers. Using the scanner puts wear and tear on the automatic document feeder but the parts in the copier are not being used. Digital copier machines can count scan only images so there may be an additional cost for this. I know that service companies in our industry are kind of scratching their heads on this one because it may be hard to charge for this type of service.

 

Color Copiers

 

Service contracts for full color copiers and MFPs are essentially the same as black and white service contracts except that you will be paying for a color copy or a black and white copy . Some average pricing will be around 1.5cents per copy for black and white and 10 cents per copy for color. If you have ever purchased toner for a color unit you know that color toner is always more expensive.

 

Connectivity

 

Most service companies will set up your newly installed copier to your network free of charge. You should always have your IT person onsite at the time of installation so they can answer questions about your particular network. Installing drivers and connecting equipment to your network is fairly easy depending on your system. Existing network problems or additions will most likely not be covered on the copier service contract unless you make an agreement with your service company ahead of time. Most network issues can be handled with your Computer specialist anyway.

 

You will have to decide for yourself or your company if you will purchase a service contract for your copy machine. Many companies do pretty well without one. They always have the machine serviced and parts and supplies replaced as needed. The only problem is when you have a circuit board or a time consuming problem to repair. This can sometimes cost you a hefty amount of money and a service contract can really pay off. Remember a service contract is like an insurance policy. It can create peace of mind and you will know in advance what your costs will be.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/laptop-backlights-inverters-a-4037.html Ever switched on your laptop and thought; Hey theres nothing coming on the screen, only to notice as you move it towards you for a better look, the light catches the screen at a different angle and theres a very faint/dark image displayed  In every laptop lcd screen theres a flourescent tube that illuminates the screen from the back hence the term backlight if this fails or the mechanism that starts it up fails then your display will become dark/dim to the point of being unreadable.

 

In our experience; in most cases its not the backlight the ccfl tube that fails, but the circuitry that starts it up called the inverter, a small circuitboard that usually resides just below the lcd panel within the screen lid.   As long as the particular inverter is readily available as a spare part then the repair is quite straightforward and simple, swap out the old for the new and it should be as good as new.

 

 Sometime the backlight itself fails, the symtoms are the same, dark screen, faint image etc.  The repair is a little more fiddly as lcd screens are not meant to be taken apart, so changing a ccfl tube is not for the light hearted.  Of course you could always change the lcd panel, but that seems like hitting a nut with a sledgehammer to break it, itll also cost you, lcd panels are not cheap.  There are companies that do swap out just the ccfl tube, if your in the UK try us at www.laptoprepairservice.co.uk, else have a search on google for laptop backlight repair.

 

 In either case if it happens to you and you just cant give up the laptop for repair even for a few days, and you have a spare pc monitor to hand, you should be able to plug the monitor cable into the laptop and use it with that, not exactly portable but it should get you out of trouble, and allow you to finish that piece of work with the looming deadline.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/service-contracts-part-machines-a-4036.html If you are shopping for a new fax machine you may need a service contract to go along with it. In this article you will learn the ins and the outs of service contracts, read on

 

Welcome to Part II of our three part series on service contracts. This article covers service contracts on high volume laser fax machines. Service contracts on high volume fax machines are much different than service contracts on a copy machines. The difference is that fax machines are not billed by cost per copy. If you read my previous article Service Contracts on Copiers, then you know that cost per copy means that you are billed each time you make a copy. Fax machine service contracts are billed differently.

 

Understanding what is covered and what is not covered is very important to find out before you purchase a service contract on your fax machine. Most fax machine service contracts are billed annually and the supplies are normally not covered. Many service contracts do not include toner, drums or heat rollers. Many service companies will sell you supplies at a discounted rate as long as you are continuing to keep your machine on contract. They also may add an additional charge to cover circuit boards.

 

You can also purchase a cleaning only contract. You can purchase two or three cleanings or service calls per year in advance at a discounted rate. This way you keep your machine clean and if you run into trouble and you need to place a service call you will save money.

 

I always recommend installing a high quality surge protector on all copiers, fax machines and laser printers. This will protect your machine from power surges that could destroy your machine. Some surge protector companies have a guarantee that covers your machine if their surge protector does protect your machine against a high voltage surge.

 

Service contracts are similar to an insurance policy. They may or may not save you money. Many companies do not purchase service contracts on fax machines because they dont cover everything as copier contracts do. They service their machines on a per call basis. You will have to decide for yourself or your company if you will purchase a service contract for your fax machine.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/service-contracts-part-laser-printers-a-4035.html If you are shopping for a Laser Printer you may need a service contract to go along with it. In this article you will learn the ins and the outs of service contracts, read on

 

Welcome to the final part of our three part series on service contracts. This article covers service contracts on laser printers.  Laser printer maintenance contracts are similar to copier service contracts.  Most laser printer service contracts are billed by cost per print.  It is essentially the same thing as cost per copy.  Each time you print a page the internal meter clicks.  On a printer you can get the page count or meter reading by printing a configuration page.  Then, each month or quarter an invoice is generated by multiplying the cost per page by the total prints made.  The cost per page is determined by monthly volume, age of machine and environment.  Environment plays a big part because if it is in a dirty environment it will need possibly twice as much service than a machine in a clean environment.

 

Service contracts are really similar to an insurance policy.  They may or may not save you money.  The good part is that your costs are fixed, so you will know how much per year you will spend instead of hoping it wont break down too much or have a serious or really expensive part break.   There are many ways of paying for a service contract.  It depends on the way you and your company would like to be billed. Most service companies offer monthly, quarterly and annual billing.   

 

Total Cost Management

 

There is an explosion of service companies providing this way of tracking all of the costs associated with your copiers and printers.  It is called Total Cost Management.  Most if not all copiers, MFPs and printers can be monitored on your network with revolutionary print management software.  You are able to track your total pages or copies.  You can monitor toner low warnings, error codes, paper jams, and everything associated with your machine. This software can help you calculate how much you are paying for the total ownership of all of your equipment.  This is very helpful when purchasing new equipment.  The software will help you figure all the costs of your equipment, toner, parts, supplies and service. 

 

Coverage

 

Understanding what is covered and what is not covered is very important to find out before you purchase a service contract.  Does the contract include supplies  Some supply items are toner and maintenance kits.  Find out what hours the service company is available and days of the week that they operate.  Which holidays do they take off  What is their response time  Most service contracts do not cover abuse or neglect.  So be cautious with those paper clips and staples as they can cause an expensive repair and it probably wont be covered.  Get all of this in writing then there will not be any surprises. 

 

Which Type of Contract

 

Choose an all inclusive service contract that covers everything such as parts, labor, maintenance kits and supplies.  Or choose a contract that only covers parts and labor.

 

Color Laser Printers

 

Service contracts on full color laser printers are essentially the same except that you will be paying for a color print or a black and white print.  Pricing varies, but you will be paying about 910 times more per print for color thanfor black and white.  If you have ever purchased toner for a color printer you know that color toner is more expensive.

 

Conclusion

 

This concludes our article series on service contracts for Copiers, Fax machines and Laser Printers.  My purpose for writing this series was to help shed some light on shopping for service contracts for companies that have never purchased one or are in the process of purchasing a service contract.  Each service company will have different options but for the most part they all bill their maintenance contracts as described in my series.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/printer-fuser-units-versus-refurbished-a-4034.html Laser printer supplies and replacement parts prices can be very expensive, so to save us money some very resourceful people have come up with an alternative to buying new fusers.

 

Fuser Units

 

A fuser unit is the part in a laser printer that creates pressure and heat to fuse toner to the paper.  Not all of the parts go bad in the whole assembly when they wear out.  The main part that wears out is the upper heat roller or the heat sleeve.  The coating wears off and causes the toner to not fuse properly.  There are replacement rollers and sleeves on the market that you can replace and turn a nonfunctional fuser into a good working one.

 

Rebuilding fuser assemblies is not a new thing.  Copier technicians have been doing it for years since the first office copier was created.  When the fuser wears on any copier they replace certain parts some of which are, the upper heat roller, lower heat roller, bearings, picker fingers, thermistors, drive gears and more.  The printer industry has a different approach in that they replace everything as an assembly.  People are accustomed to this and when they need a replacement fuser they opt for a new one many times.  I believe it is a mind set.  A copier service person would look at it as a waste of money.  Why buy a new one when you can buy the replacement parts for a fraction of the cost and install them and make it as good as new.  You must be cautious when purchasing replacement parts because there are some replacement parts that are sub par, so finding a good parts source is imperative.

 

Refurbished Fusers

 

Pros

 

Cost much less than a new assembly. 

 

Cons

 

Higher defect rate if you dont find a quality manufacturer.

 

New Original Fusers

 

 

Pros

 

You know for sure that what you are getting is as good as there is.

 

 

Cons

 

Cost is much higher than a refurbished fuser.  These too can be defective out of the box.

 

I have replaced many fusers and believe that using refurbished fusers is the way to go.  It will not harm the machine and I have seen refurbished fusers last longer than new fusers.  You will save money and dont forget about the recycling aspect.  There could be tons of old fuser cores in the land fills if it wasnt for refurbished fusers.  The pros out way the cons when it comes to refurbished fuser units.  It is critical that you find quality refurbished fusers with a good warranty and you will save a lot of money while helping keep our landfills from filling up with old fuser units. 

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/digital-camera-functions-their-uses-a-4033.html In the past few years, most people have upgraded from cameras that use film to digital cameras, which store images electronically using either flash memory, or in some cases, a hard disc drive. These modern cameras have a number of advantages over traditional film cameras, but perhaps the most notable is the ability of digital cameras to store hundreds of photographs, and allow for images to be uploaded onto a computer for editing and storage.

 

Typically, digital camera functions, even on the most basic models now exceed those available on comparable compact film cameras, and offer everyone the chance to take great photos.

 

Although image quality on digital cameras has traditionally been somewhat lower than that available on a typical 35mm camera, thanks to the resolution of the light sensitive chips that collect the image data, with the latest generations of models, the image quality matches or even exceeds that of their competitors.

 

One of the most impressive digital camera functions is the ability of the photographer to instantly see what they have taken a photo of. This is achieved using the screen on the back of the camera, which can show the picture straight away, and allow users to decide whether or not they want to keep the picture, rather than having to wait until the film is developed.

 

Most digital cameras now allow users to perform a certain degree of image manipulation through the use of their inbuilt software. Functions range from being able to take pictures in black and white through to being able to zoom in on a particular area of the image, and crop it from the whole easily.

 

When a digital camera is coupled with a PC that has image management software such as Adobe Photoshop, it is possible to add all manner of effects and stitch different pictures together in order to create a montage that would be very difficult using traditional media.

 

If there is enough memory available, digital camera functions also include the ability to take short videos with sound, making them a viable alternative to an expensive dedicated video camera for capturing special moments in all their glory.

 

Thanks to the Internet, and websites such as Flickr, digital camera owners can share their pictures with friends from all over the world in a matter of seconds, allowing almost anyone to have instant access to pictures of an event, and this has created a revolution in the way that news events can be covered in real time.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/machines-four-problems-them-a-4032.html If you have a problem with your fax machine, chances are its one that I mention in this article. Find the solution here, read on

 

There are many makes and models of fax machines, but they all have certain problems that come up that are easy to fix.  I have listed four common problems and will explain the problem and the solution for each.  I charge for this so this is a valuable article for anyone who has a fax machine.  Keep it filed so you can retrieve it for another time or use it now to repair an existing problem.

 

Multifeeding through the automatic document feeder

 

This is when you put a stack of papers into the automatic document feeder ADF and it pulls more than one in at a time.  This is called multifeeding.  Most ADFs have an item that separates the paper called a separation pad.  This wears out after some use and needs to be replaced.  Open the ADF cover and shine a flashlight up into this area.  If it is worn out replace it.  You can call the manufacturer and speak with the parts department for a replacement ADF separation pad.  Replace it and you will have your ADF working good again.  While you are repairing this you should also clean or replace the ADF feed roller.  See Not pulling in originals.  A little modification I have done many times is flipping the pad over.  Some models you can do this and actually get double the life on the pad.

 

Not pulling in originals

 

This is when your originals dont pull in the papers when you insert them into the ADF.  You can use WD40 to clean this roller.  Take a strong cotton cloth that will not tear and saturate it with WD40.  Clean the roller well all the way around the surface and then take the dry part and make sure you get all the cleaner off of the roller.  You will probably notice that the rag is very dirty and black from the ink, dirt and toner being removed from the roller.  The roller should pick up the paper much better now.  If not you will need to replace the roller with a new one. Use the steps above and order an ADF feed roller or a feed roller kit.  A feed roller kit normally consists of a prefeed roller, feed roller and a separation pad.  Replacing this kit will make it feed like new.

 

Lines sending faxes or using the copy feature

 

This is when the faxes that you send or transmit have lines or streaks on them.  This is often caused by something on the slit glass of the fax machine scanner.  To test it, make a copy on your fax machine.  Is there a line  If yes, print a journal.  If there is only a line when you copy and no line when you print a journal, the problem is the slit glass.  You will need to clean the slit glass.  Lift up the ADF cover and shine a flashlight inside.  Look for a small one inch by eleven inch glass.  Inspect it for whiteout, ink or foreign matter stuck to it.  Remove the stain by first scrapping it with your finger nail and remove as much as you can.  Then use an alcohol swab to remove the rest.

 

Keeps ringing but never answers or receives faxes

 

If your fax machine keeps ringing without answering it probably has the auto answer function turned off.  Look in your owners manual on how to turn on auto receive.  If you dont have an operators manual it is often located directly on the operation panel.  Set it for on and test it. 

 

My service business receives many calls for each of these problems.   We make an attempt to try and explain to the customer on how to fix it themselves, but some people just want to see a technician.  Thats where I come in, and make an easy dollar.  If you want to save money, you can by fixing it yourself and use the money you saved to take a friend out to dinner instead

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/buying-laptop-computer-little-known-facts-help-a-4031.html With the fast disappearing gap between desktop computers and laptops or notebook computers in terms of computing power, more people are aiming to purchase a laptop or notebook computer to replace the less portable desktop computer.

 

The question that looms large is how can someone gets to buy a laptop or notebook computer at the lowest price, and irregardless of whether it is a new, used or refurbished laptop computer

 

The answer is you can buy a laptop or notebook computer at the lowest price by removing the middleman in the transaction, where you actually buy direct from the seller without the traditional middleman. This simple solution suggests that buying the laptop online...and the largest marketplace where you can buy online is eBay

 

Little Known Facts and Figures

 

To get down to the real facts about buying a laptop computer from ebay, I personally logged into ebay to conduct a research.

 

The first place to look up for if you are buying a laptop through ebay is to search through the category 51148 which is marked Laptops, Notebook Computers. There you can see a large range of branded laptop computers which are being listed for selling under the auction format. Bear in mind, not all laptops are used or second hand laptops, brand new laptops are also listed for selling at the same time.

 

On the day of my research into the Laptops, Notebook Computers category, I wanted to find what was the hottest laptop item listed for auction. So I began to look for laptops that were in the process of being auctioned off and which had attracted more than 20 bids. Out of 140 pages of listings containing the keyword laptops, I searched the bids out of the first 5 pages of the listings, and discovered 20 different laptops being listed had more than the minimum 20 bids to make it a hot item or favorite. The lowest number of bids was 21 bids for a Dell X300, and the highest number of bids was 38 bids for a Dell C600 laptop. Out of the 20 different laptops being bided with more than 20 bids, 12 were from the Dell brand, with the Dell Latitude being the most common hottest laptop being sold through ebay auctions. Second was Toshiba, with Sony being the third hottest item.

 

While the price of the laptop being sold is dependent on many other factors such as age of the computer and the physical robustness of the laptop after physical use if it is aged and used before , and specific features that came with it, generally most of the Dell laptops were within the range of 160 to 295 for a usedbefore Dell Latitude laptop with the Dell Inspiron 9400 bided at 825.00

 

Using The Little Known Facts and Figures

 

With these facts, one can start to make some preliminary decisions on his or her laptop potential purchase. By going to the ebay category 51148, on any typical day, we can find out what is the hottest brand of laptop computer being sold and at what range of prices, and whether those laptops are within out means for purchase. In my particular example, I found the hottest laptop on offer was a Dell laptop which will cost me around 160 to around 295 for a used laptop computer.

 

Shopping online means huge savings in terms of time and money, as the auction format allows for a dynamic environment to bid for your intended purchase and allowing you to set a limit on your budgeted price. More importantly, most items , especially preloved and used before items can be purchased at vastly discounted price making it possible for you to buy a laptop at great discount than their inherent value.

 

Like to use the technique I talked about in this article to get your own laptop computer You can do this by visiting the All American Laptops and Computer Notebook Store where you can bid under the security of the ebay auction system and enjoy the best prices and quality.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/laser-printers-versus-inkjet-printers-a-4030.html Using the right printer for the right job is the key to effective print management.

 

These two different types of printers achieve the same thing. They both print, but they go about it in a very different manner. There are major differences in the engines that drive them and the work they are required to do.

 

Laser printers are designed to be used in a heavy work load environment. The cost per print is much less expensive compared to Inkjet models. Laser printers use a dry monocomponent toner cartridge and a laser that shoots the image onto a drum inside the toner cartridge.

 

Inkjet printers are designed for a different work load. They are designed more for a work station such as an individuals desk or for low volume type work. The toner or ink is quite expensive. Most are slow, so using them in a high volume application would drive a person crazy waiting for a hundred page report. Let me say something about the cost of Inkjet cartridges. I read an article that said that Inkjet cartridges are more expensive per weight than imported Russian Caviar. Inkjets use a liquid ink that is sprayed onto the paper. They all have a scanner rail that goes back and forth, carrying the Ink cartridges distributing the ink.

 

I read a post that several people commented on. They said that Hewlett Packard has really gone down hill lately with the quality of their printers. They were commenting on the HP LaserJet 4, a very popular laser printer of the past. It is about ten to years old, but it is a very dependable printer. I still use one in my office

 

They were comparing it to several new HP Inkjet Printers. These are completely different machines for completely different applications. If you want to compare this machine to another HP product use the HP laser jet 4250. You really cant compare these either. The memory, speed and options are made for the latest printing applications. Remember that the HP LJ 4 was built around 386 computers. By the way, my HP LJ4 works great with XP.

 

The price of Inkjet printers is driven by consumers that want something cheap. You get what you pay for. It is the market that creates cheap Inkjet printers. They do work well, but if they break they are not designed to repair. They are known as disposable printers. Not all Inkjet printers are disposable printers. The Inkjet is really progressing and will continue to fill more of the market place. Speed has been an issue but now they have designed some that keep up with the speed of laser printers. HP color Inkjets also make terrific color prints. Even a person with a limited budget can make great presentations, photos and flyers.

 

When you purchase a printer

, you should always consider the type of application that it will be used for. Dont buy an Inkjet when youre going to be printing hundreds of reports. Dont buy a laser printer if you print two or three jobs a day. If you look at cost per print and monthly volume you cant go wrong. Hewlett Packard printers

are some of the best you can buy, but you need to use them in the proper application.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/choose-best-gaming-headset-a-4029.html A good PC gaming headset is almost a must if you want to have the best gaming experience. Most games nowadays are embedded with high definition audio effects. To really enjoy the game and be in the game, a good gaming headset is necessary.

 

So what constitutes a good PC gaming headset

 

Comfort

 

A good computer gaming

headset must be able to provide comfort to the user. This is necessary since you will be wearing it for a long period of time. There is only one way to test whether a headset is comfortable or not, and that is to try it out before you make your purchase.

 

        Most of the time, the comfort factor is dependent on the

 

        Padding Is it thick and soft enough to protect your ear

 

        Ear cups Is it big enough to contain your ear

 

        Headband Is it freely adjustable to suit the size of your head

 

        Weight Is it too heavy for your ear to carry

 

        Put it on for 15 minutes and you will know whether it is suitable for you or not.

 

Sound Quality

 

A good PC gaming headset must have the ability to produce great sound quality. While different people perceive sound differently, you can use these few guideline to distinguish a headset with good sound quality from a bad one.

 

Bass

 

A gaming headset with a powerful bass will show significant differences in first person shooting game such as Counterstrike. You will be able to hear clearly the bullets flying around you and distinct explosion in the background.

 

Surround Sound

Surround sound effect is necessary to create the realism in your gameplay. Those PC gaming headsets with 5.1 digital audio encoded will be useful to help you identify the enemy that is sneaking behind you or shooting at you

 

Noise Cancellation

Some gaming headset uses an external microphone to pick up external noise and invert them to cancel out any unwanted noise. This is extremely useful if you are always playing in a noisy environment, such as an Internet cafe.

 

Cable Length

 

The cable length will determine how far away you can stay behind the screen. A typical gaming headset should have a cable length of 2m. Anything shorter than this length will restrict your movement and cause inconvenience to you. If you are playing game console, such as Xbox or PS3, in your living room, you might consider getting a headset with longer cable or an extra extensible cable to connect to your headset.

 

Wireless Headset

 

If you always move around and do not wish to be bothered by the cable, you can choose the wireless gaming headset that makes use of Bluetooth or RF technology. A word of caution, wireless headsets might be more prone to noise interference and/or loss of signal during the transmission, which can lead to static, pops or annoying noise.

 

Microphone

 

Some of the PC gaming headsets are geared with a microphone to allow interaction during gameplay. This might be a useful feature that you want to include in your gaming headset.

 

Volume Control

 

This may seem a trivial feature, but it matter a lot when you are far away from your sound system. For a gaming headset with surround sound feature, it would be useful to have an inline volume control to control the individual speaker levels. You can customize the volume setting for each speaker to enhance your gaming experience.

 

Vibrator

 

Force feedback gaming headsets make use of vibration to try to recreate the physical sensation of bass frequencies. The headset can vibrate in sympathy with the low frequencies in the audio signal, so that listeners both hear and feel the bass.

 

These should sum up most of the features found in a good PC gaming headset.

 

In conclusion, choosing a good PC gaming headset can be a very personal thing. A headset might fit comfortably on others, but not on you. You will have to try out the headset before deciding whether it is suitable for you.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/evolution-thermal-plain-paper-machines-a-4028.html Fax machines

 have gone through some changes but most would agree that the biggest change has been the change from thermal paper to plain paper.

 

About fifteen years ago, businesses were leasing thermal fax machines that were priced at 1,500.00 to 2,500.00.  Now you can buy a plain paper fax machine for under 150.00.  Times sure have changed. 

 

Thermal fax machines were the ones with the long roll of paper and each fax would be cut to the size that is transmitted.  You could make some cool banners with those things because you could set them to not cut and it would continue to spit out the paper  They were pretty much bullet proof.  The major problem was the paper.  It would curl and you had a hard time working with it.  If it was exposed to the sun or heat it would turn a dark black and all of the information was lost.  They were very economical compared to laser or ink jet fax machines.  The only supply that you were required to purchase was rolls of paper. 

 

At the time of transformation most people didnt rush out and buy plain paper faxes.  They waited until either there fax machines went on the blink or the prices came down quite a bit.  Up until five years ago you could still find a few still chugging away but now I believe they have completely vanished.

 

Plain paper faxes now have saturated the market and the prices have dropped so low that anyone can afford one.  With rebates you may even get one for free.  The only problem may be that you may not be able to afford the supplies that go into them.   Laser, inkjet, and thermal transfer rolls are the options that you have.  The cost per page varies but believe me when I say that the money is not in selling machines, it is in selling supplies.  You can shop smart though and look at the cost per page.  This is the price of the toner or supply divided by the supply yield.  Spending a little more on the machine for a lower CPP can save you a bundle of money.

 

Some of the younger people that read this probably cant even imagine ever using thermal roll fax machines but remember, times change and they change fast.

 

What does the future hold for the fax machine of the future  Technology doesnt stand still, so lets wait and see

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/service-guides-most-important-tools-a-4027.html The main type of work I do is repairing Hewlett Packard laser printers. It really doesnt matter which type of machine that you repair, it is always a good idea to have a service manual handy. I work on the same equipment almost daily but I will always need to reference a service manual at any point in time.

 

I remember being in a customers office and reading the service guide for an adjustment I was performing. I wasnt aware of it but the customer had called into the office to complain that I didnt know what I was doing, just because I was reading the service manual. I still dont know what was up with that customer but to me I would be more worried if the technician didnt have a service manual than if he just did everything by the seat of his pants. Now, I just go outside to look up what I need because of that one incident. Why some people feel that you dont know what you are doing if you use a service manual is beyond me.

 

Manuals are very useful and here are some practical uses. Tear down and disassembly, finding part numbers, adjustment procedures, precise measurements, supply yield information, error codes/self diagnostics and more.

 

If you find yourself in a situation where you dont have a service manual for a particular machine I feel your pain. The cost is minimal especially compared to the extra time spent doing the job incorrectly and then having to redo it again. Invest in some guides and skim through them. I guarantee you that you will find something of value and it will help with what ever you work on. I have saved myself hours of work just from the disassembly procedures.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/what-have-random-hangups-a-4026.html Have you ever experienced  your computer intermittently hangsup, or may reboot itself for no apparent reason. This is not only annoying, but in most cases it means you have lost valuable work that you were in the process of creating.

 

If this has happened once, then your chances of explaining the cause are remote in the extreme. If you find it happening regularly, then it is clearly in your best interest to find and fix the problem.

 

There are a few things you can check for yourself that may save you a trip to the repair shop and save yourself a few bucks. With most modern computers, the system comes with built in circuitry to monitor the state of the computer. One of the checks built into your system is to test the operating temperature. The computer may shut down if this moves outside the desirable operating range.

 

For your system to run at the correct operating temperature it is important that air circulates freely in and around the case. If you have the computer case installed inside an enclosure, then this may be the first thing to consider changing. Similarly, I have seen computers covered with books, manuals and paper documents. These again can hinder air circulation, and these items should be removed.

 

Take a look at the slotted vents in the sides of the case. These slots can become blocked by an accumulation of dust. Because the computer is usually always drawing some power, it has a constant electrostatic charge. A computer is second only to a vacuum cleaner in its ability to suck in dust and fluff.

 

Removing the cover of the case will also show the dust buildup inside the computer. Be careful removing dust accumulations from internal components. This is best done with a soft artists brush or an aerosol can of compressed air.

 

Next, take a look at the internal cooling fans. Modern computers usually have a cooling fan perched on top of the processor. This fan should be clear of dust, and running freely, without obvious scraping noises, when the computer is operating. It is ok to start the computer with the case cover removed, just be careful not to poke things into the various components.

 

There will also be a cooling fan inside or attached to the power supply. This again should be free of dust and running freely. Some computers may also have an additional case fan. This will be screwed on over one of the slotted case vents, and typically be running from a cable connected to the mother board. Not all machines have a separate case fan, but if it is there, it is there for a reason. Apply the same checks to this fan.

 

If you have identified faults with your cooling fans, this may require a trip to your local repair shop. The repair technician may also suggest that the CPU heat sink be removed and replaced with fresh heat transfer compound, which is a straightforward job for an experienced repairer.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/compare-right-notebook-a-4025.html Its not tricky to be intimidated by all the notebook computers models on the market these days. You can most often get a dozens of price range and models.

 

In order to find the right notebook for you, a little consideration will be needed. Before go on shopping you should make a decision what actually you need. When you distinct your need, no doubt buying the right notebook is very effortless.

 

Here we point out 5 basic factors to consider

 

1. Dimension

 

Size is definitely a matter in the mobile computing world. A notebook computer can be affected by two element sizes portability and display size.

 

If you are intending that you will be used your computer for just a short time, an ultra light will save you some shoulder strain.

 

In the other hand, a large display will definitely play a big role while using the computer for a long period in a unique day.

 

Comparing the displays size of other desktop computers, some notebook computers displays exceed 17 inches these days. The down face is that these monsters can simply weigh three times as much as an ultra light.

 

2. Hard Drive

 

The element here sounds the size of the hard drive. What size of hard drive you have to buy Simply query the following question from yourself.

 

Will the notebook be my alternative system or a primary

 

If a primary then you should buy a bigger hard drive 60 GB or more. If an alternative, you may probably buy a 20 GB.

 

Also you should know how much data you will be kept in or how much data you have in the present. So simply you should buy a hard drive according to your need.

 

3. Memory

 

Determining the right memory or RAM for your notebook need to know the way of for what you will be used the notebook

 

If you feel that you will be face up to somewhat mundane email, spreadsheets, word processing, etc 256 MB will be suitable. Most often many of notebooks have such configuration, so dont spend a lot for more RAM.

 

But if you are aspiring mobile digital photographer always stuff your notebook with as much RAM as it can hold.

 

4. Network Connections

 

Internet is the most important part of the modern computing, computing in the 21st century rely heavily on being connected It should be connected to a corporate network, connected to an online service, connected to the Internet, connected to a home network, connected to a wireless network.

 

You should buy a notebook computer that will be able to access them all.

 

4. The Price

 

Price of notebook depends mostly on your budget, how much you can pay for a notebook.

 

A few years ago, 2.000 were not sufficient for buying a notebook, but today, there are a huge rang of notebooks allow you to pay 1,000 or less for a notebook.

 

However purchasing a notebook computer is still considered a major purchase for most of buyers. You should compare different prices before confirming a deal.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/notebook-display-wxga-wsxga-wuxga-a-4024.html When buying a widescreen notebook, it can be a bit confusing to pick the right LCD.  Generally, you are given a choice between WXGA, WSXGA and WUXGA notebook displays.  What are these and which do you choose

 

WXGA, WSXGA and WUXGA

 

The above acronyms are resolution standards for television and computer monitors.  All of them refer to widescreen display standards  WXGA stands for Widescreen Extended Graphics Array; WSXGA for Widescreen Super Extended Graphics Array; and WUXGA for Widescreen Ultra Extended Graphics Array.

 

WXGA, WSXGA and WUXGA are not the only display standards for screen displays, but they are the most common in notebook computers.  True to widescreen standards, all three of these have an aspect ratio in the range of 16/9 to 16/10.  They mainly differ in their resolution the number of pixels they can display on screen.

 

While all widescreen displays can use resolutions lower than their rated display, they provide the best image at their native resolution, which is also their maximum resolution.  Keep in mind that a lower resolution is much easier on the eyes, so you will want to go with a native resolution that does not leave you squinting at the screen in your daytoday use.

 

WXGA has a 1366x768 resolution, an aspect ratio of 16/9.  WSXGA boasts a greater resolution at 1680x1050 and an aspect ratio of 16/10.  WUXGA uses a resolution of 1920x1200 at an aspect ratio of 16/10.

 

What to Pick

 

If you are buying a notebook computer for gaming purposes, you probably want a WUXGA screen for the sharpest image.  If you are an HDTV subscriber and you plan to use your notebook computer as an HDTV receiver, WUXGA gives the very highest resolution available.  WUXGA is also great for watching movies and viewing digital images due to the sharp rendering of images and pictures.

 

WUXGA is very convenient for multitasking, provided you can handle the small display size.  This is perfect for working on two documents or web pages sidebyside, which can enhance productivity.

 

A WUXGA LCD can display greater amounts of detail than both WXGA and WSXGA, so you can see on the screen.  This is not to say that WXGA and WSXGA have nothing to recommend them.  In fact, WUXGA is not for everyone.

 

If the notebook computer does not have a powerful mobile GPU and a 17inch or larger LCD, highresolution gaming potential will be more difficult, as it takes a highend GPU to push modern games to 1920x1200 resolutions.  As mentioned, customers with less than excellent vision are better off choosing WXGA to get the largest text display.  If you want a notebook display with mediumsized text, sharp images, and less than 17 inches of physical screen size, WSXGA is a good compromise, and the 1680x1050 resolution is nothing to sneeze at, by any means.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/should-bring-desktop-laptop-computer-college-a-4023.html Desktop computers and laptop

computers each offer their own unique benefits, which you should take into account before deciding which type of computer you will bring to college.

 

When choosing whether to buy a desktop or laptop computer for college, you must consider how you will be using it. To get you thinking about which type of computer suits you best, this article outlines some of the benefits and detriments associated with both types of computers.

 

The pros and cons of desktop and laptop computers are listed below

 

Desktop computers

 

Pros

 

1. Price a basic desktop computer can cost hundreds of dollars less than a similarly equipped laptop.

 

2. Security as desktop computers are larger and heavier than laptops, they are much harder to steal.

 

3. Monitor size desktop computers often come with monitors that exceed the size of laptop monitors. Flat screen monitors can double as a tv in a small dorm room, which saves space and money.

 

Cons

 

1. Portability although desktops are getting smaller and lighter, you cant take a desktop computer to class or the library. When your computer needs repairs, a desktop computer is not as portable as a laptop.

 

Laptops

 

Pros

 

1. Portability with your laptop you can work just about anywhere, from your bed to the classroom.

 

2. Security you can take your laptop home on school breaks. Bringing home a desktop can be more difficult, especially if you are flying.

 

Cons

 

1. Price laptops generally cost more than desktop computers. However, laptops have become increasingly affordable in recent years.

 

2. Maintenance laptops have more parts that may need repair, i.e. batteries and power cords.

 

Ultimately, choosing the right college computer for you comes down to how you will use the computer. Each has its own benefits and detriments, and you should take both into careful consideration. Even with so much precollege studying, shopping for your college computer is a fun process.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/buying-computer-laptop-like-buying-shoes-a-4022.html Any woman can tell you that the right shoe will make the outfit. Same will be for your choice in buying the right computer. In the same manner that you would purchase the right shoe to match that special date outfit, you need to know what it is that you are looking for in a computer or laptop.

 

Athletic

 

An athletic computer is designed for highprocessing speed with highlevels of memory RAM. To be quick and slick, this hardware configuration may be just what you need for that gaming enthusiast, the wantto be music or movie producer.

 

Shop for the machine that includes Core 2 Extreme Intel processor, Dual DDR2 Memory, four hard drive configuration for 2.75TB of space, BlueRay DVD/CDRW / combo drives, Dual 768MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX graphics cards, Integrated 7.1 Intel High Definition Audio or Sound Blaster XFiTM XtremeMusic Sound cards with the optional physics accelerator.

 

I can hear Tim the Tool Man grunting in the background. Cant you

 

Sneakers

 

This is an athletic computer with a sense of fashion for those that enjoy the power of highspeed performance with a touch of glamour. Seek a computer with similar hardware as the athletic machine but look for color choice accessories in computer or laptop cases and in flat panel displays. Select the keyboard, mouse, and printer that compliment your unique sense of fashion.

 

Sandals

 

Enjoy the sense of freedom and fashion for all that is wireless. Choose a laptop that provides customized color and a slick design with the optimum hardware configuration such as the laptop athletic equivalent to compliment your sense of onthego casual style.

 

Clogs

 

A sense of freedom and fashion but meets the practicability for the business user, preferred is generally mobile laptop with a wide screen and moderate hardware configuration. Choices in processor speed, memory, hard drive capacity, and wireless technology vary greatly within this business class. The best selection would be based on what you will primarily utilize the machine for and what applications or programs you will be running.

 

Are you a multitasker with many programs all running at the same time Upgrade your hardware with more memory RAM and check into the higher processor speeds.

 

Need space to save all of your important documents and files along with some jazzy tones to keep you motivated Choose a large capacity hard drive.

 

Need to connect wireless at any general WiFi area Stick to the 802.11g wireless card other than the WirelessN.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/thinkpad-laptop-resale-value-tips-more-a-4021.html Are you thinking of upgrading a venerable ThinkPad T20, T30 or in fact any older ThinkPad T Series to a brand new ThinkPad T61

 

Want to swap in your older ThinkPad X Series for a shiny new X61 or even a ThinkPad X300 Well, however much you get for your much loved preowed ThinkPad, every little helps as they say Here are our top tips to ensure that you get top dollar when you sell your old Laptop.

 

&61623;  1 Make sure that it is immaculately clean. Switch your laptop off, unplug the power and then take the time to go over your laptop with a soft cloth, removing all the obvious dust. Use cotton buds to clean all those nooks and crannies around the keyboard and under the screen. Turn the machine around and clean behind the hinges.

 

&61623;  2 Use a couple of lens wipes to clean the screen and make sure its sparkling. Wal mart sell a box of Zeiss lens wipes for 2.99 that do a great job. Take care when cleaning the screen not to put too much pressure on the LCD.

 

&61623;  3 Remove the red TrackPoint by pulling it off gently and soaking it for a while a cup of warm soapy water, then give it a gentle scrub with a nail brush. It will look as good as new

 

&61623;  4 If any of the palm rest stickers, like the XP, Centrino or Graphics logos are curled and messy then remove them and remove any sticky residue.

 

&61623;  5 Make sure that that outside of the case is clean. We have used a variety of soft wipes for this job over the years, and there are some great auto dashboard wipes in the auto section of your local Wal mart or you friendly auto parts store. You will give your ThinkPad a nice fresh sheen that looks great to a buyer. ALWAYS, always try something new on the laptop underside first

 

&61623;  6 Do a complete Windows reinstall using the recovery disks or recovery partition. That protects your data and gives your buyer an as left factory installation.

 

&61623;  7 Download and install all the service packs and updates.

 

&61623;  8 Download and install the Free version of AVG antivirus software

 

&61623;  9 Download and install the free Microsoft Office compatible OpenOffice Suit. Its great to be able to advertise Office Software included It really does make a difference.

 

&61623;  10 Take 4 or 5 really good photos, write up a great description, As new, factory fresh, great condition, much loved etc etc. Make sure you list the spec, all the software, emphasis the brand new install, and get it on eBay, Craigslist or in your local newspaper.

 

We have most success on eBay. The real key to success on eBay is good pictures, a genuine description, and if youre not usually a technology seller, really do emphasis that this is your own much love personal machine and you are selling reluctantly to part finance your new purchase. Sell with no reserve, a good description and a reasonable shipping fee and youll always beat the other guy who doesnt take the same care with his listing.

 

If you only get 2/300 it finances an Ultrabay for your ThinkPad X61 or an extra battery for your new ThinkPad T61 Good Luck, and let us know how you go

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/macbook-detailed-review-think-thin-learn-from-iphone-a-4020.html A year after announcing the iPhone, Apple presents its latest laptop the MacBook Air, which they claim is the thinnest laptop in the world. Is the MacBook Air really the dream laptop for all travelers or does it conceal irreparable gaps

 

Presentation

 

The MacBook Air features a 13.3inch LEDbacklit widescreen display, the MacBook Air has similar dimensions than the MacBook, but its maximum thickness does not exceed 0.76 inches. Just as its predecessor, it presents a wide keyboard, an integrated webcam and the latest operating system Mac OS X Leopard. In its basic version, it comes with a processor Core 2 signed Duets Intel and rhythmical to 1.6 GHz, the MacBook Air is equipped of 2 Go of RAM, Bluetooth, WiFi 802.11n, and a 80 GB hardrive.

 

Look, keyboard, touchpad

 

The MacBook Air is immediately enticing. Breaking with the design of the MacBook and Pro MacBook, that present comparatively rectilinear lines, Apple chose to conceive a chassis with very lightly rounded edges, which contributes to reinforce its thinness impression. The general dimensions establish themselves to 12.8 inches wide and 8.95 inches deep, same as the one of the MacBook, it features a 13.3inch LEDbacklit widescreen display that has a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution.

 

The MacBook Air weighs a little less than 3 pounds. The body of the shell of the MacBook Air adopts a gray anodized surface similar to what one rediscovers on the Pro MacBook or on the rear face of the iPhone. Rather rigid, this shell makes good impression in the measure where the MacBook Air adorned clearly less fragile than one could have thought initially. Nevertheless, this soft surface to the key marks enough easily, the true nomadic will need a protection slipcover.

 

As on the Pro MacBook, this keyboard takes advantage of a back light, rather pleasant when one uses the machine in obscurity, of which the intensity can be regulated regardless of the one of the screen. After several days of use, and the necessary moments of adaptation, the keyboard of the MacBook Air reveals itself very pleasant.

 

The screen

 

The MacBook Air has a webcam 640 x 480 of poor quality and a microphone. It has a luminosity sensor that automatically adjusts the intensity of the backlight LED when one is located in a dark area. In this case, the intensity of the lighting of the keyboard diminishes. When you put your finger on the sensor this one detects instantly obscurity, and the screen intensity diminishes. With a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, the screen of the MacBook Air offers a work surface less important than the one of certain models 11 inches, with which these the resolution climbs to 1366 x 768 pixels, but Apple guarantees thus a certain visual comfort, with a definition that will suit completely most users. Of brilliant type, the flagstone LCD is luminous, and returns hot colors, rather faithful. By increasing the luminosity, use the Macbook Air in the outside light.

 

The MacBook Air inaugurates a new generation of touchpad, inspired by the iPhone, the first movable telephone of Apple. It is wider, a traditional touchpad. With three fingers, you can use the navigator Safari... but not with Firefox. Most of these small functionalities do not radically transform the user experience, but are part of the charm of the Apple products.

 

Connections

 

The three connectors proposed by the MacBook Air are located on left side, sheltered by a small trap door that, once opened, leaves only little space to reach them. Concretely, if your connector is thick, or if you use a wide USB key, you will not be able to connect them directly. In order to remedy the problem, Apple suggests suing an extension. These are rather inexpensive, but one is now obliged to multiply the cables, which somewhat diminishes the ultra portable aspect of the machine.

 

WiFi but no DVD

 

The absence of DVD reader is voluntary there is not enough thickness anyway. Apples marketing states that at a time where wires are going away, is it still necessary to have a DVD reader Apple plays the network card, with an application compatible with Mac as well as Windows XP and Windows Vista that allows DAV and CD use wirelessly. The reader of your principal machine will be able therefore you to serve to install applications, transfer contents towards the MacBook Air and even resettle your operating system but it may take 5 to 10 times longer than using a DVD reader. If that is a major issue you will have to buy an external 99 USB 2.0 based DVD reader.

 

Speed

 

Powered by a processor Core 2 rhythmical Duets to 1.6 GHz, engraved in 65 nanometers, the MacBook Air is not a speed demon, and is slower than the other Apple laptops. The choice of Apple is therefore supposed to guarantee a level of acceptable performances for light and medium users.

 

If you are ready to spend more the MacBook Air comes with a more powerful processor posting a frequency of 1.8 GHz but also and especially of a hard disc to memory Flash of type SSD of 64 Go, similar to the one that integrates in standard Lenovo in his Thinkpad X300. To take advantage of these two improvements, it will be necessary nevertheless to pay out a supplement of some 1,300, which will carry the final price of the MacBook Air to about 3,098.

 

Performance

 

Certain applications extremely resource intensive work clearly slowly on the MacBook Air, due to its 1.6 GHz processor. In other words the manipulation of pictures of big size under Photoshop or video editing will put your patience to a certain test.

 

On the other hand, the manipulation of photos or video sequences by means of iMovie will work without difficulties, and without any notable discomfort. The interface preserves the fluidity that you can expect of Leopard in spite of the poor performances of its processor. The Web navigation, office, music and video use do not suffer from any problem. As for games, lets keep it simple, just choose a different laptop.

 

Battery Life

 

Apple talks about an autonomy of about five hours with activated WiFi. While selecting the eco mode proposed by Mac OS X and the screen luminosity to 75 of his capacity, the MacBook Air was able to work during 3h15 before the low battery warning showed up.

 

Conclusion

 

One could think that with his MacBook Air, stretched Apple to create a new segment on the laptop market. Its irreproachable design, moderate weight and extreme thinness makes it a good candidate for the ultra portable category. But the impossibility to change the battery or the extremely limited connectivity will stop many professionals who generally like this type of machines. The performance of the MacBook Air will suffice for light traveler users i.e. bloggers, connected fanatics, journalists, and other sales representatives. They will have no difficulty working with photos, compose bills and items or prepare, then to assure a presentation, all profiting from it of his excellent flagstone LCD screen.

 

Apple has attempted to circumvent some of the handicaps of the MacBook Air. The absence of DVD is compensated by the functionality of take in charge of a reader network on a distant machine, PC or Mac. The idea is interesting, even if in the facts, we cannot envision installing anything sizeable that way. The touchpad is improved, integrating more functionalities coming from the iPhone. Although these improvements do not revolutionize the way one interacts with a computer, they are rather pleasant.

 

It will be necessary to add to the MacBook Air an external DVD, as well as a USB hub and an adapter USB for the Ethernet to assure a real comfort of usage, and to put it on an equal foot with other machines with equivalent price and functionality. Therefore this diminishes what makes the charm of the MacBook Air its thinness. The other solution would be to adhere to the idea that the MacBook Air is conceived only as an auxiliary machine, a light portable and elegant one coming to complete your work station for the days where you travel and only do light work.

 

This beautiful machine suffers from cruel limitations that other computers, sometimes lighter or less costly, do not have. In spite of the beautiful lines and user friendliness of the MacBook Air, it does not deliver the ultra portable promise as expected. The previous MacBook performs better, is more functional, and cheaper

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/sales-2008-beyond-laptops-taking-over-desktops-a-4019.html Sales review for 2007, 2008 and beyond

 

According to the Gartner Group, worldwide some 257.1 million PCs shipped in 2007, and 60 percent of them were desktops. PC growth for 2007 was around 7 while laptops grew by 18.6 and will continue to maintain a double digit growth at least until 2010. Desktop sales are still strong in the EMEA and Latin America with about 60 of all shipments.

 

In the US alone, the laptop shipments grew in 2007 by 21 percent while Desktops sales went down four percent last year. By 2011, IDC expects laptops to represent 66 percent of corporate purchases, with 71 percent of consumers opting for a notebook instead of a desktop.

 

The slowdown in the United States economy in 2008 has reduced PC sales. For the firstquarter 2008 computer sales rose in the United States just 3.5 percent. Worldwide, computer sales rose by 14.6 percent, IDC said. Laptops will account for two thirds of the worldwide PC shipments by 2011, according to a new report by IDC.

 

In all markets, the growth came from laptop sales to the detriment of desktop sales. The PC market is changing from one PC per household to one PC per person, said Bob ODonnell, vice president of clients and displays at IDC.

 

With other countries maintaining doubledigit PC sales growth as the United States slows, the United States represented 23 percent of the world market, down from 25 percent last year.

 

Specific reasons of the evolution from desktop to laptop

 

Due a constant drop in price, rapid technical improvements, the swift evolution and extension of the WAN technology, the multiplication of applications and their effects on our lifestyles, notebooks are destined to replace desktops in most areas both professionally and personally.

 

Price While laptops are still more expensive than desktops for the same power/capacity, the gap is constantly narrowing. In 2000 you could expect to pay almost double for a laptop comparable to average desktop priced around 1,000. In 2008, you can expect a 300 to 500 difference depending on brands. Entry level laptops start in the 300 range while the mid range is situated around 700, a huge difference from just five years ago.

 

Power In the early 2000s, any heavy database user or serious gamer would always pick a desktop over a laptop. This barrier has come down drastically; in fact many IT departments have migrated to laptops and only the most serious queries are run on servers. The same applies to gamers where only the most demanding games need to be run on the most advanced desktop. For average use, the desktop no longer has any specific advantages.

 

WiFi/Hotspots The explosion of wifi / hotspots is a decisive factor that helps explain the migration to laptops. Airports, hotels, trains, restaurants, coffee shops are among the location where you can actually go online at a very comfortable speed. You can even use such tool as Skype with a wireless laptop and have video conference anywhere you have WiFi access. Indeed more and more people go on vacation with their laptop and most hotels, including the cheaper ones, are now offering free wifi as commodity not a luxury.

 

Portability/visibility Laptops are continually getting lighter while screen sizes are getting bigger. Most new laptops come with 17 inch screens and weigh less than 7 pounds. Those with 15 inch monitors generally weigh less than 5 and in some instances less than 3 pounds.

 

Professional market evolution Past laptop growth in the professional sector was fueled by travelers sales, tradeshow, meetings. In the last decade working from home has steadily developed with many companies allowing their employees to work at home anywhere from one day a week to full time. These are often perceived as cost savers, productivity booster and flexibility factors for both the employees and employers. More and more online applications are designed so that you can work remotely with the same tools available in the office. Such online applications include

 

Audio/Visual Conferencing

 

Placing Calls

 

Document sharing and storing

 

Scheduling

 

Webmail

 

Software accessibility. The software i.e. Microsoft Office is stored on a server, you can use it on your laptop via a small application installed on your laptop

 

Messengers

 

Events such as the slowdown of the economy and the explosion of gas prices will continue to accentuate that trend.

 

Educational market evolution More and more educational institutions are requiring their students to have laptops; it started in the universities and his working its way to the younger students. In addition, once students get used to laptops, rarely do they buy a desktop later on for themselves.

 

Personal market evolution decreased price, increased power and improved portability with the explosion of hotspots have been essential to the switch from desktop to laptop. Furthermore, the multiplication of applications for personal use have affected our lifestyle and are starting to make the laptop as indispensable as cell phones are today. Such applications include

 

DVD player,

 

Video On Demand,

 

Picture display,

 

Music player,

 

Internet radio

 

Games,

 

GPS,

 

Communication Skype, messenger,

 

Social gatherings facebook, myspace.

 

The desktop is evolving more and more in a different market demand such as Media PC environment TV tuner, DVR, radio, music for the home or used as back up device for your laptop. Chances are that when it is time to replace your DVD player you will may buy a PC. This will enable you to download TV shows on your computer and watch them on your TV.

 

Whats next for laptops

 

They will continue to improve in the traditional way catching up with the desktops in term of power, capacity and price, replacing desktop for most needs.

 

Another aspect is the extra portability evolution already underway with mini laptops, palmtops, tablet PCs and touch screen laptops. Combining extreme portability, WiFi and tactical screens, these mini laptops will replace gradually paper and pads, order sheets, notebooks and others... As you write or type or write any information on your mini laptop orders, notes, drawings, questionnaires. you have the ability to immediately save, sync or communicate the results.

 

Conclusion

 

As the sales demonstrate, the PC industry as a whole is growing steadily worldwide. Laptops are now undeniably taking the lion share of that growth. The range of laptops is large enough for anyones demand from desktop replacements

to ultra portables. They allow us to perform personal tasks accounting, gaming, reservations to educational research, reading, interactive, video, audio and professional documents, programming, calls, conferences, scheduling, emails from anywhere, at anytime, also allowing us to mix all these activities.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/installing-server-using-timing-source-a-4018.html Network Time Protocol

 

NTP is one of the Internets oldest protocols still used, invented by Dr David Mills from the University of Delaware, it has been in utilized since 1985. NTP is a protocol designed to synchronize the clocks on computers and networks across the Internet or Local Area Networks LANs.

 

NTP version 4 can maintain time over the public Internet to within 10 milliseconds 1/100 th of a second and can perform even better over LANs with accuracies of 200 microseconds 1/5000 th of a second under ideal conditions.

 

NTP works within the TCP/IP suite and relies on UDP, a less complex form of NTP exists called Simple Network Time Protocol SNTP that does not require the storing of information about previous communications, needed by NTP. It is used in some devices and applications where high accuracy timing is not as important.

 

Time synchronisation with NTP is relatively simple, it synchronises time with reference to a reliable clock source. This source could be relative a computers internal clock or the time on a wristwatch or absolute A UTC Universal Coordinated Time clock source that is accurate as is humanely possible.

 

Atomic clocks are the most absolute timekeeping devices; however, they are extremely expensive and are generally only to be found in largescale physics laboratories. However, NTP can synchronise networks to an atomic clock by using either the Global Positioning system GPS network, a specialist radio transmission or over the Internet. However, it must be noted that Microsoft strongly recommends that an external based timing should be used rather than Internet based, as these cant be authenticated.

 

GPS is an ideal time and frequency source because it can provide highly accurate time anywhere in the world using relatively cheap components. Each GPS satellite transmits in two frequencies L2 for the military use and L1 for use by civilians transmitted at 1575 MHz, Lowcost GPS antennas and receivers are now widely available.

 

The signal transmitted by the satellite can pass through windows but can be blocked by buildings so the ideal location for a GPS antenna is on a rooftop with a good view of the sky. The more satellites it can receive from the better the signal. However, roofmounted antennas can be prone to lighting strikes or other voltage surges, so installation of a suppressor inline on the GPS cable is highly recommend.

 

The cable between the GPS antenna and receiver is also critical. The maximum distance that a cable can run is normally only 2030 metres but a high quality coax cable combined with a GPS amplifier placed inline to boost the gain of the antenna can allow in excess of 100 metre cable runs.

 

A GPS receiver then decodes the GPS signal sent from the antenna to a computer readable protocol which can be utilised by most time servers and operating systems including, Windows, LINUX and UNIX.

 

The GPS receiver also outputs a precise pulse every second that GPS Network Time Protocol NTP servers and computer time servers may utilise to provide ultraprecise timing. The pulsepersecond timing on most receivers is accurate to within 0.001 of a second of UTC.

 

GPS is ideal in providing NTP time servers or standalone computers with a highly accurate external reference for synchronisation. Even with relatively low cost equipment, accuracy of hundred nanoseconds a nanosecond a billionth of a second can be reasonably achieved using GPS as an external reference.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/asus-striker-extreme-init-error-a-4017.html I guess there are plenty of people out there who have purchased the ASUS Striker Extreme motherboard and are now disappointed with their choice and definitely frustrated with ASUS. Those where my feelings, too.

 

After wasting tens of hours on internet searching and many more on clearing my mobos CMOS, I think I found out the solution, which I would share with all the folks out there who experience the same issues.

 

If you get the CPU INIT error message and you try to clear the CMOS, but the mobo seems dead, then probably your problem is your memorys voltage.

 

Briefly, my mobo seemed dead, with no beeping, no posting. The only thing I could see was the CPU INIT message on the mobos LCD. However, the CPU fan together with all the mobos leds where on, which means that there was voltage across it. I tried all the possible ways of clearing the CMOS, with and without cards, swapping memory stick or sticks and so on, but with no results.

 

Your mobo is most likely fine if the CPU fan works and here is the way to bring it back to life.

 

First of all you need to have a low specification RAM, running on probably 667 MHz, but the most important of all is the memory voltage. The memory needs to run with 1.8 Volts. The OCZ 9200 I got uses 2.3 Volts for operating, which is far away from 1.8 Volts. Note that the default settings for the memory voltage on your BIOS is set to AUTO, which is actually 1.8 Volts. This is probably the reason that you cannot clear your CMOS with high data rate modules, as all of them use higher voltage than that.

 

Step 1

 

Remove all the power cords including the 24pin ATX connector EATXPWR and maybe the 24 8pin EPS or 14 ATX12V connector the one which powers up the CPU and is located just next to it.

 

Step 2

 

Remove all the cards including your graphics card

 

Step 3

 

Place only one Memory Stick at the last slot the one further from CPU.

 

Step 4

 

Clear your CMOS.

 

Extreme Procedure to Reset CMOS.01 Take out the power cord. All this must be done without the power connected.

02 Put the jumper CLRTC above the CLRCMOS button from pins 12 to pins 23.

03 Push the reset button CLRCMOS in. Battery is now disconnected normally.

04 Take out the cmos battery and leave it like that for at least 3 hours. This is to be sure.

05 After 3 hours put the battery back in.

06 Push again the the reset button out.

07 Replace the jumper back to its original place. Pins 12

08 Put back in the power cord and turn on the power.

09 When booting, scream very hard YES and quickly push the Delete to get into bios.

10 Flash the new bios with the floppy and you should hopefully be fine.

11 When all works, connect everything and starting having fun with your system.

 

Step 5

 

Put the graphics card on.

 

Step 6

 

Connect all the power cables, including the 24pin ATX connector EATXPWR and the 24 8pin EPS or 14 ATX12V connector.

 

Step 7

 

Power UP

 

You should now hear the desired BEEP and the motherboard should normally post. If everything works fine, shut down your PC, remove the low performance memory stick and install the high rate memories. During the posting enter the BIOS and change the memory voltage from AUTO to the appropriate value.

 

Please note that, if you do not have the newest BIOS version you should do so as soon as possible. My BIOS version is currently 1102, which is the latest. If you notice on the BIOS updates, there are many memory combatibility issues fixed on each updated version. Therefore the very first thing when you bring the motherboard in life is to update the BIOS keeping the low performance memory and then install the high data rate memory sticks.

 

In case that you have any query about the process mentioned in this post or you did not eventually brought your motherboard back to life, please feel free to leave your message here.

 

You can also leave a message to let other people know what you have experienced and of course whether this trick worked for you or not.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/story-legacy-fiber-optic-connectors-a-4016.html Over the years, a large variety of fiber optic connectors have been designed for most fiber optic installations. Lightwave equipment manufacturers have never standardized on any one connector type, they actually provide a selection of connectors for their equipment interface.

 

It is very important to choose the fiber connector type for your applications. You should maintain a connector standard throughout a fiber optic project.

 

The components of a fiber connector

 

For most fiber optic connectors, the major components are ferrule, connector body, connector cap and strainrelief boot.

 

Ferrule

 

The ferrule is the center part of the connector. It contains the optical fiber in a center hole. Ferrule can be made from ceramic Zirconia, stainless steel or composite material.

 

Ceramic ferrule is the most popular material since it has stable temperature characteristics. The most common ceramic is Zirconia which is a white hard ceramic material. Ceramic ferrule is used for both single mode and multimode connectors. It offers the lowest insertion loss and the best repeatability.

 

Connector Body

 

Fiber optic connector body can be steel or plastic. The body design differs from connector to connector. The connector body provides the mechanism to hold the ferrule and other parts together. It also provides the locking mechanism for connector mating. The most common locking mechanisms are pushpull, snapin, thread on and twiston.

 

Connector Cap

 

Connector cap often has the same material as the body either steel or plastic. The cap can be screw on, twist lock or snapon for connector mating.

 

Strainrelief Boot

 

Strainrelief boot is the part connecting the connector body and the fiber cable. It is often made from rubber. Although it looks minimal, it is actually one of the most critical parts in a connector. It provides strain relief on the optical fiber to prevent microbending, breakage and provides mechanical support for fiber and connector handling.

 

Legacy Fiber Connector Types

 

The following list shows the legacy connector types that have been deployed in numerous fiber optic networks for many years.

 

ST Connector

 

ST connector was once the most popular fiber connector. It was wellliked for both single mode and multimode fiber connections. The average insertion loss for a ST connector is about 0.5dB.

 

ST connector has a twiston locking mechanism which is not susceptible to loosening in vibrating environment. It is most often used in LAN networks.

 

FC Connector

 

FC connector is popular for single mode applications. It has the lowest insertion loss and the best repeatability. It has a threadon locking mechanism.

 

SMA connector

 

SMA connector is a pretty old connector type which is mostly used for multimode applications. Today it is still being using on medical equipment.

 

There are two types of SMA connectors on the market SMA 905 and SMA 906. The only difference between them is that SMA 906 has a straight ferrule while SMA 905 has a stepdown ferrule.

 

D4 Connector

 

The NEC D4 was probably the first connector to use ceramic or hybrid ceramic/stainless steel ferrules. It uses a smaller ferrule than SCs or FCs. It was widely used in telco networks in the 80s to early 90s and some may still be in use.

 

FDDI connector

 

Besides the SC Duplex, you may occasionally see the FDDI duplex connectors which mate to their specific networks. They are generally used to connect to the equipment from a wall outlet, but the rest of the network will have ST or SC connectors. Since they both use 2.5 mm ferrules, they can be mated to SC or ST connectors with adapters.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/evolution-palm-a-4015.html Personal Digital Assistants PDAs run Palm OS and the Windows Mobile platform. In recent years, they have evolved from PDAs to smartphones that also run both Palm OS and Windows Mobile.

 

The first generation of personal digital assistants produced by Palm Computing in 1996 were named Pilots. Palm was a division of U.S. Robotics at the time. For two generations, these PDAs were called PalmPilots. Pilot Pen Corporation took Palm to court on trademark issues, so since 1998, they have been called Palm Connected Organizers or just Palms. However, PalmPilot is used to refer to all PDAs just as Kleenex means any kind of facial tissue for most people.

 

Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dubinsky, and Ed Colligan, founders of Palm Computing, invented the Pilot. They were working on handwriting recognition software, but as they researched and worked on the creation of the software, they came to the conclusion that they should be working on better hardware. Hawkins carried around a piece of wood the size of the handheld device they were envisioning in his pocket for a week. Most people feel that Palm benefitted from attempts by other manufacturers to come up with a handheld computing platform

such as those by Go Corporation and Apple Computer.

 

Pilot 1000 and Pilot 5000, the first ones, had a serial communications port; however, they had no infrared port, backlight, or flash memory. The 1000 had 128kB of RAM; the 5000, 512kB. They ran on a version of Palm OS. Eventually, the original Pilots could be upgraded to 1 MB of internal RAM by means of an upgrade module. The inventors felt that all the Palm PDAs were to be hardware upgradable. What happened was that rather than upgrading capability, external memory slots and firmwareupgradeable flash memory were added after the Palm III series.

 

PalmPilot Personal and PalmPilot Professional, the next two Palms, did have a backlight but no infrared port or flash memory. The Personal had 512 kB of RAM; the Professional, 1024 kB. Palm OS had also been improved to version 2.

 

Because of the legal disputes, Palm III and all those that followed didnt have the word Pilot in their names. An IR port, a backlight, and flash memory were added to the IIIs. Palm OS was upgraded so it could store programs or data in flash memory. Two AAA batteries powered the IIIs. They could also retain enough energy for up to 15 minutes to keep data from being erased when batteries were being replaced.

 

The founders left Palm and founded Handspring in June of 1998. Hawkins took with him a license for the Palm OS for Handspring. The Handspring Visor was a clone of the Palm handhelds but included a hardware expansion slot.

 

Palm IIIx had 4 megabytes of memory and an upgraded Palm OS 3.1. Several variations of this Palm were produced. Palm VIII had wireless connections to some Internet services in the U.S. Palm IIIc had a color screen. Palm V had internal rechargeable batteries, and this feature was included on all Palms that came after it.

 

In 2000, Palm Computing spun off into its own company called Palm Incorporated and later Handspring merged with it.

 

Palm handhelds continue to advance and today have the ability to become hard drives on computers using USB. They are also merging with smartphones. The Treo 700w combines a Palm handheld with a mobile phone, email, SMS, and instant messaging.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/evolution-ipaq-a-4014.html The HPiPAQ is a combination pocket personal computer and personal digital assistant and was first offered by Compaq in April of 2000. The name came from Compaqs earlier iPAQ desktop personal computers

. HewlettPackard acquired Compaq and since that time, the product has been marketed by that company. Its main competition is the Palm; however, it offers more multimedia capabilities. It uses a Microsoft Windows interface, but some Linux programs will operate on the iPAQ. Modular units in the form of sleeves added such things as a card reader, wireless networking, GPS, and batteries. Currently, those features are in the base unit. HPs first SmartPhone iPaq looked like a cell phone and had VoIP Voice Over Internet Protocol capability.

 

Digital Equipment Corporation had developed the iPAQ and called it Itsy, which name was used by Compaq for their handhelds. When HP acquired Compaq, it discontinued its own line of MicrosoftWindowspowered handhelds and shifted to marketing the iPAQs. The h3xxx line of iPAQs was discontinued by HP and replaced by the h1xxx line, which was designed to appeal to buyers who didnt want to spend as much. It also added the h2xxx line for consumers and the h5xxx line for business customers. Windows Mobile was preinstalled in the Pocket PC 2003.

 

The h63xx series, which runs the phone edition of Windows Mobile 2003 and the hx47xx series and the rz17xx series, both of which run the second edition of Windows Mobile 2003, came out in 2004. The iPAQ Mobile Messenger

hw6500 series was announced to media at the 3GSM conference in Cannes, France, in February of 2005.

 

The iPAQ rx4000 Mobile Media Companion, a PDA/media tool, and rx5000 Travel Companion intended to function as PDA/GPS units came out in February of 2007, both working on Windows Mobile 5 OS. A month later, HP came out with their first Windows Mobile 6 device, the iPAQ 500 Series Voice Messenger Windows Mobile 6 Standard OS. It also had a numeric pad. The only iPAQs being sold today that run the Windows Mobile 5 OS are the hx2000 series, the rx5900 series and the hw6900 series.

 

Since the introduction of the new devices in February of 2007, the entire iPAQ line has been revamped. A dizzying five new series have emerged to go with the iPAQ 500 Series Voice Messenger. New models

 

    100 Series Classic Handheld

    200 Series Enterprise Handheld

    300 Series Travel Companion

    600 Series Business Navigator

    900 Series Business Messenger 

 

The 100 and 200 Series are touchscreen PDAs and do not have phone capability. They run on the Windows Mobile 6 Classic OS. The 300 Series Travel Companion is not a PDA. Called a Personal Navigation Device, it is a GPS unit and operates on the Windows CE 5.0 core OS and has an HP custom userinterface. The 600 and 900 are phones with GPS and 3G capabilities. They run the Windows Mobile 6 Professional OS. The 600 series has a numeric pad; the 900 has a QWERTY keyboard. 

The Evolution of the HP iPAQ

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/industrial-computers-behind-a-4013.html Many of the environments that an industrial computer has to work in are certainly not suitable for a conventional desktop PC. Many areas in production and manufacturing contain many of the things that will finish off a sensitive piece of electronics like a PC instantly; dust, grime, grease, water, fluids, extreme temperatures not to mention the odd knock from a pallet truck or forklift.

 

However while industrial machines are designed and built to cope with almost anything they are extremely expensive and suffer from a lack of advanced performance and technology that a conventional PC offers.

 

Many industrial computers are made solid state no moving parts meaning components have to be small and compact. Moreover, industrial computers are usually sealed machines, their design optimised for protection which means components need to be reliable as a breakdown will result in a service engineer being called and the inevitable delays in production this can cause.

 

Because of these design prerequisites industrial computers run older hardware components many several years out of date. While many of the processes that an industrial computer will control may not require high processing power or the manipulation of graphics many of these machines can be adequate.

 

However, an industrial computer is designed to last for several years meaning after four of five years of use the hardware could be over a decade out of date.

 

Whilst industrial PCs

 are very stable, running tenyearold technology does mean many manufacturing processes are not being controlled as efficiently as they should be and the time eventually comes when a upgrade can be put off no longer and the industrial machines are replaced costing a fortune in replacement units and production downtime.

 

This has always been a catch22 for industry trying to weigh up the cost of upgrading compared with the possible improvements to production an upgrade will bring about.

 

A solution to the problem is now apparent thanks to several manufacturers of industrial computer enclosures. They have been designed and manufactured to house a conventional offtheshelf desktop PC yet still provide the robustness of a bespoke industrial computer.

 

These enclosures are made from all types of material including foodgrade stainless steel and can be used in all hazardous and hostile environments that a conventional industrial computer can go from dust and explosive atmospheres to wet rooms, furnaces and freezers.

 

As well as being far less expensive than buying a bespoke industrial computer these enclosures have allowed manufacturing and production lines to use a conventional low cost PC in environments that they could normally not function in allowing the use of current technologies to ensure processes and production are running as efficiently as possible.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/rack-thermal-management-a-4012.html Racks are designed to keep all your expensive gear organized, accessible and protected from outside elements. One often overlooked but critical aspect of rack design is the heat generated by the hardware. Thermal management is the key to controlling the heat and to keep everything running cool for optimal performance. Proper rack thermal management will keep your equipment running even during a full load resulting in better performance and a longer life for the equipment.

 

Rack Thermal Management Equipment A quick overview of thermal management for rack equipment will help set the foundation for putting together a solid thermal management plan. The most common thermal management equipment consists of fans, temperature monitors, speed controllers and rack panels. You will combine the four pieces of hardware in your rack to promote consistent air flow resulting in a cooler rack. The rack panels and fan panels on your rack help you control air flow so that you can dissipate heat in the proper direction. Rack airflow is a known science; your rack provider should be able to consult with you on equipment placement within the rack to minimize heat and optimize airflow.

 

Before deciding which way to vent hot air think about what other equipment is around your rack; you do not want to send hot air onto another rack or heat sensitive equipment.

 

The heart of your rack thermal management will be the fans directing air; you will need fans on two sides of the rack to direct cool air from the lowest point in the rack and usually the coolest area. It is common for air to be brought in from the front of the rack and expelled out the back; but you may need to adjust depending on where your rack is located. Once you have determined airflow direction you will want to decide where to put the temperature monitor in an easy to view location; preferably at the front of the rack near eye level. A thermometer the internal temperature of your rack at all times so you know if anything is getting too hot. When the temperature rises you may need to increase the fan speed or reduce load to bring the temperature down. If you cannot lower the temperature by adjusting fan speed then there may be something obstructing one of the fans or a vent.

 

Just as important as the fans and temperature monitor for rack thermal management is a speed controller for your fans. A speed controller lets you adjust fan speed to maintain a proper temperature and noise level. During colder times of the year and when your rack is under less than a full load you may not need your fans running at full speed. A speed controller allows you to slow the fans down reducing the noise which is very helpful especially with audio equipment. You also will usually extend the life of your fans by running them slower some of the time instead of full speed all the time. If noise is an issue, you can add fans and run them at a lower speed.

 

You can often find rack thermal management hardware that incorporates a speed controller, temperature monitor and fans into one modular unit. These are great options when they fit in with the rest of your rack equipment and usually provide the cleanest look. A good approach is to have a combination unit at the front of the rack with just some extra fans in the back mounted on rear rails. This lets you see the temperature and adjust fan speeds easily while maintaining optimal airflow with fans on both sides of the rack.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/buying-reconditioned-apple-laptops-a-4011.html Buying a reconditioned Apple Mac laptops was the best decision I made. Not only did I save a lot of money, the laptop I bought was as good as new and everything was in good working order. I bet you was faced with a decision just like me, I wanted to buy an Apple Mac Laptop but I couldnt make up my mind or buying a brand one or a reconditioned one at a much lower price. Lucky for me a friend of mine recently bought a reconditioned Apple Mac laptop, and he told me there is absolute no problem with it. He asked ...Why buy a brand new one when you can get a reconditioned Apple Mac laptop for a cheaper price.

 

He explained as the reconditioned Apple Mac laptop comes with replaced part and internal devices so you cant even tell that its been used. It has the same functions and specification so if you purchase a reconditioned version you will be getting great value for your money. And my friend even showed me the actual laptop he bought and I have to say I was pretty impressed with the product. It looked as good as new and it had all the latest software preloaded onto the harddrive just like the laptops in the retail stores.

 

So then I thought, buying a reconditioned Apple Mac laptop would be a very good idea because every shoppers goal is to get great value for their money. So now when I decided to buy one I needed to start looking online for good bargains and my friend recommended eBay to search for a reconditioned Apple Mac Laptop. I usually like to search everywhere before I make a purchase online because you could be missing out on great bargains at other places, however in this case eBay was the best place for me to find a reconditioned Apple Mac laptop.

 

One thing I really about eBay was that I found a wide range of reconditioned Apple Mac laptops at very cheap prices, prices that I thougt was jaw dropping compared to other places. And also with eBay you can ask the sellers questions in regards to the products that their selling. To me this is very handy because I was able to speak with the seller and ask him further questions about the laptop. Like the age, specification and I even asked him to lower the price, but that didnt go so well. So anyway I soon bought myself a reconditioned Apple Mac Laptop and as soon as it was delivered I opened it up and used it straight away.

 

I was really impressed because the product looked brand new and even the software was new. It was almost like buying an Apple Mac laptop from the retail stores. Since then I havent turned my back on reconditioned products because you will often get great value for your money. I suggest you buy a reconditioned Apple Mac laptop rather than a new one, you will pretty much get the same benefits.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/choosing-your-memory-stick-supplier-a-4010.html There are currently many suppliers of Branded and Promotional USB Memory Sticks. This makes it a fiercely competitive market

, which bodes well for the consumer as this naturally leads to lower prices. However, this also puts a lot of pressure on suppliers to reduce their costs. Some suppliers take this too far so it is important to consider factors other than price when choosing your USB Memory Stick supplier, four important considerations to take into account are

 

1.      Speed of Service

 

2.      Quality of USB Memory Sticks

 

3.      Financial Stability of Company Supplying Flash Drives

 

4.      Reputation.

 

Speed of service will largely depend on the companys business model. Many companies claim to have fast turnaround times, but when asked to supply large amounts of branded USB Memory Sticks they fall short on initial promises and the turnaround times go up 2 or 3 times. Other companies who have more control over their supply chain will live up to their promises and these are naturally the companies youll want to choose.

 

Quality control is crucial for products that will end up representing your company. It is important to find a supplier that understands this and wont cut corners or send you defunct goods. For instance, some USB Flash Drive suppliers cut costs by using refurbished NAND flash memory. This is generally less reliable than brand new NAND Flash. It may save you money, but do you want the product youve given to a client failing This is not going leave your company in a good light, and once theyve thrown the USB Stick away theyre no longer carrying your companies name around with them.

 

As with any company youre going to enter into a financial relationship with its always prudent to run a credit check to make sure its not going to go under in the next month or so, if it does youre unlikely to get your money back. As mentioned earlier, this is a very competitive industry and insolvency is not that uncommon, if your supplier goes bankrupt you wont only lose the money you paid them youll also miss your deadline.Reputation speaks volumes, if a company has delivered similar sized orders of USB Memory Sticks in the time frame you want many times before, they can probably do it again.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/macbook-different-a-4009.html A new generation of Apple notebooks has arrived. This time, however, the new generation tag doesnt just refer to upgrades it heralds outstanding changes to design and technology.

 

Design  

 

To construct the casing for a standard laptop, you need a lot of different parts. In the process, you increase the weight, the size, and the potential for problems. To address these points, Apple set itself the challenge of building the casing from just one part.

 

This goal may have appeared farfetched at first, but Apple was convinced the effort was worth the trouble. The result is the new MacBooks unibody, a casing created from just one piece of solid aluminium.

 

The unibody has transformed the look of the MacBook. More than ever, it gives the impression of a sophisticated and brilliantly engineered laptop. The unibody also feels incredibly robust. Furthermore, the use of aluminium helps the new MacBook weigh in at 0.23 kg 0.5 pounds less than the previous model, and shave 0.34 cm 0.13 inches from its height.

 

Different manufacturing techniques  

 

Moulding such a casing, as you would with plastic, is a thing of the past. Instead, Apple makes the unibody by milling it with computer numerical control CNC machines.

 

These machines are some of the most accurate manufacturing tools on the planet. Apple has grasped their potential and employed them to the fullest extent. The sleep indicator light on the new MacBook, for example, appears to shine from behind the aluminium. Apple has achieved this by thinning the metal and drilling tiny holes through it.

 

Environmental standards  

 

The new MacBook will last for years, but its good to know the aluminium unibody is recyclable. This reflects the seriousness with which Apple views its environmental responsibility. The company has applied stringent standards to every aspect of the new MacBook, insisting that manufacturing techniques go hand in hand with the most demanding eco principles.

 

 

 

Brominated flame retardants BFRs are absent from all the internal components of the new MacBook; none of the internal cables have PVC; the glass of the screen doesnt contain any arsenic; and the display behind it is mercuryfree. The new MacBook is setting a benchmark for the complete removal of toxins from computers.

 

In terms of energy efficiency, the new MacBook has a double victory to celebrate. Not only does it meet Energy Star requirements as previously, it has also acquired an EPEAT gold rating. EPEAT is the foremost environmental evaluation system for desktops, laptops, and monitors. To obtain a gold rating is a significant achievement.

 

Other features  

 

Further outstanding features of the new MacBook are the trackpad, the screen, and the Mini DisplayPort. The trackpad immediately catches the eye because its almost 40 larger than before. When you start to use it, you also appreciate its extra functions. The trackpad now has full MultiTouch capability that includes pinching to zoom in and out; three and four finger swiping; creating a right click area for shortcuts; and using any part of the trackpads surface as a button.

 

The new MacBooks screen has changed to a thinner LED backlit display that provides full brightness the moment the MacBook comes on. A frameless glass front complements this and makes the widescreen appear larger than its 13.3 inches.

 

A Mini DisplayPort replaces the Mini DVI and FireWire 400 ports. The Mini DisplayPort provides an easy, plugandplay connection for an Apple LED Cinema Display, and can show images on both the MacBook and the Cinema Display at the same time. Mini DisplayPort adaptors for VGA, DVI and duallink DVI connections are available should you need them.

 

The 2.4GHz MacBook also has another bonus. It now boasts the illuminated keyboard so admired on the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.

 

Technology  

 

The new aluminium MacBook is available in two models, the 2.0GHz and the 2.4GHz. Both processors use Intel Core 2 Duo technology with 3MB onchip shared L2 cache.

 

The standard models of the previous generation were 2.1GHz and 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duos with the same L2 cache. Both new versions, however, have a 1066MHz system bus, compared to 800MHz. In addition, 2GB of memory is now a standard feature with the capacity to accept 4GB if you prefer. The hard drives are 160GB Serial ATA at 5,400 rpm for the 2.0GHz, and 250GB for the 2.4GHz. You can increase storage to 320GB or 350GB, and theres an option of a 128GB solidstate drive.

 

As for the optical drive, the new MacBooks no longer offer a Combo. Apple has passed this over in favour of the superior 8x slotloading SuperDrive on both models.

 

Graphics  

 

The features and technology of the new MacBook all deserve your attention, but one in particular is creating both interest and excitement.

 

The old MacBook had an Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor with 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with the main memory. The new MacBook has an integrated processor that provides up to five times better performance. This graphics powerhouse, the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, is the result of development work between Apple and NVIDIA. It has 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM, and contains 16 parallel processing cores. The result is 3D images that are fast, responsive, and more detailed. The MacBook is now a highly desirable laptop for game players.

 

Battery  

 

With all these extras to cope with, particularly the graphics processor, you might expect the MacBooks battery to suffer. On the contrary the official life of the battery has increased from four and a half to five hours.

 

Apple has accomplished this by keeping the principle of energy efficiency to the forefront of its thinking. From the MacBooks screen to the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M processor, the design has incorporated the lowest energy use possible.

 

Innovation  

 

The developments the MacBook represents are profound. This is a laptop that introduces impressive design, manufacturing, performance, and environmental innovations. It also throws down a gauntlet for other companies to pick up if they choose. In the meantime, the MacBook remains exceptional.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/games-what-macs-offer-gamers-a-4008.html Multimedia professionals prefer to use Apple computers. When they buy a Mac, they know theyre getting brilliantly clear screens, a sophisticated but easy to use operating system, cutting edge graphics, excellent audio, and a reliable Internet connection.

 

These are also the very features that computer gamers demand. Game playing is such a popular leisure activity, people want the best they can afford within their budgets. Apple meets these expectations with every model in the Mac range.

 

Apple also keeps ahead of games technology. Games do not develop independently of computers, but the best manufacturers push the limits of what is achievable. Gamers can rest assured that with a Mac, theyll get what they need to enjoy the latest games to the full.

 

Availability of Games

 

Many years ago, there was a justified concern that manufacturers were failing to offer games compatible with Apple computers. This situation has completely changed. New games now come in a Mac as well as PC format. Theres no need to convert a PC game for Mac use.

 

Gameplaying Mac owners can therefore be confident they wont lose out. In fact, once they load a new game into a Mac, they know they have a computer that will do it justice.

 

The Macs

 

The Mac mini provides a perfect, reasonably priced introduction to game playing. Simply connect the Mac mini to an Apple Cinema Display, an Apple Keyboard, and a multibutton USB mouse or use peripherals such as gamepads and joysticks and youre ready to experience the world of computer games.

 

The aluminium 13 inch MacBook is the initial choice for those who like to take their games with them wherever they go. The 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor combines with the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor to give you impressive clarity, speed, and consistency.

 

If youre happy to play your games at home, you need to see and use the 24 inch iMac to appreciate its potential. The 1900 x 1200 pixel widescreen is the ideal display for the remarkable 3D graphics reproduced by the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS graphics option.

 

The most committed gamer, however, will want the Mac Pro. The great advantage of this top of the range computer is its flexibility you can expand its power and capabilities as you see fit. The two Quad Core Intel Xeon processors give the Mac Pro some of the fastest computer speeds available. Add a NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT with 512MB of GDDR3 RAM, and you have a games machine thats as good as its possible to get.

 

Even so, you may still want to have a superb gaming experience, plus mobility. For this you need the 15 inch MacBook Pro. This beautifully designed notebook has two graphics processors a NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT with 512MB GDDR3 SDRAM, and a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with the main memory. Consequently, gamers have both high performance and startling power available in one package.

 

Peripherals

 

A keyboard and mouse may be all that you require to play your games. On the other hand, part of the fun can be using peripherals.

 

For instance, although Macs come with builtin speakers apart from the Mac Pro, you may want the extra excitement generated by an external sound system with a pounding subwoofer. Theres a wide choice of these systems for Macs, including portable mini speakers for the MacBook and MacBook Pro.

 

Other Mac peripherals include gaming mats, joysticks, trackballs, gamepads, and steering wheels theres a huge range for you to choose from. Most are Plug and Play; if not, its easy to run the relevant software in your Mac and ensure compatibility.

 

Gaming Online

 

The Internet offers another arena for games players. There are now many online games on various websites, and theres the chance to play a favourite game with players across the globe.

 

To find and download these online games quickly and successfully, you need a first class web browser. Every Mac comes with Safari, acknowledged as the computer worlds fastest and best way of searching the Internet. Safari helps you locate online games, and the other technology in your Mac ensures you enjoy them to the full.

 

If you have a game thats not browserbased but you want to play it online with other people, Apple can help you with GameRanger. This is a free programme for Macs that provides you with a multiplayer online gaming service. With GameRanger, you can meet other Mac game players there are more than 260,000 who use the programme and play over 170 games.

 

Downloading the GameRanger programme is easy. Once you have it, you can see who is playing what game. If you have your own copy of a game, you can then ask to join in. Alternatively, you can set up your own competition and invite others to become part of it.

 

GameRanger also has six chat rooms for discussing games. If you opt for GameRangers premium membership, you can even run your own chat rooms as well as creating lists of friends and adding rankings to your contests.

 

Upgrading

 

If you currently own an older style Mac, you may find that the latest games require a spec that your computer doesnt meet. If you try to run the games software, the result may be poor visual quality, slow speeds, and clumsy movements. You can often improve these by upgrading, where possible, your computers processor, graphics card and RAM. An Apple retailer can give you further advice, if necessary.

 

Mods

 

Mods are free downloads that can replace the content of certain games. For example, a game with a World War II subject matter can become a game with a science fiction theme. Macs fully support Mods, and allow you to give a wellworn game a new lease of life.

 

From Beginners to Experts

 

Macs offer everything a computer game player can wish for. From the start of a gaming career, through the intermediate level, and on to expert status, Macs are there to help you every step of the way.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/apples-design-concepts-a-4007.html Apples design concepts are simple sleek lines; ease of use; and concern for the environment. These concepts disguise the amount of thought, development, and hard work that go into everything Apple manufactures, but they generate products that are style icons.

 

Sleek lines

 

One of the most exciting design concepts Apple has recently introduced is the unibody. This is the enclosure for the MacBook Air, the 15 inch MacBook Pro, and the new MacBook.

 

The unibody begins life as a single piece of aluminium. Using CNC computer numerical control milling machines, Apple then creates a laptop casing that accommodates a keyboard, trackpad, ports, display, and the comprehensive interior electronics.

 

The result is robust and lightweight. The new aluminium MacBook weighs in at just 2.04 kg 4.5 pounds. This is modest for a laptop packed with so many features. It is still heavier, though, than the wonderfully thin MacBook Airs 1.36 kg 3 pounds. These two laptops, together with the MacBook Pro, catch the eye with their engineering perfection and elegance.

 

The unibody is a simple concept but an extremely difficult idea to achieve in practice. This is why laptop manufacturers generally build their casings from separate parts. These allow room for error. The unibody, however, must be precise in every respect; if not, the interior components wont fit.

 

This bold approach to design is typical of Apple. Another example is the iMac, Apples desktop computer that holds its technology

 

behind the 20 inch and 24 inch widescreen displays. The iMacs enclosure is a single sheet of aluminium, apart from a compartment on the bottom that gives access to the memory cards. The ports, iSight camera, microphone, optical drive slot, and inner parts are all discretely integrated. Together they provide a powerful computer that takes up far less space than any comparable PC.

 

The Mac mini is not as slim as the Apple laptops and the iMac, but it doesnt need to be thin to be stylish. Instead, its a fine example of how a quality computer can reduce clutter by being just 16.5 cm 6.5 inches square, and 5 cm 2 inches high. The anodised aluminium enclosure, pearly white cover, curved corners, and quiet running make the Mac mini a desirable object to have sitting on a desk. It certainly compares well to the bulk of a standard desktop PC.

 

Apples iPods have a similar design philosophy. Aluminium, glass, and highly polished stainless steel feature alongside subtle curves and carefully positioned controls. The Click Wheel design of the classic and nano has even become a style icon in its own right, deriving from the Scroll Wheel and Touch Wheel of earlier generation iPods.

 

iPod design, like the laptops, is also about weight or, to be exact, the lack of it. The iPod nano is a mere 36.8 grams 1.3 ounces, although the iPod shuffle beats this with its featherlike body of 15.6 grams 0.55 ounce.

 

Ease of use

 

Exterior design alone, however, has not kept Apples products at the forefront of multimedia technology. The hidden designs and compatibility of the hardware and software within a Mac and iPod have also helped to achieve this.

 

This compatibility means that the user of an Apple product has an enjoyable and troublefree experience. The design of Mac OS X, for instance, provides a fast and logical operating system that outshines Windows Vista in almost every respect.

 

Ease of use extends to the software that comes with every Mac such as the Safari web browser. Safari doesnt just find information quickly on the Internet it keeps up with the latest web technology, organises your data, and helps you distinguish one item from another.

 

Safaris success as the worlds best web browser, and the popularity of other Apple software such as the iLife suite of applications, is partly due to frequent revisions. Apples software design specialists never wait for things to happen they are always searching for ways to develop and improve. Mac users can therefore be confident that their software is up to date.

 

The same is true of the iPod designers. Recent design improvements include Genius, which automatically creates playlist of songs that match; the accelerometer, which makes games more fun to play and provides the iPod nano with its shake to shuffle feature; and the 3D graphics of the iPod touch.

 

The iPod touch, of course, has an outstanding MultiTouch screen that is a major design feature by itself. Apple also uses the MultiTouch concept on its laptops, and has now given the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air larger trackpads made of glass and with more features than previously. The result not only makes these laptops more fun to use they look sleeker as well.

 

Concern for the environment

 

The third element of Apples approach to design is concern for the environment. The LED backlighting for displays doesnt contain mercury; internal cables dont have PVC; and components are free of toxic BFRs brominated flame retardants.

 

Apple also promotes the recyclable qualities of the aluminium and arsenicfree glass that make up many of the Mac and iPod casings, and has cut back on the packaging it uses.

 

Such efforts are considerable, and are developing all the time. Among the acknowledgements are the granting of Energy Star status for Macs, thanks to their excellent energy efficiency, and muchcoveted EPEAT electronic products environmental assessment tool gold ratings for the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.

 

These successes prove that environmental concerns can play a major role in design concepts. No doubt other companies will follow Apples lead.

 

Innovation

 

Innovation has not featured here as a design concept because it is a separate principle. With Apple, innovation is fundamental to the companys existence and strategy. Some manufacturers view innovation as an end in itself, but Apple treats it as part and parcel of everyday design and development.

 

Customers can therefore take innovation for granted. It underwrites products that are great to look at, straightforward to use, and that respect the environment. In other words, theyre brilliant designs.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/improvements-innovations-next-generation-inch-macb-a-4006.html With the next generation 15 inch model now available, Apple has confirmed the MacBook Pro as the preferred choice for multimedia professionals and serious laptop enthusiasts. Such people not only expect the best, they want laptops that set new standards. With the MacBook Pro, Apple is happy to oblige.

 

Unibody

 

The MacBook Pro boasts Apples new design concept the unibody. The unibody is a laptop casing manufactured with incredible precision from a block of aluminium. The result is not only a laptop that looks fantastic with its brushed finish and smooth edges; its also more than capable of absorbing the rough and tumble of life on the move.

 

Furthermore, the unibody has enabled Apple to make the MacBook Pro lighter and thinner. This powerful, featurepacked laptop now weighs just 2.49 kg 5.5 pounds, and at its thickest point is 2.41 cm 0.95 inch.

 

The monitor

 

The MacBook Pros 15.4 inch monitor is still an LED backlit glossy widescreen with 1,440 x 900 pixel resolution. The fact that these specs havent changed is certainly no cause for concern because the quality is firstrate. Apple has managed to enhance it, however, with a glass front that stretches across the whole of the interior surface and does away with a metal frame. The glass looks better, is tougher and lasts longer. Its also free from arsenic, a toxin released when glass is recycled.

 

MultiTouch trackpad

 

Another striking feature of the MacBook Pro is the larger, more versatile trackpad. The smooth etched glass of the trackpad now has a surface area 39 greater than before. This gives you plenty of room for your fingers to make every trackpad signal.

 

These signals have also developed, and now incorporate some useful extras. Apple has introduced a four finger swipe, for example, that takes full advantage of the trackpads size increase. Swipe four fingers to the right or left, and you trigger Application Switcher. This allows you to view all your open applications. Swipe four fingers up or down, and you prompt Expos to show desktop or all your open windows.

 

If youre more used to righthand clicking, the trackpad gives you the chance to do this by tapping with two fingers. Its also possible to arrange for the trackpad to give you a specific righthand click zone.

 

Current Mac owners

will spot the lack of a button lying along the bottom of the trackpad. Apple has replaced this by simply turning the whole trackpad into a button. In other words, you can click the trackpad anywhere on its surface.

 

Mini DisplayPort

 

The new Mini DisplayPort connector on the MacBook Pro is a tenth of the size of a normal DVI port. It provides a fast, nononsense method of connecting the 24 inch Apple Cinema Display, or peripherals such as projection systems. Various Mini DisplayPort adaptors also enable you to connect VGA, DVI, and duallink DVI monitors.

 

Cinema Display

 

Apples 24 inch LED backlit Cinema Display is the perfect complement to the new MacBook Pro. Its just what you need if youre making a presentation, or you just want the advantages conferred by a larger screen. Apple has also designed the Cinema Display so that you can connect and use the MacBook Pro as simply as possible. Similarly, you can disconnect with ease and walk away with the MacBook Pro at short notice.

 

The Cinema Displays cable, for instance, branches into three connectors. One of these goes into the new MacBook Pros Mini DisplayPort; another plugs into a USB port; and the third is a MagSafe that you connect to the MacBook Pros Power Port. In other words, you can display your images on both the MacBook Pro and the Cinema Display; use the Cinema Displays iSight camera, microphone, and speakers; and charge the MacBook Pro via an adaptor built into the Cinema Display.

 

NVIDIA graphics

 

Apple has teamed up with NVIDIA to produce an integrated graphics processor thats ideal for professional applications and advanced games. The NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphics processor comes with duallink DVI support and, for the 2.4GHz 15 inch MacBook Pro, has 256MB of GDDR3 memory. The memory capacity doubles to 512MB on the 2.53GHz and 2.8GHz MacBook Pro models.

 

This isnt the only graphics processor in the new MacBook Pro, however. Recognising that users will sometimes require less intensive power, Apple also installs the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M processor with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with the main memory. This means you can save battery power by opting for the 9400M whenever youre working on your daytoday applications.

 

Storage

 

Storage on the new MacBook Pro has increased to 250GB on the 2.4GHz model, and 320GB on the 2.53GHz. Both of these hard drives run at 5,400 rpm, but you can opt to increase the speed to 7,200 rpm if you choose. Theres also a 128GB solidstate drive available.

 

The environment

 

Apples innovations continue with the MacBook Pros environmental credentials. Traditionally, laptop manufacturers have used brominated flame retardants BFRs in logic boards; PVC in cables; arsenic in glass components; and mercury in the CCFL cold cathode fluorescent lamp backlights of LCD monitors. Apple has successfully eliminated these toxins from the new MacBook Pro.

 

Apple has also worked hard to ensure every aspect of the design and manufacturing process considers environmental impact. As a result, the new MacBook Pro reaches the gold standard of EPEAT electronic product environmental assessment tool. EPEAT measures the way in which a product affects the environment; the amount of energy it consumes; and the ability to recycle its parts. A gold rating is proof of Apples ecological commitment.

 

The new MacBook Pro also meets the exacting standards required to give it Energy Star status. In fact, the MacBook Pro uses just 33 of the electricity needed for one light bulb.

 

A high calibre product

 

The new 15 inch MacBook Pro has a range of exceptional features as well as industryleading improvements in technology and green standards. With the unibody, it also has a remarkable design concept. Put all these innovations together, and you have a truly superior laptop.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/advantages-features-computers-a-4005.html When you opt for a Mac rather than a PC, youre buying a computer with a better design on the inside as well as out. In other words, a Mac not only looks great it gives you a wealth of distinct technological advantages and features.

 

Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard

 

A Macs operating system, Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard, is faster, easier to use, and more reliable than Windows. It has built and maintained this position because Apple has based Leopard on a principle of constant innovation. You can therefore achieve more by doing less.

 

Apple has created the comprehensive applications that come with Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard to give you a fullyrounded computer life at home or in the office. Every Mac has iChat, for example. This enables you to have fourway video chats and conferences, and share the contents of your screen. You also receive iLife, software that beats anything a PC can offer for producing and enhancing music, photos, videos and DVDs.

 

Perhaps the most impressive part of Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard, however, is Apples web browser, Safari. This is the fastest web browser on any platform in the world with features that are a pleasure to use. For instance, put a word in the Find box and Safari highlights the matching text and dims the surrounding page, making a search even quicker to complete.

 

Leopard and Windows

 

Nonetheless, just because Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard is faster and better than Windows doesnt mean that Apple ignores users who are new to Macs and more familiar with the Microsoft operating system. To make the transition from PC to Mac as smooth as possible, every Mac has Boot Camp. This allows you to run Windows just as though you have a PC.

 

If you wish, you can also run Windows side by side with Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard. First install Parallels Desktop for Mac or VMware Fusion followed by Windows. You can then switch from Leopard to Windows as you please.

 

Other software

 

Another great feature of Macs is that every major piece of software, including Microsoft applications such as Office 2008, is available in a Mac version. This is useful if you want to retain files on a Mac from your former PC. The Mac equivalent of the software enables you to continue using these files without having to abandon them.

 

Moving files

 

The process of moving your files from a PC to a Mac is straightforward. Just download the files to a USB or FireWire hard drive and then plug this into your Mac. Alternatively, use a network, or ask your Apple shop to do the job for you.

 

Networks

 

Theres always a certain amount of pressure to conform to the type of computers used on a network at home or work. Macs, however, can join any network either wirelessly or with an Ethernet cable and function perfectly. In fact, as described here, if the other computers use Windows, you can easily load this and have the clear advantage of running the Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard system as well.

 

WiFi

 

The WiFi capability for network and Internet connections applies to all Macs. You dont need to buy a separate wireless link every Mac has Apples AirPort Extreme, which enables you to access the net wherever theres a suitable WiFi network.

 

Viruses

 

Of course, when surfing the net most people are aware of the everpresent danger of spyware and viruses. But Macs dont need special antivirus software because Apple constructs them on a stable UNIX foundation and ensures security is a key builtin feature. Apple maintains this security by offering regular free updates and by having the Safari web browser warn you if youre downloading a suspect file.

 

Dependability

 

Its a load off your mind to be able to trust a Macs resistance to viruses and spyware. Just as important is the confidence you can have in a Macs reliability. Unlike many PC manufacturers, Apple creates both the hardware and software of each Mac. This results in computers that are not a combination of different brands but holistic units.

 

The main advantages of this approach are consistent performance and high working speeds. When you switch on a Mac, it comes to life far more quickly than a PC, which takes a while to check the different aspects of its system. A Mac also crashes or freezes far less often than a PC because its components and applications work so well together.

 

Peripherals

 

This is not to suggest that you must use Apple brand peripheral devices such as printers, cameras, and hard drives. On the contrary Apple installs hundreds of peripheral drivers in each Mac so that it recognises most peripherals the moment you connect them wirelessly or via the USB or FireWire ports. This means you speed up the whole process of using a new device for the first time and also keep the Macs hard drive free of additional software.

 

Ease of use

 

Such ease of use is a characteristic cited by owners as one of Macs chief benefits. Everything about a Mac is coordinated to produce a computer that fulfils a wideranging set of tasks in as simple a manner as possible, without compromising creativity and fun. From the clarity of the display and ergonomic features of the keyboard, to the most sophisticated graphics software, Apple has made each Macs hardware and software simple and accessible. This is why Macs prove so popular in schools and colleges.

 

Environmental concerns

 

These design considerations extend to the environmental impact of Macs. Macs are quiet to run and use the latest electrical developments to reduce power consumption. Apple also run a tradein and recycling scheme that ensures Macs are either refurbished and sold on, or are broken up with the least possible harm to the earth. This is yet another advantage of dealing with a company that takes its responsibility to you and the world at large very seriously.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/mini-user-guide-a-4004.html Just bought a Mac Mini Maybe youre not quite familiar with all the features the Mac Mini has to offer. Well help is at hand in this useful and easy to follow user guide that breaks down everything you need to know in a simple, straightforward manner.

 

First steps Unpacking

 

Your box contains

 

• a Mac mini

 

• a power adaptor

 

• a power cord

 

• an Apple Remote

 

• a DVI to VGA adaptor

 

Basic features

 

On the front of your Mac mini is a slotloading optical drive. The builtin infrared IR receiver lies to the right of the slot, and the power indicator light is at the bottom righthand corner.

 

At the back of the Mac mini, you have two rows of features. Along the top row, from left to right, are

 

• the power button

 

• a security slot for a cable and lock

 

• an audio in/optical digital audio in port

 

• a headphone out/optical digital audio out port

 

Along the bottom row, from left to right, are

 

• a power port

 

• an Ethernet port 10/100/1000BaseT

 

• a FireWire 400 port

 

• a DVI video out port

 

• four USB 2.0 ports

 

AirPort Extreme wireless technology and Bluetooth wireless technology are inside your Mac mini.

 

Power adaptor

 

Strip away the plastic film from your Mac mini and the power adaptor. Place the Mac mini on a firm surface right side up or on its side, and close to an electric socket. Your monitor, keyboard and mouse should also be near at hand.

 

        Connect the power cord to the power adaptor

 

        Put the plug on the end of the power adaptors lead into the Mac minis power port

 

        Plug the power cord into the electric socket

 

Please note never place anything on your Mac mini. Objects on your Mac mini may disrupt the optical drive, the AirPort Extreme wireless signal, and the Bluetooth wireless signal.

 

Peripheral setup

 

Your Mac mini is BYODKM bring your own display, keyboard and mouse. Use the ones you already have almost any are suitable.

 

Keyboard and mouse

 

Connect your keyboard to a USB port on the back of the Mac mini. Connect your mouse to a USB port on the keyboard or on the Mac mini.

 

Windowsbased keyboards may not have specific Mac OS X Command and Option keys. The Windows logo key, however, is equivalent to the Mac OS X Command key, and the Alt key is equivalent to the Mac OS X Option key.

 

To modify the keyboard

 

        click Apple>System Preferences

 

        click Keyboard & Mouse

 

        choose Modifier keys

 

        follow the screen instructions

 

Please note when you use a USB keyboard and mouse made by a company other than Apple, you may need software drivers. If you dont already have these, visit the manufacturers website and download them.

 

Apple Wireless Keyboard and Mighty Mouse

 

If you have an Apple Wireless Keyboard and wireless Mighty Mouse, follow the setup procedures contained in the appropriate manuals.

 

Monitor

 

Use your Mac minis DVI video out port to connect a monitor. If you have a VGA monitor, connect it to the Mac mini with the supplied DVI to VGA adaptor.

 

Please note; your Mac mini supports digital resolutions up to 1,920 x 1,200 pixels. This means you can attach a 20 inch Apple Cinema Display

 

or a 23 inch Apple Cinema HD Display.

 

Internet or network

 

Connect your Mac mini to the Internet or a network wirelessly or by using a cable.

 

        Wireless. Your Mac mini has builtin AirPort Extreme wireless technology. For more details, go to Menu Bar; select Help>Mac Help; and click Library>AirPort Help.

 

        Cable. Simply plug one end of an Ethernet cable into your Mac mini, and the other into a cable modem, DSL modem, or network.

 

Switching on Power button

 

To start your Mac mini, press the power button located on the back.

 

Setup Assistant

 

When you first use your Mac mini, Setup Assistant appears. This enables you to establish your

 

        user account

 

        Internet access

 

        email details

 

If you already own a Mac, you can use Setup Assistant to transfer software and files to your Mac mini.

 

If you prefer to wait before you transfer information, use Migration Assistant at a later date.

 

        Select the Applications folder

 

        Open Utilities

 

        Doubleclick Migration Assistant

 

Customising

 

To change the layout of Desktop the first screen that appears when youve finished with Setup Assistant go to the Menu Bar and select Apple>System Preferences. For more details on what you can do to customise your Mac mini, select Mac Help and search for System preferences.

 

Sleep mode and shutting down Sleep mode

 

If you intend to be away from your Mac mini for just a short while, you can put it in sleep mode rather than shut it down. Simply choose one of the following actions

 

        press and hold your Apple Remotes Play/Pause button for three seconds

 

        select Apple>System Preferences; choose Energy Saver; set the timer

 

        press the power button

 

        select Apple>Sleep on the Menu Bar

 

When youre ready to wake your Mac mini, press any of your Apple Remotes buttons or any key on your keyboard.

 

Shut down

 

Shut down your Mac mini by selecting Apple>Shut Down. To turn it on once more, press the power button.

 

Please note do not move your Mac mini before youve shut it down. You can damage the hard disc if you move the computer while the disc is spinning.

 

Basic OS X guide Operating system

 

Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard is your Mac minis operating system. It runs your files, software and peripheral devices, and is similar in principle to Windows.

 

Controls

 

Your controls are your mouse, keyboard and Apple Remote. If youre more used to Windows, youll soon discover that Mac OS X is easier to navigate and faster.

 

Main features

 

Navigating your Mac minis screens is easy. There are selfexplanatory windows, menus, and shortcuts, plus the following main features

 

                    Desktop

 

                    Dock

 

                    Finder

 

                    Menu bar

 

Desktop

 

Desktop is the screen where you normally start each time you switch on your Mac mini. The screen displays your HD hard drive icons. Select an HD icon to view the files and applications it contains. When you plug a peripheral device into your Mac mini, the appropriate icon appears on Desktop.

 

Points to note

 

        Use Desktop to store your folders, images, files and other documents

 

        Mac OS X gives each user of your Mac mini a separate Desktop

 

        Desktop lies behind any of the applications you run

 

Dock

 

The icons at the bottom of the screen are the Dock. Use the icons to access your most frequently used applications, folders, files and windows.

 

When a window appears, note that it has three coloured buttons in the upper lefthand corner.

 

        Red closes the window

 

        Yellow minimises the window to the Dock

 

        Green maximises and minimises the windows size

 

Finder

 

The Dock icon on the far left is the Finder. You can use Finder to manage your folders, drives and applications.

 

Menu Bar

 

Mac OS X has just one Menu Bar. It appears on your screen as a line at the top.

 

Use the Menu Bar to

 

        work with a programme

 

        view and change settings and software

 

        close software

 

        check your recent work

 

        log in

 

        log out

 

        put your Mac mini into sleep mode

 

        restart your Mac mini

 

        switch off

 

The Menu Bar changes to give you the most suitable options for the software youre running.

 

Connectivity

 

For a list of connection ports, see First steps Basic features.

 

The FireWire 400 port is ideal for connecting highspeed devices. These include digital video cameras and hard drives.

 

The four USB 2.0 ports are for devices such as your keyboard, mouse, iPod, printer, camera, and games controller. Your Mac mini will recognise many of these without the need to run software because Apple preinstalls hundreds of peripheral drivers at its factory to make connections as quick and easy as possible.

 

Use your audio in/optical digital audio in port for a microphone. Use the headphone out/optical digital audio out port for a pair of headphones or speakers. You can also use either port for your digital audio equipment as appropriate.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/switching-from-a-4003.html Its natural to be a little anxious about switching from a PC to a Mac. A Macs style, good value, fast operating system and troublefree applications can easily win you over, but if youre a longterm PC user you may still feel cautious about making the change. You may want to be confident, for instance, that you can access the Microsoftbased files youve built up over the years.

 

You neednt worry, however. Apple has listened to its customers and addressed their concerns. Switching from a PC to a Mac is not a leap in the dark; its a smooth transition to a responsive and powerful computer.

 

The basics

 

A Mac is simple to use because Apple has designed its applications to work in a similar way. Once you become familiar with the Mac OS X operating system, everything falls into place.

 

Moving your files

 

Perhaps the most crucial aspect of changing to any new computer is the migration of your files from one to the other. These files might include documents, music, and photos, but it doesnt really matter what they are your Mac will automatically recognise almost all of them.

 

You have a number of ways to transfer your files. You can

 

• copy everything on your PC to a USB or FireWire hard drive, connect the hard drive to the Mac, and download

 

• use your local network to transfer the files

 

• burn the files to a CD or DVD on the PC, place this in your Mac and download

 

• send the files to your Mac via your email account

 

When youve organised everything on the Macs hard drive, you can install Windows see below and use your files as you would on your PC. If you dont want to load Windows, youll need Mac versions of the appropriate software such as Microsoft Office see below.

 

Windows

 

Having decided to make the move from PC to Mac, you may feel more comfortable if you still have Windows to hand. Fortunately, youre able to load Windows XP Home Edition or Professional with at least Service Pack 2, or any version of Windows Vista, using Boot Camp. This is a piece of software that comes as standard with every new Mac. Please note that you cannot load any Windows software other than those given here.

 

Once Windows is on your Mac, use it as though youre operating a PC. If you want the flexibility of having Windows and Mac OS X available at the same time without restarting the computer, install either Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion.

 

Windows networks

 

If youre part of a Windows network in an office or at home and everyone else is using a PC, you can still switch to a Mac without upsetting anything. With a Mac, theres nothing to prevent you sharing files across the network, surfing the Internet, or sending and receiving email.

 

Microsoft Office

 

If you want to continue using Microsoft Office 2008, simply install the Mac version. It has all the features of the Windows equivalent including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. You can also work on Office documents that originated on a PC, and transfer your Maccreated Office work to a PC.

 

PC devices

 

You dont have to buy new peripherals when you change from a PC to a Mac. Your Mac has preloaded drivers for hundreds of devices, which means that it recognises the vast majority of peripherals such as printers, hard drives, joysticks and cameras. Just install your device using the USB, FireWire, Bluetooth or audio connections and youre up and running. If youd rather, you can also continue to use your PC keyboard and mouse with your Mac.

 

Email

 

You can use your existing email service and email address on your Mac without any problem at all. Put your email account details into the Macs Mail application and thats it youve successfully switched over. You can also access any webbased email with your Macs Safari web browser.

 

You may, of course, have a stock of email folders that go back for some time. Switching from a PC to a Mac is a good opportunity to do some email housekeeping, but this doesnt mean you have to lose any of your archived messages. Instead, if youve a fairly small amount of email, you can forward it to your Mac. If youve a larger quantity of mail on your PC and have a number of accounts, you can transfer everything by using your ISP Internet service provider and IMAP Internet message access protocol.

 

Instant messaging

 

If youre used to instant messaging on your PC, youll be delighted with your Mac. It has a builtin feature called iChat for text messaging and video calls.

 

WiFi

 

Macs are wireless and compatible with most routers. The available wireless networks in your area automatically register on your screen. You neednt lose any of the wireless features of your PC, and by choosing a Mac you may in fact discover youve upgraded your WiFi capability.

 

Web browsers

 

Your Mac has the fastest web browser around Safari. If you prefer, you can use Mac versions of other browsers, but the speed and easytouse features of Safari will soon have you hooked.

 

Software and games

 

You wont lose out on a choice of software and games when you switch to a Mac. Virtually everything has a Mac version, plus youll benefit from specific Mac items such as iWorks.

 

Security

 

When you switch to a Mac, youll want to know your data is secure. The good news is that Macs have builtin security with regular free updates. Apple also constructs each Mac with its own hardware and software. The result is a computer that resists viruses and spyware far better than the average PC.

 

Reliability

 

Macs are consistently reliable. They run extremely well and dont suffer from the problems so often associated with PCs frozen screens and system crashes. As a result, youll have fewer problems caused by delays and lost data.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/printers-tips-when-buying-printer-part-a-4002.html There are many factors to consider when making a decision on which CD printer to purchase for your business. This article will touch on a few of the basics like choosing the right printer manufacturer, cost of CD printers, inkjet or thermal, productivity, speed and durability. Part 2 of this article will dig in deeper on the basic criteria listed above as well as on more advanced points like print quality, color matching, unique printing on each disc, total cost of ownership, used DVD / CD printers and buying from a reputable dealer.

 

For the purposes of this article Im focusing on just DVD / CD printers, not duplicators with printers that can print and/or copy CDs and DVDs at the same time. I will save that topic for a future article.

 

The goal of this article is to give you a basis for making the best decision when purchasing a CD printer so you get it right the first time. In this economy, you cant afford to make the mistake of buying the wrong printer for your CDs and DVDs. Spending money on the wrong CD / DVD printer for your needs and wasting time figuring it out is both frustrating and a misuse of your companys resources.

 

The research for this article was acquired over 13 years of selling, using, testing, supporting, and repairing CD and DVD printers. My experience is with midlevel and highend professional disc printers, so these tips may not be relevant for potential purchasers of entrylevel hand feed ondisc printers that sell for 300 or less. Sub 300 disc printers clearly have a niche, but for professional CD printing needs they tend to have high consumable costs, poor technical support, slow print speeds and in many cases poor print quality.

 

Tip 1 Start with the Big 3 Manufacturers

 

Rimage, Microboards and Primera have been in the CD printer and duplicator manufacturing business since its infancy. In my estimation they have over an 80 market share of the CD / DVD printers sold in the world. The Big 3 are the leaders in their respective print technologies and offer the most stability in the disc printer marketplace. These three manufacturers are in a better position to be in business and support you than their less stable competitors in the coming months and years. They also have proven technical support and postwarranty support that is superior to the other manufacturers in the CD / DVD duplication and printing market.

 

Tip 2 Cost of the CD / DVD printer Inkjet or Thermal

 

Costs vary widely, but the main defining points are the type of print engine technology employed in the printer inkjet or thermal transfer, and whether or not the CD printing system is manual or automated. Inkjet based CD / DVD printers are less expensive than thermal transfer CD printers. A good automated inkjet printer costs 2500, while a good color thermal transfer CD printer costs 8500 or more. Disc capacity and software features also play a role in cost. Part 2 of this article will dive in deeper on the pros and cons of inkjet and thermal based printers.

 

Tip 3 Automated or Manual

 

Choosing between a printer that you manually hand feed the CDs or DVDs, or picking a automated CD printer with a robotic arm or mechanism that moves and prints the discs for you is a big decision in regards to upfront costs, labor, and productivity. Good handfed manual disc printers start at 699, whereas an entrylevel automated CD printer with a 20disc capacity costs about 999. Larger and faster automated systems that hold as many as 300discs can cost up to 9500. So how do you decide which is best for you

 

First, estimate the number of discs you will need to print per week, per month and per year. Factor in any growth in that number quarter over quarter or year over year. I have found that many organizations underestimate their usage projections because they fail to take into account that other departments or employees will need the services of the new CD printer as well. Second, determine if you will have intense peak periods of CD or DVD production. Many organizations need to produce discs only 1 once a week or month, but need all 100 or 500 in a few hours or just one day. Third, determine what is the value of your time. Do you have the time to put each disc in the printer by hand, or is your time or that of your employee better spent doing something else

 

Tip 4 Speed

 

A question I get over and over again is how many discs per hour or day can a CD printer print The speed at which a CD or DVD is printed depends on a few factors. 1 Print coverage, 2 the resolution chosen in the printer driver, and 3 the actual printer itself. For example, an inkjet printer that prints a CD label with a small color logo, just a few lines of text, with the print driver set at a lower resolution, can print 200 CDs per hour. That same printer may only have a print throughput of 50 CDs an hour with a full color edgetoedge graphic and the print driver set to the highest resolution.

 

To a lesser degree the same holds true for thermal CD printers. The Rimage Prism thermal CD printer will have greater throughput with less print coverage, but will not suffer as drastic a drop off in throughput while printing a graphic with more print coverage like inkjet printers do. Interestingly, the Rimage Everest thermal printer has the same disc per hour throughput with one line of text in the graphic label as another artwork featuring 100 print coverage. The Rimage Everest III and Everest 600 printers will each print about 65 discs per hour regardless of print coverage.

 

Tip 5 CD Printer Durability

 

Generally disc printers that are made out of plastic are less durable than those made out of metal. Most inkjet printers that I have used and tested over the years are made mostly of plastic components whereas most of the thermal printers are made from metal parts. That being said we have had good success and our customers have had success with Primera and Microboards inkjet printers with an average useful inservice life of 35 years depending on how the users treat them. We have some Rimage Prism thermal printers in our CD / DVD production room that are well into their 10th year of service. As a footnote, these thermal and inkjet CD printers have had scheduled cleanings and parts replacement over the years.

 

Conclusion

 

Begin your DVD CD printer research with the three major manufacturers Rimage, Microboards, and Primera. Forecast your daily, monthly and yearly CD and DVD printing needs and determine whether a manual or automated printer makes more sense. Look at both inkjet and thermal options, while keeping in mind your budget and how long you would like the CD printer to last. If you do not have the budget for the CD printer that best fits your needs, try looking for a good used printer or you may find that outsourcing your CD and DVD duplication and printing to a professional service company makes more business sense.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/mini-review-a-4001.html First impressions

 

What sets the Mac mini apart from every other computer is its size. At just 5 cm 2 inches high, and 16.5 cm 6.5 inches square, its dimensions are remarkable. When compared to the bulky horizontal cases and towers of so many similarly priced machines, the Mac mini is in a class of its own.

 

This isnt the full story, of course, but on size alone, the Mac mini offers a spacesaving opportunity for PC owners to switch to a Mac and retain their existing monitor, keyboard, mouse and other peripherals. Its even possible, thanks to a Belkin KVM switch, to retain your PC, put a Mac mini nearby, and change from one to the other as you wish without rearranging your desk.

 

Technical specs and performance

 

On the technical side, the latest Mac mini models are also well worth a look. They now have Intel Core 2 Duo processors of either 1.83GHz or 2GHz. These processors are from Intels 65 nanometre family with 64 bit architecture. To complement them, Apple has added 2MB of L2 cache for the 1.83GHz Mac mini and 4MB for the 2GHz model, together with a 128 bit SSE3 vector engine on both.

 

The result of this technology is interesting, to say the least the new Mac mini is up to 39 faster than the previous model. This jump in speed varies according to your application the 39 figure refers to Apples iPhoto 08 but there are many examples of improvements with other software. For example, overall speeds using Apples web browser, Safari, are up by 26; and compressing a film with the 2.0GHz Mac mini has accelerated by 35 compared to the old equivalent machine.

 

For memory, the 1.83GHz and 2GHz Mac minis have 1GB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM on two SODIMMs as standard. 1GB of RAM is certainly a respectable amount; but if you want more capacity, you can double it if you wish.

 

Standard storage for the 1.83GHz Mac mini is an 80GB 5,400 rpm Serial ATA hard disc drive. The 2GHz version has a more spacious 120GB. Apple does give you the chance to improve on both of these with a 120GB drive for the 1.83GHz Mac mini, and 160GB for the 2GHz.

 

As for graphics, the Mac mini has an integrated processor so youve no choice but accept it. This neednt be a problem, however, because the processor is the Intel GMA 950, a unit that can handle the latest 3D games.

 

Hardware

 

A useful piece of hardware that accompanies the Mac mini is the Apple Remote. This is handy when you use Apples Front Row media application. You can sit back and control at a distance the music and films you play through the computer.

 

Ideally, of course, you want a good quality monitor to take full advantage of Front Row. The Mac mini has a DVI video output port that supports digital resolutions up to 1,920 x 1,200 pixels. This means you can connect and enjoy a 20 inch Apple Cinema Display or a 23 inch Apple Cinema HD Display. If you dont have such a monitor, however, and youre thinking of buying one, consider the total cost. An iMac, with its better spec, can make a more attractive financial alternative to a Mac mini/Apple Cinema Display combo.

 

For analogue monitor connections, the Mac mini has a DVI to VGA adaptor. You can also buy an Apple DVI to Video Adaptor to give you S video and composite video out connections to a projector or TV.

 

Other ports on the back of the Mac mini include a combined optical digital audio input/audio line in minijack, and a combined optical digital audio output/headphone out minijack. You can use these for your digital audio equipment, headphones, a microphone or external speakers. Incidentally, despites its compactness, the Mac mini does have a builtin speaker.

 

The remaining ports are a FireWire 400 and four USB 2.0s. Four USBs may seem generous but dont forget that you have to connect a keyboard and a mouse before you start. You could, though, opt for wireless versions.

 

Wireless technology is Apples builtin 54 Mbps AirPort Extreme wireless networking plus builtin Bluetooth 2.0 EDR. These two are just what you need for wireless activity. Theres also a 10/100/1000 Ethernet port for those who prefer cable connection to the Internet or a network.

 

At the front of the Mac mini is a slotloading optical drive. Here theres a distinct difference between the two models with the 1.83GHz coming with a Combo drive, and the 2GHz with the more versatile SuperDrive, which allows you to burn DVDs as well as CDs.

 

Software

 

As ever with Macs, the software that accompanies the Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard operating system is comprehensive. Between them Leopard, iLife 08, and Front Row give you pretty much everything you need for a full multimedia experience.

 

With iLife 08, for instance, you receive iPhoto for enhancing and organising your photographs; iMovie to help you create and share your films; GarageBand, which lets you play with a virtual band as well as create music and podcasts; iWeb for making websites that contain photos and films as well as text; and iDVD, an application that enables you to transform your home movies into professionallooking films.

 

Other Mac mini applications include iChat for video calls, and Safari, the fastest web browser around. A further bonus is the chance to try out iWork, which contains Pages 08 for word processing; Numbers 08 for spreadsheets; and Keynote 08 for presentations. If youre more familiar with Microsoft Office, this is a good opportunity to see what iWork can offer instead. You can also make a direct comparison because the Mac mini has trial software of Microsoft Office for Mac.

 

Conclusion Pros

 

• A small neat package with high quality specs

 

• Ideal for making the change from PC to Mac

 

• Much faster than previous model

 

• Remote control included

 

• Contains all the usual Apple software plus iLife 08

 

• Great value if you already have a monitor, keyboard and mouse

 

Cons

 

• If you intend to buy a top quality monitor, keyboard and mouse for the Mac mini, you might want to check out the iMac

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/macbook-user-guide-a-4000.html 1 First steps a Unpacking

 

Remove your MacBook Pro from the box and place it on a firm surface near an electric socket. In the box, you should also have

 

• an 85W MagSafe Power Adaptor

 

• a power cord

 

• a DVI to VGA adaptor

 

b Charging

 

Strip the plastic film from the 85W MagSafe Power Adaptor. Ensure the plug sits properly in the Power Adaptor and place it in the electric socket. Take the other end of the Power Adaptor lead and connect it to the magnetic MagSafe power port on the lefthand side of your MacBook Pro.

 

If the Power Adaptor lead wont stretch to your nearest electric socket, remove the plug from the adaptor by pulling it up. Beneath the plug is a socket. Insert one end of the power cord into the adaptor socket and the other into the electric socket.

 

Please note always disconnect your MacBook Pro from the electricity by pulling the plugs and not the leads.

 

An amber light on the MagSafe connector at the power port tells you the MacBook Pro battery is charging. When a green light appears, the battery is fully charged. If no light appears, check the connections and make sure youve switched on the electric socket.

 

c Basic features

 

When you open your MacBook Pro, youll find

 

• an iSight camera and camera indicator light at the top of the screen

 

• stereo speakers either side of the keyboard

 

• a power button on the right of the keyboard

 

• a microphone to the left of the keyboard

 

• a trackpad and a trackpad button

 

From left to right along the front edge of the MacBook Pro are

 

• an infrared IR receiver

 

• a sleep mode indicator light

 

• a display release button

 

• a slotloading SuperDrive

 

From left to right on the lefthand side of your MacBook Pro are

 

• a MagSafe power port

 

• one USB 2.0 port 15 inch model; two USB 2.0 ports 17 inch model

 

• an audio line in/optical digital audio in port

 

• a headphone out/optical digital audio out port

 

• an ExpressCard/34 slot

 

From left to right on the righthand side of your MacBook Pro are

 

• a security slot for a cable and lock

 

• a USB 2.0 port

 

• a FireWire 400 port

 

• a FireWire 800 port

 

• a Gigabit Ethernet port 10/100/1000BaseT

 

• a DVI port

 

Underneath your MacBook Pro is the battery. The battery has a row of indicator lights and a button.

 

2 Initial setup a Setup Assistant

 

Switch on your MacBook Pro by pressing the power button. Setup Assistant will come up on the screen.

 

Setup Assistant takes you through the process of establishing your user account and your email and Internet details. If you have another Mac and want to carry files and applications from it to your MacBook Pro, Setup Assistant will show you how. If you want to transfer such information at a later date, use Migration Assistant instead.

 

• Select the Applications folder

 

• Open Utilities

 

• Doubleclick Migration Assistant

 

If you have another Mac you dont intend to use in the future, and youve bought music, audiobooks, films or TV shows with iTunes, deauthorise the computer. For more details, go to the iTunes Help menu and select iTunes Help.

 

b Internet connection

 

You can connect wirelessly to the Internet using your MacBook Pros builtin AirPort Extreme facility. For more information

 

• go to the Menu Bar

 

• select Help>Mac Help

 

• search for AirPort

 

Alternatively, connect an Ethernet cable to the port on the righthand side of your MacBook Pro. Place the other end in a cable modem, DSL modem or network.

 

For a dialup Internet connection

 

• buy an external Apple USB Modem

 

• place it in one of your MacBook Pros USB ports

 

• connect a phone lead from a phone jack to the modem

 

c Sleep mode

 

Use the sleep mode on your MacBook Pro if you stop work for a short period. To start the sleep mode, you have the following choices

 

• select Apple>Sleep on the Menu Bar

 

• close the screen

 

• press the power button and select sleep in the dialogue box

 

• select Apple>System Preferences; choose Energy Saver; set the timer

 

Please note dont move your MacBook Pro until the sleep indicator light on the front edge comes on. This tells you the hard disc has stopped. If you move the MacBook Pro with the disc still spinning, you can damage the disc and lose data.

 

To wake your MacBook Pro from sleep mode

 

• open the screen if you closed it, or

 

• if the screen is open, press any key or the power button

 

d Shut down

 

If youve finished work on your MacBook Pro for the day, shut it down by either

 

• selecting Apple>Shut Down on the Menu Bar, or

 

• pressing the power button and selecting Shut Down in the dialogue box

 

3 Using the trackpad

 

With the trackpad, you can

 

• scroll

 

• Click

 

• doubleclick

 

• drag

 

• move the pointer

 

To control the distance you send the pointer across the screen, adjust the speed of your finger on the trackpad

 

• Move your finger slowly to send the pointer a short distance

 

• Move your finger fast to send the pointer further

 

Other features of the trackpad include the following

 

• Two finger scrolling. Scroll in any direction by making the same movements with two fingers on the trackpad.

 

• Secondary or right clicking. Use shortcut menu commands by placing two fingers on the trackpad and clicking the trackpad button.

 

Some trackpad features apply to certain applications

 

• Two finger rotating. By rotating two fingers on the trackpad, you can turn images and text.

 

• Two finger pinching. By pinching together and pushing apart two fingers on the trackpad, you can zoom in or out.

 

• Three finger swiping. Flick through a series of images or the pages of a document by swiping three fingers on the trackpad.

 

If you want to finetune and set trackpad options

 

• select Apple>System Preferences

 

• click Keyboard & Mouse

 

• click Trackpad

 

For more information

 

• select Help>Mac Help

 

• click Trackpad

 

4 Quick Mac OS X guide a Introduction

 

Your MacBook Pro has the Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard operating system. This controls your applications, files and peripheral devices, and works in a similar fashion to Windows.

 

b The basics

 

Your basic controls are the keyboard and trackpad. Windows users find they have to use the keyboard and trackpad fewer times on the MacBook Pro to achieve comparable results.

 

c Main features

 

To help you manage and navigate everything successfully on your MacBook Pro, there are four main features

 

• Desktop

 

• Dock

 

• Finder

 

• Menu bar

 

Desktop

 

Desktop is your starting point each time you use your MacBook Pro. It stores items such as files and images.

 

The first icon youll come across on Desktop is the Macintosh HD hard drive. Other icons appear when you use the various functions of your MacBook Pro. To view an icons files and applications, doubleclick it.

 

Also note that

 

• if you connect a device to your MacBook Pro, an icon appears on the Desktop

 

• if you allow other users on your MacBook Pro, each one can have a Desktop

 

• when you run applications, Desktop always lies behind them

 

Dock

 

The Dock is a row of icons lying at the bottom of your MacBook Pro screen. Click on an icon to reach the files and applications it contains.

 

When a window appears on the screen, it has three buttons in the top left corner.

 

• The red button closes the window

 

• The yellow button minimises the window to the Dock

 

• The green button maximises and minimises the windows size

 

Finder

 

The icon on the far left of the Dock is the Finder. Use the Finder to navigate and manage your MacBook Pros files and applications.

 

Menu Bar

 

The Menu Bar is a line at the top of the MacBook Pros screen.

 

With the Menu Bar, you can

 

• see recent work

 

• view and adjust settings and applications

 

• end applications

 

• interact with a programme

 

• log in and out

 

• put the MacBook Pro into sleep mode

 

• begin restart

 

• switch off your MacBook Pro

 

Customising desktop

 

To customise Desktop, select the System Preferences icon in the Dock or Apple>System Preferences on the Menu Bar. For more details of what you can do, select Mac Help and search for System Preferences or for the item you want to change.

 

5 Connectivity

 

Your MacBook Pro has a comprehensive range of ports for printers, phones, iPods, cameras, joysticks, hard drives and so on. As well as USB 2.0 ports, you have a FireWire 400 and a FireWire 800. These are ideal for connecting high speed devices such as video cameras.

 

The DVI port allows you to connect a monitor

, TV or projector. If you have a VGA device, then simply use the supplied DVI/VGA adaptor.

 

Use the audio line in/optical digital audio in port to connect digital audio equipment or a microphone. Use the headphone out/optical digital audio out port for audio equipment, headphones or speakers.

 

The ExpressCard/34 slot accepts all standard 34mm ExpressCards. Please note that when you want to remove a card, push it gently first.

 

6 Battery

 

When you use the MacBook Pro without the MagSafe Power Adaptor, the time you can run the computer depends on your applications and the peripheral devices that are draining the batterys power. You can save battery energy by removing unnecessary devices and by switching off your AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth features when youre not using them.

 

Press the button on the battery to check the energy level. The lights at the side of the button tell you how much charge you have left, if any. You can also inspect the battery level by simply checking the battery status icon in the Menu Bar.

 

The battery can be charged at any time. Youll find you can charge it more quickly, however, when your MacBook Pro is in sleep mode or switched off.

 

If you want to replace a failing battery with a full charged one, always shut down your MacBook Pro first.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/which-ipod-a-3999.html The iPod shuffle, nano, classic, and touch suit different requirements. The storage capacities, battery lives, and prices answer some of these needs, but so do the features that make each iPod model distinctive. Its therefore worth considering the main characteristics of the models to confirm the one thats right for you.

 

iPod shuffle

 

The iPod shuffle is ideal if you want a tiny, discrete music player when youre on the go. Its builtin clip also means you can attach the shuffle securely to the outside of your clothes, or fasten it inside a pocket or bag.

 

Unlike the other iPods, the shuffle doesnt have a screen, but this neednt be a cause for concern. After all, if youre using the shuffle at work, on a crowded commuter train or bus, or around the house when youre busy, you may not have the chance to view what a screen can offer.

 

Furthermore, the shuffle may have the lowest storage capacity of the iPod range, but do you really need much more room You can still load 240 songs on the 1GB model, and 500 on the 2GB. Even then, you can keep other music in your iTunes library and change songs, albums, artists and playlists as and when you want.

 

iPod nano

 

The stunning appearance and versatility of the iPod nano have made it the worlds favourite music player. If you have a goodsize music collection you want to carry with you, itll store 2,000 or 4,000 songs, depending on whether you opt for the 8GB or 16GB version. The nano will also give you up to 24 hours music playback on just one battery charge.

 

The nano is about more than audio, however. Its two inch colour LCD screen lets you watch music videos, films, photos, and TV shows. You can also download films and TV shows from the Internet via iTunes, transfer them to your nano, and show them through your television with an appropriate cable.

 

Clearly the nano is for anyone who wants something more than just a music player. Its an incredibly compact and lightweight entertainment centre. It also has features that make it desirable for specific users. Games players, for example, appreciate the accelerometer. This device enables you to move the iPod nano to control onscreen characters and events.

 

A further bonus, this time for music lovers, comes in the form of Genius. When you activate Genius on iTunes and your iPod nano, you can ask it to automatically create playlists that match a favourite song and reflect your personal taste.

 

Other features of the iPod nano help the visually impaired. Theres a larger font size you can set for the screens menu lists. Theres also Spoken Menus, an innovation that allows you to hear the menus as they appear. This means you can navigate almost all of your nanos features without needing to look at the screen.

 

iPod classic

 

The classic is the iPod that can hold just about anything the most committed lover of music and video can give it. With 120GB at your disposal, you can carry 30,000 songs in your pocket, or have 150 hours of films and TV. More than likely, youll want a mix of these, but dont forget you also can add pictures, games, podcasts, and audiobooks.

 

This astonishing capability sets the classic apart. To take full advantage of it, however, you need a power source with stamina; a first class screen; and high quality audio. The classic has all of these.

 

The battery gives you up to 36 hours of music playback or 6 hours of video on just one charge. This is perfect for long journeys and holidays. Whats more, you need only put the classic on charge for two hours to bring it back to 80 strength, and four hours for 100.

 

The screen is a two and a half inch colour LCD with 320 x 240 pixel resolution. It provides images that are vivid and sharp, and further enhances them with an LED backlight.

 

Audio reproduction is precise and clear. This is exactly what all music lovers want, and is one reason why the classic is invaluable for many people. If your music collection has grown so large, for instance, that youre having trouble finding enough shelves for it, you can transfer your CDs to iTunes and from there to your classic. In this way, you can reduce your collection to a device thats half the size of a CD case without any loss of quality or enjoyment. If you invest in an iPod speaker system, you can also continue listening to your music aloud.

 

iPod touch

 

The iPod touch takes all thats great about the shuffle, nano and classic, and adds some unique extras.

 

One of these is the three and a half inch MultiTouch screen. Not only does this provide more room to view the menus and videos, it replaces the click wheel. To control the features of the touch, you simply tap the screen and move your fingers across it. The screen also boasts impressive 3D graphics.

 

On the audio side, you can listen to the music or videos on your touch by connecting earphones or headphones. You can, however, put these to one side if you want and use the builtin speaker. This is convenient if circumstances are such that you cannot wear earphones, and you dont have a speaker system to hand.

 

Yet another great extra is the builtin WiFi technology. This takes your iPod to another level of use, allowing you to connect to a wireless network. You can then browse the web, and retrieve and send emails.

 

The touch is therefore an iPod for anyone who wants the extra capabilities of cutting edge technology and Internet access. If this is what youre looking for, the touch is the perfect iPod. If not, the shuffle, nano, or classic will certainly provide what you need.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/mac-pro-review-a-3998.html First impressions

 

If youve had the good fortune to work with a Power Mac or previous generation Mac Pro, youve every right to find the latest incarnation an exciting prospect. If you havent used one of Apples best machines before, youre in an even better position. The Mac Pro second generation is like nothing youve ever experienced. It may not be as stylish as other Macs but it has such incredible power it demands your full attention.

 

This combination of admiration and enthusiasm is fully justified. From the moment you switch on the Mac Pro, you get the feeling this is the ideal computer. And if youre matching it with a 30 inch Apple Cinema HD Display, you cannot help but think this is as good as it gets.

 

Basics

 

Basics isnt really the right word to use about the Mac Pro. This is an outstanding, incredibly efficient computer that you can use for the most sophisticated applications around.

 

To support the applications, Apple is offering extraordinary Quad Core Intel Xeon processors up to 3.2GHz. These combine with exceptional memory, storage capability, frontside bus and PCI Express options.

 

Along with these is a long list of features youd expect from a flagship computer designed for professional use. Highlights are seven USB ports; four FireWire ports; Bluetooth 2.0 EDR; support for up to eight 30 inch monitors; and support for digital resolutions up to 2560 x 1600 pixels.

 

Customisation

 

The standard model comes with two 2.8GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon processors; 2GB of RAM; 320GB of storage; an ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB graphics card; and a 16x SuperDrive with doublelayer support DVDR; DL/DVDRW/CDRW.

 

For the price, these specs are excellent, but its the possibilities of customisation that really impress. You can, for example, replace the two 2.8GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon processors with two 3.0GHz or 3.2GHz Quad Core versions. You can also increase the memory to 32GB, and boost your storage to 1TB in each of four hard drive bays.

 

Other options include a Mac Pro RAID card with 256MB cache and 72 hour cache battery backup; an Apple DualChannel or QuadChannel 4GB Fibre Channel PCI Express Card; AirPort Extreme wireless networking; and upgraded graphics cards.

 

Professional users are more than likely to opt immediately for one or more of these options to get the best from their applications. But how straightforward is it to start with a standard model and fit the options at a later date as you need them

 

The answer is that it couldnt be easier to install additional hardware. Suppose you want to increase your storage capacity, you

 

&61623;  remove the side of the tower

 

&61623;  pull out the hard drive carrier

 

&61623;  place it on your new hard drive

 

&61623;  fasten the four screws

 

&61623;  push the carrier back into the tower

 

The same simplicity applies to the PCI expansion slots and the installation of a second optical drive.

 

Software

 

A lightning fast computer such as the Mac Pro requires an operating system to match, and Macs OS X v10.5 Leopard is up to the job. The preinstalled software that comes with Leopard, including iLife 08, is of course standard across the range of Mac models. What really puts the Mac Pro to the test, however, is demanding multimedia software such as Final Cut Pro video; Photoshop CS3 imaging and graphics; Logic Pro 8.0.1 sound; and Maya 2008 3D.

 

The benchmark for any improvement in running such software is Macs previous powerhouse, the Power Mac G5 Quad Core 2.66GHz. A comparison of this with the new Mac Pro 3.2GHz model gave the following results

 

&61623;  With Final Cut Pro, the Mac Pro 3.2Ghz was 1.8 times faster

 

&61623;  With Photoshop CS3, it was 1.6 times faster

 

&61623;  With Logic Pro 8.0.1, it was 2.6 times faster

 

This is not to take anything away from the standard Mac Pro 2.8GHz. In a test using Maya 2008, the Mac Pro 2.8GHz was 2.1 times faster than the Power Mac G5 Quad Core 2.66GHz.

 

Performance

 

Any discussion about software inevitably spills over into the area of performance because this is what the Mac Pro is all about. Performance rules, and at the heart of it are the two 2.8GHz, 3.0GHz or 3.2GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon 5400 series Harpertown processors. These not only perform incredibly well, they have remarkable energy efficiency. This is thanks to Intels 45 nanometre Core microarchitecture. In other words, the Harpertowns are the latest embodiment of Intels cutting edge processor technology.

 

A great computer

 

, however, needs to capitalise on processor power and allow the user and the applications to take full advantage of it. Apple achieves this, and improves on previous top of the range Macs, by giving the Mac Pro faster system buses and speedier memory.

 

The buses are 1600MHz dual independent frontside units that provide 20 more processor bandwidth than before. The memory is 800MHz DDR2 ECC fullybuffered DIMM, and is different from the standard DIMM Apple has used in the past because it employs a serial interface between the controller and the advanced memory buffer. In a nutshell, you get a significantly faster, more responsive machine.

 

One possible area of concern is the limitation of the standard model to 320GB of hard drive storage and 2GB of memory. You can upgrade both with ease, however and youll probably want to if youre running a particularly challenging multimedia application.

 

Another feature the professional user will always check thoroughly is the graphics card. The standard ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT has 256MB of GDDR memory and two duallink DVI ports. If you cant resist an Apple 30 inch LCD monitor, this card will serve you well and provide good results for a lot of software and games. The problems start if you run complex 3D applications. If so, you may want to look at one of the five card upgrades Apple can offer. The NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 1.5GB, for instance, will meet just about all of your 3D needs.

 

Conclusion

 

Is the Mac Pro the ideal computer The average user will doubtless love it but frankly can obtain more than enough power, performance and style from the iMac. The multimedia professional, on the other hand, has some of the highest expectations in the computing world and needs the best thats available. The Mac Pro wont disappoint.

 

Pros

 

&61623;  Theres plenty of opportunity to upgrade and customise the Mac Pro

 

&61623;  You can easily install underthehood extras such as additional storage and memory

 

&61623;  Theres excellent build quality and attention to detail

 

&61623;  The Mac Pro provides multimedia professionals with everything they need

 

&61623;  All in all, an extremely fast, powerful and reliable machine for the price, theres little that comes anywhere near it Cons

 

&61623;  You may need to upgrade the storage, memory and graphics card on the standard model, depending on your needs

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/getting-most-from-computers-adding-memory-a-3997.html Often, when we buy a computer off the shelf, the manufacture provides just enough for the computer to at least be able to power up, run, power off. In other words they just provide you with the basics to get you up and running. All too often most consumers and businesses do not look inside of the box to determine if they are getting the most possible performance out of the unit. As time goes by, often people replace computers due to the unit being deemed obsolete and slow. And the cycle continues. With a little bit of research, you can find out what level your hardware is running at, and how much the performance can be increased.

 

The first area I like to consider is the RAM. RAM is Random Access Memory that applications use to function. Typically, the machine uses all available physical RAM, and then reverts to using a part of the hard drive to substitute for what physical RAM is not present in the system. This therefore causes the hard drive to work a little harder. This is a pretty simple area to upgrade and you can get a lot more faster performance if you upgrade the RAM. To upgrade the RAM, you have to see what your machine currently has installed. If you run windows, you can go to the control panel, and click on system. In the general tab, you will see information about the operating system, the processor, and the RAM. Most of the time computers will have decent processing capabilities, and not enough ram to get the most performance. This is a great area for an upgrade.

 

In terms of RAM, there are several types of RAM such as SDRAM, DDR RAM, DDR2, DDR3 etc. It is crucial to determine what type of RAM your machine will take, and how much of it that it is able to take. A good way to determine this information is to Google the model number of your PC. For example, I have an old IBM Aptiva 572 with an AMD Athlon 600MHz processor. A more precise method is to find the make and model of the mother board. To get that information, you have to open the PC if you dont know and look around on the mother board for various markings. There are many markings on the motherboard, the key is to look for the largest marks and see what you can get. Typically the largest markings you will find should tell you the make and model of the motherboard you are dealing with. When you go online and do the research, you can find out what type of RAM the machine takes, and the maximum that it takes. Consider the RAM that is currently installed for potential clues to the research that you do.

 

Once you have determined the type of RAM and how much capacity you can install, you can go online and place an order for the RAM that you need. When you receive the RAM chips, all you have to really do is open the PC, get access to the area where the RAM sits, open the slots that you need. Slide the chips into place and then lock them in place. Make sure that you take the necessary precautions to protect the equipment from static discharge. Make sure that the chips are seated tightly. Close the PC CPU box, connect the PC and see what you get. If the machine does its POST Power On Self Test successfully, that is a good sign that the RAM chips that you have installed work. You should also see some type of memory test that basically counts the amount of memory during the startup phase. The amount that it counts should reflect the amount that you have installed.

 

After all is done, installed and working, youll be surprised and amazed as to how much faster the computer runs. Applications will start and run faster. Processes will run much faster and smoother. Youll find that you can get more stuff done in less time. The machine should run more stable for you. Often people overlook the fact that a simple upgrade to a computers memory can provide valuable increase to the overall performance of the machine. With this valuable increase in performance, you can save money and time. You can get a few more years of useful life out of a computer just by upgrading the memory. It is cost effective just to increase the performance of an old CPU as opposed to purchasing an outright new machine.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/macbook-review-a-3996.html At first sight

 

Computer manufacturers have responded positively to our demands for laptops that are as functional as possible. Too often, however, the results are machines that are space savers on desks but are not as convenient to carry around or prop on your knees as their name suggests. Apple has therefore gone back to the basic purpose of a laptop portability and introduced its light and thin MacBook Air.

 

When describing Apple products, theres always a possibility that words such as stylish and elegant will appear too frequently; but when you first come across a MacBook Air, no one can blame you if these words spring to mind. I want people to see me with this, is the sort of comment that may run through your head. The MacBook Air is sleek its just 4mm 1/6 inch at the front, tapering out to a mere 19mm 3/4 inch at its deepest point. Its also robust the aluminium casing ensures that thinness doesnt mean fragility.

 

Pick up the MacBook Air and you further appreciate what Apple has achieved. At 1.36kg 3 pounds, the MacBook Air easily beats Apples previous lightweight, the 2.26kg 5 pounds MacBook.

 

With such a drop in weight, you cannot help but wonder if youre going to open up the MacBook Air to find a tiny screen that causes you to squint and a keyboard that bunches up your fingers. The reality is a 13.3 inch widescreen display

 

and a full size keyboard. Whats more, a large trackpad complements these to give an overall impression that this is a laptop thats both practical and a pleasure to use.

 

The technology of the MacBook Air

 

It stands to reason that Apple has had to surrender some technological capability to make a laptop thats so thin and that has shed so much weight. Or has it You still get an Intel Core 2 Duo processor of either 1.6GHz or 1.8GHz with 2GB of memory for both. You also have an 80GB 4,200 rpm hard drive for the 1.6GHz model, a 64GB solidstate drive for the 1.8GHz, and builtin 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1 EDR. These specs are easily good enough for most everyday laptop uses.

 

Hardware

 

The hardware of the MacBook Air includes

 

• an iSight camera and microphone

 

• a mono speaker

 

• an infrared receiver

 

• a builtin battery

 

• an ambient light sensor that adjusts the brightness of the backlit LED screen and brightens the keyboard as necessary

 

Tucked neatly away in a hatch on the righthand side of the MacBook Air are also three ports

 

• a headphone/speaker jack

 

• a USB 2.0 port

 

• a micro DVI port

 

A possible hardware concern is the one USB port. By itself such a port is rarely enough, so if you plan to connect a series of peripheral devices at the same time, youll need a USB hub. As for the micro DVI port, the MacBook Air comes with useful VGA and DVI adaptors to improve your connectivity options.

 

You may have noticed by now a hardware omission the MacBook Air doesnt have an optical drive. Instead, Apple offers an external 8x SuperDrive. Whether you need this depends on your use of CDs and DVDs. Another choice is to employ Apples Remote Disc application so that your MacBook Air connects to a network and links with the optical drive of another Mac or PC.

 

Remote Disc is very handy because it installs software and gives you access to files. Unfortunately, though, it doesnt allow you to play or burn CDs and DVDs remotely. When you want to listen to music, or watch a film or TV programme, you must turn to iTunes. If you already own an iPod, this isnt exactly a hardship.

 

Software

 

Apple includes Remote Disc with the usual bundle of MacBook Air software. This software comes with the excellent Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard operating system and offers you everything youd expect from all other Macs. Whats more, you can swiftly navigate and manage the software with the responsive features of the MacBook Air trackpad.

 

Battery

 

The MacBook Airs battery can give you up to five hours continuous service. Once it dies, however, you may have a problem. The MacBook Air has the battery built in, so you cant replace it with one thats fully charged. Your only alternative is to find an electric socket for the MagSafe Power Adaptor, an option thats not always available if youre on the move.

 

MacBook Air performance

 

For standard tasks such as keeping up with your email, writing, and browsing the Internet, you wont find a significant speed difference between a MacBook Air and the more powerful MacBook. Some people may still worry about the smaller processor sizes and the relatively slower speeds of the hard drives on both MacBook Air models compared to other Apple laptops. What you have to do, however, is ask yourself why you want the MacBook Air. Complex graphics applications, for example, will certainly strain the processors capacity, but then again, if you have this sort of use in mind, you probably need a MacBook Pro anyway.

 

The fact remains that the MacBook Air is a truly portable allpurpose laptop that performs daily computing jobs extremely well. For most of us, this is precisely what we want.

 

Conclusion Pros

 

• The MacBook Air is light, thin and unquestionably stylish

 

• The casing is robust

 

• The 13.3 inch screen automatically adjusts its brightness, thanks to a light sensor

 

• The keyboard is full size and lights up in dim conditions

 

• There are technology compromises, but most users will notice little difference in speed and responsiveness to a MacBook

 

• Cons

 

• The lower processor and hard drive specs compared to the MacBook and MacBook Pro may disappoint some people

 

• Inability to swap a dead battery for a fresh one may cause difficulties in some circumstances

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/computer-repair-process-elimination-a-3995.html More often than not, when executing computer repairs, technicians often play detective. Playing detective generally involves utilization of the process of elimination. It is necessary to eliminate by testing to determine if a component is working correctly in order to be able to focus on the components for whatever reason may not be working correctly. The process of elimination saves time and gets our attention to the critical failure that is preventing the computer from functioning properly.

 

First we must understand all of the components that are required are required in order to make a computer work properly. We must examine physically the motherboard, RAM modules, processor, storage devices, and any type of cards for damage. If all looks ok, the next step is to check that all of it is connected and secured properly. Objects that connect directly to the motherboard must be seated tightly in their respective connectors. The power, and data lines for the storage devices must be connected and the unit secured to its attachments. Check that all connections to and from the motherboard are secure.

 

Once we have established that all of the hardware is present, connected, and secured, we can say that we have the necessary hardware. When we first press power on the computer, it does what is called a POST. A POST is a Power On Self Test . If a computer fails the post, typically it will beep a couple of times and then do nothing further. A failed POST can be caused by bad hardware, incorrectly connected hardware, missing hardware, or hardware that is not compatible with the machine that you are working on. The trick is to find out what is it that is preventing the computer from starting up properly. Having other systems on hand with similar setups for testing makes this process simple.

 

For the process of eliminating the working components and determining what components are not working, I use a test machine that allows for me to remove the components from the machine that I am trying to fix and test them on a known working machine. I swap components between the boxes to determine what components work and which ones fail. A couple of possible outcomes can occur. You could find that all components from the machine that you are working on work. If this is the case, try to go connect and install the components in the box. Sometimes you may find that one of the components may not be compatible. If thats the case, find a component that is, secure it and test it out. If you do in fact have a component that is at fault, test that component in a known working machine to confirm the fault. If the fault is identified, then you have successfully used the process of elimination to determine prePOST where the failure lies.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/tips-extending-life-your-laptop-battery-a-3994.html One of the most discussed aspects of owning a laptop and mobile computing, is how to get more operating time from the laptop battery. Everyone needs more time from the battery when they are traveling, or not able to have the laptop plugged into the AC outlet. It seems we always need more time then we get from the battery, and it never fails that we are near the end of a critical task when the screen goes dim.

 

The first consideration when buying a new laptop, refurbished laptop, or a new replacement battery is to study the manual and the recommendation that the manufacturer has for initially charging and discharging the battery. The conditioning of the battery is important to its ultimate life and also allows the laptop to calibrate its charging status indicators with the battery. The process will vary depending on the battery technology and it is important that it be followed. The following are tips to follow to get more life and operating time from your battery.

 

Reduce LCD Display Brightness

 

Operate the display at the lowest brightness level that is comfortable for your eyes. The brightness of the LCD screen is one of the main components consuming significant power from the battery. Most laptop and software combinations have control over the display brightness, and this will have more effect on battery time than any other factor. When operating from the AC brightness can be set at any level you want.

 

Minimize Optical Drive

 

Use

 

An optical disk drive spinning with a CD or DVD inside consumes power even if you are not using the drive for programs. When not using the drive remove the media and you will save power.

 

Turn Off Optional Devices

 

Using WI FI is a drain on the battery. If you are not using WI FI turn it off and there will be less power consumption since WI FI circuitry even in seek mode consumes power. Remove any unused USB devices. The USB memory stick inserted but not being used is consuming a small amount of power, but when combined with other unused devices increases power consumption.

 

Select Conservative Power Options

 

Go to the power options section of your software control panel and select the most conservative or power reducing option available. Select the Hibernate option rather than standby since hibernate actually shuts the laptop down and saves operating settings.

 

Increase the Amount of RAM

 

Increasing the amount of system RAM will reduce the number of hard drive accesses because more of the information is stored in memory instead of the hard drive. The reduction in disk activity decreases the power consumed. In addition to the power savings, increasing RAM is the single most significant step other than a CPU upgrade, that you can take to improve speed and performance of your laptop.

 

Take Care of the Battery

 

If you take care of the battery it will provide longer more reliable service. Remove the battery periodically and using a pencil eraser clean the contacts, and using a cloth or cotton swab moistened with rubbing alcohol clean the battery contacts.

 

Dont leave the battery in the direct sunlight or store it where it will be subject to high temperatures. Heat is the enemy of electronic components, and that includes your laptop battery. Depending on the type of battery your laptop uses you should charge and discharge the battery every two weeks. Check the operating manual to be sure of this procedure. You should not completely discharge a LIION technology battery since it doesnt have the same memory effect as non LIION type batteries. Most new laptops use LIION batteries but check your manual to be sure of the correct care of the battery after periods of non use.

 

Following the simple steps outlined will go a long way towards getting more operating time from your laptop battery without hampering your laptop use.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/computer-software-proactive-preventative-maintenance-a-3993.html As time goes by, the computer that you use gets older.  It may not function as fast as it used too back in the day.  It becomes slower.  There could be a couple of reasons for this.  The software may require more system resources than your computer has.  Possibly, a virus, or some malware has been picked up somewhere along the line.  The registry may need some love and attention.

 

Like everything in the world, your computer may need some maintenance on the software side of things.  This may mean, but not limited to cleaning up the hard drive of files and programs that are not really needed or used anymore.  You could also get the windows operating system do some maintenance to the hard drive in the form of a disk defrag.  Additionally, third party registry cleaning software can be used if that is what you want to do.  If the machine had been used on the internet, there may be some spyware, malware, and other uninvited guest running on your system.

 

To clarify, we want to make sure that your operating system is performing at its optimal potential.  Sometimes it may require that we reinstall the operating system software just to clean up operating system files that may have changed, or have gone missing during the usage of the computer.  My personal favorite is to periodically reformat the hard drive and start over with a new installation of the operating system.  Reinstalling the operating system from scratch is a catch all in terms of dealing with unhealthy software issues.  I find that reformatting the hard drive, and reinstalling the operating system is most cost effective in terms of a computer software fix because this eliminates having to deal with too much third party software solutions.

 

The windows registry is a major database for your windows operating system that deals with activities involving what you do with your current installation.  If you install, remove, software, it is captured in the registry.  When you open a program, how a program is opened, what files can be opened by specific software go into the registry.  Quite a bit of information changes over the life of a computer and it is not uncommon for the windows registry to get messy.  Regardless, over time the windows registry may get dirty and need cleaning.  You could use third party software such as Registry Repair, Registry Cleaner, Reg Mechanic, and Reg Cure etc.  I find it more cost effective to just take the data on the hard drive that I need, save it elsewhere, and then reformat it and install windows from scratch.  With that you get a clean registry to start with.

 

In dealing with unfriendly, uninvited software such as adware, spyware, malware, viruses and spam, I like to use a combination of software that is available in FREE versions to help make these types of computer repairs.  It is not necessary to have to put out a lot of money in terms of protecting your data and eliminating unfriendly software.  On the internet you can find Microsoft Defender AntiSpyware from microsoft.com.  And you can also find Avast Antivirus.  Both of those are available for FREE.  I personally use Lavasofts suite of adware/spyware solutions.  You will also find there are tons of product available on the market.  Some may work better than others, some may not even work at all.  The focus of this type of repair, is scanning the system, and cleaning, deleting and or having rouge files quarantined.

 

In order to keep your system running correctly, you must control the software that gets installed into the machine.  Start with a fresh and clean install of the operating system.  If you are not at liberty to provide a fresh and clean installation of the operating system, clean the registry, and defrag the hard drive is the next best bet.  You should protect your information by having an antivirus, antiadware/spyware/ malware software installed.  It is also recommended that you perform various system scans and checks to look out for threats on your system.  In terms of computer repair, proactive, periodic, preventative maintenance can help you avoid costly repairs of a reactive nature.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/dropped-computer-a-3992.html I have this IBM Aptiva 572 that was manufactured sometime around 1999. I set it up to run Windows 98. I have been using this machine for quite a while. I use this machine to make audio CDs, make parts of web pages, access the internet, keep track of financial records etc. One day I was moving out and I had held the machine incorrectly. I had held the machine in such a way that my hand released the case from the internal workings of the computer and it all fell onto the concrete. I immediately took it back inside to test and see if it would be able to run, however that was not the case. I picked it up, packed it away until I was done moving and could unpack it.

 

When I would turn this computer on, it would start to load windows to the point that you get to the desktop and then the machine would freeze at that point. I just did not know what I was going to do. Upon testing, I found that the hard drive was the problem. I tried to reformat the hard drive and then reinstall windows. I was able to format the drive successfully. The windows installation on the drive was not so successful. Actually at various points of the install, the system would crash. It was apparent to me that the hard drive suffered some sort of impact damage when it was dropped.

 

I was able to locate a replacement hard drive for this unit. I installed the new drive. Before I could get to started with the formatting, I made sure that the machine recognized that the hard drive was connected. I first went into the BIOS settings screen to see if the machine recognizes the hard drive which it did. I also ran a live disk of Bart PE to make sure that the hard drive was present and working. Bart PE is a live disk of Windows XP that allows you to do some basic things on a computer that does not have an operating system

 

installed. Its a Portable Environment of Windows XP with limited functions. It will allow you to move files around, basic network support, virus check, and a few other basic things.

 

Once I have established that the hard drive is working, I proceeded to do the setup process. Another handy tool that I have is called the MT Utilities disk. Its similar to those old boot floppies for system utilities such as format, fdisk, etc. This is a bootable CDR that contains all the utilities that you need in order to get a machine that has just hardware and no software ready for an operating system. First I had to format the hard drive. Once the format was complete, I pulled out the official Windows 98 SE installation CD Rom and proceeded to install it into the computer. The installation procedure was completed without a hangup or a failure.

 

In this case I was very lucky that more parts were not damaged as a result of the unit being dropped. It turned out that something bad happened to the original hard drive that I had installed. When I would attempt to run windows on it, the system was unstable. I essentially eliminated the problem by replacing the faulty hard drive, formatting the new drive, and then installing Windows 98 on it. Now as a result of the repair, the computer works, its reliable. The best part of it all is that It did not cost anything to repair because I had the parts that I needed. In fact all that I needed was a new hard drive to solve the problem and it worked.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/repair-printer-a-3991.html Start with your physical connection. The data plugs have changed over time. It used to be a parallel cable. Although it worked the demand for speed was increasing. Manufactures came up with USB universal Service Bus connections. This also gave the user the ability to connect over one hundred device to the same port. The speed was faster also. In any case be sure which one you have and that they are securely fastened. If you have a spare try a different one. Cable can go bad but not very often.

 

Here are steps to take if you made sure you plugs are all good and that they are plugged in securely.

 

1. Be sure it is turned on 2. Be sure it has not run out of paper or that it isnt jammed. 3. Most newer printers will give you an error message either on the computer and/or on the printer itself. 4. Be sure your power strip is plugged in and that it is on if you have it plugged into one. 5. Reinstall your driver. There is a small chance that the program for the printer became corrupt or disabled.

 

If the above steps do not repair the problem find a different computer to put the printer on. There could be something wrong in your operating system. As an example a Virus can disable devices or make a program not run.

 

If the printer goes through its motions physically moves and seems like it is trying to print you could just be out of ink. They dont last forever. Some printers will not run at all if the ink is to low. This is the one thing people try to get away with. I have seen many times that I just put a new ink cartridge in and it worked. If you have a laser jet, remove the cartridge and shake it a couple of times. You can print a large number of copies after that but you will eventually have to replace it. New laser jet printers come with an introductory cartridge that contains less ink than the replacement cartridges.

 

If you find that your printer is really bad just replace it. They are very cheap these days. They are extremely costly to fix. If your local area has a recycling program or a way to dispose of them do it. If you send it in to be fixed expect to pay more than a new one would cost.

 

Also, if you upgraded from XP or a later version of Windows you may need to get the latest drive program for the printer. Vista is picky about using old driver and mostly they dont work. Go to the Manufacturers web site. The drivers are there plus other information that may help you.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/computer-disposal-throwing-away-your-computer-money-iden-a-3990.html Computer Disposal Security is not only important while using your new PC, but when disposing of your legacy or old computer equipment as well. Information can be retrieved in several different ways once your system leaves your house or office. In my state we have a recycling container at the solid waste authority which you can bring your old PCs to. On May 31st, 2005, I decided to do an experiment and see what people actually throw away. So, I took my trusty laptop, an external USB hard drive shell, and waited for my

first victim. All identities have been changed to protect the newest casualties of the TCAD

 

Leaving Your Credit Cards At The Dump

John Doe age 46

 

I explained my reason for being there and asked if he would like to participate. After obliging, I asked him a few question. I got a laugh out of this one.

 

 

Jackson What would you say your technical skills are

 

John I dont know bleep, this is my sons computer, and he said it was broke

 

So I proceeded to take his hard drive out to see what I could find. And boy did I find stuff I found 64 word and excel documents containing everything from a book report

titled Trusting Human Nature to a detailed spreadsheet titled Our Debt. John said a year ago, we refinanced our house, and my son helped us put this spreadsheet together of

our credit cards and miscellaneous debts. Believe it or not it, actually had the names of the credit cards, account numbers, and amount owed on each one. After I showed John,

he asked me to check if his son was surfing on sites he was asked not to go on. I told him the system looked clean and his son was following his rules to a T. You owe me Junior

 

Out of 5 PCs I saw that day, all of them had recoverable files. John Does being the worst with the Our Debt spreadsheet.

 

What should I do

There are many applications that can help you format your hard disk drive, but even their lawyers wont allow them to say its 100 effective.

 

So, what should you do Here are a couple ideas on computer disposal that may help

 

Go ahead and recycle your computer in an EPA fashion, but remove your hard disk drive and add it to your new system for extra storage Secure

 

Find a local company that will melt you hard disk drive. Usually a recycler or machine shop will do this for you Secure, but it will cost money

 

Find a local company that will use a degaussing machine in order to eradicate your hard disk drive Secure, but it will cost money

 

Use a secondary application to format your drive, but run the program 35 times even if it states its not necessary 99.9 secure, but still possible to recover data.

 

Computer Disposal and the EPA

Make sure when you recycle your old system you comply with the Environmental Protection Agency EPA guidelines. Here are some basic facts on computer disposal that will help you.

 

According to the official EPA website www.epa.gov

 

The Environmental Protection Agency has strict regulations regarding the disposal of hazardous materials

Penalties for violations are distributed in the form of fines as well as Public Service

Nearly 250 million computers will become obsolete in the next five years

Many people discard computers every three to five years

In 2004, only 11 percent of personal computers retired in the U.S. were recycled.

 

Conclusion

TVs and computers can contain an average of four pounds of lead depending on their size, make and vintage as well as other substances of potential concern like chromium, cadmium, mercury, beryllium, nickel, zinc and brominated flame retardants. These materials need to be handled carefully and are potential health hazards.

 

On top of all the chemicals and biohazards, your computer probably contains personal information. If this information falls into the wrong hands, you could be on the receiving end of identity theft and various forms of fraud.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/choosing-right-conference-room-projector-a-3989.html When it comes to choosing a conference room projector, you probably want to run and hide Thats because most of us dont know much about projectors to begin with and dont know the first thing about how to select one thats appropriate for a conference roomor any room for that matter.

 

Thankfully, theres the Internet. Within minutes, you can have all the information on choosing a conference room projector that you could ever want.

 

Sorting through all that information, though, can seem overwhelming. So its good to have some questions in mind as you do the research necessary to find the perfect projector for your conference room.

 

Some questions you want to ask are

 

How difficult is operating the projector

 

Is the projector portable or will it need to have a permanent mounting Which type fits my conference room needs best

 

What types of presentations will the projector be used for

 

How much does the projector cost

 

Does that cost fit my budget for buying a new conference room projector

 

Is there a service contract available for the projector

 

What is the repair policy for the projector

 

Is the company Im thinking of buying the projector from a reputable and reliable one

 

Will the projector require any special maintenance or periodic service checks

 

Are any special supplies needed for the projector

 

Is the size appropriate for the conference room

 

If its portable, how much does it weigh

 

Should I rent, lease, or buy

 

Is the quality of the brightness satisfactory for the size of my conference room

 

Do I need to save the receipt so that I can take the purchase off on my taxes

 

These are just a few questions to help you on your way to purchasing or leasing a conference room projector. Just remember that cost does not always indicate quality. You can buy a wildly expensive projector that is all wrong for your needs. The opposite is true too you can get a great projector that fits your needs for a moderate, or even small, investment.

 

The trick is in researching projectors and taking the time to read some consumer reviews that are easily found on the web. Before you do anything, though, have a budget in mind and have some idea of what youll be using your projector for. This will help guide your research and make it go more quicklyand be much more effective to boot

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/kickoff-best-rated-laptops-year-a-3988.html The kickoff to the best rated laptops

of the year

 

The best rated laptop award changes not only from year to year, but it can and does change just as quickly from month to month.

 

Heck, with the major players out there like Dell, IBM, Compaq and HP just to name a few, competition is absolutely fierce

 

But one thing is for sure.

 

This years best rated laptops all seem to have one thing in common. They are all called Apples

 

Apple has taken this honor from several leading computing and electronics magazines, and the trend in sales seem to suggest that consumers are feeling the same way about them, as well.

 

Laptops such as the apple powerbook and ibook have helped apple stand tall among the major players in the computing world.

 

In 2004 alone, apple announced that it had an overall net income growth of 300 percent. That equals to a profit of 295 million in the last quarter. And if you are a stock holder that certainly must put a smile on your face. I know it does for me, and a number of my friends.

 

Single computer model sales are also showing the same trend. For instance, the ipod desktop version disappeared off the shelves at the rate of 4.5 million per year. The imac tripled its sales

 

Apples share of the international market may still be lagging behind, though. Dell still has top honors with 18 percent of the world market. HP comes in a close second with 16 percent. And in a distant third, IBM brings in 6 percent of the share.

 

Apple can put a dent in those figures though with the press they have been getting lately. In fact, apple won the 2004 Readers Choice award for the brand with the most impact on an international scale. It had beat out Google, which had been the winner of this award for two years running.

 

No matter what awards for best rated laptops or what percentages of the world market that apple acquires over the next few years, you can be rest assured that apple will continue to put out the innovative products that they are known for.

 

Just take a look at the software that is featured on apples laptops and desktop computers. Such admiration of application design

 

as iphoto and itunes make apple so popular just because these programs are so useful and yet they are so easy to use.

 

See if you can say that about the software that comes standard with most other mp3 players or digital cameras. Its this powerful but symplistic design that makes apples some of the best rated laptops available today.

 

One other point I would like to make. In 2006, we will see Apples with intel chips instead of the current IBM chips. Will this improve the performance of the apple laptops and computers, I dont think so, at least not right away. But it will possibly help apple to grow and expand in the market.

 

In the future, I believe you will see vast improvements in performance with this change making apple computers and laptops even better than whats available today.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/attention-printer-cartridge-resellers-your-tester-converter-a-3987.html Your HP remanufacturing ways have just been made easier. The HP tester and converter are ideal for those who are big or small in the remanufacturing industry.

 

The converter will test the following cartridge models

 

HP 51645A

HP C6615D

HP 1823D

HP 51625A

HP 51641A

HP C6578D

 

This unit is designed to make sure that the cartridges are tested good for remanufacturing purposes. The graphic LCD display will give you a clear indication of the resistor matrix of the cartridge being tested.

 

The tester automatically determines the cartridge that is being tested at the moment. If the connections to the print head are intact, it will indeed display the cartridge type being tested.

 

If and where a matrix connection is broken, the display will disclose the faulty connection as a flashing line on the display. The tester will give an audible beep to indicate a successful operation.

 

A quick succession of beeps alerts the operator to a faulty cartridge conjunction with the quick load or unload fixture giving the capability of very fast test and or conversion times.

 

The tester also converts the current style of the HP 51645A or HP 51645G into a 15/45 universal cartridge.

 

Upon pressing the convert button, the unit first checks that a cartridge is functioning electronically, then it changes the identity before the cartridge again and displaying its new identity.

 

The unit will make an attempt to convert all cartridges but will signal when a cartridge is not of a type that can be converted.

 

A cartridge that is converted will not be harmed or damaged throughout this process. The tester/converter features a real time clock and includes battery backup storage. This enables it to display the following information

 

Number of cartridges tested and the pass percentage.

 

Number of each type tested and the quantity that passed.

 

Number of cartridges converted.

 

Number of cartridges not recognized due to damage.

 

Number of units being tested per hour.

 

This statistical information is extremely valuable in assessing the quality of cartridges attained from various sources to help support your interest as well as in calculation ratios.

 

The battery backup will ensure that the information is retained even if the unit is switched off or in the event of a power failure. This by an option in the menu whenever required.

 

The tester/converter is powered by a small AC adapter that can be supplied in UK, European or US pin configuration.

 

Below, are some specifications along with special features of the HP Tester/Converter.

 

Remember You cannot convert the 45A into a 15D cartridge, you can only convert the 15D into a 45A.

 

Specifications

 

Weight 1.2 kg / 2.5lbs excluding power adapter

 

Power Requirements 100 240v ac, 50 60hz, 4watts

 

Special Features

 

Tests 15, 45, 23, 25, 41, and 78 cartridges.

 

Converts 45 to 15 in less than 1 second.

 

Fast cartridge load / unload times.

 

Audible indication of pass / fail.

 

Small, lightweight, only 1.2kg.

 

Clear graphic display showing port status and animated failed ports.

 

Real time clock, giving production rates.

 

Selfcontained, needs no software or PC.

 

If youre looking for a mechanism that will help determine your cartridge productivity then you should continue to fine tune your research on these type of units. They are circulating around the industry.

 

I honestly believe that machinery such as this was made to do justice when it comes to your hp ink cartridge remanufacturing. Go and increase your product demand and give what your customers are just dying to have.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/discount-apple-laptops-a-3986.html Apple provides a good range of laptops for students at discounted prices. The special online Apple store provides a 15 off the already low education pricing on selected Mac accessories and the requisite software if the students school or college joins Technology Rewards.

 

Technology Rewards provides funding for a school to invest in technical support services, expanded wireless networks, or any number of studentfocused improvements for computing on campus.

 

One of the latest in Apples affordable and durable allinone computers designed specifically for education is the eMac. With the eMac, Apple provides a complete system with a 17inch display, a powerful PowerPC G4

processor, and a SuperDrive option in a spacesaving design to easily fit on a school desk. The eMac also saves a lot of classroom space as the whole computer comes in a single package with only one power cord and a slotloading optical drive. The eMac is constructed from polycarbonate plastic so as to be strong enough for student use. The operating system provided with the eMac is Mac OS X Tiger. It is the most stable and easytouse computing environment for students. Since Mac OS X allows multiple users students can each have a personal account with customized settings.

 

Along with OS, eMac provides a multitude of software such as iLife 05, a web browser named Safari, Mail, iCal, iChat AV, AppleWorks and 2005 World Book Multimedia Reference Suite. Also, the eMac provides iLife 05 suite of digital media applications, which can be used to create professionallooking digital projects that include movies, music, sound, and text.

 

An AirPort Extreme Card can be added to the EMac to quickly and easily connect to the schools wireless network. Also, two 400Mbps FireWire ports and five USB ports are provided with the eMac, along with a modem and 100BASET Ethernet. A PowerPC G4 processor, which makes digital media creation faster, saving valuable classroom time, is included on the eMac.

 

The operating system Mac OS X Tiger make it easy to share files, send and receive emails, open enclosures, and send instant messages with a computer having the windows operating system. The main advantage is that eMac can be used to connect to both wired and wireless Mac and PC networks.

 

Apple provides three eMac options for schools. The price range starts from just 649. Students enrolled for higher education in U.S. higher education institutions are eligible for substantial discounts on Apple products.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/wirless-dream-reality-a-3985.html Nobody likes a cluttered desktop

 

OK, maybe somebody somewhere in the world likes a cluttered desktop, but it is the goal of most office workers to keep their work area clean and clutterfree. Many studies suggest that such an environment is conducive to creativity, brainstorming and productivity. Whether or not this is true, it looks bad and lowtech. Wireless is cool.

 

Wirless is hot

 

With the introduction of new Wimax standards the underlying technology driving wireless USB and wireless FireWire, among other emerging wireless technologies just about everything except the power supply and monitor are commonly found in a wireless format. This includes mice, keyboards, headsets and, up until now, pretty much everything except your monitor and your power supply.

 

Welcome Wireless VGA

 

The limitation on a wireless VGA adaptable to DVI or HDMI is no more retailers are now offering wireless VGA adapters capable of transmitting a wireless signal to your monitor. The monitor still requires a power adapter, but you now have the flexibility of locating your computer in another room or section of the office. This is very useful when dealing with a media center or a computer powering multiple remote displays.

 

Most vendors do not have residential permits for these devices...yet

 

Right now, unfortunately, these are not approved for residential use by the FCC. This problem, however, should be resolved soon so wireless VGA can be a reality in residential areas. For now remember that you need not be tethered to your computer while working in an office. Also, the law is a little unclear on whether Wireless VGA adapters can be using in a homeoffice environment. The reason for not approving wireless VGA in residential applications is not an indication that it is a dangerous technology, but rather may interfere with some devices that use the same frequency.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/hdmi-cables-signal-loss-a-3984.html If you own a HDTV with an HDMI input or an HDMI monitor you have probably noticed just how expensive some of the longer cables can be. The odd thing about HDMI is that the short cables are not very expensive if you are willing to settle for a nonbranded cable you can probably get one for about twenty dollars.

 

Specifications, however, are more important than the namebrand when it comes to HDMI and DVI cables. In fact, most branded and nonbranded cables are made in the same factories in either Taiwan or China. The most important specifications with HDMI cables are

 

Certified HDMI

 

100 Digital

 

No compression or downconversion

 

1080p capable

 

Other specifications would depend on your situation. For instance, if you will be running the cable through an attic space you will want to get a plenumrated cable which will decrease the risk of fire.

 

When you begin looking at longer length cables, however, the price becomes exponential. This does not reflect retailers pricegouging their customers, but rather higher material costs which are a direct result of higher manufacturing costs.

 

HDMI High Definition Multimedia Interface passes a pure digital signal. A digital signal is unlike an analog signal in that it is all or nothing either you see a great image on the screen or you see nothing. This means that if the signal is weak you will lose the entire picture sporadically, not just deal with the noise that is common on a weak analog channel.

 

Long runs of HDMI require precision to maintain the integrity of the digital signal. As with any cable, there is an acceptable degredation of the signal over short runs, but these are unacceptable at lengths longer than twenty feet. If you are considering a home theater installation

 using HDMI be prepared to pay quite a bit more if your setup requires long distances.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/approach-entertainment-listen-live-radio-online-a-3983.html The Internet has made our lives easy and handy because of its facility that is reaching a milestone. With the coming developments in the field of entertainment, listening radio is in vogue. For some people, it is a new trend of an entertainment, and for some it is an easy access and a medium to relax. Internet, not only giving mankind a medium of communication and information, rathelistr setting a new trend of entertainment.

 

One can have many benefits with the Internet facility in terms of enjoyment, from playing games, watching movies, sending mails and listening live radio online. Listening to radio was earlier taken as a dream, which has come true and influencing people from every spheres. With the excessive usage of Internet among people, Online Radio is one of the popular attraction. Online Radio is a fresh source of entertainment, especially for youngsters, its gaining a huge popularity. The radio would never let one down, even when you driving or getting bored.

 

Live Internet Radio is an audio broadcasting service, that is transmitted through Internet. Online Entertainment Radio involves a streaming medium, which helps listeners to listen with a continuous stream. One of the best advantage to listening radio is that one can listen channels from worldwide. There are channels across the world, which can be enjoyed just by a click. The great thing about radio is that one can be updated about the happenings through news by these channels.

 

The emergence of listening to radio online enables one to listen to their favourite radio station from any corner of the word. It is more useful for those who are away from their country or native place, they can always tune into the online radio and keep themselves updated. It is an amalgam of low operating cost and an International approach. One need not to pay anything to listen to the channels available online on various websites, which are offering the feature of Listen Radio at a very fast frequency. There are many talk shows related to political, social or any other stream, are streaming for the listeners. Some of these shows are also focus on lifestyle and loverelationships, which people eagerly look for. So, Live Radio can be a best friend for anyone, who is getting bored or feeling stressed up. A new way to rejuvenate the mood.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/find-main-features-moss-2007-a-3982.html Microsoft Office SharePoint Server MOSS, is part of Microsoft SharePoint, and runs on top of Windows SharePoint services. MOSS builds on WSS by adding both core features as well as end user web parts to it. Its main strength is enabling an organizations information to be organized and aggregated in one central, webbased application and provides taxonomy for corporate data. MOSS integrates closely with application

in the Microsoft Office suite and adds various aspects such as hierarchical organization of content areas, enhanced navigation, single sign on, indexed search, personalization features, the business data catalog, and inbrowser rendering and, in certain cases, editing of Microsoft Office documents.

 

It can also be used to form specialized documentspecific libraries, such as Microsoft PowerPoint

slide libraries, which can be used to share not only particular slides from a presentation but their design as well. There are three main features in MOSS 2007 personalization

 

1 User Profiles User profiles allow you to search and associated with people within your organization based on information published about them. MOSS 2007 provides a new search scope for searching people. Index Server crawls the user profile store to get the users information.

 

2 Audiences MOSS 2007 allows you to target content to people as per to their membership in a specific audience. It supports targeting to rulesbased audiences, distribution lists, and Windows SharePoint Services groups. Except for Windows SharePoint Services groups, these audiences can go through one or more portal websites in a deployment.

 

Using targeting, you can target content in the portal website for viewing by one or more particular audiences. By default, you can display targeted content on the home page and on personalization sites.

 

3 My Site My site is a collection of profile pages, personal sites, and personalization websites built in the Office SharePoint Server 2007 sites. The Profile page of the My Site displays your user profile information. Your personal site provides personalized and customized information. Office SharePoint Server 2007 also supports personalization sites. Personalization sites display targeted content to users based on their membership in a specific audience or by cutting data.

 

SBSTechs believe in getting hands on experience with any technology and application before offering the service to their clients. With our certified engineers having strong expertise in the latest WSS 3.0, Microsoft windows small business server and MOSS 2007 technologies, you can trust that your collaborative business solution is in the right hands. Not only creating customized solutions as per you business need and deployment, SBSTechs also offer troubleshooting and full support for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 tools.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/require-small-business-server-2003-a-3981.html Small business server 2003 is a perfect choice for your computer consulting business. It is sold as a suite so you get lots of great features. SBS 2003 is strictly designed to meet the requirements of small business computer consultant in mind. Here are some features of small business server 2003

 

It includes a reporting tool that permits you to get log files emailed

There are various performance model thresholds for when windows space is running low or when the virtual space is running low

There are access logs for the server

There is web proxy, Internet caching and acceleration so you can get all sorts of metrics about whats going on with a clients network without having to be there.

There are numerous wizards that make it relatively simple for those with limited knowledge to be able to install the product successful without having to be an expert on the individual components

The best feature of small business server 2003 is that it was designed particularly for small business IT consultants so they will go in the right direction without enormous, specialized skills

The support line installation of SBS 2003 provides for lots of customization. This is especially essential because you can keep on adding value and selling more services to your clients. Crucially, small business server 2003 allows you to form on the investment that your clients have already made.

 

The Bottom Line on Small Business Server 2003

 

Small business server 2003 setup is an ideal platform and the only product that Microsoft has ever built, and prolongs to build today, that was designed from the ground up strictly to befit the requirements of small business server support provider. This application has a huge number of aspects and small business server 2003 provides you the chance to sell valuated services to go along with all of those aspects.

 

SBS Techs helps you maintain, manage, troubleshoot, and support issues on small business server 2003. Small business server services have revolutionized small business to provide them with benefits of having multiple services running on a single small business server support. If you want small business server 2003 setup, SBSTechs is the right way to go.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/2003-keep-your-business-running-protect-your-business-a-3980.html There never seems to be sufficient time or resources when you are running a small business. Heres where server technology can help. Windows SBS server 2003 setup is an advanced IT solution designed to assist you save your data, do more with less, and connect with your customers like never before. SBS server 2003 provides small businesses with plenty of features used big associates email, remote access, Internet connection, support mobile devices, internal websites, file and printer sharing, back up and restore all in one affordable, integrated solution.

 

Small business server

assists secure your network, keeps it up and running, protects your necessary business information so you can focus on your business instead of technology problems. Microsoft SBS 2003 helps

 

o Protect your business information with more consistent and securityimproved infrastructure, includes builtin firewall protection and securityenhanced remote access to assist prevent illegal users from getting into your network.

o Put the best operating system from Microsoft behind your business and benefit from awardwinning server technology plus tools to help verify technology problems before they occur.

 

o Prevent data loss and restore deleted files with automatic data backups and the ability to simple fetch accidentally deleted files and restore previous versions.

 

o Provide a central location to store business information, making it simple for employees to find, access, and share information and schedules.

 

o Work from virtually anywhere, anytime, with access to email, internal websites, network files, and even business applications from any internetenabled computer.

 

o Share resources and equipment. SBS Server 2003 enable you share resources and equipment such as internet access, printer, and fax machines.

 

o Protect your investment in Windows. Small business server 2003 is formed on Microsoft Windows Server 2003, the leading network platform technology, so you can protect your investment in training, applications and hardware.

 

o Reduce costs and increase flexibility via extended client access license rights.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/forum-message-boards-a-3979.html Message and forum boards have popped out all over the internet. It is almost impossible to find popular sites these days without them. People seem to have noticed the importance of providing a space for their readers. Message and forum boards leave the impression that what they have to say matters and that they are given a chance to their concerns out.

 

Message board is a helpful tool for sites wanting to drive traffic. Users can register to join the discussions and share their opinions on a certain topic. This form of user generated content can grow rapidly but needs a lot of maintenance. Enough number of people is also needed so that the page does not grow stale and is kept active. Contents have to be regulated, too. What one has to thoroughly consider, though, is that message boards can take up a lot of space if the size of avatar images and signature files are not reasonable limit.

 

For all websites making use of forums, owners have to remember that it takes time to build a community. Forums do not grow steady overnight and must be maintained to be kept active. Patience is truly a virtue with forums because as your community grows, your expertise on a particular topic or field will be established. It will also give your readers a reason to keep coming back to your site so they can continually participate in the discussions they have joined in. again, this will drive more people to your site and will drive a steady traffic.

 

Given that your forum and message boards are now flooded with more people coming by the minute, the need of moderators come into the picture, too. They are necessary to keep things moving and to keep spammers away. They basically regulate the content and its amount and normally, one or two people will do.

 

Although message boards and/or forums seem to be a very good idea to add in your sites, do make sure though that they are kept active, are carefully planned, and made interesting. Its existence must be made for a purpose and not just for the show. Having an inactive forum with no recent activity is as good as having no forums at all.

 

Therese Prentice is a Lifestyle and Business Success Mentor, Branding and Internet Marketing Strategist, Social Networking Expert, Joint Venture Broker, Certified Marketing and Business Coach, Speaker, Teacher, Certified Teleclass Leader, Networking Marketing and Direct Sales Trainer teaches Lifestyle Entrepreneurs

, Coaches, Speakers, Authors and Small Business Owners how to integrate Internet Marketing into their traditional marketing plan.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/click-advertising-a-3978.html PPC, Pay Per Click, One of the most easiest and quickest way to get the traffic and earn lot of money. Now what is PPC and how you can earn money with it. I think this is the simplest way to earn money. Just find the keywords relevant to your site create the ads and start getting the traffic.

 

There are two ways by which you can get the traffic. One is called as CPC and other is CPM. CPC, cost per click in which the ads are shown on search engines. CPM, cost per impression, ads are shown on particular sites. You can put the ads either in search engines or on the sites or both. It is your own choice how you want your ads to appear.

 

Now the next question that arrives in everybodys mind is of cost. So let me clear that anyone can make a lot of money by spending a very little amount of money. You can get lot of clicks and conversions by using the relevant keywords. You have to maintain the balance between your keywords and the cost.

 

Keyword Research is the main keyhole of any search engine marketing whether it is PPC or organic search marketing. To get the higher number of clicks one has to extract the most relevant keywords to his site.

 

There are some simple steps that one must follow for higher number of clicks

 

1. Observe your own product what you want to sell

2. Generate the keywords that are most relevant to your product.

3. Find General Terms That People Search For

4. Expand your Keyword List

5. Do not make unnecessary stuffing of keywords

6. Identify Average Search Volume

7. Estimated Bid Price

8. Competitor Ads

9. Make a final list

 

Pay per click advertising can be one of the best ways to bring new blood to your website. But making sure you get the right balance between cost and keywords is important if you are going to make the most of it.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/guide-ebook-writing-publishing-a-3977.html Ebook, otherwise known as electronic book, ecobook or ebook, came to the scene almost a decade ago. With the fast moving society towards a digital age, it was easy for the ebook to get accepted by the techno savvy readers. The Internet being the principal form of communication these days, the popularity of the ebooks is growing leaps and bounds among the readers.

 

There are many authors out there who have attempted writing and publishing ebooks. Especially, for people who aim at freelance writing, this is a way to earn extra bucks. However, it is not that easy to create a successful ecobook and satisfy the audience. If you want to write your ebook and exhibit quality writing, you need to understand the key of writing it.

 

Select the best topic

 

Selection of topic for your electronic book is really important to make your readers spend their money on it. Select a topic that most of the people are interested in. else you wont be able to generate sales. Again, consider a topic you have an indepth knowledge on so that you will enjoy writing on it and also you can offer people the information they are looking for.

 

Provide an appealing title

 

Whether online or offline, it is the title that has the power to draw the attention of the visitors. So try to develop a title that is appealing. If the title of your ebook is able to generate the curiosity among the reader, it is the first step of your success as you can get visitors.

 

Develop good content

 

Your expertise as a successful ebook author can be proved only if you are able to create informative content for the reader. That is why it is important that you should have through knowledge of the topic. Moreover, the content should be wellwritten and easy to understand.

 

Maintain a conversational approach

 

Generally, electronic books are more popular than their traditional counterpart because of their conversational tone. The Internet has created a platform where you can share your knowledge in the same manner as you talk to your friend. This tone can make difference to your presentation

 

 

 

Creating an attention grabbing ebook cover

 

The covers of your books play a crucial role in capturing the attention of the readers. By selecting proper color combination and graphic design you can make it visually appealing for your prospective clients.

 

After writing an electronic book, the important part is to get it published. If you want your ebook to get sold like hotcakes follow these easy publishing tips

 

1 The first step towards publishing your ebook on the Internet is to choose a picture that represents your book. It is better to create a unique image for you book by uploading a picture or asking a professional to do that for you. Alternatively, you can find a wealth of images on different websites that are available free of cost.

 

2 Before publishing your ebook, make sure to convert it to PDF format, Raw HTML format or windows executable file. The PDF format is the most widely used format for distributing your book as the format can be access on any platform.

 

3 The final step is distribution of the ebook.

 

Finally, it is essential that you should consider about the security of your book across the web. Publishers use different safety methods to prevent any unauthorized access of their electronic books. You need to collect proper information about it for a successful publication.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/advantages-free-online-games-a-3976.html Online games are popular among internet users because of the several advantages that they present. As more and more people play them, these games present some value to people, thus the reason for their popularity. For example, theres a vast diversity of games offered online today, for example, online action games that can be played immediately without any need installation or software downloads.

 

That is one of the advantages of online gamesthese games are simple to use and access. If you want to play free online adventure games, for example, all you need to do is find a website that offers such games and you can play them immediately. As most of these adventures games are browserbased, theres no need for downloading the game onto your PC, and no more worries about installation. Once you access the site, you just select the game and just wait for it to load.

 

Another advantage of online games is that you have access to a large variety of games in just an instant. The free online action games offered by sites nowadays have different types, storylines and game play instructions. If you want spiderman action games, or free online strategy games, you can readily find them on online gaming sites. As these sites tend to put a complete collection of games on their sites for different genres, you should easily find games that would suit your preference.

 

One great advantage of these games is that they are online, meaning you can access these games wherever theres an internet connection present. You can easily play the online strategy games that you play even when youre not at home, or when you dont have your PC. As long as you know the site URL of the gaming site where the game is found, you can still play your favorite game with any compatible PC that has internet connection.

 

And the best advantage is that you dont spend a single cent when playing these games. Being free games, all you need is to go the gaming site and you can play all you want. Whether its online adventure games, board games or action games, you can easily find sites that offer these games for free. Most sites dont require anything for playing, but some sites do require registration to play their games. But even so, these sites dont charge for their services, and you can have all the gaming fun that you want.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/flash-games-giving-decent-graphics-game-play-a-3975.html One of the reasons why online games are popular at present is the excellence of their presentation when it comes to graphics, animation and game play. Some might say that online games have a lot to go to rival traditional console and PC software games, but given the parameters and the working conditions of online games, Flash is doing a great job in presenting a viable alternative to todays console games.

 

For example, the flash shooting games that you can see online, these present enough complexity in graphics, animation and game play to entice gamers to play. The same goes for strategy flash games; these games offer enough entertainment and gaming experience to keep players hooked and playing.

 

If you consider the limitations on online games, you can see how Flash is doing a great job in bringing online games, such as action games, to the internet public. Such limitations are game file size, bandwidth speed, and ease of use and access. Since made for the internet, these games should be small in size, ready to load for any internet speed, and game instructions should be easy and simple to understand. With those conditions, Flash has been able to come out with games that meet those criteria. Now you can see engaging free online shooting games and free board games based on the Flash platform. And since Flash is intended for featurerich internet tools and applications, it has become a great solution for online game makers.

 

We did mention free. This is another advantage of Flash software. The cost of developing a Flashbased game is not as high compared with other games. Because of that, sites dont have problems offering free games online. You can play free shooting games and play action games in online gaming sites because of that. Since the cost of the software is very affordable, and even free for opensource codes, all the game sites have to invest on is the programming and game development aspect of the games.

 

Since Flash is a flexible and multifunctional platform, it also allows for the creation of different types of games. So aside from the action and shooting games mentioned above, you can also find online versions of the best board games that we all love to play. You can play Chess, Scrabble and Backgammon online. Aside from those, you can also find strategy games and mental games online, all benefiting from the advantages of Flash technology.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/beginners-introduction-hosting-small-business-a-3974.html Web hosting is the concept that makes your website available to be read by others on the internet.

 

A web host rents space on its server, so that other devices around the world can connect to your website by means of a network or router.

 

There are literally thousands of internet hosting options available today, ranging from free services with limited control to dear, specialized business internet hosting services. Which option you settle on depends primarily on how you plan to use your site and how much you want to spend. Many people put up their site up through their service providers, because its generally simple and low cost.

 

Most internet service provider

packages comes with a small amount of free web space, along with equipment to create and upload websites swiftly and simply. Service provider sites are perfect for people who want to put up micro sites with low quantities of visitors. However, there are usually rate restrictions, and most isps dont provide a lot of features, so they might not be the best choice for a new business web page. Free web hosting is another good choice for smaller, personal webpages.

 

Unfortunately the most well known internet hosting companies i.e. those that are shown in the top ten search pages, are still overtecnical and too difficult for an everyday person. The world wide internet has grown in popularity and now nontechnical people, more than ever before, wish to make use of such services.

 

There are some less known hosting businesses which are changing themselves to accommodate for normal individuals, to make jobs such as domain name registrations and web hosting accounts a simple everyday task. I personally run one such organisation and my regular close contact with colleagues has benefitted me with insight. This direct relationship with my customers has provided me the feedback and knowledge I need to simplify and neutralise the difficulty and complexity of internet hosting.

 

If you are setting up an online business or money making venture which involves the use of sites then we highly recommend that you do not go for the basic and most inexpensive internet hosting service. Searches for web hosting will bring you many temptations because there are such cheap offers out there, but to ensure that you have the help you need when you need it, consider careful review of the hosting provider, ring them up and check for yourself what flavour of service you might expect.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/challenge-online-games-a-3973.html One of the misconceptions about online games is that they are not worth playing since they should be easy to play, clear and win. It might be true for the early games, but games nowadays have their own level of complexity and challenge. Admittedly, they are not complex when compared to console and PC games, but they present enough difficulty to keep even the avid gamer hooked and interested. One just need to look at online shooting games and online war strategy games to see what we mean. Though these games are simple to play, they still present enough difficulty to warrant constant playing.

 

What made this possible in these games is the flexibility offered by Flash technology. Through this software technology, game programmers and designers are given the capability to incorporate great graphics, animation and interactivity to games in a small file size that is not resource intensive. The result are online games that can be loaded up quickly and can be played with some complexity. Great examples are the free adventure games and the sports online games offered by different sites. These games offer decent graphics and game play for games their size and platform that theyre on.

 

There are also different games for different challengeseekers. If you want the challenge of traditional arcade games, you can find online action arcade games on gaming sites. As mentioned before, you can also find sport free online games that simulates the conditions of your favorite sport, whether its tennis, soccer, and basketball, just to name a few. You can also try free action games such as shooting games, adventure games, and strategy games. If you prefer more of a mental challenge, you can try the different online board games, such as Chess, Scrabble, and Backgammon. And there are other new games out there with different goals and instructions, so the choices are almost endless should you be looking for challenging online game.

 

Aside from the challenges, one of the best things about online games is that they are free. Almost every online gaming site is offering free online games nowadays. Not only do you get the challenge that youre looking for, you also get that challenge without spending a cent. Considering youre getting value for nothing, that is a great tradeoff under any standards. Offering decent gaming challenge, graphics and animation for free, online games are viable alternatives for the challenge of PC and console games.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/need-quick-study-break-online-games-help-a-3972.html If your brain is already getting muddled up by all the Xs and Ys of your Algebra assignment, or when the language of Shakespeare is starting to make you nod, then you definitely need a break. Its nice to put your mind off from study and let it have fun once in a while. For that, one of your best options are online games. These games are fun and great diversions from the stress of studying. Not only that you have a great variety of games to choose from, such as strategy games, adventure games and the numerous sport games online. If you also need games that provide mental stimulation, you can also play board games and puzzle games online; now you have a reason should your parents catch you playing on your study time.

 

But aside from the variety of games that you can play, one of the advantages of online games is that they are readily accessible. If you have internet connection, you can go directly to the URL of the gaming site that you know and play right away. If you dont know any gaming sites, just do a quick search for free online sports games or any game that you like through your favored search engine and you can find a gaming site in seconds. You also dont need to do anything else but click on the game that you want, wait for it to load and then you can play right away. This ease of access makes it perfect if you want a quick break from the boredom of your lessons.

 

Another advantage of these games is that they are quick to play and finish. Depending on the game, you can clear the game in a matter of minutesjust right for a quick study break. No need to be concerned about having to play long hours and getting to transform your break into a full form of study truancy. This way, you can easily pull yourself away from the game and return to your studying. For example, when you play sport free games, you can be done with just a few matches.

 

And so, should you need a quick study break, try online games, like board online games, to give yourself some muchneeded rest. Just be sure to play your games only as a break. Though these games are short, they can be quite addictive too. So you should better watch it.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/online-games-provide-gaming-action-that-want-a-3971.html If youre looking for that buzz that action games can only give, then let online games satisfy that craving. With a host of games of different types available, you certainly will find the games that will give you all the action that you want. For example, you can play free online arcade games, reminiscent of the games that you play in your traditional arcade center. If youre looking for some athletic action, sport games are there to give you almost the same feel as your favorite sport. If you need some runandgun action, free shooting games and computer games adventurethemed are there to keep your adrenaline flowing. If you need more mental action, there are free strategy games online that can give you and your brain a good sweat. These online games can challenge you like the best strategy games out there.

 

Another great thing about online games is that theyre always available on demand. So long as you have a modern PC and internet connection, you can play sports games and fun shooting games immediately. Since these games are browserbased games, you dont need to worry about software requirements or downloading the game software. Just go to the gaming site, select the game that you want, wait for it to load, and youre in business.

 

Finding these games is not that difficult either. If you dont know one, just let a search engine help you out. Just search for free online action games and you can have hundreds of results within seconds. And most of these games are free, though some do require registration. But for the most part, you just follow the procedure mentioned above, and youre ready to play your game.

 

And for free games, the graphics and animation is not bad. Not as good as your console games, but they look cool enough to play and pose enough challenge and difficulty hook you in. Just because these games are webbased doesnt mean that they dont offer quality and entertainment when it comes to game play. As these games are designed with gamers in mind, these present as much action, graphics and complexity as possible given its format and limitations. If you dont think that these games wont give your skills much of a challenge, just try one today and see for yourself. Before you know it, youre already hooked in to the game play and enjoying the challenging game action.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/tired-traditional-puzzles-online-puzzle-games-a-3970.html Classic games

and puzzles achieved their timeless popularity because they offer something that each generation finds valuable and challenging. Board games like Chess, Checkers and Backgammon has passed the test of time and remained wellloved and popular games until today. Even in todays digitized world, these games have not changed essentially; they are just given a new face and medium in the form of online puzzle games and through playing board games online.

 

The rules are the same, the challenge and game play is the same, only that theyve been made to cater to techsavvy crowd of today. As most of the world is hooked to the internet, its not strange to find free games puzzles online ready to play.

 

Whats nice when you play puzzle games online is that theyre given a better presentation in terms of graphics, and the addition of animation and interactivity. The puzzle free online games made available by gaming sites all feature dynamic game action, which makes them more entertaining and engaging for the new generation. With the addition of sounds and animation, even games that are seen as boring, like Chess, is given a new dimension that is appealing to the younger crowd. Through the digitalization of these classic puzzle and board games, they are shown in a new light and their value as challenging and entertaining games became easier seen to todays funloving generation.

 

And speaking of online games, you have several other games that you can play over the internet. You have computer arcade games, sports games, and you can also play shooting games online. Previously, you can only play these games through a game console or in the arcades, but now they are delivered to you in the form of webbased games. This makes the games that you want to play easier to access, play and enjoy.

 

Additionally, whether its the classic games or the action games that you play, most of these games are offered for free online. Though there are sites that offer the games on a trial basis where you have to purchase the games later, you can still find a host of other sites that lets you play the games for free, with no strings attached. Not only do you get the chance to enjoy classic games and puzzles online, you also get to enjoy them for free. With all of these advantages, it would be strange not to try these online games for yourself.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/online-games-games-that-want-a-3969.html The internet revolution not only provided easier access to information and made communication faster and easier, it has also brought about several means of entertainment. Aside from music and video streaming, one of the most popular internet activities is online gaming. Whether youre playing multiplayer online games or just arcade games from a gaming site, you cant deny that people love to play their games online.

 

Due to this boom in demand for online games, you can find several sites that offer online games that have a vast selection of games that try to match the diversity of internet users. Basically, they aim to have a game for any kind of personality and preference. So if you want to play traditional board games or play arcade games online, there is a game ready for you to play. The list of games that you can play includes free sports games, strategy war games, and puzzle free games, just to name a few. Since gaming sites want to become the onestop online gaming center for its visitors, it aims to have a complete game portfolio as much as possible.

 

And thats just great news for internet users, whatever nationality and preference they might have. This means that theres a wide range of choices for games, which means a large variety of games to play and enjoy. As they say, the more, the merrier. With more game choices, internet gamers would have more freedom of choice, and more important, the chances of finding the exact game that they want would greatly increase.

 

As the games are online, one great advantage is the ease of access. Whether you want to play your board games in the US or you want it in Japan, you can access the same games so long as you have internet access. Of course, board games are just one example. You can play all of the games in any location that theres an internet connection. And thats just plain convenience, however you look at it.

 

And the best part about online games is that most of them are free. You can find game sites that offer only trial versions of their games, but you can also find sites that offer their games 100 free. All you need to do is visit the site, select your game and play all you want. And for free games, they dont look shabby either. In terms of graphics and presentation, online games can hold their own against your PC and console games.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/reminisce-more-play-your-arcade-games-online-a-3968.html Almost everyone remembers playing arcade when they were young, right Alright, maybe not everybody as the generation of today have game consoles and PC games to provide their gaming needs. But for those who grew up playing in the arcades, there are times when nostalgia hits us and would want to play those games once more. One problem you may find is that the arcade games that you once played are no longer available. Another problem would be you might seem out of place, with all the younger generation in the arcades and you getting on in years. But theres a simple solution play free arcade games online. That way, youre sure to find and play arcade games that you used to play without going to the actual arcade.

 

If youre in doubt as to whether youll find the games that you used to play online, then stop your worrying. Nowadays, you can find almost anything in the internet, especially arcade games. At present, there are lots of gaming sites that offer flash arcade games of classic arcade games, so if you want to take a walk down memory lane gamewise, you can easily do so online. It would be easier if you know the name of the game that you want to play. If you want Galaxia or Battle Tank or whatever classic game it is, there should be an online games site that has it in its collection.

 

Another thing youll learn when you play online is you can relate more to the generation of today by being exposed to the games that they play. You can try the shooting games, adventure games and the new puzzle and games that give a new twist to classic games. Aside from that, you get to learn why young people like to play these games, and be hooked on to them yourself.

 

And another thing, most of the games offered online are free games. No need to spend for tokens, or waiting in line just to play your favorite arcade game. Just go to the gaming site, select the arcade game, wait for it to load, and you can be nostalgic all that you want, and for as long as you want. All you really need is your computer, the internet, and the gaming site. Playing the arcade games that you loved when you were younger is so easy when you play them online.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/satisfy-your-gaming-crave-without-hurting-your-wallet-a-3967.html Theres no denying that software games are fun, whether they are arcade games, console games, or your PC games. It wont be too much to say that these are addicting games. Even so, the only thing that ruins the fun is that gaming can be a bit painful to the pocket. For console games, you need to buy the console and game software. For PC games, you need to buy the game software, and you may have to make hardware upgrades to your system. Arcade games also incur the cost of tokens. So, gaming literally comes at a price. Sometimes, if you dont have the resources, then you cant enjoy a good game. But that is not entirely true. With the free arcade games that you can play online, you dont need to spend a lot of bucks just to get your gaming buzz.

 

But one might object that the quality of games online is not up to par with those of console and PC games. Lets not kid ourselves here youre getting something for nothing, so lets keep our expectations real. Of course you wont get the same high quality from online games as with console or PC games. Thats why you pay a high price for those games. But the question is, will you get less entertainment from online games Will you not get some challenging gaming action from flash arcade games online Of course, the answer is no. Despite the size and limitations of these flash games, they provide decent graphics, animation, and game play. The real test is for you to try them for yourself. If youre a skeptic, then you wont be for long once you start to play free arcade games online.

 

And one should not forget that youre getting quality games for free. Most of the online gaming sites that you will find offer their games for everyone without discrimination. Though there are some sites that require registration, that will be the only process that you need to finish to start playing the games. Its rare to find game sites that would charge for their games. The only investments that you need for playing the games are your computer and your internet connection.

 

As you can see, gaming need not be expensive; actually it can be free. Though theyre not perfect, online games do present an economical alternative to gaming while not lagging that far behind in terms of quality and gaming experience.

For samples of addicting action flash games and free arcade games, you can visit our hero games and start playing immediately.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/online-games-complete-gaming-experience-a-3966.html For a wide collection of free strategy war games or arcade games online, just play them on our gamezhero.

 

When you go to a store and look for the games available, you may find that they have a wide selection, but somehow you may find that you cant find everything that you want. Aside from some shops that specialize in games, you may have trouble looking for a store that has them all. And even if you do find one, are you sure that you can afford all the games that are in display Just for board games

 

alone, you have a wide list to look at. But you should know that theres always a free option just play online games. Through online games, you have a wide selection of games, and whats more, you get to play them for free

 

So, what are the games that you can play online You can say that every conceivable game can be played online. Heres part of the list arcade games, boards games, free sports games and even strategy war games. If you think that just because its online you cant find traditional board games, then youre mistaken. If youre looking for Chess or Backgammon or Othello online, for sure you can find them on online gaming sites.

 

 

As we said, you can play arcade games online, but what about the quality The quality of the games online is great considering their format and the limitations that are imposed on them. As internet games need to be compact, small in size and should load fast, there are limits to how sophisticated these games can be. So, dont expect them to be as great as PC and console games, but they do provide great graphics and animation for games their size. They are pretty enjoyable and even impressive, especially when you dont forget the fact that you get all of those games for free.

 

You may have to wonder again if these games are really free. Although there are sites that only offer games on a trial version, where you need to purchase them to continue playing, not all sites are like that. There are a lot of sites that offer free online games, no strings attached. How do they get their capital back Most of these sites live through the online advertisements and banners. And since flash games have cheap production costs, that allows owners of gaming sites to have a wide collection of games and offer them for free and rake in some profits at the same time. So go on, have fun; play all the online games that you want Why Because theyre free

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/beginners-introduction-hosting-small-business-a-3965.html Web hosting is the concept that makes your website available to be read by others on the internet.

 

A web host rents space on its server, so that other devices around the world can connect to your website by means of a network or router.

 

There are literally thousands of internet hosting options available today, ranging from free services with limited control to dear, specialized business internet hosting services. Which option you settle on depends primarily on how you plan to use your site and how much you want to spend. Many people put up their site up through their service providers, because its generally simple and low cost.

 

Most internet service provider packages comes with a small amount of free web space, along with equipment to create and upload websites swiftly and simply. Service provider sites are perfect for people who want to put up micro sites with low quantities of visitors. However, there are usually rate restrictions, and most isps dont provide a lot of features, so they might not be the best choice for a new business web page. Free web hosting is another good choice for smaller, personal webpages.

 

Unfortunately the most well known internet hosting companies i.e. those that are shown in the top ten search pages, are still overtecnical and too difficult for an everyday person. The world wide internet has grown in popularity and now nontechnical people, more than ever before, wish to make use of such services.

 

There are some less known hosting businesses which are changing themselves to accommodate for normal individuals, to make jobs such as domain name registrations and web hosting accounts a simple everyday task. I personally run one such organisation and my regular close contact with colleagues has benefitted me with insight. This direct relationship with my customers has provided me the feedback and knowledge I need to simplify and neutralise the difficulty and complexity of internet hosting.

 

If you are setting up an online business or money making venture which involves the use of sites then we highly recommend that you do not go for the basic and most inexpensive internet hosting service. Searches for web hosting will bring you many temptations because there are such cheap offers out there, but to ensure that you have the help you need when you need it, consider careful review of the hosting provider, ring them up and check for yourself what flavour of service you might expect.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/viral-marketing-with-easy-video-a-3964.html All experience marketers know the old adage that the money is in the list .Network marketers have developed contact lists in many different ways over the years. Generally a sign up form is offered with a free giveaway. Someone simply fills out the form with a name and email address to opt in to the autoresponder and the free giveaway is provided to them. In return for that, they generally understand that they have granted permission for whoever made the offer to follow up with other emails with other offers.

 

Several years ago the singular email optin was taken a step further when software was developed that asked the first recipient to forward the offer to 45 of there friends in order to qualify for the free giveaway, or perhaps even a very low priced offering. Hence, list building became viral, meaning that a single email to a single individual could be multiplied in a near exponential manner as each level of optins continued to forward the offer to even more people.

 

The Web 2.0 World

 

Of course the latest to trend in the network and internet marketing community is the Web 2.0 world of blogs, YouTube, Twitter and the like. The consumption of videos in various social networks in order to communicate and establish a following with the endorsers has become ubiquitous. The net result of all this is that apparently the most effective way to communicate with potential subscribers, or even to acquire subscribers and customers these days is in all probability through the use of videos.

 

Videos have a number of advantages, including the ability to present yourself as a sincere and a knowledgeable individual in a facetoface way. A potential subscriber or customer is more likely to buy from someone they they feel like they know. So consequently, its almost imperative these days that you use the video medium in order to communicate with potential prospects to turn them into eventual customers.

 

The New Viral Video World

 

Interestingly, a new video software system to build a contact list and possible customer list virally has been introduced. Internet guru Joel Therien, CEO ofKiosk.ws, is in the process of launching very easy to use video building software called Easy Video Producer, with the the potential of being a very effective way of generating contacts in a viral manner. This system is unique because the software itself is being offered as the free giveaway for this video tellafriend system. Essentially, the system will offered free and extraordinarily easy to use video generating software, where the user can record and post their personally created video. When the video is posted on a blog or webpage it can be linked to a capture form. When the viewer enters their contact information, a followup contact management system is included with the free offer as well.

 

The viral concept is that you would then attract traffic to introduce yourself to the prospect in a more personal way, offering them the opportunity to opt in and use the same free software that you used to prepare the video. The prospect and new contact would in turn use his free new system to attract even more potential contacts for his list and yours as well.

 

As in the earlier email systems, the originator of the viral distribution of the free software would have access to every subscriber in the levels below him. So, what is offered is a system that provides a free and very simple even a cave man could do it method of posting videos to the internet that have a specific purpose of giving away additional software in a viral manner to capture a fast growing network of contacts with whom you can continue to build a relationship.

 

The Issues I See

 

The problems with this system are not dissimilar from those in other earlier systems of using free giveaways to build a list. . You first must be able to get your video in front of an audience and in order for them to subscribe, and they in turn must have an audience to subscribe in order for the system to work effectively. It can probably be most effectively used by someone who already has a subscriber list and wants to expand it rapidly.

 

Another potential negative is that the the new contacts you generate with this list, both directly and indirectly, are not yet buyers and its likely that many of them will have no interest in your particular marketing niche. Proper strategy of course is to build credibility over time through a series of value adding free offers that are designed to help categorize their interests. Only then should you move on to the stage of offering them the opportunity to purchase your products or services.

 

This new easy video producer software system appears to offer a simple and easy, no cost way for the experienced, and particularly the relatively inexperienced nontechnical networker to make effective use of videos for viral list building, and business promotion.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/laptop-repair-manuals-a-3963.html Through the decades, right from the beginning of the early computers, this wonder machine has gone through several phases of technical evolution till it reached the laptop.

 

A laptop is the ultimate portable and easy to carry and use with capacity no less than any other computer. As these machines are the results of advanced scientific applications, these laptops have to depend on its numerous chips, its software, its hardware, the LCD or the monitor and all the other applied gadgets. However, if one of these innumerable and delicate technical elements is subjected to malfunctioning, then the whole of the laptop will stop functioning.

 

There are repair service providers of laptops who offer guides and manuals that might help the customers to fully repair their laptops entirely on their own. Many online repair service providers offer laptop repair manuals and service guides. There are detailed stepbystep guidebooks on laptop repairs with easy to understand and even illustrated and complete disassembly and component replacement instructions. These manuals are even available on sale on various sites and even retail shops. They really come in handy as they completely teach you about all the minute details of your laptop and how to deal with the problems your laptop is having.

 

Containing complete stepbystep instructions that will allow you to repair your own laptop, they not only make you aware of your machine, but also give you adequate information about the things that should and should not be done. These manuals are meant for do it yourself repair that makes you selfsufficient when laptop needs repair. This kind of repair jobs self ends with saving a lot of money that could have been given to the vendors who would have visited you for the repair service of your laptop.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/large-format-scanner-prices-a-3962.html Large format scanners

are commercially available in a wide range of prices from very low to very high, depending on the quality, speed, resolution, format width, imaging technology, manufacturer, and so on. Color scanners

are much more expensive than black and white scanners. For example, while Calcomp offers basic black and white and gray scale scanners at 9,900, their color scanners start only at 12,000 and the higher end models are very expensive above 30,000. Some of the highquality scanners, like the Cruse reprographic scanner, are intended for use in libraries and museums only.

 

Fujitsu offers large format gray scale duplex scanners with 400dpi optical resolution for document scanning, at around 17,500. Excellent quality, large format color scanners usually cost above 15,000, though monochrome or gray scale scanners are available for even 10,000 and more. Chameleon Tx 36 color scanners from Contex, however, cost only 11,900. Microtek ScanMaker 9800XL large format scanners are available at relatively low prices. Colortrac also makes large format color scanners at prices lower than 10,000.

 

It should, however, be noted that the cheaper is not always the better choice. A scanner meeting the requirements of the application in hand should be chosen so as to strike a balance between long life and low cost. While choosing document scanners, their duty cycle should also be considered to achieve maximum economy. It is often better to pay a little higher price for trusted brands of scanners with good record of aftersales service, than to go for relatively obscure manufacturers and run the risk of premature break down.

 

Used large format scanners of good quality can be obtained from authorized dealers at costs that are as much as 20 less than that of new ones. Used Contex Chroma Tx 40 scanners costing 19,900 are obtainable with all the standard accessories for 15,920 from IDEAL. The same dealer offers many other Contex scanners at reduced prices, with limited a warranty and maintenance contract.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/laptop-hinge-repair-a-3961.html A laptop is made up of numerous delicate and small chips and other technical elements with minute details. If one of these innumerable and delicate technical elements is subjected to malfunctioning, then the whole of the laptop will stop functioning. If a problem is allowed to persist in the laptop, it might even damage and cause dreadful things that might even prove to be permanent. Therefore it is always desirable to treat the laptop with utmost care and pay full attention to repairing any sort of problem in the machine.

 

Like all other parts of the laptop, the hinge is quite important. A hinge does not affect the laptops technological aspects or play any active part in the software or hardware operations and functionalities of the machine. But if it is subjected to any problem it might pose a very serious problem in the overall usability of the laptop.

 

The friction mechanism is known as the clutch while the whole mechanism is the hinge. A hinge is that part which holds the clutch together thereby anchoring it to the base and the screen.

 

One can avail all the necessary parts software and hardware of the laptop, but obtaining a spare part of the hinge from the market or some other retail channels can be a tough job. This happens either due to unavailability, unwillingness, or direct orders from the related manufacturing companies.

 

So one has to depend on the repair service providers to provide the screws and other such components especially made for these laptop hinges. The usual tools that are essential to fix the hinges are a torx T8 or such other screwdriver

, and a flathead screwdriver. It may also be required to remove the keyboard for disconnecting the video ribbon cables from the logic board.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/used-cheap-laptops-a-3960.html The used laptop

market has been expanding for years. In its current state, there are hundreds of companies of various sizes offering used laptops at unbelievable prices. It seems like a buyers market out there, but before you buy one of these apparent bargains, you should ask yourself why are the laptops so cheap. Obviously, there must be a reason.

 

You may be inclined to doubt the quality of the product, but there are legitimate reasons for a laptop to be sold cheap. First, maybe the laptop has just become obsolete. Obsolete doesnt mean its useless. When Apple came out with their MacBook, previous Apple PowerBooks became essentially obsolete. The PowerBooks technology had shifted so drastically that the majority of users were unloading their old laptops for the newer, better version. This means there were powerful laptops only a few months old that consumers were selling quickly so they could buy a new MacBook. Also, demand for PowerBooks was lower, because many shoppers wanted the top of the line, Intelbased notebooks. So, it was harder to sell PowerBooks and the prices dropped. So, if you see a cheap laptop, research the model and see if it was recently replaced by a much more advanced version.

 

Sometimes you will find cheap laptops that arent a value. This is because there are hidden drawbacks to their systems. A seller may not be disclosing a design flaw inherent with a model. Or maybe they know the system has a history of electrical problems, which was how they obtained it at such low cost. Further, these companies may be saving money by not offering you much of a guarantee, since they dont have faith in the product themselves. Not guaranteeing a system will always bring its sale price down.

 

Used laptops should be a bargain. When you see something suspiciously cheap, research the prices of comparable notebooks and determine if any of the above scenarios may have occurred to bring down the price. If you want to get a good deal on a used laptop, you have to put in the time researching its history.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/select-laptop-notebook-computer-a-3959.html Different people have different needs for using a laptop notebook computer. Whatever these needs are, there are some general tips that you can use to select a laptop notebook computer that would suit your need and your budget.

 

Generally, notebook computers are categorised as follows

 

Entrylevel notebooks These are notebook computers that is catered to the budget conscious. In general, they usually meet the minimum specifications required for the operating system. They are also not as reliable as the other categories of notebook computers because many reliability or highperformance features are sacrificed to fit a small budget. If you are one who prefers reliability & performance for a period of three to five years, it would be more worthwhile to invest a little more in a higher quality notebook.

 

High Performance notebooks These are notebook computers that do not stinge on features & capabilities. They, of course, are also a pricey lot. Price aside, these notebook computers are created for the tough road warrior who is also a power user of the computer.

 

Highly Mobile notebooks These are notebook computers that focus on mobility and style while trying not to compromise on features. They can be expensive as it would naturally cost more to design and build a notebook computer that is smaller, more reliable, more robust, and more resistance to the accidental bumps and drops.

 

What kind of notebook computers should I be looking for

 

Unless budget is the ultimate constraint, I would recommend to go for a high performance notebook that would last you for a number of years. Entrylevel notebooks dont usually last and tend to breakdown after their warranty period is over. If you are alright with that, you can go for a entrylevel notebook computer.

 

What should I look out for when selecting a notebook computer

 

1. Comfort

 

Inspect the keyboard layout of the notebook computer. Make sure the layout is the same as the current keyboard that you have been using all this while. Look out especially for the keys , /, , , Home, End, Ins and Del. If they are not at the usual places, you would need to face a learning curve after you have bought the notebook computer.

 

Try to type on the keyboard and see if the keys are too wide or too close together. If they are too wide or too narrow, it could put a strain on your hands if you type a lot using the keyboard.

 

2. Processor Speed

 

Unless you are a super power user, it actually doesnt matter whether or not you get the latest available processor. Processing speed is now so fast that the human brain cannot even imagine the difference between a 1.4GHz processor and a 1.7GHz processor. When selecting the processor, choose a recent model and not the latest model unless your budget fits the bill. Otherwise, its alright to choose a slightly slower processor as you would not feel a visible difference in the processing speed. Spend your money on more RAM and storage space.

 

3. RAM or Computer Memory

 

This is one area you dont want to compromise on. If you are using Windows XP Home, 512mb of RAM is a good minimum to start with. If you are using Windows XP Pro, 768mb or 1GB of RAM is recommended for optimal performance. Beyond that, let your budget do the talking.

 

4. Display Memory

 

Most entrylevel computers share part of the RAM for video display memory, which also explains why entrylevel notebooks are cheaper in a certain way. This also means your memory performance is somewhat compromised and you wont have as much RAM as you want for your notebook computer. For example, if your notebook has 256mb of RAM, and the computer specifications for video display states 64mb of shared memory, it means that you only have 192mb of RAM available for the operating system to use. Generally, this translates to a slower performing notebook computer.

 

The high performance computers usually have a separate display memory card builtin that gives the high performance, while the highly mobile computers may also deploy a shared memory strategy for display memory, similar to entrylevel computers, due to the need to keep the form factor small.

 

If you budget allows, go for a independent display memory of at least 128mb.

 

5. Hard Drive Storage

 

The cost of hard drive storage have come down quite dramatically these days. And 60GB/80GB would be the minimum norm for most computers. Plan to have at least two partitions C drive & D drive for your harddrive. Store only programs on your C drive and all your data on your D drive. Refer to my article on How to protect and optimize your computer at http//discovervalue.com/pcsecuritycheck for more details on what to do with your hard drive.

 

6. Other considerations

 

After the first 5 considerations, other considerations are optional. Example,

whether to have a DVD multiformat writer drive or a CDRWDVD ROM Combo drive

whether to have two USB or four USB ports

whether to have any firewire ports

whether to have your USB ports available in front, at the side or behind, etc.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/take-care-your-laptop-battery-else-a-3958.html Laptops

are common now most people have them to take to school or when they travel for work. Theyre useful and easy to move with. What is also common is to see someone scrambling to find a place to charge a laptop battery. That report due tomorrow may suddenly be lost if you dont find an outlet within thirty seconds... Or that slideshow you have created but carelessly forgot to save may disappear if your laptop battery is not recharged.

 

As common as laptops are now, it is just as common to see individuals forgetting that the machine needs a little bit of help to run. It does not magically power itself the battery does not somehow manage to stay full as you work for hours at a time. Yet, many seem to think that their battery does just that. No matter how long they stay hunched over the machine, it will work.

 

A few times of having the laptop die will cure that fantasy.

 

The truth is you must keep your laptop charged. Yes, one of the advantages of having a laptop is that you can take it anywhere it does not require you to remain plugged into the wall. That still does not mean that you can expect the laptop to run with a low battery. Yes, you can walk around with it yes, you can wander away from your plug. You still should return, however, when your computer tells you its low.

 

And they do tell you. Laptops feature a symbol at the top of the screen that allows you to see just how much your battery is charged. The lower it drops, the less time you have. This is basic. Anyone will even a small trace of knowledge should know and understand this. Yet, too many people risk losing everything to squeeze out an extra minute on their battery. These are the same people who try to frantically finish a report as opposed to saving and heading to their charger, only to lose the majority of it when the computer quits. And these are the same people who swear they will never do it again, but forget that promise the next time around.

 

Laptop batteries have short ives. They can fail as quickly as thirty minutes. Some last longer, of course, but the result is still the same if you are not careful and dont pay attention, the battery will die. Of course, laptops offer warnings when a battery is low. Often, a small screen will pop up to remind you that the time is almost there. Still, thinking you can simply ignore that screen since youre busy is not the wisest of moves.

 

This are basic ideas, and you may be rolling your eyes, wondering who would be so foolish. But it does happen, alltoooften it happens. Because of this, you must make an effort to remember that, as convenient as your laptop is, it is still a machine and therefore needs care. Check your laptop battery and keep it charged.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/hard-drive-physical-components-a-3957.html PLATTERS

 

Platter is a circular, metal disk that is mounted inside a hard disk drive. Several platters are mounted on a fixed spindle motor to create more data storage surfaces in a smaller area. The platter has a core made up of aluminium or glass substrate, covered with a thin layer of Ferric oxide or cobalt alloy. On both sides of the substrate material, a thin coating is deposited by a special manufacturing technique. This, thin coating where actual data is stored is the media layer. When the magnetic media is applied to the surface of the substrate material, a thin lubricating layer is applied to protect the material. This complex three layered media is discussed in detail as follows

 

THE SUBSTRATE MATERIAL

 

The bulk material of which platters are made up, forms the base on which media layer is deposited. The substrate has no specific function but to support the media layer. The most commonly used material for making this physical layer is an Aluminium alloy. This alloy is rigid, lightweight, stable, inexpensive, easy to work with and is readily available. Earlier, since the gap between the heads and the platter was relatively high, the platter surface being smooth and flat was less of an issue. However, as technology advances, the gap between heads and platters is decreasing and the speed that the platters spin at is increasing. For this reason demand for alternatives on the platter material are increasing. Glass platters are replacing aluminium platters because they provide improved rigidity, better quality, thinner platters, and thermal stability.

 

MEDIA LAYER

 

The substrate material forms the base upon which actual recording media is deposited. The media layer is a thin coating of magnetic material applied to the surface of the platters and where the actual data is stored. Its thickness is only a few millionths of an inch.

 

Special techniques are employed for the deposition of magnetic material on the substrate material. A thin coating is deposited on both sides of the substrate, mostly by vacuum deposition process called magnetron sputtering. Another such method is electroplating, using a process similar to that used in electroplating jewelry.

 

PROTECTIVE LAYER

 

On the top of the magnetic media, is applied a superthin, protective, lubricating layer. This layer is called the protective layer because it protects the disk from damage caused by accidental contact from the heads, head crash or other foreign material from entering the drive

 

PLATTER DIVISIONS

 

In order to get maintain the organized storage and retrieval of data the platters are organized into specific structures. These specific structures include tracks, sectors, and clusters.

 

TRACKS

 

Each platter is broken into thousands of tightly packed concentric circles, known as tracks. These tracks resemble the structure of annual rings of a tree. All the information stored on the hard disk is recorded in tracks. Starting from zero at the outer side of the platter, the number of tracks goes on increasing to the inner side. Each track can hold a large amount of data counting to thousands of bytes.

 

SECTORS

 

Each track is further broken down into smaller units called sectors. As sector is the basic unit of data storage on a hard disk. A single track typically can have thousands of sectors and each sector can hold more than 512 bytes of data. A few additional bytes are required for control structures and error detection and correction.

 

CLUSTERS

 

Sectors are often grouped together to form Clusters.

 

READ/WRITE HEADS

 

The heads are an interface between the magnetic media where the data is stored and electronic components in the hard disk. The heads convert the information, which is in the form of bits to magnetic pulses when it is to be stored on the platter and reverses the process while reading.

 

The heads are the most sophisticated part of the hard disk. Each platter has two read/write heads, one mounted on the top and the other one at the bottom. These heads are mounted on head sliders, which are suspended at the ends of head arms. The head arms are all fused into a singular structure called actuator, which is responsible for their movement.

 

THE SPINDLE MOTOR

 

Spindle motor plays an important role in hard drive operation by turning the hard disk platters. A spindle motor must provide stable, reliable, and consistent turning power for many hours of continuous use. Many hard drive failures occur due to spindle motor not functioning properly

 

HARD DISK LOGIC BOARD

 

Hard disk is made with an intelligent circuit board integrated into the hard disk unit. It is mounted on the bottom of the base casting exposed to the outer side. The read/write heads are linked to the logic board through a flexible ribbon cable.

 

DRIVE BAY

 

The entire hard disk is mounted in an enclosure designed to protect it from the outside air. It is necessary to keep the internal environment of the hard disk free of dust and other contaminants. These contaminants may get accumulated in the gap between the read/write heads and the platters, which usually leads to head crashes.

 

The bottom of the disk is also called base casting. The drive mechanics are placed in the base casting and a cover, usually made up of aluminium is placed on top to enclose heads and platters. The entire contents placed on the base and cover chamber are collectively known as the headdisk assembly. Once this assembly is opened, it would instantly contaminate the contents and eventually ruin the drive.

 

On the bottom of the base casting is present the logic board, which is separated from the base casting using a cushioning material.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/criteria-comparing-rugged-laptops-notebook-pdas-a-3956.html Mobile computing devices are increasingly being used in nontraditional computing environments. These nontraditional computing environments often place harsh demands on electronic equipment.

 

Mobile computing devices, as defined in this article, include laptops, tablet or notebook PCs and handheld devices / PDAs. The commonly used versions of these devices are typically referred to as consumer editions. These commonly used versions are available at consumer electronics stores and computer retail stores and can be fine for personal and officelike indoor professional use.

 

In many cases, enterprise and industrial mobile computing devices are required to be tolerant of extreme temperatures, being routinely dropped, moisture in the form of humidity or rain or full submersion in water, sand or dust and for some uses must be capable of operating in highly flammable environments.

 

In this article we cover the different specifications for devices designed to operate under these rugged conditions, and we provide some insight into the types of questions that you will need to ask when selecting a mobile device for enterprise or industrial use.

 

The five key criteria that distinguish an enterprise or industrial computing device from a consumer edition of an equivalent device are

 

&61623;  tolerance of extreme temperatures

 

&61623;  tolerance of being dropped routinely impact and vibration resistance

 

&61623;  resistance to moisture

 

&61623;  resistance to dust and sand

 

&61623;  ability to operate in highly flammable environments intrinsic safety rating

 

As you might imagine, different device types, and even different models of similar devices from the same manufacturer will perform at different levels for these 5 criteria.

 

You will often see different manufacturers describe their mobile computing devices as rugged, semirugged, enterpriseclass, industrial class or a myriad of other names. As these terms can mean different things from different manufacturers, we must resort to device comparison using the various specifications defined by standards bodies.

 

The military originally defined a standard, MILSTD810, that many manufacturers will refer to. The MILSTD provides a large number of tests and testing methods to determine the effect of natural and artificial impact on equipment. Many mobile device manufactures often state that their rugged devices were designed using MILSTD810 test procedures. Since there are hundreds of procedures in this spec and they test different degrees of protection, the mere reference to MILSTD810 provides very little information.

 

If we limit our focus to the 5 criteria defined above, there are other specifications that are almost always readily available from the manufacturer of rugged mobile computing devices that can be used to perform a consistent evaluation across device types and across different manufacturers.

 

These specifications are

 

&61623;  Temperature specification

 

&61623;  Drop specification

 

&61623;  Ingress Protection IP or alternatively a NEMA specification for water and dust resistance

 

&61623;  ISafe specification for flammable environments

 

Temperature Specification

 

All ruggedized computers will include operating and storage temperature specifications. Industrial strength computers can be exposed to extreme temperatures, especially if a device is used outside, or in a freezer cold storage environment. Cold storage environments usually require that a device operate in 30C 22F temperatures. In order for a device to successfully operate in this extremely cold environment, an internal heater is usually required. The heater warms components to an acceptable operating level and eliminates condensation when exiting the cold storage environment and entering a warmer environment. Conformal coatings are also used to eliminate condensation buildup on internal components.

 

Drop Specification

 

All handheld or laptop computers should include a drop specification that describes the devices ability to withstand the shock of a fall to a hard surface. For obvious reasons, the drop specification is extremely important for mobile computers and cannot be overlooked. If a device cannot withstand a drop from a reasonable distance, then its life will be extremely short. Most ruggedized handheld computers can withstand a 4foot drop to concrete.

 

Ingress Protection IP

 

Ingress Protection IP ratings consist of a single number, such as IP45, and classify the degree of protection provided for electrical equipment by enclosures. The first number indicates, on a scale from 0 to 6, the protection against solid objects penetrating the housing. The second number gives, on a scale from 0 to 8, protection against penetration by liquids. For both numbers, a 0 means no protection and the highest number maximum protection.

 

 

 

IP Rating

 

Dust Protection 1 st number

 

0 No protection

 

1 Puncture protected against objects > 50mm hands

 

2 Puncture protected against objects > 12mm fingers

 

3 Puncture protected against objects > 2.5mm tools/wires

 

4 Puncture protected against objects > 1mm small tools

 

5 Protected against dust, limited ingress

 

6 Totally protected against dust

 

Liquid Penetration 2 nd number

 

0 No protection

 

1 Protection against dripping water or condensation

 

2 Protection against water spray 15 degree from vertical

 

3 Protection against water spray 60 degree from vertical

 

4 Protection against water spray from all directions

 

5 Protection against low pressure jets of water

 

6 Protected against heavy seas

 

7 Protection against the effects of immersion

 

8 Protected against immersion

 

NEMA an alternative to IP Specification

 

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association NEMA provides yet another classification system. NEMA 250 describes a variety of different enclosures and how they hold up against different environmental impact. NEMA enclosure types are described at www.nema.org/engineering/papers/enclosure.html and shows both NEMA and IP250 protection ratings and how they relate.

 

1 Indoor protection against limited amounts of falling dirt.

 

2 Indoor protection against limited amounts of falling water and dirt.

 

3 Outdoor protection against rain, sleet, wind blown dust and damage from external ice formation.

 

3R Outdoor protection against rain, sleet, and damage from external ice formation.

 

3S Outdoor protection against rain, sleet, windblown dust and to provide for operation of external mechanisms when ice laden.

 

3X Indoor or outdoor use primarily to provide a degree of protection against windblown dust and rain, splashing water, hosedirected water and damage from external ice formation.

 

4X Indoor or outdoor use primarily to provide a degree of protection against corrosion, windblown dust and rain, splashing water, hosedirected water, and damage from external ice formation.

 

5 Indoor protection against settling airborne dust, falling dirt, and dripping noncorrosive liquids.

 

6 Indoor or outdoor protection again hosedirected water, and the entry of water during occasional temporary submersion at a limited depth and damage from external ice formation.

 

6P Indoor or outdoor protection against hosedirected water, the entry of water during prolonged submersion at a limited depth and damage from external ice formation.

 

7 Indoor use in hazardous locations as defined Commonly referred to as explosionproof.

 

8 Indoor or outdoor use in hazardous locations commonly referred to as oil immersed.

 

9 Indoor use in hazardous locations commonly referred to as dustignition proof.

 

10 Meets the requirements of the Mine Safety and Health Administration MSHA.

 

12/K Indoor protection against circulating dust, falling dirt, and dripping noncorrosive liquids.

 

13 Indoor protection against dust, spraying of water, oil, and noncorrosive coolant.

 

Intrinsically Safe Specifications

 

Intrinsic safety is a requirement that may be applicable to devices that are being operated in areas with flammable gases or fuels. It means that an intriniscally safe device will not ignite flammable gases. ISARP126 defines intrinsically safe equipment as equipment and wiring which is incapable of releasing sufficient electrical or thermal energy under normal or abnormal conditions to cause ignition of a specific hazardous atmospheric mixture in its most easily ignited concentration. Intrinsically safe areas are hazardous environments where flammable gases, vapors and liquids are stored and manufactured. These areas are prevalent in many of todays manufacturing facilities including chemical plants, paint manufacturers, oil refineries, textile mills, etc.

 

Rugged Devices

 

Several companies specialize in the manufacture of rugged devices and some also support options for wide area wireless capabilities ether CDMA/EVDO or GSM/GPRS/UMTS. For laptops and notebook computers, these include the GoBook series from Itronix, the ToughBook series from Panasonic, the MobileForce series from Getac, the Lattiude ATG D620 from Dell, the nr3600 from HP Compaq and the Rough Rider series from Rugged Notebooks. For handheld devices / PDAs, the Dolphin series from Handheld, the GoBook Q200 from Itronix, the ToughBook P1 from Panasonic, the Workabout Pro from Psionteklogix, the 700 series class of handhelds from Intermec and the CN3 and MC70 from Motorola Symbol are based on phone editions of Pocket PC and offer optional GSM/GPRS or CDMA/EVDO capabilities.

 

Summary

 

In this article, we have described 5 criteria that can be used to compare rugged mobile computing devices. Rugged computing devices are built to withstand moisture, dust, extreme temperatures, dropping and vibrations. Some devices can operate in highly flammable environments. We have provided specifications that can be used to determine the degree to which rugged devices can tolerate these circumstances.

 

Not all typical enterprise and industrial uses will require rugged devices however. You should only choose such a device if you absolutely need it. Rugged devices will tend to be much heavier and much more costly than consumer devices. While a consulting engineer working at a highway construction site in Death Valley in August, or a utility service engineer working in Minnesota in January are likely to require rugged devices, a health inspector making the rounds to various food serving establishments will probably be just fine with a consumer device.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/your-machine-worth-fixing-a-3955.html Each person has to make an educated decision and decide if they should repair their fax machine or have it replaced when it goes on the blink. First, there is the service charge to consider and dont forget about replacement parts. There are certain parts in a fax machine that can actually cost more money than the machine does. I would never fix a machine in this case.

 

Some people simply get used to their fax machine and dont want to make a change. If it is an inexpensive model, I would look for a new fax. I may consider repairing it if the cost of the replacement value exceeds the service charge rate and it does not need any parts. Regular parts that wear out are the paper feed rollers and the separation pad in the automatic document feeder. These are common replacement parts and rage from 25.00 to 150.00 depending on the manufacturer.

 

Rank your fax

 

Here is a ranking system that I came up with to help you decide for yourself if you should fix it or ditch it.

 

a. Box Store LowEnd Fax Machines

 

Ranking Low price, replace, never repair

 

50.00 150.00

 

b. Box Store HighEnd Fax Machines

 

Ranking Medium to High price, repair but

 

consider the price of parts

 

200.00 600.00

 

c. Business Model Fax Machines

 

Ranking High price, repair and

 

replace parts

 

600 2000.00

 

a. Box Store Fax Machines

 

Ranking Low priced, consider replacing.

 

Box Store fax machines are fax machines that you purchase at large retail outlet stores. They are very inexpensive to purchase and most are designed for the average home user. I have seen plain paper fax machines that sold for 89.00 and with a 50.00 rebate your total purchase price was 39.00. They forget to mention the toner was about seven cents per page. I have customers calling me just about every day asking me if I can repair their fax machine. When I tell them my onsite labor rate they quickly end the phone call. The only solution for these is to box it up and send it back to the manufacturer. Then you have to wait two or three weeks and when it comes back its not even the same machine you sent in. These should last you about a year if youre lucky. They are designed to be disposable.

 

b. Box Store High end

 

Ranking Medium to High consider repairing.

 

These machines can actually be pretty good and work well. If you want to repair this type machine, I would go ahead as long as the parts and labor does not exceed half of the price of the machine. When buying a machine like this you need to study and check out the toner costs to find one that is the lowest cost per page. A high toner cost can add up especially if you are receiving a lot of pages. This could pay the extra cost of a business model within one year. To get a good one I believe luck has a lot to do with it. My customers like to ask me which one of these are the best but I hate to say because I dont sell this level of machine. Theres too much at stake for me and my companys name. You see I have sold some of them and they did not work out too well. I have decided to only sell the upper end machines and have never been sorry about it. If you want me to name some brands here they are. Brother, HP and Sharp have always had decent equipment, but even these have lemons.

 

c. Business Model Fax Machines

 

Ranking Definitely Repair this model, with a view exceptions.

 

High volume fax machines are a bit like copiers. They are designed for medium to heavy usage. You should definitely keep these machines running. The only exception would be if a circuit board goes out. The circuit board could cost as much as new machine. You could consider having the circuit board repaired for about half the cost. The costs for these machines are much more but the cost per print is much lower. The cost per page for toner is about one and a half cents per page. They are designed to last many years. The average pro series should last you five to seven years. If you asked me which brand was the best fax, I would have to say Ricoh. Ricoh are very dependable machines.

 

Conclusion

 

I have been in the office machine repair business for over twenty years. Fourteen of those years I have owned and operated my own business selling and servicing copiers, fax machines and printers. Ten years ago, one third of my repair business was repairing fax machines. Now if I service or repair more than one fax a month it is unusual. This is definitly do to the drop in the price in equipment. I also am an honest business person and I am always up front with each and every customer and potential customer. It is not just about another sale. It is about educating the customer.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/have-cable-internet-service-a-3954.html With the ever changing world of technology there remains one constant. People do not understand all of the terminology when it comes to computers and the internet. At a basketball game I overheard two people discussing their internet and what kind of service they had. One guy said he had a DSL router through his cable company. The other disagreed and said he had high speed internet through the phone company and he thought it was DSL.

 

Here are a few simple ways to remember what kind of internet service you have if you want to keep you conversation accurate.

 

1. Many people still have the old slow dial up internet connection. It ties up your phone line and is not the fastest way to be online. Because of where they live this may still be the only option they have.

 

2. Cable broadband internet comes from the local cable company. You get access to it right through the cable coming into your home. The cable guy will come out to your house and do the installation for you. To do this he splits the connection from your TV to a cable modem box. Then he plugs it into your computer or router.

 

One benefit of having internet access from your cable company is it doesnt matter how close you live to cable companys office. Wherever you live you will get it at the same speed as everyone else in your neighborhood. One thing that does matter is the number of households subscribing will affect the bandwidth available and at certain times of the day your service will be slower.

 

3. DSL is short for Digital Subscriber Line and is provided by a phone company. You will probably not need an installer to come out to your home to get started. Your phone company will turn on your service and they will send you a DSL modem and DSL router or filters. You can use the phone line you have without ordering another one.

 

To get connected, you plug one end of a DSL modem into a regular phone jack and the other end into your computer or DSL router. The filters are used to eliminate potential DSL static from phone jacks in which phones are used. These filters fit easily into the phone jacks and then the phone connections are plugged into the filters.

 

Because you are using your phone line sharing bandwidth with your neighbors is not an issue. However the further away you live from the phone companys office the slower your system will operate. If you live too far away you may not even be able to get DSL service and would not need a DSL router, modem or filters. You will have to check with your cable company to see what your options are at that point.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/quick-paper-feed-problems-copiers-printers-a-3953.html So you need ten sets of a fifty page document for this mornings meeting. Its 830AM and your meeting is at 900AM . You begin with your project and the copier

jams. You clear the jam but it keeps jamming Its not pulling in the paper. Sure you can call the repair person, but you need the copies now Theres nothing you can do, or is there

 

All office equipment that feeds paper has a component inside that pulls the paper out of the paper tray and into the machine. Most are made out of rubber and just like the tires on your car they wear out. When a roller is worn and dirty they will cause paper jams. The purpose of this article is to show you how you can clean or rejuvenate the rollers long enough for you to complete your job and have your repair person come out and fix it properly.

 

Alternative solutions

 

When your machine is jamming, first locate where the paper is jamming. Which paper tray Is it tray 1 or tray 2 Also which size is jamming On machines that have more than one paper tray you can switch paper trays and then you can skip cleaning the rollers. Make sure when you change cassettes that the copier registers the correct size. The machine will think it is a different size and it will jam. The sensors are set for a specific timing and it will know the difference in length from letter size and legal size. I also would try using the bypass tray or manual feed tray if so equipped. This will get you up and running quicker than cleaning the rollers.

 

Determining if the rollers are the problem

 

If you need the specific tray to be functional we will get busy with the repair. First make a single copy in the tray that is jamming. By doing this you are determining where the paper is jamming. If it is jamming in the exit for instance, you have another problem. If it is jamming in the center of the machine, again it is a different problem. But if it jams at the cassette or paper tray area the next step is removing the paper tray. Shine your flashlight into the paper feed area and see if there are any pieces of paper torn off inside or something blocking the paper path. Now that you have ruled out a blocked paper path, you can clean the feed rollers.

 

Tools Required

 

Flashlight, strong cotton towel so it will not rip off in the machine, WD40 or Rubber roller rejuvenator.

 

Note Never use alcohol to clean rollers. It dries out the tread and the remaining tread will get ripped off and then it still will not feed. Use WD40 it works great

 

Cleaning the rollers

 

Shine your flashlight into the paper feed area and locate the rubber rollers that feed the paper in. Grab your towel and saturate it with cleaning fluid. This can be WD40 or your favorite roller rejuvenator. Start by cleaning the roller and spinning it all the way around not missing any of the surfaces of the roller. Then go over it again with the dry part of the towel. As I said there are many different types. Some have a set of three rollers. One Prefeed roller, this pushes the paper into the other rollers. One feed roller and one separation roller. Others have a half moon style. These are harder to clean because they have a clutch system that keeps it at home position when not feeding.

 

WARNING If you try and turn these to clean them you will damage the clutch mechanism There are two ways you can clean these types. First you can actuate the clutch by pushing down on the solenoid or release lever. This sometimes can be hard to get to. You can also start the copy process and shut off the machine exactly when the feed roller engages. This takes some patience and practice but it is better than damaging the clutch. Once you get it where you can clean the roller repeat the procedure above.

 

Some alternatives to replacing feed rollers

 

There is a material called feed roller tape. I have used it when I didnt have the right roller in my car stock. It works with some styles mainly half moon styles. Just peel off the adhesive and wrap it around the worn roller surface. They also have some that stretch over the old rollers. I have never used this but I have been told it will get you up and running. On old copiers or printers that you can no longer get parts for you can apply clear silicon on the feed surface and let it dry twenty four hours. It works but I am inclined to use the real thing. You can also use generic rollers manufactured for almost all equipment. I have mixed feeling about these because I have had to go back and change them again later. For the best repair I use genuine OEM feed rollers. They are still inexpensive and they will last you longer and you will have fewer headaches.

 

Feed Rollers

 

There are many types of rollers and feed systems. Here are some common feed rollers with their part numbers. Rollers will normally come in a maintenance kit but they may need to be replaced approximately half way through the maintenance kit cycle.

 

 

 

HP LJ4000 laser printer

 

Feed Rollers

 

RG52651000CN x 2

 

Note These are very easily replaced. Just unsnap them and replace them with the new roller.

 

Toshiba EStudio 350/450 Photocopier

 

Paper Feed Rollers

 

44201807000 x2, 4400669910

 

Note These take a little more work. First you need to remove the paper feed assembly and then you can get to the clips that hold them on.

 

I hope this has helped you complete your print or copy job. Please remember that this article is just a quick fix and not a long term solution. Be sure and call your repair person to fix it correctly.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/elements-that-makes-personal-computer-system-a-3952.html There are 4 elements that make up a personal computer system the user, software, hardware and the electricity all working together for the whole system. Each of these elements is essential to the system itself.

 

The user is the persons who perform the task using the computer system. The nature of the task depends upon the application program or software that is needed to perform the task. The software that the user used requires certain hardware components to function properly.

 

The hardwares of the personal computer system are made up of its equipment that are usually connected the computer, monitor, printer and so on. It is defined as hardwares because you can physically touch these components. The programs are called softwares since their function can only be used when the computer is turn ON. Software is a set of coded instructions that the computer uses in order to carry out the users tasks.

 

The user can only use the computer when it is turned ON. Without any electrical power to run through the personal computer system, it will not function. The ability of the personal computer system to control its components is through a series of on/off signals.

 

Here is how it works, when a user tries to type a document or a letter using his/her personal computer. The first thing the users do is to turn ON the power for the computer. Choosing a Word Processor software in order to write the document. The user uses the hardware such as the keyboard to write the content of the document; the typed document is then displayed onto the monitor screen. After the user finished writing his/her document, the user will use the software to instruct the printer to print the document. The software works together with the hardware components the keyboard, monitor and printer to accomplish the task that the user requested.

 

All of the four elements the electrical power, hardware, software and the user work together to make up a personal computer system.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/primer-disk-storage-a-3951.html A hard disk begins life as a circular disk with an undifferentiated magnetic coating.  To be useful, that hard disk is formatted.  

 

Formatting in its simplest form means that the disk is magnetically divided into cylinders and sectors.  The cylinders are actually concentric circles radiating out from the center that would look a lot like a bulls eye with many rings.  Each of those cylinders is divided into segments called sectors.  Each sector is addressed by its cylinder number and its sector number in the cylinder.  

 

The sector is the smallest and arguably the largest usable space on the disk.  The computer will not put two files in one sector even if both of them together will fit in it.  

 

On the other side of size, the sector is the largest usable space as well.  When a file needs more than one sector of space, the first sector is filled except for a few bytes.  The computer then goes and finds the next available sector, writes whatever it can to that new sector, and puts the address of the new sector on those remaining few bytes on the first sector that address is called a link.  

 

The computer continues grabbing sectors, filling them, and writing links until the file is completely written to disk.  If the file is deleted, then all of the sectors are returned to the cache of unused sectors.  If the file is shortened, then the new end of the file is found and any unnecessary sectors are returned to the unused sector cache.  If the file is extended, the computer grabs whatever new sectors are needed from where ever they are available and builds the links as necessary.

 

The disk drive requires two kinds of physical motion.  First the hard drive disk is spinning.  Oh it is spinning quite fast but it is a motion well below the speed of electronic memory.  The second motion is the head.  That is similar to the head in your tape drive but much more exact.  It reads variations in the magnetic media to determine what the data is.  The spinning of the disk allows it to read different sectors in the same cylinder.  To read different cylinders, the head must move backwards and forwards over the disk from cylinder to cylinder and reading sectors as they pass beneath the head.

 

 It really is a simple system that works quite well.  However, it is also the main hindrance to speed on the standard home computer because it is the only thing on it that depends on physical motion.  You see, CDs, DVDs, floppies, and hard drives all basically work the same way.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/should-take-time-defrag-your-hard-drive-a-3950.html First lets decipher the geekspeak.  Defrag is short for defragmentation.  It is a synonym for gathering or assembling.  Defragmentation or defragging a disk drive means that you are gathering the various fragmented pieces of a disk file into one contiguous location on the disk drive.  Stay with me on this it will eventually make sense.

 

First a little background.  A hard disk is magnetically divided into cylinders and sectors.  The cylinders are actually concentric circles radiating out from the center that would look a lot like a bulls eye with many rings.  Each of those cylinders is divided into segments called sectors.  Each sector is addressed by its cylinder number and its sector number in the cylinder. 

 

The computer continues grabbing sectors, filling them, and linking them until the file is completely written to disk.  If the file is deleted, then all of the sectors are returned to the cache of unused sectors.  If the file is shortened, then the new end of the file is found and any unnecessary sectors are returned to the unused sector cache.  If the file is extended, the computer grabs whatever new sectors are needed and builds the links as necessary.

 

The problem comes because of your various activities on the computer.  When you initially create that career launching proposal, the file may be all in one contiguous block of sectors on one or two cylinders.  However, as you add some sections to the proposal and remove other sections, that file containing the proposal may be in several spots on the disk.  That means that the first sector may be in cylinder 3 sector 199 and the second sector in cylinder 59 sector 3 and the third sector in cylinder 2 sector 203 and so on.

 

So what  Is it really a problem  Your desktop computer is extremely fast when given a computing task like sorting or calculating because it does all that in memory with addressing.  The disk storage is the achilles heel of the computer for speed.  It is one of the only remaining mechanical devices in the computer and that means that the overall speed of the computer will never be faster than that mechanical device allows.

 

The best tangible illustration of a hard disk is a looseleaf binder full of blank paper.  The binder is the hard drive and each of the pages is a sector.  Then you start writing stuff in the binder one page at a time.  Your subjects come out one at a time and you fill 2 pages with the first subject and 5 pages with the second and 4 pages with the third.  You now have 11 pages filled 254. 

 

Then you realize that there is another 2 pages of stuff to write about the first subject.  In the name of speed you just write that added material on pages 12 and 13 and note at the end of page 2 that the reader needs to go to page 12 for the rest of the text skipping over pages 3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, and 11. 

 

When a reader is trying to read that first subject, he must read page 1 and 2 and then turn pages one at a time to get to page 12.  The reader is not productively reading when he is turning pages.  Time to defragment the binder  To defrag the binder, all four pages of the first subject would be placed together in a contiguous set of pages, then both pages of the second subject, and then the 5 pages of the third subject. 

 

After the physical defragmentation of the binder, the reader no longer has to spend time turning pages instead of reading.

 

After the magnetic defragmentaion of the hard disk, the computer spend more time reading data and less time bouncing from sector to sector and cylinder to cylinder.  Defragmentation should be a part of your regular computer maintenance

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/computer-hardware-five-most-popular-computer-upgrades-a-3949.html Everyone with a computer is looking to have the fastest, and most efficient computer filled with the latest computer

hardware technology. But to keep up with the continual changes as technology becomes more and more advanced requires complete upgrades on your computer. But, what are the best computer upgrades available

 

Memory Upgrade

 

 

 

A memory upgrade is one of the most popular computer hardware upgrades and one of the easiest to do to boost the performance of your pc. But before you do a memory upgrade first check the BIOS operating system to determine how much memory is already on your system.

 

Also to upgrade your memory it will be necessary for you to open the case of your computer to find out how many modules are currently installed and how many slots are still empty. If all the slots are already filled you may have to remove the modules and replace them with larger ones.

 

Now, after finding out the current memory situation, review your operating system and application programs to determine how much memory is needed to make your computer perform at its peek level. In general, these programs provide a minimum and a recommended rating. So to reach the fullest potential of your computer, the memory should meet or exceed the recommended level.

 

Ok, so you now have some basic information to do your memory upgrade, but hold on a second, before running out and buying more memory, check your computer manual or go directly to the motherboard to find out what type of memory is supported by the current computer operating system. If you dont check this out you will most likely get the wrong memory chips and the memory upgrade will not work.

 

Also keep in mind

 

When buying a memory upgrade module, that it is best to buy the largest amount of memory with the least number of modules. This way, there is room for growth in the future. For example, instead of buying two 512MB modules, purchase one 1gb module.

 

Video Card Upgrade

 

A video card upgrade makes it possible to play all of the great games that are currently available on the market. In fact, some games are so advanced that they wont play at all without a very powerful video card.

 

But it can be tough choosing the right video card since there are literally dozens available. It is very important to first take a look at the motherboard to determine what type of video cards are supported by the system, you can also check your computer manual on the types of video cards your system will support. The best video cards are the ones that transfer data the fastest. In order from the fastest to slowest cards are PCI express, AGP 8x, AGP 4x, AGP 2x, AGP and PCI.

 

Sound Card Upgrade

 

The sound card improves the sound produced by the computer. This makes computer gaming more enjoyable, as well as listening to music and watching digital media.

 

In order to install a sound card, you need to locate an available ISA slot on the back of your computer. These slots are the longest sockets on the motherboard and there might be other cards already installed in those sockets. There are two internal openings on each of the slots at the back of the computer. So, remove the access plate at the rear of the socket to insert the sound card. Make sure the access plate on the sound card covers the hole created by removing the initial access plate. But, be sure to gently insert the sound card with a slow back and forth movement, otherwise the sound card can be damaged.

 

DVD Player/Burner Upgrade

 

With so many digital videos becoming available, many people are looking to upgrade to a DVD player and burner combo. The most powerful DVD player/burner currently available is the DVDR/RW. These do tend to, however, be incompatible with older DVDROM drives and DVD players. But the current big names in the industry, such as Sony, HP, and Phillips, support these players. DVDR/RW drives are faster than previous models and are capable of formatting while burning data to the disc.

 

Motherboard Upgrade

 

Now for those of you who are truly serious about upgrading your computer hardware, motherboard upgrades are another popular option. But of course, a motherboard upgrade is the most difficult upgrade to do and I certainly wouldnt recommend it if you dont have a strong background in computers and electronics. For those of you who can manage, however, you will certainly enjoy the freedom of never having to buy a new computer.

 

Instead, the motherboard can be upgraded as technology advances.

 

In addition to eliminating the need to buy a new computer, a motherboard upgrade also makes it easier to upgrade other components on your computer. This is because purchasing a motherboard ensures receiving the most up to date technology, which is then compatible with other upgrade components.

 

Upgrading the motherboard, however, requires serious advanced planning and reading of your computer manual. If you dont do this correctly, your computer will be nothing more than a huge paperweight. If finished correctly, however, the computer will remain on the cutting edge of current technology.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/american-made-computers-a-3948.html Yeah right

 

This release would probably best be titled Find American Made Computers. Why Because you cant. You cant because there are none. Maybe it should be titled Because There Are None...because there are none

 

Have you really checked one of those big box computers lately at Wal Mart, Office Depot, Circuit City or your corner computer shop

Made in China is typically stamped all over the box, and even though our dogs were poisoned, our children are playing with toys loaded with leaded paint, the U.S. had to return ships laden with bad sea food, and every day brings a new fear or recall we go blindly on our self centered way.

 

God knows America needs to be a service oriented industry and nation. We do not wish to work up a sweat or get dirt under our finger nails when such menial labor can be outsourced off shore so cheaply. Our children are not even allowed to play for fear they might get hurt, get sick or get dirty.

 

Every child needs a broken bone, the mumps and measles, a big old dirty collie dog like Lassie to play with, and a freshly baked mud pie. We were happier when that was the norm. Both adults and children were generally healthier then, and the electronics, equipment, machines and automobiles we bought and used were American Made and boy did we take pride in them. Like the earlier computers they were made of metal not plastic, they were not throw away toys, they lasted longer, and above all they contributed to the pride, world standing, and economy of the then Great United States of America.

 

Get the kid out from in front of the helevision and away from X Box Bill Gates has enough of your money. Send him outside to play. His whole nature will improve. He will be less sluggish, grumpy, and disrespectful he might even get his pants back up over his butt. Confiscate his imported cell phone and put him in bed by 900 PM and watch him start to excel at school he might even learn to be a giver instead of taking all the time. Demand and buy American when possible and watch the whole world improve. Raise something and purchase something you can and will take pride in. We will all be the better for it

 

Check this Buy American web page and notice there are no computers or computer parts made in the U.S.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/overview-remote-power-management-solutions-a-3947.html Remote power management solutions allow administrators to remotely power cycle servers and devices and troubleshoot problems, both locally and remote, from any location in the world. This provides administrators with the ability to manage servers more efficiently and reduce server downtime by affording direct access to power control. Remote power management solutions are also used by many businesses and organizations to manage servers at offices and branch locations where there are no IT staff members, offering costefficient lightsout operation at those sites.

 

Remote power management solutions add increased functionality over traditional metered and basic power products. While many power distribution units PDUs can provide basic information and amperage readings, only intelligent or switched PDUs truly provide the benefit of outletlevel management.

 

In determining an appropriate power management solution, integration with todays KVM over IP solutions should be considered. Most enterprise KVM over IP solutions provide the ability to integrate power management within the same interface as the console session on each attached server. This integration can provide datacenter administrators with comprehensive remote power management capabilities.

 

Recent advances in remote power management include

 

o Branch Circuit Protectionseveral products now provide branch circuit protectioneach branch of grouped outlets has its own fuse and circuit breaker, to isolate power anomalies and issues.

 

o 3Phase Powerthe use of 3Phase power in server room and datacenters is on the rise. 3Phase power provides more balanced power loads and allows a greater flow of power into a server rack, while using fewer circuits.

 

o PowerUp Sequencingseveral products offer the ability to inflow of power to each receptacle, to prevent circuit overload and allow systems to reboot in sequence, such as firewalls, then routers, then servers.

 

Advantages of Remote Power Management

Compared to traditional power management solutions, remote power management offers significant and unique advantages.

 

Reduction of Server Downtime and Labor CostsAs remote power management solutions provide administrators with the ability to recycle power to nonresponsive systems and troubleshoot problems remotely, they can lead to a reduction in server downtime and significantly reduce outages and losses. With traditional power management systems, when it is necessary to perform a cold reboot, technicians must be physically present to reboot a system, often at a substantial cost to a company or organization. With remote power management, in most instances, the dispatch of field personnel to manually execute a hard reboot is unnecessary, as administrators can immediately access the PDU via a browser and reboot the switch.

 

Status MonitoringAs server densities increase, power requirements and heat output are also on the rise. Remote power management solutions allow remote monitoring of amperage draw per circuit, humidity, and temperature. Many products are designed so that probes can be mounted directly onto the strip, eliminating the need for external hardware. Most remote power management solutions are SNMPenabled so that alerts can be sent automatically when amperage, temperature, or humidity levels exceed established thresholds.

 

 

 

Frequently Asked Questions About Remote Power Management

 

Question How do you know when circuits are at capacity

Answer An administrator will be notified when circuits are at capacity in two ways. An onsite administrator can check an LED on the PDU itself, which will display the total amperage draw. Additionally, administrators can view amperage remotely through a feature in the webbased management tool or utilizing SNMP integration.

 

Question How quickly and effectively can power be recycled using remote power management

Answer Once an administrator sends a command for remote reboot, it takes place immediately.

 

Question Can all remote power management solutions allow administrators to gain true redundancy and simultaneous control of multiple power supply devices

Answer No. However, there are several manufacturers that provide simultaneous reboot of redundant power supplies, grouped across separate circuits.

 

Question What security features do remote reboot power devices offer

Answer Remote reboot power devices have many security features. Basic features include user name and password authentication and communication via SSL or using SSH. Additionally, the use of LDAP, Active Directory, RADIUS or TACACS can be added to provide integration with existing authentication schema.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/beat-heat%20effective-cooling-strategies-today%20s-datacente-a-3946.html Datacenter cooling is the main concern for many datacenter managers. Excess heat in a server room adversely affects equipment performance, shortens its lifespan, and leads to a premature end of life for equipment. Keeping a server room at the recommended 68 to 77 F 1 is not an easy task. There are many factors that make cooling todays datacenters a significant challenge, including highdensity computing clusters and rapid changes in technology.

 

HighDensity Computing Clusters

 

The rise in the use of blade servers and virtual servers has greatly increased the potential amount of power consumed per rack, as well as the resulting heat output. While the heat dissipated by a 2 ft by 2.5 ft rack is currently about 10 kilowatts or more, experts estimate that designs for future equipment will require dissipations of 3050 kW in the same rack space.2 The trend toward increased power consumption has been documented in several studies, including one recent fiveyear study of 19 computer rooms that showed that power consumption rose by 39 from 19992005.3

 

Changes in Technology

 

Traditionally, advances in technology have occurred at an extremely rapid rate, as illustrated by Moores Law, which predicts the doubling of semiconductor performance approximately every 24 months. Historically, increased computational abilities have led to increased power consumption and heat loads. Datacenter managers should take these trends into account when planning for future expansion. According to Gartner Research, Without careful planning and coordination between the data center facilities staff and the server procurement staff, data centers will not be able to increase power or cooling in line with increases in server deploymentsthrough yearend 2008, heat and cooling requirements for servers will prevent 90 percent of enterprise data centers from achieving the maximum theoretical server density. 4

 

Isolating Hot Spots

 

Hot Spots are areas in a datacenter that are not properly cooled, often resulting in temperatures that exceed recommend conditions for maximum equipment reliability and performance. Hot spots are not necessarily caused by a lack of cooling capacity and commonly occur in datacenters with sufficient or excess cooling capacity, but can be caused by poor circulation or improper air flow.

 

Zone Hot Spots can be present over fairly large areas in a datacenter and occur when the temperature at all air intake levels of a rack or cabinet are too hot, due to expelled air flow that is not properly routed.

 

Vertical Hot Spots occur over a small area and often affect a single server rack. They occur when equipment at the bottom of a rack consumes the available supply of cold air and devices higher up in the rack pull in the hot air exhaust of adjacent equipment or ambient air.

 

Strategies to Improve Datacenter Cooling

 

Datacenter managers can take several steps to meet datacenter cooling challenges, including choosing the right rack, increasing datacenter energy efficiency, using liquid cooling units, and taking advantage of environmental monitoring.

 

1. Select The Right Rack And Accessories

To fully maximize equipment cooling, when selecting a server rack consider intelligent and spaceefficient design features that various rack models offer, including frame profile and capacity for increased packing density. Use blanking panels to manage air flow efficiency and select a rack with builtin channels for better cable management and improved air flow. Fully perforated doors and top panels can help improve ventilation as well. Also consider server rack accessories that will improve cooling, including fans, enclosure blowers, and rack air conditioners. In addition, consider using energyefficient power supplies, such as 220V power, which significantly increases available amperage into the server rack, using fewer circuits while providing a more balanced power load. This can reduce the overall number of PDUs needed to power equipment, leaving more space for airflow.

 

2. Aim for Energy Efficiency

 

There are several steps you can take to reduce overall energy consumption and resulting heat loads in your data center. To begin with, consider hiring an expert to conduct room diagnostics, measure airflow, and correct any cooling problems identified. Next, conduct a thorough audit of your equipment and determine if any servers can be consolidated or discardedthis process can cut power consumption in some organizations by up to 30. 5 Finally, clean up any clutter under your datacenter floor, including cabling, that might be impeding air flow.

 

3. Deploy Liquid Cooling Units

 

As powerintensive applications and server densities have increased, Liquid Cooling Packages LCPs have become a valuable alternative to ambient air cooling and can better meet the cooling challenges presented by highdensity computing clusters. These modular, temperatureneutral highdensity cooling solutions utilize air/water heat exchangers to provide uniform, effective cooling. Liquid cooling units use a special horizontal airflow with constanttemperature cold air provided at the front intake and hot air removed from the rear of the enclosure. They can be mounted at the rack base, in a rack side car. Fullyloaded LCPs have a 30kW cooling output with three cooling modules possible per equipment rack, and controlled variable speed fan and water flow based on actual heat load generated in a cabinet.

 

4. Use Environmental Monitoring

 

These devices allow administrators to proactively monitor rack and server room temperature, including hot spots, at any time and from anywhere and provide protection to missioncritical applications. They also allow administrators to continuously monitor amperage draw per circuit, water leaks, and physical security and can send alerts automatically via SMTP/SMS/SNMP when conditions exceed established thresholds. This allows IT managers to quickly respond to any irregularities before they become larger problems. Environmental monitoring devices also help administrators in future planning, as they provide valuable data that can be used for trending analysis.

 

When considering datacenter management, cooling is only one piece of the puzzle. Other key considerations include intelligent power management and KVM console management tools. The team at 42U specializes in assessing needs, creating solutions, and supporting our clients, to ensure that IT professionals maximize their use of current technologies to improve overall business performance.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/must-have-programs-that-will-speed-your-computer-free-a-3945.html Is your computer becoming slower and slower and creaking up the weight of the many files you have Or maybe your computer hasnt got the necessary protection to block all those nasty infections and hackers on the Internet If so, what can you do about protecting and speeding up your computer, and without spending any cash

 

Well, if you install all three of the programs I mention below then you will indeed give your computer a rather quick and very useful health checkup whilst ensuring that it has the ability to fight off most infections and block hackers

trying to access your computer.

 

1 CCleaner formly known as CrpCleaner

 

This program is absolutely brilliant. It will remove all of the temporary files that clog up your computer. It can also remove any traces of Internet activity, remove stubborn programs that dont advertise their uninstall option and many other options. Best of all its freeware and it does not contain any spyware or adware.

 

Ive been using it for a while now and when you run it for the first time, you will be surprised how much junk it finds and removes. Your computer will run faster after using this program. Ensure you run this at least once/twice a month for bestcontinued results. This version is compatible with Internet Explorer, Firefox and Opera browsers. It can be used on Windows 98/NT4/ME/2000/XP/2003 & Vista.

 

2 Lavasoft Adware 2007

 

Lavasofts AdAware 2007 is a freeware antispyware software thats available for home use only. The program includes includes skins, help manuals and the latest definition files. Its a very useful program to help remove spyware and adware. Unfortunately the realtime guard is only available on the paid for version.

 

This version is a much better program than the previous AdAware SE, which was good, but did not catch most of the spyware and adware that had infected your computer. The freeware version of AdAware 2007 is compatible with Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, and Vista. An ideal program to remove those annoying spyware files.

 

3 Zone Alarm Firewall

 

You need a firewall on your computer. Without one, its like leaving your front and back door unlocked in your house. Undesirables will get in and cause damage. The firewall included in Windows XP and Vista are poor. They are better than nothing, but use a good free program such as Zone Alarm and you will be able to help your computer battle the nasty files and hackers out there who want access to your computer.

 

All of the above are suggestions and if you have programs on your computer youre happy with, then keep them. If you dont, well download the ones above and see how much better your computer performs. Please enter the program name into a search engine to be able to find the most up to date link for downloading.

 

The three above programs are for home use only. They can be upgraded to unlock more options. In the free for home use state, the programs are more than adequate in helping you protect and speed up your computer for free.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/things-should-aware-before-upgrading-memory-a-3944.html When a computer starts to run slow the first thing that pops into the mind of most people is I need more memory. Upgrading your systems memory is one of the cheapest and easiest upgrades to perform, but before you upgrade  you need to find out a few things about your system.

 

How to find your current memory/RAM information

 

If you have no idea what kind of memory your system is currently using then go download and install the following program.

 

CPUID

 

CPUID will show you the type of memory you are using, how much of it you have, as well as more advanced information. For now we are just interested in the size, i.e. the amount of RAM in your system.

 

 

To upgrade or not to upgrade

 

If you have 2GB of RAM or more you probably have enough as it stands. In that case you may want to try other alternatives to speed up your PC, such as

 

1. Defrag your hard drive Either use Windows built in defragger, or a thirdparty defragger. The windows one can be found in the Help and Support > Tools > Disk Defragmenter on WinXP systems.

 

1. Run a Virus/Spyware/Trojan scan

 

1. Disable background programs/service Start > Run > type msconfig > Start up tab > uncheck programs you dont need on start up.

 

1. Use windows performance monitoring to diagnose the problem This can be found in Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Performance. You can add counters by rightclicking on the chart. You should probably seek out a tutorial on how to use this.

 

1. Format your drive The last resort, so try everything else first

 

On the other hand, if you have 1GB or less you will most likely benefit from upgrading, especially if you are running Windows Vista. Vista seems to thrive at 2GB and it wouldnt hurt to have 2GB in a Windows XP or Linux system as well.

 

 

Things you should know beforehand

 

When upgrading your memory you should be aware of the following

 

1. All the RAM in your system should be identical, in other words all your RAM sticks should be of the same type, brand, and have the same timings. Using identical RAM will provide you with a more stable system than mixing RAM from different vendors.

 

1. In most cases the RAM currently in your system will be replaced by your new RAM.

Make sure your motherboard can support the RAM you are planning to buy. Its a good idea to check your motherboard manual or website regarding supported memory types e.g.  DDR, DDR2, DDR3, Rambus, etc

 

For 32bit operating systems there is no point in having more than 4GB of RAM. In actuality only about 3GB of the 4GB is used with the remainder reserved by the OS. If you want a system that can run more than 4GB of memory you need to install a 64bit version of the operating system.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/tips-remove-spyware-from-your-computer-a-3943.html Your computer is your portal to the Internet, to speak to friends via email or instant messenger, to play games on or even to educate you or your children. However your computer is at risk the minute you browse on the Internet. All kinds of nasty files from spyware, adware, malware to computer viruses which are lurking to attack your computer, all without your knowledge. I am going to give you three easy to follow tips that will enable you to repel and remove spyware

infections from your computer.

 

The first tip I can offer is to practice safe browsing techniques. This sounds obvious, although it is tempting to visit those sites that offer downloads and goodies for free. Most of the time they come with a price, infected files within the download itself.

 

So to prevent spyware files from being downloaded onto your computer in the first place, do only download legitimate files or programs from safe and trusted websites. If you are unsure then ensure you have the latest browser installed on your computer. Preferably you should be using Firefox as this can warn you if you are visiting a potentially dodgy website.

 

The second tip that you should implement is to ensure that you have an antispyware program that has an online guard contained within. Antispyware programs that remove spyware are great at removing infections, but that is all they can do remove after the infections has occurred.

 

The best way to combat spyware is to limit the amount of infectious files that will be able to infiltrate your computer. As this article is to help you remove spyware for free, then I can recommend two products at the time of writing this. The first program is Spyware Doctor. The free version does have a decent online guard. The paid for version is slightly better, but the free version is a very good product in its own right. The second program is Spyware Terminator. You will only need one of them not both.

 

The third and final tip is to run a regular scan of your computer with whatever antispyware program you use. Ensure that you also regularly update your antispyware program for the latest file definitions so the antispyware program can find the latest spyware that is released to attack your computer.

 

How regular you run your antispyware program is based on how much you use your computer. Once a week is fine if you use your computer frequently but to not to excess. Personally I run a scan every 2 days as I do use my computer every day. My computer is pretty clean.

 

Unless you are using a Macintosh or Linux based machine, it is near impossible to stop spyware from infecting your computer. However, by following the above tips you can reduce the amount of infectious spyware files get through your computer defences and cause you too much havoc.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/tips-shop-best-bluetooth-headset-a-3942.html If you want to find the best Bluetooth headset, there are a few steps you need to take. No matter what Bluetooth headset you choose you are going to reap the benefits that the Bluetooth technology has to offer.

 

Here are a few tips that will certainly help get you started and make you more aware of the benefits that the Bluetooth technology has to offer.

 

About Bluetooth

 

To find the best Bluetooth headset one of the very first things you must do is learn more about the technology itself and what it has to offer.

 

Bluetooth technology makes it possible to provide unique and innovative services to a professional worker or small group of workers using portable devices.

 

It replaces clumsy wires, and makes information transfer as quick and convenient for users as possible.

 

Bluetooth technology is a wireless protocol that connects electronic devices while they are in close vicinity of one another.

 

Benefits

 

If you want to find the best Bluetooth headset you must be aware of all the benefits the model has to offer. Everyone requires different features and functions of their headset, depending on the purpose they will be using the headset for and you must learn more about this before deciding on any model.

 

Do Your Research

 

Once you are considering a particular Bluetooth headset, one of the things you are going to want to do is read a Bluetooth headset review on the model. This will help you out tremendously because you will be getting an honest, firsthand review on the model and better determine whether or not it is going to be worth you buying.

 

All of these tips will help you to find the best Bluetooth headset and you are never going to go back to your old headset after you have experienced the Bluetooth technology and all that it offers.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/rs232-dead-a-3941.html I think Im turning into a grumpy old man, but where are the com ports on my new laptop The domestic markets embrace of USB does not however mean that the COM port is dead.

 

Serial communication was originally developed for the teletype nickname for a teletypewriter and trademark of the Teletype Corporation USA, an electromechanical marvel that emerged in the 1920s for transmitting messages from one point to another. Some even used punched paper tape so you could relay information output from one teletype and feed the strip into another.

 

Teletypes were adapted as the means of getting information into and out of early computers and in 1969 the RS232C standard emerged. The first VDU terminals were developed to be compatible with the old mechanical teletypes and the RS232 protocol along with start/stop and parity bits was reborn into our computer age as the COM port.

 

The ability for RS232 to be implemented mechanically made it easy to synthesize electronically. The protocols simplicity meant that unsophisticated devices could be controlled without internal firmware and led to its widespread adoption in industrial automation.

 

Speed and elegance eventually inspired the USB protocol and the concept of universal plugandplay. USB devices identify themselves upon connection to a host OS which then configures itself to communicate with that device by installing the appropriate drivers or by graceful failure, prompting the user to insert a disk.

 

USB is an unnecessary complication in dedicated environments such as a vehicle installation. A taxicab may have a taximeter that communicates its fare and tariff information via RS232 to a data terminal or printer. These devices need to be compatible but dont require the overhead of plugandplay intelligence.

 

Although low cost serial to USB semiconductors may make the concept of a USB taximeter possible, creating the USB host for it becomes a nightmare. Any unit with a USB host socket on it implies acceptance of a whole range of USB devices. Deciding what devices to support, communicating a lack of support to the user graceful failure, and then installing that support, brings pointless complication and cost.

 

Like USB, integrating multiple RS232 devices requires a communications hub. However, because RS232 is not universal, integration may require some processing and device configuration via a simple human interface. The demand for more elaborate RS232 environments has now prompted the emergence of devices like the Datax3 terminal  and the Lynx communications hub from Diplomat Ltd. which fills the gap between multiple serial devices and an ergonomic interface flexible enough to cater for interaction with that environment.

 

USB is great for the domestic computer market but in dedicated environments the traditional serial RS232 communications port is still very much alive.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/dust-dirt-doghair-removal-from-your-computer-a-3940.html I recently had a Computer Cleaning Business. It didnt take off that well but I learned one heck of a lot of excellent computer cleaning skills. It seems that businesses dont want anybody tampering with their computers except their own I.T. people. Its okay, its all good, I learned so much.

 

There are 3 simple steps to cleaning out the dust and dirt out of your computer.

 

1.disconnect the tower

 

2.open the tower and blow air in it

 

3.reconnect the tower

 

Heat destroys computers. Dust and other debris will most certainly choke any possibility of ventilation for your computer, specifically the delicate electronic components. capacitors, resistors, transistors ect. ect. As Im sure you know, your computer has fans and these fans attract huge amounts of thick, sticky dust Just look at the heat sink on top of your CPU. This is only one dust problem in your computer, there are more.

 

The next big accumulator of dirt is your power supply. This little box inside your computer converts your 120 volts A.C. through some electronics to 24v, 18v,12v and 3 volts D.C. Its quite an amazing piece of electronics. Never open a power supply, the voltages that reside in the capacitors are fatal. The fan or fans in this box suck in dust and dirt that sticks on the fan blades. If dust buildup accumulates on the fan blades of any fan, the blades will become unbalanced. This will eventually pull the fan apart .The life of your computer will be extended for years if allowed proper ventilation. Why replace when you can get the dust out of the computer.

 

Right about now your probably asking yourself, why do I need computer cleaning now I have gotten along fine without it before. Of course, but the fact is that it only a matter of time before the cpu, power supply or other mainboard component fails leaving your data gone. Depending on the location, the computer will get dirty and fail, if not right away than bit by bit with little errors and cursor freeze ups. These are conditions where the computer is telling you something. Something is wrong. What is wrong is that the machine is running too hot

 

This method of cleaning dust and debris is so thorough, after your done the fans inside your machine will run quieter and smoother with less vibration. If you want to see the positive effects of cleaning on your computer, go to freewarefiles.com, download speedfan, a totally free program that monitors your CPU temp. After cleaning, look at the temperature of your CPU, it is much lower.

 

Canned air is not effective, at best it only blows the dust around and cant even touch greasy dust. A vacuum cleaner can only do surface stuff.

 

What really does the best job, an air compressor. Yep, thats the ticket. Disconnect all the cables, bring the tower outdoors. Open the case and make sure it is on a steady surface as well as the air compressor. Turn down the pressure to 15 lbs. per square inch. 15 P.S.I. Blow the dust in short bursts from 2 to 3 seconds. You will see large clouds of dust flying out your computer. Dont forget the inside and outside vents of the power supply box, the CPU and all the fans and fan blades, around the disk drives not inside the drives themselves.

 

Make sure the air compressor nozzle over 3 inches away from any parts. Static electricity can destroy your computer. So blow out your computer until no dirt comes out.

 

Put on the cover, go back inside and reconnect it. Now is a good time to do the keyboard.

 

You can take a Qtip lightly dipped in alcohol not dripping and run that in between the keys. For stuff like dried on ice cream and yogurt, put the Qtip in a hand drill and gently maneuver it between the keys.

 

Do this once a year, and your computer will be singing.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/it%20s-easy-build-your-computer-a-3939.html With the prices of computers these days and the rapidly changing technology of newer, faster computers being developed, it is really easy to build your home computer.

 

It is quite possible to get a tower for 100 bucks and thats including a decent power supply.

 

A good quality motherboard together with a CPU for under 100 bucks.

 

CD drive

 

, could be 40 bucks or more.

 

Hard drive for another 40 bucks.

 

Memory could be included but 1 Gigabyte ranges about 40 bucks.

 

Keyboard, 20 bucks.

 

Flat screen, 200 bucks.

 

Canon printer, 100 bucks.

 

This total can be brought down. It is only an estimate.

 

These are Canadian prices, U.S. Prices are cheaper. You will get an installation manual that comes with the motherboard. The dealer that sold you the motherboard can give you some help if you need it. If you want any on line help, please leave me a message on my blog.

 

Step 1. Screw the motherboard into the tower. Be gentle screwing in, make sure the screws turn smoothly. Dont force anything. When I have the screwdriver in the screw head, I turn the screw backwards first counterclockwise. I do this until I hear a click, then I know its threaded right and turn the screw clockwise.

 

Step 2. Plug the connector from the power supply into the motherboard. Its a long rectangular plastic piece called the ATX connector. There will be small mini connectors to LCD lights on the tower, connect these small wires to the motherboard now.

 

Step 3. Slide the CD drive into the bay on the tower and screw that into place.

 

Step 4. Plug the master CD drive into the motherboard connector marked IDE1 or master. Make sure the CD jumpers on the drive are connected for Cable Select. Close the case.

 

Step 5. Plug in the keyboard and mouse into the motherboard. This could be with round miniconnectors. There is a small picture of a mouse and a small picture of a keyboard beside these connectors. If USB ports are used, any spot where a USB port can be plugged into will do.

 

Step 6. Plug in the printer. Nowadays it is a USB connector.

 

Now your done building the computer. Plug in the 3 pronged power cord from the back of your computer into the wall. Turn on the switch. If you did everything right, you should hear the gentle hum of the fans. If you dont, remove the power cord out of the wall, you dont want any voltage going in at all at this point. Slowly, go over all your steps, carefully tracing everything you did. Refer to the installation guide that came with the motherboard.

 

This is a rough guide, and your installation will differ but these are the main procedures. When I first built my first computer, I was amazed how easy it was and why I held back from building all these years. Try it. It is so easy, is very fulfilling and you will surprise yourself

 

P.S. The best, absolute best computer hardware book Scott Muellers Upgrading and Maintaining PCs.

 

He has written a new edition every year since 1991. There are many older editions in your local library. This excellent book includes connectors, hardware, motherboards, power supplies, towers, keyboards, screens and other stuff.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/imac-user-guide-a-3938.html 1 First steps

 

a Unpacking

 

When you unpack your iMac, ensure you hold it firmly by the sides. Place it on a nearby desk or working area where theres a convenient electric socket.

 

 b Power cord            

               

Place the power cord through the hole in the back of the iMacs stand and connect to the power port.   Plug the other end of the cord into the electric socket.    

 

 c Additional items

 

Your iMac also comes with an Apple Keyboard, Apple Mighty Mouse and Apple Remote.

 

• Take the Apple Keyboard cable and connect to one of the USB ports on the back of the iMac

 

• Take the Apple Mighty Mouse cable and connect to a USB port on the side of the keyboard

 

If you have an Apple Wireless Keyboard and Wireless Mighty Mouse, refer to the wireless manual for their installation.

 

 d Internet cable

 

Plug an Ethernet cable into the Ethernet port at the back of the iMac. Plug the other end of the cable into an appropriate modem or network.

 

Please note  you also have the option of a wireless connection with Apples AirPort Extreme technology.   

 

   e Basic features

 

Before you switch on, note the basic builtin features of the iMac. These include

 

• microphone located on the top edge

 

• an iSight camera at the top of the screen together with a camera indicator light

 

• a slotloading optical disc drive on the side of the iMac

 

• stereo speakers

 

• an infrared receiver

 

• two USB 2.0 ports on the Apple Keyboard

 

 

 

On the back of the iMac, there are also

 

• three USB 2.0 ports

 

• an Ethernet port

 

• a MiniDVI port

 

• an audio in/optical digital audio in port

 

• a headphone out/optical digital audio out port

 

• a FireWire 400 port

 

• a FireWire 800 port

 

• a power port

 

2 Initial setup    a Switching on and setting up

 

Press the power button on the back of your iMac. Setup Assistant starts automatically. It guides you through all the basic procedures to create your

•  
• user account
•  
• email account
•  
• internet connection

 

Setup Assistant also shows you how to transfer your files, applications and other data from an existing Mac computer.   You dont have to make these transfers immediately. Instead, use Migration Assistant see Applications > Utilities when youre ready to bring the information across.

 

 b Customisation   To customise your iMac, use Apple > System Preferences on the menu bar. This is the command centre for the majority of your iMacs settings.

 

 c Sleep mode or turning off   Putting your iMac into Sleep mode allows you to avoid the startup procedure when you next use your machine. To implement Sleep, you have a number of choices

 

• click Apple > Sleep on the Menu Bar

 

• press the power button and click Sleep in the dialogue box

 

• click Apple > System Preferences, then Energy Saver and set the timer

 

• on the Apple Remote, press and hold Play/Pause for three seconds

 

    To wake your iMac, you have a choice of

 

 

• clicking the Apple Mighty Mouse

 

• pressing the power button

 

• pressing any Apple Keyboard button

 

• pressing any Apple Remote button

 

Use Sleep only if you intend to return to your iMac within a day or so. To shut down your iMac, either

 

• click Apple > Shut Down, or

 

• press the power button and click Shut Down in the dialogue box

 

To switch your iMac back on, press the power button.  

 

3 Quick Mac OS X guide

 

 a Operating system

 

Mac OS X Leopard is the operating system of your iMac and all other Macs, and is already installed on your computer. It controls your files, applications and connected devices, and works in a similar way to Windows.

 

 b Basic controls

 

As youd expect, the basic controls are the Apple Keyboard and the Apple Mighty Mouse. If youre more familiar with Windows, what youll find with Mac OS X is that youll need to use the keyboard and mouse fewer times to achieve the same results.

 

 c GUI

 

The first thing youll notice with Mac OS X is the style of everything that appears on the screen. Mac employs a GUI graphical user interface called Aqua. This gives you impressive cleancut images and stunning visual effects, all of which Apple has designed to make Mac OS X more userfriendly.

 

 d Central features

 

The icons, layouts and navigation of the iMac screens are straightforward. There are windows, menus, folders and shortcuts. There are also four central features that help you remain organised and productive

 

• Desktop

 

• Dock

 

• Finder

 

• Menu bar

 

Desktop  

 

The Desktop is a screen where youll normally begin each time you use your iMac. The first icon youll come across here in the upper right corner is the Macintosh HD hard drive. When you use different functions of your iMac, other HD icons will appear. Double click on an HD icon to view the files and applications it contains.

 

Points to note

 

 

• Use the Desktop to store files, folders, pictures and documents

 

• When you connect an external device to the iMac, a corresponding icon appears on the Desktop

 

• If you create different users for your iMac, Mac OS X gives each one a separate Desktop

 

• The Desktop always lies behind any applications youre running

 

 

Dock  

 

The Dock is a row of icons at the bottom of the screen. Use the Dock to access your most frequently used folders, applications and windows simply click on the appropriate icon. You can customise the icons to suit your use of the iMac.   Note that when a window appears, it has three buttons in the upper left corner.

 

• The red button closes the window

 

• The yellow button minimises the window to the Dock

 

• The green button maximises and minimises the size of the window

 

Finder

 

One of the icons on the Dock is the Finder on the far left. Use this to navigate and manage almost every aspect of your iMac such as folders, drives and applications.

 

 

 

Menu Bar

 

There is only one Menu Bar with Mac OS X. It appears as a single line at the top of the screen.

 

Use the Menu Bar to

 

• interact with a programme

 

• view and change settings and applications

 

• close applications

 

• view recent work

 

• log in or out

 

• begin the sleep mode

 

• commence a restart

 

• switch the iMac off

 

 

The Menu Bar alters according to the application youre using. This way, it offers you the items most appropriate to the application.

 

4 Connectivity

 

Your iMac has a total of five USB 2.0 ports two on the keyboard; three on the back of the iMac. Use these to connect the Apple Mighty Mouse plus devices such as your

 

• iPhone

 

• iPod

 

• digital camera

 

• printer

 

• disc drive

 

• modem

 

• joystick

 

The ports will also accept USB 1.1 peripherals.

 

Your iMac is preloaded with a large range of drivers. This means that it will usually recognise your USB device without the need to run additional software.

 

5 Extra features

 

a Security Slot

 

A Security Slot on the back of your iMac allows you to connect a cable and lock to deter and stop thieves.

 

b Memory Access

 

Your iMac has a standard 1 GB of memory. You can increase this by a further 3 GB by using the Memory Access slot at the bottom of the iMac.

 

 

 

c AirPort Extreme wireless technology

 

AirPort Extreme wireless technology allows you to connect to a wireless network.

 

  

 

d Bluetooth

 

Your iMac has Bluetooth 2.1EDR wireless technology. This lets you connect wireless devices that include

 

• Bluetooth mobile phones

 

• Printers

 

• PDAs

 

• The Apple Wireless Keyboard and Wireless Mighty Mouse

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/remanufactured-inkjet-toner-cartridges-inkjet-cartridges-a-3937.html Inkjet toner cartridges which are remanufactured, have some great advantages over brand new inkjet toner cartridges and inkjet ink cartridges. The remanufactured inkjet toner cartridges not only reduce the cost of the business, but also reduce the impact of these discarded products on the environment to a large extent. It might be a surprising fact for most us, but it is true that remanufactured inkjet toner cartridges and inkjet ink cartridges are sometimes superior in product quality as well. One of the very important advantages, which cannot be ignored at this stage of economic recession, is the support which the remanufacturing of inkjet toner cartridges and inkjet ink cartridges provides to the declining economy of the country.

 

Some Important Facts

 

Contrary to the popular belief, these remanufactured inkjet toner and ink cartridges are compatible with most of the printers, copiers and fax machines which use allinone cartridges. However, Imaging systems using separate drums and toner bottles are an exception to this rule. The remanufacturing of inkjet toner cartridges and inkjet ink cartridges involves disassembling, repair or replacement of the worn out or damaged parts. It also involves the cleaning, refilling and reassembling of the inkjet ink cartridges and inkjet toner cartridges. This process can be repeated any number of times for the inkjet ink cartridges and inkjet toner cartridges.

 

Environmental & Health issues

 

The remanufacturing of inkjet toner cartridges and inkjet ink cartridges is an infallible solution to many of the environmental and health issues as it considerably decreases the amount of plastic, metals and rubber used in incinerators. Also, the remanufacturing of these products saves significant amount of energy.

 

It is a well known fact that almost three quarts of oil is used in the manufacturing of a single brand new inkjet toner cartridge. One should always consider the environmental benefits one can impress upon by the use of remanufactured inkjet ink and toner cartridges which can be easily remanufactured up to four times. There is no doubt that every time an inkjet toner cartridge or an inkjet ink cartridge is remanufactured, the resources are utilised to the maximum extent compounding the benefits of remanufacturing on the environment.

 

Most of the users confirm that the remanufactured inkjet ink and toner cartridges perform equally well, if not better than the brand new ones. This improved performance of the remanufactured cartridges is mainly contributed to the fact that most of the reputed remanufacturing companies exercise great quality control measures. Gone are the days when the companies used to follow the drill and fill methods to refill cartridges without proper quality control. In todays competitive scenario, every reputed company wants to prove its mettle through quality products and hence follow superior production measures.

 

Remanufactured inkjet ink and toner cartridges are considered to be an intelligent choice many big companies as they reduce the cost by 50 percent. Also they contain 20 percent more ink or toner than the new ones.

 

To Conclude

 

In todays world when millions of used inkjet ink cartridges and toner cartridges are thrown in trash bins, remanufactured ink and toner cartridges prove to be a good choice as help in cost cutting without compromising with quality or performance.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/imac-review-a-3936.html First impressions

 

When you unpack an iMac, your first reaction is to treat it with respect. The sheer style and build quality of the aluminium and glass body with its finely engineered stand are unique among desktop computers.

 

Place the iMac on your desk and your automatic response is to take a step back and admire it. There isnt a single thing to break the smooth lines except the discretely mounted iSight camera at the top of the screen. The power button and the sockets are at the back; the stereo speakers lie underneath; the optical disc drive is situated neatly on the side; and the cameras microphone is beneath a set of tiny holes drilled into the top. The iMac is ahead of the game when it comes to being sleek and stylish.

 

Quality and style extend to the Apple Mighty Mouse and the Apple Keyboard. Theyre also a pleasure to use. Once youre familiar with the single button of the Apple Mighty Mouse, its easy to operate and fits snugly into the palm of the hand. The Apple Keyboard may surprise you with its compact, sleek looks; its low front edge, however, means theres no need for a wrist support. The ergonomic design and soft keys help keep the users hands in a natural, relaxed position.

 

This is fine, of course, but the other initial point of interest for a new computer is the quality of the screen images. The iMac has two screen sizes, a 20 inch and a 24inch. Both are widescreen TFT activematrix liquid crystal displays with glass fronts. The resolution of the 20 inch screen is 1680 by 1050 pixels, and that of the 24 inch screen 1920 by 1200 pixels.

 

For the user, the screens are remarkably clear with dynamic glossy colours and satisfyingly sharp detail. The glossy finish can prove a problem in some lighting conditions so you do need to account for this when you locate the screen. But this is a minor quibble for screens that burst with life and offer viewing angles of 1600 on the 20 inch model, and 1780 on the 24 inch version.

 

Technical spec

 

The technical specifications of the iMac prove this machine is good value for money. The processors are all Intel Core 2 Duo with options of 2.4GHz and 2.66GHz for the 20 inch model, and 2.8GHz and 3.06GHz for the 24 inch. With such powerhouses, you can expect to engage in fast, slick computing. Apple has gone a step further, however, and increased frontside bus speed from the 800MHz that appeared in former versions of the iMac to 1,066MHz. This improves the link between the processor and the computer memory. The result is an even quicker operating speed.

 

Standard memory for the 2.4GHz is 1GB installed as a 1GB SODIMM, and for the other processors, 2GB installed as two 1GB SODIMMs. You can buy more RAM and add it to the iMac via the Memory Access slot to a maximum of 4GB. If you do this, theres no need to replace the original SODIMM.

 

Basic hard drive storage is a useful 250GB for the 2.4GHz iMac with an option for 320GB or 500GB. These options are particularly attractive if you intend to keep a lot of music, pictures and videos on your machine. The other models come with 320GB and a chance to boost this to 500GB or 750GB. The 24 inch iMac also offers 1TB of storage as its top of the range option surely enough for most purposes.

 

On the 20 inch screen with 2.4GHz, graphics come via an ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT processor with 128MB of GDDR3 memory. This increases to an ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO graphics processor with 256MB of GDDR3 memory for the 2.66GHz version. Gaming enthusiasts will doubtless opt for the latter, although the most serious among them will consider the 24 inch iMac. This is not just because of the enhanced screen size Apple gives them the chance to have the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR3 memory. The NVIDIA gives you superb quality from the most challenging 3D games available, and with such a graphics card behind it, gaming fans cannot ignore what the iMac offers them.

 

Hardware Connections

 

The iMac now has three USB 2.0 ports at the back and two on the Apple Keyboard. The keyboard ports are particularly convenient for the quick and easy attachment of devices. One extra feature worth noting is that you can now charge your iPod from one of the USB ports, even when the iMac is in Sleep mode.

 

All models also have one FireWire 400 port and one FireWire 800 port rated at 7 watts each. This is a distinct improvement on previous iMac versions where only the 24 inch model had the 800 port.

 

Communications

 

Each iMac has wireless capability. This is in the form of AirPort Extreme WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1EDR. There is also an Ethernet connection.

 

Audio

 

The builtin stereo speakers with their internal 24 watt digital amplifier give excellent sound quality. Once they hear these, most users wont need to attach external speakers.

 

Other audio features include headphone/optical digital audio output and audio line in/optical digital audio input minijacks.

 

Other

 

A MiniDVI output port gives you the option of DVI, VGA, Svideo and composite video connections. You may need a suitable adaptor for some of these, however.

 

Software

 

The operating system is the Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard. The computer press has almost universally compared this favourably to Windows and its easy to see why. A PC user may certainly struggle at first to adapt to Mac OS X, but once this hurdle is past, the system is fast and simple. And thanks to Apples determination to provide a useful, stateoftheart machine, you can now run Windows alongside Mac OS X Leopard and install Microsoft Office.

 

The preinstalled software of the iMac includes a wide range of updated Apple applications, together with iLife 08. Briefly, the iMac software enables you to perform all the basic functions youd expect such as emailing and Internet surfing, plus extras such as creating and editing websites, photos and films. You can also use iChat to set up fourway video conferencing.

 

Depending on your needs, however, you may want to add iWork to the software spec. iWork allows you to manage all Microsoft office systems that cover word processing, spreadsheets and presentations.

 

But whatever the software, it originates with Apple. This means that the same principles apply to each screen. Once you grasp the draganddrop approach, everything becomes simple and fun to use.

 

Performance

 

Its surprisingly difficult to compare the iMac to its competitors because Apple offers three distinct differences

 

• Style

 

• the Mac OS X operating system

 

• its own software

 

Nonetheless, it is possible to compare the more objective items of power, memory, storage and graphics. In these respects, the iMac is not only great value, Apple have put the computer together very cleverly. By giving a lot of thought to the interaction of the iMacs component parts, Apple has maximised speed and efficiency. You rarely see this on comparably priced PCs with the possible exception of Sonys VAIO range.

 

Conclusion

 

The iMac is an eyecatching and desirable piece of equipment for anyone interested in style, but the level of specification also makes it a practical, costeffective and exciting computer for the home and office.

 

Pros

 

• The iMac looks great, is compact and runs almost silently

 

• The Apple Keyboard and Apple Mighty Mouse are comfortable to use over long periods

 

• The operating system is straightforward and fast

 

• The builtin wireless features are a convenient bonus

 

• The ability to run Windows and Microsoft Office means that the iMac is a tremendous allrounder for the home or office

 

• The levels of technical specification of each model are tremendous value and almost unbeatable by any comparably priced PC

 

• At the top of the range, iMac offers gaming enthusiasts a firstclass experience

 

Cons

 

• The glossy screen is difficult to view under some lighting conditions

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/steps-keep-kids-safe-online-a-3935.html While the Internet has certainly brought a wealth of information, convenience and has a made the world a much smaller place, the Internet has its liabilities and especially so for children and teens. The responsibility of protecting children from online dangers lies with parents. There are several steps you can take to provide Internet safety for kids.

 

One solution, which many choose, is to completely restrict their children from using the Internet. This solution is not always the best option. One, the Internet is here to stay, it is an important part of everyday life, and its use is a skill that is often required by schools and in the work place. Also, if you just tell your kids that they cannot have or use then Internet then you eliminate the opportunity to teach them how to use it safely. So, if they do use it when they are away from you, at a friends house or school then they will not have the tools they need to stay safe. Having talks and discussions with children about the risks is important, and as a parent you should set certain limits give them the information they need to stay safe and keep the conversation open in regards to Internet safety.

 

The following are 5 handson steps you can take to teach, limit and restrict children while they are online and therefore provide Internet safety for your kids.

 

5 Steps to Keep Kids Safe Online

 

1. First of all have a conversation with your kids. Explain to them, in as much detail as their age will allow some of the dangers that exist online. For example, that strangers in chat rooms, are just that, strangers. That they should never agree to meet anyone, give out their names, phone numbers, address etc. The same conversation that you had with them about not talking to strangers applies even more so when online, so use that and extend it further. Please remember that most of these steps will only apply to computers you have at home. When your children are away from you they will have access to other computers and that is when those conversations will be the guidance that ensures their safety.

 

2. There is software available, which can help to protect your children from any content that is not appropriate for them. Software like, Microsoft Windows Vista Parental Controls, helps parents to manage, monitor and administer the use of the computer by kids. The software, Windows Live OneCare Family Safety, filters certain chosen information and even a childs searches can be blocked for certain keywords.

 

3. All web browsers allow for parental control settings. You can make personalized adjustments from the browser to set limits that you desire and to insure your childs safety.

 

4. You can increase childrens safety by creating Limited User Accounts for your children from your Administrative Account. This restricts children from changing system settings, installing any new software which includes chat programs, games, etc. You can see the help section of your Operating System for detailed instructions on how to create User Accounts.

 

5. be active and be a snoop. Yes a snoop, keep track of the websites that children are surfing. You can view all websites that they visited in the History List or Cookies from the web browser. You can even see email addresses, correspondence and downloaded files.

 

Always remember that these are concrete steps that will provide Internet safety for your kids and protect them while they are online and still allow them to get the benefits of using and learning to use the Internet.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/macbook-user-guide-a-3934.html 1 First steps a Unpacking When you remove your Macbook Air from its packaging, you should also find

 

• A MicroDVI to VGA Adaptor

 

• A MicroDVI to DVI Adaptor

 

• A Power cord

 

• A 45W MagSafe Power Adaptor

 

• Software DVDs

 

b Charging Pull away the plastic film from the 45W MagSafe Power Adaptor and plug the adaptor into an electric socket. Take the other end of the cable and connect it to the magnetic MagSafe power port on the left hand side of your MacBook Air.

 

If necessary, extend the MagSafe cable by removing the prongs from the adaptor and inserting the power cord into the socket beneath them. Place the other end of the power cord into the electric socket. To disconnect the MagSafe Power Adaptor from the electricity, first remove the power cord plug from the adaptor.

 

An amber light on the MagSafe connector shows that the MacBook Air battery is charging. When the battery is fully charged, a green light appears.

 

c Basic features The basic features of your MacBook Air include

 

• from right to left a microphone, camera indicator light, iSight camera, and ambient light sensor at the top edge of the screen

 

• a mono speaker under the keyboard

 

• a power button near the top right hand corner

 

• a trackpad and trackpad button below the keyboard

 

• a sleep indicator light and infrared receiver on the right of the front edge of your MacBook Air

 

• a builtin battery

 

• a MagSafe power port on the lefthand side

 

• a headphone jack, USB 2.0 port, and a MicroDVI port in a concealed hatch on the righthand side

 

2 Initial setup a Setup Assistant Setup Assistant appears on your screen when you first switch on the MacBook Air. Follow the instructions that lead you to the Do You Already Own a Mac screen. You now have a choice between

 

• a basic setup

 

• a setup that includes the migration of files from another Mac

 

b Basic setup

 

• Choose Do not transfer my information now

 

• Click Continue

 

• Use the prompts to arrange your user account and wireless network

 

c Setup with file migration from another Mac

 

• For this you need another Mac with an optical disc drive see Optical discs below

 

d Customise your MacBook Air

 

• Click Apple > System Preferences on the Menu Bar at the top of the screen, or click the System Preferences icon on the Dock at the bottom

 

• Browse and use System Preferences to customise your MacBook Air settings

 

e Using the trackpad Use the trackpad to

 

• scroll

 

• click

 

• doubleclick

 

• drag

 

• move the pointer

 

Control the distance you send the pointer across the screen by the speed of your finger on the trackpad

 

• a slow movement of your finger sends the pointer a short distance

 

• a fast movement sends the pointer a greater distance

 

If youre unfamiliar with the trackpad, its worth spending time learning its features. These include the following

 

• Secondary or right clicking. This enables you to use shortcut menu commands. Place two fingers on the trackpad, then click the trackpad button.

 

• Two finger scrolling. Scroll up, down or sideways by making these movements with two fingers on the trackpad.

 

Some trackpad movements apply to specific applications such as iPhoto

 

• Two finger pinching. Pinch two fingers together on the trackpad to zoom in or out.

 

• Two finger rotating. Rotate two fingers on the trackpad to turn images and pages.

 

• Three finger swiping. This allows you to turn quickly through the pages of a document or through a series of images.

 

To finetine and set trackpad options

 

• select Apple > System Preferences

 

• click Keyboard & Mouse

 

• click Trackpad

 

For more details

 

• select Help > Mac Help

 

• click Trackpad

 

3 Optical discs a Using an optical disc drive Your MacBook Air does not have an optical disc drive. To

 

• install the software that comes with the computer

 

• load other applications and files from a disc

 

• migrate files

 

You must use the optical disc drive on another Mac or PC. Alternatively, use a MacBook Air external SuperDrive

 

b Setting up CD/DVD sharing The Mac or PC you use for CD/DVD sharing must be on the same wired or wireless network. The Mac must also have the Mac OS X v10.4.10 operating system or later. The PC must have Windows XP or Windows Vista.

 

Your MacBook Air comes with a Mac OS X Install Disc 1. Use this to load the CD/DVD Sharing Setup. This includes

 

• CD/DVD Sharing software

 

• Migration Assistant

 

• Remote Install Mac OS X

 

If youre using a Mac as your other computer, double click DVD or CD Sharing Setup when it appears on screen.

 

If youre using a PC, click on DVD or CD Sharing in the dialogue box that appears on screen.

 

In both cases, follow the screen instructions.

 

c Migrating files and applications to your MacBook Air from another Mac

 

• Load the Mac OS X Install Disc 1 as above

 

• Ensure your MacBook Air and the other Mac are on the same wireless or wired network

 

• On the MacBook Air, follow the instructions of Setup Assistant as far as the Do You Already Own a Mac screen

 

• Click from another Mac

 

• Select your wireless network if youre working wirelessly and click Continue

 

• On the screen Connect To Your Other Mac, a passcode now appears

 

Please note the following steps apply to the other Mac

 

• In Applications/Utilities, open Migration Assistant and click Continue

 

• Choose To another Mac as your migration method and click Continue

 

• Close all other applications, if you have not done so already, and click Continue

 

• Enter the passcode from the MacBook Air screen in the given box

 

• Click Continue

 

• The migration now starts

 

During the migration, do not use your other Mac for anything else.

 

d Loading other data Using your wireless connection, you can download many applications from the Internet.

 

To load applications from a DVD or CD

 

• set up CD/DVD sharing see b above and follow the instructions in e below, or

 

• connect a MacBook Air SuperDrive to the USB port, insert the disc, and follow the onscreen instructions

 

e Sharing discs You can share a CD or DVD on a Mac or PC with your MacBook Pro.

 

Please note you may not be able to share films and games because they are copyprotected.

 

• Follow the procedure given in b

 

• Ensure your MacBook Air and the other computer are on the same network

 

If your other computer is a Mac

 

• select Apple > System Preferences

 

• choose Sharing

 

• select DVD or CD Sharing

 

If your other computer is a PC

 

• choose the DVD or CD Sharing panel

 

• click Enable DVD or CD Sharing

 

Now continue on the other Mac or the PC as follows

 

• place a CD or DVD in the optical disc drive on the MacBook Air, the disc will appear in the Finder sidebar under Devices

 

• click Accept when prompted to do so on the other Mac or PC

 

• the disc will then become available to your MacBook Air

 

4 Sleep mode and shutting your MacBook Air down a Sleep mode To use the sleep mode on your MacBook Air for short periods of inactivity, take one of the following actions

 

• close your display

 

• select Apple > Sleep on the Menu Bar

 

• select Apple > System Preferences, then Energy Saver, and set the sleep timer

 

• press your power button and select Sleep from the dialogue box

 

Please note do not move your MacBook Air until the sleep indicator light begins to pulse, otherwise you risk damaging your hard disc.

 

To wake your MacBook Air from sleep mode

 

• open the closed display, or

 

• press the power button or any key of the keyboard if the display is open

 

b Shutting the MacBook Air down

 

• Select Apple > Shut Down from the Menu Bar, or

 

• Press the power button and select Shut Down in the dialogue box

 

5 Quick Mac OS X guide a Operating system Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard is the operating system of your MacBook Air. It controls your files, applications and connected devices. It works in a comparable way to Windows.

 

b Basic controls The basic controls are your keyboard and trackpad. If youre more used to Windows, youll find that youll need to use the keyboard and trackpad fewer times to achieve similar results.

 

c Central features The icons, layouts and navigation of the MacBook Air screens are straightforward. Along with the windows, menus, folders and shortcuts, are four central features that help you work quickly and simply

 

• Desktop

 

• Dock

 

• Finder

 

• Menu bar

 

Desktop Desktop is the screen you start with each time you use your MacBook Air. Use it to store such things as files, folders and pictures.

 

The first icon youll see on Desktop is the Macintosh HD hard drive. When you use other functions of your MacBook Air, further HD icons appear. Doubleclick an icon to view its files and applications.

 

Please note the following.

 

• When you connect a peripheral device to your MacBook Air, an icon appears on the Desktop

 

• If you have different users for your MacBook Air, Mac OS X gives each one a Desktop

 

• Desktop always lies behind the applications that you run

 

Dock The Dock is a row of icons along the bottom of your screen. Click on these icons to access your folders, applications and windows.

 

Note that when a window appears, it has three coloured buttons in the top left corner.

 

• Red closes the window

 

• Yellow minimises the window to the Dock

 

• Green maximises and minimises the size of the window

 

Finder The Finder is an icon on the far left of the Dock. Use it to navigate and manage your MacBook Airs folders, files and applications.

 

Menu Bar The Mac OS X Menu Bar is a single line at the top of the screen.

 

Use the Menu Bar to

 

• view recent work

 

• view and change settings and applications

 

• close applications

 

• interact with a programme

 

• log in

 

• log out

 

• start the sleep mode

 

• begin restart

 

• switch off your MacBook Air

 

The Menu Bar changes to match the application youre using.

 

Connectivity Your MacBook Air has a headphone jack, USB 2.0 port, and a MicroDVI port concealed in a hatch on the righthand side. You also receive a MicroDVI to VGA adaptor and a MicroDVI to DVI adaptor with your MacBook Air. Use the ports and adaptors to connect a range of peripheral devices such as printers, cameras and hard drives. Alternatively use the Bluetooth wireless connection.

 

7 Battery power You can run your MacBook Air directly from an electricity supply by using the 45W MagSafe Power Adaptor. Alternatively use the builtin battery.

 

The time between battery charges varies according to the applications you use and the drain on power caused by peripheral devices. If you dont need a wireless connection, you can turn off AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth to help extend the batterys charge.

 

Connect the MagSafe Power Adaptor once the battery begins to run low. The adaptor works when the MacBook Air is on, in sleep mode, or off. To recharge your MacBook Air as quickly as possible, however, turn the computer off or put it in sleep mode.

 

The amber light on the MagSafe Power Adaptor tells you that you must charge the battery. The green light indicates that charging is complete. The battery icon in the Menu Bar shows you the battery charge level.

 

Please note you cannot change your MacBook Air battery yourself. Only an Apple authorised dealer can replace it.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/elonex-webbook-first-impressions-a-3933.html The white box it comes in, is refreshingly simple, no pictures of desirable women adorned on the outside soliciting an invitation, no blaring slogans or fantastic claims how it will make the tea and cook your meals while you try to work you life off for a living In fact theres so little on the box other than the Webbook printed on it.

 

And that in itself draws you to discover what might be on the inside.

 

I opened the box and inside was a tiny little computer, remember those Toshiba Librettos that were made some time ago this is about the same size, I unpacked the machine from the wrapping materials, plugged in the battery, and then plugged in the power supply 18V 2.2A. I was ready to switch on.

 

Well from appearances its a little cracker, it actually looks like a real laptop and it sports a true 10 wide screen LCD 169 aspect. It comes in a tasteful silver coloured palm rest, and LCD bezel, with a very dark grey top lid, a sensible choice and limits those scratches to remain unseen when in serious use. The keyboard is a real windows keyboard and is sturdy with a nice key action, no bending or flexing.

 

Towards the top near the screen hinges are three buttons these are, Email hot button, Power, and Sleep. The machine sports 3 USB sockets conveniently placed on each side of the machine, a multipurpose SD card reader at the front, two audio sockets for your Skype/MSN activities, and one 10/100 LAN port. On the right hand side of the palm rest are the panel indicators for the usual functions and indicators. Inside is an Intel 2200BG 54G wireless card preconfigured and installed and of course a reasonably sized hard disk 80GB being the later SATA type hard 2.5 drive.

 

Pressing the power on its nice to see a machine that is quiet in operation this one really is very quiet, only the CPU fan cutting in to avert thermal runaway occasionally.

 

The web book comes as standard with Linux Ubuntu 8.04 LTS preinstalled, the machine boots fairly quickly at around 12 minutes, and after you have typed in your username and password you are presented with the Ubuntu desktop.

 

I confess that I have never used Linux before, but when presented with the desktop I was pleasantly surprised how windows like everything is in Linux. All the functions such as opening, running and copying files are virtually the same as in windows. Incidentally Elonex does offer a windows alternative on the same machine with windows XP Professional factory installed.

 

The Linux installation boasts a whole host of software installed as standard, such as open office, Wine, lots of games a programming interface you could write your own Linux programs, Firefox which is the same virtually as Internet Explorer and endless utilities and folders.

 

Whats so nice about this machine is how Linux virtually connects to every network device so easily, in fact when using the manual network configuration dialog box its just a click and your network device is instantly configured, much better than in windows

 

My wireless connection was detected and connected in less than 20 seconds on the first try.

 

The touch pad has a good relative feel and moves smoothly across the desktop without undue work to move the cursor around the extremities of the screen. Audio quality is fairly good and fine for most applications

 

So you might be asking is the screen usable this small, well the answer is a resounding YES I think this is where the designers have really done their homework, the screen clarity and sharpness at this size and price point is very good. You could not fault it.

 

The LCD screen will dim progressively to a very dark level right up to a very bright level a nice touch, this kind of adjustment is not very common amongst laptops even on most laptops currently available.

 

Performance is impressive, considering this is a single core CPU, it will perform most tasks very well and I found the responsiveness from the web very good, web page loading and You Tube did not seem to put the machine under any kind of stress.

 

I had no trouble with using the machine, whether for surfing the web, watching videos, typing a few emails or just mucking about

 

Conclusion

 

I have not come across many machines this year that have really impressed as much as this one, especially on price, the web book combines real world needs into a small package without it becoming gaudy in appearance or gimmicky beyond practicality, and as a bonus it looks like a proper wide screen laptop rather than something from woollies

 

Performance was very impressive, its responsive and it will run the majority of programs thats thrown at it. Obviously because of the category this machine falls into gaming and very heavy applications are not recommended, if you require a powerful machine i would suggest a full sized Duo Core laptop. I think for most people who are considering buying this I doubt whether its performance will in any way put anyone off.

 

Secondly it has been manufactured in a modular fashion, that means you can upgrade your RAM or your HARD DRIVE with ease and without a major rebuild or relying on service establishments to do it for you.

 

You can put this laptop in your car glove box its that small or if you are a lady with a smallish handbag it would not be too much of a challenge to fit it inside.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/choosing-best-computer-model-a-3932.html Many computer manufacturers, especially such computer giants as IBM, Dell, Gateway, Sony, Apple, etc. issue families series of computers. Models of computers in each series have either the same principle of design, or same processor, or have been given diapason of performances. The series can include a base model, and several derivative models. Usually for each type of computer, manufacturers issue series that generally can be divided into 34 categories budgetfriendly at low price, midrange at middle price, cuttingedge and ultimate performance at high, and very high prices. IBM, Gateway, Dell and Apple issue computer families not only for Home and Home office, but also for Small, Mid size or Large Businesses. These families can also include the network optimized series.

 

The needed features  

 

First of all, you have to make a preliminary analysis of your needs to pick a type of computer, and a zone where you might search this computer, for example, for Home or for Small Business. But it is not sufficient.

 

To understand what kind of computer to buy, you additionally have to determine what computer performance you need the type of processor, speed, size of memory, type of video and audio cards, type of case, and so on. You can select one from two ways 1 to formulate your needs in the process of searching, 2 to compile a list a hardware requirement for the programs you might want to run

 

Preliminary selection

 

To select a computer family, you have to choose one, which the features match your wishes. Such families can be several. Next procedures are to find the best computer family and best model of computer belonging to this family. If you know the features you need, you can identify the name of the computer family. For this goal you have to use for example, a Table of Features comparison for base models of computer families. For example, according to this Table, if you know that you need a computer only for simple text editing and emailing, your choice is BudgetFriendly Series. On the other hand, if you need for realization of your tasks a computer from CuttingEdge series , but it is not affordable, your choice can be like a computer from Midrange series plus a customization perhaps, when you can better afford it.

 

To accelerate the search for the preliminary selection, you can find comparison information about the different types of computers with the help a comparisonshopping search engine. It allows you quickly to find the needed products sold by online stores, small businesses, and individuals in diapason of affordable prices. Search can be done by Brand, by Price, by Processor speed, etc.

 

Generally, a preliminary selection can be executed on the basis of not only cost and main functions, but also on an evaluation of convenience of use, warranties, and so on. This kind of selection you can make for computer families of different manufacturers for example, for 3 or 4 families of computer giants. Some companies, such as Gateway, gives to a buyer an opportunity to compare preliminary selected models of computers with compare option.

 

Final selection.

 

To find the optimal model for yourself, you may make the final selection from the preliminary chosen models. It is much easier to compare 34 models, than more than 5 million variants that are available on the Computer Market at the beginning of your search.

 

Custom built model

 

If you cant find a computer with the needed performances among the available computers, you need to select a vendor and to order a custom built computer.

 

Discount

 

Keep in mind, you can find a cheaper computer for the same model on the Discount Market, because some online stores, especially the computer giants, suggest coupons or discounts, such as 20 off, when you spend 150 or more free shipping free printer and so on.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/there-three-basic-types-computer-mouse-a-3931.html Mechanical  This is a type of computer mouse that has a rubber or metal ball on its underside and it can roll in every direction.  There are sensors within the mouse, which are mechanical, detect the direction in which the ball is moving and moves the pointer on the screen in the same direction.  A mouse pad should be used under the mouse to run on.

 

Optomechanical  This is the same as the mechanical mouse except that it uses optical sensors to the motion of the ball.  Your should use a mouse pad under the mouse to run on.

 

Optical  This type uses a laser for detecting the mouses movement.  You dont need a

mouse pad but you can use one made for optical mice.  Optical mice do not have any

mechanical moving parts.  The optical mouse responds more quickly and precisely than the mechanical and optomechanical mice and now that they have been around awhile the price is pretty comparable.

 

Here is how a computer mouse hooks up to the computer

 

Serial mouse  these ones connect directly to an RS232C serial port or a PS/2port.  This is the simplest type of connection.

 

PS/2 mouse  connects to a PS/2 port.

USB mice

 

Cordless mouse  These are not physically connected to the computer.  They rely on infrared or radio waves to communicate with the computer.  Cordless are more expensive than both the serial and bus mouse.  The nice thing is that there is no cord to constrain or get in your way.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/video-servers-video-encoders-a-3930.html A video server or a video encoder digitalizes analog signals and distributes digital images directly over an IPbased network, changing analog cameras into digital network cameras. A video server/encoder has analog video

 

channels, image digitizer, image compressor and web server with network interface. This is ideal for migrating existing analog video system into a digital network video solution. By converting a CCTV analog system to a network video system, all the functional benefits of digital technology such as remote access, costeffectiveness, flexibility, scalability can be achieved. So, if you have an existing analog system and would like to move on to IP and also plan to add network cameras video servers is the way to go.

 

Basic Features and Benefits of Video Servers/ video encoders

 

&61623;  Analog CCTV video converted into high quality digital video.

 

&61623;  Digital quality images reduce the Motion blur caused by analog interlaced images.

 

&61623;  Simultaneous MPEG4 and motion JPEG.

 

&61623;  Direct connection to IP networks.

 

&61623;  Independent system with embedded web server eliminates the neccessity of additional hardware or software to capture and transfer images.

 

&61623;  Remote access to live images via the existing network from any computer.

 

&61623;  Cutting cost by using existing analog CCTV system.

 

&61623;  Digital video storage of images/footage which is convenient for searching.

 

&61623;  Easy addition of network cameras IP based into the existing system.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/linux-server-speed-your-hard-drive-a-3929.html Linux servers usually use conservative default IDE driver settings that could be significantly slowing down your system. By default they are set to most safe settings guaranteed to work. However you may reconfigure them to increase the read speed of your hard drive. In most cases this will not speed up serving of your website significantly, but it is nice to know that you can get the most out of your hardware. We ran these optimized settings on several servers including Filesland.com

 

To benchmark the read speed of your IDE drive execute the following

 

> rootnewserver hdparm Tt /dev/hda

 

/dev/hda

 

Timing buffercache reads 698 MB in 2.00 seconds 349.00 MB/sec

 

Timing buffered disk reads 60 MB in 3.00 seconds 19.90 MB/sec

 

Timing buffered disk reads can be very slow. This may be as a result of high CPU load or extensive hard disk swapping. Check apache optimization section first if the read time is too slow.

 

Now lets see what are the Input/Output settings of your hard disk. Execute the command /sbin/hdparm v /dev/hda

 

/sbin/hdparm v /dev/hda

 

/dev/hda

 

multcount 16 on

 

IOsupport 0 default 16bit

 

unmaskirq 0 off

 

usingdma 0 off

 

keepsettings 0 off

 

readonly 0 off

 

readahead 8 on

 

geometry 9729/255/63, sectors 156301488, start 0

 

This are the current driver settings settings. Lets see what your hard drive is capable of. Execute the command /sbin/hdparm i /dev/hda

 

rootcpanel /sbin/hdparm i /dev/hda

 

/dev/hda

 

ModelST380011A, FwRev3.06, SerialNo5JV18H2Q

 

Config HardSect NotMFM HdSw> 15uSec Fixed DTR> 10Mbs RotSpdTol> .5

 

RawCHS16383/16/63, TrkSize0, SectSize0, ECCbytes4

 

BuffTypeunknown, BuffSize2048kB, MaxMultSect16, MultSect16

 

CurCHS16383/16/63, CurSects16514064, LBAyes, LBAsects156301488

 

IORDYon/off, tPIOmin240,w/IORDY120, tDMAmin120,rec120

 

PIO modes pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4

 

DMA modes mdma0 mdma1 mdma2

 

UDMA modes udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5

 

AdvancedPMno WriteCacheenabled

 

Drive conforms to ATA/ATAPI6 T13 1410D revision 2

 

sign signifies the current active mode

 

Significant I/O performance increase has been reported when setting drivers to DMA, 32bit tranfers and multisector mode. Note that the drive support DMA modes. Lets turn DMA mode on, this will speed up timing buffered read by a factor of two

 

/sbin/hdparm d1 /dev/hda

 

/sbin/hdparm c3 /dev/hda I/O support set to 3 turn on 32bit transfers on your first HD by typing

 

/sbin/hdparm m16 /dev/hda choose data transfer parameters 16 as MaxMultSect16

 

/sbin/hdparm a16 /dev/hda choose read ahead setting 16 as MaxMultSect16

 

Benchmark the hard drive performance again.

 

rootcpanel /sbin/hdparm Tt /dev/hda

 

/dev/hda

 

Timing buffercache reads 724 MB in 2.00 seconds 362.00 MB/sec

 

Timing buffered disk reads 154 MB in 3.01 seconds 51.16 MB/sec

 

Lastly you may tweak UltraDMA settings for those who have Mode3/4 IDE controllers with EIDE or UDMA HDs. It is possible to enable the Mode3 or Mode4 PIO and UDMA. This is too risky in my opinion for a web server so we skip this part. In a sample above UDMA is already enabled.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/basic-steps-setting-your-ecommerce-site-a-3928.html Ecommerce as a term cover all business done via the net and launching a business onto the internet can be incredibly daunting and doing some research before hand is very important. Ensuring there is an internet based customer who may be interested in your produced or service is the key. Checking out the competition, who are they Do they have a sustainable business Is there room for some healthy competition

 

Then you must have a very clear vision of what it is you want to achieve. Look at the project in fine details outlining all the processes and procedures that will help launch the company will help solidify you ideas and expectations. Every company has its own specific needs and will have its own goals but making it very clear and formalizing the project and finding the necessary resources is essential to the success of the project. Gather your company directors and make sure everyone is clear on the plan and how to achieve the goals and listen to any ideas that might ensure success.

 

Securing the best people to help your project run smoothly is really important so shop around and read the fine print when it comes to finding web designs, development or marketing. If you able to hire staff specific to the project then ensure they also have a clear idea of your expectation but allow them to have an input too.

 

Designing a unique and innovative site isnt always the best idea when one that does its job properly and is user friendly is more what the general public want. Development is when you iron out all the creases with the content and format of the facility on the site and ensure thing like safety are looked at. Setting up and SSL certificate and ensuring secure methods of payment if they are required, is very important to customers. Creating an extensive training program to help staff transfer to the new web based customers smoothly and then launching the site is the next step. Having the correct technical support and infrastructure in place will be very important to avoid falling at the first hurdle.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/anonymous-browsing-difficulties-http-a-3927.html HTTP is a basically the methods through which your browser communicates with any website and exchange information but there are many problems within the protocol that restricts anonymity like the fact that it exists on the TCP port 80.

 

Port 80 has become a standard TCP port to use and almost every web server will list that port with the exception of security such as SSL but as a general rule most connection are through the TCP port 80. Firewalls will usually allow all TCP80 communications as a first rule. The protocol itself is text based ASCII to be precise which means that all communication must be readable this means no translation, decryption or decoding. It is quite bad easy to follow a HTTP trace and if you ignore all the GET requests/responses you can pretty much read the rest which is bad when we are told to protect and be secure with our personal information.

 

HTTP treats every request and response as individual questions and answers this means it cannot follow long or draw out complicated conversations. Even when the communication comes from the same place HTTP will treat the information as a totally separate thing. HTTP also suffers a severe lack of security and does not authenticate users. Through the use of cookies HTTP can get round some of the authentication issues by maintaining a connected state between the sever and the client there can also be protocols such as NTLM and certain forms and services like Microsoft Passport.

 

The HTTP protocol was never written with security in mind and should not be thought of a bad because it doesnt have security features, it was designed for the quick exchange of information in a simple manner it does this jobs really well otherwise it would not have survived the rate in which the internet is expanding and developing.

 

Clearly HTTP cannot be anonymous as it is designed to exchange passwords, usernames and identities the same way as all of the information it transfers and it cannot protect your information or identity even when HTTP just blocks your IP address

 this is not really achieving any anonymity.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/keep-secure-with-free-anonymous-proxy-a-3926.html In this day and age it is truly difficult to feel secure and protected with identity theft on the increase our electronic lives means having access to that personal information is more valuable than ever. Learning only a few bits of information about someone like names dates and mothers maiden name along with a password or two and you have serious power over them. This information is becoming easier to retrieve as we spend more time on the internet

 

giving out such information. Anyone using a free anonymous web proxy is therefore not really all that safe or secure.

 

To illustrate the point an associate of mine has recently stayed in a hotel that belonged to a large chain he had invested in using the wireless network that was available at extra cost. Although there were no complaints in terms of speed and service he found this facility to be incredibly insecure. He had used the free program wireshark which acts as an amazing network sniffer and he could access all sorts of customer information from within the building. He could note down several passwords, tones of personal information including dates of birth, names, addresses and even mothers maiden names. There was very little information being encrypted via SSL but what there was showing was unreadable as expected but for the most part all of the information was available in clear text. This is especially dangerous as many people stick to using the same important memorable password for everything including bank details.

 

So how much of this information would have been available had he been using an anonymous proxy

 

Unfortunately every last word. Every detail would have been there to take as anonymous proxy works only to shield your details from the server you are visiting everyone else can still access all of the information. So when using a wireless network think twice before giving out all your details and always use companies promoting an encrypted method of payment such as SSL.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/installing-your-certificate-tips-make-safety-easier-a-3925.html Secure Sockets Layer or SSL Certificates have become very important when safety shopping on the internet and all reputable websites will be using SSL certificates which encrypts all personal or bank details from browser to server to protect information and secure all purchases. There are a variety of SSL Certificates available with a range of prices the more sensitive your information the more you will need to be spending but this will mean safety for your valid customers.

 

The most important thing to remember is that each bank has different requirements for their security so always check what your requirements are with your individual bank if you accept credit card details and payments over the internet. You will always need a dedicated or unique IP address for your company as the SSL certificate cannot but put on a shared IP address unless the certificate is shared but this is a very rare situation.

 

You will also need to generate a Certificate Signing Request or CSR and possible generate a key too if you have never had an SSL certificate before but all of this can be done through your servers control panel.

 

To Install the SSL

1 Log on to your server. Generate a key if you havent already got one. Include the www.homepage in your domain name.

 

2Next you must generate the CSR and select the one with a www. most appropriate when given a choice. Then answer all questions asked by the server and the CSR should be displayed although sometimes it is emailed to you. Make sure you copy it into notepad just in case and ensure all the random characters are copied in too everything from BEGIN CERTIFICATE REQUEST

to END CERTIFICATE REQUEST

 

3 All SSL vendors do things a little bit differently from here on in so make sure you get the individual companies instructions but typically you will need to paste the CSR into a field with certain contact details for yourself as well as the vendor.

 

4 You must also select an email address for the approval of your certificate and the signing authority will communicate via this address which must be authoritative over the domain or server. An example is adminmydomain.com sometimes its webmaster or sales

 

5 When the certificate is approved an email will be sent that look a lot like the request form but will be larger and have BEGIN CERTIFICATE at the start. You must then install the certificate by pasting it into a field in the server. Sometimes certificates can be uploaded from a text file but then the server will install the certificate.

 

If everything has gone to plan then it should all be installed without any problems but if you have had trouble then contact your service administration team.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/what-hosted-applications-a-3924.html As access to the Internet becomes more widespread with faster, more reliable and always on connections becoming the norm the growth of applications using the hosted application model continues to expand.

 

Although hosted applications will not suit every situation, or every customer, they offer many individuals and organizations, as well as the application manufacturers themselves, considerable benefits over the locally installed application.

 

What Is A Hosted Application

 

A hosted application, also known as Internetbased application, webbased application, online application and Application Service Providers ASPs are software applications where the software resides on servers that are accessed through the Internet instead of the more traditional software that is installed on either a local server or on individual PCs.

 

The thin client concept is nothing new but advances in Internet connectivity have allowed the application to move from a local server to a server on the Internet.

 

Example of hosted applications would be Salesforce.com that provides customer relationship management facilities, Netsuite offering allinone business management applications and SurveyGalaxy.com that provides their customers with an enterprise survey and questionnaires application.

 

What Are The Benefits

 

Reduced costs, instant deployment, easier to maintain and reduced administration are among some of the main benefits.

 

Low Maintenance

 

With hosted applications the hardware and software is the responsibility of the vendor with the client only having to maintain access to the Internet. As there is no software to download a hosted application can be made instantly available across an entire organization even where the organization has multiple regional and international offices.

 

As there is no software the considerable time and resources required for periodic updates is also completely eliminated.

 

Reduced Cost

 

The need to license software through a per user, per concurrent user, per server or site license has been eliminated. Although some hosted applications still do charge per user many have taken the opportunity to charge on a usage and/or period basis meaning that the customer does not have to estimate the number of licenses that will be required, nor install and pay for full licenses that may only be used by some employees occasionally.

 

This hosted application model also allows the smaller organization and sole trader access to applications written using advanced software development tools and that utilize sophisticated database technology and highend servers. The capital investment of the hardware and software as well as the security, backup and server maintenance cost are all the responsibility of the vendor.

 

Minimal Risk

 

Many hosted applications require no long term commitment from their customers. New customers can often test hosted applications either through a free introduction offer or with minimal risk using a PayAsYouGo model. If after trialing the hosted application the customer finds it unsuitable then they can simply stop using the service.

 

Access

 

Because the application software and the data is stored on the Internet server the application and data is available to the authorized client once they have logged on from anywhere there is Internet access. The customer can now work anywhere in the office environment, from remote offices or from their home or hotel without the need to download their work or synchronize with portable devices.

 

Integration

 

For organizations that have legacy systems from different suppliers running different operating systems the hosted application will provide an integrated solution to any system that supports a standard Internet browser including Windows, Unix and Macs.

 

Support

 

The hosted application vendors benefit by not having to maintain multiple version numbers or individual maintenance and licensing agreements. New updates are installed centrally negating the need for expensive roll outs. For many applications the need for version numbers is eliminated as updates are made incrementally bringing the benefits to the customer without having to bundle new features up into a new periodic version release. In some cases a user can request a new feature in the morning that can be developed, tested and deployed globally by the afternoon.

 

The Concerns

 

Internet access

 

New communication technology is able to bring high speed Internet connectivity to more and more remote places but there are still some regions where internet access is limited or not available.

 

In some cases such as mobile workers although high speed Internet connectivity is available the cost both in terms of connectivity charges and equipment may, at least in the short term, prove to be prohibitive.

 

Security

 

As with everything to do with the Internet security is a justified concern. There is no simple one size fits all solution to the security issue and a lot will depend on the specific hosted application and the nature of the data.

 

With online banking and shopping becoming common place the vendor should be able to provide their clients with sufficient confidence that the data is secure and that any private information remains private.

 

Hosted applications will normally operate a login procedure ensuring that only those that are authorized have access. The more sensitive the data, the more sophisticated the login procedure.

 

A good data host will strictly enforce the stated wishes of their customers and ensure that data is not available or released to anyone that is not legally entitled to see it and they will adopt the latest security measures available to prevent unauthorized access.

 

There may be some areas such as automatic logins from known PCs and the use of cookies that although they dont necessary represent a significant risk could present a risk under certain circumstances, such as gaining access to a private account through the automatic login using an unattended PC. Although strictly speaking the customers responsibility the customer should be made aware of the risks so that they can take action to safeguard their own system.

 

Although security is a concern in some circumstances private data may prove to be more secure than it would be on a private network with less sophisticated security measures or in an environment where there is a risk from within.

 

Vendor LockIn

 

As with all software applications there is a risk that a customer could become lockedin to paying costly monthly subscriptions to maintain access to their historic data. To counter this some applications will allow the data to be downloaded or allow customer to maintain access to their data for a reasonable time free of charge.

 

Control

 

Unlike a local application the hardware and software is under the control of a third party. This is a justifiable concern although not too dissimilar to the telephone provider supplying and maintaining the communications equipment and there are considerable incentives for the vendors to ensure high availability and reliability since their business depends on it.

 

No vendor installation or upgrades required

 

Low startup costs

 

Minimal Risk, no long term commitment

 

Backups and viruses responsibility of the vendor

 

Hardware and software server maintenance vendors responsibility

 

Investment in local hardware & software reduced

 

No need to synchronized data with multiple devices

 

Access to data available globally through any internet connection

 

Reduced software licensing costs

 

Concerns

 

Lack of Internet availability

 

Security

 

Possibility of vendor lockin

 

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/importance-safety-when-shopping-internet-a-3923.html The internet has opened up a whole world of trade without borders contacting and connecting with a worldwide consumer base has become more important than ever especially with the current global economic conditions. You can live in London and purchase items from Japan such as jewelry or watches or live in Madrid and buy clothing from America. This is an amazing concept and makes the world feel a lot smaller and it is so novel and exciting, but would you really purchase thing from around the globe using your credit card and potentially opening those details up to global levels of abuse The chances of having you identity and your personal bank details or information stolen must be fairly limited but it still exists and you would not want to make a purchase only to find your bank account had been emptied the next day. With identity theft on the increase will people really feel happy taking the risk

 

With many stories detailing how the government and even some banks have misplaced our most personal details and these are institution we implicitly trust how can we think about giving our details to people we have no reason to trust Equally how can people set up an internet business and protect yourself and your customer from electronic pirates As a business and a customer you must ensure these transactions have some kind of protection, so before you have entered any of your personal information especially those connected to bank or credit card details you must make sure that payment system has adequate protection in place. Any customers who frequently use the internet will be aware of a site that appears to have some protection in place and many potential customers will be aware of the SSL brand as one of the system which ensures the protection of their precious bank and personal details.

 

Secure Sockets Layer SSL is an encryption protocol that will scramble sensitive information from the browser to the server and allow only one person access to the information which provides security and data integrity. Most professional and secure payment gateways are usually protected by SSL.

 

This means that when you enter sensitive and personal information via protected website, there is a cryptographic key is generated. This key protects the information keeping it safe by encrypting the information which gives the information a unique key code for each authentic session. Only one transaction is being processed during authenticated session so that the information cannot be hacked or duplicated.

SSL Certificates are registered to companies who are secured properly and can be issued by certain providers who are also registered. If you are using a website with the SSL logo and are curious then simply click on to their logo for more information. It will give you details of who provides the certificate.

 

Does Every Business need an SSL Certificate

If you are doing business in a global network or communicating via Internet you may need to invest in an SSL certificate to protect your customers and financial transactions. If you do not have an SSL Certificates this could potentially put off customers and mean that your business suffers. It can also mean that all of your sensitive information is made available to unscrupulous characters that will abuse the information. The SSL certificate serves as a guarantee of reliability and will secure your valid customers and show them that their safety is important to you.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cartridgethe-insight-about-a-3922.html I didnt want you to live another day with out knowing all the insight information about your ink cartridge. You probably dont thinks so now but one day someone is going to ask you What is an ink cartridge Or how does it work

 

Well the answer to that very profound question is The ink cartridge is the component of an inkjet printer that contains the ink and that needs to be replaced once the ink runs out. Hold on, Ill go into more detailgive me some time here

 

There are two kinds of inkjets, most manufacturers use the thermal inkjet system, and the other kind is Piezoelectric Inkjet system. See its getting more and more complicated as I continuestay with me here

 

The thermal inkjet system holds the ink in partitions it could be one, two, or more depending on the type of printer. The ink is inside a reservoir along a heating element with a small metal plate or resistor. When you send the order to print the resistor heats up through a small current and the ink right next to it vaporizes into a very small air bubble and goes into the nozzle. Then the nozzle gets filled with bubbles they push a droplet out and it goes from the nozzle to the paper, and that is all done faster than it took you to read the explanation.

 

The piezoelectric system differs from the inkjet because it uses a piezoelectric crystal instead of the metal plate or resistor. At the moment the current is applied the crystal changes shape or size and that is the reason the droplet is forced out into the paper.

 

To go in deeper, what makes the printing go smoothly depends only upon the ink. If the ink dries at the print head, the printing is hindered. The ink also works as a coolant for the resistor if you try to print when the ink is too low the heating elements of the cartridge burn out damaging the print head permanently.

 

Now you know what an ink cartridge is and how it works. When manufacturers and retailers tell you to change your ink cartridge when you get the low or empty warning is not only because they want to sell you ink, there is a more important reason it is because in the long run it saves you from printer deathOK that is too dramatic printer headaches

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/your-common-problems-solutions-your-laserjet-printers-a-3921.html Are in search of your very own toner cartridge troubleshooting guide

 

Below are some common problems that may show up during your printer usage. Heres what will happen and how to fix them

 

Dirty PCR primary charge roller A dirty PCR, which is located inside the printer, will cause vertical gray streaks down the test page or create a gray background on the entire page.

 

Scratched Drum This condition is indicated by a very thin, perfectly straight line that runs from the top to the bottom of the test page.

 

Chipped Drum A chipped drum will make a dot or series of dots that repeat three times per page. Any drum defects will repeat three times per page based on the drum circumference of 5.2.

 

Light Damaged Drum This condition will show up as a shaded area on the test print that normally should be white. Again, this will repeat three times per page.

 

Bad Wiper Blade A bad wiper blade will make either a gray line approximately 1/8 thick or shading across the entire page. In either case, there will be a film of toner on the drum surface.

 

Weak Doctor Blade Spring This will usually show as shaded areas on one or both sides of the page.

 

Machine Error Codes

 

32 Unsupported Print Cartridges Wrong chip, encoder wheel combination or bad chip. If this code appears immediately upon cartridge installation, there is either a bad contact or the chip is bad. If the machine cycles and then the message appears, the wrong encoder wheel is installed. In the T632 machines, this message will also show if the extra high yield cartridge is not installed.

 

80 Scheduled Maintenance The code appears when 300,000 pages have been printed.

 

88 Toner Low Add toner.

 

200280 Indicates various paper jams.

 

Taking Test Print

 

Printer Menu Press the MENU key until Utilities Menu is displayed.

 

Press SELECT.

 

Press the MENU key until Print Menu is displayed.

 

Press SELECT.

 

Font Sample

 

Press the MENU key until Utilities Menu is displayed.

 

Press SELECT.

 

Press the MENU key until Print Fonts is displayed.

 

Press SELECT.

 

Select either the PCL fonts or the Postscript fonts.

 

Press SELECT.

 

The Print Menu page contains the printer page count, toner level, cartridge serial number, cartridge size, whether its Prebate or not, and the cartridge type Normal, MICR, or Label.

 

Changing the Printer Density

 

Press the MENU key until Quality Menu is displayed.

 

Press SELECT.

 

Press the MENU key until Toner Darkness is displayed.

 

Press SELECT.

 

Choose a number between 1 and 10. 8 is the default setting.

 

Changing the Printer Resolution

 

Press the MENU key until Quality Menu is displayed.

 

Press SELECT.

 

Press the MENU key until Print Resolution is displayed.

 

Press SELECT.

 

Note The options available are 300, 600, 1200 Image Q, and 1200 dpi dots per inch. The 1200 Image Q is for bitmapped pictures. The printers default is 600 dpi dots per inch.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/properly-remanufacture-your-brother-tn540-toner-cartridge-a-3920.html Here we have the Brother TN540 toner cartridge which has been around since May of 2004. This toner is designed to fit into the Brother HL5150 printer which is based a 21 page per minute and 1200 dots per inch

 

LaserJet engine.

 

This engine is actually and upscale to the HL1240, using the TN460 cartridge. The primary difference is that the toner from the TN460 toner is not engineered to be used in the TN540 neither the TN 570 cartridge. Yet, the print engines share similar foundations.

 

The TN540 is the low yield cartridge and the TN570 is the high yield cartridge for the following Brother LaserJet printer models

 

DCP8040

 

DCP8045D

 

HL5130

 

HL5140

 

HL5150D

 

HL5150DLT

 

HL5170DNLT

 

MFC8220

 

MFC8440

 

MFC8840D

 

MFC8840DN

 

This TN540 cartridge will yield up to 3,500 pages when printing at 5 coverage on A4 Letter sized paper. The TN570 toner cartridge will yield up to 6,700 pages when printing at 5 coverage on the same paper as the TN540.

 

Lets get straight to the point, no beating around the bush during this lecture.

 

First, you will need the necessary Tools & Supplies Required

 

Tools & Supplies Required

 

1 Phillips Head Screwdriver tool

 

Phillips Head Jewelers Screwdriver tool

 

Small Flat Blade Screwdriver tool

 

Lintfree Cotton Cloths supply

 

Toner Magnetic Cloths supply

 

White Lithium Grease supply

 

Below are your 23 easy steps to know how to remanufacture your Brother TN 540 and TN 570 toner cartridges.

 

Here you will also be provided with the OEM information part numbers

 

Part s

 

TN540 low yield

 

TN570 high yield

 

StepbyStep HowtoRemanufacture the Brother TN540/570 Instructions

 

Step 1

 

First thing first, vacuum the outside part of the cartridge, removing any excess toner. Simply remove the fill plug which is located on the bottom left hand side of the cartridge itself. Deposit the excess toner and vacuum out the cartridge. Be sure that the gear area is spotless. If you leave any toner in the teeth of the gears, it may ruin it and could create a clicking noise. You are better of suing compressed air which will get the job done cleaner and faster. Just keep your hand over the gears so no dust particles get in there.

 

Step 2

 

The side with no gear, where the static roller is, take off the black spring loaded plastic axle.

 

Step 3

 

Find the three tabs on the static roller end plate and remove them gently.

 

Step 4

 

Back to the gear side, remove the two screws that are holding the cover plate and remove the cover plate at that point.

 

Step 5

 

Gently remove the plastic axle.

 

Step 6

 

Now take off the ering and small gear.

 

Step 7

 

As for the doctor blade side of the static roller, there will be another small plate. Its located on the end of the roller and inside the plastic wall of the cartridge.

 

Step 8

 

From the outside wall, locate a small, round hole. With your pointer finger, press the round tab located inside the hole. As youre pressing in, turn the plate up so that the plate and roller are absolutely free.

 

Step 9

 

You should now be able to remove the static roller assembly.

 

Step 10

 

Using your air compressed vacuum, clean the doctor blade and foam feed roller. Its not recommended removing the doctor blade because you may disturb the static roller felt seals which are delicate. Once a new blade is on hand, your special care will be needed since you do not want to tear the seals. This would end up causing a leak in the cartridge. The doctor blade is easily cleaned, all you have to do is blow off the excess toner dust and wipe it down with your lintfree cloth. Please make sure you dont leave any lint behind.

 

Step 11

 

Time for inspection Carefully inspect the magnetic roller felts. If they are compressed shiny, then use a small screwdriver to tighten them.

 

Step 12

 

Now you need to clean your gears, make sure that the finetoothed gears have no toner on them. This is a good time to check that the gears have enough grease on them. If for some reason the shafts appear dry or the grease is contaminated with toner, you need to clean both the inside of the gear and the shaft.

 

Step 13

 

Again, clean the static roller with a lintfree cloth. Do not use the chemicals to clean the roller. A nice dry, clean, nonsmelly cloth will work just fine.

 

Step 14

 

Reinstall the static roller inside the end plate first. The inside plate needs to be rotated so that it locks in place.

 

Steps 15 and 16

 

You have to install the small outside end plate and both the springloaded white axle and nonspring axle.

 

Steps 17, 18, & 19

 

Its about that time you can now install the static roller gear, ering, and white axle. Make sure all the other gears are meshing properly.

 

Step 20

 

Then, install the gear cover plate and its two screws.

 

Step 21

 

Finally, you can fill the cartridge with Brother 5150 black toner 140 grams for the TN540 TN3030 and as for the TN570 it uses 200 grams of toner TN3060.

 

Step 22

 

At last, you can replace the fill plug. I also recommend cleaning down the toner cartridges in case there is any left over toner dust.

 

Step 23

 

Test the cartridge. For this cartridge model, there are no reset fuses or procedures the Brother TN540 or the TN570.

 

Note When removing the doctor blade, be sure to take off the plastic axles properly. By doing so, you will need to carefully pry it off with a wide blade screwdriver. The plate itself cannot be pushed in with your finger becasue of the 3/16 inch hole.

 

Theres absolutely no space unless you have the worlds smallest finger. Your much better off using a small screwdriver as previously mentioned. Also, be sure to tighten the felt seals or roughen them slightly usning your handy dandy screwdriver.

 

Congratulations Youve now just completed your Brother TN540/570 cartridge put together project. This information is provided to you to both educate and improve your knowledge in the technical area within the remanufacturing industry.

 

Im a highly aggressive individual who is constantly seeking success. My assertiveness has brought me to a level of excellence within my marketplace.

 

Ive been driven to the point of nonfailure and as a result I progress daily while conquering defeat. My intense innovations which are derived from my mind have sculptured and molded a defined marketer such as myself.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/difference-between-impact-printers-nonimpact-printers-a-3919.html What are printers A printer is an output device that prints characters, symbols, and perhaps graphics on paper. The printed output is generally referred to as hardcopy because it is in relatively permanent form. Softcopy refers to temporary images such as those displayed on a monitor. Printers are categorized according to whether or not the image produced is formed by physical contact of the print mechanism with the paper. Impact printers have contact; nonimpact printers do not.

 

Impact printers

 

An impact printer has mechanisms resembling those of a typewriter. It forms characters or images by striking a mechanism such as a print hammer or wheel against an inked ribbon, leaving an image on paper. Impact printers are dying out; however, you may still come in contact with a dotmatrix printer. A dotmatrix printer contains a print head of small pins that strike an inked ribbon, forming characters or images. Print heads are available with 9, 18, or 24 pins; the 24pin head offers the best print quality. Dotmatrix printers permit a choice between output of draft quality; a coarserlooking 72 dots per inch vertically, which may be acceptable for drafts of papers and reports, and nearletterquality, a crisperlooking 144 dots per inch vertically, which is more suitable for a finished product to be shown to other people.

 

Dotmatrix printers print about 40300 characters per second cps and can print some graphics, although the reproduction quality is poor. Color ribbons are available for limited use of color. Dotmatrix printers are noisy, inexpensive, and they can print through multipart forms, creating several copies of a page at the same time, which ninimpact printers cannot do.

 

Another type of impact printer is not used with microcomputers. Large computer installations use highspeed line printers, which print a whole line of characters at once rather a single character at a time. Some, called chain printers, contain characters on a rotating chain; others, called band printers, contain characters on a rotation band. Speeds of up to 3000 lines a minute may be possible with these machines.

 

Nonimpact Printers

 

Nonimpact printers, used almost everywhere now, are faster and quieter than impact printers because they have fewer moving parts. Nonimpact printers form characters and images without direct physical contact between the printing mechanism and the paper.

 

Two types of nonimpact printers often used with microcomputers are laser printers and inkjet printers.

 

Laser Printer Like a dotmatrix printer, a laser printer creates images with dots. However, as in a photocopying machine, these images are created on a drum, treated with a magnetically charged inklike toner powder, and then transferred from drum to paper. 

 

There are good reasons why laser printers are so popular. They produce sharp, crisp images of both text and graphics, providing resolutions from 300 dpi up to 1200 dpi, which is neartypeset quality NTQ. They are quiet and fast. They can print 432 textonly pages per minute for individual microcomputers, and more than 120 pages per minute for mainframes. Pages with more graphics print more slowly. They can print in many fonts type styles and sizes. The more expensive models can print in different colors.

 

         Laser printers have builtin RAM chips to store documents output from the computer. If you are working in desktop publishing and printing complicated documents with color and many graphics, you will need a printer with a lot of RAM. Laser printers also have their own ROM chips to store fonts and their own small dedicated processor. To be able to manage graphics and complex page design, a laser printer works with a page description language, a type of software that has become a standard for printing graphics on laser printers. A PDL page description language is software that describes the shape and position of letters and graphics to the printer. PostScript, from Adobe Systems, is one common type of page description language; HPGL, HewlettPackard Graphic Language, is another.

 

Inkjet printer Like laser and dotmatrix printers, inkjet printers also form images with little dots. Inkjet printers spray small, electrically charged droplets of ink from four nozzles through holes in a matrix at high speed onto paper.

 

         Inkjet printers can print in color and are quieter and much less expensive than a color laser printer. However, they are slower and print in a somewhat lower resolution 300720 dpi than laser printers. Some new, expensive inkjet printers print up 1200 or 1400 dpi. High resolution output requires the use of special coated paper, which costs more regular paper. And, if you are printing color graphics at a high resolution on an inkjet printer, it may take 10 minutes or more for a single page finish printing.

 

         A variation on inkjet technology is the bubblejet printer, which use miniature heating elements to force specially formulated inks through print heads with 128 tiny nozzles. The multiple nozzles print fine images at high speeds. This technology is commonly used in portable printers.

 

Things to take into account when buying a printer, is the printer easy to set up Easy to operate Do I need color or black will do Does the manufacturer offer a good warranty and good telephone technical support Otherwise its wise to own your own personal printer and get to know the answer to these questions.

 

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/benefits-printers-using-individual-cartridges-a-3918.html Individual cartridges are not a new phenomenon to hit the printing world; in fact, they have been around for years.

 

HP was one of the first companies to have separate color cartridges for their printers, such as the early Designjet series and wide format printers. This system worked well but required a large printer to hold the cartridges, that were huge in comparison to what are used today.

 

Although HP has continued to manufacture this type of printer, they have been traditionally best suited for special applications or heavy printing.   Individual ink cartridges were not to be found as an option in personal inkjet printers until 2001.  Epson came out with the C80, and about the same time Canon came out with printers like the BJC3000 series.

 

This new, separate color ink cartridge system was a real innovation for small offices and home use.  The printers footprint was equivalent to other contemporary 2cartridge printers 1 black cartridge and 1 color cartridge but had the advantages of the older large printers that used separate color cartridges

 

One of the best aspects of having separate ink cartridges in your printer is being able to replace a single color when it is empty instead of having to replace all colors. If you print multiple copies of the same photo or image, youll most likely use more of one color.  This makes individual cartridges especially economical.

 

All in one or tricolor cartridges usually contain Cyan, Magenta and Yellow.  Some cartridges also have Light Cyan and Light Magenta for a total of 6 possible colors in one single cartridge.  The inks are not used at equal rates, so inevitably you will run out of one color usually yellow before the others, which renders the entire cartridge unusable. A lot of usable ink gets thrown out, which is a waste of money when you consider the cost per milliliter of ink.  

 

Image quality on a color to color basis does not change with separate tanks but does allow for more colors to be added for photo printers. More colors to start with means it is easier to accurately replicate the original colors of the image.

 

Todays highend printers use more individual color cartridges in additional to cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan and light magenta.  Epson and Canon photo printers can use an array of additional colors like red, green, blue, matte black, photo black, light black and even light light black. These inks are designed to provide better halftones, so it is easier to reproduce photographs.   Additional colors also produce more accurate and richer photos, especially in grayscale printing.

 

Human eyes see more than 9 million colors.  Color has hue, intensity and luminosity, so it makes sense to start with a larger palette. 

 

Another benefit to individual color tanks is that they are generally larger capacity ink volumes.  You have more of each color in the printer at a time, so they will last longer and youll spend less time changing cartridges.

 

In case you need more justification for using an Epson or Canon printer with individual tanks, the individual compatible cartridges are inexpensive, ranging from 4.87 6.87 each. 

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/five-good-reasons-recycle-inkjet-cartridges-a-3917.html Recycling empty inkjet cartridges

is an easy way for anybody to help to reduce the impact on our landfills. 

 

Here are 5 great reasons to recycle your empty inkjet cartridges.

 

To start with, almost 3 entire pounds of resources involved in production are saved when a cartridge is recycled.

 

Next, an average inkjet cartridge takes an average of 3.5 oz. of oil to be manufactured.  This can really add up over time.

 

The third reason you should recycle or reuse your empty inkjet cartridges is to reduce the strain on local landfills. An inkjet cartridge does not biodegrade in a landfill, as other waste will over time.  Once a cartridge is discarded, it will be there for several hundred years.  Did you know that each year over 300 million printer cartridges are thrown away  This equates into about 75,000 tons of garbage.  To give you an idea how much that is, that he is equal in late to nearly 30,000 full grown African elephants.

 

The forth reason is the buying remanufactured recycled inkjet cartridges continue money.  Recycling your empty cartridges provides empty cores to cartridge remanufacturing companies that in turn, professionally refill and sell to users at a discounted price.  Consumers will see the same reliability, performance and quality as using an original brand OEM cartridge but at a lower cost.

 

Lastly, recycling your empty inkjet cartridges is relatively easy.  In fact, a lots of companies that offer remanufactured cartridges have their own recycling programs.

 

An easy method for printer owners to recycle inkjet cartridges is through the use of postage paid return envelopes that are sometimes included with an online inkjet cartridge purchase. 

 

A return mailer recycle envelope is usually a selfsealing plastic bag that is preaddressed to a recycling company.  The consumer puts their empty inkjet cartridge into the bag, seals it, and drops it off at a post office or any mailbox.  The postage is included, and the whole process takes just a few seconds.

 

If you are going to need more ink, a great way to recycle is through the use of an inkjet cartridge refilling service such as the Jetpak mailer program.

 

With the Jetpak mailer program, the customer purchases a special refilling service mailer in advance.  When the customer runs out of ink, they place the empty cartridge into the postage paid mailing box and drop it in the mail.  When the cartridge refilling company receives the empty cartridge, the refilling service cleans, inspects, and professionally refills the cartridges and mails it back to the customer.

 

In about one week the refilled cartridge is returned.  This provides a big savings over buying a new cartridge and also lowers the strain on our landfills.

 

Why recycle  Why not recycle

 

It reduces garbage, saves money, saves natural resources, and as the responsible thing to do.

 

Just because an empty inkjet cartridge is out of ink, doesnt mean its broken.

 

It just means that its prime for recycling.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/refilling-inkjet-cartridges-easy-a-3916.html When youre trying to save money, refilling an inkjet cartridge can be a good start.  Just follow the instructions that came with your printer refill kit, and youll be printing again quickly. 

 

Most inkjet printer refills work in basically the same way, with a few minor adjustments to fit the cartridge you are working with.  When youve done it a few times, refilling inkjet cartridges is quite simple.

 

First, find a spot to work in, preferably close to a sink.  Prepare your work area by spreading paper towels over a large area, and make sure you have everything you need within reach before you start.

 

Before you put on the latex gloves that come with the printer refill kit, youll need to attach the needle to the syringe.  If you are refilling different colors, use a different syringe for each color.

 

Now that youve protected your workspace and attached the needle, its time to protect your skin by putting on the latex gloves.  This can make it a little hard to work, but its an even harder task to try to get ink out of your skin. 

 

Slowly begin to draw ink into the syringe.  Only fill it to the fill line marked on the syringe.

 

Hold the cartridge either over the sink or paper towels and inject the ink into the cartridge slowly.  Pushing the syringes plunger down too fast could result in a leaky mess all over.

 

When youre done refilling the cartridge, wipe up any excess ink from the cartridge and check for any leaks. 

 

Clean your work by throwing away the paper towels and cleaning any spilled ink with a little water.  You can store the unused ink for future use, but make sure it is sealed tightly.

 

Most people wont deal with the potential mess of refilling inkjet cartridges, but it gives you a great opportunity to save money by using inkjet printer refills.  Although it is convenient to refill your cartridges, after a time you will need to replace them anyway.  If you do a lot of printing, you could save a lot of money over the course of a year.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/choose-laser-photo-printer-a-3915.html Printers have come a long way in the past few years. They have also come down in price as well, which is always nice. Now it is possible to buy a high quality laser photo printer for your home or office for a fraction of what you would have paid ten years ago. If you are looking for a good printer, then you are sure to find one that will fit your needs and your budget. Here is a look at a few of your choices and a little more about what to look for in picking out the right printer for your particular needs.

 

A laser photo printer has the advantage of printing faster than a regular inkjet printer. In fact it is about twice as fast. If you take a lot of photos for your personal use or for your business, then this is important to you. Having a machine that can print a lot of photos quickly can save you both time and money. Youll want to do some research online to find various websites that will give you some very good deals and help you fill your printing needs.

 

Another advantage of a laser printer is that the ink will last much longer than the regular ink jet printer. The toner cartridge may be more expensive to buy, but you get a lot more prints from it than the inkjet cartridge. So therefore, when you figure out the cost per print page, you will find that the laser photo printer is much more cost effective. In most cases you are looking at getting double the amount of copies.

 

The quality of these models is better than the quality of a traditional inkjet printer. If you are printing brochures or other forms of media, then you cant beat a laser photo printer for quality and durability. Photos and other media that has been printed with a laser printer last longer and the ink does not run if it should happen to get wet. If you get an inkjet photo or other printed material wet, it will run and become unrecognizable. So if you want to make sure that your photos last for a long time, get the right printer.

 

When shopping for a laser printer, take into consideration what you want your printer to do. There are printers out there that are all in one printers and have the ability to copy, scan, print and fax. These types of printers will probably cost you a little more, but if you need all of these features rolled into one, it wont be a problem to find them. Just make sure that you read up on reviews of the various types of all in one printer to get the best one. By simply doing a little research and taking your time, you can a great choice and be happy for years to come.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/tips-purchasing-laser-printer-inkjet-printer-a-3914.html Once you have determined to purchase a new printer, the next question, which comes almost instantly to your mind, is whether to select an inkjet printer or a laser printer. This article is aimed at helping you to decide on a printer which suits your needs and budget to the maximum and hence to help you in making a wellinformed purchase.

 

To start at the beginning

The first thing to consider while buying a printer is the purpose of its purchase. If the primary objective of your printer is to print your kids school projects or for your hobby of collecting hard copies of information on the internet, then it would be in your best interest to plump for a printer on the basis of low running cost. Since it is meant for childrens use as well, it should be very easy to use. Also, since it is for use at home, one should consider a multi function inkjet printer; this is because it gives one the liberty to scan the documents and photographs back into the computer and also has the option of photo copying the documents.

 

Majority of the printer manufacturers have their multi function inkjet printers in the market and hence these are available at very reasonable price in the market. However, before deciding to purchase a particular printer one should have a thorough knowledge of the running cost of the product.

 

There is no doubt that an inkjet printer works well for homes and small offices, but if one is considering the purchase of a printer for a large office, then inkjet printers are going to prove themselves costlier than laser printers.

 

The Laser Printer

Laser printers are the best bet for any large office, especially now when there are colour laser printers for less than 200. The laser printers have many advantages when compared with inkjet printers as they are small foot print, have great network connectivity and give much better results because of the chemical toner used. Not only this, the laser printers are much faster than inkjet printers and also have much lower running cost than inkjet printers. Most of the laser printers come with an integrated RAM of 128mb, and also have the option of expanding the memory up to a gigabyte of memory. This feature of the laser printer really favors the large office environments as it allows the queuing of multiple complex print jobs at the same time.

 

To Conclude

when compared with the inkjet printers and the laser printers, there is no doubt that the snapshot printers are the slowest of all. However, if your purchase of the printer is intended to make photographs, it is the best possible choice for you. They are comparatively lower in price and give the buyer the convenience of printing directly from the printer. These snapshot printers can be carried easily to any place as they have integrated carrying handles as well as optional battery packs. So, the printer which suits your needs best is the best printer for you.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/printer-toner-cartridges-some-important-facts-a-3913.html Today, all types of printers including laser printers and inkjet printers are very reasonably priced. Also, the printer toner cartridges

which substitute the starter cartridges are very affordable and are very cost effective as well. There are some very good deals for the laser printer cartridges and the inkjet printer cartridges in the market, and there is no doubt that most of these great deals are found online.

 

Laser printer toner which is more commonly known as laser printer toner cartridges is a powdery substance which gets electrically charged during the process of printing and gets transferred to paper to complete the process. These toners come in cartridges which can be inserted into the printer.

 

One cartridge can print many pages. When empty, these printer toner cartridges can be replaced or refilled as well. There are two main benefits of replacing the printer toner cartridges. They are speed and portability. Toners are used extensively in photocopiers, laser printers and fax machines. Initially the toners were made of carbon. However, with the advent of time, the manufacturers combined carbon with polymers to improve the quality of the prints. Majority of the manufacturers use fuser technology which heats and melts the cartridge particles to stick to the paper.

 

Though the polymer could differ for different manufacturers, most of them use Styrene Acrylate Copolymer or a Polyester Resin. The formulations of these printer toner cartridges might even differ from one machine to another. The basic difference between different formulations is because of the difference in particle size and the difference in melting points of those particles. Some of the manufacturers of these printer toner cartridges even use chemical processes which enhance the shapes of the particles used in these printer toner cartridges, this in turn results in better quality prints in terms of colour accuracy and better organised use of the printer toner cartridges.

 

Laser printer toners are broadly classified into four types. The first type is popularly known as Original Equipment Manufacturer or OEM. These cartridges are manufactured by companies under their famous brand names. Some very famous OEM cartridges are Epson OEM, Canon OEM, HP OEM and Brother OEM. The second type is Generic cartridges or Compatible cartridges which usually aim at equalling or excelling the performance of the OEM Cartridges, though they are much cheaper when compared with OEM Cartridges. The third type has become very popular in the recent years, is called refurbished or remanufactured cartridges and as the name suggests are remanufactured or recycled from the OEMs. Last but not the least is the refill kits, which is in fact the cheapest way to replace the replace the printers toner cartridge.

 

The toner cartridges have many advantages when compared with laser cartridges. The laser printer toners not only prints more pages but also prove to be more cost efficient in the long run when compared with the inkjet cartridges. In addition to that, the laser printer toners are also faster than inkjet cartridges and can print almost all type of papers. If used properly, there is no doubt that the laser toner cartridges can take ones printing to the next level.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/microboards-print-factory-pfpro-printer-review-a-3912.html The Microboards Print Factory Pro inkjet CD / DVD printer is fully automated with a 100disc capacity, large individual CMYK ink cartridges, and PC / MAC compatibility.

 

This review of the Microboards PFPro inkjet printer is based on seven different criteria, on a scale of 1 to 5 stars 5 being the highest rating possible. We have run about 60,000 CDs and DVDs through 10 different Microboards Printfactory Pro printers over the past 45 days. And here are the results...

 

Price MSRP of 2995, and a street price around 2695. The Microboards PrintFactory Pro printer is more expensive compared with other inkjet printers like the Microboards PF3 and GX Auto Printers, and the Primera Bravo Pro, Bravo II and SE models. 3 Stars.

 

Speed There are multiple print resolution options with the Print Factory Pro. For our testing and production runs we used either the text and graphics best or photo normal options. The photo normal mode slower and lays down more ink, for a highresolution print, than the text and graphics mode. The design of the disc artwork also influences the number of CDs / DVDs that can be printed per hour. We found that you get about 75 full coverage discs/hour printing using photo normal. With 30 print coverage using the text and graphics best mode you will get about 115 discs/hour. 4.5 Stars.

 

Bin Capacity The Microboards PFPro has a bin capacity of 100 discs, either CDr or DVDr. This stacks up well against most other sub 3000 automated inkjet printers. A larger input capacity would be nice with the addition of the larger C, M, Y, and K ink cartridges. 3.5 Stars.

 

Cost per Print With inkjet printers the cost per print will fluctuate based on color combinations, print coverage, and the print resolution and speed selected in the Printfactory Pro print driver. We found that full coverage multiple color discs run about 0.12/disc. Discs with a 30 print coverage consisting of a few colors and black text cost about 0.05/disc in ink. 5 Stars.

 

Print Quality Color graphics are vibrant, and the black text printing is pretty sharp. Models like the Microboards PF3 are a bit crisper with text printing. The PFPro printer also does a good job with large blocks of solid colors. 4 Stars.

 

Print Durability Inkjet printers use waterbased ink, so when the CD or DVD comes in contact with moisture, the print on the disc will smear and smudge. This is the case minutes, hours, days, and years after the disc is printed unless you print on Taiyo Yuden waterproof discs. That being said, the Microboards Print Factory Pro is as durable as any other inkjet CD printer on the market. 2 Stars.

 

Easy of Use The PFPro has a single USB 2.0 connection to a PC or MAC. It comes with a popular and easy to use CD / DVD graphic software called SureThing. You can import standard graphic images like .jpeg, .bmp, .png and .gif. The print driver controls the robotic disc loading mechanism, so there is no complicated software to learn. You can also print directly from Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop with some adjustments to the margins within the printer driver. In addition, we were able to hook up 4 of the Microboards PFPro printers to a single PC with a USB 2.0 hub. 4.5 Stars.

 

Maintenance As with most inkjet CD / DVD printers, the Print Factory Pro needs to have internal sensors and components cleaned about every 5000 discs due to ink over spray. In addition, there are two printheads 1 for Black/Yellow and 1 for the Cyan/Magenta that need replacing every 50,000 discs or so. We have not had the need to replace any printheads as of this review. 3.5 Stars.

 

Technical Support Microboards has above average phone technical support for the CD / DVD equipment industry. After warranty repairs can be expensive, as they are with other manufactures in this niche. 4 Stars.

 

Conclusion The Microboards PFPro is our top pick for an automated inkjet CD printer for standard 120mm CDr, DVDr, and BluRay media. Strengths are cost per print, speed, and the ability to hook up multiple printers on a single PC. This Microboards printers is a must for anyone printing 4000 or more inkjet discs per year.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/remanufactured-cartridges-winning-battle-a-3911.html The battle between OEM original cartridges and remanufactured cartridges is real Major printer and cartridge manufactures have steadily felt a decrease in their marketshare for ink cartridges. The open battle is against generic ink makers, whose cheaper ink has become more popular due to a faltering economy. Another reason theyve been hit hard has been a trend began by businesses and consumers to print less as a way to save money.

 

Thus showing us the battle is being won due to several factors. One, consumers find the prices for OEM cartridges substantially higher than cheaper generic or remanufactured cartridges. Two, with more technological capability to store and share documentation and information the need to print has become less. Three, there a definite increase of online retailers and stores providing a comparison stand point thus giving the consumers the tools to shop smart.

 

Do not think that Major Manufactures are going to just let this battle be won. Releasing new models faster than the older ones gather dust gives them the possibilities of owning the market at least until generic remanufactures get up to speed. Another war strategy is assuring the life expectancy of the printer by using OEM cartridges that in the long run lets consumers save on the life of the printer and will not have to purchase another device soon. Most definitely for important documents and pictures using an OEM cartridge assures the best quality.

 

Choose your side, you decide. Inkjetsuperstore.com is biased meaning we provide you with both choices of OEM original ink and toner cartridges as well as aftermarket alternatives. What we do offer you to win your own personal battle is the best lowest prices To illustrate this battle lets take HP for example that on Wednesday shared their financial news. Their printer and ink division has been severely wounded, with sales falling 19 percent to 6 billion. That includes a 7 percent decline in supplies, a typically strong area that includes things like ink cartridges, which are among HPs biggest moneymakers.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/printing-investment-loss-a-3910.html Printing is a necessity nowadays. You cant have a business with our documents, forms, presentations to give. You cant a printer at home with out printing news, homework, bills, etc. You cant take pictures with out wanting to print them yourself 24/7 anytime and what ever size imaginable. You cant pay with checks with out them being printed with your name and bank info. Ok already, I think you got the point.

 

If we realize then that printing is part of our daily lives do we see it as an investment or do we suffer the pain of spending hundreds of dollars month by month. Of course the answer is a matter of perspective. What I might see as an investment others might see it as a total loss of cash. To offer some light on the subject I want just to recount the two points of views and then let you decide

 

Printing as an Investment

 

If we take into consideration all the ways we use the printer, some mentioned above and many other you probably can wipe out right now. Printing allows you to have information available in a physical manner meaning other than electronically and thus share that information. Having your printer gives you flexibility, saves you on time and you print what you need. Imagine if you had to send all that you needed printed to an offsite printer company and then had to wait to see it or read it. In this immediate satisfaction world we live now time is money. New better and more economical printers come out faster than we can imagine. You can now scan, fax, copy, and print all in one machine. Printing helps you manage your time, your resources, it is a cost effective amenity that when not available or running properly it amounts more time, energy, and of course money to fix. When thinking on printer as an investment you have to raise the question of the use of OEM cartridges vs remanufactured ones. Stating the manufacturers point of view, in order to protect your investment you need to purchase genuine supplies to assure high yield, superior print quality, and complete guarantee for your toner or ink cartridge.

 

Printing as a Loss

 

Now if we take into consideration that total cost of the printer could be 1/8 of the total cost of printing, as per statement from Steve Pociask, president of the American Consumer Institute. He adds Over the life of the printerand by that I mean three yearsyou can easily spend 800 for the printer and ink. Is that a high cost for efficiency, time management, always ready to print documents, letters etc. Is it really expensive to print as you need, when you need, what you need

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/properly-remanufacture-your-c6578-color-printer-a-3909.html Dear Reader, The Hewlett Packard 78 C6578DN450 pgs HP 78 C6654BN970 pgs Color Ink Cartridge, large and normal size tricolor inkjet print cartridge produces outstanding images. Especially on plain or photo paper, photoquality images on special media, exceptional resolution, and the best print quality in any print mode.

 

This is a result of HPs Photo Ret 3 printing technology which produces very fine image enhancements.

 

Prior to the instructions your about to review, allow me to provide you with the printer model numbers which will fit with this ink cartridge.

 

HP AllinOne Machines

 

Officejet 5110 Officejet K Officejet G PSC 750 Officejet V PSC 950 series.

 

HP Copy Machines

 

Color Copier 190 Color Copier 280 Color Copier 310 Color Copier 180 Digital CopierPrinter 310 Color Copier 290 HP Fax Machines

 

Fax 1230 Fax 1220 series.

 

HP Inkjet Printers

 

Deskjet 1220 Deskjet 930c Deskjet 6122 Deskjet 990 Deskjet 950c Deskjet 9300 Deskjet 932c Deskjet 920 Deskjet 970 Deskjet 3820 Deskjet 6127 Deskjet 960c Deskjet 935c Deskjet 940 Deskjet 995 Deskjet 952c series.

 

HP Photo Printers

 

 

Photosmart 1218 Photosmart 1215 Photosmart P1000 Photosmart P1100 Photosmart 1115 Photosmart 1315 series.

 

Here are your StepbyStep HowtoRemanufacture Your HP C6578D Instructions

 

Lets get straight to the point, no beating around the bush during this lecture.

 

First, you will need the necessary Tools & Supplies Required

 

Tools & Supplies Required

 

Electrical Circuit Tester tool Drill Press tool Centrifuge tool Atomization Machine Filling Machine tool Printer Tester or OEM Printer tool FlushCleaning Machine tool Toweling supply Taping Machine supply Purified Water supply Replacement Plugs supply Packaging Materials supply Here you will also be provided with the OEM original equipment manufacturer information

 

Hewlett Packard C6578A/D ink cartridge

 

Part Number C6578A/D OEM Milliliter Load 19 ml Yield 5 coverage 970 pages 78A / min9, 450 pages 78D Resolution 2400x1200dpi dots per inch Below are the 13 easy steps to know how to remanufacture your Hewlett Packard C6578A/D inkjet cartridge.

 

Step 1 Initial Cleaning of Nozzle Plates

 

Each individual cartridge should be given a quick yet thorough cleaning of the nozzle plate and circuit tab at the beginning of the process.

 

This is achieved by directing the finest atomized spray onto the nozzle plate and circuit. The goal is just to remove any buildup of coarse, dried inks that would prevent an accurate visual inspection of the surface condition of the nozzle plate.

 

Targeting the circuit tab will enable an accurate electrical test. The atomized spray is roughly 44 degrees C 110 degrees F. Timing is approximately 68 seconds per cartridge is all that is usually required.

 

Step 2 Visual Inspection

 

Now that the nozzle plates and circuitry have been cleaned and dry, the engineer must identify cartridges that may have loose or damaged nozzle plates, otherwise this will cause future headaches that are unnecessary.

 

With the use of a magnifying glass, your task will become easier, reducing your time frame. Immaculate shiny nozzle plates reflect the light from their gold plated colored surfaces.

 

You dont even need to be an expert to utilize those reflections to trace insignificant marks in the surface. Certain reflections can indicate a loose corner or an entire section when the reflective plane in one part of the plate is different from its adjacent parts.

 

Any cartridges that fails and does not pass this ruling, is discarded without hesitation. You probably will not find a way to fix a loose or damaged nozzle plate.

 

Step 3 Electrical Testing

 

As for the electrical test, it continues to reduce the opportunity that any nonusable cartridges will be processed by subtracting those cartridges with electrical circuit failures. All that take part in this action should be disposed of.

 

Step 4 Drilling

 

The path or access to the foams for both cleaning and filling is gained by drilling out the OEM original equipment manufacturer vent plugs.

 

The drilled holes are in the exact same location of the existing holes initially, although the drilled holes at approximately 4mm are quite larger. The larger the holes will be capped towards the final stage of the process.

 

Step 5 Flush Cleaning

 

The reason for the flush cleaning procedure steps is to reduce each cartridge to an identical condition. All cartridges can be expected to react in the same way to the near subsequent filling operations, prior to.

 

The flush cleaning process involves descending a sharp edged needle within 23 millimeters of the three internal filter screens and allows purified warm water to flow continuously for 810 minutes.

 

Suction is not applied to the nozzles, and as for the content of water pressure, evacuates through the drilled topvent holes.

 

The excess of water carries away virtually 100 percent of the OEM original equipment manufacturer regardless of how full or empty the cartridge chambers may have been.

 

Step 6 Nozzle Cleaning

 

In order to thoroughly clean the nozzles, the atomized water stream is now directed with an accurate currency into all nozzle entrances at various angles.

 

The abundant flush cleaning and this nozzle atomization compliment each other well is the most effective and dominating cleaning method causing damage to the ink delivery system. Take this into consideration.

 

This close atomization cleaning process averages approximately 20 seconds per cartridge.

 

Step 7 Centrifuging

 

Cartridges that have been flushed and cleanedatomized are completely saturated with purified water. As a result, the removal of this water is addressed in the following two steps.

 

Centrifuging at 3,000 rpm removes the excess content of water through the drilled vent holes. This fourminute cycle has the potential to ease the magenta foam center chamber away from the filter screen.

 

As a precautionary measure, the cartridges are rotated at 180 degrees and recentrifuged for an additional cycle. Even though no additional water is removed therefore no stress is put onto the nozzle plates.

 

Or even any foam that may have crept away is reseated into firm contact with the filter screens. Cartridges removed from the centrifuge may weigh in the 95100 gram scale.

 

Step 8 Foam Drying

 

The maximum weight for each cartridge before refilling is nearly 92 grams. Anything above this weight, the foams contain too much moisture.

 

Moisture will shift the foams hydrophobic quality toward the hydrophilic side, providing them to wick the new ink toward the top of the foams. Eventually this will render the cartridges to become inoperable within 48 hours.

 

Dry foams on the other hand, will prevent the capillary action and keep the ink place in the lower 1/3 of the foam. As for the final stage of drying, the foams are accomplished in the vacuum oven where the entire ink cartridge is placed within a heated vacuum environment.

 

Due to extended moisture levels, there is a preprogrammed system of evacuations and purges, in which the moisture content of all the foams is reduced to a more acceptable level.

 

Step 9 Vacuum Filling

 

The nozzles must be taped in order to prevent air ingestion during the arrival to atmospheric pressure. The cartridges are then filled to approx. 13ml per chamber in a vacuum environment.

 

Ink is then slowly released, as close to the filter screens as possible, to ensure the complete saturation of the ink at the print head.

 

After the fill has complete, the vacuum release is controlled over the most important factors in the success or failure of these cartridges. For the most part, inks are available that have the correct characteristics for persistent along with consistent success in these cartridges.

 

After the cartridges have been refilled, they are then put to the side for about 1215 hours before any print testing is accomplished. This time is mandatory so that the cartridges can have time for equalization.

 

Step 10 Print Testing

 

The most responsive way to test your ink cartridges is to use an OEM original equipment manufacturer printer and test each finished ink cartridge.

 

A test print that begins with flooding of all the nozzles helps prime the cartridges to demonstrate accurate test results. You should get a solid thick line of black, cyan blue, magenta red, and yellow when print calibration has completed.

 

Step 11 Replacement Vent Plugs

 

Every cartridge that passes the print test will then receive three replacement plugs in the drilled access holes. The reason for the molded plug is so that it has more of an attracted appearance. This also takes place for the venting thats necessary for the proper function of the cartridge.

 

Remember, there are graduation classes of the three colors such as 90 percent, 89 percent, 70 percent, and so on. Quite a few failures of each color may not manifest until the 4565 percent range. You should print the minimum of 2 full pages of graphics to ensure highest quality.

 

Step 12 Nozzle Sealing

 

Since the print testing leaves an ink residue on the nozzle plate, it is critical that the residue is completely removed prior to the application of the blue sealing tape.

 

There is a machine called the JetPrep 550 that emits a mini burst of steam that is very effective when it comes to removing the excess residue of ink that remains on the nozzle plate exterior, which air dries in a few minutes to an impeccable clean surface.

 

Next, the blue sealed tape is adhered to the nozzle plate and due to the heat which helps soften the tape conforms to the shape of the print head and silicon encapsulations at either side of the nozzle plate.

 

Step 13 Packaging

 

In order to complete this remanufacturing process you need to clean the outside of the cartridge, input a date code, replace the labels, and insert the finished cartridge into a newly designed professional looking box for retail purposes.

 

Congratulations, you have successfully completed the process on how to remanufacture your own Hewlett Packard C6578D inkjet printer cartridge.

 

Good luck and complete each cartridge as if it were your last. This information is provided to you to both educate and improve your knowledge in the technical area within the remanufacturing industry.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/yourself-different-hewlett-packard-printer-problems-a-3908.html Did you know that when you printing documents and running those reams of paper through your printer, one of them is going to get tangled up

 

If your print sessions are valuable to you, then you should check this article out.

 

Below are 10 HP LaserJet printer problems with 10 HP LaserJet printer solutions to help you with your printing nightmares.

 

1. Paper jams Dont you just love when your printer jams Among the most common problems with any make of printer are paper jams.

 

A printer will jam for any number of reasons Its dirty, the wrong paper type is being used, or the rollers on the printer that feed the paper through its pathway are worn down.

 

While cleaning the printer periodically and using the correct paper type are easy fixes, roller replacement can be a difficult job depending on the model of HP printer.

 

For some HP printers, the rollers are easily accessible, but youll need to completely tear down other models to remove the rollers.

 

Regardless of the cause, when removing a paper jam, always pull the paper in the direction of the paper path, because pulling it backwards can severely damage the printer.

 

Certain HP printers are more susceptible to paper jams than others.

 

In my experience, any printer that holds the paper vertically and then pulls it down through the printer invariably ends up having paper jam problems.

 

These models arent designed for heavy use, but many organizations make use of them on individual systems and should be aware of this flaw.

 

In addition, some people have trouble with the newer HP 4000 series printers paper pickup rollerswhich is odd, because the older 4000 and 5000 series HP printers are considered rock solid and dont seem to have any trouble with their pickup rollers.

 

2. Some or all of the printing on the page is faded

 

A faded print image is normally the result of one of three conditions The printer is getting low on toner, the print density is set too low, or Economode printing is turned on.

 

For the last two settings, a printer selftest typically a separate button on the printer will show what the current settings are.

 

If Economode is on, and users are complaining about how light the print is, turn it off and/or set the print density higher.

 

If the toner is low, simply removing the cartridge and shaking it to redistribute the toner more evenly can temporarily resolve the problem until you can replace the cartridge.

 

3. Ghosting

 

Ghosting is a condition where the image prints properly, but a much lighter copy of the image also prints elsewhere. This can be due to a problem with the power outlet that is supplying power to the printer.

 

Check the power outlet by plugging in a different printer to see if the same results occur. Ghosting can also be caused when consumable printer parts such as the drum or imaging kit are near the end of their life.

 

All of the consumable parts in a printer are rated for a certain number of pages. Once a printer gets near that magic number, youll need to replace those parts to eliminate ghosting.

 

4. Toner smears or does not stay on the paper If words and images come off the paper when a hand is run across them, there are a few possible problems.

 

First, the fuser assembly may be damaged or at the end of its life. The solution is to replace the fuser assembly.

 

Repairing a fuser assembly is generally not recommended because the fuser is considered a consumable printer part and not worth the time or effort to fix.

 

Second, the toner cartridge may be defective and letting too much toner out at one time.

 

In a blackandwhite laser printer, the solution is to replace the toner cartridge. In a color laser printer, only replace the cartridge that is exhibiting the problem.

 

Third, some toner may have spilled in the printer. If so, youll need to clean it out.

 

5. Printer is displaying a 50.4 error message

 

A 50.4 error message on some of the newer HP LaserJet printers indicates a problem with the power supply.

 

If the printer is connected to a UPS, disconnect it, or disconnect it from a power strip and plug it directly into a wall outlet.

 

A laser printer should never be plugged into a UPS, because the UPS can be damaged by the surges of power required by a printer to keep the fuser assembly warm.

 

If that doesnt work, make sure that all of the components in the printer are seated properly.

 

6. Cant find a driver for a particular operating system

 

As new operating systems are released, new drivers will need to be loaded for your existing printers. Not all printers have a driver for every OS operating system.

 

In these cases, its best to consult the printer manual and find out what printers the drivers will emulate. While not all of the functionality of the printer will be available under this emulation, at least basic printing will work.

 

For example, most HP printers will print with the HP LaserJet II driver installed, although specific options, such as duplexing, will not work.

 

7. Printer is not printing from the expected paper tray

 

You can check in two places to correct this particular error.

 

First, look on the printing PC, and second, on the printer.

 

If the application is set to print to the wrong paper tray, correct it within the application by clicking on Printer Properties and finding the Tray Selection source.

 

On the printer, make sure that the paper sizes in the control panel match what is actually in the paper trays.

 

8. Printer picks up all the paper from the manual feed tray rather than one sheet

 

The pad that is responsible for separating the paper has likely worn out and needs to be replaced. You can order and install a new pad without sending the printer out for repair.

 

It is also possible that the paper is wet due to humidity. Make sure the paper is properly stored and that it is fanned before putting it into the printer.

 

9. Printer is displaying a 79 error

 

A 79 error can be the result of a problem with the network print server that services the printer. When troubleshooting a 79 error, first open the Printer folder from the Start menu on the Print server to make sure there are no jobs pending.

 

A 79 error can also indicate a failure of a printer addon component, such as an MIO modular input/output card or a RAM random access memory module.

 

All addons should be removed and then added back to the printer one by one to determine which module may be at fault.

 

10. Trouble printing onto envelopes

 

Envelopes can cause many problems for laser printers. Choose envelopes that are close to 20lb paper in weight and thickness.

 

Also, make sure that the adhesive on the envelope is capable of withstanding the heat that the fuser puts out to keep the printing on the page. If you dont, the envelopes will come out of the printer already sealed.

 

If envelopes are coming out of the printer wrinkled, they may be too stiff for the paper path. Open the rear of the printer and let them exit at that location instead.

 

HP printers are considered to be among the most reliable in the industry. But just as any other piece of IT equipment, theyre vulnerable to failure. And it seems the newer printers cant withstand the same amount of abuse that the older models could.

 

So if you work on newermodel HP printers in a paperintensive environment, expect more troubleshooting calls involving the problems Ive described.

 

No matter what the age of your HP printer, this guide to common printing problems will help you diagnose and fix the problem quickly.

 

As a result of this content of information, you are now geared for the next problem you encounter. This time you will have an answer, making you the best Solution Provider that you can possibly be.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/properly-recondition-your-xerox-13r546-drum-cartridge-a-3907.html Dear Reader,

 

The Xerox 13R546 laser drum cartridges are relatively easy to recondition. Similar in many ways to the 5318 style cartridges, which preceded them.

 

It is a simple matter of disassembly, a thorough cleaning, inspection of the Drum and Cleaning Blade, and repair of the Connector.

 

The Connector is key to resetting the status code J7 calling for a new Copy Cartridge. Spare parts for these cartridges have been slow coming to the market.

 

Fortunately the Drums are capable of running 100,000 copies. There are two types of cartridges between which the only difference is the connectors type.

 

The XC2333 uses a 13R546 cartridge which is set up to run 30,000 copies while the XDL2333 use a 13R555 which is set up to run 50,000 copies.

 

The connectors are not interchangeable although the cartridges are identical in all other respects.

 

StepbyStep HowtoRecondition Your Xerox 13R546 Instructions

 

This drum cartridge is compatible with Xerox copier model numbers

 

XC23

XC23A

XC23AS

XC33AS

XC33D

 

Specifications on the Xerox 13R546 Drum Cartridge

 

Model Number 13R546

Manufacturer Xerox

Type Brand New

Color Black

Description 1 cartridge per box

Page Yield Approximately 30,000 pages

 

These cartridges are relatively easy to recondition. Similar in many ways to the 5318 style cartridges, which preceded them.

 

It is a simple matter of disassembly, a thorough cleaning, inspection of the Drum and Cleaning Blade, and repair of the Connector.

 

The Connector is key to resetting the status code J7 calling for a new Copy Cartridge. Spare parts for these cartridges have been slow coming to the market.

 

Fortunately the Drums are capable of running 100,000 copies. There are two types of cartridges between which the only difference is the connectors type.

 

The XC2333 uses a 13R546 cartridge which is set up to run 30,000 copies while the XDL2333 use a 13R555 which is set up to run 50,000 copies.

 

The connectors are not interchangeable although the cartridges are identical in all other respects.

 

SECTION 1

 

Tools

 

FlatHead Screwdriver small

PhillipsHead Screwdriver

Technician Vacuum Cleaner with a toner rated filter

 

Supplies

 

Starter Powder dusting pouch

Yellow Dust Cloths

Swab with Isopropyl Alcohol or a Corona Cleaning Pen

White Polishing Sponge optional

DrumCoat Polish optional

 

Replacement components which you may need to do.

 

Repaired Connector necessary

Cleaning Blade

 

SECTION 2

 

PROCEDURE

 

1.First check the drum for flaws turns counterclockwise if youre looking at the rear end

 

Look for scuffmarks, or scratches. Also see if the Cleaning Blade is leaving any streaks on the drum. Fingerprints and some minor scuff may come off when you polish the drum later.

 

2.Remove the guide rail over the drum 2 screws

 

Also, dont forget to remove the Charge Scorotron 1 screw on the rear.

 

3.Remove the frontend cap 2 screws

 

Gently extract and remove the bushing from the drum along with the waste toner tube leave the auger spring in place.

 

4.Remove the Connector from the rear of the cartridge 2 screws

 

Remove the rear plate 3 screws & 1 EClip. Remove the metal contact located above the large white gear taking note of how itll go back on it is loose once the rear plate is removed Slide the rear drum collar off the drums shaft and remove the drum. Note that its normal for the large white gear, which is on the end of the spring auger to feel loose once the rear plate is off.

 

5.Empty the reclaim toner, which is inside the drum

 

Inspect the drum & put it in a safe place away from direct light.

 

6.Remove the metal top cover

 

Also, the plastic cover beneath it 2 screws. The Cleaning Blade can then be lifted out. Clean everything well. Pay special attention to the toner brush located behind the Cleaning Blade.

 

Clean the corona wire with isopropyl alcohol on a swab or a Corona Cleaning Pen. Take care not to damage the thin Mylar Recovery Blade & the Scorotron Grid or its contacts.

 

Inspect the blade for any imperfections. Replace the blade if necessary if you do, use plenty of starting powder.

 

If there are any minor scuffs or fingerprints on the drum, you may want to polish it with Drum Coat use sparingly using a clean white sponge... be sure to remove any excess polish haze after letting the drum dry for a minute or two.

 

Any polish left on the drum will increase the of copies you need to run to break in the drum again youll get light copies for between 20 & 50 copies after a good polishing.

 

7.Reassemble the cartridge

 

Return the drum carefully to its cradle slide the rear collar back into place. When reinstalling the rear plate, note that there is one Machine screw, which goes on the right above the white gear the other two screws are plastic tapping screws.

 

Once its all together, turn the drum counter clockwise when looking at the rear of the cartridge to see that all is well.

 

8.Send the connector in for repair

 

Once you get the repaired connector... the cartridge will run another full cycle.

 

Here are some codes you may come across and will need to know the codes.

 

Status Codes Press 0 to see the sub code

 

A Codes

A Codes Document Feed Problems

 

C Codes

C Codes Paper Feed or Preregistration Jam Problems

 

E Codes

E Codes Postregistration / Exit Jams & Duplex Problems

 

F Codes

F Codes Sorter Jam or Interlock Problems

 

H Codes

H Codes HCF High Capacity Feeder or ADF Problems

 

J Codes

J1 Code Toner Empty

J3 Code Copy Cartridge not installed or not seated properly

J7 Code Copy Ctg. count expired replace the connector

J8 Codes Improper Copy Cartridge or not seated properly

 

L Codes

L6 Code Key Counter not installed

L8 Code Platen Temperature too high

L9 Code Communication error with InterImage Lamp PWB

 

U Codes

U11 Code Xerographic Motor Problem

U2 Codes Scanner Drive Problems

U31 Code Lens Drive Problem

U41 Code Fuser Thermistor Open

U42 Code Fuser took too long to warm up

U43 Code Fuser stays on after reaching operating temperature

U44 Code Fuser stays on too long after copy cycle

U46 Code Fuser Overtemperature

U5 Codes Sorter Bin Drive Problem

U6 Codes Memory Problems / Main Board Problems

U8 Codes Exposure Problems

 

Diagnostics Hold the 0 while turning on the power to enter diagnostics. To enter a code, enter the 1st part of code, followed by Print, then the 2nd part of code & then Print again.

 

Fuser Overheat Reset 5020 First make sure that you have repaired the cause of the overheat. Enter the diagnostic code 5020 as explained above, then press 0 followed by Print.

 

NOTE Watch to make sure the lamp cycles off the way it should once the machine comes to being ready.

 

Read Total Copy Count 3050

 

Read Copy Cartridge Life Remaining 3091

 

This information is for your records and should be read atleast 4 times before making an attempt to configure your drum cartridge. This is to ensure comprehension.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/properly-remanufacture-your-hewlett-packard-c4182x-toner-a-3906.html Dear Reader,

 

Are you sick and tired of paying too much for your HP C4182X high yield hp c4182x toner cartridge

 

Your maximum capacity, HP LaserJet 82X Ultraprecise print cartridge is designed precisely with HP LaserJet 8100 and 8150 Series printers, for optimum quality and reliability.

 

The ultraprecise cartridge advancements ensure breakthrough quality and usability.

 

StepbyStep HowtoRemanufacture the HP C4182X Instructions

 

Lets get straight to the point, no beating around the bush during this lecture.

 

First, you will need the necessary Tools & Supplies Required

 

Tools & Supplies Required

 

Phillips Head Screwdriver tool

Small Flat Blade Screwdriver tool

Small Hammer tool

Needle nose Pliers tool

5/32 Drift Punch tool

Anhydrous Isopropyl Alcohol supply

Soft Lint Free Cloth supply

 

Here you will also be provided with the OEM original equipment manufacturer information

 

HP 8100

 

Part Number C4182X high yield

OEM Gram Load 1100 grams

Yield 5 coverage 20,000 pages / min32

Resolution 1200dpi dots per inch

 

Below are your 20 easy steps to know how to remanufacture your HP 8100 LaserJet C4182X toner cartridge.

 

Step 1

 

Find and remove the cartridge clip on both sides of the cartridge using a small thin flat screwdriver. Gently pry up on the clip until it pops up then pry the other end away from the cartridge gently while working the clip in an upward and downward position.

 

Note It is very likely that these clips will break while they are being dismantled. If these happen to break, simply replace the clip with an aftermarket part. You may need to reuse the springs from the OEM original equipment manufacturer clip.

 

Step 2

 

Using a hammer and punch knock the two locking pins inward until they fall inside.

 

Step 3

 

You can now separate the two halves of the cartridges. Simply remove the locking pins from inside the longer pin goes on the large drum gear side.

 

Step 4

 

Set the toner hopper aside. If you happen to have a waste hopper fixture, set the waste hopper in it. If not, place the hopper on your work area drum facing upward with the large drum gear facing you.

 

Step 5

 

The drum axle is a metal rod that goes through the center of the drum end to end. Using a drift punch and a hammer, tap directly on the shaft larger gear end and drive it toward the other end.

 

Note On the larger gear end of the axle is a small white plastic retaining ring. Make sure you dont lose the retaining ring. The ring fits into the groove on the drum shaft to hold the shaft into its proper position. Continuous removal will wear this ring and it will no longer snap into position. If the ring does snap, replace it.

 

Step 6

 

Rotate the hopper at 180 degrees and pull the drum axle the rest of the way out. Then remove the drum from the waste hopper. If you intend to reuse the drum, wrap it in a protective paper or cloth and set it aside in a dark, protected place.

 

Step 7

 

Remove the primary charge roller from its clips, clean it with a soft cotton cloth and set it aside for now. Clean the PCR saddles with a cotton swab and alcohol.

 

Step 8

 

Remove the two Phillips head screws holding the wiper blade and remove the blade. Be careful not to break the plastic positioning posts or lose the two white plastic washers. Empty out the waste hopper and clean it with a vacuum or compressed air.

 

Note Be careful not to damage the recovery blade or foam seals, only replace it if necessary.

 

Step 9

 

Now you can either replace or clean the wiper blade and reinstall it at this time. Clean the PCR with a soft cloth and reinstall it. Place the drum in the correct position and reinstall the axle and the white plastic axle ring.

 

Step 10

 

Set the waste hopper aside for now. If you have a toner hopper fixture, place toner hopper inside or place toner hopper on your work area.

 

Step 11

 

Remove the two screws holding the end cap on the gear side of the toner hopper. Depress the small plastic clip and slide the end cap off.

 

Note The position of the gears is for reassemble.

 

Step 12

 

Swivel or turn the cartridge around. Remove the two screws that hold the end cap on and remove the cap by depressing the small plastic clip.

 

Step 13

 

Lift out the mag roller. Remove the mag roller stabilizer, mag roller sleeve bearing from the nongear side of the mag roller.

 

Step 14

 

Remove the two longer silver screws that hold the doctor blade and lift it out.

 

Note Be very careful not to break the plastic alignment pins or lose the two small springs behind the doctor blade.

 

Step 15

 

Deposit the remaining toner from the toner hopper and vacuum or clean with compressed air. Clean the magnetic seals with vacuum or compressed air. Clean the toner sensor bar lightly with a cotton swab and alcohol. Be careful not to bend the bar.

 

Step 16

 

At this point, if you are not going to seal this cartridge, you can fill it with toner now through the mag roller opening. Then proceed to the next step. If you want to split and seal the toner hopper it must be done so, along the weld line.

 

Step 17

 

After splitting the hopper and installing a gasket seal add the toner through the fill plughole and reinstall the plug. Use rail clips or hopper clips to reattach both pieces of the hopper back together, being careful of correct alignment.

 

Step 18

 

Put the doctor blade back on with the two silver screws and the blue plastic tab on the right. Clean the magnetic roller with compressed air or ma roller cleaner and carefully reinstall in the hopper with the drive gear to the left.

 

Step 19

 

Now reinstall both end caps with their screws. Note the magnet inside the magnetic roller must be in the proper position to align with the D cutout on each end cap.

 

Step 20a

 

Hang in there, youre almost done. For the final assembly, position the waste hopper and the toner hopper against each other and install the locking pins and clips. Note The long pin goes on the large drum gear end.

 

Step 20b

 

Test the cartridge.

 

Congratulations, you have successfully completed the process on how to remanufacture your own HP 8100 LaserJet toner cartridge.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/properly-remanufacture-your-q1338aq1339a-black-toner-a-3905.html Dear Reader,

 

Hewlett Packards LaserJet 4200 and the LaserJet 4300 series of printers were first released in November of 2002. They were both designed to replace the now discontinued Hewlett Packard 4100 LaserJet printer.

 

Based on a new print engine, the 4200 and 4300 series have increased print speeds of 35 ppm pages per minute for the 4200 and 45 ppm pages per minute for the 4300 with an improved first page out time of less than 9 seconds.

 

Wow, that is pretty fast. At a starting cost of about 1,000 for the base model 4200 and 1,399 for the base model 4300. These new printers are priced at the same cost as the Hewlett Packard 4100 LaserJet printer.

 

There are differences in the molding of the cartridges which do prevent them from being interchangeable. One notable difference is in the design of the toner hopper.

 

The toner hopper on the HP 4300 is larger and holds 1,050 grams of toner for an estimated page yield of. This will approximately perform 18,000 pages 5 coverage.

 

The smaller toner hopper on the HP 4200 holds only 690 grams of toner and yields approximately 12,000 pages 5 coverage. Another notable difference is in the waste section. The waste hopper of the HP 4300 is larger to hold the extra waste produced by the higher fill weight.

 

The HP 4200 waste hopper also has a fin sticking up on the left side of the hopper that prevents the cartridge from fitting into the HP 4300 LaserJet printer.

 

Due to the fact that the 4200 and the 4300 both use the same print engine, the components that make up the cartridges are the same.

 

The cartridge chips located on the top right side of the waste hopper however, are in indeed different. A slight difference in programming prevents one chip from being used on both cartridges, so its important to use the correct chip when remanufacturing the cartridge.

 

Though the chip is physically different than that of the HP 4100, the information that the chip contains is nearly the same.

 

A few additional items like First Installed Date and Last Date Used are onestored chips. This information is displayed at the bottom of the Supplies Status Page.

 

Just like the HP 4100, 4200 and the 4300, all can be run with a spent chip or with no chip installed at all.

 

Several testing have shown that the chip can be run again in the printer that it was used in originally. Running the used chip causes a Replace Cartridge message and the loss of the toner low warning.

 

Usage of the chip in a machine other than the one it was previously running in will result in a NonHP Cartridge Detected message and the loss of all the information on the Supplies Status Page.

 

While running the cartridge without the chip, it will result in a 10.10.00 Supplies Memory Error when the cartridge is first installed.

 

After pressing the Select button a NonHP Cartridge Detected message will appear before the machine goes to ready. All the information stored in the chip will not be available and a Warning message is all you will find on the Supplies Status Page.

 

Here are you StepbyStep HowtoRemanufacture the HP Q1338A/Q1339 Instructions

 

Lets get straight to the point, no beating around the bush during this lecture.

 

First, you will need the necessary Tools & Supplies Required

 

Tools & Supplies Required

 

Diagonal Cutters tool Phillips Head Screwdriver tool Small Flat Blade Screwdriver tool Dremel Tool with Cutting Bit tool Needle nose Pliers tool Padding Powder supply Soft Lint Free Cloth supply Anhydrous Isopropyl Alcohol supply Swabs supply Toner supply Drum supply Expanding Foam supply Doctor Blade supply Wiper Blade supply Here you will also be provided with the OEM original equipment manufacturer information

 

HP 4200

 

Part Number Q1338A OEM Gram Load 690 grams Yield 5 coverage 12,000 pages / min35 Resolution 300/600/1200dpi dots per inch HP 4300

 

Part Number Q1339A OEM Gram Load 1025 grams Yield 5 coverage 18,000 pages / min45 Resolution 300/600/1200dpi dots per inch Below are your 53 easy steps to know how to remanufacture your HP 4200/4300 LaserJet Q1338A/Q1339A toner cartridges.

 

Step 1

 

Place the cartridge on the worktable with the drum facing upward and the drum shutter arm towards you.

 

Step 2

 

Using a small flat blade screwdriver, release the clip that holds the drum shutter arm to the cartridge.

 

Step 3

 

Pull the shutter arm from the drum shutter and slide the shutter arm from its positioning post.

 

Note Do not lose the tension spring that fits inside the drum shutter arm. Place the tension spring back into the shutter arm.

 

Step 4

 

Open the drum shutter exposing the drum. The drum shutter is keyed on the noncontact side of the cartridge. Slide the shutter bar back until the bar can be removed from the cartridge end cap.

 

Step 5

 

Pull the drum shutter bar from the cartridge contact end cap. Then you want to set the drum shutter aside.

 

Step 6

 

Next, remove the two screws holding the cartridge cap to the cartridge.

 

Step 7

 

Using a flat blade screwdriver, pry the contact end cap away from the toner hopper breaking the three plastic welds holding the end cap to the toner hopper. Afterwards, remove the end caps.

 

Step 8

 

Using diagonal cutters cut the three plastic welds flush with the contact end cap.

 

Step 9

 

Simply rotate the cartridge 180 degrees. Carefully remove the four screws holding the gear housing end cap.

 

Step 10

 

While holding the opposite end of the cartridge, remove the gear assembly end cap from the cartridge. Then you want to separate the two sections and set the toner hopper aside.

 

Step 11

 

Remove the screw holding the drum axle. Then remove the drum axle.

 

Step 12

 

Lift the drum by the small gear and pull the drum from the bearing hub.

 

Step 13

 

Remove the PCR from the PCR saddles.

 

Note If you are going to reuse the PCR clean the roller using a lint free cloth and water.

 

Step 14

 

In order to remove the wiper blades pull the OEM sealing foam material away from the wiper blade.

 

Note The OEM sealing foam material is sticky and is not easily removed.

 

Step 15

 

Note This step is only for the HP 4300. Using a Dremel with a cutting bit cut away the retaining wall that prevents the wiper blade from being removed.

 

Step 16

 

Remove the two screws holding the wiper blade. Then remove the blade.

 

Step 17

 

Dump the waste from the hopper. Clean the hopper using dry compressed air or a vacuum.

 

Step 18

 

Apply padding powder to the new wiper blade and place the blade onto the waste hopper. Install the two screws that hold the blade in place.

 

Step 19

 

You will now need to seal the area around the wiper blade using expanding foam along the edge of the blade and in the square holes on the ends.

 

Step 20

 

Clean the PCR saddles using a swab and alcohol.

 

Step 21

 

At this point, you want to apply new conductive grease to the black contact saddle. Install the cleaned PCR.

 

Step 22

 

Apply padding powder to the drum. Slide the drive gear into the bearing hub.

 

Step 23

 

Install the contact end plate.

 

Note Make sure the contact plate sits flush with the end of the waste hopper.

 

Step 24

 

Install the screw that holds the contact plate in position.

 

Step 25

 

Place the waste hopper aside in a protected area out of the light.

 

Step 26

 

Remove the mag roller drive gear housing from the end of the toner hopper. Then remove he mag roller drive.

 

Step 27

 

Remove the screw that holds the mag roller end plate.

 

Step 28

 

Using needle nose pliers, simply remove the hinge pin from the mag roller end plate.

 

Step 29

 

Remove the mag roller tension spring.

 

Step 30

 

Pull the mag roller end plate from the toner hopper.

 

Note Do not lose the bearing that sits inside the mag roller end plate.

 

Step 31

 

Lift the free end of the mag roller sliding the roller out of the mag roller end plate on the opposite side of the toner hopper.

 

Note Do not lose the bearing that sits inside the mag roller end plate.

 

Step 32

 

Remove the mag roller bearings from the each end of the roller. Clean the mag roller using dry compressed air or vacuum, then using a lint free cloth and a mag roller cleaner. Clean the mag roller bearings and use a lint free cloth.

 

Step 33

 

Remove the two screws holding the doctor blade.

 

Step 34

 

Lift the plastic scrapers and mylar shims off each end of the doctor blade.

 

Step 35

 

Lift the doctor blade from the toner hopper. If you plan on using the doctor blade again, clean the doctor blade using dry compressed air or a vacuum, then using a lint free cloth and alcohol.

 

Step 36

 

Dump the old toner out of the toner hopper. Using dry compressed air or a vacuum, clean out the hopper.

 

Step 37

 

Fill the toner hopper with the correct amount of toner depending on the cartridge type you are building.

 

Step 38

 

Place the new or cleaned doctor blade onto the toner hopper. Place the mylar shims and the plastic scrapers on each end of the doctor blade. Install the two screws holding the blade in place.

 

Step 39

 

Slide the black mag roller bearing onto the contact end and the white bearing onto the drive gear end of the mag roller. Slide the mag roller contact hub into the mag roller bearing plate on the toner hopper.

 

Step 40

 

Align the mag roller bearing end plate to the toner hopper and slide the end plate onto the toner hopper.

 

Step 41

 

Install the mag roller tension spring and the screw into the mag roller bearing end plate.

 

Step 42

 

Install the hinge pin into the mag roller bearing plate.

 

Step 43 Slide the mag roller drive onto the mag roller.

 

Note Make sure the two injection molding points on the mag roller drive gear face outward.

 

Step 44

 

Place the mag roller drive gear housing onto the end of the mag roller, making sure the keyed end of the magnet fits into the gear housing.

 

Step 45

 

Using a 3/32drill bit, drill a hole next to the toner sensing contact on the cartridge contact end cap.

 

Step 46

 

Join the toner hopper and waste hopper together. Place the cartridge gear housing end cap onto the side of the cartridge. Install the four screws that hold the end cap in place.

 

Step 47

 

Place the contact end cap onto the end of the cartridge. Install the two screws that hold the end cap in place.

 

Step 48

 

You will now need to lock the contact end cap in place. To do this, drill a 1/16 hole through the contact end cap and through the toner sensor bar positioning post. The hole needs to be drilled approximately 1/8 from the end of the toner hopper and 1/8 from the end of the sloped section on the contact end cap.

 

Step 49

 

Now, install a 1/16 spring pin into the hole drilled in the bottom of the contact end cap.

 

Step 50

 

Install the keyed end of the drum shutter bar into the gear housing end cap.

 

Step 51

 

Install the nonkeyed end of the drum shutter bar into the contact end cap.

 

Step 52

 

Slide the drum shutter arm onto the positioning post. Push the drum shutter arm into the drum shutter. Gently, slide and open the shutter to engage the tension spring.

 

Step 53a

 

We are almost done. Place one probe of an Ohmmeter on the toner sensor contact and place the other probe into the hole that was drilled next to the contact. Locate the sensor bar that comes out from the toner hopper through the hole drilled in the end cap, making sure you have a low resistance connection.

 

Note If the contact is not made between the sensor bar and the contact on the end plate, this will result in an error 54.1 Remove Sealing Tape or if contact is lost during usage, a premature toner low can occur.

 

Step 53b

 

Test the cartridge.

 

Congratulations, you have successfully completed the process on how to remanufacture your own HP 4200/4300 series LaserJet toner cartridges.

 

Good luck and complete each cartridge as if it were your last. This information is provided to you for both educational use and to improve your knowledge in the technical area within the remanufacturing industry.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/your-glossary-terms-have-just-been-compiled-order-defi-a-3904.html If you need some help with ink and printing terms, this section will help you. The following glossary should help you grasp the important concepts that control the art and science of ink usage.

 

Absorption The dispersal and decreased transmission of visible light in its interaction with matter, resulting in the change of its color.

 

Appearance The nature of objects as visual attributes, such as size, shape, color, texture, glossiness, transparency and opacity.

 

Attribute Colors are often described by their attributes of hue, saturation or chroma, and lightness.

 

Banding Distinct pattern alterations, rather than a smooth transition of colors or other effects in a gradient. Occurs in continuous tone images when displayed using less than 24 bits of digital information or if printing gradients without sufficient color information.

 

Black The absence of reflected light the color that is produced when an object absorbs all wavelengths from the light source. When 100 of cyan, magenta and yellow are combined, the resultant color should be black, but in reality produces a muddy gray or brown. Therefore in fourcolor process printing, black is one of the process inks. The letter K is used to represent black in the CMYK acronym to differentiate it from B for blue in RGB.

 

Brightness The measurement of the reflective quality of a medium. Different brightness levels can cause changes in the appearance of color on the medium requiring adjustments in calibration to achieve optimum result.

 

Calibration Checking, adjusting and systematically standardizing the graduations of a device.

 

Chroma In visual perception, when an area appears saturated with a particular color or hue. For example, a red apple is high in chroma pastel colors are low. Black, white and gray have no chroma. Part of the color model, LCH or lightness, chroma, hue. Also referred to as saturation.

 

CIE Commission International de lEclairage or the International Commission on Illumination, which is the main world institution concerned with color and color measurement.

 

CMY The subtractive primaries cyan, magenta and yellow. Color Calibration

 

Coordination of the color matching between two or more digital devices by means by hardware or software.

 

Color Curve Visual mechanism in photo and graphics software to display color measurements and make tonal changes in an image.

 

Color Separation Photographic or electronic process for creating patterns of plates for each component of a color space. In printing, for example, separating the cyan, magenta, yellow and black components of a page image.

 

Color Wheel An arrangement of the visible spectrums continuum of colors in a circle fashion, that has complementary colors, such as red and green, located opposite from each other.

 

Colorants Materials used to create colors, such as dyes, pigments, toners and phosphors.

 

Colorimeter Device that measures color values in relation to a specific set of standards, such as CIE. Enables measurement of differences in colors more precisely than the human eye.

 

Cyan The redless process color. It absorbs all red wavelengths and reflects all blue and green wavelengths of light.

 

DeltaE Unit of measurement of the perceivable difference in a color by the human eye.

 

Densitometer Device used to measure the density of light by means of its absorption by a substrate or surface of paper or film. This is achieved either by reflection or transmission.

 

Density The ability of a material to absorb light. The darker the material, the higher the density.

 

Digital Printer Printing device that translates digital data into hard copy output.

 

Dithering A process that simulates shades of gray or color variations by differing sizes and shapes of pixel groups instead of an ordered array of halftone dots. This reduces the contrast between dots of different colors or shades and yields a more flowing, natural impression.

 

Dot Gain The effect that is described when individual dots in a halftone screen or other such patterns print out larger than their intended size, resulting in a darkening of the image.

 

Dots Per Inch DPI Measurement that describes the resolution of image files by measuring the number of separate pixels represented either horizontally or vertically in one square inch.

 

Dye Colored chemical that dissolves completely in water or other solvent as opposed to pigments, which are insoluble.

 

Dye Sublimation Color printing technology that produces images by means of gaseous dyes through a thermal printing driver.

 

Enhanced Gamut Color When precisely diluted process colors, usually cyan and magenta, are used with CMYK to create more vibrant colors and a continuoustone effect.

 

Expanded Gamut Color When additional colors, usually green and orange, are printed with CMYK to match a greater number of colors than produced by CMYK alone.

 

Fluorescent Lamp A glass tube filled with mercury gas and whose inside surface is coated with phosphors. Once the gas is charged with electrical current, radiation is produced which then energizes the phosphors and causes them to glow.

 

FourColor Process Printing or other imaging with combinations of the subtractive primaries of cyan, magenta, yellow and black. These are deposited as dots of different sizes, shapes and angles to create the illusion of different colors.

 

Gamut The range of colors that can be interpreted by a color model or generated by a specific device.

 

Gamut Compression Also known as tonalrange compression. The coordinates of a color space with a larger gamut are reduced to comply with the smaller gamut of a destination color space. For example, the gamut of photographic film is compressed for representation in the smaller CMYK gamut in fourcolor process printing.

 

Gradation The transition between two colors or between black and no color which is created by mixing percentages of the dominant and secondary color and then alternating them to produce the desired effect.

 

Halftone The process of reproducing an image as a series of variablesized dots within a fixed grid.

 

Hexachrome Colormatching system from Pantone, Inc. that is used with hifi color systems and devices.

 

HiFi Color Printing process that extends the tonal capabilities of most printing presses by employing stochastic screening, sixcolor printing and other techniques to expand the possible color gamut beyond the traditional abilities of fourcolor processes.

 

Hue The basic color of an object as defined by its angular position in a cylindrical color space, or on a Color Wheel.

 

Inkjet Printing process where liquid ink is propelled at a substrate, such as paper or film, to form characters and graphics. There are three kinds of inkjet printing thermal, piezoelectric and phase change.

 

Intensity Saturation, or reflective light, in relation to visible wavelengths of light. The reflectance of wavelengths at high intensity generates high saturation or chroma.

 

Light Electromagnetic radiation in the spectral range that is detectable by the human eye approximately 380 to 720 nm.

 

Light Magenta/Light Cyan LMLC Muted or diluted forms of the two primary colors. When added to CMYK these shades produce more variety in dot color and natural continuous tone printing.

 

Lightness The attribute that makes an area emit or reflect more or less light. Also refers to the perception by which white objects are distinguished from gray, and light from dark objects.

 

Luminance Describes the brightness of an image.

 

Magenta The greenless process color. It absorbs all wavelengths of green from light, while reflecting all red and blue wavelengths.

 

Nanometer Nm The measurement of wavelengths. Unit of length equal to 109 meters, or one millionth of a millimeter.

 

Opacity Describes the resistance of light passing through a substrate.

 

Pantone Matching System PMS Unique numbering system for identifying colors created by combinations of standard SWOP inks.

 

PH A value that expresses the degree of acidity or basicity of a solution.

 

Phase Change Inkjet Inkjet printing process employing the melting of solid ink plugs and then spraying the droplets on media.

 

Piezo Inkjet Inkjet printing process that uses electric pulses from piezoelectric crystals to stimulate and force ink through inkjet nozzles onto substrates.

 

Pigment Colorant that cannot be dissolved in a liquid. In inks, produces sharper, darker images on a wider range of plain papers.

 

Pixel A tiny picture element that contains red, green and blue information for color rendering on a monitor or scanner. Pixels on a screen are similar to dots of ink on paper. Monitor resolution is described in terms of pixelsperinch ppi, while printer resolution is measured in dotsperinch dpi.

 

Pixels per Inch PPI The number of pixels in a rastar image that occur in one line along one inch. The greater the pixels, the higher the resolution.

 

Primary Color Colors that are the bases for other colors. In light, the primary colors are red, green and blue RGB. In color photographic printing, they are cyan, magenta and yellow CMY. Black or key K is added as a fourth ink to CMY printing to produce denser, truer blacks and clearer, sharper images.

 

Print On Demand Term for a variety of shortrun publishing processes that include copier technologies and directtopress applications.

 

Prism Triangularshaped glass or other transparent material through which, when light is passed, its wavelengths refract into a rainbow of colors. A demonstration that light is composed of colors and indication of the arrangement of colors in the visible spectrum.

 

Process Color Cyan, magenta, yellow and black combined to create a new color.

 

Raster Image Processor RIP Software and/or hardware used to convert digital printing to information needed by a printer or other device to produce finished output. This action is commonly called ripping a file.

 

Reflective The ability of a surface to bounce back some or all of the wavelengths of light that strikes it.

 

Resolution The number of dots or samplesperinch that a device is capable of recognizing or producing.

 

RGB The additive primary colors red, green and blue.

 

Saturation Color attribute that expresses the degree of departure from the neutral gray of the same lightness. Also known as chroma.

 

Sequence The order in which inks are deposited by a printing device. In CMYK inkjets the sequence is yellow, magenta, cyan and black.

 

Spectral Curve A visual representation of a colors spectral data as the colors fingerprint. A spectral curve is plotted on a grid comprised of a vertical axis of the level of reflectance intensity, and a horizontal axis describing the visible spectrum of wavelengths. The percentage of reflected light at each interval is plotted as points on a curve.

 

Spectral Data The most precise description of the color of an object. Since an objects color appearance results from light being changed by it and reflected to the viewer, spectral data describes how that reflected light was changed. The percentage of reflected light is measured at several intervals across its spectrum of wavelengths, which is then visually represented as a spectral curve.

 

Spectrophotometer An instrument that measures the characteristics of light that is either reflected from or transmitted through an object.

 

Spectrum The spatial arrangement of electromagnetic energy in accordance to size of wavelength.

 

Spooler The space where printing data is held in a computers memory or hard drive while queuing to a printing device.

 

Specifications for Web Offset Printing SWOP Formulations for inks used in web offset presses.

 

Standard An established and approved reference against which instrument measurements are evaluated.

 

Subtractive primaries Cyan, magenta and yellow. The theoretical combination of the three at 100 strength should produce black on white paper. Their combination at varying intensities produces a gamute of colors. Combining two primaries at 100 creates either the red, green or blue additive primary.

 

Cyanmagentablue. Cyanyellowgreen. Magentayellowred. Surface Tension The forces of cohesion at the surface of a liquid which encourage the tendency of a liquid to reduce its exposed surface to the minimum area. Molecules within a liquid are attracted equally from all sides, but those near the surface experience unequal attractions and are thus drawn towards the center of the liquid mass by this net force.

 

Thermal DroponDemand Inkjet printing process where inks are heated in a chamber above the print head to a temperature greater than their boiling point. The heat alters and expands the characteristics of the ink, which is then expelled through the head onto the substrate.

 

Tolerance The acceptable difference between the known correct standard and a set of measured samples. See Delta Error.

 

Viscosity The internal resistance to flow exhibited by a fluid.

 

Visible Spectrum The region in the electromagnetic spectrum between 380 and 720 nanometers. Wavelengths within this span produce color as viewed by the human eye. Shorter wavelengths create violets, purples and blues, while longer wavelengths result in oranges and reds.

 

Wavelength Measurement of light as a component of electromagnetic waves. The wavelength is the peaktopeak distance between two adjacent waves.

 

Yellow Pure yellow is the blueless color. It absorbs all wavelengths of blue from light, and reflects all red and green wavelengths.

 

This concludes some of your printer inkjet cartridge definitons.

 

I hope these brief inkjet word definitions have helped you with certain terms of vocabulary which lay on the plateau of ink and its chemicals.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/creation-copier-a-3903.html It hasnt always been so easy to make copies. We now can just walk up to a photocopier machine and press the print button and we instantly receive perfectly replicated copies of our original.  Just forty seven years ago the copy machine was a pen and some sheets of carbon paper. Instead of pushing a button you had to write and write and then write some more  Just before the 60s this was a reality and carbon paper was a big seller.  Chester Carlson, a patent attorney knew how much of a pain it was to continue rewriting everything by hand because Carlson had arthritis. Carlson had an idea of designing a machine that would automatically make copies, so he didnt have to do all of that copying by hand.

 

Think about doing your job without a copier. You probably will have a hard time imagining it.  Did you know that most manufacturers didnt think that a copier would be of much use  Chester tried for years to get people to catch his vision but nobody was interested.  Between 1939 and 1944, Carlson got the thumbs down by many corporations, including IBM, Kodak, General Electric, and RCA. 

 

In 1937 Chester invented a process called electrophotography.  They renamed it Xerography in 1938.  He figured out that if the image of an original document was projected onto a photoconductive surface, current would flow only in the areas where the light shined on it.  The first copy was made with a sulfur coating on a zinc plate. He took a glass microscope slide and wrote on it 102238 ASTORIA with ink.  He then pulled down the shade to darken the room.  He built an electrostatic charge buy rubbing the sulfur surface with a handkerchief.  Then the slide was placed on the surface and a light was shined on it for few seconds.  He then sprinkled lycopodium powder on the sulfur coating.  Gently blowing on the surface, the loose powder blew off and all that was left was the inscription, 102238 ASTORIA.  102238 is the date that the first photocopy was made. Astoria was the location.

 

The Birth of Xerox

 

The company that decided to take a chance on Carlsons dream was the Haloid Company.  Haloid was a photopaper manufacturer in New York.    Guess what they came to be known as  Yes, the Xerox Corporation.  In 1960 the first office copier was produced.  It was the Xerox model 914.  It was the first office copier that could make copies on plain paper.

 

Being a copier repairman for over twenty years I have seen the good copiers with the bad copiers.  I began working on copiers in 1983.  The copiers that I began working with were messy and they would not last long in between servicing.  The prices for the machines were very high especially for higher volume copiers.  There were some interesting ways of transporting the paper through the machine like the Sharp SF740.  It grabbed the paper with two gripper devices that were driven with chains.  This machine fused the toner to the paper with a toaster oven type device.

 

Some people may even remember having to pour toner into the copier from a bottle.  But todays copiers have a cartridge system that works well.  They keep most of the toner inside the copier, not on you best pair of slacks or your dress. They have rollers for fusing the toner to the paper and have very sophisticated paper feed and transport systems that help reduce jamming problems.

 

Digital copiers are now on the market.  Now you can not only copy, but print, scan and even fax with them.  Perhaps the most revolutionary change in the industry is the full color copier.  The sales of full color copiers have really started to explode.  There are a lot of new and exciting products being introduced and the quality is really quite good.  We have come along way from Carlsons 102238 ASTORIA.  I just cant help to think what the future will bring us. What will the copier of the year 2020 look like

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/laser-printers-better-than-inkjet-printers-a-3902.html Many years ago, the offices of the world used dot matrix printers.  These simple, reliable printers used little ink, and could produce thousands of copies with little fuss.  They did have their limitations though.  Because they printed using lots of dots, the final product looked, well, like a lot of dots.

 

This effect was fine for text, but graphics were impossible, and the text didnt really stand out.

 

Enter Laser printers.

 

As an amusing aside, the ability to say that you have your own portable laser is worth the price of admission.  These laser printers have all the advantages of the dot matrix printer.  They are cheap to run, costing a fraction of a penny per copy, can do text, graphics, images, print quickly, and are normally very reliable.

 

At the moment the main competition to laser printers is the inkjet printer.  Where a laser printer fires awesome lasers at toner to burn it on to the paper, inkjets use something akin to a really advanced quill pen to scribe the document on to the page.

 

While both printers have their advantages, this article is about how laser printers are better than inkjets, so lets rubbish the competition.

 

Inkjets have a few problems.  Firstly, because of the nature of their printing source the ink this has a tendency to dry up if not used.  If you only print an email every couple of weeks, the chances of this working properly are slim as you will soon find that the ink has run dry.  Inkjets also have the problem of requiring new ink cartridges more frequently than the average laser printer, which means more hassle, having to realign the printer heads, wasting ink on charging the printer head, plus stress and confusion caused by changing the cartridges.  The cost per page for an inkjet printer is quite high, meaning for bulk, medium quality prints

, such as printing for reference, records, or most office printing, it simply isnt worth it.

 

As far as your average laser printer goes, it thinks nothing of printing a couple of hundred copies at a time, some even have built in duplex units to do both sides at the same time.  Your stack of copies will all be sharply defined, printed according to your document, and nice and warm to the touch.

 

Laser printers can sit in the corner of the room to be called upon to print whatever you want without complaining, without the toner drying up, with the minimum of clogging issues, alignment problems, and frequent changes of toner.  A laser printer is ideal for the office, and for medium to heavy home use.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/selecting-printer%20with-operating-cost-a-3901.html Printer technology has made tremendous advances in the past five years. Speeds are up and print quality is great. Meanwhile, printer costs have declined.

 

What has not improved is the cost of ink. Printer manufacturers expected to make their profit on replacement cartridges, and they do. But in charging high prices they created another industry that they have to compete with.

 

Now there are generic or compatible replacements you can buy refilled cartridges and refill kits so you can refill them yourself. Worst of all there are counterfeits. And theres a big market for all of them due to the skyhigh price of OEM cartridges.

 

The manufacturers are full of tricks. Some of them use tiny cartridges that dont hold much ink. Most of the standard cartridges are half full of ink. They sell high capacity cartridges at premium prices that are full of ink. They run promotions on printers that have sample cartridges that barely have enough ink to try out the new printer.

 

These are all factors you have to consider when you buy a printer. There are makers who have addressed the problem in another way. All printers have a separate black cartridge for obvious reasons, but a few use a separate cartridge for each color. If one of the colors runs out you can replace it individually. This way you arent throwing away good ink. One maker gives you the choice of a double size black unit that is more economical than two singles.

 

Most printers use a cartridge with a built in print head, but at least one has the print head built into the machine. The cartridges are only ink containers, consequently very inexpensive and easy to refill. The downside of this arrangement is that the print head is a wear item and its quite expensive to replace. In one case its replaceable in the other its not, so you might as wll junk it when it fails.

 

The point is that these two style printers are more economical to operate than the conventional type. There are some printers that will operate with only the black cartridge installed, and this is a good choice for students and others that only print text. If you dont need a fancy printing job, often you can set your printer on draft which saves a lot of ink.

 

Be careful when you are buying a printer especially, but not exclusively at auctions theyre selling them without ink.

 

A diligent shopper can sometimes find printers with and without rebates that are below the cost of the ink. This is a good way to go.

 

Ive tried refilling and using refurbished units with mixed success. Refilling is risky business. Makers claim that it voids your warranty, this is debatable, but there is some validity to their concerns. There are different kinds of ink and using the wrong or an inferior ink can do damage. Many refurbs are poor quality so you end up returning them for replacement.

 

At the moment my choice is a printer with print heads in the cartridges and I buy good quality generics. Keep in mind this creates warranty problems. If you have a problem printing, you cant get technical service unless you buy a set of OEMs.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/microsoft-excel-it%20s-more-than-just-spreadsheets-a-3900.html Most of us are familiar with the program known as Microsoft Excel, which is one of the programs that is part of the Microsoft Office Suite. To many, its a simple database program that allows you to create spreadsheets for whatever you may need. But if you take the time to learn the ins and outs of this program, you will find it is much more useful. By thoroughly learning this robust software, you can set yourself up for not only success in your job but at home as well.

 

Many people dont realize how functional a spreadsheet can really be and what a program like Microsoft Excel can bring you. Professionally, there are plenty of options available to you depending on your line of work, and the types of data you have to utilize with your job functions. Everything from call sheets that can be highlighted and edited on the fly to database information and management of assets can all be handled through a properly laid out spreadsheet. Many people dont have a true working understanding of Excel and, due to this, arent able to fully utilize all of the functions it can offer you.

 

By taking the time to master Microsoft Excel, you can increase your productivity to keep your work and your life in order. When you take the time to learn this powerful program, you will be working to achieve a better understanding of all its strengths and capabilities. You will be able to build fast, usable spreadsheets and have a better idea of how to use the software to maximize your own productivity. In addition, since Microsoft Excel is commonly used in office settings, you will help yourself become a valuable asset to your place of employment. You may notice that you do not utilize Excel very often in your current job. This is usually due to the lack of a fundamental understanding about the program at the office level. When you gain better skills, you may even be able to help your entire department become more productive, not just yourself. You will be able to introduce others to key functions of the program that most people didnt even know existed. And if you want to go to the next level, you can earn your MCAS Microsoft Certified Application Specialist in Excel 2007, which will show your employer that your skills have been validated by Microsoft.

 

And it It doesnt have to end with work, though. If you decide to use Micosoft Excel at home, and you have the Microsoft Excel software installed on your home computer, it can easily be brought into your personal life. This will help you keep personal things in order by keeping all of your important information in one safe place. Many people find it to be an incredibly useful budgeting tool. When used to create a home budget, you will find that it can easily be manipulated, tracked, and reviewed. Others find it to be a useful asset for keeping things like important names, telephone numbers, addresses, or even usernames and passwords to their favorite sites all in one easy to access location. The possibilities are endless. Just keep in mind that if you are storing very important or sensitive information on your computer, though, it is best to secure it in case it is ever lost or stolen.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-ccnp-security-exam-questions-spoofing-fram-a-3899.html To help you prepare for Cisco certification exam success, here are some free CCNA, Security, CCENT, and CCNP practice exam questions. Theres also a free tutorial on Cisco switching methods, so lets get started

 

CCENT Exam

 

Of the three frame processing options on Cisco switches storeandforward, cutthrough, and fragmentfree identify which one best matches each of the following statements.

 

A. This is the fastest method of the three.

 

B. This is the slowest method of the three.

 

C. This method has the highest level of error detection.

 

D. This method has the lowest level of error detection.

 

E. This method is considered the middle ground of the three when it comes to error detection and transmission speed.

 

Answers

 

A. cutthrough

 

B. storeandforward

 

C. storeandforward

 

D. cutthrough

 

E. fragmentfree

 

Heres a look at each method.

 

When storeandforward is in use, the switch does indeed store the entire frame before forwarding it, which allows the switch to check the FCS before forwarding that frame. This allows the greatest level of error detection of the three frame processing methods.

 

With the other two methods, the entire frame will not be stored before forwarding. When the cutthrough method is in use, the switch will read the MAC addresses on the incoming frame, and then begin to forward the frame even as part of it is still being received

 

The FCS value is not checked, so while cutthrough is a faster method of processing frames than storeandforward, cutthrough has no way to check for damaged frames. Cutthrough is the fastest of the three processing methods, but it comes at a high cost no error detection

 

Cutthrough is very fast, but offers no error detection; storeandforward does offer error detection via the FCS check, but isnt as fast as cutthough. Happily, theres a middle ground fragmentfree.

 

Fragmentfree processing works on the presumption that if a frame is corrupted, the corruption will be found in the first 64 bytes. Therefore, fragmentfree checks the first 64 bytes of the frame for damage. If no problems are found in the first 64 bytes of the frame, the forwarding process begins

 

CCNA Exam

 

What command enables the dynamic mappings of DLCIs to IP addresses Is this command used globally, at the interface level, or elsewhere

 

Answer Thats the framerelay inversearp command, and that should be enabled on the appropriate interface and/or subinterfaces. Inverse ARP is enabled by default on Cisco router serial interfaces.

 

CCNA Security And CCNP / ISCW Exam

 

What is RFC 3704 filtering , and why would we use it as part of a security plan

 

Answer IP Spoofing can be used against your network in several ways

 

To inject a stream of malicious code and/or commands into your network

 

To trick legitimate network hosts into sending sensitive data to the attacker

 

As part of a reconnaissance attack, an attack that in itself may not be damaging, but is used to gather information for future, more destructive attacks.

 

RFC 3704 an updated version of RFC 2827 recommends that packets from the following network ranges be prohibited from entering your network

 

0.0.0.0 /8

 

10.0.0.0 /8 RFC 1918 Class A private range

 

127.0.0.0 /8 loopback address range

 

172.16.0.0 /12 RFC 1918 Class B private range

 

192.168.0.0 /16 RFC 1918 Class C private range

 

224.0.0.0 /4 reserved for IP multicasts

 

240.0.0.0 /4 RFC 1918 Class E private range

 

Blocking these address ranges for incoming traffic on your networks perimeter routers is sometimes called 2827 filtering or 3704 filtering, referring to the original and updated RFCs that discuss this topic in a great deal of detail.

 

CCNP / BSCI Exam

 

In the following configuration, what happens if you leave the subnets option out of the redistribution command

 

R3configrouter ospf 1

 

R3configrouterredistribute rip subnets

 

R3configrouterredistribute connected subnets

 

Answer Subnets will not successfully be redistributed into OSPF.

 

CCNP / BCMSN Exam

 

Whats the difference between Root Guard, BDPU Guard, and Loop Guard

 

Answer When a port is running Root Guard, no switch found off that port can become the root switch. When a superior BPDU is received on such a port, heres what youll see

 

002646 SPANTREE2ROOTGUARDBLOCK Root guard blocking port FastEthernet0/24 on VLAN0023.

 

If any BPDU comes in on a port thats running BPDU Guard, the port will be shut down and placed into error disabled state, shown on the switch as errdisabled.

 

CCNP / ONT Exam

 

Marking and classification often work handinhand, but theyre not quite the same thing. Define each term.

 

Answer Classification identifies a certain type of traffic, while Marking is assigning a value to that class of traffic.

 

Look for free tutorials and more Cisco certification exam question sets on my website as well as this one

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-ccent-ccnp-practice-exam-questions-binary-conv-a-3898.html Lets test your knowledge of binary conversion, STP, and other vital Cisco certification exam topics with these practice exam questions

 

CCNA

And CCENT Certification

 

Short answer Convert the destination address for RIP Version 2 routing update packets into a binary string.

 

Answer A twoinone question, since we first have to know that the destination for RIPv2 update packets is the multicast address 224.0.0.9.  RIPv1 broadcasts updates to 255.255.255.255. 

 

Once you convert that into binary, youve got 11100000 00000000 00000000 00001001.

 

CCNP / BSCI

 

Which of the following statements is NOT one of the activities at the distribution layer of the Cisco ThreeLayer Hierarchical Model

 

A. policy routing

 

B. internet access

 

C. traffic filtering

 

D. address aggregation

 

E. end user interaction with the network

 

F. interVLAN routing

 

Answer E. End users access the network at the Access layer.

 

CCNP / BCMSN

 

If a port is administratively shut down, what STP state is it in

 

A. blocked

 

B. disabled

 

C. listening

 

D. learning

 

E. forwarding

 

Answer B. The port will not appear in the output of show spanningtree, but STP theory considers such a port to be in Disabled mode.

 

CCNP / ISCW Exam

 

Short answer What CLI command enables the Fail Closed feature

 

Answer Thats the ip ips fail closed command.

 

CCNP / ONT Exam

 

Which of the following results in the least jitter

 

A. Expedited Forwarding

 

B. Assured Forwarding

 

C. Default PHB

 

D. Class Selector PHB

 

Answer A. Expedited Forwarding has the least jitter of these options, which is why we use it for voice and video traffic our most jittersensitive traffic

 

Lets test your knowledge of binary conversion, STP, and other vital Cisco certification exam topics with these practice exam questions

 

CCNA And CCENT Certification

 

Short answer Convert the destination address for RIP Version 2 routing update packets into a binary string.

 

Answer A twoinone question, since we first have to know that the destination for RIPv2 update packets is the multicast address 224.0.0.9.  RIPv1 broadcasts updates to 255.255.255.255. 

 

Once you convert that into binary, youve got 11100000 00000000 00000000 00001001.

 

CCNP / BSCI

 

Which of the following statements is NOT one of the activities at the distribution layer of the Cisco ThreeLayer Hierarchical Model

 

A. policy routing

 

B. internet access

 

C. traffic filtering

 

D. address aggregation

 

E. end user interaction with the network

 

F. interVLAN routing

 

Answer E. End users access the network at the Access layer.

 

CCNP / BCMSN

 

If a port is administratively shut down, what STP state is it in

 

A. blocked

 

B. disabled

 

C. listening

 

D. learning

 

E. forwarding

 

Answer B. The port will not appear in the output of show spanningtree, but STP theory considers such a port to be in Disabled mode.

 

CCNP / ISCW Exam

 

Short answer What CLI command enables the Fail Closed feature

 

Answer Thats the ip ips fail closed command.

 

CCNP / ONT Exam

 

Which of the following results in the least jitter

 

A. Expedited Forwarding

 

B. Assured Forwarding

 

C. Default PHB

 

D. Class Selector PHB

 

Answer A. Expedited Forwarding has the least jitter of these options, which is why we use it for voice and video traffic our most jittersensitive traffic

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-ccent-practice-exam-questions-pointtopoi-a-3897.html Your CCNA and CCENT Cisco certification exams will definitely contain some questions about PPP and HDLC, so here are some practice exam questions to help you prepare for exam success

 

1. Identify the correct statements regarding HDLC and PPP running on a pointtopoint connection.

 

A. If HDLC is running on one end, HDLC must be running on the other end as well.

 

B. If HDLC is running on one end, the other end can run HDLC or PPP.

 

C. If PPP is running on one end, PPP must be running on the other end as

 

well.

 

D. If PPP is running on one end, the other end can run HDLC or PPP.

 

2. If a pointtopoint connection is physically fine but there is a timer or encapsulation mismatch issue, which of the following will appear in the output of show interface serial

 

A. Serial0 is up, line protocol is up

 

B. Serial0 is up, line protocol is down

 

C. Serial0 is down, line protocol is up

 

D. Serial0 is down, line protocol is down

 

3. Which of the following cannot appear in the output of show interface serial

 

A. Serial0 is up, line protocol is up

 

B. Serial0 is up, line protocol is down

 

C. Serial0 is down, line protocol is up

 

D. Serial0 is down, line protocol is down

 

4. Which of the following is offered by PPP but not by HDLC

 

A. PAP

 

B. multilink capabilities

 

C. dialer callback

 

D. CHAP

 

5. Name both debug commands that could produce the following output.

 

2d04h Se1 CHAP O CHALLENGE id 82 len 23 from R3

 

2d04h Se1 CHAP I CHALLENGE id 222 len 23 from R1

 

2d04h Se1 CHAP O RESPONSE id 222 len 23 from R3

 

2d04h Se1 CHAP I RESPONSE id 82 len 23 from R1

 

2d04h Se1 CHAP O SUCCESS id 82 len 4

 

2d04h Se1 CHAP I SUCCESS id 222 len 4

 

6. What is the net result of the following command

 

R3configifppp authentication chap pap

 

A. CHAP authentication will be attempted before PAP.

 

B. CHAP and PAP authentication attempts will be made at the same time.

 

C. If the CHAP authentication attempt results in a failed authentication, a PAP attempt will be made.

 

D. If the remote router isnt running CHAP, a PAP authentication attempt will be made.

 

E. The password for CHAP authentication has been set to pap.

 

7. What protocol is sometimes referred to as the manager of a PPP connection

 

8. PPP allows you to select one of two compression techniques. What are they

 

9. Identify the true statements.

 

A. PAP sends a cleartext password across the WAN.

 

B. PAP sends a hash result across the WAN rather than a password.

 

C. CHAP sends a cleartext password across the WAN.

 

D. CHAP sends a hash result across the WAN rather than a password.

 

10. What is the default encapsulation for a Cisco router serial interface

 

Here are the answers....

 

1. A, C Whether youre running PPP or HDLC, the encapsulation type must match on both ends of the pointtopoint connection.

 

2. B If the connection is physically fine, wed expect to see Serial0 is up. A timing issue such as a missing clockrate command or a PPP / HDLC mismatch would result in a line protocol is down message.

 

3. C If the interface is physically down, the line protocol cannot be up.

 

4. A,B,C,D. PPP has the capability to run PAP and CHAP, can be configured to run PPP Multilink, and PPP does have dialer callback capability. HDLC offers none of these.

 

5. You would see that output in both the debug ppp negotiation and debug ppp authentication commands. The debug ppp negotiation command will give you much more output, so if youre just beginning troubleshooting on a PPP connection, run debug ppp authentication first youll see immediately if theres a problem with the passwords.

 

6. When you list multiple ppp authentication methods, the methods are tried in the order in which theyre listed from left to right. If the remote router isnt running that particular method, the next method is tried. However, if the remote router is running that first method and authentication fails, the second method is not used.

 

7. The Link Control Protocol LCP is the manager of PPP connections. PPP gets all the glory, LCP does all the work

 

8. PPP allows you to configure stacker or predictor.

 

9. A, D. PAP sends the password in clear text, making it easy for anyone intercepting the packets during transmission to read the pw. CHAP runs a hash algorithm against the password, and its that hash value that is actually sent across the wire.

 

10. The default encapsulation for a Cisco router Serial interface is HDLC.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-ccnp-ccent-practice-questions-frame-relay-a-3896.html Lets test your knowledge of Frame Relay DLCIs, Inverse ARP, IPv6 zero compression, and other vital Cisco certification exam topics

 

CCENT Certification

 

Identify the true statements regarding Frame Relay mapping.

 

A. Always map the local DLCI to the local IP address.

 

B. Always map the local DLCI to the remote IP address.

 

C. Always map the remote DLCI to the local IP address.

 

D. Always map the remote DLCI to the remote IP address.

 

E. To allow dynamic mapping, Inverse ARP must be enabled.

 

F. To allow dynamic mapping, Inverse ARP must be disabled.

 

Answers B, E. The frame map statement should reference a local DLCI and a remote IP address. For example, to map the local DLCI 122 to the remote IP address 172.12.123.2, wed use this command on the Serial interface used to reach that address

 

R1configifframe map ip 172.12.123.2 122 broadcast

 

Inverse ARP does enable dynamic mapping, but most Frame networks use static routing. It can be a pain to mix static and dynamic mappings, especially when a router is reloaded, so most network admins disable dynamic mapping with this command

 

R1configifno framerelay inversearp

 

CCNA Exam

 

What summary route can be used to advertise the following four routes

 

10.4.0.0 /16

 

10.5.0.0 /16

 

10.6.0.0 /16

 

10.7.0.0 /16

 

Answer 10.4.0.0 255.252.0.0, or 10.4.0.0 /14 in prefix notation.

 

CCNP Certification / BSCI Exam

 

You are examining an IPv6 address and notice two consecutive colons. What does this represent, if anything

 

Answer Those two colons represent a string of zeros. This is referred to as zero compression, but can only be done once in a single IPv6 address. Leading zero compression, though, can be done as many times as is appropriate in an IPv6 address.

 

Original format 12341234000000000000000034563434

 

Using zero compression 1234123434563434

 

CCNP Certification / BCMSN Exam

 

How many bytes are added to a frame as a result of ISL encapsulation

 

Answer The header is 26 bytes, the trailer containing the CRC value is 4 bytes, for a total of 30 bytes.

 

CCNP Certification / ISCW Exam

 

What command disables ICMP redirects

 

Answer no ip redirects.

 

CCNP Certification / ONT Exam

 

What number and name are given to the highest possible CoS value

 

Answer The highest possible CoS value is 7 111 in binary, known commonly as Network.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-ccnp-ccent-practice-questions-hubs-repeaters-a-3895.html Lets test your knowledge of hubs, repeaters, Ipv6, and other important Cisco certification exam topics

 

CCENT Certification

 

Which of the following devices is considered a Layer 1 device

 

A. hub

 

B. repeater

 

C. router

 

D. switch

 

Answers A, B. Hubs and repeaters are both considered Physical layer devices. Switches are Layer Two devices, and routers run at Layer Three.

 

CCNA Certification

 

 

Briefly describe how IPv6 utilizes broadcasts.

 

Answer It doesnt use em. Thats pretty brief

 

CCNP Certification / BSCI Exam

 

Briefly describe the types of OSPF routes that can be found on a router serving as a total stub router, but not as an ASBR or ABR.

 

Answer The routing table of a total stub router can contain intraarea routes O and a default interarea route using the ABR as the next hop.

 

A typical total stub routing table

 

R4show ip route ospf

 

OIA 0.0.0.0/0 110/11 via 172.34.34.3, 000726, Ethernet0

 

CCNP Certification / BCMSN Exam

 

Identify the true statements

 

A. ISL encapsulates all frames before sending them across the trunk.

 

B. ISL encapsulates all frames before sending them across the trunk, except those belonging to the native VLAN.

 

C. IEEE 802.1Q encapsulates all frames before sending them across the trunk.

 

D. IEEE 802.1Q encapsulates all frames before sending them across the trunk, except those belonging to the native VLAN.

 

E. None of these statements are true.

 

Answer A. The Ciscoproprietary trunking protocol ISL does encapsulate all frames before sending them across the trunk. C and D are false because IEEE 802.1Q does not encapsulate frames at all.

 

CCNP Certification / ISCW Exam

 

Youre using Security Device Manager to configure an IPS rule for the first time on a particular router. When you click Create New IPS Rule, what protocol will you then be prompted to enable

 

Answer The Security Device Event Exchange protocol SDEE.

 

CCNP Certification / ONT Exam

 

In the command fairqueue 200 128 50, what does the 200 represent

 

A. The number of dynamic conversation queues.

 

B. The bandwidth assigned to interactive conversations.

 

C. The number of reservable conversation queues.

 

D. The number of packets that can be held in a single queue.

 

Answer D. In this command, 200 is the number of packets that can be held in a single queue.128 is the number of dynamic conversation queues, and 50 is the number of reservable conversation queues.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-ccnp-ccent-practice-questions-etherchannels-a-3894.html From the basics of router hardware to configuring and troubleshooting BGP, lets test your knowledge of Cisco certification exam topics

 

CCENT Certification

 

Youve just run the show interface ethernet0 command and you see the interface is administratively down. What causes that

 

Answer The interface is shut down. Just run no shutdown on the interface to open it.

 

When the interface shows as simply down, that indicates an issue with the cable, or more likely the interface on the other end of the connection is not open.

 

The interface can be physically up and logically down, and thats indicated by the output of show interface displaying the message serialx is up, line protocol is down. If the line protocol is down, that indicates the lack of a keepalive or a timing issue, such as a missing clockrate command.

 

CCNA Certification

 

Whats the broadcast address for a frame

 

Answer The allFs MAC address, ffffffffffff or FFFFFFFFFFFF, as theres no difference between upper and lower case in hexadecimal numbering.

 

CCNP Certification / BSCI Exam

 

What port number does BGP use to create and maintain adjacencies

 

Answer TCP port 179. Dont block that one with an ACL

 

CCNP Certification / BCMSN Exam

 

Whats the maximum number of physical channels that can be placed into an Etherchannel

 

Answer Eight.

 

CCNP Certification / ONT Exam

 

Whats the full command for doubling the capacity of the default queue when Priority Queuing is in use

 

prioritylist 1 queuelimit 20 40 120 80.

 

From left to right, were defining the limit for the high, medium, normal, and lowpriority queues. The default queue is the normalpriority queue, and the default capacity for that queue is 60 packets. Even though were only changing one value, the IOS will make us list a value for all four queues.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-ccnp-ccent-practice-questions-telnet-vlans-a-3893.html Test your knowledge of important Cisco certification exam topics with these CCENT, CCNA, and CCNP practice questions

 

CCENT and CCNA Certification

 

Youve just configured a password for users that will use Telnet to connect to your router. A few questions...

 

1. In the running configurations, where will the passwords appear

 

2. At which layer of the OSI model does Telnet run

 

3. Is the password encrypted by default

 

4. If not, how can you perform that encryption

 

Answers

 

1. Under the VTY lines, where you configured them.

 

2. Telnet runs at Layer 7 of the OSI model, the Application layer.

 

3. The VTY password is not encrypted by default.

 

4. You can encrypt that password and the other unencrypted passwords in the config with the global service passwordencryption command. If you use that command, all unencrypted passwords in the router configuration will then be encrypted.

 

CCNA Certification AND CCNP Certification / BSCI Exam Question

 

You have summarized the routes below. What is the resulting summary

 

100.1.1.0 /16

 

100.2.1.0 /16

 

100.3.1.0 /16

 

100.4.1.0 /16

 

100.5.1.0 /16

 

100.6.1.0 /16

 

100.7.1.0 /16

 

Answer 100.0.0.0 /13 or 255.248.0.0 in dotted decimal.

 

CCNP Certification / BCMSN Exam

 

When dynamic VLANs are in use, what value decides a switch ports VLAN membership

 

Answer The MAC address of the host connected to that port.

 

CCNP Certification / ISCW Exam

 

What protocol number does AH use

 

Answer IP protocol 51.

 

CCNP Certification / ONT Exam

 

campus backbone, management, and server farm are three portions of the Enterprise Campus part of the Enterprise Composite Network Model. Name the other three.

 

Answer The other portions are Building Distribution, Building Access, and Edge Distribution.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-ccent-ccnp-practice-questions-static-default-a-3892.html Lets tesr your knowledge of important Cisco certification exam topics such as static default routes, access lists, and more

 

CCENT Certification

 

What command will create a default static route with a nexthop IP address of 30.1.1.1

 

Answer ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 30.1.1.1

 

We could also specify the local exit interface at the end of that command.

 

CCNA Certification

 

In a Cisco ACL, what can be replaced with the word any

 

A. A subnet mask of 255.255.255.255.

 

B. A subnet mask of 0.0.0.0.

 

C. A wildcard mask of 255.255.255.255.

 

D. A wildcard mask of 0.0.0.0.

 

Answer C.

 

CCNP Certification / BSCI Exam

 

The command summaryaddress is designed for use on what OSPF router types

 

A. ASBRs

 

B. ABRs

 

C. Backbone routers

 

D. Total stub routers

 

E. Stub routers

 

Answer A. The command summaryaddress is designed for use only on an ASBR. This command is used to summarize routes that are being redistributed into OSPF.

 

CCNP Certification / BCMSN Exam

 

A Cisco switchport is configured with Root Guard. A superior BPDU is received on that port. What will happen

 

A. Nothing.

 

B. The port goes into rootinconsistent state.

 

C. The port goes into errdisabled state.

 

D. The port goes into blocking state.

 

Answer B. When a superior BPDU is received on a port protected with Root Guard, the port will be placed into rootinconsistent state. This will prevent a switch found off that port from becoming the root bridge.

 

CCNP Certification / ISCW Exam

 

Short answer What IP protocol number does ESP use

 

Answer ESP uses IP protocol number 50.

 

CCNP Certification / ONT Exam

 

Which of the following phrases does NOT apply to WPA2

 

A. dynamically generated keys

 

B. encryption

 

C. intrusion detection

 

D. oneway authentication

 

Answer D. WPA2 uses mutual authentication, not oneway authentication.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-certification-exams-retiring-november-certif-a-3891.html If youre working on the Cisco CCNA right now, or even thinking about it, there are changes coming to the CCNA program in November that you need to know about. No reason to worry, these changes are all good news for CCNA candidates.

 

And the first bit of good news is that you have plenty of time to take and pass the current CCNA exams. In this article, I will outline several advantages to taking the CCNA plunge now before these changes take effect.

 

The current CCNA exam 640801 will not be phased out until November 6, which gives you more than enough time to get CCNA certified before then even if you havent started studying yet Those of you who want to take the twoexam path to CCNA certification should know that the 640811 ICND and 640821 INTRO exams will be phased out on that same date.

 

Ciscos taking the approach that the CCNA certification is no longer an entrylevel certification, and this is a welcome change for CCNAs and CCNA candidates alike. I have been writing CCNA ebooks and teaching CCNA courses for several years, and Ive always refused to call this an entrylevel certification.

 

The new CCNA exam 640802 looks to be even more demanding than the current exam, which is another reason to pick up the pace and get certified now Here are just some of the new topics youll find on the 640802 exam

 

• Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol

 

• Switch security

 

• IP Version 6

 

• Router security

 

• Virtual Private Networks

 

• Wireless routing and more

 

Add these to the topics already found on the current CCNA exam, and you can see that the new CCNA exam will be even more demanding than the current version.

 

If you choose the twoexam path for the CCNA certification after November 6, youll need to take two ICND exams ICND 1 640822 and ICND 2 640816. This is much tougher than the current path because the INTRO exam will be a thing of the past after November 6 Passing the ICND 1 exam will earn you the new Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician certification, Ciscos new entrylevel certification.

 

The CCNA will be even more valuable with these changes, so again, even if youve even been thinking about earning the CCNA now is the time

 

The new CCNA exams will actually be available on August 1, but again, I want to emphasize that the current CCNA exams will be available through November 6. My advice to those who want to get CCNA certified before the change is to book your exam now, make sure you choose the right exam number and get started studying

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccnp-certification-bcmsn-exam-defending-against-vlan-a-3890.html During our Cisco CCNP BCMSN certification exam preparation, weve seen how intruders can use seemingly innocent ARP and DHCP processes can be used to harm our network, so it shouldnt come as any surprise that Dot1q tagging can be used against us as well

 

One form of VLAN Hopping is double tagging, so named because the intruder will transmit frames that are double tagged with two separate VLAN IDs. As youll see in our example, certain circumstances must exist for a double tagging attack to be successful

 

The intruders host device must be attached to an access port.

 

The VLAN used by that access port must be the native VLAN.

 

The term native VLAN tips us off to the third requirement dot1q must be the trunking protocol in use, since ISL doesnt use the native VLAN.

 

When the rogue host transmits a frame, that frame will have two tags. One will indicate native VLAN membership, and the second will be the number of the VLAN under attack. In this example, well assume that to be VLAN 100, with the native VLAN set as VLAN 25.

 

The trunk receiving this doubletagged frame will see the tag for VLAN 25, and since thats the native VLAN, that tag will be removed and then transmitted across the trunk but the tag for VLAN 100 is still there

 

When the switch on the other side of the trunk gets that frame, it sees the tag for VLAN 100 and forwards the frame to ports in that VLAN. The rogue now has successfully fooled the switches and has hopped from one VLAN to another.

 

This is why you often see the native VLAN of a network set to a VLAN that no host on the network is a member of that stops this version of VLAN Hopping right in its tracks.

 

Notice that I said this version. Well take a look at another VLAN Hopping tactic in the next installation of my CIsco CCNP BCMSN certification exam tutorial series

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/ccnp-certification-bcmsn-exam-tutorial-address-flooding-a-3889.html Network attacks take many forms, and its important to know how the potential security issues with ARP, DHCP, and MAC addresses. Theyre innocent looking enough, but each of these common network protocols

and addresses can be turned against us. Today, well talk about what MAC Address Flooding is, how it can be used against our network, and the best defense against this attack.

 

A MAC Address Flooding attack is an attempt by a network intruder to overwhelm the switch memory reserved for maintenance of the MAC address table. The intruder generates a large number of frames with different source MAC addresses all of them invalid. As the switchs MAC address table capabilities are exhausted, valid entries cannot be made and this results in those valid frames being broadcast instead of unicast.

 

This has two side effects, both unpleasant

 

As mentioned, the MAC address table fills to capacity, preventing legitimate entries from being made.

 

The large number of unnecessary frame flooding quickly consumes bandwidth as well as overall switch resources.

 

The best defense against MAC Address Flooding is a good offense, and in this case, that offense consists of portbased authentication and port security. By making sure our host devices are indeed who we think they are and authenticating them before they join our network, we reduce the potential for an intruder to unleash a MAC Address Flooding attack on our network. The key isnt to fight the intruder once theyre in our network the key is to keep them out in the first place

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/scjp-certification-preparation-a-3888.html SCJP 5.0 Carving a well qualified Java Tiger Programmer

 

Sun Microsystems offers many certifications starting from programmer level to architect level. The latest version of programmer SCJP exam is SCJP 5.0 Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition 5.0 CX310055. Sun started calling SCJP 5.0 instead SCJP 1.5 from this new version.

 

Achieving this certification provides clear evidence that a programmer understands the basic syntax and structure of the Java programming language

based on new syntax introduced in SCJP 5.0. The certified programmer can create Java technology

applications that run on server and desktop systems using J2SE 5.0 Java Tiger. Java Tiger is the another name of J2SE 5.0.

 

NOTE The external version number of this release is 5.0 and its internal version number is 1.5.0.

 

What is new in Java Tiger

Changes include generic types, metadata, autoboxing, an enhanced for loop, enumerated types, static import, C style formatted input/output, variable arguments, concurrency utilities, and simpler RMI interface generation.

 

Wow Thanks to Sun Microsystems for providing such a valuable features for Java Programmers.

So, if you decided to take Sun Java Programmer certification SCJP go ahead with SCJP 5.0 and be a Java Tiger Certified Programmer and enjoy the benefits of new features.

 

Changes in Exam Objectives from SCJP 1.4 to SCJP 5.0

 

SCJP 1.4

Section 1 Declarations and Access Control

Section 2 Flow control, Assertions, and Exception Handling

Section 3 Garbage Collection

Section 4 Language Fundamentals

Section 5 Operators and Assignments

Section 6 Overloading, Overriding, Runtime Type and Object Orientation

Section 7 Threads

Section 8 Fundamental Classes in the java.lang Package

Section 9 The Collections Framework

 

SCJP 5.0

Section 1 Declarations, Initialization and Scoping

Section 2 Flow Control

Section 3 API Contents

Section 4 Concurrency

Section 5 OO Concepts

Section 6 Collections / Generics

Section 7 Fundamentals

 

Is SCJP 5.0 easy compared to SCJP 1.4 as it has limited number of sections No, most of the concepts are new in SCJP 5.0. Some of them are not related with SCJP 1.4. 

 

SCJP 5.0 Exam Details

Delivered at Authorized Worldwide Prometric Testing Centers

Prerequisites None

Other exams/assignments required for this certification None

Exam type Multiple choice and drag and drop

Number of questions 72

Pass score 59 43 of 72 questions

Time limit 175 minutes

 

After completion of SCJP 5.0 exam you are familiar with Java Tiger concepts like generic types, metadata, auto boxing, an enhanced for loop, enumerated types, static import, variable arguments, etc.

 

How long I need to prepare for this exam

The answer is it depends on your current knowledge in Java programming and OO Concepts. You may get an approximate estimation from EPractize Labs SCJP 5.0 Preparation Time Calculator.

 

How to start Where to start

First go to Suns website and understand the exam objectives. Plan for your preparation. If needed calculate an estimation from EPractize Labs SCJP 5.0 Preparation Time Calculator.

Identify your weak areas based on the exam objectives. Set more focus on those topics.

Study and workout the program examples.

Practice with mock exams and see where you are. Continue your practice till you achieve your goal.

Achieve your SCJP 5.0 certificate and share your success WITH YOUR FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES

Recommended SCJP 5.0 Exam Preparation Kit

 

Use SCJP 5.0 Exam EPractize Labs Personal Edition for empowering your preparation by PPA1Plan, Practize, Achieve methodology.

 

SCJP 5.0 Certification Benefits

 

For the Individual

Clear evidence that you are a Java Tiger programmer.

The certification empowers in driving Java Programming based on J2SE 5.0.

SCJP 5.0 certified programmers can easily design and develop the code based on J2SE 5.0.

Being a SCJP 5.0 certified programmer helps you to improve your career potential, gain more respect, boost up your job security and opportunities.

With SCJP 5.0 certified programmer, you become more competitive in the job market.

 

For the organization Enables management to distinguish SCJP 5.0 certified programmer as Java professionals who can develop quality code efficiently and effectively.

 

Helps in deciding the best development APIs or Java Components

based on latest J2SE APIs.

 

More confidence to work on Java Code technical decisions with business partners.

Enables project team to get best coding practices and guidance from a qualified Java Programmer.

 

Good Luck

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/what-difference-between-ccna-academy-certification-ccna-a-3887.html Firstly, I have to say that CCNA Academy and Certificate CCNA is totally different. Many people still do not know about it such as what is the CCNA and why they should take this course. The Academy course is for students, designed by Cisco. The provided lessons are the fundamental, and the students have to take for about 12 years to complete the course. The course divided in to 4 parts, which are CCNA I, CCNA II, CCNA III, and CCNA IV and detail of each part is quite generic and not difficult to learn and complete the course.

 

The Certification CCNA is the course that has objective to assess knowledge of employees, which assess about ability to configure and assemble parts of machines as well as use it effectively and trouble shooting. For the Certification CCNA the people who actually work with computer network or the work that directly involve with the computer network will gain advantage.

 

If we compare to each other, we found that the CCNA Academy will take longer time to complete the course but gain a lot of knowledge. However, there are plenty of knowledge that unnecessary for students and this may not be very useful for their work, for example, the knowledge about specification and function of old model router that may be no longer used or no longer available.

 

However, there still be advantage of taking Academy CCNA course, which is students who take the course will gain a lot of knowledge and be able to learn all element of the course. But, again, this will take very long to complete and gain all of knowledge provided by the course. The Certification CCNA also has advantage, that is, it is the tool to assess qualification and effectiveness of a person who take the course, but if they fail to complete the course, which provided by Cisco, they may feel lose confidence and affect to their work.

 

There are also many questions such as how to prepare for the Certificate CCNA and what they should know before taking the course or are there any tips to pass the assessment.

I therefore have summarized the fundamental qualification of people who want to take the assessment in order for you to prepare yourself for the assessment.

 

1.The assessment exam is multiple choice form

2.When you complete one exam and go to the new one, you can not go back

3.You have 2 hours to complete the whole assessment

4.you will get a sheet for take note during the lab exam

5.You must register for the assessment 23 days in advance

6.If you failed the first assessment, you can reapply after 2 weeks

7.The exam consists of 5556 exams, do not hurry and read the instruction carefully before start the exam.

 

Knowledge you must have in order to pass the exam

1. Knowledge about network media

2. Basic router configuration by using Cisco IOS commands

3. LAN, WAN network setup and configuration

4. Knowledge on how to configure routable protocols IP, IPX, etc.

5. Knowledge on how to configure routable protocols RIP, IGRP, EIGRP, etc.

6. Network security

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccnp-certification-bcmsn-exam-tutorial-server-load-bala-a-3886.html When youre working on your BCMSN exam on your way to CCNP certification, youll read at length about how Cisco routers

and multilayer switches can work to provide router redundancy but theres another helpful service, Server Load Balancing, that does the same for servers. While HSRP, VRRP, and CLBP all represent multiple physical routers to hosts as a single virtual router, SLB represents multiple physical servers to hosts as a single virtual server.

 

In the following example, three physical servers have been placed into the SRB group ServFarm. Theyre represented to the hosts as the virtual server 210.1.1.14.

 

The hosts will seek to communicate with the server at 210.1.1.14, not knowing that theyre actually communicating with the routers in ServFarm. This allows quick cutover if one of the physical servers goes down, and also serves to hide the actual IP addresses of the servers in ServFarm.

 

The basic operations of SLB involves creating the server farm, followed by creating the virtual server. Well first add 210.1.1.11 to the server farm

 

MLSconfig ip slb serverfarm ServFarm

 

MLSconfigslbsfarm real 210.1.1.11

 

MLSconfigslbreal inservice

 

The first command creates the server farm, with the real command specifying the IP address of the real server. The inservice command is required by SLB to consider the server as ready to handle the server farms workload. The real and inservice commands should be repeated for each server in the server farm.

 

To create the virtual server

 

MLSconfig ip slb vserver VIRTUALSERVER

 

MLSconfigslbvserver serverfarm ServFarm

 

MLSconfigslbvserver virtual 210.1.1.14

 

MLSconfigslbvserver inservice

 

From the top down, the vserver was named VIRTUALSERVER, which represents the server farm ServFarm. The virtual server is assigned the IP address 210.1.1.14, and connections are allowed once the inservice command is applied.

 

You may also want to control which of your network hosts can connect to the virtual server. If hosts or subnets are named with the client command, those will be the only clients that can connect to the virtual server. Note that this command uses wildcard masks. The following configuration would allow only the hosts on the subnet 210.1.1.0 /24 to connect to the virtual server.

 

MLSconfigslbvserver client 210.1.1.0 0.0.0.255

 

SLB is the server ends answer to HSRP, VRRP, and GLBP but you still need to know it to become a CCNP Knowing redundancy strategies and protocols is vital in todays networks, so make sure youre comfortable with SLB before taking on the exam.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-exam-tutorial-guide-nvram-flash-a-3885.html CCNA exam success depends on knowing the details, and nowhere is this more true than knowing the various components of a Cisco router. This is also where you can quickly start drowning in acronyms The terms RAM and ROM probably arent new to you, but keeping up with what goes where with RAM, ROM, NVRAM, and Flash Memory can be quite a challenge In this tutorial, well take a look at all four of these components and their contents.

 

ROM stands for ReadOnly Memory. ROM stores the routers bootstrap startup program, operating system software, and poweron diagnostic test programs the POST.

 

Flash memory is generally referred to as flash. The Cisco Internetwork Operating System IOS images are held here. Flash is erasable and reprogrammable ROM. Flash memory content is retained by the router on powerdown or reload.

 

RAM is short for RandomAccess Memory. RAM on a Cisco router stores operational information such as routing tables and the running configuration file. RAM contents are lost when the router is powered down or reloaded.

 

NVRAM is nonvolatile RAM. By nonvolatile, we mean that the contents of NVRAM are not lost when the router is powered down or reloaded. Where RAM holds the running configuration file, NVRAM holds the startup configuration file. If NVRAM is empty when the router reloads, you will be prompted to enter setup mode.

 

Success on the CCNA exam depends on keeping these terms straight and knowing their contents. Know the contents of each, pay special attention to what is lost on a reload and what is not, and youre on your way to CCNA exam success

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-exam-tutorial-what%20s-collision-domain-a-3884.html CCNA exam success depends on mastering the fundamentals, and two important fundamentals are correctly defining the terms collision domain and broadcast domain . In this free Cisco tutorial, well take a look at the term collision domain and how a collision domain is defined.

 

A collision domain is an area in which a collision can occur. Fair enough, but what collision are we talking about here Were talking about collisions that occur on CSMA/CD segments, or Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection. If two hosts on an Ethernet segment transmit data at exactly the same time, the data from the two hosts will collide on the shared segment. CSMA/CD exists to lessen the chances of this happening, but collisions can still occur. To lessen the chances of collisions occurring, we may decide to create multiple, smaller collision domains.

 

Lets say we have four hosts on a single Ethernet segment. The entire segment is a collision domain any data sent by one of the hosts can collide with data sent by any of the other hosts. We have one collision domain containing four devices.

 

To create smaller collision domains, well need to introduce some type of networking device into this example. Hubs and repeaters have their place as far as extending the reach of a network segment and cutting down on attenuation, but these OSI Layer One devices do nothing to define collision domains. We could connect each host into a separate port on a hub a hub is basically a multiport repeater and wed still have one single collision domain with four hosts in it.

 

The most common and most effective way to create multiple collision domains is to use a switch. If we connect each of these four hosts to their own separate switch port, we would now have four separate collision domains, each with one host each switch port actually acts as a single collision domain, making collisions between these four hosts impossible.

 

Passing the CCNA is all about knowing the details of how things work, and knowing CSMA/CD theory and how to define collision domains is one of the many details youve got to master. In the next part of this CCNA tutorial, well take a look at broadcast domains, and how defining broadcast domains in the right places can dramatically cut down on unnecessary traffic on your network.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccnp-bcmsn-exam-tutorial-dynamic-trunking-protocol-a-3883.html When youre studying to pass the BCMSN exam on the way to earning your CCNP certification, youre going to add to your CCNA knowledgebase every step of the way. Nowhere is that more than configuring a trunk between two switches.

 

You know that IEEE 802.1Q dot1q and ISL are your two choices of trunking protocols, and you know the main differences between the two. What you might not have known is that theres a third trunking protocol thats running between your Cisco switches, and while its a transparent process to many, you had better know about it for your BCMSN and other CCNP exams

 

The Ciscoproprietary Dynamic Trunking Protocol DTP actively attempts to negotiate a trunk link with the remote switch. This sounds great, but there is a cost in overhead DTP frames are transmitted every 30 seconds. If you decide to configure a port as a nonnegotiable trunk port, theres no need for the port to send DTP frames.

 

DTP can be turned off at the interface level with the switchport nonegotiate command, but as you see below, you cannot turn DTP off until the port is no longer in dynamic desirable trunking mode. Dynamic desirable is the default mode for most Cisco switch ports.

 

SW2configint fast 0/8

SW2configifswitchport nonegotiate

Command rejected Conflict between nonegotiate and dynamic status.

 

SW2configifswitchport mode

access Set trunking mode to ACCESS unconditionally

dynamic Set trunking mode to dynamically negotiate access or trunk mode

trunk Set trunking mode to TRUNK unconditionally

 

SW2configifswitchport mode trunk

SW2configifswitchport nonegotiate

 

When youre working with Cisco switches in a home lab or rack rental environment, run IOS Help regularly to see what options are available for the commands youre practicing with. Cisco switch ports have quite a few options, and the best way to find them is with one simple symbol the question mark

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-exam-tutorial-need-private-address-ranges-a-3882.html When youre studying to pass the CCNA, youre introduced to private addresses, the address ranges formally referred to as RFC 1918 Private Addresses. RFC stands for Request For Comment to see a typical RFC, just put that term in your favorite search engine.

 

There are three ranges of 1918 Private Addresses, one in each major network class. Class A 10.0.0.0 /8 Class B 172.16.0.0 /12 Class C 192.168.0.0 /16 Be careful these masks are not the classful network masks youre familiar with The need for private address ranges arose when we started running out of IP addresses

 

. A lot of us never thought that would happen, but a lot of us used to think wed never need storage units bigger than floppy disks, too. You can imagine that as networks began to be installed in offices and schools worldwide, the finite number of IP addresses became a restrictive factor.

 

Many devices that were using these precious IP addresses did not need to communicate with any device outside its own local area network LAN. Therefore, these devices could be assigned an IP address that could be used on another device in another LAN but these devices would not be able to communicate across the Internet.

 

It was decided to create network address ranges that would be used exclusively for such devices. Thats why when you go from one local area network to another, youll usually see hosts with IP addresses from the above three ranges.

 

Of course, as time went on, more and more of these devices did need to reach hosts across the Internet. Thats where NAT Network Address Translation comes into play. But that is a subject for another tutorial

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccnp-bsci-exam-tutorial-using-ospf%20s-summaryaddress-a-3881.html BSCI exam success, not to mention earning your CCNP, can come down to your OSPF route summarization skills. There are a few different commands and situations you need to be ready for, and one of these situations is the proper use of the summaryaddress command.

 

The summaryaddress command should be used on an ASBR in order to summarize routes that are being injected into the OSPF domain via redistribution. In the following example, four routes are being redisitributed into OSPF on R1, making R1 an ASBR.

 

interface Loopback16 ip address

 

16.16.16.16 255.0.0.0

 

 

interface Loopback17

 

ip address 17.17.17.17 255.0.0.0

 

 

interface Loopback18

 

ip address 18.18.18.18 255.0.0.0

 

 

interface Loopback19

 

ip address 19.19.19.19 255.0.0.0

 

R1configrouter ospf 1 R1configrouterredistribute connected subnets

 

These four routes are seen on downstream router R2 as External Type2, the default for routes redistributed into OSPF.

 

R2show ip

 

route ospf

 

O E2 17.0.0.0/8 110/20 via 172.12.123.1, 000007, Serial0

 

O E2 16.0.0.0/8 110/20 via 172.12.123.1, 000007, Serial0

 

O E2 19.0.0.0/8 110/20 via 172.12.123.1, 000007, Serial0

 

O E2 18.0.0.0/8 110/20 via 172.12.123.1, 000007, Serial0

 

To summarize networks learned by redistribution, use the OSPF command summaryaddress. You can probably do this summarization in your head, but do so before continuing with the lab.

 

R1configrouter ospf 1

 

R1configroutersummaryaddress 16.0.0.0 252.0.0.0

 

Look at the change in R2s OSPF table.

 

R2show ip route ospf

 

O E2 16.0.0.0/6 110/20 via 172.12.123.1, 000005, Serial0

 

The external routes have been successfully summarized. Note that the summary route is still marked as an E2 route.

 

Theres an interesting route installed into R1s OSPF table as well.

 

R1show ip route ospf

 

O 16.0.0.0/6 is a summary, 000151, Null0

 

When you configure summary routes in OSPF, a route to null0 will be installed into the OSPF routing table. This helps to prevent routing loops. Any packets destined for the routes that have been summarized will have a longer match in the routing table....

 

C 17.0.0.0/8 is directly connected, Loopback17

 

C 16.0.0.0/8 is directly connected, Loopback16

 

C 19.0.0.0/8 is directly connected, Loopback19

 

C 18.0.0.0/8 is directly connected, Loopback18

 

O 16.0.0.0/6 is a summary, 000310, Null0

 

O 12.0.0.0/6 is a summary, 000753, Null0

 

.. and packets that do not match one of the summarized routes but do match the summary route will be dropped.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-exam-tutorial-troubleshooting-directly-connected-a-3880.html CCNA exam success depends largely on noticing the details, and this is especially true of configurations involving directly connected serial interfaces. And of course, its not enough to notice these details youve got to know what to do about them

 

A Cisco router is a DTE by default, but directly connecting two DTEs with a DCE/DTE cable is not enough. In the following example, R1 and R3 are directly connected at their Serial1 interfaces. The line goes up briefly after being opened, but the line protocol goes down after about 30 seconds.

 

R3configifint s1 R3configifip address 172.12.13.3 255.255.255.0

 

R3configifno shutdown

 

2d18h LINK3UPDOWN Interface Serial1, changed state to up

 

2d18h LINEPROTO5UPDOWN Line protocol on Interface Serial1, changed state to

 

up

 

R3configif

 

2d18h LINEPROTO5UPDOWN Line protocol on Interface Serial1, changed state to down

 

The problem is that one of the routers needs to act as the DCE in order for the line protocol to come up and stay up. If this were your CCNA / CCNP home lab, you could just go over and look at the DTE/DCE cable to see which router had the DCE end of the cable attached. In this example, though, we dont have physical access to the routers. How can we tell which router has the DCE end of the cable attached

 

R3show controller serial 1

 

HD unit 1, idb 0x1C44E8, driver structure at 0x1CBAC8

 

buffer size 1524 HD unit 1, V.35 DCE cable

 

The show controller command gives us this information. Theres a lot more output that this with this command, but its unimportant for our purposes. The router with the DCE end of the cable needs to supply a clock rate to the DTE, and well do just that with the interfacelevel clockrate command.

 

Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.

 

R3configint serial1

 

R3configifclockrate 56000

 

2d18h LINEPROTO5UPDOWN Line protocol on Interface Serial1, changed state to up

 

In just a few seconds, the line protocol goes up and stays up.

 

When troubleshooting a connection, always run show interface first. If you see the combination shown below, the connection is physically fine but logically down. Thats generally the result of a needed keepalive not being present. With Frame Relay, its probably an LMI issue, but with directly connected serial interfaces the issue is most likely the DCE end of the connection not supplying clockrate.

 

R3show interface serial 1 Serial1 is up, line protocol is down

 

Troubleshooting is a big part of the job, and its a big part of the Cisco CCNA and CCNP programs as well. Know your show and debug commands and youre on your way to passing the CCNA

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccnp-bsci-exam-tutorial-using-ospf-area-range-a-3879.html Your BSCI and CCNP exam success depends on knowing the details, and one such detail is knowing the proper way to summarize routes in OSPF. Route summarization is not just a test of your binary conversion abilities, but knowing where and when to summarize routes. It will not surprise any CCNA or CCNP certification candidate that OSPF gives us the most options for route summarization, and therefore more details to know

 

OOSPF offers us two options for route summarization configurations. In a previous tutorial, we looked at the summaryaddress command, and today well look at the proper use of the area range command.

 

The area range command should be used on an Area Border Router ABR to summarize routes being advertised from one OSPF area to another. In this tutorial, R1 is acting as an ABR, with interfaces in both Area 0 and Area 1. Four loopbacks have been placed into R1s Area 1.

 

R1configrouter ospf 1

 

R1configrouternetwork 12.0.0.0 0.255.255.255 a 1 R1configrouternetwork 13.0.0.0 0.255.255.255 a 1

 

R1configrouternetwork 14.0.0.0 0.255.255.255 a 1

 

R1configrouternetwork 15.0.0.0 0.255.255.255 a 1

 

The routing table of an OSPF neighbor, R2, shows all four routes.

 

R2show ip route ospf

 

12.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

 

O IA 12.12.12.12 110/65 via 172.12.123.1, 001852, Serial0

 

13.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

 

O IA 13.13.13.13 110/65 via 172.12.123.1, 001842, Serial0

 

14.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

 

O IA 14.14.14.14 110/65 via 172.12.123.1, 001832, Serial0

 

15.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

 

O IA 15.15.15.15 110/65 via 172.12.123.1, 001832, Serial0

 

To keep the routing tables of downstream routers smaller but still have the desired IP connectivity, we can use the area range command on R1 to summarize these four routes. The key to keep in mind with the area range command is that the area number given in the command is the area containing the destinations, NOT the area that will receive the summary route.

 

R1configrouter ospf 1

 

R1configrouterarea 1 range 12.0.0.0 252.0.0.0

 

R2 now shows a single summary route that can be used to reach all four remote networks.

 

R2show ip route ospf

 

O IA 12.0.0.0/6 110/65 via 172.12.123.1, 000021, Serial0

 

Interestingly enough, theres now an additional route in R1s routing table.

 

R1show ip route ospf

 

O 12.0.0.0/6 is a summary, 000753, Null0

 

When you configure summary routes in OSPF, a route to null0 will be installed into the OSPF routing table of the router performing the summarization. This helps to prevent routing loops. Any packets destined for the routes that have been summarized will have a longer match in the routing table, and packets that do not match one of the summarized routes but do match the summary route will be dropped.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-certification-five-isdn-details-watch-a-3878.html CCNA exam success depends on mastering many technologies that are new to you, and few exam topics have more details than ISDN. ISDN isnt just for your CCNA exam studies, though. While ISDN is dismissed by many, the fact is that there are many small and midsize networks out there that use ISDN as their backup to frame relay. Some of these companies have spoke networks that use ISDN to connect to their hub as well, so its a great idea to know ISDN configuration and troubleshooting for your realworld career as well as passing the CCNA. With that in mind, lets take a look at five common ISDN errors and how to avoid them.

 

With dialer map statements, remember that the phone number you put in the dialer map is the phone number of the remote router, not the local one. Look at it this way if you want to call a friend on your cell, you dont pick up your cell and dial your own number

 

Speaking of dialer map statements, dont forget the allimportant broadcast option at the end of the command

 

R1configifdialer map ip 172.12.21.1 name R2 broadcast 5555555 The router will accept that command without the broadcast option, but routing protocol updates and hellos would not be able to travel across the line. This command is also needed in frame relay map statements to allow broadcasts and multicasts to be transmitted.

 

PAP is PPPs cleartext authentication scheme, and clear text is a really bad idea. But if you do have to configure it, dont forget that PAP requires additional configuration the ppp pap sentusername command.

 

R1configifppp pap sentusername R1 password CISCO Must set encapsulation to PPP before using PPP subcommands

 

R1configif

 

The error message we got while configuring the sentusername command is another important reminder by default, a BRI line is running HDLC, not PPP. Since HDLC doesnt allow us to use either PAP or CHAP, well need to set the link to PPP with the encapsulation ppp command.

 

R1configifencapsulation ppp

 

R1configifppp authentication pap

 

R1configifppp pap sentusername R1 password CISCO

 

But before we configure any of this information, we should configure the ISDN switchtype. Why Because without the switchtype configuration, it doesnt matter that we avoid the other four errors the line will not come up. Configure the switchtype with the isdn switchtype command, then verify it with show isdn status.

 

R1configisdn switchtype basicni

 

R1show isdn status

 

Global ISDN Switchtype basicni output of this command cut here for clarity

 

If you forget this part of the configuration, the output of show isdn status wastes no time in reminding you

 

R1show isdn status

 

No Global ISDN Switchtype currently defined

 

ISDN is an important part of your CCNA studies, and this knowledge still comes in handy in production networks as well. Keep studying, notice the details, run those debugs, and youll be a CCNA before you know it

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccnp-bsci-exam-tutorial-eigrp-route-summarization-a-3877.html Summarizing routes is a vital skill to learn to pass the BSCI exam and get one step closer to earning your CCNP. The actual binary conversions are only part of the test, though Youve got to know how to correctly apply the summary routes, and that differs from one protocol to the next. In the last few CCNP / BSCI tutorials, weve looked at using the area range and summaryaddress commands to perform OSPF route summarization. Today, well take a look at summarizing routes in EIGRP.

 

WWell use the following four loopback addresses in this example

 

Loopback 16, 16.16.16.16 /32 Loopback 17, 17.17.17.17 /32

 

Loopback 18, 18.18.18.18 /32

 

Loopback 19. 19.19.19.19 /32 On R1, well place these four addresses into EIGRP AS 100.

 

R1configifrouter eigrp 100 R1configrouternetwork 16.16.16.16 0.0.0.0

 

R1configrouternetwork 17.17.17.17 0.0.0.0

 

R1configrouternetwork 18.18.18.18 0.0.0.0

 

R1configrouternetwork 19.19.19.19 0.0.0.0

 

R3 is an EIGRP neighbor of R1, and that routers EIGRP routing table now looks like this R3show ip route eigrp

 

17.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

 

D 17.17.17.17 90/2297856 via 172.12.123.1, 000029, Serial0

 

16.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

 

D 16.16.16.16 90/2297856 via 172.12.123.1, 000036, Serial0

 

19.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

 

D 19.19.19.19 90/2297856 via 172.12.123.1, 000008, Serial0

 

18.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

 

D 18.18.18.18 90/2297856 via 172.12.123.1, 000022, Serial0

 

To perform manual route summarization, write out the network addresses in binary and then determine the point at which the addresses no longer have a bit in common. For these four addresses, it will be enough to write out the first octet in binary

 

16 00010000

 

17 00010001

 

18 00010010

 

19 00010011

 

Working from left to right, the common bits are the first six bits 000100xx. In decimal, this value is 16. The summary mask must be determined as well, and that value is derived from putting a 1 in the mask for each common bit. With the first six bits all set to one 11111100 the resulting mask is 252.0.0.0. The full summary address is 16.0.0.0 252.0.0.0.

 

In EIGRP, the summary address is actually configured on an interface, not under the routing process.

 

R1configinterface serial0

 

R1configifip summaryaddress eigrp 100 16.0.0.0 252.0.0.0

 

023950 DUAL5NBRCHANGE IPEIGRP 100 Neighbor 172.12.123.3 Serial0 is down summary configured

 

023950 DUAL5NBRCHANGE IPEIGRP 100 Neighbor 172.12.123.2 Serial0 is down summary configured

 

024016 DUAL5NBRCHANGE IPEIGRP 100 Neighbor 172.12.123.2 Serial0 is up new adjacency

 

024017 DUAL5NBRCHANGE IPEIGRP 100 Neighbor 172.12.123.3 Serial0 is up new adjacency

 

Theres an immediate side effect here that most books leave out. Your EIGRP adjacencies are going to come down after you configure this summary, but they should come back up quickly. The key word there is should. If you configure EIGRP summary addresses on a production network, you may want to do this during nonpeak hours. The timestamps on the above commands indicate that the adjacencies were down for about 27 seconds over the NBMA network. Thats about 30 minutes in enduser time.

 

Check R3s EIGRP routing table. R3show ip route eigrp

 

D 16.0.0.0/6 90/2297856 via 172.12.123.1, 000146, Serial0

 

The four summarized routes are no longer in the routing table, and they have been replaced by the summary route shown at the bottom of the routing table. Notice the mask is /6, which is prefix notation for 248.0.0.0.

 

Knowing how and why to summarize routes is a valuable skill, regardless of the protocol in use. But before you take the BSCI exam on your way to the CCNP, make sure you know how to perform summarization with all of the core protocols

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccnp-bcmsn-exam-tutorial-vlan-trunking-protocol-a-3876.html Passing the BCMSN exam and getting one step closer to the CCNP certification means learning and noticing details that you were not presented with in your CCNA studies. Yes, I know you had more than enough details then, right One protocol youve got to learn more details about is VTP, which seemed simple enough in your CCNA studies Part of learning the details is mastering the fundamentals, so in this tutorial well review the basics of VTP.

 

IIn show vtp status readouts, the VTP Operating Mode is set to Server by default. The more familiar term for VTP Operating Mode is simply VTP Mode, and Server is the default. Its through the usage of VTP modes that we can place limits on which switches can delete and create VLANs.

 

In Server mode, a VTP switch can be used to create, modify, and delete VLANs. This means that a VTP deployment has to have at least one switch in Server mode, or VLAN creation will not be possible. Again, this is the default setting for Cisco switches.

 

Switches running in Client mode cannot be used to create, modify, or delete VLANs. Clients do listen for VTP advertisements and act accordingly when VTP advertisements notify the Client of VLAN changes.

 

VTP Transparent mode actually means that the switch isnt participating in the VTP domain as Servers and Clients do. Bear with me here. Transparent VTP switches dont synchronize their VTP databases with other VTP speakers. They dont even advertise their own VLAN information Therefore, any VLANs created on a Transparent VTP switch will not be advertised to other VTP speakers in the domain, making them locally significant only. I know you remember that phrase from your CCNA studies

 

Devices running VTP Transparent mode do have a little something to do with the other switches in the VTP domain, though. When a switch running in Transparent mode receives a VTP advertisement, that switch will forward that advertisement to other switches in that VTP domain.

 

Configuring switches as VTP Clients is a great way to tie down VLAN creation capabilities to switches that are under your physical control. However, this occasionally leads to a situation where only the VTP clients will have ports that belong to a given VLAN, but the VLAN still has to be created on the VTP server. VLANs can be created and deleted in transparent mode, but those changes arent advertised to other switches in the VTP domain.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-exam-tutorial-five-ospf-details-must-know-a-3875.html CCNA exam success depends greatly on knowing the details, and if theres one protocol that has a lot of details, its OSPF This is true particularly of hubandspoke networks, so in this CCNA OSPF tutorial well take a look at some of the more important hubandspoke OSPF details. This will help you in working with realworld networks as well, since this OSPF network type is one of the more typical network topologies.

 

In OSPF, the hub must become the designated router DR. The DR elections deciding value is the OSPF interface priority, and the default value

is 1. Its not enough to set the hubs OSPF interface to 2, however, since the spoke routers must not become the DR or BDR. You must set the spoke interfaces to an OSPF priority of zero.

 

R2configint s0 R2configifip ospf priority 0

 

This ensures that the spokes will not become the DR or BDR if the hub goes down. The hub does require a bit more configuration, though. The neighbor command must be used on the hub to indicate the IP address of the potential neighbors.

 

R1configrouter ospf 1 R1configrouterneighbor 172.12.123.2

 

R1configrouterneighbor 172.12.123.3

 

Its common to have an ISDN link as a backup in an OSPF network, and when that ISDN link comes up the hello packets must be able to cross the link. What you dont want is to have the hellos keep the link up By configuring the ISDN link as an OSPF demand circuit, the link will drop in the absence of interesting traffic, but the OSPF adjacency will be assumed by the router. You usually see this command configured on both sides of the ISDN link, but its only needed on one side. It doesnt hurt anything to put it on both sides, though.

 

R2configint bri0 R2configifip ospf demandcircuit

 

A final detail of OSPF hubandspoke and demand circuits actually takes place at Layer 2. For the OSPF hello packets to successfully be transmitted across an ISDN link or a frame relay network, the broadcast option must be enabled in the appropriate frame and dialer map statements. Failure to enable this option can lead to a situation where pings will be successful, but OSPF adjacencies will not form.

 

R2configifdialer map ip 172.12.21.1 name R1 broadcast 5551111

 

R2configifframe map ip 172.12.123.1 221 broadcast

 

When youre troubleshooting OSPF in a production network or your CCNA / CCNP home lab, dont just look at Layer 3 because everythings got to be right at the physical and data link layers in order for the network layer to function correctly

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccnp-bcsi-exam-tutorial-update-packet-authenticatio-a-3874.html When you earned your CCNA, you thought you learned everything there is to know about RIP. Close, but not quite There are some additional details you need to know to pass the BSCI exam and get one step closer to the CCNP exam, and one of those involves RIP update packet authentication.

 

Youre familiar with some advantages of using RIPv2 over RIPv1, support for VLSM chief among them. But one advantage that youre not introduced to in your CCNA studies is the ability to configure routing update packet authentication.

 

You have two options, clear text and MD5. Clear text is just that a clear text password that is visible by anyone who can pick a packet off the wire. If youre going to go to the trouble of configuring update authentication, you should use MD5. The MD stands for Message Digest, and this is the algorithm that produces the hash value for the password that will be contained in the update packets.

 

Not only must the routers agree on the password, they must agree on the authentication method. If one router sends an MD5hashed password to another router that is configured for cleartext authentication, the update will not be accepted. debug ip rip is a great command for troubleshooting authenticated updates.

 

R1, R2, and R3 are running RIP over a frame relay cloud. Here is how RIP authentication would be configured on these three routers.

 

R1configkey chain RIP

 

R1configkeychainkey 1

 

R1configkeychainkeykeystring CISCO

 

R1configint s0

 

R1configifip rip authentication mode text

 

R1configifip rip authentication keychain RIP

 

R2configkey chain RIP

 

R2configkeychainkey 1

 

R2configkeychainkeykeystring CISCO

 

R2configint s0.123

 

R2configsubifip rip authentication mode text

 

R2configsubifip rip authentication keychain RIP

 

R3configkey chain RIP

 

R3configkeychainkey 1

 

R3configkeychainkeykeystring CISCO

 

R3configint s0.31

 

R3configsubifip rip authentication mode text

 

R3configsubifip rip authentication keychain RIP

 

To use MD5 authentication rather than cleartext, simply replace the word text in the ip rip authentication mode command with md5.

 

Heres what a successfully authentication RIPv2 packet looks like, courtesy of debug ip rip. Cleartext authentication is in effect and the password is cisco.

 

3d04h RIP received packet with text authentication cisco

 

3d04h RIP received v2 update from 150.1.1.3 on Ethernet0

 

3d04h 100.0.0.0/8 via 0.0.0.0 in 1 hops

 

3d04h 150.1.2.0/24 via 0.0.0.0 in 1 hops

 

Heres what it looks like when the remote device is set for MD5 authentication and the local router is set for cleartext. Youll also see this message if the password itself is incorrect.

 

3d04h RIP ignored v2 packet from 150.1.1.3 invalid authentication Debug ip rip may be a simple command as compared to the debugs for other protocols. but its also a very powerful debug. Start using debugs as early as possible in your Cisco studies to learn how router commands really work

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-exam-tutorial-spend-your-study-time-a-3873.html To pass the CCNA exam, youve got to create a study plan. Part of that plan is scheduling your study time, and making that study time count.

 

YYouve scheduled your exam youve created a document to track your study time youve planned exactly when youre going to study. Now the plan must be carried out, without exception.

 

What exceptions do I mean Cell phones. Televisions. IPods. Significant others. The list can go on and on.

 

Its one thing to have a plan, and an important thing now youve got to make sure you carry it out to its fullest potential. Thats easy to say until youre studying and a friend calls, or you remember that TV show you wanted to watch is on tonight, or you start surfing the Web for Cisco information and end up playing a game.

 

You MUST make these small sacrifices in order to achieve your main goal, the CCNA. Any worthwhile accomplishment requires some small sacrifice.

 

TV will be there when youre done studying. Your significant other will be there when youre done studying. And believe it or not, people once existed without cell phones Turn the phone off. Turn your instant messenger service off. Turn your text pager off. Despite what we think, the world can do without communicating with us for 90 minutes. Remember, its better to have 90 minutes of great study than 180 minutes of constantly interrupted study. Studies show that while a single phone call causes an 11minute interruption on average, it takes well over 20 minutes to get back to what you were doing with the proper mental focus. This is true at the office and at your home

 

How To Spend Your Study Time CCNA candidates generally spend their time split between book study, practice exams, and lab time on real Cisco equipment. The best study is done by a combination of these, not by overly relying on one. Lets take a look at each method.

 

Book study Ive never understood why some people usually the trolls we were talking about earlier talk about book study like its a bad thing. You cant learn about technology from books. What a load of manure. You have to learn the theory before you can understand how a router or switch operates. The best way to learn the theory is to read a good book.

 

At the CCNA level, you doubtless know that you have dozens of choices when it comes to books. Some of the betterknown books really do gloss over some important topics, such as binary math and subnetting. Make sure to pick a book or books that go beyond just explaining the theory and that give you a lot of explanation of router configs and realworld examples as well.

 

Practice Exams Practice exams are good in moderation, but dont use them as your main focus of study. Occasionally, Im asked for study tips by candidates who have taken the exam a few times and not passed yet. I ask them what theyre doing to prepare, and they give a list of companies they bought practice exams from. You see a lot of this on Internet forums as well.

 

Dont fall into this trap. Practice exams are fine if used as a readiness check, but some candidates just take them over and over again, which renders them basically useless.

 

On top of that, some of them cost hundreds of dollars. Thats money youd be much better off spending on Cisco equipment to practice on.

 

Again, Im not against practice exams as a supplement to your studies. Just dont make them the main focus of your study. Taking practice exams over and over and hoping the exam will be just like the practice exam is a recipe for disaster. As I tell my students, when youre in front of a rack of routers and switches during a job interview or at 2AM when youve been called in to fix a problem, the correct answer is not D. Youve got to know what to do.

 

And how do you learn these skills Funny you should ask.... Lab Time On Real Cisco Equipment. Again, speaking from experience This is the most important part of getting your CCNA, succeeding on the job, and going on to get your CCNP.

 

Getting handson experience is critical to developing your networking skills, especially your troubleshooting skills. Although simulators are better than they used to be, theyre still not Cisco routers, and they never will be.

 

You do your best learning not only when youre configuring your routers, but when you screw something up.

 

Thats so important, I want to repeat it loudly You do your best learning when you screw something up. Why Because then you have to fix it thats how you develop your troubleshooting skills. You can read about all the debug and show commands in the world, but you dont really understand how they work until youre figuring out why your Frame Relay

 

connection isnt working, or your RIP configuration isnt working.

 

This is true at every level of the Cisco Learning Pyramid. I can show you the show ip protocols output or what you get when you run debug ip rip, and you might remember it for a little while. But when you use it to troubleshoot a lab configuration, you WILL remember it.

 

Putting your own practice lab together will also help get you over what I call simulator question anxiety. If you spend any time on CCNA Internet forums, youll see discussion after discussion about these exam questions. To a certain point, this discussion is justified. The simulator questions carry more weight on your exam than any other question while you can earn partial credit on them, youve got to get them right or you will most likely fail the exam.

 

Theres no reason to be anxious about them if youre prepared. You dont want to be the person who walks into the testing room thats scared to have to create a VLAN or an access list you want to be the person who walks into the testing room confident of their ability to perform any CCNA task. The best way to be that confident is to know youve done it on real Cisco equipment.

 

There are several vendors that sell routers and switches on ebay most of them sell CCNA and CCNP kits that include all the cables and transceivers that youll need as well. And how is a simulator going to help you learn about cables and transceivers Keep in mind that you can always sell the equipment after youre done with the CCNA, or you can add a little equipment to it to go after your CCNP.

 

Whichever of these methods you use and I hope youll use all of them, make sure to keep them in balance with each other. Dont depend too much on just one.

 

On the topic of learning how to troubleshoot as you run labs on your Cisco equipment, youll run into questions or problems that you dont know the answer to yet. Get used to using Google or your favorite search engine to find the answer to these problems but try to figure it our yourself first

 

Theres nothing wrong with asking questions of someone else if youre not able to find the answer yourself. Trying to find the answer yourself is another important troubleshooting skill you need to start developing today. Dont be one of these people who posts a simple question on a forum without trying to find the answer yourself. Besides, you get more satisfaction and build more confidence when you determine the answer yourself.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/ccnp-bcmsn-exam-tutorial-spanning-tree-protocol-timers-a-3872.html In your BCMSN / CCNP exam study, its easy to overlook some of the details of Spanning Tree Protocol STP. After all, you learned all of that in your CCNA studies, right Not necessarily While some of the BCMSN material will be a review for you, there are some details regarding familiar topics that you need to learn. That includes the timers for STP Hello Time, MaxAge, and Forward Delay.

 

You may remember these timers from your CCNA studies as well, and you should also remember that these timers should not be changed lightly. What you might not have known is that if you decide to change any and all of these timers, that change must be configured on the root bridge The root bridge will inform the nonroot switches of the change via BPDUs.

 

Hello Time is the interval between BPDUs, two seconds by default.

 

Forward Delay is the length of both the listening and learning STP stages, with a default value of 15 seconds.

 

Maximum Age, referred to by the switch as MaxAge, is the amount of time a switch will retain a BPDUs contents before discarding it. The default is 20 seconds.

 

The value of these timers can be changed with the spanningtree vlan command shown below. Verify the changes with the show spanningtree command.

 

SW1configspanningtree vlan 1

forwardtime Set the forward delay for the spanning tree

hellotime Set the hello interval for the spanning tree

maxage Set the max age interval for the spanning tree

priority Set the bridge priority for the spanning tree

root Configure switch as root

 

SW1configspanningtree vlan 1 hellotime 5

SW1configspanningtree vlan 1 maxage 30

SW1configspanningtree vlan 1 forwardtime 20

SW1configZ

SW1ahoq

025447 SYS5CONFIGI Configured from console by console

SW1show spanningtree vlan 1

 

VLAN0001

Spanning tree enabled protocol ieee

Root ID Priority 32769

Address 000f.90e1.c240

This bridge is the root

Hello Time 5 sec Max Age 30 sec Forward Delay 20 sec

 

Bridge ID Priority 32769 priority 32768 sysidext 1

Address 000f.90e1.c240

Hello Time 5 sec Max Age 30 sec Forward Delay 20 sec

Aging Time 300

 

Interface Role Sts Cost Prio.Nbr Type

Fa0/11 Desg FWD 19 128.11 P2p

Fa0/12 Desg FWD 19 128.12 P2p

 

Again, you should always take great care in changing these timers. Those defaults are set for a reason helping to prevent switching loops

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-certification-keeping-appointment-with-yourself-a-3871.html Imagine this. You have an appointment with a client to work on a server or router install. A few minutes before youre scheduled to be there, you decide theres something really good on TV youd like to watch. Or you decide to go to the gym, or play a game, or do anything else except go see the client.

 

Even if you werent going to get fired for not showing up, its certainly unfair to the client. Youve got a professional obligation, and you should be there on time.

 

Now, whats this got to do with you becoming a CCNA or CCNP Plenty. Because when it comes to your study time, youre the client. You owe it to yourself to show up. You would never blow off an appointment to meet a client to get some important work done.

 

First, though, you have to make that appointment with yourself Schedule your CCNA / CCNP study time, and keep that appointment as you would with a client. Turn off the TV, your cell, your iPod, and everything else electronic that you carry around Believe it or not, the world can survive with being in contact with you for an hour or so

 

Getting certified isnt about how many hours, days, or weeks you spend studying. Its about how much quality time you put in. Be honest with yourself and realize that youre better off with 45 minutes of uninterrupted study as you would be with three hours of constantly interrupted study.D

 

Dont blow off an appointment to yourself, either. Schedule the time, be there on time, get your study done, and youre one step closer to your CCNA and CCNP

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccnp-certification-bcsi-exam-tutorial-neighbor-conf-a-3870.html Like TCP, BGP is connectionoriented. An underlying connection between two BGP speakers is established before any routing information is exchanged. This connection takes place on TCP port 179 . As with EIGRP and OSPF, keepalive messages are sent out by the BGP speakers in order to keep this relationship alive.

 

Once the connection is established, the BGP speakers exchange routes and synchronize their tables. After this initial exchange, a BGP speaker will only send further updates upon a change in the network topology.

 

The IGP protocols that use Autonomous Systems, IGRP and EIGRP, require prospective neighbors to be in the same AS. This is not true with BGP. Routers

 

can be in different Autonomous Systems and still exchange routes. The BGP neighbors do not have to be directly connected, and often are not, but do need to be able to reach the IP addresses they use in their neighbor statements.

 

A BGP peer that is in the same AS is referred to as an Internal BGP iBGP Peer, where a BGP peer in another AS is an External BGP eBGP Peer.

 

A sample iBGP configuration

 

Router bgp 100

 

Neighbor 10.1.1.2 remoteas 100

 

A sample eBGP configuration

 

Router bgp 100

 

Neighbor 10.1.1.2 remoteas 200

 

Cisco recommends that eBGP peers be directly connected, where iBGP peers generally will not be.

 

Before we get too much farther into BGP theory, lets get a configuration started. Youll use the router bgp command to configure a router as a BGP speaker. Right after that, the neighbor command will be used to identify this BGP speakers potential neighbors. The terms peer and neighbor are interchangeable in BGP, but its the neighbor statement that is used to statically define neighbors. BGP is not capable of discovering neighbors dynamically.

 

R1configrouterneighbor 172.12.123.3 remoteas 200

 

While almost all of the neighbor options are just that optional you do have to specify the BGP AS of the remote router . BGP has no mechanism to dynamically discover neighbors. Remember, BGP speakers do not have to be in the same AS to become peers. To verify that the remote BGP speaker has become a peer, run show ip bgp neighbor.

 

R1show ip bgp neighbor

 

BGP neighbor is 172.12.123.3, remote AS 200, external link

 

BGP version 4, remote router ID 0.0.0.0

 

BGP state Active

 

Last read 000139, hold time is 180, keepalive interval is 60 seconds

 

Received 0 messages, 0 notifications, 0 in queue

 

Sent 0 messages, 0 notifications, 0 in queue

 

Route refresh request received 0, sent 0

 

Default minimum time between advertisement runs is 30 seconds

 

The output here can be a little misleading the first time you read it. The first highlighted line shows 172.12.123.3 is a BGP neighbor, is located in AS 200, and is an external link, indicating that the neighbor is in another AS entirely. The second highlighted line shows the BGP state as Active. This sounds great, but it actually means that a BGP peer connection does not yet exist with the prospective neighbor.

 

So even though the show ip bgp neighbor output indicated that this is an Active neighbor relationship, thats not as good as it sounds. Of course, the reason the peer relationship hasnt been established is that we havent configured R3 yet

 

R3configrouter bgp 200

 

R3configrouterneighbor 172.12.123.1 remoteas 100

 

Verify the peer establishment with show ip bgp neighbor

 

R3show ip bgp neighbor

 

BGP neighbor is 172.12.123.1, remote AS 100, external link

 

BGP version 4, remote router ID 172.12.123.1

 

BGP state Established, up for 000118

 

Last read 000017, hold time is 180, keepalive interval is 60 seconds

 

Neighbor capabilities

 

Route refresh advertised and receivedold & new

 

Address family IPv4 Unicast advertised and received

 

Received 5 messages, 0 notifications, 0 in queue

 

Sent 5 messages, 0 notifications, 0 in queue

 

Route refresh request received 0, sent 0

 

Default minimum time between advertisement runs is 30 seconds

 

Local host 172.12.123.3, Local port 179 BGP uses TCP Port 179

 

Foreign host 172.12.123.1, Foreign port 11007

 

The peer relationship between R1 and R3 has been established.

 

Youll learn as your progress through your CCNP and CCIE studies that BGP has a lot of options for the neighbor command. Well look at these options in the next part of this Cisco CCNP BGP tutorial

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/microsoft-computer-certification-farewell-mcse-a-3869.html Microsoft

is in the middle of a major push to overhaul its certification program. Last year, they announced the new Microsoft Certified Architect

MCA certification, which is not a written exam but rather a practical exam that will be graded by a board of examiners. Just applying for the certification will require 10 years experience in IT as well as three years of practical experience as a network architect.

 

For those of us not quite ready for that, Microsoft has announced that its also going to revise other certifications. The MCSE that weve all come to know and love is going to be a thing of the past. In its place will be a series of specialization exams and IP Professional certification tracks.

 

If youre currently an MCSE or working it, dont worry, you have plenty of time to adapt to the new tracks. Microsofts official word is that the new certification structure will be implemented when the next Windows server/client version is released. For those holding MCDBAs, your current certification will remain valid and youll have a chance to upgrade to the new certification with SQL Server 2005.

 

Those of us who have been on the certification track for a while remember the outcry when Microsoft planned to phase out the muchmaligned NT 4.0 certification in the move to Windows 2000. There was quite an outcry from many certified individuals who felt MS was being unreasonable in their timetable and planned lack of support for the 4.0 certification. Whether you agree with Microsofts planned changes, I urge you to visit Microsofts certification site regularly to keep up with these changes. Whether you choose to pursue any of these new tracks is your decision, but you owe it to yourself and your career to know about the new tracks. Change is inevitable in IT and the IT certification world, and you must be aware of these changes

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-exam-certification-tutorial-physical-layer-a-3868.html To pass your CCNA exam and earn this coveted certification, youve got to master the seven layers of the OSI model and what each layer does. For those of you taking the twoexam path, you can expect quite a few OSI model questions on the Intro exam. In this sevenpart series, well spend some time taking a look at each of the OSI model layers, starting with the Physical layer.

 

Often, CCNA candidates ask if the OSI model has any practical uses for network administrators. I used to wonder the same thing, and I can now tell you that the answer is definitely yes

 

The OSI model isnt something you want to memorize and then forget about, as using the OSI model gives you a structured approach for troubleshooting. Whenever a network device isnt working properly, I always say to start at the physical layer. The Physical layer is Layer One of the OSI model, and this is where troubleshooting should always start. Is the device on Is it properly connected If everything is fine at Layer One, you just move up to Layer Two, and continue in this structured fashion until the problem is identified.

 

The Physical layer is the layer at which bits are transmitted over the physical media. There is no routing or switching going on at this layer. The data has been broken down into more manageable pieces until the data takes the form of ones and zeroes at the Physical layer.

 

Even though theres no routing or switching at the Physical layer, CCNA candidates should be familiar with a couple of network devices that work at Layer One. A repeater is a device that regenerates an electrical signal, allowing the signal to travel longer distances without fading. The process of an electrical signal gradually fading in strength over distance is attenuation. A hub is basically a multiport repeater, and both of these devices are considered Physical layer devices. Ethernet and Token Ring both operate at the Physical layer as well.

 

Learning the OSI models Physical layer isnt just important in your CCNA exam studies, its the first step in any network troubleshooting. After all, your networks end users are going to have a tough time sending print jobs to a printer thats turned off

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-ccnp-training-using-video-boot-camps-earn-your-a-3867.html When youre studying for the CCNA and CCNP exams, youve got a lot of different choices when it comes to training

. One popular choice is choosing one of the many boot camps that are out there. Ive taught quite a few of these, and while many of them are good, they do have drawbacks.

 

Of course, one is cost. Many employers are putting the brakes on paying for CCNA and CCNP boot camps, and most candidates cant afford to pay thousands of dollars for such a class. Then youve got travel costs, meals, and having to possibly burn your own vacation time to take the class. Add in time away from your family and boot camps become impractical for many CCNA / CCNP candidates.

 

Another issue is fatigue. I enjoy teaching weeklong classes, but lets face facts whether youre training for the CCNA or CCNP exams, youre going to get a lot of information thrown at you in just a few days. Youre going to be mentally and physically exhausted at the end of the week, and thats when some boot camps actually have you take the exam Youve got to be refreshed and rested when you take the exam.

 

How can you get the benefit of an experienced instructor without paying thousands of dollars By taking a Video Boot Camp There are some highquality computerbased training CBT courses out there, and these courses offer quite a few advantages for the CCNA and CCNP candidate. These courses run hundreds instead of thousands of dollars, and you can train on your own schedule. It is important for you to make and keep that schedule, but instead of spending thousands of dollars and having to travel, you can get worldclass CCNA and CCNP training

in the comfort of your own home.

 

By combining a highquality CCNA or CCNP CBT or video boot camp with a strong work ethic, youre on your way to passing the exam and accelerating your career. Now get to work

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-ccnp-certification-creating-roadmap-success-a-3866.html Whether youre just starting to think about passing the CCNA or CCNP exams, or youve been on the certification track for a while, youve got to have a plan for success. If you wanted to drive your car from Florida to California, youd create a plan to get there. Youd get a map and decide how far you wanted to drive per day, and maybe even make some hotel reservations in advance. You certainly wouldnt get in your car, just drive it randomly down the nearest highway, and hope you ended up in California, would you

 

Certainly not. Earning your CCNA certification is the same way. Its not enough to just study a few minutes when you feel like it, or tell yourself that youll start studying for the exams when I get suchandsuch done. The perfect time to start on the road to Cisco certification is not tomorrow, and its not next week. Its today.

 

Youre much better off with one hour of solid study than three hours of interrupted, unfocused study. Here are a few ways to go about getting the kind of quality study time that will get you to the CCNA or CCNP or any Cisco certification, for that matter.

 

Schedule your study time, and regard this study time as you would an appointment with a client. If you were to meet a customer at 1000 to discuss a network install, would you just decide not to show up and watch television instead Not if you wanted the job. The same goes for your study time. Thats an appointment with the most important customer of all YOU.

 

Turn your cell, iPod, TV, instant messenger, and all other electronic collars off for the duration of your study time. I know those of us in information technology dont like to say this, but we can actually exist without being in touch with the world for a little while. You may even get to like it Having uninterrupted study time is key to CCNA and CCNP exam success.

 

Finally, schedule your exam before you start studying. Contrary to what many people think, deadline is not a dirty word. We do our best work when we have a deadline and a schedule to keep. Make out your study schedule, schedule your exam, and get to work just as you would a network project for a customer. The project youre working on is your career and your life, and by following these simple steps you can make it a highly successful project by passing your CCNA and CCNP exam

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccnp-certification-bsci-exam-what%20s-floating-static-a-3865.html Passing the BSCI exam and earning your CCNP certification demands that you add greatly to the networking

skills foundation you created when you studied for your CCNA certification. You learned quite a bit about static routing and default static routing when you passed the CCNA test, and it does seem like that should be all you need to know about static routing, right

 

One thing youll learn as you continue to earn Cisco certifications is that theres always something else to learn You may have heard the term floating static route, which does suggest some interesting mental pictures. Floating Floating on what

 

In a way, a floating static route is floating in your routing table. A floating static route is a route that will be used only if routes for the same destination but with a lower administrative distance are removed from the table. For example, you could be using an OSPFdiscovered route as your primary route to a given destination, and the floating static route would serve as a backup route that would be used only if the OSPF route leaves the routing table.

 

Now, how can that happen After all, OSPF has an administrative distance of 110 and static routes have ADs of one or zero, depending on whether its configured with a nexthop IP address or a local exit interface. One way or the other, 1 and 0 are still less than 110

 

When you want to configure a floating static route, you must assign the route an AD higher than that of the primary route. In this case, weve got to create a static route with an AD higher than 110. We do this by using the distance option at the end of the ip route command.

 

R1configip route 110.1.1.0 255.255.255.0 172.12.123.1

 

Distance metric for this route

 

name Specify name of the next hop

 

permanent permanent route

 

tag Set tag for this route

 

R1configip route 110.1.1.0 255.255.255.0 172.12.123.1 111

 

The number entered at the very end of the ip route command is the AD of that route. If there is an OSPF route for 110.1.1.0 /24, that will be the primary route, and the floating static route will not be used unless the OSPF route is taken out of the routing table.

 

Floating static routes arent just a good thing to know for the BSCI exam and your CCNP certification pursuit theyre very practical in the real world as well.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-certification-configuring-troubleshooting-ospf-a-3864.html CCNA certification

demands that you master the basics of OSPF, and for many studying for the CCNA exam, their first exposure to OSPF is a hubandspoke configuration. Thats a tough way to get started, because a hubandspoke configuration built over an NBMA technology such as Frame Relay requires quite a bit of attention to detail. Lets take a quick look at several common OSPF configuration errors and how to avoid them on your CCNA test.

 

Make sure the hub is the designated router and that there are no backup designated routers. This is done by setting the OSPF interface priority to zero on the spoke routers. This not only ensures that the hub wins the DR election with its default OSPF interface priority of 1, but it prevents the spokes from ever having a chance to become the DR or BDR.

 

Configure neighbor statements on the hub. Since were dealing with an NBMA network, the hub cannot dynamically discover its neighbors. Neighbor statements are not needed on the spokes. They dont hurt anything, but they dont do anything, either.

 

Finally, if your OSPF adjacencies do not form as expected, make sure to use your OSI model knowledge to approach the problem. The issue may actually be at Layer Two, with your Frame Relay configuration. If you dont use the broadcast option on your frame relay statements, OSPF hellos will not be transmitted successfully between potential neighbors. OSPF hellos are multicast, but the broadcast option for Frame Relay includes multicasts.

 

By paying special attention to these details, youre that much close to CCNA exam day success and earning your certification. I recommend that you get some experience with configuring OSPF hubandspoke before taking the CCNA exam, because its by actually performing tasks such as this that makes you supremely confident on CCNA test day.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccnp-exam-bsci-tutorial-summarizing-eigrp-route-a-3863.html To pass your BSCI exam and earn your CCNP certification

, youve got to master route summarization. When you get to the BSCI level, actually breaking the routes down into binary strings and performing summarization is second nature to you. If it isnt, get some more practice What makes CCNP / BSCI route summarization more difficult is just keeping the different protocol summarization commands straight

 

RIP and EIGRP both perform route summarization at the interface level with the ip summaryaddress command. In the following example, R2 is running RIP and was sending four routes to R3, R3s table looked like this before summarization

 

R3show ip route rip

 

172.16.0.0/24 is subnetted, 4 subnets

 

R 172.16.8.0 120/1 via 172.23.23.2, 000002, Ethernet0

 

R 172.16.9.0 120/1 via 172.23.23.2, 000002, Ethernet0

 

R 172.16.10.0 120/1 via 172.23.23.2, 000002, Ethernet0

 

R 172.16.11.0 120/1 via 172.23.23.2, 000002, Ethernet0

 

By summarizing the routes and using the ip summaryaddress command, RIP advertises only the summary route to the downstream neighbor.

 

R2configint ethernet0

 

R2configifip summaryaddress rip 172.16.8.0 255.255.252.0

 

R3clear ip route

 

R3show ip route rip

 

172.16.0.0/22 is subnetted, 1 subnets

 

R 172.16.8.0 120/1 via 172.23.23.2, 000124, Ethernet0

 

EIGRP works much the same way, except that the EIGRP AS number must be named in the ip summaryaddress command.

 

In the following example, R2 was advertising four separate routes to R3 via EIGRP 100 100.0.0.0, 101.0.0.0, 102.0.0.0, and 103.0.0.0, all with an eightbit mask. What summary route can be used here

 

The summary is 100.0.0.0 252.0.0.0. To send that route to downstream routers, configure the following on R2

 

R2configinterface ethernet0

 

R2configifip summaryaddress eigrp 100 100.0.0.0 252.0.0.0

 

R3 will then have only one route in its EIGRP table the summary route.

 

R3show ip route eigrp

 

D 100.0.0.0/6 90/2297856 via 172.23.23.2, 000233, Ethernet0

 

By mastering basic binary skills and keeping in mind that RIP and EIGRP perform route summarization at the interface level, youre one step closer to passing your BSCI exam and earning your CCNP certification

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-certification-static-default-static-routes-a-3862.html In studying for your CCNA exam and preparing to earn this valuable certification, you may be tempted to spend little time studying static routing and head right for the more exciting dynamic routing protocols like RIP, EIGRP, and OSPF. This is an understandable mistake, but still a mistake. Static routing is not complicated, but its an important topic on the CCNA exam and a valuable skill for realworld networking.

 

To create static routes on a Cisco router, you use the ip route command followed by the destination network, network mask, and either the nexthop IP address or the local exit interface. Its vital to keep that last part in mind youre either configuring the IP address of the downstream router, or the interface on the local router that will serve as the exit interface.

 

Lets say your local router has a serial0 interface with an IP address of 200.1.1.1/30, and the downstream router that will be the next hop will receive packets on its serial1 interface with an IP address of 200.1.1.2/30. The static route will be for packets destined for the 172.10.1.0 network. Either of the following ip route statements would be correct.

 

R1configip route 172.10.1.0 255.255.255.0 200.1.1.2 nexthop IP address

 

OR

 

R1configip route 172.10.1.0 255.255.255.0 serial0 local exit interface

 

You can also write a static route that matches only one destination. This is a host route, and has 255.255.255.255 for a mask. If the above static routes should only be used to send packets to 172.10.1.1., the following commands would do the job.

 

R1configip route 172.10.1.1 255.255.255.255 200.1.1.2 nexthop IP address

 

OR

 

R1configip route 172.10.1.1 255.255.255.255 serial0 local exit interface

 

Finally, a default static route serves as a gateway of last resort. If there are no matches for a destination in the routing table, the default route will be used. Default routes use all zeroes for both the destination and mask, and again a nexthop IP address or local exit interface can be used.

 

R1configip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 200.1.1.2 nexthop IP address

 

OR

 

R1configip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 serial0 local exit interface

 

IP route statements seem simple enough, but the details regarding the nexthop IP address, the local exit interface, default static routes, and the syntax of the command are vital for success on CCNA exam day and in the real world.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-certification-segmenting-your-network-a-3861.html When youre getting started on your CCNA studies on your way to earning this certification, youre swamped with network device types that youre familiar with, but not quite sure how to use. Lets look at these networking devices and their main purposes.

 

Hubs and repeaters operate at Layer One of the OSI model, and they have one main purpose regenerating the electrical signal that Layer One technologies carry. This regeneration helps to avoid attenuation, the gradual weakening of a signal. Much like a radio signal, the electric signals that travel at Layer One gradually weaken as they travel across the wire. Hubs and repeaters both generate a clean copy of the signal.

 

While hubs and repeaters can be helpful, they do nothing as far as network segmentation is concerned. The first such device we encounter as we move up the OSI model is the switch. Operating at Layer 2, a switch creates multiple collision domains by default each switch port is considered its own little collision domain. If 12 PCs are connected to a Cisco switch

, you have 12 separate collision domains.

 

Switches can be used to segment the network into smaller broadcast domains, but this is not a default behavior. Virtual LAN VLAN configuration segments the network into smaller broadcast domains, since a broadcast sent by a host in one VLAN is heard only by other devices in the same VLAN.

 

Routers operate at Layer 3 of the OSI model and segment a network into multiple broadcast domains by default. Routers do not forward broadcasts as switches do, making the router the only device of the four weve discussed today that create multiple broadcast domains by default.

 

Knowing what each of these devices can and cannot do is essential to passing the CCNA and becoming a great network administrator. Good luck to you in both of these goals

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-bsci-ccnp-tutorial-route-reflectors-a-3860.html When youre studying for your BSCI exam and CCNP certification, you quickly realize that BGP is a whole new world from anything youve previously studies. One topic that sometimes confuses CCNP candidates is when a BGP route reflector needs to be configured.

 

In the following examples, the routers R1, R2, and R3 are all in BGP AS 100. This is not a full mesh, however. There are peer relationships between R1R2 and R1R3, but not between R2 and R3. R3 is advertising network 3.3.3.0/24 via BGP, and the route is seen on R1. R1s iBGP neighbor, R2 does not see the route.

 

R1show ip bgp

 

BGP table version is 2, local router ID is 1.1.1.1

 

Status codes s suppressed, d damped, h history, valid, > best, i internal

 

Origin codes i IGP, e EGP, incomplete

 

Network Next Hop Metric LocPrf Weight Path

 

> i3.3.3.0/24 172.12.123.3 0 100 0 i

 

R2show ip bgp

 

A basic rule of BGP is that a BGP speaker cannot advertise a route to an iBGP neighbor if that route was learned from another iBGP neighbor. Configuring R1 as a route reflector will allow us to circumvent this rule. The entire route reflector process is transparent to the clients, and no configuration is necessary on those clients. Well configure R1 as a route reflector for both R2 and R3.

 

R1configrouter bgp 100

 

R1configrouterneighbor 172.12.123.2 routereflectorclient

 

R1configrouterneighbor

 

3d18h BGP5ADJCHANGE neighbor 172.12.123.2 Down RR client config change

 

R1configrouterneighbor 172.12.123.3 routereflectorclient

 

R1configrouter

 

3d18h BGP5ADJCHANGE neighbor 172.12.123.3 Down RR client config change

 

The BGP adjacencies do come down when this configuration is added, so this isnt something you want to do during a peak traffic time.

 

Once the adjacencies come back up, R2 now has the route to 3.3.3.0/24.

 

R2show ip bgp

 

BGP table version is 2, local router ID is 2.2.2.2

 

Status codes s suppressed, d damped, h history, valid, > best, i internal

 

Origin codes i IGP, e EGP, incomplete

 

Network Next Hop Metric LocPrf Weight Path

 

> i3.3.3.0/24 172.12.123.3 0 100 0 i

 

There are other possible solutions to this iBGP limitation, such as configuring BGP confederations. Those solutions are generally used on larger BGP deployments and with other concerns in mind, though, and configuring route reflectors serves this purpose just as well.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-certification-defining-creating-collision-domain-a-3859.html When youre studying to pass the CCNA exam and earn your certification, youre introduced to a great many terms that are either totally new to you or seem familiar, but youre not quite sure what they are. The term collision domain falls into the latter category for many CCNA candidates.

 

What exactly is colliding in the first place, and why do we care Its the data that is being sent out onto an Ethernet segment that were concerned with here. Ethernet uses Carrier Sense Multiple Access / Collision Detection CSMA/CD to avoid collisions in the first place. CSMA/CD is a set of rules dictating when hosts on an Ethernet segment can and cannot transmit data. Basically, a host that wants to transmit data will listen to the ethernet segment to see if another host is currently transmitting. If no one else is transmitting, the host will go forward with its own transmission.

 

This is an effective way of avoiding a collision, but it is not foolproof. If two hosts follow this procedure at the exact same time, their transmissions will collide on the Ethernet segment and both transmissions will become unusable. The hosts that sent those two transmissions will then send a jam signal out onto the segment, indicating to all other hosts that they should not send data. The two hosts will each start a random timer, and at the end of that time each host will begin the listening process again. The more hosts on a segment, the more likely collisons are.

 

Now that we know what a collision is, and what CSMA/CD is, we need to be able to define a collision domain. A collision domain is any area where a collision can theoretically take place, so only one device can transmit at a time in a collision domain.

 

In another free CCNA certification tutorial, we saw that broadcast domains were defined by routers default and switches if VLANs have been defined. Hubs and repeaters did nothing to define broadcast domains. Well, they dont do anything here, either. Hubs and repeaters do not define collision domains.

 

Switches do, however. A Cisco switch port is actually its own unshared collision domain Therefore, if we have 20 host devices connected to separate switch ports, we have 20 collision domains. All 20 devices can transmit simultaneously with no danger of collisions. Compare this to hubs and repeaters if you have five devices connected to a single hub, you still have one large collision domain, and only one device at a time can transmit.

 

Mastering the definition and creation of collision domains and broadcast domains is an important step toward earning your CCNA and becoming an effective network administrator. Best of luck to you in both these worthwhile pursuits

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccnp-bsci-certification-route-redistribution-a-3858.html In the first part of this free CCNP / BSCI tutorial, we looked at how leaving one simple word out of our route redistribution configuration subnets resulted in an incomplete routing table when redistributing routes from RIP to OSPF. If you missed that part of the tutorial, visit my websites Free Tutorials section. Today, well look at redistributing OSPF routes into RIP and identify another common redistribution error.

 

We are using a threerouter network. R5 is running RIP, R1 is serving as a hub between R5 and R3 and is running RIP and OSPF, and R3 is running OSPF.

 

To begin this lab, well add three loopbacks to R3 and advertise them to R1 via OSPF.

 

R3configint loopback33

R3configifip address 33.3.3.3 255.255.255.255

R3configifint loopback34

R3configifip address 34.3.3.3 255.255.255.255

R3configifint loopback35

R3configifip address 35.3.3.3 255.255.255.255

 

R3configifrouter ospf 1

R3configrouternetwork 33.3.3.3 0.0.0.0 area 1

R3configrouternetwork 34.3.3.3 0.0.0.0 area 1

R3configrouternetwork 35.3.3.3 0.0.0.0 area 1

 

R1 sees all three of these routes in its routing table.

 

R1show ip route ospf

34.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

O IA 34.3.3.3 110/65 via 172.12.123.3, 000055, Serial0

35.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

O IA 35.3.3.3 110/65 via 172.12.123.3, 000045, Serial0

33.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

O IA 33.3.3.3 110/65 via 172.12.123.3, 000055, Serial0

 

Well now redistribute these routes into RIP on R1. Remember the subnets option we talked about in the first part of this tutorial There is no such option when redistributing OSPF routes into RIP, as IOS Help shows us.

 

R1configrouter rip

R1configrouterredistribute ospf 1

match Redistribution of OSPF routes

metric Metric for redistributed routes

routemap Route map reference

vrf VPN Routing/Forwarding Instance

 

R1configrouterredistribute ospf 1

 

The routes have been redistributed into RIP with the redistribute ospf 1 command. The 1 is the OSPF process number. Lets look at R5 and see the results.

 

R5show ip route rip

R5

 

The routes arent there, but we didnt get a warning from the router that we needed to do anything else. What is the problem

 

The problem is that RIP requires a seed metric to be specified when redistributing routes into that protocol. A seed metric is a starter metric that gives the RIP process a metric it can work with. The OSPF metric of cost is incomprehensible to RIP, since RIPs sole metric is hop count. Weve got to give RIP a metric it understands when redistributing routes into that protocol, so lets go back to R1 and do so.

 

R1configrouter rip

R1configrouterno redistribute ospf 1

R1configrouterredistribute ospf 1 metric 2

 

R5 now sees the routes. Note that the metric contained in the brackets is the seed metric.

 

R5show ip route rip

34.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

R 34.3.3.3 120/2 via 100.1.1.1, 000024, Ethernet0

35.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

R 35.3.3.3 120/2 via 100.1.1.1, 000024, Ethernet0

33.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

R 33.3.3.3 120/2 via 100.1.1.1, 000024, Ethernet0

 

If you read the previous tutorial, you may have noticed that we did not specify a seed metric for OSPF. OSPF does not require a seed metric to be set during redistribution. You also noticed that the router did tell us that there might be a problem when we left the subnets option out of RIP>OSPF redistribution, but the router didnt tell us anything about a seed metric when we performed OSPF>RIP redistribution. This is a detail you must know by heart in order to make your route redistribution successful

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-certification-defining-creating-broadcast-domain-a-3857.html When youre studying to pass the CCNA exam and earn your certification, youre introduced to a great many terms that are either totally new to you or seem familiar, but youre not quite sure what they are. The term broadcast domain falls into the latter category for many CCNA candidates.

 

A broadcast domain is simply the group of end hosts that will receive a broadcast sent out by a given host. For example, if there are ten host devices connected to a switch and one of them sends a broadcast, the other nine devices will receive the broadcast. All of those devices are in the same broadcast domain.

 

Of course, we probably dont want every device in a network receiving every single broadcast sent out by any other device in the network This is why we need to know what devices can create multiple, smaller broadcast domains. Doing so allows us to limit the broadcasts travelling around our network and you might be surprised how much traffic on some networks consists of unnecessary broadcasts.

 

Using the OSI model, we find devices such as hubs and repeaters at Layer One. This is the Physical layer, and devices at this layer have no effect on broadcast domains.

 

At Layer Two, weve got switches and bridges. By default, a switch has no effect on broadcast domains CCNA candidates know that a switch will forward a broadcast out every single port on that switch except the one upon which it was received. However, Cisco switches allow the creation of Virutal Local Area Networks, or VLANs, that are logical segments of the network. A broadcast sent by one host in a VLAN will not be forwarded by a switch out every other port on the switch. That broadcast will be forwarded only out ports that are members of the same VLAN as the host device that sent it.

 

The good news is that broadcast traffic will not be forwarded between VLANs. The bad news is that no interVLAN traffic at all is allowed by default You may actually want this in some cases, but generally youre going to want interVLAN traffic. This requires the use of a router or other Layer 3 device such as a Layer 3 Switch. Layer 3 Switches are becoming more popular every day. Basically, its a switch that can also run routing protocols. These switches are not tested on the CCNA exam.

 

That router we just talked about also defines broadcast domains. Routers do not forward broadcasts, so broadcast domains are defined by routers with no additional configuration.

 

Knowing how broadcasts travel across your network, and how they can be controlled, is an important part of being a CCNA and of being a superior network administrator. Best of luck to you in both of these pursuits

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccnp-certification-troubleshooting-route-redistribution-a-3856.html If theres one CCNP / BSCI topic that looks so easy but can lead to a real headache, its route redistribution. Im not even talking about the routing loops and suboptimal routing that can result when route redistribution is done without proper planning Im talking about the basic commands themselves. Leaving out one single command option, or forgetting what else needs to be redistributed when redistributing dynamically discovered routes, can leave you with a routing table that looks complete but does not result in full IP connectivity.

 

In this free CCNP / BSCI tutorial series, well take a look at three common errors in route redistribution configurations, and how to fix them. Well use three routers, R1, R3, and R5. R1 and R5 are in a RIPv2 domain and R1 and R3 are in an OSPF domain. R1 will be performing twoway route redistribution.

 

R5 is advertising its loopback, 5.5.5.5/24, into the RIPv2 domain. R1 sees this route in its RIP routing table

 

R1show ip route rip

5.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

R 5.5.5.0 120/1 via 100.1.1.5, 000001, Ethernet0

 

For R3 to see this route, route redistribution must be configured on R1. Well use the redistribute rip command to do so.

 

R1configrouter ospf 1

R1configrouterredistribute rip

Only classful networks will be redistributed

 

The router immediately gives us a message that only classful networks will be redistributed. What does this mean Lets go to R3 and see if that router is receiving this route.

 

R3show ip route ospf

< no output >

 

When we get no result from a show command, that means theres nothing to show. The only routes that will be successfully redistributed with the current configuration on R1 are classful networks, and 5.5.5.0/24 is a subnet.

 

To further illustrate the point, a classful network has been added to R5. This network is 16.0.0.0 /8, and is now being advertised by RIP. R1 sees this network as classful...

 

R1show ip route rip

R 16.0.0.0/8 120/1 via 100.1.1.5, 000000, Ethernet0

5.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

R 5.5.5.0 120/1 via 100.1.1.5, 000000, Ethernet0

 

... and R3 is receiving the route through redistribution.

 

R3show ip route ospf

O E2 16.0.0.0/8 110/20 via 172.12.123.1, 000008, Serial0.31

 

To redistribute both classful and classless networks, the option subnets must be added to the redistribute command on R1.

 

R1configrouter ospf 1

R1configrouterno redistribute rip

R1configrouterredistribute rip subnets

 

R3 will now see both the classful and classless networks being redistributed into OSPF. 100.1.1.0 is the network connecting R1 and R5.

 

R3show ip route ospf

O E2 16.0.0.0/8 110/20 via 172.12.123.1, 000020, Serial0.31

100.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

O E2 100.1.1.0 110/20 via 172.12.123.1, 000020, Serial0.31

5.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

O E2 5.5.5.0 110/20 via 172.12.123.1, 000020, Serial0.31

 

This is one of the most common errors made during route redistribution, but now you know what to look out for In the next part of this free CCNP / BSCI tutorial, well take a look at another such error.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-ccnp-home-tutorial-starting-over-a-3855.html When youre preparing for success on your CCNA or CCNP certification exams, sooner or later youre going to want to start totally from scratch on your Cisco routers and switches. Its easy enough to type write erase and reload, but there are a few details you have to watch if you want your home lab or rack rental devices to act as though they just came out of the box.

 

The first step is indeed to run the command write erase, and then reload the router. Youre going to be prompted with a question before the reload starts, though, and you have to give the right answer .... or your configuration will still be there when you reload

 

First, you will be prompted to confirm the erase. Press to accept the default answer of confirm.

 

R1write erase

Erasing the nvram filesystem will remove all configuration files Continue confirm

OK

Erase of nvram complete

 

With the startup configuration erased, its time to reload the router. This is where the second prompt comes in

 

R1reload

 

System configuration has been modified. Save yes/no no

 

When a Cisco router prompts you with two answers to a question, youve got to type the answer in or at least the first letter of it. Answer NO to this question and press when prompted to confirm the reload.

 

The router will then start the reload process. Since there is no startup configuration in NVRAM, the router will prompt you to enter setup mode. You should only answer yes if you have a lot of time on your hands, just want to see what setup mode is like, or practice CTRLC to get out it Otherwise, answer NO.

 

System Configuration Dialog

 

Would you like to enter the initial configuration dialog yes/no n

 

Would you like to terminate autoinstall yesy

 

Youll see quite a few messages after this relating to interface states, and finally youre back at the user exec prompt.

 

Router>

 

Now youre working with a router thats just like it was when it came out of the box

 

For switches such as the 2950, the process is much the same, but you should delete the VLAN.DAT file before reloading the router. This file contains VLAN information and is kept in flash, so it will still be present after a reload.

 

switch1write erase

Erasing the nvram filesystem will remove all files Continue confirm

OK

Erase of nvram complete

switch1delete vlan.dat

Delete filename vlan.dat

Delete flashvlan.dat confirm

switch1reload

 

Make sure to hit for the two questions regarding the deletion if you answer y instead, the switch thinks youre trying to erase a file named y

 

After the reload is complete, youll be prompted to enter setup mode. As you did with the router, enter N and begin to configure the router from user exec mode. Theres nothing like working with real equipment to prepare for your CCNA and CCNP success, and theres no better practice than configuring routers and switches from the very beginning

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-ccnp-certification-deciphering-ping-returns-a-3854.html As you study for your CCNA and CCNP exams, particularly if youre getting handson practice in your home lab or rack rental service, youre going to be sending a lot of pings. As a CCNA or CCNP candidate, you know that five exclamation points as a ping return indicates that you have IP connectivity to the remote destination. Five periods ..... indicates that you do not have that connectivity.

 

Its not enough to know that you dont have IP connectivity to the remote device, youve got to know why. Ping is a great first step to network troubleshooting, but the results are quite limited. As a CCNA and CCNP, youve got to know how to diagnose the problem and resolve it. Just looking at the routing table is not enough a highpowered Cisco debug, debug ip packet, can often show you exactly where the problem is.

 

WARNING debug ip packet should not be run on any production router without understanding the effect of this command on your router. This command results in a lot of output and can actually lock up a router.

 

In this case, well run the command on a home lab router that cannot ping 22.2.2.2. The debug will be turned on and another ping sent.

 

R1debug ip packet

IP packet debugging is on

 

R1ping 22.2.2.2

 

Type escape sequence to abort.

Sending 5, 100byte ICMP Echos to 22.2.2.2, timeout is 2 seconds

 

3d23h IP s1.1.1.1 local, d22.2.2.2, len 100, unroutable.

 

R1undebug all

All possible debugging has been turned off

 

Ive edited this output for clarity. The important word is unroutable. This indicates that the packet is not leaving the router because there is no match in the routing table for this destination. Well configure a static default route and send the ping again.

 

R1ping 22.2.2.2

 

Type escape sequence to abort.

Sending 5, 100byte ICMP Echos to 22.2.2.2, timeout is 2 seconds

U.U.U

Success rate is 0 percent 0/5

 

That output may surprise those of you who are used to getting five of the same symbol back whenever you send a ping. We got three Us back along with two periods. Well now run debug ip packet and send the ping again.

 

R1debug ip packet

IP packet debugging is on

R1ping 22.2.2.2

 

Type escape sequence to abort.

Sending 5, 100byte ICMP Echos to 22.2.2.2, timeout is 2 seconds

3d23h IP s172.12.123.1 local, d22.2.2.2 Serial0, len 100, sending

 

R1traceroute 22.2.2.2

 

Type escape sequence to abort.

Tracing the route to 22.2.2.2

 

1 172.12.123.2 36 msec 36 msec 36 msec

2 172.12.123.2 H H

 

R1undebug all

All possible debugging has been turned off

 

Again, Ive edited this output. The key word in this output is sending, meaning that the packets are leaving the router. The ping return of U.U.U is a general indication that the packets are indeed being transmitted, but that a downstream router is having a problem routing the packets. Running traceroute reveals some more interesting return characters In this case, the downstream router did not have a match for the destination in its routing table.

 

Its easy to concentrate on the local router when youre not getting positive ping returns. When troubleshooting this kind of issue, keep in mind the problem could be on an intermediate router and not on the local router. Use debug ip packet to make sure the packets are leaving the local router, and traceroute to determine what downstream router may have the problem. And get used to the fact that pings and traceroutes can give you some unusuallooking returns

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccnp-certification-attribute-nexthop-a-3853.html When youre studying for the BSCI exam on the way to earning your CCNP certification, youve got to master the use of BGP attributes. These attributes allow you to manipulate the path or paths that BGP will use to reach a given destination when multiple paths to that destination exist.

 

In this free BGP tutorial, were going to take a look at the NEXTHOP attribute. You may be thinking hey, how complicated can this attribute be Its not very complicated at all, but this being Cisco, theres got to be at least one unusual detail about it, right

 

The NEXTHOP attribute is simple enough this attribute indicates the nexthop IP address that should be taken to reach a destination. In the following example, R1 is a hub router

 

and R2 and R3 are spokes. All three routers are in BGP AS 100, with R1 having a peer relationship with both R2 and R3. There is no BGP peering between R2 and R3.

 

R3 is advertising the network 33.3.0.0 /24 via BGP, and we see the value of the nexthop attribute on R1 in the output of show ip bgp

 

R1show ip bgp

 

BGP table version is 1, local router ID is 1.1.1.1

 

Status codes s suppressed, d damped, h history, valid, > best, i internal

 

Origin codes i IGP, e EGP, incomplete

 

Network Next Hop Metric LocPrf Weight Path

 

> i33.3.3.0/24 172.12.123.3 0 100 0 i

 

In this example, the nexthop to network 33.3.3.0/24 is 172.12.123.3. Simple enough, right

 

The issue with the nexthop attribute comes in when the route is advertised to BGP peers. If R3 were in a separate AS from R1 and R2, R1 would then advertise the route to R2 with the nexthop attribute set to 172.12.123.3. When a BGP speaker advertises a route to iBGP peers that was originally learned from an eBGP peer, the nexthop value is retained.

 

Here, all three routers are in AS 100. What will the nexthop attribute be set to when R1 advertises the route to its iBGP neighbor R2

 

R2show ip bgp

 

There will be no nexthop attribute for the route on R2, because the route will not appear on R2. By default, a BGP speaker will not advertise a route to iBGP neighbors if the route was first learned from another iBGP neighbor.

 

Luckily for us, there are several ways around this rule. The most common is the use of route reflectors, and well look at RRs in a future free BGP tutorial.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-certification-value-holding-ccna-a-3852.html One question I see often on the Net is Is it worth my time to earn a CCNA / CCNP / CCIE certification My personal answer to that is a resounding yes. The power of Cisco certifications has allowed me to create a tremendous career, and they can do the same for you.

 

There has never been a better time to accelerate your IT career, and earning a technical certification is a great way to do just that. I dont care if youre looking at earning an MCSE, a Cisco certification, Red Hat, or any other vendor you are always better off having a technical certification than not having one. Technical certifications are an excellent way to market yourself and stand out from the crowd. Earning certifications shows a potential employer and your current one that you are willing to go the extra mile.

 

Sadly, when you ask this question on most Internet message boards, youre going to get some very negative people giving you their unbiased opinion. Ask yourself this question Do you want to entrust the direction of your career to someone you dont know, has no accountability for what they say, and has some kind of ax to grind Do you want someone like that to decide whether you should earn a CCNA or CCNP

 

I can speak from experience on this point. When I told a few people that I was going to earn my CCIE, almost 100 of the responses I got were negative. Its too hard, no one can pass that, the CCIE isnt worth the work, etc. Every single one of these statements is false, and again I speak from firsthand experience. The same is true for the CCNA, CCNP, and MCSE. All of these certifications can add value to your career and put more money in your pocket. But you have to make the decision to earn them and to keep your goals away from the trolls.

 

Dont ask anonymous strangers whether its worth the time to get a CCNA, MCSE, or other computer certification. The only person you should ask that question of is yourself. Whether you want to start an IT career or jumpstart your current one, make the decision to move forward in your career and then follow through on that decision.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccnp-bsci-certification-attribute-a-3851.html When youre preparing to pass the BSCI exam and earn your CCNP certification, one of the biggest challenges is learning

BGP. BGP is totally different from any protocol you learned to earn your CCNA certification, and one of the differences is that BGP uses path attributes to favor one path over another when multiple paths to or from a destination exist.

 

Notice I said to or from. In earlier free BGP tutorials, I discussed the BGP attributes weight and local preference. These attributes are used to favor one path to a destination over another. For example, if BGP AS 100 has two paths to a destination in AS 200, these two attributes can be set in AS 100 to favor one path over another. But what if AS 100 wants to inform the routers in AS 200 as to which path it should use to reach a given destination in AS 100

 

Thats where the BGP attribute MultiExit Discriminator, or MED, comes in. The MED value can be set in AS 100 to tell AS 200 which path it should use to reach a given network in AS 100.

 

As with many BGP attributes, the MED can be set with a routemap. What you need to watch is that there is no set med value in route maps. To change the MED of a path, you need to change the metric of that path.

 

Lets say there are two entry paths for AS 200 to use to reach destinations in AS 100. You want AS 200 to use the 100.1.1.0/24 path over the 100.2.2.0/24 path. First, identify the two paths with two separate ACLs.

 

R1configaccesslist 22 permit 100.1.1.0 0.0.0.255

R1configaccesslist 23 permit 100.2.2.0 0.0.0.255

 

Next, write a routemap that assigns a lower metric to the moredesirable path.

 

R1configroutemap PREFERPATH permit 10

R1configroutemapmatch ip address 22

R1configroutemapset metric 100

R1configroutemaproutemap PREFERPATH permit 20

R1configroutemapmatch ip address 23

R1configroutemapset metric 250

 

Finally, apply the routemap to the neighbor or neighbors.

 

R1configroutemaprouter bgp 100

R1configrouterneighbor 22.2.2.2 routemap PREFERPATH out

 

The key points to keep in mind is that while many BGP attributes prefer a higher value, the MED is basically an external metric and a lower metric is preferred, just as with the protocols youve already studied to earn your CCNA

 certification.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccnp-certification-attribute-local-preference-a-3850.html When studying for your BSCI exam for the CCNP, you get your first taste of BGP. One of the major differences between BGP and the other protocols youve studied to date is that BGP uses attributes to describe paths, and to influence the selection of one path over the other.

 

In this free tutorial

 

, were going to take a look at the Local Preference attribute and compare it to the Ciscoproprietary BGP attribute weight.

 

The Local Preference LOCALPREF attribute is used to influence how traffic will flow from one Autonomous System AS to another when multiple paths exist. For example, if AS 100 has two different paths to a destination network in AS 200, the LOCALPREF attribute can be used to influence the path selection.

 

The major difference between the Weight and LOCALPREF attributes is that when the LOCALPREF attribute is changed, that change is reflected throughout the AS. The new LOCALPREF value will be advertised to all other routers in the AS, as compared to the Weight attribute, which is locally significant only. If you change the Weight for a path on one router in an AS, the other routers in the AS will not learn of the change.

 

A routemap can be used to change a local preference value. For example, if you want to change the local preference value to 200 for the path advertisement 10.2.2.0/24 coming in from neighbor 10.1.1.1, there are three steps involved. First, write an ACL matching the remote network you want to change the local preference for.

 

R1configaccesslist 5 permit 10.2.2.0 0.0.0.255

 

Second, write a routemap setting the local preference to 200. This will double the default value of 100, and the path with the highest local preference will be the preferred path.

 

R1configroutemap PREFERPATH permit 10

 

R1configroutemapmatch ip address 5

 

R1configroutemapset localpref 200

 

Finally, apply the routemap to routes that are being received from 10.1.1.1.

 

R1configrouter bgp 100

 

R1configrouternetwork 10.1.1.1 routemap PREFERPATH in

 

R1 will then advertise this new local preference value to all other routers in AS 100 all of its iBGP neighbors.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-certification-error-detection-error-recovery-a-3849.html Passing the CCNA, Intro, and ICND exam is all about knowing and noticing the details. Which makes perfect sense, since becoming a master networking administrator or engineer is also about noticing the details One such details is knowing the difference between error detection and error recovery. While the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, they are not the same thing.

 

Error detection is just that error detection only. Two common error detection methods are found at the Data Link layer of the OSI model, the FCS Frame Check Sequence and CRC Cyclical Redundancy Check. A mathematical equation is run against the data in the frame, and the result is sent along with the data. The equation is run again, but this time by the receiver. If the result is the same, the frame is considered valid if the result is different, the frame is considered corrupt and is discarded.

 

Note that the FCS and CRC do nothing in regards to retransmission. They are strictly error detection schemes.

 

For an example of error recovery, we look to the Transport layer, where TCP runs. TCP performs reliable delivery, and the reason we call it reliable is that TCP uses sequence numbers to detect missing segments. If the sender determines from the sequence numbers that transmitted segments were not received by the remote host, the sender will retransmit the missing segments.

 

The key to keeping the terms straight in your head is to remember that while both error detection and error recovery both detect problems, only error recovery does anything about it. Its also worth reading an exam question twice when you see either term

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccnp-tutorial-weight-attribute-a-3848.html When youre studying for the CCNP certification, especially the BSCI exam, you must gain a solid understanding of BGP. BGP isnt just one of the biggest topics on the BSCI exam, its one of the largest. BGP has a great many details that must be mastered for BSCI success, and those of you with one eye on the CCIE must learn the fundamentals of BGP now in order to build on those fundamentals at a later time.

 

Path attributes are a unique feature of BGP. With interior gateway protocols such as OSPF and EIGRP, administrative distance is used as a tiebreaker when two routes to the same destination had different nexthop IP addresses but the same prefix length. BGP uses path attributes to make this choice.

 

The first attribute considered by BGP is weight. Weight is a Ciscoproprietary BGP attribute, so if youre working in a multivendor environment you should work with another attribute to influence path selection.

 

The weight attribute is significant only to the router on which it is changed. If you set a higher weight for a particular route in order to give it preference a higher weight is preferred over a lower one, that weight is not advertised to other routers.

 

BGP uses categories such as transitive, nontransitive, mandatory, and optional to classify attributes. Since weight is a locally significant Ciscoproprietary attribute, it does not all into any of these categories.

 

The weight can be changed on a single route via a routemap, or it can be set for a different weight for all routes received from a given neighbor. To change the weight for all incoming routes, use the weight option with the neighbor command after forming the BGP peer relationships.

 

R2configrouter bgp 100

R2configrouterneighbor 100.1.1.1 remoteas 10

R2configrouterneighbor 100.1.1.1 weight 200

 

Learning all of the BGP attributes, as well as when to use them, can seem an overwhelming task when you first start studying for your BSCI and CCNP exams. Break this task down into small parts, learn one attribute at a time, and soon youll have the BGP attributes mastered.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-certification-secret-getting-your-ccna-a-3847.html Whether youre working on your CCNA or CCNP, Cisco certification exams are the most demanding computer certification exams in the IT field. Cisco exams are not a test of memorization, theyre a test of your analytical skills. Youll need to look at configurations and console output and analyze them to identify problems and answer detailed questions. To pass these demanding exams, youve got to truly understand how Cisco routers and switches operate and the key to doing so is right in front of you.

 

The debug command.

 

Of course, there is no single debug command. Using IOS Help, you can quickly see that there are hundreds of these debugs, and I want to mention immediately that you should never practice these commands on a production router. This is one major reason you need to get some handson experience with Cisco products in a home lab or rack rental. No software program or simulator is going to give you the debug practice you need.

 

Now, why am I so insistent that you use debugs Because thats how you actually see whats going on behind the command. Youve got to know what effect a given command has when you run it on a router, and to do that youve got to run debugs Its not enough to type a frame relay LMI command, you have to be able to see the LMIs being exchanged with debug frame lmi. You dont want to just type a few network numbers in after enabling RIP, you want to see the routes being advertised along with their metrics with debug ip rip. The list goes on and on.

 

By using debugs as part of your CCNA and CCNP studies, youre going beyond just memorizing commands and thinking you understand everything thats happening when you enter a command or two. You move to a higher level of understanding how routers, switches, and protocols work and that is the true goal of earning your CCNA and CCNP.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-certification-many-different-kinds-switchin-a-3846.html When youre studying for your CCNA exam, whether youre taking the IntroICND path or the singleexam path, youre quickly introduced to the fact that switching occurs at Layer 2 of the OSI model. No problem there, but then other terms involving switching are thrown in, and some of them can be more than a little confusing. What is cell switching What is circuit switching Most confusing of all, how can you have packet switching Packets are found at Layer 3, but switching occurs at Layer 2. How can packets be switched

 

Relax As youll see in this article, the terms arent that hard to keep straight. Packet switching, for example, describes a protocol that divides a message into packets before theyre sent. The packets are then sent individually, and may take different paths to the same destination. Once the packets arrive at the final destination, they are reassembled.

 

Frame switching follows the same process, but at a different layer of the OSI model. When the protocol runs at Layer 2 rather than Layer 3, the process is referred to as frame switching.

 

Cell switching also does much the same thing, but as the name implies, the device in use is a cell switch. Cellswitched packets are fixed in length. ATM is a popular cellswitching technology.

 

The process of circuit switching is just a bit different, in that the process of setting up the circuit itself is part of the process. The channel is set up between two parties, data is transmitted, and the channel is then torn down. The circuitswitching most familiar to CCNA candidates is ISDN.

 

Dont let these terms confuse you. The four different terms are describing much the same process. The main difference is that they are occurring at different levels of the OSI model, and using a different transport method to get the data where it needs to go.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-certification-switches-trunk-a-3845.html Your CCNA studies are going to include quite a bit of information about switches, and for good reason if you dont understand basic switching theory, you cant configure and troubleshoot Cisco switches, either on the CCNA exam or in the real world. That goes double for trunking

 

Trunking is simply enabling two or more switches to communicate and send frames to each other for transmission to remote hosts. There are two major trunking protocols that we need to know the details of for exam success and realworld success, but before we get to the protocols, lets discuss the cables we need.

 

Connecting two Cisco switches requires a crossover cable. As you know, there are eight wires inside an ethernet cable. In a crossover cable, four of the cable cross over from one pin to another. For many newer Cisco switches, all you need to do to create a trunk is connect the switches with a crossover cable. For instance, 2950 switches dynamically trunk once you connect them with the right cable. If you use the wrong cable, youl be there a while

 

There are two different trunking protocols in use on todays Cisco switches, ISL and IEEE 802.1Q, generally referred to as dot1q. There are three main differences between the two. First, ISL is a Ciscoproprietary trunking protocol, where dot1q is the industry standard. Those of you new to Cisco testing should get used to the phrases Ciscoproprietary and industry standard. If youre working in a multivendor environment, ISL may not be a good choice. And even though ISL is Ciscos own trunking protocol, some Cisco switches run only dot1q.

 

ISL also encapsulates the entire frame, increasing the network overhead. Dot1q only places a header on the frame, and in some circumstances, doesnt even do that. That leads to the third major difference, the way the protocols work with the native vlan.

 

The native vlan is simply the default vlan that switch ports are placed into if they are not expressly placed into another vlan. On Cisco switches, the native vlan is vlan 1. This can be changed. If dot1q is running, frames that are going to be sent across the trunk line dont even have a header placed on them the remote switch will assume that any frame that has no header is destined for the native vlan.

 

The problem with ISL is that is doesnt understand what a native vlan is. Every single frame will be encapsulated, regardless of the vlan its destined for.

 

Switching theory is a big part of your CCNA studies, and it can seem overwhelming at first. Just break your studies down into smaller, more manageable parts, and soon youll see the magic letters CCNA behind your name

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccnp-certification-tutorial-attribute-types-a-3844.html You have to master the details on BGP to pass the BSCI exam and to earn your CCNP, but BGP is an entirely new world from the protocols you studied to earn your CCNA. BGP paths contain attributes, while no protocol you studied for the CCNA carried. BGP Attributes are used to choose the best path when multiple loopfree paths exist, as well as give you other specific information about the paths. This additional information includes the autonomous systems that are along the path to a given destination, what the nexthop IP address is, and much more.

 

Before we examine the specific attributes, we need to understand the categories used to differentiate BGP attributes. Some attributes are required, some arent some attributes will be carried between routers, where others will not.

 

The first category is the wellknown mandatory attribute. As youd expect, these attributes are required and will be understood by all BGP speakers. Mandatory attributes include the origiin code, ASPath, and nexthop.

 

Wellknown discretionary attributes dont have to be present, but if they are , all BGP speakers will understand their meaning. BGP attributes that fall into this category are the MED, local preference, and atomic aggregate.

 

Optional transitive attributes may not be fully understood by all BGP speakers, but the attributes are sent between routers as paths are exchanged. The aggregator and community attributes fall into this category.

 

Finally, we have the optional nontransitive attribute. If a BGP speaker does not understand this attribute, the speaker will not forward the attribute. The Originator ID and Cluster ID are optional nontransitive attributes.

 

Theres one important BGP attribute that was left out of this list indeed, if youre working in an allCisco environment, it may be the most important attribute of all. The weight attribute is Ciscoproprietary, so if youre working in a multivendor environment, this attribute is of limited value. However, the weight attribute is the first attribute considered when BGP is deciding between valid, loopfree paths, so its an attribute we have to keep in mind. The weight attribute doesnt really fit in any of the four BGP classes we talked about earlier in the article.

 

If you dont know what these attributes do yet, thats okay. Well examine each of these attributes in more detail in the next part of this free BGP tutorial. Keep studying

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-ccnp-home-reverse-telnet-need-a-3843.html Occasionally, during your CCNA and CCNP studies, youll run into a term that just doesnt quite make sense to you. Okay, more than occasionally One such term is reverse telnet. As a Cisco certification candidate, you know that telnet is simply a protocol that allows you to remotely connect to a networking device such as a router or switch. But what is reverse telnet, and why is it so important to a Cisco CCNA / CCNP home lab setup

 

Where a telnet session is started by a remote user who wants to remotely control a router or switch, a reverse telnet session is started when the host device itself initates the telnet session.

 

In a CCNA / CCNP home lab, reverse telnet is configured and used on the access server. The access server isnt a white box server like most of us are used to an access server is a Cisco router that allows you to connect to multiple routers and switches with one session without having to move a rollover cable from device to device.

 

Your access server will use an octal cable to connect to the other routers and switches in your home lab. The octal cable has one large serial connector that will connect to the access server, and eight rj45 connectors that will connect to your other home lab devices. Your access server then needs an IP Host table in order to perform reverse telnet.

 

An IP Host table is easy to put together and you better know how to write one to pass the CCNA. The IP Host table is used for local name resolution, taking the place of a DNS server. A typical access server IP Host table looks like this

 

ip host FRS 2007 100.1.1.1

ip host R3 2003 100.1.1.1

ip host R1 2001 100.1.1.1

ip host R2 2002 100.1.1.1

ip host R4 2004 100.1.1.1

ip host R5 2005 100.1.1.1

ip host SW1 2006 100.1.1.1

 

interface Loopback0

ip address

 

100.1.1.1 255.255.255.255

no ip directedbroadcast

 

This configuration will allow you to use your access server to connect to five routers, a frame relay switch, and a switch without ever moving a cable. When you type R1 at the console line, for example, youll be connected to R1 via reverse telnet. If you have a smaller lab, an access server is still a real timesaver and an excellent investment. And by getting a static IP address to put on your access server, you can even connect to your home lab from remote locations

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-ccnp-certification-introduction-attributes-a-3842.html BGP is one of the most complex topics youll study when pursuing your CCNP, if not the most complex. I know from personal experience that when I was earning my CCNP, BGP is the topic that gave me the most trouble at first. One thing I keep reminding todays CCNP candidates about, though, is that no Cisco technology is impossible to understand if you just break it down and understand the basics before you start trying to understand the more complex configurations.

 

BGP attributes are one such topic. Youve got wellknown mandatory, wellknown discretionary, transitive, and nontransitive. Then youve got each individual BGP attribute to remember, and the order in which BGP considers attributes, and what attributes even are... and a lot more As with any other Cisco topic, we have to walk before we can run. Lets take a look at what attributes are and what they do in BGP.

 

BGP attributes are much like what metrics are to OSPF, RIP, IGRP, and EIGRP. You wont see them listed in a routing table, but attributes are what BGP considers when choosing the best path to a destination when multiple valid loopfree paths exist.

 

When BGP has to decide between such paths, there is an order in which BGP considers the path attributes. For success on the CCNP exams, you need to know this order. BGP looks at path attributes in this order

 

1. Highest weight Ciscoproprietary BGP value

 

2. Highest local preference LOCALPREF

 

3. Prefer locally originated route.

 

4. Shortest ASPATH is preferred.

 

5. Choose route with lowest origin code. Internal paths are preferred over external paths, and external paths are preferred over paths with an origin of incomplete.

 

6. Lowest multiexit discriminator MED

 

7. External BGP routes preferred over Internal BGP routes.

 

8. If no external route, select path with lowest IGP cost to the nexthop router for iBGP.

 

9. Choose most recent route.

 

10. Choose lowest BGP RID Router ID.

 

If you dont know what these values are, or how theyre configured, dont panic The next several parts of this BGP tutorial will explain it all. So spend some time studying this order, and in part II of this free BGP tutorial, well look at each of these values in detail. Keep studying

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccnp-certifcation-using-updatesource-command-a-3841.html When you start preparing for your CCNP exam, particularly the BSCI exam, youre introduced to Border Gateway

 

Protocol BGP configurations. BGP is unlike any protocol you learned during your CCNA studies, and even the similarities are a little bit different

 

BGP forms neighbor relationships, much like EIGRP and OSPF do. The interesting thing with BGP is that potential neighbors, or peers, do not need to be directly connected and can use their loopback interfaces to form the peer relationships.

 

It may well be to your advantage to use loopbacks to form peer relationships rather than the actual interface facing the potential neighbor. This can be done because BGP uses static neighbor statements rather than any kind of dynamic neighbor discovery process.

 

Consider a router that has two paths to a BGP speaker. The interfaces are numbered like this

 

Router1 Serial0, 172.1.1.1 /24, Serial2, 179.1.1.1 /24, loopback0, 1.1.1.1 /32.

 

Router2 Serial0, 172.1.1.2/24, Serial2 179.1.1.2/24, loopback0, 2.2.2.2 /32.

 

We could configure Router1 like this

 

router bgp 200

 

neighbor 172.1.1.2 remoteas 200

 

In this case, BGP would automatically use 172.1.1.1 as the source for the TCP connection that has to be set up with the neighbor before updates can be exchanged this address is known as the best local address. However, if the remote peers serial0 interface is shut down or goes down for another reason, the peer relationship would be lost even though Router2 is still available.

 

Instead of using one of the physical interfaces, we can use the loopbacks on each router to establish the TCPbased peer connection. The configurations would look like this

 

Router1

 

router bgp 200

 

neighbor 2.2.2.2 remoteas 200

 

neighbor 2.2.2.2 updatesource loopback0

 

Router2

 

router bgp 200

 

neighbor 1.1.1.1 remoteas 200

 

neighbor 1.1.1.1 updatesource loopback0

 

In this case, losing one of the physical connections does not necessarily mean the BGP peering is lost as long as the routers have a valid path to each others loopback addresses, the BGP peer relationship will stay in place. And better yet, we avoid the dreaded single point of failure

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-certification-broadcasts-unicasts-multicasts-a-3840.html When you begin your CCNA

studies, you get hit with a lot of different networking terms right away that you might not be familiar with. What makes it a little more confusing is that a lot of these terms sound a lot alike. Here, were going to discuss the differences between broadcasts, multicasts, and unicasts at both the Data Link Layer 2 and Network Layer 3 layers of the OSI model.

 

A broadcast is simply a unit of information that every other device on the segment will receive. A broadcast is indicated by having every bit of the address set to its highest possible value. Since a hexadecimal bits highest value is f, a hexadecimal broadcast is ffffffffffff or FFFFFFFFFFFF, as the upper case does not affect hex value. The CCNA exam will demand you be very familiar with hex conversions, so if youre not comfortable with these conversions, get comfortable with them before taking the exam

 

At layer 3, a broadcast is indicated by setting every bit in the 32bit binary string to 1, making the dotted decimal value 255.255.255.255. Every host on a segment will receive such a broadcast. Keep in mind that switches will forward a broadcast, but routers do not. In contrast to a broadcast, a unicast is a packet or frame with only one destination.

 

There is a middle ground between broadcasts and unicasts, and that is a multicast. Where a broadcast will be received by all, and a unicast is received by only one host, a multicast will be received by multiple hosts, all belonging to a multicast group. As you climb the Cisco certification pyramid, youll be introduced to creating multicast groups and controlling multicast traffic, but for your CCNA studies you need only keep certain multicast groups in mind.

 

Class D addresses are reserved for multicasting this range is 224.0.0.0 239.255.255.255. The addresses 224.0.0.0 224.255.255.255 are reserved for use by network protocols on a local network segment, and like broadcasts, routers will not forward these multicast packets. Packets with these addresses are sent with a Time To Live of 1.

 

As a CCNA candidate, you should know that OSPF routers use the address 224.0.0.5 to send hellos, EIGRP routers use 224.0.0.10 to send updates, and RIP version 2 uses 224.0.0.9 to send routing updates. RIP version 1 and IGRP both broadcast their updates.

 

Multicasting gets a bit more complicated as you go from your CCNA to the CCNP and CCIE, but by simply understanding what multicasting is, you go a long way toward securing the CCNA.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-ccnp-home-labs-secret-mastering-troubleshoo-a-3839.html CCNA / CCNP candidates are going to be drilled by Cisco when it comes to troubleshooting questions. Youre going to have to be able to analyze configurations to see what the problem is and if there is a problem in the first place, determine the meaning of different debug outputs, and show the ability not just to configure a router or switch, but troubleshoot one.

 

Thats just as it should be, because CCNAs and CCNPs will find themselves doing a lot of troubleshooting in their careers. Troubleshooting isnt something that can just be learned from a book youve got to have some experience working with routers and switches. The only real way to learn how to troubleshoot is to develop that ability while working on live equipment.

 

Of course, your company or client is going to take a very dim view of you developing this skill on their live network. So what can you do

 

Assemble a Cisco home lab. When you start working with real Cisco equipment, youre doing yourself a lot of favors. First, youre going to be amazed at how well you retain information that will become second nature to you before exam day. But more importantly, both for the exam room and your career, youre developing invaluable troubleshooting skills.

 

Dont get me wrong, Im not saying knowing the theory of how routers and switches work is unimportant. Quite the opposite if you dont know networking theory, youre not going to become a CCNA or CCNP. But the ability to apply that knowledge is vital and the only way you can get that is to work on real Cisco routers and switches. As for these router simulators on the market today, ask yourself this simple question When I walk into a server room, how many router simulators do I see

 

I often tell students that theyll do their best learning when they screw something up. Ive had many a student tell me later that I was right when they misconfigured frame relay, ISDN, or another CCNA / CCNP technology and then had to fix it themselves, it not only gave them the opportunity to apply their knowledge, but it gave them the confidence to know they could do it.

 

And you cant put a price on confidence in the exam room or in the network center

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-ccnp-free-tutorial-home-assembly-case-study-a-3838.html Part of your CCNA / CCNP education is deciding what network topology to use when youre putting together your home lab. Some of you are starting with one or two routers or switches, while others are starting with more. A customer recently sent me a list of his Cisco routers and switches that he has available for a home lab and asked for my help in coming up with the best way to use them.

 

There is no right or wrong answer to this question again, part of the learning process is configuring and reconfiguring the physical topology of your lab. Lets look at the routers and switches he has available, including the interfaces on each, and come up with one possible CCNA / CCNP home lab setup.

 

The equipment list

 

Two 3620 routers. Each has 1 serial port and 2 ethernet ports.

 

One 3640 router. This has two ethernet cards, each with two ports, and two AUI ports.

 

Three 2503s, my personal favorite for home labs These have 1 AUI port, 2 serial interfaces, and one BRI interface apiece.

 

One 2524 router. This has one serial port, 1 ethernet port, and one BRI interface.

 

One 4500 router. This has eight BRI ports, 2 ethernet ports, and more importantly, four serial ports.

 

He also has a 5200 access server, an ISDN simulator, one 2924 switch, and one 1924 switch.

 

Now, if you dont have this much equipment to work with, dont panic Most CCNA / CCNP candidates dont this is more of an exercise in looking at what you do have and using it to the utmost.

 

As Ive mentioned in many of my CCNA / CCNP home lab articles, an access server is a great thing to have. All he needs is an octal cable to connect his AS to the other devices we choose to use, and hes all set. If you need an access server sample configuration, there is one on my website in the Home Lab section.

 

A frame relay switch is also great to have, and the 4500 will make a great FR switch. Having a frame relay cloud in your CCNA / CCNP home lab is a great way to get experience configuring and troubleshooting frame relay, an essential skill for CCNA success.

 

I would put both of the 3620s on the frame relay cloud via the Serial interface, as well as two of the 2503s. That gives you four routers that will be using frame relay to communicate, and thats the most we can have since the 4500 has four serial ports. The 4500 will need to be configured as a frame relay switch and connected to the other routers via a DTE/DCE cable. Again, if you need a frame relay switch configuration, the one I use in my pods is on the website in the same place as the access server configuration.

 

The two 2503s that are on the frame relay cloud should also be connected via their BRI interfaces. The home lab also includes an ISDN simulator, which is necessary to allow routers to communicate via their BRI interfaces. Just get a couple of straightthrough cables to connect those two routers to the ISDN simulator and that segment is ready to go. Remember that you cant connect Cisco routers directly via their BRI interfaces.

 

All of the routers in this lab have at least one ethernet or AUI port, so we can connect them all to either one of the switches. The switches should be connected via at least two crossover cables to allow practice with trunking, root bridge election, and VLANs. Having two switches really does add quite a bit to a CCNA / CCNP home labs capabilities. You can experiment with different subnets and vlans with as well. Dont be afraid to dive in thats what a home lab is all about

 

So now weve got four routers connected via frame relay, two via ISDN, and the others via ethernet segments. Two of the routers that are not using their serial interfaces should be connected directly via their serial ports. For this, youll just need another DTE/DCE cable. Knowing how to bring up the line between two directly connected serial ports is an important CCNA skill, and so is troubleshooting it. You should be able to bring such a connection up with your eyes closed, and once you work with your own CCNA / CCNP home lab, youll be able to

 

Also, dont forget to add a loopback interface to each one of your routers. I like to use 1.1.1.1 for R1, 2.2.2.2 for R2, and so on. Advertising loopbacks is another great way to get practice with RIP, OSPF, EIGRP, IGRP, and static routing.

 

Weve taken a pile of routers and switches and turned them into a fantastic CCNA / CCNP home lab. Whether youre working with two Cisco devices or ten, coming up with your own home lab topology is a great learning experience and the beginning of developing your analytical and troubleshooting skills.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/tips-buying-cisco-ccna-ccnp-home-a-3837.html Buying a CCNA / CCNP home lab is the best way to be totally prepared for your Cisco exams. Most home labs are put together one router or switch at a time, but many CCNA / CCNP candidates prefer to buy kits where you get multiple routers and switches, along with all the cables and other connection devices youll need.

 

While this is a good idea, keep a few things in mind when purchasing Cisco home lab kits.

 

Dont buy anything you dont need. The problem is that when youre first starting out with your Cisco home lab, you dont know everything that you need. I sure didnt Keep in mind that you only need one transceiver per AUI port on a Cisco router, so if youre getting routers with two AUI ports in all, you dont need five transceivers in the kit. It doesnt hurt to have one spare, but three is a little too much.

 

More importantly, dont buy kits with old CCNA or CCNP study guides included. Ive seen kits with books that were three years old and were of no use to the candidate. If you see a kit that looks good but includes books or manuals you just dont want, ask the vendor for a price that doesnt include the books. It never hurts to ask.

 

Watch the IOS version. Unless youve got access to IOS upgrades, youll be working with the IOS version thats on the routers and switches when you buy the kit for a while. You dont necessarily need the latest and greatest IOS version for CCNA study, but dont buy routers with IOS versions beginning with 10 unless you have an IOS to upgrade them with. And make sure the routers have enough memory to handle the IOS you plan on putting on them.

 

Purchasing a Cisco CCNA / CCNP Home Lab is one of the best investments in your career that you will ever make. Exercise just a bit of caution when purchasing your kit, and youll be on your way to true Cisco success, in the exam room and on your network

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/ccna-ccnp-home-tutorial-assembling-cisco-home-a-3836.html A CCNA or CCNP candidate who wants to be totally prepared for their exams is going to put together a home lab to practice on. With used Cisco routers and switches more affordable and plentiful then ever before, theres really no excuse to not have one

 

With the many different models available, there is some understandable confusion among future CCNAs and CCNPs about which routers to buy and which ones to avoid. You can take almost any set of Cisco routers and put together a home lab part of the learning process is taking what equipment you have available and putting together your own lab For those of you preparing to start your home lab or add to your existing one, this article will list the routers I use in my Cisco pods. You certainly dont have to have all this equipment, but this will give you some good ideas on how to get started.

 

The most versatile router you can get for your CCNA / CCNP home lab is a 2520. These routers come with four serial ports, one ethernet port, and one BRI interface for ISDN practice. This mix of interfaces means you can actually use it as a frame relay switch while using the ethernet and BRI ports for routing. There is no problem with using a lab router as both your frame relay switch and a practice router for a frame relay switch sample configuration, visit my website

 

My pods consist of five routers and two switches, and three of the five routers are 2520s, due to their versatility. A recent ebay search showed these routers selling for 99 125, an outstanding value for the practice youre going to get.

 

I also use 2501s in my home labs. These have fewer interfaces, but the combination of two serial interfaces and one ethernet interface allows you to get plenty of practice.

 

A combination that works very well is using three 2520s one as my dedicated frame relay switch, one as R1, and another as R2. Add a 2501 as R3, and you can have a frame cloud connecting R1, R2, and R3, a direct serial connection

 

between R1 and R3, an Ethernet segment that includes all three routers, and an ISDN connection between R1 and R2 if you have an ISDN simulator. That combination will allow you to get a tremendous amount of practice for the exams, and you can always sell it when youre done

 

2501s are very affordable, with many in the 50 range on ebay. Its quite possible to get three 2520s and one 2501 for less than 500 total, and you can get most of that money back if you choose to sell it when youre done.

 

With four routers to work with, youre probably going to get tired of moving that console cable around. An access server actually a Cisco router, not the white boxes we tend to think of when we hear server will help you out with that. An access server allows you to set up a connection with each of your other routers via an octal cable, which prevents you from moving that console cable around continually. For an example of an access server configuration, just visit my website and look in the Free Training section.

 

Access server prices vary quite a bit dont panic if you do an ebay search and see them costing thousands of dollars. You do NOT need an expensive access server for your CCNA / CCNP home lab. 2511s are great routers to get for your access server.

 

One question I get often from CCNA / CCNP candidates is What routers should I buy that I can still use when Im ready to study for the CCNP The CCIE lab changes regularly and sometimes drastically when it comes to the equipment youll need. During my CCIE lab studies, I found that renting time from online rack rental providers was actually the best way to go. Dont hesitate when putting your CCNA / CCNP home lab together, wondering what will be acceptable for the CCIE lab a year or so from now. None of us know whats going to be on that equipment list, so get the CCNA and CCNP first by building your own Cisco home lab

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-certification-where-after-your-ccna-a-3835.html Once youve got your CCNA, youre ready to move on to the next level, the Professional certifications. For years, Cisco had one Professional certification, the Cisco Certified Network Professional CCNP certification. Over time, Cisco has expanded this level of certifications to include the Cisco Certified Security Professional CCSP and Cisco Certified Voice Professional CCVP.

 

With security and voice being the two most rapidly expanding areas of todays networks, some new CCNAs consider going after the CCSP or CCVP without first adding the CCNP to their resume.

 

While its temping to hurry up and get a Cisco security or voice certification, the best thing you can do for your networking career is achieve your CCNP certification first, then decide on the CCVP or CCSP.

 

Why Because the CCNA is just the tip of a very large iceberg when it comes to routing and switching. Its a very important accomplishment, and the CCNA is indeed the foundation of your networking career, but you need to add on to that level of understanding routing and switching before moving on to more specialized areas.

 

Two examples are OSPF and BGP. You learn about the theory of OSPF and some basic and intermediate configurations of that protocol in your CCNA studies, but the knowledge you acquire of OSPF in your CCNP studies is invaluable. As for BGP, there is no BGP in the CCNA curriculum, but it is a great idea to have some BGP knowledge in todays networks. Its also good for your career.

 

I know it is a huge temptation to go after the security and voice certifications while not paying attention to the CCNP. Do yourself a huge favor and add the tremendous amount of routing and switching knowledge needed for the CCNP to your knowledgebase, and you can then move on to the CCSP or CCVP. Even better, youll be better prepared to climb the biggest certification mountain around the CCIE.

]]> http://www.buyfastsoftware.com/cisco-ccna-ccnp-certification-ospf-routes-routes-a-3834.html OSPF is a major topic on both the CCNA and CCNP exams, and its also the topic that requires the most attention to detail. Where dynamic routing protocols such as RIP and IGRP have only one router type, a look at a Cisco routing table shows several different OSPF route types.

 

R1show ip route

Codes C connected, S static, I IGRP, R RIP, M mobile, B BGP

D EIGRP, EX EIGRP external, O OSPF, IA OSPF inter area

N1 OSPF NSSA external type 1, N2 OSPF NSSA external type 2

E1 OSPF external type 1, E2 OSPF external type 2, E EGP

 

In this tutorial, well take a look at the difference between two of these route types, E1 and E2.

 

Route redistribution is the process of taking routes learned via one routing protocol and injecting those routes into another routing domain. Static and connected routes can also be redistributed. When a router running OSPF takes routes learned by another routing protocol and makes them available to the other OSPFenabled routers its communicating with, that router becomes an Autonomous System Border Router ASBR.

 

Lets work with an example where R1 is running both OSPF and RIP. R4 is in the same OSPF domain as R1, and we want R4 to learn the routes that R1 is learning via RIP. This means we have to perform route redistribution on the ASBR. The routes that are being redistributed from RIP into OSPF will appear as E2 routes on R4

 

R4show ip route ospf

 

O E2 5.1.1.1 110/20 via 172.34.34.3, 003321, Ethernet0

 

6.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

 

O E2 6.1.1.1 110/20 via 172.34.34.3, 003321, Ethernet0

 

172.12.0.0/16 is variably subnetted, 2 subnets, 2 masks

 

O E2 172.12.21.0/30 110/20 via 172.34.34.3, 003332, Ethernet0

 

O E2 7.1.1.1 110/20 via 172.34.34.3, 003321, Ethernet0

 

15.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

 

O E2 15.1.1.0 110/20 via 172.34.34.3, 003332, Ethernet0

 

E2 is the default route type for routes learned via redistribution. The key with E2 routes is that the cost of these routes reflects only the cost of the path from the ASBR to the final destination the cost of the path from R4 to R1 is not reflected in this cost. Remember that OSPFs metric for a path is referred to as cost.

 

In this example, we want the cost of the routes to reflect the entire path, not just the path between the ASBR and the destination network. To do so, the routes must be redistributed into OSPF as E1 routes on the ASBR, as shown here.

 

R1conf t

Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.

R1configrouter ospf 1

R1configrouterredistribute rip subnets metrictype 1

 

Now on R4, the routes appear as E1 routes and have a larger metric, since the entire path cost is now reflected in the routing table.

 

O E1 5.1.1.1 110/94 via 172.34.34.3, 003321, Ethernet0

 

6.0.0.0/32 is subnetted, 1 subnets

 

O E1 6.1.1.1 110/100 via 172.34.34.3, 003321, Ethernet0

 

172.12.0.0/16 is variably subnetted, 2 subnets, 2 masks

 

O E1 172.12.21.0/30 110/94 via 172.34.34.3, 003332, Ethernet0

 

O E1 7.1.1.1 110/94 via 172.34.34.3, 003321, Ethernet0

 

15.0.0.0/24 is subnetted, 1 subnets

 

O E1 15.1.1.0 110/94 via 172.34.34.3, 003332, Ethernet0

 

Knowing the difference between E1 and E2 routes is vital for CCNP exam success, as well as fully understanding a production routers routing table.

]]>

Title name