SmarterGeek : Rex Moncrief's Computer Repair and Technology:

6 months of Google Voice

By rex on March 19, 2010

As I blogged previously, I setup a Google Voice account and have integrated it into my telephone support. You can call 318-995-GEEK (4335), and it will directly ring my cell phone. I setup my iPhone voicemail to automatically route to gVoice too.

There are several advantages. First, let me say that the visual voicemail on the iPhone is cool, but gVoice takes that concept to a whole new level. I have a copy of EVERY voicemail that I have received since setting it up. That makes a tremendous difference in my business since I go through a lot of calls each day. As most of you know, I am a one-man show. There is no secretary.

As with most businesses customer communication is a key component. I can sign in to my Google Voice account from any internet-connected computer and review all of them. I can download them as mp3 files, embed them in my website, or forward them on to others. Of course, my main purpose is to store them for customer history information.

The voice transcription is not that great. So far, it is more entertaining than useful, but Google is working on improving it. I have full faith that they will get it right.

Overall, I am very pleased with its performance and features. For free – you can’t beat it.

What is Google Voice?

It is NOT a phone service per se. You need an existing phone or you can just use it for voicemail. When someone calls your Google Voice number, it will ring your existing phone or phones. You answer one of them and take the call or route it to voicemail.

Google Voice Explained – from Google.

Posted in google, Technology, voip | Tagged google voice, gvoice | Leave a response

Tech Question and Answer from Email

By rex on March 19, 2010

From email 3-19-2010. This is a great question and answer for everyone to read.

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I just got that 100′ CAT6 10/100/1000 cable tonight.
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You know that Cat5e supports gigabit right? That might have saved you a little money.

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Did you know Media Center doesn’t come on anything before Vista? That sucks.
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Wrong. XP Media Center Edition has been around since shortly after XP was released. I have a copy of it for Dell.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP_editions#Media_Center_Edition

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I want to get a wireless N router but have seen where g devices connected to an N router are no better than a G router. This prompts me to look at “True Dual Band” routers.
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We discussed that when we discussed 100/1000 on ethernet. You don’t have to get a “true dual band” – that is marketing bullshit. All N access points will fall back to G or B on devices that don’t support N. That is part of the N spec.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11n#Backward_compatibility

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keep coming back to this Linksys WRT610N. It is simultaneous, has a USB port for a network USB drive where I could store all my music, audiobooks, and the rest of that crap.
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Of course I’m a fan of Linksys stuff. That model has some good/bad reviews. I’m going to say you will probably be fine with it.

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Need faster down and upload speeds if I am going to be streaming TV on my TV through Media Extender and Xbox
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While I hate DSL and love cable, if you are streaming from your Media Extender directly to your TV, then you ‘net connection doesn’t matter. That would fall under the internal network bandwidth – and thus gigabit and wireless n would help.

However, if you are going to be streaming from Hulu.com or wherever to your TV, then having more ‘net bandwidth is definitely a plus.

By the way, I have 20Mbs down and 2Mbs up now.

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I was also thinking about checking out one of those TV tuners for your computer… what do you think of those?
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I think they work great, especially for displaying ‘net content on your TV or ripping your DVD’s to your pc and playing them directly from a media box.

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My Dell Inspiron 1525 (that you have the twin), can we upgrade the internal network card to an N+ card instead of a G, or would I do better with a adapter hanging on the side of the machine?
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Nope – you have to add a USB card, PCMCIA, or ExpressCard type.

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the hard drive for the laptop, its 250Gigs, can we make that much bigger and still keep the outside shell of the laptop?
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Yep – the hard drive form factor is the same for a larger capacity. I’ve got a 500GB in my dell right now.

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=380&name=Laptop-Hard-Drives

Posted in email, network, Technology | Tagged cat6, media center, wireless n | Leave a response

iPhone Screen Protectors – do no good

By rex on March 17, 2010

My friends think I’m crazy for not putting on one of those worthless plastic screen protectors on my iPhone. The reason I don’t is simple: the iPhone screen is glass while the protector is thin plastic. Which one is harder?

I learned a long time ago from sunglasses when fishing – glass lenses are always superior and less likely to scratch than polycarbonate ones (plastics). Sure – the glass is heavier, but I look for durability first. That’s why my favorites were always Hobie – they were glass.

My iPhone philosophy is the same. If something is hard enough to scratch the glass, then the flimsy plastic screen protector isn’t going to protect anything. Oh yea, and you just can’t get the air bubbles from dust particles completely out when you put them on – and that looks crappy anyway.

Want proof? My iphone has been hunting, ATV riding, crawled though attics, and dropped (once). Not a scratch on it.

Seems like Apple agrees with me to – read here.

Posted in iphone | Leave a response

Testing from Robert Baillio’s

By rex on March 2, 2010

This is a test post to show Robert. Here’s a picture. Notice I right-aligned it and downsized the pixel dimensions.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a response

About Encrypting your Data – Again

By rex on March 2, 2010

Originally published: 01-08-2009
Re-tweeted 03-02-2010

While scanning through some email newsletters, I came across this article . It looks like data security is still an afterthought to many organizations. I cannot stress enough that it is very important to secure your important data.

Video Tutorial: Encrypting your Laptop

Even home users have Quicken, Money, or Quickbooks files. I have several clients that store a list of their passwords or other important information in Word documents on their computers. That’s fine – I keep my entire business stored on my primary laptop. The difference is that my entire hard drive is encrypted. If someone steals my laptop, that will not be able to access my data.

As I’ve said before, the irony is that the software to do all of this is free and open source. It is easy to use and once you encrypt the drive, your computer acts normally. The only time you notice anything is when you restart the computer. You must enter the password at reboot or the operating system simply won’t start.

One other point that I’m going to state again – Windows and Microsoft and Security don’t go in the same sentence. Just because you have a Windows login password doesn’t mean anything. That is trivial to bypass.

Also remember the following:

Rule #1: You are only as good as your last successful backup – from which you can recover.
www.truecrypt.com – open source and free

Posted in backup, encryption, rule #1 | Leave a response

Click of Death

By rex on February 27, 2010

I get on my soapbox about data backups quite often. Anyone who has met me knows that I ask over and over if you have a backup for your computer data. I’ve blogged about it quite frequently as well with specific instructions on what to do. Still, I constantly encounter people who don’t take it seriously.

Hard drives can and will fail. It’s not a matter of “if” – its just a matter of when.

I’m attaching the audio from a failed hard drive – this is the “click of death” which means a physical failure of the drive. Could it be fixed? Possibly – but it depends on how important the data is and how much money you want to invest in attempting to recover it.

The moral of this article: You are only as good as your last successful backup – from which you can recover.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Posted in backup, rule #1 | Leave a response

Google Mobile Sync – Just works

By rex on February 27, 2010

As most of you know, I’m a big fan of Google Apps. When Google Mobile Sync was launched, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me to switch to the iPhone. Having the ability to seamlessly synchronize my contacts, calendar, and email is a huge plus to my efficiency.

Now, arguably I run around like a chicken with my head cut off much of the time. If it weren’t for the Google Mobile Sync and my iPhone, it would be much worse. Of course, you don’t have to have an iPhone – the sync works with several different smart phones.

One other added benefit now is that you can sync multiple calendars. For instance, my business schedule calendar is shared online to Genia via her email address through Google Apps for your Domain. That means she can check my schedule against things she might want to plan for the family. In reverse, her calendar is shared to me so I can check for school meetings, birthday events, etc. It works out great.

Posted in google, google apps, iphone, mobile | Leave a response

Skype Encryption and Government Snooping

By rex on February 27, 2010

This article is a little out-dated since it was sitting as a “draft” in my blog. I just forgot to publish it.

Here is the deal – I’m not a tin-foil hat guy, but I’m also a conservative and definitely was as little government intrusion as possible. This is a prime example. Can anyone explain to me why the federal government needs a reason to eavesdrop on Skype conversations?

You can use the straw man argument that “the government needs to be able to listen in to criminals to apprehend them”, but that also restricts the freedoms of the law abiding citizens. No – the government doesn’t need a backdoor.

NSA offering ‘billions’ for Skype eavesdrop solution
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/12/nsa_offers_billions_for_skype_pwnage/

Source code for Skype eavesdropping trojan in the wild
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=4133&tag=nl.e589

Posted in encryption, security, skype | Tagged encryption, skype | Leave a response

Me and EQ – 2200 days of MySEQ

By rex on February 26, 2010

A long time ago in a galaxy far away…I was addicted to EverQuest (aka EQ or EverCrack). I’m not kidding. I played EQ at least 30 hours a week starting around mid 1999 (on dialup) and continuing until 2005. Genia played. The best man at our first wedding was my best friend in EQ. Scott and his wife drove down to Hot Springs to meet us for our wedding.

Now here is the cool thing. A lot of people play MMORPG games just to play, but for me EQ was different. It actually inspired me. I can honestly trace the vast majority of my web coding skills and graphics abilities back to the days when my guild needed a website. Ok – I learned to code. We needed a way to show off our characters outside the game. Ok – I learned Fireworks and Adobe Photoshop. We need a way to communicate in the game. Ok – I learned about early VOIP programs such as Ventrilo, and that spawned a further interest in routers, port forwarding, and much much more including Flash and video technologies.

At some point, I became interested in a program called ShowEQ or SEQ for short. It allowed you to have an in-game radar. Some of the developers spun-off and needed a home for development. I volunteered the web hosting and site, and Scott and I launched the MySEQ forums February 4, 2004. It grew to 4000 members within 24 hours. That’s nothing these days, but then it was awesome for a bunch of EQ’ers who were running an outlaw program at the risk of Sony banning us.

Of course, I haven’t played EQ in a long time. I just honestly don’t have the time with my business and family. However, I do owe a lot to my days in EverQuest. They were inspirational to say the least.

Posted in everquest, Technology | Tagged eq, everquest, myseq | Leave a response

Use the address bar

By rex on February 26, 2010

This is one of the more common “issues” that I encounter. Probably many of you reading this blog may be guilty. When someone asks you to type an address (URL) in your browser (ex: www.smartergeek.com), that means you should type it in the ADDRESS BAR of the browser!

Sure, you can type in the search bar of Google, Yahoo, or Bing – but that requires an extra click. It’s not a really big deal, but when I’m trying to get you to type in an address and see a particular page, and then you don’t and get something different – it just makes it that much harder to help you.

Interestingly enough, if you want to see the top search terms for Yahoo and Google – click the following links:

http://buzzlog.buzz.yahoo.com/overall/

http://www.google.com/trends

Posted in firefox, internet explorer, Technology | Leave a response