Backup and Imaging

Obviously, backing up your data is the most important since you can always replace failed hardware. However, recovering from a system crash can be very time-consuming. Installing XP, Vista, or Linux plus all your applications and then tweaking your system can be a pain. Acronis® True Image Echo Workstationhttp://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATICW/ Add-ons / Acronis® Universal Restorehttp://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATICW/universal-restore.html*This allows you to recover to an …

Trusting Google with your Email

When Gmail first came out I started using it as an address for message board registrations and things like that. Since I’ve owned my own domains since about 1999, I’ve always used them for my primary email. My old method of backup was to use Outlook or Outlook Express and finally Thunderbird for POP3. Periodically, I would backup the appropriate …

Newspapers are dying with print

I’ve been saying this for a long time too, but newspapers and the way we gather news are changing drastically. I’m not the only person who doesn’t really read a newspaper. There are a lot of other people that prefer “time shifting” content. Timeshifting content means viewing content when you want – not waiting for the radio or TV program …

The Importance of Backups

Originally published 7-9-2008. All too often, I have clients whose computers crash. Fortunately, I can recover the data most of the time, but there are times when the hard drive physically fails. In those cases recovering the data becomes nearly impossible and very very expensive. Recently, I created a document for my clients on “The Importance of Backups”. Here is …

Wireless Mesh and WRT54G’s

Back in 2005 I was hired by a customer in Sulphur Springs, TX (lived there for a couple of years) to network his daughter’s home using a HughesNet internet connection. This customer had been told by several people that it couldn’t be done. Fortunately, he had the forethought to pre-wire his daughter’s 2-story home with cat5e cable. That made it …

Firefox and Google Bookmarks

Recently, one of my customers had a question about losing bookmarks in Firefox. Here is the thread from that: —————No I was not saving them under there, I had Star or something that said My Favorites that I used to click on. FireFox upgraded and since then I can not locate my favorites.————— Ahh – that is actually good then! …

Why did I get infected in the first place?

*The following advice is based on my experience over the years servicing thousands of computers, instructing users, and researching common-sense approaches to security for the average users. If your computer gets infected by a virus or spyware or malware, it is because you have asked for it. Period. You may not have intentionally asked for it, but at some point …