Gadgetoxic – Toxify your tech life

Smartphones , Tablets , Computers , laptop and news on every other gadget

Fake antivirus designers can get their work done in some ingenious ways. Around the time the British royal wedding spectacle was going on, one particular malware designer thought of a pretty clever way of exploiting the Royal wedding craze to his advantage.

He put up very a popular portrait of Princess Diana on a website (because he knew people would be searching for Princess Diana).

When people clicked on the website, they got redirected time and again until they suddenly found themselves on a website that came up with a very Microsoft-ey-looking dialog box – that said that their computer was infected, and they needed to pay $60 then and there to get rid of it.

This was fake antivirus, of course. And if nothing else, people can always tell a fake antivirus pitch by how they demand money right away. Reputable companies always offer you a free one month trial.

Anyway, reputable companies never pop up a warning like that. Fake antivirus isn’t some kind of fringe business. The FBI believes that they make will that’s the one billion-dollar industry every year.

They steal money, they take control of computers, they steal information, and they turn your computer into a kind of remote-controlled robot to make it send out lots of spam to everyone else.

The problem with fake antivirus is so bad, the normally immune Macintosh operating system has just had its first fake antivirus announced. [Score for Macintosh: 01, and Microsoft 10,000].

Fake antivirus makers use every trick in the book to get through. Sometimes, they use simple spam and online advertising.

At other times, they do it through actually calling you at home and asking you to visit their website for something or the other. Once you get there, you’ll find familiar fake antivirus running putting up.

Most of these attacks come from countries in Eastern Europe and China. There are set on stealing from the West. When fake software detects that your computer uses Chinese or Russian something, it just won’t try to steal from you.

Some of these businesses make such a great living from what they do. They try pushing fake software with convincing-sounding names like Win Drive Cleaner or XP Internet Security Organization and just get past a lot of people’s defenses.

And since they actually ask you for permission and get you to pay, your antivirus software is often a little unsure whether it needs to stop this thing that you paid money for.

Some of these organizations actually have 1000 employees and proper offices in Eastern Europe. Just imagine – some of these companies make $200 million a year. That’s more money than Twitter makes.

When these fake antivirus companies are so big, they can afford to constantly rewrite their malware code so that your antivirus software has a very hard time indeed detecting anything. As usual, personal vigilance is all that will protect you.

Fake Antivirus gets Sophisticated is a post from: Computer Spot

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If you’re a gamer, it’s safe to say that next to the processor in your computer, the graphics card is the most heavily-pounded component in your system.

The way each new generation of videogame title uses up computer graphics power these days, you can never have enough.

The graphics card, a separate processor much like your main processor Intel or AMD processor, is the part of your computer that draws and renders all the complex imagery that your game involves.

If you want truly realistic imagery in your videogame, you’d better be prepared to equip you computer accordingly.

Sometimes, even if you buy the most powerful graphics card on the market, it still won’t be enough. You need something more. Something like dual video cards of the same kind of the same computer.

There are basically two kinds of standards for those who wish to use dual video cards their system. You can either go with the Nvidia standard that they call SLI or you could go with the AMD standard that they call AMD CrossFireX.

Typically, the AMD standard is the one that’s the most flexible. Go with the SLI standard, and you absolutely have to buy two identical expensive cards.

With the AMD standard though, if you have two compatible cards, one powerful and the other less so, you could still have them add up.

If you’re kind of on a budget and you’d just like to be able to use a less powerful card as well, you really should choose AMD.

AMD offers another advantage, as well. You can actually get the onboard graphics, as modest as it might be, to pitch in. Before you can go with dual video cards, whichever company you want to side with, you need to make sure that your motherboard is capable of a setup like this.

Go with AMD, and you will be able to get CrossfireX performance out of practically any motherboard that has two PCI Express slots.

With SLI though, you’ll need a motherboard that has SLI certification. You can expect such certification on any motherboard with Nvidia chipsets and motherboards based on Intel’s X58 or P55 chipsets.

However, if you’re going to be taking the plunge with dual video cards, you do want to make sure that the specific games that you have been mind to play on a setup like this, do benefit from dual video cards. Not every game is programmed in such a way that it can take advantage of this much power.

If One Powerful Video Card won’t do for your Game, try Dual Video Cards is a post from: Computer Spot

You couldn’t buy a computer today that didn’t have sound built in. Every computer out there, whether it’s something you buy from a name brand or a machine that you build from the ground up with parts, you can be sure that there is going to be a Realtek high definition sound chip in there that’s good to go right out of the box.

So computer retailers really have their job cut out for them when they try to sell you a new computer sound card.

The first question you ask is, “Why on earth would I want that when I have a perfectly good soundcard built right into my computer?”.

If you have a PCI slot on your computer, you certainly have room for the discrete sound card. You’re supposed to buy and install a card in there the way you buy and install a separate graphics card for gaming purposes.

Now it’s extraordinarily difficult to convince computer buyers to upgrade with the discrete computer soundcard.

You certainly have it pointed out to you often enough in the ads that just because you have a CD player in a boombox, it doesn’t mean you wouldn’t appreciate the sound of a proper discrete CD player.

The difference is in the sound quality, of course. But in the matter of a sound card, there are differences that would come down entirely to function.

It’s like half of America is in a band – or at least, they like to experiment with playing and recording music by themselves right at home.

Music equipment is certainly cheap these days, and music software can turn any old computer into a fully-fledged multitrack recording studio. You just need to add a $100 USB music keyboard, and you would have nothing stopping you. Except your computer soundcard.

The thing is, that inbuilt sound cards or even cheap discrete sound cards, are only capable of playing recorded music well. They aren’t capable of producing music well. How so, you ask?

If you were using onboard sound or if you had a cheap Sound Blaster installed, if you tried to play a software instrument on your computer with it, every key you pressed, you’d hear a sound for it about a half second later.

In other words, you need a sound card that’s intended for music production. Look for something that is capable of ASIO software drivers.

And look for something that has as many pairs of inputs and outputs as you would wish to have separate software instruments playing at the same time.

Let’s say for second you have no interest in producing music. What if you’re just a gamer or someone who likes a little bit of entertainment?

Well, you’ll certainly notice how much richer and deeper and crisper the sound is when you plug your home theater system into discrete soundcard.

Do try that once. And since video games these days have sound design built into them that would put a big budget Hollywood blockbuster to shame, your gaming well benefit from a new computer sound card too.

It doesn’t even have to cost much. A professional $85 soundcard from a brand like M-Audio would do.

Do you really need a New Computer Sound Card is a post from: Computer Spot

There are some parents that worry non-stop about how much time their children spend watching television and playing things like video and computer games. This is a relevant concern, because too much can be bad for children.

Some suggest that children under two have no screen time and then that it be limited from then on. However, you also have to think about the world in which they are going to live when they get older.

Computers are in almost every home and are common in most workplaces. Allowing your children some time to play computer games can actually be a wise investment in their future.

Many children today go into kindergarten knowing the basics of using a mouse and starting and using simple programs on a computer. In fact, they may start doing some work at that age on a computer while they are at school.

Teachers will help children that do not know what to do, but if your children have some limited interactions with computer games on your home PC, they will already know what do and they will already know that learning computer games at school are going to be just as fun as what they would do at home.

What you want to so is to find computer games for kids that have learning potential. Today, there are many of them on the market.

Most of them are made just to help children learn things like the alphabet, counting, colors, basic logic skills, and computer dexterity. Some are just for fun, but they end up having a learning element to them as well.

Some are generic and some are made with characters that your children may know from TV like the Wiggles, Sesame Street, or whatever it is that they love.

Parents should limit the time children are playing computer games, and if at all possible, play along with them. This can be hard when both parents work and time is limited, but if you play with them, you are on top of what they are learning in computer games and you also know when they are ready for something more advanced.

It is also easy to get lost in doing a chore while your child plays and they end up being on the computer longer than you intended. Some play is good, but they should have limits on time playing games and when watching TV.

Remember that as children get older they are going to want to find computer games online. There are plenty of good ones, but it is also easy for them to wander away to sites that you may not like.

See what you can do to put parental controls on your computer and also on popular sites like YouTube and Facebook. You want to know what they see and you want to know that they cannot find things that are well beyond their years.

If they cannot follow rules you set up while playing games, limit or cut out time as punishment. They’ll soon learn to follow your computer games and online activity rules.

Computer Games For Kids is a post from: Computer Spot

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Starting a new small business is never easy. As you indulge yourself in the initial responsibilities to do with putting everything together, you shouldn’t be surprised to find that the costs of equipping your new office are kind of on the high side.

A new business basically can have a healthy appetite for investment. Luckily, there are all kinds of options around that can help take the sting out of how much it costs.

Take for instance how expensive equipping your office with computers can be. The good part is that you don’t even have to buy anything these days. Computer equipment leasing businesses can juice you right up at practically no charge at all.

For those who’ve never actually been formally introduced to computer equipment leasing, it’s pretty much like a car lease or like leasing office space.

A leasing company that specializes in the kind of equipment you’re looking for makes the investment and they let it out to you under contract.

You just make regular payments towards the equipment that you lease for the duration of the contract. At the end, you can either drop the equipment off and walk away or you can simply pay something more and own the equipment outright.

Come to think of it, when it comes to computer equipment, leasing is an excellent option. These are things that go out of style really quickly.

At the end of the year or two that your contract keeps you tied to the equipment for, you’ll find that the equipment isn’t really as good as the newest stuff. If you owned the equipment, you’d probably be worried about how much you’ve invested in it to throw it away or to sell it.

When your lease runs out, you’ll probably the able to get much better equipment for much less. Computer equipment leasing businesses don’t just lease out the hardware either. They deal in software to.

And once every couple of years, any software brand is going to come out with a software upgrade or two. Basically, leasing makes a lot of sense when it comes to computer equipment for the small business.

But the good news doesn’t end there. Consider how the IRS allows you to completely claim deductions for any payment to make on computer equipment.

The 10% that they allow could be a spectacular reprieve. And even if you do decide midway that you would like to keep the equipment for yourself, you can just prepay right away with no penalty.

And you’d save on all the interest.

Computer Equipment Leasing Can Make A Lot of Sense for your Business is a post from: Computer Spot

It’s like there’s always something on the horizon trying to wipe established laptops and computers out. At first, when Asus came out with its EeePC mini laptop four years ago, people couldn’t stop wondering if a small portable laptop that did most things well was all you needed and how a full-fledged laptop was overkill.

These days, iPad-like tablets have all but left netbooks in the dust and there’s talk of how the big computer manufacturers are scared of how the tablet is going to put everything out of the running.

If you’re looking to jump on the handheld computer bandwagon, should you go with the iPad or should you go with one of the alternatives? Which is the best tablet PC on the market for your money?

The thing is, choosing among the different tablets doesn’t work the way it does when you’re trying to choose from among different kinds of laptop. There are different kinds of things you need to compare – not just power and screen size.

For instance, when you buy a laptop, you get just one of two different operating systems to choose from – Windows or MacOS.

Go over to tablets, and you have iOS, Android, BlackBerry OS and Windows 7. Since all of these have comparable feature sets, and you can’t really go by those to make a distinction.

And of course, there is HP’s sad WebOS – an option you could choose if you wanted a tablet just for the fun of it. HP’s WebOS-powered TouchPad came out to much fanfare just a few months ago, and then sold so poorly that the company just abandoned tablet computers altogether.

If you’re not worried about buying a dead-end product, you can get one at Best Buy on firesale for $99.

If you’re looking for the best tablet PC out there, there are two kinds of ways you can judge a product for its OS. You can either look at how beautiful, elegant and easy-to-use it is, or you can look at how many downloadable apps there are available for it that will help you do all kinds of things with your purchase.

When it comes to OS elegance, Apple’s iOS is certainly the winner. But HP’s a WebOS is widely recognized to be extremely beautiful too. But HP’s product, when you buy it, is a dead end. There are no programs or applications for it.

You only have more or less what this product comes with. Apple’s App Store on the other hand is insanely well-stocked – with hundreds of thousands of apps.

Android is certainly not as slickly designed or is visually pleasing as Apple’s iOS. But it does have a very complete App Market.

So basically, picking the best tablet PC on the market comes down in one measure, to the kind of applications that are available for its OS.

You can also pick a tablet for the kind of specifications you look for in a laptop. Apples iPad happens to be about the lightest for the kind of performance you get. If you want something even lighter than the iPad, you could look at 7 inch tablets such as Samsung’s Galaxy Tab or even smaller ones by Dell.

In the beginning, about 20 years ago, people would say that if you wanted to pick the best computer for your needs, you’d first pick the kind of software you planned to use on it, and then just look at the kind of computer you needed to get to run it properly.

The same would apply today to tablet PCs. Pick the apps that are the most attractive, and then pick the tablet that would run that app.

What to Look for to Pick the Best Tablet PC is a post from: Computer Spot

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Computers are among the most fascinating pieces of technology and the main reason for this is that they can do so many things at once and this has really helped very many people.

Just the way people are fascinated with the different things that a computer can do there are some who are equally fascinated about what goes into their making and maintenance and it is this group that needs to know all about computer engineering.

Basically, computer engineering is a study that entails computerized solutions to every problem that is associated with computer processing like manufacturing troubles, research problems and system control.

It helps to save the above problems by merging the knowledge of computer science and electronic engineering.

Included in the average computer engineering course are courses such as instrumentation, the theory of control system, analog and digital electronics and robotics.

For one to learn all they need to about computer engineering, they will have to make a very informed decision about the university or college that they want to join. This will in the long run help them get quality education that will make them greatly advance in their careers.

The first of great tips when looking for the right college to attend is to choose a major then look for a college that offers the major.

When one chooses the college according to the majors they want they will have several options to choose from and here they can further narrow down the numbers by using several specifications among them quality of education offered, costs and the reputation of the college.

This will leave the aspiring engineer with several institutions to choose from and the best route to take here will be to get as much information as they can get about the institutions.

Among the other basic things a person should know about computer engineering is that their job is crucial in all industries where computers are needed for business to operate.

In such businesses a computer engineer will be required to come up with new systems that can meet the ever evolving requirements in a business as well as improve and maintain the set-ups.

Compared to the other specializations in the field of engineering, computer engineering is among the ones with the highest remuneration in terms of salary.

Most of the modern conveniences we have today were made through computer engineering and they include alarm systems, x-ray machines and mobile phones.

When it comes to software and hardware, it is not a must that computer engineers make a choice as they enough to will be skilled enough to handle both.

There are also many specializations for computer engineers and they can make a choice in areas such as artificial intelligence, computer architecture, computer systems, integrated circuits and computer networks. With all the above options there is almost no reason why anyone would not make it in the field.

Find out all about Computer Engineering Now is a post from: Computer Spot

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When Microsoft released a Media Center Edition to Windows XP all those years ago, they were only acknowledging the obvious – that to most people, at least part of the time, their computer stands in for a videogame machine or an entertainment center.

Certainly, everyone knows right away that you need a nice, bright and impressive screen for their home entertainment system or their videogame machine. You need something that gives you an immersive visual experience.

What they don’t think of often is that you need immersive sound to go with it too. The best computer speakers that most systems ship with are tinny, tiny, and annoying.

Have you seen the kind of speakers they put into laptops? It’s as if they’re actually trying to not be audible. The thing is, people usually put all their speaker money into speakers for the home theater – out in the living room where there is a big-screen TV. They don’t seem like investing much in buying the best computer speakers as well.

Well, if you ever spent time looking around the computer speaker section at your local Best Buy, you will have noticed that once they call them computer speakers, they don’t really go beyond a certain size.

You really don’t need to spend a fortune. A reasonable pair is all one asks for. And since your computer is the most important entertainment unit in your house, it really does deserve better than what it ships with. You’ll have a far better time playing your games and watching movies.

So what do you need to look for if you’re out there at the aforementioned Best Buy computer speakers department and you’re not really sure how to judge all the speakers other than to look at the price tag?

Well, for the kind of attention to sound quality that today’s movie and game creators put in, you really owe it yourself to get a surround sound system – 5.1 or 7.1 – you know how it goes.

Every new DVD out there and every game as well, goes out of its way to blow your mind with spectacular surround effects. Everything is recorded to overwhelm you with crazy sound effects and immersive sound.

These don’t even have to be expensive. Your typical 5.1 system (which means five little speakers to surround yourself with and one subwoofer) by Logitech, retails for $65.

There is something that should occur to you when you talk about surround systems – how are you going to wire all those speakers all around your room without tripping over them all the time? Well, that’s what wireless speaker systems are for.

At least, that’s what they say they are for. You’ll pay hundreds of dollars for wireless surround computer speakers. If you think that buying wireless actually means wireless, think again.

The “wirelessness” only refers to how you don’t have to wire each speaker for audio. Each wireless speaker does need its own power source. So you just end up having to wire everything anyway.

And finally, make sure that you check to see that the speakers you buy have ready-built connections for all the different sound sources you might have – RCA, headphone jack and so on.

What to Look for when you want the Best Computer Speakers is a post from: Computer Spot

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With the newspapers full of accounts to do with how children keep indulging in lurid messaging (that they call sexting) and bullying each other over the Internet, parents are completely worried.

What kind of Internet protection for kids is out there that can help them keep track and keep an eye on everything? How do they protect their children from making these kinds of mistakes and from being victims too?

This kind of parental software is quite new. And already, one out of two children has seen software of some kind sent after him that keeps tabs on his activities online. And it’s a growing market too. Only about three years ago, barely 15% of parents did this.

Of course, we’ve always had parental supervision software to keep an eye on our children’s activities on the computer. These days though, the home computer is old news. It’s the iPad and the smartphone that the young do all of their online work on – on Facebook and everything else.

Internet protection for kids though, doesn’t come cheap. It can cost as much as $80 a year. And for that, there is a lot they promise to do.

They’ll completely keep abreast of everything your child posts online and everything that shows up on your child’s social networking pages.

The surprising thing though is that it doesn’t matter where a child goes to access his social network – even a friend’s house. The software is completely able to keep track of everything.

The good thing is that these programs don’t attempt to spy on your child. In most cases, they work with your child’s permission and full knowledge.

These programs, by companies like Trend Micro and Symantec, want to make it clear to children that they truly are at risk and they need their parents help staying safe.

It’s so easy for children to do what the next child is doing – send graphic messages that they’ll regret one day or participate in bullying that they might get expelled for. The more you pay for these services, the more control you typically get.

Trend Micro’s $50-a-year offering will keep an eye out on all the imagery that goes in and out of your child’s online accounts and they will even keep an eye out for unpleasant keywords search for. Zone Alarm’s product costs $20 a year, and it will keep an eye on your child’s Facebook account for you. They will let you block unsafe chat rooms and do a number of other things.

If you know your tech really well, you can easily access a few free online resources to put together your own Internet protection for kids from sources such as Minor Monitor as well.

Parental Control and Internet Protection for Kids Today is a post from: Computer Spot

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Ever wondered about who thought of the term “con artist” to describe someone who is obviously just a thief? Well, they also call them social engineers.

It’s for reason of course – it’s quite an art how they use their understanding of human nature to manipulate people and get them to do exactly as they wish.

This kind of social engineering in pursuit of fraud is particularly useful in the era of social networking. It helps hackers really get a Facebook virus in and about.

A very popular thing for makers of Facebook virus and malware examples to do to spread their evil, often, is to hack into a person’s account, gain control of it, and then to chat over Facebook to his closest friends with some dishonest plan in mind.

They think of some kind of sob story about how they are far from home, have been robbed and need some money. The person who receives this message will believe that since it comes from his friend’s Facebook account, it has to be genuine.

Here’s the perfect example for why they call this “social engineering”. Facebook has thousands and thousands of Facebook applications. They are made for all kinds of interests. People download them to add to the fun of it all.

Facebook doesn’t scrutinize or approve most of those apps that are on offer. Facebook’s app list is more like the Google Apps Marketplace than like the iTunes App Store in this way.

So when you download and install a Facebook app, you have no idea what it is – it could be a Facebook virus, for all you know. In many cases, it actually is.

And even if you don’t download an actual Facebook virus posing as an app, you could be downloading something programmed by some school kid who won’t be careful with the access he has to your personal information. You can get robbed that way.

What do you do when you find an app that says something irresistible like, “Find out about which of your friends is about to break up in the next 20 min”? Can you really resist? That’s social engineering for you.

There are many more tricks they have up their sleeve. For instance, how about a message you might get that says, “Here’s a great new video about you”.

Who could resist this?  Even if you receive this from a friend, there is no way you could know if your friend really sent this – or if a hacker gained access to your friend’s account. Almost always, this is a virus.

The Ways a Facebook Virus can Spread is a post from: Computer Spot

Yes, you should buy into the whole 4G technology hype; but that’s not what this article is about. It’s about whether you should do so today.

If you believe everything that the phone industry tells you, 4G technology will be to the cell phone in your pocket today what the iPhone is to their huge shoebox-like cell phone that people use to carry around in the early 90s.

You’re probably familiar with the kind of hype that 3G came with about 10 years ago. It’s actually taken reality this long to catch up with all the hype that 3G came with 10 years ago.

3G certainly was worth the trouble – it has brought us better call quality, high-speed Internet and the App Store. The iPhone would not have been possible without all this.

But how funny would it have been if you had bought the 3G phone in the year 2001 when the whole 3G circus began?

4G technology isn’t in the kind of sad shape today that 3G was in when it was first hyped a decade ago. 4G is in way better shape; the only problem is, that the industry really hasn’t sorted itself out.

To begin with, there isn’t any one 4G technology that’s established itself yet. And then, even if you ignore that, coverage can be very limited.

In other words, you’ll find that the mobile carriers have upgraded to 4G in a few important markets – along both coasts and in Texas – but there is almost nothing in between over all of the rest of the country.

If you’re really trying to grade all the different carriers today for 4G technology adoption, you’ll find that Verizon has the best coverage and speed and AT&T has the worst. But let’s do away with all those complications for second.

Let’s say that you live in Los Angeles where every carrier has the 4G option, and let’s say that all you ever do is fly around among cities that have 4G.

Should you throw your phone away and jump in feet first into the exciting world of 4G technology?

Well, the thing with 4G is that even if you have a compatible phone and network, you’re not really buying into some kind of life-altering technology upgrade. The best you are talking about is having a YouTube video load 10 seconds faster.

And that’s the best case scenario. More importantly, even if 4G technology is the future, it has to work on cell phones that have decidedly present-day battery technology.

4G drains your battery much faster. But if you would really like streaming video, online gaming, video chatting and all of those things, perhaps 4G technology would be great for you.

The shortened battery life and the extra money charged by some carriers may actually be worth it when you wow your friends with video chatting.

Should you Buy into the Whole 4G Technology Hype Today? is a post from: Computer Spot

If you have dial up Internet service in your home, you either want to have money or you do not have any other options.

Thankfully, options for faster and more reliable Internet are going into areas where many feared they would be stuck with dial up service for life.

If you want faster Internet at home, there are many options, and also some adjustments you can make in your own home.

Your family activity online can make a huge difference, so make some adjustments for the fast speed that you need if you use your connection for work or play.

Faster Internet can simply mean upgrading what you have. This is a tough decision for some families that are struggling with expenses right now.

Some people are getting rid of things like Internet and cable because they are having trouble paying for rent or mortgage. Think about your needs before you decide if you want faster Internet or if you need to let it go.

If you have children that use it for study, or if you do any part of your work from home, you need to keep your connection.

Remember that you can find many television shows online now, so you can cut your cable to pay for your Internet if you really need to keep it and want to upgrade.

Some of your options for faster Internet are cable and then there is DSL. These are great options that do not tie up your phone line and are must faster and tons more reliable than dial up Internet service.

DSL is not as fast as cable Internet, but for some homes this is all that they need. If you have more than one person in your home using your connection through a router, you may find that DSL does not have enough power.

This is when cable is going to be your best bet. Cable is faster and has more oomph, but is not always the best choice for smaller families that may not get online a lot.

If you already have cable and you still need faster Internet at home, there are a few things going on. Once is that your computer processor simply cannot keep up with what you are trying to do online.

If you play a lot of games, work with high resolution images, or if you watch television, movies, or videos quite often, you may have to upgrade your computer or you can at the very least see about getting a faster processor put in so that your machine can then keep up with your activities.

You can also stagger when various members of your family are on the Internet. This can slow things down tremendously.

If you have more than one computer as well as wireless devices that are hooked up to your single connection, getting faster Internet may be as simple as making sure everyone is not trying to be on the Internet at the same time.

Games take up a lot of bandwidth, so only allow so much time each person a day to do it, and stagger when they play. That should help with faster Internet for you when you need the speed the most.

Faster Internet At Home is a post from: Computer Spot

Small businesses today depend on a dependable online presence online. They need to have a super-great website out there (that doesn’t bore people to tears) and they need great search engine optimization.

Sometimes though, they overlook the fact that the greatest website is dead in the water without excellent and competent Web server hosting.

Check out what’s available in hosting services online, and you get an astounding amount of choice. How you know which way to go for the most reliable service?

If you’re putting out a website, you probably have a website developer lined up. Now in your excitement, you might go out there and make a choice of Web server hosting service by yourself “just to be in readiness” when the developer gets done.

Now most developers wouldn’t be happy having that decision taken out of their hands. Any developer’s going to want to be in the loop when it comes to a choice made in Web server hosting provider.

You can talk with your developer about the kind of traffic your website will experience and how much bandwidth, disk space and traffic it would be a good idea to pay for.

Once you’ve cleared it all up, you can go through the services that your developer says he prefers or anything else you might like.

One of first things you want to look at is, the question of how much support you need. If you aren’t retaining a developer forever to keep maintenance work going on your website, if you’re planning on taking the baton once all the heavy lifting is done, you might need a web server hosting service that has a really good support department.

Some entrepreneurs try to do the whole website building thing themselves. If you’re not a whiz with this kind of thing, you probably want to go with someone who has great support – sometimes even helping you install applications. Some will provide this for a price and others will provide it for free.

How long it takes for the hosting provider to reply to a question or fix a problem can make or break your business. Go Daddy for instance, routinely replies within five hours over e-mail. And they don’t outsource support.

Often, businessmen who are inexperienced in how to run a website, can make all kinds of mistakes like overwriting their entire folder online. Having a conscientious support department on your side can make all the difference. You don’t want to just go by some marketing slogan.

Also, small businesses have multiple websites. You need to decide then if you wish to have a separate hosting account for each site or if you would like a virtual private server.

A VPS can be a great way to make your website a whole lot more manageable. In this way, your developer can get a root-level connection when installing stuff.

It depends on your budget and it depends on how serious your needs are.

Choosing Web Server Hosting for your Small Business Website is a post from: Computer Spot

If you have web sites of your own, you want to know that you are getting the very best deal for your money. Even better, you want to know that you are not paying more than you need to pay.

There is very cheap web hosting out there if you look around, but you are not going to think that it is a very good deal if your sites go down or if they simply cannot handle the traffic that you may draw.

Look for the best deal that you can, but make sure your deal includes everything that you need for whatever you are building websites to achieve.

One problem that some find with very cheap web hosting is that though the plan promises unlimited bandwidth for traffic, that is not always the case. Some find that after a certain amount, they are changed more money.

Read the fine print about traffic and bandwidth allowances, even if they use the word unlimited. Some plans do not offer that, but are far cheaper.

These are the ones you can use if you do not want to do anything more than just one blog or one site that you do not think will draw a lot of people each day. Once a site goes over, it usually goes down or becomes unavailable.

You also want to look into what else you get with very cheap web hosting. There are small things that they leave out to give you a better price, but these small things may be big things to you. That is what you have to find out.

If you are not sure what these things are or what they might mean to you, you can go and search out more expensive hosting plans to see what is included. You may decide that the cheap price is all that you need and that will be that. However, you may also find that the cheap deal is not going to cut it for your needs.

If you really are not sure what the difference between very cheap web hosting deals and more expensive ones are, you should do your research and think about what you want out of your site.

You may be building a website so that you can post pictures of your wedding and you do not care about how much traffic you can handle.

You may want to start an online business but are underestimating what is going to happen when you go live. If you are not sure what you are doing, read up on it and ask for help from someone that you know who can help.

There are programs and articles online all about what you can get with very cheap web hosting and what it might mean to your website.

You can find people who have been working online for a very long time you can help you with what you need to know.

Some information is free and some is not. Do what you need to do. If you are starting an online business, you want to know you can get up and running and that your hosting can handle it if things blow up faster than you imagined.

Very Cheap Web Hosting is a post from: Computer Spot

For about 10 years now, Apple has been trying to go with a theme when naming its products. For all its mobile devices and some of its computers, it uses the iDevice naming convention.

As for its computer operating systems, it likes to name them after jungle cats (as opposed to house cats). In its operating system world, the names are all about Cheetahs, Jaguars, Panthers and Leopards.

For its latest operating system though, the company brings in a new kind of cat – the lion. This what they call the latest avatar of the Mac – the Mac OSX Lion.

Microsoft is known for charging outrageous sums of money for its operating systems. Apple on the other hand charges an extremely reasonable $30 (okay, $29.99). Of course, you’ll get it preinstalled on any new Mac that you buy. If you wish to run it on an earlier Mac, is this an upgrade that’s worth the price?

The simple answer to that question would be – yes, it is. But you knew that already. Let’s get into why it is worth your time and money.

To begin with, Apple calls the Mac OSX Lion an operating system that’s completely set to change the computer paradigm for you.

Coming from Apple, the comapany that completely changed the phone paradigm, this has to mean something. The latest operating system comes with hundreds of new features. Do you need then and want them?

Apples multitouch interface certainly was paradigm shifting when it first came to the iPhone and then, when it came to the Macintosh line of computers. Every other manufacturer of any kind of computer began mimicking this.

On Mac OSX Lion, multitouch is taken even further with all kinds of new things to control with your swiping, pinching, scrolling and tapping.

Swipe to one side with three fingers, and you step among all full-screen applications (to turn an application to full-screen mode, you just have to tap the the window on one corner). If you wish to scroll up and down, that’s a two fingered swipe.

Swipe with two fingers and you can zoom in. These are natural and wonderful ways in which to take your multi-touch experience forward. Anyone who’s hated the inability of Mac applications to go full-screen will really appreciate how FaceTime, Safari, Preview and many other applications are now able to do this.

One of the finest improvements to the Macintosh operating system is the Auto-Save feature. Of course, you’ve seen this inlots of other applications on Windows and everywhere else; what makes Lion’s Auto-Save unique is that it doesn’t maintain a separate Auto-Save version of everything it saves. When it auto-saves, it actually saves the original document.

Buying Mac OSX Lion isn’t as simple a matter as you would think though. You can’t just log on to the Mac store and order the DVD.

The only thing  the Mac store sells and intends to sell is a download-only purchase option. If your Internet connection is so slow you’ll grow old before a 4GB download happens though, you can pay $60 to have a USB flash drive with the operating system shipped to you.

Mac OSX Lion : Should you Upgrade? is a post from: Computer Spot