Computers and Technology

Software applications are increasingly evident and crucial in so many aspects of everyday life that many of us would have a hard time getting through a typical day without the consume of some of them. Whether they are on a PC, a Mac, or most recently, on our cell phones, these software applications have drastically changed the arrangement that many of us live our lives at home, on the go, and in the office.

Microsoft is world distinguished as being one of, if not the best software companies in the world. Their Office suite of products includes software for word processing, spreadsheets, email and calendar tools, and presentations. Word and Excel are two of the most widely ancient and universally acceptable programs within the business world, and often time, are a required skill situation for individuals looking to land a dwelling within a company. These applications have revolutionized the plan that we track, analyze, display, and part information with both internal and external customers.

Blogging has become an increasingly well-liked diagram for people to fragment their opinions and discuss impartial about anything that is one their minds. Applications have been developed specifically to befriend with this unique style of information sharing, such as Windows Live Writer and BlogJet. This software can show to be invaluable to its users by providing them with the ability to gain blog posts offline and makes the addition of files, YouTube videos, and images exceptionally easy. Spell checking and auto replace can also be bustle before transferring your completed work to the blog post of your choosing.

Another task that has become a seeming necessity to many is the ability to burn copies of CDs and DVDs from our computers. Applications such as Nero and CDBurnerXP have taken powerful of the guesswork out of these tasks and simplified the process to the push of a few buttons. Creating high quality CDs, DVDS, and even HD DVDs has become a reality for many users that acquire exiguous to no technical skill.

Instant messenger applications have helped to address our growing need for immediate gratification. There are no shortages of quality applications that provide this service, but one of the user-friendliest apps for communication with networked computers is Softros LAN Messenger. It provides all of the valuable features of an instant messaging program without some of the frivolous features, such as emoticons, which may be frowned upon in a professional environment.

Users of the accepted Apple iPhone have been blessed with an ever-expanding library of software applications that can do honest about anything. The Tweetie 2 application allows users to manage multiple Twitter accounts, translate foreign tweets, and connects Twitter followers to your address book contacts, just in the palm of your hand. The disclose application connects to reviews of bars, restaurants, and other business and can provide a realistic, digital understanding of nearby establishments simply by pointing the viewfinder in its direction.

obliging, abominable or indifferent, software applications have become as grand a necessity in our lives as food, oxygen and water.

Configuring our computers for our home computer network

After all the hardware for our home computer network has been setup, we now have to setup our computers to allow communication with each other. Though we have our hardware in space it remains useless unless the computer knows what to do with it, and it is you who has to announce it what to do with the hardware. In this article we will go through the process of setting up the software side of our network, which is not very complicated, actually a lot of it is automated or semi-automated where the computer does most of the work.

Some of the stuff you need to do is routine technical stuff like installing the drivers (software that controls the hardware devices like the NIC) on your computer. Also you will need to residence up each computer so they are ready to fragment their files on your home network.

label for Wireless Users: If you are using a wireless router on your network then you will need to install the router first. Though installation procedures vary among manufacturers, for the most section they all have the same general setup

Drivers for hardware

Your network connectors, whether they be ISA, PCI or a USB connecter are all hardware devices which will need you to install small software programs known as drivers. Drivers befriend the operating system communicate with hardware, telling the hardware what to do and when to do it.

After you physically install the network adaptor on your computer, the next time you turn it on, windows should automatically view it and query for a driver to be installed. This very frosty feature in windows is known as hotfoot and play, which goes to work while windows initiate up. The sail and play feature will want to install your hardware straight away and will inquire of for you to provide the lawful information for it to be installed properly.

With USB connectors you can poke the intention into the computer while it is on and windows will automatically detect it for you and bring up the “add current hardware” wizard. This ability to install hardware whilst the computer is on is known as a hot installation (by techies), and its one of the coolest things about USB devices… catch it? … HOT installation… COOLEST thing about USB?

near on that’s humorous!

Oh Never mind!

There are times the coast and play feature in windows will not detect your original hardware, in that case it will be up to you install the driver manually.

Protocols to commence Communication

Now windows has the appropriate drivers to communicate with our network adaptors, it is time for our computers to inaugurate communicating . In order for our computers to communicate, they need to have the same network protocol (That’s tech talk for the language computers utilize to communicate) . There are two types of protocols weak for computer to computer communication, TCP/IP or NetBEUI. Depending on your version of windows each one will be installed automatically. Windows XP installs TCP/IP automatically so if you wanted to utilize NetBEUI on XP you would have to install it using you windows CD, and vice versa if you were using windows 98.

Each computer must be installed with the same protocols in order to communicate; this installation binds the protocol and the network adaptor together. As soon as each computer can talk the same sparkling language, then services can commence on the network. Each task that you want to effect on a network, like file sharing, print sharing and logging on to the network is known as network services.

Naming computers and Work groups

There is one more task to do in order for our computers to communicate and section resources. The Microsoft Network system is very anal when it comes to networking rules and demands to know who’s who, who’s where and what’s what. Because of this computers must be given a name (each one having to be current, so you can’t have two computers with the same name) .

Also you must give each computer a work group (the group in which you network exists, so each computer must be in the same group) Windows Networking wizard If you are using Windows Me or XP you do not have to go through most of this, you can exercise windows home networking wizard to place it up for you.

The windows home networking wizard walks you through the process of setting up your network, it also sets up the shared internet connection for you. A lot of people do not like using this wizard because they say it complicates things (I can’t say I am too fond of it my self) . I would recommend you doing it all manually it helps you understand how windows works a lot better.

My second degree, or should I say my second go through inside the education system was in networking. I’m a certified Novell and Microsoft engineer, not that I’m all that inflamed about the fact. Networking is actually splendid mindless work once you learn it. It’s exquisite noteworthy do it by the numbers based on what the customer wants. After you hook everything up the software installation is fair straight forward. My 16 year former daughter could do it or as GEICO would say, a caveman could do it.

In this article I’m unprejudiced going to camouflage the basics of what a network is and the types of networks. I’ll go into more detail in later articles.

A network is simply a means for computers to teach to each other, or communicate with each other. With a network, computers can receive emails from each other, send files to each other, instant message each other and a variety of other things. This is something that we choose for granted today but there was a time when networks were not so sophisticated and not all that efficient either.

There are basically two types of networks.

The simplest network is a LAN or Local plot Network. This is where all the computers in the network are located in one plot such as an office building. Within this type of network you have 2 ways to connect.

The simplest arrangement is spy to watch. This is where 2 or more computers are curved up directly to each other. In other words if you have 5 computers you would have computer 1 bent into computer 2 which would be crooked into computer 3 and so on. In this type of connection each computer is dependent on the other. So if computer 3 would go down then computers 1 and 2 would not be able to communicate or exchange information with computers 4 and 5 and visa versa. That is the main predicament with a gaze to peruse network. Also in watch to witness networks the write process between computers leads to data corruption problems. This is not something they hiss you in school but something you learn from experience.

The more favorite type of LAN connection is client server. This is where all the computers in the network are connected to each other via a central computer. This kind of connection does require more work in position up but is more efficient, carries data better and if one computer goes down the others aren’t affected. However, should the server go down then all the computers on the network would be affected as far as their ability to bag information from the other computers and the server itself. They, however, would mild be able to do work locally on their believe such as with a word processing program, unless the word processing program was located on the server. Then it would not be available. Usually, however, most applications are installed on each computer. What is most commonly lost when a server goes down is the ability to retrieve data that is accepted to everyone in the network, say an in house database of all employees.

The second type of network is a WAN or wide situation network. This is where several LAN networks or even single computers are connected to a grand larger network. A perfect example of a WAN is the Internet. This is where users from all over the world can interact with each other through email, chat rooms and instant messaging. WANs are broad to say the least and are very intricate in their get, requiring hubs from all over the world to quit connected. One hub goes down and it can affect connections for millions of people though there are protocols instituted to reroute connections if a hub does go down.

The above is a very simplified overview of computer networks. In future articles I’ll go into detail on the hardware and software required to dwelling up these networks and some of the finer points. finish tuned.

Although Apple Mac computers have a very capable operating system it is very difficult to glean a apt MAC POS software program to rush on them. This is probably why a stout number of retail stores pick to speed Windows operating systems, as they are able to find enjoy of a immense number of POS software programs that they can expend with it.

However if you do currently have a MAC system and you wish to be able to expend a POS software program on it there are both pros and cons to doing so. Below we will assume a seek at objective what these are. Firstly we will occupy a survey at what advantages can be gained from using a Mac POS software program.

1. The system, which you employ to operate your Mac, is very fine and stable and is not likely to suffer from any bugs or glitches. So there is remarkable less chance of the software actually failing at any time. But it needs to be properly configured, but once it has been then the system will function quite happily until such time as you need to upgrade or change the software you are currently using.

2. Also with the operating system that you consume in conjunction with the POS software on your Mac computer you will come by that the chances of bugs or viruses actually being able to collect access to the system is greatly reduced.

3. The software as well as the main operating system on the Apple Mac is very easy for anyone to consume.

Above we have looked at the advantages of using a Apple Mac POS Software program, but now let us purchase a ogle at the disadvantages.

1. Because there are very few POS software programs available for employ with the Apple Mac you will collect that you will miss out on some of the features that other POS software programs that are worn with other operating systems (Windows) have to offer.

2. If you are running a retail business and using this software as share of your system then you may well stare that other software programs you need to exercise are not actually compatible with it. Unfortunately you may well obtain that accounting software which is well-known to keeping your business on track is unable to interact with the Apple Mac POS Software are you may collect that you need to grasp a completely unusual system altogether.

3. The other main disadvantage to having a Mac POS Software program rather than one which runs on Windows is that very few people are actually trained today in how to utilize systems, which a Mac based. Also actually finding someone who is competent and skilled enough to believe and carry out repairs to the system is becoming somewhat difficult and can present to be very expensive indeed.

Network your computers! Transform your business with computer networking.

So what is a computer network? What does it do for your business?

You may already understand the significance of this, but for all of you that want to know that have computers at home and/or at the office, a computer network is an interconnected group of computers. Networking computers basically maximises the usage of your hardware resources.

For example a printer can be shared amongst users thus avoiding the catch of another printer.

The other main advantage is the sharing of documents, calendars, meetings, internet access and the ability to send and receive email. But best of all you increase your business productivity!

If you are a exiguous business the minimum requirement is two computers. You only need to network two computers. This is a really basic setup and does not offer any security to protect your files.

The best plan to go about it, is to pick up yourself a itsy-bitsy business file server. One of the most favorite server operating systems is Microsoft Windows 2003 dinky Business Server which is a file, print, email server in its basic invent. There is also an enhanced version that provide proxy and firewall features.

There are many hardware platforms to resolve from, but through experience I found that IBM, HP and Dell provide that most stable and supported platforms. Servers nowadays are not expensive and can be acquired for under $2k for a basic setup.

Then you will need to add an UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) to protect your server from power fluctuations and dismal outs, a tape backup unit and software to set aside your precious data, extra memory to improve performance, extra hard disk drives for fault tolerance and protect your system from storage design failures.

Since everyone is on the internet today, you will be obtaining a broadband service in the accomplish of cable or dsl type connection, add a router, add a modem and you are nearly there.

You will need to procure an internet domain by registering it with any of the domain registrars available, a webhosting service for your website.

The internet domain is very significant because it defines your internet identity. Your email addresses will be setup according to your domain name.

This projects a professional image in comparison to a hotmail, gmail, yahoo or isp memoir. The email service can be an in-house type which is the best option or hosted at your ISP.

You will require applications loaded on your server and desktops, configure network security, user profiles, logon scripts etc.

As you can understand, even though it may seem a straight forward way, there are complexities in installing, setting up, maintaining a computer network. and would be best to utilize the services of an IT specialist.