วันพฤหัสบดีที่ 17 มกราคม พ.ศ. 2551

Computer Security and Availability

Computer Security and Availability [computer laptop security]

As people become more comfortable using computers, it seems that people's lives are being stored virtually on hard drives. Yet many people still do not take rudimentary actions to protect and back up their data. Having a backup for an emergency or securing your computer from intruders does not have to difficult or time consuming.

Think about all the music, text files, pictures, financial records, videos and other files that you have created or collected that is stored on your hard drive. What if that hard drive failed? Would you be able to recover those files? Would you want to? There is simply no reason not to have an external hard drive to back up your sensitive to. An external hard drive can make daily, weekly or monthly backups. You can set it to make backups on only those new files added to your computer or full backups every time. The software that controls the backup process is typically easy to use and very flexible. Do not be one of those people who suffers a hard drive crash only to realize that they did not have adequate copies of their files stored externally. Plan for the worst.[computer laptop security]

The protection of your data from unwanted intruders are accomplished with firewalls, virus protection and routers. Windows XP systems all have a built in firewall that should be turned on before the computer is connected to the internet. It is simply an On/Off button reached through the Network Properties Advanced tab. This built-in feature is not the most robust firewall available, but it is certainly better than not having one at all.

Virus protection is to be used to strengthen your computers defense against viruses, worms, adware and spyware. Viruses and worms can come from email and web sites. Adware and spyware typically come from web sites. Most viruses and worms can be thwarted simply by not opening email attachments or downloading a file that you are not 100% sure is legitimate. Spyware and adware can be a little more tricky to rid your computer of simply because so many websites are now using tracking software to get information on their website visitors. The more malicious of these programs can cause system degradation and even crashes. Always running virus protection and using software to periodically rid yourself of spyware and adware will help in the defense of your computer.

A more advance technique to protecting your computer is to use a router to reach the Internet. The Internet connection from your provider will be "routed" through the router. All your computers will then be connected to the router via wireless or wired connections. From an unwanted outsiders view they will only see the one public Internet address of the router, which in effect masks the addresses of the computers attached to it makes them virtually invisible.

You have spent a lot of time creating and collecting the files that are stored on your computer. It would be a shame to lose them simply because you did not take the necessary precautions to back up and protect all your data.[computer laptop security]

How to Use Windows XP "System Restore"

How to Use Windows XP "System Restore" [window laptop computer]

Well, we all have been there. We turn on our computer (boot up) getting ready to type that school report, or business presentation and guess what, our computer just does not want to work today. Whether it's the word processor, spreadsheet, or financial package that isn't working, most people do not know that Microsoft Windows XP has a built in feature that just may come and save the day. That feature is called "System Restore."

Basically, System Restore is like a little hound that runs behind the scenes taking "snapshots" of various parts of the Microsoft Windows XP operating system. So, if a part of Microsoft Windows XP stops working one day, the System Restore utility is able to reference one of the "snapshots" it took and restore your system from a previous day (a day when your computer worked). It's kind of like going back in time to a day when your computer worked. All your current data (Microsoft Word files, etc.) are still retained, so you don't have to worry about losing any present day files. [window laptop computer]

In order to restore your computer just follow these simple steps:

1. Close any open programs.
2. Click on the Windows "Start" button (normally located on the bottom of your computer desktop)
3. Click on "All Programs"
4. Click on "Accessories"
5. Click on "System Tools"
6. Then click on "System Restore"
7. At this point the System Restore wizard will launch. You will have two options:

a. "Restore my system from an earlier date"
b. "Create a system restore point"

If you just need to restore your system and get it working correctly again, just select option "a" and click "Next."

8. On this screen you can select a date from the calendar that you would like to try and restore from. So, if you knew that your computer worked fine two days ago, just pick that date on the calendar and click "Next."
9. The next screen is the confirmation window. Just verify the information on the screen and click "Next." Windows XP will then reboot and try to restore your system with the settings from the date you selected.

The System Restore process can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes depending on how much reconfiguration Windows XP needs to do and how fast of a PC you have. When System Restore is done, a screen will popup with the results of the restore. If it was successful, you can then log into the system and start using the computer again. Any quirky issues that you were having are now hopefully gone. [window laptop computer]

Now, on step 7b above, I mentioned the "Create a system restore point" option. This option is for when you want to force Windows XP to take a snapshot of your system just before you install a program or alter any system settings that you are not sure of. It is like a safety net for when you install any internet programs (sometimes riddled with spyware) or system drivers (video, audio, etc). If you want to revert back to a virgin state just create a restore point "before" installing any software. This way, if your machine starts acting weird, you can just restore your settings from the selected point.

With a little practice, the System Restore utility is easy to use and a great way to help ensure the safety of your computer.

Do the Differences in CPUs Really Matter?

Do the Differences in CPUs Really Matter? [Cpu laptop computer]

CPU manufacturing is one of the most competitive areas of computer world. In the end, the overall performance of your laptop or your desktop depends on your central processing unit. Parallel to the demands of the users, we can say that CPUs traveled a long way from 386s to P4s and AMDs.

The cache is generally the most decisive factor in the tradeoff equation between the price and performance. Considering the L2 cache on some of the chips, you can easily understand that Athlon, P4 and PIII, having 256K or more L2 cache are the once with higher performance, in other words power chips.

Looking at the budget chips, you immediately notice that Celeron has 128K and the Duron only has 64K. Celeron is actually almost like a PIII with half the cache disabled. These numbers shows that the main budget issue for CPU manufacturers is to put enough cash on the chip. [Cpu laptop computer]

You should consider the difference between the bus speeds: in the case of Athlon and P4, the bus speed between the Cache and the CPU can be 200 or 400 MHz respectively. This can give your system a major boost when you are using cache intensive utilities. The new CPUs are coming out with quad speed pushes and base 200MHz which results with 800MHz FSB like the new P4.

The numbers you would see under the name “Micron” in a CPU comparison table is basically the size of the transistors. As the number get smaller, the manufacturers can put more and more on the CPU die. The smaller transistors you have on your CPU, the smaller the CPU die becomes. The smaller the CPU die, less power is required and less heat is produced.

The CPU instruction set is the total code which tells your CPU how to process its data. The more sets you have on your CPU, the more efficient it is most likely to be. However, on this point Intel (Pentium) and AMD does not follow the same path. Intel made the first attempt to improve the basic instruction set by adding the MMX support for multimedia. [Cpu laptop computer]

The difference's between the CPU's are getting smaller as each company sees the advantages of their rivals technology and tries to either use or emulate it. It is really hard to choose which one is better. So a good advice would be let your wallet decide which CPU your system will use.