So, You Want An Upgrade?
My computer used to work fine. It's too slow. I need a new computer. I hear it all the time. Well let me at it I would say. Before you purchase a new system from me, you might be suprised to find yours is already well above the mark, and often it was, just loaded full of crap.
The first thing you should do is clean up your current system, give it a full service to diagnose whether it is your computer and find out if you really do need a replacement.
I have no idea how to do that.
Understanding computers is a complicated process as you are no-doubt aware but the pointers you pick-up along the way will help to understand how it all works. My full service method described later will find and remove and repair Spyware, Virus and Adware type programs from your system. This will free up resources being used by these programs and will let you truly determine whether or not you need to upgrade. You should read and consider all of this information I provide here before doing the actual service.
Now The No-Nonsense Guarantee
I am NOT charging you for this information. I am providing you with the methods I've used for years to perform all of my successful services so I know for sure each of my methods works as described. I have no idea how your head works and I aint pressing the keys on your keyboard so i'm providing NO GUARANTEES whatsoever here. In fact if you stuff it up, YOU stuff it up and must take all responsibility for it so please make sure that you understand any process you undertake, BEFORE you undertake it.
I do have a service CD for $AU50 and I provide timely backup through Bendigo Live Chat, MSN & Yahoo chat is also available upon request -with the CD-ROM, for extra personal service.
NOTE: Removing some virus may render a system unusable and will need an original Windows ™ CD in order to replace virused files.
Click here for my service instructions or read on to find more answers to questions I am asked.
Now Where Was I..?
That's right, the upgrade, now don't get me wrong, there are other factors that can cause a system to slow down and in RARE cases there are reasons to upgrade, but from experience I can tell you MOST systems are infected with at least one piece of malicious software (malware)
which is now sucking up all of your computer's resources.
Hmm, could I be infected with something?
Have a think about the day you first brought the computer. Was it fast enough then? What's happened since then? To start with, you have been connected to the net for a while now! Aaar, you say... that's right! the problems started after I was connected...
So what has that got to do with it?
Welcome to the world of networking...
The Unique I. P. Address
Bear with me, this is stuff you need to learn. Your computer is equipped with its own unique address which is needed to tell your computer apart from every other computer.
When it is connected to any other computer this I.P. address is used to work out exactly which computer you want to send and / or receive data to, and from.
A local area network (often called just LAN for short) is one computer connected to other computers via a network cable. A "LAN" is usually a "
network contained within the one building".
Using a network card and a long network lead to connect the computers together, 2 computers can be placed in separate rooms, or even between separate floors, giving the users ability to access and use both computers.
Can I Run more than 2 computers?
More computers can be added to the network with the addition of a hub (router). This device will route the computer data to the correct I.P. addresses. Hubs come in all sizes from a 4 port hub through to hundreds of ports.
How fast does it work?
Network data is worked out in megabytes. Older network cards will run at speeds of up to 10 megabytes per second. Newer network cards will run at 100 megabytes per second. This is the total amount of information that can be transferred at any one time via the cable.
Now that network lead, you could say that the data passing through it represents the pipes of your plumbing, you turn on the tap and 100 megabytes of water per second can flow through it. That's quite a lot.
What can be done across a network?
With the right software, you can do anything on a networked computer, even on another floor, that you can do on your own computer, as if you were in front of it.
Then What Is A Wan?
Okay, so I'm not asked this one but I thought I would throw it in to conclude this bit! A wide area network (WAN) gives users the ability to join LANS together to create its namesake. Users of a WAN are inhouse, ie: only users connected to the inhouse network can access the other computers on the network. This can be across several buildings or even global.
What Is The Internet?
The Internet is pretty much the same thing as a WAN but on a much wider scale. The Internet is a worldwide WAN which anybody can access any computer on the network, including yours if they know your I.P. address.
Windows™ already has all of the protocols needed to open your computer up to the Internet. In fact, Windows comes pre-shipped with a few extra holes that some people are using to hack into your computer.
So now, you know that by connecting to the Internet you have just let the world into your computer and expect that your computer will still work the same as it used to..? der NO!, well that's not likely to happen is it? Do Internet terrorists really exist?
Even if they don't know your address, hackers are happy to simply send out a million signals (called pinging) to a given range of I.P. numbers (hopefully not yours) and they wait until they get the right response from one of the pings. Usually they find an unwary suspect within a short time and could be tied up going through their victims hard drive for weeks, meantime leaving you alone...
That is why we use a firewall program which puts up a barrier between your connection and your computer. If hackers do a "ping" on your IP number it stops them from getting any further. Within time hackers will find ways to circumvent them but in the meantime, they will simply move on to an easier victim because that's much easier and there's still so many of them to be found...
Who are these hackers?
The biggest hackers are not some fat balding guy sitting all alone behind his computer and whizz-kids have learnt better tricks these days. No, unwittingly or not, some of the biggest names are participating in the home PC hacker trade. And... talk about a mountain into a molehill, you might be as suprised as me to find out that Sony™ recently caused a not-so-big storm with its latest music CD releases. It had created some nasty software to stop its listeners copying their CDs.
The big problem was that when Windows™ users installed the Sony software, it opened up a brand new hole in Windows which hackers could then break-in to your computer to drop in a malicious virus or other not-so-nice little present.
Because you needed to install the CD on a computer in order to view the moving pictures, users were unwittingly giving permission for the nasty copy-protection program to open up these new Windows holes.
Even worse, the fact it was a whole new type of hole, rendered existing firewall programs useless as all checked only the known Windows holes. Any data now passing through that hole, no matter what it is, can be freely passed without fear of being sprung. The Sony software purposefully opens up the holes it requires so it can hide itself and secretly report back to Sony that you are playing their music CD. Experts have shown this is permanently running in background, recording IPs and using up system resources.
