Discount Computers

Too many computer users neglect to do the basic maintenance of
their computer. The result is a clear path to their personal
information. Hackers are diligently at work everyday trying to
find the weakness in your system so that they may be able to
steal your personal information. Others would simply like to
create trouble and destroy your hard drive.

There is a wide variety of protective software available, such
as adware removers, antivirus tools, keypatrol agents, spyware
blasters and so on. These are effective only if put to good use.

Think of yourself as a pilot doing a pre-flight inspection. The
pilot is responsible for doing a thorough inspection of his
airplane before any passenger boards the plane. He needs to be
sure that all safety precautions have been taken to guarantee
that all mechanical and electronic devices are working and that
the mechanical inspections are up to date. He needs to verify
that the aircraft is in good operating condition. Once the plane
is off, it is too late to start wondering if such and such a
device is working properly.

Your computer is your responsibility. Just like a pilot needs to
go through a checklist, you also should make yourself a
checklist of things to verify before you surf the Internet. Once
connected, it is too late to realize that your system is not up
to the challenge. If your system is not checked, if you are
vulnerable to the attacks, you could pay a severe price.

You need to purchase good tools for this job. It is acceptable
to try free tools to evaluate their quality but once you have
found a good tool, purchase it and put it to work.

One of the biggest problems for the average computer owner
resides in the fact that he/she simply refuses to take the time
to read about their new tool. They would like to simply buy it,
install it and never think about it again. You need to take the
time to educate yourself on the functioning of any tool you buy.

Generally software is well written by qualified programmers.
Professionally written software will include all the
instructions that you need to obtain the best performance of the
tool. If this is not the case, keep on searching. Go to a
trusted site such as CNET and read the comments from other users
about the tool you are thinking of buying. Take the time needed
to do good research and remember you are putting all your
information at risk when you connect to the Internet.

Once you are confident that the software you are purchasing is
of the highest quality, then take your time and read all the
documentation provided. Once you have done this, and only then,
install the software. Make sure to add the tool to your list of
daily maintenance.

If you have not done so yet, locate and read all the recommended
procedures for the software that protects your computer.

Create a text file and save it on your desktop. You will want
this file to contain your checklist of things to do everyday
before you start surfing the Internet.

Here is a possible list of the things that should be done before
you start surfing:

1) Check your antivirus for updates. Regularly run your
antivirus. If at any time your antivirus locates a virus, you
need to update your antivirus, disconnect from the Internet and
do a full scan of your computer with the updated antivirus.
Always make sure your antivirus is actively protecting your
computer.

2) Clean your computer cache and your temporary files. You can
pick up software for this at CNET: http://www.cnet.com

3) Clean your history

4) Update your adware remover. Run your adware remover. Again
you can try free adware removers from CNET but please buy the
full package when you find one that you know will protect you.
You truly need all the functions of the software, not just a
portion of the functions which is usually the case with Trial
Version software.

5) Update your firewall and check the settings. Some clever
hackers can change the settings of your computer, therefore
putting you at risk.

6) Check for mail protection agents and make sure that they are
active.

7) Run a scandisk

Update your browser

This is a sample list. Create one that applies to your computer
and to the software installed on it. Keep your list updated and
make sure that you do what you put on your list. Creating a list
and not following it will be of no use.

We cannot totally protect ourselves against the perils of the
Internet but we can at least make sure that we do all that we
can. Take the proper precautions and you too can have a safe
journey on the Internet.

About the author:

Jay is the web owner of http://www.dsl-in.com DSL, a website that provides
information and resources on DSL, DSL Service, and DSL Service
Providers. You can visit his website at: DSL Service

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.

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.

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.

About the author:

Jay is the web owner of http://www.dsl-in.com DSL, a website that provides
information and resources on DSL, DSL Service, and DSL Service
Providers. You can visit his website at: DSL Service

What happens if you don’t give your vehicle regular oil changes?
What kind of results can you expect if you don’t ever change the
spark plugs on your lawn mower? How do you think your computer
will run if you don’t perform regular maintenance on it? The
answer in all cases is: It won’t run very well.

If your computer is running sluggish, if it periodically needs
to be rebooted or doesn’t boot up as quickly as it used to, it
sounds like it’s time for a Clean Up. The following instructions
below will give you step by step instructions on how to ensure
your PC continues to operate at its fullest potential. These
instructions are relevant for machines running Windows XP and
using Internet Explorer.

To begin, open up Internet Explorer, that’s the blue lower case
letter “e”, generally shown in the lower left corner of your
screen. Next click on the word Tools up at the top of your
screen. Once open, click Internet Options. In the middle of that
box you’ll see a section called Temporary Internet Files. Click
the Delete Files button. Click the box Delete offline content
too, then OK. Once that is done, click the Delete Cookies button
within the Temporary Internet Files section. Click OK there too.

Next click the Settings button. Check for newer versions of
stored pages should be clicked to Automatically if it isn’t
already. Change the Amount of Disk Space to use to 8MB. Click OK
twice.

Next go to the green Start button in the very lower left corner
of your screen. Click My Programs, Accessories, System Tools,
Check Disk Clean up. Use offline content or anything else it
asks. It will take a few moments while it is checking how much
space it can clean up. When you get the new pop-up window, make
sure there are checks in every box. Click OK

After running Disk Clean up, go to Ad-Aware, update and run the
program. If you don’t have Ad-Aware SE Personal, it’s a free
very comprehensive spyware removal tool and it’s remarkably
simple to use. You can download it through Lavasoft
http://www.lavasoft.de/support/download/ Highly recommended.
After running Ad-Aware, reboot your computer.

You should perform the above maintenance about once a week. Then
on an as-needed basis, run Disk Defrag, which you can find in
Start, My Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Disk Defrag.

By following the above simple steps your computer should
continue to run at optimum performance!

About the author:

Jay is the web owner of http://www.dsl-in.com DSL, a website that provides
information and resources on DSL, DSL Service, and DSL Service
Providers. You can visit his website at: DSL Service