Discount Computers

Don’t be surprised but buying a laptop can be even harder than
buying a desktop computer. In fact, buying a computer is very
straightforward. Laptops, however, are very personal stuff
because it’s something that you will carry around with you and
sometimes act as more than just a computer for you to work on.
They become a companion! That’s why finding and selecting the
right laptop can be very tricky.

Hard core computer gamers or people who will use their laptops
for designing or video production may need more help than just
reading about buying laptops. For conventional laptop users,
here’s something for you to digest.

The price for laptops varies drastically from brand to brand.
Some laptops can cost $500 while some laptops can cost you
$6,000. Some entry-level (meaning basic laptops) can be bought
for between $600 and $900. If you grab a laptop off eBay or
other rebate or dropshipping websites, you might get a mid-range
laptop for far less than that.

Even for basic laptop users, the description and specifications
for the laptop is very, very important. If you’re not sure,
check around and ask your friends for advice on how to buy a
good laptop for the lowest price possible. You should be getting
a laptop that comes with AT LEAST 512 megabytes of memory. The
size of the memory ensures that your laptop can run multiple
programs smoothly. As for hard drive, invest in as big a hard
drive for your laptop as you can afford. Another thing that you
may have to look out before you invest in the laptop is to find
out how many USB ports that the laptop has. Most laptops come
with at least 2 USB ports, the more the better. If you use a
camera or thumb drive (disk key), this is where you insert the
cable – the USB ports. You don’t want to have to remove the USB
cable for your printer and mouse every time you try to save
pictures from your camera to your laptop! Some laptops come with
slots for camera memory cards, for instance, your compact flash
cards.

If you’re keen on getting a Windows based laptop, the security
of your laptop should be at the top of your priority lists.
Windows SP2 XP should be ideal because it comes with antispam,
antispyware, antipopups and antivirus programs. Some laptop
retailers may offer you cheap or free programs that you can
install into the laptop as a second layer protection to your
laptop.

Other factors to take into account when shopping for laptops are
the screen size, the life of the battery, the processor of the
laptop, screen and keyboard, wi-fi networking, size and weight
of the laptop.

Dakota Caudilla, journalist, and website builder Dakota Caudilla
lives in Texas. He is the owner and co-editor of
http://www.laptop-source.net on which you will find a longer,
more detailed version of this article.

About the author:
Dakota Caudilla, journalist, and website builder Dakota Caudilla
lives in Texas. He is the owner and co-editor of
http://www.laptop-source.net on which you will find a longer,
more detailed version of this article.

Summary: Could the mass media hype about computer viruses
actually make the problem worse?

If you believe what you hear in the media, there are an awful
lot of viruses going around. No, I\’m not talking about the
make-you-sick kind of virus, though they get plenty of airtime,
too. I\’m talking about the kind of virus that enters via your
internet connection rather than your nasal passages.

What the mainstream media often don\’t tell you–at least, in
most radio and television newscasts and in the crucial headlines
and opening paragraphs of newspaper articles– is that many of
these \”viruses\” are not viruses at all.

What Computer Viruses Really Are

The main reason the mainstream media always are in alarm over
viruses is that they tend to call any malicious computer program
a virus. In reality, there are at least eleven distinct types of
malicious software, or malware, commonly affecting computers
today. The most common of these are worms, Trojans, and spyware.

So, what\’s the difference between computer viruses and the other
types of malware? The difference is that computer viruses are
just about the only ones that regularly shut down computers and
cause other obvious damage. The most common of the other kinds
of malware–worms, Trojans, and spyware–are usually only
detectable with a special scan.

The Real Danger of Computer Viruses

If the other types of malware are so unobtrusive that they can
only be detected with a special scan, then what\’s to worry
about? For starters, these programs are called malicious for a
reason: they are designed to cause some kind of damage, if not
to your computer, then to someone else\’s.

Worms are most famously used to damage, destroy, or disrupt
other computer networks than the one on which the host computer
is located. For instance, worms have been used by website owners
to shut down rival websites by sending overwhelming numbers of
requests to the computer that hosts that website. Worms have
also been used to send out viruses to other computers, often
without infecting the host machine–after all, what would it
benefit the worm to shut down its host computer?

Trojans, in turn, are often used to insert worms and other
malware on your computer, even if the Trojan itself does no
damage.

But even if you don\’t care what happens to anyone else, you
should still be concerned about one kind of malware: spyware, a
kind of malware that, true to its name, collects data from your
computer and sends it back to a remote host.

Most spyware is only interested in monitoring your internet
usage so it can tell other programs, called adware, what
advertising to popup on your computer. However, there are
criminal spyware programs that steal financial data, or perform
a thorough identity theft. Don\’t think you have personal or
financial data on your computer? Some spyware programs contain a
keylogger, which is a program that copies whatever you type,
usually in order to snatch passwords. Even if you keep no
financial information on your computer, if you ever buy anything
over the web, the keylogger would allow its owner to buy stuff
using the same information you typed in to buy stuff yourself.

Why Blame the Media?

Given the danger of all these different types of malware, isn\’t
it a good thing that the mass media are becoming hysterical
about it? And can\’t they be forgiven the sloppy reporting of
calling Trojans, worms, spyware, and other malware \”viruses\”?

No, no, no.

This is a classic case of bad reporting doing more damage than
no reporting at all. In this case, the damage bad reporting has
done is to promote a common myth that goes something like this:
\”The only malicious software is a virus. Viruses damage your
computer. Therefore, if my computer is working OK, my computer
has no malicious software. I only need to scan my computer for
problems when there is a sign of problems.\”

Thanks to this myth, many people complacently let their
antivirus software go months out of date, not wanting to be
bothered with scheduling an automatic update. Just as bad, many
people don\’t have any extra software to combat the other types
of malware that may not be covered by antivirus software.

In fact, it\’s not uncommon for people who have found malware on
their computers after a scan to say, \”but I never had malware on
my computer before!\” But how would they have known if they had
never scanned!

Until the biggest mainstream media–and especially
television–start educating the public about the need to have
their computers automatically scanned at least daily, the world
will continue to have major, drawn-out problems with malware
that could have been wiped out as soon as soon as the
anti-malware software makers discovered it.

And until that day, the mainstream media will have many more
opportunities to run hysterical stories about \”viruses,\” thereby
forcing them to sell more newspapers and broadcast to even
larger audiences of people who suck at the information trough
yet somehow never become full.

About the author:
Joel Walsh writes on all types of malware for
spyware-refuge.com:
http://www.spyware-refuge.com?%20adware%20spyware%20program
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for above URL/web address w/ link text/anchor text: \"adware
spyware program\" OR leave this bracketed message intact.]

Home networks are becoming more common. If you have never heard
network terminology device names like router, hub, etc may seem
confusing. This article explains what makes up a home network.

Home networks are becoming more common. People want to be able
to share a single broadband Internet connection to several
computers in the house. There are many different devices that
you can use to make up your home network. If you have never
heard network terminology device names like router, hub, etc may
seem confusing.

The purpose of most of these devices are to control how the
network passes around information. This information is sent in
the form of \”packets\”. I will refer to the term packet several
times in this article. It simply means the data that the network
is transporting. I will now explain the purpose of the major
components of a home network.

What is a Hub

A hub is a device that has several Ethernet ports on the back of
the device. One of these ports will likely be labeled “Uplink”.
This port allows you to connect multiple hubs together, if you
run out of ports on your hub. If you do not have an uplink port
on your hub, the hub can not be easily extended if you run out
of ports.

A hub is a device that attaches multiple computers on an
Ethernet network. If you have a number different computers that
you want to connect together, you could connect each to the hub.
Any packet that is sent out by any computer on the network will
immediately be transmitted to the other computers. Each computer
will determine if the packet was really intended for it, and
filter out packets that were intended for other computers.

You really should not use a hub in a modern home network. You
should always use a switch in place of a hub. Switches will be
discussed in the next section.

What is a Switch

A switch is a device that has several Ethernet ports on the back
of the device. One of these ports will likely be labeled
“Uplink”. This port allows you to connect multiple switches
together, if you run out of ports on your switch. If you do not
have an uplink port on your switch, the switch can not be easily
extended if you run out of ports.

A switch serves the same function as a hub. It allows you to
connect multiple computers together, so that they can exchange
packets. However, a switch is much more efficient than a hub. A
switch will only send Ethernet packets to the computer that the
packet was intended for. Because of this you should always use a
switch in place of a hub.

What is a Router

A router is a device that has several Ethernet ports on the back
of the device. One of the connectors will be labeled WAN. You
should connect the WAN port to the Ethernet connection on a
broadband source, such as a cable or DSL modem. The other ports
on the router can be connected other computers or switches/hubs
that will share the WAN connection.

Routers allow you to share your broadband connection with
multiple computers in your house. Rather than connecting your
computer directly into your cable or DSL modem you connect the
router to the cable or DSL modem. Now any computer that you
connect to the router will have access to the Internet.

If you run out of ports on your router you can always connect an
additional switch to the router. To connect a switch to a router
simply connect the switch’s \”uplink\” port to one of the routers
Ethernet ports. Of course, don’t connect to the router’s WAN
port. The WAN port should only be connected to something such as
a cable or DSL router.

Some routers come with additional features installed. Most
routers also include a firewall. Firewalls are discussed in the
next section. Some routers will also include a wireless access
point (WAP). The WAP allows you to use wireless devices, such as
wireless laptops, with the Internet.

What is a Firewall

A firewall controls traffic flow between your network and the
Internet. A firewall can be either hardware or software. Windows
XP SP2 or higher includes a software firewall. A hardware
firewall is included with most routers.

A firewall is a very good idea. It can protect you from inbound
virus attempts. By inbound virus attempt I mean other computers
that will connect to your computer and attempt to infect your
computer. You do not want to run a computer directly connected
to the Internet, without a firewall. There are just too many
other computers out there that can connect and infect you
without you even noticing.

What is a Network Attached Storage (NAS)

A network attached storage device is s device that allows a hard
drive to be shared across the network. This hard drive is NOT
attached to any of your computers. It is simply made available
by the NAS. This can be a convent way to add a hard drive that
can be accessed by several computers on your network. The other
common way to add a network hard drive is to simply share a
folder on one of your computers. However, with the NAS, you do
not need to keep one of your computers on at all times.

There are two types of NAS commonly available. The first type
comes with a build in hard drive. The second accepts a USB or
Firewire external hard drive. The advantage to using a USB or
Firewire hard drive is that you can upgrade the hard drive if it
ever were to become too small.

What is a Print Server

Just like you can buy a device to allow you to share a hard
drive, you can do the same with a printer. A print server
connects directly to your printer. Your printer is then shared
to all of your computers on the network. This is convent because
you do not need to leave the printer hooked to a computer, which
must be turned on to print.

Conclusions

As you can see there are many different components. Perhaps the
final component that I have yet to mention is the cable. These
components are connected together with CAT5 Ethernet cable.

You are now ready to pick out the components for your home
network!

About the author:
Jeff Heaton is author,
consultant and college instructor. Jeff maintains the \”Heaton
Research\” website that contains many Java tutorials and
other computer programming information.