Pc Networks
By Emile Greyling
Opting to stick with older technology might seem like a cost-saving measure initially, but it often ends up draining your business profits. In this article, we’ll delve into the repercussions of relying on outdated technology and the toll it takes on your bottom line…
Do you want to know which programs are using your internet data?
By Emile Greyling / Kim Komando
Not everyone is fortunate enough to have uncapped internet all the time. Have you ever wondered where your monthly internet bandwidth has gone to?
Sometimes we are not even halfway through the month and all our data has been depleted.
Do you know what your computer is up to while you’re away, or what it’s doing right under your nose?
If you have a server or firewall on your network it makes this task much easier – since all internet traffic can be routed through the server / firewall and a detailed report can be generated on who accessed what sites and the amount of data that a specific user consumed during the month.
If you are a home user or if you do not own a server or firewall – internet monitoring and management becomes more difficult.
Home users and small business owners usually do not have the need to spend a large amount of money on internet monitoring, but they still want to have basic controls over what happens with their bandwidth.
Luckily there is a easy way to monitor where your data has gone.
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By Jeandre de Beer / Emile Greyling
It is really frustrating to find that your internet connection is down when you have important tasks to do.
Is the problem with your ADSL line, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or maybe with your modem or cables?
Your first reaction may be to repeatedly click the “reload” button in your browser, then maybe shake your fist at the screen in futility.
Rather try one of these 5 troubleshooting steps to find the problem.
1. Try opening another website
It is possible that the website you want to view is currently down. Try to open a well-known and reliable site like google.com or cnn.com
If they open – you know the problem is related to the specific website you are trying to open. If no websites open – try the following steps.
By Marco Horn / Reddit
The 13 best computer tricks everyone should know
1. Get back that tab you accidentally closed
If you want to get back a tab you closed, just press “Control” (or “Command” on Mac), plus “Shift,” plus “T,” and it will magically reappear.
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By Marco Horn / Yahoo Tech
5 Easy Ways to Get Your WiFi Running Faster
Can you relate? If you’re sick of cruddy WiFi — or, worse, dreaded dead zones — luckily there are plenty of other hacks and tools you can try.
Here are five easy ways to boost your WiFi router’s range and speed at home or at the office:
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By Marco Horn / Jeremy Laukkonen
When your USB ports suddenly stops working, the problem can always be tracked down to either a hardware or software failure. Some of these problems are the same across both Windows and Mac, while others are unique to just one or the other.
By Marco Horn / Jordan Baranowski
One of the best ways to keep printers and scanners working at optimal levels for longer is by giving them regular cleanings. If you notice streaky, blurry, smudged, or otherwise distorted images when printing documents or scanning images, here’s how to clean a printer or scanner yourself before opening up your wallet for a costly fix or replacement.
By Marco Horn / Tim Fisher
How Much Do You Charge per Hour?
Asking the cost of a service seems like a question you’d be unlikely to forget but I am always amazed by stories of customers in absolute shock at the hourly rate for a particular computer repair service — after the fact.
Rates vary, and so do charging schemes (some computer repair services are billed per service, don’t wait until it’s time to pay the bill to find out how much per hour you’ll be paying.
How to access your computer from anywhere using Chrome Remote Desktop
Looking for a quick and easy way to access your Windows, Mac or Linux machine from an Apple device, an Android device or even from another Windows, Mac or Linux machine?
If so, then there is one solution that works really, really well: Chrome Remote Desktop.
In order to use it, all you need is Google Chrome installed on your device.
After setting everything up, which we will explain below, you can access any of your computers from your device. This means you can remotely control your Windows machine from my iPhone, Nexus 6 and Mac laptop without having to worry about port forwarding, dynamic DNS, different operating systems or anything else.
The great advantage about using Google Chrome is that it takes about 5 minutes to setup and even less than that if you already have Chrome installed on your devices.
The first thing we need to do is install Google Chrome itself on your computers. Since Chrome can be installed on Windows, Mac or Linux, it means you can remotely access any of those systems too.
Once you have Chrome installed, you need to install the free Chrome Remote Desktop add-on. Click the Add To Chrome button at the very top right. A popup will appear with the permissions the app needs in order to work properly. Click Add App to continue if you’re OK with the permissions.
At this point, the app should be installed and a new tab should appear where you can see all the apps that have been installed in Chrome. If this tab doesn’t appear, just open a new tab and type in chrome://apps/ in the top address-bar.
By Jeandre de Beer / Pc World
Flash drives are easy to lose. And anything lost can fall into the wrong hands.
So if you’re carrying around sensitive information in your pocket, you need to make sure those files are encrypted.
Buy an encrypted drive
You can buy a flash drive with built-in encryption, such as the DataTraveler Locker+ G3. When you plug the Locker+ in, it comes up as a 13MB, read-only drive.
But once you launch the program file on that drive and enter the password that you previously setup, another drive opens up with all the storage space you paid for. That drive, of course, is inaccessible without the password.
The software runs off the drive, and it can be used on multiple computers and operating systems.
But I strongly recommend against using this drive’s optional cloud backup feature. It uses Dropbox, OneDrive, or whichever cloud service you pick, which at first glance seems like a nice convenience.
But this feature uploads the files without its own encryption. That means you’re trusting your sensitive files to the encryption capabilities of Dropbox and similar services, and they aren’t all that secure. Find another way to backup these files—preferably one where you can can control the encryption.
Install specialized software on your drive
