Category: Computers & Networking

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Poor WiFi Signal At Home? A WiFi Extender Can Help!

Most homes don’t have network cables running to each room, so many of us rely on WiFi to connect our devices while at home. The problems begin when the ISP installs our router / WiFi box in a less than optimal location, and usually it can not be easily moved. This is where a simple WiFi extender can augment your existing signal and extend the reach of your home network to every corner of your house even the back yard.

How WiFi Extenders Work?

Router
Blue = Main Router Yellow = Extender

In its simplest form a WiFi extender is just a repeater. The extender is listing for a signal from your home WiFi router and repeats that signal “LOUDER” in an area of your home that is not hearing your main WiFi signal. Basically just relaying the information between your device and the main router. Think of the extender as a “man in the middle”

Where Do I Place My Extender?

extend me
2nd Floor WiFi Extender

The first step to installing a WiFi Extender is obviously setup. Some models have a touch screen to allow for a quick and easy setup. Others can be connected to your PC via USB to input settings or can be connected over WiFi. Once the setup has been completed it is important to select the proper location. You need to find Continue reading “Poor WiFi Signal At Home? A WiFi Extender Can Help!”

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Protect Your Computer From Ransomware!

Ransomware! Sounds scary doesn’t it? What exactly is ransomeware and how can we protect ourselves from being a victim?

ran·som

/ˈransəm/

a sum of money or other payment demanded or paid for the release of a prisoner.
That basically sums it up, Money paid for the release of a prisoner and in this case the prisoner is your data. You accidentally visit a shady website, or open an attachment that you maybe shouldn’t have and in an instant the ransomware virus begins encrypting your files.

How does it work?

Continue reading “Protect Your Computer From Ransomware!”

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Don’t believe the hype – MP3 is NOT Dead!

What did we do before MP3? I remember the early years using my Dolby high speed dubbing tape decks to make copies of the tapes my friends and I used to share. Not too soon after came the Compact Disc, and I ran out to buy a Pentium 60mhz with a 2x CD-Recorder to make my mix CD’s.

I was amazed that we could “rip” huge wav files off the CD’s and play them back on the PC. But disk space was at a premium in the 90’s, due to the limited capacity of hard drives.

There had to be a better way to store music! That’s when a friend introduced me to the MP3 format. Full length songs at decent quality only 3mb – 5mb! WOW this was amazing, think of the possibilities.  There were no portable MP3 players yet, I found myself taking a laptop in the car hooked to an FM transmitter to listen to my music.

My car MP3 Player Website

I even marketed a CD on eBay for $10 that had plans for a car MP3 Player Just imagine putting a computer in a pizza box in the trunk of your car, running a PS/2 cable to a numeric keypad and mounting a 40 character display to your dash board with a parallel cable.   It was good business until the portable MP3 players began to arrive about a year later.

A BRIEF TRIP DOWN THE PORTABLE MP3 PLAYER MEMORY LANE

Continue reading “Don’t believe the hype – MP3 is NOT Dead!”

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Weekend Project – Repairing & Emulating the Commodore 64

The Commodore 64 was not only one of my favorite computers it was my first computer. Over the life span of the C64 I broke quite a few of them due to the poor quality of early deigns. This may have been a good thing because it lead to taking them apart and attempting to repair the units insuring my life long love of computers and consumer electronics.

Sometimes I was successful at my repair endeavor and many times not so much. Repairing the Commodore 64 became as much a hobby as programming the computer.

If you still have one of these dinosaurs in your basement and want to fire it up to show the kids take a look at this great PDF file I found on the Internet. It could prove to be helpful.

Feel Free To Download The Service Manual PDF Here

The service manual is dated March 1992 and that was about the year the C64 went out of production.  It is actually very complete with lots of hand drawn schematics and theory of circuit operation. Parts numbers and chip / port pin outs are also listed. Basically everything you need to troubleshoot and fix that old computer and fire up the BASIC V2 screen we all remember so well. Continue reading “Weekend Project – Repairing & Emulating the Commodore 64”

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How to make an image of your USB drive

Every now and then I stumble across a piece of software that is well written, extremely useful and FREE. Today I’m going to talk about Image USBDuring the day I am responsible for a staff of help desk technicians that are continuously upgrading and repairing PC’s. They like to have their Windows 10 install media on a bootable USB drive.   Lately the industry is shying away for optical disk drives, so bootable USB install media is a must.

Why can’t I just copy the files from one drive to another?

To “BOOT” from USB media the disk needs to have a boot sector. Think of the boot sector as a hidden area on the drive that the gives the computer specific instructions that it can only see at startup. Once the operating system is running you can easily copy your files from one drive to the other, however the hidden boot information is a little more difficult

What is special about ImageUSB?

Continue reading “How to make an image of your USB drive”

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Great Deal – PURE VPN Service for 73% off

As you may know from reading this blog I am a huge advocate of protecting online privacy. You the user should have a choice of who or what can monitor your Internet activity. I have already covered articles regarding the governments stance on Internet Privacy. Internet Privacy – Should you care?  and also about using Tor as a method to keep your browsing habits secret.  How Tor can keep your online identity private. I just wanted to reiterate how essential a VPN can be in keeping your browsing and online identity private. However you have to choose a service provider wisely. This is why I am recommending Pure VPN.

Pure VPN:  – Great price / Great Service

Continue reading “Great Deal – PURE VPN Service for 73% off”

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Software Review – Ninite Install and Update All Your Programs at Once

Ninite is one of my favorite software packages of all time. Working in the IT field, my friends and neighbors are constantly asking me to fix, repair and upgrade their home computers. I guess you can call it an occupational hazard. If you have ever rebuilt a PC before you know that its not an overly difficult task, but it is time consuming installing software package after software package.

This is where Ninite.com comes in.

A quick visit to their home page will reveal the most popular open source and free applications for your PC. Everything from 7-zip and iTunes to VLC Media player and Java.  Simply check off each application that you would like installed on your workstation and then click the “Get Your Ninite” button to begin the download and install.

Yes, it’s that simple! The software will start working as soon as its run, automatically selecting all the default options for each application and install in the default folder.  While the install is running, sit back and relax. The software does all its work in the background and will not ask to reboot. Continue reading “Software Review – Ninite Install and Update All Your Programs at Once”

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Amazon adds a screen to Alexa – Calling it Echo Show

I guess this is the natural evolution for the Alexa digital assistant. Poor Alexa has been trapped in that cylinder all these years. Now with the latest version from Amazon, the Echo Show can see you and “show” you things. I have had the original Amazon Echo from day one. My family and I have found it very useful, weather we use her for homework help or to get the scores of the New York Ranger game or just to simply play Jeopardy.

Check out the new Echo Show At Amazon

What can Alexa Show – “Show You?”

The most interesting new feature is the access to video and voice calling. Basically this is a face time clone, however it takes it one step further with the new “Drop In” feature. This new feature is designed to auto accept a call  giving you a 10-second window to reject. I can see this being useful if you want to check in on an elderly  family member, or check in on the kids after school. Continue reading “Amazon adds a screen to Alexa – Calling it Echo Show”

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Build Your Own Google Home Assistant – Google AIY & Raspberry Pi

As a huge fan of the Raspberry Pi, I’m always looking for cool new projects to try. Google had released a free hardware kit with Issue 57 of the MagPi magazine. The kit included a Pi Voice Hat, a microphone board, speaker, a “traditional google” card board case and various bits to put it all together. Apparently this is Google’s answer the Raspberry Pi Amazon Echo that was released last year.

If you were lucky enough to get your hands on the kit, I hope you put it to good use. They were in limited supply and are sold out at this point. Maybe they will make another run and sell them in the Google store?

If you still want to try this project with out the kit you can! Google has published instructions.

Supplies you will need

 

Raspberry Pi 3 Model B and power supply

Continue reading “Build Your Own Google Home Assistant – Google AIY & Raspberry Pi”

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Tell The FCC to Save Net Neutrality – Watch this John Oliver video.

If you watched John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight on HBO this past Sunday you would have seen his amazing rant about the proposed changes to FCC rules regarding how they classify Internet Service Providers. In a nut shell if FCC rolls back the Obama era legislation the ISP’s will no longer have to follow any Net Neutrality rules.

Watch this video –

Be sure to visit the page GOFCCYOURSELF.COM

What exactly is “Net Neutrality”

Continue reading “Tell The FCC to Save Net Neutrality – Watch this John Oliver video.”

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