talkingDigital

Every January, I spend several days per week setting up new computers. Some people receive them as gifts for Kwanzaa or one of the other Winter festivals, others just take advantage of the great prices this time of year.

Setting up a new computer correctly can be one of the most important factors in how your computer performs the rest of its life. Here are a few tips to help you along the way.

1. Don’t tear down your old computer all at once. Only take away the big pieces and leave the cables in place.

Many of the same cables can be reused and this will prevent having to re-string wires. Power cords, modem cables, and USB cables haven’t changed so there is no need to use the new ones that came in the box.

2. Put the big pieces in place before hooking wires together. This will prevent having to attach cables more than once. Make sure that all of the devices will fit in their spaces and cords are long enough.

3. Hook up all other cables before plugging in power cords.

POWER EVERYTHING ON

4. When prompted, give as little information as possible. You don’t need to register with Windows, you don’t need to tell it what kind of Internet you are using, you don’t need to type in a name for each person who will be using the computer and, whatever you do, don’t put in any passwords before the system is completely up and running.

If you are asked to put in a password for your user account, just leave it blank.

5. Don’t let any teenagers do anything besides hook up the pieces. Getting the software in place is critical before you let a teenager loose on the system.

6. Uninstall all of the crap software. Take off all Norton or McAfee software as well as any other software that you don’t want. Look for the Trial version of Microsoft Office and make sure to take that off as well.

7. Download and Install AVG free edition .

8. Run Windows update from the Tools menu in Internet Explorer or top of the Programs menu.

9. Download and install Mozilla Firefox and remove the icon for Internet Explorer from the your desktop as well as any other icons that you don’t need.

10. If this is your first computer, setup a free email account at gmail.com. This will likely be the last email address you will ever need. If you have another email address, use it to give away to solicitors and prize applications.

You will then have a computer that will surf the web safely, run cleaner and have far fewer problems than if you had run it with all included software and settings.

I have had to fight back tears of joy as I put the newsletter together. At times I could barely read what was on my screen. The anticipation for changes in my life has probably lead to many misspellings and errors, but you may not notice as those errors probably still fall within our guaranteed 78 percent accuracy range.

I have looked forward to this day for almost a year – and it finally has come.

Early this year, Microsoft released Windows Vista. I knew that it wouldn’t be great, but as a computer guy, I felt compelled to use it so that I would understand how too work on it.

I didn’t want to commit my desktop to it just in case there were problems. So, I put it on my Averatec laptop with 1 gig of RAM, a dual core AMD Turion X64 and 100 gig hard drive. It seemed powerful enough.

Many Averatecs didn’t come with recovery CDs, but I didn’t see a problem with erasing Windows XP to make room for Vista.

It only took a few moments of using Windows Vista to realize how much slower my computer had become. The bootup time had more than doubled and I would get all shake y as I waited for it to shut down.

Programs opened slowly. I was sometimes able to connect to a wireless connection, yet I was not able to actually browse the web on networks that I knew were open because the XP systems right beside me were working fine.

Then two weeks ago Rick showed me something that would change my life. Averatec had posted Windows XP recovery disks for my laptop. I wasted no time and for $20, I ordered the disks.

Today, my disks arrived in the mail. I haven’t installed them yet because I can’t bring myself to stop hugging and kissing them. I should get to bed early tonight, but I feel like a kid on Christmas. I don’t know if I can wait any longer. I must install XP back on my laptop and make it feel loved again.

Thank you Averatec. Thank you for giving me back my Windows XP.

It has been a big week for me. I dumped my DSL and moved back to cable Internet.

I didn’t do it for price or performance. I did it because the phone lines in my house keep shorting out and the phone company said it would cost nearly $300 to fix the problem. So, I jumped to cable phone and Internet service and dumped the phone company.

Changing Internet services is a painless process. I thought I would write this week about how to get broadband Internet service at the best rate and make the process easy.

First, there are three types of broadband to consider if you live in a populated area. If you live on the outskirts, your only option may be satellite Internet. The only people who should consider satellite Internet are people who live in the toolies and RV folks.

Everyone else should stick with cable, DSL or microwave wireless service.

Here’s a breakdown of the differences:

Cable – fastest and typically the most expensive option unless bundled with other services such as TV or phone service.

DSL – Tiered service offers different speeds at different prices, but all are faster and better than dial-up.

Microwave wireless – typically about as fast as the slowest DSL (around 256k) for standard service and faster speeds are available at an increased cost. Great if other options are not available.

If speed doesn’t matter, as all are at least 10X faster than dial-up, price will likely be the deciding factor in which service to go with. Shop around. Make sure to ask the following questions:

• What is the absolute lowest price I can get broadband Internet for?
• Is this price a promotion?
• What else do I have to commit to to get this price?
• How fast is this service?

These questions will not rule any service out, they will just help you compare apples to apples.

Once you have found the best price, go with it. Don’t worry if it is only a limited time offer. At the end of the term you can switch to one of the other services for roughly the same price.

Hopping back and forth between companies and services is easy as long as you set up a new email address with gmail, yahoo or hotmail.com. Switching to one of these free services will mean that you will never have to change you email address again.

If you are an AOL or MSN user, go ahead and cancel your dial-up service. AOL and MSN both work for free once you have broadband even if you cancel.

Following this advice and jumping from one service to another will stimulate competition in the broadband market and thus lower prices. The US has the most expensive broadband fees of any developed (and most under developed) countries. As long as people stick with the same service even after costs have gone up, the industry will see no reason to change their methods.

Rick wrote a great article on how to save money on your telecommunications bill a few months ago. Click here to read that article.