Trucker Tech

Spring-Cleaning for Your PC, Part 2

Spring is a good time to clean things up around the house, or your truck, and you shouldn't forget your laptop! If you want to keep things working smoothly then it's imperative that you keep things physically and digitally clean; and a clean laptop will just last longer. In this economy, there's no reason to shorten the life of anything but, with something as expensive as your laptop, it should be considered a priority.

PC Magazine has two good articles on the subject entitled, not surprisingly, Spring-Cleaning for Your PC, Part 1 and Part 2. Check 'em out and clear the clutter!!

Ask Leo!

For quite some time, now, I've been subscribed to a newsletter published by Leo Notenboom. He's become my guru. If I have a question about something...well...something computer related...the first thing I do is visit the Ask Leo! website. His newsletter arrives promptly Tuesday morning and it's always filled with lots of interesting stuff. Some stuff more interesting, to me, than others but, always, there's at least one interesting tidbit that I find useful. Here's a question from today's edition:

I can't pass a firewall test, what should I do?

How important is it to test your firewall with a firewall test? I've read about many firewall tests like Shields Up, and I've thought about using them. I know that firewall tests check for open ports, so how do ports become open and vulnerable in the first place? Is there really any way to avoid that? I do not use my computer for much other than simple surfing and I never download anything. I have my firewall set on learning mode. Would a firewall test be more important for someone who downloads, plays games, etc?

I read that many of these tests are easy to fail for reasons most casuals users would not understand. I do not understand very much about firewalls and do not understand some settings enough to change them. I would not want to take a firewall test for it to tell me I've failed, and then spent days trying to figure out why, when in truth my firewall is fine.

Leo's Answer:

"I love Steve Gibson, and his firewall testing utility Shields Up, I really do. Unfortunately Steve's taken a rather extreme position in how he reports your firewall's status - anything less that total invisibility is labeled with a big red "FAILED".

"In my opinion that's both impractical, and unnecessarily alarming for the average user.

"But the test itself, which I FAILED right here at home, returns some very valuable information nonetheless.

"Continue reading: "I can't pass a firewall test, what should I do?""

Final Thoughts

Because I know his newsletter always has at least one, and usually more, interesting questions and answers I'm planning on making this little entry a weekly thing (assuming it's okay with Leo!). I'll only be posting one or two bits from the newsletter, though, and I'd urge you to subscribe. You can sign up at http://newsletter.ask-leo.com.

Switching to Apple? Here's some tips...

Yesterday, I mentioned my transformation from an anti-Apple guy to iGuy. Well, I'm not completely there. I still prefer my Windows based PCs to those of Apple. Yes, Apple has definitely got some things going for it but, in the end, I'm used to Windows and, really, after spending some time at the Mac store the other day, I'm not convinced that "if you go Mac you'll never look back".

Still, Mac's got a lot going for it and there's every reason to believe you might be interested in making the switch; trading in your wool slacks, tie and button-down collar for faded jeans and a sweat-shirt. If you're considering making the switch, or if you've recently done so, I think you'll find this PC Magazine article, Tips for Making the Switch to Apple, to be extremely enlightening.

Spring-Cleaning for Your PC, Part I

Spring-cleaning isn't just about your closet and that crevice between the fridge and stove--your PC needs a tune-up, too. Fortunately there are a few simple steps you can take, and utilities you can use, to de-clutter your machine. Check 'em out on PCMag.com.

Great Tech Support Sites

Sometimes I wonder how my brain is organized. I don't generally spend a lot of time analyzing it, though, because I always come to the same conclusion: it isn't. Just look at my blog posts; there's absolutely no rhyme or reason to them. I should have some plan rather than just blogging away about the first thing that crosses my mind. Oh well...I'll work on that. In the mean time, the thought that crossed my mind today was tech support sites.I thought I might give you some links to the sites I visit regularly.

When you're truckin' around the country, and you've got a problem, you can't always pop into the nearest (insert gadget type here) shop for answers or repairs. You've got to be somewhat self-sufficient. Granted, a tech support site won't be of any help if you've just dropped your laptop and, by doing so, you can now see all the stuff that used to be neatly tucked inside the case. It might help, though, if you're having problems with a program or something like that. Without further adieu, and in alphabetical order, the sites I've found to be most useful to me are as follows:

• Annoyances.org: Pretty much what the name indicates. If there's something about your system that annoys you then you can bet it's annoyed someone else as well. Find out how to deal with it here.
• AnswersThatWork: This isn't the easiest of sites to navigate. I suggest you spend a little time here before you've got a problem so you're familiar with the layout. A generous amount of space is given to advertising, pushing, and promoting TUT, their PC Tuning software, but there's real answers here on the site and I should know; I've found 'em myself!
• AskBobRankin: There is just a wealth of information here regarding a number of subjects. Because Bob, like me, just seems to blog about the first thing that pops into his mind I subscribe to his feed. There's always something interesting popping up.
• AskLeo!: If I've got a problem, the first thing I do is AskLeo! I also subscribe to his newsletter and I've gotten the answers to a whole host of questions I hadn't even asked yet. If you only remember one thing about this blog post; make it this site.
• Practically Networked: There's a lot of information here and, while most of it's not specific to hotspot networks, a lot of it does relate. There's also a lot o information regarding Wi-Fi related subjects, like VoIP, and there's a decent forum, as well.
• Tech Support Guy: I'm not generally fond of forums when I'm looking for instant help but this is a good one and I've found it to be very helpful.
• The Elder Geek: There's just tons of Windows XP related information here. I don't really know how one person can amass that much knowledge about a product. It's all good stuff, too. This is my second stop on the web, after AskLeo!, when I'm searching for XP answers.
• Yahoo! Answers: Not all the answers you're likely to get here are worth the time it takes to read them but, on the whole, I've found most of them to be pretty darn good. Especially the ones that I've given!

If you've found some other sites on the web, especially sites that relate to trucker tech, let us all in on the secret; leave a comment with your site suggestions! Thanks all! By the way, here's a couple of sites that were suggested to me. I haven't tried them but a couple other people I know like them and use them:

• Help2Go: According to their web site they offer free computer help; powered by volunteers. Give it a go and let me know how you like it.
• Protonic.com: Of the support sites I haven't tried this one seems to offer the most promise. It seems well organized and easy to use so you might want to give it a whirl. If you do, let me know what you think. I'll probably be trying it soon, myself, and I'll report back.