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Used computers are still useful.  They can help you save money and with that, you can spend your money wisely on other things.

If you are planning to buy a computer for personal use at home or for your kids, and want to consider buying a used computer, this article is for you.

You might want to consider the ten tips below on buying a used computer.

1. If you are not a tech-savvy, ask your tech-savvy friends to shop with you.  They can help you choose the right specifications for your computing needs.
2. Search online computer stores that sell used or second hand computers.  Make sure to search to at least 3 or 5 stores for price, specifications and warranty comparison.  Read the reviews to help you give ideas in choosing and buying wisely.
3. If you are buying a used computer at a local computer store, make sure to give a thorough physical inspection on the used computer unit.  This is to ensure that the computer is not damage and all functions are working.  Insist on testing the computer yourself rather than watching the seller to do it for you.

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As we all know, open source software’s source code is available to the general public for modification or use from its original design or structure free of charge.

One of the famous open source softwares is Linux operating systems.  But open source is not just about access to the source code.  It has free distribution and it does not restrict other software.

Have you ever wonder why you should use open source software?

This article sites the top reasons why you should use open source software.

• First, open source programs are RELIABLE.

Open source software’s source code availability to the public makes the program reliable.

Whenever there is a bug detected, developers or users tried to fix those bugs within a couple of hours, report it to the maintainers of the software and release an updated version.

Users may opt to choose to use the fixed version or the official version (including the fix releases). Read the rest of this entry →

Malware is used to refer viruses, Trojans and worms or any programs that have malicious actions.

Worm, a type of malware, propagates through the network.  This means that worms can propagate via file sharing, instant messaging, downloading applications from unknown sources and visiting malicious web sites.

An example of network-infecting worm is Slammer that spread around the world in less than 15 minutes!  Internet traffic caused by Slammer in its search for computers to infect caused slowdown of the Internet and affected telecommunications and some financial networks.

Trojans and viruses, also types of malware, are not capable of propagating through the network but they can modify and infect files.  They can possibly cause data loss.

Data is very important on businesses and contributes to a business’ profit growth.  If these malware infectors can cause data loss, they can also be a factor to profit loss. Read the rest of this entry →

Computers have different types of storage devices. The non volatile storage devices used in computers are called hard drives.

In hard drives, data are stored on magnetic surfaces in the form of platters. Data is stored in digitally encoded format in hard drives.

Hard drives were introduced for use with general purpose computers. later they were expanded to facilitate much more uses like video recorders, PDAs, video game consoles etc. tolerance of hard drives are high as compared to the normal floppy disk drives.

As a result, hard drives can store more amounts of data as compared to the removable storage media. They have a faster access and transmission as well. Read the rest of this entry →

PKWARE, the inventor of the .zip standard, is giving away a non-commercial use license of SecureZIP Express and the opportunity to win great prizes in the new “Decrypt and Drive” contest!

With SecureZIP Express you can compress/decompress and encrypt files that you store or send.

Compressing files is a great way to save storage space, especially on thumb drives and CD’s, and we all have files we should be securing!

The software also includes a digital certificate so you can exchange files securely with others without using passwords. Only the person the file was encrypted for can open it when you use a digital certificate.

The software is fully licensed for non-commercial use and has no toolbars or spyware! For years, PKWARE has given free .zip software away and wants as many users as possible to receive the benefits of SecureZIP.

PKWARE is giving away great prizes including a Honda scooter, bicycles, Wii games, gas cards, and more!

Visit www.DecryptandDrive.com to play the game daily and/or download the free software.

You need to have SecureZIP, and the digital certificate it installs, on the computer you play the game from.

You can also get SecureZIP Express at www.securezip.com

Good luck! Hope you win something cool!

Configuring the LAN is a real pain. You need to manually allocate the network address to every device on network, & keep the record of them in order to ensure that you did not use same one twice – and if you did, devices will stop working.

But modern LANs with the routers using system named DHCP. The DHCP stands for lively host pattern protocol.

It is the fancy way to say that when device connects to a network, it asks router which of the addresses are free, & then router allocates to it for limited period of time.

This permits you to connect & disconnect things from the network when you want, devoid of having to arrange them. Read the rest of this entry →

When the discussion comes to securing your computer from viruses and malware, the obvious choice that comes to our mind is surely using any “anti-virus” and keeping it up-to-date.

However if you consider your options and weigh them, then no wonder you would realize that there are other stuff that you can really do…

These are rather more effective than just installing an effective up-to-date anti-virus, so let’s see all the options one by one…

• Anti-Virus

Firstly when you say the word Anti-virus, it is basically a software designed to protect your computer against known viruses, but with one or the other new virus emerging on a daily basis, anti-virus programs need regular updates. Read the rest of this entry →

You may encounter many different types of strange error messages while working on your Windows computer. These errors may not only prevent you from working on your PC, but may also cause unnecessary frustrations.

Listed below are a few easy tips to help you troubleshoot strange error messages and resolve them.

When an error message is displayed, ensure that:

• Your system meets the requirement to perform a particular task

Many computer errors occur if your system does not have the required software, hardware, or driver to open a particular file.

For example, if you try to play an XviD movie on your computer and you do not have XviD codec installed on the PC, the missing xvidcore.dll error may be generated. In this case, to resolve the error, you will have to obtain and install the XviD codec and then attempt to play your media file again. Read the rest of this entry →

Regular backup of data on your personal computer is an important part of safe computing. No matter how cautious you are in protecting your system, it could always run into problems that may cause loss of data.

Since your data is the most important part of the computer, you need to backup data by simply saving copies of important files, information and folders. There are several ways in backing up data, but the easiest for the average PC user is to run a backup option, which is a part of the operating system (Macintosh or Windows).

A number of options are available for storing your backup data. Most people store data on computer’s hard disk, it cannot hold everything you need to save. Your other options include removable media, network drive, or external hard disk drive.

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Defragmenting your hard disk regularly is important in ensuring the efficiency of your computer.  It’s a way to allow your computer to clean up and re-organize itself for a system that runs better and faster.

How does defragmenting work and why is it important?

When your computer is working; using, opening, saving files, changing data in the files, it uses up areas on your hard disk.  If you save a file for example, the hard disk will take that file and store it in sections on the computer’s hard drive that are adjacent to each other, depending on the size of the file.  Smaller files are easier to store because they can be placed efficiently next to each other.

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