Today we have a guest Blogger by the name of Keith taking over the blog’s helm. Keith is a computer technician living in Vancouver, Canada who hosts a blog, “Computer Repair Vancouver”, where he discusses a variety of computing related issues. I hope you enjoy today’s content as much as I did. It’s never to late to go back to basics.

During a conversation with a technologically knowledgeable friend or while perusing an Internet forum you may have been introduced to a rather obscure computing term: booting. What, you thought to yourself, are they talking about? This reaction is common and understandable as booting is something that the average computer user rarely needs to think about. In fact, modern PCs almost always handle it for you.

Nonetheless, let’s look at what this term means and when we would need to deal with it personally. When a computer is first powered on it basically knows nothing; its memory is completely blank. Consequently, it needs directions on where to look for information about how to start up properly. By default, your computer is hard wired to look for these directions on your hard drive (the device which stores all of your files); in computer terminology, it is told to boot from your hard drive. There are times, however, when you want your computer to look for directions on starting up somewhere else.

The most common reason for booting from a device other than your hard drive is if you are trying to run a program which requires complete computer access. For example, some virus removal programs want to scan every single inch of your hard drive. Therefore, they don’t want your hard drive to be in use when they are scanning (since this would prevent them from checking certain areas of it). One way to get around this problem is to put the virus removal software on a CD and then boot from the CD. Since you are booting from a CD, your computer looks to the CD for startup information; it does not touch the hard drive.

From here, the virus removal program can take control of the situation and perform the scan.

Let’s say you have downloaded a specialty program which requires itself to be booted from a CD. What would you do? Well, first of all you need to put the program onto a CD using a CD burning program.

Initially, you may try to run the program from within Microsoft Windows; however, you would soon see that nothing happens. This is because the booting process occurs before your operating system (Windows) has even loaded. As a result, you would need to restart your computer and look for the word “boot” or “booting” as your system loads up. As soon as you saw either of these two terms you would press the keyboard key listed beside it. This would take you to the boot menu. The boot menu is exactly what it sounds like, a menu where you can choose which device your computer will use to start up. Since we want to boot off of a CD, we would select the CD option and hit enter.

After a few seconds we would see the program on the CD start up and we could proceed as necessary. It is important to note that when you boot off a device other than your hard drive you likely will be presented with something that looks quite different from your usual desktop.

This is the general idea of what it means to boot. If you have any questions regarding this concept visit us at Computer Repair Vancouver and ask away. Additionally, if you would like to see a real world example of when you would change your booting device take a look at our tutorial on using DBAN to securely wipe a hard drive.

The time has finally come. I need to hire my first real employee. Will it be you?

I am looking for someone part time, probably 15-20 hours a week who has a friendly personality and is comfortable with various types of web and computer technology. Don’t worry about having to know everything, you’re not expected to. Learning on the job is expected and accepted.

Job Requirements:

• Legal work status
• Live within a reasonable driving distance from Pomona, CA
• Valid drivers license and vehicle

Must be familiar with:

• How to interact with various people in friendly and professional manner
• Windows XP, Vista, 7
• Various social media sites
• Basic computer repair

Knowledge of any of the following is a nice bonus:

• Linux
• OS X
• Basic computer networking
• SEO
• Blog writing
• Web design

Does this sound like you? Great! Feel free to call me, Tim Biden, at 909-992-2031 during normal business hours or email me at tim@bidenpc.com.

I don’t know about you but as a computer network tech, I spend a lot of time changing the IP Addresses on people’s PCs. So I decided to create a tool to help me do it and I’d like to share it with you.

• No installation required. It can run from a flash drive!
• View settings for any or all of your network cards.
• Change your IP Address from DHCP to Static and back to DHCP.
• Edit your Default gateway.
• Change your Subnet Mask.
• View your MAC Addresses.
• Set your DNS servers to static addresses.
• Change it all from being Static to DHCP.

Are you a computer tech and constantly changing IP Addresses? Are you a computer user who wonders “How do I change my IP or DNS Address?” EZ-IP can change those for you. Has anybody ever asked you “What is your MAC Address?” EZ-IP will show you.

Click on the image or the following link to download your free copy of Biden PC’s EZ-IP. It is absolutely free to use and free to redistribute.

Due to the bad performance of Vista, now many programmers are searching for ways to make Vista boot faster. As an operating system Vista is not so much in demand as compared to the windows XP or Windows 7. People who have used computers for a long time do not want to shift from windows XP to Vista. This is due to the latter’s slow performance.

Due to the small number of options for tools Vista has been facing this problem. Users who are working in Vista find it quite slow. More over there are no sufficient tools to recover it.

Some of the softwares which help to make the software runs faster like tune XP and BootVis don’t work that well in the Vista. So this particular reason is a major disadvantage for the Vista.

So in order to make vista boot run quicker there is one way, that is to defrag your computer. Defragment will help your computer to free your hard disk thus making your computer work faster. As whenever in a Vista you are downloading any type of file it covers a lot of space in your hard disk. This making your system work slowly and this can be avoided only via defragment.

There is another way you can make your Vista work as fast as Windows XP. This is manually operating the defragment system in your computer. The manually operation of this function of defragmenting is very easy and simple. Just write the command “defrag c:-b” and press enter. Your system stars defragmenting. Till your computer gives the command that the defragmenting is over, you have to wait. Once your wait is over your Vista will be as fast as windows XP.

Once you defrag your computer you can make Vista boot run quicker and can work much more efficiently in the Vista. You should also use AutoRuns to check if there are any programs running on startup that you could do without. You’ll likely want to remove most of the programs under the “logon” tab but be certain that you don’t remove anything from Microsoft or your AntiVirus company.

Have you received one of these letters?

Click on the image to view larger size.

Don’t fall for it, it’s a scam. You don’t need their services and they aren’t the company who controls your domain. What they are trying to do is get you to switch your domain from your current registrar to them and these guys probably charge a lot more than your current company does. Just throw the letter away as your current registrar will most likely auto-renew your domain when it expires.

And if you have any questions about who your registrar actually is, you can go to http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp, type your domain name into the box and click on “Search”. Look for the section that says “Current Registrar” and you will know who your real registrar is you you can be certain that it isn’t “Domain Registry Of America.”

Tim

If you found this post to be informative, consider following Biden PC on Twitter.
Biden PC is a Computer Networking Company and we now offer Online Computer Support.

As you may know, SBS 2008 always wants to be the DHCP server in a domain. Not a problem, right? Well, if you have the Linksys WRTU54G-TM router from T-Mobile, it is a problem.

The issue is that even though you can go into the network setup on the router and disable DHCP, it never stops the service. This means that you now have two DHCP servers on one network giving conflicting addresses.

The Linksys WRTU54G-TM router from T-Mobile is absolutely necessary if you have “T-Mobile @Home“ phone service. This service allows you to connect a standard land-line phone to the router and have a pseudo-landline through T-Mobile. You have to put a SIM card in the router and as other routers don’t accept SIM cards, this is the only one that you can use with this service.

So my client needed this router AND he needed his new SBS server. Though it is possible to have the SBS stop serving DHCP, it isn’t recommended. Here is how I solved the problem of keeping the router for my client’s phone service while installing a new router for the network gateway.

1. I got him a new router to set up as the default gateway for the network and set the IP Subnet to 192.168.0.x.
2. I connected the server and all office computers to this router.
3. I then connected the old router, WRTU54G-TM, behind the new one and set it up with a different IP Subnet of 192.168.1.x.

This allowed both routers to be active while the primary network and its computers received their DHCP through the server. The phone service still worked and at the end of the day, everyone was happy. And next time I see a sys WRTU54G-TM, I’ll know exactly how to handle it. If I can’t remove it, I’ll simply make it subservient to another router.

Tim

If you found this post to be informative, consider following Biden PC on Twitter.
Biden PC is a Computer Networking Company and we now offer Online Computer Support.

Have you had either your Windows Vista computer or your SBS (Small Business Server) 2008 box lose their internet connection after you reboot? This recently happened to me after I installed SBS 2008 at a client’s location. It is easy to diagnose and the fix is relatively simple if you understand how to edit the registry on your computer.

Step 1: The Diagnosis:

1. Click on the “START” button and in the small box at the bottom, type “CMD” without the quotes.
2. A black box will appear with a blinking cursor. Type “ipconfig /all” and hit “Enter”.
3. You will see a lot of text that may look completely foreign to you.
4. Look the the row that says “Default Gateway”, if it is blank, then continue on to the “The Fix” section. If the “Default Gateway” is not blank, there is another problem and the fix below will not help you.

Step 2: The Fix:

1. Close out of the black box by typing “Exit” and hitting “Enter”.
2. Click on the “START” button and in the small box at the bottom, type “regedt32″ without the quotes.
3. The registry Editor will appear and you need to navigate to HKLM/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/Tcpip/Parameters/Interfaces/
4. Here you’ll need to select the CLSID of your networkadapter where you change the settings. You’ll probably recognize it by looking at the value IPAddress that will have the IP of this adapter.
5. Open the value “DefaultGateway” by double-clicking it.
6. You will see a list of all the gateways that disappeared! ( in your case it may only be one) Very likely, the first line will be empty. I’m not sure, how this little flaw can make such a big problem.
7. Manually remove this first empty line, click OK and reboot your system everything should be working fine again.

Thanks to Ilja Herlein at http://www.netsetman.com/support/viewtopic.php?pid=832#p832 for the direction on how to fix this issue. I hope it helps you as much as it helped me!

Tim

If you found this post to be informative, consider following Biden PC on Twitter.

Biden PC is a Computer Networking Company and we now offer Online Computer Support.

If you’re anything like me, you have a cell phone but no land line and occasionally forget where you put your phone.

Well, now you can call your phone (or prank call your friends) with a website. The address is simple to remember… Its exactly what you say every time you lose your cell phone, “Where’s my cell phone?” Yes, that’s right the website address is… Wait for it.  http://www.wheresmycellphone.com/. No this is not a joke.

According to the website, they do not keep records of who is called so your number is safe with them. “No records of dialed numbers are kept or shared! I have a hard enough time keeping track of my own things, let alone yours. Don’t worry, your cell number is safe here.”

Tim

If you found this post to be informative, consider following Biden PC on Twitter.

Biden PC is a Computer Networking Company and we now offer Online Computer Support.

Is there something that you have always wanted to know about computers? Would you like to know how to fix a problem, how this or that works, or even what is the best antivirus program?

I am offering you the opportunity to choose the next few Biden PC blog posts.

To request a certain topic, all you have to do it reply to this post and let me know what you are interested in. I will post the answers here and if there is something that I have to research, I will gladly do that for you.

Thank you very much,
Tim

If you found this post to be informative, consider following Biden PC on Twitter.

Biden PC is a Computer Networking Company and we now offer Online Computer Support.

In recent months, I’ve noticed a growing trend in virus removal. Parents are actually having their children (either teenagers or adult offspring living at home) pay for it. About half the time I have a virus removal job; the parents blame the infection on the kids and let me know that the cost of the job will ultimately be paid for by the kids.

I think this makes perfect sense. Having been a computer tech for a number of years, I can usually look at a computer and tell you approximately how old the children in the house are by the software and viruses on the computer.

Whether the parents are helping the children learn about responsibility and consequences or the parents just want to save their own hard-earned money in these difficult financial times, I don’t know. But this is a growing trend and I completely support it. Hopefully, by learning this lesson financially, the children will learn about computer safety and that visiting certain types of websites is going to mess up their computer and cost them money.

***EDIT*** That being said, I know that there are parents that blame their mistakes on the children. Trust me, I don’t care who caused the problem or where the problem came from. I believe it is my job to fix the PCs, not place blame.  ***END***

Way to go Parents!

Tim

If you found this post to be informative, consider following Biden PC on Twitter.

Biden PC is a Computer Networking Company and we now offer Online Computer Support.