September 2012 eNewsletter

September 2012 eNewsletter

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HP vs. Canon Printer

Here is a comparison between HP and Canon Printer:

Printer Manufacturer	Ease of Software Installation	Phone Support	Website Technical Support	Dependability	Work with iPhone?	Replacement when things go bad?
HP	Lengthy and troublesome	Problematic at best	Pretty good.	Not as dependable as Canon. Don’t buy low end and expect it to last very long.	AirPrint enabled support printing from iPhone without app from anywhere you are connected to the Internet	Probably not. Expect to buy a new printer.
Canon	Straight forward and works the first time	Helpful	Pretty good.	Pretty good	ePrint enabled printer supports printing to printer without app while on same wireless network	No hassle replacement under warranty. 20% discount on a replacement printer they offer if out of warranty.

In general, I would recommend buying the Canon printer over the HP printer every time.

High Tech House Calls does not sell printers, but we can make recommendations on your individual needs for free. Call or email us for a custom recommendation.

Carl Thorne

Expert Computer Consulting 

voice: 404.229.0839 email: carlthorne@hthcatlanta.com
web: hthcatlanta.com blog: hthcatlanta.blogspot.com

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Windows Computer Manufacturer Comparision

This chart is based on High Tech House Call's experience in 
setting up and reloading thousands of computers.

Computer Manufacture	Cost	Value for the Money	Reliability	Ease of Reloading	Website Technical Support
Dell	Value Priced	High	High	High	High
Lenovo	High	Medium	High	High	High
Toshiba	High	Medium	High	High	High
Sony	High	Medium	High	High	High
Trend Micro	Low	Low	Low	Low	Low
Computer Vision	Value Prices	High	High	Low	Low

Comments:

Dell – If you cannot find a resolution for your problem on their website, forget the difficult to understand India based tech support.

Trend Micro – Website is useless on finding drivers for your computer or resolving problems

Computer Vision – Built with high quality components. Expect to do a lot of Internet legwork to find or reload drivers for this manufacturer. 

One important fact to remember is that computer manufacturers and car manufacturers have one thing in common: a computer or a car is built from many off the shelf components that their competitors also have access to. It is the selection process for the components and how the components are assembled together that determine the end result. Quality components assembled in a logical manner result in a superior computer. 

High Tech House Calls does not sell computers, but we can make recommendations on your individual needs for free. Call or email us for a custom recommendation.

Carl Thorne

Expert Computer Consulting 

voice: 404.229.0839 email: carlthorne@hthcatlanta.com
web: hthcatlanta.com blog: hthcatlanta.blogspot.com

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Setting Up Your New iPhone 5

Here is a suggested checklist for your iPhone 5:

• Backup all your contacts, tasks, pictures and calendar entries from your old cell phone. If your previous phone was an iPhone and you set up iCloud, your backup is covered. If your previous phone was an Android, refer to this article on how to backup your phone: http://tinyurl.com/3vuetv3 If your previous phone was a Blackberry, make sure you were sync'ing your phone to your computer via Blackberry Desktop Manager.
• Activate your new iPhone. This can be done in your cell phone providers store, on their website or by calling their technical support line.
• Make sure you create an iCloud account on your iPhone and turn on the Find Me function. 
• Your iTunes Account is used to download application software for your iPhone. I strongly suggest making sure that the method of payment is set to "none". Fill in a credit card only when you are paying for applications. Once the purchase is made, change the payment method back to "none".
• Buy a good case to protect your iPhone. http://tinyurl.com/9xwej78
• The charging /sync'ing port on the iPhone 5 is incompatible with older iPhones. If the battery life turns out to be as bad as the iPhone 4s, buy a car charger. 
• I always have more than one sync cable for my iPhone. They get mislaid or appropriated. Here is a link to buy one: http://tinyurl.com/8um564e

If you have any questions regarding your new iPhone 5, please contact us at High Tech House Calls. We are here to help.

Carl Thorne

Expert Computer Consulting 

voice: 404.229.0839 email: carlthorne@hthcatlanta.com
web: hthcatlanta.com blog: hthcatlanta.blogspot.com

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Shopping For A New Wireless Router? Here Are Some Things to Consider:

• There is more than one standard for wireless networks. From best to worst they are "N", "G" and "B". 
• Make a list of all the devices in your household or business that you want to connect to the wireless network. 
• Go back through that list and determine what type of wireless network they can connect to. Based on the age of the device, they may be able to connect to one or more of the standards. Google your device specifications to see which network standard it supports.
• If all your devices support the "N" standard, buy the best wireless router you can afford that supports that standard.
• If you have a mix of network standard needs, buying a dual channel wireless router might make sense because it will broadcast an "N" and a "G/B" network.

When will it be necessary to buy two wireless routers?

• If you buy a dual channel wireless router and setup an "N" and a "G/B" network, the "N" network may be incompatible with Apple iPhones and many Android Operating System Tablets such as the Amazon Kindle and Nook Tablet.
•  One way to solve this incompatibility would be to buy two routers. Neither router should be dual channeled. One router would be configured for a "N" network and the other router would support the "G/B" network.

What is the downside if my device cannot connect to a dual channeled "N" network?

• Most devices that support a "N" network will also support  a "G" network. The "G" network is less robust than the "N" in both speed and area coverage, but should be fine for your needs unless you download large amounts of data or stream large amounts of video or music.

Carl Thorne

Expert Computer Consulting 

voice: 404.229.0839 email: carlthorne@hthcatlanta.com
web: hthcatlanta.com blog: hthcatlanta.blogspot.com

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Is Your Child's School Transitioning to Apple Laptops?

Some schools are utilizing Apple laptops to enhance the learning experience?

Here are some things you may need to know regarding your student's use of the laptop:

• More than likely, your student will not be able to install software or apply patches because the school has restricted the use of the laptop. This means you may not be able to install the software to use a printer.
• When something goes wrong with the laptop, the school will normally erase the entire contents of the hard drive and load a new copy of the laptop software. If you don't backup your personal files, those files will be gone.
• Don't load your entire iTunes library onto the laptop. The chances of filling the hard drive to capacity are high. When you ask the school to fix the problems with the laptop associated with a full hard drive (such as crashing, or not booting) the universal fix of erasing the hard drive and loading a new copy of the laptop software will be applied, wiping out your iTunes library.
• The laptop should be able to connect to your existing wireless network with no problem. Once the wireless network is detected by the laptop, select your wireless network name and enter the encryption key associated with that network. When you successfully connect for the first time, the  network information is stored on the laptop. The next time the laptop needs to connect to your wireless network, it will be done automatically with the data stored from the last successful connection.
• Put a label with your student's name taped to the laptop. This will make it easier to find your child's laptop in a sea of similar looking laptops and will minimize the chance of your child picking up the wrong laptop.

If you cannot install the software for the printer on the laptop, how do you print out school work?:

• Use a USB Flash Drive to copy from the laptop and then plug the USB Flash Drive into another home computer that can print. 
•  Email the document to a computer that can print.
• If your printer is an HP printer, does it support HP ePrint? http://h71036.www7.hp.com/hho/us/en/ep/articles/eprint-mobile-printing.html Using ePrint, you create an unique email address with which your HP printer is associated. When you want to print, send an email to the printer with the content embedded in the message space of the email. An added benefit of ePrint is that your iPhone and iPad can also use this technology.

How do you backup personal files?

• Use an USB Flash Drive or external hard drive to backup your personal data.
  

How do you manage your iTunes library without filling your entire laptop hard drive?

• Buy an external hard drive and set the library location in iTunes to use the external hard drive. http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1449  This solution has the added advantage of making your iTunes library portable. The iTunes library is accessible from any computer to which the external hard drive is connected.

What happens if you don't know the encryption key necessary to connect to your wireless network?

• Worst case, the wireless router can be reset to the factory settings wiping out all your customized information. At this point, the wireless router would need to be re-programmed. Refer to the documentation for your wireless router or go to the vendor's website for help.
• If you know the username and password for the administrator's account for the wireless router, you can access the administrator's control panel and see the encryption key or change it to something else. Refer to the documentation for your wireless router or go to the vendor's website for help.

Carl Thorne

Expert Computer Consulting 

voice: 404.229.0839 email: carlthorne@hthcatlanta.com
web: hthcatlanta.com blog: hthcatlanta.blogspot.com

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Moving from Blackberry to iPhone?

Here are some pointers to help you move from Rim's Blackberry Smartphone to Apple's iPhone.

• I get plenty of text messages, many of which are presented with just a phone number. I cannot identify the sender because they are not in my address book. I add a signature to my texts so that my recipients know the text is from me, in case I am not in their address book. There is no easy way to do this on your iPhone. Try creating a shortcut and name it sig which expands into your signature. At the end of your text, type sig to get your signature as part of the text message.

• Want your ring tone to stand out from the crowd of other similar phones? If your ring tone is already in your iTunes library, syncing your Blackberry via Blackberry Desktop Manager gets the ring tone onto your Smartphone. On your iPhone, getting anything other than the stock ring tones provided by Apple can be a little more tricky. If you don't want to pay for a ring tone from the iTunes store, here is a link that documents the process to use an existing song you have and convert it to a ring tone: http://www.gottabemobile.com/2011/10/26/ios-5-how-to-create-custom-ringtones-and-alerts-for-the-iphone/

• Battery life on my Blackberry Smartphone got me to the end of the day without charging my phone. My iPhone is charging via a cigarette lighter adapter in my car when I'm driving. Without this charge, the iPhone is dead before 8pm.

• I was unable to print from my Blackberry, but  I can print from my iPhone using the Print Central app. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/printcentral-pro/id426362921?mt=8 I will warn you that the installation is more involved than you would think, but it does work. An easier way to print from an iPhone is buying an ePrint enabled HP printer. Using ePrint, you create an unique email address with which your HP printer is associated. When you want to print, send an email to the printer with the content embedded in the message space of the email.

• In a nonscientific sampling, I have not come across a shattered Blackberry screen. This is not the case with the iPhone, for which the screen cracks much more easily. I never bought a protective case for my Blackberry and all three of my Blackberrys survived without being serviced for breakage. For the iPhone I spent the $50 for an OtterBox. http://www.otterbox.com/apple-iphone-cases/apple-iphone-cases,default,sc.html

•  The Blackberry was always a work in progress to get it to sync with multiple Windows and Mac laptops. Syncing is a breeze with iCloud for your iPhone. The only glitch is that the iCloud control panel does not run on Win XP or on Mac computers that don't run Lion.
 

• Blackberry never had a very wide selection of apps. It was tiring to read about an app that I wanted and then find out that was not available on the Blackberry. I have not had this issue with the iPhone. Apps for the different devices are written in this order: iPhone, Android and then Blackberry.

• Rebooting by pulling the battery out was a daily occurrence with my Blackberry. Every time the Blackberry froze it required a reboot. The iPhone has not required turning it off and on due it freezing.

• The browser on the Blackberry was non functional. You did not browse the Internet on a Blackberry because of the slowness displaying web pages and the small size of the display. The iPhone addresses both these problem, making Internet browsing much more practical.

Find your old Blackberry a new home by selling it to Gazelle. http://www.gazelle.com/sell/cell-phones

Carl Thorne

Expert Computer Consulting 

voice: 404.229.0839 email: carlthorne@hthcatlanta.com
web: hthcatlanta.com blog: hthcatlanta.blogspot.com

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July 2012 eNewsletter

July 2012 News From High Tech House Calls

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Top Five Things You Need to Know About Your SmartPhone

1. Buy a case such as the OtterBox. Insurance is a waste of money. Lets do the math: you pay your cellular company $5.00 a month for insurance on your SmartPhone. When you drop your iPhone, crack the screen and file the claim, you find the deductible is $100. The Otter Box is $50 and is guaranteed for life. Buy the OtterBox! http://www.otterbox.com/
2. Don't buy an OtterBox from a brick and mortar store. You must be careful encasing your SmartPhone in a OtterBox as you can rip the rubber case if you are not gentle. Many returns to brick and mortar stores are ripped cases that are put back on the shelf for you to buy. Good luck getting the brick and mortar store to exchange or refund your money for a ripped case you bought from them. Buy the OtterBox from the online site and if you rip it, they will replace it, no questions asked.
3. Update your iPhone to the latest update. Set up iCloud and turn on Locate Me. When you misplace your iPhone, you can use Locate Me to find it. If you cannot recover the iPhone, wipe it of all your personal data using Locate Me.
4. Install the Blackberry Protect Application for your Blackberry SmartPhone. This application has similar functionality to the Locate Me application on the iPhone.
5. Lock your home screen on your iPhone with a Pass Lock. If you iPhone is stolen, getting access to your personal date is much harder with a Pass Lock. To get around the Pass Lock, one can reset your iPhone to the factory default which will wipe your data off the iPhone. You may not recover your iPhone, but your personal data is no longer accessible.

Carl Thorne

Expert Computer Consulting 

voice: 404.229.0839 email: carlthorne@hthcatlanta.com
web: hthcatlanta.com blog: hthcatlanta.blogspot.com

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How secure is your computing environment?

What would happen if your  laptop or smartphone were stolen? 

• Can you replace the data? 
• Could the thief steal your identity by using the data on your laptop or smartphone?
• Could someone drive by your house and read the data on your hard drive, or intercept the data you send from your laptop to the Internet, from your wireless network?

Here are some things you can do to minimize your security risks:

• Password protect your computer and smartphone.
• Have a backup procedure in place for all your data. Test the recovery procedure to make sure your backups are working.
• Secure your wireless router by using the strongest encryption protocols your wireless router supports.
• Encrypt sensitive data so that only those who know the key can access it.
• Make sure your computing environment has up to date BIOS, hardware drivers, operating system and application software patches.

High Tech House Calls has achieved a  Comp Tia Security + certification. We can review your home or small business computing environment and suggest inexpensive and unobtrusive ways to minimize your risk.

Carl Thorne

Expert Computer Consulting 

voice: 404.229.0839 email: carlthorne@hthcatlanta.com
web: hthcatlanta.com blog: hthcatlanta.blogspot.com

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