This month Ed presented us with an early Christmas present – a “three line whip” and told us what to write about! Talk about freedom of the press! I was told to review the past year, to look back at the gadgets, software and tools that we have written about in 2009 (personally I think it’s a ploy to make sure that this article is in on time!) Read this entire article »
Firstly a quick reminder that we have changed our office phone number. We had a number of customers tell us that they could not get through to our old “700” number so we have changed it to the number that you see at the bottom of this page – 902 906 200. Read this entire article »
Do you wish you could have broadband but cannot justify the annual cost? This month we investigate shared Internet connections, their benefits and pitfalls and what to watch out for if you are either currently using a shared Internet connection or considering setting one up. Read this entire article »
I hope you enjoyed last month’s article. As promised here are a few more downloads that you can get free from the Internet.
Backup / Productivity Tools
Allway Sync – www.allwaysync.com
This is another backup tool, this time for keeping two locations in sync. Most people store their important data on their computers. Most people recognize the importance of backing up this critical information, however in my expierience, most people either don’t bother to back it up or do so infrequently. Allway Sync allows you to set up a Read this entire article »
Well, it’s another month and I am sitting here wondering what to write about. It’s a fantastic sunny day. The thermometer in the car is telling me that its 18 degrees (in the shade) and I have driven down to Carabasi beach for some inspiration. Sitting here in the car, looking out over the beach past the bright blue sea, I am able to just see the island of Tarbacca in the distance. Read this entire article »
Now, I don’t know whether, like me, you have “fun” trying to ring expensive UK non-geographical numbers like 0870 and 0844 numbers?
I regularly have trouble ringing this type of number from my Spanish line only to receive a message telling me that it’s not possible to ring this number from outside the UK – even if I do manage to get through, the call ends up being horribly expensive! Read this entire article »
Firstly apologies…
To our esteemed editor, who has been asking for this article for the past week, only to receive it as the presses start to roll, I promise to try harder next month Dave!
Secondly, annoyance at Lexmark, who, in their infinite wisdom feel that it’s a really good idea to sell printers with software that is not compatible with Windows Vista. I mean, anyone should be able to go out, buy a printer and take it home and install it – right? Read this entire article »
VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) – what is it then?
Put simply it’s the ability to talk to other people via the Internet, just like we are already used to doing with a ‘conventional’ telephone.
Many of us are used to using the Internet to look at web sites, to do this our computer uses a language or protocol1 - HTTP2 and TCP/IP2 are the protocols used when browsing web sites and POP32 and SMTP2 are used for email. For those of you that have not yet fallen asleep these terms are explained at the bottom of the page.
So, for everything that we do involving one computer talking to another your PC automatically uses a specific protocol. VOIP is simply the generic term used to describe the action of transmitting a voice over the Internet.
One of the major advantages in using VOIP is that, more often than not, it’s much cheaper than using a conventional telephone; in fact in most cases a call from one VOIP user to another VOIP user anywhere in the world is free!
In order to take advantage of this new form of communication you must first download and install some software onto your computer. This is pretty easy, but if you are not familiar with the process then you might want to ask your local IT guy to help you. There are a number different programs that can be download but the most commonly used Skype, an English version if which is available from www.skype.co.uk, it’s also highly recommended that you have a fast Internet connection – broadband is preferable.
Once you have installed Skype I suggest that you purchase a headset (combined microphone and ear-phones) to get the best quality. Skype also has the ability to utilise a web-cam if you have one; so that you can have video conversations as well, the web-cam, speakers and microphone (or headset) will all be setup automatically by Skype as part of the installation process.
When you have your software setup and your headset working it’s time to start testing that it’s all working properly, this is easy with Skype as they provide a free call testing service, all you need to do is dial (using the Skype software) “echo123”, this will connect you with the call testing service and they will ensure that you can both hear and be heard.
Now all that’s done, you just need to start to add the contacts that you would like to talk to using the “plus” sign from within Skype, if your contacts are also Skype users you will then be able to tell when they are on-line and therefore available for a chat, of course the more you get used to the software the easier things will become.
1 Protocols are instructions that computers use to communicate with each other, they are a kind of computer language.
2 HTTP (Hyper Text Markup Language) is the protocol used to create web pages, TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol) is the protocol used to transfer those pages to and from our computers, POP3 (Post Office Protocol 3) is used to deliver email messages to our computers and SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is used to deliver our emails to other people – surely you must be asleep by now?
YouTube – what’s it all about then?
You may, or may not, have heard people talking about “YouTube” and wondered what they are on about, you know its something to do with computers and the Internet and perhaps something to do with video but other than that you have no idea – well this month we will look at the phenomenon that is www.youtube.com Read this entire article »
With over 10,000 new blogs created every day on the Internet, I thought this month I would spend some time writing about them and demonstrating how easy they are to create if you fancy having a go. Read this entire article »