If you doubt that cell tower overload is a factor, check out this article on AT&Ts troubles due to all the iPhone users out there. Actually, this article has me a little worried about Verizon as well, once the Droid (Verizon’s answer to the iPhone) catches on.  You see, once you have Internet browsing capabilities on your cell phone, you use it a lot more.  When I use my phone to make a voice call, I’m on for 5 – 20 minutes.  When Jim uses his new Droid to browse the web, he’s on for hours.  Both usages connect to the Cellular Tower, but the data usage represents a quantum leap in loading the Tower’s connections.

There are lots of choices, just look for ‘Wireless Network Adapter.’  It will also say 802.11 somewhere in the description.  802.11b is the oldest technology, then comes g, and the latest and greatest is n.

Turn off your Internal Wi-Fi

It’s important to understand that these do not ‘boost’ the Wi-Fi adapter built in to your computer. They ‘replace’ it. You should turn off the internal adapter in your computer in order to properly use an external adapter.  See the Geeks on Tour ‘Show-Me-How’ video ‘Turn Off your Internal Wi-Fi.’

Improving our Wi-Fi Experience

When we parked at our current RV park, and tried to connect to the Wi-Fi, it took a while to make the connection and browsing was very slow. So we took our new Hawking Wi-Fi adapter out of the box, used the included CD to install the drivers, plugged the adapter into a USB port and turned off the wireless switch on the computer.

This time the connection happened a little faster, but, more importantly, the browsing was faster. Still not as good as our DSL at our home park, but better nonetheless. Wi-Fi is 2-way radio. Low-powered, 2-way radio.  The radio and antenna built in to your laptop computer is often not good enough for the distances and obstructions in an RV park. Plugging in an external adapter (radio and antenna are both inside) with a wire to your USB port allows you to move the adapter over to a window, or even outside a window so as to get an unobstructed line-of-sight to the source of the Wi-Fi – the Access Point. Unobstructed line-of-sight is the most important factor in a good Wi-Fi connection.  Notice, in the photo of our adapter above, that I have it pointed out a window.  Notice also that I have the metal mini-blinds raised above the adapter.  Those metal mini-blinds can make a big difference in your connection!

For other, past articles/videos on this topic:

The #1 Best way to Improve your Wi-Fi Connection
WiFire Long Range Adapter
Get the right Wi-Fi Adapter
54Mbps is Not better than 11Mbps
Wi-Fi for Beginners

Other Geeks on Tour Show-Me-How videos on this topic.

This was one of the exercises in our Boot Camp last week and we think everyone should know how to do it. We preach backup all the time, but we don’t preach a particular way to do it because there are so many choices. As long as you know that your important files are being duplicated somewhere outside of your computer, and you know how to get a file back if needed, then we’re happy. We don’t care how you do it.

If you don’t currently have some way to do backups, you need to know at least the very basic way of copying files. That is to use the copy command and then paste the file to an external location – the easiest being to a USB drive.

These little USB drives, aka ‘Thumb’ drives or ‘Travel’ drives are available at any electronics store for around $10. Actually, I’ve seen them at convenience stores they’re so popular now. Sometimes they’re even given away as advertising specialties. Jim has a Swiss Army Knive with a USB drive as one of the attachments! They act just like the disk drives in your computer in that they can hold computer files. You can copy computer files to them, delete files, rename files, and overwrite files. If you remember the old floppy disks – you get the idea.

So, if you have files on your computer – probably your C drive in My Documents – you can Copy them. Then, using My Computer, navigate to the USB Drive which you’ve plugged in to a USB port – it will probably show up as drive F: or G:. If you don’t know what drive letter it is, here’s a trick. With My Computer open – you should see your drive letters show up – unplug the USB drive. You’ll see one letter disappear from the screen. Plug it back in and you should see a letter appear. That’s it! Double-Click on it to open. Now you can Paste. The file(s) that you copied from your C drive will now be duplicated on your little thumb drive.

There are a variety of reasons to do this. Usually it’s because you want to give the file(s) to someone else. Just hand them the thumb drive and they can reverse the process: plug the thumb drive into their computer, find the files and copy them, open their C drive, find an appropriate folder and paste. We often copy files to a thumb drive in order to go to a copy center and get a document printed.

Even if you can’t attend one of our Boot Camp classes, you can purchase the book and DVD for $20.  Geeks on Tour Members have access to all the videos as well as a .pdf version of the book.

They’re on a waterway that we’re told leads to the gulf. We’ll check that out in our Google Earth class tomorrow! Very old Florida feel with the Spanish moss.

When I say ‘active’, I’m not kidding.  Take a ride around and you’ll see people playing volleyball, tennis, shuffleboard, and softball.  And, our friend Roxie, who scheduled our computer classes here, told us it was difficult to reserve the rooms because of so many activities already on the schedule.  And, she made the arrangements last October!

Every seat was taken for our hands-on Computer Boot Camp, and I was very impressed with their eagerness to learn.  Even though we chopped the class down to one day – 6 hours,  I think it went quite well. 

By the end of the week, we had 16 new members for GOT Class (Geeks on Tour Online Classroom.)  It made us realize the partnership we are now developing wit computer clubs, so we’re starting a new page here to list GOT Clubs!

To see more about the HTR Computer Club, check out the club’s blog.

When we first bought our motorhome, it had 2 TVs.  One in the front, living/dining area, and one in the back – the bedroom.

We got rid of both of them and set up a TV tuner with a projector and a window-shade screen.  It’s great!  We have a big screen with surround sound – a pretty good home theatre for any house, let alone a 30 foot class C motorhome!

When I recently purchased a new Windows 7 laptop, we wondered what to do with my old laptop.  It was still working fine, ( see rule #1 for buying a new computer) so I wasn’t going to send it off to recycling.  How about a TV for the bedroom!  Jim found a stud in the wall and installed a TV shelf bracket that fits my old laptop just perfect.

The antenna connection was already there, all we needed was the TV tuner.  The one Jim got is the ATI  TV Wonder (he got a great deal – $25 – by buying it on the daily special at Woot.com), but he’s also used the Hauppage.  Just google for USB TV Tuner to see lots of other choices.  Basically this tiny box is the guts of a television!  Just plug one end into the USB port of your computer, and the other end into an antenna.

Of course, there is software as well, and you need to be sure whatever you get works with your computer’s operating system.  Once you have it all set up, you have TV!  Ours even came with a remote control.  And, since it is still a computer – it is even better than a TV – you can get the Guide from the Internet, you can record and playback shows using your computer as a Digital Video Recorder (DVR.)   And, if you can’t find anything on TV you can use the computer to play a DVD or watch Internet video on Hulu.

Be aware that this system is a bit of a resource hog.  Don’t expect it to work on a computer that’s too old – read the system requirements on the tuner.  And, be ready to get a bit geeky in setting it up.

I actually have no clue what’s involved in setting it up   That’s Jim’s job!  But, I do like having TV in the bedroom – when Jim’s watching football on the big screen, I now have other choices!

Your computer crashes and you take it to a techie who gets it working again but needs to reformat (erase) the hard drive.  You get your computer back with nothing on it.  No problem you think, you have a backup of your important data on Disk, either CD/DVDs or a USB hard drive.  But when you try to restore you find:

1. there is something wrong with the backup disks, either the data is corrupted or there simply is no data on the disk(s)
   or:
2. the backup was made with software that you don’t remember or don’t have.  You need that software in order to restore.

If you can’t restore … your backups are worthless.

To prevent this happening to you, here are a few suggestions.

1. When you do your backups, *always* check the results. 
   If you backup to CD/DVD, take that disk to another computer, put it in the drive and see what happens.  Does it come up to a ‘Do you want to restore’ prompt?  Are the files on the disk that you expect?  If you backup to a USB external hard drive, explore the results.  Are the files where you expect them to be?  Do you know how to restore them?
2. Periodically test your restore capability. 
   Pretend to lose a file that you want to recover from your backups.  The easiest way to do this is to rename it.  For example, let’s say you have an Excel spreadsheet called TaxRecords.xls.  Rename that file to zzzTaxRecords.xls.  That way you still have the file, but your computer sees that the file TaxRecords.xls is gone.  Now try to restore that file from your backups.  For an example of this, see the Geeks on Tour Show Me Video on Backup to an External Hard Drive.
3. Use a backup procedure that creates file by file copies of your data rather than backup ‘packages.’ 
   There are dozens, maybe even hundreds of different ways to make backups.  Every USB hard drive comes with software to make backups, there are lots of free backup programs you can download, and there are many backup programs you can buy. They all work a little differently.  I like the ones that result in file copies rather than backup ‘packages.’  If I can see a file, I can copy it.  If I only see a backup ‘package’ I need the original software to restore it.

I am currently using Windows 7 backup utility to backup my entire computer to a USB hard drive.  When I look a the USB drive, I see a folder labeled with the name of my computer.  When I click, I get options to Restore (and it works just fine), but I can’t look inside and see all the files.  All I see is this one ‘package’ that somehow contains all my files.  What if I changed computers and no longer had Windows 7?  How would I get my files?  I don’t know. 

I am also trying out the online backup service called Carbonite.  If I want to restore a file, I can browse all my online backed up files and pick the one I want.  True, this is using the Carbonite software, but it’s a service … with support … that I’m paying $50/year for.  I can trust that when I want to restore files to any computer in the future – I can.

My favorite backup program is still a freeware package called Karen’s Replicator.  You can set it up to copy whatever folders/files you want on any schedule you want, and you can see the results.  You will see the actual files – not a backup ‘package.’  For more information on this program see this past Geeks on Tour Newsletter.

Use Picasa to backup your photos.
Picasa gives you the best of both worlds.  First of all, it is SO simple to make backups of your pictures to CD/DVD – Picasa even burns the disk.  It will backup all the special Picasa features (edits, albums, face recognition) along with your pictures so you can restore to another computer, but it also is making file by file copies of your photos.  You don’t have to use the Picasa restore process to get your pictures back.  I have 10 years worth of photos backed up with Picasa.  I have no intention of using the restore feature to put all those on another computer.  But I know that, if I want a particular picture from 2002, I can find it on my backup CD.  Here’s a Geeks on Tour Show Me Video on How to restore a single picture from a Picasa Backup.

A happy computer user has good backups that they know how to restore.

BACKUP!  BACKUP! BACKUP!

Happy Computing!
Chris Guld, www.GeeksOnTour.com
Computer Education for Travelers

It’s called a Netbook because it’s primary purpose is to connect you to the Net. As mentioned in the Gmail article above, if all your data is in the Clouds (on the Net) then it doesn’t matter what device you use to access it.

In addition to being inexpensive, it’s also very lightweight – under 3 pounds – and small. I can actually fit it in my purse (yes, it’s a big purse!) And, it has a long-lasting battery. We have used it off and on for 2-3 days without having to recharge. The manufacturer claims 10.5 hours of battery life.

These Netbooks have been out for about 2 years now, but we waited for Windows 7. They are relatively low powered – usually coming with only 1GB of memory – so they couldn’t run Vista and were being sold with XP. Once we got used to Vista, there’s no way we could go back. Windows 7 works like Vista, but it’s not so much of a memory hog.

The Netbook does not have a CD/DVD drive. It’s meant to be a computer for people who just need their email, some web browsing and a little bit of managing pictures and documents. We think it is just perfect as a second computer for travelers who leave their main computer at home. The link below is the Netbook that we bought (pictured above.) If you buy one using this link, they will know that you were referred by Geeks on Tour.
ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1005HA-PU17-BK 10.1-Inch Black Netbook – 10.5 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Starter)

If you really want to see the future of personal computers, check out the plans for future ‘One Laptop Per Child’ $75 tablet computers. If you follow that link, it’s a slide show – if you wait it will cycle to more pictures. One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is on the leading edge of the movement for small, easy, durable, and inexpensive computers. It’s a fascinating project – if you’re interested, here’s a video of the founder of OLPC – Nicholoas Negroponte. .

To eliminate this dilemma, he’s decided to use Gmail for everything. The Gmail.com program can fetch his @geeksontour.com email and his @jimandchris.com mail as well as his @gmail.com mail. All 3 sets of email will be collected in his gmail.com inbox. Then he can use the web-based gmail program on his laptop, and be looking at the exact same thing from his Droid.

This is an example of ‘Cloud Computing’ where none of your data resides on your computer, rather it resides on the Internet … in the clouds … and you just use a computing device to connect to it.

You can use Gmail without using a gmail address

There are two ways to set up gmail to get email from your other addresses.

1. You can import all email and contacts from your other email. Then just use your @gmail.com address from that point forward.
2. You can set up the gmail program to fetch your other email and collect it in your gmail inbox. You can also set gmail to automatically label the fetched email so you know where it came from.
   Using the ‘Fetch’ method means that people will continue to email you using your other address (e.g. @geeksontour.com) and gmail will make your responses be *from* your other address as well. Gmail will just be acting as your mail center for all the address you have set up.

The image below is a screenshot snippet of my gmail inbox. I have it fetching my @geeksontour.com email. Notice the green ‘labels’ telling me what email address each message was sent To. Only one message – the Daily Blog Tips – has no label, meaning it was actually sent to my @gmail.com address.

When I reply to a message, it will be ‘From’ the same account as it was To.

]]> http://wifisavvy.com/2010/01/04/using-gmail-for-all-your-mail/feed/ 0 http://wifisavvy.com/2009/12/29/technology-top-5-for-2009/ http://wifisavvy.com/2009/12/29/technology-top-5-for-2009/#comments Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:03:02 +0000 chrisadmin http://wifisavvy.com/2009/12/29/technology-top-5-for-2009/ by Chris Guld, www.GeeksOnTour.com

Jim and I are always learning about new technology – it’s what we’ve done since the early 80s – and there is plenty to keep us occupied.  But, 2009 has been remarkable when it comes to the proliferation of useful technology tools.

There’s something qualitatively different this year about technology and gadgets.  People are actually *using* them.  You don’t have to be a geek to want this stuff. 

Not all my top 5 are brand new this year, but this is the year they’ve gone mainstream.  Everyone I know had at least one technology item on their holiday gift list this year. 

You should also know that this is my personal list – I use a laptop computer a *lot* and  I don’t listen to very much music, otherwise I’m sure some of the fantastic new music players would be on my list.  Every item shown below we have purchased and are currently using.  If you are interested in buying one yourself, the links provided will take you to Amazon.  They have good prices and good service, and, these links will tell them that you heard about it from Geeks on Tour – maybe we’ll get enough credit to buy our next toy (a USB Video Camera)!

Ok, here they are – in reverse order:

#5: USB External Hard Drives

I put this in last place only because they aren’t sexy.  But, OMG are they useful.  They’ve gone mainstream this year because the capacity has grown and the price has dropped.  500 Gigabytes for $99.  This can back up your entire laptop computer!  If, like us, you remember your first hard drive at 20 Megabytes and $3,000, you’ll probably buy two of these.  All you have to do is plug it in to a USB port, no installation required.

 

#4.  Kindle Book Reader

e-Book readers are proliferating now.  I haven’t tried any of the newer ones.  We bought one of the first Kindles last year and still love it.  And, what a boon to RVers.  You can have hundreds of books and only take up the space (and weight) of one small paperback.  According to Amazon, they sold more Kindles than books this holiday season!

 

#3: Wii Fit

This device is in the Gee Whiz! category.  It looks and feels like something the Jetsons would use.  “Jane, stop this crazy thing!”  With the Wii Fit, I have my own personal trainer with dozens of exercise routines to choose from and a tracking system to know how I’m doing.  It actually fits in the RV.  I’ve logged over 12 hours of exercise in December and I”m enjoying it more every day. 

 

#2: Droid Smart Phone

We have been so envious of people with their  iPhones!  But, since iPhone requires AT&T service and we like our Verizon – we couldn’t get one.  We’ve been waiting for something similar that uses Verizon’s network.  That’s the Droid – powered by Google and Verizon.  It came out a couple months ago, but we wanted to wait for some reviews.  They’ve been pretty good, and Jim couldn’t stand it any longer, so he used is ‘new every two years’ credit with Verizon and brought home his new Droid just yesterday.  As soon as he gives the thumbs up – I’ll get one too.

This phone will be the biggest change in our digital life so far.  It is always online with easy browsing to websites and email, and that’s just the beginning.  It’s a computer with plenty of applications all it’s own.  GPS Navigation is included with the Droid for free.  With a screen almost as large as our Garmin Nuvi, it might actually replace the Nuvi.

#1: NetBook

$350 for a full-blown Windows computer!  It’s so small, I can fit it in my purse (yes, I do have a big purse!.)  And, with plenty of battery life, I don’t have to carry around the power supply. They claim 10.5 hours – we haven’t specifically tested that, but it has been used for at least a couple days of normal use without needing a charge.

Called Netbooks because their primary purpose is to connect you to the ‘Net, these devices will handle all your basic computing.  They don’t have a DVD drive, and they don’t come with enough memory or processing power to run Vista, so for quite a while they were sold with Windows XP.  As soon as they started using Windows 7, we got one.  They’re a wonderful choice for RVers who need a second computer for when they’re on the road.

The keyboard and screen are small, I wouldn’t want to work on them exclusively.  But, you can always plug it into an external monitor and a USB keyboard. This low price point is making them a ‘Why Not?’ purchase for many people who couldn’t justify having a computer for personal use.

 

How about you?  What did you get, or give, or buy for yourself this holiday season?

]]> http://wifisavvy.com/2009/12/29/technology-top-5-for-2009/feed/ 5 http://wifisavvy.com/2009/12/21/computing-in-the-clouds-is-good-for-rvers/ http://wifisavvy.com/2009/12/21/computing-in-the-clouds-is-good-for-rvers/#comments Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:43:05 +0000 chrisadmin http://wifisavvy.com/2009/12/21/computing-in-the-clouds-is-good-for-rvers/ Have you heard of ‘Cloud Computing’?’  It means using applications on the web rather than on your computer.  Blogging is one example, it’s all web-based, any computer will do.  As long as you can connect to the Internet (the ‘cloud’) you can use the blogging applications.  And, there are more web-based applications every day.  Now, you can even create spreadsheets and letters in the Clouds with Google Docs.

Home is Where You Park It

Cloud computing holds the same appeal to me as living in a motorhome.  A home on wheels means I’m not tied to any particular block of ground.  Cloud computing means you’re not tied to a particular computer.  You could use a desktop computer at home, a laptop on the road, and your smartphone anywhere, with no thought for what is on each device because everything is in the cloud instead.  Grab a computer, any computer, connect to the Internet and there’s all your stuff … in the clouds.  The obvious drawback is that you need a good Internet connection.  With Wi-Fi, Satellite and Cellular, it is getting easier all the time for travelers to stay connected.

If you’ve ever bought a new computer and had to transfer everything over from your old one – you might appreciate cloud computing!  It takes me several weeks to get a new computer up to speed with all my old stuff – especially all my email settings.  Each application that I start using in the cloud means one less thing I need to transfer. 

Recommendations for Cloud Computing:

Email:  we recommend Gmail – a free email program by Google.  You don’t even have to use the @gmail.com address because the Gmail application can gather email from other addresses and put them in your gmail inbox.  It can also backup everything to your laptop just in case something goes wrong in the cloud, or you want to compose some email when you’re offline.  See a past article: Why we like Gmail for travelers.

Website Favorites: If you’re like many people, you mark your favorite websites to make it easier to get back to them at a later time.  Those ‘favorites’ are stored on your computer.  If you switch to another computer, you either have to know how to transfer all your favorites, or you do without.  But, if you put your favorite links ‘in the clouds’ you will have access to them anytime you’re connected to the Web.  There are *lots* of applications for storing your favorites online.  The two we use are iGoogle.com and Delicious.com.  See past article, Keep your Online Favorites … Online!

Web and Internet Basics

If the concept of ‘Cloud Computing’ is still eluding you, maybe a refresher on Web and Internet Basics will help.  Here’s one of our original Geeks on Tour Show-Me videos on Web Basics:

For the full size version and more of our computer basics tutorials, see Geeks On Tour Essentials

Chris Guld,
www.GeeksontTour.com

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