Imagine you’re talking with your not-so-computer-inclined friend who lives on the other side of the known universe about a problem he’s been having with his computer.

He tries to describe the problem he’s having via IM and over the phone, but in spite of your questions, you just can’t seem to get to the bottom of the issue.

You could use a screen sharing app like GoToMeeting or Webex to view his screen, take control of his keyboard and mouse, and help him troubleshoot. But you have to pay for a subscription to use their services.

Enter Mikogo, a robust screen sharing and web meeting app with all the great features of those other guys that is ABSOLUTELY FREE for home and business use.

It has quite an impressive list of features, among them:

• Desktop sharing
• Support for up to 10 meeting participants
• Switch presenter
• Remote keyboard and mouse control

For a computer geek like myself who is always troubleshooting computer issues at work and home, Mikogo has been an extremely useful tool. The fact that it is free and easy to use makes it the perfect addition to my own “arsenal” of preferred apps.

What’s the catch? No catch. The company behind Mikogo, BeamYourScreen, offers a wide variety of products, and they launched Mikogo to help fill a very real need for a free screen sharing app, as well as help get the word out about their other offerings.

Worried about security? Don’t be. Mikogo utilizes all the latest security standards and comes with several features that allow you to control who has access to what.

Did I mention it runs on Windows, Mac, and even has a portable version you can run from a USB thumb drive?

Mikogo really is a great, free screen sharing and online collaboration app, and I highly recommend it.

(Originally published on my Lockergnome blog 8/28/10)

For those of you with computers running Windows (XP, Vista, or 7), which is most of you, here are 6 things you can do to keep your computer running at its best.

1. Defragment your hard drive at least once a month. Over time, different pieces of files can get scattered over different places in your hard drive. This can make your computer slow down as it works harder to load applications and open files. You can use the built-in Windows utility called Disk Defragmenter, or you can use a 3rd party tool. I prefer to use Defraggler. It’s easy to install and run, and you can even schedule it to defrag automatically on a regular basis. It also seems to do a more thorough job than the Windows tool.
2. Clean up your hard drive at least once a month. Temporary files, logs, and other unnecessary files can clutter up your hard drive and take up space that could be put to better use. Windows has a built-in utility called Disk Cleanup. There are also 3rd party apps that are more thorough and offer more features. I prefer to use CCleaner.
3. Run a manual, full virus scan at least once a month. Even if you already have a anti-virus software installed that runs automatic scans, it never hurts to run a full scan manually once in a while. There are several good, free anti-virus apps out there. See my post “Immunize Your Computer” for information on a few of them. Personally, I use Microsoft Security Essentials.
4. Avoid using Internet Explorer whenever possible. There are several other good web browsers you can use instead of IE that offer more features and are more secure. IE has made strides in the area of security with the release of IE 8, but it is still vulnerable to adware, spyware, and malware attacks that other browsers aren’t. Whenever I talk to someone who says their computer has been infected, the first thing I ask them is what web browser they use. Almost every time, it’s IE. Use Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, or Safari instead.
5. Be cautious about opening suspicious links or email attachments. These are common ways computers become infected. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.  Even emails that appear to come from someone you trust can have infected email attachments. Do not run or install any programs unless you are sure of their source.
6. Make sure you have the latest Windows security updates and patches installed. Check at least once a month. If you’re Using Windows XP, go to http://update.microsoft.com (you will have to use IE for that). Vista and Windows 7 users can open and run the Windows Update utility. Even if you have updates set to automatically download and install, it never hurts to double-check. This will ensure you are as protected as possible against vulnerabilities in Windows itself that might be exploited by an attacker.

There are certainly other things you can do to enhance and optimize your Windows computer experience, but these 6 seem to be among the most important…and the most overlooked.

Or…you could get a Mac and not have to worry about most of these things. But that’s a topic for another post. Happy computing!

I love to get my hands on old computers, fix them up, and put them to good use. If I can’t figure out a way to fit them in to my collection of computers and gadgets at home, I donate them to people or organizations that can use them.

Recently, I acquired a Dual Intel Pentium III 1.0 GHz Server/Workstation machine. That’s dual processor, not dual core. 2 separate CPUs on the motherboard! with 1 GB of SDRAM and a 128 MB video card, this thing is a little workhorse. Considering it’s 8+ years old, I’m pretty impressed with the performance I can get out of it.

That said, there are some things it just can’t do very well. Full-screen flash video, for example. You also probably wouldn’t want to do any video encoding on one of these babies, as you would be waiting a crazy long time.

It can do just about everything else the average home computer user would need – internet, office computing, listening to music, watching videos. And you can watch YouTube with a decent video card (although as I mentioned, it’s choppy full screen).

So in the era of multi-core processing, super-fast bus speeds, DDR3, SATA, etc. what could you possibly use a computer like this for?

One of my favorite uses for such computers is as home file servers.

Just attach a couple of beefy internal or external drives to this guy, hook him up to my home network, and I’ve got a central location for my movies, files, music, documents, etc. and access from any of my computers (I’ve got 4 machines I use on a pretty regular basis at home: HTPC, wife’s laptop, my main desktop, and my Streaming/Development/Project/Whatever machine). It’s also a great way to make sure that all your important files are backed up.

For a file server, you can use virtually any operating system you want. As long as you can hook it up to your home network and share your drives, you’re good to go. Keep in mind that on an older machine, you’ll want to use an operating system that won’t hog resources and bog it down. I currently have Windows XP installed on my dual PIII, which is really easy to set up as a file server (just share the drives). But I will likely install a light Linux distro on it such as Xubuntu, which will use even less resources and which I can configure for optimum file server efficiency using SAMBA and similar utilities.

Another good use for older machines is classic gaming. Sure, you can play most old games on newer systems, but there’s just something nostalgic about playing Final Fantasy VII on a Pentium III.

If you don’t care about not being able to do full-screen flash, you can use an old computer as a basic HTPC. This dual PIII can play DVDs, MPEGs, etc. without breaking a sweat. And some older computers can actually handle full-screen flash with a good video card. The HTPC I have out in our living room is an old Athlon XP 3200+ with a 256MB Nvidia card in it. It handles full-screen flash (non-HD) fabulously. It works fine for my needs, since I don’t have an HDTV (yet).

With a little creativity, you can extend the life of that ancient box and have a little fun in the process.

What are some good uses you’ve found for older computers?

(Originally published on my Lockergnome Blog 7/3/2010)

The results of a recent survey indicate that iPhone owners are the happiest. Seriously. 77% of iPhone owners love it. The next highest happiness percentage comes from Motorola smart phone users at 64%.

Now let’s face it, the iPhone is old and outdated by modern smartphone standards. Yes, it should get a nice refresh with the iPhone 4G, as well as iPhone OS 4.0 (hooray for multi-tasking!). But as it stands now, it’s not the latest and greatest out there.

At first glance I thought to myself that surely these results had been skewed by international iPhone owners, like those in Europe and Asia where the iPhone has been selling like hotcakes … or whatever their preferred snack bread is over there.

But the survey was conducted in North America, mostly in the United States, where Android-based smartphones have overtaken the iPhone in sales. Yet, iPhone owners are still the happiest with their smartphones.

So, why do iPhone owners love it so much? I honestly have no idea. Is it the Apple name? Do people just like to own a gadget or device with that cool Apple logo on it? Is it the ease of use? The exclusive access to iTunes and the App Store?

I personally don’t own an iPhone, but I do own an iPod Touch 3G which is basically an iPhone 3Gs without the phone functionality. And I absolutely love it. I am able to do so much with it, in fact, that I rarely use my netbook anymore. And if I could justify paying what I consider to be a ridiculous amount of money for a phone and data plan, I’d buy an iPhone in a heartbeat.

So, why do you think such a high percentage of iPhone owners love it so much? Feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts!

(Originally published on my Lockergnome blog on 5/29/10)

I am not a rabid social network user, but I do have Facebook and Twitter accounts, and I do like to stay connected to those services on my iPod Touch.

Up until today I was using Twitterrific as my preferred Twitter app. As good as Twitterrific is, Twitter’s Official iPhone App is that much better!

It has most of the same features I am used to: support for multiple Twitter accounts, light and quick interface, search features, etc. But Twitter has really done an excellent job to set their app apart from the rest.

Unlike most other free Twitter apps out there, the Official app has no ads (yay!). It also more fully integrates with the features of the Twitter website, such as your saved searches. Another feature I really like is that it displays your tweets back and forth between a particular person/account in the form of a conversation – so you can see their tweets and your replies in order on the same screen.

It’s also easier to know when you have unread tweets, and to get information on individual Twitterers and such.

It really is a more fluid and robust Twitter app than Twitteriffic, in my opinion, and I can’t see myself going back. Well done, Twitter!

For those of you who are trying to slowly wean yourselves off of Google for whatever reason, or are just looking for good free alternatives to their services, Zoho.com is certainly worth your attention.

They offer an impressive selection of free online apps and services, including word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation apps just like you’re used to.

But those are only the beginning. They offer an email service, calendar, chat, and planner among other things, as well as a whole array of business oriented apps from project management software to a report generator. Many of their business apps are free to try, and if you like them well enough you can pay a reasonable price to enable all features or continue using them beyond the trial period.

The free apps alone are just as good – if not better – than Google’s.  I’ve used Zoho Writer and I find it to actually be a bit more robust, with more features and visual appeal than its Google Docs counterpart. And get this – you can easily import your documents from Google Docs into Zoho!

You even have your own dashboard (http://personal.zoho.com) that lets you see your e-mails, docs, calendar, and whatever else you want all in one place. It’s similar in function to iGoogle.

As far as free online office, productivity, and collaboration services go, Zoho is one of the better ones I’ve seen in some time.

It’s been a few weeks since I first started using the Opera web browser, and I must say I am quite impressed with it. It’s currently my browser of choice, and I haven’t even tapped into its full potential.

It’s not that I had never heard of it before.  It’s usually included in articles about web browsers, but I’ve always regarded it as the “red headed step child” of web browsers – probably for no good reason other than my own vague familiarity with it.

Until recently, I had been using Firefox pretty steadily. Before that I had actually switched from Firefox to Google Chrome.  I stopped using Google Chrome when I decided to distance myself from Google due to the way they handled the roll-out of Google Buzz and the ensuing privacy issues (tangent alert! I’ll cover that in a future post.).

I’m not really sure what enticed me to finally try Opera, but I’m glad I did. For me, it has been noticeably quicker than Firefox and seems to be generally more responsive. It seems to have all sorts of little features that I didn’t know I was missing. For instance, if you have multiple tabs open, you can simply mouse over a tab and see a small preview of what is on the tab.

Features I have not yet tried but that look downright awesome include Opera Unite, which allows you to share content directly with others without having to have a website. That’s right, you can stream music, share files, even host your own website directly from your Opera browser.

You can also synchronize Opera on all your computers and devices, so that your bookmarks, notes, and other info are the same across all your gadgets!

These and more features make for a secure, fast, and feature-rich browsing experience. Give Opera a try and see what you think. I, for one, am becoming hooked.

If you aren’t already doing so, you should definitely start backing up the files on your computer(s) regularly.

Computers are fickle things. They may work flawlessly for years without breaking a sweat, then one day without warning: POOF! Your hard drive crashes. Or your motherboard gets fried and in turn fries your hard drive. Or somehow a virus or spyware infects your hard drive and turns your computer into an expensive paper weight. There go your family pictures, work documents, media files – everything!

Do not be one of those people that ends up saying “if I had only…”!

There are several ways you can backup your files. One of the easiest is to purchase an external USB hard drive. Simply plug it in and click and drag the files you want to backup. Many portable hard drives come with backup utilities installed to make it even easier for you. For maximum portability be sure to get a USB powered hard drive. This means it is powered by the USB ports on your computer and doesn’t have to be plugged in to a wall outlet to receive power.

You can also backup files to another computer on your home network, which is what I do. I have my home computers all networked through my WiFi router. This will allow you to share files between your computers easily. Again, it’s just click and drag the files you want to copy to whatever machine you want. I won’t go into details on setting up a home network in this post but feel free to contact me if you want to know more about how to do that!

Another option is to backup your essential files to a DVD or CD using a CD/DVD burner. Make sure your disks are RW (Re-Writable) so you can use them more than once, and that your burner is capable of burning RW disks. Keep in mind that if you have a lot of files to back up, you may need to use several disks, so using an external hard drive or another computer on your network might be more practical in that case.

Hopefully, you never have to use your backed up files. But if anything ever happens to your computer, trust me, you will be glad you took the time to make regular backups.

Technology is in a constant state of evolution and change. It seems we are inundated with information about the latest innovation one minute, only to have it declared obsolete the next minute with the release of another breakthrough gadget or device. For example:  the iPod Touch 3G I just purchased a couple months ago is to be rendered “old” when the next iteration of the iPhone/iPod Touch is released by Apple later this year.

Unless you are completely detached from the world around you and utterly unaware of recent events, you know that Apple Inc. has turned the technology world on its ear yet again with its latest creation: the iPad.

The hype has been truly remarkable – some of my fellow geeks even going so far as saying the iPad represents a paradigm shift in personal, portable computing. I’m in no position to disagree. The iPad in my perception, represents a childhood dream come true. It’s something straight out of Star Trek: The Next Generation (still my all-time favorite TV show).

But will the iPad – and the slew of similar devices it spawns from other manufacturers – eventually supplant the netbook as the ultra-portable computing device of choice?

I have long been of the opinion that when it comes to consumer technology, it’s not a matter of what is “better” or “best”. It’s all relative and purely dependent on the needs, wants, and style of the individual using it.

Granted, there are varying degrees of quality, reliability, and features among the different devices available, but ultimately it comes down to personal preference. If you like your computer and it meets your personal requirements, that’s all that really matters, isn’t it?

As our needs and wants evolve in relation to technology, technology evolves in relation to us. Try to remember what things were like 5 years ago. Had you even heard of such a device as a “netbook”? What was your reaction when you first saw one? Did you see that little miniature laptop and think it was too small, too slow, and would never catch on? Fast-forward to today and look how popular they’ve become!

I can also think of some technological devices that were revolutionary for their time, even enjoyed some years in the spotlight, but eventually faded (ZIP drive, anyone?). But that’s a topic for another post!

So, I hate to answer my question with a question, but in this case the answer to the question of whether the iPad will ultimately lead to the “demise” of the netbook is: who knows?

Which leads to my last question of the post in light of my point about personal preference: who cares?

Whatever your feelings on immunizations for human beings, I think we can all agree that keeping computers safe from viruses, spyware, adware, ransomware, and all other kinds of malware is extremely important as more and more of the world goes “online”.

As operating systems and software incorporate more elaborate security features and protection, the bad guys always seem to find cracks in the armor. And these days, they’re after your identity. Sophisticated threats can record your key strokes, the websites you go to, even scan your hard drive for sensitive information or use your computer as a “server” for other stolen data and viruses. Lots of bad stuff out there!

While it is probably impossible to protect a home computer 100% from every new threat that emerges, you can come pretty close with relatively little effort and zero cost.

Here are a few FREE anti-virus programs that I highly recommend, and have had good experiences with in the past:

• Microsoft Security Essentials – I use MSE on all my Windows operating systems and it’s the first anti-virus app I recommend. It’s extremely easy to use, runs quietly in the background, and doesn’t hog system resources. And it’s made by Microsoft. I figure the company who makes the operating system probably knows how to best protect it and utilize the resources most efficiently in doing so. In a real world experience, I installed MSE on a computer that had been running McAfee, and MSE caught and neutralized a threat that McAfee missed.
• AVG Free Anti-Virus – I used AVG for years before I switched to Microsoft Security Essentials.  Later versions seemed a bit more bloated, but still performed well and always kept my computers safe.
• avast! Free Antivirus – another popular and trusted option. Easy to use and not a a strain on system resources.

If you use Norton or McAfee, you might want to consider switching to one of the alternatives I listed above. If you do, you will likely notice a marked improvement in your computer’s speed and response, as Norton and McAfee are notorious “resource hogs”. Free alternatives protect your system just as well, but more efficiently. And you never have to pay for subscriptions!

Using free anti-virus software, along with a few other easy things which I will share in other posts, my computers have never been compromised by a serious threat.