Neuron Computer Services Blog

Pretty much anyone who has dealt with ordering goods and services online or doing online banking has heard of encryption. But what exactly is it and how important is it really?

I would say it is absolutely crucial that any personal information being transmitted online be encrypted to the highest level possible. Modern web browsers such as Mozilla FireFox or Internet Explorer have good encryption and do a good job in letting you know if you’re about to send personally identifiable information to a third party. You should always look out for the yellow lock icon whenever you’re about to send a password, address, or other personally identifiable information. Anything less, you should avoid doing so.

Encryption does not end at web browsing and using services on the Internet, however. It’s also important to have strong encryption for your home or office wireless network. The most common type is WEP, which unfortunately, is not as secure as originally thought. With the right tool, it can be hacked in less than a minute. I recommend at least WPA encryption security, or WPA2 if your wireless router and laptop support it.

A growing trend in data privacy and security is the encryption of storage media such as the hard disk drive or even flash drives. I use a Lexar JumpDrive, which can be configured to have an encrypted, password-protected volume. There is a new flash drive called the IronKey. It not only encrypts and protects your data with a hardware Cryptochip, it can also self-destruct. Should it get in the wrong hands, it will literally fry itself so the data cannot be recovered.

For encryption of your files on your computer, there is a non-profit organization called TrueCrypt that has developed a great, free software program. Their program, TrueCrypt, allows you to encrypt entire drives, folders, or individual files with ease.

Here are some quick tips for making sure your data is safe and protected:

• Make sure the yellow lock is on and visible whenever you send information via a form online.
• Make sure the website address is prefixed with an https:// instead of just plain http://. This denotes Secure Socket Layer (SSL) SSL security.
• If you need to transmit sensitive information or documents via e-mail, you really shouldn’t. Instead use fax, certified postal mail, or a secure file-sharing service such as ShareFile.com.
• Contact me if you have any concerns about the privacy of your sensitive data.

For a great article on on encryption, check out How Stuff Works. It is rather technical, but still offers insights on protecting your information online.

In my previous newsletter regarding my take on Windows Vista, I stated that I was going to wait until Windows 7 comes out in 2010 before building myself a new computer. Well, I went ahead and took the plunge!

Despite the fact that I was going to push my circa-2005 computer into a 5-year stretch, I decided that it was time to upgrade to a Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit capable PC. The main reason in doing so is because I was getting tired of the pokey performance of my Intel Pentium 4 single-core 3GHz processor and limited motherboard capacity of 2 GB of RAM. This is especially evident when browsing media-rich websites like YouTube or a lot of tech-related websites I frequent. Those Flash ads and Flash videos really take a toll on older CPUs. Today’s software is simply more demanding, more “bloated”, and requires the latest hardware; especially dual or quad-core CPUs and tons of memory. With that said, let me introduce you to the computer I built for myself in October:

- Intel Quad-core Q9550 2.83GHz (that’s four 2.83GHz CPUs in one package).
- 8GB Memory
- Two extremely fast WD Raptor 150GB 10,000RPM hard drives in a RAID-1 mirror (this means that if one hard drive fails, I just put in a hot spare and it will rebuild with no data loss. It also means double the read speed for even faster Windows boot up time and program loading).
- Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit edition. (I have started to recommend going with 64-bit Vista if you’re going to go with a Vista PC. The reason being is that Vista is extremely demanding of memory and with 32-bit versions, you’re limited to 3 to 3.5GB or so and cannot upgrade to anything higher. Most modern computers today can be upgraded to 8GB or more. I consider 4GB the bare minimum for Vista, and with memory prices so low, it’s actually affordable).
- nVidia GeForce 8800GT 512MB Video card. (Considered one of the best budget graphics cards you can buy today).

The computer I built myself scores a 5.9 in the Windows Experience Index benchmark.

So what is this Windows Experience Index score? It’s a rating system developed by Microsoft to benchmark your computer. A score of 5.9 is the highest score you can get currently. Microsoft has stated they may increase the maximum score in the near future, but for now, if you want the best Vista computer money can buy, make sure it scores 5.9 across the board. Anything less than 5.0 for a Vista desktop PC or 3.0 for a Vista laptop should probably get upgraded in RAM or video. If that’s not possible, then a new PC or a downgrade to XP would be ideal.

The best part of it all, is my computer will easily be able to handle Windows 7 when it comes out in late 2009 or early 2010 simply because of the fact that Microsoft is working hard to minimize the “bloat” in their operating system. They are refining the operating system kernel and calling it “MinWin”. This means faster boot times, faster program loads, and easier ways to work with the computer. The future is looking good for PCs.

By the way, I’m a PC!

I am currently in the process of building myself a new server. This server will primarily serve as a file server as well as a learning platform for Windows Server 2008 and other various utilities such as Microsoft CRM 4.0, System Center, and others that come with the Microsoft Action Pack Subscription. I’m a Microsoft Partner so I was able to pass a test and literally be able to purchase tens of thousands of dollars worth of Microsoft software for just $299, all legally.

My original intention was to build my server with six identical 750GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 SATAII hard drives in a RAID-5, with 100GB of the 3.5TB partitioned as the C: drive. However, the RAID array never seemed to initialize properly. I had left the IMSM BIOS utility overnight for 2 whole days with it saying “Initialize”. Finally, I lost patience and gave up on it - especially after I had read some forum comments about Intel’s Matrix RAID slowness in initialization. I immediately tried setting up a RAID-1 array of two of the 750GB hard drives. The initilization was instant and it was immediately available and ready with a status of “Normal”. I then decided to RAID-5 the remaining four hard drives. Again, the initialization was instant and it was immediately available and ready with a status of “Normal”. At this point, I probably should have deleted the arrays and tried the full six disk RAID-5 array creation once more. But, I went ahead and went with the Server 2008 install. The down side to this RAID-1 and RAID-5 mixed setup is I basically “wasted” 1.5 TB of potential space, as two of the 750 GB hard drives have to be dedicated to the RAID-1 mirroring and the RAID-5 parity (although parity is actually distributed across ALL disks, equaling approximately 750GB total for parity data).

The next step was the installation of Server 2008 Standard Edition, x64. I have 8 GB of RAM installed on a Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3R motherboard with the Intel P35 chipset and a Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz CPU. The hardware is definitely not server-grade, but it works well for a budget server and so far everything has been installed and running without a hitch. I’m fully going to rely on the RAID-1 and RAID-5 for my nearline backups and an online backup subscription to MozyPro for the more serious business data. This server will finally be the central hub for all of my data - photos, music, videos, documents, e-mail, and business-related data.

So the moral of the story here with Intel Matrix RAID is this: It’s great for a low-cost, budget PC or server but it definitely lacks when it comes to true RAID benefits and performance. A true RAID solution would have, at a minimum, support for up to 8 drives in a RAID-5, battery backup, and onboard dedicated RAM for RAID caching. These RAID solutions costs upwards of $500 for an add-on card alone. The Intel Matrix RAID costs $0 when it’s already included in certain motherboards.

Computers and the Internet have made all of us incredibly productive. Long gone are the days of writing letters on paper with a pen. With typing speeds on average of 30-45 words per minute, computer users can type up an e-mail and send it off far quicker than mailing a letter via the United Slow Postal Service. With such a dramatic increase in productivity with computers, it may be hard to imagine even faster ways to get things done and do things on a computer. Well, in this blog post, I’m going to talk about several ways to increase your productivity with your computer.

Use the Keyboard More
Moving your hand constantly from the keyboard to the mouse is a time-waster. For example, filling out a form online where it has fields that ask you to fill in your name, e-mail, and other information can quickly be navigated with the Tab key instead of using the mouse to click on each individual field. Here are some other great keyboard shortcuts to speed up your productivity:

Alt+tab: Hold down the Left Alt key and tap on the Tab key to quickly navigate the open applications that are running on your computer. Let go of the Left Alt key to switch to that application. The slow method: use your mouse to click on the application on the bottom task bar.

Windows Key+M: Need to quickly see your desktop screen? Hit the Windows Key (it has a logo of Microsoft Windows) and then M to minimize all the open windows on your screen. The slow method: clicking that minimize button one after the other with the mouse.

Ctrl+N: Need to make a new document, e-mail, or web browser window? Just hit Ctrl+N to create a new whatever.

Alt+F4: Close a bunch of windows and applications that are open by hitting Alt+F4 repeatedly. The slow method: clicking all those X buttons one after the other with the mouse.

Ctrl+Enter: If you use Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, or Windows Mail, you can send off e-mails faster by hitting Ctrl+Enter instead of clicking the send button with the mouse. You can also do Ctrl+R for replying to an e-mail, or even Ctrl+F to forward.

For a more comprehensive list of virtually all available keyboard shortcuts, check out the following knowledge base article on Microsoft’s site.

Go Dual Monitor, or more
The more you see on the screen, the more information is there to help you get things done even quicker. Before, it was all about getting the bigger sized monitor so you can have the biggest desktop screen space. Nowadays, however, it’s not uncommon for businesses and individuals to have dual monitor setups. Personally, I started out with a 24-inch Dell widescreen monitor that sports a 1920×1200 resolution. I have tons of desktop screen space. However, I quickly outgrew it so I added another 17-inch monitor. The result is I am now, statistically speaking, up to 30% more productive with two monitors than with just one. For more information on this great productivity gaining idea, check out this article.

How about going Triple Monitor?!

Find & Open Programs Faster With Launchy
This great, free software lets me use the keyboard to launch any program I want that’s in my Start Menu or Quick Launch bar. All I have to do is hit Alt+Spacebar (by default; it can be changed to any keyboard combination you want), then type in a partial phrase of the program I want to launch. For example, I can type “quic” and right away it shows QuickBooks, which I hit Enter to launch. I don’t even have to worry about spelling. Wait a few more seconds and other program suggestions will come up. This increased my productivity tenfold because I no longer have to dig around endless Start Menu entries to find the one obscure program I’m looking for. Check it out here: www.launchy.net. Don’t forget to check out the Tips & Tricks of the program as well.

Do you have ideas for increasing productivity on the computer? Please feel free to share them with me!

Microsoft Corp Chairman Bill Gates is stepping down from daily operations at the software maker, to focus on his philanthropic efforts. Go here to see a cool time line of all the major events in the life of Microsoft, the company he co-founded in 1975, and in the Gates’ life.

I am excited to announce that I will be completely revamping my website in the near future. I’m excited to announce more resources for your business IT needs such as:

- Data loss prevention and protection recommendations
- Network and computer security recommendations
- Software and utility recommendations

I will also be outlining all my rates, policies, and procedures on my website. Moreover, I’ll be adding more information on what I can do for you and your business’ computer service and IT needs.

Stay tuned!

This thing I came across by a good friend of mine has absolutely, positively blown me away. It’s called LogMeIn Rescue and it is the coolest thing since sliced bread. I signed up for the 2 week free trial and it has already “paid” for itself many times over. I was able to provide computer repair services to several satisfied clients. I cannot wait to purchase this thing.

Basically the way it works is I send an e-mail with a link or send customers to a special website (customizable later by me), and a PIN code. They input the PIN code, download and run the special program, and we’re connected. It’s as simple as that. Once it’s running, we can chat one on one in an AOL Instant Messenger-like chat window. I can then request various important functions such as the current PCs resource load (CPU, memory, hard drive space used, etc), programs that are running, and even take complete control of their desktop — all with their permission first of course. The best thing of all is this is safe and extremely secure, as it uses 256-bit encryption to transmit information back and forth between me and the client.

What I envision doing in the the very near future is implement a website that is an extension of www.neuroncomputers.com and have clients be able to provide their information and click “Connect”. Initially, I will just offer instant connect access and ask for billing information post-session. In the future, I will accept credit cards and offer the option to purchase “prepaid minutes” or flat-rate services such as “Set up your music player” or “Install your office suite program”.

It is so amazing how technology has progressed to this. With Windows Vista coming out very, very soon (if it hasn’t already — I’m so behind with that), then there will be even more of a need for remote support.