Tag: Network

Ten Tips for Windows 7

January 10, 2009 by Jason

Microsoft is releasing Windows 7 to 2.5 million beta testers today. Here are ten tips for those who are preparing to take the plunge:

1. Back-up your system

Whilst we’ve been mightily impressed with the stability of Windows 7 ever since the pre-beta launch, this remains a work in progress. If you’re even considering installing Windows 7 on a mission-critical system, make sure you take a full back-up first, so that you’ve got a fall back if it all goes horribly wonky.

2. Take note of your settings and software keys

If you’re making a fresh install of Windows 7, rather than upgrading a previous OS, make a note of all your crucial settings – such as your wireless network key and Outlook configuration – so that you can get online immediately. Also make sure you can lay your hands on keys for any essential software that you’ll need to re-install in Windows 7. Read More»

Twenty Secrets about Windows XP

December 23, 2008 by Jason

You’ve read the reviews and digested the key feature enhancements and operational changes. Now it’s time to delve a bit deeper and uncover some of Windows XP’s secrets.

1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of Windows were coy about how long they went between boots, XP is positively proud of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type ’systeminfo’. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type ’systeminfo > info.txt’. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).

2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run
 and type ‘gpedit.msc’; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care  some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only). Read More»

Remote File Protocol for Vista RTM/SP1

December 10, 2008 by Jason

Although the Server Message Block remote file was originally introduced in the 1980’s, the first major overhauling it suffered was with the availability of Windows Vista RTM in 2007. SMB2, as it was labeled in Vista RTM, was subsequently updated the following year, with the introduction of Windows Vista Service Pack 1, and Windows Server 2008 SP1. However, even with the advent of SMB2, Windows operating systems continue to be interoperable with platforms that support SMB1, as the latest version of the remote file protocol has been tweaked in order to provide full support for the connection setup mechanisms of its precursor.

“A key improvement in SMB2 is the way it makes it easy for clients to send a number of outstanding requests to a server. This allows the client to build a pipeline of requests, instead of waiting for a response before sending the next request. This is especially relevant when using a high latency network,” Jose Barreto, technology evangelist with the Storage Evangelism Team, explained. Read More»

Optimize Firefox and IE Browsing Speed

December 09, 2008 by Jason

You really don’t need to tweak your browser in case you are using Firefox because it is a browser which has been specially designed for optimized and fast browsing but if you can make it even a little more fast that would certainly be a treat for you. Likewise there is a trick to make Internet Explorer 6 fast too. Browsers are designed to work with fast connections but with this trick even dial-up users can experience fast and smooth browsing.

Optimize Firefox and IE Browsing Speed

I shall be teaching you two tricks which work separately on Firefox and Internet Explorer. It doesn’t require you to be some expert rather all you have to do is change some registry values and you are done. I have also included a video tutorial for those who want to see it step by step visually. This is perhaps one of the oldest tricks to optimize Firefox and IE but it still works great.
Read More»

Firefox Speed Tweaks

December 09, 2008 by Jason

Yes, firefox is already pretty damn fast but did you know that you can tweak it and improve the speed even more?

That’s the beauty of this program being open source.

Here’s what you do:

In the URL bar, type “about:config” and press enter. This will bring up the configuration “menu” where you can change the parameters of Firefox.

Note that these are what I’ve found to REALLY speed up my Firefox significantly – and these settings seem to be common among everybody else as well. But these settings are optimized for broadband connections – I mean with as much concurrent requests we’re going to open up with pipelining
 lol
 you’d better have a big connection.

Double Click on the following settins and put in the numbers below – for the true / false booleans – they’ll change when you double click. Read More»

Registry Tweaks to Enhance Your Windows XPerience – Part 6

November 30, 2008 by Jason

The moment has come once again to pimp your Windows XP with the skills of a power user and the tool that will always be at your disposal, Notepad. This article, along with the previous ones (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5), will allow you to enhance and customize your operating system with advanced IT knowledge. Are there advantages to it? Of course there are. For one, the procedure is very fast, easy to perform and, in most cases, the result cannot be obtained through the “standard procedure” – Control Panel, Folder Options, Performance Options etc.

However, before getting started, if what we’re talking here is not something that you’re familiar with, or if you have not read yet the first article in the tweaking series, please do so now, because, otherwise, what is about to follow may not make any sense at all. Without a single trace of a doubt, that’s not something that we would want, is it now? This is all the more true since, as long as we are here, you will probably notice that, as promised above, the tweaks I’m about to present cannot be made using the old-school methods. It would be a pity to pass up this chance just because you’re not familiar with a few basic rules. Read More»

Registry Tweaks to Enhance Your Windows XPerience – Part 5

November 27, 2008 by Jason

Once again, it’s time to enhance your Windows XP operating system exactly the way you want and without paying a cent on expensive programs that do something so simple that even a kid could handle it. This series allows you to make important changes to the look, feel and behavior of your Microsoft Windows XP with just the help of the good ol’ Notepad. These tweaks, performed on the Windows Registry, can be undone, but it’s very important that you follow a few steps and remember that the lines you are about to copy must be carefully selected and/or copied, because a single misplaced / missing / added character may seriously damage your OS.

So, before continuing our journey into the land of magical tweaks, it’s imperative that you read the first article in the series to understand not only the basic rules that must be followed in order to get the job done right, but also… what’s the deal with all the bold lines below. Before starting yet another series of desktop tweaks, please allow me to remind you not to leave the tweaks.reg file blank after opening it. Therefore, now that you’re viewing it in Notepad and have placed the “Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00” [without the quotes] at the beginning, let’s start optimizing. Read More»

Double your Firefox speed in just five minutes

November 26, 2008 by Jason

Firefox has been outperforming IE in every department for years, and version 3 is speedier than ever.

But tweak the right settings and you could make it faster still, more than doubling your speed in some situations, all for about five minutes work and for the cost of precisely nothing at all. Here’s what you need to do.

1. Enable pipelining

Browsers are normally very polite, sending a request to a server then waiting for a response before continuing. Pipelining is a more aggressive technique that lets them send multiple requests before any responses are received, often reducing page download times. To enable it, type about:config in the address bar, double-click network.http.pipelining and network.http.proxy.pipelining so their values are set to true, then double-click network.http.pipelining.maxrequests and set this to 8.

Keep in mind that some servers don’t support pipelining, though, and if you regularly visit a lot of these then the tweak can actually reduce performance. Set network.http.pipelining and network.http.proxy.pipelining to false again if you have any problems. Read More»

Are You Suffering From Internet Addiction?

November 24, 2008 by Jason

Do you spend your entire day surfing the internet and have withdrawl symptoms when offline? Chinese doctors took the first step to give a diagnostic definition of Internet addiction to address medical concerns over psychological problems from Internet overuse.

Symptoms of addiction included yearning to get back online, mental or physical distress, irritation and difficulty concentrating or sleeping. The definition, based on a study of more than 1,300 problematic computer users, classifies as addicts those who spend at least six hours online a day and have shown at least one symptom in the past three months.

They say such persons can seek medical help and counselling and now psychiatrists can easily treat such cases. I am sure a large population is surfing the web over 6 hours daily and showing one of those symptoms. I am sure many of my bloggers friends show these signs of addiction too. Maybe I am also getting addicted to the web, sitting and writing this post on a Sunday evening, though I still try to avoid my blogging time wasting habits. Read More»

Top 5 Tips For Computer Troubleshooting

November 06, 2008 by Jason

Just thought I should give the community my top five list for computer troubleshooting!

1. Your computer isn’t turning on? “Oh, no!” You think, “I’d better get a new one!” STOP right there. Before you get too frustrated, be sure you have checked that the power cord is actually plugged into your wall socket properly. You may think it sounds silly, but believe me, it’s more common than you think even for the computer savvy. If your computer is connected through a power board, you should try plugging it directly into the wall (note for the safety conscious: by plugging the power cable
directly into the wall, you lessen the chance of power failure and damage to your machine). Another reason that your PC may not start is if you have made any repairs or modification to your machine. You may have unwittingly pulled out a connect plug; check all connections.

2. If your computer is starting but is spitting error messages at you, then you might need to take out any memory modules such as RAM and then reset them by plugging them back into different RAM slots.If you get an error such as ‘Unexpected Interrupt in Protected Mode,’ then there is a problem with the settings you have entered in BIOS. To fix it go into BIOS and set it to default settings. If the problem still won’t go away, then you must remove the CMOS chip on your motherboard then put it back in to clean BIOS completely. Read More»