Personal Computing Demystified.
Internet
From @ComcastBonnie: ComcastBonnie Happy Fun-Time Learning Series GO!
Nov 18th
From time to time I’ll post content here authored by other bloggers. @ComcastBonnie is a member of the Comcast Cares! team at your favorite giant content provider and has provided great help to me in the past. Below is a great post on self-troubleshooting Internet access issues with your cable connection.
ComcastBonnie Happy Fun-Time Learning Series GO!
By: @ComcastBonnie
(I was originally going to post this back in September. Oops!)
Since the new school year has begun, let’s learn some fun stuff about your internet connection and how to fix it! Prepare to amaze and awe your neighbors, family, and friends who will suddenly deem you as their tech support person 
OK, class! Let’s begin…
Today, we’ll start off our fun learning series with the simple stuff. When I see problems, the very first thing I’ll ask is: Have you reset your modem? If the answer is yes, then I’ll ask: Do you have a router? This isn’t because I’m trying to blame any particular piece of equipment. You’d be amazed at how many times a router will get “out of sync” with a modem, and vice versa. To fix this…
- · pull the power from both the modem and the router
- · Next, plug the power into the modem ONLY.
- · Wait for the lights on the front to calm down. On Motorola modems, you need four SOLID green lights. (Scientific Atlanta/Webstar needs a SOLID cable light. RCA modems need the Cable Link and Internet light SOLID. If you have a modem not listed here, chances are you bought it or it’s an end of life modem and should be replaced)
- · Once this is done, go ahead and plug the power back into your router and wait for it to finish up it’s startup sequence.
Easy enough, right? If you’re still unable to connect, try moving on to the slightly more complicated steps below.
For a direct connection to the modem:
- · PC’s: Go to “Network Connections” in your Control Panel. Right mouse click on “Local Area Connection” and click Status. Click the Support tab in this window, and check the IP address.
- · Macs: Finder>Applications>System Utilities>Network Utility This will display your current IP address.
- · Does the IP start with 169.254? If so, your computer is not getting a connection from the modem and you should probably give us a call. If you see 192.168, you’re connected to a router, have your IP set static, or something else is going on with the modem. Again, something you might want to call us up about.
For connections using a router:
- · Make sure your router is obtaining an IP address by going to its home page at http://192.168.1.1 (login required in most cases). You should be able to check on the router’s status page and see if you are getting an IP. If you see a 169.254.xxx.xxx address, your router is not connecting to the modem. This could mean that it was not powered on in the right order OR the modem is not assigning IP’s.
- · Make sure your computer is receiving an IP address from the router by following the steps above. A 192.168.x.x of 10.x.x.x address should show. If not, your router has a problem!
- · Make sure you’re connected to your own wireless network. I get more of this than most people think. Be sure to put your wireless network as top priority over others in your network preferences.
For the super geeks out there:
Speaking of modem’s not handing out IP’s… I see this little problem all the time. The geeks out there seem to notice this the most, and take extraordinary measures to correct the problem. I’ll see folks spoofing their MAC Addresses to get the modem to talk to the equipment on the other end. Guess what? You don’t need to do that ANY TIME you connect something in to your modem, you will need to reset the modem. Otherwise, it will still consider the original device connected, and hence refuse to work with the new device. Easy fix, right? Make sure you’re not overlooking the basics above, since it’s easy to forget the most obvious things sometimes. I once troubleshot a modem for well over an hour, and then discovered it was in standby. The lights on the modem will tell you a lot about what’s going on.
I hope this gives you a little insight into the basics of troubleshooting. Next week, we’ll move on to checking out your internet signal from the comfort of your own home
Got a topic I should cover? Let me know in the comments! Got a question about any of the stuff above? Ask away! Let’s keep comments about the lessons on-topic, so we can all chirp in about each thing
About @ComcastBonnie:
Your friendly neighborhood Comcast Ninja here to answer questions, fix problems, and make the world a better place for our Customers. Got a question? Ask me!
@ComcastBonnie’s blog can be found at http://comcastbonnie.blogspot.com
What is a Netbook, and why would I want one?
Nov 17th
My first hands-on experience with a netbook was just this past summer. Our babysitter was headed off to college and had just won this little thing – she needed my help to make sure the software she needed was loaded up and it was generally ready to go. I agreed, so I got to test-drive her netbook for a week.
If you haven’t looked into a netbook yet – you really should, especially if you think you’re in the market for a laptop. First and foremost, netbooks are small.. screen sizes on netbooks are usually in the 10.1″ widescreen range which is similar to some of the nicer portable DVD players out there. Most netbooks are built on the Intel Atom processor which was purpose-built for mobile computing devices. As far as other specs you might be more familiar with – netbooks usually come configured with a few gigs of memory, a sizable hard drive (sometimes substituted for a SSD), wired/wireless networking, a few USB 2 ports and a webcam. Before the general release of Windows 7 most netbooks came with the Windows XP home operating system we’re all familiar with though now the newer versions of these devices come bundled with Windows 7. I wouldn’t be concerned by that last bit.. the hardware spec of the older models seem to be the same as the newer versions with Win7. What they don’t come with.. a CD/DVD drive – though they work fine with external drives. This is by design.. USB memory sticks are so ubiquitous now that I prefer them over CD/DVD.
Netbooks are designed for mobile connectivity, pure and simple. They are perfect devices for students because of their low cost, battery life and portability. For example.. the netbook that our babysitter is toting around has a battery life of about five hours so she can leave the power brick in her dorm, and the outside case is ruggedized with rubber so that she can lug it around in her backpack without worrying about scratching it up.
But, Mr. Blogger.. are they slow? Not at all. These things are perfect for web surfing, skype, email, and office-type programs and it does those jobs happily. Don’t try cpu-intense operations like gaming on one.. that will never work. Feel free to sync your music player to it or download photos from your digi-cam.. that works just fine. Linux folks.. Fedora 12 just dropped and it has specific enhancements for netbooks!
At around $300 for a decent netbook these things are going to be hot for Christmas. One word of warning though.. don’t fall for the ads that some wireless companies are touting where they’ll give you a netbook in exchange for a contract on a mobile data plan. You’ll do much better getting your own netbook and having the free will to choose who you might want to use for mobile connectivity assuming you need that.
Got a netbook? I’d love to hear from you, so post a comment!
Want a netbook? Check out the Gateway LT2022u NightSky Black 10.1″ WSVGA Netbook over at Newegg.com.
Windows 7.. Should you even bother?
Nov 13th
Its the latest, greatest operating system from Microsoft.. and while IT folks don’t normally get fired for purchasing Microsoft.. Windows 7 isn’t necessarily the best OS for the job. There is a zero-cost alternative out there.. Linux. Linux in its many distributions was derived from the UNIX operating system originally written for minicomputers in 1969 by AT&T’s Bell Labs and modified into its current form by Linus Torvalds. I’ll delve into the history lesson another time, but suffice it to say that Linux is a highly-developed open-source (more on that later) operating system that is very efficient and very powerful – and over the past few years and release cycles has become easy enough for home computer users to be able to operate without difficulty. Will it work for you? To know the answer to that, we need to examine the way you use your computer..
Image by Leonid Mamchenkov
Are you a PC gamer? I’m sorry to say that unless you are already proficient with Linux (and those folks may not have read down this far) you’re going to be disappointed. PC games can and do work thanks to a software package that emulates Windows.. but not all games will work. That situation gets better with each passing day.. but it isn’t there yet.
Are you hopelessly tied to Microsoft Office or Internet Explorer? If you know nothing else but IE for browsing or Microsoft Office for office functions you’re going to have a slight learning curve to tackle to be able to use Linux effectively. If you are willing to learn then read on.. the alternatives to those programs are built in to most desktop distributions of Linux.
Do you live on the Internet? Are you never more than 5 minutes between checking your Facebook or Tweeting? Do you use Firefox as your primary web browser? You’re in luck.. Linux for the home user is perfectly suited for you, whether you are on a desktop machine, laptop or netbook. Most distributions of Linux use Firefox as their default web browser and it operates in the same way.. you can be instantly productive. Linux is also much more efficient than any version of Windows would ever hope to be.. it requires much less than Windows in the way of computer hardware to operate on, which translates to extra computing power and better speed for you.
Here’s the best part.. Linux is open-source. That means FREE! It is maintained and updated (under Linus’s watchful eye) by its users. For more about the concepts behind open-source software, go here.
Will it work on your system? How do you give it a test drive? Why.. you download a Live CD of the Linux distribution of your choice, burn it to disc (with the proper software), pop the disc in your CD drive and reboot your computer. Linux will boot up and run off of the cd without touching your existing Windows installation or files. If you like it you can go back to Windows, get your files and then use that Live CD to load Linux. You can even dual-boot Windows and linux if you have the drive space to do so and run both systems.
As far as Linux distributions go, I’ve had the best experience and success with Fedora.. go here to have a look. There are many other Linux distributions geared toward different types of users.. if you want to have a look at those and are familiar with downloading files via BitTorrent then pop over to Linuxtracker.org and have a look.
If you have questions, I’m here.. @neilster1 on twitter or leave a comment here. I’d like to hear about brave souls who take the plunge!
