Personal Computing Demystified.
Personal Computing
From @ComcastBonnie: ComcastBonnie Happy Fun-Time Learning Series GO!
0914 days
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
Upgrading from Windows Vista to Windows 7? Better make a backup first..
0929 days
I’ve been using Windows 7 since it was in beta stage and I have to say.. I’m impressed. While Windows isn’t my OS of choice (I prefer Fedora Linux by far) it is a necessity from an administration perspective.. my company operates a Windows-based network and we will likely always have some tie to that. It is what it is. While Vista has gotten much better since the release of service pack 2 it was never on the “must upgrade” list for our user machines – it was relegated to a forgotten machine that sits on a desk in a deep, dark corner of the office.. the desk that plays double-duty as a storage shelf for the office Christmas decorations. We use it every once in a while to do release testing for our client software, but that’s it.
Windows 7 is proving to be different. Users like it.. I like it.. it seems to work well in our office environment – so I’ll let it creep in with new desktop machines and laptops as we replace them without spending the time to downgrade to XP. Certain users will get the opportunity to upgrade to take advantage of the better-than-average hardware they are already running, so I figured I’d better put myself through the upgrade process. Just so you know.. most IT folks will generally advise against doing in-place upgrades. There’s just too much that can (and often does) go wrong. An in-place upgrade is rarely a clean one – you can end up masking compatibility and software issues that will haunt you down the road. So, with all that in mind, I went ahead anyway.
Oh.. you XP users – Microsoft did you a favor whether it seems like it or not. You can’t directly upgrade from XP to Windows 7. That’s probably a good thing. Vista users.. read on. If you read nothing else.. read the statement below:
My advice to you.. re-read my previous post about backups and take that advice.. you might need it like I did.
I put the Windows 7 dvd in my drive and let’er rip. Things started normally enough.. then the compatibility check that runs before install kicked out a problem. My wireless software (by a large company with a catchy little tune for their brand) wasn’t compatible with the install for some reason. The suggestion was to remove that software and start over.. so I did. Without the wireless software I wasn’t connected to the Internet, and I didn’t bother to grab a cable and plug in to get connected.. and that was likely the reason for my upgrade failure.
Windows 7′s installer gives you the option to connect to the Internet to get installation and hardware updates before install. It shouldn’t be an option.. it should be required. Once I told the installer to soldier on without updates it appeared to be doing just that. The system copied the files it needed to copy in order to restart and perform the upgrade, and came through that restart just fine. After getting about halfway through the upgrade the installer encountered a fatal problem with a device driver and tried to automatically roll back the install.. but it failed. The box rebooted and tried to repeat the very same upgrade process with the very same failure. The OS was toast. No boot for me.
It was a good thing I ran a backup with Acronis before I started. I was able to restore the system to its pre-upgrade state inside of 30 minutes and get all of my data back. If I had needed to revert to the factory image I would have likely lost an entire day reinstalling software and reapplying the tweaks necessary to make Vista perform acceptably well.
I have since performed the upgrade to Windows 7 without issue while cabled up to my network. The installer resolved whatever driver incompatibility it had previously encountered and did what it was supposed to do. I’ll file this little nugget of information away in my brain for the next upgrade request.. I’m sure there will be one.
Want Windows 7? Click the image below to get your copy.
You're gonna get an infection..
1933 days
by Neilster1
in Personal Computing
When I get a call from a friend or client to come take a look at their computer I have a laundry list of things that I check, not necessarily in order. I mentioned operating system (OS) updates in a previous post.. the second most common thing that I find is the lack of antivirus (AV) updates. In these cases I rarely find that there isn’t any AV software installed.. what I find is that when the 1-year trial period for the
AV software has ended and new updates aren’t being applied. Let me tell you now.. if you haven’t re-upped your AV subscription your computer is at high risk for getting infected, if you aren’t already. Even if you don’t do much on the internet, just clicking a link to one person’s MySpace page is enough to cause you trouble. Case in point.. my wife clicked on a MySpace link on Tuesday to do some research for a project. She was instantly bombarded by messages from her AV program notifying her it had blocked several viruses.. they were apparently embedded in content on that page. One of the viruses in question was first seen only three months ago! Your two-year old virus definition set that you haven’t been updating wouldn’t have gotten this bug.
So, what can you do now?
Update your AV subscription NOW. It is absolutely worth the $30 to get that done now versus the potential loss of time and money you’ll experience getting viruses removed later. It doesn’t matter much whose AV program you use as much as it matters that you use one. Some are indeed better than others, and with some you get what you pay for. For example, my giant-mega-cable company gives away a pretty well-known AV program for free with your paid cable bill.. and it is absolutely horrible. That particular program will bring well-built computers and laptops to their knees while they perform a scan. In a corporate setting I use a enterprise-type package that gives me incredible reporting tools for machines in the office.. for remote business and personal use I highly recommend AVG Anti-Virus for its speed and ease of use.
If you suspect you’re having a problem with viruses I can help.. drop me a line.
photo credit: I woz ere
