Preface:

There are two bands that wireless networks use:  2.4 ghz and 5 ghz.  2.4 has been around for a long time and is reliable.  The complaint about 2.4 is that lots of devices use this band so there is potential for “congestion” on the band.  The 5 ghz band is newer and naturally has less congestion.  Many devices are not equipped to use the 5 ghz band (Macbook Pros can use it but iPhones can’t).  The complaint about the 5ghz band is that is doesn’t do as well for longer distances of signal strength.   It’s important to know that newer components that work on the 5 ghz band can “drop-down” and work on the 2.4 ghz band.

One option (that I don’t currently advise) is to have two routers.  One for the 2.4 ghz band and another one for the 5 ghz band.  I mention this fact as it will make more sense as you read down.  But clearly in a home where you have devices that work on the 2.4 ghz band, you will need to have a router that can handle this 2.4 ghz signal.

That being said, here are the three choices at Best Buy (and I’m sticking with linksys because I like linksys/cisco and I’ve used their routers for years — and I currently run two of them myself).  All three choices below allow to run a wireless network as well as plug in your wired desktop computer or other wired device.

For reference I run an older model 2.4 ghz linksys router and I’m very happy with the speed at 2.4 ghz.

1. Linksys E1200  -  this is an inexpensive router that works on the 2.4 ghz band only. It’s $50 at best buy and has great reviews.  The advantage is that is a simple router that will do the job reliably.  It will not however take advantage of the potential speed benefits of the 5 ghz band.  As you get more and more 5ghz compatilbe devices in the future, you’d need to get a 5 ghz router for the 5 ghz band.

2. Linksys 2500 -  this is a $80 router that works on both bands — 2.4 and 5 at the same time.  The idea is that you have two separate networks (one at 2.4 and one at 5 but both with this same device) and then you connect the 2.4 devices to the 2.4 network, and repeat the process for the 5 GHz-capable devices.  This router did not get good reviews at Amazon.com and it seems to be hit or miss with reliability and performance.  Thus, I cannot recommend this router.

3. Linksys E3200 – this is a $110 – $150 router (Amazon vs Best Buy) that received good reviews and can handle the 2.4 vs 5 problem.  The only reason I’d consider this model over the 2500 is because of the 2500′s mixed reviews.

Wireless Network Speed (Potential) vs Wireless Range

So ultimately it comes down to the E1200 vs the E3200.  I think the simplest and most cost-effective way to go for most home router users is the E1200.  You could setup this router simply and get everything to work on the 2.4 ghz band.  You could do a little more future-proofing, however, and  go with the E3200 and just use it in the beginning on the 2.4 band to make sure everything works well.  If then in the future you want to add a 5 ghz device, you’d just need to “turn on” the 5 ghz band on this router.   The only concern I have about this last approach is that there are reports of people having problems getting the correct devices to run on the correct network consistently.  So when you make your final decision, really consider if you will need to use the 5 Ghz band,.  For most of my clients their primary concern is range, and for this factor, 2.4 Ghz is still the way to go.

The computer gives an error message, no networks found, radio off. When I google radio off, it says something is turned off on the router, however, everyone else’s computers in the house work including a netbook, two laptops and a desktop.

Another thing I noticed, it says No Networks found, and the bar List Networks is grayed out as unavailable. It used to detect the neighbors networks, and now it’s finding nothing. I at least can get access to the Internet with my air card, but I like to save those minutes for when I am mobile, which is going to increase in the next month or two as I enroll in an on line course. Thanks for your help! PS (and YES, my wireless button is in the ON position ))))))

A:  This sounds strange.   But let’s work it out.  It’s possible that your built-in wi-fi card in your laptop is having a problem — but this is rare.  Please answer the following quetsions below as YES/NO so we can go forward.

1. Are you the only person (your laptop) the only device in the house that is having problems connecting wirlessly to the home network?

2. Are you able to connect your laptop via wi-fi  (not the cell carrier aircard) to anywhere else?  E.g. if you go to a store that has free wi-fi, can you connect?

A: If by your question you mean, .”Can my wife and I share an iPad and access both of our Facebook accounts on the same device?” then the practical answer is no.  Unfortunately the iPad was not designed to be a multi-user device.

BUT – what you might be able to do — and I haven’t tested this — is to download the Facebook app for the iPad and then have you use the Facebook App to access Facebook, while your wife uses the web browser for access.  It’s not a perfect solution, but until Apple make the iPad easy to use for multiple users then this may be a workaround.

Good luck!

But What if You Don’t Have the .PDF Printer Installed?

If you don’t have the .PDF printer installed or you don’t have Acrobat Standard or Pro, then here’s what you can do.

1. Select just the content of the page you want.
2. Hit CTRL+C to copy the content to the clipboard.
3. Create a new document in Word. (CTRL+N) and paste (CTRL+V) the content into the new document.
4. Now simply save the file as a .PDF:  File -> Save As -> and under the “Save as type” dropdow select .PDF -> adjust the filename as needed -> Save.

4* Note that if you don’t have the .PDF printer installed but you DO have Acrobat Standard or Pro installed, you can use the “Save As PDF” selection in the File tab.

Flash is Ubiquitous…

…but only on PCs.  And while Flash has an unbeatable share on the Windows platform, how long is it going to be until developers decide to find an alternative way to code their websites or applications so that they don’t have to do so twice?  We are already seeing a small erosion of Flash, IMHO, because iPhones and iPad simply don’t support the plugin. Now that Macs aren’t going to be shipped with Flash, it makes getting people to Flash content every so slightly more difficult.

What to Do?

In planning for the future I don’t think Flash will dissappear anytime soon.  But I do think over time we will start to see Flash replaced by HTML5 and other technology that will render across all devices.   So I will tell you what I tell my clients at least when it comes to website development.  Because Apple devices are basically going to be Flash-free, it’s critical that any important website content such as main navigation and contact information are displayed in an alternative format.

Conclusion

Flash is awesome for making a website interactive.  But with a host of other excellent tools already available and coming down the pipe, I have a hard time thinking that much new development is going to be done for Flash simply due to the fact that mobile devices will no longer support the product.  If Adobe won’t back Flash on the mobile platform, developers are going to find other ways to get things done.  So does this spell the end of Flash?  Yes. In the future.  But not anytime soon.

1. Press CTRL+G.  This will bring up the Find and Replace dialogue box.

Notice on the tabs on the top:  “Find, Replace. and Go To”.  By pressing CTRL+G you are opening the Find and Replace dialogue box but having it open with the “Go To” tab already selected.  If you were to type CTRL+F you’d get the same dialogue box but it would open with the “Find” tab selected.

Type in the page number and press  “Go To”.

2.  The other way to navigate to a page in Microsoft Word 2010 is to use the item in the footer.  Head to the footer of the Word application window and you will see two page options (depending upon how you originally configured the footer):

If you click on either of the buttons/areas marked with “Page” in the picutre above, you will also be taken to the Find and Replace dialogue box with the Go To tab selected.  And if you don’t have these options in the footer, right-click in any of the grey area in the footer, and you will see a list open up:

I didn’t include the whole list here but if you scroll to the top you will see options for “Page Number” and “Formatted Page Number”.  You can left-click on these choices to have them appear in the footer (or re-click on them to remove them from the footer).

Now you know how to jump to a page in Word, but I still like the keyboard shortcut CTRL+G the best.

Allowing Users to Save Entered Form Data in a .PDF

1. Once you are done editing the form, you need to save the .PDF file in a particular way to allow people to save their entered form data.

2.  Go to File -> Save As -> Reader-Extended PDF -> Enable Additional Features

If for some reason “Enable Additional Features…” is greyed out, make sure that you are not still in the form editing mode.  Under the tasks panel (usually in the right-hand column) click the “Close Form Editing” button and it should solve your problem.

What is AdWords Express?
AdWords express is a pay-per-click (PPC) program where you advertise your product or service alongside regular Google searches.  So far this description sounds the same ad the AdWords program — but here come the differences.

With the AdWords Express program…
1. you are limited to advertising a local business that has a Google Places page (e.g. so from my interpretation of what I’ve read it seems that this program is geared to local stores and services providers only).

2. you cannot select particular keywords.   Google will select keywords for you based on the category you have selected for your Google Places page.

3. you thus cannot filter your keywords (e.g. negative keywords, broad match, exact match, etc) — it’s all Google’s “guesstimate” as to where your site fits in.

4. you cannot, therefore, select a particular price to pay for a specific keyword

5. Something that does appear intriguing, however, is that if you are a Google AdWords Express advertiser, your business will appear in blue on the map that’s usually displayed on the search results page, while the other businesses will still appear in red.  I do wonder, however, how this will look when, for example, the majority of the local businesses in your area for a specific niche (e.g. all the dentists) have Google AdWords Express ads — how will anyone stand out?

Will it Work?
One of the great things about AdWords is that you can finely-tune pretty much everything about your ads (caveat: Facebook advertising does a better job of targeting demographics), and I think that one of the things that Google is trying to do with AdWords express is to simplify the process for people who want to advertise without the need to manage an AdWords account (or hire someone to do so).

Philosophically I’m not sure how valuable this approach is going to be.   If you want to lose weight, then you need to watch your diet and go to the gym — there’s no shortcut.  Similarly, with online advertising, it takes hard work and lots of time invested to find what ads work and at what price.  When it comes to running an AdWords campaign for my clients, I really like to use data from a successful organic SEO campaign before I start an AdWords campaign — nobody likes throwing money out the window.  So the idea of having Google select keywords for me based on my Google Places category makes my wallet nervous.

So while I commend Google for trying to make AdWords more accessible to the masses, in doing so you as the advertiser do lose a lot of control, and it’s this control specifically that differentiates a good marketer from a great one. That being said, I will be keeping my eyes and ears open in the near future to see where Google AdWords Express winds up in the online marketing equation — will it be an alternative to a traditional AdWords account? an adjunct to an AdWords account, or a waste of money?  We will see.

So if it’s your first time here, welcome aboard.  And if you are a returning visitor, then welcome back!

OS X is Fundamentally Different from Windows
OS X is built on UNIX, and therefore is inherently much more secure than a Windows system.  Without getting into the nitty-gritty, UNIX does a much better job of security out of the box as opposed to Windows.  Windows 7, however, has made great strides in improving security but still REQUIRES antivirus software (and anti malware software, as well).  So while I wouldn’t dare go on the internet with a Windows system without using security software, I’d browse freely on the internet with a Mac and OS X.

Are there Viruses for the Mac?
Well, kind of.  Generally speaking viruses and malware that’s written for Windows won’t run on a Mac .  For the same reason that Photoshop for the PC won’t run on OS X, viruses written for Windows won’t run on a PC.   That being said, if you want to be super-cautious, you can run an antivirus program for OS X (see below).

Who Should Run an Antivirus on OS X?
If you walk into the Apple Store and ask about viruses on the Mac they’ll say, “You run Windows, right?”.  Ask the majority of Mac users and they will give you a similar funny look and tell you that they don’t run antivirus.  Coming from Windows, however, running ANY computer without some kind of antivirus software gives we PC users the feeling that we left the stove on — it’s dangerous and we wouldn’t do it.

The one group of people who I would recommend running an antivirus software on their Macs would be people who are running Windows in Parallels or Fusion on OS X. Naturally you will have to run antivirus on the Windows virtual machine, and while the odds of anything “crossing-over” from Windows to OS X is extremely rare, running an antivirus will make you sleep better at night (at least it made me sleep better).

So for the run of the mill Mac, you are pretty safe out of the box.  But if you are running a virtual Windows machine (or if you spend a lot of time on websites that may have high risks for acquiring viruses), then I’d strongly consider running antivirus software.

What is the Best Antivirus Software to Use on the Mac and OS X?
Currently there are a few software programs out there for Mac users, the most notable commercial one being Norton.  That being said, the one that I’d recommend at this time is ClamAV.  ClamAV is a free (yes, FREE) n antivirus program for OS X that does a good job and (at least on my test system) has a minimal resource footprint (we PC users know all-too-well about antivirus program like Norton sucking the life out of a PC with all it’s loading, and scanning, and memory eating).

ClamAV itself needs to be compiled, but there is a pre-compiled (e.g. you just run it) available and this program is called ClamXAV.  ClamXAV can be downloaded from the link in the previous sentence, or can be downloaded at the App Store.

Note that there is a difference between the  version you download and the App Store version.  Due to certain App Store limitations, the  App Store version cannot “run in the background.”  So if you are running the App Store version you will simply need to run the program when you want to scan (or just leave it on and then scan on a regular basis).  Currently I leave the program running and I scan once per week.