Techtalk2u

Importance of Backups

2012-02-27T14:06:00.000+11:00

I am still amazed reading stories in the news about companies loosing their data and even whole websites.

There are many reasons your important data can get lost. Some of the reasons are hard-drive failures, computer viruses, accidental deletions, fire, flood, theft.

There is also the trend to have applications and data hosted in the cloud.
This has many advantages over local applications and storage, but the questions remains, how safe is your data in the cloud?

I many cases it will be safer than in our home or business. While big providers like Microsoft Google and Amazon are quite safe, but what about the smaller lesser known companies?

You should be aware of the pitfalls with cloud providers.

Smaller cloud providers may not have the same type of data centers. In fact customers usually don't know how and where their data is hosted.
You may have billing disputes with your provider and your data could be blocked until your pay the bills, even if they are in the wrong.
You should backup your data regardless where it is located.
You may have to ask your hosting provider how to back up your web-page or your CRM provider to extract your database. If they are unwilling to let you to back up your data, look elsewhere.
Don't fall for the sales-pitch that your data is safe with them. You may find out when it is too late.

The importance in this message is to have more than one local copy of your data.
I would recommend to have at least 3 complete copies.
Two copies on two different computer devices and a third one stored off site.
The devices can be a PC, server, NAS, or external hard-drive.
You also should use some software to automate your backups. There are plenty cheap and even free backup software packages around.

How To Sync Gmail With Your Android Device.

2011-02-21T15:00:00.002+11:00

You just bought your new Android phone or tablet. Now you want to import all your addresses and contacts into the device.

If you are using Gmail as your mail provider, the configuration is straightforward.

I am using a Samsung Galaxy S with Android 2.2 'Froyo' for this tutorial, but the procedure is similar with other Android devices.

Select your Gmail icon on your phone, select Settings, Accounts.

Select add Account, next, sign in. Enter your Gmail username (yourname@gmail.com) and password. Sign in and your phone will try to communicate with Gmail. If everything connects, select finish. You will get the message “Your Google Account is now linked to this phone”. Select Finish setup

In the next step you want to synchronize your mail, contacts and calendar with your Gmail account. At this stage, your account is not configured to sync automatically.

Select Home, Settings Accounts and sync. Tick the Auto-sync box.

Under Manage accounts, select your account and press Sync Contacts, Sync Gmail, Sync Calendar. Your account is now synchronized.

Your mail, contacts and calendar will now be downloaded to your phone. From now on, any new Gmail message will appear automatically on your phone.

Your contacts will be under Contacts, Groups, yourname@gmail.com.

A word of caution.

Synchronizing will use data so it is wise to check your data allocation with your phone provider. Have your phone password protected. I case your phone is lost or stolen, a third party could have full access to your Gmail account.

How Do I Keep My Computer Safe?

2011-02-18T09:56:00.002+11:00

Keeping your computer safe from viruses and spyware is a never-ending battle. It's not possible to be 100% safe. However, there are steps you can take to reduce the possibility of inflection.

Step1:

Purchase a good quality antivirus software package and keep your virus definitions up to date. Check out some reviews at http://www.antivirusware.com. It may help you with your purchasing decision. Some vendors have also free versions available. The free versions usually lack some of the features of the paid products. They provide basic protection, as long you keep the virus definitions up to date. I you have the budget, purchase the software.

Step2:

Get a software firewall. Most antivirus vendors sell them as well, or bundle them with their antivirus software. ZoneAlarm Free Firewall is a popular free software firewall, you can download from:
http://www.zonealarm.com/security/en-us/anti-virus-spyware-free-download.htm

Step3:

Keep your operating system and applications up to date.

On Windows XP

Select Start, Control Panel, Security Center, Automatic Updates

On Windows 7

Select Start, Control Panel, Windows Update

Other applications like Acrobat Reader, Flashplayer of Java plugins also have regular updates. Don't ignore them because they can be just as vulnerable as the operating system itself.

Step4:

Do not open email attachments that look suspicious. Delete them.

Step5:

Be vigilant, look out for unusual behavior of your computer. You may want to run a virus scan.

Step6:

Change your passwords from time to time. Use passwords with a combination of lower and uppercase letters, numbers and symbols.

Those steps should keep your computer reasonable safe from viruses and malware.

My Computer is Getting Slow

2011-02-10T15:59:00.003+11:00

I hear this complaint from a lot people. The fact is, the processing power is still the same. The memory is still the same. Do you remember when you bought your computer, maybe two or three years ago? It was really fast back then. Why is it so slow now?

There are several reasons for this. Your computer has to carry a lot more baggage now and has to work much harder. Some software applications, like Internet Explorer, Adobe Acrobat Reader or Flashplayer, are much more resource hungry then the versions you had installed when you bought the computer. The main reasons however, are a combination of adware, start-up programs and other processes that may run in the background. You may also have installed trial applications over the years, that have long expired, but are still running in the background.

It is time to give your computer a good clean-up. I don't mean physically clean it, but cleaning up all the clutter on the hard disk drive. I am Using Microsoft Windows XP, since it is installed on many older computers. Before you start, make a complete backup of all your important files. I've created a five step guide to help you through the entire procedure.

Step 1: Remove Applications

Remove all the applications you don't need any more, like expired trial-software and old printer drivers. Don't remove anything you are not sure of. To remove programs select Start, Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs and select what you want to remove.

Step2: Delete Startup Schortcuts

Select Start, Programs, Startup. Delete all shortcuts right of the Startup icon.
The field should be empty like in Figure 1

Figure 1

Those shortcuts are not required for the functioning of installed programs. They just consume memory and CPU resources. An application will start when you select it. Reboot the computer. You should already see an improvement in the start-up time.

Step3: Clean the Registry
All Windows computers have a registry. This is a hierarchical database that stores options and configuration settings. This database gets bloated over time and needs to be cleaned up. For this task you need a registry cleaning program.

There are lots of registry cleaning programs on the market.

I am using Glary Utilities Free form Glarysoft. You can download it from

http://www.glarysoft.com/products/utilities/glary-utilities/download/

Glary Utilities Free is free for private use only, please read the EULA.

Just install Glary Utilities Free on your PC. Once installed, Select 1-Click Maintenance and tick the boxes seen on Figure 2.

Figure 2

Select Scan for Issues and let it run trough its pace. Once finished, select Repair Problems.

Step4: Defragment the hard disk drive

You need to defragment the hard disk drive. Over the years, files got copied and deleted and are all over the place on the hard disk drive. They just needed put back into order again. This can take a few hours to complete and you should not use the computer while performing this task.

Just select My Computer right click the C: drive select Properties, Tools, Defragment Now...

You will see a menu like in Figure 3. Select (C:), Defragment.

Figure 3

Once finished, restart your computer.

Step 5:

Update your anti-virus definitions and run a complete virus scan. I left this step until last, because earlier on, the computer may have been to slow to complete a virus scan.

Your computer should be much faster and more responsive now. This should be done at regular intervals to keep your computer running at its best.

Data Recovery with Parted Magic

2011-02-07T12:50:00.001+11:00

Have you ever come across a situation where you can't boot your computer? The computer starts, but Windows crashes and you get that dreaded blue screen. Or the computer just freezes after start-up. You haven't backed up your data lately and desperately need some important documents. Don't panic there are ways to get your data back.

One way is to physically open the computer, remove the hard disk drive and insert it into another computer. This is not always an option and many computer users are not comfortable opening up their PC. There is another way data recovery can be archived. I recommend this as a preventative method before your computer stops working.

You have to create a live rescue CD called Parted Magic.

Go to http://partedmagic.com/doku.php?id=downloads

Select the latest version available (5.9 at the time of writing). Select the ISO image (pmagic-5.9.iso). Download the image onto your computer. The image is around 150 MB.

Once you downloaded the image, you have to burn it to a CD/DVD. You cannot just copy the image, you have to create a bootable CD. To do this you need a ISO burner utility. Download the utility from http://www.freeisoburner.com/

This is a no-frills application and is free for personal use. (Please check the EULA). There are other ISO burner utilities available.

You also need a removable media, like a USB drive or external hard disk drive for your backups. Make sure the media is in good working order, empty and big enough for your data. Plug in the media into the USB port. One finished, insert the CD/DVD into your DVD drive.

Restart your computer and press F12 at the very beginning of the start-up.

You should see a boot menu that gives you some boot options.

Select CDROM and press Enter. If you don't see the boot menu, just restart again. (This method may differ from your computer. You may have to read your instruction manual for your particular computer). If successful, you will see the computer starts from the CD. Just let it start and don't worry what you see on the screen. You will see some penguins, dots and letters appearing on your screen. After a while you'll see this screen.

Look out for an icon called Mount Devices. Click the icon and you will see an Explorer type window.

On the left you see icons that are called ** GB Volume and ** GB Removable Volume. Click those icons and this will mount the internal hard disk drive and the external USB media. Select Volume and you should see your file structure in the same way you see it normally on the C: drive. You just have to copy your desired files and paste them to the Removable Volume. One you're done, select the bottom left icon, Logout and shut down the computer.

Insert the media into another, maybe a friend's computer and verify the existence of all your files and folders. Also run a virus check (You may have infected files). Try to open up your files. If you have all your files, back them up again on a different media. You can go ahead now to rebuild your computer or have it fixed.

This method works if the hard disk drive is still in physical working order. There is no guarantee everything can be backed up. If you hear an intermittent ticking noise, the hard disk drive is usually on its way out, but you have a good change of backing it up. If you can hear a loud banging noise, it is often to late to do anything.

Sync Microsoft Outlook with Gmail Calendar and Contacts

2011-02-04T13:53:00.009+11:00

In my last post I showed you how to use Microsoft Outlook with Gmail.

Outlook would not be complete without a calendar and contacts.

In this post I will explain how to synchronize Outlook Calendar and Contacts with Gmail Calendar and Contacts. For this guide, I am using Outlook 2007 on Windows 7.
First, two applications must be downloaded from Google and installed on your computer.

The first application is called Google Calendar Sync and can be

downloaded from:

http://dl.google.com/googlecalendarsync/GoogleCalendarSync_Installer.exe

Download and install the application on your computer.

Start Google Calendar Sync and fill out your email account details.

You have the sync options. Decide how you want to synchronize your calendar.

The second application is called Google Outlook Contact Sync and can be downloaded from:
http://code.google.com/p/gcontactsynch/downloads/list

Again download and install the application on your computer

Start Google Outlook Calendar Sync and fill out your email account details.

You have the option in what direction you want to synchronize your contacts.

Depending how Outlook is configured, you may get a warning message that looks something like this:

Google Calendar Sync is seen by Outlook 2007 as an untrusted application.
This message will pop up from time to time. You may have to allow access for 10 minutes.

A word of caution,

Both, Google Calendar Sync and Google Outlook Contact Sync are still in Beta stage. This means they have still some bugs and may not work always as expected. Just check regularly for updates and install newer versions as they become available.

Using Microsoft Outlook with Gmail

2011-02-02T12:45:00.001+11:00

I have been using Gmail for a while and I am pleased the way it works. Gmail has a lot of advantages like excellent search functions, large storage and the fact it is Web based. Like many other users, I still like to use my own mail client, like Microsoft Outlook. The good news is Gmail and Outlook can be combined quite easily.

Google has a good step for step tutorial how to set it up and there are many other guides on the Web but I would add a few more steps. This guide is referring to Outlook 2007 but other versions are very similar.

Step 1:

Log into your Gmail account

Go to settings (on the right top of the screen)

Select Forwarding and POP/IMAP

Check the box for POP and IMAP

This is used to enable Outlook to receive mail from Gmail

If you using Gmail from different computers or smart phones you should enable IMAP only.

You can leave the setting page now.

Step 2:

You now have to set-up your Microsoft Outlook on your PC.

Open your Outlook and go to Tools, Account Settings, New

Select the first box and click Next

In user Information: type your name and email address (the one you use in your Gmail Account)

In Server Information select

Account Type IMAP

Incoming Server imap.gmail.com

Outgoing Server smtp.gmail.com

In the Logon Information type

yourname@gmail.com (your Gmail user name)

Password (your Gmail password)
Tick the box Remember password

Select More settings

Select Outgoing Server

Tick the Box My server requires (SMTP) authentication

Select Advanced Settings Check the server port numbers

Incoming server (IMAP) set to 993

Encrypted connection set to SSL

Outgoing Server (SMTP) set to 587

Encrypted connection set to TLS

Select OK

On the first screen Select Test account settings

This will test the connection. If there are no errors, this stage of the setup is complete. If there are errors check for misspelled words, wrong passwords, wrong port numbers.

The setup is functional at this stage, but to improve the performance, a few additional settings are required.

Step 3:

Select Tools, Options, Mail Setup, Send/Receive

Under Send/receive Groups select Edit

Select Download Headers for subscribed folders

Select Tools, Options, Junk E-mail

Select No automatic Filtering and un-tick all other boxes

Gmail has a good Spam filtering system. There is no need to filter the messages again. It may conflict with Gmail. You may check your email now. All your messages and sub folders will download now. It can take a while for the first time until all folders are synchronized.

With IMAP, the messages are kept on the server and are being synchronized with the local messages. You can set up several computers or laptops just the same way and your email messages are always synchronized.