http://www.computerhousecalls.com/index.php en dant@computerhousecalls.com Copyright 2010 2010-03-01T13:35:14+00:00 http://www.computerhousecalls.com/index.php/tips/voip/ http://www.computerhousecalls.com/index.php/tips/voip/#When:12:35:14Z Understanding VOIP phone calls. Listen to this week's Tips & Tricks segment as broadcasted on JQ99. VOIP, or Voice over IP, is a way that you can make telephone calls over the internet versus traditional land lines. VOIP has gained a lot of users because quality has made big improvements. While it's not the same as a traditional landline, it's better quality than a cell phone. It's important to note that you do need to have some type of high speed internet to use VOIP. Some of the reasons for choosing VOIP... Cost - Of course, cost is naturally an attractive factor for looking at VOIP. When you see ads for VOIP with very affordable unlimited local and long distance plans, it really does catch your attention. Local VOIP provider, BBTelsys, has an unlimited local and long distance plan for only $21.95 a month. They have another plan that is $9.95 a month giving you 300 local and long distance minutes. This is great for a low volume caller, or that house that becomes that "cell phone" only home. A lot of homes are moving in the direction of no land lines and only using cell phones, but often still want to have a home phone. Feature Set - The VOIP providers add in all the features available with their plans. One of the more notable is "Voicemail to Email". The days of getting home at 6PM and finding that your doctor left you a message at 10AM this morning and now their office is closed are over. This allows you to have that voicemail be sent right to your email for immediate access anywhere. Flexibility - You don't have to tie to a specific location with a VOIP line as you are right now with a traditional land line. A couple examples... Maybe Mom is going to come over and spend the weekend at your house to watch the kids while you get away. She could bring her VOIP adapter, plug it into your network, and she can answer all her calls at your house. Another great thing is if you moved here from another city. You can get a VOIP phone number that is local to the city you moved from so your family and friends can call without incurring any long distance charges. Lastly, you can setup a softphone. A softphone is a software program that you can install on your computer and then hookup a headset and microphone to make calls to people right from your computer. This isn't a PC to PC call, it's from your PC to any phone number. It gives you great flexibility to make and receive calls anywhere. Want to test out a BBTelsys VOIP line? Stop into our Home & Business Support Center in Jenison (620 Baldwin Street). Feel free to make a call on the VOIP line to check out the quality. If you would like to sign up for the service, we can help you with that too. 2010-03-01T12:35:14+00:00 http://www.computerhousecalls.com/index.php/tips/transferring_large_files/ http://www.computerhousecalls.com/index.php/tips/transferring_large_files/#When:12:35:32Z An easy way to send or receive large files online. New Page 1 Untitled 1 New Page 2 Listen to this week's Tips & Tricks segment as broadcasted on JQ99. Computer files today are huge. Ever put a video together and try to send it to family and friends? Often these large files aren’t even allowed to be sent by your email provider (most email providers don’t allow attachments larger than 10MB). Or if they do go through it gets bounced back because it exceeds the recipient’s mailbox size. Trying to send these large files can be a real headache. While the recipient may have the ability for you to send your file via FTP, this is probably not very likely. Even so, using an FTP application is not always very easy for most people. Sure, you could burn the files to a DVD, but this is time consuming and may not work within the time constraints you are under. As an alternative there are services that make it easy to transfer files up to their servers and allows your recipients to download the files. One company that offers this service that is recommend is called YouSendIt. There are a number of reasons why sending large files this way is beneficial. The primary reason of course is file size. You can send and receive files that are up to 2GB with YouSendIt. There is tracking capabilities. Once you have uploaded a file, you can track when the files have been downloaded. Set expiration dates or limit how many times the files can be downloaded. You can even password protect your files and get return receipts. There are a number of applications and plug-ins you can use. For example, there is a desktop application that allows you to quickly drag and drop your files onto for easy sending. There are also plug-ins that allow you to send your files right from PhotoShop, Outlook, Acrobat, and more. YouSendIt has a free service available if you don’t need to send regular files. The free version has some limitations though including a 100MB file size maximum. It you plan on sending files regularly they have plans that start at $9.95 a month. If you need to send a larger than 100MB, but don’t want to pay for a monthly subscription, they have a pay per use option too. 2010-02-22T12:35:32+00:00 http://www.computerhousecalls.com/index.php/tips/microsoft_outlook/ http://www.computerhousecalls.com/index.php/tips/microsoft_outlook/#When:00:53:21Z Want to be a pro at Microsoft Outlook? Check out these tips... New Page 1 New Page 1 Untitled 1 Listen to this week's Tips & Tricks segment as broadcasted on JQ99. Microsoft Outlook is a popular email application. There are many shortcuts to make using Outlook easier. Here are some examples: Press CTRL+D to delete the current e-mail message. Press CTRL+R to reply to the current e-mail message. Press CTRL+F to forward the current e-mail message. Press CTRL+P to print the current e-mail message. Press CTRL+N to create a new e-mail message. To really be efficient using Outlook, consider creating "rules" to automate many of the functions you may do manually. A rule is something you can setup to manage your incoming mail. For example, at work if you order something regularly from a vendor, but then have to forward that email to accounting, you could create a rule to automatically do this every time. Or let's say you get a regular email that you always open it, print it, and then delete it. You can create a rule to do all these automatically for you. To set up a rule (instruction may vary depending on your version of Outlook): On the Tools menu, click Rules Wizard. Click New. Click an action in the upper list. Customize the action in the lower list. Click Next. Provide any additional information based on the action that you selected. Click Finish.   2010-02-18T00:53:21+00:00 http://www.computerhousecalls.com/index.php/tips/file_sharing_programs/ http://www.computerhousecalls.com/index.php/tips/file_sharing_programs/#When:12:35:00Z Know the dangers of file sharing or peer to peer programs. New Page 1 New Page 1 Untitled 1 Listen to this week's Tips & Tricks segment as broadcasted on JQ99. What is file sharing? Peer-to-peer or file-sharing programs allow you to share your files with others on the Internet -- and vice versa. File-sharing programs allow you to obtain and distribute public and copyrighted media files that are stored on users hard drives, such as photos, music, movies, program applications and documents. File sharing sites? Names people may be aware of are LimeWire, eMule, uTorrent. Security Issues The use of file sharing increases the risks of viruses and spyware. People are posting music, videos, and photos and you have no idea what you are downloading. Even with the proper anti-virus, you don't know the person at the other end and whether the files are clean. A greater danger is when you share a portion of your hard drive to others, there is risk of people inadvertently sharing confidential information and for hackers to gain access to your computer. Access to pornography File sharing sites are filled with inappropriate material that kids can easily find. Even if kids aren't seeking it out and innocently searching for music they could pull up pornography because of keywords being used. Copyright laws Many think that downloading free music and videos is harmless, but it is illegal. Even though this violates laws, use of file sharing sites continues to grow. Often, the kids install the file sharing programs, but the parents are too familiar with them or the ramifications. The potential of a lawsuit is real. In June 2009, the Recording Industry Association of America won a lawsuit against a woman in Minnesota.  Her fine was $2 million dollars, but was later reduced to $54k. What did she do? She downloaded 24 songs from a file sharing site.     2010-02-08T12:35:00+00:00 http://www.computerhousecalls.com/index.php/tips/wireless_internet_security/ http://www.computerhousecalls.com/index.php/tips/wireless_internet_security/#When:02:45:44Z Stay safe with proper wireless security. New Page 1 New Page 1 Untitled 1 Listen to this week's Tips & Tricks segment as broadcasted on JQ99. Not securing your wireless network is like leaving your front door open for the world to come in. Allowing others to connect to your wireless network becomes a liability should these users use your internet connection for illegal activity. Additionally, you become at risk of hackers accessing your personally information which could lead to identity theft. Properly securing your wireless network is a must. Here are a few things to consider when securing your wireless network: Enable encryption on your router Change the default password on the router Change the SSID Disable SSID broadcasting Use MAC address filtering A Computer House Calls technology specialist can properly configure your wireless router with the appropriate security settings.     2010-02-06T02:45:44+00:00 http://www.computerhousecalls.com/index.php/tips/private_web_browsing/ http://www.computerhousecalls.com/index.php/tips/private_web_browsing/#When:12:35:08Z How to keep your web browsing private. New Page 1 New Page 1 Untitled 1 Listen to this week's Tips & Tricks segment as broadcasted on JQ99. There may be some reasons that you don't want someone to see what web sites you've been visiting. For example, your wife's birthday is coming up and you want to do research on jewelry, but you don't want the surprised ruined by her seeing the jewelry web sites you've been visiting. A new feature added to Internet Explorer 8 (also available in FireFox) is called InPrivate Browsing. This allows you to open an IE window and it doesn't track the history, cookies, or anything about the jewelry sites you just visited. To launch an InPrivate Browsing window within IE8, select InPrivate Browsing from the Tools menu. A new browser window will appear and it will indicate that "InPrivate is turned on". On the flip side, parents might be concerned about this feature and that their kids could use it to go to sites that they don't what them to go to.  As with anything, there is always the good and not so good side and having proper parental controls in place is important.     2010-01-25T12:35:08+00:00 http://www.computerhousecalls.com/index.php/tips/managing_business_technology/ http://www.computerhousecalls.com/index.php/tips/managing_business_technology/#When:12:35:39Z Need a better way to manage your business technology? New Page 1 Untitled 1 Listen to this week's Tips & Tricks segment as broadcasted on JQ99. Computer House Calls supports both home and business on an as needed basis. Recently Computer House Calls launched Green Light Business Technology, a new brand that focuses on proactive technology management for business. Although Computer House Calls has been providing ongoing, proactive service to businesses for many years, the new Green Light Business Technology brand better reflects the services offered. Simply putting out fires is no longer an effective way for businesses to manage technology today. Proactive technology management provides businesses with a better way to manage their technology in today's tough competitive environment. Click here to learn more about Green Light Business Technology. Businesses with 5 or more computers can request a free technology assessment to see how proactive technology management services can help their business.     2010-01-18T12:35:39+00:00 http://www.computerhousecalls.com/index.php/tips/using_multiple_monitors/ http://www.computerhousecalls.com/index.php/tips/using_multiple_monitors/#When:12:35:27Z Using multiple monitors can help with technology ADD. Untitled 1 Listen to this week's Tips & Tricks segment as broadcasted on JQ99. Do you have technology ADD? Too many windows open on your computer? Tired of constantly switching back and forth between them all? Maybe it's time to add another monitor to increase your efficiency and productivity. Studies show that you can increase your productivity by as much as 40% by having a second monitor. As you add additional monitors, you need to add additional video cards. Additional monitors allow you to work with specific applications on different monitors. Monitors can be different sizes, but most like to have the same monitors for consistency.     2010-01-11T12:35:27+00:00 http://www.computerhousecalls.com/index.php/tips/netbooks/ http://www.computerhousecalls.com/index.php/tips/netbooks/#When:12:35:10Z See if buying a netbook is right for you. 2010-01-04T12:35:10+00:00 http://www.computerhousecalls.com/index.php/tips/pc_recycling/ http://www.computerhousecalls.com/index.php/tips/pc_recycling/#When:12:35:49Z What to do with that old PC and ensure personal data is removed from it. Untitled 1 Listen to this week's Tips & Tricks segment as broadcasted on JQ99. You bought a new computer and not sure what to do with your old one. There are a few things to take into consideration: First and foremost, keep that old computer out of the landfill. Computers contain hazardous materials that are bad for our environment. Before making a decision to donate an old computer, be sure it will be of value to the recipient. If your computer is 4 or 5 years old and beyond, it may be more trouble than it's worth for them. Whether you donate your old computer or recycle it, it is very important that your data had been removed from it. This entails more than just deleting old files and folders. There is a lot of data that is stored on your computer that you may not be aware of. For example, any time you have entered your birthday, social security number, credit card, or other personal information on a website it is stored deep on your hard drive. This information can easily be found and used by others for the purpose of identity theft. Consider our PC Recycling and Data Destruction service to destroy your personal data and keep your computer out of the landfill.     2009-12-28T12:35:49+00:00