Monday, January 31, 2011

Computer Health

  So many things we do in life require that our computers have excellent operating efficiency, because when they do not, it makes our lives very difficult.  Even in a business like SendOutCards™, we rely on technology in order to respond to our "promptings".
In 2010, I experienced many frustrating moments as I tried to consolidate several inefficient computers onto one that worked well.  I was anxious about losing important documents and pictures, and I realized that I was spending a lot of time waiting for my computer to respond to my needs.  Often times I use a remote laptop computer located in my kitchen which accesses the Internet through a wireless connection to the router in my office downstairs.  The moment anyone turns on the microwave oven, it would kill my wireless signal.
I found myself managing five different email addresses depending on whether I was working my business, my network, or my personal life.  I also had acquired several domain names which were registered through different companies and I used another source for hosting.  I felt a real lack of control over my computing environment.
I felt like one of my first steps was to cleanup the information on my computers and give myself an assurance that in case of disaster, I would not lose vital information (digital photographs, business plan, accounting databases, and contacts).  I had invested in an external hard drive to hold a majority of my data as I had filled up my hard drives and cleared them many times hoping to make more room for my information needs.  This external hard drive began to squeal on a regular basis and anyone who knows anything about this would strongly advise to act quickly as the drive is about to crash.  I had also obtained a source of external backup (on the cloud as they would say).  I was not absolutely certain I could recover information from the cloud as I had not tested a recovery process.  Yes, my computer environment was making me feel very vulnerable.
I hired a consultant to come in and help . . . we purchased a very large replacement external drive . . . not before the first one crashed, which was a very painful experience that I would hope other would not have to endure.  We installed a new computer, a new printer, a new router, and set up the external backup procedure again.  We installed software that allowed me to periodically clear my system of temporary files, and cookies.  We setup the firewall, we secured our wireless connection, we installed a virus detecting software and we tested to make sure we had adequate RAM (random access memory).  One of the best things we did was to install software that allowed all of our computers to talk with one another regardless of whether we were in range of our wireless network, which even allowed me to connect to our home computer while traveling to China.
I found the following article to be very insightful on how to make sure your hardware is operating efficiently making less likely that you will be frustrated by excessive computer-related issues:  New Year Computer Overhaul

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