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In 1960 I worked with a woman whose elderly Morris Minor was so decrepit that the she was able to drive up the steep hill outside Bondi unit only in reverse. It just didn't have enough oomph to get up it in first. And why not? Maintenance! In the several years she owned the car it had never been serviced and the oil had never been changed. Since the engine hadn't completely seized up I assume she knew enough to put water in the radiator but, apart from that, she just filled the tank and chuffed and chugged slowly along.
Does that sound unlikely? Yeah, right! But in fact it's the absolute truth. It's hard to believe, but as a new driver, with no family in this country and nobody to tell her what was necessary, she didn't know any better.
I would never do such a thing. Neither would you. So why on earth do you do it to your computer?
Any interactive web site—for example, the kind of site where people log in to play Scrabble or Space Invaders, or whatever—gets many complaints about malfunctions and waste much of their tech time answering them; but many of those perceived faults are really malfunctions of the user's personal computer, not of the web site itself.
About a year ago Erik, the owner of chess.com, published a guide to maintaining your computer. It's very simple, very useful, makes maximum use of free software, and explains procedures that are as necessary to the health of your computer as regular services are to the health of your car.
Don't feel you're going to be left out in the cold with this. If there's something you don't understand, or something you need to clarify, please feel free to email the Webmaster and I'll try to answer your questions. If necessary I'll pass you my phone number for further information.
Erik's information and instructions are included in the box below. Any further comments of mine will be placed below that.
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Most people don't know how to configure and maintain their computers. And that's OK—until something goes wrong and you want it fixed, and NOW! Trust us, we get dozens of bug reports and problem emails every day, and 90% of them are user-error, meaning your own fault :) There's no shame in that and we're happy to help, but we end up spending a lot of time repeating the same things over and over again. I'm writing this guide as a reference for anyone who is ready to take control of their computer for optimal performance, especially when using the Internet. There are 3 parts to good computing: The guide below is for Windows computers. I prefer Windows XP, but for those of you who unfortunately upgraded to Vista, this will probably help you too. And if you are running any Windows before XP (95, 98, ME, or 2000), then let me say that it's been 10 years and it's time to move on. FIX PROTECT
You need to protect yourself from getting problems in the first place. All problems come to your computer from the Internet. But you can be perfectly safe if you do these things: MAINTAIN INTERNET TIPS Linux Users: If you are using Linux, you shouldn't need a guide. Mac Users: If you are using a Mac, then take your machine back to the store and have them help you - that's the over-priced service you paid for. Plus, it should already be running perfectly, right? Right? Mac is perfect. Right? Or you can download Mac security software here. I'm not here to argue which operating system is best, but I'll preempt the inevitable Linux fanboys who will say "Switch to Linux" by saying "If you live the Linux philosophy, then did you hand-build and manufacture your own automobile?" I thought not. Linux is not for everyone (yet?). And to those of you who will say "Switch to Mac", let me say that not everyone wants to pay triple for white computers that run 30% of the software out there and have one mouse button. There, I said it. :) Agree or disagree, I don't care. Just please take the time to FIX, PROTECT, and MAINTAIN your computer... so that I don't have to. :) Enjoy, and happy computing! |
So, there you have the Gospel according to Erik. But how much of it is necessary? That's up to you, of course, but almost all of it is necessary in one form or another if you want to keep your computer from a bad case of the collywobbles. Let's bring it down from a chess site with more than a million members and re-locate it to U3A Nepean-Blue Mountains where we own less than a thousand computers between us. Let's look at some of the things I do as a matter of course on my own computer. Maybe you can relate.
First, I run AVG anti-virus. I have the free version on my old PC (which I only use as a back-up ), but I use the premium version on my Laptop. I also run Spybot Search and Destroy every day. (It's set up to run every time I boot the computer and you'd be surprised how many nasties it finds.) Be sure to to install a copy on your own computer.
Yes, I keep Windows and my web browser updated—that's absolutely essential for your protection—as I do with all my software. The updates are often security patches, designed to seal up any holes that may have been exploited by hackers.
I use the Windows Firewall. For twelve months or so I used Zone Alarm, which Erik recommended above, but found it slowed down my Internet access too much. On the advice of my Internet Service Provider (TPG) I uninstalled it and now depend entirely on the Windows firewall. I've never had a problem with it.
So which browser do I use? Firefox, of course. Why settle for anything less? Because I write this web page I need to view it in all the browsers so that any problems become visible; for that reason I have copies of all of them on my Laptop but Firefox has so many extra benefits that I wouldn't consider using anything else for normal browsing. The other browsers, in order of excellence are, Chrome, Safari, Opera and stumbling along in the rear, Internet Explorer. On January 10 the German Government issued a warning against using Internet Explorer until the latest security gaps were patched. It's an ongoing story. So why is Internet Explorer the most widely used browser on Earth? Simply because a free copy comes with every new computer and most people don't know that something better is available.
The good news about browsers is that Google are working hard to capture the leading edge (if not the bulk) of the market from Firefox and, to that end have made a great number of Firefox-like extensions available. Now Chrome offers such features as Ad-Blocker, (they call it Ad Thwart), Web of Trust, Synchronised Bookmarks, Read Later, Cool Iris, Full-page Screen Shots, and literally thousands of add-ons to make your browsing experience both pleasurable and exciting. I'm trialling Chrome now and am very happy with the way it handles. It's also faster than Firefox, but a little speed is a small price to pay for excellence.
I don't use the programs listed under Maintenance, though I do recommend them. I purchased two programs that, between them, cover the whole gamut of computer maintenance tasks. They are Advanced Uninstaller and System Optimiser. I won't provide links here, since they would cost you money to buy.
One area you'll probably find unnecessary is the on-line back-up. Great programs, a great facility, but Carbonite will charge you $US55 p.a. for the service while Mozy will give you 2GB free—and that's probably not enough to back up your photographs and music. If you were running a business from your computer these would be well worth while, but for most of us the benefits are not worth the money. Even so, don't forget to back-up your important stuff regularly. I back up mine to a DVD. If your hard drive crashes you'll lose a lot of data—probably all of it.
If you need more information about any of this stuff don't hesitate to click on the webmaster link the first part of this article. I'm not an expert but I've been around computers since Roger Federer was no bigger than his tennis racquet, so I may be able to help a little bit.
—David Evans, Webmaster
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