Knightdale, it is Closer to Raleigh Than You Think!
Published by john on April 7, 2012 under Blog
I have lived in Knightdale for several years now, as well as most other parts of wake county, and I have found it to be a very convenient place to live. It is far enough from Raleigh that I don’t have to worry about city life too much, but close enough that I can be in most parts of Raleigh in around 20 to 30 minutes, as well as Cary or even Apex. Over the past 10 years or so, Knightdale has really grown up too and there are a lot of shops and places to eat there!
Of course, when I tell a client that lives in Raleigh where I live, they often think it is a lot further out. Many of my business clients, as well as a lot of residential clients, will even offer to drop their computer off or meet somewhere closer with their laptop for a consultation. This is understandable, because I used to think the same thing.
Now, I hardly blink an eye at driving into Raleigh and do so on a regular basis to pick or drop off computers. I can take Poole Road and be downtown in only a couple minutes, or hop on 440, 40, 540, or 264 and get basically anywhere in the triangle area pretty quickly. However, for many, Knightdale seems like it is an out-of-state road trip.
A Change of Perspective
I actually used to feel the same way, having grown up in Raleigh and Cary, feeling that Knightdale was really far away from home!
Back then, a trip to Knightdale or Wendell felt like a massive undertaking. I remember I did a bit of work out in Wendell for a few weeks and it felt like an incredibly long commute.
The same goes for the old gas station that is on the side of Poole Road, after you pass Lee’s Grocery. Before it closed many years ago, I would drive by it and stopped on occasion at the grill they had there. However, I always felt like I was really out in the country, even though now I don’t even bat an eye at the same trip down Poole Road into Raleigh, making it several times a week.
We would often stop at the strip mall in Zebulon as well, there is a Bojangles and McDonalds there now, returning from seeing my Grandfather and this also felt like we were still a long way from home!
However, now I hardly even think about the commute into downtown.
I guess a big part of that comes from having lived in most parts of Wake, as well as Harnett and Johnston country. I moved around a bit when I was younger, living outside city limits in Apex, as well as in the town of Angier, which is right outside Fuquay Varina.
As an aside, living in Angier was a pretty long haul, as I was working in Raleigh at the time and it ended up taking around 45 minutes to get into town, but I digress.
I guess the point of the ramble is that I really enjoy living in Knightdale. It puts me in a fairly convenient place to almost all parts of the triangle, even Chapel Hill and Durham, while only 15 or so minutes from Raleigh or Clayton. At the end of the day, even though many folks think it is probably a lot further from town that it is!
Add CommentBackup Guide: USB Sticks vs External Hard-Drives
Published by john on December 9, 2011 under Tech SupportThere are a few ways to backup your data, but probably the easiest is to backup to a USB Stick or an external Hard-Drive. These are external drives that you can plug into a USB port on your computer and then copy files to and from it.
One of the main advantages of this type of backup is that unlike a DVD backup, you can add, remove, and modify files that are on the USB Drive.
Explore This Post
- What Do All These Sizes Mean?
- What is a USB Stick?
- What is an External Hard Drive?
- What Size USB Device Should I Get?
- Determining the Size of Your Current Hard Disk
What Do All These Sizes Mean?
Before we begin, it is important to understand the sizes used to describe files on a computer, as well as hard-drives. Most USB Device’s space is measured in Gigabytes. A Gigabyte is a unit of measurement and is fairly large.
To give you an idea, you could probably fit at least 500 high quality pictures in 1 Gigabyte or several thousand low quality pictures. Text files are much smaller, so you could easily fit thousands of regular sized text documents in 1 Gigabyte.
Music and videos are much larger and depending on the video camera or video quality, you might be able to fit a couple of full length movies in 1 gigabyte or even only a few minutes of video, if it is very high quality.
What is a USB Stick?
USB Sticks are small devices, often called thumb drives, which plug into a USB Port on your computer. They are sort of like mini hard drives, which you can transfer your data too and offer the advantage of being small and easy to work with.
The less expensive thumb drives, like those you get for under $30, usually hold a lot less data than an external hard drive. They are often best suited for moving files between computers and backing up text documents. When storing movies and music, and to a lesser extent pictures, a USB Drive can be filled up very quickly!
There are some USB Sticks that are much larger, like the Kingston Data Traveler, which holds 256 Gigabytes of data, but they are also much more expensive, around $600.
What is an External Hard Drive?
External Hard-Drives usually hold a lot more data than an USB stick. As the name implies, they are similar to the hard-drive inside your computer, but designed to be easily transported without having to actually install it inside the computer.
They are typically two parts: the hard disk itself, which is surrounded in a plastic case for protection and a detachable cord that plugs into the USB port on your computer.
From a value standpoint, you will usually get more space for less than when shopping for a USB stick. It is a good idea to get one that does not require external power cord, this way you can always use it without having to try to find a plug or carry around an extra cord. Some external-hard drives use a special cord, which has a split in it, to plug into two usb ports.
What Size USB Device Should I Get?
When selecting a USB Device, you want to make sure that it is big enough to hold all of your pictures, documents, and files, while also providing room to grow.
USB Thumb Drives are usually much smaller than an External-Hard Drive. It is not common to see an external-hard drive that is less than 80GB, but you will often find thumb drives that are only a couple of GB in size.
In most cases, if you have only text documents that you need saved, you would probably be fine with an 4GB or 8GB usb stick.
For those that have a lot of pictures, music, or videos, it is probably a good idea to go with at least an 80GB external-hard drive and in most cases, it is better to go with an external-hard drive that holds more than 320GB to be safe. This will provide plenty of room to grow.
Determining the Size of Your Current Hard Disk
To determine how much space you need, it is a good idea to check the folders on your computer to see how much space you use. First, determine the size of your current hard-drive. Then, check to see how big your picture, video, and document folders are.
This will give you an idea of how much space you have, how much space you are using, and how much space you need to have a little padding!
Checking Hard Drive Size In Windows XP:
1. Goto Start Menu -> My Computer
2. Locate your Hard Drive, under the “Hard Disk Drives” section, usually it will be labeled as “Local Disk (C:)”
3. Right Click on your hard-drive and select Properties.*
4. You will see a “Used Space” and “Free Space” Section
* You can also left click on your hard-drive and the free/used space is often displayed on the left.
To Check Individual Folder Size in Windows XP:
1. Navigate to your Documents folder, or wherever you keep pictures, text, and music.
2. Right click on each folder and select properties
3. Look at the “Size on Disk” section to see the size of the folder.
Checking Hard Drive Size In Windows Vista and Windows 7:
1. Goto Start Menu -> Computer
2. Locate your Hard Drive, under the “Hard Disk Drives” section, usually it will be labeled as “Local Disk (C:)”
3. The Free Space should be visible under the name of the hard disk.
To Check Individual Folder Size in Windows Vista or Windows 7:
1. Navigate to your libraries folder that houses your music, pictures, documents, or videos.
2. Right Click and Select Properties
3. Look at the Size of Files in Library section
Backup Backup Backup
Published by john on December 9, 2011 under Tech Support
One of the cardinal rules of computers is ALWAYS make a backup. It is not a matter of if your hard-drive will fail, but rather when your hard-drive will fail! There are also many other things that can happen, like dropping your laptop, computer viruses, water damage, electrical issues, which can result in a fried hard drive.
Making a backup of your data is essential to ensure that all of your pictures, documents, and music is safe and will not be lost.
Unfortunately, this is something many people never do. It is very easy to get comfortable storing all of your pictures and family movies on your desktop computer, thinking this is safe. Usually, it only takes this happening once to realize the importance, but by that time it it too late!
All too often, I have to tell people the bad news that their hard-drive has gone bad and the data lost. So, Backup, backup, backup and then backup your backup!
This is part of a several part series on the different types of backup solutions:
Add CommentWebsite Hosting? Whats That?
Published by john on January 18, 2010 under Websites
Having a website is essential for businesses these days and can also be a great way to share your life with your friends, family, and acquaintances. For small businesses, having your own website is a big part of attracting new customers and keeping your existing clients informed of changes to your business.
One of the key components of setting up a website is choosing your website host.
At Knightdale computer Repair, we offer a number of hosting plans, for any size business, as well as personal sites. Please give us a call to learn more about our hosting plans!
Contents
- What is Website Hosting?
- Can I Host My Website From My Personal Computer?
- Advantages of Shared Hosting
- Downsides to Shared Hosting
- What is a Private Server?
- Virtual Private Servers
- What Type of Hosting is Right For Me?
- Available Hosting Plans
What is Website Hosting?
A Website Host is the company that keeps your website online, so others can find it through their web browser. The Hosting Company typically maintains a number of web servers, which are connected to the Internet.
They will store, or host your website on one of their computers, which allows others to find your site. When you visit a website you are actually connecting to the website-hosts computer, which is where the pages and images come from.
Can I Host My Website From My Personal Computer?
While it is possible to host your website from your own home, there are a few downsides to this.
First, there are a lot of things that go on behind the scenes, so it is necessary to be a very technical user.
Also, if the power goes out, your computer crashes, or you loose the Internet, the website will go down, which means you not only have to have protections in place to prevent this, not to mention being on call 24/7 to fix any problems. Further, while it is possible to host a website from a desktop computer, it is preferable to host it from a server using Linux, as this is the most secure. So, you would typically not want to run it from a regular Desktop Computer.
Most ISPs, like Time Warner or Embarq, prohibit hosting a web site from a residential account, so you would likely need to upgrade to a business account or risk violating the terms of service of your Internet Provider.
The main advantage to using a web host is that they worry about all of these details and have plans in place in the event of an emergency. So, even though some people do host their website from home, if you need to be able to guarantee that it will be up, or don’t want to have to worry about all the technical aspects of hosting a website and just want something that works, it is better to use a web hosting company.
Advantages of Shared Hosting
There are many types of hosting available, but the most common and inexpensive type of hosting is Shared Hosting.
Shared Hosting is when the host puts your website on the same server as several of their other clients. This means that on the same computer server that hosts your website, there could also be 100 other websites.
Shared Hosting is a great choice for low traffic sites or ones that are just starting out, due to its low cost. Even though there are other websites on the same server, visitors to your site will not be able to tell easily, although this information is visible with the right kind of tools.
On a shared hosting account, you will have limited access to database and server files, which will allow most content management systems(CMS), which is a type of web-software that allows people to easily edit a website, will run without issue.
Downsides to Shared Hosting
Of course, shared hosting does have a few drawbacks. The biggest drawback is that you are sharing the resources of the computer with each website that is on the server. This means that if one of the websites is incredibly busy, it could slow down the entire server. There are checks and balances to prevent this, but they don’t work 100% of the time.
The other main drawback is that if your site is incredibly busy, shared hosting may be too slow. Also, for very busy sites, the hosting company may not allow you to use shared hosting and instead require you to get a Private Server.
There are also security concerns as with so many users on the same web-server, a compromised website on one could have an effect on other websites on the server.
What is a Private Server?
If you choose to use a Private Server, or a dedicated web server, to host your website, it means that only your site(s) will be running on the server. The company will allocate a set amount of resources, typically a complete computer, to your account and allow you much more control over the server. For example, when you have a private server you can do performance tuning to keep it running smoothly and install basically any piece of software you want to, restarting the server at will.
Using a Private Server can be very expensive, but it means that your site will be more secure and it will usually run much more efficiently.
Virtual Private Servers
A Virtual Private Server, or VPS, can be a very affordable type of website hosting, which allows a great deal of control and security. They form a nice middle ground between the low cost of shared hosting and the full control of a private server.
Basically, the website host will take a single computer and then setup several virtual computers on the hard-drive. For all intensive purposes, the virtual private server is a complete web-server, running a full operating system. However, it is really only a segmented portion of the host’s computer. There are usually multiple virtual hosts running on each computer, so there may, for example, be 20 virtual hosts on a single computer.
The main advantage of a VPS is that you get complete control of the web-server at a fraction of the cost of a dedicated server. The user has the ability to install software, as well as get memory upgrades and performance boosts. While there are some security risks, they are largely mitigated and significantly less than that of shared hosting.
What Type of Hosting is Right For Me?
For most family websites, as well as even small business websites, shared hosting is a good place to start. There are a number of cost effective hosting plans available, some starting at less than $10 a month. For most small sites, especially those that do not have a lot of videos or other large file transfers going on, the shared resources available on a shared hosting plan will be more than adequate.
Of course, the flip side to that is on shared hosting, not only are you sharing resources with other sites, so one high traffic site can bring your site down, there are also security concerns and for certain types of businesses, like an online store that uses a shopping cart software, shared hosting is probably not a good choice.
If you need to be able to fully control the web server or if you have a very high traffic site, using a private server may be a better choice. Many businesses, especially those that need more security, such as an online store, will need the additional resources and security offered by a virtual private server or dedicated server.
However, for most users, starting with shared hosting and then moving to a private server, or VPS, when necessary is usually a safe decision, as well as being the most affordable.
Available Hosting Plans
At Knightdale Computer Repair, we offer a few different hosting plans, including shared hosting, virtual private servers, and dedicated servers. With all of our hosting packages, we provide free local support, as well as training, so help is only a quick phone call or email away!
We can tailor fit a hosting plan to your individual needs, whether you are a small business, a industry giant, or just trying to setup a family website. Our hosting packages are personally managed, which means that email setup is included, as well as backups and many other services that a regular hosting company does not provide.
Add CommentWhat is the Difference Between the Hard Drive and Memory?
Published by john on December 18, 2009 under Computer HardwareWhen learning about computers, often one of the most difficult concepts to understand is the difference between a Computers Memory ad its hard drive space. It makes sense to be confused, as they both use similar terminology and measurements, but they actually preform different tasks in the computer.
Table of Contents
- What is Hard Drive Space?
- What Happens if You Don’t Have Enough Hard-Drive Space?
- How Do I Find Out How Big My Hard Drive is?
- How Can I Get More Hard Drive Space?
- What is Computer Memory?
- How Do I Know How Much RAM is Installed?
- How Do I Get More Memory?
What is Hard Drive Space?
A computer uses its hard drive to save data. When you save a picture or a Microsoft Word Document to your desktop, you are saving it to the computers hard drive. When you install a new computer program, you are installing it to the Computer Hard Drive.
Today, hard drive space is usually described in Gigabytes(gb.) Gigabytes are often called gigs for short, so you might hear someone say they have a 120 gig hard drive.
Most computers at least have a 120 Gigabyte Hard Drive, with many having over 400 gigs.. Each Gigabyte is made up of 1024 Megabytes(mb,) so a 120 Gigabyte Hard Drive has 122880 Megabytes(mb.)
Terabyte hard drives are also becoming much more common and are very inexpensive. 1 terabyte is 1024 Gigabytes.
What Happens if You Don’t Have Enough Hard-Drive Space?
Not having enough hard drive space can cause a number of problems. In very serious cases, it will actually cause Windows to not turn on or to move incredibly slowly. It is not uncommon for this to cause a Blue Screen of Death, which is nickname for the blue warning screen with white writing that Windows will sometimes show.
Most often, however, not having enough hard drive space is more of an inconvenience, as you will simply not have enough space left to to install any programs or files.
Typically, music files and movies take up the most space, so if you are running low, deleting some of these types of files may be the best choice. People rarely have enough word documents to actually take up a significant amount of space, although pictures can add up quickly and if you have enough can use a significant chunk of your hard drive.
How Do I Find Out How Big My Hard Drive is?
In Windows XP, you can open “My Computer” and the amount of hard drive space will be displayed. In My Computer, you can also right click on your hard drive and select properties, to see a more detailed view of your hard drive space.
If you are using Mac OSX, right click on the hard drive icon that is on the desktop and select “Get Info.” This will tell you how many files are on the hard drive and how much space is being used.
Back to Top
How Can I Get More Hard Drive Space?
One of the quickest ways to free up hard drive space is to remove any unwanted videos and music files, as these tend to take up a great deal of space. It is also possible to uninstall unneeded programs and to clear your temporary files.
However, sometimes if the hard drive space is too low, you will not even be able to uninstall any programs or delete any files through windows, without causing an error.
Another option is to install a second hard drive, which may be a better option, as you will be able to save all of your data. The price of hard drives has dropped tremendously over the last few years, so this is often the best choice. Remember that music and videos typically take up the most space on most peoples computers, although pictures and computer programs can also take up a good deal of space.
Back to Top
What is Computer Memory?
Like a hard drive, computer memory is usually measured in either Megabytes(mb) or Gigabytes(gb.) Memory is often referred to as RAM, which stands for Random Access Memory.
Memory is used by computer programs to temporarily store data and every time you turn off your computer, anything stored on the Memory is deleted. For example, if you are playing a computer game, the level you are on might be stored in memory.
The reason computers use Memory to temporarily store data instead of the hard drive is because it can be accessed much quicker than the hard drive can, but most operating systems also use hard drive space like memory as well.
Back to Top
How Do I Know How Much RAM is Installed?
In Windows XP, you can right click on “My Computer” and Select “Properties.” In Vista, you can right click on “Computer” and select “Properties.”
If you are using a Mac OSX, click on the Apple in the left hand corner and select “About This Mac.”
Back to Top
How Do I Get More Memory?
You can typically upgrade your memory, but there are many different types of memory, so you need to make sure you get the right type for your computer. Usually, you can find this information in the Computer’s Manual or by visiting the Manufacturer’s Website.
The Operating System is also a factor in how much memory you can use, as Windows XP will only recognize up to 3 Gigabytes of Memory, so adding anything more would be a waste of money.