Technically Easy

Category: Hardware

Any posts that pertain to specific hardware, but aren’t being reviewed, can be found under this category.

  • Choosing Amazon Kindle Fire: 5 Reasons It Trumps the Apple iPad

    Choosing Amazon Kindle Fire: 5 Reasons It Trumps the Apple iPad

    The announcement of Amazon’s foray into the world of tablets generated buzz even before the official unveiling of the Amazon Kindle Fire. Pre-sales for the Kindle Fire reached over 95,000 on the first day alone. While Apple may not be showing signs of panic yet, consumers can look forward to a drop in price and a race for sales among tablet competitors during the holiday season.

    Regardless of the tablet market shake up, the Kindle Fire may be the best tablet at the best price for the average tablet user and in many ways, the Kindle Fire is showing its superiority to the iPad.

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  • Shutdown Your Computer Automatically After Any Task

    Shutdown Your Computer Automatically After Any Task

    The most important task of your computer is waking it up and after that it making it to sleep or shutdown. Say you want to download throughout night and you want to shut down your computer after the download, you can’t just wake up and make your computer shutdown. This is just an instance, but there are ways to shut down computer even after playback of a movie. These are some killer ways to shutdown computer automatically.

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  • Best Places to Shop for a Laptop

    Best Places to Shop for a Laptop

    Depending on the model you want, buying a laptop can be a substantial financial investment. Models can range anywhere from $300 for a netbook to $2,500+ for the latest MacBook, and that generally doesn’t include software. However, there are a few great ways to get around high prices while still getting a great product.

    Shopping online has long been recognized as a great way to save money, and it’s no different when shopping for laptops. Below are the best sites for purchasing your future laptop based on the quality of service they have and their low prices.

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  • Linksys E4200 Wireless Router Review

    Linksys E4200 Wireless Router Review

    After about 6 years, my Linksys WRT54G finally packed it in, so I went out and bought myself a Linksys E4200 dual band wireless-N router. I have several laptop computers and a media player that have wireless-N adapters, so the new router will be a welcome change.

    Besides the added benefit of being able to connect using the 802.11n standard, the Linksys E4200 wireless router has a few additional features that were available on my previous wireless router. After I got the router up and running, I began to explore some of the additional features to see how well they worked. Considering this is one of Cisco’s top performance home wireless routers, I expected big things from it.

    Setting Up the Linksys E4200 Wireless Router

    The package contents were basically the standard items: the Linksys E4200 wireless router, a power cable, a network cable, and a CD containing the Cisco Connect software. I haven’t used any software that came with any of my routers in the past, so I really couldn’t see myself using this one. Although I may explore the software in the near future, for reasons you will read later.

    The router itself is smaller than my previous WRT54G router. While the width and length is about the same, the Linksys E4200 is slimmer, and there are no antennae sticking out from the top. This means that when I reach behind my desktop, I don’t have to worry about knocking into them.

    The setup of the router was pretty straight forward, and I set it up manually as I usually do. I basically logged into the router’s dashboard through my Web browser and configured the security settings for the wireless network.

    The dashboard, while it has change slightly from the WRT54G, basically looks the same, which made it easy for me to find my way around. The biggest change that I say while I configured my wireless network was the fact that you can create two separate wireless networks – one for 5 GHz, and a second for 2.4 GHz. Since this router is dual-band, devices can connect to the router on either frequency at the same time.

    Since I only wanted to manage one network, I changed the settings for both the 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz bands to be identical. Doing this didn’t cause a problem, and I was able to connect both wireless-N and wireless-G devices to the different frequencies without any problems.

    The one thing that bothers me about the Linksys routers is the inability to change the dashboard user ID. You can change the password easily, but the actual user ID you use to log into the dashboard can’t be changed from being blank. I have seen other routers that provide this ability, and I hope that Cisco will change this for future routers.

    Router Performance

    So far, I have been pleased with the speed of the router. I have a hard-wired desktop connected directly into the Linksys E4200 router, and it seems faster when downloading from the Internet. Although I haven’t done an actual speed test, the computer seems more responsive overall.

    A wireless-N laptop connects to the router at faster than the 54 Mps rating of a wireless-G connection. Although, the one aspect that I am disappointed with is the range the router has. From the opposite side of the house, the laptop connects with 3 out of 5 bars within Windows 7. The WRT54G router connected with the same number of bars, so there really isn’t an improvement in the connection range with the Linksys E4200. I am a little disappointed in this as I thought I would have a better connection to the router, and because of this I my connection speed is 74 Mbps. This is still better, however, than what I would have received from the WRT54G at 5 bars.

    Linksys E4200 External Hard Drive Connection

    The Linksys E4200 wireless router includes a USB port on the back next to the ethernet ports. This allows you to connect an external hard drive to the router and then share the data on the hard drive to the computers that are connected to the router.

    While this is a huge selling point for me, it was a nice feature that I was looking forward to trying. As I don’t have a NAS (network attached storage) device, having the Linksys E4200 router and my external hard drive act as one was a nice bonus.

    After setting up my router, I connected an external hard drive into the router and the router immediately identified the drive. I was able to setup user IDs and shares for the hard drive so I could connect to the hard drive from other computers. When I tried to map to a share on the hard drive, my desktop couldn’t connect to the share. I also tried to connect to the share from a laptop, and it, too, couldn’t connect. I decided to wait a few days and try again.

    The next time I tried, the Linksys E4200 wireless router couldn’t even detect the external hard drive, so I couldn’t even manage the shares. I unplugged the hard drive and plugged it back into the router, but the router still couldn’t find the hard drive.

    I saw read about a few people online that have also had this issue, so it appears to be a common problem. With the latest firmware update, you can also connect a printer to the router using the same USB port. I haven’t tried this, and from what I have read, you need to use the Cisco Connect software to get the printer sharing to work.

    Linksys E4200 – Pros

    • Dual band (2.4 and 5 Ghz) that allows you to connect to either band to avoid interference.
    • Ability to setup a separate network for each band.
    • Easy to configure – dashboard very similar to previous Linksys routers.
    • Connected to my ISP without any problems.
    • Connected wireless-G and wireless-N devices without any problems.
    • Lower profile – no antennae sticking out from the top.

    Linksys E4200 – Cons

    • No ability to change the router’s user ID.
    • The range isn’t much better than my 6 year old router.
    • Couldn’t get an external hard drive to connect to the router.

    With the exception of the external hard drive issue, I find the Linksys E4200 wireless router to be a good router. I was disappointed in the range of the router, but I do like the dual-band feature, and I had no issues with connecting any device to the router. If you can get the Linksys E4200 wireless router for a good price, I suggest you pick one up.

  • 6 Laptop Maintenance Tips for Laptop Efficiency

    6 Laptop Maintenance Tips for Laptop Efficiency

    Having a laptop computer was one of the best decisions I made in my life and as a result I have been able to increase my efficiency significantly. I have also been able to learn a few tricks to make my laptop usage experience great. Below are some tips to make your laptop more efficient and to enhance your laptop usage.

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  • Gadgets You Just Can’t Leave Home Without

    Gadgets You Just Can’t Leave Home Without

    In the 21st century, leaving the house without your favourite gadgets can feel a bit like embarking on a polar expedition with little more than a raincoat and a packet of biscuits. It’s not that you don’t need the raincoat, it’s just that it’s not the most helpful and necessary item on the kit list; there are all the other factors to consider, like navigation, emergency contact, a digital camera and the means to upload your photos for all your friends to see as soon as you’ve taken them. But which gadget would we find the most difficult to part with?

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  • BlackBerry Bold 9900 Available for Pre-order on Contract

    BlackBerry Bold 9900 Available for Pre-order on Contract

    Along with Nokia, RIM has been one of the major mobile phone producers that has taken a bit of a backseat in recent years as they have struggled to adapt to the newly emerging touchscreen market. While companies such as Samsung and HTC have successfully adapted to the new environment, BlackBerry have been trying in vain to stick to their guns. Their first attempts at touchscreen phones, such as the BlackBerry Storm, were not particularly well received. For the Storm it was largely due to the SurePress system used in the screen although another major factor has been BlackBerry’s operating system.

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  • The Best Laptops of 2011 Reviewed

    The Best Laptops of 2011 Reviewed

    One of few things you can count on in life in the 21st century is the constant, rapid improvement in technology and computing power. Laptops and PCs are the perfect example of an industry sector that just keeps getting better. Prices continue to fall while hardware continues to get faster and more powerful. If you’re in the market for a new laptop PC, you may be surprised at how much has changed in the last few years. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the best laptops available in 2011.

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