Hardware

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

Which Storage Devices Have You Used?

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As many know I have started archiving pictures and data to keep the information secure. As I was creating my process of storing the data I began to think about the many different storage mediums that I have used in the past. I started using computers in the mid-80s which is an eternity by computer standards, and back then I used floppy disks. Today there are many more options you can use.

This post provides a retrospective of some means of storing data, as well as some current mediums and devices you can use today.

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Screen Resolution Names

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I recently was flipping through a computer store flyer and checked out some of the laptops. As I read through the specs of the laptops I was immediately drawn to the screen resolution. I was expecting to see the resolution stated in pixels, but it was not. Instead they used the name associated with the resolution.

I am not up to date on the new names of the resolution, and to me they don’t help identify the resolution of a monitor as easily as stating the pixel dimensions. To help sort this out I will provide the screen resolutions and pixel dimensions in this post.

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SSD Hard Drives: The Future of Hard Drives

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For years hard drives have been problematic for some. Breakdowns and file fragmentation are major concerns that affect or could affect all users. Since hard drives have moving parts, they are prone to mechanical failure. File fragmentation can lead to a performance issue as the hard drive needs to move its read/write head to find the pieces of a file. A new type of hard drive that is gaining more recognition will solve some issues with the current technology.

In this post I will examine this new type of hard drive, called SSD (solid state drive), as well as some advantages and disadvantages to this type.

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Using Mozy for my Online Backups

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Mozy Logo

Recently I wrote a post titled My Introduction to Online Backups where I discussed two of the more popular online backup services. The two I discussed were Carbonite and Mozy.

I decided to choose Mozy as my online backup service mainly because of its ability to backup data from an external hard drive. Since all of my data is on an external hard drive, this was a major point in my decision. In this post I will outline my experience with the service so far.

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What is a NAS Device?

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I have talked about archiving photos in past posts, and I have been thinking about using a NAS device for archiving the photos. Last week I talked about beginning my adventures of online backups to the cloud.

Recently, however, I have been thinking about how I access my digital photos. I currently have a laptop and desktop, and would like to be able to view and edit the photos on either machine. This has got me thinking more about getting a NAS server. For those that don’t know what a NAS device is, I will explain what it is in this post.

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My Introduction to Online Backups

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Recently I have begun to think more about my data, and how it should be backed up. Currently I back it up to an external 250GB Western Digital hard drive, and also to multiple Taiyo Yuden DVD+R discs. One copy of the DVDs are stored offsite for disaster recovery reasons. I wanted to include another … Read more

Default User ID and Password for Various Routers

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Remembering my WRT54G default password and user ID can be difficult if I ever needed to reset my router. I have received a few e-mails regarding the default user ID and password for different routers. Most people that ask for this information usually have reset their router back to the factory default, but can’t seem to find the instructions to the router.

I have decided to begin compiling a list of default user IDs and passwords for various routers. This is by no means a complete list, but I will add to it as time goes by.

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How to Get the IP Address of Your Router

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I have written various posts about connecting your computer to the Internet, including how to connect using two different routers (Linksys’s WRT54G Wireless-G router and D-Link’s DI-524 wireless router), as well as various configurations.

One topic I haven’t discussed is how to retrieve the IP address of your router. You may not know the IP address if, for instance, someone has configured your router and changed the default address. I will show you how to get it in this post.

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