Viruses: In the never-ending virus wars, the bad guys have the upper hand this week. The Klez virus has proved to be particularly destructive, easily spread, and hard to eradicate. One of the Klez's tricks is to make it impossible to install some anti-virus programs after it has infected your computer. I had a number of clients with Klez this week and it's particularly nasty to work with. Please, please install a good anti-virus program (I recommend only Norton Anti-Virus) and take frequent backups.
Wireless Networking: This is booming. You can now get the parts at the local stores in Wilmington, and the range (signal strength) has been improved because of better antennas on the components. I have done a number of wireless installations now, with excellent success.
One client needed to have an additional workstation put in his office, and a new cable would have to be installed for it. When I mentioned the cost of putting in a wireless connection, I thought he would balk. But, as it turns out, his office overhead is difficult to work in, and the cost of getting an electrician in to run a cable would have been more than the cost of the wireless parts! He is now a happy wireless user.
If you put in a wireless network, make sure you do a couple of security related things. Change the name of the network (the ESSID) to something other than the default, use WEP encryption, and limit the DHCP pool size to only accommodate the number of stations you will have.
Time For Two Printers? My first computer printer (on my TRS-80) was a converted WWII teletypewriter. My first real printer was a dot-matrix printer, and I later moved to a letter quality Daisy Wheel printer. I finally settled on an IBM laser printer - superb quality. But all of these were black ink - no color, no photos.
When color inkjet printers became available, I bought one. When my old laser printer died, I just moved all my work to the inkjet. The problem with that is that you use a lot of your black ink cartridge for everyday use - I wanted another laser printer, but couldn't afford it. Also, most computers did not have a second printer (parallel) port, so it was difficult to attach another one anyhow.
That situation persisted until very recently. But good quality black laser printers have now come down in price to where they are affordable as a second (or first, actually) printer. I recently bought a Samsung laser printer for less than $170 including shipping. And it works great. The toner cartridge is rated for about 5 reams of paper and costs about $55 to replace. The black ink cartridge in my color inkjet printer costs about $20 and could probably do a half-ream or less at best. In addition, with today's USB printer connections, it's easy to add more than one printer to your system.
So, by getting a second printer you will get much faster prints and save money in the long run on ink.
Windows XP: The flurry of updates for Windows XP has finally slowed down, and the system is pretty stable and reliable. Service Pack 1 (SP1) has been announced and is in testing - it should be available by fall. Many computer manufacturers are now only selling Windows XP with new computers, and I now agree with this. I am still a bit hesitant about Windows XP in the business environment, but let's see how SP1 does.
One final note: I got an email from someone not in this area who reads the State Port Pilot and apparently saw my name there. She said she was moving here soon, and asked me a lot of questions about moving her phlox, iris, and poppies. Apparently she had me confused with the Plant Doctor column by Bruce Williams!
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail him at bsc@bobseidel.com).