Category Archives: Glossary

Don’t know what all that computer gibberish used in this blog means? read and find out.

Computer Basics – The Elements of Your Internet Connection

Glossary, Technical Tips,

There are some concepts that, if understood, may come in handy on this subject when one uses any kind of internet connection. Even if one is not an expert on the subject, a basic grasp of these will generally help keep an internet connection going, and make it easier if you are to explain to a technician what, if anything, might have gone wrong with it or if  he/she is to walk you through corrective steps when it goes down.

In sequence, from far to close to the user, these elements are:

The Cloud:

Another name for the Internet, the term derives from the preferred way to represent it in diagrams and flow charts (as a cloud). The apparent reason for that it allows for a way to represent something that has no shape or a constant changing shape, but also conceals its actual complexity. Also in diagrams and such it is of no particular interest compared to the other internal elements of a network, which get more attention, definition and precise form. In any case, the cloud (Internet) is simply a collection of computers interconnected via a specific network protocol that allows for rapid transmission of data, be it websites, email, sound or video.

Connection:

This refers to the line that runs from the cloud to the entry-point device at your site. There are several types of connections that can be classified by method, media, or speed. For more details  see next week’s article about these.

Modem:

Regardless of what kind of connection is used, the entry-point device of your Internet connection is, as of this writing, always a modem. What is a modem, and what’s with the funny name? It’s a coined word from mo(dulator)-dem(odulator). Well that’s fine you might think, but what the blazes is modulation and demodulation then? Simply stated, modulation is transforming data into a suitable medium (audio for example) that can be transmitted over the chosen carrier (such as a telephone line); demodulation is merely reverting that process so that the data at the receiving computer matches what emanated from the originating computer.

Router:

Now that we have brought the internet connection inside (with a modem), and if one has more than one computer, normally one wants to split it. This is where the router comes in. Consider the router an intelligent signal splitter that knows what data to send to which computer. This splitting of the signal can be achieved through network cables that go from the router to each individual computer or, as it has become increasingly popular in recent times, in a wireless fashion. Remember, if you have only one computer connected to the Internet, it is possible to omit this device.

Gateway:

Sometimes in the name of technological convergence, a gateway is used instead of a modem and a separate router. a gateway is a multi-use device that includes a modem and a router, all in one. So it can take the internet signal from the street, demodulate it, and distribute it to more than one computer, wired or wirelessly.

Network card:

The next stop in your internet connection, your computer must have a network card to be able to plug a network cable coming from the modem, router or gateway (or a wireless network card to receive the wireless signal if your router or gateway is capable of supplying a wireless signal). The only exception to this is if you are using dial-up, since there are internal modems that can be in your computer and that will connect straight to a phone jack through a normal telephone cable for internet connectivity.

It would constitute a useful drill to locate and identify each of the above elements in your current setup.

Free tip of the day: Sometimes you might be asked, by your Internet Service Provider for example, to reset your internet connection by turning off and back on all the elements in this line that are under your control in order to resolve am internet connection problem you might be experiencing. Now you understand why it’s important, once powered off, to turn them back on in the proper sequence. The proper sequence is of course, modem, then router (if there is one), then your computer.

Need help with anything related to your Internet connection? Contact me.

The Blue Screen of Death – Part II

Glossary, Technical Tips

For those who missed it, this first part for this article can be found here.

So now that we have covered what a BSOD is and what it means, we can delve into what causes it and what can be done about it.

There is a variety of reasons a BSOD occurs. Namely:

  • Hardware incompatibility (conflict): This usually follows shortly after adding a new device to your computer, such as a printer. Resources already in use might be demanded by the new device, creating a conflict.
  • Software incompatibility/error: Under this we can include drivers, altogether faulty programs that make “illegal” demands from the computer, or perhaps a program not meant for the operating system installed in your computer.
  • Hardware failure: This is a broad sub-category. It includes defective RAM, an overheating component, a component that is no longer working, or about to fail (such as a dying power supply). From my experience the ones in this sub-category are perhaps the hardest to narrow down.
  • Malicious software (malware): Malicious code injected in your computer might, intentionally or unintentionally, cause a BSOD. An example of creating a BSOD on purpose is, your computer gets infected and you try to start your computer in safe-mode, but as soon as the computer starts in said mode, it crashes due to the malware trying to avoid removal. With the infections running around rampant these days, whenever a computer starts, without any explanation getting BSODs out of the, well, blue, and especially if combined with any of the other signs of an infected computer, one should get the computer thoroughly checked for malware.

So what can be done about it? as you might have guessed, a BSOD needs to be addressed on an individual basis, depending on the content of the diagnostic file created at the time it happened, and that is the first lesson to learn about how to resolve them. Because of the nature of these articles, I won’t include detailed information on how to use a debugger program to load the diagnostic files, much less how to interpret the output of the files. But if you are an intermediate user or above, there are internet forums where you can get help on doing that. Otherwise contact an expert – for example, me 🙂 – and have him/her guide you on how to resolve your computer’s crashes.

Driver

Glossary

It’s a file in your computer that the system can use to interact successfully with a certain device, such as a printer, a camera, a monitor, etc.

Installing a new device usually includes providing your computer with the right driver so the device can interact successfully with the rest of your computer system. From time to time drivers might become outdated and need to be updated.

The Blue Screen of Death

Glossary, Technical Tips

My bet is more users have experienced this in a Windows based computer than the number of users that know the above to be its name. Less users than that know what it is and what it means when it happens. Even less users know what causes it. And less than that, what to do about it. So I’m here to help change those numbers.

Abbreviated BSOD, sometimes BSoD, it’s basically a fatal crash of your computer, and by fatal crash I mean an error involving core components of your system that makes it so the computer cannot continue operating, and if it could, damage to your system would possibly ensue. As its name indicates, you see a blue screen in your computer’s monitor, and depending on how it is configured, it might give you some data as to why it happened (although that initial data is not the most useful), and it might save diagnostic information in a specific file for troubleshooting purposes. Depending on how it is set up the computer might restart by itself once the diagnostic file is saved to your disk, or it might stay there until you power cycle the computer (turn it off and then back on). Depending on the cause of the BSOD, power cycling the computer might clear up the error that caused the crash (until the conditions are replicated) or it might go into a cycle where the computer is not even able to boot up without going into a BSOD, thus creating a vicious circle.

So what is it and what it means we have now covered. Next, what causes it and what you can do about it.

Stay tuned for part 2 next week. Same time, same channel!

User Account Control – What is it? Should I Enable it or Disable it?

Computer Security, Glossary

Users who in recent times have migrated to Windows Vista, and even more recently, to Windows 7, have run into this. More configurable in 7 than in Vista (probably based on the feedback of annoyed users who felt UAC was often getting in the way of their interaction with the computer) it is nonetheless still present (enabled) by default. So what is UAC? and what is its purpose?

UAC is a security mechanism that prompts the user for a choice to allow or deny certain actions in a computer. What kind of actions? they are called “elevated”, meaning actions that require higher-than-usual privileges in the computer – actions usually performed by an “administrator” as opposed to a regular user. Examples: installing or uninstalling a program, or device. Creating or deleting a file or folder in certain core locations of the computer.  One of the expressed purposes of this is to make sure those elevated actions are being approved by the user and not performed without his/her OK. To that degree they can safeguard against malware since malware often include elevated actions to carry out and perpetuate an infection.

One less known purpose of UAC is to annoy. While some might think I’m joking, I’m not. It was apparently put there so that software developers would be more careful in their creation of  the routines in their software to avoid abuse of elevation requests. If abused, it would translate in too many of the actions of certain programs causing UAC to prompt the user for approval or denial of the action, thus annoying the user.

While Windows 7 kept UAC, at least there is one difference in how the user can control it. In Vista, it’s either enabled or disabled, while in Windows 7 there is a “sliding bar” that gives several different levels of protection between “totally on” and “totally off”. This is a change, and some will call it an improvement (because you can set it to NOT be prompting you for OK constantly), but unfortunately in Windows 7 the default level opens the door to unauthorized applications executing elevated tasks, thus defeating the purpose of UAC as far as security is concerned.

So my recommendation, in Vista: leave it turned on, or turn it on if it’s currently turned off. In Windows 7: raise it to the top level.

Sure, it might be somewhat bothersome, but it sure beats  having malicious programs running unchecked  in your computer.

If you need help changing the settings for UAC, contact me.

Phishing

Glossary

the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication.

Phishing, also referred to as brand spoofing or carding, is a variation on “fishing,” the idea being that bait is thrown out with the hopes that while most will ignore the bait, some will be tempted into biting.

Computer Basics – What’s Inside a Computer? GPU

Glossary, Technical Tips

GPU = Graphics Processing Unit. Inside a computer, minding its own little business, we find the GPU. A microprocessor like the CPU, it is different in that it specializes in processing data related to the rendering of graphics (video) in a computer. It can be embedded in the motherboard, or in a dedicated graphics card plugged into one of the buses as an extension card. Generally speaking, a GPU in a dedicated graphics card has more power than one embedded in the motherboard.

Even though it seems that the term dedicated is synonym with a GPU being in an extension card instead of embedded in the motherboard, the factor that actually defines it as dedicated is whether or not it uses the general random access memory (sharing it with the CPU), or if it has its own dedicated memory. That also defines its power.

At the moment of this writing, over 90% of personal computers use integrated graphics solutions, since it is more cost effective and only a small portion of the users demand more than what integrated graphics can offer. Chief amongst those included in the remaining 10% are avid computer games users (gamers), and those who run  graphically intensive programs such as computer-aided design (CAD) programs.

So there you have it, another piece in the computer puzzle, the GPU.

Computer Basics – What’s Inside a Computer? Ports

Glossary

Having covered the Motherboard, CPU and Memory as basic components of a computer, let’s see what else is in there.

Ports. For the purpose of the physical parts of a computer (also known as hardware) a port is a specialized outlet physically attached to the motherboard, whether directly or through a bus. What’s a bus? This you don’t want to miss 🙂 .

In the electric field, generally speaking a bus is a connection between multiple electrical devices. In a computer, the term was originally derived from the electric definition. In general terms, it means a collection of wires through which data is transmitted from one part of a computer to another. If you’ve seen the insides of a computer, you might have noticed what seems to be a card that plugs perpendicularly into a slot in the motherboard. The slot in the motherboard is the bus. The card can be a graphics card (handles the video needs of your computer and is what the monitor is connected to), perhaps a network card (to connect to the network at your place and to the internet), even the RAM, and so forth.

So back to the original subject, a port can be connected directly into the motherboard (integrated) or through a card connected to a bus that is attached to the motherboard.

You’ve seen plenty of different kinds of ports. Your mouse and keyboard connect to a port in the back of the computer (called PS/2). Your computer speakers connect to an audio port, and as mentioned before your computer monitor is connected to the graphics port in your computer. Printers connect to a port in the back of your computer called parallel port. More about parallel port in a moment.

There is one last type of port that deserves special mention, as it has become widely used in recent years. Many of you have probably heard the acronym USB when talking about a computer connection, or perhaps a cable. “My iPod connects to my laptop though a USB cable”, or “I have a flash drive that connects to any USB port in my computer”. But how many people know what USB stands for, and more importantly, how many people know what it means? well, you’re about to become one of the lucky ones who are in the know.

Having defined bus above pays off now, since USB stands for Universal Serial Bus. Universal because when created back in the 1990’s it was meant to replace all the different types of connections between a computer and external devices.  Serial because, when talking about ports, it refers to a type that allows data transfer to occur one bit at a time, as opposed to parallel, where simultaneous streams of data can flow concurrently from a port (parallel ports were mostly used for connecting printers to computers and now have, for the most part, become outdated and replaced with USB ports, or sometimes network – Ethernet – ports).

In conclusion, the computer  produces a flow of outgoing data to some external devices and receive input from others, all connected together through ports,  which when properly operating form an harmonious system that becomes more than the sum of its parts – a synergy.

Computer Basics – What’s Inside a Computer? Memory

Glossary, , , ,

Now that we have the base for the computer (motherboard) and the brain of the operation (CPU) covered, let’s see what else is inside a computer.

Memory. In the broad sense of the word, it includes all devices that deal with data storage. In its most used meaning, it refers to the primary storage, a fast but temporary type of data storage that the computer uses to store data from programs currently running in your computer and so forth. It can be accessed in any order regardless of its physical location within its circuits. Hence its name: Random Access Memory or RAM.

Secondary storage is also referred to as mass storage. In its most common form, it can be the computer’s hard disk drive, or its compact disk (CD) or digital video disk (DVD) drive. It can store bigger amounts of data than the primary storage, but the data access and transfer times are much slower.

Smart readers will have noticed that these two forms of data storage are complementary, i.e. one has speed but low capacity, and the other capacity but slow speed. This is why they both exist in a computer. All the programs, all the files, documents, pictures, videos, etc. are stored in the secondary data storage device. As needed, the CPU calls for certain data needed for the execution of a program and the data gets transferred into the primary data storage device, where it’s readily available for immediate use without slowing down the computer due to slow access times. Generally speaking, once the computer is done with the data in the primary storage device, it flushes it from it, and writes anything that needs to be kept for future use to the secondary data storage device.

The above oversimplified cycle is, in a nutshell, what the computer is doing when operating. The computer CPU operates on data – it gets the data from the mass storage device and stores it temporarily in the faster storage device – it uses the data to perform its calculations and execute programs – it writes to the mass storage device the results of its calculations and programs execution that need to be stored for future use.

There is only one other thing the computer does, and that is sending data to other devices. That will be the subject of the next few articles.