AA1 Consulting Computer Services

Whats happening now...

2009-09-21T12:25:00.003-04:00

It has been a few weeks since I posted anything but as I said I would be taking some classes for MSSQL. I have finished the first round of classes and won't be taking another until October so I will have some time to bring things up to date.
Where to start..
First I want to thank the people that have supported my efforts to get AA1 Consulting Computer Repair Services off the ground. The customers have been great and have been referring their friends and family members to me and I really do appreciate that.I am offering 25% discount for future tech support sessions for anyone that refers someone to me and they use my service. A real incentive to spread the word about a computer support company you can count on!
Classes were..a little disappointing. I have used New Horizons in the past to keep abreast of new technological advances but this time was not as complete as previous classes I have taken with them. MSSQL is a very complex database program and I felt that the material was rushed through without ample time to completely understand the concepts. I am not new to SQL but I was using MSSQL 2005 for the first time and there was virtually no time spent on the interface..that is to say..where are things located in the menu structure. Covering 2 or 3 chapters per day in a 700 page book was daunting to say the least, so I have been self studying the MS curriculum kit I bought last year to try to fill in the holes. However, I feel that is why I took the classes..to fill in the holes. Often times when a new concept was introduced, by the time I could begin to grasp it and formulate a question in regards to the subject, the instructor had already moved on, he never asked if anyone had a questions.
So, I am dubious about sitting for the exam..I just do not feel I was prepared enough by the class.
Aside from that..just trying to get through this depression as we all are.. they are calling it a recession, but I haven't seen things this bad since the mid 70's.

So,Let's have a nice round of applause for Wall Street and all the government entities that let us down!

Setting up your home network.

2009-08-07T12:33:00.016-04:00

I will assume for the purpose of this discussion that you have already installed your network adapter.

To verify that the PC is getting a valid Ip address,open a command prompt by clicking Start,Run and type "cmd" in the run dialog box. At the prompt type "ipconfig /all"

And you will be able to see the "IP Address" field in the results. The IP address isn't as important as the fact that all the computers on your network get the same "range" of addresses, ie; 10.10.1.1,10.10.1.2 or 192.168.1.2,192.168.1.3 etc. Like your postal address, every PC needs to have a unique address or it will not be able to communicate on the network or "duplicate address' errors will result. Once you have established that the PC's are all getting proper addressing, try to "ping" another PC and see if you get a reply,like this:
If the PC is getting communication with the other PC you will see replies like in the graphic.
So now they are talking to one another..lets "map a network drive"...Right click on "my computer" on your desktop and select"map a network drive"

When you click on "map a network drive" a dialog box opens which allows you to "browse" your network for shared resources. Now on the PC that you are trying to access you must allow sharing of that resource or nothing will show up in your list.

And now you should see your shared drive and be able to connect. I hope this tutorial was useful, if you have any questions visit me on my website AA1 Consulting Computer Services and use the chat feature..I am on and available to help most days. If I am unavailable, email me at support@aa1consulting.com. Thanks for stopping by!!

Affordable Certified Reliable Tech Support - Free-Press-Release.com

2009-07-30T12:36:00.002-04:00

Affordable Certified Reliable Tech Support - Free-Press-Release.com

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Hello all

2009-07-25T15:55:00.004-04:00

Getting ready to start school..as soon as I get the paperwork all together. I went to New Horizons to get my MCSE and I see no reason not to go back to them. I thought everything they taught was relevant and helped me to pass the exams. I only need two exams for MS certified database admin so, I'm going for it! I'll keep you posted

I have been logging into Forums making myself known and I think it's working. I have been seeing many hits at my site while I ma in those forums and whenever I post I always add my website url..hey, if you don't blow your own horn, who will,right? Anyhow, I've been thinking about changing the website look and feel, but maybe its too soon. I quantify the page constantly and it has all the things that make up a good website(in Google's eyes anyway)..so keep your eyes open..I may just go ahead and change it..thank goodness for style sheets! I guess thats it this week,If anyone has anything, let me know. I'll be glad to help.

Enable file and print sharing in Windows XP

2009-07-16T12:51:00.026-04:00

File and Printer sharing is used for sharing printers and files. In addition, a special share, called the admin$ share is used to remotely manage and install software on Windows XP systems. By default file sharing is blocked in the firewall. What do you need to do to get this working under Windows XP?

1. Open the control panel. You will find this by clicking on start, then settings, and then control panel. Click on the icon that says “Network and Internet Connections”

2. Once you are in there. Click on the icon that says “Network Connections”

3. Now you will find your network cards listed here. You will need to right click on the card you want to enable file sharing. Select the properties menu

4. Go to the advanced tab, and click on settings

5. Go to the exceptions menu and make sure file and printer sharing is checked.

6. Click OK. Stay in the “Network Connections” Folder click on the tools menu, and select “Folder Options…”

7. Go to the view tab. Scroll down and make sure “Use simple file sharing” is unchecked.

8. Click OK. Sharing is now on

One other important note. Make sure you have set a password, or you will always get an access denied message when trying to connect to a remote machine.
To share a printer

1. Go to the printers folder

2.Select the printer you want to share.

3.Right click and select "sharing".
4.Click the "Sharing" tab and select"Share this printer". In the share name window, give it any name you like that users can easily find on the network.

And thats it,I hope that this tutorial was helpful.Please visit me on the web at AA1 Consulting

The fight continues to get my web site noticed...

2009-07-11T19:54:00.001-04:00

So my Alexa rank has improved almost 2 million..so I must be doing something right. Still nothing from Google, but its like being a flea on the back of a huge gorilla! I continue to register with directories, seem to be no end to them...hundreds and hundreds of them.
Something else I'm finding adds to your visibility is to post in forums. Apparently the SE's see them as quality links, I've only posted in a few and several SE's have taken notice, most notably Yahoo and Ask Jeeves.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of the business I'm in the "bounce rate" is rather high. I'm not positive if that' s strictly a Google term but what it means is, OK..you've gotten a visitor to your site..do they explore the site or just bounce off to something else. I'm hovering somewhere between 46 and 100% which means less than half the folks that find me find it interesting enough to explore beyond the first page. So what I've done is take the content from another page further into the site and moved it to the first page..actually it's allot of my musings that you're looking at right now. My reasoning is that while this blog is a great thing, many people may not do the blog thing, but I still feel what I have to say is relevant and adds to the quality of the content of my main web page. Of course, that's yet to be seen.
I have been reading a great deal on optimization techniques and went thru my main page step by step and adjusted things per the research that I found. That alone is what I credit my Alexa ranking improvement to..after following the advice I found and implementing it to the web site, my Alexa score rose immediately! Format and word placement counts!! Who knew!
Something else I'm having a problem with and I hope if SOMEONE reads this maybe they could shed some light on it..but I am using "XHTML Transitional" and any, and I mean any, scripts I add from advertisers or banner sharing folks causes my W3C validation to go right out the window! I had to change from "Strict" because it was just too difficult to get everyone to play together nicely. Disappointing since I had gone to such great lengths to make sure it was compliant. Suggestions welcome!

Oh and by the way...if anyone would like to brain storm on SEO stuff I am definitely open to that kind of collaboration. And linking each others sites couldn't hurt either!!

More web Site building things that I have discovered...

2009-07-06T10:03:00.002-04:00

While manually going to the search engines and registering with them is the best way to get indexed by them, it by no means is the most efficient. Since there are dozens of search engines, one can see how this is a very time consuming process. There are services that will register you with a great number of search engines(here after to be known as SE's)in one operation, but be prepared to pay for that service.
The second part of this process, as I see it is to register your site with directories. There are HUNDREDS of directories and suffice it to say registering one at a time will eat up days and days of your life. Did I mention that SEO is a very long drawn out process..don't expect immediate results..it just doesn't work that way. You need a great deal of patience and then ...a great deal more patience!
I used a application that lists directories and after entering the information that one would use to register with a directory..URL,your name,keywords and a brief description of your site, will automatically enter the information on each directory..but not until you manually begin the registering process from within the application. Still laborious, but much better than finding each site and typing the info in one site at a time.Its called Directory Submitter find it here. The free version of course has some limitations but you'll find it very useful.jbpma7dz25

Troubleshooting and other things that drive you nuts about your PC.

2009-07-06T09:53:00.002-04:00

June 27th,2009

SEO..for the uninitiated is Search Engine Optimization. A method of, in its simplest form, to get a website noticed in the vast wasteland of the Internet. I just signed up for yet another web site that should enhance my standing on the web, Technorati. In the process of enrolling I am prompted to add this code,jbpma7dz25, to my site to verify that it is indeed a legitimate site. So now that its done...lets get on with this. I'll try to explain SEO and the things I personally have been doing to increase the traffic to my site and thereby, hopefully, increasing my customer base and in the process,perhaps, helping someone else thru the very time consuming process of getting your web site noticed.

Doing a search for SEO will bring up a myriad of websites all promising the Holy Grail..top listing on Google. Well, so far I have managed to increase my presence only slightly, but perserverance will prevail and that, my friend, is key! Now, my area of expertise is primarily, desktop/server support and I haven't touched anything remotely resembling HTML coding (HyperText Markup Language) since I first began to get involved with computers. So this has been a "learn as you go" propostion.
Now, anyone with a minimum of knowledge can create a website. With all the WYSIWYG web design applications out there it is quite easy. But what a WYSIWYG(what you see is what you get) application cannot do for you is to make sure your code is W3C complaint. W3C is the World Wide Web Consortium and they dictate standards for the Internet. I have spent a great deal of time toggling between my web site code and the W3C validation web site at Markup Validation Service to make sure I am compliant. Why is this important? When search engines crawl the web looking for new websites and they come across yours, one of the things it does is to check your site for errors. Why is that important? Researching the subject I found a very good article on the W3C website that exlains it, Click Here.

So now your site is error free..what now? Begin to register your site with the search engines. Search engines crawl the web looking for new sites,but that can take some time, I recommend visiting each search engine and manually registering with them and requesting they crawl your page.

Hello, and welcome! I hope you find this site to be useful in helping keep your PC running great.

Many times in the course of supporting people with their computer problems I ask, "And how long has this been happening?" and invariably they will say, "Quite a while" or something along those lines. Your PC is not unlike people and their health issues, when things aren't working right the longer it is left unattended the more problems you may have down the line making effective troubleshooting more difficult.

Troubleshooting your PC

No one knows better than you when their PC is running right. From startup to shutdown and everything in between, you are the best judge when "things aren't working right". Does startup seem to be taking longer than usual? When opening applications do they seem to hang before opening? And what about when you shuts it down..are you seeing pop up boxes telling you something is amiss? These are all tell tale signs that some attention is required.

Computers are methodical. While it may seem like the things they do defy logic, rest assured there is always a logical reason for it's behavior. With that in mind, you must be methodical in your troubleshooting.

Troubleshooting Checklist

Gather Information

Your tech (or yourself, if you accept the challenge!) will want to know details. And that includes EXACTLY what did that box say when it popped up! Write down that missing file name!

When did the problem begin? Has it happened before?

What applications were runing when the incident occurred? Does it happen when running other applications?

How long has the system been running?

Can you duplicate the problem?

Identify Possible Causes

Have any new hardware or software changes been made on the system?

Was it working correctly before?

Did you try to uninstall the hardware/software?

Do you have a network?

Does it occur if you detach from the network?

Has the system been moved or dropped?

Has anything changed about the enviroment where the computer is used?

New lighting, any new devices with motors added nearby ..lets not discount EMI...electromagnetic interference!

Possible Solutions

Other things your tech will want to know.....

What have you done to correct the problem? Reboot? Reload the software..uninstall and re-install?

Have you checked for malware, virus, spyware or adware?

Routine system maintenance will also help keep things running smoothly..defrag your hard drive,run periodic malware scans and ALWAYS,ALWAYS have Anti Virus software installed! And when things have gotten out of hand...

Call YOUR TECH TEAM!!

1-727-289-1840 in Tampa Bay
or 888-591-9873 outside the local area.

Have you ever wondered why....

OUTLOOK EXPRESS

You're using Outlook Express and suddenly you can't send or recieve email?
MS Outlook Express has limitations to the size of the files it stores. The maximum size of the database file in OE is 2Gb..now, thats a LOT of emails. What happens is that , every time you send an email, it moves the sent email to the..you guessed it..the Sent Items folder. Once that folder reaches the max size limit and you send another email, OE cannot move the sent item to the "Sent Items" folder and the email isn't flagged by OE as sent,but it DOES send the email! Each time OE performs "Send and Recieve" (default is 30 minutes) it resends the email that it finds in the "Outbox".
That results in a very annoyed recipient recieving duplicate emails every 30 minutes! You may see messages from OE that the email could not be sent. If you find yourself in this situation, simply right click on the "Sent Items" folder and delete all the emails in there...if it's grown to the maximum size and you haven't needed them by now, there's no point in keeping them.

TASKBAR TROUBLE

So you say your taskbar has disappeared or it has moved to some unfamiliar location on your screen..not to worry. The taskbar is designed to be hidden and also to be placed at any location..that is to say left,right top or bottom of your screen. If the taskbar is missing, just move the cursor to the very bottom of the screen and it should re-appear, when it does, right click on properties and under "taskbar appearance" uncheck "autohide the taskbar". It's always a mystery how things like that get set accidently, but it does happen. Now, if the taskbar is anywhere but where you are accustom to seeing it, place your cursor on the taskbar left click and hold the button down and drag it to where you want it. And to prevent it from happening again you want to right click on the taskbar,select properties and check the box that says "lock the taskbar" NOW..if your taskbar is missing and the above solution doesn't fix it, you may be the victim of malware and a system scan would be in order.

INTERNET EXPLORER

Why does Internet Explorer open in a window rather the full screen? If IE is closed using the "X" at the top right of the screen then it wasn't "officially" closed,that just exits the program quickly. The fix is to open IE, maximize the windows to full screen and then when you're ready to close,click "file" and then "close". Now if you want IE to open links you click on to open full screen, that takes a few more steps. First, open IE, then open a second instance of it (so you have two IE windows open), in the second instance,right click a link and select "open in a new window" If the new wiwndow doesn't open full screen,resize the window by grabbing it by the edges and dragging it out to full screen..DO NOT USE THE "MAXIMIZE" button! Close the first window..remember..file..close..not the "X", Now close the window you just dragged out to full size. But close it by holding down the Control key and selecting File, then Close. Do not release the Control key until the window is closed. Now close the last window, you may have to reboot depending on which operating system (what flavor of Windows,ie.,Win95,Win98,XP etc) you are using.

June 16th,2009

Hello again! I hope you found last weeks tips and hints useful. If you have any questions,feel free to use the

Contact Link Here

or the form below. I would be more than glad to help!

Adobe Reader

There was a time when Internet Explorer(ver 6 to be exact) was the target of choice for malware programs to attack because it was so filled with security issues. Well, step aside IE, Adobe Reader seems to be in the crosshairs these days. While they do not go into detail about what exactly the vulnerability is, they do recommend turning off javascript in Adobe Reader until a patch is available. Adobe's website acknowledges the vulnerability and states that from the current version back to version 7.1.1 are vulnerable to attack. Follow these steps to turn off javascript in Adobe Reader.

Launch Acrobat or Adobe Reader.

Select Edit>Preferences

Select the JavaScript Category

Uncheck the ‘Enable Acrobat JavaScript’ option

Click OK

It cannot be emphasized enough that you keep updated anti virus and anti malware software installed on your PC. There are many good free antivirus programs available online. I use and recommend Avast Antivirus,available at Download Here it's free for personal use and is very easy to use. Another good choice is AVG Free, Download Here . Again free for personal use, a little more complicated but still very good. The heavy hitter against malware, that is adware & spyware is Malwarebytes. Malwarebytes is so effective that many malware programs,once installed on your PC, specifically target the Malwarebytes website making it unavailable for you to download the program! Get it here. While programs such as Spybot Search and Destroy and Lavasoft's Ad-Aware still do a pretty good job, I have seen too many malware programs slip under their radar. Which is not to say they are'nt useful. Personally I run two different malware programs and suggest you do the same. As long as one of them is Malwarebytes!!

I hope this was useful to you..I will update this column once a week, more often if anyone has a specific problem they would like addressed in this forum.

Thanks for visiting!