Like most bunnies, dust bunnies tend to reproduce quickly. Unlike other bunnies, however, they do not need to mate to produce offspring. Personally I think the central processing unit (CPU) and the fans in your computer case adopt the dust bunnies and give them a nice home to live. Just like human offspring dust bunnies cost you money over time.

What are they?

Your PC requires a cooling mechanism to prevent the CPU, hard drives, and other components from overheating. Fans are the most common cooling mechanism within a PC. Fans are good for your PC, but they are the primary component for producing dust bunnies. Dust bunnies are truly made of dust, lint, pet dander, and often pet hair that the fans (over time) suck into your PC case. The dust bunnies generally accumulate together to produce larger dust bunnies. If left alone long enough they can actually cover all the surfaces of your internal PC components.

Are they bad?

Small dust bunnies are not bad, but ones that grow and grow can be very damaging to your PC. Dust bunnies that manage to cover any internal component act as insulation. Unfortunately insulation in a computer is bad. As an example, dust bunnies covering a CPU heat sink inhibits the air flow that normally cools the CPU. A CPU, hard drive, video card, or other component covered with dust bunnies can and will cause the components to fail prematurely due to heat damage. Additionally the extra heat buildup can produce erratic behavior in the operation of your PC. Have you ever had your PC just lock up while using it? It might be due to heat buildup directly caused by dust bunnies.

How do I get rid of them?

Dust bunnies can be removed easily and inexpensively. The best recommended way to remove them from the inside of your PC case is to use compressed air. Simply go to your local computer retail store and buy a can of compressed air for $5 – $10, open your PC case (might want to take it outside), and spray the dust bunnies out of your PC case using the compressed air. Make sure you hold the can in an upright position every time you spray. Keeping the can upright will keep the projectile chemicals from damaging skin or even corroding components.

Another method is to use a vacuum cleaner to suck out the dust bunnies. Beware that a vacuum cleaner that uses commercial power and/or has a metal nozzle end can cause static discharge. Static is harmful to interior components of your PC. If you use a vacuum, ensure it is battery powered, and has a plastic nozzle.

After you have exterminated the dust bunnies, check all of your internal cabling to make sure you have not jarred, blown, or sucked any cables loose.

Happy dust bunny hunting!

Mike - A SmallBiz PC Wiz!

MicroNet Technical Solutions – SmallBiz Computer Pros!

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Being a Microsoft Partner MicroNet Technical Solutions, my company, obtained an official release copy of Windows 7 prior to the official release date of October 22nd.  I have been an avid Windows XP Pro user for many years, and only recently, this summer, bought a new HP TouchSmart Tx2 laptop with Windows Vista Ultimate x64.  I adjusted nicely to Vista’s interface and actually liked some of the interface features, but the quirks in Vista drove me nuts.  Therefore I was a little reluctant to load the release version of Windows 7 on my HP laptop.

I was wary, I was nervous, I was cautious, and I was diligent.  Diligence saved me, but movie night delayed my effectiveness.

The first thing I did was to research how Windows 7 upgrades from old versions, and then determine if I wanted an upgrade or a fresh install.  First thing to figure out is to check if your current version of Vista is directly upgradeable to the desired version of windows 7.  As an example Windows Vista Home Premium can only upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium.  You can not mix and match.  If your versions don’t match, a fresh version of Windows 7 is required.  My plan was to upgrade from Vista Ultimate to 7 Ultimate, no issues there.

Running the Windows 7 upgrade preparation tool, I found that there were few applications that were incompatible, and they could be updated to become compatible.  Then I researched and downloaded the drivers available for my laptop.  After all the prep work was complete I decided to go for an upgrade and hopefully save all the time needed to configure my personal settings and restore my data files. 

Friday afternoon on October 16th I started the upgrade process with good, although somewhat complicated, results.  I had to stop the upgrade process due to some warnings that popped up during initial stages of the upgrade wizard.  The warnings indicated I needed to remove the incompatible software prior to upgrade to avoid problems.  After removing the incompatible software I went through the upgrade process, and everything upgraded smoothly. 

Next on my plate was to update all the drivers with the ones that I had downloaded specifically for my laptop.  Friday night was movie night so I had to leave my newly upgraded laptop alone for a while.  This is where I ran into some problems. 

Monday morning came around and I fired up the laptop and found that I was able to load the updated versions of the previously uninstalled incompatible software.  After installing and configuring the updated software I ended up getting busy with real work stuff.  The laptop ran great, the Windows 7 interface was mostly intuitive, and I was able to perform my work adequately with little learning curve.  I was happy.  

Then I undocked my laptop to go to a customer site.  Blue Screen of Death…dang.

Not sure what the problem was and not having the time to figure it out, I went on to my customer meeting.  After the meeting I docked my laptop, fired it up, and went back to work.  A day later the laptop blue screened again (again during the undock procedure), and I started to get a little worried about the stability of Windows 7.  Then I started thinking, what is almost always the problem when a computer blue screens.  Answer:  the drivers.  I had a full on Homer Simpson “doh!” moment when I realized that I hadn’t updated the drivers after the upgrade.  You might recall that Friday night was movie night…

Enough was enough, time to load the drivers. 

Once I installed the drivers I had no further issues with the stability of Windows 7.  In fact, I am truly enjoying the user interface, and I am finding all sorts of neat little shortcuts and niceties of the operating system.  The only bug that I continue to encounter is that Internet Explorer 8 shuts down on occasion, but that has nothing to do with Windows 7. 

Is Windows 7 ready for mainstream?  Yes…with one caveat, make sure all of your hardware has Windows 7 drivers available or the driver is built into windows 7 directly.  With some research and preparation you should enjoy your new Windows 7 experience.  From my perspective Windows 7 is a “go” as long as the programs you use are Windows 7 capable.  If not, then you might want to do more research to understand the consequences of upgrading.  If you need help I do this for a living, so feel free to reach out to me for assistance.

Happy Computing!

Mike - A SmallBiz PC Wiz!

MicroNet Technical Solutions – SmallBiz Computer Pros!

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1. Create a hash base
2. Determine the random value
3. Finalize the hash password

1.  Create a Hash Base

The hash base is a set of random letters and numbers that you will utilize in every password you make up for any user ID.  Here is how you do it:

1. Choose 1 random letter capitalized (I will pick the letter “E”)
2. Select 3 random letters lower case (I will pick the letters “b”, “r”, and “t”)
3. Add 1 number to this equasion 0-9 (I will pick “4″)
4. Assemble them together in any order you wish (I will assemble them like this “4bErt”)

My hash base for this example = 4bErt

2.  Determine the Random Value

Next figure out the random part of your password.  The easiest way to manage this is to use a subset of the actual business or site name in the password.  Your formula should always be the same for every random value.  To set the random part of your password pick one bullet from the list below to add to your forumula.  The letters in brackets are a random value example if the password were to belong to a Microsoft website ID.

• Chose the first 3 letters [mic],
• the first 3 letters reversed [cim](I will pick this method),
• last 3 letters [oft],
• last 3 letters reversed tfo],
• first 3 consonants or vowels [mcr] or [ioo] (this is tricky for short named businesses),
• or whatever other combination of the business name as you desire.

3.  Finalize the hash password

To finalize the password hash you must determine if the hash base will be before or after the random value.  Pick one method and stick to it.  I will chose to place the hash base before the random value.

My password hash in this example for will always look like this (asterics are the random value = 4bErt***

In Action

Lets pretend you have a user ID for Microsoft, Commerce Bank, and PayPal.  Each bullet below would be my password, in this example, that I would actually use for each site based on my password hash. 

• Microsoft = 4bErtcim
• Commerce Bank  = 4bErtmoc
• PayPal = 4bErtyap

This method provides a strong password, each logon site will have a unique password, and you can easily remember the password for all sites without writing them down.

Enjoy!

Mike - A SmallBiz PC Wiz!

MicroNet Technical Solutions – SmallBiz Computer Pros!

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There are multiple on-line resources that can help guide you in doing the right things to protect your sensitive data.  Read my posts on this category, and read other resources too.

• Protect Your ID Now!
• Identity Theft Resource Center
• OnGuard Online

Your identity is precious to you.  Please protect it!

-Mike, SmallBiz Computer Wiz!

MicroNet Technical Solutions LLC

When I was a student at DeVry University, many years ago, I had a professor who taught me a bit about data communications.  Throughout the past 20 years I have picked up other tidbits of information that is rarely important to an end user of computers and data communications equipment.  As of late I have had the need to draw on those obscure and usually irrelevant teachings to solve a couple of technical issues for my clients.

Road Warrior Experience

Issue:  Recently I installed a 100MB ethernet switch at a customer’s business site (replaced a 10MB switch) and found that all computers except one would successfully negotiate a connection.  I tried several different network configuration scenarios on the computer failing the 100MB negotiation.  Manually setting the network card on the computer to 10MB successfully resolved the issue; however I was not satisfied that this was a reasonable solution to permanently fix the issue. 

Solution:  I found that the customer had an unusually long network patch cable running from the computer to the wall jack.  In an effort to clean up the cabling in her office my customer had coiled up the excess length of cable and bound it up with a rubber band.  The coiled cable was causing attenuation to deteriorate the signal strength.  Simply uncoiling the network cable solved the negotiation failure issue.

Recommended Cabling Practices

A computer user may or may not pay attention to the cabling mess that often protrudes out of the back end of a computer.  Someone who likes to clean up their cable cluster should follow some basic practices to keep out of trouble.  Even if you don’t clear up the cluster of cables, you should still review your cable cluster for potential issues.

1. Refrain from coiling computer and network cables.  To make your cable cluster more presentable you   the cables together in a parallel fashion and use zip ties, cable trays, or cable wraps to securely fasten.  Replace long cables with cables that fit the installation.
2. Limit the use of extender cables.  You may find that you need an extender cable for your monitor cable to reach the PC chassis for optimal viewing comfort.  Wired keyboards and mice are also common devices that may need an extender cable.  If you see any degradation in video quality on the monitor you may need to buy a better insulated VGA or DVI cable, and use a single cable instead of coupling with an extender cable.  If the keyboard or mouse have response delays, you may want to try out a wireless solution or extend with a USB 2.0 hub instead of a PS/2 extender.
3. Run cables perpendicular to power cords.  When laying out cables near power cords or power lines refrain from running the cables parallel to the power cords. 
4. Avoid using frayed or damaged cables.  Check your cables occasionally for damage, especially in high traffic areas or where damage may occur from vacuum cleaners, chairs, drawers, or other mechanical dangers.

-Mike, SmallBiz Computer Wiz!

MicroNet Technical Solutions LLC

I will do my best to add and update relevant tips and tricks for the computer support services I offer to my customers.  I also intend to use this blog to capture some of the larger projects I am working upon, both in the cube farm and as a road warrior. 

Don’t worry, I will keep all adventures anonymous.  I have also incorporated my Twitter feed to the blog, and I will use that for real time updates versus a blog entry.  I hope everyone enjoys my adventures .

Thanks!

Mike…a SmallBiz Computer Wiz!

MicroNet Technical Solutions…your SmallBiz Computer Pros!