Author Topic: Website/Computer Questions... I got answers (Read 178372 times)

ladieu · « **on:** March 05, 2010, 11:52:05 AM »

Trying to setup a blog? Podcast? Spam filter?

I'll answer your questions if you post them to this topic.

Docwatmo · « **Reply #1 on:** March 05, 2010, 12:42:40 PM »

Great Idea.

There are a some VERY knowledgeable techs with lots of different backgrounds and specialties on this forum. I could see this section going very well.

+1 Ladieu

ladieu · « **Reply #2 on:** March 05, 2010, 01:07:49 PM »

@docwatmo.... feel free to answer any too... won't offend me a bit.. thanks for the +1

CyborgX · « **Reply #3 on:** March 05, 2010, 06:50:50 PM »

Good topic!

Something to which I'm sure I can contribute a fair bit.

MaddoginMass · « **Reply #4 on:** March 06, 2010, 06:02:04 AM »

I'll throw my hat in the ring too.......

ShadowPeo · « **Reply #5 on:** March 06, 2010, 09:44:28 PM »

I will throw my hat into the ring to answer as well

18C Troll · « **Reply #6 on:** September 02, 2010, 12:43:54 PM »

OK since no one else is asking, Ill throw you guys a bone. I have 5 cp towers sitting in my garage, the oldest one being 6 years old. I would like to combine some features to make one tower that I can use as a base station. My wife and I have laptops for daily use with wireless throughout the house. I am kind of familiar with taking apart motherboards and such, but need to know where to plug in additional features, are the differant components are com patable, and what to do with the leftover pieces. I am a scrapper but would hate to scrap two extra dvd-rw's that someone might be able to use. Your thoughts are appreciated.

mckeyes · « **Reply #7 on:** September 02, 2010, 01:36:37 PM »

Oh man, a hardware question...

without knowing the specifics of what you have I can give you some ideas. By a base station I assume you would like it to be a file/print server.

If this is just for file and print sharing, RAM and hard drive space are the two important pieces (hard drive being number one). Everything else doesn't really matter. Take the best of those and combine into one. Since RAM is so cheap you could be 1GB RAM cards for each slot.

ladieu · « **Reply #8 on:** September 02, 2010, 02:58:42 PM »

were going to need model numbers of the PC or maybe some pictures of the insides

dustyz · « **Reply #9 on:** September 02, 2010, 02:59:03 PM »

Mckeyes nailed it...

First, take an inventory of the components in each system. Take each one apart and jot down the following...

- motherboard model (should be written on the motherboard in bigger letters)
- memory type & speed (240pin DDR2, 184pin DDR)
- memory size (should be written on the side, a sticker probably)
- hard drive type (SATA or IDE. Sata has a small cable with a little leg on one side, IDE is wide and flat with a bunch of pins)
- hard drive capacity (20Gb, 40Gb, 120Gb, etc)
- Power Supply size (sticker on the side)

Find out which case is heaviest and best ventilated. Pick that as the base. Install a fan in the back sucking out, and one in the front pulling air in. The largest power supply in the mix is probably still pretty low, so power consumption shouldn't be a big concern. Use the biggest you have available. Now for the motherboard. Look for SATA ports. The board with the most SATA ports is probably your best board for a file server. If you have more/bigger IDE hard drives than you do SATA hard drives, you'll probably want to go with an IDE motherboard. Only 4 IDE devices can be installed on one system at a time tho... remember that. So, if you put a DVD-RW IDE drive in, the maximum number of IDE hard drives you can have is 3. Sata, well, it usually has one IDE port for the DVD-RW and several other SATA ports for hard drives. It can have over 8 on a newer board. Being some of yours are 6 years old, you'll be lucky to find one with 4.

Now you have your case, power supply, and hard drives. Next, memory. Take the motherboard model number and type it in google. Find the spec sheet to see what memory sizes & speed types it can handle. Ideally you would match the memory up with the FSB of the processor, but at this point I'd say that isn't as important. Just use whatever processor is in the best motherboard... and put the maximum amount of supported memory you can fit in the board. While you are on the spec site, download the manual for the motherboard... it'll help you hook up the front panel connectors for the on/off switches and such.

That should do it for simple build. You'll install an OS and setup a network from there...

“Mark” · « **Reply #10 on:** September 09, 2010, 11:23:03 AM »

Unless you're doing this to learn or for fun, you're almost always better off buying a lower powered device for a file/print server, as PCs guzzle electricity.

Dunetos K-9 · « **Reply #11 on:** January 10, 2011, 05:41:29 PM »

I have a question regarding podcasting from a Mac. I am starting my research this week, but thought this would be a good place to start. Primarily, what programs do you use on the Mac (especially if there are native programs such as iLife) to compile and if necessary edit sound? I also have a cheap MP3 recorder, is there anything I can do with a relatively inexpensive mic that will boost sound quality? After that, I need to know how to start uploading the podcasts.

Thanks in advance.

Joel

KYdoomer · « **Reply #12 on:** January 10, 2011, 08:05:15 PM »

I know this is Nick's thread but I know him well enough he can tell me to buzz off for answering you.

First, I'd say go to Jack's other site www.jackspirko.com and look around that forum. The site is kind of in limbo for the moment as I'm sure Jack is busy but the forum still has all of our information there.

In short though, start out with Audacity, nothing wrong with it. I use compressor, noise removal, pop removal and normalize effects and all work pretty well. I record into my laptop, for some reason Audacity messes up on my desktop. No problems with the laptop. I use a cheap cheap cheap headset mic I bought at Wally world for using with Ventrillo. It has not failed me to date. For on the road podcasting I use a cheap RCA digital recorder. It doesn't sound great but the noise is not distracting.

Honestly, and everyone says this. I would not worry about sound quality too much. Get some podcasts out there and see what happens first.

You need a hosting site or Libsyn or Podbean to hold your uploads. The process at any of those sites is pretty easy. Get a Feedburner account. www.feedburner.com. You will need this to standardize your feed, and if you ever move it you won't have to go through such a hassle. Trust me...I know.

Hope that helps.

J

ladieu · « **Reply #13 on:** January 11, 2011, 07:48:48 AM »

No problem at all! Answer away...

Yes audacity is great.

If you have a smart phone like an iphone or android I find recording the podcast on there has superior audio quality.

Here are a few things to bear in mind

In audacity after you record your track set it to mono... its on one of hte menus at the top "stereo to mono" you'll find it

when you export I think 80kbps is a good setting

My friend has a mac and used the built in mic on his laptop and it was find... better than my quality on my cheap mic on my computer... but probably not as good as the iphone

-Nick

Dunetos K-9 · « **Reply #14 on:** January 11, 2011, 07:38:01 PM »

Thanks for the great information. One more question. Where do you guys post your podcasts for linking from iTunes? I have been reading up on it, and while I have a web hosting company that I use for my website, I don't think they support podcast storage.

Thanks again and I look forward to hearing from you.

cerakoter · « **Reply #15 on:** January 11, 2011, 07:52:51 PM »

Question:
My daughter-in-law bought a webcam and wants the wife to buy one to communicate to her with.

Can't she use her iPhone as a webcam? If so, how?

KYdoomer · « **Reply #16 on:** January 11, 2011, 07:58:39 PM »

Quote from: Dunetos K-9 on January 11, 2011, 07:38:01 PM

Thanks for the great information. One more question. Where do you guys post your podcasts for linking from iTunes? I have been reading up on it, and while I have a web hosting company that I use for my website, I don't think they support podcast storage.

Thanks again and I look forward to hearing from you.

I put mine on my hosting server at Hostgator. I highly recommend them. By the way if you use them click through either Jack's link or mine because there is a substantial referral fee! LOL

I used Fatcow at first and after a guest post at Survivalblog and 1000 hits they shut me down due to some stupid fine print in the ToS.

But no one I know that uses Hostgator has any problem with them.

I use Wordpress for the blog and Blubrry Powerpress as my plugin to handle it. They work almost always without fail.

J

LvsChant · « **Reply #17 on:** January 11, 2011, 08:14:58 PM »

Thanks for all the great info. and offers of help, guys.

KYdoomer · « **Reply #18 on:** January 12, 2011, 07:50:48 AM »

Quote from: oregonshooter on January 11, 2011, 07:52:51 PM

Question:
My daughter-in-law bought a webcam and wants the wife to buy one to communicate to her with.

Can't she use her iPhone as a webcam? If so, how?

Maybe but it will depend on the model she has and I can't imagine it would be easy. Webcams are pretty cheap and easy to set up though.

J

ladieu · « **Reply #19 on:** January 12, 2011, 09:22:50 AM »

http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/04/iwebcamera-lets-you-ditch-your-webcam-for-an-iphone/

"iphone webcam" on google, first hit... i didn't test it out myself but might work for you

mckeyes · « **Reply #20 on:** January 13, 2011, 11:00:18 AM »

Quote

Question:
My daughter-in-law bought a webcam and wants the wife to buy one to communicate to her with.

Can't she use her iPhone as a webcam? If so, how?

If she has an iphone 4 with the front facing camera she can download the skype or qik app.

Jackncoke · « **Reply #21 on:** February 18, 2011, 09:04:09 AM »

HELP

My wife is starting a travel business, and is not computer savvy. I have tipped my toe in the web page development waters, but I haven't been involved with computers as deep as I used to be. I'm familiar with a bunch of stuff, but need help.

I'd like advice on setting up a laptop fresh out of the box.

Also need advice building a website for her. We are using "Host Gator", and she has registered her domain. I understand it's a major ordeal getting it set up, but I'd appreciate any advice.

Also I can provide much more detail as to what I know already. I'm just at work trying to type this out between helping customers...

Docwatmo · « **Reply #22 on:** February 18, 2011, 09:39:48 AM »

There are lots of options in that question.

2 things that spring to mind first.

1. Backups, If your going to use a computer for business, ensure you have multiple thumb drives or external hard drives to backup the data. This is essential.

2. Web development can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. Most hosts (I use some free hosts) have their own basic site editors built in. (000webhost.com is my current preferred host). Since yo already have a domain name, its pretty easy to get the free host set up. They have a basic site tool that makes getting your first couple of pages up and running pretty easy. Then you get to decide how far you want to take your site.

The best tool I've seen yet for site building is Joomla. (Version 1.6 from Joomla.com) Really easy to setup. Unzip the Joomla files and upload them to the web site, run the wizard and BAM, you have a great website with lots of features and content control.

If you want help getting the initial site up, PM me and we can work through it, I'm a bit busy today, but over the weekend I've got some free time.

ladieu · « **Reply #23 on:** February 18, 2011, 12:08:01 PM »

Everyone has their preferences... however mine would be for wordpress... it is extremely easy to setup... also Jack has some videos on setting this up within host gator hosting platform over at http://jackspirko.com

http://www.jackspirko.com/episode-15-two-minutes-to-blogging-with-wordpress-and-fantastico

For a design I would use either of the following resources:

http://themeforest.net/category/wordpress
http://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-themes.php
Please note that template monster also has joomla stuff
http://www.templatemonster.com/joomla-templates.php

As Doc pointed out you don't need to go crazy with web-dev... just install a predesigned package, slap in your logo.. good to go

As far as logos go. I used http://www.99designs.com a lot at work and most recently for the SOS logo at http://www.saveourskills.com

Here is a recent site I deployed in wordpress.. total time invested was just a few hours:
http://www.pristinepaintinginc.com/

BACKUPS - i would take it much farther if you are planning to have business stuff in htere

1) It is essential that you have offsite backup. I recommended 2 services. -

1: carbonite.com
2: elephantdrive.com - what i currently use

Also see my article on digital prepping:

http://www.saveourskills.com/digital-prepping-how-to-create-a-highly-redundant-backup-system

Please feel free to email or PM me if you need more help. I can reference you to some people that can setup the wordpress for you or take advantage of docs offer on joomla... either way your in good hands.

Quote from: Docwatmo on February 18, 2011, 09:39:48 AM

There are lots of options in that question.

2 things that spring to mind first.

1. Backups, If your going to use a computer for business, ensure you have multiple thumb drives or external hard drives to backup the data. This is essential.

2. Web development can be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be. Most hosts (I use some free hosts) have their own basic site editors built in. (000webhost.com is my current preferred host). Since yo already have a domain name, its pretty easy to get the free host set up. They have a basic site tool that makes getting your first couple of pages up and running pretty easy. Then you get to decide how far you want to take your site.

The best tool I've seen yet for site building is Joomla. (Version 1.6 from Joomla.com) Really easy to setup. Unzip the Joomla files and upload them to the web site, run the wizard and BAM, you have a great website with lots of features and content control.

If you want help getting the initial site up, PM me and we can work through it, I'm a bit busy today, but over the weekend I've got some free time.

idelphic · « **Reply #24 on:** February 18, 2011, 12:15:10 PM »

Don't forget that you will want to back up your website too. I can't say for Wordpress, but Joomla does have tools that will back up the site for you.

Both Wordpress and Joomla will allow you to 'build your site' offline and test things out. So you can work on the site offline without changing your live site.

ladieu · « **Reply #25 on:** February 18, 2011, 01:42:04 PM »

An excellent point and you should check with our webhost and find out what their backup policies are. But having your own backup = never a bad thing

regarding backing up WP

http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Backups

Jackncoke · « **Reply #26 on:** February 19, 2011, 01:24:50 PM »

I have backed up my back ups. Now my focus is on building my wife's webpage. I feel like I'm trying to fix a car, when I've never held a wrench...

Story so far... (short version)

Wife finds theme she likes on Host Gator site. Theme 4682 to be exact. After a few hours of trying to get the template to work, I surrender and head to bed. Today I go at it again. I will make this square peg fit in the round hole...

Bzzzt! Wrong! So I contact Gator techies. Although my typing skills look like I'm punching my keyboard, the tech straightens me out. I learn I have to use an HTML editor for those templates. Gator does not offer one. So now I have another dilemma. Either I figure out an HTML editor so wifey gets her theme she wants, or I find something similar in a WordPress theme. Guess it's time to drop back and punt.

Guess I should have stayed in college and finished my EE degree. Live and learn I guess...

Here's what I have so far...
http://sunsetshorestravel.com/

Sister Wolf · « **Reply #27 on:** February 19, 2011, 03:58:26 PM »

Quote from: Jackncoke on February 18, 2011, 09:04:09 AM

HELP

My wife is starting a travel business, and is not computer savvy. I have tipped my toe in the web page development waters, but I haven't been involved with computers as deep as I used to be. I'm familiar with a bunch of stuff, but need help.

I'd like advice on setting up a laptop fresh out of the box.

Also need advice building a website for her. We are using "Host Gator", and she has registered her domain. I understand it's a major ordeal getting it set up, but I'd appreciate any advice.

Also I can provide much more detail as to what I know already. I'm just at work trying to type this out between helping customers...

Quote from: Jackncoke on February 19, 2011, 01:24:50 PM

I have backed up my back ups. Now my focus is on building my wife's webpage. I feel like I'm trying to fix a car, when I've never held a wrench...

Story so far... (short version)

Wife finds theme she likes on Host Gator site. Theme 4682 to be exact. After a few hours of trying to get the template to work, I surrender and head to bed. Today I go at it again. I will make this square peg fit in the round hole...

Bzzzt! Wrong! So I contact Gator techies. Although my typing skills look like I'm punching my keyboard, the tech straightens me out. I learn I have to use an HTML editor for those templates. Gator does not offer one. So now I have another dilemma. Either I figure out an HTML editor so wifey gets her theme she wants, or I find something similar in a WordPress theme. Guess it's time to drop back and punt.

Guess I should have stayed in college and finished my EE degree. Live and learn I guess...

Here's what I have so far...
http://sunsetshorestravel.com/

If you're thrashing and are having a hard time coming up for air on the website issue, PM me. I'll get it set up for you in about a day. Cost = $50 if you have everything you need already (logo, etc). If you need design work, I can do simple stuff (not drawing out a whole new creation, but creating word logos, etc) for very cheap. If you need a really great graphic artist, get ahold of Nicodemus here on the forum. He's amazing, and will treat you extremely well.

To our computer gurus: I appreciate all those external links, but keep it in the family. If somebody here can take care of somebody's computer issue, suggest them.

Sister Wolf · « **Reply #28 on:** February 19, 2011, 03:59:52 PM »

Oh, and if you just need a little bit of HTML coding (something that will take me an hour or less), I'll do it for free. I'm not about to let you go pay somebody a minimum of $100 just to fix a broken line of code. That's nonsense.

cpf240 · « **Reply #29 on:** February 19, 2011, 04:47:59 PM »

Quote from: Sister Wolf on February 19, 2011, 03:59:52 PM

Oh, and if you just need a little bit of HTML coding (something that will take me an hour or less), I'll do it for free. I'm not about to let you go pay somebody a minimum of $100 just to fix a broken line of code. That's nonsense.

SW is TEH AWESOME!

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Author Topic: Website/Computer Questions... I got answers (Read 178372 times)