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Hello Most laptops nowadays can access the internet in a cafe, hotel or pub that has a wi-fi connection. But some people prefer to use a tablet -or even check emails on a mobile phone. So I’ve set up a “poll” on the right – what do you use to access the internet? You can choose more than one answer and I’ve listed laptops twice, for people who only use them at home or who use them out and about, in a cafe, for example. I had a question from Dad the other day. He and Mum have just got a laptop, so they can use it when they’re on holiday – they can use the “wifi” internet connection in the hotel to check emails and so on. And before they chose it, Dad was asking about the speed of connection. He wanted to know if the wifi cards of different laptops work at different speeds. He’d obviously read up on it, becuase he already knew there were older and newer ones (b, g, and n, which is the newest). But he wanted to know if one “n” wifi card would be faster than another “n” wifi card and also if one would work better further from the router that’s plugged into the phone line. Someone in a shop had told him it wouldn’t make any difference, that the speed difference is about how fast your router/modem (or the connection in the hotel or cafe if you’re out and about) is, but Dad wanted to make sure (he doesn’t always believe what the shops say, my Dad!) Well, the shop were almost right. But only almost. The speed and range of the router makes much more difference – if you’re having trouble with a wifi connection then a better router will make much more difference than a different laptop, if both laptops have “n” (ie the newest specification) wifi cards. But some laptops will be slightly quicker and slightly better at working a distance away from the router than others. I’ve experimented since and it’s definitely true. The router makes (say) 90% of the difference, the laptop (or strictly speaking the wifi card inside it) makes 10%. It’s a bit like radios. The biggest difference to how good the reception is comes down to the area you’re in and how strong the signal is. But the quality of the receiver does make some difference, too. Hello Hello, Welcome back from the Christmas and new year season, we hope you all had a fantastic time! To get back into the swing of things, I have a “Word to the Wise” for you all. This time, it’s about your “Desktop”. E.G the screen that appears once your computer has started up The desktop, or as some people call it “home screen”, is the area that appears once your computer has started up. It has a background image, and often a lot of little icons that link to certain programs or documents. Your computer’s desktop is much like a physical desktop. You probably keep a number of commonly used items on your desk such as pens, papers, folders, and other items. Your computer’s desktop serves the same purpose, which is to give you easy access to items spread about on your computer. One of the best features of the desktop is the ability to change the background image (also known as “wallpaper”). It’s great to be able to choose what you want your desktop to look like, so you can customize it to suit you! To change the background image on your Desktop, follow the steps below, depending on your version of windows: Windows XP: Start, Control Panel, Appearance and themes Windows Vista: Start, Control Panel, Appearance and Personalization, Personalization and then Desktop Background. Windows 7: RIGHT click on the Desktop and select Personalize, then click on Desktop Backgrounds The other great feature mentioned above, is adding shortcuts (which appear as “icons”) to the Desktop, so you can access your favourite programs or documents quickly. You can even add links to your favourite websites! To add a shortcut icon for a program like, for example, Microsoft Word, go to Start, All programs, and find Microsoft Word in the list. RIGHT click on it, and select “Send to” and then “Desktop (Create shortcut). You can also follow the same steps if you want to add a picture or a sound file to your desktop. RIGHT click on it, and send to desktop. To add a shortcut icon to a website, RIGHT click on the Desktop, and select “New” and then “Shortcut”. A window will appear that gives you the option to enter a website address, and to name your shortcut icon. This is great if you only want to click your mouse a couple of times to get to your favourite website. I hope you found that useful! Georgia I’ve just put a new “poll” on the right of the screen. I’m interested to know whether you’d like to get an automatic email to tell you whenever I add a new journal note, article or video. At the moment I’m just curious whether it would be useful – it could mean you don’t miss out on an article that could have been useful – but I don’t want to bombard people with emails! So click over on the right to say whether you think it would be helpful. Bandwidth E.g The upload and download limits on your PC Bandwidth is a bit of a geeky word, but it simply means how much data you can send through your network connection. It’s usually measured in “bits per second” (bps). The best way to think of bandwidth is as a motorway with cars travelling on it. The motorway is the network connection (say, a motorway between your PC and the Internet) and the cars are the data. The wider the motorway, the more cars can travel on it at one time. So more cars can get to the destination faster. The same applies to computer data; the more bandwidth, the more information can be transferred within a given amount of time. Say you are watching a video online. The video will travel onto your computer as millions of tiny “data cars” on the motorway. The faster your Internet connection and the higher your bandwidth limit, the quicker the data cars can reach your PC. And the quicker they reach the PC, the better quality the video will be! I hope that made some kinda of sense! Georgia You hear a lot nowadays about “tablet” PCs, “slates” and the “iPad”. But what are they – and what would you use them for? You can watch it from the videos button above or from here: |
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