December Up Date

First we want to wish you all the most happy and safe holiday season.

Second a Windows PC info up date.  At this time the best, fastest and safest browser to use is the Google Chrome browser.  I know, I have told you for a long time that Firefox is the best and it still is a great browser.  For most of you the Google Chrome browser will be cleaner and faster.  Remember, any browser is better than using a Internet Explorer.  The consensus of the Geek world is that Microsoft is over the horizon and that the Internet Explorer is slower and much more unsafe.  So, or advice to you is to use the Chrome browser.  Remember, you can have more than one browser in your computer. Go to www.google.com/chrome.  It is also a good browser for you Mac guys like me.

Third is virus protection.  Microsoft has done one really good thing for PC users.  It is called Microsoft Security Essentials. http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/ It is a wonderful virus and malware protection program AND it is FREE.  So the recommendation here is do not use McAfee or Norton.  They cost to much and are memory hogs.  They use far to much of you valuable band width and memory space.  It you really want to spend money on a good virus program the best is called Nod32.  http://www.eset.com/home/nod32-antivirus.  It is by ESET and is the very best at doing the job without hogging your computer space.  Of course for you Mac users, no problem.  Still not threats for us.

Fourth is Operating System or OS.  If you are a PC person you should be running Windows 7 by now.  Reason?  XP is nearing the end of its life and Vista is the worst OS every.  Don't get left behind.  It is well worth the money for Windows 7, said to be the best OS Windows has ever put out.  If you are still with XP you are missing out.  If you are still with Vista you are fighting a loosing battle.  Windows 8 is on the drawing board but a was out.  Don't wait for it.

Fifth is backing up.  Ya, I keep harping but I got another call from one of you that is reading this now.  "My computer died and I lost all my documents and family pictures.  How can I get them back?"  Truth is that most of the time you can not get them back.  There are companies that can recover some things from dead hard drives but the cost is thousands.  That is something that companies some times have to do.  I run three back ups.  One on my computer (original), one on a external hard drive and one off site.  Off site I use www.carbonite.com.  $55 a year but well worth it.  Just as long as you are comfortable with losing everything that is on your computer that you don't need to back up.

AND Sixth is the end of the year billing will be coming out right after Christmas.  This will close out your bill for 2010 and pay for your hosting, for those that host with me, for 2011.  Please pay by the end of January for the net 30 days.  OH, the good new is that hosting prices for the 10th year in a row have not gone up.

We wish you all a very Happy and successful New year.