Computers: Adware - Is It Safe?

Adware - Is It Safe?

Written by Dennis Welch, Computer-Help-Guide.com

Continued from page 1

Strictly speaking, spyware is a program that does this "phone home" activity without your knowledge. And when an ad supported program crosses this line, it's spyware.

It shouldn't matter if they tell you in section 12, subparagraph 15, item 1.5a of their EULA or not...it's still spyware when they do this. Put it up front in repparttar license agreement. Let repparttar 107167 user know what they're installing.

Is There Any Such Thing as a Good Adware Program?

One comes to mind as I write this...Eudora email client. According to their claims (and I have no reason to doubt them), their program doesn't spy on you.

When you install Eudora, you fill out a user profile that you can modify whenever you want. This profile (minus any personal information) is used to serve advertisements from Qualcomm servers. Qualcomm is repparttar 107168 maker of Eudora.

Should You Use Ad Supported Programs?

I'm not anti-adware. I've used these programs in repparttar 107169 past, and I'll probably use them again, but I want them to tell me what information they're gathering, why they're gathering it, and where they're sending it.

Be up front with it. Make it easy to understand. Most users aren't lawyers. Like I said, I understand advertising and I support advertising...ethical advertising.

After researching repparttar 107170 company, I may decide to trust them and install their program. That way, I get a good program for free and they get their advertising revenue...it can be a win/win situation.

What can you do to protect yourself?

Educate yourself. Know what you're installing and using on your computer. Read repparttar 107171 EULA.

Visit websites like PCPitstop.com and check out their Spyware Information Center to learn about spyware and adware. Run their free online scans to keep your computer safe.

Also visit websites like Safer-Networking.org or Lavasoft.com. Read their articles and forums. Install Spybot Search & Destroy and AdAware, which you can get for free from those websites.

And, as you'll see me write over and over, back up your computer regularly.

Article courtesy of: Dennis Welch http://www.computer-help-guide.com Computer Help Guide provides comprehensive guides, tutorials and tips to help you manage and maintain your personal computer.

Printing Troubleshooting Guide

Written by Jason Sprague

Continued from page 1

This tends to be repparttar most complicated of repparttar 107166 3 types of problems and we would have to write a novel to cover everything. Unfortunately, we just don't have that kind of time, so we are going to try to give you some tips to get you headed in repparttar 107167 right direction. When investigating software printing problems there are many useful techniques and questions that need to be asked. The first one is to find out which Page Description Language(PDL) is being used. The 2 most common are PostScript(by Adobe) and Printer Control Language(PCL by HP). Below are some of repparttar 107168 fundamental questions that should be asked early in a problem investigation.

POSTSCRIPT TECHNIQUES/QUESTIONS:

Is it actually a PostScript file that you are sending? If repparttar 107169

printer prints out an endless stream of ASCII text, repparttar 107170

printer is receiving PCL data. Get repparttar 107171

correct PostSript driver for your printer.

Reprint

job, this time selecting "print to file" in repparttar 107173

print dialogue box. It will create a *.prn file. Open it using Notepad and make sure that repparttar 107174

first line of repparttar 107175

file starts with "%!". This signifies that it is PostScript.

What printer driver was repparttar 107176

PostScript file created with? Make sure you have repparttar 107177

latest and greatest one. Consult your printer manufacturer.

What application was used to create this file? Do all applications do this?

Have you tried an alternative printer driver? And what were repparttar 107178

results?

Has this exact same file been printed on a second PostScript printer? What were repparttar 107179

results?

Was there a PostScript Error page? What did repparttar 107180

error page say? Look up errors at: http://www.prepressure.com/ps/dbase/overviewerrors.htm

Try to distill repparttar 107181

original file using Acrobat Distiller. If a PDF file is created, you should be able to print it, other wise, you will probably get a PS error.

PS errors can often be caused by corrupt graphics. When trying to distill repparttar 107182

file, see which page it faults on. Go to that page in repparttar 107183

document and try removing all of repparttar 107184

graphics.

Have you tried recreating repparttar 107185

PostScript and resubmitting repparttar 107186

file?

HP/PCL TECHNIQUES/QUESTIONS:

What printer driver was pcl file created with? Make sure you have latest and greatest one. Consult your printer manufacturer.
What application was used to create this file? Do all apps. do this?
Have you tried an alternative printer driver? And what were results?
Has this exact same pcl file been printed on a second PCL printer? What were results?
What are specific image errors viewed by customer? A PCL file will continue printing incorrectly and will not leave an error page.
Have you tried recreating PCL and resubmitting file?

Performance:

Performance related issues are usually repparttar 107195 result of incorrect customer expectations. There are actually 3 parts to print performance. The time that it takes repparttar 107196 job to get to repparttar 107197 printer, repparttar 107198 time that it takes for repparttar 107199 printer to process repparttar 107200 job(RIP) and repparttar 107201 time that it takes for repparttar 107202 printer to actually print repparttar 107203 job once it has received it. Let's look at each of these separately.

TRANSFER TIME:

This really has nothing to do with repparttar 107204 printer at all. If jobs are taking a long time to get to repparttar 107205 printer, check your network traffic. You may have to get a network sniffer or network monitoring software to check this. If you are using an external print server such as a Jet Direct box, consider repparttar 107206 fact that you actually have a parallel connection to repparttar 107207 printer which has a slower transfer rate than a network connection. The parallel connection from repparttar 107208 print server to repparttar 107209 printer is a bottleneck. Some printers are now supporting 100baseT connections which may help in this area.

PROCESSING TIME:

The processing that occurs on a printer is called Raster Image Processing(RIP). This is repparttar 107210 process of repparttar 107211 printer converting repparttar 107212 file sent into image data that repparttar 107213 printer uses to "paint a picture" on repparttar 107214 page. If this process appears to be slow, repparttar 107215 first thing to consider is repparttar 107216 size of repparttar 107217 file being sent. If you are sending a 5mb file, it is going to take some time to process. Note: In order to view repparttar 107218 true size of repparttar 107219 file being processed by repparttar 107220 printer, you must print to file and then find repparttar 107221 size of repparttar 107222 file after it has been run through repparttar 107223 driver. PostScript files can be as much as 3x larger than repparttar 107224 original file. Send over a simple notepad file with repparttar 107225 word "test" on it and see if there is a significant difference. Find out if repparttar 107226 printer's memory is upgradable. This can help with processing times. Most printers have different print quality settings specified by dots per inch(DPI). File sizes will typically be larger when higher resolutions are selected.

PRINT TIME:

The print speed that is quoted by repparttar 107227 manufacturer does not include transfer or processing time. It only includes print engine speed once repparttar 107228 job is processed. If repparttar 107229 printer handles multiple paper sizes, repparttar 107230 print speed probably is referring to repparttar 107231 speed for repparttar 107232 smallest paper size. If you are printing on pages larger than 8.5x11 inches, repparttar 107233 print speed will be slower. If it is a color printer, find out if there are different speed capabilities for color and monochrome. Most printers have different print quality settings specified by dots per inch(DPI). Printers will typically print slower in higher resolutions.

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