The use of Internet services are one of the most dominant reasons for having personal computers and laptops. In order to operate and especially to maintain and troubleshoot your computer, it’s important to understand basic functions and terminology for computers. All of the fundamental components of computing are either hardware or software.

*Hardware *
Hardware is all the physical components of a computer—the monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, and tower (or, on a laptop, the base, keyboard, and display screen) are all hardware. Other pieces of hardware can be added, changed, or removed after buying the basic components. Although hardware is the things you can see, you do have hardware parts that you can’t see, because they are connected or installed inside the computer tower. This is called internal hardware. External hardware is usually plugged into the back of the tower and is internal hardware. Here are more examples of hardware:

*CDs and DVDs—the physical plastic disc is hardware that stores software programs to run on your computer.
* CD drives and burners—for playing or recording information on CD’s.
* Modems—dial-up, cable, and DSL all require a modem (dial-up modems are often internal, but can be sold as external devices
* Wireless router—this device can be attached to a broadband modem to convert digital signal to wireless, so that you can connect to the Internet without having a cord plugged into the computer.
* Wireless card/network adapter— Usually internal, this component makes connecting wirelessly to broadband services possible, can also be bought and attached externally.
* Ipods, smartphones, Iphones, cellphones, blackberries—these devices would also be considered hardware, especially since they are often connected to the computer and can be used to connect to the Internet.

*Software*
Software is everything you can’t physically touch. It’s the programs and applications that make up everything that displays on the screen, enables the hardware to run and communicate with each other, and performs tasks. Without software, your computer would just be a complicated pile of metal and plastic.

There are basically two types of software: system software and application software. System software is what makes your computer function and controls background processes—most of which you do not need to control or might not even know about. Application software, or applications, is everything you use to complete your tasks. Here are some examples:
* Microsoft Office Suite—Word, Excel, and Outlook are all applications, and so are similar programs like WordPerfect or OpenOffice.
* Web browsers—Internet Explorer, Firefox, and MSN Explorer are just a few examples.
* Games, Calculators, Calendars, Wizards—well, everything on the All Programs list!
* Antivirus programs, Spyware scanners, Registry cleaners, etc.
*Music players like Windows Media Player and RealPlayer

Software is available in all sizes and styles to perform almost any imaginable tasks or form of entertainment. You can usually download them from the Internet, purchase it on CD’s in stores, and often come stored on a CD accompanied with hardware purchases.

Knowing the difference between software and hardware and how they work is the first step to keeping your computer in good shape (e.g., knowing how and when to upgrade it) and to troubleshoot basic problems (determining the cause of the problem—is it hardware or software related?).

***

Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!

If you like to write, express your opinions, or share your creativity with others, you may be interested in starting your own blog. Internet services have opened doors to connecting and sharing with others simply and easily from your home! One of the most popular ways to share events going on around you, or express your thoughts and creativity is through a weblog, or blog. They are usually free and easy to set up a new account. Here is a step-by-step guide to the easiest way to create your own blog:

1. Find a host. Unless you want to create your own website, you’re going to have to find a website that will host your blog. In other words, you need to find a website that will let you have your own page to update, etc., but they do the work of saving and displaying your page (along with the collection of other pages from bloggers like you) on the Internet.

There are many sites that host blogs for free. You can ask your friends for input if you want to be in the same blog community that they are, or you can search online for blog sites. Blogger.com, Wordpress.com, Weebly.com, Xanga.com, and LiveJournal.com are among the top most popular free blog hosts. Also, many social networking sites, like Facebook and Myspace have a section for writing notes or blog entries, so they too could be used as a blog, but these websites are not focused on blogging. Sometimes your internet provider, like Copper.net, will host blog accounts. Go to the member’s homepage or contact your ISP to see if this option is available for you.

2. Create a new account. In order for you to have a blog page, you’ll need an account with a username and password. Your username usually ends up being the primary name for the blog, e.g., “user_name.blogger.com” would be the url to your blog and probably show up in one or two places on the site. You’ll want to pick a username that fits you well and a password you can remember.

To create a new account, you’ll often see a “sign up” or “new member” link on the home page of the blog site. You can probably find a help section for more information. When you click to start a new membership, you will probably need fill out a form with some basic information, like your email address and what you want as your username and password. These forms are often very simple.

3. Select your blog title and (if available) subtitle. Blog titles are often where you can be creative, interesting, and unique, then the subtitle kind of explains what the blog is about. Think about what you want people to know about your blog from first glance. Is it going to be a little bit of everything? Are you going to focus on a specific topic or hobby of yours? Let people know in a unique and interesting way. You may want to browse through other people’s blogs for some ideas and inspiration—perhaps of what NOT to do too!

4. Choose your colors and layout. This is the part where you can really set the mood and create the first impression you want. When people first come across your blog, this will be the first things they’ll see. A dark background with deep colors can present a dark and mysterious mood, a bright colored layout can bring a happy or exotic feel, and a neat neutral design can come across in a professional tone.

Most host sites will have several predesigned themes to pick from. This is a good place to start, especially while you take some time to learn how to make design edits. Each site is different, so you’ll have to learn how to change backgrounds, colors, and widgets specifically on this site. There should be plenty of help pages to show you how to do everything. Don’t worry if you aren’t sure you what you want your layout to look like, you can always change it later! Sometimes its fun to go with a completely different look some months into your blogging.

5. Write your first entry! You can write a short piece just to see what it’ll look like and let people know you’ve just started, or you can jump right in with your first feature-length blog entry! Be yourself! Have fun and be creative. The important thing is expressing yourself, not worrying about how many people will read it! You can always make edits to posts later, but don’t forget, as soon as you hit “publish”, your entry will be open to anyone who has Internet service, so you might want to read it over for any grammar/spelling mistakes at least once before you publish!

***

Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!

Internet service has opened doors to making information, education, and entertainment available on demand. Always readily available and easily assessable, websites are the new wave of fast easy access to almost anything. Blogs are an excellent example. Short for “weblogs” blogs can be anything from a personal journal or diary to a professional analysis of news and trends in a large variety of genres. Some people blog as professions, others for fun. Either way, blogs are an entertaining and popular way to get information, news, updates, and commentaries on the topics that interest you—or provide an interesting viewpoint on daily activities and other life topics.

Since blogs are just written entries and not usually representing any business or organization, they aren’t often edited or pass inspection of anyone before they get published. Therefore, you can’t always expect them to be professional and reputable. They can, however, represent a business or characterize the well-thought out and researched opinion of well-spoken and knowledgeable individuals. These are usually the type of blogs that have the most visitors, incoming links, and subscribers, so the blogs getting the most attention have reason to be popular. They are probably good resources—at least for getting insight on other points of view, etc. Here are some of the most common types of blogs:

*Personal Diaries
Many people enjoy keeping a blog of entries on personal events, thoughts, or as an outlet for their creativity. Sometimes it’s a way to keep friends and family informed, others simply want to express themselves and sometimes keep their identity anonymous. Personal diaries might even be a collection of poems, pictures, and the like.

This type of blog can be very interesting and inspiring. It’s a way to see the world through another person’s point of view—from across the country or even the globe! You can find blogs such as these as a source of entertainment or to learn about a certain type of lifestyle, career, region, etc., from someone who experiences it from day to day.

*Business Blogs
Blogs can be a useful form of marketing or advertising. Whether a blog offers advice, describes services, or posts entries about related content that would be useful to customers, business blogs’ primary function is to attract new customers, assist current customers, or attract business or links from affiliates.

Regardless of the “marketing” nature of business blogs, they are often helpful and legitimate resources. Unlike a personal blog, these blogs must be accountable to the business they represent, so they are often reviewed by others or must conform to stricter standards. Thus, the blog has a higher probability of containing usable and reliable content.

*Professional Blogs
Believe it or not, there are a number of people who can make a living from blogging. Whether people or companies need these bloggers to post articles or entries for marketing purposes or they simply have a valuable, professional insight that can be a useful and coveted resource for other companies.  A professional blog could also be an insightful informational blog written personally by a professional that only or mostly includes professional topics. These can be useful to those who want or need that “inside information” for that profession or topic.

Professional blogs often get a lot of interest and attention because the writer is famous or at least well known in their field. Most people read these blogs to gain from the wisdom, experience, and insight of someone of this person’s standing. They will usually be focused on a genre, profession, or topic that will most likely be of interested to a certain group of readers. They could be about fashion, politics, sports, finance, business, marketing, etc.

***

Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!

Malware, or malicious software, is any annoying, misleading, dishonest, privacy-invading, computer-harming software. Different malware is contracted in different ways, and removing them is different depending on the program as well. Removing malware can be a messy problem to deal with, but it is certainly worse if it is not taken care of as soon as possible.

First of all, if you don’t have an antivirus program and a firewall running, you need to install and enable them now. If you use Windows firewall, you can enable it from your Security Center in the Control Panel. If you antivirus service is expired, you must renew it or at least install a free service. Next, check to be sure your antivirus service has been updated recently. If you open your antivirus program, it will very clearly tell you if everything is running properly, yellow and red indicators will notify you of anything expired or out of date.

Once you have established that you have a current, up-to-date antivirus program and your firewall is on, run a full computer scan with your antivirus program. You may have to go into the advanced options or check through the available buttons and tabs. Once the full computer scan is complete, follow whatever instructions are recommended with any infections it finds.

Now, so far you have checked for viruses and worms, etc. There is another group of “back door” malware—spyware and adware, etc.—that will not be detected by antivirus services (unless your service has additional antispyware or other malware tools). If you are still having problems or believe your problem is specify “back door” malware-related, you should probably download a spyware scanner. Be very careful what you download! Some of these advertised scanners and spyware removers are actually spyware themselves and would only worsen the situation!

When looking for a good spyware remover, look for tools that are recommended on several websites. Find reviews on the products and ratings by reputable computer services websites, like CNet and Downloads.com. If it is recommended on several reputable sources, it is probably safe to download. You probably only need one spyware scanner, because too many programs that will simply bog down your computer and conflict with one another. You may want to try several different programs, though, to find one that is easy to use and works the best for you. Once you have downloaded and completed the spyware scan and removed any infections, you should download a good firewall and antispyware program (or both if they don’t conflict and you want extra protection).

If you still have suspicious problems with your computer or if you have problems with these steps, you may need to take your computer to a technician. The sooner these problems are handled, the less likely this is necessary. If you do take your computer to a technician, if possible, be sure to back up your personal files to CD’s, flash drives, or an external hard drive, in case the technician has to reformat your hard drive, etc.

***

Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!

The computer and Internet world is new to many people. It’s a wonderful and exciting thing—but it can also be scary. With horror stories of identity theft and computers crashing due to spyware and viruses, it’s no wonder it’s a scary place for many. Here’s some helpful information to understand the basics of malware and determine the differences between the types of malware.

Malware, the shortened name of malicious software is any software that has an ulterior, unscrupulous, or dishonest motive. The effects of malware can be as harmless as simply being annoying and slightly slowing down your computer’s performance, or as dangerous as attacking your computer and your important files or collecting private information from you, like credit card numbers and passwords.

There are two basic categories of malware, the “front door” and the “back door” intruders. Malware that tries to infect your computer through email and networks is known as front door intruders and can be detected and caught fairly easily by an antivirus program. The “back door” intruders are hidden and disguised software that is often bundled with another program or appears to be something helpful. Usually these are downloaded by users from the Internet. Back door malware cannot be detected by antivirus programs. The following is a brief description of the different types of malware in each category:

*The Back Door Intruders*
Spyware: This is software that collects information about a user, often to obtain search or surfing habits or private information, like passwords and credit card information. There are different types of spyware, like keyloggers that detect what keys are pressed, and “security programs” that promise to scan your computer for infections, but instead install programs to use your computer memory and give hackers access to your computer.

Adware: This type of malware is typically packages with other software, especially if it is free. It can vary from simply bombarding you with advertising every time you use the software, or collecting information about the searches and surfing you perform in order to tailor advertising to your interests.
A good indication that you may have spyware or adware on your computer is if your browser redirects to other pages by itself or search sites you don’t recognize, your homepage changes by itself, or advertisements pop up constantly, especially if they address you by name or appear even when you are offline.

There are several tools that can be downloaded to remove existing back door malware, but be careful what you download, as a misleading program might simply worsen your situation! A good firewall or antispyware program will help prevent new back door malware from having access to your computer.

*The Front Door Intruders*
Computer Viruses and Worms: These programs enter the computer through a computer network or through files like email attachments. They can replicate themselves to infect core computer files. Viruses and worms use up computer resources and are poorly built, so an infected computer will run slowly or crash often.  Some types are very dangerous and can destroy important system or personal files. Because of their replicating nature, these infections become more harmful the longer they are on the user’s computer.

Trojan Horse: This is a file that appears harmless or helpful, but once installed, it can open a “back door” through which a hacker can access the computer, use system resources for spamming and other malicious purposes, all without the knowledge of the computer’s user. Unlike a virus, Trojan horses do not replicate themselves, but they are usually installed and running without the user’s knowledge or intent.

You may have a virus if you computer suddenly begins lagging significantly more than usual or shuts down and gives error messages repeatedly. You should have an antivirus program installed and running on your computer. You must also keep it updated constantly so it will be aware of new virus threats. A computer scan by your antivirus may resolve basic virus problems, but an advanced virus infection may require in-depth resolution by a computer technician. In many cases, this step results in the loss of personal files, so keep your documents, pictures, and installation files backed up regularly to another computer, CDs, flash drives, or an external hard drive.

***

Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!

When you get a dial-up service, perhaps one of the most frustrating aspects of a slower connection is that few antivirus programs are simple enough to download and update themselves on dial-up. But you still have to have an antivirus program! So what can you do?

Fortunately, there are several antivirus programs that appeal to dial-up users not only for their simplicity, but because they are free!  You don’t have to pay a cent to download and install these programs. They install updates of new malware threats, etc., and scan your computer for viruses, just like subscription antivirus programs. The most popular of these free programs is AVG Anti-virus, the Free Edition, and Avast Anti-virus.

So why are these programs free? Well, the free programs are very basic, and these companies do offer subscription versions of these programs (and recommend you to upgrade, of course!). Also, you will probably not get technical support (at least, not live) with these programs, nor will you often be able have a free installation CD to be shipped to you from the company.

These free programs aren’t as all-inclusive as an expensive subscription program that covers every imaginable aspect of Internet and computer protection. However, these large paid programs will not only take up a large amount of space on your hard drive, but they also might not download the installation files and updates it requires to work properly on your dial-up connection.

Many of these programs’ updates takes up to 6 or more hours on a dial-up connection. This is most likely never going to download at all, because most dial-up services drop your connection after 4 or more hours because of a maximum online time regulation. Even if your ISP had no such regulation, dial-up connection can drop a connection unexpectedly for other reasons, like problems with the modem or phone line. Of course, then you would have to restart your download, and the whole hassle would take days and you would not be sufficiently protected in those times.

Download.com has ratings, reviews, and descriptions of a plethora of free downloads where you can compare and install various free antivirus programs. You can run a search for “free anti-virus programs” to see all the available anti-virus programs. On the home page, if you scroll down to the heading “Most Popular Downloads”, you’ll see the two free anti-virus programs listed above.

If you do want to download AVG or Avast, you should probably just go straight to download.com, because the websites of these programs will actually redirect you to download.com anyway.

It is usually possible to download free antivirus programs with most dial-up connections. It is also possible that the initial download could take several hours or require several attempts. If you have too much trouble, you may need to quickly download the installation file to a flash drive at work, a restaurant, or the library using their broadband connection. Then you can take the file home and install it on your computer in a few minutes.

***

Written by Hannah Miller, Online Marketing Representative and Customer Service, Copper.net.

Copper.net is a nationwide Internet services provider that is all-American owned and operated. Call today, 1-800-336-3318 or sign up online at www.copper.net! Check out my blog for more articles!