|
Suppliers (Specialty):
PC Power & Cooling
This is an excellent supplier of high performance power supplies, CPU fans, and other accessories as well (such as hard-to-find, replacement power supplies). If you are into “hot-rodding” or “over-clocking”, they carry water-based, PC-cooling systems as well. If you prefer to talk with a human being rather than use the website, call Tiffany at (800) 722-6555.
I had a customer with a DEC Digital PC 3000 that had a tiny, 90-watt power supply with non-standard dimensions that needed to be upgraded. The 90-Watt power supply wasn’t able to provide enough “juice” for the system, which caused it to reboot periodically. A standard power supply wouldn’t fit in the case. Although PC Power & Cooling didn’t have an exact match, Tiffany was able to recommend a close match that provided 145 Watts instead of 90 Watts at a good price. I was able to get it to fit in the case and the customer didn’t have to buy a new system.
DataMate, a Division of Methode
DataMate makes high-quality, SCSI components. I found out about DataMate within Scott Mueller’s “Upgrading and Repairing PCs” book. DataMate makes some of the highest quality terminators on the market. If you need a contact, call Angela at (708) 867-6777. Angela if very friendly and professional. I was looking for a rare, 68-pin, FPT (Forced Perfect Termination) terminator. It took her a day or two to locate a product that met my needs. During this time, she regularly kept me informed of the status. Not only did she track it down, but also sent me two samples for free. DataMate has a minimum order fee of $250.00. If your order is less than $250.00, they’ll be happy to refer you to one of their distributors who excepts smaller orders.
Software:
www.downloads.com
This is a great site for downloading freeware and shareware.
Technical Information:
Tom’s Hardware Guide
This site specializes in hardware information. They have in-depth articles on various computer products and technologies. They also specialize in exhaustive product comparison/reviews and do a fabulous job. This is more or less the “Consumer Reports” for computer technology on the web. This site also provides a lot of information pertaining to “over-clocking” computer hardware. Tom’s Hardware Guide also produces an excellent book by the same time title.
SharkyExtreme.Com
This site is also specializes in hardware information. It has a very similar format to Tom’s Hardware Guide except it is slanted towards the “gaming” community. They have industry news, price comparisons, in-depth product reviews, and user forums. The articles on this site are just as informative as Tom’s Hardware Guide.
Over Clocker Café
This is another informative site that specializes in hardware information. It uses a similar format to Tom’s Hardware Guide and Sharky Extreme, but this site is slanted towards the “Over Clocker” community. “Over-clocking” is the running of hardware components at speeds beyond which the equipment is rated in order to get better performance. You’ll notice that the writing style is a little different from the other two sites and it will give a good taste of the Over-Clocker subculture. These guys live for maximum performance at the cheapest price.
Upgrading and Repairing PCs by Scott Mueller
“Upgrading and Repairing PCs” is a book about PC hardware. A new edition is released every year to include the latest technology changes. This website is an augmentation of the book. This site includes articles about the hardware that has come out since the last edition of the book. There are lots of Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) sheets that are divided up by category, and there are also informative articles about computer-related topics such as data recovery, purchasing a new PC, etc.
The book is THE authoritative guide to PC hardware. I’ve been using Scott’s book since 1989. The most current edition is the “14th Edition” which was copyrighted in August 2002. It makes a good reference guide and it’s also good to read cover-to-cover. Scott not only knows his stuff, but he has a good sense of humor and is an entertaining writer. The site is as entertaining and informative as his book. Check it out!
Driver Guide
The site specializes in drivers for hardware devices. I use it as a last resort when I can’t find a driver on the manufacturer’s website. If you need some obscure network or modem driver, give this site a shot. I’ve had excellent luck locating hard-to-find drivers here.
Microsoft Help and Support
This site gives you access the Microsoft’s Knowledge Base and software downloads. The Knowledge Base is a database of articles compiled by Microsoft Support Professionals about various problems and their solutions. I have this Knowledge Base installed on my laptop and get monthly updates for it via CD. This is called Microsoft TechNet. I use the Knowledge Base daily. It saves me lots of time troubleshooting. If I have a particular error message in a Microsoft product, I can find the solution within the KnowledgeBase greater than 50% of the time. The online Knowledge Base is free. If you need any sort of add-on, patch or update for a Microsoft product, you’ll generally find it within the Downloads section of this website. You can browse through all of the downloads or filter them by keyword, operating system, or product name.
Modemsite.com: The Modem Information & Support Site
The name is self-explanatory. This site gives lots a great general information as well as troubleshooting information for modems. Does your modem seem to perform slower than it should? Did you want to know the difference between the V.92 and V.90 standards? What’s the difference between throughput and connect speed? The answers to these questions and many more are available at this site.
SpeedGuide.Net: The Broadband Source
This site specializes information about high-speed Internet connections. They have general troubleshooting information, product reviews, and industry news. I highly recommended downloading their free “TCPOptimizer” utility. This utility will tweak your registry settings to get maximum performance through you Cable Modem or DSL connection. If you use the utility, make sure that you backup your original settings first.
Symantec AntiVirus Research Center
This is a great resource about virus/worm/Trojan horse information. The virus encyclopedia also includes information about virus hoaxes as well. If you get an email message that warns you about some new virus that’s going to eat your hard drive up, check the SARC site first because a lot of these warnings are fake.
Paul Thurrot’s WinInfo: Windows news and information. No fluff.
This site contains news information pertaining the various versions of the Windows operating system. This includes industry news and product release dates.
Paul Thurrot’s Supersite for Windows
This site contains technical information pertaining to Windows. This includes product reviews, FAQs, and in-depth articles about various technologies.
Windows & .NET Magazine
This is the online version of the “Windows &.NET Magazine” periodical. This is a technical site with excellent articles pertaining to the setup, configuration, and troubleshooting of the various versions of the Windows operating system, Exchange Server, Outlook, and SQL Server. They also have product reviews, user forums, and industry news. The quality and quantity of the information here is unmatched.
Google Newsgroups
This site provides a web-based interface to the Internet newsgroups. This site is formerly known as “Deja News” but it recently was bought by Google. You can also get to it by going to www.google.com and then clicking on the “Groups” tab. There are tens of thousands of special interest groups where people post messages. This is one of the best sources for solutions to technical problems, especially with mixed vendor scenarios. If you have a problem with a particular manufacturer’s piece of equipment not working properly with another vendor’s equipment, this is the place to look for an answer. The chances are that someone else has already been there and done that! When I can’t find an answer in Microsoft’s Knowledge Base, this is my next stop.
Tips for Windows 95, 98, 98se, ME, 2000, and XP network problems by Carey Holzman
Carey has put together an excellent tip list for fixing networking problems with the Windows family of operating systems. If you are having problems getting a couple of computers to “talk” with each other on your network, check Carey’s tip list out.
Slipstick Systems: Outlook & Exchange Solutions Center
The name is self-explanatory. This is probably the best website for tips and troubleshooting information for Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Server. This site is run by Sue Mosher who is an industry “heavyweight” in the Outlook/Exchange arena. She has written several books on the subject as well as many articles within technical publications such as the “Windows & .NET Magazine”. She is also a Microsoft “MVP” within the Internet newsgroups pertaining to this subject matter. If you are having a problem with Outlook, check this site out!
CNET.com
This site provides product reviews and technical articles about both hardware and software and also provides a large download section. This is a very extensive site. One of the tools that I use on this site regularly is the bandwidth meter. This will give you a measurement of your actual throughput on the Internet. Go to the homepage and scroll down to the bottom to the CNET Tools section, and click on the “bandwidth meter” link. It’s good to run it 3 times or so and take an average.
|