THIS IS A MUST HAVE FOR A NEW TECHNICIAN AND A REALLY GOOD REFRESHER FOR US SUPER TECHS

Troubleshooting is a necessary part of supporting any network installation. Determining and repairing problems can consume a lot of time, especially if you don’t know what to do or how to do it correctly and quickly. This On Demand Web Seminar explains how you can go about troubleshooting different network issues.

View the on-demand seminar here:  http://images.globalknowledge.com/wwwimages/seminars/tcpipts/player.html

Almost exactly two years ago, I wrote about “Microsoft’s licensing mess.” Judging by my mailbag, nothing has changed in the meantime. Microsoft has done an exceptional job of designing Windows 7, but a terrible job of communicating how it will be sold. As Microsoft dribbles out details of the Windows 7 release schedule and product lineup, including pricing and upgrade offers, I’ve been deluged with questions from readers about whether they qualify for a Windows 7 upgrade and, if so, what’s the simplest, most cost-effective way to acquire it.

Before I dive into the Q&A section, it’s worth taking a second to clear up the source of much of the confusion I’m encountering. In the often bewildering world of Windows licensing, the word upgrade has two separate and distinct meanings. The first refers to the license that you purchase, which in turn allows you to run Windows on a specific PC. The second refers to a mode of setup, where you keep installed programs and personal data files while replacing the underlying operating system.

Confused? Let’s see if I can untangle things.

I’m currently running the Windows 7 Ultimate Release Candidate. What are my upgrade options?

From a licensing point of view, your installed copy of Windows is irrelevant. What matters is the sticker on the side of the PC. If you have a Certificate of Authenticity for Windows XP or Windows Vista on that computer (or a certificate of authenticity from a retail copy of Windows that has been assigned to that machine), you qualify for an upgrade license to any edition of Windows 7.

As for the installation itself, you are subject to the following technical limitations:

• An upgrade installation is blocked on the RC build (7100). To perform an in-place upgrade, you must modify an installation file using the technique described here.
• Because you are running Ultimate edition, your only option for an in-place upgrade is to install Windows 7 Ultimate edition.
• You cannot change from Windows 7 x86 (32-bit) to x64 (64-bit) or vice versa. If you’ve been testing the 32-bit version and you want to go 64-bit, you’ll need to do a custom install.

I am currently running a licensed copy of Windows Vista Ultimate. Do I have to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate?

Again, there’s a two-part answer here. From a licensing point of view, you qualify for an upgrade license to any edition of Windows 7. As far as installing the upgrade, that’s another story. You can’t downgrade as part of an installation, so if you decide to move from Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Home Premium or Professional, you’ll need to do a custom installation. You can upgrade from any lower version to the same edition or a higher one, with some exceptions. So if you’re  running Vista Home Premium, you can perform an upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium or Ultimate. [Update: Microsoft has published several documents purporting to describe how upgrades will work and has retracted at least one of them. Until the final code is released, it's impossible to confirm which versions are correct.]

Is it fair that I have to pay the same price to upgrade from Windows Vista Ultimate as someone running Windows XP Home or Vista Home Basic?

No, it’s not fair. But the alternative would be ludicrously complicated.

What’s the difference between an OEM license, an upgrade license, a full license, and a volume license?

Can I just explain the infield fly rule? That would be easier. Seriously.

No? OK, fine:

• An OEM Windows license is one that’s included with a new computer. The top 20 manufacturers get insanely great discounts on Windows compared to retail costs. This license is locked to the computer on which it’s installed.
• A System Builder OEM license has a much lower discount but is still a pretty good deal with a new PC from a small system builder.
• An upgrade license is a discounted retail copy of Windows that can only be installed on a system that already has an OEM or full license.
• A full license is sold at retail and is intended for use on a computer that was not sold with Windows originally. The price is horrendously high.
• Volume licenses are sold in bulk to corporate customers, in quantities of five or more at a time. A volume license is available as an upgrade only.

You keep mentioning a “custom installation.” Is that the same as a clean install?

Not exactly. A custom installation allows you to install Windows on a freshly formatted partition, which is the definition of a clean install. But you can also use a custom installation to set up Windows on a drive that already has Windows installed on it, without wiping out the previous installation. Your old system and data files go in a folder called Windows.old.

I’m running the Windows 7 RC. But the pre-order upgrade offer from Microsoft says I have to be running a genuine copy of Windows XP or Windows Vista. So do I have to pay full price and buy a full license?

No. You qualify for upgrade pricing (assuming that the system originally included a licensed copy of Windows XP or Vista and has a Certificate of Authenticity) but are free to do a custom installation.

I am using Windows Vista Home Basic now. How can I upgrade to Windows 7 Home Basic?

You can’t. At least, not if you live in the United States, Western Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, or the rest of the “developed world.” Beginning with Windows 7, Home Basic is available only in so-called emerging markets.

How do I do a clean install without wiping out all my data?

No one knows yet. Microsoft has apparently changed the upgrade rules for Windows 7. When I get a chance to test the upgrade media, you’ll be the first to know.

If you’re confused about the differences between Windows 7 editions, be sure to check out From Starter to Ultimate: What’s really in each Windows 7 Edition? and Do you need more than Windows 7 Home Premium?

Ed Bott is an award-winning technology writer with more than two decades’ experience writing for mainstream media outlets and online publications. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

Email Ed Bott

Recently, I got access to the Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview. I spent some quality time over the past week going through the latest version of the suite and delving into all of its new features. In this post, I am going to concentrate on the productivity-boosting enhancements available in the new version. Microsoft says that it has put a lot of effort into productivity and making the product easier to use, but has that work paid off?

Backstage View

Office 2010 replaces the old File menu in all of the applications with something called “Backstage View.” This contains familiar tasks like Save, Print and Publish. However, it also makes a lot of document-specific information including Document Mode, Permissions, Prepare for Distribution, and Versions readily available.

Backstage View didn’t stand out to me when I was looking over the list of new features. However, I was quickly sold on it while testing Word 2010, because it put all of my important document management information into a single view.

Ribbon Menu Enhancements

While Office 2010 keeps the ribbon menu that was introduced in Office 2007, it now extends across the entire Microsoft Office 2010 suite. While the ribbon has just as many detractors as it does lovers, Microsoft has made many improvements over the version found in Office 2007. In particular, it lets you customize it to your particular working style in each application. The ribbon received a lot of criticism in the 2007 release, but these enhancements should build greater acceptance of perhaps the most drastic Office interface change so far.

Support for Co-authoring

Word 2010, OneNote 2010, and PowerPoint 2010 now include a co-authoring feature, enabling multiple authors to work on the same document at the same time. This is a welcome change from having to use SharePoint, where only one author at a time can check a document out for editing. The addition of co-authoring is really ratcheting Office 2010’s collaboration options.

Improved Conversation View in Outlook 2010

Email management can be a challenge to even the most experienced web worker. To help tame your inbox, Outlook 2010 includes an improved Conversation View, which includes:

• Show Messages from All Folders
• Reverse Sort
• Add Columns
• Expand/Collapse

I am pleased with the new, more granular Conversation View. The controls are very accessible and usable, showing a definite improvement over Outlook 2007.

OneNote 2010

While it has been part of the Office family since 2003, OneNote 2010 is now included as part of every Office 2010 edition. This is a well-deserved “bump up” for OneNote, and I hope to that it takes the application further into the corporate mainstream now that it isn’t a separate purchase. The latest release of the popular note-taking app sports version tracking, highlighting and Linked Notes.

As a longtime OneNote user, these features are very handy.  I can’t wait until OneNote is available on the web so that I can see how it stacks up against EverNote.

Final Thoughts about Office 2010 Technical Preview

My tests of Microsoft Office 2010 show enough productivity tweaks to make it an attractive upgrade. If the upcoming Office Web components live up to their potential, then Office 2010 is going to break from the tradition of Office releases having to compete against previous versions of itself and make a strong first impression on the web office suite market.

[SOURCE]

One way to spruce up your professional image is to explore the world of pre-built business documents and web site templates. There are many good resources online where you can freely download templates for everything: brochures, newsletters, business cards, balance sheets income statements, and more. These are complemented by some good sites for getting attractively designed web site templates for free, and free applications for business document creation. In this post, I’ll round up some good choices for automating these aspects of self-marketing, including several, free, open source solutions.

Themed templates. In this post, I covered Hewlett-Packard’s extensive collection of freely downloadable business document templates. They come in “Business Identity Kits,” which allow you to streamline how flyers, brochures, business cards and other documents look, using common themes. Additionally, if you use Microsoft Office, you can get free themed document templates from Microsoft.

Web design templates. Open Source Web Designs is an excellent first stop if you’re looking for eye-catching web site templates. The available designs have user ratings and comments, too.

A free desktop publisher. If you are going to build documents, brochures and other materials from the ground up, and you don’t happen to have a solid desktop publishing program, look into Scribus. It’s a free, open source desktop publishing solution available for Windows and the Mac, and it has most of the bells and whistles you need to produce attractive documents. I have found it especially useful for producing booklets and brochures, because it has pre-built templates that you can just insert your graphics and text into.

OpenOffice templates. Even if you don’t use the open source productivity suite OpenOffice on a regular basis, you can download it for free for Windows, the Mac or Linux. You can download many OpenOffice business document templates here; you don’t need to be an expert in using the applications to customize and print the templates.

Clip art, photos and images you can use without worries. Images and photos can spruce up most any document you create. You can find a large collection of free clip art from Microsoft here. For photos that you can drop into blog posts and documents without copyright worries, I recommend using CompFight. The site allows you to cycle through various types of Creative Commons licenses available for photos on Flickr, so that you can choose photos that you can reproduce without fear of infringing anyone’s copyright (although in most cases, you should supply a photo credit and mention the license used).

[SOURCE LINK]

I recently came across a really useful Computer Hardware Chart made by a member on Deviantart that helps you visually identify various types of plugs, ports, sockets and RAM.
Most technicians should already know how to identify many of these, but there a quite a lot of lesser known plugs and ports that I either haven’t seen before or have seen, but didn’t know what it was called.

I have provided a link to a shrunken down version for easy web viewing that is only 2mb in size and an extremely high resolution version that weighs in at 24mb.

Images:
You can also get these graphics printed as a poster to hang in your workshop over at DeviantArt via this link.

Low Resolution Web Version (2mb)

Ultra High Resolution Version (24mb)

Source: Technibble.com

I get asked by lots of new techs about the tools and supplies I carry with me to complete the variety of service calls I run each day.

I have decided to post a list of must have tools for any technician wanting to run service calls.  Having the right tools for the job makes life much easier and makes you a more efficient technician.

Below is what I carry in my service vehicle.

-Screwdrivers - various sizes and types (phillips, flat, big, small, short, long).  A quality set of screwdrivers is a must!

-Nut Drivers – Metric & Standard.

-Security Bit Set  – Torx, Slotted, Hex – Metric & Standard.

-Torx & Hex Key Set – Metric & Standard.

-Pliers – Needle Nose, Cutting Pliers & Nippers.

-Socket & Ratchet Set – Metric & Standard.

-Open & Boxed Wrenches – Metric & Standard.

-Digital Volt/Ohm Meter.

-ATX Power Supply Tester.

-USB Flash Drive.

-Antivirus & Spyware removal software.

-CD-R Discs.

-Laptop- XP Pro, Ethernet & Serial Ports.

-RJ45 & RJ11 Crimp Tool.

-Wire Stripper.

-66 / 110 Punchdown Tool.

-Cat5 / Cat6 Cable Tester.

-Fish Tape & Fish Stix.

-Step Ladder – 6″ & 12″.

-Cordless Drill.

-Drill Bits – Various Metal & Wood Spade.

-Rechargeable Mini Vac.

-Toner Vac.

-Electrical & Duct Tape.

-Various Screws - Case Screws, Sheetrock Screws, Etc.

-Cat5 Cable Spool.

-RJ45, RJ11, RJ22 Crimp Terminals.

-RJ45 & RJ11 Keystone Jacks.

-Surface Mount Boxes & Keystone Faceplates

-Waterproof  Wire Connectors.

-50″ Extension Cord

-Label Maker

-Sharpie Marker

-Cleaning Wipes

These tools should help you complete almost any IT related service call you can imagine from virus removal to data cabling.

Let’s hear what tools you carry  in your tech tool kit?