USB also called Universal Serial Bus presently comes in 2 versions.
USB 2.0 and USB 3.0

USB 2.0 transmits data at 60 megabytes per second.
USB 3.0 transmits data at 400 megabytes per second.

Physical distance is stated at 10ft maximum according to various text books however in the real world I have successfully used USB cables exceeding 25 ft without any problems.

USB can also be used to transmit power which is how a USB hub, USB mouse or other USB device lights up when it is plugged into a powered USB port. USB can transfer and transmit Data and Power.

USB works well with printers, keyboards, digital cameras, camcorders, external ROM – drives such as CD and DVD burners, external hard drives and other devices that support USB that are physically close to the USB port / HUB or computer.

Ethernet on the other hand does not transmit power and only transmits data.
Ethernet presently comes in 2 versions.
Category 5 and Category 6.

Category 5 transmits data at 100 megabytes per second.
Category 6 transmits data at 1000 megabytes per second.

Physical distance is usually around 100 yards / 300 ft however I have seen Ethernet cable runs that exceed this distance and perform well. Generally if your Ethernet run is more than 300 ft you may or may not need a (Ethernet repeater – switch) which will vary from physical situation to situation.

Ethernet is used for networking computers, routers, switches, networked printers and other networked devices.

QUESTION:
What is the difference between USB 2.0 and USB 3.0?

ANSWER:
USB 2.0 is capable of data transfer speeds of 480Mbps which is a little shy of 0.5 Gigabits per second.
USB 3.0 is capable of data transfer speeds of 5GBPS which is 10 times faster than USB 2.0.

Simply put without getting into a bunch of technical jargon. This means transferring data would be noticeably faster with USB 3.0 when compared to USB 2.0. When we say transferring data we mean between a computer to a USB hard drive or thumb drive. This has absolutely nothing to do with computer networking data transfer speeds. Keep in mind your computer will have to support USB 3.0 in order for you to benefit from a USB 3.0 devise such as a USB 3.0 hard drive or USB thumb drive.

QUESTION:
Sometimes my Outlook  email will duplicate itself. I came to work last Monday and all my emails I received the previous week showed up as unread mail in my Outlook (under the original dates, but as unread). Any reason why or what I should do to fix?

ANSWER:
This problem may occur if you use the Leave a copy of messages on the server option, in Outlook.
Open outlook then…

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.
2. Click the Mail Setup tab.
3. Click the E-mail Accounts button.
4. Double Click your email address.
5. Click the More Settings button.
6. Click the Advanced Tab
7. Uncheck the check box that says the Leave a copy of messages on the server

If after this you continue to experience duplicate email problems please talk to your network administrator or your email hosting provider.

QUESTION:
Do you know what the email attachment size limit is for Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail, and AOL?

ANSWER:
Hotmail is 10MB
Yahoo is 20MB
Gmail is 20MB
AOL is 25MB

You can send and receive emails up top the above size limits which included the email message itself, header and email attachments. If the email exceed the thresholds above then you will need to compress the email or split the attachments into smaller emails. If you send a large email attachment that is under the threshold and you receive a bounce-back error message this most likely means that the recipient’s email provider or server has a smaller limit then you may want to consider transferring the attachments another way then email. Traditionally Email was not really designed to send and receive huge attachments. That’s what FTP also known as File Transfer Protocol is good for. If you do not know how to FTP files then you may want to ask your in house network administrator to help you should you have one. or another good alternative that is real easy to use is a file transfer service provider called You Send It. Whats nice is they offer free plans that are good for individuals and small businesses.

QUESTION:
How much memory can you use with Microsoft Windows 7 ?

ANSWER:
First without getting into a bunch of technical detail here is a straight to the point breakdown of how much memory is supported with the different flavors / versions of Microsoft 7.

Microsoft offers it’s Windows 7 operating system in six different versions.

First you need to know that the maximum RAM – memory limit for 32-bit Windows 7 operating system editions is 4GB.
Which is more then enough for the average user.

For power users, special application computers, etc 4 GB of memory may not be enough.

The 64 bit editions of Microsoft Windows 7 support the following amounts of memory.

Microsoft starter Edition: 8GB
Microsoft Home Basic Edition: 8GB
Microsoft Home Premium: 16GB
Microsoft Professional : 192GB
Microsoft Enterprise: 192GB
Microsoft Ultimate: 192GB

These memory limits are similar to those with Microsoft Vista flavors / editions.

Which version is right for you?
We will get to that in another article….:)