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….:)

What is Image Geo tagging anyways?

Did you know today’s smart phones and digital cameras embed hidden data into the photographs you take. The photos you take can tell others:

• Where you live

• Where you work

• Where you go to school

• Where you spend your free time

• When there is nobody home

• Where you park your car

Now it may not be a big deal if you are taking photographs of yourself or a loved one in a public place like Lake Eola, Cranes Roost Park or another well known public place. On the other hand if you are taking photos in your home, at your job or any other place you don’t want a stranger to know then you probably should continue reading this article.

How does it happen?
When you take a photograph with a smartphone or digital camera, it takes much more then just a photograph. Most of today’s smart phones such as the DROID or the IPHONE have the ability and do so  by default add Geo Tags to the photographs you take which include information about the EXACT location where the photograph was taken, what date and time the photograph was taken and this poses a real security threat to consumers.

Lets pretend you take photos of yourself with your Iphone, DROID or other modern smartphone.
Now lets pretend you upload those photos to your facebook, myspace, a singles website or even email them to somebody you don’t know very well.

Sounds pretty normal so far, right?

The hidden danger is anybody with the know-how or technical knowledge if you will can view the hidden data embedded in your photographs and see exactly where the photos were taken, when the photos were taken and much more…

How do you protect yourself?

You can turn off the GPS feature on your smart-phone, but you might still need the GPS feature turned on for GPS navigation. So if you want to protect yourself you would turn the GPS functionality off on your smart phone when you are taking photographs and turn the GPS function back on if you happen to need to use the GPS features in your smartphone.

Written by Chris Ondo
CFCEcorp.com

RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive (or Independent) Disks.

I prefer to call them Redundant Array of Independent disks because they use to be very expensive.

A RAID array is a set of multiple hard drives that make up a data storage system built for redundancy or business continuity. In most but not all configurations a RAID storage system can tolerate the failure of a hard drive without losing data however this ultimately depends on how the RAID array is configured.

Different RAID Levels and Their Common Uses

Each RAID level have pro’s and con’s and it is up to a network administrator to decide which RAID level is best for a specific situation. There are many factors to be taken into consideration and it boils down to Speed – performance and budget.

Here are some examples of some of some common RAID configurations or RAID levels.

RAID Level 0

RAID Level 0 provides no redundancy whatsoever and is completely foolish to use in a business environment for storing critical data. With a RAID 0 configuration if one hard drive dies the entire RAID array dies and you can kiss all of data on the RAID array goodbye when this happens. RAID 0 is usually popular with computer video gamers that only take performance into consideration and RAID 0 is usually twice as fast as other RAID levels. Re read this paragraph before considering using RAID 0 it to store your precious data. RAID Level 0 splits or stripes the data across drives, resulting in higher data throughput. Since no redundant information is stored, performance is very good, but the failure of any disk in the array results in total and complete data loss. Raid Level 0 is only used to increase hard drive performance.  A RAID 0 configuration uses 2 hard drives and you get the storage capacity of both of the hard drives. Example if you have 2 100 gig hard drives then you get 200 gigs of NON redundant storage space.

RAID Level 1

RAID Level 1 is usually referred to as hard drive mirroring AKA a mirror. A Level 1 RAID array provides redundancy by duplicating all the data from one drive on a second drive so that if one of the two hard drives drive fails, no data is lost. RAID 1 is very good for small businesses because it is affordable and reliable. A RAID 1 configuration uses 2 hard drives so if you have 2 identical hard drives you get the storage capacity of 1 of those hard drives. Example if you have a pair of 100 gig hard drives then you get 100 gigs of redundant storage space.

RAID Level 5

RAID Level 5 stripes data at a block level across several drives and distributes parity among the drives. No single disk is devoted to parity. This can speed small writes in multiprocessing systems. Because parity data is distributed on each drive, read performance tends to be lower than other RAID types.

The actual amount of available storage is about 70% to 80% of the total storage in the disk array. The storage penalty for redundancy is only about 20% to 30% of the total storage in the RAID 5 array. If one disk fails it is possible to rebuild the complete data set so that no data is lost. If more than one drive fails all the stored data will be lost. This gives a fairly low cost per megabyte while still retaining redundancy.
A RAID 5 configuration uses 3 or more hard drives. If you have for the sake of an example, 3 100 gig hard drives then you get approximately 200 gigs of actual storage capacity.

RAID 1+10

Raid 1+10 is commonly known as RAID 10 and is a combination of RAID 0 and RAID 1 – mirroring. What this means is you have 4 hard drives, 2 sets of the hard drives are each on a RAID 0 configuration and are then mirrored together on a RAID 1 configuration. Data is striped across the data mirror which provides both high performance and redundancy together. Any one of the hard drives can fail without data loss as long as the data mirror is not damaged. The RAID 10 array offers both high speed data transfer (write speed) advantages of striped arrays and increased data accessibility (read speed). System performance during a RAID rebuild drive is also better than that of parity based arrays, since data does not need to be regenerated from parity information, but is copied from the mirrored hard drive to another.

Now that you know what RAID is and what common RAID levels are used today never ever assume a RAID system is a backup solution because it is not. An Orlando computer consultant can help you decide which RAID level is best for your business or organization. Don’t ever just blindly purchase a server without the guidance of a professional network administrator. Without professional guidance you may go overboard and waste money on a RAID system that you don’t really need or you may wind up getting a RAID system that offers no data protection at all.

What is a Microsoft Small Business Server?

What is the difference between a Small Business Server and a single role server?

Here is a simple non technical explanation of what a Microsoft Small Business Server is and is not.

After reading this article you will have a better understanding so lets get started.

Larger companies such as fortune 500 or fortune 100 companies have many servers that do different things.
Examples are:

• Multiple Domain controllers / file servers
• Multiple SQL / database servers
• Multiple Exchange servers
• Multiple web servers
• Multiple DHCP servers
• and so forth…

Let’s pretend that “some big company” has 40 servers and each server has its own role to do something specific for the computer network. In theory this would mean that this company has 40 separate physical servers setup in a room to control the computers for this company. In today’s world this would be consolidated using server virtualization but that is getting off topic so I’m not going to get into that in this article.

Now let’s pretend you are a small business owner and you need a file server + a SQL database server + an exchange server. Ok so this means you would need 3 physical servers + 3 different server operating system licenses and many of other things and this can get expensive quickly not to mention an experienced network administrator to design, configure, deploy, test and manage this for you.

Now with a Microsoft Small Business Server Operating System you get 1 physical server that has multiple server roles built into 1 nice neat package. So you can have that file server and that database server and an exchange server and that web server all combined into 1 neat little package. This can save the small business owner money IF the server is properly configured and maintained.

Microsoft states the SBS – small business server will support up to 75 computer users / workstation computers. In theory this will work but in the real world if you have 75 computers connected to a SBS server you can expect very poor performance.

From my experience I will say that Microsoft SBS servers are pretty cool IF they are properly configured with the right hardware and software. I have seen many small businesses have an SBS server that were NEVER configured correctly or are just being used as a simple file server. In such a case the SBS server isn’t necessary and is a waste of money for the business owner.

So without getting into technical details this concludes what a Microsoft Small Business Server does.

If you are thinking about purchasing a new server for your business get to know an Orlando computer consultant and find out if a Microsoft Small Business Server will benefit your organization.

Internet Marketing is the process of improving the volume and or quality of visits to your website.

Let’s face it no matter how fancy or good you think your website is if your website is not making your phone ring or isn’t reaching your target audience then your website is almost useless. This is the same principle as having a physical sign for your business but instead of proudly displaying it where your target audience can easily see it you have it hidden in your garage covered in junk. What good is it?
Who cares how nice your sign is nobody can find it.

Millions and millions of people use Google each and every day to look for something whether it is information, services, a product or YOUR BUSINESS but if your website is not visible then your potential customer or client goes elsewhere for his or her needs.  Thousands and even tens of thousands of people use Google right here in Orlando Florida everyday to search for a business, service providers, information and all kinds of other things and guess what? If your website does not show up for a local search you are losing money and potential customers & clients are going to your competitor instead of you because your potential customer or clients don’t know you even exist.

Quality SEO or search engine optimization does not happen overnight and is a time consuming and tedious technical process. Internet marketing in itself is a complex science that requires special skills, knowledge and most importantly real world experience if you demand quality results. If you are a small or medium sized company and you want to achieve professional results then it is best to hire a SEO – search engine optimization expert to perform the work or guide you and provide you with quality support. You can attempt to do it yourself but if you don’t know what you are doing then it’s best to hire a professional SEO – Search Engine Optimization consultant or small firm.

Choosing a high quality SEO expert can be a nightmare in itself with all the scams and con artists everywhere. So stay tuned while we write an article on how to choose the right SEO expert for your needs and how to avoid getting ripped off which is a HUGE problem in itself and why it is best to stay away from the BIG SEO companies at all costs and we will explain why in our next SEO article.

What is web hosting?
Web hosting is the technical act of housing, managing and hosting websites on special servers referred to as web servers or clouds. Managing a web server requires special skills, expensive equipment and a 24-7 connection to a commercial high speed internet connection.

There are thousands of web hosting companies all over the world and some of the better companies use high end servers, high quality networking equipment, backup their servers & your data and employ professional and experienced computer engineers – network administrators that know what they are doing and most importantly are reliable and responsive to your needs or problems. There are also the CheapO web hosting providers that use cheap computers instead of real servers to host websites, don’t backup their servers or your data, and use cheap unreliable networking equipment and unreliable internet connections. Now don’t expect them to tell you that because most of them want you to think they are the best and of course they want your business. You can get super cheap web hosting all day long but expect nothing less than headaches and incompetent support usually outsourced to India or other countries.

Do I need web hosting?
If you own or want a website then the answer is yes you need web hosting.

What kind of web hosting do I need?
This depends on several factors such the size of your website? How much traffic does your website get? Is your website database driven? These are a few of the important questions you need to know when choosing the right web hosting for your specific needs. An Orlando Webmaster can help you decide what specific web hosting is right for you and prevent you from wasting your time and money making mistakes.

What is disk space?
In the web hosting industry or Information Technology industry disk space – aka hard drive storage capacity is the physical space that a website occupies on a server or web server web – CLOUD.

What is Bandwidth?
Bandwidth is the measurement of data transfer speed through a computer network.
If you remember the dial up internet connection days you would refer to that slow connection as slow bandwidth. If you use a high speed internet connection you would refer to that as high speed bandwidth. Bandwidth is most common measured in Gigabytes. An example is one normal sized email which may be one or a few bytes in size. A typical image or photo may be a few kilobytes or larger and videos and other multimedia files can exceed megabytes in size. The data that is transferred to and from your website or computer is also referred to as bandwidth.