Computers and Technology

Don’t Be Panic If Your Data Is Suddenly Lost

2012-01-19T09:26:00.000-08:00

Data recovery is the process of salvaging data from damaged, failed, corrupted, or inaccessible secondary storage media when it cannot be accessed normally. You must have experienced problems with a sudden hard drive crashes, are not detected, formatted, partitioned, bad sector, or not known to the system. Though important data still exists on the hard disk is and has not been backed up. And maybe you also think that data will not be saved again. Sometimes, data is lost from storage media such as internal or external hard disk drives, solid-state drive (SSD), USB flash drives. Data recovery Chicago can help solve your problems. They ensure the safety and confidentiality of your data, because the data can still be saved with existing tools at their service center. They provide technicians who are experienced in providing professional service, quick and cheapest prices in the rescue data from a variety of damage such as falling or corrupted due to certain software, computer virus problems, technical malfunction or user error. If you have experienced damage or loss of data due to the raid or server errors, you can contact this company for RAID data recovery. So many companies and individuals who were helped by the skills of this company. If your data is suddenly lost, just call Chicago data retrieval to get data recovery service or you can come to:
Chicago Data Retrieval
chicago@dataretrieval.com
225 W. Washington, Suite 2200
Chicago, IL, 60606 USA
(312) 626-2470

Working With E-Mail

2011-09-04T06:35:00.000-07:00

E-mail has become one of the most important applications for computer users. It is quickly replacing the Post Office snail mail. With e-mail we can send variety of messages including video e-mail, pictures, links to Internet information, and more. Most e-mail users tend to save all e-mail. That can become a problem because e-mail systems have limits. Further, when Microsoft Outlook e-mail or a computer's hard disk crashes all e-mail can be lost. In this article we examine in simple terms how e-mail works, Outlook's limits, Gmail, and more to help you work more effectively with your e-mail.

A simple explanation has e-mail work similar to the postal mail with mail boxes and post offices. The mail boxes are our computers that hold the e-mail messages after they have been retrieved from an Internet post office. An Internet post office is a computer called a server that is most often dedicated to sending, receiving, and routing e-mail messages. The receiving side is often a POP3 (post office protocol 3) server, and the sending side is a SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol) server. Both POP3 and SMTP are performed by the same computer. For example, at one time the mail servers for Comcast e-mail were pop3.comcast.net (I think that it is currently mail.comcast.net for the POP3 server) and smtp.comcast.net. Verizon has used incoming.verizon.net and outgoing.verizon.net for e-mail servers. The current post office mail servers for Comcast and Verizon can be found by searching their web sites or calling customer support.

E-mail is created on our computer - the mail box. After it is composed it is sent to the e-mail server post office at your Internet Service Provider (ISP). The e-mail server checks the mail received to assure it was from you (and not some bulk e-mail distributor), then routes it to the destination post office server. This takes from seconds to minutes to complete. The e-mail message is held at the post office server until the recipient signs in to view or retrieve their e-mail. Generally, the e-mail is checked for attachments that could be viruses (EXE and similar files), and they are stripped from the e-mail. E-mail attachments have size limits. For some e-mail servers the limit may be 10 MB and with others is around 16 MB.

E-mail differs from on-line chat applications. Chatting applications transfer messages between actively connected users. E-mail messages while delivered to the post office, they reside at the post office until they are picked up by the message recipient. With e-mail there is less of a need to coordinate sending and receiving times between the parties using e-mail. Flash mobs may use e-mail to set the general time of flash mob event, and chatting to coordinate activities while the event is going on.

Home and business computers use Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail, and other programs like the free Thunderbird to manage the mail box on the computer. These programs can be configured leave mail at the post office for several days or until deleted, filter spam messages, maintain a list of contacts and more. The mail and contacts used by these programs are files stored on the computer's disk drive. The Microsoft Outlook key files are PST files. At one time contacts were stored in separate address book files (WAB and PAB files). Outlook Express e-mail files were DBX files. Windows Live Mail uses EML as the main file extension. To view these files as e-mail messages, you run the appropriate Windows program, Outlook, Outlook Express, or Windows Live Mail.

The e-mail files are stored in very specific locations in Windows computers. The locations are different for Windows XP and Windows 7. In Windows XP they are located under the user account in Documents and Settings. In Windows 7 they are stored in the user account under Users. The easiest way to find these files is to search for the file extension in the Documents and Settings or the User folders. When you find them, it is good to make note of the folder in which they reside because this can be helpful in recovering e-mail messages.

The size of these files is also important. Computers users including myself tend to save all e-mail messages. It seems easier on a computer to do this as compared to saving all mail we ever received from the post office because the messages reside in the small computer box and do not fill our home. However, saving all e-mail is not a good idea. First as the e-mail files increase in size they tend to make Outlook, Outlook Express, and Windows Live Mail work slower. This is particularly noticeable on older XP systems with less than 1 GB or Random Access Memory (RAM). Swapping data between the disk and RAM is much slower than working with files in RAM. The old Outlook limit was around 2 GB. After that on older Windows systems Outlook tends to mess up. On newer system I have seen e-mail files a 4 GB in size or larger. Since these files grow slowly in size, the performance degradation slowly and unnoticeable increases. Just as we tend to gain weight as we age. Deleting old messages permits Outlook and other e-mail software to maintain a level of performance close to what was when originally installed. In my case I am using a iPhone calorie monitoring App to slowly work my weight down to the level when I was in my 30's.

The real problems with e-mail happens when out computer disk drive fails. Disk drives do fail with age. They have a life expectancy of about 100,000 power on hours (POH) or more. This is like a pet's life span roughly 12 years. The disks life depends upon how well it is kept (cool or hot), the power it is fed (nice clean power with few if any outages), and how many hours a day it is powered on. When a disk drive fails, the computer user then realizes how dependent upon e-mail they have become and the saved e-mail messages (spam and all) take on a value that exceeds the current price of precious metals.

Searching for and then copying the PST, DBX or EML files to an external drive backs up all the mail box computer e-mail. It then can be imported into Outlook, Outlook Express and Windows Live Mail using the file import feature in each e-mail program so that nothing is lost.

Many computer users have moved to Internet-based e-mail like Yahoo mail, Gmail, and others. Internet e-mail saves all e-mail messages in the post office server. Internet e-mail services limit the amount of free storage space you may use for e-mail. In the case of Gmail it is roughly 7 GB. Other e-mail services provide similar storage capacity. The benefits here are that the e-mail messages are stored on an Internet server (in the Cloud), you can access your e-mail form any computer at any time, that smart phones and other mobile devices can be used to access your e-mail, and you can bring several e-mail accounts into a single e-mail account. So your various and far- flung e-mails can be consolidated into a single e-mail.

The bad thing with Internet e-mail is that it is often the focus of hacking attacks. Recently, a customer brought by a system that had their Gmail account hacked. I tried to recover the e-mail messages to no avail. With Gmail and other free Internet-based e-mail services, support is almost non-existent. There are no humans to help. If Gmail provided human help, they would probably wipe out U.S. unemployment. Sometimes the Gmail messages can be found in the deleted files area. However, in this case they were wiped clean and no e-mail messages could be recovered. This attack originated from Lagos, Nigeria. It used the address book to send a false message soliciting money. The money was needed to help the e-mail account owner, who was according to the false e-mail, stranded in Europe. There is a technique to save e-mail messages in the event an account is hacked. Two Internet e-mail accounts with separate and unique passwords are used to back up all e-mails. In the event one account is hacked, the other account saves the e-mail.

E-mail services are now increasing security by using the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) connections. This means that Outlook and other e-mail software must use secure Internet ports to exchange mail with e-mail servers. The Verizon FIOS servers and their respective ports are: incoming.verizon.net using port 995 and outgoing.verizon.net using port 465. These ports are doorways through the firewalls separating your computer and the Verizon servers from the Internet. The door ways have numbers going from 0 to 65,535. The secure e-mail doorway numbers are 995 and 465 for Verizon.

How The Evolution of Technology Has Helped You Get a Cheap Flat Screen TV

2011-08-21T06:34:00.000-07:00

With technology constantly evolving at an exponential rate, it only makes sense that you can find high-quality but a cheap flat screen TV for the right price. But without the advancement and the trickle-down effect of technology, you may still be searching for a black and white tube TV instead of getting that nice big flat screen TV for your home.

As new technologies are discovered, they are priced at a very expensive point. Usually, middle class citizens aren't even able to imagine buying the most cutting edge technology. During its inception, Blu-ray players and Blu-ray discs were incredibly expensive. The right price point had not caught up with the technology yet. However, after a few years Blu-Ray players and discs were widely accessible to those who want them. Now, they have become the must-have for a complete home entertainment center.

The same price drop goes to a lot of the other home entertainment equipment, such as sound systems, and yes, even TVs. Television has evolved quite rapidly from black and white blurry screens. Now there are large flat screen TVs that can span across an entire wall side. Of course, this evolvement has eventually met the average consumer and is now prevalent in most houses or flats around the world.

HD television has become widely used within the last decade. At first, HD televisions were large, took a lot of energy, still had major flaws and, of course, were very expensive. Fast forward eight to 10 years and you have deals on a cheap flat screen TV that can't be beat. These affordable televisions are a result from the trickle-down technologies of the expensive HD televisions of year's past.

Now those old technologies are blended in with new technologies to meet a price that most everyone can afford. To make the prices even better, many people will wait until the holidays when televisions are widely marked down to their lowest prices of the year. This is usually due to a high inventory which needs to be cleaned out before the new round of televisions are brought in during the first of the year. It's also a great time to buy a cheap television, because people are looking for the best deals on useful gifts for loved ones.

Personal Budget for Home Entertainment Systems in America

2011-08-19T06:33:00.000-07:00

Many of the newer audio and video systems for home entertainment systems have added many features the products. It is a minefield in trying to determine how much money must be allocated towards a system of ones choosing - especially when the consumer is not certain about the level or depth of the components may be desired.

Let's take a look at the basic idea of a home entertainment system. There are really three general system ideas that are prevalent in the marketplace.

ONE: An audiophile system that is capable of High Fidelity reproduction of music. It consists of a stereophonic amplification system with two loudspeakers - maybe a subwoofer to extend the low frequencies - and a source device such as a CD player. This kind of system is for the serious music lover and is generally in a separate room or space from the tv or surround sound system associated with playback of video or multi-media programs.

TWO: Television and Video entertainment system - combining a television receiver, surround sound receiver and a set of loudspeakers. Usually contained within an entertainment room in the owners house and of great interest for television programs, movies, home video and other media programs. The number of loudspeakers is typically 6 - such as in a 5.1 playback environment: Front right, Front left, Rear right, Rear left and a subwoofer for reproduction of the low frequencies and special effects.

THREE: This is usually a variation of item TWO above but including a game system for home entertainment level games. The high level game player may be interested in PC based games also which requires a high performance PC for the more advanced game that are popular in the marketplace today.

Here we must talk about the range of product or classes of performance. Let us, in order to simplify the analysis, think of the consumer as being divided into three classes of seriousness of purchase: Good, Better and Best.

In category ONE above where the consumer is an audiophile and looking for a music system only the range of expense that will be needed can range from under $100 to as much as $5,000! A budget buyer can purchase a really good system from thrift stores for under $100 by shopping wisely. However, it is most likely the range for a "Good" system would range from, let's say, $100 to $400.

A person in the "Better" category will need to allocate financial resources in the range or $400 to $1500. For example, a good amplification system will run $300 to $500 and a pair of speaker systems with subwoofer can easily fetch $1000 for "good" fidelity sound.

The "Best" sound which will satisfy the esoteric music lover can easily run up to $5,000 - or even more.

In category TWO above, we are talking more than just audio because it requires a flat screen LCD or LED television system. Depending on size the tv alone will run around $200 to $1000. Surround sound systems - all in one box like from Walmart or BestBuy can start at $100. So, for the lower end or "Good" category the range might well be around $400 to $1500 range.

The "Better" category of systems will run $1000 to around $3000. This level of system will have a larger screen, say up to 46", 50 or even 55". That alone will be $800 to $2000. The surround sound system will always be over $250 for a system of this quality. So, here we are easily up to $3000.

The "Best" category would likely be a 3-D television receiver with component grade surround sound which could not be gotten into for under $3000 and will easily build up to $10,000 range total for all the "stuff" necessary to complete the package.

OTHER: Keep in mind that cables, installation, system design and addition of game consoles would be extra for categories TWO and THREE. Installation can be a DIY project for those with the tools, the know-how and the desire. It is not an easy job to hook up everything, hide the wires, run them through walls, etc. Cabling and hookup connections can be down right aggravating if you have a complex system requirement for recording and time shifting, full motion cameras and so on. In a sophisticated system one may need the services of an engineer for system design.

CONCLUSION: We are looking at an investment of a minimum of a few hundred dollars and as high as several thousand dollars for a glorious and exciting comprehensive system with the very best performance parameters. We did not get into Internet connectivity but where that is desired another monthly cost must be added thereon.

For a person in the $120,000 annual salary class it should be expected that maybe one months salary could be a targeted budget for a system in the "Best" quality category.

Closing comment. This author recently desired a very "Better" grade audio system to add to a summer home - a system that would be used only for a few weeks out of the year. It was desired to be a low budget system but high performance. Solution: Visit a few thrift stores, watch Craigslist and follow a few threads on the Internet for good quality sound. Final purchase: Sony heavy, good quality pair of bookshelf speaker systems from Salvation Army for $5. A Kenwood receiver, 600 watts of power, from Craigslist for $40. Subwoofer with outstanding low frequency gut shaking bass output from Goodwill for $15. DVD/CD player new from discount store for $30. Conclusion: Very good sound quality with great power, thundering low frequency response all for under $100! You can't beat that!

Identifying Application Impacts on Network Design

2011-08-16T06:32:00.000-07:00

Their knowledge as users is based on how they use the network applications.

Often net-based applications deliver critical services to the users. These services, and the net on which they exist in, are among the important components ensuring that client and user demands are met.

Collecting statistical data from routers, switches, servers, and other net equipment helps decide whether a device is working to manufacturer specifications. On the other hand, technical concerns alone do not regulate success in the marketplace.

Success is based on how the client, the contractors, and the sellers view the performance of the net. From the end users perspective, application performance is based on availability and responsiveness.

Application performance must combine user gratification with standard network metrics, like throughput on the network, or the amount of positive transactions. Application classification helps the network architect to combine business goals and technical specifications into the network design. The application classification practice includes looking at the next aspects of network applications: 1. how the applications behave on the network, 2. the technical requirements of the application, 3. how applications act together on the network.

From the info collected thru the initial phases of the design process, the architect decides which applications are important for the business. The architect evaluates how these applications will work with the proposed network.

The classification process delivers data about network bandwidth usage and reply times for particular applications. These factors can really change some design decisions, such as the selection of the transmission medium or the evaluations of required bandwidth.

Traffic from different applications generates various network demands. The network architect identifies four basic types of application communication: 1. Client-to-client, 2. Client-to-distributed server, 3. Client-to-server farm, 4. Client-to-enterprise edge. Nowadays, the first step in classifying applications is to collect as much data about the network as possible. This contains collecting data from: 1. Organizational input, 2. Network audit, 3. Traffic analysis.

Organizational input contains current records about the network and verbal input from the network administrators. A network audit collects data about network devices, monitors traffic, and displays details of the current network design. Traffic analysis delivers data about how the protocols and applications use the network. It can expose flaws in the network design. For instance, numerous high-bandwidth applications using the same link can generate large amounts of traffic. This could be a potential bottleneck in the current design.

The History of the Electric Generator

2011-08-10T06:32:00.000-07:00

The generator is now such a well-used resource it's often easy to forget that they've been around since the early 1800s. It was Michael Faraday, an English physicist who first discovered that rotary mechanical power could be converted into electric power in the 1830s. After discovering this principle of electromagnetic induction, he went on to build the first electromagnetic generator called the Faraday disc, a homopolar generator in which a copper disc was rotated between the poles of a magnet. It is said that today's use of electricity in technology is largely a result of his efforts.

The next innovation in the generator industry came along shortly after the Faraday disc, in the form of the dynamo, also known today as the generator. This was the first generator which was able to deliver power for industries. The first was produced by a Frenchman called Hippolyte Pixii which used a permanent magnet rotated by a crank. Further versions included the Pacinotto dynamo and the Siemens and Wheatstone dynamo.

The invention of the dynamo also lead to the discovery of electric motor principles. In the 1870s the inventor of the Gramme dynamo revealed that if his device had a constant voltage power supply, it could act as an electric motor. Although various new models and versions have been manufactured, today this Gramme design, i.e. a spinning endless loop of wire, is the basis of virtually all DC electric motors.

As regards the workings of a generator, a common misconception is that a generator creates electrical energy. This is not the case, it merely moves the energy. The flow of electric charges forms the output electric current provided by the generator.

In terms of generator safety, this has improved greatly over the years. One of the main components of generators is the control panel, which always contains an auto start and shut-down switch. The generator automatically shuts down when it is no longer required, which avoids it overheating and thus extends the service life. The main assembly or frame of the generator is also an essential safety component as it allows the generator to be earthed for safety purposes and the casing or container keeps the machine dry.

3 Keys to Business PC Support

2011-07-10T06:30:00.000-07:00

As a computer technician you have many areas to take care of when working for a small business, from troubleshooting problems, updating software, helping users to putting out fires, among other things. It is very easy to lose oneself in the immediate urgencies of the day while key functions get ignored. It is important to make time to take care of these 3 key points for your clients.

1. Disaster recovery. Encourage your clients to protect their data and prepare for business interruptions ahead of time. Make sure to have proper backups, onsite, offsite and if possible online. Make a schedule for testing restoring data. You want to make sure the restore process works before you need it. Keep a log of good backups and have a notification system when something fails such as email so you can immediately correct any issues with the backup systems. Over 75 percent of small companies don't have a disaster recovery plan yet for a great deal of them this could make the difference between whether they stay in business or not in the event of a disaster such as fire, theft, flooding etc. Work on protecting you client's data and systems and in return, they will take care of you.

2. Fault tolerance for critical systems. Companies depend on databases and applications to run their business. Create fault tolerance and redundancy for critical systems to minimize downtime when a device or software fails. This includes hardware fault tolerance such as equipping servers with redundant power, smart UPS y RAID 1, 5 or 10 etc. Create simple yet realistic contingency plans that can be tested and have a good chance of being implemented in the event that they are needed.

3. Proper system documentation. Whether you use a database, specialized software or even a simple spreadsheet, document your client's system information. Things such as passwords, IP address, software keys, subscriptions and software and hardware vendor contact information. This documentation should be readily available. Having to track down this information when is needed can cause unnecessary downtime and could cost your client hundreds, possible thousands of dollars on lost business and tech support fees. Make sure to give this information to your client, it is not meant to be kept for yourself. Don't hold your client hostage. So be the hero and do your due diligence ahead of time. If you explain the value and benefits of having a properly documented system they will be happy to pay you for this service.

Laser Printer Review of HP Laserjet M1212NF

2011-07-05T06:28:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for a great multipurpose laser printer for your own home or small business use, the HP Laserjet M1212NF is worth a closer look. This is a machine that is a black and white color laser printer and that also offers high speed scanning and fax capabilities all in one compact design. It uses the CE285A toner cartridge, an affordable HP toner cartridge that can easily be found in local stores as well as through websites that offer convenient shipping right to your door. With this laser printer priced under $200, along with the fact that it has an Energy Star rating and puts to use a high capacity cartridge for HP, this is a machine that is affordable to purchase and to use regularly, too. There is more to this device than a low cost of purchase and ownership, though.

The machine can print and copy up to nineteen pages per minute for optimal speed that is perfect for a private residential use as well as a small business use. It doubles as a fax machine and has the ability to store up to 1,000 fax numbers. Plus, it can easily be hooked up to your PC with a built-in USB port or through the built-in Ethernet networking capabilities, too. It also has a compact size that makes it among the smaller multipurpose machines available in this price range. It is ideal for desktop use in a home office or in a small commercial office.

The print supply of this M1212NF laserjet printer - CE285A laser toner cartridge is capable to print at 1,600 pages up to 5 percent yield per page. In addition, some non-OEM brands supply universal CE285A and CB435A toner cartridges with 2,1000 pages yields. These two models are two of the most popular cartridge models in the laser cartridge family of HP.

Perhaps what is most important, however, is how it holds up in real-life use. The fact is that you can find this device for sale on many different websites, including some of the most common retail sites on the internet today. On these websites, consumers who have already purchased this multipurpose printer have largely given it a high consumer satisfaction rating, expressing pleasure in the speed of printing, copying and faxing as well as the high quality printing and more. The HP Laserjet M1212NF is a popular model for home and small business use because it has proven that it holds up to the promises its features make in real life use.

Computer Communications Speed

2011-06-08T06:31:00.000-07:00

Files have become larger and larger over time. Most computers and Internet devices today support streaming video and other large file transfers. A home may have several computers accessing the Internet and transferring large files simultaneously. Many on-line computer repair tools advertise speeding up your computer's communications speed. So what makes for fast information transfers? This article explains how communications speeds can be increased in your computer.

Communications speed depends upon the bits per second transmission speed, the amount of data in each chunk (packet-frame) of data transmitted and the error rate (e.g. one (1) bit error in 10,000 bits transmitted or a lot lower). Matching these to a communications channel is what makes the channel efficient and speedy in transferring data.

In the early 80's communications between computers used dial-up analog telephone channels. In the mid 1980's the first Small Office Home Office (SOHO) Local Area Networks (LANs) were sold. These permitted all computers in a home or office to share data amongst themselves. As time transpires communications speeds have increased substantially. This has made a difference in communications performance because the primary contributor to communications performance is transmission speed in bits per second.

Transmission speeds across a an analog telephone channel began at 300 bits per second (bps) or roughly 30 characters per second in 1980. It soon increased to 1,200 bps, then 9,600 bps, and upwards to 56 thousand bits per second (Kbps). The 56 Kbps speed was the fastest speed that an analog telephone channel could support. Internet connections now are broad band connections that started at speeds of 768 Kbps - up to the Internet and 1.5 Mbps down from the Internet. Coaxial Cable and Fiber Optic cable systems offer a variety of speeds ranging from 5 Mbps up/15 Mbps down to 35 Mbps up/ 150 Mbps down. Comcast and Verizon often state the down speed first because it is the larger and more impressive number. The speeds are mismatched because less data is sent to the Internet than is downloaded from the Internet.

LAN speeds in the mid 80's started at 10 Million bits per second (Mbps), then rose to 100 Mbps, and today we have 1 Giga or Billion bits per second (Gbps).

The early disk drive interfaces transferred data in parallel at speeds of 33 Mega or million Bytes per second (MBps). An equivalent bits per second speed would be roughly 330 Mbps. Speeds increased to 66.7 MBps, then to over 100 MBps. At that time the new Serial AT Attachment (SATA) interface was introduced which jumped the transfer speeds to 1.5 Giga bits per second (Gbps), then quickly to 3 Gbps, and to 6 Gbps today. These communications speeds were and are needed to keep pace with the volumes of data communicated between computers and within a computer.

When computers transfer data like web pages, video files and other large data files, they break the file up into chunks and send it a chunk at a time to the receiving computer. Sometimes depending upon the communications channel, a wired Local Area Network (LAN) channel or a wireless Local Area Network channel, there are errors in the chunks of data transmitted. In that event the erroneous chunks must be retransmitted. So there is a relationship between the chunk size and the error rate on every communications channel.

The configuration wisdom is that when error rates are high the chunk size should be small so as few chunks as possible have errors necessitating re-transmission. Think the opposite way, if we made the chunk size very large it would guarantee that every time that large chunk of data were sent across a communications channel it would have an error and would then be re-transmitted - only to have another error. Such a large data chunk would never be successfully transmitted when error rates are high.

In communications terminology my data chunks are often called packets or frames. The original Ethernet LAN packets were 1514 characters in size. This is roughly equivalent to one page of printed text. At 1,200 bps it would require about 11 seconds to transmit a single page of text. I once sent 100 plus pages of seminar notes to MCI Mail at 1,200 bps. Because of the high error rate it took several hours to transfer the complete set of course notes. The file was so large that it crashed MCI Mail. Oops!

When communications speeds are higher and error rates very low, as they are today, extra-large chunks of data can be sent across a communications channel to speed up the data transfer. This is like filling boxes on an assembly line. The worker quickly fills the box, but extra time is required to cover and seal the box. This extra time is the transmission overhead. If the boxes were twice the size, then the transmission overhead would be cut in half and the data transfer would speed up.

Most all computer products are designed to communicate across low-speed high error rate communications channels. The high-speed communications channels of today also have extraordinarily low error rates. It is sometimes possible to adjust the communications software and hardware to better match the speed and error rate of a communication channel and improve performance. Sometimes adjustments are blocked by the software. Many times you cannot tell if the performance has been improved or not. Generally, if you can increasing the packet (chunk) size should improve performance when the hardware and software products you are working with permit such changes. In Windows adjusting the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) adjusts the networking chunk size. There are non-Microsoft programs that help make the changes or this can be manually adjusted. The problem is that the error rate can vary depending upon the site which you are visiting.

For example, when the first Mars rover pictures were being published by JPL there were several mirror sites hosting the files. These sites had a lot of people with computers trying to download the pictures. There was huge congestion at these sites. I wanted the pictures badly but did not want to battle crowds, so I look at the available mirror sites and spotted one un Uruguay. At that time I figured how many people in Uruguay had computers and high-speed Internet access. So it seemed to me that there would be no congestion at that site and I could down load the Mars pictures easily. I was correct, but the download speed was not fast. It probably took twice as long to down the Mars pictures. That is because the communications speed to the servers in Uruguay was slower than the speed in the U.S. and likely the error rate was higher as well.

At this point it is good to remind you that "Defaults Work Best". When in doubt go with the default values. Do not try to out think Windows.

Since the communications speed and error rates vary depending upon whether you are visiting Yahoo, Google, Microsoft, or some little known site in Uruguay, it is best to pick a good all round chunk (packet) size and stick with it. If you do change the size, it is good to conduct periodic comparisons to see if performance really is better.

There is at least one simple thing you can do to improve performance when copying files from computer disk drive to computer disk drive inside your computer. Start three copying tasks going in the Windows Explorer and have the 1st Windows Explorer copying task copy one-third of the files, the 2nd copy the second third and the 3rd copy the remaining files. In this manner the three Windows Explorer copying tasks run simultaneously and increase utilization of the communications channel shortening the overall communications time. If you do the transfers across the network channel, you can see the network utilization increase in the Task Manager by starting multiple copying tasks in Windows Explorer.

There is a commercial (not free) program called Total Commander that acts similar to Windows Explorer. In addition, Total Commander does permit setting the transfer chunk size. This option is buried in the menus. As an experiment I tested to see if there was an impact on performance when the chunk size was increased. Normally, the default size is 32 Kb per chunk, but I found that increasing the size to 8192 Kb per chunk provided better overall data transfer performance. This has proved a boon because I routinely transfer 100's of Gigabytes of data between drives. Still running several copying tasks in Windows Explorer is improves performance as well.

So the bottom line is that as communications speeds increase and error rates decrease, transferring larger chunks of data (if we can) improves communications performance. When error rates are high on any communications channel, Windows stops dead in its tracks and times out waiting for the channel to respond. To us it looks like Windows has died. In this case go to lunch and come back before powering off the computer.