Computer Related Articles

If you are opening a new business you are probably going to need some sort of network cabling infrastructure. It is just one of the many inevitabilities that faces modern companies. Businesses rely on network connectivity these days, almost more than anything else. Part of this has to do with connection to the internet, and part of it is more to do with local intranet or networks. Either way, there is a cable infrastructure available to deal with almost any environment or requirement, your only problem is finding the best possible option for your company.

If you are just setting up for the first time, you should probably use Category 5 cabling; particularly if you are just running cable between floors. This is often the cheapest option; whilst it has subsequently been outdated by newer versions (Cat-6 being the most obvious), it is no less effective.

If you are setting up a backbone then it would be undoubtedly best for you to use a stacking cable. Believe it or not, you can upgrade a 10 Mbps network up to a 100 Mbps network by using a fiber optic cable. As you will discover, a lot is dependent on the speed of connection that you require.

You will need someone to install the twisted pair cables on your behalf if you are not capable of doing it yourself. Luckily the twisted pair setup is the same as most conventional telephone systems, meaning that anyone certified to install telephone systems can usually install the twisted pair cables and even administer the resulting network moving forwards.

You will also find that the twisted pair setup is much more reliable than the coaxial setup because of noise reduction. Of course noise on the line isn’t the only thing you have to worry about. If you are in an industrial area that has a lot of environmental noise it would be best to use fiber optic cable in the interest of reducing the amount of audible interference. So with that in mind, you should use twisted pair cabling for office environments, and fiber optic for noisy environments.

There are exceptions to this rule however. If you are trying to run a long backbone, you should use fiber optic cabling because it can carry a signal over long distances without the use of repeaters. This is a particularly useful feature on any day of the week.

The best thing about the twisted pair over coaxial is that if a user unplugs their coaxial cable, they can take out the entire network. With a twisted pair however this will not happen. Unplugging will only affect the machine in question. For this reason you won’t see coaxial networks much anymore unless you are dealing with an old network that still uses legacy equipment.

There are many different network types and many different infrastructures. The important thing is that you find one that works well for you. Once you do this, you will have a reliable network that allows you to get your work done.

Author Bio: Derek Rogers is a freelance writer who writes for a number of UK businesses. For Network cabling, he recommends Network 24, a leading structured cabling company.

No matter if you are looking for a broadband deal for a first time or you are considering switching to a different ISP, you should always compare broadband deals that are available to you! Choosing the deal that is best suited for you is very important, this way you will get what you really need and also save money.

Now before you get fired up for a certain broadband package we need to narrow down you choices to those that are available to you! Make a list of all broadband providers that operate in your area and contact them to get all the information about the deals that are being offered to users in your area. Remember that not all broadband deals are available at all location.

When deciding on a broadband package there are several characteristics that you want to consider, and these characteristics are the main marks of comparison:

1. Price is generally one of the key factors when making a decision for most of the people, however you must keep in mind that the saying “what you pay for is what you get”, can be applied to broadband connection too but to a certain extent.

2. Some deals can bind you for longer periods than others, general rule of thumb is that the longer the contract period is the lower the price is, so you should ask yourself if this type of broadband will satisfy your needs in a year or two.

3. When comparing deals you have to look into broadband speeds and compare them, and also compare the actual speeds as they can differ from speeds claimed by ISP.

4. Download allowance can vary depending on the package. Some of the packages offer unlimited download while others have bigger or smaller download allowances. What you need to do is really consider how much of an allowance you really need. If you can’t determine this with some certainty then consider packages that will charge you less once you breach your allowance.

5. Some packages will offer you modem or router for or at a discount prices. Do you have a modem/router or are you looking to get one? This can prove to be a major difference when deciding on a package.

6. Some of the packages come with free stuff that often can be quite useful.

7. User reviews can often provide you with facts and personal experiences of users regarding certain ISP, packages or services.

8. Always consider bundle packages, this way you can always save up money, as long as you don’t get something that you don’t need.

Deciding on broadband package is never an easy task. These are just some of the main factors that you should consider when you compare packages, services and ISPs. There is a huge offer of different broadband packages allowing you to choose exactly what you need at the right price. Take full advantage of these offers and find the one that is right for you.

Author Bio: Jakob Adams writes about broadband for the Danish website Bredb

A reliable network infrastructure acts as a foundation to the different solutions and efficiency enhancing technologies as well. Additionally, when you are deciding the needs of your company, also consider whether you are going to give access to mobile employees. In most cases, this is a good idea since it allows your employees to be productive while they are on the go. You can do this by including a virtual private network (VPN) within your infrastructure.

By having a VPN, you allow your employees to connect remotely in a secure manner to the company’s network. Additionally, it helps to have a network infrastructure that makes it easy for people to collaborate on it. This way you make it easier for people to be more productive.

Ultimately, a number of different ways are available as an option to set up your business network infrastructure. During the time you are in the process of choosing what you want, you should consider the areas in which it will be used, in addition to the features that you want. Therefore, you need to consider whether you are going to have wireless features, as well as other things.

When you have made the decision regarding the type of network features that you want to incorporate, then you need to carry it out. Make sure the network is set up correctly and will function properly. Often you will find that network simulator software will help you with this type of thing.

By using this type of software, you have more of an idea in relation to how things are going to run. All of them are different, but search for the best kind according to what others have to say in reference to the software. Make sure the software has all of the features that you need as well.

One area that will help with the reliability of the network is ensuring you have fast WAN. Generally, one of the best choices is fiber optic providers. Usually, this is a great way to make sure you have enough bandwidth between each of your sites; in addition, it will help you to save money as well. When you have a smaller business, you want to make sure that you are spending less but getting the most that you can.

Additionally, there is the option to use such things as WAN accelerators in addition to WAN optimisation tools. Usually, it is always best not to use lines that are leased for net access. One of the reasons for this has to do with the cost that they carry. Another way to remain efficient is not incorporating any kind of old applications within your network, since they are sure to cost you more in the long run.

Generally, it always helps to have an IT test lab, which can save you a lot of money in the future. Additionally, it will help you with testing, as well as upgrades. In addition, it will make things easier when it comes to putting in new operating systems, as well as network architectures.

Author Bio: Vincent Rogers is a freelance writer who writes for a number of UK businesses. For information on Network Auditing Services, he recommends Network 24.

Since 2009, “10 City 10 000″ started, we triggered the frenzy of the LED lighting, LED street light technology became a hot topic, but this did not solve the LED lamp technology. LED by senior engineers and Tianjin Dongli District Government jointly organized the “theme of the Fifth China LED Industry Summit Forum” meeting, many industry experts pointed out that LED street light technology faces many challenges, Ningbo Liaoyuan technology with the total labor Hai Jun Chen to his LED lamp technology solutions.

In this forum, senior street design expert, said the Guangdong city of Chiu Shun Xu Even in this year’s Guangzhou Lighting Fair, on some companies in product R & D efforts, production of products gratifying. For street design, Xu city prompted the industry to consider the wind resistance problem, “Let your lights can really stand in the rain.” Now many lights did not take into account the thermal design of air convection, the heat caused no real export, reduce LED life.

At the same time promoting the city ? modular design. He believes that modular power supply not only to avoid the risk of high power, IP protection is also easy to maintain them as easy as the conventional lamp, thus greatly reducing the maintenance burden on enterprises.Chief Engineer Hai Jun Chen, Ningbo Liaoyuan technology that help increase white light LED street lamp road lighting safety. He believes that lighting is not only to consider the central vision, but also consider the ability of peripheral target detection, including the short wavelength blue light white LED street light more favorable to the human eye detect surrounding objects.

He said that “on the street, the lower the interface thermal resistance, reduce the air gap is the key,” “because of the surface roughness inherent in the problem, in fact, there are fine or cavitation. As much air interface thermal resistance, not conducive to thermal diffusion, it has greatly increased the overall interface thermal resistance. ”
Landscape Management Committee of Tianjin city and director of Da Qing Chen is not recommended for more than 3W high power LED light source as road lighting. Because of high power LED must be accompanied by the formation of high current, high current leading to a large heat, an increase of lumen. He told the audience that “there are several companies producing domestic high power integrated module of the luminous efficiency has been achieved 130Lm W or more, the highest close to 150Lm W, and temperature control in a 50 ?. In the second half, to 160Lm W These are indisputable. ”

Huazhong University of Science Professor Luo Xiaobing said, LED device cooling problem is a systemic problem. A LED chip thermal resistance, thermal resistance interface materials, diffusion resistance, environmental resistance and so on, “We should also reduce the thermal resistance of all is the key to solving heat.” He believes that through the development of multi layer ceramic technology and to achieve integrated LED package and multi purpose, LED packaging systems to reduce size, lower packaging costs are CoB major trends in technology.

Personally, I think, LED lights replace the high pressure sodium lamp, energy saving and emission reduction is a trend in the future, just a technical development and progress also need time for research. LED lights to the development of technology to progress, I think that needs attention in the following areas: improving luminous flux, make things right for the second optical, thermal solution, modular. Only do every step, and out of the product to the high reliability and quality.

Author Bio: I am a professional editor from China Products, and my work is to promote a free online trade platform. http://www.himfr.com/ contain a great deal of information about thermocouple thermometer,motion leather sofa,mercury vapor lamp, welcome to visit!

LG’s solar-powered e-reader prototype is one more device to join the solar bandwagon. Come another trade show and we will be greeted with a plethora of gadgets vying for our attention. The solar panel that LG is developing for its e-reader should be ready for a 2012 launch. But then, by that time, we should have a range pf products around us that get their energy from the sun. Presented here is a listing of five of the most popular solar powered gadgets, either real or theoretical:

Solar-Powered Netbook – Gyy

A netbook that lives entirely on the energy of the sun is isn’t exactly easy to build, for its no less than a big battery if it is totally supported on the energy of the sun. As a way out, the Gyy, by iUnika has to do with just the minimum specifications. It has an 8 inch screen, 128 MB RAM, 64 GB drive, and runs on Linux. A solar powered lid is placed on top the screen. No one knows for sure if it is an actual product or just a concept, though at one time it was thought to be entering series production. There is no information from the company’s website as well on the new product.

Solar powered speakerphone – by LG

If your car does not have bluetooth features built into it, you will be fascinated by the new solar powered speakerphone from LG that can function just as well without any power chords. It will require ideal conditions though to give its best performance. And ideal condition, in this case, means plenty of sunlight as well as a relatively safe neighborhood where a nice looking gadget in the window won’t lead to carjacking. And yes, the product is real and has competition from Iqua.

Solar powered LCD TV – by Sharp

The new solar powered LCD TV from Sharp is here to replace all the elaborate television setups at football tailgate parties with noisy generator acting as the power source. for the new LCD tv that Sharp has brought can run for 4.5 hours on a days charge. Next perhaps, we are going to have a solar-powered satellite dish. It however is till in concept stage. Sharp is planning to have a roof full of solar panel instead of just one dedicated for the TV.

Solar Powered phone – Sharp

As if there wasn’t reason enough to have our cell phones out at all times, Sharp is the first major manufacturer to come up with a cell phone that will be powered by solar energy. However, we are soon going to have others joining the race. Re-charge for an hour and you will get ten minutes of standby time or a minute of talk time. It is also waterproof, which means you can use it with just as ease along the poolside. And it is for real, being released this summer though only in Japan.

Solar powered charger – by Sanyo

Other solar chargers are already on the market, but I’m particularly excited for Sanyo’s USB charger, whose Eneloop branding inspires confidence (the are great). Solar panels juice up a lithium ion battery, which hits full charge in three days on the single-panel model, and half that time on the dual-panel model. This provides 5 volts of power for two hours via USB, which at least will get you through an emergency. Product or Concept? It’s another Japan-only gadget for now.

There are other solar powered charger in the market already, but Sanyo’s USB chargers are just great. Solar panels provide juice to a lithium ion battery and attain full charge in three days on a single solar panel and half the time on the dual panel. You get to have 5 volts power for two hours via USB, which can be enough to at least see you through an emergency. Again, this is for real though it is going to be confined within Japan for now.

Author Bio: Markus Reily writes for the E-reader blog

It seems Hewlett-Packard is now very adament about stealing the show from Apple in the table style computing devices.

On Tuesday March 8th HP said that in order to provide a superior complete computing experience and compete with Apple’s iPad, it is creating a Windows 7-powered slate PC.

“With this tablet slate product, you’re getting a full Web browsing experience in the palm of your hand,” said Phil McKinney, HP’s VP and chief technical officer for its Personal Systems Group, in a blog post. “No watered down Internet, no sacrifices,” wrote McKinney.

In comparison to the Apple iPad, McKinney said HP’s yet-to-be-named tablet PC would support Adobe’s Flash multimedia format. “A big bonus for the slate product is that, being based on Windows 7, it offers full Adobe support,” said McKinney.

To substantiate his claims with respect to Windows 7-powered slate PC, McKinney posted a video of the HP tablet in action. The video showed a user navigating his way around the tablet PC through a series of easy hand gestures, similar to the iPAD advertisement that made its debut during Sunday’s Academy Awards broadcast.

With HP, Acer, Microsoft and others planning tablet computers, Apple may not have the field to itself for long after it ships the iPad next month.

In the month of January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer exhibited a prototype HP tablet powered by Windows 7 and assured that more such products are in the pipeline.

Ballmer also mentioned that the tablet PC is virtually as movable as a phone and strong as a PC running Windows 7 and he also stated that this upcoming category of PCs is surely going to take advantage of the touch and mobility capabilities of Windows 7.

As a Windows based device the tm2 runs a variety of ereaders. In this video we look at two different ereader applications, and the PC version of the popular Kindle reader from Amazon. Your Tablet PC becomes on of the most powerful ereaders available by having content from multiple providers and not only that, you can take your reading to any other PC or device that has a compatible reader. But wait, there’s even more! The power and flexibility of Windows allows you to do cool and unique things not capable on the Kindle device or even the upcoming ipad. While the Kindle reader doesn’t support annotations in the PC client at this time, but using onenote 2010, we will demonstrate how to take annotations to the next level, with ink!

HP is posied to launch a very interesting tablet pc out soon, and will give firm competition to the Entourage Edge, Apple I-pad, Microsoft Courier and other Slate devices.

We live in very interesting times, that so many gadgets are coming out and vying for market share in an increasenly competitive market.

We would love to hear your thoughts on our blog about this article and what you think about it. You can also visit our forum and find out more information on the latest electronic readers out, and coming out in the next six months.

Author Bio: Markus Reily is a professional writer for the Good E-reader Blog and the E-reader forum.

At the CES in January this year Dell had a very mysterious device to show the people in attendance, the Dell Slate. It is a 5 inch full color touch screen The Dell Slate will run a Google Android driven Operating System. Which means you will see Google Application Development and the Porting in of games and business applications from the independent an business community. The Dell Slate has a SIM Slot in the back, which means that you will be able to connect up to the internet in 3G, or use it as a phone. It will also be able to do WI-FI. The Slate unlike some of the tablets coming out in the near future has a few key features such as, a 5 Mega Pixel camera with Auto focus, so you will be able to take pictures with it, or use it as a webcam.

It seems to me that Dell might be arriving to the dance a little bit late. Many other Tablet and Slate devices have been making waves in the news, such as the Entourage Edge, the HP Slate, the Notion Ink Adam and Apple. If Apple manages a tremendous success their next I-PAD to a totally new level, It will boost the market and stimulate demand for these new generation of tablets. We are interested to see if a large company like Dell will offer any decent . One of the big factors with some of the new tablet hinges on how well the Android’s Marketplace does in terms of software offered. Dell has hopes to roll it out in varying screen sizes (and probably memory capacity)

Finally, it seems the most popular Slate devices to garner large scale attention are not only tablet computers but are also billed as E-Readers. We cover allot of technology here at the Good E-Reader Blog and seven new devices are going to be hitting the market in the next four or five months. It will be interesting to see, which companies the market will gravitate towards and be accepted by the community at large.

Our Bets, is that the Apple I-PAD, Microsoft Courier, Notion Ink Adam and the HP Slate look to have versatile technology and most function as E-Readers, as well as a casual entertainment device, or in the Couriers case, an extension of the office.

Sure there are already Android devices that aren’t cell phones. There are netbooks, eReaders, even digital picture frames out there. And it is not even the very first tablet that can run Android.Since the original release of Android, you’ve been able to put it on similar devices like the some Nokia Mobile Phones Devices.

But this is the first Android device by a major player not to be specifically a cell phone.

Apple’s iPod accounts for close to half of the Mobile Touchdevices out there even though it gets refreshes months after the iPhone and the I-POD Touch. We hope very hard that Google’s Android should see similar types of market share gains by devices that aren’t phones first and foremost. As soon as a community supports these android applications the companies will be laughing in complete glee.

Author Bio: Markus Reily is a professional writer for the Good E-reader Blog and the E-reader forum.

E-readers in the last six months have gone a crazy amount of growth as allot of higher profile companies scramble to release products to a ravenous consumber market. Reports concerning the multiple such products that the company is planning for 2010 have existed since January and, most recently, rumors started circulating that ASUS would soon be unleashing its very first model at Sure enough, a few hours later, the Asus DR-900 has finally come out and unveiled in front of the world for the very first time, there were many awes in the crowd for this slick looking electronic reader.

Asus is keeping things consistant with the recent evolution of e-readers not rattling the pot too much. Their device will have to be very competitive both performance- and price-wise. As such, the company stuck to a gray-scale display solution, but didn’t mind making it larger. Specifically, the DR-900 measures no less than 222mm x 161mm x 9.7mm and comes with a 9-inch Sipix electronic paper display, with 16-bit gray scale and a resolution of 1024 x 768 at 150 ppi.

The very large main screen screen is intended for unabashed viewing of digital media content, a convenience enhanced by a long battery life of over 10,000 page turns. The type of battery is still unspecified, but it is known that it takes about 3.5 hours for it to fully charge. Power can be received either through a power adapter or by connecting the device to a PC or Mac via the micro-USB 2.0 connector. As for storage capabilities, the device has a 2/4GB internal hard disk.

Like most E-readers unveiled at this years CES show it has a dedicated internetdirect web connection for instant online book shopping, the ASUS e-reader comes with 802.11g Wi-Fi, 3G connectivity and even optional WiMAX. This will enable end-users to surf the web easily and acquire their favorite books, which can be in PDF, TXT or unprotected ePub formats, among others. ASUS did not restrict itself to merely basic functionality, however, and also implemented stereo speakers and a 3.5mm audio jack, so that even audible books and MP3 files might be enjoyed. Also, as an added bonus, the e-reader supports BMP, GIF, PNG and JPEG image files.

If we take a look at the some of the detailed features about e-Reader it will consists of a color screen which is a touch sensitive one, a webcam, a microphone and a speaker, Skype calls will be an added plus feature. Consisting of all these features leading daily Sunday Times reports, the price could be less than as compared to same products by competitors Sony and Kindle.

Asus has a well known reputation of major inexpensive computer manufacturer, providing the said feature goods with too low price hard to match. Glamorous device which can be used for daily purpose, checking mails comes with a handy Wi-Fi. There will be Basic & Premium model with 3G.

We are waiting for this device to put in an appearance. Asus has not really said too much about its content distribution networks, but we hope as we creap closer to the release date, that they will annouce what book networks and publisher deals that they get in order to sell books online.

Author Bio: Markus Reily is a professional writer for the Good E-reader Blog and the E-reader forum.

File Based Workflow

Your file based workflow has many advantages compared to traditional film and slides. All your images usually stay on the media of your choice, like hard disk, CD, DVD or data tapes. Most of the time, they reside on a hard disk for fast access. This, however, brings the risk of accidentally deleting files. Drives can also be affected by file system corruption, malware, viruses and hardware failure. As a result, managing your data is necessary to safeguard it.

1st Step: Backup

Backing up data means duplicating them. This reduces the risk of hardware failure tremendously. Most of the above mentioned risks are still present if you use a hard disk that is continuously on and connected to your computer. If one disk gets affected, then the backup disk will most likely be affected as well. The easiest solution is to have a backup disk that gets turned on and connected only at certain intervals in order to receive new data.

Automating the backup helps to reduce the risk even further. You could connect a backup drive in the evening and have it automatically filled with changed data that accumulated over the day. This is called an incremental backup. It reduces the amount of data necessary to be copied. When working on very large images, high resolutions or RAW files, time for copying can also be an issue. Depending on the value that you attribute to your files, writing to two devices or to two media establishes a professional level of security.

PresSTORE Backup lets you automatically backup your changed files to two hard disks at once. If you lose a file, the software lets you easily browse or search for it and restore it from your web browser.

2nd Step: Going off-site

Professional security needs to address the risks that arise from external threats like water, fire, theft, lightning and other disasters. If you keep all your eggs in one basket i.e. original data and backup in the same room, chances are they will both be affected in case of disaster. Taking one data set off-site is therefore a necessity.
Whether you choose to take the backup from the studio to your home or someplace else is up to you. Just develop a routine in doing so.

3rd Step: Archive

Every photographer that started with traditional film and slides has his individual archiving experiences. It has always been necessary to move pictures from your desk into some kind of archive. You needed to free up space on your desk and it would sometimes be a long time until you used the same pictures again. The same goes for data. This time it is not the space on your desk but the space on the local hard drives that gets filled up. Space needs to be cleared up to make room for new projects.

Archiving data is the process of moving (or migrating) data from your workstation to another device or media. Deleting the archived files frees up space and completes the process. In order to keep the level of security that you established through backing up, you need to duplicate the archive. Files will no longer be backed up since you deleted them on the workstation. The archived version will be the only copy. The result is that you want to “duplicate” your archive.

In PresSTORE Archive this is done by cloning the storage pool the archive is written to. Storing one version of the archive off-site gives you a professional level of security. There is no archive option within a solution like Aperture.

Using both PresSTORE Backup and Archive gives you maximum security with flexible access through the browser.

Your archive needs to be a flexible tool that allows you to visually browse and search. Using filenames, archiving dates or meta data information will let you retrieve the specific files needed. Having access through the browser gives you additional flexibility and even the option of offering parts of the archive to clients over the web.

Internal vs. external Backup Solutions

Apples Aperture and Adobes Lightroom offer some level of backup. These solution, however, bring some limitations with them. Aperture’s Backup is very easy to handle and can save the day if Aperture is your main tool. There are some things to consider though. If you delete a file in Aperture from within the application, it gets deleted from the (internal) backup as well. Also, referenced masters are not saved with the backup. In contrast, PresSTORE Backup just adds files during incremental backups. So all files, even deleted ones are accessible for restore. Additionally, you have to manually start a backup to a vault in Aperture. PresSTORE Backup takes this task off your mind and runs scheduled backups according to your chosen times.

Long-term Workflow Considerations for Photographers

Backup …everything!

Saved image files probably represent your most valuable assets. But everyone who has seen a machine go down knows that your pictures are only part of your assets. They also include: The operating system, the applications and most importantly their settings, as well as preference files. Over time you configure your favorite programs, add plug-ins and scripts, actions, filters, brushes etc. It takes a long time to rebuild all of that if you forget to save it. This is where a professional backup solution like PresSTORE saves the day because it takes care of your images AND your other data. It keeps track of changes in any area, collects the files and stores them for you. Of course all the other business related content is there, too: Spreadsheets for taxes, office documents or addresses. Your business consists of files, many files. Keeping them safe should be your concern in any case.

Access to your Archive

Most photographers use multiple tools to catalog and edit their images. ALL the created files should be accessible by different applications. A file oriented solution is therefore the most flexible way to ensure access. PresSTORE is available through the browser. You use it to configure all processes, run backup and archive jobs, monitor them, browse and search for files and restore them. You can do all of that from any workstation in the network or even through the internet. The flexible filter features allow you to create a drop folder for archiving. Including or excluding files by name, date, extension, or other criteria offers additional possibilities for adaptation to your workflow.

An archive is meant to grow with your body of work. It contains all final versions and all material that you choose to store for the long term. But archiving also means not knowing what size your archive will grow to in a few years. Multiple drives might be needed to hold all your files. Still access needs to be as flexible and easy as possible. PresSTORE Archive maintains (by default) one archive index that keeps track of all files in the archive. Here you can search and browse all media, even if the storage device they are on might not be available right now.

How to pick the right Storage Media

Hard disks are ubiquitous, fast and cheap. But there are other choices. Optical media like CD-R and DVD are used regularly. There are several problems with them: Long-term storage, capacity and transfer speed. Compared to today’s hard disks, the capacity of a DVD or even a blue-ray disk is ridiculously small. You need loads of them to archive even a single 1TB drive. After storing them for over one year you will discover that some of them already lost your data. They are not readable anymore. Even when trying to compensate this by only using high quality media, storage limitation and slow writing/reading will remain an issue.

Hard disks on the other hand seem tremendously favorable and the moderate prices make a useful choice. If you disconnect them and store them safely, dry and (not too) cool, chances are they will last you for a while. Still they might not startup the next time you connect them. Choosing two drives from different manufacturers (of the hard disk itself!) reduces this risk. Life expectancy of this type of media ranges from 2-5 years.

There is a solution that has been around for a while and has matured to a considerable level of efficiency and accuracy at the same time – tape. We are talking data tape of course by the name of LTO (there are other tapes but none as reliable and professional). Secured by multiple mechanisms ranging from pre-recorded servo tracks to checksums preventing data loss, to extreme long-term certification of up to 30(!) years, this is the medium of choice for a professional archive. In a very compact tape cartridge you can get from 400GB to 1600GB, making off-site storage really easy. Reading and writing speeds are faster than your local hard drive (80-200MB/s). The only catch to it: Many hesitate to use tape because of its initial cost. But this is only part of the story.

By installing a tape-based archive you save investment in ever growing hard disk storage, administration and infrastructure (how many drives can you connect to your machine?). In the long run, tapes pay off because they give you professional scalability (it grows almost endlessly) and proven durability at an unbeatable price per GB. And: PresSTORE will even help to keep your tapes organized.

Author Bio: Dr. Batschkus is a medical informatics specialist and author with more than 18 years of experience in media production and Mac OS. http://www.archiware.com/photography

It is possible to extend your USB connection over long distances using USB Extender kits, since a standard USB cable cannot send information very far before becoming distorted. By using a USB extender kit, it is possible to extend the USB signal for distances such as 30m or more. For this process, extending a USB will be done over IP by configuring the extender kit to act as a network so that Ethernet cables can connect to it just like a standard home network. This is quite different from extending a USB using just a USB extender which runs for an extra 2m or so.

In order to set up a USB to Ethernet connection, you will first need to purchase a USB Extender Kit. These can be obtained online or through a local hardware retailer and generally look like a router. The standard CAT5 Ethernet cable will work for most USB extender kits and operate through standard A/C power.

It’s really quite a simple process:

By using a USB Extender kit you can connect a USB device through a longer range and connect it through a USB Ethernet hub. By connecting a USB to the equipment, devices such as printers are portable hard drives can be shared and access by anyone with Ethernet access to the server created by the extender kit. In other words, the USB Extender kit turns the USB device into a shared network device that allows you to connect another user to access the USB.

This can be extremely handy when there is a constant need to share different USB devices over a network of two computers that are in different locations, such as on the ground floor of a building and the level above it. By using a USB extender kit, not only does it make sharing the USB device such as a hard drive practical, it is also very easy to set up and can be changed according to the needs of the network. The extender kit utilizes an Ethernet connection to allow a different user to connect through an Ethernet cable and therefore share the device.

There are also some slight disadvantages to extending USB’s however, and one of these disadvantages includes slightly slower speeds. Since the data is travelling over a longer distance and through an extender, it will not be as effective as simply plugging in the device directly to a computer. When transferring files such as data from a hard drive, it may take an extended period of time to finish off large transfers. This happens because when the data is carried over longer distances the signal becomes weaker and it is more susceptible to interference. The Ethernet link additionally cannot be connected to a switch or router and therefore cannot be shared to multiple users, which is also another disadvantage.

However it is obvious that the best way to share a USB over a long distance is by utilizing the extender kit, since it allows signals to be transferred over long distances that other devices such as a simple USB extender cable would not be able to. Here, the advantages of sharing a USB with an extender kit outweigh its disadvantages.

Author Bio: This article was written on behalf of Cables & Leads. The Uk’s premier supplier of multimedia cables and computer cables. Cables and Leads stock 1000′s of cables with everything from USB extension kits to SCART to USB Cables.