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Campin' and Computin'

Surviving the Open road

With you and your PC Intact!

Eric Anderson

Create Space, Inc.

Campin' and Computin' - 1 -

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Campin' and Computin'Second Edition

Copyright © 2009 Eric Anderson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may bereproduced or other wise utilized in any form orby any other means, mechanical, electronic,including books on tape, books on CD,photocopying or by any information storage andretrieval system without the expressed written

permission in writing from the Author.

Requests should be sent to:

Eric AndersonP.O. Box 552Plymouth, Ca. 95669

All the respective brands and company namesused in this book are for reference purpose onlyand their copyright belongs to their respectiveowners.

The use of company names should not beconstrued as an endorsement or detriment.

They are simply used as examples of equipmentor software that is available.

Dell® is a registered trademark of DellComputer Corporation.


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3Microsoft®, Windows®, Windows XP® andVista® are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.


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4


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Contents

Contents ......................................................................5 Topics to add to the second edition .............................7Dedication ....................................................................8Chapter 2: The Dang Hardware .................................14

The Main components .............................................14 The key to a computer? ..........................................19 The keyboard reminds me of my typewriter!!! .......22 The Monitor, can I use it to watch movies??? .........32

Don't get an exterminator for this kind of mouse! . 39 The Audio portion of our program - The speakers . .45

Chapter 9: Virus protection, firewalls and other thingsto keep your PC safe. ................................................47

Viruses and Protection against them ......................47PC File security .......................................................53Firewall Protection ..................................................53Microsoft update .....................................................55

Chapter 10 - If all else fails… .....................................61 The cost of a support request… ..............................68

Appendix 'A' - Quick Solutions ...................................68Hardware ...............................................................69Software - Operating system ..................................71Software - Microsoft Outlook ...................................71

Appendix B - Some of my favorite web sites .............73

Appendix C - Windows XP equivalents .......................76Index .........................................................................88Prologue .....................................................................89Get back to me on that!!! ..........................................92


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7

Topics to add to the second edition

• Correct information on security for internetbased on what I learned at Hoot N' Annies.Explain how to limite websites so that they cannot hit certain ones. This should be passwordprotected.

•

Add an appendix for Windows Vista information.• Look for all occurrences of 'Later' and 'previous'

to add actual chapter references so people canspeed to that section of the book.

• Flush out the wireless internet section. Talkabout sharing computer resources using wifiaccess points. Also talk about how to 'Repair' aconnection in order to restore connection. Talk

about how to find the best access point.


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8

Dedication

This book is the first in what may become a series of Information Technology (IT) topics as they relate toRV'ers. Though I generally try to be a guy who thinksout of the box, in this case I have to dedicate thisbook to the love of my life, my wife Carol. Carol is theone with which I enjoy every RV'ing experience with.Luckily for Carol and I, Al Gore, Ooops, I mean theendless list of Colleges and government agencies,created the internet which allowed Carol and I tomeet, using computers, and subsequently enjoy theopen road together and ultimately for me to write thisbook.

Carol has brought so much happiness to my life. She

is my true soul mate. We got hitched in September of 1999. Every day of every year, I love her more andmore than the one before. She is beautiful, funny,smart and a hard working gal too. While I have beenwriting this book, she has been studying for her newcareer as a medical transcriptionist. She has also beenputting her new skills to work and serving as editor tothis book. So, if you see any boo-boo's there her fault,

not mine. Just kidding!

But in all seriousness, I do love her more!


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9

Chapter 1: Introduction

Just as Recreational vehicles have evolved over theyears, so has the RV'ers needs for the accessories thatare on board as we travel our nations highways andbi-ways. The shear fact is that we as a species arealways evolving, whether it be as a group or as anindividual. Many of us who enjoy RV's either as avehicle to the occasional trip to the great out doors, oras our rolling homestead, find our needs on the road

constantly evolving.

For those like myself who have always found a callingby the open road and want to do it 'full-time', thenneed to figure out, just what we want to pack along inour new home on wheels. For those who take their RVout for the occasional jaunt, we need to figure outwhat we can't do without for our two week vacation.Even on our occasional weekenders, we really had adesire to have at least a laptop on board so we couldkeep up on e-mail, news events, weather forecastsand the like.

Though the traditional RV has been around since thefirst half of the 1900's, you would have been hard

pressed, to pack along your companies 'UNIVAC®' sothat you could keep in touch with the family or checkyour stock portfolio while you are on the road. Todayhowever, is a different story. The ways of staying intouch have evolved just as RV's have evolved. We nowhave cell phones, PDA's and personal computers to


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10keep all of us 'in the know' regardless of where wemay roam.

Personal computers have only evolved over the last15 years or so to where they became what someperceive as an essential part of each household. Manywho have computers have been given them by wellmeaning family members. Or, they have been naggedinto buying one so the family can stay in touch. Manycomputer owners are intimidated by these newfangled machines. Through this book, I hope to take

some of the mystery and intimidation out of computers. Really, computers are just big fancyexamples of Light switches, magnets and stereosystems. So, you shouldn't fear them. Hopefullythrough this book, you will now have the informationto make computers fear you, not the other wayaround.

My first exposure to a computer was when my dadtook me to his office one Saturday at Occidental Life®in downtown Los Angeles. We paid a visit to thecompany computer center. One entire floor, as Iremember, was dedicated to this behemoth in the late1960's. It was just then also that computerminiaturization was taking place. This relatively newagency called NASA was about to place men on the

moon for the first time ever, and the 'space race' waspressing industry all over the world to create thingsthat had never been created and make smaller andlighter, things that had been around for a while. Myreal experience with computers however didn't start


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11until I applied for a job transfer at Safeway® Stores. Ihad been working as an assistant manager of a storein El Toro, California, when my new direction in lifecame across my path. A posting, looking for existingemployees who were interested in computers wasposted in the break room. I saw this at the time as away to get a job where I wouldn't have to work 3 tomidnight one day and then 10 AM to 7 PM the next.

From an RV'ing perspective, I cut my teeth on theopen road while doing volunteer work for a youth

group in California. For that group, the Concord BlueDevils, I drove either one of their five 40 foot Buses orone of their two big rigs which included a tractor and a40 or 48 foot trailer behind it.

As many single red blooded American male finds inlife, it takes a woman to come along and really mixthings up. With the aid of a computer, I met the

woman who was soon to become the love of my life.We met on the internet in one of those match-makingforums. Shortly after we got married, we got our firstRV, a Dutchman® tent trailer. Ten years later, we areon our 4th RV, a Keystone® Cougar fifth wheel, andwe are now investigating the possibilities of moving toa motor home.

Many of us use our computers on occasion to sendfamily an e-mail or see pictures of the grand-kids andthat is about the extent of it. And you know what, thatis Ok. With the way the personal computer hasbecome the new medium of choice, you still want to


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12stay in touch with what is going on. For others, ourlives would end if our computer was taken away fromus.

This book is written to help you to better enjoy yourcomputer while you are on the road. I hope to helpyou better understand the workings of your computerso that you are less inclined to toss it out the windowas you are traveling to that next great RV destination.

In the onset of this book, you need to keep an

important thing in mind. No one person knowseverything about computers. Most of us who haveworked in the IT (Information Technologies) field knowenough to get buy. Like doctors, most of us 'Geeks'specialize in one or more various aspects of IT orComputers. I myself spent most of my careerdeveloping software for two companies. I cut my teethon Big Iron (main frame computers) at Safeway®

stores. I also worked on mid-range (AS/400®'s) at the'Big Red S'. I then transitioned as an AS/400®programmer, after meeting the love of my life, for anew employer, Volcano Telephone®, where I workedfor them as an AS/400® programmer then as a PCprogrammer working on various PC and web basedapplications during my tenure there.

At Volcano Communications® there were 130employees and an IT staff of 3 when I hired on. Thesmall size of the team allowed me to really expand myknowledge of PC's, networks and printers starting theday I was hired on there. I've always been a guy who


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13enjoyed working with his hands so it was nice to movecomputers, printers and pull cable, install servers andliterally get my hands dirty in my job. I hope to sharewhat I have learned and some of the laughs that I'vehad through this book.

The other thing to keep in mind is as much as wemight resist it, when it comes to computers, change isconstant. I'm not all that crazy either about theconstant change in the field of computers, but it issomething I have gotten use to. So, the sooner we

accept the fact that computers and change are part of our new course in life, the faster we'll be able to getthrough some of the minutia and start to enjoy them.

As I wrote this book, I came to the conclusion that thisbook could also be a reference book as well. As such, Ihave tried very hard to make copious entries into theIndex. I tried to do this from the beginning so the 'lack

of index entries' didn't become too much to recoverfrom.

But, I encourage you to not just read the index andlook for a 'snippet' of information. In doing so, youmay miss out on some of the other great stuff alongthe way. I know that we are all busy, so regardless of where you choose to get started, we’d better get to it

so we can enjoy our "Campin' and Computin'"


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14

Chapter 2: The Dang Hardware

Hardware, ah hardware. One of those aspects of computers that make any programmer cringe. It's oneof those things that the programmer seems so unableto control. Also, programmers accuse hardware of making their programs do things that we don't wantthem to. As a programmer I had to learn early on that99 times out of one-hundred, when a computer userexperiences a problem, it is really a program bug that

has cropped up, not some malicious intent by a pieceof equipment sitting in a room somewhere.

For the consument RV'er however, the computer mayrepresent a form of communication, a place to storerecipes and family pictures, or a reminder that weneed to sit at it every day so that we can earn a living.For those technically diverse families where thecomputer doesn't belong to the one most concernedwith the systems of the RV, the computer may justrepresent something tying up precious space andadding weight. Hopefully in this chapter, we can startto help familiarize you with your computer friend.

The Main components

Like an RV that might be new to you, even if it isn'tbrand new, there are many pieces that must fittogether on your PC so that the user gets the mostenjoyment out of it. The hardware is useless withoutsome sort of instructions, in other words software, to


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15make it do things. You know how helpless you first feltwhen you had your first RV without a manual. Yourcomputer feels equally helpless without someinstructions. Likewise, software is useless withoutsomething to run it on, much like 100 gallons of dieseldoes you no good without a rig to run it on. Thischapter's purpose is to introduce you to the hardwareside of things.

All personal computers have the same basiccomponents. These components could also be thought

of like components in a stereo system. The systemmight work with only some of the components, but itcan't be fully enjoyed without some of the keyaccessories.

The Keyboard: The keyboard is considered an 'Input' componentwhere the user, yourself for instance, presses the keys

to convey information from you to the computer. Thisis referred to as 'Input' device into the computer.

The Monitor: The Monitor is considered an 'Output' componentwhere you the user, reads the 'Output' from thecomputer, which are usually results of some sort of 'Input' from yourself. Now, even something as simple

as you turning on the computer could be consideredinput, as in 'I want my computer to turn on'. And thecomputer will give you output such as 'Please sign in'.

There are now some monitors which are touch screensthat allow you to directly interact with images on the


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16screen and there by send commands to the computer.In those cases, the monitor would be considered an'Input/Output' component, but for right now, we'll justleave it as an 'Output' device.

The Mouse: This is also considered an input device. You use themouse, or other pointing device to pick a picture orselect some text on the screen and tell the computeryou want to do something with the item you haveselected. There are usually two or more buttons that

are on the mouse as well as a 'Whiz Wheel' that canbe used to tell the computer you want to speedthrough the content of a document.


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17 The speakers: This is about the close as anything in a computersetup that directly resembles your 'Stereo System'.

Through the speaker components, you can listen tothe audio output from your computer as it responds tothe various commands that you give it. You can alsolisten to music through your computer using these.

The printer: This is considered an output component where youcan receive your 'output' from the computer and it

could be saved for all the days to come if you sodesire. Though printers started out as pretty boringtext based output devices, over the last 15 years orso, they have been enhanced in such a way that youcan now produce photo quality pictures that can beframed and hung inside your RV.

The Scanner:

Not to be confused with the 'Bar code scanner' at yourlocal supermarket, an optical scanner can be used asan 'Input' component, where you can scan adocument or a picture into the computer and store itfor future viewing on the monitor or printed out. Thereis also some of what we refer to as 'Multi function'units which are printers, scanners and sometimes'Fax' machines all rolled into one.

The CPU or Computer:Some techie types might refer to your computer tower(or case) as a CPU (central processing unit). And,though not correct, a name is just a name. More


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18correctly though, the 'tower' is the computer thatconnects the keyboard and the monitor together toget some real work done. Of course, you can't forgetthe all important A/C or alternating current whichgives the computer the juice to read your input andgive you a response. Inside the tower or laptop, is theactual CPU and we'll get to that a little later.

Some of you reading this book today may have a pet,be it a dog, cat, bird, reptile or some other form of life.My favorite pet is a dog. That is why my wife and I

have the e-mail address we do. Frankly, our lifewouldn't be complete with out our precious fourlegged friends. And like the pooches that my wife andI love to have at our sides, there are some of thecomponents that your computer just can not do without. Your computer needs an input device and anoutput device. Without at least one each of those, thecomputer might as well serve as a wheel-chock for

you. You may find that there the other components wehave mentioned earlier that may make you feel likeyou have lost a limb in the middle of your life, and youaren't sure how to get things done without it.

As we delve deeper into later sections of this chapterwe will explain more about the various componentsthat make up a modern day computer. The computer

itself is what makes everything else work. Without it,virtually none of the other components would be ableto perform any function. However, that being said, asin any other part of life, there are always exceptionsto every rule. That exception is a multi- function


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19printer/scanner. The reason it is an exception isbecause they usually have an on-board computer thatallows them to perform limited tasks even if they arenot connected to your computer at some given pointin time. But, we'll get into that later on.

The key to a computer?

There are a couple of analogies to keep in mind whendealing with computers. One is a light switch. Some

techies might argue that a magnet with it's north andsouth poles are a more accurate example of all things'computer', but I think it is a harder concept tovisualize. Either way, things in a computer are eitheron, or they are off. Information or data is stored in aseries of 'light switches'. Each piece of informationthat is stored on a computer is broken down into asingle bit, or switch if you will. The switch is either 'On'

or it is 'Off'. Frequently, the visual representation of that is a '1' or a '0' (zero). These 'switches' arereferred to as 'bits'.

Have you noticed how on a lot of equipment you buytoday, the on-off switch, if it is a rocker or push buttontype, has a 1 and a 0 as part of the switch. Well, the

'1' or 'I' indicates the 'On' position, and the 'O'indicates the off position. The exact same thingapplies to computers and their internal workings.


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20

Fig 2-1: This is what the on-off switch on my

compressor looks like.

I have another analogy that might be one that youhave to make a personal decision about. That analogyis the cuts on a key. You know how cuts on the keysfor your RV is (hopefully) different than the cuts onkeys for other RVers? You may not care that the cutsare different or what a given cut in that key means. If

you fit into the category of 'I don't care about the cutsof my key, it just better start the engine', then youmay want to skip this section and proceed to thesection entitled 'The keyboard reminds me of my


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21typewriter!!!' which is on the next page. However, if you are curious, then please, read on!

By themselves, bits don't mean much to an averageuser. So, the great computer gurus came up with theidea that though a 'bit' by itself doesn't mean much topeople, if we group them together, they could meanmore. So, it was decided that the 'standard' is togroup them in groups of 8. Eight bits grouped togetheris called a byte. That term may be slightly familiar. If you have heard the term '56KB', that stands for 56

Kilo-Bytes or 56,000 bytes.

The reason they choose to group bits in groups of eight, is because of the number characters andsymbols that could be represented. Each byte is thesame as a character. Someone decided that bitsshould be numbered from right to left. More or less,think of it as a number. Most of the time, we look at

numbers from right to left as well. Some bit to byteexamples are shown in the following figure.

Bit8

Bit7

Bit6

Bit5

Bit4

Bit3

Bit2

Bit1

Byte/Character

128

64 32 16 8 4 2 1 Numeric value of column

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 {No value - AKA:NULL}

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 10 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 20 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 30 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 4


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220 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 50 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 9

Fig 2-2: An example of bit representation of data.

A byte of information is pretty much the buildingblock, or the key to the way data is stored,transmitted and manipulated by the computer. Theinformation presented so far about bits and byteswhile true, is very rudimentary and the differentoperating systems of various computers (primarilyApple® or Microsoft®) use those bits and bytes in

different ways. None the less, I wanted to give you anidea of what data that you type and read looks like toa computer. The computer only sees things as either a'1' or a '0'. In other words, it sees the bit as either onor off.

All of the various components (peripherals in geekspeak) that are attached to your computer pretty

much function by sending and receiving data bits.

The keyboard reminds me of my typewriter!!!

So the keyboard of your computer reminds you of your

typewriter. Well, that’s a good thing! That means thatthe entire semester you spent in typing class in highschool didn't go to waste! That semester actually hasserved me very well. The keyboards main function isto serve as the primary input device to your computer.


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23For the most part, it functions as the keyboards on theold Selectric (and other) typewriters.

Because the Windows® based PC is used soprevalently in large corporations, there are a numberof keys that are specific for large mainframecomputers. This is where a personal computer likeyours, is used to access larger computers, if they werehooked up to them. Those keys that are used whenworking with large Mainframe computers are 'SysRq','Scroll Lock', 'Pause' and 'Break'. But for the average

PC user, these keys have no value and can just beignored.

When it comes to the rest of the keys on thekeyboard, pressing any one of the keys, bythemselves will not cause any thing bad to happen onyour computer. Some things you do may cause yourcomputer to shut down, but that is generally by design

and a simple press of the 'Power' button which younormally use to turn the computer 'On' should bringthings back to normal. None the less, if you doaccidentally hit the 'Sleep' or 'Hybernate' button, itcan be a bit 'disarming'. But, rest assured, 9 times outof 10, everything will be Ok.

I would like to go over what some of the special keys

on the keyboard will do as far as interacting with yourpersonal computer.

- The Esc Key -


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24 This key usually will be interpreted by the software asmeaning you want to quit the function the computer iscurrently performing. Also, if you find that you aremoving the mouse around on the screen, and youdon't seem to have full access to all of the real-estateon the screen, pressing this key may get you out of the limiting function you have inadvertently enteredinto.

- The Hibernate Key - This key will generally tell the operating system to put

the computer in a hibernate mode. Entering hibernatemode usually causes the computer to go to sleepquickly. The computer will make note of all of theopen applications and the data within them, writethem to the hard drive and then shut down thecomputer. When you turn the computer back on bypressing the power button, the computer will re openthe same applications so that you can pick up where

you left off. You will most frequently find the'Hibernate' key on laptops, but it can also be found on'higher end' key boards for desktop PC's.


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25

Fig 2-3: Shown in this screen shot are the 'Esc' and'Hibernate' key.

*NOTE* When a key has multiple designations. Likethe 'F1' and 'Hibernate' key shown in the previousscreen shot, this means that it is a multi-function key.

The primary function in the case of the 'F1/Hibernate'key shown in the previous screen shot is to issue an'F1' key stroke to the computer. However, if you wantto issue the 'Hibernate' keystroke, you simply pressand hold down the matching key close to the space

bar, usually this is a 'Function' key marked with eitherthe word 'Function' or 'FN' that is the same color asthe command like 'Hibernate'.

- The CRT/LCD Key -


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26 This key will control where the video signal on yourcomputer is directed to. This key, which is primarilyseen on laptops, swaps the video signal from the maindisplay to an alternate video output jack on thecomputer. Note, you may need to press the 'Function'key to get the CRT/LCD key to work when you arehooked up to an alternate monitor.

Fig 2-4: Shown above is the 'CRT/LDC' key as found onmost laptops.

- The Insert Key -

This key tells your computer that when you starttyping some where, that you want the text to alwaysbe 'Inserted' where you are typing as opposed to'Overtyping', what is already there. For instance, if Ihave the sentence 'I love New York' and the 'Insert'


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27function is on, I place the cursor right before the 'N' in'New York' and I type the words' to visit ', my sentencewould now read 'I love to visit New York'. However if the 'Insert' function is off, my sentence would read 'Ilove to visit'. This is because as I typed the words 'tovisit', the computer overtyped some of the letters in'New York'. Generally, people leave the insert functionturned on.

- The delete key -As I'm sure you may have figured out by now, the

'Delete' key clears typed characters much in the sameway as the 'Backspace' key does. The 'Backspace' keydeletes characters to the left of the cursors currentposition and the 'Delete' key deletes characters to theright of the cursors position.

- The Home Key - This key talks to the software that you are working

with at a given time. It is up to the software to decidewhat will happen when you press the key. That beingsaid, there is a 'defacto' standard of the action to takewhen you press the 'Home' key. Pressing the 'home'key generally moves the cursor to the beginning of the line you are currently typing. You may wonder whyit is called the 'Home' key. Well, in the early days of computers, when their primary purpose was to work

with mainframe computers, pressing the 'Home' keywould cause the cursor to move to 'Top Left' positionof the screen, also referred to as the 'Home' position.

- The End Key -


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28 The end key is very similar to the 'Home' key infunction except that it moves the cursor to the end of the line of text that you are currently on.

- The Page Up Key - The 'Page Up' key also is one that works directly withthe software you are currently using at the time. Somesoftware won't respond to it, others will. In text editingsoftware packages though, pressing the 'Page Up' keywill cause the program to scroll up one full page.Pressing this key will not change any of the text you

are working with, it simply moves the view of thedocument up. For example, the text that you see atthe top of your screen, will move down to the bottomof the screen and you will now be able to see all of thetext that was above what you could see beforepressing the 'Page Up' key.

- The Page Down Key -

The 'Page Down' key is very similar to the 'Page Up'key except that it moves your view down one fullpage.

- The Num Lock Key -Most keyboards have what is referred to as a 'Ten Key'pad. This key pad also doubles as your cursor controls.

Generally, the 'Ten Key' function is de-activated. If youwant to activate the 'Ten Key' pad, simply press the'Num Lock' key to use the numbers on the key pad.When the 'Num Lock' key is off, the 'Ten Key' pad willfunction as cursor controls to move the cursor around


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29on your document. When you have the 'Num Lock'function turned on, an indicator light on your keyboardwill illuminate indicating you are in 'Num Lock'function. That way, if things aren't operating the wayyou expect, you have some indication about what isgoing on.

- The Print Screen Key - This is one of my favorite keys on the keyboard. I'm avery visual person who likes lots of pictures. Heck, I'ma guy, so what do you expect? At any rate, the Print

Screen key on PC's a little in-accurate. Again, hailingback to the Mainframe days, if you pressed the 'PrintScreen' key, it would cause the current screens text tobe printed out to a printer. However on a PC, it causesa snapshot to be taken of the screen you are currentlyworking on. You can't see the snapshot after you pressthe key, but it is in memory. You can then take thatsnapshot, place it in another document as a picture.

Similar to what is shown in figure 2-5!


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30

Fig 2-5: This is a snapshot using the Print ScreenFunction.

I got the picture there by using the 'Paste' function.We'll get into the use of the 'Paste' function when weget to the section on the operating system.


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31

Fig 2-6: This is showing most of the keys just

mentioned previously.

- The Control Key - This key is one that tells the software that you areusing that you want to use a short cut within thesoftware. For instance, if you press and hold the'Control' key down and then press the 'C' key, thesoftware will more than likely interpret this as that you

want to copy the selected text to memory. You canthen move the cursor to the new location and pressand hold the 'Control' key and then the 'V' key toinsert the text at a new location of the cursor. But,


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32those are 'Cut, copy and Paste' functions and I amgetting ahead of myself.

- The Alt Key - This key is usually used in conjunction with the'Control' Key. For really complicated short cuts, thesoftware may require that you press and hold the'Control' key, then press and hold the 'Alt' key, andthen click on some letter to do something. The 'Alt'key isn't used all that frequently.

- The F'ing keys -Partdon me for the introduction to this little

paragraph, but I just could not resist! The 'F' keys,which are at the top of the keyboard, may or may nothave any function at a given time. It is up to thesoftware that you are using at the time to determinewhat those keys do. The 'F1' key is again somewhat of a 'defacto' standard. In most cases, it will bring up a

help panel from which you can look for help in workingwith the program you are using at a given time.

The Monitor, can I use it to watchmovies???

It wasn't that many years ago, that RV's didn't have

any TV sets in them. But today, as RV's have evolvedby leaps and bounds to contain the creature comfortsthat they do, it is not unusual to see two or moretelevision sets in a rig. If you have a back up camerathere is a monitor, yet another TV looking device. Notto be left out, if you have a computer, there will more


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33than likely be one more item on board that will looklike a TV set, your computer monitor.

The monitor is the one part of a computer that peoplefeel the most familiar with, especially when they havenever had a computer. The monitor, which is theprimary output device from the computer, has takenmany different forms over the years that it hasevolved. On the early computers, like the ones used atmy dads previous employer and even those that Iused when I first became a programmer were

monochrome, or more simply black and white. Theywere used generally to present textual replies to theinformation entered or requested by the user. Then,they migrated to Color monitors which ranged in sizefrom 12 inch monitors all the way up to 21" displays inmany commercial applications. As a person who’s joboccasionally entailed moving monitors around, myback was never to eager to help when word came that

one of those 21" behemoths had pooped out andneeded to be changed. Not only were they awkward,but with all the glass that it took to make one of thoseunits, they were very heavy, too.

Today however, monitors are generally of the 'FlatPanel' variety and are much lighter and more energyefficient than their glass predecessors. The glass

predecessors, also referred to as CRT's (cathode raytube) were very similar to the color TV sets. CRT'swere very popular up until just a few years ago.

Today, just as 'Flat Panel' TV sets have becomepopular, so have flat panel monitors. With a couple of


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34exceptions, all computer flat panel monitors hookdirectly to your PC and are not capable, in and of themselves, to allow you to watch a movie or TVprogram. Now, that being said, most computers todayhave DVD drives in them that allow you to watch yourfavorite movie using your computer. Also, you can buy

TV tuner accessories for your PC that will allow you towatch your favorite TV program as long as you have acable or over the air signal.

The monitor, in itself, is pretty useless. You need some

sort of 'video driver' or 'video card' that will generatethe images that the monitor will display. Yourcomputer either the laptop or tower, will contain thisvideo card to drive the monitor. Most 'flat panel'televisions today have the needed connections so thatyou can connect your computer to the TV. This can beused as a way to show movies or slide shows on yourflat panel TV for everyone to enjoy. The connection

between a laptop and the flat panel TV is frequentlyusing the round S-Video (Super Video) connector onthe back of your laptop. Tower computers, dependingon the video card, may or may not have a compatible

jack that will allow it to connect to a flat panel TV, butmost of the higher end 'cards' will have the needed

jack to set you up. The following Picture is of a S-Video Jack.


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35

Fig 2-7: This is what an S-Video Jack looks like.

In most typical configurations, where you areconnecting your traditional CRT or flat panel monitorto your computer, it will be using the RGB (red, green,and blue) port on the back of your computer. The RGBport looks like the following.

Fig 2-8: This is what a RGB connector looks like.

Computer monitors come in various shapes, sizes andfeatures. As I indicated earlier, monitors can be eitherCRT style or flat panel. However, the majority of allmonitors sold today, are flat panel style. The main


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36reason for this is they have a lower profile and take upless space on a desktop. They have the added benefitof being more energy efficient and cause less waste inour landfills.

Fig 2-9: This is a picture of conventional CRT monitors.


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37

Fig 2-10: This is a picture of a standard flat panelmonitor.

In general , the smallest flat panel monitor that youcan find today is a 17 inch (diagonally measured)monitor. This size we find more than adequate for usein our RV. We have also used a 15 inch in the past. Itwill do in a pinch, but with the 17 inch we get fontsthat are just enough larger to make reading that mucheasier. The bigger the monitor, the more space youare going to take up on your RV desktop. So though

you might be tempted to think 'bigger is better'remember you are dealing with space issues in yourRV, so you might want to see if a 17 inch will becomfortable enough for you.


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38Flat panel monitors will either be in LCD or plasmaformat of projection. The LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)style monitors are more durable when it comes to the

jostling on board while you are traveling down theroad than the plasma screens. As a result, you mayvery well want to consider going with an LCD monitorfor your computer use.

You should keep one thing in mind when it comes toyour Computer monitor as well as your TV's in yourRV. If you have an LCD monitor or TV set, 'Liquid' is

part of the equation. Since this is the case, it is best tonot allow the interior of your RV to drop below 32degree's Fahrenheit. If your LCD screens stay at orbelow that temperature for more than an hour or so,the workings of the projection element, could bepermanently damaged. You will find that mostwarrantees of LCD monitors and TV's are void if theunit is subjected to 'Freezing' temperatures.

A good LCD monitor will have a resolution of 1440 X900 DPI (dots per inch) and a Contrast ratio of 1000 to1. In both these cases, the higher numbers the better,but we have found both of these above mentionednumbers to be more than adequate for our computingneeds. If you want to enjoy movies on your computer,either consider the higher numbers, or hooking the

computer up to your TV in your rig.

Expect to pay $175 to $200 for a decent 17 inchmonitor. As always, the price of these sorts of thingsmay continue to drop, or features to be added, but at


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39the writing of this book, those are the numbers thatare out there.

You may find some monitors that have speakers builtinto the monitor. Though this may be very attractivefor the RVer because it reduces the space used andweight added, 'BUYER BE AWARE'. The speakers onmany monitors are pretty light duty and may not beadequate for your listening enjoyment. So, be sure totest them out at the store if possible, or first thingwhen you unpack the new monitor in your rig. Hold on

to the receipt and packing material so that you canreturn the monitor if you find that the speakers are in-adequate. For more information on the Audio portionof our program, please see the chapter entitled 'TheAudio portion of our program - The speakers'.

Don't get an exterminator for this kind of

mouse!It's not too often that you find a mouse in your RV.

Though it is possible that they could climb up thepower cable and into your rig, it is not something yousee very often. More than likely, if you have a mousein your Moho, it's one that hooks up to your computer.One of the main reasons that computers became so

mainstream in the home is because of thedevelopment of the GUI (graphical user interface)operating systems. The mouse has become asimportant as the keyboard when it comes to gettingyour computer to respond to your desires. Unlike yourspouse, a mouse is completely under your control.


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40Additionally, they don't normally leave the milk jug outon the counter or buy jewelry that really isn't needed.But, don't toss out your spouse in exchange for amouse as a 'Mouse' doesn't really have the capacity tobring home the bacon like a spouse might. Allgoofiness aside though, the mouse has become veryimportant when it comes to computers these days.

The mouse is used to move the cursor to a point onthe screen where you can then, by pressing itsbuttons in different ways, get it to do things. Thepressing of a mouse's buttons are referred to as

'clicks'. A single click is referred to as a 'click' whereas if you press a given button in rapid successiontwice, it is referred to as a 'double click'.

The first mouse was developed by Xerox Corporationback in 1981. Ah, Xerox, they have been a trulypioneering corporation over the last 50 years. Iremember the story that my sister has told me about

how one day in the 1960's my dad came home andtold our mom that he had bought 100 shares of thiscompany called Xerox. My dad was well known forfrivolous expenditures, and to our mom, this was justanother one. She demanded that he cash in thoseshares of stock immediately because the money wasneeded elsewhere. So, he cashed it in a few shortdays later. Wow, our minds are boggled as to what

those 100 shares might have equated to today.

The first widely recognized mouse is the single buttonversion that Apple introduced in 1986. IBM wasn't farbehind with their two button version.


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41

Mice, just like the pesky kind, come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Some of those variations are just forlooks and the benefit of the 'Marketing guys', butother reasons for different shapes and sizes arebecause peoples’ hands come in different, shapes,sizes and dexterities. One of the common attributes toall mice is they have two buttons, one for the indexfinger and one for the middle finger.

One of the first things you may not know about a

mouse is that the operating system you use, can beconfigured in such a way that the mouse can either befor a right handed person or a 'South-paw' (lefties).With Microsoft® Windows®, you can adjust thesettings of the right and left buttons on the mouse sothat regardless of whether you are right or lefthanded, you can always use your index finger of yourdominate hand to trigger the primary functions on the

mouse.

Just from clarity stand point, let us say you are usingyour right hand to drive the mouse. Unless youhaven't turned your computer on yet, you've figuredout by now that the mouse button under your indexfinger is the one that pulls the trigger on most of thegraphical operations that you want to do with your

computer. The button that is under your middle fingeris in charge of bringing up a menu of alternatefunctions that you can do with the item that you haveselected. To select an item on the menu that has beenselected by 'right clicking' (the button under your


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42middle finger) on an object, simply move the mouse tothe item on the menu you want to select and thenclick on that menu item.

You can also use your mouse for what is referred to as‘Drag and Drop’. Drag and drop is a process whereyou press and hold down the button under your indexfinger on an item that you want to move from onelocation to another. For instance, let's say you want tomove 'Kodak Easy Share' icon on your desktop fromthe left hand side of your screen to the right hand side

of your screen.

Fig 2-11: The Kodak Easy share icon is in the secondcolumn, fourth from the bottom.

If we position the mouse over the 'Kodak Easy Share'icon and then press and hold the index finger button


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43down and then 'drag' the icon to the right hand half of the screen, that is where icon will land, as shown onthe next screen shot.

Fig. 2-12: Now, our icon is in its new position!

Now, lets say, you were able to drag the icon over, butonce you release the mouse button, the icon flew backover to the left hand group of the screen. This isbecause the Auto-Arrange is turned on. We will tacklethis issue later on in the book.

In order to change the left and right mouse buttons tofit your dominant hand configuration, there are a feweasy steps to do this. As shown on the followingpicture, click on the start button and then click on'Control Panel'. If the 'Control Panel' screen doesn't


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44look similar to the figure 2-13, click on 'Classic View'on the left hand part of the image. Next, in the ControlPanel, double-click on the 'Mouse' icon. For how toaccess the control panel in Windows XP, consultappendix 'C'.

Fig 2-13: The control panel in 'Classic View'.

Once you have clicked on the 'Mouse' icon, you shouldsee a screen similar to the one shown in the imagebelow.


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45

Fig 2-14: The mouse control panel

From the previous image (figure 2-14), simply click onthe first check box at the top that says 'Switch Primaryand Secondary Buttons'. This will allow you tocustomize your mouse so that you can use it with

which ever hand is the dominate one.

The Audio portion of our program - Thespeakers

Just like an RV without Windows® to view yoursurroundings, it is pretty hard to get the maximumamount of enjoyment out of your computer systemwithout a set of reasonable loud speakers attached toit. If you have a laptop, it more than likely has a set of loud speakers built in to it so that you can get somevoice and musical audio out of your computer. If youhave a desktop computer, there is a basic speaker


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46built into the box so that it can give you a 'veryannoying' beep, if you do something that doesn'tagree with it's very delicate digestive system.

In the case of that built in speaker of a desktopcomputer, the computer will not use this speaker foranything but a beep or honk. If you hook up yourlaptop computer to an external monitor, keyboard andmouse, you too may want to invest in a set of externalspeakers to attach to your laptop.

A trip down to your local computer store, homeentertainment store or office supply store will morethan likely yield you a large selection of speakers tochoose from. The type and quality of speakers youchoose, is entirely up to you and how you will usethem. If you enjoy listening to the symphony, classicalor other instrumental music from your desktopcomputer, you may want to spend the money for a

slightly better set of speakers. If however, Country orAcid Rock are more your fair, then any set off of E-baywill be fine since the music sounds like garbage anyway… JUST KIDDING! (I’ll be paying for that one sincemy wife is an avid Rock listener). For myself, I enjoyheavily instrumental music like 'Drum and BugleCorps'. It’s much like music played by high school orcollege marching bands. (www.dci.org).


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http://www.dci.org/

http://www.dci.org/



47

Chapter 9: Virus protection,firewalls and other things to keepyour PC safe.

Viruses and Protection against them

Though I am not a conspiracy theorist and as such Idon't buy into the idea that Virus protectioncompanies write viruses so that they can sell software

to remove these viruses; I do wonder who funds thesefolks who have the where-with-all to write thedebilitating programs that once installed on a PC, canbring things to a screeching halt.

As they say about pregnancy and STD's, the best wayto avoid them is abstinence. And if you're not willingto abstain, use protection and common sense. Thesame is true when it comes to computer viruses. Mostof us have heard of viruses that impact computers.I've only had one computer that was in my householdthat had a problem with viruses. Also, I've worked onplenty that friends have had that developed aproblem. In some ways I'm a liberal, but when itcomes to finances and computers, I'm a conservative

person. In other words, I steer clear of web sites thatpromise something for nothing and there are only alimited few that I will download from. Does thisabsolutely guarantee that I won't get a virus on myPC? No, it does not. I also use an Anti-virus and Anti-spy ware software on my machine to provide an


- 47 -- 47 -



48additional level of protection against the infection of my PC.

There are three companies out there are a largemajority of folks use to protect their PC's againstviruses. They are, in no particular order:

Norton - Anit-Virus®Symantics - PC-Cillin®Microsoft - One Care Live®

Any of these three packages will do a decent job of protecting your PC. But the thing you need to keep inmind is that virus developers or hackers are alwaysdeveloping new viruses. So, the virus softwarecompanies are always playing catch-up. It may take aweek or so, after a new virus is released, before thevirus software protection companies can identify andcome up with a way to identify and repair the threat

and then get it distributed.

I know of one story where the husband and wife of ahousehold went on a week long vacation. They left thehouse in the care of their 12 year old daughter andher grandmother. The grandmother wasn't particularlycomputer savvy or interested in computers. While thegrandmother was working to ensure the 12 year old

wasn't chatting on some undesired chat room orlooking at undesirable content, she didn't catch thefact that the young lady was visiting some web siteswhere she could download 'Free software'. Well, shedownloaded 30 different games and music sharing


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49packages during the time her parents were gone anda great many of them had viruses in them. Becausethere were so many, the virus software was over-runand could not clean them all.

The bad news was, the PC had to have all the contentsdeleted from the hard drive and the operating system,Software and files re-loaded. The good news was that,before the system was totally corrupt, the familybrought the PC to me. I was able to backup theneeded files to an external hard drive, saving precious

picture files and other documents.

Because of situations like this, I encourage you, if youever think you may let someone like another familymember use your PC, consider establishing a guestaccount on your PC and lock down the accessibility of that account so that software can not be downloadedfrom the internet. I know this may sound like a harsh

solution, but it is better to do that then to have tospend $100.00's of dollars to have someone likemyself repair your PC. Believe it or not, the story Irelayed to you above, repeats it self hundreds of timesevery day across our nation. So, this is a case where itis 'Better to be safe than sorry'.

Though part of me thinks the following is a bit

advanced for this 'Introductory' book, I think theinformation is important enough that it should becovered to give you a fighting chance before I get achance to come out with any follow up books.


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50If you do find that your computer is infected by a virusand the virus removal software doesn't seem to bedeleting the virus. Try the following, from the startbutton, click on the 'Run…' option. When Windowsasks you what you want to start enter MSCONFIG as isshown in the following screen shot.

Fig 9-1: This is the run dialog box with MSCONFIG.

Once you click 'Ok', you will see the MSCONFIGapplication. The MSCONFIG application is used todetermine which programs start up when your

computer boots up. The idea is to limit the number of programs that start up so as to limit the number of viruses that might be activated. As shown on thefollowing figure, on the general tab, click on the'Selective Startup' radio button. Then click on the'Load Start up Items' check box so as to un-check it.


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51 Then click 'Apply' and then click 'Ok'. When prompted,restart the computer.

Fig 9-2: System configuration General tab.

Once the computer is rebooted, it will inform you thatyou are in a 'Selective Startup' mode. Click 'Ok' toclear this message. Now, start your virus scannersoftware and put it through a full scan of your system.Doing this 'Selective Startup' may allow the virusscanner to more fully cleans the viruses from yourhard drive.

It should be noted that the use of the 'MSCONFIG' toolis not something you would normally do. It issomething that you do when you are in a situation


- 51 -- 51 -



52where the virus removal tool doesn't seem to beremoving the virus from your computer.


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53

PC File security

If you have kids or grand kids that like to get on acomputer and surf the internet. I encourage you toeither tightly lock it down so that they can not install'File Sharing' software on your PC, or have a PC that isonly for their use.

File sharing software is used primarily to share music

files between individuals Personal Computers. LimeWire® and Napster® are a couple of examples of filesharing software packages. These software packagesallow others to 'Peer' into your computer and see whatmusic files you may want to share. It also allows youto do the same on someone else's computer.

Though both Lime Wire and Napster have made an

effort to protect the PC's their software is installed on,they do provide one more avenue for hackers to gainaccess to your PC and download files that you may nothave intended for anyone to have access too. I'veheard many accounts where folks have had their taxreturns, Excel spreadsheets, Word documents andother important files copied from their PC's, un-

willingly. So, as with virus's, if you don't have to installit, don't do it.

Firewall Protection


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54Another thing that is important to have installed onyour PC is a 'Firewall'. Firewalls can either be ahardware device or a piece of software. For mostpersonal computers, the firewall is a piece of softwarethat is installed on the PC. Hardware firewalls arenormally installed on large corporate networks. If youare running an operating system of Windows XP ornewer, you are in luck, a 'Firewall' comes included inthe operating system and is turned on by default.

The purpose of a firewall is to keep others from

looking at your computer and manipulating it fromsome other place on the internet or network that youare connected too. Firewalls may prevent somesoftware applications from working correctly. So, theuse of a firewall may complicate matters for you. Nonethe less, I think it is a good idea to have a Firewallinstalled and running.

Much hoo haa has been made by the good folks at'Apple computer' about a windows based PC always'prompting' the user to respond to this question orthat question. They claim that their computer is mucheasier to use because of this. And though I wont getinto the debate of if an 'Apple' PC or a WINDOWSbased PC is easier to use (It's kind of like the old 'Ford,Chevy, Dodge' debate), I will say that the reason the

Windows fire wall prompts you so much is becausethere is so much more in the way of viruses andhackers that attack WINDOWS based PC's because of their larger install base. Also, hackers aren't brilliantpeople, any more brilliant than you or me. But training


- 54 -- 54 -



55on what makes a Windows based PC work is mucheasier to come by than that for a Apple based PC.

I will cover 'Firewall' management in my next book,'Managing your computer on the road.

Microsoft update

No vendor releases software that is bug free. Andneither Microsoft or Apple are immune from bugs

being release with their software. A bug is basically asection of code that when given a certain set of circumstances, will cause the computer to giveincorrect responses, or worse yet, cause the computerto crash and shut down.

When Microsoft finds out about these 'Bugs', they willput out a 'Fix' also known as a 'Patch' which 'Patches'

the bug in the software. These 'Fixes' are sent out viaa process known as 'Microsoft Update'. You shouldhave your PC touch base with Microsoft'sheadquarters on occasion and download the latestfixes for the software that is installed on your PC. Inorder to do this, start up Internet Explorer. Once yourweb browser is up and running, click on the 'Tools'

menu on the far right hand side. This will cause the'Tools' menu to be displayed, which is shown asfollows.


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56

Fig 9-3: This is the tools menu in Internet Explorer.

When you are presented with the screen shot shownabove, click on the 'Windows Update' entry. This willcause the Windows Update web site to be accessed.Now you remember how I mentioned earlier in thebook that for every rule there is an exception, will thefollowing is the same. The rule I indicated earlier wasthat all web sites start with www. For the most partthis is true, but the Microsoft update web site is one of

those exceptions. If you are not using InternetExplorer, you will have to manually enter the web siteaddress. The web site address for Microsoft's updateweb site is Update.microsoft.com. Entering this website address into the URL field on your web browsershould also cause the update web site to be displayed.


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57

Fig 9-4: This is the initial screen for the Microsoftupdate process.

In the first screen shown, click on the 'Express' button. The Microsoft update web site will then take inventory

of all of the Microsoft software on your PC. It will thendetermine what updates need to be applied to your PCbased on that inventory that is taken.


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58

Fig 9-5: This is what the screen looks like whileinventory is being taken.

Once the inventory is complete, you will be presentedwith a list of what updates are available for your PC.

Fig 9-6: This is a list of the updates for my PC after thescan is complete.


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59

As you can see there are three updates that areavailable for my PC. All you have to do at this point isclick on the 'Install Updates' button. This will cause theupdates to be downloaded and then installed.Depending on your internet connection speed, thisprocess could take a while.

Fig 9-7: This is the status screen for the download andupdates.

The previous screen shows the status of thedownloads and the subsequent installs of the updates.

First the program will download all of the updates andthen install them. In this screen shot, you can see thatit is downloading the first of 3 updates. This updatingprocess may take a while. Also, it may require areboot of your pc when the updates are complete.


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60 The reason updates are sometimes required isbecause services may be running that are going to bechanged as part of this update. The cleanest way toensure that the updates are applied and everything inthe computer is synced up, is to reboot the computer.Some of the software that I use as a programmer alsogets updates like this. However, because Microsoftassumes that IT folks are more 'Computer savey', theirinstructions will sometimes tell us the services to turnoff before the update is applied so as to avoid therebooting of a computer.

When the update is complete, your PC will have all of the latest fixes for the Microsoft software that youhave purchased.


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61

Chapter 10 - If all else fails…

… ask for help. So many of us are afraid to ask forhelp because we are afraid it will make us look'Stupid'. The reality is, I know more about some thingsthan other people, but others know a lot about othertopics than I do. I may know more about computersthan you do, but maybe you would be the person Iwant to turn to in the event that I want to learn how torepair an engine, bait a fish hook, knit a sweater orcook 'Egg plant Parmesan'.

Additionally, it is impossible to write about everypossible topic and write every possible answer toevery possible question, especially when it comes tocomputers are concerned. As a result, I am here to

help you. A lot of times when someone has a problemwith a computer, it is easiest if I can see what they areseeing. If you contact me with a problem, I may needyou to initiate a support request. Doing this allows meto remote into your PC and help you out with what youare working on. To initiate a support request, click onthe start button and then from the displayed menu,click on the 'Help and Support' entry, this will cause

the screen shown in Figure 10-1 to be displayed.


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62

Fig 10-1: This is the 'Help and Support' screen.

From the above screen click on the 'Tools' entry whichis shown in the lower right hand corner of the form.

This will cause the following screen to be displayed…


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63

Fig 10-2 - This is the tools menu.

From the items shown in the screen shot in figure in10-2, click on the item that says 'Remote Assistance'.


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64Fig 10-3: This is where you initiate a support request.

From the screen shown above, click on the 'InviteSomeone to help you' link that is shown.

Fig 10-4: This is the e-mail portion of the Remoteassistance screen.

In the 'Remote assistance' screen that is displayed,enter my e-mail address in the 'Type and e-mailaddress' field as is shown above. After you have donethat, click on the 'Invite this Person'.


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65

Fig 10-5: This is where you enter the message youwant to include as part of your request.

As you can see in the above screen shot, you canenter a brief message to me as part of your requestfor help.

Fig 10-6: This is where you enter how long theconnection will be.


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66

In the above screen shot, you select how long you willallow me to be connected to your PC. During this timeI have full control over your PC. After that, theconnection, allowing me or anyone else for thatmatter to control your PC will be closed. Once youhave entered the amount of time the connection willbe open as well as the password, click on the 'SendInvitation' button.

Fig 10-7: If you normally use a web e-mail client you'llget this dialog box.

If you are using Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Expressfor your e-mail client, you may not get the dialog boxshown in figure 10-7, more than likely the invitationwill be sent. If you are using a web based e-mail client,and you get the above dialog box, the click 'Ok'. Youwill then be presented with a screen that lookssomething like the following. The invitation document


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67will be saved in 'My Documents' which is fine.

Fig 10-8: Use the default file name and click 'Save' for

the invitation.

Once you have saved the invitation, open your webbased e-mail client and start an e-mail to'[email protected]' as is shown in figure 10-9.

Fig 10-9: When doing your e-mail include theinvitation.


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68After you pen your e-mail, include the invitation as anattachment to the e-mail. This will send me a link sothat I can respond to your invitation and connect toyour computer.

The cost of a support request…

Just so you know, the following is the pricing for mysupport requests.

If you purchased this book, you are entitled to onefree e-mail question. I will do up to 15 minutes of remote access to your computer, if needed to resolveyour question. Additionally, if you call me, I'll give you15 minutes of my time to answer your question overthe phone.

After the initial 15 minutes, my rate is $40.00 a hour

until January 1, 2010. After that, consult my websitefor pricing.

E-mail: [email protected]: 209-304-2966

Appendix 'A' - Quick Solutions


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mailto:[email protected]




69

Hardware

Problem: Software unresponsive - Has your

computer becomes non-responsive to anything youwant it to do, The cursor doesn't move when youmove the mouse.

Solution 1 - Press and hold 'Control+ALT+DEL'. If nothing happens see solution 2. If you get an optionthat allows you to restart your computer, selectrestart. Once the computer finishes rebooting, things

should be 'Ok' now.

Solution 2 - Press and hold the power button down for10 seconds. This will cause the computer to shutdown. Then power up the computer again. Thingsshould be OK now.

Problem: Printer Unresponsive - Your printer orscanner becomes un-responsive. Check messagescreen on device and there is no indication of aproblem.

Solution 1 - Check device icon on system tray. If thereis an error message take the action indicated whenyou double click on the icon. If there is no message,

see solution 2.

Solution 2 - If this problem involves a printer, bring up'Services' and restart the 'print spooler' service. If thedevice involved is not a printer or this did not resolvethe problem, the see solution 3.


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70

Solution 3 - Press and hold the power button down onthe Printer or Scanner for 10 seconds until it shutsdown. Restart device.


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71

Software - Operating system

Problem: Not all of computer screen isaccessable - You find that you are moving themouse around on the screen, and you don't seem tohave full access to all of the real-estate on the screen.

Solution 1 - Try pressing the 'ESC' key, this may getyou out of the limiting function you have inadvertentlyentered into.

Software - Microsoft Outlook

Problem: E-mail is not downloading - You arevisiting an RV park and find that your e-mail is notsending or receiving correctly. It may appear that e-mail is coming in correctly, but not sending correctly.

Solution 1 - This may be due to the type of Wirelessinternet host you are dealing with. The solution that Ihave found that fixes this problem most of the time isto go to '(e-mail) Accounts' in the Tools menu inMicrosoft outlook. If presented with a list of e-mailaccounts, select the one you normally use. Then,select the option for 'Changing' an account setting.

Next, click on the 'More settings' button, foundtowards the lower right hand corner of the screen. Inthe more settings dialog box, select the 'OutgoingServer' tab. Uncheck the check box for the 'Myoutgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication'. Now,


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72click the 'Ok' and next buttons until all dialog boxesare closed. Try the e-mail send-receive again. Yourproblem should be resolved.


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73

Appendix B - Some of my favoriteweb sites

The following is a list of some of my favorite web sitesthat I use for various information about RV'ing andalso some of the ones I use for computer related stuff.I've also thrown in some of my favorites that I use forPersonal stuff as well.

Website DescriptionWWW.RV.NET This has a large number of

Forums (Places to post andfind information) on almostanything RV related. Thereare areas for Fiver owners,

Tent Trailer Owners, Class'A' Moho owners, basically,

the whole shootin' match.WWW.CAMPINGWORLD.COM

This is the web site whereyou can purchase anythingyou can find at thevenerable Camping worldstore to enhance your RVexperience.

WWW.RVPARKREVIEWS.

COM

This web site is where I look

for comprehensive, un-biased reviews of RV parksthroughout the nation.

WWW.THERVITGUY.COM This is the web site hostedby yours truly in regards to


- 73 -- 73 -

http://www.rv.net/

http://www.campingworld.com/


http://www.rvparkreviews.com/


http://www.thervitguy.com/

http://www.rv.net/








74RV'ing and Computers

WWW.MICROSOFT.COM Believe it or not, I go to thisweb site many times forinformation about Microsoftsoftware.

WWW.DELL.COM The main web site for the'DELL' Computercorporation.

WWW.HP.COM The main web site for the'HP' Computer corporation.

WWW.PETFINDER.COM One of my favorite personal

stuff web sites for lookingfor our next best friend. Alarge number of theHumane Societies throughout the US, post thepooches for adoption on thisweb page.

WWW.GOODSAMCLUB.C

OM

This is a great place to hook

up with other RV'er's andfind out information aboutup-coming samborees.

WWW.MSNBC.COM I like this web site a lotbecause it contains a lot of good news content. ThoughI'm sure every news

organization has it's own'Bias', this one has a Animalsection under the 'Health'area, that my wife and I findvery helpful and interesting.

WWW.YAHOO.COM Search engine and home


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http://www.microsoft.com/

http://www.dell.com/

http://www.hp.com/

http://www.petfinder.com/

http://www.msnbc.com/

http://www.yahoo.com/

http://www.microsoft.com/

http://www.dell.com/

http://www.hp.com/

http://www.petfinder.com/

http://www.msnbc.com/

http://www.yahoo.com/



75page that gives youprobably the best way tocustomize your home page.

WWW.EXCITE.COM Search engine and homepage that gives you theability to customize yourhome page to some degreefor content that you desire.


- 75 -- 75 -

http://www.excite.com/

http://www.excite.com/



76

Appendix C - Windows XPequivalents

This appendix will help to give the windows XPequivalent of something that was presented in thebook as windows Vista information.


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77

Glossary

- A -

ASCII - This stands for 'American Standard Code forInformation Interchange'. It is a cross referencebetween various characters and the 'ASCII' code thatthey are stored in a computer.

Auto-Arrange - This is a setting on the desktop thatwill Automatcially arrange the icons on your desktop

screen.

- B -

BIOS - Built In Operating System - These are theinstructions that the computer uses for its initialstartup.

BIT - The smallest unit of measure for computer data.It is either on or off and consequently represents a'One' or a 'Zero'.

Boot Up - This is the process of the computer startingup. The term comes from idea of pulling up by your'Boot straps'.

BYTE - This is generally synonymous with a characteror letter. Generally, 8 bits makes up one byte.

- C -


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78Context Sensitive menu - This is a menu that variesbased on the item that you clicked on. For examplethe menu you are presented will look one way if youclick on a folder and a different way if you click on amusic file.

Copy - This function will copy the selected text, file orsection of an image from the current location. Use'Paste' to insert the selected Text, file or section to anew location.

Cursor - This indicates the current focus point for thecomputer. The cursor could be in the form of a verticalbar on a document or the form of an 'Arrow' on agraphical document like a picture.

Cut - This function will cut the selected text, file orsection of an image from the current document. Use'Paste' to move the selected Text, file or section to a

new location.

- D -

Date/Time - As a menu option inserts the current dateand time at the current location of the cursor.

DSL - Digitial Subscriber Line - Highspeed internet

connection.

DPI - Dots Per Inch. This is a unit of measure of howmany dots of color make up a scanned image.


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79Duplex - This means basically to do things two-way. Inregards to printing, it means to print on both sides of the paper. In the terms of communications, it meanstwo way communications.

- E -

Exit - Exit the application.

- F -

Find… - As a menu option indicates that we are goingto enter into a process of finding some word or phrasein the current document.

Find Next - As a menu option indicates that we wantto find the next occurrence of a given word or phrasethat we just did a find for that is after the currentCursor position.

- G -

Goto… - As a menu option allows you to immediatelygo to a given line number in the document.

Geocaching - A hobby where you use a GPS receiver, aset of coordinates and your deductive skill to find

treasures hidden all over the world.www.geocaching.com

- H -


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80Hibernate - Entering the hibernate mode means thatthe computer will save the open desktop and the openfiles to the hard drive and then power down the PC.

This means when the computer is turned back on, theoperating system opens up the computer in the samestate in which it entered hibernate. Similarly see'Stand by'.

- I -

Internet Protocol - This is a method of communicating

across the internet. For instance, an IP Address is a'Internet Protocol Address'. This is the unique addressassigned to a piece of computer equipment that hasaccess to the internet.

- J -

Justify - This has to do with alignment of characters on

a text document. If a document is Left justified, thetext all starts in the same place on the left side of thedocument. Right Justified means that the text all linesup on the right hand side of the document.

- K -

Kilo-bytes - In the metric system a Kilo means one-

thousand units, such as in 'Kilo-grams' means an itemweights 1000 Grams. A kilo-byte representsapproximately 1000 Bytes. In actuality, a Kilo-byterepresents 1024 Bytes.


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81- L -

Landscape - This is a page orientation where if youwere to print a picture on it, the picture would bewider than it is tall. Landscape print orientation is alsoused for spreadsheets.

- M -

Megabyte - Mega is synonomous with a million. So,this represents roughly 1 million bytes.

Modem - This is a piece of equipment that MODulatesand DEMotdulates audio tones so that your computercan communicate across the voice portion of the

Telephone network.

- N -

New… - As a menu option allows you to create a newblank document.

NTSC - National Television System Committee. This isa format of DVD recordings that are used as astandard in North America.

- O -

Open… - As a menu option allows you to select anexisting document to open somewhere on your PC.

- P -


- 81 -- 81 -



82Page Setup… - As a menu option allows you to set upthe page orientation such as 'Landscape' or portrait.

Paste - This will insert a previously cut or copied Text,file or portion of an image into the current location of the cursor.

Portrait - This is a page orientation where the page isprinted so it is taller than it is wide, much like aportrait (or painting) is viewed.

Print… - As a menu option allows you to determineand control the printing of the current document youare working on.

- Q -

Que - This is similar to a 'Stack' of documents. Such asa Stack of documents are qued up for printing.

- R -

RAM - Random Access Memory.

Replace… - As a menu option is the process of lookingfor a word or phrase and replacing it with a new wordor phrase.

ROM - Read Only Memory.

- S -


- 82 -- 82 -



83Save - As a menu option allows you to save thechanges you have made to the existing file in anexisting location.

Save As… - As a menu option allows you to save thedocument as a new file name or in a new location.


- 83 -- 83 -



84-S (Con't) -

Select All - As a menu option this highlights the entiredocument as if you were going to copy the entiredocument to another document.

Short Cut - A series of Keystrokes that will executecommonly used functions within the software. Stand by mode - Stand by mode is where selectedperipherals of your computer are shut down. The only

portions of the computer that remain active are theCPU and the power applied to the memory. This allowsthe computer to switched on very quickly. The onlydraw back is that while the computer is in stand bymode, it is still drawing some power. Similarly, see'Hibernate'.

String - A string is a set of characters that may make

up one or more words.

S-Video - Super Video connector that appears onmost laptops. There is a cable that will connect to thisplug for driving your home TV set off of your laptop sothat you can watch digital slide shows and such.

- T -

Tool Bar - This is where the most frequently used'Tools' are placed in an application. The tool bar is, asa standard, place at the top of the application screen.


- 84 -- 84 -



85- U -

Undo - Undo a previous just made to the document.UPS - Uninterruptible Power Supply - Batter back upfor your primary power for your computer equipment.


- 85 -- 85 -



86

- V -

Video Adapter - This converts the computer resultsinto a video image that can be displayed on thescreen of your computer.

- W -

Wifi - Wireless Fidelity - Wireless highspeed internetaccess.

WWW - This stands for World Wide Web.

- X -

XML - This is short for 'eXtensible Markup Language'.XML is a language that us used extensively in webapplications and in some newer microsoft applications

for not only application development but also in somemethods of data storage.

- Y -

Y2K - The is used to refer to the 'Year 2000'. Thoughsome feared that this was going to be the end of theworld, that did not turn out to be the case.

- Z -

ZX-81 - One of the first personal computers that wasmass marketed. It was sold in kit form and also pre-


- 86 -- 86 -



87assembled. It was one of the first to have a membranekeyboard.


- 87 -- 87 -



88

Index

Auto-Arrange.............43Context Sensitive menu

...............................78Copy..........................78Cursor........................78Cut.............................78Date/Time..................78DPI.............................78

Drag and drop............42Duplex.......................79Exit............................79File Sharing................53Find............................79Find Next...................79Firewall......................54Geocaching................79Goto...........................79GUI.............................39LCD............................38

Lime Wire...................53Microsoft Update.......55MSCONFIG.................50Napster......................53New............................81Open..........................81Page Setup................82Print...........................82

Prologue.....................89Remote assistance... .64Replace......................82S-Video......................34Save...........................83Save As......................83Select All....................84Selective Startup.......50support request...61, 64Undo..........................85Video card..................34


- 88 -- 88 -



89

Prologue

Thank you so much for taking the time to read mybook. I really did find it a joy writing it. Below is whereyou can get information about my e-mail address andmy web page. Please feel free to go out and drop mea line letting me know what you think about the book.I will be sure to add any relevant content to the nextedition of my book.

If you are more comfortable, please use the followingpage to send me your written comments.

Web site: www.thervitguy.comE-mail address: [email protected]

I have a couple of other books in the works that youmay find of interest.

Managing your computer on the road - Thissecond book in the series takes over where the firstbook 'Campin' and computin' leaves off. It is intendedfor those that are somewhat computer saavey, butwould like to know more about how to better manager

their computer and gather what makes them tick. Thisbook is currently being written and should be releasedin 2010.

Running your computer based business on theroad - I'm currently working on the outline for the


- 89 -- 89 -







90third book in the series. It will discuss the in's andout's of running a computer based business from yourRV. It will discuss some of the must haves for a RVhomed Computer based business as well as somethings to get informed about when it comes to the taximplications of running a business from your rig. Thisthird book should be released in late 2010.

Now, go out and enjoy the open road and see all of the wonderful places out there. Don't spend too muchtime using your computer if you can be outside

exploring. But I'm hoping that with this new book asyour tool, you can get more out of your computer andbe more comfortable with it.

Remember: Chase your dreams today, for tomorrow;they may not be there to chase!


- 90 -- 90 -



91


- 91 -- 91 -



92

Get back to me on that!!!

Hi there,

Please use the lower part of this page if there is somecomment you would like to send to me about the bookor if there is something that isn't quite clear to you.

Just cut out this page, fill it out, fold it in half and mailit to me. I'll do my best to get back to you with ananswer within a week.

Thank you so much for giving my book a read!

Respectfully

Eric Lynn Anderson

Comment/Question:___________________________________ ___

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________

Name: __________________________________


- 92 -- 92 -



93Address: __________________________________

__________________________________ __________________________________

Phone: _____________________ E-Mail Address: __________________________________

---------------------------- Fold Here--------------------------------------------


- 93 -- 93 -



94

To: Eric AndersonP.O. Box 552Plymouth, Ca. 95669