Friday, November 21, 2008

What's an IP Address?

An IP Address can be compared to an address used for sending and recieving packages.
An IP address is split into 4 sections.
Like your the address you write on a letter: you put the name, the street address, the city, state, postal code, and the country.
The subnet mask makes a division in the address, defining which part of the address corresponds to the network and the other to the host computer.

You could as well think of it as a phone number.
You have a specific number people use to call you.
As well you can use specific phone numbers to reach other people.
IP addresses don't have to be unique to just you at every moment, but you interent provider will provide you with one while it is in use and then rotate your address if you so choose.
To see more info on IP addresses see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address#IP_subnetworks

Should I download Google Desktop?

This depends upon the performance of the system you are using.

For example, the Basleine, or normal performance for my Vista box:


The performance of my Vista box after downloading Google Desktop:
From what I see the system is having to read more times from the disk and then as well the system memory is being used more by Google Desktops appearance.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Why to Baseline your Vista PC

Vista uses a much larger amount of the CPU and Memory. Baselining will allow you to see the normal operating status of your computer.

To give you an example; I am a user on a Vista PC. My "computer" begins to slow down, the time to change from one program to another is increased and as I type in my word processor program I can type faster than the screen can display it.
A performance issue we have with my "computer". If I had previously created a baseline, then I would be able to look at current operating status of my "computer" and find what the disturbances are that are causing this bottleneck by comparing the current "slowed" status to the past "normal" status. By doing this I can look recognize a problem and find a solution.

What you want to look for when creating a baseline are these 3 factors: CPU performance, RAM/Memory performance, and Physical Disk/Hard Disk performance.

Using my PC you will see a good baseline

By accessing The Reliability and Performance Monitor we can see a live current view of what is happening to our "computer" at current. As you look in the left pane and open the monitoring Tools below the Reliability and Performance Monitor click on Performance Monitor. In the Center Pane now click on the green plus at the top of the screen and an counter. By doing this you will be able to have a good look at really what level your computer is performing at and by this you will create a good baseline.


We are going to track these three in our counter:



% Processor Time



Disk Read Byte/sec



Memory: Available Mbytes







Tracking


REFLECTION:
To baseline a computer is as an athlete having performance check-ups before switchin to a new training plan.

I have learned that if I had known the information on the imortance of and how to baseline my friend's computer would not have the perdicament it has now.

To baseline a computer is to your own ability and equipment before embarking to climb a mountain.