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Drive the goblins out of your converged network bySmall businesses converging voice, video and data traffic sometimes end up with haunted networks, but you can exorcise the...
What one buyer's experience with Dell tells us about customer service.
Loyal customers can be tough to find. So why do some companies run them off with crappy customer service? Often because the employees who care have no authority to fix problems, and those with the authority don't care. Today, let's hear the story of reader Boyd, his Dell XPS420, and the data corruption problems he had when running a disk array. Then let's hear how two other small service companies do much better support.
Boyd wanted a high powered desktop with RAID 0 (Redundant Array of Independent Disks). RAID 0 isn't really redundant, but it combines two drives into a single volume, spreading data across both physical drives which the user sees as one big drive.
Since two disks acting as one drive isn't typical on a desktop, Boyd carefully checked the Dell Web site to be sure the PC he wanted supported the feature. It did and he bought one. The Dell XPS420, with an Intel Quad Core Processor, starts at $799 and goes up depending on amount and type of memory, hard disk size and other details.
Continued
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Canon has announces a new addition to its HDV camcorder range: the Legria HV40. Recording HDV1080i images to tape, the Legria HV40 is the successor to the HV30.
One of the many smart-phone rumors that have been floating around prior to this year's CES is that T-Mobile will unveil the G2, the successor to the Google Android-based G1. People have speculated that the HTC Touch HD, already available overseas, will be rebranded for the United States as the next...
Vuzix on Monday announced the Wrap 920AV, a new pair of sunglass-style video glasses that work with iPods and the iPhone. Pricing was not announced; Vuzix expects to ship the new video glasses in Spring, 2009.
Cowon is known for its high-quality portable video players; and the company's newest model, the O2, doesn't disappoint. With its gorgeous touch screen and crystal-clear sound, the flash-based Cowon O2 ($220 for 8GB; $250 for 16GB; $300 for 32GB) is sure to please customers looking for a fairly...
The tech-world's epicenter shifts to Las Vegas this week as the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show kicks off. Over the next week expect a parade of shiny, tiny, and wireless gadgets from CES exhibitors--including a 3G watch-phone from LG Electronics, a wafer-thin TV from Samsung that's...
David Yarborough, President of Computer-Plus, talks about the printer support business while standing over the smoking printer he uses to catch attention during the ITEC conferences. Guess what's the most disgusting thing he ever dug out of a printer?
Enter Ancient Worlds And Ditch Glitzy Graphics
Jan. 05, 2009
ADOM ("Ancient Domains Of Mystery") is a typical RPG, in which you play an adventurer of a variety of classes (including Elementalist, Farmer, and Necromancer), from a variety of races (human, assorted types of elf, ...
Have a Healthy 2009 with DietPower Software
Jan. 05, 2009
Eating healthier food and losing weight are great goals for most of us--and also very difficult for most of us. DietPower helps you balance your diet by giving regular feedback on your dietary and exercise habits. First ...
Recover data from optical media with CDRoller
Dec. 31, 2008
CDRoller purports to recover data from any type of UDF/ISO9660/FAT32 disc that can be written: CD, DVD, HD DVD, Blu-ray. It's always tricky testing recovery programs, especially those that work with optical discs. All I ...
Scan and send docs with digital postman pro
Dec. 31, 2008
Digital Postman Pro is a straightforward program that has one simple job and does it. It allows you to put a document on your scanner (or load one from your hard disk), and then e-mail it. While the hard disk use is of ...
Turn your PC into a piano With Pianissimo
Dec. 31, 2008
Let's get the eval out of the way up front: Pianissimo sounds great. But there are a lot of great-sounding software piano VSTi's (short for Virtual Studio Technology instrument, a software synthesizer plug-in standard ...
Newzie fulfills the need for RSS feeds
Dec. 31, 2008
Newzie serves up your RSS feeds and more in a good-looking, easy-to-use tabbed interface. It faces much competition from other good, free news readers, but it easily imports feeds from other programs and is worth trying ...
Ashampoo PowerUp: Optimization for power users
Dec. 30, 2008
All-in-one system optimizer Ashampoo PowerUp includes a slew of helpful utilities to make your PC perform faster, including a Registry Cleaner, bootup optimizer, overall system tuneup tools, and features that customize ...
Your Fitness Resolutions: This Tech Can Help
Jan. 03, 2009
Staying in shape is really about two things. First you have to find an aerobic activity that you enjoy, or at least don't consider drudgery. And second you have to find a diet that is healthful, but not so boring and ...
Rainmeter's Widgets Watch Your System
Jan. 03, 2009
Rainmeter can put system monitors, news displays, and other widgets on your desktop. Its resource-usage widget in particular looks good and offers good info. That said, Rainmeter in its current form is meant mostly for ...
Intel Core i7 Desktops Dominate PC Charts
Jan. 03, 2009
Intel's new quad-core Core i7 processors were only launched in late November, but desktop systems featuring the CPUs--from the likes of Dell, Falcon Northwest, Micro Express, and others--have already made an impact on ...
I am sorry to say this is the last column of the Branch Office Best Practices newsletter. I want to first thank all of the readers for the past three years who have communicated with me, challenged me, and most importantly, who have used this forum as a way to improve their branch strategies.... 2
Small businesses converging voice, video and data traffic sometimes end up with haunted networks, but you can exorcise the...
What can we do to protect our Cisco routers against the IOS rootkit software that was described at the EUSecWest conference...
Does packet filtering apply in case of MPLS? I am trying to join my main domain from a different town; I have a VPN tunnel...