Internet Service Providers For Mac OS 7 - A Word of Advice

Internet Service Providers For Mac OS 7 - A Word of Advice

I recently learned, to my amazement, that there are people out there looking on search engines every day, trying to find Internet service providers that work with Mac OS 7 (which, if you want to get technical, is actually called Mac *System* 7 since Apple stopped using the name "System" many years ago and switched to "OS" starting with OS 8 -- short for Operating System 8).

The reason this amazed me was that it's really pretty surprising that there are that many computers old enough to run System 7 even working still, let alone enough of them for there to be enough searches being done to even make a blip on the search engine trends.

On the off chance that you're one of those people who is looking to find Internet Service Providers for Mac OS 7 (System 7), I've written this article for you.

First I'll briefly try to answer your question, and then I strongly suggest you read my article on the hidden dangers in keeping old computers. Mac System 7 was replaced over 11 years ago, in 1997, which is a *very* long time ago in computer terms.

It's really a very very bad idea to try to keep using computers that old, and I go into more detail in that article.

So here's the thing. If you still have a working computer running System 7, in theory you might actually be able to use it with most ISPs (Internet Service Providers).

Maybe.

Now if your computer only has a dialup modem, then you may be out of luck. Most ISPs have an absolute minimum speed requirement of a 28.8kbps modem, which your computer may or may not have, depending on exactly how old it is.

If your computer has a network port built into it, which a fair number of Apple's early to mid 1990s-era Macs actually had (which was fairly unusual at the time), then you might have a little more luck.

But the thing is, either way, you're not going to get any tech support from the ISP, and you'll basically have to lie to them about your computer's "specs" and tell them it's something more modern, or they'll tell you it won't work.

Several years ago, I was hired by a client with a mid 1990s Mac running System 7 or OS 8 (I forget now, it has been a few years) and they wanted to get DSL.

The phone company had told her she couldn't do it, but when she called me and told me the exact computer she had, I said it'd theoretically be possible to do, since she had a built-in network port.

I was able to hook up the DSL connection and go into her Control Panel settings and set the TCP/IP control panel to use DHCP, which is really the only setting that has to be made. The computer connected, and was able to check email and browse *some* websites.

But don't get your hopes up *too* high -- again, this was probably 5 years ago, and 5 years is a long time in computer years -- the Web has moved on a lot since then, and while she may have been able to visit a fair number of websites then, the number has been dwindling year after year as web sites move on with newer technology.

So the basic answer here is yes, it *may* be possible, but it will work poorly at best, many websites will just not work or may even crash your computer, and in my opinion, it's really not worth it.

It's like trying to drive an old and rickety horse-drawn carriage on the Autobahn -- theoretically it might work, but in practice it's probably not a good idea.

And I'm not exaggerating with that comparison, either; it's all due to something called Moore's Law, which I talk about in my article on the dangers of keeping old computers for too long.

So again, if you're still using an old computer from the mid or early 1990s that's running Mac System 7, get a new computer now.

I'm serious, and I really mean this as genuinely good advice that I really hope you'll follow: a computer that old will break down soon; it's only a matter of time. And while it's working, you won't be able to do most of what a modern computer can do, and what you can do will work slowly and poorly.

If you have any important files on the computer, you're already going to have trouble moving them to a modern Mac, and if the computer breaks down, you might have no chance of saving your files at all.

I don't want to end this article on a down note, but please do read my article "The Hidden Dangers of Keeping Old Computers For Too Long" to learn more about this, and please heed my advice or you will end up regretting it.

I really do hope you listen.

Choosing the right kind of Internet service provider (ISP)

In this article I'm going to explain some of the differences between different options for ways to connect to the Internet.

First off, let me explain the two *general* types of Internet connection before getting more specific about some of the more specific types within these two general categories.

When looked at as simply as possible (or as "big chunk" as possible, to use a term I explain on my special report "Secrets Of Skyrocketing Your Computer Skills" that's available on CD from my website) there are two common types of Internet connection: dialup and "broadband".

Dialup is, of course, the old fashioned way to connect to the Internet, using a dialup modem. Dialup modems have been around far longer than most people realize: I bought my first one around 1986.

It was a "1200 bps" (bps is a measurement of speed) modem that I paid about $200 for back in the day. Dialup modems capped out at 56K bps a good ten years or more ago, and now sell for under $10 if you know where to look.

So that's about 46 times faster, and 20 times cheaper.

Now you might be thinking "I think I read somewhere that my computer has a 56K modem in it. That must be pretty fast then!"

If you're thinking that, you're wrong.

Dialup is old technology, and hasn't really improved in about ten years, which if you remember my article from a couple of weeks ago where I mentioned Moore's Law, means it's about 150 years out of date in relative terms!

So the simple way to think of it is, dialup = slow.

Many people are using dialup still, either because they don't see any reason not to, or they have no choice where they live.

But what I want to tell you is that even if you are currently using dialup and think "it's good enough, so why bother upgrading?" -- you're making a mistake.

I'll tell you why in a minute.

First, let me explain the general alternative to dialup. It's called "broadband", which basically just means "fast ".

Broadband comes in a number of varieties, with a range of speeds, all of them a lot faster than dialup.

Aside from being much faster, broadband generally doesn't tie up your phone line, so people don't get busy signals if they try calling you, and you can make phone calls while you're online.

The two most common types of broadband are cable and DSL. Cable internet comes over the same cable as cable TV, and is offered by a variety of companies with different brand names -- Roadrunner is one example of cable internet.

DSL actually comes over your phone lines like dialup, but is much faster and, like cable Internet, you can make phone calls while you're connected.

You also have less-used options like satellite, which gives you fairly fast connections to the Internet over a satellite dish like satellite TV. It is pretty slow for broadband, but a lot faster than dialup. It's mostly used by people out in the boonies who don't have any better option.

What I suggest to most people is to get DSL, if they can get it where they live. In most cases it's only slightly more expensive than dialup is, and in some cases it's the same price or even cheaper!

It's not usually as fast as cable Internet, but it is plenty fast for most people, and lets you do a lot of things that just aren't possible (or are very very annoyingly slow) on dialup, such as watching videos on YouTube or other sites, or downloading large files.

Which brings me to one of the biggest reasons I think people should stop using dialup and switch to some kind of broadband -- downloading large files.

You might think that you never do that, but not so fast... Maybe you do (or should be) and don't realize it.

First off, people are sending around large pictures (or several smaller pictures) via , and even videos via email all the time now. If you're on dialup and you tried checking your email one day and it never seemed to be able to get the new messages, or it took forever to do it, you may have become a victim of this.

So there's that reason.

But there's an even more important one: computers have things called "security updates" or "patches" which are critically important to download. It's important for both Windows or Macs.

Without these patches, your computer can be vulnerable to attacks by viruses, worms, and more.

But these security updates (think Windows Update, or Macs' Software Update) sometimes can be very large files.

So large that it can take hours and hours, or even DAYS to download. And if you don't download them, your computer is vulnerable.

Which leaves you between a rock and a hard place if you're still using dialup.

So think about switching if you haven't already, and forward this to your friends who haven't.

In my next article, I'll talk a little about switching ISPs (Internet Service Providers) and how to do it without losing all of your bookmarks, email addresses, etc.

until then,

Worth Godwin

Why you're taking a gamble when you ignore error messages and odd computer behavior

A lot of people take big risks with their computers without even knowing it every day.

In a sense they're playing with fire.

Let me give you some advice that I hope you take to heart: if you start getting unusual error messages on your computer, don't ignore them.

Especially pay attention if you keep getting them frequently or regularly.

Also pay attention to other unusual behavior, like it shutting off or restarting suddenly, or odd noises -- especially clicking or ticking types of noises coming from inside the computer.

Let me tell you a story about a client of mine -- a vet office here on the island -- who made this mistake.

They'd been a client of mine for a couple of years or more, and a while ago I'd set them up with a system (the same one I recommend on my "5 Computer Mistakes" CD that you can get for free from my web site or as part of my soon-to-expire $27 deal) to back up their computer.

They were backing up regularly, just like I tell people to, so you'd think they'd be protected. But unfortunately they ignored a problem to the point where it even defeated the backup system I'd set up for them.

They kept getting weird error messages when they opened certain programs. It happened every single time, for weeks on end, but they never let me know about it or did anything about it at all.

Eventually, it got worse, and they finally called me up and one Monday I drove up to help them out, not realizing the full extent of the problem over the phone.

I ended up spending three hours up there working on it, ran out of time, and had to leave with the system -- one that was absolutely critical to their business -- "mostly" working. Which was the best I could do because of how bad the problem had gotten and because I'd run out of time.

So I went back on Thursday, the next time I was able to open up in my schedule.

I ended up there for another SIX hours, plus my travel time.

It basically took TWELVE HOURS -- at $75 an hour -- to get everything completely cleaned up.

And even though I hate laying blame, I had to tell them it was pretty much their fault because they'd ignored the problem for so long -- the problem was a bad hard drive that corrupted many files, plus several side issues that weren't directly related to the bad hard drive.

You see, if hadn't ignored the error messages they were getting, and had gotten their system looked at right away, the files wouldn't have been corrupted.

If they'd gotten their system looked at fairly quickly -- even not right away -- they wouldn't have backed up all of their files, including the corrupted ones, onto their backup hard drive, destroying all the good copies that were there.

If I had been able to go and look at the computer and use a good backup copy to "restore" from, I would've been there about an hour or an hour and a half or so, and then they would've been all set.

So if your computer is acting up, giving you weird error messages, running really slowly -- and it happened suddenly, or it gradually started to happen, get it looked at before it's too late.

It's a gamble you don't want to take.

until next time,

Worth Godwin

P.S. Something that's *not* a gamble is taking advantage of my offer to get $525.00 worth of easy computer lessons for just $27... if you act right away.

It's not a gamble because I've put a year and a half of hard work (plus over a dozen years' teaching experience) into making my system really work, and really easy. And I've backed it up with a full one-year guarantee, so you can only win if you grab it before the price goes up.

I'm also going to be including lessons in my Gold Club monthly CDs (2 months, or 4 Gold Club CDs are included in the $27) that make it easy for you to "troubleshoot" common problems. So you can avoid sitting forever on hold to find out it was something you could've fixed in 5 minutes if you'd known how, or know if it really is time to take the computer into the shop for a repair.

So go and read more, check out the testimonials, see all the details of what you'll get by going now to:

www.WorthGodwin.com

Hurricane blues - using a UPS to protect your system during storms and more

Note: I wrote this for my email newsletter August 13th, 2007, the day before posting it here.

As I write this, it's a bright and sunny day outside, with nothing to hint at the fact that we're under a hurricane advisory. Hurricane Flossie is bearing down on us and could hit tomorrow or Wednesday, so people are scurrying around all over the island stocking up on bottled water, food and other supplies.

But there's one thing they should have that most of them probably haven't thought of.

It's called a UPS -- not to be confused with the shipping company of the same name -- which stands for "Uninterruptible Power Supply", and it's an important thing to have to protect your computer even if you're not being threatened by a hurricane.

Let me explain what a UPS is, and what it does.

First off, let me back up a step and make sure you know what a surge suppressor is, since the two things are related.

A surge suppressor is a power strip with a bunch of power sockets in it that is designed to "take the bullet" for your computer if there is a "power surge".

In other words, the electricity that comes into your house is supposed to be at a certain level. Sometimes, like if there is a lightning strike, or the power goes out (like a blackout) and comes back on again, there is a "surge" of power.

Imagine a huge wave coming in on a beach -- normally the waves are within a certain level, and so are safe. But if a huge wave comes in (like a tsunami or tidal wave maybe, but not necessarily that big even) it can be dangerous.

So if a big surge of power comes up the line for whatever reason, if you don't have a surge suppressor to "suppress" the extra power, it can fry your computer's circuits -- or a TV or any electronic device for that matter.

So it's absolutely essential to at least have one of those to protect your computer and other electronics. And when you buy one, remember that power surges can come up phone lines and even cable lines (like if you have Roadrunner or other cable internet) and fry your machine that way. So when shopping for a suppressor, get one that covers everything.

So a UPS is like a surge suppressor, but it does even more to protect your computer.

A UPS basically is a big surge suppressor that has a battery inside it.

Because of this, if the power goes out, an alarm goes off (in case you didn't notice the lights go out, or it's daytime) and you have several minutes to save what you're doing and shut down the computer safely.

Every UPS is labeled with a number measured in VA -- the higher the number, the longer the power lasts. I suggest getting one that is at least 650VA.

The other benefit a lot of people don't know about that you get from having a UPS is that if you live in an area (like here on the Big Island) where the power grid is, shall we say, less than reliable, you get protection from brownouts.

Brownouts are when the power level falls but doesn't go away, so it's one step below a blackout. This can often happen without the lights dimming or anything visible happening. But it can still hurt your computer if this keeps happening.

Getting a UPS will protect you from the gradual damage done by brownouts, which you can think of as hurting your computer (or TV, etc.) the way that erosion gradually wears away at a beach.

So if you have a UPS you're protected both ways. For $100 or less, that's a good buy.

Oh, and one last thought -- another nice benefit of having one or more UPSes in your house is if the power goes out, you can plug a light into it and not have to sit in the dark!

This works best with fluorescent bulbs, of course. Since they use so much less electricity than an old fashioned "incandescent" bulb, the battery in the UPS lasts a lot longer.

A lot of times, if your TV and cable box (or cable modem for that matter, if you use cable internet) is hooked into a UPS too, the cable still works in a power outage -- so you get TV to entertain you, or maybe even the Internet!

So get a UPS or two to protect your electronics, and maybe even give you something to do on a dark night when the power's out.

until next time,

Worth Godwin

What A Firewall is and Why You Must Use One

As you may know, a firewall is a protective barrier for your computer, which acts to shield it from threats on your local network and the internet. It's kind of like a security system for your house. Where I live in Hawaii, many of us leave our doors unlocked all the time, and never have a problem.

Unfortunately this is a really bad idea on the internet – when your computer is online (which if you have high speed internet like DSL or cable, is all the time) it's as if the entire world is next door to your "house," so unfortunately you have to act as if your neighbors are all criminals, since someone in Nigeria can get to your computer just as easily as someone in Captain Cook, Hawaii.

Your network or internet connection (an internet connection is also a type of network connection, it just connects you to the world instead of one or more computers in your home or office) is actually split up into what are called "ports" -- imagine a house with many many windows, some open, some closed -- many ports have a specific purpose, like port 25 which is usually used for sending email.

What a firewall does is seal off all the ports that aren't needed, just leaving open the ports you need to send and receive email, browse the web, and so on.

If the other ports are left open, that increases the ways a person or a program (such as a worm) can just stroll right in, just like if you leave the doors or windows open in your house.

If you have a router (which is a device used to share a DSL or cable connection with more than one computer, or to make your internet connection wireless) then there should be a firewall in the router. This is what's known as a hardware firewall (since it's part of a piece of equipment), as opposed to a software firewall, which is a program on your computer.

Some people assume that having a router with a firewall is enough to protect your computer, but while it will help, you really need to have a software firewall too.

Windows XP & Vista, as well as Mac OS 10.2 and higher both have a software firewall built into them. Earlier versions of Windows and the Mac OS do not. If you have Windows XP with service pack 2 installed, or Windows Vista, then the firewall is almost definitely on.


Different kinds of software firewalls.

There are two general types of software firewall: you can think of them as "active" and "passive" firewalls.

In other words, a passive firewall just sort of sits there, and blocks the needed ports to keep things out and that's about it. An active firewall on the other hand, does the same thing, but also sort of sits up and pays attention to what's going on inside your computer, and gives you control over what programs can get out.

So if you have a piece of spyware on your computer that's trying to "phone home" to report in on what information it's collected about you, the active firewall can block it to protect you. And the byproduct of this is you're safer.

Both the Windows XP and Mac OS X firewalls are passive.

This is a lot less of a risk for the Mac, since there are no malicious programs infecting those systems (at time I'm recording this, there are a small number of programs like this written for Mac, but they're not circulating or infecting computers). You definitely need a firewall on a Mac to protect from outside attacks, but a passive one, at least for now, is enough.

On a Windows machine, a passive firewall is not enough, since there are thousands of malicious programs including worms, trojans, and spyware which, if they're on your computer, will try to sneak information out of your computer.

So if you're just using a passive firewall like the Windows firewall, you can fall victim of so-called malware without even realizing it.

You see, what happens is this; a piece of malware will get onto your system and usually does one of three things: either it invites more malware in, opens a "back door" for someone to come in and snoop around, or it collects information about you and sends it out to persons unknown.

An active firewall will let you control what programs can get out to the internet, not just what can get in, which is very important.

To go back to our security system metaphor, if you have a passive firewall it's kind of like locking your doors and windows -- it does make it much harder for someone to break into your house or office from outside.

Unfortunately, the thieves are really smart, so they sneak someone inside when you're not paying attention and that person hides himself somewhere and then opens a door or window to let his buddies in, or rifles through your belongings and hands them through the window to someone outside.

If you have an active firewall, it's like a security guard is constantly patrolling inside the building, and only allows you or people you trust to use the doors and windows. If a stranger has gotten in, he's held until you can decide if he's OK or not, or his hands are tied so he can't steal anything.

Does that make sense?

So what do you need to do?

Well, if you're running any computer, you absolutely must have a firewall or you run the risk of someone hacking into your computer, or allowing a malicious program in. Macs are safe enough with a passive firewall, but because of the thousands of worms, viruses, spyware, etc. a Windows machine is still very vulnerable without an active firewall.

Windows users have a lot of options, like buying Norton Internet Security, (which includes not just Norton Antivirus but also Norton Personal Firewall), or using Zone Lab's ZoneAlarm.

One option I recommend is ZoneAlarm – even the free version is a really great product, and can protect your computer very well.

A better option is Kaspersky Internet Security, which aside from being arguably the very best antivirus programs around, also has a good firewall program built in.

Do not rely on the Windows firewall as it does not give you enough protection. Keep in mind active firewall programs do need some configuration to block and allow the right programs.

The firewall program usually asks you if you want to allow or block a program (and you can usually allow it or block it once or always) the first time a program tries to connect to the internet.

If it's something like Outlook, Firefox, or any other legit program that needs to connect to the internet, you want to allow it. If you're not sure if a program is legit, the firewall usually tells you the name of the program it's asking you about, so you can type it into Google and look it up.

Chances are, if you see a lot of search results talking about viruses or adware, then you should probably block it and try to get it cleaned up.

Setting the firewall program up the right way can be a little tricky, especially for a lot of more basic computer users, which is why I make it easy in my video course on easy and safe internet. I show you how to install the free version of Zonealarm, and exactly how to use it, step by step.

Mac users who want a little more security than the built-in
OS X firewall program provides, can check out a program called Little Snitch. This is an active firewall program, like Zonealarm. The demo version of Little Snitch is a free download, which works on a trial basis.

Using a firewall is a vital part of keeping your computer, and all the files on it, secure. Don't make the mistake of running your computer without one.

Email Hoaxes May Have You Fooled

I recently got an email from a client who forwarded a message on to me and I don't know how many other people. The subject was:

"Fwd: PLEEEEEEASE REEEEEAD! IT WAS ON GOOD MORNING AMERICA TODAYSHOW"

In the message it talked about how Bill Gates was testing out a new "email tracking program" and that he wanted you to forward the message on to as many people as you could, supposedly to keep people from switching away from using Internet Explorer (which is a very good idea by the way -- and is something I talk about on my special report "5 Common Computer Mistakes and How to Avoid Making Them Yourself" -- but how forwarding the email to a bunch of people would stop people from doing this is beyond me).

In exchange for forwarding the email, Bill would supposedly send you up to $245 for every person you sent it to, and even pay you for the people that it got sent to after that!

It sounds nice, and the email throws around a lot of important sounding names like Bill Gates & Microsoft, AOL, and others, and talks about how "my brother's girlfriend" got a check, and other details that are there to help convince people.

But of course, it's all a big hoax.

If you sit down with a calculator, it's pretty easy to figure it out. Let's say you forward the email to 10 people. That'd give you $2,450. So far, that sounds pretty believable. After all, Bill Gates is one of the richest people in the world.

But if those people each sent it to 10 more people, that would be 100 more people Bill would have to pay $245 for. So now the total is something like $245,000. But hey, Bill can still afford that!

But if those 100 people then sent it on to another 10 people each. That's another 1,000 new people Bill would have to shell out $245 each for. So suddenly the total is (I think -- this is a lot of zeros and my calculator is starting to smoke) $245,000,000! Even Bill Gates would have to think about it before writing a check that big, at least when he's not really getting anything out of it.

And if that 1,000 people each sent it to another ten, well, the number is too big to fit on my calculator's screen. And it's more money than even Bill Gates has, and we all know he's a billionaire!

So applying a little common sense to these things can go a long way to keep you from getting fooled. Of course, there's no real risk in the Bill Gates hoax, or any of the dozens of variations that have floated around the Internet since 1997 when a bored college student dreamed up the original.

But the same tactics are used by scammers out to get your money, like the Nigerian 419 scams or phishing scams, which have cost a lot of people a hell of a lot of money. Those scams come through email too, and are a lot worse than the harmless prank I just told you about.

So protect yourself with a little knowledge, and stay safe. My articles will help with that, plus the valuable info you can find at www.WorthGodwin.com

Why you should avoid Windows Vista like the plague (at least for now) Part 3

In this three-part article I will talk about three big reasons you should avoid "upgrading" to Windows Vista, at least for now. This is part three of three.


I've been talking in the first two parts of this series of three article about reasons you want to avoid getting the new Windows Vista. I called it a real turkey, and gave you two good reasons you shouldn't use it.

In this last in this series of articles, I'm going to give you a third reason that I don't think you should bother getting Vista, at least for a while.

Reason #3:

All the new features are old features stolen from Mac OS X, and not very well.

Microsoft has a history of stealing ideas and presenting them as their own -- all of the basic ideas behind Windows (having information displayed in one or more windows, having a desktop, having a recycle bin or trash can, using a mouse, etc.) were directly taken from the Mac after Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (the co-founders of Apple) invited Bill Gates over to show off their new type of computer.

Bill took notes and ran back to Microsoft to copy it, and he's been doing it ever since.

The new version of Windows -- Windows Vista -- was supposed to come out years ago, but it got delayed and delayed, and finally was released around the beginning of 2007.

Back in 2004, Apple announced the then-new version of Mac OS X, OS 10.4 or "Tiger" (the "X" in Mac OS X is a Roman numeral 10, not a letter X by the way) at their developers conference.

Early in 2007, some internal emails were leaked from inside Microsoft that revealed that when one high-up employee from Microsoft was at the 2004 Apple Developers Conference, he was taking notes (just like Bill did all those years ago) and he confessed Microsoft had to take a lot of features of OS X from Apple to put into Vista.

He was also worried they wouldn't be able to do those features as well.

When Vista finally came out (two and a half years later) I remember watching the promotional video that showed off all of the supposedly new features of Vista.

Every single one was clearly a knock-off of features in the 2004 version of Mac OS X, and in my opinion, not very good knock-offs.

In fact, the Microsoft employee who wrote those leaked emails is on record saying that he'd use a Mac himself if he didn't work for Microsoft.

So why pay for recycled "new features" when they won't really do that much to improve your computer (and as I mentioned in an earlier email, are likely to slow it down) -- it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

I won't deny that I like Macs better than PCs too -- and unlike a lot of people who are big supporters of one and bash the other, I am very familiar with both types of computer, and realize that neither type is perfect -- and I honestly think that 99% of the time, you're better off using a Mac than a Windows PC.

So if you're going to get a new computer, which you're better off doing if you're getting Vista, why not get the real deal instead of the pale imitation?

Just my opinion.

Why you should avoid Windows Vista like the plague (at least for now) Part 2

In this three-part article I will talk about three big reasons you should avoid "upgrading" to Windows Vista, at least for now. This is part two of three.


In the first part of this article, I told you the first of three reasons I don't think you should be getting the new Windows Vista, and why you should stick to Windows XP or Mac OS X.

In this article, I'm going to continue with the second reason that, at least for now, Vista is a turkey and you should avoid getting it.

Reason #2:

Not all of your old equipment will work because of "driver issues".

A "driver" is a piece of software that lets your computer work with the devices you have connected (outside or inside) the computer. Think of it like each part of the computer, or each device hooked up to it (like a printer, or a digital camera, etc.) talks a different language. The driver is like an interpreter that translates the language the device talks into the language Windows talks.

The same thing applies if you have a Mac -- it needs drivers to "talk" to printers and other devices. Without the right driver, the Mac has no idea how to talk to the printer, scanner, or whatever kind of device you might have hooked up to it. One big difference between Macs and Windows is that in a *lot* of cases (not all, but a lot) you don't need to jump through a lot of hoops to get a new device to work. You plug it in and it just works. But it still needs the driver for this to happen, it just is built in for most printers, mice, etc.

But back to Vista.

The drivers that used to work for Windows XP don't work for Vista, so every company out there that makes computer equipment has to make brand new drivers to work with Vista, and until they do, their equipment won't talk to Vista.

Now by the time I'm writing this (August of 2007), a LOT more drivers are available, unlike a few months ago when Vista first came out. But still, there are many thousands of devices that aren't "compatible" with Vista (in other words, there is no driver for them).

And the companies that make different computer parts and devices may not bother to ever write drivers for their older equipment -- even things just a couple of years old -- because this way they can sell you a new printer, or scanner, or whatever.

So even if you buy a new computer, the devices you had hooked up to it might not work anymore, and if you try to save money and just upgrade your current computer, parts inside the computer might not work right, or at all.

And if this happens, there's not a lot you can do about it.

I'll talk about the third reason I don't think you should get Vista in the third and final segment of this article.


Oh, and one last thing -- Mac users reading this, remember that if you have a Mac that was made in 2006 or later -- an "Intel Mac" of some kind -- you *can* run Windows too, and all of this information applies to a Mac running Windows just as much as any other computer running Windows.

But fortunately, most of you won't ever need to run Windows, so you can stick to the more familiar (not to mention safer and easier) Mac OS X that you're used to. But if you do have a need to run Windows, this is important to know.

The Hidden Dangers In Keeping Old Computers For Too Long

You know how they say dog years are like 7 people years?

Well, with computers it's more like 15 to 20 computer years for every real year, thanks to something called "Moore's Law."

I won't go into a lot of technical detail about what Moore's Law is, but to boil it down it means basically that stuff in computers roughly doubles every 18 months.

So in other words, about every 18 months, the average hard drive (storage space) size will approximately double.

About every 18 months processor (computer brain) speeds will roughly double.

About every 18 months RAM size (temporary working space like a tabletop or work bench) will roughly double.

And so on. peace of mind

What this means for you is that while your computer isn't obsolete in a year and a half, it's definitely not cutting edge anymore, even if you got a high end model.

But that doesn't mean you need to throw it away or anything.

BUT, the thing you should remember is that while 5 years doesn't seem like a long time to us, it's 75 to 100 years for your computer.

And just like a 100 year old person can't be expected to be as physically active as a 17 year old, we can't expect our 5 year old computers to be able to handle all the modern programs.

This is one reason I mentioned in a recent email that you shouldn't try to put the new Windows Vista on an older PC -- it just can't handle it!

But there's a different problem, too, that a lot of people don't think of.

Not only does the hardware (physical parts of the computer) change radically in a few years time in terms of "strength" and speed, companies come up with new *types* of hardware that the old computers may not be able to even understand or be able to talk to.

This doesn't happen as quickly as the "every 18 months" Moore's Law that I mentioned earlier, but the bottom line is that if you keep your computer for too long, you can run into problems when the inevitable time comes to upgrade to a new machine.

Here's why.

I had a client named Dorothy several years ago who had an old Mac (what I'm talking about applies to both Windows PCs and Macs). This was around 2003 or so, and her Mac dated from the mid 1990s.

I don't remember the problem I fixed, but I told her at the time that she should replace the computer immediately because she was playing with fire trying to keep an old computer like that running.

She ignored my advice, and lived to regret it.

A year or two later, she called me asking me for my help because her old Mac had died and she had all her files on it and she wanted me to move everything over to a newer computer.

When it turned out that the computer didn't even turn on, I had to tell her that there was nothing I could do, at least not without it costing her several hundred dollars in parts and my time, and it wasn't a guarantee.

The problem was, the type of hard drive (remember, that's where all the files that she wanted are stored) wasn't being made any more, and I'd long ago had all of my old equipment that could read the old drive type break down and I'd had no reason to replace it.

Now if she'd been backing up her files, she would have been better off -- you know this if you've gotten my "5 Common & Costly Computer Mistakes" CD which comes for free with the amazing deal I'm offering on my website right now -- but she didn't.

Now we might have been able to do something if we'd hunted around on eBay for a really old computer, and shelled out a few hundred for it, plus a lot of my billable time.

Or if she'd just listened to me in the first place.

Hopefully you'll heed my advice: don't keep your computer for more than six years or so, and *please* back up your files, or one day you will be sorry, just like Dorothy was.

So keep reading my articles so you can keep up to speed yourself. And if you haven't already, rush over to my website and take advantage of the amazing opportunity I'm offering. One of the first disks you'll get will show you exactly how to back up your important files to protect yourself.

And the price will be going up sharply in a few days!

until next time,

Worth Godwin

P.S. Remember, when it comes to computers, what you don't know *can* hurt you, so keep reading my emails. Also, if you haven't tried out my easy video computer lessons for Mac or Windows you really should take a look. You get plain English lessons that are easy to follow, and each lesson is short enough to fit into even a busy schedule, and they all come with a full guarantee. The video lessons let you see every step, every click of the mouse, while you hear me explaining every step in plain English.

I've got a pretty incredible deal going on right now, which you better take a look at before I change my mind. Find out more on my website.
Just go to: www.WorthGodwin.com