Where do you get your tech information?

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Wayne02

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I seem to be mired in computer/network problems lately. Seems to be an ongoing battle with changing technologies, new devices etc.

There seems to be a number of discussion forums out there and I was wondering where you guys get your tech info? Some of the forums seem pretty deep and I'm wondering if there happens to be one that is a little more basic for us old guys but still has healthy traffic such that you can get a variety of input on your questions?

Thanks
 
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To answer the question posed by your thread title, I get most of my tech info from PC World magazine. Trouble is, they seem to concentrate on the latest and greatest, which leaves an old guy like me (and maybe you) in the dust. I've found, however, that if you keep the old issues, about a year later you can dig them out and find the answer to what can now be considered a pretty basic question.
 
20+ years of experience and friends with similar levels of experience, backed up by Google searches on specific problems.
 
there are just too many branches of tech going on in almost any current piece of electronics to find it all in one place.
Most computer techs have no concept of electronics.
every so often this lack of knowledge leads to perfectly good cards being tossed due to overlooking something like EMI, RFI, and even long cable run capacitance effectively shorting high speed digital signal in a LAN.
 
Newsgroups

If you use Usenet, there are a number of Newsgroups that can be valuable.
Turnaround can be very slow compared to forums, but there is a good chance that a group exists for a particular area.

If you are not a direct user of Usenet, then Google Groups provides access with no additional software necessary.

I use
Microsoft.public.xxx
Alt.comp.xxx.xxx
Comp.xxx.xxx.xxx

The xxx entries would be replaced by the Newsgroup unique name you wish to access.

Examples
Alt.comp.virus.source
Comp.graphics.apps.photoshop
Microsoft.public.hardware
 
Problem most people have is that once their PC has a problem, they can't (or don't want to) use it to Google their issue.

Best advice I have is to get one of the CD / DVD bootable operating systems (linux) [you can download them for free]

If your problem is a virus or windows getting messed up, then you slip the CD in, power up and 5 minutes later you have a web browser and so you can safely use google to research the issue.

There is also one called BartPE that will let you boot into windows, but off the CD rather than your disk. This works too, but there may be cases where it is less reliable (that's just my opinion, not based on solid fact)

Even better is buy a cheap laptop/netbook so you can investigate the issue and try stuff out instead of having to write down a solution, reboot to windows, try it out, go back to linux to research some more etc etc.
 
A lot will depend on what platform you have, its operating system version, and the release version of software you're having trouble with and/or the nature of the trouble.
 
I have a local service that I hire to get me out of trouble. For protection, I use "SecureIT Services". They are located in Iowa, remotely handle any infection problems, and install a really stout anti virus, anti mallware, etc program on your machine. I've used it for about 4 years now and very happy.
 
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