Jerry's Tips

Last Update: 12/17/03

*For better viewing, select the full screen button (looks like a coffee cup in the upper right of this screen). Win95 and Microsoft Internet Explorer.
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Electronic Billing

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Don't you feel good that you haven't received a bill in the mail this month from Eastland Internet? Are you thinking, "maybe I don't have to pay"? I think maybe someone may not have been reading their electronic mail, because I just heard that if your check is not on Windi's desk real soon, she's gonna be real mad and there will be late charges attached. "By what date?", you say. Your check or green money was due the 1st of the month and late charges apply if not received by the 5th. "Well, what if I never read my e-mail? Don't I have a good excuse for not paying?"(NM can you hear the fiddle playing ) don't try that excuse, Windi won't buy it. After all, if you are reading this you just ruined that excuse. How about this excuse? "My e-mail box is broken and I can't receive mail." No, that won't work. We only know of one broken mail box that can't read mail and I believe even that customer has a paper contract that mentions something about due dates and late charges. Man, a person just can't win anymore, all the angles are covered and the excuses have been used. How depressing!

Come up out of your depression please! More great things are coming to you by electronic mail.. the next Eastland Internet billing will allow a user to pay by credit card while on line. Don't worry, it will only be done through a "secure server" environment(don't ask). Now, I didn't say you had to pay by electronic mail. If you would rather print your statement and mail it, that's OK. You will receive an HTML (don't ask) formatted, professionally done, printable, beautiful, well done, tear off, send it in, interesting looking statement that you can brag about. (Well, if you have a good printer you can brag about it.)

What about security?

If you are concerned about security, your on-line transmission is done through secure socket layer, you know, Safe Stuff, or, you can always drive to the home office of the Eastland Internet and pay Windi in person and watch while she professionally types "paid in full" into her computer.

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Rules of Internet Access that your are agreeing to
www.eastland.net/terms/rules.htm

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Do you feel lonely?

No one replies to your e-mail. You feel like no one likes you because they never answer you e-mail? It may be that they don't hate you, it may be that you still haven't made the return e-mail settings. Will you read a little more and then you can rest you don't even have to read the part about saving money.

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Will you please fix your return mail address . hey dude hey dude. Will you please fix your return mail address?
Can anybody hear me?
Can anybody read me? Hello, Hello?

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It only takes about two minutes. Click mail, options, server, advanced settings and type your email address on the line by Reply to: _____________________________ This sure helps others that want to send you return mail. If you don't repair it we see @eastland.net and that ain't much to return mail to is it?

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Here is a PS from Eastland Internet if you need more information: ***********************************************************************

PS:Please fix your return e-mail address. It is a very easy fix and needs to be done for users to easily reply to your letters. You can look at our on-line help at http://www.eastland.net/news Once you click on this link, the 3rd line is a link to mail setup; click it and then read away. You will also notice that there is a graphical link where you can even see a picture of the process.

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Hello and welcome New Users!
A starting page just for you to read!

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If you click on New User found on Eastland Internet home page you will link to the new user page. A very good place to start learning about your service provider and things of interest to you as a new user. Double click on the following address if you want to have a look right now.

http://eastland.net/newuser.htm

Read about and check your email settings: (Where have I heard this before?)

http://eastland.net/news.htm#Mail

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news
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WHAT'S NEW AT EASTLAND INTERNET? It's all found at http://www.eastland.net/news.htm

Notice:

Please don't read the following. what you learn here may cost us money and save you money. and Chuck loves to reformat drives! Just skip to the humor. OK?

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Death Throes of a Hard Drive

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Care to watch a hard drive die? Well, it is not a pleasant thing to watch or try to recover from when the end of the drive is at hand. Here is a documented example along with some possible solutions to survive the event.

Here are readouts as a result of running ScanDisk:

ScanDisk checked Drive C for problems, with the following results:

Directory structure
Directory entry C:\DELL\SSD\TBALL had an invalid cluster.
ScanDisk deleted the directory entry.

MS-DOS file system
There were 142 lost clusters in 24 chains. ScanDisk saved the chains of lost clusters as files.

Surface Scan
Data could not be read from cluster 4,638
The WINDOWS\SYSTEM files is currently using 4,638
ScanDisk patched the cluster successfully.

Data could not be read from cluster 4,639
There is no file using cluster 4,639
ScanDisk patched the cluster successfully.

Data could not be read from cluster 4,643
There is no file using cluster 4,639
ScanDisk patched the cluster successfully.

Data could not be read from cluster 4,644
There is no file using cluster 4,644
ScanDisk patched the cluster successfully.

Data could not be read from cluster 4,673
There is no file using cluster 4,673
ScanDisk patched the cluster successfully.

Data could not be read from cluster 4,674
There is no file using cluster 4,674
ScanDisk patched the cluster successfully.

Data could not be read from cluster 4,675
There is no file using cluster 4,675
ScanDisk patched the cluster successfully.

Data could not be read from cluster 4,676
There is no file using cluster 4,676
ScanDisk patched the cluster successfully.
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Signs are present here of a hard drive going through the aging process. As a hard drive ages it develops magnetic anomalies on the surface of the media. Just normal for this type of media. As "spots" develop on the drive, programs or pieces of files are lost that happen to be in the area of the spots. Scan Disk can "repair" in a way by making your computer think the places are not there but it can't replace the damaged files. So you must replace the files and software as it/they become/s damaged. As you replace it, the software will only reload in the "good places" left after scan disk has marked "bad places". This process continues over and over until your disk dies or you reformat it and start over. Formatting identifies, marks and "makes believe" the bad places no longer exist, but you are left with less drive space each time until you can put up with it no more and replace the drive. All drives go through a slow dying process as they get older. The life of the hard drive can be prolonged by regular maintenance procedures. It's a matter of how much "messing around" one wants to do to prolong the life of the drive.

Possible solutions:
Solution A
1. Run virus checker
2. Backup any data files too important to lose
3. Run ScanDisk as many times as needed to clear problems
4. Reload windows and any other software that shows problems running or files       loading..
5. Run virus checker again
6. Run Scan Disk
7. Evaluate results of scan.
8. Defragment drive if results are good

Solution B

1. Reformat drive
2. Reload all software and data files
3. Run ScanDisk
4. Defragment drive
5. Run virus checker

Solution C

1. Send to company or service center for replacement of old drive and proceed       with Solution B
All of the above solutions may require special software and if you don't have it. It's back to place of purchase or to a service center.   It's not a good idea to open laptops and try to repair them yourself.   Laptops have many difficult issues under the lid in most cases.

As you can see from this outline, any solution takes several hours of technical work and might be expensive unless you can do the work yourself.

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What is "regular" maintenance of a hard drive?

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Regular maintenance of a hard drive involves three steps:

1. Run ScanDisk often.
2. Defragment the drive occasionally.
3. Delete unneeded files as necessary to keep 5 to 10 percent free space on the hard drive.

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What other procedures should be done on a regular basis?

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1. Run a virus checker, more than one type if possible.
2. Backup files to floppies and/or tape.
3. Backup hard drive on tape.

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How do you survive hard drive crashes?

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The published average life time for a hard drive is two years. I think the average life time should probably be longer than two years. With proper maintenance, drives last much longer. Of course, there is always an occasional lemon or one that gets a hit from a "drive killing virus" or lightening.   So how do you survive a hard drive crash or hard drive death.
The way to survive a crash is to prepare ahead of time for the emergency. OK, then how do you prepare?

1. Follow directions in your manual and make the necessary emergency startup       disks.
2. Lock the disks if you know the disks are clean of viruses. Viruses can not       "jump" onto disks that are "locked" into a read only configuration.
3. Back up files, back up hard drive. Archive on tape and on floppies.
4. If your drive crashes you will need all software and files to reload.

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Is there a difference between a drive crash and hard drive death?

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The difference between a crash and a death is as it sounds. A crashed hard drive can be reused after reformatting. On the other hand, there are two kinds of hard drive deaths. One type of hard drive death allows the drive to be reformatted and used as a non-bootable data disk. The final death of the drive, which is a scene for the trash can is a nonformattable piece of junk. A user normally buys a new hard drive after either of the last two kinds of drive deaths.

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What causes hard drives to crash?

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1. One of the most common causes that I have seen is users allowing the hard drive to fill up with data. Remember to keep 5 to 10 percent free space on the hard drive. If this means using floppy disks to store files, then do it. You will have copies then if the drive fails for some other reason.

Other reasons:

2. Static discharge from being handled improperly
3. Traumatic shock to the drive while moving the computer
4. Electrical power surges
5. Virus attack
6. Deterioration of the magnetic media - just part of the aging process
7. Unknown factors

HHHHH help!
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A humorous connection kids say the darndest things!

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http://www.intermarket.net/laughweb/education/kids.say.the.darndest.things.html

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Would you like to have a picture of your favorite cow on the web well here is your cow connection.. hey dude, make your favorite cow famous! Don't just put her out to pasture put her or him where the whole world can enjoy her or his beauty. ***********************************************************************
Cow humor, cow pictures, cow everything

http://www.brandonu.ca/~ennsnr/Cows/Welcome.htm

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Are you selling your cows too cheap?

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Cowboys, have you been wondering how to fairly evaluate the price you should be charging for a good cow? Don't miss this connection!

http://www.brandonu.ca/~ennsnr/Cows/pricelist.html

Not humorous:

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To save a page or picture from the web without opening it

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1. Right-click the hyperlink for the item you want.
2. Click Save Target As and tell it where to put the page.
3. In the File Name box, type a name for the item, and then click Save.

,LHey Dude! ,LHey Dude! ,LHey Dude! ,LHey Dude! ,LHey Dude! ,LHey Dude! ,LHey Dude!

Will you quit buying those computers that no one can work on and have no follow up service? Come in and talk to us before you buy one of those "real special deals". Find out the truth before you buy. Ask us some questions, be informed. We have computer guys that tell it like it is and know how to repair computers we sell. How many computer stores can you walk into and every computer sales person can build a computer from scratch and can service a computer after the sale? Huh? I know you would rather mail a computer to New York City for repairs. Not me folks! Why not stop in at Bryan's Computers at Eastland Internet. When you go in say "Hey dude how's everything going dude. That'll get everybody's attention. Then say "where's all them computer nerds I been hearing about where's all them page building dudes?" Tell'em you been readin' Cowboy Jerry's tips and you wanna trade in your computer for a better one and also want to buy some business web pages. They'll say " Yes, sir/mam ( whichever you prefer), we can fix you right up dude/dudess (whichever you prefer)."

Home Page

Jerry Davis
Eastland Internet's Central and Southwestern Sales Representative

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