Author: Carl Bootsma

Carl Bootsma is the founder of Heartlandtechs, the technology blog for the computer hub Heartland Computers INC He is the owner of fast growing Information technology company and repair store "Heartland Computes" located at Sioux falls, South Dakota area.

Categories
HOW-TOs

Troubleshoot Internet Connection

Quick fixes for wi-fi and wired network

Ever feel like your internet connection is very slow, you can not stream video from your phone. Your phone seem not to be able to connect to your router. Don’t worry, these are the a few of common internet connectivity issues user experience. Here we got some quick fixes that will let you resolve such issues in no time.

Resolving Connection Issues on Your Wi-Fi Network

  1. Check if the wireless switch is on. Note: Wireless switch has radio tower icon, if not sure check out the universal wireless icon.
  2. Turn off and then turn on all the devices on the network to reset and synchronize them. This step will also help when you can not browse your internet after buying a new router. This step will flush any information network still holding of an old router.
  3. Right-click the network icon Picture of the wireless network icon or Picture of the wired network icon in the notification area of your taskbar, and then click Troubleshoot problems and follow the instructions.
  4. Check for corrupted or incompatible drivers. Go to device manager and then uninstall and then re-install network drivers.
  5. Check from another computer or devices If another device is able to access internet then checkout for ip-conflict issue, to read more about it click here.
  6. Eliminate Router You can directly connect via Ethernet cable(LAN Cable) and if that works. Then try to reset router.

You can check out this video, it covers all common issues of internet connectivity.

Resolving Connection Issues on Your Wired Network

  1. Check for any loose or disconnected cables or wires.
  2. Firewall blocking intent connection. You can disable the firewall by changing settings at network connections via control panel
  3. Change Ethernet cable or use another port for plugin

Here is a video showcasing how to set up LAN connection perfectly on Windows 7

Categories
HOW-TOs

How to boost up chrome experience

Tweaks and Extensions to enhance google chrome experience. – Faster is better.

Useful Tweaks in Google Chrome Settings

  1. Use Latest Version: Google is working on to make chrome better and faster, so always stay up to date with the latest version.
  2. Don’t use too many Extensions: some extensions are not needed for every run, disable those unnecessary extensions.
  3. Choose which data you to sync between devices. By default, Google Chrome sync apps, passwords and much more data, so you can access your data on all synced devices. I think we just need password to sync, Rest of field options you can uncheck in settings
  4. Chrome instant search can use different search engines, You don’t need many options here, just use google and delete others. To do so, Go to Settings.

Extensions that improve browsing experience

  1. Internet Download Manager: It can really boost up your download speed, You can disable other plugins, I recommend you should use it.
  2. Extensionbetter Browser: It is Chrome extension has awesome features like Auto Scroll, Back to top, Floating google search, one click delete search key and many more. It can take your browsing experience to the next level. Their page at Google Webstore says: “We can Enhance your Browsing experience in 10-15% faster”
  3. Google Quick Scroll: It is a huge time saver for the google search, when search results appear, It will give you auto-preview of words in result page that match with your search query, so you can quickly go to right information. It is great but not perfect. Sometimes it does not work the way it should, but at times very useful.
Categories
Uncategorized

Get your business online

  • once upon a time – not so long ago – most of the business in world was offline, sellers had firm control over what products he wanted to showcase to buyers.
  • Buyers used to receive access to information about seller’s services when and how seller chose to provide to him. Meetings, brochures, phone calls were common ways to showcase services. As a result, Seller controlled sales cycle.
  • This flow of sales has changed considerably over a short period of time. Now, a Prospective buyer can hop online anytime with tablets and smartphones. They can have quick comparison shop and access information that seller did not even create for eg. Reviews.
  • If you don’t have a website, then a buyer might educate himself about your services from third party information, outdated and poor information might add confusion to the decision-making process. Closing the deal might become complicated based on how someone else showcase your services.
  • The whole point is of regaining control of sales cycle via information flow that attracts prospective buyers. In doing so, put a face to your online identity and get referrals, business over social media.
Categories
TechBuzz

10 Microsoft Outlook Alternatives

10 Best Alternatives to MS Outlook

1. ThunderBird

  1. ThunderBird is a free, easy to set up and customize, secure, open source, cross-platform email and instant messaging software – loaded with great features!
  2. ThunderBird has strong support for using multiple accounts and identities, including automated signature features.
  3. Chat functionality is built in, so you can enjoy real-time conversation with your contacts. Thunderbird makes it easy to search through both past conversations and received emails. Thunderbird functions as an RSS/Atom feed reader too and has a large selection of add-ons that extend it with calendar support, PGP support, integration with online services and much more.
  4. Top Features that make it best:
    • Easier to set up mail account
    • Personalized Email Addresses
    • Multiple-channel chat
    • If filters the Spam and offer Phishing protection
    • Large Files Management

2. Claws Email

  1. Claws Email is one of the fastest and slick email client out there and It’s not short on features either.
  2. It is stable, secure and highly customizable.
  3. Useful and Powerful Features: Multiple accounts, Threaded display, Filtering, Mime attachments, SSL support, User-defined headers, MH and Mbox folder support/import/export, and Plugin capabilities.

3. eM Client

  1. It is paid email client and only support Windows OS. It is nearly perfect windows email client with its powerful features, wrapped up in an user-friendly interface. Though, It lacks Scheduled Message Sending and local spam filtering., conversation list, it might be a good option for you if you are looking for all standard email client features.
  2. Powerful features:
    • Quick Import : Quick and easy way to import from your old email client like Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail, ThunderBird etc..
    • Intuitive Sidebar : Sidebar shows old emails from the contact, as per mainwindow current email or contact. So, You can read and find old emails quickly.
    • Readable preview Popups: You don’t even need to click on it, just hover over it and you get to read email via preview popup.
    • Reformat Received Messages: Edit Headers.
    • Bi-Directional Text Support : Unlike Thunderbird and many other email client, it supports bi-direction text.

4. Opera Mail

  1. Opera mail is free, simple, lightweight, flexible interface that will satisfy almost all standard email client needs.
  2. Opera has tabbed panel, It has threaded emails, which let you find old messages easily and respond to them with ease. It doesn’t have all the features that Outlook does, However if you are looking for simple and customizable email client, Opera might be a right solution for you. It is fast and reliable.

5. INKY

  1. Inky is free, lightweight, very easy to configure, simple yet useful email client with elegant interface.
  2. Useful Features:
    • Beautiful yet simple interface
    • Quick and simple to configure for Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo:
    • Advanced features for filtering and sorting emails.

6. WINDOWS LIVE MAIL

  1. Quick and modern approach: Drag-and-drop action to help organize e-mails. With Right click allow user to quickly reply, delete, print or manage emails in folders.
  2. Enhanced Security: To guard against spammers, it blocks images. Windows Live Essentials suite includes Windows Live Mail which is a free email client for Windows 7 | 8 users.
  3. Key Features:
    • Enhanced Security
    • Custom Layouts and quick views
    • Powerful Multi user support
    • Conversation Organizer
    • RSS in your inbox
    • Direct Blogging

7. Mailbird

  1. It is very handy email client if your top priority is Productivity. Mailbird is a huge time saver with its quick open and quick reply shortcuts.
  2. Some useful features:
    • Useful and Intuitive User Interface
    • Supports multiple email accounts.

8. Web Mail

  1. Web mail is a Website based interface to access e-mail through a Web browser. General belief is that webmails are free. Using website based mail client is ideal if you travel a lot or when you use multiple devices or use another person’s laptop.
  2. In webmail, you don’t need to worry about backup. Before choosing this option, some things to consider:
    • You don’t have offline option. Internet connection required.
    • You can keep only certain amount of emails only. This quota varies from provider to provider.
    • Every thing is stored at email service provider’s server, so you are at their mercy.
    • Webmail is not a free mail.
  3. Powerful Features:
    • No need to configure email client.
    • Very convenient – you just need internet to access your emails.

9. Postbox

  1. Postbox is very intuitive, powerful and integrated with useful apps with great time-saving features.It is based on Thunderbird, but it is not a free email client. It works for Windows and Mac Os.
  2. Top Awesome Features :
    • Unified Folders and Account Groups
    • Automatic Tagging
    • Summarized Replies
    • Focus Pane

10. Fox mail.

  1. Fox mail, owned by Chinese company, A freeware email client and having useful features with pleasant user interface. It is really powerful alternative to Outlook but some of Chinese language words are not translated in interface.
  2. Tabbed Interface feels cluttered at times.
  3. Key Features:
    • Works on Windows, Mac Os and Linux operating systems
    • Unlimited email accounts.
  4. Powerful Features:
    • Pleasant Interface
    • HTML template or you can create template with WYSIWYG tool.
    • Better security against spammers.
Categories
TechBuzz

Share files between your devices

In this new era of connectivity, you switch from computer to tablet to smartphones multiple times in a usual day, so your digital photos,  music, e-books or work files are spread across a range of devices from your mobile phones to tablets and your computers. These devices are running different operating systems, So that no standard method to easily copy files from one device to another.

AirDroid : Android devices and computers ( xp and Mac)

You can move files on and off your Android device from a web browser, You can also wipe data remotely. AirDroid works with Windows XP or later, Mac OS X. Apart from videos, photos and music add and delete remotely, There are other useful features too.

  • Send or receive sms to one or multiple contacts
  • You can find your phone by Locate Android device on a map feature. You can Lock, ring, or wipe all personal data on the Android device

AirDrop : Mac or supported iOS

If your device is Mac or iOS7 device, that includes iphone5 or later, iPad (4th generation), iPod touch (5th generation), then use of AirDrop allows you to quickly and easily share files with other Mac users, Please Note that you can not share files with AirDrop to non ios users and non ios devices can not use airdrop to share files with you.

Categories
Uncategorized

Heartland Laptop Case Price Drop

Special-offer-on-laptop-bags

Laptop bag which carries your cherished possession is as important as your laptop and it is no longer just about quality but style too when it comes to buying bags.

Buy brand new Laptop Bags from Heartland Computers and save $10 on each bags!

Categories
Computer Laptop Repair Laptop Repair PC Maintenance

Tips to avoid a computer crash

Tips to Secure Your computer laptop from Crash

Steps to Take Before the Crash

Backup your files

External Hard Drives
Cloud Storage Services

  • Google Drive, Skydrive and Dropbox are revolutionary and handy cloud storage services, which actually saves storage space on your latop computer or smartphones.

  • I rate Dropbox the best among these 3 services. Your data at Dropbox is relatively more secure than Google Drive. Drop box mobile app ensures security with 4-digit pass-code lock on top of 2-step verification process. However, Free storage quota for Dropbox is 2 GB only. Google Drive and Skydrive has free storage 5 GB and 7 GB respectively.

Antivirus

Always have antivirus software on your machine. We strongly recommend Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes Pro for virus and malware protection. Scan your hard drive for errors and repair bad sectors.

Secure with passwords

It is important to have a strong password for your laptops, PCs or smartphones. All your devices should be secured with a strong password which is hard to crack in.

Turn off Java

Over the years, Java powers billions of desktop computers, Java mobile phones, printers, gaming consoles, car navigation systems, ATMs, medical devices, Blue ray players, parking payment stations. That made Java top target for the hackers. Back in early 2013, the serious zero-day vulnerabilities discovered in Java. Though Oracle released an emergency Java patch, but that did not meant for all the critical vulnerabilities.

Click here to read Oracle instructions on how to disable Java from your browsers.

Steps to Take After the Crash

  • Turn the power off to the computer.
  • Use system restore.
  • Try Run in Safe Mode
  • If none of the above options work out for you, Try Reformat and Reinstall your operating system.

    *** Heartland Computers can help you to Re-installing Operating System. Contact Repair service desk.

Categories
Uncategorized

Refurbished Macbook Pro and Ipads

Apple products refurbished
Unfortunately Apple is no longer accepting resellers. Apple also restricts the price companies can sell new products that’s why all new products are sold at the same high prices. But there are no restrictions on used or refurbished products so we are able to sell them to you at a much lower price. Plus you might have noticed the local Apple stores charge ridiculously high prices for used Apple products? We certainly have. In fact it’s almost impossible for us to keep iPads and MacBook Pro’s products in stock, as soon as we get them in their out the door because of our low prices. So if you see something you like you better buy it soon because it’s probably not going to last long.
Categories
PC Maintenance

Repair / Upgrade : why pay a professional?

Hire Professional

My neighbor’s kid can fix for free or cheap why pay a professional?

This is a very good question and there are two main reasons.

  • The first and the obvious one is training. A lot of kids are smart and know HOW to use a computer but very few are PROPERLY trained.  Almost every week we get a computer in that a friend tried to fix an issue and actually made the repair worse. Instead of a $34.95 system tune-up it ends up being a $49.95 Data Recovery along with a $59.95 OS Installation. But nothing compares to the phone calls we have to make where someone messed up and now all those pictures and videos of your kids are gone forever.
  • The second reason is as a business, you are protected. What I mean by that is as a company we have to carry insurance to protect you from loss, damage, errors, etc… Thankfully in my 20+ years I’ve never had to use the insurance on me or my employees. My point is guys who work from their home, post cheap rates on Craigslist; do you think they carry insurance? No. you have no protection. When you hand over that computer it’s as good as giving them a free laptop. The data, pictures, videos, web searches, everything is now theirs. Funny thing is you have more protection if you would just hand over your credit card.

I come from a Dutch heritage and I’m as cheap as it gets so I promise at Heartland you will get Professional Repair Service and cheap rates. A Win Win by my standards!!

Categories
Buying Guide

Must have software for your laptop

Office Suite

open office

Mostly, your windows operating system do not come along with its very popular document handling application Microsoft Office and if you don’t want to purchase licenses for Micorosoft’s Office software, then this free software will fulfill your need. You can do almost everything with this open source office suite like editing, creating and maintaining documents. This software might have some rich features missing unlike Microsoft Office but it is still very effective.

Internet Browser

Google Chrome Browser

Although, Internet Explorer comes with your Windows operating system, but it would be very fair to say that Chrome is more fast and secure than Internet explorer. In chrome browser, Theme and Plugins offers customized browser experience. With JavaScript rendering features, chrome is very fast and secure internet browser.

Data Downloads

Download Accelerator Plus (DAP)

Download Accelerator Plus is very essential tool with its user friendly easy to user interface. It is the fastest of its kind of software. It is not just ordinary download software, but also has capabilities like file shredder, scheduled downloads, trace cleaner and other addons.

PDF Reader

Adoebe Reader

Adobe Reader is free and very popular tool to view pdf files. It has been trusted by millions of users due to its global standard for document sharing over internet.

Backups & Sync

DropBox

Dropobox is  free and tremendously useful tool to store identical copy of  your computer files. You can also keep folders and file jointly shared with other people regardless of they are users of dropbox or not. Dropbox offers 2GB free space, you can increase your space quota by purchasing it.

Multimedia

VLC Media Player

Unlike Windows 7, windows media center does not come along free Windows 8 with operating System. You don’t need to bother with that. VLC media player VLC Media Player will play virtually any media file that you will run across, and there’s a VLC media player version for every popular operating system.

Perfomance tune ups

CCleaner

If you get tired of having tons of PC cleanup and performance tune up software and found they are all just either clean up your old log / history and clean up recycle bins or either just a scam. Then get this package that runs pretty deeps through your web browsers to your Windows Registry.

File Compression and extraction

7-zip

7-zip has better compression ration than Winzip and other compression software of its kind. It has capability of self extraction for 7z format. It can even use as file manager and can ensure file security using encryption.

Security

Antivirus

Always have antivirus software on your machine. We strongly recommend Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes Pro for virus and malware protection.