Fiddling with Computers
at Home

For several years, I got my computer jollies as a parent volunteer helping to administer the computers at the local public school. But that gig eventually ended when my yougest kid graduated from high school.

I've continued to fiddle with computers at my home, and have run across several issues that may be helpful to others:

• Networking Windows XP Home Edition
  Despite having almost exactly the same name, Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional Edition are very different to administer. For example the things you would do as an administrator to network Windows XP Professional Edition are almost exactly what you should not do in the process of networking Windows XP Home Edition. If you find it necessary to work with Windows XP Home Edition, here are some suggestions on how to network it.
  
  
• Troubleshooting: Guidelines and Techniques
  Often administering computers is just dealing with one problem after another: pin down the problem; fix it; rinse and repeat. Isolating and fixing problems is often called "troubleshooting". Think troubleshooting is a black art that a few people are good at while most only stumble along? It doesn't need to be. Troubleshooting can be broken down into detailed and specific steps that can be learned. In fact, here they are.
  
  
• Using alternative DNS services for different or better functionality, even despite apparent "intercepting"
  At its core, DNS (Domain Name System) —also called "name service"— translates human-friendly textual computer names into the numeric IP addresses computers use internally. Although DNS service is usually provided by your ISP, some alternative services are also available. You may wish to use one of these alternative DNS services, either for improved performance or for access to different ancillary funtionality. Unfortunately using an alternative DNS service can be a bit tricky because it often appears DNS packets are being "intercepted" by the ISP. By understanding what's really going on under the covers, you can escape any possible "interception" in virtually all cases.
  
  
• Single User Mode
  A useful part of Unix-derived systems is called "single user mode". Special Unix runlevels can be useful for system self-maintenance, for example repairing or replacing disk partitions. In fact often more than one thing is called "single user mode" ...which can be confusing. Redhat/Fedora/CentOS distributions of Linux try to reduce the confusion, partly by introducing some new technology.
  
  
• Disk Surface Scan
  It's unavoidable that almost all computer disks (persistent memory for "files") have microscopic flaws in the magnetic material that forms their surface. Normally the disk itself compensates for these flaws. But very occasionally there may be reason to use Linux software tools instead to compensate for these flaws.
  
  
• Dealing with a web indexing delay
  Hopefully web indexing results are very current, even for small non-commercial websites. This isn't always the case though. If all changes to your website seems to be subject to a one or two week delay before appearing in a web index, it's likely your website is being subjected to a poorly documented (and maybe even supposedly non-existent) penalty. You're probably not hallucinating (although many people will tell you you are), and situation isn't hopeless. It's usually possible to figure out what the problem really is and fix it.