|
DADDY BOB'S COMPUTER Q & A
March 11, 2007
Q.
How can I tell what my broadband uploading
and downloading speeds
really are so I can determine if I am
getting what my ISP claims I should?
A.
When we used Dialup (ugg) the modem reported
the connection speed pretty accurately, at
least the download one.
Broadband doesn't provide us with that
information directly, but there are ways to determine
what they are.
Some ISPs
like
BellSouth
furnish a site that will show you the
uploading and downloading speeds, but these
are usually a little biased. They check the
speed to and from a local server and the closer the
server is to you the better the speeds will
be. To get a more accurate check, you need
servers at varying distances.
There are several web sites that can
check and report broadband speeds to you,
and I have two favorites that do a very good
job. These allow you to select distance
servers to get an idea of how the speeds
will vary with distance.
One of
these is
Ookie, and the other one is
SpeakEasy.
(You can click on their names to check them
out). Both of these sites are very user
friendly and as near as I can tell,
accurate. When you test your connection, be
sure that there are no other programs like
email that may be accessing the Internet at
the same time or your results may not be
correct. Also, assure that there are no
other computers on your network accessing
the Internet for the same reasons.
Remember
too that most ISP claims of connection
speeds usually say, "Speeds up to xxx".
Rarely will these speeds be the averages you
will experience in day to day usage.
Q. Will
leaving a computer in an unheated area for
an extended period in the winter harm it?
A.
Well, that all depends on how extended the
period is, and how cold it is. That said,
cold will not harm the solid state
components like transistors and integrated
circuits as they like it cold. And, most
other parts of a computer will not be harmed
providing you allow it to warm up properly
before starting it up.
The most
likely thing affected by starting up cold
would be the Hard drive. Although its main
issues are shock and condensation, starting
it cold could damage it. This is due in part
to the lubrication on the drive bearings
which is designed to work at room
temperature. It is best to bring the
computer into a warm, preferable dry, well
ventilated location and allow it to warm to
room temperature before starting it up.
Although
hard drives enclosures are semi sealed, they
do have small openings designed to allow
pressure equalization. These small openings
are covered with a material like Goretex
that prevents dust and moisture from
entering. However, cold air can enter as it
cools down, and if this occurs in a humid
atmosphere, when the drive is warmed,
condensation can form.
The
distance between the rotating disks called
platters and the stationary read/write head
is measured in nanometers, (billions of a
meter). As a reference, one nanometer is
roughly 1/50,000 the diameter of a human
hair. The platter of a hard drive can spin
at rates of 7200 RPMs and higher which is
equivalent to a location on a 3 inch platter
traveling past the stationary read/write
head at speeds near 65 Miles per hour.
Therefore, a drop of water on the platter,
no matter how small would seem like a bolder
to the head when it plowed into it and most
certainly cause a "head crash". A head crash
is when the read/write head touches and
gouges into the platter destroying its
surface. This is almost always fatal to the
hard drive and any information stored on it. |
