Rick's Daily Tips

Review: HGST Touro 1TB 7200RPM High-Performance USB Hard Drive

Posted on September 6, 2016

hgst-touro-s-1tb-7200rpm-portable-hard-drive-small — (#ad)

Portable USB hard drives make it easy to back up the hard drives in our computers and share large quantities of files among machines that aren’t on the same local network.

If you’re looking for the fastest high-capacity USB drive around, a portable Solid State Drive (SSD) would fit the bill quite nicely.

But if you’re just looking for something that’s faster than the typical USB hard drive yet doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, you can’t beat a 7200RPM USB hard drive.

There aren’t that many consumer-grade 7200RPM USB hard drives on the market right now, but I recently had the chance to check one out. [Read more…]

How to force Outlook.com to check for new mail on a POP3 account

Posted on September 4, 2016

Microsoft’s Outlook.com web mail service is a sleek alternative to Gmail, and I really like it.

That being said, it does come with one major annoyance: It insists on waiting a while between checks for new messages on POP3 email accounts.

But what if you’re expecting an important email that really needs to hit your inbox as soon as possible?

Outlook.com doesn’t come with a Send/Receive button and you can’t alter its built-in schedule for checking POP3 email accounts, but if you really need to check for a new email RIGHT NOW you can force it to check a specific POP3 account any time you wish with this workaround: [Read more…]

Dreamhost now has super-fast SSDs on their Shared Web Hosting Plans

Posted on September 3, 2016

If you’ve been looking for a faster server to host your blog or website but you can only afford a shared hosting plan, I have some news that just might interest you.

Dreamhost, one of the world’s most popular web hosting companies, now has super-fast SSDs on all of their shared servers!

Why is this a huge deal? Because the access speed of the server’s hard drive is a serious bottleneck that limits the speed at which web pages can load and database queries can be completed. In short, the fantastic speed of an SSD ensures that you’ll have a much faster and vastly more responsive website. [Read more…]

WiFi Guard – Find out if someone is piggybacking on your Wi-Fi network

Posted on September 2, 2016

wifi Most people assume that their Wi-Fi connection is safe from hackers if it is secured with encryption and a password, but the sad truth is even a “protected” Wi-Fi connection can be broken into by a determined hacker using the right software.

If you suspect that someone might be piggybacking on your wireless network (and even if you don’t), I suggest downloading and running a free tool called WiFi Guard.

WiFi Guard is a small and lightweight utility that will scan your entire network and list all the devices connected to it including computers, tablets, smart phones, wireless printers and more. If it’s logged into your network, it’ll show up!

Using WiFi Guard is easy. Here’s how: [Read more…]

Samsung has recalled all Galaxy Note 7 smart phones worldwide

Posted on September 2, 2016

galaxy-note-7 Have you taken the plunge and purchased one of the new Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smart phones that recently hit the market?

If so, it has just been recalled due to what has been described as a very serious battery issue.

Apparently the defective batteries are subject to overheating, and some of them have actually exploded and caught on fire. Not a good thing to say the least!

Here is Samsung’s official statement concerning the recall: [Read more…]