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What's in Cate's In Box?
 By Cate Eales
Appeared May 8, 2008 on castanet.net

This week's column answers readers' questions: Can I print from my wireless PC? Can I scan old slides? Can I trust anyone over 30?


Printing from a wireless PC
Recently I helped a client set up her laptop so that she can use the wireless connection. When she's at her desk, she can plug in the cable and connect "normally." When she wants to use the computer in another room, she turns on the wireless connection, unplugs the cable, and she's good to go. She can do anything in all the other rooms of her home that she can do at her desk...except print.

Yes, you do have to have a printer connected to something in order to print to it. Usually, we have a printer connected directly to our computer with a cable. When you take your PC to another room, remember to unplug the printer! That prevents loud crashes and broken toes, but it also prevents printing. How can we print from a wireless computer?

There are plenty of complicated solutions, but I am going to talk about the easier ones here. The first three suggestions work if you have a home network.

If you have another computer connect the printer to that computer, establish a home network, and share the printer. The printer and the computer its connected to have to be on in order to print.
 
Some printers can connect directly to a network. If you have a printer that will do that, and you have a home network, you can connect the printer share it, and print to it from any computer on the network.
 
You can also buy a "print server" and connect it to your home network. Then you connect your printer(s) to the print server, and you can print from any computer on your network.

If you don't have a home network and don't want to be bothered with one, try these workarounds:

Printers are cheap. Buy an extra printer,and plug it into the laptop when you need it.
 
Finally, there is the "sneaker net" solution. Take the laptop back to the printer and print to your heart's content! Don't forget to check GreenPrint!


Help with scanning old slides
A reader has hundreds of slides accumulated over many years, and is looking for a way to digitize them and store them.

I can help with the storage: Forget about CD's and DVD's. Get the biggest external hard drive you can afford, connect it up to a USB or 1394 port, and save the digitized slides there. Hard drives will be around for years to come. DVD's and CD's will deteriorate.

What I can't help with is recommendations for a good way to scan them. What about you folks? Do you have a recommendation for a scanner? For a method? How do you organize the slides after you've scanned them? Any lessons learned?

Send your suggestions/comments/dire warnings to cate@rlis.com, and I will pass them along in future columns.


Oh, drat. I forgot to send a card.
What else could be in my In Box but spam? Happy 30th birthday, spam. I'm afraid I can't wish you many happy returns. Read about it here. The original spam is here.

Thank you everyone who emailed with questions, comments, and words of encouragement. You can reach me at cate@rlis.com if you have anything to ask or tell about your computer. Don't forget, you can browse the column archives at any time. Point your browser here to go there.  If you'd like to subscribe to this column by email, please visit this link.  It's easy, and free. If you'd prefer the RSS Feed, click here.

Happy Mother's Day!


Links
GreenPrint http://www.printgreener.com/
Wikipedia article: Email Spam http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_spam
A very unhappy birthday to spam http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/03/BUE210E232.DTL
The original spam http://www.templetons.com/brad/spamreact.html
Getting Along With Your Computer Column Archives http://rlis.com/column.htm
Get Cate's column by email http://www.feedblitz.com/f/f.fbz?Sub=20618
RSS Feed: http://rlis.com/rlis.xml

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Cate Eales has been helping people make online computing safe, accessible and fun for over 20 years. She lives in Kelowna with her husband, Eric, and her dog, Sandy. Cate is a partner in Real Life Internet Solutions, helping individuals and small businesses with virus, spyware and malware eradication; personal computer training and management; digital image management; music transfer; and website design, hosting and management. Email Cate at cate@rlis.com with your comments, suggestions, or questions. To browse the column archives, visit the Real Life Internet Solutions website at www.rlis.com.

© Cate Eales 2008 – All Rights Reserved
-30-

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