In our world, we see a lot of common computer problems. In the battle of Mac vs PC, we thought it would be a good comparison to compile a list of problems and how troubleshooting them is different in a Mac vs a PC. This article contains information for how to troubleshoot a wireless connection on a PC and a Mac.

NO CONNECTION TO INTERNET (Wireless) - WINDOWS AND MAC INSTRUCTIONS

Wireless connections are very unreliable. So, everyone has problems with them… Often a wireless connection can be detected, but the computer will not connect to it. Beyond the obvious step of restarting the computer and router/airport, these are some of the things that I would try to resolve the problem and how they are different on a Mac or PC.

All Apple computers use the Airport wireless managment utility… On a PC this is more complicated than on a Mac… The first thing that you have to find out is how does your computer manage it’s wireless:

I would first try to identify the manner in which the wireless connection is managed. There are lots of different connection managers installed on machines out there - wireless zero configuration (WZC - comes on all Windows XP and Vista machines), Intel Proset, Belkin Wireless Network Configuration…

Because may different manufacturers make wireless products, they each have their own program to manage the connection.

FWIW: Attention PC Users - You do not need extra software to run your wireless adapter - all you really need from the install disk is the driver. I would recommend everyone to use the wireless management program that comes with windows (WZC) and to not install unnecessary software on your PC.

Now these are the basic steps to troubleshooting a wireless connection…

1. Check the wireless password on the computer:

The most common thing to be wrong is the wireless password. Sometimes, if the password is wrong you can still connect to the wireless internet - but the browser and email will not work at all.

The first thing that I look for is the method which the wireless management program “remembers” networks - they are usually kept in a list that the user can edit. In this list, you can see what networks it remembers and remove and re-add the network that you may be trying to connect to.

On Windows XP this can usually be found by going to Start > Control Panel > Network Connections. Right-click the wireless connection. Choose Show Wireless Networks then click Advanced settings on the left side. There should be a list called Preferred Networks. Double-click your connection in that list and re-enter the password, then click OK.

On OS X 10.4 (Apple), go to System Preferences > Network > Show: Airport (from the drop-down). Double-click your connection in that list, click the checkbox that says “Show Password” and re-enter the password. then click OK.

2. Check the wireless password on the router\airport:

Many times, the encryption password gets mixed up - often forgotten! So I check what the router says that the password should be (since the router defines the password for the entire network). It’s good practice to tape a piece of paper on the bottom of your router with your wireless password so you’ll always know what it is if you forget.

For most routers (including Linksys, D-Link, Netgear) - on your computer, open a web browser and type in the IP address of the router. (How to find the IP address of a router)… Enter the username and password for the router - if you have not changed it, it is commonly the same word for the username and password [ admin ]. Otherwise, you can identify your router model and use the default username and password from this list. If the default user/pass do not work, then hold the reset button with a pin for 15 seconds and the device will be reset to factory defaults. Now retry the username and password from this list.

(If you use a router made by 2Wire then you have to look on the bottom of your router for the “Wireless Encryption Key”).

Now look for the menu tab that says Wireless - click it - and then look for Wireless Security - click that. Your password should be stored in there - commonly it is called WEP and the data that you will need is listed under “Key 1″ - This information is in the hexidecimal format (0-9, A-F). Whatever it is… WRITE IT DOWN.

If you have an Apple Airport, go to your Mac and plug an ethernet cable from your computer to the airport. Then go to your Applications > Utilities folder. Open the utility called Airport Admin Utility or the newer version Airport Utility. Double click your airport in that list and enter the username and password that you set on it. If you do not know your user/pass, then hold the reset button with a pin for 15 seconds and the device will be reset to factory defaults.

Now double click the name of your airport in the utility and go to the top menu where it says “Base Station” then choose “Equivalent Network Password” - WRITE THAT DOWN. Often non-Apple machines will require this password to be hooked up to your Airport wireless network. This is also true if you want to hook up a Nintendo Wii or other videogame system to your wireless network.

You can use the password that you get from your router/airport to configure the wireless connection on your computer using the steps under 1. above.

“What do I do when my computer is frozen?”

Here are some tips and tricks to try before holding the power down button… This article should be called “Avoiding the HARD power down” which is what it is called when you hold the power button until your machine shuts off or when you pull the power cord from the wall or the back of your computer.

This can damage your computer, sometimes destroying the boot sector on the hard drive it so that the computer will not boot up.

HOW TO KILL PROGRAMS OR PROCESSES:

PC: Trusty ctrl - alt - del

If a windows computer becomes unresponsive or “frozen” it doesn’t matter if it is a laptop or a desktop. The first thing that you can try doing is pressing and holding the keyboard buttons “control” and “alt” and “delete” at the same time.

Most users know that this combination brings up the “task manager” which allows you to see which programs, program processes, and system processes are running on your computer. If you press it repeatedly, or while you have task manager open, it will cause your computer to reboot.

The task manager also displays statistics for memory, cpu, and page file usage.

From here you have the option to kill programs or processes which may be “frozen” or hogging your memory and cpu and therefore making your computer very slow.

Mac: Trusty command - option - escape

Similarly, on a mac computer you can simultaneously press the keyboard keys “command” and “option” and “escape” aka:

⌘ + option + esc

The command key is the one on your keyboard that has the and the “⌘” (St. Johns Arms) on it.

(FYI: Most of the common keyboard shortcuts on a PC that use control will use command on a Mac. For example, pressing “cntrl” and “c” on your keyboard will copy whatever you have selected - file or text. On a Mac you can press “⌘” and “c” and voila! - you have copied.)

On a Mac, a Force Quit Application window will pop up when you press the ⌘ + option + esc - this will also allow you to kill any programs which are unresponsive.

Mac and PC Worst Case Scenario: Computer Completely Totally Unresponsive

If your mouse will not move and your keyboard will not respond, hope is not lost.

The first thing that you should do if you can’t get the force quit application window (Mac only) or task manager (PC only) is to remove almost everything that plugs into your computer EXCEPT the power cord!

Many times a usb or firewire (mac) \ IEEE 1394 (pc) device can cause your computer to become unresponsive. Unplug any external hard drive, memory stick, DVD burner, camera, cell phone, wireless device, or printer from your computer. Now plug only the keyboard in (or if you’re on a laptop don’t plug anything in) and try to kill programs again. At this point you can also plug your mouse back in.

PC Still frozen?

If you’re still locked up at this point and you are on a PC… You will probably not be able to unfreeze your computer without powering down.

If your computer is connected to a network (you may have to plug the ethernet/networking cable back in at this point) or if your HP, Gateway, Dell, or self-built laptop has a wireless connection AND if you have another computer on the network there is one last test to see if your computer is at all responsive: a ping test - one computer sends a “ping” of small data to another computer which responds with a “pong” to tell the other machine that it’s there. Here’s how to do it:

The Ping Test 

Go to the “unfrozen” computer on your network and then click Start > Run - type in “cmd” and press enter.

This will open a terminal shell. Type in “ping” and then the name or IP address of the frozen computer.

Example: ping 192.168.1.103     OR     ping name_of_my_laptop

(If you do not know the name or IP address of your frozen computer, then you can find it out from your router or modem - email us and we’ll give you free advice on how to do this.)

If you get a response then you may be able to use Remote Desktop to control your machine. If you don’t get a response, now your only choice is to power the computer down, hard. Just hold the button until the computer shuts off. Be sure to run some disk diagnostics after you power it back up. Scandisk should run automatically if you are using Windows XP. Do not cancel it.

For more free information, you can send us an email and we’ll tell you how to access your computer remotely. (We can also show you how to setup access to your computer(s) from any other computer on the internet for a small fee.)

Mac Still frozen?

If your computer is connected to a network (you may have to plug the ethernet/networking cable back in at this point) or if your Macbook, Powerbook, or Macbook Pro has a wireless connection AND if you have any other computer on the network you can also do a ping test (see above).

If you have another Mac or Linux computer on the network you can do a ping, but you may also be able to login to your machine with SSH. If you can connect in this way, then you should be able to kill any unresponsive programs or processes. It’s an additional troubleshooting step that is not available on PC’s. The command line on a Mac running OS X is very powerful.

Using SSH

Go to Applications > Utilities and then click Terminal

This will open a terminal shell. First thing to test would be to do a ping test. See above for instructions.

If your frozen computer responds to a ping, then you can try typing “ssh” followed by a username then the symbol @ and then the name or IP address of the frozen computer.

Example: ssh admin@10.0.0.5 or ssh admin@shared_name_of_my_macbookpro

If it responds, then you’re in luck. Now you can use commands like “top -o cpu” to see what’s running or “ps awx” to get a list of processes. After choosing processes to kill, write down their PID # and type in “sudo kill -9″ followed by the PID and press enter.

For help or for more information, feel free to contact us via email - fixme@rentageekla.com

We have all heard people say that Apple computers are better because they CANNOT get viruses. The truth is that, Macs cannot get the same viruses that are designed for PCs.

A computer virus is a program that can copy itself and “infect” a computer without permission or knowledge of the user.

Viruses can be designed for Macs, they just usually are not. They are designed for machines running Windows because it is the most widely used operating system. Specifically, Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Internet Explorer are the most vulnerable programs for viruses - not because they are badly programmed - but because they the market-dominant software for email and web browsing.

If Apple computers take more of the market, we will see hackers spending more time designing programs to take advantage of their users. Right now, it’s not really worth their time.

There was an outbreak of a trojan last year which was designed to affect Apple computers with OS X - OSX/RSPlug-A or OSX/Puper - which are both programs that re-route the DNS for the computer so that it redirected users to malicious web sites.

So, Macs can get viruses just like PCs… It’s just not as common. In fact, as of right now it’s very rare.

You will always hear people with Apple computers saying that Macs are better than PCs. Are they saying this to defend their very minor representation in the market share (8.1%) or is a Mac computer really a better machine? I will explain - very simply - the reasons that Macs and PCs are different, how that affects the cost, reliability (stability), and flexibility of the machines.

When comparing these operating systems, Windows vs Mac, two aspects of the systems that we can compare are hardware and software. So first, let’s define exactly what we’re talking about.

SOME BASIC DEFINITIONS:

• Hardware - the circuits, wires, drives, memory (RAM), fans, and power supply all squished into the box that you plug all of your accessories into (keyboard, mouse, monitor).
• Software - the actual intangible “programs” which instructs the hardware to complete tasks like sending email or editing a picture. Even drivers are a type of software - a translator of sorts - these are the files that come on a disk with new hardware that you buy and they basically tell your operating system and other programs how to speak to the hardware.
• Operating System (OS) - a type of software that literally “runs” your computer - it is the manager by which all of your programs are made to work within so that you can do more than one thing at a time.

“PC” which means personal computer is commonly the name we use for a machine that runs the windows operating system - Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista are all really similarly structured systems that can run on almost any type of hardware.

It’s really amazing to think about… There are thousands of manufacturers of chips and circuits and sound cards and wireless cards - and most of them are making hardware to work in a machine running Windows. Whether you purchased your Windows computer from Dell, HP, or built it yourself - you can swap your hardware out for a different brand and it will work in your system.

This is part of the reason that Windows has so much of the computer market: versatility. The machines are flexible because the OS has been tailored to allow manufacturers from all over the world to develop hardware for them. If you want to purchase a machine that runs Windows, there are a lot more configuration options, tons of different companies that sell and support the product, and there are lots of inexpensive options. Basically Windows machines and machine components can be bought and sold in a robust and competitive market.

Apple’s OS, “OS X”, on the other hand, only runs on one hardware platform (currently there are two now, but PPC is being phased out of support due to the new Intel chips). Additionally, Apple hardware can only be bought from Apple - nowhere else.
Therefore, Apple only has to support one system architecture at a time. OS X does not run on a machine made by Dell or HP - there are no other manufacturers. The hardware in an Apple machine is all compatible with the other hardware, and the system is designed to run on it. This is part of the reason that Apple computers are known for their stability. They only have to focus on supporting one type of hardware at a time. Generally, Apple buys and tests high-quality hardware - Apple machines (especially laptops) do not have anywhere near the amount of hardware problems as Windows machines do.

Another reason that is commonly toted as a reason for Apple’s stability is that the window management system is a marriage of NeXT and BSD Unix. These are two operating systems that are well regarded for their stability, security, and simplicity. (However, this can lead to complications later when you are trying to troubleshoot your own machine and you may have to use the commonly-feared command line. Please check back in a few days for a comparison of troubleshooting Mac vs. PC.)

However, unlike the robust market that exists for Windows machines, Apple has a monopoly on the hardware that run it’s OS, therefore the computers are more expensive. And so are the replacement parts. Generally speaking, Apple machines cannot be upgraded from 3rd-party manufacturers and are difficult to upgrade yourself - you have to go to Apple (or to a company like Rent-A-Geek). For instance, I’ve seen plenty of memory errors in Apple machines that are using cheaper 3rd-party RAM that seem (by specification) to be identical to the RAM supplied by Apple directly. Meanwhile, the hardware in PCs (especially memory) can be swapped out and replaced with parts from a cheaper, different manufacturer than the original and they will work.

So… What’s better a Mac or a PC? We have to choose between opposites: flexibility or reliability.

A PC machine has more hardware versatility and it is usually more cost-effective to purchase and repair compared to an Apple machine.
An Apple machine is more expensive, but usually more stable than a PC because it only runs on one type of architecture.