Unlike troubleshooting software and hardware, troubleshooting network issues is a whole 'nother beast. When you are working with networks, you are working with multiple devices and distance. Figuring out where the problem is on the route to its destination will help you determine what you need to do in order to resolve the issue. I am going to talk a little bit about the ping and tracert commands and how I used them to troubleshoot my Internet connection today.

About an hour and a half ago, my Internet connection started acting really goofy. Websites would only load on every fifth or sixth request, sometimes they would not load at all. I was generally not having a good time with the Internet. This is a problem that has been coming and going for the longest time. Sometimes lasting up to ten hours. Some of the concepts I have learned in the networking classes I am currently taking are what really helped me figure out this problem.

Start locally and work your way out

Always remember that data starts at your computer and has to stop at many different hops while on its way to and from the server you are communicating with. Start at the beginning of the route and then work to the end. Start by trying to figure out if any of your hardware is bad. The first stop for packets is your ethernet controller, which is usually built in to the motherboard and it is also where you plug in your ethernet cable into your computer. To figure out if the ethernet controller is working, you will need to open up a command prompt by typing 'cmd' in the Run console which is found in the Start Menu. Type 'ping 127.0.0.1'. This command sends an echo request to your localhost, which is your ethernet controller. If all of the packets echo back correctly, you know that your ethernet controller is functioning properly.

When you're low on cash and would really like some work, you might be quick to jump on anything that comes though the phone line. Don't ever agree to work before thinking. Most of the people who call me for service are very easygoing over the phone and I can quickly tell that it will be a pleasure to work with the person. But sometimes, I get phone calls that just really put me on edge and have me running in the other direction. Use your best judgement when you are accepting business. I am going to give you a few tips as to what should put you on alert and give a little bit of advice on how to get out of a bad deal gracefully.

Define your service area

Make a list of the cities that are near you and pick which ones you are going to serve. It's true that any distance traveled can be offset by a bigger travel fee, but unless I know the client is a high roller who is really going to take care of me, I am not going to risk it. When I get a call, one of my first questions to the caller is, "What city are you in?" Asking this question soon will save you a lot of time if you decide it isn't worth it. There is a group of cities that is only about 20 minutes away. But I refuse to serve these cities as they are underdeveloped and not the best places to be. But the people who live there, very often come to my city to work and connect with civilization, so I often offer to meet them wherever to pick up their computer. If you have your service area defined, you can always use it as an excuse to quickly decline work.

To all of the Americans reading today, happy Independence Day! I hope that you have fun tonight celebrating this day with your friends and family. Eat plenty of hamburgers, hotdogs, and nachos. Or you can try one of my favorites: Pizza with nacho cheese! But whether you decide to pig out, or go conservative this 4th of July, have a good time and please celebrate responsibly!

Now on the to nitty gritty!

I was working with a Windows computer the other day that would not boot up. It would restart shortly after the Windows splash screen. When this happens, you are usually getting a BSoD (Blue Screen of Death) and the computer is automatically restarting itself because Windows is dumb and is set by default to restart on a BSoD. So while Windows is starting up, start pressing the F8 key during the POST (Power On Self Test) and keep pressing F8 until you get to the Windows boot options. One of the options should be to disable automatic restart during an error. Now that you have that set up, you will be able to see the BSoD and you should write down the error code. If you don't know what the error code means, put it into Google or into the Microsoft search.

Okay so now I have a page that tells me some fixes, but how am I supposed to fix the problem if I can't get in to Windows?

When thinking about starting a computer service business, some people may not think about all of the costs involved and jump in unprepared. The following guidelines should help you gauge whether you are ready to start your computer service business or not.

I used to have a "no fix, no charge" policy. This policy basically means that if I am unable to solve your computer problem or provide you with the service that you needed, then I will not charge you a cent. Today, I have decided to no longer use the policy. In this article I am going to explain more about why I am against it rather than for it. Please keep in mind that these opinions are for on-site work only. I believe carry-in work should have a 100% fix guarantee - no questions asked.

The knowledge and experience that you have is worth a lot of money. When people call you, they are calling on you to apply your knowledge and skill to their problem. Yes, they are also paying for a fix; but part of the cost includes your time, knowledge, and experience. If you go on-site and try every fix in the book and the problem still remains, I think you should still be paid because at least you and the customer know what is not the problem. And why should you not be paid for your time troubleshooting? Unless you have absolutely no idea what you are doing and you are just dicking around, I think your work is worth money.

I believe "no fix, no charge" policies appeal to cheap customers. People who want something for free are going to love hearing about that policy. They know that there is no risk to them, but they don't take your time into account. They don't care if you make any money but they do care about the money that they have to spend, and they are going to be upset when it comes down to paying the bill if it's a lengthy fix. Sure, if you charge them and don't fix anything, they will be upset. But since they are cheap, they probably won't be calling you for repeat business anyway. They are a one-time deal. Sure, they won't refer you to their friends either. But would you rather have a bunch of cheapskate clients that would skip the bill at their first chance? Or would you rather have a bunch of high-paying clients who understand that time is money?

I am always interested in hearing about other people's methods that they use while on the job. So I am going to share my methods and I'd appreciate it if you left a comment to share your methods or just leave some feedback to tell me what you think about my methods. So here it goes.

1. I first like to open up Add/Remove Programs and just go through and rip through all kinds of trash. Go through and uninstall all the non-important stuff. I really wouldn't be too worried when removing programs because the average user doesn't even use half of the crap that they install over time. Uninstall trialware, uninstall those programs that tell you to buy stuff, uninstall outdated software, and uninstall software that is rarely used and old.

2. I will then install and run Ccleaner.

3. Install Spybot - Search and Destroy. Update it and run the immunization. Also use Spybot's startup tool to disable unecessary programs from running on startup.

4. Right-click My Computer and select Properties.Then go to the Advanced Tab and disable error-reporting. This disables the "do you want to send this error to Microsoft" window.

There are plenty of ways to advertise your computer repair and service business. I am just going to touch on a couple I've tried and the effectiveness and ROI of each method.

4x6" Flyers on Windshields

I think this has to be one of the worst forms of advertising I've ever used or heard of. Whenever I get a flyer on my car, I will always grab it and quickly crumble it up without even looking at it. Looking at the whole technique in retrospect, I think car flyers are pretty tacky. Unless you are advertising food like a pizza joint or fast food restaurant, you might want to stay away from this method. The only time I would think windshield flyers are a good idea is when there is a big event going on and heavy traffic will follow the event. One example of an event like this would be a big high school graduation. I recently attended a high school graduation and my car got tagged with two flyers. Because traffic was so heavy and it took me forever to get out of the parking lot, I was forced to read the flyers. One was from a sports bar and the other one I don't even remember.The reason the sports bar flyer stuck in my mind is because it was actually printed on glossy 4x6 postcard type paper, so instead of easily crumbling it up like paper, it is still sitting in my car's cup holder.

Yesterday my main hard drive failed on me. The only warning I got was about two days before this, my computer would POST a little bit slower than usual while booting up. But even though there was that warning, I didn't think too much of it. So if you've been procrastinating to back up your data, you better stop and back it up now.

I am quite fortunate because I only just decided to buy an external hard drive for backup and storage purposes a month ago. It's a good thing I bought it and backed up all of my data because the hard drive I lost contained the My Documents folder which houses all of my music, web site files, income records, ISOs, and other good stuff. I would have been quite upset if I lost all of that data. I did however, lose my notepad that contained a lot of ideas on topics to write about on this site. I also lost everything else that was on my desktop and I also lost my bookmarks. So don't forget to backup that stuff too.

If you are going to buy an external hard drive, I'd go with a Western Digital. They are one of the top brands with only Seagate rivaling them in quality. This Western Digital Elements 500GB External Hard Drive from Newegg is a good one. And it is on sale as of the day I am writing about this. Sorry if you live out of the States, Newegg ships to the US only.

Anyway, I just wanted to give a quick heads up to you guys. I would have lost approximately 110GB of important data if it wasn't for my external hard drive. So go backup your data if you value it!

A while back I posted about how I joined the Chamber of Commerce and how it could help your business. Well I also said I'd keep you updated on any interesting news about it. Well yesterday they had a business mixer at a local Sizzler's restaurant.

Because I am very young and new to the desert business scene, I was a bit intimidated and almost decided not to go. But I eventually mustered up the courage and went. I am very glad I went. It was actually a very fun experience and I gained a lot from it. I met a lot of people who also run local small businesses and I even won an awesome prize.

Meet people - Get your name out

Like I already mentioned, because of my age I was very intimidated to go and it took a long time for me to get enough courage to go in. But even though everybody was older than me, there was still quite a bit of people who were not much older than me and everybody at the mixer had something in common with me.They were all owners of a small business or representing a business. Obviously, this is a natural conversation topic so even if you aren't the best at coming up with topics to discuss, it's already been done for you. Another cool thing is that you will probably meet some people who you have seen before but never talked to. Or you will meet somebody who owns a business whose services you have used before. For example, I met somebody representing a sign business that did the signage on the back window of my car. Everybody who I talked to during the mixer has my card. Three people said they'd be calling me and I have a fourth person who is interested in getting a website set up soon. I even had a few people come up to me and ask me for my card even though I didn't even talk to them.

About a week ago, I hired a graphic designer on Elance to design a postcard for my business. I made it clear that I wanted the project to be fully editable via Photoshop when it was done. So in order to make it fully editable, the designer sent me the font files along with the project. The only problem is that two of fonts were in some sort of format that was only Mac compatible. So being a PC user, this obviously caused some problems.

It took a good 15-20 minutes searching Google to find something that would convert the fonts into a Windows format. I finally found CrossFont, which did exactly what I needed. It comes with an unrestricted 15-day trial which allowed me to convert the two fonts I needed. After your 15 days are up, the price is $45 for a single user license. But if you are just going to use it to convert a couple of fonts, I guess 15 days is plenty of time, huh?