If you ever wonder how fast your Internet connection is, Cnet offers a good test. They also have a desktop widget to monitor your bandwidth.

Slow Internet connection speeds means that there is a lot of traffic going on in your network. If you’re experiencing slower-than-normal speeds, here are some things you should check.

1. Check any file-sharing programs. Some can be big bandwidth hogs without you knowing it. There is usually a setting in “Preferences” that you can set the upload and download limits. If you have no limits set, especially for uploading, then you have a problem. In some cases, you cannot change the settings (Opera’s built in torrent program) and will have to stop transfers.
2. Check for streaming music or video being played on your network. The more music and videos that are being streamed to computers on your network, the less bandwidth you will have, making for a slower connection.
3. How many programs are you running? This doesn’t directly affect bandwidth, but too many programs running- or even open- can cause your computer to operate at a seemingly slow pace.
4. Have you done a check for viruses or other malware? Some malicious programs are written to utilize your computer and network resources without you knowing. This can definitely have an affect on your Internet connection speeds. And, it’s always good to surf the Internet virus-free.

IT; information technology.

Working in the field for a number of years now, not everyone understands what it is supposed to be or do. Think about it. Is it just about computers and working with computers? For many people, it is. You use a computer to do your work. If the computer breaks, call the IT department and they’ll fix it.

But IT is more than just hardware and software. I know this is going to sound strange, but it’s about information. I know what you’re thinking,

“That’s just absurd… now fix my computer.”

Yes, some of us fix computers. Others create applications for you to interact with; analyze and aggregate data; find patterns that a mountain of data can sometimes hide. We turn all of the “stuff” into information- something useful.

Here are two articles about information.

The first is about business intelligence.
BusinessWeek: Business Intelligence’s Time is Now

The second is about IT in health care.
BusinessWeek: IT Spending: When More is Less

Step 1

Disable USB Autorun in Windows XP

This will disable CD autorun, as well, but adding an additional one or two clicks is a small price to pay for protecting your computer from viruses. Every university computer lab or Internet cafe should do this. If the link above does not work, then follow the word-for-word steps below (minus the picture).

1. Click the Start button, then Run and enter “gpedit.msc” without the quotes
2. Go to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System
3. Scroll down to “Turn off Autoplay” and double click on it
4. Click on the “Enabled” radio button, then for “Turn off Autoplay on” select “All drives”

Step 2

Automatically conduct a malware scan of USB hard drives upon being plugged in.

‘Still searching for a solid solution. This may not be ideal for everyone, or in every case. For example, what if you have a 200GB external hard drive? That’s going to take a long time to scan, assuming that you do not use the USB drive until the scan is finished. Not to say that you can’t use it while it is simultaneously being scanned, but that sort of defeats the purpose of an auto-scan. This is going to be a tough cookie to crack. Unless, you only scan thumbdrives, or drives in which you specify a size limit because even thumbdrives are getting higher and higher capacity. What would that limit be? 1GB? 2GB? 4GB? 16GB?