Chads Computer Services

I have had this modem for almost 2 months now, and i have not had any issues with the modem. It replaced a Motorola MB8611 modem that I was constantly having issues with and having to reset it multiple times a week. I finally had enough, and decided to take it back and exchange it since I had the extended warranty. Overall set up was easy, i just had to register it with my internet provider through the app for my internet provider. After it was registered with my internet provider it was smooth sailing from there. I did have to use the cord that came with my router that i also bought at the same time. Please see the review on that here. Overall I feel like buying the Arris SURFboard S33 was a good choice, and so far no issues with speed or the performance of it. Both are important because I work from home for work, and so speed and performance are both important. When i was going to purchase this modem, i did research and found that for the price that I paid for the modem, it was the fastest modem that i could get because it supports up to 2.5GBps as long as you have a router that supports 2.5GBps which I do, I will talk about that in my router review linked above. The modem is small and isnt too big so its not real noticeable, the only thing is that it is white and not black so it doesn’t blend in too well with all my other electronics. That doesnt really bother me though as long as it works and i dont have to constantly reset it to make it work.

I have had this router system that replaced the Netgear Nighthawk AX3600 Triband Mesh wifi system. I was having issues with the Netgear system, it wasnt working right for one of the Satellite units so i decided that it was time to just replace it all because I was not sure if it was the modem or the router mesh system, so I decided to replace both the modem and the router mesh system that I was using at the time. Setup for the eero 6E Pro was fairly straightforward. I downloaded the eero app from the Apple app store, and it had me login using my Amazon credentials. After logging in with my Amazon account, it then walked me through the set up of the Gateway router. After the Gateway router was set up, it then walked me through setting up the other nodes that it came with. After everything was set up, it ran a speed test, and I noticed I was not getting the speeds I was paying for, after some troubleshooting, I replaced the cord that I was using and used the network cord that came with the eero 6E Pro system, and everything seemed to have gone back to normal. After everything was back to the speeds it was supposed to be at, I then changed the IP address of the router to match what I was using before.

The one thing I wish was different about the eero 6E is that everything is controlled though the eero app, while the app is pretty intuitive, I am so used to being able to do everything through a web browser, so it did take me a little while to figure out where everything was that I needed to set up for the network.

Each node is able to act as a router, so it doesn’t matter which one you set up as the Gateway as they call it, any of them can be the Gateway, and any of them can be the other nodes. Each node has one 1GB port and a 2.5GB port.

So in July i decided to go to best buy and purchase the new Macbook Pro 16″ with the new M1 Pro chip, with the 512GB SSD, and 16GB of memory. So far the battery life has been excellent, i have only had to plug it in a handful of times. The screen is nice on the new Macbook Pro 16″ it is nice and bright. The keyboard is nice so it is a nice typing experience. The only thing I still havent gotten used to yet is the fact that there is no keyboard shortcut on the keyboard to make the keyboard brightness come on, you either have to go to the control center to turn that up or drag it out to the bar at the top to turn it up. Otherwise i have been very happy with my purchase. I will post another update once i have used it for a few more months.

Today we are going to talk about Apple’s new MacBook that has their M1 chip in it that was talked about last year at Apple’s yearly worldwide developers conference also known as WWDC. They announced that they are going to start moving away from using Intel processors and migrating over to their own processors. At WWDC they released a Mac mini, the MacBook Air, as well as the MacBook Pro.

I have had the MacBook Pro for about 3 weeks now, and have been using it a lot to finally be able to write a review on the MacBook Pro with Apple’s new M1 chip. Overall, I like how it runs, the battery life is excellent, I am able to go a few days without needing to charge the battery as long as I am not doing heavy tasks, but for word processing and surfing the web, writing emails I would say I can get approximately two days worth of battery life before I need to plug the computer in to charge the battery.

The pros for the MacBook Pro are that it is really fast because I can do things as fast as I need to, the battery last a long time, the keyboard feels really nice, native Apple/M1 applications are really fast. Now, applications that use the Rosetta 2/Intel architecture still are also really fast but they aren’t as fast as Apple native applications.

There are some downsides to the Macbook, there are only 2 Thunderbolt/USB-C ports, where as the previous MacBook that I was using had 4, but I really only use 1 maybe 2 at a time so that really wasn’t a deal breaker for me. In reading reviews online, and watching Youtube videos people have mentioned that you cannot use the MacBook with more then 1 external screen at a time. Depending on if you need more then 2 ports or not then I would say that the new line of Apple products is the way to go because of the fact that it is definitely much snappier then the Intel versions of the same computer, do I wish it had more ports, and was able to use it with more then 1 external monitor, yes, however, since I don’t use more then 2 ports at a time, and don’t really use a dual monitor set up with my Mac set up, its not really a dealbreaker for me.

I did some research and was actually going to get the MacBook Air when I was going to get the computer, however when I was talking to the guy at Best Buy, he recommended that I get the MacBook Pro over the MacBook Air, because if I want the computer to last then the Pro is the way to go. Also with the MacBook Air, one of the GPU cores is turned off so you only get 8 CPU cores, and 7 GPU cores.

I would definitely recommend getting AppleCare, they have recently changed the AppleCare program and once your initial 3 year warranty is up you can now renew the warranty at 1 year increments.

I purchased the MacBook Pro with touch bar a few months ago and i must say that i really do love the MacBook Pro with the touch bar because then you don’t have to worry about what buttons to press because in the apps that the Touch Bar is supported in, it changes the Functions to the most used Functions for that specific application that you are using, now i have not actually tested it in all of the applications but the ones that i have used it in the most are Spotify so far, i will update this blog post when i have used it a little more. The one thing that i do not like about the MacBook Pro is that they got rid of the MagSafe connector and made it an actual connector, so i would definitely recommend that you get Apple Care if you are planning to get this laptop and you are prone to leave it on the floor and accidentally trip over cords, even if you aren’t prone to that i would still recommend getting the Apple Care because of how much the device costs. But it is a nice device so it is definitely worth it, granted there are cheaper options for how light it is. That was one of the reasons i got it to begin with was for the portability of it.

So far i am liking how easy it has been to use Plex Media Server to put all my Blu-Rays that i own on to an easy to use Media Player that i can use my Chrome Cast or the app that is on the Xbox One. Sometimes though i have found that when it goes to match movies it doesnt always match them right so you have to go back and find a different match for the movie. Installation was fairly simple, you just need to download the Plex Media Server from http://plex.tv and install it, I use WIndows Server 2012 r2 as the Operating system because it also stores all my files for the network as well. What made me try out Plex Media Server is that i had heard a lot about Plex from groups that i am on on Facebook, and it interested me because they talked about how they can watch stuff when they are away from their home. I do have Remote Access for Plex Set up as well so it is accessible when i am on the road or want to watch something at a friends house.

PROS:
—Easy to set up
-Easy to use
-Works when you are out of the home
-Automatically detects and adds new movies when added to the media folder
-Easy to restore settings if you move to different hardware

CONS:
–When computer restarts you have to login to make sure the Plex Media Server is started before you can watch stuff on the server, if you dont turn auto start up upon login, and have auto login of the account that the Plex Server was set up under, there is a workaround but it requires a separate program in order to work properly

There are many different types of Assistive technologies that can be used by people with disabilities of many kinds. There are technologies for the blind and the physically disabled. I will touch on both of these in this blog post. I use assistive technologies to help me type sometimes when i am blogging, I will mention ones that already exist within the operating system as well as some paid versions of different assistive technologies that exist.

the most popular assistive technology that is used for typing is Dragon Naturally Speaking, they have since dropped the NaturallySpeaking part of the program and it is now called Dragon Professional, they do have a cheaper version which has the NaturallySpeaking in the name but i have opted for the Professional version. You can buy Dragon by going to Nuance.com and selecting Dragon on their website, you may also be able to find Dragon cheaper other places such as Amazon, but since Nuance is the manufacturer of Dragon i would suggest that you buy it from a reliable source. I have never had any issues with the software itself, i have been using it since Windows 7. There are dictation features built into windows, as well as Mac, but in my opinion those aren’t as good as Dragon in regards to features.

There are also screen readers which will read what is on your screen, the most popular one that people use is JAWS Screen Reader, according to WebAIM it was the most popular screen reader used worldwide. If you are a Mac user, the only option you have is VoiceOver which is built into the mac operating system.

For other operating systems such as Linux there are free screen readers that can be used.

Hopefully you find this an interesting read, and subscribe to my blog to receive updates, when i post new blog entries! You can do so on the right hand side of the page.

You are probably asking yourself, is an antivirus program really necessary? It depends on what you will be doing online, If you are just doing basic web browsing and checking emails, and are very careful about opening attachments from only people that you trust, then i would say no its not necessary, but if you are downloading movies, going on Facebook, and doing online shopping then i would say you should invest in an Antivirus program. There are free ones, one is even included in Windows 8 and 10. Now if you are looking for extra protection, possibly one with Email scanning, and a firewall, then you will need to invest in an antivirus suite which includes those features. Staying safe online is important because if you click on the wrong thing online then you may download a virus to your computer and that may lead to data loss, and possibly needing to reinstall your operating System. Windows computers are more susceptible to downloading viruses on to your computer then an Apple computer, or if you are running Linux. But if you are careful them you should be good to go.

I will not be going into those here on this blog post, please feel free to contact me on the Contact page for any questions or if you are looking for the right solution for all of your needs. Also visit our facebook page and send us a message and we would be happy to discuss your options whether you are a small business or a home user. Chad’s Computer Services will be able to determine what the best solution for your needs is, and if you have multiple devices then we will also be able to design a solution depending on what you are looking for.

If you already have an antivirus program, and need a way to test it, you can go to eicar.org, or Google “EICAR test file” and there are instructions on how to create the file and test your current antivirus solution to make sure that it is working properly.