documentsnetbooks for dummies phần 1 docx

Joel McNamaraLearn to: • Compare features of these small, ultraportable computers to pick the one that works best for you • Set up a netbook and explore free online and downloadable appl

Joel McNamara

Learn to:

• Compare features of these small, ultraportable computers to pick the one that works best for you

• Set up a netbook and explore free online and downloadable applications

• Play games, watch videos, and listen to music on the go with your netbook

• Surf the Web and work online from almost anywhere

Netbooks

™

Open the book and find:

• What to compare when choosing

Joel McNamara has been a computer aficionado since the dawn of the

PC He has served as a developer, technical writer, and manager in various

high-tech companies The author of GPS For Dummies and Secrets of

Computer Espionage: Tactics & Countermeasures, he might be considered a

for videos, step-by-step examples,

how-to articles, or to shop!

Want to streamline your

life with a netbook? Here’s

what you need to know!

What’s smaller than a laptop, bigger than a cell phone, and

keeps you connected? It’s the netbook, and this “real” book

tells you how to pick the right one; use it for work, school,

and play; and add bells, whistles, and anything else you

might need The book also covers all the operating systems

that run on netbooks, including Linux®, Google™ Chrome,

Windows® XP, Windows Vista®, and even Windows® 7.

• Out of the box — set up your netbook, charge the battery, and

sync it with your primary computer

• Get connected — via Wi-Fi, 3G networks, Bluetooth ® , or Ethernet

• Do some work — explore Microsoft ® Works, OpenOffice.org ® ,

Google Apps ™ , and Zoho ® productivity suites

• Play time — discover free Internet radio, streaming video, and

games you can play on your netbook

• Keep up with your peeps — tweet and IM, keep up with Facebook

friends, and make Skype phone calls

• Even netbooks like accessories — check out ways to expand

storage, protect your netbook with a case, and add a mouse

• Safety first — find quality antivirus programs, firewalls, and

encryption options

• The maintenance mantra — learn about backing up and restoring

your netbook, troubleshooting, and managing battery life

Start with FREE Cheat Sheets

Cheat Sheets include

• Checklists

• Charts

• Common Instructions

• And Other Good Stuff!

Get Smart at Dummies.com

Dummies.com makes your life easier with 1,000s

of answers on everything from removing wallpaper

to using the latest version of Windows

Check out our

• Videos

• Illustrated Articles

• Step-by-Step Instructions

Plus, each month you can win valuable prizes by entering

our Dummies.com sweepstakes *

Want a weekly dose of Dummies? Sign up for Newsletters on

• Digital Photography

• Microsoft Windows & Office

• Personal Finance & Investing

• Health & Wellness

• Computing, iPods & Cell Phones

• eBay

• Internet

• Food, Home & Garden

Find out “HOW” at Dummies.com

*Sweepstakes not currently available in all countries; visit Dummies.com for official rules.

To access the Cheat Sheet created specifically for this book, go to

www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/netbooks

Spine =.76”

FOR

by Joel McNamara

Netbooks

FOR

Netbooks For Dummies

Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or

by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as

permit-ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 Unipermit-ted States Copyright Act, without either the prior written

permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the

Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600

Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley

& Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://

www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the

Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, Making Everything

Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc and/

or its affi liates in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated

with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO

REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF

THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING

WITH-OUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE NO WARRANTY MAY BE

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WHEN IT IS READ

For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care

Department within the U.S at 877-762-2974, outside the U.S at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport.

Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats Some content that appears in print may

not be available in electronic books.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009935829

ISBN: 978-0-470-52123-6

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Author

Joel McNamara started using computers in the early Cenozoic era of personal

computing (1980 to be exact) If NorthStar Horizon, ARPANET, PDP-11, Kaypro, and Apple Lisa ring a bell (when dinosaurs roamed the earth), like in the movie

Zelig, he was there Over the years, Joel has worked as a programmer,

techni-cal writer, and manager for a number of companies in the high-tech sector

Joel currently consults and writes on things he fi nds interesting Living in an undisclosed location somewhere in the Pacifi c Northwest, he likes boats of all kinds and is fond of old-school technologies such as celestial navigation and Morse Code

Joel is also the author of ASUS Eee PC For Dummies, GPS For Dummies (1st and 2nd Editions), Geocaching For Dummies, and Secrets of Computer Espionage:

Tactics & Countermeasures — all brought to you by Wiley Publishing, Inc.

Start with FREE Cheat Sheets

Cheat Sheets include

• Checklists

• Charts

• Common Instructions

• And Other Good Stuff!

Get Smart at Dummies.com

Dummies.com makes your life easier with 1,000s

of answers on everything from removing wallpaper

to using the latest version of Windows

Check out our

• Videos

• Illustrated Articles

• Step-by-Step Instructions

Plus, each month you can win valuable prizes by entering

our Dummies.com sweepstakes *

Want a weekly dose of Dummies? Sign up for Newsletters on

• Digital Photography

• Microsoft Windows & Office

• Personal Finance & Investing

• Health & Wellness

• Computing, iPods & Cell Phones

• eBay

• Internet

• Food, Home & Garden

Find out “HOW” at Dummies.com

*Sweepstakes not currently available in all countries; visit Dummies.com for official rules.

To access the Cheat Sheet created specifically for this book, go to

www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/netbooks

Spine =.76”

Author’s Acknowledgments

Thanks to ASUS and Dell for loaning me a few of their latest netbook models

And much gratitude to the talented folks at Wiley for transforming a tion of ideas and words into a real, live book — specifi cally acquisitions edi-tors Katie Mohr and Tiffany Ma, project editor Chris Morris, technical editor Jim Kelly, copy editor Virginia Sanders, and anyone else who was involved with this title that I didn’t have a chance to virtually meet It’s always a plea-sure working with pros

collec-Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments at http://dummies.custhelp.com For

other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S at 877-762-2974,

outside the U.S at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial

Sr Project Editor: Christopher Morris

Acquisitions Editor: Katie Mohr, Tiffany Ma

Copy Editor: Virginia Sanders

Technical Editor: Jim Kelly

Editorial Manager: Kevin Kirschner

Editorial Assistant: Amanda Graham

Sr Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Cartoons: Rich Tennant

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director Mary C Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher Composition Services

Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

Contents at a Glance

Introduction 1

Part I: Getting Started with Netbooks 7

Chapter 1: Everything You Need to Know about Netbooks 9

Chapter 2: Introducing Netbooks 23

Chapter 3: Selecting a Netbook 39

Chapter 4: Netbook Operating Systems 59

Chapter 5: First Things First 73

Part II: Using Your Netbook 87

Chapter 6: Netbook Networking 89

Chapter 7: Netbooks at Work 109

Chapter 8: Netbook Fun and Games 123

Chapter 9: Better Safe than Sorry: Security 137

Chapter 10: Staying in Touch: Twitter, Social Networking, IM, and Skype 153

Chapter 11: Netbook Navigators 169

Part III: Netbook Add-On Accessories and Hardware 185

Chapter 12: Carrying Your Netbook 187

Chapter 13: Powering Your Netbook 197

Chapter 14: External Storage 213

Chapter 15: Netbook Gizmos and Gadgets 229

Part IV: Checking Underneath the Hood 243

Chapter 16: Troubleshooting Your Netbook 245

Chapter 17: Backing Up and Restoring Your Netbook 257

Chapter 18: Upgrading Storage and Memory 269

Chapter 19: Optimizing Windows 285

Chapter 20: Discovering Drivers 299

Chapter 21: BIOS Basics 307

Part V: The Part of Tens 317

Chapter 22: Top Ten Internet Netbook Resources 319

Chapter 23: Ten Cool Hardware Hacks 325

Index 335

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Who This Book Is For 2

Setting Some Expectations 2

How This Book Is Organized 3

Part I: Getting Started with Netbooks 3

Part II: Using Your Netbook 3

Part III: Netbook Add-On Accessories and Hardware 4

Part IV: Checking Underneath the Hood 4

Part V: The Part of Tens 4

Icons Used in This Book 5

Some Things to Keep in Mind 5

Part I: Getting Started with Netbooks 7

Chapter 1: Everything You Need to Know about Netbooks 9

Netbook Nuts and Bolts 10

Picking the Perfect Netbook 11

Getting Started with a New Netbook 14

Netbooks and Networks 15

Business or Pleasure 15

Business sense 16

Fun and games 16

Better safe than sorry 18

Going places 19

Accessorizing and Expanding 19

Technically Speaking 20

Underneath the hood 21

When bad things happen to good netbooks 21

Netbook Information on the Net 22

Chapter 2: Introducing Netbooks .23

Honey, I Shrunk the Laptop! 23

Just what exactly is a netbook? 24

Prehistoric netbooks 25

First-generation netbooks 28

Second-generation netbooks 30

Third-generation netbooks 32

Nuts About the Net 33

Netbooks For Dummies

xii

Netbooks versus Laptops: Bigger Isn’t Necessarily Better 34

Looking at full-size laptop downsides 35

Missing in action: Features you don’t fi nd on a netbook 36

Deciding between horsepower or more miles per gallon 37

A Laptop and a Netbook? 37

Chapter 3: Selecting a Netbook .39

Meet the Manufacturers 39

Picking a Price Point 41

Choosing Chips 42

Intel Celeron-M 42

Intel Atom 42

VIA 44

AMD 44

ARM 44

Mesmerized by Memory 46

Stumped by Storage 46

Solid state drives (SSDs) 47

Hard disk drives (HDDs) 48

Deciding between SSD and HDD 48

Keyboard Conundrums 49

Baffl ed by Batteries 50

Settling on a Screen 51

Operating System Opinions 52

Case in Point 53

Ferreting out Other Features 53

3G modems 54

Bluetooth 54

Touchpads 54

Webcams 55

ExpressCards 55

Selection Suggestions 55

Buying Basics 56

Chapter 4: Netbook Operating Systems 59

Working with Windows 59

XPerience counts 60

Viewing Vista 61

Seeking 7 62

Loving Linux 64

Penguin pointers 64

Discussing distros 65

Asking for Apple 68

Getting Google Android 69

Contending with Chrome 69

Windows versus Linux 70

Pros and cons 70

Which to choose? 71

Table of Contents

Chapter 5: First Things First 73

Read the Manual 73

Power to the People 74

Signing on the Dotted Line 75

You Light Up My Life 76

Handling Parts and Pieces 78

Touching on Touchpads 81

Figuring out Function Keys 82

Exchanging Data with Your Primary PC 83

Using USB fl ash drives 83

Making the most of Windows fi le sharing 84

Making sense of online storage 84

Synchronizing with Briefcase 85

Part II: Using Your Netbook 87

Chapter 6: Netbook Networking 89

Wireless Wanderings 89

802.11 90

3G networks 92

Bluetooth 94

Easy Ethernet 96

Internet Instructions 97

Browsing the Web 98

Exchanging e-mail 101

Connecting remotely with Ultra VNC 102

Sharing fi les on a Windows network 105

Chapter 7: Netbooks at Work 109

Working with Microsoft Works 110

Managing Microsoft Offi ce 112

Considering the OpenOffi ce Option 114

Going Online with Google Docs 117

Getting in the Zoho Zone 119

Chapter 8: Netbook Fun and Games 123

Music to My Ears 123

MP3 mania 124

Streaming audio 126

Viewing Videos 128

DVDs 128

Ripping movies 129

Streaming video 131

Shall We Play a Game? 134

Netbook limitations 134

Internet resources for netbook gamers 136

Netbooks For Dummies

xiv

Chapter 9: Better Safe than Sorry: Security .137

Keeping Viruses at Bay 138

Zapping Spyware 141

Ad-Aware Free 141

Spybot-S&D 141

CCleaner 141

Focusing on Firewalls 142

Windows Firewall 142

Firewall alternatives 143

Evading Evil (with Encryption) 144

Finding out about TrueCrypt 145

Creating a TrueCrypt volume 146

Opening a TrueCrypt volume 148

Accessing fi les in a TrueCrypt volume 148

Closing a TrueCrypt volume 150

Keying in on Kensington Locks 150

Chapter 10: Staying in Touch: Twitter, Social Networking, IM, and Skype 153

Of Twitter and Tweets 154

Following tweets 155

Sending tweets to followers 157

Getting the word out 158

Practical applications 158

Social Networking “Friend” Sites 159

Going inside Instant Messaging (IM) 162

IM networks 162

IM clients 163

IM basics 164

Getting the Scoop on Skype 165

Chapter 11: Netbook Navigators 169

GPS in a Nutshell 170

Surveying GPS Receivers 170

Handheld GPS receivers 171

Mouse GPS units 172

Bluetooth GPS 173

Selecting Map Software 175

Street maps 176

Topographic maps 177

Satellite images 179

Charts 180

Making the Connection 181

Protocols 181

Virtual serial ports 183

Putting it all together 183

Table of Contents

Part III: Netbook Add-On Accessories and Hardware 185

Chapter 12: Carrying Your Netbook .187

Case in Point 188

Sleeves 188

Soft carrying cases 189

Hard cases 193

For the Do-It-Yourselfer 195

Sew it yourself 195

Modify an old planner 195

Wrap it in bubbles 195

Pad it with an envelope 196

Chapter 13: Powering Your Netbook 197

Tackling Battery Basics 197

Current concepts 198

Brand-name batteries 199

Third-party batteries 200

Power to-go: Universal batteries 201

Getting a Charge (Out of Your Car) 203

Cigarette lighter adapters 203

Inverters 205

Power-Saving Tips 206

Turn off your netbook 207

Use standby mode 207

Use low power settings 208

Turn off Wi-Fi 208

Dim the display 208

Treat your battery right 209

Disconnect USB devices 209

Don’t use animated screen savers 210

Use a wired Ethernet connection 210

Know what activities drain batteries 211

Single task 211

Chapter 14: External Storage 213

SD (Secure Digital) Cards 213

Cavalcade of cards 215

Ins and outs 216

Formatting SD cards 216

Booting another operating system 217

USB Flash Drives 220

USB Hard Drives 223

CD-ROM, DVD, and Blu-ray Drives 225

Netbooks For Dummies

xvi

Chapter 15: Netbook Gizmos and Gadgets .229

Blinging Out Your Netbook 230

Messing Around with Mice 231

Contemplating Keyboards 233

Mastering Modems 234

Beefi ng Up with Bluetooth 236

Headphones, Headsets, and Speakers 237

Bring on the Big Screen 239

External monitors 239

Projectors 239

Flipping Channels 240

I Saw the Light 241

In Case You Gotta Have More USB Toys 242

Part IV: Checking Underneath the Hood 243

Chapter 16: Troubleshooting Your Netbook 245

How to Troubleshoot 245

Troubleshooting Tools 247

MSConfi g 248

MSInfo32 248

Windows Task Manager 249

Startup Problems 250

Forgotten Windows Login Password 251

Getting in Touch with the Touchpad 251

Webcam Issues 252

Dealing with Batteries 253

Repairing Wireless Connections 253

Running Slow 254

Dead as a Proverbial Doornail 255

Chapter 17: Backing Up and Restoring Your Netbook .257

Understanding Simple File Copying 257

Backing Up and Restoring Your Drive 259

Windows backup utilities 260

Commercial backup programs 262

Reinstalling Windows 263

Using a recovery disc 264

Using a drive partition recovery image 266

Chapter 18: Upgrading Storage and Memory 269

Adding More Memory 269

Do you need to upgrade memory? 270

Can you upgrade the memory? 270

Selecting the right memory 272

General guide to upgrading memory 273