Hi Cidney, thanks for writing! You have a challenge my friend. In a rural area, satellite is usually the best option but in your case, for gaming, there isn't really a better option. Call Comcast, ATT, Surewest and all of the other local high speed internet service providers in the greater Sacramento area and find out when and if they are planning on serving your area. I wish I had a much more uplifting scenario for you but call around and see who's doing what and when in your area for service and for now, the 3 second delay is a lifestyle.   [less]

Frank, thanks for writing in. There is some gray area when ISPs or Internet Service Providers talk about speed. Many ISPs claim they have DSL speed with a regular phone line. They may well have some fast speeds but your challenge wil be that using a 56k modem for "DSL Speeds" you will be limited to the speed capacity of the modem itself. Actual DSL uses your normal phone line but they wire one of your phone jacks differently, provide you a DSL modem and an ethernet (rj45) cable connection as oppoesd to a standard phone line (rj11). These steps optimize the the available bandwidth that exists within your existing phone system. I believe that you can get decent "speed" from your dial up connection to go and browse the internet but if you plan on gaming, downloading files and actually using your internet to do all it can do for you, I fear dial up will leave you needing more bandwidth to maintain a happy disposition!  [less]

Craig, thanks for writing! To say the least, you've got quite a situation on your hands. 1st, without knowledge of the CPU ID Utility, its impossible to know what effects it may have. Configurations vary to such a large degree per component, it would be impossible for me to know without physically assessing the PC. You are welcome to bring it by and we'll check it out at no charge. 9745 Business Park Drive #A Sacramento, CA. 95827 (916) 366-0708. 2nd, with your second HDD, all you can do is plg in a new HDD, right click on "my computer", select "manage", select "disk management", select your new HDD and partition as desired. Once each partition is set up it will need to be formatted but unfortunately the data from your other disk is lost. I sure hope this helps, please call or come by if you need more help!!  [less]

Thanks Delyga for writing in, Digital, analogue, plasma, LCD... With all of the choices I see how it can be confusing and expensive but one choice is easy. If you're not ready to upgrade, by all means don't. And for more good news, you may not even have to! Midnight, February 17th, 2009 is the drop dead date for broadcasters to change from analogue to digital broadcasting. Know two things: Only customers who rely on antennas for any or all of their channels will be affected by this change!Only "local Free" channels are affected by this change! If that's you, I recommend you either invest in a conversion box as follows: Visit this link first; https://www.dtv2009.gov/. This will give you information on the govt coupon program for convertor boxes. You may also need a digital converter box for other analog-only devices you have—such as an analog-only VCR or DVD recorder. OR Switch to Dish, Cable or Direct TV. Then you don't need to do anything, by now, most of your "local free" channels are offered by these companies. I know its a confusing topic but this should go a long way toward helping you convert both wisely and economically. Best of luck to you!  [less]

Hi Zelyna, thanks for asking. Western Blue is an IT Integrator with a primary focus on Business Outcome.

If you want XP it is still widely available. If for some reason you are having issues finding it, let me know and I will place the order for your new PC with XP on it. First thing to do is chek with your IT person at work and ask them if Vista is compatible with whatever form of communication you are using to connect to the office from home. If Vista poses no challenge, get it. I use it at home and I love it. Yes, it is different than XP but as I remember it, all of the Windows 98 faithful swore that XP was the worst thing ever. Strangely enough, these are the same people giving you the bad reviews on Vista and telling you not to change... hmmm sounds like a pattern to me... Vista is an easy transition. The transition from Office 2003 to Office 2007 is the one that will make your eyes blurry. This takes some getting used to but from XP to Vista, its not worth sweating over.  [less]

Not in a practical fashion. Your call phone can do a lot but in many cases its not the best medium for that use. Yes it can capture photo and video images but would you want to replace your digital camera or video recorder? Probably not. Give me more information as to what you're looking to accomplish with your Razr and I'll se if i can help you get there, thanks! mrodgers@westernblue.com  [less]

The best thing to do is set the rules for your family PC with an administrator log in and don't share it with your kids. Give them their own log ins that do not have the administrator's permission to change settings. If you are using an on line portal to manage such as ATT Yahoo or Google, again, use your account owner credentials or admin log in to set rules and require that your young ones log in with their own user names and passwords.  [less]

Yeah, that's an older laptop but not a dead one by any means. The best advice I can give you is to remove the laptop battery, disassemble the laptop to access the bios battery and remove it as well. With both batteries out, the bios should reset itself and you'll be off and running. That's a tough one, best of luck to you and if for some reason it doesn't work, feel free to contact me and I'll schedule a Tech to look at it over at our service center if you're local. If not, I'll hook you up with a tech over the phone who should be able to get you going again.  [less]

When it comes to laptops for personal use there are as many choices, brands, colors, shapes and sizes as there are new car choices. If anything stands out in my experience, the new generation HP Notebools are "noteworthy." Since the acquisition of Compaq, the HP brand has exploded onto the graphics, video and gaming scene. The HP Pavillion Entertainment dv6000 series is especially great. Depending what model you select, you can get any and everything you want including a lid mounted camera, very cool. I would recommend if you're runing Vista that you upgrade to 2GB ram but other than that, it's a rocketship right out of the box and HP will stand behind what they sell offering great warranty options as well.  [less]