If you leave your computer running 24/7 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week), you might be interested in determining the amount of uptime that has accumulated since your last reboot. Luckily, it's very easy to find that information in both Windows XP and Vista. Let's take a look!

Tracking Uptime in Vista

To find Vista’s uptime, right click on your taskbar and select Task Manager.

Now, with the Task Manager open, click on the Performance tab and you'll see the amount of uptime listed under the System cialis free offer section.

Tracking Uptime in XP

To find the uptime in XP, go to Start, Run, type in "cmd" and then click OK.

That will bring up a command prompt. Type in “systeminfo” (without the quotes) and then hit Enter. It will take a few minutes for the analysis to complete and get your results, but when it's finished, you'll see your uptime listed in days, hours, minutes and seconds.

Find your uptime today!

We’ve all done it, and regretted it — sent an e-mail to the wrong person, sent an angry e-mail in haste, or sent an e-mail with mistakes. I don’t mind confessing my most humiliating e-mail mistakes because they’re so old:

Most e-mail clients send e-mail as soon as you hit Send in the message window, and that’s why we get into trouble. Instead of sending each e-mail immediately, let them sit in the outbox. Later (usually a few hours or so), review the messages one last time and then send them. I often find small and seemingly unimportant mistakes, but mistakes nonetheless. Occasionally, I find something more cialis for sale important and I count my lucky stars! Letting a message sit for a while, especially if you’re angry when you respond, will give you a bit of time to rethink and perhaps, even save face.

Outlook is configured to send mail when you click Send in the New Message window. To reset this option so that you control when Outlook sends mail, do the following:

1. From the Tools menu, choose Options.
2. Click the Mail Setup tab.
3. Click Send/Receive in the Send/Receive options.
4. Uncheck the Include This Group In Send/Receive (F9) option in the Setting For Group “All Accounts” section. Most of us will set this for all accounts, but you can configure Outlook to handle each account differently.
5. Click Close and then OK.

After unchecking the Send/Receive option, you must remember to click Send/Receive on the Standard toolbar to send mail. You can also set Outlook to send e-mail when you launch or close Outlook, or schedule it to send and receive e-mail at regular intervals, so be sure to consider those options as well. You’ll still have to find the mistakes, but putting a little time between creating and sending messages makes it easier to catch mistakes you might otherwise miss.

Today I’m going to share some pointers I learned from my previous experiences in buying and setting up a UPS for a midsize server room. I hope it will be useful to you.

1. Count your sockets

It might seem like a no-brainer, but it is important to ensure that you have sufficient sockets available at the back of your UPS to meet your requirements. The number of sockets that is required can add up quickly once you factor in Internet-access equipment such as routers, modems, firewalls, and VPN appliances. Double that if you are running a multi-homed configuration, or have servers equipped with dual power supply units that are capable of hot failover. Do remember to plug in your monitors and KVMs — if you are using them — into a protected power outlet, too. (Just power them off when not in use) Another solution might be to buy standard power strips and manually rewire their default connectors with plugs that can fit those on your UPS. This is useful for protecting multiple minor pieces of equipment, such as modems and other low-drain equipment.

2. Consider additional UPS units

Some mid-range UPS models offer the ability to “cascade” additional battery packs from the main UPS. The additional battery packs are usually rack-mountable as well and represent a convenient way to increase the runtime of your UPS beyond the default configuration.

An advantage of going this route is that you get to share your available battery runtime more efficiently across all of your equipment. Other potential benefits – though it varies with models — is the lower cost compared to scaling up to a higher range of UPS, as well as the possibility of hot-replacements of batteries.

On the other hand, you have to consider that certain mid-range UPS models do offer a number of features such as the ability to stagger power-on times, as well as giving you the ability to remotely power-cycle equipment at the power receptacle level. Having two separate UPS units working at 40% load does represent a full backup complement.

3. Beware the deep end

If you are working with rack-mounted equipment, you will do well to ensure that your UPS has sufficient space on the back portion after mounting onto your rack. While a 19-inch UPS will fit just fine into a 19-inch rack, the fact is that not all 19-inch racks are built the same.

Smaller racks built to a reduced footprint or inferior racks might not have enough spare leeway for you to plug in the power connectors and still be able to close the back door.

In addition, it is also worth noting that higher-end UPSs typically use customized or non-standard plugs on the UPS-end. It will be wise not to position your rack too far away from the wall power socket.

4. Create a separate power circuit or branch

If you have access to an electrician, it is normally best to have him or her create a separate branch circuit from your office’s (or building’s) main power switchboard. This will help reduce instances of staff tripping your server room’s power by plugging in a faulty microwave oven.

5. Configure for (and test) the shutdown of servers

Many people forget that UPSs are meant only as a temporary measure for intermittent power outages. In an extended blackout or brownout, you do need to shut down your servers to prevent data loss. There are a few ways to do it — including the installation of vendor-specific software utilities — though we’re not going to cover this today.

6. Other points to consider

TechRepublic members suggested a number of useful pointers in my previous article, “Selecting and installing your first UPS.”

TR member Ethical_Loner suggested the online tool on APC’s Web site here to get a better idea of your power requirements. TR member robo_dev cautioned against assuming all the connectors on a UPS are the same. Specifically, watch out for UPSs with power outlets that are divided into “Battery backup” and “Surge suppression”, making sure to plug your equipment into the right outlet.

A topic which I completely missed out on would be the three categories of UPS that are available: off-line, line-interactive, and double-conversion. In a nutshell, it makes sense to go for a double-conversion UPS if budget allows. Due to the presence cialis for sale online of a rectifier directly driving the inverter, a sort of electrical “firewall” is formed to better protect against noisy or poor power environment. An off-line UPS will only kick in during a power outage, and a line-interactive lies somewhere in between.

If you’re like me, you live and breathe by your contacts. They’re vital to my business, as they probably are to yours. When I’m on the road without remote access, that can be a problem. I know that I can print my contacts, but taking the .pst file with me is much better. (The .pst file contains your contact information.) It’s a simple process:

To use the file, you can simply import cialis for daily use it into Outlook on another computer. But you should also be prepared to not have access to Outlook. Repeat the above process again, saving your .pst file as Microsoft Excel file and a comma-delimited text file (Comma Separated Values). If the worst happens, you can at least view the information.

Now, you probably already knew that you could export the .pst file. What you might not have considered was how easily you could save that exported file to a flash drive and take it with you.