Help yourself

Got a computer problem? The answer is out there on the Net.

Computer Hope
An outstanding site with clear accurate in-depth information. Offers real knowledge gain and problem solutions for everyone with a personal computer. A favourite helper site. Comprehensive yet simply explained answers and tips for all things pc. Great manufacturer and driver data bases. Good dictionaries and troubleshooters.

Compguys Techweb Troubleshooting and PC Checkup 
The topic areas include Operating Systems, Fdisk and partitions, General Computing, Internet & Security

Paint Shop Pro Links and Resources Well, many folks need this.

All my FAQ's - Frequently asked Questions
If you  are trying to set up your own website, Phil Hayes has a fabulous reference list on his All My FAQ's page. 

Page Tutor
One of the best web page building tutorial sites around.

Tutorials on (just about) Everything
FindTutorials.com The Tutorials Search Engine.

Technical Information- SysOpt.com.
Information on computer system optimization, FAQ section and links to component manufacturers.

Help & How-To
The world's biggest publisher of computer stuff, both in print and online, offers this amazing one-stop site. In addition to the Fix-it and How-To sections, the Help Guides launch pad takes you to pages dedicated to - Windows, Mac, software, hardware, plus downloads to make things better.

Experts' Exchange
Billed as "The number one knowledge-sharing community on the Web", The Experts' Exchange is divided into topic areas covering every subject you could point a mouse at.

PC Support Center
"Click me, I'm human." How could I resist? I clicked. I got a human. The human helped me with my problem. PC Support Center's personalised tech support won't cost you a cent, but you'll need to be prepared to provide detailed information about your computer system in exchange. A fair deal.

Service 911
Service 911 ties together information and services from a well-credentialled collection of sources, and presents them all in a single, comprehensive site. Chat to a technician, view a video, read one of the 2,000 tutorials or search through the library.

Help Station
Geeks on tap. The writers from Australian PC User magazine answer your hardware, software and Internet questions. Or you can dig up the answer for yourself in the Help Station database.

Tech Support Guy
Fellow computer users are frequently a great source of support, but the advice often comes laced with liberal doses of sarcasm and egotism. Avoid the attitude and get the straight answer at this site, subtitled "There's no such thing as a stupid question".

The PC Guide This bilingual hardware site (the author speaks English as well as Geekspeak) starts from the ground and takes you as far as you want to go. It'll especially appeal if you like to understand the "how" as well as the "why".

Hardware Central Skip the distractions offered by this site and click straight through to the tutorials. Here you'll find down-to-earth information mixed with an interesting batch of hardware esoterica. If your computer is beeping away at you, or you just want to drop in some extra RAM, Hardware Central reveals all.

USB Workshop Chances are your brand-new computer has at least one USB plug on its backside. The USB Workshop explains the ins and outs of this fast, user-friendly plug-and-play way of hooking up devices to your Windows 9x or iMac machine. Check the Guide section for troubleshooting and survival tips.

BugNet A page dedicated to those programming bugs that find their way into software and crawl out onto your system, resulting in all sorts of crashes and mishaps. At first glance, this site may look a little like a dung beetle tracked its way across it, but lurking among the mess of links is a must-read section, BugNet Alerts.

The Virtual Doctor Still running the venerable Windows version 3.1?  Check into The Virtual Doctor's Windows 3.1 forum and you'll find a very active group of Win-three-point-oners exchanging ideas and information to wring the most out of their older Windows machines. A great site with lots of tutorials on technical aspects of the internet.

Windows Annoyances Let's face it, although Windows generally makes computing life easier, sometimes it can be plain stupid. This site sprang up in the earliest days of Windows 95 so people could identify all those niggling annoyances and in many (but not all) cases discover ways to make Windows behave itself. Now it also covers Windows 98. Both sections are full of ideas to help you circumvent the daft, frustrating and infuriating obstacles Windows tosses in your digital path.

Fix Windows This site takes the old adage about the relative values of pictures and words seriously, using a series of flowcharts to help you troubleshoot problems. Pick your operating system, name your problem and step through the possible causes and solutions.

File Extension Names See my page on this site.

Windows 98 Central Lots of independent support sites on the Web have a hollow, nobody's-home atmosphere with no signs of recent activity. Not this one. Windows 98 Central is updated daily with the latest news, tips, articles and gossip, and there's none of that Windows 95 stuff. This is pure, undiluted Windows 98.

Windows Update Windows 98 automatically places a shortcut to this free service on your Start Menu (and also at the bottom of the Settings menu), but it's easy to forget it's there. If you've never tried Windows Update, do it now. The site will check your copy of Windows, alert you to any parts of the OS that have been updated (either to run better or fix potential problems), and then offer a point-and-click way to download them.

WinDrivers How do you find the right software "driver" for your hardware, when you're not even sure who made it? Try WinDrivers' Identify section. With photos and diagrams, it'll help you work out who made your modem or sound card and then lead you by the hand to find and download the correct drivers.

MacFixIt Apart from Apple's own site, where the support is buried behind a wall of slick product advertisements, pickings are slim for Macintosh devotees. Not to worry. MacFixIt may well be all you need with its selection of troubleshooting reports, downloads and forums.

PC Show and Tell Whether you're struggling with rearranging paragraphs in WordPerfect or trying to use a named range in Excel, there's nothing quite like having someone show you exactly how to do it. That's the philosophy behind PC Show and Tell, a site that contains more than 7,000 mini-videos covering some 45 products.

Microsoft The Microsoft Developer Network lists Microsoft's products and technologies here. A very substantial reference library dwells within. Very helpful for technologically-minded folks trying to keep up with M.S. developments. A fantastic resource.

Office Update Scour Microsoft's online Knowledge Base of issues relating to the Office suite, or click the name of any application such as Word or Excel for a series of tutorials and troubleshooting ideas.

Woody's Office Watch If you've got a burning desire to master Office and tame its quirks, sign up for this free, weekly e-mail newsletter. The writing style may be somewhat idiosyncratic - it lies somewhere between informal and in-your-face - but there's no dispute that every issue contains nuggets for the "Office user, abuser, victim, pandit or pundit" in the words of the WOW team, which is led by pundit Woody Leonhard. There's a sister publication for Windows called (yup) Woody's Windows Watch over at www.mcc.com.au/www

Outlook Solutions Microsoft's bundling of the mighty Outlook into its Office suite has made this the information manager and e-mailer of choice for many Windows users. So when your outlook becomes less than rosy, dial up this excellent resource, which covers all versions of Outlook.

Palm FAQ Having problems with your Palm? This is the first stop for all your questions about the Palm and PalmPilot family of pocket rockets. It's all very hands-on, and the Tips & Hints page alone is worth a visit.

Consumer Concerns - Buyer Guides

Pc Pitstop  Unsure about the quality of your internet connection or want to trace your internet route?  Full  PC Tests, AntiVirus, Disk Health, Internet Connection, Check ActiveX, TechExpress, XP Readiness Test.

Trace Route tools
Need to trace a hacker? Sam Spade Org. has lots of tools for locating just who is trying to access your computer.

Active Buyer's Guide Claiming to be an unbiased site, electronic shop assistants tell us what features to look for in those alien product specifications and excellent search guides and selection options really make decisions much easier. When coupled with a product price-comparison site such as its affiliate site DealTime, or the excellent My Simon or Pricegrabber  sites, online shopping is at its electronic best.

Reviews by PC World product review and recommendations (Editor's picks), product finder and Top 10 lists. Products  reviewed are computer  related.

Reviews by ZdNet Product reviews. See the most popular products. 

ConsumerSearch.com/www/ This fabulous site  provides composite reviews for a wide variety of products.  One not only obtains a  recommended product list but links to the sourced product reviews from which information was gleaned,  as well as price estimates and links to retailers. This is consumer research as it should be.... reviews also getting reviewed! I love this attempt at consumer purism. Consumer needs are categorised as Electronics, House & Home, Automotive, Health & Fitness, Kitchen, Lawn & Garden, Sports & Leisure, Personal Finance, Family items, Photo & Video, Office and Computers. Enjoy!
Update: ConsumerSearch Named Best Expert Product Review Site on the Internet -- PC World. ..........Y'see I'm not alone in my praise of Consumersearch.com/www/

CNet a very up to date site. You can't ignore this massive site with editors Top 5 picks in many pc. categories, good advice and instructions for using that newly-purchased CD/DVD RW item. Such a well updated and interwoven site that you'll never leave! EXCEPT to peruse the wonderful site above.

Crashed Computer -DOS, Boot, Format and Partition sites.

Bootdisk. So, you've locked yourself out of your computer and you have no startup disk? Grab a floppy, borrow a friend's machine and visit Bootdisk. There you'll be able to download a startup disk for multiple flavours of DOS and Windows. You may also need to visit the following sites...I had to.

MS-DOS Reference

Dos7 Commands - Index Page

How~2 to Format a Hard Drive - Webtechgeek.com

How~2 Partition a Hard Drive - WebTechGeek.com

Vernon Frazee MS-DOS v6.22 Help Command Reference

Partitioning Primer and  win95_98_2k help

Bios Central

Compguys Techweb Troubleshooting and PC Checkup The topic areas include Operating Systems, Fdisk and partitions, General Computing, Internet & Security.

I Hate Computers! When all else fails ... vent your spleen here!

WebMonkey Guides "Understanding the relationship between servers and clients is as easy as ordering a bacon double cheeseburger at a fast-food drive-thru." If the WebMonkey Guides can make the underlying client-server structure of the Internet this easy, imagine what they can do for simple topics such as spam and online chat.

Learn the Net What do you do once you get yourself online? Learn the Net is full of suggestions (see how a baby develops, tour the solar system, play with an online etch-a-sketch). Even better, it's also packed with step-by-step articles covering everything the average surfer needs to know. If English isn't your first language, you can tour the site in Italian, Spanish, German or French.

Iomega Support As great as Zip drives are, sometimes they throw you a curve ball. Start at the official Iomega home page, where you can grab the latest Zip software (which alone may solve your problems) and browse their support page. Search for a particular hiccup or spy on what other people are asking tech support in case you've got the same problem and can hitch a ride on their queries.

The Unofficial Iomega Page At first glance this site looks very dated in its content and links, but click through the Zip Drive Message Board and you'll discover plenty of action as the Zippies of the world swap tips and tales of woe.

Modem Troubles

56k=v.Unreliable Website  This essential site has a troubleshooting area which I highly recommend. Try the Index area or the Interactive Troubleshooter. This site is dedicated to overcoming connection problems associated with 56k and v90 modems.

Forum 56  Forum 56 has a  very informative and specific list of bulletin boards for major modem types. Questions  specific to your modem concerns can be posted here. I have found this site very helpful. Full of knowledgeable folks.

The costmo modems site A  great source of modem technical information. The information you will find on this site is a combination of resources collected since 1995 as a result of  professional technical experience with an Internet Service Provider.

If you are looking for links to your modem's manufacturer so that you can browse their technical information, find drivers or get other support, click Modem Makers.

If you can't find the answer to your questions from "conventional" sources, check out the site author's  Personal Notes.

Are you struggling with poor connections and need a good initialization string? Check out the Init Strings section.

 

Programming. Lots of unmentioned site here still...

FAQTS com  FAQTS com has a  searchable knowledge base  on programming languages.

w3appml.com AppML is an XML based markup language designed to describe Internet applications.

w3schools.com www.w3schools.com has fine tutorials and references for all of the most popular and/or important programming languages. Examples included.

devguru.com An XHTML Quick Reference, an HTML Color Chart, a tutorial on SQL, and another on credit card processing are among the latest reference material added to the ever growing DevGuru site. The  development guru site.