You Can Make Your Computer Fast Again Without Replacing It

Your computer doesn’t need to be “done” just because it’s slow. We walk through the real reasons a Windows PC starts crawling, from too many startup programs to low storage space and not enough RAM, and we explain why a simple diagnostic often beats dropping $1,500+ on a replacement. If your laptop takes forever to boot, opens 15 apps you didn’t ask for, or feels like it’s choking just to launch a browser, we map out the fixes that bring speed back fast.

Then we shift to smart home security, because video doorbells and security cameras are everywhere now and the choices aren’t just about price. We talk reputable options like Ring, Blink, and Nest, what “smart” alerts actually do, and the practical decisions that affect daily use: wired vs battery power, solar add-ons, cloud subscriptions priced per camera, and local storage alternatives. We also dig into privacy and security questions that matter before you connect any camera to your home network, especially if you’re considering cheap, off-brand devices.

We wrap with Wi-Fi troubleshooting you can do today: running a speed test near the router and from your usual spot, rebooting the modem and router in the right order, and using a guest Wi-Fi network to isolate smart devices like cameras, doorbells, smart TVs, and plugs. If you want a faster computer, a safer camera setup, and more reliable internet for school and work, this one is packed with practical steps you can use right away.

Subscribe for more Tech Talk, share this with a friend who’s fighting a slow PC or flaky Wi-Fi, and leave a review with the question you want us to tackle next.

Transcript

Welcome And Tech Support Info

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Hey there and welcome back to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580 Orlando's News and Talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with Adam Littlefield, a technician from the Refresh Computer Superstore. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Or if you have a comment during the show, go and use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app. You can also check out the website over at Refresh Computers.net or stop in at the Refresh Computer Superstore in Longwood at 820 East State Road 434, just three and a half miles east of I-4. Store hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., which means if you're listening to the show here on Saturday, means you still have time to stop by. They'll be open until 7 p.m. today. And now for Adam Littlefield.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Well, thank you, Greg, and thank you, everybody, for tuning into this episode of Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. Today we uh we have a lot of exciting topics we're gonna be talking about. We're gonna be going through kind of why your uh your computer is slowing down and how fast it can actually be made again, because uh most of the time when your computer's slowing down, there's uh something slowing it down that can actually be fixed and you don't have to shell out a bunch of money to replace it. So we'll be talking about that. We'll also talk a little bit about some of the uh services we provide at Refresh Computer, specifically our site dispatches that we do. Um we can do in-home and in-office visits. We'll get more into that later. We'll also be talking a little bit about um some smart home devices like your video doorbell cameras and and security cameras and some of the information you need to look into before you buy those, because it's pr those are some pretty vital devices that you end up putting in your home and you need to make sure you get a good one. And finally, we'll be uh talking a little bit about some Wi-Fi tips and what you can do to kind of speed things up. So let me get into that

Why Computers Slow Down

SPEAKER_01 1:53

first topic. When your your computer's slowing down, it it's infuriating, right? You go through, you go to start it up, and maybe it takes 10 minutes to boot into Windows, you can go make a cup of coffee. I've had a couple customers say they can cook their whole breakfast by the time their web browser even opens.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

So, you know, it is infuriating, and we are coming up on the back to school season. We're still within our tax-free holiday right now. So, you know, everything that's related to tech is pretty much tax-free. And computers are becoming more and more important for a lot of our kids every day for school. So you don't want to have a computer that's gonna take them 10, 20 minutes just to open up a homework assignment when they could have already been halfway through it. So I'm gonna go through some of the myths of uh what's actually going on with the computer, and then we'll go a little bit through the culprits of actually what's causing it because it's definitely fixable. So the biggest myth is that when the computer starts slowing down like that, it doesn't immediately mean that it's just broken or or used up and you gotta get a new one. You know, computers today are getting more and more expensive. We've talked on the show a lot about the price increases on memory and storage, and you know, it's it's starting to spread into you know new computers as well that we've been seeing. So a new computer nowadays are used to cost maybe seven, eight hundred dollars brand new. Now you're looking at fifteen hundred plus brand new from a lot of those big box stores. So that's you know, kind of something you have to weigh against it when in reality there's a couple common culprits that are causing your computer to slow down, and you may even be able to fix them up for the fraction of the cost of a new one. And you know, I always make the comparison of computers to cars because it's it's the best comparison that I can think of to make it applicable to almost everybody. When your car's starting to slow down, you don't instantly just go to trash it and run to the dealership and buy a new one. You kind of seek out a technician, a mechanic to see what they say, you know, before just kicking it to the curb.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Because you can always have your best guess, but it really does help to have someone that has that expertise to give a true diagnostic, and whether that be a car or someone that brings in a uh slow-running laptop in refresh computer superstore.

SPEAKER_01 4:07

Exactly. And you know, that's that's exactly how it applies with computers, and it should always apply, especially right now with all of these shortages and how expensive things have gotten. It there is a lot of computers out there that do support Windows 11 that are just running really slowly. I've actually had a couple people bring in systems that are only two or three years old that were super slow, they wanted to replace and they they still had it on Windows 10. So yeah, that'll do it. It yeah, there's there's a lot of stuff that piles up there. So let me go over some of these culprits now, what's actually causing it. And this is

Startup Apps And Storage Bottlenecks

SPEAKER_01 4:40

the most common one I see by far is starting programs on startup. You know, there's always gonna be a couple windows that pop up when you first turn your computer on, and a lot of us like that they do that. You know, I like that my web browser opens for me, opens directly to my email, I open up Steam, because I have that on my computer as well for gaming, a couple other things, and I like having those open up. But I can't tell you how many computers I've had come in where it's an everyday computer that you know you may use just for email or just looking at Facebook, and when it starts up, I see Skype pops up, and then WhatsApp pops up, and then Microsoft Teams pops up.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Not still Skype, oh no. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

So, you know, it's there are programs that shouldn't be starting up, and that actually can take up a lot of the resources when your computer's first starting. And you can kind of think of it that with startup programs, it's trying to open all of them at once when the computer turns on. And when the computer gets a massive rush of demand to start programs, it's gonna it's gonna chug along. And half of the time, that's what the cause of it is you know, you go to get your cup of coffee, you come back, and there's 15, 20 programs open. Those were why it was taking so long to boot up.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

I feel like it used to be so much more obvious to allow an item after you downloaded it to allow it to have access to a startup function or not. Yeah. It used to be right there in the Windows installer wizard. I feel like that's not as obvious as it used to be. I feel like that a lot of these programs come pre-installed on your computer anymore, things like Microsoft Teams. Right. And they're all and they are already automatically set up to start on startup.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Yeah. And that's a really good point. And, you know, something I've actually noticed is we have had a a change in how programs install now. There are some installers that install other programs alongside it. And, you know, we normally, we as humans just click through those questions really quick. Yes, yes, yes, I agree, I agree. And then all of a sudden now you have four other programs installed alongside that one program. And a lot of the times anymore, it doesn't even ask you if you want it to be set as a startup app. Most of the most developers that make applications on Windows basically get to decide now if it's a startup app, and that's it. But the good news is you do actually have the decision to disable some of those. Those can be done just directly through the task manager on the computer. I believe that can be opened if you hit control alt delete, and then there's just task manager right there. And it'll be one of the settings on the left-hand side. And that's something too that we can configure for you if you're bringing your computer by us at our store. We we audit those startup programs all the time because and I tell you, that's actually one of the places sometimes I'll actually find, you know, maybe a remote access program or or something that's not supposed to be there. Sometimes when I just I have a computer in front of me, I just take a quick check at it and I see something right there. So, you know, if it's if you have kind of a question on if it should be there, should not be there, or if you just want to take a look at it, bring the computer by and we can definitely audit that. Another cause, and this is something that I haven't seen too often with the rise of solid states now, is the hard drive in the computer is starting to get full. I know specifically on mechanical drives, it was very noticeable that when the drive had become very, very full, it took a long time to access other programs.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

A lot of data to read.

SPEAKER_01 8:02

A lot of data to read, and you know, that's why actually there was the defragment function because you know that helped speed up the drive. Solid states are a little different now, they don't had to be defragmented because they can just access the data instantly. But the problem is Windows actually uses um a lot of temporary files on the computer when it runs things. One of them is called the paging file, and that actually takes up a considerable amount of space on the hard drive when Windows has to use it. Even if you're on a solid state, if your drive is 0, 0% remaining, you've got the last byte filled up, you will notice a very, very, very severe, diminished performance of Windows because Windows is now having to load things one byte at a time rather than paging it and making it feel almost instantaneous.

SPEAKER_00 8:50

And like you mentioned, this isn't as much of an issue with solid state drives just because the capacity of these drives has exploded in recent years as well. But if you're a gamer or somebody that has to download very like very high data programs, this could be an issue for you. It could be, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

And you know, a lot of programs also tend to use their own paging files on the system or they'll save stuff to the drive as temporary storage. I know a couple that do it are like things like Photoshop, a bunch of CAD programs do it as well. For the computer, it's a little more efficient to do it that way. Storage, like your hard drive, has a lot more space in it for them to put whatever files they need instead of trying to put it into your memory. And if they're trying to log the memory, that's that's another thing that can slow down the computer. If you've got web browser open with, you know, a hundred tabs, like I know Dave does at our store, it's that could definitely start to choke out the system and and really slow it down. I've even seen Windows before kill programs that are taking up too much memory because Windows actually needs some of that memory too. Windows, if it doesn't have enough memory, it really, really runs slowly. I know with Windows 8, or not Windows 8, sorry, Windows 11, the minimum RAM requirement of that is 8 gigabytes. And it's a very, very noticeable difference, I say personally, it's a very generous minimum, yeah. It is. If it's running on 8 versus 16. When you're running on 16 gigabytes of RAM, the system has a lot more memory. It's kind of its short-term memory, think of it like that. So the computer can access stuff a lot quicker than if it was storing it on, you know, a really full drive.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

But Dave has those hundred tabs opened up on a quantum computer, anyways. So we'll go ahead and let Dave have his hundred tabs. But there's another couple. We kind of mentioned it in this in this last topic. An old style spinning hard

RAM Limits And Junk Software

SPEAKER_00 10:39

drive, right? Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:40

So, you know, I I did mention that if the hard drive's full, that can definitely cause problems. But having an older style mechanical hard drive nowadays, it's really starting to show its age. Yep. Those mechanical drives that are still running, the operating system and some computers are 10, 12. I've seen some of them are 15 years old. Those are mechanical parts that are spinning and moving, and over time they're gonna wear out. They just do. And with mechanical drives specifically, it becomes a very noticeable diminish in speed once that degradation really starts to pick up. Because it'll go from the computer taking five minutes to turn on, and you just go make your cup of coffee, to like I said before, where I had a couple customers that could go cook a whole breakfast before the computer comes on. A lot of the times I see that actually portray as like the computer boots up, goes past whatever post screen, the sign-in screen, and then it just sits at a black screen with a cursor on it. That that that is a good indicator right there that something is hogging everything possible and just choking the computer right there.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

You'll often start hearing that spinning sound get a little bit louder too as those drives start to fail as well. Another thing that can also kind of slow it down is if you're starting to ins, if you're uh just letting random junk install on your PC too, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:55

Yeah, that was I mentioned a little bit about how uh programs are now installing other programs alongside them, and we click through our the settings and agreements so quickly that we don't really even see it anymore.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Then all of a sudden you've got five different things that you can type in on your Windows browser, and you're like, why do I have five different ways for me to go to a website? Well, you might have installed a couple of different extensions you didn't mean to.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Exactly. You could have installed extensions that are slowing it down. I've seen some search hijackers that you know take over. Instead of using Google, it'll put it through their system and they can scrape information off of you to sell for whatever pennies they may make off of it. I've also seen pups. They're called pups, the potentially unwanted programs, like OneLaunch and Wave Browser. Those are the two main ones that I always see come up. And I almost consider them malware because they are stuff that does redirect you through their services, collects a little bit of information, and then puts you where you're trying to go. So every time you're going to a website, it collects a little bit of information that it then sells to a broker. And I have not been able to find what program is causing those installations yet. I have not been able to find a correlation because it's been absolutely everywhere. But those two actually do cause some performance issues, I've noticed.

Free Diagnostics And Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 13:11

Now, the main thing I will say with all these performance issues is when your computer is slowing down from all of this, bring it by us. Just bring it to Refresh Computers, our store in Longwood. We can take a look at it, see what's slowing it down. Nine times out of ten, it's one of these five things I have mentioned here. Bring it by. We can run a quick free diagnostic on it while you wait. It's not something that takes a long time, really. The only time I really have had it take a serious amount of time, again, is if we can't even boot into our uh testing tools. Sometimes that does happen with failing drives or drives that are starting to degrade. So it it there are a lot of problems that can cause this, but the good news is there are a lot of solutions. So again, bring it by. Um, if you have any questions about that as well, give us a call, um, 407-478-8200. We can walk you through just a quick couple things to try over the phone. And if that doesn't work, then we'll have you bring it down. Um, I think we're coming up to a break, but after this, we're gonna be talking a little bit about um some of the on-site services that we provide at Refresh Computers.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580. Hey there

Tax Free Deals And Inventory

SPEAKER_00 14:35

and welcome back to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580, Orlando's news and talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with Adam Littlefield, a technician from the Refresh Computer Super Store. You can contact the Refresh Computer Super Store by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Or if you have a comment during the show, we'd love to hear it. Use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app. And now, back to Adam.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Thank you, Greg, and thank you, everybody, for tuning into this episode of Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. Before we get into this segment, I do want to just make a quick mention that we are still within our tax-free holiday season right now. That is going until August 20th. So remember, any any computers, any components, anything like that that's under $1,500, it's qualified for tax-free. And as long as you're not for a business, it has to be under personal, a personal name for personal use. But that is something that's going on right now. So take a look at our website, refreshcomputers.net. We have our whole inventory there. If you want to take a look and come by, we can show you the machine if you pick it out on the website and tell us which one you're looking at. Any that you see on the website, we have in store, just ready for you to see.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

No time like the present with Osceola and Seminole County, both back to school on Monday and Orange on Tuesday. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

I still don't understand the one-day offset, but that that's a whole different, whole different topic.

In Home And Business Dispatch

SPEAKER_01 15:54

This segment, we're going to be talking a little bit about some services we provide at Refresh Computers, specifically our uh dispatch services. We do make house calls both to businesses and residential areas. So if you have some trouble at your home with your computer connecting to your printer, maybe you're having some trouble getting a TV up on a wall mount, that's something that we can come and visit and fix, or definitely help out with if we can't fix something. We do have a nom we do charge a nominal fee for that. Um, it depends on your distance from our store, so it varies a little bit. The best thing I would say to do is give us a call at our store number, 407-478-8200, if you have any questions about, you know, what the cost may be or if it's something that we can help with, because most of the time it is something that we can help with. I personally have gone out on dispatches before. I know our store manager does as well. We have a couple other technicians that rotate out that do them. So we have a bunch of experienced people that are running out and doing this. And again, that's not just for homes, that is for businesses. So, say you're a small business located in the central Orlando area, chances are we can come out and help you out network your office or something. I know we've done network jobs in warehouses before as well. It's it's a really big thing that we've been kind of just getting out there because we've had a bunch of business clients in the last couple of weeks actually come by and have us come out, do a little bit of a check of their on-site stuff, see if they need to make any changes network-wise. We even do some diagnostics on computers there as well.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

That's such a great option to have, especially like you mentioned, as a small business, someone that might not have an entire IT department that you can call back to the corporate to come and check on something. You actually need somebody here locally that can help help deliver almost immediately.

SPEAKER_01 17:39

Yeah. And that's, you know, something that me personally, I enjoy that we have this service because there are some problems that you can bring your computer into us and, you know, say it's not turning on, for example, we get everything plugged in on our bench and it's it just turns right on. Then normally that means it's an environmental issue at that point where it's plugged in either at your office or at your home. So that's something that is an option to have us come out and take a look at, try to figure out if, you know, a bad cable might have had uh might be there, something's going on with like a network cable, for example, if you're getting some slow speeds. There's tons of different stuff that we we we can really do on those dispatches.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

And how often do you think people hear that? They come into a to a computer repair shop, they take they bring in their laptop or computer that's in the office setting, and they're like, oh, nothing, nothing I can do. I can't find the problem here. And then they just send them away. It there's no option for someone to come out and actually help you diagnose a problem at your office setting that you actually do need the help with.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

And you know, I hate to go back to that comparison with cars again, but it's the same thing sometimes when you take your car to a mechanic, it's been making a weird noise for six months. The moment you pull into that parking lot, the it sounds smooth as butter. And you know, you you can't have a mechanic just live with you until the the sound comes back. So that I'm happy that is a service that we offer because it helps us kind of extend our options to help fix a problem rather than giving suggestions and a pat on the back and saying good luck, like a lot of other places will.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Really something that differentiates the refresh computer superstore. Again, if you have any questions about that, go ahead and give them a call. 407-478-8200 or swing by the superstore there at 820 East State Road 434, there in Longwood. Coming up next, we're going to talk about setting up video doorbells and security cameras around your home or business. There's some information you might need to know before you buy. You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580. Hey then, welcome back to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580, Orlando's News and Talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with Adam Littlefield, a technician from the Refresh Computer Superstore. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline at 407-478-8200. Or if you have a comment during the show, go and use that open mic feature inside the WDBO app. Don't forget to check out the website over at Refresh Computers.net, or you can stop in at the Refresh Computer Superstore in Longwood at 820 East State Road 434, just three and a half miles east of I-4. Store hours are Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. until 7 p.m., which means if you're listening to the show here on Saturday, you still have time to stop by. They'll be open until 7 p.m. today. And now for Adam Littlefield.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

Thank you, Greg. And again, thank you, everybody, for tuning into this episode of Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. If you've missed any of the previous previous segments that we talked about, I would definitely suggest going to our website, refreshcomputers.net. Check that podcast link in the top right. It has this episode and many of our other episodes going back years. And there's tons of stuff that we've talked about. You know, there is some stuff I'm sure that we've reiterated, but again, it's good information nonetheless. We're starting to do also summaries of each of the shows, so you can actually kind of peruse through a little bit and see if it's something that you may be interested in listening to. I would suggest listening to everything just because there is just so much information that I think everybody should know. But, you know, there are hours their own.

SPEAKER_00 21:15

Hours and hours of listening available there on that podcast site.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Right.

Doorbells And Camera Features

SPEAKER_01 21:19

So in this segment, we're going to be uh talking about something that, you know, you've probably seen a lot around Central Florida now and around the whole state, even. You'll see them porch after porch everywhere is these video doorbells and security cameras. I have them around my house. I have them around my house too, from you know, brands like Ring and Blink is a good one. That's another good one. Those are those are the only two I can think of off the top of my head, really. Google is is theirs called Nest as well, a part of their Nestle. I believe so with the Nest ecosystem. Yeah. So those are some of the uh security cameras and you know, video doorbells that are around now. Some of them actually are now starting to have AI features that used to cost a little bit extra. Some of them now even include it just in the buying the camera and getting it set up. A lot of these features are really nice because, for example, for me, my doorbell camera, it'll tell me when there's a familiar face coming up. It'll tell me if there has been a package left at the doorstep. I have that tied into another app that tells me if you know a delivery was delivered so I know exactly what was dropped off then at that point. And it definitely those kinds of things matter for things now like, you know, for example, porch pirates. You know, people that will run up and steal packages right off of your doorstep. And, you know, let's face it, we all don't have a secure place for deliveries. And deliveries nowadays are 90% of how a lot of us get our materials and everything we need.

SPEAKER_00 22:42

It's really taken over the shopping marketplaces to have that at-home delivery schedule for you, even if you're not home. And that's the biggest problem. That's why you need this maybe a little bit of extra security, like you, like you mentioned.

SPEAKER_01 22:53

Now, the nice thing with these is, you know, the the thing that these do really well, and something I like with it, is you can monitor them from anywhere. You link them up to your home's internet, and from there you can check it from, you know, your kitchen or if you're a couple states over. Heck, I know Dave with all the security cameras he has set up at the store, he can view them all the way up in the Arctic Ocean right now if he wanted to. I'm sure he has been checking them too. And he should. And he should. You know, these these cameras and these video doorbells, they're not just for features like that, right? You know, familiar faces and packages. They can give you motion alerts if there's somebody just walking by. You could uh some of them even support two-way talk so you can talk through it. I specifically use this where nobody's at home, someone rings the doorbell, I get a notification from the app from Ring that says somebody is ringing the doorbell. I can pull it up and I can talk to them actually through the app, seeing you know what they want. 99% of the time it's somebody soliciting, and you know, they're they're standing right next to the no soliciting sign I've got next to the door, but how convenient. Yeah, that's it happens. You know, but this also helps with things like uh some of the cameras being equipped even with night vision now. True. You know, having that that night vision, so you're having 24-7 protection now. Um, I know some of them are motion activated that even have floodlights with them.

SPEAKER_00 24:11

So that's uh that's the setup that I have around my house. So I have the floodlight camera with the uh uh, like you mentioned, it's two-way communication, and it actually has night vision attached to it as well. Right. I'm able to see the comings and goings of my driveway. I have cameras set up around the exterior of the house and set up at my at my doorbell. Yeah, it really kind of gives me a full ecosystem of kind of seeing what's going on around my area. Like you said, it's easy enough to have all those notifications set up as well.

SPEAKER_01 24:35

Right. And these devices, they are getting smarter too. It's not something that you just install at the home and then that's it. Whatever you bought that day is what you get. These do receive over-the-year updates, and a lot of times they're they're increasing how smart those alerts can even get. I mean, you know, they can tell the difference between a person, a package, a pet, a parking, a passing car. So you're not, you know, getting rang every time like a leaf blows by in your entryway or something like that. I know specifically, I remember, man, months ago. Remember, Dave kept getting notifications, and it was, I think, some of his family playing in the backyard, and he kept getting notifications over and over and over about that specific motion alert. Yep. So, you know, these are really good things, but you also want to be aware of where you're buying them, the brand you're buying as well. Me specifically, I would mention staying away any of them that are unbranded or they kind of have some weird, funky names to them. Ring and Blink and the ones provided by Google under the under Nest. Those are some reputable brands for cameras. You know, as as alluring as the price may be, I wouldn't suggest buying it off of like Timu or something like that. A lot of times those devices don't have internet connectivity, they're only local, so you can't stream and view them. They only store footage on an SD card that's built into the camera. A lot of the times those fail before you can even get them put up on the side of your house.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

And even some of those that are like we mentioned, some of those off-brand ones, if they do connect to your internet, maybe you don't want them connected to your internet because you're unsure of their connectivity. Exactly. I know, and we mentioned pricing.

Power Options And Video Storage

SPEAKER_00 26:10

So many of these go on sale throughout the year. So I think it's definitely something to shop around for. I think one of the other questions, though, too, is and it was one of the big decisions that I had when I was putting them together, was whether it to be battery powered or wired. Right. Luckily, I had a wired connection available on each of the locations that I wanted for that floodlight and my doorbell. So both of those are wired, so I can get constant notifications and even have those live streaming for however long I want to. Did you go with battery or wired for your doorbell?

SPEAKER_01 26:37

For mine, we ended up going with battery. It's not something that's really been too inconvenient for me personally. I know the ring camera that we got has connectivity for, you know, battery or having it wired. So I do have that option in the future if I want to. But having it run on battery, you know, I get probably a month, uh sometimes two months out of a charge on that battery. And I just had to take it off and plug it in like on my day off.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

And that's the thing, it's so convenient with the battery-powered ones because you can set them exactly where you want them. If you're somebody that's at an apartment building that doesn't have a doorbell, a traditional doorbell, you can place it right on the middle of the door if you wanted to and use it as a peephole, essentially. So that's that's one of the advantages for certain. I like having the wired capability. I'm someone who's comfortable with wiring those kinds of things, so it was really easy for me to set up. But it's also like I like I mentioned, it's super convenient to have that battery-powered option if you so need it.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

Exactly. And, you know, that's it's a really great thing to bring in that as well because, you know, installing like your floodlights, for example, if it was a battery-powered unit, you know, those floodlights, I'm sure, do use a considerable amount amount of power. And if they are tripped throughout the night coming on and off, your battery is going to wear out pretty fast on those, I'd imagine. I do believe there are some brands that make solar kits that can actually charge the camera while it's equipped on your house. You know, there is the upside that you may never have to take it down because it's charging all the time. But the downside is that if it's not charging it enough and you do still have to take it down, now you have a little solar panel you have to also take down with it. And that's just to me, that's just another part of the puzzle I could drop. I'm very bad at dropping things when I'm I'm up on the side of my house installing stuff. So I I try not to do that if I can so help it. But when it comes to being wired or battery powered, neither neither choice is right or wrong. It really does come down to personal preference. What you as a user can feasibly do if you already have the wiring there, like you have, Greg, or if you're comfortable doing it yourself. But a lot of times the battery units, especially just for you know a small doorbell, is more than enough for most people. The second big decision I will say though is where that video is actually getting stored.

SPEAKER_00 28:49

Now, this is one of the things that I really love about the Blink modules. I don't know how it works for the for the ring setup, uh, but the Blink allows me to have both an online cloud backup, but also a local storage backup as well that's connected to all of my cameras and has a micro SD card plugged into it.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

Well, as far as for my ring camera, I haven't found any local storage on it. There's no SD card hiding that I've been able to find. I know that I actually pay monthly for their cloud services because that also provides me a lot more advanced notifications. So I like the features it gives other than the storage. But it is also nice that if I have to go back in uh a month ago and look where a package got thrown at my house. Certainly, you know, that I I do like having that ability.

SPEAKER_00 29:35

And those cloud backups are very great. It's very great to have access on the cloud with the Blink modules. It has that local storage that you could actually control and plug in at the house that also has its own Wi-Fi connectivity. So it's like its own cloud backup for my own self. But it also, again, I have that that physical backup for my for my items as well, which is a really great convenience. And that's actually included in the price with Blink. I don't have to pay an additional subscription to be able to access that. So it's actually a pretty cool little setup that they have with those. I know that you mentioned that with the cloud subscription, it's usually like three to ten dollars per month per camera. Or what are you seeing with that?

SPEAKER_01 30:11

It can be. I know for Ring, I'm paying it yearly, so I'm getting a bit of a discount on it. I don't remember exactly what the cost is because it was months ago that it charged me now. But I do know that you know those subscriptions normally are priced per camera per device. It's not, you know, per household. So if you're somebody that really, really wants to make your house secure, you've got, you know, 10, 12, 15 cameras inside and outside, you are gonna probably be paying a little bit more because there's gonna be a lot more storage needed. You have a lot more devices as well that whatever company you've got your cameras from, Ring, Blink, Nest, they also have to kind of take the the traffic of streaming those devices to your phone if you choose to be able to look at them.

Privacy Risks And Safer Buying

SPEAKER_01 30:57

Now, the main thing with this, and this is always, you know, the the the two-part thing that we do whenever we talk about any sort of electronics that include cameras, yeah, your privacy. Privacy is a big, big thing with these, and you know, the the two biggest things you should ask yourself with these cameras is who can see your video and where where is that that that video living? If your video is just sitting on a company's server, you know, understand that they they generally can access it sometimes, you know, share it. I haven't heard of any major privacy breaches come from something like that, though. I know me personally, I haven't I haven't been personally doxxed by by Ring because I have all of my footage saved on there about my my 20 or so Amazon packages a week that are coming to the door stoop. So but again, it you know, as a consumer, this is something you should think about. You know, it is information that is of yours, your personal house, what you have going on. And I mentioned it just a little bit earlier that you know, some people have outside cameras and interior cameras. So if you do have interior security cameras, you gotta think about you know what somebody can see just every day around your house. Right.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

You gotta be mindful of also where those are placed as well. Not right, even if even you if you don't care about somebody watching you while you're cooking dinner, that's fine. But maybe you have an issue with somebody watching you in your bedroom. Right. So keep that though those kind of locations in mind for those devices.

SPEAKER_01 32:24

Exactly. And some of these um do also have community that basically can use external footage to try to help police find something that happened in your neighborhood. They do also have neighborhood alerts. I know through Ring I always get messages about, you know, a black Pomeranian found up the street. Just saw that this morning. Um, you know, it's alerts like that that can help you actually crowdsource. But again, you are also communicating with people. It shares your general location, not your actual household. But again, it is information that it does share. So just something to kind of keep an eye, a thought on. And also with getting these set up, and we'll talk a little bit more in the next segment about this more, how they're set up on your Wi-Fi network. Because if somebody's able to access those cameras without your permission or without your knowledge, you have no idea what kind of information they're collecting live about you, you know, interior or exterior, they can be taking a lot of notes. So, again, that's something to think about. That's why I also do stress if you are gonna be getting a video doorbell camera or a security camera, look at the brand you're getting, look at the reviews, make sure it's a reputable company, because if it's a some no-name company, they have that footage just as much as you do. So you have no idea what they're gonna be doing with it. Um, we're gonna be going to a quick break here, but when we get back, we're gonna be uh kind of talking about your uh Wi-Fi, what you can do to speed it up, and uh also setting up that guest Wi-Fi for uh cameras, like I just mentioned.

SPEAKER_00 33:56

You've been listening to Tech Talk right here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580. Hey there, and welcome back to Tech Talk here on WDBO 1073FM and AM580, Orlando's news and talk. I'm Greg Rhodes here with Adam Littlefield, a technician from the Refresh Computer Superstore. You can contact the Refresh Computer Superstore by calling their free tech support hotline, 407-478-8200. Don't forget to check out the website over at refreshcomputers.net. And now back to Adam.

SPEAKER_01 34:39

Well, thank you, Greg, and I want to thank everybody who's been listening to this episode of Tech Talk with Refresh Computers. We've talked about a lot of stuff today, um, a lot about how you can protect yourself with your own video cameras, your security cameras. We talked a lot about in the the beginning of the show how you can kind of speed up your computer and what we can do about that. If you've missed any of that, go to refreshcomputers.net, uh, check that podcast link in the top right corner. Listen back through the beginning of the show because there was a lot of great information there. I would suggest listening back to it and check out our inventory there as well. We are in that tax-free holiday season still, so any machines on the website under $1,500 are tax-free. So give it a look. You may uh you may find the next system that you need to get for your kid or even just for yourself if you do need to make that jump to Windows 11 finally.

SPEAKER_00 35:28

Especially with that back to school season right here again. We've got Monday, Osceola, and Seminole back, orange back on Tuesday.

SPEAKER_01 35:34

Right.

Wi Fi Speed Tests And Dead Spots

SPEAKER_01 35:35

So in this segment, um, I'm gonna be talking a little bit about your Wi-Fi, you know, going back to school. Some kids now, more kids every uh year actually now are starting to do virtual schooling instead of in-person schooling. And Wi-Fi is the major contributor to your kid's grade, possibly, you know, being able to stay connected. So I'm just gonna run through some quick things real quick about what you can do with it just to make sure everything is as it should be in your home. So, first thing with your with your Wi-Fi, make sure you actually just find out the speed of what you're actually getting. You can go to your web browser on your phone or on your computer, just look up speed test. I I go to speedtest.net just because that's one I've always trusted.

SPEAKER_00 36:16

Google has one that pops up when you do it through the search engine. Yep. Google has one.

SPEAKER_01 36:19

You can go to fast.com that's hosted by Netflix. All of these you can run speed test through, run it while standing next to the router if you're on Wi-Fi, then again, where you actually sit. Try to see, you know, how this how the single signal diminishes because you may be surprised how low speeds can dip just from being the next room over.

SPEAKER_00 36:37

Great way to find some dead spots around your house.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

Exactly. You know, if you are seeing that kind of drop-off, I would suggest, you know, maybe reaching out to your your ISP, see if that's something that they can change. It may be a hardware problem. You know, try to get them involved. Give us a call too, 407-478-8200. We can actually kind of run through some further diagnostics with that to try and see if there's anything that we can try to point out and see what it's causing that. The second

Reboot Routers The Right Way

SPEAKER_01 37:05

thing I'll mention, make sure you're restarting that router in that modem the right way. I know Spectrum's favorite line for a lot of their support is have you tried rebooting your router? And I'll tell you, a lot a lot of us don't really know the proper way for rebooting that router. It's not just unplug everything and plug it back in. What you should do is unplug both the router and the modem, wait a full 30 seconds. What that 30 seconds does is it actually clears the device's memory. So that'll actually kind of get it to a fresher start. It won't reset all of your saved settings, like your internet name or your password, but it will just clear the memory, clear up some of the weirdness that's going on in the background of that router. When you go to plug them back in, plug the modem back in first. Plug that one back in first, let it everything light up, and then plug the router in. That way the router doesn't get stuck in some error state where you know it's not transmitting any signal and you know it's not gonna just tell you why that's happening either. And

Guest Wi Fi For Smart Devices

SPEAKER_01 38:05

last thing I would say, and this is the most important I think I would stress now, talking about security cameras, turning on the guest Wi-Fi network on your router. Um, this one's really underused by a lot of uh service or uh people that have service through you know WoW Fiber and Spectrum. There is a separate guest network you can set up that has its own name and login. Log it in, and that actually separates any devices from your main Wi-Fi network. So your smart gadgets, cameras, doorbells, smart TVs, those smart plugs, all of those I would say put on that guest network. That's gonna help isolate any just network uh problems that you could have, any network vulnerabilities that

Final Recap And Tomorrow Preview

SPEAKER_01 38:44

may come up. Alright, so we're coming up to the end of our show now. My name has been Adam Littlefield. Again, I'm one of the technicians over at Refresh Computers. If you missed any of this uh episode, I would suggest go into our website, listen back to that podcast. We're gonna be coming back to you guys next uh tomorrow with a brand new episode and brand new topics. I'll be talking to you again tomorrow morning.