IT DEVICES: Troubleshooting

How to Setup Your Own Personal Cloud Storage

For those folks who don’t trust 
their data in the cloud, the best storage solution is usually local, 
meaning either an external hard drive or a computer. The advantage to 
this solution is that you don’t have to pay any money to store your data
 (other than purchasing the drives) and you don’t have to worry about 
someone else being able to get into your data (for the most part).
However, there are several disadvantages to storing everything 
locally on internal and external hard drives. Firstly, unless you have a
 good backup solution in place, you are more at risk of losing your 
data. Cloud storage companies have many redundant layers of backup to 
protect all your data.

Secondly, it can be really difficult and frustrating to access data 
stored on a single external hard drive from anywhere in the world on any
 device. Cloud storage services usually make this really easy by having 
desktop apps and mobile apps for accessing data.

If you want the advantages of cloud storage, but the security of 
having everything locally stored, you should consider setting up 
personal cloud storage. Again, you’ll get all the mobile and desktop 
apps and everything will be synced, but you’ll have the data stored 
locally on your own devices.

Again, you’ll have no monthly fees to worry about, but you’ll have a 
higher up-front cost. Personal cloud storage is also really good for 
anyone who has terabytes of data they need to store, but don’t want to 
pay the hefty monthly costs associated with anything over 1 TB. For 
example, after the 1 TB plan on Google Drive, it skips to 10 TB and you 
have to spend $99 a month.

With OneDrive, you can only add more space after 1 TB in 50 GB 
increments. Each 50 GB increment costs $1.99. To get to 10 TB, you’d 
have to pay a whopping $360 a month! With Dropbox, you can only get a 
max of 1 TB with a Pro account. If you want more than that, you need to 
become a business customer with at least 5 users.

<h2>
Understanding Network Hard Drives</h2>
So what do you need to buy in order to get your own cloud storage 
setup? Well, you’re basically buying a network attached storage device 
or NAS. Note that a NAS device is slightly different than a network hard
 drive.

In my view, a network hard drive is a single hard drive inside a 
device that connects to the network and provides a web interface to 
control and access data. A NAS has multiple hard drives that can be 
configured in a RAID array, thereby providing in-built data protection.

I recommend staying away from single network hard drive solutions 
because it’s pretty much the same thing as using a regular external hard
 drive, except you get all the cloud features. However, if the drive 
fails, you lose all your data, which may or may not be duplicated 
somewhere else.

For example, if you consider the <a href="http://amzn.com/B00EVVGAFI" target="_blank">WD My Cloud Personal NAS</a>,
 the single drive is really just a network hard drive. If you get the 
dual drive version, then it can be considered a NAS in my opinion.

As you can see, though, you can get 8 TB worth of storage for about 
$400, which is not bad at all. Of course, there is one caveat to 
consider. The reason I suggest a NAS device with two or more hard drives
 is for data protection. If you put your drives into a RAID array, one 
drive can fail and you won’t lose any data.

All of the devices mentioned here support RAID on the NAS devices and
 it’s actually really easy to setup. The only issue is that you lose 
some available space. For example, if you take the 8 TB NAS above and 
use RAID 1, you’ll only have 4 TB of free space. If you use RAID 5, 
you’ll need at least 3 drives, but will get two-thirds of the total 
space of all three drives.

Considering you can get a dual drive 16 TB NAS for around $750, even 
being left with 8 TB is probably way more than enough for even creative 
professionals.

<h2>
Other Benefits of a NAS</h2>
<a href="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/nas-device.jpg"><img alt="nas device" class="lazy size-full wp-image-59792 aligncenter" data-original="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/nas-device.jpg" height="441" itemprop="image" src="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/nas-device.jpg" style="display: block;" width="680" /></a>

Beyond the personal cloud benefits and being able to sync your data 
across all your different devices, NAS devices provide a lot of other 
benefits. Not every device I mention below supports all of these 
features, except for Synolgy, so be sure to check the features on the 
device you are considering.

<ul>
<li>Data protection when using a mutli-bay NAS with RAID</li>
<li>Ability to locally and remotely stream videos from NAS to games consoles, set-top boxes, smartphones and tablets</li>
<li>Ability to connect IP cameras to NAS for video surveillance and recordings</li>
<li>Ability to backup local computers (Windows, Mac, Linux) to the NAS</li>
<li>Ability to backup entire NAS to online cloud storage services like Amazon S3, Glacier, etc.</li>
<li>Ability to use your NAS a FTP server, web server, mail server, etc. with the use of apps</li>
<li>Ability to share files and folders easily with anyone</li>
</ul>
As you can see, the benefits of having a NAS are much more than just 
having your own personal cloud storage. You can do a lot with these 
devices, which makes the up-front cost more bearable.

<h2>
Personal Cloud Storage Solutions</h2>
So which NAS should you get? Well, when it comes to cloud storage, 
what you are really looking for is great software. All the major hard 
drive vendors have NAS devices with some sort of personal cloud option, 
but only a few work really well and have a suite of apps to manage the 
cloud data.

<h3>
Synology</h3>
I personally have a WD My Cloud EX2 Ultra and a Synology DS 411+II 
and I find the Synology to be an absolutely amazing device. My Synology 
NAS is several years old, but can still be updated to the latest version
 of DSM (DiskStation Manager). The software running on the NAS is excellent and is almost like using Windows.

They have <a href="https://www.synology.com/en-us/dsm/6.0/mobile" target="_blank">several mobile apps</a> that work very well for managing the NAS, viewing your files, <a href="https://www.synology.com/en-us/dsm/multimedia" target="_blank">streaming photos and videos</a> and for <a href="https://www.synology.com/en-us/dsm/6.0/cloud_file_syncing" target="_blank">managing your personal cloud</a>.
 What I like about Synology is that they are constantly updating their 
hardware and software so that it supports the latest technology. They 
also have a lot of different models with a wide price range.

If you’re not sure which one would work for you, just use their <a href="https://www.synology.com/en-us/support/nas_selector" target="_blank">NAS selector</a> tool.
 If you’re not a technical person, no worries. Adding hard drives to 
these devices is very simple and straight-forward. Also, a lot of times 
you can buy them with the drives already installed.

<h3>
Western Digital My Cloud</h3>
The other product I would recommend is WD’s My Cloud and My Cloud EX 
series. Overall, these devices are great, but they lack the feature set 
and finesse of the Synology products. I found them to be a little harder
 to setup and I didn’t like the selection of mobile apps.

Whereas Synology pretty much has a separate app for everything, WD 
only has two apps, which aren’t that great at what they are supposed to 
do anyway. However, if you don’t care so much about all of these extra 
features, then the <a href="http://www.wdc.com/en/products/personalcloud/consumer/" target="_blank">WD My Cloud</a> products are still a good choice.

You can also check out the <a href="http://www.wdc.com/en/products/nas/expert/" target="_blank">Expert Series</a>, which is basically a more powerful NAS in addition to the cloud capabilities.

<h3>
Seagate</h3>
Seagate is one of the biggest manufacturers of hard drives in the 
world, so it’s no surprise that they have also gotten into the NAS 
business. I personally have not used their <a href="http://www.seagate.com/products/network-attached-storage/home-network/personal-cloud/#features" target="_blank">Personal Cloud Storage</a> drives and I recommend doing your research before you buy anything.

The drive only has about <a href="http://amzn.com/B00PZZZEAG" target="_blank">3.5 stars on Amazon</a>,
 with most people seeming to complain about the software. Again, this is
 where Synology really shines and beats out everyone else.

There are obviously more choices for personal cloud storage, but 
these are your best choices on the market right now. If something new 
comes out or something better, I’ll be sure to update this post with 
that information. If you have any questions, feel free to comment.

Networking Troubleshooting How to Setup Your Own Personal Cloud Storage

For those folks who don’t trust their data in the cloud, the best storage solution is usually local, meaning either an external hard drive...

The Best Way to Stream from Android to PS4

12:33 PM Unknown 0

If you have an Android device and
 a PlayStation 4, you might be wondering what’s the best way to stream 
your photos and videos from your phone or tablet to the PS4?  If you do a
 Google search, you’ll get all kinds of results with a whole bunch of 
different possible solutions.
I tried out most of them and was surprised to find that nothing 
really worked! The main solution was to download an app that would turn 
the Android device into a media server, but one app was no longer 
available (Skifta) and the other one worked, but it would not let me 
play any of my videos (iMediaShare)!

Instead of using apps I had never heard of, I decided to try out some
 familiar names in the media server business: Kodi, Plex, Tversity. 
While doing the research, I realized that Kodi doesn’t have an app for 
the PlayStation 4 and Tversity doesn’t have an Android app. This only 
left me with Plex, which has an app in both stores.

In this article, I’ll show you how to use Plex to stream your local 
photos and videos from your Android device to your PlayStation 4 for 
free. Plex has subscription plans and also a small one-time fee to 
“activate” your mobile app, but you don’t need any of that if you just 
want to stream local videos from your device to the PS4.

Before we get started, you need to create a free Plex account. Visit the <a href="https://plex.tv/" target="_blank">website here</a> and click on Sign Up. Once you have your username and password, let’s get Plex installed on the PS4.

<h2>
Install Plex App on PlayStation 4</h2>
To install the app on your PS4, you need to go to the PlayStation Store and then scroll down until you see the section called Apps. On the right-hand select, select Popular.

Scroll down until you see the Plex thumbnail. It will be several rows down before you see it.

Select Download and wait for the app to install. Once complete, you can either select Start or you can go back to the Home screen, select TV & Video and then scroll down until you see the Plex icon.

When you open the app on the PS4, you’ll need to select the Sign In button at the bottom right. If you didn’t create an account yet with Plex, you should do so now.

The next screen will show you a code and tell you to visit <a href="https://plex.tv/link" target="_blank">https://plex.tv/link</a> to add your PlayStation to your Plex account.

Visit the website and you’ll first have to sign into your Plex 
account. You’ll then have to enter the code that is showing on your TV 
into the text box.

Finally, tap on Link and if everything went well, you should see a App Linked message.

On your TV, you’ll see that Plex has been linked and that it will 
start looking for a Plex server immediately. You’ll then get a screen 
with a big error message.

Don’t worry about this right now! We have to install the app on our 
Android device, configure it and then come back to this screen. Just so 
you know, once the app on the phone or tablet is setup, we’re going to 
select Go Home, not Retry.

<h2>
Install Plex App on Android Device</h2>
On your Android device, open the Google Play Store and search for Plex. Go ahead and install the app.

Open the app and you’ll be asked to log in or sign up. Go ahead and 
log into the app using your Plex account credentials. The next screen 
will then try to get you to purchase a subscription or activate the 
device, neither of which you need to do. Just tap on Stay in Trial Mode at the very bottom.

This will bring you to the Plex home screen, where you will see a 
message stating that no servers have been found. This is fine, again, 
because we do not need to setup a full-fledged Plex server. All we are 
going to do is make our app act as a server and the content will be the 
photos and videos stored on the phone or tablet.

In order to setup the app properly, you have to first tap on Grant Permission
 so that other Plex apps can access the camera roll media. Once you have
 done that, you need to tap on the three horizontal lines at the top 
left and then tap on Settings.

You’ll see another menu with more options. Here you have to tap on System.

Finally, on the System settings screen, we have to make sure all of the items are checked. Most importantly, we need to check Advertise as server, Show camera roll media and Network discovery.

<h2>
Access Media on PS4</h2>
Now we can go back to the PS4 and select Go Home. If everything is 
setup properly and both of your devices are connected to the same 
network, you should see your Android device show up at the top right 
along with Local Photos and Local Videos.

If you select Local Videos, for example, you should get a list of all
 the videos that are currently saved on your Android device.

In my tests, the videos played immediately from my Nexus 6 and the 
video stream was smooth. Obviously, this only works for videos that are 
stored directly on your Android device. As mentioned, this was the best 
and most reliable way I could find to get my photos and videos onto the 
PS4 for free. If you know of a better way, feel free to let us know in 
the comments.

Softwares TIPS Troubleshooting The Best Way to Stream from Android to PS4

If you have an Android device and a PlayStation 4, you might be wondering what’s the best way to stream your photos and videos from your p...

Capture Screenshots at Defined Time Intervals Automatically in Windows

12:26 PM Unknown 0

Screenshots are a great way to 
capture whatever is on your screen and store it for later use. Sometimes
 you need to capture a screenshot to remember a password or capture some
 other pertinent information that you can’t save otherwise.
Other times you need to capture a screenshot and send it to someone 
else so that they can help you or see what you were doing. Finally, you 
may want to capture multiple screenshots over a certain time period so 
that you can see the activity occurring on the computer.

In this article, I’m going to show you how to use a free program to 
automatically capture screenshots of your computer screen at specified 
time intervals.

<h2>
Auto Screen Capture</h2>
<a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/autoscreen/" target="_blank">Auto Screen Capture</a>
 is an open source utility on SourceForge that has quite a few options 
for capturing screenshots on your Windows machine. The program works 
with Windows Vista and higher, including Windows 10.

The good thing about the program is that it doesn’t even require you 
to install it. All you have to do is download the EXE file and run it. 
This is great because it doesn’t add anything to your registry or copy 
files into your system directories.

When you run the program, you’ll see the main interface is split up 
into a couple of different sections. At the top left is a calendar and 
below that are the main settings for the program. On the right-hand 
side, you have previews of each screen connected to your computer. If 
you only have one monitor, you’ll only see the preview for Screen 1.

By default, the program is set to Demo Mode ON and Schedule Off.
 This means that when you open the program, the main interface will show
 up so that you can configure the options. The first thing we want to do
 is change these settings. Click on the Options button at the very bottom left and then click on Turn on demo mode at application startup to uncheck it. Click on Turn on scheduled screen capturing at application startup to check that option.

The rest of the options are self-explanatory. If you are trying to capture screenshots stealthy, it’s a good idea to uncheck Open this window at application startup, Open this window after stopping the running screen capture session, and Show the slideshow after stopping the running screen capture session.
 You can also store the screenshots on any drive connected to the 
computer, including network drives. This is great if you want to install
 the program on several computers and have all the screenshots saved 
directly to a server, NAS, etc.

On the Screen Capture tab, the top section controls 
how often the screenshots will be taken. By default, the program is set 
to take a screenshot every second, which is a bit ridiculous. If you 
don’t want all the space on your computer gone in two days, change the 
timings to something more reasonable like every 30 seconds or every 2 
minutes. I would keep Initial capture checked as that includes an additional screenshot of the active window.

The program will create two folders for each day, one with a 
screenshot of the full desktop and one with a close up of wherever the 
mouse is located at the time of the screenshot. This is a cool little 
feature that lets you see the screen in more detail only for the active 
section of the screen.

Also by default, the program is set to stop after 30 minutes, so if 
you want screenshots taken continuously or for a longer time, either 
uncheck the Limit box or type in a higher value. Finally, the Resolution box is set to 100% by default, but you can adjust this setting if the files are too big.

If you scroll down, you’ll see you can also set a schedule for taking
 screenshots. If you want the program to automatically start taking 
screenshots, rather than you having to manually start the capture 
process, check the Start capture at and Stop capture at boxes. Screenshots will only be taken during that time period at the time interval you specified above.

Finally, if you scroll down a little more, you can change the image 
type to something other than PNG. You can choose from BMP, EMF, GIF, 
JPEG, TIFF and WMF. In my opinion, the best option is JPEG as it will 
give you the best quality with the smallest size. In my tests, a full 
desktop screenshot at 2560×1440 was about 160 KB. If I used the PNG 
format, the same screenshot was a whopping 1.7 MB!

Click the Start Capture button to start the 
capturing process. The program should disappear into the taskbar, where 
it will remain while taking the screenshots. Unfortunately, the best 
thing you can do to hide it is put it inside the overflow section in the
 notification area.

This program wasn’t created with any kind of stealth mode or anything
 like that, so if you need discreet screen recording software, this 
might not work for you. Once some screenshots have been taken, you can 
easily view them by going to the Slideshow tab.

If you don’t want to view the screenshots in the program, you can 
also just browse through the folder using Explorer. In my case, the top 
level folder was the date and then inside I had a folder named 1 and a folder named 5. One contained full-desktop screenshots and the other contained close-ups.

It’s also worth noting that if you are using Windows 10 with multiple
 virtual desktops, the program will capture a screenshot of only the 
active desktop at that time. So if the user switches to desktop 3, 
you’ll get a screenshot of desktop 3. If they switch back to desktop 2, 
then you’ll get that desktop in the next screenshot.

Finally, if you click on the Keylogger tab, you can set the program to record all keystrokes while the program is running. Just check the Enable keylogging while screen capturing box. The file will be stored in the same location as the screenshots.

The keylogger is pretty nice in the sense that it actually lists out 
the program where the keystrokes were recorded. This helps you make 
sense of all the text in the document.

Overall, the program works really well, considering it’s free of 
charge. It only works on Windows, but that should be fine for most 
people. If you need screenshots at set time intervals, this is the best 
program for the job.

TIPS Troubleshooting Capture Screenshots at Defined Time Intervals Automatically in Windows

Screenshots are a great way to capture whatever is on your screen and store it for later use. Sometimes you need to capture a screenshot t...

Setup an Additional Phone Number on an Android Smartphone or iPhone

12:12 PM Unknown 0

If you currently use your main 
phone number for everything under the sun, you might have noticed that 
those annoying telemarketing calls have started appearing on your cell 
phone. If you have a home phone, you will be bombarded with marketing 
calls no matter what, but cell phones have been mostly immune to this 
problem until recently.
Unfortunately, if you use your main phone number when signing up on 
Craigslist or Airbnb or when applying for a credit card, the number may 
eventually find its way to these telemarketing companies. Luckily, you 
can add a second phone number to your current phone that you can use 
anytime you don’t want to share your main number.

In this article, I’m going to talk about several apps that basically 
add a second line to your phone. The prices range from free to close to 
$10 a month. The more money you’re willing to spend, the more features 
you’ll get. The paid options are mostly for freelancers or people who 
run small businesses from home.

<h2>
Second Number Apps</h2>
There are basically only five recommendations I have for apps: Google
 Hangouts, Sideline, Burner, Skype and Line 2. In terms of cost, Google 
Hangouts is free, Sideline is $3 a month, Burner is $5 a month, Line 2 
is $10 a month and Skype varies depending on the number.

In my opinion, you should start with free first and go from there 
until you find the app that works best for you. If you’re not running a 
business of any kind, then Hangouts will probably be more than enough 
for most people.

<h3>
Google Voice/Hangouts</h3>
<a href="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/google-hangouts.png"><img alt="google-hangouts" class="lazy size-full wp-image-59841 aligncenter" data-original="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/google-hangouts.png" height="201" itemprop="image" src="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/google-hangouts.png" style="display: block;" width="600" /></a>

To be clear, you actually create a Google Voice number and then use 
Hangouts to make calls and send SMS messages. The first thing to do is 
go to <a href="https://www.google.com/voice" target="_blank">Google Voice</a> and get it connected to your main number. Once you have done that, click on the gear icon at the right and choose Settings.

You should see an access number for your voicemail and next to that, you will see a Get a Google Voice number link.

When you click on the link, you’ll have to choose whether you want a 
new number or if you want to use your mobile number. Obviously, if you 
want a second number, choose I want a new number.

On the next screen, you can get a number by area, zip code or city 
and enter a word or phrase or number if you want something specific. 
Keep going until you have your new number setup.

When someone calls on your Google Voice number, it will ring in 
Google Hangouts by default. However, you can go into the settings page 
on Google Voice and have the calls forwarded to your main number if you 
like. This way the phone will ring like a normal call.

In addition, you can record your own voicemail greeting and your 
name. You can forward text messages and voicemail to your email also. On
 the Calls tab, you can setup call screening so that 
unknown callers will have to speak their name before being connected to 
you. Google Voice also lets you record calls, switch between calls and 
do conference calls.

The great thing about Hangouts is that it works on several platforms including iOS, Android, and Chrome. If you go to <a href="https://hangouts.google.com/" target="_blank">https://hangouts.google.com/</a>, you can send text messages and make audio and video calls from the web.

Another nice advantage to Google Voice is that you can still receive calls on your phone even without Hangouts being installed.

The only downside that I have run into so far is that sometimes the 
number is not accepted on certain websites, especially for use in two 
factor authentication. Most of the time it works, but sometimes you’ll 
get a message stating you can’t use that number, in which case you’ll 
have to use your real number. However, this issue isn’t just limited to 
Hangouts, but occurs will all second number apps.

As with all other apps, except Sideline, Hangouts is a VOIP app, 
meaning it uses data in order to work. If you don’t have a large data 
plan and you’re not connected to WiFi, this could cause problems for 
some users. Sideline is the only app that uses your carrier network to 
make and receive calls, thereby reducing data usage. However, it uses 
your cellular minutes just like when you are making calls from your 
carrier number.

<h3>
Sideline</h3>
<a href="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/sideline.png"><img alt="sideline" class="lazy size-full wp-image-59847 aligncenter" data-original="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/sideline.png" height="295" itemprop="image" src="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/sideline.png" style="display: block;" width="680" /></a>

For $3 a month, Sideline gives you a second local number with less 
features than Google Hangouts. You can create a custom voicemail 
greeting, but that’s about it. By default, the app has ads, which is 
annoying. In order to remove the ads, keep the number permanently and 
enable WiFi calling, you have to spend the $3 a month.

But even with those features, it still doesn’t offer anything on par 
with Google Hangouts. For example, when receiving a call to your new 
second number, it shows some generic number in Sunnyvale, CA rather than
 the number of the actual person calling. You have to open the Sideline 
app to see the actual number of the caller.

<h3>
<a href="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/sideline-app.png"><img alt="sideline app" class="lazy size-full wp-image-59848 aligncenter" data-original="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/sideline-app.png" height="855" itemprop="image" src="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/sideline-app.png" style="display: block;" width="500" /></a></h3>
Texting is free and there doesn’t seem to be any limit. If your cell 
phone plan allows you to call anyone at any time, then you can use your 
Sideline number similarly. You’ll also be able to port your number out 
eventually with the $3 a month plan.

<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sideline-free-phone-number/id1012032539?mt=8&" target="_blank">Sideline – iTunes App Store</a>

<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sideline.phone.number&" target="_blank">Sideline – Google Play Store</a>

<h3>
Burner</h3>
<a href="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/burner-app.png"><img alt="burner app" class="lazy size-full wp-image-59849 aligncenter" data-original="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/burner-app.png" height="265" itemprop="image" src="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/burner-app.png" style="display: block;" width="680" /></a>

The Burner app’s purpose is slightly different than all the other 
apps mentioned here. For one thing, the numbers are supposed to “burn” 
away after a set amount of time. You can get a premium line, which is 
the $5 monthly fee I mentioned above, with unlimited texts, pictures and
 minutes.

Otherwise, you can choose from a wide variety of burners, like the 
Mini Burner, which will give you 60 texts, no pics, 20 minutes calling 
and auto-burns in 14 days. You can check out all the different <a href="http://support.burnerapp.com/customer/en/portal/articles/1070877-types-of-burners-and-extensions" target="_blank">types of burners here</a>.

In order to buy the burners, you have to use credits. You can 
purchase credits inside the app. 3 credits are $2, 8 for $5, 15 for $8 
and 25 for $11. This is a great app if you need new numbers often. If 
you just want a single number for a long period of time, get the Premium
 line for $5 a month.

One interesting feature of Burner are integrations or connections to 
other apps. For example, you can connect to Evernote and create a SMS 
auto-reply bot. Doesn’t make sense? Check out the <a href="http://www.burnerapp.com/#tabs-1" target="_blank">video</a>.
 It’s actually pretty cool and could be very useful for some people. In 
addition, you can log text messages to Google Sheets or save voicemail 
to Dropbox.

The app doesn’t have very many features, but works well. You can also
 set your own voicemail greeting for each burner number you create.

<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/app/id505800761?mt=8" target="_blank">Burner – iTunes App Store</a>

<a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.adhoclabs.burner&referrer=adjust_reftag%3Dcs8Gg49LKVYDn%26utm_source%3DWebsite%2B%255BAndroid%255D" target="_blank">Burner – Google Play Store</a>

<h3>
Line 2</h3>
Next, there is <a href="https://www.line2.com/" target="_blank">Line 2</a>,
 which is definitely geared towards freelancers and business owners. 
I’ve used Line 2 in the past for my local computer repair business and 
it was definitely worth the price. They have a personal version for $10 a
 month and a business version for $15 a month. You can see the 
difference between the two services right on the home page.

For a real business, the auto-attendant, toll-free number, multiple 
lines and after hours call handing features are a big plus. Obviously, 
it’s a lot more expensive and not something I would recommend unless you
 are trying to run a business out of your home, etc.

For me, I used a service to record a professional-sounding business 
greeting and then enabled the auto-attendant feature. This made a big 
difference in perception when my clients called in. It was way better 
than me picking up the phone and saying “Hello?”

Line 2 also has an excellent app and web dashboard for managing all 
your calls, voicemails, forwarding rules, etc. It’s a bit expensive, but
 the cheapest option for a business that needs some extra features.

<h3>
Skype Number</h3>
If you already use Skype, you may want to check out getting a <a href="https://www.skype.com/en/features/online-number/" target="_blank">Skype Number</a>.
 The cool thing about Skype is that you can get International numbers 
also. Pretty much all the other apps above work only with U.S. and 
Canada numbers. The cost for a number in the US is around $6 a month.

Along with the Skype number, you get all the benefits of using Skype 
like video calls, group video calls, SMS messaging, screen sharing and 
file sharing. With Skype, you basically buy credit that you can use for 
international calls, international SMS, etc.

Overall, it’s really easy to get a second or third or fourth number 
for your phone without much work. There are a lot of options out there 
and the best one for you will depend on your usage scenario. The great 
thing is that you can cancel all of these services whenever you want if 
you’re not satisfied. If you have any questions, feel free to comment.

Phones TIPS Troubleshooting Setup an Additional Phone Number on an Android Smartphone or iPhone

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Safari Running Slow on Your Mac?

1:03 PM Unknown 0

Apple touts Safari as the fastest
 browser out there, which may be true on iOS, but I regularly use Chrome
 on my Mac because Safari is just too slow. Sometimes a webpage won’t 
load or I won’t be able to navigate back and forth between pages or I 
can’t scroll without lagging.
It’s extremely frustrating considering Safari comes included with OS X
 and you expect it to just work. When it does, it’s a great browser, but
 when it doesn’t, you literally have to switch to a new browser.

In this article, I’ll mention all possible ways you can go about 
trying to speed up Safari on your Mac. If you have your own suggestions,
 feel free to let us know in the comments.

<h2>
Method 1 – Cache, History, Extensions</h2>
If you’re a heavy web user and you don’t have a lot of space left on 
your Mac, it might be worth emptying the cache, disabling extensions and
 clearing up the history to ease the load on Safari. In order to do 
this, you first have to go to Safari and then Preferences.

Click on the Advanced tab and then check the Show Develop menu in menu bar box at the bottom of the dialog.

Exit the Preferences dialog and click on Develop in the Safari menu. Go ahead and click on Empty Caches. Once the cache is empty, click again on Develop and choose Disable Extensions.

Finally, click on Safari and instead of Preferences like we chose above, click on Clear History.

In the drop-down box, make sure to choose all history and then click the Clear History button.

<h2>
Method 2 – Manually Clear Cache.DB File</h2>
The above steps should clear the cache in Safari, but if something is
 not working properly, it may not do so properly. In this case, you can 
manually do it. Open Finder, then click on Go and Go To Folder at the bottom.

Now copy and paste the following path into the text box and click Go.

<pre>~/Library/Caches/com.apple.Safari/Cache.db</pre>
<a href="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/safari-cache.png" rel="attachment wp-att-59527"><img alt="safari cache" class="lazy size-full wp-image-59527 aligncenter" data-original="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/safari-cache.png" height="127" itemprop="image" src="http://11986-presscdn-0-77.pagely.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/safari-cache.png" style="display: block;" width="429" /></a>

Finally, right-click on the Cache.db file and choose Move to Trash. Make sure Safari is closed when you are doing this step.

<h2>
Method 3 – Install Latest OS X Version</h2>
I’ve noticed that quite a few people who purchase Macs simply do not 
update their systems to the latest version of OS X. Even though we are 
on El Capitan right now, I have friends running on Mountain Lion, 
Mavericks, Yosemite, and even Snow Leopard!

If you don’t update OS X, you won’t get the latest version of Safari 
either. This means you could be stuck several versions behind and will 
be missing out on all the improvements and optimizations of the newest 
version.

The simplest way to upgrade is to go to the App Store and click on 
the link for the latest version of OS X, which is usually on the 
right-hand side.

<h2>
Method 4 – Turn Dashboard Off</h2>
If you’re still using an older Mac (2010 or earlier), you might have a
 graphics card issue. You can try something simple to see if it helps in
 Safari. I’m talking about disabling the Dashboard feature in Mission 
Control.

To do this, open System Preferences and then click on Mission Control. In the drop-down next to Dashboard, select Off.

This is not some surefire fix, but it has worked for some people, 
including myself. I have a Mid-2009 MacBook Pro and the dashboard was 
definitely slowing things down.

<h2>
Method 5 – Change Search Settings</h2>
Another thing you can try is to change the search settings in Safari. Open Preferences in Safari and then click on the Search tab.

Try changing the search engine to Bing, restarting Safari and see if 
there is any difference in the speed. Change it back to Google and then 
check again. You can also try unchecking all the options like search 
engine suggestions, Safari suggestions, quick website search, preload 
top hit, etc. to see if that makes a difference.

Sometimes on a very slow Internet connection, all of these extra features may cause Safari to be even slower.

<h2>
Method 6 – Change Network Service Order</h2>
If you have a machine that is connected to both WiFi and Ethernet, 
your issue could be caused by being connected to the network in two 
different ways. To see your connections, go to System Preferences and then click on Network.

You could try disconnecting one network source and seeing if that 
makes a difference or not. Switch to only the other one and test too. If
 you want to keep both connected, read on.

By default, one connection will get priority over the other. As you 
can see above, my WiFi connection was getting higher priority than the 
Ethernet connection. You can change this by clicking on the little 
settings icon (gear) at the bottom of the list box.

Click on Set Service Order and another popup will appear where you can reorder the connections by dragging and dropping.

I moved Ethernet to the top and then clicked OK. After that, make sure you click Apply to on the System Preferences dialog.

<h2>
Method 7 – Delete Preferences File</h2>
This probably won’t make much of a difference, but it’s worth a shot. Go to Finder, click on Go and then Go to Folder.  Type in the following path:

<pre>~/Library/Preferences</pre>
Scroll down the list till you see com.apple.Safari.plist and delete that file.

<h2>
Method 8 – Use Different DNS Settings</h2>
Sometimes it may not be Safari causing the issue, but your DNS 
settings. By default, you’ll be using the DNS provided by your ISP, 
which is fine most of the time. However, using a public DNS might result
 in faster browsing.

My favorite is Google Public DNS, which I use on all my computers. Check out my article on the <a href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/cool-websites/free-dns-server/" target="_blank">best public DNS servers</a> you can use for free.  To change the DNS server for your connection on OS X, you need to open System Preferences, click on Network, select the connection and then click on Advanced.

Go ahead and click on the little + icon and then type in the IP 
addresses of the new DNS servers. Using Google has sped up my browsing 
not only in Safari, but also other browsers.

<h2>
Method 9 – Log Into Another Account</h2>
Sometimes the problem is with the user account you are currently 
using. It’s worth creating another user account (takes 1 min), logging 
into that account and then running Safari. If it’s suddenly faster, then
 there is a problem with your user account. You can try to fix the 
problem by using Disk Utility. You can go to Spotlight and type in Disk 
Utility to open the dialog quickly.

Click on your hard drive in the left hand pane and then click on the First Aid tab. You’ll be asked if you want to run First Aid on your hard drive, so click Run.

<h2>
Method 10 – Reinstall OS X</h2>
This may sound a little extreme, but it’s kind of similar to how you 
have to reinstall Windows every year or so because it becomes so 
bloated. Unfortunately, OS X suffers from some of the same issues, 
especially if you have always kept upgrading to the latest version of OS
 X without doing a clean install.

I upgraded from Mountain Lion to Mavericks to Yosemite to El Capitan 
before doing a fresh install of El Capitan, which made things 
significantly faster. It’s definitely worth a shot because it also made 
every other app load a lot faster too.

Those are about all the possible solutions I could find to fix a slow
 Safari problem. If you have any other suggestions, feel free to let us 
know in the comments

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