Articles on Computer Matters:

Buying Used Dell Laptops, PCs and Servers on eBay

Two years ago I needed a way to refresh more PC's and Laptops at my company without spending more. New Dell laptops were great but expensive and over the years we had accumulated many Latitude C series parts. The C series ran from the CPX C600 C610 C400 and C640 models before their new D line of Latitude laptops were released. The docks, drives and many other parts are usable in any of these models so we decided to take advantage of this and purchase used Dell laptops. eBay was where we sourced these. Over the years I've learned some valuable things about buying these expensive items. Here are some tips and some recommendations of sellers I've found to be very reliable.

Know what you are buying.

Don't just go by the model and specs of the machine. I'm seeing two types of units out there. Those that are complete PC's sold as used units. Also refurbished units that have no serial number on the bottom or in the bios. These units can be had at very good prices and so far I've found them all to be in great condition. The problem is that without the serial you can't even get tech support from Dell and obviously there isn't a warranty. If you don't mind this from the right seller these are great. For my use at my company it just isn't worth the appearance of a model with no serial number. I'm passing on these for now.

Always pay using Pay Pal or some other service that lets you use a credit card.

Even when you use a credit card on Paypal your covered by the dispute and charge back protection provided by your credit card company. I've had two instances where the seller did not ship my laptop and I had to dispute the charge with my credit card company. In both cases I received a credit back from my company and had no trouble from Paypal. Before disputing open a formal case with Paypal as they require that before you do a charge back. I'm not sure what the consequences would be but better to appear as if you are trying to use their system.

Buying regularly? Try to form a relationship with a couple reputable sellers.

After doing business with a handful of sellers I trust I now completely bypass eBay. The sellers love the money they save on fees and I can often have them hunt down mint condition Latitude laptops. Some will even customize the laptop to your specs.

Check the sellers feedback.

Look to see that the seller regularly sells Dell equipment. This tells you two things. One that they are a reputable seller and have a history of people who bought the exact same item and were happy. The other thing is that if you see positive feedback regarding non-similar equipment you can assume that they will have no spare parts or service ability. If you see many sales of similar Dell equipment you can be sure that if you have a problem and notify them right away they will probably be able to fix your laptop.

Ask about warranty or warranty transfer assistance.

If you are lucky the unit you purchase will come with some warranty left from Dell. However Dell will not transfer the warranty into your name unless you have the original owners name and address. If you can find a seller willing to provide this you just struck gold! Note, this is not common at all. You can still get Dell to service an in warranty unit but they won't transfer the ownership to your name.

Buying Servers? Look for Dell refurbished units with a warranty.

I don't know how it works but there are many resellers of Dell Servers that are new or refurbished from Dell. These come with the Dell warranty and are transferable. When the server arrives its in the original Dell box still sealed up. The price can't be beat and I've never had a problem. My suspicion is that for those with the right connections, Dell will sell you volumes of over production and refurbished units far below pricing you'd see in their Dell Outlet site. http://www.scsistuff.com is a great vendor for this type of buy.

John Gall
22 Apr 2007

John Gall is a full time IT Manager and self employed IT Consultant in Minnesota. He runs several hobby web sites related to technology and travel from http://www.gallconsulting.com

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What You Need To Know About IP Addresses?

If you are new to the internet, often times things can seem quite overwhelming. People throw around terms like IP addresses, name servers, hostíng, ftp, etc.

In this article we are going to cover IP Addresses. You'll learn exactly what they are and how they apply to search engine optimization (SEO).

IP Address stands for Internet Protocol Address and is currently made up of four "octets" or numbers separated by a period. Each octet can be a number from 0 to 255 .

Some examples of valid IP addresses are -
1.123.150.243,
35.35.36.10,
240.216.1.80

There is also a new standard for IP addresses that is slowly being launched called IPV6 (IP version 6). IPV6 numbers look quite different from our current IP addresses.

An example of an IPV6 IP address is -
2001:0db8:85a3:08d3:1319:8a2e:0370:7334

You will notice each is much longer with MANY more possible variations. The new IP system is designed to give us enough IP addresses so that we will not run out of unique IP addresses any time in the foreseeable future.

So why do we need IP addresses? Quite simply, an IP address is like your physical home address. It designates a specific computer that is connected to the internet. Every computer connected to the internet has an IP address. This is necessary for it to send and receive information.

When you type in a website name, for example mine, http://www.sesecrets.com, that name is translated into an IP address that is then used to "find" my site. In the current set of IP addresses, going from left to right, the first "octet" is the most broad, with each successive octet getting more and more granular or specific.

To explain that a bit better.
134 - is VERY broad
134.125 - is still quite broad, but getting more specific
134.125.244 - is getting more specific and probably refers to a specific web host
134.125.244.1 - is as specific as you can get and refers to a specific computer

You will often hear of different classes such as class A, class B and class C talked about when dealing with IP addresses. Below I've given some examples of what people are referring to when talking about classes.

Class A
134.###.###.###
240.###.###.###
22.###.###.###
Class B
134.254.###.###
36.36.###.###
36.37.###.###
Class C
254.210.135.###
36.36.1.###
36.36.2.###

It's often easiest to think of IP addresses as physical addresses, with the Class A octet being similar to country, Class B, being a city in that country, Class C being a street in that city, and the last octet being a specific house on that street.

So, by looking above you should be able to see that when someone talks about a Class A IP address they are referring to the first "octet" and when they say that two IP addresses are on different Class A subnets, it simply means the first set of numbers are different.

So for example
255.123.124.255
34.123.124.255
are on different Class A's. While the rest of the IP addresses are the same, because they are on different Class As, they are VERY far apart (remember, Class A is the most broad).

The same goes for Class B. Class B refers to the second octet of numbers. When someone says that two IP addresses are on different Class B's, it simply means that the the second octet's of each IP is different. The IPs may be on the same Class A or it may be different, but the second Octet of numbers is different. To better explain...look below.

255.123.124.255
255.34.124.255
34.34.124.255

In the above example, the first two IP addresses are on the same Class A, but different Class B's. The third IP address, has the same Class B number (34), but because the first Octet is different, it is also on a different Class B ( as with physical addresses, two countries can have the same city names, but they are still different cities).

For class C we are looking at the third octet.
255.123.124.255
255.123.34.255
34.42.124.255

Again, the first two above are on different Class C's, while the third has the same class C number as the first, but it's first and second octets are different, so it's also on a different Class C.

I hope the above makes sense to you. I've tried to give plenty of examples to make it clear no matter what your tech background is.

The good news is, that you hardly ever have to mess with IP addresses. When you get a web hostíng account for your domain name, your host will assign your domain name and IP address. You often don't even HAVE to know it. Generally your host will set all this up for you without you having to understand any of it. From that point on, when someone types in your domain name, that name will then be converted to your assigned IP address and voila...your visitor winds up at your site.

I'll cover some of the other basics such as web hostíng accounts, nameservers, etc. in later articles.
I'll see you at the top!

John Buchanan
13 July 2007

John Buchanan is a veteran search engine optimization specialist with over 9 years experience. For more information, visit his site at SESecrets.com or his newest site SEOVideoanalysis.com where he will provide you with a professional SEO Video Website Analysis of your site.