Cell phone acronyms

Have you ever wondered what all those cell phone acronyms meant? I have too.

So here I will set them out for you, what they are and what they mean.

For networks (how the signal travels from phone to phone) there are pretty much only two choices:
CDMA and GSM.

CDMA stands for Code Division Multiple Access and is the network used by Verizon and Sprint/Nextel.

GSM stands for Global System for Mobile communications, and is the network used by T-Mobile and AT&T. Outside of the United States, GSM is the standard, but American GSM phones will not work with international (Asia/European) GSM networks due to incompatible radio frequencies.

EV-DO stands for Evolution-Data Optimized and is a 3G network. It is the way laptop and smart-phone users connect to the Internet at DSL speeds.

EDGE stands for Enhanced Data rate for GSM Evolution and is technically a 3G network, but because of slow network speeds (similar to low-end DSL) it is called "2.5G" or "2.75G."

EVDO only works on CDMA networks and EDGE only works on GSM networks.

3G stands for "third generation network", and is the way phone companies advertise the ability to quickly surf the Internet, download music and watch streaming movies or TV. Due to the cost of providing DSL-quality bandwidth to cell phones, most cell phone companies in America have not completed their 3G network.
Verizon tends to lead in network availability and ability to browse web pages quickly, with other CDMA carriers following. GSM phone companies (AT&T/T-Mobile) continue to lag with the expansion of their networks to 3G speeds (3G speeds are comparable to DSL).

"Smart"-phone is a term used to describe any cell phone or mobile device that uses an operating system like Windows or Palm (although there are others).

SIM cards are Subscriber Identity Module cards used in GSM phones (both American and International) that are a small physical card that contains all the users phone numbers and other information. The SIM card can be removed and placed in any other compatible GSM phone; thus making it easier to transfer handsets. (CDMA phones do not use SIM cards.)

Problems with uploading

Last month, people using Comcast cable internet were reporting problems with their upload speed. As it turns out, Comcast is deliberately stalling, "delaying", the upload signal from their subscribers computers, when certain programs were used.

If you are having trouble using your webcam, your Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) phone, like Vonage or Comcast Digital Phone, or are experiencing more than usual lag with online video games, then this is the reason.

Published interviews with Comcast personnel indicate that calling and complaining will do no good, because the call center staff have been told to lie to callers.

Read more about it here and here.

Why is Firefox more secure than Internet Explorer?

When I suggest that my customers use Firefox instead of Explorer, alot of them ask "why is Firefox more secure than Internet Explorer?" This post will try to give you an understanding of the difference between the two browsers.

Simply put, Explorer is tied to the Microsoft Operating System (aka Windows), while Firefox is not.
All versions of Windows (98, XP, Vista, etc) and all other O.S.'s (Macintosh, Linux, etc) have several parts; one of these is the File Management program. In Windows, the file manager is called "My Computer" or "Windows Explorer."
By clicking on "My Computer" the user is allowed to view, modify or delete any or all of the files and documents on the computer, including files necessary for Windows to operate; the user may also use Internet Explorer to view, modify or delete any file. This is a problem because if the user can do it while sitting at the computer, a hacker or malicious program can also do it through the user's Internet connection.
Firefox is not designed to access the computer's file management program ("My Computer"), which means that malicious programs cannot access it through the browser either.

So now, you might be asking "How does Internet Explorer let bad stuff into my computer?" It does this through a mini-program that websites can add to your browser, called ActiveX controls.
Back at the beginnings of the Web, when most people only had dial-up access, web pages were mostly text with a few pictures. Microsoft, in an attempt to make Web pages that were viewed through Internet Explorer look better, created little mini-programs that would automatically (and invisibly to you, the user) download into Explorer and make the web pages have bells and whistles and animations and all sorts of additional little things that made the web pages become more alive (this is called "interactive" or "dynamic"). This way web pages seen in Explorer would look far better than the same pages seen through Netscape's browser.
Over time, the bad guys on the Internet realized they could build their own "controls" and Explorer would automatically download and run them like any other program.

It was in this way that the bad guys were able to take over peoples computers. Because ActiveX controls are run through the browser(which if you remember, allows anyone to delete or modify files necessary for Windows to operate properly), most anti-virus programs do not recognize the malicious controls as threats and do not get rid of them.

Firefox is just another program as far as the operating system (Windows) is concerned; just like Word, or Adobe Reader.

This is why Firefox is more secure than Internet Explorer; because people or programs on the Internet cannot infect or control your computer without your knowledge.