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It is one of those things that most of us really dont think about. How does a laser printer work? Well, you click print?and it works, right? For most of us that is all we need to know or would care to know. But, in reality, it is something you should an understanding of if you are going to be buying a laser printer for the office network or shelling out a decent amount of cash.

Chemistry isnt that bad

Most people have horror stories about chemistry class, me included. But when it comes to figuring out how a laser printer and chemistry work together it is not all that bad. Whether it is a HP, Epson, Cannon or Dell laser printer it works the same way, positive charges and negative charges. The old saying actually applies, opposites attract.

Getting charged

Within the laser printer there is a drum that slowly turns. As it turns it is given a charge by a wire (charge corona wire) or, in some cases, another roller. After the drum is charged the printer shoots a laser at the surface of the drum discharging the drum in certain places. These places end up looking like letters and numbers on the drum.

To get these discharged letters and number shapes off the drum and onto a piece of paper the laser printer covers the discharged shapes with charged toner. It then hooks them up with an oppositely charged piece of paper. As makes sense the toner is attracted to the paper and there it is, toner on paper. If you have ever changed a toner cartridge you can attest that the stuff loves to attach itself to just about anything. The process so far just makes the toner attach itself in an ordered fashion or letter and numbers.

Getting toned

The process is just about complete at the most basic level. What needs to happen to finish off the process is for the toner to be fused into the paper permanently. To accomplish this the laser printer rolls the paper by a heat roller to melt the toner into the fibers of the paper. As the laser printer does this it real eases the charge with yet another roller.

Ultimately, when the process is in synch there is no muss and no mess. But everything needs to be timed just right. In the end, there is a warm static free piece of paper with all the words fit and unfit to print.

James Kara Murat from PrintCountry.com, the contributor of How Printer Works?. A longer version is located at How do Laser Printers Work?, and related resources can be found at Samsung CLP-510 Laser Printer.

During this article, I will attempt to answer some FAQ's that many people ask about wireless broadband;

Why should I be interested in wireless broadband?

If you only use one computer and the computer is right next to a phone socket then you don't need to be interested but for everyone else wireless broadband is extremely important. A typical household has more than one computer, maybe a laptop or 2 and the only way each one can receive the internet is by having wireless broadband.

Is it secure?

When you set up your cheap broadband service, you will be asked to set up a password for your network. Once this is set up then nobody can access your network without the network key. There are two types of security, WiFi Protected Access (WPA) and Wired Equipment Privacy (WEP), WPA is the one most people are recommended to have as it adds another level of protection to your computer.

Do I need any special equipment?

A wireless ADSL modem router will be needed; this is the device that fits into the phone line. Some providers will issue them as standard but always check because you may have to buy your own. To be able to connect to the wireless you will need a network card for each computer/laptop needing to be connected. Network cards are relatively cheap to buy and easy to get hold of.

What are the disadvantages?

The main one is that all modems have a range and if your computer/laptop is out of that range, it won't pick up any signal and you will lose connection to the internet. Some modems have different speeds, the best way to see what you are entitled to is to take the broadband speed test which will tell you what speed you can expect for your postcode.

The broadband speed test gives you an indication of how fast your broadband service is likely to be. Shop online for the best deals on cheap broadband and start experiencing a faster and higher quality internet.

Happy Monday everyone. Hope you all had a good weekend.

Today's frugal living tip might seem a bit radical to some readers, but it is a money saving strategy I've been employing for the past few years, and I have found it to be quite successful.

The basic premise behind this method is simple: Whenever you plan to purchase something that can be clearly defined as a want you will need to sell some of your possessions to finance the purchase. For example, if you've got your heart set on a Nintendo Wii you might have to sell your Playstation 2 with 30 games to afford the purchase.

Adhering to this method will accomplish a couple of things:

1) It will force you to evaluate just how badly you really want the item. Are you willing to give up that PS2, or your golf clubs? It is yet another impulse check on your spending. *As you may have gleaned if you've been reading this series, I'm a big proponent of impulse checks. But putting these checks in place is arguably the biggest step towards eliminating debt and attaining financial freedom, so I will continue to extol the virtue of doing so.

2) It will act as an ongoing clutter control for your home. If you've lived in your current residence for any length of time you will have inevitably acquired a plethora of odds and ends that fill the garage, the shed and the spare bedroom. If you sell something every time you purchase something new this stuff will take much longer to accumulate. As a side benefit you will find that once you start eliminating clutter you don't need quite as much living space as you thought you did. This provides an opportunity to potentially downsize into a smaller home, which could represent a huge savings going forward.

If you find you cannot part with enough stuff to finance your latest want then you'll have to get creative. Take on some odd jobs, go pick fruit for a couple of weekends, monetize your blog. Basically, find some other way to acquire the difference needed without tapping into your savings from your regular income. It may seem like this is extreme, but you will find you enjoy an enormous feeling of satisfaction once you've managed to scrape together enough money to make your purchase.

Now, this method may not be for everyone. Having the support of your spouse for this project is key. There's bound to be some tension if one spouse is sacrificing all their old treasures while the other spouse is still spending indiscriminately. Still, it's worth kicking the tires and seeing if this is something your significant other can get on board with. The lure of debt-free living can be a powerful motivator, so maybe they will surprise you and agree to this "crazy plan".

Overall, this is just another strategy for eliminating drain on your regular income. You don't have to adhere to it as outlined above. Get creative and find what works best for your situation. Good luck, and enjoy the challenge!

For more frugal living tips please visit my website at http://www.cheapcanuck.com

Author of frugal living tips website at http://www.cheapcanuck.com

PC-based servers and LANs may be relatively mature technologies. However, small businesses need your firms expertise, more than ever. For these businesses, you'll need to select, configure, customize, secure and maintain the right small business networking tools for their unique needs.

Real Small Business Networking Solutions Begin with Real Servers

How many times have you taken on a new small business client who insists that he or she is perfectly content with their peer-to-peer network? You know the peer-to-peer network is really causing a ton of problems.

Is Microsoft Windows peer-to-peer networking any way to run a small business? Perhaps it is for a two-or-three-person company, but those really tiny offices generally arent your most profitable client opportunities.

Convincing the Client They Need Small Business Networking

Clients come to you because they need a reliable, yet cost-effective small business networking solution. You know that their data, uptime, and security issues are important, and that there are some corners that arent worth cutting. Yet many small business networking prospects and clients still believe that theyre too small to need a dedicated or "real" server.

Cutting Corners Doesnt Cut It

When you begin talking about a network upgrade, small business clients often dwell on out-of-pocket costs. They often neglect to consider the more substantial soft costs of investing shortsightedly in a small business network.

These include lost employee productivity when imprudent corners are cut, downtime when fault-tolerance is an afterthought, and support costs when difficult-to-support or "dead-end" solutions are selected solely because of their low price tag.

The Bottom Line about Small Business Networking

Often clients dont recognize they have a small business networking problem until its too late. If you show your prospects and clients how a dedicated server can save them money by avoiding inevitable disasters (i.e. share some of your "before" and "after" client case studies), youll have a stronger chance of getting prospects and clients to see "the light."

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Joshua Feinberg, co-founder of Computer Consulting 101, helps computer consulting businesses get more steady, high-paying clients. Learn how you can too. Sign-up now for your free access to these field-tested, proven business strategies on the Computer Consulting 101 Blog.

For most of the British public, the internet began in the 1990s where it was estimated that the internet grew by 100% per year. It was in the year 2000 when the UK was first introduced to broadband, although the majority of broadband users came from large companies, due to the high cost, the situation now is very different as consumers can buy broadband for as little as 10 per month.

The difference between broadband and dialup is very small in price but broadband speeds can be significantly faster. This will gradually force dialup connections to extinction. According to BT, broadband is now available in 99.6% of households in the UK, 65% of UK households have an internet connection, and of those with internet, 55% are broadband connections.

This may all sound great, but that is far from the truth on a global scale. The Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Developments (OECD) examined broadband services in 30 countries worldwide this year, concluding that the UK is in fact, in the bottom third of the list. Japan was found to have the cheapest price for broadband at 11p per megabyte, while also proving to be the fastest with speeds of 100 megabyte per second. The UKs cheapest broadband comes out at 1.81 per megabyte with speeds of up to 26 megabytes per second (but only in very limited areas).

So whats next? Well according to some, we may not need to invest highly in broadband technology after all.

To play catch up in broadband speeds by investing in infrastructure would cost the UK a lot of money. BT are investing in creating a UK-wide fibre optic network that could deliver superfast speeds of 100Mb, but is it worth it? Yes, but only if the internet stays as a World Wide Network.

Researchers in the US are looking to invest $350m not on broadband technology but towards what claims to be the successor to the internet. Similarities can be found in Europe where the EUs Future and Internet Research (F.I.R.E.) programme plan to invest money on the new internet? This has led to suggestions that the internet will be regionalised, therefore, the end of www? For someone in Europe wanting to access networks in America or Asia would have to pay more than someone wanting to browse within the EU.

The future of the internet is difficult to judge, with timescales of 10-15 years, these claims are still at the earliest of stages, till then; we just need to wait and see.

If you are interested in taking advantage of current broadband technology, then you should compare all the broadband providers available in your area.

Adair Cameron is an experienced writer based in the UK.