Ports for Star Wars: The Old Republic

Alright I know a couple weeks ago I posted some ports for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Recently I stumbled upon people having issues with Star Wars: The Old Republic and I wanted to post the ports for the game so that everyone has access to them.

Ports for Star Wars: the Old Republic:

PC
Ports: 8995,12000-12999,20000-30000

Also I would like to go ahead and list this port checking tool all courtesy of PortForward.com PORT CHECKER.

PC and Laptop Optimization tips

Working with Computers through out most of my career as well as performing a lot of IT functions I started to realize that a lot of people have issues either optimizing their computer or maintaining the current level that their computer is at. So what I am going to do is list some tips to get better performance out of your computer. These are suggestions and depending on your case these may or may not work.

- First off if you purchased your computer through a retailer or a online store then there is going to be a lot of useless programs and services on your computer. So what the first thing your going to do is clear all of those programs off of there unless it is used to control something like a DVD player or a webcam. These useless programs duplicate most existent ways to do things in Windows such as updates and change functions/options. This will then clean up a lot of what is running in the background and free up some RAM/Hard drive space

- The second thing you are going to probably want to do is get yourself a simple and easy to use Anti-Virus software for your computer. Personally I use the free version of Avast! It is a quick download, with a simple setup and is easy to maintain. I set my basic scans for daily and the advanced/longer scans for once a month. As well if it finds a infected file then it will quarantine it to the sandbox so you can still access it without risk.

- The next thing i would do for optimization should only be done if you know what you are doing. This and everything else is DO AT YOUR OWN RISK. So what I do to all my computer after I complete these first two steps is go to Run > type MSCONFIG and this will allow you to select what programs and services will boot up with your computer. This will allow your computer to start up more quickly and efficently thus helping free more of your RAM up.

- This next step will depend on the last time you have done this if you have done it at all that is. So what you are going to want to do next is do a disk defrag. This is something you may want to do often such as once a month or leave more time and do it once a year. This really depends how often information is be written and removed from your hard disk. What this should do is re arrange all the file fragments in such a way where it is easier and faster for the hard drive to access.

- As a helpful hint many people may want to look into is investing in an external hard drive. This allows you to save the file from your computer to this device putting all your information into a portable content. This also allows you to not use hard drive space maintaining speed and efficency.

- The last thing I normally do is go through my computer immediately after doing the previous steps and doing all necessary updates. The major programs you will normally will want to update is Adobe Flash, Shockwave, Reader and AIR. As well as your Java client. All of these programs play into a large portion of your web browsing abilities. It allows for more access to media and webpages. The other program you will want to update is the Operating System. There could be many updates but after taking these steps it should take less than an hour for these updates on most computers.

Basically this is more or less a guide on optimization and increasing the performance of the computer you are using to get better results. As with everything else on this site these are things that you do at your own risk. You should know what you are doing or have the proper people around during this to ensure no important settings or files are tampered with. If you have any suggestions or any thing you would like added to this blog please feel free to leave a comment.

Ports for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3

Alright so I know not too long back I posted about port forwarding and I got a lot of response to it about what the ports were for CoD:MW3. It seems that there are a lot of network issues with the game at the moment.
For PS3:
81, 3074, 3075, 3478, 3479(UDP) Voice:3658
80, 443, 3074, 5223 (TCP).

For XBox360:
3074 (UDP/TCP).

Additionally Xbox Live requires ports 80, 53 (TCP) and 88, 53 (UDP).

For PC:
MW3
UDP:1500, 3005, 3101, 28960
TCP: 27015 (SRCDS Rcon port)

STEAM
UDP: 27000-27015, 27015-27030
TCP: 27014-27050

PLEASE SUPPORT CLICK AD v

Checking to see if an issue is due to the console or a game update.

Ever get those glitches where no matter what you do they just won't go away no matter what you do. Then your so aggravated you can't figure out what to do. This technique is relatively simple and easy to do. First what you are going to want to do is delete your game cache if your on XBox360 by going to settings > storage and then highlight the hard drive and the message press Y to clear game cache. If your using the PS3 what your going to want to do is go to the Game section on the XMB then scroll up to where it says Game Utility Data. This area stores the updates and installed data from the game your saved games are located in another menu section labelled Saved Game Data. What your going to want to do is Delete all the data for that game in that Game Utility Data using the triangle button. After you do this step on your consoles your going to want to make sure you are disconnected from the wireless completely or pull the network cable out. This is going to ensure that your system won't download and install the updates for the game. Your game will start up using the initial launch version. At this point go ahead and see if you experience the same issue. If you don't have the same issue the issue was an issue with the corrupt data saved on the console. If after this you re-connect your console to your network re-download the patch and experience the same issue than the issue is with the patch. Now if when the game starts up using the initial launch version and you still are having the issue then there could be a defect with the disc or it could be an issue that hasn't been patched yet. At that point the only thing you can do is alert technical support of the issue so that they can attempt to create a patch. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions please feel free to leave a comment below and I will get back to you.

HELP WANTED: Looking for Writers and Web Designers

We are currently looking to expand and therefore we are looking for more people. We are only looking on filling two positions at the moment one for a writer and the other is for a Web designing position.
For the writing position I am not looking for anything crazy. I just would like to have someone help me manage some of the articles so that we can possibly write more. The right person needs to be tech savvy. Some one who is a quicker learner is a bonus as well. I would appreciate at least one sample on a relevant topic.
For the web designing position what I am mainly looking for is someone moderately skilled in HTML and would be willing to educate himself further. We are looking to try and currently get a site going at the moment as well as possibly forums but this is all TBD and I am looking to get some prototypes going. Creativity is a plus as well as having a sample piece. For more information please leave a comment with your e-mail and which position you would like to fill

Game Cache and Game Utility Data

So you turn your console on and the game crashes, skips, the audio sounds or the video skips/doesn't render properly. It is very frustrating I know but we can't call up technical support and yell at them because lets be honest many of these issues we can really solve these ourselves. I think every gamer knows deep down inside you should have a somewhat in-depth knowledge of how it works and how to perform simple repairs on their gaming system or PC. So back to the problem sometimes this really isn't even caused by your game. Well what else would cause it then? Sometimes your Gaming console installs information to your hard drive of your gaming console and during the transfer sometimes that data becomes corrupt. Another thing is that your patches are stored in the Game cache(XBox)/ Game Utility Data (PS3) sometimes if during the download those files become corrupt or stop working for another reason. If there is a patch their that is for the specific issue and it isn't working or has become corrupt that is your problem. Don't worry this isn't a hard fix at all. For XBox if you go to system > storage and then hover over your hard drive and then it should say at the bottom of the screen it will say press Y to clear the game cache. WARNING this will clear all updates from the hard drive as well. It will not delete your saved games which is stored under a completely different section. For PS3 on the XMB if you go to where the games are and then go up to where it says Game Utility Data and then hit triangle and there should be an option that says delete. WARNING this will clear the updates for that game as any quick load information and the system will have to re-patch the game and reinstall this data fresh. IF you have any questions, concerns or suggestions for this topic feel free to leave a comment down below.

I thought you guys might enjoy this indie Mario trailer

Nothing can ever really take the spot of the original 1993 Super Mario Brothers movie. Yes it was corny, old school and comical but most people i talk to have some sort of place in their heart for that movie. Though after searching on the web today i had come across a trailer that was created and shown at SXSW (South by South West) college festivals. What might you ask would this video be? Well it's a short 2-3 minute trailer of a complete revamp and re imagination of the Super Mario Brothers. It takes the Mario Brothers and puts them modern day in a real life drama. I have searched and not been able to find anything out about the rest of the movie. So if anybody knows anything please speak up and comment.  Check down below for the video:

Avast anti-virus software

So over the years there have really only been two well known Anti-Virus companies McAfee and Norton. I have used these multiple times and I would like to say they are anything but helpful or user friendly. Most are not designed with their target group in mind which kind of alienates the less tech savy. Meaning they avoid trying to use it which can only amplify an already horrible situation because they avoid trying to use it because they don't know how to. There messages and reminders to renew are harassing as comes the price tag with it as well.I can say that there is one company out there who probably doesn't get as much mainstream credit as they deserve. Who might this company be you ponder? Well Avast of course!! Avast provides a variety of protections at cheap affordable prices. 3 PC coverage for there full internet security package for only 29.99. That's ten dollars a computer what do you pay for Norton 39.99. Not to mention that most basic internet user probably could easily do with their free version which offers considerable coverage to the other two companies password protection right now is only 9.99. It pretty much operates itself with little input as how frequent to do scans but if you do have to use it is a simple interface that is easy to operate as well as has the advanced options for the users who choose to use it. I use the free version right now and the scans are quick and thorough and there message and reminders are polite and friendly. Not to mention in works very well with games and has a game mode so it won't interfere You can easily check the program out by going to http://www.avast.com. they have a chart of all their cover and the prices. If you have any questions, suggestions or comments please leave me a comment

DirectX Diagnostic

So what is the one thing that most games use now of days and you probably don't even know it. Tha t program would be DirectX. What is DirectX and what does it do you might ask? Well DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (API's) that are mainly used in handling multimedia tasks mainly gaming and video services use this. Sometimes these games don't render properly or display funny or you'll get a video with no picture but sound. Most Game or application technical support will want to see what your system has as far as hardware. You can also test Direct3D, Direct Draw, as well as sound settings and more. Once your done you can save the info to a .txt file and e-mail to the technical support agent. The agent will then be able to take it and go through it to find a possible solution or they will pass it to the proper people. This also a great tool for troubleshooting media and game issues as well. If you have any questions or would like to see something added please post a comment or contact me by email.

Internet browser troubleshooting and fixes

So many times when your surfing the web you run into errors. Many of these errors are caused by your cache, cookies and other browser pertinent information that helps you surf the web. Let's start witha very basic explanation on what the cookies and cache are. Basically what happens is that everytime you go to a website your browser will save specific portions of that site to your computer as your cache and cookies. This allows your computer/browser to quickly go to the site and load the page. So what happens is that errors sometimes get saved to those files and when those files are loaded the errors are as well and it will seem as if the website/server is displaying this error when truly nothing is wrong. The first thing that you can do to ensure this doesn't continuously happen. On all browser is a way to clear your cache and cookies. For IE8 it is located under Tools > Internet Options. For firefox it is under Tools > Clear Browsing History. At this point the only files you need only to concern yourself with deleting Cookies, Cache and Temporary Internet Files(IE8 Cache). Then the other thing you can do depending on what troubleshooting steps you would like to take is to enter private browsing via the Tools menu in most browsers. Private browsing allows you to surf the web without the browser saving to your cache and cookies thus not allowing errors to be saved to those files. Some other things you can try for other similar browsing issues is ensuring that your Adobe programs are up to date (i.e. Flash, Reader, Shockwave and AIR) as well as ensuring that your Java Client is up to date. Those programs control whether certain things are displayed on the webpage (i.e. Pictures, Video, Applets). If you have any questions about anything not contained in this article feel free to leave a comment or send me an E-mail and I will update this article accordingly.

Port Forwarding for Video Games

So as many of you online console gamers might be starting to notice the requirements and demands of your home network and Internet Service Provider to play these games has become higher than ever before. Due to this many gamers experience problems with lots of lag and frequent disconnects from game servers. What many people don't realize is that their router could have many different security features that either limit this flow of data or completely halt the process. There are two options that gamers have to either alleviate or eliminate these problems all together and they are called port forwarding and DMZ. First, let us start with what a port is. A port is basically in essence a door on the router that controls the flow of information from the internet into your network. What port forwarding does is open those doors completely to your gaming console after you have assigned it a static IP address. At this point you might be saying to yourself that this sounds awfully complicated. If you are not as network savy and knowledgeable there are two things you can do. The first being accessing the website www.portforward.com. This site gives an in-depth step by step guide for each router and each game. For those who want the port numbers directly click the link link They also feature a free tool to check your ports afterwards o make sure they are functioning correctly. The second thing you can do is contact your Internet Service Provider and they can open those ports for you as well. Forwarding ports is relatively easy to pick up and learn and can be used for a variety of situations not just gaming. The second option that I spoke about was called DMZ. What DMZ stands for is Demilitarized Zone. Basically what that means is when you engage this option on your router for your gaming console again with a static IP address it will place your console directly outside of the router. Warning! This should only be done with gaming consoles as this can expose a huge security risk for PC's and laptops. This should only be used as a last resort if all else fails. This as well can also be found on www.portforward.com.
If you feel that anything should be added or you would like to contact us please leave a comment down below