• New Guide! How to Build Your Own PC:  I am pleased to announce the completion of a new section here at The PC Guide. I have reached agreement with Charlie Palmer, the author of the print book "How to Build Your Own PC", and adapted the complete book for the Web. It is now available to read free here at The PC Guide. It contains over 200 sections and is illustrated with over 200 photos and screenshots that cover everything you need to know to build your own PC. It is both more thorough and more up to date than the PC assembly procedure that has been on The PC Guide for some time now.
  
  This material also covers not just the hardware assembly but also the basic installation and configuration of a dual boot Windows XP and Linux system, which will hopefully make you Linux users happy (I realize I don't have much Linux on the site.) Enjoy, and if you decide you want the material in print form, you can order the book direct from the author for just $21.95, and shipping is even included in the US! Having it in print is handy for when you actually build your new machine.

• Introducing CertiGuide.com: Hello everyone! It's my distinct pleasure to announce a new technical website, CertiGuide.com. The site contains the full text of five electronic books that cover everything you need to know to pass your A+, Network+ or Security+ CompTIA exam. The CertiGuides are adapted from materials written by a team led by popular certification author Tcat Houser. In total, the site contains over 2,600 pages of information -- all absolutely free!
  
  Here is a brief description of the five CertiGuides:
  • CertiGuide to A+ Core Hardware (220-301): This CertiGuide contains the basic information needed to pass the A+ core hardware exam. It is supplemented by the CertiGuide to A+ (A+ 4 Real).
  • CertiGuide to A+ Operating Systems Technology (220-302): Describes the material covered by the A+ OS test. It too is meant to be read in conjunction with the CertiGuide to A+ (A+ 4 Real), which provides much more detailed information to help you pass the tough A+ exam.
  • CertiGuide to A+ (A+ 4 Real, 220-301/302): Containing over 700 pages, this CertiGuide is based on the all-new "A+ 4 Real" e-book by Tcat Houser and an international team of experts. It was created specifically to provide more breadth and depth of information for those who were finding the A+ exam challenging. The three A+ CertiGuides, taken together, give you everything you need to pass the tough A+ certification exam.
    
    A+ 4 Real also contains lots of additional material that will help you prepare for the most important test of all: the real world. This includes detailed chapters on the Linux and MacOS operating systems.
  • CertiGuide to Network+ (N10-002): Adapted from the great e-book written by Helen O'Boyle and Tcat Houser, this CertiGuide tells you all you need to know to pass the current Network+ exam.  It includes hundreds of pages of educational material as well as over 300 sample test questions and answers.
  • CertiGuide to Security+ (SY0-101): Revised just a few months ago, this CertiGuide contains hundreds of pages of essential material to help you learn what you need to pass your Security+ exam. It is written in an easy-to-read style that directly follows the Security+ objectives. It includes hundreds of links to additional online resources, and features a 100-question practice exam with answers and explanations.
    
    Anyone who wants to learn about modern network security should read this CertiGuide, even if they aren't planning to take the Security+ test..

  Hope you find the material useful, and good luck with the exam!

• Coming Soon: I know it's been a while since I added new content to The PC Guide, but that's about to change. While the rewrite project for The PC Guide is not ready yet, I am working on an addition to the site that lots of hardware do-it-yourselfers will find very useful. It should be done by the end of April, so stay tuned! :^)

June 10, 2004:

• The TCP/IP Guide Now Online Free: My latest writing project, The TCP/IP Guide, is now online in HTML form for your enjoyment. This new site is generated from the full TCP/IP Guide e-book. Even if you aren't interested in TCP/IP you may want to check this out as it is the same approximate format and technique I will be using when I rewrite The PC Guide.
• Search Engine Fixed: The PC Guide's search engine works again. After spending months trying to resolve the issues with my own search engine (which resulted from changes Microsoft made to the Frontpage software I use to create the site), I decided to take a different approach. I implemented Google's web search facility, which is actually more capable than the older engine was. Sorry it took so long to deal with this!
• Important Notice About Contacting Me: Until recently, I had been using many different PC Guide e-mail addresses for various purposes on the site. These were all in plain text on the site and as a result had ended up in every mailing list imaginable. To make matters worse, I also now get tons of spam sent to random names at The PC Guide. Between this and virus e-mails, mailer software bounces and so forth, the result is that I am receiving about 10,000 e-mail messages a day. (Yes, 10,000!) To combat this, I have been forced to discontinue use of these old addresses and change all pages on the site so they point to a single new e-mail contact address on the Feedback page. Please use that page for all inquiries and discontinue the use of older e-mail addresses immediately. Thank you.

• Happy New Year! My best wishes to all of my readers for a healthy, prosperous and successful 2004.
• Announcing The TCP/IP Guide: After three years' work, I am pleased to announce the official launch of my latest writing project, The TCP/IP Guide. The TCP/IP Guide is a high-quality reference on the TCP/IP protocol suite that was designed to be not only comprehensive, but comprehensible. Organized using a logical, hierarchical structure, it uses a personal, easy-going writing style that lets anyone understand the technologies that run the Internet. The Guide explains dozens of protocols and technologies in over 1,500 pages. It includes full coverage of PPP, ARP, IP, IPv6, IP NAT, IPSec, Mobile IP, ICMP, RIP, BGP, TCP, UDP, DNS, DHCP, SNMP, FTP, SMTP, NNTP, HTTP, Telnet and many others. See The TCP/IP Guide Web site for full details on content, a description of features, samples, ordering instructions and much more.

October 2, 2003:

• Something New On The Horizon: Many of you have been wondering what exactly it is that I've been doing for the last two and a half years. Me too, much of the time. :^) I have mentioned that I have been working on a new writing project but have not said much about it. Well, that will be changing soon. My project grew much larger than expected and I therefore decided in August to take part of it that was mostly written and publish it standalone. I have been working feverishly (>60 hours per week) on this since the summer; it should be done by the end of October and I hope to start selling it in November. I want to keep the details under wraps for now. All I will say is that it will be a large volume of educational material that those with an interest in the inner workings of networking and the Internet will likely find very interesting.. Also, if I do say so myself, this work will be by far the highest quality of any work I have ever produced, in terms of both writing quality, supplemental materials and overall presentation. Stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks!

April 6, 2003:

• Hello, Everyone! For those who were wondering, yes, I am still alive, and the site is still alive as well. :^) My work continues on the new writing project I started in 2001, as does my increased attention on my family. I explained some of the reasoning behind this in my September 2001 State of the Site article. To give you some idea of how major this new undertaking is, I have already written twice as much material for this project as the entire first version of The PC Guide when it was published in 1997, and it's not done yet! I never envisioned that this project would become so huge, but now that I am in the middle of it, I need to see it through. I realize that while I have been working on this new project some of the material on this site has become quite dated, which I regret. I do hope to have this new work done relatively soon, so I can then return back to work on The PC Guide. In the meanwhile, I am pleased that much of the information is still considered useful to so many of you who visit the site.
• Forums Flourish: The PC Guide Discussion Forums continue to be popular; we now have over 10,000 registered members! The forums are a great place to discuss new PC technologies that are not yet covered in the main part of the site, as well as to get help on PC problems and socialize about technology in general terms. Check them out...

See the Old Site Updates page for archives of earlier site updates.