I thought I would let everyone know that if you are selling something that you think will sell well on eBay, then it is definitely worth it to use their Featured Plus! feature. It only costs $19.95, and it will put your listing on the first page of the search results when someone searches for your type of item. If you’re lucky, it will be toward the top of the first page. It just depends how many other people have their listing in the featured section. However, based on experience, not many do relative to the total amount of people that list the same item. And it will also list it in the regular listings where it would normally appear. EBay claims that it will increase the amount of bids that you get by 65%, on average. And it seems as though their stats are pretty accurate, as I saw this in action (read below).

Another feature that they claim will increase the final bid by 25% is Highlight feature. This feature adds a purple background to your listing, and only costs an extra $5.

They also have the Bold feature ($1), which bolds the text in your listing, and the Border feature ($3), which puts a blue border around the background of your listing.

Just to give you an idea of how well these features work, I helped a friend of mine sell his very valuable comic book on eBay, and the first day we put it up, it only had received 2 bids within the first two hours, and it was only up to $6.05. So, I suggested that he use all of the features that I mentioned above since the book was worth so much. He agreed.

Literally within 10 minutes there were 4 bids, and the bid had jumped from $6.05 up to $910! The reason for this is that after the above features were added (and you can add them even after you have started the auction), his comic book was added to the top section of the first page with the text bolded, the background color changed to purple, and a blue border placed around the purple background. It really stood out, and was one of the first listings that people saw when they did a search for the type of comic book he was selling. It really blew my mind how fast it worked.

The auction is still going on at the time of this writing, so I can not comment on the number of bids or the final price, but I will update this post when it ends.

But if you do plan on selling something on eBay, do yourself a favor and consider the above features. They really work!

I do not suggest that you install the Service Pack 2 update to Windows XP just yet. Seems like Bill jumped the gun on this one. I installed it on my laptop, and it slowed it down a bit. Even though it is now available via Windows Update, hold off a bit. Check back here for updates.

UPDATE: Some have reported success with SP2. So, you’ll just have to download and install it and see how things go. If it won’t work for you, just go to START>CONTROL PANEL>ADD/REMOVE PROGRAMS>and remove Windows SP 2 (a.k.a. Windows Service Pack 2).

If you feel you might have some Trojan Horses on your computer, or if your Anti-Virus software says you do, then download, install, and run these two programs separately.

Trojan Hunter
http://www.misec.net/trojanhunter/

Trojan Remover
http://www.simplysup.com/tremover/download.html

Setting up a home network is pretty easy nowadays.

Windows XP

With Windows XP, all you have to do is go to START>MY NETWORK PLACES>and click on “Set up a Home Network” sidebar. It will ask you to give a “description” of your computer and a “name” for your computer. The “name” is the name of your computer on the network. You can name the “description” and the “name” the same thing if you want.

It will then ask you the “name” of the WORKGROUP. The “name” of the WORKGROUP will be the same on all of the computers on the network. When you name the WORKGROUP, you are actually naming the NETWORK. So, you can name it HOME, HOME NETWORK, YOUR NAME, or whatever you want. But again, just make sure you use the same WORKGROUP name for all of the computers on the network. Otherwise, they will not be on the same network.

Windows 2000

For Windows 2000 computers, go here for instructions:

How to set up a network on Windows 2000 machines

Network with both Windows XP machines and Windows 2000 computers

If want to set up a network with computers where some of the computers have Windows XP and the others have Windows 2000, you still use the above steps for each type of computer.

After they are configured, reboot

After you set up all of the computers on the network with the above steps, you will need to reboot all of the computers in order for the changes to take affect. It is best to have all of the computers off at the same time before you reboot. Then, just reboot the computers. You can either reboot them one at a time or all at once. It doesn’t matter. May be less taxing on your electrical system to boot them one by one, however.

Viewing the Computers, Files, and Printers on the Network

When the computers have all been rebooted, you should be able to go into My Network Places and see the other computers on the network. You should also be able to view the files, folders and printers that you have opted to share by double-clicking on that computer. And, if you have opted to share the printers, then you will be able to print on any printer that is hooked up to one of the computers on the network! If you try and are unable to print, then that means one of two things:

1. You have not opted to share that printer, in which case you would not even see the printer on the network
2. You simply need to double-click on the printer you want to print on in My Network Places from the computer from which you would like to print. Once it finishes its quick installation, just reboot that computer.

The only equipment you need to do this is a router. It does not even have to be an access point.

Printing on a Printer on the Network Wirelessly

You can even do this with a wireless router. So, you can have a printer hooked up to your desktop, have your laptop on the network wirelessly, and print from your laptop (while in front of your TV) to the printer that is hooked up to your desktop in your office! Pretty cool.