Mr. Modem: Syncing bookmarks between computers

I use my desktop computer at home and a laptop at my office. Trying to maintain the same Favorites for the two computers is a challenge. Is there some way I can copy my bookmarks file from one computer, then merge the contents with the Favorites on the other computer, on an ongoing basis?

One easy solution is to keep your bookmarks online. In that way, you never have to sync or update anything, and you can access all your Favorites from any computer with Internet access, at any time, from anywhere in the universe — OK, that might be overstating it. There are a number of such free services, including www.ikeepbookmarks.com and www.mybookmarks.com.

There are also programs that will sync bookmarks, if you are thinking more about syncing, such as Xmarks, EverSync, Firefox Sync and others. Simply run a Google or Bing search for “Sync Bookmarks” and you’ll have everything but the kitchen sync to choose from.

I’m using high-speed Internet over a phone line. It works OK, but on occasion it goes so slow that mail, eBay, Amazon and other sites never finish loading. Is this a provider problem?

Before initiating contact with your Internet service provider, I would suggest finding out what connection speed range you should have. Your provider’s website will have that information or you can call its customer service department to find out. Once you have that information in hand, run several speed tests using a site such as www.bandwidthplace.com or www.speedtest.net.

Connection speeds can vary greatly throughout the day and night, so conduct tests at varying times over several days. Based on the information you obtain, if the average upload and download speeds fall below what you should be receiving, then contact your provider. That should give you the evidence you need to support the assertion that speeds obtained don’t match expectations — and your provider can investigate from there.

Can you explain what Spamdexing is? I was reading an article that mentioned the term but it never explained what it means.

Also known as a “spam search,” spamdexing is the practice of adding unrelated information to a webpage, usually on a frequently updated basis, to encourage indexing by search engines. Spamdexing is the culprit when you launch a search for “kumquats” and unrelated sites about aardvarks and unicorns pop up.

The practice of spamdexing was more effective when search engines were relatively unsophisticated years ago, but it can easily get a site blacklisted if it engages in the practice today. (Oh, how times have changed.)

This story was originally published August 10, 2015 at 11:33 AM with the headline "Mr. Modem: Syncing bookmarks between computers."