Posts by kc0arf

Hello,

Windows XP does not know how to interact with your SATA hard drive, and/or controller.

When you first start booting the XP CD-ROM, you will see a little message splash along the bottom of the screen... press F6 to for driver diskette... or something along those lines.

You will need to track down the particular driver for the SATA interface. I would look on Dell's Website for instructions. Go to their support page, and enter in your service tag number, and you should be presented with a number of options.

This is the same problem that caused problems with Windows 2K and SCSI interfaces.

Christian

Hello,

I think you have it reversed... Macs from long ago recognized FAT and FAT32, so they could access PC disks, and copy files from them. Unless you had special software on your PC, you could not access a Mac floppy disk. OF course, this only applied to HD floppy disks, not the DS ones.

As for your situation, I think you need to find another Mac, and transfer the files there. I could be wrong, but Mac formats devices using HFS or HFS+, and that is not something that PC's are geared to deal with under Windoze. You might find support for the file system under Linux, however.

I would take the device over to someone with a Mac, or perhaps an Apple store / dealer, and see if they can copy the contents for you to a CD-ROM. Bring along a blank when you go see them -- it shouldn't take long, and people like to help others out.

Christian

Hello,

Just to toss some fire... if you have Windows Firewall up, or another good firewall, the ICMP packets may be blocked, meaning that your ping test will fail.

After reading all this, I think you should consider a short course on networking and administration. From what I am gathering, you are too far behind the knowledge curve to pick up the details via a forum. I applaud the people who are here helping you, but there comes a time and place where a formal course can help you tremendously.

Also, those cert books are not good at all for getting the basics down. The cert books assume you have an understanding... they want to point out the highlights for the exam, and not teach the background knowledge.

I hope that you can come to an understanding, and install a safe network.

Christian

Hello,

You might have an OS issue, and / or a permissions issue. Is your W2K3 server completely patched and up to date?

The next time this happens, have the Windows user login on a Mac, and see if the file permissions are correct. If there is a permission problem, then the Mac users need more rights. It is possible that your Windows administrator is moving the files from one volume to another, and when that happens, the permissions are inherited from the parent folder. I would verify both NTFS and sharing permissions, as they can collide and cause a problem.

If the Windows user cannot see the files on the Mac, then there is something else at work. It is possible that the files are not refreshing until the administrator moves them.

WIthout testing, such as having different users place the files there to begin with, and mixing up the results a bit, I cannot say too much more. I will also try to simulate this at home.

Christian

Hello,

I would back up my data, and reformat the computer and start over. Why? Because you are not certain what Norton did to your computer, and you have modified the patch level of the machine. You are going to drive yourself nuts trying to get IE to work with everything again. You could try using another browser, such as Firefox, to see if viewing secure websites will work again.

In the end though, backing up and re-formatting will be your only true return to a known environment. You may have other things bouncing around in the computer.

Save the data, and rebuild.

Christian

Hello,

I would download a OS on a disk, such as Knoppix, and boot with that. See if the problems go away. If the problems are gone, then there is a good bet that the OS is at fault, although if the hard drive or controller is at fault, you will not detect it with this test.

Also, while I generally agree that spending a little time to try and knock out a virus is a good idea, I am firmly of the opinion that after a certain time investment point, it becomes more expensive to try and bugshoot something instead of formatting and re-installing. A number of places that I have been in contact have a zero-tolerance policy concerning viruses: if a machine gets infected, it gets re-formatted after moving any personal data off of it.

Unless you are very skilled, moving the data, and reformatting is the best option to return to your feet quickly.

Christian

Hello,

Actually, look into a "profiler" on your system. Profilers are designed to measure code execution times, and help identify where you need to optimize your code. The profiler design also takes account how much CPU the profiler code consumes,

Check out profilers.

Christian

Hello,

These days, computer manufacturers are bundling 3rd party software with systems, such as antivirus utilities and financial packages, in addition to the operating system. Thus, the manufacturers supply Windows on these restore disks that will restore the computer to factory conditions. Unfortunately, for advanced installations, you are powerless to customize the install.

So, if you boot with that disk, it will modify what you have presently, and will re-format the hard disk, and install the software. Then, be sure to update the computer and install all patches necessary.

Christian

Hello

Jwenting, we are not here to judge others on their use of language (except in cases of profanity, when the moderator staff will ban others), nor shall we make assumptions on backgrounds and whose parents do what. If you cannot add to a conversation in a beneficial way, please refrain from posting. Your value is a little more than background noise.

As for the question at hand, you will need to know some things about C++ programming. If you are just starting out, than this might be too much of a project. If you have the code down, but don't know where to set it up, then let us know.

This forum is geared to help people whom have some skill at coding, and have some sort of bug to squash out. We typically ask them to post source code, and then offer suggestions on it. By trade, I am not a programmer, so I am not your best resource to consult concerning the problem.

So, let us know your level, and let the forum pull together to help you out.

Christian

Hello,

Strictly, no. Why? Because you will have to have the operating system installed somewhere, and the users will need access to those files in order to operate the computer. Strictly speaking, you will have to grant access to those files.

Your other major challenge is that when you grant physical access to the workstation, you have to make additional modifications to the OS, because the "vision" the user has is not limited to a sharepoint.

What you are asking to do might be best achieved via linux. You can control access at the file system level, and can also control what is installed via X and other shells / GUIs.

If you want to try to do this via Windows, you are going to need to work hard to get your NTFS permissions correct. The other problem is that most Windows machines have to run in administrator mode, and that trumps NTFS... any administrator or admin equivalent can "take ownership" and reset the perms. Thus, the Linux route is easier.

BUT

You can boot a linux computer into "safe mode" and reset the root password, and then re-do the permissions. See what I mean about challenges with the security when physical access is granted?

IF YOU REALLY DESIRE to isolate the three drives, they need to be accessed over a network, and not have any physical access. Or, you are going to need to dig deep into encryption.

Christian

Hello,

I would backup my data, and then re-install WIndows XP. Yes, you might have the ability to use system restore, look at the amount of time you have invested mucking around with it instead of solving the problem.

It's also curious that your installed updates broke something. I would consider yourself fortunate that you even got into Windows, especially if your data is not backed up.

On the XP systems that I work with, I disable System Restore, and advocate backing up the data on a different device on a regularly, timely fashion. In my opinion, there is no such thing as a magical system restore.

Christian

Hello,

If it is a server, you may consider running Remote Desktop. Even though RDP is available on XP, it will force the local user to logoff when connected in that mode.

You might want to re-think your strategy on this though... by creating a hole in the firewall, and enabling software to do this, you are exposing that machine to attack from other people. Sure, you could write it to filter to your IP address, but what happens if it is spoofed, or if you are on a DHCP client yourself, and your IP moves around?

You could consider having a cronjob in windows fire off the tools automatically, but that could interfere with your client's day, as it would impact performance.

There are limits as to what you can do with Windows, and the GUI.

Christian

Hello,

I seem to remember a graphical client to reset/renew the network interfaces, but I am pretty sure it wasn't a control panel.

Closest thing you might have to do to get this type of functionality is write some small batch files and attach them to icons.

Christian

Hello,

The real question here is what type of service you require with the firewall, along with what OS are you working with. None of those products would work well with my Mac. By service, I mean how flexible do you require your firewall to be. Do you need to open certain ports for services? Do you need to have a DMZ? How about port forwarding?

It has also been my experience that Norton products are getting worse, and are causing significant loads on the the processor. I am seeing more people migrate away from Norton.

Christian

Hello,

Check your grant tables to see if you have the update permission.

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/adding-users.html

This could be the source of your problem... you might not have the UPDATE permission.

Christian

Hello,

I use a soft cloth, that is lightly damp too. Be sure not to dampen the cloth over the keyboard.

Christian

Hello,

Yes, it is possible to see your Ubuntu desktop via the network on your XP computer. You will require software called VNC to make the connection. You can run the VNC server on the Ubuntu box, and the VNC client on XP, and make the connection.

Note, if you have firewalls in the way, it may require modifications to them in order for the traffic to pass.

Christian

Hello,

You are asking quite the load there.

How are you keeping the servers in sync? You have a Windows server on one end, and a open BSD on the other. Is your windows serving .ASP or .NET? Is your BSD box serving Java? How are you keeping the data streams intact, along with permissions?

It is challenging enough to keep servers properly functioning in a cluster, and those units are working the same operating system. You are trying something far more challenging. You will need to write scripts to check the health of each box, and then write scripts to re-configure the router if a device fails. But what if both fail?

I do not think you are going to find an easy answer. I think you are better off duplicating each box, making 4 total computers, and attempting to cluster the services.

Christian

Hello Dave,

Good Choice! You will be able to get OpenOffice to work on the Mac under OS X, but it will look a bit different than your typical Mac application, and it will require the installation of the Darwin tools in order to function.

I have decided to hold off on my next powerbook purchase until after they go with Intel hardware. I have waited this long to get a new PowerBook, and a couple more months (or sooner) will not harm me.

Christian

Hello,

Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn't push the MCLE -- Microsoft Certified License Engineer. Their scheme of licensing and making things work is evil.

You may have to go into the Terminal Services manager, and see if there are restrictions defined there on how many connections the computer will service. You might also have to search the web (google) for installation help on it.

Good Luck,

Christian

Hello,

I agree with the other poster that you do not mention any sort of backups at all, nor do you break your system partition up so that you have another partition with your data. Yes, this means C: and D:

And I am so happy that I have to do less than 1/3 of your list to keep my linux and mac computers happy.

Christian

Hello,

I have moved this thread over to the Windows section, because it is an OS issue.

You should be able to control the situation from the Monitors control panel. As far as your desktop icons, it depends on what "mode" you have XP running under. If you have the new style, then only the Recycle Bin shows. If you can right-click on the task bar, choose properties, and then select the Start Menu tab, you should be able to set up Classic View, and things will appear like they did in Windows 2000.

If you do not see the Taskbar at all, then you have Explorer issues.

Christian

Hello,

Unless cost is a significant factor, I would go with the multiport router. It is a hell of a lot easier to add on later than to replace the unit.

You will not need optical cable to connect the router to the switch, unless you have significant (100 meter) distance between the two, or an ungodly amount of electromagnetic interference in the immediate area. You can get Gigabit over Copper quite inexpensively.

You will see fibre connecting communications closets, but that is often because the main closet is over 100 meters from the sub closets.

Hope this helps.

Christian

Hello,

I have moved your problem request into a Windows forum, although you have not specified the proper OS that your troubles are with. Please let us know what OS you are using on your computer, and with that, we may be able to help.

Christian

Hello,

A router, by definition, is a device that connects two networks together. Either from a private 10.x network to a public network, or from a private 10.x to a private 192.x, or any combination thereof. If the IP address on one side is on a different subnet than the IP address on the other side, you have a router.

What your question is really asking What kind of router do I need for a 100 node network? Well, the answer/solution all depends on what kind of performance you would like to have on the network. If you have a bunch of devices using UPLINK ports, and then come to the network router, your clients are going to suffer.

The following is an example. Note it may not be the best solution for what you are looking for:

* Have a router / firewall (one device can do both) to start out with
* Determine if there are any public-access machines that need inbound access, such as a mail server, or web server. This area is known as a DMZ, and while it is not as locked-down as the internal network, it does receive protection.
* Have a 24-port switch for each classroom/lab. Uplink that data to a "master switch" that also has your servers on it.
* Have the master switch talk to the router.

Ideally, you will not have more than 3 - 4 hops between your internet connection and …

Hello,

A very interesting discussion. I personally have an old Palm, the one that has the word Pilot on it, before the Pilot pen company sued successfully for tradmark infringement. I also have a Handspring b/w unit. I love using it for addresses, calendaring, and notetaking. I do not use it for pictures. music, or online access/networking. Just a simple address/calendar thingy, and a perk of a couple cheapo games while waiting in the Doctor's office.

If I need anything stronger, then the laptop comes out. I ahve seen keyboard kits for Palm computers, and while it is a neat idea, if I really want to process text, I think the laptop is a better option. Although a Palm with a Fax option gives you a "printer", it is not the same.

But PDA's are making inroads on the Medical front. Following Dr. Crusher's (star-trek) lead, medical people today are using PDA's to track patients, make perscriptions, and view patient information. Hosptials are setting up wireless networks for these things. Security is a big issue, too! Encrypted PDA transactions. It is nothing to sneeze at.

Chrisian

Hello,

It certainly is possible to access Novell servers from a remote location, as long as you have bound Ethernet_II to the server, and have specified an IP address. You might also need to tell your Novell Client on the workstation the name of the tree, and have it setup properly in DNS.

Note that Novell 4.1.1's default protocol, IPX, is *not* routed, so you need to have the IP assistance ready to go. Your local machines might be using IPX to make the connection... you can use the client utilities on the more recent clients to identify how your local clients are connecting.

You should also make sure that your Novell server is properly registered in DNS.

Christian

Hello,

USB is a hardware device, and it uses software drivers to interface with the OS. In order to have USB 2.0, you need to have hardware that operates to the USB 2.0 standard, and then the software drivers for it to function properly.

If your motherboard / supplied USB is not 2.0 compliant, then you need to add a PCI card with the ports, and check to make sure that they are compatable with your OS.

Christian

Daily for sure. Sometimes more than once a day.

And the rest is, well, unmentionable. :)

Hello,

I agree with Bugz that Memory is a good culprit here, but you could also have a bad monitor card, or perhaps the keyboard is not installed properly. I would put money on the memory however.

Christian

Hello,

I am not the resident virus expert for Windows here, but can tell that you will need to let the group know if Shredder gave you any specific warning messages. Those are handy for the fine folk here who help debug these things.

Also, this is a great time to make sure you have backups. You are at a point here that your box may get worse, and you may have to re-install, and backups will be most critical of that process. Get your data safe now, and setup a plan to keep it safe after your box is fixed.

Finally, if you are registry-savvy, you can go into the registry, and look at the startup items. See if there are things starting at boot time that you do not need. IF you have questions on a particular file, do a Google search on the file, and see what others have to say. Beware... there are a few things that are named quite weird, but belong in that area of the registry.

Enjoy,

Christian

Hello,

It sounds like you are having a lot of grief with that computer. You have changed a number of hardware items, and have re-tried the software. You haven't done much with the exterior enviornment however, and that may be the source of your grief.

I doubt it is a BIOS worm. You should, as a rule, run with the latest BIOS available, unless you find proof that an upgrade will harm you. Yes, I have seen some things do worse with new software.

Couple things to think of:

1) Is the power clean? Do you have your computer on a UPS? If the lights in your house are flickering a lot, your computer could be suffering from brown-outs, and that can cause a crash. All a lightbulb has to do during a brownout is get dimmer... imagine all the things your computer could be doing.

2) Are you hooked into a network, or is this a standalone computer? I built a Windows 2000 box in 2003 from scratch at work, and there was a virus outbreak going on, and within 13 minutes of the computer being on the network, it was infected. 13 minutes! You could have something on your local network, or be downloading something that is causing the problem. Consider setting it up for a few days and DON'T USE IT. Let it run and talk to itself, but no network. See if it does alright.

3) Try a different OS. …

Hello,

Your question will be better answered in our WIndows Forum. I'lll move your post there.

Christian

Hello,

Wanted to make a brief technical clarification here .hqx is a binhex file... basically the computer file is an application that is pure ASCII. People put the files in this format, because back in the day, email systems didn't handle binary attachments that well, and web downloading was not common, so people were using FTP or Gopher to grab files, and /or modem protocols like Kermit or XMODEM. If you did not set the filetype, your transmission would be distroyed. So, mac people have the .hqx format that protects against the corruption.

Unix people have uuencode, which is quite similar.

Christian

Hello,

I think you forgot to "bless" the system folder on the second drive, or it is also possible that you had a SCSI ID conflict. How do you bless? After you copy the system folder to a new location (or build a new one!), you open it, and then close it, and ensure that the little system smiley is inside the folder icon on the new disk. This means that the Mac OS has recognized the folder as a valid system folder.

Glad it is working properly for you now though.

Christian

Hello,

CAREFUL! Older Apple Hardware had a special ROM chip on the device, so that it would work properly with other apple hardware, and to keep the machine more closed. There are software extensions available to get around this limitation, however.

Christian

Hello,

I am sorry for being gone so long.

Your problem is that you have two different technology levels at your location: the Prismo laptop is newer (USB/Firewire) and the LW is older (LocalTalk).

AppleTalk is a software protocol suite; LocalTalk is the "hardware" that was Apple's networking back in the day.

The Apple Laserwriter 4/600 has a single port on it -- LocalTalk. In order to get it to work with your laptop, you have a couple options, of which I am only familiar with the last one:

** Purchase a USB --> LocalTalk adapter. They exist. I do not know if they will do what you want though. Not tested.

** Purcase the Asante Bridge. This will convert ethernet signals to Localtalk. A print server. These did work fine, but I have no personal experience with it.

** Find an old Mac on eBay, or with from a friend, that has both Ethernet and LocalTalk Ports on it. An old PowerMac 7100 would have these ports, or a 7200, or the Powerbook 500 series. You may need to find the Ethernet Dongle, but those things should be around for low cost. You can then tell that mac-in-the-middle to be a printserver for the printer. This solution also becomes handy if you have older SCSI hardware, like a scanner, or external hard drives like the ZIP drives or SyQuest EZ-Drives around. Be aware that this older Mac may need some tender loving …

Hello,

I wish I could help here, but have found AOL to be a virus in itself. You are making a connection to AOL, and are able to get to email, so that means the modem is working, along with your phone line. I would be calling AOL's support line, or better yet, find a different ISP to call in your area and get away from them guys.

Christian

Hello,

It is a common rule that technology will not solve social problems.

That said, I looked over the information on the Network Everywhere website concerning your router, and bandwidth throttling is not a supported option. Bandwith throttling is an advanced network operation; I would have been surprised if the feature was offered.

In order to get what you seek, you are going to need to invest in a commercial router, or dabble with Linux or Windows SERVER products to find options on partioning the bandwidth.

I would talk to your roomate again, and if that doesn't work so well, then prove to him that he is hogging the line with his connection, and have him pay the lion's share of the connection.

Christian

Hello,

You will need to describe how your computers are connecting to your access point. A number of wireless devices also have a wired LAN set of connections, so that you have two streams of data (wireless & wired) to move data along with. It is wise to put higher-traffic devices on the wired connections.

If your desktop is going to be wired, then you do not need to be concerned with WEP. If the desktop has a wireless card inside it (yes, they do make them!) then you will need to know the WEP key. It will be the same setup as the already working wireless clients. The WEP key provides encryption and connectivity for the connection.

Wireless connections use a "connection name" or SSID, along with either a WEP or WPA or clear encryption. Do not go the easy route and disable the security. That is asking for trouble.

Christian

HI,

I think it is a dumb idea. Nothing like a bunch of mercinaries on the website. Nopers.

Christian

Hello,

Whenever taking over a computer for good, either by purchasing it from someone you don't know, or a relative's old computer, you should format it down, and re-install everything from scratch. You do not know what buggies may remain on the system, and you in good faith probably do not have any need for the data. It is also a great way to collect all of your drivers for hardware at the get go.

Re-building a box is not for the faint of heart, but it is the proper way to take ownership of a computer.

Christian

Hello,

We really need more information to help you properly along here.

If you are doing pure website hosting, static pages that do not require Microsoft's propriarty (pardon spelling) .ASP things, then I would suggest that you go with Linux, and start out with Apache. Yes, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 is a nice product, and yes, it would work properly for you, and yes, there is a reduced - cost Server 2003 Web Edition that would solve a lot of things for you, but it is still a lot of money to put out for a personal server, and we all know you want to work legit, correct?

Also, what types of fault tolerance are you requiring? You mention it being a personal server, yet you want to share files to local schools and businesses that you work for. Does that mandate 100 percent uptime? If so, you need to think about RAID, multiple internet sources, and hot-swapping. If not, then you can go a less-expensive route. Also consider your memory requirements, and your processer requirements.

Also remember that cable modems / DSL lines often regulate uplink speed... downloads are usually much faster than uploads, and remember that when you are serving, you are also uploading, and may pay a speed penalty. Also note that some ISP's block certain port numbers.... I have one linux server out there that has to email me a reportcard on a different email port daily because port 25 is blocked …

Hello,

I am not a hiring manager, just an IT guy that is 8 years out of college.

Certifications go nicely to complement experience. But if you look at a fresh-out-of-school guy with some certs vs. someone who has worked with the technology for several years without them, I am willing to bet they will hire the seasoned guy.

Ideally, you have a balance of experience, and certs. Don't try to cert in something you have no experience with.

Christian

(3 for 3 on cert exams)

Hello,

This is one of the few times that I will agree with Mr. Wenting. Formatting and rebuilding from scratch is the only way to remove the Symantec parasite from your system.

Christian

Hello,

How adorable! The nice tin snips in the photos.

Believe it or not, there are a lot of us out there that need cordless soldering tools. Antennas are just the start of all of the neat projects that can be completed with them. A lot of the cordless ones are butane models -- they burn liquid fuel.

Christian

Hello,

It is possible that you have a permissions problem. Go into the Disk Utility, and run a permissions check.

Let us know what you find. Your answers are not with AVG or Adaware; those are windows programs, and your Mac will not run them.

Christian

Hello,

This is an operating systems question. You might find a better response in that forum.

You will want to first backup your data after closing the database.

Then, depending what version of Windows Server you are running, you will need to span the volume, or you will need to remove the present volume, and replace it with a larger drive. Remember that disks here are different than volumes.

In the windows world, we often think of C: being a disk... it is not... it is a partition on a disk. We can take the same disk, and make a D: or an E: or any other letter that is open.

Windows makes it possible to make a single drive letter span across multiple disks. Of course, you need to think about fault tolerance, and how important it is to your setup. If you cannot afford to be down, then you will need a stronger solution than simply spanning multiple disks. The more disks involved, the more room for failure.

In my opinion, without knowing more of your system requirements and use characteristics, I would at least be looking at a RAID 5 or a larger single drive. If you have other means of fault tolerance, then you can go ahead and look at windows spanning too.

Note also that Windows is not the only OS that can span... linux can too.

Christian

Hello,

shutdown -i is an interactive shutdown, meaning it brings up the box as if you were to do a Start --> Shutdown sequence. If you were accessing a remote machine, how would you click the user interface mouse button?

You want shutdown -m \\ computername, such as

shutdown -m \\crashbox -r -t 03

which will reboot a computer called crashbox after 3 seconds.

Please note that if you are inside a domain, then you will need to be an administrator on the domain in order for it to work. If you are not on a domain, I think you will need to be a local administrator. It might ask you to login and prompt; I am not about to break my domain to test if for you.

Christian

Hello,

It is entirely possible that you have a hardware failure on your hard disk. Think of a record player and a record with a large gash acrossed it. That can happen on a hard drive, and no matter how many times you try to format it, you will be in rough shape.

With the drive giving you this much trouble, I would go and get another hard drive from your favorite computer store. It sounds to me you have invested enough time trying to get this one to fly, and it is not cooperating.

Christian