igotout

And if you want you can also get one without a tail Click here

I do not prefer cordless but they are pretty cool. But there is no question about optical..it's the best.

I am trying to get away from tapes. What do you think of the concept of a removable hard drive.

Not a USB one, necessarily, but I have heard there are kits that you can install so you can remove or install a hard drive instantly.

Wow, very interesting news Pmosh. I have installed SP1 on 3 of my systems so far with no trouble. Apparently it contains lots of patches and enhancements. I am sure they are working on SP 2.

My head hurts.

More from their web site:

_____________________________________

7. Will Drive Image do a disk-to-disk copy from a larger drive to a smaller drive?

Drive Image 3.0 can perform a disk-to-disk copy from a larger to a smaller hard drive. Previous versions of the product were not able to do this directly.

Disk-to-disk is designed to copy from one internal hard drive to another internal drive in the same computer.

_____________________________________

It appears the solution for me would be to use one of those drives that you can plug into the bay rather than a USB drive because USB is not supported with Drive Image.

But this is getting complicated.

From PowerQuest's web site

_________________________________________

RAID Levels Supported by PowerQuest Products:

Only hardware RAID levels 0 (Stripe Sets) and 5 (Stripe Sets with Parity) are supported.

For further information about RAID levels, please see Description of Commonly Used RAID Levels (Windows NT).

and this:

Getting PowerQuest Products to Work with RAID 10

PowerQuest products do not support RAID 10. Consequently, you must break the RAID 10 mirror to create a RAID 0, a RAID level that is supported by PowerQuest products.

_________________________________________________

So I guess for us Drive Image users we would be limited to RAID 5. What other alternatives are there for backing up a RAID array off site? If you remove one of the hot swappable drives does it contain all the data?

I like two but they take up a lot of space. especially these 21" ones. The flat screens were too expensive for this size and not much better quality. Also the edge of the monitors, where they join together side by side is a bit annoying because it is like a visual gap.

I think it will be especially helpful when I get a TV card. Watching TV on my older system was distracting on one monitor but putting it on a seperate monitor might be just the thing.

Indebt - today's cards support two monitors on one card. Previously you had to use two cards.

I have a picture of a system with 9 21" monitors that a guy built! He used three Matrox cards (the only card that supports three monitors).

Raid 10 sounds like what I want. That's cool that it treats it as one drive! That's the part that was confusing me. THis eliminates the need for backup software on site and gives you speed too.

What about an off site backup using a program like Drive Image? As I said earlier, you can not create an Image on an external hard drive but you can transfer the image to one. How would a person Create an Image? and then transfer the Image to his external hard drive for off site? The image can be created on a Partition and then transferred but does RAID allow partitioning?

I suppose it could also be burned on CD's but that's kind of a pain because it has to span across several CD's so you have to be there to insert CD's as required.

Maybe burn the image on a DVD?

When starting DRive Image for the first time it prompts you to create bootable floppies or bootable CD. Then it creates a 2nd one called Program.

Still learning but I think the idea is when you format or have a disaster you would startup with these disks or CD's. Then you eventually get to the Drive Image program disk which then allows you to install the Image you previously created right on your hard drive. It is a mirrored image down to the last little system file apparently.

So the question is...where is your backup image? It can be on another hard drive, on a network drive on another computer, or it can be on CD's. (A drive Image will not fit on just one CD even though ist uses high compression. So it is "spanned" across several CD's.)

When you restore the image everything is exactly the same as it was when you made the image. Sounds cool.

But there are warnings. I an not so sure this process goes so smoothly if you restore to a dirrerent computer unless it is practically a duplicate of the hardware. You can understand why.

Damn you computer genuises!

Hi Zixar,

I might do that eventually. However, I have heard that there can be configuration probs and is complex for an average user. I am certain I will go RAID when I upgrade my server at work next year.

But can you answere a couple of questions?

What if there is a fire or theft. RAID drives are bye bye.

Can you back up a RAID array on an external media such as another hard drive? If so that seems attractive.

Is is difficult to set up? I have a great article on it but...... it is pretty technical.

I know there are some great speed improvements but aren't todays high end IDE drives almost just as fast without the hassle of the configuration? Such as the 120 GB one from Western Digital with an 8mb cache.

What does your company use. What is mirroring? Is that a RAID term?

[This message was edited by igotout on October 04, 2002 at 19:46.]

I am so burnt out on figuring out a reliable and automatic back up system that these days I am about ready to throw caution to the wind and just.....not back up anything.

After all, when is the last time you have heard of a hard drive "crashing" on today's modern machines? Was data lost irretrievably?

I am no expert but it appears that today drives are rock solid. As well, XP and 2000 have utilities that help you recover and even warn you in advance if there are pending problems.

But....I backup anyway.... I am just not as "worried" about loosing data as I used to be.

After using tape backup for years (which is a pain in the a**ss) I am now using Drive Image 2002 Click Here. But it has its weaknesses.

1. You can not schedule a Image to occur while you are logged off, say in the middle of the night. Gawd! We can build the Space Shuttle but we can't do something as simple as that!!!

(NAV is just as guilty. No scheduled scans will happen while you are logged off in 2002 or 2003! That's lame)

2. You can not create an Image on an external hard drive such as a USB 2.0 drive which I prefer to use. Once again... give me a break!

3. You have to be Administrator or have Admin rights to Create an Image. (I don't see why this needs to be.)

3. Drive Image 2002 has a bug with XP where once you create the image you can not access the image! At first. You have to actually go to the Image and go to its properties and give yourself rights to that file. The default is only System even when the image was created in a folder with which you have full access, or even Adminstrative access. It is a known bug in XP.

4. That eliminates your being able to overwrite the previous week's Image with the newly created Image. (You can't overwrite something you do not have rights to). What a pain! Hurry up an fix it PowerQwest!

5. On PowerQuest's web site you will fine and "error list". It is helpful, but the amount of errors listed bothers me.

Having said that, it is pretty cool to have an Image of your drive instead of just a Backup of your drive. There is a great difference.

What I am implementing is:

Doing a weekly image. (Unfortunaltely this has to be done manually.)

Then I am using Windows built in Backup software to make a simple backup of my hard drive daily. This is totally automatic and happens (with the computer logged off) each night through Windows Task Scheduler. Each new week overwrites the previous week.

All these backups occur on a 2nd hard drive. I also use an external USB 2 hard drive and archive older Images and backups on there and I keep it at another site.

I am aware of Online Backups but I do not want to pay for it and I do not trust its reliability. There is no imaging.

I like the idea of RAID, continually spanning the data over 3 or more hard drives, but I do not like its complexity and you still have to have some off site backup in case of fire or theft.

So.......

Do you backup your data? If you don't, I can't say I blame you because it is a pain. I have heard that most people do not bother.

If you do backup your data, how do you go about it? How often?

What appraoach do small to medium size businesses use?

A good start for a home user is to backup your critical files on a 250 Zip disk(s) or burn them on a CD once in a while. If you do that you will be ahead of most. Also consider a 2nd hard drive and backup your files on that drive. They are so cheap now.

Hope this helps someone.

John R.

Zixar - I did not know you were so evil. But I like that idea. I have a few "friends" who do this mass emailing. One is on this forum, who sends me political commentary stuff all the time. I am one of their recipients. Another is my neighbor who mails me (and everyone else in his entire address book) jokes incessantly.

Both these are in my blocked senders list, it got so bad. I wish they would use common sense. I have not had the nerve to tell them that they are being very annoying. I just block them and they don't even know it. All their emails go to the trash.

Everyone should install SP1. It is filled with lots of updates and improvements, mostly having to do with security. WIndows 2000 is up to SP3 which was also recently released.

This is a favorite of mine for years. Click on this link to go to Shields Up.

Click Here

It will test your computer securtiy and probe your ports and give you the good or bad news as to how open your computer is to the internet. The idea is to have your computer shielded against invasion from an outsider. I have a firewall built into the router I use. All my reports are Stealth which is good news I hope.

One simple precaution - For those of you who do not need it you should make sure your files and folders are not shared. Right click on Network Neighborhood, click on properties. Then go to the properties for your connection and deselect File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks.

Research Geek, when you have time I would enjoy hearing your opinion about my unprofessional discussion concerning Antivirus Software. You can tell me where I am wrong. It would be good to hear from someone who knows this field and to keep us amateurs in line. It is in Computer related.

John R.

Yes, good point.

I guess I assumed that no one would be so risky as to be on a public forum without adequate Antivirus protection. That is just throwing caution the the wind. Especially since these Klez viruses are so prevalent in our country now.

(Edited cuz I kan't spell good.)

[This message was edited by igotout on October 02, 2002 at 20:43.]

That is just a removal tool if you have been infected already.

This does not stop you from receiving the attachment in the email. Antivirus software is for that purpose. It will block all viruses and automatically quarintine them. You can have this task performed in the background so that you are not interrupted I believe. Just because you receive a virus does not mean you are infected.

Just be sure to have email protection and do not open the attachments associated with that email.

You can also add email addresses to your blocked senders list to stop it.

(I just started a thread on the open forum about how the Klez virus works. It was good info I got from a technician.)

Back to this thread. I really believe Norton slows down the computer drastically especially when opening and even closing programs. I have done tests to prove it. Plus I have read it from others. (My 3 Cents,it can slow the hell out of Goldmine as it is opening and closing).

Even Symantec writes the following which helps prove my point:

_________________________________________

Keep Auto-Protect turned on (enabled) at all times to prevent viruses from infecting your computer. Auto-Protect works in the background, without interrupting your work.

Auto-Protect automatically:

1.) Detects and protects you against all types of viruses, including macro viruses, boot sector viruses and memory resident viruses and Trojan horses, worms and other malicious code.

2.) Protects your computer from viruses transmitted through the Internet, checking all files you download from the Internet, including Java Applets and ActiveX controls.

3.) Checks for viruses every time you use software programs on your computer, insert floppy disks or other removable media, modify or access documents, keeping your system safe at all times.

______________________________________

Notice the 3rd item! It checks things incessantly.....even "everytime you use software".

What I did to help my system speed was:

1. I turned of Auto Protect. It may seem like a drastic step to take but I do not think it is as bad as it appears. In all the years of visiting web sites I never got a virus from simply "visiting" a web site". I don't know, maybe it is because I have other protections in place. I think Internet Explorer 6 (fully patched) has closed lots of these kinds of loopholes as well.

And when you do download a file from the internet (or receive a file on removable media such as floppy) that you are unsure of all you have to do is scan it for viruses before opening it. Downloading a virus infected program is not activating it. The problem starts when you open that file. Also you can still catch viruses as they begin to work even if you do get one.

My BIOS has a feature that alerts me if anything is trying to modify the Boot Sector. It is an option that you can turn off or on. This is pretty cool. Kind of like virus protection built into the motherboard. If you have that feature, of course you want to activate this.

Furthermore, you still have great email protection even with Auto Protect turned off. I have read that alomst ALL viruses come through email.

2. I turned off Office Plug in. I believe it is found under Misellaneous options. It seems to be checked by default. To my knowledge it scans all Word, Excel and other Office documents when they are opened or created. To me, this is totally unnecessary. I have found Office to be faster without this nonsense. If you scan your computer regularly why do you need this?

These things helped me regain the speed of my programs without giving up my virus protection. I hope the day comes when virus protection is built into Windows or Internet Explorer so we didn't have to mess with this crap. (But then the government would probably slap another lawsuit on Microsoft for "bullying" the antivirus software makers.)

Later,

John R.

[This message was edited by igotout on October 02, 2002 at 20:41.]

Wanted to post this here so people can understand a little bit about how the Klez Virus works. I like to say "even though you may not be infected, you may be affected". It's a nasty one and about all you can do is protect yourself. Unfortunately you can not make the rest of the world protect themselves. A computer technician writes:

________________________________________

Question:

"I had some strange e-mail sent to me yesterday. They were e-mails that were "undeliverable" from the mail delivery system -- it turns out that I did not send out these e-mails. So, I am a bit confused. Is this due to my being in a person's address book whose PC is infected with the Klez Worm?"

Answer:

"Anyone who does e-mail in any fashion -- by a Windows PC, by a Mac, by Web TV, by a pigeon with a Palm strapped in a mini-backpack, maybe -- can be affected by the Klez Worm. That's because the Klez Worm steals e-mail addresses and uses the ones it stole to create fake "From:" addresses on mail it sends out.

So if your Aunt Nellie has 500 names in her Windows address book, she might be getting YOU in big trouble if she allows the Klez Worm to infect her Windows PC. The worm could send itself out to all those recipients and make it seem like the renewed worm infestation came from you.

Many people seemed bewildered when they wrote to ask what the Klez Worm does, and far too many are missing the point. The Klez Worm can make it seem as if you are mailing a virus (a worm is a special kind of virus) to any number of recipients. If these recipients decide to take you off their Wednesday bridge-party list, that's one kind of social penalty. But if their ISP decides to block all your mail because you refused to stop sending the virus, you'd surely object.

You should realize that the Klez Worm does this no matter what kind of computer or operating system you have. Mail that seems to be from you is treated as if it IS from you.

If someone stole your credit card and got you deep into debt and thereby ruined your credit, you'd be devastated. The Klez Worm is no different. It has already stolen the e-mail addresses of millions of e-mail users, no matter if they are Windows users or not, and it damages the reputations of all those individuals each time it sends itself out under their addresses.

Everyone who has been ignoring e-mail safety needs to start taking this more seriously. Make sure you have virus protection on your email."

___________________________________________

Others who are knowledgeable might want to contribute their experiences and advice here.

Thanks,

John R.

I think I will start a whole new thread on things that may be running in the background on a person's computer and how to recognize and deal with them.

IMO it is one of the best issues to deal with to increase performance and prevent problems, expecially in Windows 98 or ME.

I am behind in regards to knowledge or expereince with computer faxing.

I still use a fax machine! But I do so because it seems to work for my needs, even in running a business. It is a short walk to the fax machine to send or receive faxes.

What are some advantages to computer faxing or intenet faxing for those of us who do not travel and who are not in a large facility? Is the quality better when received on the other end?

One thing we did is made our DSL line (internet connection) the same line as our fax line. We were able to eliminate a phone line in this way because as you know, DSL does not cause the line to be busy.

I got an email virus today. A real one. It was called W32.Klez.H@mm. The attachment that came with this email was called Readme.bat

NAV caught this email as it was coming in. (Nice job)

What would have happened if I did not have this wonderful protection with its tentacles throughout my system! God forbid! I'll tell you what would have happened.....nothing.

First due to some email rules I have set up, this spam type email was in deleted items anyway so I would never have even considered it.

Second - In OE Express which I use, I have checked the security option "Do not allow attachments to be saved or opened that could potentially be a virus." Look for that under Tools / Options/ Securtity. And of course I have selected Restricted sites zone (should be the default). In Restricted Sites (in IE options) I have scripting disabled (should be the default on IE5 and higher. With active scripting disabled viruses have a hard time doing any dirty work even if you open one.

Third - it was an attachment from an unknown source. And it had an extension ending with .BAT

This ain't brain surgery. It would have never even been previewed, much less opened. Symantec says it best on their web site:

"Do not open attachments unless you are expecting them. Also, do not execute software that is downloaded from the Internet unless it has been scanned for viruses [here they are promoting their product again. Most downloaded software from reliable sources if fine]. Simply visiting a compromised Web site can cause infection if certain browser vulnerabilities are not patched."

Fourth - and yes I have all the latest Windows Update patches for IE. (Outlook Express is part of IE)

Fifth - If I somehow did get infected (which is unlikely but remotely possible) it is not the end of of the world. There are downloadable tools to fix viruses. And in worst case, a restoration from a backup could be done as John talked about in his post.

Viruses suck but so does the software that can suck the life out of your speed, especially when opening programs. Tomorrow I will post a few simple tweaks that can help. Ran outta time tonight.

I am no expert here and what works for me may not be best for you. I am just giving you my limited experience.

John R.

Has your system ever been trashed by a virus? How did it happen and what did you do to recover?

I chose Norton Antivirus over McCaffee so I don't have much experience with McAffee. But I imagine the experince is similar. Lousy.

First I think the whole fear of viruses is exagerrated, blown out of proportion by those who want to sell the Virus software. Recently I went with no virus software at all for 3 months just so see what would happen. Nothing did happen.

I may have received a couple couple of email viruses but I have email rules that delete most of my spam and I am careful about opening anything from anybody that is questionable.

The Iwill P4R533-N Intel 850e motheboard I am using has a bios feature that alerts you if there is an attempt at writing anything to the boot sector. Pretty cool.

The latest security patches for XP and IE seem to have closed the holes for viruses that previously used certain scripting.

In worse case, I have my entire hard drive(s) mirror imaged on a regular basis.

A lot of viruses that NAV "catches" such as the Klez are false alarms. They are not really viruses at all but something that makes NAV think they were.

But...... I finally caved in. I hated to "infect" my computer with Norton Antivirus 2002 but I finally did it.

Why do I hate it so much??? I'll tell you my gripes and phone calls to Symantec and how I finally got them to admit a serious flaw in their software which can affect business environments mostly. (But then again what can I expect for $20. or for free?)

Ok, so maybe there are triple monitor users out there.....

(Woulda but ran out of room. This looks like fun)

Triple monitor card Parhelia!

Hi zixar? It was good to meet you this year, "by the way".

Odd...are you using Pro or Home? It may be that some firewalls do not allow this and others do. Mine is an SMC Barricade. I have certain ports open for certain things such as PC Anywhere and Quake that required it, as well as I think being able to send files via Instant Messenger.

From Microsoft's own help notes in context of synch not working and reasons why:

2. Your personal or network firewall prevents clock synchronization. Most corporate and organizational firewalls will block time synchronization, as do some personal firewalls. Home users should read your firewall documentation for information about unblocking network time protocol (NTP). You should be able to synchronize your clock if you switch to the Microsoft Internet Connection Firewall.

Anyway, lots of ways to get the same result I suppose. Mine seems to work out of the box the way it came. But it looks like they are using a source called time.windows.com

John R.

From Windows XP Help....

"If synchronization is enabled, your computer clock is synchronized with an Internet time server once a week. However, if you don't have a continuous Internet connection through a cable modem or DSL modem, the automatic synchronization might not always occur. In that case, you can force an immediate synchronization by clicking the Update Now button on the Internet Time tab in Date and Time in Control Panel."

You have to have administrative privileges to enable this (just log on as Administrator). Zix, mine works behind a firewall but it is a broadband router with firewall protection built in, not a softawer based firewall.

John R.

WIndows 2000 does not have this nice feature to my knowledge.