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4151

Living Room / Re: Would you trust this ... ?

« Last post by 4wd on September 25, 2011, 08:18 PM »

@Ath: Thanks!  I suspect 4wd's comment about mail2web pre-dating Gmail and other Web mail interfaces probably means it also pre-dates SSL, though they should now catch up and add it.

-rjbull (September 25, 2011, 11:19 AM)

Already there, just use https://www.mail2web.com - if you can believe Wikipedia, HTTPS was created in 1994, (3 years before mail2web), by Netscape but not formerly specified until 2000.

4152

Post New Requests Here / Re: Toggle Touch Screen

« Last post by 4wd on September 22, 2011, 12:03 AM »

This might be a rather silly question, (not having a tablet I'm allowed at least one though), but if you turn off the touch screen how is the stylus going to work?

Doesn't it rely on the touch screen for positioning?

Otherwise, if you want a suggestion: Use Ath' WinButton program and devcon.  Create one button to disable the touch screen device and another to re-enable it.

4153

General Software Discussion / Re: In search of ... a way (Excel macro?) to convert Lat-Long co-ordinates

« Last post by 4wd on September 19, 2011, 08:54 PM »

Could we have a sample of the various formats you're receiving them in, say 10 lines or so?

You may also want to take a look at GPSBabel, if you can put each format of coord into it's own text file, (ie. one file for each format type), you may be able to batch convert.  (EDIT: GPSBabel is portable, no need to install it, run it from a Flash drive.)

Also, there is GPS Visualizer - online coords converter/plotter/etc.

4154

General Software Discussion / Re: Advice Needed: Fixing Pentium 4 PC with Conficker virus

« Last post by 4wd on September 18, 2011, 08:54 PM »

Before you toss out the optical drive you could try cleaning the lens with a camera lens blower brush, (like this).

That's assuming it's the normal tray type laptop drive where the lens is exposed when you eject the tray.  You never know, it could be as simple as dust stopping the laser from reading the disc.

4155

General Software Discussion / Re: schedule emails

« Last post by 4wd on September 18, 2011, 07:11 AM »

very nice, since it works, this is what is needed, but it has a major drawback: it is online and it won't work if I am offline!

-kalos (September 18, 2011, 04:28 AM)

Correct me if I'm wrong but if you want emails while you're offline that kind of implies you either need to run an email server on your machine, (which is pretty simple, I do it on my XP Pro machine - just the supplied MS SMTP Service), or direct inject into your email programs database somehow.

eg.
Set up the SMTP Service under IIS components, this page shows you how to use a DOS commands to set an email for delivery, then just have your email client poll the SMTP Service to receive them.

EDIT: I think I missed out the other half of the equation somewhere there, ie. the POP server.

4156

General Software Discussion / Re: Directory Opus 10

« Last post by 4wd on September 18, 2011, 06:46 AM »

That does indeed sound strange, just tried 10.0.1.x here and it never went above 10% - usually around 5-6%.

This on a Athlon 235e XP system, (CPU didn't even change up from it's 800MHz lowest frequency stepping).

4157

General Software Discussion / Re: Video Software Query

« Last post by 4wd on September 17, 2011, 01:03 AM »

Freemake Video Converter says it can do what you want, (last point in the list on the site) - I've just used it for conversions and it did quite a respectable job.

4158

General Software Discussion / Re: Advice Needed: Fixing Pentium 4 PC with Conficker virus

« Last post by 4wd on September 16, 2011, 07:52 PM »

Once you get a working CD, you could try CureIt! LiveCD.  It's built every day with the latest virus definitions included.

I've used it previously with good results.

4159

General Software Discussion / Re: Is Windows 7 boot management more broken than ever?

« Last post by 4wd on September 16, 2011, 07:41 PM »

Apparently it was a bit to early in the morning for subtlety

-Stoic Joker (September 16, 2011, 11:36 AM)

Seems to happen to me a lot the last few years. 

4160

General Software Discussion / Re: Is Windows 7 boot management more broken than ever?

« Last post by 4wd on September 16, 2011, 09:30 AM »

Well that answer looks good on paper, but...

-Stoic Joker (September 16, 2011, 06:49 AM)

The questions I answered were:
1) what was it for, and
2) how you boot into it.

And I did mention that you had to be able to boot from that partition in order to use it, (in a kind of off-hand way).

4161

General Software Discussion / Re: Is Windows 7 boot management more broken than ever?

« Last post by 4wd on September 15, 2011, 09:07 PM »

That's the million dollar question

And after a little experimentation the answer is.......[drum roll].........F8

As usual, press F8 as you boot then choose Repair Computer.  It boots into a WinPE environment, (the files are stored in the 100MB area).

Didn't ask for the DVD at all.

4162

Living Room / Re: Would you trust this ... ?

« Last post by 4wd on September 15, 2011, 08:27 PM »

Gmail can do this too, right? Or are their target consumers not supposed to know about web mail? I think you can even send from the non-Gmail SMTP address.

-daddydave (September 15, 2011, 01:10 PM)

This service was started at a time when GMail, (and a lot of web-based mail), didn't exist and a lot of people used the email address provided by their ISP - many of which didn't provide a web interface to email.

EDIT: The part below is a general reply, not related to the daddydave quote above.  (Just thought I'd add that for the sake of clarity.)

Put it this way:

If you need to access your email and
a) you don't have your 3kg laptop with Thunderbird because it was stolen along with all your carefully downloaded private emails, and
b) you don't have an email service with a web interface, and
c) all you've got is is your portable version of Tor/Firefox on a USB stick and you're at some disreputable internet cafe in Nigeria....

What are you going to do?

It's your choice whether you trust them or not.

I don't have a problem given what they provided me with in the past and the subsequent problems that arose from that use, ie. none.

It was asked whether you would trust that particular site; for that particular site, my answer is yes.

If it's that much of a concern whether they have access to your email account; forward it all to another with a different address/password and access that one.

4163

General Software Discussion / Re: Is Windows 7 boot management more broken than ever?

« Last post by 4wd on September 15, 2011, 08:03 PM »

IIRC from trawling the web a year or so ago, Windows 7 puts its recovery programs there - so you can get to the boot fixing stage without a DVD, (or I should say the Windows fixing stage since if you can't boot you can't get to the recovery programs).

EDIT: And after a quick search again, it also stores the Bitlocker components - so if you've Bitlocked your system drive and you remove the 100MB partition, I'll guess you'll be SOOL.

Nowadays I do exactly what SJ and 40hz do, unplug the other drives or make sure they have no primary partitions or space for them.
Only ever one drive with primary partitions on my system.

4164

Living Room / Re: Would you trust this ... ?

« Last post by 4wd on September 15, 2011, 07:17 AM »

I can't speak for them as of right this minute but I have used their service when I was overseas in the UK in 1997, 2000 & 2003.

I never had a problem with it and I've never had mysterious, unexplained weirdness with any email account I used via mail2web.

4165

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by 4wd on September 14, 2011, 06:09 PM »

Yes, that's probably the first most important question to answer:

Do I want:
a) storage that will always require a host computer with a specific connector to work or;
b) a NAS that requires just a power cord and network connection and that can be taken anywhere and used with no special requirements?

Having lugged along various external drives to LAN nights and friends homes over the years, I'd go for a mini tower based NAS every time now.

But if you never envision it being connected to another computer or being able to access it from another device, (without having to turn on your main computer to interface it), then a big old box of dumb HDDs might be your thing.
 

4166

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by 4wd on September 13, 2011, 06:27 PM »

I'm liking this.  Here's a question about the cabling:
1) If I do a SATA to SAS thing, can I get away with just one cable connecting the storage tower to the desktop?

-superboyac (September 13, 2011, 03:01 PM)

Infiniband connectors support a maximum of 4 devices, see Wiki^w - under Architecture (SFF 8470).

I'm not saying you can't do it, just you probably can't using the normal Infiniband cables.  Addendum: Unless you use 2 port multipliers - then you only need 1 cable.

2)  Let's say I want to put the DAS in another room.  How would I connect the DAS to my desktop?  The SAS or SATA or eSATA cables are only a few feet maximum.  So would I have to connect the tower to my router, which would bring it to my desktop?  Or does that change the whole setup into a NAS and now I need to have a motherboard, OS, etc. on the tower?

Maximum length of eSATA is indeed a few feet, 6.6 feet or 2 metres.  SAS is a little longer.  From Wiki again:

Because of its higher signaling voltages, SAS can use cables up to 10 m (33 ft) long, SATA has a cable-length limit of 1 m (3 ft) or 2 m (6.6 ft) for eSATA.

However, remember you're trying to work with SATA HDDs, not SAS HDDs which use a higher signaling voltage.  So I'm guessing that you might have trouble trying to push it past 3 metres unless there is an active SAS host/client on the ends of the cable.

To get 10 metres from it you might have to go:

PC---SAS Host Controller---10 metre Infiniband cables---SAS Client---SATA HDDs

(SAS Client is probably not the correct terminology but it illustrates the idea of an active component rather than a simple passive adapter.)

What I suggested is:

PC---SATA/SAS Adapter---3 metre Infiniband cables---SAS/SATA Adapter---SATA HDDs

4167

General Software Discussion / Re: Case of the missing partitions when downgrading from W7 to XP

« Last post by 4wd on September 13, 2011, 02:11 PM »

^ +1 here.

An alignment problem is more likely to cause a slow down in the data transfer rate.

Given it appears to be an IDE drive, I would have thought it's unlikely to suffer from mis-alignment since it will probably have 512b sectors.

But if you'd like to check the alignment of your drive, try using the following:
Dell Advanced Format HDD Detection Tool

C:\dell\drivers\R306204>C:\dell\drivers\R306204\DellAFDT.exe
Model:                                        SAMSUNG HD103UJ
Serial#:                                      S13PJ1KS315664
Advanced Format:                              No
Partition Alignment:                          Aligned
    Partition 1:                              Aligned [D:]
Identify Data Word 106:                       0x0
Identify Data Word 117:                       0x0
Identify Data Word 118:                       0x0
Identify Data Word 209:                       0x0

Model:                                        SAMSUNG HD103UJ
Serial#:                                      S13PJ1LS310988
Advanced Format:                              No
Partition Alignment:                          Aligned
    Partition 1:                              Aligned [U:]
    Partition 2:                              Aligned [Not assigned]
Identify Data Word 106:                       0x0
Identify Data Word 117:                       0x0
Identify Data Word 118:                       0x0
Identify Data Word 209:                       0x0


C:\dell\drivers\R306204>

The second drive above has 2 partitions, both aligned but only the first appears as a normal volume - the second is purely a Truecrypt volume and appears as Raw.

I can unhide it with any partition tool and it will show up for that session, but after a reboot it is gone into hiding again.

-brahman (September 12, 2011, 07:08 AM)

Is that only from within XP?

Have you checked the partitions Hidden flag when the OS is offline, (ie. boot from Parted Magic, Paragon Partition Manager, etc) ?

4168

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by 4wd on September 13, 2011, 01:08 PM »

<<Equipment to purchase>>
Storage Unit:
istarUSA storage tower
http://www.istarusa....amp;model=DAGE840-ES
8-bay
2TB x 8 = 16TB
additional internal cables?
additional external cables?

-superboyac (September 12, 2011, 12:06 PM)

Well, it doesn't get much simpler:

Internal cables: 8 x SATA to SATA HDD cables, ie. normal SATA cables.
External cables: 8 x eSATA to eSATA cables.

You require 8 eSATA ports on the computer, one for each drive - in this type of wiring situation I'd forget about RAID if you were thinking of it, too many chances for a cable to be dislodged.

It's the same as stacking 8 separate external eSATA enclosures one on top of the other.

I don't know whether you've noticed or not but:
DAGE840DE-ES - Trayless
DAGE840-ES - The one you selected, doesn't say trayless.

Alternative using their products:
Storage end:
1x DAGE840DE-2MS - 8 bay trayless storage tower using the following as inputs, (not the ones it comes with.)
2x ZAGE-D-4SA70 - These as a replacement for whatever comes with the box.

PC end:
2x ZAGE-H-4SA70 - Adapts 4 SATA ports to one Infiniband/Multilane connector.
2x CAGE-AAMM05 - Infiniband cables: RaidAge, Addonics, etc.

You'll also need 8 spare SATA ports in your computer but you would have needed them anyway for the box you selected, so a good quality multi-port SATA controller, (there are alternatives to this, eg. SAS controller with Infiniband output or SAS to SATA adapter).

The above only requires 2 external cables.

4169

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by 4wd on September 11, 2011, 08:44 PM »

4wd, thanks for your posts above.  I have to study them this week.  But I have a question, maybe you or lotus can help:
I've read that if I get a sas controller card for whatever box I end up using, that the controller is compatible with sata drives.  Is this true, and are there any bad side effects of doing this?  I like the sas controller with sata drives because the sas controller will allow me to have fewer cables, and the sata drives are way more convenient to buy and use vs sas drives, which i'm not really interested in.  Also, the total cost in the end is not that different.  So I like the sas way, and you've posted addonics' clever sata setup.  I've always like addonics, but you're setup seems to be a little more complicated and more cable-y than what I'm picturing in a sas setup.  Any thoughts on that?

-superboyac (September 11, 2011, 06:37 PM)

Yes, an SAS controller can run SATA HDDs - check out the HP SC08Ge 8-port SAS PCI Express Controller.

...provides support for both 3Gb SAS and 1.5Gb SATA devices.

I have no idea whether SATA port multipliers will work off of a SAS host controller I'm going to err on the side of caution and say they won't.

Stoic' probably the best guy to ask about this stuff...him being a HP tech and all :D

Regarding the external cables: Infiniband cables are used for the connections, see Wikipedia for SAS^w and Infiniband^w.  If you can't use port multipliers then you'll need more Infiniband cables.  If you can use port multipliers then it's conceivably one (1) cable per twenty (20) SATA HDDs, (assuming a four (4) port SATA compatible host at the PC end).

Addendum: Plus you'll need some way to break out from the storage box' Infiniband input to individual SATA connectors, so possibly an Infiniband socket to SAS plug adapter, then something like this.

OOPPSS!  To answer your final question: Number of cables will be the same or more using SAS controllers, (due ambiguity of port multiplier suitability).

Please NOTE: Nothing I'm saying in my above posts was in any way designed to push you towards Addonics products or even SATA/SAS.  Their site just happens to have all the stuff to put together what you wanted without jumping all over the place.
As I said previously, SJ, 40Hz or f0dder, (sorry if I've missed someone), are probably the best people to ask about the suitability of what I proposed.

Added addendum: If you have 4 spare Intel SATA ports on your motherboard, (or will be making a total of 4 available by moving HDDs to the external enclosure), then a slightly different setup as follows:

1x Storage Rack DA base unit with ATX power supply   @ $355
2x Disk Array 5SA (black bezel)                                 @ $129
1x 4X Multilane bridge for SATA controller                   @ $29
1x 3M Infiniband cable                                             @ $85
2x 5X1 Internal SATA Port Multiplier                           @ $62
1x 4X Multilane bridge for SATA storage                      @ $29
                                                                         ---------
                                                                             $880

You save on the cost of the controller by using the Intel SATA ports, (ICH9+ Southbridge support port multipliers IIRC).

4170

General Software Discussion / Re: software that erases all unused xp files.............

« Last post by 4wd on September 11, 2011, 05:43 AM »

Or you can follow Bold Fortune's original Slimming Down Windows XP guides and do it post-install.

He also created batch files to do everything he does in his guides but asks for a donation here, you would be wise to see if you can contact him first though as that blog hasn't been updated in 4 years.

I used to use his batch files on every install I did before I started using nlite to remove the fluff in XP pre-install.

It's quite an easy to follow guide but you would be wise to make a OS image after you've gone through each step that you wish to do, (plus the obligatory pre-butcher image).

4171

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by 4wd on September 08, 2011, 10:57 PM »

Quick one: how do we connect one 4x Multilane bridge to 10 SATA drives, isn't there a shortage of 6x?  

-lotusrootstarch (September 08, 2011, 10:52 PM)

Fourth item on the list   (Will actually give you the capacity for 12 drives.)

Just for a laugh: 1 x WD 2TB SAS drive is ~$250 @ Newegg.

4172

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by 4wd on September 08, 2011, 10:43 PM »

plus a $500+ Infiniband PCI-e host adapter when you attach this to the PC?

-lotusrootstarch (September 08, 2011, 10:41 PM)

First item on the list.

4173

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by 4wd on September 08, 2011, 10:29 PM »

Basing this on using 2TB HDDs, (so at least 10 of them), since they're still significantly cheaper than 3TB - the cheapest option which allows room for upgrading later:

1x Multilane 4x RAID5/JBOD PCIe 8x Controller              @ $185
1x 3M Infiniband cable                                             @ $85
1x 4X Multilane bridge for SATA storage                      @ $29
2x 5X1 Internal SATA Port Multiplier                           @ $62
1x Storage Rack DA base unit with ATX power supply   @ $355
2x Disk Array 5SA (black bezel)                                 @ $129
                                                                    ---------------
                                                                              $1036

More thoughts: If you wanted to forego the Infiniband links to start with then you could do the following:
1x Storage Rack DA base unit with ATX power supply   @ $355
2x Disk Array 5SA (black bezel)                                 @ $129
2x 5 Port HPM-XA Enclosure Version                           @ $89
                                                                    ---------------
                                                                              $791
This uses a pair of eSATA ports which are probably on the host PC already.



HDDs are a personal choice but if you use WD 2TB WD20EARS, (Caviar Green), @ $79.99 each from Newegg, then the total is approximately: $1836

If you go for WD 2TB AV-GP WD20EURS, (designed for always on streaming), @ $89.99 each, then the total is approximately: $1936.

NOTE: I don't know what kind of performance you'd get over Infiniband links but since they're used for server farms, etc, they must be halfway decent but SJ or 40hz would be more likely to have had some kind of experience/knowledge with/of them.

Also, this is still more expensive than simply building a new PC with the requisite amount of ports in a decent size case and running it using FreeNAS, WHS or similar.

4174

Living Room / Re: Building a home server. Please help, DC!

« Last post by 4wd on September 08, 2011, 09:49 PM »

Hi superboy, have u checked the pricing on 2TB SAS drives? I think that's one important step before you commit to buying that big box.

-lotusrootstarch (September 08, 2011, 05:33 PM)

Why not have the benefit of cheap SATA drives with the speed of an Multilane Infiniband connection?

eg.
Storage - Addonics Rack System (it doesn't need to sit in a rack since there's no ventilation slots on the bottom of the case.)
             1 or 2 x Addonics Multilane Bridge coupled with Addonics 5x1 SATA Port Multipliers (Each host Multilane controller could then run, conceivably, 20 HDDs.  However, I'd be looking at probably only 1 or 2 Port Multipliers per Multilane which would still give you from 14-20 HDDs that could be connected to 2 host controllers.)
PC end - 1 or 2 x Multilane 4x RAID 5/JBOD Controller (Doesn't have to be in RAID/JBOD mode.)

Going completely berserk, 2 Infiniband cables could conceivably connect you to 40 SATA HDDs.....big enough? 

4175

General Software Discussion / Re: Any (Free) VPN service to recommend?

« Last post by 4wd on September 07, 2011, 07:25 PM »

After using a few different free VPNs for the odd time I use one, I've settled on TunnelBear.

Very easy, free, 500MB/month (tweet them for an extra 1GB/month if you need it), and easy switch between a UK or USA exit.

Allows me to grab all the BBC shows from their website, (you don't need a UK IP for the download, just need it to get the initial link).