Recent Posts

426

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Release: Snap DB

« Last post by techidave on December 30, 2010, 04:08 PM »

This looks great on a first look skwire!  I don't know how useful this would be but could it also import say a csv or txt file?

I must hurry home to play with it some more 

427

Official Announcements / Re: DonationCoder.com NEW SERVER ACTIVATED Dec 17, 2010

« Last post by techidave on December 30, 2010, 07:53 AM »

I experienced the delay last night during one of my posts.  

Edit: this post also was slow but not as slow as the previous one.

Edit 2: the edit was normal.

428

Living Room / Re: So, when you're working, do you...

« Last post by techidave on December 29, 2010, 08:57 PM »

Good lighting is important. My eyes, never that great to begin with, need all the help they can get. The important thing is it not be too bright because I'm very light sensitive.

-40hz (December 29, 2010, 02:13 PM)

I agree with 40hz, my eyes are light sensitive and I find it helps to have things a little dark.  It drives my wife crazy, because I don't like the door or window shades open especially on a bright day.

As far as the sound going on around me it doesn't matter all that much if I am really concentrating because I will just block it out.

429

Living Room / Re: Get yourself the best gift for the holidays: A full system backup

« Last post by techidave on December 24, 2010, 08:09 PM »

If anyone is using RedoBackup, mentioned in this thread Recommend disk imaging software? , they might find these tutorials useful:

Clone Lab Computers with a USB drive - FREE
Clone Computers Across the Network Part 1 of 2 part 2 follows at end of 1.

When backing up laptop to desktop computer those shares must be set up correctly. I had some troubles with that.

Seems like a pretty qualified and cool computer teacher btw. http://oakdome.com/k5/index.php

-Bamse (December 24, 2010, 03:14 AM)

I haven't tried the Redo Backup but it looks pretty simple.  Our school uses Ghost to image.  I like the K5 computer lab site.   

430

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by techidave on December 22, 2010, 05:42 AM »

Oh, I am not expecting anything before Christmas.  Don't worry about that part.  I am just glad that someone has decided to do this. 

The only time these laptops will connect via cable is when I plug them in to image them.  The students will always connect via wifi.

Does a wired connection really need anything like this?  I do not know, I am just asking.   

431

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by techidave on December 21, 2010, 05:50 PM »

I did exclude the netcheck folder for AVG.  Also added the files in the windows/system32/... too.  I appreciate all your hard work on this guys!   

432

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by techidave on December 21, 2010, 04:41 AM »

I could also change the server IP to one of my internal servers and see if that makes a difference.

433

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by techidave on December 20, 2010, 10:38 PM »

Does 5 or 6 minutes sound about right for the WiFi card init? I'm wondering if the script is waiting for the program to return. If the ping is every 5 sec, can you (just as a test value) add a sending ping X message to the prog so it's "pulse" can be checked?

-Stoic Joker (December 20, 2010, 10:02 PM)

That sounds a bit long for this particular card.  Cannot remember all the details but it is an older Intel 2210 something.  I know its not a 54g card just 54 a/b.

EDIT: Just tried again with classic logon and it works OK here.  The logon prompt shows up immediately with tooltip showing up a few seconds later, both when there is and isn't a connection.  The NetCheck.exe should return immediately, (well, it does from a normal CLI), I wonder if it's possible to try running with the RunAs command, (sorry, no experience with that - perhaps SJ can help)?

-4wd (December 20, 2010, 05:32 PM)

I was running as adminstrator on the local machine.

Now if you put the wrong WEP key in your WiFi card and let it partially connect, DHCP should fail leaving you with an APIPA address and roughly the state you need to test with/for/on.

nope wep key was correct because I could connect to the internet and network once it finally did connected.

Running it on logoff isn't really the issue, because the WiFi card stays on. The trick is to get it to run on wakeup from sleep/hibernation when the connection has dropped because the WiFi card was napping.

I try to remeber to turn off the option to let windows disable the nic to save power, because I know this is an issue on problems like I am describing.  But I didn't check for sure to see if I did disable it.

I won't be back over in that building until later tomorrow.  i will try the latest netcheck at that time

434

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by techidave on December 20, 2010, 06:25 PM »

yeah, the tool tip shows up really quickly too.  I am not sure why the script takes so long to process. 

I am not much of a server guy, even though I do manage some.  So I am probably not the one to ask how to setup a domain.  We have a 3rd party source that I use for the more complicated stuff.

I would think would need Windows 2003 Server or some other server version.  Probably would have to setup Active Directory too.

I cannot wait to try this at the other school since they are on Novell 6.5.  that is where the login problems are more severe since they have continual network problems.  Too much stuff that seems to affect a lot of stuff.  but we will make a big dent in a lot of those problems during the holidays.

435

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by techidave on December 20, 2010, 01:33 PM »

I just was playing around with it and discovered that it doesn't work if one just logs off, closes the lid on the laptop, and then opens it up again.  It would be nice because when I just logged in again, the wireless wasn't active so my desktop folder re-direction didn't work.  A simple refresh fixes this.  But my users (student and teachers) don't remember that this can be done.

So the short question is can the icon show up any other time the login window is there without doing a restart or power on?

436

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by techidave on December 20, 2010, 07:58 AM »

I have joined my domain but now it takes forever to "run the startup script".  Like 5 or 6 minutes.

437

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by techidave on December 20, 2010, 07:16 AM »

AVG just caught it as a virus.  I am sure that there isn't one.  Probably just the autoit script?

438

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by techidave on December 20, 2010, 06:45 AM »

Thanks 4wd, I have downloaded it. 

At one of my schools, there is mail and dns that are available internally that are on all the time. 

At another school, we use an external dns there.  However, there are several servers that are available 24/7.

forgive me for not using the quote feature, I seem to be having a senior moment(s) on how it works. 

But 4wd, you said to copy "it", what is "it"?  In the zip file, I only see 5 files of which one is the netcheck.exe.  perhaps that is it?

439

General Software Discussion / Re: Dooble, Web Browser and more

« Last post by techidave on December 19, 2010, 05:47 AM »

Nice find Curt and it looks very interesting.  And to think it was released in Jan 2010, it didn't start picking up steam until October.  downloads

440

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by techidave on December 18, 2010, 06:19 AM »

Quote: However, it doesn't seem to work - I'm wondering, with a Domain Controller doesn't a network connection have to be established before logon, whereas with a normal LAN network the connection is established after logon?



No, it doesn't have to.  By default, the answer is no.  There is a policy that can be set by using group policy or active directory.  I have tried changing it to wait, but that doesn't always help either.

441

Official Announcements / Re: DonationCoder.com NEW SERVER ACTIVATED Dec 17, 2010

« Last post by techidave on December 17, 2010, 04:11 PM »

Thanks guys!  Downtime was minimal. 

442

General Software Discussion / Re: Word Lens goes viral

« Last post by techidave on December 17, 2010, 05:23 AM »

awesome!

443

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by techidave on December 16, 2010, 08:36 PM »

4wd, I will look at the CNS in the morning.  I  actually have a laptop with a new XP install that I can try it on.  I can always reghost it if things go south on me.

Joker, I am not sure what your template is like but am willing to give it a whirl.

To answer a previous post, yes I can have it ping a firewall or whatever.

All of our laptops are on DHCP.

444

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by techidave on December 16, 2010, 08:28 PM »

Personally, the onscreen indicator would drive me nuts because it would always be in the way of something but I now see where you're coming from with the need for an indicator on the login screen.  I just don't know if I'll be able to put one on the login screen, if I can I may be able to have it autohide down to the SysTray, (as it is now), when someone logs in.

oh yeah we probably would want to hide it after they logged in.   

445

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by techidave on December 16, 2010, 11:26 AM »

just re-read of 4wd post, maybe having something that would show down in the tray would be good too!  But I would want the other too.   

446

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by techidave on December 16, 2010, 11:21 AM »

Yes I believe it is necessary 4wd.  This all needs to happen before the login.  We use the login window that you would use to login to a domain.  Can't remember what that type of login is called. 

Students typically turn a computer on and as soon as the login window appears, they try to log in.  Well some of our laptops take just a little longer for the wireless card to iniate, or become fully operational.  But in the mean time they can not log in because they cannot see the server.  We have multiple users using them, and they are always connected via wireless. 

They just need some kind of a "signal" telling them "when" they could log in.

447

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by techidave on December 16, 2010, 08:33 AM »

I may not be following you SJ, but what I need is something that the student can see on the laptop.

448

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by techidave on December 16, 2010, 07:33 AM »

not sure what your little program means but one school has about 60 laptops that this would need to be done with.

449

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by techidave on December 16, 2010, 07:20 AM »

Yes to both questions. 

450

Post New Requests Here / IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by techidave on December 15, 2010, 09:17 PM »

I have searched some online trying to find something already made up but have come up empty.  So I have an idea for a coding snack but I do not know if it is possible or not.  But here goes.   

In a school setting with laptops, students sometimes get anxious to log into the network but find they cannot because the wireless card hasn't fully come online, etc, etc.

So what I have envisioned is this:  To have a green dot (large one) say in the upper right corner if it senses a wireless connection or a red dot in the upper left corner if their isn't.  It would also have to check, say every 5 seconds to see if the connection status has changed.  Or it could change the whole desktop a different color for that matter.

It would have to become active before the user logged in.  I haven't found a way to see if their is a active connection without being at the desktop.

Is it possible to do something like this???