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4501

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by 4wd on December 17, 2010, 11:02 PM »

2) Displays a Tooltip on the logon screen with network status - I can't test whether it has connected since it doesn't connect until I've logged on here, (just a LAN network).

-4wd (December 17, 2010, 04:54 PM)

I could be missing something, but couldn't you just start the comp with the network cable unpluged, then plug it in to see the status change? The media connection state change is (basically) the same wired vs. WiFi.

-Stoic Joker (December 17, 2010, 10:25 PM)

DOH!  I was testing it with the WiFi on the netbook, completely forgot about the wired connection.  

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?

Have to do some debug output to see if the arp command is actually being called that early.

The following snippet is from T-Clock, it checks for a valid system tray/clock window handle before the hook is inserted. A stripped down version should be just what you're after:

Check for the Tray, I'm afraid that's way too obvious.  Thanks for that SJ - I should just let you carry on writing it

EDIT2: Argh!  The Tooltip doesn't come back when you log off  

-4wd (December 17, 2010, 04:54 PM)

Relaunch with logoff script?

Yes, a definite possibility - check for already existing process and kill it if necessary, thanks again.

Right, back to the drawing board.

Addendum: I've found an AutoIt routine equivalent to your GetMAC C snippet above, so I can get rid of the dependence on the arp command.

4502

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by 4wd on December 17, 2010, 04:54 PM »

Thanks SJ, I was hoping not to have to make it a service and use the Group Policy Editor to specify a Startup script - which should mean it's running before a user logs in and is a bit nicer installation-wise.

Of course you need the Pro versions of Windows to get the Group Policy Editor and it seems to run OK this way except for a lack of SysTray icon when explorer.exe finally comes up.

EDIT: I've modified the AutoIt script above because my check for ARP output was too long, (only 20 chars output compared to wired), for wireless and it also includes a simple check for explorer.exe, which isn't running before logon, to swap between a Tooltip in the upper left corner and a SysTray icon.

It's had a name change to NetCheck.

Status at the moment:
1) Runs at Startup.
2) Displays a Tooltip on the logon screen with network status - I can't test whether it has connected since it doesn't connect until I've logged on here, (just a LAN network).
3) Hotkey exit, (currently Shift+Alt+\), which can be set in the ini file.
4) Detects whether Explorer.exe is running and turns off the Tooltip - ie. user has logged in.

The only thing left is trying to get the SysTray icon to turn on - maybe I need to put a delay in between detection of explorer.exe and turning it on?  Ideas anyone?

Just had a thought, I couldn't find anywhere after a quick search, what is set as the default directory when you run something from Group Policy Startup?  The directory where the executable is or something else?

Anyway, it looks favourable except for the icon at the moment, so if you can get by without it then I guess it can be considered working.  Although it's really going to urk me if I can't find the problem, (the technician coming to the fore   ).

EDIT2: Argh!  The Tooltip doesn't come back when you log off 

4503

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by 4wd on December 17, 2010, 06:35 AM »

techidave, could you tell me what OS' the laptops are running, (XP, Vista, Home, Pro, etc) ?

Getting it to actually display something on the logon screen might be a right b!tch 

4504

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by 4wd on December 16, 2010, 05:55 PM »

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.

-techidave (December 16, 2010, 11:21 AM)

OK, I'll have a look at making it into a service - I had a play with this kind of thing, (AutoIt services), a year or so ago when I was creating a desktop background changer to annoy a friends daughter  

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.

Might take me a few days, I've got to do some gardening, junk removal and revisit AutoIt scripts, (and most likely the forums a lot).  And probably annoy skwire endlessly with questions.  

Oh yeah, if I do manage it the first comment about my lack of coding style will win a brick  

Addendum: In the meantime, check out CNS which can display computer info on the login screen.  I don't know if it'll do what you want though or even if it works on anything later than W2000.  Hasn't been updated since 2001 but it's possible the author might still be willing to put something like a simple indicator as an option - or since it displays the IP and if your network is DHCP based, (not static), tell the students to wait until it display something other than 169.254.x.x.

4505

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Wireless sensor

« Last post by 4wd on December 16, 2010, 10:23 AM »

As skwire said, you need a service to be able to do this before the user logs in - something I might be able to manage since the building blocks are there in AutoIt.

But is it really necessary since you can execute programs on login?

EDIT: Removed code and attachments to avoid confusion with later post.


Sorry to butt into your thread skwire, it's 0325 here and I was bored

4506

Living Room / Re: A NAS server for my home

« Last post by 4wd on December 15, 2010, 09:36 PM »

In case you were interested in my FreeNAS setup so far:



1 - 1GB flash drive with embedded FreeNAS OS, takes almost exactly 5 minutes to boot to a working system, probably because there are no EHCI USB drivers loaded so it's stuck at USB1.1 speeds until the OS is running.
2 - Old LiteOn IDE DVD-ROM initially used for loading FreeNAS onto the flash drive.  Could probably replace it with a HDD or just remove it.
3 - Old 160GB WD SATA HDD being used until I can afford or scrounge a bigger HDD.
4 - VIA SP8000EG EPIA motherboard with embedded 800MHz Eden CPU.
5 - Cooling fans, basically a HDD cooler cut down and then stuck in place with double-sided tape.  Also has the power input from a 44W 12V external PSU.
6 - 120W Wide Range PicuPSU, handles 12-25V input.  Probably the smallest ATX PSU you'll find, plus it's silent.
7 - Aywun MI-008 Mini-ITX case.  Normally has a 200W SFF PSU but that's a bit of overkill since the case is designed for EPIA or Atom based boards.
8 - Empty coffee cup.
9 - The PicoPSU has 1xMolex, 1xSATA and 1xFloppy power connector, I'll be changing the floppy one for a SATA connector.
10 - Power plug for the fans, I'll be changing it to run them off of 7V so they'll still be silent.
11 - A second HDD can be fitted vertically in the rails here.

The SP8000EG only has 2 SATA ports but I already had it sitting around, power usage for it is 12W idle and 18W full load.  So adding in a pair of 2TB, (or even the new 3TB HDDs), will add 12W - so the total system power will be approximately 12-14W under the power rating of the 12V external PSU.  Not bad considering the D-Link DNS-313 comes with a 36W 12V PSU.

If I was starting from scratch then I'd probably go for an Intel Atom based board like the GIGABYTE GA-D525TUD for more SATA ports and internal Gb LAN.

4507

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: New MakeMKV beta 1.6.2

« Last post by 4wd on December 13, 2010, 05:35 PM »

Miles, I'm just looking for what Makemkv already does, which is take dvd's and create a single mkv files that retains all the dvd features like the menus, subtitles, and commentary tracks.  I would get Anydvd only for those dvd's that makemkv might have trouble with the protection. I'd use anydvd to make an iso, and then use the iso in makemkv.  I'm not interested in any kind of lossless transcoding or anything.  I want to retain the full quality.  I'm going to need many more hard drives to fit all of these mkv files.  Good riddance to dvd players.

-superboyac (December 13, 2010, 12:52 PM)

If it's predominantly for DVDs that you want it, then DVD43 is similar, (and free), ie. it's a driver that decodes DVD protection on the fly - nothing else.  No creating ISOs, modifying PGC to jump to menu, etc but it will allow other programs to do it, eg. ImgBurn to create ISO, MakeMKV to create a mkv.

Not as updated as AnyDVD but then DVD protection changes very little these days.

Otherwise, I use RipIt4Me for DVD decryption - it uses DVD Decryptor but parses the DVD structure to remove FBI warnings, jump to menu, etc.  It can also call DVD Shrink following so that can be used to output an ISO.

4508

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: New MakeMKV beta 1.6.2

« Last post by 4wd on December 13, 2010, 06:06 AM »

I've never tried CloneDVD.  But from just looking on their web site it implies it uses a transcoder.. sort of like DVD Shrink.  Which can be ok if the output size is very close to the input size.

-MilesAhead (December 12, 2010, 07:26 PM)

Technically, CloneDVD isn't a transcoder, (similar but not the same because there is no change of format), instead of encoding to another format it just lowers the bitrate enabling it to fit on smaller media.  You can see it doing this if you watch it's graphical display, original bitrate compared to lowered bitrate.

And as you said, this is OK if the final size is close to original - otherwise you're better off using an encoder to get better quality output.

If you set the output to DVD9 then no bitrate reduction will occur, (same thing in DVD Shrink), so the output will be of the same quality as input.

4509

Living Room / Re: Can we compare file transfer protocols?

« Last post by 4wd on December 12, 2010, 06:11 PM »

HTTP is better, since you get keep-alive connections... but there's some protocol overhead, and the issue of server setup and rights management. I think you'd want to look at WebDAV stuff for that, but it's not something I have experience with; I'd expect it to be better performing than FTP, though.

If big files are involved, and two-way synchronization is needed, you should probably be looking for a solution that can handle partial updates (and then you still have to realize that some big binary blob formats are modified in a way that partial updates can't even be done - shame on those formats). On top of that, you need to carefully consider the problems involved if multiple clients have access to the same repositories.

-f0dder (December 12, 2010, 08:42 AM)

Taking just the relevant parts from your post f0dder, it almost sounds like Syncrify fits the bill.  From the people who brought you DeltaCopy, (rsync for Windows).

They have a free Personal version which should help you determine whether you want to part with cash for the Professional version.  If you only want one user then maybe the Personal version running over a VPN, (to take care of the encryption), will be adequate for your needs superboyac.




If you can get by without delta copying, then there is also Synaman, (also has a free Personal edition), on which you can transfer over SSL.

4510

Living Room / Re: Can we compare file transfer protocols?

« Last post by 4wd on December 12, 2010, 01:11 AM »

Does this count?

Or do you specifically not want to use third party software?

If nothing else it will give you an idea of a rather easy OpenVPN set up.

4511

Living Room / Re: Need Help Finding a Domain Name

« Last post by 4wd on December 12, 2010, 12:41 AM »

Knowing your affection for all things Apple:

stevejobbsloves.me

You could go a bit colloquial with:

wellbugger.me    (People would probably get the wrong idea but it would push your page stats up )

theyscrewed.me

4512

Living Room / Re: Help! I can't access my website.

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2010, 06:13 PM »

No problem, I might need your help with another Steam purchase in the future


Actually, I'll go out on a limb and say it is your ISP DNS' since it won't even resolve from the CLI and they are the first port of call.  This is why I run my own now.

4513

Living Room / Re: Help! I can't access my website.

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2010, 06:04 PM »

Do you have to periodically re-enter your DNS redirection anywhere?

eg. Domain Registrar, hosting site, etc

It might be a routing issue or DNS issue with my ISP.

-Deozaan (December 11, 2010, 06:00 PM)

It does sound like your ISP DNS' are flakey.

4514

Living Room / Re: Help! I can't access my website.

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2010, 05:52 PM »

Have you tried specifying different DNS servers on your net connection?

eg. Google DNS - 8.8.8.8 & 8.8.4.4

Does it resolve if you ping deozaan.com from the CLI?

4515

Living Room / Re: Help! I can't access my website.

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2010, 05:34 PM »

This is from Network Tools:

IP address: 174.120.97.61
Host name: deozaan.com

Alias:
deozaan.com
174.120.97.61 is from United States(US) in region North America


TraceRoute to 174.120.97.61 [deozaan.com]
Hop   (ms)   (ms)   (ms)      IP Address   Host name
1   9   5   5      72.249.0.65   -
2   16   29   8      64.129.174.181   64-129-174-181.static.twtelecom.net
3   11   6   6      66.192.253.230   dal2-pr1-ge-7-0-0-0.us.twtelecom.net
4   14   28   17      75.149.228.2   theplanet-cr01.dallas.tx.ibone.comcast.net
5   11   8   8      70.87.253.2   te7-1.dsr01.dllstx3.networklayer.com
6   Timed out   Timed out   Timed out         -
7   11   12   15      70.87.254.226   te5-1.car12.dllstx6.networklayer.com
8   16   15   8      174.120.97.61   3d.61.78ae.static.theplanet.com

Trace complete


Retrieving DNS records for deozaan.com...

DNS servers
ns1.nickthewebsiteguy.com
ns2.nickthewebsiteguy.com
Query for DNS records for deozaan.com failed: Address not available

Here, using my own DNS, it resolves correctly and I can ping it:

C:\>ping deozaan.com

Pinging deozaan.com [174.120.97.61] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 174.120.97.61: bytes=32 time=358ms TTL=48
Reply from 174.120.97.61: bytes=32 time=359ms TTL=48
Reply from 174.120.97.61: bytes=32 time=299ms TTL=48
Reply from 174.120.97.61: bytes=32 time=382ms TTL=48

Ping statistics for 174.120.97.61:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 299ms, Maximum = 382ms, Average = 349ms

C:\>

So it does look like you have a DNS problem at your host.

For comparison, here's a Network Tools output for a site I put up for the wife:

Spoiler

IP address: 69.175.104.34
Host name: gillham.co.cc

Alias:
gillham.co.cc
69.175.104.34 is from United States(US) in region North America


TraceRoute to 69.175.104.34 [gillham.co.cc]
Hop   (ms)   (ms)   (ms)      IP Address   Host name
1   10   13   12      72.249.128.5   -
2   37   12   9      206.123.64.22   -
3   76   7   6      64.124.196.225   xe-4-2-0.er2.dfw2.us.above.net
4   7   7   8      64.125.27.81   xe-0-1-0.cr2.dfw2.us.above.net
5   16   17   12      64.125.26.134   xe-1-2-0.cr2.iah1.us.above.net
6   30   25   30      64.125.31.49   xe-1-1-0.mpr3.atl6.us.above.net
7   26   30   27      64.125.31.46   xe-1-0-0.mpr4.atl6.us.above.net
8   29   27   25      198.32.132.68   99.xe-0-1-0.cr1.atl1.us.nlayer.net
9   33   27   27      69.31.135.129   ae0-50g.cr1.atl1.us.nlayer.net
10   49   49   47      69.22.142.45   xe-1-2-0.cr2.ord1.us.nlayer.net
11   53   38   41      69.31.110.254   ae2-20g.ar1.ord6.us.nlayer.net
12   40   38   42      69.31.111.30   as32475.xe-1-0-1.ar1.ord6.us.nlayer.net
13   47   39   37      69.175.104.34   chopin.x10hosting.com

Trace complete


Retrieving DNS records for gillham.co.cc...

DNS servers
ns2.x10hosting.com
ns1.x10hosting.com

Answer records
gillham.co.cc      MX   
preference:   0
exchange:   gillham.co.cc
   14400s
gillham.co.cc      SOA   
server:   ns1.x10hosting.com
email:   [email protected]
serial:   2010071801
refresh:   86400
retry:   7200
expire:   3600000
minimum ttl:   86400
   86400s
gillham.co.cc      NS   ns1.x10hosting.com   86400s
gillham.co.cc      NS   ns2.x10hosting.com   86400s
gillham.co.cc      A   69.175.104.34   14400s

Authority records

Additional records
gillham.co.cc      A   69.175.104.34   14400s
ns1.x10hosting.com      A   99.198.122.2   14400s
ns2.x10hosting.com      A   173.236.27.195   14400s

I realise my setup is slightly different but still, I would have expected a bit more information from your DNS server.

Oh yeah, I can access your site BTW - want me to do something while I'm there

4516

Living Room / Re: I just gotta vent

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2010, 05:04 PM »

Ah, I may have misunderstood. So with Quick Edit enabled, right-clicking pastes instantly? I guess that is pretty quick.

So yeah, without it enabled, right-clicking the cmd window brings up a context menu that allows you to select Paste (among other things).

-Deozaan (December 11, 2010, 04:35 PM)

Instant paste and faster Select/Copy but yes you lose the Select All, Scroll and Find... features available from the popup.  But since I never used any of those it was a win-win choice for me

I believe any Windows version originally based on NT has it.

4517

Living Room / Re: I just gotta vent

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2010, 03:40 PM »

On XP, it's not enabled by default and right-clicking will only popup the edit menu - you still need to select Paste from it.

On 7 it's enabled by default - well put it this way, I don't specifically recall enabling it but hey, I could be wrong - 10 months is a long time

Correction: It's the same in Win7, not enabled by default and just opens a popup menu - at least it is in my base W7Ultimate VM.

4518

Living Room / Re: I just gotta vent

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2010, 02:46 PM »

Turn on Quick Edit Mode under Properties->Options then you only need to right-click in the window to paste.  To copy text, left-click drag-select, (ie. highlight), then right-click.

The almost absolute first thing I do on a new install

4519

Living Room / Re: Need Help Finding a Domain Name

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2010, 05:45 AM »

shithappensto.me
idontknowany.info

4520

Living Room / Re: WikiLeaks: Important petition for all Australians and supporters of free speech

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2010, 05:39 AM »

Now, has anyone signed the petition? It may or may not help. But apparently they've raised $25000 which is enough for a full page ad in the New York Times.

-Fred Nerd (December 11, 2010, 05:04 AM)

At the very least they could encode a few more cables into the ad in such a way as to only appear when looked at in a mirror.

I haven't signed because I am an Australian and as such suffer from the "she'll be right mate" school of apathy.

4521

Living Room / Re: Need Help Finding a Domain Name

« Last post by 4wd on December 11, 2010, 05:28 AM »

imaidiotblathering.info ?

4522

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to create a video cd/dvd on a windows machine?

« Last post by 4wd on December 10, 2010, 09:38 PM »

+1 with Miles here - many a time I've written a DVD that's perfectly fine when played on a computer but looks like shit when viewed on a TV using a standalone player.

DVD Shrink, (yeah it is old), is usually very good at finding any faults with the DVD structure but the only way to test the quality of playback is to put it into a standalone and watch it on TV.

You may have to tweak output by changing field order, deinterlacing, etc to get acceptable output.

4523

General Software Discussion / Re: slock - anyone using it still?

« Last post by 4wd on December 09, 2010, 10:03 PM »

Actually, that's quite interesting - doesn't that imply that registration is not tied to hardware IDs?

As such, you should be able to extract whatever method it uses to store the registration info and that should enable you to install it on any machine, (if you can be bothered now you have a working solution, that is).

4524

Living Room / Re: A NAS server for my home

« Last post by 4wd on December 09, 2010, 07:01 PM »

I would think that the bare minimum for media streaming would be:

SMB/CIFS - Samba^w for normal network shared folder access, most likely what you'd use for normal backups.
DLNA - Digital Living Network Alliance
UPnP^w - Universal Plug'n'Play

Most Digital Media Players should support SMB/CIFS, DLNA or both - if you go for a Apple device then you'll probably have to add DAAP, (Digital Apple Anal Protocol - Bend over and take it ...errr....I mean Digital Audio Access Protocol), or iTunes Server capable, (which DAAP is a part of).

eg. Here's the configuration screen for my DNS-313 showing what protocols it can do:



Network Access = SMB/CIFS for local mapping/shared folder access.
FTP                  = FTP server, access your files from anywhere you've got net access.
UPnP AV Server = For those players that support UPnP (DLNA should fall under this).
iTunes Server    = For Apple devices.

As you can see, not much in the way of services just the necessary basics.  At the other end of the scale is something like FreeNAS which adds a few more:

4525

General Software Discussion / Re: Why is it so hard to create a video cd/dvd on a windows machine?

« Last post by 4wd on December 09, 2010, 06:06 PM »

A DVD which has the correct file/folder structure, file format and filesystem to comply with the DVD Video specifications as laid out by the DVD Forum, (which you can obtain at a price).

If you require no editing for your purposes then try one of the following for converting the DV file into a DVD, (either burning direct, creating an ISO or creating the relevant file structure in a directory which you can then burn to DVD):

Avi2Dvd
DeVeDe - Save as an ISO and then burn to DVD using ImgBurn in Write Mode.
DVDFlick

If you want to try a commercial conversion program:

WinAVI - The only one I have any real experience with - results were very good so I saw no reason to use something else.
ConvertXtoDVD - Tried it when it first came out years ago but the limited range of output options wasn't to my liking.  Hopefully a lot better by now.

If the output of one of a program saves it as a DVD directory structure on the HDD, then I recommend using ImgBurn to write it to the DVD.  When you drop the VIDEO_TS folder on the ImgBurn window, (in Build Mode), it will prompt you by saying it looks like a DVD and offer to change the filesystem of the output DVD to the correct one, (ISO9660 + UDF).



Be aware, some DVD players might be so old and anal that they won't play anything other than commercial DVD movies, (*cough* Sony *cough*).  Some players might have trouble with DVD blanks from the cheaper end of the market and some will have trouble with DVD+R discs.

Try writing to a DVD-RW first to see if they'll play them, if they can do that chances are very good that good quality DVD-R will work fine.