Category: Windows

Everything About Windows

Getting better speeds from your Cellular broadband!

Paul3 Replies

If your like me and you want to get better than expected speeds from web pages loading.  It sometimes frustrates people that the speed of web page loading is slow to some people others like me always expect it to be slow.   This is the downside of having a mobile internet, because of the locations of the cell towers and if there is any interference to or from the tower.  This is always going to be a problem with this technology, if something is going on the network it will undoubtedly slow you down.    So what can you do to speed up the web page loading and other web site functions.   Here are some great list of available ways to get a little more speed from your modem:

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  • Google Gears — This is one of those little extensions that will Run JavaScript in the background to improve performance.  Although this is something you can use on all your website but if you like to go to certain websites alot for games or online interactions, who use JavaScrip will speed up your internet experience.

  • FasterFox —  This is for Firefox only.  What it does is : Prefetch Links, Page Load Timer, and Block Popups. This starts caching some of the pages to better help with web browsing.  Although this is good by itself.  I find that it is better to use this with some of the other programs.

  • RabbIT—  is a web proxy that speeds up web surfing over slow links by doing: Compress text pages to gzip streams. This reduces size by up to 75%, Compress images to 10% jpeg. This reduces size by up to 95%, Remove advertising, Remove background images, and Cache filtered pages and images.  This is pretty good for web access and seems to work well with Broad Band modem.

[ad#tmi-left-1]These are a few that I found to better help people who have cellular broadband to get a boost of speed from there service.  Although this might not work on all networks due to the restrictions of some of the network policies this will at least help out with some.  I’ll be trying this out on my Cricket modem later this month to see if it is good for that service.

New Vulnebility in the SQL Server

Paul

Microsoft as Issued a warning on a new Vulnerability for:

Microsoft Security Advisory (KB961040)

[ad#ad2-right]Vulnerability in SQL Server Could Allow Remote Code Execution

Microsoft is investigating new public reports of a vulnerability that could allow remote code execution on systems with supported editions of Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Microsoft SQL Server 2005, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (MSDE 2000), Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (WMSDE), and Windows Internal Database (WYukon). Systems with Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 Service Pack 4, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 3, and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 are not affected by this issue.

[Via Technet]

[ad#ad2-left]The workaround for the people who use the servers are to deny access to  sp_replwritetovarbin and only should be done by system admins.   Microsoft will probably issue a patch on the next coming next Patch Tuesday unless they hear of anything in the wild.  This does not look to affect anyone who uses Windows XP Home edition or Vista Home  edition just people who has a Microsoft server and use SQL.  It also seem to be CVE-2008-4270 in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposure database.  If I find out more I’ll let you know.

Pctv HD Mini Stick and My thoughts!

Paul

Pctv HD Mini Stick

  • Includes mini-remote control and high-gain telescopic antenna

  • Compact size HDTV tuner for easy travel and storage

  • Instantly turn your PC into a personal digital video recorder

  • Record your favorite shows to your hard drive or direct-to-DVD

  • TV Standards – ATSC (HDTV up to 1080i, SDTV) and ClearQAM (HDTV up to 1080i, SDTV) Inputs

Price: Click Link to See the Price

Just saw this and couldn’t resist talking about it.  This would be great on the road.  If you use this on a laptop, then you would have some really good channels as you travel on the road.  No more having to watch movies on your laptop.   You can now see the current events as you travel around the US.  With the Digital change over Coming Feburary 17, 2009.  You’ll want to have a way to watch TV, this would be one way.  Right now Amazon is offering it for 112.22 but that could change so check the link out to find out how much it is.

Warning Signs of Hard Drive Trouble

Paul

For every computer there comes a time when you have a problem with hardware or software. This is for those who want to learn the signs of possible fixes for having hard drive problems. Although if you know you’re hard drive is dieing then you better back it up as quickly as possible. You will of course need to get the back up software to protect your data.  If you have special drivers you will need to backup yours drivers.  If you have an OEM system then you will need to backup the Hidden Partition.

So what are the warning signs of a hard drive failure:

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  • Unexpected freezing of Windows — When Windows Locks up and you have to reboot or getting a Blue Screen of Death.   You have no choice but to restart because you can’t do anything with windows.

  • Losing data files — if you seem to see files being lost or deleted without your direct input.  It might be a sign of a computer virus or it could be a damaged hard drive.

  • Locking up during boot — this is most common when you have a hard drive failure, although if you can restart and not be a problem then just keep in mind that it might be the beginning.  The more frequent you have the lockup boot problems the more chance of the hard drive dieing.

  • Hard drive isn’t recognized in BIOS– Although this can be a old hard drive, if the bios can’t see it then the problem might be a hard drive failure, usually this is meaning you just have to replace the hard drive.  there’s isn’t much you can do with this problem, just replace the hard drive.  Most of the time it is a problem inside the Hard drive bios and you really can’t fix this, you’d have to send it off to possibly save the hard drive data.

  • Clicking, Scratching, Whirling, Grinding sounds from Hard drive — This is the most dangerous signs of hard drive failure and means you need to get your data off ASAP.  If you want to hear some of the waring sounds of a dieing hard drive click here.

Although some of these can or can not be a hard drive failure, some can be driver issure or disk defragmentation and should be check out to rule out these problems.   There can be several problems that might be easily fixed.  If you think it is a failure you might try Spinrite.  The program is made by Steve Gibson and he actually has a “Absolute Satisfaction Guarantee“.  So if it doesn’t work or your not satisfied you aren’t out any money.  I’ve used this in the past for hard drives that are dieing so I could get all the important data off before it died all together.  It is essential that if you can get it working for a short time to get a backup.

Disclaimer: Although spinrite might fix some of the problems associated with a hard drive failure, it might not fix all the problems or any problems.   So it is left up to the user to decide if it is worth it or not to buy it.   I don’t recommend this for every situation or every problem only for the off chance that it might let you get the important data off the computer before you lose it.  Use at your own risk.

Disaster preparation — 103 Hidden Partition

Paul

What is an OEM?

Many laptops or Desktops now a days have this hidden partition that is used for OEMS.  An OEM or original equipment manufacturer for those who don’t know is a company that sells a system with it’s own branding or services.  It varies from company to company just what they sell to the consumer.   Having Said that, let’s talk about this Hidden Partition.

Why do I have a Hidden Partition on my drive?

[ad]To simply put it, most likely it is there for a emergency backup for your Operating System.   It can be accessed through your boot up.  Most of the time if you press f11 or f12, some key combination to go to this hidden partition and restore the system to the  factory settings.   Now I tell you this to warn you that you don’t ever want to delete this partition because you need it to verify that in case you need a driver it might be there.     Now a days, most laptop and desktop sellers don’t want to include a backup CD or DVD in the box so they expect you do make one.   This is where the hidden partition comes to play.   This also used to make DVD or CD of operating system.

How big is the Partition?

That isn’t a simple question because most OEM’s like to vary partition to prevent them from being used in other OEM systems.   Now not saying it is hard to find out.  There are several tools used to backup this hidden partition but can cost to get to it.  Like my system, it takes up around 8 gigabytes of space on mine.   Others, I’ve seen, only take up 4 gigabytes.   It varies from branding to branding.   Also keep in mind that you want to backup this important partition just in case there is a problem with the Hard Drive.   This is really IMPORTANT: the Hidden Partition is only good for the hardware you have right now so it can only be used with that particular system.   Should you try it on another system, may have trouble or not work at all.

How do I back up this Hidden Partition or Even transfer it to another Hard drive?

If you wanted to change out your old laptop or desktop hard drive and put in a bigger and better hard drive.  You’d need to copy the old partition of the drive first to put in the new drive.    How do you do that?   Most laptops only have room for one Hard Drive so you might need to buy a cable for that laptop.   It’s call a USB to Sata Adapter and it allows you to hook up a second hard drive so you can copy from the original source.   This one I am showing you is good for both Laptop and Desktop it’s got all you need to make a back up or even copy the data off.

What software do I need to copy this Hidden partition?

There are several programs that will help you do this.   Each of them have there own look and feel to them.   These companies will support people who are wanting to backup there important Operating system.   Yes the operating system is important if you didn’t have that the hardware would just sit there.   Although there are free operating systems they do come with there own problems and solutions.  So let’s begin talking about the commercial backup software:

  • Acronis True Image — Backup your entire PC: Acronis True Image includes our patented disk-imaging backup technology. You can copy your entire PC, including the operating system, applications, user settings, and all data. In the event of a system or disk crash, virus attack, or other fatal failures, you can restore the entire disk contents in minutes–no reinstallations required!

  • Norton Ghost 14.0 — Protects your computer with advanced backup and recovery: creates full system and file backups, restore from system failures, and back up based on schedules and events

  • Paragon Partition Manager 9.0 Personal — Partitioning, Manage disk partitions, Optimization and Defragmentation, Boot Manager, and Simple Backup Wizard

[ad#ad2-right]I will add more to my store when I find others that work well with doing the hidden partition.   You will also not that these are are the best to use when you want copy the hidden partition because they know about the hidden partition.  Other software might only copy the visible partition and ignore the hidden.  So that is why I talk about commercial software because there’s a person on the other end who could help you out.

These are just a few that will work for you, if you want to go find the free software by all means but I must warn you the free software doesn’t come with any warranties or someone who could help most of the time.  It is a pot shot with free software, some work well and others just make a mess.  There are some free back up software but most of the time they only copy the visible and not the hidden, so if you must go looking.  Go looking for the ones who say they can copy the hidden partition.   These are the ones you need use to back up your operating system.