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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2006-04-03

A Free Email Newsletter from Fred Langa
That Helps You Get More From Your Hardware, 
Software, and Time Online

Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!

1) Free NAS Software

NAS or "Network Attached Storage" ( http://tinyurl.com/lumpz ) is a technology for adding disk space to a network for use by everyone on the LAN. It's one way that the huge amount of storage provided by our $500 terabyte PC ( http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=183702383 ) can be used:

Fred: Just a note on your server project.  I too am building a server for my home use (something I never thought I would be doing 5 years ago!).  In it I have some old hardware running high capacity drives and a specialized linux build call Freenas ( http://www.freenas.org ) - an open source operating system for servers.  It seems pretty nice, and can work with samba, ftp, http, nfs, and can handle many disk formats, and hardware interfaces.  Installation was a breeze, just do some simple network hardware setup then login using a web browser to configure and mount your disks.  A real neat solution.  Also, there is a similar solution called Naslite ( http://www.serverelements.com ) that does a similar thing, but as a commercial solution. Great newsletter, Scott Barrett

Thanks, Scot. NAS-specific software is a good alternative if you're not especially interested in using the NAS hardware as a PC. If you DO want to use the hardware as a stand-alone or spare PC, then it's probably better to go with a traditional operating system that allows sharing--- say, XP with file-sharing enabled; or Linux with SAMBA ( http://www.google.com/search?q=linux+samba ) On the other hand, if the NAS hardware is *only* going to be used as shared storage, than NAS-specific software gets you there via the most direct route.

For that matter, that approach can lead you full circle back to dedicated, all-in-one NAS devices:

Fred: Thanx for the Langalist... so much to learn!
 
I like your idea of a "Terabyte Server".... but there is a much easier way.  The Buffalo Tera Station costs less than $700 and only takes a few minutes to setup.  On sale, with rebates, I've purchased many at around $650.  These are S*W*E*E*T units, with all sorts of features, like RAID 5, spanning & mirroring, FTP access, gigabit nic, email reporting, built-in backup, print server, and more.  I'm guessing with the introduction of their new Tera Station Pro, the price might drop a bit soon.
 
We use these beasts for backup, archive space, and as the main "server" for smaller companies.  At Fry's Electronics (Outpost.com), you can get a 3-year no-questions-asked replacement plan for $85.
 
'Nothing against your $500 creation... but time is money these days... I'm done building "Frankenstein" boxes.
 
Keep up the great work! ---Tim Greer

You're right, Tim: There are instances when a prepackaged NAS bundle (hardware + software) is the best choice. But as we discussed previously, shared storage via a PC can deliver the same effective benefits as a vanilla NAS unit, but also uses utterly standard, commodity-level parts, and familiar, well-proven technologies. Not only does this keep the prices down, but also means that all your normal PC knowledge applies--- there's nothing new or different to learn. And, because the server is a normal PC, it also can be used as such, performing any and all normal PC tasks in addition to the NAS-specific task of adding massive storage to the network. Having the storage in a standard PC also means you can have direct access to the 1TB of disk space (as opposed to the network-only access for a classic NAS unit), and further means your 1TB file server can act as a backup or spare PC for your operation. Familiarity, low-costs, high operational flexibility--- there's a lot to be said for this approach to massive storage, too.

As with so many things, there's no absolute right or wrong here: It depends on what you need, what you want, what you can spend, and what your personal tolerances are. As long as whatever you choose works, you're golden! <g>

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2) Hard Drive Installation Question

Dear Mr. Langa, I enjoy reading your Newsletter very much and find it quite informative. I read your article about replacing a hard drive ("How To Safely Add Or Replace A Hard Drive" http://www.informationweek.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=181502411 ) to see how it differed from what I had done many times in the past. I was surprised that you took the original hard drive out and put it down on a piece of cardboard not attached to the main frame. I always thought that the screws holding the hard drive in the computer were essential for providing a good ground for the hard drive. Is this not so? Many thanks for your attention and consideration. Bob Ackerberg

Not any more, Bob. Many drives these days mount with all-plastic rails or other nonconductive hardware; and some acoustic isolation packages go even further in preventing *any* metal-to-metal contact between the hard drive and the PC's case.

In today's PC's, I think any electrical continuity provided by metallic mounting hardware is incidental and nonessential. Rather, the electrical ground ("earth," in UK-English) is provided by the black wires in the 4-wire power cable. The yellow wire carries +12v, and the black wire next to it is the 12v ground. The red wire carries +5v, and the black wire next to it is the 5v ground.

While I wouldn't recommend permanently running a hard drive on a piece of scrap cardboard, I don't see how it can hurt during the short procedures we discussed in the above-referenced article. <g>

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3) "Turbulence In The Ether"

Fred: Your newsletter has allowed me to stay slightly more in-step with quickly changing world of computers, software, & the internet.  Best dollar-a-month I spend!

My questions/problems are in the nebulous area of wireless networking.  I have come to discover that about 99% of people know very little about it. Probably because these people are the lucky ones who set it up, turn it on, and have absolutely no problems whatsoever.

I have had issues ever since I first tried to set-up wireless networks back at my previous residence.  We eventually got that sorted out but now we have some sort of ghost in the air at our new residence and new network.

The strange things that happen stir many questions.  The laptops drop the signal whether we are the whole house away or a room away from the router. It is frustrating to be working on the internet, go about three screens/pages and then access is gone!!  There will be times when you show full signal but have no internet.  This internet drop does not happen when you plug the laptop into the router via cable.

So question #1:  What specific kinds of things could be causing turbulence in the ether?  Is there any way to measure or otherwise see what these things might be?  The problem really developed/got worse over the past few months.  Could it be from the networks of neighbors? Sometimes the wireless card receives other networks.  In my neighborhood, houses are about 150 feet apart side-to-side and 200+ across the street.  Is there something environmental?  I live 2/3rds of the way up a mountain and maybe it reflects all the excess waves of various sorts my way like a giant satellite dish?  It's probably not related but my garage door opener doesn't respond very well at all, either.  The main thing is--- who knows what's floating through the air.  People on the other side of the river have had a flap with the local navy depot.  DoD installed some sort of transmitter to send supply info to far off places and the frequency was so close to garage door openers that no-one within a few miles of the base could get their garages to open!

Follow-up questions have more to do with how the wireless cards & XP search for/connect to networks.  Apparently the cards constantly look for networks within range.  And they memorize previously used networks like at airports or hotels where I have logged on.  Once connected to one source, like home, does the card keep scanning the others methodically maybe looking for a better connection?  I occasionally get a pop-up telling me the card was unable to connect to some network that is in an airport 10 states away.  I know that if I am wired the wireless card still scans and I believe connects.  Is this a competition that maybe saps system resources or causes some kind of conflict?

I know that this is a lengthy letter, but possibly others have voiced similar issues.  Thanks again for your newsletter. ---Joseph Devers

Turbulence in the either--- nice phrase! <g> Ladies and gentlemen, the network is experiencing etheric turbulence; please return your laptop screens to the full upright and locked position....

Joseph, your problems seem unrelated to where you are in the house, so I agree with you that it's probably something else that's interfering with the wireless network rather than an problem with the network itself. The most common causes are other Wi-Fi devices, Bluetooth devices, some kinds of portable phones, and microwave ovens; all of which operate in roughly the same part of the electromagnetic spectrum. You can look to see if any such devices are operating in your own home, but there's not a lot you can do about what may or may not be going on in other homes nearby.

Frankly, I'd also be suspicious of that local military installation you mention: Very powerful signals can "leak" outside their nominal frequency and cause problems up and down the EM spectrum. Also, radars (which use microwave frequencies, just like a microwave oven) can concentrate a lot of energy into a narrow beam; if or when a military radar scans past your house, it might send your wireless connection into a coma. <g>

There's not a lot you can do about that, of course. If you're *very* geeky, you could try to rig a partial Faraday cage out of some grounded metal window screening or some such; and place it in the line of sight between your Wi-Fi components and the military installation; but so that it doesn't come between the Wi-Fi devices themselves. If the interference stops, you've proved the source.

*I'm* very geeky, but building Faraday cages is a lot further than I'd want to go. Rather, I'd suggest that you use a different technology that's relatively immune to external interference of that sort; such as "powerline networking." ( http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20030108S0003 )

As for configuring your wireless, with each of the last four laptops I've gotten over the years, I've ended up eventually stripping out the vendor's proprietary wireless access management software and letting Windows manage the connections on its own. In XP especially, the wireless connection tools are pretty good and not hard to use. And, with only one tool trying to monitor and manage the wireless, things are much simpler. For example, you can tell the Windows tool NOT to try to connect to just any network it happens to find; to forget about networks you'll never see again; to connect automatically only to networks you know about and preapprove; and so forth. I keep hoping that some vendor will ship a truly effortless tool, but none in my experience has even come close; instead, the built-in Windows tool is still the best I've found.

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4) Testing RAM

Fred, I wanted to pay along my thanks for reminding me and your readers about the Microsoft Memory Diagnostic tool ( http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp ). I had been fighting a blue screen of death on every bootup for a long time. I had changed out just about everything in the computer, even stripping it down to the bare essentials without fixing it. I did find that if I let the computer run for about 5 minutes and then rebooting would bring it back to life. To shorten the story, I downloaded the memory tool, checked the memory and found the 2nd memory strip to be bad. A quick replacement and I'm back to normal. I've worked with computers since the Radio Shack Model Ones and I'm always learning new things, especially from your Plus edition. Thank you once again. ---Mike

Glad it helped! RAM is usually very reliable--- so much so that many RAM configurations lack the "ECC" or "error correcting circuitry" that all RAM used to come with.  The upside: Non-ECC RAM is less expensive. But that means that when RAM goes bad, you experience the errors directly, without warning, without correction, and with little recourse. And, as Mike found, you may be left with few clues as to what's wrong.

The free Windows Memory Diagnostic is useful as a periodic check to ensure your RAM is OK; or as a troubleshooting tool when things are hosed. But it's also only one of a number of similar tools.

Just about every PC ever made has at least a basic RAM-testing tool built into the BIOS ( http://snipurl.com/of6i ). The nomenclature differs, but it's usually part of a "full boot" or "extended boot," or non-"QuickBoot" or some similarly named option. It enables a more complete, more-thorough power-on self-test ("POST"). You usually can see the BIOS-based RAM test in operation when it's enabled: At boot, the on-screen display shows the system counting up through RAM, checking it megabyte by megabyte, two or three times. It's only a quick and dirty test, but--- as most PCs have no other built-in way to check RAM--- it's better than nothing.

And, of course, there's other RAM-testing software available, including the venerable (and still free) MemTest86: http://www.memtest86.com/

A well-stocked software toolkit probably should have at least a couple memory testers in there, as they each may exercise the RAM in somewhat different ways. Take your pick: http://www.google.com/search?q=Memory+Diagnostic

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5) Doing The Defrag Shuffle

Fred: I have a 20G hard drive that is badly fragmented.  I've run Win 2000 defrag, 4 times since Friday.  Defrag tells me that I have 20-21% free space, but it is unable to show me much "free space", graphically.  I used Windows backup to get all of my files on to an external hd. I know that if I nuke my hard drive, I can restore all of my source code, but that I'd still need to spend 1 or more days re-installing all of my compilers and other tools. Any suggestions? ---Mike Timpe

Defrag should be able to work with 20% space free, but that's getting close to the lower limit: Defrag needs *at least* 15% free to work properly. If you have large files, Defrag may not be able to shuffle things around well enough to do a good job. (See "Hidden File Foils Defrag" http://langa.com/newsletters/2005/2005-12-08.htm#7 )

Because you have a full backup on a fast medium (an external drive), you might try this: Back up several of your largest folders to the external drive. (Things like the entire "My Documents" folder and subfolders would be a good place to start.) Then, with the folders safely stored in backup, erase the original folders on the main hard drive. This will open up a lot of space on the hard drive, and should let Defrag work properly.

When the drive is suitably defragged, restore the folders you previously moved into backup. You should now have a nicely-defragged hard drive!

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6) Three More Winners!

"Frank02" "tabor1au" and "whcatty" each won a FREE full one-year subscription to the LangaList Plus! edition by using the "Recommend To A Friend" form at http://langa.com/recommend.htm .

You see, each month I choose three winners of a new FREE ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION to the LangaList Plus! edition. (Existing Plus! subscribers get their current subscription extended by a full year.) To have a shot at winning, just use the following link to recommend the LangaList to a friend. Your friend just may find a new source of useful information; I just may gain a new subscriber; and you just may win! (Full details also available via this link): http://langa.com/recommend.htm

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7) Saving Win98 (or Other) Updates

Microsoft has stepped back from the brink before, but I'm guessing that Win98's support really will run out this Spring; or at most, this Summer if the delay in Vista causes MS to grant Win98 one more reprieve. In any case, Win98's days are numbered.

If you're using Win98, this will interest you:

Dear Fred  My question is about win98 updates   I have given away over 250 computers in the last 3 years and hope to give away more.  my website http://webpages.charter.net/tmang/RECYCLER.htm was featured on a lode the code page a while back. My question is this:  How can I save all those important updates to a CD before I cant get them anymore.  I cant afford to put XP on a computer that I am giving away... Tom Mang, Computer-Recyclers

The can seem a bit confusing because of difference between Update versions. But basically, what you're looking for is the "Windows Update Catalog."

Go to the Windows Update page. *IF* you see "Administrator options" in the left Nav bar, click it. The right pane of the page will them display "Administrator options," the first being, "Update multiple operating systems...". The phrase "Windows Update Catalog" is a link--- it's normally in blue. Click the link. But here's a catch that trips up a lot of people: At this point, you're being brought to a separate page that requires a special ActiveX control to work. If you have a Script/ActiveX blocker, or some other kinds of security tools, the ActiveX control may not be able to install. Instead of getting to the Catalog, you'll get that "Administrator's Only" error page with lots of text trying to help you get things set up OK. So, before you click the "Windows Update Catalog" link, temporarily relax your browser/system security so that the necessary ActiveX control can install. You'll then see a "Checking for the latest version of the Windows Update software..." notice, followed by "Welcome to Windows Update Catalog."

OR: *IF* you don't see "Administrator options" in Windows Update but instead see "Personalize Windows Update" (under "Other Options" in left nav panel), click that. You'll then see "Set options for Windows Update" Check the box for "Display the link to the Windows Update Catalog under See Also." Then click the "Save Settings" button. In the left nav panel you'll then see the "Windows Update Catalog" option appear under the "See also" heading. Click it.

Either way, once you're in the Catalog area, use the "Find updates for Microsoft Windows operating systems" option to select and download any or all updates for any and all versions of Windows. Download these to a safe location and burn them to CD for later re-use.

There's a related question that this raises: In what order should patches be applied? That's a messy one, too, but we tried to answer it here:
http://langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-10-28.htm#3

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8) They Loaded The Code

Almost 5,000 of your fellow readers have "Loaded the Code." Please click over to http://langa.com/code.htm , and maybe you can join them! (If you've already "Loaded The Code" and are wondering if your site will appear here or on the Langa.Com web site, please see http://langa.com/link.txt )

Speaking of which: Here's another eclectic sample of reader sites---some professional, some very personal:

View A Randomly-Chosen Reader Site
http://langa.com/randomlink.htm

Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At
http://langa.com/readersites.htm

cowtech software
http://www.cowtec.com/index.html

San Francisco Bay Area Harpist Michelle Sell
http://www.michellesell.com

Fire Alarm Engineering Outsource
http://www.fire101.net/

Bruce Gourley
http://www.brucegourley.com/

A Second Chance
http://www.rbee44.com/

PAD Repository
http://www.padrepository.com/

Deezle
http://www.deezle.com/

Babcock Solutions
http://www.babcocksolutions.com/

The Little Things
http://www.chench.com/thelittlethings/index.php

AZservice
http://www.azserviceplus.com/about_us.htm

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9) His Floppy Flopped

Hi Fred, I appreciate the time and effort you put into the newsletter. I have a  little problem with my floppy drive, it will only read raw data and will not write at all. I usually click before I read and It appears I clicked at the wrong time. Would appreciate help to get my floppy drive back. Thanks. I look forward to every issue. ---Bob Hurley

Floppies are fairly crude devices, and can suffer a number of maladies. But first, let me ask the obvious: Is the floppy disc's read-only tab OK? If you hold a floppy face up, with the metal shutter facing you (so it would slide to your right, in use) look at the square opening in the upper right corner of the floppy. If the floppy is ready for read/write operation, you should NOT be able to see through the opening. Instead, it should be opaque or solid; covered with a sliding tab or stick-on material. If you can see through the square opening in the upper right corner of the floppy then the floppy is set in "read-only" mode, and cannot be written to. (Also, some floppies--- especially ones that installation software ships on--- have no such opening at all: they're permanently read-only and cannot be used for write operations, period.)

OK, assuming it's not that: Normally, with hardware failures, I'd suggest you look at driver issues; but read-but-no-write doesn't sound driver-ish to me. It's worth a quick check, but my guess it's *not* a driver issue.

One of the most common is plain old dust and dirt: A PC's fans may draw air in through the floppy's door, over time leading to an astonishing amount of crud accumulating inside. If the read/write head gets encrusted with a dustball or other debris, you'll have problems.

The ka-chunk-chunk-chunk sound you normally hear from a floppy is the head moving to certain, set positions to read or write data on the floppy. Over time, the head can drift out of alignment so it's no longer properly positioned, leading to read-write failures, or the inability to swap floppies with other machines.

The data cable running between the floppy and the motherboard also may work loose at either or both ends; or corrosion can form on the contacts; leading to total or partial failures.

And floppy discs themselves wear out over time.

I'd suggest you use a can of Dust-Off or other air-in-a-can to blow out the guts of your floppy drive; and to check the electrical and data connections on the back. There are alignment tools and other sophisticated ways of further fixing floppy problems, but I doubt they're worth it: You can find a brand-new floppy drive on Froogle for under $10, so it's just not worth a lot of time and effort to try to rehab a dying floppy. Just get a new one!

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10, 11, 12, 13) Plus! Edition Only:

Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains about 40% more content including: ...

• Emails With Random Verbiage?
     (context is everything)
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     (free new tool)
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Plus! edition subscribers not only get much more content in every issue (like the above), but also have access to a private web site with over 100,000 words of special content and features not found in *any* issue of the newsletter; along with dozens of private downloads and much more- --all for around just $1 per month!

Plus! Edition info: http://langa.com/plus.htm

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14) Just For Grins

Winters are long in Canada. Very, very long.

Hi Fred! Here's one for the Just-For-Grins section.
http://www.v8snowblowers.com/ 
Naturally it took a Canadian to make such a beast......brian

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Click <a href= " http://langa.com/plus_gift.htm ">here</a>)

The LangaList is published about 72 times a year, or about 6 times a month. See you next issue, 2006-04-06

Best,

Fred
( Editor@Langa.Com )

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