December 2010 Archives

http://www.freebyte.com/free_computers/

So you've decided to save a lot of money and build your first computer ? Congrats ! You will also know exactly which components are in your box, as well as their quality.

Since Newegg.com is my favorite place to get parts, I'll link to there for a very basic computer build:

Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811103033 Cost is $89.99 USD (not including shipping)

Power Supply Unit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817170012 Cost: $13.99

Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138285 Cost: $59.99

Memory (RAM): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231043 , 2 sticks of this, Cost: $35.98

Processor (CPU): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103717 Cost: $30.99

Hard Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148231 Cost: $35.99

Video Card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187108 Cost: $24.99

External DVD Drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827230001 Cost: $19.99

Optical Mouse: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826129049 Cost: $3.99

Keyboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823107128 Cost: $5.99

LCD Monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009262 Cost: $99.99

Wired Router/Firewall: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156001 Cost: $24.99

AC Power Surge Suppressor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812120401 Cost: $17.99

Headset: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826140007 Cost: $6.99

Grand Total Cost: $471.85, not including shipping costs or any taxes.

Now, I am NOT guaranteeing or warrantying the quality of these parts. Caveat emptor always applies. I could have saved a few more dollars by gambling on some parts with no or lower ratings, but I decided to "upgrade" slightly.

Of course, you have to pay a monthly fee for your internet access. If your ISP does not furnish you with an ADSL or cable modem, you will have to buy your own. To be honest, buying your own will give you a much better quality internet connection, since the provided modems tend to be very cheap and of not so great quality.

You can still purchase dial-up internet access, but 1- it's really only good for email and 2- your web pages will load very slowly. However, if you need to save money, it's the way to go. A link for dial-up access: http://www.peoplepc.com/dialup-internet/

Please remember that MOST of the deals you see on the internet do NOT include: a monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, a surge suppressor, a router, or a headset.

I chose an external DVD drive simply for ease of "installation": you simply plug in a USB cable and it's installed, as opposed to screwing an internal drive into a drive bay.

You may not want to listen to videos or music via the net or your computer. In that case, you can deduct the headset.

You really need the AC Power Surge Suppressor so that temporary power surges and/or lightning strikes do not fry your box. Yes, you can live without one but IMHO you are gambling.

IMHO, you really must have the router. Without it, it's only a matter of time before some cracker breaks into your box from the net.

You may want to spring for a CPU fan or CPU heatsink and some case fans. However, usually the retail version of the processors comes with an included fan or heatsink, and usually most cases come with adequate fans. It's up to you.

You can also spring for an extra SATA II cable for the hard drive, although the retail version of the hard drive and the retail version of the motherboard should come with adequate cables.

I put 2 gigabytes of RAM into this box so that you can run Windows Vista or 7 with no trouble whatsoever. Running one gigabyte is destined to starve you of memory. If you plan on running a "memory hog" application like AutoCad or several applications at one time, you will need to upgrade the memory from 2 gigs to perhaps 3 or more. Of course, to properly run AutoCad, you would really need to upgrade the box completely to have more power and speed.

Last caveat: This proposed build is not fast nor superior in any way. It's a very basic system. If you must have speed or superior graphics, you will have to spend more money and buy different parts.

Happy building !

Google News

Cyber-Security Tips

The link above is a good summary of what you can do to protect yourself on the net. The part here about good safe passwords is especially important.

BTW, a good page to go to for regular cyber-security news: http://www.theregister.co.uk/security/

• Using the right words and phrases helps immensely. I use Google almost all the time, and no, I do not work for Google. Be sure to use quotation marks ( "blah blah") around the phrases you MUST find or sentences you must find.
• Go here for Google-specific help: http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=134479&hl=en
• Other good search engines are: Bing, Ask.com, Metacrawler, Yahoo, and Wolfram.
• An exhaustive listing of all search engines is here, per Google.
• Sometimes your topic or subject is so specialized, that you need a custom search. See here for an example.
• Feel free to try other search engines. You may like Bing or Yahoo or Wolfram, etc. better.
• Be persistent. Try several search engines. Try several combinations of words and phrases.
• Not everything is on the net, yet. Some material/texts/images can only be found at libraries or museums.
• Some material is, obviously, secret or classified. It's a pretty safe bet that you won't be able to find the secret recipe for Coca-Cola or the precise location of all CIA operatives on the net.
• I think it's safe to say, if you spend two full hours using all the techniques above searching the net and you come up empty, that you will not find it on the net.

http://www.asktheadmin.com/category/howto

Caveat emptor, as usual.

http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/the-guide-build-your-own-pc

At that link above may *possibly* be a good guide to building your own PC. I say possibly, because I have not read it yet. Caveat emptor and good luck !

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Google Chrome CR-48 netbook: I just received one, free of charge for participating in the Pilot Program, via Fedex the other day. It's a netbook. It's all black. You cannot download any .exe files to install anything on the (seemingly non-existent) hard drive. You can surf the web and Google applications and the Google Chrome Web Store.

It's great if you only want to surf the web, use webmail and use Google Applications (like Google Docs, etc). Otherwise, meh.

To apply for the Pilot program, click here.

Case in point: Today I decided to switch my router's firmware from Polarcloud's Tomato (which was perfectly good) to DD-WRT. I first flashed the firmware with the recommended stable, safe image. Everything went perfectly. Then I got ambitious/curious and decided to try a "bleeding-edge" firmware. My router almost got bricked.  I had to rescue it using a TFTP procedure I had never done before. Otherwise, it would have been more $ for a new router. It's now back on the safe firmware. Moral: Caution is good and sometimes warranted.

One more point to make: The defaults in your software/hardware are there for a reason: they work for MOST people under MOST circumstances. If you are going to be using your box in some extreme/unusual/overclocked/specialized way, THEN it's a good idea to alter the defaults to some values that make sense. If you don't know what you're doing with your settings, you will semi-brick (my coined phrase) your box and have to revert back to the old settings or, even worse, reformat your hard drive and reinstall Windows. With overclocking, it's possible to destroy your processor and it always voids the warranty.

Here is a good link for troubleshooting help. Troubleshooting is simply the process of narrowing down the possible reasons for your hardware or software problems and then fixing it. FWIW, most of your problems will be software-related: a bug, a corrupted file, a problem in the Windows registry, a lack of compatibility with hardware, etc.

This is an example of how real people spend real money (lots ot it) on virtual worlds. Another example of a virtual world is Secondlife or Blue Mars. Some of you will think this is all very silly, which is fine. It's simply another form of entertainment and some companies actually conduct business in these virtual worlds.

• The internet is not some OMFG horrible and scary place. No more so than the real world. If you want to find porn, you can do so pretty easily in the real world. 
• If you have children, grandkids, or younger visitors, you may wish to use Parental Controls in Windows.
• Another way to limit access to the net is 1- have a difficult password to login to your box, 2- make sure all accounts except the Guest Account have difficult passwords, and 3- religiously monitor the Guest account and the files on your hard drive.
• You can also buy net filtering software, such as Net Nanny.
• The only 100% guaranteed way to keep younger people from viewing the net is to 100% prevent them from having access to a machine connected to the net. Younger people under 18 are much much more computer and net savvy than my generation is. They can go to a friend's house and learn how to crack or circumvent the software. 
• Remember, all software can be hacked, given enough time and skill.
• The Pentagon was hacked one time. The US Congress was also hacked at least once. The CIA was hacked years ago. Moral of the story: Take security seriously on the net.
• Your ISP will not function well at least once.
• Your ISP will undergo maintenance at 3 AM while you are trying to read something important on the net.
• Get a webmail account specifically for non-important things, like registering at websites. Some websites will sell your addy and then you get spammed to death.
• Resist the temptation to buy anything from spam email. It could be legitimate, but there is a strong likelihood you will get ripped off. Be especially wary of any email related to Nigeria. Nigeria is famous for being home to net scammers.
• A good website to know exactly what time it is in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia as well as your hometown :)
• Your NIC card will fail on you at least once. Hopefully you can simply uninstall it and reinstall it via Windows (or even, if you can, taking it out of its mobo slot) and cure the problem. Make sure you have the correct software installed for your NIC card. Windows typically has good software for it, but not always.
• A spare portable NIC card is a nice thing to have, when your NIC card decides to die at 10:01 PM.
• Good things to write down on old-fashioned paper: your modem's MAC address and serial number, your router's exact name and firmware (internal software) version, your webmail password (and hide it well from prying eyes), your Windows Product Key... When I think of more, I"ll put them here.
• I recommend Gmail for webmail. Hotmail and Yahoo Mail tend to be a tad slow.

• RTFM.
• Check for compatibility problems between each set of connecting hardware. Example: Your motherboard needs to be compatible with your video card and your RAM (memory) and your processor and your hard drives and your cables.
• Don't buy bleeding-edge hardware unless 1- you are filthy rich or 2- you must have it to do some job, such as video editing or 3- you are a hardcore computer nerd who enjoys speed.
• Always read the motherboard manual before doing anything. You will thank me later.
• Newegg.com is a great store to buy hardware and software from, at competitive prices. They feature honest online reviews from actual purchasers and users.
• Monitors going bad will often turn a pink color.
• It's worth it, to me, to have a monitor larger than 14 inches, unless you really cannot get one.
• Make sure you have all the proper connectors and cables and adapters for your system. Make sure the male and female problem is accounted for.
• In general, old-fashioned mechanical hard drives are much more compatible with other hardware than the new SSD's. However, with some research, you can easily purchase an SSD for your needs. Right now I"m running a 4x (4 drives) RAID0 array (collection) of OCZ Vertex2 SSD's. RAID arrays are only for 1- the advanced and 2- those who want more speed and data protection.
• In general, new hardware "concepts" brought to market will be 1- very expensive and 2- quickly superseded by newer and better hardware. If you absolutely have to have this SSD, prepare to possibly have problems and definitely pay a lot. Note I said possibly.
• You will make at least one regrettable hardware purchase. You will either pay "too much" or it will fail on you too soon.
• A decent mechanical hard drive will, notwithstanding abuse and 24 hour heavy operation, last you about 4 to 5 years. That's not a guarantee, however. Always backup your data. Data is anything on your hard drive, whether photos or emails or video, etc.

• Always scan for viruses if you run into a problem. It's a very common problem.
• Scan for rootkits, also.
• RTFM.
• Learn keyboard shortcuts as you go along.
• Take your time learning new software. 
• Almost all software has bugs. I say almost all, because supposedly some have been very very thoroughly debugged over the years.
• Avoid "bleeding edge" software, unless you need it and don't mind paying a high price for it, if it's closed-source. 
• Open source software can be as good as commercial software, but scan for malware and be prepared for some bugs. An excellent example of OSS is here: Open Office
• Some software besides Windows is worth paying for. You also get support typically for a while when you pay for it. You also, sometimes, get free upgrades.
• When you feel more comfortable using Windows, try Ubuntu Linux operating system. You can download it for free and burn the ISO image onto a DVD to install from your DVD drive.
• Do NOT use Windows 3.1, 95, 98 or Me to connect to the internet, no matter how cheap you can get them ! You will get a virus quickly, because these OS'es (operating systems) cannot be patched up to current standards.
• Windows XP, Vista and 7 are all safe to connect to the net, provided you patch them completely and use a good firewall/router.
• Any Linux distribution (version) is safe to connect to the internet with. Yes, Linux on rare occasions has gotten viruses but is far safer than Windows. The malware writers mainly go after poorly patched versions of Windows.
• If you want maximum safety when connecting to your bank or credit union, use only Linux or Windows 7 fully patched. Windows 7 is safer than Vista.
• Linux is a PITA to learn, but has security and other advantages over Windows. Oh yeah, it's free too !

• Ask questions. Most knowledgeable people have compassion for those with less knowledge.
• Go to internet forums to ask those questions.
• An example of a help forum is this one: http://computerhelpforum.org/forum/portal.html
  
• Most forums require you to register to ask a question.
• Writing effective subject lines for your post will get you a lot more help. For example, typing "HELPPPPP" in the subject line may get you ignored. Typing "Mobo will not boot up, I'm new at this" will probably get you a lot of help.
• Usually the posters (people) at the forums will want exact details about your hardware (your physical equipment like your processor and RAM and hard drives, etc) and software. If you don't know that information, download this program and use it for free: Everest AIDA64 It will tell you exactly what is "in your computer".
• RTFM. That practice alone will save you untold hours of frustration.
• Backup your data (files, documents, photos, etc) daily, or at least weekly. HDD's (hard drive disks or hard drives) do fail, especially after a few years of usage.
• If you get too frustrated working on something, turn your box off and go relax for a while or at least do something else. That really helps.
• Even computer experts have problems. You will have problems, so it's not always your fault.
• After 17+ years, I'm still learning things. "Old dogs" can learn new tricks.
• Obvious point, but it helps a lot if you are aware of exactly what you wish to do with your machine. Want to edit videos and movies ? You need to learn one skillset. Want to publish a blog ? Another specific skillset. Want to become an excellent PC (personal computer) gamer ? Another skillset. You get the point.
• Despite what anyone says, you do NOT have to have a huge one or two terabyte hard drive, unless you plan on saving a lot of digital video or digital audio. Text files don't take up much room usually, which includes emails.
• I encourage you to subscribe, or least read at your library, one or two computer-related magazines. My very first one was PC World. It's a great magazine and aimed at the lower to middle range knowledge level. I now read Maximum PC magazine, which is aimed more at the middle to higher knowledge level crowd with a heavy emphasis on gaming. There are other computer-related magazines, of course.
• Another great forum to ask questions is here.
• When I purchased my first PC in 1996, I literally knew almost nothing. I had to figure out how to get on the internet from scratch. First step was, attach the dial-up cable to the wall. I knew that little.
• People of any age can learn how to operate a Windows-based computer proficiently. 

This blog and its entries are for those new to the operating system Windows and to building computers. If you have experience with Windows, this blog is beneath your experience level. You've been warned.

After 17 years of struggling in the zone between raw beginner and IT (information technology) consultant, I decided to write this blog to somewhat fill that gap. Help on the internet seems to be either 1) very very basic or 2) written for those highly skilled in IT. I have no formal training in IT nor degrees, but after 17 years using computers you learn a few things. I have compassion for those of you just starting out.

This entry is dedicated to security, since that is an extremely important topic. 

Malware is the overall term for all harmful computer software. It includes viruses, worms, trojans, keyloggers, rootkits, and others that I'm sure I know nothing about, yet.

The old saying applies, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. How do you prevent malware infection ? Let me list the ways:

1. Before you even connect your ethernet cable to your modem, make sure you have a decent router (also called a hardware firewall) between your box (computer, also called machine) and the modem. Some people have been infected with malware on an unguarded box in less than four minutes. Sad but true. I use a Linksys router.
2. If you download anything from the net (internet), make sure to virus scan it immediately. Better yet, do not download anything you are not sure of.
3. Do not click on any links in email.
4. Hover your mouse cursor over links in safe web pages to make sure you are going to a safe page.
5. Always use a good antivirus program, such as Norton, Sophos or Kaspersky. Make sure to keep it updated at least weekly, if not daily.
6. Stay away from pages (web pages) with any porn on them or free stuff. The "warez" sites are notorious for malware. 
7. A lot of viruses come to your box via peer to peer connections (such as Kazaa, Limewire, BitTorrent, etc). Again, be sure to virus scan.
8. Operating systems (acronym = OS, Windows, Mac (Apple Macintosh), Linux, BSD, and others): Linux and BSD are the most secure. Mac is next. Windows is "least secure". No worries, if you use multiple layers of security, you should be fine using any flavor of Windows except Windows Me or earlier versions.
9. Web browsers (browsers): Linux-based browsers are the most secure. Then the Mac browser Safari because of its underlying OS. Mozilla Firefox is next when you use the NoScript addon. Then Windows Internet Explorer (IE) 8 fully-patched (meaning all security updates have been applied), then IE 7. Do NOT use IE 6 unless you are forced to, it has many security holes in it.
10. Common sense always applies.
11. If you do not understand a word that is computer or malware related, please ask someone on an internet forum or do a thorough Google search. You will find the answer.
12. You might want to bookmark/do an RSS on an internet security website, just to stay up to date.