Part I:

 

I often get question about security and the Internet; and of course, in this jumble of questions I get asked about things like software, hardware, firewalls, routers, hubs and etc.

It is in these lines of questions that I start to see more and more people really have no clue as to how the Internet actually works (let alone the many devices that make it happen).

So I decided to give a small run down of these devices and when and where they are approriate over a series of entries.

 

In this entry, I decided to talk a bit about routers.

 

Routers:

 

What?: Technically speaking, a router is a device that is used to connect "subnets" together and segregate broadcast domains. In an analogy, think of a router like an interchange on the highway or even yet, a tollbooth that lets you on to a certain part of a highway. It seperates several (possibly just two) distinct areas, and for you to get access to one area or another, you must cross this interchange or tollbooth in order to continue going on. Routers do this, but with Internet communications or as the term is coined "Internet Traffic". Understand that routers are depolyed all over the Internet and Intranets throughout the world. For example, there are several routers at several Universities and colleges to segregate their little part of the Internet from the rest of the world. The beauty is that routers have become so robust that they have the ability to analyze traffic and accordingly handle it (such as stopping certain types of traffic based on a set criteria like a Virus or certain machines that keep trying to "crack" a network of machines).

 

Going back to what I was saying before, routers have become so robust that they have the ability to "modify and handle traffic" so to speak. One such ability is called Network Address Translation (or NAT for short). What this allows a user (or users I should probably say) is to "share" the Internet across several computers and make it appears as if all traffic is coming from one computer (or device). In terms of security, it adds a small layer of protection (from random "drive-by hacking" attempts), as computers located behind the router(that is doing NAT) are virtually inaccessible directly (they can be set-up so you could, but by default they are not, and in fact are set-up to deny any traffic that is in-bound for your private network). In some sense, the router is a basic type of firewall. Still, they do the job for many SOHO and personal networks.

 

When, where and how much?:  I would look at using these devices on personal home networks, especially for those looking to share their Internet connection across several machines. In fact, about three years ago when Sasser (a worm/virus that destroyed thousands of Windows XP computers, by attacking the lsass.exe process) was around, even the software firewalls didn't stop it, and that is when I was using one of these SOHO routers (a Linksys at the time), which was one of the cheapest ways to protect yourself until a secuirty patch was appropriately tested and installed. With that in mind, maybe it a good idea to run a router with NAT even if you only have one computer. Considering I only paid $50 for the Linksys, it saved me five hours of re-building my machine and having to scramble to restore from back-ups (sorry can't say that for everyone else that got infected that month). You can pick these devices up almost anywhere like Best-Buy, Walmart or Staples for anywhere from $10 to $100, depending on what sort of features you want (ie, wireless and/or VPN).

 

 

 

 

Really, when people ask me what one thing irritates me the most about the IT industry, I ususally say two things:

 

1.) People who think their kid or nephew or neighbors kid's friend who's "good with computers" can fix their problems. Then when things blow-up (cause they were trying to save a few dollars rather than shelling out the cash to have it done properly), and they try to bargin with you on the cost or price of your service. That really pisses me off to no end! Not only is it being short-sighted; but also gives a bad name to the industry itself. All (well the good ones) of us train hard, work hard and learn (trial by fire in most cases) to help people; only in the end to get shafted by them.... sheeesh!

 

2.)Absolutely no vision and lack of planning. It's funny. People plan when they buy or have a new house built. They plan and budget for a new car. They even plan when they buy groceries. So why do businesses not plan their IT purchases and upgrades? Usually they wait for the best deal, or until something breaks down and it forces them to buy new. How ridiculously stupid! I mean even in tax planning terms. If you use your Capital Cost allowance and properly depreciate your equipment, then in the long wrong you save money by having reliable, efficient and effective equipment; rather than having a piece of junk that hangs all the time and needs to be rebooted, causing your workers to get frustrated and in most cases waste their time waiting for the computer to be fixed. When you think it through, proper planning should cut down your downtime by more than 99%. And if you have someone who is knowledgable and effective, you can probably cut it down even further.

 

So what are things you should consider?

 

Here are some ideas:

 

1.) If you have more than 5 people needing to share information; then you should definately look at a File Server.

2.) If you have more than 10 people (or are approaching growth to that level), you should look towards some type of directory service(s) server as well.

3.) What type of anti-virus should you get? Corporate? Home/SOHO?

4.) Do you need to share an Internet connection? What is a good product for doing such a thing?

5.) Are all your workstations running on the same (or similar) hardware? are they running all the same OS?

6.) Should you put in some type of redundancy? How much downtime and you afford to have and still run your business?

 

and most importantly...

 

7.) Hire or consult with someone who can give you the answers you need (and no, not your nephew or neighbors granddaughter)!

 

 

Happy Planning!

 

 

 

 

The topic of conversation is: is 64 bit Intel architecture really worth it?

 

If you want my honest opinion... then it is this: NO.

 

More specifically, unless you require large amounts of addressable memory... then forget about 64 bit. It's all hype and junk. Think about this: how many 64 bit applications do you know of? I mean honestly, I can't think oif a single one that would be useful to the average user. I mean Enginnering users, Database servers and maybe even large web servers and application servers could definately get an advantage out of 64 bit, but for the normal home user it's just hype and a waste of money... well at least right now at this point in time it is a waste.

 

I mean sure you can get Windows XP 64, but good luck finding antivirus or any useful applications for it, but think more indepth... what about your other stuff? Will applications and games you like run on the newer 64 bit CPUs? Well, I shouldn't say not all 64 bit chips can't handle it... the AMD lines are mostly backwards compatible (running standard Windows XP); so if you do decide to go with 64 bit, I would lean more towards getting and AMD chip rather than an Intel chip.

 

So where and what should you look at pouring your money into to get the most out of your machine? The truth is, I like DDR2. Two reasons, cause it uses less energy and is fast than standard DDR. In price terms, it is a bit more; but not much more like the old days when you compared EDO RAM with SDRAM. DDR2 is maybe about 10% more expensive than normal DDR.

 

 

Just my two cents!

 

Happy Computing

 

 

Here's a good tip for most of the people out there with a network that are having problems sharing between machines (and/or printers):

 

Check to see if your Windows Firewall (or some other software firewall such as ZoneAlarm or Sygate) is turned on.

 

If you have a small network at home (or a big network) and you use a hardware device such as a SOHO router or an actual firewall device, then you really have little need to use a software firewall on your network if you are trying to share devices (or files and music). You would be surprised to know how much money I have made over the years based on just this simple little concept.

 

Anyways: security really is much more simple than any firewall. If you have a Windows machine, the first thing you should do is turn off un-needed services; such as File and print sharing or Universal Plug and Pray. Other things you probably won't use include Terminal server (unless you know what you are doing), Routing and Remote access, Remote registry and DCOM. Security starts from the ground up, and the simple fact is, if you have all this turned on and you don't use it; then the firewall is still very useless.

 

Many people ask what I run at home, and I reply OpenBSD (cause I'm a power user and I love playing with fire). Why do you ask? Simple: cause in it's default install, I get a very slim footprint. That means the default installs only the basics of what is needed; and anything that I do want, I have to manually install or turn on. I really wish Windows XP was like this, cause it could save alot of time and effort in security and patching if people just simply installed only what they needed.

 

So go ahead and use your fancy firewall, but the next time you get hacked or have problems with sharing files; you can call my buddy Sean to fix it if you live in Lethbridge. I'm sure he'll be happy knowing you're willing to shell out $70+/hr for him to fix a simple problem cause you were too lazy to understand how the technology works and what to use it for. 

 

 

Thought I would throw in a discussion from time to time, and this is one of those times.

 

It's interesting to see the number of acquisitions and mergers in the current IT world. Once, during the dot-com haydays, I remember small companies that were innovating the world with ideas taking on the big boys like Microsoft and Cisco; going toe for toe without worrying about being bought out or sold out. I guess things changed after the dot-com bubble burst....

 

But one thing does still remain the same; and that is the most of the intresting and innovative technologies today can be found in the smaller start-ups that you don't hear much about today. Probably because the monlithic giants like Symantec and Oracle buy the companies out before the products show up in the market. This has me concerned in some ways, as we allow these giants to grow and "muscle out" the competition using their heavy wallets. In some ways, it does stimulate the use of the technologies (common, who doesn't use Active Directory in some way or form even though it's crappier to some of the alternatives?), but in other ways, it also kills the market to find a best of breed solution. Many times I have heard praises about Peoplesoft and their ERP package, and the many companies that complain about the takeover by Oracle.

 

Maybe I am being paranoid and this is the way things should be... who knows, this may be for the best. Ultimately though, I still like the idea of choice and driving unqiue solutions over any type of standardization on a proprietary technology. Perhaps this is the reason why I, like so many others, have embraced open source technologies; and I have to say without doubt, that open source is driving innovation (whether for bad or good, as is the case in P2P technologies such as bittorrent).

 

 

Many people ask me about what the next big thing is:

 

- some argue it is VOIP

- some say convergence of all mobile technologies (that would be nice).

- some say Blue tooth (still for some stupid reason).

 

Personally, I think it's gonna be virtualization.

 

If you have never heard of VMware or Xen... then don't bother reading any further, cause what I am about to discuss won't make much sense to you. I suggest you do some reseach and maybe even play with it a bit, and you will start to see what I will be discussing..

 

I have seen many companies, enterprises and small, grasping at straws to cut down on the space and effort need to keep all their server equipment all properly managed. Management means find space, making sure everything is cooled properly and handling any issues that come up from aging equipment. So what's the best solution out there? Well, some say Blade server; but I digress, since blade servers need much more cooling than their bigger and bulkier counterparts. Some even say super-computers; but again I have to argue that in most cases, it isn't raw CPU power that is needed... rather the need to have speration between processes. That's where virtualization technology comes into play.

 

By virtualizing your server farm... you could potentially cut down the server count by as much as 60%. This is especially the case for under-utlilized web servers, file and print servers and in some cases, E-mail servers. By running products like VMware on high end powerfully redundant servers, one can create an environment that is dynamic, stable and scalable; while cutting down the costs of space and cooling management to a minimal footprint. By my estimates, most servers in fact are under-utlized as far as CPU resources are concerned, so products like VMware and Xen are perfect for consolidating resources and pooling them accordingly.

 

Currently as I write this, I know there is a BIG demand for IT staff that are experienced with Virtualization technologies. I know for a fact that VMware certified people are in high demand because of this increased demand. As the technology progresses and adoption at the enterprise level increases, so does the demand for qualified people to administer and implement these solutions.

 

So VOIP may make it big and a cellphone/pocket PC type device maybe the next killer app/device; but I still put my money on virtaulization software and in fact, this techie is thinking about getting VMware certified.

 

 

You have to understand.... I think it's great to see new technologies emerging; but sometime I think we as users of technology have to say "WAIT!" from time to time. This is essentially what I have to say about Voice Over IP technologies.

 

Why do I say it? Well, over the past few years, I have been the person(s) responsible for overseeing the overall day-to-day administration of such systems from vendors such as Avaya and Cisco. Don't get me wrong... when they work, they work extremely well and can be very cost-effective. The feature-rich systems from Avaya definately are cutting edge and easliy outdo most traditional PBXes from vendors such as the popular (and over flooded) Nortel. I won't go into much detail discussing the hurts and pains of these systems, only to say I wanted to briefly outline some of the commercial products you see from your Long distance carriers and etc.

 

Carriers such as Vonage, that provide commercial VOIP to people such as you or I at home have been "setting up shop" in the last two or so years; and most recently, you have probably seen a marketing "blitz" from one or more vendors trying to sell you their service...right? So now, the question you have to ask yourself is, should I switch-over to VOIP?

 

There really isn't a good answer, since it all depends on what you have planned for it. If your phone is the most vital part of your life (or small business), then I say NO. Consider this: when was the last time you recall having a phone outage in your area/community? Does it happen frequently? From my perspective, I haven't had a phone outage in over 13 years, and probably at least 10 years before that was the last time and outage occured between then. In short, your normal telco service is reliable and stable. If you are a business that deals with other businesses or customers, you probably need this type of stability...so I would serious re-think whatever strategy you have for switching over completely. Why do I say this? Think about the last time your internet connection went down? I can recall atleast eight(8) instances myself this year alone. Since VOIP relies on your high-speed Internet access to communicate... if your connection goes down... so does your phone.

 

So where does VOIP become the alternative? Well, say you are a small company that does alot of teleconferencing (or inter-company communication) between branch offices... in that case, you could save a bundle in long distance charges by using the same VOIP carrier (I believe calls to other clients on the same carrier are free). Another instance could be when you have family overseas or across the country in another province or state, then this type of service could really be cost-effective. These are cases where people may not rely on 99.999% uptime and deal with outages for huge savings in cost. Heck... you may even have a cell phone you use more often than not and don't really need a "landline" except for long distance. If this is the case, then VOIP may be for you.

 

I guess what I say about everything is... don't believe the hype about certain products and/or technologies. Do the research first and shop around for the best price. Do comparisons and ask people who have the service already and what their hang-ups are about it. But whatever you do... don't just dive in and expect the best, cause that's when it all falls apart. As for me... well, I'm waiting for the technology to mature; as I had stated earlier, I have had enough bad experiences to know that this technology is in its infancy and could stand to improve in the coming years. Then again, I hate the local telco here so much, I'm ready to switch over to something just to spite them....hehehehe

 

 

Happy VOIPing!

 

 

Many a times I have helped people remove spyware off of their computer. And many a times, these damm spyware programs hi-jack your winsock connection, so they can monitor what sites you visit and etc (in theory, they could potentially sniff out passwords if they wanted to... scary eh?). After the program gets removed, a piece of it can still remain that's attached to your winsock and TCP/IP stack. In short, what it means is that since the spyware is gone, there is no proper way for your computer to estabish a Internet connection.

 

What do you do?

 

Answer: Well, it's really just some registry settings that are pointing to your now deleted spyware program(s). So if you remove those settings and restore the originals, you should be back to normal. But... most people I'm sure will have a tough time doing it. So, I have graciously found some URL's to programs you can download and run on your computer that will fix your problems automatically. LSPfix I primarily use on Windows 9x/ME computers. WINXPfix I use for Windows XP machines. Both are fairly good and I have a good track record using them.... and now you will too....

 

 

LSPfix

http://www.cexx.org/lspfix.htm

 

WinXPFix

http://www.iup.edu/house/resnet/winfix.shtm

 

 

There's also a command line program built-in to Windows called netsh, which can be used to re-build your TCP/IP stack.

 

the command goes something like this:

 

netsh int ip reset c:\resetlog.txt

 

Here's the link to MS for it:

 

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;299357

 

 

If all else fails... you will need to call a tech, or a guru like me...hehehe.

 

Happy Hunting!

 

 

 

 

Many people (okay, ALOT of people) ask; more so than normal problems with the computer about what they should look for when they go shopping for a new computer. I decided to write this little blurb for all the average home users that may be looking to buy a new computer.

 

It used to be a real chore with so many options to chose from; however, in the present, there really is no way to pick a wrong one. When I say this, I mean that there is no way to choose a bad "new" computer; not a new used one if you know what I mean. Why do I say this? Simply because the computers of today have so much power and speed that it becomes "overkill" for what most average users do with their computers. By average, I mean the person who "surfs the web", E-mails, chats, occasionally downloads some music or movies and maybe plays the odd game or two online (such as at pogo). If this is you, then great news; almost any new computer will suit you fine!

 

THE STANDARD things to look for:

 

1.) Lots of memory (or RAM). The more the better! Average at the moment I would say is between 256 ~ 512MB. I would try for 1024MB, and settle for 512MB. If you plan on doing some video capturing/converting, then you may even want to try and get more.

 

2.) CPU: It's pretty much a moot point here, as most new computers are too fast anyways. But if you are looking for quality, I would stick with the Intel P4 (with Hyperthreading brands). For AMD, I would say the AMD 64 chips are pretty good as well; but for re-sale, I would stick with Intel. Again, there really is no point in being picky here as most CPU's are almost 20x faster than their predecesors from 5 years ago.

 

3.) Hard Disk(Drive): Obviously, if you plan on capturing a lot of video or downloading tons of music, then you want this number to be high. I would say the average is around 160GB ~ 200GB; so I would try and stick to find a computer with something like that. If you don't plan on downloading a lot, then a smaller 80GB machine could save you a few bucks from the total cost.

 

4.) NICs, Video, Sound: All these are trivial unless you tend on owning a media-monster computer (that you plan on feeding video, music and etc to your TV with). Most Sound cards are good enough for people that are not music-philes. As for video, unless you plan to do some serious gaming, then the standard built-in video will probably do fine (considering that is still better than most video cards five years ago).

 

There is however, one small caveat I will mention: the cheaper the computer, the more likely it may break down in a shorter period of time. This is true of most products you find on the store shelf. Price really can dictate the longevity of your computer in terms of quality. The best example I give is the differences between the cheapest Dell Laptop and the Toshiba Laptop. Both may equally do a fine job of whatever you bought the Laptop for; however, I would classify the Toshiba to be a slightly better lasting purchase than the Dell (sorry, but even the D600 series are very crappy). That isn't to say that you should shop for brand names.... heck no! Some of the best computers out there are actually no-name clone machines; such as Cicero or Medeon. I would say that if you shop for a computer in the mid-$700 range, you may find a really good computer, at a really good price.

 

There is also one last piece of advice I would like to give: do some research and shop around! Just a few minutes educationg yourself about the different products can go a long ways in finding the perfect pruchase for you and your needs. Look at flyers and be patient! Every major computer company has a sale throughout the year where they offer you some really great deals. I can say for a fact, I have got some really spectacular deals in January (after Christmas/Boxing Day, when it slows down and they do everything to try and bring shoppers in). If you go with the mentality of wanting it NOW, then you won't be getting the best deal you could.... that isn't to say your computer may suck, but you may pay a little more than if you had waited or shopped around for a better deal.

 

 

Happy Shopping!

 

 

This is a funny topic to bounce around, as it applies to people with older computers, rather than newer ones. Nonetheless, the same principles still apply.

 

1.) Add extra RAM (memory). Usually, you can boost the speed of your computer by putting more memory (or RAM) into it; assuming of course that it takes more memory. This usually applies to all computers, as the more memory you have, the more you can do at the same time. Think of memory as a workspace; essentially the more room you have in your workspace... the more you can do. The same applies here. In the case of newer computers that have fancy thing like dual channel capabilites, having dual channel can actually increase the speed of your computer, in terms of CAD or gaming (usually gaming is where you'll see any type of significant difference).

 

2.) Defrag. I wrote an entry about defragging... you if want more info about it, read in my older blog entries.

 

3.) Get rid of spy-ware, ma-ware, viruses. Nowadays, the number one cause of computer slow down is spyware. Use something like spysweeper or adaware to get rid of those pesky programs that eat away at your computer resources. Again, I have an entry about this somewhere in my blog if you want more info about.

 

4.) In terms of gaming... get a better video card. If your game looks sluggish when you try and play; it might be time to upgrade that video card. Look at the box's minimum and recommended requirements and make a decision from there.

 

5.) Is your harddrive fast enough. Usually there isn't much that can be done in terms of older computers. But in new computers, you may have the opportunity to switch between standard IDE ATA and Serial ATA. Serial is always faster, so if you wanna see some small improvements, an investment into a SATA drive may be the right thing for you!

 

6.) Maybe your computer is just too old (5+ years old). If that's the case, then nothing short of replacing it will help with speed. Afterall, you can buy a new computer from places like Dell for less than $400... and these are millions of times faster than anything you could buy 5 years ago.

 

Happy computing!

 

 

I can't stress enough (being in the technology industry) that some things are always a must! The biggest one I think is being certified by some major vendors (such as Microsoft, Cisco or EMC). Certification don't hold much value for me, until I start job hunting; then all hell breaks loose cause of all the certifications I have. Certifications do one thing well and only that one thing.... they validate to potential employers that you have initiative and drive (as well as some knowledge in that area you have the cert in) to go further than what you are today when they hire you. Think about it, do you want someone who just comes in day to day to collect a paycheck and does just enough work possible so he/she doesn't get fired?

 

With that being said; there are many certs you can choose from; some are more prominent than others; and some are definately alot harder to get than most (such as the CCIE from Cisco or even the RHCE from RedHat) whether that is in the form of cost, or simply that the examination really tests your knowledge. So the first thing to do is pick an area in IT that you like, find some time to educate yourself with that technology; play with the technology and seek ways to gain actual experience about that technology.

 

And if you still don't know what you wanna do, then let me give you some ideas:

 

1.) Virtualization has become a big topic that is growing everyday. The industry leader in this area is EMC with a product called VMware. What VMware is used for is running several instances of servers on a single hardware platform. For example, I could buy three new servers to run a web server, domain controller and a File and Print server.... or I can buy one really powerful server, run VMware on it, and inside create three new instances of severs on a single server. It's also called consolidation of resources. When you think about it; it makes a lot of sense (and saves alot of cents too). So is there a VMware cert? You bet your ass there is... it isn't cheap either, but well worth it as many organizations are starting to ask to see if you have any VMware experience and/or certification.

 

2.) Voice over IP. It's the newest hottest trend... and when that happens, it means that enterprises are a stones throw away from implementing in their organization at one level or another. Cisco offers several specialist certifications for people who are intrested in becoming VOIP experts. Trust me, you can lose on getting a VOIP cert.

 

3.) Microsoft. Alright, I'll admit I don't put too much stock in it... but the truth is that MS has a big chunk of the desktop market and a nice piece of the sever market; so having some certifications in the MS arena might not hurt. At least it's affordable at $100 - $150 per certification test.

 

Certs are great tools for getting your foot in the door. Let me repeat that "Certs are great tools for getting your foot in the door"; but there is no substitute for experience and hands-on learning... so make sure yoou balance your education with some practical hands-on. Keep studying and learning, since that is the key to going ahead in life (and not stagnating or going backwards).

 

Good Luck!

 

Going to a slightly more advanced topic, which means most of the stuffs in this entry are pretty techno-lingual. I won't both to explain most terms, so if you wanna keep up, you'll have to look em' up if you don't know.

 

Today I wanna chat about Multi-protocol label switching.

 

In simplistic terms, it means to have the ability to switch packets/frames and etc at a higher stack level (OSI model). First off, I hope you know the difference between a switch and a hub... if not, then go look it up. I'm not talking about the cheapie linksys or d-link switches you see on the SOHO shelf at your local best buy or home depot. NO, I am talking about the enterprise level 6500 catalyst type switches that do hard-core traffic handling and etc.

 

What most people don't realize is the convergence of networks. I mean the revolution under way to put everything under one roof (so to speak), which is what MPLS becomes the cornerstone of.  When people talk about VOIP, P2P, muti-cast streaming content, SSL acceleration, and etc, what you are hearing is: Swicthing can do it, it can do it, it can do it.

 

Essentially, the switches of today are so fast and power enough, they have replaced the convential design of routers and layer-2 only switches that you typically saw less than 5 years ago. When you talk about routers and routing in terms of today, you are usually talking about your network edge (and usually not your core anymore). That's because the Multi-layer switches can do a better job of it; especially on your local LAN segment(s). The handle traffic from layers 2 all the way up to layer 6 in most cases. It means you can have a robust traffic management system all through your switch fabric without the need to specialized equipment to handle each seperate layer (such as router, proxy servers and etc). The options are so unique and powerful, that there is no real limit to what your network can handle with the right choice.

 

The biggest advantage is being able to run QoS (Quality of Service). Essentially allowing the switch to read packets/frames at each protocol stack layer and being able to decide what to do with it. For example; say that you are an Internet Service Provider, or better yet, a BIG enterprise organization with hundreds of employees. Your biggest problem is Internet bandwidth and how it is getting wasted by a small group of power users that have discovered eDonkey (or Napster) and have eaten away your bandwidth to the point that you are losing money (and productivity) each month in overage charges for extreme bandwidth over-usuage.... here is where QoS can come in handy. By placing a rule on your switch, you can actually inspect each packet (or traffic if you think about a series of packets as such) and decide what to do with it. So in this example; I would essentially tell the switch to take all eDonkey (or Napster) traffic and only allow 2% of my total dedicated bandwidth to be dedicated towards that type of traffic. Now I have essentially "shaped" my traffic by bottlenecking eDonkey traffic, and if I wanted to, I could put in another rule to prioritize more critical traffic, such as VOIP packets or E-mail traffic. Pretty sweet huh?

 

So you can hopefully see the power in MPLS, right? This is only the tip of the iceburg (so to speak) as I have explained this topic at it's lowest common denominator. For more info, please speak with your nearest CCNP...hehehe

 

Happy surfing...

 

 

 

Back in the day; when I actually did desktop support (along with the other numerous things), I encoutered many cries over what has steadily become the "idiots market". I don't mean to "toot my own horn", but the simple fact is; I know computers, I work with them every day.... and at home, I use it everyday. One simple fact remains out of all the years I have been doing this.... I HAVE NEVER, EVER BOUGHT A WIRELESS KEYBOARD and/or WIRELESS MOUSE!!!!!

 

Why do you think that is? And I say that to those who claim to be "computer illiterate"! It's because they are unreliable wastes of time and junky bits of trash at the best. I have only experienced a handful of problems with the wired equivalents (maybe 4 or 5 time in the last 10 years). Whereas wireless stuff seems to always break down or cause problems. Everything from low battery power causing the mouse to stop working, to interfering signals that cause the mouse (and or keyboard) to stop functioning altogether.

 

So the next time you are thinking about wireless products, say this to yourself: "Can I afford to fix any problems that may arise, whether I fix them myself or have to hire someone to fix it?". It really doesn't matter to me, since I charge a ridiculous rate to fix it, so go ahead... buy one if you want to hire me to come and fix it... I charge $145/hr.

 

 

I don't know what to start off with but the truth.... wireless is crap! It's not just crap, but hyped crap.

 

But rather than just spew out the shortcomings of the technology, I thought I would do my best to help those trying to find a stable solution that they would like to run at home or at their home/small business. Working in the tech industry, I have had my fair share of experiences with different vendors, devices, solutions and etc... so I will cover some of the most popular and available devices I have seen on the market today (something you can pick up at your local Staples, Home Depot, Wal-mart, Best Buy ...etc...). What I have reviewed are the top brand names in the wireless G and B classes. There are alot of other products such as Belkin's pre-N class which works fairly well, but I can't promote it here since the N class is yet to be defined.

 

1.) Linksys Wireless G(or B) - Price: $130 - $76

 

Comment: The Linksys is one of the oldest and best known products around. It is the brand so popular that Cisco purchased them back in 2003. That's about the only good thing I can say about their wireless product. When I have seen these in use (and used them myself), all I get are signal drops and glitches. It really is a waste, considering outside of the wireless, the routing/firewall is Linux based (on the G routers), which has some pretty cool add-ons, such as bandwidth shaping and traffic monitoring. Overall I would give the Linksys a 3 out of 10 rating. The price is not really great, the wireless is horrible, the speed is mediocre, and range just doesn't go far enough (starts to fade at 200 feet)!

 

2.) D-Link Wireless G/B

 

Comment: D-Link has definately made a name for itself in recent years. I remember this company back when it produced some of the hceapest NICs and hubs for home use. Not much has changed sadly, as I think the D-link is only one step below the Linksys with all the same disadvantages of the Linksys. As a standalone router, the only half decent feature may be the parellel port on the back of some routers that allows for print server capabilities. Besides that, the D-link is pretty featureless and doesn't offer the Linux type modules that the Linksys has. For the cost, the D-link is definately an overall 2 out of 10 rating.

 

3.) SMC Barracade G/B

 

Comment: Well, all I can say about this product is that; you get what you pay for. Offering printer capabilities and a half-decent wireless connection, the SMC product is by far the most affordable and semi-stable product offering here (as far as SOHO goes). Wireless range isn't much better than the others, connection is a bit stronger than that of the Linksys, and you can run a printer server on it.... I would say 6 out of 10... just based on affordability. You can buy one of these on sale at Best Buy for as cheap as $10 (after mail-in rebate).

 

4.) Microsoft Wireless router G/B

 

Comment: Surprisingly, this is the best product I have seen in the market (not even just SOHO). For those of you who know, Microsoft doesn't actually make the hardware... they just provide branding. The wireless products are actually produced by a company that is a subsidiary of Xircom (the best NIC/modem combo cards for laptops). Short and simple, I have their product because it offers rock-solid stability (I couldn't even drop the connection after sitting in a cast iron tub, with the router sitting on top of a metal desk, surrounded by many walls), and ease of configuration. The Universal Plug and Play is simple to use, as well as all the security features built-in to the thing. It even has a setting that turns the device into an access-point bridge instead of doing the old work-around you see with the other products. I give this product a 9/10, if only because it would be nice to have a print server feature or modules to add to the base unit such as the Linksys. Features such as bandwith monitoring or QoS would be nice... but for the average price of $79, I can't complain too much.

 

5.) Everything else

 

Comment: I have seen many other products from various vendors, such as Trendnet or Hawking and all I have to say is this... if you try to skin the cat and expect everything, you usually end up with nothing! Which means, these products are cheap for one fact!

 

 

Happy Computing!

 

 

Man... I can't believe the stupidness of some organizations. I can see why certain companies do what they do... but when then don't epxect certain things to "**** it up"; that's when I get a little miffed.

 

You see... the organization I work at, runs an Active Directory database that is over 16GB in size (if you don't know, most average AD databases hover around the 50MB; and that's for a large organization). You can imagine the replication issues, as well as other problems. Like having to restart Netlogon after reboot, cause DNS is so huge, it takes longer for it to load than Netlogon... and if you kiddies don't know, if netlogon starts before DNS, then the server has a hard time registering it's SRV records and all that other good stuff (hence, if you need your DC srv records to register, you can restart netlogon ).

 

And the beauty of this whole design is... they plan to run it all from something called a "fish tank" in South Africa... while they phase out the jobs here in the Americas...hehehe.... good luck and good riddence....

 

 

 

If you know tech (or someone who is a tech), then chances are you've heard this phrase before:

 

Did you try defragging your hard drive?

 

But WTF does this mean?

 

Well, quite simply, it means to push all the relevant information/data (that's files, such as music, movies and games that you have installed or saved on your computer) into some sort of sequential form, so it can be accessed faster.

 

In simple terms, think of it this way:

 

Imagine you have a box of chocolates. Of course you always try to eat the best ones first, right? Say the box has two layers (like pot of gold), and someone has eaten all the gross ones first. Now, you are already to eat the rest of them(your favs), but in order to eat them, you have to keep shifting and shuffling from the top layer to the bottom layer to look for the ones you want. But why not try and fill the empty spaces on the first layer with the ones you want most? That way you don't need to keep shifting and shuffling to find what you want. Thus, you are finally organized! Your computer (hard drive) is much the same way.

 

In technical terms:

 

Each time you save a file, it actaully splits files in units called 'bits'. It then finds a random, empty slot to fill (space on a hard disk), fills it with as much data as it can, and then goes on and puts the next bits of data into the next empty slot; so on and so forth. Also, every time you delete a file, then empty space is created wherever the bits of that file were scattered, which are also "free game" for saving files to... hence you can see why and how things can get "fragmented". In the end, your computer has to spend extra energy looking for each sequential bit to complete the entire file, each time you ask the computer to pull up a file. What defragging does is try to put these bits as closer together as possible (hopefully in each space that is next to each other), so that when a file is accessed, there is less drag on the system to look for the next bits of data.

 

What does it all mean?

It means you go faster. Like in the example of the chocolates; once you have them organized, it is much faster for you to find what you want and get to the task at hand (eating the chocolates). An even better example would be like a library or a Blockbuster video store... could you imagine if they didn't properly keep track of which movies got rented, sold, or taken of the shelf for sale? It would be an utter waste of time and resources to do anything at a normal speed, such as when you asked if a certain movie you like was for sale...uh, sorry sir, we'll have to manually go through our collection and see if it's still available? This is what your computer behaves like when you don't defrag!

 

So should you defrag?

 

Simple answer: Yes

Long answer: Read the last paragraph again!

 

 

-Happy Computing!

 

If you run any type of enterprise level environment...

 

You most likely run a SAN.

 

What is a SAN?

Well, it means Storage Area Network; but I think the architectures has gone beyond that title that was given to it several decades ago. Quite frankly, at its basic, it is a super-high-speed network used to move data around. The architecture is so fast, you can actually run servers and other machines off of the SAN (disk array) and have a completely redundant, super highly available network infrastructure.

 

For the technoweiners reading this, you can essentially add disk space (to a SAN disk array), configure whatever type of RAID you want on it, mirror it, add disk space to it (doesn't have to be all the same space disk) and even the server run the OS from the SAN disk Array.... pretty cool eh?

 

I won't go into much detail about it (since you can get really technical with it), but I think SANs are definately a technology of the present and future. It offers scalability, availability and expandibility; which is everything that a growing company (and it's growing information storage) needs. I can even see it being a real benefit to those small to mid size companies, if it weren't for the whole cost prohibative thing.

 

I personally have played with SANs (nothing complex, just troubleshoot and helping other experts configure them) from a couple of different vendors such as EMC and Xiotech. Xiotech by far has been my most favorite (Seagate did an awesome job when it aquired this company), it is easy to configure, scalable and fast! The cost is somewhat high, but for the ease of configurability and training someone to administer it is well worth the compromise.

 

Anyways... if someone of you end up at high tech companies (BIG ENTERPRISE) and someone asks you about a SAN, you can look to this blog entry and hopefully have a good point to work off of.

 

Well...

 

What can I say? There are a lot of stupid ppl in the world....

 

What can you do to avoid yourself from being stupid?

- ANSWER: Start backing up your files!

 

There are soooo many ppl (and companies) that I know of that have no concept of backing up their relevant data (wether that is on disk or tape), in event that a disaster occurs (and no, that's not just in case Katrina or Rita end up on your doorstep).

 

Good disaster recovery management starts with data storage and backup....

 

From the personal aspect, do you back-up your personal data (such as e-mail or music)?

 

Well... let me break it down for you:

 

1.) cost of one CD-R/DVD-R : $1

2.) time for you to backup data: 15mins.

 

So what are you hesitant about?

 

I mean, doesn't your music collection deserve that kind of treatment? just a measly $1 and 15mins of your time? Better yet, what about your business? Is you business worth $10 per day?

 

My Point is: for a matter of $10, it is better than taking a chance and being too lazy to not backup you data and ensure some piece of mind.... afterall; harddrives fail, powersupplies blow-up and general machines tend to break down. In the end... it's all about how you are prepared to deal with it that matters...

 

Everyone seems to ask me, how do I run out of space?

 

Well, simply put, by downloading lots of stuff and not deleting it or taking it off....

 

Alot of people (and I mean ALOT) don't seem to realize that Hard Disk space is finite, and that by downloading movies and music, you are filling it up. What's more shocking is that they don't realize you can burn it off to CD or DVD to reclaim space (as well as back it up in case of disaster). So people... first rule to space recovery.... burn off your movies/music and other junk to CD or DVD. Ten movies could literally free up 5 to 8 gigabytes of space.

 

Second, delete everything in TMP/TEMP. This is a little known secret. You can actually access temp folders in your profile by typing %TMP% in your command line or RUN box. Most of the files in there are uncompressed files, installer files, logs, and other misc junk that can take up quite a bit of room. For the most part, everything in that folder is safe to delete.

 

Third, get rid of unused games, applications, junk and etc. If you don't use it, remove it! Simple as that can save you little bits of space here and there that can actually go along ways to keeping your computer running optimally.

 

There are some more tips.. such as defraging and running the disk clean-up wizard; and if you are insterested, do a search for it and find out some more about caring for your computer.

 

Cheers!