Leo Laporte
The Tech Guy
2–5p EDT Sat/Sun
- Home
- Saturday Show
- Sunday Show
- Past Shows
- Audio Archives
- Stations
- Chat
- Watch Live
- Forums
- Listener Map
- User Groups
- Tips
- FAQ
- Glossary
- Contact Leo
Sponsors
Leo Links
 |
For more Leo and friends all week long, listen to the
|
|
Sunday, April 10, 2005
Show #134
I’m back live, broadcasting from Philadelphia today (thanks Q102!). Call in with your questions, comments, and suggestions: 1–800–520–1KFI.
toc | toc
Today’s news items
Let the cheering begin. A Virginia judge handed down America’s first felony conviction for spamming on Friday. Jeremy Jaynes was sentenced to nine years in prison for sending out 10 million junk emails a day.
Starting Tuesday Microsoft is going to start pushing out Service Pack 2 via its automated update process. That means millions of neglected Windows machines will automatically be updated. So far only 24% of Windows users have upgraded due to fears about compatiblity issues. Those fears are real, but the update is very important for security reasons. You can disable automatic updates, but I don’t recommend it.
Perhaps part of the problem is that computer experts obfuscate issues by using jargon. According to a survey by AOL UK, 84% of users didn’t know what “phishing” means. 25% say they know what spyware is, but one in 10 of those said it had to do with spouses spying on cheating mates. I’ll try to be more clear from now on!
Sony says that the PlayStation Portable (PSP) sold more than 500,000 units during its first two days.
Indicted Enron exec Ken Lay is buying Google ads to tell his side of the story. Search for Enron - see an ad.
Google has added satellite imagery to its map service, making it even better. Check it out: maps.google.com. See below for some interesting links.
Jeff in Santa Ana adds: Google is my 2nd-favorite map site (usually accessed via Google Local).
My favorite map site is UK-based MultiMap.
Sites of the Week
- Weird Ebay Auctions
- Google Siteseeing uses Google Maps to get satellite images of some amazing places. Try Area 51
- Learn how to protect yourself at Hacker High School
Scott adds:
YaGoohoo!gle Yahoo!+Google you can use yahoo and google at the same time
11a-Noon
Bart Arcadia - upgrading Windows 2000 to XP
He’s got Windows 2000 but he’d like to upgrade to XP. Is it possible to add a new hard drive and install XP on it and keep the old Windows just in case? Yes - when you install Windows XP it checks for previous versions of Windows and allows you to either upgrade them in place or install XP on a separate drive. However, if you choose the latter you’ll have a dual-boot system that relies on the presence of the original version of Windows (in your case, W2K) for booting. You won’t be able to delete W2K because you’d be deleting the critical NTLOADER Windows boot loader.
You might want to remove the W2K drive, install XP on the new drive, reinstall the W2K drive, then use GAG, my favorite boot manager, to create a dual boot system. GAG runs from a floppy which can detect all your operating systems then put the appropriate boot loader and menu in your master boot record. I keep GAG around all the time - it’s very handy.
Jocelyn in Elizabeth, NJ - transferring her VHS tapes to DVD
She wants a standalone model with a built in VHS tape player and DVD recorder. These work well - I recommend Panasonic’s units. If you have a computer already you might prefer the flexibility offered by HP’s Movie Writer 5000.
The web site she mentioned that tells you what programs and services you can disable in Windows XP is www.Blackviper.com. If you want to examine programs that startup and get more information about them you might want to look at the free program Starter.
Hannah in Huntington Beach - Firewire won’t work with her DV camcorder
There are several possible causes for this ranging from hardware issues to software choices. She’s trying to use a couple of mediocre programs to control the camcorder: Windows Movie Maker and Videographer. I recommend Adobe’s Premiere Elements. It’s under $100 and works with most camcorders, including her Panasonic. But that’s often a cause for problems - your software has to explicitly work with your camcorder if you want to control the import directly from software. Try the 30-day free trial of Elements to see if that’s the issue.
If not, it could be that either her computer’s or her camcorder’s firewire interface is damaged. This is not unusual, since Firewire carries power and a wiring problem can short out the interface. Make sure you have a working cable, too.
Noon-1p
Charlie in Mt Dora, Florida - cross platform video conferencing
His daughter in Indiana has a Mac; he has Windows. They want to videoconference. iChat A/V 2.1 or better for the Mac works with AIM on Windows. If you have Panther you have A/V, and it works with any DV Camcorder (you don’t have to buy Apple’s pretty but overpriced iSight). Don’t upgrade to Panther now, though. Wait until Tiger comes out in the next month or so. You can also use iVisit a videoconferencing program that works on Macs and Windows. The Lite version is free.
Richard in Huntington Beach - hub versus router with DSL
Verizon “upgraded” his DSL from three static IPs to a single dynamic IP. Now he can’t use his hub. That’s right - a hub is a passive connection box, it can’t share Internet access. A router, on the other hand, is a smart box designed to share one IP address among many computers. Routers have the additional advantage of making pretty good firewalls (whether it says so on the box or not) and eliminating the need for a PPPoE dialer on your computer. I recommend routers to ‘’all’‘ DSL users.
Dave in Sarasota, FL - Error 1606: can’t install or uninstall programs
Dave is the host of a computer talk show on WLSS in Florida. He also has an electronic newsletter from www.davebytes.com. His Windows XP system can no longer install or uninstall software. He gets an Error 1606. Could not access network location message whenever he tries to install. This is caused by an error in the Windows installer. Somehow it modified the file paths for your install directories and it can’t continue. There are several ways to fix this. The easiest is to use TweakUI and fix the special folder locations on your system. Microsoft also has a Windows Installer repair program that can help. Read their tech note on this error for more information. The wonderful Windows Knowlege Base is very useful for these kinds of problems, but their search engine isn’t the best. I use Google to perform the search by adding site:microsoft.com to the search terms.
Dan in Temecula (no “h” at the end, or should we spell Leoville’s home as Petalumah?) - System restore discs won’t work
He’s using the Gateway system restore discs but they fail during the install.
Get new discs!
Vivian in Chicago - laptop recommendations for her son Ray
My blanket laptop recommendation is to make sure the person who it’s intended for gets some time on the system before you buy. Laptops are the most personal of personal computers and you need to make sure the keyboard, screen, and pointing device are acceptable to you. All laptops involve compromises in design, so make sure the compromises are ones you can live with.
In general I think any major brand name will be a good choice: Dell, Gateway, Sony, Toshiba. I also like Fujitsu, Acer, and Asus notebooks. Averatec offers good value.
— I just recently Bought a Avertec 5500, Highly Recommend
1–2p
Martini in Hacienda Heights - can’t disable startup programs
He uses msconfig (Start→Run type msconfig and hit return) to turn off startup items, but they keep reenabling themselves. Sounds like spyware or a virus. Read up on my Must Have Security Software.
Nigel in Newport Beach - why not return spam to sender?
Bad idea! First, the return address is almost always forged, so you’re responding to thin air. Even if it’s not, responding to a spammer only encourages them. Do you really think they care if you respond? To them it only means, “we’ve got a live one!”
Jeff in Santa Ana adds: On Slashdot, “new ideas” to fight spam are usually met with a filled-out copy of this form 8-)
Nick in Colton - can’t play DVDs in Windows
His DVD player won’t work - that’s because Windows doesn’t come with the native ability to play DVDs. You have to add software to do it. There is one free program that can: the Video Lan Client but it’s kind of clunky. You can install a codec from Nvidia to enable DVD playback in Windows Media Player. There’s a 30-day free trial for that. Or you can try one of the two big names in DVD software players: PowerDVD from Cyberlink (probably the best) or Intervideo’s WinDVD.
Porch adds:
Another good free player is Windows Media Player Classic.:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/guliverkli/
Joe in Hollywood - VPN Server solutions
To use VPN you have to have a server at the office and a client on the remote computer. Follow the excellent instructions at One Computer Guy to enable the built-in VPN server in XP.
Cathy Doser in Seattle adds: Remote Access Software — To access computers remotely, control them, and exchange data between them, try Timbuktu software from Netopia. http://www.netopia.com/software/products/tb2/
This works for both Windows and Macs, and works -between- Windows and Macs.
Porch adds:
A lot of the small firewall boxes now offer VPN services. I know 3Com makes a nice unit.
http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10357292&loc=101&hdwt=22097&sp=1
I use Cisco Pix 501 at work. It’s not cheap, but the IPSec AES encryption is the best on the market. Watch out for Windows built in PPTP VPN service. PPTP is know to have security issues.(As most of Microsoft products do, sad really.) Looks for IPSEC with AES or 3DES.
Nick adds:
SonicWall and Watchguard have SOHO firewall with VPN options. They start around $400.00 and go up based on the number of users.
Chat Logs and Show Audio
|
Show Archives | |
 |
