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Sunday, June 27, 2004

Show #52

Sunday services begin at noon.

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Noon-1p

Carol in Long Beach

was helping a friend set up her new computer. By the time they got around to installing an anti-virus it was infected with 53 viruses and spyware programs. Yep. That’s why it’s very important, when setting up a new computer to follow Leo’s Setup Instructions in order and to the letter. (See yesterday’s show below for the full lowdown).

It’s handy to keep these two online virus scans bookmarked to get a second opinion:

Housecall from Trend Micro
Panda’s ActiveScan

Taymar in Los Angeles

has a problem with her Sony 21″ monitor - she can’t see her Mac menu on it any more. It could be an incorrect refresh rate - make sure you try different settings in the Displays system preference panel - but I’d bet it’s the monitor. It’s pretty old and I suspect it’s out of alignment. Take it to a shop and get it realigned.

Greg in Paramount

is a Tivo owner and wants to burn a DVD with his shows on it. You and everyone else. Greg. There are three ways to create a DVD from your Tivo’ed shows: 1. Buy the Pioneer Tivo with a DVD burner. 2. Connect the analog outputs of the Tivo to a DVD burner or your computer (you’ll need an analog video converter like Pinnacle’s Movie Box DV), copy the video over, then burn a DVD on your PC, 3. Hack your Tivo to support digital video extraction. It’s complicated but you can find the most up-to-date information on the DealDatabase Forums.

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1–2p

Cliff in Redlands

wants a simple digital camera for his 81 year mother, and he doesn’t want her to have to use a computer to use the camera. I like Kodak cameras for their ease of use. There are numerous printers that will print directly from memory cards, or look for a camera with Direct Print built-in (like the Canon S500 which will print directly to any Canon photo printer like the i560. If you’ve got $3500 to burn Epson makes an HDTV called the Livingstation with a built-in memory card port, CD-burner, and photo printer.

Rick in Temeculah

has the walls open and want’s to know whether he should put in cable for networking, TV, security, and home automation. I would. Even though everyone is going wireless, it’s nice to have wire when you need it. Put in Cat-5 and Coax. Consider routing it all to a central closet for your servers, too.

Here’s what Mark Finch wrote me after the show:

I install cable TV for a cable company.

CABLE TV.
Use a large junction box in the master bedroom Approx 1.5 feet x 3 feet.

Run Rg6 Quad video cable to the cable tv. Use all home runs from each room. You may want to think of having the outlets in the bedrooms up high in a corner and use a swing mount bracket to attach the tv (19′) would be th largest. Be sure to run an AC outlet there too.

Other places people forget and regret later are the master bathroom the kitchen the padio and the garage. The cable company will strip the wires and install the connectors usually for free. Also most cable companies will provide the customer with a 1,000 roll of rg6 if they intend to be a cable customer for at lease a year. If they don’t they will have to pay for the cable but our cost is way below that of Home Depot Etc. We just want to recoup our cost.

If you run more than 8 tv you may require a booster that the cable will provide free of charge. Also you should run 2 rg6 feed lined from the junction box on the outside of the home to the main panel in the master bed room. We can bring in more signal from the street to the house instead of using a booster.

CAT 5. You can use 1 cat 5 for all phone jacks and get 1 data jack and 2 phone lines. If you plan on needing more than that than run two cat 5 lines to each room from the master panel. the cable modem and router can be mounter in the master panel as well. You will need a AC outlet there too to run the router,cable modem, and also the security system if installed.

Security systems are best when hard wired, this will result in fewer false alarms, BE SURE TO RUN A SENSOR TO THE BOX ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE HOUSE OR THEY CAN JUST CUT THE LINE THERE.

You can also run all these wires through a flex plastic conduit, if you do that you should run a pull string for future use.

You may want to run a piece of fiber optic from the junction box outside to the master panel in the bedroom.

Great tips, Mark. Thanks!

Mary in Glendale

is looking for an anti-spyware program for the Macintosh. It’s really not necessary, Mary. Spyware isn’t much of an issue on the Mac. However, if you must, Aladdin Systems makes one called Internet Cleanup.

Sue in Vista

bought a Sony camcorder that recorded to DVD. She hated the camcorder and returned it without finalizing the DVDs first. Now she can’t play them. Unfortunately, those DVDs are non-standard and I don’t think you can finalize them with PC software. If you can’t borrow someone’s Sony you may be out of luck. Any suggestions you wizards out there?

Hi in Moreno Valley

wants to cover his tracks in MSN. Open your Internet Options control panel and clear history. You can also delete your Autocomplete history by clicking the Content tab and pressing the Autocomplete button.

Gina in Phelan

lost her Internet connectivity when her anti-virus cleaned her system. Try using WinSock XP to fix things (get a friend to download it for you). You can do it by hand with these instructions from Microsoft - but it’s not for the faint of heart!

You might also want to try XP’s system file checker. Click Start→Run… and type

cmd

to open a command line window. Then type

sfc /scannow

You’ll need a Windows XP install disk to use this technique.

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2–3p

Terry in Lompoc

has a new Dell Dimension 8300 with an nVidia 5200 video card. It’s not the best in the world, but it will do until you can get better.

Ryan in Placentia

is having problems on his Windows 2000 network with abrupt lockouts. It started when he had a system breakin. Linuxdude in our chatroom suggests that the mandatory password change that occurred after the break-in may be confusing some enterprise application that’s trying to use the old login. Thanks LD!

Ryan is also buying an HDTV - what should he look for if he wants to run a computer on it, too. Get one with a DVI or HDMI connector and the highest resolution you can afford. 1080i is standard right now - but 720p will look better with a computer. Don’t expect to run the computer higher than 1024×768 though (and you may have to run it at 800×600 if you want to see text clearly).

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