Audience Questions

Audience QuestionsHour 1

Hour 1 Hour 2 Hour 3

Is Subscribing to Microsoft Office Worth the Money?

Watch Charlie from Castle Rock, CO Comments

Charlie wants to know if Microsoft's Office subscription is worth $70 a year. Leo says he subscribes, but there are just as well open-source alternatives for free. Libre Office is one of them. But there's also the free web version of Office called Office365, available at Office.com. If he won't have a need for the advanced features of Office, like pivot tables for Excel, then Office365 may be a better choice.

How Can I Mask My Domain Address?

Watch Dave from New York Comments

Dave moved his Domains over to Google, after registering at GoDaddy. Leo says that's no big deal. All registrars do is put a domain address in the DNS "phone book." Whoever is doing the hosting will make sure that the DNS gets pointed to properly and updated. Dave says that Google doesn't host his site though, and he wants to mask his domain, which only GoDaddy can do, so the domain is a different website. Leo says that GoDaddy may be the only option here, and if GoDaddy won't let Dave do it, then he may have to move his DNS back to GoDaddy or even pay them to host the site. 

In the chatroom, Billy says you can use "C Names" in Google to do it.  Here's a tech note about redirection and path forwarding with masking.

Audience QuestionsHour 2

Hour 1 Hour 2 Hour 3

What Can I Do With a Box of Old Hard Drives?

Watch Peter from San Diego, CA Comments

Peter has a box of old hard drives and they have data on them. How can he get the data off and put it on a central server? Leo says that he can get a universal drive adapter from Newertech, that can plug into and power the drive without installing them. Then he can see what the data is on the drive and move it. He can then get a network-attached storage device (NAS) to put them on. Leo uses one from Synology for backing up his data and act as a media server for his videos and photos. Great for large archival storage because they have multiple drives that can be redundant.

Once he's moved all data, he can then wipe the old drives to prevent any data from being lifted. He can get a big giant magnet and wipe the drive.  Or he can use Derick's Boot and Nuke to write over the data several times to reformat the drives. BleachBit is another. But DBAN is free. He can then sell the drives or donate them. Or, he can take the drives apart and remove the platters and destroy them. 

Check out Peter's amateur radio website, Great Los Angeles Amateur Radio Group at glaarg.org.

What Do I Do If I've Been Hacked?

Watch Don from Southern California Comments

Don's friend has a PC that got infected and scammed by someone who took control of her PC by remote access. What can she do? Leo says that all hacking attempts are designed to scare her and get her to act without thinking and call a number. Once they have her on the phone, they can use a series of tricks to get her to think she'ss infected. Then, they charge her to "fix it." Leo says that odds are, the computer wasn't infected, but certainly is now thanks to the remote access hack. He advises backing up the data and then reformatting the hard drive, installing Windows from a known, good source. Then restore the data.

Audience QuestionsHour 3

Hour 1 Hour 2 Hour 3

Why's My Internet Connection Dropping With a Mesh Router?

Watch Kent from Santa Barbara, CA Comments

Kent needs more reliable wifi. He has a wifi router with extenders, but as he has wifi calling, often the call would just drop or buffer. So he went with an Orbi mesh router, and while he has a more consistent connection, he has an issue with the actual connection to the internet. Leo says that Netgear's Orbi is the fastest out there, but it's very simple in design. Dropouts can occur if the access point isn't connecting to the base station. So he can reboot the access point when it happens. Kent is using an ISP provided router that he has to use. So Leo recommends going into the Orbi settings and put it into bridge mode. That will let the modem handle the connection while the router passes on that connection.  He will also want to be sure the WiFi radio in the ISP router is turned off. Otherwise, he'll have a conflict. Google Cox Router and log in.  Once logged in, he can find the radio and maybe even bridge settings. If he can put the modem/router into the bridge, that would be even better. 

Why Can I Not Delete This Email?

Watch Greg from Cardiff By the Sea, CA Comments

Greg has email messages that he can't throw away. When he tries to trash it, he gets an error message. He's using Apple Mail. Leo says the message is actually deleted, but the entry is persisting for some reason. Within the mail app, select the mailbox in question and rebuild it. It will rescan the database and rebuild the index. Here's how - https://support.apple.com/guide/mail/rebuild-mailboxes-mlhlp1227/mac

How Can I Livestream a Funeral?

Watch Kyle from New Mexico Comments

Kyle's dad recently passed away and due to Covid restrictions, he wants to be able to set up a virtual memorial. Leo says that a lot of funeral houses do offer that, but if they don't, he can do it himself using a smartphone. If everyone in the family is on Facebook, then using Facebook Live would be the easiest option. YouTube Live is also an option. That would be the most universal and he won't need an account to watch it. Go out and get a tripod and special phone mount that would help to keep the image steady. Then open the app and go live. It'll stream. He can then send a link to everyone, and he can even set it up ahead of time. But there may be some restrictions.

Another option is to use Zoom and broadcast it to YouTube Live. There is a 40-minute time limit unless he has a paid account though. And Zoom has a recording switch to preserve it for later viewing. Facebook and YouTube will do that as well.

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