VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY, ST. AUGUSTINE CENTER
MEETING STARTS - 09:30 - FEB 10 th
AN OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN & SHARE
Well, the January meeting was not quite the "same old, same old", as we had expected. A very lively discussion on xDSL experiences was both timely and time-using! Commentary elsewhere.
For this month's meeting, we will begin to tackle the subject of backups and protecting your data and time invested in producing same. Immediately below this section, is a starter to get you thinking about the subject.
In the meeting itself, we will try to do a couple of things: 1) get a sense of how much discipline we have and 2) what tools are we using for whatever it is that we do.
Then we can discuss or show-and-tell some of that. I will come with some examples - along the lines of the thoughts in the following article.
So, prior to the meeting, pull your thoughts together on what YOU feel needs to be protected, how important it is to do so and how you are approaching what you want to protect. And, if you feel that you may not be doing enough; then this will be, I hope, a great opportunity to see how you might proceed.
Hope to see ALL OF YOU at the February meeting at VU!!!
[continued]
INTRO - Getting Started
In the "good old days" of computing - before the advent of WYSIWYG and graphics
- the venerable floppy disk was the place for your backups. You only had to
decide what to back up and when it was needed; then develop the discipline to
do it.
For much of the need where I work - that does not need the glitz of GUI
operating systems and graphics applications and data - we can still do that.
But, we are clearly becoming far in the minority. Most computer users of today
are either: 1) ignoring the need for backups and thus saving themselves the
trial and travail of backing up (and not worrying about inevitably paying the
piper some day) [cont. on p.3]
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Many people's lives have been greatly blessed by the advent of the Commodore
computers. Many handicapped individuals and shut-ins have had great
opportunities open up to them from these computers. Many slow learners and
children who may not have taken an interest in learning found that learning can
be fun because of the Commodore computers. Many family gatherings, birthdays,
Christmases, parties, and other social events have been enriched by the
creative fun involved. By being addicted to something as enjoyable and of such
a positive nature as this, many have been lured away from (or spent less time
and money on) harmful addictions such as drugs and alcohol. Many lifelong and
job-related skills such as typing, programming, and word processing were
acquired via these computers. Many computer retailers, department stores,
manufacturers, and programmers have profited financially from the Commodore
computers. Many other businesses, researchers, students, and other ventures
have also benefitted either directly or indirectly. Undoubtedly, the social and
technological spin-offs from these computers have had a ripple effect which has
directly improved the lives and strengthened the economy of our entire nation
and other nations.
The ability of people to have wholesome and affordable recreation and a
diversion from everyday stresses and pressures undoubtedly has helped the
mental health and outlook of many individuals also.
Many of those who have gone on to make huge contributions to the industry began
with the Commodore home computers. Many Commodore C-64, 128, and Amiga
computers are still used in schools, businesses, production studios, and as
control devices. They are still some of the best computers to learn computer
fundamentals on. The fact that these Commodore computers have so many built-in
functions and capabilities still makes them fun computers to experiment with.
Because you can still obtain many hundreds of the original programs for these
computers, they are still viable choices-- especially for hobbyists and home
educators. The fact that the Commodore 64 can connect directly into a normal
television makes it a good choice still for those on a budget.
The fact that users of the Commodore computers did not need to constantly
reconfigure, re-install, and uninstall software or worry about viruses and
system crashes (as is common with our more modern Windows computers) allowed
users to spend the majority of their time actually using the computer rather
than spending so much time fighting it.
During the mid to late 1980's, a certain amount of software piracy began to
hurt the Commodore software market. Much of this piracy was likely induced by
unnecessarily high prices. Fortunately, most people realized that the programs
were such a good value for the money that it wasn't too big of a problem.
Several software manufacturers developed sophisticated software protection
schemes to make it difficult for people to duplicate Commodore software.
However, these schemes seemed primarily to hurt the honest users more than the
dishonest people some of whom became extremely adept at defeating the
protection schemes. Many software manufacturers finally decided to eliminate
the software protection or to use off-disk protection schemes so that the
legitimate users wouldn't be hurt and inconvenienced. Eventually, many of the
software manufacturers began to realize that the best way to discourage
software piracy was to make their software more affordable. Undoubtedly,
however, the dishonesty and greed of some individuals contributed somewhat to
the gradual decline of the Commodore software industry. Some of these
individuals never learned that it is not wise to kill the goose that lays the
golden eggs. Some of these hackers probably felt that they were just having
harmless fun and felt somewhat challenged by the prospect of trying to outsmart
the copy protection schemes.
[To be continued - Part VIII next time]
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2001 UNDERWAY... - the real new millennium is now underway. And MLCUG - the
Main Line Computer Users Group - is a go for another year. However, as of this
writing, we took a significant downturn in membership. We finished last year
with 38 members, but we have only got about 26 renewals!
It is my hope that we can find a way to recruit at least a few more new
members. My experience with our club and two other PC user groups convinces me
that there are always folks who need help. And there are always a few folks
who are willing to help by sharing their knowledge and experience.
Those are the two ingredients of a user group! I know we have some of both,
but we can certainly support some increase in meeting attendance at our present
facility; so I urge you all to look out for others who would make good
additions to the club roster.
I also hope that we can get some useful increase in publicity about the club
that may bring new members, too. If you know of a publication that takes free
announcements of meetings, etc., please let Robyn Josephs, our PR person, know
about it (her contact info is on p.9).
LINUX CD - at the January meeting, we had a number of distribution CDs for the
Corel Linux, Second Edition. All were not distributed. So, if you are
interested in trying this version of Linux and would like one of the CDs,
please give Emil a call (610-388-1581) to reserve a copy for pick up. If, by
some chance, we get too many requests, we can make extra copies of this
freeware CD.
LUNCH - some of us regularly adjourn after the meeting for lunch at the
Villanova diner. However, with all the food planned for this meeting, there'll
not be room for more lunch! But, then there's January and beyond!
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New Large Hard Drives
I've been through the wringer with my PC lately. I have been getting write
errors from my main *NEW* hard drive. It's a Maxtor 20 GB drive. It's also
uses Ultra 66 technology.
I have learned a valuable lesson about IDE cables. If I had read the
installation instructions, I wouldn't have had the problem.
What happened is that Windows 98 would tell me that the HD had bad clusters and
attempted to run Scan Disk. After examining the drive, Scan Disk would attempt
to do a surface scan. It got to 67% and stopped running. It also would stop
at other times.
I downloaded a utility from Maxtor called Powermax. Powermax told me that the
HD was reporting errors when attempting to write. I wrote down the error code
and called tech support and was told that the error was 99% a cable problem.
The tech told me to describe my HD's cable to him. I had the old 40 wire IDE
ribbon cable. An Ultra 66 device uses an 80 wire Ultra 66 cable.
After changing the cable, things began to settle down. After going through all
of this, I looked into the HD's box in the basement and found the installation
instructions. In big bold letters it said "Use Only an Ultra 66 cable". Had I
read it when I installed it, I'd not had this problem. [Nelson Schrock]
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2) working away at it without a disciplined approach or 3) have it all planned
out and satisfying their needs.
Part 1 - The Tools
A couple of considerations are the media available for back up files and the
software enablers to do the task. While we are not going to be able to deal in
detail with ALL these items, I'd like to have for reference some listings of
such items; so folks can be sure they have considered more or less all the
options as they try to decide how to proceed.
So, for YOUR INPUT, I have started the two listings below. I'll update them as
I think of additions and as I get input from the meeting, or readers of the
newsletter when the first print version appears. Give a glimmer and let me
hear from you.
1. HARDWARE OPTIONS
Listed by type and approximate storage:
2. SOFTWARE TOOLS
This is a much shorter list - tho the actual number of possibilities may be
much, much greater. The shortness is partly due to my own limited experience
and knowledge. And I have definitely missed a lot of proprietary options,
which you feel should be on the list.
So here goes - the program and some hint of its function(s):
[Part 2 - next time]
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Article VIII: You do not have the right to happiness. Being an American means
you have the right to PURSUE happiness. Make your own happiness. Don't sit
there and wait for it to be given to you.
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Well, January 2001 - the first year of the NEW Millennium - has brought some
interesting developments on the virus front. Some affecting your editor
personally:
#1 - on January 17th, a new variant of the Melissa Word macro virus was
identified. This variant is the first one that has cross platform capability.
It propagates thru MAC or PC computers! However, only the PCs will suffer from
its mass emailing capability - which it does thru the address book of the MS
Outlook email client. New ground being plowed!
#2 - I receive a weekly emailed bulletin from Sky Publishing - the publishers
of Sky & Telescope magazine. The late January edition came out initially as an
apparently empty document with an attachment (named DMCAHBDM.exe) - which is a
virus! The Sky folks have not said exactly how the improper mailing occurred,
but it was noted almost immediately by them and they sent out a warning message
- plus the correct bulletin. I suspect some recipients got bit. Sky reminded
folks that they NEVER send out an attachment and they NEVER send out an
executeable file - only plain text. And, they repeated the warning to
immediately delete any bulletin that had either of those occurrences...
#3 - the Exton PC club has a "listserv" type communication to members via the
"egroups" service - many organizations use this service. In this case, a
message, which included a (non-executable) .pdf attachment, went out from the
prez in late January. One of the members responded to that message - but the
response had an executable virus (named "emanuel.exe") attached. The egroups
service promptly relayed that response, INCLUDING the virus, to all the list
members!!! The event was promptly noted by the prez who sent out a warning
message. In it, he told users that no executables would be kept on their
egroups message base and that any attachments sent out would NOT be executable
- the primary such attachments would be .pdf files of the club's newsletter.
All of this action in the space of a single week!! Fortunately, I realized
that the attachments in each case were out of line and deleted the messages
without even reading the main message, let alone trying to run the attachment.
My message to YOU - beware the attachment!!! More and more folks are emailing
cute programs to their "friends", especially around holidays. This is great
food for the hackers to use to spread their virus wares.
You should make absolutely sure you know the sender and that they have sent
something intentionally AND that you virus check it BEFORE you run it!!!!!
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The church is near but the road is icy; the bar is far away but I will walk
carefully.
-- Russian Proverb
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More on backup
From a posting on the BBS: "Charlie, you'll recall this afternoon, we booted
your PC from the boot disk and found that the IDE ORB disk drive was recognized
and accessible from DOS. Gratifying - as it makes the ORB a more useful tool
in any backup strategy.
At the time, I wondered to you, if an IDE Zip drive would also do the job. So,
I ran a quicky test with positive results! Here's what my drive arrangement
normally is:
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January brought out 16 attendees for what was a pretty successful meeting - on
two counts. We had an extensive and useful discussion and another John Murphy
demo, which his famous kin bypassed!!
The highlite of the discussion was a sharing of personal experiences with xDSL
high speed, always-on, internet connections. Several members have had this
kind of service. However, like all things these days, there is no unmixed
blessing:
The most recent user was Layton Fireng, who is getting his service from Verizon
(formerly Bell-Atlantic). In what is evidently a strong effort to cut cost,
Verizon (which charges $40 per month for ADSL of around 640 Kbps) sends you a
box of parts. It is your responsibility to install filters (to separate the
DSL and voice signals), install your ethernet card(s), set up the DSL "modem"
and be ready for the turn-on. On a specified date, the service is turned on
and you are responsible for connecting and testing the system. I believe that
Layton did not see a human being involved in the process! But, on the
appointed day his service started and has been working OK - tho only a short
time as of the meeting date. He was told by the Verizon folk that if there was
a problem to disassemble the hardware, put it back in the box and return it
ASAP. There is only a 30-day test period which, if exceeded, results in a
significant charge!
Charles Curran is also getting ADSL (around 384 Kbps, I think) thru his ISP -
ICDC. However, the ISP contracts with an outfit called COVAD for the DSL
service. This meant that there were three parties involved in the install -
Verizon to put in the phone line connection, COVAD to provide the DSL modem
stuff and hookup and ICDC to provide the internet connection. His install
experience was not good, with several visits required and false starts and not
at all good internet connections. He has learned from his ISP that they may
want to get out of providing DSL service (too much hassle!); so he may shortly
be negotiating with alternate supplier(s)...
Emil Volcheck lives too far from a Verizon central office to be able to get
regular ADSL or SDSL service. However, he found out that Conectiv
Communications in Delaware was a provider of IDSL which is much slower than
ADSL, but can be run over much longer distances - more than 5 miles in his
case. This setup involved getting the phone line install from Verizon and the
DSL service from Conectiv. As it turned out, Verizon goofed three times on the
line installation; so it was several weeks of tries before they found out why
the DSL signal was not getting thru. Once that was cleared up, Conectiv sent a
techie to the house with the DSL router, cables, etc. Emil had to install the
ethernet card in the PC(s), but the tech ran the phone wire from the outside
box to the inside location of the computer, set up the router and tested it.
The first try did not work - because of the failure of the Verizon folks. But,
once that was cleared up, the DSL came alive and has worked generally well
since. He has had the service for about seven months and had only a few
interruptions.
LINUX FOLLOW-ON
After the above DSL sharing and some other Q&A in about two hours discussion
was completed, John Murphy took over and picked up his Corel Linux install demo
where it had left off at the December meeting. At the end of the previous
session, Linux had been installed and was running OK. The new OS had not yet
recognized the PC7s sound card or its ethernet card. Between meetings, John
had got the sound card working and he showed us how he had got the Linux OS to
find it.
Then, he started the process to try to get the ethernet card found and able to
connect to the Villanova network. This took a major amount of fiddling - in
part caused by the difference in how windows and linux perceived the identity
of the card. However, after quite a few configurations, John was successful
and we were able to establish an internet connection, as usual, thru the VU
network.
However, all was not hunky dory as there was still some conflict or interaction
with the sound card and the NIC. So, at meetings end, John planned to take the
club PC home and see about getting it all straightened out. Hopefully, by the
February meeting, he will nave it OK.
Assuming that success, the club PC will have a choice of four (4) OSes: Windows
95B, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Millennium Edition and Corel Linux
Second Edition! We'll be ready for anything!!!
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The following contribution was provided by Nelson Schrock - a real world
experience. Perhaps the members would like to hear more about this subject in
a future meeting???
"In our house we have, as many do, two computers. I have a 233 Mhz Pentium and
my son has a HP 8160, which is basically the same computer. There are files
that I have wanted to share between my computer and my son's. The choices
available to do that were: floppy disks, zip drives, CD-Rewriters, or
networking. Floppies were too small for my needs. Zip drives and purchasing a
second CD-Rewriter were not economically feasable.
So, I decided to check out home networking. I looked at CompUSA, Microcenter
and other places. I found a lot of different ways to connect the computers.
One way was to connect them uses wireless transmitters. They were a bit on the
expensive side, and I have a problem with cordless phones and TV reception in
my bedroom where my PC is located. Another way is through the existing phone
lines. They were cheaper than the wireless, but I wanted to go as cheaply as I
could. I opted to run cable. This was the cheapest way to go.
They have several kits available that will guide you through the process.
Because of the distance between the computers, none of the kits would have
worked. I decided to buy two Linksys Network Everywhere 10/100 Network cards.
I got them for $9.95 a piece. I also got Cat5 cable, 50 feet cost me $10.95.
My computer runs Windows Me, and my son's runs Win 98 SE. Installing the cards
was easy. They just plugged into an empty PCI slot.
Running the cable was a bit harder, but I basically ran it along the bottom of
the wall from one room to another. The next step was to power up the PCs, and
install the drivers for the cards. On the Win98 machine, I had to choose the
"Have Disk" option. Then install the drivers from the Win98 folder on the
diskette. The other PC was another story. There were no Me drivers. I tried
to install the Win98 drivers, but WinMe would not accept them. I had to go to
Linksys's website and download newer drivers. They actually had drivers for
WinMe. Once I got ahold of the correct drivers, all was a go.
The easiest part of the entire process was to install the networking software.
Windows Me comes with a "Home Networking Wizard" which really made the job
easy. I had to enter the name of the computer (which is the same name that was
used when Windows was installed), and a network name. The program suggests
that you use MSHOME [your editor prefers and uses "OurHome".ejv]. After that
the Home Networking Wizard will prompt you to create a disk for every Win9x
machine that you intend to network with.
Installing the software on the other PC is basically the same as with the WinMe
machine. That was about all there was to it. Once the network has been
established, you have to decide what files, drives, etc. that you want to share
with the other comptuer. I have my other hard drive shared with my son's. I
have decided not to share Windows files, with the machines running different
OSs, I thought that might create a conflict. I believe the Home Networking
software is available for download from Microsoft for Win98SE."
Thanks, Nelson - it's great to hear from our members!
[NOTE from editor: it is a whole lot easier to have your computer partitioned
into at least C and D drives. With your sharable data on the D drive, you can
put it on the network. Leaving the C drives as unshared avoids any "windows"
files conflict problems. A possibly even better setup is to have a removable
drive installed - like a Zip drive - then make that the shared one, and not
share the C or D drives. This ensures that a minimum part of each system is
shared, and thus accessible to others.]
BACKING UP - WHAT, HOW, WHEN?
A COMMODORE HISTORY - VII
ANNOUNCEMENTS & COMMENTS
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TIP OF THE MONTH - for any OS
BACKING UP - from p.1
This is a pretty staggering list - and I'm sure I skipped something. Not all
of them are common; so they may NOT all be desirable options - especially if
you need to do the restore to something other than your own system. Or, since
they are all potentially useable to transfer files to others, the more common
ones should be considered first as you think thru your needs.
- available in PP, USB, SCSI and IDE
- avail. in PP, USB, SCSI & IDE
- like CD-R ?
- PP?, USB, SCSI? & IDE
- PP, USB, UltraSCSI & IDE
- PP, USB, SCSI?
- primarily IDE, some SCSI
- PP?, USB? & ?
Well, that's my starter. Please feel free to make additions, recommend
deletions or corrections - all with your rationale for same. So we can share.
- partitioning and formatting
- backing up complete partitions
(drives) fairly fast with about
40% file compression
- file archiving and compression
- file dearchiving
- included with the Windows OS,
can not be used with boot disk
- for backing up to Zip/Jaz disks
- for backing up to ORB disks
- usually supplied with a specific
storage device, proprietary?
- the trusty "boot disk",
with CD- ROM support, and
additional customization to
include MY favorites (like a
mouse driver, DOSkey, xcopy & ??)
THE BILL OF "NO RIGHTS"
VIRUS ALERT!!!
Gem of the Day:
ANOTHER WIN TIP OF THE MONTH
A the floppy
B NO DRIVE
C >6 GB partition
D >8 GB partition
E 100 MB Zip drive
F 4x4x24 CD-RW drive
G 10X DVD-ROM drive
When I boot from a Win98 startup disk, with support for a CD-ROM, this is what
the drive lineup shows from the DOS prompt:
A the floppy
B 100 MB Zip drive
C >6 GB partition
D >8 GB partition
E RAMdisk set up by the
Win98 boot disk
F CD-RW drive
G DVD-ROM drive
So, ALL are still there and useable for any need. More grist for backups!
LAST MONTH'S PC/128/64 MEETING
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