Category : Operating Systems (archive 1)

PowerUsers.info - Paul Doherty Askme Archive of Questions and Answers

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Category : Operating Systems

QAId : 51020
Asker : lrsides52229
Subject : Internet Explorer
Private : No

Question : I got a scanner for Christmas and when I went to install it I dwonloaded IE4.0off the CD that was with it. Now my Internet Explorer is gone and I had to go to Netscape and now I can't use my scanned. someone told my I could download IE5.0 and it would fix it without blowing it out and starting over. What should I do?

Answer : I'm not sure from your description what happened between installing IE 4.0 off the CD and IE disappearing from your drive (or for that matter what that has to do with your scanning hardware or software). Nonethless my siggestion to you would be to reinstall IE 4.0 from the CD as you did originally, which should get you back to IE working. Next I would suggest you reinstall your scanner's drivers (including Twain drivers if you have them) and see if the scanner works again at that point. The as an optional step I would update IE to 5.01 by visiting http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.htm and clicking the "Download Now" button. If you get to this stage and you're still functional with the scanner and IE then you're done. If not and you're running Windows 98 I'd suggest a visit to Microsoft's Update site ( "Windows Update" on your Start menu or http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ ). There are some patches to Windows 98 including a Service Pack 1 that may help get your machine back into spec. Good luck!
Rating : 4.9
Rating : 4.9

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QAId : 52337
Asker : marc3
Subject : Linux Connectivity to Novell 4.x server
Private : No

Question : Hi there all,

I would like to connect me linux workstation to a novell server, and access the volumes on it.

Having cut my teeth on Win95, I wish to progress to a REAL Operating System, but still need access to my files that are currently on a novell server. I would like the connection to be as seamless as possible, so that i will be able to save files to the novell server, as well as open them from my linux workstation.

My novell server as bindery enabled, but this will be turned off soon, in favour of running NDS only.

Help me PLEASE.

Regards
Marc

Answer : You will want to consider Caldera's OpenLinux as last time I checked it is the only distribution that comes with Novell client software in the package. You can order the full thing from http://www.linuxmall.com or hop onto the FTP server ftp.linuxberg.com, enter the ISO directory and grab a single CD version of Caldera (or almost any other Linux distro) for free - you will need a burner obviously and a fast connection to make this worthwhile.

Paul Doherty, CNA (3 & 4), CNE (4), MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
Rating : 0

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QAId : 52346
Asker : ptarik
Subject : Novell's Server 3.12
Private : No

Question : I have two hard disk in a Novell's Server with insufficient space .Then I would like to know how to do change them after making a copy on the new . And what is limit
( capacity ) of partition with a Novell 3.12 I can do?

Answer : I'm not sure what you're asking about the two drives. Are you saying you will replace the two small drives with one large one? After which you want to change them how?

As far as maximum sizes go, for both Netware 3.x and Netware 4.x the limit is 32TB (Terabytes- that's 32,000 GB).

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 52392
Asker : drew52034
Subject : Dos Batch (.bat) programming question
Private : No

Question : In the interest of saving money (by not buying a RAID controller), I was wondering if it was possible to write a batch program that would execute the following when run:

copy c:\(all files and directories) d:\

I know copy c:\*.* will only get me the files in the root, so I really have two questions. One: How do you copy all files and directories, including sub-directories in DOS, and Two: Is it possible to make it copy only the files modified within a certain time period, like maybe the same day or within the past X number of hours? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer : To copy all the files on the whole disk you can create a batch file and use the 'at' scheduler (add the scheduler service first before using 'at' on the command prompt under NT Server). The batch file could look as follows:

@echo off
c:
cd \
attrib -r -h -s *.* /s
xcopy c:\*.* d:\*.* /e /m /q /y >nul

The above batch file will copy only the files that have not already been copied, or ones that have changed since the last copy. The first time you run this I would suggest you do the following and then run our batch file one time manually:

c:
cd \
attrib -r -h -s +a *.* /s

Now run the batch file one time manually - this will ensure that all files got copied at least once. From here on out they will be picked up based on modification or being new.

Now you can set this up to be automatic with the 'at' scheduler (under NT Server) or with Task Scheduler (on systray in Win9X). We'll call our batch file backmeup.bat) and schedule it to run at night:

at 01:00 /every:M,W,F,Su "d:\wherever\backmeup.bat"

The above line would run the backmeup.bat file at 1:00 AM every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

Have fun!
Paul Doherty, CNA (3 & 4), CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
Rating : 5

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QAId : 52396
Asker : kdamin
Subject : server selection
Private : No

Question : Need Solution for small network of 2 computers. would like to have remote access via laptop. considering a refurbished compaq proliant whose specs are: pent 133, 64ram, 2(4.3gig) scsi hd's, & m1 nt/array(?) for $410. also available is a refurbished compaq proliant p166, 64ram, 2(4.3gig) scsi hd's, & a 4x scsi cd for $670. are these computers sutiable? or should i spring for a new machine?

Answer : Both of those machines are capable of running anything from Windows NT 4, to Windows 2000 Pro, to Netware 5.

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QAId : 55295
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Partitioning in WINNT
Private : No

Question : Hi Paul,

I just have one question:

I have an 8GB HDD and I want to partition this in a way that at least 5GB will be alloted to my system's drive. Is it possible? Because I am having some error messages when installing Windows NT.

Thanks!

Answer : I assume you are referring to the creation of a partition during installtion? If so then I know what you are talking about and I believe the largest partition that can be created at boot-time is 4GB. Don't ask me why; that was an MS decision. best bet is to do the base install on the 4GB partition (as FAT or NTFS) and then run something like Partition Magic under a DOS boot floppy to expand the partition to the size you want it to be in the end.

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 55540
Asker : ptarik
Subject : About The Hard disk
Private : Yes

Question : I would like just the change The old Two hard disk by another ( 2 )with more capacity . When you make a partition with Novell.312,
Can you use the totality of the Hard disk for a Novell Partition ? after you assign a 100 Mg for a DOS Partition.

Answer : Yes you can. As I mentioned in the previous post Netware 3.x and 4.x both have a 32TB (32,000 gigabytes) limitation per volume. You should have no trouble splitting the disk as you desire. you will need to make one Netware partition of the whole disk and then you can split that into logical volumes if you need more than one.

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 55547
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Novell system date
Private : No

Question : Dear Paul,

I have a Novell 3.11 server which is not Y2K compliant (for business reasons). As a result our server date is set to 1994. The PCs in my office are Y2K compliant though and I am using 3Com's 3C509A/B NICs using VLMs to attach to the server. The problem is that, everytime I attach to the server, the PC date changes (synch's) to the server false date (of 1994). How can I overcome this please??

SK

Answer : If you will edit the clients net.cfg and add the line

SET STATION TIME = OFF

I believe that will disable the client using the server as a time and date synchronization source.

Good luck!

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

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QAId : 58657
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Windows CE and W2K
Private : No

Question : Hello,
I'm curious if you've had any experience with using any CE based terminals with W2K, or NT 4.0 for that matter. Specifically, I'm wondering what type of performance can you expect on the following setup: Vadem Clio (handheld CE based) w/standard 10/100 ethernet card accessing W2K Server running Metaframe. I'd like to use the handheld to run IE 5.0 using ICA protocol. Is there lag? Will running an app such as Windows Media Player appear to be seamless? Will the screen updates allow for decent frame rates and audio quality? Thank you for your time and help!

Answer : I have no experience with this type of setup, but if network traffic were slow I see no reason why you shouldn't get good throughput here.

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 63584
Asker : Yuri.F.L65439
Subject : NTFS
Private : No

Question : I am trying to install Linux in my Second hard drive which is NTFS formatted. I have Windows NT and Windows 98 installed in my 1st hard drive. I tried to reformat that drive to FAT from the NT Disk Administrator unsuccesfully. Is there any way for me to reformat that drive to FAT16 (or Could I use FAT32 too?) short of buying Partition Magic. My understanding is that Linux can not be installed in a NTFS file system. Thanks.

Answer : If you don't care about the data on the second disk and intend to use it solely for Linux you can use a utility such as the Disk Administrator or delpart (ftp://ftp.islandnet.com/blunder/DELPART.EXE) to delete the NTFS partition on the second disk. Be sure you don't want anything on it before doing this, or move it to the first drive!

After the NTFS partition is gone the drive will have no defined partitions and that's just dandy for a Linux install. Just pop in the CD or boot floppy for your distribution and away you go...

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

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QAId : 71460
Asker : l_lotter
Subject : disaster recovery
Private : No

Question : I'm responsible for my Company's server and has installed Backup Exec For Windows NT.

What can you tell me about intelligent disaster recovery, And disaster recovery procedures ?

Can I trust IDR, How much time will it
typically take to recover a server, to "point in time" and how much of my time will typically be taken up each day if I want to be able to recover a system to the day before the disaster.

Answer : I'm not familiar with "IDR" as a product, but if you mean the same type of single boot floppy and tape one-step backup like ARCServe uses then I would say they are excellent concepts and likely to save your buns and time as well.

Can you trust it? Not until you try it yourself. Build a test server, copy some data to it, create some users, make some NTFS rights assignments, install this backup app on it, back it up and then do something horrible. :-) Then test it. I NEVER trust a tool I haven't seen work.

As far as time each day it should be next to zero unless you think you will need to do restores every day (in which case I would suggest you look into your systems as they have major problems). Normally the backups will be an automated event and you will be doing nothing more than switching tapes and ensuring jobs got done successfully (and perhaps doing an occasional non-destructive restore of a few files to ensure integrity).

Paul Doherty

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

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QAId : 84480
Asker : kamal_sehra
Subject : NFS Mounting
Private : No

Question : Can u tell me exact procedure when creating the user's home directory
and how it is shared and exported in a NFS environment

Also Can you tell me the generic shell scripts which are used in general NIS/NFS /DNS environment
((you can telll me the site where from I can get eh sample shell scripts))

Regds
Kamal Sehra
Sr Support Engineer
Compaq India Ltd

Answer : No I can't, since you didn't indicate what version of UNIX you're referring to. Once you've added the directory in question to the list of NFS "shares" mounting it from a remote system is nothing more than a modified standard mount command:

mount -t nfs remotesystemname:nfssharedir /mnt/whereyouwantitmounted

As far as your second question - you've asked about three broad areas and still have not indicated an OS you're referring to so I can't help you on scripts that may be used here. DNS is manually adjusted in all instances I've done it (named.boot, named.data, named.rev are all in /etc) and NIS is another story altogether and one which I don't use too often.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 1.4
Rating : 1.4
Rating : 1.4

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QAId : 101292
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : PC Systems
Private : No

Question : I'm purchasing a PC. Which is faster on a Pentium III 600Mhz machine 1)512 Off-die transfer cache or 2) 256 Advanced Transfer Cache? Thanks.

Answer : You're asking about the difference between a P3 standard versus a P3 Coppermine I suspect. A Coppermine is faster for a lot of reasons, but one of them is for having the 256K on-die cache that runs at full core speed, as opposed to P2/older-P3 512K off-die 1/2 speed cache. This is the same reason why Celerons run so well against esame-clocked P2's - they only have 128K of cache but again it is at full core speed, not 1/2, and even with this disparity is cache size the Celerons can best P2's of the same speed in many tests and equal them in almost every area.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 4

Need More Information : Hey - I accidentally didn't answer your last question on the difference between SDRAM and RDRAM. What I did was not notice the subject of the message appeared to be this question, so I submitted before answering it. Then I wrote a fairly length document explaining it but it wouldn't let me answeer it again (makes sense). So would you me the question again - I saved the text I wrote off to a file and can then give you your answer.

Thanks,
pauldoherty

FUQuestion : This is getting confusing. It's saying that you are asking for clarification on the "coppermine" question. But, what you're really asking for is clarification on the "SDRAM" question. So, what I'll do is re-submit my original SDRAM question to you. I'm new to this site -- so bear with me.

Thanks.

Answer : The reason I used the "Coppermine" question was that the other question RAM differences doesn't appear in my list on answered questions. Since I knew you were the same person who had asked about Coppermines I just used that one to get to you since you are Anonymous. They still have a few bugs in the site it appears.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 4

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QAId : 102951
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : thanks
Private : Yes

Question : Thanks for the off-die/Coppermine answer. That'll help me in my computer purchase. Thanks again!

Answer : You are very welcome... glad to be of service to you!

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

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QAId : 103016
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Novell 5 Max Physical receive Packet size
Private : No

Question : I am running a netware 5 server over a token ring network. I am using compaq netintelligent 4/16 TR PCI card. The server communication drops some times and uses lose connections.

is their a recommended Maximum Physical Receive Packet size for Token ring or for the compaq netintelligent cards

Thanks

Answer : It appears Novell suggests 4096 for Token Ring as a maximum since applications that use WinSock are not aware of packet sizes; only the NIC driver does. See this URL for a symptom/solution to a Lotus Notes issue for more info on the Token Ring packet size issue.

http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/search.pl?database_name=kb&type=HTML&docid=%03%81%05F105057%3a949631118%3a%20%28%20token%20ring%20netware%205%20maximum%20packet%20receive%20size%20%29%20%20AND%20%28%20productClass%20%3d%20%28%22NetWare%22%29%20%29%20%20AND%20%28%20docGroup%20%3d%20%280%29%20%29%20%20%07%01%00&byte_count=12311

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 107031
Asker : siddhartha_khemka
Subject : postmaster on linux
Private : No

Question : Hi,

The following is the desc. of a utility called postmaster available for windows.

" The PostMaster is mail-server software that gives you unlimited personal email IDs over a single Internet account. It works with any SMTP/POP3 email client, including Netscape and Internet Explorer clients, Outlook Express, and Eudora. Features include the ability to download mail from multiple POP3 accounts, user mail statistics, virtual accounts, tracking of ISP usage time, automatic responders, real-time displays, and logging facilities "

Is any such utility available for linux ?

regards
sid

Answer : Try here:

http://www.linuxapps.com/?page=category&category=mail

Paul Doherty
Rating : 4

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QAId : 107068
Asker : john.hung@...
Subject : Networking Win 95 and Win NT 4.0
Private : Yes

Question : I have two computers networked together (peer to peer)here are the specs:

First Computer is a Dell Pentium III runing Win NT 4.0 with SP 5.0. Microsoft Office Suite, and some accounting software. No games or anything fancy at all because it is strictly a business machine. It has an internal modem (U.S. Robotics) on Com 2 for interenet access, an external modem on Com 1 for Faxes (WinFax 9.0) they share a dedicated phone number. This computer is connected to an APC UPS.

Second computer is an IBM Pentium business box also running Microsoft Office Suite and some accounting software. The purpose of this machine is for backing up the first computer. It is running WIN 95.

Here is the problem, every once in a while (approx. once a day sometimes more) the Dell computer reboots for no apparent reason. Event Viewer shows some errors (SAP) and event ID 52 codes.

What exactly should I have for my networking settings on these computers? When the PC came from the manufacturer it had TCP/IP, RAS, and a host of other network protocol on it and I didn't want to delete anything because the system seems to be working fine except this reboot sequence every once in a while.

Could there be something else that is causing this?

Thanks.

John

Answer : Hmmm... a lot of specifics, but not much detail of the crashes.

When you say "SAP" I think "Service Advertising Protocol" which makes me thing IPX/SPX protocol is installed. If it is, remove it as you do not need it. Right-click Network Neighborhood and select Properties on both machines and find anything with IPX and root it out. I assume you have TCP/IP installed as well so this should not interfere with your LAN communication/file-sharing. NetBeui can also be booted from the protocol list.

Finally two suggestions:

1) Upgrade to SP6a - SP5 is not current and may have some bugs in it (besides the normal conglomeration MS provides with each "fix" :-) SP6 and the additional SP6a can be gotten at:

http://www.microsoft.com/ntserver/nts/downloads/recommended/sp6/allsp6.asp?FinishURL=%2Fdownloads%2Frelease%2Easp%3Freleaseid%3D12378%26redirect%3Dno

2) Can you not either install a secondary disk or a large-capacity tape drive for backups on the NT machine? This would free up the other machine for more tasks.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

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QAId : 108438
Asker : keighmy
Subject : 10/100 vs. 10 Baset
Private : No

Question : I'm just getting to know this forum... excuse the duplicity...
What is the difference between 10/100 and 10 Baset? A little technically speaking, I mean.

Answer : 10BaseT is nothing more than this (broken down):

"10" = means 10 Mbit (MegaBit/sec) transfer

"BaseT" = means it is "twisted pair" cabling, as opposed to coaxial cable (10Base2) which is also 10Mbit.

10/100 is usually a reference for a card, hub, or switch that can "autosense" whether another device can receive at 100Mbit or only at 10Mbit and will set itself accordingly for the fastest possible transfer rate. So literally speaking 10/100 merely means that the card can talk at *both* 10Mbit or 100Mbit (some 100Mbit cards only do 100Mbit but they're rare - for example the NetGear starter kit comes with a 100Mb 4 port hub, and 2 100Mb cards - all of which cannot transfer at 10Mb - only 100Mb)

Paul Doherty
Rating : 4.9
Rating : 4.9
Rating : 4.9
Rating : 4.9

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QAId : 108451
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Another question
Private : Yes

Question : Hi. Can I ask you one more question regarding PC's? (I'm the one who asked the Coppermine question.) I'm trying to decide which will be of better performance for the price: a 128mb RDRAM (newer stuff = more money); or a 512mb SDRAM (current stuff = more reasonably priced). Actually, I'd buy the 128mb SDRAM now and upgrade another 128mb later to get the 512 if I need it. Would the 2 - 128mb be comparable to the 1 - 128 RDRAM?

Thanks for your help.

Answer : After you only rated me a 4 on that Coppermine question, where you said I totally answered the question with the info you needed you ask me another!? The nerve... you trying to ruin my rating or something? ;-)

I have not seen any benchmarks with the new Intel i820 chipset which as far as I know is the only chipset that can utilize the RamBus memory you refer to. This brings up a little conundrum - buying an i820 chipset based motherboard *can* be done in such a way so as to use standard SDRAM DIMMs in it (some mobo manufacturers make them). Problem is there is a penalty for using non RDRAM in an i820 mobo. Seems the i820 has to use a memory translator to use the SDRAM DIMMs so you incur a 10-20% penalty reading and writing to this memory. But this could be offset by running a Coppermine CPU on one of these with a 133Mhz FSB and PC133 SDRAM (still cheap compared to RDRAM). You also may want the i820 chipset-based mobos for their enhanced feature sets like ATA66, AGP4x, etc. To further muddy the water (hey you asked the question! :-) soon you will be able to buy DDRAM (Double Data-rate) memory like the kind that comes on high-end NVidia GeForce video cards for your primary system memory which will double the throughput of that PC133 spec to 266Mhz, giving Rambus a run for it's money (literally and figuratively since the Rambus is $pricey$ from all I've heard). So in the end I would go with some PC133 and an i820 chipset mobo with a nice Coppermine P3 myself...

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

FUQuestion : OK I'm hoping that the original question, your answer, and now this follow-up 'question' all appear together. You can read my original question and answer again. I must confess that I read over your answer last night and printed it out to 'study' it as I didn't fully grasp it. I remember the ending giving advice on the PC133 -- so I assumed that that was the answer. I await your response and I'll re-read your original response. Thanks for your time.

Answer : Ok here goes...

SDRAM is Single Data-Rate RAM. It runs at speeds of 100, 133 and 150Mhz. It is on a 64-bit bus.

RDRAM is RAMbus memory - a new spec by Intel that is utilized by their new motherboard chipset the i820. Rambus mainly differs from SDRAM in it's clock speeds. It is a clock-doubled RAM that can send and receive data on the rising and the falling of each clock tick. So RDRAM that runs at 100Mhz for instance effectively really moves data at 200Mhz. Rambus speeds are even higher than that - I'm not sure of the highest clock speed but I believe it's 400Mhz - which when clock-doubled makes for a whopping 800Mhz of speed. Sounds good, doesn't it? 800 vs 133 on SDRAM? But it ain't so. The missing piece of the puzzle I left out is that, while SDRAM has a 64-bit bus (which means 8 bytes per clock tick can move back or forth across the bus), RDRAM is only a 16-bit bus (which means 2 bytes per clock tick). So, RDRAM at 8 times the frequency, when this 1/4 sized bus is taken into consideration is now only (all other things being equal) twice as fast as 100Mhz SDRAM. And as I mentioned there is 133Mhz SDRAM available now. On top of that RDRAM is expensive. And I do mean expensive. A 128MB stick (DIMM) of SDRAM will run you about $150.00. The same capacity of RDRAM will set you back a cool thousand bucks! And to fit the final nail into the coffin on it's way to your RAM slots is a new memory standard DDRAM. It's clock-doubled memory just like RDRAM is, but it's like the SDRAM with it's wider 64-bit bus. And it will likely be a lot less than comparable RDRAM 9and right now now RDRAM would touch it at a clock-doubled 133Mhz (266Mhz effective, 64-bit)) speed. DDRAM is on video cards with the NVidia GeForce card and will be coming to PCs in the form of DIMMs very soon I suspect.

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Thanks. This is much more clearer. I'm off to buy my system!

Answer : None required - this was a response to an answer, not another question.

Good luck on the system!

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QAId : 110729
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : netware 4,0
Private : No

Question : when working with NetWare 4.0, why should you avoid creating an alias that points to a container in the same or parent context?

Answer : Netware 4.1 and up do not allow this behavior for the obvious reason (and why I suspect you're asking) - it creates problems. It creates an "alias loop" where the alias points to the current container (in which case there was no reason to use an alias in the first place). If you attempt to do this under Netware 4.1 or higher it will not allow you to create the alias.

More info on the subject at:
http://www.sci.sdsu.edu/People/Diana/network/tutors/ndsplan.html

Do a CTRL-F and search for "alias"

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 115345
Asker : caseyy
Subject : install linux
Private : No

Question : hi, i have problem w install linux.i like to install dual os system , i have 13g hd & partition to c:(2000mb) d:(2000mb) e:(4000mb)and the rest for linux.
when ask for partitioning my hd for linux ---
then i partition to /a(3000mb) /swap(128mb)/boot(i try 1mb to 16mb then the msg ---boot partition too big!!!!!!then i can't cont' can u help me???
thanksssss

Answer : You may just be running into the maximum number of primary partitions available on a disk. Since you already have the Windows partitions in place and it's a lot more work to blow them away and start over, here are two ways to get around this quite easily:

Try one of two things:

1) create the /boot filesystem *first*, making it around 20-40MB in size

2) make only one filesystem and make it the full capacity (minus what you'll want for the swap partition). So in this case with 8GB of a 13Gb allocated before starting the Linux install you will likely want a 4.5GB or so "/" filesystem and then create a 128-256MB swap partition. Then /boot will simply be a subdir off of the root filesystem which is fine and dandy (not mandatory that it be separate).

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 117785
Asker : caseyy
Subject : linux
Private : No

Question : the 1st time i install is ok
when i reinstall it with more hd space the problem come...after few step of installation program (redhat 6.1) when ask for partition for linux....
i ty to create / or /boot from 1mb to 16mb then 100 to 1000mb then up to 4000mb...
the same msg given 'boot partition too big'

thanks

Answer : I'm not sure if you are the same one who asked me about Linux and the "/boot" and "/" filesystems, but as I said you may have run out of partition entries (there is a maximum for primary partitions and it's quite low - like 3 or 4). If I recall you already had 3 partitions for Windows NT or Windows 95/98. And as I said in my last message you should stop trying to make a separate "/boot" and simply make one *extended* (when asked for type) partition for the "/" filesystem, which will then contain the /boot filsystem. /boot does not have to be a separate filesystem.

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 119153
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : SDRAM vs. RDRAM
Private : Yes

Question : Thanks, once again for your helpful answer. Now, this time I gave you a '5'. If I'd have given you a '5' the first time, you'd have no goal to obtain on this second try, now would you?? :). Anyway, thanks. I think I'm ready to take the plunge...

Answer : hehe - harsh critics - my advice is worth every cent you paid for it... ;-)
Rating : 5

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QAId : 161386
Asker : ryand
Subject : can't install Corel Linux OS
Private : No

Question : My system specs are below:

Compaq LTE Elite 4/75CX laptop
Toshiba (serial#: MK2104MAV)(cylinders: 524 heads: 128 sectors per
track: 63) 2.0 gig HD (1.16 free)
24 Mb of RAM
1.44 floppy
(Matshita KME CD-ROM05) Panasonic KXL-783A External SCSI PCMCIA CD-ROM
drive
Panasonic KXLC003 SCSI controller
PCMCIA 3COM Megahertz X-JACK 33.6 modem
Also, I don't have a soundcard in this machine and the video adapter is
a Compaq Notebook Display adapter (WD).

Keep in mind that I have absolutely NO partitions setup yet. Win98 is the only OS currently running on this machine. When I put the CD in theCD-ROM drive and the BOOT/INSTALL disk in the A: floppy drive, and then reboot the computer, it freezes during the installation process when it says "Installing Corel Linux...". It was working just fine when it said "Loading Corel Linux...", but as soon as "Installing Corel Linux..." comes up, it locks up. The CD does NOT spin the drive and there is NO activity from the floppy drive. I've tried installing Corel Linux 3 times already and have had the same result all 3 times. I've tried holding down SHIFT while it's loading, and have chosen the EMERGENCY SHELL option. But I don't know what to do from there. If you need any more information, please email me back and I'll tell you. Thanks for your help. Bye.

Answer : Linux is a lot less friendly to hardware than Windows - meaning it won't run on as many combinations of hardware as Windows will.

Some systems are *not* compatible with Linux - I had an AMD 300 system myself that would get halfway through a SuSE Linux install and somwhere in the middle just crater every time. And not at the same point either. Best bet to see if your machine is compatible with Corel's Linux by removing as many superfluous devices you can - external SCSI, any PCMCIA adapters, etc. then try an install with this "bare as you dare" config - if it still locks up you can do one of two things:

1) EBay that Corel CD and buy a different distro - or download one for free from ftp://ftp.linuxberg.com/pub/ISO - you can also buy those same free distros for a few bucks if you don't have the bandwidth and a burner to download it yourself from
http://cart.cheapbytes.com/cgi-bin/cart/scan/mp=category/se=101?qtRszfdS;;2

2) Build yourself a desktop (dsktops are better supported than notebooks) to put Linux on and try the Corel with that.

Good luck!
Paul Doherty

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QAId : 166214
Asker : rdias
Subject : Server choice
Private : No

Question : Hi ...
Need your help to choose Network OS's for my company !
From these servers we need :
- File and Printing services
- Proxy (and possibly a firewall)
- Mail

In the File and Printing Server I would like to push software to the clients ...

What is your advise ???

Thnxs !

Answer : You didn't mention the number of clients but I'd probably suggest NT since I don't know of any firewall solutions on Netware. Netware 5 and up can run Java apps but I doubt that's sufficient for a firewall - performance could be off a *tad*. :-)

With all the functions you've chosen to do here (and the fact you likely have the file and print *inside* the firewall :-) it stands to reason you're looking at at least 2 machines, more likely three.

One for file/print/authenticaion (PDC)

One for mail (Exchange/Lotus Notes)

One for Proxy or firewall

What you may end up doing is running file and print on the (faster and more stable) Netware 5, and run the proxy and email systems on NT. I don't know how you feel about mixing NOS's in an environment but it isn't a bad idea sometimes.

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : OK ...
No problem in mixing NOS's ...
It's like that that we have our network now !
I just wanted to know if you have any advise in the Exchange/Notes and Proxy and Firewall software ...
Also I'd like some links to study how to push software to clients in NW5
Thnxs

Answer : CheckPoint has a good reputation as a firewall provider. See info on their products at:

http://www.checkpoint.com/products/firewall-1/index.html

As far as the pushing software to clients goes with Netware it's quite easy - you'll use ZenWorks - it has a lot of the abilities of SMS (the MS solution to this problem), and then some.

http://www.novell.com/products/zenworks/

http://www.novell.com/advantage/zen/zen-qanda.html

Setup correctly this type of system can show users a special folder of application icons, based on group memberships and rights. You can calso have their desktop follow them so it doesn't matter where they login, they see the same thing.

Pretty cool - and while Windows 2000 will offer some of this it *is* MS's first shot a directory service (which is the backbone for things like this), while Novell has NDS for oh, the last 8 or 9 years... do you really want to beta test MS's directory service?

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5
Rating : 5

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QAId : 167266
Asker : davidm
Subject : Input devices
Private : Yes

Question : Hi,
I have an assignment (dip. in comp. studies) and I need some information of these two input devices:
-Palm readers (for identification)
-Bar code readers

I need enough information covering the basic principles of how these work, about 400 words on each. I have been looking for this on the net and it seems I cannot get any relevant info. Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
David Micallef

Answer : I found you a site on barcodes (came up empty on sites explaining palm readers, but found one selling them):

Barcode readers - how they work:

http://www.taltech.com/Bar_Code/bckb/howabar.htm

The palm readers I'd expect work much like any other analog-to-digital device (voice recognition, flatbed scanners) - they have a stored digitized copy of what they expect to see (the person's hand scanned under secure procedures) and compare that to what they see now. If the whorls and lines on the hand match significantly the person is authenticated. Sorry I couldn't find you a website on the specifics.

I want to mention, however, that I am somewhat concerned by your asking for a specific-length dissertation on each subject. I hope this does not mean you intend to plagiarize the content of any of these websites. That is not the point of my helping you...

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Wow, that was quick!
Thanks so much. Very good site on barcodes.
Thanks again. I would also like to put your mind at rest about the 4oo word thing. That was because when I asked for the same thing without mentioning the number of words I usually get a couple of lines, with material directed at 10 year olds!
By what u sent me, it seems the trick has worked
Thanks again
David Micallef
Rating : 5

Answer : Great! I'm glad to hear the information will be of use to you!

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 171005
Asker : furman187
Subject : Learning web/networking
Private : No

Question : I have some computer experience, and am wanting to learn more about internet (website design and security), and also networking. I started with learning HTML and I am currently learning JAVA and Red Hat Linux. I am teaching myself using some books and the internet.

My goals are to become a security conscious webmaster and/or Sysadmin.

My questions are: what books or websites would you recommend? What other programming languages or operating systems will be important for me to learn?

Thanks, John

Answer : Well you'd be neglect if you don't cover Windows NT, since it's unlikely you will not see it in your chosen profession. As far as languages go Java is the only one you've listed - if that's the only one you're familiar with you may want to pick up some experience with C/C++ as C++ is similar to Java (classes, inheritance, etc). But if you delve into the Java thing you will be becoming more of a web developer than a webmaster. As I understand the term (which I think is a bit ridiculous of a term BTW - sounds like a term Apple would come up with *) a "webmaster" (should be "web administrator") is a person responsible for organizing the content and maintaining backups and security on web servers. This same person could be responsible for main file and print servers too if there are not too many.

So if you want to a web developer (or a web admin with a broad background - never a bad idea - gives you options) go with Java and a networking background. If you want one or the other drop either the networking background (if you go web developer) or the Java (if you go networking).

Good luck!

Paul Doherty

* Apple Corp actually tried to get people to pronounce the then-new acronym SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) as "SEXY" instead of the already common "SCUZZY". A bit of PC nostalgia for you... :-)
Rating : 4

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QAId : 176270
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Windows NT and Linux interoperability
Private : No

Question : I am looking at a LAN design that will use Windows NT / Windows 2000 as the operating system for the server and most of the clients. One existing client OS, however is Linux. What is the best approach to achieve interoperability and communicate between this client and the Windows-oriented server?

Answer : With the Linux machines being used as clients there are two ways to go at it - you can make them speak the native SMB protocol of Windows with Samba (commonly included with all recent Linux distros), or you can install on the Linux machines a "Windows emulator" the best of which I've seen is VMWare, which really isn't a Windows emulator - it's an entire PC emulator. VMWare can be installed with *either* Linux OR Windows as the host OS (so maybe you can get them to run their BASE OS as Windows and run Linux inside VMWare?) and then when VMWare is launched you have a nice little PC, doing a RAM test and POST, asking you to press F2 to enter the BIOS setup (which you can do if you're so inclined) and with no OS installed. At that point you can do a clean Windows 95/98 install (or Win2K if you want with the latest version), or if you are hosting on a Windows machine you can do a fresh install of Linux right there in the window. No repartitioning is required - VMWare merely sets aside a large file (of the size you specify) that will represent the hard disk of the guested OS. Very sweet - I tested it a week or so ago with Linux as the host OS (Mandrake 7.0) and had a trial version of VMWare installed with Windows 95 OSR2 happily running my Lotus Notes client piece (which is not available in Linux yet). So I didn't have to reboot into my (real) Windows 98 partition to get my email if I didn't want to leave Linux yet. Pretty sweet. Maybe you should get your Linux users to switch to base Windows/VMWare'd Linux?

It's that or a buy a couple of Samba books and get them mapped to the shares and printers they need on the MS network (and that's assuming there are no *apps* that are Windows-based that they need).

VMWare main page:
http://www.vmware.com

A nice screenshot of VMWare running under Windows NT 4 Workstation host, hosting Linux *and* Windows 2000 virtual machines simultaneously! :
http://www.vmware.com/products/presentations/tour/img/tour_slide04_full.gif

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5
Rating : 5

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QAId : 193089
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : IP/TCP
Private : Yes

Question : im having trouble trying to find the correct difference between Transmission Control Protocol +Internet Protocol .
if IP is an eg of a conection-oriented protocol+it sets up connections between two host computers then what does TCP do

Answer : TCP and IP together make up the TCP/IP protocol suite. TCP is at a higher layer of the network stack, being at the Transport layer (alongside UDP) both of which are one level above IP, which sits at the Network layer. IP is strictly involved with routing of information across the network (HOW the packet should get there), while TCP is concerned with ensuring that the data arrives intact (THAT it gets there).

More info can be found in the following FAQ:

ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc1180.txt

Paul Doherty
Rating : 4

FUQuestion : i have a hard drive that was 2gb it was formatted at low level is there anyway to recover the drive +with what software
Declined (Reason) : This is not a follow-up to the previous question. If you want to ask another question then create a new one.

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QAId : 196030
Asker : codesigned
Subject : Redirection
Private : No

Question :
We are using Microsoft's Internet Information Server software to run our site. Currently we are migrating the site to another location and would like to redirect users of the old site to the new site. Is there a way of doing this globally using IIS without having to put Meta tags on all of the old pages?

Answer : Maybe I'm not catching the question, but if the web site (the web "root" directory) is moving to a new location it will also have a new IP address. So just change the DNS entry for the web URL people use to get to the "old" site and point that DNS name to the new IP address of the server it will reside on.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 3
Rating : 3

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QAId : 196818
Asker : robino150948
Subject : ServerX (linux)
Private : No

Question : Hi!
I use RedHat (5.2)

Ican't log (with xdm)

Before all was working correctly .....

When I log until root : no problem
but for all users I've got this message :
Linux 2.0.34 i686 [ELF]
Configured drivers
Mach64 : accelearted server for ati Mach64
Fatal server error :
xf86OpenConsole : Server must be running with
root permissions _X11TransSocketUnixConnect:can't connect errno111 giving up

xinit:connection refused
----------------------
Before I install php3.rpm, all was ok.
I have verified if all the programs (xinit,X,XF86_Mach64) had the
permissions (not setUID)

If you can help me because I use it to work and it's not good to work under root

Thanks
Robino

------------------
robino

Answer : It sounds like ownership on one of your X Server files has been changed. Check the following same-named files on your system (I'm using Mandrake 7.0 currently, which is a hopped-up version of RedHat).

cd /usr/X11R6/bin
[root@bohr bin]# ls -l X
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 8 Feb 8 10:57 X -> Xwrapper*
[root@bohr bin]# ls -l Xwrapper
-rws--x--x 1 root root 6416 Jan 9 12:42 Xwrapper*?

[root@bohr xinit]# cd /usr/X11R6/bin
[root@bohr bin]# ls -l startx
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1428 Jan 9 12:40 startx*
[root@bohr bin]#

[root@bohr bin]# which xauth
/usr/X11R6/bin/xauth
[root@bohr bin]# ls -l xauth
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 32376 Jan 9 12:42 xauth*

Notice these are all owned by root - yours should be the same. Note the special permissions "s" on Xwrapper.

Paul Doherty

Answer : I realized that last statement wasn't of much help. Of course the "s" refers to setuid for super-user. With that bit set it enables non-root users to run this executable *as* root - withoit it you would get an error message - sounds very similar to what you are experiencing, no?

chmod u+s /usr/X11R6/bin/Xwrapper

will add the "s" bit to the permissions mask.

Paul Doherty

Question : Hi !
Thank you for your response, it helps me ...
but it doesn't really work !
I used the SetUid (Xwrapper & xdm).
If I don't use xdm all works with startx..
(For that it works with startx I had to remove XClients from /etc/X11/xinit !! and the keyboard doesn't work correctly but it's
not a big problem)

Before when I was looking at the xdm-errors
I had errors relative to Xwrapper (when I try
Xwrapper alone, now it works well).
but now the message is AUDIT: clients was refused by the server.

So... I ask me if it's not a problem with
xauth ??? (I don't understand very well how
it works!!!)

Resume :
startx works not too bad
xdm : root ok !
all other users :Xwrappers starts correctly
and after I have got the error "AUDIT"
and come back to xdm

Thanks

Robino

Answer : Well it looks like we got past part of the error anyway - and moved right along into another!

What did you do to start this cycle of events anyway? You mentioned an RPM you installed but I don't recognize what it is...

What you may want to do that may straighten this all out is to use the RPM manager (or do it from failsafe mode with the rpm executable) and uninstall X-Windows entirely and then add it back in.

Barring that - here is the settings on my 'xauth' executable - owned by root but no setuid set.

[root@elfstone /]# cd /usr/X11R6/bin
[root@elfstone bin]# ls -l xauth
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 32376 Jan 9 12:42 xauth*

(elfstone is a different Linux box than the last one I used but they both run Mandrake 7.0)

Paul Doherty

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 202828
Asker : whigga
Subject : How do you...
Private : No

Question : set up a web server? I'm interested in getting my own server set up, but have no idea where to even get started.

Answer : Well depending on your operating system (I'll assume Windows) you can get a web server set up and running pretty easily. If you are in Windows 98 put the CD in the drive and drill down into the CD and run X:\add-ons\pws\setup.exe where "X" is your CD drive letter.

That's got the web server installed - now just create a file named index.html and put it at the beginning of your web space (the directory on your hard disk identified as the "root" of your web server). This is the page that will load by default when someone types your address in a web browser so make a basic page that you will easily recognize (use FrontPage Express to make a basic page - also comes with Windows 98).

Now that you have a web server and a basic page have someone else try to load it - first you need to know your IP address - Start/Run/winipcfg and the IP address will be reported in a window. From the other machine on a web browser just type in your IP address - as in:

24.5.12.98

and hit Enter - they should see your basic web page if all goes well. From here you can add links to other pages within your web server (or to other sites), pictures, etc. The only major thing you're missing with a web server at home is you have no domain name registered to you - that is, no one can type "www.imsocool.com" and get to you machine because there is no matching entries in the DNS servers on the net to pair up "imsocool.com" with "24.5.12.98" so you are resigned, in the continued absence of a DNS entry, to having users and your own web pages refer to the web server machine with it's IP address and not it's friendly name. but for playing around and learning it makes no difference at all.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

FUQuestion : How do you get a DNS to recognize the IP address? I am seriously interested in setting up my own server.

Answer : You don't get the DNS server to recognize the IP address. You have to purchase a static IP address from your ISP and then purchase a domain name (assuming your isn't taken) from a site like:

http://www.register.com/

Once you purchase the domain name then the domain name and IP address can be linked on the internet's DNS servers.

Paul Doherty

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 210203
Asker : genieee59593
Subject : server
Private : No

Question : How do u link the domain name and IP address on the DNS servers?

Answer : When you pay for the static IP address with your ISP ask them how much they charge (and the procedure) for getting your registered domain name associated with your IP address. Even if they don't directly handle it they can certainly point you to who does.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 2
Rating : 2

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QAId : 212272
Asker : clint1
Subject : slow clock
Private : Yes

Question : Paul,
My system resourses are only 37%free. Could this be why my clock loses time and my mouse is slow? If so, what can I do to figure out what is using up all of resourses and free it up? Please advise.

Answer : 37% is very bad. You didn't indicate whether this is Windows 95 or 98, or what your machine is like (avaiable RAM, etc). But the simple quick answer is you have a resource-stealer. A driver or app that is allocating memory for use, using it, and never giving it back up. More likely a driver than a program but to make sure it's a program watch how many apps you have loading in your systray (at the bottom-right of the taskbar - has the clock and volume control). Use the Start/Programs/Startup folder to control how many of these get run (there are other ways to run them but just police these for a start). Get rid of any you know you don't need - any you aren't sure of make another folder under Startup and move them there for safekeeping).

Most important thing for you to do is to get the latest video and audio drivers for your system (and modem if needed). Go to your manufacturer's web site - if you have an S3 or NVidia-based card (or any of Diamond's products) go to http://www.diamondmm.com - if you have any Creative Labs stuff go to http://www.creaf.com - in both instances find the support section and downloads, find the right ones for your cards and download and install them.

Paul Doherty

Answer : Oh you also asked what you can do to find the offender - load up your Resource Meter (Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Resource Meter - if not there add it from Add/Remove Programs control panel, Windows tab, Accessories, Details).

Once the meter is open you can get a running status on your resources (likely you are already using it as you knew you were at 37%). Now load and unload apps you use frequently, noting the resources before loading and after quitting. They should be the same (or darn near - some will load DLLs that stay resident in memory so the first load may show a bit lost but subsequent loadings of the same program should NOT decrease the available resources below this new lower level).

Watch for programs that eat some resources every time they load and quit, always leaving the system with less. More likely it's a driver issue as I mentioned above but in case you want to check it - there you go.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

FUQuestion : Thanks Paul for the info. I have win98 a Dell XPS T500. 128.0 mb of ram.
I checked for the latest drives like you suggested and I have the current drives.
I shut down the computer and rebooted it a hour later. I checked the system resources and it now it says I have 63% free.
Its better than 37% and I can tell a difference. Should it be more than 63% free or is it ok at this level?
Do you think the problem corrected itself or will it be recurring.
Thanks so much for your help!

Answer : 63% isn't bad - depending on what is loaded - and since I don't know that I can't really comment except maybe to give you a comparison. My system has been running mostly all day and I have 5 IE browser windows open and Lotus Notes email client (a beast of an app) open as well (also my systray stuff and the resource meter are running). I have System at 59%, User at 68%, and GDI at 59%.

Unfortunately computer problems rarely go away by themselves. Did you get rid of some of the startup stuff I mentioned you should look at? Did you do anything to the system at all (reinstall the same version of some drivers, etc)?

If you haven't done anything I'd suggest you get in that Start/Programs/Startup folder and root out what you don't really need (my systray has only three icons and the clock - Windows Task Scheduler, special mouse drivers and the volume control).

If you really want to get serious about rooting out the garbage you can do a Start/Run, type in regedit.exe and go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ and look into the "Run" and "RunServices" sections for suspicious programs being loaded at boot-time. Be careful in here - you may delete something and not know what it does. Note the path to the executable (if full path is used) and scope out what the item is before getting rid of it. But this is a prime location for cutting down on garbage you don't need. You can also check your win.ini for "load=" and "run=" lines - they should be blank like the ones I typed - if not then they are loading something and that something may not be something you want loaded. between these three areas you will have covered the vast majority of ways for resource-stealers to load.

Paul Doherty

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 231999
Asker : gary_clark
Subject : Setting up LPT1 port on a NT4 using Netware 5 network
Private : No

Question : I have a novell 5 network with printers attach via jetdirect print servers. I have software that runs on our NT 4.0 system that uses the lpt1 port to print. The workstation can print to the network printer fine but I can not capture the lpt1 port to the network printer. I use IP not IPX. In netware 4.1 I could use the net.exe command to capture the lpt1 port but not in the version Im on now. It looks for passwords that are not there or gives access denied statements when doing this.

Answer : You didn't mention the technique you are using to print without capturing the printer first, but since you also did not mention the client version you are using on the NT machine I will recommend that you download the latest client (4.7) for NT which should have a working GUI capture.

http://webapps.novell.com/cgi-bin/custom/corp/esd/vrtlbox.pl?NOVELL_PID=87000395.01d

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Thanks Paul,

for responding so quickly. I am sorry I thought I had included the client I was using which is the novell client for netware 5.

The message I left earlier is below
I have a novell 5 network with printers attach via jetdirect print servers. I have software that runs on our NT 4.0 system that uses the lpt1 port to print. The workstation can print to the network printer fine but I can not capture the lpt1 port to the network printer. I use IP not IPX. In netware 4.1 I could use the net.exe command to capture the lpt1 port but not in the version Im on now. It looks for passwords that are not there or gives access denied statements when doing this.

Answer : The "net.exe" command is a Windows command - the printer you are connecting to is a Netware printer and is not seen by the net.exe command. You more likely need to pursue the capture.exe command located in SYS:PUBLIC on your Netware server.

If you are using the 4.7 client it should work with pure IP have an option within the GUI to capture printers. Have you tried this or looked for this option within the client - I had not seen you mention trying anything but net.exe so I don't know if you have exhausted this avenue.

Paul Doherty

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 237323
Asker : hshearer
Subject : Trouble with BootMagic and LILO
Private : No

Question : I've got two hard drives on my computer. One holds nothing but Win 98 programs and the other has only OpenLinux 2.3. The problem is that I'm having trouble With BootMagic. When I try installing Boot after installing the rest of Linux I get an error message saying that "1.There is no visible FAT16 or 32 primary partitions that are below cylinder 1024 on the first hard disk or 2.Bootmagic is already installed on a hidden partition." During installation last time I checked the option to have LILO installed on my MBR since the systems are on seperate operating systems but during startup all I got was a screen full of "01"s. Windows doesn't recognize my second hard drive but partition utilities see it as hdd. What is the most secure way for me to be able to choose an operating system when starting up? Thanks for any help.

Answer : I'm not sure of the difference between "Boot Magic" and LILO and you seem to use them interchangably in your question. I have always used LILO on all distros so I suspect Boot Magic is some kind of Caldera special add-on. Here is what I found on your error:

Description:

When I try to install BootMagic I get the error no Fat16 or Fat32 partitions under 1024 cylinders available.

Solution:

BootMagic requires that there be a FAT16 or FAT32 partition that exists under 1024 cylinders. If one does not exist, BootMagic will not install. Try going into the computer's bios and set the harddrive to LBA mode and also make sure that a FAT16 or FAT32 partition exists on the harddrive.

http://support.calderasystems.com/caldera?solution&11-990629-0001&130-930651812&14-0&2715-0&15-0&2716-0&57-search&58-&25-7&3-FAT16%2520cylinder%25201024

If you do try the LBA setting for your hard disk(s) be sure and write down the settings before changing it - then try booting the machine normally without changing anything to ensure you can still access the disks properly under LBA. If so then go back into Linux, login as root and type "lilo" and hit enter to aplly the current /etc/lilo.conf settings and write to the MBR.

Paul Doherty

Rating : 5

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QAId : 259390
Asker : grog1191761
Subject : WINDOWS 98 MTU REGISTRY SETTING CHANGE
Private : No

Question : I AM WONDERING JUST HOW TO CHANGE MY MAXIMUM MTU VALUE MANUALLY IN MY WINDOWS 98 REGISTRY TO 576.I HAVE HAGGIES BOOST INSTALLED AND IT KEEPS RESETTING TO CUSTOM CONFIGURATION FROM MTU VALUE OF 576.IF I CHANGE MANUALLY IN THE REGISTRY WILL THIS SOLVE MY PROBLEM?

Answer : I am unfamiliar with "Hagiies Boost" but it sounds like one of those internet connection optimizing apps. I would remove it from your startup as the only thing those apps usually do is to change the registry values associated with the network connection, which only needs to be done *once*. After removing or uninstalling the Haggie's Boost app then you can open regedit and make your changes which should then remain constant.

Paul Doherty

Question : For the last year or two I've been running a little apartment network with just
two computers, one with Linux and the other Windows 98. They each had a 10 Mbps ethernet card. I would use a modem for internet connectivity and I had IP masquerading set up on the one with the Linux one with the modem.

Last month I started getting cable modem service. At first I had a little hub
that the cable modem plugged into and then each computer would get an IP address by DHCP. Only one thing bothered me. I used to be able to play mp3s stored on either computer using mp3 players on either computer on the network, but since having the cable modem installed the internal network traffic has been too slow from the Linux computer to the Windows computer to allow that. The music comes out all choppy. I was using Samba on the Linux machine to implement the file server. Oddly enough, I can play mp3s stored on the Windows computer using a player on the Linux one.

I thought that the problem was that since the cable modem gateway was on the same broadcast network as both computers in the apartment, the traffic would end up traveling through the cable modem as well as internally and that was the reason for the poor
network speeds.

In an attempt to remedy this situation, I put another network card in the Linux computer and connected the cable modem directly to the new card. I then reconnected the two computers as they were before (with IP masquerading), with no hub in the middle, just a single cable with two T connectors. The problem, my normal (mp3 playable) network speeds did not return.

Could it be that having two network cards is slowing the traffic down enough to cause this problem? Does anyone have any other ideas about what's going on or how to get my network speed up to par? The computer with the two network cards is a little old, a Pentium Pro 150 with 96 Megs of RAM. I'm wondering if tweaking the buffer settings in the smb.conf file will help, but I'm not sure how to go about optimizing them.

Any insight?

Thanks.

Tyson.

Answer : Having the cable modem on the network would not cause any slowdown on the LAN at all, *unless you were actively using the internet at the time*. That would be why even after isolating it you still get the same behavior. Being in a broadcast segment means really only one thing - all NICs see all packets. But having an extra recipient (who drops the packet since it's not for him) does not affect speed at all.

My best guess here is that:

1) The P150 is barely aqequate to play MP3s across the network to begin with

2) Something has become less than optimal in it's configuration that has pushed it over the brink into a lower-performing situation.

Defragging the Windows macxhines hard disk, and configuring WinAmp (or whatever player you use) to use as large of a buffer as possbile could help. You may also want to look for updated drivers for your NIC here:

http://winfiles.cnet.com/drivers/network.html

Paul Doherty

Rating : 4

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QAId : 274081
Asker : go_cowgirl
Subject : A class task
Private : No

Question : Hi,
Im having problems finding an explanation to this task
"Describe briefly how an application access files on a had disk using The Disk Operating System and ROM BIOS"

Answer : Well a brief description would be along ths lines of:

The operating system retrieves the file allocation table (FAT), a table of contents, essentially from the hard disk. Once this information has been retrieved a file can be chosen (to read or write). The FAT table at a high level contains the names ofall the directories and files on the disk (a directory really being just a special kind of file). At a low level the FAT contains the specific locations of all the clusters on the disk (clusters being the smallest addressable location to store data) that constitute a file. Once the application (either automatically by design, or by user choice in a dialog) knows what file it wants it generates an interrupt in the BIOS (sometimes this may not be true in envrionments that usurp the BIOS like Linux and Windows) passing it the name of the file to retrieve, at which point the hard disk controller is instructed to seek out and read the clusters for the file requested.
Rating : 4

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QAId : 277156
Asker : wmichael
Subject : Rat hat Linux 6
Private : Yes

Question : Hello,
I have installed the Rat Hat Linux 6 last week and today the first time can run the X window, but I find that there are Gnome, KDE, Window Maker + Gnome, Enlightenment+Gnome. I am confusing with them. Are they all different? Would you please point me direction to go with them.

It seems I do not have my network card correctly set. Should I adjust it in text mode with netconf or in X window?
Best regards,
Michael

Answer : It's 'RED' Hat BTW, not 'Rat' Hat... :-)

X Windows uses KDE, GNOME, WInowMaker and Enlightenment as window managers to handle the actual graphics involved in the placement and display of the items that make up your desktop. You should pick the one whose look and speed (and stability) you like the best. none of them change the abilities of the underlying OS so it really doesn't matter which you choose.

Yo edit your network card settings open a shell (terminal) prompt inside X-Windows and run 'linuxconf' to get into the graphical version of the linuxconf utility. Here you can set all the parameters of your network card. Despite claims to the contrary you will either need to reboot, or enter the appropriate /etc/rcx.d directory and manually run the SXXnetwork (where 'XX' is a number) item as follows (as root):

./SXXnetwork stop
./SXXnetwork start

Paul Doherty
Rating : 4

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QAId : 279172
Asker : eleanor_bordeaux
Subject : NWamin Tabs
Private : No

Question : One of my system admins doesn't have the proxy authentication, remote access 1 and remote access 2 tabs in her NWADMIN. She is running Client32 v.3.2. We have tried editing her HKEY_Current_USER...ENGLISHpewPrefs file and adding this tab through the see also tab in NWADMIN but no luck. Any suggestions?

Answer : I have not come across this problem before, but Novell has, and has submitted it to engineering as a bug. Here is some info on the error and some work-arounds:

http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/search.pl?database_name=kb&type=HTML&docid=%03%81%12F156237%3a952384375%3a%20%28%20nwadmin%20missing%20proxy%20remote%20tabs%20%29%20%20AND%20%28%20productClass%20%3d%20%28%22NetWare%22%20%22Novell%20Directory%20Services%22%29%20%29%20%20AND%20%28%20docGroup%20%3d%20%280%29%20%29%20%20%07%01%00&byte_count=7687

http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/search.pl?database_name=kb&type=HTML&docid=%03%81%12F130809%3a952384375%3a%20%28%20nwadmin%20missing%20proxy%20remote%20tabs%20%29%20%20AND%20%28%20productClass%20%3d%20%28%22NetWare%22%20%22Novell%20Directory%20Services%22%29%20%29%20%20AND%20%28%20docGroup%20%3d%20%280%29%20%29%20%20%07%01%00&byte_count=3891

Interstingly, this next one indicates that DELETING that registry key should fix you up... easy to try.

http://support.novell.com/cgi-bin/search/search.pl?database_name=kb&type=HTML&docid=%03%81%12F140425%3a952384375%3a%20%28%20nwadmin%20missing%20proxy%20remote%20tabs%20%29%20%20AND%20%28%20productClass%20%3d%20%28%22NetWare%22%20%22Novell%20Directory%20Services%22%29%20%29%20%20AND%20%28%20docGroup%20%3d%20%280%29%20%29%20%20%07%01%00&byte_count=3663

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 285822
Asker : STEVEWIN
Subject : HARD DRIVE
Private : No

Question : I HAVE A LOW LEVEL FORMATTED HARD DRIVE IS IT POSSIBLE TO RESCUE IT AND RESET IT UP
+HOW

FUQuestion : ITS A 1.7GB HARD DRIVE IT HAD NO PARTITIONS ON IT I WANT RUN WINDOWS 95 ON IT AGAIN I WAS TRYING TO FORMAT IT BECAUSE IT WENT BONKERS I ACCIDENTLY LOW LEVEL FORMATTED IT AND NOW IT WONT SET UP FROM THE CD ROM AS IT DOESNT EXIST THERE IS NO INFO ON IT AT ALL I TRIED F/DISK ECT TO NO AVAIL

Answer : You have not indicated the type of disk but I am guessing you are using IDE. By "low level format" I am not sure you could have done that as it takes special utilties to low-level an IDE drive. More likely you simply formatted. But since you say fdisk can't see it you may indeed have low-leveled it (why is a question that comes to mind - you *never* low-level IDE drives).

Go to the manufacturers web site and get their low-level utility, make a boot floppy and put the utility on there, boot on the floppy and run it.

For example here is Maxtor's relevant web page:

http://www.maxtor.com/library/main.html

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QAId : 303357
Asker : cqnel
Subject : Netware Client 32 3.2
Private : No

Question : I have upgraded a few test workstations to 3.2 Client, can't get my DOS aps to run correctly, inside Win 98. I go back to Client 2.2 and all OK. Am finding the new client does not fully release files (multiuser) at the server, even when DOS session ends, and those things that do run are super slow. Have set all client advanced settings parameters to match the 2.2 settings. What might it be and/or how do I troubleshoot?

Need More Information : I need some more detail - give me an example of what the user tries to do and the unwanted (abnormal) behavior you are getting.

FUQuestion : Multiple open files are not released by the DOS ap. If one looks at server/monitor/connections/files it shows files open even after DOS session is closed. File locks only released when user logs out of network. Have now a few TIDs from Novell (10024875, 10017333, 10020788) all mentioning REVFHRFX.NLM that comes with SP7 as solving trouble. Patching to SP7 this weekend, will let you know how things change. Thanks for your help so far!

Because of that (apparently)

Answer : Good! I hope this SP fixes that for you...

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 304435
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : internet question
Private : No

Question : Could you tell me what a server is? I do alot of downloading with my 56k. What kind of connection to the internet should i chose if i want something faster but not rediculously expensive?

Thank you for your time

Answer : A server is just a computer (sometimes with esoteric hardware options or in form factors not found on desktops) that mission is to provide resources for other machines (awfully noble of them, isn't it?). Some servers provide secure file respositories on LANs; some provide printing services; some host applications; some serve web pages (quite similar to file servers really).

As far as bettering your connect speed your best bet beyond 56k modems is a Cable modem or ADSL modem. Check with your local cable TV company and your local phone provider and see if either (or if you're lucky) both are options. If so jump on whichever is cheapest - they're both excellent. If you can't get either the next best bet is ISDN. ISDN isn't as fast as either of the above (ISDN is 128k full duplex (meaning it can send and receive at 128k simulatenouesly)). Here's some example prices and speeds so you'll know generally what you're after:

Tech_________Speed__________Price

---------------------------------------------

ISDN_________128k___________55.00 + ISP fee

ADSL_______768k down/128k up__49.95 (includes ISP)

CABLE______500k-2500k down/128k up___39.95 (includes ISP)

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Thank you for your very informative answer. I aslo have 1 more question for you. I am about 14 and i am very interested in computers. Listening to you answer my question i can tell that you know computers. I was wondering, where is the best place i can learn about computers and the internet. I am at the stage when i want to know more than "What that button does."
Thanks for your time

Answer : The best thing you can do is to have a secondary machine for you to practice on - on this machine you can do what you like, not caring if you cause a problem (and in fact hoping you will so you have to fix it - it's how you learn).

Another place to get some info would be a book, like

"How Computers Work - Millenium Edition" by Ron White

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0789721120/qid=952879034/sr=1-1/102-0177395-0948837

AND/OR

"Winn L. Rosch Hardware Bible"

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0789717433/o/qid=952878989/sr=2-1/102-0177395-0948837

Either or both of these will do well at getting your knowledge of how computers work at a lower level. These are mostly hardware-oriented - once you get this information down you can work on your operating system and application knowledge.

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 324183
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : NT Partitioning
Private : No

Question : How can I partition NT on one partition?

Answer : That question is totally bereft of details but I'll assume you are referring to the inability of NT to create a partition greater than 4GB (?) during installation. If that is the case simply make the first partition 4GB during install, then reboot with a DOS-bootable floppy with a copy of Partition Magic (or a similar tool) and resize the partition to the full capacity of the disk.

For what it's worth I usually setup NT as follows:

C: - FAT - 25MB or so (makes your boot.ini and other startup files accessible since NTFS will not be readable without NT or special tools like NTFSDOS)

D: - NTFS - 1GB (install the actual NT OS here)

E: - NTFS - Rest of disk (this is where your data resides - separating the boot, OS, and data in this fashion makes for cleaner segmentation and backup/recovery is greatly aided. Also you can keep your swap and user shares on the E: partition so that their growing cannot influence the OS).

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

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QAId : 325010
Asker : curtv
Subject : sever?
Private : No

Question : Hi. My friend and I have made a website, but now we are stuck. We made a lotto website, where the users must click a banner in order to confirm they get their numbers.

We are stuck with the database part of our site. Users must register in order to play lotto. After registered they must login and click a banner (up to 3 times per day) in order to get their numbers and a confirmation email.

Here is my question:
How do we set up a database, keep track of our registered users, and track how many times they have clicked in one day. After they click we also want to send them an email with their numbers.

Do you know how we could do all of this. Or of any programs that may help?

Thanks

Answer : Looks like you need some good CGI scripts or ASP scripts.

Check here

http://www.lqidskin.com/

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 360336
Asker : madcrutch
Subject : Netscape upgrade-Caldera 2.3
Private : No

Question : I downloaded the latest Netscape 4.72 and went through the install routine (ns-install). After I was finished I could see that some files were upgraded and had a new date but when I opened Netscape it still had 4.61 as the version. My question is why did it not overwrite the older files as it does in windows. I am sure that I can remove the old files and make a clean install but I did not want to go through finding my bookmarks, mail and nesgroup files to save. Can you help?

Answer : I just did the same procedure on my Mandrake 7.0 machine and my 'About' screen did not change from "4.7". What makes you suspect Netscape wasn't updated other than the screen not changing? Your concerns over a wipe and clean reinstall are largely unfounded as if you'll look in your home dir you will see that you have a hidden directory called ".netscape" that contains your newsgroup, bookmarks and all other Netscape files oyu need. So feel free to wipe and reinstall if you think your install isn't complete.

Paul Doherty
End :
Rating : 1

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QAId : 373707
Asker : krazyfll
Subject : no operating system
Private : Yes

Question : PacBell Legend 2440, running windows 95. Son-in-Law in his infinate wisdom, used the FDISK for some un-known reason, now there is no operating system, no media on c and several other problems. I can use the restore disk and Master CD to get started, but all those funny messages start popping up. Won't run Windows 95. If he used the FDISK to lose all the information, can I use it to get it back? I am using an IBM PS/1 with windows 95, anything I can copy to get him up and running? If there is no chance of "fixing" it, I do have a rather large magnet I can set on top of the PC over night and really fix it.

Answer : fdisk is a disk partitioning tool - if he used it on the disk (for instance to delete the partition(s)) then you are hosed for real. No chance of getting any data back this side of a data recovery service and from your tone I assume this machine has no critical data on it so this is not an option.

What you need to do now is to use fdisk again to create a partition that is the whole disk, reboot on a bootable floppy (make one FIRST before fdisk'ing with "format a: /s", also copy fdisk and format commands and your CD-ROM driver to it), and then "format c:" to start over again.

If you need more detail ask another question or search my answers (or check my FAQs) as I have detailed CD-ROM access from DOS several times.

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Well, tried your suggestion and being the good Packard Bell computer that this is, it would not do what I told it to. However, you made me think. I put my EZ Drive disk in and got almost everything going. Now, "not reading from drive a" and unable to determine CD Rom" I can boot with no problem if I leave the restore disk in, take it out and have to hit "abort or fail" to get in. Any more ideas. Windows 95 re-installed, but have a feeling won't have sound. Still think PacBell should make paper weights out of some of these things.
Rating : 5

Answer : If this thing works like I suspect it does you need to follow my first directions and nuke the site from orbit and *then* restore. Restoring is a "gentle" process in that most of the time they try not to disturb what's already there (including your messed-up audio drivers). You need to fdisk and format and *then* use the restore CD.

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Okay, Paul, we must be getting close. Everything but sound is working. As a matter of fact, I am talking on the PacBell instead of the IBM. Went into add new hardware, nothing. Now to do it manual, I guess. If I remember right, Soundblaster should be on the Windows 95 disk, somewhere. How do I even know if the sound card is working on this thing? Are we having fun yet?

Answer : Forget the drivers on the CD - they're out of date anyway by now. Go to http://www.creaf.com and snag the latest ones for your card. before installing go to your System control panel into the Device Manager tab and remove the sound card entry that's there (if it's there at all). Note whether it was marked as having a conflict or not.

A good way to test your sound is to merely click the volume control icon on the systray (lwer-right corner) and change the volume up or down slightly - it should 'ding' if it's working. You can also go to the Sounds control panel and test the sounds with the small play button.

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Just to let you know, I "dumped" everything and re-installed windows 95, still no sound. A friend of mine who worked on computers for a firm here in Indiana is going to stop by Sunday and see what the problem is. I am sure it is staring me right in the face, but can't see it. Thanks for all the help you gave me.
Always thought I was as dumb as a rock about the simple things, this proves it.
Have a nice day, Phil

Answer : I hope you get it worked out OK...

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 385021
Asker : mansari
Subject : RAS
Private : No

Question : I'm planning to use the NT RAS for allowing users to dial in to the local lan thru the RAS server. Do I need to have special modem to allow multiples users dial in . Any recommendation and how roughly this need to be setup
Thanks

Answer : You could hook up two lines and two modems (one on COM1 and the other on COM2). Standard modems are fine - there's nothing special about RAS's needs there.

A few good sites for base install and other info:

http://www.lebarge.com/clark/WinNT4/RAS/installing.htm

http://www.syncon.net/techsupport/knowledge/nt.htm

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 389982
Asker : pdoerler@...
Subject : os-loader gone
Private : Yes

Question : hi dear experts,
I had win98 on fat16 on c and winnt4srv on ntfs on d running. I somehow fucked up win98 (mbr was gone) and reinstalled win98. win98 worked again, but I can't get nt now. the os-loader doesn't show up anymore. the file ntldr (that's the osloader, right?) is on c root.
in fdisk (started under win98) the ntfs-partitions are not visible. i've tried bootmagic from powerquest, there the two ntfs-partiotions are there (d and e) but I cannot boot from these.
I've tried the repair function from the winntsrv-bootdisk, skipping the massstorage detection but setup halts as it can't find no disk. i am reluctant to reconfigure the disks as I've had major troubles with this shit some time ago.
please, please, how do get my nt back. win98 doesn't matter as I need to install it from scratch anyway.
thanx so much for your help, phil

Answer : This is taken from MS Support database:

Insert the Windows NT Setup Boot Disk into drive A and restart your computer.

Paul's note - if you don't have this set of disks you can make them by going to the i386 subdir on the install CD and running:

WINNT /OX

Insert Setup Disk 2 when prompted.

When the Setup options appear, press R for Repair.

Four options appear and all four are selected by default.

Clear the selection of all options except Inspect Boot Sector by pressing ENTER to select or clear the options. Be sure that Inspect Boot Sector is the only option that has an X in front of it.

Select Continue and press ENTER.

If you want Setup to detect mass storage devices in your computer again, press ENTER. If you want to skip the mass storage device detection, press S.

Insert Setup Disk 3 when prompted.

If you have the Emergency Repair Disk, press ENTER, insert the disk, and press ENTER again. If you do not have the Emergency Repair Disk, press ESC to allow Setup to locate Windows NT 3.5x or 4.0 and the Repair information.

Remove the disk from drive A and press ENTER to restart your computer.

The Windows NT Flex Boot Loader appears and the dual boot ability is restored.

Try this and let me know if it helps...

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 393493
Asker : KISSES
Subject : Unix on Sun Solaris
Private : No

Question : Hi I am trying to break into this side of Unix. I was a Unix HP admin. when I was in Mass. Everybody here (NC)it seems like runs Sun Solaris Why? I do not know the first thing about Sun Solaris and where do I go to get cerfited in this area, and to learn more ETC, Books, programs in school, . What? Please tell me the differents in the two programs so I will aleast know what is going on ..THANKS.

Answer : I've never worked with HP's Unix so I can't really compare them, but generally speaking most Unix OSs are alike in most ways. There are two branches that Unix took - one is the AT&T Sys V branch and the other is the Berkley standard. These two differ mostly in their startup scripts and switches on command-line apps (same app on diff OSs use different switches - annoying), and a few different utilities. Mostly you'll find that the combination of the hardware and the OS produce some differences - for instance the handling of disks is quite different from Unix to Unix, with Sun not being the best. The best at disk handling is probably IBM's AIX. Another area every Unix differs (commercial ones anyway) is in their admin tools. NCR has sysadm, Sun has admintool, and AIX has smit. they all vary but generally I'd put them in this order (best to worst):

smit
admintool
sysadm

Hope that's what you are after... here's Sun's training site with info on Solaris:

http://suned.sun.com/

Paul Doherty
Rating : 3

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QAId : 399380
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : icons in windows 98
Private : No

Question : I am working with windows 98 and would like to change the folder icon? Some icons when you look at the properties offers a choice of changing the icon; however, the folder icons created by "new folder" option does not. How can I change that folder to something else?

Answer : Here you go... if I can find some nice drive and dir (folder) icons I may play with this myself. Could improve Windows' looks.

How to change the icon from the default:
http://www.io.com/~kmellis/folder-icons.html

Replacement icons:
http://digitalwave.softseek.com/Desktop_Enhancements/Icons/System_and_Shell/index.shtml

Tools for editing and installing icons:
http://jetlink.softseek.com/Desktop_Enhancements/Icons/Utilities_and_Tools/Review_4153_index.shtml

A better way than the first URL above to install new icons, especially if you do it a lot:
http://jetlink.softseek.com/Desktop_Enhancements/Icons/Utilities_and_Tools/Review_20515_index.shtml

Paul Doherty

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com
Rating : 2

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QAId : 435735
Asker : artjgarcia
Subject : Computer system information
Private : No

Question : How can I find out how much memory my computer has? Also,the speed 486 etc..of the computer. Is there a dianostic test that I can run and get a printout of the results?

Answer : The memory total can be gotten from a couple of places. Th easiest is to right-click the My Computer icon on your desktop and select Properties. On the screen that comes up you will see a small summary and at the bottom will be "XX MB RAM" with "XX" being the amount. You can also open a DOS prompt and type "mem /c /p" to see the total of RAM. On my system this one is wrong and indicates 64MB when I have 128MB. Another way to see the RAM and the CPU type as well is to run:

Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Information

Paul Doherty

Rating : 3

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QAId : 445670
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : operating systems
Private : Yes

Question : Hi friend

- I am taking a survey on what the top ten major responsibilities of an operating system should be. Your input on this subject would be very helpful in my survey, as you seem to be an expert on this subject. Please respond if you would like to participate.

-thanks very much for your time

Answer : Hmmm. Well off the top of my head:

1) Disk management - being able to handle disks for both reading and storing information.

2) File System - A method of organizing information on media should be provided.

3) Provide a stable environment for running applications.

4) Efficiency - the OS should not eat all the systems resources just to boot.

5) Stability - the OS must be able to shield the inner workings of itself and hardware from troublesome or poorly-written apps.

6) Environment/Presentation - an OS should provide an environment for the user - this could be a GUI like Windows or a command-line interface for someone else. A personal choice.

7) Tools for manipulating the OS's preferences - a method should be provided whereby a user can tailor (and save for next use) the OS to their needs and tastes.

8) Tools for maniupulating the file system and programs - a language/method should be provided so that users can access and manipulate the files that make up the file system.

Well I only have 8 - but a few can be broken down into multiple items...

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 456130
Asker : ejwilliamson11@...
Subject : Linux server set up
Private : No

Question : Can you tell me the steps I need to go thru to configure my Linux server to connect to an outside ISP and collect our internet email.

Thanks so much.

Elizabeth

Answer : You didn't say what version of Linux but since RedHat is the most likely here is a website that walks you through setting up for PPP dial-in to an ISP in Linux:

http://www.redhat.com/support/docs/tips/PPP-Client-Tips/PPP-Client-Tips.html

Paul Doherty

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com
Rating : 5

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QAId : 465048
Asker : mister_sandman
Subject : Set up after Formatted the hard drive
Private : Yes

Question : Hello,
I have a problem finding the ide-cd.sys
I went to http://members.home.net/iqueue/ide-cd.sys but no page found.
I can access the A: drive but not the CD-ROM drive.
Please send me more information.
The hard drive is clean(not much in it).
I need to re-install window98 and others.
Please help.
This computer is a Pentium II 333MHz 4 GB.
Thank you,
Paul S.
mister_sandman@altavista.com

Answer : The filename is

idecd.sys

not ide-cd.sys - maybe I wrote it wrong...

So to get it put this into your browser:

http://members.home.net/iqueue/idecd.sys

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 500429
Asker : geaney@...
Subject : Performace of different operating systems
Private : No

Question : can u tell me some of the differences between 95, 98, nt and 2000 operating
systems.....
from a benchmarks(i.e performance) point of view.
cheers,
Donal

Answer : Well without citing specific tests the following can be said to be true of each OS:

Win95/98 - fast for gaming, support the latest hardware gadgets (USB, DVD, controllers of all sorts, best video cards, drivers). Will benchmark faster at 3D gaming chores than Win NT/2000.

Win NT/2000 - Better security features for sensitive data - enforced user logins (in MS-ese "logons" - I hate that) - faster networking code - more stable (less crashes). Ranges from horrible for gaming/latest software&hardware (NT4) to reasonably not great (2000 - really "NT5").

So in summary NT/2000 will be faster at networking and some file system-related tasks (disk access) but gaming and 3D will be won by WIn95/98. Maximum PC has a Win 2000 on trial this month that may interest you as it performs some benchmarks on Win2000 and 98 to compare their speeds. The mag is on newstands now.

http://www.maximumpc.com

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 500463
Asker : geaney@...
Subject : Performace of different operating systems
Private : No

Question : can u tell me some of the differences between 95, 98, nt and 2000 operating
systems.....
from a benchmarks(i.e performance) point of view.
cheers,
Donal

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com
Rating : 4

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QAId : 503238
Asker : sabbakwa
Subject : Linux Question
Private : Yes

Question : I am an Asst. Unix Admin in need of assistance. My boss has just asked me to set up dial up access on our Linux system, and I got nervous and said I could do it. Can I get some help on steps and procedures necessary to get this done? Thanks.

Need More Information : Dial-up access? Do you mean so the Linux machine can dial out or so others can dial-in?

FUQuestion : Thanks for your quick response. I mean so that the Linux machine can dial out to one of our remote servers. Thanks.

Nathan

FUQuestion : We are looking to install this on a machine that already has UNIX. Is that possible? If not, we don't mind getting a server that will be the dedicated dial up access server.

Nathan

Answer : Here is an entire section of RedHat's website devoted to setting up PPP - this is a highly documented process for Linux distros as it is a pain...

http://www.redhat.com/support/docs/ppp.html

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

FUQuestion : Paul, thanks for your previous help. Just wanted to know if you can help me with one other thing. I have a server that is running Windows NT Server. On that machine, my company also had a CD-Writer, and the program DirectCD installed. We moved the CD-Writer from one machine to the another (a workstation) and then now our server doesn't work. It freezes up. And sometimes then says, "Cannot locate RPC" What is that? Anyway, it stopped saying that. But now, it is like frozen. What steps can I take in resolving this matter? Thanks.

Nathan

Answer : RPC is Remote Procedure Call unless I miss my guess. I would suggest that you need to boot in Safe mode (spacebar at boot time) and once in run the Add/Remove Programs from the control panel to remove the software (DirectCD, Easy CD creator, whatever else came with the CDR). Then also go to the Devices control panel and see if you find an entry for the CDR and remove it.

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Paul, thanks for your advice. I did all of the above except go to Device in the control panel. The reason for that is because the server is still freezing. It is taking about 10 minutes to access each window; from Start, then to Control Panel, then to Devices. It is just 1 ten minute wait after another. I click on one window, and have to wait for it to come up, and so on. And yet, all the users are accessing their files fine on the server. I need an explanation. What is going on here?

Answer : I really can't say - it seems like a driver is still loaded (hence the need to remove it from Devices) and it is timing out trying to contact the drive that is no longer there. you could reinstall the disk to speed uninstalling. Moral of this story is don;t take hardware out of an NT box without removing the drivers first.

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 509545
Asker : Gary_Kelley
Subject : animated GIF's
Private : No

Question : for some reason all of a sudden animated GIF's do not work on my Microsoft IE browser anymore, they work fine in Netscape, any ideas?

Answer : Try going to the View/Internet Options menu, open the Advanced tab and scroll down to Multimedia and check the "Show Animations" box.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

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QAId : 512027
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : NT Server 2000
Private : No

Question : 1) Will NT Server 2000 have the speed and capacity to compete against Mainframes, Unix on mini-computers?

2) NT 2000 has millions of lines of code and has become very complex. Who will be able to manage these NT networks?

Thanks!
Josh

Answer : 1) Yes and no... a mainframe will always have advantages over any small system like an NT Server. There's just too big a difference in cost to compare them. Against UNIX Win2000 will fare better although some will argue the point, obviously.

2) Well managmement doesn't increase as the code does (at leats not linearly). Windows 2000 does have more to manage since it's addition of a directory service (finally) and the DS's reliance on DNS will require more from those who administer it.

Paul Doherty

Rating : 5

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QAId : 539284
Asker : kakazi
Subject : command to find the physical memory on a Sun server
Private : No

Question : what is the command to find the physical memory on a Sun server in GB?

Answer : The first few lines of a 'prtconf' command will show you the physical memory size.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

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QAId : 578924
Asker : ndphan
Subject : Linus
Private : No

Question : How difficult to install Linux to a Windows 98 existing system? Should I delete Windows before installing Linus? What freeware already available for Linux that you recommended for downloading - I have no experience with Linux at all. Would you think that if Internet is the main task I should install Linux to my computer?

Thanks.

Answer : If you haven't dealt with Linux your first concern should be:

1) Get it installed without nuking your disk and Windows installs (unless you don't care about it)

2) Pick your favorite Linux distro from the myriad of choices.

Almost all the distros have a few things in common:

-They all have nearly the same software

-They all have more than enough to keep you busy for a while, including all you need to access the internet.

Go to http://www.cheapbytes.com and order yourself a distro - I'd suggest RedHat, Mandrake or SuSE. They have one-disk versions of all of these for 2 or 3 dollars each.

You can install alongside Windows if you have free space on the disk (unpartitioned space) or if you first use Partition Magic (or similar) to shrink your Windows partition down enough so you can make some free space (at least 800-1000MB).

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Thank you, Paul. I've read a review highly rating Linux OS released by Corel recently. Any personal opinions?

Answer : For people new to Linux the Corel is nice, but the graphical install that set off the Corel distro when it first came out (it's getting a little old compare to the 3-4 month upgrades on other distros) has been equaled by most of the other distros.

Other than that it's about the same as any other. Try a few and see which you like best.

Paul Doherty
End :

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QAId : 623726
Asker : hershey93401
Subject : Win98 Boot Fails on Dual w/NT4
Private : No

Question : Perhaps this is an easy one, but it's had me stumped for over a day now.

Dual boot P3 PC with Win98SE and NT4 Wkstn SP6. NT4 boots fine, but when trying to boot to Win98, the HD LED just comes on steady, I get a blinking cursor on a blank, black screen, and I'm hung there.

I've tried redoing the MBR with the Win98 boot disk by doing FDISK /MBR. I've tried redoing the Win98 system files with the SYS command with no success. This of course required that I then do an NT repair from the Workstation boot disks to get NT bootable again.

It's a 13GB ATA-66 disk, partioned 2GB FAT-16 and 10.6GB FAT-32. NT has the Winternals FAT-32 driver installed to see the larger partion. This setup is working on serverl identical PCs. I've run into this twice before, but in both those cases turning off the CD-ROM boot capability fixed the problem. The dual boot was setup conventionally by doing Win98 first and then NT. The BOOT.INI file looks normal, but here it is just in case I'm having a senior moment.

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00 [VGA mode]" /basevideo /sos
C:\="MS Windows 98 SE"

My thanks in advance.

Phil Hershey
CNA, CNE4, MCP

Need More Information : So even after an fdisk /mbr Win98 still doesn't boot? What is the situation after you fdisk /mbr'd and repair the NT MBR?

Paul Doherty

Answer : P.S. they're all easy ones when it's someone else doing the answering... ;-)

FUQuestion : After the Win98SE "fdisk /mbr" = no boot of anything. Just sits on the black screen with the blinking cursor.

After then doing the NT Workstation Repair process, I again get the NT boot menu, NT boots fine, but any attempt to boot to Win98 sits on the blank screen with the HD LED on steady.

Aargh.

I think I'm going to have to redo the PC, and when I do I'll setup the FAT16 partition to be slightly smaller than the max, just in case something in the NT install has horsed around with that partition and made it unbootable for Win98. I knew not to go for NT's 4GB FAT16 max, but I don't normally have problems with a 2046MB partition.

I'll try decreasing the size of the partition using Partition Commander and see if that has any effect, although it will mess things up vis-a-vis NT. Either way it's a do-over.

If you're interested I'll let you know.

Thanks again.

Answer : Ok good luck...

(no question asked but reply needed since it was submitted as a question)

Paul Doherty

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com
Rating : 4

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QAId : 636294
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : System Resources
Private : No

Question : I hope you can tell me how to fix this problem.I'm lost.I keep getting errors saying "system resources are low"."Not enough memory to run this progrom." What do I do about this? Thank You !

Answer : Well there is memory (RAM) and there's resources. They are different animals.

System resources are a few limited-size stacks of memory that Windows uses to do things like draw the widgets (controls for dialogs like the minimize/maximize/close buttons, icons, etc) on your screen. If you exhaust those resources beyond a reasonable point it doesn't matter if you have 20 gigs of RAM - you're done. So the things you need to do are:

1) Install (from Control Panel/Add Remove Programs/Windows Setup tab/System Tools/Details/System Resource Meter) or run if already installed, the System Resource Meter. If installed it is at:

Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/Resource Meter

This tool will tell you, percentage-wise, how much is left in each of the stacks Windows uses. If these numbers are much below 65% after a boot (with nothing having been loaded by you) you will want to start pruning the extra "features" you have loading from the Startup menu and other areas.

For detailed instructions on removing items from your config see an answer I gave a couple of months ago:

http://www.askme.com/ViewAnswer.asp?vid=454214

Paul Doherty

Rating : 4.3
Rating : 4.3
Rating : 4.3

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QAId : 660845
Asker : Donna904
Subject : Apple and PC
Private : No

Question : Hi Paul, Our school is running NT4, the Elementary school is getting up this summer and the Principal wants Apple Server. The Admin Office is NT4. I wish to create a WAN eventually. I'm the Tech Coordinator without any letters after my name. I run the system now but am concerned about going Apple and trying to integrate. How much of a problem, and will the district be able to find someone in the future when I leave to easily run both platforms. Funding is low, $20. part time with no outlook for any more in the near future.I'm fact finding for arguments (persuasions)
Thanks, Donna

Answer : There needs to be good reason to diversify your servers. What specific benefits does the principal think he/she will gain from having a Mac on the back end? You shouldn't be the one having to justify - they are the ones adding complexity so there should be some compelling reason or you shouldn't do it.

The good news for you is that other than administering the unique aspects of an Apple and it's apps the network part will be easy. TCP/IP that Mac abd you're done just like with a Windows box.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

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QAId : 672264
Asker : brian.sh28868
Subject : Operating Systems
Private : No

Question : Please explain in the most simplistic words what a operating system is and what does. I'm trying to write a three page essay on operating systems.

Answer : OK, in simple terms an operating system is the software that provides insulation from the hardware you are working on, for both you and the programs you run. It provides a user interface (usually text or GUI), file storage and retrieval functions (handles disks), and handles memory and storage allocation for programs.

That's it, in a nutshell.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5
Rating : 5

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QAId : 676817
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : running win2k on netware5 server
Private : No

Question : I'm having some performance issues
when transferring files from an as400 box via win2k desktop to a novell drive. for example copying a 40 record file from as400 to C:will
take app. 1 sec transferring the same file direct to a netware drive
takes 5 sec +.
any ideas, suggestion?

thanks

Answer : Hmm... well I would suggest it might be because in the first case (AS/400 to your desktop) the files are being sent in one direction only. In the second your desktop is acting as an intermediate destination for the file on it's way from the AS/400 to the Netware server. This in itself can be a cause of part of the delay (receive the file, perhaps in pieces, buffering as you go or caching the whole file, then sending it on (perhaps in contention with the continuing receive from the AS/400?) to the Netware server. So the file is being sent twice in this case and that plus the time involved in writing the buffer and managing the transfer may be enough to warrant the slower speed. Does the difference (5 to 1) scale with large files or only these small ones?

Another thing - protocol differences - is TCP/IP *and* IPX/SPX running on the network? Is the Netware using IPX and the AS/400 using TCP/IP (with the desktop talking both)?

One way to try to benchmark this thing is also to use NCOPY instead of Windows Explorer or whatever else you're using to copy these files - NCOPY is "network aware" and will attempt to short-circuit these types of slowdowns by bypassing the intermediate system by going straight to the destination machine. This may only apply to Netware server to Netware server, but how long wil it take you to benchmark it from a DOS prompt and find out?

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Hi Paul thanks for the answer. I did not explain the situation right.
I would like to go direct from as400 to netware box but it is too slow so in order to
cut down on the lag we have gone to transferring fron the as400 to the win2000 workstation then copying from there to the Netware server. would prefer to go from as400 to netware box direct we could do this fine using the client32 ver3.2 the problem arise with the client for win2000.

Answer : I'm not sure I'm catching how you know that when a copy was performed from the 3.2 client that it indeed went straight from AS/400 to Netware - how do you know it didn't pass through the system performing the copy (the woorkstation)? Perhaps the new client is just slower? (playing d's advocate here)

Paul Doherty

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com

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QAId : 686462
Asker : mohameds
Subject : Learning Unix
Private : Yes

Question : hello PaulDoherty,

I'm interested in learning UNIX, however, with so many versions available I'm confused as to the starting point.

Question: Which version of UNIX should I consider? also, Can you suggest a good book for a beginner, how about the software where can I purchase that?

Thanks a million for your time, it's much appreciated.

shaun

Answer : For learning UNIX there really are only three main options:

1) Solaris - Sun's UNIX is free for personal use.

http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/binaries/;$sessionid$U5BHSYYAAEQ01AMTA00E45Q

2) BeOS - BeOS 5 was recently released, and with it, Be is now offering a personal version for free.

http://www.be.com/products/freebeos/

3) Linux - multiple distributions are available - they don't differ very much. You can download single-CD versions for free at:

ftp://ftp.linuxberg.com/pub/ISO

or you can buy the same CDs pre-made for 2 or 3 dollars each at:

http://www.cheapbytes.com
http://www.linuxmall.com

UNIX for Dummies would be a good place to get the basics down... no really.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

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QAId : 696379
Asker : gandm
Subject : NT
Private : No

Question : I am an imaging specialist for a bank. I was recently changed from 98 to NT, and I am sure everything is running slower. Especially, when it comes to getting on the net or accessing e-mail. When I go back to my imaging program it takes at least 45-60 seconds to get under way again. Is this a problem with NT, or am I imagining it?

Need More Information : You were changed to NT on the same hardware that you were previously running 98?

I doubt it's your imagination - NT does seem to run slower than 98 for most things. It's additional security overhead and more stable methods for handling hardware (like moving the video driver out of priviledged ring mode) make it run slower on the same hardware.

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Yes, same hardware.

Answer : Well then my answer stands. It's probably not your imagination - it *is* slower.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

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QAId : 708350
Asker : stef5
Subject : Fatal Error At Shut Down
Private : No

Question : While shutting down Win 98, I get the following error message

It comes up in a dialogue box, at the top of the box ( header ) it says
Backtrack Monitor,

Fatal Error [8205]- unable to take a snapshot.

Any ideas how to resolve this problem?

Thanks

Answer : It sounds like you have an app you've installed that is somehow blocking your shutdown - it isn't handling the termination signals from the OS properly. The clue to finding it is the that name - "BackTrack Monitor" - do you have a BackTrack tape drive or something? To what hardware/software on your system could this be referring? Get back to me with your ideas and we'll continue.

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Paul,

I have a Gateway, and I think they install a program, which includes Back Track Monitor. This takes a snapshot of the key files ( config ) at close of the system.

My problem is that I can't find this file. So, can't repair it.

There is no Back Track Monitor program, so I need to find out what programs starts this program.

Regards
Stef5

Answer : OK - first find the name of the running app:

Press Ctrl-Alt-Del once at the Windows desktop and look over the list of running apps. It should be there. If not don't sweat it..

Now look in the following places for a program that might be the program "BackTrack Monitor" - it might be something like bktrk.exe, etc

1) Start/Programs/Startup

2) C:\WINDOWS\WIN.INI

3) Run regedit (Start/run/(type in regedit and hit ENTER) and look here:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run

and

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/RunServices

With each of those two locations *selected* (one at a time - you have to click them to see their contents in the right windowpane) check each entry for one that might be loading the BackTrack app. if you find it write down all the info on the line and then click on it and press DEL to get rid of it. You don't have to save after this - just quit the registry editor.

Paul Doherty

Rating : 5

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QAId : 719367
Asker : Dustinfred@...
Subject : home computer network
Private : Yes

Question : I have a question about setting up a small ethernet network in my home.

I have 3 older computers in my home, all of which run on windows 95. Two of the three have no cd-rom, just floppy drives. I have lost my version of windows 95 which is on floppy disk. I do have a copy of a 90 day trial version of Windows NT/Server. I eventually want to install it on all three computers. When I have tried to set up the network, it has requested the windows 95 disks to be inserted. This is not an option since I have since disposed of the disks. Because of this, the three computers are truely not networked as of yet, they cannot share information or resources.

My question is, how do I initially set up the network so that I can install the NT software on the computers without cd-roms. In other words, so I can share the third computers cdrom or hard drive with the first two?

Answer : If the 3 systems are already running Win95 simply connect them to the LAN, turn file & print sharing on (make sure they are all in the same workgroup), and then make a directory on each of the non-CD-ROM machines called C:\WIN95KIT.

Then over the network copy from the machine with the CD-ROM the contents of the \WIN95 directory of the CD to this new dir. For example if I had mapped driver letter M: to the CD-ROM on that machine I would type this at a DOS prompt on one of the non-CD machines:

copy m:\win95\*.* c:\win95kit

And now you can deltree the dir structures off the machine (except \win95kit of course) and perform a clean install or give the OS files from the CD when it asks by pointing it to C:\WIN95KIT. While they are connected this way you can also make a similar dir for Windows NT - call it C:\I386 and copy the I386 directory from the CD to that dir on each PC. Then you can install either or both OS from each machine without a CD.

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : only one problem. The operating system will not allow them to be networked. It asks for the operating systems disks, which I do not have. Because of this, I cannot hook them up to the LAN. May whole question is how to hook them to the LAN, if that is not working, based on the fact that it wants the origional operating system disks.

Answer : You can try two things:

1) Making a network bootable diskette from inside Windows NT (I think it't under the Add/Remove Programs item in the control panel).

2) Move the CD-ROM you DO have over to each machine long enough to do what I instructed.

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 722213
Asker : john1951
Subject : operating systems
Private : No

Question : I'm writing a paper on operating systems and need information on Unix, MSDOS, Windows 95/98 and Windows NT to make comparisons on their capabilities, software availabilities, pricing, hardware requirements, training and growth pattern. Do you have any pertinent information regarding these features for the aforementioned OS or know where I can find a good source of info.

Answer : That's a pretty broad question you're asking there... how about starting right here:

http://astro.ocis.temple.edu/~yyee/compare.html

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

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QAId : 737131
Asker : kenny_d
Subject : operating systems
Private : Yes

Question : Could you recommend an operating system(s) that I would consider for a website is fast and that will have thousands of users.

Answer : If you have sufficient hardware almost any good OS will work. Here's some:

1) Windows NT (4 or 2K)

2) Solaris 7 or 8 (now free for personal use - check sun.com for info)

3) Linux (any distro)

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

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QAId : 758307
Asker : mark0145
Subject : playing c.d.
Private : No

Question : I recently placed a musical cd in my hard drive. i wanted to relax as i surfed. got a message play.exe not found. what happened

Answer : Sounds like you put in a combination data/audio CD - like a game CD that comes with audio tracks. The CD tried to autoplay (but it appears their autorun.inf file is incorrect). To avoid this you can:

1) Disable autoplay for the CD drive - enter Start/Settings/Control Panel/System/Device Manager/CD-ROM/(double-clcik your drive)/Settings/Auto Insert Notification (uncheck it)

2) Hold down the SHIFT key while inserting the CD so autorun doesn't happen. Then you can hotkey your CD player app to open with a CTRL-ALT-C ("C" for "CD").

Paul Doherty

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com

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QAId : 766924
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Cannot Log into an NT 4 Domain
Private : No

Question : I have one existing Win NT 4 Server(SP 5) configured as the PDC. Last week I installed another Wint NT 4 (SP5) but it's configured as a standalone server and setup to connect to my existing domain. Everything went fine during the setup, but everytime I log into this server to the existing domain, it says that it cannot be done because the local policy of this server does not permint me to do so? What do I need to check and configure so that I can log into the existing domain?

Answer : You may want to bring both machines up to recent service packs (6a is the most recent I know about). Similar situations to yours are mentioned on Microsoft's support area as being fixed in SP6a.

You didn't give the error text in full but I think I have an idea of what error you mean. The problem likely is that the domain account you are using to login with does not have the "logon locally" right on the workstation you are using to logon. The URL below may fix your problem:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q152/4/78.asp?LN=EN-US&SD=gn&FR=0

Paul Doherty

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com

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QAId : 781086
Asker : djojo35
Subject : Delete a second operating system
Private : No

Question : Hi
I have two operating systems (both are win 98) on my machine: Old one in english and the new in french. Both of them are installed in C drive with different directories. But since the new one did not recognize the modem, the sound card , the color display are poor, I would like to delete it , then partition the hard drive then I reinstall it.
I would be grateful if u can tell me a safe and easy way to delete the second and new operating system. I tried to look under add and remove in control panel but it s not listed. it s only listed via windows explorer.
Thank you in advance.

Need More Information : Do you have a choice at boot-time of which OS to load?

If so I would say choose the new one you like, holding CTRL or pressing F8 to then get the "Safe mode command prompt only" choice. Then just issue an

fdisk /mbr

and a

deltree \newwindows_dir

where "newwindows_dir" is the dir where the version of Windows you don't want resides.

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Thank u for answering my question:
Can u please explain a little more those steps again.
Thank u very much for your help

Answer : OK - I needed to know if you were being presented with a choice of which Windows to run at boot-time, like a menu. If you are getting such a choice pick the one that is the one you want to keep, pressing F8 immediately afterwards (or holding down the CTRL key) to get the boot menu for that particular OS. From that menu choose "Safe modem command prompt only". Once you are at a C:\ prompt issue the following commands:

fdisk /mbr
deltree \newwindows_dir

where "newwindows_dir" is the directory where you installed the version of Windows that you do NOT want to keep. The first one installed (presumably the "old" one you want to keep) is likely at C:\WINDOWS - there's no telling what the other ones main directory is called. Do a

DIR C:\ /O /W /AD

and not the names of some of the directories - if it is not obvious to you which is the home directory of the Windows you want to delete send me the names from that command and I will help you spot it.

Paul Doherty

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com

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QAId : 787485
Asker : Wayward_Station
Subject : OS
Private : No

Question : What is the definition of "Operating Systems?

Answer : A basic definition would read like the following:

An operating system is software that is used on a computer to manage the low-level hardware functions of the system, masking them from the user and applications, while also making those same hardware resources available for easy use.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 3.9
Rating : 3.9

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QAId : 804121
Asker : kamieo09689
Subject : NT will not read some disks
Private : No

Question : Hello,
Just maybe you'll have an answer to this one. OS NT 4.0 Workstation. The Promlem is that NT sometimes will not read a floppy disk and you, but A win 98 or dos system can read it. Wait its not that easy. Also a some disks that are formated on the a NT system will work one system and then not work on the same system minutes later. Do you have any ideas???
Thanks,
Noah

Answer : It sounds to me like a case of a dying (or misaligned) floppy drive. Try switching floppy drives with another machine and see if a previously unreadable disk become readable with a different drive. If it does go pick a new one up at your local computer store.

Paul Doherty

FUQuestion : Well a ad floppy does not account for 30 brand new dell PC's. Actually 1500 pcs, but 30 in the room. This only happens occassionaly, I believe it is the disks they are using, but the user wants a better answer. I tried the bit at the begining of the disk, but that got me no ware. Thanks for the quick responce. Got anything else???
Thanks Again,
Noah Ravenscroft
ITS User Services
Rating : 5

Answer : You didn't mention this was multiple machines. That does change things.

They want a "better" answer than the correct one? I would tend to agree with you that if you have a sample of the same type of disks and they consistently can't be read on these machines (but can on others) it's either the

floppy disks
bad batch of floppy drives (or incompatible with the disks being read)

Paul Doherty

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QAId : 817145
Asker : casado_d15351
Subject : Linux vs Windows NT
Private : No

Question : Having worked with both OS, which would you say is the most secure at the present time. Taking into consideration the ability of hackers today.

David Casado

Answer : It all depends on what services are loaded on each machine. If they are inside a firewall it is really a moot point. If they *are* the firewall again it's probably moot. In terms of vulnerabilities in an out of the box install (say with an end-user plugging straight into DSL/cable modem) I'd say NT has Linux beat - mostly just because there are no services on an NT Server or Workstation by default that listen to any TCP/IP ports to speak of, making it less vulnerable to attacks. Linux on the other hand has telnet, FTP and various other services that listen making it more of a target. Most of the systems (the "zombie" systems) involved in the recent coordinated assaults were running various Linux flavors and Solaris (Sun's UNIX).

http://www.cnn.com/2000/TECH/computing/03/01/prevent.ddos.idg/index.html

Draw your own conclusions...

Paul Doherty
Rating : 5

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QAId : 823145
Asker : badal
Subject : case study of windows nt and unix
Private : No

Question : hi
where cani find case study of linux and case study of windows nt ..
if possible pls let me know the links ..
and if u gotta some amtter then pls do share it with me ..

Answer : Here is a nice comparison between the OSs:

http://astro.ocis.temple.edu/~yyee/compare.html

And here are some things more specifically like you asked for:

http://unix-vs-nt.org/kirch/

http://www.jp.debian.org/OpenSource/cases.html

http://www.interactiveage.com/case/study110998-1.htm

http://computer.idg.net/crd_windows_23093.html

http://www.intl.novell.com/advantage/idcreport.html

Be aware that many of these reports have a decided bias towards Linux - so take what they say with a grain of salt if your desire is to get an unbiased perspective on the two operating systems.

Paul Doherty

Rating : 5

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QAId : 826453
Asker : TBedoya
Subject : Differance in Operating Systems
Private : No

Question : What is the differance between DOS vs. Windows?
What is the differance between DOS vs. Mac?
What is the differance between MAC Vs. Windows?

Answer : The primary difference between DOS and Windows in the case of Windows 3.x, 95 and 98 is that DOS is a command-line only environment, while Windows is a GUI on top of DOS.

The difference between DOS and the Mac OS is that again DOS is a command-line environment and Mac is a GUI ONLY environment.

The difference between Mac and Windows 3.x, 95, or 98 from a user standpoint is academic - both are GUIs and insulate the user from the inner workings of the OS to a large degree.

Windows NT and 2000 are architected differently and do not have DOS as their basis. This reults in lower compatibility, but improved stability.

Paul Doherty
Rating : 4
Rating : 4

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QAId : 835012
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Windows95 Upgrade
Private : No

Question : Hi Paul - I have an older (5 yrs old) IBM laptop with Windows3.1 OS. I am wanting to upgrade to Win 95 (98 is too big for the HD). My problem is that this machine does not have a CD-Rom. Any idea where I could get upgrade disks for Win 95? Or maybe it would be better just to install Win 95 over 3.1 - and I would still need floppy disks to install. Any other ideas?

Answer : Depending on the type of drive one way to do it would be to remove the hard disk and plug it into a desktop that has a CD-ROM. then copy the contents of the \WIN98 directory (but not the subdirectories) to the hard disk after formatting and sys'ing it. Then put the disk back into the notebook, boot it and run the SETUP.EXE in that new directory.

Another way to do the same moving of data would be to get a null-modem cable (a serial cable that is not straight through, as a normal cable is, but rather it switches the send and receive wires to emulate a modem connection). Then you can use a terminal program to send the files between the notebook and a desktop with a CD-ROM. An easir program to use for this same procedure would be ones specifc to this purpose. The most well-known of apps that do this is LapLink (http://www.laplink.com/products/benefits.asp#1).

Paul Doherty

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com
Rating : 4

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QAId : 945987
Asker : WCUgainer
Subject : information systems
Private : No

Question : I have this question on my CIS final and can't find anything on the net or in mags or in my book.

What impact is information systems having on social interaction?

Need help bad i've looked everywhere for an answer!! E-mail adress is nicholi1@yahoo.com

Answer : Well I can give my perception of what it's doing. It seems apparent to me that social interaction is being changed mightily by information systems (computers and communications). People are firing off millions of emails per day and participating in online chat rooms and forums at a ridiculous rate. These fast, near-instant means of communication are removing distance from the communication and interaction equations. People feel freer to express themselves and interact when they know they will not be pre-judged based on how fat they, how tall they are, what they look like, etc. Of course this level of anonymity can be abused, but it's benefits greatly outweigh these abuses. The advent of computer-based communications is the biggest wave of change the world has known and certainly the largest since the telegraph and telephone!

Paul Doherty, CNA (3 & 4), CNE (4), MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com
Rating : 4

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QAId : 957976
Asker : mckee46
Subject : reloading driver
Private : No

Question : Hi Paul,
Seen your answer on how to reload win95,which i hope to using soon.
My PC is a Pentium Pro (r) 64.om ram,with Diamond Speedstar A50 for windows.
However my problem was my kids used to keep turning off the PC at the mains outlet, while it was still running,resulting in me having to leave the machine in twice to have it reloaded,and at £29 a go, i don't want to do this anymore.
I have another fault in the Intel 82371 AB/EB PCI toUSB Universal Host Controller,Hardware Version, it's reporting a system failure (code 8) I have the disk of the motherboard,but don't know how to go about installing the driver,or what to install first,Win95,or Intel driver????
Here's hoping for a not too complicated reply.
Mni Thx
Ben.

Answer : If you know that a driver for the PCI to USB Host controller is resident on the CD just open the System control panel, go the Device Manager tab, open where the faulty device is located and double-click the device, go to it's Driver tab and select Update driver, then give it the path to where on the CD the driver resides by hitting Browse.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : Hello Paul.
Thanks for the info on reloading host driver.
I had already tried that a few times,but was unable to suceed. I found out it has to be loaded in the BIOS,and it's said to be a bit tricky.Hope that's of some use.

Many Thanks
Ben.

Answer : You don't load anything in the BIOS - you may have to go in to enable your USB ports. Not tricky at all - just don't change anything except the USB settings (and if you make an accidental change exit without saving changes and try again).

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com
Rating : 5

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QAId : 972103
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : my computer
Private : No

Question : What does Ultra Dma mode capable ....but disabled mean and what should it be set to??
I have asked this before and not been answered i hope you can do better....
I use my pc for the interenet and games mainly so do I need this or what?
many thanks in advance
jaztim

Answer : If you're referring to your hard disk you certainly want DMA enabled. DMA is Direct Memory Access and refers to the drive's controller being able to route data back and forth to RAM without the aid (or with greatly reduced aid) of the CPU. This has two benefits - it sometimes speeds up hard disk speeds... the primary benefit, however, is that it takes a lot of load (and a ton of sporadic load) off of your CPU, allowing games and other real-time activities to not be interrupted, causing them to stutter, when the disk is accessed during gameplay.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5
End :

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QAId : 974119
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : msconfig
Private : No

Question : thanks for ur answer(ultra dma)that was quick!!
Can I now ask about the beloved msconfig which me & some freinds have been arguing about!! Does it help to uncheck some of the boxes under the startup menu??(in help I mean for speed and less processing power) This is an issue with many answers and I would like to hear what u have to say!I know it frees up pc resources when u have a lot disabled but is there any REAL benefit??
Thanks in advance
jaztim

Answer : Generally the items that appear in that tab of msconfig do one of two things:

1) Perform a housekeeping chore (like scanreg)

2) Provide features/support for a hardware device (like a custom mouse driver)

You can remove either type and will see a corresponding increase in booting speed (minimal) and a lessening of CPU load and memory usage (again minimal). Compared to the amount of time it takes Windows to boot and how much in the way of resources it takes when just sitting idle I don't think you can impact it greatly by unloading these things. Unless yours is really crowded or there are some you flat don't want I'd say leave it be...

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 4

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QAId : 988900
Asker : innerspaceboy_9
Subject : win2k
Private : No

Question : pauldoherty,
my question is concerning win2k prof. i know that win 2k is a hybrid between win95/98/98SE and NT 4.0, my question is this...when i ran check upgrade it told me that none of my Norton Suite 2000 would run in win 2k, and also i read somewhere that i won't be able to play any games or utilize direct 3d or any of the other 2d/3d audio/video goodies...any thoughts???

Answer : Well you can play some games and other such multimedia but it will be greatly reduced early on. Win2K has the looks of 98SE but the underlying kernel is all NT. That explains the poor multimedia support (which is far better than NT but still way short of 98). I'm not surprised that a Norton package not specifically for 2000 would balk at it - you might see Norton's web site about patches or cheap upgrades to fix this.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : pauldoherty,
ok, thanks for the info, now i'm wondering, i know i have to upgrade everything, drivers, programs, etc if i want to goto win2k, do you know what specifically 2d/3d wise that won't run? and i think i have heard that windows millenium is coming out this year, second quarter, and that it will be the OS to choose for games and so forth..is this true??

Answer : Windows ME (Millenium Edition) will likely be much better for the normal home user - it's the next (and supposedly last) stage of the Windows 95/98/SE family. So yes it will likely be much better (and faster) for gaming and general-purpose use.

As far as Win2K and needing drivers you may find that since it's a new OS it will already have good drivers for just about everything you have - if not check the manufacturer's website for the latest drivers for each device.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
End :

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QAId : 988914
Asker : innerspaceboy_9
Subject : win98SE
Private : No

Question : pauldoherty,
i would also like to ask you about advanced performance tweaks for win98se...i have been an IT professional for about 4-5 years, but i don't think in all that time, i have ever run across any advanced user tweaks that really do the job...any suggestions?????

Need More Information : Anything in specific that you want to tweak? Hard disk, resource availability? Here are some resources on tweaking:

WinBoost 2000:
http://www.magellass.com/prod-wb.html

TweakI for Powerusers:
http://www.jermar.com/prod01.htm

Tweaking Toolbox for Windows:
http://windows-help.net/wtt/

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : PaulDoherty,
Ok, well specifically, i am looking for all of that.. I really would like to increase the speed with which my windows open, the start menu pops up, programs open, etc...i have tried different tweaking programs, and i haven't really found a really good one yet...i would also like to be able to squeeze everybit of resources out of my memory as possible...i have 256MB of PC100, and i don't really know any good cache settings, any ideas??? also, i have a cable modem, and web pages don't load exceptionally fast, or instantaneously like i had thought they would, any ideas??? any help would be much apprciated..thanks

Answer : I would suggest WinBoost 2000 - it has more tweaks than you will know what to do with and explains them all.

For the cache - with 256MB I would suggest 32MB - ass the following two lines to the [vcache] section of your SYSTEM.INI file:

MinFileCache=32768
MaxFileCache=32768

Of course you know that your cable modem's speed will vary greatly based on:

1) The speed of the remote server(s) and their load (beyond your control)

2) The speed of your ISP and it's load (also beyond your control)

3) The number of people actively using your cable segment at any given time (also beyond your control)

4) The speed of your computer and it's optimizations

You may be getting the picture that there is little within your domain of influence when it comes to your internet connection - and you're right. There are a few cable modem tweakers out there, but they mostly just change a couple of entries in the registry like MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit). I have tried a few and found little benefits. With an ethernet card connected to a cable modem you are geared for networking pretty well for the start. If you want to try a few tweakers here's some:

http://www.cable-modems.org/articles/speed_tweaks/

And here's a good site for testing your speed (results can vary greatly between runs for reasons 1-3 above):

http://computingcentral.msn.com/topics/bandwidth/speedtest50.asp

Good luck!
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com
Rating : 4

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QAId : 1045312
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : Screen saver and freeze
Private : Yes

Question : Using Windows 98SE, when the screen saver is on and the computer has not been touched for several hours, the computer freezes and reset must be used to restart it. When the screen savers are not on, the computer does not freeze up.

Answer : Disable power management in your BIOS - this is a quite common ailment in 98SE and is fixed by a patch online - select Windows Update from your Start menu and apply the critical updates or disable power management in your BIOS. Alone or together they should fix your problem.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5

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QAId : 1075627
Asker : brianjquinn
Subject : Uninstalling Corel Linux
Private : No

Question : Hi,

I installed Corel Linux from a magazine cover CD, but now I realise that it's not for me, since it fails to support a lot of my hardware. Every time I start Win 98, from the C: drive, I am given the Corel boot menu screen.

I was wondering what is the best way to go about uninstalling Corel Linux and safely re-claiming the Linux partition on my hard disk?

Thanks,

Brian

Answer : Uninstalling Linux will be a matter of replacing the boot record on the hard disk so that LILO is no longer present. To do that boot to DOS (F8 or hold CTRL during boot, after LILO choice) and then type:

fdisk /mbr

Now you can remove the partition if desired with a utility like delpart.exe

http://ftpsearch.lycos.com/cgi-bin/search?doit=Search&type=Case+insensitive+multiple+substring+search&hits=15&matches=&hitsprmatch=&limdom=&limpath=&f1=Count&f2=Mode&f3=Size&f4=Date&f5=Host&f6=Path&header=none&sort=none&trlen=20&query=delpart.exe

and then you can use a program like Partition Magic to grow your main partition back to use that space, or use fdisk to create a new partition from the free space.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5

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QAId : 1082531
Asker : IDonohue65273
Subject : Operating systems
Private : Yes

Question : I am studying with the Open University and the assignment I've been given is to examine the importance of the operating system in the development of the PC. This must include references to the significant O/S throughout the history of the PC.
Could you give me a link to a few sites that have a chronological breakdown of the development of the operating systems to present day. i.e. CP/M to Windows 2000.
Could you list all the significant O/S and then I could search for them.

Thanks

Ian :+)

Answer : Here's some I found:

http://ox.compsoc.net/~swhite/history.html
http://faculty.philacol.edu/BuckleyJ/time.htm
http://www.qvctc.commnet.edu/classes/csc277/timeline.html

Some OS's or terms to search on:

DOS
MS-DOS
UNIX
BSD
Windows

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5

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QAId : 1084844
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : backing up windows 98
Private : Yes

Question : i need to back up my system ive got a CD-RW and i want to back up everything what is a trusty program to make an image and restore it all if it goes to the %$#@ like it did a few days ago =)

Answer : Get Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4.0, which comes with a program called Take Two - it will backup your entire system to CDRs (making one bootable) - when it fills one CD it asks for another. Then you will have a complete backup.

http://www.adaptec.com/products/overview/ecdc.html

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5

FUQuestion : ok so i installed easy cd creator 4 and i can write data onto a CD-R using the data button but wen i start the take two thing it says it cant see a CD-RW??? this is very inresting software(insert evil bad words here)

Answer : Keep at it - and make sure you update CD creator to the latest patch (4.02a is the latest) at:

http://www.adaptec.com/support/advisor/cdrupdates/ecdc401.html

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : the software isnt working ive updated it i dont see what else i can do i just reinstalled windows a few days ago...what does keep it up mean the way i see it i shouildnt have to keep anything up if the program would just see the hardware that is plugged into my computer and is used by one part of the software pack that take two is part of. i guess i could try to fix every thing that might be cousing it (if i new what was) and end up f'ing up another part of my system at the same time... just give me a list of your top 3 backup programs and maybe one of them will work.
if i seem pissed i am but not at you im just sick of companys selling shit as if it would be a bad thing to make a good product and not tempt users to find out just how big a bomb they can make.

...with all the time you spend around computers i would think you would have bin sent to the looney bin a long time ago...i know im getting close its only my 3rd year of heavy computer use but it feels more like 300 years.

Answer : Haha - man I feel for you - and I'm so loony I think I'm sane!

If your drive is IDE you really shouldn't have trouble with the Take Two software - be sure and check on Adaptec's site and see if they list your drive on their compatibility list. Then try uninstalling all the parts of Easy CD Creator and try installing JUST the Take Two and see if you can get it happy.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 1095195
Asker : eagle_eye_34
Subject : illegal shut downs
Private : No

Question : i am getting an illegal shut down and dont know how to fix it can you help? EXPLORER caused an invalid page fault in
module NZDD.DLL at 015f:11016f1c.
Registers:
EAX=80000001 CS=015f EIP=11016f1c EFLGS=00010246
EBX=00000000 SS=0167 ESP=00727d74 EBP=00727dac
ECX=00000000 DS=0167 ESI=00000000 FS=219f
EDX=00fd0420 ES=0167 EDI=80000001 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
39 1e 75 4d 8d 45 d4 50 e8 05 fd ff ff 8d 4d e4
Stack dump:
00fd0ac0 007280c8 00727f04 000003a8 1106b9d5 1109c830 00727da4 11069791 bff7b9b6 816aecd8 11016ef8 00727dfc 11073cac ffffffff 00727e08 11017fd6

the second shut down: IEXPLORE caused an invalid page fault in
module KERNEL32.DLL at 015f:bff87eb5.
Registers:
EAX=c002f8d0 CS=015f EIP=bff87eb5 EFLGS=00010206
EBX=0058fb1c SS=0167 ESP=0054fff0 EBP=0055005c
ECX=00000000 DS=0167 ESI=816cd5c0 FS=32e7
EDX=816cd5c8 ES=0167 EDI=019ce79c GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
53 56 57 8b 30 83 7d 10 01 8b 4e 38 89 4d f8 75
Stack dump:

Answer : The first thing I would do is try to discover which application installed NZDD.DLL - see if it's actually *in* a program directory (the easiest place to nail down which app uses it). Open a DOS prompt and type:

c:
dir \nzdd.dll /a /s

When it comes back with the file make note of the path - if it's something like:

C:\PROGRAM FILES\XYZ APP

then you've struck paydirt. If it's in

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM

you may have some more work finding it.

I would then uninstall the app and ensure that gets rid of the errors and then try reinstalling with the latest version.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 4
End :

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QAId : 1129233
Asker : pc225
Subject : operating system reinstall
Private : No

Question : What steps do I take to re-install Windows 95 or 98?

Answer : See this question I answered (you can also find it by going to my profile, clicking View My Answers under the PCs catagory, and searching for "install"):

http://www1.askme.com/ViewAnswer.asp?vid=184514

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Answer : Don't forget to rate the answers you receive on AskMe.com

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QAId : 1129248
Asker : pc225
Subject : Windows 98, 2000
Private : No

Question : Is it worth it to upgrade from Win 98 to 2000?

Answer : Users of 98 won't likely wat to upgrade to 2000. 2000 is an upgrade to NT, not 98, and so has lower compatibility with cutting-edge hardware and applications. It's really intended for those who were running NT 4 Server or Workstation. The next version of 98 will be out shortly and will be called Windows Millenium Edition (Windows "ME" - I know it's a lame name - I didn't make it up :-). That will be the one to look at for people running 98...

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.Sc.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 4
Rating : 4

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QAId : 1254349
Asker : clif9199
Subject : windows 95 to windows 98
Private : No

Question : Paul here is a chance to earn some stars with a possible question for you. I have a computer with windows 95 on it and I ant to go to windows 98. I have my h/p computer with the 98 operating disk if needed. What is the easiest way to handle this?And when I do this will I loose any files and if so what is the best way to save those files. And do I need to go to add/remove and remove any win 95 programs or will the transfer incorporate and fix things for me. When you name is first and you have 5 stars with a bunch of experience you get an easy one. Thanks

Answer : There are no "easy ones" hehe

A staright install will not harm your system, but upgrades sometimes do not produce as good of a machine, stability-wise, as a straight install will for obvious reasons that it must take what you have rather than starting fresh. Best idea is to back up your must-keeps (C:\My Documents, etc) and then try the upgrade. If after a week you don;t like the results do a clean install (assuming you have the full 98 and not an "upgrade" edition).

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5

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QAId : 1267377
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : want to start up in Windows instead of Linux
Private : No

Question : Hi there,

I don't know if this is what you specialise in, but I have a big problem whcih I hope you can help me with.

I recently installed Linux in my old computer, and used BootMagic and Partition Linux Prep Tool to partition the C:Drive to enable both Windows 95 and Linux to run on the same computer.

Everything was going oh-so-fine until the very very last part. I aborted the XF86Setup and got into a real big problem.

I realised that I had configured the Linux installation such that Linux starts immediately when I switched on the computer. I did not even get to the BootMagic "program" which will allow me to choose between Windows 95 and Linux!

However, when I put in the "BootMagic Rescue Disk", everything was a-ok, EXCEPT ... BootMagic could not find my Windows partition! There was a list of "possible" partitions and BootMagic asked me to select which one is the Windows one. I selected the first choice (which I'm 110% sure is the right one because the other two was named Linux blah blah and it was named Coeauf or something like that.)The big big problem is the computer will reboot and end up with the same "question" about choosing which partition is the Windows one again! This whole cycle went on about 3 times before I decided to ask you.

Please help me. I am as desperate as any desperate person can be.

Thank you.

Answer : It sounds like you crashed in the middle of the Linux install, before LILO was installed...? Whether that is the case or not you may be able to reinstate the booting off the Windows partition by creating a boot floppy on another Windows box (same version) and putting the files (from \WINDOWS\COMMAND):

fdisk.exe
sys.com

To create the boot floppy - on the Windows machine open a DOS prompt and type:

c:
cd \windows\command
(put a blank floppy in before the next one)
format a: /u
sys a:
(now you can copy then commands over)
copy fdisk.exe a:\
copy sys.com a:\

Now reboot with this disk and run:

fdisk /mbr

And try rebooting on the hard drive. If it still doesn't boot reboot again with the floppy and run:

fdisk

Answer "Yes" to the large drive support question and choose the option to pick the active drive (determines boot disk) and pick the DOS (FAT16, FAT, FAT32) partition as the boot disk (the Linux ones should show up as "Non-DOS"). Then exit fdisk with ESC presses, take the floppy out, and reboot.

If the hard disk now works (boots into Windows) you can use your Linux recovery disk to re-enter Linux and install LILO, or just start a new install again from the Linux CD (no need for those partition programs - just install Linux and choose to install LILO to the MBR of the primary hard disk and it will let you choose which OS to boot each reboot).

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5

FUQuestion : hi,

I've got another problem ....

I got my Windows back. Only problem is, how do I delete the Linux partition?

I tried to do it in fdisk, but when I thought I succeeded, I went back to Windows, check the "properties' of C:Drive and realised that the Linux partition is still there (because my C:Drive is missing about 300mb)

I would like to delete the Linux partition than install Linux *again* and pray to succeed this time.

Thanx for your help! It really got my comp working all right!

Answer : The problem is that fdisk can't understand the Linux partitions. You need a partition removal utility that does - here you go:

ftp://ftp.ncd.com/pub/ncd/Archive/WinCenter/Utilities/delpart.exe

Boot in pure DOS mode (or restart in MS-DOS mode) and run this to rid yourself of the unwanted partitions.

You're very welcome...

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 1296625
Asker : mdrslr
Subject : STOP c000021a {Fatal System Error}
Private : Yes

Question : Can you tell me if you can assist in this issue, and if my expectations are real?

the particulars....
NT4 Workstation w/SP5
system files on FAT
Toshiba Tecra 8100 w/128 MB
Error: STOP c000021a {Fatal System Error} ...... Beginning dump of physical memory

Details: I loaded a few small applications, edited the registry only to replace every instance of the individuals name that configured the system, and shut down the machine like normal. When I turned it back on I got the stop error.. After this, nothing else happens.

challenges: I do not have an ERD or Rdisk from this system.

I have another similar NT system I can use to transfer the registry or other files from the bad machine and make any necessary edits.

expectations/hopes: to get the system running again without reinstalling the applications and maintaining my user profile information.

Thanks in advance,

Mitchell Rose
mdrslr@earthlink.net

Answer : It sounds like you got the STOP error on the next reboot after making the changes, no? If that is the case then your last config may save the day. Power up the machine and, right at the beginning of the boot, press the spacebar to use "last known good config". This will be the last registry contents after the last successful GUI load. So if you have not yet made it to GUI mode you may get back to where you were.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : no joy Paul. I've even tried selecting VGA boot. I have access to the C: drive but don't know how much help that is. I also have access to a close to duplicate system. Again, I'm unsure how much of an advantage that is.

Mitchell

Answer : What happened with the "last know good configuration" selection? Same result or different?

If that didn't get you in and you can't even get in with VGA safe mode then you may need to examine the details of the STOP message (you didn't list the offending module) to get an idea of where the error is coming from. then since the C: drive is FAT you can rename the module that is crashing and see if NT can move along without it - or otherwise dink with things to get it to load. What exactly did you change that caused this crashing behavior?

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : Using the last known good cfg., I get the same error message. I'm unsure about the offending module ?. The screen readout is as follows:
........
STOP: c000021a {Fatal System Error} The Windows SubSystem system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0xc0000005 (0x0021f488).
The system has been shut down.

Beginning dump of physical memory

does this help at all?

Mitchell

Answer : Usually there is a DLL or other item listed (at the top-right?) on the blue screen. Sorry but I don't think I can help you get back to where you were - only thing is if you have a backed-up copy of the registry or if you do a reinstall of NT over the top you may not lose your programs and their entries. Worth a try if nothing else fixes it.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 1297600
Asker : symonz
Subject : windows 2000
Private : No

Question : Does Windows 2000 support hebrew language software such as microsoft Hebrew word?

Answer : Yes it appears that Windows 200 has (or very soon will have) Hebrew support.

http://www.microsoft.com/WINDOWS2000/guide/professional/solutions/multilingual.asp

Do a CTRL-F and search for "Hebrew"

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 1301718
Asker : omokwe
Subject : Modem Driver - please help
Private : No

Question : Dear Paul, Could you help me please. I do not currently have the correct driver to install my modem. It is an internal moden manufactured by Diamond Systems. It is SupraExpress 56i Pro. Where can I download this exact driver as I have tried other related Windows 98 drivers without getting the modem to work.

Thanks, Kay

Answer : Take a look here...

http://www.diamondmm.com/customer_caretechnical_supportdrivers.htm

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5

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QAId : 1302223
Asker : dowell_s
Subject : Duel boot?
Private : Yes

Question : I currently am running Win98. I am happy with its performance but would like to learn Workstaion. I am ready to install but I dont want to destroy my win98 setup. What steps should I take? I really need to do this because I am writing exams on Workstation in the near future. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

Sean
dowell_s@hotmail.com
icq 43020553

Answer : If you are installing Windows NT Workstation or Windows 2000 Pro (really "NT Workstation 5") all you need to do is put the CD in under Win98 and open a DOS prompt, CD to the CD-ROM drive letter and the \i386 subdirectory and issue the command winnt /b:

X:
cd \i386
winnt /b

Then just choose to install to \WINNT and you're all set assuming you have the space. Once the install is completed you will have a multiboot menu setup automatically for you that will initially default to boot NT after 30 seconds. You can change this default behavior by right-click/Properties on My Computer under NT, under the Startup tab.

Go for it!

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 1316636
Asker : barbjune1
Subject : unstalling call wave
Private : Yes

Question : I have a compaq pc. I am just a beginner. I accidentaly installed call wave by hitting an ad button. I do not want this and can not find a way to get it uninstalled. can you tell me what to do.

Need More Information : What is CallWave, and where did you ad it from? You may be able to uninstall it from the Add/Remove Programs control panel (Start/Settings/Control Panel)

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : call wave is a thing that will tell you on a small screen at the top of your screen. It is to let you know when you get a phone call. But you have to pay the phone company to use it. There was an ad on the sign on window and when I tried to see what it was, the screen showed up at the top of my screen and I can't get it off. since I don't know much about computers yet. I need help to remove the call wave. It also has ads that come across it. then it will say you have no calls. I did now call the phone company to conect to it.

Answer : Ok if you've looked for it under the Add/Remove Programs control panel (Start/Settings/Control Panel) and couldn't uninstall it there try looking in your Start/Programs/Startup folder - if you see an icon for it in there delete it.

Another place it may be is in the registry - do a Start/Run/regedit.exe and hit ENTER. once inside navigate in the left window pane to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run

and with "Run" selected at the left examine the items at the right to see if you can tell which is the "Call Wave" app. If you see it click it and press DEL.

Afterwards examine the C:\PROGRAM FILES for a directory that may have been associated with the program and if you see one that is obvious delete it.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 1371232
Asker : cassie865
Subject : format hard drive
Private : No

Question : I have a graphics tablet which will not work now that I have installed windows 98. I now have tried to go back to windows 3.1 but can not get it loaded as windows 98 has written a new DOS on the hard drive and will not format it off. Therefore I am stuck. Do you have any miracles to get the Dos off my hard drive so I may once again install 3.1 and use my graphics tablet again.

Answer : If you don't care about the data on the disk and just want to get back to Windows 3.1 you can do:

1) Reboot to DOS (F8 during boot or hold CTRL - select from menu Safe Mode Command Prompt Only)

2) You need to nuke the Windows dir so the old Windows can be installed. So do this:

copy \windows\command\sys.com \
copy \windows\command\deltree.exe \
deltree \windows

3) Hopefully you have a bootable floppy for the version of DOS you were running 98 on top of - if not you need to get one (DOS 6.0 or 6.1 would work nicely here). Once you do have one put it in the drive and issue the command:

sys a:\ c:

OR Reboot on that floppy and do a:

sys c:

4) Start your DOS and then Win 3.1 installs.

Of course all your apps dirs can be blown away too like \PROGRA~1 (Program Files), etc. Do them at the same time you do \WINDOWS above.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : I had asked the previous question a number of months ago----I'm still working on trying the get windows 98 off this drive. Is there any method to do this if I did not copy the existing files first? I would just like to use this scsi hard drive the way I used to. It is much to expensive to purchase a new one. Would you know of anything which may work to get me back to where this mess all began?

Answer : Well since you don't care about the contents of the disk:

Test and make sure you can boot off the first DOS install disk (or Windows 3.1 disk). Put it in the machine and CTRL-ALT-DEL the PC. Make sure it comes up from the floppy and not from the hard disk. If it works then see if the floppy has the commands fdisk and format on it. You can test that by typing each on a line by themselves:

format
fdisk

Once inside fdisk erase all partitions that are defined and recreate a FAT16 partition of the size you want for DOS/Win3.1

Now reboot on the floppy again (after exiting fdisk) and issue:

format c: /u /autotest

When that is done you can start the install of DOS (to be followed by Windows).

--
Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Rating : 5

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QAId : 1680015
Asker : REmondt
Subject : Directory Application Services
Private : No

Question : Need information regarding Directory application services as in pros, cons, and costs.

New to the network arena and this information would be very helpful to me. The only info I can find is on
Enterprise Directory Service to include
Streetalk for Windows Nt
Netscape Directory Service
Synchronicity for NT
NDS for NT

Trying to get my CNE degree and am having difficulty locating information on this subject.

Answer : Directory services help in a number of key areas:

Ease of manageability for large networks

Single login for all users

Administration from anywhere on the network

Start here for a comparison of some of the major directory services:

http://www.novell.com/competitive/

Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 1684050
Asker : paulorraine
Subject : dual booting
Private : No

Question : Hi hope you can help, I have win 98 and win 2000 on my pc. With the option to dual boot at the begging. Last week i decided to reformat the win98 and install a freash copy. But since i've done that i don't get the option to dual boot. It just loads straight into win98.

Answer : Under NT you could create recovery disks with:

winnt /ox

This is not the case with Windows 2000 unfortunately. I'd suggest putting the Windows 2000 CD in your CD-ROM drive and rebooting the machine on it - I suspect since the "/ox" has been removed that the installation process will detect an installed version and offer you some options for repairing the boot sector.

Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 3

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QAId : 1722389
Asker : joshi_jayesh
Subject : OPERATING SYSTEM
Private : No

Question : HOW CURRENT OPERATING SYSTEMS COME IN TO EXISTENCE?
WHAT IS THE BASIC CONCEPT BEHIND OS?

Answer : The basic idea was to make a computer's resources easier to get to by users and programmers, although it also serves the purpose of just general organization of the hardware (including the filing system on disks). If you had to deal directly with the innards of the PC about the best anyone could get out of it would be to make it perform like a 4-function calculator. The operating system provides interfaces to the hardware that make it easier on people writing software that you actually want to use (word processors, games, internet tools, etc) and also gives the user access to tools and utilities that let you manipulate the file system directly.

Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 3

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QAId : 1722657
Asker : plazarus
Subject : volume icon in task bar
Private : No

Question : How do I get the volume icon to appear automatically when Windows 98 starts up ????

Answer : Start/Settings/Control Panel/Multimedia

Check the box for "Show Volume Control on the taskbar"

Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5
End :

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QAId : 1727013
Asker : mell30
Subject : how do i defrag my disk
Private : No

Question : Because i have a lot programs in start-up when i defrag i only get to 3% and then it goes back to 0 all the time.
Should i put in safe mode or is there another way. I have Windows98 SE.

Thanks for your help in advance.

Answer : Your problem stems from a resident program that is making changes to the disk during defrag - when the disk changes the defrag must start over. Close all open programs, including ones in your systray (bottom-right). Then press CTRL-ALT-DEL once and examine the list of running apps - the onlys ones you want running during the defrag are Explorer and Systray. For each other program click on it once and then click End Task. You may have to wait up to 20 seconds for it to truly terminate and may be prompted with another "End Task" dialog box. Just click it to terminate and move to the next one. Once these are all gone *then* you will be able to run your defrag in peace...

Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5

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QAId : 1744215
Asker : toby1022
Subject : Auto Insert in Win 2000
Private : No

Question : Hi Paul,

How do I disable the Auto Insert option for CD drives in Win 2000 Professional etc.

Every time a put a cd in the tray, the cd automatically boots. I wish to turn this option off. I know that you can press the Shift key to disable this. Is there a better way to disable Auto Insert.
I am tri-booting my laptop with Win 2000 Professional, Server and Advanced Server. I wish to disbale auto insert on all three operating systems.

many thanks

toby abbs

Answer : You will have to edit the registry to disable this feature under 2000.

Start/Run/regedit.exe

Once in the program open the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\currencontrolset\services\cdrom\

Select the "autorun" item at the right and dbl click it - enter a value of 0 to disable autorun entirely.

If you only want to disable this for specific user accounts you will edit a similar item under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER branch. Here are the details:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/psdk/shellcc/shell/Shell_basics/Autoplay_reg.htm#nodrive

Paul Doherty
http://members.home.net/iqueue

Rating : 5

Answer : Sure, Toby... always glad to be of help where I can.

And you're welcome for the answer...

Take care and keep plugging!

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5
Rating : 5

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QAId : 1749199
Asker : reybobs
Subject : hi
Private : No

Question : Where can I find a site that will teach me how to upgrade my system like I want to open my CPU and upgrade some stuff. I want to know how to install video cards, change cd-rom drive,etc.

Thanks

Answer : Here are some ones that look good:

http://www.pcmech.com/build.htm

http://www.verinet.com/pc/

http://www.hardwarecentral.com/hardwarecentral/tutorials/109/1/

http://www.waterwheel.com/Build_A_PC/starting_it_up.htm

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 5

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QAId : 1752606
Asker : jake10
Subject : Linux and xwindows
Private : No

Question : I am new to Linux/Unix. I just installed Corel linux on my computer, I installed it into a 6 gig dos partition on the primary drive, the install went ok and it was up and running in about an hour. But I have two problems/questions.Can I run windows applications ? I can see all of my drives and can open and use MS word documents. The system tree shows a device named "xserver" but it has a red x beside it, clicking on it does nothing. Corel documentation says there is XFree86 on the CD but I don't know how to install it. The second problem is connecting to the internet. I have setup my modem and it will dial my isp but then responds with " line busy" and redials, it will repeat this operation until I stop it. I feel like I did 20 years ago when I first encountered DOS, I would appreaciate any advice you could give me.

Thanks,
Jake

Answer : You're tackling a lot at once...

If your X-Windows is not installed and configured correctly it is probably due to your not picking the right video card or monitor settings. Run the complete Corel install *again* and run right over the last one - this time be sure you get your video card brand and model exactly right and your monitor too. Then if given the choices of resolutions for X-Windows choose *only* the one you intend to use (1024x768x32 bit for me usually).

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 1752816
Asker : toby1022
Subject : DVD compatibility Win 2000
Private : Yes

Question : Hi Paul,

thanks for the help with disabling my Auto Insert in Win 2000. I now have another question to be answered please.Hi,

Is it possible to watch DVD's under Windows 2000?

I am tribooting(pro,serv,adserv) on a 9300XL Gateway Laptop. Pent III 500mhz with 224Mb Ram.

I ran dvd player, win 2000 told me a needed a software decoder? and that if my machine played DVD's previously before installing Win 2000 then I cannot watch Dvd's?

My DVD player is Torisan DVD-ROM DRD-U824

I have tried the Torisan site but it comes up in Japanese?

Any answers please?

many thanks

toby abbs

Answer : What DVD player were you using previously? Are you saying that a DVD player software that you used under 95 or 98 when installed under 2000 didn't work? Have you checked for updates?

One of the best players is PowerDVD and you can get it here - not sure if it supports 200 or not but I'd bet so:

http://www.gocyberlink.com/english/products/PowerDVD.asp

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 4

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QAId : 1776422
Asker : tantousha
Subject : RAW file system
Private : No

Question : Do you know what the RAW file system is and what OS it is accosiated with?

Answer : The only "RAW" I know of is in relation to printing. RAW IIRC indicates that data should be sent without any special formatting (indicating the printer is capable of dealing with it directly). You can see the RAW choice if you open

Start/Settings/Printers

Right-click/Properties on a defined printer, go to the Details tab, then click Spool Settings at the bottom - in the drop-down Spool Data Format you will likely see RAW as a choice.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 4

FUQuestion : Well ummm. . i recently lost my hard drive while running a installation program for a new hard drive. The old hard drive was in NTFS and stopped working after the installation, i tried running chkdsk on it and it said "The type of the file system is RAW. CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives."

Answer : Please elaborate on the statement

"The old hard drive was in NTFS and stopped working after the installation"

Did you fdisk the drive (remove all old partitions and start from scratch)? If not you may need to in order to verify it's ability to reliably hold data. Grab this utility to remove NTFS partitions:

ftp://ftp.ncd.com/pub/ncd/Archive/WinCenter/Utilities/delpart.exe

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 1780564
Asker : k_anantharaman
Subject : optimal NT server clustering
Private : No

Question : hi there. i am an IT consultant. one of my clients, a DOT COM company, wants to shift its website from a hosting service, to its own servers. in other words, it wants to put up its own servers.

the site is running on ASP with IIS4.0, and of course, Windows NT 4.0.

the database used at the backend is Oracle 8i.

what would be the optimal hardware configuration for the server(s)? the site traffice can get pretty heavy at times. initially, we tried using HP's Netserver E60 (dual P-III @500MHz and 1 GB of RAM) and 2 SCSI hard disks .. but we were not satisfied with its performance.

so we thought we should put 3 or more such servers and cluster them. what is ur opinion?

thankx a ton.

Answer : If you go with a cluster, make sure you do it as a load-balancing cluster. The default NT cluster type is for high availability (redundancy) and does nothing for performance. What you would be after is to spread the load across more than one server.

Before doing that (unless you already know that's the way you want to go) I would consider a server with a better disk subsystem. Compaq and others will sell you a system with a dedicated hardware RAID controller. Setup one of these with 4 or 5 disks in a RAID 5 configuration and you will have the best of both worlds - redundancy and blazing disk speed. That, coupled with fast full-duplex 100Mb Ethernet may give you all the performance you need (be sure it's attached to a *switch* and not a *hub* so the server has dedicated bandwidth available to it).

Good luck!

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 1786295
Asker : aptech_us
Subject : Errors In Windows 98
Private : Yes

Question : i have a windows 98 system, 96 MB ram, P II 200 Mhz,
i got a problem, that i cannot copy, cut or paste any file. when i copy it copies but when i paste it , it gives me an error in explorer.exe in an unknown module and says there was an internal error and the current window will be closed now. so i am unable to transfer a file.
firstly the problem started by just not allowing me to copy the files first time after every boot, and after giving errors for the first time then it use to work fine, but now i can't move any files.

My Computer firstly had pre-installed windows 98 build 4.10.1998,
then it crashed and i Re-installed it , then it started giving me the errors , but now i bought Windows98 second edition and it also started to give me these errors, please tell me what should i do to get rid of this error, i have Re-installed IE 5.0 and windows several times.

I can't even figure out if any other software had brought me these errors because my system used to have so many softwares.

Need More Information : Can you copy the same files in a DOS prompt under Windows?

Try that and let me know what happens. Also what happens with a scandisk? Any errors reported?

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : Yes, the files can be copied from dos prompt under windows.

the scandisk has shown no errors with full surface scan.

however, some days before i run it and it showed a report stating that it found errors and fixed them all.

one more thing you have so many titles, did you really passed all of them after studying, if yes, how much time all these takes?

thanks for replying.

Answer : If you can copy them from DOS then a Windows file somewhere has:

1) Become corrupted

2) Become out of date (or date is not in sync with other files it depends on)

To remedy this you can try a few things:

1) Run the Windows Update from your Start menu while connected to the internet and get any major patch kits available for your machine - this may in the process update the offending file

2) Re-run the Windows install over the top of your existing install. This should not damage anything - it should only replace files it knows will not work. It may ask you several times during the install whether you want to keep a newer version or install an older one. Two ways to look at such a prompt:

1) If you say Yes and keep the "newer" file you may not get rid of your problem.

2) If you say No and let it overwrite with the older file you are more likely to fix this problem, but also more likely to create a new problem with one of your applications. An interesting thing to note, however, is that if an app *is* damaged by this downgrading it may very well have been the app that caused the trouble to begin with (and can be easily reinstalled over it's existing directory if you really need the app - but be aware it may cause the same problem again so take a registry backup first or be prepared to Add/Remove it).

As for my certifications and degrees - yes I have spent a lot of time to achieve these. I spent about 6-7 years in college getting my degrees and teacher certification, and during and after that time I have garnered 12 years of experience with many aspects of computer usage. During that experience I decided to spend the time focusing on different areas and to become certified in them. For a person with a modicum of experience in computers or networks either the CNE or MCSE would take approximately 6-12 months to complete (each is comprised of 6-7 exams you must study for and pass). The CNA and MCP+I are certifications you can achieve (in the case of the CNA you will achieve it upon the passing of the first exam) along the way to the higher-end cert.

I don't know your age but are you considering entering the field? If so I can tell you it's a great place to be - the jobs are plentiful and the pay is very good. You get a lot of independence in your job to do things as you think they should be done and that too is worth a lot (to me).

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : I have Re-installed windows 98 several times but the problem is still there.

I even bought windows 98 second edition in hope of solving the problem but it has become worst.

The setup Never asked me about overwriting files. It was and indeed is always a clean setup.

About Windows Update, whenever i run it the Internet explorer shows me an error that" there was an internal error and this window you were using will be closed now. it is recommended that you restart your computer."

I have tried to connect to windows update several times, but it goes boom every time.

I have stepped in this Field of Computers.
I know VB,VC,VJ,C++, HTML, SYBASE SQL SERVER, C++ on UNIX.

However, i am not doing any job. I am thinking about preparing for MCSE.

I am an MCSD. My name is Ravi. and i'm 20 Years old.
If you could show me my way in this field i will be thankful to you as you seem to be very Knowledgeable and experienced.

Answer : If you have clean reinstalled and the problem still exists I would have to point the finger at your hardware - what motherboard (and motherboard chipset (not CPU)) are you using?

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : I have a Tomato board,TX98, with VT82580VPX PCI CHIPSET. INCLUDING A 82C585VPX PCI/MEMORY CONTROLLER, 82C587 DATA BUS ACCELERATOR, AND 82C586B PCI ISA IDE ACCELERATOR.

but i tell you one thing i can copy/cut/delete files through dos prompt in windows.
so i don't think it is a hardware problem.

Answer : By "hardware problem" I mean a Windows inability (or incompatibility) with your hardware. That can come from one of a few things:

1) The Win version you're running does not have native support for your motherboard's chipset - check the motherboard's CD-ROM of drivers and such and apply any patches they have for Windows.

2) The motherboard is poorly designed and has a flaw that Windows does not circumvent - in which case no amount of reinstalling will help you - if this is the case you must seek out patched versions of critical ccomponents or advice from people with the same motherboard model and determine how they have gotten around it. The mobo manufacturer's website is likely to have links to newgroups or web-based dicussion areas.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : This means that my money was wasted. i bought this motherboard some months ago just because everybody said it is specially designed for windows98 even the manuals of motherboard says so.

i only bought it because this was something special for win98.

there was no CD/disk with the motherboard when i purchased it, though the packet was open, but this is the way most of things(Hardware) you get in India.

did u know the motherboard's manufacturer's website? tell me.

after i had run the system file checker, my system always reboots when i shutdown it. give me a solution for this also.

Answer : Tomato's website:

http://www.zida.com/index2.htm

I would suspect your machine (needs to) reboot(s) because system file checker has replaced some files with the original ones (that is it's purpose after all)? If it is just rebooting (not asking) then I have no idea why that would be - try the flash BIOS updates and any drivers from the Zida website and see if that helps.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

FUQuestion : First of all thanks for helping and co-operating so much with my problem.

i will go to the website and lok for what you have said,

I want some details and clarifications, if i install windows in a new folder and delete the current windows directory will it solve my problem, will deleting the current windows directory have effects on my installed softwares. tell me some details if u can.

well the shutdown problem was something else, it was Corrected by following steps: -

Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System tools, and then click System Information.

On the Tools menu, click System Configuration Utility.

On the General tab, click Advanced.

Click the Disable Fast Shutdown check box to select it, click OK, and then click OK again.

Declined (Reason) : Too busy to reply to these this week - sorry.

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QAId : 1851336
Asker : nitro900
Subject : Win2000 (URGENT)!!!!
Private : No

Question : I have been using win2000 pro with no problems until I updated my windows through the microsoft website and after the 6md download completed and begane installing while ie was still open I (got a message stating that the system files have changed and that it must restart in order to correct this problem and reinstall these files)I chose to cancle instead of reboot because the update installation was not complete and then windows hanged totaly freezed after restarting the system I now get an error that my domain SHADOW is no longer there and thus even if i put my username and password i cant access my win2000 ...
PS: I have tried safe mode ,command promt,etc but none would work since all of them give the same message. I also tried erepair with no use ..

formating my harddisk and starting over is not an option there are too many programming projects and a lot of hard work involved please help me out as soon as possible ...
Thank you,
Rami Shawwa

Answer : Try booting off the install CD for 2K - during the beginning of the "install" you should be able to pick somre repair options that may get you back into Windows. Then re-run the update to fix anything that may have gotten missed.

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue

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QAId : 1854389
Asker : klang
Subject : Windows NT server is wacked
Private : No

Question : I have a install of Windows NT that is coming up with a notification saying that I need to install client licenses if I want to continue or it will reboot in one hour. This server has been working as an exchange server for about 9 months with out a problem, the power went out on the UPS and it shut down gracefully. When it was coming back up, a user pushed the spacebar for last known config, for some reason, and now it is wacked. ERD fix did nothing.

Answer : Try entering the Licensing control panel and choose "per seat" instead of "per server".

Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Rating : 3

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QAId : 2044793
Asker : stanleyp
Subject : troubleshooting operating systems
Private : No

Question : When booting, an error message is received: Can't find operating system. I replaced the battery. What other possible reasons? It's an HP Vectra 4 5/120

Answer : This would usually indicate there is no boot sector or OS files on either the hard disk (or floppy if there is one in the drive). To repair obtain a bootable floppy from another machine running 95 or 98 and put the utilities:

sys.com
fdisk.exe

These utilities can be found in C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND

Prepare the floppy:

format a: /u
c:
cd \
sys a:

now boot the defective machine with this floppy disk and at the prompt type:

fdisk /mbr
sys c:

Then try and reboot.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 4

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QAId : 2119196
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : using boot disk to load windows
Private : No

Question : when i boot with win 98 startup disk and use with cd rom support it stops after the first driver is loaded and just sits there it doesn't finish starting the computer so i can reload windows. thank you for your help

Answer : It sounds like one of the CD-ROM drivers is hanging.

Try this - create a new floppy on another machine - open a DOS prompt and do the following:

format a: /u
c:
cd \
sys a:
cd \windows\command
copy sys.com a:\
copy format.com a:\
copy fdisk.exe a:\
copy xcopy*.* a:\
copy mscdex.exe a:\
copy ..\himem.sys a:\
copy ..\smartdrv.exe a:\

Now edit a new file A:\CONFIG.SYS and make it contain:

device=\himem.sys
device=\idecd.sys /d:mscd01

Now edit a new file A:\AUTOEXEC.BAT and make it contain:

\mscdex.exe /d:mscd01 /l:f
\smartdrv.exe /n c+ f

Now reboot on this floppy and put your Windows 98 CD in the drive. After it finishes booting you will have F: pointing to your CD-ROM drive. At this point you can do what you need. The best thing to do is to copy over the 98 setup files onto your hard disk and then run the setup from there. you can do that like this:

a:
xcopy f:\win98\*.* c:\win98kit\*.* /e

When that finishes do the following and then reboot with the floppy disk out of the drive:

a:
sys c:

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 2202856
Asker : Atroc
Subject : Hard drive formatting...windows re-installation
Private : No

Question : I have a friend who runs Windows 95 on her computer and somehow, she lost some important .dll files (version, version32, etc.) and many programs won't work anymore. Well, I have a windows 98 SE installation disc, and I'm wondering if I can format her hard drive and then install Windows 98 SE. I still have the disc w/ her original drivers on it.
So basically, I'm asking if this is possible. To format her drive and then install 98 SE w/ her computer's original drivers. If it is possible, what is the best way to go about it? Any kind of help would be greatly appreciated.
She has a Gateway 2000, Pentium 132.95 (BIOS says 133) w/ 16MB of RAM and a 32-bit file system.
Thanks!

Answer : Hmmm 16MB of RAM may be a stumbling block. 16 is the stated minimum for 95 and 98SE has 24MB as it's stated minimum. But if you're a glutton for pain for can probably do the install (though you're unlikely to need the older drivers since 98/SE will have the latest drivers for almost all older hardware).

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 4

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QAId : 2235048
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : learning batch files
Private : No

Question : I just wanted to knbow if u could teach me how to make batch files or give some books or websites on them. I know how to use DOS and think that it would be fun to make them. Thanx for your help.

Answer : Creating BAT files is a great way to learn more about the operating system. I'm glad to hear that you are interested in learning more! I'll be happy to answer any specific BAT questions as you progress - in the meantime here are some good web resources on how to create them:

http://www.tnd.com/camosun/elex130/dosbatchtutor1.html

http://www.calweb.com/~webspace/batch/

http://www.maem.umr.edu/~batch/batchtoc.htm

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 2245084
Asker : jimnance
Subject : file transfer
Private : No

Question : I have two computers using win98se networked. Internet sharing is working great. When I tried to copy a file from one computer to the other, I first get the “copying” window showing paper flying from one file to the other, then it stops and the window saying “Can not copy (***) - thank you: The specified network device or resource is no longer available. Sometimes the file name transfers, but is empty.
How do I get files to transfer?

Aloha, Jim

Answer : This sounds like a physical network problem - potential trouble areas could be:

1) Bad NIC (Network Interface Card) drivers or misconfigured (for instance if you're using a hub you'll need to enter the properties for the cards and force them to 10Mbit, half-duplex).

2) Cabling problems - try a different cable for each machine.

3) Try a different hub to see if yours has issues.

4) Ensure your shares are setup correctly between the machines - map a drive to the other machine by:

right-clicking Network Neighborhood and select Map Network Drive - pick a drive letter on your machine and then enter the path to the share:

\\othermachinename\sharename

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 2304308
Asker : fent
Subject : email addresses
Private : No

Question : We have purchased a new computer. I would like to know how to transfer the email addresses stores on the old computer into the new computer. We use outlook express.
Thanks

Answer : You won't transfer addresses - you will configure the new machine to use the *same* address.

Inside Outlook Express select the menu option:

Tools/Accounts

Under the "Mail" tab you can select the Add/Mail button at the top-right. Put in your necessary information and you will be set to send/receive mail from either machine with the same account.

If what you *really* wanted to know was how to move your entire mailbox with existing mails to the new machine the easiest way is to install Outlook (part of Office 98 or 2000) and then inside your old Outlook Express select the Inbox (or any other folder you want to move to the new machine) and select File/Export/Messages. Then you can directly import each file into the new Outlook Express.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 2360384
Asker : sjbildermann
Subject : Boot CD
Private : No

Question : Hello. Thanks for taking my question. I want to make a better boot CD. My ASUS computer BIOS has that option (to boot off CD) and yes I can make a simple boot CD with Adaptec CD maker. It asks for a bootable floppy disk (there is no option to make any other kind of boot image), which I have, and it easily burns an image onto the CD. I can boot my system with this CD. However this boot CD is *only the image of a 1.44 floppy.

What I want is to make a boot CD that allows me to access the full capacity of the CD (650meg). I have seen several methods but none seem to clear. Can you tell me precisely what I need to do?

Answer : The key is you need the floppy disk you use for making the bootable CD to itself be one capable of loading DOS drivers to access the CD-ROM. Following are the files and contents of the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT you'd need:

Files (all located under \WINDOWS or \WINDOWS\COMMAND):

mscdex.exe
himem.sys
smartdrv.exe
http://members.home.net/iqueue/idecd.sys

All these files should be put on the floppy disk.

CONFIG.SYS:

device=\himem.sys
device=\idecd.sys /d:mscd01

AUTOEXEC.BAT:

@echo off
\mscdex.exe /d:mscd01 /l:f
\smartdrv.exe /n c+ f 8192 8192

Now you should be able to create a CD with this disk that will autoboot and mount itself as drive letter F: and let you have access to it's contents.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 4
End :

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QAId : 2380396
Asker : ratwal@...
Subject : formating your computer
Private : No

Question : Hi
I was woundring to how to format my computer i mean c drive and d drive so my hole computer can be clean from viruses and other junk so then i can reinsall windows.

thankz.

Answer : I'll refer you to an answer I gave previously...

http://www1.askme.com/SearchResults.asp?pm=va&cid=1445&xShowNew=1&QA=on&AnswerRating=1&xid=50373&query=boot+floppy&prev=QA+&vid=51732

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 2384951
Asker : sgt_mike_usmc
Subject : high pitch whine
Private : No

Question : When I turn my desk top on & the Win 98 icon is on the screen there is a high pitch whine that lasts as long as the icon is on the screen,the whine started 2 weeks ago.Can you help me get rid of this noise.

Need More Information : Do you mean the whine is present when Windows 98 is loaded?

If so then I would suggest that the monitor is the source of the noise. Low sync rates can produce an audible noice that can be quite irritating.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

FUQuestion : The high pitch whine is present when Windows 98 is being loaded,as soon as loading is done the noise disappears

Answer : Then I would continue to suggest that your monitor is at fault - to test it, boot the system with the monitor turned OFF until you know it's into Windows. if the sound is not heard then the sound for sure comes from the monitor. I will bet that this will be the case. If it is, then what's happening is perhaps a transformer in your monitor is going out or is poorly-built and at the lower-res screens of the DOS-mode Windows startup you are hitting a sync frequency that causes the audible squeal. Then once you open the graphical screen of Windows your resolution and refresh rate are jumping to a higher level, which probably still produces a squeal but it's now outside your hearing range. I suggest you borrow your neighbor's dog to confirm... ;-)

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 2397835
Asker : ecohen3978
Subject : re test
Private : No

Question : Paul I was wondering what pommetric and microsoft do to you when you must take a retest of an exam that you missed by a few points. Is the test the same are is it harder.Will I have all the same questions are different. I will be talking the test soon.
Thanks Ed

Answer : As far as I know each test is built from a database of questions selected at random for each test. I have never heard anything to the effect that anything different is done for people re-testing a previously failed exam.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

FUQuestion : could they ask some of the same questions. I was useing the braindumps and I saw a lot of questions on them and they are all basicly the same over and over again.I was useing the the brain dumps and I found every question on them as on my test. Do you think that I have a good chance of passing this time?.

Answer : They could hit the some of the same questions again but it's not terribly likely that a high percentage would repeat.

As for your chances at passing if you only missed by a couple of points, and if you study for a week before going back to take it again, I'd say your chances of passing are excellent.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

FUQuestion : Paul how do you feel about the real good brain dumps that are out there. I keep seeing the same questions over and over.
Thanks Ed

Answer : I don't follow the braindump sites so I couldn't say - but as for them appearing to have identical or similar questions that could be due to their amateurish nature (being non-endorsed by the certifying bodies) and the fact that the questions are alike simply because they are about the *same general concept*. Since the points to be addressed in each exam are spelled out for you on the web sites of MS or Novell these practice questions will naturally focus on those areas. Concentrate less on the questions themselves (as in memorizing a question as-is ) and concentrate more on knowing the concept about which the question is being asked thoroughly so no matter the format you will know how to determine the correct answer.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 2405710
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : computer config.sys
Private : No

Question : Hello Paul, I have an IBM 350 mhz Win98
I went to IBM update for the latest updates for my computer one of the six updates failed because "I have to change my stacks in the config.sys."
Checking my config.sys there are no stacks, I know that my other computers did have
stacks = ????? can you tell me how to install
stacks in my config file and how many......
Thank You Dan

Answer : Just open the config.sys for editing. An easy way to get to it to do a:

Start/Run/sysedit.exe (hit ENTER)

Find the config.sys window and put in an appropriate value like:

stacks=8,512

This would be 8 stacks of 512 bytes each. If your install needs more or less adjust accordingly - the values range:

8-64, and 32-512, respectively.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 2408548
Asker : dancinblvd
Subject : dll shutdown
Private : Yes

Question : I am having trouble with a dll shutting me down while I'm online. It comes up with illegal operation and in the details it says SHSTUBSTR.dll
I had windows 98 1st ed and installed windows 98 2nd ed to see if it helped but it didn't.
Any ideas? thanks

Stephanie

Need More Information : I've never heard of a DLL by that name - if you didn't mistype it I'd bet that it came with an application you've installed and that app is the source of the problem. Give me the result of the following command - open a DOS prompt (Start/Programs/MS-DOS Prompt) and type:

dir \shst*.dll /s > c:\output.txt

Now in your reply to me here on AskMe just open your My Computer, double-click on the C: drive and find the file OUTPUT.TXT and double-click it to open. Once it's open just do a CTRL-A to select all the content (or select Edit/Select All), then do an Edit/Copy (or CTRL-C) - this will put the text into the clipboard - then in your AskMe response to me click inside the text window and press CTRL-V.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

FUQuestion : I mistyped the dll by one letter, its SHSTUBCTR.dll,
it was ctr on the end not str do you still want me to do that dos test? thanks Stephanie

Need More Information : Yes do the command as written (I suspected it was a mistype since it was over 8.3 naming convention length). I want to see *where* this DLL is located.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

FUQuestion : sorry just got chance to do that command in ref the SHSTUBCTR.dll. When I typed the command it just came up with C:\Windows> on the next line.

Stephanie

Answer : yes I told you to send me the contents of the OUTPUT.TXT file - re-read my first answer and give me that info...

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

FUQuestion : Okay i did the output thing and i cant get it to copy in this box is that what you want? Being I coudln't do that I will type exactly what it had:

Directory of C:\windows\system

SHSTUB~1 DLL 1 file 57,344 2-8-00 shstubctr.dll
57,344 bytes

Total files listed: 1 57,344 bytes
0 directory

I hope this is what you want i am illiterate when it comes to windows, i should learn more

Answer : OK since the DLL is in \WINDOWS\SYSTEM it's hard to say what app is using it. The file date (2-08-2000) is certainly far newer than anything that comes with 98 so it's definitely an add-on. Try this: Open a DOS prompt and type the following commands (hitting ENTER at the end of each one):

c:
cd \windows\system
attrib -r -h -s SHSTUBCTR.dll
ren SHSTUBCTR.dll SHSTUBCTR.BAK

Now type exit to leave the DOS prompt and reboot your machine. Whatever program complains about missing the DLL is the culprit since it's the one that put it there in the first place. Once you've identified this, note it's name and ensure it's either got an uninstall icon in it's program group under Start/Programs or it's listed and being uninstallable in the Add/Remove Software control panel (Start/Settings/Control Panel). Once you know it is do the following again in DOS:

c:
cd \windows\system
ren SHSTUBCTR.BAK SHSTUBCTR.DLL

Now run the uninstall for that program from either place (and reboot if necessary). That should get rid of the problem...

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

FUQuestion : Okay thanks. I did that an there hasn't been a program yet that has said its missing the dll. I haven't been booted offline yet either. Thats mainly when the dll was coming up. So being I haven't had any problems yet I'll leave it be. Thanks again for your time and I'll leave you good rating.

Stephanie
Rating : 5

Answer : You're welcome...

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 2410490
Asker : kendell_j_2000
Subject : computer sound
Private : No

Question : My computer sound works fine when I use the cd rom; however the sound does not work when I play mp3 players and there is no sound for alerts and window changes ect. can you help?

Answer : The CD-ROM doesn't use the soundcard in the same way as any other audio. All a CD-ROM drive does is transport audio output across a separate cable to the amplifier section of the sound card for output. In English that means there is no processing of CD audio whatsoever by the system.

The easiest way to verify that you have working/non-working sound is to:

1) Double-click the volume control ixon at the bottom-right in your systray (speaker icon) OR get to the same item in your Sounds control panel. Ensure that none of the sliders have the "Mute" checked at the bottom, and that none of the sliders are all the way down.

2) Open the Sounds control panel, and select a Windows event that has a sound associated with it (it will have an icon next to it). Just *select* it once with the mouse and see if the icons below for play and stop do anything. If you have sound drivers installed correctly you *should* see the play icon go from ghosted to active when you select an event that has a sound. If it does go active try clicking the play button (make sure your speakers are ON and that you are plugged into *the correct jack on the back of your soundcard*) and see if you hear the sound. Also watch to be sure the play button goes back to active and the stop becomes ghosted after the sound file finishes (whether you heard it or not - can indicate driver issues).

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 2413928
Asker : mulisT
Subject : Novell Audit log
Private : No

Question : Hello,

I'm Using Novell Server 4.11.
Is there a way to write a little program in C or java (or every other Microsoft tool) that opens a socket to another PC and send it each event which is writen into the audit log (on-line) ?

Thanks,

M.Segal

Answer : Perhaps I'm missing something, but wouldn't it be easier and more efficient to simply map a network drive letter to the directory that contains the log and write a small program on this end that will watch that file's size, and when it changes, read the new information from it?

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

FUQuestion : Hello,

I don't want to depend on the audit log file, in case someone delete or change it.
I want to be able to get the event before it is written into the file. Is it possible ?

p.s
Is there an API called RegisterForEvent or something like that ?

Thanks very much

M. Segal

Answer : I don't code for the Novell environment so I'm not sure about what API there may be for catching events before Novell writes to it's own (protected I meant mention - who could delete these but the admin?) files. Check:

http://support.novell.com

and do a few keyword searches.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 2415311
Asker : ddean528
Subject : .raw file?
Private : No

Question : How can I make a .raw file fomat? And can a .raw file be converted from one of the more popular formats such a .mp3, .way or midi...etc.? And if so what programs can do it? Thanks in advance. Doug.

Answer : There are more than one type of RAW-formatted files. Here are the three I found:

RAW Raw File Format (bitmap)

RAW Raw signed PCM data

RAW Raw signed PCM data

(the above comes from website http://www.midnightdreary.com/Documents/Definitions/FILEF.htm#R)

And here's a program for converting from RAW to WAV (at which poit you can then use any encoder program to generate an MP3 - those can be found at http://www.mp3.com):

http://download.cnet.com/downloads/0,10152,0-1896417-110-1517841,00.html?gid=27980&tag=st.dl.1896417-100-1517841.dir.1896417-110-1517841

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 2467628
Asker : lesimpson
Subject : file extensions opening
Private : No

Question : Received floppy on music lessons.
Can view 32 files from A drive.
31 are entitled Mdv_01.etv to Mdv_31.etv
tha last one is music.dir
I have not been able to find a way to open this diskette. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Answer : None of those files are executables (or even common formats), so if this is a training program I'd suggest that it requires a player of some sort to use this disk (i.e. the lessons are on separate disks from the player application - a common practice in the CBT world).

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

----------------------------------------------------------------------
QAId : 2475690
Asker : cindy_lens
Subject : DISPLAY
Private : No

Question : Hi

I am installing a new Suns Solaris 2.7. I tried to acces Solaris from NT4 using Solstice. When I enter this command from NT4 using Solstice:

admintool&
I get the error "cannot open Display."
Then, I entered: setenv DISPLAY testhost:0
admintool&

I still get the same error.
This is a new computer. How do I configure to make it work. Do I need to set up something with NIS?

Thanks
Cindy

Answer : Ok from the NT machine telnet to the UNIX box and then type in the following:

ksh
DISPLAY=100.100.100.100:0.0;export DISPLAY
admintool &

(where "100.100.100.100" is the actual IP address of your NT box - which can be ascertained by opening a DOS prompt and typing "ipconfig")

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 2519156
Asker : mack96@...
Subject : cost of setup for small server network
Private : No

Question : I'm a surgeon about to open a small office with 2 employees. Figured server w/ a couple workstations to start, with hardware firewall, wireless hub, backup tape, etc. The total hardware was around $8600 from a quote from an IT company. Their prices had slight markup, which is fine, but what blew me away was their labor - their quote was almost $4000, at $135/hr. 135/hr is manageable, but does it really take that long to set up?! They had 15 hours alone for the server, its two drives and the W2K OS. Is this reasonable? If not, what is?

Answer : That does seem a bit excessive in terms of the number of hours. A server build and OS installation should probably be between 6 and 10 hours, depending on the configuration. Backup configuration and any networking changes (besides a basic Ethernet configuration) may add a couple of hours to that.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 4

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QAId : 2579833
Asker : terryabjt
Subject : uninstall all advantage
Private : No

Question : i no longer want all advantage. how do i get it

out of my computer and off my screen?

my e-mail is terryabjt@aol.com

Answer : I'm not familiar with the app but the two general ways of getting an app uninstalled:

1) The pretty way -

Go to Start/Settings/Control Panel/Add-Remove Programs and select the app from the list and click the button to remove it.

OR

Start/Programs/All Advantage/Uninstall (if it exists)

(This second one is effectively the same thing as the first)

2 The not-so pretty way

Manually blow away the program directory (usually a subdirectory under C:\PROGRAM FILES)

(optional) Manually remove any entries from the registry

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 4

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QAId : 2588311
Asker : sjgnettech@...
Subject : cannot find the file systray.exe
Private : No

Question : Hello,

I would appreciate any help you could give me on a peculiar problem that I seem to be having. I'm installing a modem on a workstation (nt40 workstation)on our network but for whatever reason or other the modem options in control panel seem to not be available. I'm logged in as the administrator. The only thing that I'm getting that may or may not be related is during startup I get the message cannot find the file systray.exe or one of it's components. Make sure the path and filename are correct and that all required loibraries are available. I've got less than a years experience as a network administrator so this might hopefully be something simple. Thank you in advance.

Steve

Answer : I'm not sure what the modem issue is, but the file systray.exe is located normally at:

\WINNT\SYSTEM32

If this file is missing you can restore it from the original install files like this:

extract Z:\i386\systray.ex_ C:\winnt\system32

where "Z" is the drive letter of your CD-ROM and "C" is the drive letter where your WINNT directory exists.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

Answer : I just realized I used "extract" instead of "expand" - Extract is used with CAB files and I was thinking about that when I wrote this...

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QAId : 2590972
Asker : jmahoney
Subject : Corrupt win.ini file
Private : No

Question : Paul,

I'm having fits with a communication program, Communicate Pro. After repeated uninstall/reinstall cycles, I got a Corrupt win.ini file message when I tried to set Com Pro to auto load on boot up.

Do you have any ideas about repairing the file?

Thanks.

Answer : Well if this program loads from there you can disable it.

Start/Run/Sysedit (hit ENTER)

In the WIN.INI pane look towards the top for the lines

run=
load=

One or both may have entries after the "=" sign. If they do inspect them to see if they are the program you want to stop from loading, and erase that piece.

You may also want to examine the bracketed section further down the file associated with this program and remove the whole section - example:

[WinZip]
Note-1=This section is required only to install the optional WinZip Internet Browser Support build 0231.
Note-2=Removing this section of the win.ini will have no effect except preventing installation of WinZip Internet Browser Support build 0231.
win32_version=6.3-7.0

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 2600450
Asker : youngjet
Subject : Ras dialup connection
Private : No

Question : Hi Paul, this is Jack. I am setting up Ras at a small company and I am new at this. There will be 100 Windows 2000 computers dialing into Ras Server from a remote location and the some of the windows 2000 computers was already assigned an ip address. They all use the same ip addresses.
I know that Ras automatically assigned ip address to the remote computer that dialed in. Do I have to select " obtain an ip address automatically in the win2000 remote computer instead of assigning the same ip address. I am sure if you use the same ip address for all remote computers it will cause a network conflict, is that right?
Please explain to me how to set it up or steps to make sure that I am not doing something wrong. Your help is greatly appreciated and I am looking forward to needing your help in the near future. Thanks

Answer : If I followed that right you're all setup except for this choice on the client side. Yes you will likely *not* want to hard-code an address in there and leave it set to "obtain an IP address automatically".

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 4

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QAId : 2609985
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : computer plug ins
Private : No

Question : i downloaded a microsoft media player the other day and it gave me an adaptec cd burner plug in. what exactly is a plug in and what is the cheapest cd burner for a computer right now on the market? thank you for your time.

Answer : A plug-in is just a "piece" of software that does not stand alone - it is intended to run in conjunction with an existing application. For example a Shockwave plug-in for Netscape (the web browser) is intended to enable Netscape to display Shockwave content without invoking an external utility to do so.

As for burners I really recommend you *not* go with the cheapest, as quality is all across the board and a lower-end unit will give you nothing but headaches and coasters. Even at 50 cents each CDRs are not free and wasting them unnecessarily is a silly waste of money. Here's the burner I'd recommend you get:

http://www.computers4sure.com/product.asp?Productid=103275&catid=380

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 4

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QAId : 2621484
Asker : plazarus
Subject : dll file
Private : No

Question : I have a problem with Internet Explorer (Version 5.5). When I try and download a file, all I get is "lots of text and crazy characters". I went to control panel \Add or Remove Applications. I tried to repair Internet Explorer, but got the error message "Cannot repair Explorer. Run Setup again." I checked the details and the message said "URLMON.DLL has version 4.72.3110.6 and it needs to be 5.50.4134.600 or later" I seached a couple of sites (ie www.solo.abac.com/dllarchive/
but the versions are earlier than my current one.

I did an extract from my Win98SE cd, but this had an earlier file version.

Where can I get this dll file with this version.

Answer : You can reinstall Internet Explorer 5.5 and Tools from Windows Update:

Start/Windows Update

When the page loads select Product Updates and then "Show Installed Updates" and select IE 5.5 again.

As for the downloads you may have a misconfigured file extension handler. For the download that showed all the strange text instead of clicking it, do a right-click/Save Target As, and then place it where you want it.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 5

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QAId : 2621573
Asker : robkerry
Subject : Windows 95 problem
Private : No

Question : Please help!
When ever I start up my computer and go into my desktop, loads of programs start to open! I think it is because they were not closed down properly before and they always open now. If you can tell me how to stop this from happening I would be grateful.

Regards,

Robert.

PS. The programs that open are:
Sound Recorder,
Real Player Installer,
MS Paint,
And several warning notices

Answer : The most likely place you'll find these is in Start/Programs/Startup

You probably inadvertantly dropped some icons in there and that's why they start each time. To clean them up:

Right-click on the Start button at bottom-left and select "Explore"

Then in the right pane dbl click on Programs, and then on Startup. Then just select and delete the ones you know you don;t want loading on every boot.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 4

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QAId : 2638433
Asker : prosas
Subject : boot up error
Private : No

Question : during boot up, message "memory test failed",
f1 to continue.
worked great until this message appeared. other
messages follow if I select f1 to continue, to no avail. help!

Answer : You may have a memory module that has worked it's way lose or has gone bad (hopefully you have more than one). Open your case with the power off and the power plug disconnected. Locate the memory modules (they will be thin circuit boards about 2 inches tall and 5 inches wide). Reseat any and all of the modules, and then power up and see if the problem still exists. If it does and you have more than one module turn of the machine again and remove one of the modules. then see if it still happens. For this example I'll assume you have 2 modules. If the problem still exists you have found either the bad module or bad socket. Now you can switch out this bad one for the other to confirm that the module is at fault and not the socket. Changing positions can also tell you whether the socket itself is faulty or if it's the module itself.

Good luck

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

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QAId : 2646008
Asker : Anonymous
Subject : what is thi nuber?
Private : Yes

Question : Does this number belong to a computer?
If not, do you have any ideas what it is????
249-630-1000
Thank you

Answer : Looks to me like it's in Minnesota and the prefix has been changed to '763' or '952':

http://www.uswest.com/areaCodes/minnesota.html

Do a CTRL-F and type 249 and hit ENTER once the page loads.

763-630-1000 - rings but no answer
952-630-1000 - first was busy - rings but no answer

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

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QAId : 2669751
Asker : Viper3n
Subject : career
Private : No

Question : How do i get started in a career in networking. What books can i read and what classes should i take in highschool to prepare for networking in college.

Answer : Try and pick up one of the Dummies books on Networking. They are a good way for a newcomer to get a handle on the concepts involved and the basic principles.

http://shop.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=2IDSZP53AQ&mscssid=J7KKWGNQ37H69MXJ4A7P819LTEN11WU0&isbn=0764504983

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

Rating : 1

Answer : If the answer is so off-base then you need to continue the question with a "clarify" as the way your question is phrased that is a perfectly acceptable answer. I will not answer any further questions from you as you are showing that you are indeed a teenager by rating honest attempts to answer questions with the lowest possible rating.

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QAId : 2688180
Asker : barry_h56@...
Subject : computer
Private : No

Question : I have a Dell GXa I loaded Win98 with no problems during installation. After the inital reboot that Windows does the cdrom drive dropped off. I reloaded win98 again but still no cdrom. If I boot from the startup disk the cdrom works. the secondary controller is yellow flagged in the system properties. I loaded the cab files onto the H/D during the orginal install. What is the problem. I find no setup disk on the Dell site....Help....Barry

Answer : You may want to check that the secondary controller is setup correctly in the BIOS (usually pressing DEL at boot-time gets you into the BIOS but your system may differ). Also if you only have one hard disk you may want to try (as a troubleshooting measure) moving the CD-ROM as a slave off the same cable as the hard disk. That way you can confirm the CD is good (sounds like you already know it is but this also confirms if the cable or controller is at fault). Then swap the cable out for the one that was on the secondary controller (putting the harddisk and CD both on it) and see if all is well there. If so then your controller looks to have a problem. As mentioned that can be BIOS, but also a driver, or other Windows problem.

--
Paul Doherty, CNA, CNE, MCP+I, MCSE, A.A.Sc., B.A.
http://members.home.net/iqueue
Home of PC DiskMaster and other Windows utilities

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