ssc #84 Abakt backup

If you've ever lost valuable documents due to a computer crash or virus infection then today's article is for you.  If you've ever been told by friends that you need to back up your files, but never found the time, then today's article is for you.  If you've never had a problem and never saw a need to back up important data, then today's article is DEFINITELY for you. Crashes happen.  Files get lost every hour of every day due to viral infections, hardware failure, power fluctuations and just plain stupidity.  If you've never lost any important files then either you're really lucky, or you just don't have any files that you consider important. Today I'd like to share with you a very useful little program I found called Abakt. Abakt is an open source backup utility.  Essentially, you set up Abakt to copy your important files and folders to a specific location and then you can use the Windows Scheduler to make it back everything up on a regular basis. Abakt has the ability to compress your files when it backs them up, and also can delete backups when they've become too old, making sure that your storage space isn't filled up with zip archives of out-dated data. Another thing that Abakt can do is group a bunch of backup profiles into a group and then you can run them all by starting up the group. Whats even better for those of the geek persuasion is that Abakt can be called by DOS commands.  Essentially you can use a batch file (.bat) with all of your Abakt arguements and then use a command line email utility called Blat (http://www.blat.net/) to email you after the process is complete to let you know if everything went ok.  If you use gmail you will need to use a program called "stunnel" (www.stunnel.org) which provides a secure ssl tunnel for blat to talk to Gmail. You can get Abakt at:  http://www.xs4all.nl/~edienske/abakt/ Below is an example of a batch file designed to run Abakt and then email me the results of the process. --------------------- set BLAT="C:\Program Files\blat\blat.exe" set ABAKT="C:\Program Files\Abakt\Abakt.exe" set PROFILE=<the profile name you wish to use> set GROUP=<the group name you wish to use> set BODY="<put in the full path to a .txt message you'd like included in your email>" set HOME=C:\Documents and Settings\<your user name> set LOGFILE1="%HOME%\Application Data\Abakt\Log\%GROUP%.log" set LOGFILE2="%HOME%\Application Data\Abakt\Log\%PROFILE%.log" set TOEMAIL=intendedaddress@wherever.com set FROMEMAIL=youraccountaddress@wherever.com @rem == This next line prepares Blat with your email server %BLAT% -install smtp.gmail.com %EMAIL% @rem == This line actually starts up Abakt @rem== If you want to use a profile it should be "%PROFILE%".abp %ABAKT% -b -x -l -m "%GROUP%".abg goto result%ERRORLEVEL% :result0      @rem OK (0x00)     set BACKUPA=FilesCopied_OK         @goto end :result2     @rem OK+WARNING (0x02)     set BACKUPA=Files_Copied_With_errors     @goto end :result1     @rem ERROR (0x01) :result3     @rem ERROR+WARNING (0x03)     set BACKUPA=File_Copy_FAILED     @goto end :end @rem==this line actually sends the email %BLAT% %BODY% -s "%BACKUPA%" -to %TOEMAIL% -f %FROMEMAIL% -server 127.0.0.1 -port 25 -u <email_username> -pw <email_password> I hope thats helpful to some of you.  I've sure found it to be a great program. If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to http://www.straightshootincomputin.com If you live in Russell County or the surrounding areas and you need help fixing your computer, give me a call at (606) 219-4088 to set up an appointment.

SSC #83 Splashtop

There's a new technology on its way and if you blink, you might just miss it. Splashtop is just one instance of a new quick booting technology that the motherboard manufacturer ASUS is putting on all its new offerings. The purpose of Splashtop is to provide a fast booting simplified desktop with a few essential aplications.  Its not designed to replace a full operating system, but instead it allows you to turn your machine on and within a few seconds have access to a web browser, Skype webphone, and possibly more.  Splashtop will run in read-only mode, which means you won't be able to make changes to it or install new applications, but it also means you won't be able to mess it up. For laptop users on the go, this means you'll be able to boot up very quickly into a low power desktop that you can use to get online, check your mail and shut down before a full operating system would get fully booted up. For home users, this means that if your desktop suddenly catches the flu and refuses to start up, you have an emergency system that you can use to get online and find out what to do to get it up and running again. The reason I said if you blink you might miss it is that its likely that this will be an option that you have to select at boot time by pressing a specific key or key combo.  Without selecting it, it won't come up.  And if you never see it, you may not even know that it is there.  ASUS is leading the pack on this technology, but its doubtful that they'll be the only one to release products featuring it.  Other companies may not call it Splashtop, but it will be very similar. This technology promises to have lots of potential for future applications.  Assuming just a few more advances in Virtual Machine technology, a Splashtop VM Manager seems not only inevitable, but undoubtedly awesome.  If you're geek enough to understand what this means, you'll no doubt agree to its usefulness. All in all, Splashtop is definitely a technology to watch, and buy, when it becomes available in the coming months. Oh, and did I mention that Splashtop is Linux based?   Yeah.  Its that cool. If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to http://www.straightshootincomputin.com If you live in Russell County or the surrounding areas and you need help fixing your computer, give me a call at (606) 219-4088 to set up an appointment.

SSC #82 Net Neutrality

Many of you have probably heard the term "Net Neutrality" bandied about on the news lately.  A lot of people seem to be talking about it, but not many are showing signs that they really understand what it is all about. Net Neutrality is a concept that the internet should be nothing more than a set of "dumb pipes" that transfer data from one point to another.  They should not give precedence to one transfer over another, and that the internet should not block traffic or deliberately slow traffic going across it.  This is how the internet works as of right now, and in the past. At odds with this concept are the companies who collectively provide internet service to all of us.  Complaining of network congestion and an inability to reliably offer promised speeds to their customers, they claim that giving some traffic preferential treatment over other traffic is not only desirable, but necessary. If Network Neutrality is not upheld, there could be many consequences as a result of its downfall.  ISPs could begin to offer tiered priority schemes to different content providers.  This would, for instance, allow companies offering paid services (such as Netflix's movie streaming service) to gain a higher priority over the video conference you're having with your sister in Oregon.   It wouldn't just stop at legitimate services like Netflix though.  It would be something that would be offered to any company paying the price.  Full motion video advertisements would begin loading faster than the text based web pages on which they resided.  And as a result, our collective bandwidth would suffer.  This also means that any new high-bandwidth services starting up that couldn't afford the internet fast lane would hardly be able to compete since their service would appear choppy and slow. Another possible outcome would be that you wouldn't necessarily be able to do wherever you want to with your internet connection.  You may have to pay one amount for web browsing, and another amount of money for chat or email.  Transferring files or encrypted data may be something else entirely. Really there's no way of knowing how it would eventually end up.  But one thing is for sure... once Net Neutrality is broken, things will only get worse for the end user. While I understand that it is a hard task to manage a congested network, the answer lies not in abolishing Net Neutrality.  The answer lies in abolishing spam (which accounts for far too much of internet traffic) and in adopting new faster technologies. In America we have the privilege of having one of the first country-wide information networks.  And while this might be a mark of pride for some, when you think about it, its one of the things that is holding us back.  Countries that did not build their information networks until recently got to take advantage of newer and better technologies that did not exist when our own was built. Many technologies have come to light since our nation's network was built.  But either by overbearing regulation or simple ignorance, they never seem to manifest for our use. One thing that is for sure is that Net Neutrality is something that we should all keep an eye on.  It is the internet equivalent of free speech.  While the corporations may own the networks, they were paid for using our monthly service subscriptions.  And the corporations should keep in mind that if they take away the freedom that makes the internet what it is, they'll find a lot of those subscriptions canceled.  Mine included. If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to http://www.straightshootincomputin.com If you live in Russell County or the surrounding areas and you need help fixing your computer, give me a call at (606) 219-4088 to set up an appointment.

SSC #81 DropBox

I've been pretty busy lately, and it's been hard to find time to write, but fear not, I'm still here.    Today I wanna tell you about a new utility I heard about on the LottaLinuxLinks podcast:  DropBox.    DropBox is a great tool for syncing files between multiple computers.  Essentially it works by setting up a special folder on your machines that will sync to eachother.  First, install DropBox on all of your machines.  Then, if you put a picture or document into the DropBox on one computer, it will show up in the DropBox on all your other computers.  Its a great way to move files between work and home without any disks or thumbdrives to carry around with you... a no-fuss solution to a common problem.    But it can be used in other ways as well.  Say for instance that you want to share pictures with your relatives.  If you set up a family DropBox, and install it on your relative's computers, then you simply drag and drop files into the DropBox and it will show up in their DropBox shortly thereafter.    Its not a complicated looking affair, in fact it looks just like a normal folder on your desktop.  It really can't be easier than this!    DropBox also has a public component that allows you to designate files to be accessible publicly.  Public files can be accessed through a web page from any computer in the world, whether DropBox is installed or not!  Its a great way to make a small cache of highly accessible personal files.  If you'd like something to be accessible globally, but you're worried about someone getting hold of sensitive files, simply compress the files in a password protected archive before making them public.  Then, while anyone will be able to get the archive, they won't be able to open it.    I am sure you can think of more ways to use something like this... just go to www.getdropbox.com and download it. Its cross-platform meaning it has versions available for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux.  And they can all sync up with eachother.   If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to http://www.straightshootincomputin.com If you live in Russell County or the surrounding areas and you need help fixing your computer, give me a call at (606) 219-4088 to set up an appointment.

SSC #80 Duo-County Internet Speedup

In a surprising move, Duo-County Telephone has drastically raised their internet speeds. Customers of Duo-County woke up a few days ago to faster downloads and faster loading web pages.  Originally some thought it was a glitch, but it turns out that Duo-County has indeed increased their broadband speeds across the board. If you previously had Fastnet DSL Lite or Viewnet Cable Lite, you were accustomed to a download speed cap of 384kbps.  After applying the Windows Math to it (divide by 8), what you ended up seeing was around 48K download speeds in your machine.  The new speed for the service plan is 1.5Mbit, or 1,536kbps... four times what you got before, and twice what you used to get for the next tier up.  Now your top speed (in Windows Math) will be around 192K. If you had their regular Fastnet DSL or Viewnet Cable you previously had speeds of 768kbps / 96K, but now you're enjoying a whopping 4Mbit service.  Thats 4096kbps aka 512K download speed.  Thats 5 and a third times faster than what you got before!  Apparently a little competition is a good thing. From what I hear, there's a four dollar cost increase associated with these upgrades, but honestly thats not too bad considering the impressive speed boost.  Now all of those streaming web TV services should work just fine... no more stuttering youtube videos! I'm not one much for corporations or corporate types, but I do give credit where credit is due.  Duo-County has done their customers a great service here.  Now Russell County speeds are much closer in line with what you'd get in Lexington or Louisville, and thats pretty impressive. I've heard no word yet from Vortex Wireless on how they plan to react to this new development, but if and when I do I'll be sure to pass it along.  Residential FastNET DSL Internet 1.5 Mbps download speeds (256 Kbps Upload). $33.95 per month. 4 Mbps download speeds (256 Kbps Upload) $49.95 per month. Residential ViewNET Cable Internet ViewNET 1.5 - 1.5 Mbps Download and 256 Kbps Upload Speed: $33.95 per month. ViewNET 4 - 4 Mbps Download and 256 Kbps Upload Speed: $39.95 per month. $100 Installation Charge applies to new installations. Questions/Comments -- www.StraightShootinComputin.com

SSC #79 Don't use Antivirus XP 2008

Theres a new spyware/virus combo that is sweeping the unwary net-surfing population of Russell County.  Several times now people have brought machines to me complaining of strange behavior and unexplained lockups.  The cause of all this is a fake anti-virus program called Antivirus XP 2008.  This is often installed by a trusting individual after reading terror-ridden warning messages in pop-up ads.  Essentially its like Iraq... they claim your computer has weapons of mass destruction so as to scare you to the point of stupidity, and in response you give them the keys to come in and wreck the place. The advertisements are bogus, the program is bogus.  It does a fake scan and gives lots of scary fraudulent results and then asks you to purchase the program so that it can remove all of the so-called threats.  All the while, behind the scenes, it is installing viruses and possibly even a rootkit.  So, if they've done all of this, do you think these are the kind of people you should give your credit card info to? Paying for this program would be a mistake of grand proportions!  Buying antivirus software from pop-up ads is like buying antibiotics from a stranger in a dark alley.  Common sense should tell you that its a bad idea. But being gullible isn't the only way that this program gets in though, in some cases it has seemingly installed itself onto computers that have no protection whatsoever whenever the user browses to less than reputable sites.  So if you're running around the net unprotected, chances are this little bugger will just show up all on its own. On newly infected machines, often this software can be disabled by running Avast Antivirus boot-time scan (or another good quality antiviral program), but in instances where it is entrenched, there's little choice but to offload important files, and then completely wipe and reinstall the operating system.  Its very hard to tell just how far a system has been infected, so in most cases its safest to wipe and re-install.  Also, any files that are taken off the machine should be scanned by a reliable anti-virus program. If you've somehow got this software on your machine, you need to do something about it as soon as possible.  You can find removal instructions here: http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/malware-removal/remove-antivirus-xp-2008 And if you don't feel confident that you can remove it yourself, you're welcome to give me a call. See ya next week! Jeff Smith www.straightshootincomputin.com

SSC #78 A great deal!

Sorry I missed writing last week, I was pretty worn out from Software Freedom Day.  I'd love to tell you all that it went great, but it didn't.  Hardly anyone bothered to show up, despite all my efforts at advertising.  We were ready to go at around 10am, and we stayed til around 4pm.  Most people that came by were just wanting to pay their cellphone bills.  Now I could rant and rave at everyone for not showing, but I think instead I'll just take it as a sign that Russell County is not interested in silly little things like freedom.  I doubt I'll be doing anything similar next year.  It was too much stress and the results were too depressing. So instead I'm going to tell you about a good deal. Right now, you can go to www.Walmart.com and buy a pre-installed Linux computer for $210, tax included.  They're made by a company called Everex, and they run gOS, a version of Linux.  If you have them ship it to the local Walmart, shipping is free.  This is a great deal!  $210 buys you a tower with: 1.5GHz VIA C7-D processor 512MB DDR2 memory 80GB Hard Drive DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo Drive Keyboard 2-Button Scroll Mouse stereo speakers - USB powered The case has frontside USB ports as well as frontside headphone and mic jacks. Make no mistake, this is not a powerhouse.  Its not a gaming machine.  This is a cheap machine for basic/average usage.  If all you do online is surf the internet, do email, and chat, this is for you.  It plays DVD movies, and can burn CDs.  It also has some simple games like solitaire and such.  This is a great machine for a light user, a new user, or as a 2nd computer or student computer.  All you'll need is a monitor since it comes with everything else. And if you find that you don't like the gOS operating system, you're fully capable of replacing it with Windows XP or Ubuntu or whatever you fancy. I had some hands-on time with this machine yesterday.  And to be truthful, I wasn't too impressed with the gOS operating system.  If I were to buy one I'd replace it with Ubuntu, but that's just me.  But for the price, you get a complete system (minus a monitor) and thats a deal I just felt I should pass along.  If you want to get a monitor with it, the price goes up to $328. They do not sell these at the local stores, you can only buy them online.  And if you don't like the $200 model there are others as well, including laptops and mini-laptops.  And all of these models are priced lower than what you find with Vista installed. Until next week, take care of eachother! If you have a question or comment, feel free to email me at straightshootincomputin@yahoo.com If you'd like to read my past articles, browse to http://www.straightshootincomputin.com I live in Russell County.  If you do too and you need help fixing your computer, give me a call at (606) 219-4088 to set up an appointment.