Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2011 June 12

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June 12

New PC config question

My 9-year-old desktop computer is on its last legs, and a replacement must likely be arranged in the next month or so. The biggest change in our requirements from last time is the addition of other portable computers to the household, thus a need to set up some kind of disk, folder, or file sharing system. At my office there is a network file server, so I can envision that model, but I have no idea if that's the best/right/only model for home systems.

I don't have a clue where to begin on that. Assuming the new box will also be a desktop system with a honking big disk, what are the very first questions I need to ask, and then learn how to answer? Some I've thought of are

• Should I share a whole spindle, or a whole file system, or just some folders someplace? Are there specific pros and cons to any of those options?
• How, electronically, do the remote systems (presumably laptops) connect? I have a DSL router/modem which supports my kid's computer's internet access via wireless; does (or can) disk sharing work through that too -- but even if it can, maybe it shouldn't? Fer'instance, am I exposing data that way?
• Presumably this will be a Windows 7 box that will be built to order, including appropriate software. Is there some product that I should specifically configure to accomplish this, or is this a pretty basic feature of any Win7 variant?
• (Anything else I should be asking up front?)

I'll prefer something simple and idiot-proof over something feature-richer that requires continuous handholding.

I could probably learn much of what I think I need if I knew better what to look for -- what the buzzwords are. And, I'll admit that dealing with this, now a decade-plus removed from the software development biz, really makes me feel reeeeely stooopid, so thanks for your patience.

Thanks! DaHorsesMouth (talk) 01:08, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

Whether wired or wireless, sharing does work across the usual home network setup. The sharing strategy might depend on whether this is just for yourself or for the whole family including partner, kids etc. Although a bad idea from the security point of view (ie. not spreading malware & viruses), sharing everything might be convenient for just yourself. However, others in your household, teenagers in particular, might prefer not having to overtly share everything with anyone else (of course, depending on how paranoid your are, you might want to check up on what your kids are doing online from time to time, or at least talk to them about what you expect). Astronaut (talk) 10:50, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

I have a caution for you on network file servers. We got one, and were not happy. The problem was that it had no "sleep" software on it, so just kept spinning the hard disk the whole time, wasting energy and wearing itself out. We could, of course, turn it off when not sharing files, but this made it just as inconvenient as making sure the from and to computers were on, whenever we wanted to share files. Ours also required us to log on remotely to do much of anything on the network file server, which was itself a pain. StuRat (talk) 00:20, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

Perhaps worth remembering a dedicated NAS would probably use less power in total in 24 hours then your desktop (even when largely idle) would in 4 hours (although given how old your systems are IIRC, I would make that 30 minutes). Also you could just use one of the WD Green HDs that parks the heads every 8 seconds or whatever (but make sure your NAS isn't doing something every 10 seconds [1]). Although depending on the model you may save less then a watt [2]. Nil Einne (talk) 05:13, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

But keep in mind that the NAS energy usage is in addition to the desktop PC energy usage, not in place of it (unless you were doing something crazy like leaving the PC on 24/7 just in case somebody wanted one of the shared files on it). Parking the heads every 8 seconds seems rather unwise, I'd go with something more like after 5 minutes without use, or data transfers would be slowed down too much waiting for the disk to spin back up. I'm not saying that NAS is always a bad idea, just that you need to be careful about particulars. StuRat (talk) 07:19, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

It's not clear to me. Do you actually need a desktop? Frankly buying a random desktop primarily to share files is a dumb idea unless you really need it for some reason. A dedicated NAS of some sort will be much cheaper, more power efficient etc. If you do need more and want a Windows environment, you could consider Windows Home Server 2011. If you do want a desktop system, but also want to share files you don't really need anything extra. Bear in mind depending on your requirements you may still want to consider a NAS. Both the router and Windows (and most OSes) will usually stop sharing working across the internet without further configuration. Nil Einne (talk) 05:13, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

I linked your "NAS" to the correct page. Hope that's OK. Dbfirs 20:42, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

OP here; I'd like to answer Nil's "Do you actually need a desktop" question in hope of getting additional responses to the original post.

My answer is Yes, for two reasons which you are free to debate. (1) This is MY computer as well as the file server -- hence the requirement for the so-called honking big disk. (2) Two or trhee weeks ago another post on configurations said, basically, don't get a laptop unless you NEED a laptop -- which I don't, so am on the desktop bandwagon.

I know I don't need an NAS, but one respondent above brought up the issue of accessing shared files while the system is hibernating. Is that a problem on a standard Win7 system?

Does anybody have any responses to the first bullet?

Thanks for everything so far. I'm getting smarter every day, which is no mean feat at my age! DaHorsesMouth (talk) 21:37, 14 June 2011 (UTC)

It depends what you mean by 'problem'. No one else will be able to access files on your computer when it is off, hibernating or in standby. I would hope this is obvious. You should be able to enable wake on lan which should allow people to start your computer when they need to access files on it. If it's hibernating or in standby it should start fairly fast. You can also leave your computer on all the time but if you're doing this to save cost it's not necessarily going to work out like that. If people want to be able to access the files at any time and you don't plan to lave your computer on basically all the time, then I would consider a NAS.

BTW if you haven't upgraded in 9 years do you actually need a big disk in your computer? While SSDs are IMHO still a little expensive and probably out of your price range you may want to consider a smaller dedicated OS/application drive. Admitedly 1.5-2TB tends to be the most cost effective at least last time I looked (for green/cheap HDs) but I think it tends to be more complicated if you're buying a pre-built computer. You could get a higher performing smaller hard drive rather then the much cheaper green drive the honking big disk is likely to be although I'm not sure if that's worth it since the performance difference doesn't seem to make up for the cost difference IMHO. Note in particular if people are going to be regularly accessing files, this is just going to negatively affect your performance even more.

Also your first bullet point is unclear. What do you mean 'share a whole spindle'? In technical terms Spindle (computer) is usually taken to mean a hard disk (although not commonly used outside of certain circles) but you've given no indication you plan to buy multiple HDs. If you do, the question of whether an additional NAS may be better suited for your purposes is even more important. If you mean share a whole platter (a hard drive may have multiple platters but it only has one spindle) then this isn't possible. Hard drives don't provide that level of info and in any case I'm pretty sure data is distributed across platters rather then filling a whole platter then moving on to the next (look at the transfer graph of any modern HDD with multiple platters, it has a fairly smooth continous line dropping over time).

Nil Einne (talk) 16:45, 16 June 2011 (UTC)

Streaming IMDB trailers

In checking out the videos linked in this Entertainment Desk question, I noticed the video control bar (play/pause, progress bar, full screen) has disappeared. Is this just a 'feature' of me using Win XP/IE8 today, rather then the Ubuntu/Firefox 3.6 combo I was using last week (which definitely had the control bar)? Astronaut (talk) 11:29, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

Way better: http://www.hd-trailers.net/ --71.252.212.231 (talk) 22:26, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

formatted hex printing in C++

I'm adapting a program of mine from C to C++. I'm not very familiar with the C++ standard library, and doing an unsigned short to hex string conversion is proving to be clumsier than I'd hoped.

In C I do:

 unsigned short val = 0xABCD;
 sprintf(str,"%04x",val);

So far in C++ I'm doing:

 unsigned short val = 0xABCD;
 stringstream ss;
 ss.width(4);
 ss.fill('0');
 ss << hex << val;
 // and then using ss.str()

That works, but it's verbose and it seems clumsy to construct (and then dispose of) a whole stringstream object just for this one trivial format operation. Is there a more straightforward way to achieve the same result? I know I could still call sprintf from cstring:: but I'd rather know how to do these things in C++ "properly". -- TinyLittleRobot (talk) 13:15, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

You could use (boost::format("%04x")%val).str() which uses the string format library from the Boost C++ Libraries. That does still create a temporary object in the process. -- Finlay McWalter ☻ Talk 14:35, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

Timing Music on PowerPoint

Hello. How would I time on PowerPoint the Jeopardy theme song for one minute after I click for the question to appear? Thanks in advance. --Mayfare (talk) 13:47, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

The easiest thing to do may be to get a 1 minute long sound clip, and set it as a sound effect for a custom animation (ie. set it to start playing automatically when the question/slide appears). See here and here. --Kateshortforbob _talk 09:54, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

google not indexing

hai I have a blog. Every day i have least one post. now i caught i problem that Google not addressing or adding my post to search for last one week. Why it so. How to resolve it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 117.201.252.30 (talk) 17:38, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

You can increase Google's spider index rate of your site with the Google Webmaster Tools service. --Mr.98 (talk) 20:40, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

(Only one) Computer from the network weeks disconnecting from internet and network.

One computer here, keeps disconnecting from the network and internet just to them connect again after some seconds. This doenst happens with the other things connected to the network (some notebooks). What can be the problem?

This computer uses XP and this mostly/usually happens with my brother, he is complaining about it. And sometimes when I use the pc this doenst happen. 201.78.196.240 (talk) 18:10, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

Bad router/switch or bad cable. --71.252.212.231 (talk) 22:25, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

It is isn't hardware, it is likely some virus/malware using up all network resources or changing the network settings to route all traffic through someone else's computer. -- kainaw™ 12:39, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Unless you have physical proof that the hardware is not the problem, don't rule it out. If multiple computers are sharing the same modem, router, etc. then try checking the ethernet card inside your computer. Also try running Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware --Nat682 (talk) 23:09, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

My 1st guess wouldn't be hardware or malware. Check the system event viewer on the computer, it might give you a clue what's happening. Is it connected with WIFI or network cable? If it is wifi, try connecting it with a cable even just temporarily to see if it still disconnects. Maybe there is an idle time out or something like that. Also, you can try giving the computer a static IP address, maybe there is an issue related to IP lease. Vespine (talk) 02:16, 15 June 2011 (UTC)

I am using windows xp, using AVG antivirus (made the check no virus) and I am using a network cable. Will try the static IP thing and malwarebytes scan.201.78.173.71 (talk) 03:34, 17 June 2011 (UTC)

Vista System Restore

Hi. I recently implemented the System Restore function after using software and certain registry changes to remove a fake software from my computer that was acting as a possible rootkit. However, after doing this, I found that none of my files saved on my computer are visible when trying to access them or when opening them using the actual format (e.g. MS Word or Paint). I know that my files are not deleted, because after the Restore function stated that my files have not been unaffected, I have been able to access all my files either by clicking on a recently opened file in the sidebar or typing in the file name manually. What is unusual is that the file history has been reverted back to the indicated date on the System Restore, yet all files created since then are still intact, even one I saved during the virus removal process. How can I restore the file entries so that they actually show up on my computer browser? I will try restarting the computer again, to see whether that helps. Thanks. ~AH1 ^(discuss!) 21:41, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

IT guy here. First, run TDSSKiller and Malwarebytes and clean everything. Restart when it asks and scan until there's nothing left. You had "Windows Recovery." Follow directions here on how to reverse it: http://blog.webroot.com/2011/05/19/rogue-of-the-week-windows-recovery/

Usually this comes into your computer because applications are out of date. To ensure you are always up to date I recommend Securina PSI to all my friends. It's free for home use and is used by many companies. Be sure that you are running a good antivirus, too. PrevX is a great free tool to alert you if it detects an infection (it won't remove it without money). You can then use MalwareBytes to remove it. I personally run (paid-for) PrevX at home on two computers. 71.252.212.231

In the future before attempting to fix something yourself I recommend you follow the directions and post on http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/. They are some of the best removers on the web, way better than I. If you still have any issues after this I recommend you post there. (talk) 22:30, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

Hi. First of all, how were you able to guess the malware-file I had? You were actually very close: I had "Windows Vista Restore", a very similar program that likely had the same root as the file you mentioned, but this version was actually updated today (v1.0.1 and v1.2.4). After changing some file display settings, the documents and images are now visible, but are an odd "faded" colour, usually only applicable to recovered files. I've already deleted several rogue files and scripts manually. One of the previous quick scans by MWB took two hours. Also, the Windows Restore virus came up when I was browsing a specific website (not porn). Should I report this website to StopBadware.org, or could the launch of this file be unrelated to the website? I also noticed also that instead of a file called "Windows_Vista_Restore.exe" in the RUN section of reg editor, as some anti-spyware sources claimed (try Google), there was actually a file called "SwPGbtLdJxoV", which I didn't realize until hours later was part of the virus-program. Additionally, the company producing this fake software claims to be "SecurePay, Inc". Finally, how quick in terms of response time are BleepingComputer forumers? Hopefully I'll be able to reverse the remaining effects; this is the second Vista-related attack on my computer in two months. Thanks. ~AH1 ^(discuss!) 22:56, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

Hiding the files and preventing you from changing the settings is a pretty signature move of that virus/malware. Unfortunately it's going to become much more common.

If quick scans are taking 2 hours then you do indeed have a rootkit. It may be TDSS or another. BleepingComputer would be the best to fix that for you.

The color is because they are still hidden. Go to your start menu, type in cmd.exe and right click on the result that comes up. Run as administrator. Run the following command: attrib -h "C:\*.*" /s /d

This will unhide them. --71.252.212.231 (talk) 01:07, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

download vedio from utube

I have a software for downloading utube vedios as (Xilisoft download youtube videos).I want to download lectures of a pakistani ,Pervez Hoodbhoy 45 Lectures ,most of which are on utube by the name as, Pervez Hoodbhoy 45 Lectures 1_2/45 ,Pervez Hoodbhoy 45 Lectures 1_3/45 ............. Pervez Hoodbhoy 45 Lectures 5_4/45. I want to download all such, lectures Pervez Hoodbhoy 45 Lectures *_*/45.Is their any procedure to do this by using a software( only one command ) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 119.152.81.9 (talk) 22:50, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

umph ¦ Reisio (talk) 16:38, 13 June 2011 (UTC)