NAS update

Having tried pretty much every trick I can find on forums for kick-starting my NAS, it still refuses to work properly. This is one of the more disappointing aspects of eBay buying - if you need support for a product like this, it can be a frustrating experience. The vendor has been helpful and supplied a link that was used by him when he first started up the NAS, so I will follow that up probably later today.
The error I am getting may be a hardware issue - so I am now wondering if, although the three hard-drives I have put in the NAS are recognised by the system, whether it will only actually be able to format certain drives that are on the list of recommended drives for this equipment.
More to follow, fingers crossed and all that...

NAS update

I was pretty sure from the start that the NAS I bought from eBay would not be straightforward to set up, and in that sense it has lived up to expectations. As soon as I started it up, it went into alarm function because it had detected that the data on the drives was not there. To compound the problem, the software I downloaded for controlling the NAS could not 'see' it on the network.
I have now got to the stage where it is visible and have finally discovered the 'reset' button - unfortunately I now need to force the firmware onto the system before I can get any further and I got a bit stuck at this stage.
I will 'open negotiations' with it again sometime this week and see if I can force the update (may be easier now I have found the reset button) - I have been relying on forums for instructions on how to resolve the issue, but have still got a little way to go. I'm not really sure where I go from here if I can't get it working, but there is a support phone number, so I may try that if I get really desperate....

Network Attached Storage

I finally bought myself a NAS (OK it's the second one I have bought, but the first one was rubbish! so this time I went for a proper brand-name system). It is second hand and winging it's way to me from eBay as I write...

I went for a Buffalo Terastation in the end as I found a reasonably-priced one, but would have liked a Netgear Readynas if they didn't command such high prices. The Terastation I have bought is supposedly in good working order but has no disks, which is perfect for me as I have a bunch of disks that I want to put into it. I now need to recover any of the data that I might want from these disks before the NAS arrives, that way I can start with blank disks and use the NAS as my future storage system.

I think it will take me a while to set it up especially as I will have to download all the software for it before I can start using it - I think I will use the default 'RAID5' setting, that way each disk has a partition set aside for recovery purposes - if any one of the four disks fail, the other disks will have sufficient back-up to be able to repopulate a new disk with all the lost data - neat huh?

I paid £65 (free postage) for the NAS by taking the 'buy-it-now' option on an auction that would have otherwise started at £45 - the trouble is once the bidding starts, I figured it would go for more than £65 anyway, so bit the bullet and shelled out some of my hard-earned PayPal fund... Having done a few cassette to CD conversions recently and had income from some other online sources, I think this will be going down as one of my many 'business expenses' in this tax year.

I will be sure to post an update once I have been able to get the thing up and running and give it a bit of a road-test. I am hoping I will discover some great features to make use of once I start to explore what it can do...

Update on Virgin Media

I mentioned my problems and eventual success in getting a new deal from Virgin Media in a previous post:
http://www.munny4hunny.com/2014/01/getting-better-deal-from-virgin-media.html
Well the other day, I had a survey arrive by email for me to rate Virgin Media on their level of service. I took full advantage of this to let them now firstly how disappointed I was after learning that my original call had been a complete waste of time, and secondly how the situation had been rescued on the second call (which I should really have not needed to make).

I submitted the survey yesterday and am wondering if it will get a response - I will be very interested to see if they will respond, and I will be sure to post any news here...

Getting a better deal from Virgin Media

Over the New Year I decided to tackle Virgin Media and get a better deal for the telephone and broadband package that we have. I was paying around £41 a month plus a few extra pounds for calls that weren't covered by the plan, averaging around £46 per month in total.
Checking out the deals for new customers revealed that I should really be paying about £10 less AND be furnished with a new Wi-Fi router.....so... having already been told that the only way I could get the router was to 'upgrade' for another £8 per month, I decided to grit my teeth call them up and push for a better deal.
Sadly, with Virgin, you HAVE to push them to the point of leaving before you get what you want. the first task is to get beyond the first customer representative and get put onto the section that deals with people that are threatening to take their business elsewhere - this is where it pays to have done some research.
The first time I called it was a relatively short call (I hadn't done my research) and I was basically fobbed off with 'there's nothing we can do'. The next time I was prepared with the following: I am paying £41 per month, if I joined as a new customer I would get the same deal (with 'bigger' broadband) AND a free Wi-Fi router for £10 less per month (ignoring short-term deals). If I switched to Tesco broadband, I could get it for £15 less - why am I paying £41 a month?? - this became my much-repeated mantra 'why am I paying so much more than I need to?'.
We went through the same role-play, she telling me I could upgrade for £8 a month and me explaining that £8 a month is even MORE that the £10 a month I am ALREADY paying over the odds.... Eventually I began to break her down, and she started saying, well of course if you leave, you can't re-join for 6 months... well, I can save myself nearly £100 in 6 months by switching to Tesco, so let's see what the disconnections department can do for me shall we? I am put on hold...eventually I speak to a young gent who listens to my tale:
Him - what is it I would like?
Me - I would like the free router please
Him - OK, it will be with you in 3-5 days
Me - OK that's great
Him - is there anything else I can do?
Me - Yes, you can reduce my bill to closer to £30 a month please
Him - after a bit of mumbling about 'applying the discounts' promises a new monthly bill of £32 a month
Sorted - or is it??
11 days pass and no sign of a router... I ring once more and get put through to a young man who is surprised at the offer I was given as he has notes that reflect a very different conversation that I was supposed to have had 11 days previously. His records show that I was offered an £8 upgrade and a £50 installation fee (at no point has anyone mentioned this £50 fee) - and there was no indication of me being sent a router or having a reduction in my bill... I am now pretty shocked to hear this and do my best to convey this without completely losing my rag... I get put through to 'Customer Service' which makes me think 'who was I talking to then if it wasn't customer service??'. Customer Service gets a quick appraisal of exactly how upset I am about the whole scenario - I am at pains to point out that I am really not very happy, which is in complete contrast to how I felt 11 days previously after my supposed triumphant negotiations... To be honest the new guy on the end of the phone doesn't sound anywhere near as shocked as I would hope him to sound and proceeds to go through the process again. I am becoming 'difficult' as I really want him to acknowledge how badly I feel let down - he ploughs on and I realise he is going to try to put things right, so I calm down a bit and we go through my bills step-by-step and eventually after a bit of tweaking 'products' and 'discounts', we eventually come up with a new monthly bill of £33, and a free router. The router duly arrived three days later as agreed, and so far has been fine although I did need to ring technical support to get it up and running as initially it didn't want to connect to the internet.
Martin Lewis of MoneysavingExpert says you have to negotiate tough with Virgin Media and he is right - know what you want, and know what the price would be if you went to a competitor and you should (eventually) get what you want...

update

It's a while since I updated and I am still really busy with the day-job, it's been pretty relentless for just about 2 years now. I am quoting for a regular cassette to digital job at the moment, it could possibly provide a small regular supplementary income - we'll see how that pans out...
I am still looking to reinstate everything since my two PC's packed up over Christmas, we are definitely back and working now, it's just a case of making sure the old software still works on the new operating system and all the backup files are reinstated - I still have yet to start backing up the new stuff yet, but am still waiting to find a suitable housing for 1.5TB of 'spare' hard disks that I now have and plan to use as backup.. I really want a NAS, but they are not cheap, so will have to sell some stuff on eBay first - I have quite a bit of stuff to flog off, but I have been tardy in getting it listed. I am happy enough with the current Windows 7 set-up, but am aware that I should probably think about getting a motherboard that can take more RAM to get the best out of the 64 bit operating system - can't see how I can get it without spending a couple of hundred pounds though, so not going to happen imminently...
The new Virgin router is working well, I am hoping to see the benefit of our newly negotiated monthly charges kicking in next month- have also signed up to a new energy tariff - actually turned out to be lower monthly payments which was a surprise.
So all-in-all everything is looking pretty good at the moment although I am aware that I have not kept my earnings spreadsheet up to date and the end of the tax year is a comfortable distance but will no doubt be looming large soon enough...!

Windows Live

Having suffered errors with my two home PC's running XP for quite a while now, a couple of fatal errors occurred in Christmas week. A hard-drive crashed on one PC, and I think the other has had a motherboard failure.


I had been looking at buying a copy of Windows 7 and spotted a bargain offer online for Windows 7 professional, an unused 'Dell' OEM copy - I took the plunge and bought it and spent the Christmas Holidays building one working PC from the two broken ones...


I have to say I am pretty happy with the resulting set-up, Windows runs a lot more reliably now although I am limited to 4GB with the motherboard that I have, so will be looking at a complete rebuild at some point.. I often can be found nagging about backups, and fortunately pretty much everything was properly backed up and even more fortunately a lot of the XP 32 bit software seems to run OK on Windows 7 64 bit (which is more than I expected).


One thing is missing though... Outlook express used to come as standard on Windows XP, so I had to sign up to Windows Live to get the same kind of email client, but it also came with 'Sky Drive', Movie Maker and 'Family Safety' which I have signed up for. Sky Drive (I imagine) will be pretty similar to DropBox (which I already have) but comes with 7GB of free space which I am sure will come in handy.. I have installed the app on my phone but have yet to actually upload any files.


I now seem to have rather a lot of spare hard-drives, so am thinking (again) about a NAS (network attached storage) system, but I am waiting for a new Wi-Fi router to be sent to me from Virgin Media, so I think I will wait to see what features it offers first. Right now I have two hard-drives in my cobbled-together working PC (160GB and 300GB) I have four back-up drives 160GB, 250GB, and 2 x 400GB and two drives from the other (non-working) PC, 1TB and 500GB. I really want to make the most of these, but am not exactly sure of the best way to go about it - I am thinking maybe a 4-bay NAS for the 2 x 400, the 1TB and the 500GB drives, then keep the other drives as USB drives attached to the NAS. As I say, I am waiting for a new router to arrive any day now, when it arrives, I will be blogging about how I got it and reduced my broadband and phone payments by £10 a month at the same time.

Google Cloud Print

The way we are using computers is changing with the advent of the tablet, and finding ways of using a tablet for previously PC-based tasks will ensure that the PC will soon become a thing of the past.
Right now, we are having a torrid time with the two PC's I have at home, but now we are replete with Android phones, I have being looking at ways to get more use out of the Android devices. Luckily I also have a laptop to fall back on, and the laptop is fulfilling all the PC tasks at the moment as the PC's are really on their last legs.
So, the latest task I have been soring out is printing from the Android device... and happily discovered Google Cloud Print. However you will need a working PC unless you have a wi-fi or cloud-enabled printer to use this service.
How it works:
You register your printer using your Google account on your PC/laptop (Google Chrome settings/ Advanced Settings), then download the cloud print app to your device - run it and select the printer and you should be ready to go... The setup prints out a test page for you and from then on when you select 'print' from a document, picture or website on your phone or tablet, you will be able to print on your home printer (you will need the PC to be logged into your Google Account in order for this to work).
One more arrow through the heart of the PC, one step closer to domination by touch-screen devices!
I am now considering upgrading just one of my two home PC's - replacing the second PC with a tablet - and keeping the laptop for emergencies.

hard drive eraser software

I have bought many a hard-drive from eBay for my own computers and those of friends/family that I have repaired. Buying hard-drives in this manner is all very well and can save you a lot of money, however, previously used hard-drives need to be treated with caution. There are a couple of essential steps that should always be carried out if you are planning to re-use a drive from someone else's computer:

At the very least use a decent anti-virus and anti-malware software to scan for unwanted files, but ideally, get yourself some decent hard drive eraser software and wipe the drive clean of anything that was previously there. Now I don't really want to get into details, but suffice to say that if the previous owner of the hard-drive downloaded anything that they shouldn't have, simply reformatting the drive DOES NOT erase all trace of the previous files - it simply assigns the space as 'available' - A thorough search of the data remaining on the drive AFTER formatting will uncover most of the previous owners files. Hard drive eraser software will overwrite the previous data, and therefore actually delete it from the hard-drive.

Computer Issues

Had a very frustrating weekend with my sister-in-laws computer... fitted the new motherboard and couldn't get it to start up - messed around with the board re-setting jumpers where I thought they needed to be... no joy - took the board out of the computer again and rigged it up (in case the board was 'shorting' in the case).. no joy - reset the jumpers to where they were when the board arrived.... finally started up!
Phew, should be all plain sailing now... set the BIOS to load from the CDROM, started the system ready to load Windows.... starts to load, then just hangs doing nothing - tried this about a dozen times on Saturday - nothing doing...
Looked around in the loft for my box of PC spares (really should throw some of this stuff out) had an idea that the CD drive might be the problem (have seen this once before) - pulled one of about 6 spare CD drives out of the box - fitted it onto the motherboard - hey presto - starts to load Windows without stalling!!
I really thought that this was going to be straightforward having had quite a lot of experience with loading operating systems onto laptops when I was going through my laptop refurbishment stage (money making idea that doesn't actually make much money!). Think again... PC installations can cost you hours of time even if you are relatively experienced...
Anyway, I thought I'd share my experiences in case it helps anybody - the upshot is that now I have brought the box of PC spares out of the loft, I will work my way through them and see what bits can be discarded. I even brought down an old CRT screen, plugged it in and it worked fine for 3 minutes after which it faded into oblivion never to return, so that's going straight down the tip next week!

Saturday

A busy day ahead - today I am fixing my sister-in-laws computer. The motherboard has died and I bought a replacement on eBay - annoyingly it was advertised as 'new-other' - turns out it's more 'other' than 'new' as it has clearly been well and truly used. On the upside it came with a spare processor and memory, and considering the price of the total package (30EUR), it's a pretty excellent bargain. I reckon I may be able to sell the processor and a spare stick of memory) adds time to the process because I will need to show that they are working...
After the usual frustrating prodding and poking of the replacement motherboard, I managed to get the thing running - seems like the operating system won't load from the original hard-drive, so I am wiping the drive and will install XP pro (was originally Vista) - I expect more frustrations along the way, as these jobs are rarely straightforward, but with the experience of repairing plenty of laptops, I am relatively relaxed about it. If all else fails, I will just split the computer up into it's component parts and flog it on eBay....but hopefully it won't come to that - I still find it very satisfying to complete a fresh operating system install.

The hard-drive wipe (done with 'BCWIPE' free software) has two hours remaining of the 12 that it takes to do a 'standard' wipe of all free space (already formatted the drive). I am doing this by attaching the drive via USB to another computer.

I also have to take my daughter to an all-day choir event, and then squeeze in a game of football and a visit to the library....

Windows 8 - what's all the fuss about?

You will have heard by now (surely?) that MS are on the verge of launching their latest version of Windows - and there is some good news for all concerned. Here's a few Q & A's:

How will it differ from previous versions? 

Well firstly, Windows 8 is just a working title, it may come out with a different name - but in essence this will be a platform geared towards touch-screen technology. Initial reports indicate that this platform will be quite 'light' and therefore may be suitable for older systems to upgrade to... talking of which..

How much will it cost? 

From initial reports it looks as if there will be a special upgrade version available for a reported $40 ($15 if you have recently bought a Windows 7 machine), and the upgrade apparently goes all the way back to XP - which is good news for a huge section of the population who never liked Vista, and didn't see the point of Windows 7 (including me...).

When can I get it?

No official release date is yet available - but news can be expected in September, it is DEFINITELY intended for release in 2012...

eBay trading

On the whole eBay is a great place to get a bargain (and to spend your hard-won internet earnings) but sometimes eBay throws up an anomoly. I have noticed that when looking for computers on eBay, unlike with desktops (which you can hardly give away), laptops fetch silly prices.
Even the lowest spec broken rubbish laptops seem to go for a minimum of £100. My advice is to be careful about bidding for laptops on eBay, to get anything half-decent will cost you as there seems to be a lot of people prepared to bid way over the odds. Bear in mind that with a laptop, you will need all the drivers if you are going to re-install the operating system - the drivers for laptops seem to be a lot less 'standard' than for desktops particularly drivers for wi-fi etc.. Also bear in mind that changing a motherboard or processor in a laptop is not a job for the faint-hearted. If you are bidding on a laptop that is not working, you have to bear in mind that if the processor has burnt out, you are probably wasting your money. At least with a desktop you can simply fit a new one.
Laptops are limited in every respect apart from portability, for instance your laptop will be slower, have less memory capacity and a smaller hard-drive than the equivalent costing desktop. It is far more likely to have significant damage after the first year or so, frequently laptops are sold with broken keypads, broken screens - often they are sold as seen as the owner can't even get them to boot up, but yet there are apparently plenty of bidders who are willing to take a massive risk.
That said, I still want one, and I will probably use eBay to get it unless I get lucky and can find someone who has a laptop to get rid of.

Free software alert!

I am always on the lookout for free software, and think I have found another winner!
'LogMeIn' provides a free service for remote access to a PC, for instance, so that you can access your home PC from work, or your work PC from home (assuming you have permission from work to do either of these things..).
In the past I have used Radmin and have been very pleased with the results - however you have to pay for each new PC you add to your Radmin account. This rivals the service 'GoToMyPC' which charges quite a steep monthly fee (in my estimation).

When you sign up for 'LogMeIn' (www.logmein.com), the PC's you add will automatically be assigned to a free trial (30 day) of LogMeIn Pro. However, at the end of the trial, I am assured that these will revert to LogMeIn Free if I choose not to purchase a licence for the Pro version.
The Pro version offers file transfer and other features which I do not think I will need, so I fully intend to let my account become downgraded to the free version - I will post again about any short-falls I detect in the Free version, but so far I am impressed with this free software.
I am particularly impressed with how easy it is to add PC's to your account. With Radmin I had to set port forwarding on my router, no such issues with LogMeIn - just download the software onto the PC you want to be connected to remotely (even if it's on a network) - it's that simple....should I be worried about that??

February 2014 - update about LogMeIn free service

Virus and Malware problems

I run a fairly tight ship when it comes to the PC's that I use on a regular basis - I have regular use of two laptops and two desktops, and they all have plenty of applications to fight 'nasties'. I have noticed recently that a lot of friends and colleagues are reporting viruses, particularly of the kind that pose as anti-virus, tell you that your computer is infected before offering to remove the infection if you hand over your credit card details...
I really hate this type of enterprise, so I thought I would share some knowledge on how to combat it.
First of all, get yourself some great free anti-virus/anti-malware software you can use either:
'AVG Free' or 'Microsoft Security essentials', both of these self-update and run scheduled scans, but MSE gives wider cover for Malware - since the last AVG update, the two applications no longer run on the same machine (shame on AVG for adding that 'tweak' to their latest version...)
I would recommend a belt and braces approach by also downloading Malware Bytes (MBAM) - you have to update and run this one manually, but it is extremely effective at ridding your PC of nasties.
The problem with 'clever' malware, is that they are able to disable your existing antivirus, and won't let you download anything or run MBAM - so what do you do now???
All is not lost, there are two courses of action, Firstly download the latest copy of MacAfee 'Stinger' onto a memory stick using a separate PC, run this on the infected PC. If the malware does not stop it in it's tracks, it will find any dodgy stuff and you can opt to delete the files. Job done...
Some malware will 'know' to stop Stinger from working, so there is another option...
Visit the 'bleeping computer' forum and download 'Rkill' - in all it's seven formats. Rkill will attempt to halt the 'processes' that the malware uses, meaning you can now run MBAM, MSE AVG or any other previously affected anti-virus. Please note that it does NOT make any changes whatsoever to your computer setup - your anti-virus must do that, if you restart your computer, the virus will reappear if you did nothing to remove it.
Rkill comes in many guises in order to fool the malware into thinking is is not 'Rkill' - if the standard Rkill.exe file does not work, there are more versions of the same thing with different names, some of which are named to look like common PC files like 'iexplore.exe'.
If all this is new to you, then use a search engine to search out any of the software files below that you don't have - store them somewhere and every so often update them with the latest versions:

• RKILL - bleeping computer.com
• STINGER - MacAfee
• MSE - Microsoft
• AVG FREE - AVG
• MBAM - Malware Bytes

Once you have this lot in your arsenal, you will be well-equipped for any attack of the 'nasties' - you could even fix PC's for your mates too.

Home Network

Home PC systems and networks are now about as complex as business systems of just a few years ago. Our systems are networked, mostly via wireless networks, not only including PCs and laptops, but also integrating gaming and entertainment devices.

Most of these devices do not demand an individual network server with dedicated operating system, yet servers may take much of the strain of a home system in the future, removing much of the computational stress from the individual components of the complete home entertainment network.

I can see a future where a house could have anything from a single 1U server tucked away under the stairs, to a complete 'clean room' with stacked servers like something from a Sci-Fi set. The future of home computers and how they will finally merge into a complete home entertainment system is still being formed.

Oooops!

The picture here is my printer scanner in bits... stupid thought he would print off some sticky labels even though one of the labels wasn't properly affixed to the paper.. within seconds it was not attached to the paper at all, but it was well and truly attached to the inner workings of my printer!

Quite prepared to chuck the thing if my 'repair' didn't work, I set about the printer with my screwdriver and a certain amount of misgivings.. After about 10 minutes or so, with about a dozen screws lying around my feet, I finally removed the paper, but not before inadvertently removing a ribbon cable that did not look like it was going to easily slot back into place..

I battled with the ribbon cable eventually forcing it home, gathered up my screws and put it all back together again. it's a testament to Hewlett Packard that the whole thing went nicely back together, and worked! Hats off to HP, not all manufacturers are bothered about making repairable goods nowadays, and although HP did not exactly make it easy for me, a bit of determination and invention was all it took to correct my stupidity, now where did I put the rest of those sticky labels....?

Backup update

Well, it's just as well that I have my backup system in place as my main hard-drive has disappeared from 'My Computer' today... I have one 500GB SATA drive on one of my PC's which holds the data files from my cassette to CD conversions. This is no longer showing, but fortunately everything is backed up using my new system, so I am not too concerned.

There is every chance that the power cable has come out as the SATA cables on this system have a tendency to drop out, and yesterday I disconnected a floppy drive - I am assuming that I have been a bit clumsy during this process... I don't have to worry either way as I am quite safe in the knowledge that I have lost no data (as long as nothing has gone wrong with my backup drives!).

New backup system

I mentioned some time ago about some great free (for home use) software by '2 bright sparks' called 'Syncback' - a really excellent backup/synchronise utility. Originally I used it with a small (160GB) external drive that I bought, but inevitably I have outgrown this and the other 250GB drive that I have.

I tried a cheap NAS (Network attached storage) system, but it proved unreliable, so I now have another external drive, this time a 'dual' caddy with 2 x 400GB hard drives installed. (400GB seem to be better value on eBay, probably because people do not search for them so much!). The new caddy (which has a built in fan) seems a little noisy, so I have devised a cunning new system...

I have two PC's in my home office which are 'semi-networked', one of them has the older 160 GB drive and 250GB drive attached, the other has the newer 800 GB device, a total of 1.2TB... (purely for backup). I have all of these drives plugged into a multi-plug which has a timer set to come on just for four hours every day. I have timed my backups to take place within this time-frame, so that I am not powering up these external devices unnecessarily. I was telling someone last week how many sockets were in use in my home office - it came to a total of 16 sockets to run two PC's and associated devices, and another 6 for the sound system....

Every so often I change the plugs and sockets around a bit, but one day I plan to have a system that will make it easy for me to switch off devices that are not needed all the time in order to save a little electricity.

Google Chrome

I like to keep Munny4Hunny readers informed of internet relates issues and software, and having long championed the Firefox cause, I can report that I have had my head turned by Google Chrome.

This browser is great to use, has some really smart features and is noticeably faster that other browsers I have used. I love the 'open a new tab' feature that opens with snapshots of recently browsed pages, more often than not, you click on a snapshot rather than having to finding it in 'favourites' or typing a URL. I haven't gone a bundle on add-ons in Firefox, but have already installed two add-ons into Chrome - I have one that checks my googlemail for me, and even pops up a little preview of emails as they arrive... and another that gives an instant SEO overview of the page I am viewing.

I have been using Chrome for about a week, but although I haven't actually marked it as my default browser, I think it won't be long before I do...