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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2002-02-18

A Free Email Newsletter from Fred Langa
That Helps You Get More From Your Hardware, 
Software, and Time Online

Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!

1) The $77 PC

Sometimes, an ultra-cheap, generic PC is just the right tool for the job.

Not always, of course: I'm writing this article on a major-brand PC, for example, and I wouldn't want to do it any other way. I use this PC heavily and run some hair-raisingly complex tasks on it. I simply don't have time to fool around with a balky system, and I can't afford to lose work through avoidable system problems or unanticipated downtime.

But there are special circumstances where a no-name, generic, "white box" system can be a better--- and far less expensive--- alternative.

Example: I recently had to replace my office LAN's file/print/Internet-access+filewall server. These are light-duty tasks that hardly strain a system at all, and so don't require exotic hardware.

I ended up buying a "barebones" PC kit, although calling it a kit seems silly: The only required fundamental assembly was dropping the CPU into its socket and snapping in a stick of RAM. Beyond that, I also added the normal components--- a hard drive, network cards, and so on--- but the total hardware assembly time was still only about 20 minutes.

The core system--- case, power supply, and motherboard with integrated USB, audio and AGP video--- cost just $77! The complete basic box--- including 128MB of RAM, a 1GHz Celeron chip with heat sink and cooling fan; plus mouse and keyboard--- cost only $270.

In fact, when I was completely done, I had a fast, solid, reliable server system for about $150 less than the cost of a roughly equivalent pre-built system (like the Gateway 910C Server, which costs $500). In other words, those 20 minutes of very simple screwdriver work saved me $150--- not a bad ROI at all.

(And if you're thinking "I can't assemble a PC!" you need to know that today's PCs are so modular, they go together amazingly simply, with no exotic tools or knowledge needed. In fact, if you ever played with an Erector Set as a kid, you already have all the basic skills needed to put together a PC. Honest!)

As I shopped for my system, I also found other incredible bargains on brand-new equipment--- floppy drives for $5, 20GB hard drives for $55, keyboards for $5, video cards for $10, sound cards for $5, and more.

It's a lot of info, and so--- as usual with topics too long and complex to fit in an email newsletter--- I packaged it all as an InformationWeek.Com article.

There, I'll show you how I decide whether a generic PC or a major-brand system is the best fit for a given job; plus where to get components at rock-bottom prices. I'll also explain how I handle hardware changes in my office, and how I set up the simple print/file/access server and firewall.

Please come check out the article at http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020214S0003 and then join in the discussion: What's your experience with purpose-built generic or kit PCs? If you've been involved in building custom PCs, where are the best places for parts and information? What's the lowest-cost system you built or know of? What's most elaborate and powerful? Let's pool our knowledge!

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2) Comcast Snoops, Repents

With the demise of the @home broadband network, many other ISPs, including broadband giant Comcast, picked up boatloads of e-refugees who were seeking a new online home. Apparently, Comcast saw an slightly shady opportunity in this new traffic, as was reported last week (thanks to reader John Darts, who was first with the "heads up"):

Comcast Tracks Users' Web Browsing

By TED BRIDIS WASHINGTON (AP) - Comcast Corp., the nation's third-largest cable company, has started recording the Web browsing activities of each of its 1 million high-speed Internet subscribers without notifying them of the change.

Comcast acknowledged Tuesday that it is recording which Web pages each customer visits as part of a technology overhaul that it hopes will save money and speed up its network, but which was not intended to infringe on privacy.

Outside experts - including the vendor whose powerful software Comcast is using - said Comcast is recording more information about the online activities of customers than is necessary for the technology enhancements....

Full story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5567-2002Feb13.html

See also:
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-836881.html

Fortunately, the bad publicity caused Comcast to rethink its policies, and the company now says is won't be so aggressive about tracking user activities.

Of course, Comcast was caught--- there may be other ISPs doing exactly the same thing who have not yet been caught at it. There's no easy way to tell, from the users' end of the connection.

All of which goes to show that you can't let your guard down, ever, when it comes to online activities. Sigh.

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3) Startup Screen Mods for Win98 + XP

It's been a well-known and popular Win98 tweak for years--- you can change the initial "flying windows" logo screen to be whatever you want. You can do it manually, or via automated tools: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=win98+startup+screen

But reader "Stephen" asked "Is there any way to change the theme and the welcome screen in Windows XP Home (other than the three colors microsoft includes)?"

There too, you can do it manually or via tools. In XP, it's called the "Logon UI" rather than the "startup screen," and you can see how to change it via this search: http://www.google.com/search?q=logonui . But many people still use the older, Win98-naming convention in XP, so this related search may also help: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=xp+startup+screen

And the folks at TweakXP have their own way of doing it, too: http://www.tweakxp.com/tweakxp/display.asp?id=753

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4) Bumper Crop Of Scumware

Two years back, it was email worms--- new ones cropped up every week or two. This year, it's scumware that's popping up everywhere (see http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=scumware&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000 ).

Reader Paul Verizzo was first to point out this particular nasty:

Google Down on Pop-Up Sneaks

Search for "moving" on Google, and you may be surprised to find your results covered by a pop-up ad for MonsterMoving.com. Has Google, which prides itself on its advertising policy, finally succumbed to the pop-up craze?

No –- it's FlashTrack, the latest in a line of "scumware" programs unsuspecting surfers are being tricked into installing on their PCs.

"People have been e-mailing us about this program, because it puts an ad up after someone performs a specific search. They think it's coming from us," said Google software engineer Matt Cutts. "If a webmaster wants to run pop-ups on their own site, great. But we object to having them put it in front of ours."

Google, which claims it doesn't accept pop-ups, isn't the only target. FlashTrack's website boasts that the program monitors queries on 27 search engines, in over 50 languages ranging from Afrikaans to Vietnamese, performed by users who have downloaded it, and pops-up ads targeted to specific search terms.

The company's brochures claim three million users have FlashTrack installed, but even tech-savvy users are unsure when and how it got on their PCs. In the past, similar programs have been bundled with file-sharing applications, such as BearShare and Audio Galaxy. ...

Full story: http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,50264,00.html

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5) More Password Revealers/Retreivers

Thanks, Debbie. Snadboy is actually a "password revealer;" a type of software that looks behind the asterisks that some forms use to hide passwords: Snadboy and similar tools turn the asterisks back into plain text, so you can see the password again.

Snadboy is an old, old tool, but here's one site with an active copy: http://www.superdownloads.com.br/download/i6863.html

Many similar tools can be found at http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=password+revealer

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6) Is This Information Useful?

If you think the LangaList is a worthwhile read, maybe a friend would find it useful too! Just use the following link to recommend the LangaList---your friend may find a new source of useful information and you just may win $10,000 for your trouble (full details also available via this link):

http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=143182

Or, win a no-strings $30 Gift Certificate for any item at Amazon.Com--- books, software, hardware, kitchenware, toys... and more. (Full details also available via this link): http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm

Either way, thank you, and good luck!

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7) Identifying Mysterious "Services"

Ah, serendipity! <g> Every once in a while, the same batch of email delivers an interesting question from one reader, along with an interesting answer from another. Like this:

Thanks Donald. The "Blkviper" site is somewhat hacker-esque, but it contains a lot of useful info and is worth a look.

Incidentally, as we've discussed before, a Google web or Usenet search often can turn up information about mysterious-seeming Windows processes.

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8) More Reader Sites!

Do you have a home page or website? (It doesn't matter what size.) Please click over to http://www.langa.com/code.htm , and maybe you can join the hundreds and hundreds of LangaList readers who have "Loaded the Code!" (If you've already "Loaded The Code" and are wondering if your site will appear here or on the Langa.Com web site, please see http://www.langa.com/link.txt )

Speaking of which: Here's another eclectic sample of reader sites--- some professional, some very personal:

View A Randomly-Chosen Reader Site From Among All Listed
http://www.langa.com/randomlink.htm

Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites Starting At
http://www.langa.com/readersites.htm

All Quake, All the Time
http://www.unoti.homestead.com/Quake2.html

Parental Web Guidance
http://www.licia.org/commun06.htm

Fawlty Towers Tribute Site
http://www.fawltytowers.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

America's Attic Antiques
http://aaantiques.com/

Homepage Peter Hegi
http://www.phegi.com/

Ron Sells Houses (SC)
http://ronsellshouses.com/

Mole Valley Sun Aqua Club
http://www.mvsac.org.uk/

New Mexico
http://www.baregrass.com/home.html

Personal/Blog Site
http://cheeaun01.pages.bluehyppo.com/

WIN 95 and 98 Support
http://www.cwdixon.com/support/win98_support/

Looking For Cheap web Hosting?
http://www.cheapwebhosting.ws/

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9) Windows Update Woes

The Windows Update site has been funky of late--- it's been up and down, and Microsoft also released and then almost immediately had to withdraw a major patch when it become clear it contained flaws.

There are other problems, too:

Hi Fred. A quick heads-up over more potential problems from the Windows Update site. A recent visit there left me with the wrong disk controller driver and no Rom burner... and a salutary lesson.

The details On a recent visit to the update site I found, to my surprise, two new items had appeared in the device drivers section. (For the record, I'm running Win 98SE.) The first was labeled "Intel Corporation - Storage" and was described as an "Intel Hdc Driver." The second driver, labeled as "IBM - Input Devices" was described as an "Ibm (sic!) Hid Driver."

After selecting and downloading both, the subsequent automatic install seemed to go smoothly. I rebooted as requested... only to find the system no longer recognised my CD-RW unit. Oooops. Dive into the Device Manager and, sure enough, there's bright yellow icons next to my hard disk controllers. Both primary and secondary ATA controllers are having driver problems. I'm not surprised because my machine happens to have IDE drives. PnP had fouled up.

Problem was so had I. I didn't know exactly *which* IDE driver was required, and I didn't relish the prospect of playing trial and error with my hard disk controller.

So what to do now? After several false starts, the answer turned out to be to go *back* to the Windows Update site, to the Products Update page and click the "show installed updates" button. Sure enough, there was an "uninstall" option beside one of the offending updates. I accepted it, the process ran, I rebooted as requested and lo, my CD-RW was back and both - yes, both updates were gone. V. strange.

The lesson Not all Windows updates are uninstallable. If this one had not been, I'd have been in a worse mess than the one Microsoft dropped me in. If I'd had a full system report, such as generated by programs like SiSandra http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-12-17.htm#9..., I'd have known exactly which disk controller drivers to re-install and could have got myself out of the mess without needing windows update.

Meanwhile, windows update is misidentifying some of its updates and offering inappropriate drivers for at least some machines... Cheers, Gary Ross

Thanks, Gary. Software "Wizards" always make me a little nervous. In fact, I tend to be suspicious of any software that acts like a black box--- performing tasks in ways you can't verify or pre-validate.

But having good roll-back or backup software ( http://www.langa.com/backups/backups.htm ) can alleviate much of the worry. Even if the Wizard totally munges your system, you can get back to where you were before.

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10) Just For Grins

Writing from Australia, reader "Richard" sends along this "Tale of Blood-Curdling Terror." (Python fans may detect just a whiff of "Dead Parrot" in the air... <g>)

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11) Plus! Edition Highlights

• Plus! Edition DataBase Update
• Create, Edit And Securely Transmit PDF Files--- For Free
• Non-Microsoft Source For Windows Updates

Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains all ten items above, plus about 30% more content including: Information on a major update to the Plus subscriber database, and info on how Plus readers can select among the various versions of the Plus newsletter--- including an HTML version and an ultra-compact digest version; free tools that let you create, edit, encrypt and transmit PDF files; and an interesting third-party resource that lists all the available patches for all versions of Windows, with links to each patch for easy downloading.

The Plus! Edition costs literally just pennies per issue. Info: http://www.langa.com/plus.htm 

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See you next issue!

Best,
Fred

(fred@langa.com)

Please recommend the LangaList to a friend! (And maybe win $10,000!I)

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