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The LangaList
Standard Edition

2004-06-07

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) Cool And Quiet: Warm-Weather Follow-Up

In the three-part series, "Cool and Quiet" ( http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=18400732 ) we discussed fully nine elements of noise control for PCs. For as little as $10 or so, you can begin to make huge reductions in the cacophony of whines, whirs, and whooshes that normally emanates from most PCs. With just a little more work, and without spending a fortune, you can make your PC *amazingly* quiet!

It's not just a theory: Those first three articles also detailed the real-life steps I took to quiet my own PC; a new high-end 3.2GHz unit. By the time we finished, the system was:

...literally whisper-quiet, in the range of 30dB or less. In fact, when... I asked my wife to come into the office to gauge her reaction. I turned on some standard, unmodified PCs so she'd have a reference sound, and then turned them off and showed her the newly-quieted PC I'd been working on. It had been on the whole time she was in the room, and was literally at her feet; but she hadn't noticed that it was running--it was that quiet.

The new-found quietude didn't compromise the system cooling, as proved by a tortuous "burn test" detailed in Part Three (link above):

...my newly quieted system was actually better-cooled than it had been in its factory configuration: Even at steady, full, 100% output for an extended period, the system ran cooler than it previously had under some normal, everyday operations that were far less stressful than the artificial test.

But we ended the "Cool and Quiet" series with several lingering questions, not least of which involved ambient temperature: My original tests were done in late winter and early spring, when the room temperatures were in the 68-72F range (around 21C). However, my office is not air-conditioned and can sometimes reach temperatures well above 90F/32C in the summer. The obvious question: Would the system still stay acceptably cool when the room itself was very warm?

There were also several cooling options we'd left unexplored. On the exotic side, for example, there are cooling systems that use water as the working fluid. Because a given volume of water can carry far more heat than the same volume of air, this type of cooling has the potential to be very efficient. (That's why most cars are water-cooled, for example.) In water-based PC cooling, a pump circulates distilled water through a hollow metal cube mounted in place of the CPU's normal heat sink; the water absorbs heat from the CPU. The warmed water then is pumped through a small radiator, which dumps the heat outside the PC's case. The re-cooled water then circulates back to the CPU to pick up more heat.

Since that series ran, I've tried water-cooling and some other fan-based options as well. And, with the advent of warm weather, I've also been able to see how the system fared in summerlike conditions. I ended up making one major change to the setup, and I'm happy to report that my system is now even quieter and better cooled than it was at the end of the original "Cool and Quiet" articles!

It doesn't have to cost a lot, and it's probably easier than you think, to make your PC *very* cool and *very* quiet: Check out the updated info--- including my experiment with water cooling!--- live now (and free) at http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=21401323 .

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2) ZA5 Reactions From Readers---- and from ZoneLabs!

Several issues ago, I reported that I and others were having troubles with the new Zone Alarm 5; I suggested you wait before upgrading, so ZA could get the bugs out. Many of you then wrote in to share your experiences, pro and con:

Fred, The new ZoneAlarm works great on my computer. I use most of the same software you have, but with one exception. I do not use Norton antivirus. I use NOD 32. It is very simple to disable the AV feature. just check disable. I stopped using Norton when: I had System works (includes AV) and Antispam on my system and a virus infected my computer( I updated them daily). I downloaded Nod 32 and have had no further problems. eliminating the Norton programs really freed up a lot of resources. And is probably why Zone Alarm works flawlessly on my computer. The AV option does not work with NOD32 but I have not disabled it as it causes no problems. Thanks, Roger

Fred, have a little problem also with new version 5.0 from ZoneLabs. Here is some information from their web site that may help. http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/support/zap/generalFAQ.jsp Question 1 deals with McAffee problems. Also further down the page it gives information as to how to get the previous edition till they iron out the problems with the new edition. ---Dieter.

Hello Fred, I'm writing this email to let you know that after installing zonealarm 5 (the newest version) my high speed cable internet was limited to 2.6 Mbits instead of 4.5 Mbits.  After removing the new version and going back to the 4.X one the speed went back to normal!  You can add me to the list of unhappy users of the new zonealarm which IS becoming more complex and less useful! Thanks, [anonymous]

In addition to the problems that you outlined in yesterday's LangaList, I have had an other one: I'm not able to use IIS locally. This makes development very difficult since Visual Studio is not able to connect to a site, either. There are numerous complaints about this on the ZoneLabs? forums, too. I blogged this issue at: http://tinyurl.com/2cxbz . ---Rich

Fred, I installed version 5 of ZA a couple of weeks ago as an update and it has worked perfectly, to my knowledge, ever since.  I am using their MailSafe as well as Norton System Works 2003  on an XP system.  This has been one of the easiest upgrades of ZA ever for me as they usually cause me some kind of problem.  I think it was something about True Vector last time.  I wonder what the difference is? ---Joe Hahn

Fred: Your newsletter is often a lifesaver. The new ZA version unfortunately brought my computer ( Win XP Pro) to a shuddering halt ? IE 6.1 froze when accessing page links;  boot was reduced to a crawl; and CHKDSK, although scheduled did not run.  Reinstalled Ver. 4.5 and all was well again.  Regards, Michael

Hi Fred, I installed this latest ZoneAlarm Pro security update the other day and didn't think much about it.  I play an older multiplayer game online; Quake II.  Quake II has  a built-in graphical line condition display that shows ping spikes/lost packets. I found after installing ZoneAlarm's update that I was getting all kinds of ping spikes and lost packets while playing QII online, when normally I have an excellent connection. The game connection was perfect after shutting down ZA Pro.  I've never had to shut off ZA to play the game before; my multiplayer conditions were never affected by ZA.  ZA Pro's security update includes a couple of new features, one of which is Antivirus monitoring.  That's turned on by default. I turned it off and tried the game again with ZA Pro running.  No good.Turned off ZA Pro and the game was fine again. Rebooted and experimented as above with no changes.  ZA Pro was hampering my multiplayer gaming making it unplayable (several times when framerates would just stop momentarily). So, looks like I'm going to have to shut the protection off before playing the game now, which is unfortunate. ---Rick Buser

Hi Fred, I too have used Zone Alarm Pro for quite some time, unfortunately, I downloaded the latest version, version 5. It would not let me browse and would hang up my computer and would not let me end the program, so I was force to turn the power off. I contacted my ISP (AOL) and they had me do all kind of tweaks to AOL and the browser to no avail. Finally, I uninstalled version 5 and reinstalled version 4, now everything is back to normal. ---Sam

Fred, I  too ended up with ZA V5 issues. NAV2003 stopped scanning my emails altogether. Following Markeau's advice I uninstalled ZA. Now NAV works like it used to. ---Scott Ellison

Hi Fred--- I've installed it on 3 different WinXP Pro and Home systems, all running NAV 2004 with zero problems. I've not seen any slowdowns or had any trouble with Eudora since the upgrade. Best regards, Mark

But then there's this--- a note from ZoneLabs tech support saying essentially what we said when we first discussed this: Stick with version 4 for now...

Fred: Thought you might be interested in this response from Zone Labs.
Regards, Michael J. Hinz

-----Original Message-----
From: Zone Labs Technical Support
Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2004 8:24 PM
Subject: Zone Labs Technical Support: Tech Support Ticket: Upgrade Issues

...Thank you for your email Michael, We are aware of some issues with the latest version of ZoneAlarm and are working to have these resolved as soon as possible. So far, the  only fix for this issue is to uninstall ZoneAlarm Pro 5.0, and then reinstall ZoneAlarm Pro 4.5. Thank you for your patience. Regards, Andrew N. ZoneLabs technical support....

Finally, I also heard directly from the ZA folks. They acknowledge the problems and said:

...we are gathering more information so we can provide the best fix, as soon as possible. If your users would like to contact us to help us get a solution that works for their specific setup, they can do so through our Support channel: http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/support/techSupport.jsp  Note that Instant Support is free. If that link doesn't help you, you will be provided with a method to contact us via email.

So the above link may help if you're having trouble; but I stand by the previous advice: If you haven't already, don't install this new version yet. It's simply not ready.

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3) Needed: More Drive Letters

Fred: Please Help: I am adding a second hard drive to my Windows XP system.  My Boot drive [C] is an 80 Gb drive.  My two optical drives are [D] and [E].  I reserve drive [F] for my USB flash disk drive.  Drives [G] through [W] are reserved (and in use) by VirtualCD.  Drives [X], [Y] and [Z] are network shared drives to my other computer at home.  The drive I am adding is a 160 Gb drive.  I want to create multiple partitions on this new drive for my various files.  How can I do this under Windows XP without having to reduce the number of drives that VirtualCD has access to?  Is there any way to go past the 26 letter drive limit under Windows XP? Thanks for your help, Gary van den Heuvel Johannesburg, South Africa

Fortunately, XP (Home and Pro) gives you an easy workaround if you need *lots* of drives: You "map" a drive to an empty folder. Your system still knows it's a drive, and you can use it in the normal way, but you access it via a folder name. In this way, you're not limited to simple alphabetic designations.

See:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307889&sd=tech
http://www.google.com/search?q=26+letter+limit+drive

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4) Installing Software In Linux

Fred, I just got done reading the letter from the reader who was having trouble installing additional software in his Linux distro, beyond the stuff that came with the distro initially.

The best solution for solving this problem in Linux is APT, the Advanced Packaging Tool. Initially developed for Debian, it has been ported to RPM-based Linux distros as well, including Red Hat, Fedora Core, and SUSE. APT allows you to update all the software on your computer, and if dependencies are found, APT downloads and installs those as well. It's really an excellent tool, and it puts Windows Update to shame in many ways.

I wrote an article for Linux Magazine last October describing how to set up and use APT for RPM-based distros, and I think your letter writer (and many of your other readers) would find it useful. http://www.linux-mag.com/2003-10/apt_01.html

Thanks, and keep up the discussions of Linux.---Scott Granneman

Thanks, Scott. Indeed, Apt is pretty painless to use and automates what otherwise can be a complex process. Nice article!

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5) Reader-Tested Image-Recovery Tools

Hi Fred: I noticed in your recent newsletter that a reader was having trouble locating a free recovery tool for memory cards ( http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2004/2004-05-31.htm#5 ). I had been receiving lots of requests from people about how they could get files lost to virus, human error and so on. I tested a whole bunch of programs narrowed it down to three free tools. With this collection, you can recover files from Hard drives, CD, DVDs, Memory Cards and USB keys. I've put them together on my site with some addition tips, precautions and download links See: http://www.softwarepatch.com/tips/howto-file-recovery.html Also, I know you advise your subscribers to keep software up to date, but just a reminder that The Software Patch has most of the commonly needed updates and some drivers in all one spot. You can download most files as 'stand-alone' programs. That way you can back them up to CD next time you install Windows. Scott The Software Patch

Hi Fred, New PLUS subscriber here. I should have signed up long ago! Great tips and tons of good information - Much more than the regular edition! (You reading this regular subscribers? <g>) Here's a great, free Digital Image Recovery tool. I've used several (both free and shareware) with mixed results, but this one works every time! It's also a small size (600 KB) and fast. It's saved our you-know-what at work several times after shooting pics of new heating and cooling equipment and getting an error trying to read the card on a PC with a card reader.
http://www.z-a-recovery.com/digital_image_recovery.htm (From the Zero Assumption website) "Zero Assumption Digital Image Recovery is a freeware data recovery tool, specifically designed to work with digital images. It allows you to recover digital photos accidentally deleted from digital camera memory." It recovers these formats: GIF, JPEG, TIFF, CRW - Canon RAW data, MOV - QuickTime movie, WAV - Waveform audio. Regards, Art Hoffman

Regarding section 5 on recovering accidentally deleted photos from removable media, I've had good luck with the PC Inspector suite of free utilities from Convar. Smart Recovery is designed for removable media like flash cards, but there is a file recovery version there as well for physical drives. http://www.pcinspector.de/smart_media_recovery/uk/welcome.htm  Regards, Andrew Morse

Thanks, Art, Scott, and Andrew!

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6) Always Room for One More!

Do you know even one other person who might find this newsletter interesting or useful? Please click on over to http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm to see just how easy it is to recommend that they take a look. You might even win a free ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION to the Plus edition for your trouble! 8-)

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7) Anti-Phishing Site, And More

Fred: I am a plus subscriber and love your newsletter. You have made mention of spoofing and phishing several times and I wanted to highlight an organization I work as a volunteer for, that deals with these threats and others. It was founded by Parry Aftab a security, privacy and cyberspace lawyer, as well as an author and child advocate. You can get more information at:
http://www.wiredsafety.org/
 
The main page has several links for reporting fraud, abuse, phishing, harassment and cyberstalking. I volunteer in one of these divisions that track and help people deal with some of these problems. There are several areas to report problems including this page:
http://www.wiredsafety.org/forms/911.html
 
We spend time tracking down these sites and tracing the e-mails, reporting them to ISP's and hosting companies as well as forwarding the information to the company that is being spoofed. This might be a useful resource to your subscribers as well as somewhere they might be willing to volunteer as we are always looking for help. Thanks, Nick

Wonderful, Nick, thanks!

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8) They Just Keep Coming And Coming...

Well over 3,000 of your fellow readers have "loaded the code." Have you? Check out http://www.langa.com/code.htm for the details.

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

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

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

Pesky Little Pagan
http://www.peskylittlepagan.com/

HurterConsult Incorporated
http://www.hurterconsult.com/index.htm

North Texas Homepage
http://www.angelfire.com/tx6/northtexas/

PSP Pals
http://psp-pals.com/

Hogan Productions
http://www.hogan-productions.com/books/

Web Tools
http://www.openskywebdesign.com/tools.html

Bartholin gland problems
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/a.leecy/index.html

HyperBytes
http://www.hyperbytes.ca/

BFC Creations
http://www.bfc-creations.com/

jilleliz
http://jilleliz.com/

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9) Hyper-Suite of FREE Tools

Fred, You may find this of interest. - Scott
http://theopencd.sunsite.dk/

Wow--- it's a collection "of high quality Free and Open Source Software. The programs run in Windows and cover the most common tasks such as word processing, presentations, e-mail, web browsing, web design, and image manipulation. We include only the highest quality programs, which have been carefully tested for stability and which we consider appropriate for a wide audience."

The download's beefy at 267MB, and (of course) you need a CD burner to put the ISO image on a blank CD, but what a collection! Just look at what you get--- for free: http://theopencd.sunsite.dk/programs-v1.4/

Thanks for the tip, Scott!

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10) Just For Grins

You've probably read about it in your local papers--- an astronomical event no one alive today has seen: It happens twice in eight years, then skips more than a century before repeating: It's a "transit" of Venus, when the planet appears to pass across the face of the Sun; the last one happened in 1882. Past transits have figured in history: For example, Captain Cook's famous voyage to Tahiti in 1769 was actually an astronomical expedition to observe a Venus transit visible from there.

The next transit of Venus is tomorrow, June 8th. At least some of the transit will be visible (weather permitting) from almost the entire Earth. Here on the east coast of North America, for example, the transit will be in progress at sunrise, ending later in the morning. A huge swath of real estate from Europe to western Asia will get to see the whole show.

There are only a few places in the world where it won't be visible at all: Alas, the largest such areas are the western regions of North America, and the far south of South America. Most of the eastern and mid-Pacific islands miss out, too, although the western Pacific lucks out with sunset views.

Check these links for more info, including ways to safely observe the event without risking your eyes; and for live web cams of the whole process.
http://www.google.com/search?q=venus+transit
Worldwide coverage map: http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/transit/venus/Map2004-2.GIF

If you miss this one, there's another show coming up in 2012, but then it's more than another century to the next transit. Try to see this one if you can!

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11) Plus! Edition Highlights:

• Two Dozen Freeware Tools!
     (fabulous, free collection!)
• Folders That Just Won't Delete...
     (how to get rid of even the most stubborn ones...)
• Best Reg Cleaner, Rescue Tools Ever?
     (not well-known, but powerful, and free to try...)

The Plus! edition is only pennies per issue, and comes with a MONEY BACK
GUARANTEE from Fred. How can you lose? Check out the details: http://www.langa.com/plus.htm

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(Give a gift subscription to the LangaList Plus edition!
Click <a href= " http://www.langa.com/plus_gift.htm ">here</a>)

See you next issue, 2004-06-10!

Best,

Fred
( Editor@Langa.Com )

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