DosFreak

What APK said. and "Why is it that people always complain when other people buy better hardware and then they state that nothing takes advantage of said hardware.". I personally have never seen anything NOT take advantage of a peice of hardware that I have bought....unless of course it didn't work.

Sometime's it's required. I have to sniff my network. I have to read the email's that get affected by viruse's or are likely to be affected. I have to backtrack an employee's activities for a length of time, which of course inolves reading their email. If it's sooooooooooooooo personal that they would complain about it then they shouldn't be doing it on my network. Some poeple just don't seem to realize that. For instance, the rest of the Domain Admin's at my job could read my email if they really wanted too. Do I use PGP because of this? No, because I couldn't care less if they read my email. If they want to read some stupid little email to my parent's or a response to a thread on the net helping somebody well...I feel pretty sorry for 'em but they are welcome to read all they want. Also when I do read their email I usually inform them if I dig down deep but If I do a cursory inspection I don't.

SPAM the board for a year just to get into a measly little forum? I've never seen that before....

That's what the 1yr and post count requirement is for. They'd have to wait a year just to spam the forum. Also allowing the forum to be viewed would allow ANYONE to view the forum. Just that those that do not fit the requirements would be unable to post. This way they would still get the info.

Quote: Whew, you're basically calling users stupid man, lol... I've yet to have any network admin I worked with do that to me at least. Not stupid but ignorant and yes they are. We all are but the users especially because mostly computers is not their field of expertise. Of course a network admin is not going to call you stupid/ignorant to your face! Have they every put ya on mute? If so that's them probly cussing you out! LOL! I do it almost ALL the time! I'm in the middle of creating an SMS query/package or pinpointing an access problem by looking through an ACL and a USER call's me instead of HelpDesk because HelpDesk is on their 3 hour lunch break! Now of course I could tell them to contact their WGM or I could enter their data into Remedy and create a ticket but I NEVER use Remedy if I can help it and I never point them to their WGM because usually the WGM call's me! So usually I have to help the USER out with their simple problems when I have much bigger fish to fry. (Don't worry I bring up these issues with management but it never seems to help as much as it should). I make constant use of the MUTE problem and either fume quietly or thing up some really nast words so that when I get back on the line I am as nice as you please and I can operate at the USER level...which is really how you must think when troubleshooting most USER problems. Quote: ON SOME OF YOUR USERS THOUGH ON YOUR GENERALIZATION: Some of your users? Coders specifically, can write your network stack, & the software tools you (keyword next) USE! Think a few did not start out as network techs & admins & do stretches as pros? When I was a techie & even junior admin... man, I was a user with a better password I felt, this is me cutting down me, then. This still doesn't mean that they need more permissions than they need. A programmer does not need Domain Admin rights. Unless they are on MY floor and I have day to day conversations with them or keep in constant touch then they will NOT have domain admin rights no matter how advanced they are or think they are. This is simply a very basic part of securing and protecting your network. Quote: Personally, segmenting networks & such to create security or more addresses etc. is not difficult... nor is working on the hardware either if you understand protocols & OSI model (or can read a manual). Scriptings way watered down coding, & not generally millions of lines or even procedural programming rudiments. Troubleshootings more of a pain than anything, R&D new tools is fun though software & hardware (ADMIT IT), & aiding in purchases is fun too. Agreed. Building a network is not as complicated as troubleshooting an optimizing a network. Quote: I dunno... I just don't think users are stupid! Especially engineers I have met at some of those companies. Freaking geniuses & one DBA was a genius, the guy OOZED intelligence & knew E.F. Codd by rote. Was THAT good. The John Carmack of information systems technology if you ask me in my experience in this field. Another "sharpie" you may have seen in Windows NT/2000/.NET mag is Mr. Tony Woo, who worked for MS & certified me in Citrix & Terminal Server back in 1998 in Atlanta... Great guy too, smart as a whip. Works for himself now, after being at MS & Citrix in fact, I can see that too. IMO, There are no "genius's" in the computer world. Just those who work harder, spend more time, study harder, etc etc. IIRC, genius is the ability to make "leaps" where the connection is not obvious. A->C instead of A->B. I really do not know of any in the computing world. Quote: Now, this one I know you'll understand & appreciate: I DO KNOW FOR A FACT ALOT OF KNOWLEDGE THAT SEPARATES ADMINS & TECHS is kept from users to keep them well... 'brow-beaten' let's say. You know it, I know it. Been there, done that myself years ago. I try not to now. Yes, sometimes you have to for security reasons. This is not busting on ya DosFreak, you're one of my fav folks online... but that's a HARSH DESCRIPTION BRO! Does not always apply either to all users. When & if you get to being a coder or DBA if you do, you'll understand that all above. Clutch is on his way now at the MIS coding levels from our discussion regarding what I am calling personally his "evolution", I am not sure if you mess with that part or want to. Maybe not...[/qupte] Need To Know is all I have to say. If the user does not Need To Know. Then I don't tell 'em. If your learning about the stuff or want more information then I'm happy to explain to them but I state VERY FIRMLY, The network is NOT your playground. If you want to play. PLAY AT HOME. Uh oh, your getting into the "Programmer's" better than "Network Admin" bit again. Different fields man. Different fields. IMO, Not possible and not necessary. Scripting yes but real programming? (Well the programming of today isn't really all that different ) I really do not see programming as necessary for an IT. I'm getting into it however. I see ton's of tools that I would like to improve and things that I would like to do personally that I think could be done better. Quote: P.S.=> Man, I think you two will be ticked off at me now, but don't be... remember, I've been in your shoes as a pro (maybe not to same level, maybe more so or just diffent parts of it). Until you've been to this side of the field & at same level... well, until then I will wait on your comments if you guys attack me & all that, I hope not! apk See, this is why "When ARS attacks!" ROFL! Some people are just really insecure. I have no such problem. I know my strength's/weakness's and I'm not afraid to state them or be told by other's what they are. I do detect tho, just very slightly, by yourself that you think that you have "progressed/evolved" beyond the IT field which is why you get attacked. You have to remeber that they are totalling different things and cannot really be compared.

Here we go again... Let's see if the situation is the same with the Radeon 8500's and below driver situation the same time next year. I already know how it'll turn out.

Quote: * Tell me, just curious... when you know a user KNOWS what's he or she is doing... do you let them have a little more "Freedom of Movement" regarding stuff they install? (I have yet to have a network admin constrain me, or other developers I have worked with is why I ask... most times, we get "Free Reign" & are given Domain Admin priveleges ourselves, and to a great deal of the REALLY valued stuff: The data, or at least, what is pertinent to the project at hand! We have to have access to it, cannot do our work otherwise!) \ A USER knows nothing. You must place that assumption firmly into your head upon becoming a Tech. Assume nothing. Usually when a USER does "KNOW" something they usually know very little or only half of what they should know. Unfortunately due to time constraints, minimal personel, quality of users most networks cannot edumacate theirs users fully nor will they ever be able to. So here's the rights that I give: USERS: Domain User rights. No admin access to local machine. Full access (Read/Write) to their directories on the server. WGM'S: Local Admin, Also usually Full Access to the Entire office files of which they administrate. Domain Admins: Full Control, We try to split it up and assign Backup Admin, Print Admin, etc etc but with constant coming and going this will never work out so we've pretty much given up on that. Also auditing is turned on and I'm constantly fine tuning it. When I get back I plan to also try to find better ways to audit my co-workers so we can pinpoint "mysterious things that happen all by themselves" ;(

Hmmmm, any bios flashing done recently? Also look for the HIBERFIL.SYS file on your HD and delete it. (It's a hidden, system file so you'll have to configure your view to view it) Now try to hibernate. Also right-click on "My Computer" go to properties, then advanced, now to startup and recovery. Uncheck "automatically reboot". This will show a BSOD instead of just rebooting your computer. Write down the error when shutting down.

I would hardly say they are benefiting the the user primarily they are benefiting themselves, the user is just a side-effect. They are just taking advantage of new markets. Spreading their tentacles into every nook and cranny so that eventually they can lock it all down.

http://www.simhq.com/simhq3/hardware/features/os_shootout/index7.shtml 9x wins 9x wins! Gonna play all my games in 9x now! ;( Only thing I see wrong with this article is comparing XP Home to 2000 Pro. Where's XP Pro?

August 2002 Page 50 Ask The Doctor Quote: Getting Rid of That Pesky Floppy Drive I just recently built my newest system and decided I didn't need a floppy drive. I assembled the machine, went into the bios, disabled everything that even mentions floppy, loaded WIN98SE, and bang...it works...not! If I go to My Computer it shows a "Removeable Drive A" and if I go to the performance tab on the System Properties window it shows the message: "Drive A is using MS-DOS compatibility mode (yadda yadda)..." Can you please tell me what on earth I have to do to convince Win98 that there is no floppy drive? - SHANE WEAVER Quote: After conducting exhaustive digging through our archive and harassing sources around the web,the only thing we know to do is upgrade your OS to Windows 2000 or Windows XP. (The Microsoft Knowledge Base article about this very issue says, "To work around this problem, you can safely ignore it.") We've tested floppiless configs with both Windows 2000 and Windows XP and not had any of the weird problems that you describe with your Windows 98 config. Here's the solution that any tech worth his/her salt should know: Solution: Go into bios. Enable: "Report No FDD For Win95" option. Well that was pathetic. ;( Geesh, I knew this one off the top of ma' head and I NEVER USE IT AND NEVER HAVE NEEDED TO ENABLE IT FOR ANYONE I KNOW PERSONALLY. I only remember faintly mabye a year or two ago telling someone and I remember seeing it in my bios every time I enter it. I also may have used it a loooooooooooonnnng time ago when I used 98 as one of my Primary OS's back in 1998 (98/NT4 dual-boot). I just did a quick search and www.rojakpot.com has it listed in their famous Bios Optimization Guide. Terrible...Terrible. "Maximum" PC has hit a new low. *Arrghh, forgot the command for the shameful head nodding smilie. Mabye I should ask Maximum PC?

oh, and 4x burners are ancient. Grab a 24x. I just bought 2 Liteon 48x12x48x CDR's for $93 apiece. A 24x is substantially cheaper. Also you get burn-proof which gets rid of buffer-under run errors. You also may get a copy of Adaptec or Nero with the CDR.

Quote: Originally posted by clutch can tell you why it's better: 1. Even tighter integration with (current and future iterations of) Active Directory as it has more keys to work with. I don't see .NET server out yet...and it will not be out yet for quite a while. We are talking about XP not .NET so XP will not improve AD in any way, the admin tools for XP on a 2000 AD administration don't seem all that different to me but mabye you see something I don't. Quote: 2. It will support administration of .NET server and newer server releases directly rather than having to use Terminal Server all the time. ??. Quote: 3. Remote Desktop Tell me how this improves the DOMAIN. I do not see any benefits. Yes, Remote Desktop connecting to a TS (the RD client installs in 9x,NT4,2000 too) but not User to User where you need to control the user's desktop remotely. SMS/3rd party solutions are still king here. Quote: 4. Can be trimmed to look like Win2K, or keep Luna which does make life easier for some users. From what I've seen the 2K desktop is easier for the user to understand. It's also easier to troubleshoot over the phone. Too much variation in the XP desktop for quick troubleshooting. Yes, you could apply a policy to alter the desktop for all users and lock it down. Also trimming the features down does not get rid of all XP annoyances to PROFESSIONAL work. I've seen it time and time again. XP get's in the way. You'll need to go through hundreds of tweaks and then apply a policy just to get a useable desktop for a work environment. Quote: There's some reasons why to keep XP Pro (yep, PRO as in PROFESSIONAL) in the work arena. I'm waiting for some good ones......

When you make an image of a partition your are backing up the entire partition structure which means that basically you will be backing up your FAT32 partition. Restoring to your NTFS partition would overwrite the NTFS partition with your FAT32 partition. So no it will not work. I would backup your FAT32 partition. Perform a convert C: /FS:NTFS. Then go to the command line in NT, perform a chkdsk and make sure that your cluster size is 4kb. If it isn't then restore your FAT32 partition and make plans to perform a clean install with NTFS.

My "fix" is to use my NTFSDOS disks. Haven't bothered with the recovery console....any operation that involves digging that far into the directory tree I usually either boot up my other copy of NT or stick the HD in another computer. With the HUGE amount of files I have copying/organizing without a GUI would be a nightmare.

Ahhh, I know hardware like the back of my hand: http://developer.nvidia.com/docs/IO/3121/ATT/cinefx_whitepaper.pdf

Admiral, What a craptacular response. Try READING my post. Pay particular attention to the word PRO (aka PROFESSIONAL). Apply it to a work environment because that is what the PRO version of Windows 2000/XP is for. Now compare Windows 2000/XP in a work environment. Consider all factors. Now tell me why Windows XP is better for the sane minded indivdual. Geesh, ABC123.

Look in the security tab and Apply ownership to the directory.

Okay, 1. DId you upgrade over Windows 98 or did you perform a clean install and insert the Windows 98 disc when prompted by Windows XP setup? 2. CDR's do not require drivers. They just require softeware. I suggest Nero Burning Rom. If that is too complicated for you then grab a copy of Adaptec EZ CD Creator 5. Buy I HIGHLY recommend NERO. 3. When/Where do you receive this XMS error? 4. What CDR software are you currently using?

My advice: Keep it in the 200mmx for old games.

I wouldn't label most non computer illerate people stupid but I would label them...sluggish. There's no initiative on average for most people. Take for instance my Dad. USCMC 20 years. He bought a 286-12mhz in 1990. DOS4.0, 256k vram, 1MB system ram, PCTools 9.0, 2400b modem, some DOS games and BBS Software. He knew almost NOTHING about computers except what he picked up at work (he was an aircraft mechanic so he almost never used computers.). Well, when he bought the computer a friend from work came by and taught him how to use it. 1 day of teaching. After that my Dad just plugged away. He actually taught me some stuff. How to use pkzip,pctools,Dos, Dosshell, autoexec, config. Alot of the DOS stuff. He learned it because HE WANTED TO. He bought a product that required a mind to actually use and he met the challenge with flying colors. I quickly surpassed him of course because I had more to time to play around with it but watching him at my young age (10) gave me a perspective on the average (l)user that would help me when working with (l)users all the way up to today. After years of this I think it sums up to: No RTFM - Most (l)user problems can be solved by a simple RTFM. It's that simple. Unfortunately it seems they think the documentation may be too complex or they think the answer to their unique problem will not be there. Panic - OMG! MY $3000 computer doesn't work and I know nothing about it because I didn't care in the first place and I didn't do the proper research! Helpdesk - Helpdesk is there. It's there job. Instead of reading up or actually listening to them in the first place (classes, email) I'll just call 'em up all the time so that they can repeat to me what they already have thousands of times before! Helpdesk is so wonderful. Thinking is hard.

*nix on slower machines: Yep, about 2 years ago I was playing around with P100/P133's and the *nix GUI was considerably slower than the Windows GUI. It was still useable however. Haven't tried it lately but I'm sure things have sped up a bit. Military: Miliaty networks upgraded from Novell networks to NT4 Domains in '95. In '99 they started upgrading to 2000 workstations. In 2000 they got the go ahead to start using 2000 on their servers. So most bases now have mixed NT4/2000 networks. Most bases are still running NT4 Domains while the military tries to figure out how they want to run AD. Most are also still running Exchange 5.5. A very few bases are running 2000 Domains with Exchange 2000 as test-beds. Hopefully next year we may have a full 2000 domain. We use many *nix machines on-base however. Most of our monitoring machines and firewalls have always been *nix. Some print/database servers are still *nix. I prefer *nix print servers over NT print servers for obvious reasons. I prefer *nix web servers over NT web servers in most cases. (Unfortunately we are not using any at the moment but I would like to rectify that.) I prefer HP openview on *nix but we are currently using it on NT. (OPV is primarily an *nix app that is ported over to NT...if that's what you want to call it.) I prefer *nix External DNS servers over NT External DNS servers. I see *nix slowly replacing critical NT server's over the years more and more and by slowly I mean slooowwwlllyyy. With the consolidation the military is currently taking (consoli[censored] most of their control to primary bases) less inovation and experimentation will be taken in the field which is a good thing for control but very very very very bad for quick-response to fixes and base-specific configurations. I've already seen this with our take-over where I can see a more optimal configuration but I've been over-ruled. *nix Desktop on military machines? Not for a veeerry long time. I'd hate to see the time when XP was on military desktop's but that's likely what it's going to be. So far I've been lucky that it hasn't been approved for military networks but I heard that it's going to come down the pipe. Hopefully I can convince our base to keep it off citing that since we are still running an NT4 domain and since .NET isn't out yet that running XP on our desktops would be an extremely bad idea. Bah. They'll probably install it anyway. IT'S NEW AND IMPROVED! Who cares about the bigger picture? BR Read the dang posts man. Yeah, it'd be nice to just install *nix and YAY! I'm away from M$! But in the real-world this cannot happen over-night but as you can see I can at least start using the word M$ without any consequences or hardship.

I've been meaning to look into these for awhile now. For: Video capture Virtual PC/Vmware Games (fast load times) zip/unzip (instead of using my temp) Pagefile Temp drive I might buy a seperate UPS just for it. In case power goes down this thing might be able to run for HOURS, less risk of losing data. I'll probably go for 4GB so I can get some real use out of it...or mabye wait for the 8GB ver. The specs say it supports DOS so it may be possibile to actually load any OS on top of it....which means that you could probably make a cut-down 9x/2000/XP install, image it to ghost and have a SUPER-DUPER-FAST gaming system!

Business's are steadily progressing away from M$. The backbone of the 'net has always been non-MS. Where businesse's go (especially the military) the public follows. I forsee M$ having very hard times to come unless they correct their problems....which is highly unlikely considering their mindset.

I know. It's scaring me. I've been using M$ OS's since Dos 4.0. (Well, I've owned M$ OS's since DOS 4.0, but I've used earlier versions). I've used every single one of their OS'S since then so I have a pretty good perspective on their activities. I'd always been trying to get back into Linux but I never had the time. 9x/NT dual-boot pretty much killed that though. Well, now that XP is out I find myself dual-booting their OS's more so that I can pinpoint the difference's between the OS's, help users out, and use what features I like to use that they have disable/enabled between the OS's. I've been trying to get my second computer up and going but I've been very busy and I like to concentrate on upgrading and tweaking my main machine. I can't stand to have a computer in my room that has older parts when I can upgrade it to something better. Well, when I get back next week I'm gonna upgrade both computers. Get my Dual P3 1ghz going and most likely make that my Linux machine. I'm then gonna go FULL-OUT. Wine, KDE, Gnome, All the *nix distro's. I'm gonna convert every single one of my tasks over to *nix and leave M$ Windows as my gaming machine and compatibility until I can finally play all of my games and perform all of my tasks on *nix. VMware will really help in this task so that I'll pretty much be able to perform all my desktop work on *nix while leaving the Windows machine to games that will not work under *nix. In fact I may swap that around. I'll need all the power I can get when emulating under Wine so I just might use my Dual P3 as my Windows machine. Slap a GF4Ti4600 in 'dere and it'll play the games that won't work under Wine just fine. I'm also focusing more and more on the infrastructure side of 'da house. Switchs/Routers/ATM/Eth/Sniffers. I'm getting more and more into that since I've done pretty much everything small-computer wise. So my focus nowadays is going to be more *nix and networking focuses. Buh by M$! You've made my blood boil enough over the years it was sad to know ya! I'll still have to put up with ya over the years to come but instead of thinking about it I'll just mark it down on my list and port it on over to *nix!