SmaugyGrrr

But you can render a punch card unreadable by punching all the possible holes. In theory it should be possible to render a CD unreadable by physically burning all the unburned bits. Of course, you would have to be careful to burn at the same power and duration that the CD was originally burned, lest the original pits be discernable from the newly burned pits. ... but it would obviously be easier to nuke/melt it or use a belt sander. Sanding it down makes LOTS of conductive dust though.

I have two internal 300GB Seagates and they are currently at 34 and 35C - they have a very slow fan in front of them. Ambient temp is maybe 17-18C. For my main drives I would find up to 40C acceptable. If they got up to 40 I would probably open the case and speed up the fan until it got cool enough. Any time I use an external 3.5" HD I make sure to use a fan, as they get too hot otherwise. By "too hot", I personally consider 40+C to be too hot (warm?), up to maybe 50 would be fine for brief occasional use. The only drive I have that ever gets hotter than 49C is the one inside my Dell GX280 SFF - that gets very very hot. The one time I looked at the temp it was at 60+C and very hot to the touch. Scary. Awful cooling in that PC, and the case is a bugger to add a fan to.

Do you have the latest bios? http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scripts-df...x?ProductID=949 Also, the D865 line isn't that bad or ancient - I have a D865GLC and aside from the crappy Nichicon HN(M) capacitors which failed on mine, which I replaced myself, it still works great. When the CPU is idle the heatsink doesn't get hot at all, and it's very stable.

Process Monitor to see exactly which files and processes, and System Explorer to give figures as to how much data is read and written by each process.

They might have contained easily-compressible data. Try downloading a file full of zeroes compared to a .zip.

My (maybe really flawed) calculations suggest that the real-world TCP/IP download speed on a connection of 1024KB (or 1MB) would download at a transfer speed of 108 kilobytes per second.

Sometimes duff caps can damage components further down the circuit (particularly other caps). Sometimes replacing the caps makes everything hunky dory. To replace caps you need equal or better caps (>=voltage, same uf rating), a 60-watt soldering iron, a solder sucker, maybe some desoldering braid, a toothbrush, isopropyl alcohol, and ideally 2% silver 60/40 solder. Often-recommended quality caps are Samxon and (what I use) Rubycon. They should be labeled as Ultra- or just Low-ESR caps. As for soldering irons, lots of people recommend Weller irons, but any 60W soldering station will do. A 2 to 3mm tip and a very pointy tip are all you need. A little pot of tinning & cleaning "grey stuff" is useful sometimes, too.

NetLimiter. http://www.netlimiter.com/featurelist.php Not free though.

From the few ones I looked at, the crashing app varies. Write a memtest86 boot CD to test your memory: http://www.memtest86.com/download.html Test your hard drive for errors with the diagnostics utility provided by your hard drive manufacturer. Test hard drive SMART status and system temperatures with SpeedFan: http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

SyncBackSE. http://www.2brightsparks.com/syncback/syncback-hub.html They have a freeware version too.

APC's PowerChute Business Edition (the free version) can use custom .cmd files. Example with remote shutdown command: http://forums.isxusergroups.com/thread.jsp...?messageID=1586 Here's a screenshot from my PowerChute config pages. Other UPS apps might have an email notification option, so just run netcat or a mail server which has exec rules.

Norton/Symantec isn't even included on this virus testing site: http://www.shadowserver.org/wiki/pmwiki.ph...irusWeeklyStats I hate it when I encounter a faulty machine with Norton "protection" stuff (IS/360/etc.). Only Ghost is mostly okay. Their web site even requires Javascript and errors show up on Firefox. Nowadays I only recommend Kaspersky or NOD32 (in that order).

Unless emailing the new IP is a requirement, there is an easier, also free, way. https://www.dyndns.com/support/clients/windows.html

1) Go to C:\windows\system32 2) Copy wpa.dbl and wpa.bak to a safe place. 3) After reinstalling Windows reboot into the Safe Mode by pressing F8 continuously while the computer is starting up 4) Go to C:\windows\system32 or C:\winnt\system32 (depending on where you installed Windows) 5) Rename wpa.dbl and wpa.bak to something else (e.g. wpa.olddbl and wpa.oldbak) in the current folder 6) Replace the wpa.dbl and wpa.bak which you had backed up earlier into this system32 folder 7) Restart the computer in normal mode The computer should be activated as it was before

I think memtest86 keeps going until you stop it. Maybe you have a hardware problem which causes the computer (not OS) to crash. Or maybe you had a mains power spike/dip.

It's a bit awkward to diagnose. Use Process Monitor and see what happens the instant the error occurs. And try disabling the resident AV scanning. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysintern...essmonitor.mspx

DeltaCopy. Rsync for Windows. Has GUI, can be set up with what looks like Windows Task Scheduler, so command line usage should be possible. Can apparently also do locked files. http://www.aboutmyip.com/AboutMyXApp/DeltaCopy.jsp

Any eSata cable - bar the cheapest of the cheap - should be fine. If I were looking for one, I would get one of these SATA cards - purely because they would work with the software linked to on the page - and use a separate PCI slot bracket to convert one of the connectors to eSATA. http://mysite.verizon.net/kaakoon/hotswap/...nu.htm#download

Programs that will scan for programs and tell you if new versions are available: AppSnap http://appsnap.genotrance.com/ FileHippo.com Update Checker (I tried this and it only checks default install paths) http://filehippo.com/updatechecker/ UpdateStar http://www.updatestar.com/en/ Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) https://psi.secunia.com/ They're all free, as far as I know. I use Secunia, but it is aimed mainly at updates that fix security problems.

I nearly bought some of these a week ago, but decided against it and instead just drilled a hole through the wall for a cable. My research at the time led me to believe that Devolo MicroLink dLAN stuff was better than the other brands - reviews from people who bought them were nearly always favourable, compared to very few recommendations for the Netgear and other brands.

This thread suggests it's called "cheater checker viewer": http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1031533228 Cheater Checker site: http://www.cheatercheckers.com/ This thread goes into detail about removing it: http://mytgn.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=301940 PDF with removal details (I don't know if this covers the very latest version): http://www.spywaresignatures.com/details/cheaterchecker.pdf It might be obvious as to who installed it on your system, but be sure to make a record of file timestamps. Then search for files that were created/modified at the same time - maybe they also installed other similar programs or did something which will identify them. If you can manage to find its config file, you might be able to read it - it has the ability to email logs, so that email address needs to be stored somewhere. Alternatively, leave it running and use a packet sniffer to log the whole email it sends. It might be best to completely reformat - if the red dot is Cheater Checker you really can't trust your system to be completely free of other similar or worse programs. You should also check the back of your computer to see if there are any hardware keyloggers inbetween the keyboard and PC. If the presence of Cheater Checker is confirmed, you must also change ALL your passwords - ones that you have actually used since CC was installed, accounts that have the same password, and anything IE or Firefox has saved. You should also change passwords to accounts associated with your email account, since some sites send you your password when requested. (edit: replace "you"/"your" with "him"/"his")

Speedfan has a rather nice SMART reporting thingy. Find the manufacturer of your hard drive and download their free diagnostic utility. You may have to write it to a floppy or CD and boot from it. Also download the memtest86 boot CD and leave it running overnight to see if your memory is faulty. Norton's home programs (bar Ghost, maybe others?) are generally very poorly regarded and may do more harm than good. Download a trial of Kaspersky anti-virus to scan for any dodgy stuff. They also have an on-line scanner, which I haven't tried myself.

Soekris boxes. Small, "cheap"ish, power-efficient, expandable (edit: err ok, not that expandable), use either CF or (better) a microdrive. Recent models such as the net5501 look very nice. I use an old Via Epia 5000 (equivalent to 200MHz) with 256MB memory and XP Pro as a "server" - it works fine. Fanless, noiseless except for the HD. http://www.soekris.com/how_to_buy.htm I do have a Soekris net5421, but I haven't really put it to use - installing Debian is a non-trivial task. Another option is Lex mini PCs. I have an old 533MHz 3-NIC Lex Light, but the 2.5" HD gets very hot during summer months, so I don't use it any more. I haven't looked for canadian vendors - I only know of LinITX in the UK. If you need low-power and don't need wireless and only one NIC, a tiny, an unslung Linksys NSLU2 might work well for basic services. http://www.nslu2-linux.org/ If you want a dedicated firewall, get a 3-NIC WRAP 1E-2 (now discontinued) or similar, and put pfSense on it.

Who is your ISP? What package are you on? Ideally include a link to the specific package on your ISP's web site. Are there specific monthly transfer limits or a Fair Usage Policy? How much data have you transferred recently, and have you checked whether your usage has increased recently, either intentionally or unknowingly (i.e. a worm/botnet infestation)? Have you checked message boards relevant to your ISP to see if anyone else is having the same problem? If your neighbours are connected in the same way, are they having problems? Has your ISP actually said that they aren't capping and have no regional/national network/exchange problems? What is your connection type - DSL via the 'phone? Cable? Wireless? What router/modem are you using? If you are connecting wirelessly, is it still the same when you connect via ethernet? Are other PCs on your network similarly affected? If relevant, at what speed does your modem/router say you are connected at (in Mbits/Kbits)? If ADSL, what is your downstream/upstream attenuation (in dB) What version of Windows? Have you changed anything recently - specific software, maybe a new house alarm system, unplugged/plugged in new telephones (esp. if DECT and you connect wirelessly), not tripped over a wire and damaged a wire? If relevant (ADSL), how far away from the telephone exchange are you? If ADSL, and if your router says somewhere, is interleaving or fast path enabled? Are you getting any FEC/CRC/HEC errors? They might be listed somewhere in your router/modem diagnostics interface.

Let's see..... "HP" - strike #1 "Windows Vista" - strike #2 "802.11 b/g USB Wireless LAN" - make/model? "USB external modem" - how quaint! "500GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive" - what make/model? "TV tuner with PVR" - great! what make/model? "FM tuner" - i'm sure you'll use this all the time. "Integrated 7.1 channel sound w/front audio ports" - great! what make/model? "Norton Internet Security" - strike #3 "Microsoft® Works" - strike #4 "HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope" - wtf is this? "$2127" - I'm sorry, I think you mis-typed that. "Geek Squad battery backup/UPS" - have you tried it? does it work? does it have AVR and auto-shutdown? I use an APC Smart-UPS. Apologies for the sarcasm. It's 6:37am and I've been up all night. Not necessarily. It could be going from Chinese-made to non-Chinese-made Seagates, which would be an improvement. If it were my money, and I had $2300, I would spend a few days researching the components and buy them all separately. If i wanted pre-built PC, I would either get whatever Dell suited my needs OR select a nearby reputable vendor who specifys exactly what compnents they include.