pointertovoid

I've possibilities to grasp a Netgear DG834: a v1 and a v2. Both with one Adsl and four Ethernet ports, and without Wifi. Thoughts?

Hello you all! Some Pdf documents are seriously old, like typewritten in 1950 and obviously digitized as an image: characters badly aligned, hand annotations, spots... Nevertheless, Pdf readers like Foxit can find a searched text in them, and so does Google for instance. So what? Are Pdf readers smart and fast enough to perform the Optical Character Recognition in real time over the whole image? Typical OCR software is slower and less efficient in this process. Or do Pdf documents contain a text version of the image, performed once when the Pdf is created, and whose position is well-adjusted with the image? Would save time. Other explanations? Thanks!

Mine is Metapad: http://www.liquidninja.com/metapad/faq.html - it's free, multilingual, fast, runs on W95 to Seven, offers fixed width fonts - it brings what I need (keyboard shortcuts, remnant window size and place) - but not what I don't need (coloration of syntax words - some half-evolved features, like blocs de-indentation, lowercase/title, line feed suppression - the Faq tells how Metapad can replace notepad on W95 to Vista (Seven?) - I mean, replace the .exe, to catch all calls to an editor Beyond that, it's a matter of needs, taste, habits...

Thanks Submix8c! I don't even remember what sort of modem my internet access provider gave - if he did so. I've already changed it anyway. As for the firewall, I'm already equipped, and the function a modem or router calls firewall can't replace the software. My current Usb modem can be set "on" or "off" by software and can be tuned to "off" at boot up. Though, I doubt this software "off" really stops a serious malware, and I unplug the Usb when I need some more privacy. Anyway, I'd like to have this behaviour from an Ethernet modem, including at boot up.. More opinions please?

Hi you all, easy questions for you... I consider replacing my USB modem by an Ethernet one. I have 512kb/s ADSL (maybe more in the future, but maybe not) and W2k. Do I understand properly that the modem itself needs no driver, hence runs on any OS capable of talking Ethernet? That is, the operation may need a driver for the Ethernet port, but that's all. Then, I like to connect the Internet only when I need it - I like especially to have it off at bootup. I believe to understand the computer and the modem build a small Ethernet network; can I tell W2k to keep the network off, or the port closed, at bootup? Will the modem always establish the connection with the access provider, needing little time to open the Ethernet link when I request it? ...is a closed Ethernet port any safe against subtle malware, or shall I disconnect the cable? And: are some modems better than others in Ethernet ADSL? Thank you!

Grazie Jaclaz! Mmmh, I had hoped W2j install Cd would accept that the Bios fools it into accessing an Usb floppy drive as a traditional one. If this doesn't work naturally, then integrating the host ("controller") driver into the W2k install Cd is probably better: it must take about as long and after that the result is more comfortable. But I had read somewhere "you can hit F6 if your driver is on a Cd as well"... Was that a message from the Xp installation process? It would be nice for W2k!

Hello everybody! On a W2k machine used by people of different ages, I'd like bigger text fonts for some users only in Explorer, Desktop... Especially commands and file names. Control Panel > Display > Advanced proposes to adjust font size, but only from the Administrator session (even at the second try, when fonts are installed), with effect on all users. TweakUI proposes nothing. Do you see some hope, and how? Thanks!

I've tracked two used Firewire card readers on eBay, both sold for over 40 euros, imagine that. Both were the discontinued Sandisk for Compact Flash with Firewire 400 only, which doesn't suffice for recent CF cards - and I found no other brand or model with Firewire on sale. This looks like a bad solution. The Sata-to-CF adapters have just a Sata-to-Pata chip, logically enough. The CF adapters I tested were slow, but the Sata-to-Pata adapters for 3.5" disks (chip RXD-628) were decent, so I have good hope to find a CF adapter with a chip good enough for CF. Difficulty: some chips are anonymous. Nothing, nada below the "QC" sticker. One hard blow: the Sata 3.0 card readers are widely available in Asia, more or less in the US, but not in Europe. Same for the Hitachi 7K1000D disk. Looks like Europe is made of underdeveloping countries and immerging markets.

Received my Dell U2412M four days ago. It cost me 299 euros with shipping, fool me - but I use a screen so often and long. Size is 24" 16:10 pivotable. I confirm a 5:4 format would be better, but I couldn't find one tall enough. 16:10 and 24" do improve the height, which drove the choice. The pivoted mode is fantastic, especially for the Internet, but 24" are no better than 22" in portrait. All details are sharp without adjusting any cable compensation. I attribute it to the DVI transmission. My eyes don't hurt as with my previous screen - but was this an effect of over-compensation, or of fluorescent back-lighting? The U2412M can be very bright. Adjusting the brightness takes far too long, as usual - manufacturers please improve! I don't need 100 steps for brightness, and I adjust it 1000 times more often than insider tweaks! Brightness isn't uniform. Nothing damning, but visible, and a disappointment. Could the LED be sorted and paired maybe? IPS may bring nicer colours. I'm no photographer and didn't investigate it. A few games look prettier. At 0.8m distance, being 0.5m offset from one location of the screen's area keeps acceptable colours there. TN didn't achieve it, that's why I took IPS for a big screen, whose edges are offset from a central viewer. I noticed no slow response in driving video games. But in portrait (=pivoted) mode, when scrolling fast, horizontal features like text get slightly inclined. This effect can be explained, even with figures, by the 60Hz refresh rate made from right to left in portrait mode. I'll check if my more recent video card offers a faster refresh. I tell you more when I use the screen on a decent computer.

Hello dear friends! Newer motherboards have no connector for a floppy drive though W2k installation needs for recent chipsets drivers provided on an F6 floppy. I know I can integrate the drivers into the installation Cdrom, but as the choice of the driver tends to need many trials, I feel a floppy is easier. I read somewhere that such F6 drivers could be supplied on a Cdrom instead of a floppy, but was that for W2k? Or beginning with Xp? And if I add one of these stupid and expensive floppy drives with Usb interface, will the W2k (Sp4 slipstreamed) install disk access the floppy drive? Thank you!

My opinion is the exact opposite: avoid hubs as they bring worries even if externally powered. Use only direct Usb ports. In case someone worries about the available power: a Usb 2.0 port delivers nearly nothing. Like 2.5W guaranteed maximum.

Thanks Jaclaz! Fun: e-itx' adapter is the no-name I got from eBay. And the mini-itx is the same as well. Or maybe some are copies of an other, or all are just the straight implementation of the board suggested by the chip manufacturer... Anyway, throughput made me less than enthusiastic with this adapter, and short freezes even less so. Pity, the chip carries no name - I'd know which one to avoid. HotSwap! does eject Sata disks from a proper host (so-called controller), even fixed disks as CF cards may be. v2.0.0.0 is the latest working on W2k and it doesn't stop the spindle of a mechanical disks - just fine for a CF. I hope the Sata-to-CF chip then ejects the CF side, not the Sata one... Needs a well-thought microcode. I'll browse for users' comments about Addonics' products. Yes, they use to deliver working parts. They also use to deliver the same banal parts as others do, but carrying their brand, for more money. I come back when I've found Addonics' performance. Meanwhile, more suggestions and testimonies are welcome!

CF to Pata adapter: sure! I have such a CF to host the paging file and browsers' temp files on my PIII, whose i815ep Northbridge limits the Ram size to 512MB. Efficient. And some adapter even fit a Pci slot or could be brought to the tower's bay side or outside the tower: I've done it for a P1 whose W95b wouldn't manage properly a USB 2.0 card reader. BUT: from a Pata port, the CF card can't be ejected. I have to shut down the computer. Hot plugging in would be dangerous as well. As well, many CF cards are slow if supplied with 5.0V from the Pata interface, and exceed Udma/33 only at 3.3V. Others make transmission mistake if loaded with a cable. Hence my desire to eject the CF card, which must be possible at a Sata card reader and maybe an adapter. Please recommend some!

Hi you all, Compact Flash (CF) cards exceed the speed of USB 2.0 card readers: the best such reader I know (Digisol 47200 with chip UT335) saturates around 24MB/s. USB 3.0 card readers look unusable with W2k up to now for lack of a USB 3.0 chip driver. Apart from Firewire, one good solution for W2k would be a Sata to CF reader or adapter. Sata1500 would suffice, we have some Sata3000 drivers for W2k, and even a hot ejector for fixed disks: HotSwap! v2.0.0.0 http://mt-naka.com/hotswap/file/HotSwap!%202.0.0.0.ZIP (latest working on W2k) from http://mt-naka.com/hotswap/index_enu.htm <bow>arigato gozaimasu</bow> Though, the only adapter I've tried (no-name HX-1223) isn't that good: <30MB/s, not observable in the Bios, seems to freeze shortly the machine... So, did you observe better ones? DeLock? Lian-li CR-CF01 maybe, as benchmarks look good? Either front bay adapters, 2.5" or 3.5", or external readers, or even bare adapters, I don't care too much... And I don't need other formats like SD, for which my USB 2.0 reader is good enough. Thank you!

To connect a Sata cable on a Pata disk I have an RXD-628B (or RXD-6288?) card with a chip RXD 001 plus something lengthy. Dirt-cheap at eBay, and it works very well, with 75MB/s contiguous throughput just as the disks provides in Pata; access time in 0.2ms longer. Fine. To connect a Pata ribbon on a Sata disk I had a Hxsp-071218 card which is bad. It blocked an otherwise sound Bios with safe sizes everywhere, or run at the Bios but not with Seatools, FDisk, or as a secondary disk on W2k... I don't use it any more. My far better solution was a Sata host card on Pci. For W2k and later I have the excellent SiI3124. It has at least 119MB/s throughput on Intel Pci (not Via nor Ali!), does use Ahci (observed), accesses Dvd drives easily, has a Raid bios and a faster-to-boot non-Raid Bios, easy to change. http://www.siliconimage.com/products/product.aspx?pid=27 http://www.siliconimage.com/products/product.aspx?pid=27 W2k boot time with one St3500418as was 24s (plus 4s added Bios time, or 2s non-Raid) on a PIII Tualatin 1.4GHz, as compared to 24s- with one J8160 on the original ICH2. Two St3500418as in Raid-0 aligned (!) "improved" to 22s (plus 4s added Bios time). As this one has no driver for W95-98-Me, I have a SiI3114 for them. It has drivers for W98SE and WinMe (and W2k+), Bios for Raid and faster ones for non-Raid. I measured only 93MB/s with a disk capable of 134MB/s, and it doesn't use Ahci even with W2k, which loses a lot of speed, but is useless with W98-Me. And it does access Dvd drives, >128GiB and so on. http://www.siliconimage.com/products/product.aspx?pid=28 http://www.siliconimage.com/support/searchresults.aspx?pid=28&cat=3 no single worry with both of them. Complete W2k installation from scratch tends to indicate this hardware is sound. By the way, I had many SiI680a for Pata133 on Pci, they were excellent as well. All from eCreek. And I didn't check how well the SiI3124 performs with WinMe and no driver. Under these conditions, the (Pata) RocketRaid 100 gave Udma speed to Win95b.

Fantastic ! BWC, I really enjoy your driver adaptation. The only way I know to use with W2k the recent Intel Ahci, which are so much faster than all added JMicron hosts or equivalent. THANK YOU BWC! ----- BWC, your screenshot shows a "Nec Usb 3.0"... Could you obtain the 3.0 speed on W2k? Your experience is precious, a thread is begun there ----- So the driver adapted to W2k runs fine on ICH10R and HM65. Experience on --- more chipsets ---, please dear forum users? Thanks!

What I meant with "disk host" is generally called a "disk controller" - the one often included in the mobo's chipset. Just to warn a user coming from W98 that, with W2k, moving a system disk from, say, an Intel to an AMD host is difficult. I write "host" purposely because, since the introduction of IDE a looooong time ago, all disks have the controller on the PC board attached to the drive, and the mobo (or the extension card) holds a mere host now, not a controller.

You're absolutely right: only Usb 2.0 on P67 chipsets. I've improved my first post.

Hello you all! On my ICH10R, disk access in Ahci mode is vital for speed thanks to the Ncq but needs a driver not available from Intel for Win2000. BlackWingCat's adaptation of the driver to W2k works perfectly, stable, marginally faster than the original driver on Xp. Does the P67 (and Z68) disk host accept a good Ahci driver for W2k? - Intel's latest InfInst, v9.2.0.1030, is made for the 6 series (P67, Z68...) and intended officially for W2k but doesn't include the disk host driver. - Intel's original Ahci driver is meant for Xp, rejects W2k, and makes calls to the wider Xp Api: no chance. - Did you run BlackWingCat's adaptation successfully on a P67 or Z68? Over some time? What version? Through F6, nLite, HfSlip...? - Other ideas? I don't want to use a slow JMicron or Marvell disk host added on the Mobo. Thank you!

My experience with W2k Server is only few hours short, so I add my 2 cents worth only to await a more justified opinion... W2k Server seems pretty usable as a workstation as-is, as opposed to W2k3 which needs some tuning (see special thread). So what kind of adaptation do you want? Maybe you'll just want to eject the Active Directory service when running as a workstation, or just a few more services? For that, you could create two reg files I suppose, which you execute before rebooting. Or start and stop the services from the console. I've read (on this forum?) that some software, especially antivirus and firewall, need special expensive licences to run on a Server flavour. Could be interesting to check. Other possibility: have a separate licence and install Cd for W2k workstation (dirt-cheap on eBay), make a dual boot.

Use instead a live CD of some recent Linux for OS copy! Like Ubuntu or Knoppix - one that accesses Ntfs. Or a live CD of win XP, or a hard disk containing a W2k or XP, which you connect only for this purpose. At least you can hope this CD or hard disk is sound, as opposed to a W98 on a disk connected permanently to the ill machine. BTW, I'm not sure Linux keeps all Ntfs protections when copying, which a Win does even if it's not its own installation. But beware encrypted directories are lost from one Nt5 installation to an other, even if you redefine the same users. In short: don't use Ntfs' encryption. And... Windows repair is more subtle than putting the original files in place. You have plenty of adjustments in the registry for instance, some must be kept, others must be restored. And think of C++ runtime as an other example: if you restore the original W2k versions, which are not all the runtime files, you may well run into worries. These are reasons in favour of a W2k install disk for repairs, instead of file forcing. More: the same reasons favour a W2k Cd as up-to-date as possible, which means a slipstreamed one.

Dear Win2000 users, could we share information about which USB 3.0 controllers work with W2k or not? At 3.0 speed of course. I have no such hardware (but will in the future) so I couldn't test the drivers properly. Here's a list of some controllers, please complete it: - AMD chipsets? - Nec's UPD 720200, and newer 200A, 201, 202, with Nec being Renesas now. The very recent v2.1.27.0 driver answers "error, impossible to achieve the installation". Because I have no controller, or because W2k is rejected? .cat files tell 5.1-6.0-6.1, bad sign. - Etron's EJ168 (sounds horribly in some languages). The v0.105 driver installer claims victory, but the only file added is C:\Winnt\Installer\11aba4e.msi - unclear. - TI's TUSB6010B. I didn't check. - Via's VL800 and 801, with Via being VLI now. I mean my following statement seriously: Via's Usb 2.0 chips are fast and reliable. That's why I consider VLI's Usb 3.0. What, disk hosts by Via? A different engineer probably. The driver 1.50B tells "can't find the related hardware" and keeps silent about the OS. .cat files tell 5.1-6.0-6.1 alas. Your experience please!

I'm not enthusiast about the install method where you transfer from a 20GB disk to a >128GiB one, because if you need to repair your W2k, you'll likely get trouble. I've forgotten the details since my W2k install Cd is slipstreamed using HfSlip (Msfn being the right forum for that), with the Sp4 and the Lba option included right from the beginning. But I believe to remember that putting W2k in a system volume within the first 128GiB did work properly. Did you use an F6 diskette to provide disk host drivers to the W2k installer? Also fun: on older Intel chipsets using the Intel Application Accelerator, I could copy the volume containing Txtsetup.oem on a diskette which I used as F6 successfully. Udma and Lba during install. Just to keep in mind: you can move W2k from one disk to an other on the same disk host, especially if using the same port, but moving it from a disk host model to an other one is difficult. Nt4-5-6 differs from W9x in this aspect. ----- W2k is stable and W98 unstable, yes, but in a dual boot you will format the volumes as Fat32 hence lose much of W2k's security. A big part of W2k's stability comes just from Ntfs protections which, combined with "power user" sessions without administrator rights, prevent badly written or malicious software from hampering the OS. As well, Fat32 loses files when the machine shuts down abnormally, and as files are missing, the OS shuts down abnormally more often, ending in an avalanche effect. To the very least, one should put W2k in its Ntfs volume - separate from the applications W98 shall access - and run it from a non-administrator session. ----- One thing W2k does not do is give applications a direct access to hardware. This is intentional, as a security feature, and contributes hugely to W2k's stability. But a few early games, often meant for Ms-dos or W95, willing to access the hard disk or the video Ram directly, are barren by W2k. This is why I had to keep a Win Me on a nephew's computer. ----- W2k install disks and licences are easy to buy on eBay. Separate re-sell of Oem software is legal in all EU countries where Justice was asked to decide.

Thanks, you all! I've taken good notice of your advices, and also read website and users' opinion meanwhile. One site gives very detailed, first-hand information, on a limited number of screens: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/ it gives independently measured colour linearity, response delay, response time... Over time, delusions of grandeur have gripped my simple need: I consider now a 24 inch AND 16:10 AND pivotable AND with Led... Dell's U2412M seems to fulfil this. Its IPS screen looks responsive, according to http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2412m.htm while other sites still claim IPS is inadequate for gaming and only TN fits... Comments please?

Cheers! Recent Intel processors integrate a graphics processor which seems too weak for my games (just Ski Challenge, a few driving games, nothing special). So I'd have a separate video card. Do we save the consumption and heating of the integrated graphics when it's not used, at least? And does the integrated graphics limit the CPU overclocking capability when it's off? Thanks!