TTC Shelbyville – Technical Blog

Anyone who has hit Ctrl-Alt-Del understands they may have several svchost.exe ‘s running.  What are they?  They relate to networking and some programs use svchost in groups.  This tiny download (14 kb) shows exactly what this file is doing.

Link to Download.

Here is a link for router emulators for Linksys.  Link

ReactOS is tiny, and I mean tiny and it is fast.  A new concept for a rebuild of Microsoft Windows.  Many of the windows look exactly like Microsoft Windows and the commands (prompt) are the same.  ReactOS is in the Alpha stages and can be downloaded as an ISO to be installed on VirtualBox or you can get a live CD to boot with so that there is no installation.  Be sure to download Firefox 2.0 (There may be security issues with this version but hey, I like trying new operating systems).

Vitualbox 2.20 has been released.  See our articles on VirtualBox.

VirtualBox’s Website.

Windows 2008 Server has Network Access Protection which is also known as NAP or NPS. This tool serves an administrative purpose to help organizations compare the security level in a computer on the network to the Server 2008′s policies. This comparison helps to determine if the computer is safe enough to join and use the Server. This is another way to help find if the computer’s ‘health’ is adequate as far as policy and the NAP can also analyze both the anti-virus program and if the firewall is installed. In an upcoming series, Windows 2008 Server will be reviewed.

Information on NAP from TechNet

Microsoft’s Deployment Guide

Discovery Health’s  Human Atlas

Cool site.

Cool Concept.  Link

This group has some interesting post on ‘how’ anti-malware products compare.  Go Check them out here.

Results from one test is found here.

Thanks Cecil for finding this…

Max found this cool looking SATA adapter from Thinkgeek.  Great idea.  I have a joke that you can plug a toaster in windows and it will find it….  $78.00 + Shipping

Microsoft Windows Vista has a reliability monitor built into the operating system.  To get to the monitor, right click on My Computer and select manage.  You will see the Performance and Reliability Monitor.  Click on the Reliability Monitor.  This will give you information on the programs and the reliability of the computer.

My wife has a 9.98 in reliability.  I have a 5.65.  Why the difference?  I run Virtualbox with Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows 7 and Ubuntu.  I experiment with network settings and programs.  I love my computer and it is in reality more stable than the 5.65 number above.  I elect to stop programs on purpose or crash programs when doing reviews for class.  YOU can use this to see if programs are causing problems for you and take corrective action.

The Windows Resource Monitor found under the Task Manager (Right Click the Taskbar and clik Task Manager – Click on Performance and Click the Resource Monitor on the bottom) is an excellent tool that is better than Windows XP’s performance monitor.  This tool is in Server 2008 and Windows 7.  Excellent tool – shows CPU, Memory, Disk and Network information.  This tool can help show you why your computer is slow.

This tool should also be used in conjunction with Virtualization.  It is an excellent tool to show how these resources are being used on the host and guest computers.

Microsoft will say no.  But like any software company, good products and bad products will come out.  A techno roller coaster of good and bad tends to follow software companies.

As technology evolves, software and operating systems will change.  Windows ME was before Windows XP and many critics will agree that Windows ME was a resource hog (used a lot of memory and CPU) BUT the ability to roll the operating system back came about with ME and with the change of code (a lot was the same), Windows XP was born.  After three service packs and many many patches,  most people like it and want to hang on.

With Windows Vista (another resource hog) the operating system is flaky on some computers and better on others.  With Windows 7, if Microsoft stays on track, it may be a good replacement for Windows XP and it may be the next operating system we hang on to.  We have done several reviews and tons of testing.  Most of our students like its performance in comparison to Windows Vista.

The features and changes that go through operating systems are liked and disliked.  With hardware changing, software becoming more complex and the internet changing every morning you wake up, operating systems will change.  The features of Windows 7 are almost the same as Vista.   The look is almost the same.  The performance is different (for now).

Without a change to operating systems, one of our classes would be left behind.  Our CAD/Drafting class works with solidworks and our Machine Tool class works with FeatureCAM.  As these software programs become more detailed, the hardware will become more demanding and the operating system will have to support these.

Windows XP and Windows Vista could support up to 4 GB of RAM with the /PAE option and now Windows 7 will be able to support far above 4 GB if it is installed on a 64 bit processor (64 bit edition).

So the answer is Windows 7 is Vista, XP, ME, 2000, 98,  and 95 all rolled into one.  Technology will continue to change and it will not wait on us.

Rick over at What’s On My PC has a wealth of information about cloud computing and online applications.  Go check him out and see the links.

Every tech knows that Google builds their own server (Hey, so do we..which saves thousands).   Ours are not as powerful as Google’s of course but they are very dependable.  CNET took a look at Google’s Servers and guess what.  Go over and take a look at the server they released to the general public (to view).

• They use Gigabyte motherboards  GA-91VDP
• IBM Deskstars (Hard drives)

Note the date on the hard drives are 2007.  Google has better.   Also some interesting facts is that Google puts a battery on each server so that the computers are 99.9% efficient as far as UPS backups..  Also Google has approximately 1,000+ servers in each container…. now that is power.  By the way, they use AMD and Intel CPUs.

Thanks Deb for sending the article.

Donna Pierce Richardson was a Computer Information Technology student several years ago.   Her motivation and skills should be mirrored by current and future CIT students as should her ability to balance her work, school and personal life.  After graduation Donna went on to get her degree and several other national information technology exams.

Donna currently works for one of the world’s largest Pharmaceutical companies.

It has been a while since I have seen the “please wait while domain list is created” of course it did it in class day and I was puzzled.  Later, after class of course I remembered that I had DHCP on the server we were playing with.   I went back and configured my gateway in the DHCP (It is a lab server and some of the configurations had changed), Put the domain’s IP into the DNS along with other DNS numbers and put the Domain’s name in Option 15.  I also statically added the server’s IP address in its DNS section on the network card ( I personally don’t put the loopback).

I went back to the computers that were slow at finding the domain and bam! they found it right away….

If you have just logged into a domain and get a delay (Windows appears to hang), follow these steps to speed up the process.

Right Click on your local area network connection properties, and double click TCP/IP.

Click Advanced

Click the WINS tab.

On the NetBIOS settings, select Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP.

You should see an increase in log in speed.

KeyTrain has become an important part of graduating the TTC Shelbyville.  With Career Readiness Training, a certificate can be earned at different levels.   Upon enrollment, the Tech Foundations instructor or your instructor will enroll you in KeyTrain.  In order to graduate, you will need to obtain at least a Bronze Level Certificate after completing the KeyTrain portion of training. 

Tips for Completing the KeyTrain

• With the CIT program, concentrate and worry about your national exams.
• At every free moment in class take a few minutes each day to do KeyTrain
• Do KeyTrain at home to expedite the process.
• Once KeyTrain is done, it will allow more time to focus on your certifications and career.

As the world wonders what happened to the April 1st virus; they wonder if it was a false alarm.   Nope.  Just like 1999, there was no end of the world but IT personnel across the nation worked overtime and put in extra hours just to make sure everything was OK.  Today I’ve had a couple of buddies who are battling it….keep your updates.