From user at domain.invalid Sat Oct 3 07:21:37 2009 From: user at domain.invalid (User) Date: Sat Oct 3 07:25:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Heed help with one of my grand kids. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On 30.09.2009 13:33, anon wrote: --- Original Message --- > > > "User" wrote in message > news:h9srle$m5p$1@news.spamcop.net... >> On 28.09.2009 19:54, Frog Prince wrote: >> >>> As most here know my kids are foster to adopt. They have two kids the >>> natural way and two adopted with more in the plan. >>> >>> In any case the 15 y.o. is getting a bit creative and doing things no >>> one >>> will approve or tolerate. >>> >>> With her parents permission I've set up a monitor on the house phone and >>> cell phones. >>> >>> I need to set up some sort of key logger or better yet a system where >>> her >>> parents can go back and follow her trail on the computer. I know we >>> cannot >>> follow her on line activities while she is at a friends house so >>> rather than >>> keeping her off the computer at the house I want to put something on the >>> machine that she cannot ID much less remove that will allow her >>> family to >>> keep tabs on the kid. >>> >>> Best if it can be have remote access by to her father and mother's >>> computers. >>> >>> Any suggestions recommendations etc are most welcome. >>> >>> BTW the os are XPhome and Vista. >>> >>> >>> FP >>> brother_rabbit @ hotmail.com >> >> Rather than pushing a morals agenda on you, sure .. >> >> http://www.spiesonline.net/monitor.shtml >> >> Good stuff > > Anon chiming in: > > Yes you have a problem. > > I think one of the early posts about 'conversation' and trust is on the > point. > > You will NOT be able to beat him at the computer game - he will outsmart > you every time. > > The modern kids now have their own networking groups that work a lot > like the spammers do or let us say how the international arms race works. > > If one kid knows how to bat your spying, every kid will know how to beat > it. > > All you can hope for is a lot of face to face intervention - just like > treating the drunk that will not admit he has a problem. > > Lots of luck!! Thanks but I'm not the one with the issue. From MikeE at ster.invalid Mon Oct 5 06:15:05 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Mon Oct 5 06:15:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Heed help with one of my grand kids. References: Message-ID: Frog Prince wrote: > "Mike Easter" >> That is, instead of skullduggery and surreptitious spying, I recommend >> an open and honest negotiated settlement/agreement/restrictions with a >> mutually accepted verification plan for oversight. >> >> Parental dishonesty is not a good training environment for 'fostering' >> healthy character. > > Mike, with all due respect, these kids come from an environment where > the (current) parent HAS to be proactive in keeping them on the > straight and narrow. > Lack of adult supervision, not to mention love, is what got these kids > in harms way from the get go. I've been away from online access a few days. I have no problem with parental proactivity, supervision, restrictions, or love. And honesty. Being honest and 'forthright' isn't the same thing as helping the teen defeat the agreed upon monitoring and restrictions. Here's an article about spying. http://crime.about.com/od/online/a/spyingonkids.htm Software That Allows Parents to Monitor Online Activity Gains in Popularity - Spying On Your Children? ... Clearly define the rules you expect the child to follow when getting online. - Communicate that their activity will be monitored at times. Here's a site about keylogging (etc) software reviews and ratings http://www.keylogger.org/ Top monitoring software (keylogger/spyware) in review 2009 .... a surveillance software product must be invisible not only for the user supervised but also for specialized products that are developed to counteract monitoring The teens also know about such sites and antikeylogger/spyware sites such as http://www.anti-keyloggers.com/products.html Free, secure and easy Keylogger and Spyware scan -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From nobody at spamcop.net Thu Oct 8 11:31:45 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Thu Oct 8 11:35:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Heed help with one of my grand kids. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Twayne" wrote in message news:ha09df$tcc$1@news.spamcop.net... > One of our proudest moments was when one came to us crying and told us he > couldn't do without the computer porn, could we take him to a doctor or > something? How old was this kid? In my early teens, I was so full of testosterone that I'd go to ridiculous lengths to get ahold of any kind of paper porn I could get (internet and video porn didn't exist yet ;-) If I had grown up in today's electronic age, I doubt I would have been able to avoid PC porn either, even under threat of punishment.....I'd probably have gone to any length to undercut any kind of blocking/tracking mechanisms put in place, and I know how to do it now (I was blocked from getting to my Ameritrade account at work, but only for a few days ;-) Just off the top of my head portable Firefox on a thumb drive might easily hide any tracks on the host PC? From MikeE at ster.invalid Thu Oct 8 11:48:45 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Thu Oct 8 11:50:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Heed help with one of my grand kids. References: Message-ID: Indigo wrote: > Just off the top of my head portable Firefox on a thumb drive might > easily hide any tracks on the host PC? Silly boy. Such as WebWatcher... Record Websites Visited - Where do they really go online? Block Unwanted Websites - Block sites by keyword, phrase or url. Take Screenshots in Real Time - See what they see as they see it. Record Instant Messages - Who are they chatting to and what are they saying? Record Emails & Attachments - No more secret emails. All is revealed. Filter Content & Sort Data - All information is saved and organized for easy access. Log Keystrokes Online & Offline - Record every keystroke typed, even passwords. Full Remote Monitoring - See what the user is doing online from anywhere in the world. Runs Invisibly - They will never know it is installed, not even a trace in the registry. ... does all of that and stores it at a website that the parent can access remotely, from another computer, regardless of whether the kid/perpetrator/employee is using a thumbdrive or not. I think to defeat the WW, they would need to use the computer's hardware and access without booting it into windows. I haven't researched WW yet about how it is able to do its work without being detectable in the registry. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From kenbrody at spamcop.net Thu Oct 8 13:07:59 2009 From: kenbrody at spamcop.net (Kenneth Brody) Date: Thu Oct 8 13:10:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Heed help with one of my grand kids. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Mike Easter wrote: > Indigo wrote: > >> Just off the top of my head portable Firefox on a thumb drive might >> easily hide any tracks on the host PC? > > Silly boy. Such as WebWatcher... > [... snip list of "features" ...] > > ... does all of that and stores it at a website that the parent can > access remotely, from another computer, regardless of whether the > kid/perpetrator/employee is using a thumbdrive or not. > > I think to defeat the WW, they would need to use the computer's hardware > and access without booting it into windows. I haven't researched WW yet > about how it is able to do its work without being detectable in the > registry. How about simply booting off the thumb drive? Yes, most BIOSes today allow you to set the boot priority, and put on a password to prevent access to the BIOS. However, those same BIOSes also include a "press 'key X' to select boot device". -- Kenneth Brody From me at privacy.net Thu Oct 8 13:22:43 2009 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Thu Oct 8 13:25:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Heed help with one of my grand kids. References: Message-ID: "Kenneth Brody" wrote in message news:hal69m$8ch$1@news.spamcop.net... : Mike Easter wrote: : > Indigo wrote: : > : >> Just off the top of my head portable Firefox on a thumb drive might : >> easily hide any tracks on the host PC? : > : > Silly boy. Such as WebWatcher... : > : [... snip list of "features" ...] : > : > ... does all of that and stores it at a website that the parent can : > access remotely, from another computer, regardless of whether the : > kid/perpetrator/employee is using a thumbdrive or not. : > : > I think to defeat the WW, they would need to use the computer's hardware : > and access without booting it into windows. I haven't researched WW yet : > about how it is able to do its work without being detectable in the : > registry. : : How about simply booting off the thumb drive? : : Yes, most BIOSes today allow you to set the boot priority, and put on a : password to prevent access to the BIOS. However, those same BIOSes also : include a "press 'key X' to select boot device". Not hard to disable a thumb drive port. Push come to shove you can physically remove the option. From MikeE at ster.invalid Thu Oct 8 13:36:48 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Thu Oct 8 13:40:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Heed help with one of my grand kids. References: Message-ID: Kenneth Brody wrote: > Mike Easter wrote: >> Indigo wrote: >> >>> Just off the top of my head portable Firefox on a thumb drive might >>> easily hide any tracks on the host PC? >> >> Silly boy. Such as WebWatcher... >> > [... snip list of "features" ...] >> >> ... does all of that and stores it at a website that the parent can >> access remotely, from another computer, regardless of whether the >> kid/perpetrator/employee is using a thumbdrive or not. >> >> I think to defeat the WW, they would need to use the computer's >> hardware and access without booting it into windows. I haven't >> researched WW yet about how it is able to do its work without being >> detectable in the registry. > > How about simply booting off the thumb drive? That seems like a good strategy to me if you can get to the boot option. > Yes, most BIOSes today allow you to set the boot priority, and put on a > password to prevent access to the BIOS. However, those same BIOSes also > include a "press 'key X' to select boot device". The computer I usually use to boot from a thumb drive gives you that access to the boot device without getting into the bios setup. (and/because/why I do) Some linux distros only come as DVD .iso/s, and some of my computers including that one don't have dvd opticals, so it is handy to be able to 'burn' the dvd .iso to a bootable flash drive and boot from it. However, other computers require getting into the bios setup to set/option the boot drive. This is an example of the adversary needing to know /if/ a technique or /what/ technique is being used to monitor the activity. Using my philosophical/moral discussion earlier where the parent and the teen agree about what kinds of activities are going to be OK and what activities are not OK -- and that the parent is going to monitor the activity and announces that-- but the parent isn't (morally) 'required' to explain to the teen how the monitoring is going to take place. That's a different game between teen and parent than if the parent doesn't tell the teen that they are going to be monitored. In one case, the teen has to figure out if they are being monitored and if so, how. In the other case the teen knows they are being monitored, but not how; that's for them to figure out or evade. A smart teen would try to 'spy' on the parent's activities to figure out the most likely strategy the parent would use for the monitoring, so that they could defeat it or avoid it if necessary, or allow it if avoidance or defeat weren't necessary for most activities. Adversaries under the same roof with access to each other's computers is a tricky security problem. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From MikeE at ster.invalid Thu Oct 8 13:44:39 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Thu Oct 8 13:45:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Heed help with one of my grand kids. References: Message-ID: Frog Prince wrote: > "Kenneth Brody" >> How about simply booting off the thumb drive? > Not hard to disable a thumb drive port. Push come to shove you can > physically remove the option. You mean disconnect the case USB ports from the mobo or do you mean to physically remove case USB connectors? Most of my rigs have both case USB wired to the mobo and rear USB integrated to the mobo. Some of these cat and mouse activities are getting pretty far out, especially in the area of who knows who is doing what. You wouldn't ordinarily disable the USB unless you knew or tho't (somehow) that strategy would be employed. The teen wouldn't ordinarily boot from the USB unless they suspected (somehow) the defeat of the monitoring was going to require it. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From me at privacy.net Thu Oct 8 13:59:21 2009 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Thu Oct 8 14:00:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Heed help with one of my grand kids. References: Message-ID: "Mike Easter" wrote in message news:hal8e6$91j$1@news.spamcop.net... : Frog Prince wrote: : > "Kenneth Brody" : : >> How about simply booting off the thumb drive? : : > Not hard to disable a thumb drive port. Push come to shove you can : > physically remove the option. : : You mean disconnect the case USB ports from the mobo or do you mean to : physically remove case USB connectors? : : Most of my rigs have both case USB wired to the mobo and rear USB : integrated to the mobo. : : Some of these cat and mouse activities are getting pretty far out, : especially in the area of who knows who is doing what. You wouldn't : ordinarily disable the USB unless you knew or tho't (somehow) that : strategy would be employed. The teen wouldn't ordinarily boot from the : USB unless they suspected (somehow) the defeat of the monitoring was : going to require it. : I have more to post on the original subject later (I'm waiting for a phone call) but the discussion WRT usb port was on an academic level. FWIW we did that at the last company I worked for as a direct result of concerns for security. A parent does what a parent has to do to protect their kids. As example we had another family that had problems with a foster kid 'borrowing the car' hiding the keys did not work so I fixed it so the parent could remove functionality from the engine computer. Kid could still 'borrow the car' but unless he wanted to push it up the drive no one was going anywhere. From me at privacy.net Thu Oct 8 19:41:08 2009 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Thu Oct 8 19:45:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Heed help with one of my grand kids. References: Message-ID: Thanks to all for your considered response, knowledgeable assistance and suggestions. Up date: Without going into details our efforts revealed that neither my grand kids nor their close friends were the source of the problems. In the process but did uncover some serious goings on in the area. Beyond that I can't comment at this time. From nobody at spamcop.net Thu Oct 8 21:32:28 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Thu Oct 8 21:35:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Heed help with one of my grand kids. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Mike Easter" wrote in message news:hal1kr$6j6$1@news.spamcop.net... > I think to defeat the WW, they would need to use the computer's hardware > and access without booting it into windows. I haven't researched WW yet > about how it is able to do its work without being detectable in the > registry. that is the question....how can any app work without making itself known in the registry? From MikeE at ster.invalid Thu Oct 8 22:07:57 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Thu Oct 8 22:10:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Heed help with one of my grand kids. References: Message-ID: Indigo wrote: > "Mike Easter" >> I think to defeat the WW, they would need to use the computer's >> hardware and access without booting it into windows. I haven't >> researched WW yet about how it is able to do its work without being >> detectable in the registry. > > that is the question....how can any app work without making itself > known in the registry? I found this article about detecting (NOT) and removing (not easily, not manually, requires proprietary ware) WW to be interesting. http://www.removeadware.com.au/articles/webwatcher/ When and how does a legitimate program become predatory? WebWatcher can be used with the best intentions or the worst - is it installed on your computer? The SpyBot S&D article on manual removal^1 didn't seem really honest to me, but the article about using Malwarebytes^2 and HiJackThis seemed much more realistic. ^2 http://snipr.com/sepol Computer Security & Viruses - Webwatcher removal - Expert: Brian Benosky - 6/4/2009 ^1 http://snipr.com/septu The following instructions have been created to help you to get rid of "WebWatcher" manually. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From loyal at spamcop.user Thu Oct 8 22:59:16 2009 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Thu Oct 8 23:00:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Heed help with one of my grand kids. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Mike Easter wrote: > Frog Prince wrote: >> "Kenneth Brody" > >>> How about simply booting off the thumb drive? > >> Not hard to disable a thumb drive port. Push come to shove you can >> physically remove the option. > > You mean disconnect the case USB ports from the mobo or do you mean to > physically remove case USB connectors? > > Most of my rigs have both case USB wired to the mobo and rear USB > integrated to the mobo. > > Some of these cat and mouse activities are getting pretty far out, > especially in the area of who knows who is doing what. You wouldn't > ordinarily disable the USB unless you knew or tho't (somehow) that > strategy would be employed. The teen wouldn't ordinarily boot from the > USB unless they suspected (somehow) the defeat of the monitoring was > going to require it. I'm late to the thread, but I'm surprised no one has suggested blocking it at the router. My NetGear router, which is several years old, has a parental controls feature with TrendMicro one can subscribe to. You can also block specific sites, and allow specific ips to access blocked sites. I'd be surprised that any reputable modern router would at least have this type of functionality. Even better, would be a router that logs what an IP accesses. And I'd assume you'd block access to the router with a password. If one uses wireless in their house, and if the WPA keys are kept secret, booting off of a USB won't work as the child won't know the WPA key to access the network. Some random thoughts. AndrewB From nobody at spamcop.net Fri Oct 9 11:38:35 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Indigo) Date: Fri Oct 9 11:40:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Heed help with one of my grand kids. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "AndrewB" wrote in message news:ham8u4$kvg$1@news.spamcop.net... > I'm late to the thread, but I'm surprised no one has suggested blocking it > at the router. My NetGear router, which is several years old, has a > parental controls feature with TrendMicro one can subscribe to. You can > also block specific sites, and allow specific ips to access blocked sites. But if it's a shared computer FP would't be able to get his daily dose of porn anymore! (at least not without constantly changing the router settings ;-) From kenbrody at spamcop.net Fri Oct 9 12:32:39 2009 From: kenbrody at spamcop.net (Kenneth Brody) Date: Fri Oct 9 12:35:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Heed help with one of my grand kids. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Indigo wrote: > > "Mike Easter" wrote in message > news:hal1kr$6j6$1@news.spamcop.net... >> I think to defeat the WW, they would need to use the computer's hardware >> and access without booting it into windows. I haven't researched WW yet >> about how it is able to do its work without being detectable in the >> registry. > > that is the question....how can any app work without making itself known > in the registry? There are very few things that _require_ that the app put things in the registry in order to work. The app that I maintain, consisting of numerous executables, dlls, and other files, never touches the registry, and can be moved to another computer and run by simply copying files to the other system. (Okay, it will warn you that the license is no longer valid, but getting a license for the new system also does not require touching the registry.) -- Kenneth Brody From kenbrody at spamcop.net Fri Oct 9 12:40:36 2009 From: kenbrody at spamcop.net (Kenneth Brody) Date: Fri Oct 9 12:45:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Heed help with one of my grand kids. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: AndrewB wrote: [...] > I'm late to the thread, but I'm surprised no one has suggested blocking > it at the router. My NetGear router, which is several years old, has a > parental controls feature with TrendMicro one can subscribe to. You can > also block specific sites, and allow specific ips to access blocked > sites. I'd be surprised that any reputable modern router would at least > have this type of functionality. As I recall, there is only one computer shared by the adult and child. There may not even be a router involved. That said, with less than 10 clicks of my mouse, I can turn off all Internet access from all of the kids' computers, without affecting any of the other systems here. (I created a rule on the router to block Internet traffic for a given set of computers, and I can enable/disable that rule with a few clicks.) > Even better, would be a router that logs what an IP accesses. And I'd > assume you'd block access to the router with a password. > > If one uses wireless in their house, and if the WPA keys are kept > secret, booting off of a USB won't work as the child won't know the WPA > key to access the network. Yes, that could work well. Unless, that is, you have neighbors that have unsecured wireless routers in range. You'd be surprised (well, maybe not) as to how many times I see unsecured wireless networks with default "out of the box" network names, and control panel login passwords. Fortunately, my scruples prevent me from "tweaking" their networks for them. > Some random thoughts. -- Kenneth Brody From avoozl at spamcop.net Fri Oct 9 17:08:30 2009 From: avoozl at spamcop.net (Chris F. Willoughby) Date: Fri Oct 9 17:10:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Heed help with one of my grand kids. References: Message-ID: "Kenneth Brody" wrote in message news:hanp2c$6q8$1@news.spamcop.net... > Yes, that could work well. Unless, that is, you have neighbors that have > unsecured wireless routers in range. You'd be surprised (well, maybe not) > as to how many times I see unsecured wireless networks with default "out > of the box" network names, and control panel login passwords. > Fortunately, my scruples prevent me from "tweaking" their networks for > them. > >> Some random thoughts. > > > -- > Kenneth Brody I've secured those a few times in the past. Everytime, I find them reset to defaults within 48hrs. Idiots. From kenbrody at spamcop.net Sun Oct 11 21:04:56 2009 From: kenbrody at spamcop.net (Kenneth Brody) Date: Sun Oct 11 21:05:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Heed help with one of my grand kids. In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Chris F. Willoughby wrote: > "Kenneth Brody" wrote in message > news:hanp2c$6q8$1@news.spamcop.net... >> Yes, that could work well. Unless, that is, you have neighbors that have >> unsecured wireless routers in range. You'd be surprised (well, maybe not) >> as to how many times I see unsecured wireless networks with default "out >> of the box" network names, and control panel login passwords. >> Fortunately, my scruples prevent me from "tweaking" their networks for >> them. >> > > I've secured those a few times in the past. Everytime, I find them reset to > defaults within 48hrs. Idiots. Of course. You "secured" the routers, and they couldn't connect to them anymore. So, they did the only thing they know how to do -- factory reset. -- Kenneth Brody From avoozl at spamcop.net Mon Oct 12 03:57:28 2009 From: avoozl at spamcop.net (Chris F. Willoughby) Date: Mon Oct 12 04:00:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Heed help with one of my grand kids. References: Message-ID: "Kenneth Brody" wrote in message news:hatvbo$f1h$1@news.spamcop.net... >> Chris F. Willoughby wrote: >> I've secured those a few times in the past. Everytime, I find them reset >> to defaults within 48hrs. Idiots. > > Of course. You "secured" the routers, and they couldn't connect to them > anymore. So, they did the only thing they know how to do -- factory > reset. > > -- > Kenneth Brody > No, they could still connect to them. I wasn't that stupid. From me at privacy.net Wed Oct 14 23:40:14 2009 From: me at privacy.net (Frog Prince) Date: Wed Oct 14 23:45:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Ping Mike Easter : Press Release: Ekahau Introduces Wristband Tag for Wi-Fi-based Real Time Location Tracking Message-ID: ----- Original Message ----- From: Ekahau Press Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 3:00 AM Subject: Press Release: Ekahau Introduces Wristband Tag for Wi-Fi-based Real Time Location Tracking Small Form Factor Makes T301W Tag Ideal for Applications that Require Precise Location of Children and Adults Reston, VA --- October 14, 2009 --- Ekahau Inc., the leading provider of High Performance Wi-Fi-based Real Time Location Systems (RTLS), today announced that it is expanding its hardware product line with the introduction of the T301W, a wristband tag that is designed for use in applications that determine the precise location of people. The T301W tag’s small size and comfortable fit make it ideal for use in hospitals, where knowing the real-time location of an adult patient, child or a visitor is a requirement for ensuring patient safety and satisfaction. The wristband tag also can be used in places like amusement parks, cruise ships and other hospitality venues, where there is a potential for children or adults to be separated from their group. Enterprise uses of the units include deployments in mines, where it is important to know the location of individuals in the event of an accident; and in highly-sensitive facilities, where visitor access may be restricted to specific areas. “Ekahau is first on the market again with a wristband format Wi-Fi tag,” said Arttu Huhtiniemi, vice president of Product Management at Ekahau. “Our new, small form factor tag incorporates Ekahau’s industry leading location tracking technology, enabling accurate, real-time location tracking over the customers’ existing Wi-Fi network.” Location accuracy is critical in safety and work-flow related applications. The T301W tag works like Ekahau’s other tags to provide an unprecedented degree of location accuracy, movement tracking and workflow visibility. Combined with the recently announced Ekahau room and bed beacons, the wristband tags guarantee precise location capabilities down to less than a few feet in both confined and open spaces. The wristband tag houses a programmable push button that, when pressed, sends a pre-determined message to the RTLS system that then processes the button press based on a sophisticated set of business rules. These messages could be an alert that assistance is needed, or signals an event, for instance, when an individual has completed a task or is required to check-in on a periodic basis. The T301W is designed to make the deployment and use of the units very easy and environmentally friendly. The T301W is waterproof, allowing the user to swim or bathe while wearing the unit, and it can be fully immersed in various cleaning solutions for disinfection, supporting re-use. The tag’s battery life can vary from a few weeks to over a month, depending upon the blink rate set to update its location information. The tag’s lithium-ion battery can be easily recharged within a few hours using an Ekahau multi-unit charger, which is capable of charging up to 10 wristband tags at a time. Because the T301W uses the customer’s Wi-Fi network for locating, it is able to take advantage of the two-way communications capabilities inherent to Wi-Fi. This, for example, allows the system to alert the person wearing the tag about an event or action, such as a request to “please return to your room” or “your turn is next , please proceed to the check-in desk.” The T301W is equipped with a vibration alarm, which can be triggered remotely either though a set of system rules or manually, allowing the user to receive alerts. The T301W joins the Ekahau family of Wi-Fi tags, which is the most extensive collection of tags on the market today. Other tags include units that are optimized for asset tracking, personnel tracking, process optimization, temperature sensing and reporting, indoor/outdoor use and automated parts replenishment. The T301W tags will be generally available in the fourth quarter of 2009. Cost of the tag will be approximately $60. About Ekahau Inc. Ekahau Inc. is the industry leader in providing High Performance Wi-Fi-based RTLS solutions. Ekahau's customers, including several Fortune 500 companies worldwide, are realizing the benefits of Wi-Fi based location services and innovative Wi-Fi network planning and optimization tools. Ekahau’s solutions are being used in more than 150 hospitals around the world, as well as by manufacturers, mining/oil/gas companies, government agencies and the military. Ekahau partners include wireless software developers, leading system integrators and international OEM partners, who develop and market wireless enterprise applications. Ekahau is a U.S. based corporation, with offices in Saratoga, Calif.; Reston, Va.; Helsinki, Finland; and Hong Kong, China. For more information about Ekahau, please visit at www.ekahau.com. © Copyright 2009, Ekahau, Inc. All Rights Reserved. U.S. Media Contact: Juliet Travis Rocket Science PR, for Ekahau +1 415.464.8110 x 215 juliet(at)rocketscience.com Europe Media Contact: Annina Pierson Marketing Director, Ekahau +358 20 743 5910 annina.pierson(at)ekahau.com This message was sent to shambley45@verizon.net by Ekahau. To manage your preferences, please click here. Forward this message to a friend. © 2000-2008 Ekahau, Inc. All rights reserved. Ekahau™, Ekahau Positioning Engine™, Ekahau Site Survey™, Ekahau T301™ and the Ekahau logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Ekahau. Other product and company names may be trademarks or trade names of their respective owners. Ekahau | 1851 Alexander Bell Drive, | Ste. 300 | Reston, VA 20191 | US begin 666 _q=message_open&fn=Link&ssid=879&id=3hkjwv2wqovrry1id5axauzecgdsq.dat K1TE&.#EA`0`!`( ``/___P```"'Y! $`````+ `````!``$```("1 $`.P`` ` end From MikeE at ster.invalid Thu Oct 15 12:57:09 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Thu Oct 15 13:00:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Ping Mike Easter : Press Release: References: Message-ID: Frog Prince wrote: > From: Ekahau Press > This message was sent to snip uue encoded .dat attachment which is some kind of 1 pixel .gif You left some mailrelated junk attached to your message. I don't have any problem with that technology. Likely you are 'referring'/alluding to our astronaut house arrest discussion. Here're some wiki snippages to bring you up to date on Lisa Marie Nowak; naturally there's a lot more at the wiki including timeline omitted below. On August 12, 2007 Nowak asked to have her GPS ankle bracelet removed,[57] which the judge agreed to on August 30.[58] On December 5, 2008, the Fifth District Court of Appeals for the State of Florida held that her statements were taken in violation of Miranda, but that the search of her car was still valid On October 7, 2009 a judge in Orlando ruled in favor of allowing Nowak's attorneys to give a second deposition to Shipman to inquire whether or not Nowak actually pepper sprayed Shipman.[66] [67] A medical report by paramedics is raising some questions according to Nowak's attorneys as to the factual basis for it. If it is found not to have occured Nowak's attorneys want the criminal charges related to the assault and battery to be dropped before trial begins. The trial is currently scheduled for December 7, 2009. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Oct 21 07:07:54 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Heidi) Date: Wed Oct 21 07:10:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] browser redirects Message-ID: After a night of hell with Comcast screwing up email and my not having access to it, this morning I tried to use a book mark to get to one of my favorite forum sites, and I get this browser redirect: http://searchignited.com/?flrdr=yes&nxte=js&dn=www.smartpakradio.com&fp=%2BT%2BXTh9JYA8pr0Q8IXwjwKrz4xpfJ0fJaEWvIl%2BbzPEN7vdAPvHwzXQ7HOdyHLQ939v7awWL0USqyMfg1Hvn7Q%3D%3D&prvtof=z%2FXDD8NuBonUNx7JSixUD%2F1YK9wco5xX2TXtDsCaE2PWAayFnoPp%2B3Ltjy5E5wcPrXqC4pwwrCqtHD8kT5p7bA%3D%3D&cifr=1 Adaware and AVG find nothing, I've tried to go in from the homepage without using the bookmark: http://www.chronofhorse.com/index.php?cat=40511032791602&News_ID=1210910090513622&Show_All= and as soon as I click on the Forums button, I get redirected to the above page. Is their site hacked, or is it a spyware problem here. I added the above and the source ad.yieldmanager.com to my Hosts file. No dice. What am I missing? It's early..... From MikeE at ster.invalid Wed Oct 21 12:18:59 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Wed Oct 21 12:20:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: browser redirects References: Message-ID: Heidi wrote: > this morning I tried to use a book mark to get to one of > my favorite forum sites, > http://www.chronofhorse.com/index.php?cat=40511032791602&News_ID=1210910 090513622&Show_All= If I click on your chronofhorse link above I get an article - Courtney King-Dye's Olympic dressage horse, Harmony's Mythilus, owned by the Harmony Amateur Sports Foundation, was euthanized today, Oct. 9. Your link doesn't look like a 'forums' link, but more like an article or archive or obituaries link from a previous issue, since the current issue is Oct 16. If I go in the front page http://www.chronofhorse.com/ and click on the COTH Forums link I get http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/ so I think that the Forum is going to be in the path of a forum article; whereas the news/article/obituary at your link wasn't in a forum format or path. > What am I missing? It's early..... That isn't happening to my browser. That sounds like some browser hijacking. I initially checked with a linux box, Firefox 3+ under Mint7. If I use an Opera under Win98, I get the same thing. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Oct 21 12:56:05 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Heidi) Date: Wed Oct 21 13:00:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: browser redirects References: Message-ID: "Mike Easter" wrote in message news:hbnc9d$io8$1@news.spamcop.net... > > > Your link doesn't look like a 'forums' link, but more like an article or > archive or obituaries link from a previous issue, since the current > issue is Oct 16. The link was to the main page of the site, sorry. This is my bookmark: http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/forumdisplay.php?f=56 > That isn't happening to my browser. That sounds like some browser > hijacking. I did a couple of screens this morning at home, nothing found. Nothing here either. I tried at work, still Comcast, and got the same exact issue. I sent the link to a friend in New Mexico and she was able to access the forums with no problem from the home page. I was more concerned that it was an attack site I was being directed to. I contacted COTH and they said there was some issue with an URL server, but it's odd that it seems to be only affecting anyone connected via comcast. What am I saying..... From MikeE at ster.invalid Wed Oct 21 12:59:35 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Wed Oct 21 13:00:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: browser redirects References: Message-ID: Mike Easter wrote: > Heidi wrote: > >> this morning I tried to use a book mark to get to one of >> my favorite forum sites, > If I go in the front page http://www.chronofhorse.com/ and click on the > COTH Forums link I get http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/ Something may have been going on earlier at the forum link. It has a banner provided by an advertiser SmartPak saying "Sorry for the Technical Difficulties. We were performing site maintenance that unexpectedly interfered with Chronicle Forums. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience." The smartpak logo is seen on the banner -- which smartpak makes dosepacks to give your horse meds or nutritional supplements. Now I've found a thread about a problem... http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=229197 ... in there is this... "smartpakradio is the site that serves the smartpak banner ad at the top of every page... perhaps that was the site that was having the problem. Whatever pop-ups you were getting would then be actually coming from the smartpak ad and not from COTH itself" -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From MikeE at ster.invalid Wed Oct 21 13:01:02 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Wed Oct 21 13:05:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: browser redirects References: Message-ID: Mike Easter wrote: > Now I've found a thread about a problem... On behalf of SmartPak, I'd like to apologize to all of the loyal Chronicle Forums readers. As furlong47 rightfully pointed out, the site that everyone was being redirected to was actually to the SmartPak Advertising Server we use to sponsor the boards. When the ad server failed it somehow managed to redirect everyone to the server instead of simply not showing an ad. We have since *permanently* corrected that issue and sincerely apologize for blocking access to the best horse forum around. Thank you all for your patience and understanding, and more importantly being loyal supporters of the Chronicle Forum! Donnie Steele Director, New Media SmartPak - Smarter Horse and Dog Care -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From DLipman~nospam~ at Verizon.Net Wed Oct 21 20:18:26 2009 From: DLipman~nospam~ at Verizon.Net (David H. Lipman) Date: Wed Oct 21 20:20:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: browser redirects References: Message-ID: From: "Heidi" | "Mike Easter" wrote in message | news:hbnc9d$io8$1@news.spamcop.net... >> Your link doesn't look like a 'forums' link, but more like an article or >> archive or obituaries link from a previous issue, since the current >> issue is Oct 16. | The link was to the main page of the site, sorry. This is my bookmark: | http://www.chronicleforums.com/Forum/forumdisplay.php?f=56 >> That isn't happening to my browser. That sounds like some browser >> hijacking. | I did a couple of screens this morning at home, nothing found. Nothing here | either. I tried at work, still Comcast, and got the same exact issue. I | sent the link to a friend in New Mexico and she was able to access the | forums with no problem from the home page. I was more concerned that it was | an attack site I was being directed to. I contacted COTH and they said there | was some issue with an URL server, but it's odd that it seems to be only | affecting anyone connected via comcast. What am I saying..... Scan your system with Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware to see if you have malicious Browser Helper Objects (BHOs) installed. http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam/program/mbam-setup.exe -- Dave http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html Multi-AV - http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/dl/35905.asp From nobody at spamcop.net Wed Oct 21 21:21:23 2009 From: nobody at spamcop.net (Heidi) Date: Wed Oct 21 21:25:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: browser redirects References: Message-ID: "Mike Easter" wrote in message news:hbneo8$jhn$1@news.spamcop.net... > Mike Easter wrote: >> Now I've found a thread about a problem... > Which no one could see because they couldn't get in! I thought Smartpak was involved somehow, thought they'd been hacked, but I'm glad they explained. The thread said the mods couldn't even get in. So I probably can't blame Comcast. But I will anyway.... From MikeE at ster.invalid Wed Oct 21 22:47:40 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Wed Oct 21 22:50:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: browser redirects References: Message-ID: Heidi wrote: > So I > probably can't blame Comcast. But I will anyway.... Just because you are mad at them doesn't mean you get to blame them for something somewhere else. Unless of course you want to :-) -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From borgholio at storymind.com Wed Oct 28 02:42:28 2009 From: borgholio at storymind.com (Borgholio) Date: Wed Oct 28 02:45:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Page file weirdness... Message-ID: So a couple days ago my computer started chugging like you wouldn't believe. The page file was running nonstop, as if I didn't have very much RAM. Running Chkdsk took hours longer than it should have, but no major errors were found. AVG and Adaware come up negative, and I haven't changed the amount of RAM in my system. I'm leaning towards a hardware problem but I haven't had any disk errors or anything. Any ideas as to what could cause the page file to suddenly start thrashing for no good reason? From user at domain.invalid Wed Oct 28 04:58:09 2009 From: user at domain.invalid (Farelf) Date: Wed Oct 28 05:00:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Page file weirdness... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Borgholio wrote: > So a couple days ago my computer started chugging like you wouldn't > believe. The page file was running nonstop, as if I didn't have very > much RAM. Running Chkdsk took hours longer than it should have, but no > major errors were found. AVG and Adaware come up negative, and I > haven't changed the amount of RAM in my system. I'm leaning towards a > hardware problem but I haven't had any disk errors or anything. Any > ideas as to what could cause the page file to suddenly start thrashing > for no good reason? One or more RAM chips might be on the way out. Maybe try a diagnostic? http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp "Windows Memory Diagnostic supports x86-based computers with the following microprocessors: * Intel - Pentium or Celeron families * AMD - K6, Athlon, or Duron families * Microprocessors compatible with those listed above" Otherwise have a look at your free disk space, disk fragmentation and page file size (virtual memory settings), there could be some clues there. From kenbrody at spamcop.net Wed Oct 28 15:14:51 2009 From: kenbrody at spamcop.net (Kenneth Brody) Date: Wed Oct 28 15:15:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Page file weirdness... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Borgholio wrote: > So a couple days ago my computer started chugging like you wouldn't > believe. The page file was running nonstop, as if I didn't have very > much RAM. Running Chkdsk took hours longer than it should have, but no > major errors were found. AVG and Adaware come up negative, and I > haven't changed the amount of RAM in my system. I'm leaning towards a > hardware problem but I haven't had any disk errors or anything. Any > ideas as to what could cause the page file to suddenly start thrashing > for no good reason? Get Process Explorer (formerly from sysinternals.com, now Microsoft) from . You can get more information on processes than you knew existed. For something like you describe, you can see how much physical memory is available, how much swap space is in use. which processes are generating the most page faults, and so on. -- Kenneth Brody From MikeE at ster.invalid Thu Oct 29 17:51:41 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Thu Oct 29 17:55:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Exp using ram disks with win7 64, anyone? References: Message-ID: Charles wrote: > I've gone to 18 GB of RAM and will have windows 7 64 > installed, here, before long, so I was thinking, very seriously, about > making a 14 GB ram disk. Is that what they call having more ram than you know what to do with? :-) I tho't Vista (and thus Win 7) were supposed to have some 'integral' extra ram handling capabilities. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From MikeE at ster.invalid Thu Oct 29 20:15:03 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Thu Oct 29 20:15:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Exp using ram disks with win7 64, anyone? References: Message-ID: Charles wrote: > "Mike Easter" > >> I tho't Vista (and thus Win 7) were supposed to have some 'integral' >> extra ram handling capabilities. > > Sure. But extra capabilities only means that I can open more programs. > Well, so??? I don't care about that. I care about execution speed. > And, frankly, it isn't fast enough! To infinity and beyond! Zoom! No I was talking about disk caching. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Readyboost ReadyBoost is a component of Microsoft Windows, first introduced with Windows Vista in 2006 and also included with Windows 7. It works by using flash memory, USB 2.0 drive, SD card, CompactFlash or any kind of portable flash mass storage system as a drive for disk cache. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From MikeE at ster.invalid Thu Oct 29 20:50:17 2009 From: MikeE at ster.invalid (Mike Easter) Date: Thu Oct 29 20:55:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Exp using ram disks with win7 64, anyone? References: Message-ID: Mike Easter wrote: > Charles wrote: >> "Mike Easter" >> >>> I tho't Vista (and thus Win 7) were supposed to have some 'integral' >>> extra ram handling capabilities. >> >> Sure. But extra capabilities only means that I can open more programs. >> Well, so??? I don't care about that. I care about execution speed. >> And, frankly, it isn't fast enough! To infinity and beyond! Zoom! > > No I was talking about disk caching. This is pasted from a site where someone was asking about using extra ram and RamDisk: Modern operating systems like Vista and Linux have extensive RAM-based drive caching algorithms. Unless you have the need for extremely low latency operations, you are likely to find little benefit for a RAMdisk with most typical daily PC-oriented tasks. However, those caching subsystems I mentioned earlier can usually benefit nicely from additional system memory, so feel free to stuff your system with tons of affordable memory, within your operating sytem's limits anyway. BTW, if you are wanting to shift certain caches to memory, it can oftentimes be accomplished with a little effort. For a web browsing example, you can disable disk-based caching in Firefox and Opera, then increase their memory cache limits to better utilize larger ammounts of memory. In fact, I use such a configuration on my notebook to better limit hard drive wear. -- Mike Easter kibitzer, not SC admin From joegill at removethis Thu Oct 29 21:51:52 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Thu Oct 29 21:55:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Windows XP 'Genuine Advantage' Verification Message-ID: I am working with someone who has a PC, that is a 'hand-me=down' from a relative's company. I attempted to update Windows Media Player, and WGA tries to kick in, since it is required. Now if I take a SYSTEM CHECKPOINT before activating, will RESTORE work, if the copy is not 'Genuine'. or will I be cast into 'nag' hell? Thanks. From joegill at removethis Thu Oct 29 22:00:48 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Thu Oct 29 22:05:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Exp using ram disks with win7 64, anyone? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Charles" wrote in message news:Xns9CB3885002C94TheShrubIsAnAss@216.154.195.61... > Just curious... I've gone to 18 GB of RAM and will have windows 7 64 > installed, here, before long, so I was thinking, very seriously, about > making a 14 GB ram disk. I've done similar things in the past on other > platforms but I was wondering about this one in particular and if anyone > had any experience with any particular products. Yes, I see there are > many > out there - I'm not just looking for names, I'm looking for specific > experiences with specific versions of products. > tia, > c Maybe I have a different take on this. 1) I would think that Win& has fairly good algorithims for managing storage. 2) Also, I would think that changing out the disk drive to get the maximum drive storage (read and write cache) would help 3) One thought also, would be to play with turning 'paging' off, and see if you can live with that and it is an improvement. 4) I also have heard that x64 architecture imposed some 'overhead' on 31-bit programs, I have heard of the term thunking http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa489557.aspx 5) I guess I would say to leave the memory for Windows to manage and add a 16G (if possible!) ready-boost drive. From loyal at spamcop.user Fri Oct 30 00:03:34 2009 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Fri Oct 30 00:05:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Page file weirdness... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Borgholio wrote: > So a couple days ago my computer started chugging like you wouldn't > believe. The page file was running nonstop, as if I didn't have very > much RAM. Running Chkdsk took hours longer than it should have, but no > major errors were found. AVG and Adaware come up negative, and I > haven't changed the amount of RAM in my system. I'm leaning towards a > hardware problem but I haven't had any disk errors or anything. Any > ideas as to what could cause the page file to suddenly start thrashing > for no good reason? WinXP's Task Manager (not sure about Vista or Win7) can tell you some details. On the Process tab, you can View | Select Columns and see if any show some smoking guns. This might have been a web browser running away, or perhaps AV or something like that. Just alone on the process tab, you can see how much memory each process is consuming - that's a good sign too. Are you sure it's the paging file? Got anything that scans your computer (Google Desktop or similar) or MS Office's search assistant that scans your disks for Office documents? I thought that was in the Control Panel, but on a scan, I don't see it on my computer. AndrewB From jwjr at poSPAMSUCKSbox.com Fri Oct 30 00:13:06 2009 From: jwjr at poSPAMSUCKSbox.com (J. Weaver Jr.) Date: Fri Oct 30 00:15:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Windows XP 'Genuine Advantage' Verification In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Joe Gill wrote: > I am working with someone who has a PC, that is a 'hand-me=down' from a > relative's company. > > I attempted to update Windows Media Player, and WGA tries to kick in, since > it is required. > > Now if I take a SYSTEM CHECKPOINT before activating, will RESTORE work, if > the copy is not 'Genuine'. > or will I be cast into 'nag' hell? In the directory "C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc" (adjust if you installed XP elsewhere), add the following line to your "HOSTS" file: 127.0.0.1 mpa.one.microsoft.com If you don't have a "HOSTS" file, create one with Notepad or somesuch. With this line in place, when WGA attempts to "confirm" your system, it times out trying to reach the server, and lets you pass. -JW From loyal at spamcop.user Fri Oct 30 00:14:50 2009 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Fri Oct 30 00:15:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Exp using ram disks with win7 64, anyone? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Charles wrote: > Just curious... I've gone to 18 GB of RAM and will have windows 7 64 > installed, here, before long, so I was thinking, very seriously, about > making a 14 GB ram disk. I've done similar things in the past on other > platforms but I was wondering about this one in particular and if anyone > had any experience with any particular products. Yes, I see there are many > out there - I'm not just looking for names, I'm looking for specific > experiences with specific versions of products. > tia, > c RAM disks only really matter when you have more memory in the computer than the OS can handle. This was common in the DOS 4 and DOS 5 era, when computers might have more memory than emm386 could handle. Smartdrv was useful for creating small RAM disks back in the day. On machines I admin'd as an intern, I'd move command.com, autoexec.bat and config.sys to the RAM drive to prevent any errant virus from doing serious damage to the system's ability to boot. If you have a file that you are doing a ton of I/O on, a RAM disk might make sense, assuming that the end of the I/O, you copy it to the disk before power loss. But for other uses, let the OS handle it for you. Tons of effort goes into the memory managers of operating systems. AndrewB From borgholio at storymind.com Fri Oct 30 05:36:18 2009 From: borgholio at storymind.com (Borgholio) Date: Fri Oct 30 05:40:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Page file weirdness... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Farelf wrote: > Borgholio wrote: >> So a couple days ago my computer started chugging like you wouldn't >> believe. The page file was running nonstop, as if I didn't have very >> much RAM. Running Chkdsk took hours longer than it should have, but >> no major errors were found. AVG and Adaware come up negative, and I >> haven't changed the amount of RAM in my system. I'm leaning towards a >> hardware problem but I haven't had any disk errors or anything. Any >> ideas as to what could cause the page file to suddenly start thrashing >> for no good reason? > > One or more RAM chips might be on the way out. Maybe try a diagnostic? > http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp > "Windows Memory Diagnostic supports x86-based computers with the > following microprocessors: > > * Intel - Pentium or Celeron families > * AMD - K6, Athlon, or Duron families > * Microprocessors compatible with those listed above" > > > Otherwise have a look at your free disk space, disk fragmentation and > page file size (virtual memory settings), there could be some clues there. Ran Memtest86...no errors found. All drives are defragmented and have plenty of free space. I have two page files, one on C drive and one on D drive. I tried switching between them and didn't really notice any major performance differences. From borgholio at storymind.com Fri Oct 30 05:38:36 2009 From: borgholio at storymind.com (Borgholio) Date: Fri Oct 30 05:40:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Page file weirdness... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: AndrewB wrote: > > Are you sure it's the paging file? Got anything that scans your > computer (Google Desktop or similar) or MS Office's search assistant > that scans your disks for Office documents? I thought that was in the > Control Panel, but on a scan, I don't see it on my computer. Yeah pretty sure it's a drive performance issue and not any specific program. It is an overall slowdown of hard drive data transfer speed, which seemed to happen out of the blue. There aren't any programs specifically that are causing problems, everything seems slower. From joegill at removethis Fri Oct 30 11:11:28 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Fri Oct 30 11:15:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Page file weirdness... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Borgholio" wrote in message news:hcec6h$g5v$2@news.spamcop.net... > AndrewB wrote: > >> >> Are you sure it's the paging file? Got anything that scans your computer >> (Google Desktop or similar) or MS Office's search assistant that scans >> your disks for Office documents? I thought that was in the Control >> Panel, but on a scan, I don't see it on my computer. > > Yeah pretty sure it's a drive performance issue and not any specific > program. It is an overall slowdown of hard drive data transfer speed, > which seemed to happen out of the blue. There aren't any programs > specifically that are causing problems, everything seems slower. Could AV be updating at that time? Or maybe Windows Update running? From DeathToSpam at crazyhat.net Fri Oct 30 12:23:39 2009 From: DeathToSpam at crazyhat.net (DevilsPGD) Date: Fri Oct 30 12:25:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Exp using ram disks with win7 64, anyone? References: Message-ID: <1u1me5dcgopmco6360hmpertcsorjet531@4ax.com> In message "Mike Easter" was claimed to have wrote: >Charles wrote: >> "Mike Easter" >> >>> I tho't Vista (and thus Win 7) were supposed to have some 'integral' >>> extra ram handling capabilities. >> >> Sure. But extra capabilities only means that I can open more >programs. >> Well, so??? I don't care about that. I care about execution speed. >> And, frankly, it isn't fast enough! To infinity and beyond! Zoom! > >No I was talking about disk caching. > >http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Readyboost ReadyBoost is a component of >Microsoft Windows, first introduced with Windows Vista in 2006 and also >included with Windows 7. It works by using flash memory, USB 2.0 drive, >SD card, CompactFlash or any kind of portable flash mass storage system >as a drive for disk cache. Readyboost is only useful in cases where you have an insufficient amount of RAM available for Superfetch to operate, in which case some resources that would otherwise be Superfetched are instead retrieved from Readyboost storage rather then the even-slower disk subsystem. Windows won't even try to use Readyboost unless your primary system drive is fairly slow to begin with, in which case buying a faster drive or more memory is usually a better solution anyway. From DeathToSpam at crazyhat.net Fri Oct 30 12:23:39 2009 From: DeathToSpam at crazyhat.net (DevilsPGD) Date: Fri Oct 30 12:25:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Exp using ram disks with win7 64, anyone? References: Message-ID: <432me51ml385irgtjf43s5nhf6dfn25h0t@4ax.com> In message AndrewB was claimed to have wrote: >Smartdrv was useful for creating small RAM disks back in the day. On >machines I admin'd as an intern, I'd move command.com, autoexec.bat and >config.sys to the RAM drive to prevent any errant virus from doing >serious damage to the system's ability to boot. Smartdrv was a disk caching system and had nothing to do with RAM disks. From borgholio at storymind.com Fri Oct 30 13:19:30 2009 From: borgholio at storymind.com (Borgholio) Date: Fri Oct 30 13:20:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Page file weirdness... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Joe Gill wrote: > > "Borgholio" wrote in message > news:hcec6h$g5v$2@news.spamcop.net... >> AndrewB wrote: >> >>> >>> Are you sure it's the paging file? Got anything that scans your >>> computer (Google Desktop or similar) or MS Office's search assistant >>> that scans your disks for Office documents? I thought that was in >>> the Control Panel, but on a scan, I don't see it on my computer. >> >> Yeah pretty sure it's a drive performance issue and not any specific >> program. It is an overall slowdown of hard drive data transfer speed, >> which seemed to happen out of the blue. There aren't any programs >> specifically that are causing problems, everything seems slower. > > Could AV be updating at that time? Or maybe Windows Update running? Happens all the time, not just a specific time of day. From user at domain.invalid Fri Oct 30 14:09:14 2009 From: user at domain.invalid (Farelf) Date: Fri Oct 30 14:10:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Page file weirdness... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Borgholio wrote: > > Yeah pretty sure it's a drive performance issue and not any specific > program. It is an overall slowdown of hard drive data transfer speed, > which seemed to happen out of the blue. There aren't any programs > specifically that are causing problems, everything seems slower. That's lousy. Sounds like you should test your drives to confirm or eliminate those performance factors. Doesn't seem all that likely but it should be easy enough to look at in any event. Looks like there's plenty of freeware around - maybe look at the list offered up at: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/f/testharddrive.htm From borgholio at storymind.com Fri Oct 30 14:36:11 2009 From: borgholio at storymind.com (Borgholio) Date: Fri Oct 30 14:40:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Page file weirdness... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Farelf wrote: > Borgholio wrote: > >> >> Yeah pretty sure it's a drive performance issue and not any specific >> program. It is an overall slowdown of hard drive data transfer speed, >> which seemed to happen out of the blue. There aren't any programs >> specifically that are causing problems, everything seems slower. > > That's lousy. Sounds like you should test your drives to confirm or > eliminate those performance factors. Doesn't seem all that likely but it > should be easy enough to look at in any event. Looks like there's > plenty of freeware around - maybe look at the list offered up at: > http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/f/testharddrive.htm Ran SiSoft Sandra and did benchmarking of the drives and the filesystems. Long story short, the numbers appear good. I'm now disabling various on-access spyware and virus scanners, although they had previously been running fine without slowing down the system. Perhaps I'm simply imagining it and the computer is running like it always has. Hmm... Anyways, here's what I got for raw drive read performance: Drive 1: SiSoftware Sandra Benchmark Results Drive Index : 62.3MB/s Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better. Random Access Time : 19.41ms Results Interpretation : Lower index values are better. Drive 2: SiSoftware Sandra Benchmark Results Drive Index : 65.27MB/s Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better. Random Access Time : 20.5ms Results Interpretation : Lower index values are better. And now the filesystems: Drive 1: SiSoftware Sandra Benchmark Results Drive Index : 52.88MB/s Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better. Random Access Time : 8ms Results Interpretation : Lower index values are better. Performance vs. Speed Drive Index : 7.52kB/s/rpm Random Access Time : 0.001ms/rpm Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better. Detailed Benchmark Results Buffered Read : 187.65MB/s Sequential Read : 60.88MB/s Random Read : 41MB/s Buffered Write : 142.88MB/s Sequential Write : 60.9MB/s Random Write : 40.16MB/s Random Access Time : 8ms Drive 2: SiSoftware Sandra Benchmark Results Drive Index : 62.36MB/s Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better. Random Access Time : 7.7ms Results Interpretation : Lower index values are better. Performance vs. Speed Drive Index : 8.87kB/s/rpm Random Access Time : 0.001ms/rpm Results Interpretation : Higher index values are better. Detailed Benchmark Results Buffered Read : 183.23MB/s Sequential Read : 72.3MB/s Random Read : 46.45MB/s Buffered Write : 180.38MB/s Sequential Write : 71.4MB/s Random Write : 52.86MB/s Random Access Time : 7.7ms From joegill at removethis Fri Oct 30 15:13:35 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Fri Oct 30 15:15:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Page file weirdness... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Borgholio" wrote in message news:hcf76l$pvg$1@news.spamcop.net... > Joe Gill wrote: >> >> "Borgholio" wrote in message >> news:hcec6h$g5v$2@news.spamcop.net... >>> AndrewB wrote: >>> >>>> >>>> Are you sure it's the paging file? Got anything that scans your >>>> computer (Google Desktop or similar) or MS Office's search assistant >>>> that scans your disks for Office documents? I thought that was in the >>>> Control Panel, but on a scan, I don't see it on my computer. >>> >>> Yeah pretty sure it's a drive performance issue and not any specific >>> program. It is an overall slowdown of hard drive data transfer speed, >>> which seemed to happen out of the blue. There aren't any programs >>> specifically that are causing problems, everything seems slower. >> >> Could AV be updating at that time? Or maybe Windows Update running? > > Happens all the time, not just a specific time of day. Look at the Windows Update log...Windows Update 'pops up' and looks around every so oftern. There is then a log entry cut From borgholio at storymind.com Fri Oct 30 17:09:59 2009 From: borgholio at storymind.com (Borgholio) Date: Fri Oct 30 17:10:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Page file weirdness... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Joe Gill wrote: > > "Borgholio" wrote in message > news:hcf76l$pvg$1@news.spamcop.net... >> Joe Gill wrote: >>> >>> "Borgholio" wrote in message >>> news:hcec6h$g5v$2@news.spamcop.net... >>>> AndrewB wrote: >>>> >>>>> >>>>> Are you sure it's the paging file? Got anything that scans your >>>>> computer (Google Desktop or similar) or MS Office's search >>>>> assistant that scans your disks for Office documents? I thought >>>>> that was in the Control Panel, but on a scan, I don't see it on my >>>>> computer. >>>> >>>> Yeah pretty sure it's a drive performance issue and not any specific >>>> program. It is an overall slowdown of hard drive data transfer >>>> speed, which seemed to happen out of the blue. There aren't any >>>> programs specifically that are causing problems, everything seems >>>> slower. >>> >>> Could AV be updating at that time? Or maybe Windows Update running? >> >> Happens all the time, not just a specific time of day. > > Look at the Windows Update log...Windows Update 'pops up' and looks > around every so oftern. There is then a log entry cut No I mean it's constant, not like a quick blip when Windows Update dials home, it's as if the hard drive is working either really slow (which my benchmarks don't indicate) or that it's trying to multitask (which I don't really do). From loyal at spamcop.user Fri Oct 30 23:27:22 2009 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Fri Oct 30 23:30:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Page file weirdness... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Borgholio wrote: > Farelf wrote: >> Borgholio wrote: >> >>> >>> Yeah pretty sure it's a drive performance issue and not any specific >>> program. It is an overall slowdown of hard drive data transfer >>> speed, which seemed to happen out of the blue. There aren't any >>> programs specifically that are causing problems, everything seems >>> slower. >> >> That's lousy. Sounds like you should test your drives to confirm or >> eliminate those performance factors. Doesn't seem all that likely but >> it should be easy enough to look at in any event. Looks like there's >> plenty of freeware around - maybe look at the list offered up at: >> http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/f/testharddrive.htm > > Ran SiSoft Sandra and did benchmarking of the drives and the > filesystems. Long story short, the numbers appear good. I'm now > disabling various on-access spyware and virus scanners, although they > had previously been running fine without slowing down the system. > > Perhaps I'm simply imagining it and the computer is running like it > always has. Hmm... When did you last do a defrag? If the head has to move all over the surface to get files to the OS, it may appear slow. Although raw read/writes may appear fine. AndrewB From borgholio at storymind.com Fri Oct 30 23:38:46 2009 From: borgholio at storymind.com (Borgholio) Date: Fri Oct 30 23:40:07 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Page file weirdness... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: AndrewB wrote: > > When did you last do a defrag? If the head has to move all over the > surface to get files to the OS, it may appear slow. Although raw > read/writes may appear fine. > > > AndrewB I have defrag scheduled for every night, and I double-checked to make sure it was working. From joegill at removethis Sat Oct 31 00:21:24 2009 From: joegill at removethis (Joe Gill) Date: Sat Oct 31 00:25:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Page file weirdness... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Borgholio" wrote in message news:hcfkmq$urg$1@news.spamcop.net... > Joe Gill wrote: >> >> "Borgholio" wrote in message >> news:hcf76l$pvg$1@news.spamcop.net... >>> Joe Gill wrote: >>>> >>>> "Borgholio" wrote in message >>>> news:hcec6h$g5v$2@news.spamcop.net... >>>>> AndrewB wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> Are you sure it's the paging file? Got anything that scans your >>>>>> computer (Google Desktop or similar) or MS Office's search assistant >>>>>> that scans your disks for Office documents? I thought that was in >>>>>> the Control Panel, but on a scan, I don't see it on my computer. >>>>> >>>>> Yeah pretty sure it's a drive performance issue and not any specific >>>>> program. It is an overall slowdown of hard drive data transfer speed, >>>>> which seemed to happen out of the blue. There aren't any programs >>>>> specifically that are causing problems, everything seems slower. >>>> >>>> Could AV be updating at that time? Or maybe Windows Update running? >>> >>> Happens all the time, not just a specific time of day. >> >> Look at the Windows Update log...Windows Update 'pops up' and looks >> around every so oftern. There is then a log entry cut > > No I mean it's constant, not like a quick blip when Windows Update dials > home, it's as if the hard drive is working either really slow (which my > benchmarks don't indicate) or that it's trying to multitask (which I don't > really do). Another thought.. How fragmented is the paging file? If it is in many pieces... try this... A) Defragment the hard drive B) Set the option to come up with NO paging file, C) Reboot. D) Reset the size to whatever you had before E) Reboot. Some other options: 1) Run Process Explorer and look who is using what when the problem occurs 2) Using task manager, look at which processes have an ever expanding working set size 3) Look in Event manager for events that occur when the problem starts From borgholio at storymind.com Sat Oct 31 01:52:35 2009 From: borgholio at storymind.com (Borgholio) Date: Sat Oct 31 01:55:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Page file weirdness... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Joe Gill wrote: > > Another thought.. How fragmented is the paging file? > If it is in many pieces... try this... > A) Defragment the hard drive > B) Set the option to come up with NO paging file, > C) Reboot. > D) Reset the size to whatever you had before > E) Reboot. Diskeeper and Perfectdisk (both of which I use) can defrag the page file, so that's already done. :) > > Some other options: > 1) Run Process Explorer and look who is using what when the problem occurs > 2) Using task manager, look at which processes have an ever expanding > working set size > 3) Look in Event manager for events that occur when the problem starts Next time it happens I'll be doing that for sure. From borgholio at storymind.com Sat Oct 31 18:28:57 2009 From: borgholio at storymind.com (Borgholio) Date: Sat Oct 31 18:30:09 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Page file weirdness... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Borgholio wrote: > Joe Gill wrote: > >> >> Another thought.. How fragmented is the paging file? >> If it is in many pieces... try this... >> A) Defragment the hard drive >> B) Set the option to come up with NO paging file, >> C) Reboot. >> D) Reset the size to whatever you had before >> E) Reboot. > > Diskeeper and Perfectdisk (both of which I use) can defrag the page > file, so that's already done. :) > >> >> Some other options: >> 1) Run Process Explorer and look who is using what when the problem >> occurs >> 2) Using task manager, look at which processes have an ever expanding >> working set size >> 3) Look in Event manager for events that occur when the problem starts > > > Next time it happens I'll be doing that for sure. Well one possibility...I noticed Firefox was hogging over 500mb of memory. That might do it... From loyal at spamcop.user Sat Oct 31 18:50:03 2009 From: loyal at spamcop.user (AndrewB) Date: Sat Oct 31 18:50:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Exp using ram disks with win7 64, anyone? In-Reply-To: <432me51ml385irgtjf43s5nhf6dfn25h0t@4ax.com> References: <432me51ml385irgtjf43s5nhf6dfn25h0t@4ax.com> Message-ID: DevilsPGD wrote: > In message AndrewB > was claimed to have wrote: > >> Smartdrv was useful for creating small RAM disks back in the day. On >> machines I admin'd as an intern, I'd move command.com, autoexec.bat and >> config.sys to the RAM drive to prevent any errant virus from doing >> serious damage to the system's ability to boot. > > Smartdrv was a disk caching system and had nothing to do with RAM disks. Ah yes, you are correct. I had a memory failure. I do recall a smartdrv issue in that early versions had lazy writing - which was an issue if the machine hung before the cache was flushed. But even so, things like RAM disks and smartdrv might only make a difference when one's machine has more memory than the OS can handle, such as beyond 4GB in a 32-bit OS. AndrewB From user at domain.invalid Sat Oct 31 21:50:06 2009 From: user at domain.invalid (Farelf) Date: Sat Oct 31 21:50:08 2009 Subject: [Scgeeks] Re: Page file weirdness... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Borgholio wrote: > Borgholio wrote: >> Joe Gill wrote: >> >>> >>> >>> Some other options: >>> 1) Run Process Explorer and look who is using what when the problem >>> occurs >>> 2) Using task manager, look at which processes have an ever expanding >>> working set size >>> 3) Look in Event manager for events that occur when the problem starts >> >> >> Next time it happens I'll be doing that for sure. > > Well one possibility...I noticed Firefox was hogging over 500mb of > memory. That might do it... Well, it wouldn't be helping and maybe it is a matter of one step at a time to lick this thing. My sessions (version 3.5.4) start at about 70,000k and build fairly quickly to over 100,000k - 115,000k with just a single tab in use. I have just seven extensions and fifteen plugins. The FFx support page may help you reduce: http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/High+memory+usage?style_mode=inproduct&s=memory%20usage