RHFtech Help Desk (and more)

Do you use Dropbox? It is a great synchronization service. Maybe the best one available today. It is simple to install. Once installed it becomes invisible, just doing its job.

It can synchronize your files to all your computers whether they are connected via the Internet or a local area network (LAN). Dropbox has a free 2GB service and larger storage spaces available for a monthly fee.

It is usually lightning fast. Close a file on one computer and moments later it is duplicated on all your other machines and on your account on the Dropbox server.

Dropbox recently added the ability to sync locally via your LAN rather than via their server. This should be enabled on all your Dropbox computers. If you are not running the latest version of the software stop the service on your computer, download and install the latest version from their home page.

Once you have the latest software installed and running, right-click on the Windows system tray icon or the Mac menu bar icon and select Preferences…. Then make certain that the Enable LAN sync checkbox is checked. It probably is, but it is better to be certain rather than assume this. Do this for each of your computers.

Interesting website – worldometers  at  http://www.worldometers.info/
Many more statistics on the site than displayed below.

Where does your computer store your documents, photos, music and videos? The correct answer includes the full path. Do you know? Many of you do not. That is okay because you can read your documents, view your photos, listen to your music and watch your movies, even if you do not know where they are stored. (Bonus question: where are your applications stored?)

Microsoft recently moved the default Windows location from the Windows XP "Documents and Settings" folder to the "Users" folder in Vista and Windows 7. The name "Users" makes more sense to me than "Documents and Settings" and it mirrors what the Linux/Unix world does, including Macs. Did you know that you can move the default location to somewhere else? It is simple in Windows 7, a bit harder in Windows XP, and hardest in Mac OS X.

My friend Walt recently complained about the way Windows 7 handles things, like the new libraries virtual folder concept. Generally, he likes Windows 7. But he is unhappy about the things in it that differ from what he is used to in Windows XP, like libraries. He reverted some Windows 7 new features he dislikes to the more familiar XP method. For example, he exposes every system tray icon rather than leave them hidden the way the Windows 7 User Interface ("UI") designers intended. They want less visual clutter. He wants quick access to the icons.

Walt does not like libraries. Most days I agree with him. Libraries are a neat theoretical concept. Yet most of us will never understand the concept or use libraries. (I can write similar statements about the Windows 7 HomeGroup networking concept.) But there are some instances where libraries make sense, particularly for aggregating disparate media folders on several computers into one place so that you play music without having to search for it on your child’s machine.

Macs are more autocratic in UI/UX design features than Windows. Some make the analogy that Macs are the Catholics of computers, while Windows are the Protestants. Therefore, Steve Jobs is the Pope who dictates how you will use Apple computers. (Some Apple fans think he is more like God.)

This is easily seen in the way iTunes works and the even more insidious default iPhoto settings. iTunes default setting, on a Mac, is to copy music from the source, a CD or another drive, into the buried iTunes Music folder. Open iTunes and you a have hard time finding where a file is actually located on your computer. (Hint: right-click on the item and select Get Info.) If you want to share it with a friend you have to dig down into your Music directory to find it.

iPhoto is far worse than iTunes in hiding your files. The default Mac setting is to copy pictures directly into the iPhoto.library file. This is a wrapper that puts all your images into one very large file. It is hard to get one of those images out of the library file to attach to an email to send to Aunt Em in Kansas. If something happens to that single iPhoto.library file you may lose every photo you stored in iPhoto. Mac users can fix this by changing the setting in Preferences —> Advanced away from Copy items to the iPhoto Library.

Although I find Windows 7 more customizable than Snow Leopard, Microsoft is behaving more like Apple with each new application and operating system iteration. They become less user-configurable. For example, Microsoft Office 2007 jettisoned most user UI customizations that existed in previous versions. The iPhone is the best (worst?) example of this trend. Do it Apple’s way or don’t do it at all.

Steganos LockNote is a free, Windows program that provides a simple solution for securely storing passwords and other confidential information. LockNote is small, only 402 kb, and requires no installation after you download it. It is easy to take the LockNote file with you on a USB flash memory drive or keep it in the cloud so that you can always “remember” your important, confidential information.

The following screen appears the first time you run LockNote.Replace the default text with whatever you want. For example the passwords you use for logging onto websites.

When you finish and exit LockNote. It asks, “Do you want to save your changes?”

Click the Yes button and LockNote asks for a password.

Enter your password, click the OK button. You are done.

Now whenever you need to remember a password or username you only need run LockNote, enter your LockNote password and all your confidential information is available.

You can have multiple copies of LockNote on your computer. You can rename the files or use the File —> Save As… to name them when you create them.

Steve Gibson of Gibson Research has examined the open source programming code for LockNote and says that the encryption LockNote uses is strong.

I helped a client network her Windows 7 and Mac computers a few days ago. She had tried and paid two other firms’ tech support before she called me.

I received the following email a few minutes ago:

I just wanted you to know how much I am enjoying working with my computers now that you have solved the problem of networking them.  Just today I wanted to print a document with some color in it… and it worked perfectly.

I have never been able to use it on my Mac ever since I got my Dell with Windows 7 but you have really done great work on fixing it perfectly.

I am so pleased and and do not want this day to go by without thanking you.  You are the best. [emphasis added]

It is always nice to get message like this.

Today it is not enough to have standard TV sources like over-the-air (OTA), cable or satellite, to watch video. We need Internet connections as well. That way we can watch video on demand (VOD) from sources such as Amazon VOD, the Apple iTunes store or Netflix. There are many ways to do this. Some are better than others. None are perfect. All have their pluses and minuses.

Many of my clients have purchased HDTVs that have an Ethernet connector that lets them connect the TVs to the Internet. Others have purchased Blu-ray players with similar capabilities. These solutions are limited ones. You are confined to Internet sources that the vendor allows. If they have a deal with Netflix then you can watch that. If they do not, you cannot watch Netflix. These services are subject to change at a moment’s notice. I can easily envision a dispute between SONY and Netflix in the future that plays out the same way that the Cablevision – Food Network dispute played out last month. Cablevision’s subscribers were caught in the middle as the Food Network pulled their programming from Cablevision in a contract dispute.

These devices are simple to connect to your home wired Ethernet network. Plug an Ethernet cable into the device and your router. They are much are harder to connect using WiFi. Most Internet capable HDTVs and Blu-ray players do not have built-in WiFi adapters. Therefore, the homeowner is responsible for purchasing and installing the correct device. You will have to check if the wireless adapter will work with your HDTV or Blu-ray player and know how to setup a wireless connection. You also need to make certain that the wireless network’s signal is strong enough and fast enough to deliver VOD this way. It is best to replace older 802.11g wireless capable routers with newer, faster 802.11n capable ones.

An alternative to the above is to purchase a dedicated Internet capable device. They have names like Apple TV, Popcorn Hour, Roku or TiVo. You have to pay for and install the device. Programming content is additional. They all provide some free content. Amazon VOD, Netflix, or the Apple iTunes store, all require either pay-to-play or subscriptions. TiVo is far superior to the other devices. It provides a great easy-to-use interface. It has one of the best remote control devices and can easily integrate with your cable TV subscription.

You can also use gaming consoles to watch video on an HDTV. The choices for gaming consoles are the Microsoft Xbox, the Nintendo Wii and the SONY PlayStation 3. The latter has a built-in Blu-ray player. As above, your choices for Internet video content are limited by the console’s manufacturer.

Connecting a computer to your HDTV provides unlimited Internet access. It also magnifies the issues of device selection, connecting the computer and controlling it. A computer connected to an HDTV should be unobtrusive and quiet. You do not want to hear the computer’s fans or see bright, flashing LEDs in your bedroom or home theater. You also do not want an ugly computer box marring the decor.

Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows 7 PCs have applications, Front Row and Windows Media Center, respectively, designed for the 10 foot user interface. They work reasonably well and allow you to watch Internet downloaded or streaming media, view your photos on your HDTV, or listen to Internet-provided audio, like podcasts or Pandora, through your home theater’s speakers. Remote controls can be relatively standard ones, such as the Logitech Harmony remotes, wireless keyboard and mouse combos, as sold by Gyration, or devices like the Apple iPod Touch and perhaps the soon-to-be-released Apple iPad.

Dropbox is a great service, remarkably useful in today’s connected world. I received this note from Dropbox yesterday:

This is the tale of two troubleshooting issues. One was easy the other was not.

I am usually good at problem solving. But the constant grind is wearing. I have to solve problems for my clients, friends and myself. I do that all day and night long, seemingly 7 days a week. It used to be exhilarating to find solutions. Now it is not. Too many puzzles, too frequently served. Too many applications, on too many operating systems, Mac and Windows, are taking their toll. 

Problem No. 1 – Google Calendar Sync not working

I had set up Google Calendar Sync for a client quite a while ago. We were syncing Outlook 2007 to Google Calendar and to his BlackBerry. Everything worked fine for many months.

My client has had issues with the new BlackBerry Bold. Battery life could be better. It is too large and too different than the BlackBerry Curve he had owned and liked. He has gone through 3 or 4 Bold units in the last few months.

I received an email, after he got the latest Bold, that calendar syncing was broken. I sent him instructions for downloading and configuring Google Calendar Sync on his BlackBerry. But it still did not work.

Ironically, I was fortunate that his two year old Mac Pro suffered a hard drive failure that required me to replace the drive and reinstall/reconfigure the Mac Pro’s OS and software. I couldn’t get his mail applications to log into his Gmail account. I knew his credentials. They would not work. When I mentioned it to him, he said, “Oh, I changed my password.” Problem solved. He had not entered the correct password in Google Calendar Sync.

If I had not had to fix the Mac Pro I might have spent hours trying to find a solution for a problem that the client had inadvertently created. It is not his fault. We all have too many user names, user accounts, passwords, and security questions.

Problem No. 2 – Buffalo Linkstation not connecting

I have a new client, a commercial photography business. They have tens of thousands of photos, and add more every day. They wanted to upgrade their existing storage configuration. They used four Buffalo Linkstation NAS drives attached to an Ethernet switch on their LAN. The drives were almost full. There was no backup.

We agreed on repurposing an old Windows XP computer, adding an attached 4 bay eSATA drive enclosure as a file and backup server for the network. We also agreed on adding offsite drives to mirror the active data drives on the new server.

I replaced the existing router, switch and Ethernet connections for each of the company’s computers with Gigabit capable equipment. The old router had been a Linksys running at 10/100Mbps. The new one was a D-Link.

A problem arose immediately once the new network was in place. One of the four NAS drives did not appear on the network. We tried everything we could think of to recover that fourth NAS box. Of course, it was the most important of the four NAS devices and it was not a simple single drive configuration. It was two, half-terabyte drives ganged together using an internal RAID card to make one TB,

I spent a lot of time trying to coax that NAS drive back onto the network. I tried everything that I could think of. And then a light bulb went off in my head. It occurred to me that the NAS box might have been configured with a static IP rather than the default DHCP. Linksys routers generally use 192.168.1.x for their IP addresses. D-Link uses 192.168.0.x.

I fired up the old Linksys router, connected the NAS box and my ASUS Eee PC netbook. Sure enough the drive was now connected to the old network and functioning correctly. I opened its management console via a browser on the netbook and found that it had been configured for a static IP, 192.168.1.107, which would never work with the D-Link equipment, as configured. I set the NAS device to use DHCP and then reconnected it to the D-Link network. It showed up instantly. Problem solved.

If Buffalo designed their products with a reset button, back to factory defaults, like most routers have, I would have solved this problem with less headache and much faster.

Why do these problems arise? They arise from complexity. There are too many things we all have to know in order to make our equipment and applications work. It is not our fault that we are often at sea trying to coax our stuff to do what it is supposed to do. It is often the fault of the executives, designers and engineers who push out product without working hard enough to make it simple.