A Networked Home

Archive for the ‘Windows’ Category

I have a new Dell laptop running Windows Vista and a desktop running XP Pro.  Everything was going well on my network until I tried to send a Word doc from the laptop to the printer which is hooked to the desktop.  No luck.

I figured I needed to “install” the printer on the laptop.  So, I ckicked on “Add a new printer” and chose the “wireless” option.  Silly me!  Imagine, trying to use logic in a Windows enviroment!

As it turns out you have to throw logic out the window on this one.

• Choose “Add a local printer”.
• Click “Create a new port”.
• The default is “Local port” and you need to stick with that one.
• Click “Next”.
• A box appears asking for the port name (printer address).  Type “\\computer name/printer name” (without the quotation marks - in my case \\Desktop-1\Stylus-C86)

And you are done.  This worked perfectly for me but a couple of other people did still have printer issues.

If you are using Gmail’s new IMAP feature with Windows Mail (and possibly other clients, although this doesn’t appear to be a problem in Outlook) you will probably encounter the following error message whenever your program attempts to send/receive mail:

Header download for the ‘[Gmail]‘ folder did not complete. Could not select ‘[Gmail]‘ on the IMAP server. You might try refreshing your folder list to synchronize with the IMAP server. Account: ‘imap.gmail.com’, Server: ‘imap.gmail.com’, Protocol: IMAP, Server Response: ‘Unknown Mailbox: [Gmail] (Failure)’, Port: 993, Secure(SSL): Yes, Error Number: 0×800CCCD2

This one, thankfully, has an easy fix.  Right click on the GMail folder and select “Don’t Synchronize”.  This does not affect your sending or receiving of mail or any of IMAP settings.  That’s it!  Error solved!

I recently received a new Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop (running Windows Vista) along with the set of travel adapters (plugs for the car, airplane, etc.) and the Co-Pilot Navigator GPS hardware and software for laptops.

I have begun trying all of this out and will be posting a review of each item soon.  For now, I will give a quick first impression.

The laptop and Vista are both solid and Vista is much less annoying than I was afraid it would be.

The travel pack is as-advertised but also a little confusing due to lack of documentation.

The Co-Pilot Navigator is fantastic based on the first couple of test.

Over on Paul Thurrott’s Supersite for Windows, he’s reporting that an update to the Windows Home Server will be shipping in the first half of 2008.  I haven’t yet purchased one of these devices, but I was on the beta test and I like it a lot.

It looks like, among the features, are 2 very cool updates to the Server Data Backup and Remote Access.

I have an older Dell Inspiron 5100 notebook which I recently “fixed” by installing Linux Ubuntu 7.04 on. This laptop is primarily used by my wife. Our printer (Epson Stylus C86) is connected to the main desktop PC in the office. In order to share this printer wirelessly to the laptop a few steps had to be taken:

1: Click “Start”, “Printers and Faxes” and then right-click the printer you want share and choose “sharing”.

2: Click the “Share This Printer” radio button.

3: Now you need to move to the Linux PC and find the driver for your printer. You can try the web site for the printer manufacturer, but in most cases, they won’t have a Linux driver so you need to move to the open-source community. There are countless driver web sites out there. Here are 2 good ones:

Free Drivers Downloads

Driverscollection.com

4: On the Linux PC, choose “System”, “Administration” and “Printing”.

5: Choose “Windows Printer via SAMBA”.

6: Then browse your network for the printer (unless you changed it, your default network will be MSHOME - double click that and follow the trail to the printer)

This should be all you need to print wirelessly from your Linux box to a printer hooked to a Windows PC on your network!

If you are like me you want to see your album covers while you’re playing your music.

I use Windows Media Player 11 to play my music on the PC.

But, when you rip some CD’s the art (and sometimes the other info) doesn’t appear. For those times I have used Amazon to fill in the gaps. Find the album, right click the image and choose “copy image”

then, in WMP, right click the blank cover and choose “paste album art”.

Sometimes though, Amazon isn’t good enough. And, for those times, I recently found (via LifeHacker) the site AlbumArt.org. They have hight quality CD and DVD covers and a pretty comprehensive listing.

To test them I chose a cover I had been missing for some time - a rare CD “EP” of the British band The Charlatans entitled “Indian Rope”. I searched for the term “Chartlatans Indian Rope” and was told 3 matches were found, but nothing was displayed! On a side note, this same problem popped up on another search - I can’t remember what for - so it may be an issue with the site. I then searched under just “Charlatans” and found about 70 matches. After paging through 3 or 4 pages of hits I found the “Indian Rope” cover!

Next up I am going to test it on my Stone Roses CD singles!

So, use Amazon when you can and AlbumArt.org when you must, and between the two, you should be able to fill those gaps!

(Click the above image for a full view) 

I wanted a simple backup plan that would prevent me from manually copying files to an external hard drive once a week, not to mention one that covered much more than once per week.

I had an old HP desktop in storage so I purchased a new 320GB internal hard drive and a KVM switch.

I removed the stock 40GB drive after running Boot and Nuke. Unfortunately, I was doing this right before we moved and I tossed that drive out to save space. Now I wished I had kept it for possible future use.

I installed the new drive, plugged the PC into the router and the KVM switch, which I also hooked to my current desktop PC, and booted up.

I installed a VERY scaled down version of XP. I used an extra copy of Media Center, but didn’t actually install any MC components. The only extra I allowed was installing Firefox (just in case).

The first program I tried using was Microsoft’s SyncToy, which I had heard good things about. It required me using Windows Task Scheduler, which I found required me to set a password for logon. I did this, although I have no need for one on the this desktop PC. Then I encountered further compatability problems and decided to go looking for something less intrusive.

I found GoodSync on a Download.com search. I have to say I was under the impression that it was totally free, but later found that only half true.

The program worked flawlessly though. It gave me the ability to sync 2 folders to match or to sync only left-right or right-left.

I chose left-right and began choosing the folders I wanted backed up - My Documents on the C drive and the My Pictures and My Videos which were housed on an external hard drive that plugged in via USB 2.0 (G Drive). All of these I put on the “left side” in GoodSync.

I created folders on the new “backup PC” with logical names - “documents Backup”, “pictures backup”, etc. These I placed on the “right side” of GoodSync. I chose a backup schedule of every 2 hours and I was done!

Now every 2 hours my desktop PC queries my backup PC to check the files and copies (and deletes) the files on the desktop to the files on the backup. I am protected from hard drive failure - but not from natural disaster. That will be answered by off-site storage, which is a topic for another day.

A few things to watch:

• I originally chose plain old “Sync” but soon realized that every time I deleted something that within 2 hours it would be back because this option makes sure each folder matches by syncing BOTH ways. Left-right may cause me to not get a previously deleted file back, but it is much less of a headache.
• The program is not totally free. It is totally free for 30 days and then resorts to a hobbled version which can be used free forever - providing you stick to the very limited limitations. However, the full version is only $19, which by today’s software standards is close enough to free.

FINAL ANALYSIS

I highly recommend GoodSync as an easy-to-use and very affordable backup solution that works for the technologically advanced as well as the casual user.

Okay, I confess, I am not an Apple fanboy. I never wanted to be roped into the inescapable world of ITunes. I have over 700 CD’s worth of music ripped into WMA format (before you say it, yes, I know I can convert them). When I bought my last PC I got over-zealous and added in the Gateway MP3-Photo Jukebox (since discontinued) which has served me reasonably well for about 3 years - more than enough for any MP3 player. For the past year or so I have procrastinated about getting the Creative Zen Vision M. The Zune was in the back of my mind, but it didn’t seem quite ready for prime-time. Then I started hearing about the second generation players, complete with wireless syncing and podcast support and I could no longer resist. I should have the new Zune 4 GB Digital Media Player Black (2nd Generation) in a few days and I will post a review as soon as I’ve had a little time to put it through its paces.