Tech-related problems

[BigDnm01]

^ ok thanks , so the D-link DGL-4500 Xtreme N router is configurable without connecting to a computer, nice to know.  oh and about that Dual-band, I heard it's fast and have a 2.4GHz and 5.0GHz.  I dunno much about Dual-band, just that it works simultaneously.   an it be configured, will it automatically work with Dual-band, 2.4Ghz/5.0Ghz, wireless-N adapters or network card?  Is it something that need to be configured or have to be? will it just automatically works?  

also about SpeedFan:  if so then how DO I change the voltage?  I dunno how to use speedfan.  any manual or steps available?
actually, since I did have 2 computer of the exact same model. I install SpeedFan to the good, working one.  Is there a way or something like saving the settings/configuration and uploading it to the other one?

[Slack]

Not sure how the dual-band works either, even though I have a dual-band router.  How it works with the router is, it sets up each band under its own distinct wi-fi network ID.  Unless there's something special with the dual band adapters, you'll only be able to connect to one network at a time, but at least with the 5GHz band, you'll generally have less outside signal interference.  Other than that, it should be exactly the same as connecting a normal G- or N-band network adapter (a network card IS a network adapter) to your wi-fi network.  As long as you can detect a network and have the security code, you should be able to connect.


Changing voltage on a fan is all done by your motherboard (unless you connect your fan to a fan controller).  Some of them can do it (adjustable via bios or software control like Speedfan), some of them can't (hard-wired to only provide a constant voltage).  "Changing voltage" is the same thing as "changing fan speed", and when you tell Speedfan to change a fan's speed, it tries to tell your motherboard to change the voltage going to that fan.  Like I said, if your motherboard doesn't accept those signals, or has the voltage hard-wired, Speedfan won't do anything to your fan speed.

I haven't used Speedfan in a few years, so I can't offer too much advice on its use.  From what I remember of the version I had before, it tries to auto-detect any fans you have and displays what speed they are set to, which you should be able to change.  Now, if your motherboard doesn't support that kind of control, there's things you can do to change it in hardware.  There's fan controllers, like I mentioned before, that plug into your computer's power supply.  You then plug your fans into that and it provides speed control for your fans.  There's lots of different kinds, brands, and complexities, but basically it comes down to how much control you want over reducing/controlling the voltage to your fans.

Speedfan itself is a pretty lightweight application, and settings/configuration are different for each model of motherboard.  That said, it was pretty good about automatically configuring itself, from what I remember.  If someone else uses it now, they could probably help you more with it than I could.

[BigDnm01]

My computer came with Windows Vista, which creates a recovery drive by partition-ing the C drive into 2. 
When I'd installed Windows 7 on my new HD, I moved the old one with the Vista OS to the secondary slot.  though I can't use the Vista OS, both the drive does show and I do have access to them.  I'm trying but I dunno how to partition the entire drive so that recovery partition, with 8.5 GB, is formatted with the other so it'll be one drive partition.  How do I go about and do that. 
FYI, I already format it.  Computer-> Manage-> Computer Management-> Storage-> Disk Management.  I'd format the Recovery partition, labeled F Drive, while the main partition on the same drive is labeled E drive.  E drive is a "Primary Partition" while F drive is "Unallocated."  Currently, I'm formatting the E drive.  what should I do next?

[Slack]

If you want to make two partitions into one and don't care about what happens to the data on them, just delete both of the volumes.  After that, the drive should show as a single "unallocated" space.  THEN you format that unallocated space to make it whatever file system you want.

Note that doing this will remove all previous data on the drive.

[BigDnm01]

thanks, Slack, I'll try that.

okay new question:  I just got a D-link DGL-4500, which I'd ask about on this thread.  I want to use it as a main router with 1 or 2 router connected as a secondary, like how I did before. 
Now D-link IP Address is 192.168.0.1 while the WRT160N is 192.168.1.1
other than disabling the DHCP on the WRT160N, should I change anything to the IP address to work with the D-link IP address? 
fyi, D-link is DHCP IP Address range is 100-150. If I have to, should I assign the WRT160N an IP address within that range or it doesn't matter. 

[Slack]

I'm wondering why you're having your WRT160N in a different subnet as your D-link.  I'd probably be trying to stick them in the same subnet or change the subnet mask to allow that.

Of course, if it all works, there's no reason to change anything.  Unless you have a specific problem that needs fixing, I'm not sure what to tell you.  Networking, especially wireless networking, can be kind of hit-or-miss sometimes.  As a result, just try a bunch of stuff.

Unless you screw up a firmware update and end up bricking something, I wouldn't worry about messing anything up irreparably.

[BigDnm01]

I dunno what I'm doing wrong.  I tried many times to set my WRT160N so I can configure it over the network. now everything else is fine. but when I Disable the DHCP and then save the settings, I cannot access and configure that router anymore.  I'd thought I did something wrong, so I reset it many times then try again, but problem still arises whenever after I tried to disable it.  

^Slack, what is a subnet, do u mean that number 0 or 1 after the 2nd period?  ex. 192.168.0.1 or 192.168.1.1 ?
I didn't change to be that way, it was set to be like that. WRT160N is by default, 192.168.1.1, D-link is 192.168.0.1.  
So should I change it?


ALSO:  I have a technical question about pre-paid GSM phones and sim card.  now I never use a pre-paid phone, but for some like AT&T and T-mobile pre paid phones, it's actually the Sim card, rite?  now can u use that pre-paid sim card and use it with unlocked GSM phones? or only with designated phone.

[Slack]

If you ever see a field called "subnet mask" that's what determines what part of the address the system looks at to figure out if can communicate with each other without sending packets to the outside via a "gateway".

An IP Address is actually a 32-bit binary number, with each number between the dots representing 8 bits.  Since 255 is the highest number you can represent with 8 bits, a subnet mask of "255.255.255.0" is a series of 24 "1" bits followed by 8 "0" bits.  What that means to you and me is that the system will assume anything that has the same first 24 bits in the address belongs to the same subnet, and therefore is directly available to connect to.  Anything that doesn't match the first 24 bits will be treated as a separate network, and all traffic to/from there will go through the "gateway" ip address for forwarding.  If your subnet mask is set to 255.255.255.0, it's trying to match the first 24 bits, but if two devices are 192.168.0.xxx and 192.168.1.xxx, only the first 23 bits match.

In other words, if your subnet mask is set to 255.255.255.0, you have to try to make all your connecting devices match the first 3 numbers as your router in order for them to connect to each other directly.

If you can't do this, there are two alternatives you could try:
1. Changing the subnet mask to something like 255.255.0.0 so it only tries to match the first 16 bits.
2. Changing the gateway to point to a device that connects to both subnets. (This is much harder to figure out)

With networking, like I said, sometimes it's pretty hit-or-miss.  If you don't know exactly what's happening, you just gotta go through trial and error sometimes to get it working like you want it to.  So, just try a bunch of stuff first before asking someone else "should I do this?".


Though, it still helps to know what all the different terms mean.  Here's a quick glossary of some of the more pertinent terms:
IP Address - the 32-bit number that your computer/router/network device uses like a street address or mailbox.

Subnet Mask - a string of 1s followed by 0s that lets your computer/router/network device know what addresses it can directly send packets to.  Anything that doesn't match the bits where the 1s are will be forwarded to the "gateway" address.  Imagine a mailman who looks at the addresses of all the letters he picks up, and if they are addressed to other houses on that mailman's route, he will just deliver them directly.  The subnet mask is basically what determines the mailman's route.

Gateway - This is a computer/router/network device that is connected to the outside world.  This is like the post office.  Everything the mailman can't deal with directly gets brought here.



Sorry I can't help you with the phone question.  I've never used a pre-paid one before.

[BigDnm01]

^Thanks I sorta understand... sorta.

Okay, I gonna try this out, so tell me what u think":
-Change WRT160N to 192.168.0.XXX(within the 100-150)
-both subnet would be 255.255.255.0 (well I don't mess with this anyway, so it should stay the same). if not, then try 255.255.0.0
-and of course, same SSID, key pass, and Disable DHCP on the secondary (WRT160n)

if nothing seems wrong, I will try this.

what weird is that that's how I did the WRT160n and WRT150n, main and secondary, respectively.  I didn't have to change the IP or subnet, only made change the last number on the IP of the 150n to be in the 160n network, then Disable the DHCP, same SSID and key, different channel.  and It works, but it also show 2 SSID of the same name when scanning for network.  maybe cuz of the different in the 3rd number, XXX.XXX.0.XXX.

[SomethingWild]

Just a quick question; my media player classic completely died on me. It won't open any files anymore. I tried re-dlding it, but the problem still exists. For example "akb48.avi" --> open with MPC --> *opens* ... "Media Player Classic does not work anymore."

[Amplifier]

Just a quick question; my media player classic completely died on me. It won't open any files anymore. I tried re-dlding it, but the problem still exists. For example "akb48.avi" --> open with MPC --> *opens* ... "Media Player Classic does not work anymore."

Have you tried opening the videos in VLC too? Uninstall/reinstalling your codec pack might help. I use CCCP myself, which includes MPC-HC, etc.

[frblckstr1]

Just a quick question; my media player classic completely died on me. It won't open any files anymore. I tried re-dlding it, but the problem still exists. For example "akb48.avi" --> open with MPC --> *opens* ... "Media Player Classic does not work anymore."

You tried re-booting? Sometimes a bad file can lockup a codec to the point it will not play new files.

[BigDnm01]

Norton Ghost will clone the OS to another drive.

how does it work?  I downloaded and install Norton Ghost 15.0 but don't know how to use it.

[~Dan~]

Norton Ghost will clone the OS to another drive.

how does it work?  I downloaded and install Norton Ghost 15.0 but don't know how to use it.

I last used it 8 years ago and it was a really old version that fitted on a floppy.  All I had to do was tell it which drive to copy and which drive to copy onto.  I imagine the newer versions have changed a lot but it can't be so different can it?

[Slack]

I think the question was more along the lines of "how do you start this thing?"

For that question, you need to know how to boot from a disk.
http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000217.htm

Once you know how to do that, this guide should help:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2108290_use-norton-ghost.html

[BigDnm01]

thanks, I'll look into that. 

now another question arise.  I'm currently using Windows 7.  often, whenever I want to delete, move, copy, etc., a file or folder, this adminstrative thing pop up.  It says that only administrator is allowed to do this or need permission to do it.  Now I am the administrator, there's only one account.  I get annoyed when this pops up and sometimes it won't allow me to do the action I wanted.  I'd tried again and most of the time it works, but sometimes it's not. 

also I had a very annoying issue when using this Windows 7.  I keep trying to play some videos and music, also uninstall a program.  but an error appear.  Now I don't remember the error code, but it's something like:
"The file is used by another program" or ... whatever. like on a different drive or network drive.  now it's true that it was on a different drive(usb).  but then the files on the C:Drive didn't even work, same error message. 
what happened there?  I dunno why, but it got so bad, that I decided to reboot the OS.
but I would like an explanation and a solution if and when this problems arise again.

[Slack]

Yeah, that sounds like you're running into the UAC, which is something that lots of people complained about on vista and is really annoying.  Supposedly, it's for safety and preventing things from being run without your knowledge, but it's really a hindrance most of the time.

Easy way to tone it down:
Hit the start button, type "uac" and hit enter.
That should bring up this window:


Then just lower the slider to your satisfaction and most of the problems you described should go away.


It might not take care of all the read/write/permission problems, but that can be solved by changing the default file permissions:

You can get to this screen by right-clicking on a folder or drive, then clicking "Properties".  Then go to the "Security" tab.
Once you get to this point, click the "Edit..." button and you can add permissions for different users for that given folder.

[Amplifier]

For UAC, I'm only able to not move things when I'm moving them to 'Program Files' or similar, AND through anything except Windows Explorer, unless the other program (say MPC) was 'Run As Administrator' first. I have admin too. This never happens with my own personal folders, and my external hard drives, just system folders.

For the file in use bit, check out: http://download.cnet.com/Unlocker/3000-2248_4-10493998.html - It will tell you what program is using the file, and will attempt to close the program.

[frblckstr1]

now another question arise.  I'm currently using Windows 7.  often, whenever I want to delete, move, copy, etc., a file or folder, this adminstrative thing pop up.  It says that only administrator is allowed to do this or need permission to do it. 

As Amplifier says: If you get this with W7 you are probably using the wrong directories to store your files ('c:\program files', 'c:\' and 'c:\windows' are off limits under W7) anywhere else you should not get the UAC unless the file has a read-only attribute (which some files have if you extract them from a zip/rar).
Or is considered a system file (like thumbs.db).
This is I found also a reason why you can't always delete a subdirectory: the thumbs.db (normally a hidden system file) is still being 'lazy' updated, if you wait a few minutes then the delete probably succeeds.

(Video) files can depending on the player stay locked, so W7 complaining 'still in use' might actually be correct.

[BigDnm01]

Okay, first off , thanks are in order to Slack, Amplifier and Frblckstr1, I'll try that out.  

now a new issue.  I'd been wanting to transfer my contacts From my iPhone TO my Sim Card.  but from what I read it can't be done.  is this really true, there's no way to do it? Since I had Vista and Windows 7, most of my contacts, when synced thru iTunes, are stored on my computer.  but having to input all that contact on a new phone is just too much work.  Is iPhone really that out-dated?