dacs.doc electric

Random Access

Instant Replay: November 2000

Bruce Preston, Moderator

Reminder: As a service to members, if you are unable to attend a General Meeting and would like to have your question submitted, e-mail it to askdacs@aol.com by the day before the meeting.

Q. Is there a point after which adding more RAM doesn’t help performance on a machine?

A. Much depends upon what you are doing, as memory intensive applications such as CAD, graphics, etc. need more memory. For a general purpose machine, web browsing, word processing, etc., Windows 95/98/ME like 128MB after which more RAM isn’t going to do much. Additionally, if you keep multiple programs running at the same time, you will do well to have more memory, or at least a larger virtual memory defined.

Q. Can I connect a parallel printer to a USB port?

A. Yes, if you have a USB to Parallel Port converter. Belkin make one, as does Epson and IBM, and there are others as well. They typically draw power from the USB port. Note that you might also be able to add a parallel port to your machine, but doing so will consume an interrupt, where a USB port can support several devices on the same interrupt.

Q. I switched from dial-up to DSL. When I double-click on a URL, it tries to connect via the dial-up circuit rather than via the already connected DSL link.

A. Take a look in Windows Explorer, VIEW, Folder Settings, File Types and see what application “owns” the .HTM and .HTML file extension. Then go to this application, such as IE, and make sure that it is set to use your DSL connection by default.

Q. Is anyone here using a cable modem connection? How does it work?

A. We had one “past tense” user, and several active users. In general they were favorable as it was considerably faster than dial-up, but several reported that it got sluggish at certain times of day due to sharing the bandwidth, where DSL is a fixed bandwidth connection.

Q. Can I encrypt the contents of a hard disk, or at a minimum just certain files?

A. Various word processors have built in encryption capabilities. Another way is to use a virtual drive under F-Secure File Crypto, or Pretty Good Privacy. These drives are similar to the “compressed drives” such as Stacker or DriveSpace - except that they are encryted. You essentially reserve a large block of your disk space for encryption, and it gets assigned a drive letter. From then on, you can use any program to read or write to that drive, but must provide a password to be able to do so.

Q. Can I remove the encryption later?

A. Yes, if you provide the password. You can then just drag and drop the files from the encrypted drive to some other partition. Once empty, delete the encrypted partition, and then re-define it as a normal partition and the encryption will be gone.

Q. I want to be able to use OS/2 and Windows 2000 on the same machine. After installation, I no longer can select the OS when I boot, unless I re-install the boot manager. Then things work fine until I use Windows 2000, then OS/2 is un-available until I re-install the boot manager again. Isn’t there a way to do this without the hassle?

A. According to the “Getting Started” manual that came with Windows 2000 Professional (page 36) “If you install Windows 2000 on a computer that dual boots OS/2 and MS-DOS, Windows 2000 Setup configures your system so you can dual boot between Windows 2000 Professional and the operating system (MS_DOS or OS/2) you most recently used before running Windows 2000 Setup. You might be better off with a boot manager such as available from PowerQuest. Check also the “ReadMe” file on the Windows 2000 Professional CD.

Q. Last month I heard reference to “Slide Scanners”. Can’t I use a flatbed scanner?

A. There are two things going against a flatbed scanner - resolution and illumination. A flat bed scanner has perhaps 600dpi (dots per inch) resolution before it resorts to interpolation (estimation). For a 35mm slide, that means that you may only get 900 true dots across the image, and maybe 600 down the image before it starts estimating. The other problem is that you need to have a consistently color correct light source behind the slide, since the light must go through the slide rather than be reflected off the image as is the case when scanning a page or photo. Slide scanners have a much smaller scanning “eye” but it only looks at the area of a single slide. It thus can deliver (typically) 2,700 dpi or better, and they have a light source that is color balanced for scanning slides. The better scanners use a SCSI connection, which gives you better throughput. Some brands to look at: Nikon CoolScan is very well rated, as are the SprintScan units from Polaroid. Polaroid has just introduced a new model, you can get a very good deal on refurbished or surplus units on eBay. If you are going to be doing high volumes, you might want to consider a SCSI CD-RW drive so that you can save your scans to a CD, as a high-detail scan of a slide will generate a file of about 27MB.

Q. Every time I start my internet connection, it insists on going to the Zone Alarm page, even though this not my “start page” in Internet Explorer. What’s going on.

A. It is possible that when you installed ZoneAlarm that it changed your default page - take a look in Tools / Options and see if the start page has been changed.

Q. When I installed a second network card (for cable modem) into a machine, it doubled up on the same IRQ as the video card. Things seem to work, but I do get a hung machine from time to time. Could this be the problem?

A. Yes. Network cards don’t like sharing IRQs with anybody. See if you can free up an IRQ by removing a comm port or printer port.

Q. Could someone compare Norton’s Ghost versus PowerQuest’s Drive Image.

A. PowerQuest answers the phone when you call for support. We know of Fortune 500 companies that use Ghost - it is considered to be more reliable, but note that there is a professional version for each. The professional version does not require the source image to be local, it can be on a network drive.

Q. I used Partition Magic to repartition my hard drive. I read somewhere that once that has been done, I shouldn’t change my operating system. Any comments?

A. As long as the new OS can recognize the format of the partition, i.e. NTFS, HPFS, FAT-32, etc., there shouldn’t be a problem. However be aware that changing operating systems on an existing system is always somewhat risky, especially in that you may “inherit” faulty settings from the previous installation. This was much more common in converting from 16-bit Windows (Windows 3.11, Windows for Workgroups) to 32-bit Windows (Windows 95, 98, SE, etc.)

Random Access

Instant Replay: November 2000

*Bruce Preston, Moderator*
Reminder: As a service to members, if you are unable to attend a General Meeting and would like to have your question submitted, e-mail it to askdacs@aol.com by the day before the meeting. Q. Is there a point after which adding more RAM doesn’t help performance on a machine? A. Much depends upon what you are doing, as memory intensive applications such as CAD, graphics, etc. need more memory. For a general purpose machine, web browsing, word processing, etc., Windows 95/98/ME like 128MB after which more RAM isn’t going to do much. Additionally, if you keep multiple programs running at the same time, you will do well to have more memory, or at least a larger virtual memory defined. Q. Can I connect a parallel printer to a USB port? A. Yes, if you have a USB to Parallel Port converter. Belkin make one, as does Epson and IBM, and there are others as well. They typically draw power from the USB port. Note that you might also be able to add a parallel port to your machine, but doing so will consume an interrupt, where a USB port can support several devices on the same interrupt. Q. I switched from dial-up to DSL. When I double-click on a URL, it tries to connect via the dial-up circuit rather than via the already connected DSL link. A. Take a look in Windows Explorer, VIEW, Folder Settings, File Types and see what application “owns” the .HTM and .HTML file extension. Then go to this application, such as IE, and make sure that it is set to use your DSL connection by default. Q. Is anyone here using a cable modem connection? How does it work? A. We had one “past tense” user, and several active users. In general they were favorable as it was considerably faster than dial-up, but several reported that it got sluggish at certain times of day due to sharing the bandwidth, where DSL is a fixed bandwidth connection. Q. Can I encrypt the contents of a hard disk, or at a minimum just certain files? A. Various word processors have built in encryption capabilities. Another way is to use a virtual drive under F-Secure File Crypto, or Pretty Good Privacy. These drives are similar to the “compressed drives” such as Stacker or DriveSpace - except that they are encryted. You essentially reserve a large block of your disk space for encryption, and it gets assigned a drive letter. From then on, you can use any program to read or write to that drive, but must provide a password to be able to do so. Q. Can I remove the encryption later? A. Yes, if you provide the password. You can then just drag and drop the files from the encrypted drive to some other partition. Once empty, delete the encrypted partition, and then re-define it as a normal partition and the encryption will be gone. Q. I want to be able to use OS/2 and Windows 2000 on the same machine. After installation, I no longer can select the OS when I boot, unless I re-install the boot manager. Then things work fine until I use Windows 2000, then OS/2 is un-available until I re-install the boot manager again. Isn’t there a way to do this without the hassle? A. According to the “Getting Started” manual that came with Windows 2000 Professional (page 36) “If you install Windows 2000 on a computer that dual boots OS/2 and MS-DOS, Windows 2000 Setup configures your system so you can dual boot between Windows 2000 Professional and the operating system (MS_DOS or OS/2) you most recently used before running Windows 2000 Setup. You might be better off with a boot manager such as available from PowerQuest. Check also the “ReadMe” file on the Windows 2000 Professional CD. Q. Last month I heard reference to “Slide Scanners”. Can’t I use a flatbed scanner? A. There are two things going against a flatbed scanner - resolution and illumination. A flat bed scanner has perhaps 600dpi (dots per inch) resolution before it resorts to interpolation (estimation). For a 35mm slide, that means that you may only get 900 true dots across the image, and maybe 600 down the image before it starts estimating. The other problem is that you need to have a consistently color correct light source behind the slide, since the light must go through the slide rather than be reflected off the image as is the case when scanning a page or photo. Slide scanners have a much smaller scanning “eye” but it only looks at the area of a single slide. It thus can deliver (typically) 2,700 dpi or better, and they have a light source that is color balanced for scanning slides. The better scanners use a SCSI connection, which gives you better throughput. Some brands to look at: Nikon CoolScan is very well rated, as are the SprintScan units from Polaroid. Polaroid has just introduced a new model, you can get a very good deal on refurbished or surplus units on eBay. If you are going to be doing high volumes, you might want to consider a SCSI CD-RW drive so that you can save your scans to a CD, as a high-detail scan of a slide will generate a file of about 27MB. Q. Every time I start my internet connection, it insists on going to the Zone Alarm page, even though this not my “start page” in Internet Explorer. What’s going on. A. It is possible that when you installed ZoneAlarm that it changed your default page - take a look in Tools / Options and see if the start page has been changed. Q. When I installed a second network card (for cable modem) into a machine, it doubled up on the same IRQ as the video card. Things seem to work, but I do get a hung machine from time to time. Could this be the problem? A. Yes. Network cards don’t like sharing IRQs with anybody. See if you can free up an IRQ by removing a comm port or printer port. Q. Could someone compare Norton’s Ghost versus PowerQuest’s Drive Image. A. PowerQuest answers the phone when you call for support. We know of Fortune 500 companies that use Ghost - it is considered to be more reliable, but note that there is a professional version for each. The professional version does not require the source image to be local, it can be on a network drive. Q. I used Partition Magic to repartition my hard drive. I read somewhere that once that has been done, I shouldn’t change my operating system. Any comments? A. As long as the new OS can recognize the format of the partition, i.e. NTFS, HPFS, FAT-32, etc., there shouldn’t be a problem. However be aware that changing operating systems on an existing system is always somewhat risky, especially in that you may “inherit” faulty settings from the previous installation. This was much more common in converting from 16-bit Windows (Windows 3.11, Windows for Workgroups) to 32-bit Windows (Windows 95, 98, SE, etc.)

Bruce Preston is president of West Mountain Systems, a consultancy in Ridgefield, CT, specializing in database applications. A DACS director and moderator of the Random Access segment at the monthly general meetings, Bruce also leads the Access SIG. Members may send tech queries to Bruce at askdacs@aol.com. Responses will be published in the next issue of dacs.doc.