Random Access
September 2005
Bruce Preston, Moderator

Members who are unable to attend the General Meeting may submit questions to "askdacs@dacs.org" by the day prior to the meeting. We will attempt to get an answer for you. Please provide enough detail, as we will not be able to ask for additional information.

Q. I’ve been reading about Windows Vista. I’m confused about the user interface being vector based—it seems to imply that all machines will require a different video card. Is that so?

A. It means that many of the on-screen widgets such as buttons, sliders, icons, etc. will be drawn in real time rather than being bit-mapped images. This has much to do with scalability—you can only stretch or compress a bitmap image so far before it gets overly distorted, while if it is vector-based it may be resized at will without pixelization.

Q. I am considering getting a DVD drive for backups. What capabilities, media, speed, price should I expect?

A. First, there is about a 5 to 1 price differential between rewritable media versus recordable media. So you might want to consider using plain record-able media for your backups. In addition to being less expensive, writing to a plain recordable media is faster than to rewritable. Another advantage is that this lets you maintain ‘generations’ of backups—so that you might maintain multiple versions/revisions of the same document. This comes in handy if you find that you want to ‘undo’ a change made prior to your most recent backup. You might consider getting an external DVD burner with a USB 2 interface. This would let you move the drive between machines—either yours or in the case of an emergency, some one else’s machine. Note that you really need a USB 2 interface (which machines made within the last two or three years should have.). USB 2 is capable of 480 Mbps (mega-bit per second) versus USB 1.1 at 12Mbps. If your computer does not have a USB 2 port, don’t despair, if you have an available PCI slot you can add one—cards are made by Adaptec, Belkin, SIIG to name a few. They come in varieties having two or four ports, and some also come with Firewire ports. Firewire is commonly used as the interface for digital video. Note also that you can get an external drive enclosure—a small box with has its own power supply, and a USB2 to EIDE interface. This lets you mount what would normally be an internal drive in the enclosure and use it as a portable device. One other consideration is “lightScribe” technology—this is the ability to burn labels onto a coating on the top of light-scribe supporting media. (Data is on the underside of a CD or DVD) This requires that the burner support lightScribe, as well as your burning software. However, be aware that it may take as much as 40 minutes to burn a label. As for prices, they are all over the map—a lot depends upon the manufacturer (and implied quality,) speed and capa-bilities of the drive. You should expect to be able to store about 4.7GB of data on a regular single-layer DVD+R or DVD-R. Dual layer DVD will handle about 8GB, but requires a dual-layer capable burner/reader. When you look at a drive, check its specifications—some have a preferred media, for example my HP DVD640 works faster with DVD+R media.

Q. At least once a week I get an e-mail from some mail server saying that a message that I sent is undeliverable. I never sent the message. What is going on, and what can I do about it?

A. What has happened is somewhere “out there” is a computer that has been compromised and is hosting an internet worm. Such a machine is called a ‘zombie’ or ‘bot’. Most recently they host one of the variants of the Bagel worm. A study published in March, 2005 ( http://www.security pipeline.com/news/159901193 ) estimates that there are more than one million machines world-wide are under the control of hackers. A typical worm creates a mail server on the compromised machine, and then reads through the inbox and address book of that machine. It then randomly selects an address from the list and uses it to forge the “From:” and then starts mailing spam at the behest of the hacker who installed the worm. There essentially isn’t anything that you can do about it since the compromised machine isn’t yours. However, as a good network citizen you should make certain that your machine is up-to-date with regards to anti-virus, anti-spyware, patches and that you have an active firewall. Another comment—often the “bounce back” message has an attached file which purports to be your original message (or a collection of ‘mis-delivered’ messages alleged to have been delivered in error.) DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENT(S), as these often have the payload - the worm.

Q. How do you detect if your machine is compromised?

A. An up-to-date anti-virus scan should find it. Also, if your machine has become lethargic, take a look at the network activity LED on the network adapter or router or modem. Occasional ‘blips’ are to be expected, but if the light is on steady when you aren’t doing anything, there is a good chance that you have a problem. If a once stable machine requires frequent booting that’s another tip-off.

Q. Is there a way to examine the validity of such a bounce-back message without bringing it into my computer?

A. Most ISPs provide a web-based interface to your mailbox. A common one is webmail. With that you can preview or read messages while they are still on the server, and selectively delete them. Another approach is to use a product such as MailWasher, which brings down only the mail headers to your computer, giving you the option of deleting them before they get into your computer’s inbox.

Q. How long does the CMOS battery last on a PC?

A. It depends upon the battery type used, and how long the computer is turned on. Most current machines use Lithium-Ion batteries that get a trickle charge. They are about the size of two stacked quarters and snap into a socket on the motherboard. From personal experience, the battery in my main desktop machine is at least 4 years old (hmm . . . that implies that the mother-boards/processor is 4 years old—probably time to upgrade or replace) and still good. The battery in my older notebook machine complains if I haven’t used the machine at least one a month.

Q. Can anyone here recommend a genealogy program?

A. Family Tree Maker has been the best-selling program for over a decade. Many here use it. The add-on pack-ages (databases) have garnered mixed-results as to value. Additionally, there were complaints about its installing DSSAgent, a background task by Broderbund that is believed to be spyware. (http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/dssagent/)

Q. Are hotspots secure?

A. When you are connected to a hotspot, assume that any other computer also logged onto the hotspot can probe your machine, as you are all behind the same firewall—assuming that there is a firewall present. The same can be said for broadband access provided by a hotel, library, etc. Note also that if you are using a VPN, that traffic over the VPN circuit is secure, but a hacker might still be able to probe your machine, the hacker would just not be able to eavesdrop on the traffic going through the tunnel. In short, do not assume that the broadband provider is supplying any security mechanisms at all.

Q. I am thinking of getting a USB drive. The problem is that one of the computers that I am considering using it on only has a USB 1.1 port. Will it work?

A. Thumb drives (also known as pen drives, flash drives, etc.) are solid state devices and will work with USB 1.1. If you are running Windows XP you will get a balloon message something like “USB 2 device connected to low speed port—this device will work faster if connected to a high speed port”—but it will still work. However, some devices, such as CD burners mandate that they have a USB 2 port—a USB 1.1 port can not provide data at a fast enough rate to keep the write buffer full, and the CD burner must have enough data in the buffer to sustain a continuous burning rate. As mentioned in an early question, you can get a PCI USB 2 adapter to put into your desktop machine, or a cardbus adapter for a notebook computer. Prices will range from about $25 to $70 for PCI cards (depends upon number of ports, Firewire support, etc.) and about $40 for a basic USB 2 cardbus card.

Q. My machine sometimes goes into a state where even though the power is on, I can’t wake it via the keyboard or mouse. The keyboard and mouse are both standard PS/2 sockets as opposed to USB devices. To get the machine back, I have to power off and restart.

A. Some power management setting is incorrect—either within the operating system or withing the computer’s CMOS BIOS settings. Within Windows look in Control Panel and then Power Management. To get at the CMOS BIOS settings you will have to interrupt the power on self tesrt (usually by pressing the DEL key, or ESC or one of the Function keys). Look at the various “wake on” parameters.

Bruce Preston is president of West Mountain Systems, a consultancy in Ridgefield, CT specializing in database applications. A DACS director, Bruce also leads the Access SIG. Members may send tech queries to Bruce at askdacs@dacs.org.