From dmckenna at thelimucompany.com Thu Mar 2 12:06:09 2006 From: dmckenna at thelimucompany.com (Damien McKenna) Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2006 12:06:09 -0500 Subject: Weak 12V2 cause power problems? (was "RE: [Pc_Support] PSU quality review") Message-ID: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1C1DD6C@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> Bryan, after reading the review of my Antec 500W PSU (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/custompc/labs/79275/antec-smartpower-20-sp500pgb .html) that was in the article Jason linked to, do you think their comment of a weak 12V2 rail could be causing the power problems I've experienced with my DLT drive et al? -- Damien McKenna - Web Developer - Damien.McKenna at thelimucompany.com The Limu Company - http://www.thelimucompany.com/ - 407-804-1014 #include From octo at logicprobe.org Thu Mar 2 12:48:40 2006 From: octo at logicprobe.org (Derek Konigsberg) Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2006 12:48:40 -0500 (EST) Subject: Weak 12V2 cause power problems? (was "RE: [Pc_Support] PSU quality review") In-Reply-To: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1C1DD6C@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> References: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1C1DD6C@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> Message-ID: I once had issues in a server of mine where I had a CD-ROM drive, a DLT drive, and a bunch of hard drives. It seemed like the power supply couldn't handle the CD-ROM and DLT tape drives at the same time. (one would act funny when the other was in active use) However, swapping out for a power supply with a much better rating on the 12V rail did fix the problem. One thing I've noticed is that most PC-style power supplies love to put all their extra wattage into whatever 5V or 3.3V output is used by the CPU/motherboard. As such, your 450W "for that fancy Pentium 4" power supply usually doesn't have any higher of a rating on the 12V rail than your average measly 250-300W unit. You really gotta check the details of what power supply you buy for a server, since the "wattage rating" along doesn't tell you very much. --------------------------- Derek Konigsberg octo at logicprobe.org http://hecgeek.blogspot.com --------------------------- On Thu, 2 Mar 2006, Damien McKenna wrote: > Bryan, after reading the review of my Antec 500W PSU > (http://www.pcpro.co.uk/custompc/labs/79275/antec-smartpower-20-sp500pgb > .html) that was in the article Jason linked to, do you think their > comment of a weak 12V2 rail could be causing the power problems I've > experienced with my DLT drive et al? > > -- > Damien McKenna - Web Developer - Damien.McKenna at thelimucompany.com > The Limu Company - http://www.thelimucompany.com/ - 407-804-1014 > #include > > _______________________________________________ > Pc_support mailing list > Pc_support at matrixlist.com > http://lists.matrixlist.com/mailman/listinfo/pc_support > From jasonb at edseek.com Thu Mar 2 13:20:59 2006 From: jasonb at edseek.com (Jason Boxman) Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2006 13:20:59 -0500 (EST) Subject: Weak 12V2 cause power problems? (was "RE: [Pc_Support] PSU quality review") In-Reply-To: References: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1C1DD6C@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> Message-ID: <55632.216.134.200.78.1141323659.squirrel@nebula.internal.foo> Derek Konigsberg said: > I once had issues in a server of mine where I had a CD-ROM drive, a DLT > drive, and a bunch of hard drives. It seemed like the power supply > couldn't handle the CD-ROM and DLT tape drives at the same time. (one > would act funny when the other was in active use) However, swapping out > for a power supply with a much better rating on the 12V rail did fix the > problem. > > One thing I've noticed is that most PC-style power supplies love to put > all their extra wattage into whatever 5V or 3.3V output is used by the > CPU/motherboard. As such, your 450W "for that fancy Pentium 4" power > supply usually doesn't have any higher of a rating on the 12V rail than > your average measly 250-300W unit. You really gotta check the details of > what power supply you buy for a server, since the "wattage rating" along > doesn't tell you very much. Sure true. Sadly the ratings won't tell you have stable the PSU is at those voltages. I'm too cheap to buy a miltimeter and check myself. Plus, once you can do that you've already bought the PSU... I guess you could send it back. My favorite PSU issue must've been when I had a Dell PSU that was age old and like 120W or something, but less than a 200W overall rating, and with 4 120GB ATA disks, if you lightly tapped a molex, a drive would spin down and back up again rapidly. It was annoying, at first, as I lost a member of a 3Ware RAID 5 array. However, I found that once it resync'd, all my data was single bit corrupt here and there. (And rsync to a good copy verified this along with various data files being corrupt.) Needless to say, I managed to kill my 3Ware with a crap PSU. PSU quality does matter when a $150 logic board is at stake. ;) From dmckenna at thelimucompany.com Thu Mar 2 13:51:59 2006 From: dmckenna at thelimucompany.com (Damien McKenna) Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2006 13:51:59 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Web server install - Fasttrack100TX2 vs Adaptec7896N? Message-ID: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1C1DD72@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> > Unless it has a Zero-channel SCSI RAID slot, you'd be better off > replacing the card with a $100 3Ware Escalade 7006-2 instead. Looking at my options, seeing as we don't have any SCSI drives to throw in there, and I don't see it being worth the expense of buying both drives *and* a controller when the server is so old anyway, I'm looking at the 3Ware 7506 series as a stop-gap until we can afford a server over-haul. However, I noticed that the 7006-2 that you suggest only has one cable, so wouldn't having two drives on it with one cable reduce performance versus a 7506-4 with two cables due to IDE being what it is? FYI I'd plan on doing RAID-1 on the two drives. -- Damien McKenna - Web Developer - Damien.McKenna at thelimucompany.com The Limu Company - http://www.thelimucompany.com/ - 407-804-1014 #include From dmckenna at thelimucompany.com Thu Mar 2 14:24:42 2006 From: dmckenna at thelimucompany.com (Damien McKenna) Date: Thu, 2 Mar 2006 14:24:42 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Web server install - Fasttrack100TX2 vs Adaptec7896N? Message-ID: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1C1DD73@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> > -----Original Message----- > From: Bryan J. Smith [mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org] > Sent: Thursday, March 02, 2006 2:17 PM > > Damien McKenna wrote: > > I'm looking at the 3Ware 7506 series as a stop-gap until we can > > afford a server over-haul. However, I noticed that the 7006-2 > > that you suggest only has one cable, > > Huh? You've been using too many FRAID products. > The 3Ware Escalade 7006-2 has two (2) channels with two (2) cables -- > only *1* drive per channel. 3Ware has _never_ shipped a RAID > controller with more than *1* drive per channel -- _period_. OK, it just looked from their pictures that it only had one connector. Silly me for judging a thumbnail X-) > > so wouldn't having two drives on it with one cable reduce > > performance versus a 7506-4 with two cables due to IDE being > > what it is? > > What is this "IDE" you speak of? > There is _no_ requirement that IDE use "master/slave." I was thinking of EIDE but couldn't remember the extra E in the definition of the non-standard. Need more coffee... -- Damien McKenna - Web Developer - Damien.McKenna at thelimucompany.com The Limu Company - http://www.thelimucompany.com/ - 407-804-1014 #include From glaiacona at aikencountysc.gov Tue Mar 7 15:56:04 2006 From: glaiacona at aikencountysc.gov (George Laiacona) Date: Tue, 07 Mar 2006 15:56:04 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] IIS and virtual directories Message-ID: Anyone know why I can't display images from a virtual directory located in a share on another computer? I can connect to that share locally from the IIS machine and look at files in the directory, and IIS manager shows me the contents of that folder when viewing the virtual directory's properties. But, no dice when browsing to that folder. George. From glaiacona at aikencountysc.gov Tue Mar 7 17:07:26 2006 From: glaiacona at aikencountysc.gov (George Laiacona) Date: Tue, 07 Mar 2006 17:07:26 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] IIS and virtual directories Message-ID: Answered my own question. Appears as though the user ID needs to be both on the shared Server and the IIS server. George. >>> glaiacona at aikencountysc.gov 03/07/06 3:56 PM >>> Anyone know why I can't display images from a virtual directory located in a share on another computer? I can connect to that share locally from the IIS machine and look at files in the directory, and IIS manager shows me the contents of that folder when viewing the virtual directory's properties. But, no dice when browsing to that folder. George. _______________________________________________ Pc_support mailing list Pc_support at matrixlist.com http://lists.matrixlist.com/mailman/listinfo/pc_support From wam at HiWAAY.net Wed Mar 8 23:25:53 2006 From: wam at HiWAAY.net (William A. Mahaffey III) Date: Wed, 08 Mar 2006 22:25:53 -0600 Subject: [Pc_Support] Opteron board question .... Message-ID: <440FAE51.4070407@HiWAAY.net> .... I am preparing to build an Opteron based compute server for use on my LAN. I am planning on using this board: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813186055 w/ most of the rest of the components coming from NewEgg as well. AMD doesn't list any 100-series socket 940 dual-core CPUs, so I am planning on using a single Opteron-265, 1.8 GHz Dual core, socket 940. There are reviews on NewEgg that say this CPU won't work on this Mbd, followed by later ones that say it will. Foxconn's website says -275 & -875 opterons are compatible, but says nothing about others. Does anyone have any 1st hand experience w/ this board, and more precisely knowlege of compatibility status, yea or nay, w/ this Mbd/CPU combination ? TIA .... .... and to bring it on topic for Linux, yes it *will* be running a fairly recent Linux, either CentOS 4.1 or SuSE 10.0 :-) .... -- William A. Mahaffey III ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "The M1 Garand is without doubt the finest implement of war ever devised by man." -- Gen. George S. Patton From whittake at sbaflorida.com Mon Mar 13 10:04:36 2006 From: whittake at sbaflorida.com (Homer Whittaker) Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 10:04:36 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Internet over Power Lines Message-ID: <44158A04.3040203@sbaflorida.com> Patrick touched on a subject that has been of great interest to me. So I went to one of the Semiconductor manufacturers and asked them about the subject. The following was their response. Apparently we ain't thar yet :) Homer Whittaker -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: [whittake] Maxim Web Page Comments Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 16:58:58 -0800 From: Moe Rubenzahl To: whittake at sbaflorida.com References: <200603122118.k2CLI9Jr003100 at www.maxim-ic.com> We probably can't answer your question, really. We make the components inside such meters, not the meters themselves. However, I will say that I have read some articles on the topic of Internet connection via the power lines. I know there is a lot of interest in this in the power industry. Power is one of three kinds of wire coming into our homes and surely they would like to take part in providing data services. I don't think it's practical yet, but the articles I read say it's coming. Moe Rubenzahl moe at maxim-ic.com Director of Internet Marketing Maxim Integrated Products 120 San Gabriel Dr. Sunnyvale, CA 94086 408-331-4149 __________________________________________________________________________ Subject: [whittake] Maxim Web Page Comments Author: whittake at sbaflorida.com Date: 3/12/06 1:18 PM -0800 >================================================================= >MAXIM WEB PAGE COMMENTS -- Sun Mar 12 13:18:09 2006 PST >================================================================= > >Location: >http://www.maxim-ic.com/powerline.cfm >Browser: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.12) >Gecko/20050922 Firefox/1.0.7 (Debian package 1.0.7-1) >Language: en-us,en;q=0.5 [ISO-8859-1] >IPAddr: 72.40.24.41 >E-Mail: whittake at sbaflorida.com >Name: Homer Whittaker > >=>>> COMMENTS > >I am not an engineer, but rather an entrepenuer. >I live in Winter Park, Fl. Our city recently purchased the >electric system from Progress Energy, and either should be or are >thinking of putting in a means of reading the electric meters via >computer. >Assuming that they will be doing that, then it would seem to me >that we, the citizens, could have an internet connection >connected to that same circuit since it comes to our residence >anyway. >You all are the technical garu's in matters like this. Is such a >thing possible, and oh yes, were do we have to get to to get into >the internet "cloud"? >Thank you for any comments. >Homer Whittaker > >================================================================= From dmckenna at thelimucompany.com Mon Mar 13 11:32:58 2006 From: dmckenna at thelimucompany.com (Damien McKenna) Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 11:32:58 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Auto channel selection? Message-ID: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D9087A@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> Anyone know what it means for both the router and NICs when I set my wireless router to automatic channel selection? -- Damien McKenna - Web Developer - Damien.McKenna at thelimucompany.com The Limu Company - http://www.thelimucompany.com/ - 407-804-1014 #include From lists at brianrose.net Tue Mar 14 19:16:22 2006 From: lists at brianrose.net (Brian Rose) Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 19:16:22 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Laptop screen Message-ID: <44175CD6.60207@brianrose.net> I have an "old faithful" laptop here that serves me well as a general computer. I have noticed several hairline cracks in the display and was wondering if this is a sign of impending doom or if it is just an annoyance. What is involved with replacing the display? It is a 1024x768 15" display. Thanks for any help. From thomas at tecsplace.com Wed Mar 15 00:16:57 2006 From: thomas at tecsplace.com (Thomas Carlson) Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2006 21:16:57 -0800 Subject: [Pc_Support] Laptop screen In-Reply-To: <44175CD6.60207@brianrose.net> References: <44175CD6.60207@brianrose.net> Message-ID: <1142399817.2885.5.camel@xpc.tecsplace> Brian, I'd look on ebay for a parts laptop if the cracks start to get bigger. Cheers, Thomas On Tue, 2006-03-14 at 19:16 -0500, Brian Rose wrote: > I have an "old faithful" laptop here that serves me well as a general > computer. I have noticed several hairline cracks in the display and was > wondering if this is a sign of impending doom or if it is just an > annoyance. > > What is involved with replacing the display? It is a 1024x768 15" display. > > Thanks for any help. > > > _______________________________________________ > Pc_support mailing list > Pc_support at matrixlist.com > http://lists.matrixlist.com/mailman/listinfo/pc_support > From damien at mc-kenna.com Wed Mar 15 23:30:46 2006 From: damien at mc-kenna.com (Damien McKenna) Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2006 23:30:46 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Microsoft doesn't use use .NET much in Vista Message-ID: <4418E9F6.60600@mc-kenna.com> http://www.grimes.demon.co.uk/dotnet/vistaAndDotnet.htm An amusing read, which fits perfectly with what you were saying over a year ago, Bryan. -- Damien McKenna, husband, father, geek. damien at mc-kenna.com - http://www.mc-kenna.com/ From dmckenna at thelimucompany.com Thu Mar 16 18:09:52 2006 From: dmckenna at thelimucompany.com (Damien McKenna) Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 18:09:52 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Drives, RAID, backups oh my! Message-ID: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D90998@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> I'm looking at ways to beef up our storage usage at work and have some questions for y'all. My first thought is regarding our data. Right now we've traditionally held almost everything on one server - Exchange 2000 for email, and all our files, etc. An effort began two years ago to migrate some of this off but the process wasn't completed. I'm planning to separate our servers so we have one for our email and one for our files. Right now all of the servers are doing JBOD on either IDE or SCSI and I'm planning on changing this to hot-swappable SCSI RAID-3/5/6 (depending on costs) on both servers. FYI we have about 16gb of email data and another 70gb of other data, the latter of which grows faster than the former. The second thing is that I'm considering is breaking up our backup routine from doing a daily, complete backup of our data on one central tape, to each server having its own consumer-grade IDE drive for daily backups then do a once-per-week or once-per-fortnight backup to tape. One of the ideas around this is that our data quantity has increased beyond the amount of tape storage we have to the point where we're not backing up everything we should. Both servers run Windows 2000 (we may migrate to Windows 2003), along with related software including Backup Exec 10 for backups. So anyone have any thoughts, recommendations or other comments for any of this? What RAID cards do you suggest for doing hot-swappable redundancy? Do you think the backup idea would be reliable, or should we just jump for higher capacity tape? Thanks. -- Damien McKenna - Web Developer - Damien.McKenna at thelimucompany.com The Limu Company - http://www.thelimucompany.com/ - 407-804-1014 #include From hescominsoon at emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com Thu Mar 16 19:31:54 2006 From: hescominsoon at emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com (William Warren) Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 19:31:54 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Internet over Power Lines In-Reply-To: <44158A04.3040203@sbaflorida.com> References: <44158A04.3040203@sbaflorida.com> Message-ID: <441A037A.2040009@emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com> the issue with BPL is the massive RF interference they generate in vilolation of FCC rules. Homer Whittaker wrote: > Patrick touched on a subject that has been of great interest to me. So > I went to one of the Semiconductor manufacturers and asked them about > the subject. The following was their response. > Apparently we ain't thar yet :) > Homer Whittaker > > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Re: [whittake] Maxim Web Page Comments > Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 16:58:58 -0800 > From: Moe Rubenzahl > To: whittake at sbaflorida.com > References: <200603122118.k2CLI9Jr003100 at www.maxim-ic.com> > > We probably can't answer your question, really. We make the > components inside such meters, not the meters themselves. > > However, I will say that I have read some articles on the topic of > Internet connection via the power lines. I know there is a lot of > interest in this in the power industry. Power is one of three kinds > of wire coming into our homes and surely they would like to take part > in providing data services. I don't think it's practical yet, but the > articles I read say it's coming. > > Moe Rubenzahl > moe at maxim-ic.com > > Director of Internet Marketing > Maxim Integrated Products > 120 San Gabriel Dr. > Sunnyvale, CA 94086 > > 408-331-4149 > > __________________________________________________________________________ > Subject: [whittake] Maxim Web Page Comments > Author: whittake at sbaflorida.com > Date: 3/12/06 1:18 PM -0800 > >> ================================================================= >> MAXIM WEB PAGE COMMENTS -- Sun Mar 12 13:18:09 2006 PST >> ================================================================= >> >> Location: >> http://www.maxim-ic.com/powerline.cfm >> >> Browser: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.12) >> Gecko/20050922 Firefox/1.0.7 (Debian package 1.0.7-1) >> Language: en-us,en;q=0.5 [ISO-8859-1] >> IPAddr: 72.40.24.41 >> E-Mail: whittake at sbaflorida.com >> Name: Homer Whittaker >> >> =>>> COMMENTS >> >> I am not an engineer, but rather an entrepenuer. I live in Winter >> Park, Fl. Our city recently purchased the >> electric system from Progress Energy, and either should be or are >> thinking of putting in a means of reading the electric meters via >> computer. >> Assuming that they will be doing that, then it would seem to me >> that we, the citizens, could have an internet connection >> connected to that same circuit since it comes to our residence >> anyway. >> You all are the technical garu's in matters like this. Is such a >> thing possible, and oh yes, were do we have to get to to get into >> the internet "cloud"? >> Thank you for any comments. >> Homer Whittaker >> >> ================================================================= > > _______________________________________________ > Pc_support mailing list > Pc_support at matrixlist.com > http://lists.matrixlist.com/mailman/listinfo/pc_support > -- My "Foundation" verse: Isa 54:17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD. -- carpe ductum -- "Grab the tape" CDTT (Certified Duct Tape Technician) Linux user #322099 Machines: 206822 256638 276825 http://counter.li.org/ From hescominsoon at emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com Thu Mar 16 19:32:49 2006 From: hescominsoon at emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com (William Warren) Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 19:32:49 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Auto channel selection? In-Reply-To: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D9087A@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> References: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D9087A@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> Message-ID: <441A03B1.1080207@emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com> yes..there are 16 IIRC wireless channels to choose from. The router/cards will try to find a channel free of interference. They will jump around as conditions warrant. Damien McKenna wrote: > Anyone know what it means for both the router and NICs when I set my > wireless router to automatic channel selection? > -- My "Foundation" verse: Isa 54:17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD. -- carpe ductum -- "Grab the tape" CDTT (Certified Duct Tape Technician) Linux user #322099 Machines: 206822 256638 276825 http://counter.li.org/ From damien at mc-kenna.com Thu Mar 16 21:38:49 2006 From: damien at mc-kenna.com (Damien McKenna) Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 21:38:49 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Auto channel selection? In-Reply-To: <441A03B1.1080207@emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com> References: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D9087A@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> <441A03B1.1080207@emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com> Message-ID: <441A2139.6050503@mc-kenna.com> William Warren wrote: > yes..there are 16 IIRC wireless channels to choose from. The > router/cards will try to find a channel free of interference. They > will jump around as conditions warrant. So the cards and router will work in tandem (presumably restricted to cards with the correct authentication) to pick the channel that works? That's awesome! :-) -- Damien McKenna, husband, father, geek. damien at mc-kenna.com - http://www.mc-kenna.com/ From hescominsoon at emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com Thu Mar 16 21:55:03 2006 From: hescominsoon at emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com (William Warren) Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 21:55:03 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Auto channel selection? In-Reply-To: <441A2139.6050503@mc-kenna.com> References: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D9087A@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> <441A03B1.1080207@emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com> <441A2139.6050503@mc-kenna.com> Message-ID: <441A2507.2080409@emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com> yeppers..:) Damien McKenna wrote: > William Warren wrote: >> yes..there are 16 IIRC wireless channels to choose from. The >> router/cards will try to find a channel free of interference. They >> will jump around as conditions warrant. > So the cards and router will work in tandem (presumably restricted to > cards with the correct authentication) to pick the channel that works? > That's awesome! :-) > -- My "Foundation" verse: Isa 54:17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD. -- carpe ductum -- "Grab the tape" CDTT (Certified Duct Tape Technician) Linux user #322099 Machines: 206822 256638 276825 http://counter.li.org/ From b.j.smith at ieee.org Fri Mar 17 08:25:57 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 08:25:57 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Re:Large area WiFi (City)] -- Rice TAPs, 420Mbps backhaul w/10Mbps access Message-ID: <1142601957.4725.17.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> At last week's IEEE 802.11s (Mesh Networking) sub-committee meeting, we met up with (fellow C-USA member ;-) Rice University who is implementing a rather interesting, Metropolitan-wide mesh networking under a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and, more recently, with funding from Intel. They are currently using five (5) back-haul "Transit Access Points (TAPs)" to cover a little more than a dozen square miles of Houston. The current TAP design just uses twelve (12) 2.4GHz, although they are playing with 4.5/5GHz and other bands. Although they They are _not_ standard 802.11a/b/g radios/channels, they are up to 40MHz "super- channels" (much like what Motorola's Mesh does right now), which cuts through standard 802.11a/b/g like butter (at least Motorola's Mesh does for us). The TAP logic is of a custom design, with Xilinx FPGAs with PowerPC cores ($$$), with GbE PHYs, DACs, ADCs and other ICs -- the Xilinx largely because they are still prototyping the final design. But they are able to get roughly a 420Mbit backhaul in current testing with just the 2.4GHz channels! The embedded operating system is Linux, of course, and their research, including the mesh logic, is _open_source_! The access board is a dual-2.4/5GHz and is being fabbed now. I assume it's probably flexible in design to accommodate all sorts of non- standard "super-channeling" and might not be final (let alone a bit pricey until quantity/commodity). The idea is the access board can give anyone a 10Mbps burst pipe from anywhere within a few miles. Rice has not tested longer distances yet, largely because they are looking for the "every 3 mile" density for typical user performance. Just in case you're interested ... http://taps.rice.edu/ A poster with an introduction to the design ... http://taps.rice.edu/taps-hw-poster.pdf -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, technical annoyance mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com ------------------------------------------------------------ ****** Speed doesn't kill. Difference in speed does! ****** From glaiacona at aikencountysc.gov Fri Mar 17 08:40:17 2006 From: glaiacona at aikencountysc.gov (George Laiacona) Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 08:40:17 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Re:Large area WiFi (City)] -- Rice TAPs, 420Mbps backhaul w/10Mbps access Message-ID: Wow, thanks. You don't realize just how timely this post is. George. >>> b.j.smith at ieee.org 03/17/06 8:25 AM >>> At last week's IEEE 802.11s (Mesh Networking) sub-committee meeting, we met up with (fellow C-USA member ;-) Rice University who is implementing a rather interesting, Metropolitan-wide mesh networking under a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and, more recently, with funding from Intel. They are currently using five (5) back-haul "Transit Access Points (TAPs)" to cover a little more than a dozen square miles of Houston. The current TAP design just uses twelve (12) 2.4GHz, although they are playing with 4.5/5GHz and other bands. Although they They are _not_ standard 802.11a/b/g radios/channels, they are up to 40MHz "super- channels" (much like what Motorola's Mesh does right now), which cuts through standard 802.11a/b/g like butter (at least Motorola's Mesh does for us). The TAP logic is of a custom design, with Xilinx FPGAs with PowerPC cores ($$$), with GbE PHYs, DACs, ADCs and other ICs -- the Xilinx largely because they are still prototyping the final design. But they are able to get roughly a 420Mbit backhaul in current testing with just the 2.4GHz channels! The embedded operating system is Linux, of course, and their research, including the mesh logic, is _open_source_! The access board is a dual-2.4/5GHz and is being fabbed now. I assume it's probably flexible in design to accommodate all sorts of non- standard "super-channeling" and might not be final (let alone a bit pricey until quantity/commodity). The idea is the access board can give anyone a 10Mbps burst pipe from anywhere within a few miles. Rice has not tested longer distances yet, largely because they are looking for the "every 3 mile" density for typical user performance. Just in case you're interested ... http://taps.rice.edu/ A poster with an introduction to the design ... http://taps.rice.edu/taps-hw-poster.pdf -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, technical annoyance mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com ------------------------------------------------------------ ****** Speed doesn't kill. Difference in speed does! ****** _______________________________________________ Pc_support mailing list Pc_support at matrixlist.com http://lists.matrixlist.com/mailman/listinfo/pc_support From dmckenna at thelimucompany.com Fri Mar 17 09:14:44 2006 From: dmckenna at thelimucompany.com (Damien McKenna) Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 09:14:44 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Re:Large area WiFi (City)] -- Rice TAPs, 420Mbps backhaul w/10Mbps access Message-ID: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D909A9@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> Would any of this be useful for the Irish boonies where line of sight is pretty much out of the question but there are plenty of hills to put small amounts of equipment on? -- Damien McKenna - Web Developer - Damien.McKenna at thelimucompany.com The Limu Company - http://www.thelimucompany.com/ - 407-804-1014 #include From b.j.smith at ieee.org Fri Mar 17 09:54:29 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 06:54:29 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Pc_Support] Re:Large area WiFi (City)] -- Rice TAPs, 420Mbps backhaul w/10Mbps access In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20060317145429.12434.qmail@web34101.mail.mud.yahoo.com> George Laiacona wrote: > Wow, thanks. You don't realize just how timely this post is. They are aiming for 802.11s draft mid-summer. As I mentioned in my LEAP post, there's virtually _no_ "real world" implementation. But Rice seems to be building on best practices. Using multiple channels, off-setting the channels by direction/location of next (at least backhaul) mode, etc... If I was in grad school at UCF (which has been impossible given my work schedules the last half-decade), I'd be pushing to build a sister backhaul for the Oviedo-UCF-Waterford Lakes area. One of these days I'll start back up on my MSIE. -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, Technical Annoyance b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com -------------------------------------------------- I'm a Democrat. No wait, I'm a Republican. Hmm, it seems I'm just whatever someone disagrees with. From b.j.smith at ieee.org Fri Mar 17 09:56:40 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 06:56:40 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Pc_Support] Re:Large area WiFi (City)] -- Rice TAPs, 420Mbps backhaul w/10Mbps access In-Reply-To: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D909A9@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> Message-ID: <20060317145640.76637.qmail@web34111.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Damien McKenna wrote: > Would any of this be useful for the Irish boonies where line of > sight is pretty much out of the question but there are plenty of > hills to put small amounts of equipment on? 3 miles _non_ direct line-of-site. Line-of-sight hasn't been tested by Rice. There's just little reason because of their focus. They are building a metropolitan network, meshed with density. Not a long trunk or run. That means their focus is interference. E.g., different radios are of different channels -- meaning it uses different super-channels to connect to different neighbors. -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, Technical Annoyance b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com -------------------------------------------------- I'm a Democrat. No wait, I'm a Republican. Hmm, it seems I'm just whatever someone disagrees with. From tim at mcdonough.net Fri Mar 17 10:29:34 2006 From: tim at mcdonough.net (Tim McDonough) Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 09:29:34 -0600 Subject: [Pc_Support] MSI Clock Problem Question Message-ID: <441AD5DE.6090109@mcdonough.net> I have a machine using Windows XP Pro that has an MSI K7N2GM-V (Part #MS-7119-010) motherboard with 512MB of RAM. Frequently, 3-5 times a week, AVG anti-virus warns me that the virus database is out of date. When this occurs and I check the system time the date has shifted off by several years. Rarely is the day of the month (1,2,3,...) incorrect or the time of day wrong. Any suggestions on curing this or is it just new mobo time? -- Tim From b.j.smith at ieee.org Fri Mar 17 10:47:02 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 07:47:02 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Pc_Support] MSI Clock Problem Question In-Reply-To: <441AD5DE.6090109@mcdonough.net> Message-ID: <20060317154702.33695.qmail@web34101.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Tim McDonough wrote: > I have a machine using Windows XP Pro that has an MSI K7N2GM-V > (Part #MS-7119-010) motherboard with 512MB of RAM ... I check the > system time the date has shifted off by several years. There is clearly a CR2032 3V ( http://images.google.com/images?q=CR2032 ) or similar battery just "right" of the front of the mainboard in the image on this product page: http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=K7N2GM-V Replace it and see what happens. > Any suggestions on curing this or is it just new mobo time? Unless the RTC has an integrated battery and there is no external header to feed it power, it's extremely rare that there is an issue with the hardware itself. Either the battery needs to be replaced or the OS has some spyware or other software-event that is causing it. -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, Technical Annoyance b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com -------------------------------------------------- I'm a Democrat. No wait, I'm a Republican. Hmm, it seems I'm just whatever someone disagrees with. From hescominsoon at emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com Fri Mar 17 10:50:32 2006 From: hescominsoon at emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com (William Warren) Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:50:32 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] MSI Clock Problem Question In-Reply-To: <441AD5DE.6090109@mcdonough.net> References: <441AD5DE.6090109@mcdonough.net> Message-ID: <441ADAC8.2090901@emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com> download and install automachron..point it to a public time server and that will keep your system on time..:) Tim McDonough wrote: > I have a machine using Windows XP Pro that has an MSI K7N2GM-V (Part > #MS-7119-010) motherboard with 512MB of RAM. > > Frequently, 3-5 times a week, AVG anti-virus warns me that the virus > database is out of date. When this occurs and I check the system time > the date has shifted off by several years. Rarely is the day of the > month (1,2,3,...) incorrect or the time of day wrong. > > Any suggestions on curing this or is it just new mobo time? > -- My "Foundation" verse: Isa 54:17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD. -- carpe ductum -- "Grab the tape" CDTT (Certified Duct Tape Technician) Linux user #322099 Machines: 206822 256638 276825 http://counter.li.org/ From wam at HiWAAY.net Fri Mar 17 11:04:30 2006 From: wam at HiWAAY.net (William A. Mahaffey III) Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:04:30 -0600 Subject: [Pc_Support] Reading AVI files .... Message-ID: <441ADE0E.7080008@HiWAAY.net> .... I just got finished installing SuSE 10.0 on a new box on the network at work. The boss-man wants to be able to play .avi files under the stock KDE desktop. He downloaded Real-Player 10 (I *think*) & tried to play some files we had created & got nothing. There was a dialog about downloading some libraries to fix that, but the link didn't get us anything useful. I also tried Kaffiene (stock/available media-player under KDE) & no-go. Does anyone know what extra libraries I need & where to go to download them to play AVI files with either Real-Player 10 or Kaffiene ? TIA. -- William A. Mahaffey III ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "The M1 Garand is without doubt the finest implement of war ever devised by man." -- Gen. George S. Patton From b.j.smith at ieee.org Fri Mar 17 11:01:22 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 08:01:22 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Pc_Support] Re: Large area WiFi (City)] -- Rice TAPs, 420Mbps backhaul w/10Mbps acce In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20060317160123.9904.qmail@web34110.mail.mud.yahoo.com> George Laiacona wrote: > I'm tasked with trying to figure out connecting remote offices, and > Wi-Fi is one option, but much of it will be long-haul type stuff. Not only is this shorter range and substaintially more investment, but it's still prototype-engineering stage. I.e., they're using Xilinx Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) at this point, even if they have a PowerPC core. To be far more commodity, they'll have to nail down the spec and build an ASIC. I'm not even sure if they're at that point yet -- and I'd say probably not. Although it's possible they can not only get 10+ miles, but they probably would only need 6-8 radios to do so (two sets for each direction). But it's clearly _not_ designed for such. It's designed as largely a [physically] unidirectional mesh "TAP" for local subscribers with dedicated channels for [virtual] direction back-haul. Stuff where you're providing services to hundreds of people in the local area. You'd be better off going with something like a ParkerVision or countless other, directional solutions that use standard 802.11 or similar. > Plus, the City of Aiken is entertaining the idea of a mesh network > to cover the city (a friend of mine works for the city), and there > has been a lot of discussion on the Government Managers of > Information Systems (GMIS) listserv about large-scale wi-fi. Now for Mesh, that changes everything. We're the _sole_ VAR and leading integrator for the _sole_, truly working -- from device down to subscriber (i.e., CardBus device) -- mesh solution available. Rate is broadband-like (1.5Mbps, up to 6Mbps when distributed). Trust me, we've been testing countless other solutions -- from FireTide to SkyPilot. There's a reason we still only implement Moto Mesh right now. We're currently expanding our network into the largest wireless test network east of the Mississippi -- all in Seminole County. It's largely Lake Mary and surrounding vicinity now (but still almost 100 nodes). You can come down and we can give you a demo of how it works -- at 70mph no less in a CardBus form-factor. Several racing associations have used it at 200+mph -- including Sebring this very weekend. > So, I'm reviewing your links for relevance to my projects. > That, and to learn more. Again, Rice's TAP is _far_ from end-usable now. But it's definitely where things are headed. If you want something now, we've got it. But we're also planning for newer developments. Once 802.11s hits commodity we recognize that the VAR won't sustain us, and that's what I'm 100% allocated to developing for. All while I'm 100% allocated to supporting clients like yourself who wants stuff now. All while I'm 100% (and solely allocated) to new hardware developments. Etc... ;-> -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, Technical Annoyance b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com -------------------------------------------------- I'm a Democrat. No wait, I'm a Republican. Hmm, it seems I'm just whatever someone disagrees with. From b.j.smith at ieee.org Fri Mar 17 11:09:08 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 08:09:08 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Pc_Support] Re: Reading AVI files .... In-Reply-To: <441ADE0E.7080008@HiWAAY.net> Message-ID: <20060317160908.91800.qmail@web34113.mail.mud.yahoo.com> "William A. Mahaffey III" wrote: > .... I just got finished installing SuSE 10.0 on a new box on the > network at work. > The boss-man wants to be able to play .avi files under the stock > KDE desktop. Just FYI, AVI codecs may have licensing that makes this difficult from a legal standpoint -- depending on your interpretation. Or at least some of the software I suggest might, at least from a redistribution perspective. > He downloaded Real-Player 10 (I *think*) HelixPlayer (which RealPlayer is now based on) can take various codecs, but it is _not_ designed to play everything since various codecs do _not_ exist. Although some AVI support does exist, there are countless codecs. AVI itself is really just a streaming format, which can very in audio/video encoding. > Does anyone know what extra libraries I need & where to go to > download them to play AVI files with either Real-Player 10 > or Kaffiene ? TIA. I highly recommend MPlayer because it includes a lot of support out-of-the-program, and then can use various Windows codecs via WINE/WINELIB. I haven't found anything it couldn't play yet (even most Sorenson codecs for QTime are supported now days)! If you were running Fedora Core/Extras, the Livna.ORG repository is a _very_safe_ repository you can tap directly. But there are always "legally questionable" aspects to some of the packages on Livna.ORG -- at least from a redistributable aspect (although maybe or maybe not an end-user one). Whenever you use such in a commercial environment, you must _beware_ of such legal issues. -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, Technical Annoyance b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com -------------------------------------------------- I'm a Democrat. No wait, I'm a Republican. Hmm, it seems I'm just whatever someone disagrees with. From b.j.smith at ieee.org Fri Mar 17 11:27:28 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 08:27:28 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Pc_Support] RE: [Fwd: Drives, RAID, backups oh my!] In-Reply-To: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D909B5@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> Message-ID: <20060317162728.99060.qmail@web34113.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Damien McKenna wrote: > Let me explain a bit more of our current servers: > DL380 with P3/1266MHz, 1.256gb RAM, "Smart Array 5i" SCSI > controller, IDE controller, 2x 36gb SCSI drives as a JBOD > and space for up to six drives in the hot-swappable bays. We have 1U DL360 systems here. They have stopped buying the SmartArray/U320 versions and saved $1,000 by getting SATA bays/drives and I add a $125 3Ware Escalade 8006-2LP. The "kicker" here is that "hot-swap" for U320 is _not_ the same for SATA. You can put in $125 3Ware Escalade 8006-2LP drives with $125 320GB Western Digital Caviar RE (24x7 Near-line/RAID rated) SATA drives these days. But they won't be hot-swap unless you have the trays. > The current DLT drive runs on this beastie. What DLT version/capacity? If it's really old DLT (40/80GB), then I'd really push you towards LTO-1 (100/200GB) on-ward because it's sub-$1,000, tapes are sub-$25 and it's damn fast -- let alone all current and planned (through LTO-1, 800/1600GB) will read them. It's well worth the move! > This is our current master beastie that runs Exchange Server > 2000, an email virus checker, an email spam checker, hosts most of > our files and our DNS. > DL320 with P3/1.1ghz, 392mb RAM, IDE controller, 1x 40gb IDE drive. > This is a development server that runs SQL Server 2000 for our > Blackberry interface, and does some file sharing. > DL320 with P3/1.1ghz, 1gb RAM, IDE controller, 2x 40gb IDE drive > as a stripped RAID of dymanic disks I presume using Windows > software RAID. This is our current domain controller equivelant > and also does some file sharing. > Old Compaq tower server with a Pentium 233MHz and 64mb of RAM, 4gb > drive, Symbios 875XS|D/2280X. This is our virus and VPN server. You're definitely in some need of consolidation/uniformity. > I'd like to limit our expenses as much as possible, i.e. no new > machines, just drives and controllers. Obviously the plan is > immediately a little limited by the fact that we only have one > server with hot-swappable bays, so they may be pushable to get > another DL380 off ebay. eBay is also a nice option. But don't be afraid to go Whitebox new either. E.g., ASLab has single-socket, dual-core Opteron 175 with (4) SATA hot-swap bays for $1,000. > According to: http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c 00379627&lang=en&cc=us&taskId=101&prodSeriesId=316587&prodTypeId=15351 > the DL380 has two 64bit/66MHz PCI slots and one 64bit/33MHz PCI > slot, so definitely expansion abilities for getting a RAID > controller. Yes, 3Ware Escalade 8006-2LP and 8506-4LP controllers will do nicely on those ServerSet IV-GC/E7200/E7500 solutions. I order them with SATA bays from HP, then add 3Ware cards. HP says they are not hot-swap, but that's only because they connect them to the on-board Intel "FRAID" controller. They are the staggered SATA connections -- both power and data -- and work flawlessly with 3Ware cards. I'm also starting to evaluate Areca. They are basically Intel's X-Scale RAID flagship now -- Adaptec and LSI are way behind in products/support (especially Adaptec on non-Windows). > We could use the DL320's for ADS then have one DL380 for file and > one DL380 for email. That sounds like a plan. > Interesting idea. Yes, especially if you have the storage! Just make sure you _dedicate_ filesystems to the duties. Do _not_ merge local operations with remote backup on C: -- not worth it. Also consider an "out-of-band" network for host-to-host. Those DLs _should_ have dual NICs, so use the 2nd NIC for that. If they _all_ support 9000 byte jumbo frames on their GbE NICs, then consider using that too. > I'll see what the costs are on them and include them. Less than $400 gets you 320GB of redundant storage with a 3Ware Escalade 8006-2LP and (2) 320GB WD Caviar RE (24x7 rated) drives. The DTR of the drives are 70MBps sustained, 100MBps burst. You should get at least 50MBps sustained writes with 150MBps burst reads -- probably a crapload faster and better than those old i960-based SCSI RAID-5 arrays in your DLs. > No PCIe :-( Or PCI64/PCI-X. I only mentioned PCIe because so many people put in non-PCI64/PCI-X systems and "cheap" PCIe systems. > Yes, DLT, but I'm not too unconcerned about migrating to another > technology, we'd have to get all new tapes anyway so might as well > keep the drive too. But what version/capacity? If you're still on old 40/80GB, then you're just wasting time and money. It would be better to go with a 10x faster, sub-$1,000 LTO-1 (100/200GB) and $250 in ten (10) tapes for the next 7 months. Do weekly backups, then make every 4th weekly permanent and take off-site. That would let you take almost a quarter-TB off-line every week, and make a permanent backup that will be recoverable in 10 years with (probably still current at the time) LTO-4. > LTO-2 is ~$1000 on ebay, worth considering. Yes, that is 200/400GB, 80MBps (compressed) DTR, although tapes are more towards LTO-3 pricing ($70/each, LTO-3 is $100/each). The price/media for LTO-1 (100/200GB, 40MBps, sub-$25/media) and LTO-3 (400/800GB, 160MBps, sub-$100/media) seem best IMHO. Be careful about eBay purchases of tape drives. Some companies are harder on the drives than others. Especially if the drive was improperly used. > Because that's $2000 that would better go elsewhere. Understand. > Right now we do daily backups and the VP takes home a tape on the > first of the month for permanent storage. > If we can get a good enough routine for everything else, I'll move > to that. > Thanks, I'll look that one up. > BTW, would the hot-swap bays in the DL380 work with SATA drives No! SCSI SCA and SATA staggered pinning are _completely_ different! You need all new _backplanes_ as well as bays! If you have 2x5.25" (atop of each other) bays free, you can get $90 enclosures that let you put three (3) hot-swap SATA drives. There are also $125 3x5.25" (atop of each other) enclosures that let you put five (5) hot-swap drives. > if I were to set up e.g. a 3Ware 9500S-series card? I'm having trouble recommending the 9500S or even the next 9550SX these days. I either recommend RAID-10 with older 3Ware Escalade 8006/8506, or newer RAID-10 or RAID-6 with Areca ARC-11x0 (PCI64/PCI-X -- the ARC-12x0 are the PCIe versions). -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, Technical Annoyance b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com -------------------------------------------------- I'm a Democrat. No wait, I'm a Republican. Hmm, it seems I'm just whatever someone disagrees with. From hescominsoon at emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com Fri Mar 17 12:13:24 2006 From: hescominsoon at emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com (William Warren) Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 12:13:24 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] RE: [Fwd: Drives, RAID, backups oh my!] In-Reply-To: <20060317162728.99060.qmail@web34113.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <20060317162728.99060.qmail@web34113.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <441AEE34.6050501@emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com> glad to see you back bryan!.. Bryan J. Smith wrote: > Damien McKenna wrote: >> Let me explain a bit more of our current servers: >> DL380 with P3/1266MHz, 1.256gb RAM, "Smart Array 5i" SCSI >> controller, IDE controller, 2x 36gb SCSI drives as a JBOD >> and space for up to six drives in the hot-swappable bays. > > We have 1U DL360 systems here. They have stopped buying the > SmartArray/U320 versions and saved $1,000 by getting SATA bays/drives > and I add a $125 3Ware Escalade 8006-2LP. > > The "kicker" here is that "hot-swap" for U320 is _not_ the same for > SATA. You can put in $125 3Ware Escalade 8006-2LP drives with $125 > 320GB Western Digital Caviar RE (24x7 Near-line/RAID rated) SATA > drives these days. But they won't be hot-swap unless you have the > trays. > >> The current DLT drive runs on this beastie. > > What DLT version/capacity? > > If it's really old DLT (40/80GB), then I'd really push you towards > LTO-1 (100/200GB) on-ward because it's sub-$1,000, tapes are sub-$25 > and it's damn fast -- let alone all current and planned (through > LTO-1, 800/1600GB) will read them. It's well worth the move! > >> This is our current master beastie that runs Exchange Server >> 2000, an email virus checker, an email spam checker, hosts most of >> our files and our DNS. >> DL320 with P3/1.1ghz, 392mb RAM, IDE controller, 1x 40gb IDE drive. >> This is a development server that runs SQL Server 2000 for our >> Blackberry interface, and does some file sharing. >> DL320 with P3/1.1ghz, 1gb RAM, IDE controller, 2x 40gb IDE drive >> as a stripped RAID of dymanic disks I presume using Windows >> software RAID. This is our current domain controller equivelant >> and also does some file sharing. >> Old Compaq tower server with a Pentium 233MHz and 64mb of RAM, 4gb >> drive, Symbios 875XS|D/2280X. This is our virus and VPN server. > > You're definitely in some need of consolidation/uniformity. > >> I'd like to limit our expenses as much as possible, i.e. no new >> machines, just drives and controllers. Obviously the plan is >> immediately a little limited by the fact that we only have one >> server with hot-swappable bays, so they may be pushable to get >> another DL380 off ebay. > > eBay is also a nice option. > But don't be afraid to go Whitebox new either. > > E.g., ASLab has single-socket, dual-core Opteron 175 with (4) SATA > hot-swap bays for $1,000. > >> According to: > http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c > 00379627&lang=en&cc=us&taskId=101&prodSeriesId=316587&prodTypeId=15351 >> the DL380 has two 64bit/66MHz PCI slots and one 64bit/33MHz PCI >> slot, so definitely expansion abilities for getting a RAID >> controller. > > Yes, 3Ware Escalade 8006-2LP and 8506-4LP controllers will do nicely > on those ServerSet IV-GC/E7200/E7500 solutions. I order them with > SATA bays from HP, then add 3Ware cards. HP says they are not > hot-swap, but that's only because they connect them to the on-board > Intel "FRAID" controller. They are the staggered SATA connections -- > both power and data -- and work flawlessly with 3Ware cards. > > I'm also starting to evaluate Areca. They are basically Intel's > X-Scale RAID flagship now -- Adaptec and LSI are way behind in > products/support (especially Adaptec on non-Windows). > >> We could use the DL320's for ADS then have one DL380 for file and >> one DL380 for email. > > That sounds like a plan. > >> Interesting idea. > > Yes, especially if you have the storage! > > Just make sure you _dedicate_ filesystems to the duties. Do _not_ > merge local operations with remote backup on C: -- not worth it. > > Also consider an "out-of-band" network for host-to-host. Those DLs > _should_ have dual NICs, so use the 2nd NIC for that. If they _all_ > support 9000 byte jumbo frames on their GbE NICs, then consider using > that too. > >> I'll see what the costs are on them and include them. > > Less than $400 gets you 320GB of redundant storage with a 3Ware > Escalade 8006-2LP and (2) 320GB WD Caviar RE (24x7 rated) drives. > The DTR of the drives are 70MBps sustained, 100MBps burst. > > You should get at least 50MBps sustained writes with 150MBps burst > reads -- probably a crapload faster and better than those old > i960-based SCSI RAID-5 arrays in your DLs. > >> No PCIe :-( > > Or PCI64/PCI-X. I only mentioned PCIe because so many people put in > non-PCI64/PCI-X systems and "cheap" PCIe systems. > >> Yes, DLT, but I'm not too unconcerned about migrating to another >> technology, we'd have to get all new tapes anyway so might as well >> keep the drive too. > > But what version/capacity? > > If you're still on old 40/80GB, then you're just wasting time and > money. > > It would be better to go with a 10x faster, sub-$1,000 LTO-1 > (100/200GB) and $250 in ten (10) tapes for the next 7 months. Do > weekly backups, then make every 4th weekly permanent and take > off-site. That would let you take almost a quarter-TB off-line every > week, and make a permanent backup that will be recoverable in 10 > years with (probably still current at the time) LTO-4. > >> LTO-2 is ~$1000 on ebay, worth considering. > > Yes, that is 200/400GB, 80MBps (compressed) DTR, although tapes are > more towards LTO-3 pricing ($70/each, LTO-3 is $100/each). The > price/media for LTO-1 (100/200GB, 40MBps, sub-$25/media) and LTO-3 > (400/800GB, 160MBps, sub-$100/media) seem best IMHO. > > Be careful about eBay purchases of tape drives. Some companies are > harder on the drives than others. Especially if the drive was > improperly used. > >> Because that's $2000 that would better go elsewhere. > > Understand. > >> Right now we do daily backups and the VP takes home a tape on the >> first of the month for permanent storage. >> If we can get a good enough routine for everything else, I'll move >> to that. >> Thanks, I'll look that one up. >> BTW, would the hot-swap bays in the DL380 work with SATA drives > > No! SCSI SCA and SATA staggered pinning are _completely_ different! > You need all new _backplanes_ as well as bays! > > If you have 2x5.25" (atop of each other) bays free, you can get $90 > enclosures that let you put three (3) hot-swap SATA drives. > > There are also $125 3x5.25" (atop of each other) enclosures that let > you put five (5) hot-swap drives. > >> if I were to set up e.g. a 3Ware 9500S-series card? > > I'm having trouble recommending the 9500S or even the next 9550SX > these days. I either recommend RAID-10 with older 3Ware Escalade > 8006/8506, or newer RAID-10 or RAID-6 with Areca ARC-11x0 > (PCI64/PCI-X -- the ARC-12x0 are the PCIe versions). > > > -- My "Foundation" verse: Isa 54:17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD. -- carpe ductum -- "Grab the tape" CDTT (Certified Duct Tape Technician) Linux user #322099 Machines: 206822 256638 276825 http://counter.li.org/ From b.j.smith at ieee.org Fri Mar 17 13:26:39 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 10:26:39 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Pc_Support] RE: [Fwd: Drives, RAID, backups oh my!] In-Reply-To: <441AEE34.6050501@emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com> Message-ID: <20060317182639.1994.qmail@web34101.mail.mud.yahoo.com> William Warren wrote: > glad to see you back bryan!.. Just remember I'm an opinionated SOB. I don't know your network better than you do. So all I ever ask it that you know and recognize I'm just suggesting from a distance. Unless, of course, you want to hire me for my consulting services. ;-> -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, Technical Annoyance b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com -------------------------------------------------- I'm a Democrat. No wait, I'm a Republican. Hmm, it seems I'm just whatever someone disagrees with. From dmckenna at thelimucompany.com Fri Mar 17 14:11:50 2006 From: dmckenna at thelimucompany.com (Damien McKenna) Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 14:11:50 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] RE: [Fwd: Drives, RAID, backups oh my!] Message-ID: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D909C6@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> > -----Original Message----- > From: Bryan J. Smith [mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org] > > We have 1U DL360 systems here. They have stopped buying the > SmartArray/U320 versions and saved $1,000 by getting SATA bays/drives > and I add a $125 3Ware Escalade 8006-2LP. What's the real difference between the 8000 and 9000 series (64bit PCI varieties)? Does the 8000 series support hot-swapping? With the 3Ware 8000 or 9000 cards, is it possible to: * Set up multiple RAID-1 sets on the same card, e.g. set up one set now and another as needs increase? * With a RAID-1 hot-swap one of the drives without the system going down, or do you have to take down the server to work on it? I'm thinking that if one drive fails of replacing it with another one, that kinda thing. > The "kicker" here is that "hot-swap" for U320 is _not_ the same for > SATA. You can put in $125 3Ware Escalade 8006-2LP drives with $125 > 320GB Western Digital Caviar RE (24x7 Near-line/RAID rated) SATA > drives these days. But they won't be hot-swap unless you have the > trays. What's needed to make SATA hot-swappable? Do you need anything on the inside or does the tray have all that's needed? Is there a difference between different trays or would $20-25 ones at NewEgg be ok? > > The current DLT drive runs on this beastie. > > What DLT version/capacity? DLT1 - 40/80gb. > If it's really old DLT (40/80GB), then I'd really push you towards > LTO-1 (100/200GB) on-ward because it's sub-$1,000, tapes are sub-$25 > and it's damn fast -- let alone all current and planned (through > LTO-1, 800/1600GB) will read them. It's well worth the move! It sure seems a good plan, though I'd prefer to go with something that pushes further than our current usage so we won't fill it up too quickly. > You're definitely in some need of consolidation/uniformity. Definitely. > > Obviously the plan is immediately a little limited by the fact > > that we only have one server with hot-swappable bays, so they may > > be pushable to get another DL380 off ebay. > > eBay is also a nice option. One reason for another DL380, besides the fact they're affordable, is the six hot-swappable bays. The only question is whether they can be changed/replaced to work with SATA? > But don't be afraid to go Whitebox new either. > E.g., ASLab has single-socket, dual-core Opteron 175 with (4) SATA > hot-swap bays for $1,000. I looked at them and the hot-swap machine started at just under $1200 with a single-core CPU, that's without a RAID card and only one drive, adding those brings it to over $1700. > Yes, 3Ware Escalade 8006-2LP and 8506-4LP controllers will do nicely > on those ServerSet IV-GC/E7200/E7500 solutions. I order them with > SATA bays from HP, then add 3Ware cards. How much are HP's SATA bays? > > We could use the DL320's for ADS then have one DL380 for file and > > one DL380 for email. > > That sounds like a plan. Its pretty realistic for our needs, the last part of the puzzle is the drives. > Just make sure you _dedicate_ filesystems to the duties. Do _not_ > merge local operations with remote backup on C: -- not worth it. Oh heck yes :) > Also consider an "out-of-band" network for host-to-host. Those DLs > _should_ have dual NICs, so use the 2nd NIC for that. Yep, they all have dual 100mbit NICs and setting up a second network for the servers was going to be part of my plan. > > I'll see what the costs are on them and include them. > > Less than $400 gets you 320GB of redundant storage with a 3Ware > Escalade 8006-2LP and (2) 320GB WD Caviar RE (24x7 rated) drives. > The DTR of the drives are 70MBps sustained, 100MBps burst. Tempting. $100 less would give us 2x160gb, which is still loads. > You should get at least 50MBps sustained writes with 150MBps burst > reads -- probably a crapload faster and better than those old > i960-based SCSI RAID-5 arrays in your DLs. The current "RAID" controller is just a SCSI adapter with software-based crRpAID. > > Yes, DLT, but I'm not too unconcerned about migrating to another > > technology, we'd have to get all new tapes anyway so might as well > > keep the drive too. > > But what version/capacity? > If you're still on old 40/80GB, then you're just wasting time and > money. Yeah, too bad I didn't look into LTO before Christmas, before we spent another $250 on tapes. They might have some resell value... > > LTO-2 is ~$1000 on ebay, worth considering. > > Yes, that is 200/400GB, 80MBps (compressed) DTR, although tapes are > more towards LTO-3 pricing ($70/each, LTO-3 is $100/each). Ah.. Pondersome. > The price/media for LTO-1 (100/200GB, 40MBps, sub-$25/media) and > LTO-3 (400/800GB, 160MBps, sub-$100/media) seem best IMHO. The way I see it is that we're stuck in the middle. I don't want us to upgrade to something I think we're close to filling. Then again, if I separate the backups into permanent (things that never change e.g. conference pictures) vs transient (ever-changing documents) and have two backups per routine then it'd work out. > Be careful about eBay purchases of tape drives. Some companies are > harder on the drives than others. Especially if the drive was > improperly used. Yeah, I know, I got bitten that way already. Need a DLT4000 drive that can be easily repaired? ;-) > > BTW, would the hot-swap bays in the DL380 work with SATA drives > > No! SCSI SCA and SATA staggered pinning are _completely_ different! > You need all new _backplanes_ as well as bays! Gotchya. > If you have 2x5.25" (atop of each other) bays free, you can get $90 > enclosures that let you put three (3) hot-swap SATA drives. Nice, but our servers are all 1U or 3U. -- Damien McKenna - Web Developer - Damien.McKenna at thelimucompany.com The Limu Company - http://www.thelimucompany.com/ - 407-804-1014 #include From b.j.smith at ieee.org Fri Mar 17 15:30:05 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 12:30:05 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Pc_Support] 3Ware Escalade 8000, 9500S and 9550SX -- WAS: Drives, RAID, backups oh my! In-Reply-To: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D909C6@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> Message-ID: <20060317203005.79577.qmail@web34109.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Damien McKenna wrote: > What's the real difference between the 8000 and 9000 series > (64bit PCI varieties)? I'm going to blog more detail (full tables -- think my GeForce 6/7 blog ;-). But here's the lineage ... Escalade 7x00/7x10 series (7200, 7400/7410, 7800/7810) - 2/4/8-channel - Ultra DMA Modes 5/100 (and 6/133 with firmware update) - New 64-bit engine - 64-bit PCI, 33MHz (except for 7200) - 7410/7810 shorter versions of 7400/7800 - 1MiB Static RAM (SRAM, only needs capacitance to keep memory) Escalade 7x50 series (7450, 7850) - 4/8-channel - 2MiB Static RAM (SRAM) Escalade 7000/7500 series - New 7500-12 channel option w/4MiB Static RAM (SRAM) - 7200 = 7000-2 (PCI32) - 7450 = 7500-4, 7850 = 7500-8 (PCI64) Escalade 8500 series - SATA, but engine matches 7000/7500 verbatim - External SATA PHY used to PATA ASIC engine - 2/4 channel "Low Profile" (LP) - 8000-2LP (PCI64 -- unlike 7000-2) - 8500-4LP, 8500-8, 8500-12 (PCI64) Escalade 7006/7506 and 8006/8506 - Updated with 66MHz PCI64 support - 7006-2 still PCI32, but now 66MHz Escalade 9500S - Adds 128MiB-1GiB of PC133 SDRAM to existing 64-bit ASIC engine - Better buffer for RAID-5 operations, doubles RAID-5 performance - Introduce Battery Back up for SDRAM (unlike SRAM, DRAM is "leaky" and requires 1,000x power/refresh) Escalade 9550SX - Adds PowerPC400 microcontroller for RAID-5 off-load - Doubles RAID-5 performance again over 9500S > Does the 8000 series support hot-swapping? Of course! It's SATA with staggered connectors! > With the 3Ware 8000 or 9000 cards, is it possible to: > * Set up multiple RAID-1 sets on the same card, > e.g. set up one set now and another as needs increase? Yes! _All_ cards do -- from 5000 to 9550SX. You can even _span_ up to 4 cards with newer products. There was a bug on the 9550S 9.2 firmware where if you had more than 1 RAID-5 array you'd get poor performance. That was fixed in 9.2.1.1. > * With a RAID-1 hot-swap one of the drives without the system going > down, or do you have to take down the server to work on it? Of course _not_! This isn't FRAID (fake RAID) or even software RAID. Software RAID -- _unless_ you use SCSI-2 SCA with disconnect _and_ "hot-plug" support in Linux 2.6 or Windows NT "Dynamic Discs" (long story) -- has that same problem. The 3Ware completely _hides_ the existance of the disk from the _hardware_ -- not just "trick BIOS/driver" in software. As long as your drive tray handles transient -- which is _inherent_ to SATA with the 15-pin staggered power and data (not if you use Molex though) -- it just works. > I'm thinking that if one drive fails of replacing it with > another one, that kinda thing. 3Ware is extremely _well_trusted_ in this regard. The people who have had problems with 3Ware hot-swap are the ones using 3Ware with _software_ RAID. Too many software RAID advocates are told that 3Ware supports hot-swap -- it can _only_ support hot-swap _if_ the array is 3Ware hardware RAID managed. 3WARE HAS NEVER AND WILL NEVER SUPPORT HOT-SWAP FOR "SOFTWARE RAID" -- Smack anyone who tells you otherwise, they are giving 3Ware a "bad name" with THEIR IGNORANCE. Otherwise there are _limited_ATA_standards_ on hot-swap. The 3Ware card _might_ use the SCSI subsystem for its "generic block driver" but it is _not_ provide emulation of an advanced SCSI-2 SCA SAF-TE chassis (that costs a lot of money). If you use software RAID you should _only_ use SCSI-2 with a host adapter that supports SAF-TE, has full SAF-TE driver for your OS _and_ a SAF-TE chasis with SCA. Until AHCI and SATA SAF-TE is well supported in the ATA standards, software RAID is basically _not_reliable_ for hot-swap. Only solutions like 3Ware, Areca, etc... where _all_ operations are handled _in_hardware_ on the on-board ASIC/microcontroller "hides" such transient from the OS. Hence why 3Ware and, increasingly, Areca are well trusted. > What's needed to make SATA hot-swappable? Physically/electrically, SATA is SCSI SCA. That means it has staggered data/power. If you use a Molex power, that negates the power. But if you use the 15-pin SATA power -- and that means a _true_ SATA +3.3/+5/+12V (not a Molex converter), it handles transient. You must then have hardware that can handle a disconnect. This is _not_ very standardized in ATA, much less the controllers and their OS drivers. You must then have the OS handle the disconnect as well. In Linux 2.6, this is "hot-plug." In NT, it varies, but NT5+ Dynamic Discs are recommended (long story). With a 3Ware or Areca card, the system _never_ sees the drives _physically_. That means you can't have an issue with the system/OS because it thinks the volume is there. There is _no_ disconnect. The on-board ASIC/controller handles _all_ the transient operation -- including drive the ATA controllers. There's nothing like an ATA controller, an on-board intelligence and its OS/firmware _all_ from the same company. I.e., expect *0* inter-compatibility issues. That's the _bane_ of ATA -- lack of following standards between controller + chipset + OS driver. Gone, nada, zip with _true_ hardware ATA -- especially 3Ware that uses its own ATA channels (with flexible FPGA logic). FRAID hides the drives in software, but the OS/system sees them. Software RAID also seems the drives. In any case, it's up to the OS to handle the "loss" of a device. Your "MD" device might be fine -- but the OS can -- and often does PANIC -- because it hangs on the loss. Linux 2.6 hot-plug removes this, when properly configured (with good end-to-end SCSI hardware). NT5+ with dynamic disks also help. > Do you need anything on the inside or does the tray have > all that's needed? Again, staggered 15-pin power + 7-pin data makes SATA removals transient, just like 80-pin SCSI SCA. > Is there a difference between different trays or would $20-25 > ones at NewEgg be ok? This isn't PATA. I guess there _could_ be quality differences between SATA backplanes. Or if you go too "cheap" you might get a tray that does not have a backplane, just "exposes" the SATA power/data connectors. > DLT1 - 40/80gb. Yeah, that's probably not worth upgrading. If you get new tape, go LTO-1 at least. > It sure seems a good plan, though I'd prefer to go with something > that pushes further than our current usage so we won't fill it up > too quickly. LTO-1 is already 2.5x more, and likely 10x faster. If you're going to fork out for LTO-2, might as well go LTO-3. > One reason for another DL380, besides the fact they're affordable, > is the six hot-swappable bays. The only question is whether they > can be changed/replaced to work with SATA? Yes, and you'll pay HP an arm and a leg. Although you can always call them to find out. > I looked at them and the hot-swap machine started at just under > $1200 with a single-core CPU, that's without a RAID card and only > one drive, adding those brings it to over $1700. $400+ is typical for a true hardware RAID card. My main point was that HP charges you an arm'n a leg for their proprietary hot-swap/form-factor. Personally, I'm now very disappointed with the DL360 after it took some weight on just the plastic front and it actually was _not_ designed to load it on the metal -- like it should have been. It not only damaged the front-board, but it damaged the separate mainboard 12" down. That's a crappy design -- you should _never_ mount a board to plastic, but the metal base. > How much are HP's SATA bays? I don't know. You'll need to call them. It will vary. I have 1U DL360s. I save money by not going with the U320 backplane option. Don't know for a 2U DL380. > Yep, they all have dual 100mbit NICs and setting up a second > network for the servers was going to be part of my plan. Ouch, no dual GbEs? > Tempting. $100 less would give us 2x160gb, which is still loads. Plan for the future, as well as cross-sync. What's $100 in your time? > The current "RAID" controller is just a SCSI adapter with > software-based crRpAID. Are you sure? They were i960s the last time I checked. Old, slow, but still hardware RAID. > The way I see it is that we're stuck in the middle. I don't want > us to upgrade to something I think we're close to filling. Why? You get LTO-1 now, which is already a 2.5x increase in capacity, 10x increase in speed. Then you upgrade to LTO-3 in a year or two when you need more -- recycling your LTO-1 to other duties. LTO-3 can read LTO-1. > Then again, if I separate the backups into permanent (things that > never change e.g. conference pictures) vs transient (ever-changing > documents) and have two backups per routine then it'd work out. Here's the deal on backup ... At some point the cost in management and maintainence of wasting time is _more_ than the cost of a 3-figure drive. Think about that. That's how I've regularly and successfully argued for companies to go LTO -- or LTO-3 when they were going to buy a LTO-1 or LTO-2 -- sometimes with an autoloader no less! > Yeah, I know, I got bitten that way already. Need a DLT4000 drive > that can be easily repaired? ;-) Again, time is money. A new LTO-1 drive is 3-figures and has *0* strings attached, other than some $25 cartridges. > Nice, but our servers are all 1U or 3U. Huh? 3U = (3)1.75", 1.75" being the height of a half-height 5.25" drive. If you have 3U enclosures, you should be able to put one of those $125 3x5.25" drive enclosures in it and fit five (5) 3.5" drives. But I seriously doubt the HP DLs take a stock enclosure like that. But maybe they do? -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, Technical Annoyance b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com -------------------------------------------------- I'm a Democrat. No wait, I'm a Republican. Hmm, it seems I'm just whatever someone disagrees with. From dmckenna at thelimucompany.com Fri Mar 17 17:05:11 2006 From: dmckenna at thelimucompany.com (Damien McKenna) Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 17:05:11 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] 3Ware Escalade 8000, 9500S and 9550SX -- WAS: Drives, RAID, backups oh my! Message-ID: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D909D3@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> A few quick questions off the top of my head: * What IDE controller do you recommend for a 64bit/33MHz PCI slot? * What happens in a RAID-1 array if one of the drives dies? How is it recovered? * Is "Ultrium" the same as LTO? Thanks. -- Damien McKenna - Web Developer - Damien.McKenna at thelimucompany.com The Limu Company - http://www.thelimucompany.com/ - 407-804-1014 #include From b.j.smith at ieee.org Fri Mar 17 17:56:33 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Fri, 17 Mar 2006 14:56:33 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Pc_Support] 3Ware Escalade 8000, 9500S and 9550SX -- WAS: Drives, RAID, backups oh my! In-Reply-To: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D909D3@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> Message-ID: <20060317225633.55695.qmail@web34112.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Damien McKenna wrote: > A few quick questions off the top of my head: > * What IDE controller do you recommend for a 64bit/33MHz PCI slot? What storage do you want? If you just want two (2) redundant drives, a $125 3Ware Escalade 8006-2LP (PCI64/66, slows down to PCI64/33) will do nicely. I've been buying them and all of them come with the newer AMCC marketing -- so they are _always_ the last 7.7.1 firmware (anything 7.3+/2001+ was always very stable for me), so no updates required. The kernel has had drivers compatible with that firmware since 2004. > * What happens in a RAID-1 array if one of the drives dies? The 3w-xxxx driver will send an alert to the syslog. The 3w-xxxx driver will also notify smartd if you're running a recent version that now has 3w-xxxx support. If you're running 3dm (or 3dm2, which works on the 7000+, not just the 9000+), then it will use its alert mechansims, including an e-mail. The device is rendered "failed" and the array "degraded." The system hardware has _no_idea_ anything is gone. Because the system _never_ talks to the drive. _Only_ the 3Ware ASIC talks to the ATA controller which talks to the drive. The system only talks to the 3Ware ASIC -- which it thinks is the block device. > How is it recovered? If you have a hot spare already declared, the rebuild will be immediate. A hot spare requires a spare channel and spare drive already allocated. If you don't have a hot spare, it depends on if 3dm[2] is already running and its settings. If it doesn't automatically try to use any available drive, then you'll need to tell it that the new drive is a hot spare and it will rebuild. If you don't have 3dm[2] running, then you can launch the CLI to manually do it. BTW, if the 3Ware 3dm[2], CLI, etc... detects you've merely put in the same drive, it will _warn_you_ of this! It does many things to prevent you from being stupid. ;-> Lastly, 3Ware is _not_ FRAID. You don't use the BIOS setup to manage disks -- although you typically _do_ for the initial (before you've installed the OS). The on-board, 64-bit ASIC doesn't care what you're in -- 16-bit BIOS setup, 32/64-bit via its management interfaces in the OS, etc... -- it's firmware is doing everything. > * Is "Ultrium" the same as LTO? Yes, it's HP's Brand. LTO is a multi-vendor standard. HP inflates the model numbers to reflect the GB size of a 2.4:1 compression ratio IIRC. E.g., Ultrium 960 for 400/800GB LTO-3. Although note that 2.4:1 isn't atypically either, and with 2.4:1, you'll get an effective DTR of 196MBps (using an actual DTR of 80MBps over Ultra160 SCSI). -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, Technical Annoyance b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com -------------------------------------------------- I'm a Democrat. No wait, I'm a Republican. Hmm, it seems I'm just whatever someone disagrees with. From b.j.smith at ieee.org Sun Mar 19 11:09:30 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 11:09:30 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] CompUSA has PNY GeForce 6600GT AGP and PCIe for $99 out-the-door ... Message-ID: <1142784570.4739.65.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> Just wanted to drop the comment that CompUSA has the PNY GeForce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 AGP x8 and PCIe x16 video cards, with dual-DVI and a HDTV break-out box (BoB) for $99.99 out-the-door (98.99 instant rebates). Not sure if the AGP x8 will work in all older systems, but that price is just killer for an AGP solution. Even the PCIe x16 is pretty good considering the next step up is at least $150 (more like $170 as of late) in a 6800GS, or a crippled 6800XT (which are suspect on reliability). AGP x8 version: http://www.compusa.com/adproducts/product_info.asp?product_code=317665 PCIe x16 version: http://www.compusa.com/adproducts/product_info.asp?product_code=317647 My blog article on all the GeForce 6 and 7 series variants: http://thebs413.blogspot.com/2006/02/geforce-6-and-7-series-variants-nuts.html -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, technical annoyance mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com ------------------------------------------------------------ ****** Speed doesn't kill. Difference in speed does! ****** From jasonb at edseek.com Sun Mar 19 14:49:36 2006 From: jasonb at edseek.com (Jason Boxman) Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 14:49:36 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] CompUSA has PNY GeForce 6600GT AGP and PCIe for $99 out-the-door ... In-Reply-To: <1142784570.4739.65.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> References: <1142784570.4739.65.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> Message-ID: <200603191449.36535.jasonb@edseek.com> On Sunday 19 March 2006 11:09, Bryan J. Smith wrote: > Just wanted to drop the comment that CompUSA has the PNY GeForce 6600GT > 128MB GDDR3 AGP x8 and PCIe x16 video cards, with dual-DVI and a HDTV > break-out box (BoB) for $99.99 out-the-door (98.99 instant rebates). I'd warn people against CompUSA. http://edseek.com/archives/2006/02/17/now-i-know-why-compusa-is-oft-called-crapusa/ :) -- Jason Boxman http://edseek.com/ - Linux and FOSS stuff From b.j.smith at ieee.org Sun Mar 19 15:36:26 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 15:36:26 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] CompUSA has PNY GeForce 6600GT AGP and PCIe for $99 out-the-door ... In-Reply-To: <200603191449.36535.jasonb@edseek.com> References: <1142784570.4739.65.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <200603191449.36535.jasonb@edseek.com> Message-ID: <1142800587.4739.95.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> On Sun, 2006-03-19 at 14:49 -0500, Jason Boxman wrote: > I'd warn people against CompUSA. > http://edseek.com/archives/2006/02/17/now-i-know-why-compusa-is-oft-called-crapusa/ > :) CompUSA did it again! They had *0* stock! Not even *1* item on-hand. Whoo hoo! CompUSA loves to advertise what they don't stock! Such a repeat theme! Oh yeah, they told me I should have called first. Did I mention *I*DID*? No one picked up the phone -- either time. ;-> -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, technical annoyance mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com ------------------------------------------------------------ ****** Speed doesn't kill. Difference in speed does! ****** From b.j.smith at ieee.org Sun Mar 19 15:37:33 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 15:37:33 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] CompUSA has PNY GeForce 6600GT AGP and PCIe for $99 out-the-door ... In-Reply-To: <1142800587.4739.95.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> References: <1142784570.4739.65.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <200603191449.36535.jasonb@edseek.com> <1142800587.4739.95.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> Message-ID: <1142800653.4739.97.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> On Sun, 2006-03-19 at 15:36 -0500, Bryan J. Smith wrote: > CompUSA did it again! > They had *0* stock! > Not even *1* item on-hand. In case that didn't read clear, I specifically asked them if they had _any_ stock when they opened. They did _not_. Not at _any_ Orlando store. -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, technical annoyance mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com ------------------------------------------------------------ ****** Speed doesn't kill. Difference in speed does! ****** From jasonb at edseek.com Sun Mar 19 15:36:23 2006 From: jasonb at edseek.com (Jason Boxman) Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 15:36:23 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] CompUSA has PNY GeForce 6600GT AGP and PCIe for $99 out-the-door ... In-Reply-To: <1142800587.4739.95.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> References: <1142784570.4739.65.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <200603191449.36535.jasonb@edseek.com> <1142800587.4739.95.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> Message-ID: <200603191536.23235.jasonb@edseek.com> On Sunday 19 March 2006 15:36, Bryan J. Smith wrote: > On Sun, 2006-03-19 at 14:49 -0500, Jason Boxman wrote: > > I'd warn people against CompUSA. > > http://edseek.com/archives/2006/02/17/now-i-know-why-compusa-is-oft-calle > >d-crapusa/ > > > > :) > > CompUSA did it again! > They had *0* stock! > Not even *1* item on-hand. Yeah, the above was my only experience with CompUSA in about ten years. I'm never going back, ever. (Kind of like how I feel about Winn*Dixie.) -- Jason Boxman http://edseek.com/ - Linux and FOSS stuff From b.j.smith at ieee.org Sun Mar 19 15:55:38 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 15:55:38 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] CompUSA has PNY GeForce 6600GT AGP and PCIe for $99 out-the-door ... In-Reply-To: <200603191536.23235.jasonb@edseek.com> References: <1142784570.4739.65.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <200603191449.36535.jasonb@edseek.com> <1142800587.4739.95.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <200603191536.23235.jasonb@edseek.com> Message-ID: <1142801738.4739.115.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> On Sun, 2006-03-19 at 15:36 -0500, Jason Boxman wrote: > Yeah, the above was my only experience with CompUSA in about ten years. > I'm never going back, ever. I'm just about there too. > (Kind of like how I feel about Winn*Dixie.) I don't shop Winn*Dixie, except for deals on boxed/canned items. Almost as a joke, I had a very "Andy Kauffman" like experience when I was 23. I took a job as a graveyard shift as a stockboy at Winn Dixie working with my brother and best friend -- only for 3 weeks -- between jobs. Made me _never_ want to shop Winn*Dixie again -- at least not for anything [allegedly] "fresh." ;-> -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, technical annoyance mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com ------------------------------------------------------------ ****** Speed doesn't kill. Difference in speed does! ****** From whittake at sbaflorida.com Sun Mar 19 16:06:32 2006 From: whittake at sbaflorida.com (Homer Whittaker) Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 16:06:32 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] CompUSA has PNY GeForce 6600GT AGP and PCIe for $99 out-the-door ... In-Reply-To: <1142801738.4739.115.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> References: <1142784570.4739.65.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <200603191449.36535.jasonb@edseek.com> <1142800587.4739.95.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <200603191536.23235.jasonb@edseek.com> <1142801738.4739.115.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> Message-ID: <441DC7D8.4040801@sbaflorida.com> Yet another BS message? Bryan J. Smith wrote: > On Sun, 2006-03-19 at 15:36 -0500, Jason Boxman wrote: > >>Yeah, the above was my only experience with CompUSA in about ten years. >>I'm never going back, ever. > > > I'm just about there too. > > >>(Kind of like how I feel about Winn*Dixie.) > > > I don't shop Winn*Dixie, except for deals on boxed/canned items. > > Almost as a joke, I had a very "Andy Kauffman" like experience when I > was 23. I took a job as a graveyard shift as a stockboy at Winn Dixie > working with my brother and best friend -- only for 3 weeks -- between > jobs. > > Made me _never_ want to shop Winn*Dixie again -- at least not for > anything [allegedly] "fresh." ;-> > > > > From jasonb at edseek.com Sun Mar 19 16:09:50 2006 From: jasonb at edseek.com (Jason Boxman) Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 16:09:50 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] CompUSA has PNY GeForce 6600GT AGP and PCIe for $99 out-the-door ... In-Reply-To: <441DC7D8.4040801@sbaflorida.com> References: <1142784570.4739.65.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <1142801738.4739.115.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <441DC7D8.4040801@sbaflorida.com> Message-ID: <200603191609.50744.jasonb@edseek.com> On Sunday 19 March 2006 16:06, Homer Whittaker wrote: > Yet another BS message? There's a problem? -- Jason Boxman http://edseek.com/ - Linux and FOSS stuff From b.j.smith at ieee.org Sun Mar 19 16:19:54 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 16:19:54 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] CompUSA has PNY GeForce 6600GT AGP and PCIe for $99 out-the-door ... In-Reply-To: <441DC7D8.4040801@sbaflorida.com> References: <1142784570.4739.65.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <200603191449.36535.jasonb@edseek.com> <1142800587.4739.95.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <200603191536.23235.jasonb@edseek.com> <1142801738.4739.115.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <441DC7D8.4040801@sbaflorida.com> Message-ID: <1142803194.4739.117.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> On Sun, 2006-03-19 at 16:06 -0500, Homer Whittaker wrote: > Yet another BS message? Yes, actually it was. The second I stopped talking about CompUSA (a computer superstore) and I started talking non-computer related, I should have made it to LEAPBS. Thanx for catching me Homer. -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, technical annoyance mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com ------------------------------------------------------------ ****** Speed doesn't kill. Difference in speed does! ****** From b.j.smith at ieee.org Sun Mar 19 16:33:02 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 16:33:02 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] CompUSA has PNY GeForce 6600GT AGP and PCIe for $99 out-the-door ... In-Reply-To: <200603191609.50744.jasonb@edseek.com> References: <1142784570.4739.65.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <1142801738.4739.115.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <441DC7D8.4040801@sbaflorida.com> <200603191609.50744.jasonb@edseek.com> Message-ID: <1142803982.4739.131.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> On Sun, 2006-03-19 at 16:09 -0500, Jason Boxman wrote: > There's a problem? Considering I made a suggestion that Homer and Vernon leave the jokes to LEAPBS, I'm a freak'n hypocrite. Touche Homer -- you're dead-on (and I am humble ;-). Although Linux Gaming is probably not off-topic for a Linux list. But as I mentioned on LEAPLIST, I'm more than 100% ready to make 100% of my Linux gaming posts to PC_Support. I just seem to be one of the few Linux gamers around LEAPLIST, so it would make little difference to me. I was just happy to see Patrick talk about it -- because he's one of the few. -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, technical annoyance mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com ------------------------------------------------------------ ****** Speed doesn't kill. Difference in speed does! ****** From hescominsoon at emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com Sun Mar 19 18:15:32 2006 From: hescominsoon at emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com (William Warren) Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 18:15:32 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] CompUSA has PNY GeForce 6600GT AGP and PCIe for $99 out-the-door ... In-Reply-To: <1142803982.4739.131.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> References: <1142784570.4739.65.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <1142801738.4739.115.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <441DC7D8.4040801@sbaflorida.com> <200603191609.50744.jasonb@edseek.com> <1142803982.4739.131.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> Message-ID: <441DE614.3080804@emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com> I am trying to find the leaplist sub page. Anyone ahve it handy? Is leaplist only for florida? Bryan J. Smith wrote: > On Sun, 2006-03-19 at 16:09 -0500, Jason Boxman wrote: >> There's a problem? > > Considering I made a suggestion that Homer and Vernon leave the jokes to > LEAPBS, I'm a freak'n hypocrite. > > Touche Homer -- you're dead-on (and I am humble ;-). > > Although Linux Gaming is probably not off-topic for a Linux list. But > as I mentioned on LEAPLIST, I'm more than 100% ready to make 100% of my > Linux gaming posts to PC_Support. I just seem to be one of the few > Linux gamers around LEAPLIST, so it would make little difference to me. > I was just happy to see Patrick talk about it -- because he's one of the > few. > > -- My "Foundation" verse: Isa 54:17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD. -- carpe ductum -- "Grab the tape" CDTT (Certified Duct Tape Technician) Linux user #322099 Machines: 206822 256638 276825 http://counter.li.org/ From hescominsoon at emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com Sun Mar 19 18:19:10 2006 From: hescominsoon at emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com (William Warren) Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 18:19:10 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] CompUSA has PNY GeForce 6600GT AGP and PCIe for $99 out-the-door ... In-Reply-To: <441DE614.3080804@emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com> References: <1142784570.4739.65.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <1142801738.4739.115.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <441DC7D8.4040801@sbaflorida.com> <200603191609.50744.jasonb@edseek.com> <1142803982.4739.131.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <441DE614.3080804@emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com> Message-ID: <441DE6EE.4000306@emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com> i found the sub page..:) I guess leap is only for florida? William Warren wrote: > I am trying to find the leaplist sub page. Anyone ahve it handy? Is > leaplist only for florida? > > > Bryan J. Smith wrote: >> On Sun, 2006-03-19 at 16:09 -0500, Jason Boxman wrote: >>> There's a problem? >> >> Considering I made a suggestion that Homer and Vernon leave the jokes to >> LEAPBS, I'm a freak'n hypocrite. >> >> Touche Homer -- you're dead-on (and I am humble ;-). >> >> Although Linux Gaming is probably not off-topic for a Linux list. But >> as I mentioned on LEAPLIST, I'm more than 100% ready to make 100% of my >> Linux gaming posts to PC_Support. I just seem to be one of the few >> Linux gamers around LEAPLIST, so it would make little difference to me. >> I was just happy to see Patrick talk about it -- because he's one of the >> few. >> >> > -- My "Foundation" verse: Isa 54:17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD. -- carpe ductum -- "Grab the tape" CDTT (Certified Duct Tape Technician) Linux user #322099 Machines: 206822 256638 276825 http://counter.li.org/ From b.j.smith at ieee.org Sun Mar 19 18:47:36 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 18:47:36 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] CompUSA has PNY GeForce 6600GT AGP and PCIe for $99 out-the-door ... In-Reply-To: <441DE6EE.4000306@emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com> References: <1142784570.4739.65.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <1142801738.4739.115.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <441DC7D8.4040801@sbaflorida.com> <200603191609.50744.jasonb@edseek.com> <1142803982.4739.131.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <441DE614.3080804@emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com> <441DE6EE.4000306@emmanuelcomputerconsulting.com> Message-ID: <1142812056.4739.137.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> On Sun, 2006-03-19 at 18:19 -0500, William Warren wrote: > i found the sub page..:) I guess leap is only for florida? Everyone is welcome. We have people from all over the SE US and beyond. -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, technical annoyance mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com ------------------------------------------------------------ ****** Speed doesn't kill. Difference in speed does! ****** From ozz at ozz.is-a-geek.net Sun Mar 19 19:59:10 2006 From: ozz at ozz.is-a-geek.net (Austin Denyer (Ozz)) Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 19:59:10 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Editing/modifying .avi files Message-ID: <20060319195910.da8231b1.ozz@ozz.is-a-geek.net> Hi Guys. I have a series of .avi movie files that were recorded on a Canon PowerShot A60 digital camera. Unfortunately many of the files are kinda dark. (The video was taken at a wedding under fairly dim lighting) Does anyone know of an application that could be used to brighten the video? Linux-based if possible, but I will accept a Windoze-based app if necessary. Regards, Ozz. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 189 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.matrixlist.com/pipermail/pc_support/attachments/20060319/74c35b96/attachment.bin From damien at mc-kenna.com Sun Mar 19 20:18:40 2006 From: damien at mc-kenna.com (Damien McKenna) Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 20:18:40 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Editing/modifying .avi files In-Reply-To: <20060319195910.da8231b1.ozz@ozz.is-a-geek.net> References: <20060319195910.da8231b1.ozz@ozz.is-a-geek.net> Message-ID: <441E02F0.2070106@mc-kenna.com> Austin (Ozz) Denyer wrote: > Does anyone know of an application that could be used to brighten the > video? Linux-based if possible, but I will accept a Windoze-based app > if necessary. > VideoDub, VLC, and search on sourceforge or your APT/Yum repository ("apt search video" etc). -- Damien McKenna, husband, father, geek. damien at mc-kenna.com - http://www.mc-kenna.com/ From pberry2 at cfl.rr.com Sun Mar 19 22:43:26 2006 From: pberry2 at cfl.rr.com (Patrick) Date: Sun, 19 Mar 2006 22:43:26 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] CompUSA has PNY GeForce 6600GT AGP and PCIe =?iso-8859-1?q?for=09=2499_out-the-door?= ... In-Reply-To: <1142800653.4739.97.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> References: <1142784570.4739.65.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <1142800587.4739.95.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> <1142800653.4739.97.camel@bert64.oviedo.smithconcepts.com> Message-ID: <200603192243.26662.pberry2@cfl.rr.com> On Sunday 19 March 2006 15:37, Bryan J. Smith wrote: > On Sun, 2006-03-19 at 15:36 -0500, Bryan J. Smith wrote: > > CompUSA did it again! > > They had *0* stock! > > Not even *1* item on-hand. > > In case that didn't read clear, I specifically asked them if they had > _any_ stock when they opened. They did _not_. Not at _any_ Orlando > store. I do not do rebates, and, I used to go to CompUSA for the discounted books, but, since CompUSA dumped about 25,000 items out of their inventory, I don't deal with them anymore. Same with BestBuy. I shop the internet. Different risks, but, better prices... I have been in Cheap Guys for two weekend sales (email list sale). Only buying what I can afford... I still like to get used/salvaged stuff! Linux runs it just fine! -- http://livecdlist.com http://distrowatch.com http://www.pclinuxos.com http://counter.li.org http://lugww.counter.li.org http://yolinux.com http://safeharbordome.com http://minidome.net http://monolithicdome.com From b.j.smith at ieee.org Mon Mar 20 10:35:41 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 07:35:41 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Pc_Support] Items for loan/sale at InstallFest ... Message-ID: <20060320153541.49392.qmail@web34107.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Okay, since the InstallFest is on for April 1st, I have a couple of items I'm bringing. As always, the deal is that you take it home for a few weeks to see if you like it. If it works for you, then we can work out the details of any sale. Again, I still have my Abit BP6 Server/Workstation: - Antec Black Case w/ATX PS - i440BX chipset + HPT366 ATA - (2) Celeron, 128KiB L2, 466MHz - (2) 256MiB Registered ECC PC100 SDRAM (512MiB total) And I now have my former Tyan S2518 Server: - 4U, Ten (10) 5.25" Rackmount Enclosure (with rails) - Enermax 435W ATX Server PS - (8) 3.5" hot-swap ATA drives (temp/rpm on front) - ServerWorks ServerSet IIILE-SL w/on-board dual-10/100 NICs - 3Ware Esclade 7800 (64-bit PCI, 1MB SRAM, 8xATA/133) - (2) Pentium III 750MHz Coppermine - (2) 256MiB Registered ECC PC100 SDRAM (512MiB total) - (2) Maxtor 80GB 5400rpm Drives (RAID-1 config) - (4) Western Digital 80GB 7200rpm Drives (RAID-5 config) I can add/remove any cards/drives/bays that you want from either system to reconfigure as you need/want, don't need/want. I have extra DVD-R/RAM/RW drives too. My wife is going to kill me if I don't get that 4U sucker out of my dining area. ;-> Just let me know what you're interested in. -- Bryan P.S. I also have a 72" APC-Compaq style Rackmount in my garage that is only going to start rusting if I don't get out of it there. I'd rather just give it away to a good home than get anything for it. It has a 2200VA UPS at the bottom, although it may be too rusted. But the rackmount chassis and covers aren't rusting (yet -- well painted). You'll have to drive to Oviedo to check it out, because I'm not hauling it to the InstallFest. But it's out there, for _free_! I just don't have room for it in my home (and I only have a 1 car garage). -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, Technical Annoyance b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com -------------------------------------------------- I'm a Democrat. No wait, I'm a Republican. Hmm, it seems I'm just whatever someone disagrees with. From glaiacona at aikencountysc.gov Mon Mar 20 10:46:42 2006 From: glaiacona at aikencountysc.gov (George Laiacona) Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 10:46:42 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Re: [LeapList] Items for loan/sale at InstallFest ... Message-ID: Wish I was headed to FL soon. I'd like a crack at the 72" rack. If it doesn't disappear before then, I'll try for a weekend trip to Titusville in April, and if you still have it, I'll load it up and bring it home. Hopefully, gasoline prices drop a bit soon. I took Masters week off, and it doesn't look like I'll be getting tickets, but I have no cash for the trip either. I'd certainly like to meet you in person one day, just to put a face to the name if for anything. George. >>> b.j.smith at ieee.org 03/20/06 10:35 AM >>> Okay, since the InstallFest is on for April 1st, I have a couple of items I'm bringing. As always, the deal is that you take it home for a few weeks to see if you like it. If it works for you, then we can work out the details of any sale. Again, I still have my Abit BP6 Server/Workstation: - Antec Black Case w/ATX PS - i440BX chipset + HPT366 ATA - (2) Celeron, 128KiB L2, 466MHz - (2) 256MiB Registered ECC PC100 SDRAM (512MiB total) And I now have my former Tyan S2518 Server: - 4U, Ten (10) 5.25" Rackmount Enclosure (with rails) - Enermax 435W ATX Server PS - (8) 3.5" hot-swap ATA drives (temp/rpm on front) - ServerWorks ServerSet IIILE-SL w/on-board dual-10/100 NICs - 3Ware Esclade 7800 (64-bit PCI, 1MB SRAM, 8xATA/133) - (2) Pentium III 750MHz Coppermine - (2) 256MiB Registered ECC PC100 SDRAM (512MiB total) - (2) Maxtor 80GB 5400rpm Drives (RAID-1 config) - (4) Western Digital 80GB 7200rpm Drives (RAID-5 config) I can add/remove any cards/drives/bays that you want from either system to reconfigure as you need/want, don't need/want. I have extra DVD-R/RAM/RW drives too. My wife is going to kill me if I don't get that 4U sucker out of my dining area. ;-> Just let me know what you're interested in. -- Bryan P.S. I also have a 72" APC-Compaq style Rackmount in my garage that is only going to start rusting if I don't get out of it there. I'd rather just give it away to a good home than get anything for it. It has a 2200VA UPS at the bottom, although it may be too rusted. But the rackmount chassis and covers aren't rusting (yet -- well painted). You'll have to drive to Oviedo to check it out, because I'm not hauling it to the InstallFest. But it's out there, for _free_! I just don't have room for it in my home (and I only have a 1 car garage). -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, Technical Annoyance b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com -------------------------------------------------- I'm a Democrat. No wait, I'm a Republican. Hmm, it seems I'm just whatever someone disagrees with. _______________________________________________ Leaplist mailing list Leaplist at leap-cf.org http://lists.leap-cf.org/mailman/listinfo/leaplist From b.j.smith at ieee.org Mon Mar 20 10:50:45 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 07:50:45 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Pc_Support] Re: [LeapList] Items for loan/sale at InstallFest ... In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20060320155045.53047.qmail@web34101.mail.mud.yahoo.com> George Laiacona wrote: > Wish I was headed to FL soon. I'd like a crack at the 72" rack. > If it doesn't disappear before then, I'll try for a weekend trip to > Titusville in April, and if you still have it, I'll load it up and > bring it home. Hopefully, gasoline prices drop a bit soon. I took > Masters week off, and it doesn't look like I'll be getting tickets, > but I have no cash for the trip either. I'd certainly like to meet > you in person one day, just to put a face to the name if for > anything. It's yours if you've gotta pick-up. It's in good condition, but the 2 boxes inside of it are rusted due to sitting in my garage for almost 2 years. I just don't have room for it in my house. -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, Technical Annoyance b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com -------------------------------------------------- I'm a Democrat. No wait, I'm a Republican. Hmm, it seems I'm just whatever someone disagrees with. From b.j.smith at ieee.org Mon Mar 20 10:53:45 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 07:53:45 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Pc_Support] Re: Items for loan/sale at InstallFest ... In-Reply-To: <20060320155045.53047.qmail@web34101.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <20060320155345.62797.qmail@web34105.mail.mud.yahoo.com> George Laiacona wrote: > Wish I was headed to FL soon. I'd like a crack at the 72" rack. > If it doesn't disappear before then, I'll try for a weekend trip > to Titusville in April, and if you still have it, I'll load it up > and bring it home. FYI, north Titusville is only a 30 minute drive from Oviedo (where I live) on SR-46. I could probably drive it over there and meet you. -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, Technical Annoyance b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com -------------------------------------------------- I'm a Democrat. No wait, I'm a Republican. Hmm, it seems I'm just whatever someone disagrees with. From dmckenna at thelimucompany.com Mon Mar 20 12:43:34 2006 From: dmckenna at thelimucompany.com (Damien McKenna) Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 12:43:34 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] 3Ware Escalade 8000, 9500S and 9550SX -- WAS: Drives, RAID, backups oh my! Message-ID: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D90A01@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> > > * What IDE controller do you recommend for a 64bit/33MHz PCI slot? > > What storage do you want? RAID-1. > If you just want two (2) redundant drives, a $125 3Ware Escalade > 8006-2LP (PCI64/66, slows down to PCI64/33) will do nicely. I was figuring reusing the several 40gb IDE drives we already have, or should I bank on getting replacement drives too? > > * What happens in a RAID-1 array if one of the drives dies? I should mention that these servers will all be running Windows Server 2000 (maybe 2003, depending on the budget). > > How is it recovered? > > If you have a hot spare already declared, the rebuild will be > immediate. A hot spare requires a spare channel and spare drive > already allocated. Unfortunately the RAID-1 cards would be going in the DL320's which only have two drive bays, i.e. no hot-spare. How does that affect things? > > * Is "Ultrium" the same as LTO? > > Yes, it's HP's Brand. LTO is a multi-vendor standard. HP inflates > the model numbers to reflect the GB size of a 2.4:1 compression ratio > IIRC. E.g., Ultrium 960 for 400/800GB LTO-3. Alrighty, that explains a lot. A few follow-up questions: Would having the OS partition (Windows Server 2000 or 2003) running on RAID-5 be too much of a load on the drives? If it would be I'd get another two drives per DL380 and set them up as RAID-1. It seems the SmartArray 5i is a fully hardware-driven RAID card after all. The user manual is at http://docs.hp.com/en/225852-001/225852-001.pdf but it doesn't say what the controller chip is. Would there be much of a problem running Ultra320 drives on an Ultra160 controller? Our current DL380 has only one processor (P3/1266MHz), would it be worthwhile adding the second processor or should we not worry about it - the appropriate CPU kits are on ebay for under $100. On this note, the DL380 uses the ServerWorks ServerSet III HE-SL chipset and not a crappy Intel chipset. Thanks again. -- Damien McKenna - Web Developer - Damien.McKenna at thelimucompany.com The Limu Company - http://www.thelimucompany.com/ - 407-804-1014 #include From b.j.smith at ieee.org Mon Mar 20 13:12:00 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 10:12:00 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Pc_Support] 3Ware Escalade 8000, 9500S and 9550SX -- WAS: Drives, RAID, backups oh my! In-Reply-To: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D90A01@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> Message-ID: <20060320181201.55049.qmail@web34112.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Damien McKenna wrote: > RAID-1. The 3Ware Escalade 8006-2LP (64-bit @ 33/66MHz) would be ideal. The 3Ware Escalade 7006-2LP (32-bit @ 33/66MHz) is okay too. > I was figuring reusing the several 40gb IDE drives we already have, > or should I bank on getting replacement drives too? Well, drives are cheap these days. > I should mention that these servers will all be running Windows > Server 2000 (maybe 2003, depending on the budget). And NT5 is NT5 -- be it NT5.0 (2000) or NT5.1 (XP/2003). The network, storage, etc... drivers are the same. The only change is for video (as usual). > Unfortunately the RAID-1 cards would be going in the DL320's which > only have two drive bays, i.e. no hot-spare. How does that affect > things? Not much, you just need to replace the drive before the second one fails. The array stays up, and other than the 3dm2 manager barking or sending you e-mails, the system thinks everything is fine. > A few follow-up questions: > Would having the OS partition (Windows Server 2000 or 2003) running > on RAID-5 be too much of a load on the drives? If it would be I'd > get another two drives per DL380 and set them up as RAID-1. If you want RAID-5, get an Areca ARC-11x0 (PCI64/-X) or ARC-12x0 (PCIe). They blow away 3Ware's performance. > It seems the SmartArray 5i is a fully hardware-driven RAID card > after all. The user manual is at > http://docs.hp.com/en/225852-001/225852-001.pdf but it doesn't say > what the controller chip is. Yes, as I mentioned. It's a slouch Intel IOP30x (i960) last time I checked. An old 3Ware Escalade 7006-2LP in a 32-bit slot will slap it silly. > Would there be much of a problem running Ultra320 drives on an > Ultra160 controller? No, although don't put more than 2-3 drives on each channel. > Our current DL380 has only one processor (P3/1266MHz), would it be > worthwhile adding the second processor or should we not worry about > it - the appropriate CPU kits are on ebay for under $100. On this > note, the DL380 uses the ServerWorks ServerSet III HE-SL chipset > and not a crappy Intel chipset. Yes, I know, it's a very good design. -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, Technical Annoyance b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com -------------------------------------------------- I'm a Democrat. No wait, I'm a Republican. Hmm, it seems I'm just whatever someone disagrees with. From b.j.smith at ieee.org Mon Mar 20 16:50:52 2006 From: b.j.smith at ieee.org (Bryan J. Smith) Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 13:50:52 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Pc_Support] Intel Socket-478 chipset solutions ... Message-ID: <20060320215052.13499.qmail@web34105.mail.mud.yahoo.com> I know many of you are still deploying Intel Socket-478 solutions. If you are, please make the following considerations. 1. Intel-brand cheapest desktop: i845 When saving money is an issue, just go for the i845. You're not going to get much more at all going for an i865, that's a mis-nomer. If you're really worried about performance or support, then you should be looking at an LGA-775/i9xx series anyway. The i8xx series is 3+ years _old_ now. 2. Intel-brand professional desktop: i875 The i875 is the professional-grade version of the i865, and those that fail the i875 tolerances are branded i865. Because of the exact pin-out, far too many vendors use the same PCBs -- and some, e.g., the Asus P4P800 (i865), use the same PCB that was tested against for the P4C800 (i875). I recommend you _never_ run a mainboard with the i865 in an office environment -- only for home users with limited use. 3. Intel-brand workstation/server: E7210 If you're already spending $150 for an i875, you might as well look at a $200 E7210. The E7200 series is based on an Intel cross-license with ServerWorks (fka Reliance Computer Corporation, RCC), which has been designing workstations and servers for the tier-1 PC OEMs for a good decade. I.e., Intel has _never_ designed a workstation/server chipset themselves (the closest they've ever come was the old i450NX which was not competitive at all), and the E7200 is the entry-level ServerWorks design. It's also used for Socket-604 (Xeon) as well as Socket-478. [ NOTE: The E7221/7230 are the LGA-775 editions with PCIe ] -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, Technical Annoyance b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com -------------------------------------------------- I'm a Democrat. No wait, I'm a Republican. Hmm, it seems I'm just whatever someone disagrees with. From dmckenna at thelimucompany.com Mon Mar 20 13:39:45 2006 From: dmckenna at thelimucompany.com (Damien McKenna) Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 13:39:45 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] 3Ware Escalade 8000, 9500S and 9550SX -- WAS: Drives, RAID, backups oh my! Message-ID: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D90A04@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> > Damien McKenna wrote: > > I was figuring reusing the several 40gb IDE drives we already have, > > or should I bank on getting replacement drives too? > > Well, drives are cheap these days. Would there be much point given that they're throw-away setups running RAID-1? Also, given that these are going to be fixed-installation drives, would there be any advantage of SATA over PATA? > > I should mention that these servers will all be running Windows > > Server 2000 (maybe 2003, depending on the budget). > > And NT5 is NT5 -- be it NT5.0 (2000) or NT5.1 (XP/2003). > The network, storage, etc... drivers are the same. > The only change is for video (as usual). Yeah, I'm not worried about that and more the recovery procedure. > > Unfortunately the RAID-1 cards would be going in the DL320's which > > only have two drive bays, i.e. no hot-spare. How does that affect > > things? > > Not much, you just need to replace the drive before the second one > fails. The array stays up, and other than the 3dm2 manager barking > or sending you e-mails, the system thinks everything is fine. Alrighty, simple enough then. > > A few follow-up questions: > > Would having the OS partition (Windows Server 2000 or 2003) running > > on RAID-5 be too much of a load on the drives? If it would be I'd > > get another two drives per DL380 and set them up as RAID-1. > > If you want RAID-5, get an Areca ARC-11x0 (PCI64/-X) or ARC-12x0 > (PCIe). They blow away 3Ware's performance. The RAID-5 would be for the DL380's (SCSI), not the DL320's which will be RAID-1. Also, are PCI-X cards compatible with PCI-64bit/66MHz slots, I thought they were different? > > It seems the SmartArray 5i is a fully hardware-driven RAID card > > after all. The user manual is at > > http://docs.hp.com/en/225852-001/225852-001.pdf but it doesn't say > > what the controller chip is. > > Yes, as I mentioned. It's a slouch Intel IOP30x (i960) last time I > checked. An old 3Ware Escalade 7006-2LP in a 32-bit slot will slap > it silly. Ah crap. Any suggestions on a better SCSI-RAID card then? > > Would there be much of a problem running Ultra320 drives on an > > Ultra160 controller? > > No, although don't put more than 2-3 drives on each channel. Okily, that pretty much means a limit of 3 drives in RAID-5 with an optional hot-spare, which would be fine. > > Our current DL380 has only one processor (P3/1266MHz), would it be > > worthwhile adding the second processor or should we not worry about > > it - the appropriate CPU kits are on ebay for under $100. On this > > note, the DL380 uses the ServerWorks ServerSet III HE-SL chipset > > and not a crappy Intel chipset. > > Yes, I know, it's a very good design. So I'll budget for that then. Let me give you an idea of what my current thoughts are: DL380 #1 (file storage): - dual processor with 1gb RAM - 3x 72gb SCSI as RAID-5 on SmartArray 5i with optional hot-spare (depending on whether they want to spend the extra). - would need to buy the drives DL380 #2 (email): - dual processor with 1gb RAM - 3x 36gb SCSI as RAID-5 on SmartArray 5i with extra hot-spare. - have two drives and will get more as part of buying the other DL380 DL320's: - single processor, 512mb+ RAM - 2x 40gb IDE as RAID-1 on 3Ware 7006-2 Thanks Bryan. Damien From ozz at ozz.is-a-geek.net Mon Mar 20 21:34:14 2006 From: ozz at ozz.is-a-geek.net (Austin Denyer (Ozz)) Date: Mon, 20 Mar 2006 21:34:14 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Editing/modifying .avi files In-Reply-To: <441E02F0.2070106@mc-kenna.com> References: <20060319195910.da8231b1.ozz@ozz.is-a-geek.net> <441E02F0.2070106@mc-kenna.com> Message-ID: <20060320213414.0adae2e4.ozz@ozz.is-a-geek.net> On Sun, 19 Mar 2006 20:18:40 -0500, Damien McKenna wrote: > > Austin (Ozz) Denyer wrote: > > Does anyone know of an application that could be used to brighten the > > video? Linux-based if possible, but I will accept a Windoze-based app > > if necessary. > > VideoDub, VLC, and search on sourceforge or your APT/Yum repository OK, I grabbed a copy of VLC, and by changing a few settings (mainly Gamma) I can view the video fine. Thanks, Damien. Now, I just need to figure out how to save the modified streams to new files so that I can burn them to CDs for others to view. At the moment, the output file is no different to the original. Any pointers? Regards, Ozz. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 191 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://lists.matrixlist.com/pipermail/pc_support/attachments/20060320/d67487ed/attachment.bin From dmckenna at thelimucompany.com Tue Mar 21 11:34:19 2006 From: dmckenna at thelimucompany.com (Damien McKenna) Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 11:34:19 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Plextor announces SATA DVD burner Message-ID: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D90A50@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> http://www.plextor.com/english/news/press/755SA_pr.htm Plextor has finally announced an internal Serial ATA DVD burner, available immediately for the inflated price of $129. Now to see when LG will follow suit. -- Damien McKenna - Web Developer - Damien.McKenna at thelimucompany.com The Limu Company - http://www.thelimucompany.com/ - 407-804-1014 #include From dmckenna at thelimucompany.com Tue Mar 21 11:54:57 2006 From: dmckenna at thelimucompany.com (Damien McKenna) Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 11:54:57 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Another power supply to consider? HEC Ace 580UB Message-ID: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D90A52@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> While looking around I came across a power supply from a company called HEC. The Ace 580UB is SLI certified and has two +12V rails, which should be enough to power what's needed. Here's a pretty detailed review: http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1817 Lastly, Froogle lists the PSU at around $60, which makes it pretty affordable. -- Damien McKenna - Web Developer - Damien.McKenna at thelimucompany.com The Limu Company - http://www.thelimucompany.com/ - 407-804-1014 #include From damien at mc-kenna.com Tue Mar 21 13:58:28 2006 From: damien at mc-kenna.com (Damien McKenna) Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 13:58:28 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] New Geforce 7x00 cards Message-ID: <44204CD4.6040802@mc-kenna.com> http://www.rojakpot.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=304 Yet more nVidia Geforce 7x00 cards, going as low as $49! Time to update your charts again, Bryan. Damien From dmckenna at thelimucompany.com Fri Mar 24 09:34:52 2006 From: dmckenna at thelimucompany.com (Damien McKenna) Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2006 09:34:52 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] 3Ware 7006 - 7.7.1 or 9.3.0.3 software? Message-ID: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D90B3B@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> Major n00b time. I'm installing a 3Ware 7006-2 card in a server, should I use the v7.7.1 or v9.3.0.3 software with it? Thanks. -- Damien McKenna - Web Developer - Damien.McKenna at thelimucompany.com The Limu Company - http://www.thelimucompany.com/ - 407-804-1014 #include From dmckenna at thelimucompany.com Fri Mar 24 15:07:45 2006 From: dmckenna at thelimucompany.com (Damien McKenna) Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2006 15:07:45 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Fun in the Microsoft world Message-ID: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D90B57@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> Some amusing news this week from the world of MSFT. First off it is announced that Windows Vista is being delayed a few months until 2007, after the crucial holiday season (http://www.activewin.com/awin/comments.asp?HeadlineIndex=34083&Group=1) . The same day it is announced that the Windows development group is being reshuffled with a new person in charge who is apparently known for being a hard-ass (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1941940,00.asp). Then it is announced that Office 2007 also won't be released until 2007, though apparently they're going to release it early for some business customers (http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_Pushes_New_Office_into_2007/1 143216364). Lastly, it is also rumored that MSFT is pulling in top developers from other teams to rewrite up to 60% of Vista as part of the department shake-up (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=30516). -- Damien McKenna - Web Developer - Damien.McKenna at thelimucompany.com The Limu Company - http://www.thelimucompany.com/ - 407-804-1014 #include From pberry2 at cfl.rr.com Fri Mar 24 15:51:34 2006 From: pberry2 at cfl.rr.com (Patrick) Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2006 15:51:34 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Fun in the Microsoft world In-Reply-To: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D90B57@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> References: <5C9DC445A45FEC4185D272DAF6AF37D1D90B57@tlc001.tlcusa.thelimucompany.com> Message-ID: <200603241551.34170.pberry2@cfl.rr.com> On Friday 24 March 2006 15:07, Damien McKenna wrote: > Some amusing news this week from the world of MSFT. > > First off it is announced that Windows Vista is being delayed a few > months until 2007, after the crucial holiday season > (http://www.activewin.com/awin/comments.asp?HeadlineIndex=34083&Group=1) > . The same day it is announced that the Windows development group is > being reshuffled with a new person in charge who is apparently known for > being a hard-ass (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1941940,00.asp). > Then it is announced that Office 2007 also won't be released until 2007, > though apparently they're going to release it early for some business > customers > (http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_Pushes_New_Office_into_2007/1 > 143216364). Lastly, it is also rumored that MSFT is pulling in top > developers from other teams to rewrite up to 60% of Vista as part of the > department shake-up (http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=30516). Please note that the test copy of VISTA had harsh criticism from many very knowledgeable reviewers, after they had tried to run it for the past three or more months. 1. Constant jpop-ups requiring entry of System Master password from small aps running in the background. 2. Huge amount of DRM that heightened privacy concerns, because, all input is put into the "hidden" file that is uploaded to the 'mothership' everytime it gets access to the internet. 3. Housekeeping in the background STILL jpre-empts hard disk saves of documents, files, movies, audio files... 4. The DRM forced some users to give up ever trying to copy their HOME MOVIES of the picnic with the kids! 5. Vista is STILL about 8 TIMES SLOWER than the 800 FREE OSes, at http://livecdlist.com and http://distrowatch.com ( My favorite right now, is PCLinuxOS, that BLOWS VISTA AWAY!) 6. IE is STILL linked to the Core system files!!! USE MOZILLA FIREFOX instead! 7. XP will be HOW OLD?? 9 YEARS?? when VISTA is released???? 8. Use an OS that is CURRENT! Microsoft knows that they lost their audience, way back in 2000, when they persued their corporate customers! The way they treat the consumer/user is a crying shame, but, only to be expected from a multiple convicted FELON on all the continents on the planet! Yes, all of the above were actual comments on the forums!!! There were more, but, you can do the Google.com search! -- http://livecdlist.com http://distrowatch.com http://www.pclinuxos.com http://counter.li.org http://lugww.counter.li.org http://yolinux.com http://safeharbordome.com http://minidome.net http://monolithicdome.com From jasonb at edseek.com Wed Mar 29 19:41:31 2006 From: jasonb at edseek.com (Jason Boxman) Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 19:41:31 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Smart Self-test errors, fatal? Message-ID: <200603291941.31999.jasonb@edseek.com> If an ATA drive is coughing up SMART errors, is it completely fatal? I ran a couple of short self tests and a long. The last short and long came back clean. I `dd`d from the drive for a bit and it didn't blow up further. The drive experienced some shock a few weeks ago when I sort of, dropped, the case. The other five drives seem fine, so far. It's still under warranty, technically, although I wonder whether the g-force encountered doesn't void it. SMART: Error 2 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 83 hours (3 days + 11 hours) When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle. After command completion occurred, registers were: ER ST SC SN CL CH DH -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 40 51 00 b2 10 a4 e0 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x00a410b2 = 10752178 Commands leading to the command that caused the error were: CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- -------------------- 25 00 38 8e 10 a4 e0 00 08:05:10.304 READ DMA EXT 25 00 40 86 10 a4 e0 00 08:05:10.304 READ DMA EXT 25 00 10 76 10 a4 e0 00 08:05:10.229 READ DMA EXT ea 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08:05:10.228 FLUSH CACHE EXIT 35 00 08 de dc 49 e0 00 08:05:10.219 WRITE DMA EXT Error 1 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 83 hours (3 days + 11 hours) When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle. After command completion occurred, registers were: ER ST SC SN CL CH DH -- -- -- -- -- -- -- 40 51 00 af 10 a4 e0 Error: UNC at LBA = 0x00a410af = 10752175 Commands leading to the command that caused the error were: CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC Powered_Up_Time Command/Feature_Name -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- ---------------- -------------------- 25 00 40 86 10 a4 e0 00 08:05:10.304 READ DMA EXT 25 00 10 76 10 a4 e0 00 08:05:10.304 READ DMA EXT ea 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08:05:10.229 FLUSH CACHE EXIT 35 00 08 de dc 49 e0 00 08:05:10.228 WRITE DMA EXT ea 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 08:05:10.219 FLUSH CACHE EXIT SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1 Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBA_of_first_error # 1 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 90 - # 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 83 - # 3 Short offline Completed: read failure 90% 83 44306630 # 4 Short offline Completed without error 00% 83 - Thoughts? Thanks. -- Jason Boxman http://edseek.com/ - Linux and FOSS stuff From philb at philb.us Wed Mar 29 21:35:45 2006 From: philb at philb.us (Phil Barnett) Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 21:35:45 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Smart Self-test errors, fatal? In-Reply-To: <200603291941.31999.jasonb@edseek.com> References: <200603291941.31999.jasonb@edseek.com> Message-ID: <200603292135.45571.philb@philb.us> On Wednesday 29 March 2006 19:41, Jason Boxman wrote: > If an ATA drive is coughing up SMART errors, is it completely fatal? Generally, smart errors are logged when a sector is found to not read correctly, the checksum may or may not have allowed the drive to correct the data and the data sector is shifted to a spare sector (remapped beneath the covers, so to speak). Once this happens, the old sector is locked out and the new sector is used in it's place. If you know why this is happening and it stabilizes, you might not have a fatality on your hands. I'd run spinrite on it to see how bad the damage is. -- "Outlook not so good." That magic 8-ball knows everything! I'll ask about Exchange Server next. From jasonb at edseek.com Wed Mar 29 22:36:16 2006 From: jasonb at edseek.com (Jason Boxman) Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2006 22:36:16 -0500 Subject: [Pc_Support] Smart Self-test errors, fatal? In-Reply-To: <200603292135.45571.philb@philb.us> References: <200603291941.31999.jasonb@edseek.com> <200603292135.45571.philb@philb.us> Message-ID: <200603292236.16942.jasonb@edseek.com> On Wednesday 29 March 2006 21:35, Phil Barnett wrote: > On Wednesday 29 March 2006 19:41, Jason Boxman wrote: > > If an ATA drive is coughing up SMART errors, is it completely fatal? > > Generally, smart errors are logged when a sector is found to not read > correctly, the checksum may or may not have allowed the drive to correct > the data and the data sector is shifted to a spare sector (remapped beneath > the covers, so to speak). Yeah, UNC means uncorrectable error after trying to use ECC according to the `smartctl` man page. > Once this happens, the old sector is locked out and the new sector is used > in it's place. > > If you know why this is happening and it stabilizes, you might not have a > fatality on your hands. I think it might be because I kinda dropped the case. Actually, it fell sideways, hit another case, then hit the floor after another ten seconds or so. It's a big heavy tower case with the drives mounted both at the top and two in the bottom of six 5.25" bays. I'm surprised I haven't lost more drives yet... (four aren't in warranty for years now, sigh.) > I'd run spinrite on it to see how bad the damage is. Excellent. I'll look into it. I think Seagate has a utility that'll scan for and remap bad sectors. I doubt the recovery options are as extensive, but it's free. Times some hours to run, though. Last time I let it remap bad sectors on a different Seagate, which later failed again in a nonviolent way, but I decided to RMA instead lest I allow a perpetual heal-cycle to begin. -- Jason Boxman http://edseek.com/ - Linux and FOSS stuff