Category: nerdy stuff

new computer build for around £300 (Nov 2013)

this is computer is not for me it\’s for my 17 year old non pc gamer cousin.

1 x Kingston 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1600MHz HyperX Blu Memory Kit CL9 1.65V
1 x Seagate 1TB Barracuda 3.5\” SATA-III Hard Drive – 7200RPM 64MB Cache
1 x AMD FX-6300 3.5GHz Socket AM3+ 14MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
1 x Asus M5A78L-M/USB3 AMD Socket AM3+ 8 Channel HD Audio mATX Motherboard
1 x Coolermaster K380 Case & Elite 500w PSU Bundle

went with above as it\’s give you the value for money. after building it post some scores

windows server 2012 essentials storage spaces error

I been using the windows server 2012 essentials with HP miroserver for a while now. I\’m using 2 3TB disk two way mirror storage spaces. All went well till yesterday. storage spaces displayed error and it\’s unmount it\’s self, try to repair no luck. They are enough space on the disk and no errors on the physical disk.

tried all the internet solution no luck only way I brought it back deleting and recreating the storage spaces. and restoring it from the backup.

It worked but this didn\’t give me enough confidence to deploy to my clients . Good thing I had a backup

how to build a good ipv6/ipv4 firewall on the cheap

I selected firewall software pfsence 2.1 I dont want a massive pc making lot of noise so went with this case Antec ISK 110 Mini ITX Case it\’s comes with 90w external power supply which should be enough

for the motherboard I went with EPIA-LT15000AG Mini-ITX Motherboard, VIA 1.5Ghz CPU, 512MB Kingston PC2-4200 RAM I know this is not powerful but what I\’m going to do it\’s enough. I had a laptop drive which I\’m going to use as a Hard disk.

will keep you updated it\’s going to be my firewall for ipv4 and ipv6, going to manage my SSL vpn when I\’m out and about and remote access to my home server just incase if i need to pick up a file.

whole this costed under a £100 when you think of what you get it\’s amazing value.

HP ProLiant Turion II N40L MicroServer Review

I was surprised how good it is only £139.99 after cashback. Installed  home server 2011 using the USB key which was pain free took a while to install though. that might be to do with windows server software. very quite. I like the build quality. Drives are hot swappable and their is an internal usb port you can run the OS from a 64 GB usb key and use the drives bay for the storage. I didn\’t do it that was but if you after some fast boot time you can. All screws and even the screw driver is came with a server. Only thing I cant find is the SATA cable for CD rom but using usb disk to install is pain free.

This server has very low power consumption as well thanks to AMD low power processor only 15watt . If any one with under 10 user then this server is highly recommended. it does the mac back up as well as all windows computer from xp.

usefull tip about apple servers go blank screen

http://www.remotemacserver.com/?p=41

 

On your client open up Terminal (OS X or Linux) or use PuTTy (Windows), login to your server and perform the following commands:

ps auxwww|grep loginwindow

This should give you an an output like this:

root 925 0.0 0.1 2503556 5580 ?? Us 3:05AM 0:00.08 /System/Library/CoreServices/loginwindow.app/Contents/MacOS/loginwindow console
jc 953 0.0 0.0 2425708 276 s000 R+ 3:05AM 0:00.00 grep loginwindow

You may have a few different lines, but essentially you’re looking for the root line, the process id in my case is 925. Now that we have the process ID we will want to issue the kill -9 command and it would look like this:

sudo kill -9 953

windows 8 and microsoft office 2013 review

only used it a day so not an expert on this but looks good. I have to install the classic start menu though as I can\’t use metro on a normal monitor.

Windows 8 feel faster fresh install took a while though it might be my computer being 5 years old.

installed the office 2013 64bit install was fast and working great. I like the intro when you 1st start up to say how good it is but I didn\’t find any different other than it looks similar to the office 365.

I mainly started using mac now but I like MS trying some thing new but they shouldn\’t have got rid of start menu hope they fix soon. Windows store search  is rubbish cant find any thing I have to go back to Google to find things

BT Home Hub 3 review

What a peace of  ****, I know ISP given free routers are generally poor quality  but this one takes a cake,

1) Wireless
 If you are connection any thing more than 5 equipement router struggles to cope you might think 5 is a lot of equipments,  but with smart phone , tablets  etc 2 people house hold will have 5+ items. Good thing ASA upheld the complaint about their Misleading Most Reliable Wireless Connection Claim  

Another thing Home Hub 3 will automatically enables BTFON their is no way to turn this off on the router.  It\’s secure but still BT should have given me the choice not enable it by default.

2)wired 

only 100mb ports connection is ok but not much their to write about

3)DHCP

Router has DHCP server but you can\’t change the DNS on that I think it\’s to do with BTFON. If you use opendns, google dns or your own DNS then you have to manually change the dns server.

4) router interface 

Full of BT adverts their net protect plus and some other **** product I dont care about. Advanced setting dont have any thing advanced

5) No root acceess 

BT give you a user call admin on that box but can\’t have a root access (some one need to crack this box I can donate this box for free to any one in few days

I have ordered Linksys  E4200 Dual-Band N Router

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visited Vintage Computer Festival 2010 @ Bletchley Park

It was a fun day out, bigger event than I thought visited the computer museum and all other exhibitions at Bletchley Park.  retrocomputermuseum.co.uk had all the retro consoles where you can play it hands on it was fun.

Fun to see all the consoles and computers you read about them in real

3 Skypephone S2 payG is only £39.99

\"3Skypephone_S2_210x225\" Just had a look at three’s site they selling their Skype S2 phone for £39.99, I think it’s a great value as we can use as a skype  with out toping up. It’s not bad looking and have HSDPA connection etc.. I been told it’s better than the 3’s INQ1 phones .

I might buy it not  sure