CNET to the Rescue (MP3)

CNET to the Rescue: The last Rescue, and the end of Quicken for Mac

rescue@cnet.com (CNETTV.com) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:13:26 PDT

This week, the sharp editor of CNET How To, Sharon Vaknin, joins us again as we answer questions about Quicken, Google+, mousing on a Mac, and Facebook security.

This is the last CNET to the Rescue show for a while. The show is going into the shop and we're going to tune it up a bit, and will re-launch it shortly. I am leaving this show to launch another one here at CNET, hopefully also shortly.

If you have a tech question for CNET, e-mail how-to@cnet.com.

Thanks everyone for listening, watching, complaining, whatever...It's been a lot of fun. --Rafe

CNET to the Rescue Ep.50: The end of Rescue, and Quicken for the Mac, too

Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast

Episode 51:The last Rescue; the end of Quicken for the Mac

Road tests

Listener questions

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Ian: I received a notice from Quicken stating that Quicken 2007 for Mac would not run on a Mac that is upgraded to Lion. This is because because Lion will not have Rosetta included.

If my memory serves me correctly, Quicken was originally developed for the Mac platform way, way back, at least a couple of decades I reckon, and it was a money spinner for them. Then along came the PCs and Quicken was adapted for the PC platform as well. I have been using Quicken for all my personal finances including investment portfolios, ever since Quicken was first released to the Mac. I was so pleased with their product, I purchased Quickbooks, then QuickBooksPro for our small business. All on the Mac!

I am currently using Quicken 2007. I considered upgrading to Quicken Essentials for the Mac but Essentials cannot not handle the investment portfolios. The investment portfolio contains many, many transactions and re-entering them is not a practical option.

What to do?

Options:
1: Pressure Intuit, or Apple to continue to include Rosetta with Lion. Won't work, it's about money.

2. Best option, but a stopgap: Split the hard drive into 2 partitions and continue to run Snow Leopard and Quicken on one partition and then run Lion and everything else on the other partition. Or virtualize Snow Leopard under Lion.

3. Run Intuit apps on Windows under Parallels or VMWare Fusion. Expensive! But the apps are better on Windows anyway.

4. Quicken (not Quickbooks) users, check out iBank on OS X.

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Technomensch: I could use some help clearing up some confusion w/ Google+. I currently have two Gmail accounts, one is a personal Gmail account, the other is a Google Hosted Domain account. Google+ doesn't work with Hosted Domains or Google Apps. Should I take advantage of Google+ using GMail or should I wait till Google+ for Google Hosted Domains comes out? I would imagine that since CBS moved to using Google, you might have a similar issue.

Rafe: Yes, we have this problem. Everyone at CNET who's using G+ is using it from their personal Gmail accounts. In my view, Google has an important task ahead of them in improving multi-account management.

Sharon: Use the log-in switcher. Enable it in your Google profile.

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Jason: After several years of computer upgrades and backing up their files, I am sure that my current computer (and new NAS) has several duplicate files which are taking up important hard disk space. Can you recommend a good program that will search for duplicate files on my computer, as well as mapped drives, and allow me to decide what action to take?

Rafe: Dupes are not that big a deal, storage is cheap.

Sharon: I just installed and tested a spyware-free option called Glary Utilities. Among other things, it scans your selected drives for duplicate files and then lets you take action. You can filter the search by file size and type, too.

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Nicolas: Your respectable work is a large inspiration to myself, my one-man company, and many friends who now listen to your podcast regularly.

When shopping on Craigslist.com and I click the e-mail address, my browser (Chrome) unfortunately brings up Outlook. How can I change the action of clicking on that e-mail link to bring up Gmail (signed in on another Chrome tab) instead of Outlook? I'm using Windows 7

Sharon: Change your default e-mail client. Easiest way to do this in Chrome is to install the "Send from GMail" extension. Made by Google. Find it in the Chrome Web store.

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Kski: As the new school year is around the corner and as many new students are getting new laptops, I think a roundup of the top apps is in order and would love to hear what your most-used apps are. I understand that Microsoft Office and iWork is probably pretty common but would love to hear some others as well. (I was thinking of programs like Pixelmator that offer tools for a student on a budget.) Essentially I want to hear some suggestions to spend my $100 Apple gift card on!

Sharon: Google Docs vs. iWorks for groups. And spend that $100 on games.

Rafe: Evernote. You knew I'd say that.

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Scott Farnsworth, Austin, Texas: I'm a veteran of the Windows world (actually I still have one foot in each camp). I love the Mac but there's something I can't figure out. The Mac has great keyboard shortcuts, which I love. But when it comes to interacting with a dialog box both my mouse and keyboard shortcuts fall short. If I want to only use the keyboard, I can Command Q or W to close some window or app, but if the Mac then needs for me to indicate whether I'm OK to lose what I was working on (or to save it), I'm forced back to the mouse. I must be missing something. Help!

Sharon: System preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts. At the bottom, enable "all controls."

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Patrick Schacht: My wife is a high school biology teacher at one of a handful of schools in the nation that is going entirely digital next year. She is loving all the opportunities (Powerpoint controlled by iPad, digital textbooks, Internet for every kid, online assignment turn in & mark up, etc.) but has run into one snag - students editing word documents to submit. The school is obviously limited in their budget so they are providing each student with a Kyros tablet by Coby (much better build quality than other Coby products by the way) but this is not an official Google build of Android, and consequently doesn't have the App Market, and is consequently unable to install Google Apps to open these document types. I would have no problem buying her a $10-$20 office app (Docs to Go or something) but there is no way all of her students will be able to buy it. What would you recommend as a free document editor for Android outside of the App Market? I looked at rooting the device, but I also won't be able (or likely even allowed) to root each of her 200 students' devices

Rafe: Google Docs in the browser should work - there's nothing to install. Annotations in Android mode not so hot, though.

But more importantly, I have to scold the school for implementing a solution without doing an inventory of needs and software required first! Come on, if one of the high-school students was in charge of the project and did it this way, they'd get an F.

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Ever since I enabled HTTPS on my Facebook account, every time i sign into it, I need to type a name into the 'recognized devices' box and there's a check box for me to add device to recognized devices. However, I don't think it's adding as it happens every time I sign in. Do you know why it prompts me?

Sharon: It's asking you for a name so that it can text or e-mail the name of the location each time you sign on. You probably enabled this without knowing. Go to Account Settings > Account Security > Disable Login notifications.

CNET to the Rescue: To fix a bad Windows PC, send it back

rescue@cnet.com (CNETTV.com) — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 04:00:00 PDT

The face and voice of the new CNET how-to section, Sharon Vaknin, joins us today as we road-test the Nook and Greplin, gripe at sloppy PC vendors, and advise on the best setup for graphic design student.

If you have a tech question for CNET to the Rescue, e-mail rescue@cnet.com. No question is too basic, so if you've got a tech problem that's been getting under your skin, please drop us a line and we'll try our best to help you out.

Ep. 49: To fix a bad Windows PC, send it back

Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast

Episode 50:To fix a bad Windows PC, send it back

Road tests

Listener Questions

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Joshua Salazar: On my new Windows PC they require you to make your own system recovery disc, but the problem is it crashed before I could make one. How could I make one or get one?

Rafe: Your new computer crashed before you could make a recovery disk? Out of the box? Sadly, this still happens. Send it back. That's unacceptable. Also, what the heck, computer vendors?

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Mark from Toronto: A couple of episodes back you were talking about the need to decrapify a new PC. If you already have your own Windows 7 installation disc wouldn't it be quicker to just do a clean Windows 7 install and just use the registration key that's printed on the windows sticker that came with the new PC? Or will that key not work with that Windows 7 disc?

Microsoft confirms that you could reinstall using that. It's a good solution, if you don't mind re-building machines from scratch.

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Sascha from Switzerland: I'll receive a new notebook within the next weeks. Can you tell me the best way to migrate the content from my old notebook (Win XP) to my new one (Win 7)? Especially: How can I keep my Outlook 2010 settings and how do I transfer my iTunes content.

Rafe: For files, settings, and especially for Outlook mail, use Microsoft's own Windows Easy Transfer (we mistakenly called this Files and Settings Transfer Wizard in the show -- that's the old version).

Sharon: For iTunes, if most of your music was purchased from iTunes, you can use iCloud to re-download them all to your new computer. In iTunes, go to iTunes Store > Purchased. Then click "All Songs" and select "Download all." But if your music was ripped (or acquired in another way), you either need to wait for iTunes Match to roll out in September, or transfer all your music to an external HD and move it to your new computer that way.

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Stu Engelke: I want to get video and audio from a laptop on a conference room table to a TV on the wall. Would rather not have wires. Any suggestions?

Sharon: Unless your TV is DLNA-ready, or has a built-in ability to connect to a Wi-Fi network, you'll need an adapter. Adapters like the Western Digital TV Live facilitate streaming of files from your computer to your TV. So you'd just connect the adapter to your TV, and connect your PC and adapter to the same Wi-Fi network. Then, you can access your PC files from the TV interface.

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Paul: My mom recently bought a Sony bdp bx38 Blu-ray player. I am trying to find a cheap Wi-Fi adapter for her that will work with the player. The one that Sony sells is $70, which is more than half of the cost of the Bu-ray player ($130 at Costco). While I was visiting her I tried a bunch of old wifi adapters, but none of them were recognized.

Also how hard will it be to set up the Wi-Fi device on the player since I will now have to walk her through it step by step over the phone?

Sharon: Since the Wi-Fi adapter is proprietary, it would play nicely with your mom's Blu-ray player. But if you're looking to save money, go with the Zyxel Wireless Access Point (WAP) 3205 instead. It's a cheapter solution, but it requires a little more setup. Since you won't be around to help your mom, Zyxel should be able to walk her through the process over the phone.

What is she trying to access via Wi-Fi? You might consider canning the whole setup and hooking her up with a media streaming device like Roku or Apple TV.

Rafe: I'd say that even if the Sony WiFi adapter appears overpriced, if it's easy to set up, it might be worth it. It may be a false economy to compare the price to the player, too. Those things are priced artificially low.

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Matt: My question is regarding Podcast subscriptions. Why do I have to hit "refresh" for all my subscriptions to kickoff downloading the latest episodes? Am I doing something wrong? I would expect new episodes to download automatically whenever I'm online and iTunes is open.

Sharon: Double check your settings. Click on your "Podcast" tab in iTunes, then click "Settings" at the bottom. Change "Check for new episodes" to "Every hour".

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James: I love listening to CNET and other podcasts at home, work, and in the car. I am just having issues keeping up on everything. I have a Mac at home, and iPhone, and a Windows 7 PC at work. Do you know of any cloud solution that would alert me when a new episode of one of my podcasts is available, let me listen to it wherever I am, and then when I go to one of my other devices it would know what I have already listened to. I realize a cloud iTunes sync might fix this issue for me, but until Apple gets there is there another solution. Thanks.

We really think iTunes in the cloud is the way to go. It looks like it will be worth the wait.

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Technomensch: Can you see if either Donald or anyone else there has a recommendation on a good portable flexible BT keyboard could use w/ Playbook.

Rafe: "Good" and "flexible" are mutually exclusive words when it comes to keyboards. Get a standard, rigid Bluetooth keyboard, your fingers will thank you.

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Kaylin Murray: I am going to be a freshmen in college next year, and I will be a graphic design major. Fourtunately for this major they gave me a requirement for my laptop. They are: A Mac Book Pro with the following: 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 1440 x 900 pixels, 2GB memory, 120GB hard drive1, 6x double-layer SuperDrive, ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics with 256MB SDRAM. After visiting the Apple Store, Best Buy and looking at the Apple Website I have come up with the following two scenarios:

1. Buy the base 15 inch Mac Book Pro and use just that as my computer.

2. Buy the higher-end 13 inch Mac Book Pro and in my dorm room have a bigger (17 inch or larger) screen. I would connect the screen (which would not be a Mac, solely because of expense) to my computer when I am in my dorm, so I would have a bigger screen when working on projects.

Which would you suggest of the two plans above? What type of screen, or a specific screen would you suggest?

Rafe: Your alternative plan is excellent. You get a more portable computer when you're out and about, and you can get a humongous fixed display for doing real work. Plus, when you're docked, you get the extra monitor (the laptop) for toolboxes, palettes, etc. There are great and cheap 23-inch monitors available now. See our picks.

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Samuel: You previously mentioned a need for a better mail client. Have you tried Outlook 2007 using IMAP? It will give you the look and feel you are used to while using Google Apps and your mail server. Google also offers an Outlook sync option that syncs mail, calendar and contacts, but not tasks to GMail. This is another alternative to consider.

Rafe: I find Outlook to be a mediocre IMAP client. However, Google Apps Sync is a decent solution for using Google Apps email through Outlook. It's solid training wheels.

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Yan the Architect in Colorado: Catching up with episode 48 and your ongoing search for a good email client. I'm going through a similar email restructuring and am writing this from Postbox. It runs on the source code for Thunderbird with a refreshed interface and conversation view, but is paid software. I'm in a 30 day trial and will keep you posted. Pros so far: the conversation view; cons: lack of sync for gmail contacts.

Also, I have kept my OS and program files on one drive and data on a second, "D" drive, for many years. The one suggestion I would make is to use a label maker and physically label the drives and unplug the D drive's SATA cable when re-installing your OS! When you reinstall you OS, it is hard to tell device.0. WDC 1800 XYZABC from device.1 WDC 2100 ABCXYZ. I speak from experience!

CNET to the Rescue: Gadget clothes, breaking RAID, and more

rescue@cnet.com (CNETTV.com) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 16:40:48 PDT

CNET editor-in-chief Scott Ard joins us today to talk about a bunch of cool new products he's actually using. Then we get into some interesting tech questions, like which DSLR to get for video, how to protect a 3-year-old from the Web, and what Dell says about backing up their own RAID arrays.

And be sure to check out CNET's new library of how-to articles, live now at howto.cnet.com.

CNET to the Rescue Ep. 48: Gadget clothes, kids on laptops, breaking RAID, and more.

Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast

Episode 49: Gadget clothes, keeping kids safe, and breaking RAID

Road tests

Listener Questions
Cris: I want to buy my first DSLR. The problem is that I would like the camera to have video recording. The Nikon D3100 looks like a good camera because of its price and performance, but I can't decide. What do you recommend? I am not planning on changing this camera soon so it needs to be a good buy.

Lori Grunin, our camera expert, says: Oy. I always feel like people are asking "I'm hungry. What should I eat?" with these types of questions. A lot depends upon why he wants video and why he's upgrading to a dSLR. If he just wants to shoot occasional clips, the D3100 is fine; if he's looking to get into video/filmmaking, he really should spend a little more for the Canon T2i. If he's moving to a dSLR for photo quality, the D3100 should be fine; if it's for speed, the D3100 isn't terribly fast, and he may want to bump up a little to the T2i. He may also want to consider the Sony SLT-A35 (not shipping yet), unless he wants an optical viewfinder.

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Matt: I was listening to your live podcast and I overheard you talking about an app that takes the "shakies" out of videos shot with the iPhone. What was the name of that app again?

VReveal. Interesting app, can be a real lifesaver. iPhone is a great video camera but has no stabilizer, which is a major problem in such a lightweight cam. Other video editors do this, too.

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Jacob Wells: have ripped several of my childrens' DVDs in order to prolong the life of the DVD itself. I ripped a bit-for-bit copy and wish to extract and encode only the movie portion, leaving out menus, special features, etc. I have looked at handbrake, but with all of its different possibilities, I don't know where to start.

Donald: I would spend more time with Handbrake and make sure you have VLC in there to handle any dirty work.

Scott: Use the lite version of Handbrake.

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Khaled: My 3-year-old son is always trying to get his hands on my laptop and he'll finally get his wish as I'm giving him an old laptop no longer needed due a recent upgrade. Although his time using it will be supervised and will mainly involve browsing some children's websites, to be on the safe side I would like to install some filters to make sure nothing inappropriate pops up on screen. Any recommendations of good & free software? Would also appreciate hearing any general recommendations for kids & PCs you may have.

Rafe: My advice is to turn off W-iFi.

Larry Magid of ConnectSafely adds: I certainly agree with your decision to supervise your 3-year-old son's use of your laptop and would urge you to limit his "screen time" as kids that age need to be running around and socializing with other people. There are a number of good free filters but the one I like the most is Norton Online Family that not only helps block content but also helps educate children.

Scott: Bookmark Flash games. Also, set up an account with no admin rights, just icons on the desktop.

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Jeff: I live in the small town of Cody Wyoming. The views are amazing, but the Internet is not. We live just out of town, so our only options for internet were dial up, a cell phone-based system, or a local satellite system with a large buy in charge. We opted for Verizon so we could own the device and take it with us wherever we go. We have the LG 5 Spot, and so far we really like it. (Road Test Below) The big kicker is the data cap. We have a 3 to 4 GB data cap.

My question is, my son likes to play Flash games on various web sites (Star Wars / Cartoon Network / Mad Magazine / Nick / etc). I monitor usage daily and it doesn't seem like it takes a lot of data, but I'm sure it is taking some chunk to get the game loaded. I don't know a lot about flash. Is it constantly communicating to a server to get the data, or is it downloading a program on my computer each time? Is there any way I can cache the game so that we are not downloading it again and again every day this summer? I have him using Chrome, but we do have Firefox and Safari.

Road test (exclusive for show notes): We have had the Verizon LG 5 Spot for 4 months, and for the most part it has worked great. We have had a few occasions where we mis-managed our data or there were phantom downloads that I fought with Verizon to no avail. It was probably all user error. Verizon has 2 good methods for checking your monthly usage so I monitor daily. Connection speeds are good, about 1.5-2 Mbps, but that might be the fact there is a tower about 1/2 mile form our door. (Not great speeds but very usable)Turning it on and boot time is horrendous when activating the Wifi, and not much better when it is plugged directly into the computer. Wakeup from sleep is very fast. One tip, I plug it into one of the USB connections on my Wii so that it has constant power and is not tied to the computer. I typically use it for my Macbook and my iPod touch. We have done a little Google video chatting and 1 Hulu episode, and it worked fine. If it weren't for the data cap I would be happy, but keeping us under 4GB is difficult. We really like being able to take it with us and look forward to having it for those long summer road trips. Rather than paying $30 for tethering a smartphone (which I don't have) I do like this option better.

Rafe: Flash games cache just like ordinary Web pages, so it's probably not as bad a problem as you think. But you can download Flash games. Here's a decent video tutorial. Play them using the Flash Movie Player.

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Neal, in Chiseldon, Wiltshire, UK: I'm a truck driver and want to take use my laptop when I'm away from home for a few nights. I want to minimize the amount of data I use (I'm using a pay as you go 3G dongle in the laptop) and would like to know if there is a mobile browser I can run on Windows 7. For quick browsing I tend to use my iPhone, but would like to access the same mobile pages I get on that but on the larger screen of the laptop.

Sharon Vaknin says: He needs Mozilla Firefox. Then, download & install the User Agent Switch add on. Once installed, go to Tools menu, then "Default User Agent" and select "iPhone 3.0". His browser will think he's on an iPhone.

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BMmorrell: Regarding RAID 0... So how do we get out of RAID 0? I hastily bought a Dell and I like it except that that 1.5 terabyte drive turned out to be 2 750 gigabyte drives in a RAID 0 configuration. I am a network administrator in a medical center, so I am not without computer skills, (aging though they are) and when I started here the server had just crashed because my predecessor had RAID 0 the server (always nice to follow an incompetent) So my plan is to get some imaging tool (Clonezilla?) make an image, break the mirror or go to RAID 1, and image back. It sounds simple but all my alarm bells go off and I fear after hours of work I might end up turning a perfectly functioning machine into an unbootable box. I wonder if I should just pay someone to do this?

Rafe: That should work, but I'm with you, cloning is dicey business. I'd feel better re-installing from a file backup. For that, though, you'll need a system restore disk. Dell might be able to make one. The other thing you might want to do is do your clone to a new drive. a 1.5TB HD is about $70 US. 750GB even less. That way, if the imaging doesn't work, you stil have your RAID 0 array drives left unmodified.

Here's what Dell says: "This (should) work as he has described it. There are no guarantees with anything you are going to do when it comes to RAID configurations. I have done this in the past and it has worked fine, his thinking is correct. I would say create the image and then remove the original RAID 0 configuration completely and replace it with new hard drives in a RAID 1, then apply the image, it should work, if not, he can always put the original RAID 0 config back in the system."

Later, Dell added: "I think the only thing that might be worth mentioning is none of us have used the imaging application referred to (Clonezilla). We use Norton Ghost within our labs and don't see any reason why it wouldn't work, but as we pointed out there are no guarantees when it comes to RAID."

CNET to the Rescue: Apple will sync you

rescue@cnet.com (CNETTV.com) — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:53:35 PDT

Josh Lowensohn is with us today to help us understand the impact of Apple's announcement that it's bringing music and data synchronization to its apps and devices--if not the Web itself. Also: What to do with a dead RAID array, how to save big bucks on Windows upgrades, and much more.

CNET to the Rescue: Apple will sync you

Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast

Episode 48: Apple's new sync plans

We're starting today by talking about Apple's new cloud sync services, as well as sync utilities users can get today, like DropBox, SugarSync, and Windows Live Mesh. Also covered: Sync-enabled apps, like Evernote and Wunderlist.

Road tests today include iOS 5 (it's in beta), cheap Dell desktops, and GMail client apps Thunderbird and Sparrow.

Listener Questions
Stu: Is there a smartphone that does not require a data plan? It would only connect to the Internet using Wi-Fi. I want it for my kids and some friends that want everything but a bill for data.

Nicole Lee says: If you buy a smartphone through a carrier, they'll force the data plan on you. I've heard of people buying a smartphone unlocked or through a third party like eBay, and they can circumvent it, but generally the carriers don't like it, and you risk getting caught and paying more for data. FWIW, it seems that T-Mobile is the carrier that is the most lax about checking up on it, or so I've read.

We recommend the iPod Touch plus a cheapie phone for phone calls.

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Jordan: Both my dad and I use wireless headphones when watching TV and listening to music and podcasts. After reading about the recent WHO report on cell phone use and the possible link to certain cancers, I got to wondering if the wireless headphones could pose a similar problem. Should my dad and I stop using the wireless headphones? (FWIW, the headphones we use are made by TDK and use their Kleer technology).

I am not a doctor nor an electromagnetic physicist but I know this: wireless headphones also use radio waves (except the crappy IR ones you get in minivans) but because the distance of transmission is so small -- feet, not miles -- the radios are much lower-powered. That's why tiny BlueTooth headphones can last so long, too. So: Radiation, yes, but a lot less of yet.

Josh: Also, there's less chance of accidentally killing yourself by tripping over a cord.

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Eric Nagamine in Hawaii: I have a 5-year-old Dell Dimension 8400 that stopped working all of a sudden. Fortunately, most of the RAID 0 hard drives have been backed up to a external hard drive, but I would like to recover my old Outlook e-mails. It sounded liked the fan was on overdrive from time to time a couple of weeks before I was unable to even get the thing started. Pressing the power switch doesn't do anything. I checked the power cable and it was plugged in securely. What should I try next? Power supply replacement perhaps?

Normally, I would say, just pull the hard drive from the dead machine and try to read it in another, using an external drive adapter. But you went and set up your drives in a striped array, RAID 0, which means that a) a failure on one is a failure on both, and b) you can't just simply plug a drive into an adapter to read it. So yes, you need to get your PC working again, and I'd see if I could get a PSU for the Dell. I don't know if it's a standard part. And while I don't want to make an example of you, I would also use this as a life lesson about RAID in general and RAID 0 in particular. It's great when it works, but it adds complexity and really messes with recovery options when things go south.

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Matt, Syracuse, NY: I just bought a used Dell Vostro 1520 laptop and think I may have bricked it. I was doing a BIOS update, when it froze around half-way through the process. I let it sit for about 20 minutes and still nothing. I ended up holding the down power button until it shut off. Now it won't boot to the BIOS. I've flashed many BIOS before, which usually takes a minute or two, and have not had any problems until now Is it bricked? Can you help???? Can you point me in the right direction for a step-by-step process for recovering my BIOS? It's a Phoenix BIOS.

Call Dell. Sorry. If anyone has advice on how to deal with a bricked motherboard, please sound off in the comments!

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surfingtheweb: I currently have a laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium. I want to upgrade it to Professional. However, instead of paying $89.95 for an anytime upgrade, I can get a Windows 7 Professional Upgrade disk for $15 (through my university's computer help desk). Can I use this piece of software to upgrade from Home Premium to Professional?

Microsoft told us: "The short answer is yes. Through Microsoft's licensing programs, schools can provide Windows (as well as other Microsoft software). The student just may want to ask what are the terms of use, so that they know what their options are once they graduate. Windows Anytime Upgrade is just one of several ways that people can upgrade their Windows software--it's not the only way. For example, people can continue to purchase Windows from their local retailer or online as well."

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Eddie Cintron: Can you tell me whats the recommended performance software to clean up registry, speed up the PC, etc. I currently have Powersuite by Uniblue but I have been having some issues with it.

Rafe's toolkit: CCleaner; PC Decrapifier, Revo Uninstaller, Soluto.

Josh: None of the above. Windows 7 doesn't need it (for most people).

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Scott MacWatter: I'm a photographer and I just bought a new Canon 60D. I got it for the low light performance because I often shoot concerts, and I've been thrilled. However, I was also really interested in the video features included. It can record 1080p video at 30fps, I think (I haven't really looked at specs beyond seeing that it looks fantastic).

So here's my issue: I use Lightroom 3.4 to edit photos and I couldn't be happier, but it doesn't have any editing features for video. I don't own any part of Photoshop other than LR, and I don't feel like forking over the money for it or acquiring it illegally (which I know a lot of people do). Is there any free or extremely cheap professional quality video editing software out there, or am I out of luck?

I'm on a Windows Desktop that's less than a year old and I refuse to switch to a Mac. Cheap is key! I'm a CS student at Texas Tech so I can handle some work-arounds.

Josh says: You can always use Windows Movie Maker. It's a free application that comes bundled with Windows and does a good job (I think) at letting you trim, put together multiple pieces of video, and adjust audio. If you have Windows 7, there's a good how-to for importing 1080p content. Also: YouTube!

Bad news: it needs to be converted to .WMV. Stop being a cheapskate with your fancy camera and buy some video editing software like Adobe Premier Elements (80 bucks and keeps you in the Adobe ecosystem). That app also lets you make color and tone adjustments.

Rafe: Also check out VReveal, a cool Win-based vid enhancer. I use it for post-shoot stabilization. Freemium.

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Anand from Houston: I recently moved over to Picasa after being a Flickr user for 4 years, mainly because of the integration in Android. However, I am now facing a crisis of downloading photos (original, high res) from my Flickr account so that I am move them over on Picasa.

Try Flickr Downloadr and the no-download Java version called FlickrBackup.

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Comments & Followup
Henry C.: I wrote in March when I was experiencing problems with adding a second monitor (configuring the Samsung Lapfit). It was the best USB monitor on the market (I needed one around 24 inches). After I got it, it went black after about 2 minutes and needed to be restarted to show a picture again. Samsung, Displaylink, and HP were ALL terrible and rude. Anyways I found a great solution: this product is an EXTERNAL video card (no difficult instillation required) that turns your USB ports into VGA ports. This is great because the monitor works fine off of VGA. Just thought people would find this interesting on how inexpensive and easy it is to add a reliable second monitor experience. I have not yet ordered, but it looks hopeful.

Good luck, and let us know how it works out!

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Gordon Todd: I'm still a Windows XP user, but this also applies to Windows 7. A reader had mentioned that the first thing they do after installing and fine-tuning their machine is to create an image of the system partition. Another really useful thing you can do is to partition the hard-drive into C: and D: for Windows system/programs and your data respectively. If you then move your ..\Desktop, ..\My Documents and ..\Application Data shell folders to the D: drive, then performing a data backup becomes very fast since since Windows and the Program Files only needs backed-up (image created) when new applications are installed.

In the event of a hard-drive failure, corruption of Windows, impossible to remove virus or just general slowdown as Windows clogs-up, the system can be made new again simply by restoring the system partition image; all documents, program settings, desktop contents etc. are preserved. I can confirm that updating a computer from XP to Windows 7 and then moving the shell folders before reinstalling the applications also preserves most things..

Rafe: Good idea, but I go a step further. I use two drives, one for system, one for data. It's just cleaner. Personally, I use Velociraptor 10k RPM drives for system, and cheap WD 1TB drives for data. Of course, I'm obsessive about backup, too. This applies to desktops only, unfortunately.

CNET to the Rescue: Rebuilding Windows PCs

rescue@cnet.com (CNETTV.com) — Wed, 25 May 2011 17:26:27 PDT

Donald Bell joins us today to help advise on rebuilding and rescuing Windows PCs. Also, we have advice for using Android tablets in the car and keeping podcasts up to date, as well as more of our ongoing love for refurb computers.

If you have a tech question for CNET to the Rescue, e-mail rescue@cnet.com. No question is too basic, so if you've got a tech problem that's been getting under your skin, please call us, and we'll try our best to help out.

Before we take your questions, we have two Road Tests: HBO Go and the HTC Flyer.

CNET to the Rescue: Advice on rebuilding Windows PCs

Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast

Episode 47: Rebuilding Windows PCs

Listener questions
DC: I've been getting blue screens, and I was wondering how I could get that to stop. I'm running Windows 7, and I know it's not a virus because I've run various scanners. I cleaned my registry and the junk files, but I still seem to get them every once in a while. It seems I'm running Google Chrome almost every time this happens. What should I do?

Rafe: First, try Soluto. Also, make sure you're not using a nonstable version of Chrome. You might have signed up for a development version of Chrome, which could be causing your crashes. That happened to me.

------------------------------------------------

Brianna Goldberg: I listened to the audio version of episode 48, where you went off on Windows and system rebuilding. I had a similar problem on my newish (6-month-old) Windows 7 Viao F series system. I had to reformat the HDD after I had a corrupt registry, at the recommendation of Sony. However, that seemed wrong to me. I brought [the machine] into the store for a system check and found out I had a dead HDD and a bad fan belt. It took three weeks to get my system back, but I have not had a single problem since then. Have you thought that there's a problem with the HDD and that's why your system is having problems?

Rafe: Yes! A bad HD can really mess you up. Personally, this is one case where I troubleshoot by ear, listening for repeated disk parks or disk access patterns that sound like constant retries. I'm old, and I know what a bad HD sounds like.

And I hate to tell you this, but your computer doesn't have a fan belt.

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Nic: I tuned in last week to you and Brian complaining about system restores and reinstalling apps. I found this ironic because I had done a system restore the prior evening. It used to be a pain in the butt, yet this time was different. I had a backup of all the data on my external hard drive, which was easy to restore. I also found a nifty site called freenew.net. All you do is select the apps you want to download and install, such as Google Chrome and AVG, press Install, and, finally, let it run. Go have some coffee and come back in 10 minutes to find all of your apps installed.

Rafe: Good idea. See also NiNite, which I love.

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Neill: Heard your tales of woe about 15-minute boot times and multiple re-installs of Apple and MS OSes during the last podcast. I agree, mainstream OSes are usually way beyond what most "normal" people ought to be expected to maintain. However, just after installing everything, and getting the system just how you want it, why don't you make an image of the drive? Just takes 15 minutes or so; saves an awful lot of pulled hair at some point in the future. The means to do this is completely free, except for some spare GB on a portable HD.

Rafe: That is a great solution. But who the heck does it?

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Matt (the 13-year family IT guy): My mom has been using a very old computer for about 10 years now, and I decided it's finally time to get her a new, more-modern computer. She has tons of pictures, videos, documents, and stuff on her machine; as well as several business-related applications. Her hard drive is IDE, and the new computer uses a SATA hard drive, so I can't just put the old hard drive in the new computer, so I used the Windows backup utility to create a system image with all the data, programs, and the OS on it. Then I plugged the external hard drive with the image on it into the new computer, then I went to the Windows Backup/Restore window and told it to restore from the system image. It then restarted and began copying all the data/programs onto the new hard drive. When it was finished it restarted, however it got into a loop. It would Post; then it would say "Starting Operating System;" then the Windows 7 logo would pop up and it would freeze for about 45 seconds then restart and do it all over again. I tried booting into safe mode, and it started popping up with all the DLLs it was loading. It got to one called NULL.DLL and then froze and restarted and put me in the same loop again. I also tried using Acronis True Image to create the image, but I had the same results.

Rafe: If I understand you correctly, you tried to install a 10-year-old system image to a new computer. That's a bad idea. You want to keep the new operating system on the new computer intact, and just copy over the files. Here's how to recover. First, restore the original HD from the restore disk you should have. Reinstall the apps from scratch on the new PC, too.

Then plug the IDE drive in to the new PC's USB port using this gadget. Then copy the data files to the new drive.

------------------------------------------------

Mark from Sacramento: You have convinced me to buy a refurbished MacBook Pro versus a new one. But should I order now or wait till after [Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference]? Not in a rush, but don't want to wait too long.

Rafe: Buying refurbs means getting out of the crazy always-getting-the-new-new-thing line. Buy when you want. Refurb prices are always going down.

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Rob Bagby; Cincinnati, Ohio: I'm asking you for a recommendation on a gadget for my truck. I drive a semi-tractor trailer and I need a tablet/MP3 player that I can mount somewhere in the cab. All I need it to do is be a great music and podcast player and have a touch-screen display (possibly around 7 inches) so I can quickly pause and skip songs and so forth. I would also possibly like to surf the Web when I'm at home on Wi-Fi, and maybe have access to an app store. I have no problem rooting or hacking something, then adding the right apps. I read online reviews of the Nook Color and some Archos products but can't seem to pull the trigger on anything. I would love an iPod Touch or an iPad, but the former is too small and the latter is too big. I'd like to stay under 300 bucks. Any help from you or your buds would be greatly appreciated.

Wayne: Tablets are still a little pricey--over $300. Here's something I've heard about, though: Rooting a Nook Color and mounting it in a car. See also: Cab mount.

Donald: Archos 70 with some rooting could be interesting too, though not the sturdiest thing in the world. Mount.

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Brianna Goldberg: I own a Samsung Vibrant with Android 2.2, and I am using it as a single portable device. I am currently using the free Winamp as my sync program on the PC and the mobile version of Winamp for the player. I'm happy with the mobile Winamp, but the PC is very clumsy, particularly for podcasts (it doesn't auto remove played podcasts), and I am not happy with it at all. Should I switch to DoubleTwist, or is there something else that will have the auto remove of played podcasts like iTunes has?

Donald: Try Miro 4. Or DoubleTwist, or Google Listen for podcasts.

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Comments and follow-up
Michael C. Richman: The Apple Store carries a Belkin device to play video consoles through the iMac screen. I was just looking into it last week and that is what the genius recommended.

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Cory Hug: Regarding the discussion this past week and the week before about training your parents: Something my uncle turned me on to that I installed on my mom's PC: Web of Trust. It does two things.

1) It adds an indicator in your browser toolbar that shows green, yellow, or red, depending on the "trust" level of the Web site.

2) When you're searching with any of the major search engines, it will add that same indicator next to each site in the search results so you can see the trust level even before you can click on the link. So I just tell my mom, if it's yellow or red, don't go there.

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Scott Bledsoe: Just to give you a correction for episode 46. Yes, military vehicles are 24-volt systems. But they consist of more than one battery (12 volt) in series/parallel. So if you want to hook up an inverter into one of these vehicles, you just connect onto one battery or more than one in series. Then you will have just 12 volts.

Cool feedback we couldn't get to on the show
Anne: Just listened to the podcast about contract-free mobile hot-spot products and heard the discussion of my question so I thought I'd give you the follow-up on my research and what I decided.

First, the price of the device: The Virgin Mobile MiFi has been around long enough to get a used one, but not the T-Mobile Hotspot that I could find. Retail on the MiFi ranges from $120 to $150 for new. Cheapest price I found for the T-Mobile Hotspot was $119 at Wal-Mart. T-Mobile.com sells the hot spot new, off-contract, for $129.99 (not the $79.99 that Brian mentioned on the podcast--that's the contract price); although the T-Mobile retail stores have the hot spot priced at $149.99, they will match the Web site price if asked.

Second, the cost of the data: As you mentioned on the show, VM is prepaid at $50/2.5GB cap. On its Web site, T-Mobile has both contract pricing and prepaid pricing for the hot spot. The $50 prepaid plan is capped at 3GB, so a tiny bit more generous for the same price as VM. I was leaning toward T-Mobile already, so I went into the local store to get answers to a couple specific questions, since the hot spot is new enough that user reviews on the Web are hard to find and some reviews had conflicting information. I found out that the T-Mobile stores offer a $50/month-5GB cap postpaid, noncontract plan not available through T-Mobile's Web site. Not only does the postpaid plan come with an additional 2.5GB for the same cost but you also get coverage through T-Mobile's partner networks if you're out of T-Mobile's coverage area, while their prepaid data plan offers no access to partner networks. This is important traveling through western/midwestern states as coverage can be spotty. Both pluses seemed worth the bother of having to call up customer service after the trip and cancel the plan.

Brought the hot spot home. A little confusing to set up, but I got it working in about 20 minutes by ignoring the printed set-up guide since it seemed to bear little resemblance to the steps that actually worked. (Why can't a lot more devices be as simple to set up as a Roku?!?) Testing it at home, the 4G speed seemed pretty decent at loading a Web page, 3G noticeably slower, EDGE was like I was on dial-up. The hot spot will automatically connect to the fastest of these networks it can find and will automatically switch between them as network coverage changes. Seems like it will be the ticket. When we get to the campgrounds in the evenings, I'll switch off the hot spot and everyone can use the campground Wi-Fi, which should help us from hitting the cap before the trip is over. The kids already know they won't be streaming Youtube/Netflix/AmazonVOD in the car, since we have a new audiobook series loaded up on an iPod to listen to on the car stereo while we're driving and that will help keep us from hitting the data cap as well.

Rafe: Thanks, Anne!

CNET to the Rescue: We are done with PCs (and Macs)

rescue@cnet.com (CNETTV.com) — Wed, 18 May 2011 16:57:24 PDT

CNET's Brian Cooley joins us today for an epic rant about re-installing Windows yet again. I join in with my rant on my MacBook. Will the love never end? Also, great topics from listeners, including updating Android phones, using an iMac as a TV, and using solar power on laptops.

CNET to the Rescue Ep. 46: We are done with PCs (and Macs)

Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast

Episode 46: The PC (and Mac) rebuild rant

Listener questions
Daulat Raikar: I wanted to know if I can upgrade the OS in an Android device be it a mobile phone or tablet.

Rafe: You really should.

Unfortunately, according to Donald Bell, it's every man and woman for themselves. For phones, users are at the mercy of the carriers to issue an over-the-air update. Users could possibly root their devices in order to manually force an update (or more specifically, a ROM based on 2.3.4).

In the meantime, disable auto-syncing for apps, and try not to connect to unknown Wi-Fi hot spots.

Users of tablets running an OS prior to 2.3.4 can bug the manufacturer to push out an over-the-air update, but there's no (easy) way to force an update manually, especially since so many tablets prior to Honeycomb require extensive tooling of the code in order to run on the larger hardware Android wasn't designed for. The most high-profile among these tablets would include the Galaxy Tab, B&N Nook Color, and Dell Streak 5&7. The Tab is apparently getting the update later this month. The Streaks are running 2.2.2 and I haven't heard any word on an update. The Nook Color just received the 2.2 update, so a fast update to 2.3 seems unlikely.

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Matt Verheul: I have a TV in my family room which is not the primary media space. I'm trying to keep the equipment as minimal as possible preferably avoiding a receiver. Is it possible to have an audio solution with speakers connected using only a TV and cable box? I'm not looking to use any rear speakers but would be interested in surround sound possibly with an acoustic soundbar, ultimately though my goal is just to get decent sound quality from this TV. My other interest is keeping my speakers as small as possible so perhaps you might have a recommendation for speakers that pack the best performance into a small package.

Donald: Assuming you can run audio out from your TV or cable box as either a minijack stereo plug or RCA, you have plenty of solutions out there. Some of these can also connect over HDMI. Here are some sound bar home theater in a box solutions. Also might want to just check out some powered multimedia speakers.

John Falcone has three recommendations:

Any Zvox product (use TV as input switcher).

Best bang for the buck: Sony HT-CT150. Has HDMI switching.

Higher-end: Harman Kardon SB 16. Uses TV as input switcher; best sound quality, but remote setup is weird.

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Bobby: Recently you mentioned how you never go over your Comcast bandwith usage, so I decided to go online and check mine. I noticed that just 12 days into my cycle I was up to 112 gigs out of the 250 I get. I assume that my video streaming might be to blame. Is there a way to know how much bandwidth you are about to consume before you hit play?

No! But that is a good idea...shows you're about to stream should list the amount of data in said stream. It can vary widely depending on video definition and effectiveness of the compression and codec. There's no way to gauge for sure without knowing the details.

Brian: At home, no. We need something like in the mobile space where carriers will warn you via SMS that you are approaching your cap.

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Anne: I need to get a non-contract mobile hot-spot for a cross-country car trip with the family and have been looking at the Virgin Mobile MiFi 2200 and the T-Mobile 4G Movile Hotspot ZTE MF 61. We definitely want to go non-contract on this. Use of the device would be mostly be for email & casual web surfing by a laptop and a couple iPod touches, maybe a little light Facebook gaming. We're driving from Colorado to Washington, DC. Which do you think is the better choice?

Check the coverage maps first. T-Mobile; Virgin Mobile. Note that Virgin is on Sprint's network, and in fact is owned by Sprint.

T-Mo seems to be a less pricey device than Virgin's. Since this is a one-off for a month, you don't have the luxury of trying your plan and adjusting it over time. So I would buy ample data right off the get: Virgin's plan is $50 for "Unlimited" which is B.S. since it is actually 2.5GB of data transfer before your d/l speed is capped at 256kbps. T-Mo offers 5 GB for $50 with the same cap rules. T-Mo is the clear winner here if the coverage map looks good for your route. B.C.

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Ron: I've been a military combat correspondent for 20 years and have been all over the world including Afghanistan and Iraq shooting stories about our military men and women. Lately I've been making trips to Africa where I find myself without electricity for long stretches. While I normally have enough batteries for my video camera, my Panasonic Tough Book is reluctant to operate for long without a steady diet of AC power. Considering the tan I came back with on my last trip, I was wondering if there are any solar power options for powering and recharging a laptop? I often spend long periods of time video editing and sending stories via the internet back to civilization but without a several mile long extension cord, my options have been limited.

Rafe: I'd recommend a car charger if that would work for you. Solar chargers can be slow or expensive. But yes, they do exist. Treehugger did a comparison in 2008. The products mentioned may be out of date but it points you to major manufacturers. I'd be most interested in the Brunton line of Solaris products, from $166 to $1300, depending on number of panels and output. The $1,320 Solaris 62 specs: Max output: 62 Watts (12v / 3100 mA)

Also, it looks like Toughbooks might have toughened charging circuits.

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Zsolt from Hungary: I have recently switched to Google Chrome from Firefox, and the transition went smoothly for the most part. However, Chrome's built-in synchronization lacks the feature to sync my open tabs across multiple computers! This is something I used daily with Firefox, and I really miss it. Is there any way to do this in Chrome?

There are a few utilities that do this. I would start with XMarks.

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Richard M. Fogel: I have MacBook, but need to take training class which only works on IE (v.7 or lower) can I easily install IE on Mac? How and what version?

Yes, that's what Bootcamp is for. Note that you need to have a license for Windows, but once you have a disk, it's a snap.

Brian: Do you have access to a Windows machine at work or somewhere else you can remote into? Use Real VNC or Chicken of the VNC. Adding Windows to a Mac just for this use is too expensive and had a payload in that you have to set up a Windows partition that I don't know is easily removable later.

Rafe: Try LogMeIn Free.

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Kris Levy, Madison, Wis.: My friend just bought herself a brand new 30-inch iMac [We think 27" is what you're talking about] and doesn't have enough for a TV. Whenever she gets more money, she would like to use a PS3 and Wii to play her games through her shiny new Mac. I saw there are limited ways to do this and they all seem expensive; I would really love to help her because she gave me her old iMac G4. So I was hoping you and other viewers could help me out.

Donald: You might be able to get away with an analog video capture adapter like Elgato's.

Brian: It's kind of a kludge, but any camcorder with a Firewire interface and AUX in would work. You can also look at the Sling Pro HD (get it on eBay and save money).

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Comments
Ryan the Architect in Colorado: Love the show! Thanks so much for your thoughts about teaching computer skills to baby-boomer parents! I especially appreciate Donald's comments about getting your mom to do one thing on a daily basis that has a creative outlet or personal relevance. Now if I can teach my dad what is legit (adobe Flash update) and not (popup saying that the computer has bad sectors on the hard drive, out of ram, and registry errors) total phishing attack! True story!

Thanks also for your circumspect and balanced reporting on the Lastpass incident. I was a Lastpass convert at your encouragement, and will continue to use it, but will be pulling my banking passwords at other top-tier passwords from the vault.

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Matt: Thanks for answering the question [about the expansion switch not letting computers connect to the Internet]. It turns out it WAS a router; it didn't actually say that it was a router specifically on the device it just said Netgear and some Ethernet ports so I just assumed it was a switch. I found an actual switch in my box of random electronics and plugged it in and it works perfectly. Thanks!

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Brennan: I work for a school district and there was a lady with a similar problem: External drive power light was on but no data would submit. Turns out her laptop needed about 1 more mm for her to get a connection on the data connections. The data connections are in the middle. It will light up and assign it a letter in my computer but shows no data. Try a different USB on the laptop or get a USB extender cable (male to female), and try it.

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CNET to the Rescue: Can we still trust LastPass?

rescue@cnet.com (CNETTV.com) — Wed, 11 May 2011 16:09:43 PDT

Donald Bell joins us today for a discussion on LastPass, the password manager that (maybe) got hacked. I rip into the Galaxy Tab 10.1, the tablet given out to attendees of the Google I/O conference. And of course, your questions answered, including what to use instead of an iPod, why your computers will connect to each other but not the Internet, and why Dad can't use a PC.

CNET to the Rescue #45: Can we still trust LastPass?

Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast

Episode 45: Can we still trust LastPass?

Password manager LastPass got hacked--maybe. It appears that LastPass addressed the attack quickly and aggressively. But should you still use it? Rafe explains.

We also recommend, if you have the patience for it, that you use a two-factor password solution, like the LastPass Yubikey option.

Road tests
Rafe attacks Android Tablets. Donald defends them. Then we kind of switch sides.

Listener questions
Ivan: How do I convince my dad, who wants to learn how to do something on the computer, that he just won't understand it? It's like trying to write an essay without knowing the alphabet. He keeps telling me to write down every step, but I'm sure he won't understand what I'm writing, he doesn't know how to double left click to open a file, nor can drag and drop, which I've taught him before. Of course he forgot. Without some basic computer knowledge, how is he going to learn something that's 10x more difficult and uses all of the things he doesn't know?

Rafe: Listen up, Sonny. Your dad isn't the problem. Anybody can learn to use a computer. The challenge is finding the way to teach. Send your dad to a class at an Apple store, or a local community college. To be fair, sometimes the hardest people in the world to teach are our own parents. So it's not necessarily your fault, either.

Donald: Focus on a motivating task first, not overall theory. That's worked for my mom.

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Christopher Green: I'm new to Android (Samsung Captivate on AT&T), and I have the 200MB data plan. How can I best monitor my data usage when I'm not on Wi-Fi so I don't go over my ridiculously low data cap?

Rafe: We couldn't answer this on the show. Here's a useful link we've since discovered...

Donald: 3G Watchdog for monitoring.

Also, rygavss in the chat room advises: There's an app called JuiceDefender that turns off 3G data when you're not actively using the phone so that it can't sync and your data can't be used.

Related:
Brian: With a continuously increasing number of ISPs implementing data caps, I was hoping if you could do a round-up of routers that track data usage. I am currently using a Linksys WRT610N, so personally, I'm mostly just looking for a cheap router to be placed between my router and modem. However, other people's needs may vary, and depending on prices and features, I may want to replace the router instead of supplementing mine as well. I understand that most ISPs have a comprehensive site to monitor your usage, but I'm not willing to solely take their word about how much I'm using.

Rafe: Flash the router with open-source DDWRT or Tomato. See Lifehacker's guide. Of if you are in New Zealand, try the Webgauge router. Finally, this just in: Georgia Tech may have what you need.

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Chris, Orange County: My wife and I used to have separate home offices, so we each had a printer directly attached to our PC's. But we've consolidated the offices, so I bought a networked All In One printer hoping we could share. I selected the HP Officejet Pro 8500A and it is now directly wired via Ethernet to our router.

In reading the instructions it sounds like I need one computer to have all the drivers and act as a print server. Then the other computer can utilize the printer and all of the functions (printing, scanning, faxing). This isn't ideal since I prefer to have our computers in Sleep mode if we aren't actively using them. I'm also worried about turning on any network sharing that isn't absolutely necessary (to avoid leaving holes open for hackers).

I'd much rather have a full set of drivers on both computers, so either has full capabilities (like faxing) while the other is in sleep mode. Do you know if this will work, or will the printer get confused? I thought in spending more for a network-sharable printer I wouldn't be dealing with an issue like this.

Rafe: I'm with you, the advice to set up one computer as a server is nuts. Install the suite on each networked computer. I do this at home with a much older networkable OfficeJet model and it works fine..

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Matt: I'm 13 and I manage my parent's business's network. Recently we've gotten about 3 new computers and the problem is that our router only has 5 ports, now we have 8 computers that need Ethernet; I have an extra network switch lying around so I plugged the router into the switch into the 1st port on the switch, however when I turned everything on anything connected to the switch would recognize that it was connected to the network but all I could do was file sharing, no Internet. I tried going into the switch settings and messing with some of them but it didn't help. So how can I get all the computers connected with both file sharing and Internet?

Rafe: I suspect you've got the router connected to the switch instead of the switch connected to the router. It's important the router is what connects to the Internet modem (cable or DSL). So, reverse them. If that's doesn't work, I would surmise that the switch is the culprit, and may not even be a switch. Most switches don't have settings. If yours does, it may not be a switch. You don't need to chain routers together in home of very small office networks.

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Mike in Toronto: I have gone through a number of routers (currently using a D-Link DIR-655), but I find that every week or two I have to power cycle them because they have locked up or have become very slow or unresponsive. To be fair, I have a lot of "always on" connections: Wired: Stand-alone NAS, Home Energy Monitor and Home Automation/Control system. Wireless: Print Server, Bridge to my Media Center and an Internet enabled Thermostat. On top of this, I have any number of family laptops, cell phones, iPads and so forth coming and going.

Do you know if this is just how cheap consumer-grade routers operate, or am I killing them with so many connections? If the latter, is there a more robust solution you can recommend? (I'm not sure I want to go so far as dedicating a PC to the task).

The other thing I am considering is a simple mechanical timer on the power supply to cycle it once a day or once a week in the middle of the night.

Rafe: That doesn't make sense. I have had routers that lock up. I replace them. I also have a DIR-655 and I've rebooted it maybe three times in two years or so. It's solid. I think you might have an issue at the ISP.

Mike again: Hey Rafe, I may have answered my own question. Seems this problem is widespread enough that an actual product has been developed to address it. I just ordered one of these.

Rafe: Well that is just cool. Good luck!

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Cory Hug, Des Moines, Iowa: Flash-based MP3/media players seem to be the thing these days. Are there still any hard-drive-based MP3/Media players out there other than the iPod Classic? I'm interested in a new MP3 or media player, but I want a hard-drive-based one so I can just always have my entire music collection with me. I know there's still the iPod Classic, but I'm one of those anti-Apple people. Not that I think they're bad products, I just don't like the Orwellian control that Apple keeps over their stuff.

Donald Bell: There's still the old Zune 120, but Microsoft isn't supporting it much anymore and it's arguably even more locked down than the iPod, since it requires Zune software to load content and only works on PC. Also, though it's billed as a tablet, there's the Archos 70 (250GB).

In Apple's defense, they're not as Orwellian these days when it comes to iPod control. Now that they've won the war, I don't think they care. They've moved on to Orwellian app control, which has nothing to do with the iPod Classic. You can use the iPod Classic with anything from Winamp to Songbird. There's a ton of speakers and car stereos that will work with it. The iTunes music store is now DRM free. And you will not find a better device than an iPod when it comes to automatically downloading, deleting, and managing podcasts. Still, I know to some people the old wounds of the MP3 player wars still twinge at the site of an Apple logo.

Cory: I didn't think that the iPod or iTunes supported that format, or does it? If I go with an iPod Classic, will I have to re-rip all my CD's to MP3? (I won't rip to that Apple proprietary format, AAC was it? I need my tunes to stay compatible with Windows Media Center.)

Donald: Nope, your WMA files won't work with an iPod. That's going to be the main deal-breaker. I suggest picking up a Zune 120 as cheap as you can and using that until someone invents the perfect cloud service that will just fingerprint your collection and stream it all to your smartphone on-demand. Microsoft is still going to be using and upgrading its Zune software for a while since it's the basis for their Windows Phone 7 devices.

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Obada: I have a question about my home theater. I currently live in an apartment where I can run the wires by the walls (rear speakers). I am planning to move to a bigger apartment but I cannot run the wires the way I do it now since segments will be exposed in doorways and corridors! The only way to do it is to run the wires for the rear speakers in the middle of the room partially below the rug and have few segments exposed! My wife is against using tape to cover the wires (I understand and agree!). Is there a way to wirelessly connect the parts? Reliable? Other ideas?

Donald: Wireless kits exist, but you still need to run power to the speakers to make the RF transmitter work. See the Rocketfish kit. As an alternate solution, you could compromise with a virtual surround sound bar system.

Rafe: A buddy of mine runs flat speaker cable under his rugs. Look up Invisiwire.

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CNET to the Rescue: Reuse, repair, and re-wire

rescue@cnet.com (CNETTV.com) — Wed, 04 May 2011 16:05:34 PDT

CNET reviews editor Dong Ngo is with us this week to discuss the re-use of old technology (my ancient AV receiver) as well as the benefits of running Ethernet cable in the wireless era. Also, your questions answered, including laptop resurrection tips.

CNET to the Rescue Ep.44: Reuse, repair, and re-wire

Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast

Episode 44: Reuse, repair, and re-wire

Road tests
Dyson DC25: Great vacuum, but overpriced. A good buy as a refurb, though.

Marantz SR19: Old receiver, from 2000. Got it fixed at L&M electronics in Daly City.

iPhone case by bioserie. Made of corn husks or something. Feels like it will decompose, But actually nice, very slim. Too bad it's $35. Try Default Case to save big money.

Dong wired his house for gigabit networking. He explains why.

Listener questions
Donna: I received an HP SimpleSave 750 as a gift to use with my laptop (operating Windows 7) the power light comes on but nothing else happens. I know the device works because I plugged it into my desktop (Windows XP) and it started right up. Can tell what I need to do besides going to Staples and paying for them to help?

Rafe: If the drive works on a desktop but not a laptop, the chances are that the laptop USB port is not putting out sufficient power to run the drive. So the electronics and the light will come on, but the drive won't spin. The cheapest way to see if this is true is to get a special reverse-Y USB cable that takes power from two USB ports and sends it to the drive. Another thing to try is to use a powered USB hub (one with its own AC adapter) between the laptop and the drive.

Dong: Also, try upgrading the software (when used it with XP) and make sure that you didn't turn off autorun in Windows 7. You can also open the drive letter and run the backup software itself, manually, after that use the Options to customize it.

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Sascha from Switzerland: My XP Notebook is slowly dying on me. It takes forever to boot. I guess it's because I like to try out software which then clogs up my system. I'll soon buy a new notebook and to avoid having the same problem here's my question: Is there a way to sandbox software that I'm only evaluating (for instance by putting it in a virtual machine). And how would I do that on Windows 7?

Dong: Most of the time if you change the hard drive and re-install Windows 7 from beginning that'd help make the system much faster. If you want to use Windows XP within Windows 7, you can use XP mode that's included in Windows 7 Pro and Ultimate.

Rafe: My take on PC performance is that today's Win 7-based machines are plenty powerful, and you won't have to worry about this much. I think 4- or 5-year old XP machines were underpowered for growth. I have a 4-year old machine, been running Win 7 on it since mid-2009 when it shipped, and it's still very, very fast.

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Lynn in Aledo, TX: I have several laptops and desktops in my home all on a wireless network. My daughter's laptop came down with this malicious malware that takes over your pc and locks all executables. What is the best way to remove this software and be certain that it is gone. I was able to gain access back to the pc by identifying the running process and killing it and then locating the file that was naturally hidden system in a temp directory but I found out later that there are numerous other files that if one is removed another drops in to take its place. So far I have removed over 5 different files starting with jxo.exe and they are all 3 letter file names. Again, not all malware programs were able to even pick up this malware. What am I to do before starting using this pc for normal everyday activities like banking, etc. and be absolutely sure its clean without reformatting.

Dong: Take the hard drive out of the infected computer, put it into another computer using a enclosure or the Seagate GoFlex. Run a scan from the clean computer. Try Combofix or Dr. Web.

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Matt: I'm sure you travel a lot and use your laptop on the flight. I have a 14 hour flight coming up that does not offer power. What can I do to keep my (non removal battery) Macbook kicking? External battery?

Rafe: Turn off Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, turn down the screen. Use internal graphics if you have the option. If you want to watch movies, rip them to HD first. Turn off servers and IM, and optionally Spotlight Search. For external Mac batteries, check out HyperMac.

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Richard in Chino: How do I post a video to a Web site someone created for me? I downloaded from a Flip cam to my Mac, but can't figure out how to post. All I want to do is send links to my friends. What is easiest way?

Rafe: The Flip software includes a feature to send a video to YouTube. That is the easiest way. Make the video private or unlisted if you don't want others to see it. You can embed YouTube videos in Web pages, too. Alternatives: Photobucket, Minus

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Michael in Akron: After the news of Cisco closing the Flip camera division, I thought I'd share my road test on the Kodak Zi8, a "flip" style camera with a big difference. It shoots great video from WVGA to 1280p but the big plus is the microphone "in" jack. This lets me connect a lavalier or wireless mic. The on-camera microphone isn't bad either. I've been using one for about a year shooting video for my newspaper/corporate master with great results. The fixed-focus lens isn't wide enough for some situations so I used hot glue to attach a ring to attach a wide angle lens when needed. It's got the flip-out USB plug as well as a card slot for expansion. It's been a great tool for me in situations where a full-size camcorder or DSLR are overkill.

Of course, it looks like Kodak is closing down the product since it's been advertised on clearance at area retailers for several weeks now.

Rafe: These products come and go. I'm using a Sony Bloggie at the moment. I like it a lot, and it also has the fun flip-out USB connector. Plus good image stabilization, which I like. But honestly, my iPhone also does great work as a vid cam.

In other words, the Flip is dead, long live the Flip.

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Kayn: I have a an Android smartphone specific issue for you. I've recently come to the realization that I have not backed up my HTC Desire running Android 2.2 Froyo since installing said update. Do you have any suggestions or solutions for backing up my applications, contacts, and photos without losing the whole lot through resets or rooting?

Rafe: Another listener actually answered this for us...

Robert: In your iPhone vs. Android show ago when you were asked about the contact sync you should've mentioned with Android the contacts are backed up in the cloud and synced over-the-air in user's Google account and it's bi-directional. In the case if your phone is damaged or lost and you get a replacement or adding a new Android device all your contacts will be restored once you've enabled sync and connected to the nerwork. This is actually an advantage over iPhone's requirement of syncing contacts via iTunes through a physical USB cable and if you're away from your computer for some time while getting a new replacement iPhone you won't have your contacts until you physically sync with the computer.

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Steve inMilan, Ohio: I am getting ready to switch from dial-up internet (yes, dial-up internet) to Verizon mobile broadband. I was told that this summer I will be able to connect using the new 4G network. My question is what is the best wireless USB adaptor for my desktop computer. I noticed on the side of the boxes at the store that they very in connection speed so I don't what to end up with a 4G internet connection and a USB adaptor that cannot handle the 4G speeds. Thanks for the help and I look forward to downloading your pod cast in under 8 hours. That's how long it takes now.

Dong: Check out this LG number. But note that the speed depends on the area of coverage.

Rafe: I like MiFis and Overdrives. The WiFi hotspot adds a lot of flexibility.

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CNET to the Rescue: Loud keyboards, obsolete networks, and used cameras

rescue@cnet.com (CNETTV.com) — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 06:00:00 PDT

Apple reporter Josh Lowensohn joins the show to help us pick input devices, get things done with to-do lists, and figure out what to do with our old TiVo when the world moves to IPv6 networks.

CNET to the Rescue Ep. 43: Loud keyboards, obsolete networks, used cameras, and more.

Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast

Episode 43: Keyboards, IPv6, and refurb cameras

Road tests
Rafe and Josh go gaga for Portal 2.

Rafe's new noisemaker, the Unicomp Customizer 104.

Josh's fancy coaster, er, trackpad, the Apple Magic Trackpad.

Talking about to-do lists: Check out WunderList and GroceryIQ.

Listener Questions
John Kirby from the Small Animal Hemodialysis Unit University of California, Davis: So I've been interested in the transition to IPv6, and I just learned some ISPs will start rolling out hardware to support it, partly to test systems on IPv6 day. So I am wondering, are you aware of any IPv6 home routers yet? I've done a little Googling, and found the yet to be released Netgear WNDR4000, which 'supports IPv6,' but what does that mean? Can I use IPv6 inside the router, or just outside? Have you heard if we can continue to have a wireless connection for legacy devices (TiVo) via IPv4 and also use IPv6 on my laptop?

Dong: Moving to IP6 is going to be a big mess and this is because it's almost completely different from IP4. The biggest difference is that with IP6 the router will not need the NAT function anymore (which is the biggest and most common function of a router that translates one WAN IP in to multiple local IPs to share the Internet between devices).

Most routers will be able to support IP6 via firmware update, though which ones will or not depends on the vendors. Apart from the Cisco routers mentioned here, Asus is also making a new firmware to support IP6 soon for its RT-56U router, which is one of the best true dual-band on the market.

From the consumer's perspective, moving to IP6 doesn't offer many benefits. And you can only fully move to IP6 if all devices within the network support it, which is the main point of IP6: every Internet connected device has a unique IP address. In the meantime, which will last for years, if the ISP move to IP6, then the router, if supported, will take care of it and continue to take care of the local network via NAT. So for now, you should only worry about IP6 if the ISP requires a router like that for the service. For nearly everyy consumer, you need to worry about IP6 at all right now.

Rafe: See also Stephen Shankland's explainer.

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Rich in Lovely Cleveland: In my last e-mail to CNET to the Rescue, I asked about refurbs vs. open-box items. I followed your recommendation and got a refurb Olympus E-PL1 and so far I'm loving it. My only problem is the kit lens that comes with it only opens to f 3.5. My old film camera was a Pentax KX, and it has a nice 50mm lens that opens to f 1.7. I saw on Amazon that I can get a K mount to micro four thirds adapter, but I don't know if it will work with a K mount lens that old. I was wondering if you could lend your considerable camera expertise and passion to help me figuring out if I can make this happen.

Lori Grunin (camera reviewer): It will probably work, but not autofocus (though the old lens probably doesn't have AF anyway). Might also take some jiggering to change the aperture. If the adapter is cheap, it's usually worth it because people have fun playing around with old lenses.

Stephen Shankland: I concur. Manual focus is harder in the current era in which cameras don't come with manual focusing aids, and screens on the back of a camera are pretty weak for judging focus. Plus, f1.7 means a shallow depth of field that won't offer a lot of leeway. So it won't be good for taking pictures of fast-moving children, but it's potentially fun for photography enthusiasts. If this is the old lens, the aperture can be set manually, I think.

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Juan J. Lydon: I enjoy your program listening to it from here in Peru. I have a question for your consideration. Because of pictures and video, my laptop hard drive is almost full. So I want to get a larger hard drive, but I want to know if that requires that I reinstall the many programs I have on the hard drive. Is there a way to copy everything to the new hard drive, including the programs with an imaging software program or something like that so I don't have to reinstall the programs? Reinstalling everything would be a major drawback to any update to the hard drive. Thanks for your guidance.

Jonathan from New Jersey: So often I read on the Internet about swapping in bigger hard drives into laptops and desktops, but I haven't found comprehensive instructions for putting back Windows onto that new HDD. Usually there are mentions of burning the 'ISO installation image' onto a bootable DVD and somehow harvest the original Windows product key for the new installation. Just a little too techie for me! If I roll in my own hard drive, will I have to spend a few hundred dollars for a Windows installation disk, or is there some other way?

Rafe: You guys both want cloning programs. Try Acronis True Image or Norton Ghost. Clone the old drive to a new one. Get the Windows key from the old system. It should be on a label on the computer. If you get a license alert when the new system is running, call Microosft, they will unlock it for you.

Mac folks, Just use Time Machine

Regardless, you'll need a way to connect you new hard drive temporarily while you copy stuff over. This new "toaster" is overkill, but it would do the trick.

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Don in Indiana: I am using a Windows 7 laptop and I have both passwords for Facebook and Twitter stored in the autocomplete feature. I already know by heart my Facebook password;but, I am having trouble re-finding my password for Twitter. How can I get out of memory of my laptop so I can write it down on paper? Add to that, I am trying to confirm my e-mail for Twitter, but I am having trouble getting a confirmation e-mail back from them on my Hotmail account. Do I delete my current account for Twitter?

Rafe: Some older browsers will display passwords they've stored in clear text. Poke around in Firefox, I think it had that feature. If you have access to Twitter but you can't get confirmation emails to your Hotmail account, the easiest thing to do is to change the email your confirms go to. If you can't get emails and you can't find your password, try Twitter tech support, because you now have an authentication problem that you might not be able to solve with standard tools.

A better way to handle passwords is to use a password manager like LastPass.

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Ivan: Is it safe to charge your gadgets like an iPod touch overnight? Should I be worried about overcharging them?

Rafe: It's safe. Modern electronics won't overcharge. Cheap stuff (I'm looking at you, old electric razor) can. But one issue to consider is parasitic draw. Your power transformers draw power even when they're not charging; even when your device isn't connected. It's not much, but in the grand, green scheme of things it can add up. So unplug your adaptors, or put them on switches. Or use USB charging, since USB cables don't draw power when they're just hanging there (your computer, though, does).

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Feedback
Tom Breit: In one of your recent podcasts, someone asked about converting their external drive to NTFS and was told that he had to reformat it. "You can't change a tire on a moving bicycle," I believe was the phrase Rafe used.

In fact, you CAN convert from FAT32 to NTFS while keeping your data intact--but not the other direction. Microsoft describes the process.

Thanks, Tom!

CNET to the Rescue: iPhone vs. Android!

rescue@cnet.com (CNETTV.com) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 16:17:48 PDT

This week, Kent German, CNET mobile phone guru, answers this vexing life question: iPhone or Android? We'll be talking about that for a bit before we get to your e-mailed, questions, many of which are related to the Epsilon breach we discussed last week with CNET reporter Elinor Mills.

CNET to the Rescue Ep. 42: iPhone vs. Android!

Listen Now: Download Today's Podcast

Episode 42: iPhone vs. Android

Road tests
Rafe's Synology DS411Slim: update, 8 weeks on: It's done making thumbnails! Everyone stop worrying.

Marantz SR-19 from 2001: Nothing lives forever.

Kent tests the Puma solarphone.

Today's topic: iPhone or Android?
Can you say one is better than the other, in general?

Discuss differences, benefits, trade-offs, etc.

What if you're new to smartphones?

Best carrier for smartphones?

Best Android phones on the major carriers?

What if you're on a budget?

Discuss call quality / antenna issues

Service and support

Listener Questions
Jimmy from Roseville, CA: My question is in regard to the security of the information on a Barnes & Noble Nook Color. I am just about ready to purchase the Nook, and I see myself using it mostly on public Wi-Fi hot spots. When using it I will be doing casual Internet surfing, Netflix streaming (whenever they finish their Android App), and, of course, watching the awesome BOL podcasts. Since none of this would require exchanging any sensitive information, should I be concerned about using the Nook Color on public hot spots?

You should always be concerned when you use a public hot spot, no matter the device. You can exchange sensitive information without realizing it, if, for example, your e-mail app polls for messages and is unencrypted. The other real threat is that you might *think* you're going to Netflix, or Twitter, but you're going to a password-harvesting site instead. You should get a certificate warning if you're using SSL security in those sites, but most people don't, and you can get scammed that way. That's why some banking sites now have two-way passwords--the site first shows you a recognition image before you type in your password.

Best bet: Use a portable hot spot like Overdrive or MiFi. That way, the mobile carrier controls the DNS.

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Vanna Peck: I watched your episode about the Epsilon breach, and I would like to take some of the advice I heard about on the show. I did not quite understand what was said about making multiple accounts with the business' name in Gmail ... I would like to do whatever was recommended but I am a little confused as to how to do it.

You can use your standard Gmail address and a "plus sign" and your mail will still find you. For example: "rafe.needleman+target@gmail.com." Then you create a filter for "address+whatever" on GMail atSettings->Filters->Create New. You want the actions to be Apply New Label (which you can make up) and Archive or Skip inbox

Another idea is to use OtherInBox, which automatically filters e-mails based on standard commercial services.

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I suspect my e-mail address got caught up in the breach at Epsilon. Is there some way that I can bounce their spam mail back to the sender so as to fill up their "Inbox" and force them to remove me from their list or group of e-mail addresses? I've heard of this being done, but haven't found out how. If you know of a good way to handle this, I would appreciate it.

It's not worth it. Their inbox is not like your inbox. There's no one watching it. The e-mails aren't even taking up disk space and causing an inconvenience. Retaliation like that won't work. You'll have to dig deeper. Or move on with life (recommended).

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Rudy in Singapore: You were talking about the Epsilon breach and were also talking about LastPass earlier in the episode. What if LastPass is breached?! Just like what happened to Lifehacker and its larger network. Now not only do you have to change ALL your passwords STAT, but you may not even know the passwords to certain sites if you generate them using LastPass! Please tell all users not to use LastPass for important Web sites like banks, etc. (unless I'm wrong).

Fortunately, that's not how LastPass works. Your main password is not stored on their servers, and your site passwords are heavily encrypted. I don't believe it is a perfect system, but it has passed muster by security wonks, and is more secure than alternatives.

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Lou: Since all of the ISP's are capping data now, I was wondering if connecting your computer to a networked hard drive or using the airplay feature in Apple products uses data. I figured since everything is locally stored, it shouldn't. But since it's all connected to my router and sometimes asks for IP addresses, I just wanted to make sure. If it eats data, that would definitely suck.

It would suck, but don't worry about it. Only traffic that actually makes it out of your home counts against caps. By the way, if the IP addresses you're talking about start with 192.168... then you're only talking about local traffic. 192.168.whatever.whatever is "home," or your local network.

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T C: I was hoping to get your advice on a purchase we plan to make this week. My husband and I are trying to decide between the Cisco-Linksys E4200 Maximum Performance Simultaneous Dual-Band Wireless-N Router and the Netgear N750 450 Mbps Wireless Dual Band Gigabit Router WNDR4000. Which of these routers would you recommend?

We are not gamers, but we do have lots of devices in our home including a Roku. We're currently using a Linksys WRT400N, and we have experienced a lot of reloading when we stream using the Roku.

Dong No says: I would recommend the E4200 or any of the true dual-band in the Linksys E series (e3000, e3200). (the E4200 and E3000 have been reviewed). They are much better than the WRT400 and also come with very good QoS engine. Users might need to know how to configure the QoS though, they have to use the Web-interface and so on. Hopefully however, there won't be a need for that as so far the streaming seems to work fine with the new Es.

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Feedback
Mark from Toronto: In last week's show you were asking for a good MP3 Tagger, best one I've found is MP3 Tag Scanner... you've actually got it on download.cnet.com. This thing does just about everything, including the ability to embed artwork, and lyrics. Windows only, though.

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John M. Campbell: Just wanted to submit a tip about the headphone wire. Generally, when I have my little earbuds in a nice neat ring, I will grab the little bead/knot thingie where the two bud lines are joined to the main line, letting the rest of the wires drop down. If done right, most of the time, it will untangle themselves.