HSL - How to
How to...
- Computers
- Video
- MiniDV (digital) to DVD
- Hi-8 (analog) to DVD
- DVD to HD
- HD to DVD
- DVD to DVD
- Internet
- General
- TV and Radio
- DirectTV
- DishNetwork
- High Definition TV (HDTV)
- XM radio
- Programmable remote control
- Misc
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- Computers
- Computer set up for easy recovery
- Boot computer with Windows OS install CD. Make first partition 20 GB
and install Windows OS (operating system). Boot computer from harddrive.
Name first partition "HD0". Format second partition and name
it "HD1". Apply windows service pack 1a. Turn off automactic
update. Turn off error reporting. Turn off system restore. Install PowerQuest
ImageCenter. Install FileSync. Install CmdSync. Configure Startup menu.
Configure Display Properties. Configure folder options. Turn
off windows messenge. Disable
MS Messenger from loading.Create user accounts if needed. Point "My
Documents" of each user to point to the second partition. Create
backup script for CmdSync.. Run ImageCenter and save an image as d:\_setup\_images\image0.
Reboot Windows. Install motherboard driver. Install video driver. Install
Network driver. Install sound driver. Configure Display Properties\Settings.
Run ImageCenter and save an image as d:\_setup\_images\image1. Reboot
Windows. Install printer driver. Install PDF reader. Install MS Office.
Install Firefox. Install other software. Run
ImageCenter and save an image as d:\_setup\_images\image2. To restore
an image, run ImageCenter either from windows or from CD, select image
to restore, and install in the first partition.
- Make first partition: NTFS, Quick format, 20 GB. Large partition
takes too long to image and with a small partion may run out of space.
- Apply windows service pack 1a: see Getting
Goodies
- Turn off automactic update:
"Start\My Computer\Properties\Automatic Updates". Must do
this.
- Turn off error reporting: "Start\My
Computer\Properties\Error Reporting" No need to let MS
know.
- Turn off system restore: Might want to leave this on for minor recovery.
Uses up drive space.
- Configure Startup menu:
- Configure display properties: Right Click desktop then properties.
Adjust Theme, Desktop, Screen Saver.
- Configure folder options
- Install ImageCenter, FileSync, CmdSync: see Getting
Goodies
- Configure display properties:
Right Click desktop then properties. Adjust Settings. This
has to been done after video driver is installed.
- Backup scripts for CmdSync: create "My Documents\csync\backup.bat"
Sample
and "My Documents\csync\backup1.bat" Sample.
Create auto back up event with "Start\All Programs\Accessories\System
Tools\Scheduled Tasks".
- Multimedia PC (MPC)
- MPC can be used to watch DVD, DVD movie that has been ripped to the
harddrive, live TV and recorded TV (like Tivo). [To be edited.]
- RAID 5
- RAID 0
- RAID 1
- Remote desktop
- Getting Goodies
- The "goodies" are kept at http://lee.redirectme.net/private/goodies.htm
Need user id and password.
- Video
- MiniDV (digital) to DVD
- Hi-8 (analog) to DVD
- DVD to HD
- HD to DVD
- DVD to DVD
- Internet
- Internet comparison shopping
- Assigning dynamic IP to static IP
- For most of us, our ISP assigns a dynamic IP. Although this IP usually
doesn't change, it can if you reboot your system. By using an IP lookup
service, your home IP address can always be determined from outside. I use
a free lookup service from No-IP at www.no-ip.com.
(BTW, I found no-ip by going to google and searching "dynamic IP",
then tried top 4 or 5 services, and found no-ip to be the best.) Go to www.no-ip.com
and create a free user account. Download
their free IP update utility. Run this program on any one of your computers
(I run it on my server) as a service (so it's always running in the background
no matter who is logged in). This program will check your dynamic IP periodically
and update this info on their server. When you type in your chosen name,
i.e. lee.redirectme.net, their server will redirect your request to your
home IP address, i.e. 67.177.106.155. One added bonus of this service is
that if your ISP has blocked port 80 (the default http port) you can have
no-ip redirect to any other open port. For example, when the user types
in http://lee.redirectme.net this gets sent as http://lee.redirectme.net:80
to their server, which gets translated into http://67.177.106.155:2599 (or
whatever port you choose). It also redirects FTP requests
- Setting up web server
- Although not officially permitted, some ISPs such as Comcast permit setting
up a home web server by not blocking port 80. (Blocked port 80 can be bypassed.
See Assigning dynamic IP to static IP.) Since web servers do not require
a lot of processing power, I recommend using an old computer as a dedicated
server which can run web and FTP servers simultaneously. First, assign a
static internal IP address (i.e. 192.168.0.50) to the server computer. Configure
the router to forward all port 80 calls to the server. Some routers call
this a virtual server. Turn off firewall feature in Windows XP. Get
apache server binary for Windows from www.apache.org
or you can get a fairly recent version from my ftp server at ftp://ftp.lee.redirectme.net.
(You need ID and password so email me at hslee203<at>yahoo.com) Installing
is very easy and the default values work great for most of the applications.
Web server built into the Windows Xp is much harder to use.
- Setting up FTP server
- See setting up web server above for some basic info. I use a freeware
Cerberus FTP server.
Easy to configure and very stable. You can get it from www.tucows.com
by searching "cerberus." (BTW, tucows is a good source for getting
sharewares, demo-wares, and freewares. It is very well organized, and has
very helpful rating system and file descriptions.) The developer home page
is at www.ceberusftp.com. You can also get it from my FTP server at ftp://ftp.lee.redirectme.net.
(You need ID and password so email me at hslee203<at>yahoo.com.).
FTP server built into the Windows XP is much harder to use. Configure the
router to forward all port 21 calls to the server. Turn off firewall feature
in Windows XP.
- Setting up web photo album
- First setup dynamic IP to static IP lookup as described above. (Although
this is not required, I think it's a good idea.) Then setup a home web server
using Apache. See setting up web server above. For the actual photo album,
I use a freeware called yappa-ng.
You can get it from www.sourceforge.net
by searching "yappa-ng". (BTW, sourceforge is a great resource for
getting a lot of general public license software, aka freeware.) Yappa has
a good documentation on installation but I will give a quick overview here.
Download PHP (a server side script
language) from www.php.net and ImageMagick
(image conversion program) from www.imagemagick.org.
(BTW, Imagemagick is great for batch converting or resizing images.) Unzip
yappa-ng folder into webserver folder of Apache. (The default is c:\program
files\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs). Install PHP to DOS compatible directory
(.i.e. c:\php). The auto configuration will usually set the link correctly
so that Apache knows where to find the php.exe. PHP is a server side scripting
language and is launched by Apache. This means whenever Apache gets a file
with extension of .php, Apache will permit the external program php.exe
to run the php script file. Install ImageMagick into another DOS compatible
folder (i.e. c:\IM). The ImageMagick is used by yappa to generate images
in various resolutions. Then in your browser run the yappa setup file, i.e.
http://myipname.no-ip.com/yappa-ng/setup.php). Be sure to set your password.
Copy all your photos and videos you want to publish in a folder and organize
them by using subfolders as necessary. (For
example, I have them organized by year and month folders.) This image
folder should be outside of the Apache web folder (I chose to install it
in "d:\images" so I can easily replace the drive if a harddrive
failure occurs.) Create one dummy album and set all the parameters to your
preference. Copy the files "config_album.inc.php" and "hits.log"
from this folder to every folder and sub-folders in your image directory.
yappa-ng will consider any folder or sub-folder within the root image folder
that contains these two files as a picture album and use the setting from
the config_album.inc.php file.
- Setting up WebCam
- I use Dorgem from dorgem.sourceforge.net
to FTP images from the webcams around my house to my FTP server. The images
are deposited into 2 places -- in one place with a static name so that it
can be linked from a web page and archived in the other place with time
stamp. They are located at the Webcam
Page of my Photo Album. The motion
detector is turned on Doregem.
- Assigning a static internal IP
- Configure router (firewall) to enable web server
pass through
- Configure router (firewall) to enable ftp server
pass through
- Setup router
- Voice over IP (VoIP)
- How to transfer large files
- Good source
for shareware, demoware and freeware
- www.tucows.com -- shareware, demo-ware
and freeware. Well organized and helpful rating system and file info.
No nagging to register.
- www.sourceforge.net -- extensive
open source prgrams.
- Looking up address and name from phone number
(and how to disable it)
- Adding weather report to your webpage
- Go to www.weatheforyou.com and enter the zip code or location, then click
"Weather for Websites", then cut and past the text generated.
- General
- Creditcard rebate
- I used to use airline mileage cards but stopped because of too many black
out dates and each domestic tickets costing upto $500. I used Discover cards
for a while since they have 1% rebate. Now I use Citibank Dividend card
because they give 5% rebate on gas and grocery, and 1% rebate on all other
purchases. There is a yearly limit on the Dividend card. I also use GM card
because they give 5% rebate toward purchase of a GM car. There is a cap
on each type of car, though. I also use Citibank Driver's edge card which
give 2% rebate on purchase of any car, new or used. They have cap on maximum
rebate you can earn per year.
- Creditcard security
- I report my credit card as being lost every couple of months or whenever
I returned from a trip so that I can get a new credit card number. (Free
replacement of course and they usually overnight express it if you ask.)
This way, I tried to minimize a chance of someone keeping my credit card
number and making a charge on it at a late date. The chance of someone reusing
the credit card number can be also lessened by using the use-once credit
card number from Citibank credit cards. You can get on their web site and
generate as many new numbers as needed. Great for online purchases. Discover
Card also started offer this service in late 2005. I keep a separate credit
card for monthly recurring charges like for EZ-pass, Netflix, etc. I never
use this card for any other purchases to minimize chance of someone stealing
the number. This way I don't have to replace this card as often since it
is very time consuming to update the new number with each vendor.
- Checking account
- I use checking account from Citizensbank. With the direct deposit I get
free checking which also includes free computer bill pay. Computer bill
pay service saves a lot of time and saves cost of stamps, too. Recurring
payment can be setup. Citibank also has a free over-draft protection (ODP)
which automatically deposits money into the checking account up to $5000.
No per deposit or monthly maintenance fees. The only charge is 12% annual
interest. This turns out to be only a few cents because the interest gets
assessed daily and you can quickly transfer funds into ODP when this service
gets triggered. This way I don't have keep excess "buffer" funds
in the checking account to prevent fees upto $30 per bounced check. I try
to minimize balance in the checking account which earns no interest.
- Do not call list
- Register for do not call list at www.donotcall.gov.
It really works. Only effective for 5 years.
- Looking up list of sex offenders.
- Register for do not call list at www.familywatchdog.us/search.asp.
You can put in your address & it will show you all the sex offenders that
live near you with their Name, address & picture.