COMPUTERS, THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY

[Pluggy]

Sounds a lot like the system that was put in place at the school I once worked at and the system I said was unnecessarily complex for a school. One huge SAN system which formed the storage for 4 physical servers hosting around a dozen virtual servers which was a single point of failure. Part of the reason I'm now self employed, because I had big doubts and the head teacher that bought it was convinced it was immortal............

[Pluggy]

Bitter ?, Me ? Nahhhhh......

[Big Kev]

Thanks for that Plugs. I suspected the external HD would be the answer.
Further question: Would the file system my machine produces be readable by an Apple machine? I suspect Daniel will be on Apple.
As for Orange and speed, I've waited this long I shall sit here and see whether May 31st is Der Tag. 6mps is quite good enough for me at the moment.

I presume you are compressing the data before you copy it? Winrar works with Ubuntu and, if the majority of the data is text, you'd be surprised how much it will compress.

[Big Kev]

Bitter ?, Me ? Nahhhhh......

Why would a Head Teacher listen to someone who knows what they're talking about?

[Whyperion]

Pluggy , have you found that RAID systems are more problematic in when they do fail they go bigtime? ( Had one failure in the days when RAID 3 on 5 1GB disks was thought to be state of the art for our small business. ) Also had one early computer failure when the expensive computer system housed in the cheap portakabin got hit by lighting.

[Stanley]

No Kev, I shall just copy the whole file system onto an external hard drive and send it like that. The more simple the better.

[Pluggy]

Pluggy , have you found that RAID systems are more problematic in when they do fail they go bigtime? ( Had one failure in the days when RAID 3 on 5 1GB disks was thought to be state of the art for our small business. ) Also had one early computer failure when the expensive computer system housed in the cheap portakabin got hit by lighting.

Yes, undoubtably, if a RAID fails bigtime, its effectively scrap whereas a single disk can often be recovered. Replace the RAID system and restore everything from last nights backup. (You do have a last nights backup don't you ?).

[Whyperion]

I used to run a tape backup system, I found that the system would not actually restore. I ran my own unoffical evening backup of data onto then CD and kept a spare PC that no one else new about, a short weekend on a new the new servers and no one was any the wiser as the the problems , dont know if I could do that now.

[Tripps]

Pat on the back for Plusnet / BT. They have upgraded he exchange to 21CN as promised, and my download speed has increased from 1.9Mbs to 11.5 Mbs. That's the best I've ever had.

[Stanley]

The Orange orphans are waiting for their 16mps service to return....
Pluggy, I've mailed you about Daniel's external drive. Your advice will be acted on by both of us.
That Apple hard drive looks a ridiculous price!

[Pluggy]

Replied to You and Daniel.

[Stanley]

Thanks Pluggy, got it. Daniel is sticking with Plan 'A'. His money and he will be comfortable with it. It will be sent to me and I'll copy the data drive onto it. He will know all my passwords!

[Stanley]

The drive is on its way to me.....

[Tripps]

Had a bit of "computers - the agony" yesterday. Went into Skype to keep my account active, and found that it had been suspended, and nearly all my credit had gone. Checked call history, and found calls to mobiles in Egypt, and Indonesia had used all the money. Two long calls mainly, which oddly had been made at almost the same time. I managed to contact skype by a sort of telex conversation with 'Raymond A' . He said they were aware of the situation, and got me to change the account password whilst he waited. I did that, and then asked for a refund. 'Sorry' said Raymond A. 'it was the users responsibilty to keep the account secure'. So as well as being robbed it was my fault!!
I asked why they had not contacted me by email, when the incident occurred since they were aware of it. He said they did not do that at that time.

I asked him to close the account , he was reluctant to do so, but I eventually persuaded him to do so. It wasn't easy. We parted on quite good terms though, and he said I could always join again with another user name. I might do so but would not lodge any money with them again.

I spent the rest of the afternoon changing all my passwords, and replacing them with difficult mixtures of numbers and letters. I think the magic of the web disappeared yesterday.

[Stanley]

David. Commiserations. I have an inbuilt aversion to using may web services, especially those involving money and personal details. It may be my age but I have no desire to venture into that jungle! One of the reasons why I like Ubuntu 64bit, I feel more secure and in control and am not going to do anything to damage that. Of course Google et al are still gathering data on me!

[Pluggy]

It is a sad fact that the majority of fraud is the fault of the user although the transgression maybe just visiting the wrong website at the wrong time. Secure sites are next door to unbreakable without serious clues. A piece of malware picked up from the net and passing your stuff out to third parties does nicely. Phishing is another way in, usually an email saying there is an issue with your account and encouraging you to login to fix it using a convenient link to their fake website. Unlike Stanley I do quite a a bit with money online but I have rules I adhere to, I never do it with someone else's computer and I never do it using Windows (which amounts to almost the same thing since I don't use windows). Since disinfecting Windows is a good part of what I do, and almost all of them have current AV on them, it says a lot for the effectiveness of anti-virus. I always assume an email is fraud until proven otherwise.......

Many Banks now have a secondary login system using some form of external device that generates a one time code. (Both my personal Nationwide account and my business HSBC account use them) which kills phishing and most malware exploits. The bad guys have found a way round them using very clever malware that waits until you legitimately login and then manipulates the account whilst you're there. Most banks will reimburse you for a security breach even if its your fault because you doing stuff online saves employing a lot of expensive tellers in branches. (Which no doubt is why they also spend money on giving you extra security devices).

So, please continue to use Windows and maintain its dominance as an operating system, so the bad guys don't start looking elsewhere for their income . They already have in the phone/tablet world, Android (which is Linux based) is becoming a popular malware platform. Google are a little too lax in what they allow on their App store.......

I lost a couple of quid to Skype a few years back because I stopped using it and I ignored the emails warning me it was going to expire. Getting Orange with bundled international calls effectively killed my need for Skype. Since it now belongs to my very favourite company (not) is an added incentive not to go there.

[Stanley]

We are so lucky to have Pluggy on the site. That post should be printed and delivered to every computer user in the land!
Got the expensive hard drive yesterday and I transferred the data eventually. I say eventually because the manufacturers have never heard of Ubuntu! The drive is set up to work on Mac or Windows and my OS didn't even recognise it, when I got into the set up programme none of the functions worked. It took me a couple of hours to get access to it, format it and get it to talk to Ubuntu. I nearly gave up but persevered and found in the end that the route was to reformat to FAT file system and one partition. Oh, and another thing, it only transferred data at half the speed my El Cheapo Samsung handles it. Never mind, it's done now! Oh, another thing, it upset Ubuntu so much that I had to cut the power to the system twice to get it to boot successfully. I have had a furtle and everything seems to have settled down now.

[Tripps]

Stanley - yes you're right, about Plugs, but for those of us who do not have the required skills internet life is difficult. I tried Ubuntu, after reading so much about its benefits on here. Just downloading and installing was hard, and involved seeking help from my family. Using it was not a good experience, as shown from your post above. I gave up.
I get round intuitively on windows, but was unable to do the same on Linux.
I use Avast for virus protection, and have never had a problem on the internet. I feel protected, and if anything it is too cautious. I don't visit shady sites.
I think it's disappointing that more training in this field is not available via perhaps the Open University, and the BBC. Too many commercial issues I'd guess.

[Stanley]

David, I tried that route as well and failed miserably more than once. When I decided to have another go I paid Plugs to do it for me and tailor it to my requirements. It says a lot for Pluggy that I made the transition cold turkey with no problems and never looked back. I couldn't have done it myself but have never regretted paying him. Once you're in there it's easier (and a lot more efficient and cheaper) than Windows. It has the added bonus that it virtually doubles the speed of your machine. Exactly the same arguments were the deciding factor in shifting the site from a Windows based platform to the present one.
The hard drive is in the post to Daniel. Another job off my back! All I want to hear now is that he can read it!

[Stanley]

Hard drive posted to Daniel at 11:00 on Friday, it arrived with him at 10:00 the next day. Not a lot wrong with that service! Mail from him sent yesterday that he has got it, both his machines read the files and he's sent me the £4.90 First Class post charge. Nice to have a result!

[Tizer]

Pluggy, it's interesting to hear about how the malware is extending further to things like Android and Google apps. I wonder how much longer we Linux users will be able to `run naked in the woods''?

David, your experience with trying to use Ubuntu sums up the main obstacle - a chicken-and-egg situation where it will always seem strange and difficult while most people are being weaned on Windows from an early age. Yes, there are powerful vested interests at play in stopping Linux becoming more popular - you've only got to look at the way governments invite Microsoft and Google to sort out IT education for them (think of all the free promotion) rather than asking Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical who are behind Ubuntu.

Wikipedia says of Ubuntu: "Ubuntu is sponsored by the UK-based company Canonical Ltd., owned by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth. Canonical generates revenue by selling technical support and services related to Ubuntu, while the operating system itself is entirely free of charge. The Ubuntu project is committed to the principles of free software development; people are encouraged to use free software, improve it, and pass it on."

[Pluggy]

Pluggy, it's interesting to hear about how the malware is extending further to things like Android and Google apps. I wonder how much longer we Linux users will be able to `run naked in the woods''?

Its not going to be a problem, with the wide range of desktop distros available and the relatively small percentage of people using them its difficult to justify writing malware. Android are selling at the rates of 100s of millions per year and its a standardised system so like Windows its a big target. I saw a report that Apple sold more IOS devices (iphone & ipad) in 2011 than all the Macs ever sold in the 27 years since launch. Linux & Android will be similar no doubt.

[Stanley]

It's almost as though we get a reward in the shape of relative freedom from malware simply because we bit the bullet and swam against the tide. There is a God!

[Nolic]

TalkTalk phone and broadband went down totally for over 6 hours last night. Message on their number saying that it was a major outage and not sure when it would be fixed. Back up and fine this morning. Nolic

[Stanley]

When theses things happen I have this mental image of the ants in the server nest rushing round as they find a solution.....