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LangaList 2006-06-08 Please visit our sponsors and help keep the LangaList S.E. free!
--- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList S.E. Free! ) --- Speed up your Computer,
Free Performance Scan! Find out what is hurting your PC's performance: Scan Now! --------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 1) Server vs PC Software
Yes, Dale, servers can be a hot button item for software companies. But whether a wrong has been committed depends on how the software is used. If you buy a single-license program and put it on a server so that many PCs can share it, that's a pretty clear violation of the single license. In that case, software intended for use on one PC is instead servicing many PCs, and the software vendor has lost sales. I don't think it matters if it's a business or home setting: If the software is licensed for one PC, then setting up the software so that more than one PC can use it violates the license. On the other hand, if the single-licensed software isn't available to any other PCs on the network--- that is, if it's run only on the server itself, for that one machine's benefit--- then it's irrelevant that the PC is used as a server; it's still one license, one machine. The vendor hasn't lost anything. The fact that the machine happens to be used as a server makes no difference. As long as the software in question isn't being served up or distributed or shared in any way, then no server-related functions come into play. The software installation is the same as it would be on any stand-alone PC, and in fact I'd agree that you can refer to the machine just as a PC when and if you need to talk to a support tech. In your case, Dale, if you were running a single-license antivirus package on a server to protect *only that machine's files* then I think you were and are probably fine. But the tech most likely understood you to mean that you were setting it up so that the single-license antivirus package was providing some kind of centralized AV service for other PCs on the LAN; or that you were cloning the software to service other PCs. Those actions would most likely be a violation of the license. Again, it doesn't matter if it's a business setting or home setting. Either way, the number of licenses has to match the number of PCs using the software. My rule of thumb for thinking through all questions of this sort is: Does my action cost the vendor a sale? If the honest answer is "yes," then the action's probably wrong. But if the vendor honestly loses nothing by my action, then it's "no harm, no foul;" and the action's probably OK. Click to email this item to a
friend --- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList Free! ) --- --------------( the above is an advertisement )------------- 2) Emergency Recovery Utility
Thanks, Eric. We actually discussed it a couple times
before, but it was a while ago (see: #11 in Click to email this item to a
friend 3) Are Admin Shares Dangerous?
I think your risks are minimal, Daniel. The main way you could get infected would be if you triggered the malware yourself. For example, if your brother has a malware program called FUBAR.EXE on his PC, and you reach through the share and run that program, then FUBAR.EXE will be executed by *your* CPU in *your* PC. If FUBAR were able to get past your own defenses when it ran, then you could have trouble. But one presumes you're not running random programs on your brother's PC. <g> And programs you do run remotely can usually be checked by your own antimalware tools; either by manually triggering a scan of your brother's hard drive prior to your doing any other maintenance there; or by scanning a specific EXE that you need to run. (Most AV tools, for example, let you right click on a file and select a manual scan from there.) If that's not enough reassurance for you, consider using Remote Desktop for whatever maintenance you need to run on his PC. By making his PC the Remote Desktop host and your machine the client, all that will come through the wire to your PC is a copy of what would normally be on his screen: All the actual opening and running of files--- and any malware that may be triggered--- will be contained entirely within his system. Remote Desktop is a *very* safe way to access and work on another PC. See: XP Professional's "Remote Control" Option How To Ensure Remote-Control Security With XP Click to email this item to a
friend --- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList S.E. Free! ) --- "I have read your free
Langalist for years and years and years, It's only about $1 a month! --------------( the above is an advertisement )-------------- 4) Network Kills Audio?
That is indeed a little strange, Dave. But I've seen something similar with built-in sound cards and modems; some systems use the same digital signal processing (DSP) chip for all audio, whether it's music or the voices and tones going over a phone line. Trying to disable one function in the BIOS would sometimes disable the other as well because the DSP chip would be turned off and unavailable. Perhaps that's the kind of thing you ran into, where two (or more) functions depend on one piece of multi-purpose hardware. I suppose it also could be a problem with IRQs ("interrupt requests:" http://www.google.com/search?q=interrupt+request+irq ) but you said it's a new machine, and IRQ conflicts are quite rare in newer PCs. In any case, thanks for the tip: Checking for unexpected dependencies in the BIOS is something to tuck away in the back of our minds for future troubleshooting. Click to email this item to a
friend 5) Free/Very Low Cost Defraggers
Thanks, Jim. It looks interesting, as does their hybrid freeware/commercial marketing: The full commercial license is only $10, and allows for use of the software on up to 5 PCs. Two bucks per PC is pretty darn inexpensive. <g> The full-function freeware version requires a (free) license key, which you get by registering on the site. The freeware key works for 30 days, after which you can get another free key, if you wish. If you don't want to register, then you can use the software a plain freeware--- no registration--- but with out some features and functions. I'm going to try option two--- licensed freeware for 30 days. If I like it as much as Jim does, I'll certainly kick in the $10. It's so inexpensive, it'd be silly not to support the software publisher's efforts. And, here's another low-cost defragger we've discussed in the past:
Thanks, Chuck. Nice to see vendors *not* trying to rip off their users, eh? Click to email this item to a
friend 6) Recommend This Newsletter And Win!If you think the LangaList is a worthwhile read, maybe a
friend would find it useful too! Just use the following link to recommend the
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friend 7) Free Firewalls
ZoneAlarm is probably the path of least resistance--- it's a good, free firewall, and is readily available. But there are many other options--- including the last free version of the Sygate firewall, which is available as "abandonware" on a number of download sites. No, it's no longer supported, but all that really means is that no new features will be added. It still works as-is, of course. This page lists 10 free or free-to-try firewalls, and includes a link to a Sygate Personal Firewall download site: http://www.thefreecountry.com/security/firewalls.shtml Note the "Jetico" freeware firewall, which supports all versions of Windows, including Win98. This page ( http://www.hackfix.org/software/firewall.html ) lists even more Win98-friendly firewalls, including Kerio, Conseal, Outpost, and others. And in the unlikely event that none of the many options
available in the above two links will work for you, this general search will
turn up even more: (BTW: See #10 in this issue for a related topic.) Click to email this item to a
friend 8) They Just Keep Coming And Coming...Thousands of your fellow readers have "Loaded the code."
Please click over to
http://langa.com/code.htm , and maybe you can join them! (If you've already
"Loaded The Code" and are wondering if your site will appear here or on the
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http://langa.com/link.txt ) Manually Browse All Posted-to-Date Sites
Starting At 2 PC Geeks (internet security) Arte do Brasil boomerang gym 5 Star Wholesales Indialantic Chamber Singers Computer Troubleshooting by Brand Name Computer Rescue Best Little Host create a sign online best of the web pictoons Click to email this item to a
friend --- ( Your Clicks On Ad Links Help Keep The LangaList Free! ) --- --------------( the above is an advertisement )------------- 9) Free (Non-Macromedia) Flash Player
Thanks, Jeff. It's also available direct from the
publisher here: Click to email this item to a
friend 10, 11, 12, 13,14) Plus! Edition Only:Today's LangaList Plus! Edition contains about 40% more content including:
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