Got a question about IT, security, or general computing?

@PlacidPenguin Why are people hypocritical?

@PlacidPenguin I think some of it is that people tend to follow trends or hop on the bandwagon for certain things. Another reason is their view of privacy is different from the “classic” model- since they’ve always put things online, they don’t consider posting things publically an issue- it’s public after all, and anyone can read it.

@PlacidPenguin
if we knew the answer, we;d own the world

@PlacidPenguin

Why are people hypocritical … ?

Possible best answer:

“Hypocritical”, as in less critical than usual (or I guess “under critical”)?

@Cerridwyn @PlacidPenguin

FAKE
INTERNET
POINTS

Fake internet points adds value to what a person says and is gratifying.

(Now click my star)

@caffeine_dude @PlacidPenguin
/

@therealjrn How much time do you have? What is the ambient temperature?

@therealjrn can you get access to a big hot vat of enzymes?

@djslack @therealjrn “You don’t want to know how, Dude. There are ways.”

@therealjrn It seems to me there were the possum? (too lazy to search) chronicles where we could follow the decomposition of a body into just bones. Might try that. Or sneak into a steel smelting factory. I understand in ancient Korea and some other places, they’d throw a (live) body or two into the molten metal when they made bronze bells. There is a bell foundry in the greater Cincinnati area. You could try that.

@therealjrn

I have seen several supposedly reliable and valid methods mentioned in some mystery novels.

However, these methods seem to involve living in the far Outback or in the remote Kalahari, and knowing one’s way around both by road and on foot, and knowing how to survive there amid many dangerous critters and other hazards, and having access to remote properties and to transportation, and knowing when one could go about unobserved, and being able to transport the evidence to certain very remote and dangerous places, etc.

And then some damned genius detective always shows up and solves the crime anyway.

So YMMV.

@therealjrn fire

@billyrogers I’ve never understood why the mobsters use car crushers at the junkyard. Far easier to use “Vito’s Funeral Home & Crematorium” instead.

@baqui63 Your best bet is probably around neuro-linguistic programming- 2600’s HOPE conference had a talk or two about this. Here’s two talks on the brain from the conference- I believe there’s a talk on NLP in a prior one:

@baqui63 the real difference is whether a LART is applied to correct the problem. Dealer’s choice on use of a clue by four or a clue by six.

@baqui63 Here’s one, though it’s old. Have you tried it?

https://forum.utorrent.com/topic/26674-bencode-editor/

@thismyusername - It’s the internet! Taken from its resting place in Big Ben!

@thismyusername It’s wireless!

@thismyusername Don’t touch it! It needs to be demagnetized first.

@thismyusername Does it go “bang” when the blinking light turns solid red?

@Kidsandliz

@thismyusername Gramma’s ashes

@aetris The answer is simple.

PURPLE

@elimanningface Computers have trouble with the metabolic breakdown and removal of Tylenol, so toxic metabolites accumulate. This could cause your drive to fill up and crash.

Instead, try a cold water bath. The effects are rapid and long-lasting.

@elimanningface It’s too hard on their livers.

@medz is this a question about R ?

Edit: nope I had to go look up what the heck Argos was. Is this some extra complex version of Spreadsheet reporting?

@medz I don’t know about Argos, but in SQL you could try the partition function

@medz I find Xmedia Recode a little better/easier for that than Handbrake or VLC on Windows. (Although for previewing/live adjustment, VLC is better.)

@walarney I quickly tried VLC, but my attempt to save the cropped video failed. I tried to set the crop filter and then save it with that filter turned on even though the preview didn’t show it applied? It was confusing.

Edit: I was able to “zoom” to crop using VLC to watch a video cropped, but it wouldn’t let me save it from there.

@medz this is from memory and it’s been a good while since I’ve dealt with it so basically I’m talking out of my ass, but iirc you don’t save videos from vlc to process them like that. You set up your filters and you set vlc to stream it to ffmpeg or whatever your encoder is. Basically instead of playing the video to the screen, you’re playing it to the encoder.

I could also have dreamt that, but it jumped out at me enough that I felt I should share.

@djslack I want to crop it and upload it elsewhere

@medz right, so with vlc you would set up the crop and then send the output to your encoder to generate the new, cropped file.

So I did a quick Google, and it is under the convert/save function:

http://raaviblog.com/how-to-crop-and-save-a-video-using-vlc-2-0-media-player/

The article is a little old but the principle is hopefully still the same.

@medz I like Avidemux (http://avidemux.sourceforge.net/) for working with single videos, and doing basic tasks like that. It’s good for things like cropping, trimming, deinterlacing, and other common video tasks. If you need to assemble a bunch of videos & clips together into one final video, you’ll need an actual video editor instead.

@daveinwarsh This must be a different Nigerian Prince than the one who gave away bracelets here a while back. That one paid for the shipping and the bracelets himself without asking for anything.

@HeadfoneJack This is a great article on setting up VLANs for a small network, and helping you understand the theory and practice behind it: https://www.alienvault.com/blogs/security-essentials/secure-by-design-the-network
I would imagine the principles would be mostly the same for a somewhat larger network, but at some point you’d want to have or need a dedicated network engineer to manage the network.
Spiceworks would be a great place to check for more information on VLANs if that article doesn’t answer your questions.

That is a great citation, @dashcloud! Thank you!

@mike808 A little something like that.

@mike808 To do it right you have to fit Donnelly nut spacing grip grids and splay-flexed brace columns against beam-fastened derrick husk nuts and girdle plate jerries, while plate flex tandems press task apparati of 10 vertpin-plated pan traps at every maiden clamp plate packet. But that’s proprietary to McMillan.

@mike808 - Start with your nofer trunnions: fire up your prefabulated amulite, then grease your lunar waneshafts and juice those differential girdlesprings to 11. Then back to the Turbo Encabulator: after being envised and cerebrally malleated by 1.5 nofer trunnions from a matitudinative 0451 GMT to an epinocturnal-proximate 1155 EST, you’ll need a spirianimating filliperative and to submersinize your hypersensinate endoderm in a 5 percent fizzionate bicarboalkali-nating Cepsy-Pola.

@mike808 - Duct tape.

@mike808 Have you tried turning it OFF, then ON again?

@f00l Condoms and foam bumpers on all hard surfaces, incuding the floor.

@f00l 2 Tequila max- remember:

@dashcloud @mike808

Wow thanks! That will fix all my problems!

/giphy tequila problems

@elimanningface Unlikely- there’s no group pulling for it, and nostalgia is confined to the 3.5’’ or 5.25’’- it would only come back if it became a meme, and then only digitally.

@dashcloud so how do you pull data off of one? Asking in all seriousness as I have research data locked up on one. Well and that even presumes it is readable this many years later.

@dashcloud @Kidsandliz are unfinished Oregon Trail games considered research?

@Kidsandliz The easiest way is to find someone else with the hardware & software and mail them the disks, and just get the data back.
Otherwise, you’d need the computer with a drive, and a way to make a copy of those disks. Then you would stick the disk copy into an emulator for whatever computer platform that disk was from, and extract the data to your actual machine then.
Also, using a serial cable and a terminal emulator to transfer to your computer could work possibly.
With a few more details, I could try to give you a better plan.

@Kidsandliz meet @2many2no.
@2many2no meet @kidsandliz

https://meh.com/forum/topics/do-you-collect-anything-1#5b2dd460cd52bd02a47d105d

/image bestbuds

@dashcloud All I have is one disk. Data entered into some stat software format in 1988 (can’t remember which kind. Will have to dig out the article and read the methods section dead slow on a PC). Need to move it to excel. (other alternative is to enter it all over again from the original hundreds of entries, and I may be missing the dependent variable papers). Of course the thing may have lost its integrity as media ages ago (been stored flat in its sleeve but I know age kills them too).

@elimanningface thanks! @2many2no is there any way to move a 1988 5" floppy with data on it (can’t remember the format but was running stats and can’t remember the program - will have to find the article and read the methods section) to something usable today and preferably switch it to excel?

@Kidsandliz All you need is the proper hardware.
A 5.25" drive will fit in a standard expansion bay.

To connect it, you will need a floppy cable (FDD cable.)

The catch is the motherboard has to have the correct connector. Most computers originally built before 2003 will have one, but the CD-R burner was becoming more common by then and hardware manufacturers started omitting floppy drives.

There are also differences in floppy drive formatting that may make reading the drive require particular software (such as Windows or Apple) but once you can read the disk, you can transfer files to newer storage by drag & drop. It probably is a good idea to tape up the write-protect notch before trying anything.

Good luck!

@2many2no Thanks. Since I don’t own a PC (and the floppy is a PC) and can’t afford to buy the equipment I guess I will need to investigate the cost of paying someone. If that is too much I guess I enter around 140,000 data points again. It is what it is.

@Kidsandliz If you take it to a computer shop, they will charge for their time, most of which will probably be finding the equipment. OTOH, if you can find a hobbyist in your area, they’ll likely do it just for the novelty of the experience.

@2many2no There is no computer shop in this town. I can’t even get my car fixed in this town (have to tow it 50 miles if it is undrivable). Can’t buy work clothes in this town. Smallest walmart I have ever seen and it’s grocery store is the smallest I have ever see and it is the biggest grocery store in this town… This town sucks (except for the cost of rent) and I am looking to get out. I doubt there is a hobbiest in this area. I will have to hunt for someone online who can do it. Thanks for the info though!

@2many2no @Kidsandliz you have a walmart in your town?? I have to drive 30+ minutes to get to my closest walmart. I live in a village of 1500 people though.

@elimanningface
01001111 01101110 01101100 01111001 00100000 01101001 01100110 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101110 01100101 01110010 01100100

@elimanningface @Kidsandliz
01001001 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 01100111 01101111 01110100 01110100 01100101 01101110 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101000 01100001 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01101100 01101111 01101111 01101011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01110101 01110000 00100000 00100000 00101101 00100000 01100110 01110101 01101110 01101110 01111001

@cf1 @Kidsandliz 01001100 01001111 01001100

@cf1 @elimanningface @Kidsandliz
01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 01100100 01101001 01110011 01100001 01110000 01110000 01101111 01101001 01101110 01110100 01100101 01100100 00101100 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101101 01101111 01110011 01110100 00100000 01100010 01110010 01101111 01101011 01100101 01101110 00101101 01101000 01100101 01100001 01110010 01110100 01100101 01100100 00101110 00100000 01000111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01110100 01110010 01100001 01101110 01110011 01101100 01100001 01110100 01100101 00100000 01100100 01101111 01100101 01110011 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00101110 00001010

@blaineg @cf1 @Kidsandliz @njfan 01011001 01100101 01110011 00101100 00100000 01100010 01110101 01110100 00100000 01000111 01101111 01101111 01100111 01101100 01100101 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01100110 01101001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100010 01101001 01101110 01100001 01110010 01111001 00100000 01110100 01110010 01100001 01101110 01110011 01101100 01100001 01110100 01101111 01110010 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00101110 00100000

@elimanningface ghosts occupy the same frequency as Bluetooth signals, so when you run over a ghost with you car, the signal gets interrupted.

@elimanningface @medz Only if you’re at a crossroads, of course.

@elimanningface @medz @OldCatLady or a crosswalk, or a ghost named Jay is walking across the street.

@dashcloud, sorry, forgot to tag you.

@dashcloud @OldCatLady - I think sideloading an OS update is pretty standard after developer options and USB debugging are enabled on the device. What might be challenging is finding the current OS image designed for your specific model. It maybe listed on the support page for your device.

@dashcloud @elimanningface @OldCatLady Depends on if the bootloader is locked.
Have you asked the manufacturer (link? name?) What about searching the android central website?

@OldCatLady Any more details on the tablet? Especially a manufacturer or the vendor who sold it?

@dashcloud It’s a Brit company, IT Tablet. I’ve had zero experience with small market manufacturers, and am trying to reassure myself that Android is Android. Is it?

@dashcloud @OldCatLady
From the Manufacturer

Can I upgrade the Android operating system on it?
No, the Android version is not upgradeable on it, and will always run on the version that you purchased it with.

More Information / Troubleshooting
We hope that this small guide helps you to resolve any issues that you were having with your tablet and hope that you enjoy your tablet experience. If this guide did not help you however or if you require more information, please feel free to contact us either through email or on the phone using the details shown below.

Email: info@ittechnologyuk.com
Phone: 0871 9418100 go to technical support on the menu

Might be time to replace 2014 technology. Especially non-upgradeable technology.

Sometimes the small guys cut corners. Like not being able to upgrade anything, so it is a one-and-done development/engineering effort. The big guys “lock down” their android so that you can’t install “unsafe” applications (or ones that bypass the security of their certified versions). The place where they do that is in the boot loader, and “jailbreaking” or having an “unlocked boot loader” means is to be able to install a new version of Android. The problem is who exactly built the “click me to install” new version of Android, and do you trust them more than the manufacturer? That’s a highly subjective question, and all sides have valid reasons to do what they’re doing.

If you need upgraded Android, and your device simply is incapable of upgrading, then ditch it and buy one that does what you need it to do. It’s that simple. Don’t get too attached to a piece of plastic and silicon. Just make sure you factory reset (and remove any add-in memory cards) the old device before you junk it. Also deactivate any licenses and logins on the device after you’ve got the new device setup. i.e. don’t leave it logged into your google account and netflix and amazon prime and … you get the idea.

@OldCatLady Judging by the little on the site, this is definitely Android, and it supports all the things you’d want it to (except updates, but that’s not surprising honestly).
Unfortunately, it’s not at all popular and has a very difficult to search name, so unless you’re prepared to invest a lot of time, it’s unlikely the tablet can be upgraded to anything newer or different.
Rooting might be possible, but it’s unclear how much use that might be.

@dashcloud @mike808 Oh crap, those are the same answers I kept reaching. I wanted magic secrets. Thanks so much. I’m probably gonna try sideloading anyway. No mfr tells me what I can’t do.

@dashcloud @mike808 I have …several… other tablets, and a little problem with letting go. This one has a large screen, good for streaming. What the heck, I’ll dink around with it. The mfr’s FB page has some links, too.

@dashcloud @OldCatLady
Sometimes, Harley Davidson is right, and you cant make their motorcycle into an aircraft carrier, no matter how much you want to do that.

I keep trying to make those $1 U.S. Treasury notes into $100 ones, and that doesn’t work either.

Let it go. Its a $30 tablet at best. That’s what? Five or six grande lattes at Starbucks? Get a new tablet that was designed to be upgraded or one that already has the Android version you want.

@mike808 @OldCatLady The best places to get info on new software versions and changing the software on your Android devices are https://forum.xda-developers.com/ and https://forums.androidcentral.com/. If you’re looking to change to a new ROM or 3rd party software, those are the places to go, and the people who would know.
In the future, Android Oreo (8.0) and on are significantly easier to get updates for because of major changes Google made.

@dashcloud @mike808 I do have newer Android tablets, and use them. This one, however, is just sitting around, so it’s fair game for whatever I want to try. I may glue rhinestones on it, too.

@dashcloud

I’m excited by Treble, especially because of what the XDA community has been able to do with it.

Unfortunately, even though devices launching with Oreo MUST support Treble, it still requires an unlockable bootloader, which not all OEMs are nice about.

It’s also nice that they have been getting other devices to unofficially support Treble.

@OldCatLady Ironically I want to roll back my OS on my Nexus 1 the current OS is so laggy it is unusable.

@PurplePawprints Didja see this:

@medz No, I didn’t because I usually ignore videos becuase Youtube’s closed captioning sucks, but I will try this. Thank you so much!

@PurplePawprints Try going to MS website and downloading a full install bundle for .NET framework. Maybe 4.5 is a recent one?

Look in the system’s installed applications to see which version(s) of .NET frameworks. Write the versions down. Uninstall them and install the most recent/highest version available from MS.

After, if it isn’t fixed, you may need to get the earlier versions you wrote down and download the full framework (for that version, e.g. 2.5, 4.0, 4.5, etc.) and install that version.

They are supposed to be backward compatible, but idiot programmers may have hard-coded their crappy software to a specific version (and its API). Alternatively, you can replace whatever junk software that requires that busted .NET library, and use more modern software that works.

@mike808 The instructions in the video that @medz posted seems to have fixed it for now, but if it happens again I will try what you’ve suggested. Thank you so much!

Side note, I realized that I typed what type of laptop it is all wrong. I couldn’t remember and went by what I thought the sticker on it said. The font that they used makes Gs, 4s, and 6s look the same. I might need my prescription checked for my glasses.

@ruouttaurmind it doesn’t seem to be a bad unit. One red flag is that the latest firmware dates from 2016, though.

It is limited to 5 VPN clients, don’t know if that is a processing limitation or a licensing one. This unit is not like Cisco Enterprise equipment that has licensing practices that are a little on the draconian side for a small business, so that’s a plus.

I perused their documents section and did not see an end of life statement for this model yet, but be aware that it’s probably coming.

@djslack for my purpose, 2 or 3 concurrent connections are about what I anticipate. I don’t see this growing in the next few years.

An EOL product doesn’t worry me as long as it continues to function after Cisco discontinues this model. I had a Global Village remote access modem many years ago, and when GV declared it EOL they sent out an automatic firmware update which disabled inbound connections.

@ruouttaurmind From a practical standpoint I am inclined to agree. The only opposing factor you may want to consider is the security side: how many vulnerabilities have been discovered since the last firmware was released? How many will be discovered ongoing during the time you intend to use the router?

The importance of this can vary with what you’re protecting behind it. If it’s a WiFi router to allow browsing with tablets/phones, you may not care as much as if it’s your main connection point for your business. Of course, your router is not your only line of defense, but it is a major one as it is the thing that’s connected directly to the internet.

I don’t mean to scare you out of it. It seems like a fine box for your needs as you’ve described them. I do want you to be aware of what you may not be getting with it, though.

Afaik Cisco/Linksys (this is from the Linksys portion of their business) has no reputation for bricking end of life products, so you should be ok there.

@djslack I know it makes only a modest difference, but all inbound connections will be from known sources (private in-home networks; no public wifi hotspots) and the Cisco configuration options seem to support a whitelist for VPN access.

I appreciate your feedback. It’s dirt cheap, so I will likely give it a go and see how it flies.

@ruouttaurmind
The entire RV small business line is EOL’d by Cisco (if that matters)- https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/routers/small-business-rv-series-routers/eos-eol-notice-listing.html .

That said, if you’re willing to spend approximately double, you can get a vastly better unit that should serve you well: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1064528-REG/cisco_rv130_k9_na_rv130_vpn_router.html
All gigabit connections, lots of enterprise-type features/capabilities, and more.

I don’t have any experience with this unit- I’ve always had pricier units with VPN builtin (mostly Sonicwall, which is vastly more expensive than these models).

@dashcloud I would gladly spend 5x as much if it meant avoiding the annual bloodletting. The few Enterprise products I’ve looked at have per seat licensing fees, and sometimes “maintenance” fees which make the whole proposition of an appliance more costly than the current remote control solution (TeamViewer) with little added benefit which I could identify. Ideally I’d spend my money up front and own the solution without ongoing cost. If that means spending more on the hardware and even paying a one-time licensing fee per seat, I’m more inclined to do that. I just haven’t found something that fills that requirement yet.

Thanks for the response. I’ll have a look at your recommendation and research ongoing costs.

@ruouttaurmind I’m not throwing shade on Cisco’s products, but for my VPN endpoint needs, I run the VPN servers on a small Synology NAS. It’s as secure as it needs to be, and it’s frequently updated; both the OS and the server software.
OpenVPN, PPTP, and L2TP are available, and the performance is limited by my network bandwidth, and not the puny processing power of the box.
I think I’m running on a DS213j, which are going for less than a couple hundred bucks (used) on Amazon.
This is a terrific solution for my needs, as it provides me with a small NAS, a USA-based VPN for when I travel internationally, as well as other great solutions like off-site backup / replication and the like.
It’s not an “Enterprise” solution, but it’s been as stable and reliable and cost-effective as one could hope.

@simssj Thanks for sharing your experience. Since I only anticipate max 2 concurrent VPN sessions, my need is far from “enterprise” level. I’m more concerned about encryption overhead affecting perceived performance, and it sounds like your solution may be in a better position to minimize that.

I’ll check it out, thx!

@simssj Have you looked at your router settings? I believe the last 3 routers I have owned had VPN service built in, I have no personal experience with enabling it.

@caffeine_dude I have. In fact, I’ve used my router as the VPN end-point before moving the service to my Synology.

While the router solution worked pretty good, I find that there are some advantages to running the VPN endpoint “inside the house” (as opposed to “at the perimiter”). Like, it’s easier to access things on my LAN, like WiFi cameras and my DVR.

And, since I have the NAS running anyway, it’s a freebie.

But, good suggestion, and for many folks, it’s exactly what they need, easy, simple, and cheap!

@ruouttaurmind I use a freemium product called LastPass. I works across different computers and I only have to remember one password or phrase.

@therealjrn TY. I know there are several PW manglers our there, but I’m fundamentally opposed to them based on the “single key to the kingdom” weakness.

This device isn’t really related to passwords, but rather adds another layer of protection in the form of a hardware key. I’m just not sure it’s actually all that secure. There have been other devices on the market which claimed 2FA, but at the end of the day were really just smoke and mirrors, easily defeated.

@therealjrn

I had that for a while, but switched to Enpass, mainly because I once got a free lifetime license. (Oh, and because it has an app for Wear OS.)

@ruouttaurmind yubikey is supposed to be technically sound and it is fairly widely used… Not sure it’s worth spending on if you don’t already know the need, as most 2FA that could accept the key will also accept authy or Google authenticator and those are free.

@djslack I recently decided to use Google Authenticator where I could. It bit me on the ass today when Woot dropped a BoC and I couldn’t log in with Amazon without bringing up the app and putting in the number. But I probably wouldn’t have won, anyway.

I’ve got most things set up with text messages or Google Authenticator (or Steam’s own authenticator). Better than just passwords.

@craigthom

I never set up my Amazon account with 2FA.

I probably should.

@djslack

Not sure it’s worth spending on if you don’t already know the need

Well, my need(desire) is to have 2FA to access my laptop. If I understand the Yubi devices correctly, they do not allow login without the hardware key. Although there are other ways to accomplish 2FA login, this seemed very convenient… just plug in the key and it’s business as usual. But… that’s assuming I understand what it does. I do not know if it actually does what I think it does, or if it has other extended features I may want to use, but the short of it is just that… logging into my laptop with 2FA in the most convenient way possible since I do it half a dozen times a day.

@ruouttaurmind

Just get a laptop which requires a blood sample each time.

@ruouttaurmind if that’s your use case the yubikey seems the most straightforward way to do it. The most widespread alternative I’m aware of is smart cards like the DoD uses, but yubikey is much more friendly for an end user without all that infrastructure.

@craigthom @PlacidPenguin I’ve been using Google’s process for my Google accounts for quite a while. And most of my banks have their own 2FA process.

But I really want 2FA for initial system login.

@djslack Yubico actually offers similar devices (the DoD bit) but for about $700.

I guess I’ll give it a shot for thirty bucks.

As always, I appreciate your expertise and willingness to entertain my silliness.

@ruouttaurmind one more comment, if you are able to lock down your laptop where it cannot be accessed without the key, make sure that you have complete and automatic backups of your data somewhere so that a lost or damaged key does not also turn into lost data.

@djslack So you heard that story, didja?

Yupper, I have an automated daily HD image backup to a local drive, and automated backup of select data to my file server.

I sent my Mom a new iPad for her birthday a couple weeks ago. Took her exactly 14 hours to get it cloud locked without any recovery options.

@djslack @ruouttaurmind

I sent my Mom a new iPad for her birthday a couple weeks ago. Took her exactly 14 hours to get it cloud locked without any recovery options.

@ruouttaurmind i finally completely understood your question and did a little digging… From the yubico for Windows hello get started guide,

Requiring the YubiKey. There is currently no way to require the YubiKey to unlock your system — you can always access your account using your PIN or password.

This may not be the thing you’re looking for (although there could be other functionality that does what you want). Windows is not really built to require a third party device for login, so almost any can be bypassed in some form or another as far as Windows login. These devices (or biometric scanners or other things) serve as kind of a proxy for a password at Windows login, more than an addition to a password like 2FA.

What you can do, however, is use something to encrypt your data that requires the yubikey to access that. See https://www.yubico.com/why-yubico/for-business/systems/disk-encryption/ - the yubikey is required to access the drive to even boot Windows, where your login is then used. This will make it where the key is required to use the computer.

@djslack Aaaahh. So it is basically smoke and mirrors RE: Windows login.

Well, apparently unless I’m prepared to move to a more secure OS like UNIX (I am not) I guess it is what it is. I had an HP for a bit with biometric scanner, but of course that does nothing to protect the hard drive. Simply remove the drive and shove it into a dock, and there ya have it. The HP crapped out after about 18 mos anyway.

I guess I’m pretty surprised Microsoft, after all these years, still doesn’t provide much in the way of secure login for Windows.

EDIT: I checked Yubico’s website to see if they had any sort of Chrome (browser) integration for better protection of my saved passwords. They do not. So I will not bother with this device.

Again, thanks for your time and expertise.

@ruouttaurmind full drive encryption is probably your best bet (MS can do this with bitlocker, included in Windows).

Here is a brief tutorial on bitlocker with yubikey: https://legallygeeky.net/?p=511

@ruouttaurmind
So, the point of YubiKey, or any two-factor authentication is that it raises the bar significantly for any attacker who wants to get into your account- they not only need your password, but they need to successfully provide the second authentication factor, and without that, it gives you a huge heads up that something has gone horribly wrong.

Yubikey is the gold standard in two-factor authentication, and is worth getting. For two-factor, from weakest to strongest is SMS/phone, authenticator codes/app, push notification, U2F key (like Yubikey or Google’s Security Key). If you really want to make sure your computer can’t be accessed without your key, the following list should get you there:
You need a BIOS/UEFI password to prevent any kind of tampering of those settings, and probably disable booting from anything but the harddrive (it’ll prevent everyone, including you from booting off of another device, which would make recovery not possible unless you go into the BIOS/UEFI first)
You need to make sure SecureBoot is on
Enable a full-disk encryption package (BitLocker or Veracrypt likely)

Also, there’s nothing wrong with a password manager- it’s a best practice now because it allows you to have vastly more complex passwords than you could ever remember, and have them each be unique.

@dashcloud @ruouttaurmind Can not an attacker just take the battery out of the BIOS to get it to default?

@dashcloud @ruouttaurmind But of course with full disc encryption they would not get far…

@therealjrn I don’t know how long it’s been since removing a battery cleared NVRAM, but it’s been a long time. Those settings stick.

@craigthom @djslack It’s a little work to switch, but I’d recommend Authy over Google Authenticator. Google’s works, but is extremely limited on even basic features. Authy works perfectly as a replacement for Google Authenticator, and is much easier to use.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was the third time I changed phones, and Google’s process was still “re-create every entry from scratch”. No backup & restore.

https://authy.com/blog/authy-vs-google-authenticator/

@djslack @ruouttaurmind

https://www.androidpolice.com/2018/07/23/googles-89000-employees-zero-phishing-incidents-since-switching-hardware-security-keys-2017/

@PlacidPenguin @ruouttaurmind hardware keys for 2fa in this time of environment (authentication to outside services) are generally well-implemented and the keys are strong security devices in this situation.

It’s protecting physical access to a device (specifically Windows) where they aren’t fully integrated.

One would think that Windows authentication has some sort of plugin architecture now that it supports both Microsoft accounts and local accounts, so this would not be hard to implement. But so far it hasn’t been.

@djslack

One would think that Windows authentication has some sort of plugin architecture now that it supports both Microsoft accounts and local accounts

I was really surprised when you cats schooled me to this. Honestly, how can Windows be taken seriously as a business OS solution with this gaping hole.

@djslack @ruouttaurmind

https://9to5google.com/2018/07/25/google-2fa-titan-security-key/

@kdemo Maybe this is what you want? https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/96810?hl=en

@dashcloud - Thanks! I’m glad to learn keyboard shortcuts for zooming.

@heartny it’s involved but you can try photorec/testdisk: https://www.cgsecurity.org/

They are command line utilities that are very powerful for reading data that otherwise isn’t readable.

@djslack Thanks. I’ll give it a try. I was looking at https://www.easeus.com/storage-media-recovery/recover-data-from-unreadable-micro-sd-card.html, but wasn’t sure about its trustworthiness.

@heartny Hopefully one of the software options above works, if not, and you’re willing to do some hardware work, there’s some good links here on doing data recovery on SD cards.
Otherwise, you can pay a data recovery group, but that’s never cheap, and may not be worth it unless the data is worth craploads or utterly unreplaceable.
https://hackaday.com/2013/08/19/rescuing-an-sd-card-with-an-arduino/
https://hackaday.com/2017/07/12/emmc-to-sd-hack-rescues-data-from-a-waterlogged-phone/
https://hackaday.com/2017/04/03/recover-your-selfies-by-your-selfie/
https://hackaday.com/2015/04/02/manual-data-recovery-with-a-hex-editor/

@heartny Recuva has worked well for me.

https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

@heartny Also, chkdsk /f /r from an admin command prompt helps in some cases.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/ambassador-guides-tips-how-tos/359981-guide-using-chkdsk-fix-corrupted-sd-card.html

@heartny Try hddrecovery.ca.
Just had him recover a flash drive. He may have the equipment to swap it to another case or read it right off the chip.

Check out his videos on youtube. Cool guy, nice as can be. FYI - he recovered my flash drive for $300. I did it because I support what he does as his hobby, and puts it up on youtube to show people how this technical work is done - its not hard, just requires practice and skill with some not cheap, but not exhorbitant specialized equipment.

@heartny yup, he does recover flash cards.
https://www.hddrecovery.ca/services/memory-card-data-recovery/

Youtube:

@PlacidPenguin If the server supports HTTP/2, and you’d like to take advantage of that (with the speed advantages it brings among other things), you’ll need HTTPs on it because no browser supports it otherwise. If you can easily do it from within the program, it might be worth it still if you access any items stored off-network.

@elimanningface two short answers:

Want a script? Powershell. Only caveat is having to either sign the script or set execution policy to allow unsigned scripts on each machine.

Want it centrally managed and automated? Running an AD domain? Group policy.

@elimanningface To expand a little on @djslack’s answer, Powershell is the best way to do what you want.
Here’s a couple of promising posts that should get you started:
http://www.itprotoday.com/management-mobility/installing-printers-powershell
Gives you some basics.
https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/1662881-install-a-printer-with-powershell
That thread seems to be someone doing something close to what you want, with some full examples, and links to other things.
Good luck, and let us know if you succeed here.

@OldCatLady I’ll jump in here and say try again. A lot of times the chkdsk screen is just precautionary if Windows was not shut down properly. A router shouldn’t cause those kind of issues, so I think you just had a scary coincidence.

@djslack Sorry, I wasn’t clear. 1.Closed down system. Disconnected old router. 2. Connected new router. 3.Turned on power strip, restarted system. Did ‘easy setup’ per instructions, which involved going to the Asus site, d/l and running their setup. Went fine, until errors started, then suddenly got the ‘repairing C drive’ screen. Powered off, reconnected old router, powered up, no error messages, ran every scan possible. Shelled out to run chkdsk. New router is haunted, and I won’t let it loose again. Next!

@OldCatLady Did you install a program on your computer that came with the router? Maybe to configure it?

If not, then it’s very unlikely the router caused the problem with your computer.

@OldCatLady I see. It’s entirely possible that the Asus software is a turd. Just about every good router should let you do everything you need via the web interface without some software. (Yes, I’m looking at you, Amplifi.)

@djslack My thoughts exactly. So no AmpliFi or Asus. Suggestions very welcome.

@djslack @OldCatLady According to the manual i just downloaded, you can configure it through the Web interface without installing software.

To log into the web GUI:

1. On your web browser, manually key in the wireless router’s default IP address: 192.168.1.1
2. On the login page, key in the default user name (admin) and password (admin).
3. You can now use the Web GUI to configure various settings of your ASUS Wireless Router.

@OldCatLady It looks like @craigthorn & @djslack have you covered on the router part, so I’ll just make one more suggestion- update your drivers & BIOS firmware.
The easiest way (especially on Windows 8 & later) is to use Device Manager, and then go to each device and click Update Driver, and then accept the defaults. The most important ones to update are the network adapters, and display/graphics adapter.

If you have a manufacturer’s support tool installed on your computer (like HP’s support tool or Dell’s support tool), those can also usually update things on your computer.
Don’t use any of the third-party tools online- there’s lots of crap there, which could cause more problems than they solve.
The BIOS/firmware update you’ll need to get from the computer vendor’s site or their support tool if that offers it.
There’s a tiny bit of risk involved with this (if the power goes out at exactly the wrong time very bad things happen), but it’s worth it.
The reason you’d want to do all of this is that bugs, crashes, and general quality fixes are included in newer versions of the drivers, and they make your computer less likely to crash, and possibly even perform a bit better.

@dashcloud @djslack @craigthorn Thanks for your input. I do know about device manager, updating drivers, downloading from vendor sites, and not touching third-party creations. I started as a Z-240 tech, way back when. I still need a different router. Linksys is my go-to brand, so I’ll see what Best Buy and Costco have.

@eonfifty two factors immediately come to mind that may contribute to a bloated app:

1. Poor programming/poor programming platform – something written in a drag and drop environment that when compiled includes a shit ton of unnecessary stuff to accomplish the simple goal at hand, or more likely

2. Inclusion of advertising platforms and other crapware.

A skilled programmer could probably code up a nice metronome in a couple hundred kb of space.

As for drives, I know that wifi drives exist. I have a WiFi thumbdrive that was on a deals thread here not too long ago. It’s great for portability.

An actual spinning hard drive needs more power so it would have to plug into something. At that point you’re really close to just having network attached storage on your WiFi.

You can also use stuff like Google drive or Dropbox for free and have access to your files anywhere without carrying anything around if you trust the vendor.

@djslack Ah, yes, bloatware. That makes sense. What irks me is that it’s always difficult to find storage space requirements in the android app store. I use the fdroid app store too, and space requirements are listed right there.
I’m going to look into the wireless thumb drives - I’m surprised they’re not more popular.
/image bloatware

@eonfifty mine is the SanDisk Connect if that helps point you in the right direction.

@eonfifty Here’s a selection from B&H Photo Video to give you an idea of what’s there: Wireless smartphone storage options

@eonfifty To add to what djslack said, there’s a third category that’s the cousin of #1: non-native UI frameworks, and heavy media resources.

If one of the metronomes uses a bunch of fancy graphics (think skeumorphic textures and stuff), they may have a bunch of high resolution pictures in there. That could account for a good slice of that 18 megabytes. If one of them is built using some non-native UI framework, there might be a bunch of third-party code included in order to render the UI. You might have the equivalent of a web browser built into the app for that.

But my money is on tons of third-party surveillance malware / advertising libraries and analytics.

@eonfifty @InnocuousFarmer @dashcloud

Curious to know how many ad networks were included.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appspot.swisscodemonkeys.detector

(There are similar apps, but this was the first one I remembered.)

@PlacidPenguin That’s a neat app.

It also says my most concerning apps are the ones that are required to make my phone functional. The metronome I installed does have two ad networks though.

@eonfifty @PlacidPenguin
The other thing is the ad networks that are part of the app require acces to your contacts and to storage and media - they can upload your phone book, all pictures, copy text messages you send/receive, your GPS coordinates (the facebook app has been doing this since you installed it or was pre-installed) - all in the name of “targeted ads”.

I avoid apps that have no reason for anynof that - like a metronome, or a flashlight app.

I don’t need to share my tempos with my friends.

But almost all apps won’t function if you revoke or do not grant them full bend over and say “Thank you sir, may I have another” permissions for total surveillance.

Alexa/google is always listening - and recording. Your camera can be turned on by these apps without notifying you too. Its a complete joke how badly we are whored out to any app developer.

@eonfifty @mike808

That’s why I constantly monitor app permissions.

I’m also happy about these rules which Google announced in December:

Even though modular app permissions have been part of AOSP since Marshmallow, and you can revoke permissions from apps which use an API <23, Google is finally cracking down.

I’m still not sure why people still feel the need to install a flashlight app. Isn’t that a standard feature?

Of course, even with all of the cracking down which Google has been doing, they still allow so many toxic app developers/apps in the Play Store.

@mike808

So does this mean that even though the metronome has no permissions, the ad networks do?

@eonfifty @mike808

In addition, if an app doesn’t work if you deny certain permissions, then just look for a replacement app.

Example: Sure, a calendar app would need permission to access my calendar, but it doesn’t need my camera.

If it uses that permission (whether it asks for it or not) even if I deny it, and it wouldn’t run without camera permission, I’d simple look for a new calendar app.

Every single app which I use, can work even with certain permissions denied.

If it were otherwise, there would be a problem with the app.

@eonfifty Like the image @narfcake did you see this one?

@eonfifty Of course that’s not possible!

Oh, wait. The NSA spent over $1 BILLION from taxpayers on this little data center in Utah … #%&&*$ <click>

@eonfifty @Kidsandliz
/wootstalker https://shirt.woot.com/offers/cats-greatest-invention

Cat’s Greatest Invention
Price: $19.00
Condition: Probably New

@mike808 Wouldn’t data encryption render that facility useless for anything other than storage? Why can’t all data be encrypted? Does it require too much time and electricity to encrypt and decrypt everything to be cost effective?
/image data center power

@eonfifty You’re assuming they don’t have the keys to decrypt everything. And save what they can’t for decrypting later. Even encrypted, who you call, when, from where, and right before or after other surveillance events occur, tells a lot about you.

Fitbit data can tell you where US bases are, where the buildings are within them (people dont run inside buildings, they run around them), how many available ready troops are stationed there, who runs with who (command and analysts usually don’t go on runs with the grunts), base perimeters, and operational actvities (people don’t exercise in the middle of an ongoing operation).

And that’s without knowing anyone’s identity.

This is Big Data run by Big Government.

@mike808 I still don’t understand why everything sent over the internet isn’t encrypted. For example, you might lock your car doors to help it from being stolen even though the factory that built your car has a spare key and criminals can use tools or brute force to gain access to your car.
/image data encryption software

@eonfifty There are several reasons.

Unlike your car keys, encryption keys are virtual, and can be copied and used without your awareness or knowledge. Key management is the hardest part and easy to botch. Particularly key sharing. If I encrypt something to send to you, you have to have a copy of my key to decrypt it.

That is separate from the “how do you know it is me that sent it” and “how do I know only you read my message” problems which are about identity (and key access controls), not confidentiality.

Encryption is often an “extra” cost, meaning competitors can deliver the same product without it for less. Once that race to the bottom starts, it cannot be stopped.

There are more, but the “lowest cost possible” driver is, IMHO, the biggest one.

What I don’t understand is why we don’t have healthcare for all, as the wealthiest country on the planet. Or a livable minimum wage. Or a rational immigration policy that aligns with national labor needs.

There are many things easy to question, but very, very hard to “fix”.

@mike808 Based on your replies, I am revising my question - Is it possible to encrypt everything that comes out of a transoceanic cable and decrypt it ala carte so long as you have the key to decrypt the segment of data you selected?
I’m thinking along the lines of room 641A,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A
but instead of intercepting and manipulating the data, it’s intercepted and encrypted. Rather than allow NSA access to room 641A, access is given to a multinational organization similar to the organizations that oversee IP addresses and domain names and such, and that multinational organization works to make sure internet traffic is encrypted and fights attempts to intercept and manipulate it.
Implementation and operation of this idea would require a lot of work, and when there is a surplus of work, there is a demand for workers. That could result in more, better paying jobs, more personal income and less personal debt, and that could allow more people access to health care.
I acknowledge your Fitbit example and accept that frequency analysis alone is always effective to some degree and can result in a lot of useful information, but that doesn’t convince me that it’s not worth trying to encrypt everything that can be encrypted for the sake of encrypting it.
/image encrypted internet cats

@eonfifty @mike808
I don’t think an organization such as you describe can exist- not with regards to trans-atlantic cables anyway. Too many trust issues there, and efforts are better spent at either end of the cable to ensure traffic is going in encrypted.
There’s a ton of legacy and old protocols still in use that make encrypting everything somewhat difficult, but web and application traffic are headed there thanks to Google, Mozilla, and Apple’s efforts.
I know VOIP traffic can be done encrypted, but someone needs to manage the certificate infrastructure, and the equipment all along the point as well. Historically, phones and phone systems have been regulated differently as well, and this is also a reason they’ve developed as they have.

@eonfifty
/youtube Series of Tubes Music Video

@Kidsandliz have Dropbox? Stick it in there then use the web interface on your phone to download. Or use something like hightail.com to email it to yourself then download on the phone.

Without syncing or an app, all options are going to boil down to uploading it somewhere then downloading it on your phone. Even with an app, that’s basically what you’ll be doing.

There are also third party sync programs that are not iTunes that will allow you to transfer the video to your phone via USB.

One more option, if you have a card reader or otg flash drive you can put on your phone, use it to transfer the video. If you don’t, that is probably more expensive than other options.

@djslack Thanks. I am only trying to do this because @matthew is requiring using a program that requires phone use. I wish he wouldn’t do that so everyone can play more easily. At least this time around I have reduced the video down to a size I can email (finally found free online programs - did it in one then had to use a different online one to do it again), but even that took major effort and repeated “shrinking”. I’ll see what happens in the morning.

@Kidsandliz You could use a USB (PC) or firewire (mac) cable and transfer the files to the phone’s storage.

Or bluetooth transfer between the phone and the computer.

@mike808 How would I do a bluetooth transfer? Turn it on with both and then?

@Kidsandliz Yes, you pair the phone to the mac. The mac probably sees the new device as a new icon on your desktop or in finder. Then drag and drop should do the do. I don’t have any apple devices, but I’m assuming the process is similar to Windows and Linux.

@mike808 Thanks for the clarification.

@djslack thanks for your help

@Kidsandliz i have seen many bad reviews for arris surfboard modems on amazon, there are a LOT of good reviews too but the bad ones scared me off so i bought a netgear cm500 instead (got it used for $25) https://www.amazon.com/NETGEAR-CM500-100NAS-CM500-Cable-Modem/dp/B00R92CEVU

it has been working great and i only have to reset the thing once every 3 months or so

thats my 2 cents a lot of the bad reviews for your 6183 are that they dont last that long
https://www.amazon.com/ARRIS-SURFboard-SB6183-Docsis-Packaging/product-reviews/B00MA5U1FW/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_srvw_btm?ie=UTF8&reviewerType=all_reviews&sortBy=recent#RM8FEKHFYVUSP

@communist Well I guess don’t last that long then is consistent with my experience if this is, in fact, in the process of breaking. Thanks for the suggestion.

@Kidsandliz you can log into the modem at http://192.168.100.1 and look at the log when you have the dropouts, it will tell you if the modem lost sync or something else happened. You can also see the channels connected and transmission speeds for each and compare between the two modems.

It’s unlikely although not impossible that your computer is responsible-since it gets those speeds on the one connection it is capable of those speeds. Make sure the WiFi on the new all in one is set to wpa2 only instead of wpa1/2 backwards compatibility mode as this can affect throughput on some devices.

@djslack Thanks. I will go look. THEY didn’t look. It is wpa2.

EDIT - that is for the Motorola. The one I am allegedly having trouble with is as a “real” Arris and is the Surfboard SB6183. Somewhere or other I have some url with all numbers to log into that modem. I’ll have to connect the thing again once I find the url (currently using theirs to see if it cuts out on and off too). Hmm will having it unplugged mean the log is gone?

@Kidsandliz For the all in one it’s probably 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.100.1. if you check your WiFi connection properties and find the IP panel, it will be the gateway address shown.

The log is not retained after powering down, but I meant you could check it after you have a dropout.

@djslack ah ok thanks.

@eonfifty I have a similar problem on my Pixel 2, but also the header/nav gets cut off.

How can I get page content to fit the width of my device’s screen?

There’s nothing you can do except maybe rotate your phone sideways. The site code would need to change. And that would probably not be a trivial change.

@katylava Yes, I do turn it sideways to read, and then back to vertical for typing. It does seem to be specific to this phone because it happens on some other sites and with different browsers.
/image that’s a bummer

@eonfifty my S7 does that with some sites, thankfully not Meh though.

Does anyone else with the ph-1 have the same issue? @ruouttaurmind

@djslack @ruouttaurmind @katylava I’m thinking it might have something to do with Android Pie.
/giphy Android Pie

@djslack @eonfifty @katylava I’m still on Nougat, and I use Firefox. I haven’t really noticed any issues? If I have time today, I’ll download Chrome again and see if maybe it’s a Chrome issue.

@djslack @eonfifty @ruouttaurmind you can duplicate it in chrome on the desktop by narrowing the screen size.

@djslack @katylava @ruouttaurmind
I fixed my display. I had to set the display size to ‘large’. Counterintuitive IMO, but it works.
/Image
/Image

@djslack @eonfifty @katylava @ruouttaurmind

So, who should the blame be placed on? Let’s blame @lichme.

My OG Pixel is running Pie, and it doesn’t have this issue.

@PlacidPenguin It was less an issue and more user error. I, for one, blame @lichme.
/image user error

@eonfifty @PlacidPenguin

Maybe your phone isn’t sending the proper user-agent string to the browser. What happens when you toggle the desktop mode view when you click the 3 dots at the top right?

@lichme
/Image
The top is Chrome in ‘desktop site’ mode, and the bottom is Firefox in mobile view.
I believe my troubles were the result of changing the default display options during my initial setup of the device. The desktop site view works as intended (almost - the right side of the header is clipped).

@djslack @eonfifty @katylava @ruouttaurmind I was just about to suggest the size of your text…good job!

@eonfifty testdisk may be able to help. Depending on whether you were doing a quick or full format, some of the space may have been zeroed out.

/google testdisk
TestDisk - Partition Recovery and File Undelete
https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

@djslack Ohh. That looks promising. If gpartd can’t help my dpartd data, I’ll try it next.

@djslack @eonfifty I would second the Testdisk plan- gparted wouldn’t be my first choice (as far as I am aware it can only recover the partition table, which while very important, isn’t your files).
Also, keep anything that’s writing to the drive that was erased to a minimum, preferably zero.

@eonfifty An update: Gparted (or gpart, which had to be installed along with gparted) was not successful in finding any data. I installed testdisk, and it’s running now. I may have to let it run all night too.
/image just an update

@eonfifty You have two problems. One is recovering the original partition table, and the other is recovering a damaged filesystem on those recovered partitions.

The tools depend on the filesystem format that was on the partition to recover any files on what’s left of them. If you have any buddies in infosec or ate LEAs with access to forensic tools (e.g. enCase), and they can use them for a non-work purpose, you might want to give them a call.

And I’ll ask the obvious question. Why don’t you just restore the image backup you made before you wiped the drive?

Clonezilla is your friend. Use it to image the raw drive (dd) and do all recovery work from that.

@eonfifty Also use Clonezilla to backup your drives regularly.

@mike808

The tools depend on the filesystem format that was on the partition to recover any files on what’s left of them. If you have any buddies in infosec or ate LEAs with access to forensic tools (e.g. enCase), and they can use them for a non-work purpose, you might want to give them a call.

I don’t know anyone like that.

And I’ll ask the obvious question. Why don’t you just restore the image backup you made before you wiped the drive?

I didn’t make an image backup because the drive was not meant to be wiped.

Clonezilla is your friend. Use it to image the raw drive (dd) and do all recovery work from that.

That is a good idea! And a good excuse to buy some new storage.

@eonfifty

I didn’t make an image backup because the drive was not meant to be wiped.

I meant the regular backup you make. You do make regular backups, right? (ProTip)

The most important backup is always the one you didn’t make, right?

I have an 8GB external seagate just for that function. I clonezilla each PC’s drives (image the partitions), and thumb drives I’m using on my router (Asus RT-AC68R) that shares them. Windows10 is almost separable from user data, but not quite. Still lots of registry junk, and user profiles must still be on the primary drive. Have to go all enterpise with AD, a dedicated Windows Server with Pro on clients, and Home version can’t do that.

Had one fail and had Erskin at hddrecovery.ca recover it ($300). Fortunately I had a 2-pack and he swapped the memory and the controller chips sacrificing the other drive in the pair.

I had a backup from November (my bad, should have imaged it more recently), so I was back up in a couple of hours, with some updating after that. The drives are my software installation repository (latest version, documentation, download URL, invoice info, license keys, etc.) for the whole house.

So I’m doing another “whole house backup” this weekend.

@mike808

I meant the regular backup you make. You do make regular backups, right? (ProTip)

I’m pretty sure you can tell I do not make regular backups. At best, I make irregular backups by dragging and dropping files from one drive to another.
I’m not yet ready to consider these files lost yet, but should they turn out to be so, it will be a learning experience.

So far, I’ve had no luck with testdisk, but I’ve only used it superficially. I’m on the fence about paying a professional to try a recovery.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@eonfifty if you have an old full drive image, you might be able to reconstruct the exact partition table (GPT and MBR are different) with gparted.

After that, you’ll need damaged filesystem recovery tools. And chkdsk is NOT what you’re looking for. You need something that can rebuild superblocks and MFTs or recover files by ignoring them (the sb & mft). I used tools like that but that was years ago.

@eonfifty @mike808 I’ve never heard that professional recovery is cheap, but I’ve also never gotten quotes. Also, for your home system possibly check out backblaze.com for automated backups ($5/month).

@eonfifty piling on with others comments re: clonezilla, that’s a huge plus one from me. With a little work you can do some things to automate the backup process to make it as painless as possible.

If you’re using a mac (and it doesn’t seem like you are), TimeMachine is your super friend.

Finally, a long time ago I had some success with recovery using Gibsons SpinRite. It’s not free, but depending on the value of the data it’s certainly affordable, and definitely a lot more affordable than data restoration services. YMMV of course.

@sammydog01 yes google “reads” your emails. i don’t know if that is the cause of your problems.

@katylava The Google Home didn’t have access to the Spotify Premium account until I changed the email address. So either they read my email or troll Spotify for gmail users.

@sammydog01 when you signed in to your Gmail account in Spotify to associate the accounts, you probably used Google authentication and automatically tied your Google account to that Spotify account. The home is tied to your Google account. So it gets your Spotify. I would expect this behavior and it probably doesn’t involve reading your emails (though they do that too).

@djslack That’s not as bad then. But they still should have asked. It’s not like I used the Home app to log into Spotify.

@djslack @sammydog01
This is why I dont use “login to some other service with your Google/Facebook/Amazon/Apple account”.

What you don’t know or have any say, is what those two parties have decided to share or allow them to do with your G/FB/AZ/APL account. Facebook is the worst of them. And dont forget Microsoft is in the mix with your Windows login, too.

It is literally two wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner and you are the sheep.

It also means that if your Google account is ever compromised, so is your Spotify and everything else tied into your Google account. Payment info on file, anyone?

Use a password manager (LastPass, Bitwarden, Dashlane, etc), and separate logins for everything to keep their risk (damage to you) from any compromise separate and minimized (decoupled in the lingo).

@djslack @mike808 @sammydog01

Which is why people should use 2FA for as many accounts as possible.

And not SMS 2FA, but rather a service such as Authy.

@djslack @mike808 I’m obviously not good at computering, but my Spotify account has a completely separate password from my Gmail account. I used a random word generator to choose it. I did not select sign in with my Gmail account, at least not on purpose. I just changed the email associated with my account and then changed the password to be safe.

Am I missing something?

@sammydog01 I assumed you did one of the things where a Google popup came up and had you authenticate to allow Spotify access to your Google account.

If you did no such thing, you might ought to ask Google CS how it came to pass that your Google account took over your Spotify. But it may take a while to get an answer.

@djslack @sammydog01 The Google customer service ph # is 1 650-253-0000. Call them, talk to them, see if they can help you with this issue.

@djslack @sammydog01 Try 1 415-736-0000 instead. It’s their San Francisco CS number.

@sammydog01 Do you have only 1 email account? I have at least three, 1 personal, 1 professional, & 1 junk account. If you are going to cover family members, add new email accounts. And not though GMail.

@djslack I got an email at the gmail address asking to confirm that it’s mine and clicked the link. I have to do that most of the time when I change my email so I didn’t think it was a problem.

@rtjhnstn That’s the problem- I had the account on my junk email for almost a year and switched it to my more secure gmail. I just didn’t realize it wasn’t secure from Google.

@djslack @rtjhnstn Totally not gonna call them just to bitch about how much I hate them. I found a button to unlink the Home from that Spotify account so I’m set. I’m just really annoyed and mom is disapointed. And I don’t really want to pay $120/year to make her slightly less disappointed. Did I mention I’m a disappointment anyway?

@sammydog01

Did I mention I’m a disappointment anyway?

I’d fare significantly worse then.

@kevin8er A partition manager. You want to make the boot partition active on the second drive and deactivate it on the first. You probably want to swap the drive cables inside and reassign the drive letters to swap them as well.

I like the free version of the minitool.com partition manager for a Windows gui.

You can also do this with a bootable thumb drive with gparted ( gparted.org ) on it, but it’s a Linux X11 based GUI and might not be at all familiar to you. That said, clicking on stuff is probably enough to get you through it.

Any reason you’re not upgrading to Win10? The only reason I had was using WMC to record TV, and the SiliconDust DVR won me over. Never looked back.

@kevin8er @mike808 Although all that can work, it’s probably not necessary, especially opening the case and moving cables around.

This might be easier, but requires creating a Win 7 system repair disc.

1. Go into bios and take the drive with 32 bit win 7 out of the boot sequence then disable it.
2. Boot to Win7 repair disc and run startup repair. This should see only the drive with 64 bit win 7 and write the necessary boot files for it.
3. Verify it can boot directly to 64 bit after repair.
4. Reboot to bios, reenable drive with 32 bit, but verify it is still not in boot sequence.
5. Reboot to 64 bit win 7 and format 32 bit drive.

KuoH

@ruouttaurmind check the settings for hardware acceleration in chrome. Sometimes having that on can make it act like that.

Ram upgrade shouldn’t have anything to do with it, but sometimes these logic machines do illogical things.

@ruouttaurmind Here are the first two troubleshooting steps I would take:

Remove the added memory and see if the problem persists.

Check to make sure you didn’t bump something else.

Just because the memory is name brand from a reliable source doesn’t mean it can’t be bad out of the box. Or that you didn’t zap it by putting it in without proper ESD protection.

And while I’m thinking about it, and this isn’t directed at you but at the world in general, touching something metal is not proper ESD protocol. You don’t want a GOOD ground, since that can cause a rapid high-voltage discharge; you want a mediocre ground that will discharge slowly. ESD-preventing mats and wrist straps have resistance.

In my few decades of experience ESD damage is rare, but it happens.

@craigthom Oddly though, this only occurs in Chrome. My memory intensive applications like Photoshop, Premier and InDesign all run smoothly.

I’ll try replacing the memory tomorrow. BTW, I have a floor mat, bench mat and wrist strap on my bench. I frequently fuss about with the electronics inside my drones and figure better safe than sorry.

@craigthom @ruouttaurmind
Try launching chrome without any extensions. It could be a corrupt extension.

Or install a new, fresh download of Chrome in a different directory.

Or uninstall/reinstall Chrome and test as you add back each extension.

@ruouttaurmind Is your AV and your graphics drivers updated? Apart from bad memory, those are usually the culprits on bad performance.
Also, check your extensions, especially any that would be checking every page (like security, link scanner, or AV plugin).

@ruouttaurmind while it seems unlikely in your circumstance, it’s worth verifying that that RAM you replaced is the same speed/specs. While it might be “compatible”, it’s possible (but unlikely) that it’s slower. How that could possibly affect Chrome and only Chrome is beyond me though.

@therealjrn Did you buy it a drink?
/image buy it a drink

@therealjrn Also, this forum: https://adblockplus.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=43310
led me to: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/3296214
The forum folk say you have to “reset” Chrome following the instructions located at the Google support link.

@eonfifty Is your phone rooted by any chance? And I wouldn’t worry about adding people.

@FeralRants The phone is not rooted…yet. Ok on adding strangers. I’ve given and gotten gifts, so things are good.

@eonfifty It could be your VPN is telling their servers you are in one place and the phone’s GPS is telling them you’re in a completely different country.

Or worse, some minor library or service they use does and they have no idea about any of the dependencies that exist or break among all the various outsourced, ad-based, monetized, surveillance, and open source APIs and services they use in apps these days.

Maybe you’ll get lucky and they’ll guess what the fix is and get it right sooner or later.

@mike808 I’ll keep my fingers crossed
/image fingers crossed

@ruouttaurmind Imma big fan of the Chromebook. For school kids, for work, as entertainment devices…I’ve kind of moved away from my Chromebook but their simplicity is very attractive to me.

I wonder about the hardware on your Toshibas, such as the DVD-RW optical drives. I don’t think I’ve seen a Chromebook with one. I found this article about loading up the Chrome OS https://www.howtogeek.com/217659/how-to-get-a-chrome-os-like-operating-system-on-any-pc/ but it is just an introduction really. Will the DVD-RWs work under Chrome?

I went on a Linux kick awhile ago during the Windows Vista debacle and found it pretty functional for everything I needed to do. The siren song of Windows 7 drew me back in though so I’m out-of-date there.

Have you considered Linux to revive your machines?

@ruouttaurmind Oh yeah, on the batteries, I’ve watched YouTube vids of people cracking into them to replace the cells–that might be kinda fun! Hopefully more knowledgeable people like @dashcloud might weigh in.

@therealjrn I guess I don’t really GAF if the optical drives work. The systems will essentially become thin clients for accessing web based stuff. The same applies to the batteries… I’m not concerned if they don’t hold a charge. The system can still be used like a desktop in a compact package.

As far as LINUX, that boils down to an acceptance and support issue. Many people will become intimidated by just the idea of LINUX. The support bit is about making those day-to-day things go right. “How do you…?” with something running on ChromeOS is an easy answer, whereas “How do you…?” in Arch or Red Hat or Debian? Not likely their neighbor’s “computer genius kid” can help with that. These are completely non-tech types who are easily intimidated by newness and everything “non-standard”. You should have seen the struggle I went through to convert the office from Microsoft Office to Libre. Or when I switched to WordPress for our website.

@ruouttaurmind In light of this information, I fully approve of your project. From a support standpoint, Chrome is the way to go.

I had a friend who I was volunteer support staff for his home computer–Despite my best efforts, and repeated cautions from me the man could not not stop downloading porn and installing special “viewers”. I had to resign from his support team because he kept on downloading and installing virus’s.

@ruouttaurmind this sounds like a good use for old hardware. If you have compatibility issues with chrome, try Linux Mint. Linux has gotten a lot friendlier than it used to be, and if it’s really just a shell for a web browser putting a shortcut to chromium or firefox on the desktop should alleviate the “how do I” questions.

You also may be able to find battery packs cheap enough if you are interested in them having battery power.

@djslack

putting a shortcut to chromium or firefox on the desktop should alleviate the “how do I” questions.

Good point. I expect most LINUX distros have some way to automatically launch stuff. If I set the browser to auto-start, that’s at least a plus.

I’ll try Neverware’s thingy and see how it goes with Chromium, then decide how to proceed from there. I just don’t want to put a bunch of time into these only to discover the performance is unusable (exactly the problem with their current Win Vista configuration).

@ruouttaurmind good idea. I suggest taking it one step further.

Make a company “portal” with links to Google docs, webmail, and the other resources a worker needs and have the browser auto launch to it full screen. Then people can’t get lost

@ruouttaurmind You can also likely remove the optical drives and get a replacement slim SATA drive tray to drop in a 2.5" drive or a cheap 120GB SSD. Replace any primary/internal 2.5" drives with SSDs as well. It will really affect performance in a good way for that vintage on machine.

I’m sure there are teardown vids on YouTube to replace the batteries. If only we knew the model numbers…

@mike808 @ruouttaurmind The specs seem to correlate to a Toshiba Satellite L355-S7915.

Two screws on the bottom, remove the cover, and the drive can then slide out.

120gb SSDs can be had for under $20 these days; 250gb under $30. They’ll be the slower DRAM-less variety, but they’re still way faster than a spinning disk from 10 years ago.

@narfcake @ruouttaurmind

120gb SSDs can be had for under $20 these days; 250gb under $30. They’ll be the slower DRAM-less variety, but they’re still way faster than a spinning disk from 10 years ago.

/giphy Eggs Zachary

@ruouttaurmind @therealjrn Hopefully you know that there are companies who offer supported versions and paid support/migration efforts for LibreOffice: https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/professional-support/.
Also, I would totally give the ChromeOS thing a try- you’ll also want to adjust some stuff in the BIOS to make the device boot faster (you’ll want any virtualization things on, DEP/NX/No Execute Bit set on, disable any devices you don’t want to save on power & boot time if they are boot devices, and then adjust the boot order to the USB first, hard drive second).
I’ve also heard about this: https://webconverger.com/ which is literally a web kiosk product. The free version should do what you want.
Let us know how the process went!

@narfcake

The specs seem to correlate to a Toshiba Satellite L355-S7915.

The Google fu is strong in you.

@dashcloud

Hopefully you know that there are companies who offer supported versions and paid support/migration efforts for LibreOffice

It wasn’t really a matter of the migration, it was a matter of user acceptance. Teaching the old dogs that new tricks don’t always require learning new tricks. In other words, everything we use spreadsheets and word processors for is basically plug-n-play between MS and Libre Office. And we do not do anything fancy a few not-very-complex spreadsheet macros and the word processor editing tools is the most complex things we use it for.

I had to spend a little time with a couple legacy spreadsheets correcting some minor differences between MS and Libre, but probably 99% of our documents open and function fine. We continue to use the default setting to save in MS format for all our documents for ease of portability when sending documents outside the office. It was just the “new” bit which caused a stir. Combine that with the mass hysteria of panic and it became a thing.

All that was 4 years ago. Now that it’s all in the past everyone agrees it was a non-event.

Now the migration from QuarkXPress to Adobe InDesign is another story entirely…

I would totally give the ChromeOS thing a try

It’s on my agenda for this weekend. I have tons of older equipment which could be put back into service if this experiment flys.

@narfcake

120gb SSDs can be had for under $20 these days; 250gb under $30.

Newegg has a deal on Kingston A400 240GB right now. Two for $56.

@ruouttaurmind I’m really fascinated by the fact you were able to convert an office to LibreOffice- I had thought about it, but like lots of people, Outlook was the reason people kept the suite (now the online client is just about as good, so that’s not an issue).

@dashcloud I had a 50/50 mix of Win/Mac workstations. Outlook had it’s ups and downs on the Mac platform, so we never really embraced any of it’s extended features or the calendar. Switching to Thunderbird Mail was easy. Particularly with the once-powerful and reliable Thunderbird migration utility (I’ve heard mixed reviews about it in it’s current flavour). We use Google Calendar for all the scheduling stuff, so I didn’t have the challenge of the Outlook calendar legacy.

I did the Thunderbird migration before I let on that I was heading towards Libre. I let the email client dust settle before leaping on with the rest of the project. except for user grumbling because it was new, the migration was flawless. I had it easy because I tend to select separate tools rather than integrated solutions. I’d rather have one function crap out than lose five functions when one program chuffs up.

@ruouttaurmind Or $27 for a Crucial BX500, 240gb.
https://smile.amazon.com/Crucial-BX500-240GB-2-5-Inch-Internal/dp/B07G3KRZBX/

I will note that this is already a higher price than a couple days ago.

@ruouttaurmind So, if you are interested in some more in-depth upgrades, folks have apparently had success upgrading the processor in that laptop:
http://www.cpu-upgrade.com/mb-Intel_(chipsets)/GL40_Express.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/advice-on-toshiba-sat-l355-s7905-cpu-upgrade-please.552271/
Notebookreview has an awesome forum if you’re going to get into the BIOS modding scene.
You might want to upgrade the WiFi on the laptop- don’t really have any good recommendations there for wireless AC stuff.

OWLS! TOWELS! JOWLS! AWESOME!

@dashcloud I was intrigued by the notion. I just finished checking all my obsoleted equipment, but nothing will fit that’s any better than what’s in these now.

@JnKL At this hour, you’re probably limited to Walmart.

What’s your provider’s speed? I say that because IMHO, there’s not a whole lot of need to spend $$$ for 802.11ac if your connection to the outside world isn’t even 50 Mbps. Any 802.11n would be more than sufficient already.

@narfcake our provider uses fiber optic and the last time I did a speed test a few months ago, it was well over 50. And I won’t be getting anything until Friday so I can look around.
Just found my old results 78 and 93.

@JnKL In that case, yeah, opt for 802.11ac, then … which means your options are probably limited from a local WM.

I gave up on Amazon results. You want to try there?

@narfcake doesn’t N go up to 300 or 450mbps depending on the model? I don’t know that ac is needed for <100mbps.

Then again, ac has come down a lot in price. This is pretty cheap and good to a gigabit over WiFi (although its wired ports are 100mbps only): https://www.walmart.com/ip/Linksys-AC1000-Smart-WiFi-Router/406400685

@JnKL budget 802.11ac/gigabit options from Walmart include:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Amped-Wireless-High-Power-Touch-Screen-AC1750-Wi-Fi-Router-TAP-R3/46412242 - this looks interesting, I have no experience with this brand though
https://www.walmart.com/ip/TP-Link-Archer-C7-AC1750-Wireless-Dual-Band-Gigabit-Router/26840339
https://www.walmart.com/ip/D-Link-AC1200-MU-MIMO-Wireless-Wi-Fi-Router-Smart-Dual-Band-Easy-Setup-Parental-Controls-DIR-842/49917175

TP-Link and D-Link may be second tier brands but I’ve never had a bad experience with their products. Netgear and Linksys are top level brands you’ll commonly find at big box stores and you generally won’t go wrong with their products either.

@JnKL Costco has thr Netgear Nighthawk ac1900. Also, I’m partial to Asus and my trusty RT-68AC. I’d get a newer model and put Merlin firmware on it if I was upgrading it.

With that bandwidth, you want at least 3 antenna channels to stream 4K content since you’ve got the pipe. I get 2MB/sec (20Mbps) from AT&T, and stream HD fine over AC. Separate your 5ghz AP and keep the bgn devices (printers, older, burner android phones and tablets) on their own 2.4Ghz band or it will slow your 5GHz devices. The routers only go as fast as the slowest device on the network because wifi is a shared radio network.

@mike808 @djslack @narfcake thanks for chiming in. I appreciate your suggestions.

@ruouttaurmind Did you try access by IP? If the result is still the same, then it’s very likely FW or sharing settings on PC1. Try sharing with full access for everyone or disabling simple file sharing.

KuoH

@kuoh So I would connect to:

\\[ip address for PC1]\[sharename]

Is that correct? If so, no joy there either.

@kuoh @ruouttaurmind Is PC1 Win 10 Home edition? I don’t know anything about file sharing but I think Win 10 Pro is supposed to make file sharing easier or something.

@therealjrn Both PC1 and PC2 are Win10Home. Both are identical hardware and nearly identical software. The only exception: PC1 has RemotePC host installed because the person that uses it works strictly out of the office. I’ve considered that RemotePC is doing something wonky to screw with file sharing, but extensive interwebs searching has yielded nobody else complaining.

@ruouttaurmind So did you actually enable sharing on that folder with permissions for everyone? Also the same username/password has to be on both PCs for passthrough authentication to work.

KuoH

@ruouttaurmind :frowny_face:

@kuoh I did enable sharing for everyone. As far as authentication, I planned to login using the Admin credentials, just the way I did when testing the reverse connection (PC2 being the share host, PC1 connecting; works perfectly). I don’t even get to enter credentials. I’m turned away by the “network path not found” failure.

Pinging @dashcloud

Pinging @djslack

@ruouttaurmind Is the Server service running on pc1? You can browse to other shares just fine with only the Workstation service running. Run a port scan from pc2 to verify pc1’s fw is actually off.

KuoH

@ruouttaurmind Are “workgroups” still a thing these days? It was probably Windows 7 or earlier, but I had a weird sharing issue where I had to ensure both PCs were on the same Workgroup/domain.

Do both PCs have the same windows updates?

Beyond that, you could look under Control Panel > Turn Windows Features On and Off and compare PC1 to PC2 to see if PC2 has more stuff checked in terms of file sharing settings.

@medz @ruouttaurmind what medz said about workgroups could be the case.

Also can you ping pc1? It might actually be that it cannot be found for some weird reason.

What happens if you go to Run (Win+R) and type in \\<pc1 IP address>?

@kuoh Yes, verified Server Service is running

@djslack WTF. I cannot ping PC1’s IP, and performing the Run command you suggested returns “cannot access” message.

What in the world is going on here! Everything on my network runs TCP/IP v4 and nothing else. From inside PC1, it acts like it’s a functional member of the network. It can get to file servers, printers, PC2’s share point, and full internet access. But from outside PC1 it’s like it doesn’t even exist. This is a new one on me.

If I didn’t know better, I would start to believe even though I’ve disabled firewall, it seems to have clenched up just like firewall is set to extreme protection mode or something.

@djslack @ruouttaurmind Did you disable it for the right network zone? Check whether the network is identified as public or private and make the FW is disabled for that zone. Also check for other installed AV software like Mcafee or Symantec.

KuoH

@ruouttaurmind Are you running static IP addresses? If so, ensure that the netmask is correct on both machines.

If that doesn’t work, eliminate firewall issues as a possible problem.

Boot into safe mode with networking. Windows 10 has made this a real PITA but see https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode

See if you can ping it then. If so you’ve got some firewall issues.

@ruouttaurmind Win 10 after a certain point (probably after Wannacry got loose), made some changes to SMB- what everyone uses to share files on Windows. I don’t think you can have anonymous guest accounts anymore- you’ll need an account (probably with a password) on the remote system.
If you weren’t doing two Win10 systems, I’d tell you to make sure your device isn’t SMB1-only- Windows 10 automatically removes the SMB1 feature if it’s unused for a certain amount of time (I think 90 days or so). You can re-add this, but it’s old, slow, and riddled with security issues.

@kuoh I completely disabled the firewall across the board, uninstalled Norton (not just disabled, but removed entirely; only Defender firewall remains but disabled).

@djslack Using DHCP served from the router. Firewall already disabled (see above paragraph). I will try Safe Mode in the morning. Good tip.

@dashcloud Assuming I login with PC1 Admin credentials, I shouldn’t need any other user accts, correct? Of course I cannot even get to the login failure bit because no response from PC1 at any level including pings.

Before I left I began copying data from my file server to PC2 as a temporary solution. I’m leaving town early Friday morning and have to have something working before I leave Thursday night. Since I’ve proven PC1 can access shares hosted on PC2, moving data to PC2 and temporarily hosting from there should buy me the 2 weeks I need until I’m back in office and ready for round 2 of this battle.

All this started because someone innocently upgraded Adobe InDesign CC from 2017 version to 2019 version. Apparently Adobe changed something networking related because now InDesign crashes when working on files hosted on my file server. Oddly, SMB shares still work correctly. Contacted Adobe for support, but their party line is “remote data is not supported by Adobe InDesign”. The most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of.

@ruouttaurmind
Here’s some ideas to try for the weird networking issue. Maybe something got corrupted on your system somehow? https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/fix-corrupted-windows-10-installation/
The first two should be easy enough to do.

@djslack @kuoh @ruouttaurmind There’s a range of things you can try to work-around Adobe InDesign suddenly crashing on remote shares, but they’re a bit weird- (SMB1/SMB3 black magic powershell, iSCSI, etc).

@dashcloud @ruouttaurmind I had to do that smb1 thing to connect to my router’s USB drive

@dashcloud @medz @ruouttaurmind Same here. Asus firmware doesn’t support SMBv3, just SMBv1.

You need to enable it manually in the windows features/components settings.

@ruouttaurmind There is a way to setup sharing - you create a common network account and the machines share using the common network account credential. I’ll see if I can find the walkthrough and lost the URL.

Another thing that could be kinking the works is your router could have a security “isolation” feature turned on, or you could be using a managed switch that has a similar VLAN isolation feature enabled.

@ruouttaurmind Did you ever get this figured out?

He’s on the road right now @dashcloud. He’s posted from the Oklahoma Plains most recently.

@hanzov69 Welcome, fellow necroposter.

You solve your problem by starting a fresh new thread using that thicc “ADD TOPIC” button at the bottom of the main forum page.

Hi there friend. The very much online tetrad of @tHumperchick, @Ignorant, @narfcake & @RiotDemon requests of you to complete an AMA before posting sketchy links please.

Thanks @therealjrn for always flagging/tagging the spam. It really helps!

@mikibell SMS Backup+ in the Google Play store.
You will have to setup an “App Password” in your Google Account for it. Name it “SMSBackup+ on (daughter’s name) S7”. So you know where you used that password and for what.

You’ll need to use the “login” method with the IMAP server, since Google disabled OAUTH2 (due to other app abusers).

You then setup a filter to tag and autoread/archive the incoming SMS messages as email into a separate tag/folder just for them. So they dont show up as new, unread email in your inbox.

If your kid texts a lot, expect a lot of 100+ message threads in that folder. Almost all of it content-free.

If you’re looking to back them up to transfer (i.e. backup/restore) them all in one file, thats probably a different app, since I don’t use SMSBackup+ for that or in that way.

@mike808 thank you!!

@mikibell Does she already have the phone set for cloud backup? Page 117 here of the manual: https://www.att.com/support_static_files/manuals/Samsung_Galaxy_S7_edge_G935A.pdf
Otherwise, to directly backup things from your phone, you could try Samsung Smart Switch- it looks like you can backup to a PC: https://www.samsung.com/global/galaxy/apps/smart-switch/

@mikibell FYI - if she loses/changes the phone, you can just revoke the App password and create a new one for the replacement. Because it is its own password and you pick which google services (gmail) it can access, you can change your real password at any time and not worry about having to synchronize it on the S7.

@Kidsandliz Doesn’t a brand spanking new PC cost less than that?

@sammydog01 I’d guess, although haven’t priced them so don’t know by how much, can’t use totally bottom of the line due to use of a couple of programs (but sure don’t need gaming level or major video editing level). I did buy a used PC for $25 at a used (city thrift) store that booted fine and was only a couple of years old but was password protected and when I reset it found it had other (expensive) issues.

I have used macs since the 128k machine when the choices were IBM junior, apple 2e and mac. I had that, then a classic, then a G3, then a laptop of what version I forget then a mid 2013 Mac Air. Everything I have is Mac standard including an expensive stats program I bought several years ago with an education discount so there are switching costs I’d need to add in. This mac with an external monitor would solve the switching costs for some of the software (at least for a couple of years anyway), but I’d have to buy office and a couple of other things if a PC was my primary computer. Haven’t priced that since an under $100 external monitor is more in the budget at the moment and would be less than either a new PC or a used Mac.

If it is just the cord that is $12.75 plus 4 tools that total about $30 and, according to the directions anyway, about an hour to an hour and a half of my time (27 steps to do and then reassemble) which would be best case if I could be sure it is just the monitor cable. The screen alone is around $100-125 but the directions on how to swap that out looks pretty intimidating including things like pry off the glued on bezel without bending it… Makes me hesitate a bit to try that. Years ago I took 2 broken G3 laptops I bought from university surplus and made one working laptop out of them (one didn’t turn on and one had a broken screen) but I just plain got lucky with that and things weren’t packed so close together nor all glued, etc. together as they are now. The cable looks pretty fool proof, the screen not so much so.

@Kidsandliz If you let me know your Macbook’s model number- https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201862 me or someone else can provide you some more specific guidance.
The symptoms you’re describing sound like solder issues, sort of like the Nvidia issue on old Macbook Pros.
For the external monitor, you can have different sizes for the laptop screen vs the external screen- there’s just a dead zone on the laptop side if your external screen is higher resolution where the mouse won’t cross over.
Here’s the used Macbook Airs on offer from OWC: https://eshop.macsales.com/configure-my-mac/macbook-air

@dashcloud

MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2013)
Model Identifier: MacBookAir6,2

So all it might need is some soldering? (if I am lucky that is).

The dead zone is going to end up, eventually being the entire laptop screen LOL (not).

Thanks.

@Kidsandliz The cable’s cheap, everything else is not.
Here’s the stuff iFixit is selling for that model of Macbook Air:
https://www.ifixit.com/Store/Mac/MacBook-Air-13"-Mid-2013
Here’s a question that seems to be similar to yours:
https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/234138/Horizontal+lines+across+laptop+screen…

Maybe try resetting the SMC & PRAM ?
Details in some of the answers here: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/common-macbook-air-problems-and-how-to-fix-them/

@dashcloud Thanks. I have already reset those (so has apple) more than once, including in the last couple of days and no change. What I did do yesterday was screw around with the resolution on the screen and surprisingly today (yeah I know correlation is not causation) the only problem I have is sometimes a strip of vertical lines (top to bottom) about 2" wide - all in the same spot though each time so that isn’t good I’d suspect. Might some of that then be a software glitch I reset changing the resolution around while not connected to an external monitor (when connected to one in the apple store it was screwed around with but that changed nothing then).

That thread, in one of the comments mentioned that the signaling system had changed - now using a DisplayPort Vs LVDS and thus a cable wouldn’t fix the problems and the symptoms are different from the LVDS loose cable (which is what someone guessed and I was thinking). I googled and it looks like in 2013 (my computer is mid 2013) apple changed to a display port. But then another article said that they still used the LVDS internally. No idea who is right nor how to tell. Don’t want to spend close to $50 on tools and the part if changing the display cable isn’t going to have anything to do with the problem. As the after market place said $89 to diagnose the problem, I’d like to walk in there knowing what the problem is (I’ll attempt the cable, too chicken to pry off the glued on screen bezel to swap out the screen).

@dashcloud So I noticed something interesting (might be a coincidence and not a cause/effect relationship). After running through all the resolution sizes for the screen the problem went away for a while. It came back and I ditched it again cycling through all the screen resolutions. What’s your best guess/ Coincidence, indication of the root of the problem being software,…the wicked fairies are playing games…?

@Kidsandliz I’m kind of out of my element here- I wish I had better advice to give you.

@dashcloud No problem!! I appreciate the help you have given. Heck apple has given me several conflicting explanations. I have been looking non-apple repair places where I can take my computer when I have the cash to see what they think the actual problem is. The kids working at the apple store here didn’t seem to know what to do when their software diagnostics they run don’t give answers.

You will laugh at this - went to apple as my on SE phone the camera shutter noise was gone as well as the google maps voice (apple maps worked). So the so called “genius” ran his diagnostics, couldn’t find a problem so said it must be a software problem. I asked him to see if his phone had the same issue. It did. So on the way out the door I asked a sales person to see if she had that problem on her phone. She swipes up mine and shows me the volume there was off (I didn’t realize that operated independently of the buttons on the side of the phone since they affect volume as well). Seriously??? A sales person solved my problem and the so called genius bar person didn’t even check that? At least I learned something new.

@dashcloud Well I have figured out that when you have the lines, the lines don’t show up when you take a screen shot it is definitely the screen going out. Had sort of figured that out when it was hooked to an external monitor and was fine but this is additional evidence.

@Kidsandliz Did you see this Macbook Air deal? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-MacBook-Air-11-6-Core-i5-5250U-Dual-Core-1-6GHz-4GB-128GB-SSD-MJVM2LL-A-/163403455527

@dashcloud Holy crap that is cheap! Thanks. Has an 11" screen which is really small - especially since I need to operate with 3-4 documents open at once grading, and at least 2 when posting in the online classroom, but better than on my way out 13" screen price wise with respect to fixing the screen…

@dashcloud There’s been a slew of good deals over on Woot lately too.

@dashcloud @therealjrn I’ll have to pay attention over there too. Thanks. Since I am pretty broke I try not to tempt myself by looking at sites selling things but I guess that is sort of a mistake if I need something and am missing good deals.

@dashcloud @Kidsandliz Get the 11 inch screen and a pair of reading glasses?

@sammydog01 More like need a giant magnifying glass . Actually at the moment by flexing the top left of the screen away from the keyboard and pushing in several inches from that and at the same time pushing down on the outside right edge on the keyboard half I can make the problems go away for a while. I am thinking maybe the cord is crimped in the hinge (found a good article online). So I am hoping either taking that apart and making sure it is put back in flat or replacing just that will fix the issue. The cord is $12.75. I talked a repair shop in to letting me try to do it in their place, as long as I buy a cord from them if re-seating it doesn’t work, so I can borrow the tool. Fingers crossed.

So I replaced the cord. Not as hard as I thought it would be. Unfortunately didn’t fix the problem so it looks like it is the screen going out. Sigh.

@UncleVinny Hmm. That sounds very useful. I usually just scroll and scroll.

Windows Notepad is also affected by the character switch. Edge is not. Word is. Firefox is. Windows search bar is not.

This is maddening!