You may know that Microsoft offered a free or discounted upgrade to Windows Vista for computers purchased between October 26th, 2006 and March 15, 2007. The exact terms were set by each manufacturer for each of their systems sold with Windows XP, with different Vista versions available based on whether you got Windows XP Home […]

We are placing four computers in our new youth facility for web browsing, homework help, etc., and I’m looking at options for securing the computers.  The software I know of (but have never used) is called Faronics DeepFreeze.  I thought I heard about a better alternative to this software on the Casting From the Server […]

Well, this week I’m moving our Parent Pager Plus nursery check-in system to its location in our new building, to be up and running by Sunday.  We have six stations moving about half the distance across our building.  Each station is currently on a 4′ long folding table, with the computer, network switch, and battery […]

I have a problem. Hardware hasn’t really been tracked here before, and I’d like to start doing that. At least at the level of desktop and/or LCD monitor, the two most costly and most likely to be “lost” items. I’ve never really found a solution for this that I like. For one, I like free, […]

We just put in a new core network with all-new switches, along with an extensive wireless network, as part of our new building addition program. In order to determine the best locations to place wireless access points (13 total), we needed to do a site survey. I researched several software tools, and most of them […]

I’m contracted out to another office one day a week to work on their computers like I do at Lakeview. Usually I’m there on Thursdays, but this week it was today, Wednesday. As an IT guy, I’m used to hearing from people when things don’t work. I’ll get compliments on how well I’m doing after […]

Most people think that when they use traditional VPN technologies, such as PPTP, L2TP, and/or IPSec, that they are opening their network to a full, unfiltered connection from a computer, which is especially bad for a home computer, with unknown anti-virus and anti-spyware status, connected to a work network. This is true. However, with a […]

I’ve installed Microsoft Office 2007 on my personal laptop and desktop, because I get it for free as a student at the college where I’m taking classes. It’s taking me a little while to get used to some of the new stuff, especially the Ribbon, and I’ve had a few times where I know what […]

The official WordPress development blog is reporting that WordPress version 2.1.1 was compromised by a malicious hacker and anyone who downloaded that version in the past several days needs to upgrade immediately to version 2.1.2. Many more details at that link; I checked the two files they mentioned (feed.php and theme.php in the wp-includes folder) […]

Trace Pupke wonders about using DHCP or Static IPs on his network, especially in regards to DHCP security. We use DHCP, and I wouldn’t think about trying to manage static IPs, it would be a nightmare. Eventually my plan is to use the new HP ProCurve switches we just got (more coming about those sometime […]