Desktop and Laptop Specs for Home Users

Many of my friends are buying laptop and desktop computers for their kids and spouses for the holidays. I am constantly being asked what I recommend, so I thought I would recreate the specs I like here and then just refer them to my site.

Let me start by saying that I recommend Dell over all other computers. The reason is simple; support! They have the best support I have encountered, and that goes for business sales and personal sales as well. They stand behind their product and that means something to me. And by the way, I am not getting any commissions from them.

For a laptop I recommend at least the following specificications:
Processor: A Dual core of at least 1.6 or higher
Memory: 1GB
HardDrive: 160GB
Wireless: 802.11 a/b/g/n

For a desktop, I recommend the following:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 (2.20GHz)
Memory: 2GB
HardDrive: 320GB
Graphics Card: Best you can afford

These are just what I would look for if I were buying one for myself. Many of the stores are running fantastic deals right now, so certainly shop around and look for the highest specs for the lowest price, but processing speed and memory are key for almost all users, so don't be cheap in those areas.

Searchers Beware

I am about to send out an email to all of my users, warning them to be very careful when they do a Google search.

I many different blogs this week about this problem. Alex Eckelberry over at Sunbelt blogged about this on Monday drawing much attention to the issue. Alex's article showed how a search on some common tech terms led to several exploits that could infect a system that is left vulnerable.

According to an article posted last night over at InformationWeek it seems that Google has deleted many of the malicious pages, but that the other popular search engines are being targeted as well.

This just serves to remind all us tech folks to keep telling our users that they simply have to make sure their operating systems are up-to-date, that they have anti-virus programs installed on all their PCs, and that they are always careful about web sites that they visit. I will have to be sure to also email this warning to all of those "non-paying" customers I have like Mom and Dad.

Recovering a Mirrored Volume (RAID-1)

A couple of posts back, I made notes for myself on how to in very general terms recover a RAID-0 or striped volume. Today I will quickly outline the steps to take in order to recover a mirrored volume.

If you loose one of your mirrored drives, you shouldn't panic too much, as long as one of your drives is healthy. What you will want to do is removed the broken drive and add another to replace it and reset the mirror.

1. The first step is to remove the mirror, which you can do by going into the Disk Management Interface and right clicking the failed drive. This should change the setting for the good drive, making it a Simple Volume.

2. After you have added a new drive to replace the failed one and the computer recognizes it and it has been made a Dynamic disk, you can right click the Simple Volume and add the new drive.

This is based on much better and more detailed instructions from the book I am currently reading from the link on the left.

Managing Windows 2003 Server Tips

There are 3 main tools, according to Microsoft, that a System Admin should use to monitor and maintain Windows 2003 Servers.

1. Performance Console- there are two parts to this, the System Monitor that has all the different settings for hardware on your server and the Performance Logs and Alerts that has a standard set of logs and customizable logs and alerts that you can set.

2. Event Viewer - has the different log files on events that the server records. Application, System and Security logs reside on every server. Directory Service and File Replication Service logs will exist on a DC. A DNS Server will contain an additional log file called, appropriately, DNS Server.

3. Task Manager - this handy tool is still the best one for looking at actual process threads. An additional tool that most techs I know use is Process Monitor, as it shows more detail than the built in Task Manager.

Exchange Tips for Tracking Outgoing Mail

Exchange Tips

Yesterday we had some trouble with outgoing email, and while our bridgehead server is in another location, we do have an Exchange Server here that I am responsible for. I am brand new to administering an Exchange Server, so I had to find some tips online for at least getting a feel for what may be happening and where things may be hanging up.

I wanted to do some basic troubleshooting for when messages are not going out, and a quick Google search for this turned up a few sites, the best of which was Exchange 911.

At their site, I found these tips that I used to begin tracking issues:

1. Try to find where the message has gotten stuck by using the Message Tracking Center in the Exchange System Manager.

2. Check the services running on the server where the messages are stuck to make sure all critical Exchange Services are indeed running.

3. Checked the Event View on my server to make sure there were no obvious problems or sreaming errors.

Another Gift Idea for the Techie on Your Christmas List

I need to add some more technical posts here soon, but I see that lots of folks want the gift ideas as well, so I thought I would share my newest top of the list "wanted" gift.



It is this Timex Watch and I just saw it in my Women's Health magazine for this month, and I want one! This watch does it all, and at Amazon it is under $100.



It connects to your iPod, without a cable, and it also has a 50-lap memory, three alarms, a countdown timer, two interval timers, and a chronograph function.



If you have a techie on your list who also likes to keep in shape, this may be the perfect gift.