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The best way to avoid getting hit by web based malware is using Firefox with the No Script addon, hands down its the best way to prevent malicious web based attacks as it blocks all remotely executed scripts from running on your computer. There is a downfall to this level of protection however, No Script not only blocks the bad scripts from running, it blocks the good ones too, so often times you’ll find that web pages aren’t working or don’t load right, it has a simple mechanism for allowing scripts for a particular site on a temporary or permanent basis, it also lets you see all of the other websites that a given site is sending data to every time you visit the site. Its annoying as hell to use in the beginning, but if you take the time to get used to it, its truly a great protection mechanism. i’ve been using it for years, since its earliest days and i swear by it, but like i said, it takes some getting used to…

Microsoft announced a few weeks back that Hyper-V 3.* will be included in Win8. It will be the full fledged version of Hyper-V, the same version found in the server version of this OS. You can read about it here on ars technica. however it appears it will only run on 64 bit versions, that will keep atom using netbook lovers from using it. long live AMD where everything is 64bit and has AMD-V

Dr Who,

To fix your problem, plug your router of choice in to your cable modem via ethernet cable, then plug your computer in to your router via a second ethernet cable, once you’ve done this, power cycle your cable modem, once its completed the power cycle and all lights are lit up again, open the administration console on your router and go to status page, click on the link for wan status and see if it pulled an IP address from you cable modem, it likely has.

A little history on cable modems and the docsis standard that they use. For security purposes when a cable modem powers on they “marry” themselves to the first device they see, by way of recording that devices MAC address, they will not communicate with any other device, period, until they are power cycled again, so by plugging your router in and power cycling the modem, the cable modem will “marry” itself to that router, if you want to change routers you have to power cycle the cable modem again.

If this simple fix doesnt work then its possible that your cable company hard “marries” the devices, meaning that you must call them and have them reset the MAC address relationship of your cable modem, but i haven’t heard of that being required in 10 years or more.

Hope that helps.

I dont recommend changing the terminal services listening port as mentioned above, it can break many things that depend on that port. you can however add a second listening port.

To do this, open the registry editor by hitting start > run and type regedit and hit enter. navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControlTerminalServerWinStationsRDP-Tcp

Right click on the RDP-Tcp registry key and select export, save the key to your desktop, giving it any name you wish, i usually just simply name it RDP. once its saved, minimized the registry editor and locate the exported reg key on your desktop, right click on it and select edit. This will open the key using notepad.

By default Terminal Services uses port 3389, the 10 ports following 3389 are unused, so i usually use 3390, if i’ve used that already, go to the next 3391 and so on.

Once the reg key is opened in notepad, the first thing you need to do is give the key a new name, this is done by editing the second line which looks like:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlTerminal ServerWinStationsRDP-Tcp]

I usually name it by appending the new port number to it, like:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlTerminal ServerWinStationsRDP-Tcp – 3390]

Once you’vegiven it a new name, search for the port number: hit CTRL + F and type portnumber in the search box. that should take you to this line:

“PortNumber”=dword:00000d3d

The port values are in hexadecimal, so the port number d3d = 3389, if you want to make this port number 3390 you would use the hexidecimal value d3e, for 3391 d3f, for 3392 d40 and so on.

so for port number 3390 you would edit the line to read:

“PortNumber”=dword:00000d3e

Once you have done this, click the red x in the corner to close notepad, it will ask you if you want to save the changes click Yes.

once the reg key is saved, right click on it and click select merge, a box will pop up stating the key has successfully been merged in to the registry. Now go back to regedit and look at the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlTerminal ServerWinStations] key, you will now see 2 subkeys RDP-Tcp and RDP-Tcp – 3390.

You have now added a second Terminal Services listening port to your windows home server. you will need to forward that port through your firewall / router to your home server, if you need help with that reply with your router make and model and i’ll post instructions to accomplish this.

To access your server using the new port number, in the remote desktop connection box you would use the address: yourserveraddress:3390, if you have any questions feel free to ask.

Below is a sample of the full registry key with the edits made highlited in red:

Note: the sample registry key below is from a windows 7 computer so do not copy and paste it for use on your home server is will cause you problems, just make the edits as noted above.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlTerminal ServerWinStationsRDP-Tcp – 3390]
“AudioEnumeratorDll”=”rdpendp.dll”
“Callback”=dword:00000000
“CallbackNumber”=””
“CdClass”=dword:00000000
“CdDLL”=””
“CdFlag”=dword:00000000
“CdName”=””
“CfgDll”=”RDPCFGEX.DLL”
“ColorDepth”=dword:00000005
“Comment”=””
“Domain”=””
“DrawGdiplusSupportLevel”=dword:00000001
“fAllowSecProtocolNegotiation”=dword:00000001
“fAutoClientDrives”=dword:00000001
“fAutoClientLpts”=dword:00000001
“fDisableAudioCapture”=dword:00000000
“fDisableCam”=dword:00000000
“fDisableCcm”=dword:00000000
“fDisableCdm”=dword:00000000
“fDisableClip”=dword:00000000
“fDisableCpm”=dword:00000000
“fDisableEncryption”=dword:00000001
“fDisableExe”=dword:00000000
“fDisableLPT”=dword:00000000
“fEnableWinStation”=dword:00000001
“fForceClientLptDef”=dword:00000001
“fHomeDirectoryMapRoot”=dword:00000000
“fInheritAutoClient”=dword:00000001
“fInheritAutoLogon”=dword:00000001
“fInheritCallback”=dword:00000000
“fInheritCallbackNumber”=dword:00000001
“fInheritColorDepth”=dword:00000000
“fInheritInitialProgram”=dword:00000001
“fInheritMaxDisconnectionTime”=dword:00000001
“fInheritMaxIdleTime”=dword:00000001
“fInheritMaxSessionTime”=dword:00000001
“fInheritReconnectSame”=dword:00000001
“fInheritResetBroken”=dword:00000001
“fInheritSecurity”=dword:00000000
“fInheritShadow”=dword:00000001
“fLogonDisabled”=dword:00000000
“fPromptForPassword”=dword:00000000
“fReconnectSame”=dword:00000000
“fResetBroken”=dword:00000000
“fUseDefaultGina”=dword:00000000
“InitialProgram”=””
“InputBufferLength”=dword:00000800
“InteractiveDelay”=dword:00000032
“KeepAliveTimeout”=dword:00000000
“KeyboardLayout”=dword:00000000
“LanAdapter”=dword:00000000
“LoadableProtocol_Object”=”{18b726bb-6fe6-4fb9-9276-ed57ce7c7cb2}”
“MaxConnectionTime”=dword:00000000
“MaxDisconnectionTime”=dword:00000000
“MaxIdleTime”=dword:00000000
“MaxInstanceCount”=dword:ffffffff
“MinEncryptionLevel”=dword:00000002
“NWLogonServer”=””
“OutBufCount”=dword:00000006
“OutBufDelay”=dword:00000064
“OutBufLength”=dword:00000212
“Password”=””
“PdClass”=dword:00000002
“PdClass1″=dword:0000000b
“PdDLL”=”tdtcp”
“PdDLL1″=”tssecsrv”
“PdFlag”=dword:0000004e
“PdFlag1″=dword:00000000
“PdName”=”tcp”
“PdName1″=”tssecsrv”
“PortNumber”=dword:00000d3e
“SecurityLayer”=dword:00000001
“Shadow”=dword:00000001
“UserAuthentication”=dword:00000000
“Username”=””
“WdDLL”=”rdpwd”
“WdFlag”=dword:00000036
“WdName”=”Microsoft RDP 7.1”
“WdPrefix”=”RDP”
“WFProfilePath”=””
“WorkDirectory”=””
“WsxDLL”=”rdpwsx”

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlTerminal ServerWinStationsRDP-TcpTSMMRemotingAllowedApps]
“ehshell.exe”=dword:00000002

Dear Fred,

On this article “Windows’ primary disk-checking tool gets stuck”

You wrote about an issue with chkdsk.exe that a reader was having:

Tom Vetterani’s PC has a disk error that Windows can’t fix.

* “This is my seemingly impassable issue at Windows start-up. I restart my computer and it notifies me it needs to run a file system check. It says the usual ‘checking file system on C:’ (file system is NTFS). Then it gives me a 10-second countdown to start the checking.

“However, the check never starts. The countdown gets stuck on one second, but never begins the check (never being about one to two hours, which is how long I left it for). I forced shutdowns, rebooted, tried everything I can think of.

“When I try to skip disk-checking by ‘pressing any button’ during the countdown, nothing happens and the countdown runs to one second and gets stuck again!”

And you Wrote:

But despite the improvements, chkdsk is still not the ultimate disk repair tool. If it’s your bad luck to encounter one of those more-stubborn errors

This issue isn’t a problem with the disk that windows or chkdsk.exe cant fix, its a bug, and there’s a hotfix available, see:

The Chkdsk.exe program does not start correctly on a Windows 7-based computer

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975778

From the Microsoft KB article:

On a computer that is running Windows 7, you use the Chkdsk.exe program to schedule a disk check during the next system startup. However, the disk check does not start correctly. Specifically, you may experience one of the following issues the next time that you start the computer:

A countdown timer is displayed and you are prompted to press any key if you want to skip the disk check. However, after you press a key, the countdown timer continues. Eventually, the system may stop responding at the count of 1, or start without performing the disk check.

Just thought i would pass that on…

I can see many others beat me to the punch in pointing out that your article failed to mention TeamViewer 5. I support a lot of computers, both businesses and individuals, in doing so i use a mix of Remote desktop, Remote Desktop Gateway and TeamViewer5 depending on the situation. I use RDP for own servers and PCs, mostly due to my phone having an RDP clients and the lack of a mobile version of TeamViewer5, for my small business customers who have servers i support, i used RDP for the servers and TeamViewer5 for the clients PC’s, If they’re running a server with SBS 2008 i use the RDP gateway for both servers and clients, and i use Teamviewer5 for all my residential customers.

I started using TeamViewer on version 4, but had abandoned after a few months due to too many problems with the mouse controls locking to a certain window and not being able to click on anything else, that was happening so frequently it made it unusable for me, and their tech support was anemic on my first 2 support requests, after a few months, i decided to attempt another support ticket, this time they were quick to respond, they gave a couple configuration options to change when the problem starts, and ever since its been much more usable. Version 5 brought a lot of useful features to the table, as well as improving performance and connection stability. Now i use it daily and recommend it to everyone…

I have 2 DSL lines coming in to my house that are load balanced, and have had for years, and, i’m independent consultant / IT specialist for small businesses, i deal with DSL lines almost daily. My suggestion to you is contact your ISP and get your DSL username and password required for PPPoA/E authentication from them. once you have that, reset your router back to factory defaults by pressing the reset button ion the back of the router and holding it for 30 seconds or until the router indicates its been reset, usually by the lights flashing one or more times all at once. once it is reset open a web browser and enter the address for the router in the address bar, the address should be 192.168.0.1. it may prompt you for a user name / password, netgears default User is admin, the password is either password or 1234.

Once in the routers configuration screen, you can either use the setup wizard to configure your internet access or you can do it manually, i personally would do it manually, if you choose to do the following:

on the basic settings page, enter your DSL username and password (the one your got from your ISP) unless you have a static IP address then leave the connection type as DHCP, click apply, you should now have internet access.

Next, set up your wireless, click on wireless settings, choose an SSID, ***make the SSID different than the one you have now***. Set the Region. Leave the wireless mode at the default setting of 130 Mbps. make sure enable wireless access point and allow broadcast of SSID are checked. under security options choose mixed WPA_PSK+WPA2-PSK, under WPA2-PSK security encryption choose a network key, between 8 and 63 characters any combination of numbers and letters, then click apply.

Next, click on maintenance in the left column and select set password, enter the old password and a new password twice, click apply.

Next, get your netbook, click on the network icon down by the clock, or go to control panel and open network and sharing center and click on connect/disconnect, when the list of wireless networks appears, click on your new wireless network, enter the network key you selected on the setup page, the netbook should now connect the wireless network. if so shut your desktop computer down and report back to this thread the results.

Thank you and have a nice day!

Walter

P.S.
If after you reset your router, your desktop doesnt pull an IP address from the router, which it should, or has a yellow triangle on the network icon by the clock, you can fix this in one of 3 ways:

1. right click on your network icon down by the clock and select diagnose, once the troubleshooter finishes, choose get a new ip address.
2. open a command prompt by clicking on the start orb and typing cmd in the search box, or pressing the windows key + R to get a run box and type cmd. once the command prompt is open type “ipconfig /release” then “ipconfig /renew” no quotation marks.
3. restart your computer.