requesting support

building from the board up?

[quote="Claymored"]information on overclocking amd 64 cpus requested. also, installation of motherboards. also.... anything else along those lines? thanks, clay[/quote]

A - Don't overclock, marginal cost is greater then marginal utility

B - 64 Bit - Not Worth it yet, but kidna cool. Requires specific OS / Drivers, but useful if you want a "metric fscking ton" of memory.

C - Screw the board through the pre-drilled holes into associated holes in motherboard tray within Case.

Ta-dah.

for better oppinions... go to a forum such as www.rage3d.com , theyll help ya much more the way you want, and btw, the ath64 ...

^.^ this isnt realy the place to ask such things.

(note, if not using a ati card, or a 6600 or better geforce, you may end up ridiculed on the rage3d forums, it IS a ati fan forum after all... although one of the more fair ones.)

cool, got all that done. now tell me how to set up a home network, make my own cat5(especially this one, it has to have secrets somewhere) and suchlike so i can get online with my new computer

Why exactly do you want to make ethernet cables? It is easier and probably cheaper to simply buy the cables you need.

(If only using one computer, plug the modem's ethernet into the computer directly and skip to the end)
To make a network, the easiest thing to do would be buy a hub of some sort. Routers are fairly cheap nowadays.
Plug the Internet modem ethernet cable into uplink port on the router. It is usually set off to the side from the rest. (if able to be set, be sure to have it on uplink)
Plug the computers into the other ports.
XP mostly takes care of itself with networks. Simply run the wizard and click the appropriate buttons.

I think this is right, if not, feel free to bitch me out.

In advance, I apologize for the detail that I took with this post. As I don't know exactly how familiar you are with Windows, or networking, or computers in general, I tried to be as detailed as possible, to alliviate any problems that might occur during the process. And since if you don't have a network, you can't post on the forum, I figured that was the best way to do the instructions. Please print for your records, if needed.

I'd have to agree with Melubb, Clay. With the way things are right now, its much easier to go out and buy your cable. However, if you have very special needs (50 ft of cable, certain color, etc) then you [i]can[/i] make your own cable, but be warned the first time, at least, will take a while, and use a lot of RJ-45 connectors, as you are likely to mess something up. I know at one point I used I think 14 or so connectors to make a cable. Don't know what exactly happened, but once you clamp 'em, you can't reuse 'em. At least I've never been able to.

http://www.lanshack.com/make-cat5E.asp

Those are instructions on how to make the cable, if you still want to.

Hubs and Routers are quite cheap now, even to an extent wireless ones if you wanna go the wireless route. All you will have to do with a standard wired router is plug the Cat-5/6 LAN cable into the computer(s), and then into the Router, and from there go from the router to the modem. That will set up a network for you, Win XP will very likely take care of the rest. You might have to reboot your machine, or drop into a Command Prompt, and issue the following commands to kick things off though:

c:\> ipconfig /release
c:\> ipconfig /renew

After you get everything connected right, check your IP address, it will likely be 192.168.X.X (the X's represent any number in between 1 and 254), if so, the next step might apply.

Note, if you have a 192.168.X.X IP address. If you do anything where people need to connect to you, such as FTP or online gaming where you are a server, you will have to enable port forwarding.

To enable port forwarding, you will need to see your user manual that came with the router. And most routers come with a web interface that you can use to access the internals of it. What you will type into the address bar will be the ip of the router, generally something like 192.168.1.1, then input the default user name and password, again that should be with the documentation, but if not try 'admin'.

Things get trickier quite rapidly depending on the type of network you are setting up. Since you will likely be setting up a Windows-Only peer to peer network, things shouldn't be too complicated.

If you need anything else, don't be afraid to holler.

[Edit] Was just looking over the post again... betcha can't tell I work at a computer helpdesk, can you? That's pretty sad. [/Edit]

I take it then you want to run a wired network. Wireless is all well and good as cables aren't required, but expensive cards for your computer are and most folk don't know how to secure the network from being leeched. A router would probably be one of the better ways to go, and plug the internet through that -- it will server as a hardware firewall. The one we have here at my place is a linksys, and works pretty well -- but the manual that came with it wasn't all that helpful to any of us, and the router setup wasn't anything i'm at all used to (It uses some spiffy html page that makes it really easy to use; I'm used to having to telnet the router and feed it commands until I am happy with it). You should be able to figure it out quite easily what to do, and allow the router to go static ip with computers on the network -- to the world you will look like one ip, but upon the network you'll be however many separate ones (for instance, on the network here at home, we have at least five computers, one of them wireless, the ips range from 192.168.0.1 to 192.168.0.5 or so).

And as for the cat5 cable, you will probably want straight through cable for connecting the computer to the router, and for the rj45 jack, you will need a speccy clamper thingie. Dont get the El Cheapass jacks either, they break too easily and to fix it you will have to strip the raw networking cable and do it all over again with a new jack. The others ARE right too, it'd be way easier to go buy the cable. Mine came from NCIX (it's not going to help you much as its a canadian company), 50 ft for $15 CDN, where going to the local staples it would have been 30-40 bucks, so look around for cheap networking cable if you change your mind on doing it yourself.

Doubt I was that useful, but anyways.

[quote="multirp"]In advance, I apologize for the detail that I took with this post. As I don't know exactly how familiar you are with Windows, or networking, or computers in general, I tried to be as detailed as possible, to alliviate any problems that might occur during the process. And since if you don't have a network, you can't post on the forum, I figured that was the best way to do the instructions. Please print for your records, if needed.

I'd have to agree with Melubb, Clay. With the way things are right now, its much easier to go out and buy your cable. However, if you have very special needs (50 ft of cable, certain color, etc) then you [i]can[/i] make your own cable, but be warned the first time, at least, will take a while, and use a lot of RJ-45 connectors, as you are likely to mess something up. I know at one point I used I think 14 or so connectors to make a cable. Don't know what exactly happened, but once you clamp 'em, you can't reuse 'em. At least I've never been able to.

http://www.lanshack.com/make-cat5E.asp

Those are instructions on how to make the cable, if you still want to.

Hubs and Routers are quite cheap now, even to an extent wireless ones if you wanna go the wireless route. All you will have to do with a standard wired router is plug the Cat-5/6 LAN cable into the computer(s), and then into the Router, and from there go from the router to the modem. That will set up a network for you, Win XP will very likely take care of the rest. You might have to reboot your machine, or drop into a Command Prompt, and issue the following commands to kick things off though:

c:\> ipconfig /release
c:\> ipconfig /renew
-----A

After you get everything connected right, check your IP address, it will likely be 192.168.X.X (the X's represent any number in between 1 and 254), if so, the next step might apply.
-----B

Note, if you have a 192.168.X.X IP address. If you do anything where people need to connect to you, such as FTP or online gaming where you are a server, you will have to enable port forwarding.

-----C
To enable port forwarding, you will need to see your user manual that came with the router. And most routers come with a web interface that you can use to access the internals of it. What you will type into the address bar will be the ip of the router, generally something like 192.168.1.1, then input the default user name and password, again that should be with the documentation, but if not try 'admin'.

----D
Things get trickier quite rapidly depending on the type of network you are setting up. Since you will likely be setting up a Windows-Only peer to peer network, things shouldn't be too complicated.
---E
[Edit] Was just looking over the post again... betcha can't tell I work at a computer helpdesk, can you? That's pretty sad. [/Edit][/quote]

Fact Police:
A - IPCONFIG is Windows 4.0 and up, WINIPCFG for below. [Just an addition]

B -
An IPv4 Address is actually 4 - 8 bit blocks, or 4 1 byte blocks.
2^8. or 256 Hence, It can be any nmber 0-255. 0 in the C class is usually reserved for Broadcast, but a 0 is acceptable basicly anywhere else.

C -
Correct, but its Probably 192.168.0.x. But x.y is possible too, I just tend to see the C class subnet blocks [only one variable.]

D-
Again, its probably 192.168.0.1
Genrally you're looking at: admin/admin
admin / password
admin / default
admin /
/

E-
If its a router, its a star network, not a peer to peer. [Which would be a ring.]

Don't mean to nitpick, just 'clarifyin

[The Help Desk work shows, concise info.]

And as to the special crimper needed, technicly you can get crimperless jacks, or on a jack with the metal contacts bar, you can push it down with say a slot-drive screwdriver. Not fun though.

Nitpicking... ah... that's fine, Brad. Actually I'm glad you brought those facts up. A little bit of clarifying on my behalf would have helped. Now, to nitpick your nitpick... just to explain why I said it how I did.

A) I had gathered from the line of the thread that we were dealing with an NT based system above NT 3.51, thus the terminology I used. Yes, winipconfig is also valid, but at the time I didn't feel prudent to add it, though in retrospect I should have.

B) Yes, you can end up with a x.x.x.255 IP address, but in my experience that has not happened. That doesn't mean it is impossible, but in my experience, including a large government network that I deal with on a daily basis, it ends at 254, not 255. The only two IP's that are completely unavailable are 0.0.0.0 and 255.255.255.255. That last one is available as a subnet mask, yes, but not an IP address.

C) Aye, it could be 192.168.0.X, but 192.168.X.X also worked, since the first X could represent 0, just covering all the bases.

D) No problems with this nitpick, you added something I likely should have, other possible un/pw combinations.

E) Technically once again, yes it is a star network. I used the term Peer to Peer simply because it was better known. I try not to use terminology that would really confuse people, and try not to limit people to a 'you have to know this much to understand me' phase, so I said P2P. While that is technically not correct, it performs the same basic function, and is often seen as interchangable with people that are not network experts. Not many outside of a NOC would actually understand the term 'star network', though everyone knows Peer to Peer, especially with the influx of the P2P programs that are available nowadays. Just wanted to make it as easy to understand as possible.

And personally, I would stay away from the crimperless jacks, or those ones where you crimp them with a flat-head screwdriver. The crimpers aren't that much, and saves a lot of time as far as correct crimping. Again, that's all in my opinion.

Thanks for the third degree, you got me to look back over my post, and I saw a few things that I probably should have been clearer on. Thus is the issue when you deal with the stuff all the time, it becomes so second-nature that you leave a lot out when trying to explain it.

-MultiRP

[quote="multirp"]Nitpicking... ah... that's fine, Brad. Actually I'm glad you brought those facts up. A little bit of clarifying on my behalf would have helped. Now, to nitpick your nitpick... just to explain why I said it how I did.

A) I had gathered from the line of the thread that we were dealing with an NT based system above NT 3.51, thus the terminology I used. Yes, winipconfig is also valid, but at the time I didn't feel prudent to add it, though in retrospect I should have.

B) Yes, you can end up with a x.x.x.255 IP address, but in my experience that has not happened. That doesn't mean it is impossible, but in my experience, including a large government network that I deal with on a daily basis, it ends at 254, not 255. The only two IP's that are completely unavailable are 0.0.0.0 and 255.255.255.255. That last one is available as a subnet mask, yes, but not an IP address.

C) Aye, it could be 192.168.0.X, but 192.168.X.X also worked, since the first X could represent 0, just covering all the bases.

D) No problems with this nitpick, you added something I likely should have, other possible un/pw combinations.

E) Technically once again, yes it is a star network. I used the term Peer to Peer simply because it was better known. I try not to use terminology that would really confuse people, and try not to limit people to a 'you have to know this much to understand me' phase, so I said P2P. While that is technically not correct, it performs the same basic function, and is often seen as interchangable with people that are not network experts. Not many outside of a NOC would actually understand the term 'star network', though everyone knows Peer to Peer, especially with the influx of the P2P programs that are available nowadays. Just wanted to make it as easy to understand as possible.

And personally, I would stay away from the crimperless jacks, or those ones where you crimp them with a flat-head screwdriver. The crimpers aren't that much, and saves a lot of time as far as correct crimping. Again, that's all in my opinion.

Thanks for the third degree, you got me to look back over my post, and I saw a few things that I probably should have been clearer on. Thus is the issue when you deal with the stuff all the time, it becomes so second-nature that you leave a lot out when trying to explain it.

-MultiRP[/quote]

Again, it wasn't personal,just minor details.

The crimperless jacks:
Pro:You can just close them and they work.
Con:They're expensive as fuck.

As for the subnet mask, the reason you want to go with a 192.168.0.X is this:

That is a "Class C" subnet, as such there are only 0 to 255, and 0 is usually reserved [as in, always].

So total combinations = 254ish.

If its 192.168.1.x that 1, [i]implies[/i]. again, [i]implies[/i] that the subnet mask is actually 255.255.0.0 or a "Class B". If you're a large network, this is normal. But if you're a home network, this is bad. Why?

Well that leaves you with 255x255 possibile addresses or 65025 connections. Why is that bad? Well when lets say, a computer comes onto the network and does a broadcast, or has to scan, thats 65025 instead of 255 possible computers to talk to, or find.

[This is why computers with open subnet masks crashed alot during hte SirCAM / Worm proliference era, they became bogged down cycling through the subnet]

So in general, for optimatl network performance, I recommend a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 [Class C] and an IP of 192.168.0.101. [For the computer.]

Why 192.168, well its just kinda tradition. well and that 192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255 are private address space [See RFC 1918]. [So again, technicly 192.168.x.y [b]is absolutely correct[/b]]

Networks are fun.

I know it wasn't personal, Brad, merely explaining how I came to the conclusion of what I said.

Yes, the IP configurations that you specified (192.168.X.X vs 192.168.0.X) are completely correct. However, even on a small private network you can end up with a 192.168.1.X IP, and while it is technically a Class B, it is also a private network (specified as you say by RFC 1918), but if each computer ends up on the 192.168.1.X 'segment', which will invariably be the vast majority of the time, if not always, then it is still just 254 possible combinations of IP addresses to scan and look over.

And on a personal network, ie one that does consist of just one segment, by and large you will not have a centralized server to push updates, nor to scan, each computer will be responsible for its own scans and updates. Again, that's an ugly way to say it, but from personal experience that has been the case. So, you will not have to scan any addresses at all. And in such a contained network, such as what Clay is going to attempt, the computers will be located very close to each other, so a quick ipconfig on the other machine will pull an IP, without needing to scan the entire segment.

And when, on a personal network, do you need to do a broadcast? I'm not asking to be mean, just curious. Everytime I've done a personal network like that, I've been able to turn around and talk to the people to 'broadcast' information.

But this is slightly off of the subject. Though you're very right. Networks can be fun... Especially when you get to the bigger ones. We're still just talking about personal networks.
:twisted:

[quote="multirp"]I know it wasn't personal, Brad, merely explaining how I came to the conclusion of what I said.

Yes, the IP configurations that you specified (192.168.X.X vs 192.168.0.X) are completely correct. However, even on a small private network you can end up with a 192.168.1.X IP, and while it is technically a Class B, it is also a private network (specified as you say by RFC 1918), but if each computer ends up on the 192.168.1.X 'segment', which will invariably be the vast majority of the time, if not always, then it is still just 254 possible combinations of IP addresses to scan and look over.

And on a personal network, ie one that does consist of just one segment, by and large you will not have a centralized server to push updates, nor to scan, each computer will be responsible for its own scans and updates. Again, that's an ugly way to say it, but from personal experience that has been the case. So, you will not have to scan any addresses at all. And in such a contained network, such as what Clay is going to attempt, the computers will be located very close to each other, so a quick ipconfig on the other machine will pull an IP, without needing to scan the entire segment.

And when, on a personal network, do you need to do a broadcast? I'm not asking to be mean, just curious. Everytime I've done a personal network like that, I've been able to turn around and talk to the people to 'broadcast' information.

But this is slightly off of the subject. Though you're very right. Networks can be fun... Especially when you get to the bigger ones. We're still just talking about personal networks.
:twisted:[/quote]

Well a broadcast is needed if say, a computer comes onto the network, then that computer will broadcast on the netwrok to let everyoen know that its there. A broadcast refers to a message going out, to everyone. If the center of the network is a HUB then all messages are broadcasts. [They go out ot everyone, if its not for you, then you discard it, Check out Ethereal for some interesting uses of this tidbit, along iwth promiscous mode.]

Aye, whoops... little brainfart. They still happen from time to time.

Correct, coming onto a network does do a broadcast call to the other computers on the network, however you are still almost always on a single segment, so it is still limited to 254 IP address. Unless, the broadcast call is sent to 192.168.0.255-255.255, in which case no matter how you are set up, it will take the time to validate the condition of all machines connected to each IP address in that range, and will time out on the vast majority of them.

And that information is really only valid if there isn't a Domain Controller (DC) or Backup Domain Controller (BDC), in that case it doesn't check for the validation of the computer until [i]after[/i] you attempt to connect to it. The DC or BDC validates it at the time, but doesn't necessarily send out a network wide broadcast. It only broadcasts to the segment that the machine is connecting to. Then again, I hardcode a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 by default to eliminate that issue in the beginning.

This can be verified by the fact that a mapped network resource will show up as 'disconnected network resource' in XP's My Computer until you double click. At that time it will validate and see if the computer is online, and if it is, it will list the shares associated with it. Afterwards, until the status of that network resource changes and you try to access it, it will appear to be an online resource. But that also deals with a multiple segement network that is validated through a DC and BDC, and thus is regulated to mostly large networks.

But DC's and BDC's really are out of the scope of the current thread, just wanted to point that out.

I will check out Ethereal though, could always be fun. And I'm sure there's some more learned ahead of me. That's all the computer field is, learning.

having fun guys? good. i ended up having to shell out 114$ on a service visit from the local networking specialist shop, but then my internet and network worked. yay. following that, my computer began acting quite oddly, at which point i realized there were a huge number of security updates awaiting my downloading pleasure. in short, my computer shit itself. i attempted to reinstall windows, only to see a nice message about possible damage to my windows xp cd. i cannot reinstall windows, and chkdsk says i may have ruined sectors of my nice new 169 dollar harddrive. yay. currently don't have enough money to do anything, so i'm offline for a while. ain't this shit just great? anyways, hit me back if ya got any advice, other than suicide.

(P.S. after wasting roughly six inches of cat5 and 6 connectors, i created a working cable. once i realized what i needed to do, it was actually kinda fun. props to brad for informing me that there were wiring diagrams and such.)

*pretends to pout quietly* and it was me that found the diagram... oh well, so long as you got it done the credit is negligable.

*chuckles lightly* yeah, haven't had that much fun discussing networking in a little while. Gets kinda stale with people you work with every day.

Damage to the XP CD? Bad sectors on the HDD? Ick. How long have you known that the sectors were bad?

You say ChkDisk told you the sectors were bad? Have you tried a chkdisk /r to attempt a repair?

Sorry if that seemed obvious, but I just want figure out exactly what you've done so far.

Computers are a blast. But the more you learn about them the more you realize you don't know.

What exactly did the service guy do, if you can remember/explain it? I'm kind of interested myself.

My guess would be to first try a 'chkdisk /r', and see where that leaves you. As far as the possible damage to the CD, really the only way you could check that is to make sure the CD doesn't have any deep scratches on either side of the disk, and perhaps test it on another HDD/Computer.

There are a few machines out there that can actually check the CD, and see if it does have any read errors or problems, but unless I'm mistaken, it is highly unlikely that you would have a machine like that.

Suicide? Maybe just for the computer. They drive everyone crazy now and then, and even how much I work with them they try my patience regularly.

Let me know if anyone of my off-hand rants helped any. Also, try to get my any and all error messages you can, and I'll see what I can do with trying to get your computer back operational.

If there was damage to the CD, I hear that toothpaste does wonders. Use your finger, and be sure that the CD really, really doesn't work. I don't want to be responsible for killing your CD : p

EDIT: Oh yeah, wipe off excess paste before inserting it into your drive.
A quick google yielded these directions:
Baking soda toothpaste
Baking soda toothpaste, huh? Actually, any mild abrasive like furniture polish, Pledge, or plastic polish works fine for removing CD scratches. Just take any lint-free cloth, add some of the abrasive to the afflicted area, and then wipe. Make sure to wipe from the center of the disc to the rim in a straight line. Never wipe in a circular pattern.

This only works on minor scratches, but I found the results were OK. While it does not work well in bringing back heavily scratched CDs from the grave, it does help to stop CDs with light to moderate scratches from skipping.

Finally, use baking soda toothpaste with as few additives as possible. Some of the gel-based baking soda toothpastes tend to leave a sticky film on the CD, which requires a bit of effort to remove.

I just realized it probobly won't help with data CDs as the directions hit at audio only. Oh well, not much to lose eh?

Clay,

Adding on to what Melubb said:

Basically, if you use any abrasive substance, you want to make sure you don't scratch the data layer of a CD, otherwise it might as well be a coaster, especially in the case of Windows OS CD's, which generally don't give you an option to install less components, and so need the vast majority of the files on the CD, with plausible exception for some of the drivers.

Also, if the scratches that are causing the problems lie on top of the disk, rather than the non-labelled side, I would strongly advise against doing anything like that. The data layer of the CD is far closer to the top of the CD than the bottom, and you have a much easier chance of completely destroying it. 'Course if it doesn't work before, then you might as well try. Most of the CD is simply plastic, with the data layer sitting inside of that.

When you get scratches on the disc, if it isn't into the data layer, then the laser could be deflected inside the disc, and mis-write something (or 'skip' in the case of audio files). Or so I'm led to believe anyway, haven't done extensive testing on this. If anyone knows the reason, I would love to hear it.

When you scratch the data layer of the CD, you are in effect tearing sheets from your pad of paper. If you have information on there, and the wrong spot gets scratched, you might be unable to get the information. However, as long as the computer recognizes it as a CD and reads it, you can likely get all the information off of the CD, except what the computer thinks is there, but is on the damaged part of the data layer.

Here is a good site to see the 'insides' of a CD, and get a better feel for now they work for any geeks in the crowd. I know there's more than me.

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cd.htm

Actually, www.howstuffworks.com is an awesome site in general for finding out just about anything about just about anything.

Also, with regards to Melubb's statement, those directions should work on both audio and data CD's. The CD's are written to the same way, the only difference is the type of data contained on the disc.

multi, the service guy basically just renewed and released the ip a hundred times from dos, installed a new cable to replace my homemade one, then decided to try a seperate nic card when nothing else worked, turned out the onboard nic wasn't workin, then i took it to fry's and had the onboard checked, worked fine with a linksys wireless router, but not with my netgear wired router, i decided at that point it was a compatibility issue, as it will sometimes work on the onboard and sometimes not.

as for the cd, it was find, hard drive too. i formatted the drive and all manner of other shit, crawled through the drive in dos, as well as the windows repair console (pretty sure they are one and the same though) then removed the newly installed memory stick, and reloaded windows. moral of the story, when memory goes bad, everything goes to shit.