Adult Content Warning

This community may contain adult content that is not suitable for minors. By closing this dialog box or continuing to navigate this site, you certify that you are 18 years of age and consent to view adult content.

The Tech Help Thread

Discussion in 'Technical Board' started by rei, Oct 19, 2009.

  1. Dcc001

    Dcc001
    Expand Collapse
    New Bitch On Top

    Reputation:
    434
    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2009
    Messages:
    4,736
    Location:
    Sarnia, Ontario
    It's all good. You think uninstalling the Spyware did the trick, I say it was the restart. Poe-TAY-toe, poe-TAH-toe.
     
  2. Nettdata

    Nettdata
    Expand Collapse
    Mr. Toast

    Reputation:
    3,007
    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2006
    Messages:
    26,807
    Yeah, because you're such a technical whiz and all... you must be right.
     
  3. Dcc001

    Dcc001
    Expand Collapse
    New Bitch On Top

    Reputation:
    434
    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2009
    Messages:
    4,736
    Location:
    Sarnia, Ontario
    Puh-leeze. Everyone knows that turning something off then turning it back on fixes 90% of all problems. It's a law of physics.
     
  4. Trakiel

    Trakiel
    Expand Collapse
    Call me Caitlyn. Got any cake?

    Reputation:
    245
    Joined:
    Nov 3, 2009
    Messages:
    3,167
    Location:
    St. Paul, MN
    Tell me about it. I've had countless clashes with management, the board, and executives about security at my organization, but they all pretty much boil down to two beliefs I'm constantly fighting against: That technology removes the need for human accountability, and that security should never be inconvenient.

    Anyway, my router is starting to act up and in doing some research apparently the issues I'm having are very common to this router, so I think my best bet is to get a new one. Any recommendations? My router just has to do the following things:

    -Wireless N or better
    -MAC filtering
    -Some firewall capabilities
     
  5. Binary

    Binary
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    439
    Joined:
    Oct 21, 2009
    Messages:
    4,293
    MAC filtering is lousy security since they're so easily spoofed but that aside, I've been really, really happy with my D-Link DIR-655. I know, I know, it's a D-Link, I don't like their stuff myself, but this is a nice piece of hardware. Very flexible/configurable firmware, robust, never needs to be rebooted, Wireless N with a strong signal throughout my apartment, and a USB port for shared storage if you like that kind of thing.

    It doesn't support the 5 ghz band, though.
     
  6. Trakiel

    Trakiel
    Expand Collapse
    Call me Caitlyn. Got any cake?

    Reputation:
    245
    Joined:
    Nov 3, 2009
    Messages:
    3,167
    Location:
    St. Paul, MN
    Thanks for the advice, I'll check that one out.

    So how exactly are MACs spoofed? Does the potential intruder just somehow spam a bunch of MAC addresses at the target router until it gets one that's on the list of allowable addresses?
     
  7. john_b

    john_b
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    0
    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2009
    Messages:
    514
    You can sniff MACs when sniffing wireless traffic. As long as there's a machine with an permitted MAC address transmitting, anyone sniffing the traffic can collect that MAC address and use it.

    Here is a 2 part tutorial on it. Yeah it's old and it's about cracking WEP but the basics are there.

    Part One

    Part Two
     
  8. Rudolph

    Rudolph
    Expand Collapse
    Experienced Idiot

    Reputation:
    0
    Joined:
    Oct 20, 2009
    Messages:
    116

    I'm curious about this as well. MAC Filtering seems more like an inconvenience than actual "security," but it's still a step we take.
     
  9. Nettdata

    Nettdata
    Expand Collapse
    Mr. Toast

    Reputation:
    3,007
    Joined:
    Feb 14, 2006
    Messages:
    26,807
    Security is all about layers of an onion kind of thing.

    MAC filtering is shit, but it's still enough to stop a lot of users from using your wireless.

    It's also a legacy kind of thing.
     
  10. WickedBitch

    WickedBitch
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    0
    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2010
    Messages:
    556
    How do I determine if I can play a certain PC game? I downloaded a demo for Amnesia: Dark Descent and when I try to launch it, it gives me a bunch of options (sound, video) and no matter what I do, it gives me this message:

    FATAL ERROR: Renderer #0 could not be initialized. Make sure your graphic card drivers are up to date. Check log file for more information.

    Is this something I can just update or am I completely screwed? The Penumbra demo worked a few weeks ago but hubby just changed the monitor. Is that the problem? How do I find out what drivers I have and how to update them? I am adept at console gaming and can set up and reprogram my VCR (ha, ha) but I am a drooling retard when it comes to computers so please be gentle. Thanks for any guidance you can give!

    *edit*
    The Penumbra demo still works.
     
  11. Trakiel

    Trakiel
    Expand Collapse
    Call me Caitlyn. Got any cake?

    Reputation:
    245
    Joined:
    Nov 3, 2009
    Messages:
    3,167
    Location:
    St. Paul, MN
    Damn, I didn't realize that MAC filtering was apparently so easily circumvented. I don't know what else to say other than that if someone wants to highjack my bandwidth badly enough that they'll go through the effort of bypassing my MAC filtering and my regular security then I guess they've earned it.
     
  12. Tuesday

    Tuesday
    Expand Collapse
    Disturbed

    Reputation:
    3
    Joined:
    Oct 26, 2009
    Messages:
    361
    so I get back home after the holidays, and I'm reconnecting my monitors to my PC. (I took home my Asus to use with my xbox and laptop). I have a 19" Samsung, and the 24" Asus. Last month I had both hooked up to my PC, no problems. Then I was just using the Asus, after I lent my power cord out. Yesterday when I get everything back hooked up, the Samsung looks like absolute shit. Ridiculously blurred. I didn't dig too deep into figuring out what was wrong, but I did try a few things. Set the Samsung as the default with the Asus as the extended; vice-versa; just the Samsung; and I played around with different resolutions - yet the blurriness remains. I use dvi-d cables for both monitors. My Samsung always had a better picture than my Asus, but now I don't know what happened.

    I'm going to double check the cables when I'm home, but it's a digital signal, so a loose connection wouldn't matter, no? Either 100% picture or nothing, right? Not sure what it could be. The Samsung is 3ish years old, but I've never had any problems before yesterday. Any ideas?
     
  13. Binary

    Binary
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    439
    Joined:
    Oct 21, 2009
    Messages:
    4,293
    For home routers, I just recommend people use WPA2 and a good, secure password. MAC address filtering, hiding your SSID, and the other security layers that people use to make themselves feel good are mostly just inconveniences for real users of the router. If someone is dedicated enough to brute force your WPA2 password, it's likely that little else would stop them and certainly nothing like MAC address filtering.

    WPA2 + secure password = happiness. Nothing standing in the way of your connecting any device you want to the network, and yet it's plenty secure to stop all but the most dedicated attacker.
     
  14. Diablo

    Diablo
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    5
    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2009
    Messages:
    1,608
    Location:
    Armpit, NC
    Does anyone know about website certificate's? I'm trying to get onto my squadrons website and Chrome is telling me this: Invalid Server Certificate
    A request failed because the server's certificate is invalid.

    There's nothing under the "Help Me Understand" tab either.

    I was able to get on the website when I was at home in FL, but not here in TX. Any way around this? When I use firefox or IE, the website loads just fine.
     
  15. cargasm66

    cargasm66
    Expand Collapse
    Experienced Idiot

    Reputation:
    0
    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2009
    Messages:
    216
    Location:
    Seattle-ish, WA
    First off, I'd like to apologize for my father. I came here and asked for help on upgrading my PC a few months ago, and got some very good advice telling me to go with an Intel setup. My headstrong father decided that PC parts were a great Christmas gift, and by God, if AMD is good enough for him, it's good enough for me. Since it *was* a present, I shut my mouth like a good son.

    With that said, I'm now looking for a decent, budget video card (~$100-120 shipped). My system is this:
    AMD Phenom II x4 955
    Gigabyte 870A-UD3 mobo
    2x2gb DDR3 ram

    I found this card on newegg, any thoughts? Other suggestions? Manufacturers to avoid?

    Thanks!
     
  16. rei

    rei
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    16
    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2009
    Messages:
    1,273
    Location:
    Guelph, ON
    Other than Via there isn't really a "stay the hell way" video card manufacturer any more - just shop for warranties.
    The 5750 is decent, and XFX has great support, I'd spend the extra $50 and get a really good video card just so you'd need to replace it less soon (and the fact the 460 is very, very good)


    Also while Intel are "winning" right now you really aren't hurting yourself with the AMD setup as video card is way more a bottleneck than these days than CPU in gaming, and considering some of Intel's plans for McAffe I'm doing everything I can to stay as far from them as possible
     
  17. zwtipp05

    zwtipp05
    Expand Collapse
    Experienced Idiot

    Reputation:
    0
    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2009
    Messages:
    126
    I've got an EVGA card in my desktop. It died out on me about 16 months after I bought it. I had neglected to register for the warranty, but after calling tech support, they took care of it for me (had to send them the invoice from when I bought it), but they had me send it back to them and sent me a replacement card pretty quickly. I'd definitely buy from them again based on that experience.

    I'd say in general, just check out the reviews on the stuff in your price range on newegg to find the best buy.
     
  18. cargasm66

    cargasm66
    Expand Collapse
    Experienced Idiot

    Reputation:
    0
    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2009
    Messages:
    216
    Location:
    Seattle-ish, WA
    Thanks for your input. Based on the suggestions here, and as well as asking a few friends, I decided on this EVGA GeForce 450. On Sale for $119 plus a $30 mail-in rebate made it too good to pass up. Looks like I'll finally have a decent all around PC again. Thanks again!
     
  19. rei

    rei
    Expand Collapse
    Emotionally Jaded

    Reputation:
    16
    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2009
    Messages:
    1,273
    Location:
    Guelph, ON
    BOOO

    The 450 does not benchmark as well as the 5750. EVGA is a good maker but really no better than XFX
     
  20. cargasm66

    cargasm66
    Expand Collapse
    Experienced Idiot

    Reputation:
    0
    Joined:
    Oct 19, 2009
    Messages:
    216
    Location:
    Seattle-ish, WA
    Now that I've upgraded and reinstalled everything on my computer, is there ANY way to sync my iPhone with my fresh install of iTunes without having to wipe out all the playlists and music that are already on the phone? Or am I just SOL? Also, how can I de-authorize an iTunes account (for example, my old computer)?