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The intro music was by Pentatonix.

 

Both Glenn & Paul were in the studio today.

 

This afternoon, between 3 & 4pm, KVMR will move into their new studios across the street..
– The email addresses will remain the same.
– The fax number will be the same. The station uses the Myfax service, which for a small fee, up to 100 incoming faxes per month are distributed to a maximum of 5 email addresses as .pdf files.
– The phone numbers will also stay the same but the extension numbers have changed. The new system has 4 digit numbers, though the last 2 digits will still be the same, for most extensions.
– The new phone system is largely voice over IP (VOIP).

Paul mentioned a curious thing about phone numbers. "A long time ago, if you were dialing an area code somewhere else, you'd put a 1 in front of it. In the days of manual exchanges, 1 would attempt to make an automated call. If you put a 0 in front of it, the operator at the other end would receive the phone number you made and route it for you".

The guys reminisced about the days of rotary dial telephones. In Britain they have STD (Subscriber Trunk Dialing). And their emergency number is 999 (the equivalent of our 911). The higher digits were to prevent misdialing on rotary phones (with pulse dialing), if you had a sporadic line or interference.

Marilyn called. She bought an anti-virus program and it came with a bonus tune-up disk. She had some reservations about running it and wanted an opinion first.
– Just because it came with the anti-virus program doesn't mean the company endorses it. The disk could be from another company partnering with the 1st one.

Marilyn said her computer is starting to slow down and wondered if a cleanup is what's needed.
– A proper tune-up will make it go faster, in Paul's opinion. Whether it's worth the cost & effort is not always clear.
– The longer it's been without a tune-up, the bigger difference it will make.
– Glenn agreed but said proceed with caution if you're going to use an online service.
– The Microsoft Security Essentials anti-virus is no longer recommended for protection.
– A suite of programs that Paul likes for a tune-up includes Ccleaner, Eusing, and Ntregopt.
– Ccleaner is donation driven and donations have been dismal. "So they're strongly motivated to do something I really don't like, which is they sometimes deliver a newer version with a payload, which will be a toolbar that you don't want", Paul said. Then, when you install it, there'll be a tiny button <or check box> to skip the installation. But it may not be clear if it's to skip the installation of the toolbar or the program itself. <Paul didn't explain the advantage to the company in doing this and the only thing I can think of is that someone is paying them for including the toolbar>
– Paul, as well as KVMR, is using Avast as an anti-virus. "It's quite good at spotting these silly toolbars".
– Ccleaner is used widely and has a reputation to maintain.
<Not as important as the other two, Ntregopt does registry optimization for Windows NT/2000/2003/XP. Here's one place you can get it

Read where it says "BleepingComputer Review:" before using the program>

Tim called. He has a friend with an email problem on a Mac. When she uses a free wi-fi service, the email can be sent ok. But she can't send email while using her in-home wi-fi.
– Many years ago the standard port for sending email was port 25. The problem is that the port "allows unauthenticated or unverified emails to get out", so "it was exploited and used in evil ways". If she's had this account for a long time, the odds are high it was set up to use port 25 to send the email. Some providers no longer support this port — e.g. AT&T or Comcast.
– Contact the free wi-fi provider. Explain the situation to them and they may be able to make a quick change to resolve the problem.
<Here's what Comcast has to say about no longer supporting port 25 for email. It lists other providers who don't use port 25>

Michael called. He uses a Windows XP Professional, which Microsoft no longer supports, and he wondered if there's after market support for it or should he be thinking about getting a new computer.
– You'll have to get a new computer when this one gives up the ghost or becomes unstable.
– Up until a few weeks ago, many of the computers at KVMR were running XP, even though support ended in April 2014.
– Again, don't use Microsoft Essentials on it. Avast & Avg are good anti-virus program and are still available for XP.
– Don't use the Internet Explorer browser. It's always had problems. Michael uses Chrome and Paul said it sometimes doesn't update itself. Go to settings and initiate the update manually. Paul thinks Chrome may be more secure and leaner than Firefox.
– Getting back to his question, Paul knows of no after market support for XP.
– Consider refurbished computers. You can get them with Windows 7 for well under $200 and you can use your existing keyboard, monitor and mouse. It should have a 1-year warranty and you can add a year by using a credit card.

Michael said that recently his XP has had trouble booting to Windows. It goes to the Dos like screen with the options for 'recovery', 'console' or 'Windows XP'. It does this a few times in a row even though he keeps picking 'Windows XP'.
– Paul said back up the computer right away, it may be close to dying completely.

Michael asked about using the drive from his old machine with the new one.
– Glenn said you can get an enclosure costing $15 to $40, put the drive into it and use it as an external hard drive.

Paul said you can install a version of Linux from a bootable CD on an old machine. That should overwrite and sensitive data and you'll end up with a useable machine. <First, make sure you've transferred or backed up the data>.

Evan called. He recently moved to a new location in Grass Valley and the only internet he can get is with a satellite service, which he thinks is terrible. There is a good signal in his area from AT&T wireless and he's seen people selling their own unlimited data plans <for AT&T> on Ebay. Paul was surprised that AT&T allows people to transfer these old and no longer available data plans to another individual. Evan said this is true of similar Verizon data plans, which go for about $1000 on Ebay (and then you take over the monthly contract). Evan plans to check the speed of the AT&T wireless service using his sister's phone, when she comes to visit him. Paul said there's an app called Speedtest he can use. Check the speed in the evening too, when many people use the service at the same time.

Other terrestrial wireless services near Nevada City to consider: Smarter Broadband; Spiral Internet and Digital Path. Expect there to be a cap on the data, except with Digital Path. Also check out ColfaxNet.

Anama called to say she has the Smarter Broadband service and likes it alot. "they're wonderful", she said.

Last update 11:01 PM 2/25/2015