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The CERN Preprint Server Guide

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Learning to manage your PC

Monitoring your pc

  • Check what tasks are running:there is anything unusual?
    1. Loadwc
    2. Osa
    3. Aticon
    4. Atikey32
    5. Systray
    6. Winsl
    7. Explorer
    8. Icq
    9. Wshwin32
    10. Httpd32
  • Space free on disk
  • Space used for virtual memory

To do

  • Install Office
  • Install Exceeds and try to run the graphics programs I ran on workstations
  • Backup the system on tape
  • Install ghostscript and try to read .ps files with Netscape.

What about shareware programs?

What we do with programs like Winzip,PSP,etc? What is the INFN policy? How do you pay?

Computer type and present configuration

AST Bravo MS-T 5166
Processor - Pentium Intel 166 Mhz
3.5" floppy
Hard Disk 2.0 GB
Memory 32 MB EDO RAM
8X speed CD-ROM Toshiba XM-5602B
Ethernet Card 3Com EtherLink XL COMBO 10Mb
SCSI interface
Soundcard:Creative Labs Vibra 16S Soundblaster compatible
Speakers:Yamaha
Microphone
Graphics Card:PCI-based 64-bit ATI mach64 VT :1 MB SGRAM
Monitor: ASTVision 7L 1280x1024 256 colours or 1024x768 64Kcolors 72 Hz
Software:Windows 95

Possible upgrades

  • Memory:other 16 or 32 MB
  • Hard disk:other 2GB
  • Fast Ethernet card
  • Digital camera
  • 21 inch screen
  • Color printer
  • Natural keyboard

Other possible software

  • Adobe Acrobat-
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Ms Frontpage
  • Symantech Visual Cafe'
  • MS J++
  • Office 97
  • Corel Java suite
  • Agent
  • Fractint
  • mm
  • Program to create animated gif

Web server installation

- What is the best on Windows95?
- What scripting language to use?
- What about Website?

Possible change of os:Microsoft NT

Pros:
  • Good to run a Web server and other servers.
  • Web server included
Cons:
  • Some programs doesn't run on NT
  • The computer,apart from Web server, should be used from only a person.

Installation of a better telnet client

I use telnet to edit files on remote systems. The basic program you find is barely usable if you use vi on Unix systems but a pain in the ass if you run edf on VMS systems.
Possible solutions:use ws_ftp to copy locally file, edit it with wordpad and then copy it back. This should also be OK for files on other PC. Unfortunately the new ws_ftp (that should be used because it implements the new long filenames) seems not to work on VMS systems.

Internet and LAN connection

The TCP/IP number 192.135.10.180 name pcba10 is the same used for the notebook .Is this convenient? What if I need to use both? It is possible to use a V.P. number?
The range piclab02-piclab11 192.135.20.2-11 with gateway 192.135.20.1 is in part available.

Backup procedure and schedule

We can either use a tape unit attached to the SCSI connector saving everything, or decide to save only essential files on a disk of one of the big computer in the Department lan. Using Winzip this should not take much space.

List of directories to backup:

  1. Images
  2. java
  3. javadir
  4. ufattr
  5. website
Anyhow the most important directory is website\images and perhaps it is enough to backup only this.
Introduced a quick backup of only website/htdocs to be done every month. A file pcba10.zip is created and sent to netview via ftp. This takes only 50 megs.

What to do in case of necessity to reinstall the system from scratch

Should I note Bios settings? Create a boot disk? Print the system configuration?

Install a screen saver or switch off the monitor?

Virus checking and how to keep the virus program updated

Is the McAfee program adequate?
This has arrived already installed with the system but seems to be rather old. Should I buy a new version?
There seems to be a file that must be downloaded frequently to update the list of virus. I loaded the last version in april 97. How frequently should I update it?
How can I be sure that virus checking is working properly?

Regular checks

  • Check disk with SCANDISK
  • Defragment the disk
  • Check disk space (at least 50 M should be free for caching).

Cleaning the disk and uninstalling programs

Do I need and Uninstaller? The answer is yes. The Uninstaller in Windows95 will work only for some programs. Doing it by hand is dangerous. In any case you have to clean also the Registry and ,for this, you have(if you don't have a Uninstaller) to download a free program from Microsoft called RegClean.

MS-DOS tricks

  1. Use Alt-Enter to have a smaller window
  2. Install or run Doskey to have the possibility to recall previous commands. Simply give the command: doskey.
  3. DIR > temp.lis to send the output to a file
  4. DIR/AD for a list of directories.
  5. If you are not able to read the output of a program then send it to a file and use more to look at it.
  6. You can also write : dir | more redirecting the output to more.
  7. To know the value of variables like PATH use the command set.
  8. To set the value of a variable use: set variablename=value.

Malfunction diagnosis

When Windows boots up use F8 to break into the "Menu and select step-by-step booting". You can also look at the log files created bu Windows.

To have a better performance

  1. If you are connected to Internet via modem, then change in the Registry using Regedit the parameter MaxMTU to 576. This should improve a lot the connection speed.
  2. Change from 24 bits display to 256 colors.
  3. Delete programs running in background.
  4. Make sure Windows has correctly identified your CD-ROM
  5. Load less programs.
  6. Do you really need the latest version of a program?(For example use normal Netscape instead of Netscape Gold).

Useful windows tricks

  1. When saving a file with wordpad, to avoid that Wordpad adds .txt to your name, put your name in " ".
  2. Use ALT-TAB to switch between windows.
  3. To change program assigned to file extension,use file manager .Select the file then View/Options.

Install also Linux on another disk partition

(Low) memory problems?

Use Dos command mem to know how much free memory you have in the first vital 640K.

The Registry and Regedit

To uninstall a program use the installer in control panel and don't touch the registry.
After some time a cleaning of the Registry is necessary:you can use a Microsoft free download called RegClean to do the work.

How to transfer (big ) files to other PC

Of course for small files you use a floppy and that's it. But now ,more and more you have to deal with files that are bigger than a single floppy.
In principle you have many solutions but in practice I haven't found nothing working well. So you can:
  • Use the Windows95 backup utility.
  • Use Winzip
  • Use pkzip
  • Use arj

List of problems

  1. Installing an old CD-rom the Autoexec.bat has been changed and Windows95 didn't start anymore!
    Partial solution:old autoexec.bat copied back.
  2. Exceeds creates a lot of "zombies" on the other machine.
  3. Unrecognized password for Microsoft Network(no server available...)
  4. Problems in the Exceeds telnet window if you change the size.
  5. Exceeds doesn't start the server
  6. The Esc doesn't work properly (switches windows)
  7. Inadvertently deleted a directory!
  8. Probably after I loaded a new plugin in Netscape(excite direct search) I have some small problems:screensaver not working,double click not working, sometime the Netscape window is frozen...
  9. I am not able to install IE anymore! I deinstall it, then reinstall it and get a message about a iedkcs32.dll. Then when I try to start it, i got a frozen window. This was solved by unistalling properly the previous version with the "uninstaller" in panel control and then trying again the installation.
  10. When I do some very simple operation like going back with Netscape, the system freezes for some time, with the hard disk showing a lot of activity.

Setting a printer

To set a printer:
  • Select printer folder
  • Add printer
  • local printer
  • Digital Digital PrintServer 17/12mb/Net
  • Configure port TCP/IP lps17a 192.135.10.15 lps17a (for lps17_th)
  • Configure port TCP/IP lps17b 192.135.10.16 lps17b (for lps17)
  • Give a name to the printer
  • Now select printer properties and set spooler:send directly to printer
Maintained by Giuseppe Zito: Giuseppe.Zito@cern.ch. Last revised 1 May 1997.