Obscure Mania

The CompTIA Security+ exam everyone says is one of the harder certifications to pass. It is, mainly because of all of the acronyms, a lot of the questions are kind of vague and unlike other CompTIA certifications you can take by themselves,  for Security+ you really need a networking background and preferably Network+.

I took a semester long course for Security+ at the local community college. I needed the credits and might as well add to the certification list. The class used the Microsoft textbook with a lab only because that’s what the instructor based all of his lectures on. It’s a good textbook, but a little outdated since the Security+ exam changed for 2008. He updated the material in his notes and we did a ton of lab exercises which gave us hands on configuring Windows 2008 Server, using Wireshark and installing and using certificates for digital signatures and encryption. This instructor had a practice exam for each chapter and also about a dozen practice exams for the certification which I’m sure helped a lot. The exam questions can be vague and multiple answers appear to be correct. You can usually take out two of the four as being totally wrong and decide between the other two. Rereading the question and paying attention to what the question is really asking will help also.

During the last two weeks before the actual certification I read Security+ Get Certified, Get Ahead by Darril Gibson. Mainly because it is up to date and I always have more than one source for my certifications to give a broader understanding and in case one source misses something. The Gibson book was really good. Easy to read with larger print than most, easy to understand and I especially liked the “Remember” boxes on every other page to highlight points in the chapter. It made for a quick review the last day, I read over the the Remember boxes, the sample questions in the book and other practice quizzes I had the instructor gave me. The Gibson book actually covered a few things the class missed that were on the test, not many, but I know  it helped on one question.

It’s a good book by itself, but I’m glad I had the other class and practice exams. The only bad part of the book is there was no CD, so the chapter quizzes were only on the hard copy in the book.

Security+ is a tough exam only because you need a networking background and you really need to know all of the acronyms regarding security and encryption and it’s a tough subject to begin with.

I’ve been using Crossloop for my remote control access software for a long time, but I’ve switched to using Team Viewer. It not only does remote support, attended or unattended support, I can switch to meeting or presentation mode, file transfers and a lot of other features all in one program.

It seems to be fast and secure. Remote sessions can be one way with the remote keyboard locked or not. Remote sessions are fast and just like being there. It’s comparable to Crossloop with secure remote requests, you can ask for support give your support person the id and password and not have to worry if he can log back in later when you’re not there. Team Viewer not only does support requests with id and password, but I can set computers for remote unattended access and have all my computers available online from anywhere.

I can get rid of two tools and only use Team Viewer. Crossloop I can drop and I can uninstall Logmein from all of my computers and friends’ computers. I can also not worry about getting something like Go to Meeting, because I can do presentations as well and have complete control who can participate. Team Viewer is a great program, so anyone asking me for support will be asked to go to TeamViewer.com and download the small program. After downloading, you don’t have to install permanently, just run the program and no administrator privileges are needed.

Simple, easy, fast and many tools in one program, no monthly fees like a lot of remote access, support and meeting programs. I’m still exploring all of the features, but so far, it’s an incredible program.

Made by a friend of mine showing how to disassemble, test and repair a hard drive. Not responsible for any data loss.

I’ve been approved as a Crossloop Certified Helper. What the heck is that?  Crossloop is the program that allows remote access to someone’s computer. You are completely under control of when and who connects to your computer. When you need help you start the Crossloop program and it generates a code you give to the person you want to give access to.

You can disconnect any time and they can not log in again with that same code while you’re not around, even if the program is still running. It’s a very secure way to grant temporary access to your computer while you sit there and supervise.

A Certified Helper has gone the extra step in receiving an independent background check, has been personally interviewed by Crossloop staff. The Certified Helper is familiar with the ethics, guarantees and the professionalism Crossloop wants to convey to the helpers customers.

If you need some help with your computer, I can be trusted to be ethical, honest, I passed a background check and Crossloop.com has put their trust in me to represent them professionally.

See the post that will explain Crossloop in more detail and watch the little video that explains the CrossLoop System.

What’s the best way to upgrade to Windows 7 from XP Pro or XP Home? You can’t, but you don’t have to format your drive either. If Windows 7 finds an operating system on the destination partition, it will ask you if you want to wipe it out or keep the old operating system.

Keep Your Stuff

What happens if you install Windows 7 over XP? Windows 7 will move your entire drive into a Windows.old directory it creates. When the new Windows 7 install is finished, when you boot it will ask you if you want to Boot into the new Windows 7 operating system or the old one. It doesn’t say XP it just says old. What happens if you boot into the old operating system? I don’t know. I did this on my wife’s machine and already messed it up once.

Rule #1

Always have a bootable CD (DVD) to restore your system. Make copies of your original install disks and keep the originals in a safe place and the copies in a safe place. My wife’s PC had a bad file and wouldn’t boot. I tried overwriting the file it said was bad with the same file from a different machine and it wouldn’t work. After hours of searching for some sort of ISO image for XP. A free ISO doesn’t exist on the net except as a torrent and how do you know which one to trust? You can’t even get a free trial from Microsoft anymore.

I finally gave up and installed a XP Home CD I had and got it to work. But then I figured I have a brand new Windows 7  the production release, (Schools received their copies early) and figured this was as good a time as any. Especially since my product key was for Pro and I had this Home disk I was going to have to do something else pretty soon anyway.

After installing 7 and restoring the data, I had to reinstall Office, but everything else I downloaded and found the keys in old email. Make sure you have enough space to keep both operating systems. The official space requirement for 7 is 16 gb a little more wouldn’t hurt so you have room to move folders around to your new user account on your data drive.

Personally I prefer a separate partition for my operating systems using Bootit NG (see side bar for link) as a boot manager, but if your going to only run one operating system on a drive and are a little concerned about wiping everything out, choosing installing over current operating system will work. Make sure you have backups somewhere else just in case.

This is the best book available for the Network+ N10-004 exam. Make sure you get the right book for the exam you’re going to be taking. The old exam is still being administered and books on the old exam of course are still out there. The new 2009 Network+ exam has been updated and concentrates on general network topologies, cabling, tools, protocols, the OSI model and other networking stuff. While the older exam asked questions about AppleTalk, Netware and some vendor specific networking.

The book covers some Cisco stuff but I didn’t have any Cisco protocol or router questions on my exam. I only used this book to study. I take that back a little, I ordered some practice exams from somewhere else at the last minute because I was panicking about not being ready. Don’t waste your time or your money, all of the questions and answers are in this book. While there may have been some other questions from the other place, the answers were still in this book. Even though I’m not thrilled with how the chapter and practice exams work, I would have bought extra questions, but the practice exams Sybex were selling weren’t for this N10-004 exam.

Todd Lammle (the author) must have access to the exams because the questions in the book were almost e same as the real exam. The only problem is the errata page. There are some practice test questions that give the wrong answer, but go to the website and get the corrections and you’ll be fine.

I really liked this book. I’m in the process of selling all of my textbooks and have decided to keep this one. It’s filled with great information. This is the first edition and they may have been corrected in later editions. In any case, ensure you log on to the website in the book and get the corrections.

The hardest part of the exam for me was trying to memorize all of the hardware. What cable goes with what network and how fast and how far they are spec’d. There were a lot of those questions for me and most were guesses. Everything on the test is in the book, read memorize, how ever you study. I tried a new technique for me – I used my RCA Voice Recorder reading parts and notes from the book, transferred to my PC, converted them to .wav then imported into iTunes to listen on my iPod while I’m walking the dog. I’m not sure if it helped or not, I should have concentrated more on the different cable specs, but I passed. There’s no score on your certificate but you have to pass with about 80%. I was getting a solid 80 or above on most of chapter and practice exams I was taking from this book.

Link: CompTIA Network+ Study Guide: Exam N10-004

Using the new Google Voice service is awesome. It’s great if someone still has more than one phone, like a seperate number for their cell phone and home phone numbers. Just using it for voicemail is incredible and it’s freakin’ free.

Google Voice uses your Gmail contacts. If someone in your contacts either individually or in a group calls, you can setup different options as to what happens. Send them straight to voice mail, send your friends and family to your home phone, work contacts to your work phone and you can have a custom voice mail for every group or every contact if you want.

I can set up a voice mail for my contact to say, “Hey Paul, I’m out leave a message and I’ll call you back.” While everyone still gets the boring, “Leave your number at the tone.” message.

It does NOT cut out your mobile minutes. But if you’re on a plan that has unlimited calling to a certain number, you can add your Google Voice number and use Google Voice as your outgoing calls also. Google Voice mails are transcribed (sometimes may not be perfect), sent to your email or you can play on the web, download or forward to someone else. You have the option to record incoming calls and those will be transcribed and kept on the web in your Voice account.

Want to really block a number? Have it blocked and they get a “number has been disconnected” message. Don’t want the phone to ring late at night? Set it up to send all calls straight to voice mail or allow friends through. The best part, you can have this number for the rest of your life if you want, no matter how many times your cell, home and work numbers change.

You can look at, listen even tag your voice mail just like in Gmail. Even tag annoying calls as spam and they go directly to voice mail from now on.

Conference, add an incoming call to your current conversation, incredible call screening that will allow you to pick up, send to voice mail, listen to the voice mail as it happens and even pick up the call during the voice mail.

When you receive your invite, it took mine and my wife’s about a month to get back, you choose your number, either by numbers or letters in any area code. Of course it’s not going to give you a number that’s already taken no matter how bad you want to be able to dial your name by letters or some other combination may be taken. If you really don’t like the number you’ve chosen, you can change it later for $10.

We just changed our phone numbers and let everyone know our new numbers, I may wait awhile and I’ll send out another and change it one last time. It’s hard to believe it’s free, enjoy it while you can, there’s got to be a catch in there somewhere or someday. What ever they charge, it will be worth it.

I wish I had invites to hand out, but they’re not doing it like that for Voice. And 25 free business cards with your Google Voice number FREE.

Check the short videos about the features here – http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html

Just took and passed my two tests from CompTIA and now have an A+ certification. After going through the prep classes at the college here, it was about six months later that I took the tests. Only using the original textbook, the practice exams on the included CD, I did pretty good. Since CompTIA doesn’t show you what you missed, I don’t know exactly what I got wrong on my two tests.

I took 601 and 602. Essentials and IT Technician exams. There were some questions in common from the two, but since I wasn’t sure I got them right the first time, hopefully I got them right the second time. If you have to retake a test, the only guide of what you missed is a summary of the “areas” where you got one or more questions wrong.

I looked everywhere I could for practice test questions, but they are few and far between unless you want to pay. The practice questions that come with the book were good but there were a lot of repeats. Four tests for each section (601, 602, 603, 604) fifty questions each. Out of 200 possible questions, I don’t know how many were unique, but I would guess about half, maybe more were actually unique.

This book is huge, over 1000 pages. After looking at reviews and other books on Amazon, I believe this is one of the best. I was looking for a smaller “cramming” book, but other book are just as big and it’s a little hard to cram for this test other than reading, doing the chapter questions and practice tests, start two weeks before you are scheduled to take the tests. I would love an audio version so I could listen while driving, but can’t find many technical books on audio, even though studies show you have better retention listening than reading.

It’s a nice start since this certification is one of the requirements on most computer jobs.  Not only do I get college credit for taking the classes, but the college gives a half price discount for the tests.

CompTIA A+ Certification All-in-One Exam Guide, Sixth Edition

If you want to use a separate disk drive or partition for your data there is an easy way to do it. It’s a good idea for several reasons:

Easier backups – Just tell your backup program to backup everything on Drive D:

Easier restores – Same as backing up, restore everything on Drive D: (or whatever).

Easier to reinstall Windows – This will come up again, maybe several times. Reinstalling Windows is the best way to clean a virus and it’s the best way to speed up your system.

Read the rest of this entry »

Computers are simple, right? Yeah, right. Everyone needs someone they can call to fix their computer. Ever try and call a support line and try to explain your problem over the phone? Or even trying to explain your problem in a short forum post asking for help?

The problem with trying to solve a problem searching for answers on the internet is you don’t know what programs to trust. Ever see ads that say something about how You May Have a Virus or Spyware? How about ads that popup advertising something to optimize your PC to make it faster? And those popups that say you can disable popups by downloading their program? Those programs are usually the ones that are loading spyware and junk on your pc. How are you supposed to know the difference? If you’re busy running your business, emailing friends or busy trucking stuff around, how are you supposed to know if these are spyware or not? Unless you’re connected into the PC world 24/7 you may not know.

Here’s your opportunity, right now. There’s a remote access service that allows support people (me) to connect with people that need assistance (you), securely, simply and efficiently. Click on the widget thing with Cross Loop or go to my CrossLoop page download the small program, create a free account which is optional, and email me about your problem. We coordinate a time when we can get together online, you start your Cross Loop, give me a random one time password and I now have access to your computer and can actually see what your problem is and can fix it right in front of you. You can change the settings to control if I have access to the keyboard or I can only watch in view only mode.

Watch this quick video to see how it works.

Yes I have to charge for my time. But if you use the Badge up above, create a free account, mention Obscure Mania and give me a “thumbs up” on the questionnaire after our session, I’ll give you a 30% discount for a limited time.

Or send this to your techie friend, it will be like they are looking over your shoulder and it will make things a lot easier for them when trying to help.