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The New, The Best and The
Worst
 SyncToy... Too much Protection?... and Broadband Speed Revisted
Pim Borman is the website editor for the SW Indiana
PC Users Group, Inc. at
http://swipcug.apcug.org. Email Pim at
swipcug@sigecom.net.
SyncToy is one of the Microsoft Power Toys,
free utilities programmed by MS programmers…
The best things in life are free, and Microsoft’s SyncToy is one
of them.
It is a simple and effective little utility to let you
synchronize folders in different locations.
For several generations of MS Windows the “official” Microsoft
way to synchronize folders has been to use a virtual Briefcase.
I never figured out how to use the involved and cumbersome
process. As easy as it is to synchronize and update a Web site
on the computer with the online version, using an FTP program
such as CuteFTP, it should be just as easy to synchronize my
photo folders with their backups on an external hard drive.
SyncToy will do the job quickly and easily, using an intuitive
interface. It is also handy to synchronize genealogy data with
backups, as well as letter folders and other documents.
SyncToy is one of the Microsoft PowerToys, free utilities
programmed by MS programmers, but not officially supported. They are available for free download at
http://snipurl.com/7r9b
(or do a Google search for “powertoys download”) and include such utilities as TweakUI that gives
>access to system settings not exposed in the Windows XP default
user interface,including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more.
Also Power Calculator with which you can graph and evaluate functions as well as perform many
different types of conversions; Virtual Desktop Manager to manage up to four desktops from the Windows taskbar;
Taskbar Magnifier to magnify part of the screen from the taskbar; and several others.
Too Much Protection?
While I was writing the previous section, I tried to visit
www.snipurl.com, a free site that lets you convert those endlessly
long URLs to more manageable size. I’ve used it several times
in the past, but today, using the Firefox browser, I just drew
a blank screen. Using Firefox with Ubuntu-Linux on my laptop I had no problem accessing snipurl, and that way I obtained the
shorter URL for the Power Toys download site. Eventually I found that it was ZoneAlarm that had blocked my access. It is
a dangerous world out there on the World Wide Web, and we are
constantly reminded to install protective guardians to keep us
safe. We need a firewall, to start with, preferably a hardware
version (a router) as well as a software sentinel. An anti-virus program is de rigueur and we need anti-spyware to
keep bad guys from learning our secrets. Unsportsmanlike phishers must be prevented from stealing our savings under false pretenses, and if we want to enjoy our browsing experience we need to fight off annoying pop-up windows. The trouble is that everyone is
getting into the act of protecting us, constantly stepping on each others’ toes.
ZoneAlarm PRO includes, in addition to its operating system and network firewall, anti-spyware and identity theft protection,
game mode,and more. AdAware and its AdWatch feature keep an eye
on spyware and suspicious activities in the Windows Registry.
The Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers compete with additional security features. I uninstalled the new Internet
Explorer version 7.0 because it kept interfering with legitimate programs. Microsoft has made a major effort to
improve security with a long list of new features in its forthcoming Windows Vista. I shudder to think what that will
add to the protection confusion. In the end it gets difficult
to know who is doing what to whom. You can never have too much security, except when it starts to interfere with legitimate
programs that are blocked because something seems suspicious.
If all those guardians would only let us know each time they block something, and how to bypass it, life would be so much
simpler. Too much to ask, it seems.
Dare I mention that none of this applies to Linux?
Broadband Speed Revisited
In the late 80’s, before the Internet and fast connections, I
did online patent literature searches on a tight budget in databases charging upwards of $5 per minute online.
Search strategies had to be carefully designed off line, with
only the titles and authors of target records to be returned before quickly disconnecting again. The results were carefully
scrutinized, and only those of interest were subsequently
uploaded to retrieve abstracts of the articles.
Those articles of special interest, based on the abstracts,
were ordered as hard copies from various libraries.
Using a 2400 baud modem, capable of transferring something less
than 10 kilobits per second (kbps; a baud is not the same as a
bit per second), the whole process was expensive and took a long time.
These days home desktop computers hooked up to various
broadband systems can go online at speeds up to 6 Mbps, and we
are still complaining that they are too slow. No matter how
fast the connection, factors beyond our control interfere with
fast downloads and uploads. Sharing a cable node with a
neighboring game enthusiast may be the cause. Often, congestion on the Web at certain times of the day slows your connection to
a crawl, in which case stopping and restarting the download may instantly bring results. A Web site providing a popular
download may restrict the speed of individual connections to avoid overloading its server. And, as mentioned in my column
last month, the Dynamic Name Servers of your service providers
may be slow converting URLs to the numerical codes actually used by the Internet.
Kim Komando, in her weekly newsletter vol.10, no.46, states
that Windows XP PRO artificially reserves some of your
bandwidth. She writes, in part: “By default, Windows reserves
some of your connection’s bandwidth. But you can change that easily. Click Start>>Run. Type gpedit.msc and click OK. The
Group Policy Box will open. You will see Local Computer Policy.
Click the plus sign to expand the Administrative Templates section [under ‘Computer Configuration’ – Pim]. Next, click the
plus sign to expand the Network section. Highlight QoS Packet
Scheduler. In the right side of the box, double-click Limit Reservable Bandwidth. Check Enabled. Change Bandwidth limit to
0 percent. Click Apply>>OK. When you restart your computer, the
effect should be immediate. Enjoy your blazing broadband speeds!” I tried it and it didn’t seem to make any noticeable
difference. So I went to the fount of wisdom – Microsoft itself. Who should know better, after all? For the details go
to http://snipurl.com/MSQOS. Bottom line, the claims are bogus.
The bandwidth limitation setting applies only to unusual circumstances when a program requests bandwidth priority. If
left unchecked, it might take over all other running network connections. It is very unlikely to happen under normal usage
conditions and the 20% reserved bandwidth is otherwise always
fully available to running applications.
Obtained from APCUG with the author's permission for publication by
APCUG member groups. |
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