It’s never a dull moment in my business. Here’s the scenario.

• Custom built computer that is 9+ years old (nobody knows)
• Tekon s1692 Motherboard
• Windows XP doesn’t fully recognize the USB controller
• No driver cd’s or files – and nearly impossible to dig up on Internet
• PC giving incorrect date error on boot
• Need to connect a USB scanner to this machine for an office (115 miles away)

I’m remotely supporting the computer though GoToAssist (no they don’t sponsor me – I pay them every month).  So what did I recommend?

First, it would be more cost effective for them to purchase a USB PCI controller card and install that rather than paying me to dig around and try to come up with a driver. After all, the computer is at the end of it’s cost effective life cycle really. A $30 card beats $75 paying me, right?

Second, purchase a CR2032 CMOS battery (watch type battery) and replace it.

Both problems solved – and customer very happy. Sure, I could have made more money short-term by feeding the customer a line and making sure I did “all the work”. However, that would not have been “the right thing to do” – and in the end I’ve further strengthened my client relationship for long term gain.

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From Email to a client
=============

I’ve finally compiled my list of suggestions for helping to secure them and streamline the process of setup. This will help insure consistency of the laptops which will provide a much better classroom experience. Hopefully, the computers will be running XP, but these recommendations will work for Vista as well.

Implementing all of this will take quite a bit of time to get it setup. However, the long-term benefits greatly outweigh the short-term expense.

*Assumes all computers running the same (or very very similar hardware).

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Initial Preparation – before any use by a student or faculty
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Cost: FREE (except time & software licenses)

• All computers must have any “junk” software removed.
• Default applications must be installed – Firefox, MS Office, PDF Creator, OpenOffice.org, AVG, Adobe Reader, Picasa, Google Earth, Virtualbox, Thunderbird, etc.
• All class specific applications must be installed – typing software, etc
• TCP/IP set to OpenDNS.

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Imaging of Computers
===============

Cost: FREE or $100/computer

Imaging of the computers is very critical. This insures that you have a full and complete bit by bit backup of your systems. In a worst-case scenario, it can save tons of time. Also, after the class is over, the computer can be returned to “ready to go” state for the student.

The basic step is your setup 1 computer just how you want it (known as the master). It has all the software and drivers installed needed. Once you have this master setup, then you can image all the other computers (known as slaves) to the master.

The advantage is time. Rather than have to go to each computer and set them all up individually, you create them all at once by using a master/slave setup on your network. The master computer is running the server version of the imaging software and distributes its image to all the slaves on the network.

Free – There are free open source solutions out there that work really well although they aren’t as intuitive as the proprietary options.

http://www.clonezilla.org  – best open source for networked imaging

http://ping.windowsdream.com – best for single machine imaging

$100 / computer – these are software that I’ve used in the past extensively and work well.

Acronis True Image Echo Workstation
http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATICW/

Norton Ghost
http://www.symantec.com/norton/ghost

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MS Steady State
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Cost: FREE (except setup time)

Note: Runs on 32-bit XP, Vista only

Microsoft has released a product called Steady State. Once installed, it uses imaging technology to return a computer to an exact state every time the computer is restarted. This means that after setting up a computer initially, the computer will be returned to that state after every reboot.

This software can be incredibly useful to make sure that a computer is always in a clean workable state for the classroom. Unlike relying totally on imaging (which requires the master/slave process each time), Steady State returns the computer to a proper state after reboot – automatically. The computer can much more easily be locked down for internet access, etc.

Windows SteadyState in the Classroom
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/seeit/classroom.mspx

Windows SteadyState Disk and System Protection
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/sharedaccess/whatis/diskandsystemprotection.mspx

FAQs
http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/c/6/fc6955de-0765-46fc-b2a9-47b4d4bcd160/SteadyState_2.5_Technical%20FAQ_updated.pdf

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Network Access and Protection
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Cost: Service – FREE (except setup time), Router – $60

All computers should be using OpenDNS for security and robustness. This is easily setup in the tpc/ip settings; however, ideally the classroom computers should be running on a separate subnet from the main building network. They need to be behind their own router that we can control.

We should immediately purchase a WRT54GL, flash it with DD-WRT firmware, and install it on the building network. Then we setup the student laptops to connect to it only.

WRT54GL
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833124190

DD-WRT Firmware
http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/What_is_DD-WRT%3F

OpenDNS
http://www.opendns.com/smb/solutions

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Educating Users
==================

One of the most important steps in this process is educating the users/students on basic safety and security. Fortunately, I have a couple of blog posts that help address this. During the class itself we also spend quite a bit of time discussing simple security issues.

Layered Security Basics
http://www.smartergeek.com/blog/2008/03/layered-security-basics.asp

Simple Rules for Your Computing
http://www.smartergeek.com/blog/2008/01/simple-rules-for-your-computing.asp

Why did I get infected in the first place?
http://www.smartergeek.com/blog/2008/07/why-did-i-get-infected-in-first-place.asp

Myspace and Antivirus 2009
http://www.smartergeek.com/blog/2008/12/myspace-and-antivirus-2009.asp

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From email
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from XOXO
to Rex Moncrief
date Mon, Oct 6, 2008 at 7:25 AM
subject Is this worth having?
mailed-by gmail.com
signed-by gmail.com

Is this worth having?
http://www.komando.com/downloads/category.aspx?id=5536

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My Response
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Mark Russinovich arguably knows more about the Windows OS than Microsoft does. He has produced some great apps, which is one of the reasons MS finally bought his company.

There are only a small handful of them that I recommend an “above average” computer user should have – and these are ones that I run on a regular basis.

Process Explorer
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx
*Runs at startup on all my Windows pcs.

Process Monitor
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

AutoRuns
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963902.aspx

RootKit Revealer
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897445.aspx

Systernals applications can be very powerful, which is why I don’t suggest them to typical computer users. That is why I also don’t recommend downloading them all at once. People tend to get curious and then get off in an area where they don’t belong. Of course, that is good for my business, but I try to be honest about technology.

If you want to give some of them a try, but always remember: “You are only as good as your last successful backup – from which you can recover.”

*No – Windows System Restore is NOT a backup solution.