I have a friend who has become totally reliant on an e-mail account, which was provided by an internet service provider which she has just left to go to a new ISP. She uses Outlook 2003 as her e-mail client program. Unfortunately, she is now finding that after moving to this new ISP that although she can receive e-mails absolutely fine, she cannot send e-mails. [more inside]
posted by conrad101 on Feb 7, 2013 - 16 answers

I am trying to co-ordinate large files (some files over 50mb) and folders with a group of people within a virtual library. People should be able to view the entire library of folders at once, and everyone should be able to upload and download the folders. It needs to be free, or very low cost.
posted by nanook on Jun 12, 2012 - 8 answers

I would like to know what is the best approach for measuring a cloud provider's network latency and jitter e.g. Amazon EC2. While a single ping on the command line can achieve a round trip latency snapshot for that one moment, I was looking for something more comprehensive and thorough. Are there any software tools out there that are particularly recommended and hopefully easy to use for measuring at intervals, network latency & jitter, preferably in Windows? Is round trip latency or end to end latency the best metric to consider? Ping provides roundtrip although if the packet came back the same route it came, then end to end could be found by dividing by 2. Latency and jitter increases in proportion to server load. How could I ramp up server load to let's say a specified percentage? Many thanks!
posted by conrad101 on Feb 14, 2012 - 8 answers

Are my odds of working in a technical field substantially lower because I don't "buy into" the lifestyle? [more inside]
posted by Nomyte on May 23, 2011 - 25 answers

I am looking to do a project on the effects of latency on cloud computing, specifically latency impacting on Amazon EC2 virtual machines and I am trying to get my head around it. EC2 is an Infrastructure As A Service cloud product. Unfortunately, I do not have much experience with it. I haven't found alot on the internet on this area; has anyone seen any information on this subject? Could anyone make suggestions about appropriate ways to do latency benchmarking in this area. What kind of things ought I be looking to include in any benchmark tests. How exactly do others go about measuring latency for Amazon EC2. Are there any software tools out there which will help.
posted by conrad101 on Apr 11, 2011 - 8 answers

I am interested in cloud computing and I am looking for recommendations re interesting and worthy articles and papers on the subject of cloud computing. One area of interest is in how it will change the old-fashioned client-server network model - the status quo. Is outsourcing the network infrastructure really going to produce a dramatic transformation or is it somewhat over-hyped and exagerated.
posted by conrad101 on Apr 4, 2011 - 12 answers

My Dell PC running Windows XP Professional boots itself at midnight. It only does this when it is connected to the internet. What is going on and how do I make it stop? [more inside]
posted by Ys on Jan 7, 2011 - 7 answers

Tell me about Network Attached Storage ( NAS )? In particular what current manufactuers should I avoid for a typical 1 terabyte (or greater) RAID array? I'm also interested in general information and pitfalls for NAS devices and implementations. [more inside]
posted by loquacious on Aug 10, 2008 - 13 answers

Can I extend the life of my aging Dell XPS desktop by means of a processor swap? Details within. [more inside]
posted by killdevil on Jun 5, 2008 - 13 answers

I regularly use ffmpeg to encode videos (from mpeg2 to mpeg4) for my ipod. I've been doing this for nearly a year with no problems. Now, every time I start an encode, my system is suddenly under a lot of pressure - I can't use any other application. If I go into the windows task manager and set the priority to 'below normal', all is fine again. Anyone have any idea why this change might have occured, or any idea how I can get around it (preferably without using task manager)? [more inside]
posted by ascullion on Jan 31, 2007 - 5 answers

If Valve's Steam means that games developers can do away with publisher, distributor and retailer overheads... um... why isn't everyone doing it, or similar things?
posted by Pretty_Generic on Nov 10, 2004 - 13 answers

I've been told the computer hardware industry is based on holding back the release of existing technologies so that people upgrade in small increments. Is this true? If so, wouldn't the first company to break the rule get a chance to dominate the market? Is there some kind of backroom deal going on?
posted by Pretty_Generic on Oct 11, 2004 - 9 answers