VMWare Workstation installs two virtual network adapters, one is used for host-only networking and the other for NAT networking. This virtual adapters may cause the network neighborhood to become very slow.

To come around this annoying slow network neighborhood I know two possibilities:

1. If you only use bridged networking for your virtual machines
   => disable both network adapters in the control panel
2. If you use host-only or NAT for your virtual machines
   =>disable the “Client for Microsoft Networks” and “File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks” protocols in the properties of the two virtual network adapters

Links

• VMWare Communities: Slow network browsing in Win XP host

Ciscos AnyConnect VPN Client will support 64bit versions but it will not work together Cisco PIX 500 Series. Furthermore the 500 Series has reached it’s end of life date.

Searching the solution for a different solution I first came across the Shrew Soft VPN Client. It’s a free software and should be able to import Ciscos .PCF configuration files. But my .PCF file could not be imported and the client did not tell the exact problem.

After some further research I found the NCP Secure Entry Client. It’s available for Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP for 32 and 64bit. I’ve tried the evaluation version and it imported my .PCF file without any issues and also the VPN connection was immediately established. The price is about 80 EUR for a single user license.

I guess the Shrew Software VPN Client will also work together with the Cisco PIX but I did not make any further tries.

One restriction of the NCP Secure Entry Client is the missing possibility of tunneling IPSec over TCP (transparent tunneling). In certain firewall environments this may be needed. UDP Encapsulation seems to be supported but in my tests I could not get a connection. For more information refer to the knowledgebase of the NCP Secure Entry Client.

According to Cisco(Cisco VPN Client FAQ)  there are no plans to provide 64-bit support for the Cisco CPN Client so the only option to get a VPN connection to your PIX is one of the mentioned third party clients mentioned above.

Another possibility is to install the Cisco CPN Client in a virtual machine but for my use case this is not a suitable possibility.

The world is not yet completely ready for 64bit – always keep that in mind

A simple and free tool for private usage is available from simplie Software. It lets you run short and long benchmarks of your hard discs and compare the result with other hard discs from a database.

For me it is a sufficient tool as I wanted to compare the overall performance of two different hard discs.

There is also a online shop to buy the software for commercial use.

Links

• HD Tach Homepage

Links

• Defraggler

Screenshot

Links

• Microsoft TechNet
• Microsoft TechNet BlueScreen Screen Saver

coLinux is the base – a port of the Linux kernel which allows you to run Linux cooperatively on your Windows PC. andLinux is a complete Ubuntu Linux system which uses coLinux, Xming as X server and PulseAudio as sound server.

I’ve tried andLinux on my Windows XP notebook, installation was easy. Quite nice if you also want to have Linux running on your PC without purchasing other products. You can start Linux applications and they appear like a regular Windows application on your desktop.

andLinux offers some more features:

• Access from Linux applications to Windows filesystem
• Quick start of Linux applications from Quicklaunch bar
• Easy start of applications from KDE Start menu

See also:

• German andLinux website: andlinux.de

Definitely a try worth!

There is a free version of TreeSize from JAM software available which calculates the size of all folders of your hard disc. You can also expand the folder Explorer-like and find out where all the disc space is wasted. JAM software also offers a professional version which is capable of scanning network folders as well.

See also:

• TreeSize free version download
• TreeSize professional

Which information does it display?

• General: title, author, director, album, track number, date, duration…
• Video: codec, aspect, fps, bitrate…
• Audio: codec, sample rate, channels, language, bitrate…
• Text: language of subtitle
• Chapters: number of chapters, list of chapters

Which kind of formats (containers) does it support?

• Video: MKV, OGM, AVI, DivX, WMV, QuickTime, Real, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DVD (VOB)…
  (Codecs: DivX, XviD, MSMPEG4, ASP, H.264, AVC…)
• Audio: OGG, MP3, WAV, RA, AC3, DTS, AAC, M4A, AU, AIFF…
• Subtitles: SRT, SSA, ASS, SAMI…

For more details visit the MediaInfo homepage. Download is available for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems.

A simple call to sync a folder to a second local hard disc looks like:

robocopy c:\temp\Privat "e:\backup" /MIR

/MIR mirror a directory tree

If you want to sync to a NAS storage which is not based on a Microsoft Operating System you need to add some further flags:

robocopy c:\temp\Privat "\\ts-101\USB Disk 1\Test" /MIR /Z /A /M

/Z copy files in restartable mode (useful when sync e.g. over DSL connection which may sometimes terminate)

/M copy only files with the Archive attribute set and reset it (needed if you want to sync to a NAS storage which is not based on Microsoft)

/A copy only files with the Archive attribute set (needed if you want to sync to a NAS storage which is not based on Microsoft)

Obtaining Robocopy

• Robocopy download from Microsoft (if link is no longer available search in Google for “Windows Server 2003 Resource Tool Kit)

Mac users will already know the comfort of automated backups to an external hard disc or a network attached storage (NAS) running in background without user action. It’s really useful and easy to use. Microsoft users usually need to find their own backup solution. They can buy extra tools or use some Freeware/OpenSource tools.

My Goals

It’s not much I want, just a few things should be fulfilled:

• Sync folders from my notebook/PC to an external hard disc (NAS)
• Sync should run without user action
• Sync should run automated (wish: when notebook/PC is idle)

SyncToy V2 from Microsoft

Looking for such a automated backup solution I came across the tool SyncToy from Microsoft. It’s currently only available in English language. SyncToy can be obtained for free from the Microsoft homepage:

• SyncToy V2.0 download from Microsoft

It is an easy to use Windows application for copying, moving, renaming and deleting files between folder and computers. Handling is easy, the source (left) folder as well as the destination (right) folder is specified. In my case I use the “Echo” sync action, which means that files on the destination folder are also deleted in case they are deleted on my notebook/PC. A preview can be started to see what would happen and finally the synchronization can be started using the “Run” button.

Still Manual

OK, now we have an easy to use synchronisation tool and it’s for free but it’s not yet running automated in background. To do this automatically the Windows Task Scheduler is used. We generate a new scheduled task through Start, Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Scheduled Tasks. The following command line should be entered for the scheduled task:

"C:\Program Files\SyncToy 2.0\SyncToyCmd.exe" -R

You will need to enter a user should execute the task. You can use your current account (please note: a password seems to be needed, empty passwords seems not to work). Of course you can also generate an extra user, e.g. “backup”. Take care, if the scheduled task is executed as different user which is currently logged in, it’s needed to start SyncToy with “Run As…” for configuration because the configuration is stored separated for every user.

Backup when Idle

When you want to have backups done always when your notebook/PC is idle, then choose the corrosponding option for the scheduled task: execute when idle. My Windows is in German language, so I don’t know the correct name. Furthermore you can define after which passed time in idle the task should be executed. I use 10 minutes here in a first try.

Within the scheduled task options further options can be set like “run task not when operating in battery mode”, “stop task when battery mode is entered” which might be useful for notebooks.

Hint: The user which will execute SyncToy must have access to the local files as well as the remote directory. For debugging try the “Preview” button and the log file (File, view log).

Result

Using a free tool the files of my notebook/PC are not synchronized automatically when I’ve not done any user input for 10 minutes. Great!

It keeps unclear why Microsoft doesn’t add such a backup tool in Windows. Also installation is not absolutely easy. It would be nice if scheduling options could directly be set in SyncToy.

Compared to TimeMachine for Mac really missing are incremental backups, which means you have backups also available from past in a history.