You could just plug the printer into one computer, turn on file/printer sharing in the operating system, and have the other computer print to it that way. Cheaper than an USB/ethernet print server...

The real trick is when the printer has only Windows drivers and the other computers on the network wanting to print to it are Macs. (There are hackish ways to do it using ghostscript)

Still doesn't address the multifunction stuff.

You can pretty much uninstall the crap you don't need bit by bit, once it's installed

I've been spending some time working on my mom's computer... she has XP and 2k running in VMWare (long story as to why this is necessary). A USB security token works fine in VMware, but can't get 2k to recognize a flash drive, even after updating the USB drivers via windows update.

Anyone have ideas?

http://www.vmware.com/support/ws45/doc/devices_usb_ws.html

(tl;dr)

No_47: http://www.vmware.com/support/ws45/doc/devices_usb_ws.html

(tl;dr)

Yeah, I found that and it wasn't too helpful.. I ended up having to run it as a shared folder and map it onto the guest desktop. Oh well.

That's what I do with VirtualBox

GTA IV PC

Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows Vista - Service Pack 1 / XP - Service Pack 3
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8Ghz, AMD Athlon X2 64 2.4Ghz
Memory: 1.5GB, 16GB Free Hard Drive Space
Video Card: 256MB NVIDIA 7900 / 256MB ATI X1900

Recommended System Requirements
OS: Windows Vista - Service Pack 1 / XP - Service Pack 3
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4Ghz, AMD Phenom X3 2.1Ghz
Memory: 2 GB (Windows XP) 2.5 GB (Windows Vista)
18 GB Free Hard Drive Space
Video Card: 512MB NVIDIA 8600 / 512MB ATI 3870


crikey

and I bought it

I have to overclock X2 200mhz to hit min. spec

Well, it runs...

After the wtf "insert original disc and not a backup" Securom errors and learning that I have to stay signed out of the Rockstar Social Club for it to not crash at launch... I forgot how crappy the shadows look in this game...

might playsome Left 4 Dead now...

It won't run at my LCD's native 1280x1024 resolution (it won't even let you pick the setting), with a 320MB 8800GTS (G80), an E8400 CPU, and 2 GB memory. It will accept 1152x864, just the scaling looks a bit crummy, and I have to set texture quality to low -- but so far it runs great at that speed.

Seems like VRAM might be my limiting factor, not the render speed of the card or the CPU, so even a very slight nudge up to a 512MB 8800GT/9800GT might do the trick, and the price is right. I can't quite justify a GTX260 for just this game, but maybe a 9800GTX+ would work. I'm not really up to date on the latest nVidia stuff... thoughts? I do have access to someone else's 768MB 8800GTX so I can test the VRAM theory first before blowing $.

s/at that speed/at that resolution/

duuuhr

I spent most of the night playing around with my video settings (512mb 9600gt) and my framerate isn't improving. But I can run it at 1280x1024. I get about the same framerates as running at 1024x768.

My motherboard won't take anything more than a dual core, gosh darnit.

On a 9600GT what quality settings does it let you use at 1280x1024, and what framerate does the motorcycle benchmark thing give you? I tend to get about 35 here at 1152x864 or 1024x768 on low texture settings... and I'd rather get to 1280x1024 high texture settings but cheaply.

I don't know if a 20dB amp is enough, though I think RG6 is lower loss than the usual RG59, but for the love of $diety get some lightning protection on that thing :) MM fiber would take care of the lightning, but I've never heard of a mux for that. Doesn't mean they don't exist, though, if you find one I'd be curious...

from memory it automatically set it to, in this order
Medium
High
20-something
20-something
and i don't remember the rest. got 25fps i think

I'm going to knock my cpu up to 2.7 and see if it's stable

Well, I did get GTA4/PC to run in 1280x1024 with my existing card by just reducing one of the settings and cranking some of the others up. Frame rate went up too. Looks a bit better overall.

But, my GTA4/PC problem is now that I can't sign into Games For Windows Live. For some stupid reason, you have to do that to even save your progress in single player (yeah, makes no sense to me either), so while the game looks OK, I can't exactly save my progress, so it's useless :p

I even ran Wireshark on it to sniff the traffic, and I do see successful authentication (bidirectional Kerberos 5 traffic), then the game starts sending UDP packets out and gets no response (and the firewall isn't dropping anything). Strangely, the outbound packets are fragmented, which I suspect Microsoft is dropping. Can't figure out why they're fragmented, 'cause after reassembly the payload is still only 1366 bytes. Odd.

I've got GTA IV from Steam. Going to try it tonight. However I'm hearing of problems with Vista x64 and trying to install the latest Windows Live update.

I have the account already (I just re-used my MSN Messenger login)... I can sign in on the web or using gfwlclient.exe in \program files\microsoft games for windows - live\client.
But those all use HTTP or HTTPS to talk to the server. The game's using UDP port 3704 and that's what's stalling out.

I'll see if I can get a sniffer upstream one hop.

I had to download an update for GFWL

Did that already.

Gonna have my ISP sniff upstream tomorrow to see where the packet drops are happening. I haven't 100% ruled out my own router.

I could use some advice on the computer I'm building...

A power outage did something wonky to my computer. Despite being behind a surge protector, my motherboard and graphics card no longer function. My computer is 8 years old, so it's time for an upgrade anyways.

This is my first time building a computer from scratch, so I wanted to make sure I was doing it right.

I plan on running 64-bit windows vista home premium system builder's edition (i know, I know, vista sucks balls)

So, here goes:
Case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119106
Cool er Master. Mid tower. ATX Form factor.

Hard Drives:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074
WD Caviar. 320gb, 7200RPM, SATA 3.0gb/s
I'm going to buy two HDs. One for softwware, one for data. The idea being that reformatting, organizing, backing up, and defragging should be easier. With most of the drive access being done on the software side of things, the chance of HD failure causing data loss will hopefully drop significantly.

Graphics Card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130370
EVGA GeForce GTX 260. 896mb. PCI-ex 2.0.
Requires: 450w PSU, two 4-prong dongles. Dongle dongle dongle.

DVD Burner:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135176
ASUS
SATA 3.0gb/s

Power Supply:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371016
550w. ATX. Plenty of 4-pin dongles.

RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231194
G .Skill 2x2gb 240pin DDR2 1100 (PC2 8800)

Mobo:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138118
BIO STAR TPower I45. ATX form factor.
Supports Core 2 Quad. Intel 45nm. LGA775.
FSB: 1600/1333MHz (Help, I know what a FSB is and what the 1333MHz is, what's the 1600, though?)
Mem slots: 4x240pin, DDR2 1200 (Is this a problem if my ram is DDR2 1100? Their specs page says they support Dual-Channel DDR2 -1200(OC)/1066/800)
6 SATA 3.0gb/s ports
2 PCI-ex 2.0 ports

Processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E1681911504 3
Intel Core 2 Quad 2.5ghz.
LGA 775
FSB: 1333 MHz


Other concerns:
Should I get new processor fan? The one I'm getting comes with one but I dunno if it wiould be inferior to a zalman.
I'd like this computer to be able to last me for another 7-8 years. I think in the future I might take advantage of SLI and a new power supply, as well as 4 more gigs of ram. Does anyone see any significant bottlenecks that could also hurt me in the long run?


Final cost, after shipping and gift certificates:
$1,039.45

Yikes.

get a bigger power supply.

there's a whole bunch of GTA IV tweaks in this forum:
http://www.erodov.com/forums/gta-iv-tweaks-u/14764.html

something that might help framerates is disabling the 30 second clip capture

I'm going to buy two HDs. One for softwware, one for data.

Get two identical-sized drives (not necessarily identical brand) and mirror them (raid 1). Hard drives will fail eventually, mirroring will help you keep your data when it happens. When one dies, you can continue running with the one remaining drive until you can swap the dead one for another.

Don't stripe them (raid 0) and don't use one for data and one for software. Either of those means losing either all or half your data in a crash, and in the raid 0 case you can't continue running with just one drive.

I'll second the Seagate recommendation, though definitely avoid their budget Maxtor brand. All brands have their bad years though, even Seagate, Hitachi, and WD.

Oh, and that vidcard is gonna need 6-pin, not 4-pin, extra power plugs, probably two of them. Any new Antec PSU will be fine w/ that. Get one with removable power connectors at the PSU end though, less clutter inside the case that way.

Zalman makes good CPU fans but they're unnecessary on the 45nm CPU's. The stock fan is just fine. The only advantage to the Zalmans are they're easier to install/remove -- I hate the Intel LGA775 clip mechanism with a passion. I may just be too stupid to do it right tho, wouldn't be the first time :)

If you're future-proofing you may want a DDR3-based board instead of DDR2 and something that can go to at least 8 GB memory (since you're gonna be running 64-bit). I tend to go with Asus and Intel boards in desktops and Supermicro in servers, though I do have a little Shuttle SX38P2 on my desk nowadays. Biostar's probably OK but not zOMGgreat. Gigabyte and Tyan are kinda on my shiatlist. Some nVidia motherboard chipsets have a history of bizarre SATA data corruption problems; consider sticking to Intel chipsets even though that often rules out SLI.

Go with ECC memory if the board's chipset supports it (most ignore the ECC bits)

550W may be OK but 620W would be a bit better. Not much price difference.

Mike: Get two identical-sized drives (not necessarily identical brand) and mirror them (raid 1). Hard drives will fail eventually, mirroring will help you keep your data when it happens. When one dies, you can continue running with the one remaining drive until you can swap the dead one for another.

Don't stripe them (raid 0) and don't use one for data and one for software. Either of those means losing either all or half your data in a crash, and in the raid 0 case you can't continue running with just one drive.

I'll second the Seagate recommendation, though definitely avoid their budget Maxtor brand. All brands have their bad years though, even Seagate, Hitachi, and WD.

Oh, and that vidcard is gonna need 6-pin, not 4-pin, extra power plugs, probably two of them. Any new Antec PSU will be fine w/ that. Get one with removable power connectors at the PSU end though, less clutter inside the case that way.

Awesome, thanks

Ok, I'm now getting Seagate 500gb drives.
I currently have a 80gb drive, with 20 gigs still free, so I don't see using that up any time soon

DDR3 is a little bit out of my price range.
My mobo can handle up to 8gb ram

A 650W PSU I'm looking at says it has 2 PCI-E Connectors
1 x 6Pin, 1 x 6+2Pin
My graphics card says it needs 2 x 6 Pin Will they work together?

yes, 6 pin PCI-E connectors are what the nVidia card wants, you're fine.

Fixed my farking GTA4 not being able to sign into Games For Windows Live. Sure nuff it was the UDP packets being fragemented that was the problem. Cisco's VPN client reduces the IP MTU from 1500 to 1300. Even better, it doesn't change it back when you uninstall it. Once I uninstalled it and regedited the MTU back to 1500, poof, works fine now.

shorter version: any Games For Windows Live or XBox Live game requires a MTU of at least 1364. That's why the Cisco VPN Client broke it.