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One item you also failed to mention, is that in “normal” or routine hardening, the terminal service is usuall turned to manual or disabled. This would prevent the RDC from running. So by turning it on, to allow you to use it, it makes the system one more step unsecure. Idealy, we need a freeware, remote control software that is self contained, encrypted, and will run from behind a NAT firewall to another. But I belive the only way, would be a server in the middle. Moving the 2 PCs out from behind the firewall, exposes both to additional risks that are more varied than a man in the middle. This appears to be a catch-22 situation. You are vunerable to a man-in-the-midddle attack, or everything else out in the wild of the internet.

One item you also failed to mention, is that in “normal” or routine hardening, the terminal service is usuall turned to manual or disabled. This would prevent the RDC from running. So by turning it on, to allow you to use it, it makes the system one more step unsecure. Idealy, we need a freeware, remote control software that is self contained, encrypted, and will run from behind a NAT firewall to another. But I belive the only way, would be a server in the middle. Moving the 2 PCs out from behind the firewall, exposes both to additional risks that are more varied than a man in the middle. This appears to be a catch-22 situation. You are vunerable to a man-in-the-midddle attack, or everything else out in the wild of the internet.

One build not mentioned so far is Peppermint linux. It is based on Mint, which is based on Ubuntu. However, what they did, is strip out most programs, and redesign it to be a “cloud” computer terminal. Most programs do not reside on the host, but are downloaded from the web on demand. I would consider it a preview of the Chrome OS. For example, If you click on the Google Docks Icon, it will open the application in a stand alone window of Firefox, configured for remote app session. peppermintos.com

Actually, on this test, I found video garbage occurring in Vista. So, it has to be hardware. Opened the box, and found it encrusted in dust. Video card was not dirty, but processor and power supply had an obstructive amount of dust. I only had it opened up 6 months ago. Cleaned it out, and reseated the card. So far so good. No signs of recurrence yet.

In my work, I have to remove programs like this every week. Most of them, disable all .exe programs from running, just preventing any anti-virus program from running. What I have found in most cases, is the primary infection, being the fake anti-virus, appears as a normal program, being unprotected, and listed in Program Files or the user’s App Data folders. What you have to do is mount the infected drive into another computer, as a secondary drive, or boot from a “PE” type boot disk. These options allow you to view the contents of the drive, without the OS being activated. You can then usually manual remove the primary fake anti-virus by looking at the Program Files, or App Data folders of the user. Also you can manually delete all temp files, when they sometimes hide. Then you can look at the system32 folder, and sort by date. Remove any .dll files that have gibberish as the names and recent file creation dates (like the day the infection started). On reboot, you should then be able to go into Safemode and install on of the better anti-virus/malware programs and do a scan. This will remove the additional virus/trojan horse programs that the fake anti-virus usually bring with them.

The trick is to boot the computer or drive from a different OS to perform the first cleaning, or complete, depending on your situation. This is one feature that desktops have an advantage over laptops, because you can mount additional drives in the system and not boot from them.

You may want to try the Verizon site for instructions on Linux for the Air Card. Sprint for example, posted a simple, basic step by step for Linux, but the example was Ubuntu KDE interface. The concepts are the same for the other GUI but functions may be in different places.

As for Mint, it is just a tweaked version of Ubuntu. They take it, add most codexcs and other software that Ubuntu does not. Ubuntu only comes with non-proprietary software. “Protected” drives and such are not normally included. So Mint may have included the driver for the Air Card. However, an air card usually requires an interface into the OS to “dial” the internet. That is the key you may be missing.

I see this problem frequently with bad printer drivers. It is a known issue with printers such as the HP Laserjet 1020.
To clear this up:
1) unplug your old printer
2) restart Vista with the printer not connected
3) This should toggle the printer in the control panel to offline mode
4) cancel any pending print jobs for this printer
5) uninstall the printer driver
6) reinstall with the latest driver
7) connect the printer if prompted by the driver, or reboot and then connect

If this does not fix it, it could be a problem with the USB port or incompatibility. I have mostly seen this error when only printing to printers where the printer is for the most part dumb, and all of the rendering is processed in the computer and printer driver itself. For some reason, I have seen more crashes of printer drivers, when rendering .pdf files than normal Office documents.

I’ve got a Vista media centre PC.

I recently completed a hard disk upgrade – after which the system will no longer go to S3 sleep. I put it to sleep – and it wakes up immeadiately.

The only difference – besides the disk replacement – was I moved the USB keyboard receiever and Media Centre remote to external USB ports – off a motherboard header – rather then their previous location directly form the motherboard on the main exterior header.

I’ve verfiied all the USB port settings are the same (notably the “enable the PC to shut down the USB power when sleeping”.) section in hardware manager. I’ve switched the USB devices back to their former ports – without success.

I’ve tried the MCE Standby Tool. (http://slicksolutions.eu/mst.shtml) Frustratingly – I get the same result.

I really don’t need – or want the PC to be on permanantly. I’m planning a Windows 7 upgrade to the PC in the next couple of months – but in the meantime I’d like it to play as nicely as it did before the upgrade!

My hunch is your external USB hub may be powered with its own power supply. If that is the case, the devices attached would not turn off, and therefore still communicate with the PC, keeping it awake. I would first try moving the Keyboard and remote back to a motherboard port and test this way. Then test moving each device. Also test removing the external hub.