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My Next Track Plan

Started by Bob Bryce, March 01, 2013, 12:33:05 PM

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Bob Bryce

I posted the jpeg files because in the past, people could not read the .any files if they did not have Anyrail.  I have made some minor changes to the lower layout, and I will be happy to post both the JPG and the .any files this evening if I get a chance.

Jeff

Whenever you get a chance. We like to see what the plan evolves into. It's kind of like watching your kids grow :^)
Later,                                                AnyRail Fanatic
Jeff                      and Unofficial Guy Who Knows Almost Everything About It

Bob Bryce

#17
I must wait to upload the track plans, as my computer suffered a major crash last weekend.  It was not running right, and after running Anti-Virus, nothing was found.  I downloaded an update to Windows Media Player and things got really wierd.  Internet Explorer stopped displaying photos in many areas.  It was recommended I run Anti-Spyware and I did.

It removed about 30 spyware items.  But, after that everything crashed!  Could only run Internet Explorer in Safe mode.  When I found McAffee Anti-Virus also stopped displaying screens, I called McAffee and they first thought I picked up a virus, but then told me that I cannot run Spybot with anti-virus or firewalls enabled, and that when I ran Spybot Search and Destroy, Spybot disabled my anti-virus software AND my firewall during the period it was running, about 40 minutes.

After it had completed, many gremlins had already corrupted my system.

Not really sure that is how it happened, but something did.  I now need to re-load my entire system from a previous image and restore my files from a backup, all of which I can do.  So far, all of my software programs are still working fine, all data seems to be intact, only my system files seem to be affected, but I am hesitant to transmit anything until I fix all of this.

So.....  how was all of your weekends?

Jeff

#18
Weekend.... hmmm. Oh, yeah. I spent the entire time riding herd on two teenage girls. Any moments that may have missed that battle were spent trying to sleep. I've got some spine damage that reacts poorly to changes in atmospheric pressure, so the weekend in general wasn't going on my list of favorite days...

BTW, it points up something us old-timers learned quickly: If you're going to run system utilities, be darn sure your protection is in place.
Also, your original issue sounds like a simple case of having some file associations changed or deleted. It's something that might take 5 minutes to fix without running any spybots or anti-virus software.
Later,                                                AnyRail Fanatic
Jeff                      and Unofficial Guy Who Knows Almost Everything About It

RhB_HJ

Bob,

I feel your pain!
My 'puter (a big Gateway with Win7) gets the occasional hicup. Usually no big deal 'til one day I proceeded with the install of the latest updates - they get downloaded but then I select what gets installed.
Auto reboot and it wouldn't get past the Gateway display on boot. GRRRRRR ... whatever I tried was no deal. Took it to the dealer, it was 1-2-3 and that was it. I shouldn't have watched the display, I should have watch his fingers.
Same happened again a few weeks back, that time I inserted the recovery disk and let it boot. Fixed!

My weekend? railfanning all of Saturday, recovering on Sunday.
Hans-Joerg Mueller
Coldstream, BC   Canada

http://www.rhb-grischun.ca

My train videos

Win7Pro 64bit; 8 GB RAM; i5 2.67GHz; 1920x1080 22" display

Bob Bryce

Jeff,

Got to agree with you.  The recommendation to run Spybot was from Microsoft Tech Support after they reviewed my error log.  They indicated that should fix all the problems.  According to McAffee, if Spybot had not disabled my firewall during it's search process, I don't believe I would be having these added problems now.  But, as with everything, it's fixable, just more hastle.

Jeff

True, Bob. Personally, I've run Spybot without a problem, but I am on the safe side of a router at all times. You might want to consider getting a decent one for your own protection.
Later,                                                AnyRail Fanatic
Jeff                      and Unofficial Guy Who Knows Almost Everything About It

Bob Bryce

Actually, I have a very high end router now.  I'm not sure what the quality of the router plays in this, as the router just sends the signal to the computer.  All the security is on the computer.  Confused.

BritsTukker

You appear to have an odd setup.
On my system , the primary security is on the router, which has a firewall and controls any external access to my home network of four computers and a printer.

Bob Bryce

#24
The router I have was provided by Brighthouse networks, my internet provider.  It is a cable modem and a wireless router all in one unit.  Roadrunner provides it's own anti-virus software and maybe firewall also, I'm not sure. 

I may not be fully understanding this, but I thought on my system, the internet signal came into the cable modem/router and the router then split it into two signals, one via the ethernet cable to my desktop and the other to the wireless network where my laptop receiver picked up this signal.  Then the anti-virus & firewall software on the computer took over to protect the hard drive and files.  I don't know how the firewall software is in the router unless it is on a promm chip, then it seems it could not be accessible to allow trusted sites you choose to pass through.

I did have the Microsoft Windows firewall turned on at the time, but McAffee indicated the Spyblt software needed it turned off due to a conflict during the scan, so it turned it off.

I'm also not sayng I'm not totally out to lunch regarding how firewalls function, but that is how I understood how my system works.

Jeff

#25
Bob,

I don't know that router, but I take a very dim view of anything provided by the cable company (I have the same company). In my setup, the signal comes in over the cable into their cable modem (soon to change as I ditch the lease fee on the modem by providing my own), then it goes into MY wi-fi / wired router (LinkSys WR310N if it's of interest), where the router's internal operating system provides network security and routes the signal to the wi-fi transceiver and  the wired gigabit Ethernet ports. So, there is anti-pirate software built into the router in the form of a perfectly capable firewall. As a sensible person I have changed the default router address, the host name, the userID, and the default password for access to the router control panel. I've also set it to use WPA2/PSK (WPA2 with pre-shared key passphrase). Using a passphrase for the PSK multiplies the security, since crackers don't handle punctuation and blank characters well. In the (far) past, I suffered a couple of catastrophic hack attacks when my anti-virus software failed to handle zero-day poison. Since I installed and configured my  router, I have had NO successful attacks on my system, even without running any anti-virus software.

Now, that router MAY be ok. I would recommend googling it and seeing what people say about it, then read up on the manual and CHANGE THE DEFAULT SETTINGS! It's as much use as wet toilet paper without doing that.
Later,                                                AnyRail Fanatic
Jeff                      and Unofficial Guy Who Knows Almost Everything About It

Bob Bryce

#26
My system is fixed.  I contacted Hewlett Packard directly to ask them the best corrective action, and they said my computer was still under warrantee and it covered this problem.  I was on with a computer tech for about 45 minutes, he removed several programs that were causing the problems, and the main culpret was Internet Explorer 10.  It seems that Internet Explorer 9 is the highest version that should be running on Windows 7.  I had IE 10 on my machine and it is apparently full of bugs that Windows 7 doesn't like.  Once IE10 was removed and IE9 was installed, everything came back in light speed. 

Regarding the router conversation, I also have a Linksys 2.4 Ghz/54Mbps model WRT54G wireless router, but I either did not know how to correctly customize the settings or something, but it never gave me really good performance.  That was why I investigated the Brighthouse wireless.  Their wireless setup seems to be working great as a wireless unit.

At anyrate, I'm back to full operation, did not loose any software or data and very relieved about that!


Jeff

The LinkSys unit you have is a good one. I owned one until I got hit by lightning and it leaked in the cable and fried one of the wired ports. That's when I went out and bought an 802.11n unit. I'm now thinking of upgrading to one of he new 802.11AC models. The WRT-54G was a reliable machine running Linux and it kept me safe for about 5 years. One little thing you may want to know about wi-fi operation, if you don't know it yet- your router will only run as fast as the SLOWEST machine in your net. So if you have an old b unit sitting around, you're not getting even g speeds. It's a powerful incentive to upgrade the adapters, especially when you get into n speeds.
Later,                                                AnyRail Fanatic
Jeff                      and Unofficial Guy Who Knows Almost Everything About It

Bob Bryce

#28
Back to my track plan.  Layout is HO.

Here is a JPG and an Anyrail copy of the current layout.



Jeff

If you are at point where you have to wait a few days for something, do me a favor: take your space and try a layout in N scale. Using a mix of Atlas code 55 and Peco  Fine scale code 55. They seem to work well together.
Later,                                                AnyRail Fanatic
Jeff                      and Unofficial Guy Who Knows Almost Everything About It