Post moved to new thread!

Having bits of my house rewired and putting network cables in as well; the sparkies have put the cable in the same run as mains cables - is this OK? I thought they'd be better a few inches away.

Had my house rewired in 2002 & was told that phone/router cables should be run in their own conduit, not in the same conduit as mains supply cables. A plastic divider in double conduit was considered sufficient though as the cables would be kept apart.

SC

It shouldn't make too much difference if they are close to the mains cables so long as you haven't any electrically noisy stuff - electric motors can sometimes be a problem and welding machines certainly would be.

I'm not sure what the electrical safety regs say about it, but the main thing to be careful of is that there are no tight bends in the cable. Try for a mininum 2" radius. If you go too tight, the effect can be the same as a kink in a hose pipe.

Also, make sure they test the cables before they leave but bear in mind that a simple continuity test will not show up any tight bends.

In my experience mains frequencies don't affect network cables though they do affect the telephone and broadband. Network cables are affected by being close to monitor cables though.

Thanks folks, that's all useful to know. I presume fridges & freezers are so well insulated against interference that they shouldn't present a problem. That's about the worst of our equipment. Don't do any welding!

Our house is uninhabitable at the moment but it's a great chance to get stuff like this done whilst ceilings are down and walls are bare.

Network cables installed you say? Hmmm? Things have certainly moved on a bit in the last 50 years, for sure.

I'm 65 in a couple of days time. I distinctly remember my grandparents having electricity installed into their farm. This happened when I was 11.

Fantastic! We could use an electric light! And no longer did we have to take the heavy lead/acid glass accumulators into town to have them charged (one on charge, one on standby and one running) to run the wireless. And we could forget the paraffin lamps too! These were the ones with the fabric mantles, where you had to pressurise the paraffin and prick the spray outlet with a special pricking tool.

Happy days. But it was bloody cold then, I remember too. These days, I hardly wear a coat.

Yes, I remember when we got radiators installed in the bedrooms as well. That was exciting. My parents really had to think about whether they should do it!!

Which is the simplist website software to use, basically it must be able to design one main page or templete automatically do it for all the other pages, tried FP a few times but had to change every page one by one etc

Needs to be operated by a 2 y.o (me) lol

Check out NVU. It is an open source program that sadly has not been developed recently but there is a link to Kompozer which attemps to take it forward.

Both are fairly basic, but easy to use and are free.

I use Freewebs. Very easy to use, templates etc. I pay to not have the adverts but free if you dont mind them. (I think)

Optimist, Jeffmack thanks ;-)

Execline,
What a delightful post------takes me back more years than I care to remember, and we were lucky to have Gas mantle lighting before electricity. SD

hi...back with a PC problem...
I have a pc running XP and when I boot it up all I get is loud beeps...as if it trying to do something and cant...almost from when I press the button

Thast not good right...oddly enough it was working fine earlier..
eventually it get to the F1 or F2 to run set up choices?

Any idea of the size of stick I need to beat it with?

The beeps are important. That is the BIOS telling you what the problem is. Count the beeps & the spaces.
See attached link: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000607.htm

Foale

Harry is right about the beeps. You should do that first.

The fact that you eventually got to the setup options suggests that it is an intermitent fault which could be difficult to track down. If counting the beeps doesn't work then first of all check that all the fans are working OK. After that, try removing the memory and replacing one stick at a time. You could download an image for a boot CD memory tester and check the RAM properly. It could also be a fault on almost anything else in the machine.

The hard disk is most likely OK at least until the machine crashes during use. Now would be a good time to mont it on another machine and copy your data. If you get it running, run Belarc Advisor to give you a list of what is installed.

May I add...?
I would hesitate to suggest someone that doesn't know what the "beeps" mean should undo the case and remove bits......for a modest fee you can get a PC-clinic to look at the computer.
(some can diagnose over the phone, if you can interpret the screen results).
Just be sure you don't have any porn on the HDD (only joking), but more important any private letters, details of shareholdings, bank account etc.
It might cost a bit(50?)... to get an expert's view; but by undoing things willy-nilly you may suffer far greater loss.

However, this problem sounds odd - is the monitor correctly firing-up with the PC - so why aren't you getting a screen-message ( Like "Operating System not found"...etc.)......I still thiink it needs an expert's view, that's safest.

On the matter of security I would always suggest an External HDD for your files - and then create a duplicate to be stored somewhere else, in case there's a theft, etc. Ideally these external drives should be password protected, encrypted so anyone running them gets garbage.

FWIW...I store family photos on an external HDD (and on CD's mostly monthly)...not being too sure which method is best for long-term...Anyone have views on this...I don't trust manufacturers when they tell me the CD/DVD will last 100-years....how do they know?

Any time traveller will tell you they are wrong.

May be sensible to get one of the back up "imagers" such as "Acronis".

I use external hard drives and back up weekly.

Though next desktop I will put 2-3 harddrives. They are cheap enough now.

hangon

I take your point about taking the PC to an expert, but many people on this thread have found that though they are not technically minded, they are capable of replacing some components in a PC. I would suggest that most here ask for advice because they don't want to pay an expert and/or they do not entirely trust them. If Foale where to take his machine to an expert, he may well pay 50 and have it diagnosed and fixed perfectly, they may open it up, disturb the fault and return it as fixed only for the fault to reappear or they may use it as a selling opportunity.

As regards long term storage, I agree that external disks are probably the best though you should really use 2.5" ones as they are more robust. I've never had a problem with the 3.5" ones but have read of cases where someone trashes their disk by knocking the desk.

It's been a while since I looked into it, but last time I checked, CD-R was guaranteed for 18 months to 2 years, though they clearly last longer. DVD's will last longer as the media is sandwiched between plastic and hard drives are good for at least 15 years so long as they are stored properly and so long as you can find a SATA interface.

The best medium is said to be REV drives, said to be good for 30 years. Paper is also good but I would not count on the longevity of printer inks.

As far as I know, the 100 year claim for CD/DVD refers to the commercial pressings and is probably wishful thinking.

I would not trust important data to SD cards or USB flash drives at all.

Hangon, I absolutley disagree with your first paragraph. If you take the time to learn how something works, you will then be able to fix it yourself for free in future & also be able to help others (Isn't that why this board exists?). Same goes for your car, your washing machine etc. Obviously there are tasks which are too complicated for the DIY'er, but always paying for someone else to get you out of trouble is no way to develop your knowledge.