Archive for February, 2007

Network storage – Do you need it at home?

If you are like me – having 5-10 computers around the house (home computer, work laptop, wife’s work laptop, 2x old work laptop, 2x media centers, …) – you’re soon getting tired of copying all thos mp3, movies and images around so that they can be accessible from all the computers.
The solution of course is easy, but not free. I recently purchased the Synology DiskStation DS-106e, added a 500GB disk, and voila! This product works like a charm. It is based on linux, and Synology makes available free updates to the software inside. I used it both as a printserver, diskserver and ftp server. In addition it can function as a webserver as well, but I haven’t tried that part yet.
The setup is based on an onboard webbased configuration tool. I have created a few network shares, one for my personal stuff and one with public read availabilty (within the family) so that everyone can make use of the music, images and videos on their own computers.
The alternative is of course using an old computer running linux. However, the Synopsis was very easy to configure, and remembering hours and hours of previuos time used for Linux configuration, this device pays for itself. Recommended!

2 comments February 11, 2007

Microsoft Keyboard wit Fingerprint Reader on Vista

I installed Vista two months ago, and although most drivers were installed out of the box, a few drivers did not. Among those is the fingerprint reader on my “Microsoft Keyboard wit Fingerprint Reader”. Actually, the keyboard itself works fine, it is just the fingerprint reader that has no driver installed.Before Vista, I used it for logging on to my home pc almost every time.

I was expecting the drivers to be installed automatically throug Windows Update, but today, after two month I gave up. First I tried Driver Detective, an excellent piece of software which already has a Windows Vista version. However, it reported the device with a “driver not found” mark.

After a bit of searching I go the drivers in two steps:
i) Installing the latest version of the IntelliType Pro software from Microsoft
ii) Installing the DigitalPersona Password Manager 2.0, also from Microsoft.

After a restart (which by the way take som time on Vista), and some calibrating using the autostarting Wizard, I worked fine.

Anyway, logging on to Vista is easier now. For the home office, it offers good enough security.

1 comment February 4, 2007

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