Computer Tips -Tech Info

Tag: scanner

  • Mustek ScanExpress A3 USB 1200 Pro

    Scanners… I had a nice microtek scanner that for the last year has refused to work and I decided to replace it. I have a project coming up that would require scanning some larger format pages so I was really pleased to find a $165 A3 scanner (usually the larger format are much more expensive.) This is the Mustek ScanExpress A3 USB 1200 Pro. So…. being a linux user I look to see if it’s supported by sane and naively…. finding a mustek usb scanner with 1200 in the name assume that it’s supported that way. (It’s not – mustek’s model numbering is quite cryptic and enigmatic. I have found multiple (different) scanexpress something 1200 scanners that are usb based. All with varying levels of support.

    On inspection though mustek has a linux driver on their website…

    (more…)

  • Replacing a Power Adapter for a Microtek Scanmaker 4800

    This is just a glimpse of the kinds of things I get to do day to day… A week or so ago I had a client that had received a used scanner from a friend. The scanner was a Microtek Scanmaker 4800. I was a bit concerned as her pc still has Windows 98 and I recall very many long hours of hair pulling making USB scanners and Windows 98 work years ago. Fortunately though, the driver cd was included in the bag their friend had passed along. The install process went smoothly, but there was one little detail missing.

    (more…)

  • Scanning over the network, or sharing a scanner on a network

    I remember the question from long ago, we had just shared a printer across a windows network and…. wait for it…. “oh, well could I share my scanner too?” On windows the typical answer was NO, at least not unless there was a driver from the scanner manufacturer that supported it, but on linux the answer is an unqualified YES as long as the scanner is supported under linux (so many are..) Using SANE (which is the linux scanner driver backend) you can share out scanners across a network and tips.linux.com has an article on just that topic. I’ve set it up before on my network and it was relatively easy to do and VERY convenient. At that time, I don’t recall a good functional windows client for the SANE driver, but it may have matured a bit by now (last I looked into it was 3-4 years ago.)

  • Good sarc monitoring tip

    Sarc is still in their month of security tips per day and todays is another good one. Todays tip is about monitoring machines, particularly those that “defend” your network. (Mail antivirus scanners/ proxy fitlers/scanners/etc.) The core of the advice is to not just ping – that only tells you if the system exists and is online – it doesn’t tell if things are working. They suggest scripting tests (antivirus scanner can be tested via the EICAR test signature for instance.) They note that doesn’t tell if the av scanner is updated (I prefer a crontab output of the days updates – looks like there were around 9 clamav signature updates yesterday.

    (more…)

  • Windows XP and IPP printers

    I really like printers with their own built in print server. They can be plugged into the network and some operating systems can just find them. Unfortunately most of the time Windows doesn’t just find an IPP printer. One tool that can be handy for such a time as this is a free tool like softperfect network scanner or you could substitute your own tool in to find where the printer is on the network. If you’re lucky enough to have designed the network or setup the printer yourself, you may know. But, in my job I may have information on some parts of a customers network, but many times I’m called in after the fact and get the “I need that network printer to work on this desktop” kind of assignment.

    (more…)

  • Diebold Voting machine vulnerabilities

    Freedom to tinker brings us this BIG problem. I guess what concerns me most about this, is the way I see it, voter fraud has pretty much gone on since there have been elections. Let’s face it, there is always someone, acting officially or not that will jockey for the best advantage for their candidate. If that means “helping” someone cast a ballot, or contesting a hanging chad… it cuts both ways, no party has clean hands in this. (Even if it’s something that is done by someone acting on their own, I would say it reflects back on the party.) Anyway… up until know I’ve seen voter fraud as something that is hard to really successfully accomplish on a VERY large scale, AND with assurance of results. With electronic voting machines, I’m afraid there may be a revolution in MASS voter fraud.

    (more…)

  • Epson Perfection 1650 scanner and Windows XP Limited User account

    “We tried scanning and all that happened was the lamp moved back and forth…. Nothing else happened.” That was the description I had and the request to see why the scanner was broken. It hadn’t been long since the Epson scanner had been hooked up to a new XP Pro system. The machine sees quite a bit of public use so we had thought it would be best to divide accounts into Visitor which is an unpriviliged user and another account for the ability to work with software that was not as cooperative in an unpriviliged account.

    (more…)

  • A Tip for cleaning up an infected PC

    There’s a joke that many people bring out when new Windows viruses hit big…. it goes along the lines of, “download a fix here” and the link points to a knoppix linux livecd download, or a Mandriva download disk, fedora/etc… Some say linux isn’t affected by as many viruses because it lacks market share, I would point out that server market share (take a look at how many linux web servers there are…) would seem to tip the scales a bit, but that’s not the point of this post. What is the point is this…. When you have a Windows pc that is infested what you should do is disconnect from the internet. The problem is, that typically prevents you from getting the tools you need to fix the machine.

    (more…)

  • Tools of the trade…. USB network adapter

    For a long time I really disliked seeing USB network adapters. The main reason is the performance. USB 1 can only do ~ 12Mbps which compared to a 10/100 ethernet controller “significantly limits your ability to do more than 10…” Even USB 2 supports 480 Mbps which should give you the ability to get full throughput of up to 200mbps with full duplexing. However, I still cringed at USB network adapters….

    (more…)

  • Clamantivirus may get support from eEye?

    This would be a good thing for clamantivirus. eEye is considering “adopting” clamav for inclusion in their Blink product. The idea is that they would improve clamantivirus and then start integrating it as antivirus scanning functionality in their product. This would be really promising for the prospects of having clamav (clamwin) do real-time, on-access scanning on the windows platform.

    (more…)