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/Steve. -
BootAble – FreeDOS boot testing freeware
To obtain direct, low-level access to a system's mass storage drives, SpinRite runs under a GRC-customized version of FreeDOS which has been modified to add compatibility with all file systems. In order to run SpinRite it must first be possible to boot FreeDOS.
GRC's “BootAble” freeware allows anyone to easily create BIOS-bootable media in order to workout and confirm the details of getting a machine to boot FreeDOS through a BIOS. Once the means of doing that has been determined, the media created by SpinRite can be booted and run in the same way.
The participants here, who have taken the time to share their knowledge and experience, their successes and some frustrations with booting their computers into FreeDOS, have created a valuable knowledgebase which will benefit everyone who follows.
You may click on the image to the right to obtain your own copy of BootAble. Then use the knowledge and experience documented here to boot your computer(s) into FreeDOS. And please do not hesitate to ask questions – nowhere else can better answers be found.
(You may permanently close this reminder with the 'X' in the upper right.)
My Favorite Utilities, Gadgets & Services
Steve
Steve
How many times have we dug around looking for a specific settings panel in Windows (7/8/10)? Microsoft has announced that they're going to be “simplifying” the traditional Control Panel, and we know how that goes. It's going to make finding things more difficult. Peter's small (441K) and clean little utility runs under Win7/8/10 and requires NO installation. On my Win7 machine it lists 340 individual settings, tunings, tweakings applets. And a search that allows you to quickly find what you want. It also has “recent”, “Most Used”, “Favorite” and more.
And while you're at Peter's site, do yourself a favor and check out his 4 pages of unique utilities. This is only one of the nifty things he's created. Everything is free “donationware.” So if you like and use his stuff, perhaps send him a tip.
Steve
Steve
This thing takes a bit of getting used to. It's way less user-friendly than sync.com (which I would and do recommend to anyone and everyone). But if what you want is something of a “Swiss Army Knife” folder synchronizer, than SyncThing will probably do anything you could want.
I'm currently using SyncThing to synchronize selected folders of two Drobo NAS devices at different locations. And separately, I've set one of those Drobos to maintain synchronization among a network of 20 remote laptops being used to provide clinical home neurofeedback. Each of those laptops has a one-way (Drobo to laptop) folder sync from a common directory on the Drobo, and individual two-way sync's between selected folders on each laptop and it's own Drobo-sync'ed mirror folders. Like I said, SyncThing is a Swiss Army Knife solution that can perform pretty much any sync task that you could imagine.
SyncThing lives here: https://syncthing.net/ and as with the “Sync.com” service (see previous post) I recommend it without reservation so long as you're willing to invest some time in figuring out how it works.
If you want to know more, the Security Now! podcast #734 has all the details!
Steve
pfSense if based upon an optimized FreeBSD UNIX kernel and it can do anything you might ever want. It can run static VPN links. It can perform both dynamic and static NAT and NAPT translation. It can run a reverse proxy, create and maintain physically separate network segments, it's VLAN-aware. You name it. And it's FREE! It's 100% free for you to deploy on your own hardware — pretty much any multi-interface hardware you might have lying around. Or, if you want a turn-key solution, you could grab one of their ready-to-run appliances. Or (better yet) If you're willing to do a bit of installation you could take that path I did, of using a more beefy (less expensive) perfect hardware solution, the range of Protectli Vault devices (see the next post in this thread.) But, however you choose to get pfSense running at your border, I think you'll be very glad that you did.
Steve
Steve
Steve
Steve
Steve