I already had the case… which I bought about a year ago with the hopes of building a media centre pc, that didnt go over to well. After I scrapped that I decided I would build a WHS system for our home network. Since all I had was a case, (you can check it out here, its the silver one) I needed to buy everything else.

Here is my parts list:

Motherboard: Gigabyte MA74GM-S2

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ (About 2.9GHZ)

Memory: OCZ SLi 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHZ (2x1024MB)

PSU: 585W No name silver box (Orion I think)

Hard Drives:

• 1 x Seagate ST3500320AS (500 GB)
• 1 x Seagate ST3500410AS (500 GB)
• 1x Hitachi HDT721010SLA360 (1 TB)

And of course the OS is Windows Home Server with Power Pack 1.

The build went very smoothly, the motherboard is labeled perfectly. There were no problems with attaching the case leds, power switch or reset switch. The motherboard has 6 SATA connectors which is perfect right now. I have plans on adding another 1-2 TB hard drives later on.

I decided to go with AMD because of the price point. I picked up the processor and motherboard for $200 combined, which I think is a very good deal for a 2.9ghz dual core processor, and for a motherboard that has very few complaints.

Integrating it into our existing network was also a breeze. I decided to keep it wired, and connected it to our router. Right now we only have a G network, but will soon be upgraded to N by the end of the week. After a couple days of doing the nightly backups, a speed increase is definately in the works. Transfering 700GBs of Movies/Pictures and home video isnt a speedy operation on a wireless G network.

Well, thats my little home server adventure thus far. I’ll leave you with some screen shots.

If you do a simple Google search for spyware remover you will notice that there are hundreds… even thousands of different choices to choose from. Well you are reading this because you want some insight into the best spyware remover. I have done a lot of research for myself, and so should everyone else.

There are many different routes you can take when deciding on which program you want and if it comes with what you are looking for in a spyware remover. Some applications are free, which usually means they come with the basic features and offer a quick fix solution. You can then opt to pay for a spyware remover.

If you are going to go this route, please research the company and application before you purchase. Just Google the name of the application and look for product reviews on websites. This will give you a better understanding of the application and the conditions it should be used under. Some spyware removers that you pay for are meant for a corporate setting, and some are meant for a home setting.

Then do some research on the company. You should do a Whois search on the domain, see how long it has been registered, if it was registered within a year, I would continue to do some research, and find out if they are a reputable company. If the domain has been registered for a couple years, and if they have a few professional reviews, it should be safe to buy their software.

This would be easy if we lived in a perfect world, but unfortunately we don’t. There are some bad apples pretending to be good ones. Here is a list that identifies the bad companies/programs that identify themselves as being legitimate but in reality are the complete opposite.

Known scams/spyware:

• errorsafe (AKA system doctor)
• Pest Trap
• SpyAxe
• AntiVirus Gold
• SpywareStrike
• Spyware Quake
• WorldAntiSpy
• Spylocked
• SpyShedder
• SysProtect
• Spy Sheriff
• Spy Wiper
• PAL Spyware Remover
• PSGuard
• Malware
• WinAntiVirus Pro 2006
• WinFixer
• Spydawn
• ContraVirus
• UltimateCleaner
• MagicAntiSpy
• AV System Care
• Registrycleanerxp.com

Keep a sharp eye out for these names. Copy and Paste them into a text file, and keep it on your desktop, if you come across some spyware remover applications, make sure it isn’t on that list.

Please study this list and run your spyware remover weekly.

Most people have no clue how to spot spyware, or recognize the symptoms. I will go over some symptoms that you might have on your computer when you are infected.

1. Biggest symptom is by far pop up advertisements. You’re trying to finish up your essay or you’re writing the last bit of your business proposal and all of the sudden… Party Poker pops up. Who opened this you might think. Your worst nightmare did, and it’ll do that 200 more times in the next few hours.

2. Slooooww computer. If you notice your computer booting up rather sluggishly, then you probably have some sort of spyware. It could also be you just have a lot of applications starting up at the initial boot up, but it will most likely be the fact that you have spyware. If you are me, it is anti spyware applications loading up.

3. Mysterious Search Bar. You open up Internet Explorer to check your email and you notice a rather ugly search bar sitting below your address bar. Who put that there? You did unknowingly. Quick Tip: Most of the time a quick fix is to just hide the search bar. Do this by right clicking on the grey space above the address bar, if the name of the bar is there, click it and it should disappear. This doesn’t uninstall the bar. To do that you need to go to Control Panel > Install/Remove Programs > (Look for search bar name and uninstall). If that doesn’t work, use Ad-Aware or Spybot Search and Destroy!

Hopefully by looking for these early signs of spyware you can join in on the anti spyware revolution and you can join in on having a fast, clean PC, free of any spyware.

Even though it is usually the last step in my virtual routine, it is by far the most important. Well, maybe after checking my email. No matter where it is in my routine, it is still important.

I usually let people know about my routine, and the usual response to my spyware removal habits are “you have too much time on your hands” or “I don’t even know how to do that”. These responses really surprise me because it is so easy to remove spyware. On another note, it does not take long and can run in the background of your computer.

This habit and integration into my routine has secured my computer a long, healthy, “fast” life so to speak. It is an extra step that most people overlook or don’t even consider. I know most homes in Canada or USA don’t even have any programs that remove spyware, which is sad. This is why I’m raising awareness.

A good way to start is to run your anti-spyware applications on a certain day. Pick any day during the week. Let’s choose Monday for example. Most people don’t like Monday, so this makes this a good example. So imagine it’s Monday and you just came home from work, you are tired, the boss wants the TPS report finished by tomorrow morning and you haven’t started and you wish you could just be happy. Well Remove Spyware! Doing this somehow makes people happy. Run Ad-Aware, kill all that stupid spyware, remove it, and delete it! Then run Spybot S&D, zap and kill the rest of the stranglers that Ad-Aware missed. Now that you have a faster, better running PC, you can feel rest assured you will have that report finished on time, without ad popping up.

I hope this article motivates you to integrate spyware removal into your weekly routine. It will ensure your computer runs at optimum performance for a long time.

There are tons of free spyware removal tools; a couple that come to mind immediately are Ad-Aware by Lavasoft. This program comes in a lot of different languages, and comes in either a paid version or free version. Recently they have released a 2007 version with a highly updated search engine and a new design. This is one of the best spyware applications out there. Lavasoft releases an update to their search definitions almost daily it seems. Every time I open up the application, they have an update to download.

Next on my imaginary list, is Spybot S&D. Spyboy Search & Destroy is also one of the pioneers of the industry. They are proud to be a completely free application, and they also release updates to their search definitions. They don’t release them as often as Ad-Aware, but this is definitely something you should add to your Spyware Removal arsenal.

To be honest, I have only had a problem with spyware once, and because I am kind of a perfectionist, I like to have my computer perfectly clean, and running top speed and all that good stuff all the time. What I did, was I backed up all of my important docs and images into a portable hard drive I had handy, and I reformatted my PC.

Why would I do something so drastic you ask?

It is a fail proof solution to spyware removal. Some people only go this route. This way, I was guaranteed that my computer will not have the spyware once I reboot it. It gives me the peace of mind that I need to have while I am using my computer, I don’t know what I would do if advertisements started to pop up.

Now I know most average PC users aren’t going to do this, this only applies to most power users. An everyday user should only rely on about two to three spyware removal applications. The two I suggested should be enough for any regular user to cope with.

I hope this helps you with your spyware removal adventures!

Bang & Olufsen knows as well as anybody that you can’t (usually) compete only on design and quality these days, people want functionality, and the much rumored, newly official BeoSound 5 is just such a monster. The unit is controlled by the BeoSound 5 controller, a rather large “remote” with a 10.4-inch XGA LCD and an aluminum scroll wheel. On the back end there’s a 500GB BeoControl 5 music server running Windows XP Embedded with internet connectivity and patent pending intelligent playlist creation. Naturally there are outputs and inputs galore, and it’s not just for audio: the box pumps out DVI-I and HDMI, and can play back plenty of video formats. Oh, but then there’s the price. B&O isn’t budging on this front, with a £3,500 tag (about $5,262 US) for when this hits in March 2009.

[Via Engadget]

K dont mind my shitty title. I thought it was unique! Someone has managed to turn a harddrive into a turn table input machine. The guy even includes a how-to on how you can do it yourself!

Check out the video below.

Spyware can also be in the form of information collecting. This means that when the spyware is planted into your computer, it collects information about your surfing habits, the programs you use, even what you type. It can be scary thinking that something could be in your computer, recording all of this and sending it to someone you don’t even know.

Companies that make spyware usually don’t care about anyone else other than themselves. They use the spyware to exploit advertising networks. There are many advertising networks that pay people to show their ads, a spyware engineer could make a certain spyware to show that networks ads, generating quite a lot of money.

On the other side, the anti-spyware companies sometimes do surveys to see how the market is doing. One highly recognized company finished their survey with some astounding numbers, out of every 10 personal computers, 9 were infected with spyware.

Most spyware tends to be installed without the user’s knowledge. “Joe” user could be thinking he is going to download the latest version of Kazaa and little does he know it is piggybacked with a highly infectious spyware. Most software will present a very useful purpose, to “Accelerate your internet speed” or to “increase download speed” but in reality, all they do is pretend to change settings, and then infect you with spyware.

Generally speaking, spyware will cause your computer to slow down quite a bit. It does this because there is an extra process running in the background, the spyware. The reason they take up so much system resources is because they are usually poorly programmed and aren’t efficient, they are hastily made and hog your PC of performance!