Computer gurus?

[Handy Don 10,673]

8 minutes ago, Gregor said:

I don't do any gaming, video editing, or 3-D modeling. I do make a Youtube video occasionally. No music collection. I do have a lot of photos, but not 0,000's I don't think.

Making a video and doing simple edits (cuts, adding text, simple effects) will be slower on an iCore 3 than on faster machines, true. But the difference might be 10 seconds vs 5 seconds--important if you are doing it all day long but not so much for a casual user.

 

Sounds like this would be adequate. Leaves you some extra cash for sandpaper and some cans of Regal Red!

 

Also, you can shop around and read reviews now that you have an idea of the specs you need.

Edited September 28, 2021 by Handy Don

[Gregor 4,838]

Another reason I am looking for a new computer. I was just now able to get back into Red Square. I was blocked for about 45 minutes. This happened to me twice yesterday, and usually happens several (as in a dozen) times a week. I quit reporting these episodes to the moderators, as this only seems to be happening to me. I can go to any of my other forums, craigslist, FB, ebay, Youtube. anywhere, just NOT Red Square. "OPERATION TIMED OUT"  I don't know what my computer has to do with it, if anything.

[Nahhee 3]

On 9/29/2021 at 2:16 PM, Gregor said:

Another reason I am looking for a new computer. I was just now able to get back into Red Square. I was blocked for about 45 minutes. This happened to me twice yesterday, and usually happens several (as in a dozen) times a week. I quit reporting these episodes to the moderators, as this only seems to be happening to me. I can go to any of my other forums, craigslist, FB, ebay, Youtube. anywhere, just NOT Red Square. "OPERATION TIMED OUT"  I don't know what my computer has to do with it, if anything.

Here's a way to find out - try this first while you can connect to Reg Square OK.  Right click on the Windows icon in the task bar.  Select Command Prompt (Admin).  Type in tracert www.wheelhorseforum.com  (exactly as written) and hit enter. 

If successful, the command will return the following

Tracing route to www.wheelhorseforum.com [108.160.152.98]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

Then it will list the hops the request took to the destination and the time it took to resolve the host (www.wheelhorseforum.com), in my case (unique, yours will likely differ): 

 1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  DD-WRT [192.168.1.1]
  2     6 ms     7 ms     7 ms  host.wheelhorseforum.com [108.160.152.98]

Trace complete.

 

Try this command again when you have the "OPERATION TIMED OUT" condition.  If it is NOT successful, the command should show the request either timing out (might time out after several successful hops) or it may return

Unable to resolve target system name www.wheelhorseforum.com

I suggest doing this to determine whether you have a network error or not.  If so, call your ISP tech support and discuss with them. 

 

You didn't say whether you tried to connect multiple times (e.g., reloaded the page) multiple times after getting the timed out message.  I am very familiar with that message because I have locked down my systems and router very tight and block many different sites, ports and protocols on my entire network.  In my case I just reload the page.  If your ISP was imposing the condition on their network, or your end user device (e.g., company supplied router, modem, etc), reloading the page wouldn't necessarily help.  In any case I doubt that changing out just the computer would change much.   

 

[Gregor 4,838]

Thank You for the instructions. I copy / pasted to a word document, so I'll have them the next time.The problem is, when right clicking on the Windos icon, nothing says, "Select Command Prompt (Admin)" So I'm lost, yet again.

[Nahhee 3]

17 minutes ago, Gregor said:

Thank You for the instructions. I copy / pasted to a word document, so I'll have them the next time.The problem is, when right clicking on the Windos icon, nothing says, "Select Command Prompt (Admin)" So I'm lost, yet again.

Another way, hold down the windows key and click the R key.  The run box pops up, type cmd in the box, click OK.   That brings up a command window where you can type in the trace route command

tracert www.wheelhorseforum.com

The command should work now since you are not having issues connecting to the forum.  When you have the time out error, if the network is at fault, you may see something like this example:

Tracing route to www.wheelhorseforum.com [108.160.152.98]
over a maximum of 30 hops:                          
1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  72.10.62.1       
2    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  10.101.248.1   
3        *        *        *  Request Time Out       
4        *        *        *  Request Time Out       
5        *        *        *  Request Time Out       
6        *        *        *  Request Time Out        
Trace complete.       

In this particular example, the request times out at the network device after 10.101.248.1.   This info would help your ISP tech support troubleshoot the problem if it is in fact a network error.  If you do see either this error, network time out, or the other error ( Unable to resolve target system name www.wheelhorseforum.com ) call your ISP tech support.

[Gregor 4,838]

I guess it worked. Spit out a bunch of information anyway. I'll have to try it again, when I am blocked.

 

Did I mention I am puter stupid.

[Nahhee 3]

OK.  You can copy the result from the command by highlighting the text with your mouse (hold down the left mouse key as you pass over the text you want to grab), then holding down the control key, and hitting the c key (you can't just click the right mouse key to copy in command mode like you can in normal windows).  You can then paste the text into word, notepad or any other windows app.  Good to save the result while it is working to compare with the result when it isn't.  Note that the route won't always be the same as the internet protocol automatically routes around blocked or slow nodes when possible - the fact that it gets there when working, and fails at specific nodes when it isn't, is what is significant.

[Gregor 4,838]

hmmmmm  That didn't seem to work so well.

L###########À######F›### ###Òr”„0†×#ý•Œpî‰×#_£D©Ìˆ×#ýŽ######################n####PàOÐ ê:i#¢Ø##+00�ò#.€’+#Óe“zF•k’p:Ê#¯&###&#ï¾####†( ¡QÉÏ#÷1*ªÌˆ×#´�·õ+‰×###¸###%#ï¾####†( ¡QÉÏ#>}¡¤ê####################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################################f#2#ýŽ###SŒ# #Spending.ods##J#	###ï¾ÿR³Š#S.c.###r!####÷###############¡¸à#S#p#e#n#d#i#n#g#.#o#d#s#######Y###############/#######X###########ý¿^#####OS#C:\Users\Wieskamp\Documents\Spending.ods####.#.#\#D#o#c#u#m#e#n#t#s#\#S#p#e#n#d#i#n#g#.#o#d#s###C#:#\#U#s#e#r#s#\#W#i#e#s#k#a#m#p#\#D#o#c#u#m#e#n#t#s#`###### X#######wieskamp-pc######N¥GùëŽK�ÜDíÊ0»*VÛYÒ#òë#ˆ#T#¦#C„#N¥GùëŽK�ÜDíÊ0»*VÛYÒ#òë#ˆ#T#¦#C„ø###	## Í###1SPS0ñ%·ïG##¥ñ#`Œžë¬-###
########

[Nahhee 3]

Paste the result from the trace route command into notepad.  To do that, start notepad before you launch the command mode window.  Hold down the windows key, hit r, type notepad into the run box, click OK, and notepad will launch.  Just let it sit there and hold windows key, hit r, type cmd, click OK, then execute the trace route command again, copy the result again, then click in the notepad app (which is running but likely minimized) and paste the text into there (either with the mouse or by holding down the control key and hitting the v key).  The result should be regular text not ascii characters like you got

 

[Gregor 4,838]

I think I did it.

 

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19043.1237]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Wieskamp>tracert www.wheelhorseforum.com

Tracing route to www.wheelhorseforum.com [108.160.152.98]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    49 ms     7 ms     7 ms  192.168.0.1
  2    24 ms    18 ms    21 ms  173-27-244-1.client.mchsi.com [173.27.244.1]
  3    25 ms    33 ms    32 ms  172.30.87.9
  4    29 ms    43 ms    27 ms  68-66-73-70.client.mchsi.com [68.66.73.70]
  5    28 ms    26 ms    35 ms  po10.chgil001er1.mchsi.com [68.66.73.122]
  6    29 ms    27 ms    26 ms  ae10.cr9-chi1.ip4.gtt.net [69.174.18.237]
  7    39 ms    42 ms    29 ms  chi-b23-link.ip.twelve99.net [213.248.88.102]
  8    48 ms    49 ms    48 ms  atl-b24-link.ip.twelve99.net [62.115.113.18]
  9    45 ms    47 ms    47 ms  internap-ic305718-atl-bb1.ip.twelve99-cust.net [213.248.81.146]
 10    38 ms    39 ms    43 ms  border1.ae2-bbnet2.acs.pnap.net [64.94.0.91]
 11    40 ms    45 ms    53 ms  knownhost-3.satedge1.acs.pnap.net [64.94.2.46]
 12    44 ms    47 ms    46 ms  64.74.203.34
 13    44 ms    43 ms    51 ms  ssd37-ga.privatesystems.net [64.74.200.37]
 14    39 ms    40 ms    54 ms  host.wheelhorseforum.com [108.160.152.98]

Trace complete.

C:\Users\Wieskamp>

[Nahhee 3]

OK, you can just save that in notepad or paste it into word and save it there.  Notepad is what you want to use for troubleshooting though as it doesn't format text like word does.  Hop 1 is on your internal network, either your PC or the inside of your network device.  Subsequent hops with mchsi in the address are managed by your ISP.  Each and every one of the hops in your result (which are a LOT) are a potential point of failure.  Of note here also is the amount of time delay between nodes in your network path - while we're talking milliseconds in computer time the sum total is a LOT of delay.  A big difference in my result of:

 

Tracing route to www.wheelhorseforum.com [108.160.152.98]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  DD-WRT [192.168.1.1]
  2     6 ms     7 ms     7 ms  host.wheelhorseforum.com [108.160.152.98]

Trace complete.

 

That's because I am direct connected via ethernet to Verizon FIOS (I had a CAT 6 cable waiting outside where the installer put the ONT in 2006 so it was easy to talk the installer into hooking up to it), using my own router running DD-WRT, am only one hop from the DNS (not going through all Verizon's garbage), and I have verizon's management port and their management protocols blocked on my router. 

Probably nothing you can do about your ISP but like I said, keep the result of the trace route that worked in a file, and later when you have the timeout issue execute the trace route again and save that in a file as well.  That trace route will show exactly where in the network path you are timing out so you will have evidence to tell the ISP techs how badly their network sucks (if that is in fact the problem).  Note that the trace route command can work perfectly even when you can't hit red square because tracert is a very lightweight protocol compared to https, so keep repeating the tracert command multiple times to see where it is timing out when you have the problem connecting to our site.

From what you are showing me I am pretty sure that your PC is fine.  Like others have said, a fresh reload of Windows 10 on an SSD should work fine.  You should be able to find a service manual, other documents, or videos online that will tell you whether you can access the hard drive easily.  I have one Dell laptop bought off ebay which has pull out drive trays (so I have three different drives one with XP, one with 7, and one with 10, for that box), and another Dell laptop which is a nightmare requiring you to take out the keyboard and other stuff to get to the HDD.  Natch I left the HDD in that one alone, just did a minimal load with most services and ports/protocols disabled to optimize performance, and regularly clean up junk files, swap space, dns cache etc on it, so it still works fine.

 

 

[Gregor 4,838]

18 minutes ago, Nahhee said:

keep the result of the trace route that worked in a file, and later when you have the timeout issue execute the trace route again and save that in a file as well.

I have all the instructions, and the trace results, both in a word document, and printed on ACTUAL PAPER. I can find paper. Documents sometimes seem to elude me.

I have to commend you on your excellent instructions. Most would have said "start notepad" and left it at that, and I would have been done. Start notepad?  Ok   Thanks again for your help. Now maybe I can finally get to the bottom of what's going on.

 

Greg

[Nahhee 3]

If you want to take this to the next level, look up the location of the devices at each hop of your trace route.  Go to the website https://tools.keycdn.com/geo (there are many other similar sites) and look each of them up one by one.  Here are the results of doing that on your trace route:

IP                          Location
173.27.244.1       Geneseo, IL
172.30.87.9         No valid DNS record has been found at this time (21:23 hrs GMT 02 Oct 2021)
68-66-73-70         Warwick, NY
68.66.73.122        Warwick, NY
69.174.18.237      Boca Raton, FL
213.248.88.102    Sweden (Telia Company AB)
62.115.113.18       Sweden (Telia Company AB)
213.248.81.146    Sweden (Telia Company AB)
64.94.0.91            Atlanta, GA (Internap Corp)
64.94.2.46            Atlanta, GA (Internap Corp)
64.74.203.34        Location Masked, North America (Privatesystems.net web hosting company)
64.74.200.37        Location Masked, North America (Privatesystems.net web hosting company)
108.160.152.98    Red Square IP, hosted on privatesystems.net (location masked)

 

Of note here is that your ISP routes traffic between you and the Red Square hosting firm (privatesystems.net) on a pretty circuitous and delayed route.  Hop 2 of that particular route you captured is not up at this time.  Nothing significant about that though because the internet protocol is self-healing, e.g., it will try to pick an alternate route.  The fact that this route includes Telia Systems AB in Sweden isn't as bad as it sounds because that company is known for ultra-high speed fiber connectivity (first company with Terabit optical - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telia_Carrier ). Internap is data center/cloud hosting company so no issue with hitting their servers to get to the Privatesystems.net cloud capacity provider that hosts Red Square.  Privatesystems.net IPs not being confined to a particular geographic location is likely a good thing - many cloud capacity based web hosting providers have geographically load balanced capabilities, not saying that privatesystems definitely does though, just saying that it's very common.

 

This seems like a lot of detective work but it is standard stuff when analyzing why traffic is delayed or fails to route.  Your tracert shows a pretty good bit of delay and like I said each and every hop is an opportunity for routing to fail.  Also the route and result of tracert may significantly differ from https (e.g., you accessing Red Square via the web) since internet protocol is dynamic and routing can changed each and every time it happens.  Nevertheless your tracert shows why we desperately need for everybody in the US to be able to directly access high speed (e.g., fiber based) broadand vice having to be routed all over the place by the hundreds of ISPs in the country, many of whom don't own actual networks themselves but just lease capacity from larger providers.  Not saying your ISP is necessarily not a good choice for your area though because I don't know what is available there.  Rural broadband for all was supposed to have been funded in one of the COVID boondoggle bills passed previously, just waiting to see if the politicos actually use the money for that or reprogram it for something more important to them (like importing illegals).

[Nahhee 3]

Forgot to say, first four hops are within your ISP (Mediacom) network.  The device at the second hop actually went offline after you captured the route, and was still offline when I checked a little while ago. 

IP                     Location
173.27.244.1   Geneseo, IL (Mediacom ISP)
172.30.87.9    No valid DNS record has been found at this time (21:23 hrs GMT 02 Oct 2021)
68-66-73-70    Warwick, NY (Mediacom ISP)
68.66.73.122   Warwick, NY (Mediacom ISP)

 

Fifth hop is GTT Communications Inc which according to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GTT_Communications

is in the process of going bankrupt.  This is likely not an impact since your ISP can just get another service provider, possibly one that doesn't route traffic through Telia Company (Sweden)

IP                         Location

69.174.18.237    Boca Raton, FL  (GTT Communications Inc)

 

Rest of your tracert hops are tied to companies above.

 

 

[Jeff-C175 7,195]

9 hours ago, Nahhee said:

tracert www.wheelhorseforum.com

 

For ha-ha's I ran a tracert and am getting this:

 

 

And so forth...

 

I thought Windows Defender was blocking some traffic so I turned it off... all three of them.  No change.

 

Yet, I have no trouble at all with internet and the forum.

 

What gives?  (I get the same results in Power Shell also)

 

 

[Nahhee 3]

Tracert is blocked on your PC, possibly by your firewall, a group policy object, registry entry, or port being blocked.  Tracert,ping, telnet, finger and many other tools were always blocked on secure systems that I worked on.  Lots of info on the web about how to block/unblock the various tools, ports and protocols.

[Nahhee 3]

Trace route could also be blocked by whatever network device your ISP supplied you with.  Tracert is not getting past that because it doesn't even make it to the first hop  which is your ISP's device.   That means it's either blocked on your PC or on that device.  Tracert and the other ICMP tools are NOT required for the average customer to have a full internet experience, and one of the tools, ping, is used for multiple types of internet attacks.  When you think about it, ISPs definitely have an incentive for normies not knowing how inefficient,  and potentially problematic, their infrastructure is, as in the case of OP's ISP that pingpongs him across CONUS, to Sweden and back, and through an external ISP in bankruptcy.  
If you are interested in troubleshooting why tracert doesn't work on your box you can start with GRC's ShieldsUp page at https://www.grc.com/shieldsup .  Click proceed midway down the page then click All Service Ports midway down the page that comes up.  This will tell you which ports are open, blocked or stealthed on either your box or your ISP's devices/infrastructure between you and the GRC site.  Ideal is zero open, all stealthed, but don't expect that unless you have your own router and have the ability (e.g., router firmware) and knowledge of how to control it.  Having a bunch of blocked ports (a few are unavoidable) is almost as bad as open ports because the bad actors and even script kiddies know that there's a computer there.  Knowing what ports are blocked is just a start, you can find out next steps via web searches.  
This is pretty far afield of tractors which we all love, but necessary in the case of OP who is having issues with getting to the site.  I'm pretty confident that he'll find that his ISP is the culprit not the setup on his PC, and he'll be able to prove it with tracert.

[Gregor 4,838]

9 minutes ago, Nahhee said:

I'm pretty confident that he'll find that his ISP is the culprit not the setup on his PC, and he'll be able to prove it with tracert.

Don't say that......I want a new puter.   Now my printer quit working this morning. Won't feed paper. I watched youtube, followed all their cleaning instructions, still doesn't work.

[Jeff-C175 7,195]

1 hour ago, Gregor said:

want a new puter

 

When I retired in August I bought myself a new machine.  I figured it was time to move up from XP!

I still have a functioning TRS80 M III, and an IBM DOS machine with a 12" amber monitor.  In fact, I also have 98SE, Millenium, 7, that still boot up, but they are all in my 'museum'. AKA "junk room".

 

I'll have to boot one of those up to see if they can do Tracert.  

Edited October 3, 2021 by Jeff-C175

[Nahhee 3]

I would try the 7 machine as that OS has the most capability and fewest bugs on the list.  I still have an XP load on a hdd that I swap into a Dell laptop I have with removable HDD trays.  The network kernel of XP, unlike Vista, 7 and all subsequent OSs, doesn't quickly drop connections when the other end is unreachable -  it just keeps trying to connect.  That's important when you are doing things like loading firmware on network devices like routers.  I have two bricked routers from 7, and was only able to recover one of them by USB.  I never connect the XP machine to the internet though because it can be found and penetrated in minutes nowadays.  

[Gregor 4,838]

Last year I sold my Mac + on craigslist. I think I bought it ~ '85?, not sure. Sort of wished I had kept it.

[Jeff-C175 7,195]

1 hour ago, Nahhee said:

try the 7 machine

 

Nope... same result.  Gotta be my cable modem.  I'll look into that this evening.  Not that, as you say, it really matters any.  Everything works so it's simply pedantry.

[Gregor 4,838]

I have been looking at this computer. HP 17

HP 17 17.3" HD+ Laptop Computer, Intel Core i3 1005G1 up to 3.4GHz, 32GB DDR4 RAM, 2TB PCIe SSD, DVDRW, 802.11AC WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, HDMI, Webcam, Black, Windows 10 S, BROAGE 64GB Flash Drive

In the description above it says "Intel Core i3 1005G1.

 

Here is my current computer Asus

 

 Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2430M CPU @ 2.40GHz 

 

The HP says Intel Core i3.  Mine says Intel Core i5. My son tells me that number in newer computers is now up to i7, but he really didn't explain to me just what that means. Is this a downgrade? Is it something I need to worry about? What is it?

 

 

[Handy Don 10,673]

The difference between i3 and i7 can be thought of as the diff between a 310-8 and a 416-8. Both can mow the grass and push snow. The 310 will do best with a 36 or 42" mower while the 416 could handle a 48" with ease. With snow blower, the 310 will need a lower gear to throw the same amount of snow.

The i3's internal architecture has fewer processing cores (less horsepower? less displacement?) than an i7's so it is "less powerful".

 

But consider that browsing the RS forum (or watching YouTube videos or looking at your cache of pictures or reading/sending emails) is like taking care of two inches of snow or trimming only an inch off the grass on the lawn. The i3 can handle it just fine and the i7 is overkill for RS browsing and posting--the same as the 310 and 416 can both handle that snow and grass. 

 

It's only if you want to do deep snow or heavy grass or pull an 8" plow through a field that the extra oomph becomes important. Again, the 310 can still perform but it'll be pushed closer to its limits and work slower. Same for i3 vs i7 when looking at doing extensive image or video editing or playing games with lots of graphic realism. Or working on complex spreadsheets.

 

The only caution to add to the above is that if you expect this machine to remain usable for, say, seven or eight years, going with an i5 or i7 might make sense. This is because you can expect future computing to use more resources to supply more services like "Hey Google" or augmented reality viewing--in WH terms this would be like global warming making your grass grow faster and tougher.

 

IMHO, the above specs are quite adequate for low to moderate demand users and are reasonably "future proof". If an extra $200 is nearly painless, going to an i7 is fine.

 

 

[Gregor 4,838]

Here are 4 computers I am considering.

I don't do any gaming.

I spend a lot of time on different forums.

I have(what seems to me anyway) a lot of pictures.

I make an occasional video.

I also like to make and print simple color decals.

I do quite a bit of editing on "Paint"

I don't down load music.

I don't video chat, but I do watch a lot of you tube.

 

HP Envy 17.3" FHD IPS Touchscreen Laptop 11th Gen Intel Core i7-1165G7 12GB Memory 512GB SSD + 32GB Intel Optane Iris Xe Graphics Backlit Keyboard -Fingerprint Reader

 

HP Envy x360 2-in-1 17.3" IPS FHD Touchscreen Laptop, Intel Core i7-1165G7, Iris Xe Graphics, 16GB DDR4 RAM, 512GB SSD, Backlit Keyboard, Fingerprint, Wi-Fi-6, Windows 10 Home

 

HP 17 17.3" HD+ Laptop Computer, Intel Core i3 1005G1 up to 3.4GHz, 32GB DDR4 RAM, 2TB PCIe SSD, DVDRW, 802.11AC WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, HDMI, Webcam, Black, Windows 10 S, BROAGE 64GB Flash Drive

 

HP 2021 Envy 17t High Performance Laptop, 17.3" Full HD Touchscreen, 11th Gen Intel Core i5-1135G7 Processor, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Wi-Fi 6, Backlit Keyboard, Fingerprint Reader, Windows 10 Home

 

Can anyone give me any advice on which one may best suit my needs?

 

If I buy a new laptop, can I transfer all my bookmarks to it, or will I have to start all over?

Thanks for any help.  Greg