Heal and Inoculate Your PC

Remember the excitement you felt when you bought your first car? Before the dealer even handed you the keys, you made a vow to keep your new set of wheels in tip-top shape, to lovingly wash it, change the oil every 3,000 miles, and even maintain the proper tire pressure. You wanted to keep your new car looking and running its very best. You understood that the consequence of not doing this would be costly repair bills at best, and at worst, a car that no longer ran as it should.

Owning and maintaining a PC really isn’t so different than owning a car. Only with a PC, there’s no maintenance schedule outlined in your user’s manual, leaving it up to you to keep your smoking-fast rig from turning into a stuttering compilation of unresponsive parts. And worse yet, now more than ever PCs are highly susceptible to all kinds of nasties, from keylogging viruses to performance-hampering spyware to everything in between. Even simply surfing the web can be enough to turn your dream machine into a nightmare experience if you don’t take proper precautions.

But fear not, because we’re going to show you how to set up safeguards to keep your rig humming along as fast as it was on the day you built it. Not only that, but we’ll also walk you through the steps of fixing a system that’s already suffering from neglect, so the next time you hear cries of frustration emanating from your neighbor’s apartment, you can swoop in and save the day, Maximum PC style!

Looking to clog up your browser and infect your system? Install toolbars and desktop buddies to do both in one fell swoop!

Heal Your PC

Sometimes a PC becomes so badly infected that nuking your Windows install and starting fresh seems like the only viable option. Or maybe your computer hasn’t yet reached a state of virtual undeath but has been running sluggishly, betraying the high-end components inside. No matter which scenario you find yourself in, there is hope. Put away that towel—we won’t be throwing it in quite yet.

Five-Minute Fixes

Whether your PC’s performance problems are severe or just mildly annoying, a simple series of fixes could have it running like new.

1: Blast the Bloatware

Just as the name implies, spyware is a malicious program designed to mine personal data from your machine and spy on your computing habits. The information collected is then used to harass you with ads in the form of pop-ups, redirected web searches, a browser homepage you can’t change, and other annoyances. And here’s the kicker: You could have installed the offending programs yourself! But don’t feel bad if you’ve been bamboozled; spyware often masks itself behind seemingly legitimate software, most often browser toolbars and desktop buddies. Rid your system of these bloated add-ons and watch your PC’s performance improve right away.

Close any open browser windows; then open up your Control Panel and navigate to Add or Remove Programs. Scroll down the list and uninstall any browser toolbar, desktop buddy, or search helper.

We love small critters, just not those of the virtual variety. Rid your system of deskmates and consider buying a real pet instead.

2: Get Widgety with It!

Now that you’ve uninstalled all the honest, easy-to-uninstall bloatware, it’s time to hit the local watering hole and call it a day, right? If only it were that easy! Once installed, some spyware detaches from the host program it shipped with, and other programs simply reinstall themselves, continuing to load every time you boot into Windows. To put the kibosh on these persistent pests, we’re going to tell Windows to skip over them when loading startup programs, and we’re going to do it with the help of Microsoft.

You'll want some programs to load with Windows, so choose only the items you want to rid from your system.

If you’re running Vista, you already own Windows Defender, and XP owners can download the free scanner from Microsoft here. Once installed, click the Tools tab and then select Software Explorer. This handy widget lists all the startup programs that load with Windows, along with a wealth of potentially incriminating information, such as the date a program installed, file location, file type, and whether or not it shipped with your OS. In the left-hand pane, highlight any dubious entries and click the Remove button. After you’ve cleared all of the startup scourge, reboot your system to a clean start!

3: Scan for Scoundrels

Windows Defender isn’t good at just customizing startup programs; it’s also a very capable spyware scanner. On the main screen, you can choose between a full scan, which looks in all files and currently running programs, or a quick search that uncovers vermin in their most common hiding spots. Run the full scan for a thorough scrub, and then let Defender remove any infections it finds.

4: Get a Second and Third) Opinion

New variants of spyware are released into the wild at an alarming rate, and it’s impossible for any single program to keep up with them all. For this reason, we run at least two different scanners on an infected system, or more if the infection is especially bad. Other programs we’ve had success with in the Maximum PC Lab include A-Squared (free, http://tinyurl.com/2gb93), Spybot S&D (free, www.safer-networking.org), Ad-Aware (free, www.lavasoftusa.com), AVG Anti-Spyware (free, http://free.grisoft.com), and Spy Sweeper ($30, www.webroot.com). Regardless of the tool you use, double-check the URL for typos and be sure you’re downloading directly from the source (rogue sites often try to pass off infected software as authentic spyware scanners). Above all else, always update your spyware definitions to detect the
latest threats.

5: Look Closer with HijackThis!

Spyware loves to hide, but HijackThis! makes an even better seeker, uncovering the leftover residue that managed to elude traditional scans.

Even after running several anti-spyware scans, you might still have a lingering infection. HijackThis! (free, http://tinyurl.com/huyrw) takes a fine-tooth comb to your system, targeting methods commonly used by hijackers. Because HijackThis! doesn’t zone in on specific infections, most of the reported entries will be legitimate, and disabling them could do more harm to your system than good. Highlight only entries that you’ve previously tried removing but that keep showing back up. For example, if you’ve uninstalled Bonzi Buddy and removed any related entries from the startup queue, you can safely highlight any references to the program that HijackThis! finds and then click the Fix Selected button. For all other selections, either leave them alone or carefully use the online tutorial (http://tinyurl.com/2et7nb) for detailed steps on discerning between good and bad entries. You can also submit your logs to Help2Go Detective (http://tinyurl.com/etujk) and HijackThis Security (www.hijackthis.de/en) for automated analysis.

6: Vaccinate Your Rig

When you’re sick, you generally make it a point to avoid others, lest you infect them with your ailment. But when your computer contracts a virus, it looks to spread the disease to as many other PCs as it can, turning each one into a remote-controlled zombie. The nefarious do-badder can then wage a DoS (Denial of Service) attack on a website, making thousands of PCs repeatedly request pages, until the site’s server can’t take the load and the site goes down.
But that’s not all viruses are capable of doing. They can record your keystrokes, including passwords and bank account information, and pass the information along to people who are up to no good. Other viruses wreak havoc on your hard drive, erasing data, altering critical system files, and even causing permanent physical damage in the form of bad sectors. Heck, viruses can even be used to install more spyware and viruses.

To rid your system of viruses, you need to perform a sweeping scan. If you don’t have antivirus software installed, we recommend you start with Panda Security’s web-based AV app (free, www.pandasecurity.com/usa) and scan your PC right from within Internet Explorer. It will also detect spyware, rootkits, and dialers, but will only disinfect viruses. Just click the Total Scan button, install the ActiveX control, and let Panda do the rest.

7: Perform a Root(kit) Canal

You’ve rid your system of spyware and nuked any lingering viruses, but your PC isn’t quite yet eligible for a clean bill of health. You need to check for rootkits, a particularly nasty variant of malware that burrows deep within the OS, where it’s difficult to detect with conventional scanners. Signs of infection can be subtle, or even nonexistent, thanks to a rootkit’s ability to integrate with your OS’s kernel. Whether your system displays symptoms or not, if you’ve recently discovered any spyware or viruses, your next step is to initiate a rootkit scan.

Because rootkits are tightly integrated with critical system files, back up any important data right away. Next, head over to F-Secure and download Blacklight (free for now; will be part of a $79 security suite, www.f-secure.com/blacklight). This handy executable needs no installation, just double-click the icon and watch as it probes your system. We also recommend running AVG’s Anti-Rootkit program (free, http://tinyurl.com/2mqb6n) for a second opinion.

Sidebar: Top Five Deadliest Viruses

Viruses have existed for decades and number in the thousands, but these five variants stand out as the nastiest of the bunch.

1. MyDoom One of the fastest-spreading worms of all time, MyDoom, and the variant MyDoom.B, set its sights on SCO and Microsoft, prompting both companies to offer a $250,000 bounty to anyone who identified the people responsible for its creation.

2. Nimda Just days after the September 11 attacks, PCs worldwide were hit by the Nimda virus, prompting speculation among conspiracy theorists that the virus was part of a terrorist attack. No link has ever been made between the two events.

3. CodeRed You’ve heard of the drink, but the CodeRed virus had a thirst for computers running Microsoft’s Internet Information Systems (IIS) web server, attaching the phrase “Hacked By Chinese” to websites. One of the targets included the White House.

4. Slammer Can a worm infect 75,000 PCs within minutes of going live? It can, and it did! Slammer’s small footprint (365 bytes) played a big role in its ability to double its infection rate every 8.5 seconds.

5. ILOVEYOU Love hurts, and in the case of the ILOVEYOU virus, it stung for over $5 billion in damages. Some of those scorned include Ford Motor Co., the Pentagon, and the British Parliament.

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Heal and Inoculate Your PC

The 15 Best Web Apps You've Never Heard Of

If popularity were a reliable indicator of a product’s greatness, the Big Mac would be the world’s best burger, Coca-Cola would be nutritious, and Microsoft wouldn’t have to spend billions to convince you to buy its software. Savvy computer users know that sometimes the best program is the one you haven’t yet used. So when we set out to find the ultimate online apps, we skipped the big sites that everyone already knows.

Sure, you can track your schedule with Google Calendar, watch videos on YouTube, and share pictures with friends on Flickr, but while these popular web apps certainly serve up great features, none of them is perfect. Meanwhile, the Internet is brimming with underdogs that are dreaming up some kick-ass new concepts—and putting them into action right now.

The rise of easier-to-use web development tools like Python and Ruby on Rails has caused an explosion of cool new web services that do everything from organizing your thoughts to tracking airfares across multiple travel sites to replacing your entire Office suite—and almost everything is free. Even as you read this, the world of web apps is expanding with cool new sites that take the features of your favorite old standbys and give them new, innovative twists. Some are terrible, but many are just plain brilliant, and we’ve narrowed down the field to 15 apps that will fundamentally change the way you use the web.

Wayfaring

On the road of life, it's best not to go it alone.

If all you want is directions to the nearest diner or coffee joint, MapQuest and Google Maps have you covered. But if you really want to explore your world, Wayfaring’s social mapping is a better way to go. The service is based on Google Maps but enhances the basic direction-finding service with a social networking interface that lets you create custom maps and share them with friends. Visiting a new town? Before you shell out for a guidebook, log on to Wayfaring and check out customized maps created by people who’ve actually been there. From dining options to museums to obscure attractions, you can pinpoint just about anything on Wayfaring.

Free, www.wayfaring.com

Zooomr

Three O's, unlimited uploads

Whether you’re fed up with daily upload and bandwidth limits or you’re just tired of letting Yahoo control your online life, Zooomr’s online photo-sharing features are bound to be greeted as liberators. The site’s biggest draw is its Infinite Upload interface, which lets you select every last bandwidth-hogging image on your hard drive and toss it onto Zooomr in one massive batch. You also get the usual array of captioning, organizing, geotagging, and sharing tools. At press time, Zooomr had just launched a paid Pro service, which adds video support and eliminates ads.

Free for basic account/$20 per year for pro account,
www.zooomr.com

Backpack

Simple organization for chaotic minds

Anyone with a Google account can track their calendars and to-do lists, but what if your needs are a little more unconventional? Backpack’s simple, customizable pages make it easy to organize your thoughts, no matter what you’re working on. Create lists and reminders; add notes, links, and versatile write boards; and share your pages with collaborators—or make them public. You can then link to them from other pages or email new entries to your pages from any device. The free service limits you to five custom pages, but the premium service enables up to 1,000 pages, a calendar, 500MB of file storage, and SSL encryption.

Free for basic accounts/$5–$14 per month for
premium accounts, www.backpackit.com

SoonR

Get to your PC from any phone or browser

When you need remote access to your files but don’t want to lug a laptop along, you need Soonr. This lightweight desktop utility syncs your files and Outlook email to SoonR’s website while you’re working and then serves them up via a clean web interface. The mobile-optimized service worked like a charm on every phone we tried it with, letting us grab and view images, Word docs, and spreadsheets easily. It also sports an organizer interface for Outlook calendars and lets you call your Skype contacts from your cell phone.

Free, www.soonr.com

Blinkx

12 million hours of video. No stupid self-submissions

Some people love whiling away the hours sifting through idiotic home-video footage on YouTube. If you don’t, try Blinkx. Built on a powerful search engine, Blinkx scours the web for videos, then analyzes and tags them for retrieval. So when you search for “White Stripes,” you’ll find the band’s videos, not a bunch of homemade vids of teenyboppers lip-synching to “Icky Thump.” Blinkx grabs videos from across the entire web, so it’s got everything YouTube, iFilm, Veoh, and the rest have, only more organized and with full-motion thumbnails. It includes a Safe Search control to filter out the dirty stuff—or not—and clicking a video’s title will take you straight to its source, so you can see it in its original context.

READ MORE -
The 15 Best Web Apps You've Never Heard Of

The 15 Best Web Apps You've Never Heard Of

If popularity were a reliable indicator of a product’s greatness, the Big Mac would be the world’s best burger, Coca-Cola would be nutritious, and Microsoft wouldn’t have to spend billions to convince you to buy its software. Savvy computer users know that sometimes the best program is the one you haven’t yet used. So when we set out to find the ultimate online apps, we skipped the big sites that everyone already knows.

Sure, you can track your schedule with Google Calendar, watch videos on YouTube, and share pictures with friends on Flickr, but while these popular web apps certainly serve up great features, none of them is perfect. Meanwhile, the Internet is brimming with underdogs that are dreaming up some kick-ass new concepts—and putting them into action right now.

The rise of easier-to-use web development tools like Python and Ruby on Rails has caused an explosion of cool new web services that do everything from organizing your thoughts to tracking airfares across multiple travel sites to replacing your entire Office suite—and almost everything is free. Even as you read this, the world of web apps is expanding with cool new sites that take the features of your favorite old standbys and give them new, innovative twists. Some are terrible, but many are just plain brilliant, and we’ve narrowed down the field to 15 apps that will fundamentally change the way you use the web.

Wayfaring

On the road of life, it's best not to go it alone.

If all you want is directions to the nearest diner or coffee joint, MapQuest and Google Maps have you covered. But if you really want to explore your world, Wayfaring’s social mapping is a better way to go. The service is based on Google Maps but enhances the basic direction-finding service with a social networking interface that lets you create custom maps and share them with friends. Visiting a new town? Before you shell out for a guidebook, log on to Wayfaring and check out customized maps created by people who’ve actually been there. From dining options to museums to obscure attractions, you can pinpoint just about anything on Wayfaring.

Free, www.wayfaring.com

Zooomr

Three O's, unlimited uploads

Whether you’re fed up with daily upload and bandwidth limits or you’re just tired of letting Yahoo control your online life, Zooomr’s online photo-sharing features are bound to be greeted as liberators. The site’s biggest draw is its Infinite Upload interface, which lets you select every last bandwidth-hogging image on your hard drive and toss it onto Zooomr in one massive batch. You also get the usual array of captioning, organizing, geotagging, and sharing tools. At press time, Zooomr had just launched a paid Pro service, which adds video support and eliminates ads.

Free for basic account/$20 per year for pro account,
www.zooomr.com

Backpack

Simple organization for chaotic minds

Anyone with a Google account can track their calendars and to-do lists, but what if your needs are a little more unconventional? Backpack’s simple, customizable pages make it easy to organize your thoughts, no matter what you’re working on. Create lists and reminders; add notes, links, and versatile write boards; and share your pages with collaborators—or make them public. You can then link to them from other pages or email new entries to your pages from any device. The free service limits you to five custom pages, but the premium service enables up to 1,000 pages, a calendar, 500MB of file storage, and SSL encryption.

Free for basic accounts/$5–$14 per month for
premium accounts, www.backpackit.com

SoonR

Get to your PC from any phone or browser

When you need remote access to your files but don’t want to lug a laptop along, you need Soonr. This lightweight desktop utility syncs your files and Outlook email to SoonR’s website while you’re working and then serves them up via a clean web interface. The mobile-optimized service worked like a charm on every phone we tried it with, letting us grab and view images, Word docs, and spreadsheets easily. It also sports an organizer interface for Outlook calendars and lets you call your Skype contacts from your cell phone.

Free, www.soonr.com

Blinkx

12 million hours of video. No stupid self-submissions

Some people love whiling away the hours sifting through idiotic home-video footage on YouTube. If you don’t, try Blinkx. Built on a powerful search engine, Blinkx scours the web for videos, then analyzes and tags them for retrieval. So when you search for “White Stripes,” you’ll find the band’s videos, not a bunch of homemade vids of teenyboppers lip-synching to “Icky Thump.” Blinkx grabs videos from across the entire web, so it’s got everything YouTube, iFilm, Veoh, and the rest have, only more organized and with full-motion thumbnails. It includes a Safe Search control to filter out the dirty stuff—or not—and clicking a video’s title will take you straight to its source, so you can see it in its original context.

READ MORE -
The 15 Best Web Apps You've Never Heard Of

Make Bit-Perfect Archives of Your CDs With FLAC

Audio CDs are susceptible to damage and aging, so it’s a good idea to make archival copies of your collection. We’ll show you how, using the lossless compression algorithm FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec).

A lossless encoder compresses digital audio files with absolutely no compromise in fidelity compared to the original. The only drawbacks are large file sizes (though they’re much smaller than WAV files) and scarce support among portable players. On the other hand, FLAC enjoys wide support among audio-streaming boxes.

What You’ll Need

• Your audio CD collection
• Exact Audio Copy (free)
• FLAC (free)
• AccurateRip (free)

STEP 1: INSTALL EAC AND FLAC

Exact Audio Copy (EAC) will detect and attempt to auto-configure any optical drives on your system during setup. Check those you wish to use and click Next. Use the “I prefer to have accurate results” option and click Next.

Choose the option “I don’t trust these values…,” drop a clean audio CD in the drive, and click Next. It’s crucial that the drive you rip from has an “accurate stream,” meaning it does not produce “jitter” (if the drive can’t accurately seek a specific sector on the disc, ripped tracks will have audible distortion).

Remove the checkmark next to “Install and configure LAME…” and click Next. Enter an email address and click Next. Choose the Expert option at the final prompt and click Finish. Exit EAC.

Install FLAC, ignoring the Winamp and Nero messages. Leave checkmarks next to all the default options and click Install.

STEP 2: INSTALL ACCURATERIP

Using AccurateRip and EAC’s Test & Copy option will provide an added measure of assurance that your rips are precise and worthy of your archive.

Install AccurateRip and then copy the file accuraterip.dll from C:\program files\illustrate\dbpoweramp to C:\program files\exact audio copy. Put a CD in the drive and relaunch EAC. Click the Configure button and then click OK. Select all tracks and click EAC’s Action menu. Choose Copy Selected Tracks from the drop-down menu; use the uncompressed option.

AccurateRip will compare your results to a database of rips by others and report a confidence level. “Confidence 30,” for example, means your rip is identical to that of 30 other people, so there’s a high probability it’s accurate. Click OK.

STEP 3: CONFIGURE EAC

Click the EAC menu and choose EAC Options. Click the General tab. Leave these options at their defaults but place a checkmark next to “On unknown CDs” and select the option “Automatically access online freedb database.” Click the Tools tab and place checkmarks next to everything except “Create ‘.m3u’ playlist…,” “Do not open external…,” and “Activate beginner mode.”

Click the Filename tab and enter the values %A\%C\%N - %T into Naming Scheme to create a nested directory structure that follows the Artist Name\Album Title\Track Number - Track Title scheme. Check “Use various artist naming scheme” and enter the values Various Artists\%C\%N - %A %T so compilation albums are stored in a “Various Artists” folder broken up by album. Click OK.

Click the EAC menu again and choose Drive Options and Extraction Method. Make sure Secure Mode is selected, with a checkmark next to “Drive has Accurate Stream feature.” Click the Drive tab and check “Spin up drive before extraction.” Leave everything else at default and click OK.

Click the EAC menu once more, choose Compression Options and External Compression. Check “Use external program for compression.” In the drop-down menu “Parameter passing scheme,” select “User Defined Encoder.” Type .flac in the “Use file extension” box.

Click Browse, locate the FLAC executable (flac.exe), select it, and click OK. Enter these characters into “Additional command line options”: -6 -V -T “artist=%a” -T “title=%t” -T “album=%g” -T “date=%y” -T “tracknumber=%n” -T “genre=%m” -T comment=”%e” -T “comment=EAC (Secure Mode)” %s. Bitrate doesn’t matter, but check “Delete WAV after compression” and “Check for external compression return code.”

STEP 4: COMMENCE ARCHIVING

Place the audio CD you wish to archive in the drive. Click the Action menu and choose “Test and Copy Selected Tracks” using the Compressed option this time. This will perform a cyclical redundancy check (CRC) to verify the integrity of your rip. It’s another paranoid step, but we think it’s warranted when producing critical backups. An OK will appear in EAC’s CRC column if the rip was executed successfully. Repeat until you’ve backed up your entire library.

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Make Bit-Perfect Archives of Your CDs With FLAC

Do Higher MP3 Bit Rates Pay Off?

In a tidal shift akin to the Sexual Revolution, the heyday of Napster (that’s 1.0) markedly changed Americans’ perceptions of intellectual property rights and fair use. Some folks considered the music-swapping orgy a shameful, lawless epidemic of hedonism that would inexorably lead to social and economic chaos, while others considered it a thrilling, lawless epidemic of hedonism that liberated all of us from the musty stench of an increasingly bland and commercial culture. But everyone understood one thing: MP3s were here to stay.

Back then, most MP3s were encoded at constant bit rate (CBR) 128Kb/s, striking a balance between acceptable audio quality and file sizes that were small enough for easy trading over a dialup connection. But what was born out of necessity endures today, as most of the music available on rogue peer-to-peer networks is still compressed at this rate. It’s been called “near CD” quality, but we know better—it isn’t even in the same Zip code as CD audio.

But at what point do higher bit rates stop paying off and simply take up too much space? 160Kb/s? 192Kb/s? And can a hardcore audiophile really tell the difference between a 320Kb/s track and an uncompressed one? What about a normal music listener?

These are the questions we wanted answered when we set out bear traps around the office and came back later that afternoon to retrieve the snared employees. From the bunch, we selected four representing a range of musical tastes and quality demands. We handed them headphones, pressed the play button, and got some surprising results.

How We Tested

Each lucky participant was asked to bring in a CD with a track that he or she has listened to for years and knows so intimately that a single missing hi-hat tap would stand out like a sudden blast from a tuba. We ripped each track using iTunes at three quality levels: 160Kb/s, 320Kb/s, and uncompressed WAV. The compressed files were ripped using variable bit rate (VBR) encoding, meaning that a 160Kb/s VBR track allows the bit rate to rise and fall depending on the complexity of the music while maintaining the selected bit rate as the minimum bit rate for the track.

In a quiet room with mood lighting and kitschy Scandinavian furnishings, the participants put on a pair of Sennheiser HD 580 headphones that were attached to our test PC’s Creative X-Fi soundcard. The participants listened to not only the three versions of their own track, but also the three tracks from each of the other participants, for a total of 12 tracks in all. Each participant was allowed to listen to each track as long as he or she could stand it, and was allowed to repeat portions of the track and do A/B testing with the other tracks.

How Good is Your Encoder?

The thing that most often fools newbs is not knowing what kind of sounds are evidence of bad encoding or heavy-handed compression, but there are a couple tracks you can throw at your software to see how well it’s doing. Of course, you should begin with uncompressed files, so you can’t download these test tracks from an online service. If you don’t want to pony up for the CDs, you might want to check your local library.

The first is “Neon Reprise” from Metropol by Lunatic Calm. The song contains a whooshing upward sweep that audio compressors have a very difficult time with. Turn off Joint Stereo and keep upping the bit rate if you hear any warbling (like a cassette tape that’s been mangled).

The second comes from the legendary 1965 RCA Victor Opera Series recording of Verdi’s La Traviata. In Act II, Track 10, position 3:16, Anna Moffo belts out a bone-liquefying high note. Focus your attention not on her voice, but on the instrumentation behind it. If there’s any fuzz or rumbling in the background, again, dial up the bit rate.

READ MORE -
Do Higher MP3 Bit Rates Pay Off?

Do Higher MP3 Bit Rates Pay Off?

In a tidal shift akin to the Sexual Revolution, the heyday of Napster (that’s 1.0) markedly changed Americans’ perceptions of intellectual property rights and fair use. Some folks considered the music-swapping orgy a shameful, lawless epidemic of hedonism that would inexorably lead to social and economic chaos, while others considered it a thrilling, lawless epidemic of hedonism that liberated all of us from the musty stench of an increasingly bland and commercial culture. But everyone understood one thing: MP3s were here to stay.

Back then, most MP3s were encoded at constant bit rate (CBR) 128Kb/s, striking a balance between acceptable audio quality and file sizes that were small enough for easy trading over a dialup connection. But what was born out of necessity endures today, as most of the music available on rogue peer-to-peer networks is still compressed at this rate. It’s been called “near CD” quality, but we know better—it isn’t even in the same Zip code as CD audio.

But at what point do higher bit rates stop paying off and simply take up too much space? 160Kb/s? 192Kb/s? And can a hardcore audiophile really tell the difference between a 320Kb/s track and an uncompressed one? What about a normal music listener?

These are the questions we wanted answered when we set out bear traps around the office and came back later that afternoon to retrieve the snared employees. From the bunch, we selected four representing a range of musical tastes and quality demands. We handed them headphones, pressed the play button, and got some surprising results.

How We Tested

Each lucky participant was asked to bring in a CD with a track that he or she has listened to for years and knows so intimately that a single missing hi-hat tap would stand out like a sudden blast from a tuba. We ripped each track using iTunes at three quality levels: 160Kb/s, 320Kb/s, and uncompressed WAV. The compressed files were ripped using variable bit rate (VBR) encoding, meaning that a 160Kb/s VBR track allows the bit rate to rise and fall depending on the complexity of the music while maintaining the selected bit rate as the minimum bit rate for the track.

In a quiet room with mood lighting and kitschy Scandinavian furnishings, the participants put on a pair of Sennheiser HD 580 headphones that were attached to our test PC’s Creative X-Fi soundcard. The participants listened to not only the three versions of their own track, but also the three tracks from each of the other participants, for a total of 12 tracks in all. Each participant was allowed to listen to each track as long as he or she could stand it, and was allowed to repeat portions of the track and do A/B testing with the other tracks.

How Good is Your Encoder?

The thing that most often fools newbs is not knowing what kind of sounds are evidence of bad encoding or heavy-handed compression, but there are a couple tracks you can throw at your software to see how well it’s doing. Of course, you should begin with uncompressed files, so you can’t download these test tracks from an online service. If you don’t want to pony up for the CDs, you might want to check your local library.

The first is “Neon Reprise” from Metropol by Lunatic Calm. The song contains a whooshing upward sweep that audio compressors have a very difficult time with. Turn off Joint Stereo and keep upping the bit rate if you hear any warbling (like a cassette tape that’s been mangled).

The second comes from the legendary 1965 RCA Victor Opera Series recording of Verdi’s La Traviata. In Act II, Track 10, position 3:16, Anna Moffo belts out a bone-liquefying high note. Focus your attention not on her voice, but on the instrumentation behind it. If there’s any fuzz or rumbling in the background, again, dial up the bit rate.

READ MORE -
Do Higher MP3 Bit Rates Pay Off?

How To: Optimize Firefox

In the march toward a better browsing experience, you’ve ditched Internet Explorer and joined the legions of Firefox faithful. We have too, but chances are, our browsers look and function much differently from the one on your desktop. Sure, it’s possible to simply install Firefox and be done with it, but you’d be missing out on the browser’s core appeal, the thing that sets it apart from the competition. We are, of course, talking about Firefox’s outstanding degree of customizability.

Nearly every facet of Mozilla’s Firefox can be tweaked, making this the tabula rasa of browsers. Release your inner Van Gogh and spice things up with themes or become a modern-day Michelangelo and sculpt a browsing masterpiece with the seemingly endless array of extensions at your disposal. If that still feels like paint by numbers, you can get your hands dirty in Firefox’s hidden configuration menu. And when you’re finished tinkering, back up your profile to quickly transfer your settings from PC to PC!

Add a Theme

You don’t need to be proficient at programming to alter Firefox’s appearance; you just need an Internet connection. From the Tools menu, select Add-ons, choose Themes, and then click the Get Themes link. It takes some digging, but we found some themes we really like, including Aluminum Alloy and Doodle Plastik. After you have installed one, restart Firefox, and then go back to Add-ons to activate the new theme. Many themes are works in progress, so periodically check for updates.

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How To: Optimize Firefox

Windows Vista Survival Guide

There are two ways to install Microsoft Windows Vista: the easy way and the right way. What’s the easy way? Boot your system and run an upgrade installation after Windows XP starts. But an upgrade installation is a big mistake. Here’s why: Windows Vista is no mere rehash of Windows XP—it’s a brand-new operating system in every way. As a result, an upgrade installation takes up to three times longer than a clean install and guarantees that your “new” operating system inherits whatever’s wrong with your current installation. Besides, you’re probably running software that won’t work with Windows Vista.

You’re much better off with a clean install. If you’re worried about wiping your drive, relax. In the next section, we’ll tell you how to get your old system ready. Besides, if you’re paranoid, you can always buy a new hard disk with plenty of room for Vista for less than $100. How much system does Vista want? A 3GHz or faster Pentium 4 or Pentium D, a 2GHz or faster Core 2 Duo, or a 2GHz or faster Athlon 64 or Turion 64 (x2 versions preferred) will work. Add 2GB of RAM and a DirectX 9 videocard (no wimpy integrated graphics, please!) and you’re ready to go.

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Windows Vista Survival Guide

How To: Stream Video from Your Webcam to the Internet

You know it and I know it: The moment you leave your house, your pets have a party. But the moment you return, they go right back to their mild-mannered pet personas. To catch them in party mode, you need a streaming video camera!

By connecting a typical webcam to an old laptop or PC running the appropriate software, you can set up a streaming video feed that you can access from anywhere on the Internet. It’s easy to do and you’ll be able to peek into your home from anywhere you have Internet access. We’ve even peeked in on our pooch from a cellphone.

Even though it seems like a fairly simple project, you’ll need to muck around in the configuration screens for your router. Let’s get started!

1. Prepare Your Streaming Server

The first thing you’ll need to do is configure the machine you’re going to connect the camera to. You’ll need to install the drivers and software for your webcam, install the streaming software, configure the machine to use a static IP address, and disable power management—you don’t want the machine going into a power-saving mode.

To disable power management, open the Control Panel and go to the Power Options panel. Then make sure the System Standby option is set to Never. Make sure your webcam is working properly—most cams include an app that shows you the output.

To configure your rig for a static IP address, the first thing you need to do is find the appropriate settings for your config. Go to the Control Panel, then click the Network Connections icon. Right-click your Internet connection—it will usually be called Local Area Connection—and click Status. Go to the Support tab and click Details. You should write down your current IP address, default gateway, and DNS servers; you’ll need that info when you configure the static IP.

Now, close that window, go back to the General tab, and click Properties. Double-click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). In the window that opens, you should click “Use the following IP address.” This is where it gets tricky. To figure out your new static IP, you should look at the default gateway setting you wrote down before. Then add one to the final number in the default gateway (it’s usually 192.168.0.1, so your new IP would be 192.168.0.2). Your subnet mask will be 255.255.255.0 and you can use the same default gateway and DNS servers you were using before. Press OK and close all the windows you just opened. If everything works and Windows doesn’t give you an error, you can move on to the next step. If Windows says your IP is already in use, you’ll need to try another IP address.

If you’re using a software firewall on this machine, you’ll also need to configure it to allow TinCam (the streaming app) to receive requests on port 8080, or the firewall will stop them. Consult your firewall’s documentation for info on enabling port forwarding for a single app or port.

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How To: Stream Video from Your Webcam to the Internet

How To: Build a Media Server

Where’s that Devo MP3 you downloaded last week? Is it on your laptop? Or on your desktop? Chances are, if you have more than one PC, you’re having a hard time keeping all your multimedia files organized. You could stream them all from your gaming rig, but do you really want to chance slower disk access and lost CPU cycles mid-deathmatch just because your wife needed to download a few dozen songs from the living room?

The best way to make sure your files are in one, easy-to-find place, and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week is to store and serve them on a dedicated media box. Unlike your über gaming rig, built to push maximum frame rates, the media server should run cool, quiet, reliably, and without frills—an understated sidekick to free your power PC from mundane file-serving duties. Here’s how to build one.

Here's what you'll need:

* An ATX case with several hard-drive bays

* Windows XP Pro or Media Center Edition

* A 2GHz+ CPU and a compatible motherboard

* 1GB RAM

* A DVD Burner

* A least one large-capacity hard drive

* An external hard drive

* Options: An extra drive for RAID, streaming media boxes, and a TV-tuner card

PICKING THE PERFECT COMPONENTS

CPU: Raw, unadulterated power? Forget about it. In this machine you’ll want only enough speed to serve up files and run your streaming software. A slower processor will save you money that you can use on storage—the heart of a media server—or even your primary rig. And a slower processor will also generate less heat, requiring a more modest cooling setup and aiding overall reliability.

Also, because most media servers can do double-duty as home theater boxes, keeping the rig quiet means you can use it in your living room, if need be. We recommend the Pentium M or Mobile Athlon processor paired with a silent cooler, but these chips can be pricey. If you don’t want to buy a ton of new hardware, you can probably adapt an older PC. We wouldn’t recommend anything slower than 2GHz, though.

Storage: Using a lackluster CPU is fine, but a media server should have a robust storage setup. A single, fast drive paired with a large backup drive should do the job. We wouldn’t fool with any drives smaller than 400GB—either the 400GB Western Digital Caviar SE with a 16MB buffer or the Hitachi 7K500 500GB is ideal. The WD drive is a little quieter, while the Hitachi, obviously, offers more capacity.

If you’re concerned about data reliability, a RAID array is an option. A RAID 1 array, also known as a mirrored array, automatically copies your data to two hard drives in real time. Sounds like a good idea, right? It can be, but running RAID doesn’t necessarily make your rig bulletproof against data loss. If your media files are accidentally deleted, by you or by malicious software, the RAID backup will be wiped out at the same time.

For the most part, a single drive, which can keep up with typical media-streaming situations, will be marginally less noisy, and generate less heat. With the cash you save, you can buy an external backup drive. Your backup drive should include software that automatically copies the contents of your disk according to your set schedule. Unless you add tons of media every day, we recommend you run backups weekly. Any backup drive will do, as long as it can back up your primary drive in its entirety.

Soundcard: If your media server is destined to sit in a closet, disconnected from everything but power and Ethernet, it really doesn’t need a soundcard. If you’re going to set it up in your living room, however, you’ll definitely want a good, stand-alone soundcard. We recommend the X-Fi XtremeMusic. It’s a good value, and delivers superior sound quality, suitable for playback on a high-end home theater system.

Case, etc.:The other component you should choose with care is your case. We mentioned that a media server can double as a great living room PC. If that’s your goal, a slim-line case, such as Antec’s Minuet or Overture boxes, or even a small formfactor or mini-ATX case, will fit right in with your home theater equipment, although future expandability will be limited. If you’re going to throw your PC into a closet, any beige box will do.

This is the one time that it’s acceptable to use integrated video for your rig. Anything more is overkill, and anything with fans will just make more noise. The only reason to use a stand-alone videocard in a media server is if you need to connect it to a device that requires a component input, like an HDTV. As far as RAM goes, procure at least a gig.

The OS: In the past, we’ve recommended everything from Windows 2000 to Linux for a streaming server’s OS, but over the years, we’ve found that the best solution is actually very simple: Windows XP Professional. The rise of inexpensive video and audio streaming boxes opens lots of doors for the owner of a media server; however, most of the software requires Universal Plug and Play support, which only works on Windows XP (and it’s many variants).

You can even use Windows Media Center 2005, which delivers a few extra bonus features, with a catch: You can’t officially buy a retail box of Media Center 2005; instead you have to buy the special OEM version. You can get Media Center 2005 at online stores such as Newegg for about $130. Add a supported TV tuner and a remote, and Media Center lets you use your PC (as well as any connected streaming box or Xbox 360) as a PVR and digital-media hub, from which you can access movies, music, photos, and more.

PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER
At this point, you need to assemble your rig, just like any other system. Build your rig, and then install Windows and all the necessary drivers, security patches, and updates, and your machine should be ready to go. Before you partition your hard drive during the Windows install process, consider creating separate partitions for your applications and data. Doing this makes backing up your data much faster, and prevents you from backing up data that doesn’t change every week—like the contents of your C:/Windows folder.

You shouldn’t need more than 40GB for your Windows drive, so you’ll still have tons of space for your media files. You should also give your machine a descriptive name, which will be easy to type, when the Windows installer prompts you.

COPYING YOUR MEDIA
Now that your box is set up, you’ll want to create folders for your separate media types off the root of your media partition. We recommend creating a Media folder on that partition, then creating subfolders for videos, music, and photos. You might even want to set up folders dedicated to downloaded files, ISO backups of your application CDs, or anything else.

Now, start collating all those loose media files from your various PCs. You can copy them through the network, but if you’re dealing with a few hundred gigs of data, it’s much faster to use that external drive and run around your house, collecting all the media on it and then transferring it to its new home on your server.

SHARING WITH OTHERS
Now that all your media is on your server, you’ll want to make sure that other machines on your network can access it. Right-click each of the folders you want to access on the network, and select Sharing and Security. Check the box that says “Share this folder on the network” and give your share a descriptive name.

If you want to be able to make changes to your files remotely, or add new ones, you’ll need to check the box labeled “Allow network users to change my files.” That will allow anyone with an account on the machine to add, delete, or change files on the server. You can manage accounts in the User Accounts Control Panel. You should be able to access any of the shared directories by typing //name of server//name of share in Windows Explorer

Next, install software for any streaming devices you have, like a Squeezebox or a video-streaming box. Once that’s done, your server
is up and running!

MAINTAINING YOUR SERVER
Because of its uptime, your media server needs even more protection from malware than your regular machine. Make sure you install antivirus software, and schedule automatic definition updates, as well as daily or weekly scans of all your drives during the night hours. Set up firewall software, making sure to open the ports that your streaming software and generic Windows networking use. The procedure for this varies based on the streaming software you use and the firewall, so you’ll have to consult your documentation.

This is also the time to schedule a weekly backup to your external drive. Your backup drive should have come with software that will allow you to duplicate the filesystem of your drive, don’t fool with incremental backups or proprietary compressed archives, if your software supports them. They’re not worth the hassle, and because you’re backing up heavily compressed media, there won’t be any space savings.

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How To: Build a Media Server

How To: Recover Your Deleted Files

Have you accidentally deleted pics off a media card or quick-formatted your drive, and you want to recover the contents? You may be able to recover your data with these handy tools.

We have this “friend,” whom we’ll call “Steve,” who did something really, well, stupid. He accidentally deleted his entire archive of digital photos: more than 9GB of shots, including 99.99 percent of all photos that existed of his twin 3-year-old daughters, by mistakenly quick-formatting the wrong drive in my, err, “his,” PC. D’oh!

Steve naturally came to Maximum PC with his dilemma, and our data sleuths were on the case. A little tool called Zero Assumption Recovery solved the deleted-photo issue in short order. In just a few quick steps, and an hour’s wait for the program to scan Steve’s 300GB drive (which we installed as a secondary drive in another PC), we had his lost photos back! Not only did the scan find the pics, but it also managed to recover the original file names and folder structure—a feat several other similar programs couldn’t match.

But what about all the other data on the drive? We wanted it all back. So we turned to the big guns: GetDataBack for NTFS, which worked exactly as advertised. Finally, we also investigated how to get deleted files off of removable media, such as CompactFlash and SD memory cards.

Thankfully, Steve only quick-formatted his drive, and he immediately stopped using it, so the data was still there to be discovered. Any of the following methods should help you too, should you ever find yourself in poor Steve’s shoes.

Here's what you'll need:
* Zero Assumption Recovery (free trial)

* GetDataBack for NTFS ($100)

* MediaRecover ($30)

* A spare hard drive or PC

* Lots of time.

Recover Data From Your Hard Drive
GetDataBack for NTFS is the epitome of the adage “you get what you pay for.” Several freeware programs, including even the free trial version of GetDataBack for NTFS itself, either didn’t find a thing on our problem drive, or spit out just a laundry list of meaningless numbered files instead of our original file-structure.

Enter the full registered version of GDB for NTFS ($100), and presto—not only did the application find all of our lost files, but it completely recovered the drive’s original file structure and allowed us to recover everything, not just the digital photos we were initially hoping for!

Sure, $100 is a pretty big hit on the wallet, but when you consider that it can cost hundreds, even thousands, to have your data professionally recovered, it’s money well spent (particularly when you add in the ability to perform the recovery yourself: Do you really want some stranger to see all those lost pics and “home movies” you want back?)

Here’s how to use GDB to recover deleted or lost files on a working drive formatted with the NTFS file system. If your hard drive isn’t detected by Windows, or can’t be read, you’ll probably have to send the drive to an expensive data-recovery specialist to recover your bits.

CAUTION!
If you accidentally delete data off of a drive, or need to recover data from a quick-formatted drive, immediately stop using the drive. Install it as a secondary drive in the original PC, or in a spare machine, and install and run all recovery software on an unaffected drive. Do not save or install anything to the drive you want to recover data from, or you could accidentally render you deleted files unrecoverable!

Step 1: Determine the Correct Hard Drive
Unfortunately, the program does not list your drives in the same manner as Windows does, but with a little trial-and-error you should be able to determine the drive you want to scan. For example, if you want to scan your D drive, which is your secondary hard drive, select “2nd hard drive” and click Next.

Step 2: Select the Proper Partition
Your next move is to select the partition you wish to scan, which in our case is the first partition (NTFS) listed in the Available Drives column. Click the partition name to highlight it, and then click Next.

Step 3: Select the Exhaustive Mode
While GDB gives you the option of selecting which specific sectors on your drive you’d like to scan, we doubt anyone is hardcore enough to record the specific drive sector on which your data is physically stored—we know we’re not. So we’ll have to scan the time-consuming way: Toggle the “Search entire drive” and “Excessive search” radio buttons and click Next. Excessive search means exactly what you’d think: It directs GDB to perform the most exhaustive search possible of every sector of your drive.

Step 4: Wait
Sit back and read War and Peace or catch up on some sleep—this is gonna take a while. We jest, but only partly; scanning our 300GB drive took an hour and a half.

Step 5: Choose the Files to Recover
Once the scan is complete, you must select the file system you want displayed in a “recovery tree,” which simply means you need to choose from the scan list what logical drive you want to see the contents of, and click Next. After a relatively brief 10- to 15-minute wait, GDB will build and display the file structure of the lost logical drive you selected.

Step 6: Recover Your Files
Now, simply browse for the folder you want to recover just like you would in Windows Explorer. Right-click any folders or files you want to get back, and select Copy. GDB will save the folder (and all of its sub-folders) to a location of your choice. Rinse and repeat until you’ve recovered all of your files.

The Freeware Approach
You’re in college and would rather spend your money on Milwaukee’s Best and pizza than fancy-pants data-recovery software: We’ve been there. You’re not out of luck, as there are some decent free options out there, such as the free trial version of Zero Assumption Recovery. This slick little program will not only recover deleted images, but many other file types. Here’s how to use ZAR to get your data back.

Step 1: Optimize Your System
Fire up the program—you can probably leave the default settings alone. If you have more than 1GB of system memory, however, select the Options tab and “Faster method” from the “Volume parameters analysis” pull-down menu. Go back to Preliminary Setup and click the Proceed button.

Step 2: Select the Hard Drive to Scan
Now, select the drive you want to scan for lost files by clicking it; select Proceed. Next, select the partition on the drive you want to search and click Proceed again.

Step 3: Wait for the Scan to Finish
Sit back and wait for the program to scan your drive, which might take a long time, depending on the size of the partition you selected. Our 300GB drive took an hour and 15 minutes.

Step 4: Recover Your Files
Whoop! If the stars are aligned in your favor you will be rewarded with your old folder structure, which you can navigate to locate and restore your files. Note: The trial version allows only four folders to be recovered per scan, so you might need to repeat this procedure multiple times—or pony up the $100 for the full version.

Recover Data from Portable Media
If you accidentally delete photos from one of the memory cards you use in your digital camera, such as a CompactFlash or SD and you want them back—it’s no problem. There are several utilities, including several freeware programs such as ZAR, that will do the trick.

However, when it comes to preserving precious memories, we recommend you don’t skimp: Slap down $30 on MediaRecover, which is designed from the ground up to rescue lost media files from hard drives and media cards of all types, including SmartMedia, Compact Flash, Memory Stick, Secure Digital, xD Picture Card, Microdrives, and MultiMedia Card.

It does a good job, it’s relatively fast, and it’s a snap to use. We deleted a few dozen photos off a 1GB CF card and used MR to get ‘em back—in less than 30 minutes, from start to finish.

Step 1: Identify Your Drive
Insert the CF card into your PC’s media reader and select the appropriate removable media drive letter to scan. Click Next, and then select a folder where you want recovered files to be saved. Click Next, then Start, and then select a Scan method (we choose Quick Scan because we’re just after deleted photos)—leaving everything else at the default settings—and click Continue.

Step 2: Select the Images to Recover
The scan commences and a window pops up that displays thumbnails of recovered images. When the scan is complete you just need to choose which images you want to save, and select Save Images. The preview window will close and bring you back to the root menu.

Step 3: Save Your Files
The pay-off: Now, simply hit the “Open recovered files” folder and you’re done—MR opens the folder in Explorer—in Thumbnails view no less—and you can go to sleep knowing your pics are safe once again.

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How To: Recover Your Deleted Files