Joluch

My friend's mom keeps thinking that hackers have installed spyware on her laptop and are recording her. Every other weekend she would ask us to "wipe her system." No matter what kind of security software and reassurance we gave her, she would always dismiss it. Finally my friend got so fed up and got her mom a tablet without a webcam for internet access and disabled the WiFi on the laptop.
 
Her mom called next week saying that the landlord must have snuck in and installed spyware on the laptop that's now recording her and she wants us to go wipe her system... ?
 
Sometimes it's not the technology that's broken. ?

This is a quick guide on how PCI Express lanes are distributed.
 
Graphics are always given their own PCI Express lanes
No matter what the socket or chipset or processor, PCIe slots meant for graphics cards are always given their own PCI Express lanes. In the older northbridge/southbridge chipset setup, PCI Express lanes meant for the graphics card always went through northbridge, which is the faster chipset. Normally northbridge gave 16 lanes in a x16, x8/x8, x8/x4/x4, or x4/x4/x4/x4 configuration. Higher end chipsets and processors will have more lanes. To summarize in a list:
Intel's LGA115x processors 16 lanes configurable in x16, x8/x8, or x8/x4/x4 Intel's HEDT processors Up to 40 lanes. Intel officially says this can either be a x16/x16/x8 or x8/x8/x8/x8/x8 configuration. Lower end processors will only have 28 lanes, which can only be x16 or up to x8/x8/x8. AMD AM3+ and AM4 processors (FX and Ryzen) 16 lanes configurable in x16, x8/x8, or x8/x4/x4 AMD claims that Ryzen processors have 24 PCIe lanes, but 4 lanes are dedicated to the chipset and 4 are for general purpose use. The general purpose use ones tend to be allocated for NVMe storage, but it really depends on the motherboard manufacturer. AMD APUs 4 or 8 lanes are provided for a single GPU configuration Zen based APUs have 4 general purpose lanes AMD Threadripper Up to 60 PCIe lanes. AMD claims there are 64 total, but 4 lanes are dedicated to the chipset. However in some configurations, you may be limited down to 48 PCIe lanes for graphics if you are using NVMe storage. The chipset provides additional PCI Express lanes for other use
Any time you see a smaller PCIe slot, like an x1 or x2 slot, they will route to the chipset. So if you see a motherboard with something like "8 PCIe lanes" or "20 PCIe lanes", it's coming from the chipset, not the CPU.
 
Peripherals all go through the chipset/southbridge's PCIe lanes, not the processors/northbridge's
Things like USB ports, SATA, Ethernet, etc. all go through the PCIe lanes that the chipset provides, if the chipset doesn't provide the feature natively.
 
As a visual aid, this diagram (from https://www.anandtech.com/show/9485/intel-skylake-z170-motherboards-asrock-asus-gigabyte-msi-ecs-evga-supermicro) shows what's available on a Z170. The chipset has 26 "ports", 20 of which can be used as PCIe lanes.

 
PCIe Lanes are typically distributed in powers of 2
A PCIe controller will only give lanes to a device in powers of 2, or 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and theoretically 32 (nobody makes a 32 lane expansion device as far as I know). So for example, if there are 16 lanes from the CPU and you plug in a graphics card and then an x1 PCIe card into another graphics card slot, the processor will give the graphics card 8 lanes instead.
 
Note that while the official PCIe specification allows for a 4 + 12 lane combination in a 16 lane configuration, almost nobody uses this setup
 
Pay attention to what NVMe does to your system
NVMe requires PCIe lanes; where it gets them from depends on the platform you go with.
Intel's mainstream boards (LGA115x) These take lanes from the chipset. This may disable other I/O like a PCIe slot or a couple of SATA ports Intel's HEDT boards (LGA 20xx) These primarily take lanes from the CPU AMD prior to AM4 These take lanes from the Southbridge AMD mainstream boards (AM4) All processors have 4 lanes dedicated for general use. This tends to be wired for NVMe storage, but it depends on the motherboard. If there is more than one M.2 slot for NVMe use, the other ones will use lanes from the chipset similar to Intel's mainstream boards. AMD HEDT These primarily take lanes from the CPU.  
In short
Just remember the first point: For most users, the graphics cards are always given their own PCI Express lanes. However, even if some peripherals were using up the lanes meant for graphics, graphics cards can run just fine down to PCIe 3.0 x4 without much performance loss.
 
If you're using an HEDT platform, NVMe storage may eat into the PCIe lane budget, but unless you're rocking 3 cards or are using a lower end HEDT processor, this won't be a problem to worry about.

My friend's mom keeps thinking that hackers have installed spyware on her laptop and are recording her. Every other weekend she would ask us to "wipe her system." No matter what kind of security software and reassurance we gave her, she would always dismiss it. Finally my friend got so fed up and got her mom a tablet without a webcam for internet access and disabled the WiFi on the laptop.
 
Her mom called next week saying that the landlord must have snuck in and installed spyware on the laptop that's now recording her and she wants us to go wipe her system... ?
 
Sometimes it's not the technology that's broken. ?

Could you let us know which router you're using?
 
You're absolutely right that it's unwise to use your router as an AP as well, but this isn't the whole story. The router itself may be to blame. You could always go the overkill route and slam a PFSense box into that puppy, along with a switch and AP, but since you're a student, this probably doesn't make a ton of sense. What I'd do is, if my router is still fine (current, working properly, fast enough, etc.), consider plugging some devices in using Ethernet, and see if these problems still exist. If they don't, then get a switch (preferably one that has PoE+, so you don't have to worry about power injectors and other stupid stuff like that), and plug your devices in that way. If you're still experiencing problems, consider switching out your router (no pun intended).
 
Just as an offside:
Your network admin probably did some things to isolate buildings/residences/residence halls. When the internet comes to your campus/base, it goes into the fiber modem, then to what's called a "core" network, a high-performance, low-latency set of network switches specifically designed for large-scale deployment to different field devices. You can see an example of this in this video, at the very beginning background. These switches are made by companies like Juniper Networks or Cisco, whose switches may cost in the tens of thousands of dollars, each. When the signal comes out of a "core" network, it *probably* runs to your building using direct copper or, more likely, fiber, since (for obvious reasons) it doesn't make sense to connect every single networked device to this core. In your building, each of the network jacks in your flat is *probably* connected to a lower-end switch (only a couple thousand dollars instead), which connects to *probably* the fiber coming in. The core network has *probably* been set up to use several different subnets over several different VLANs, in order to isolate the traffic and control DHCP addresses from being needlessly assigned (e.g., a device that needs a static IP to be set would be put on a subnet that doesn't assign DHCP addresses). In this manner, if someone does something stupid to one VLAN or subnet, like make a feedback loop on accident, this incident is isolated to the one subnet or VLAN, as opposed to affecting every single connection across your campus/base.
Campus, base, and business internet is a lot more complicated than people might realize. To make my ramblings above slightly more cohesive, I've attached a truly bad MS Paint drawing (uploads keep failing, so: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XKCGDd81YfnpgYvvb7iuYEfsUlZuGW72/view?usp=sharing).

Some schools have a program st up to provide their students with a free office license. Have you looked into that?
 
after that, libreOffice or OpenOffice are free and legal alternatives, with file inter compatibility if memory serves.

Been awhile since therr was a post so Im reviving it.
 
How is everyone? I hit my 1 year transition mark this month ! Finally getting a name change !

Hey, thank you for your suggestions! 
 
I finally found an app that works with my personal outlook / Hotmail account! 
 
It's called "OneCalendar" and it does everything I want from a calendar app ?
 

That just brought up memories of how UAC used to jump out at anything back in Vista. Seems like they had the right idea all along.
That is both wickedly cool and deeply unsettling.

It probably depends the most whether rear suspension is independent or torsion beam. There's also how suspension optics are done. Coz I very much doubt someone with Auris is going to do some stupid camber config on their own. This is almost certainly a factory setting.

Personally I have some goals in my mind when it comes to my career, more specifically what I would like to create.
 
I personally don't really like sharing these goals too much, in the past I didn't know the reason why, but on a podcast someone explained it so well it all made sense to me...
 
When you announce your goals or project, you already got the satisfaction of sharing it and thus have less motivation to work further on/start this project.
 
For this reason, I will keep it somewhat vague what my goals are..
Short term: continue work on a game project (where I oversee the programming) and create a certain fun Arduino/soldering project.
 
Long term: expand my knowledge and experience with embedded systems to my even longer term goal..
 
Longer term goal: I would like to work in the field where people create robotic limbs and such.

I only speak English. My wife speaks Spanish, English , Creole, French, and Russian. So I can tell how angry she is with me by which language she curses me in. 

I think that’s possible with steganography https://securelist.com/steganography-in-contemporary-cyberattacks/79276/
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/security/the-dark-side-of-steganography
 

Just some recommendations here, that's how my personal gaming PC is setup, same for my work laptop and the family members' PC I imaged or fixed ;
 
Show files extensions (in file explorer, open the 'folder and search option' and in the view tab, uncheck 'Hide extensions for known file type', Create an admin user, change your current user to 'standard user', if you need to install or modify something, use the admin account credentials when prompted, If your AV has the option, turn on real-time scan' (actively scans your files and folders), Scan whatever you download (lots of AV will have a right click option to scan whatever you selected).  
There are other things too, but I would say that's the minimum. Since I started applying this (minus the last point since I can't do that on family member's PCs), I didn't have to disinfect a family member's PC in a while and I only have to troubleshoot bugs and hardware issues.

My friend's mom keeps thinking that hackers have installed spyware on her laptop and are recording her. Every other weekend she would ask us to "wipe her system." No matter what kind of security software and reassurance we gave her, she would always dismiss it. Finally my friend got so fed up and got her mom a tablet without a webcam for internet access and disabled the WiFi on the laptop.
 
Her mom called next week saying that the landlord must have snuck in and installed spyware on the laptop that's now recording her and she wants us to go wipe her system... ?
 
Sometimes it's not the technology that's broken. ?

Not really. If its unstable like you say it will be like this. Its the same as running with a bad overclock... Memory writes wrng stuff to OS. OS goes bad, basically. Check placement
You can test memory with memtest86 too- this is a link to a bootable version (for USB). https://www.memtest86.com/downloads/memtest86-4.3.7-usb.img.zip

What about Robocopy?
https://ss64.com/nt/robocopy.html
use the /XD flag to exclude directory
From same source as @IntMd's Link.
 
Seems very well suited for your backup purposes, since "By default Robocopy will only copy a file if the source and destination have different time stamps or different file sizes."

I only need to quickly copy user profile when I install Windows clean, the rest is already on second partition. Speeds up Windows install down to like 30 minutes process with everything this way lol

bad choice in words there buddy.
 
the school system in a lot of places has its problems but i feel like even if the system was perfect most students wouldnt like it.  
 
anyway no. we cant just get rid of schools if anything i think we need more of it but maybe later in life. kids arent really receptive to mostof the taught topics yet. so we force the knowledge into them. i feel like later in life when you realize more of the world around you people actually get more curious and interested about how things work. but in general id say we need more of it and since most parents arent capable of doing i think we also need to teach kids more about actual life. i  mean the joke is pretty old at this point but i feel still true. i had absolutly no use for the polination cycle of the bees but i wished someone had told how to exactly do my taxes or manage my money in general or prepare me in any way for the real business world.

If you want to store stuff on a NAS and have programs access it like any other storage drive (since I think applications can get fussy if you use a network path), you can map the network path to a drive (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026635/windows-map-a-network-drive)

They have thread where users can submit suggestions
Its also been discussed few times. But those videos are Floatplane Exclusives. In short, every writer has their own interests and they have bunch of ideas when hired. They will take a look at suggestions, apply their own ideas, look at what companies send them. They talk among eachother and with Linus. What makes it and what doesn't? That would be about viewers. Does audience want to see crazy builds or 10 videos about graphics cards, monitors and cases.

I believe you are facing a problem on layer 8

My friend's mom keeps thinking that hackers have installed spyware on her laptop and are recording her. Every other weekend she would ask us to "wipe her system." No matter what kind of security software and reassurance we gave her, she would always dismiss it. Finally my friend got so fed up and got her mom a tablet without a webcam for internet access and disabled the WiFi on the laptop.
 
Her mom called next week saying that the landlord must have snuck in and installed spyware on the laptop that's now recording her and she wants us to go wipe her system... ?
 
Sometimes it's not the technology that's broken. ?

My friend's mom keeps thinking that hackers have installed spyware on her laptop and are recording her. Every other weekend she would ask us to "wipe her system." No matter what kind of security software and reassurance we gave her, she would always dismiss it. Finally my friend got so fed up and got her mom a tablet without a webcam for internet access and disabled the WiFi on the laptop.
 
Her mom called next week saying that the landlord must have snuck in and installed spyware on the laptop that's now recording her and she wants us to go wipe her system... ?
 
Sometimes it's not the technology that's broken. ?

I work in IT as the sole IT specialist for a medium sized distributor.
 
I've got a few for the thread.
 
- Everyone calls anything involving a computer, or the phones, "The System" - You'll overhear someone complaining about something not printing, and someone else yells out their cube "Yeah, Lucroarna must be doing something on the system"
- I took over my role, so I had to replace 41 (!!!) PCs with Windows 10 Pro desktops. I have one user who consistently complains that she now has to press the power button to turn on her PC.
- I have one user who does not understand how the minimize button works in Windows, and asked if I could remove it, because he doesn't like that he has to click them on the taskbar after minimizing them.
- I have a user who loves shortcuts - and always makes them inside of directories to her desktop. She will later delete the shortcut in her directory, which breaks the shortcut on her Desktop. To this day, I still get calls letting me know about the "Shortcut Glitch on the system".
- We use a software for all of our inventory management, and it's only accesible via remote desktop. The old IT guy named the shortcut to Remote Desktop after the software. So when people call for issues, they always say they're having an issue with the software, when it's an issue with Outlook inside of remote desktop. Everything we do "in the system" is called "<software name here>".
- I recently found out a user uses their work email for everything. Including a bad purchase online, that ended with our exchange being overloaded with spam emails to this one person. After 1,700 emails to one inbox in 10 minutes, I was easily able to convince our company to include new company policies regarding personal use of emails. I am now hated for this travesty - how dare I.
- User had an issue with his laptop - was acting slow. I hopped on remotely, and several porn pop-ups came up when opening chrome. He goes "I dunno how those got there, they just come up!". I don't think he realizes these pop ups only come up when you look at porn, and if you're millennial who grew up in the 90's-00's, you know this excuse only worked in that day and age. I'm assuming his kid used it on him at some point.
- Phone service goes out, everyone says the internet is going slow, too
- Internet service goes out, everyone says the phones are acting weird, too.
- I had a user whose file management involved downloading a PDF, saving it to a CD, putting the CD into a jewel case, opening a file cabinet, putting the jewel case inside a file, and locking the file cabinet. I explained that he re-created windows, and showed him how to save these files on the network (As they should be, they are company documentation intended for his job role). He told me it's the same thing but in a different way, and refuses to change.
 
I thought IT would be fun, but it's just funny.

You don't.
Just ignore those sorts of comments and report them/delete them if possible.
 
You're not in the business of defending others/yourself, you're in the business of showing off awesome photos.