Corporate Computer Question

[SAR-EMT1]

Ok.. I was just issued a CAP laptop.

It has the latest edition of AVG but nothing in the way of Anti-Spam and no firewall.
Are these items we whom are issued the laptops are supposed to add on or are we not allowed to? -- there are no firewalls or spamblockers at e-services.

Rules/ Suggestions?

Second: it has Flight Sim 04 on it for some reason...?
Is this intentional?
To a lesser extent... what are we allowed to use the laptops for/not allowed to use them for... in regards to CAP/personal/work/gaming etc...

Are we allowed to add programs or files to the hard drive?

Thanks...

[mynetdude]

You are allowed to use the CAP issued laptop issued to your squadron or person/personnel for CAP use only... CAP is very strict about misappropriated property, so limit if any personal use on CAP owned computers.

That being said, you are allowed to install software to reasonably protect the assets bestowed upon your squadron/you if that means installing anti spam/firewalls etc.  AVG is pretty limited at best...

You can install legally licensed software that is licensed to your unit and CAP.  Flight simulator is probably on there for obvious reason, we are CAP... simulators are a tool.

[SAR-EMT1]

Well yeah, Im not going to take it to work and use it to run a projector or anything like that.  But I wonder if surfing CAPTALK or CADETSTUFF would be acceptable in thy grace.    

I was just wondering. -- The main reason I got it is because I serve as deputy commander, personnel officer,  PD officer, and Group Admin. Our unit doesnt have internet so up till now i would copy info to paper then to my personal computer then to e services etc... having this computer I can load a copy of all the current regs and the needed files and forms for my hats. Anything that needs to be done I can do off this one interface. Im happy, but it  will be a learning experience in that Im a laptop noob.

I guess the only thing that surprised me was that there was a small lock on the zipper of the case, but the fact is, anyone could just pick up the case and walk away with it (senario) so what is the purpose of a tiny 2 dollar suitcase lock?


-- About the only thing I will need to control is the tempation to use it for secretary type work and note taking in regards to the other groups Im in - CGAUX, Masons etc... Ive never had a laptop and I can already feel the energy flowing through my brain.  (I will work to control it.)

Anyone know where I can get a CHEAP laptop? -- for said secretary type crap
- do I dare trust E-bay to get a computer?

[mynetdude]

Well yeah, Im not going to take it to work and use it to run a projector or anything like that.  But I wonder if surfing CAPTALK or CADETSTUFF would be acceptable in thy grace.    

I was just wondering. -- The main reason I got it is because I serve as deputy commander, personnel officer,  PD officer, and Group Admin. Our unit doesnt have internet so up till now i would copy info to paper then to my personal computer then to e services etc... having this computer I can load a copy of all the current regs and the needed files and forms for my hats. Anything that needs to be done I can do off this one interface. Im happy, but it  will be a learning experience in that Im a laptop noob.

I guess the only thing that surprised me was that there was a small lock on the zipper of the case, but the fact is, anyone could just pick up the case and walk away with it (senario) so what is the purpose of a tiny 2 dollar suitcase lock?


-- About the only thing I will need to control is the tempation to use it for secretary type work and note taking in regards to the other groups Im in - CGAUX, Masons etc... Ive never had a laptop and I can already feel the energy flowing through my brain.  (I will work to control it.)

Anyone know where I can get a CHEAP laptop? -- for said secretary type crap
- do I dare trust E-bay to get a computer?

Yes you can use your CAP issued laptop for captalk/cadetstuff as it pertains to CAP that is my opinion, as to what others may say... I'm not sure.  If it relates to CAP you're fine, use it.  I would put every regulation, form, document/letter you need to have access to and do all your CAP admin work from that laptop if that is all you have and you can take it home to connect it to internet if need be.

You could try ebay to get a laptop, though nowadays I am not sure I even want to even buy from ebay anymore. You can get some pretty cheap ones elsewhere, but that depends how cheap you want to get one too.

As for the teeny lock, it isn't really designed as "theft proof", it is a deterrence and the only way someone is going to get it out is A) to cut the lock which is pretty tiny anyway... B) cut through the material/cloth itself.  I use these locks... no they aren't going to stop a thief from getting what they really want but at least it won't give them easy access and at least I can hand over my stuff and know that someone can't just slip their theivy fingers into my stuff and have easy access.

Hope this helps

[Maj Ballard]

Is this a new laptop? The way you described it sounds like it was re-gifted from another squadron. If that's the case, I would attempt to find out if Flight Sim is legal and licensed, and to whom. Just for CYA reasons.

[Tim Medeiros]

the version of AVG I have installed *from eServices* on my corp laptop does have a firewall with it, works well for me.

[SAR-EMT1]

OK,  'mine' doesnt have a firewall.

So anyone want to recommend their pick for the best 'free' firewall and anti-spam programs?

[mikeylikey]

Microsoft Defender. 

[BuckeyeDEJ]

OK,  'mine' doesnt have a firewall.

So anyone want to recommend their pick for the best 'free' firewall and anti-spam programs?

The best option: Buy a Macintosh. Built-in firewall, most stable OS out there. But since CAP buys those inferior Windows machines....



(just had to say it)

[afgeo4]

OK,  'mine' doesnt have a firewall.

So anyone want to recommend their pick for the best 'free' firewall and anti-spam programs?

The best option: Buy a Macintosh. Built-in firewall, most stable OS out there. But since CAP buys those inferior Windows machines....



(just had to say it)

They buy Toshibas... the inferior of the inferior. 

Make sure you keep the laptop off the table (so that the fan on the bottom of it has air coming to it) if using for a prolonged period of time (over 1 hr) or it will overheat and crash on ya.

[mynetdude]

OK,  'mine' doesnt have a firewall.

So anyone want to recommend their pick for the best 'free' firewall and anti-spam programs?

The best option: Buy a Macintosh. Built-in firewall, most stable OS out there. But since CAP buys those inferior Windows machines....



(just had to say it)

They buy Toshibas... the inferior of the inferior. 

Make sure you keep the laptop off the table (so that the fan on the bottom of it has air coming to it) if using for a prolonged period of time (over 1 hr) or it will overheat and crash on ya.

haven't had that issue with our Toshiba laptop, I've run it for several hours during a SAREX and it worked well

[pixelwonk]

I think the OP's question has been answered sufficiently, and I'd like to change the focus of the thread.
I myself, received a new laptop this week (fingerprint scanner works like butt, but I digress) and I was wondering what software seems to be standard on the systems out there.

Discuss

[mynetdude]

I think the OP's question has been answered sufficiently, and I'd like to change the focus of the thread.
I myself, received a new laptop this week (fingerprint scanner works like butt, but I digress) and I was wondering what software seems to be standard on the systems out there.

Discuss

Well what do you mean by standard? If you're talking about MS Office and such... well IE6 (IE7 is the latest), Office 2003 (office 2k7 is the latest), there is Firefox 2 (I heard there is 3 now) for those who don't like IE.  I'm not really sure what would be standard, this varies depending on the computer manufacturer and what they have to offer.

A lot of times they will provide trialware, you get to try it for 30-180 days depending on what it is, as far as anti virus I prefer Antivira/Avira over AVG... AVG doesn't do squiddly squat IMHO.  As for firewall, I hear the firewall that is available with Windows XP(SP2)/Vista will do just fine at the basic level although I prefer Sunbelt Personal Firewall... that has been the best one I have used so far.

 

[Slim]

OK,  'mine' doesnt have a firewall.

So anyone want to recommend their pick for the best 'free' firewall and anti-spam programs?

I use Zone Labs Zone Alarm, available for free at download.com.  We also have it on our issued laptop.  I've used for years, with no problems at all.

[pixelwonk]

a standard can be determined once folks post what they got.
Office 2K3 is on mine, but I don't know if that's because our supply minion has a TechSoup.org account for CAP, or it was loaded by NHQ.

[Slim]

a standard can be determined once folks post what they got.
Office 2K3 is on mine, but I don't know if that's because our supply minion has a TechSoup.org account for CAP, or it was loaded by NHQ.

Ours came with Office 2k3 (trial), WinXP, IE7, and a few others.  I know those are there, but I haven't messed around with it much as the commander has it.

[Tim Medeiros]

They buy Toshibas... the inferior of the inferior. 

Make sure you keep the laptop off the table (so that the fan on the bottom of it has air coming to it) if using for a prolonged period of time (over 1 hr) or it will overheat and crash on ya.

Ive had my personal laptop (a Toshiba) since the Monday before the August 2004 NB and only had that problem after a guy had accidentally dropped it, the issue was resolved promptly when I took it into a service center.  Never had the issue with the corp laptop issued to me since Jan 2007, both have been known to be online for weeks on a flat surface (I was lazy and had some projects I was working on that I couldn't be bothered to close) without an issue.  So I'm not sure where you've had your poor experience, but it isn't the norm from what I can tell.  Then again, I set the fan speed to max cool out of habit.

CAP also has some HP's in its inventory.

[pixelwonk]

* tedda has a HP Turion 64

[Tim Medeiros]

The corp issued to me (Toshiba Tecra A5) had the basic stuff you get with all brand new laptops, they also gave me the disks for MS Office 2003 Professional, with Business Contact Manager for Outlook.  It had IE6, and the trial for McAffee.  Don't recall otherwise, its been a while.

[Eclipse]

The Tecra A5's come out of the box with XP & Office Pro 2003.  Since AVG is free from NHQ and XP has an integrated firewall, you don't need anything else.

Unless the unit bought Flight Sim, its a hot copy.

As to the proper usage, reasonable personal use should not be an issue, even for other benevolent organizations - NHQ didn't buy these things so they could wind up sitting on a shelf or in the bag, unused until they are obsolete - not using a machine can be just as bad as abusing it.

Business use of any kind, however, is verboten.

[badger bob]

 NHQ purchases come with Office 2003 Pro and Windows XP Pro including the last laptop buy.

In our wing, I added the AVG from the CAP license (on e-services) and Adobe Reader before distributing- and downloaded the normal 100 security updates from Microsft.

My recommendation is that they avoid Vista as long as they can- but no reason not to switch to Office 2007 for future buys that I know of.

[afgeo4]

They buy Toshibas... the inferior of the inferior. 

Make sure you keep the laptop off the table (so that the fan on the bottom of it has air coming to it) if using for a prolonged period of time (over 1 hr) or it will overheat and crash on ya.

Ive had my personal laptop (a Toshiba) since the Monday before the August 2004 NB and only had that problem after a guy had accidentally dropped it, the issue was resolved promptly when I took it into a service center.  Never had the issue with the corp laptop issued to me since Jan 2007, both have been known to be online for weeks on a flat surface (I was lazy and had some projects I was working on that I couldn't be bothered to close) without an issue.  So I'm not sure where you've had your poor experience, but it isn't the norm from what I can tell.  Then again, I set the fan speed to max cool out of habit.

CAP also has some HP's in its inventory.

Well... I believe my group received one Toshiba for each squadron and one for Group HQ (total of 6) and all but one crashed... heavily.

I just purchased a Dell Inspiron 1520 for mostly CAP use, but I can't spend the same amount on MS Office Pro as I spent on the computer, so I'm buying MS Office Home and Student which doesn't come with Access. Do you guys know where I could get a free or low cost version of Access to run SIMS? My squadron has doubled in size in the last few months and we finally need it.

[badger bob]

2002 thru 2005 NHQ laptop buys were Toshibas with not enough RAM and all kinds of Toshiba demo programs and adware programs.

2006 and 2007 Laptops were HP models- much superior hardware and much less junkware.

[badger bob]

I just purchased a Dell Inspiron 1520 for mostly CAP use, but I can't spend the same amount on MS Office Pro as I spent on the computer, so I'm buying MS Office Home and Student which doesn't come with Access. Do you guys know where I could get a free or low cost version of Access to run SIMS? My squadron has doubled in size in the last few months and we finally need it.

If anyone needs either single copies or multiple copies of licensed copies of Office Pro, please PM me

Tags - MIKE

[Eclipse]

My recommendation is that they avoid Vista as long as they can- but no reason not to switch to Office 2007 for future buys that I know of.

Unless you've kicked the ram up substantially from the 256m NHQ ships, office 2007 is going to be prohibitively slow, that and the fact that if the only place yo are using it is on your CAP notebook for CAP business, the learning curve is also substantial.

I used it for three months as my primary business version of office and dumped it because of the ribbon and other issues which made me less productive.

Anyone who needs a productivity suite and can't afford to buy it shoudl look into Openoffice which is free.
(it doesn't include an Access analog, however)

[badger bob]

The 2006 and 2007 HP laptops come with 1GB of Ram. don't know yet what the 2008 laptops will come with.

[MIKE]

I got Office 2007 Pro with my new Dell XPS 420... I think it was a little cheaper than a boxed copy.  Runs great on Vista Premium... but I've also got 3 gigs of RAM in this beast.  

IIRC, A site had been posted a while back where you could get Office and/or licenses through NHQ at the non-profit rate.

[arajca]

http://www.1computerbargains.com/

Check the Member Benefits site for the person to contact.

[badger bob]

Computer bargins will sell you Office at a good discount from retail, about half of what a retail outlet gets.

For the real savings, you need to purchase them direct thru the Microsoft program for non-profits with Office Pro for $20/ per license


For info go to
www.techsoup.org


If you need help with it, give me a holler

[afgeo4]

I'm running 2GB or RAM on my Dell Inspiron 1520 (with Intel Core 2 Duo and XP), so Office 07 won't be an issue. I wouldn't run it with Vista though. I actually wouldn't use Vista with anything. IMO we should sell give them all to Venezuela for all the good they've done for us over the years.

[♠SARKID♠]

I'm running 2GB or RAM on my Dell Inspiron 1520 (with Intel Core 2 Duo and XP), so Office 07 won't be an issue. I wouldn't run it with Vista though. I actually wouldn't use Vista with anything. IMO we should sell give them all to Venezuela for all the good they've done for us over the years.

Venezuela?  Why not the Brazillian CAP? 

[LtCol Hooligan]

I'm running 2GB or RAM on my Dell Inspiron 1520 (with Intel Core 2 Duo and XP), so Office 07 won't be an issue. I wouldn't run it with Vista though. I actually wouldn't use Vista with anything. IMO we should sell give them all to Venezuela for all the good they've done for us over the years.

What don't you like about Vista?  Your system seems like it should be able to run it without issue.

[JC004]

What don't you like about Vista?  Your system seems like it should be able to run it without issue.

My systems should run Vista just fine.  It's Vista that doesn't work so well, not the systems.  <3 XP Pro.

[LtCol Hooligan]

OIC- Just so you know, Vista SP1 is on the way.  I put it on my work machine (Dell Latitude D820) and it has been a huge improvement.  Drivers are functioning correctly and my system is way faster now.  I actually like it a lot and am installing Vista SP1 on my wife's Toshiba in the very near future. 

[JC004]

I've been waiting for SP1, and once I get it installed, I'll decide if I should keep it or put a .40 S&W in the screen.

[SAR-EMT1]

I have one final question.  My unit has one or two old desktops, an old ink printer, and an OLD Canon 'portable' copier (about 5 PPM  b/w) that were evidently issued by CAP way back when. I "Think" they are Pentium 2's...

My unit also has three toshiba laptops and a 'new' laser scanner/printer combo.

Is there a way to turn the desktops in? To either: get a new(er) copier, or to just get rid of the stuff?

[badger bob]

I have one final question.  My unit has one or two old desktops, an old ink printer, and an OLD Canon 'portable' copier (about 5 PPM  b/w) that were evidently issued by CAP way back when. I "Think" they are Pentium 2's...

My unit also has three toshiba laptops and a 'new' laser scanner/printer combo.

Is there a way to turn the desktops in? To either: get a new(er) copier, or to just get rid of the stuff?

Desktops, printers and copiers are accountible equipment per 67-1

If they are on your S3 report in CATS, then they should be returned to the DRMO if DOD sourced. If listed as corporate(local) or donation, your wing commander can approve a local disposal.

In either case, OPSEC would require full erasure or destruction of the hard drive.

If they are not listed in CATS, assuming they are not useable by other CAP units- they should be disposed of locally- without hard drives

[SarDragon]

Wiping the drive with something like Darik's Boot and Nuke , or Data Shredder (the one I use) should be sufficient for the level of security needed for CAP data.

[badger bob]

Wiping the drive with something like Darik's Boot and Nuke , or Data Shredder (the one I use) should be sufficient for the level of security needed for CAP data.

These are some approved DOD programs for hard drive erasure

*No Trace*
*DataEraser* free download at http://tinyurl.com/3cpjp3
*Unished Pro*
*CleanDrive*
*Sanitizer*

There may be others- sorry the DOD furnished links did not work.

shortened the DataEraser link -TA

[SarDragon]

Both of the programs I listed will do a DoD approved wipe. But, do we really need that level of security? A one-pass random 1s and 0s wipe should be sufficient.

[JC004]

when I want to make hard drive data unrecoverable, I use one of these babies:

[mikeylikey]

^ Do you even know what part is the handle??   

Why don't you just shoot the hard drive?

[JC004]

^ Do you even know what part is the handle??   

Why don't you just shoot the hard drive?

Only half the time, and there are some crap ordinances about shooting things around here.  Something about things being close together.