PC Tech Thread

Dropbox, as well as most other Dropbox-alikes, have effective deep packet inspection and heuristic analysis going on so they can detect and traffic-shape events like bulk backup uploads, to maximise quality of service for burst events like your 500MB upload.

tl;dr: it’s fucking dogshit. Use a proper cloud backup service.

Did you get anywhere with this? Sometimes I find that driver issues with audio devices can be solved by plugging it into a different USB port, which can trigger the driver to get re-installed properly.

Does anyone have any use for one of these?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B074T9Y6G2?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Half of it is brand new as I replaced it with a double monitor mount but it's the same brand so most of it is the same hardware so I just used the stuff I needed rather than all of it.

It's a laptop and monitor mount. Worth about £40 but happy to give it away to anyone who wants it.

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Anyone ever replaced the micro sd card reader on a Switch? It's a push to eject one I think but it was brought to me showing an error saying the card had been ejected blah. I took it out, cleaned and checked card and it seemed ok but putting it back in and it felt sticky and didn't click into place. It sort of oozed back out. It still showed as reading but soon disconnected again. I've looked online and seems relatively straightforward - ifixit sell a kit for example. But just clarifying if that includes the push to eject mechanism or if the bit that actually reads the card is separate?

https://store.ifixit.co.uk/products/nintendo-switch-micro-sd-card-reader

That is just a microsd socket - clicky in and clicky out - on a little daughter card pcb, entirely electromechanical, the actual card reading is done elsewhere. It sounds like what you need if the card no longer clicks in and out properly on yours.

Thanks. Sounds about right. Mine currently feels like overusing a track pump. It goes in but with resistance and then just slides back out. Will give that a whirl.

OK. Riddle me this.

I have a permanent Plex server but I'd like to use it to provide Hot Links to forums. Instead of using web photo hosting for photo links, I'd like to use the server.

All Goggles just point me back to web-based hotlinking.

So the idea is to use the server and allow it to do the same as web versions (Flickr, Google Photos, Imgur) but the images are local.

Sounds like you need a Web domain, and then to modify the DNS record to point to your local server. You'll want to run a Web server application on the local server to send the streams to users making HTTP requests, typically Apache as it's free.

Sounds like you need a Web domain, and then to modify the DNS record to point to your local server.

A Web Domain you say? And then some Geekery about Domain Name Systems?

So.. What's a decent web hosting site that allows Hotlinks without hassle?

What's a decent web hosting site that allows Hotlinks without hassle?

Any of them will let you embed images in forum posts, e.g. this is on my Web server

but then that's not hosting on your local machine. This method is much easier than running a local server, all you have to do is upload the files to the server you're paying for.

What's a decent web hosting site

I've been on Ionos since the internet was all fields, you can host 100GB for £6+VAT/mo

Thanks but not what I'm looking for. I still remember SuperJanet when it was just a few fields.

not what I'm looking for

No, but much less work than what you're looking for. Oh, and if you want to serve files to the world from a machine in your house, you need to ensure that you have a static IP address for your internet connection. Most domestic connections have pretty static IP addresses these days, but it's only guaranteed with a business account for most ISPs

A very long time ago I used to do this. Then one day a photo I had uploaded went a little viral and everything ground to a halt. Quite disappointing.

Back in the day, there was dyndns, and a bunch of similar services which would allow you to link a domain name to a dynamic IP. You just needed to run a service on your local network to monitor for IP address changes and notify dyndns.

There was another service which would provide free DNS for your domain, in exchange for letting people use subdomains (under your domain) for free

DuckDNS is still going and worked fine for me (until recently when I moved to Community Fibre who use CGNAT and make a static IP much harder work).

Back in the day, there was dyndns, and a bunch of similar services which would allow you to link a domain name to a dynamic IP. You just needed to run a service on your local network to monitor for IP address changes and notify dyndns.

It still exists. I use the free tier of noip.com.

No need to run a separate service as my BT Broadband router integrates with a bunch of Dynamic DNS services (including noip.com obviously).

Personally I wouldn't try to host anything outwardly public on my home broadband connection. It would be all too easy for someone to denial-of-service your home connection which makes WFH or just relaxing at home impossible.

That's still possible!

To be direct, it doesn't sound like you have the fundamentals to consider running a public web server from your home. And generally people that do, would use a commercial host instead.

one day a photo I had uploaded went a little viral and everything ground to a halt. Quite disappointing

One day, a photo hosted on my server on my little brother's domain went viral, loads of US College jocks embedding it in their forum posts etc. I wasn't particularly bothered by the volume of traffic, but for the lols I put a redirect in the .htaccess so the image (a statue representing a college sports' emblem) would be served as it originally was on my brother's site, but if the referrer was any other domain they would get a tasteful piece of gay porn instead.

Just tried to turn on my PC and nothing. No lights inside, no fans whirring up. Working fine last night.

Power cable works on my old machine so it's not that. Have tried on a different socket too, nada.

Is it likely a power supply failure? It's only 3 years old.

Could also be a loose connection somewhere.

It's also worth checking (as I've done this myself), whether there's a hard power switch on the PSU near the socket, which could have been nudged by accident.

Try the paperclip test if you've checked all the connections and external switches.

https://www.corsair.com/uk/en/explorer/diy-builder/power-supply-units/how-to-test-a-psu-power-supply-unit/

Anyone make their own cables? I'd like some custom braided HDMI and SDI/BNC for video (plus other bits like timecode/power/audio etc).
There used to be a camera assistant I found on Instagram but he's stopped doing it. I'll likely need lots of cables over the next year so I wondered how much investment of time/equipment was needed?