Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2013 July 7

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July 7

Purpose of transformer component in USB charger/adapter

I have this USB charger/adapter. To use it, you connect either the wall or car transformer to the desired output plug through an extendable cable. The wall transformer's output is given as "5V(DC symbol)400mA±5%", and the car transformer's output is "DC 5V±5% max: 500mA". My question is about the cable, which itself is attached to a small transformer. It's labelled "input: DC5.0V 500mA, output: DC5.5V 350mA MAX". What is the purpose this transformer? --118.174.206.134 (talk) 05:17, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

I guess some devices need a 5.5V input, for example some Panasonic phones take 5.5V. So you need a small transformer to step up from the 5V from USB to the 5.5.--Salix (talk): 16:16, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

Dhaka Lahan, East Champaran, Biahr

Dhaka Lahan is small and peaceful village of Dhaka constituency. It is situated one km west from Gandhi Chowk Dhaka,There are Two wards in this village ward no 19 and 20,the total Population of this village is around 4600 of civilian,if voter concerns in ward no 20 is 1334 and ward no 19 is 900 by 2013.

This is the computing reference desk - do you need help finding information related to a computer topic? If you need help editing Wikipedia, start with WP:HELP or Wikipedia:Tutorial/Editing. You might also consider asking for help at the talk pages of Bihar constituencies, or East Champaran district. Nimur (talk) 08:09, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

iPhone needs Apple car charger?

OK, I have a generic car cigarette lighter to USB adapter I got probably out of the bin next to the cashier at Walgreen Drugs (i.e., it's really generic), which works on my old LG dumbphone and on my new Samsung smartphone, but won't work when my friend's iPhone 5 is plugged in to it; it's not the iPhone cable, since that works with the wall charger. Is there some handshake official Apple car chargers need to do to the cable? The phone doesn't come up with one of those "not the right cable" messages like my old Motorola used to do (even when the cable worked), it just doesn't acknowledge the existence of the car power supply in any way. Gzuckier (talk) 07:13, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

iPhones do recognise (some?) Apple chargers, and charge faster though them. But I've also charged them with generic USB chargers, and regularly charge mine via a computer USB port. In my experience, car USB chargers often supply marginal or below spec voltage (and current), so not all devices accept them. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 08:16, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

The iPhone 5 will only work with chargers licensed by Apple. It looks for a signal telling it that the charger is Apple licensed (or manufactured). They don't want other people to profit from making components.Zzubnik (talk) 14:11, 10 July 2013 (UTC)

I seriously doubt that. You need a cable with the proprietary Lightning connector, but, at least according to e.g. this shop you can then connect it to an ordinary USB port or a USB wall charger. --Stephan Schulz (talk) 07:01, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

I think the cable itself needs to be licensed (and if I recall correctly there is some kind of chip inside it that does a handshake with the device) but the brick itself doesn't need to be licensed. Neo12345292 (talk) 09:01, 14 July 2013 (UTC)

Remote administration: different OSs

Can you remote administer a group of users using different OSs (Windowses, Linuxes and Macs) from just one computer (running whatever is more convenient, but preferably Linux)? Or is it only possible when the OSs match (Windows - Windows, and so on)? OsmanRF34 (talk) 10:39, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

Remote administration might be of help. It sounds like it would be a hassle, but I would say it is possible. 64.201.173.145 (talk) 18:22, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

No, it's not. Maybe with a virtual-machine running the other OSs, but then you'll have to buy a license for them, I suppose. I was just wondering if there is a kind of universal interface for that (this is a vague hope). OsmanRF34 (talk) 20:36, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

RDP is available for MAC but not properly supported. You can get remote control software, and X-windows or SSH with command line may be available for the three main platforms. For user management I don't know if active directory can be integrated with any of the other OSs. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 21:18, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

What are you trying to accomplish with this "remote administration"? You have a few different ways of going about all this, depending on your needs. If you just need to perform some tasks on remote computers and feel comfortable with the CLI, SSH is very good for this and works regardless of the OS. If you need a GUI or are trying to show a remote user how to do something on their workstation, VNC will accomplish this and is also multiplatform. In either case, if you are not on the same network as the remote machine, you will need to forward some ports on the remote router's firewall (edit - on second thought do not forward ports for VNC to the internet, it would be a gaping security hazard) or create a VPN tunnel.

Please give us more detailed information about what you are specifically trying to accomplish so we can better help you. -Amordea (talk) 21:47, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

It's for a small company, sometimes it's about admin tasks like configuring your wireless connection to a new printer, how to configure the email client, or how to solve some problems in MS-Excel. The Mac inclusion is not very important. A perfect solution would be were a less utterly lost guy, preferentially using Linux, solve those problems. OsmanRF34 (talk) 22:09, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

Sounds like you do need a GUI then. A simpler solution might be LogMeIn or TeamViewer (the latter is not free for commercial use unfortunately). Both are easy to set up and very effective, though I am uncertain if LogMeIn works on a non-Windows computer. TeamViewer does function on Linux via Wine. VNC is free and multiplatform on the other hand, but non-trivial to set up and manage.

SSVNC is a great VNC client for Linux which you can get through apt-get (if you're using Ubuntu). For a VNC server for Linux, I use X11VNC (also available through apt-get). TightVNC client/server is my preference for Windows. I don't know what VNC options exist for Mac but I'm sure there are some out there. There are even VNC clients for Android.

Note that if you choose to go with VNC, there is NO encryption in the VNC protocol, if that is any issue for you. If you need to manage a client over the internet, it would be strongly recommended to start a session through a VPN or SSH tunnel. -Amordea (talk) 01:35, 11 July 2013 (UTC)

Try using Chrome Remote Desktop, link is https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-remote-desktop/gbchcmhmhahfdphkhkmpfmihenigjmpp?hl=en. 68.115.195.222 (talk) 15:42, 12 July 2013 (UTC)

AC transofrmer markings

greetings everyone

When an AC transformer says on its label that its secondary winding is as follows 0.....15 white white i.e. two wires of white coloring are designated as ground (0) and 15volts. but because it is ac I take it doesn't really matter which of these wires is exactly at one point in time is 0v or 15v.. so can I connect them to my pcb where it says 0 volts and 15 volts terminals interchangeably ? right? THAnks!!

Warning: I'm no electrician, so someone please correct me if I'm wrong!! But, I don't see why not. --Yellow1996 (talk) 17:53, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

I think you are correct for this, the polarity does no matter if neither side is earthed. For higher voltages, you should check the isolation, as the windings should be well insulted from the mains winding, and preferably near the neutral end. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 10:53, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

Broadband Reports - user names & PW hacked

I tried to log into my account at Broadband Reports but it wouldn't take my user name and password. I told it to email me the way to reset the password, but the email address it had on file for me is nothing like my email address. Broadband Reports talks about user names and PWs being hacked in 2011. I may be a victim of that. I used that password only on that site. So someone can log in and see my broadband test results - big deal - is there any other way that could hurt me? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 23:26, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

The biggest concern when your account on a doesn't-matter-anyway site being hacked is if you used the same password on other sites. It's only pragmatic for a black hat, having obtained the password for Bubba73@broadbandreports.com to try to use it on Bubba73@gmail.com, Bubba73@yahoo.com. And maybe one of those is the registered password recovery address for DNS hosting, banking, etc. - something you've forgotten even exists. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 23:40, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

I checked and I didn't use that password anywhere else. Could they link my name to my URL or something? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 23:48, 7 July 2013 (UTC)

If you are positive you never used that password anywhere else, then you have nothing to worry about; other than the creation of a new account if you wish to continue using that site. --Yellow1996 (talk) 01:12, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

Yes, I have a long list of the usernames and passwords I use, and I searched it. I have created a new user account there. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 02:31, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

I trust that your "long list" is securely password protected. Dbfirs 16:04, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

No, it is not password protected. It is a file on my computer with a non-obvious name. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 16:42, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

You would be much better off using a password storage program like KeePass. Have it generate cryptographically hard passwords per account, and you only remember the one password which gets you into everything, but which never goes over the wire. -- Finlay McWalterჷTalk 18:22, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

Yes, I would. I started this list long ago, probably over 15 years ago. That was the way back then. Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 19:07, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

Is there anything built into Windows 8 or Firefox or an add-on to Firefox that does what KeyPass does? Bubba73 ^{You talkin' to me?} 22:51, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

LastPass Password Manager. --Yellow1996 (talk) 00:58, 9 July 2013 (UTC)

Resolved