Know a website?

[Dtere]

Anyone know of a website i can go to, to see if i have all my drivers properly updated/updated? Then a website with all driver updates on it?

Are bios updates really neccessary? I tried updating mine the other week and i ran into errors trying to download/install it.

I need some stuff to optimize my comp as good as possible, i'm a speed freak.

 

[Dtere]

bump

 

[NoNameRequired]

Don't update your BIOS unless you need to. If your computer works fine, leave it.

I don't know of a web site which would post all the latest drivers for your computer hardware. That is something you must do yourself. Just remember, latest is not always best.

 

[Logical_1]

Are there any readers skilled enough with ActiveX or Java that could build such a site and link it to a database backend that would be updated with the newest driver for various devices? How about if we were to get some vendor support to create a site that a user could go to that would detect the devices in their computer (we'll start with Windows O/S's first since they are easiest). The site would grab the PCI ID of the various devices in the machine and compare that against a list of ID's that manufacturers have submitted drivers for and then the site would prompt the user to download the current drivers and one or two earlier revisions (and install if this can be scripted properly). Anyone up for trying to tackle such a service? Does anyone think such an idea could be profitable to have a compiled list of drivers that someone could go to that would allow them to update all drivers on their computers in one place? Say charge the user a small fee for providing the service so that it would be able to pay for bandwidth to mirror the drivers from the manufacturers so that there aren't any issues with server availability for the subscribers when popular new drivers are released? Would anyone be willing to spend $5 or $10 per visit for such a service? Let me know and I'll see if I can find some more support for such an idea and possibly some funding. I have some initial storage space and my own T1 to start with.

Logical_1
[email protected]

(C) 2003 Logical One Consulting

 

[wakko]

Originally posted by Logical_1
Are there any readers skilled enough with ActiveX or Java that could build such a site and link it to a database backend that would be updated with the newest driver for various devices? How about if we were to get some vendor support to create a site that a user could go to that would detect the devices in their computer (we'll start with Windows O/S's first since they are easiest). The site would grab the PCI ID of the various devices in the machine and compare that against a list of ID's that manufacturers have submitted drivers for and then the site would prompt the user to download the current drivers and one or two earlier revisions (and install if this can be scripted properly). Anyone up for trying to tackle such a service? Does anyone think such an idea could be profitable to have a compiled list of drivers that someone could go to that would allow them to update all drivers on their computers in one place? Say charge the user a small fee for providing the service so that it would be able to pay for bandwidth to mirror the drivers from the manufacturers so that there aren't any issues with server availability for the subscribers when popular new drivers are released? Would anyone be willing to spend $5 or $10 per visit for such a service? Let me know and I'll see if I can find some more support for such an idea and possibly some funding. I have some initial storage space and my own T1 to start with.

Logical_1
[email protected]

(C) 2003 Logical One Consulting

Hm. That's a really great idea; however, a few things.

1. Advanced users would likely not use it. Then again, look around, how many people are truly out there that are advanced users that can find the version numbers of the drivers, manufacturers, and know where to go to get them? Not to mention uninstall the old drivers, and install the new drivers.

2. Wow, what a task that would be to design and implement. I am by no means a web developer in any way, but something tells me designing such a site, and putting it to use would take more time than one thinks. Even for the best ActiveX/Java developers out there. Not to mention, people would not be devoting their full attention to it; therefore, it might take even longer to implement and test.

3. As far as the fee goes, that is understandable to help with costs and bandwidth, etc. The question is, like you stated, would anyone be willing to pay. For me, no. For the average user, perhaps. It would probably take a lot of convincing to pay even $5 on a per visit basis.

I just had a slightly modified idea to yours, Logical_1. How about, instead of probing their systems and downloading the drivers, it compares the driver versions (e.g. sound, video, network, and motherboard (mainly VIA 4-in-1)) to the latest in a database. Then, it presents the end-user with a generated list of URL's that he/she can use to get the newest drivers that are available. It could state what they have installed, and then what the newest drivers are according to the manufacturer. These URL's could be kept in the database, and updated as needed as new drivers are released. It could even present, like you said, the newest, and a few versions back.

And it could also email that list to an email address if they wanted it for future reference, since they technically wouldn't be able to bookmark the page because it would be dynamically generated.

Cutting out some of the middle stuff about downloading the drivers might, if I am reading what you said correctly, cut down on the bandwidth usage. This way, the amount of data going back and fourth would be reduced. Perhaps with this method you might be able to waive the fee. Now that's something I could see a lot of people using.

(Wow, this reply turned out to be longer than I thought. And I know I missed some things, but I am simply typing off the top of my head before I go to bed.)

Let me know what you think.

 

[Logical_1]

An idea about posting links is already done with the site http://www.driverupdate.com but it stops at just having a database of listed manufacturers rather than mirroring drivers or providing a download source. Consider how the Windows Update site rolls the driver installs that are done through it into the install of the updates and you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about, except that this version would be much more comprehensive in scope than the just "WHQL" drivers that are found on that site since the user would have the option to install any of several versions of the drivers and use WHQL or non-WHQL drivers as they decided. Yes, this would be a rather daunting and time consuming task for a small group of people to put together.

Maybe we can find someone that can code in Visual Basic initially to build an applet that will simply grab the PCI Device ID's from the system registry and grab the device name associated with a given ID. That is nothing more than reading a few registry keys and saving to a text file. Then we need to be able to post the text file to a website or send it via email.

Next, we need someone that can write a script to parse the emails or web posts and pull out the Device ID's and descriptions of the devices and enter them into a database so that a list of hardware that is in use can be started and searched and indexed.

After this, we need some group of people to start either approaching the manufacturers of the varied equipment to opbtain drivers, or simply going to their sites and downloading drivers for the devices that exist and saving them to a central server for a good amount of space (I'll see what I can do about getting an appropriately fast server for this as well as building something with about 1TB of space initially).

From the downloaded drivers, we could parse the files (rather ZIP or EXE) and extract the Device ID's that each file updates and on which OS and enter this data into a separate database.

We would then need someone to write a script that would compare the list of ID's in the hardware database with the list of ID's in the drivers database.

The above is the initial programming and database building. After this is done, then we would need someone to script something that would pull the device ID's from the registry without needing the user to download anything more than a Java applet or ActiveX control. It would then need to send back just the list of Device ID's found in the computer to be processed by a script that searches our database. No information about the user or their devices is to be retained so that there are no privacy issues and we don't waste our time building a profile on someone who then changes computers the next time they visit.

As far as the fee, even $1 would probably be sufficient if we could find a way to take something like PayPal (not PayPal, but similar) that would allow small transactions like this and not charge us too much for it to be put onto a credit card. This fee is simply to offset server cost, bandwidth cost, etc and to provide for the future growth of the site. Given enough visitors (somebody wanna do a poll on the front page), this idea would easily generate the necessary cash for upgrades and bandwidth and allow for some to be set aside for the developers so that they are paid for their time later.

We would probably need about 10 different people to start with in the various roles listed above to get started. Is there anyone that would be willing to help with any of the above roles?

Logical_1
[email protected]

(C) 2003 Logical One Consulting

 

[wakko]

Originally posted by Logical_1
An idea about posting links is already done with the site http://www.driverupdate.com but it stops at just having a database of listed manufacturers rather than mirroring drivers or providing a download source.

(Quote shortened for length.)

Ah, I was unaware that a site like that already existed.

Yes, $1 would work, but anything more than $5 probably wouldn't.

Hey, if you can find the resources, go for it.

If you want someone to regression test it, give me a holler (wow, I really am from Texas, ain't I? ). I test software for a living, so I'd be more than happy to assist.

 

[Logical_1]

On a side note, Wakko, did you see where I am from? Austin is a 2 1/2 hour drive away from me.

Anyone willing to help make this idea a reality?

One other thing that I thought about is there may need to be some form of license agreement the user would have to say yes to in order to be able to download drivers supplied by the manufacturers as well as one for the site that essentially states that we are not responsible for, nor do we provide tech support for any of the listed drivers. The manufacturers typically have their own license agreements as well (I know Creative, nvidia, ATI, etc to name a few do this). We would have to coordinate this with the manufacturers to find some kind of amicable settlement.

Getting some help from some of the vendors may be helpful to build the database faster and provide hardware to run the server(s) on which would offset some of the cost.

Chile: If you're reading this, would you be interested in the job of talking to the manufacturers and taking care of PR for such a project?

Arta: Some scripting support maybe?

Others: Gathering Device ID's and help with the initial VB or VC++ (or anything) app that would run and pull Device ID's from the registry.

Thanks,
Logical_1
[email protected]

(c) 2003 Logical One Consulting

 

[wakko]

Originally posted by Logical_1
On a side note, Wakko, did you see where I am from? Austin is a 2 1/2 hour drive away from me.

*laugh*. Yep, I did notice. I was waiting for either me to finally comment, or you.

 

[Logical_1]

Every once in a while I'm out that way doing work (phone or network) and maybe we can meet up for lunch sometime.

Logical_1

 

[wakko]

Originally posted by Logical_1
Every once in a while I'm out that way doing work (phone or network) and maybe we can meet up for lunch sometime.

Logical_1

Hey cool.

I'll PM you my home email address so we can attempt to hook up.

 

[Dtere]

hey i live in montana, anyone wanna come up and have lunch with me?... lol, actually i may be going down to Texas w/ my girlfriend sometime this summer

 

[Chile]

I read this

sure, P.R. is not a problem.

Our site recieves regular visits from IBM and an aquaintance from my own boards works for NVidia. As it usually goes in business, especially in regards to corporate promotions, once one company joins up, the others don't like to be left behind.

I'm not sure what Arta is up to aside from school. Lke me, he's likely up to his eyeballs in assignments. My finals are this week.

When I'm done, I will be actively seeking employment. If I do obtain work, and the work does provide a little off time, I'll be sure to invest time on not only thehelper.net, but this project as well.

Chile