Showing posts with label computer support. Show all posts
Showing posts with label computer support. Show all posts

Monday, 25 January 2016

Case Study – Office Move

Empty Cabinet

Over the otherwise quiet Christmas period, we completed an office move for a design company, from their offices in Brixton to new offices in Clapham.

Office moves are a great oppurtunity to make changes to the way a network is setup – almost starting from a blank slate at the new offices.

The new offices were to be completely refurbished, save for data cabling.
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Monday, 21 July 2014

Adding phpShield to Linux Hosting

SSH into the server
Run:
​​/usr/local/bin/php-config --extension-dir
The result shows the PHP extension directory
/usr/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20100525

​Upload the latest version of ixed.5.4.lin to this directory using WinSCP or similar file transfer tool
Find the location of php.ini​
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Thursday, 26 June 2014

Join a wireless network before login

Export the existing wifi setup

​netsh wlan export profile %SSIDName% folder=c:\temp
XML files of the existing connections will be exported to c:\temp. Find the one you want all users to access. You need to modify the to false and enter the wireless key.

You will end up with something like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<WLANProfile xmlns="http://www.microsoft.com/networking/WLAN/profile/v1">
<name>Best Network</name>
<SSIDConfig>
<SSID>
<hex>42657374204E6574776F726B</hex>
<name>Best Network</name>
</SSID>
</SSIDConfig>
<connectionType>ESS</connectionType>
<connectionMode>auto</connectionMode>
<MSM>
<security>
<authEncryption>
<authentication>WPA2PSK</authentication>


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How to reset a network card in Windows

Open Control Panel
Click Hardware and Sound
Click Device Manager

In Network Adapters, find the LAN card you want to reset – this is often something like:
  • Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller
  • Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Controller
  • Intel PRO/1000MT Network Adapter
Right click on the adapter and click Uninstall
You will be warned that this will remove the device from the system – ensure that ‘Delete the driver software’ is *not* ticked if this is shown

Note: Clicking OK will disconnect your remote access session if you are connected!

Click OK
The icon will disappear, and the network adapter will be disabled
At the top of the device manager list, the PC name is displayed
Right click this PC name and select Scan for hardware changes

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Has your router been cracked wide open?

linksys router smashed
We have had a number of customers report recently that their internet browsers have been hijacked. Quite simply, this means that when they try to browse to a website, such as google.com they are redirected somewhere else.
These websites that are displayed often ask for Adobe Flash player to be updated, or inform you that a virus scan needs to be completed on the computer.
These sites are not genuine. In fact, the reason that the pages are shown is because the settings on the internet router have been changed by a 3rd party.
More information about this security vulnerability is available here: http://www.isssource.com/routers-hacked-via-email/
This of course is extremely worrying, as it means an outsider has successfully accessed the computer network, and may in future try to infect connected computers with viruses, or otherwise attempt to illegally access data.
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How Cloud Storage Could Help Your Small Business

Cloud Storage is the term used to describe using an online facility to store your information. These are usually operated by a third party company using data centres and there are a number of different operators providing it such as Dropbox, Skydrive, My Secure Backup, and Google Drive.
Cloud storage is an increasingly popular concept, and many small businesses are embracing it to help them. But how can cloud storage help a small business?
One popular use of cloud storage is to store your important documents such as databases, spread sheets or client projects. By doing this, it doesn’t matter if your computer breaks down, is stolen, or the file is otherwise lost; you will be able to successfully retrieve it from your cloud. You can usually set up an automatic synchronisation, so that when you save a document to a certain folder in your PC, the cloud storage facility you use will pick it up and automatically save it there too. Alternatively if you log onto your cloud storage remotely from a remote device or there web site you can upload/maintain documents and these will automatically synchronise/update on your home computer.
It is also a secure way of storing your information. You can change privacy settings of the documents so that it can only be accessed by yourself, people listed, or people who you pass the link to. This allows you to share it with people if you need it, or stash it away in a private folder if it isn’t something you want to share.
The cost of cloud storage can be considerably lower than other solutions, with many companies offering you a small amount of start-up storage for free, with higher amounts becoming available to you for a small fee, often on a monthly subscription basis.
So lets take a look at the four services I previously mentioned and see what they have to offer:
Dropbox 

Dropbox
Dropbox is a cloud storage facility which comes with an initial 2GB, which can be expanded to fit your requirements.
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Windows Server updates failing – Error 80072EFD

You may have found that your Windows Server won’t update via Windows Updates Services and the following error message is displayed on screen.

error2 

One issue which causes Windows Updates to fail with error 80072EFD is if the Windows Server is pointing at itself or another Server on the network to find the updates.

To check this click Start > Run > type “regedit”, and accept the UAC prompt to continue.

regedit 

Now navigate to HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate.

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Wednesday, 25 June 2014

Windows XP Recovery Console – KB310994 download

To manually install the Windows Recovery Console, you have to have the necessary updates. It seems Microsoft have removed the link to the recovery console that used to be linked to from here.

This makes running tools like ComboFix for example, quite difficult.

I’ve sourced the files (at least for SP2 and up) they are mirrored here:

windowsxp-kb310994-sp2-home-bootdisk-enu.exe – For Windows XP Home SP2 and newer.
windowsxp-kb310994-sp2-pro-bootdisk-enu.exe – For Windows XP Professional SP2 and newer.
To install for combofix use, you can download the file to your PC and drag and drop onto the combofix.exe file, as detailed here.

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Tuesday, 13 May 2014

Office365 – Distribution list blank return path

When you are using Office365, you may find that external email addresses in a distrbution list do not recieve mails sent to the distribution list email address.

Many spam filters will block emails with a blank or empty return path, but Office365 sets this blank as default, to prevent email bounce loops.
This is normal behaviour – a large distribution list shouldn’t distribute a bounce/DSN report to the entire membership.
For a single membership list for use with Zendesk, Help Scout or other similar mailbox monitoring applications, it may be necessary. - See more...

Internet Explorer and HMRC – this file could not be downloaded

If you are unable to download P60, CT100 or VAT forms from the HMRC website, you may need to check that Adobe Reader is working correctly. Often, an issue with the installation will mean the PDF file from the HMRC site will not open automatically. The error message will then appear – “this file could not be downloaded”. Here is how to fix the problem: In Internet Explorer, go to Tools (or the small cog icon) then click Internet Options Select the Advanced tab Check the Do not save encrypted pages to disk option is ticked in the security section Click OK - See more...

Monday, 14 April 2014

Windows XP Recovery Console – KB310994 download

Windows XP Recovery Console – KB310994 download

To manually install the Windows Recovery Console, you have to have the necessary updates. It seems Microsoft have removed the link to the recovery console that used to be linked to from here.

This makes running tools like ComboFix for example, quite difficult.
I’ve sourced the files (at least for SP2 and up) they are mirrored here: windowsxp-kb310994-sp2-home-bootdisk-enu.exe – For Windows XP Home SP2 and newer. windowsxp-kb310994-sp2-pro-bootdisk-enu.exe – For Windows XP Professional SP2 and newer. - See more...

Office 365 – Set the default domain

When you first setup Office365, Microsoft provides you with a default domain – usually companyname.onmicrosoft.com – for example, the Jaytag domain is jaytag.onmicrosoft.com.


This can cause a small headache – as it’s not obvious when you have added your companies domain where to set this as default – so when you add new users, the primary email address will be emailaddress@companyname.onmicrosoft.com.

To set the default domain to the domain you have added, login to Office365 and click into the adminin - See more...

Turnpike Six v6.07 entire.exe download

Since Demon internet discontinued support for Turnpike, it has been impossible to source a copy of the software – especially since the Demon FTP site has also gone the way of the Dodo.

However, we have sourced a copy of the installer for Turnpike Six v6.07 it is downloadable here:
http://www.jaytag.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/entire.exe
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Updating WordPress with 1&1 hosting

Updating WordPress with 1&1 hosting 

Logo for 1&1

WordPress plays nicely with most web hosts, although 1&1 are a little different. If you try to update a freshly installed copy of WordPress on 1&1 hosting without making this change, some functions (mainly the automatic update processes) will not complete successfully. The key is to edit the .htaccess file in the WordPress installation directory: FTP to your WordPress installation directory Download the .htaccess file Edit the file, adding the following line: AddType x-mapp-php5 .php Upload the file to the server, overwriting the old .htaccess file - See more...

Wednesday, 12 March 2014

Scheduled Tasks – Running Tasks Without A Password in Windows XP

 

If you try to run a scheduled task in Windows XP, it will balk if you don’t enter a password (or if your main account has no password, it won’t let you proceed). There are two potential fixes: Run the task as the administrator (i.e. your-machine-name\administrator) You can then enter the administrators password. You may need to set this in Computer Management first: Right click My Computer Click Manage In the right hand window, click into Users and Groups Right click the Administrator account, and click Change Password Enter a password of your choice. You can then run the task as the system administrator. - See more... 

Sporttracks v2.1

 


Sporttracks is an excellent piece of software if you like to keep a record of your performance, training or fitness over time. Version 3 of the software was released back in September 2010, and it’s very, very good. However, it does cost $35 after a 30 day trial. I’ve been happily using Sporttracks v2 for some time (although the mapping is now quite flaky…). I had to reinstall it recently, and found it hard to find. - See more...

Wednesday, 19 February 2014

Sporttracks v2 – Map problem fixed

Sporttracks v2 – Map problem fixed 

With Sporttracks v2, there is an issue that the Terraserver map plugin no longer functions correctly. Maps cannot be zoomed, and over time, none of the routemaps appear to display at all. Thankfully, there is a user created plugin called Apply Routes. Apply Routes provides a number of extensions to the SportTracks functionality: 

Windows Virtual PC – IE User

Windows Virtual PC – IE User 

When you start Windows XP from the Windows Virtual PC software, you may be asked for the password to login for the first time.
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Reading Mac OS X Drives from Microsoft Windows


Reading Mac OS X Drives from Microsoft Windows

hero_bootcamp

If you use Boot camp to run Microsoft Windows and Apple OSX on your Mac, you may have discovered that you cannot easily share files between the two systems. There is a technical reason for that – Mac OS X can read and write drives formatted using FAT and FAT32 (like USB thumb drives) and it can read (but not write) drives formatted using NTFS (most Windows hard drives) 

How a laptop DC socket/jack is repaired

How a laptop DC socket/jack is repaired



It shows the exact same process that we go through when replacing a DC (power) socket on a customer’s laptop. As you can see, it’s quite a lengthy process, that involves the removal of the laptop’s motherboard. We normally can carry out work like this for around £40, depending on the price of the socket itself.
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