Monthly Archives: July 2010

Review of the tab mix plus add-on for firefox

Computer Aid Posted on by

The Tab Mix Plus add-on for firefox is what I now use instead of the, now incompatible, tab kit.

Tab Mix Plus has so many features and options, that I decided to do some screen-shots to show how I like to configure it for the best browsing experience.

As a premise, I like to remove the tab close button (on the right of each tab), as I find it easier to close a tab by just double-clicking on the tab.

I also like to remove the “add a new tab” button, since I arrange tab mix plus to automatically open new tabs for just about anything except for plain clicks on links (if I want to open a normal link in a new tab, I right-click, then select “open link in new tab”)… So I don’t need an “add new tab” button.

Here is how I have setup the various options (tools -> addons -> extensions -> tab mix plus -> options).

The change here is: Force to open in new tab: links to other sites, and enable single window mode.

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There are a few changes here: open other tabs next to current one, untick “change opening order”. Then open tabs from: tick all 5 boxes.

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The only change I make here is to untick address bar, as I might want to open a few windows & dont want any to gain “focus”.

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I find it less annoying by unticking “warn me when closing multiple tabs”.

I also like: when closing tab, focus left tab.

I make no changes under the “tab merging” tab.

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I find it useful to increase the max number of closed tabs to remember to 40 or 50

And I like the predictability of ctrl-tab navigation by un-ticking ctrl-tab navigates tabs in the most recently used order.

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Here I untick “new tab button” and “all tabs button”, as well as change “when tabs don’t fit width” to “multi-row”.

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I make quite a few changes here. Click highlight current tab. Untick close tab button. Tab width 22 to 250. Tick “tab width fits to tab title” and “use bookmark name as tab title” (since I use short names in my bookmarks).

Also: click “customize styles” button, and for the current tab, I change the background colour to a light yellow.

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Here, the closed tabs button is effectively an “undo closed tab” button, and you just need to click on the customize button, and drag the closed tabs button to the right of the “home” icon on the toolbar.

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I make no changes to the mouse gestures tab (I don’t use mouse gestures).

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On the mouse clicking tab, I make the following changes (close tab by double-clicking on it, and open a new tab by double clicking on a blank section of the tab bar.

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I make no changes to the “menu” section.

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Although Tab Mix will usually prompt you after it is installed, I usually check that “use firefoxes built-in session restore feature” is ticked.

As you can see, there is a lot that can be customised, with Tab Mix Plus. But if you want to get the most out of your browsing with FireFox, then its worth installing and customising Tab Mix Plus.

Top Firefox add-ons (3.6 update)

Computer Aid Posted on by

Since my previous review of add-ons for Firefox 3.5x, the newer Firefox 3.6.x has made some add-ons unusable, and other add-ons have appeared on the scene.

So I have decided to update my list of top Firefox add-ons.

First, to get the add-ons, you need to start Firefox, then go: tools -> add-ons

From the add-on window (which I have resized to full screen height), click on the “get add-ons” button, then enter the add-on name in the “search all add-ons” box.

  • Tab Mix Plus  is an excellent replacement for “Tab Kit” (which is no longer compatible with FF3.6, and doesn’t seem to be updated any more). Tab Mix Plus has a huge set of configurable items, some of which replace a handful of other add-ons that I once used. I’ll be providing a review, and some configuration hints in a later post.
  • Adblock Plus abp blocks annoying advertising. Just remember that some websites rely on advertising to survive… so if you use Adblock Plus, you should feel a certain level of guilt… but not too much 🙂
  • Close Tab By Double Click. This add-on can be removed, as the same functionality is provided by “tab mix plus”.
  • Flashblock flashblock blocks flash objects, yet lets you re-enable the flash objects with just a click. Great for blocking ads that Adblock Plus cannot block. Also good for making a “busy” website look easier on the eyes.
  • Menu Editor. puzzle I’ve only used this to change the right-click on a link action to: popup a menu that has the option: “Open Link in New Tab” option at the top of the menu.
  • QuickDrag: puzzle when you highlight a few words on a page, then drag the words a few pixels away, a new tab opens with the search results on those works (ie no need to copy and paste them into google). If you highlight and drag a url (eg: computer-aid.com.au ), then that url is opened in a new tab.
  • Remove New Tab Button. This add-on can be removed, as the same functionality is provided by “tab mix plus”.
  • SearchStatus searchstatus will display some ranking information about each site you visit. Once installed, I “move” it to the menu bar (at the top of the window). By right-clicking on the “q” logo, I select “highlight nofollow links” so all nofollow links show up as pink. I also enable pagerank, alexa, compete, mozrank.
  • Split Browser splitbrowserworks well on widescreen monitors. You can view 2 websites side-by-side, and I often enable the “sychronously scroll” option when comparing 2 versions of the same website.
  • Tab History Menu . I find I don’t use this add-on much.
  • Tab Kit. This add-on can be removed, as the same functionality is provided by “tab mix plus”.
  • TabRenamizer. This add-on can be removed, as the same functionality is provided by “tab mix plus”
  • Undo Closed Tabs Button. This add-on can be removed, as the same functionality is provided by “tab mix plus”.

what is the Telstra T-Hub?

Computer Aid Posted on by

At first, it looks like a cross between an iphone and an ipad.

The device needs a bigpond broadband internet connection and a phone line.

You can use it to surf the net, and has many built in “apps” like:

  • make a phone call (surprise surprise).
  • web browser
  • online yellow pages & white pages.
  • youtube.
  • weather.
  • news.
  • facebook.
  • sms.
  • calendar.
  • internet radio (but limited in some ways).
  • video (can also play videos from an SD card and USB drive).
  • music player (again, also works with SD card and USB).
  • photo frame (also works with SD card and USB).
  • a few other built-in apps.

but:

  • you cannot customise the layout of existing apps.
  • you cannot get more apps.
  • you cannot use VOIP services like skype.
  • the on-screen keyboard could be better… you have to hit the “number” button to enter numbers… a problem if you are entering something that has text and numbers (like a WiFi password).
  • The battery life if very limited (I’ve heard reports of between 15 min – 1 hour). I would expect this device to have at least 2 hours for something like this… particularly if you want to use it as a phone!
  • the internet radio is limited to telstras selection of radio stations.
  • you cannot make video calls as it has no webcam (you should get a netbook with a webcam to do this)
  • the price is $299. I think that for an extra $100, you are better off with a netbook laptop.

All up, Id say the t-hub is interesting, but it has many limitations in its current form.

For me, the biggest limitations are:

  • battery life.
  • you cannot expand its functionality in the same way as the iphone & ipad, etc.
  • high price (particularly given its lack of application expandability).

To make the t-hub a real success, I’d say a price of $29 is appropriate, given its current capabilities.

So why are Telstra pushing the t-hub?

Most people agree that its an effort to stop people leaving the land-line service, by offering something, that telstra hopes, will get people back to using the old-fashioned land-line.

I think its going to be a dead duck.

Sure, some people will like it, but I doubt many people will go and install a land-line phone service, just to get a t-hub… particularly when it effectively forces you to use telstra services, and deliberately locks you out of competing services (like skype).

I think Telstra need to pull their heads out of the sand; see the writing on the wall, and need to decide to really beef up their mobile network as a full replacement for landlines.

alot toolbar problems

Computer Aid Posted on by

It seems to me that 3rd party browser toolbars cause more problems than they are worth.

For the vast majority of people, they appear mysteriously, and its assumed that you just have to live with these annoying, space-sapping invaders.

And it seems that every man and his dog, now have browser toolbars to “enhance” (more likely cripple) your browser.

Even Google have a toolbar (but at least its vaguely useful to a small number of people).

Some antivirus software have the ability to block your homepage from being changed. I think they should do something similar to block new toolbars from being installed.

Anyway, in my travels, I have found the alot toolbar to be the most problematic.

In one case, it was intermittently stopping URLs in emails from actually opening the page they were meant to.

Uninstalling alot fixed that problem.

At least most modern browsers now have the ability to easily disable toolbars.

Alureon.h rootkit not detected by malwarebytes, superantispyware, eset nod32

Computer Aid Posted on by

This computer was infected, and the owner managed to remove some infections by using his currently installed eset nod32 antivirus.

But since he was getting rundll errors, and wasn’t able to browse the internet, he called me to fix the problem.

So I go through my usual routine:

install malwarebytes, then update malwarebytes.

The malwarebytes update fails, so I go to my usual standby process:

boot ubcd4win

run SuperAntiSpyware, update SAS, then scan the computer drive, removing all nasties that are found.

The scan takes just over 1 hour, finds a few trojans and rootkits… the usual infection.

Once SAS is complete, the next step is to restart the PC from the main drive, update malwarebytes, then do a malwarebytes scan for any infection that SAS might have missed…

But Malwarebytes still won’t update… and SAS will not install (due to the infection blocking the install).

My usual response at this stage is to take the PC back to the office, so that I can scan the drive from a known safe system.

The malwarebytes scan of the infected drive reveals further infections.

A follow up scan with SAS, only finds some minor problem with some system restore files.

I’ve also got Antivir running in the background, and it doesn’t detect anything.

I put the drive back into its original PC, and when I start XP, it seems ok, except for some strange behaviour by internet explorer: some websites crash, and ie8 gives up on them once they crash twice in a row.

I try installing Firefox, but get similar symptoms…

I also try installing chrome, but it refuses to open any website… it just shows a blank page and a busy pointer.

I’m now wondering if the PC is still infected, or if some windows setting (altered by the infection) is causing this behaviour.

After trying all sorts of troubleshooting, I eventually decide to uninstall eset nod32 (in case it is somehow blocking internet browsing).

I install Microsoft Security Essentials (my latest favourite). The update fails at first… but a second attempt at an update seems to take a while, and at one stage, the progress bar restarts from the beginning without any warning… however, MSE does manage to get the latest updates (I suspect it has multiple ways of getting the latest signature updates… which was the biggest flaw of it predecessor (windows defender), and a quick scan reveals a previously undetected rootkit: alureon.h

MSE easily dispatches the rootkit, and all the browsers start behaving normally again.

Its been the first time that I have seen an infection that is able to avoid being detected by malwarebytes and SAS.

Up till now, I have been wondering about the effectiveness of MSE… and I can say I am truly impressed how effective it is.

Although Microsoft is not my favourite company, I find myself about to use MSE on most of my home PCs (as a replacement for antivir/windows defender or SAS).

I just wish Microsoft would fix the Windows 7 unfriendly user interface.

PS: about 1 week after my struggle with alureon.h (also known as TDSS) I noticed that SuperAntiSpyware was updated so that it could handle TDSS.

I guess this shows that most antimalware companies are fairly similar, and the biggest (and most difficult to measure) difference, is how quickly they react to reports of new malware.

Telstra frustration

Computer Aid Posted on by

Having separated from my wife, I decided it was about time I changed my Telstra telephone bill, so that it would be in my name (and not hers)… now there is a recipe for BIG problems!

For many weeks, Telstra would pass the buck:

If I called, they would say I’m not authorised to make changes on this account… she needs to call.

If she called, then Telstra would say I need to call to change ownership to my name…

Eventually, Telstra told us we both had to be on the line, in order to change ownership.

OK, we both sat down in front of the phone, called Telstra, only to be told they cannot change ownership over the phone… we both need to go into a Telstra Shop!

I figure: we can nail them on this… there is a limit on how many combinations of requests they can make before they are cornered,and then have to do what we ask…

Sure enough, we go into a Telstra Shop, and after a few “sure, we can do that” replies from the sales guy, they eventually admit that they cannot do it, and that we must call to fix things.

Fine. We will call from the Telstra Shop, so if they say “go to a Telstra Shop”, we can get them to talk directly to the shop guy.

So the sales guy dials 132200 for us (funny, I never used that number before…).

Nevertheless, we find ourselves talking to a lady that seems to know what to do…

She says that the line needs to be disconnected, and then reconnected in the new name…I’ll only be without a phone for about 1 hour.

Just to be sure, I also ask about my “duet” service (I have 2 phone numbers going to 1 physical line… the 2 numbers ring differently, so I know if its a personal, or a business call.

She then goes: “oh, that might be a problem… I didn’t realise that you had a duet line”

I’m thinking: she should be able to see that on my account details… I thought it would be obvious.

It turns out that Telstras new billing system doesn’t support duet lines, as they are phasing out the service (no doubt to make more money by forcing people to pay for 2 separate lines).

Anyway, after a lengthy discussion with her supervisor, she tells me it can be done via the “old” billing system, and that tomorrow (Friday) morning, it will be done. I get the reference numbers, and I eagerly await this change.

At midday, on Friday, I call Telstra, asking for a progress report, as I can receive business calls, but I cannot make calls, and I cannot receive personal calls.

I’m told “It should have been done by now…I’ll make a note on the system and schedule to be done by close of business today (Friday)”

Since nothing happened by the end of Friday (midnight!), I call again, first thing on Saturday morning…

At this stage, it gets a bit confusing, as I’m shuffled between 4 different departments.

I eventually end up talking to a rude and condescending guy… but I put up with him, as he actually seems to know whats happening and what needs to be done to get my phone fixed.

Apparently, the line disconnect and re-connect cannot be done via the “online system”… and someone actually has to perform the work at the exchange! Who would have thunk it!

Now we are into the weekend (a long weekend as well!), so I have to wait until Tuesday before I can call to say “it ain’t working”.

On Tuesday, Telstra log it as a line fault, and get a technician to fix it.

Now I’m wondering: the phone and internet were working perfectly…all I wanted was to change owner details…and now I’m dealing with “faults” that didn’t exist before.

Anyway, the technician calls me the next morning (Wednesday), and after 2 attempts, fixes my phone line…

So thats the end of it?

No!

Since I get my broadband internet via an ADSL service on my phone line, I find my internet stopped on Monday morning.

It seems that when a line is disconnected and then reconnected, then any ADSL “codes” on that line are cleared.

And since my internet is not with Telstra, then they don’t give a shit.

I have to ask my ISP (TPG) to have my broadband re-connected. TPG then need to request Telstra to place the TPG ADSL codes on my line.

I even tried to call Telstra, to try to speed up the process, but I hit a brick wall, as only an ISP can make that request.

In the end, I have to wait days for Telstra to take their time doing something that should only take minutes (some might say it should never have happened at all!).

I finally get my internet back on midday on the Monday after my internet was disconnected.

Normally, 1 week without internet isn’t a problem for me, but when I depend on it for many parts of my business, then it becomes difficult.

Grrr.

Windows 7 WiFi authentication requests username and password

Computer Aid Posted on by

I was setting up a new windows 7 laptop for a customer.

As I was setting up the WiFi connection, I noticed that the WiFi router was set to use WEP encryption.

I’ve lost count of the number of WiFi networks that have been setup by so-called IT experts, only to find that these experts are living in the past, believing that WEP is good security… what rubbish!

I quickly convince the customer that WPA-PSK is best.

I change the WiFi settings and a change to the SSID (the router say that it has applied the new settings, so I assume that it has done what it has said…

Back to windows 7, I go to the network settings, search for the new SSID (new WiFi name), and then connect to it…but…

I now get a windows security window… and its asking for Network Authentication… it wants a username and a password…

What?

WPA-PSK should only be asking for a password, not a username… and since WEP is similar, then it seems logical that something is wrong with windows7.

Well I fumble around for a bit, until I decide to try restarting the WiFi router…

Once the WiFi router restarts, I am now prompted for the usual WiFi password (no username!).

So, it seems that modem/router/WiFi manufacturers still have problems writing reliable firmware

Steps to Follow when Repairing Computer Errors

Computer Aid Posted on by

While computer errors can never cease to trouble you, you can definitely do something conclusive about them. Contrary to what people commonly believe, it is possible to deal with most of the common PC errors on your own, such as the 0x0000000a error that occurs due to a hardware malfunction; the msvcr71.dll download error, which is a usual DLL error that occurs when this particular file is missing or corrupt; and the sndvol32.exe download error that occurs due to some problems with the audio drivers.

We now suggest some methods that you can follow to ensure that your PC remains free from most of these errors:

  • Perform regular registry cleanups – If your registry is not functioning properly, it reflects in an overall decrease in system performance. It might lead to anything from application crashes to fatal system errors. This happens because the registry deteriorates over time, and the outdated entries for programs that no longer exist cause conflict with the present system settings, and can lead to frequent error messages and system crashes.In order to remedy this situation, you need to invest in a good, professional-quality registry cleaner, even if it costs you more initially. These tools are amazing and provide complete maintenance support. But make sure you download these programs only from a trusted source.
  • Driver update – Driver-related errors are known to occur due to the existence of obsolete drivers on the system. Yes, even though you might be surprised by this, the truth of the matter is that something as low-level as system drivers also need to be, and should be, updated.The advantages are twofold: first, the drivers will no more come into conflict, and the system will perform smoothly; and second, you will notice a significant increase in hardware performance.

    As incredible as it sounds, the same hardware can be made to perform far better and faster with the help of newer drivers. For this, you should look for a reliable third-party driver-update tool, which will automate the whole process for you.

  • Defragment the hard disk – Your hard drive can be compared to a beehive, with certain cells filled with information and others not. For better performance, we ideally want all the information cells to be contiguously located. This process is termed defragmentation, and can be easily performed by running the standard Windows Disk Defragmenter utility. It might even help you save a bit of disk space as a part of regular housekeeping.The best part is that you need not do anything except click the mouse a few times. Once the process is complete, you will find your system responding faster, as it has to spend less ‘effort’ trying to locate where all the information bits lie.

Solving common PC errors is not only easy once you have the right tools, the resulting knowledge and insight can be intellectually rewarding as well. We encourage you to go ahead and try the steps listed here, and see the improvements for yourself.

windows 7 memory diagnostics tool works better than memtest86+

Computer Aid Posted on by

I had an incredible amount of problems with a new PC that I sold to a customer.

The PC used an intel DG41RQ motherboard, 4Gb RAM, and I installed Windows 7 64-bit.

Windows 7 installed without any problems, but while testing the PC, I would sometimes get an application error (eg internet explorer has stopped working, etc etc)… but it would be very infrequent, and after the error, the application would seem to just keep going as if nothing had happened.

So I quickly forgot it. But once the customer got it, she would often get error with thunderbird email (stopped working)… but worse than that, sometimes the PC would spontaneously restart, wouldn’t shut down, and sometimes would go into the “repair windows 7” screen… All very worrying for someone who purchased a brand new PC,and doesn’t know much about computers.

This would also not be good for my good reputation, unless I can fix the problem quickly.

I go back and run memtest86+ (just until it completes the block copy test), and it finds no problems.

Next, I update the BIOS. In the past, bios problems have often caused problems with new PCs.

After that I leave, asking the customer to keep an eye on things, and to let me know if the problem is still there.

A few days later, I’m told there are more problems.

I go out again, and I take a look at the windows event log.

I see it has a lot of weird errors. Some of the most severe are:

  • MSE oobe stopped: 0xc000000d
  • driver detected a controller error on deviceharddisk2dr2
  • Circular Kernel Context Logger failed to start with the following error: 0xC0000035
  • bad pool caller (this was a blue screen of death!)

During all this I found a program called bluescreenview was great at analysing what past BSODs meant.

I downloaded, installed, and ran, seatools, as I had read some reports that the seagate st31500341as could sometimes be problematic.

I managed to run the short generic test, the short DST test, the long DST test, but the long generic test locked up about half way through…

At this stage, I took the PC back to the office for some longer-term tests.

I ran memtest86+ overnight (ie several passes), but no problems were reported.

I then tried the seatools long generic test, and I had to try twice, before it managed to complete its test successfully.

And now I’m stumped.

What could be causing all these windows 7 errors?

I also noticed some SQM client errors in the event log, which led me to disabling the “customer experience improvement program”… but that didn’t help either.

Other errors led me to disabling (it can’t be removed) .net 3.5

I then decided to try the windows repair facility (you get to it by pressing F8 while the PC is starting, then select “repair your computer”

I then noticed an option to perform a “windows memory diagnostic”.

I thought: at this stage, it can’t hurt.

The diagnostic forces the PC to restart into the stand-alone diagnostic tool.

Once the tool was running, I found it didn’t detect any memory errors (after a few passes).

However, I did notice I could press F1 to configure the memory diagnostic tool.

Within the configuration area, I selected the “extended test”, set the pass count to 0, then pressed F10 to restart the testing.

After many hours of testing, I found the tool displayed a status of:

hardware problems were detected

At last! Now I’m sure there is a hardware problem.

I send the PC back to the supplier (I didn’t want to waste any more time trying to pinpoint a possible motherboard or CPU fault).

After a few days, (and some pointers from myself), the supplier eventually found a RAM fault. They replaced the RAM, and the problem went away.

Once I got the system back, I ran my own test to confirm that everything was, indeed, OK… then I returned the PC to a very relieved customer.

In the end, I was quite surprised that the (extended) memory test that is built into windows 7,is actually better that memtest86+