Monthly Archives: August 2011

Control Internet Access: help your kids focus on their homework and your employees focus on their job

Computer Aid Posted on by

Computer Aid has now released another great software utility:

Control Internet Access

CIA is a tool for restricting and monitoring internet access on a computer.

Developed by Mike Hansell, it was designed to help parents keep their children focussed on their homework, by restricting internet activities that can cause hours of distraction (eg youtube, various messenger applications like MSN, Facebook, Twitter, as well as websites that contain various taboo/blacklist words (like poker, gambling, etc… the list can be easily altered).

CIA was mainly designed to be as simple to use as possible. You don’t have to be a geek to use it.

Probably the most difficult part of setting up CIA, is picking a password that others cannot guess.

After that, you setup a weekly schedule, by simply pointing and clicking at a visual timetable.

Each 15 minute block, can be configured for:

  • No restriction
  • Homework (restrict time wasting activities including YouTube)
  • Homework (restrict time wasting activities excluding YouTube)
  • High restriction (No web browsing, chatting or messaging)
  • Shutdown PC (PC cannot be used at all)
  • Monitor Only (take regular screen snapshots)

If a parent needs temporary access to the PC while a CIA restriction is in place, then just clicking on the taskbar icon will let you enter your password, and then you can use the PC normally.

Of course, CIA can also be used for the office, where employees can waste many productive hours on the internet. CIA can help reduce these productivity losses.

And don’t forget the advantage of restricting access to sites that could infect a computer. CIA can help increase the effectiveness of your antivirus software.

Download the 10 day trial of CIA, you’ll find that its different from most other parental control software currently available.

problems with firefox rapid release development

Computer Aid Posted on by

I’m starting to get annoyed with the firefox rapid release development cycle.

I’ve known about it for a few months now, and when I first heard about it, it seemed like a good idea.

But then, as I’ve gone through version 4, then 5, and now v6.0, I’m finding more and more add-ons are breaking…

Back when I evaluated all the major browsers, looking for one that I would adopt as my main browser, the main reason I chose firefox was that it had a large number of add-ons, which allowed me to do things that no other browser (including firefox), could do out of the box.

Now, about half of my plugins are disabled, as they are incompatible, and firefox is becoming increasingly annoying to use… it feels like useful aspects are “falling off”.

The version numbering means that firefox no longer needs to support older version… so more effort can go into future development.

Thats great in theory, and users probably don’t care about having firefox V26.0 in 5 years time, but they do care about usability and stability.

For me, firefox is losing useability, and if it gets any worse, I’ll need to have another look around, and see what I can switch to.

The last time I looked, I remember:

  • Chrome didn’t have all the functionality I wanted (and virtually no plugins to add that functionality).
  • IE lost a lot of the configurability that I wanted (I think its a lot better now)
  • Opera had some compatibility issues.
  • Maxthon and various others had a whole range of issues.

I even tried firefox on my android phone for a while, but eventually decided that the speed of the built-in android browser overshadowed any benefit of using firefox sync, and the nicer firefox UI.

Where is view source gone in Firefox 6 ?

Computer Aid Posted on by

I recently upgraded to Firefox 6

And soon afterwards, I was wanting to look at the HTML source for a web page, and I tried to do what I normally do:

view -> page source

But its not there anymore!

A quick search of the menus didn’t find it, so I initially gave up & used internet explorer.

About a day later I decided: Right! It has to be somewhere!

I then found 3 different ways of viewing the page source code:

  • right-click on a “empty” part of the page, and then select: view page source. Its quick, but doesn’t work of some parts of a web page.
  • Ctrl U (like the previous technique: its quick, but doesn’t work if you have the cursor in a text input field)
  • tools -> web developer -> page source

I still like the old view -> source

Maybe in firefox 7? or in firefox 96.5? 🙂

Problems buying a used PC

Computer Aid Posted on by

A friend purchased a used PC from an Auction website.

It had some problems, and after I had it sorted, he asked me for a written report.

This is what I sent him.

—————————————————————–

When I first started the PC, it “froze” at the BIOS screen and it had a badly squealing case fan so I removed and lubricated it.

Then I investigated the freezing problem.

It responded to the TAB key which allowed it to display the POST screen, but would not respond to the DEL key to get into setup.

I checked a number of things but it wasn’t until I removed the modem card, that it started Windows… so the modem was faulty.

I tried to plug in my toolkit USB drive but it refused to recognise the drive.

I looked at device manager and it was totally empty (the first time I have ever seen this) so I started SERVICES.MSC and found more 90% of entries were set to disabled

There was no COA sticker, so I then booted of a toolkit CD to try and recover the Product Key but it was not available

I suspect this copy of Windows has been hacked so it could be installed on multiple PC’s but this was extremely poorly done, rendering Windows all but unusable.

Fortunately I had a copy of windows and a COA from a computer that had failed and been withdrawn from service.

I loaded this copy of Windows XP, updated it to SP3, found the required drivers from the manufacturers website and it is all going 100%

If the seller was not able to provide an authentic COA and install a legitimate copy of windows, why didn’t he sell it as a “no operating system installed”.

Crazy and quite illegal.

Reset settings for Brother HL-4040CN for more toner life

Computer Aid Posted on by

I have a brother HL-4040CN colour laser printer, and it just started saying that ALL 3 colour toner cartridges had run out (and would refuse to print)

Now, I know I print more yellow than any other colour, so telling me that all 3 need to be replaced it just a lie!

I find out that the cartridges that I use are compatible with the following numbers: TN-115, TN-135, TN-155, TN-175

I had a look at the cartridges, and on the side, is a small circular “window” of clear plastic, where I assume the printer shines a light, to see if it gets to the other side (and then guess how much longer the cartridge will last before it actually runs out.

Obviously their guess is wrong (and I suspect its deliberately wrong… for financial reasons… it means Brother gets to sell more toner).

This is particularly annoying, when I see the clear window is half way between the top and the bottom of the cartridge.

So after a bit of searching, I find a way to trick the printer into using all the toner:

  1. Place a small piece of dark electrical tape over the clear window. Don’t use anything clear or shiny, as the printer might receive a “false empty” signal. I just did it to all 4 cartridges… even the black one that still had plenty of toner.
  2. With the front cover still open, press and hold the “cancel” button.
  3. while holding the cancel button, press the reprint button.
  4. You should now see  Reset Parts Life menu in the LCD screen.
  5. Use the up/down arrow to select the cartridge life you want as follow:
  6. B.TNR-S = Black standard toner
  7. B.TNR.H = Black high-yeild toner
  8. C.TNR-S = Cyan standard toner
  9. C.TNR.H = Cyan high-yeild toner
  10. M.TNR-S = Magenta standard toner
  11. M.TNR.H = Magenta high-yeild toner
  12. Y.TNR-S = Yellow standard toner
  13. Y.TNR.H = Yellow high-yeild toner

So I reset all colours to high-yeild, and now I can use the printer until all the toner is truly finished.

I close the front cover, and I can now print again.

Error 10107: a system call that should never fail has failed

Computer Aid Posted on by

I was asked to look at fixing a very slow vista laptop (and the internet wasn’t working either).

It took about 10 minutes to start, and everything seemed very slow.

task manager showed that it was using 800Mb out of 1000Mb, so that accounts for part of the slowdown.

A look into the processes, showed that nothing was monopolising the CPU, and the disk drive wasn’t busy either.

The obvious first step was to install MalwareBytes, but It gave a few errors and wouldn’t install.

OK, its looking more likely that there is an infection at work here.

I start in safe mode (with networking), and manage to install and (but not update) malwarebytes… hmmm, nasty.

I decide to scan with the slightly outdated malwarebytes, and it finds a few virus and spyware “leftovers” that were skipped by avast.

But that still doesn’t account for the slowness and the lack of internet.

Next, I start the PC “normally”, and take a look at the windows services.

The first thing that grabs my eye, is that the DNS service is not running.

Since DNS is a very important part of using the internet, it shouldn’t be stopped… so I try to start it, and I get the following error:

Error 10107: a system call that should never fail has failed.

So after I stop laughing, I get off the floor, and decide to look at the event log, and see what kind of error messages the systems has been generating.

But starting the event viewer gives another error:

Error 1747: the authentication service is unknown.

Now this is getting really strange.

I take a look through the list of services, only to find that the event log service is not listed in the services list!

At this point, I decide to scan the net for a solution… and I find a remarkably simple solution:

start an administrator command prompt (start -> search for cmd -> right-click -> “run as administrator”

once the command prompt (black box) starts, type:

netsh winsock reset

then reboot the PC.

Amazingly, the PC is now completely back to normal.

ADSL filters and cordless phones

Computer Aid Posted on by

I had a phone call from a widowed friend to say her Internet was down. She had spent about 2 hours on the phone to her ISP (Clear) and all they could suggest was that her Modem (a Dynalink RTA1320) was faulty

I called yesterday and and found the Modem power LED was steady and green, the Ethernet and DSL lights were on but the PPP light would flash 5 or 6 times, then go out and repeat 10 seconds or so later

I was able to Login and retrieve the settings and then hooked up another RTA1320 that I had brought with me.

Exactly the same result… Hmmmmm… so not modem

I then hooked up a S/H D-Link DSL502T that I had also brought with me and after initialising, it was OK and going

What the Hell!!

I reconnected the Dynalink and still the same problem.

Next I unlugged the other 3 phones on the network. 1 x Panasonic Cordless and 2 x Analogue

After 20 secs or so the Modem fully initialised so we had an external fault somewhere.

I reconnected the 2 Analogue Phones (and their filters of course) and everything still worked 100%

So I plugged in the cordless and the fault returned.

A bit of head scratching, then as a test I swapped the filter on the Cordless (a D-Link filter) for one on the nearest Analogue phone (a Dynalink Filter) and the modem was rock solid.

I tried the other 2 modems again and they were both operating 100%

I left it like that, but I suspect that perhaps something in the Cordless Phone did not like the D-Link filter

Spurious RF perhaps?

I have no idea, but it works and I am happy with that.

fake AV and deleting temp folder

Computer Aid Posted on by

As many of you have noticed, there has been a big jump in the number of fake antivirus infections lately.

Some have a nasty habit of hiding files (particularly my documents, pictures, music, etc).

But unhide.exe (from bleepingcomputer.com) easily fixes that.

But there is another one that makes this that little big more dangerous:

It moves the desktop, and start menu to subdirectories within the windows TEMP folder… its amazing how many people will use their desktop as a form of “My Documents”!

Most techs will try to fix things by booting a CD/USB image of UBCD4WIN or a linux equivalent, and it doesn’t take long, before the temp folders are emptied in order to make a scan run a bit faster (fewer files to scan).

Once that happens, it can be difficult to remember which start menu items to recreate… Unless you find you can do a system restore!

So now, you can’t just delete the temp folders of an infected PC anymore, at least not without first taking a good peek at whats in there.