↓
 

Computer Aid

Ph: 0402 133 866

Computer Aid
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Web Services
    • Websites
    • SEO
    • Hosting
    • Domain Names
    • Portfolio
Home→Categories Technical 1 2 3 … 76 77 >>

Category Archives: Technical

Post navigation

← Older posts

Optus emails disappear

Computer Aid Posted on 21 November, 2015 by Luigi Martin21 November, 2015

Optus-NO2I had a customer that was having some emails disappearing, or more accurately: never arriving.

As with most people, she was using an email program (Mozilla Thunderbird) to download email from her ISP account at Optus (an @optusnet.com.au email address).

The first obvious step was to check the thunderbird spam folder: nothing there.

Next: did she delete them accidentally? No, the Trash was clear.

She then mentioned that sometimes she get warnings about her mailbox being full.

So I figure: ah ha… optusnet shouldn’t get full… so maybe thunderbird is misconfigured… I check the pop3 settings, & I see thunderbird is set to delete emails from the server after 14 days… all quite standard.

So… I’d better check the Optus webmail & see whats going on there.

As soon as I login to Optus webmail, I can see a problem: about 1500 emails sitting in the optus spam folder.

Hold on… did I see that right?

Optus diverts emails to spam BEFORE they can get downloaded to Thunderbird?

I spend some time marking all the spam as “NOT spam”… & while I’m waiting (yes, the Optus webmail is not quick), I do some research:

Turns out Optus Implemented a “new” webmail system in early 2013… customers have no option of disabling the spam filter… none.

And it gets worse: Optus is not good at detecting spam, so occasionally legit emails will go to “webmail spam”… where an average customer will never see it unless they use webmail.

In this case, I noticed some Optus “your mailbox is full” emails in the spam folder!

OK, so someone at Optus is brain-dead, fine.

Maybe I can get around this by re-directing (forwarding) the emails to, say, a gmail account?

No: Optus do not allow mail forwarding.

What about abandoning optus email, & going with one of the free ones like gmail? No: customer has many people who have this address & will not change email address.

So I now have to setup a desktop “webmail login” icon for the customer, & tell her to login once per week, & flag spam emails as legit… she struggles to understand why, but I do the best I can.

In the end, she will probably have to move away from the optusnet email, even if its a gradual “weaning” process.

Looks like Optus have taken a leaf (or a few chapters) from the Telstra/Bigpond customer dis-service manual.

Posted in Advice, Technical

activation error 0xC004C003 (dont update bios after a windows 10 upgrade)

Computer Aid Posted on 1 September, 2015 by Luigi Martin16 August, 2015

windows-10-backdrop2I guess I’ve been lucky, as all Windows 10 upgrades I’ve done, have been uneventful.

But today was my unlucky day.

I upgraded a Windows 7 PC to windows 10, made sure it was fully activated, then proceeded to do some tweaks & some tuning (ie ccleaner, mydefrag, etc).

At some point, I decided I should do a BIOS update, as sometimes, PCs seem to have hardware errors, but the problems disappear after a BIOS upgrade.

I didn’t notice any problems at first, but after a while, task manager refused to show me all the details I expected to see…

Then running speedfan didn’t automatically pop up a UAC prompt… I had to right-click & run as administrator… weird.

In trying to resolve that issue, I then found I couldn’t run an elevated Administrator CMD prompt, even though I was administrator.

WTF is going on?

I find I still use Control Panel instead of the new Settings app… there just isn’t enough technical power in the Settings app… it needs some serious work before it can replace Control Panel.

Anyway, while looking through Control Panel, I notice Windows is no longer activated, & the displayed product key ends in 8HVX7.

The error code I see is: 0xC004C003

So I figure: I’ll just ring Microsoft & get them to re-activate it… after all, thats what would happen with windows 7 & 8.

Since it was an upgrade from Windows 7, I decide its probably easier to talk to a real human… BIG mistake.

After explaining the situation to the “Microsoft Employee”, I’m told “Our activation servers are very busy, and it can take a few days for windows 10 to activate”

Huh?

So I explain again: 10 was activated & then got de-activated… could it have been due to the BIOS upgrade?

And I’m told “No, nothing to do with a BIOS upgrade, trust us, it will be fine in a few days time”

Well, the last time Microsoft asked us to trust them… they released Windows 8.

So no, I’m not going to trust them, & I don’t believe a word this guy is saying… So I just say OK, then hang up.

I toy with the idea of calling again… maybe I’ll get someone competent this time? What are the chances of that? 😉

So a quick search online shows others with similar stories (who are fed similar BS from Microsoft).

So, the solution?

I don’t like it, but I re-installed windows 7, & then did the whole upgrade process again (making sure Windows 7 was fully updated before doing the Windows 10 upgrade).

Luckily, I have downloaded a windows 10 install ISO & made a Windows 10 boot USB, so I don’t have to wait for a 4GB download over my slow internet connection… no thanks to our pathetic Prime Minister: Tony Abbott…

After the Windows 10 update, it activated immediately, and stayed that way.

So my advice is: If you think you might need to update your BIOS, do it before updating to windows 10.

Posted in Technical | Tagged 0xC004C003, windows 10

windows 7 NTFS will corrupt windows 10 NTFS

Computer Aid Posted on 11 August, 2015 by Luigi Martin9 September, 2015

windows-10-backdrop2I’m hoping this is just an isolated problem.

I upgraded customer PC from 7 to 10 due to a HDD failure.

Luckily, I was able to backup data to my workshop PC (Windows 7).

So on the customer PC, I installed a new HDD, installed windows 7, activated & did most updates, then upgraded to windows 10

Since the HDD was new, I decided to then do a clean install of Windows 10, after which, it re-activated after skipping the registration key prompt… so far all normal.

To speed up restoring customer data, I typically remove the HDD from a new system (in this case its a Windows 10 PC), attach it to my workshop Windows 7 PC (using SATA), copy the customer data to the Windows 10 HDD, then re-insert the Win10 HDD into original PC…

But each time I tried it, data would disappear, or was only half was visible, or I would get boot errors & all sorts of corruption.

After re-installing Windows 7 & doing the win10 upgrade 3 separate times, I eventually decided that windows 7 just cannot handle the Windows 10 file system

So, after much frustration, I just copied the customer data from the workshop PC to an external USB drive, then copy the data to the Win10 system via the USB

Now I need to ask myself: how long will I wait before upgrading all my work PCs to windows 10?

Posted in Technical | Tagged ntfs, windows 10, windows 7

Should your browser remember website passwords?

Computer Aid Posted on 2 February, 2014 by Luigi Martin2 February, 2014

We have all fallen into this trap, even those of us who should know better

We let IE / firefox / chrome remember a website password, because you are so tired of always entering the same password, sometimes many times per day.

But this is a big problem, particularly if you get infected, or someone gets access to your PC.

By default, anyone who can access your computer (including viruses), can view and use your password to gain access to your accounts… In todays environment, it would be a disaster for most of us.

firefoxHowever, at least Firefox has a way of making the passwords much more secure: a master password.

 

Under tools -> options -> security, just tick the box “Use a master password”, and then enter a password you are sure you can remember.

After that, every time you start firefox, you will be asked for the password. No password, no remembered passwords.

This won’t guarantee that a virus or intruder won’t get your website passwords, but it does make it much more difficult.

Posted in Technical | Tagged Browser, firefox, remember passwords

Computer superstitions and false beliefs

Computer Aid Posted on 17 January, 2014 by Luigi Martin17 January, 2014

I encounter many people who try to fix their computer problems before they call me.

Quite often they tell me what they did to “fix” the problem, and many times, their remedy verges on superstitious actions, performed out of sheer ignorance.

Examples of computer repairs made out of false beliefs:

  • Internet is slow, so deleting Favorites/Bookmarks will speed up the internet
  • Related to the slow internet: switch off the modem will let it rest, and it will be faster after a few hours.
  • Computer is slow, so deleting desktop icons will speed it up
  • Related: deleting documents will make it faster (this is dangerous, as you might delete important data)
  • Computer takes a long time to start, so allowing it to “rest” overnight means the PC is faster in the morning
  • Hitting/tapping the screen / keyboard / Mouse to get the computer to work “faster”
  • Yelling at it (I don’t get this much… by the time I get to a computer, people have usually had time to calm down & their hope are high that I will fix things).
  • If double-clicking doesn’t start a program, then try again, and again. I admit I’m guilty of this one, although I kinda have a reason: I sometimes get problems with faulty mouse buttons, such that some clicks don’t actually register.
  • Backups: this is where people can cause many problems: I often hear: I once lost a whole stack of photos/documents on my old computer, so now I transfer them to an external USB drive… After I ask a few questions I usually discover that the photos / documents really are transferred to the external USB, with no local copy on the PC… sometimes just a hard bump of the external drive, and they will (once again) loose all their important data… scary!
  • There was a thunderstorm yesterday, and now my PC will not start: Many times, I find the problem has nothing to do with lightning (eg viruses, faulty RAM, broken power switch, etc)
Posted in Technical | Tagged computer, superstitions

cleanup the email buildup in cpanel

Computer Aid Posted on 3 December, 2013 by Luigi Martin3 December, 2013

Ive had this ongoing problem with emails on hosted domains that use linux cpanel.

I’ve had this issue for over 8 years, and across 3 different hosting companies, so it must be quite widespread, yet nobody seems to be interested in fixing it.

So what’s the problem?

While using a pop3 email account, the hosting server accumulates email files that get downloaded to the email client.

Even if the email client is configured to delete the emails from the server after download, the cpanel server still keeps these emails… indefinitely!

In the early days, I would routinely get warnings about my disk storage reaching maximum capacity (ie I was running out of space).

After some investigation, I found that emails were the culprit, and there was nothing in place to fix it, other than to login to the cpanel, and manually remove the large number of files.

I managed to create my own solution, using my unix knowledge:

I created a cron job, which would run daily, which would scan all the mail folders, and delete any files that were older than, say, 60 days.

So as long as I checked my mail at least once every 60 days, then my system wouldn’t delete any undelivered emails.

Since starting my own hosting company, I have found this technique very useful in preventing my own customers from having similar problems.

So exactly what do I do?

If you are familiar with cron and unix scripts, the command looks something like:

13 3 * * * find ~/mail -name "*.*.*.*.*" -type f -mtime +60 -exec rm '{}' ;

In simple terms, what this means is:

at 3:13 in the morning, every day, execute the command:

find ~/mail -name "*.*.*.*.*" -type f -mtime +60 -exec rm '{}' ;

And the command means: search the folders under the mail folder, and find a file that has 4 dots in the name (*.*.*.*.*)

the -type f makes sure it only finds files, and not folders, or other weird stuff.

the -mtime +60 means make sure the files have been modified over 60 days ago

the -exec rm ‘{}’ ; means use the rm command (ie delete) on each file found ( the ‘{}’ will substitute the file name), and the ; means this is the end of the -exec part on the command.

Try this at your own risk… this has the potential to delete your whole website, so be extra careful, and don’t just blindly copy/paste what I wrote.

I tested the command by using the ls command, instead of rm… that way I could see which files would get deleted, without deleting anything!

Besides the risk of not knowing what you’re doing, the only problem with this system, is that it doesn’t seem to work if you use IMAP eg it can happen if you use smartphones/ipads/tablets/IMAP email clients… particularly if you rely on the email programs “auto-detect” system, then you probably find that the cleanup just doesn’t work.

In this case, besides some careful customer education, the only option is to use an email redirection to something like gmail , so that you use the large gmail storage, rather than the more limited hosting storage.

Posted in Linux, Technical | Tagged buildup, cpanel, cron, email

brother wt100cl waste toner cartridge cannot be re-used

Computer Aid Posted on 4 November, 2013 by Luigi Martin4 November, 2013

I have one of these really cheap brother HL-4040CN colour printers.

It works quite well for me

One of my customers also has the same printer, and has had it about the same amount of time that I have.

However, she hardly uses her printer (I probably print out 10 times as much as she does).

So when she called me to look as her printer (she said it was refusing to print), I assumed it would be a simple problem.

But once I had a good look, I could see that it was complaining about the waste toner cartridge being full.

My first thought was: what exactly is a waste toner cartridge?

It seems that as toner powder is arranged on a page, a small quantity doesn’t stay on the page, and ends up in a waste container.

Once this container is full, it must be replaced before printing can continue.

But… why did the customer printer fill the waste toner box before mine (and months later, mine is still not full).

Anyway, I first attempted to empty the waste toner box, but after making quite a mess, the printer still refused to print.

So I get a new cartridge, and everything was back to normal.

I then had a careful look at the old waste cartridge, and after dismantling it (and removing even more waste toner powder!), I started to notice that some of the surfaces had a sticky residue.

Ah, now that might explain the early “failure”… The customer might have had a fire, or maybe burnt some oil while cooking, and some of that sticky “smoke” probably made it into the printer.

Anyway, I eventually cleaned the box quite thoroughly, and its now waiting to be used in my own printer, once my own waste toner cartridge fills up.

Posted in Technical | Tagged full, wt100cl

windows 7 won’t remember network password

Computer Aid Posted on 5 October, 2013 by Luigi Martin5 October, 2013

A common problem with Linux file-server networks, as well as small-scale home networks.

You try to logon to a remote network system, so that you can get access to a file/folder.

You get asked for your username & password.

You enter the details (if its another windows PC you are trying to access via file sharing (not homegroup), you enter the user / password of the remote Windows user).

You tick the box that say: “Remember my credentials”.

Everything then works well until you re-start the PC.

Then you find Windows didn’t remember your credentials, and you need to enter the username / password again!

And there is nothing obvious you can do to fix the problem.

Here is how to fix it:

On the computer that keeps forgetting:

Start -> Control Panel -> User Accounts -> Credential Manager ->If you see your login details at this point, they have probably been saved incorrectly, so click on the incorrect details, and it will expand, so that you can click “remove from vault”

cred1cred2

Now click on “Add a windows credential”

enter the remote computer / server name, the username, and the password, then OK.

Now restart the computer, and you can connect to the remote PC/server without the hassle of entering the details every time.

Posted in Technical | Tagged forget, network, password, windows 7

How to Add Disk Cleanup to the Context Menu

Computer Aid Posted on 23 September, 2013 by jjfiasson23 September, 2013

This is just a simple little tip which shows you how to add the Disk Cleanup application to the context menu, so that you may right-click on a drive and click “Disk Cleanup”.

Procedure

1. Click Start, type ‘regedit’ in the search box and press Enter.

Disk-cleanup-regedit

2. Expand the following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTDriveshell

3. Right click ‘shell’ and select ‘New – Key’ from the drop down list.

Disk-cleanup-new-key

4. Name the new key ‘Diskcleanup’.

disk-cleanup-new-key-name

5. Create another new key called ‘Command’ in the right hand pane of ‘diskcleanup’.

6. Double click on the (default) value in the right hand pane and enter in the following:

cleanmgr.exe /d %1

disk-cleanup-command-key-default-value

7. All done! Disk cleanup should now appear in the context menu of any of your drives.

Disk-cleanup-context-menu-success

If you are in need of IT support in Sydney, please get in touch with me.

Posted in Technical

10000 sent emails in 8 years

Computer Aid Posted on 20 September, 2013 by Luigi Martin20 September, 2013

Its amazing looking at the long-term email stats, particularly with a gmail account.

I haven’t been using gmail for 8 years, but I did transfer all my emails when I switched to gmail.

I just happened to go into my sent emails folder, and noticed the total emails in that folder was 10,752

The earliest email was dated 4/5/2005

That means 8 years and 3 months of emails (ie from about the time I started Computer Aid)

That means I have sent approx:

  • 1300 emails per year
  • 108 emails per month
  • 3.6 emails per day

I never thought I wrote so many emails!

Posted in Misc, Technical | Tagged gmail, sent emails

How to allow multiple users to access an encrypted file

Computer Aid Posted on 23 August, 2013 by jjfiasson23 August, 2013

In a previous post we covered how to encrypt files or folders in Windows and various important details surrounding the use of EFS (Encrypting File System).

This post will cover how to grant multiple users access to one of these encrypted files or folders, as well as a quick reminder on how to turn encryption on for a given file/folder.

Procedure

1. Right click the relevant file and select ‘Properties’ from the drop down list.

EFS-add-name-file-access-properties

2. The file’s Properties dialog box opens. Select the ‘Advanced’ button.

EFS-add-name-file-encryption-file-Properties

3. In the Advanced Attributes dialog box, tick the option ‘Encrypt contents to secure data’ and click ‘OK’.

EFS-file-name-tick-box-advanced-attributes

4. You are returned to the Properties dialog box. Click ‘OK’ to continue. The file should now be in green.

5. Right click the file again and select ‘Properties’.

EFS-add-name-encrypted-file

6. In the Properties dialog box, click ‘Advanced’. Select the ‘Details’ button in the Advanced Attributes dialog box.

EFS-Advanced-Attributes-Details

7. In the User Access pane, you can view who has access to the particular file. Click the ‘Add’ button.

EFS-add-name-encrypted-file-User-Access-to-Executive-Summary-Add..

8. Select the person you want to grant access to the file. Click OK.

EFS-add-name-Denise-select-OK

9. You are returned to the User Access pane, where the person selected is now listed under ‘Users who can access this file’. Click OK 3 more times to finally close out of file properties.

EFS-User-Access-to-Executive-Summary-OK

Conclusion

Remember, if you are going to utilise encryption on your files in Windows it is important to back up your security certificate so that you can access the files in case your Windows installation becomes corrupt.

Also, if you find yourself in need of IT support and you’re located in Sydney, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.

Posted in Technical

Post navigation

← Older posts

Archives

Categories

Recent Comments

  • Sue Jones on outlook error 0X800ccc0e while sending emails
  • Blair Newmann on AdSmartMedia advertising
  • Private Investigator in GTA on Divorce, consent orders, and superannuation splits: getting the wording correct

Tags

802.11g ADSL amd android bigpond broadband bsod defender dell email exitjunction firefox firewall gmail Google google contacts ie7 infection internet connection ISP laptop Linux m1188a ntldr is missing office 2007 outlook outlook express password power supply ram registry repair install sata scam slow telstra thunderbird Toshiba usb vista wifi windows 7 wireless wordpress xp
Copyright © 2005-2015 Computer Aid
↑