HowTo: Computer Tips

HowTo: fix Android "Message not sent" problem

2013-08-29T17:13:00.001+00:00

Do you immediately received a "Message not sent" notification after trying to send any text message? Try this to fix the problem of an Android phone refusing to send text messages despite being able to receive them.

Open the phone dialler and type in the following: *#*#4636#*#*

Add the SMS Center number
A menu should appear, select 'Phone Information'
Scroll down to find the empty box named "SMSC:"
Discover the SMS message centre number for your mobile provider:

Either search the internet, e.g. "O2 UK SMSC number"
Or look it up in a list such as this one: http://smsclist.com/downloads/default.txt

Enter this number in the box and click update
Press the back button to exit these menus
You should now be able to send texts!

I had the problem on a HTC Nexus One running Android 2.3.7, Cyanogenmod 7.1.0-N1 although it may affect other configurations.

Hopefully this helps, let me know in the comments if it fixed your problem!

HowTo: change DNS servers for Thomson SpeedTouch ST510 modem

2012-05-04T09:53:00.000+00:00

If you type an incorrect web address you will often be redirected to a page from your ISP (probably plastered in adverts) and you'll have to type the whole address again to correct it. Wouldn't it be nicer if it left the mis-typed URL intact and said "not found" so you could quickly correct the mistake?

This can be achieved by changing the DNS servers you're using to look up website names - this is how to do that for the Thomson SpeedTouch 510 modem/router:

First discover the IP address of your modem device (the closest one to the phone line) a common value is 192.168.1.254 or perhaps 192.168.1.1
Then you need to log in remotely from a connected computer using 'telnet':

If you're on windows download & install PuTTY and use that
On linux use the command: telnet [modem IP address]

Type the username/password which may be written on the box, or might be "administrator"
Once you're sucessfully logged in complete the following steps by typing in the commands.

First get the list of current DNS servers:
dns server route list
Make a note of these first in case you need to change back.

Then to delete all existing entries:
dns server route flush

Then add the new DNS servers (examples here are Google's DNS servers):
dns server route add dns=8.8.8.8 metric=5 intf=Internet
dns server route add dns=8.8.4.4 metric=10 intf=Internet

Check that these new servers have been registered:
dns server route list

Finally save your changes to the modem so that it persists:
saveall

HowTo: Force re-download of cached CSS style-sheet

2011-10-01T17:38:00.006+00:00

If you change the layout or style of your website using CSS you may have an issue where the old style-sheet is being used, meaning the page style or layout may look wrong.

The problem is that, until you force a page refresh, your visitors will be using a cached version of the CSS style-sheet.

The caching might be enabled by manually setting the headers or by adding "css" to the caching settings in .htaccess - or it's possible that it is happening outside of your control.

In order to force all visitors to your site to download the new style-sheet next time:

Update the code in your template or main page that links to the style-sheet:

change .../style.css
to .../style.css?v=NewVersionNumber

You can replace NewVersionNumber with whatever you like, perhaps the current date.

Job done! Adding or changing the parameter (after the question mark) forces a re-fetch of the updated style-sheet, (because browsers will views it as a different file) and hopefully all visitors to your site will see the correct, updated version next time they view it!

HowTo: Remove broken tasks from the task scheduler - Windows 7

2011-09-10T13:22:00.001+00:00

Sometimes you get a message when you open Task Scheduler saying "Task ... has an error" (possibly mentioning "wrong user") - but the most annoying thing is that the offending task is nowhere to be found inside the Task Scheduler!
So this is how to remove the offending task so that the error goes away:
(Make sure you backup your system and create a system restore point before doing this)

Open the Task Scheduler and click OK to any error messages.
In the left hand sidebar, click on Task Scheduler Library.
Then click the little arrow to its left and continue to expand the folders of tasks and click through them one by one until the error message appears again.
Remember which folder it is in, or if it doesn't appear just remember the name of the task that's causing the error.
Close Task Scheduler
Open the folder C:\Windows\System32\Tasks and look around until you find the task.

If you created it yourself it's probably in this Tasks folder
If you found it somewhere in the folder tree in Task Scheduler, you need to go into the corresponding sub-folder in order to locate it.

Cut-and-paste the offending file into somewhere safe like Desktop or My Documents in case you want to save the information in it. If not then just delete the file.
Re-open task scheduler and the error message should have gone

Now if you want to recreate the task you will have to do it manually by double-clicking on the file and telling Windows to open it with Notepad. Then you can view the task information with which to rebuild the task.

HowTo: Reduce or disable annoying Windows Update restart prompts

2011-09-10T12:51:00.003+00:00

Starting to get annoyed by the message that keeps popping up asking you to restart your computer?
Here's how to make it appear less often, or even to disable it completely:

On Windows 7 click start (on older versions click Start - Run) and then type: gpedit.msc and press enter -- NOTE: this won't work on Home or Basic editions of Windows I'm afraid :(
Something called Group Policy Editor should open up
On the left hand side, navigate to:

Local Computer Policy / Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Windows Update

Then in the right hand pane, double-click on the policy named 'Re-prompt for restart with scheduled installations'.
To completely disable the reminders, select "Disabled" and click on OK.
Or to change the time interval between reminders, select "Enabled" and type in the desired time interval in minutes into the box.

1440 is the maximum value allowed, and is equivalent to 24 hours

Click on OK.

That's it done, but you'll need to restart the computer before the changes will take effect!

HowTo: Make Explorer open user folder instead of libraries by default - Windows 7

2011-09-10T11:50:00.000+00:00

By default Windows 7 will open 'Libraries' when you click the folder icon in your taskbar.
But what if you want to open your user folder, or My Documents?

It's quite simple to change:

Make sure you close any folder windows you may have open.
Hold down the SHIFT key and then right-click on the explorer folder icon which is pinned to the taskbar.
Click properties
On the 'Shortcut' tab in the box labelled 'Target' you need to change it to one of the following:

User folder: %windir%\explorer.exe shell:usersfilesfolder
My Documents: %windir%\explorer.exe "shell:usersfilesfolder\Documents"

Then click apply

That's it, you're done!