ZNET Networks

Migrating To/From Google Apps From/To Gmail

wes — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:15:54 +0000

I had a friend ask about his son’s Google Apps email account. He would be loosing access to this account soon and would like all of his communications for archival purposes. His son had just returned home from his mission, and wanted to make sure he got all of his emails before his account was disabled. So I figured I would make a step-by-step to super simplify getting your emails moved over, after you get back.

1 – Signup for a gmail address. While not signed in to any account goto http://gmail.com and create an account. You are not 13 anymore so lets try and avoid superhappytime14 or soccerisdabest1983. More and more people criticize on our digital life, and a professional looking email will only help.

2 – Once signed up and logged in, click on cog wheel and then mail settings. Inside mail settings click on Forwarding and POP/IMAP. There you will just need to verify that IMAP has been enabled. (It should be by default.)

3 – Log out of your new professional sounding gmail account.

4 – Log onto your mission email address. http://myldsmail.net

5 – When logging in your will be prompted with information saying your account has been disabled, please note the information the give you.

EXAMPLE:

POP Server: pop.gmail.com

User Name: john.smith@myldsmail.net

Password: $up3rg00dP@ssw0rDH3r3

The information we care about is the User Name and the Password.

6 – From your myldsmail email interface click on cog wheel and then mail settings. Inside mail settings click on Forwarding and POP/IMAP. There you will just need to enable IMAP and after saving leave all other settings as they are.

7 – Goto http://gmail-backup.com/download (Windows-based Application) and download the newest release of their software (at publication this process was successfully done with version 1.07)

8 – Install and run the software

9 – Enter the entire User Name into the first field labeled gmail login. Remember that is john.smith@myldsmail.net and not your username you usually login with.

10 – Enter the password provided in the next field below.

11 – Click Directory and make a new folder somewhere (I put mine on the desktop) to save everything in.

12 – Change the Since Date field to appropriately reflect the entire mission of your missionary.

13 – Click the Backup button, and then depending on how avid of a typist you were as a missionary, and how many pictures your sent you may be here a while.

14 – Once completed, change the gmail login and password fields to reflect your new professional looking gmail address.

15 – Click the Restore button, and again dependent upon your Internet connection and backup size you will be here for even a longer amount of time.

16 – Hooray, your email has been migrated to your new inbox. I found that the emails were accessible when clicking on the All Mail button, but then can be moved back into the inbox by highlighting all messages and clicking the Move to Inbox button.

17 – After moving your mail, you may want to snag your contact as well. To do that:

Sign in to myldsmail.net
Click Contacts along the side of any Gmail page.
From the More actions drop-down menu, select Export….
Choose whether to export all contacts or only one group.
Select the format in which you’d like to export your contacts’ information. Please note, some of these formats can lose some contact information.
- To transfer contacts between Google accounts, use the Google CSV format. This is the recommended way to back up your Google Contacts.
Click Export.
Choose Save to Disk then click OK.
Select a location to save your file, and click OK.
Log out, and log into your gmail account
Click Contacts along the side of any Gmail page.
From the More actions drop-down menu, select Import….
Locate the downloaded google.csv file, and click OK.
Your contacts have now been imported into your new gmail account as well.

*Gmail contacts method partially taken from Google Support

18 – Alright sir/mam, you are ready to take on the world with all the emails from the past two years (or eighteen months).

WiFi Reliant Cellular? – Republic Wireless

wes — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 14:14:51 +0000

A new beta has been opened called Republic Wireless. The concept is that most people are around WiFi roughly 60% of the time, and Republic Wireless wants to leverage that by being a hybrid cellular/VoIP phone system. They have an algorithm that determines if you fit within their limits of use while on a cellular network. The hook, $19/month + tax with no commitment. The first phone, the LG Optimus, is an Android-based Gingerbread phone, that will handle the switching between cellular and WiFi. I am not certain if it can hand a call of on-the-fly from WiFi to cellular, but that would be a big hang up for me if it was unable to do so. The phone and first month are $199 + tax, so I want to know what everyone else thinks..

UPDATED: Fun iPhone Keyboard/Accessibility/Sounds Tweaks

wes — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:54:33 +0000

Firstly, sorry for the very long post, but I wanted to have all the images included so it would be very easy to follow along on your phone while making these changes. With that said..

With the upgrade to iOS 5 on your phone there are a few, fun additions to the keyboard, sounds, and virbation notifications that really allow you to personalize your iPhone. (Yes, it is something that Android has had available for a while and I’m sure you could have done it with a Jailbroken iPhone, but now it is officially supported. Here are a few tutorials to add some fun customization to your phone.

Reply to a message from a locked iPhone screen.

1 – While your phone is locked, and you receive a notification of a new text message tap on the green Messages icon. It will allow you to slide to the right to reply to the message sent to you. It is a tidbit, but a neat add I think.

Add the Emoji Keyboard to your phone so you can have the cute smiley faces and icons.

1 – Open Settings.

2 – Tap the General menu option.

3 – Tap the Keyboard menu option.

4 – Tap the International Keyboards menu option.

5 – Tap the Add New Keyboard… menu option.

6 – Tap the Emoji menu option.

7 – From the Messages or Mail App tap the Globe icon near the space bar.

8 – Enjoy all the cute icons that other iPhone users will be able to see in your messages.

Add custom vibrations to your phone.

1 – Open Settings.

2 – Tap the General menu option.

3 – Tap the Accessiblity menu option.

4 – Turn on the Custom Vibrations option.

5 – Return back to the General Settings and tap the Sounds menu option.

6 – Scroll to the bottom and tap the Vibration menu option.

7 – Either choose a pre-packaged custom vibration (I use heartbeat), or tap the Create New Vibration menu option.

8 – Tap the screen and create your own custom vibration notification, and tap Save. Then return to the Vibration menu option and select your new vibration.

Add custom shortcuts (commonly called a text expander) to your iPhone.

1 – Open Settings.

2 – Tap the General menu option.

3 – Tap the Keyboard menu option.

4 – Scroll down and tap the Add New Shortcut… menu option.

5 – Enter the phrase you’d like to be expanded, and then add the shortcut you’d like to type. Return to the Message or Mail App and type your shortcut in and a space and see your shortcut filled in. Handy if you constantly need your address, email, anything long or hard to type inputted into a message or text.

Customize the notification tones on your iPhone.

1 – Open Settings.

2 – Tap the General menu option.

3 – Tap the Sounds menu option.

4 – Tap the Notification menu option that you’d like to change. Custom sounds can be added the same as a custom ringtone, but must be under 15 seconds in order to show up in the menu to be a custom tone. I use iRingtones (Mac OS X Application) to create my custom ringtones. It worked like a champ to get my Sonic the Hedgehog, Zelda, Mario Brothers, and Call of Cuty: Black Ops sound effects onto my iPhone.

Remote Computer Control with Google Chrome

wes — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 22:38:45 +0000

There are times that you need to show someone how to do something on the computer. It always isn’t the shortest drive to that computer, so one may look for an option of remote access. While there are many options available, Google Chrome now has an App that integrates with it’s browser to provide that functionality as well. You will obviously need Google Chrome, but once you have that downloaded and installed download the Chrome Remote Desktop App. After getting it installed on your and the remote computer, all you need to do is get the remote access number from other computer and connect.

Source: Lifehacker

Frontier Voicemail Email Forward

wes — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 20:07:15 +0000

Frontier Communications has updated their voicemail system to allow for many features that I didn’t know were available until recently. (Thanks Kellie) You have the ability to login to a webpage that will let you listen, delete, and manage your voicemail. (Frontier Messaging) The feature that I really like is the ability to forward voicemails to your email inbox. I have had this feature turned on for a few days, and I really like it. I have such a hard time checking my voicemail on my landline. I think this will be the solution to helping me not have 10+ voicemails that I have not been able to respond to.

To turn this feature on:

1 – Log on to https://webmail.frontiermessaging.com with your phone number with area code as the username, and your voicemail pin is the password.

2 – Click Settings on the top right of the menu.

3 – Click Messaging in the sub-navigation menu.

4 – Under Voicemail Auto Forwarding, check the box that says “Auto-forward all voicemail messages as emails to:”

5 – Enter the email address under that you’d like to receive your voicemail on.

6 – Click Apply.

You are all set. Your voicemail will appear with the number that called you if the Caller ID is available. The attachment will be a .wav file that is playable on most smart phones.

My iPhone plays them back just fine, but one caveat is that the voicemail is seen as a music file by your smartphone so the voicemail will begin to play through its speaker. If you are worried about the contents of the voicemail I would recommend wearing headphones, or remove yourself from earshot before clicking on the message.wav file attached to the email. It is not quite as nice as Google Voice, but a huge step in the right direction.

Cellular Nostalgia

wes — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 12:20:56 +0000

While waiting for my iPhone 4 to be delivered yesterday I began to think of the list of cellular devices that I have used in the past. I was surprised at how extensive the list was so I began to type up my history with cell phones. Then again while even beginning this post I had to return to the list to add AirCards. While insignificant at first I thought, I realized I have used them on three different carriers. Here’s my list:

CellularONE of Northeast Arizona

These analog phones were before your cell phone did anything other than make a phone call unless you had a cool Nokia phones that had snake (nibbles) on it.

Nokia 252 – Nice compact phone for the time period. It was my first phone, and I even had to convince my parents to sign the contract to let me get a pre-paid phone because I was under 18..

Motorola StarTAC – This phone was truly ahead of it’s time, but wouldn’t be the last innovative Motorola flip phone that I would own.

Nokia 5110 – The Nokia that everyone had a the time. It had the first run of games and RINGTONES! These were pretty amazing MIDI tones that made the Motorola nine different rings looks pretty sad. The original Nokia Tune still carries on today on their phones. Out of no where while typing this I had *#6391# come into my head. I believe that is the code to initialize programming on the Nokia phones. The Motorola method involved thirteen pressings of a particular button (it’s been too long!).

Motorola Vader – This phone was the StarTAC’s little brother but was the sexy phone of it’s time. The compact design made it a must have phone! I remember spending a couple hundred dollars on this phone in High School and thinking what a ridiculous amount of money that was for a phone. Little did I know what I would be getting myself into.

Nokia 3310 – Very sad day when my Vader was the casualty of being thrown across a room and breaking in half. I was given a Nokia 3310 (very, very similar to the previous Nokia’s in software) as a replacement from CellularONE.

Motorola v120e – The first phone that I modded. It was as close to the v60 that I could get at the time, and was given to me by a CellularONE rep. I replaced the number pad with a “waterfall” set of numbers that would light up and dance around when you got a phone call. I’m sure my dad just loved that feature when he ended up with the phone after I moved to college.

Alltel (Now owned by Verizon Wireless)

Motorola v60i – My first text messaging phone. I remember having to convince my mom I would pay the extra 5 or 10 dollars a month for 200 text messages (I was still under 18), and then had to call and have her up it because I texted too much. Wow things were simpler then. CellularONE didn’t have service outside of Northeast Arizona at the time that was very cost effective at all so I migrated to Alltel. I got a discount on the phone from the Radio Shack in Globe where we stopped on our way down to move me to the valley. This was the business man’s phone, and was another amazing piece of Motorola hardware. This and the 120e allowed you to compose your own ringtones, and Riley Trickey made me a ringtone after a song that he had written.

Verizon Wireless

Motorola T720 – Again working at Radio Shack (a real corporate Radio Shack this time), I was eligible for employee discounts on Verizon Wireless plans. For 25 bucks a month I had my first cell phone (IN MY OWN NAME!!). I remember getting the very first camera phone into our store that Verizon carried. It was a big deal! I got a ridiculous amount of minutes and messages for the time, and loved that phone. It was my first colored screen phone. There were some pretty handy Hex editing tools that allowed me to upload my own wallpapers (not even an option back then, I had to hack my phone to get some sweet 120 pixel images on my phone), and even get some ringtones on there. There were the higher class polyphonic ringtones mind you!

Motorola v60s – Right before my mission, I upgraded to the new hotness of the v60 that had a built in SPEAKERPHONE! My mom was kind enough to help me build credit by using the phone while I was gone. Dang parents are awesome!! I never did get that phone or number back.. hehe She still has it to this day with a Droid R2D2.

Motorola RAZR v3m – Fresh back from my mission I was ready for my third amazing Motorola flip phone. The V3m version of the RAZR was amazing! A camera phone with text messaging integrated that worked well. The phone was so thin, and to this day is still one of my favorite phones. We were way past polyphonic ringtones now, and I could convert a mp3 to a mid file that was smaller than 250k and less than 30 seconds to the phone and have real ringtones.

Palm Treo 700w – Windows Mobile 5 – Things went spiraling down hill from here. My first smartphone. I got hooked up with this phone from a friend of a coworker, Brad for $150.00 I think. A steal for the phone at the time. This phone was so horrible compared to today’s standard of phone, but it was one of the best smart phones of the day. My employer, Azstar Communications, paid for my data plan and I was in business. I had Outlook mobile hooked up to multiple email accounts (Exchange and IMAP), and we were off. That phone served me very well, and my mom even used it for a few years after I upgraded.

HTC Mogul (XV6800) – Window Mobile 6 – My first HTC phone, but last Windows Mobile phone. This slider was a step up from the Treo because of the newer version of the Windows Mobile operating system and larger touch screen, but it was still a Windows Mobile phone. I used this phone without a data plan because we had just moved into our home and were trying to save money. Pay-As-You-Go data is not the smartest idea, but using the built-in 802.11 wireless card made it a usable phone.

BlackBerry Storm 9530 – The timing on this phone was pretty spot on. My employer was getting me a BlackBerry, and it timed to the release of this fail of a phone. It was slow, and slow. Definitely not the best introduction to the RIM line phone cellular phones.

BlackBerry 8830 World Edition – I finally caved and got rid of my Storm to inherit a phone with no MMS support (because RIM decided if it didn’t have a camera you didn’t need the ability to receive picture messages either) and a QWERTY keyboard.

Palm Pre – This phone was loaned to me for a summer to provide internet access to rodeos that I was live streaming. I didn’t like the phone at all, but the built-in and free Mobile HotSpot feature made it a home run for what we needed. Thanks Verizon! (Please bring the free HotSpot back!!)

BlackBerry Tour 9630 – The last phone RIM had on Verizon to offer the ball for navigation. it was a nice functioning phone running the BlackBerry OS Verison 5. The newer OS made the phone a much more pleasant experience.

BlackBerry Bold 9650 – My current BlackBerry. Basically a Tour with more memory, and a the optical track pad in place of the notorious ball. The 3.2 Megapixel camera takes sharp pictures of still objects. The focusing takes some time, but pays off for snapping pictures of serial numbers and other small information on technological devices.

Apple iPhone 4 – Here’s my thoughts on the iPhone 4

AirCards

T-Mobile - Sony Vaio TX770P Integrated EDGE Modem (Unlocked). EDGE was definitely slow, but I can’t complain about having an integrated modem in my already ultra portable laptop. I still have that laptop because I can’t bare to sell it. It is a nice live stream computer using UStream.

Sprint - PCMCIA EVDO Modem (When Sprint offered truly umlimited data plans). Sticking out of the same Sony VAIO laptop it was always on. I don’t even know how many GBs I would rack up in a month. Amazing coverage in the Phoenix Metro area. I found myself using my work VPN even while at work with that laptop instead of switching to my WiFi card. It would use Verizon’s towers when I would travel home, but only at 1x, so the dial-up speeds, similar to my T-Mobile EDGE experience, while away from the valley were less than stellar, but at least there was service.

Verizon - Multiple USB Pantech and Verizon modems. Verizon has consistently had great coverage for the majority of places I travel. It is slower than it’s competitors, but I drop connection rarely in the many situations I’ve used either an aircard or my Blackberry as a modem. it sure makes my trips up to Colorado to visit Amanda’s family more bearable. Travelling drives me crazy!

iPhone 4 Review (Verizon)

wes — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 10:36:18 +0000

Like many others I stayed up on February 2nd to pre-order my iPhone at 1am Arizona time. Again, like many others I have been hitting refresh on my FedEx tracking seeing it make it’s journey from California to my doorstep. Activation was painless (although I have heard of people having issues with activation due to the overwhelming number of activations today) after the mandatory application of Ghost Armor on my screen. Ghost Armor is a nice Arizona-based company that provides screen protectors for all sorts of technology. My iPad, BlackBerry Bold, and my wife’s HTC Incredible all sport the protectors. It was slightly weird using my Droid X to a picture of my iPhone, and post it to Facebook letting everyone know that beautiful piece of Motorola and Android technology would soon be gathering dust.

Once activated and dried off, I booted up the device and setup my mail (gmail using Microsoft Exchange support for calendar and contact syncronization), my voicemail, and Google Voice number. After my core messaging applications were in place I plugged the phone into my MacBook Pro for the initial sync (which is known to be notoriously slow and drawn out). Many of my iPad applications that had been designed for both iOS devices were synced over (including my “must-have” LogMeIn Ignition, DropBox, and Documents ToGo Premium among others). 45 minutes had my music and apps installed and ready to go. The process was painless, and surprisingly easy. My only wish would have been to have the option to import all the settings, accounts, and logins from my iPad to my iPhone. A small qualm, but it would have made the process even more plug-and-play.

So far the experience has been great. I have not dropped any calls (but that has never been a problem for me on Verizon Wireless‘ cellular network), I have the familiar iOS experience from my iPad, and at the end of the day it is an Apple product. I do not see the inability to use voice and data services simultaneously a problem, because I like most other geeks are never too far away from another piece of tech. Those who enjoy Apple products will enjoy the iPhone. For many in the tech field we desire technology that “just works”, and while my background would dictate that I would be an Android phone supporter (which I am, I have a Droid X, HTC Incredible, and a Droid R2D2 currently on my family share plan even after my switch to the iPhone) I need a phone that just works. I do miss Swype a little, bit but I’m sure having it auto-correct me incorrectly more and more will will be a short-lived downside to switching to the iPhone (I would be okay with the option if it was available on my iPhone someday). This device, much like my MacBook Pro and iPad, is reliable and ready for me consume and create content whenever and wherever I need.

Bridge your Frontier Comm. DSL Connection

wes — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 05:56:48 +0000

Over the Christmas holiday break people were asking me how to get their PS3 to not say NAT3 so they could play Call of Duty: Black Ops with other people locally. The problem is the way that the standard Frontier Communications modem (Seimens SE567) handles Network Address Translation. There is a way to modify this, but it will require an additional router. You will teach your modem to work in bridged mode, and pass the public IP address on to another device. I have my modem connected to a Linksys WRT320N for this tutorial.

Here’s what you need to do:

1: Disconnect all computers/devices except the one you will be using. Use an ethernet cable to directly connect to the SE567 modem

2: Log into your Frontier Communications SE567. Type http://192.168.254.254/ into your web browser. At the top of the screen log in with the Username: admin and Password: admin

3: On the left side of the screen click ISP Connection, and then choose the Advanced Settings button located at the bottom of the window

4: On the left side of the screen click Configure the ATM Virtual Circuit

5: You will need the VPI/VCI Setting from the enabled settings, which looks similar to 0/35.

6:On the left side of the screen click Home Network, and then choose the Advanced Settings button located at the bottom of the window. Click on Configure the Universal Plug-n-Play Settings. Disable UPnP, and save.

7: Reboot the modem

8: Log into your Frontier Communications SE567. Type http://192.168.254.254/ into your web browser. At the top of the screen log in with the Username: admin and Password: admin

9: On the left side of the screen click ISP Connection, and then choose the Advanced Settings button located at the bottom of the window

10: On the left side of the screen click Configure the ATM Virtual Circuit

11: Choose Add a new VC

12: Fill in the VPI/VCI settings that you noted down earlier(for example, a VPI/VCI value of 0/35 equals are VPI of 0, VCI of 35). Set the Encapsulation to LLC and make sure the Traffic Class is set to Unspecified Bit Rate. Click Next.

13: Choose RFC-2684 Bridged. Click Next

14: Click Next past the Name section.

15: Choose Finish

16: Disable the currently active VC connection. Choose Enable on the new VC connection.

17: Reboot the SE567.

18: Disconnect the computer from the SE567, and then connect it to your router of choice. Plug your new router into any of the SE567′s Ethernet ports.

19: Configure your router to use PPPoE as the Protocol (most routers default to DHCP/Automatic Configuration, which will not work). Use your Frontier E-mail address as the username and your Frontier password as the password.

20: If your router has an option for MTU, make sure it is set to 1492

21: Save the settings on your router.

From this point, your router should be bridged. Use your router’s Status Page to see if it is connected and has obtained a valid IP/DNS/Gateway address. If it comes up with a 192.168.254.*** address, the router is probably not set up correctly. Check over your settings. Please note, your PCs may require a DHCP Release and a DHCP Renew after this procedure in order to connect.

Click Here to download the original Tutorial | Thanks SeanSite for the Tutorial

Connect Safely | Help for parents

wes — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:59:42 +0000

I heard about Connect safely from Larry Magid on TWIT, and felt it worth sharing. Connect Safely is a site dedicated to helping parents direct their children to safe and secure web browsing. On TWIT they were highlighting their book/pdf about Facebook. I think it is a great resource for parents looking for help with the huge experience we call the Internet. Browse on over to connectsafely.org to educate yourself and your children.

Also, TWIT or This Week In Tech is site compiling many podcasts hosted by Leo Laporte for all sorts of technology news. His shows are useful and information for all users of technology. There is something for the novice and the expert. Head on over to TWIT.TV

Just for fun, Graphics Design

wes — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 15:43:09 +0000

Making wedding announcements are definitely not what ZNET Networks claims any proficiency at, but occasionally we get to work on graphics design. I enjoy getting to do it as well as video editing. I found this today while cleaning up some folders and thought I’d upload it so you could see an example of our work.