A Technical Reminder .....

A game of catch

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Fri, 06 May 2016 20:54:00 +0000

Throwing and catching game.

Especially good for young people looking to improve close range throwing and catching.

Requires
Tennis ball
Teams of 2 - good idea to have some one mature enough to judge the rules.

Rules
Team A member throws the ball to team B, if the throw is judged poor the thrower misses a go and the thrower folds their arms.
A throw is poor if:
It is too high
Does not reach the person
It is too wide

If Team B member does not catch the ball, they miss 2 goes and fold their arms, the other member of team B takes over throwing the ball.

How to win
The win takes place when both team members, from one team have there arms folded.

Additional information

The ball can be thrown to any member of the opposite team.

If the ball is thrown between both members of the opposite team and it is not judged poor and the opposite team do not catch it, the throw is retaken.

How to make the game harder

As the team members get better at throwing and or catching you can increase the number of missed goes for poor throws and dropped catches.

You can increase throwing difficult by moving the teams further apart.

You can increase the catching difficulty by using one hand.

You can have more than 2 teams

Removing the argument at the end of the day

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Thu, 10 Mar 2016 22:40:00 +0000

We have 2 wonderful and challenging children who both have tablets, and when we want them to put them down at the end of an evening - we either got an argument or it's nearly finished..

I wanted a way of restricting and switching off the internet at set times to specific devices, unfortunately my TalkTalk router did not offer me many solutions.

Basic network setup

So I bought a cheap TP-Link wireless router (TL-WR841N) off the internet for about £14
I connected a laptop to a port on the TP-Link router - by default it is configured to supply devices an IP address using DHCP.
Unfortunately it gave out the same LAN rang as my TalkTalk Router

Set the LAN IP address of the TP-Link (i.e. different network to Talktalk network)
Set the DHCP settings to the same subnet as the LAN
Setup the WAN connection as Dynamic IP (i.e. get an IP address from the TalkTalk router) Note - the Primary and Secondary DNS addresses are not what you would normally expect (More on that later) - you could just use Googles DNS servers 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
To manage the Router from any devices on my network I updated the Remote management settings

I connect the WAN port of the TP-Link to my TalkTalk network.
On the TalkTalk router I reserved the IP address given to the TP-Link router. (This will allow be to access the TP-Link router from my TalkTalk network over the same IP address.)
With both routers switched on and connect, I could setup a Wireless network on the TP-Link router.
Testing internet functionality, the wireless device connecting to the TP-link router gets and IP address from the router that passes it though the WAN interface and then through the TalkTalk network and eventually out over through the Talktalk external interface.

Restricting timed access

The TP-Link router offers a number of features to restrict internet access, via the Access Control menu.

I decided that by default I wanted to allow the internet but to block it after 10:00PM on a night.

The first thing I created was a number of different schedules.
I am not an ogre and they can have slightly more internet on a none school night.
After creating the schedules, I moved on to Hosts, these are the devices that are going to use the network and the devices you want to restrict. Each host needs a description and the MAC address to identify it.
Once the Hosts have been identified and the schedules created you can then create Access Control rules.
Because I am going to generally allow internet access except for the scheduled times I selected - the Deny default Filter Policy

The Status tick box allows you to quickly enable or disable specific rules.

To add additional Access rules - just click on Add New
You can specify a Name, the Host you have already entered, a Target if you want to Block or allow specific sites and a scheduled.

With these rules in place you can automatically stop internet access for the device identified by the Access Rules..

NOTE: it is important to remember that the Access Rules and their schedules are based on the time on the TP-Link router.

Check the Router has the correct time and date.

Removing undesired Internet content

So we have now switch off their internet when they should be going to sleep, but now we need to restrict internet access so they are not seeing things they should not be.

IMPORTANT - you will never be 100% successful in removing content that young people should not see, and you need to ensure you education your children on e-safety.

Using OpenDNS

I'm using Opendns for filtering their free filter blocks undesired content(FamilyShield is pre-configured to block adult websites across your Internet connection. Just turn it on and go. The filter is always up-to-date, adding new sites 24/7. ) http://www.opendns.com/home-solutions/parental-controls

I have chosen to go down the slightly more complicated OpenDNS Home route as it allows for granularity on what you want o tallow or block. Allowing you to choose specific default internet categories to allow or block.

To use the OpenDNS filtering you need to add OpenDNS DNS servers to the TP-Link routers WAN DNS server settings.

The OpenDNS addresses are 208.67.222.123 and 208.67.220.123

Remember all these changes affect users going through the TP-Link router, users going through the TalkTalk router work as normal.

I am only switching off the internet at the scheduled time and for the devices listed in the Access Control rules.
I am restricting internet categories for all devices going through the TP-Link router.

How to change the default search engine in Microsoft Edge

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Tue, 05 Jan 2016 20:11:00 +0000

Microsoft edge is the new Web browser installed with Microsoft Windows 10 (and seen by Microsoft as a replacement for Internet Explorer.)

I do like Edge but was having a problem changing the default search engine from Bing.

Microsoft has produced notes on how to change but I must learn to read the first item on the list..- Remember to access your search providers website in Edge before trying to change the default search provider.

Enter the search engine’s website and browse to it. (i.e. open www.google.com in Microsoft Edge)
Select More actions (…) > Settings , then scroll down to select View advanced settings. In the list under Search in the address bar with, choose Change
From the Choose one list select Google Search (discovered) and then click Set as Default.

It's important to remember that adding a new search provider to Microsoft Edge doesn't change the search options within Internet Explorer, which has its own plugin-based method of choosing search engines. Nor does it change the behaviour of the search function within the taskbar – that's provided courtesy of Cortana, and as such will always be powered by Bing.

TalkTalk - how not to fix a problem

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Tue, 22 Sep 2015 17:57:00 +0000

I am starting the blog post as a record of the fun and games I am having with TalkTalk who are my phone and broadband supplier.

Note - Phone is working fine... broadband less so.

TalkTalk - support phone number 08700 878777

A TalkTalk time line to.....
Date	What Happened	Actioned By
Sat 12th September 2015	Internet failed around lunch.	N/A
Sat 12th	Ran normal checks - Rebooted TalkTalk HG633 router - still no internet. Ran PINGs getting dropped packets and greater than 3000ms responses. Connected spare router and got the same response Checked both wired connections and wireless Plugged Router into BT test socket behind the face plate - still fail..	me
Sat 12th	Logged call with TalkTalk	me
Sat 12th	With TalkTalk Rebooting Router - surprisingly same problem Completed line test Result - TalkTalk can see nothing wrong with the line !! Might be the router - though my old one works!! TalkTalk need 3 session when a BTOpenreach engineer might need to access the house Before 1pm or after 1pm, I said Sunday - Don't work Sundays... Have to wait 72 hours... So gave them Tue 15th and 2 sessions on Wed 16th (am and pm)	me / TalkTalk
Sun 13th	TXT from TalkTalk "Your fault has been passed to our network service desk. We are performing tests against your line. We will provide an update shortly,. Thanks Ref...." - 13/09, 8:14	TalkTalk
Sun 13th	I rang TalkTalk to see how long shortly would be has it had been a few hours! - can we do a line test!!	me
Mon 14th	I rang TALKTALK to ask when will it be fixed - can we do a line test! They could not tell me if someone was coming on Tue or Wednesday (Times and days I had already agreed with them.)- We all have jobs or other places to be how can they expect us to drop everything to be at home without any notice - What would their managers say if they suddenly asked sorry got to take the day off BTopenreach might or might not come round to try or try not to fix my broadband without any notice......	me
Tue 15th	BT Openreach did not turn up
Wed 16th	BT Openreach still did not turn up....
Wed 16th	New replacement router turned up. Plugged in and used all new cables and filters Still poor access.... Rang Talktalk - after some testing at TalkTalk's end - I now have 1.8Mb down and 0.3Mb up... (I know some locations in rural Yorkshire will be happy with this but I should be getting about 38Mb down.) Talktalk - will need to escalate to the network team again!!!	me
Thur 17th	Rang TalkTalk....	me
Fri 18th	Rang TalkTalk	me..
Sat 19th	Day off - from ringing TalkTalk
Sun 20th	Rang TalkTalk - same - can we do a line Test - outside it looks fine,, OK - Just send BT Openreach, we need to escalate to the network team...	me
Mon 21nd	TXT from TalkTalk "We have completed investigations on your line and will provide an update shortly. We apologise for any inconvenience"... 13:49 2nd TXT "Your fault has been passed to our network service desk. We are performing tests against your line. We will provide an update shortly. Thanks ref..." 18:25	TalkTalk
Mon 21st	I ring later that night as I again have not got an update shortly.... Can "we" do a line test..... Can we have 3 sessions where you are available... - This sounds familiar.... So we start again - Wed AM and PM and Fri Am	me
Tue 22nd	TXT from TalkTalk "We have completed investigations on your line and will provide an update shortly. We apologise for any inconvience" 9:00	TalkTalk
Tue 22nd	Phone call from TalkTalk - (It has taken 11 days for an TalkTalk support person to actually ring me and give me an update......) - Are we getting somewhere...... 11:26 NO Please can you provide me with 3 sessions that we might or might not visit your house!!!!!! I explain I have already give TalkTalk 6 what was wrong with the 6 I have already given you? TalkTalk now need another 3 but not for 72 hours (Why..) - this means that the Wednesday ones are now not suitable.. So I have now give TalkTalk Friday Morning and all day on Monday... BUT TalkTalk will let me know in 48 hours if BT Openreach need access to the house - That might be less than 1 days notice to give my employee for leave...	TalkTalk
Tue 22nd	TXT from TalkTalk "Your Fault has been passed to our network service desk. We are performing tests against your line. We will provide an update shortly. Thanks ref...." - This sounds familiar - 11:58 Guess What - 7 hours later still no update - what time period do TalkTalk use for Shortly	TalkTalk
Tue 22nd	Posted this blog to Twitter, without a # or and @ @TalkTalkcare contacted me via Twitter.. Then a day later I DM my line number to them - surprise surprise - "its with the network team" - we can't help you.	TalkTalk
Thu 24th	Guess what.. - TalkTalk did not hold up there promise to let me know in 48 hours. Got bored tonight with very little internet access - so thought why don't I ring TalkTalks support for something to do (Well they were not going to ring me..) No sign of an apology - but she (TalkTalk) would need to find out what the network team where doing with the problem - apparently they should have got back to me by now - no really...She would ring me back in 30 minutes.. To my surprise - she rang me back in about 10 minutes, but then start to say... We need 3 days that BT Openreach can come round... To say I was a little annoyed would have been an exaggeration - I explained that TalkTalk already had 6 of my days.. - She came back yes we can book you in on your last day - Monday 28th Lets wait and see if BT Openreach turn up and fix the problem on Monday... 16 Days and counting.	Me
Mon 28th	BT Openreach came out, very helpful and identified a problem in the roadside BT cabinet, the port had blown.. Fixed within a few hours...	BT
	A few questions for TalkTalk: Why did it take nearly 2 weeks before BT Openreach where contacted? Why did it take over 16 days to fix this problem? Why did TalkTalk not keep in touch when they promised? How do I claim compensation? - will TalkTalk compensate me for the services I could not use?
Wed 30th	Contacted TalkTalk Support at 18:50 for Compensation 0870 087 8777 First TalkTalk Lady offered - £24.71 (that- for 16 days loss of service - I said I was not happy, especially with the lack of support, the lack of promised return calls by TalkTalk - I had to do the chasing and the time taken to identify an external hardware issue. Could not explain - why it was not passed on to BT Openreach sooner or why they did not have the correct tests to identify the problem in the street cabinet. The TalkTalk lady logged me a complaint ref no - 100469787 Then hold - waiting for next level of support or management.. TalkTalk Manager now offering £23.26 (That included a £5 good will gesture..) - TalkTalk not sure where the first figure came from...... I asked why it took so long - apparently it was an issue with "BT" as they could not get to to fix the job on the first week. TalkTalk did not inform me that it was a BT capacity problem (Not sure if TalkTalk manager was just passing the blame as I believe Talktalk dropped the ball with their customer service and technical management of the case.) Got a lot of apologies for my inconvenience, TalkTalk are going to go back over the calls and talk to their training team, Because of my poor level of service they eventually offered me £30 credit... Call finished 19:40 - nearly another hour I won't get back.....	Me
	Will I use TalkTalk again when my contract expires?

The times and dates of the first week of calls are approximate - because of frustrations and not thinking this will drag on so long...

Kids and wife driving me mad:

No:

Home Working
School Homework that requires internet lookup and pictures
Skype-ing the family
No Steaming audio - monthly subscriptions
Catchup TV
YouTube
Streaming TV - monthly subscriptions
Xbox gaming

To be updated....

Transfer Windows 8 License to another computer

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Sun, 10 Aug 2014 11:25:00 +0000

I did these steps to transfer the license to my new desktop PC.

First on my old laptop which was connected to internet I deactivated the genuine copy by doing these steps :

Open an elevated command prompt,
In the elevated command prompt enter slmgr.vbs /upk

You will get a pop up windows saying " Uninstalled product key successfully"

I then go to my new PC and open an elevated command prompt,

enter Win + R -> slui 4.

Choose country,

Phone the number provided,

Answer Windows is installed only on 1 PC

Follow instructions and it worked!

Add a NAS folder to a Music Library - Windows 8

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 22:57:00 +0000

To add a network folder that isn't indexed to a library

Windows 8 includes the Xbox Music app that can utilise the Music library. If you use a separate NAS (Network Attached Storage device.) you can not link a Music share on the NAS to the Music library as the share can not be indexed.

The easiest way to do this is to make the folder available offline first. Then add the offline folder to a library by following the steps earlier in this topic. You're done. (This may require a great deal of local storage.)

If you don't want to make the folder available offline because you don't want to keep the folder contents on your PC, follow these steps to add the folder to a library. Note that doing this will make searching, sorting, and filtering in the whole library slow. For best results, it is recommend creating a new library for the network folder alone.

Tap or click to open Computer.
Create a folder on your hard drive for your network folders, for example c:\share.
Create another folder within that folder, for example c:\share\music.
Select the subfolder you just created, tap or click the Home tab, tap or click Easy access, choose Include in library, and then select the library to which you want to add the folder.
Delete the folder.
Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, then tap Search.
(If you're using a mouse, point to the top-right corner of the screen, then click Search.).
Enter cmd in the search box, and then tap or click Apps.
Press and hold or right-click Command Prompt in the search results, and then tap or click Run as administrator.
Enter mklink /d, and then enter the path of the folder you just deleted and the path of the network folder. For example, mklink /d c:\share\music \\server\music. This creates what is called a symbolic link.
Start Media Player and ensure the Music Library contains the list of music files on the NAS.

3rd party application Win7 Library Tool that gets over the problem off remote location thatcan’t be indexed.

Using PowerShell to manage Office 365 security groups

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 08:58:00 +0000

To display a list of groups available in Office 365

In PowerShell type - Get-MSOLGroup

This will display a list of groups and the group type i.e. Security or Distribution

Add individual users to a security group

$studentsGroup = Get-MsolGroup | where-object { $_.DisplayName -eq "students-security"}

$user = Get-MsolUser | where-object { $_.DisplayName -eq "Jane Mcburney" }

Add-MsolGroupMember -GroupObjectId $studentsGroup.ObjectId -GroupMemberObjectId $user.ObjectId -GroupMemberType "User"

Add CSV user list to a security group

Export a list of UPN names using PowerShell to csv.

Get-MSOLUser | Select UserPrincipalName|Export-Csv c:\tools\user.csv

Edit the user.csv so that it contains only accounts you want to add to the security group.
Import the users.csv containing the UPN and export a new csv user2.csv with the users objectId.

$sub = Import-Csv C:\tools\users.csv

$sub | Foreach {Get-Msoluser -UserPrincipalName $_.Userprincipalname | select Objectid } | Export-csv C:\tools\Users2.csv

Display the security group objectid

Get-MSOLGroup

Copy the 32 digit objectid code of the security group you want to add users to.
Modify the following script to add the copied security group objectid. The following script will import the users2.csv containing the users objectid and add to the security group.

$sub2 = Import-Csv C:\tools\users2.csv

$sub2 | Foreach {Add-MsolGroupMember -groupObjectid ‘xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx’ -GroupMemberObjectId $_.ObjectId -GroupMemberType User}

List members of a security group

Display the security group objectid

Get-MSOLGroup

Copy the 32 digit objectid code of the security group you want to check members.
Modify the following script to add the copied security group objectid. The following script will export members of a security group members to csv.

Get-MsolGroupMember -groupObjectid 'xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx' | Select DisplayName,EmailAddress,GroupMemberType | Export-csv C:\tools\security-group-members.csv

Windows 8 - reminders

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 11:21:00 +0000

This blog post will be a working document to remind me about the features and processes that come with Microsoft Windows 8.

Apps side by side

In order to snap Apps you will need a resolution of at least 1366x768.

It might be useful to have two apps on the display at once. Windows 8 handles this as part of the OS, and the way it works is revolutionary. With one app on the display, you simply swipe in from the side and "pull" the other app onto the screen from the left. You can drag it until the app display is as big as desired, and "drop" it alongside the original app. You are then free to reference material in one app while working in the other.

Example:
So you could have Internet Explorer open and Bing which was previously opened dragged in from the left side.The searches in Bing auotmatically get displayed in Internet Explorer.

Key Stokes
Cycling through open Windows back to the "Modern" UI can be achived by pressing the Windows Key.

Applications

Defender: Windows 8 includes a version of Security Essentials (Microsofts Antivirus and Anti-malware product) but now includes it under the application name of Defender.

Hyper-V: To run Hyper-V, a PC must not only run the 64-bit version of Windows 8, its CPU must also support a virtualization technology called Second Level Address Translation (aka SLAT) which, is present in the current generation of 64-bit processors by Intel and AMD, along with at least 4GB of RAM.

You can check the status of your CPUs by downloading the latest version of Mark Russinovich’s coreinfo.exe utility from the Microsoft Sysinternals Web pages, then launching the utility from a command line launched with administrative privileges.

run coreinfo -v

The key entries in this display are the EPT (Extended Page Tables) for Intel processors, and a value in the AMD processor output that may appear as NPT (Nested Page Tables) or RVI (Rapid Virtualization Indexing). Simply put, one of these values must be enabled for Windows 8 Hyper-V to work.

To enable audio in the Hyper-V guest - you will need to connect using RDP (Assuming the host RDP computer has an audio card.) - remember to enable Remote Desktop on the guest and ensure the firewall allows RDP traffic.

Sky fails to record from TV guide

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 22:21:00 +0000

My Sky +HD box recently updated to the new version, following this update though it would not record from the TV guide. When I pressed the remote's record button for a program it was just ignored.

If I started to watch a channel I could then record a program on that channel just not though the TV guide.

Searching the internet I found a solution that fixed my problem - rebuild the planner.

This process will stop all recordings in process and reboot the box. If there is a recording underway, consider waiting until it is completed. Rebuilding the planner will not delete any existing recordings.

Press services on your Sky remote control and you will see the main menu with Options highlighted.
Highlight the Settings menu using the right arrow button and press select.
Press 0 (zero), 1 then select to access the Installer Setup menu (this menu is not listed on the Settings menu options).
Use the left/right arrows to highlight Rebuild (this will change to Sky+ Rebuild when reached) and press select.
The on-screen message "This will take a few minutes to complete. The rebuild will stop all recordings and reboot your Sky+" will appear. Press select to continue.
The on-screen message "Housekeeping please wait" will appear and take up to two minutes to clear. If your Sky+HD box continues to display this message for longer than two minutes please carry out a power reset (below) with the viewing card removed.
Once complete your Sky+HD box will switch itself off and then back on automatically displaying the red standby light.
Ensure the red standby light on the box has re-appeared, then wait for 3 minutes.
Press sky your remote control and the light on your Sky+HD box will turn green.

http://www.sky.com/helpcentre/tv/sky-plus-hd/recording/guide-to-performing-a-planner-rebuild/index.html

Picasa public album redirects to Google+ Login

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 18:48:00 +0000

Following changes to Google, with integrating Picasa photo albums into Google+ all my web-page links to my public Picasa albums redirected people to the Google+ login box, instead of just showing the album.

As a temporary fix I have added "?noredirect=1" to my Picasa Web gallery URL?

For example:
https://picasaweb.google.com/number/albumname?noredirect=1

This skips the redirect to Google+

If you are using an authkey in the URL, then you have to use "&noredirect=1" ( & instead of ?)

For example:
https://picasaweb.google.com/103124484697486858492authkey=XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX&noredirect=1

NOTE: If the URL ended in a # remove it. (I did also add / at the end though not sure this is necessary.)

Comtrend Power adapters - adding another adapter

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Sun, 21 Aug 2011 22:15:00 +0000

I had an issue where I had two Comtrend power adapters working as a pair, but need to add another for an Xbox.

Here is the solution I followed:

Plug one of the new pair of adaptors into a socket close to the Access Point adaptor (This is the first of the original pair of Comtrend adapters the one with the Access Point in green) - ideally next to each other on a power strip.
Hold the "config" button of the Access Point for about 5 seconds until the AP led starts to flash, then release the button.
Next hold the "config" button on the new adaptor for about 5 seconds until the AP led starts to flash (you have about 30 seconds to do this from the time you released the config button on the Access Point adaptor - hence having them close together).
Release that button and in a couple more seconds the AP led on the new adaptor should flash quickly three times and go out. The Status led on the new adaptor should then show red and then turn green after a few seconds.

Assuming this all goes to plan, they're configured!

Comtrends guides to my models:
http://www.comtrend.com/links/22$snd.htm

Using Hyper-V with a Wireless Network Adapter

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 08:56:00 +0000

Wireless network adapters will not natively work with Hyper-V, but I found the following solution on the internet, from "Virtual PC Guy's Blog" and it works very well for me:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2008/01/09/using-hyper-v-with-a-wireless-network-adapter.aspx

The Following is taken directly form the blog with my slight changes high-lighted:
"

Out of the box Hyper-V does not support connecting virtual machines to wireless network adapters. As a primarily server focused product this is a reasonable limitation - especially given evils that we need to do to get wireless network adapters to work with virtual machines. But all is not lost - it is possible to setup an internal virtual network (as discussed yesterday) and utilize Internet Connection Sharing (as discussed here) to get you up and going.

The first thing to do is to create a new internal virtual network switch:

Open the Hyper-V Manager and select your server.
Select Virtual Network Manager... from the action pane (on the right).
Select New virtual network and choose to Add an Internal network.
Give the new virtual network the name you want hit OK.

Now to setup Internet Connection Sharing:

Open the Control Panel and open Network and Sharing Center.
Select ~~Manage network connections~~ Change adapter settings from the list on the left.
Locate the icon for your wireless network adapter, right click on it and select Properties.
Change to the Sharing tab.
Check Allow other network users to connect through this computer's Internet connection.
If you have multiple network adapters you will need to select the specific entry for the internal virtual network switch.
Click OK.

You can now connect virtual machines to the internal virtual network and allow them to access the Internet through your wireless network adapter.

Cheers,
Ben

Enable Aero desktop on Server 2008 r2

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 13:12:00 +0000

To install Desktop Experience in Windows Server 2008 R2

Click Start, click Control Panel, and then, under Programs, click Turn Windows Features on or off.‌ If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
In the Features Summary section, click Add Features.
Select the Desktop Experience check box. If you are prompted to install additional features, click Add Required Features, and then click Next.
Click Install. You might be prompted to restart your computer.

To enable the Themes service in Windows Server 2008 R2

Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Services. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
Double-click Themes.
In the Startup type list, select Automatic, and then click Apply.
Under Service status, click Start, and then click OK.

To select an Aero theme

Right-click an open area of the desktop, and then click Personalize.
Click Themes.
Under Aero Themes, click an Aero theme.

gfxUI.exe is stopped working

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 13:11:00 +0000

Issue when running Windows Server 2008 r2 (x64) on Intel Motherboard, with both .net 4 as well as 3.5 installed.

Description:
Stopped working
Problem Signature:
Problem Even Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: GfxUI.exe
....

The following worked for me it seems that the Intel driver requires .net 3.5 to be enabled on the server.

In Server Manager > Features > Add Features

In the list of features to install on this server, select .NET Framework 3.5.1 Features

I would then recommend a reboot once it has installed.

Method to fix my continually rebooting Joggler

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 18:07:00 +0000

This post is an amalgamation of a number of posts by various people.
Including:
Code by xoom450 http://www.joggler.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2554
Ubuntu by http://joggler.exotica.org.uk/ubuntu/
Joggler mod by http://www.gforums.de/juggler/download.html

Please be careful, I do not take any responsibility for you totally bricking your Joggler.

I used 2 USB sticks one with Ubuntu and one with the download from this site: http://www.gforums.de/juggler/download.html (Unrar and place on the other USB stick)
You will need to know your Joggler IP address, this can be obtained from the Joggler System menu.

STEP 1

I booted up Ubuntu from the USB stick using the following site to create a bootable 4GB USB Stick:
http://joggler.exotica.org.uk/ubuntu/
I downloaded the Btrfs Compressed Version.
I used the Windows instructions to create the Bootable USB.
Windows instructions
Download Win32DiskImager from https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer/0.1/0.1. Then unpack the
.img.gz file using something a tool like 7-zip. Run W32DiskImager.exe, and select the unpacked .img file. Choose the drive that corresponds to your USB stick and use "Write" to write the image.
I configured Ubuntu to allow remote desktop: -
1.) First go to Preferences > Remote Desktop.
2.) Then tick Allow others to view your desktop.
3.) Ran VNC client on my Windows machine and connected to the IP address of the Joggler.

Download the latest version and restore:
I opened up a Terminal in Ubuntu, by click on Applications > Accessories > Terminal
I cut and pasted each of the following lines onto the Terminal. (After each line is entered wait for the return message before you start the next line.)

wget http://o2.openpeak.co.uk/firmware/app-o2flash-26635.8686-S3-f1-reimage.tgz
tar xvfz app-o2flash-26635.8686-S3-f1-reimage.tgz
sudo su
tools/bin/partimage -z2 restore /dev/mmcblk0p2 payload/image.myg
tools/bin/partimage -z2 restore /dev/mmcblk0p3 payload/image.myg
mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt
cp payload/vmlinux /mnt/vmlinux0
cp payload/vmlinux /mnt/vmlinux1
cd /mnt
md5sum vmlinux0 >>sum0
md5sum vmlinux1 >>sum1
sed -i '3d' sum0
sed -i '3d' sum1
exit
exit
Shutdown the Joggler

STEP2.
After the Joggler shuts down take out the Ubuntu USB stick and put in the USB stick that contains the unrared download files. Power on the Joggler and wait the boot up should take quite a bit longer than usuall as the gforum P'n'P server is installed.
This can take a while.....

The gforum P'n'P server installed on the Joggler will allow you to access it from a computer on your home network, in your browsers address bar type in the IP address of the Joggler - this can be accessed from the Settings - Network screen on the Joggler. You will then be able to install other applications such as Squeezebox client and BBC iPlayer.

Please be careful, I do not take any responsibility for you totally bricking your Joggler.

Disabling right click - (or the context menu) via Group Policy

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 19:46:00 +0000

To disable the right click you enable a setting in Group Policy called "Remove access to context menu".

This option is available for Internet Explorer, Windows Explorer, Start Menu and Taskbar.

If you allow access to the right mouse button the students will be able to access other systems that might compromise the network at the school.

When changing settings to the Group Policy ensure you make changes to the relevent Group Policy object - such as "Student Security settings".

The settings in Group Policy for "Remove access to context menu" are in:

User Configuration | Administrative Templates | Start Menu and Taskbar

User Configuration | Administrative Templates | Windows Components | Windows Explorer

User Configuration | Administrative Templates | Internet Explorer | Browser Menus

Telnet Joggler

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 10:09:00 +0000

The following information can be used to configure the Joggler to allow Telnet connections:
http://jogglerwiki.info/index.php?title=Installing_Telnet

If using Windows Vista or Windows 7 you will need to install Telnet from the "Turn Windows features on or off" option in Control Panel - Programs.

Connect to the Joggler:
Start Telnet.

In the command prompt type Open 192.168.1.x (Where 192.168.1.x is the IP address of your Joggler - obtained from the Settings - Network)
Password -- letmein

Change directory:
cd /media/appshop or cd tv

Make directory:
mkdir tv

Copy file from internet to folder.
wget http://www.location.com/Program.tar (Ensure you use appropriate capitals)

Expand compressed archive
tar xvf Program.tar

Delete compressed archive
rm Program.tar

List files in the folder
ls

Copying file
cp applications.xml applications.backup

Edit file
vi applications.xml

Insert/edit the file
i

esc to exit insert mode
:x to write and exit
:w to write changes
:q to exit
:q! to exit and discard changes

Reboot the Joggler
reboot

Microsoft Office 2010 KMS Licensing

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:59:00 +0000

Taken from Microsoft Site:

Brief Description
Volume licensing editions of Microsoft Office 2010 suites and applications, Microsoft Project 2010 and Microsoft Visio 2010 require activation. Key Management Service (KMS) is a local volume activation method. To activate your Office 2010 client installations with KMS, you will need to set up a KMS host. KMS Licensing is recommended if you have 50 or more workstations.

Overview
An Office 2010 KMS host is required if you want to use KMS activation for your volume license editions of Office 2010 suites or applications, Microsoft Project 2010 or Microsoft Visio 2010. When Office 2010 volume edition client products are installed, they will automatically search for a KMS host on your organization’s DNS server for activation. All volume editions of Office 2010 client products are pre-installed with a KMS client key, so you will not need to install a product key.

The download contains an executable file that will extract and install KMS host license files. Run the file on either 32-bit or 64-bit supported Windows operating systems (Windows 7, Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2008 R2). These license files are required for the KMS host service to recognize Office 2010 KMS host keys. It will also prompt you to enter your Office 2010 KMS host key and activate that key. After this is done, you may need to use the slmgr.vbs script to further configure your KMS host.

Microsoft Office KMS clients are only activated when five or more than five computers with MS Office installed attempt to get activated using the KMS host. In case of operating systems (e.g. Windows Vista and Windows 7), activation starts after 25 or more than 25 computers with Windows client request for activation.

Instructions
Follow these steps to set up a KMS host:

If you are running Windows Server 2003, you will need to perform this extra step. You will need to download and run the files below:
Windows Server 2003 32-bit
Windows Server 2003 64-bit
Download and run the KeyManagementServiceHost.exe file on this page on a supported operating system.
Enter your Office 2010 KMS host key when prompted.
Click OK to continue with activation.
Open port 1688 and allow the KMS host service through the firewall.
Windows 7 volume editions or Windows Server 2008 R2.
Open Control Panel and click on the Windows Firewall icon.
Click on the “Allow a program through Windows Firewall” link.
Click on the Change Settings button.
Check the box for Key Management Service.
Read the documentation to learn more about configuring your KMS host (including activation by telephone) with slmgr.vbs at TechNet.

Associated link: Office 2010 Administrative Template files (ADM, ADMX/ADML) and Office Customization Tool

Anatomy of an Attack - How Hackers Threaten your Security

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 20:38:00 +0000

Late last year I attended a seminar titled “Anatomy of an Attack – How Hackers Threaten your Security” by Sophos – stay with me it is important.
Malware (Viruses, spam etc.) used to be distributed by running programs or accessing Word documents they were designed to specifically attack your systems and cause problems with your network. Sophos have now seen a change where theft of data is now the focus and most malware attacks come from infected web pages.
“There is now more new malware per day, than there were for the whole of 2006”
“83% of malware infected web pages are on legitimate websites”
Sophos’ experience has shown that:

Networks that use forums or blogs are getting inundated with links to fake antivirus and other malware sites.
Very professional looking fake antivirus sites falsely identify viruses on your local machine then recommend you install their fake antivirus to clear them, thus installing the malware.
MAC malware is now a reality, and malware sites differentiate between operating systems and attack them with appropriate malware.
Targeting of applications, especially the growing Web 2.0 applications, including Adobe, PDF and Flash, Quicktime and Java.
Malware distributers are aware that users now install updates and multimedia plug-ins regularly so build websites that require these, getting the site user to install the malware.
Hackers are targeting un-patched unsecure websites, especially the ones that are database driven.

There are a number of ways to limit the possibility of malware attack.

Ensure not just the Windows operating systems and applications are kept up to date, but also the applications that are used regularly, Internet browsers, Adobe Flash, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Quicktime and Java etc. Hackers know which applications are used, which versions have vulnerabilities and then target their attacks.
Set the workstations to operate at user level, do not get the users to logon with workstation administrator access rights.
If hosting websites ensure the server is secure and patched to block all know vulnerabilities.
Ensure passwords are appropriate; the administrator passwords should be at least 8 characters long, with a mix of alphanumerical characters and a mix of upper and lowercase characters. (The Conficker virus spread from one computer to another over local area networks using a database of standard passwords.)
Ensure the Anti-Virus client is up to date with the latest update.
For Sophos:
- On Standalone versions of Sophos:
  To update, double click the Sophos shield in the bottom right of the task bar.
  To check the update, right click on the Sophos shield and click Open Sophos Anti-Virus. The Sophos Status section is displayed on the left.
- On network installations of Sophos, check Sophos Enterprise console. (Ensure your network team is monitoring this.)

New malware term:
Server-side polymorphism.
New hacking techniques are emerging making malware increasing difficult to detect and clear one of these is server-side polymorphism. Polymorphism based malware included a polymorphic engine that allowed the malware to replicate and change making it more difficult to identify and block. Server-side polymorphism is where the engine of the malware is not left on the system so the engine can now also be altered, and allowing the malware to change rapidly and harder to detect, making content analysis not enough to clear the malware.

Using Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 18:30:00 +0000

I have recently been exploring Twitter and looking at using it to publish some of the things I am interested in.

I have found some blogs very useful:

Adding long Website addresses (URL's) to Twitter - URL shortening services on Twitter
Automatically push you latest Blog posts to Twitter.
Add pictures to Twitter using twitpic - http://twitpic.com

Link:

http://twitterfeed.com

Address Labels in Microsoft Office

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:53:00 +0000

For address labels you want to use Microsoft Word:

Starting labels depends on your version of Microsoft Word. (Word 2007/2010 is the one with the very different ribbon tool bar running across the top.)

If you have Word 2003:

Click on Tools, and if Letters and Mailings is not on the list click on the double down arrows at the bottom of the list to shop hidden options.
Select Letters and Mailings, then select Envelopes and Labels.. from the pop out list.
Select the tab – Labels
In the bottom right of the Labels dialog box – click on the picture of the label, this will allow you to select the label the most likely meets your needs.
If you need to change a setting of the label click on the Details button, when changes have been made click Ok.
When you are happy with the label click Ok.
Type the address is the address box.
Then click Print.

If you have Word 2007:

Above the Ribbon tool bar at the top, click on Mailings.
The second option in is Labels
In the bottom right of the Labels dialog box – click on the picture of the label, this will allow you to select the label the most likely meets your needs.
If you need to change a setting of the label click on the Details button, when changes have been made click Ok.
When you are happy with the label click Ok.
Type the address is the address box.
Then click Print.

Maximize Internet Explorer On Opening

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:28:00 +0000

Right click the shortcut icon for IE next to the Start button (if using the Quick Start menu in Windows XP or Windows Vista.), choose Properties, change it from 'normal' to 'maximized'. Now open it.

Now right click any link on the page, choose Open In New Window....don't maximize it....instead, use the mouse to resize it to what you want it to be.

Now close the FIRST window you opened, and then close the new one you just resized.

Reopen IE from the shortcut icon again, and all windows from now on will be the size you chose and created.

Adding Network Shares as a Library Location

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:25:00 +0000

Is it possible in, Windows 7, to add a network share as a library location?

If you have your music files stored on a server on your network. When you try to add the share \\ServerName\Share as a libray location you get the error ”This folder cannot be included because it is on a share that is not indexed.”

The help link in the error message does not provide usefull information regarding this.

If you have you media files stored on a Microsoft Server you can add the share to the library if you install Microsoft Windows Search 4.0.

Once installed do not try adding the share to the library until the indexing has been completed. (You get a glowing magnifying glass in the right of the task bar.

If you use a NAS device that can not run the latest Windows Indexing service then the following may help.

"ISA server cannot load the properly page"

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:52:00 +0000

When you try to run Microsoft ISA Server the following error may be displayed "ISA server cannot load the property page" error detail is 0x80004005 unspecified error.

The ISA Server though maybe still working, if you restart the server you will probably still have the same problem.

Solution:
Managment console view maybe corrupt.
You need to clear out the console view settings by going to:
File>Options>Delete Files button. I then shut down the console and restarted the ISA Server Managment console and everything was back to normal.

In case youre wondering how to get into the managment console even though you get an error, just keep clicking continue until the console loads up.

Test a port is open

noreply@blogger.com (Nic Watters) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:32:00 +0000

Taken from the following JTB World - Blog

One way is to use old telnet.exe like this to find out if a port is open.
Syntax: telnet [hostname or IP address] [portnumber]
Example: telnet myserver 27000

You can also try the IP of the computer, server or host. You must be able to Ping that address.
If the window hangs while saying "Connecting ..." and then goes away, the port is not accessible. If the window instantly goes away, the port is probably not accessible. If the window display text, like "220 ESMTP spoken here" or just shows an empty window the port is open.Or if run in a command window:C:\>telnet myserver 27000Connecting To myserver...Could not open connection to the host, on port 27000: Connect failed

But if you have Windows Vista you probably don't have telnet because it is not installed as default.

Click Start, Control Panel, Programs, and then Turn Windows Features on or off. In the list, scroll down and select Telnet Client. Click OK to start the installation. Or you can just run: start /w pkgmgr /iu:"TelnetClient"

Now you should be able to check if a port is open or closed or not accessible. If it is not accessible start checking if the firewall is the issue.

Here are some usable links:
How to manually open ports in Internet Connection Firewall in Windows XP
Open a port in Windows Firewall in Windows Vista
Troubleshooting Windows Firewall settings in Windows XP Service Pack 2

Additional comment by Matt

The telnet approach works pretty well for a single port. If you know what you're doing you can even use it to send POP/SMTP/ETC commands.

But you ought to try "Angry IP Scan" http://www.angryziber.com/ipscan/ for when you need a broader scan (multiple ports or multiple hosts or both).