Sickles Insight

Remove Password Protected Symantec Antivirus

Jeff Sickles — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:16:29 +0000

Norton AntiVirus Clients or Symantec AntiVirus Clients (especially Corporate Edition Clients) can be installed as managed client by a Symantec AntiVirus Server. When a Symantec AntiVirus Client is managed, it will prompt for password when uninstalling client via a local computer Control Panel (Add or Remove Programs) applet. If you don’t know or forget the password, then the client is not able to uninstall or remove the software.

In the cases where Symantec AntiVirus server has been taken down and no longer exist, or the client computer has no access to company network, or the default client uninstall password does not work, the following hack will enable you to remove Symantec Antivirus without using a password:

1. Open Registry Editor (regedit).
2. Navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\INTEL\LANDesk\VirusPro tect6\CurrentVersion\Administrator Only\Security\
3. Change the value for useVPuninstallpassword key from 1 to 0.
4. Exit Registry Editor and now you can uninstall Symantec AntiVirus Client.

The trick should work on most version of Symantec AntiVirus client or Norton AntiVirus Client, including version 7, 8, 9 or 10.

CopyTrans: Restore, Rebuild, Repopulate iTunes library from iPod, iPhone & iPod Touch with all personal settings

Jeff Sickles — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:43:49 +0000

Juliana of CopyTrans sent me an email notifying me of this free utility to rebuild, repopulate, and restore your iTunes Library from your iPod or iPhone. Always good to know what tools are available! Thank you Juliana!

Dear Jeff,

There is a lightweighed application called CopyTrans capable of rebuilding a lost iTunes library from an iPhone. What it does is that it reads the data of the iPhone, creates a copy and transfers it back to iTunes.

CopyTrans has a pretty amazing security system that prevents iTunes unwanted synchronizations, and by this way, prevents you from syncing your iPhone with an empty iTunes library.

This friendly user software, imports everything you’ve got in your iPhone, from songs, playlists, and play counts, to videos, podcasts and artworks.

CopyTrans is fully compatible with any iPod.

Visit our web page: http://www.copytrans.net/download.php

Don’t hesitate to contact me in case you need further information.

Vonage Caller ID Issue: A Truthful Answer!

Jeff Sickles — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:00:46 +0000

Known Vonage issue when inbound CID information is not displayed on your second telephone line.

Let me ask you two questions: (1) Are you not receiving caller id information on your vonage telephone line? (2) Do you utilize any advanced forwarding features such as the simul-ring ? If you answered yes to both of these questions, then this post will probably help you understand what is going on, and frustrate you even more!

I have been dealing with this issue for months now and have had three, yes 3, long conversations with Vonage (1 hour plus each time). I finally talked with a semi-knowledgeable and helpful representative who informed me that that this is a known issue with vonage and that they are still trying to figure out ways to fix the issue.

Here is the issue: My device (and apparently many others) do not support Caller ID on the second telephone line of vonage lines with the simulring feature enabled. So what is the answer? Get caller ID information on your first line only, choose which one you want to see the details of, set up another PAP device or go out and buy one that seems to work with two lines.

I asked the representative at Vonage what device did support two phone lines with the simul ring feature enabled - because I really don’t want to give up this great feature! It took her eight (8) minutes of research to find one - that is NOT a good sign! She was typing away furiously and muttering “let me just confirm… okay..and checking…” the entire time. Finally she told me that there are no current known issues with the Linksys 31p2 device - so she recommended I could buy this. Personally, I have a Linksys PAP 2 version 2 right now. And I know for a fact that I have a linksys router/PAP device somewhere in my closet, so I am going to dig that out and just use one line of two PAP devices for the time being.

There you have it. I told you that you would be more furstated, but hey - at least we have some answers!

The Internet Jukebox

Jeff Sickles — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:18:32 +0000

There have been others like it, but Musicovery is a simple web application that lets you choose and explore music by mood, style, genre, decade and much more. Mix and match the matrix of filters and customize your internet radio experience to suit your tastes, even if that happens to be dark energetic pop or jazz from the 80s.

The downside about Musicovery is that songs play in a noticeable lo-fi format, reserving the better quality for paid users. Subscriptions are reasonably priced but the registration process is confusing and hints at a number of hidden sign-up fees. It’s much better to stick with the free version and enjoy the thrill of musical exploration. For a really interesting experience, try unchecking the “hit” box and select “discovery”. You’ll unearth a ton of obscure bands you just might learn to love. Over the time I’ve listened to it, I’ve also noticed that in the styles I choose - there isn’t a large database of songs, but the repetitiveness has been infrequent enough to not bother me much, just worth the mention.

A simple to use interface lets you narrow in on the style of music you want to hear at the current moment, and a slider lets you narrow into the year span of music you want to listen to. Very simple - very nice. I don’t think the lo-fi quality is an issue for those that want to listen from work or just in the background. I’ve been using this music service (free) for over two weeks now. I thought it was time that I pass along the good findings. When you get a chance, go check it out: musicovery.com.

Motorola e815 won’t pair with your bluetooth headset

Jeff Sickles — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 12:08:59 +0000

Recently my bluetooth headset quit working with my Motorola e815 just days outside of the warranty period. This annoyed me more than anything. Despite my greatest attempts, I could not get my cell phone to pair to my bluetooth headset. So the question becomes, how do you get your headset to pair with your bluetooth phone when you know both should be in fine working order. I knew neither had suffered extreme heat, water, or great impacts. I even went as far as to try a suggestion that seemed to work for someone else, and I thought it was worth the try. It didn’t work for me, but you can try it if you’d like. Follow these steps:

Reset all options except unlock code, security code, and lifetime timer: (Motorola e815)
Menu > Settings > Initial Setup > Master Reset
To reset all options, you need to enter the Security Code (000000).

If you follow these steps, you will reset ALL features for the phone - your contacts, dials calls, pictures, ring tones, etc will be SAFE. Features like the selected ring tone, your background, your front menu settings will all be reset to factory defaults. Let me tell you, it is one of the more annoying things to have to go backwards in time with all of these options. I was resetting options for the next week. Each day I would find one more option that I hadn’t yet changed to the way I like to use my phone.

Anyway - we are getting off topic. After trying this, several other methods - including removing the recognition of the headset from my phone and trying a brand new pair, etc - it still failed. Any of these methods may or may not work for you. Do you want to know what worked for me? I did nothing for the next three weeks to either my phone or my headset. I removed the pairing from my phone one last time and put the headset on the corner of my desk. Just yesterday, for the first time in three weeks I picked it up, turned it on, and my phone automatically discovered it and paired (After asking for the password of course).

Have you lost your password for your bluetooth device? I’m sure you can find it with a quick google search - but try the passkey ‘0000′ (four zeros) to see if that lets you in. All of this to say - electronics can be funny things. Just when you think you’ve been beat, they decide to work with you again. It’s almost like it knew. Truth be told - I was actually just hours away from leaving the house, one of my stops was going to be a store to pick up a new headset. If you have the time and patience, try saving yourself $70 or more.

Stop Microsoft Windows Automatic Updates from Haggling You! (3 simple steps)

Jeff Sickles — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 19:17:49 +0000

Microsoft Windows Automatic Update is a great feature for those who are forgetful or lazy to download the latest updates. This application helps to automatically install the latest updates of the operating system and other products with little or no user intervention.

I don’t mind it myself until it begins to bother me with the restart dialog box incessantly. Certain Windows updates require a reboot of the operating system, it nags with a dialog box requesting a restart so often that it becomes really annoying if you aren’t ready to restart your computer. Your options are to click cancel every 10 minutes out of your work day or to succumb to the reboot request at your computers whim. Luckily one simple command can disable this dialog box to let you work hassle free. Of course, make sure you remember to reboot your PC at the end of your work day! For me, I often don’t want to close all of my carefully placed application windows until I’ve completed my work with them. Because of this, I often delay my reboot by several hours.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Open a command prompt window (Start > Run )

2. Type cmd (just the three letters) into the box and click ‘OK’ or hit enter

3. In the black window type the remainder of this line: sc stop wuauserv

This command stops the service which popup the restart dialog. Now you can restart the operating system when you are done with your work. The auto update service will restart next time the computer reboots and will automatically downloads available updates.

Free Flight Simulator with Google Earth!

Jeff Sickles — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 20:04:04 +0000

No joke, the already popular (and free) Google Earth software has a little known feature allowing you to turn your software into a flight simulator. Read up on how to control the plane over here: http://earth.google.com/intl/en/userguide/v4/flightsim/.

Have fun!

Photography: Capturing the Silhouette

Coastline Studios — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 15:55:42 +0000

Tips & Tricks – “The Silhouette”

SKILL LEVEL: Beginner

HOW IT WORKS: While the silhouette seems like a simple effect to create, it can be very powerful and compelling when used correctly. The silhouette is a study of shapes and light; … lines and color. It brings the viewers attention to the outline of your subject, and in doing so often creates an interesting set of lines and curves for the eye to follow.

To shoot a silhouette, place the subject of your image in-between you and a bright light such as a bright sky or window. Make sure you camera is exposing for the brighter light behind your subject, focus the camera on your subject and take the picture.

What’s New with Coastline Studios?

(photo used with permission by Grace Ormonde – Wedding Style Magazine)

Early in May Coastline Studios was invited to a Grace Ormonde “Midwest Platinum Vendors” Party. It was a great chance to meet the wonderful staff at Grace Ormonde - Wedding Style Magazine, and also some fellow high-end vendors in the wedding industry. The highlight of the night however was meeting Grace Ormonde herself. Grace is pictured above with John Pottenger and Jen Kroll of Jen Kroll Photography.

Media of the Month

- click on the image above to play the video -

TITLE: “Wedding Trailer”

PHOTOGRAPHER: John Pottenger

THE STORY: This video is a recent teaser trailer from a wedding Coastline was hired to shoot in May.

Free Monthly Wallpaper

Select a screen size:

Standard
1024×768

Widescreen

TO SET THIS IMAGE AS YOUR COMPUTER WALLPAPER:

1) Click on the link above that matches the screen size of your computer. (If you don’t know what your screen size is, click here to find out). This will open the image in your web browser.

2) Right click the image and choose “Set as background”.Mac Users click here for instructions. If you do not see the screen size of your computer listed above, please e-mail us and we will make that available to you.

Mother cuts off 61-year-old son’s allowance

Jeff Sickles — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 15:45:29 +0000

ROME, Italy (Reuters) — A Sicilian mother took away her 61-year-old son’s house keys, cut off his allowance and hauled him to the police station because he stayed out late.

Tired of her son’s misbehavior, the pensioner in the central Sicilian city of Caltagirone turned to the police to “convince this blockhead” to behave properly, La Sicilia, one of Sicily’s leading newspapers, reported on Thursday.

The son responded by saying his mother did not give him a big enough weekly allowance and did not know how to cook.

… story continued here

Use Any Email Address with Your Favorite Email Client

Jeff Sickles — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 15:55:16 +0000

Though this article appears technical, I promise that even the least of technology educated persons can follow along and gain value! If you can check your email, you can follow along in this article!Many find themselves given an email address from their university, college, highschool, place of work, or religious affiliation; unfortunately, often times along with this email address comes a poor mechanism for keeping up to date with receiving, sending and organizing these emails - often through some sluggish web based client. I want to share with you an easy to execute method to integrate your email (wherever it may originate) with your favorite email client - be it Outlook, Eudora, Opera, ACT!, etc. and continue to use your provided email address for both receiving and sending emails.

First, the problem: The need to write this article arose from assiting with the setup of a new office for an Aflac representative. Talking with the kind, but unhelpful support desk I found that their only solution to using the professional email domain, ‘@US.AFLAC.COM’, was to forward each rep’s email to a personal address of their choosing. The recommendations made by the support staff were “… your Comcast email, or even your AOL address.” This may appear to be a neat feature, but when you turn around to send an email back to a client, you realize that the neatness is only one way. Now everyone is receiving email from your personal and relatively unprofessional email address. Even worse, if you don’t have the method or knowledge to change the ‘reply-to-address’, any business you email will begin emailing your personal AOL address instead of emailing your business email address. In addition to the number of problems already brewing in your head, what if you change service providers? Well - frankly, you’ll lose access to your email address and all of those contacts who have saved that address as your primary contact venue. This is usually going to be a problem only to those that live or work away from the main facility that provides the email address. Take for example a student that lives off campus, a sales rep that works from their home, or any user who routinely checks their email off-site.

Now, for the solution: It is very rare that an Internet Service Provider (dialup modem, DSL, cable, broadband, AT&T, SBC, Verizon, Comcast, etc) would supply you with an internet connection but not provide you with an outgoing mail relay so that you can plug that setting into your mail program and then be able to send mail from your own computer. Alright - plain english: Your provider, lets say Comcast, allows you to send email through their server with your account with the mask of being any email address of your choosing - yes, now you are with me - this could be your Aflac email address, or that provided by your university. Don’t worry, we’ll get to the specific details on how to accomplish this in just a few minutes.

Over the last few years, more and more ISP’s have started to require their subscribers to use their SMTP server. If you can not send email using the servers of the organization that gave you the email address, you will most likely be able to use the servers provided by your Internet Service Provider.

You should contact your ISP or Network Administrator to get the name of their Outgoing Mailserver, we will need to plug that into the Outgoing Mailserver setting of your email program in just a few minutes. Many ISPs (MSN, Earthlink, Verizon, etc) do not even allow their customers to use any Outgoing Mailserver except their own.

How We Will Do It: In most situations, the origin of your email account provides a bare minimum of POP3 account access. This is a strange acronym that means you can access your email from another location and download a copy of it to a place of your choosing. There are other types of access, but for the sake of simplicity, the expectation that you will use your chosen client as the primary communication platform, and the expectation that your email account allows for POP3 (whether it be AFLAC, your university, gmail, yahoo, aol, etc) we will continue with the directions. This will allow for you to receive your email from that address straight to your computer without having to go to the web page each time you want to read your email.

How to Accomplish This: The steps are extremly simply, if they aren’t - you can leave me a comment and tell me that they aren’t!

For the purposes of this article I will demonstrate using an AFLAC email account, an SBCGlobal service provider, and Outlook 2003 as the mail client. If you differ on any of these, that’s okay - you can still follow along, just make sure you replace your information in the obvious spots!

If this is your first time setting up Oulook, it will prompt you to add an email account. If you’ve dabbled in outlook previously, you’ll need to go to

1. In Microsoft Outlook, select Tools > E-mail Accounts.

2. On the E-mail Accounts wizard window, select “Add a new e-mail account” and click Next.

I am going to select the option for a POP3 account, this is the easiest choice, and most popular.

3. For your server type, select “POP3” and click Next.

Next we are prompted for some information pertaining to the account.

4. On the Internet E-mail Settings (POP3) window, enter your information as follows:

Your Name: Jeff Sickles (Enter your first and last name – this will be seen as the “from” name when others receive your mail)

E-mail Address: jsickles@DOMAIN.com (be sure to include the ‘@’ symbol with the domain name. This is the email address that will receive the email when someone clicks reply. Make sure its right!)

User Name: jsickles@DOMAIN.com (your user name is most often your email address. If you have not been given a specific user name, make it your full email address)

Password: supersecretpassword (Your password should have been indicated to you when you received your email address)

Be sure “remember my password” is checked

Now, for the fun stuff…

Incoming mail server (POP3): mail.DOMAIN.com (this is the most common pattern, though it certainly may vary. Try mail followed by a dot followed by the full domain (this is the name after the @ symbol in your email address - that’s a great first guess, google searches or asking your administrator can reveal more cryptic server names) Here’s an example, Joe@foxnews.com. foxnews.com would be the domain. Get the idea?

Outgoing mail server (SMTP): smtp.Your Internet PRovider.net (As we discussed earlier, this will be your ISP server. I’ve made a short list of ISP’s that block port 25 and in addition provided their last known SMTP address. This should lessen your work.)

NOTE: These settings should work from both onsite and at home, if you experience any trouble with these settings (be sure to test both incoming and outgoing mail)

Your screen should look like the image below. Please make sure the checkboxes and information looks correct.

There are more instructions after the list.

A short list of ISP’s that Block Port 25 in addition to their SMTP address:

AOL: smtp.mail.aol.com
Adelphia: mail.adelphia.net
Ameritech: mailhost.det.ameritech.net
Astound Broadband: smtp.ca.astound.net
AT&T: mailhost.att.net
AT&T Global: smtp1.attglobal.net
Bell internet highspeed (Canadian): smtp10.bellnet.ca
Bell south: mail.bellsouth.net
bigpond.com (Australian): contact service provider for Settings.
CableOne: mail.cableone.net
Charter Communications: smtp.chartermi.net
Charter.net: smtp.charter.net
CharterTN.net: mail.chartertn.net
CharterMI.net: mail.chartermi.net
Cinncinnati Bell/Fuse Dial-up: smtp.fuse.net
coax.net: smtp.west.coax.net /east / central
comcast: smtp.comcast.net
Cox: smtp.west.cox.net - smtp.central.cox.net - smtp.east.cox.net
Earthlink: smtp.earthlink.net
Etisalat (UAE): smtp.emirates.net.ae
epix: out.epix.net
erols: smtp.erols.com
Frontiernet.net: smtp.frontiernet.net
fuse: smtp.fuse.net
iquest.net: mail.iquest.net
ISP.com: mail.isp.com
Juno: smtp.juno.com
Megared (Mexico): contact service provider for Settings.
Mindspring: smtp.mindspring.com
MSN: smtp.email.msn.com
MSN.DSL: secure.smtp.email.msn.com
NEBI.com: mail.nebi.com
Netcom: smtp.ix.netcom.com
NetZero: smtp.netzero.net
OOL (Optimum Online): mail.optonline.net
Optusnet: mail.optusnet.com.au
Pacific Bell (Pacbell): mail.pacbell.net
panix.com: mailhost.panix.com
PeoplePC: smtp.peoplepc.com
Quixnet.net: smtp.quixnet.net
RCN: smtp.rcn.com
Road Runner(NYC): smtp-server.nyc.rr.com (for other states, and regions contact your Road Runner Support team)
Rogers Hi-Speed (Canadian): smtp.broadband.rogers.com
SBC: smtp.sbcglobal.net
SBC Yahoo: smtp.sbcglobal.yahoo.com
speakeasy: mail.speakeasy.net
sympatico: smtp1.sympatico.ca
The-Beach.net: mail.the-beach.net
Verio: smtp.veriomail.com
Verizon: outgoing.verizon.net
Verizon(alt): smtpout.verizon.net
Videotron: relais.videotron.ca yourlink.ca (Canadian): contact service provider for Settings.

This is an important step, do not skip over this!

5. Next you need to click on More Settings

Click on the tab labeled Outgoing Server

Check the box My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication (If you use comcast, you may be able to leave this box unchecked!!)

Logon using: (Put in your username and password you use to connect to the internet - assigned by your phone company if you have DSL)

THIS NEXT STEP IS OPTIONAL, let me explain.

When you check your mail through outlook, it looks to the email server and removes a copy of the message and puts it on your computer only. If you went to check your mail through the web later in the day, any messages already received would no longer be available for viewing. This is more of a personal choice, but you may also find it suitable for you. We can set an option to leave a copy on the server for a short period of time, so that we can easily access the email in both locations. It’s more about convenience. If you feel this isn’t necessary, skip the rest of this step. If you will find it helpful, follow these short steps.

4a. Click “More Settings.”

4b. Select the “Advanced” tab.

4c. Under Delivery, select Leave a copy of messages on the server.

4d. Now select Remove from server after 10 days.

4e. Select OK to exit that menu.

Click OK to finish in that screen

That’s it, now a message will remain for 10 days after you receive it – this allows you to check your messages from either place and still have past messages available in both locations. This will NOT remove messages from outlook.

5. Click on NEXT

6. Click FINISH.

That’s it, you should be done. You have successfully configured your outlook client to receive email from your email server.