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showing posts tagged with 'computer'
McAfee's take on svchost.exe
by lunarg on April 23rd 2010, at 20:42
One of my clients at work was also a victim of the latest McAfee false-positive trouble. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, read the official statement (and remedy): https://kc.mcafee.com/corporate/index?id=KB68780&page=content.
Basically the issue is that McAfee wipes svchost.exe from your system because it thinks there's a virus in it. And this file is in fact quite critical for Windows to function properly.

My client managed to skip by the worst part of the trouble, and only had this issue on two of their desktop computers (running Windows XP SP3). Their systems were not entire  ...
 
HP online warranty check
by lunarg on April 20th 2010, at 14:09

HP has an online warranty check tool, but it's not easy to find on their website. Here's a direct link to it (for as long as it works:

http://www4.itrc.hp.com/service/ewarranty/warrantyInput.do

 
Print server properties in Windows 7
by lunarg on April 20th 2010, at 13:36
The print server properties have been misplaced a bit in Windows 7. Before, you could right-click in the window showing your printers, then choose the dialog from the menu. In Windows 7, this no longer works, as they've kicked out that particular menu entry.

But all is not lost: it still exists, but is not directly accessible anywhere. You need to use MMC, add the right snap-in, and that one provides you with full acess to the server properties.

Start mmc (start -> run, type in mmc);From the menu, choose File, then Add/remove Snap-insIn the available snap-ins list, scroll down until you f  ...
 
Avast Internet Security trouble
by lunarg on April 16th 2010, at 10:52
Had a problem with an XP (SP2) computer and Avast Internet Security. Upon installing the product (and its subsequent reboot), the computer freezes right after startup. The mouse still moves, but keyboard does not respond, no applications get started.

After a search on the Avast forum, I came across this post, claiming there's a problem with certain applications and Avast on XP:

Quote

This is caused by a bug in Windows XP function ImageEnumerateCertificates( ) which is being called by firewall service when a process tries to access the net. This function (unpatched in all version of XP) hang  ...
 
Change max message size in SBS 2008 POP3 connector
by lunarg on April 14th 2010, at 20:54

To change the maximum message size in SBS 2008's POP3 Connector, it is not enough to change the Exchange maximum send and receive limits. The POP3 Connector's limit is specified through the SBS Fax Sharepoint Receive. Setting the receive size of that specific connector will set the POP3 Connector's maximum allowed message size.

 
Get rid of sending winmail.dat attachments
by lunarg on April 14th 2010, at 20:31
When you yourself are sending out e-mail to others, your recipients might complain about them not being able to open this e-mail. This is because you're probably using Outlook (with Exchange) and are sending e-mail in RTF-format.
Using RTF in a mail is generally a bad idea, because it's not an internet standard for e-mail layouting. RTF was introduced a while back by Microsoft, but has since been superseded for the widely adopted HTML; even Outlook 2007 now defaults to HTML.

So, to get rid of the winmail.dat, simply set your mail format to HTML (instead of RTF).

In Outlook, on the Tools menu  ...
 
Maximum message size in Postfix
by lunarg on April 14th 2010, at 20:22

Like any other MTA, Postfix has a maximum message size that it allows to pass through. By default, when not defined, it is set to 10 MB.
To change it, add/change the following in main.cf:

message_size_limit = 15728640

This sets the limit to 15 MB. To make it unlimited, set it to 0.

 
Netscreen SSG5: clearing sockets
by lunarg on April 14th 2010, at 20:16
With firmware 6.00 in a Netscreen SSG5, I encountered an odd bug where available sockets for the management web interface run out, because they're not being freed properly.
Rather than rebooting the thing every once in a while, there's a way to free used sockets through the console.

Your best bet is to attach a serial cable to a server or something and use HyperTerminal (or another terminal application) to access the console of the Netscreen.

Once logged in, use the following to get a list of sockets in use:

get socket

This shows a list of in-use sockets, along with their ID. Sockets with   ...
 
php_flag vs. php_value
by lunarg on April 1st 2010, at 15:14
Had an issue where I was not able to change the post_max_size and upload_max_filesize through the Apache2 configuration.
After googling around, I finally found what was wrong: apparently, aside of php_flag, there's also a php_value flag to set configuration variables. The difference?

Use php_flag only when setting boolean values like 0 | 1, off | on.Use php_value to actually set values other than boolean (like the filesizes of post_max_size and upload_max_filesize).

Thus, a working example looks like:

<Directory /var/www/> <IfModule mod_php5.c> php_flag register_globals o  ...
 
STOP 0x7E when inserting USB flash drive
by lunarg on March 30th 2010, at 11:53
Had a rather odd problem with a laptop of a client: upon inserting any USB storage media, his Windows XP bailed out with a BSOD with STOP code 0x7E.

A look with windbg revealed it may be related to an issue with the USB driver (usbport.sys), but as there were no real USB drivers available for it, and he already had the most recent Windows Updates, a "regular" solution would not be an option.

So I went for the more irregular option. I knew that there's probably another Windows Update which had replaced one or more of the USB driver files (in C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers) - the proble  ...
 
Wine for Mac OSX
by lunarg on March 24th 2010, at 14:51

Wine now also has precompiled binaries available. Together with WineBottler (an application to prepare and pack Windows applications for redistribution with Wine), it is available here: http://winebottler.kronenberg.org/.

Wine is an application which allows to run Windows application on linux, BSD or Mac OSX. Rather than full emulation, it acts as a compatibility layer between the application and the OS.
Wine is not entirely foolproof just yet; there is still much to be done, but with each passing release, more and more applications are getting supported.

 
Condor patch 1.1.3 released
by lunarg on March 23rd 2010, at 22:12

The long awaited Condor patch v1.1.3 has been released. It fixes a critical bug with the newer nVidia drivers, and was particularly a hassle when running Condor in Windows 7.
Aside of the fix, an additional tow plane was added in the mix.

Download the patch: http://www.condorsoaring.com/downloads.htm.

 
Analyze wireless networks with inSSIDer
by lunarg on March 19th 2010, at 18:37
inSSIDer is a free tool to analyze wireless networks. While this tool may not be as extended as professional ones, it has a few nice features that make this thing a must-have. Add to it that it's entirely free, and you've got yourself a nice tool for troubleshooting wireless networks.

inSSIDer can be used to inspect wireless network and troubleshoot access points. It goes as far as viewing received signal (in dBm) over time, track channels in use, etc. There's also additional GPS support (NMEA v2.3) to locate access points, including support to export it to KML for viewing in Google Earth. Th  ...
 
Configure battery packs on your APC UPS
by lunarg on March 3rd 2010, at 17:48
Suppose you have an APC UPS and have just purchased a battery pack to go with it. Connecting the battery pack is pretty straightforward, but did you know you need to tell your UPS that an additional battery pack has been installed? Setting this in your UPS, optimizes the usage of the entire battery capacity.

If you are using PowerChute software, and have connected the UPS to a computer using serial, USB or network interface, you will be able to set this parameter in the software.

Log into the management card using your web browser (default user and password: apc).Navigate to UPS, and inside   ...
 
Seamless compression with Squeeze
by lunarg on March 1st 2010, at 22:45
Seamless file compression has found its way to Mac OSX 10.6 with Squeeze.
The application is a system applet, implementing the new HFS compression technology to transparently compress folders you configure to be compressed. Each folder added with Squeeze will be compressed in the background. To the user, they are just regular files, but they will take up less disk space.

Using Squeeze is easy: just select the folders you want to get compressed, and it will silently work in the background to compress the contents of those folders. Whenever you use any of the files, it will be read like any   ...
 
Raptors finally arrived
by lunarg on February 24th 2010, at 19:26

Finally got the final parts of my computer: the HD's.

Currently, I was using an old HD (a Maxtor 500GB) from my previous system. The idea with the new disks is to set up two Raptors in a RAID0 configuration. As Raptors are already fairly fast, the additional RAID0 - I've been using this method a few years already - should give it an extra edge.
I'm keeping the old HD in to have additional 500 GB of pure storage (like downloads and such, things that don't need the speed).

 
Albatros organizes Condor Soaring competition
by lunarg on February 19th 2010, at 16:52
Soaring club Albatros (EBZH) has organized an online competition in the soaring flightsim Condor. In this competition, participants have to fly a set of tasks where they have to try and get the highest score by obtaining the highest average speed.

There are seven tasks in the Provence, set out of Vinon. The other seven tasks are all based in Slovenia (the default scenery of Condor). The tasks prove to be a mix of flying by thermals, and a good deal of ridge flying. For each task, up to three tries are possible. The best of three count as the final result for a given task.

Results of the comp  ...
 
Installing Windows XP alongside Vista or 7
by lunarg on February 13th 2010, at 15:25
If you come across a problem where you can't do anything but install a Windows XP alongside a Vista or Windows 7, don't despair, as it is quite easily done.

First you have to repartition your HD. If you have a second HD you're not using, you can ignore this step. If not, you probably have to resize one of the present partitions. But in order to get the maximum out of the resizing, make sure the partition you're about to resize, is defragmented properly. Note that you cannot resize FAT32 partitions (but who uses that nowadays, anyway).
The resizing can be done through Dis  ...
 
Telenet applies Fair Use Policy
by lunarg on February 11th 2010, at 13:23
In Belgium, internet provider Telenet announced the application of fair use policy on a number of their internet subscriptions. Additionally, two new subscriptions have been launched under the common name FiberNet, which will be using the new EuroDOCSIS 3.0 specification to obtain the higher speeds.
After Belgacom, Telenet is the second provider in Belgium to apply fair use policy.

The fair use policies will be applied to the TurboNet and FiberNet subscription at the beginning of July this year. ExpressNet and TurboNet will also benefit from a speed increase (30Mbps instead of 25Mbps). The  ...
 
[MyHW] Sil
by lunarg on February 9th 2010, at 23:36
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showing posts tagged with 'computer'
 
 
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