Rolling Back from IE10

So this drove me a bit crazy for a while as it doesn’t happen all the time. You roll back from IE10 to IE9 and you can no longer download any files. For me, I actually have to roll back to IE8 so that I can print from the Internet. If this happens to you it is actually a pretty easy fix.

Going into Internet Options>General tab>Browsing history-Settings shows the following:
1) Disk space to use = 0
2) Current location =
Attempting to increase the size of the Disk space to use results in the error popup:
“Please select a value between 8 and 8 for how much disk space Temporary Internet Files may use.”
Attempting to Move folder is also unsuccessful.
Solution
1) Login as the affected user.
2) Run regedit (supply admin credentials as needed.)
3) Navigate to:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\InternetSettings\5.0\Cache
4) Delete (or rename, if you want to be cautious) the following key (and its subkeys):
Extensible Cache
5) You may now open IE (no need to relog,reboot or exit regedit).
6) IE will automatically create new Extensible Cache registry keys
7) Navigate to
Internet Options>General>Browsing history-Settings
8) You should now have “Disk space to use” = 250, and the “Current location” should show a valid path.
9) Once you are satisfied of success, delete the old renamed keys.
10) Repeat for each affected user of that PC.

Now…if you are like me have to go back to IE8 you again run into problems that the above doesn’t cure. However, I found this link and it *does* work!

http://nuangel.net/?p=2704

Safe computing!
Cheers,
Cameron

Trout Opener – April 27/2013

So the intrepid young fishing warriors decided to head out for their first opener….ever! Oh wait…*sigh*…one young warrior and me! After I managed to secure a nice strip of private property water to fish, we were on the water bright and early Saturday morning primed and ready to do our duty to fish and conservation. We marked a few fish as we did an initial scout and thought…booyah!

We geared up and headed out ready to take on those elusive tasty fish! Bush whacking and wading kept us busy trying to find a couple of likely pools and eventually we split up with our eyes on different areas. Since I’ve never done this before, I was armed with everything…CP and 13′ float rod, 9 foot 7wt fly rod and 6’6″ Ugly Stick…my vest laden down with pretty much everything!

I break out the float rod and decide to try and drift a likely looking pool…a few drifts in…the float goes down…rod goes up…FISH ON!! I can’t believe I actually landed a fish on the pin! LOL…now I’m not sure I’m going to post the picture..but it sure was pretty! All 6 inches of it! LOL!!

So the boy thought that was funny as heck after I yell FISH ON and he comes running over and see what exactly classed as a fish!

So the boy sets up and I start heading back up the river…I get a couple of hundred feet away and all of a sudden I hear Whooping and Hollering back from the boy. He’s calling out..”DAD DAD….GET BACK HERE!!!!!” I go slogging back through the brush and water and he is still kicking up a huge racket! I finally get to him and what do I see…one bleeding boy and a beauty Rainbow! LOL!!! He didn’t know that they had teeth and lipped it!!

He decided that it would be good up on the bank and of course it was flopping and kicking like crazy and was covered in crap and of course the boy wants a picture with the fish. I’m telling him that it needs to be washed off before the picture and of course he doesn’t want to get a picture of a bloody fish (from his blood!) so being the good father I am, I tell him I’ll wash it off…….can you see what’s coming???…I take it to the water and start cleaning all the crud from it and had it mostly cleaned off when *BLAM* this fish gives one last hurrah in my hands and ends up loose in the water!

The boy jumps in and gets him out of the water twice and *BLAM* the fish kicks and ends back in the water! The fish then starts down stream and goes under a log and is heading my way..I had headed downstream where it was really shallow and waited until he got to me. The boy is heading down towards me and I bend over to grab the fish…two things happen…I bend over and grab the fish and my camera which I had opened the pocket to take a picture decided it wanted to see what the bottom of the river looked like! I let one hand off of the fish and grab the camera and hand it to my son and hoist the fish and take it to a safe area on the shore!

Yes boy and girls, this one was kept for the table! The boy is totally a catch and release fisher, but his mom LOVES Rainbow Trout and threatened to never do his laundry again or cook for him if he caught a Bow and let it go!

Great way to spend a day, topped off with a couple of semi-warm pops as I had forgotten to throw in the ice packs.

Smile lots and often, it makes people wonder what you are thinking!

Cheers,
Cameron

The boy with his Rainbow Trout!

Show-Rooming

Lately, there has been a lot of talk about people show-rooming and how it is having an effect on the brick and mortar stores. So what is it? Does it affect you? If you are a retailer, then the answer is probably yes!

So what is show-rooming? People are now pretty tech savvy and doing a lot of research online about various products that are out there for sale. They will research the heck out a product that they are interested in, can see it, check out reviews by people that own the item and also see where it’s available. The problem with this is that they can’t physically see it in person or hold it or touch it or play with it (the “it” being whatever the product is!)

The hands on touchy feely is *almost* the end game in the purchase….*almost*. Now is the important part, the price! With a lot of the products today, you can almost certainly find it much cheaper online than you can in a brick and mortar store. So what do you do, you show-room the product and then shop around to find the price you like. Is this having an effect? You might want to ask Best Buy who announced that they are closing 15 of their Best Buy and Future Shop stores (900 jobs).

There is a store in Australia that is now charging a $5 fee just to walk through their doors. If you purchase something then the $5 is deducted from your purchase…but…if you are show-rooming, then it’s going to cost you $5 to look around. Really? Are you kidding me? In my humble opinion it’s the cost of doing business. Everybody shops around because we all think that better our pockets than theirs!

Now here’s the rub, how does a brick and mortar store compete? They have huge overhead and costs associated with running a brick and mortar store against someone selling online that maybe has a warehouse to deal with. Who do you think can sell an item cheaper?

We all want to support businesses, at least in theory. Here in lies the problem, we suffer from the same affliction that all businesses do. It’s all about the bottom line! Our own or theirs, which is more important to you? Again, that depends…are you all about price? All about service? Return policy? Everybody has different reasons for their choices.

Unfortunately, our choices can have some far reaching implications (think Best Buy and 900 lost jobs). So how do we handle show-rooming? Personally, I’m not sure…bottom lines are important both to ourselves and to the shareholders. Sometimes it’s worth paying a little more to get that personal service and that “I’m supporting local business” feeling.

Just something to consider when you are buying your widget from Amazon, etc.

As always,

Safe computing!
Cheers,
Cameron

MVP Status!

So here it is, April 1st and I just found out that I’ve been awarded MVP (Most Valuable Professional) status by Microsoft!

This is special as it’s not something you can write a test for, but must be nominated by an existing MVP to Microsoft and then they check/watch your contributions to forums, websites, blogs, etc. Totally exciting as it opens up a new world of networking with like minded people and also events hosted by Microsoft themselves.

As always, Safe Computing!

Cheers,
Cameron

Branding yourself

What is Branding and why do we care? Well, today with the huge explosion of Social Media…Branding is who and what we are in today’s digital age! Everybody seems to be part of some sort of Social Media outlet, be it LinkdIn, Face Book, Twitter, and the myriad of others that are out there. So why should we care what we put out there?

OK, consider this…you apply for a job and the first thing they do is Google you! What are they going to find? The results could astound, amaze, and embarrass you! Depending on how you set your security on the various Social Media sites, everything you’ve ever posted or ranted and raved about might be out there to see. Is this something that you might want a potential employer to see? Your family? Your Kids?

What you put out on the Internet is pretty much out there forever! You need to think about this….are you totally satisfied with your job and going to retire there or could there be a possibility that you might want to change jobs? Social Media is the way of the future, with every company looking into it and seeing how it may benefit them and increase revenues. Don’t fool yourself, it’s here to stay!

Would I, who is Microsoft Certified in a bunch of different areas, slam Microsoft? It’s my bread and butter! It’s what I do for a living…dealing with a whack of different Microsoft applications. What if I applied to Microsoft for a job and the powers that be Googled me and found a bunch of post slamming the company that I really wanted to work for? Do you think I would stand a snowballs chance?

I hear recently of companies that are asking you to log into Face Book so they can check your posts and profile…would you do it? Or would you be embarrassed by what you have posted? Some people think that it shouldn’t matter because it is done on your own time and should be private..but would you? For me, I wouldn’t hesitate as there is nothing there that I am ashamed about or would have any issue about showing any potential employer. This is branding!

Branding is you…everything you put out there is you…and everything you put out there is Branding! You are a brand and you need to think about how you brand *YOU*. Just think about Coke or Pepsi or Ford or GM…do you think their branding isn’t important?

Whether you are aware of it or not, everything you put out there on the Interwebs is branding! Do you want to increase revenue? Get a new job? Increase your web presence? It’s *all* about branding!

YOU are your brand! You need to consider everything that you put out there in Social Media, because it’s all about YOU! It doesn’t matter if you are an individual, company, group, interest group or non-profit organization..You are your brand!

You better hope the Brand that you are showing the world is the Brand that you want to be!

Safe computing!
Cheers,
Cameron

Business doesn’t trust free

Having been in IT a long time, the one thing that I notice is that business doesn’t trust free (one notable exception). It seems that most medium and large businesses have deep rooted distrust of something that they don’t have to pay for. The reasoning behind this is that there is no retail support for the products or they have never heard of them before.

Now before I get into this, I will say that I do like Microsoft products and the way all of their products are designed to integrate together. I’ve dealt with every version of Windows up to Version 7 (haven’t managed to get my hands on Win 8 yet) and a slew of different server versions and will be shortly setting up their latest and greatest offering.

So why would we look to free products? A few reasons actually! Free is always good, there are some very cool free applications out there, and finally the support you get for an open source product is actually world-wide.

The notable exception mentioned above, is VMWare’s ESXi version of virtualization software. You don’t get the bells and whistles of the paid version, but it does allow you to leverage your server hardware and take full advantage of the drive space, RAM and CPU. Most servers are way under-utilized and the horse power that your bought is being wasted. Virtualization is a great way around it.

I have a couple of favorites that I have dealt with for quite a long time that I use on a regular basis.
– Nagios (http://www.nagios.org/) is a great monitoring tool and has a ton of configurable options
– Spiceworks (http://www.spiceworks.com/) is a very good tool for inventory of software and hardware and will also do helpdesk ticketing and monitoring
– Filezilla (http://filezilla-project.org/) is a great little FTP program
– Firefox (http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/) Very good alternative browser
There are a lot more that I use from time to time depending on need of course. I’ve listed a bunch more under “Great Tools” that I’ve used or use. There is even a couple of Microsoft Office type packages out there. These are good if your computer didn’t come with a version of MS Office and you can’t afford to purchase it.

Open Office (http://www.openoffice.org/)
Libre Office (http://www.libreoffice.org/download)

Open Source projects all seem to have forums or ways to get in touch with the developers of the software, so getting a bug fixed is usually done in a timely manner. If you want, you can probably even grab the source code and have a look through it. But I will say, unless you are a programmer it will probably glaze your eyes over.

When should you choose Open Source over Retail? Well that is going to depend on your need and what is available. So before you go out and spend your hard earned money, have a look and see if there are any free versions of software that will do the same thing.

Safe computing!
Cheers,
Cameron

Troubleshooting

Something I see and hear time after time is that (put your widget here) isn’t working! You need to fix it right away!

So you ask if there was any error message and get the response “oh, it said something…but I don’t remember what it was” or “No, it didn’t tell me anything”. This is just like taking your car to a mechanic and telling him to just fix it! Alrighty then….where the heck do we start?

Most people think that the Geeks in IT are arrogant, because of their reactions to the above mentioned statements. Maybe it comes from the blank stares or confused looks that come from the lack of information and the expectation of an instant answer.

Quite often I will get the same looks back when I ask them to define “it’s broke” so that I can help them. Honestly, we do want to help but you have to help us help you! That’s our job and we wouldn’t be in IT if we didn’t want to do it. You are our customers and we are being paid to service our customers in a manner and method that benefits both the customer and the business.

So, where do we go from here? Well…information is key! The more the merrier! The more details you can supply, the easier it is to help fix the issue.

You’ve probably all heard “is it plugged in?” and at that point you are ready to blow a gasket! But…you have NO idea how many times it turns out to be the case! The plug being loose in the monitor or PC has caused many a tech support call. Another good one is “take your blue network cable, unplug it and turn it around”, which actually makes sense as well. If the cable has become loose or is not fully seated it can also cause some strange issues and by turning it around, quite often it gets seated correctly and everything is now good.

There are a few things that you can do to try and help yourself and maybe save yourself a bunch of time.
Rule #1 – check the physical (is everything plugged in and turned on)
Rule #2 – see Rule #1
Rule #3 – shut down and restart your computer
Rule #4 – write down any error messages *EXACTLY* as shown
Rule #5 – verify Rule #4
Rule #6 – state *EXACTLY* what you were doing when you had the problem
Rule #7 – please tell us if you have changed *ANYTHING* or installed *ANY* software/hardware
Rule #8 – did you install any updates before this happened?
Rule #9 – see Rule #8
Rule #10 – the most important…re-read starting at Rule #1

Being in IT is kind of like being a Police Officer…we are here to Serve and Protect!

Safe computing!
Cheers,
Cameron

Updates, Updates and MORE Updates

We see the prompts all the time that this, that, and the other need either need to check for updates or need updating! What a pain in the keyster! So do we? Don’t we? How do we decide?

If you have a computer then you “should” be familiar with updating your software! If you aren’t then you could already have a machine that is full of malware and or viruses. I’m currently working on a friend’s home laptop and made a shocking discovery, it is running Windows Vista and hadn’t been updated at all! I’m still in the process of trying to get everything up to date. He is two Service Packs behind and then all of the updates that follow that.

Once Vista has been updated, then I get to start on the rest of the updates needed! Oh, by the way…Adobe just announced another zero day exploit!
http://www.adobe.com/support/security/advisories/apsa13-02.html
This, ladies and gentlemen is why we want to update the software on our computers!

So what sort of updates should be run or how should they be setup? To start with Windows, go into Control Panel > Windows Update > Change settings > at a minimum you should set Important Updates to install automatically. If you have Microsoft Office installed you can modify your updates to include all Microsoft products and this is a good idea.

Adobe is another one you have to keep your eyes on, as shown in the link above. Just about everyone has Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash Player installed on their computers and they need to be updated on a regular basis.

Java is another one that Homeland Security in the U.S.A. was recommending that everyone disable it on their computers until a fix could be released…yes, the exploit is THAT bad!

And of course, you can’t forget your Antivirus program!

So do we? Don’t we? You’d better be!!! Updates are a necessary evil that help to protect us against ourselves and any unsafe surfing habits we may have. They patch holes, increase security, fix program bugs and in some case help with compatibility issues. Yes it does take some time (especially if you have to get caught up!), but is entirely worth the effort in the long run.

Hope you are up to date!
Safe computing!
Cheers,
Cameron

Wireless Networking

Wireless networks…aren’t they great? They give us the freedom to have computer/printers/tv’s/iPads and every other toy the ability to access the Internet and each other! So why am I writing about this? Because *so* many are setup incorrectly!!

Wireless networks have the ability to encrypt the connection between your devices and the wireless router/modem. Why bother with this? Well guess what…if yours is not secured and I connect to yours instead of mine, guess whose bandwidth is being taken up! There is more, but I’ll get to that later.

So you decide to setup a wireless network in your home but where do you start? At the beginning of course! In this particular case I’ll call the computer or laptop the beginning. To start with, does the computer have either an embedded wireless card or an aftermarket card/dongle? If so, what band(s) does it support as there are quite a few out there (802.11a/b/g/n). Important note – You need to find out what level of encryption does it support so that you can make sure the wireless router also supports it.
Here’s a link for the lurid details and some of the future.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11

So once you figure out what your wireless will support, then you can get a router that also supports it (most are backwards compatible a few levels). First thing you need to do when you unbox your shiny new router? READ THE INSTRUCTIONS!! And then once you have done that? READ THEM AGAIN!! Make sure you understand the steps involved before you start and then have to try and figure out how to reset it back to factory defaults and start again.

Most wireless routers are easy to setup…just pop in the CD and follow the instructions. Pay close attention to the settings and it’s probably not a bad idea to write them down as you go. There are really only a couple of things to pay close attention to.
1. When setting up your DHCP scope (number of addresses), make sure it is large enough to cover all of your devices.

2. SSID – Turn off the broadcasting as this will stop the casual person from seeing your wireless network but does NOT offer any security so don’t stop yet!

3. Encryption Key – go with the highest level of encryption that all of your devices can support. Don’t overlook your printer, etc. as it’s going to be a pain to have to reset everything back to the lowest common denominator. Pick a good passphrase that uses uppercase, lowercase, numbers and special characters if supported.

4. SEE NUMBER 3!!

Ok, so now you should be good to go! What’s this?? Surfing/downloading is slower than before?? Sure it is! You have to remember that you are only as fast as your slowest point and chances are it could be your wireless. It’s a trade-off between convenience and speed.

So why do you ask, is encrypting your connection so important? Think of it this way…how your insurance company would react if you told them that your house was robbed, and oh by the way, the front door is always left wide open when nobody is home. Think they would cover you?

How would YOU react when the Police show up at your door for downloading huge amounts of illegal Porn/Movies/Songs/Fill in your illegal activity here! Think I’m kidding?? From the outside it IS coming from you! Could you prove that it wasn’t you?? They are only going to know that it’s YOUR connection that is doing it and you are responsible for it. Food for thought…….

Safe computing!

Cheers,
Cameron

Power, Surge Protection and UPS

Power, we all want more power! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!! (Insert evil, wicked laugh here!), but really it’s something that most people don’t think about. Without it, all of your electronic gadgets are not going to work and then what will you do? Wow, it might actually force kids outside to play and get some exercise and fresh air!

So how do we know if we have problems with power? There can be a few indicators and they can range from drastic to very subtle. Now these next few points have to be read like Jeff Foxworthy doing “You might be a Redneck”!!
If you are sitting in the dark with nothing working, then you might have a power issue (Unless you are one of my locations that decided to hook up a generator to the PC and then call and complain that email and the Internet weren’t working!).
If your monitor is flickering or jumping then you might have a power issue.
If your computer is acting flakey and weird then you might have a power issue.
If your computer randomly shutdown or restarts by itself then you might have a power issue.
So when in doubt, throw it on a surge protected power bar and see if the problem goes away. The only thing it won’t help with is if the voltage is low.

Ok, so we know that we plug things in and they work, but do you give it any more thought than that? You probably should if you want to protect your electronics. You will hear all sorts of terms thrown around when it comes to electricity (Surges, Spikes, Sags, Brown Outs, Amps, Joules, and the list goes on). Fortunately for us, quite a few of the terms mean pretty much the same thing.

Surges or spikes can be very bad for electronics as it can pop electrical components VERY quickly. Think of those stories about people whose houses have been hit by lightning. I can tell you that I have a location that has been hit by lightning 4 times that we know about!! Yes, FOUR times (the security video footage is very cool!). Yes, I have lost some equipment because of it. The voltage spike travelled along the network cable from the camera to the switch and *poof*. It does tend to be a bit more difficult from a spike coming from that direction! So what can we do to protect our equipment? A couple of things actually, ranging from Surge Protectors to UPS Battery Backups and of course unplugging if there is a bad storm in the area.

There are a lot of different types of Surge Protectors on the market ranging from a few dollars to hundreds of dollars. Here is a good link that explains the details of them.
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/everyday-tech/surge-protector.htm

So now we get to UPS systems. What are they? UPS stands for Uninterruptible Power Supply and can sometimes be called a battery backup. The easy to understand way of thinking about them is that if the main power goes out, it takes over. Why would you want one? Ever been on your computer and the power goes out? Down goes the machine…hard! Not a good way to shut it down and you can suffer from corruption and potentially have a system that needs to be recovered or restored. This backup system can allow you to shut down your computer gracefully and bypass any potential for loss. Oh, don’t forget your house phone (If you have an Internet based phone) can be put on this as well.

UPS backups will also help with any sags (Otherwise known as brown outs) in line voltage as well as spikes in voltage. Low voltage to electronic equipment can be just as bad as high voltage so you want to keep it constant if you can. The prices of UPS backups can range from $100 to millions of dollars depending on your requirements. The two things that will determine how big a UPS is required is the amount of load to be supported and how much up time do you need. Since everyone has different requirements I won’t go into the details of how to determine load, but APC (www.apc.com) has some very good information on their site. Here is a good link that outlines some of the technical details about UPS backups.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uninterruptible_power_supply

At the very least you should have your electronics protected by a surge protector, or even better by a UPS. If you have servers costing many thousands of dollars then a UPS is a good investment, but if only a home laptop then a surge protector will probably fit the bill since laptops already have a battery backup.

Safe computing!

Cheers,
Cameron