Age limit on IT

Today I asked myself as very valid question – “Should there be an age limit on someone using IT equipment?”

This was as a result of a combined call time of 1H 18M to the Silver Fox to get his Netgear TA612V VOIP adapter up and running after I unlocked and flashed it for him.
I was under the impression that I had already configured the Lan and Wan ports to match his subnet and what they needed to be, which would of made a remote session a doddle.

Unfortunately it would appear not! So I tried to add another subnet to his network card so that I could configure it that way but that didn’t want to work either!

Next I asked him to get his laptop out and plug a network cable in the back of the laptop and then in the Ethernet port of the TA612V, that’s the Ethernet port not the Internet port. After clarifying that point a couple more times we had it connected how we wanted it to be.

Things were made even more difficult as the laptop was on the floor and he was sat on the chair and every time he leant down to do something in the laptop he had his deaf ear pointing towards the phone! Could this get any worse?

I got him to check what IP the TA612V had given him, hoping to login and make some changes, only to find that the laptop had a 169.xxx.xxx.xxx IP address. So I get him to reset the device and wait for it to all come back up and settle down. This time he has the expected IP address, so I get him to logon to the web interface and click on the Wan settings.

I tell him what to put in and then save it. We then wait for it to reboot and then come back up. Next I tell him to go to the Lan interface and enter some more details and save again. I then tell him to plug it back into the network and turn it on.

I then connect to the Lan interface, log on and set up his VOIP connection, save and then let it reboot. It takes a few seconds to come back up and register the VOIP connection with Sipgate.

Great so its all working, I make a test call and the phone rings but there is no voice from me!? I log back in and check the settings. Correct ports entered and the settings match my TA612V that works fine. So I suggested a reboot again and see what it does. Up it comes and registered in a few seconds. I make another call to him and get the same problem.

I then, by pure fluke, click on the Wan settings only to find a few digits missing from the IP address and the Subnet Mask! I correct the errors, save and reboot. Once registered I make a call again and hey presto it all works ok.

I told him what was wrong, and I got in response “I put in exactly what you told me to put in. I would not of thought those being missed off would of caused a problem”

I left it at that, making a mental note to myself to check and double check what settings he puts in for me next time!

IE10, desktops.exe and noframemerging

Today I upgraded my Windows Server 2008 R2 server to IE10.
Having used it on my work pc and my various Windows 8 installations for a while I thought it’s time to upgrade my server.
A quick install and reboot and it’s all done.

As I use my server for most of my work, it’s on all the time as it hosts Yodacam and is accessible remotely, it is a god send to have it all there when you need it.

I use Desktops from SysInternals to split up my work on to 4 separate desktops to keep the clutter to a minimum. My desktops are split into the following

Main Desktop – various email accounts, web browsing, Excel, Word etc
Development Desktop – php/asp.net websites, mysql and any think VB.net
[Undisclosed] Desktop – used for an [Undisclosed] task
Remote Access Desktop – for RDP/TS sessions to various computers and servers

I was working away on the Main Desktop and the Remote Access Desktop when i needed to do some work on some php files. Loading up a IE10 browser windows resulted in nothing showing. So I clicked it again but still nothing. I checked Task Manager and could not see anything that looked like a hung iexplore.exe process but there was nothing.

I then switched to the Main Desktop only to find several new IE10 windows open on the desktop. It would appear that every time I clicked the IE icon it would open a new window on the main desktop, which is not how it was in IE9.

I done a bit of digging and found a switch for IE10, `-noframemerging` which said `Internet Explorer 8 and later versions. Prevents Internet Explorer from opportunistically merging new frame processes into existing frame processes.`

I created a new shortcut to IE10 and added the -noframemerging switch to it. Now every time i load up a IE10 window it opens on the correct desktop.

Oh and Yes i know other browsers are available to use and I now there are other multiple desktop programs out there, but I am used to using IE and Desktops.exe and will continue to do so. GOI

MSE 0x80070645 Error

Today I had a call from my brother saying that he is having some problems updating his Microsoft Security Essentials on his W7 PC. After running through a few things with him and having a remote session we still weren’t any further, so I suggested that he drop it off so that I could take a `Hands On` look at it.

I was somewhat miffed that I couldn’t install a simple piece of software like Microsoft Security Essentials so made it my job to do so.

While I was waiting for the machine to arrive I have a quick look around on TechNet for the error code 0x80070645 and after sifting through a fair few results it looked like I had 3 options!

Reinstall the operating system – Seriously? Who does that these days?
Put in a support call to Microsoft – Again, seriously?
Install a different Antivirus – Yeah ok I get that, but that is not the point here.

Not willing to do any of those, mainly because I pride myself on trying to fix all computers that come my way without doing a reinstall or getting top level help. 99.49% Fix rate will tell you how serious I am about that.

I tried most things that were suggested by others that were in the same situation.

Microsoft Security Essentials Removal Tool (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2483120)
That run and said that it had finished ok, but after a reboot MSE still failed to install with the same 0x80070645 error

Manual removal off all files, registry settings and services etc. using a script.
That run with errors as there were some files etc. that were missing because of the former uninstallation. Again after a reboot MSE refused to install with the 0x80070645 error.

I manually checked the file system, registry and services to see if there were any stragglers left over, but there were none.

I tried the install again and when the install failed again I checked the MSE installation log and found an error when it came to remove the mpfilter.sys driver which was odd as there was no mpfilter.sys driver on there?
I extracted all the files from the MSE installation and looked at the mpfilter.inf file to see what had been missed of the uninstallation, but could not see anything that was.
I copied the mpfilter files back to the computer and tried to install the driver again, finally having to recreate the service manually. I then tried to do the install again, and this time it got a bit further according to log, but it still failed with the same 0x80070645 error.

This was now a right pain as I had to copy the files over and recreate the service every time I wanted to run the MSE installer to trouble shoot the next thing that was wrong. More searching on TechNet and further afield did not give me anything else to go on.

I then tried one of my random thoughts – what happens if I install Forefront Endpoint Protection Client on the machine? I had looked at Forefront Endpoint Protection a while back as part of my TechNet subscription.

So I installed FEP, expecting it to fail given some of the similarities, but it installed with no problems, went off and updated and done a full scan. I saved the FEP install logs so that I could take a look and compare it to one of the failed MSE install logs that I had.
I then removed FEP and rebooted and thought I would try and install MSE again.
To my surprise MSE installed fine, updated and done a scan – no sign of the 0x80070645 error.

I saved the install logs so that I could compare the FEP install against the MSE install, but sadly my USB key stick with all my tools, utilities, scripts and install logs decided to die on me! Not a major problem as most of it is somewhere else, but the log files I could not get back.

So, I’m not sure why that happened or what the FEP install did that was different to the MSE install but it did fix the problem. I will have to wait for another machine to turn up with that error before I can take a proper look at the logs to work it out.

Thankfully, another awkward computer fixed.

Rex strikes

Today was supposed to be feed time for Rex, seeing as it has been 5 days since her last feed.

However, H had not written down the last time that he fed her, so came a bit unstuck. Instead of feeding her we got her out for a bit of handling!

Now, I’ve told H plenty of times to keep his fingers together and away from her head as they look a little bit like a pinky, but as per normal he didn’t listen to me, and as soon as he put his pinky fingers in front of her she went for them thinking they were food. She clamped her jaws down on the end of his middle finger and then rapidly curled herself round his hand a few times constricting nice and tight.

Now, H was a bit surprised by this and a bit taken a back, so I told him to sit down and keep still and calm and see if she let go. Any other time she would of gone for his arm and soon let go when she realised that it was far too big for her to eat.

But no sign of and kind of let up, in fact she started to work her way down his finger. But this time , no matter how much I has told him to not panic and keep calm, he was starting to worry and get a bit upset.

Off we went to the bathroom where I tricked a bit of cold water over her head. It didn’t seem to make much of a difference, but then H was moving his arm around far too much which only made her want to constrict on it more. By this time he was proper upset and crying, saying that she was going to eat his finger. I had to laugh a bit as the thought of her eating his finger did seem rather funny, only to me it would seem though.

So again I tried the cold water, this time running the tap and putting her under it, this time she soon let go and coughed his finger up. He was relieved to say the least and couldn’t wait to let go of her.

Back to his room we went where I told him to hold her again for a bit just to show him that she wasn’t going to bite again. After a few minutes of handling her we put her back in her tank and we had a little chat about feeding and handling her. He couldn’t wait to tell mum what she had done to his finger 🙂

Windows 8 – well almost

I have just spend a good few hours trying to get Windows 8 on my laptop, so I could get a bit more involved with it.

You would think that in today’s world things would be easy enough to do – installing the latest Windows Operating System should be one of those. Hmmm not quiet

I download an iso of W8Pro x64 and burnt it off ready to install. I pop it in the laptop, boot from it, put in my key and let it install. I come back about 30 mins or so to find an error message on the screen – Error Code:0x80070570

A Quick look on the Knowledge Base that is Google tells me that there could be something up with the hard disk or the DVD media, but as the laptop had W7 on it and had no problems and the DVD was a fresh burn of an iso I used to install the last W8 Hyper-V machines I gave the disk and the dvd rom drive a clean and tried again.

Again I wander off while it’s doing its stuff and then come back a bit later, again to find the same error message! This time I binned the DVD media and burnt a new copy off in case there was some kind of burn issue.

Again I wander off and go and do some more stuff, leaving it not so long this time before I came back. Again I find the same error message! Ok, so this time I downloaded a different ISO and burnt it off. I then booted and went to install that.
This time I sat there watching it, only for it to do the exact same again!

Last thing I could do was to swap the hard disk with another. So I done that, put the DVD back in, booted and let it do its install.

This time, I paid more attention to it, watching it as I was doing some web dev. Yet again it done the same thing at about 11%!

So, still got problems and I have swapped the hard disk and the DVD media, I don’t have a laptop to swap to see if it was that, but then it was working ok with W7 4 hours before I tried to install W8.

Again, I started an install off, paying even more attention to it. It got to 10% and the DVD stopped flickering and spinning, so I checked the mouse worked and then got a CMD prompt up to see if I could get to a log file. No sooner had I typed in DIR than the DVD started to spin up again?! Seriously what is that all about. So I left it carrying on copying more data only for it to do the same again. Another DIR caused it to spin up again. This went on for a good few time until it seemed to carry on ok. So I done the off and went down stairs.

A little later I came back up to find what looked promising, but turned out to be a hung machine – or so I thought. No mouse, no keyboard – no nothing! Bloody thing! So I pressed the power button getting myself ready to have to start again, only to find that it flickered and suddenly sprung back into to life! It then carried on doing its stuff and installed W8.

Really have no idea what was going on there, as I have never seen anything like that before. But it is now installed and working fine!

Another one fixed

Today I done one of the things that I love doing – helping someone out.

I was given a laptop that was knackered and on it was the users personal and company data. Added to the already stressful situation of it being knackered was the fact that there was no backup of the data! Needless to say, they were not in the best of moods and were way from happy.

The situation reminded me of a time at my old company, where some one else was asked to look at one of the bosses computers. I had previously fixed it twice before so was surprised to not do it again.
Anyhow, I sat and watched not one, not two, not three, not four but five people spend time looking at this computer on and off with each other. It took them all day to get it working, well when I say get it working, they said that they installed a dodgy copy of Windows 7 on it and said it would be much better than the operating system that it had on it before?!?!?
Vista may be many things but it was a legal copy and it had been working fine for several years.
I had to have a laugh to myself, while thinking – Idiots!! Any proper technician would not do that, but then …..

So, back to the problem in hand, several hours later I had managed to get all the important and critical data off of the knackered disk and go about setting the laptop back up again.

Its nice to get a good feeling of helping someone out, while kind of saving their life.

Dumbing it down!

You know, sometimes you really do have to dumb it right down to ID10T level – that im afraid is a lesson that I should have remembered from my old company when I was working with some of the people there.

I guess sometimes I look at things far too technically – for example for the past 4 days I’ve been trying to unlock a TA612V Netgear VOIP adapter as I found a couple on eBay cheap. I suggested to the silver fox that he should get one to replace his dodgy ATA device that has been playing up.

While the TA612V is a old bit of kit, I have had one sat in my comms room linked up to my Sipgate service running with no problems for years.

So, 2 TA612V`s turn up for me to find that they are brand new and locked to Sipgate. Not a problem as that is who I want to use it with. Sadly they no longer support the TA612V and have no config files or L2 passwords for them. OH!
So I spend time looking for a way to unlock them. I went searching for a way to get a L2 password and found a few instructions how to get them. I spend the next 2 days researching and soldering wires on the the pcb to establish a com connection, only to find that I had the wrong cable.

So new cable ordered I thought I would leave it for a bit, but then found a 3rd TA612V in my broadband equipment box, which amazingly was unlocked.

I configured it to use the details of the Silver Fox`s VOIP connection, which took a few tries as it seems the specifics were different from mine. Finally I got it configured and it went off and connected. I tested a phone call but found that I could not hear the other end.

So I changed IP addresses and put it in place of my box and plugged the phone in and turned it on. My firewall was set to point certain traffic to my TA612V so I guess that was the issue. After it connected I made another phone call and got the same problem. So I compared configs to make sure that nothing was different, but they were exactly the same. I then changed the settings back to my account and tried that – still the same problem.

I then put my box back on and let that boot up, only to find that the same problem was happening! How could that be, as I had not changed anything on my TA612V.
So, what the hell was wrong? Maybe the TA612V was blocked as I had been swapping 2 of them around?
I left the TA612V to `settle down` for a few hours but it made no difference!
I left the TA612V off all night but it made no difference!
Maybe my firewall had got confused – rebooted it but no different!

I then spoke to the Silver Fox who told me that his TA612V worked fine, not only could he hear other people and they hear him but he had his working behind his firewall with no ports open??

By this time I had lost the plot and was ready to go back to the fast food industry, when I had a thought – let me try the landline phone on the TA612V instead of the phone i have plugged into it.

The rest you can guess!

The cost of an accident ?

Today was one of those days that every parent dreads, your child has an accident and needs to go to hospital.

Thankfully this time my dash home from work was only 4 minutes and not the hour it was in my previous job, but never the less not something that I would want to do again.

It started off as a some what minor accident, falling over while walking down a slight slope on the way to school and ended up with a split chin, not only split but also in the shape of a T! A proper split and bits were hanging down.

So off starts the cost of an accident…

The wife was at work and had paid for car parking – £3
We go to the local minor injuries clinic and pay for parking – £3
We have to go to PAH A&E where we park and pay for parking – £3
As it takes longer than expected we pay for more parking – £4
As the boy needed to go under a GA we had to pay for more parking – £4
Some snacks as we had not eaten all day – £6.32
A treat for the boy as he had been a brave soldier – £29.97

Total cost of just falling over – £52.29