Recent Posts

3276

Living Room / Re: Woot.com Bag of Crap post

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 05, 2008, 10:14 AM »

Don't forget to tell us how you got on with Linda - we all know you used ringback  

3277

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone know an Antivirus Bootable CD or Floppy with NTFS support

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 04, 2008, 04:20 PM »

Thanks - I will definitely have look at that. (I have added the download link to your minireview thread).

3278

General Software Discussion / Re: Trinity Rescue Kit

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 04, 2008, 04:19 PM »

Thanks - looks interesting.

If anyone is interested it is located at http://trinityhome.org/trk

Took a while to find the download - see http://trinityhome.o...id=5&front_id=12

3279

Living Room / Re: "Network cable unplugged" - except it isn't!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 04, 2008, 02:51 AM »

Ah the old Brigadier!! Actually most of the time I don't eat lunch (try to lose weight) 

3280

Living Room / Re: "Network cable unplugged" - except it isn't!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 03, 2008, 01:59 PM »

If you suspect your router you might try to update/reflash your firmware.

The WAP-54g isn't intrinsically evil. It just lacks breeding and a proper education. But there's finally hope for the lowly WAP-54g.

It may be possible to replace the manufacturer's firmware with DD-WRT (or other 3rd party firmware) provided you have one of the supported (i.e. older) models. DD-WRT cures a multitude of evils and is definitely worth exploring. There was a thread up here not to long ago that addressed that topic.

-40hz (July 03, 2008, 11:58 AM)

I'm a bit reluctant to flash the router - there is a WRT54 WiFi range expander in the system and I know from experience that getting them to work again after flashing the router BIOS can be a real PITA. I'm even more reluctant to use a third party BIOS given that interoperability is a bit tenuous at the best of times.

3281

Living Room / Re: "Network cable unplugged" - except it isn't!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 03, 2008, 01:56 PM »

Hmmm ... changing the adapter from Auto-sense to "10Mbps Full Duplex" has got a working connection back and internet access is reasonable at around 2Mbps (given the location and evening surfing).

Using 100Mbps means the connection constantly negotiates. I have also disabled 'auto-power off' which doesn't seem to make any difference. Likewise winsockxpfix didn't seem to achieve a lot.

What is even stranger is that another computer on the network is connection at 100Mbps but has really CRAPPY internet speeds! It has a fairly long cable connection (probably ~30-40m) with multiple patch leads etc. so maybe there is a wiring issue.

Anyone know any decent cable testing software - I have Marvell Cable Tester but I'm not sure if that only supports Marvell interfaces or if it is generic?

3282

Living Room / Re: "Network cable unplugged" - except it isn't!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 03, 2008, 11:52 AM »

Thanks for that Carl - seems to be a common issue that just one XP computer doesn't like to play!

3283

Living Room / Re: "Network cable unplugged" - except it isn't!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 03, 2008, 10:13 AM »

No it is a LinkSys WAP 54g type (sorry can't remember the exact number). Can't help wondering if it isn't the router-of-all-evil (I had one and had lots of issues). The connection is from a motherboard ethernet connector.

3284

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone know an Antivirus Bootable CD or Floppy with NTFS support

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 03, 2008, 09:45 AM »

Thanks everyone for the helpful suggestions - my toolkit is ever expanding (as my brain shrinks trying to cope)

3285

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone know an Antivirus Bootable CD or Floppy with NTFS support

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 03, 2008, 09:45 AM »

I have started installing AVAST for people who need a free AV app - it seems very nice and has caused fewer problems for me than AVG8.

UBCD4W was very useful - I had dabbled with it before but hadn't noticed that you can update virus definitions during the ISO build and include multiple AV and Malware engines all on one disc. I got a bit carried away and it only just fit on a 700Mb CDROM !!

3286

Living Room / Re: "Network cable unplugged" - except it isn't!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 03, 2008, 09:22 AM »

Thanks I'll take a look.

Been searching the web on this and there seems to be a lot of hassles with this problem. Solutions seem to range from turning off power management, choosing a specific connection speed to attacking connectors with alcohol soaked 'buddies' ! There doesn't seem to be any consistency!

I wonder whether it could be adware/malware related - the computer has been used by two teenagers that have 'promiscuous' browsing habits! In which case the winsock fix may do the trick.

3287

Living Room / "Network cable unplugged" - except it isn't!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 03, 2008, 08:47 AM »

Nonplussed ... I have a Windows XP computer that constantly says 'Network Cable Unplugged'. Occasionally it tries to connect (and there are flashes of activity on the router) but then fails. It was working fine until recently.

I have checked the following:

    * The cable is fine (I have tried replacing it with a cable that works fine on another PC),
    * the device manager reports the adapter as working properly and I have uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers
    * I tried disabling mobo network interface and installing a new network card (one I know works) - it installed fine with drivers etc. but gave the same error "cable unplugged"
    * I have moved the cables around the router including to a port that works on another computer

Now I'm stuck - I have looked at the MS KB article http://support.micro....com/kb/910389/en-us and none of the troubleshooting steps offer a working solution.

Anyone got any ideas where to go next?

I assume something in Windows XP networking must have got corrupted. Anyone have an idea how to remove and reinstall the networking stuff without a full reinstall of Windows (or having to go through activation again)?

TIA

3288

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone know an Antivirus Bootable CD or Floppy with NTFS support

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 02, 2008, 08:29 PM »

True ...

3289

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone know an Antivirus Bootable CD or Floppy with NTFS support

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 02, 2008, 06:45 PM »

Thanks - yes someone mentioned Kapersky above. It does look nice but it is a bit off-putting that a big warning pops up that the AV pattern file is out of date having downloaded the latest build.

Avira looks good too but the interface is a bit clunky (to say the least - and it is easy to end up working in German )

3290

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone know an Antivirus Bootable CD or Floppy with NTFS support

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 02, 2008, 06:00 PM »

Thanks guys - all look really useful. I'll give them all a try and let you know how I get on.

3291

General Software Discussion / Re: Anyone know an Antivirus Bootable CD or Floppy with NTFS support

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 02, 2008, 05:03 PM »

I have never seen an up to date AV solution that works with NTFS from a boot disc. I have been using NOD32 for a long time now and that doesn't have a boot time option. The last solutions I tried were symantec and that only supported FAT systems (at least at that time).

I'll have a look at ubcd4win - thanks tomos.

3292

General Software Discussion / Anyone know an Antivirus Bootable CD or Floppy with NTFS support

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 02, 2008, 04:21 PM »

I need to clean an NTFS partition with virus infections.

Anyone know a usable boot disc antivirus with NTFS support - most only seem to support FAT32 which is a bit pointless these days?

3293

General Software Discussion / Re: Injecting HTML into Outlook?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 02, 2008, 11:14 AM »

If you cut and paste HTML you probably won't have the CSS stylesheet (if any) which will alter the look of the email format too.

3294

Living Room / Re: Evernote Icon - what the heck is it? Anyone actually like version 3 ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 01, 2008, 10:43 AM »

Can I make the suggestion that a WordPress blog can do pretty much the same thing - you can keep posts public/private as you want, you can post from email, there are an unlimited number of personalised tags you can use as well as categories etc. You can search and limit searches to tags and categories, storage and posting limits are only limited by your hosting account (and there are plenty of free or cheap ones). Posts are also archived on a time line.

I can't quite see what the web version of Evernote is offering that is unique - apart from handwriting recognition but how many people actually use that anyway?

3295

Living Room / Re: Evernote Icon - what the heck is it? Anyone actually like version 3 ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 01, 2008, 09:23 AM »

Evernote 3 has an "Install Portable" option - you then login with your account and sync from your web account.

So no it doesn't appear to have a straight Desktop <-> USB sync - only via the web account.

If you have a lot of stuff this can be S...L....O.............W..... because uploading all your notes from the desktop to the web is incredibly slow from most ISPs.

I suppose this has the one advantage that there is no longer a need to buy Evernote Portable because Evernote 3 contains the portable edition but you can't even use the portable version with internet access realistically.

3296

Living Room / Re: Evernote Icon - what the heck is it? Anyone actually like version 3 ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 01, 2008, 07:46 AM »

The splodge is an elephant, they never forget.

-Grorgy (July 01, 2008, 07:44 AM)

Seriously funny .... I want to save a note so where is the elephant?

Why not ...

3297

Living Room / Evernote Icon - what the heck is it? Anyone actually like version 3 ?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 01, 2008, 07:37 AM »

I just downloaded the update for the Firefox clipper icon for Evernote 3:



The one on the left is the icon for version 2.2 the green one is evernote 3.

The 2.2 icon is obvious and nicely designed for the purpose - what the heck is the green splodge about?

I have been playing with version 3 and they have now gone live with their 'premium accounts' at $5 a month or $45 a year.

Personally I won't be signing up (and probably won't be using the free limited account) - I just don't like version 3. It feels and looks clunky and seems to have lost the 'character' of version 2.2 which I quite like.

Since I have OneNote 2007 I am going to swap entirely to that in future (evernote 2.2 is a dead end and version 3 seems a pointless downgrade to me with an unjustifiable subscription service being pushed). All feels a great shame to me.

What do others think now the final version of this stuff is appearing?

3298

Living Room / Re: Bill Gates email rant

« Last post by Carol Haynes on July 01, 2008, 04:29 AM »

As I see it Bill's experience on the MS website was actually a design decision - it has always been like that - and it is done for a purpose ... they don't want people to use it or request help.

MS now has the mentality of no-support, no-interest box shifting - wasn't it ever thus (well maybe niot in the 70s and early 80s)? Their biggest problem is there are too many people who only do the job for the money and too many investors who are only interested in returns. They figure that since they have an effective monopoly on OS and Office (it doesn't look like changing any time soon) they can forget what the software is for and simply bring in the cash!

One thing they didn't say was whether Bill got more than an automated reply ...

3299

General Software Discussion / Re: Wanted: Seamless forum <==> mailing list integration

« Last post by Carol Haynes on June 30, 2008, 04:06 PM »

I am subscribed to a forum that uses phpBB and mail2forum. It does work though it can be a bit unreliable at times.

3300

General Software Discussion / Re: WPS: the best replacement of MS Office, free for none-biz

« Last post by Carol Haynes on June 30, 2008, 04:38 AM »

KSO doesn't mention anything in the 'About' box. you have to look in the 'Help' menu and select 'Product Management Center'. user WP discovered this several posts above.

anyway, as tsaint found out - a new totally free personal version of KSO09 will be released in "late July/early August" without the macros/VBA option.

-lanux128 (June 30, 2008, 04:07 AM)

Sorry missed that post on the other page - I was skip reading to fast to catch up with a thread I hadn't read before!