adamvjackson

Try WinsockFix. Seriously, I had the same problem with a client last week. I had done it all, uninstall NIC, reinstall NIC, uninstall TCP/IP, reinstall TCP/IP, try another browser, check proxy settings, etc. This fixed it for me, it may for you too

I actually found PowerMenu a few days ago, when looking for an application that would forcefully set the "always on top" property. It works great, and has some neat opacity settings for 2000/XP/2003.

If you work with fonts often, this extention may be useful. Font properties extension, version 2.1 If you right click on a font file in Windows its basic properties are displayed. This extension adds several new property tabs to this properties dialog box. These include information relating to font origination and copyright, the type sizes to which hinting and smoothing are applied, and the code pages supported by extended character sets.

Added to my USB drive; great for those housecalls where you never know what you'll find... Maybe if there's interest, I'll post a list of the utilities (freeware/shareware only) that I use for cleanup of spyware. Personal note: after switching to Mozilla and Firefox (back and forth between various releases) 2 years ago, I haven't been infected with any spyware/malware at all on my home PC. An ounce of prevention (and some common sense) is worth 1000 pounds of cure.

Here's the list of tools that I consider "must-have" for field work, assuming that there will not be an internet connection until work is complete: CDs: Ultimate Boot CD On USB/Flash Drive: AVG Anti-Virus BHODemon Ad-Aware SE Personal CWShredder, Hijack This!, StartupList, BugOff, BHOList, Kill2Me, ADS Spy Snadboy's Revelation 2 (reveals *** passwords) Spybot Search & Destroy Stinger StopListening Sygate Personal Firewall WinRAR Visual Basic 6.0 SP5 Runtime (needed for some of the above tools) Of course I try to always have the latest versions of the above programs, too. If anyone else has recommendations, please post them!! I'm always on the lookout for good new software! I have yet to have a spyware infection that I was unable to clean with the above tools, for what it's worth. [Edited by adamvjackson on 2004-09-16 11:57:39]

I've been toying with the idea of reverting back to Windows 2000 Professional at home, instead of Windows XP Professional. Even though I have a fairly fast PC, I think that 2000 has a little less overhead vs. XP.

Originally posted by techchick: Quote: out of the billions of people who installed sp2 there were only .5% who ran into problems! And it's those .5% that complain the loudest, as many know. Of course this can apply to anything...

Originally posted by noob2K4: Quote: My questions are, first: how much can I expect from the contractor for documentation? From what I read it seems that this is a rather nebulous area but in my case it will be critical. The executives in place need a user-level summary of their current and projected needs so that they can make informed decisions in the next few months. Would I be out of line asking the contractor for baseline statistics on current usage? As someone who has done both, Contract network administration for offices/compaanies without IT departments, and as a network administrator, I can tell you almost certanily that the outsourcing IT staff will probably not have any formal documentation. You could create it yourself, and it would be a great way to learn the layout and configuration of the network, but would also cost a great deal of time. There may be some shareware/freeware tools to help automate some things, such as IP scanners/port scanners/SNMP scanners, but most likely you will need to do most of the heavy lifting. Quote: Second, is it unrealistic to imagine getting my head around this by, say, Christmas? I am aware of the possibility of suiting up and undertaking responsibilities beyond my capacity to execute. Otoh I *am* smarter than the average bear and this stuff *is* all in books, right? Right? Unrealistic? No, but definately challenging. You will need to be VERY dedicated, and be prepared to spend a lot of free time reading books, covering such topics as TCP/IP, routing, the OSI model, security, Active Directory, etc. A+ is a great start. I got my A+ (both hardware and software) about 3 years ago, but don't lead yourself to think that it in ANY WAY prepares your for a networking tech/IT/network administrator position. Books are great resources. HOPEFULLY most everything in/on your network has been configured to accepted standards, and if it has, it should be fairly easy to take over. If not, or if the implementation was poor, you'll be in for many headaches and a rough time learning. Hope that helps, and most of all, try to keep optimistic!

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;279792 How To Enable Application Compatibility-Mode Technology in Windows 2000

Just came across this Microsoft KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;885626 Your computer stops responding when you restart to complete the installation of Windows XP Service Pack 2 This article discusses how to resolve an issue where your computer stops responding (hangs) when you restart to complete the installation of Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2. This issue occurs on a limited number of systems that use a version of basic input/output system (BIOS) that does not have production support for Intel Pentium 4 and Intel Celeron D processors based on the Prescott C-0 stepping. And the link to download the patch: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/detai...;DisplayLang=en

You could try Bochs or Microsoft Virtual PC 2004. You really don't need to worry about supplying VMware with your personal data, they are definatley a repuatable company.

There's a remote desktop client for OS X, that may work with Windows XP. I have used the OS X client to connect to a Windows Server 2003 terminal session before, but not an XP session. VNC is a safe bet though. As DosFreak would say, TightVNC is tight!

No problem, and good luck

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600] © Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp. Z:\>cmd /? Starts a new instance of the Windows XP command interpreter CMD [/A | /U] [/Q] [/D] [/E:ON | /E:OFF] [/F:ON | /F:OFF] [/V:ON | /V:OFF] [[/s] [/C | /K] string] /C Carries out the command specified by string and then terminates /K Carries out the command specified by string but remains /S Modifies the treatment of string after /C or /K (see below) /Q Turns echo off /D Disable execution of AutoRun commands from registry (see below) /A Causes the output of internal commands to a pipe or file to be ANSI /U Causes the output of internal commands to a pipe or file to be Unicode /T:fg Sets the foreground/background colors (see COLOR /? for more info) /E:ON Enable command extensions (see below) /E:OFF Disable command extensions (see below) /F:ON Enable file and directory name completion characters (see below) /F:OFF Disable file and directory name completion characters (see below) /V:ON Enable delayed environment variable expansion using ! as the delimiter. For example, /V:ON would allow !var! to expand the variable var at execution time. The var syntax expands variables at input time, which is quite a different thing when inside of a FOR loop. /V:OFF Disable delayed environment expansion. Note that multiple commands separated by the command separator '&&' are accepted for string if surrounded by quotes. Also, for compatibility reasons, /X is the same as /E:ON, /Y is the same as /E:OFF and /R is the same as /C. Any other switches are ignored. If /C or /K is specified, then the remainder of the command line after the switch is processed as a command line, where the following logic is used to process quote (") characters: 1. If all of the following conditions are met, then quote characters on the command line are preserved: - no /S switch - exactly two quote characters - no special characters between the two quote characters, where special is one of: &<>()@^| - there are one or more whitespace characters between the the two quote characters - the string between the two quote characters is the name of an executable file. 2. Otherwise, old behavior is to see if the first character is a quote character and if so, strip the leading character and remove the last quote character on the command line, preserving any text after the last quote character. If /D was NOT specified on the command line, then when CMD.EXE starts, it looks for the following REG_SZ/REG_EXPAND_SZ registry variables, and if either or both are present, they are executed first. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun and/or HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\AutoRun Command Extensions are enabled by default. You may also disable extensions for a particular invocation by using the /E:OFF switch. You can enable or disable extensions for all invocations of CMD.EXE on a machine and/or user logon session by setting either or both of the following REG_DWORD values in the registry using REGEDT32.EXE: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\EnableExtensions and/or HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\EnableExtensions to either 0x1 or 0x0. The user specific setting takes precedence over the machine setting. The command line switches take precedence over the registry settings. The command extensions involve changes and/or additions to the following commands: DEL or ERASE COLOR CD or CHDIR MD or MKDIR PROMPT PUSHD POPD SET SETLOCAL ENDLOCAL IF FOR CALL SHIFT GOTO START (also includes changes to external command invocation) ASSOC FTYPE To get specific details, type commandname /? to view the specifics. Delayed environment variable expansion is NOT enabled by default. You can enable or disable delayed environment variable expansion for a particular invocation of CMD.EXE with the /V:ON or /V:OFF switch. You can enable or disable completion for all invocations of CMD.EXE on a machine and/or user logon session by setting either or both of the following REG_DWORD values in the registry using REGEDT32.EXE: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\DelayedExpansion and/or HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\DelayedExpansion to either 0x1 or 0x0. The user specific setting takes precedence over the machine setting. The command line switches take precedence over the registry settings. If delayed environment variable expansion is enabled, then the exclamation character can be used to substitute the value of an environment variable at execution time. File and Directory name completion is NOT enabled by default. You can enable or disable file name completion for a particular invocation of CMD.EXE with the /F:ON or /F:OFF switch. You can enable or disable completion for all invocations of CMD.EXE on a machine and/or user logon session by setting either or both of the following REG_DWORD values in the registry using REGEDT32.EXE: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\CompletionChar HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\PathCompletionChar and/or HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\CompletionChar HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor\PathCompletionChar with the hex value of a control character to use for a particular function (e.g. 0x4 is Ctrl-D and 0x6 is Ctrl-F). The user specific settings take precedence over the machine settings. The command line switches take precedence over the registry settings. If completion is enabled with the /F:ON switch, the two control characters used are Ctrl-D for directory name completion and Ctrl-F for file name completion. To disable a particular completion character in the registry, use the value for space (0x20) as it is not a valid control character. Completion is invoked when you type either of the two control characters. The completion function takes the path string to the left of the cursor appends a wild card character to it if none is already present and builds up a list of paths that match. It then displays the first matching path. If no paths match, it just beeps and leaves the display alone. Thereafter, repeated pressing of the same control character will cycle through the list of matching paths. Pressing the Shift key with the control character will move through the list backwards. If you edit the line in any way and press the control character again, the saved list of matching paths is discarded and a new one generated. The same occurs if you switch between file and directory name completion. The only difference between the two control characters is the file completion character matches both file and directory names, while the directory completion character only matches directory names. If file completion is used on any of the built in directory commands (CD, MD or RD) then directory completion is assumed. The completion code deals correctly with file names that contain spaces or other special characters by placing quotes around the matching path. Also, if you back up, then invoke completion from within a line, the text to the right of the cursor at the point completion was invoked is discarded. The special characters that require quotes are: <space> &()[]{}^=;!'+,`~ Z:\>

Sounds right, Steve. Specifically: Quote: 2. How do I turn Google Compute on and off? To turn off Google Compute, click on the DNA (double helix) icon in the Google Toolbar, and select the "stop computing" option. To turn it back on, click on the DNA (double helix) icon and select the "start computing" option.

Do either/any of you use the HOSTS file?

How about a simple logon script: net use LPT1 \\printserver\port /delete net use LPT1 \\printserver\port Run that each logon... Not necessarily clean or perfect, but it should work.

If he is using his ISP's DNS server then perhaps he can temporarily try the DNS server that is used by your ISP?

Originally posted by zacros2020: Quote: Did you find any info. about this icon in the system tray (the double helix)? I have it in my tray now and cannot seem to find any info. about it. It keeps trying to start a program on my computer though. What program does it try to keep starting?

A Cisco 2600 series router should do fine. You'll need two WAN cards, most likely a serial card for the T1, and then an ethernet WAN card for the cable service. The load balancing should all be done on the router via Cisco's IOS.

Not trying to flame you *at all* FlyingPenguin, but the WMP8 and 9 codec installations are available for free from Microsoft, so you can play WM8 and WM9 encoded content in WMP 6.4. Also, According to this review (page 10) BSPlayer actually uses about the same amount of RAM as WMP10. And with most PCs having at least 256MB+ of RAM, the memory footprint is becoming less and less of an issue daily. But hey, the best thing is choice. What's best for me may not be best for you, or anyone else. Just wanted to post someone's findings on this subject.

Hehe thanks for the recognition, I think it's important for information and knowledge to be free (as in speech, not necessarily as in beer) Who knows, maybe my next career will be in education? Again, thanks, but no matter how much you know, there is always someone who knows more. Hard work DOES pay off, and so does good intentions.

I guess maybe I'm in the minority, the *only* codec that I have installed (besides those bundled with either Windows XP or Media Player 10) is FFDShow. Works great for decoding XviD and Divx, and has generic post-processing effects such as smoothing for all other codecs. Oh, and it's open source (GPL).

Interesting that you mention the Task Scheduler, it is supposed to have some new functionality, but I haven't yet had a chance to check it out in depth yet.

I used this, until I can get an SUS server functional. For reasons beyond my control I cannot (yet) deploy SP2 to all the XP workstations. I believe that the 120 day delay was recently extended until sometime in April 2005, but can't recall where I read that. If I can find it again, I'll post the source so it can be verified.