M$ : No IE 9 for WinXP

The only reason I occasionally run Idiot's Excrement...er...Internet Explorer is because certain web sites require it. If I had my way, the buggy and shoddily secured piece of sterile bovine feces would be gone from my computer. Click on blog title for Computerworld article

Wireless BT Mouse Loses Connection

The wireless mouse connects to BlueTooth ok, but after a minute or so, it loses the connection. Problem comes from the power management setting on USB hub. Got this from a M$ web link.

1. Click Start, click Run, type Devmgmt.msc, and then click OK. The Device Manager window opens.
2. Expand Universal Serial Bus controllers.
3. Right-click a USB Root Hub in the list, and then click Properties. The USB Root Hub Properties dialog box is displayed.
4. Click the Power Management tab.
5. Click to clear the Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power check box, and then click OK.
6. Repeat steps 3 through 6 for each USB Root Hub in the list.
7. On the Action menu, click Scan for hardware changes.
   Windows XP recognizes the new device.
8. Close the Device Manager window.

Windows XP's Built-in Wi-Fi Security Hole

If you run wireless on a Windows XP computer, you may be broadcasting an invite to have others network into your computer. Dontcha just love M$'s gotchas?

Using CRON for Nightly Partition Purges

Ok, so this technically isn't a problem solved, but it is more along the lines of, “Why on earth didn't I think of this sooner!!!” So I'm tooling around the web, looking for something else on Netware, and I came across Netwarefiles.com tech tips site. Tip number 84 gives you the drill to use CRON to do nightly purges on the partitions. Big dope-slap to the forehead, as I would do periodic manual purges to keep the partition space in line.

MYPURGE.NCF:
# nightly purge process for deleted files

#purge files over 180 days old from SYS volume
purge sys:\*.* -q -d=180

#purge files over 180 days old from DATA volume
purge data:\*.* -q -d=180

#purge temp files from SYS volume
purge sys:\*.tmp -q
purge sys:\~*.* -q

#purge temp files from DATA volume
purge data:\*.tmp -q
purge data:\~*.* -q

CRONTAB entry to schedule it:
#purge old deleted files from server as 3:30am
every day
30 03 * * * MYPURGE.NCF

Restore XP Profile & HCTRL.OCX Error

My XP profile decided to take a dive a week or so ago. Via Google, found some nice instructions from PC Answers on how to recreate it. PCA did warn me that I might see some weird stuff happening for a while. First time I tried to run CAM Unzip, it threw the "the DLL C:\Windows\System32\Hhctrl.ocx occupied an address range reserved for Windows system DLLs" error msg. Googled it and was taken to The Poorhouse. Bless you again Adam for the posting the solution. Short version is to go here at the Microsoft site for the 935448 download. What's really amazing is after installing the patch, I did not have to reboot the computer! CAM Unzip was it's happy self again.

GroupWise Changes Video Display Settings

Out of the blue, when my CFO double-clicked on his GroupWise icon, the video display changed to something basic/ugly. I showed him how to change it back by right-clicking on the desktop to get to the properties. No joy, the next time he opened GW, the display would change. Then he told me that when he exited GW, the video display would go back to normal! So I uninstalled/reinstalled GW with no joy again. Baffled, I took a look in the GW program folder. Seeing nothing untoward and as a last-gasp, I right-clicked on gpwise.exe and started looking at the tabs. Under the Compatibility tab, the Run under 256 colors box was checked. Unchecked it and what do you know, no more problems. How it was checked in the first place... (start Twilight Zone theme music)

Web Page Converted to PHP

A fun project that was made easy by using Jed Brown's, (whose site is offline at the moment) home page and CSS stylesheet as templates with the guts from my own tbbrick.com. After I got all the sheets converted to php, then I found Amos and Papageorge's Easy-peasy PHP 2 page. Bless you gentlemen, may your tribes increase, if you want them to. My footer's on a separate php page called by an include. Can't do the header as the tabs have individual active markers. Hmmm, suppose I could do the software disclaimer, but will hold off for the time being.

Upgrade SAVCE 8.0 to 10.0 on Netware 5.1

After I installed Symantec 8.0, this is the weird error I received: Error: "S32evnt1.dll. An installable Virtual Device Driver failed DLL initialization" I went to here to find the solution from Symantec. Below is the condensed version.

To edit the Windows XP registry

1. On the Windows taskbar, click Start > Run.
2. In the Run dialog box, type regedit
3. Click OK.
4. Go to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\VirtualDeviceDrivers

5. In the right pane, delete the VDD value.
6. In the left pane, right-click the VirtualDeviceDrivers key, and then click New > Multi-String Value.
7. Type VDD for the name of the new value.
8. Exit the Registry Editor.
9. Restart the computer."

CSS and Frames

This was originally posted at Useful Utilities, 12/28/2005 10:43:00 AM:
So I've been monkeying around with my web page, happily learning CSS. Got the thing validated XHTML Transitional and CSS via W3C. Then I decided I'd figure out frames and had fits trying to get the index page to work with CSS.

Between having no luck on finding a solution and having read boocoo on how crappy frames behave, I decided to leave my site no frames. Lo and behold, I found on Google this link to DarkBlue, aka Jonathan M. Hollin's blogpost on how to emulate frames. Even tho I'm not planning on using it any time soon, it is nice to have the hack.

Ghost 2K3 with Windows 98

This was originally posted at Useful Utilities, 12/08/2005 09:38:00 AM:
Ok, ok, I know that nobody uses Windows 98 PCs anymore, unless you work for a not-for-profit like I do.

Any hoo, in the past, I had no problems with Symantec Ghost with a LaCie external hard drive to duplicate Windows XP PCs. Assumed (yeah, I'm former Air Force and do know what assume stands for) that the same boot disk would work for a Windows 98. Proverbial big mistake.

I had two issues. First, the Win XP boot disk wouldn't recognize the LaCie hard drive. Then, once I got it to see the external drive, Ghost would not restore the image. Said the source partition was too large. So after much sturm und drang, here's the drill for both. I put the XP drill first as that's the first OS I used Ghost on.

Windows XP Boot Disk:

Using a Win XP PC, format the floppy to FAT as a MS-DOS startup disk, Quick Format unchecked. Then delete everything but the command.com, io.sys, and the msdos.sys from the floppy. On my network drive, I have a folder with the following in it:

Ghost folder containing; Ghost.exe, Ghost.ini, Ghosterr.txt.

USB folder containing: aspiehci.sys

Root containing: Autoexec.bat, config.sys, guest.exe, ibmbio.com, ibmdos.com, mouse.com, mouse.ini.

Autoexec.bat contains:
@echo off
SET TZ=GHO+05:00
GUEST.EXE
MOUSE.COM
echo Loading...
CD GHOST
GHOST.EXE

Config.sys contains:
DEVICE = usb\aspiehci.sys /int /all
LASTDRIVE = Z

Copy the entire contents of the drive to the XP floppy, protect it, and you're good to go.

If you don't have the aspiehci.sys, you can find it on Symantec's web site or Google for it. It's actually from Iomega, as is the Guest.exe file.

When you do an Ghost an image to or from with the Win XP boot disk, do a disk selection, not partition. Then choose the first partition as usual.

Windows 98 Boot Disk:

I still used a Win XP boot disk as described above. On the network Win 98 folder, the Ghost folder is the same, but the USB and root files are different.

USB folder containing: DI1000DD.SYS and USBASPI.SYS.

Root containing: Autoexec.bat, config.sys, guest.exe, ibmbio.com, ibmdos.com, mouse.com, mouse.ini.

Config.sys contains:
Device=usb\usbaspi.sys /v
Device=usb\di1000dd.sys
LASTDRIVE = Z

As with XP, copy the entire contents of the drive to the 98 floppy and protect it.

Many thx to swhartung aka NightOwl, Ghost Guru at Radified Files Forum. I got the usbaspi.sys and di1000dd.sys files from Radified Files download page. Per NightOwl's suggestion, I used the usbaspi.sys from the kxlrw40an.exe file and the di1000dd.sys from the mhairudo.zip file.

With the Win 98 boot disk, it's reverse, do a partition selection, not disk.

Long Live DOS!!!

GroupWise 5.5 Restoring Deleted User

This was originally posted at Useful Utilities, 11/30/2005 12:36:00 PM:
Had a brain fart yesterday. Accidentally deleted a Novell 5.1/GW 5.5 account. Recreating the NW side was no biggie, but hokey-smokes Rocky, getting the user's GW back online was so not a treat.

Started the Great Google Search around 1600L. Searched in a variety of ways to include GroupWise "restore user" and "GroupWise 5.5" "restore user." It's freakin' amazing at the number of different ways posted to do this, most of them quite complicated, and all were basically useless. It wasn't until late in the evening that I hit on the answer and it was rather simple, compared to the gyrations listed on many of the sites.

What worked for me was this:

1. I recreated both the NW and GW accounts for the user. That way my user could continue to send and receive email while I was working on the restoration.

2. From backup tape, I restored wpdomain.db to a safe folder. Then I started NetWare Administrator, clicked on Tools – System Connection. At the GW System Connection window, I clicked on the Specify Other Domain button. I then browsed to the folder holding the restored wpdomain.db and selected it. After the GWSC window indicated it was pointing to the restored wpdomain.db, I clicked on the Connect button anyway. (There is something to be said for healthy paranoia.) I found the user's NW account (AKA the userid) and double-clicked on it. I then clicked on the GroupWise button. In the middle of the second box, I found the users three character File ID (or FID) which I will call OLD. I then went back to the GWSC and pointed it back to my live wpdomain.db. I then did the same drill to get the users new account FID which I'll call NEW.

3. Now that I knew the user's old FID, I restored the users backup USEROLD.DB from \po\ofuser to the same safe folder.

4. At this point, I had my user forward any email received from the new account to me. I then advised the user to get out of GW completely, to include Notify. Assured user could still remain logged on the the network, just couldn't use GW.

5. Using Windoze Explorer, I went to the live \po\ofuser folder, found the USERNEW.DB and renamed it to USERNEW.org. I then copied USEROLD.DB from the safe folder to the live \po\ofuser folder. I then renamed it from USEROLD.DB to USERNEW.DB. For grins and giggles, I logged on as the user and tried opening GW and no joy. Didn't even recognize the user even had a GW account. So, I opened my standalone GWCheck 5.5 and ran a structural rebuild on the account. Praise to Jesus, this time the user's GW account was up and happy. I then forwarded the users new email back to the restored account.

6. I reminded the user today that any email sent after the system backup and before the GW account was recreated was lost. Being that the user had 99% of the important email and the calendar back, the user was pretty happy.

Even tho I didn't leave until 2230L last night, it sure did feel good knowing that issue was solved and I now knew the drill.

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As with the Useful Utilities blog, here's a site disclaimer:
This blog contains some of the experiences that TB Brick has encountered while testing and/or using the software and/or web sites listed below to figure out solutions to sticky computer problems. The content and/or links are not unnecessarily endorsements of any products or services in such sites. All credits with respect to the delivered information go to the information delivering web sites. Opinions identified as originating with TB Brick are solely my own. tbbrick-fio.blogspot.com merely links the world wide web users to the potentially appropriate database for their specific interest.

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New Blog for Different Content

Have a Useful Utilities blog that's been covering the handy programs I've stumbled across. More and more, I want to share the helpful hacks that have saved my backside as well. Had been putting some in the UU blog, but will move them over here.