UPDATE: Troubleshoot: pcAnywhere 12.0 / 12.1

I did receive a couple of notices that the early post about pcAnywhere did not work. There is a step that I did not mention in my original post (Sorry!). Prior to doing what I noted in the 1st pcAnywhere post of the short cut to SessionController.exe and then the original pcanywhere shortcut, you need to check in your task manager (To get to task manager either on the start menu bar at the bottom right click in an empty space and then select task manager and left click or press cntr-alt-del on your keyboard and when you get your choices select task manager). When you get to the task manager (which tells you what is running on your machine)

Look for something that says Winaw32.exe. Once you see that (and you will if my other post didn’t work for you), highlight it and select end process. This will stop the service. Once you stop the service then try the post again.

I hope this helps. Let me know if it does.

Airport: Now I have to pay to plug in my laptop? Are you kidding me!

I have been on a road warrior assignment in Kansas City assisting with the opening of their newly remodeled baseball stadium the past few days (which is also why I haven’t been able to post until now). Just a short time ago, while waiting for my plane in Kansas City, I came across something I’d never seen before at Terminal B at MCI (Kansas City Airport). It seems that you now have to pay $2 for access to power outlets by your seats in the terminal.

At 1st glance it looks like many of the internet access kiosks that you see at many airports and hotels. After a closer look you can tell that this kiosk has a different purpose.

They advertise it as “More power to you”. I know that most airports have a fee for internet service at the airport but for power…that’s a new one (At least for me).

I had never seen this at any other airport. This especially surprised me at MCI because they advertise free Wi-Fi service at MCI (http://www.flykci.com/AirportService/WiFi/Index.htm (http://www NULL.flykci NULL.com/AirportService/WiFi/Index NULL.htm)). So one can only assume the idea is “surf for free but pay for the juice”.

This is what you will see under your chair in the gate area once you pay the power kiosk. It’s $2 dollars. I guess I shouldn’t complain they take both cash or credit.

Since I had plenty of time on my hands….I walked around the Gate area (Terminal B has gates 56-60 next to each other. In a corner across from Gate 56 if you look carefully you will see the following -

That is a pay phone (The thing that everyone used to use before cell phones became popular). Just below the phone was a magical free electrical outlet. Only one in the gate area that didn’t cost $2 dollars.

I know airports need to get revenue, but do they really have to nickel and dime the customers.

NOTE: All opinions here are my own.

Troubleshoot: pcAnywhere 12.0 / 12.1

After a few days away to complete my assignment in Kansas City, I’m now back, and able to get back to posting. To get things started I have received a number of calls recently on an issue that seems to be affecting Symantec’s pcAnywhere program (versions 12.0 / 12.1). pcAnywhere is used for remote access to another computer.

When starting pcAnywhere you will get the box that you would normally expect to see, except for the fact that the top settings are grayed out and the box itself is just a grey window. I have been doing research on this and can’t seem to find much info on it, but I have come up with a work around for this issue.

1 – Start by creating a shortcut to the SessionController.exe file (which in normal pcAnywhere installs can be found at "C:\Program Files\Symantec\pcAnywhere"). A – Put this shortcut link close to your regular Symantec pcAnywhere program icon

2 – Double-click SessionController shortcut first
A – Wait for the blank gray screen to appear (YES, the same gray screen that is causing the problem, but do not worry, this is only temporarily blank).

3. Now just double click your regular Symantec pcAnywhere icon.

4. You should now see the complete pcAnywhere window

Symantec support took a couple of hours and could not tell me a reason and their only solution was format and re-install Windows, which I did not want to do. So here is the solution until a formal fix is available.

Your pcAnywhere window should like just like this when working properly.

Travel: Road Warrior Adventure – Trip to KC

Today was supposed to be an easy day. Only thing to worry about was getting to the airport on time to get to my flight (US Air 4091 – 1:20 scheduled departure out of Philadelphia). I arrived at 11am, and we had showers, nothing that would make you think that today would be a mess. BUT SURPRISE –

Flights from US Air today out of Philadelphia have been met by cancellations at what I think is a high rate.

So now the challenge Go via St Louis (Land in STL and then drive 3 1/2 hours, nope (Women’s Final 4 – I Think so no cars to rent).
Go via Charlotte, Nope (Only a 20% chance I would make my connector).
Take the flight to DC and then get the connector to KC (At least if i miss this one I can drive home tonight).

(Believe it or not as I type this I now see sunshine). The one thing I would say is that for all the weather days you get in the Northeast, you would figure that someone would have a procedures for handling it. I don’t know if they do or don’t but …

This is what it looks like when a bunch of flights all get canceled at the same time. About 30 people in front of me

Another 10 behind me, and that is after they sent a large part of the line to another counter. (Which was about 1/2 mile away, I kid you not!)

(*TIP)With the road warrior experience, I got out of line, called the US Air Ticket Center (800-428-4322 if you ever need it, and select 4 for existing flights within the US and Canada). They picked up within 3 minutes which really isn’t all that bad (at least if i compare it to the line above) and had me rebooked before the line had even moved.

At least I can get online with my PDAnet software (its $7.99 a day for airport Wi-Fi).

Recommendation: Tether (modem) your phone without the additional monthly fee

Its hard at times trying to stay connected while waiting for a plane, many airports don’t have wifi yet and those who do require you to pay $5.99 (or more) per hour. Then you have hotels, where you can get internet but its $9.99 to $14.99 a day (Easy revenue for a hotel) or hotels where they will offer Internet but only in their lobby area (After a long day I don’t want to sit in a lobby, I want to sit in my hotel room). Finally you have client offices where they may not want you on their network because their I.T. doesn’t know where your laptop has been (I can understand that) or even if you could would you like to risk your client being able to scan your laptop and possibly get a hold of a document that they really shouldn’t be seeing (I know of a few places that have done that)?

Those are just some of the many scenarios that road warriors go thru during their day to day tech life. These as well as many other issues has made the wifi card (which basically all cell phone carriers now have) very popular. The problem I have with the situation is that most of those cards have limits as to how many bytes of data you can send/receive per month (unless you pay for a seriously high end plan), and in all cases your looking at $49 or $59 a month with a 2-year commitment (they really want you around for a while). Then you have an option from these same phone companies to Tether you phone, which means that you use your phone as a modem. This used to be a free option for the most part but now the phone companies have become wise and will charge you $15 or more a month for the Tethering option.

The cost may not seem so bad, but in these economic times, where every penny counts, I have another solution to get your internet access. A company call June Fabrics (I don’t know why they choose that, before you ask!) has software for Windows Mobile, Treo, ( and earlier releases for the iPhone, Android and Blackberry) that will allow you to Tether your phone and not have to pay the extra monthly fees. They call it PDAnet and it uses your phones built in internet service to provide your service to your laptop or whatever other device you connect to. I have been a user of PDAnet for over 3 years (Again for the record, I am not in any way associated with June Fabrics, I’m just a satisfied customer), and have had no issues with their program. I have used Sprint the entire time, and have always kept the unlimited data plan on the phone itself. There costs run from $29 to $34 dollars (one time fee) per license, which means per phone, however, you are allowed to load the software on as many pc’s as you need if you connect via multiple devices thru your phone. I have in my travels 2 laptops (not that i carry both at the same time, plus a Samsung UMPC) and run the application perfectly, being able to switch between the 3 devices on the fly when need be. The application is simple to use, and sets up in no time at all. The speed is very good, i would explain it as low end DSL speeds.

The only negative is that company does not have immediate phone support, but they have always been good in getting me a response via the online support tool, in most cases in less than 24 hours.

**The only thing to keep in mind is that you really need to have an unlimited data plan on your phone, because if you don’t you will get an unpleasant surprise, from your cell phone provider.

So if you need to have internet access and cant or don’t want to pay more than you already are check out June Fabrics http://junefabrics.com/index.php (http://junefabrics NULL.com/index NULL.php). Its a lot easier to convince a boss to let you expense a 1 time $29 or $34 dollar charge, than it is to convince them to pay $15 to $59 every month.

UPDATE: To What does it take to get to the center of a Blackberry or “Why did I just drop it!”

In a previous post, I talked about how a co-worker dropped his phone (Breaking the 2 rules of electronic devices). Well now I can say after taking all apart, and spending a couple of hours with a “Can O Air” to blow out the mud and whatever else that was coming out of the phone and letting the phone dry. He was able to put the phone back together (without any spare parts) and get the phone working again. So just remember the rules or this could happen to you….

Before

After

More of “AND MORE”: What does it take to get to the center of a Blackberry or “Why did I just drop it!”

Rule#1 of all electronic devices is that they don’t work well after they have been under water. Rule#2 is if you don’t follow rule #1 then you should make sure you carry insurance on the device (NOTE – You may not want to tell anyone that your claiming insurance because your device was under water as that may void the insurance, just saying!). Well it seems a co-worker of mine, who shall remain name less broke both Rule#1 and Rule #2, and since we are all Geeks, figured that he could just take his Blackberry apart and dry it out. So here is what the Blackberry looks like…..

Now the fun part is, lets see if he can get the phone put back together and not have any parts left over. Let me just point out that I in NO WAY recommend doing this to your phone.

Conflicker: Let me guess “April Fools” / Free Antivirus Choices

I don’t know if the latest version of Conflicker was just an April Fools joke, or if the joke is that all it will do today is download some files and that “Skynet” (Terminator movie reference) comes later. If nothing else I hope that all the hype concerning this latest version of Conflicker has severed to remind people that a computer needs to have some maintenance, just like a car. If you drove your car and never changed the oil or belts or tires, how long would your car actually run?

It is also important to have a good antivirus product installed on your pc. Once you get your antivirus software installed on your pc, you need to make sure that it is set up to update (There’s that word again!) on a regular (regular = no less than once a week or sooner)

I also understand that in these economic times that it may not always be possible to spend money on the computer, so here is a list of antivirus software that is offered by the manufacture free (“For home use”).

AVG FREE -http://free.avg.com/download-avg-anti-virus-free-edition (http://free NULL.avg NULL.com/download-avg-anti-virus-free-edition)

Avira – http://www.free-av.com/en/download/index.html (http://www NULL.free-av NULL.com/en/download/index NULL.html)

Avast – http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html (http://www NULL.avast NULL.com/eng/avast_4_home NULL.html)

All 3 of these have pay versions of their software, but for the average home user, the free version is all you will ever need. **The other thing to keep in mind is that you should never install / run more than one antivirus program on your pc. What will happen is that the programs will think they are each a virus and basically as they fight to see who wins your pc will not work right. So if you have an old antivirus and you would like to replace it, please make sure to uninstall the old version before installing the new antivirus.

WARNING: Conflicker Tomorrow (April 1) No Fooling

I think this has been said enough “ITS COMING”, the latest version of Conflicker is expected to start whatever it is that it is supposed to do, tomorrow (As of now I’m not aware of anyone really knowing what its going to do?) so you need to update your systems NOW. Ok let me say it 1 more time “UPDATE NOW”!

The reason computer attacks (and that’s what they are), get as big as they do, is because people don’t do what they are supposed to. Imagine everyday cars breaking down all around you, why because those owners never bothered to change their own oil or to take the car to a professional (if they didn’t know what they were doing) and getting the oil changed. Well that’s what is currently happening with computers. A computer is not a TV folks, you cant just click it on use it and click it off. A computer is like a car, you need to give your computer tune up’s, “oil” changes, check under the hood. A rule I understood early into my geek career is that “90% of all pc issues occur between the keyboard and the chair”.

As a reminder if I haven’t made it clear yet “UPDATE YOUR SYSTEM NOW!” Let me give you links and a quick how to as to how you can minimize the risk to your computer. I’m not going to tell you that this is 100% full proof, consider it like the seat belts in your car, you never expect to get into a car, but when you do, aren’t you glad you put the belt on.

To help minimize your risks…..

In all Windows operating systems up to Windows XP (Get online and) go to

windowsupdate.Microsoft.com/ which is the Windows update website. From there you will see 2 choices express and custom. If you choose express you will get the choice of updates that Microsoft has created to improve or secure your system. If you choose custom, you will see a list of all files that can be updated on your system. I choose to run custom and make sure i update everything.

If your on Vista or windows 7 all you do is go to start – windowsupdate in the start menu itself and a window will appear automatically telling you what you can choice and then it will download and install automatically.

If you run any software by Microsoft that isn’t the operating system (XP, windows 2000, etc) the you should visit http://update.microsoft.com/ (http://update NULL.microsoft NULL.com/) which will do the same updating, for all other products (office, etc), plus your windows updates all in the same place.

The problem with the software that allowed Conflicker to work, was fixed in Oct 2008. If everyone would have already been upto date, they would have made the back page news not 60 minutes.

**One more thing, if you are unable to access either of the 2 Microsoft sites, then you should check your system as you may already infected you. In that case, you may want to try running the following tools on your pc.

The Microsoft software removal tool – http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=AD724AE0-E72D-4F54-9AB3-75B8EB148356&displaylang=en (http://www NULL.microsoft NULL.com/downloads/details NULL.aspx?FamilyId=AD724AE0-E72D-4F54-9AB3-75B8EB148356&displaylang=en)

or the free trial version (which does a good job) of Malware bytes to clean your machine http://www.malwarebytes.org/ (http://www NULL.malwarebytes NULL.org/).

Uninstalling Internet Explorer 8

I installed Internet Explorer 8 the day after its release on one of my home machines (“Old Faithful” – P4 2.5Ghz Processor with 1 gig of memory) to see what it could do. I will say that it did everything the press release on it said I would get. It ran faster, took less of my resources from my pc, acted more secure, however, one of the major programs that I run on “Old Faithful” would not work. It’s a proprietary program that allows me to monitor a number of my clients sites remotely 24/7. The new IE8 security changes for some reason (still being investigated by the program developer) will not allow their program to run properly. So i have had to for the time being uninstall IE8, until we can get the situation resolved. The uninstall is not difficult but since its a little different then the normal uninstall in windows I figured i would write out some simple directions for those who also have a need to uninstall……

The uninstall process

1) Go to the Microsoft site http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957700 (http://support NULL.microsoft NULL.com/kb/957700)

In the middle of the page you will see an icon that says “Microsoft Fix It”, click on the icon.
You will see a File download box appear asking you if you want to Run – Save – Cancel a program called UninstallIE8.msi. If your on the machine that has IE8 just click Run. If your downloading it so that you can uninstall IE8 on a different machine click save and save the file to a USB or other Portable drive. The file is 115k which means it will fit on a floppy (If anyone even remembers what those are!)
Once you hit run on the download (or double click the file if you are using the saved file) you will see a window that says Internet Explorer – Security Warning and a Run and Don’t Run box. Click on Run –
The next window “Welcome to the Uninstall Internet Explorer 8 Wizard” select that you agree (If you didn’t agree then you probably wouldn’t be trying to do this.) and Next

The next window “Confirm Installation” (Again, if your didn’t want to do this would you be doing this?) click on Next.
The next window just show you the progress of the uninstall. Just wait….on my machine it took about 4 minutes to complete (Yes I know its a slow machine)
The next window you will see the “Uninstall Internet Explorer 8 has been processed” just click on close.
Finally you will be asked for a restart. Make sure your files are saved and closed and hit restart. That’s it…

Tech Geek and More

Technology Explained for All