http://gateway.2wire.net/xslt?PAGE=HURL07 ERROR wehn trying to load a website

If your getting this error: http://gateway.2wire.net/xslt?PAGE=HURL07 or more precisely, Server not found, can not contact gatway or soemthing along that line, You have a 2Wire modem. The chances are You have set the firewall on it to Maximum Protection and the other chance is You have a router which also runs a Firewall, and that is why you need to put the modem into DMZplus mode and let the router's firewall do the protecting. Apparently, if you don't, running two firewalls is inefficient as it double NATs or Network Address Translation which has something to do with local IPs and global IPs and translation between them.

So I think if you go into 2Wire control panel page (http://10.0.0.XXX) and Edit the firewall settings to be DMZPlus Mode you should be safe and also get the websites up and running again.
Weird thing was, for me, My SMTP, POP and MSN (WLM) worked fine, only HTTP has issues)

Here was where my research ended and helped make my final decision of turn down the firewall on the modem. I figured that turning it off was a solution but wasn't sure if it was safe, I think the website says it is (according to a forum poster, lol)

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20462923-Computer-in-DMZplus-mode

Churing / Changing / ADSL ISP Service providers

One thing to check before telling your new ISP when to change over your Internet is the date that your current ISP refreshes it's download quota. Make sure you have enough time for the new ISP to activate your account and cancel your current ISP account before the refresh date otherwise you can be billed for another month of Internet from your current ISP.

Windows Vista skips Windows XP

Windows XP is no longer showing up as an option in the boot menu after you installed Vista?
Vista boots right up without asking to boot into Windows XP?
Vista looks like it has replaced Windows XP?
Can't select to boot into windows XP after installing windows Vista?


Well then, you'll need to install this software in Vista. EDIT: NO LONGER FREE :(

http://www.vistabootpro.org/

What you have to do is:

1. Install the software
2. Make a backup of your boot manager (using the software)
   
3. Now create a new entry for a OS, give it a name and most importantly select the drive letter that you have install Windows XP on (open up My computer in Vista to see the drive letter)
   
4. Save or apply the entry and re-boot and try

Should be pretty simple, if not post a comment and I guess I'll make a proper tutorial lol.

Pretty much what has happened is Windows Vista runs a newer boot manager than Windows XP and if the drive letters are screwed up, you might not have windows XP in the boot menu and hence vista will boot by default.

So by making a new entry you are creating a option in the boot manager to check the drive letter X for example, and then boot from there when selected.

Automated resize of pics to upload

We all now have better quality cameras, camera phones etc. which is all good until you need to upload over 30 pictures to the Internet at >500KB an image.

Using Photoshop to re-size them is a good way to really compress the size but keep the quality but how long will it take YOU to re-size it in Photoshop? (without learning how to make an automated batch script thingy)

Here is a quick and very small solution! :

RESIZE - http://www.snapfiles.com/publishers/peter-bone/index.html

Also check out the stick figure animation whilst your there, I have also used this before and it was great!

Sending messages to people I didn't add to the To list in Facebook

I've done that twice already -.-"

Sending messages to a few people so I though, but ended up being many more people.

The reason as i found afterward was that I've been sending to friends lists because I was giving them names that are mistakable as a person's name.

I fixed this problem by renaming all my friends lists to have "***# (name of list)" that way I can't accidentally send something to a list of friends when I only wanted a send to a specific person who happened to have the same starting letter as the list name.

e.g. sending a message to Friends instead of Francine.

the other advantage of renaming lists to have ***# is that if you ever want to find a list but can't remember what names you gave them just press * and it will show up all the people starting with * which should only be lists unless you have befriended people who names who start with * (rare cases)

GetCurrentImage failed, hr = 8000ffff

GetCurrentImage failed, hr = 8000ffff

Your getting this error because you are trying to save a image or a snapshot of a video in Media Player Classic (MPC), or at least I would presume, if not your reading the wrong post, lol.

You just need to tweak some settings to make it work:

1. Open up MPC
2. View > Options > Output (under Playback heading)
3. Change all the settings so the Radio button selected does not have a * next to it. * means that save as image will not work if you use that setting.
4. If you are viewing a RMVB file then you can get away with just adjusting the settings under RealMedia Video.
5. Close MPC and then open video and try saving (Important to close MPC before saving, if you're on the scene you want to save as image, it won't work as it's already rendered in the previous settings.

Hope this helps!

How to find out what mobile network your friend is on

1. Ask them duh!

3. EDIT - Refer to Edit below

2. This question has surfaced the Internet before due to mobile carriers providing free sms or calls to numbers on the same carrier, sometimes you want to know for things like Plumbers, contractors, sellers (from poster ads and notice boards etc.) for whom you don't want to ask because it makes you look stingy and cheap, LOL

The Internet reads that with new mobile numbers it is impossible to tell which provider because numbers are no longer allocated to providers specifically. I am sure there are other methods to find out the provider of a mobile phone but I thought of a method to do it by using another service (not designed to tell you what provider the mobile number belongs to but works to do just that if you know how to)

SOLUTION:

1. Go to http://www.web2msg.com/
2. Make sure you go to the web page when all the allocated SMS to all the providers are "currently unavailable", to check this look under the "Current Status" box in the top right side of the web page. You should see all yellow crossed boxes
   
3. Now fill in the form on the website and send an SMS to number you want to send to
4. All providers are unavailable and you will get a message saying that the message was not sent because all the allocated SMS quota to provider XYZABCDEFG Pty. Ltd. are exhausted.
5. That's how you determine the provider, or one of the ways, or the only way I've come up with so far without asking the person (which is sometimes not possible without calling them first).

EXCEPTION:

1. If the providers are not all unavailable your message will actually be sent, so try avoid doing this, the SMS sent will be from Web2msg's number and will be considered as spam if you send it. The quota is reset every 12 hours so if you try at the right time, or analyse the website you'll know what time the quota is always exhausted, I will post some AEST times that I have found them to be most dead.

EDIT: (More reliable as method 2. has issues with carriers using other carrier networks and numbers being transferred to new carrier?)

Just found a better, simpler way to do it, good ol Google work.

http://www.smsfun.com.au/mobile_lookup.php

Shows the previous and current provider/carrier, which can be a bit confusing but;

Current provider: provider currently with (free txt or calls goes with them)

Previous provider: the previous carrier of that number (number change over?)

* A limitation of this 3rd method is that you can check up to ~3 numebrs a day without needing to make an account with the website (who has more than 3 numebrs to check anyway?)

MSN/WLM: Flash Player Required error on start up

"To send or receive Windows Live Messenger content, you need a newer version of Adobe Flash Player. Once adobe Flash Player has been installed, you may need to exit and restart Windows Live Messenger.

To download and install the most recent version of Adobe Flash Player, click install"


SOLUTION: Feel free to post your solutions, mine is still not fixed.

SOLVED: (Special thanks to ParadoX)

ParadoX said...

Hi,

Had the same problem. Go to C:\Windows\System32\Macromed\Flash and launch NPSWF32_FlashUtil.exe. That's it, restart MSN, the problem is gone :)

Cheers,
ParadoX

GEC LIVING now with SCREENSHOTS

Hi all!

I don't know why I am an IT student and never thought of this before but I realised I have no screenshots of the errors. I shall add them in up coming future posts as most errors described here are "local" errors or errors I am dealing with personally. I don't think I will add step-by-step pictures for the solution part though because I think my steps are easier and faster to read and follow than to click multiple pictures and guess what's happening.

Best of luck,
Patrick G Leong (Blog admin)

Mass Storage Controller Driver missing (Windows 7)

(Toshiba laptop) device manager: no drivers found for "Mass storage controller"

What it most likely is, is the SD or all-in-one card reader on your laptop. For my model, I installed the Texas-Instrument drivers. Your laptop may be different, search the laptop CD for the drivers or laptop manufacturer's website.


SOLVED

Performance Information and Tools

The Windows Experience Index for your system could not be computed.

Could not measure storage performance.
the temporary file needed to perform work could not be placed on the disk. Could not find a suitable drive for the file.

SOLUTION: tb found

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itproperf/thread/466f9a99-d148-492a-8903-32c010726fa2

^ suggests that the drive letter could be the problem, chances are likely because I also have windows 7 installed on a drive with the letter B: as par the website the link leads to.

I will try to change the letter of the drive to avoid re-installing Windows 7. Will post back if it is not as risky as I am thinking right now. WEI isn't that important anyways.

Unlimited MSN/WLM nudges (Without MSN Plus)

You can use MSN plus but if you only wanted unlimited nudges every now and then, MSN Plus might be an eyesore and extra resource usage on your computer as your not using its other capabilities.

You can use a WLM alternative like emesene that has nudge plugins that do not follow the nudge limit design. They can sometimes not work though.

My discovery is if you open up your WLM window and then open the contact's window, nudge contact hit ESC click the contact again you can nudge again. It seems nudge limits are reset upon closing the chat window.

Lightweight PDF Viewer (SumatraPDF)

I got copped with a 33MB update file from Adobe Reader and that's what tipped me off to get a better PDF viewer.

SumatraPDF is my new replacement:

• At first the lacking of interface buttons compared to Adobe does put you off but then when you use it for a while you realise that you never used those buttons on Adobe anyways.
  

Goods:

• Small download file
• Opens very quickly
• Does the job
• Has the option (on by default) to remember where you last read the PDF up to, very good idea and tool if your reading Uni lecture notes or a big e-book, you'll want to not have to use bookmarks or remember page numbers. This alone is a great competitive advantage. Adobe may have had this feature, I am not sure but my Adobe certainly didn't remember pages upon closing.

DOWNLOAD: http://blog.kowalczyk.info/software/sumatrapdf/index.html

Windows 7 "no connection error" - ALT + TAB not work

I am calling it the No connection error because I figured the error was caused by Windows Explorer having a box pop up above the system clock that says No Connection.

This box, being not very visible will cause your ALT-TAB to not work at all, Minimise and Maximise not work well and windows being inactive when they pop up (e.g. MSN) and cause you to type not into the chat window.

To fix it just click on the power icon, Wi-Fi icon and try to close that box that shows No connection.

Here are things that won't fix it that I have tried:

-locking computer, unlocking
-restarting explorer and then launching it again from task manager
-logging off and back on

Very strange and ANNOYING error/problem with windows 7 >=( especially as it's run pretty nicely over the weeks.

Cool and FREE WMP Visualisations From Microsoft

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/visualizations.aspx#Top

A page of pretty cool visualisations, My Favorite is: Energy Bliss

avast causes windows 7 to have a black screen upon login

After installing an old version of Avast (weird weird) and then updating it to the newer version, my Windows 7 would show a black screen and my cursor and be locked at the screen forever after the welcome screen (after login).

Restart, and same thing, after the welcome screen it goes into the black screen. So it isn't a boot problem, my guess is some driver or software that is hugely not compatible with Windows 7.

The way I fixed it was:

(p.s. write down these instructions if you need them because you can't run the Internet when booting off the DVD, for that matter you shouldn't be able to read this blog on the broken computer :\ ............ good point)

1. Put in the Windows 7 DVD
2. Hold down the power button (only way to restart the computer in my situation)
3. Boot off the DVD
4. Go through the prompts until you see the screen where you can click "Repair my computer" (bottom right of the screen)
   
5. Now select the option to recover from a system restore point.
6. Follow those prompts and then it will ask you to restart

My current theory is Avast Anti-Virus, maybe I need to download an installer for a W7 compatible version instead of updating a really outdated version.

The other things on the snapshot were Windows Updates, could be possible I guess, I am re-downloading the updates now so will update on that soon.

Delete / Move / Unlock locked files by windows or other applications

I can't remember why I never posted about "Unlocker" the application, that is really good for unlocking files and folders being used by applications or Windows itself.

http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/

I had a folder that was created by windows during an update I'd presume or an install of something but the computer crashed and so the temp folder was never unlocked or deleted. Ran Unlocker for 5 seconds, couldn't find any application locking it but gave me the option to delete it, so i did. done!

firefox is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system

"Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system"

WARNING My fix on this post is a quick fix to get you back up and running. It does NOT fix Firefox and save all data (bookmarks, histroy etc.) it only gets Firefox back into a running state.

1. Right-click on the Firefox icon
2. Properties
3. In the "Target:" field , scroll all the way to the right after the address
4. Add -profilemanager after the "
5. e.g. you should have something like this now "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\firefox.exe" -profilemanager
6. OK out of everything
7. Run Firefox
8. Make a new profile or delete the old one and make a new one
9. Remove the -profilemanager
10. Run Firefox as normal

Can't get rid of windows.old folder

If you installed a new windows on an existing partition without re-formatting it you may now be stuck with a windows.old folder, which is good for recovering things from the previous Windows install, well it is until you get everything off and your wasting GBs of hard drive space and having an eye sore fodler.

You can't usually delete it in safe mode, using special software or just by pressing delete, well nto all of the fodler anyways.

Solution:

• Right-Click the HDD
• Properties
• Disk Clean Up
• Check the previous windows installs
• OK to begin disk clean up
  
  Done! hope this helps (:
  

Hide Libraries fodler from navigation window

I never use it with my current folder design and it's a waste of space, and an eye sore. LOL

So here is a good link that explains:

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/01/05/how-to-hide-or-show-libraries-in-the-navigation-pane-of-windows-7-explorer/


It doesn't remove the folder as such but it just removes the links inside the folder so it sort of removes the clutter as the libraries fodler won't expand automatically.

In a nutshell:

1. Right-click on fodler under Libraries in the navigation window
2. Select Remove
   

Install Windows Live Messenger (WLM) Without re-downloading

I run a dual boot OS laptop and also maintain many computers at home and what bugs me about the new system of WLV compared to the old Windows Messenger is that you have to download a small installer file which will then download a huge file to install WML and when you are doing this for lots of computers or the same one but running a different OS then that is just plain annoying. You'll think so too when your living in Australia and have download limits.

This is a really good link that shows you how to do it:

Retrieve Windows Live Messenger 2009 standalone individual setup installer msi.
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/10/21/retrieve-windows-live-messenger-2009-standalone-individual-setup-installer-msi-from-web-download/



AND again for my lazy viewers :P :

1. Go to OS drive, C:\Program Files\common Files\Windows Live\
2. Type in the address bar after C:\Program Files\common Files\Windows Live\
   .cache to give C:\Program Files\common Files\Windows Live\.cache
3. Press enter
4. Go to search bar up the top and type in "Messenger"
5. You should see in the results field, Messenger.msi
6. Copy and paste that file into a folder for keeps and then run it to install WLM.

Hope this helps! :P I seriously do cause it's annoying, that and I sort of wrote this post before I checked if it worked. LOL


EDIT:

Also Search for "wllogin.msi" whilst your there and also install that. That is the Login-Assistant and without it you might not be able to sign in to WLM even though you have it installed.

A second note is the MDi is ment for the small installer program you used before to install WLM and hence no uder interface is visible, it simply installs and closes itself when done. So if you clicked it once see a installing window and it disappears, check the Start > All Programs. It has been installed.

Windows XP Mode for Windows 7

Windows XP Mode for Windows 7?

Yes! you might ask why don't i save money and just use windows XP? I have no answer, sorry, but maybe this release of XP will make Windows 7 more compatible. It seems to me its less compatible with "stuff" than Vista but then again my machine is designed for Vista.

Indenting Paragraph In A Table

If you press TAB in a table it skips to the next cell or column/row. To create an indent in a table press CTRL + TAB

^MS Office Word.

Auto Login Safe?

You don't need to login to Windows to have access to your files stored on your HDD, so a Windows password doesn't protect thieves from opening your files by attaching the hard drive to another computer.

If you have BIOS or fingerprint access restriction upon boot up then your protected from unauthorised use of your computer anyways.

Auto login does not remove the password for when you lock the computer (Windows + L) or when the screen saver is closed and so it still does prevent people from using your computer.

Editing Vista and Windows 7 Boot Menu (no longer boot.ini)

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2676-bcdedit-how-use.html

No liabilities of what you do with that link. :)

Auto Login Windows 7

Mr. Carter does a good job at explain this:

http://windows7tester.blogspot.com/2009/02/auto-login.html


In A nut shell:

• Windows + R
• "control userpasswords2"enter
• Uncheck: “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer”
• OK
  

Gec Living: Windows 7 Rants And Raves: Older software

I installed older software that worked on Vista and because it was a virtual DVD drive, it had drivers, obviously not compatible with Windows 7 but compatible with Vista, even though Vista = Windows 7 in some ways. They advertised it was the driver and core system that was unchanged but yet it doesn't work >.<

• I have seen RAM increased performance
• I have seen cooling performance (might be weather dependent as I have never checked Vista on the same weather, day and conditions)
• Yet to see any real battery improvements

So if you can bother to tweak and is obsessed with the performance gains then Windows 7 could be for you1

Rasterise pictures to make a giant poster

http://arje.net/rasterbator

^ hope this helps, have fun!

How To Get Older Versions Of Software

http://www.versiontracker.com/windows/

^ Here you go!

How to set a default folder view

How do you:

• Always use detail view
• Always use list view
• Always use tile view
• Always use content view
• Always use ____ icon view

Doesn't matter what view you want.

Just open up a folder and set the view to what you want to set for ALL folders.

Folder and search options > View > Apply to Folders > (Answer Yes)

Summarized and formulated from:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/02/27/how-to-set-preferred-folder-view-in-windows-explorer/

How to restore a deleted bookmark? (accidental deletion)

Well, if your using Firefox then its as simple as:

Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks > Import and Backup > Restore > (Select a date that the bookmark wasn't deleted yet.

This obviously only works well if:

1. You had deleted the bookmark recently
2. Have not added a lot of new bookmarks since the deletion of the bookmark.