Special Notice

Due to the popularity of this Tips section, it is currently being replaced by the Blog.  Both sections are still currently available.  However, once all of the articles from this section have been reposted in the Blog, the navigational button for it will be removed.  Eventually, this page will automatically redirect visitors to the Blog. 

Resolving a Wireless Connection Problem

There are a few terms I may need to define before I begin:

Wireless Adapter

This is a network interface card either plugged-in or built-in to your computer that has a two-way radio for connecting wirelessly to a network.

Wireless Access Point

This is a two-way radio that is directly plugged-in or built-in to a router, modem, or cellular tower. So if you have a wireless router, it has the wireless access point built-in and the router is what I am referring to when I use this term.

System Tray

This is the lower-right corner of your screen, typically filled with a lot of really small icons.

You may have to manually tell the wireless adapter on your computer to connect to your wireless access point. Windows-based computers usually have an icon in the system tray that you can use for convenience. The icon will have something to do with either the brand of wireless adapter you are using (such as Broadcom), a wireless connection, a wireless network, or a radio.

Once you find the correct icon, right-click it to get a context menu. You will then see an option to "View available networks" or to "View detected networks". Once you select the option, a window will open to show you the networks that are in range. Select your network and click the "Connect" button in the window.

If there are no networks listed in the window described above, there is a problem with your network or your wireless access point. If this is the case, the problem can most likely be resolved by resetting the wireless access point (a wireless router for most people). If you use a cellular-based provider for your internet service, you won't be able to reset this yourself (obviously). Otherwise, to reset your wireless access point, turn it off, wait 30 seconds, and turn it back on. You'll most likely have to wait until the lights on your wireless access point return to normal. Then, if there is a refresh button on the window, click it. If not, just wait a minute or two for an automatic refresh.

How to get your web site higher in the list of search engine results

Nudging your way up the search engine list is a multi-million dollar industry in itself. I am sure you have already found a plethora of information on the subject already.

At the very least:

1. Keep the information on your site relevant
   Include lots of hot topic kind of stuff. I believe including automated news feeds are an easy way to accomplish this. Opening a Google business account is free and gives you access to "webmaster tools". One tool allows you to search thru lists of most searched keywords. Which reminds me: don't be afraid to keep repeating hot topic keywords and phrases; like "...the Omaha mall massacre has shoppers shaken ... many see the Omaha mall shooting as a wake up call ... struggle to recover from the shooting at the mall in Omaha ...".
2. Bombard your pages with information
   Talk about everything you can think of that is relevant to each page. Include sidebars, side notes, footnotes; use any opportunity to provide new information. However, avoid vague or irrelevant discussion. Make each discussion seem like the most important one on the page. And don't say the same thing the same way in different places. They will just be ignored or, even worse, avoided.
3. Keep it fresh
   It should be updated weekly at the least. Try to update every last discussion, including descriptions, explanations, etc. Even if you have someone to help you that does nothing more than rephrase and restate information that normally wouldn't change, try to keep all of the information changing. By the way, replacing a word here or there does not work anymore. Entire sentences have to be redone. One idea is to type up 5 or more versions of the same discussions ahead of time. Then, rotate the versions each week.

At the very most, hire a company to promote the web site. You can spend very little to very much on this. And, assuming you only consider reputable companies, you will get what you pay for.

Does Office XP work with Windows Vista?

To anyone that had to fork over 3 figures for this package, that is an important question when their computer starts asking to be replaced.

While Microsoft will not certify it to do so, my answer is "YES! ...with a few caveats."

If anyone has any additional problems I can post or a work-around for the password problem, please e-mail them to me.

Microsoft Puts Computer Control Back into the Hands of Parents - For Free

My old, faithful laptop computer finally started to croak, so I had to get a new one. Of course, most new computers now only come with Windows Vista. Now that my little one is showing early signs of technical savvy and street-smarts (oh, I mean web-smarts), I was pleasantly surprised to find out on my new computer how Microsoft addressed the ever-growing issue of protecting our children from online threats and even from spending too much time playing games.

Microsoft's "Parental Controls" is an easy, comprehensive toolset for managing security in your children's online activities and exposure to the internet at various levels. It's probably not necessary at all for the really young, not yet able to read. But, once they start learning to explore a little better, you can start using the tool by fully limiting them to just one or a few known-to-be-safe, family-friendly web sites. Then, as you discover more sites that are safe for them to visit, simply add those to the list of allowed sites. Of course, as they get older they will need us to trust them and give them the chance to demonstrate responsibility. So as you begin lifting the barriers a bit you can also begin reviewing how they've handled that responsibility by looking over reports of all of their online activity.

So you say the problem is not going to be what they do but how much they do it? Not a problem. Parental Controls even allows you to set time limits for playing games or for being able to use the computer at all, which can also be a great tool for positive reinforcement. "You know, Jimmy, you've cleaned your room and completed your homework every day this week without ever being asked to. So I think you've earned an extra hour of game time each day next week. Keep up the good work and we'll make it permanent."

And you can set limitations individually, for each child. For example, little 5-year old Becky Sue isn't yet ready to understand about online predators. So her account could be limited to everything but, say, "PlayhouseDisney.com". However, little 12-year old Jimmy has already demonstrated some wisdom and responsibility in where he goes online and what he does. So his account might only be limited by time (we all get carried away sometimes) and by blocking the most popular child predator ridden sites (we can't expect them to remember all of the sites they're not supposed to visit).

Here's some excerpts from the help files of Parental Controls.

I know, I know. By now you are probably thinking, "those kinds of controls have been around for years". The existence and features of Parental Controls is not what surprised me. What surprised me is that it comes FREE with Windows Vista. Kudos to Microsoft, at least for this.

Now, if we can just get our two or more year old printers and other gadgets to work with Vista...

E-mail Etiquette: Chain E-mail = Permission to Spam

Once you receive a chain e-mail, you are likely to be receiving a lot of extra junk mail soon thereafter. Although people sending these e-mails have good intentions, they are unwittingly subjecting your e-mail address to being sold over and over again to the spamming industry.

A chain e-mail can be any e-mail that is likely to be forwarded, such as the typical "pass this along" type or the rather insulting "pass this along or else..." type. The e-mail addresses on virtually all of these e-mails eventually get "harvested" by automated programs looking for active e-mail addresses. The harvested addresses are then sold to any and every spammer looking to make a few bucks and all you get out of it is at least two years additional of junk mail.

Even though by the time you get one of these your address is already doomed, you had better nip it in the bud and tell whomever sent it to stop doing it. The most polite way to ask them to stop would probably be to reply with an article, such as this one (hint! hint!).

If there indeed is information you would like to pass along to friends and family, you can usually protect the recipients by using the "blind carbon copy" technique. First, delete any e-mail addresses from the body of the e-mail. Or, if you are feeling especially thoughtful, you could take the time to copy only the information you want to share and paste it into a new e-mail. Then, for the primary recipient (the person in the "To..." field), put your own e-mail address or a completely bogus one; for example, Nobody@nowhere.com or MyFriends@TheirEmail.com. Lastly, put the actual recipients into a field called the "blind carbon copy" (or BCC) field.

Much of the e-mail software commonly used, including web-based e-mail software, hide the BCC field by default. But this field can usually be easily shown. For example, while composing an outgoing e-mail message using Microsoft Outlook, click "View" on the menu bar and then click "Bcc Field". Instructions for a majority of the others are at http://rrudder.com/safe/bcc.html.

Note: Ironically, some e-mail service providers flag as spam and remove messages for recipients that appear only in the BCC field.

Unaddressed Problem with Windows Explorer in Windows Vista

Warning! There is apparently an unaddressed bug in how Windows Explorer handles a certain type of network folder (the kind created with "add network place") in Windows Vista. It can cause Windows Explorer to crash when launched, but may also cause unrelated applications to crash when trying to open or save a file. Crashes in the unrelated applications are due to the fact that most designed for Windows use Windows Explorer when browsing for a file to open or for a place to save a file.

Here are the relevant details behind the generated error:

• Faulting application Explorer.EXE, version 6.0.6000.16549
• Faulting module SHELL32.dll, version 6.0.6000.16513
• Exception code 0xc00000fd, fault offset 0x0009638d, process id 0xa68

What Happened to Me

I added several network folders for an FTP location on the internet. However, when I tried to add one for the root folder in the FTP location, Explorer responded by indicating that the location didn't exist. After several attempts I tried the drag-and-drop method. It then added it fine. Great! ... or so I thought.

Windows Explorer suddenly crashed. I thought, "so ... crashes happen". But then Windows Explorer would crash every time I tried to start it. So a reboot was in order. Fine, but still Windows Explorer crashed. At one point I launched Windows Notepad and tried to open a file, which, of course, uses Windows Explorer to browse, and it crashed. It seemed that any application that tried to use Windows Explorer would crash.

It actually turned out that it was only when Windows Explorer would reference the last network folder I had created that things would crash. Windows Explorer would crash on launching because the newly created folder is referenced (among other places) directly under "Desktop\Computer". And, "Desktop\Computer" is usually open by default.

I knew that my Gateway OEM technical support (which should be called just "answering service" since the staff has no technical know-how) would not be able to figure things out. But, I like to call anyway - for a little humor and because I paid for it and they should have more competent help. Of course, as I expected, no one even tried to figure it out at a technical level. I have to give them kudos for at least trying to help me work around it. Their final solution was to send me a replacement hard drive. Yeah, that'll work - at least until I try to create the network folder again.

How I Fixed It

Okay, so I didn't really fix it. I just removed the symptom. But, at least I can use Windows Explorer now.

I had to go old school and use the command line utility ("DOS prompt" is familiar to most). I used an application that does not use Windows Explorer to browse the file structure and found where the network folder actually resided, "C:\Users\David\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Network Shortcuts". Of course, if you are reading this to solve your own similar problem, you'll want to replace the folder, "David", with whatever your Windows account is. I displayed a directory list and spotted the last network folder I had created. Through a lot of red tape I was finally able to remove the network folder using the command line utility. Then, voila! Windows Explorer worked fine after that.

If you are reading this to solve your own similar problem and you get stuck trying to get rid of the network folder, use the following commands replacing {network folder} with whatever your problem network folder is. If you don't know which one it turns out to be and you get desperate, consider getting rid of them all.

Self Promotion

I just have to take this opportunity to promote my services. If you need technical help with anything, consider Burkhart Technology Services - with rates better than most - and even better through a personal reference. If you have a particularly unusual problem like the one above, BTS can custom tailor a special best effort rate structure for your particular situation that can save you money.

Update!

I finally found out what caused the problem. And, I believe the problem can be reproduced, though I'm not daring enough to try it out. It's too difficult to recover from.

Apparently Windows Explorer in Windows Vista does not like periods (.) in subfolder names of network places. For example, "ftp://www.BurkhartTech.com/my.Tips/". If you try to add this using the "Add Network Location" wizard, it won't let you. It will say the name is invalid. However, since these types of names really are valid, you can key them into the address bar and successfully create an FTP connection. And, if you do, you can then create the shortcut that the wizard would not allow, by simply dragging the icon from the address bar to the "Network Shortcuts" folder mentioned earlier. Oh!... and, uh... don't expect Windows Explorer to work after that.

Update 2!

Apparently, Microsoft was quietly aware of this issue causing problems and their gurus must have been perplexed by how to resolve it. After installing Service Pack 1 for Vista, now I cannot create network places for subfolders at all. What's even worse is that after installing Service Pack 3 for Windows XP, I cannot create them with it either. The already created Network Places seem to work fine. But, now the only way I can create a new one is to create it on my older XP computer without Service Pack 3 on it yet. Thanks, Microsoft! You really know how to innovate.

Error Updating Windows Defender

If your computer spits out error code "0x80244022" while trying to update Windows Defender, try deleting your temporary internet files to resolve it. This, of course, only applies to Windows Vista.

How to Delete Temporary Internet Files

• Open Windows Explorer (hold down the Windows key and press "E")
• Right-click your system drive (this is usually logical drive C:)
• Select "Properties"
• Click the "Disk Cleanup" button (this may take a minute or two)
• Click "OK"
• Click "Delete Files" to confirm

How to Find Out What Is Causing the Problem

Click Start and enter "%WinDir%\WindowsUpdate.log" into the Search bar. Open the located file (there should only be 1 found). Skip to the bottom and scan the text backwards until you find a cluster of "WARNING:" messages occurring about the same time the update was last attempted. The first of these will likely indicate what caused the problem.

If you get lost trying to find the cluster of "WARNING:" messages, just attempt to update Windows Defender again. The messages should then be on the last one or two pages.

Details

Deleting the temporary internet files effectively resolved my problem by removing an expired cookie. For some reason (probably poor coding), part of the Windows Update process could not or would not deal with the expired cookie. Security precaution, maybe? Why would an update use a cookie, anyway?

No thanks go to Microsoft, who wanted to charge me $59 for this simple solution.

Here is the relevant information shown by my log, starting with the first warning message:

What are AJAX and SOAP, Really?

Below is a recent question I asked a colleague and received a great answer to.

"Is their any light you can shed on what AJAX and SOAP really are (well, other than cleaning products)?"

His response:

"Ajax stands for asynchronous Java. When used with ASP.net it allows a client side java script to trigger a partial post back and then uses another java script on the page to parse the results. If set up correctly the user sees the results as a change on the page such as a new control appearing or a field up date. These updates happen without a full post back and resulting overhead.

"SOAP is an XML protocol that is used to exchange information or control an application over the Internet. It is basically a way of Streaming XML. The content can be just about any XML-ization including keystrokes. Microsoft has its own version ... called [JSON] ..."

-- Tom of Raleigh

Thanks, Tom, for your great, direct answer.

ASP and PHP

As I understand it, ASP is Microsoft's equivalent to PHP. And, like PHP, it is a server-side language interpretation protocol, dynamically preparing XML data (usually HTML, but now SOAP is becoming popular) and sending it to the client. Each one has it's peculiarities, ASP preferring to support VBScript, JavaScript, or (ugh... Dare I say it?) JScript, and PHP preferring to support (correct me here if I'm a little off) CGI, Pearl, or Python. However, both also work well with whatever APIs and languages are available on the server.

ASP, for the most part, appears as special tags, "<%" and "%>", in an HTML page source with the ".ASP" extension in the name. Similarly, PHP appears as special tags, "<?PHP" and "?>", in an HTML page source with the ".PHP" extension in the name. These tags identify to the server script code segments to interpret before serving up the client version of the page. And, once interpreted, the tags and everything between are automatically stripped out before the resulting HTML page is served.

Tips for the Wise EBay Seller

I discovered recently that an associate was asking their EBay customers to verify their shipping address whenever they were paying with PayPal and the address showed as "unconfirmed". An unconfirmed PayPal address does not mean that it simply may or may not be accurate. It frequently means that the address the person wants a purchase mailed to does not match the address on the method of payment. And this is frequently a sign of identity theft and is why PayPal will not ensure against charge backs due to fraudulent purchases. So if John Doe recently went to Italy for his vacation and "SlickRick", a recent winner of your eBay auction, had found his checkbook last week, but decided to borrow a few from the back before returning it, you would probably lose your money once the fraudulent purchase is discovered.

Have your own good tips? Send them to me.

Fixing Paper Jams on a Minolta MagiColor 2200 Desklaser

This tip is for anyone with a Minolta MagiColor 2200 Desklaser that has started creating one or two folds in the paper.  While the cause for this problem is not easy to identify and rather a chore to get to, it is super easy to fix.  So if you are reading this, half of the problem is already solved. 

To fix the problem, locate part SL4, locate the black cushioning pad on the part, and glue it back into position. 

Right now you are thinking, "That's it?!"  Yes, that's it.  Now, onto the instructions. 

Instructions

1. Remove the back panel from the printer (a lot of screws).
2. Locate the lower-left circuit board and remove it.
   This is the most difficult step.  But, part SL4 will be behind the top of this board.  So while completely removing this board may not be necessery, at least find a way to move it out of the way. 
3. Locate part SL4 and remove it.
   Part SL4 is the bronze colored part with black fabric and two wires, one black and one red, coming out of it. 
4. Detach the spring and remove the lever from part SL4.
5. Glue and reposition the black cushioning pad.
   The proper position for this pad will be flush with the top of the similar sized tab on the bracket. 
6. After the glue dries put it all back together.

Details

First, I am a computer technician, not a printer technician.  So take some of these observations with a grain of salt. 

From what I can tell, when the paper is fed from the bottom tray, it passes thru two motorized roller sections, in particular.  Between these two roller sections, the moment the paper is in grasp of the second roller section, a device (part SL4) temporarily stops the first roller section.  This happens for probably only a fraction of a second.  But, I don't really know.  Anyway, this action appears to be crucial in ensuring the paper is tight while transitioning the paper between to two sections.  I believe that either this action is not starting soon enough or is failing altogether, resulting in the paper being forced into the second roller section too fast or too soon, and ultimately causing the paper to be folded.

Figure 1

The device I referred to is part SL4 in the service manual (see Figure 1).  And this is how this part works.  It has a lever on it that works like a sea-saw.  A solenoid (an electromagnet) on one end of the lever (or sea-saw) is activated, pulling down that end.  When this happens the other end of the lever extends out and jams a gear, effectively stopping it.  It sounds crude, I know.  But, unlike our political process, at least it makes sense.  Anyway, while part SL4 is at rest, a spring keeps the jamming end of the lever out of the way, allowing the first roller section to move freely. 

Attached to the bracket (or frame) of part SL4 is a tiny, little, square, black pad.  This pad appears to be some sort of cushion or spacer between the bracket and the lever in it's resting position.  I'm not really sure what the pad is actually for.  But, when it's in proper position, it seems to have the affect of positioning the lever slightly closer to the solenoid. 

What I understand to be a cause for the paper folding problem on this printer is that this pad eventually slips out of position.  This pad is held into position by some kind of cheap glue.  The glue has either gotten too old and is beginning to liquefy or has never solidified properly.  Perhaps this causes the timing to be off just enough to fold the paper.  Or it could be causing the solenoid to fail altogether.  I could speculate all day.  But securing the pad back into position fixes the problem.  I used superglue. 

I was only getting one fold in my paper.  But others have reported getting two folds.  For those with two folds, perhaps the pad has come completely off.  Or perhaps the first roller section is slightly faster.  But, since there is at least one other similar part, part SL5, that seems to be serving the same purpose, check the pad on that part as well while you're in there.  It is located just above part SL4. 

By the way, does everyone know that for this printer you can simply replace a fuse in the oil roller to extend it's life at least 2 or 3 times?  I'm sure you do. Just checking. 

Update

The following quotation is from a forum entry dated 2006 from someone identifying himself as "Caveman".  He is obviously more of an electronics technician and seems to know what he's talking about.  It explains what the black pad is for and a way to identify and fix a separate problem with the same type of remedy: 

"The following solenoids SL4 (Transport roller solenoid) and SL5 (Timing roller solenoid) have a small square pad which insulates one part of the solenoid from [the other].  Over time these small pads move and electrical insulation is lost. This causes specific problems depending on which solenoid is involved. 

"A faulty pad on the timing roller solenoid causes printing to start half way down the page.  If the faulty pad problem happens on the transport roller solenoid this results in the paper being folded [and/or] concertinaed." 

If your printer starts printing halfway down the page, do the same repair for part SL5.  While the symptom is very different, part SL5 is identical to and has the same remedy as part SL4.  Part SL5 is located behind the upper circuit board on the back of the printer and is much easier to get to.