Firestone Technical Resources, Inc
Providing personal service for your impersonal technology.
On some occasions Windows Small Business Server 2011 will not keep accurate time. This can be a problem with some network devices attempting to connect with the server and is especially an issue with workstations that will automatically look to the small business server for their time.
By running the following command from a command prompt, you can view the current configuration and status of the Windows Time service.
After reinstalling Windows 7 and then tried to install the network driver for the computer the driver installation application displayed the following error "The procedure entry point AddDLLDirectory could not be located in the dynamic link library KERNEL32.dll." This error occurred because the driver installation was ...
We often have found with many of the new routers and Windows 7 and later will default to IPv6 for all their Internet lookups when browsing the web. The issue is that seen by many is that the resolution of names in the URL are delayed until an IPv4 is used to complete the lookup. This problem started after an update by Microsoft that caused IPv6 to be preferred over IPv4.
Microsoft released a Knowledge Base article on this issue, KB2533454 - Resolving Internet connectivity issues after World IPv6 Launch (June 6, 2012). This KB article contains a Microsoft FixIt tool to change the preferred IP version from IPv6 back to IPv4
The Search Protect malware is often inadvertently installed with other freeware applications. We won't go into the details of this application, there is plenty of information published already. These days you don't get anything for free, it seems many of these free applications come with malware bundled with them, Search Protect being one of them.
We see this application often on client computers and removing it can be difficult. The application is constantly changing so these steps might work or they might not. But it won't hurt to give it a try.
Computer security is an important training topic for us with all of our clients, both consumer and business. We know that keeping your financial information safe is as important to you as it is to your bank. Your bank has likely instituted some safeguards according to established security standards which keep your financial information secure and confidential. While your bank works hard to keep your money safe, you also need do your part. The following reminders will help protect your information from online fraud and identity theft.
The first line of defense is you. It is important that you use the tools available to protect your data, which is anything that may describe who you are as well as your account numbers and passwords. Your choice of password, decision to visit a web site, open an e-mail message, or post personal data will affect the security of your personal data.
Ads by BlockandSurf are typically a sign of severe trouble with your computer. Past releases of this malware could be removed easily by uninstalling the software and sometimes removing some registry settings. However the lastest infection we found on a Windows 8 system was unresolved except by reinstalling the system to the factory default installation.
The Ads by BlockandSurf appear as popup ads in the lower left of the browser, on the left as sidebar ads, and in some cases will appear as a floating web dialog box over the main web page. In all cases there is some indication that the popup is being presented by "Ads by BlockandSurf". One of the signs that this is not the easy to remove version of this infection is that clicking on a link on what appears to be a clean web page results in the destination page appearing with the ads and one or more addition tabs or browser windows that appear attempting to display web sites that have malicious content that attempts to install on your computer.
The default method for removing Webroot SecureAnywhere on an Apple system may not work if the Secure Anywhere application is running and there is no icon in the menu bar. The only option for removal is a completely manual process involving the use of the Terminal session on the Mac. Following these steps should allow you to remove the Webroot Secur...
After setting up a new tenant in Microsoft Office 365 for a client, the users immediately started getting prompted to configure the two factor authentication. For many users this may be a problem and if the users are already using strong passwords, it may not be necessary to have this setup. Microsoft has now required MFA or 2FA on all of its new a...
There are times that you may have a web site that you frequent often that gets updated which causes the site to function in unusual ways or may not work at all. Most likely the reason is that some of the files that are related to the site didn't update on your local computer. To resolve this issue you need to flush or clear the cache files from your browser. The steps below are for Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 but are similar for older versions.
If the cache of older incompatible files was the issue, then the site should be working now. If this was not the issue, it might be a compatibility issue with Internet Explorer and may need the Compatibility View option enabled for the site.
While working with a client system we found that the Internet Explorer or any other browser application kept having issues with accessing the Internet. Reseting the browser settings would temporarily resolve the problem but it would quickly return the moment we would leave the client.
It turns out the client was using Juno as their e-mail application. As the user would review their mail they would occasionally get a message that had a hyperlink in the message to a web site. When clicking the link Juno would automatically open by change the proxy settings to force the browsing through their system.
The success of a deployment of new computers in a business environment has allot to do with the process and being consistent with that process. Getting the steps out of order may cause some issue that were not expected nor will you know why one computer works fine and another doesn't.
Below is a list of steps that we often follow for deploying new computers in a business environment that has a Windows domain controller.
Have you considered the security risk that your copier poses to your company? What about the risk to your employees and the potential lawsuits by them when their identity is stolen?
For the last several years most copier manufactures have been installing hard drives into these devices. The hard drives contain the impressions of the copies that were made whenever someone made a copy of a document. These images can exist on the copier for as long as the copier is in use and longer.
Many companies today don't own their copiers, they lease them. What happens when that copier is removed from a business and replaced with a new one? All of the companies information has just been rolled out of the business waiting for someone to discover it. In some cases the copier might be shipped to another country.
Have your employees ever used these copiers to make copies of personal medical information? Their information is at risk too. Identity theft is on the rise and your employees might be looking to blame you for allowing their information to be compromised.
A very frustrating situation for our business clients is when they send an e-mail message to a client that has hyperlinks embedded in the message and the link doesn't open in the client's web browser. The issue is typically caused when Google Chrome or another web browser is installed and then later removed. But malware applications will also cause this issue too.
To fix the web links in your Microsoft Outlook application so that they will open, follow these steps.
In the business realm there is often a need to run applications from a remote system or through a terminal services connection on a remote server. This works great in most cases except when you are attempting to use a local USB device with that remote session. There are several products available that can be used to help make the use of remote devices that use the local USB port and one of them is from RDS Tools.
We have not tested this product but are currently posting this article for notification purposes in the event others may be looking for this type of product. At some point we will likely implement this with one or more of our clients and then write a review. If you are reading this post and have used the USB for RDP tool from RDS Tools, feel free to leave a comment on your experience.
On a number of occasions I have attempted to import an exported MySQL database file and received the following message.
/* SQL Error (1064): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '?# -------------------------------------------------------- # Host: ' at line 1 */
/* Error with snippets directory: The specified path was not found */
# --------------------------------------------------------
# Host: 127.0.0.1
# Server version: 5.5.40 - MySQL Community Server (GPL)
# Server OS: Win32
# HeidiSQL version: 7.0.0.4053
# Date/time: 2014-01-20 09:48:36
# --------------------------------------------------------
Frequently we are called to a new client because of network performance or stability issues. These cases manifest themselves over time by inexperienced data cabling installers, typically the business owner or one of the employees, who attempted to save some money by doing the work themselves.
The installation of data cabling, also referred to as structured cabling, is almost as much an art form as it is a time tested trade that can most effectively be perfected through the training by one with years of experience and formal training in the field.
Many small businesses spend big money on getting themselves noticed on the web with very little results. Often with a little effort of someone who has some basic computer skills can improve a company's presence with many of the free tools that are available.
Yext has one of those tools and they will allow you to use it for free, but like everything that is free there is still a price to be paid. If you use Yext's web listing tool to just get a report of where your business is listed it won't cost you anything but a couple of phone calls from their sales team trying to get you to use there service.
Some applications are more sensitive than others with respect to antivirus applications scanning the data files for malicious content. Many of these applications have a database component to them. But in an effort to not get too bogged down in identifying the file it is sometimes easier to just exclude the applications folder from the scan process....
Microsoft Small Business Server 2011 is one of the nicer releases of small business server line of products that was released for a number of reasons. Most importantly it contains all of the important business server applications than any small business would need such as security, file sharing, web services, e-mail, and database services.
It is critical that when you perform any administration of an SBS 2011 server that you perform the task using the Small Business Server Console whenever possible. After installing Small Business Server 2011, this console will continue to open automatically on login to the server unless you disable it. This is where you check the status of the system, add and remove users, create shared resources, and ensure that your system is backed up as well a many other functions. The console will only open for one user at a time, so if you have more than one user logged into your small business server the console may not open if it is open in another session.
With such a large number of connection issues with Outlook 2016 connecting to Office 365 you would think someone would have the definitive answer to these persistent issues. It is unfortunate that the issues that plague Outlook 2016 are not all related. Hopefully after you have read this technical note you too will be able to resolve your issue. Although this is not the fix that will fix all Outlook connectivity issues, but then again it might fix yours.
I guess starting with the obvious is always a good place to begin.