http://www.tetheredns.com Computer and Computer Network Repair, Design and Maintenance Sat, 07 Jan 2012 02:43:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.tetheredns.com/2012/01/yellowpages-ca-can-they-be-this-stupid/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=yellowpages-ca-can-they-be-this-stupid http://www.tetheredns.com/2012/01/yellowpages-ca-can-they-be-this-stupid/#comments Sat, 07 Jan 2012 02:43:42 +0000 rleroux http://www.tetheredns.com/?p=689 Continue Reading]]>
Here is my posting to them via their website starting today.

It is absolutley pathetic that information does not cycle through YellowPages.ca

I authorized a three month trial last Feburary for an online listing. This was a complete failure as it was never posted when it was suppose to be posted according to my sales person at the time. Furthermore, I was to be contacted after the initial three months was complete to grant authorization IF I wanted the paid listing renewed.

I contacted YellowPages.ca on or before June after getting a bill for my ad, which again I had not given authorization to run. This was taken care of by accounts payable at the time.

For some ‘wonderful’ reason, in November I receive a bill yet again for my listing that should not have been yet again posted as this was/should have been dealt with from your company back in or before June. By the second week of December I finally received a call from the ‘investigation’ department (does this actually exist at YellowPages.ca or is this a crock of s***) from the manager that I would receive one more bill but to ignore it. They apologized that this issue should not have made it this far and my account would be shut down.

So, why for God’s sake have I received two collections calls from YellowPages.ca telling me I have an outstanding amount when this was dealt with in December (and again for the second time in a year)?

No wonder YellowPages.ca is a joke in the business community. I am keeping with my promise with the second to last person who called asking for payment. This and any and all future communication is now being posted through social media. All business contacts of mine will be notificed of the joke of a business YellowPages is turning out to be.

If someone at YellowPages.ca has any common sense, get the manager of the collections department or “investigations department” to call me.  No money is being paid by me for something that was not authorized.]]> http://www.tetheredns.com/2012/01/yellowpages-ca-can-they-be-this-stupid/feed/ 0 http://www.tetheredns.com/2011/12/should-you-look-at-hosted-servers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=should-you-look-at-hosted-servers http://www.tetheredns.com/2011/12/should-you-look-at-hosted-servers/#comments Tue, 06 Dec 2011 06:27:06 +0000 rleroux http://www.tetheredns.com/?p=655 Continue Reading]]> virtual servers. The new term of virtual servers that has been advertised for a while now is “cloud services”.

What would be the decision to move from an in-house server to virtual servers? I see a few points:

cost
security
access

I should add that the point of ‘security’, I have seen this in effect; I’ll get to this point later.

For the home user the odds of needing a hosted server is nearly nil. The idea of hosted servers (“cloud services” as I’ll refer to through the rest of this blog now) is really for the ability to access a central computer where applications (programs) and data can reside on and give the user the ability to access the server from nearly any location.
For SOHO’s, small and medium businesses, cloud services can be a benefit. Typically SOHO’s and small business owners enjoy the idea of mobile computing. Furthermore, they also enjoy the idea that programs and data that they use on a daily basis is always available. Therefore, if the business owner or employee is working in the office and the power goes out, the user can simply go to another location with internet access and a computer and continue working letting them be more productive and ideally increase their revenue.

While the cost of cloud services is tied to a monthly cost, soho’s and business can typically budget for the ongoing fee. Purchasing the equipment to have physically at their site to perform the same functions (excluding redundant power and internet access) can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. Tax on purchases can be worked in for savings, but depending on the accounting practice in place for the business that tax deduction is for a limited time, while the monthly costs for cloud services can be claimed on an ongoing basis.

In terms of security, companies that offer cloud services typically have (read should) server and storage systems in secured buildings with redundant internet, redundant power and cooled rooms for electronic equipment. Compare this to having server and storage systems in a home office or a ‘server room’ in a small or medium business. Typically even medium size business do not have the budget to cover constant power or proper cooling, let alone redundant internet connections (especially if the server is accessible by their staff). Furthermore, having servers on-site for such business pose a physical security risk in terms of theft. There was a case last year close to where I’m located where an accounting firm was broken into one night. Many of the desktops were stolen but because this accounting firm had their server hosted, confidential customer data was safe. In addition, the staff were told by the owner to bring in their laptops for the following morning, so they could get started working right away on client files while the company waited for insurance to help replace their desktops.

For those of you who are technically savvy, I have simply talked about servers for ‘cloud services’. Cloud services really is everything that is required to allow employees work virtually and not tied to a computer physically tied to a traditional network infrastructure.
I will see about a future posting of what I see makes up ‘cloud services’. ]]> http://www.tetheredns.com/2011/12/should-you-look-at-hosted-servers/feed/ 0 http://www.tetheredns.com/2011/11/internet-explorer-security-going-too-far/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=internet-explorer-security-going-too-far http://www.tetheredns.com/2011/11/internet-explorer-security-going-too-far/#comments Mon, 28 Nov 2011 20:43:38 +0000 rleroux http://www.tetheredns.com/?p=636 Continue Reading]]>
When it comes to security on servers we want those locked down as much as possible. Does this mean that Internet Explorer for a server should be locked down to the point where you need to add each page you try to navigate to?

Microsoft has continued to add security for Internet Explorer for the server operating systems. This is great, but with the increased security whereby every page that is navigated to, that page needs to be added especially if the page is not from an SSL (secured) site, daily work for the system or network administrator becomes more cumbersome. Now we can have a seperate arguement the ramifiations of Internet Explorer, but this article is not for this purpose.

Instead of having to go out of my way to download another browser to quickly grab information from Microsoft, IBM or any other branded hardware or software company in order to do my tasks I should be able to easily do the work with the built in browser.

Prior to Server 2008 you could add/remove the enhanced internet explorer security settings to get rid of the prompts. With server 2008 you need to Configure IE ESC from the server summary window then make your selection from here. Interestingly enough, Microsoft has option to turn the enhanced internet explorer security for administrators and ‘all users’. Now finally administrators are able to work a bit more easy with the default browser without installing additional browsers. ]]> http://www.tetheredns.com/2011/11/internet-explorer-security-going-too-far/feed/ 3 http://www.tetheredns.com/2011/11/adprep-server-2000-dc-for-server-2008/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=adprep-server-2000-dc-for-server-2008 http://www.tetheredns.com/2011/11/adprep-server-2000-dc-for-server-2008/#comments Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:49:38 +0000 rleroux http://www.tetheredns.com/?p=632 Continue Reading]]>
Information that I found early last week was to run adprep from a 32-bit version of server 2008 on the dc with the older OS. Well, I found a copy of a 32-bit/64-bit install CD and guess what? It only contains one adprep folder within the support directory. I compared this directory to a 2008 R2 64-bit installation media and found that the 2008 R2 64-bit media had additional schema files that need to be on the old OS before running DC prommo on the 2008 box to make it a DC in an existing domain (yes, an existing domain so we can replace the 2000 server with the new 2008 server).

The schema version on the 2008 32/64-bit media was version 44, while on the 2008 R2 64-bit media that I have it’s version 47. So trying to run dcpromo will result in a message similar to this “…you must prepare the forest using adprep /forestprep…”. If this is seen, run the adprep /forestprep from the directory on the media that you installed the new server with. I have done this with a server 2000 domain and the dcpromo of my server 2008 R2 64-bit system worked like a dream. ]]> http://www.tetheredns.com/2011/11/adprep-server-2000-dc-for-server-2008/feed/ 2 http://www.tetheredns.com/2011/11/623/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=623 http://www.tetheredns.com/2011/11/623/#comments Wed, 09 Nov 2011 22:32:18 +0000 rleroux http://www.tetheredns.com/?p=623 Continue Reading]]>
Will this be the start of forcing a computing shift in the industry? Will we all have to purchase touchscreens to continue to work and play? What about the programmers?

I find I have better control over at computing after playing with touchscreens with iPhones, iPads and like devices. In an article in Computing magazine, there was mention that “software that requires the use of fine controls will still be able to be used, but will be installed in a Windows 7 type of system”. Some of us are gamers, imaging playing your favorite game by sliding your figners across the monitor and tapping the monitor in place of mouse clicks.

I think Windows 8 and future Windows operating systems will have their place but for certain hardware/software needs. I’m just questioning at this stage as to whether or not this will be another Microsoft ME or Vista path.]]> http://www.tetheredns.com/2011/11/623/feed/ 0 http://www.tetheredns.com/2011/11/lenovo-thinkcentre-prebuild/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=lenovo-thinkcentre-prebuild http://www.tetheredns.com/2011/11/lenovo-thinkcentre-prebuild/#comments Tue, 08 Nov 2011 16:53:16 +0000 rleroux http://www.tetheredns.com/?p=583 Continue Reading]]>
With the Thinkcentre tower, you cannot use the operating system that you’re installing to delete the partitions, you actually need to use a third party product which you should boot from and has disk editing features. Lenovo has a partition which contains a boot sector. If you use the operating system utilities, you may find the operating system installs, but during a reboot, you just end up at a blank screen. To get past it, you need to interrupt the boot process and press F12 on the Thinkcentre, there you will find a second boot partition that actually boots you into the operating system that you just installed.]]> http://www.tetheredns.com/2011/11/lenovo-thinkcentre-prebuild/feed/ 2 http://www.tetheredns.com/2011/10/converting-from-old-fashing-hard-coded-website-to-wordpress/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=converting-from-old-fashing-hard-coded-website-to-wordpress http://www.tetheredns.com/2011/10/converting-from-old-fashing-hard-coded-website-to-wordpress/#comments Mon, 31 Oct 2011 20:03:49 +0000 rleroux http://www.tetheredns.com/?p=558 Continue Reading]]> http://www.tetheredns.com/2011/10/converting-from-old-fashing-hard-coded-website-to-wordpress/feed/ 5