ZTE MF627 and Window7

Further to my last post on this I’ve had still had mixed results getting my Three modem to connect to my Windows 7 systems.

Now that Windows 7 is on general release I had a quick look on the Three support website and find a support article specific to my problem

A quick firmware upgrade is all that is needed

From http://www.three.co.uk/Help_Support/Mobile_Broadband_Help

If you have a ZTE MF627 and have already upgraded to Windows 7 or Snow Leopard, your modem will not work until you download the firmware updates. You will be able to install the dashboard software (and you should do this!) but you will not be able to connect. Once you have installed the dashboard, using an alternative connection, or on another computer, go to www.three.co.uk/Help_Support/About_my_mobile/Downloads and select ZTE and then MF627. You will then have the option to download the correct firmware for your modem – either Driver Setup – For Windows 7 Only or Driver Setup – For Mac 10.6 Only. Click the correct link to download the .exe/.zip file, and if you are using an alternative computer, transfer the .exe/.zip file to the computer that has Windows 7 or Snow Leopard already installed.

Plug in your modem, double click on the .exe/.zip file and follow the on screen instructions to install the firmware. It is very important that you do not remove the modem during this process, and that you do not switch your computer off before it is finished. If you have a laptop, make sure it is plugged into the wall, or you have at least an hour of battery charge left.

Once installed, remove your modem and restart your computer. Your modem will now work.

The firmware update is was straight forward to install and only takes a few minutes. It does mean you lose the whole “plug and play” aspect of Three’s mobile broadband offering but I imagine new subscribers will get devices with the latest firmware

ZTE MF627 and Windows 7

Just a quick one!

I recently acquired a 3 Mobile broadband dongle

The specific model of the dongle is ZTE MF627

When i ran the installer program on my laptop (which is running Windows 7 Professional) everything seemed to install ok but it refused to pick up the modem

I tried it on my netbook which is also running Windows 7 and had exactly the same problem

I then tested it on XP SP3 and Vista SP2 systems and they worked fine

Having decided it must be something to do with Windows 7 I tried running the connection program as administrator (as helpfully suggested by Vijay via Twitter) but this didn’t seem to make any difference for me either

So I went back to the beginning, removed the software and when i re-installed and I changed the compatibility settings to run as XP SP3 and to run as administrator (which it would have done anyway, since it was installing a program)

I did try Vista SP2 initially but this didn’t want to run at all

On my device the installer program is called “VersionControl.exe”

It then re-installed and it worked!

Now that it is installed the connection program doesn’t appear to need any compatibility settings and I’m able to connect ok

I had about three hours sleep last night though so your milage may vary

Minor Update:
When you connect to the Internet the software will automatically update.
Since the software is an auto-updater there is no way to force compatibility settings. I did an update and promptly couldn’t connect again

Uninstalled and followed my original method and i reconnected ok

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

In case you have been living under a rock Windows 7 RTM was made available to Technet and MSDN subscribers yesterday

I grabbed my ISO’s this morning and was thinking about how best to approach the upgrade on my netbook.

I then remembered that when Vista was first released there was a tool for letting you know if your system would be up to the task and thankfully there is also a Windows 7 version.

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor (Beta)

Here a grab of the final report,

No major problems.

It’s suggesting I do a backup as I’ll need to do “custom install” (i.e a clean install). Since the netbook is running XP this is to be expected.

It also says that ActiveSync isn’t compatible with Windows 7. This isn’t a surprise either as it was replaced with Windows Mobile Device Manager in Vista.

At the top of the report it says that the system meets all four of the system requirements. Drilling into it you see this,

I haven’t installed any extra RAM in the netbook yet, so was pleased it didn’t kick up too much of fuss about that. I was also glad to see that it’s Aero capable!

Guess what I’ll be doing this weekend?

Children and Online Safety

There has been an series running on Channel 4 this week on sex education with a specific focus on young people and how they gain all the information about “the birds and the bees” from Internet porn

They are also started a campaign called “Protect Kids from Porn”

I had a whole post drafted out in my head about the features built in Windows Vista and Windows 7 but the excellent Mark Wilson blog got his post online before i did

His also shows how to turn on parental controls in Mac OS X. He didn’t show the windows equivalent as all his machines are domain joined so i thought I’d help out. These screenshots are for Windows Vista but the principles will be same in Windows 7

Click the Start button and start to type “Parental Controls”, click it (or press enter) and then click continue at the UAC prompt

Click on your child’s user account (or create one first, then click it!)

The parental controls screen is displayed and the very first option is to turn on the controls. By default activity reporting is turned on too

If you click OK now that’s actually enough to get you started

Here is what the settings will be configured for

Web Filter – defaults to the medium level

Time Limits – none

Games – no restrictions

Programs – Any

At this level anything unrated will get blocked as will categories such as pornography, drugs, weapons, etc

If you wanted to get a bit more specific you can customise the web filter first by click the “Windows Vista Web Filter” link which will display this screen

I’ve changed the web restrictions to the custom setting so we can see the categories available

On this screen we can pick one of the predefined categories

From the Vista help files

There is a disclaimer at the top of the help page

The Parental Controls web filter rates the content of websites, and it can block some websites based on the content categories you decide are objectionable. Turning on the web filter should significantly reduce the number of objectionable websites your children might view, but it does not offer absolute protection. Because objectionable content is subjective, the filters might not block all of the content that you want them to block.

Which is sort of understandable – we can’t block spam 100% accurately so don’t expect it with the content filter

What you can also do is setup blocked and allowed lists by clicking the “Edit the allow and block list”

From here you can make specific decisions about websites. Let’s say i was worried about my child using Facebook. I could add the domain name in here. There is also a setting here that only allows sites to be viewed if they are on the allowed list. You can also export your lists here so that you can take them to other computers (or for multiple accounts on the same PC)

The final two options on the parental controls main screen allows you to stop file downloads and also vist a web site that allows you to request a rating for a site

If someone tries to visit a blocked site they’ll see this

If they think the page has been blocked by mistake they can shout “DAAAADDDDD!!!” or “MOOOOMMM! and click on the “Ask an administrator for permission”

You’ll get a UAC prompt, you enter your password and you can then choose to allow or block the site

Other parental controls include setting time limits (no computer use after bed time), place restrictions on the games that are played (if a game is Games for Windows certified it’ll have an age rating and content categories

As with the web filter you can block or allow access to specific games and block a game if doesn’t have a rating

Finally you can block the actual applications that run the PC. If your worried about them using peer to peer applications and being exposed to questionable material you can setup a list of applications they are allowed to use (Microsoft Office for doing their homework for example)

Once this is all setup you can then view reports that keep a track of the user accounts computer usage

It’ll let you know which websites they use the most, which games they are playing, when they are logging on, what changes are being made to the system,etc,etc. You get summary reports as well as full details. You can even get the system to remind you to view the reports by clicking on the family safety options button

Very powerful stuff considering it’s built into the operating system. You can also take a layered approach to this

OpenDNS allows you allow and block web content based on categories (you could use this in conjunction with the Windows filter)

Many home routers as allow you to setup restrictions there

You can also buy third party software (NetNanny for example)

Lots of ISPs have protection systems you can take advantage of

However the important thing is to take a proactive approach to this

In the first show the presenter asked the question

“Why aren’t these controls turned on by default”

I think this shows a naive approach to computer safety (as well a misunderstanding of some basic principles)

When you get in your car does your seat belt plug itself in?

When you buy a brand new computer the first account that gets created becomes the system administrator (how would you set it up else?)

This means it doesn’t really matter if the parental controls are on or off. You would have the power to turn them off anyway

As my children gets older this is something I’ll be giving a lot of thought to.

The Channel 4 program pointed out that many parents probably don’t know what their kids are doing with their computers

While there are a lot of systems in place to protect children it’s still ultimately down to the parent to make use of these systems.

Hopefully the Channel 4 campaign will raise some awareness

Some links of interest from the Channel 4 campaign site

ParentsCentre

www.parentscentre.gov.uk/usingcomputersandtheinternet This site directs parents to links and articles on a broad range of topics surrounding internet use and the associated dangers that exist.

Know IT All (KIA)

www.childnet-int.org/kia A Government-funded suite of educational resources from Childnet designed to help educate parents, teachers and young people about safe and positive use of the internet.

Kidsmart

www.kidsmart.org.uk Aimed primarily at parents and people who work with children, this site includes top tips, resources and some "SMART" rules to help teach children how to stay safe online.

Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI)

www.fosi.org FOSI aims to make the online world a safer, better experience for the whole family. The site promotes best practice, tools and methods in the field of online safety.

Thinkuknow

www.thinkuknow.co.uk A set of sites, each aimed at a different audience (children aged 5-16, parents and teachers) with age-appropriate safety tips. Includes a place which young people can use to report experiences where they feel uncomfortable or worried about someone they are in contact with online.

Placing Blame Correctly

Can’t believe how long it’s been since my last blog post! I’ve really no idea where the days are going at the moment

I’ve had a few problems with my work PC recently. It becomes very unresponsive and gets progressively worse during the day

I fired up the trusty task manger and the CPU was at 100% usage

I switched to the Processes tab and sorted the list so i could see which process was causing the problem

At the top of the list were various Trend services (We use Worry Free Business Security – I’m not a fan of the product name to be honest!)

When i stopped the Trend client the CPU usage went down and back up when i started it again

I trawled various online resources to see if could get to the bottom of it with very little luck

I was planning on submitting a support case with Trend but decided to have one last go myself

This time i looked a bit closer at the process list a saw multiple entries for TASKENG.EXE

The total process count was at 2675 – that couldn’t be right

I knew that TASKENG is the Vista task scheduler so had a look in there

Turns out this is a pretty common problem and it’s simple to fix (it’s in various different blog posts and forums)

• Go to the start menu.

• Type task scheduler and press enter.

• Press continue on the UAC prompt.

• In the left pane of task scheduler, right-click on Task Scheduler Library.

• In the view submenu, make sure the Show Hidden Tasks option is selected.

• The hidden task that is likely at fault has a name that starts with User_Feed_Synchronization.

• Select the scheduled task

• To verify that this task is creating all the taskeng.exe processes, select the History tab in the middle pane near the middle of the screen.  If you expand out the Level and Date and Time Columns, you should see errors and that are about 5 minutes apart.  If that’s the case, then this task is the problem.

• Right click the task and select Disable.

Obviously this will stop your RSS feeds from updating (the Windows list – this has nothing to do with Outlook 2007)

If you do want to use your RSS feed list you can also try deleting the task and then from an elevated command prompt enter

msfeedssync enable

This will re-create the task for you if the problem with causing by the task being corrupt

Once I’d deleted the task i used

TASKKILL /IM TASKENG.EXE /F

This killed off all the extra processes that had been created. I know i could have just rebooted the PC but it was a nice feeling watching them all disappear

My process count went down to 67 and the system suddenly got a lot more responsive

A did eventually reboot and Trend started up happily without taking too many of my system resources

My guess is that Trend became overwhelmed with trying to monitor so many processes which why it was the one that initially seemed to be the cause of the problem

Installing SQL Management Studio Express on Vista x64 – Tim Long

Just wanted to share as I had this exact problem…thanks Tim!

Also it’s so I don’t forget how to do it!

Installing SQL Management Studio Express on Vista x64 – Tim Long

It’s still very annoying that 64-bit Vista/XP still isn’t on a par with 32-bit brethren as this isn’t the first time I’ve ran into problems installing software but that rant can wait for another time

Poor Vista show by software vendor

Not the first time you’ve heard this story but thought I’d share

One of our clients is just about to change all their PCs as part of a larger IT project

They currently don’t have any Vista PCs so we had a chat about that. Obviously the client has heard all the usual press stories and second hand tales of woe but wanted to know what I thought. I told him my only concerns were his line of business applications as we’d need to make sure there were no compatibility issues

I received a document with details on compatibility for server/database/client and this bit jumped out (names protected)

“Note: It is a requirement of the ****** install with Vista 32bit a) to use SQLServer ODBC driver, not the SQL Native driver that comes with Vista; b) to ensure the selection for User Account Control (in Control Panel, Security Settings) is switched OFF for that user in the user admin area prior to running the ****** Installshield (else below errors will occur) and remain off, otherwise ****** will not work (creating the ODBC within the UserDSN may resolve this, however that ODBC is then only available to that specific Windows user).”

Not exactly clear to be honest so I asked for some clarification

Does this mean you want us to UAC off permanently or just for the installation?

The response was,

“By this we mean that if you leave it off it will work and therefore our recommendation, but we do have one client who has left it on and instead created the ODBC’s in the UserDSN and have, in their specific instance (so far as they are not live yet), successfully used ****** using Vista with UAC on.   UAC has not been without its problems and we therefore cannot give a definitive guarantee ****** will work with UAC on in all cases.”

So this is the “you must lower your security to make our app work” response

I ignored the “UAC has not been without it’s problems” line (for now) and replied to ask when they expected the program to be 100% Vista compatible so I’ll post back here when I get a response

I’ve still got to ask about their other LOB application so will be interesting to see what the response is there

Stupid is as stupid does

If you’re on my Facebook friends list you’ll have got this message over the weekend

Hello All
If you’ve had a weird message from me (other than this one!) today please delete it
I got the same message from a friend and while allowing my curiosity to get the better of me i managed to infect myself
Highly highly embarrassed
Feel free to message me with abuse
Andy

So I thought I’d explain what I meant when I said I’d allowed my curiosity to get the better of me

On Saturday morning I got a message from a friend via Facebook. The English was terrible (the subject was – Gt you! Ha-ha, now watch and cr!) and the link certainly looked “dodgy”. I figured my friend had his PC compromised and it was sending messages from his Facebook account

It was the first time I’d seen this type of malware attack so I thought it might make an interesting blog post so followed the link

It took me to a page that looked like YouTube (if YouTube was broken!) and I got a message displayed telling me that my flash player needed updating and I was prompted to download a file

I downloaded the file and uploaded it to VirusTotal for analysis which then identified the file as being the “KoobFace” worm

Koobface.worm – McAfee

Win32.Worm.KoobFace.A – Bitdefender

W32.Koobface.A – Symantec

Koobface Family – CA

This was where I made a stupid mistake

In my attempt to select the file so I could delete it I inadvertently double-clicked the file and it ran

As you can imagine my language was colourful at this point

I got a message on screen

“Error installing Codec. Please contact support”

Using the information links above I managed to remove the main worm program and a browser add-in it had loaded to Internet Explorer (I’ve since flattened the machine and reloaded from a backup)

Unfortunately it had sent messages using my Facebook account by the time I’d cleaned up.

I didn’t know who exactly it had messaged hence the warning to everyone in my list

Highly highly embarrassing as there are a lot of IT pros in my friends list!

Some of you may be thinking,

“What was your anti-virus doing during all of this?”

Good question, but I’ve got a little confession

I’m not running any at the moment

Just before Vista was released, Jim Allchin (co-president of Microsoft’s platform division) was quoted as saying Vista’s increased security meant he wasn’t running any anti-virus on a PC his 7-year old uses at home (Techweb reported about it here – he changed his viewpoint slightly afterwards)

When I recently made the switch to Vista 64-bit as I was installing all my usual programs and thought it would be an interesting experiment to run without any anti-virus software (and blog about it here later!)

I’ve been running without any anti-virus since mid-July. I use some of the well known on-line scanners as well as some offline tools twice a week to check all is ok and until yesterday everything appears to have been fine

That said all the anti-virus software in the world can’t protect you from being stupid!

So what have I learnt from this debacle?

1) It may be a good time to end my experiment

2) I rarely allow websites to keep me signed in but Facebook had been an exception. I’ll be going back to how I usually run!

3) If you tell friends it’s ok to abuse you, then they will

As a side note it looks like Facebook have been doing some work too. When I now click on the original link Facebook blocks the page with a warning the site is dangerous

Installing Windows Live Writer on Vista 64-bit

I’m running Vista 64-bit so tried to install Live Writer a while back and got the following error

From what I’ve read it’s to do with the unified Live installer and not Live Writer

I’ve seen a couple of blog posts that mention if you can get the MSI file you can install it ok. Most of these posts had a link to a german site that has the file on it. I wasn’t too keen to download an MSI file from a site I knew nothing about so decided against that.

Another post suggested installing Live Writer on a 32-bit system and copy the MSI from there. I tried that and couldn’t find the MSI so that was scuppered

So I thought I’d try something obvious – what did I have to lose?

Download the installer file (WLInstaller.exe) from the Live Writer site, right click on the file and click properties then click the compatibility tab

Put the tick in the box to run in compatibility mode and click ok

Then run the program as an administrator and it should work!

I’m posting this on my Vista 64-bit system from Live Writer so it worked for me!

Screensaver does start with a wireless mouse plugged in

Very strange one today

I took a call a few days ago from a client who “wasn’t asked for her password anymore when she’d been away from her desk”

My initial thought was that her screensaver had been disabled or the password option had been turned off

I logged in and everything was as I’d expected it be

I asked her when it had started happening and if anything had changed and she said she wasn’t sure but thinks it was about the time she got her new wireless mouse

I initially dismissed it and tried one or two other things with little success

I was on site today for another reason so thought I’d take another look

Turns out the screensaver wasn’t starting at all. Hence the reason why it wasn’t asking for a password

It did a quick search and I found this knowledge base article

The screen saver does not start after you install a wireless pointing device

Basically if your using a wireless mouse AND CyberLink PowerDVD or CyberLink PowerCinema it will stop the screensaver from starting

From what I can figure out it’s a piece of software that can used with a remote control so you can pause, rewind DVD’s

The software think the wireless mouse is the remote control so tries to communicate with it (the KB article itself is very vague as to WHY?)

Anyway there are two workarounds and a fix

Workaround 1: Stop the service from running

Workaround 2: Remove PowerDVD (drastic!)

Fix: Use windows update to install the latest “Microsoft HID Non-User Input Data Filter”

To to make sure this was the problem I used MSConfig to figure out which program is was (it was different to the one reported in the article) and I shut it down using Task Manager

After I’d done this the screensaver started ok..WHOOP!

Never seen anything like this before

Was also a spooky coincidence that the mouse she purchased was the exact same one I’ve just picked up to replace the ailing HP mouse that came with my PC