Expensive Dell Monitors

I was on the Dell web site today pricing a PC for a client. When I got to the monitor section, I noticed that they had increased in price somewhat - to just under €1,000,000! Makes for a very expensive PC, but at least they are giving a discount. [caption ...

Fun & Games at Microsoft Ireland Community Tech Day

Last Friday I attended a Microsoft hosted seminar at the EPDC in Dublin on the latest updates in Microsoft IT infrastructure. The topics covered were: Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server R2: There was very little new for Windows 7, just a consolidation of all released updates. However, ...

Windows 7 as a Wireless Hotspot

On a recent trip to France I needed Internet access to stay in touch with business back home. After getting off the ferry, I dropped into the nearest Orange/France Telecom store and purchased a pay-as-you-go 3G key. This cost €59 with two hours access thrown in. You also get an ...

Slow Windows 7 Bootup?

So you got your shiny new Windows 7 PC and were blown away by the speed along with the fact that it simply works no matter what hardware or software you throw at it. You've loaded up all your favourite apps and plug-ins and installed those USB peripherals you simply ...

Watch Out for this Scam

I had a phone call today from a company called Online CC Care, claiming to be a Microsoft Support provider who tried to convince me that I had a problem with my computer. I asked the Asian-sounding lady what the problem was and she explained that my computer had a ...

New Features Coming in iPhone OS 4

A lot of my clients use the Apple iPhone to collect e-mail from their Microsoft Exchange servers. This is pushed to the phone using ActiveSync, so instead of the phone having to check if new mail has arrived, Exchange server notifies the phone . I often find that new mail ...

Cisco 7941/7961 IP Phone Factory Reset

I recently purchased a batch of these phones secondhand at an auction selling off the remnants of the Dell Limerick factory. In order to use them with 3CX or Asterisk I needed to change the firmware from Cisco Call Manager (SCCP aka Skinny) to SIP. There is plenty of documentation ...

AVG To The Rescue!

If you have ever had to deal with a malware-infected PC that will not boot or simply grinds to a halt, you know how frustrating it can be to fix. AVG have simplified the repair process with the announcement that their Rescue CD in now available free of charge. This ...

Belkin F5D7633 ADSL Router Bug

If you have one of these ADSL 2+ routers with 1.00.17 firmware, you may experience strange problems trying to access certain web sites and making SIP calls. In my case MSN and some anti-virus sites were affected, leading me to suspect a malware infection. However the fix is to upgrade ...

Watch those hosts files!

I recently had the job of cleaning up a client's computer that had become infected with various strands of malware and trojans. A few sweeps with SuperAntiSpyware (www.superantispyware.com) and MalWareBytes(www.malwarebytes.org) seemed to restore it to full health. However, I noticed that clicking on search results from Google was consistently diverting ...

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