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Showing posts from 2013

Filling the G-Apps: Google Drive Sync

Google Drive Sync whilst being a useful tool is not yet developed to an enterprise level. NB: Whilst the above statement is also true of Google Drive the following points are only about Google Drive Sync: ● There are currently no management tools available ● It is not supported when installed on a server ● Scope and granular functionality don't exist beyond what a basic user can see ● The local synchronisation service whilst it seems fairly reliable and it doesn't quite interfear with resources as much as something like Dropbox. It's not extremely fast, it's not a snail's pace but if you have 30+ users all working on non Google Docs documents they might not all be synchronised in a reasonable time ● Unidirectional synchronisation settings. While any files you place under the root folder will synchronise from a local computer up you can't tell it what not to synchronise at the secondary folder level or any subsequent folders ● There is no connection or iss

Filling the G-Apps: Chrome/Gmail Crash

A more common issue with Chrome & Google Apps these days is an DNS caching issue. If you're using the simple but useful "Stay Signed in" checkbox and there's an issue with your connection or your IP address is changed you could come across the Chrome/Google Apps equivalent of the "Blue Screen of Death", nowhere as bad and simple to fix. You'll be faced with a white screen with the appropriate Google Apps icon & the text "The app is currently unreachable". To resolve the issue you just need to clear your DNS by completing the following steps: Open your command line I.e. Dos prompt (On Windows PC , press Windows +  R > type "cmd" > click Ok)  On Command Promt type "ipconfig /release" Then type  "ipconfig /flushdns" Then type "ipconfig /renew" Similar details for the Tasks Chrome Extension can be found here . Another solution that works when it's just a locked sessio

Filling the G-Apps: Attaching an Gmail Email

Sending an email as an attachment isn't something that's not native to Google Apps but there are a couple of methods that can get the job done depending on what you're trying to achieve. A) To attach an unrelated message as an email file you can do the following: Open the email you would like to attach Open the menu on the right and select "Show Original" - (It will open a new window with the message in plain text) In your browser, select "Save As" and use the .eml extension. NB: This will create a message that all mail clients (Outlook, Live Mail, Thunderbird...) can open, and it will include all original headers. Then upload that .eml file as an attachment to the message you're sending. B)  Attach as a Google Drive HTML file: Open the email you would like to turn into an attachment. Click the drop-down  next to ‘Reply’ in the top-right corner of your message. Select ‘Print’. On the left-hand side of the print screen, click

Filling the G-Apps: Temporarily Disable Goolge Labs

When trouble shooting an issue in GMail it can be handy to temporarily disable Google Labs. This can be done easily from the URL once you're logged in either use this address:   https://mail.google.com/?labs=0 or add the operator for Google Labs with it's disable flag i.e. "?labs=0" at the end of your mail domain access address (once logged in).

Is your iPhone 4 Flaky & Possibly Out of Warranty?

When you work for a company that has iPhones as company phones you're bound to come across similar issues. By now you could have a number of iPhone 4's that are showing performance issues if you bought them around a year from their release date. I've had a few that have been taken back for screen repairs and battery issues so the majority of the iPhones I have don't match the original proof of purchase forms (they don't give you a new one when you get a replacement phone) and I have no way of knowing the life expectancy of the refurbished phones. You can check if an iPhone is still under warranty by the Apple website (https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do) using the hardware serial number that can be found under Settings > General > About. A replacement warranty lasts 90 days so it's a good idea to record when it will expire and set a reminder to check/test the phone a week beforehand.  An article you might find this article helpful

Exchange Restart

There are a number of different reasons you might need to restart an Exchange Server it can fall over if resources are limited on your server, something's interrupted one of the services or your mail queue has been overrun and backlogged to name a few. You can find details on Microsoft's Social Technet  but the process I've always followed: Check the following 3 Services (a-c) and the dependent services (i-x) are all running fine: Microsoft Exchange Active Directory Topology Service Microsoft Exchange Transport Log Search Microsoft Exchange Transport Microsoft Exchange Service Host Microsoft Exchange Search Indexer Microsoft Exchange Replication Service Microsoft Exchange Mail Submission Microsoft Exchange Mailbox Assistants Microsoft Exchange File Distribution Microsoft Exchange EdgeSync Microsoft Exchange Anti-spam Update Microsoft Exchange Information Store Microsoft Exchange System Attendant If they are all running (not stalled or stopped) and emai

Google Apps for Business

I'm currently in the process of migrating our network to Google Apps in a phased project. We've decided to make the jump from Exchange to Google Apps for Business for a number of reasons: Lower infrastructure costs — All your email will be stored securely on Google's servers, so we'll no longer have to maintain email servers on-site or upgrade to a new server as has been required for a while.  Ability to consolidate our platforms — We can eliminate a large portion of redundancy costs by moving all of our email and calendar platforms to Google Apps  Lower support costs — Because Google hosts the email and calendar services, there's no more email client software to maintain on your computer  Innovative solutions — We can leverage the ongoing creative and technical solutions of the Google Apps platform to provide employees with powerful, easy-to-use tools for getting their work done. In particular we have integration with our CRM to enable smooth and efficie

iPhone5 Microphone Not Working

I've experienced this issue my self and it's rather frustrating. Basically the noise cancelling software is active and not functioning how Apple intended as it is cancelling out the users own voice. You can identify that this is the case by switching your call to speaker mode (or plugging in your iPhone headphones) and the person on the other end of the line can hear you clearly. There are several factors that could cause this to happen: iPhone cases a good understanding/explanation about the possible reasons is shown here by  Marty Huie  on YouTube. Change in settings. I currently have no verified reference for this but it has been mentioned in possible solutions on a couple of forums. iOS Error To resolve the issue you'll need to go through the following: Try a Hard Boot or Reset by holding down the home and sleep buttons at the same time, wait for the Apple logo, let go of the buttons. This does two important things:  Clears any unsaved cached data whi

Windows 8 Impressions (Network Instillation)

I know lots of people have already reviewed Windows 8 from Beta to it's release date 2 months ago ( October 26, 2012 ) but I thought I'd give my first impressions. It's easy to see what they're trying to do with Windows 8: Compete with the exponential growth in the Tablet market Create an easy transition from traditional KVM to touchscreen desktops Compete with Apple and Android Apps across multiple devices It seems like they've done what they always do and create something at face value that looks Microsoft (reasonably clean but structured with many layers) and left a whole lot of functionality they're unsure of out so they can wait on public opinion to add/correct in future updates. The ease of moving between the traditional desktop and the new interface is well done, as are the very brief tutorials (once you get over the "fear factor" of the changes). However the "intuitive factor" of knowing what to do, or finding details

Excel Random Row Heights

I've used Excel for at least 20 years now an I haven't come across this issue before. Basically we use a shared document to track job processes and it has a header section with key details, summary data and flags for some Macros and the other day all the row heights in the header section reduced so that it looked like the rows were hidden. I searched for a number things like: Excel row height error Set Excel row height Excel row height issue In the end I found this post (summarized version with appropriate details below): Increase the row heights so that they can be viewed Select/highlight the entire range that's effected On the Home Toolbar choose bottom alignment, then top alignment  then bottom alignment again....viola, all rows should recover their standard height Please note if you're working on a shared document with different versions of Excel you'll need to repeat the process on Microsoft's Social Technet  thread, thanks to Dick B

Microsoft Upgrade Headaches

Some new computers are needed on my network due to resource issues. Normally I'd make the purchase but the GM made the purchase over the Xmas break as of the new computers was for him and I'm one of those fortunate IT managers that has a GM with a reasonable enough understanding of IT to easily make a decision and know generally the right questions to ask. As we order our computers through a larger producer their computers by default come with the latest OS versions therefore I'm currently dealing with Windows 8 on an SBS2008 server. I've been Googling potential issues and haven't found many issues other than the standard complaints about massive alterations to the structure of the way the OS is layer out/operates. Standard MS ethos of a split personality our core customers are business but due to the home market we will make it look pretty and improve functionality and. Of care about the ease of transferral of existing customers. Changes required are generic

New Year New Blog

It's a new year and I thought I'd start a blog that I don't personally have to maintain the coding upkeep. As a web developer I've maintained a number of my own sites (CMS Websites, Blogs, Wikis, eCommerce etc.) But they become a full-time job just to maintain.  As any IT geek I spend a portion of most days researching how to do something via Google, some forum or blog so I thought I'd start by giving back to those that have posted before and will post in the future. Q : A simple enough question how do you re-size a PDF (Portable Document Format) from A4 to A3. A : There are ways of doing this but it depends on your criteria: 1) There is a way to do it in Acrobat Pro... simply print to PDF. However this can take a fair amount of memory and error out sometimes and depending on what you want to edit on the file later and how it was produced you might not be able to make the alterations you want if required. 2) Use a third party program that has this functional