If you’re a Verizon user that has found that you can’t send mail this weekend, like I found out, I have a fix for you.

Verizon has turned off the ability to send email through their servers. You now need to switch the SMTP server (Outgoing Mail Server) to smtp.frontier.com – the username you should be using is the same account name as the first part of your Verizon email address before the @ symbol – but, you need to add @frontier.com to it. The same password will work.

To recap, the username of youremail@verizon.net needs to be changed to youremail@frontier.com, with the same password and the above server name. After those updates, you’ll be able to send email.

Such a shame that Verizon and Frontier dropped the ball.

That’s right, our customer’s lives affect us too…

Today, I got a call from a very nice customer that I’ve helped a few times. Nothing major, but I’ve spent enough time around him that I know him decently well. He started off telling me that some things in his life had changed and he updated me on his situation then we discussed a new camera, new computer, etc. During that entire time, I couldn’t help but feel down due to his situation even though he kept a happy tone.

I won’t go into details, and I don’t know all of them, but his simple statement affected me more than it probably should have because we really do care about each customer… His life situation had changed, as had his technical requirements for a new computer.

When a customer asks what is best for them, we delve into their history, their attitude, their needs and FUTURE requirements. Knowing you, your family and a bit about how you use your computer allows us to tailor a solution for you, not the 200,000 people out there like Dell or HP.

In another situation, Protocol16 built a custom workstation for a very special customer. Knowing her needs and future requirements, we recommended a specific computer with multiple monitors. At first, she thought the extra monitor would be a waste, but if you’d try to take it away from her now, a week in, she’d probably end up chewing your arm off…

Give us a call and let us see what we can do for you. We’d love to get to know you before we start spouting off deals everywhere…
Justin

Upgrading to Outlook 2010 and your auto-complete isn’t working?

Have no fear, even though Microsoft changed some things around, there is a trick:

Launch Outlook with the following command: outlook.exe /importnk2 from the Run command, or Vista/Windows 7 “search bar”.

Outlook will launch and look like nothing happened, but check your auto-complete. It should be there, baring a profile alignment issue.
Justin

To the more technical crowd, the originating nk2 file needs to be named the same thing as the profile that Outlook is opening for this to work.

This is perhaps the second most asked question that my customers ask. I use to recommend Toshiba’s based on personal experience and quality. After spending a week fixing nothing but Toshiba’s, I now think that you really need to stay away from the low-end Toshiba’s, just like all the other manufacturers. Notice the hyphenated keywords: LOW-END.

But, so customers and others can do their own research, I present one of the papers that I regularly talk about in those one on one “What should I buy” situations.

eBay’ers will recognize SquareTrade. If you don’t know who they are, they’re a “middle man” company that settles a lot of high end transactions so no one gets the short end of the stick. They also provide warranties to some customers, which is where the data comes from.

Now, you will see a brand called ASUS listed in the study, which you’ll also see listed on our homepage (we’re a partner). I love this brand, they make decent electronics, servers, and they even started the NetBook craze. Historically, I wouldn’t recommend them since most people don’t know the brand name, which typically causes the “WHO?!” conversation, but that’s changed.

So, an introduction is due, in case you’ve never heard about them: ASUS has been around since 1990, but hasn’t really branched out until the last 3 to 4 years. As of now though, they handle about 29% of all motherboards in machines for Dell, Apple, Toshiba and others… Food for thought.

Again, this is a LAPTOP study, not a desktop study. There are certain laptops that I cringe at hearing about (HP DV series laptops are the top cringe-causing laptops), but I’ll recommend certain desktops on occasion as well. I need to find more comprehensive desktop study to publish before openly talking about them.
Justin

I’m really too busy to write out a story this morning, but sometimes you just have to take a step back and take a deep breath – just as my wife told me this morning as I ran out the door.

To the class of 2010, party hard, enjoy yourselves and pay attention to the following video. While it was not an official speech, it’s one of the best “speeches” I’ve heard, and I listen to it at least twice a year. Listen, learn.

To my Niece, Brianna: The whole family is proud of you. Work hard, play hard and enjoy life to it’s fullest. If you ever need advice, feel free to make an appointment
Justin

We received a call yesterday evening, just before closing up the shop and I wanted to share a little bit of info in case anyone else has this type of problem.

The caller stated that they had a DV series HP laptop and they had just cracked the screen. Unfortunately, it happens. We have a nice cracked screen on our wall to show what happens and how flimsy these screens really are…. The caller wanted to know if it was replaceable.

The call went downhill and only lasted about 2 minutes from there, mostly due to information I gave out. Instead of simply stating “YES!” and having the customer bring it by, I was open and honest:

The screens cost around $100 for this model (retail, we probably could be able to do it for less depending on the model and what exactly is cracked), then add the $70 labor fee on top of that since we have to pull the screen area completely apart. The caller was looking at $140-$170 worth of a bill for a laptop that could be several years old.

On top of this, I mentioned that the DV series of laptops tend to overheat and I don’t know if it would be worthwhile to put money into a computer that has a horrid record with “frying” itself. The caller stated that their laptop did have a history of overheating. We talked for a few more seconds and we got off the phone.

In that 2 minutes, I may have lost a decent amount of money, but overall, the caller may have saved money that they could put towards a new computer. Sure, I could have taken the money, only to have the machine possibly fail anywhere from 2 weeks to another year out, but we’re talking a quarter of a new laptop, just to replace the screen… Not worth it, in my opinion.

Now, I know it’s hard to say that, especially in this economy, but we’re talking bang for the buck. Have we replaced screens, motherboards, etc. when it would have been better for the customer to just buy new? Yes, but we look at each situation and try to determine what is ultimately better for the customer and their situation.
Justin

In a huge blunder more than a week ago, McAfee caused computers in many corporations, including Intel, to reboot and reboot…and reboot. The computers are stuck in a reboot loop after McAfee’s Enterprise software decided to mark a specific Windows file as a virus.

While this story was started the day this happened, we were too busy fixing the problem for many customers. On top of that, nearly all of our customers converted to VIPRE Antivirus, due to the continuing problems McAfee has caused.

In fact, this is a direct quote from one of my personal friends that still works for a certain part of the government:

Concerning the M1 virus (Mc Afee’s update), we had approximately 2,300 machines adversely affected by it and the majority of our 270′s requiring extensive intervention or reimage.  So yes, we got hit.

That’s right, even the government had problems with McAfee! It’s time to switch from a program that has problems to one that doesn’t. VIPRE has only had one problem since I’d started touting it as the Antivirus Package to use. That happened a few days ago – it required rebooting the computer and updating the virus definitions (the “thumbprint” of viruses) – that’s it. Not a “hosed” Windows install, no constant rebooting computers, no slowness, etc.

Slow computers, annoying downloads, even though you tell it not to? Yea, we thought so… So far, out of all the customers we’ve switched over, only one has had unique problems, and that’s due to a scheduling issue on the overnight virus scan. Contact Protocol16 to switch to VIPRE for less.
Justin

This morning, I had a customer issue where their computer screetched to a blazing halt and was “thinking” way too much.

After some quick research, I found out this was due to the following:

The issue started with definition 6272, released 5/6/2010 at 5:53:19 PM EDT.  The issue is caused by a virus detection (Virus.VBS.Redlof.f) that causes a loop condition on the system, resulting in high CPU usage. (Sunbelt Software)

The fix is simple:

1. Ensure the Enterprise Server has received definition version 6275.
2. Stop the following processes on any unresponsive agent machines:

1. 1. SBAMsvc.exe
   2. SBAMTray.exe (if tray icon is set to be visible)
   3. sbamui.exe (if agent interface is open)
   4. SBPIMSvc.exe (4.0 Agents only)

1. Restart your enterprise agents.
2. Update any outdated agents within your console to the latest definitions.

For the full article, click here: http://support.sunbeltsoftware.com/Default.aspx?answerid=2015

MioNet is a program that is bundled with a lot of the Western Digital MyBook’s. It sits in the background and takes up memory, not to mention annoys you. Well, the folks at MioNet are pretty sure you’ll never get rid of their software because it seems like there’s no easy way to remove it… Well, there is!

Go to Start, Run and type in:   C:\Program Files\MioNet\ARPMio.exe

Hit Enter and wait for the program to load. Once that loads, you’ll be given the option to uninstall the program.

I read a lot of technology web sites during my downtime at home, to stay up on technology, problems and odds and ends.

I noticed a nice little story of a professional technology author having problems installing Windows. He replaced every-single-component of his computer, including the CASE, during his testing. In the end, he narrowed down his problems to one single component: the processor. While I mean no offense to the author, this is something a professional technician would have caught pretty quickly.

In the industry, we call this “Shotgun” method of support. Basically, you can’t figure out what’s wrong, so you try multiple things at once to see if it works. This can happen with lack of experience or out of pure frustration. It’s a mindset that technicians have to train themselves to get away from. Someone with experience in computer repair would have narrowed the problem down pretty quickly between the memory and processor, due to the specific problems he was having.

For those of us that have been in the industry long enough, we can see this happening and tell someone to step back and think about the problem in another manner. Working in several call centers, I’ve had my fair share of “shotgun” support days, but now they’re a waste of time, and money. In this specific case, if the computer is having problems “thinking”, then you need to look at the “brain”…

Case in point: If the fans are ticking on a system (hit the power button, fans start/stop and nothing else), the first thought might be a blown power supply. So you test the power supply and it tests good. GREAT – now what!? Well, it could still be the power supply due to various reasons. It could also be the motherboard.

I actually have a hands-on motherboard in the shop for people to touch and play with where this happened. It’s got a chip half-missing, it’s burnt to a crisp and discolored on the back of the board in specific spots. Heat problems anyone?

For those that troubleshoot their own computer problems, don’t go down the “shotgun” path of support. Think the problems through…
Justin