Here’s a nice AJAX file manager. It’s still pretty slim on features in my opinion. For instance, it does not support compressing files and directories in a zip/gzip file before downloading, which is particularly what I was looking for. Being able to decompress zip/gzip files on the server is also important, and appears to be lacking.
Otherwise for simple file management it’s a sleek file manager for web sites. It’s called Relay. At the time I wrote this Relay is at version beta01 and appears to have no updates since mid 2007.
http://ecosmear.com/relay/
“Failed to read firewall configuration”
Getting this error when you run v3.x of NOD32 Antivirus? I was and it was tricky finding a solution. Here is what worked.
The Cause
I had installed NOD32 Security Suite by mistake. I uninstalled the Security Suite, restarted the computer, and then installed the Antivirus. Upon system startup NOD32 AV would give the “Failed to read firewall configuration” error. If I tried to go into the Setup it would also give the “Failed to read firewall configuration” error. I uninstalled, reinstalled, did repair installs, etc., and nothing got rid of this.
Hunting through the registry I found that NOD32 Security Suite had not uninstalled completely and had left a lot of data in the registry. Here’s the steps I went through to fix this error:
- Uninstall NOD32 Antivirus
- Reboot
- Delete the folders at these locations:
C:\Documents and Settings\YOURUSERNAME\Application Data\ESET
C:\Documents and Settings\ALL USERS\Application Data\ESET
- Check your network connection properties (usually Local Area Connection if you are on a LAN). Look to see if NOD32 Firewall is listed in the the “This connection uses the following items” on the General Tab. Uninstall it if it is.
- Reboot. Reinstall NOD32. See if it works now.
- If it still does not work then the final resort is the following steps
- Uninstall NOD32 again
- Get a good registry editing tool (perhaps a free one or one that gives a fully functional trial), backup your registry, save a system restore point, and then delete all lines in the registry that have “ESET” in them and which have “EPFW” [upper and lower case] (stands for “eset personal firewall”) in them. I deleted perhaps a hundred or more. I did not find any with “epfw” in them which were not Eset Firewall related. But you might, so check what you are deleting first.
- Look for files in c:\windows\system32\drivers which have epfw at the beginning of the filename. There might be three or four. Delete them.
That should fix it.
Most avid computer users will have discovered the Windows has a very limited feature-set when it comes to renaming files. Basically you can manually rename one file at a time, and nothing more. Bulk file renaming is not an option. If you want to rename an entire album of MP3 files, or perhaps an entire MP3 collection, a photo collection, and so forth, then I am sure you’ve already decided that doing it manually is also not an option. A bulk file renamer is required, and a free one would be even better. Right?
I’ve been looking around for a good file renamer. There is one built into a fantastic Windows Explorer replacement program that is called Directory Opus. DO is a great piece of software for Windows, converting its pathetic file explorer into a powerful beast! But DO is relatively expensive for many computer users, so if you’re just looking for a file renamer here are some options.
- Bulk Rename Utility:
Bulk Rename Utility has evolved through a series of user-requests, one-off requirements, and general enhancements. Some of the features provided by Bulk Rename Utility include:
– Very easy to use
– Rename files, folders or both
– Remove or change a filename
– Perform string substitution
– Change the case of filenames
– Remove characters or words
– Remove digits or symbols
– Append or prepend text
– Append dates in many formats
– Append the parent folder’s name
– Auto-number files with flexible rules
– Automatically preview the new names
– Sort the file details by any column
– Group configurations into “favourites”
– “Bulk Rename” Explorer extension
– Directory recursion - process subdirectories too!
– Rename files from an input text-file list
– Create an “Undo” batch file
– Log activity to a text log file
– Change file and folder date/time-stamps (created, modified, accessed)
– Change file/folder attributes (hidden, readonly, archived)
– Small memory footprint
– Settings retained between sessions
– True 32-bit application
– Written wholly in Visual C++
– Application is totally free!
- I’ll list more as and when I discover them…
Many people report that one or more computers can’t connect to other computers on their Windows NT / XP / Vista based workgroup networks. Sometimes it’s not possible to access another computer on the network — it won’t appear in the workgroup at all. Other times it appears but then it can not be accessed. Errors like the following may occur:
- “Login failure: the user has not been granted the requested logon type at this computer”
- “(XXXX) is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource.
Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.
The list of servers for this workgroup is not currently available.
- Or perhaps you manage to access the PC but it always wants a password and user name to be entered to browse its files?
Here are a few things to check locally on the PC that you are having trouble accessing from another PC on the network. These solutions all assume you are using Windows XP. I would suggest you retry the connection after EACH of these steps… as you may not have to apply all of them. Also, I list these in no specific order.
- Guest access may have been disabled.
Go to Admististrator Tools > Local Security Policy. Then Local Policies > User Rights Management.
Find “Deny access to this computer from network”. Double-click it if “Guest” is in that list, and remove “Guest”
- Go to START > RUN > type in “CMD”
In the command prompt type in: net user guest /active:yes
-
Change the networking Node-type to “mixed”. You can check it is set to something else by typing “ipconfig /all” into a command prompt. To change it to “mixed”:
Start Manu > Run > Type in “regedit” (without the “”) and hit enter.
Go to this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Netbt\Parameters
When you click on parameters you should have “DhcpNodeType” or just “NodeType”
Change the value to 4 (mixed type).
More info here:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=160177
If that key does not exist at all (which was the case on my PC) you can create it. Create a new DWORD Value by right clicking on the right panel of the registry editor. Give it the name “DhcpNodeType” and a value of 4
- Make sure your third party firewall is not blocking sharing on the local network (see the support site for your firewall system for more info)
- If you have Windows Firewall enabled then you’ll also want to ensure that there is an exception set to allow Windows file and print sharing. Google that to find out how if you are not already sure.
- Follow the steps found in this article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/913628 in order to allow anonymous access.
- Install “NWLink IPXSPXNetBIOS Compatible Transport Protocol” to your Networking configuration:
1. Go to Control Panel, and select “Network Connections”;
2. Right-click with your mouse your Network Connection and select “Properties”;
3. On the “Connection Properties” screen, select the “Install” tab;
4. On the “Select networking Component” screen select “Protocol” double-click the > Add…” Tab;
5. On the “Select Network Protocol” screen, select “NWLink IPXSPXNetBIOS Compatible Transport Protocol” and click the “OK” tab to install the protocol.
- In the above Security Policy go to Local Policies > Security Options.
Find “Network access: Sharing and security model for local accounts”. Set it to “Guest Only - Local users authenticate as guest”
I DON’T RECOMMEND THIS LAST STEP. Use it as a last resort if all else fails and if it fixes your problem. Why? Because it will prevent you from controlling who can access the various resources you share. All shares will be accessible to the Guest account, meaning you can’t lock out users from anything you share.
The last two options are last resort steps to try. Many people find step 7 resolves the access issues they experience. But I think this step is simply side-stepping another issue that can usually be fixed directly with one of the other actions/changes I’ve outlined.
Let me know which, if any, of these steps fixes your access issues.
With the fast pace of computer and software development these days, it can be close to impossible to keep up with the latest versions of whatever applications you might be using. I use quite a few apps and most of them get behind in the updates because I don’t want to spend lots of time monitoring when a new version comes out. Some of them include built in update checking, and these are typically the only ones that stay up-to-date on my computer.
FileHippo has released a great looking Update Checker. I just ran it and within 9 seconds it came back with a report of 11 applications with outstanding updates, and links to each of the update downloads. One of them was Firefox which I keep pretty on top of with updates, but a new update come out in the last day or two, and FileHippo Update Checker was on to it.
As I am travelling at the moment, this is a hot topic for me. Portability of my applications, and how to do it using free software. There is a great site called PortableFreeware.com that provides links many many free and portable applications and operating systems.
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Wouldn’t it be nice…
I travel a fair bit. Right now I am in Germany. I take a laptop with me when I can. Yet relatively often I find myself not able to easily access the Internet from my laptop. Sometimes I am staying at houses without Internet access. Sometimes I find myself visiting houses or places where these is Internet access yet I don’t have my laptop with me, such as visiting a friend. Internet is on hand, but my email checking system (a highly customised Thunderbird) and my web browsing system (a highly customised Firefox) are not on hand. Wouldn’t it be nice to carry all this around in my pocket?
These days it is possible to do just that — carry an entire operating system and a vast array of personalised applications in your pocket. This is in the form of a USB memory stick or a pocket hard drive. With some of these systems you can even boot up the OS and run all its applications from within an existing operating system on the host machine (virtualisation). Just plug in the USB device and start it up as a virtual machine. Here are the portable operating systems (all Linux based) I managed to find which looked worthy of my (and perhaps your) attention:
- DSL (Dame Small Linux). This one can boot from within the Host Operating system. A big plus I think.
- PenDriveLinux. This site provides a lot of info on running a wide range of Linux OSs from portable media, including how to run Linux within the host OS. They provide many great tutorials on how to get the most out of your portable OS experience. One example is how to run Ubuntu (v7.10) from a USB flash drive.
- FaunOS. Needs close to 1GB of space (so somewhat on the big side). Does not support virtualisation (booting within the host OS). Can set up a boot CD to boot it on machines that don’t support booting from USB (most computers more than a few years old).
- PuppyLinux. Appears to be about 60MB in size. "Overall, Puppy Linux is a superb, light-weight, fast and versatile Linux distribution with a great selection of applications, graphical system administration utilities and all sorts of unique features not readily available elsewhere. A great choice not only for older computers, but also for those who dislike the bloat of most modern distributions." - Distrowatch.com
This is essentially a LiveCD distribution of Linux. It can, however, run from a USB drive. Does not appear to support virtualisation.
- Moka5 (LivePCs). "Moka5 LivePCs contain everything needed to run a virtual computer — an operating system and a set of applications. You can use LivePCs on your desktop, or you can take them with you on a portable USB drive." This is a different concept from the others listed above. Once Moka5 is installed, you can then run a wide range of available LivePCs (or create your own) which can be run from a hard disk or portable USB drive. For now Moka5 is free, but it might not stay that way.
- QUMU and QUMU Manager. Requires a little more technical knowledge, but the net result is the one gets a virtual machine of Linux running from a USB drive/key.
If you know of any others (particularly ones that natively support booting within the host OS) please let me know.
Today whilst updating Windows Live Messenger, I also opted to install the latest version of what used to be called Windows Messenger. Since my last complete reinstall of my computer I had not got around to installed Messenger. When I install WLM tonight I instantly realised it was time to find an alternative. Why?
A few reasons where immediately apparent.
- WLM is very large. Installed it takes up at least 32MB of disk space. It’s process (msnmsgr.exe) which I started right after installation 56.7 MB of RAM on my system when it is just sitting there open as I write this. This is when it is an open window. When minimised it accounts for about 7 - 8 MB (although the figure is rising as I write this, and I am not even using the Messenger client as it is minimised). By the time I wrote that sentence it has risen to 8.64 MB and is still rising.
- WLM has advertising in it. Not nice. Why should I be subjected to advertising whilst using a messaging client? I shouldn’t. End of story.
I am sure there are many other reasons to remove this application from my computer, but as I am already removing it without using it beyond its initial startup and login, I won’t have a chance to figure out what they are. But the two reasons cited above are enough. (The messenger process is now at 10.3 MB whilst minimised and not being actively used, and still rising).
Here are some good alternatives I found.
- Pidgin. This used to be called Gaim. A nice looking messenger client. Supports many different messaging networks including Microsoft Messenger, AIM, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, Google Talk, Groupwise, ICQ, IRC, MSN, MySpaceIM, QQ, SILC, SIMPLE, Sametime, XMPP, Yahoo!, Zephyr.
I can’t say I have even heard of nearly all of these, but there you have it. Lots of options.
If you run Mac OSX then Adium is the equivalent app for Mac.
- Trillian. Also looks nice. Has free and Pro version. If you don’t need lots of video related features then the free version seems to do most things one might expect.
- Miranda. This one I have not actually checked out, but here is what their website has to say about it: "Miranda IM is the smaller, faster, easier instant messenger with support for multiple protocols. Designed from the ground-up to be resource efficient while still providing a rich feature set, Miranda includes support for AIM, Jabber, ICQ, IRC, MSN, Yahoo, Gadu-Gadu and more. Additionally, with the choice of hundreds of plug-
- ins, icons, sounds and other content…"
So far I most like the look of Pidgin so that’s what’ll be replacing Windows Live Messenger on this computer for now.
Windows Live Messenger is now dead, as far as this computer is concerned. Let’s hope Microsoft doesn’t go an stick advertising into Live Writer (my preferred choice for desktop blog writing applications on which I am writing this). I’d hate to have to kill that as well, because I’ve seen most of the alternatives and none of them are as good in my opinion.
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It’s always a good idea to check the speed of your broadband connection just to make sure it’s as good as what you are paying for. To test your speed it is most ideal to use a test server provided by the ISP you use. Ask them if they provide one. Often it is an FTP server from which you can download a large file in order to check the speed of the download.
If your ISP does not provide a speed test system then check out the great list available at DSLreports and pick one or more of the test systems available in your country.
UPDATE: 28/11/2007
I have now found another system that is perhaps even better. Check it out at speedtest.net. It has a great looking interface, and it automatically shows you the closest server to where you are located. You can use it right here by clicking Start Test in the Speedtest Mini interface below (which requires your browser to have Flash v7 of above installed).
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dsl speed testing
If you are into download files via the P2P technology called Bittorrent you may want to make some changes to your system in order to get the highest download speed. There are many things one can to in order to optimise ones torrent speed. There is a great guide available at TorrentFreek. Also worth checking out is this link which is an article with many links to key topics for people new to bittorrent.
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