#fifonetworks — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #fifonetworks, aggregated by home.social.
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A man passed away recently. He had eight different email addresses, including a couple that belonged to his wife before she died in 2019. His family is paying me to close down his social media presence and close out the email accounts. I just closed an AOL email account that he opened in the 1990s. A couple of the other old emails (anyone remember Juno?) had no MFA, and the passwords consisted only of uppercase and lowercase letters.
These old email addresses are a spammer’s dream. Easy to crack into, well established addresses, and the deceased person won’t complain or tighten security.
If you have a loved one who passed away, make some decisions about their email addresses. Add MFA that you control if you’re going to keep the email active. And when it’s time, close the account. I know that’s a big emotional step. It seems so final. On the other hand, your loved one probably doesn’t want their old email address used for cybercrime.
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A man passed away recently. He had eight different email addresses, including a couple that belonged to his wife before she died in 2019. His family is paying me to close down his social media presence and close out the email accounts. I just closed an AOL email account that he opened in the 1990s. A couple of the other old emails (anyone remember Juno?) had no MFA, and the passwords consisted only of uppercase and lowercase letters.
These old email addresses are a spammer’s dream. Easy to crack into, well established addresses, and the deceased person won’t complain or tighten security.
If you have a loved one who passed away, make some decisions about their email addresses. Add MFA that you control if you’re going to keep the email active. And when it’s time, close the account. I know that’s a big emotional step. It seems so final. On the other hand, your loved one probably doesn’t want their old email address used for cybercrime.
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A man passed away recently. He had eight different email addresses, including a couple that belonged to his wife before she died in 2019. His family is paying me to close down his social media presence and close out the email accounts. I just closed an AOL email account that he opened in the 1990s. A couple of the other old emails (anyone remember Juno?) had no MFA, and the passwords consisted only of uppercase and lowercase letters.
These old email addresses are a spammer’s dream. Easy to crack into, well established addresses, and the deceased person won’t complain or tighten security.
If you have a loved one who passed away, make some decisions about their email addresses. Add MFA that you control if you’re going to keep the email active. And when it’s time, close the account. I know that’s a big emotional step. It seems so final. On the other hand, your loved one probably doesn’t want their old email address used for cybercrime.
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A man passed away recently. He had eight different email addresses, including a couple that belonged to his wife before she died in 2019. His family is paying me to close down his social media presence and close out the email accounts. I just closed an AOL email account that he opened in the 1990s. A couple of the other old emails (anyone remember Juno?) had no MFA, and the passwords consisted only of uppercase and lowercase letters.
These old email addresses are a spammer’s dream. Easy to crack into, well established addresses, and the deceased person won’t complain or tighten security.
If you have a loved one who passed away, make some decisions about their email addresses. Add MFA that you control if you’re going to keep the email active. And when it’s time, close the account. I know that’s a big emotional step. It seems so final. On the other hand, your loved one probably doesn’t want their old email address used for cybercrime.
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A man passed away recently. He had eight different email addresses, including a couple that belonged to his wife before she died in 2019. His family is paying me to close down his social media presence and close out the email accounts. I just closed an AOL email account that he opened in the 1990s. A couple of the other old emails (anyone remember Juno?) had no MFA, and the passwords consisted only of uppercase and lowercase letters.
These old email addresses are a spammer’s dream. Easy to crack into, well established addresses, and the deceased person won’t complain or tighten security.
If you have a loved one who passed away, make some decisions about their email addresses. Add MFA that you control if you’re going to keep the email active. And when it’s time, close the account. I know that’s a big emotional step. It seems so final. On the other hand, your loved one probably doesn’t want their old email address used for cybercrime.
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A couple of weeks ago a new small business client signed up for firewall monitoring service. After I got set up with remote access, I started poking around and discovered that they were paying for licenses for features that had never been enabled. It didn’t cost them any more money – I just had to flip the toggles on the dashboard and activate the features. Then, for a couple of those features, there were some choices to be made and settings to adjust to refine the operation.
THE LESSON
Buying hardware or software to protect your system is only the first step. That hardware appliance or app has to be configured correctly in order to do its job correctly.#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks +1 206-465-2422
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP
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A couple of weeks ago a new small business client signed up for firewall monitoring service. After I got set up with remote access, I started poking around and discovered that they were paying for licenses for features that had never been enabled. It didn’t cost them any more money – I just had to flip the toggles on the dashboard and activate the features. Then, for a couple of those features, there were some choices to be made and settings to adjust to refine the operation.
THE LESSON
Buying hardware or software to protect your system is only the first step. That hardware appliance or app has to be configured correctly in order to do its job correctly.#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks +1 206-465-2422
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP
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“Bob, my printer quality is low. Please come fix it.”
I drove to the client’s office. It’s a small business, about a dozen employees. The VP fills multiple rolls, something that you’ll understand if you’re in a small business yourself. She’s Head of HR, and also Senior Accountant. When I got there, she said, “I can’t print the employee insurance cards. Look at this mess. They’re illegible.”
Thanks, Delta Dental, for issuing insurance “cards” as PDF files where the text on the back of the cards is in about 3-point font. Love you for that.
Anyway, to start, the black toner on the laser printer was out. She replaced it with a toner cartridge that was OPEN, out of its wrapper, laying on a counter. When the first cartridge was installed, the printer had a “low toner” message. With the replacement cartridge, the one that was already open, it showed zero black toner. Now it wouldn’t print the insurance cards at all.
She looked around and found a box with new toner cartridges in it. All four: black, magenta, cyan, yellow. The box still had the form fitting Styrofoam package filler, and each toner cartridge was sealed in plastic. I thought, “Now we’re getting somewhere!” But no. No, we were not getting closer to a solution.
We put the new black toner cartridge in the printer, closed the top, and the LCD screen said, “Insert the black toner cartridge.” It didn’t even recognize it. Can you guess now? They bought a box of off-brand of toner cartridges to save money.
I said, “Okay, there’s nothing more to do here until you get good toner cartridges. I recommend sticking with the manufacturer’s cartridges for the most reliable print quality.”
The VP said, “Those cost too much! I’m not paying for those cartridges!”
So I didn’t fix the company’s printer problem, and I’m fine with that. I correctly diagnosed the problem and prescribed an effective cure.
There comes a point when you can’t blame your problems on Tech Support. You have to own your decisions. It’s your responsibility when you decide that you won’t take action, or won’t spend money on proper repairs.
THIRTY MINUTES LATER...
While I was working on a different problem for one of the other people, about thirty minutes later the VP came out of her office and said, “I just ordered two brand-name black toner cartridges. They’ll be here Monday.”She just had to mull it over for awhile, I guess, and wrap her head around the idea that quality is worth paying for, if it brings the desired results.
THE LESSON
It’s not always about fixing the technology. Sometimes, it’s about fixing the decision maker.#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks +1 206-465-2422
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP
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“Bob, my printer quality is low. Please come fix it.”
I drove to the client’s office. It’s a small business, about a dozen employees. The VP fills multiple rolls, something that you’ll understand if you’re in a small business yourself. She’s Head of HR, and also Senior Accountant. When I got there, she said, “I can’t print the employee insurance cards. Look at this mess. They’re illegible.”
Thanks, Delta Dental, for issuing insurance “cards” as PDF files where the text on the back of the cards is in about 3-point font. Love you for that.
Anyway, to start, the black toner on the laser printer was out. She replaced it with a toner cartridge that was OPEN, out of its wrapper, laying on a counter. When the first cartridge was installed, the printer had a “low toner” message. With the replacement cartridge, the one that was already open, it showed zero black toner. Now it wouldn’t print the insurance cards at all.
She looked around and found a box with new toner cartridges in it. All four: black, magenta, cyan, yellow. The box still had the form fitting Styrofoam package filler, and each toner cartridge was sealed in plastic. I thought, “Now we’re getting somewhere!” But no. No, we were not getting closer to a solution.
We put the new black toner cartridge in the printer, closed the top, and the LCD screen said, “Insert the black toner cartridge.” It didn’t even recognize it. Can you guess now? They bought a box of off-brand of toner cartridges to save money.
I said, “Okay, there’s nothing more to do here until you get good toner cartridges. I recommend sticking with the manufacturer’s cartridges for the most reliable print quality.”
The VP said, “Those cost too much! I’m not paying for those cartridges!”
So I didn’t fix the company’s printer problem, and I’m fine with that. I correctly diagnosed the problem and prescribed an effective cure.
There comes a point when you can’t blame your problems on Tech Support. You have to own your decisions. It’s your responsibility when you decide that you won’t take action, or won’t spend money on proper repairs.
THIRTY MINUTES LATER...
While I was working on a different problem for one of the other people, about thirty minutes later the VP came out of her office and said, “I just ordered two brand-name black toner cartridges. They’ll be here Monday.”She just had to mull it over for awhile, I guess, and wrap her head around the idea that quality is worth paying for, if it brings the desired results.
THE LESSON
It’s not always about fixing the technology. Sometimes, it’s about fixing the decision maker.#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks +1 206-465-2422
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP
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“Bob, one of my employees can send email from his iPhone, but he’s not receiving any emails.”
Well, that’s backwards – usually I see problems the other way around; they can receive, but not send.
I tried working with him on a phone call yesterday morning, but when you can’t see the screen, tech support is more difficult. The client’s main business location is in a town less than an hour from my office, so I went to their location after lunch to work on it in person.
Oh, so many details were left out! It turned out that he wasn’t receiving emails on his iPhone, his iPad, or his laptop – but he could send from the phone and the laptop.
And... the problem started in March, and was continuous from then until now!
Okay. First things first. Let’s log into Outlook on the web and see whether that works. I’m starting to have a hunch that I’ve seen this problem before, with other clients.
Outlook on the web looks the same. So I went into the Rules settings, and there was the culprit. The rule was named “....” That’s it, the only rule, and the rule name was just four dots. I clicked the drop-down arrow to expand the rule. And the rule said, on incoming mail, move it to the Deleted Items folder and mark it as read! So he was receiving email all along, he just didn’t know it.
I looked in the Deleted Items folder, and there were more than 1,300 messages, including my two test emails from earlier in the day. I moved everything back to the Inbox.
Here’s what happened. In March someone had started sending email pretending to be this employee. He changed his email password, and the outbound spam stopped. That’s all the company did. They thought the problem was solved.
Well, that locked the cybercriminal out, but it didn’t delete the rule that the cybercriminal had created to cover their activity. That rule didn’t get deleted until yesterday, June 24.
THE LESSON
If you believe your email has been compromised, after securing your account, log into each device, and especially the web instance, and look for rules you didn’t create. If a device was compromised, the malicious rule may be in Outlook’s rules on the device. This scenario can also happen in other email apps, like Thunderbird, and in other web-based email accounts, like Gmail. Whether it’s web-based or app-based, look for rules or filters that you were unaware of, and delete them.#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP
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“Bob, one of my employees can send email from his iPhone, but he’s not receiving any emails.”
Well, that’s backwards – usually I see problems the other way around; they can receive, but not send.
I tried working with him on a phone call yesterday morning, but when you can’t see the screen, tech support is more difficult. The client’s main business location is in a town less than an hour from my office, so I went to their location after lunch to work on it in person.
Oh, so many details were left out! It turned out that he wasn’t receiving emails on his iPhone, his iPad, or his laptop – but he could send from the phone and the laptop.
And... the problem started in March, and was continuous from then until now!
Okay. First things first. Let’s log into Outlook on the web and see whether that works. I’m starting to have a hunch that I’ve seen this problem before, with other clients.
Outlook on the web looks the same. So I went into the Rules settings, and there was the culprit. The rule was named “....” That’s it, the only rule, and the rule name was just four dots. I clicked the drop-down arrow to expand the rule. And the rule said, on incoming mail, move it to the Deleted Items folder and mark it as read! So he was receiving email all along, he just didn’t know it.
I looked in the Deleted Items folder, and there were more than 1,300 messages, including my two test emails from earlier in the day. I moved everything back to the Inbox.
Here’s what happened. In March someone had started sending email pretending to be this employee. He changed his email password, and the outbound spam stopped. That’s all the company did. They thought the problem was solved.
Well, that locked the cybercriminal out, but it didn’t delete the rule that the cybercriminal had created to cover their activity. That rule didn’t get deleted until yesterday, June 24.
THE LESSON
If you believe your email has been compromised, after securing your account, log into each device, and especially the web instance, and look for rules you didn’t create. If a device was compromised, the malicious rule may be in Outlook’s rules on the device. This scenario can also happen in other email apps, like Thunderbird, and in other web-based email accounts, like Gmail. Whether it’s web-based or app-based, look for rules or filters that you were unaware of, and delete them.#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP
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A local client asked for service today, saying that his laptop was giving him a message that his C: drive was out of free space. He’d been living with the error message for a few weeks; it wasn’t sudden. Since he was local, I went to his office instead of connecting remotely. Some things are just easier and quicker if you’re right there.
INITIAL CONDITIONS
Windows 11 Home, 25H2, all updates current.
Drive C: was about 220 GB used, 0 free.
Drive D: was nominally 2 TB, about 1.2 TB used.I did some checking and cleaned up a little bit on the C: drive, but only recovered about 2 GB.
THE SHOCKER
“Do you ever use Copilot?”
“No, and I don’t care about it.”
Start – Control Panel – Programs and Features – Copilot – Uninstall.
And then drive C: showed 35 GB free space.
Copilot was using 33 GB of his OS disk.OTHER RELEVANT DETAILS
I went back to the office and uninstalled Copilot on a Windows 11 Pro computer, 24H2, all updates current. I only recovered about 1 GB. In addition to the fact that it was only 24H2 and not 25H2, I had already disabled Copilot features on this particular computer, even though I hadn’t uninstalled it.“Your mileage may vary,” but if your OS drive mysteriously fills up, it’s something to investigate.
#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks
#HelpDesk #TechSupport
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP -
A local client asked for service today, saying that his laptop was giving him a message that his C: drive was out of free space. He’d been living with the error message for a few weeks; it wasn’t sudden. Since he was local, I went to his office instead of connecting remotely. Some things are just easier and quicker if you’re right there.
INITIAL CONDITIONS
Windows 11 Home, 25H2, all updates current.
Drive C: was about 220 GB used, 0 free.
Drive D: was nominally 2 TB, about 1.2 TB used.I did some checking and cleaned up a little bit on the C: drive, but only recovered about 2 GB.
THE SHOCKER
“Do you ever use Copilot?”
“No, and I don’t care about it.”
Start – Control Panel – Programs and Features – Copilot – Uninstall.
And then drive C: showed 35 GB free space.
Copilot was using 33 GB of his OS disk.OTHER RELEVANT DETAILS
I went back to the office and uninstalled Copilot on a Windows 11 Pro computer, 24H2, all updates current. I only recovered about 1 GB. In addition to the fact that it was only 24H2 and not 25H2, I had already disabled Copilot features on this particular computer, even though I hadn’t uninstalled it.“Your mileage may vary,” but if your OS drive mysteriously fills up, it’s something to investigate.
#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks
#HelpDesk #TechSupport
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP -
“Bob, I can’t copy and paste from this document.”
A client recently had some difficulty copying and pasting from a PDF document, and the problem was because they didn’t understand the different types of PDF documents. I’ve run across this several times, and it occurs to me that there are probably a lot of people who could benefit from a little tutorial.
PDF TEXT
Take a Microsoft Word document and save it as a PDF file. When you do this, the text is still text. In the PDF document you can select the text, copy it, and paste it somewhere else.PDF “PICTURE” OF TEXT
Take a paper document, place it on a scanner, and scan it to PDF. You can still see the letters and words in the PDF file. You can still read it. But you can’t select, copy, and paste text from this kind of PDF document.In the first example, the letters are (often) a series of Unicode characters. The application’s Graphical User Interface (GUI) displays the characters on top of a solid colored background. The background is often, but not necessarily, white. The Unicode characters and the background are literally unrelated to each other.
In the second example, the letters are composed of (say) black pixels organized on a background of white pixels. The letters and the background are integrally related to each other. It is a single, flat, two-dimensional surface arranged of pixels of different colors.
SOLUTION
If you need to separate the text from the background in a PDF “picture” of text, the solution is to use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. OCR is a feature included in most modern PDF editors. OCR software analyzes the contrast in pixel colors and deduces the presence of known characters, like letters, numbers, and punctuation. The accuracy of the OCR software depends on the degree of contrast, and the amount of visual “noise” in the file. If you extract text with OCR software, proofread the result carefully, because there may be errors in the output.#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks
#HelpDesk #TechSupport
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP -
“Bob, I can’t copy and paste from this document.”
A client recently had some difficulty copying and pasting from a PDF document, and the problem was because they didn’t understand the different types of PDF documents. I’ve run across this several times, and it occurs to me that there are probably a lot of people who could benefit from a little tutorial.
PDF TEXT
Take a Microsoft Word document and save it as a PDF file. When you do this, the text is still text. In the PDF document you can select the text, copy it, and paste it somewhere else.PDF “PICTURE” OF TEXT
Take a paper document, place it on a scanner, and scan it to PDF. You can still see the letters and words in the PDF file. You can still read it. But you can’t select, copy, and paste text from this kind of PDF document.In the first example, the letters are (often) a series of Unicode characters. The application’s Graphical User Interface (GUI) displays the characters on top of a solid colored background. The background is often, but not necessarily, white. The Unicode characters and the background are literally unrelated to each other.
In the second example, the letters are composed of (say) black pixels organized on a background of white pixels. The letters and the background are integrally related to each other. It is a single, flat, two-dimensional surface arranged of pixels of different colors.
SOLUTION
If you need to separate the text from the background in a PDF “picture” of text, the solution is to use Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. OCR is a feature included in most modern PDF editors. OCR software analyzes the contrast in pixel colors and deduces the presence of known characters, like letters, numbers, and punctuation. The accuracy of the OCR software depends on the degree of contrast, and the amount of visual “noise” in the file. If you extract text with OCR software, proofread the result carefully, because there may be errors in the output.#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks
#HelpDesk #TechSupport
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP -
Microsoft can still surprise us. Yesterday a client scheduled for a remote support call at 9am today. The problem was that he was receiving error messages from Microsoft saying that his mailbox was almost full. At the appointed time I connected remotely to his computer, and watched while he pulled up the message. It was an email, rather than an in-app Outlook message, so the first thing I did was examine the header to make sure it was real (it was).
Here’s the surprise: Microsoft’s “mailbox full” messages come from an email account that has no DKIM signature and no DMARC policy! This is a classic first-blush clue that an email may be either malicious or spam.
Next, I looked at File – Options, and the in-app message was there, too, so it was indeed legitimate.
I enabled autoarchive, with message deletion from the mailbox after archiving, to fix the problem. BTW, I did this as a two-step process. First, I verified that archiving was working, and the location of the archive file. With that assurance, I enabled deletion from the mailbox.
So the issue was easy enough to fix – a simple configuration error – but, Microsoft, why are you using any email accounts with no DKIM signature and no DMARC policy? Set a good example for us!
#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks
#TechSupport #HelpDesk #ServiceCall #Email
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP
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Now is a really good time to think about what information your company should have connected to the Internet.
Yesterday was a better time. Last year was better still. But, now is a really good time.
#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks
#DataClassification #InformationPolicy #PrivateNetworks #AI
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP
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Now is a really good time to think about what information your company should have connected to the Internet.
Yesterday was a better time. Last year was better still. But, now is a really good time.
#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks
#DataClassification #InformationPolicy #PrivateNetworks #AI
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP
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This week I did an interesting data recovery task for a family. (This was a legal data access. The identities were verified). They were trying to put together a notification list for an upcoming funeral. They could tell the contacts in the person’s laptop were incomplete because names they knew should be there were missing. And the person’s Android phone, with Google Contacts, won’t directly sync to the email app on the laptop. They could go through the phone contacts one at a time, but, was there an easier way?
Yes, there is.
In this case, it was an Android phone. Refer to the picture.
You can export the Google Contacts to a single .vcf file (vcf is an abbreviation of an abbreviation. It stands for vCard File, and vCard is short for Virtual (Business) Card).
People sometimes think that a .vcf file is a single contact, but a .vcf file can contain multiple contact records. It can be quite large and contain hundreds, even thousands, of contacts.
You can view some of the information with any text editor like Notepad. To easily view all of the information, import the .vcf file into a new or existing address book in an email program.
SUMMARY
For this client, the solution was to export the contacts as a .vcf file from the phone, import the .vcf file into the contacts in the computer, and merge duplicates. Now they have a relatively complete list of contacts in one place, and they can manage announcements and invitations using a full-size keyboard.The client is in another state. A family member did the steps while I coached them over the phone.
#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks
#TechSupport #RemoteSupport #HelpDesk
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP
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This week I did an interesting data recovery task for a family. (This was a legal data access. The identities were verified). They were trying to put together a notification list for an upcoming funeral. They could tell the contacts in the person’s laptop were incomplete because names they knew should be there were missing. And the person’s Android phone, with Google Contacts, won’t directly sync to the email app on the laptop. They could go through the phone contacts one at a time, but, was there an easier way?
Yes, there is.
In this case, it was an Android phone. Refer to the picture.
You can export the Google Contacts to a single .vcf file (vcf is an abbreviation of an abbreviation. It stands for vCard File, and vCard is short for Virtual (Business) Card).
People sometimes think that a .vcf file is a single contact, but a .vcf file can contain multiple contact records. It can be quite large and contain hundreds, even thousands, of contacts.
You can view some of the information with any text editor like Notepad. To easily view all of the information, import the .vcf file into a new or existing address book in an email program.
SUMMARY
For this client, the solution was to export the contacts as a .vcf file from the phone, import the .vcf file into the contacts in the computer, and merge duplicates. Now they have a relatively complete list of contacts in one place, and they can manage announcements and invitations using a full-size keyboard.The client is in another state. A family member did the steps while I coached them over the phone.
#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks
#TechSupport #RemoteSupport #HelpDesk
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP
-
This week I did an interesting data recovery task for a family. (This was a legal data access. The identities were verified). They were trying to put together a notification list for an upcoming funeral. They could tell the contacts in the person’s laptop were incomplete because names they knew should be there were missing. And the person’s Android phone, with Google Contacts, won’t directly sync to the email app on the laptop. They could go through the phone contacts one at a time, but, was there an easier way?
Yes, there is.
In this case, it was an Android phone. Refer to the picture.
You can export the Google Contacts to a single .vcf file (vcf is an abbreviation of an abbreviation. It stands for vCard File, and vCard is short for Virtual (Business) Card).
People sometimes think that a .vcf file is a single contact, but a .vcf file can contain multiple contact records. It can be quite large and contain hundreds, even thousands, of contacts.
You can view some of the information with any text editor like Notepad. To easily view all of the information, import the .vcf file into a new or existing address book in an email program.
SUMMARY
For this client, the solution was to export the contacts as a .vcf file from the phone, import the .vcf file into the contacts in the computer, and merge duplicates. Now they have a relatively complete list of contacts in one place, and they can manage announcements and invitations using a full-size keyboard.The client is in another state. A family member did the steps while I coached them over the phone.
#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks
#TechSupport #RemoteSupport #HelpDesk
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP
-
This week I did an interesting data recovery task for a family. (This was a legal data access. The identities were verified). They were trying to put together a notification list for an upcoming funeral. They could tell the contacts in the person’s laptop were incomplete because names they knew should be there were missing. And the person’s Android phone, with Google Contacts, won’t directly sync to the email app on the laptop. They could go through the phone contacts one at a time, but, was there an easier way?
Yes, there is.
In this case, it was an Android phone. Refer to the picture.
You can export the Google Contacts to a single .vcf file (vcf is an abbreviation of an abbreviation. It stands for vCard File, and vCard is short for Virtual (Business) Card).
People sometimes think that a .vcf file is a single contact, but a .vcf file can contain multiple contact records. It can be quite large and contain hundreds, even thousands, of contacts.
You can view some of the information with any text editor like Notepad. To easily view all of the information, import the .vcf file into a new or existing address book in an email program.
SUMMARY
For this client, the solution was to export the contacts as a .vcf file from the phone, import the .vcf file into the contacts in the computer, and merge duplicates. Now they have a relatively complete list of contacts in one place, and they can manage announcements and invitations using a full-size keyboard.The client is in another state. A family member did the steps while I coached them over the phone.
#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks
#TechSupport #RemoteSupport #HelpDesk
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP
-
This week I did an interesting data recovery task for a family. (This was a legal data access. The identities were verified). They were trying to put together a notification list for an upcoming funeral. They could tell the contacts in the person’s laptop were incomplete because names they knew should be there were missing. And the person’s Android phone, with Google Contacts, won’t directly sync to the email app on the laptop. They could go through the phone contacts one at a time, but, was there an easier way?
Yes, there is.
In this case, it was an Android phone. Refer to the picture.
You can export the Google Contacts to a single .vcf file (vcf is an abbreviation of an abbreviation. It stands for vCard File, and vCard is short for Virtual (Business) Card).
People sometimes think that a .vcf file is a single contact, but a .vcf file can contain multiple contact records. It can be quite large and contain hundreds, even thousands, of contacts.
You can view some of the information with any text editor like Notepad. To easily view all of the information, import the .vcf file into a new or existing address book in an email program.
SUMMARY
For this client, the solution was to export the contacts as a .vcf file from the phone, import the .vcf file into the contacts in the computer, and merge duplicates. Now they have a relatively complete list of contacts in one place, and they can manage announcements and invitations using a full-size keyboard.The client is in another state. A family member did the steps while I coached them over the phone.
#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks
#TechSupport #RemoteSupport #HelpDesk
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP
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Last Thursday I was doing a remote tech support call for an elderly gentleman and his wife in Macon, Georgia (I’m in Seattle). He said, “The printer is in another room, and I want to check the status to see if my document is done printing. It takes a lot of steps. Is there an easy way to see when the printer is done?”
SOLUTION
I put a shortcut to the printer queue on his Windows desktop, which was actually on a laptop. They both liked it, so I put another shortcut on the desktop of her laptop.HOW TO DO IT
If you’d like a shortcut to open your printer queue, here are the steps. If you have more than one printer, you can make one for each of them.Step 1: In Printer Properties, copy the name of your printer.
Step 2: On the desktop, Right-Click - New - Shortcut.
Step 3: Where it says, "Type the location of the item," write:
C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /o /n "YourPrinterName"
Between the quote marks, replace YourPrinterName with the name of your printer, found in Step 1.Example:
C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /o /n "WF-2930 Series(Network)"Step 4: Give the shortcut a name and save it.
Step 5: While something is printing, double-click the icon to see the current document queue and status.
#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks
#TechSupport #RemoteSupport #HelpDesk
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP
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Last Thursday I was doing a remote tech support call for an elderly gentleman and his wife in Macon, Georgia (I’m in Seattle). He said, “The printer is in another room, and I want to check the status to see if my document is done printing. It takes a lot of steps. Is there an easy way to see when the printer is done?”
SOLUTION
I put a shortcut to the printer queue on his Windows desktop, which was actually on a laptop. They both liked it, so I put another shortcut on the desktop of her laptop.HOW TO DO IT
If you’d like a shortcut to open your printer queue, here are the steps. If you have more than one printer, you can make one for each of them.Step 1: In Printer Properties, copy the name of your printer.
Step 2: On the desktop, Right-Click - New - Shortcut.
Step 3: Where it says, "Type the location of the item," write:
C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /o /n "YourPrinterName"
Between the quote marks, replace YourPrinterName with the name of your printer, found in Step 1.Example:
C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /o /n "WF-2930 Series(Network)"Step 4: Give the shortcut a name and save it.
Step 5: While something is printing, double-click the icon to see the current document queue and status.
#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks
#TechSupport #RemoteSupport #HelpDesk
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP
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Last Thursday I was doing a remote tech support call for an elderly gentleman and his wife in Macon, Georgia (I’m in Seattle). He said, “The printer is in another room, and I want to check the status to see if my document is done printing. It takes a lot of steps. Is there an easy way to see when the printer is done?”
SOLUTION
I put a shortcut to the printer queue on his Windows desktop, which was actually on a laptop. They both liked it, so I put another shortcut on the desktop of her laptop.HOW TO DO IT
If you’d like a shortcut to open your printer queue, here are the steps. If you have more than one printer, you can make one for each of them.Step 1: In Printer Properties, copy the name of your printer.
Step 2: On the desktop, Right-Click - New - Shortcut.
Step 3: Where it says, "Type the location of the item," write:
C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /o /n "YourPrinterName"
Between the quote marks, replace YourPrinterName with the name of your printer, found in Step 1.Example:
C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /o /n "WF-2930 Series(Network)"Step 4: Give the shortcut a name and save it.
Step 5: While something is printing, double-click the icon to see the current document queue and status.
#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks
#TechSupport #RemoteSupport #HelpDesk
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP
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Last Thursday I was doing a remote tech support call for an elderly gentleman and his wife in Macon, Georgia (I’m in Seattle). He said, “The printer is in another room, and I want to check the status to see if my document is done printing. It takes a lot of steps. Is there an easy way to see when the printer is done?”
SOLUTION
I put a shortcut to the printer queue on his Windows desktop, which was actually on a laptop. They both liked it, so I put another shortcut on the desktop of her laptop.HOW TO DO IT
If you’d like a shortcut to open your printer queue, here are the steps. If you have more than one printer, you can make one for each of them.Step 1: In Printer Properties, copy the name of your printer.
Step 2: On the desktop, Right-Click - New - Shortcut.
Step 3: Where it says, "Type the location of the item," write:
C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /o /n "YourPrinterName"
Between the quote marks, replace YourPrinterName with the name of your printer, found in Step 1.Example:
C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /o /n "WF-2930 Series(Network)"Step 4: Give the shortcut a name and save it.
Step 5: While something is printing, double-click the icon to see the current document queue and status.
#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks
#TechSupport #RemoteSupport #HelpDesk
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP
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Last Thursday I was doing a remote tech support call for an elderly gentleman and his wife in Macon, Georgia (I’m in Seattle). He said, “The printer is in another room, and I want to check the status to see if my document is done printing. It takes a lot of steps. Is there an easy way to see when the printer is done?”
SOLUTION
I put a shortcut to the printer queue on his Windows desktop, which was actually on a laptop. They both liked it, so I put another shortcut on the desktop of her laptop.HOW TO DO IT
If you’d like a shortcut to open your printer queue, here are the steps. If you have more than one printer, you can make one for each of them.Step 1: In Printer Properties, copy the name of your printer.
Step 2: On the desktop, Right-Click - New - Shortcut.
Step 3: Where it says, "Type the location of the item," write:
C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /o /n "YourPrinterName"
Between the quote marks, replace YourPrinterName with the name of your printer, found in Step 1.Example:
C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /o /n "WF-2930 Series(Network)"Step 4: Give the shortcut a name and save it.
Step 5: While something is printing, double-click the icon to see the current document queue and status.
#CallMeIfYouNeedMe #FIFONetworks
#TechSupport #RemoteSupport #HelpDesk
Cybersecurity - Networks - Wireless – Telecom – VoIP
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There was a massive Verizon outage on January 14. Reuters reported that it lasted 10 hours. Downdetector said it received 2.2 million reports of problems with Verizon’s service, but other estimates are as low as 180,000. As of this writing, Verizon hasn’t announced a reason for the outage. Cybersecurity concerns are possible, but have been mostly ruled out. It appears to have been an internal “technical issue.”
I can’t tell you what the specific technical issue was, but I can tell you what the general issue was: massive centralization.
Companies design systems with massive geographic centralization for cost and convenience, not for resilience – or, for that matter – cybersecurity.
Information and communications industries as a whole have been moving steadily towards massive centralization for several years now. Decentralize command and control. Centralization is a military-grade problem. There will be bigger and more impactful outages across all industries while we re-learn this lesson.
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There was a massive Verizon outage on January 14. Reuters reported that it lasted 10 hours. Downdetector said it received 2.2 million reports of problems with Verizon’s service, but other estimates are as low as 180,000. As of this writing, Verizon hasn’t announced a reason for the outage. Cybersecurity concerns are possible, but have been mostly ruled out. It appears to have been an internal “technical issue.”
I can’t tell you what the specific technical issue was, but I can tell you what the general issue was: massive centralization.
Companies design systems with massive geographic centralization for cost and convenience, not for resilience – or, for that matter – cybersecurity.
Information and communications industries as a whole have been moving steadily towards massive centralization for several years now. Decentralize command and control. Centralization is a military-grade problem. There will be bigger and more impactful outages across all industries while we re-learn this lesson.
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Winter weather – power failures – what’s a good design?
In theory – in a perfect world – the backup batteries only need to last long enough for the generator(s) to start up and stabilize with the load of your choice. But, in the real world, the backup batteries should hold the system up in the following scenario:
1. Power goes out.
2. Batteries/UPS take the load.
3. Power failure alarm is issued to the technician on call.
4. Generator fails to start.
5. Generator failure alarm is issued to the technician on call.
6. The tech on call requests service from the generator maintenance contract company.
7. The generator company rolls a truck.
8. The generator service person identifies the problem, repairs it, and starts the generator.If continuous operation through a power failure is the goal, I design battery/UPS systems for a minimum six hours of run time, and if the generator company has to roll a truck that’s really not enough. Six hours is only enough if you have in-house technicians on call who live close to the monitored system.
If it’s impractical to support a system with the appropriate amount of battery capacity for a generator repair, then the solution is a second generator. If, and only if, the system is protected with a second generator, is it feasible to reduce the battery capacity. Keep in mind that battery capacity decreases over the life of the battery, or with temperature variations, etc. Also, equipment gets added over time, so if the system is built with marginal capacity (generator startup and RPM stabilization), then when you have an outage six months or a year after initial installation, the batteries may no longer be adequate.
Design with lots of margin, not just to load transfer time.
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Winter weather – power failures – what’s a good design?
In theory – in a perfect world – the backup batteries only need to last long enough for the generator(s) to start up and stabilize with the load of your choice. But, in the real world, the backup batteries should hold the system up in the following scenario:
1. Power goes out.
2. Batteries/UPS take the load.
3. Power failure alarm is issued to the technician on call.
4. Generator fails to start.
5. Generator failure alarm is issued to the technician on call.
6. The tech on call requests service from the generator maintenance contract company.
7. The generator company rolls a truck.
8. The generator service person identifies the problem, repairs it, and starts the generator.If continuous operation through a power failure is the goal, I design battery/UPS systems for a minimum six hours of run time, and if the generator company has to roll a truck that’s really not enough. Six hours is only enough if you have in-house technicians on call who live close to the monitored system.
If it’s impractical to support a system with the appropriate amount of battery capacity for a generator repair, then the solution is a second generator. If, and only if, the system is protected with a second generator, is it feasible to reduce the battery capacity. Keep in mind that battery capacity decreases over the life of the battery, or with temperature variations, etc. Also, equipment gets added over time, so if the system is built with marginal capacity (generator startup and RPM stabilization), then when you have an outage six months or a year after initial installation, the batteries may no longer be adequate.
Design with lots of margin, not just to load transfer time.
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A few months ago I discovered a law firm’s financial information (specifically billing and payment information), online. It’s a nationally known law firm, and the records in question were for the Seattle office.
Broken down by customer.
Itemized hourly billing.
Hourly billing rate.
Other expenses.
Customer account number.
Customer payment information, including bank account number.
Law firm’s bank account number.
Amounts paid.
Payment dates.
Balance due.
The information did NOT include details of the services provided.I found it entirely by accident, with a Google search that wasn’t targeted in nature.
No, I didn’t report it to the law firm. In Washington, “Good faith acquisition of personal information . . . is not a breach of the security of the system when the personal information is not used or subject to further unauthorized disclosure.” (RCW 19.255.005(1))
I believe that protects me, but I don’t want to test it in court, and if the law firm knew about it, they might feel compelled to take some sort of action other than securing their information better.THE LESSON
Do not store your company records, and host your website, on the same server. I can’t believe I have to write that sentence. -
A few months ago I discovered a law firm’s financial information (specifically billing and payment information), online. It’s a nationally known law firm, and the records in question were for the Seattle office.
Broken down by customer.
Itemized hourly billing.
Hourly billing rate.
Other expenses.
Customer account number.
Customer payment information, including bank account number.
Law firm’s bank account number.
Amounts paid.
Payment dates.
Balance due.
The information did NOT include details of the services provided.I found it entirely by accident, with a Google search that wasn’t targeted in nature.
No, I didn’t report it to the law firm. In Washington, “Good faith acquisition of personal information . . . is not a breach of the security of the system when the personal information is not used or subject to further unauthorized disclosure.” (RCW 19.255.005(1))
I believe that protects me, but I don’t want to test it in court, and if the law firm knew about it, they might feel compelled to take some sort of action other than securing their information better.THE LESSON
Do not store your company records, and host your website, on the same server. I can’t believe I have to write that sentence. -
Concerned about AI-generated malware bringing down your company? Then get your critical data off the Internet.
This isn't rocket science. This is Occam’s Razor.
The Internet is for social media and retail sales.
PII, PHI, employee records, customer information - nothing important should ever be Internet accessible.
Ever heard of private data circuits? Private data circuits are a real thing. People quit using them because the Internet was cheaper.
"It'll be secure," they said.
No. The Internet has never been secure. The Internet cannot ever be secure, because authenticated users will always be tricked into doing stuff for cybercriminals.
If there was ever a time to rethink your business strategy as it relates to information storage and processing, that time is now.
It's going to get worse quickly. Your best defense is to get sensitive data out of the public cloud.
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Concerned about AI-generated malware bringing down your company? Then get your critical data off the Internet.
This isn't rocket science. This is Occam’s Razor.
The Internet is for social media and retail sales.
PII, PHI, employee records, customer information - nothing important should ever be Internet accessible.
Ever heard of private data circuits? Private data circuits are a real thing. People quit using them because the Internet was cheaper.
"It'll be secure," they said.
No. The Internet has never been secure. The Internet cannot ever be secure, because authenticated users will always be tricked into doing stuff for cybercriminals.
If there was ever a time to rethink your business strategy as it relates to information storage and processing, that time is now.
It's going to get worse quickly. Your best defense is to get sensitive data out of the public cloud.
-
A lot of the work I do is in high security systems where sensitive data isn’t connected to the Internet, and isn’t hosted on commercial public cloud platforms, because such an architecture can’t meet the design criteria.
A recurring issue I face is educating new decision makers who get ill-informed notions that they can reduce costs (thereby becoming heroes, or so they think), by centralizing information storage or processing on rented commercial platforms. So I go through it all again, patiently, politely, with the new person.
The other recurring threat I deal with is C-level people who want what I refer to as Data Ubiquity: “I want access to all of the data, at any time, from any location, on any of my devices.”
Data Ubiquity = Maximum Vulnerability.
Even “perfect” authentication won’t prevent this vulnerability. Why? Phishing. The authenticated user will be tricked into opening the door for the cybercriminal.
When the data is in no way Internet connected, how does the victim deliver the data to the cybercriminal? Do they print it out and ship reams of paper in boxes to the criminal via FedEx?
Offline Data = More Secure Data.
The cloud is for retail sales and social media, NOT for PHI, PII, corporate secrets, intellectual property, employee records, industrial controls...
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A lot of the work I do is in high security systems where sensitive data isn’t connected to the Internet, and isn’t hosted on commercial public cloud platforms, because such an architecture can’t meet the design criteria.
A recurring issue I face is educating new decision makers who get ill-informed notions that they can reduce costs (thereby becoming heroes, or so they think), by centralizing information storage or processing on rented commercial platforms. So I go through it all again, patiently, politely, with the new person.
The other recurring threat I deal with is C-level people who want what I refer to as Data Ubiquity: “I want access to all of the data, at any time, from any location, on any of my devices.”
Data Ubiquity = Maximum Vulnerability.
Even “perfect” authentication won’t prevent this vulnerability. Why? Phishing. The authenticated user will be tricked into opening the door for the cybercriminal.
When the data is in no way Internet connected, how does the victim deliver the data to the cybercriminal? Do they print it out and ship reams of paper in boxes to the criminal via FedEx?
Offline Data = More Secure Data.
The cloud is for retail sales and social media, NOT for PHI, PII, corporate secrets, intellectual property, employee records, industrial controls...
-
This week I fixed a laptop for a client. It was the second time this client has had me do work for her. The first invoice was in 2016.
2016. It’s been nine years. Her husband isn’t in IT, but he’s a tech-savvy person, so he provides most of her tech support. But when he couldn’t resolve the issue, she still remembered me and came back to me for service in 2025.
That’s customer loyalty. Treat them right. They remember. They’ll come back.
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This week I fixed a laptop for a client. It was the second time this client has had me do work for her. The first invoice was in 2016.
2016. It’s been nine years. Her husband isn’t in IT, but he’s a tech-savvy person, so he provides most of her tech support. But when he couldn’t resolve the issue, she still remembered me and came back to me for service in 2025.
That’s customer loyalty. Treat them right. They remember. They’ll come back.
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This week I fixed a laptop for a client. It was the second time this client has had me do work for her. The first invoice was in 2016.
2016. It’s been nine years. Her husband isn’t in IT, but he’s a tech-savvy person, so he provides most of her tech support. But when he couldn’t resolve the issue, she still remembered me and came back to me for service in 2025.
That’s customer loyalty. Treat them right. They remember. They’ll come back.
-
This week I fixed a laptop for a client. It was the second time this client has had me do work for her. The first invoice was in 2016.
2016. It’s been nine years. Her husband isn’t in IT, but he’s a tech-savvy person, so he provides most of her tech support. But when he couldn’t resolve the issue, she still remembered me and came back to me for service in 2025.
That’s customer loyalty. Treat them right. They remember. They’ll come back.
-
This week I fixed a laptop for a client. It was the second time this client has had me do work for her. The first invoice was in 2016.
2016. It’s been nine years. Her husband isn’t in IT, but he’s a tech-savvy person, so he provides most of her tech support. But when he couldn’t resolve the issue, she still remembered me and came back to me for service in 2025.
That’s customer loyalty. Treat them right. They remember. They’ll come back.
-
“Bob, do I need a new iPad?”
The client complained that the iPad was slow. Pretty vague, but that’s okay. The client isn’t expected to know that there can be a lot of reasons for slowness.FIRST: What does “slow” mean?
1) “Slow” can mean the device itself is slow, for any one of several reasons. Usually it’s background tasks that are running and using up CPU clock cycles. But it can also be insufficient RAM, or even more rare conditions like internal or external RF interference affecting the CPU, or a failing component.
2) “Slow” can mean the Internet connection is slow. This can be caused by inadequate Wi-Fi signal, external RF interference affecting the 1st RF amplifier, or a problem with the ISP that could be just down the street or miles away.
3) “Slow” can mean the web server the iPad is connected to is having performance issues.SECOND: Narrow it down.
1) To see if the device itself is slow, try opening and using an app that doesn’t require an Internet connection at all. A good choice is to open Photos. Run a slideshow. Try local editing (not online, but something on the device like cropping or resizing). Play a local MP3, or start a local video. Not streaming. Be sure it’s on the device. If operation is normal, the device is fine.
2) To see if the Internet connection is slow, run a speed test. If the speed is good, it’s definitely not the ISP. But, be careful! If the speed is bad, it doesn’t prove the ISP is the problem. It could be a weak signal, interference, a bad antenna in the device... lots of reasons for slow Internet that are separate from the ISP. In the example picture, we can see that the ISP is not the problem. This Internet connection is rated at 500 down, 35 up, so the speeds are within normal range.
If the ISP is good, but the Internet connection is slow, rule out a weak signal by moving closer to the wireless access point. Rule out interference by testing from a different location: maybe a neighbor’s house, or a coffee shop. Also, if the speed test is bad, check the speed with some other devices. If the speed is only slow on the complainant’s device, it may be an internal problem.
3) To see if the web server is slow, first, ask the device owner: “Were you experiencing slowness while connected to a particular site?” Maybe they’re having a problem with a slow game, or with online shopping. Start by opening a connection to the web server and try it out. If it is indeed slow, try OTHER web servers. Maybe stream a video, or try a game by a different company, hosted on a different server. If the slowness is caused by a particular server, you’ll have clear evidence now.THIRD: Should I buy a new iPad?
If the device is slow (test #1), you may want to get a new device.
If the ISP is good and the signal is good on other devices, you may want to get a new device.
If the web server is slow, there’s no reason to get a new device. -
“Bob, do I need a new iPad?”
The client complained that the iPad was slow. Pretty vague, but that’s okay. The client isn’t expected to know that there can be a lot of reasons for slowness.FIRST: What does “slow” mean?
1) “Slow” can mean the device itself is slow, for any one of several reasons. Usually it’s background tasks that are running and using up CPU clock cycles. But it can also be insufficient RAM, or even more rare conditions like internal or external RF interference affecting the CPU, or a failing component.
2) “Slow” can mean the Internet connection is slow. This can be caused by inadequate Wi-Fi signal, external RF interference affecting the 1st RF amplifier, or a problem with the ISP that could be just down the street or miles away.
3) “Slow” can mean the web server the iPad is connected to is having performance issues.SECOND: Narrow it down.
1) To see if the device itself is slow, try opening and using an app that doesn’t require an Internet connection at all. A good choice is to open Photos. Run a slideshow. Try local editing (not online, but something on the device like cropping or resizing). Play a local MP3, or start a local video. Not streaming. Be sure it’s on the device. If operation is normal, the device is fine.
2) To see if the Internet connection is slow, run a speed test. If the speed is good, it’s definitely not the ISP. But, be careful! If the speed is bad, it doesn’t prove the ISP is the problem. It could be a weak signal, interference, a bad antenna in the device... lots of reasons for slow Internet that are separate from the ISP. In the example picture, we can see that the ISP is not the problem. This Internet connection is rated at 500 down, 35 up, so the speeds are within normal range.
If the ISP is good, but the Internet connection is slow, rule out a weak signal by moving closer to the wireless access point. Rule out interference by testing from a different location: maybe a neighbor’s house, or a coffee shop. Also, if the speed test is bad, check the speed with some other devices. If the speed is only slow on the complainant’s device, it may be an internal problem.
3) To see if the web server is slow, first, ask the device owner: “Were you experiencing slowness while connected to a particular site?” Maybe they’re having a problem with a slow game, or with online shopping. Start by opening a connection to the web server and try it out. If it is indeed slow, try OTHER web servers. Maybe stream a video, or try a game by a different company, hosted on a different server. If the slowness is caused by a particular server, you’ll have clear evidence now.THIRD: Should I buy a new iPad?
If the device is slow (test #1), you may want to get a new device.
If the ISP is good and the signal is good on other devices, you may want to get a new device.
If the web server is slow, there’s no reason to get a new device. -
“Bob, do I need a new iPad?”
The client complained that the iPad was slow. Pretty vague, but that’s okay. The client isn’t expected to know that there can be a lot of reasons for slowness.FIRST: What does “slow” mean?
1) “Slow” can mean the device itself is slow, for any one of several reasons. Usually it’s background tasks that are running and using up CPU clock cycles. But it can also be insufficient RAM, or even more rare conditions like internal or external RF interference affecting the CPU, or a failing component.
2) “Slow” can mean the Internet connection is slow. This can be caused by inadequate Wi-Fi signal, external RF interference affecting the 1st RF amplifier, or a problem with the ISP that could be just down the street or miles away.
3) “Slow” can mean the web server the iPad is connected to is having performance issues.SECOND: Narrow it down.
1) To see if the device itself is slow, try opening and using an app that doesn’t require an Internet connection at all. A good choice is to open Photos. Run a slideshow. Try local editing (not online, but something on the device like cropping or resizing). Play a local MP3, or start a local video. Not streaming. Be sure it’s on the device. If operation is normal, the device is fine.
2) To see if the Internet connection is slow, run a speed test. If the speed is good, it’s definitely not the ISP. But, be careful! If the speed is bad, it doesn’t prove the ISP is the problem. It could be a weak signal, interference, a bad antenna in the device... lots of reasons for slow Internet that are separate from the ISP. In the example picture, we can see that the ISP is not the problem. This Internet connection is rated at 500 down, 35 up, so the speeds are within normal range.
If the ISP is good, but the Internet connection is slow, rule out a weak signal by moving closer to the wireless access point. Rule out interference by testing from a different location: maybe a neighbor’s house, or a coffee shop. Also, if the speed test is bad, check the speed with some other devices. If the speed is only slow on the complainant’s device, it may be an internal problem.
3) To see if the web server is slow, first, ask the device owner: “Were you experiencing slowness while connected to a particular site?” Maybe they’re having a problem with a slow game, or with online shopping. Start by opening a connection to the web server and try it out. If it is indeed slow, try OTHER web servers. Maybe stream a video, or try a game by a different company, hosted on a different server. If the slowness is caused by a particular server, you’ll have clear evidence now.THIRD: Should I buy a new iPad?
If the device is slow (test #1), you may want to get a new device.
If the ISP is good and the signal is good on other devices, you may want to get a new device.
If the web server is slow, there’s no reason to get a new device. -
“Bob, do I need a new iPad?”
The client complained that the iPad was slow. Pretty vague, but that’s okay. The client isn’t expected to know that there can be a lot of reasons for slowness.FIRST: What does “slow” mean?
1) “Slow” can mean the device itself is slow, for any one of several reasons. Usually it’s background tasks that are running and using up CPU clock cycles. But it can also be insufficient RAM, or even more rare conditions like internal or external RF interference affecting the CPU, or a failing component.
2) “Slow” can mean the Internet connection is slow. This can be caused by inadequate Wi-Fi signal, external RF interference affecting the 1st RF amplifier, or a problem with the ISP that could be just down the street or miles away.
3) “Slow” can mean the web server the iPad is connected to is having performance issues.SECOND: Narrow it down.
1) To see if the device itself is slow, try opening and using an app that doesn’t require an Internet connection at all. A good choice is to open Photos. Run a slideshow. Try local editing (not online, but something on the device like cropping or resizing). Play a local MP3, or start a local video. Not streaming. Be sure it’s on the device. If operation is normal, the device is fine.
2) To see if the Internet connection is slow, run a speed test. If the speed is good, it’s definitely not the ISP. But, be careful! If the speed is bad, it doesn’t prove the ISP is the problem. It could be a weak signal, interference, a bad antenna in the device... lots of reasons for slow Internet that are separate from the ISP. In the example picture, we can see that the ISP is not the problem. This Internet connection is rated at 500 down, 35 up, so the speeds are within normal range.
If the ISP is good, but the Internet connection is slow, rule out a weak signal by moving closer to the wireless access point. Rule out interference by testing from a different location: maybe a neighbor’s house, or a coffee shop. Also, if the speed test is bad, check the speed with some other devices. If the speed is only slow on the complainant’s device, it may be an internal problem.
3) To see if the web server is slow, first, ask the device owner: “Were you experiencing slowness while connected to a particular site?” Maybe they’re having a problem with a slow game, or with online shopping. Start by opening a connection to the web server and try it out. If it is indeed slow, try OTHER web servers. Maybe stream a video, or try a game by a different company, hosted on a different server. If the slowness is caused by a particular server, you’ll have clear evidence now.THIRD: Should I buy a new iPad?
If the device is slow (test #1), you may want to get a new device.
If the ISP is good and the signal is good on other devices, you may want to get a new device.
If the web server is slow, there’s no reason to get a new device. -
“Bob, do I need a new iPad?”
The client complained that the iPad was slow. Pretty vague, but that’s okay. The client isn’t expected to know that there can be a lot of reasons for slowness.FIRST: What does “slow” mean?
1) “Slow” can mean the device itself is slow, for any one of several reasons. Usually it’s background tasks that are running and using up CPU clock cycles. But it can also be insufficient RAM, or even more rare conditions like internal or external RF interference affecting the CPU, or a failing component.
2) “Slow” can mean the Internet connection is slow. This can be caused by inadequate Wi-Fi signal, external RF interference affecting the 1st RF amplifier, or a problem with the ISP that could be just down the street or miles away.
3) “Slow” can mean the web server the iPad is connected to is having performance issues.SECOND: Narrow it down.
1) To see if the device itself is slow, try opening and using an app that doesn’t require an Internet connection at all. A good choice is to open Photos. Run a slideshow. Try local editing (not online, but something on the device like cropping or resizing). Play a local MP3, or start a local video. Not streaming. Be sure it’s on the device. If operation is normal, the device is fine.
2) To see if the Internet connection is slow, run a speed test. If the speed is good, it’s definitely not the ISP. But, be careful! If the speed is bad, it doesn’t prove the ISP is the problem. It could be a weak signal, interference, a bad antenna in the device... lots of reasons for slow Internet that are separate from the ISP. In the example picture, we can see that the ISP is not the problem. This Internet connection is rated at 500 down, 35 up, so the speeds are within normal range.
If the ISP is good, but the Internet connection is slow, rule out a weak signal by moving closer to the wireless access point. Rule out interference by testing from a different location: maybe a neighbor’s house, or a coffee shop. Also, if the speed test is bad, check the speed with some other devices. If the speed is only slow on the complainant’s device, it may be an internal problem.
3) To see if the web server is slow, first, ask the device owner: “Were you experiencing slowness while connected to a particular site?” Maybe they’re having a problem with a slow game, or with online shopping. Start by opening a connection to the web server and try it out. If it is indeed slow, try OTHER web servers. Maybe stream a video, or try a game by a different company, hosted on a different server. If the slowness is caused by a particular server, you’ll have clear evidence now.THIRD: Should I buy a new iPad?
If the device is slow (test #1), you may want to get a new device.
If the ISP is good and the signal is good on other devices, you may want to get a new device.
If the web server is slow, there’s no reason to get a new device. -
Sometimes in-person, on site work is better than doing remote maintenance. Story time...
The owner’s laptop was telling him it needed updates, and he’s not comfortable doing them on mission-critical software. I get it. I hadn’t been on site there in months, so I made arrangements to do the work in person rather than remotely. Last Thursday I was in his office, and I’m glad I was.
His laptop was ponderously slow on boot-up. I set up that machine a little over a year ago. It’s Windows 11 Pro, modern CPU, lots of RAM. It should be nimble. I called him back into his office and showed him that some of his programs wouldn’t work correctly until after he saw the “black flash” on the screen, which is a custom startup script.
While we’re watching the boot process, he said, “Can you stop Teams from opening every time I turn on the computer?” I said, “Sure.” Other things were opening, too, so I asked, “Is there anything else opening on startup that you don’t use or want?” He answered, “All of them. Nothing needs to open until I want it.”
He went on. “Even my browser opens on startup. I don’t know why.” I said, “Okay, you can go do other things for a while, and I’ll get these programs to stop.”
It turned out that the browser that was opening on startup was one I’ve never heard of, called Shift. Scam Detector rates Shift 42.2 out of a possible 100 points, and labels it “Controversial. Risky. Red Flags.” It looked a lot like any standard browser, but it opened on startup even after I removed its entry from the Startup folder. Also, the name of the entry in the startup folder was “ui,” not Shift. An obfuscated name is sketchy. To make it stop opening on startup I had to open the program and go to its preferences menu.
All of this made me want to check with the owner. I asked, “Is there a reason you started using the Shift browser?” He looked puzzled and said, “What’s that?” I showed him, and he thought it was just the latest tweaks to Microsoft Edge. He didn’t know how it got there. With his permission I uninstalled it. Between removing several startup apps and uninstalling a browser with suspicious behavior, his computer is back to full speed again.
THE LESSON
On site tech support is an important service offering. Most remote maintenance software doesn’t let you see the boot process, unless you’re working for a company large enough to have something like Dell’s iDRAC solution. Small businesses typically don’t have that. The advantages to on site support include:
1. Seeing things you wouldn’t otherwise notice, like boot processes.
2. Observing user behavior, which influences a lot of problems.
3. Solid relationship building, creating real trust. -
Sometimes in-person, on site work is better than doing remote maintenance. Story time...
The owner’s laptop was telling him it needed updates, and he’s not comfortable doing them on mission-critical software. I get it. I hadn’t been on site there in months, so I made arrangements to do the work in person rather than remotely. Last Thursday I was in his office, and I’m glad I was.
His laptop was ponderously slow on boot-up. I set up that machine a little over a year ago. It’s Windows 11 Pro, modern CPU, lots of RAM. It should be nimble. I called him back into his office and showed him that some of his programs wouldn’t work correctly until after he saw the “black flash” on the screen, which is a custom startup script.
While we’re watching the boot process, he said, “Can you stop Teams from opening every time I turn on the computer?” I said, “Sure.” Other things were opening, too, so I asked, “Is there anything else opening on startup that you don’t use or want?” He answered, “All of them. Nothing needs to open until I want it.”
He went on. “Even my browser opens on startup. I don’t know why.” I said, “Okay, you can go do other things for a while, and I’ll get these programs to stop.”
It turned out that the browser that was opening on startup was one I’ve never heard of, called Shift. Scam Detector rates Shift 42.2 out of a possible 100 points, and labels it “Controversial. Risky. Red Flags.” It looked a lot like any standard browser, but it opened on startup even after I removed its entry from the Startup folder. Also, the name of the entry in the startup folder was “ui,” not Shift. An obfuscated name is sketchy. To make it stop opening on startup I had to open the program and go to its preferences menu.
All of this made me want to check with the owner. I asked, “Is there a reason you started using the Shift browser?” He looked puzzled and said, “What’s that?” I showed him, and he thought it was just the latest tweaks to Microsoft Edge. He didn’t know how it got there. With his permission I uninstalled it. Between removing several startup apps and uninstalling a browser with suspicious behavior, his computer is back to full speed again.
THE LESSON
On site tech support is an important service offering. Most remote maintenance software doesn’t let you see the boot process, unless you’re working for a company large enough to have something like Dell’s iDRAC solution. Small businesses typically don’t have that. The advantages to on site support include:
1. Seeing things you wouldn’t otherwise notice, like boot processes.
2. Observing user behavior, which influences a lot of problems.
3. Solid relationship building, creating real trust.