VPN Error: This connection requires an active Internet Connection – Windows Vista
Posted by Dave Mellors | Filed under Fixes to problems, How To
- Windows Vista VPN Error
When I try to connect to VPN on my Vista PC I click on “Connect To” and the VPN connection has a cross next to it and an error that reads “This connection requires an active Internet Connection”. For ages I have just been using a workaround that involves going into “Manage Network Connections” and connecting from there instead but it was getting on my nerves and after about 15 minutes of trying I managed to resolve the problem for myself and I have to be honest involved some luck in finding a hidden menu bar.
Instructions:
-
Open the control panel
Hidden network menu bar and advanced settings dalog
-
Click Network and Internet, click Network and Sharing Center, and then click Manage network connections.
OR if you are using Classic View
Click Network and Sharing Center, and then click Manage network connections. -
Open the Organize menu option and select Layout and then menu bar (This was the hidden bit. Did you know there was a menu bar?).
- You should now see a menu bar with an Advanced menu item. Click on the Advanced Settings item from the Advanced menu.
- In the Adapters and Bindings tab make sure that Local Area Connection is at the top. The chances are if you have installed the Loopback Adapter or virtual machine software (Sun xVM Virtualbox in my case) then that adapter is the top one.
- Reboot PC and try again.
This post is on my blog to remind myself how I got around the problem but I would be really interested to hear if this worked for you or even if it didn’t as your experience might help others.
jZip – a free Winzip alternative/7-Zip with a nice GUI
Posted by Dave Mellors | Filed under Software
** WARNING **
I noticed today (7th July 2009) that the jZip installer seems to have changed and it is easy to get extra items such as the Yahoo toolbar installed and your web browser default page changed when you might not want it be. I still consider the application to be good but I do not appreciate the way the installer works so have removed the download link from this post.
In the past I have offered 7-Zip as an alternative to people but the user interface seems to put them off.
7-Zip is certainly an excellent compression tool but when offered the choice I think most people just want to quickly compress the file and aren’t actuallty worried if program A provides 10% better compression over program B. People feel more comfortable with WinZip and so 7-Zip is often put to one side.
jZip GUI
Today, I installed a program called jZip which they claim is based on 7-Zip technology but it has a nicer GUI. jZip can create and extract from zip, tar, gzip and 7zip file formats and I like the ability to extract from RAR and ISO formats as well (I now don’t need to install an ISO reader). Licensing is really simple – it’s free (they have stated they would like to keep it free) and there is only one version (no jZip Pro, jZip enterprise or jZip Express versions!) so for the majority of people I deal with there is no longer any reason to use WinZip.
European SharePoint Best Practices Conference
Posted by Dave Mellors | Filed under SharePoint
Last week I attended the European SharePoint Best Practices Conference in London and was really impressed with the quality of the speakers, the venue and the amazing amount of organizaton that must have gone into putting the conference on. Well done Combined Knowledge and everyone else involved – I certainly hope to be back for the next one.
I plan to write some posts based on notes I took during the conference. These are mainly to help me remember things but I hope that they might be of interest to you as well. I will start with the Keynote presentation…
The keynote presentation was given by SharePoint Joel and it was a good effort involving a Monty Python “killer bunny” and some good points about how to achieve SharePoint success. Joel described SharePoint as hot plastic where you need to plan your mold because once set making changes to SharePoint isn’t going to be easy and I think it is fair to use this for describing SharePoint Infrastructure (aaargh! the frustration!!!) but I don’t think it is a good description for SharePoint itself which I would consider to be far more flexible. If I had to make a criticism of Joels keynote I would say it would be that he focused too much on a “traditional IT” view of Sharepoint rather than the benefits of SharePoint technology.
The importance of a good installer
Posted by Dave Mellors | Filed under Software Development
Years ago I used to get all the computer magazines and install all the applications on the cover disk but I no longer buy computer magazines and instead spend half my life installing applications found on the Internet and then the rest of my life is divided between trying to get the applications to work or uninstalling them!
Is this a good installer?
OK, maybe I am exaggerating a little but it is interesting to note how the installer effects my opinion not only of the software but also of the software company. The ease of using an installer will also significantly effect some but not all of my purchasing decisions. The effect of an installer varies depending on the size of the problem the software is required for. If for example it’s a matter of convenience then battling with an installer just isn’t worth it and if the market is saturated with alternatives to your product then your duff instaler will only encourage me to try one of your competitors products. On the other hand if I am evaluating “enterprise” solutions then I might fight with the installer for longer as the potential benefits of using the software will hopefully outweigh the time spent installing.
I can’t understand why someone goes to all the trouble of writing good software but makes it so hard to try it to see if it meets my needs. Some of the common problems I find with installers are:-
Read the rest of this entry…
Tags: Add new tag, Opinion
Light or faint color text on black and white HP LaserJet
Posted by Dave Mellors | Filed under Fixes to problems
The nearest printer to my desk is a HP LaserJet 4050 and whenever I print coloured text I find that the printer prints the colored text too light. At first I thought the problem might be because I am using Vista x64 (I still accuse x64 first but it’s rarely the problem!) and anyway my manager has the same issue and he isn’t using Vista.
It appears that the reason I experience the problem now and not before is because I am using Microsoft Office Word 2007 which uses color in it’s templates. I tried telling the printer driver to print color text as black but it still didn’t make any difference.
In the end I reverted to the HP Universal PCL5/e driver and now everything prints as I had expected. So if you have the same problem try downloading and using the PCL 5 driver from the HP website.
If like me you weren’t sure if you would miss anything by going back to PCL5 you can read more at Wikipedia PCL entry and also PCL 3 and PCL 5/6 Features and Differences from HP.
Video of Jason Fried's talk at Business of Software 2008
Posted by Dave Mellors | Filed under Business of software
Jason Fried talking at Business of Software 2008
Neil has posted Jason Fried’s talk from the Business of Software 2008 online and I recommend you take a look.
It would be easy to be inspired by Jasons talk and think you could just replicate his approach and create your own successfull business but one of the things that the video highlighted for me was that whilst books, videos and courses can teach you lots of things about how to run a company it is important to define your own business flavour and not just copy the approach of others. I don’t totally believe in the 37signals approach, I don’t neccessarily have the same objectives and his approach is very specific to the people that they employ so it wouldn’t make sense for me to take his ideas and use them for my own business and although I might get away with it for a while eventually the truth would catch up with me and the business would get very messy.
The video is very watchable, full of helpful ideas and it was interesting to hear how things work at 37signals – go watch it now!
Video: Jason Fried of 37signals speaking at Business of Software 2008
Tags: Business of software, video
New design, new blog software and apologies
Posted by Dave Mellors | Filed under General
There have been a lot of changes for me in the past year and this has meant that this blog hasn’t been as active as I would have liked but this is hopefully going to change so…
I have migrated from Community Server 2007 to WordPress and took the opportunity to clear up the messy design and perform some housekeeping. Unfortunately, the migration was completely smooth and so some of the comments are coming from a user called http:// so apologies to anyone effected by this but hopefully the new design is more readable.
Example: Updating a remote customer database schema
Posted by Dave Mellors | Filed under Software Development
Overview
A common use of the Red Gate SQL Comparison SDK is to package up the latest version of a database schema and send it to customers as an executable.
This example demonstrates how easy it is to use the SDK to do this.
NOTE: SQL Comparison SDK is to be the new name for SQL Toolkit
Tags: .net, Red Gate Software, SQL Comparison SDK
Microsoft VHD administrator password
Posted by Dave Mellors | Filed under Fixes to problems
Ha! I just spent the last ten minutes trying to get into a microsoft VHD. The administrator password is contained in the readme file but I just couldn’t get it to work!
Eventually, it dawned on me… keyboard layout!!! The password was pass@word1 and because I am in the UK it was coming out as pass”word1 but of course as it was a password textbox I couldn’t see that.
Tags: Virtual PC, Virtual Server
SQL Toolkit introduction
Posted by Dave Mellors | Filed under Software Development
In my last post I talked about writing an example application using the Red Gate SQL Toolkit but it occurred to me that I ought to mention a bit more about what SQL Toolkit is and what it can be used for.
Tags: .net, Red Gate Software, SQL Comparison SDK, SQL Server
