Limbtec Technical Blog

Bluetooth

2008-04-27T08:39:00.004+01:00

At the start of the April I upgraded my trusty O2 Orbit to th Orbit2.

At firsy it was a great phone, however over a period of a couple of weeks, the Bluetooth performance steadily got worse, unitl it was useless.

I phoned O2 and was sent a replacement handset. And yet again the Bluetooth headset didn't work. So I tired the headset on another phone and it worked, so I tried another headset on the Orbit2 and it didn't work. Phone O2 and was sent another phone.
The frist Issue I have with O2 service is here. Before you can change handsets to another model you have to have had 3 handsets. Sorry if it doesn't work on 2 it is unlikely to work on the 3rd.

So the 3rd came and it to didn't work, phone call to O2 and was asked what handset I wanted. Simple something that has a working Bluetooth connection, and was a windows mobile 6 handset.

I was sent an Argon, which is Windows Mobile 5, and O2 don't have an upgrade to Mobile 6. On top of this the phone is more like a Brick than a phone.

So I am keeping my Obrit2, and will revert to my Orbit. Until O2, (or HTC the company that make the phone) bring out a patch or I can find a Bluetooth headset which works.

Why can't O2 produce a list of compatible headsets that have been tested?
Why 3 hand sets, 2 would be better, but then why not 4.

This has cost me a lot of time and money. Something I won't be repeating, and so I have told O2 when my contract expires I will be off to pastures new. Why are old customers treated worse than new ones.

If we all changed providers, each year perhaps the roviders would look to give their customers a better deal.

Busy week

2008-04-11T18:18:00.002+01:00

What a busy week! Well a busy couple of weeks.
We've been installing new computers, network equipment and printers.

We have also had some major issues, with Line Of Business applications running on windows Vista. This is in all honestly the first major issue we have had with Vista, and in this case we wouldn't had recommended these computers to the customer.

We have also been completing the migration of our online back up customers to our new platform, a job which was completed this afternoon. It still amazes me that so many businesses don't backup. What will happen when you suffer from a data loss? It will happen at some time.

Also we are seeing our hosted anti-spam solution take off, we have recently had a customer who on one email address was receiving over 6000 emails a day of which about 20 were good emails the other 5980 or so were spam.

Also saw our first data recovery which we could not recover any data from. The hard drive was totally trashed, still at least the owner was understanding.

Apologies

2007-12-29T16:44:00.000Z

Sorry I haven't posted for (well 6 months), we have been busy (very). Just before the last post we had moved, and since then due to growth of the company we have moved again (Back in November)

This time we have not only got a nice shiny office, but a workshop. We are also now able to carry out data recovery, and all repairs in our fully equipped workshop.

OK enough of us, what are we seeing a lot of. In short infections on computers that have limewire installed and have teenagers using the computer. One such computer had over 10,000 infections, and had to be reformatted and everything re-installed.

I don't make new year resolutions, we never keep them, but I do hope to post more often. And keep an eye (or an ear out) as I want to start a podcast next year.

Windows Vista & Windows Mobile

2007-06-23T20:30:00.000+01:00

So you have a nice shiney new computer with Windows Vista. You also have a Windows Mobile device, how do you get them talking.

You will need to download and install Microsoft Windows Mobile Device Center 6 for Windows Vista
You may also need to open TCP port 5721 to allow the device to sync.

Then it should all work.

Mac and Linux Support

2007-05-28T20:01:00.000+01:00

OK I know it's been a while since I posted last, just been a little busy with business.

We have made a decision recently to add support of Mac's and Linux to our portfolio. We have already gained several new customer who run Mac's.

We have also extended the area we cover, to include Devon, Cornwall, and parts of Somerset. Our next change will be our long awaited move to the Airport Business Centre, along with changes to our websites.

Been Busy

2007-04-23T19:52:00.000+01:00

I haven't posted much recently, been busy.

I am a member of the FSB Plymouth Branch Committee, and we have launched a new website
http://www.fsb-plymouth.org.uk.

Why not visit it, sign up. We the committee, hope this site will grow into a very useful resource for small businesses in the Plymouth area.

Wireless Routers / Access Points

2007-04-18T08:36:00.000+01:00

Did you know that if your wireless connection is not secure, that if somebody uses your bandwidth for some unsavoury task, it is you that is responsible for it!

West Mercia Police are currently on a crack down on this, I'm sure other police forces will act similarly.

It's simple just secure the wireless connection. Details will be in the manual, if it isn't or you can manage it yourself then why not contact a local IT company to come and do this for you.

It is also worth noting that you should change the default password on the admin account for your router.

Ofcom - are they affective????

2007-03-25T16:48:00.000+01:00

OK I have 2 issues with Ofcom guidance,
The first is in getting PAC's
I want to change my mobile provider (please don't contact us we have a deal all sorted)
However I contact Vodafone on Tursday afters (about 3 PM) to get a PAC (Porting Authorisation code) Friday just past noon, I got phone call from Vodafone wanting to know what they could do to get me to stay. Well you could give me what I have asked for, the change of the 2 handsets, and the new more expensive tarriff. At this point I will let you know that it isn't that they won't let me have the handset I want but the want me to pay £128 for it now, this is down from £300 in January for it.

As mentioned at £128 for 1 handset and the second lower spec at about £30 It old them I wasn't interested, my new provider is giving me these for FREE.

It then took them another day to progress the PAC request. Guidance from the Ofcom website say that the pac should be able to be given within 48 hours of request (it does say this id during working days) However it took them 48 hours from my request to request the code. Apparently I will get a phone call from them tomorrow mornig with the codes (I'm not holding my breath here)

The second case is a MAC for Broadband change. This is for a customer as we resell, and this is our last account to move over to the new supplier. They had a request for a MAC and did not action it until the invoice was raised on this connection. Even though the guidance on this says they can't hold back they are. I will post more on this once it is resolved, but as I am complaining tomorrow to Ofcom I don't want to add to much more here.

Microsoft Office Live

2007-03-05T14:20:00.000Z

Are you a small business, or thinking of starting a business.
have a look at Microsoft's office live.

Depending on what you want, this could even be free. You get a free domain name, and you will then have a business looking email address.

I always get worried when I see a new business, with a hotmail or gmail address. Even worse when it is an established business.

We are currently working on plans on how we can support businesses using Office Live.

If you want to give it a try (currently free as it is in Beta) but want to have some back up, sign up and contact us we will come and see you and give you free support for the short term whilst we develop our offerings around Office Live.

On Line Petitions

2007-02-20T13:24:00.000Z

OK, it's been all over the TV the on line petition against road charging

There are a whole host of serious petitions, but there are some that are just so stupid.
How about signing the following
Remove station ID logo's from all TV channels - annoying but how do you know which channel you are looking at!!
Stop Roadworks In lowestfoft - OK road works are annoying, but they are sometimes a necessary evil!!
Ban Glass from Bus Shelters - The buses around here don't stop unless they see you at the bus shelter!!
And if you want a good laugh check out the rejected petitions, and yes there are petitions to stop petitions being rejected.

VAT On-Line

2007-02-15T15:26:00.000Z

I'm fuming mad!!

History - my VAT return is due, no big fuss here it happens to all registered businesses. I have been paying on line for a while now. However they have stopped sending out the paper copies.

Today - I now haven't had a prompt to supply my return, (no paper copies remember) and today 15th of February is the first day I have had a chance to compile the figures!

So go to log on to submit the return, and then start 40 minutes of frustration. Eventually ending with a message telling me that the system isn't currently available complete with a link to a page where I can check the status of services. Except on this page the Evat service is fully available.

My problem is that when will the system be up and running. No good emailing them they have a 15 working day response time (3 weeks) my return is due in 2. What happens if they can't get the service up and running!!!

Another example of bad use of technology by our government.

What's next

2007-02-06T18:28:00.000Z

OK not strictly technical, but thought I would share this publicly.

We have been approached by several local IT companies recently wanting to purchase our company.

Why have i decided to share this. Well firstly just to make sure there aren't too much confusion. And secondly to reassure our customers.

I rejected both bids without any thought for 2 reasons
Firstly we are a family run company and for the foreseeable future this will continue, and secondly we focus on quality and not quantity. I'm not saying the companies involved do a bad job, but to extend their business they are looking for quantity and I firmly believe that quality will suffer.

We will be growing this year. But we are still weighing up our options. However we decide to grow we will not let quality suffer, and indeed will actually be looking to improve quality by growth.

I will be keeping you posted on this first here on the blog.

Happy with Vista at last

2007-02-02T11:55:00.000Z

People who have read past blog entries here and maybe on other Message Boards will know how unhappy I have been with Vista, since I started playing with it what now seems a long time ago (July 2006)

It nice to see that many of the things I have complained about the most have now had work done on them to make them work how they should.

I'm still not sure when clients will start rolling this out, I am still fairly certain it is going to be when they upgrade hardware.

But even though I have had the release product running on my Laptop for over a month now, I still used to boot into Windows XP. This has been for 1 reason only, my Vodafone 3G Data card would not work.

This morning Vista told me that there was a fix for this, so off i went and downloaded the new software. I now have a working solution.

And the new software also seems to be worth the wait.

Don't just take my word for it, download it and use it if this has caused you problems.

Bad Ecommerce

2007-01-19T16:40:00.000Z

Just completed our on line shopping at ASDA, logged in and reserved by delivery slot.

Completed the shopping, but my slot had vanished, it's not before the cut of deadline of 5PM, and I haven't gone over the 3 hour limit, I only takes us about 20 minutes to shop!

So what went wrong??

I don't know, but if anyone from ASDA on line shop reads this perhaps they might wish to comment.

Law forces email update

2007-01-11T09:48:00.000Z

On the 1/1/07 an amendment to the companies act was introduced. It requires more information to be disclosed in electronic documents.
All Companies are now required to list its

Company Registration number
Place of Registration
Registered office address

On its

Website
Order forms
Other electroninc business letters

The advice is to automatically include the appropriate information on all emails and other external electronic documents to remove potential problems.

Note : the above has been taken from an article in IT Week (8/1/07)

Vista

2006-12-04T19:37:00.000Z

Well, Vista was released to business last week. If you want to upgrade talk to us.

We are currently working on sorting out some demo evenings for early next year, more details will be published later.

Any system we ship from now and the release of Vista to the public will include a voucher to upgrade from windows XP to Windows Vista.

Clean that SPAM

2006-11-28T19:16:00.000Z

Well we have been busy building the website for out anti-spam/anti-virus email solution.
Although you can't yet sign up on line we have created a website where you can see what it is, and how much it will cost you.

We choose to use a CMS for this site, and thought we would give Joomla a try. Partly because a customer uses it for their website, and partly just to check out how quickly we could build a useful site. It took just a couple of days to get most of the site done, and most of the work was finished within 7 days. All we have to do is to add keywords to the pages. If you want a site which includes management then give it a go. There are many add-ins, and templates, with a lot of them being free.

NO Hi-Tec here

2006-11-10T12:26:00.000Z

OK, a post not about good use of technology but bad use, and bad customer service.
Not from us, but The Royal Mail.

We did not receive any post yesterday, and a late post today. So I phoned up to complain, I have payments due so always watch carefully.

It started out OK, then I got told that the post bag for our address was stolen. OK this happens, so I asked why were we not told about it. We don't have the means to do that.

OK lets examine this -

They have the technology to know within seconds of having our postcode that the bag was stolen, and they deliver mail to the door, they have a website, but they can't tell customers that they may or may not have had mail stolen!

They have computers, and so have the possability to have a short template letter explaining that they have had a bag stolen, it contain mail for this area which may or might not be for you. If you are expecting mail and it hasn't been delivered please contact.....
They have the method of delivery as well, instead of posting the mail the batch of letters could be printed and delivered to the postie within what 30 minutes, and the postie could deliver these instead of the post that has been stolen.

The website could have a simple search put your postcode in and get a webpage with similar content to the letter.

Not difficult to do, or implement. However when I pressed for an answer on how they were contacting their customers about this, I was told I was getting rude and that he was going to terminate the call.

Just because I wanted to know what they were doing to inform their customers!!!!!

Come on the royal mail get your act sorted now, I'm off to print some letters that say our post was stolen please call 08457740740 and aske where it is why it wasn't delivered and why the royal mail didn't contact us to inform us of this.

Microsoft finally reach the end of development

2006-11-09T20:01:00.000Z

Finally at last after 5 years windows Vista has reach the next milestone, the code is gold and has been released to manufacturing. Microsoft Office system 2007 ( I hope I have that the right way round has also reached the same milestone. With Exchange 2007 expected to reach the same stage in the next couple of weeks EVO (Exchange, Vista, and Office) will be ready for the Launch at the end of this month.

PC World are they really that bad???

2006-11-09T19:46:00.000Z

Well firstly today will be a blog fest from me, mainly because I have had plenty of time to think about things.

PC World are rubbish, well according to a which report. Most people must have heard about this by now, I have been in presnetations and meetings all day, but still have heard about this from several sources.

Now for the advert - Did you know we have a home user service for those in the Plymouth area.
Instead of carting your PC to a shop, why not let us look at it in your home. Should it need replacement parts that we don't carry we can take your PC back to the workshop to be repaired.

Cheap Computers - Cheap components

2006-11-03T20:27:00.000Z

What do you actually save by getting a system £10 - £20 cheaper than one down the road?

Well you probably don't save anything. You are probably storing up problems for the future.

Often we are asked to upgrade systems, only to find problems because of cheap MainBoards, lack of power in the cheap power supply. The list is endless do yourself a favour get a good system from the outset. Why not get a BUYGUARD system. Purchased locally by local computer specialists, but one which carries a national Guarentee.

EVO Launch

2006-11-02T20:20:00.000Z

Microsoft have announced that Exchange 2007, Windows Vista, and Office 2007 will be launched for business licensing on the 30th November in New York. The Consumer Launch will be in January (expect it to be right at the end) Place to be announced.

Email Virus - WARNING

2006-10-21T13:23:00.000+01:00

I have just received the following email

Mail server report.

Our firewall determined the e-mails containing worm copies are being sent from your computer.

Nowadays it happens from many computers, because this is a new virus type (Network Worms).

Using the new bug in the Windows, these viruses infect the computer untouchable.
After the penetrating into the computer the virus harvests all the e-mail addresses and sends the copies of itself to these e-mail addresses

Please install updates for worm elimination and your computer restoring.

Best regards,
Customers support service

It included an attachment which is trying to mimic a Microsoft update. Mine was called Update - KB1830-x186.zip containing an exe file.

MS normal have 6 digits in their KB articles. Just don't open it.

Broadband Providers

2006-10-20T15:51:00.001+01:00

For once I can report BT are finally getting to the bottom of this issue, and hopefully next week this will be fixed.

Current bad boys in the BB providers market has to be talktalk.

Customer has been without BB since their go live date (last month) . I spoke to technical support today, and it is apparent they don't know their market.

I told them that the DSL carrier is not establishing a connection, only to be told well this is ADSL.

I then tried to explain what it was, but was greeted by we don't support routers. I then told them we had no choice in this as the customer had still not received their welcome pack.

do you want us to make a note of this fact' - No I want you to rectify this.

Well as one disaster is solved another one opens up.

Broadband Providers

2006-10-20T15:51:00.000+01:00