Continue reading »]]> As you may have noticed, I’ve recently moved GEEK! to a brand new VPS – which, hopefully, will massively improve the uptime and performance of the site in the long run. It’s a little too early to tell, but now most of the trial bugs are ironed out, improvements should start to be seen soon.

However, by moving my site (and all other sites I run) to a VPS, I have had to make some sacrifices. The key sacrifice on my end has been cPanel – which I’ve used ever since I started working with web servers. I love cPanel – it’s generally very reliable and controls most of the functions I would ever want. But now, as I’m slowly getting more experienced with the way web servers work, I thought it would be a good time to move on to something a little more advanced (and, as a result, cheaper). I was recommended to ISPConfig – a free and open source control panel for web servers running on Linux. And after a slow start, I seem to be getting the hang of it.

The one thing that really did get to me for a while was the poor performance of the spam filter built into ISPConfig. ISPConfig relies on SpamAssassin – which is, when configured correctly, a very powerful spam filter. But for some reason, it just wasn’t working on my installation of ISPConfig. Spam would get through and it can get seriously frustrating!

Thankfully I now have it cracked – and wanted to share the configuration I chose for ISPConfig and SpamAssassin. I think the correct settings vary from person to person – but if you want general spam filtering, this should show you how to get it.

Instructions

First of all, make sure a ‘spamfilter’ policy is active both for the email domain you’re using and for each email mailbox. I chose the Uncensored policy in my case – but different rules apply to each setting. I found Uncensored to be most effective, but simply choosing this won’t make it work properly.

Once you’re happy that it’s supposedly on, you need to modify the rules for the policy you chose. Head to the ‘Email’ tab, and then from the left menu select ‘Policy’ under the ‘Spamfilter’ section (see screenshot that follows).

Select the policy you’re working with by simply clicking on it. Then select the ‘Tag-Level’ tab. This is where you set how sensitive SpamAssassin actually is. I found that the first three settings needed to be set as the following:

SPAM tag level: 3
SPAM tag2 level: 3.4
SPAM kill level: 5

The other settings requiring a number can be left alone. However, to make SPAM easier to separate, I’d suggest you turn on ‘SPAM modifies subject’ and choose a tag you’d like to add to SPAM emails. Here’s what the page might look like when you’re done (see screenshot that follows). 

Hit ‘Save’ and it’s a good’en. If you also want to move SPAM email to a seperate Junk folder, you can do so by going to the ‘Email Mailbox’ page from the left menu, then selecting your email account and clicking the ‘Mail Filter’ tab. Simply tick the ‘Move Spam Emails to Junk directory’ checkbox and dodgy email will be moved.

Hopefully that should get you going and stop infuriating SPAM emails reaching your inbox.

Continue reading »]]> You may well have got yourself a brand new phone this Christmas, which is always a nice present now-a-days. I, myself, got a brand new HTC Sensation XE for Christmas (technically it was an early Christmas present – or at least part of it was!) – which I adore.

But it does beg the question, what happens to the old phone? Mine always seem to end up sitting in boxes until they’re no use to anyone at all. This time I thought I’d sent it off to a recycling company. There’s method in the madness – people will pay you to recycle your old phone, but you have to be careful when you do so. So here are some top tips for recycling your old phone:

• Shop around – find the best price. You’d normally see that phrase when buying a gadget, but it does also applying to selling gadgets too. Just because a phone recycling company advertises on TV, doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll give you the best price. In fact, there’s actually quite a lot of mobile phone recycling companies around – so you’re more than likely to find a better price if you do some hunting. Take a look at sellmymobile.com - just type in your make/model and it’ll do the rest for you.
• Check the price you’re getting is consistent. Make sure you read the terms & conditions carefully when you’re selling the phone. Some buyers will only offer you a certain payment within a number of days – after which point they can lower that offer by a substantial amount. Also make sure that you’re not under any contractual obligation – it’s your phone,  you can change your mind if you want.
• Make sure you’ve backed up anything you want to keep… If you want to keep anything (like camera shots, contacts or messages), make sure you’ve got a copy safely stored on your computer or on another phone. Once you’ve sent off your phone, you may not get it back (and if you do, it may well have been flashed to remove all content). Most recent phones include software to back up content on your phone – so make use of it!
• …and deleted anything you don’t want to keep. Make sure to ‘restore factory settings’ on the phone before handing it over. You don’t want any of your personal details (or friends’ personal details) to end up in someone else’s hands. Restoring factory settings will put the phone back to how it was when you first got it, and should delete any content that was once there.
• Remove any accessories that you aren’t required to hand over. As already mentioned, you may not get your phone back – even if you request it. So make sure you remove any accessories you don’t have to hand over (perhaps accessories that you bought yourself) like memory cards, cases and spare batteries. Memory cards may well come in handy on new phones, and if not they’re a handy portable storage medium.

There you have it. Five tips to make the most of phone recycling companies. It’s debatable as to whether you’re better off auctioning your phones on sites like eBay – but if you just can’t be bothered with the hassle, you’re quickest way to get some cash is to hand it over to one of these companies. Just make sure you’re not being ripped off!

Continue reading »]]> Ever since I bought my Samsung N145 (which I love), I’ve always been annoyed with the problem that the built in wireless adapter rarely picks up Wireless N (802.11n) at 150Mbit/s. Instead, it usually picks it up at 65Mbit/s, which can often be annoying when transferring large files over a network.

However, Microsoft released a driver update (via Windows Update) in late August 2011 which seems to have resolved the problem.

It’ll be listed as an optional update in Windows Update. Unfortunately, Microsoft have provided no direct link to download manually. However, I can tell you that the driver ID is 20442151.

Download the update, install, and with any luck the problem should be solved immediately.

Continue reading »]]>

I’d heard about QR codes in the past – otherwise known as quick reference codes – but only recently have I realised how useful they are. Basically, they’re the next step forward from bar codes.

A square image holds many pixels, which a programmed reader can recognise and decode. A simple idea – but very handy.

You may have started noticing them in advertisements and on posters. The idea is that you scan it with your smartphone or other reader, and your device will instantly decode it and provide you with whatever information you requested.

Any one QR code can hold a whole host of information such as URLs, contact cards, texts, wi-fi network details, geo-locations – the list goes on!

I’ve now trimmed up the twitter feed with a QR code for this site – seems like a no-brainer to me. There are loads of online QR code generators – such as this one - so why not stick one on your site?

Continue reading »]]> Recently, I’ve come across an annoying problem in Windows 7. There seems to be a service, named PresentationFontCache.exe, that hogs CPU power for an extended period of time – which can be extremely annoying when playing games or using CPU-intensive applications.

From research, the service seems to be part of the ‘Windows Presentation Foundation service’ and doesn’t appear to be anything harmful – just a nuisance. It would be a bad idea to kill the service permanently as it is quite important (although many have resorted to killing it without major issues), however there is a good fix which I’ve come across.

To fix the problem, we simply need to remove the cache that it creates.

Head to C:\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\AppData\Local (it won’t show up in Windows Explorer – you’ll need to manually navigate to it). Now in this directory you should see up to three files – named as follows:

• FontCache3.0.0.0
• FontCache-System
• FontCache-S-xxxxxx….

If you delete the file FontCache3.0.0.0 whilst the PresentationFontCache.exe service is killed (kill it from Task Manager), it should resolve your problem. I actually removed all three files and it hasn’t done any damage, but I’m relatively sure you only need to remove FontCache3.0.0.0. Apparently, in some cases, the file may be called FontCache4.0.0.0 – in which case remove that file. 

Once that’s done, reboot your computer and all should be resolved!

Continue reading »]]> Nokia Ovi Suite has never been my favourite piece of software, but unfortunately I have to use it for my trusty mobile (Nokia 5230) which I still love after nearly 18 months of owning it.

If you’re running Ovi Suite on a netbook running a resolution of 1024×600, you may notice that Ovi Suite never opens properly. You have to manually tell it to maximize by doing ALT+SPACE and clicking maximize – otherwise you don’t see all options.

You can easily force Ovi Suite to maximize on launch if you’d prefer it to do so.

Simply find your Nokia Ovi Suite shortcut (probably on the Desktop or in the Start Menu), right-click it and click Properties. On the Shortcut tab, change the ‘Run:’ setting to Maximized (as shown above) and click OK. From now on, whenever you run Ovi Suite from that shortcut, it will automatically start maximized.

Continue reading »]]> If you own the popular rail simulator RailWorks, you might be interested in this guide which shows you how to run the controls from an Xbox 360 controller.

By default, you play RailWorks with a keyboard and mouse. Whilst this is relatively playable, it does seem to get boring and tiresome after a while – so I investigated using other methods to control the game. I happen to own an Xbox 360 controller for Windows (as I use it for Test Drive Unlimited 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV) and thought it would be good to get it going with RailWorks.

To do this, I got hold of a handy piece of software called Xpadder. Newer versions seem to require a small purchase to pay for the product (bizarrely older versions are free and there are plenty of downloads for those on the internet – but you may need to run the program in compatibility mode as Windows XP if you’re using Windows 7). Nevertheless, it’s a small price to pay!

When you’ve downloaded and installed Xmapper, you can download the profile that I’ve created for RailWorks (see below). If you haven’t previously set up an Xbox 360 controller with Xpadder, you may want to import the controller files too (see below). Simply import the profile into Xpadder and you’re done.

Once it’s up and running, start up RailWorks. You should be able control the game using the controls below:

CONTROLS BUILD 1.0 – RAILWORKS (XPADDER)

• Left analogue stick and D pad both control acceleration of train (up for increase acceleration, down for decrease acceleration). Tap the left analogue stick to raise/lower pantograph (electric trains only).
• Right analogue stick controls brakes.
• A – train door release
• B – windscreen wiper switch
• X – horn
• Y – emergency brakes
• LT – Increase reverser (for forward)
• RT – Decrease reverser (for backward)
• START button – pause game
• SELECT/BACK button – start/stop engine
• LB – Alerter reset
• RB – Request permission to pass signal at danger

Known issues:

• If you request permission to pass red signal, you are forced to close a dialog box with the mouse (not much can be done about this).

> Download the Xbox 360 controller configuration for Xpadder

> Download the RailWorks profile

Obviously, this is a work in progress. In future, I’ll update the profile to provide new functions.

Important: When you’ve finished playing RailWorks, you’ll need to disable Xpadder from the notification area – otherwise your controller will conflict with other programs and games and you’ll start getting unwanted keystrokes!

Enjoy – leave a comment and let me know how you get on!

Continue reading »]]> Not many of us use dial-up internet connections any more – gone are the days where we had to rely on internet connections that had a typical download speed of 4-8KB/s. Now we have speedy broadband with it’s always-on convenience and wireless capabilities.

However, some of us do rely on mobile broadband “dongles” or mobile phone internet connections to get online when we’re out and about. These can be fantastic, but if it’s set up as a dial up connection in Windows it can prove a nightmare.

If a connection isn’t currently available, Windows is (by default) set to repeatedly ask to dial the best available connection. This has been an issue since very early versions of Windows and Microsoft have never really solved it since.

If a box similar to this one frequently appears whenever an application tries to access the internet, here’s how to solve it.

Open up Internet Explorer (the dreaded) and find Internet Options. You’ll find this under the settings button of the latest version of Internet Explorer. When you’ve got Internet Options up, click the Connections tab.

Under the Connections tab, look at the selection buttons above “Local Area Network (LAN) settings”. Internet Explorer probably has selected on your computer “Dial whenever a network connection is not present”. Change that to “Never dial a connection” and click OK. Close any existing connection requests (you may well get a few more before they stop) and eventually you’ll stop getting asked to connect.

From now on, you won’t be pestered and will only connect to a dial-up connection at your request.

Continue reading »]]> This is an issue that seriously irritated me for some time. I could run iTunes absolutely fine on both my Desktop PC and my netbook, but on both, as soon as I closed iTunes it would automatically reopen itself again.

It might repeat this process three or four times before it actually stopped reopening. I was beginning to think it was Apple ignoring a bug in the software, but I think I’ve found the problem.

If you regularly use Windows Live Messenger on your desktop machine, try this solution.

Go to Windows Live Messenger, click your profile name (below your display picture), and then click “More options”. Then untick the checkbox “Show information about the song I’m listening to”.

This will, of course, stop WLM from showing any song you are playing as your personal message. However, I’m not hugely fussed as I just use last.fm to note all the music I listen to.

That fix seemed to work for me. iTunes doesn’t seem to automatically reopen any more. Let me know if this fix works for you.

PS – sorry I haven’t posted in ages. I took a bit of a break in April!

Continue reading »]]> Last night, I came across a minor issue on my netbook. I want to be able to charge some of my many USB devices (such as my phone, iPod, mifi) while on the go, but I couldn’t get them to charge properly.

For example, I tried to plug in my mifi to charge it up on my long trip home – the computer recognised it fine and it charged for a few seconds – but after a little while the device reported it wasn’t charging.

I’ve discovered the problem is caused by a little power saving feature in Windows 7. It has a feature built-in that automatically reduces the power supplied to a USB device if it is not in use. Whilst this is a handy idea, it’s pretty annoying when I want to charge gadgets.

If you’re having the same issue, here’s the fix.

Go to Control Panel (make sure you’re viewing all options – by selecting Large/Small Icons in the “View by” menu), click Power Options and then choose the power plan that you’re using most (in time you might want to go through all of them). For the power plan you’ve selected click “Change Plan Settings” and then “Change advanced power settings”.

Now you’ll need to navigate to the “USB settings” plus button. Click it, then the plus button of “USB selective suspend setting” and you should see the following.

They’re probably set to Enabled. If they are, here’s your problem. Set it to Disabled for both On Battery and Plugged In, click Apply, and that should solve your problem.

If you can’t modify the settings because the options are all greyed out, it’s because your computer’s manufacturer is using some form of power management software that doesn’t want you to change the settings. In the case of my Samsung netbook, it was “Fast Start”. Disable whatever crud it is that’s greying out the options and you’ll be able to modify the settings.