How to Create a Complete Inventory of All Software + Versions and Hardware

This means: A list of every software program, including all windows programs.  All hardware, including versions, drivers.  You name it.

Download Belarc advisor and run it.  Save the results as a full web page.

This is a great program.  Run it every six months and save the results in a safe place. 

The Ordeal of Changing from Land Line to VOIP Phone Service Part 2

From the customer point of view, the procedure for switching from a land line provider to a VOIP provider is this:

1. Apply to the land line provider (ATT) to split your service, so you have one account for voice and one for DSL.
2. ATT splits the account, giving the a new account number, which is actually a phone number, to the DSL account.
3. ATT lets OOMA know this has been done and releases the phone number to OOMA, which enters it in their database. (Note: When you start the OOMA account, you are given a phone number, but this is replaced by your old phone number when OOMA enters that number in their database. This means that, if you log on to their web site, your account number will have changed; you can't get on with the original phone number: a little gotcha.)
4. From this point on, ATT will bill you the unbundled DSL rate and OOMA will bill you for taxes. Of course OOMA has an optional premium service that costs so much per month, but I'll that is a different topic

Sounds pretty clean doesn't it? Not. When you got the new DSL account, did you remember to ask for your ATT email to be moved over to the new ATT account? Oh, it wasn't in the instructions. Too bad. You have to ask. Then comes the nightmare.

I'm not real clear on what kicks off what, but ATT has to do two things:

1. Create a service ticket to come to your house and do something with your phone service at the external box- Committed time to complete: 48 hours, but that doesn't mean a thing. It seems like when 48 hours is up the ticket is closed, whether or not it has been done.
2. Create another service ticket to move your email user id over to your new stand alone DSL account. Why is it not connect to the DSL account in the first place? Maybe you'd better ask the president of the carrier that question. Again, commitment is 48 hours, but same actual criteria. What do they have to do? 5 minutes of work entering it in a database.

So, its been 10 days elapsed time and 5 days I've been fighting the system. 3 days for moving the user id over. They closed the original ticket but didn't do the work. But they complain about overlapping tickets, so you get to wait 48 hours, then spend hours talking to different technical people (at level 3 no less) to find out why you can't log on even though you can ping anything (meaning the internet is there, but you can't get to the DNS servers to get to any site via a browser). I talked to 4 people over the course of this time, each with a different approach to the problem.

Finally I talked to someone who researched the problem and discovered that the ticket to move the email was closed but that some database had not been modified. I expect/think that the problem is that the merger between our old phone provider and the new one resulted in data systems that don't talk to one another. So people have to manually cross the gap.

The outcome next...

The Process of Converting to VOIP from a Land Line- The 11th Day

I’m writing this on the 11th day after the first ticket was cut to establish a Voice Over IP service (VOIP) to replace my landline service.  Previous blog entries have detailed the problems I have had to this point:

• Obtain service from the VOIP provider, which is OOMA. This was relatively painless. I selected a new phone number and installed the VOIP provider's phone device.
• The land line provider (ATT) had to split my account into two accounts to enable the IP service to receive my current phone number. This took a couple of minutes on my part and the "apparent" elapsed time was a couple of days for the transfer to occur.
• I wanted to keep my current email address.  This was a nightmare of mess ups and lack of knowledge on the part of the technicians.
• ATT had to activate my DSL account. After dealing with 4 different technicians multiple times over 5 days. and with ATT having to reissue action tickets, this was finally completed. I was without both phone and DSL for 5 days.

At this point I should be done, right? Not! When ATT created the new DSL account, the speed they assigned to the account was the slowest they offer! At the time my DSL was activated at 9 days in, I told the technician that my speed was not set to the speed of my old account. (VOIP requires speedy and relatively noiseless DSL.) He apologized and connected me to the appropriate department to make the change. The technician I talked to said that the database had not been updated to show my account, so the change could not be made. I was told to wait 4 hours and I would be called.

After 4 hours I called back and got a different technician. He said that the account had not been updated and that he would make a note to himself to call me tomorrow, but it could take two days. Two days! (Note that the technician that got my DSL running appears to have had no idea that it would take two days to change the DSL speed!) I pointed out that this was Friday and asked if he was working the weekend. He said no, he was not working the weekend, so it would be Monday (13 days from the start of this ordeal). He also mentioned that this should not have happened. The conversion to a new account should have been to the same performance level as the old account. Aaargh!

So, it is Saturday, 11 days in and I am running at 765kbps download and 133 upload!

An update:  I called on Saturday and was able to get someone that could put in the order.  (Apparently my account was fixed between yesterday and 10am today.)  I did put in the order and was informed that the service would require 3 days to implement! If that is true, it will be 14 days.

Bellsouth to AT&T

The AT&T policy is to get everyone off bellsouth.net and on to att.net.  They will do this through attrition.  So, if for some reason you want to change your bellsouth userid, you’ll get an att.net along with it.  For example, if I want to move my userid over to a VOIP account, unless you get someone special at AT&T who’s willing to work with you, they will assign you a {whatever-you-want}.att.net user id.  You won’t be able to get a bellsouth.net user id.  Every new customer will get an att.net user id.

AT&T Changes to Registration

If you ever change your router or make any other changes to your DSL, you will have to re-register.  The temporary PPPoE userid and password to enter into your router are:

UserID:  attreg@att.net

Password:  attreg

You can get to the registration page through your browser as long as your router is working OK.  Type http://attreg.att.net/ into the address field.

Multiple Chrome Processes, Only One Tab Open: Why?

I was having some performance problems and looked at task manager (Ctl-Alt-Del) to see what was running.  I had about 10 Chrome processes, even though I only had one tab.  Why?  I found this answer in one of the Google forums: 

---

Main Process

Chrome's main process handles the UI, tab management and so on. There are usually only one process that do the work.

Renderer Process(es):

The renderer handles rendering the page. Roughly, each tab consume one, but some special case make tabs into a single one - same domain uses same renderer, and no more than 20 renderer - newly opened tabs will use existing renderer if exceeded. Renderer Process runs in a sandbox that can increase security by separating in sandboxes. When one renderer crashes, other tabs or the main process will not be affected, and users will be able to reload the page by refreshing.

Plugin Process(es):

As plugins should have higher permission than a webpage, and in order to keep Renderer Processes in the sandbox, plugins are separated. Also when one crashes, other plugins or tabs or the main process will not be affected.

Extension Process(es):

Similar to the others, separating extensions into processes is to keep them in sandbox... and a crashing extension will not let the whole browser down.

Built-In Task Manager

There is a built-in task manager for Chrome. Press Shift+Esc or "right click on title bar -> Task Manager" to launch it. You can see clearly - and may end processes if one's not responding. Ending processes this way will keep those addresses on your browser, with a "sad tab" replacing it, as mentioned in "Renderer Processes".

You may have a look at http://blog.chromium.org/2008/09/multi-process-architecture.html or read the Google Chrome comics http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/index.htm

I followed the "right click on title bar" method and clicked on the "Task Manager" option. I found that there was one process for chrome itself, one for the single tab that was displayed, and one for each of the add-ons. Mystery solved!

The Ordeal of Changing from Land Line to VOIP Phone Service Part 1

This blog entry and some to follow describe my experience converting from land line service to a Voice Over IP. The last entry in this series will be "lessons learned."

I’ve been looking at the possibility of dropping my land line service for some time. From a business point of view, the land line doesn’t make any sense:

• We are paying for DSL, at the speed and quality that should support Voice over IP (VOIP).
• The phone service costs somewhere around $70/mo for unlimited long distance + local calls. VOIP can be either free or much less expensive. In fact, I should save over $900/yr the first year and about $700/yr after that
• The service level agreement with our provider- AT&T, states that, when there are problems, DSL has priority over voice. So we should get better maintenance service than we would with the phone line.
• I've used Skype for several years. As my DSL speeds have improved, so has Skype quality. Video quality can sometimes be a problem, especially when the video goes from my system to a G3 cellphone system on the other end. But voice quality is great.
• There is more functionality with a VOIP phone than a land phone.

I've delayed converting for a few reasons:

• You'd think cell phone service would suffice for backup. We have cell phone service and I have to have a fairly high number of minutes on that service to handle my business phone calls.  But, as most of you have experienced, there are many homes in our communities, including mine, where cell phone service is iffy:  anywhere from 0 1x bars or a white and red no service symbol to 3 3x bars- at the same spot in the house! However, as a whole, our cellphone service is reliable.
• I've been warned that voice quality would not be good. There is the possibility that when both ends talk simultaneously, the signals will "collide," making the conversation muddled.
• VOIP does use bandwidth. So, if someone is downloading a lot of data, voice might be impacted. (This can be managed with router settings or by having the right VOIP box plugged in to your Router.)

When Costco had a sale on the OOMA Telo Air, I thought it was time to make the change. The Telo is a router-sized device.  You plug your house phone, in our case the base station, and an ethernet connection into the Telo. (Optionally, you can use wifi.)
Note that the phone numbers, etc stored in your base station remain accessible; you don't have to reenter all your stored numbers and recent phone calls.

This service is similar to Vonage, but you buy the Telo device. You don’t a fee unless you want their Premium service. You do pay taxes(about $4/mo).

I read through the directions on how to change from AT&T to OOMA.  As written, OOMA says you just sign up and you are given a phone number and off you go.  That’s true.  But we, of course, don’t want the inconvenience of changing our telephone number.  OOMA offers to transfer the number for $40. It is a simple exercise for OOMA. ATT gives them an OK to use the number and they enter it in their database.  OOMA warns you that the carrier might take a while to give the OK because of what ATT has to do, which I’ll spend a couple of blog entries detailing.  But it doesn’t sound like a big deal, maybe a half day.

Well... I'm writing this without internet service. The process started 10 days ago and I'm still without either phone or DSL service- We had phone service for 5 days but have been without both for another 4 days. I'm writing this offline. When you read this is when the DSL service was finally restored and I could upload it. I'll give you a final count at that time.

Another AT&T Problem: Faulty DNS???

Since my internet came back, I have had problems loading some web sites.  There is no real pattern to this.  To paraphrase the browser message:  “Can’t load website, do you want to load a cached copy.”  If I click on the cached copy, it loads, but the page is not properly formatted.  If I click on a link of the displayed page, I get the “Can’t load Website…” message again. 

 

After looking at browser settings and trying Chrome, IE, and Firefox with the same result, I turned off my firewall.  That did not help.

I then thought about how technology obtains a web address:  there are layers of servers containing the names of websites and relating them to IP addresses.  These servers are called Domain Name Servers.  The first DNS that is queried for us is the AT&T DNS.  DNSs have IP addresses and we normally set both the router and the computer to obtain these DNS addresses automatically from AT&T.  It occurred to me that something might be wrong with AT&Ts DNS servers.  I know of other DNSs I can go to.  I changed my router setting so that I could enter the Primary and Secondary DNS server IP addresses manually.  I made the change and bingo!  I could reach all the address I wasn’t able to reach before. 

So you have to conclude something is wrong with the AT&T DNS servers.  I’ve filed a Ticket on this.  Let’s see what happens. 

Problems with AT&T DSL Revisited

The process for managing the issue of DSL performance should be:
Do NOT contact them before you have eliminated equipment outside AT&Ts responsibility: 

1.  When a problem is perceived, run a speed test.

I have a couple of blog entries on this: 

• http://leetlinktips.blogspot.com/search?q=speedtest#!/2009/06/why-might-your-dsl-service-be-so-bad.html
• http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4224036224359508359#editor/target=post;postID=5823549266310849265
• http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4224036224359508359#editor/target=post;postID=8257477957874380151

Of these, the third link is most valuable to the Cliffs resident, and the second one is most valuable to the engineer.  The first tip above talks about interpreting the results of the second link in the list of test sites.

It is best to record the results after 3 separate tests run fairly close together.  I might add, it also helps to have a baseline, when your network is working like you think it should.  Write the results down or take a desktop picture and keep them handy.  With this information, you will be part way toward providing ATT with the justification they need to send someone to fix the problem.  

2.  Make sure it is not your router!  Lately I seen a lot of router problems due to lightning strikes.  It is also due to the way the router and modem are configured, both electronically and positionally with respect to where the computers/iPads, etc sit.  ATT is going to want the customer to rule out inside problems.  With a few exceptions, depending on what services you are paying for, their responsibility stops at the modem or, if you were supplied with a netgear or 2wire, the modem router. 

By the way, most of the complaints I have had to deal with recently are actually at the router and computer level, or are due to OLD settings in your router or email account.  (ATT changed all these recently.  link). 

With respect to router settings, I see very noisy routers- too noisy to provide good connectivity.  The result are many drops per hour.  Sounds like the problem someone was talking about at the meeting.  

To eliminate this as an issue before contacting AT&T:  If you are communicating via wifi, download inSSIDer by googling "cnet inSSIDER".  Install and run this program.  Make sure you have selected the correct connection which is your wifi connection.  Walk around your house, watching the signal quality.  Take a snapshot of the results (Alt-PrntScrn on a Windows machine) and paste it into a word document for safe keeping.  If the real time line has a lot of ups and downs in it, but it is straight line right next to the router, then you have a problem in your house.  

How to Manage Multiple Accounts With Lastpass

When I want to log on to Gmail, if I just bring up the gmail page, Lastpass responds like this:

 

Now “jumble” was not the user I wanted to log on.  I wanted to log on as “sleepy”  What happened?  Look at the three button in the upper right of the picture:  Autologin(13), AutoFill(16), Never…. 

·        Autologin(13):  This means I have 13 different gmail accounts that are set to Autologin:  when I bring  up Gmail, Lastpass will automatically fill in the Username and Password and “click” the Sign In button. 

·        Autofill(16):  This means I have 16 different gmail accounts that are set to Autofill:  when I bring Gmail, Lastpass will automatically fin in the Username and Password but you will have to click the sign in button.  WHEN YOU HAVE MULTIPLE LOGIN ACCOUNTS TO THE SAME WEB PAGE, THIS IS HOW EACH ACCOUNT WILL BE SET UP.  If you “Autologin,” you won’t be able to stop Lastpass before it clicks the Sign In button in order to change the Username and Password to another account.  In the above example, jumble was set to “autofill” or, if sleepy was also set to autofill, then, since, sleepy is alphanumerically after jumble, jumble was entered.

·        Never:  won’t fill in anything.

If you are not Autologged in, then you can change the user id and password by clicking on the autofill OR autologin button and the 13 or 16 different usernames will be listed in a dropdown.  I can’t show this with my example, but here’s link to a page from the Lastpass User Guide that shows it.  Click on the link you want; the username and password will be filled in and, depending on wither it is from the AutoLogin list or the Autofill list, the Sign In button will be automatically clicked.

How is “Autofill” or “AutoLogin” assigned to a site.  It is easy to see from the standard “edit” interface for a site:

There are 4 checkboxes near the bottom of the form:

·        Favorite:  Check this and this site will appear in your list of Favorites

·        Never AutoFill:  Check this and the username and password will not be filled in.  Note that the default for Lastpass is that it will fill in the username and password but it will not “click” the sign in button

·        AutoLogin:  Check this and Lastpass will click the sign-in button.  If you only have one username and password for a site, checking this provides the convenience of automatically logging into a site.  But if you have more than one username and password for a site, it can be very inconvenient!

·        Require Password Reprompt:  says that your Lastpass password is required in addition to the userid and password in order to log in to the site.  You probably won’t use this option, so it will probably be left unchecked.

Oh, I heard that question:  How do I get to the form to edit a site?  Click the red Lastpass button in the menubar of your browser.  On the resulting list, click “My Lastpass vault.”  It should be the first entry after the Logoff entry.

The result will be a list of all your sites.  I can’t show you much of a what I have, but here’s a snippet:

It goes on with all the categories you have chosen.  Clock on the little white arrowhead in front of the folder and the folder expands to its contents.  A single site has a line that looks like this:

To edit the site, which shows the form I discussed above, click the pencil icon.

Important: Changes to client email settings for att and bellsouth

If you don't go to the att or bellsouth web site for email, you are using a "client" to access their email servers. You have to go through an account setup on your client.  The settings have recently changed.  If you have old settings your email might suddenly not work any more.  Here are the new settings:

att.net	POP:  inbound.att.net Port:  995	SMTP:  outbound.att.net Port:  465	SSL:  Yes	CustomerID@att.net	Type:  POP3
bellsouth.net	POP:  inbound.att.net Port:  995	SMTP:  outbound.att.net Port:   465	SSL: Yes	CustomerID@bellsouth.net	Type:  POP3

As an example, for Windows Live Mail: