I have 2 clients now that used to be one. The preschool is new and the community centre it is located in also is my client. So – all the major listing sites like yellow pages and the local provincial (state) sites come up 1st and second in a google search. Those listing say deerruncalgary.com as the website for both the centre and the preschool. So – with some simple php, here is how to make the preschool forward to the preschool site when the centre’s website is clicked on from yellow pages and the like … Continue reading →

Here are the main items you need to know:

1. set up your new site, adjust NTFS security settings on the directory for the app pool you are using
2. install self-signed certificate – I am using 7.5 – so it is SUPER easy (yes – something in IIS is easy)
   1. if you are installing a real certificate – use this link
3. adjust bindings on your new site and use a new port (click on site, then on the far right – click bindings and
   1. add a new https with the new port and …
   2. use your new SSL certificate on the new port you are binding
4. reconfigure your router to point your new SSL/secure port for external access
5. Use a redirect or two to get http traffic to your new https address and port

ARRRGGG!! Another 1/2 hour is wasted. How many times have us VBA’ers did a paste and then realized the paste split the columns for us – using commas – but then the data gets all wonky on columns that are  off the page so-to-speak. So – how do we reset the paste parameters to the proper values before we begin – well you to fake a Text-To-Columns on a new sheet or fake cell – then do a paste. It is really annoying. A quick google showed others are quite annoyed to. Why can’t we check what the parameters are currently? When I find out – I will post them here. In the mean time, follow this guys advice.

When I, and others,  open my Excel VBA toolbox of macros – a message saying ” <<details to come>> you are about to open an ActiveX control. Are you sure … or something” appears. Here is the solution – you need to sign the macro with a certificate. Really this inflates people’s heads because we are doing something advanced – but really – it just annoys me as it is just a lot of extra work for me. I hope this helps others.

http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/excel-questions/212739-userform-microsoft-spreadsheet-control-activex-warning.html

This database is ONLY to be used by Electrical so that any things we do only hoses us.

Make a new database. Now  the way to use SQL Server to log into a dB on another machine is to use the more complicated name for the database. myServerName.myDomainName.myDomainNameSuffix. Here is an example. Continue reading →

First a question: Could this be made more difficult? I switched from VS 2012 to VS 2013 and the new system uses a whole different authentication engine. Once you get your head wrapped around roles and users in the new system it works the same for the individual web.config files in the directories to limit who can do what etc. We edit tables now and no longer use the web configurator tool. To just get going … look at the article with the *** below or click “here”.

ASP.Net Identity introductions

• http://typecastexception.com/post/2014/04/20/ASPNET-MVC-and-Identity-20-Understanding-the-Basics.aspx
• http://www.asp.net/identity/overview/getting-started/introduction-to-aspnet-identity

Continue reading →

So it seems that one place I work had someone log in with remote software from corporate but without asking first. Sure enough – a little digging in the events viewer look for events with these id’s for Dameware. 105,108,111,112,109. Even better – you can add a filter and on the filter window – you choose “By Source” and choose dwmrcs. Then – lo and behold – someone did log into my computer while I was using it. If you look at the 111 connect log, it tells you what computer, the username and no – permission is not required. How did I know? Dameware has a telltale screen goes black and flickers like your display cards are not working- then I realized – hold on – this is the same flicker that happened when I got remote help from corporate. One can add tasks and popups to event ID’s. 111 is the id that is the connect ID. Too bad I cannot get charge and get paid to do this research – but that is the life of a contractor – I get to do really cool things though.

Other things you can do is go to the sys tray icon and look for a green&red icon and right click on it. Choose “Who Is Connected”.

Who was it? Well – you could TRY – copying the host name and the IP and using Outlook’s Rules to copy any emails with these in the header – but no one emailed me from the machine from which they connected sadly. Lots of cool hidden stuff right on your desktop.

So I had an odd situation where one company I was working at turned off ALL OUTGOING ports (yes – all including the web) for all employees. You needed special permission and they would enable this. So all remote access was removed for all of my other clients – so I hitch hiked free wifi from a neighbour, but long ago – I moved my “My Documents” to a network drive. To switch this back … one needs to know a few things. My VS 2013’s IIS Express 8.0 would not read or write to its IIS config location (because it was still pointing to a network location which was unavailable) on the My Documents sub-folder. Well, here are the keys to solving it – DO NOT UNINSTALL IT YET – try some things first.

There are TWO registry entries to change My Documents. Read the command line stuff in this article and sure enough this was the key

• reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders” /v “Personal” /t REG_SZ /d “C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Documents” /f
• reg add “HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders” /v “Personal” /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d %%USERPROFILE%%”\Documents” /f

Note that the “Personal” key is the one that represents “My Documents” and on Windows 7 points the DOCUMENTS folder under your user profile. It is this 2nd one that was the clincher.

So, a lot of the ports I need at a client are getting shutdown to the point, where I cannot work at that location to get my work done. I have another client not too far that I can SOMETIMES pick up on their wireless signal. Hmmm, what if I had a directional antenna and can boost the signal strength and use their wifi? Well, I made a phone call tomy favourite Computer hardware shop – the Computer Rack here in Calgary to see if they gad an antenna and any ideas. He mentioned that I might consider an ASUS RT-N12 ($45 CDN) and put dd-wrt on it. Yes … I thought – that will do it … then, when I got home and got thinking about it, I had a old router that I put coova network on and … oh look another one – with nothing on it – a wrt54g v5. Lets try! Yes – I got it to work … Continue reading →

Deleting old backups automatically – no it does not work well. Here is how to do it manually.