Tag: windows

D-Link SharePort new release 1.10 and DIR-655 1.30 Firmware

Update 16th January 2010: 1.33b01NA has been released.

Update 20th August 2009: All users having issues with SharePort, check out this post for the latest information.

Update 1: The 1.30 firmware now has a beta tag and is available at: ftp://ftp.dlink.com/Gateway/dir655/Firmware/dir655_firmware_130_beta.zip. Before downloading please read below as this firmware isn’t like the others:

Update 2: Firmware 1.31 is available from the D-Link website now, you can get it here.

Update 3: Beta firmware 1.32NA is available now, it fixes a SharePort issue, read about it and download here.

Update 4: Firmware 1.32NA FINAL is available now, read about it and download here.

Update 5: D-Link has released a new beta firmware for the DIR-655 here, it ONLY fixes *a* SharePort issue.

It appears that D-Link have updated the firmware of the DIR-655 router to v1.30, however it has been pulled from their servers just after release, if it becomes available again it should be at ftp://ftp.dlink.com/Gateway/dir655/Firmware/dir655_firmware_130.zip which is the link they had before it was pulled. The most likely reason for pulling the release is due to that fact that it cannot be downgraded once it is installed, coupled with the fact that it removed wireless B support makes it a bit of a gamble.

According to a D-Link forum admin:

The 1.30 Firmware has been taken down from the support site. It may do a little too much at once.
Removing 802.11b is not a bad thing for most people.
Conditions that make a firmware unable to be downgraded are not always avoidable.
Distributing a firmware that removed 802.11b and also will not allow the end-user to downgrade said firmware, could result in customer service or RMA issues neither the customer, seller, or manufacture desire.

Granted from what I have seen, people are reading the release notes and the warnings about the firmware, but I am looking to be on the safe side as the user base with access to the code made change (not read).

It may go back up because the benefits to the majority are to great, but for now we just need too take a closer look at the release.

It is available to download on some sites and people who have installed it are finding it to be a good release, but I urge people not to try it just yet as D-Link may put a new version out soon that can be downgraded or has wireless B support.

Change Log:
Fix DHCP server issue.
Modify the turn from “Network USB” to “Shareport” in the option of “My USB Type is:”
Add Advanced DNS Service feature.
Add SecureSpot 2.0
Remove the 3G from GUI
Fix LLTD wrong icon in Vista.
Fix reboot issue when connecting to Internet
Add Graphical authentication to log-in page.
Removed 802.11b
This firmware can not downgraded to previous versions.
Guest Zone disable SharePort support (USB spec v1.05)
New SharePort support PC/Mac (Requires Utility Installed on PC or Mac to work)
Router time is not reset when factory reset.
Fix schedule end time error.

SharePort 1.10 for PC and now 1.01 for Mac OSX was released at the same time, the PC version has a lower version number than the previous 1.14 release but it is most likely a newer version.
Update: This appears to only work with the above 1.30 firmware.

You can get it here for: Windows OSX

Windows 7 Conexant Sound Card Issue

I am running the Windows 7 beta on my 4 year old Laptop, It’s not recommended but it does run well, using the Windows XP display and ethernet drivers it is a well functioning machine that doesn’t act much different from when it had Windows XP installed, however there is an odd issue with the sound card driver from Windows update that I will explain.

Continue reading Windows 7 Conexant Sound Card Issue

Windows 7 – Can’t delete exe files on Desktop

During my testing of Windows 7 I have had almost no issues to report, the only things that have been of notice have been third party or driver related. Then there’s the permissions bug, this bug is so elusive that hardly anybody has reported it and nobody has a solution, not even me.

Update 1: It appears that as of build 7068 this bug may have been fixed, see comments below for details.

Update 2: There are reports the bug has reappeared in the RTM build, it can also occur in Windows Vista but slightly less often.

Update, September 2 2009: It has been mentioned below that this website has a possible fix and that it can fix both Windows Vista and Windows 7. I don’t get this bug any more on any of my machines so I am unable to verify it however.

Continue reading Windows 7 – Can’t delete exe files on Desktop

Windows 7 at the PDC

For now I do not have access to Windows 7 so I can only go on other peoples’ experiences and of course the live stream of the Microsoft PDC, but so far it looks amazing, take a look at some screenshots here at my favorite tech site, Neowin.

From a UI standpoint I am very excited about the possibilities that will be available.
From a web developer standpoint I’m eager to learn how it fits in with Windows Azure and the cloud computing vision.

I hope to do a review once it is available and look forward to other peoples’ reviews, expectations and experiences.

In other news I put Xubuntu on my laptop, I’m actually using it at the moment, It’s a great OS to run when you have an older PC, in this case 4 years old, my laptop maintenance guide will be up soon, I’ve been meaning to finish it but it’s one of those articles you can take forever to write if you wanted to.

I have decided to put up interesting facts, the first fact is that my review on D-Link SharePort on the DIR-655 has had the most views of any posts, you guys seem to like it so I will hopefully bring more of the same in future reviews.

Windows Vista SP2 release before Windows 7

Earlier this week Microsoft stated that Vista’s Service Pack 2 will be released before Windows 7. As Windows 7 will be released in the second half of that year it has caused many to be worried that Microsoft are rushing SP2.

I don’t believe this will be a problem and I certainly don’t believe Microsoft would be rushing this, to release a Service Pack within a year was common before Windows XP and has happened since, things have changed and Vista SP2 is not focused on the amount of features and deep fixes that have been needed in Service Packs in the past 6 years.

Windows XP SP1 had a reasonable time frame of just under a year, however it was fairly rushed and rightly so, but there were no issues caused by rushing the update. SP2 of XP took quite some time (2 years since SP1) and this was due to the radical changes in the OS that were proposed, new device drivers had to be made, this led to more and more testing and in the end it was a significant change, but with the amount of changes you would expect from 2 Service Packs, released in the same amount of time. Windows XP SP3 is again more of a roll up release that was not necessarily needed due to Windows Update, it was delayed because Windows Vista needed more resources at the time.

Windows Vista SP1 was like the Windows XP SP1 in a way, there were necessary changes that needed to be implemented and they were implemented fast, just over a year from the Retail release date and it was finished and ready, no rushing was needed.

Os Collection – Part 3 – MS-DOS 6

I figured I’d make less of a review and more of a guide this time around, MS-DOS is really only necessary to use when you are installing Windows on top, or if you need to use a boot disk.

This guide is very image heavy, so click below to open it, it may not be dialup friendly.

Continue reading Os Collection – Part 3 – MS-DOS 6

Ribbon UI in Windows 7 M3

It appears going by the 2 images that have so far been released showing Paint and WordPad that Microsoft have decided to extend the Ribbon UI used in the Microsoft Office Suite to the included applications in Windows 7.

It’s a small change, but it shows that with Windows 7 Microsoft are willing to try new things. The Ribbon is a fairly handy part of the Office UI, in the case of WordPad it will allow people who are familiar with Word use WordPad much quicker.

I don’t believe the use of Paint will be more productive necessarily, as previously in Paint there was only 1 layer to most of the functionality, however the upside is that this allows Paint to increase in features if necessary without having to have yet another UI change.

Overall I believe it’s a nice addition to the Windows UI, even if it only affects a few applications, I look forward to seeing more of Windows 7 Milestone 3

Google Suggest/Trends, theme editing, FileZilla issue

http://www.google.com/webhp?complete=1&hl=en
This is now my homepage, it is extremely handy, plus it’s slightly less bloated than the default Firefox search page, trends http://www.google.com/trends is quite interesting to have a look at as well.

Thanks to http://www.blogohblog.com/, http://www.dyers.org/blog/archives/2008/05/21/how-to-add-avatars-to-your-wordpress-25-theme/ and Jason I was able to fix some issues I was having with the Gravatar section of the theme which is by default not supported, the code at first didn’t work I figure because it was incorrectly detecting the WordPress version as something less than 2.5 however there was a </div> that had no starting tag which caused the theme style to get messed up also, after fixing those the Gravatars work fine now.

I have been experiencing a ‘DDE execute request failed’ error in FileZilla 3 when choosing to view/edit files regardless of the fact that it does appear to view/edit the file perfectly fine, there doesn’t appear to be any information that I can find about it when searching around.
I managed to stop it appearing by setting a default text editor, choosing ‘Always use default editor’ and unchecking ‘Inherit system’s file-type associations’, must be a Vista/FileZilla/TextPad/UAC thing.

I received my Windows Vista upgrade advisor shirt not long ago, it’s very well made but I don’t think I’ll be wearing it anywhere anytime soon.

I just found out what a post slug is…

OS Collection – Part 2 – Windows Me

Here’s one I got the same day I wrote my Windows 3.1 article.

Windows Me

Released in 2000 right between Windows 98 SE (1999) and Windows XP (2001) it didn’t have too much going for it with such a reduced life compared to most Windows OSes, it had it’s fair share of controversy and is undisputed as the worst Microsoft OS to ever be released.

Continue reading OS Collection – Part 2 – Windows Me

OS Collection – Part 1 – Windows 3.1

Recently I have taken to starting a little collection of PC Operating Systems, starting with Microsoft and IBM full retail boxed copies sourced from the wonderful world of eBay. I have started receiving these copies so I have decided to install them and do a review of the experiences of using them in modern times.

Windows 3.1

Released in 1992 Windows 3.1 was a minor update to Windows 3.0, mainly including Truetype font support and 32-bit Disk Access. It however has became the most popular pre-Windows 95 era Windows OS. I have only managed to get my hands on an OEM copy, so here are a few pics of what comes out of that package.

Continue reading OS Collection – Part 1 – Windows 3.1