tips
Here's something I've been meaning to mention for quite a while. It's a bit behind the times, but still probably useful news to a lot of people who have a home network of more than one computer running Microsoft Windows. Windows XP and Vista have a built-in remote control program that lets you sit at one computer and login to another computer. It's aptly named "Remote Desktop Connection", but henceforth I'll refer to it as Remote Desktop or just RD.
Note: the computer to be remotely accessed is the "host"; the computer you're sitting at is the "client". The host computer must be running XP Professional or Vista at least Business edition. XP Home and Vista Home and Starter editions cannot host Remote Desktop. But the client software is built into XP or Vista, and client software can be installed on older versions of Windows or even other operating systems.
Another option, which I won't detail, allows you to set up the host to be accessed from any computer via Internet Explorer, without client software. Furthermore, you can use Remote Desktop over the internet, though I won't go into the details of that either. Mostly I have some tips for how to use it after it's connected. By the way, I use Windows XP, and I'm not sure all the details are exactly the same for Vista.
Note that there are other programs that allow similar remote access, but Remote Desktop is already included with Windows.
Getting Connected
As for the basics of getting connected, first you have to set up the host computer. Go to System Properties (either Winkey-Break or Winkey-Pause, depending on your keyboard, or just right click My Computer and select Properties), go to the "Remote" tab, and check "Allow users to connect remotely to this computer". Note the "Full computer name", which you'll need later.
Now click the "Select Remote Users" button. You will have to login using a username and password of a user on the host computer. Here is where you select which users will have remote access. By default, all Administrator accounts automatically have access so you probably don't have to do anything. If you want to give access to any non-administrator accounts, click the "Add" button, then the "Advanced" button, then the "Find Now" button, then select the user from the list and hit, OK, OK, OK.
If you have a firewall on the host computer, you'll have to make sure it's set to allow connections from the client computer you'll be using. (That would probably mean creating a range of privileged local IP addresses.)
Now you're ready to connect. Go to the client computer. Remote Desktop Connection should by default be in your Start menu under, I think, All Programs, Accessories, Communications. Alternately, if you can't find the shortcut, you can just hit Winkey-R (for Run program), then type "mstsc" (for MicroSoft Terminal ServiCes) and hit Enter.
Type the (NetBIOS host) "full computer name" from above or the IP address of the host Computer and click connect. Log in with the appropriate username and password. You'll now be controlling the remote host computer from your local monitor, keyboard and mouse.
Note: before connecting, you can change other options if you choose. One thing you can do is save configurations so you can quickly replicate them again later, to connect to a particular user account on a particular computer with particular settings for sound and graphics. You could even put shortcuts to these .rdp files in your start menu.
Basics
By default, Remote Desktop will be full-screen. You won't see the Start button and taskbar for your local computer session, just the ones for the remote host computer. Most of the familiar keyboard shortcuts will now be sent to the host computer. For example, Alt-Tab will switch between programs on the host. Alt-F4 will close a window on the host.
It's so much like sitting at the other computer that if you're not careful, you could forget that you're in a Remote Desktop session and things could get confusing. That's why there's a Remote Desktop "tab" at the top center of the screen with the name of the host computer. At the right side of that tab are familiar-looking minimize, restore, and close buttons, all of which do what you'd expect. If you are done working on the remote computer, click that close button, which will just disconnect your remote session, leaving all your programs running until the next time you login. Or you can minimize or restore down the Remote Desktop window so that you can switch between controlling the local and remote computers.
Also, at the left side of the RD tab, there's a thumbtack button which lets you "unpin" the RD tab from the screen, in which case it will "auto-hide", i.e. it will be visible only if you put your mouse pointer up there (thus making it even more likely you'll forget that you're in a RD window). The RD tab is pretty unobtrusive, so there's usually no reason to unpin it. You'd need to if you really had to see or click on something in that small area that's otherwise hidden by the RD tab. (Or, if you open a RD session B from within a RD session A and need a way to escape back to RD session A without escaping all the way back to your local console session, but that's beyond the scope of this post...)
If instead of minimizing you restore the RD window, it will show up as a window on your local computer session. You won't be able to see the whole desktop of the remote computer without scrolling (unless you changed the window size in the options before connecting).
Keyboard Shortcuts
While full screen, most Windows keyboard shortcuts will be sent to the remote computer. While the RD window is NOT full screened, Windows keyboard shortcuts go to the local computer. There are some special Remote Desktop keyboard shortcuts.
When RD window is not full screen:
- Alt-PgUp switches between programs on the remote computer (equivalent of Alt-Tab. Likewise, Alt-PgDn is like Shift-Alt-Tab.)
- Alt-Home opens Start menu on the remote computer (equivalent of Winkey)
Whether or not RD is full screen:
- Ctrl-Alt-End opens Task Manager on the remote computer (equivalent of Ctrl-Alt-Del. Ctrl-Alt-Del will always be sent to the local computer and, when logged into Windows, will open Task Manager.)
- Ctrl-Alt-Break switches RD between restored and full-screen. Note that this allows you to switch between controlling remote and local computers without having to use the mouse to click the RD tab. Press Ctrl-Alt-Break to switch RD from full screen to window, and then you can use Alt-Tab to switch between local programs.
Shutting Down
One other difference between a local session and a remote session is the Logoff and Shutdown options. For some reason, they made it hard to figure out how to Turn Off the computer remotely (presumably to help you avoid doing it accidentally, especially since you may not be able to turn it back on if it really is "remote") and even harder to hibernate. In the Start Menu of a RD session, you don't even have a "Turn Off" option. What if you want to power down the host computer remotely? One way is to use the Ctrl-Alt-End shortcut to open Task Manager and then use its "Shut Down" menu.
That will let you Turn Off the computer, but the Hibernate option is inexplicably grayed out. If you want to hibernate, select the "Desktop" (I just hit Winkey-D for Desktop. Winkey-M for Minimize All does the same thing.) and press Alt-F4. This brings up the same menu as when you click Start and then "Turn Off" in a non-remote session. To hibernate, just hit the letter H. (The hibernate option is always hidden; to use it with a mouse you have to hold down Shift, which makes the Stand By option change to Hibernate.) Again, to hibernate it's Winkey-D, Alt-F4, H.
Waking Up
Of course, even more handy, and making Remote Desktop much more usable and useful, is the ability to wake up the host computer remotely. If it's connected by an ethernet cable, this is probably possible using Wake On LAN (WOL for short. LAN stands for Local Area Network.) Not all ethernet adapters and motherboards support WOL, but nowadays most do.
To enable Wake On LAN, open System Properties again (Winkey-Pause or Winkey-Break), go to the Hardware tab, and click the Device Manger button. Expand Network Adapters in the tree, select your Ethernet adapter, and hit Alt-Enter (for properties. This works throughout Windows and is the keyboard equivalent of Right-Click -> Properties). Go to the Power Management tab and check both "Allow this device to bring the computer out of standby" and "Only allow management stations to bring the computer out of standby". This tells Windows to enable WOL from this adapter.
You may also need to go to the hardware-specific settings in the Advanced tab and enable options that sound appropriate. (On my laptop I have a Realtek adapter with "Wake-On-Lan After Shutdown" and "WakeUp on ARP/PING" both enabled. I have "WakeUp on Link Change" and "WakeUp using APM Mode" disabled.)
Finally, you need a way to send the wake-up call. Some routers will do this, one advantage of which is that you could do it from outside your local network, via the internet, even if no computers on your LAN were turned on. If you use DD-WRT firmware, it's under Administration -> WOL.
Otherwise, you can use this free program. Put in the hardware MAC address (six two-digit hexadecimal numbers, something like 00-35-E2-CA-5E-23) of the ethernet adapter on the computer you want to wake up, and type "0.0.0.0" for both Internet Address and Subnet Mask. (It'll actually broadcast the "magic packet" wake-up call to 255.255.255.255, which goes to every device on the network.) Then click the "Wake Me Up" button and the remote computer should boot up. (The port number doesn't matter for WOL within a LAN.)
Simultaneous Sessions
One thing about Remote Desktop is that if someone is already logged into the host computer (locally or via RD), they will be disconnected and sent back to the "Welcome" login screen when you connect. And if they log back in (or if anybody logs in) while you're connected, you'll get disconnected. Here's where the best tip of all comes in.
The funny thing is that Windows has built-in the ability to handle multiple users simultaneously logged in. Apparently someone changed their mind at some point and decided to disable the feature, but it can be re-enabled with this fix. Say your wife is using the desktop computer and you've got the laptop but you need access to a file or program on the desktop. With multiple concurrent sessions, you can just log in to the desktop (using a different user account than your wife is using) via Remote Desktop. You don't have to wait or interrupt the wife. Note you can't log in using the same username and password as the wife without disconnecting her. Only one session per user account is allowed, so you'll need to have multiple user accounts set up.
29 2008-08-14 06:31 how to sync the sync
tips
more about the samsung "sync" flip-phone. (by the way, what a horrible name! how on earth are you supposed to google "sync" and find anything relevant? it does help to know that the model number is SGH-A707.)
if you save your phone number contacts to your SIM card it's easy to transfer them to another phone. it also gives you a backup copy in case the phone breaks. but if the phone gets lost, so does the SIM card. if those phone numbers are valuable to you, or if not having to re-enter them all into a new phone with your thumbs, then you should back them up to a computer.
with the free download "Samsung PC Studio 3" you can make a backup copy of your contacts via a bluetooth or usb connection. i don't know which other samsung phone models it works with, but it does work with the A707 "sync". you can also sync those contacts back to a phone.
one more advantage is that if you want to make many changes to your contacts, e.g. adding or changing area codes, deleting duplicates, etc. it might be a lot easier to do on a computer than on your phone. i cleaned up my contact list using excel.
run PC Studio 3, then select "PC Sync". under options, you can choose whether to sync from phone to PC, PC to phone, or both. you can also choose whether to use microsoft outlook contacts or a windows address book (.wab) file. i used the .wab file. the .wab option is listed as "Microsoft Outlook Express (Windows Address Book)".
you can just use the default file, but i preferred to create one specifically for phone contacts. to make a new .wab file, run "address book" from the start menu, then export to a new .wab file in the location of your choice. if there were any existing contact entries you can delete them from your new wab file. then, in PC Sync options, click "Setting" to select your empty .wab file as the sync target.
anyway, export contacts is pretty straightforward, but there was one little quirk i had to figure out for importing contacts from computer to phone. it doesn't work quite the way it ought to. the quirk and the workaround described below are the really useful information in this post.
quirk: to import from pc to phone, contacts have to have a "last name" and/or "first name" field or they won't be imported. but when you export from phone to pc, contacts do not have either of those data fields; they only have a single combined field called "name". therefore, the file you export to PC cannot be imported back to the phone!
the easy fix is to open the .wab file, export it as a text (.csv - comma separated values) file, and then delete all the contacts in the .wab. then, in the process of reimporting the .csv file back into the .wab, remap the "Name" field to "First Name". (when you do this import from text file, it will be obvious how to do the remapping. when the "change mapping" button shows up, just select the source field you want to remap, click the "change mapping" button, and select the desired destination field.) now you have a .wab file that can sync back to the A707 sync phone.
if you want, before that last step, you can manipulate the .csv file in any way you choose. another note, if you want names to be sorted by last name, use outlook instead of a .wab file. PC Sync will use outlook's "File As" values, i.e. they could be "Doe, John" instead of "John Doe".
27 2008-01-01 14:15 MMF ringtones
tips
Laura's phone lets you use MP3s as ring tones, but it only accepts .mmf or .amr files (at least, it doesn't take .mp3 or .wav) for other sounds, such as reminder alarms and voice mail alert tones.
after trying some other methods that didn't work, here's how to make make .mmf (SMAF) ringtones that will actually work on the samsung sync (A707) phone:
0. download Yamaha's free WSD "Wave Sound Decorator" (for Windows) and install it.
1. create your desired ring tone as a .wav file.
Note: it's best to make it monaural. also apply "compression" if you can. i use audacity for audio recording and editting.
2. run WSD and drag your .wav file onto it.
3. select "MA-5" in the drop-down box on the toolbar (upper left).
4. if the sample rate in the status bar (bottom right) is above 24000 Hz, click "Edit" and "Sample Type" then resample to 24000. (in the process, check "convert to mono" if it's not grayed out.)
Note: WSD can also normalize, trim, and fade in/out if you didn't do all that in step 1.
5. save it, (it saves only as .mmf format.) put it on the phone and use it.
ringtones on the Samsung A707 are limited to a file size of 300kB, which for a 19.4 second (that's how long her phone rings before voicemail picks up) mono MP3 requires you to use 112kbps (or less, or VBR).
alarm tones aren't subject to the 300kB limit. reminder alarms sound for 60 seconds or until acknowledged, and the phone allows you to use 60s of 16bit mono .mmf audio at the highest allowed sample rate, 24000Hz.
20 2007-11-30 01:39 speedy boot
tips
I don't like to sit and wait for my computer. So I put this "Lock Console Session" (step 1) shortcut in the Startup folder of my Start Menu, and I set my computer to automatically log me in upon starting up (step 2).
This way I still have the security of my computer being password protected, but it's more convenient for me when booting up. I can turn on the power, go grab something from the kitchen or whatever, and when I come back, all I have to do is enter my password and it's ready to go. Without this workaround, when I got back from the kitchen and put in my password, I'd have to wait for the whole login sequence.
In other words, having my computer ready to use after a full "Shut Down" requires the same simple procedure as after Hibernating it (since I have my computer require a password upon waking out of hibernation).
A minor tradeoff is that I sometimes will not want that user account to get logged on when I bootup. But if I foresee those occurences, it's easy to go recheck the "Users must enter a user name and password..." checkbox in advance. Also, if I ever do a full logoff (usually I just use "Fast User Switching", i.e. "Lock the Console Session" without shutting down Windows, and then want to log back on, I'll have to enter my password twice. But that's a rare situation.
Step 1:
- right-click the Start button, choose "Open",
- double-click the Programs folder,
- double-click the Startup folder,
- right-click in the window and choose New -> Shortcut
- type in (or paste from here) the following line:
rundll32.exe user32.dll, LockWorkStation
- click Next
- type a name for the shortcut. Perhaps "Lock My Account"
- click Finish
Step 2:
- click Start
- click Run...
- enter the following line and click OK
control userpasswords2
- uncheck the "Users must enter a user name and password..." checkbox
- click OK
- enter the username and password of the preferred user account
- click OK
17 2005-01-25 12:48 gmail invite fix
tips
if you are having trouble accessing your gmail invites, this may help you. i haven't been able to use mine for a while. the red "Invite 6 friends to gmail" link was there (and the "invite this person" on individual emails), but when i clicked it nothing happened. by the way, it had worked before; i don't know what changed. anyway, turning off pop-up blocking did not fix it, or so i thought.
now i have discovered that the problem was in fact, after all, the pop-up window blocking in Norton Personal Firewall 2003. (at least on my computer. there may be be other programs that cause the problem, because i think i've had the same problem on computers that weren't running norton firewall.)
BUT...it doesn't matter if blocking is on when you click the LINK. it only matters if it's on when you LOGIN to gmail. that's the secret, and the source of my confusion. i had been turning it off after having already logged in. the fact is, after you've logged in, you can turn blocking back on and the link will still work, as long as it was off WHEN YOU LOGGED IN.
also, you can leave ad blocking on, it's only popup window blocking that causes the problem. but you do have to click "ad blocking" and then click "configure" to be able to turn off just pop-up blocking without turning off ad blocking. they're both lumped under "ad blocking" in the main menu.
by the way, if you have a network-capable version of the HP LaserJet 1320, you won't be able to access its browser-based settings page with norton ad blocking on. (it's the opposite of gmail: you can leave norton popup blocker on, just not ad blocker. or heck, just turn them both off!) i suspect this applies to other HP networked printers (they call them "JetDirect" i believe.) and you need javascript enabled i think.