Category: Fixes

Fix for common problems and issues

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Clicking web links in Outlook Express not working [FIX]

 

I was recently asked or help with a problem opening links from emails in Outlook Express. It seemed that clicking web/url links in an email didn’t open the default browser and load the page, it just did nothing.

Fortunately there was an easy fix [for those using Internet Explorer as their default browser at least]:

  1. Click on the Start button in the lower left corner
  2. Near the bottom right of the Start Menu you should see “Run…”, click that
    [This should then bring up a black window with some text in?]
  3. In that window type the following (without the quotation marks)
    1
    "REGSVR32 URLMON.DLL"

    once you have typed the above in hit return key.

  4. A small window should popup saying
    “DLLREGISTERSERVER in urlmon.dll succeeded”
    Click OK in this popup window.
  5. You can now close the black window that opened up after Step 2.
  6. Open Internet Explorer and click on Tools in the top menu and then select Internet Options from the list.
  7. Once it has opened the internet options pages, along the top you should see various tabs, click on the tab called “Programs”
  8. There should be an option in there to check that Internet Explorer is the default browser. If it is ticked, untick it, hit apply then re-tick and hit apply again. If it is not ticked just tick it and hit apply. Either way you need this option ticked but if it’s already ticked you need to untick and then retick it to make sure.
  9. You may also need to click on the “Advanced tab” and see if there is an option to reset internet explorer settings at the bottom, if so click that too and hit ok to close the settings pages.

Now reboot the computer, once rebooted try opening Internet Explorer first and if it prompts you that it is not the default web browser you should click yes to make it default. Next open Outlook Express and see if that has solved the problem with the links in emails.

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iPhone 1.1.4 update released to fix bugs

Apple have been quick to release a firmware update v 1.1.4 for the iPhone yesterday.

The firmware is supposed to address some of the “bugs” introduced with 1.1.3 such as the SMS sorting bug and wifi connectivity problems. 1.1.4 is also rumoured to contain the framework to allow 3rd party application to be installed without the need to hack/jailbreak your iPhone. Some of these 3rd party apps and games will be made available for download from the iTunes store in due course.I am currently updating my iPhone to 1.1.4 as I type and shall hopefully report back with some good news on bug fixes……

…..140MB download and 5 minutes install time later….

1.1.4 has successfully downloaded and been installed on my iPhone. I didn’t encounter any errors, warnings, or weirdness (using iTunes 7.6.1(9) under OS X 10.5.2)

Unlike 1.1.3 there aren’t any NEW features  for those of you who are looking, but I have checked on the SMS sorting bug by sending myself a series of SMS in a short period of time and I’m happy to report it works as expected now.  I didn’t have any SMS conversations saved that were in a mess from 1.1.3 so if anybody reading this has a conversation that was in the wrong order could you please have a look at it after updating to 1.1.4 and report back in the comments section below?

There haven’t been any immediate issues with wifi connectivity either which is promising. If you’ve read my post about wifi problems with 1.1.3 you’ll be aware that there were problems as soon as the phone had finished updating to 1.1.3. One person has so far reported that under 1.1.4 his wifi issues are almost resolved but the widgets (stocks/weather) are unable to update when connected to wifi. I have just done some thorough testing of stocks and weather running under 1.1.4 connected to my Airport Extreme and can report I have no problems.

Summary

  • SMS Sorting Bug = FIXED
  • Wifi connectivity = FIXED (no problems for me at least)
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Unable to access google.com (a few other sites) or sign into MSN messenger (fix)

Internet Explorer 7Had a strange problem recently whereby a Windows XP Pro machine didn’t seem to want to connect to the internet, or so it appeared. I tried accessing google.com and hotmail.com and both returned error pages as did MSN Live Messenger when trying to log in.

I checked the BT HomeHub and the broadband light and LAN lights were on but I rebooted the hub just for good measure.

I then connected my iPhone to the hub via wi-fi and it was instantly online so no problem with the broadband connection itself and access to google.com and hotmail.com was fine.

The ethernet cable from the router to the computer was seated correctly, the XP machine had picked up an IP properly from the router’s DHCP, it all seemed ok.

I tried accessing bbc.co.uk just in case it was a caching error and to my surprise it loaded the page without delay.  After trying a few others, skynews.com, digg.com, etc I established it was just a handful of sites affected. Continue reading “Unable to access google.com (a few other sites) or sign into MSN messenger (fix)”