enrii.blog

I spent 17 minutes talking (and listening to commercials) to a Streamyx technician because she insisted me to do some silly troubleshooting.

My settings: A few computers connected to a D-link router modem. I'm able to access the router page from my PC.

My problem: ADSL/Link light blinking, which is obviously a problem with the line.

The silly troubleshooting instruction:

1. Do direct connection from the wall socket to the modem, then restart the modem. (Acceptable)
2. Open your PC, open up command prompt, type: ipconfig, then check the IP address, subnet mask and default gateway is correct. (Why should I do so when I'm able to access to router page?)
3. Ping your own IP. (???)
4. Ping your localhost. (...)
5. Ping your own the default gateway. (.........)

I was wondering how the troubleshooting instructions would help her identify the problem. Finally, she restarted the port at their side and the internet works again.

So, what you should really do, is to ask them whether there's any outage at your area. If there's none, tell them you have done the above then ask them to restart the port.

Other tips:

1. Make sure you paid your bill. You can check by calling their billing department.
2. Call them on your handphone or cordless phone, so that you can walk around to do what is needed to be done.
3. You can save money by calling 100 from your home line, but you will need extra line to do so. Else, you will either get noise (if you have extra extension) or disconnect your own phone.

Enjoy troubleshooting...

I have done some Google searches researchs recently to fulfill the requirements of a project. One of them is to embed audio player in them web-based system, which will be played in Mozilla Firefox.

Server side

The HTML code that works for me:

<OBJECT id="Player"
	type="application/x-ms-wmp" 
	width="210" height="45">
	<PARAM name="autostart" value="false"/>
	<PARAM NAME="URL" VALUE="test-mp3.mp3">
	<PARAM name="PlayCount" value="1">
</OBJECT>

Client side

In Firefox, I found that I'll have to install a plug-in from Port25: Windows Media Player Firefox Plugin

The better solution might be to use Flash media player, but most of it are not suitable for a commercial product (unless I write a new one?).

Do comment if you have better recommendations!

When you an try to open a Microsoft Office Excel file, you get an error message that sounds like:

The file you are trying to open, 'XXX.xls', is in a different format than specified by the file extension. Verify that the file is not corrupted and is from a trusted source before opening the file. Do you want to open the file?

Most of the time, when you get that message, your Excel file is corrupted. Here's a way to get data from your corrupted file.

1. In office 2007, click on the round office button, then 'Open' (in older versions, go to File > Open).
2. Select the problematic Excel file. Then, click on the small triangle on the right of the 'Open' button.
3. Click on 'Select and Repair...'.
4. Then, 'Extract Data'.
5. Try both 'Convert to Values' and 'Recover Formulas' ('Convert to Values' works for me).

The small menu at Open button if you can't find it:

Of course, you are going to lose some formatting or data, but at least you still have something.

Hope this helps.

Because Yahoo! charging so high for domain names, I tried to transfer it to GoDaddy, after I received Account Suspension Warning from Yahoo!. I waited for 5 days and finally received an notification from GoDaddy telling that the transfer is successful! Please refer to this guide at GoDaddy if you need to do the same.

During the process, I learned that Yahoo! Small Business support is simply stupid, or they are just machines that only know how copy and paste information from their help pages.

I have done all the steps required and the status at GoDaddy was to wait for final confirmation from Yahoo, so that it can be transferred. Here are our email conversation, if you are interested:

--

I'm planning to transfer my domain (<a domain name>) at Yahoo to
Godaddy. I followed exactly the instruction at http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/smallbusiness/domains/authcode/authcode-04.html

In the last step, it mentioned that "Once your transfer is complete,
we'll send you an email confirming the transfer". However, I'm not
receiving any email after so many days.

--

Hello Englee,

Thank you for contacting Yahoo! Small Business Support.

As per your Whois information, the admin email id used is:
engleeteh@gmail.com .You must receive any communication from go Daddy in
this email id.

http://whois.domaintools.com/<a domain name>

If you wish to change this email id then, if you are planning to update
your domain name's contact information can only be done through your
domain name registrar.

If you registered your domain name using Yahoo! Domains, the personal
information you provided in your order was used to register your domain
name. As required by ICANN, the Internet governance organization, this
information is publicly available via Whois database interfaces.

You can edit the Whois contact information associated with your domain
name by accessing your Domain Control Panel and clicking the
"Registration Information" link.

1. Log into your Yahoo! Domains account with your Yahoo! ID and password
by clicking on the "Sign In" link at the top of the page:

http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/domains/

2. Click the "My Services" tab, then click on the Domain Control Panel
for the account you wish to edit.

3. Click the "View/Edit Your Domain Registration" link.

4. Click the "Edit button". Edit the fields for Domain Registrant and
Administrative Contact as necessary.

5. Click "Update".

Changes to your WHOIS record may take up to 24 hours to take effect.

Please note: If you registered your domain name through Yahoo! Domains
before January 22, 2001, your domain name registrar is Network
Solutions. You can update your contact information by going to the
Network Solutions web site.

Please do not hesitate to reply if you need further assistance.

--

Hi,

My question has nothing to do with admin email. I have access to that
admin email account and I have followed the instructions and completed
the transfer request. In the last part of the transfer, is the final
confirmation from your side.

I have waited for days but I haven't receive any confirmation of
transfer from Yahoo!.

Please let me know what else I can do.

--

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Yahoo! Small Business Support.
I have read your email and understand your concern.
To initiate the transfer process please provide the authorization code
to your new register.
To retrieve authorization code:
------------------------------

1. Log in to Yahoo! Small Business account with Yahoo! ID and password
at:

http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/services/

2. Click on the Domain Control Panel for the account you wish to edit.

3. Click the "View Your Authorization Code" button to get your
authorization code.

Please retrieve the authorization code for all your domains.
Once you have retrieved your authorization you will have to cancel your
plan with Yahoo!.
Please note that if you decide to cancel your service:

* The service is non-refundable.
* All Files & Emails will be deleted from the Yahoo! network.

To cancel your Yahoo! Web Hosting account:-
1. Log into your account with your Yahoo! ID and Password at:
http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/
2. Click the button "Small Business", next to "Manage your services", at
the top of the page.
3. Click the link "Cancel Plan" next to the plan you want to cancel.
4. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the process.

When the cancellation is complete you will receive a cancellation
complete message.
After you have cancelled the plan please reply to this email with a
request to release the domain from the Yahoo! reseller list. After we
receive your request we will release the domain to our registrar
Melbourne IT.
Once the domains are released from the Yahoo! Reseller list your
transfer of the domains to Godaddy can be completed. Please provide the
authorization codes of the domains to Godaddy.

Please do not hesitate to reply if you need further assistance.

--

What do you think about their support?

Few days ago, I received an email from Yahoo! Small Business reminding me to renew one of my domain name with them. Then only I realised that the credit card I registered with them has been replaced few months ago. I didn't really do much as normally, GoDaddy (I have many domain with them) would remind me so many times to renew a domain.

Until yesterday, I received a similar email again, titled "Past-Due Payment Reminder", and the amount was 34.95. I thought it must be in Malaysian Ringgit, however it is still expensive it is showing in Malaysia Ringgit.

So, I think I should find out what actually happened. I found out that Yahoo! has announced that they had increased the price of a domain to USD34.95. Wow... Should I say I'm lucky because I have replaced my credit card? I would have been charged without any notice from them. I didn't receive any email from them telling me the new rates!

Is this a trap? Actually, I bought this domain few years ago from Yahoo! because they were selling a domain for only USD2.99.

Now, I believe the domain should be expired but the website seems to be still running. The email I received was actually came on the day the domain expired.

So, I try to transfer the domain to GoDaddy. GoDaddy seems to be making so much business from Yahoo's new domain price. They even wrote a PDF guide to help you transfer domain from Yahoo.

I'm still not sure whether it would work, since the domain is expired. Nonetheless, I have done everything stated in the guide. The final stage would be to wait for Yahoo registrar to approve the transfer.

Wish me luck!

(Anyhow, the domain does not have anything running, so I think if I were to choose between paying USD34.95 or lose it, I would prefer to lose it!)

Update: Transfer successful!