Setting Windows Network Adapter Preference - Connected to Multiple networks set priority

A very frustrating issue this one, Especially for people connected to multiple networks be it wired or wireless networks.  Windows will automatically judge which is the best line by determining an automatic metric value for each network adapter  (e.g 1 being high and 100 being low ) with the higher values being preferred.

From my experience this will not effect local traffic though so , if you want all your local traffic and internet access to work try the following steps.

In my case I was connected to 2 wireless networks one being a home network which was used to connect to the internet and another wireless network used for wireless projector ( "yes I know brilliant thinking" :) ) was also connected to a wired private network 

Step 1 : Setting Adapter Preferences ( Local Traffic )

Go to

Control Panel -> All Control Panel Items -> Network and Sharing Center - > Change Adapter Settings

or Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections , or similar depending on your operating system.

Press ALT to bring up the menu bar

Click on Advanced -> Advanced Settings

 Here we can change our adapter preference from the list by hitting the up and down arrows, top for first preference.

that is only step 1 of solution , the next step is to setup your manual metric values


Step 2: Setup Manual Metric Values for each Network Interface

Metric values are normally setup by windows automatically but more often then not they don't work out how you wanted them to because the automatic metric score is based on  link speed, hop count, or time delay (so if you have a weak wifi signal you may get a lower metric value for that NIC)

If we go to the same directory as we did in step 1, network connections or adapter settings

Here we will need to right click on each network interface and setup the metric values manually to tell windows which links we prefer traffic to go down.

Right click on a network interface , and click on properties

Highlight Internet Protocol version 4 (TCP/IPV4) and click on Properties

In the next window click on advanced

now you will be able to enter the metric value manually

( Remember 1 is a high metric and 100 is a low one) these are the recommended metrics by windows generally its good to keep a good distance between the values e.g don't go for 1 and 2 instead try 5 and 50.

that's it your all done, remember to do this for all your network interface cards/adapters so the windows automatic value doesn't take hold of you.

So in my case windows was assigning my preferred network for internet connections lower because i was further away from it.  That will teach my to buy a 2nd hand router off ebay.

Hope it helped

Paypal Pre-Approved Payments issue - Unable to Bill Order

Issue I stumbled on this weekend when I tried to sign up to a magazine subscription that used the paypal pre-approved payment option it pretty much got me nowhere and I kept seeing billing for $0.00 or getting the error Unable to Bill Order

There is a quick fix for this , and the issue is usually caused by some debit credit cards or what preapproved payment options you have setup in paypal.

visit your paypal account

click on Profile -> My Money -> click on Update next to "My Pre-approved payments"

Once your in you can view your current approved payments , and often you will see a whole lot of zero's this is indication that you have not selected enough payment sources or a certain payment source is not acceptable

Click on set available funding sources

now you can select which payment options you prefer to use for pre-approved payments , it best to put a tick next atleast two options. That's it hope that has helped someone who has been frustrated by this issue

note : friends kid had this issue when trying to buy gold on tribes ascend , Unable to Bill Order with paypal approved payments.

Common Lenovo T420S Issues - Unexpected Shutdowns, Freezing and Lag and others

I recently  had the riveting role of setting up a ton of Lenovo T420s laptops and Dell Vostro's and have prepared this post to solve a lot of issues you may face with your Lenovo T420S laptop.

1. Unexpected Shutdowns, Random shutdowns when away from computer

The first one is an unexpected shutdown issue with the lenovo t420s , whenever you are away from the machine for an hour or more it will shutdown unexpectedly and start a start up repair when you next boot up the machine.

Cause

The cause of this issue usually relates the  Lenovo Rapid Boot software installed on most of there newer laptops, uninstalling this software will usually resolve the issue. If not you can try a bios update through system update. (quick update , had one with random shutdown's turned out to be a faulty motherboard , just in case your trying to fix it in vain.)

2. Laggy Screen or Delay when using keyboard and mouse

This is another common one, if you find that when you drag the mouse across the screen you notice a lag every 5-6 seconds or that when you type it doesn't appear instantly you can try the following

Cause

The most common cause for this issue I have seen are dodgy Bluetooth drivers, for some reason an older version of lenovo's Bluetooth drivers caused a lot of hanging and lagging issues almost like it was paired to a Bluetooth device that was slightly out of range.

 There could be a more straight forward reason for this but turning off the bluetooth Fn + F5 , or just switching off the wireless with hardware switch usually works.  You can also update your bluetooth drivers but they often hang during installation. (update : Turns out the most common cause of this issue is a dodgy motherboard,I've had about 5 replaced so far )


Hardware Related Issues

I've also had a few hardware related issues which may help you diagnose your issue

Noisy Fan - Very common with the t420s or any slimline lenovo laptop, Replace FAN call lenovo

Wifi won't work - Switch broken or not connected properly , call lenovo fix motherboard connection

Laggy Mouse and Keyboard - motherboard , keyboard and palm rest was replaced in my case

Computer Super slow - Run a hard drive diagnostic test from the bios, possible dying dead hdd

I shall add more as appear, feel free to ask a question about any issues you've had most likely I've run into them as well.

Installing GCC Compiler for Windows - For C , C++ , Objective C, Fortran

So I was talking to my friend the other day who wanted to start C Programming , I said "hooray" only problem was when he wanted to get his compiler up and running he was having a lot of trouble.

If you goto the official GCC compiler site you will be given source codes and a whole lot of different packages and unless your very competent with using command line and building packages and installing from scripts you may get a little stuck.

The easiest way to install GCC compiler for C Programming and a few others (C++, Obj C, Fortran and a couple more) is to download the MinGW compiler for windows. It will basically download all the latest packages for you and give you the options of which compilers you need. It then downloads everything unpacks it all and installs it.

You can download MinGW from http://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/

From there the steps are quite straight forward.


1. Run your setup and choose to download the latest repository catalogues

 

2. Choose your compiler

3. Watch as it downloads all your packages and finishes installing

That's it your all done, you can now use the compiler from the command line,

gcc filename.c

make sure to run the command line from the correct directory ( the directory that contains the gcc.exe or similar files usually C:\MinGW\bin.

There you have it , how to install GCC compiler for windows, hope it helped if not google away

Outlook Folders Empty - Items missing from Shared Mailbox and Local Mailbox

Common issue found in any version of Microsoft Outlook, you know there are items in the inbox or sent items folder etc, but you just can't see them there they are either missing or the total folder is empty. This will also apply to a mailbox you have shared or delegate access to.

The fix is simple run outlook from Start -> Run , and use the switch

Outlook.exe /cleanviews

hallelujah, and there you have it. hopefully...

if not most likely the item has been deleted and you can try and retrieve them by using the recover deleted items option from the folder tab