1803 update - WiFi Slow

The April Microsoft update is now available.  Update to version 1803.
I have now updated a couple of the Lamas HQ systems, including mine and the Network Managers'.

The systems I have updated so far have happened apparently successfully.  (fingers crossed or your superstition of choice!)

When I say successfully, I mean that the system has done the update and rebooted and then has gone on to work.  No reboot loop or blue screen equivalent, Automatic repair loop or such like.  There are different degrees of successful!

What I have noticed is that my laptop internet connection is slower than a slow thing going slowly.

A major update like this is usually followed by a Disk Clean-up and a driver update and maybe a malware, rootkit and full virus scan to just complete the job.

The Driver update, didn't make any difference.

I found a website that gave some ideas about post 1803 installation but it suggested installing a driver updater that a) gave me exactly one scan then started demanding money to go any further and b) is showing up on Malwarebytes as (Surprise!) a Potentially Unwanted Program!  So it was an Advert rather than an informational piece.

Malware scan found the PuP as above, and the brilliant and marvelous resources on  BlackViper detail the services required to run Windows 10 without any extraneous stuff.

It was still the same after the services check.

The Ethernet adapter works fine and is giving a realistic and proper speed.
An external wifi dongle, once installed and operational, gave a sensible wifi speed.

Lamas HQ systems have a third party security application installed, which includes both AV and Firewall.  So, the Windows Firewall is disabled.

It appears that disabling the Windows Defender Firewall was my error.  Once I changed the Windows Defender Firewall service from Disabled to Manual, my internal WiFi started working as it should giving more than 10mbps closer to 50!

Windows updates again

I recently received a text message from a friend -

Just using XXXs laptop. AV isn’t working. Its saying its snoozed so unprotected. Don’t know whats happened but do you know how to unsnooze it?  AV will not open via the desktop or settings.

I replied to this with my standard "reboot the system and report back" text.  Yep, the old “Turn it off and Turn it on again” routine that IT professionals have been relying on for years.

The reply she sent me a bit later was

 “THAT WORKED. FAB! Thanks xx”

Most of the issues seen recently here at Lamas HQ have been update related.

A Wifi not connecting properly or sound not working.  Minor annoyances which, on their own are not too terrible and may not always be either noticed or dealt with.  Over time this will lead to vulnerabilities.

Current Windows 10 systems are mostly laptops. 

How do you turn off your laptop?

Very often all I do is close the lid at the end of the day, which is not actually turning it off just sending it into hibernation or sleep or suspended (or whatever it is currently named)  Windows 10 does minor updates and these are not obvious until a full reboot is performed.

Perhaps the reason IT pros use the Turn it off and Turn it on again routine is because it still works more often than not and it also brings the system back to normal and allows Windows to sort itself out.  I have noticed that a lot of other service providers use the same thought process.  Freeview tv box, cable tv box, all the service calls all start with turn it off and unplug it for 30 seconds.  Now reboot. 

Windows cannot access Network Drive

We have a network drive and media Server at Lamas HQ and I have had some issues recently trying to access it through File Manager.

This is the error message:

I spoke to the Network Manager several times.  He always suggested rebooting my pc or rebooting the router.  Now this sometimes worked.  Other times it was just an exercise in futility ending in me getting extremely frustrated with things and not being able to access anything on the network.

We had a new QNAP server installed earlier in the year and we blamed it on that to some extent.  However, it was getting more and more frequent and more difficult to resolve.

All the Lamas HQ equipment is running Windows 10 fully up to date, patched and fully AV protected.

Turns out that was the reason for the failure to connect!

I did a Google Search on the error and found this explanation on the QNAP site.

The SMB v1 application that was available prior to the 1709 update, is now not available after the update and that is what is effectively, preventing connection through Windows File Manager.

The answer is to map the drive in File Manager and there should be no further issue.

Click on ThisPC in File manager and there are 2 options

The option Map the Network Drive does just that. The folder you specify is the one that it goes to.

In the example above if you were to map the Company Directory you will be able to see that drive and its content but not the Films or other same level directories.

You will be able to map the different top level directories but  each one will need to be done separately.

The other way to do it is to Add a Network Location.

Follow the onscreen directions and then you will be able to pin this to the quick menu.  This will however allow you to see the whole network drive and not just the mapped drive.

Windows 10 update 1709

Windows update 1709 has been hitting systems recently and in some cases hitting hard.

I am sitting in the workshop on a Saturday evening with not just one, but two systems on the workbench.  Pretty crowded in here at the moment, what with the laptop as well, but what were knees made for if not to perch ones laptop on!

One of the systems updated to 1709 and that was the last thing it did!!

The user account would not work and kept logging into a temporary account.

I backed up all the data and after several futile attempts to fix it without the nuclear option it I had to reset.  Not only that, the reset would only do the "clear everything including trash your data" option!

The second one that arrived on the bench today, was looking like it was going to be the same end result but fortunately, a restore of a previous registry backup worked.

It was presenting with a continuous Attempting Windows Startup Repair, and everything you try just takes you back to Attempting Windows Startup Repair!

This is an explanation and a how to - and as always much more eloquent than I would be.

Here is a You Tube video that gives a really good explanation

The other one I have seen recently is the 0x800706d9 error.

OH NO not the old 0x800706d9 error I hear you cry!

That one means that if you are using a 3rd party firewall you need to activate the deactivated Windows Firewall because it wont work without it.

Enable and start the Windows Firewall in Services, update Windows components, stop and disable the Windows Firewall.  Job done. (this was on the Network Managers Laptop and would have been a red alert if I could have been bothered to change the bulb!
However, I didn't deactivate the other firewall!  It seemed to work ok.)

If I get any further 1709 update errors I will add them and their end results here. 

Black Screen - Android -

The network manager and his devices are not having a particularly good week.

He dropped his (recently repaired) phone on the carpet yesterday.  The screen went black and would not respond to either the buttons or the now black and unresponsive touch screen. We knew it was working as it was vibrating. 

The issue was that the screen was not showing anything so it could not be powered off and on again, following the recognised and traditional IT Troubleshooting procedure and best practice.

The network manager also uses his phone as an alarm.  It starts sounding about 6.45 am.  This morning I came downstairs to the sound of the alarm going off quietly.  It had been wrapped in a tea towel and shoved down the side of the sofa in an attempt to “snooze” or at least quieten it down a bit.

It was at this point I pulled the back off and disconnected the battery. 

(This was not the greatest plan but at the time it was the only way to deal with it. This phone does not have an easily accessible battery.  Fortunately I had a the right sticker to put it back together again).

Later in the day, I took the sim and MicroSD card out and held down the power for a short period of time - about 45 seconds to a minute.  Then reconnected the battery, still not working, checked all the connections. Tried again. 

It worked. The phone either had a loose connection or just needed a random power cycle to fix it.    

It appears that it is a well known thing and is well documented on Google.

Google (FRP) Factory Reset Protocol

I will pretend that I’m not the only one who missed the memo about Googles Factory Reset Protection  and explain all about it.

It all began with The Network Manager and his trusty Hudl earlier in the week.  The Hudl was not charging, so having previous form with this kind of thing I ordered a new charging port for it. I fitted it and bingo, it still did not work.  There were more troubleshooting options, like a new battery, a hammer… but how far to take it.  

So He went off to Argos on Saturday  to get hisself a new tablet.  He had done some research along the lines of What about this one it’s a nice colour or this has got 21gigawatts of flux capacitor power or something like that, I lost interest after about number 75.

We are quite good here at Lamas HQ about passwords, we use password managers and other methods to remind us of passwords and are really quite reliable where passwords are concerned, so I was not overly concerned about the loss of any saved passwords stuck in the depths of the deceased hudl. 

New Tablet arrived amid some ooh shiney new tablet interest and then I went off to peel some spuds or re-tile the bathroom or something. 

He started with the obvious enter your google account details, but the account password was incorrect.  The current password was located and everything continued quietly for a while.  The password was not what I would call a strong one and was duly changed for a more complicated one as befits the level of security required.  This has subsequently been identified and ERROR No 1.

ERROR No 2 was allowing the upgrade of Android from 5.x.thing to 6.0 and 6.0.something else so closely after changing the password

When Android upgrades from one version to another it effectively resets the device.  This means that the Google Account information needs to be input again.  However, if the password has been changed within the last 72 hours it locks the account until the password has been changed for 72 hours rendering the device unusable until that time is up. 

This account protection has been around since at least July 2015 and I have read most of a community support thread spanning some 20 or so months, which contained many many voices saying the same thing,”what on earth has happened and why can’t I access MY device” to paraphrase!  It is to stop Tablets and phones being stolen, reset and sold on, but its a pain in the bum if you are not aware of it.

So :

• If you buy a second hand android device that has not had the previous google account removed, it will be useless.
• Try not to reset/upgrade your device and your google password in the same week.

• Make sure you keep a record of the original account details for your android device.
• If you have to perform a reset on your phone delete the google account from the device.

It appears that in the Network Managers  case the Google FRP only held the account up for 24 hours.  I tried to log in the following afternoon 20 hours post password change and it didn’t work.  At 25 hours post password change it did in fact login and continue the setup as normal.  

Top Antivirus and Security

I get asked a lot by friends and clients what Anti Virus application should they use.  I have a preference - one that works!

I read an article recently in PC Pro Magazine which tested the different AV packages.

The top 2 were Kaspersky and Avast.

Kaspersky is a subscription. Avast is available for free.

Yesterday I was asked the question about AVs by a friend, whose subscription was due for renewal in January at a cost of GBP80.00. She decided that it was more cost effective to change to different package!

I checked on the current prices for her.

Argos are currently the cheapest for Kaspersky,

The other option I mention to anyone who enquires is a lot of the ISPs include a security package.  Virgin Media offer F-Secure, BT and Sky offer a security package powered by McAfee,

PC Pro also offer trial subscriptions in their magazine to some of the Security packages for 3 or 6 months,  These are sometimes useful if you are unsure whether a certain security solution will work for you, without making a financial commitment.  I have tried some of the options and found that they were good, but were not what I was looking for.

Windows 10 Running Slowly and showing errors

A couple of systems recently have landed on the workbench at Lamas HQ, that were recently upgraded to Windows 10 that were just not working right.  No amount of fiddling and fixing made any difference. Each time something was fixed something else showed up

Common to all of the laptops were sudden, extended and repeated hangs.  There was nothing showing up on Anti Virus, Anti Spyware, Rootkit or hardware tests.  They had all developed this issue since the upgrade to Windows 10.

I tried updating all the drivers, checking for OS updates and also running the Tweaking application. The Event View was littered with all kinds of events, errors and warnings, but nothing specific enough to give a clear picture of what the issue was exactly.

The only answer I could find to this irritating issue is a Reset.

From the Settings Menu

A full reinstall of the operating system but it keeps your documents, photos & files, although making sure you have some kind of backup is always a good precaution, but it does get rid of applications and those will need to be reinstalled.

Using Reset This PC with the Keep My Files option does not keep any desktop applications that were installed.  For example, MS Office, Chrome and iTunes would need to be reinstalled, as will your security software and printer.  The reasoning behind this is that it could be one of these applications that caused the issue in the first place.  However, once the reset is finished you will find an icon on your desktop that lists all the applications that were not reinstalled, so that you can make the decision whether you need to reinstall them.

There are many tutorials "how to use Reset for Windows 10". So there isn't one here! highlight the words in quotes, copy and paste into your web browser!

Lamas Web Design

The Blog has been quiet recently but that is because Lamas Design is branching out.  

Adding Web development to the list of services.

That is development, not necessarily design.  I may have an Art O’level and be able to draw decent enough stick men, but that is about it.

It’s all about the coding.    And the learning at the moment.

In fact this weekend I learned that Bootstrap (that’s the thing that makes a website look pretty on a full size monitor and then makes it look just as good on a mobile) even though they have Bootstrap 4 out in Alpha, it does not always do the job right or in my case - at all.  

So I am better off sticking with 3.thing.whatever it is for the time being.  

This little exercise of learning took me an hour and a half of head scratching.  Also this weekend I learned (again the hard way) that when using Bootstrap 3.thing.whatever, it only works when you type in the correct name for the classes.  There is a difference between cm-sm-12 and col-sm-12 in that the one starting cm does not exist!

Another lesson, learned over the course of the last couple of weeks is that <form> and <from> are not interchangeable and I need to (a) learn to type and (b) learn to spell.

And I am reworking the Lamas Design website to incorporate the development side of things.  When I say rework I may have understated it a little.  The website is currently sitting on the 1&1 web hosting server designed with the 1&1 templates. Well not for much longer.  I will be putting up a new site soon.  All my own work coded by my own fair hands.  

Windows 10 Parental Controls now called Family Safety

The final PC was upgraded to Windows 10 a couple of weeks ago.  Initially I wanted to have just one PC on Windows 7 to help with troubleshooting, but Windows 10 seems to be ok with this now.

I changed the existing Hard Drive to a an SSD first.  This procedure went smoothly.  There was a small problem with boot on the new drive but that was not unexpected and was quickly resolved.

Once I knew that this was working properly, I set the update to run.  It did this a lot quicker that the rest because it has the most powerful processor and has an "adequate" amount of RAM.

This is the PC that the junior Lamas use to do homework and play their online games so I wanted to be sure that they were not going to find something on the internet that was unsuitable for little eyes.

In Windows 7 it was simple, set the age range and block out the time the account was allowed to use the PC.

In Windows 10 you have to go through the Family Safety and each person signs in with a Microsoft account.  That is all very well, but my kids don't have their own emails let alone a Microsoft Account.
Even the Network Manager has escaped so far without a Microsoft Account.  I have one and have had it since the Tech Previews of 10 started appearing.

The local accounts that the kids have used up to now are not longer relevant as they are now just standard user accounts and have no indication that they are for a child.

Each child needed a MS account created before I could add them to the Family.  Then I had to "add" them to the family.  Then they had to verify that they were happy to "join the Family" by verifying the email received.  This was all actually done by me, as I mentioned before, they do not actually have their own email!  So once this had been done and I had 2 Children attached to the account, I had to set up the times when they were allowed to use the PC and for how long each day they could spend on it.

All Done.  The Network Managers account was changed to be included in the "family" and we were good to go. 

They have been using the PC now for a week or so and it has been working well.  In my opinion, that is!  The Junior Lamas have commented that they have less time on the PC than before.   Nevermind!

It is a overly complicated procedure to set up but I am getting weekly reports on their online activities.

Hardware issues.

A couple of PCs have landed on the workbench recently doing some strange things.  

A desktop that was reporting a corrupted installation of Windows 7, another Windows XP installation that was BSOD without warning and a Laptop that was just mucking about.

Sometimes I can get a bit bogged down by the Windows issues and cannot see the wood for the trees although the voices in my head are yelling at me.  

I heard RAM Issue RAM Issue with the Windows 7 desktop and although I ignored the voices initially they were absolutely correct.  

Windows 7 was erroring out with inconsistent and different error codes (which never make any damn sense in the first place) I installed Windows 10 successfully, but as soon as I tried to reinstall the Applications it all started playing games again.  Error messages and BSODs all over the place.
I set the onboard hardware diagnostics check to run and it confirmed the SMART status of the HDD as healthy and then found and issue with one of the RAM modules.  When I removed one of the RAM modules the PC started running well again.  The issue was hard to spot initially because it was the second stick of RAM.  Had it been the one in the first bay, the issue would have been more apparent as it would have crashed consistently and not every now and again when Windows was up and running. 

The Windows XP system was a duff graphics card.  As soon as another card was installed it ran ok. 

The Laptop was a HDD error.

It is the law of 3s!

I have had 2 clients this week with malware infected laptops and I  managed to infect my own windows tablet by not checking where the download came from.  The first Accept Window should have alerted me to the fact that the Google Chrome installation was not from Google and was a malware infested package, but by then it was too late and I had installed a pile of Malware.

Again, the law of 3s.