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Just had a problem where all the outbound traffic was peaking to max and holding causing tons of problems with voip products and other outbound traffic, but most noticeable on streaming media.

This problem occured just after installing Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO). Actually several things happened at the same time including new computers on my network, so I had to do some sniffing to find where it was coming from. I finally used ProcMon on my own machine and found PMB.exe pushing out tons of UDP traffic. One web site suggests that this application is a bittorrent like application that continues to provide upload services after the download and installation is complete.

When I found it, I discovered that PMB was Pando Media Booster. Then found and removed it without any problems via Add and Remove Programs. LOTRO continues to operate without a hitch. I will see what happens on the next program update and see if it gets installed again.

Note: 11/10/2011 - Pando Media Booster doesn't get reinstalled by any of the games I've tested so far and game patches work fine.

Related content:

League of Legends and Pando Media Booster 

Well Sage software did it again.  They released a tax update to download automatically into Peachtree 2009 Complete accounting (also Quantum 2009) but didn't download the required SR update to go along with the Tax update.  When I went to the menu option, Services/Check for updates, I got nothing.

So we are forced to go to a link that only shows up in the Tax update completion screen and if you don't get it there, you'll have to hunt for it.

Here's the link: http://www.peachtree.com/readmore/Peachtree_2009SR5

You just need to select the Peachtree software you are using to install SR5.  

If your company data is on a network drive, you will be directed to update the server first.  Once that's done, when you come back to the workstation, you'll find that SR4 is still installed on the workstation.  Running the update manually which worked on the server, will not work on the workstation.  You get a message indicating that your company data is on a shared drive and that you need to upgrade the server first.

I seem to remember this happened before and there is some way to "trick" Peachtree into installing the SR on the workstations.  I'll have to call Peachtree and leave this info here when I have it.   Monday...

This page had a lot of good info, but found that a file what was missing in our server's peachtree directory.  The file name: SRVerInfo.ini.  

The contents:

[SRVerInfo]
Ver=16.0.05

I had a customer who lost their DSL connection and knowing Verizon's usual troubleshooting techniques, I went through them myself before I called. Unfortunenately, the problem was that the customer had not paid for their service.  The phone line worked for incoming calls just fine so that wasn't an indicator.  The DSL line was the fax line.  I did notice that when I connected to the DSL modem admin page, the public IP address was 10.xxx.xxx.xxx.  Now that the service is running again, the IP address is 72.xxx.xxx.xxx, so apparently, Verizon blocks the service by assigning a non-routed IP address.

The troubleshooting steps I took were: restart the modem, reboot the PC, connect the modem directly to the PC and restart the modem again.  The last resort step is to reset the modem.  There is a reset button on the back of the modem.  After holding this button down for 10 seconds, the power light changed from green to orange.  I held it down for 30 seconds and then released the button.  Shortly after releasing the button the modem shutdown and then the power light turned red and started back up.  All the lights eventually turned green again.

The sequence is:

power green flashing

DSL green flashing, power green flashing

DSL green rapid flashing, power green flashing

DSL green solid, power green flashing, ethernet green (flashing intermittently)

DSL green solid, power green flashing, internet green, ethernet green

All 4 lights green.  When the power light quits flashing and stays green the internet traffic actually starts flowing.

When this didn't get us back on the internet, that's when I called Verizon.  We paid for the service, but the internet service did not come back on as expected. Gotomypc worked. AOL worked. And name services worked.  From this, ports 53, 8200 and whatever port AOL was using were not being blocked.  It appeared only the normal internet ports were blocked such as 80, 443, 25, 21. However, the AOL client could connect to their service and could browse the internet. Once AOL was running, we could browse the Internet using the regular IE browser as well. When AOL was disconnected, we couldn't browse again. Apparently, the AOL client acts as a proxy server routing internet traffic through a different port.

I called Verizon about these unusual anomalies which they couldn't explain.  Everything appeared to be working fine on their end. After poking around the modem  administration page, I finally suggested that we just reset the modem and start from scratch.

The part I missed was directing the modem to 192.168.1.1/verizon/redirect.  At first the technician suggested redirect.htm, but that producted a 404 error page, then she said to drop the htm and it worked.  It came up with a username and password screen which is the same as the default for the Actiontek modem, admin and password.  The next screen only had one button on it. This was called the Verizon security screen.  The button showed the word OFF.  I was told to click it.  It changed to the word ON.  

After restarting the router, we were able to ping.  Apparently there is a port block on the Verizon security page which blocks the normal internet traffic ports.  After that was completed, I put the modem back in the network and all the machines worked fine.

I got ahold of both the Blackberry and iPhone yesterday to perform the transfer.  We did have to go back to the Verizon store so they could activate the Blackberry phone again.  On the Blackberry, I just needed to direct the browser to m.google.com and install the Google Sync software.  The page contains an link for all the Google mobile apps and then individual links for the separate Google apps so you can download and install them one at a time.  The app installed without a problem.  I set up the gmail account and attempted to Synchronize everything.  However, I found that if you have no calendar items, the synchronization just hangs.   When I deselected the calendar items, the transfer of all the contacts worked fine.

I attempted to check gmail at the store to ensure the contacts went copied up fine, but we only had an iPad with it's gimped Safari browser, so I couldn't find the contacts at all.  We decided to go ahead and activate the iPhone again and attempt the contact download.  The odd thing about synchronizing with the iphone is the gmail account has to be setup as an Exchange Server.  The contacts immediately showed up.  We didn't need to synchronize at all.

Mission accomplished.

Installed pgAdmin on a newly setup Windows XP Pro machine.  I kept getting this error with pgAdmin 3 version 1.10.4, which I had just downloaded from the pgAdmin site.  I tried downloading and installing their most recent version 1.12.2.  That version gave an error which indicated that a reinstall might fix it.  

This site had the fix.  Apparently, pgAdmin needs to have the Microsoft C++ 2005 distribution package installed.

I just setup Google voice to pick up my voice mail for my cell phone instead of the standard that Verizon offers.  My issues with with the standard voicemail is the limited storage, limited days they keep the message, the abrupt notification when you go to check new messages that it’s going to delete the expired messages, the fact that there’s no date and time stamp on the message until you are forced to delete the message.

The pluses on Google voice is their storage.  You delete messages from the web interface, not on the phone.  When you press 7 (normally  used to delete the verizon messages), the message is archived.  This removes it from the new message list.  The messages are also transcribed and sent to you via email, so you have a date stamp.  The transcription isn’t the best, but people slur words and are hard to understand.  Accents are especially hard to transcribe.

There are 2 flavors of Google voice.  One gives you a phone number where you can be contacted.  Log in at any pc with a mic and speakers and people can call you there.  If you don’t answer, the message gets transcribed and emailed to you and a text message to your phone (all customizable).  It’s also recorded so you can pick it up and play it later.  It can also be setup to call you at your regular phone and from what I understand, it can call any number of phones you supply, so you can forward the calls to your work number or cell phone or another away phone.  I have a friend who uses this so her kids can call her from any phone in their local area and it will forward to her cell phone.  She does this to avoid them having to call collect or incur charges since her cell phone and work are long distance from home.

The second flavor is voice mail for cell phones.  I don’t know if they can provide the service for all cell phone providers, but for Verizon, they give you a code to type into your phone and from that point on, all voice mail goes to Google voice.  You can create separate greetings for groups of phone numbers based on your address book, so you can leave a separate greeting for friends and one for business.   You can even make a call from the Google voice, but the phone number is not recognizable to the receiving end.  My calls tend to come from the 760 area code.   This comes in handy if you are at a computer with a mic and speakers, you can call back a number without having to use your cell phone.

A sample message from Google voice:

Transcribed:

Hey lender date for or if I was out of company. Gimme a shout back when you get a chance wanted to touch base

Actual message:

Hey <name> this is <name> from <name of company> company.  Give me a shout back when you get a chance.  Just want to touch base.

The calling number is always listed, but it does not translate if that number is on your address book.  I could tell who it was, because I was on the phone at the time the call came in and saw the caller id.  Of course, hearing the actual message helps a lot too.

I have a client that went with the Verizon iPhone after his Blackberry umbilical cord broke.  It appears that it might be in the phone side, because it won’t charge, it won’t backup or synchronize or update.  Now the problem was how to get the contacts out of the blackberry and into the iPhone. 

My client told me that the people at the Verizon store were no help.  I have always thought that they would have all the gadgets needed to perform these tasks, but apparently not.  Or at least, they might not have enough expertise to address the “unusual” situation. 

I thought they’d at least replace the cable.  That’s an assumption on my part, but my client was in Virginia so I didn’t want to grill him on his store experience.  Nothing like going back to the same place that couldn’t help you and asking them to try something else when they should have exhausted all the options first.

I suggested replacing the battery with a fully charged battery and then backing up the address book to the internet, which he didn’t think of at the time and neither did the Verizon store tech.  However, they did sell him an iPhone in it’s place.

My concern is if they deactivated his Blackberry phone, then we’re probably screwed without them.  I found an app that can be installed in the Blackberry phone that would backup the address book and calendar from the Blackberry and save it on their web site and they also have the same app for iPhone.  The provider? Google.

I suggested he go back to the store and make these recommendations.  Install Google Sync on both phones… http://www.google.com/mobile/blackberry/ for the Blackberry and http://www.google.com/mobile/iphone/ for the iphone.  I told him to create an account at gmail and provide the store with the info and see if they could get it done.  This should work as I can’t activate the old phone, they can.

Just got a call from Integrated Access Solutions today.  The sales person claimed that they acquired Nortel and that they had better more sophisticated solutions rolling out and that eventually Nortel would disappear from the market.  The sales man's actual words were "squash the product."  Interesting, I can't find anything on this claim.

After determining that we didn't have over 100 phones and/or multiple locations, he ended the call because they weren't on the page yet.  Looking at what I believe to be their web site at www.integratedaccess.net, these guys are looking more to do an overall systems replacement.  Phone systems is just an inlet for an proposal for infrastructure take over.