FAQs of Life

One of the features that I get a lot of questions is about the Outlook 2003 (and 2007) auto complete function and it’s relation, or lack there of, to Outlook Contacts. Anyone that has used Outlook for any length of time knows what I’m talking about; when you open a new email and start typing an address and you get a list of addresses to pick from. If an address does not AutoComplete, it will be added to the list and show up the next time you start typing that address. This is a terrific function and the majority of Outlook users - myself included - continually use this feature.

Outlook Contacts are used to store email addresses, multiple phone numbers and mailing address, and just about any other piece of info that you could associate with a person or company. Once you have an email address listed for a contact, you can easily use your “Address Book” to pick users and send messages without retyping their address. There is no link between email addresses that exist as Contacts or email addresses that are stored in your AutoComplete list. If you update an email address for a person in your Contacts, there is a very high probability that the old address exists in the AutoComplete list, making it far too easy to send a message to an old address even after you’ve updated it in your contacts.

So what’s the problem with AutoComplete (also called Nickname file)? There are three specific problems that I’ve encountered with this feature.

1. The AutoComplete information is kept in a file, separate from the rest of your Outlook information. It’s difficult to transfer the AutoComplete list to a new computer
2. If you’re not careful, you can easily send a message to the wrong person
3. Removing entries from the list is not intuitive.

The first issue is the biggest problem - the AutoComplete file is not kept in the same place as your Outlook information. If you work in a company and have a dedicated email server, any information you have stored in Outlook is most likely backed-up on a regular basis. Except for the AutoComplete file. This file isn’t stored on your company’s email server but in your user profile on your local computer. In Windows XP, this file is stored in C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\profilename.NK2. (Replace username with your username and profile name with the Outlook profile display name, this is often just “Outlook”). And if you use Outlook with a local PST file, hopefully you’re backing up your PST file. (If you’re not take a look at Mozy online backup). But the .NK2 file is stored in a completely different location than the PST file.

Since this file is not stored with the rest of your Outlook data, not only do you have to be diligent in backing the file up, you also have to manually move it if you get a new computer, regardless if you are using an email server or use a PST file. The basic procedure for moving the AutoComplete is copy the file from C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\profilename.NK2 and put it into the same location on the new computer. If the Outlook profile name is different on the new computer, rename the NK2 file to match.

The second issue is that while very convenient, the AutoComplete feature makes it VERY easy to misaddress emails. If you don’t pay attention, it’s very easy to send the salary reports to Steve the assistant rather than Steven the CFO. Just last night one of my clients sent me an email intended for someone else because she didn’t check the address that the AutoComplete filled in.
Building on the second problem, there are very limited options if you want to edit the AutoComplete file. There’s no built in way to edit an entry and deleting entries isn’t clear either. Here’s the steps for deleting a AutoComplete address

1. Open a new email message
2. In the To field, type the first letter of the address you want to delete which will bring up all the AutoComplete entries under that letter
3. Using the Arrow Keys - very important to use the Arrow Keys on the Keyboard and not the mouse - arrow down to the entry that you want to delete
4. When you have the desired entry selected, press the Delete Key

If you want a tool to manage/edit the AutoComplete list, I recommend checking out NK2View.

One of the most common questions that I get is about email “bounces” - why did this message get returned?? The funny part is, the more time I spend managing email servers, the more surprised I am that any email ever gets to the intended recipients! That said, we can usually figure out why the message didn’t make it through from the information in the bounce message.
Here’s a few Non Delivery Reports (NDR) that different customers have received in the past couple of weeks

goodemail.server.com #5.3.0 smtp;553 5.3.0 nlpi050,DNSBL:521< 65.6x.1xx.7x>_is_blocked.__See_http://www.att.net/bls_rbl/_for_information.>

goodemail.server.com #5.5.0 smtp;591 recipient@idontknowtheirblockingemailtome.com your host [64.1xx.2xx.2xx] is blacklisted by feb.spamlab.com. No mail will be accepted>

goodemail.server.com #5.5.0 smtp;550 lotsofemail@recipient.net…User account is overquota

In many cases, unless you’re the email administrator, you may not be able to resolve the problem but you’ll never know unless you read the error message. While these error messages are not “user-friendly” as computer error messages go, they are far from cryptic. The words “blocked” and “overquota” should give you a clue on what the problem is. If an email server is blocking your email, you’ll need to get the administrator (either your admin or the recipients) involved. However if you see an “overquota” or “mail box is over allowed size” message, you can often solve the problem by phoning the recipient and having them delete some of the email stored on their server!

Many times, there will be links listed in the error message that have more information about why the email didn’t go through. In the first NDR listed above, the sender’s email server was listed on a “real-time blacklist” (RBL - a spam prevention mechanism - a topic for another post) and you can use the link to get your server removed from the list.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what people’s expectations of the computer repair industry since watching a recent CBC “undercover investigation.” The premise was a TV new producer had 10 different technicians from various chains come to a private home to diagnose and hopefully repair a broken computer and the visit of each tech was filmed. Of course, the computer had been expertly sabotaged by some “highly respected” computer professionals and professors at the local university who proceeded to claim that the problem would cost $25 to fix. Now the actions of one of the techs was outright deplorable, the other nine techs seemed to preform reasonable troubleshooting techniques. While the reporter and her band of pros back at the university find fault in the performance of the 7 of the 10 techs, the majority of their critiques are based on their unrealistic expectations.

What you need to know before calling for in-home repair

1. What is it going to cost? Does the provider charge a flat-fee or is it hourly? Is there a charge for travel? In the CBC investigation, the “customer” is continually shocked when presented with the bill. The charges were between $60-$120 for labor which is well within the norm for this type of service. Ask about the charges BEFORE you schedule the service!
2. If your technician works for a company that sells hardware or software, they will most likely attempt to “up sell” a hardware or software upgrade. This is how they make money.
3. At the same time, it may very well be cheaper to replace a computer than to pay an hourly fee + parts to repair your 6 year old PC. I have made this recommendation several times with an clear conscience. I’d rather a customer spend $500-600 dollars replacing an old machine than pay me for 2-3 hours (at $125/hr) to get another six months of use out of a machine. In the long run it will be cheaper to replace than repair.
4. Think about why in-home repair costs what it does. While most PC techs enjoy what they do, this is not charity and the businesses have to make money or they would not exist. With travel time between sites and other overhead, from my experience it is difficult to have more than 3-4 visits in a single day. Plus, when scheduling appointments, you have to give a cushion in case a job runs longer than anticipated. How much would car mechanic charge for servicing your car in your garage?

Most of the folks that are in the computer repair business are not out to gouge you but you need to have realistic expectations and ask questions before getting started!

As a IT professional/computer geek, I have to stay current with the latest mainstream (meaning Microsoft) operating systems. While I’ve had access to Vista since November of 2006, I’m still running XP and have absolutely zero motivation for “upgrading.”   And I’m not alone. While XP to Vista upgrades are very rare due to the Vista’s hefty hardware requirements,  business customers continue to order new computers, fully Vista compatible, with Windows XP preinstalled! Just last week, due to high demand Microsoft announced OEMs would be allowed to sell computers preloaded with Windows XP until June 2008. At that time Vista will have been out for over 18 months!

I directly support nearly 200 desktop computers over a variety of industries and provide second-level support to organizations with another 500-600 computers.  Of all these computers, there are about 10 computers (7 are at one client) that have Vista installed on them.  All of these computers were purchased new with Vista preinstalled.  Since Vista was widely released in Febuary 2007, I have personally deployed somewhere in the neighbor 40 computers that were ordered with Windows XP despite the availability of Vista at the same price.

From my experience, here’s what is holding back the adoption of Vista:

1. Despite the marketing campaign touting the WOW! there are no “killer” applications or features. What does Vista do that XP doesn’t do better or faster? There are a few “neat” features, the graphics are prettier but that is no motivation for a business to move to a new OS.
2. Compatibility issues.  Cisco, Intuit (Quickbooks), Palm, and Dell (printers) are just a few of the companies I’ve encountered over the past six months whose products have Vista compatibility issues.  I’ve had problems with Vista integrating with other Microsoft products (specifically Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007).  Due to the drastic changes in the security model employed in Vista, many applications and peripherals that worked in XP have to be modified to work in Vista (if they’ll work at all) since many of the behind the scenes stuff changed to increase “security.”  While Microsoft is to blame for the decades of lax security in previous versions of Windows that allowed developers to ignore security issues to be swept aside, these companies literally had years to prepare their products to work with Vista.
3. Performance.  On hardware that exceeds the recommended specs for running Vista, XP is faster.  I don’t have any fancy graphs or charts to prove this but it isn’t hard to see it.  Simple tasks such as coping files doesn’t work well.

I make my living working on computers. Network Engineer or IT Consultant are the preferred titles but most of the time I’m referred to as the “computer guy.” With over 11 years experience in the computer service industry and the last six years as a ‘consultant’ you would think that dealling with the average home PC or network would be no big deal, easy money. Wrong. In an office environment, the PCs are there for one reason, to help folks get their jobs done. Home computers - especially those used by pesky teenagers - are the sports utility vehicals - they need to do all sorts of homework, maintain countless playlists and then there are the games. I cannot count how many times I’ve been called out to clean up a spyware and/or virus infected home PC running all sorts of P2P sharing apps. Here are some tips for keeping those home PCs in a usable -

• Maintain seperate accounts for all users of the machine and restrict all account except for one administrator. This allows you to control what software gets installed on the PC and helps keep spyware and viruses off it.
• Make sure your antivirus/antispyware programs are running and up to date. If you don’t have antivirus or antispyware programs download the Google Pack here which includes a six-month free subscription to Norton Antivirus and a free personal edition of AdAware.
• Keep computers out of your kids rooms and in a common area and keep an eye on what they are doing.

What kind of computer should I get for my son/daughter when he/she goes to college?

It depends - and yes I do say that a lot. There is rarely a question regarding technology that can properly be answered without more specific information, but often times folks don’t know what questions to ask! Anyway, here are a few of the questions you should ask when considering a computer purchase for your new college student:

Does the college have any computer requirements/recommendations? Some schools have established guidelines for entering students. Check with the campus computer store (often part of the book store).

What do they need to do with the computer? Basic functionality such as email, writing papers, and web-surfing are a given, but do you have an aspiring Spielberg or Gates on your hands?

What are they going to be studying? The needs of a social science major will be quite different than someone focusing on creative arts or film.

What computer resourses are available on campus? Perhaps there’s a multimedia lab available for the once-a-semester project that requires a higher-end computer for video editing so you don’t need to equip junior with the same tools that he’ll use twice in his 4-5 years at the university.

Notebook or Desktop? Have you seen the size of dorm rooms? The only benefits of a desktop over a notebook for a college student is price (for the same level of performance desktops are cheaper) and the ability to upgrade individual components later. Nearly all colleges now offer some sort of wireless internet access for the in-between-class email checking from a notebook on a sun drenched quad… Oh - one more case that you might want a desktop is for the ultra high end performance - video editing and multimedia apps require more performance that usually isn’t available on notebooks without spending a fortune.

And somewhere along the line you’ll need to decide between a Mac and a PC but that’s
a topic for a different day.

“You’re a computer guy, you must have a really great computer – what do you have?”
I really don’t have anything fancy since the most resource intensive app that I use is QuickBooks. My primary machine is a Dell Latitude D620 notebook (which I absolutely love) and it’s at arms distance nearly 24/7. I have a 4+ year old home-built desktop that I use when ever I’m actually lucky enough to sit at *my* desk. The Latitude and desktop basically interchangeable functionality-wise, so I defer to the desktop if I have any prolonged data entry. Desktops still have an edge ergonomically and at this point can’t justify the expense of a docking station (at least the nice one that I’d want). I also have a Compaq Presario 2581 that has been retired to the “living room” computer which is used just for surfing and the occasional online poker session.