[University of Otago] Firefox’s Proxy Auto Detection Problem in Vista

The ability for web browsers to automatically detect proxy settings is really useful when you have to switch between multiple networks all the time.  With Internet Explorer, proxy settings are being detected in both XP and Vista, but things aren’t going so well with Firefox!  If you are using Vista and Firefox happens to be your default browser, you have to manually configure the proxy settings for it to work on our student network…which is NOT convenient at all! 

Read Full Post »

A step by step guide to Authoxy

From what I’ve seen this year on the ITS HelpDesk (@ the University of Otago), there are more and more students having Mac laptops…and I got a fair number of students asking for help with their Skype / Microsoft Messenger. Since the university network is behind a proxy, you need to have some proxy related settings in the software to allow it to go through the proxy. While you can use Adium for the MSN part, its hard to find something to replace the Skype on the Macs. So what can we do about it?

Read Full Post »

University of Otago: WPA2 Patch for Windows XP

Lately I’ve noticed that quite a few people searched for the WPA2 Patch and actually came to my blog instead of the download page from Microsoft. So I’ve decided to put the link (to the download page) here and hopefully it will save you a bit of time.

Read Full Post »

Just submitted an End User Stories to the APC magazine

APC (Australian Personal Computer) is the ONLY computer magazine that I buy every month 😀 They have a section in the magazine that is dedicated to people’s End User Stories. If your story got published, you will get a Microsoft Mouse for FREE! This month (Oct) they are giving away the Microsoft Wireless Notebook Laser Mouse 6000 worth 99.95!!! Since I have had a bit of experience on the helpdesk this semester, I think I should give it a go by sending them the story below…hope they will use it 😉

Read Full Post »

Some thoughts on Student Laptop Support for next year…

This semester I have been doing an internship on the ITS helpdesk. Thanks to all of my workmates, I learned a lot while I was working there, you can’t learn things like communication skills through books / lectures, so thank you for giving me a chance to work on the helpdesk 😀

—

Read Full Post »

Kaspersky saves the day!

I was working this morning when Paul gave me a call and ask me whether I can have a look of a student’s laptop that’s loaded with Chinese versions of XP. I went to his office and discovered that the laptop was having a Chinese version XP Pro. Paul told me there were viruses and trojans on the laptop, and for some reason, some functions like Windows Firewall just won’t start anymore. (we have checked the services related to Firewall). The laptop has been scanned with Sophos before, but since no anti-virus software can guarantee 100% detection rate, I bought the laptop with me and scanned it with Kaspersky to see whether I can find any more “bad guys” on the machine. The results turned out to be very interesting:

Read Full Post »

Work around regarding to the problem with Vista’s Windows Update

I was having a bit of problem with Vista’s Windows Update in the central library…I am keep getting the follow error message:

I didn’t know this until a few people ask me why their Windows Update won’t work on their Vista 😦 Since I am working this morning, I spent a bit of time and try to find the solution on the Internet.

Read Full Post »