The problem with Android Mobile Mail with old IMAP mail servers

Another client reported weird problems to me today.

Jessica: my emails went missing again!!! I received it on my Samsung Phone, but I don't get to see it on my Outlook. Why is this happening?

Me: Well, let me check...
(Proceed to check....)

1. Verify that email communication from external email party works from my outlook to her mail server, and that she is able to receive my email in outlook. - Checked!

2. Check the webmail if the emails were stuck in webmail... - Checked!

3. Verify if there are any other devices downloading emails apart from her Outlook on the notebook... - Checked!

Hmmm.. So what seems to be the problem? None of these seems to be an issue...

Aha! Lets change the password to the mail account.. The rogue email client on an unknown device should be able to prompt for an alert!

While doing so, the tablet started making noise... "Wrong email password!"

Root of problem found...
Tablet was configured with email - IMAP using the default mail app.
But why is it that the mail server couldn't handle the access?

Started to check the settings, found out a weird bug with email server - Qmail on Plesk 8.3 (yea, I know its old..) to be problematic when a device (outlook) downloads using pop mail connection while the other mobile devices utilize IMAP or even POP!!

Seems like when I have read an email on my devices, the message cannot be downloaded by Outlook thinking that it has been 'read'. Especially so if Outlook is configured to leave a copy behind and delete after a number of days.

Solution on Android??
- use K9 mail application!!
Somehow this is a far more stable configuration and settings. While I didn't dare to try using the IMAP configuration, I used POP mail download settings and everything worked marvelously...

K9 mail is free on the playstore.. Go try it out!

Oh one more thing... iPhone mail app doesn't have this issue though.... Ha! I shall not comment further...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Cisco AnyConnect VPN Connection

A client of mine called me just a minute ago and mentioned that she needs a VPN access using Cisco AnyVPN connect. 

Upon google-ing, found out that Cisco requires people to pay for the client download and access! Yikes!

It requires a partner or an admin subscription to access the download location.

As such, after searching hi-and-lo, I manage to locate the file to be downloaded and place them in my personal storage for future references.

The link to download for both English (32bit and 64bit) is here!

Enjoy!

Windows 7 unable to access a Windows 2003 Standard - Networking Issue

I encountered a really weird problem today. I have a client running Windows 7 and had no problems accessing any other servers in the network - Windows 2008 R2. However, when trying to access my Windows 2003 domain controller, 192.168.1.9/255.255.248.0 I couldn't even PING it! 

Yes I have internet access, I can access other servers, I have verified that there's no firewall block on either side (both PC and Server).

Other computers in the network can access all the servers including this Windows 2003 domain controller.

I thought it was a network port, and viola! My Laptop was able to ping and connect to the DC with the same port.

Not the server, not the switch, not the port, not the cable, not firewall.... hmmm.... Then I checked the IP address and found the workstation being assigned 192.168.1.255/255.255.248.0

I set the IP address for workstation to another.... and VIOLA! Resolved!
Set the DHCP reservations on the DC to not-assign .255 address, and problem was resolved!
Set Dynamic IP again for the PC. :)

Windows 7 Thinkpad Battery Gauge Blinking &Flicker Problem

A client came to me today reporting of his Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon (oh my.. what a baby!) having a problem...

The battery sign at the bottom right hand corner, where the Lenovo has their battery charging icon and power settings repeatedly blinking and disabling the use of the Windows Taskbar.
I did google-d a little (sorry for the misuse of name), and found a person reporting the same kind of problem (here) where his battery gauge icon flickers all the time.

I tried the following to no avail:

1. Perform System Restore
2. Removed Lenovo System Support Tools
3. SFC /ScanNow
4. Safe-mode and see if the problem persists: it does!
5. Remove all temp files/folders
6. Repaired registry using Ccleaner...

The last thing that helped... Simply re-create the user's profile in Windows 7 and the problem disappeared!
The only problem is, the previous profile is still bugged. Which means, it's profile specific.

Next, I ran chkdsk, and repaired all the issues with the disk, but the problem persists.

Well, I had to transfer all user's files/folders/start-menu items and email configuration.

Problem solved!

Remotely restarting my 'stuck' server

Saturday afternoon, found some alerts.. Yikes! one of the server refuses to replicate backup across the WAN!

Started my mRemoteNG and tried connecting... found out my dear server is 'stuck' with a blank console with no icons and no way to restart 'explorer.exe'.

Solution?

1. Used my virtual machine to VPN into the network using PPTP VPN (already set-up of course). I had to use my virtual machine as I am downloading couple of stuff and I'd hate to get it interrupted. :)
2. Go to start >> Run >> \\(server name)
3. Key in administrator's username and password, once you can get access to the server shared folders, you may then close the screen.
4. Run command prompt, and type the following command: shutdown -f -r -m \\(server name)
5. Note: If VPN doesn't allow access to the server via Computer Name, use the IP address. It'll work.

The screen will look like this below:

The first error, access is denied, happened because I haven't yet log-in to the server.
The second one initiated the shutdown-restart all-right. 
That worked! I can now login to the server back-to-normal using my mRemoteNG!

Customizing Windows Themes for a personal 'touch'

I have always like leaving a fingerprint unique to my taste on the services that I offer. It could be with a documentation that I have generated or a way that users can remember that I've done this job with an extra mile and-a-smile. :)

While waiting for my colleague to take some awesome photos to be used for our systems that we've 'overhauled', I realize I could use the awesome Windows Theme Packs to personalize the systems we set-up!

Theme packs for free, are available from: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-SG/windows/themes 

Some of my Favorites:

1. Carribean
2. Painted Skies
3. Forestry
4. Magic Landscapes 

These are the least intrusive and relaxing themes that I'd like to see. The beauty of applying these:

• Less stressed out users
• Gives more interesting colors to desktop
• Changes wallpaper all the time! :)

Ps. My apologies for the lack of updates. I promise to update more on this blog for 2013 onwards!

Issues with Outlook Message Recall

Message recall function in Outlook doesn’t work with any normal condition. It requires a few things in place:

1) Senders and Recipients must be on Exchange Server environment

2) Senders and Recipients must have Outlook 2003-2010 that supports message recall

3) Senders and Recipients must have Outlook opened or running in the background when message was sent/received.

Therefore,we can conclude that at this point, message recall is only useful for internal organization message recalls especially for people who are more desk-bound, as message recall will run successfully on the sender if Outlook is opened on the recipient side.

A little weird, but it’s true.

More info:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/how-message-recall-works-HA001091760.aspx