Seemingly out of nowhere after literally over a decade of using Spamhaus with no issues, people were having issues sending to us. Their emails were getting flagged as spam – or at least so it would appear to them – they were receiving rejection notices saying that our email server rejected their message as spam. When I combed through our server logs, I noticed the error message actually seemed to indicate that the spamhaus service was unavailable and that’s why it was rejecting mail:
Remote Server returned '550 5.7.350 Remote server returned message detected as spam -> 554 5.7.1 Service unavailable; Client host [40.92.21.67] blocked using sbl.spamhaus.org'
You’ll notice it says “detected as spam” but it also does specifically say: “service unavailable.” So what gives?
Well, thankfully, the geniuses over at MXRoute.com recently posted an article and have asked for help spreading awareness of an issue, so that’s precisely what I’m here to do. Spamhaus has made the horrible decision to no longer accept DNS requests from the most common DNS servers. In other words, if your mail server is configured to use something like Google’s 8.8.8.8, or Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1, there’s a good chance that your request is simply going to get rejected. This, in turn, will cause your server to receive a “service unavailable” message like the one above, which will force it to send a rejection notice to the original sender.
Why was I impacted by this “seemingly out of nowhere?” Because I had recently switched my DNS settings to use 1.1.1.1. Surprise!
You can fix this quickly by switching, painful as it may seem, to your local ISP’s normal DNS entries, or there are ways you can see if you can have your server’s IP address added to a sort of approved list for low volume senders.
I’ve never been much of an Apple guy. The only Apple product I’ve personally owned was a used Mac Mini that I bought just so I could be a little more knowledgeable about helping people troubleshoot Mac problems. But when the European Union said that Apple had to ditch their custom charging port and make it “Common Charger” USB-C port, I feel like Apple missed a golden opportunity.
I recently ran in to a VERY frustrating issue trying to get a Windows 10 computer to boot in to safe mode when the main OS kept freezing up. Modern Windows will “fall back” to safe mode if it detects problems booting, otherwise you’re supposed to enter a hidden boot menu from inside the operating system. But if the OS boots normally and then locks up, it can be difficult to boot to safe mode.
Unlike the olden days of Windows 95 you can’t press F5, or Windows XP just press F8 – so I decided to bring a more thorough boot menu BACK to modern Windows on all my personal computers. This can be done through the Boot Configuration Data editor tool, BCDEdit.
Reddit user “winitgc” asked the question “Why do people hate Windows 10?” And it struck me as an interesting prompt. Mostly because I don’t think of Windows 10 as being so hated. But the more I thought it through, I realized they were right. And I think I realized why. So, I answered:
Let’s ignore the “pre-NT” days (Windows 9x/Me) and just consider Windows XP as the birth of home computing for the masses. XP was ‘basically’ the primary operating system from 2001 to 2007.
Being “the tech guy” in my circle of friends and acquaintances, I’m often approached whenever someone is searching for a laptop or desktop. While everyone’s needs are different, it’s become easier than ever to help someone by giving just a few pointers of what to look for when shopping for a computer.
The QUICKEST SINGLE piece of advice I can give someone is: shop around your CPU of choice. Most of the other stuff will fall in to place. Selecting a good CPU, the manufacturer is likely to build around it with similarly good parts. You could basically build a computer in your mind by searching for just the bolded words in the article below. That being said, here’s what all of those little bits and pieces might mean…
Two computer listings: CPU circled in blue, Memory circled in orange, Storage circled in Red
CPU
The CPU is the most important part of a computer. The brain of it all, the Central Processing Unit. Everything else could be top of the line, but if you skimp on the CPU, you’re GOING to notice the bottle neck and frustrating slowness. Luckily, with 2021 naming conventions, it’s fairly easy to find a CPU that will be alright.
Intel’s i3/i5/i7/i9 Processors are excellent choices, as is anything in AMD’s “Ryzen” series. The higher the number, the more performance you can expect out of it, but even in the case of the lowest tier Intel i3’s, for 95% of people’s use cases, any of these processors are going to handle the workload you’re going to throw at it.
The ones to avoid are Intel Celeron and Pentium processors, or AMD APU’s. In fairness, mid-tier products like the “Pentium Gold” series are head and shoulders above their earlier models, but I definitely think it was sneaky of Intel to play on the good-will and fond memories of the “Pentium” name from the late 90’s and sell a crappy processor to unsuspecting consumers based on name-recognition.
Storage
Do you need a lot of storage space? Are you editing videos? Archiving DECADES worth of photos? Storage is often measured in a high number of “Gigabytes” (GB) or sometimes even Terabytes (TB) these days. You might see a computer with 750GB, or 1, or 2 TB of space on a Hard Disk Drive, or an HDD.
But, for a similar price, you may find a smaller but much, much faster Solid State Drive, or SSD. These are still often 120, 250, or even 500GB in size in 2021, but as mentioned, you will find them to be FAR faster than a traditional HDD. I also find that they give me peace of mind because that’s one less moving part (there’s no “spinning magnetic platter” inside of a Solid State drive).
If you aren’t planning on storing or handling a lot of data at any given time, a smaller but faster SSD is undoubtedly the way to go.
Memory
Random Access Memory, RAM, or these days just “Memory” is the temporary storage used that allows your computer to multi-task more efficiently. This is also measured in Gigabytes, but is often just a one or two-digit number. More is always better, but anything over 32GB is complete overkill for 99% of people.
Some people will look at the amount of memory that their computer uses and cry out that they need more. But modern computers are designed to specifically take advantage of as much memory as you can give them, they’re also very well optimized to function with limited resources. I currently have computers with anywhere from 2GB to 32GB of memory. I recommend about 8 GB for contemporary computing in 2021, but if you can get a good deal on 16 GB, then take advantage of it! If a computer only has 4GB of memory, you MIGHT feel the pinch, but if it fits your budget, I wouldn’t be too terribly worried.
Geek note: because memory is measured in base 2, it doubles symmetrically and is usually available at size intervals such as 2GB, 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB. Though other sizes, like 6GB, 12GB, etc… are sometimes available.
Discrete Graphics
Okay, maybe you plan on doing some gaming on this laptop? If that’s the case, you’re going to want a Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). The trouble is, a good GPU can literally DOUBLE the price of a computer. You probably won’t find a computer with a discrete GPU for under $600, and even those will be on the very low end of the spectrum. These will typically be Radeon or GeForce series GPUs, mentioned in the specs of the computer, and coming from companies such as AMD and Nvidia.
But the good news is, integrated graphics like those from Intel, have come a long way. In other words, if you aren’t planning on gaming or rendering lots of long videos, you basically don’t need to worry about “graphics.” Even if the “gaming” is more geared toward a young child who will be playing Roblox or Minecraft, they might be okay for now. Intel has promised a refresh in the near future making their Integrated graphics closer to the level of the discrete graphics chips (with their “Evo” and “Xe Graphics” badging), but I’ll believe that when I see the results.
Operating System
Windows? Chrome OS? Mac OS? Linux?
Windows is up to version 10, these days, and Windows 10 gets revised about twice a year. It is designed to feel familiar if you’re coming from an older computer, and is far and away the most common computer operating system for desktops and laptops.
People often look at Chromebooks because they are generally made to be more affordable. The disadvantage is that they are designed to do a lot of things in “the cloud.” While those offerings get more and more powerful every day, they can be a little abstract for some people. You’re not going to buy a Chromebook and install Microsoft Office on it. Or Quickbooks. Or many other programs you might be used to using. But if you primarily spend your time on the web and use Google Docs, YouTube, and Facebook and not much else, you might be fine with a Chromebook!
Linux laptops are few and far between, so you don’t need to worry much about that, and Mac OS is, of course, only available on Apple hardware, so it will come with a price tag (I believe their lowest priced laptop begins at $999), but if you’re a Mac user, you already know what you want! ?
Brands
In 2021, laptop manufacturing has come a long way. It’s all about finding the features you want and like. High enough quality screen, thin and light, aluminum body or plastic body, keyboards that light up, etc… find what you like and go for it!
So I was debating whether or not I should write a post similar to this for a while, now… it’s a funny story, and not too long, but it doesn’t exactly paint me in my best light. But, then again, I have already admitted to pulling one over on a cellular carrier, so why not cop to some of the other silly shenanigans I pulled in my younger years?
Also reaffirming my decision to do this, the owner of this particular studio who developed the game I’m about to talk about has recently outed himself on Twitter with some blatantly racist and bigoted remarks, so I don’t feel as bad for what I did. More importantly, as you’re about to learn, I didn’t really DO anything nefarious!
Well this one is annoying. I’ve got several computers at work stuck on “Just a moment…” and no matter how long I let them sit, they won’t get past that screen.
What kind of I.T. person are you? Sometimes where you work defines a lot of the characteristics of what you do in your job. Sometimes the type of person you are decides those factors for you, as well. Today I’m going to walk down memory lane throughout my career, and in this essay-length blog post, I’ll highlight a few lessons I’ve learned along the way.
If you don’t like using the Media Creation Tool, there is a way that you can actually download the ISO files straight from Microsoft’s servers.
If you want to download the Windows 10 ISO file DIRECTLY from Microsoft’s servers, you can do so by getting the URL from a mobile device: I simply used the Microsoft Edge browser on Android (any mobile browser on any platform will work) to visit https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO and request links to an ISO in my language. If you download the ISO files from anywhere else, be sure to verify the their SHA-256 checksums!
Zoom has grown exponentially in a short amount of time. And although it’s not my favorite app, due to its share of issues, it is admittedly already getting better. But some users are running into errors the first time they try to join a meeting. What’s going on?
This page is quickly and easily accessible via https://nuangel.net/ip or https://nuserv.net/ip
This page simply detects and shows your public facing IP address (the IP address of your internet connection). It does not show the local network IP address of your computer, for instance, if your computer is on a corporate network.
In most cases, the IP address you’re seeing above is actually the IP address of your Modem/Router provided by your ISP (Verizon, Comcast, Spectrum, etc…).
In December, I didn’t end up writing an article of any kind. I thought I knew what I wanted to write, I hinted at it, but then I found other blogs discussing it (and I feel getting it wrong) and I figured my little fan theory mentioned in a previous post wasn’t even worth writing about. It’s just not my style or anything I’ve ever been invested in. What I AM invested in is me! I’ve been focusing on myself since my motorcycle accident and not worrying about fictional deadlines for videos that will get 5 views, and blog posts 3 people will read. I reminded myself that this website is an outlet for me, not a “job” of any kind. It’s a hobby. And it should remain that way. But I digress.
After all of that, I just wanted to call out this ZDNet article about “The End of Windows 7” being “the end of the PC era.
Even though the page still says May 2019, the “Download tool now” link for the Media Creation Tool links to the 1909 installer. Windows 10 1909 / 19H2 is available now. Just click on “Download tool now” to create your USB installer or burnable ISO image! Go get it!
How long has the Chromium Based “Edge” been in development? I think almost as long as Windows 10 itself. The trouble is, I don’t think the entire Edge browser development team was on the same page.
In an article I wrote over two years ago I mentioned exchanging a couple of Tweets with Kyle Pflug, Senior Project Manager Lead on Microsoft Edge. I mentioned how, in March of 2016, the internet was abuzz with rumors that Edge would be 100% compatible with Chrome extensions. In June of 2017 Pflug kindly disagreed that this was ever promised.
I believe he is correct, that this feature was never promised in any official capacity. It may have simply been developers implying that there were similarities between the two types of extensions. But if the rumors came to multiplenewsoutlets in 2016, could it all be traced back to a single news source? It feels to me like there may have been more going on in 2016 than we knew about.
It must have been difficult for Microsoft to decide to scrap years worth of work on their Trident and EdgeHTML browser engine. But if you go back to 2016, when Edge itself wasn’t even a full year officially on the market (remember, Windows 10 officially launched with Edge on July 29th, 2015), there were already plans to make Edge “compatible” with Chrome. I believe that these were signs, early on, that some of the Edge development team were pushing to integrate far more Chromium code into Edge than was initially there.
Although it may be presumptuous of me, I think that it is entirely possible that even before Windows 10 launched, an official Microsoft fork of Chromium was in the works. It took less than a year for the telemetry to come in and to see poor adoption rates of Edge among Windows 10 users. That, in my opinion, was when the decision was made to deprecate the Trident / EdgeHTML team and let the Chromium team lead the way. Based on his responses on Twitter, I’m led to believe that Pflug was on team Trident until he had no other choice.
It’s completely possible I’m drawing conclusions that are not really there, and I’m not actually trying to draw battle lines within the Edge dev team. I’m sure that at the end of the way they all just want what’s best for their users. I just think this browser that I’m writing in right at this moment has been secretly worked on a lot longer than many people suspect.
People are often looking for ways to feel better knowing their trove of emails is safe. I’ve found a simple method that works reliably for me, and anyone can do!
First, install the Thunderbird mail client. It’s a free email tool that has a lot of settings for mail providers entered in to it already. If it doesn’t have settings for your email, it’s very similar to setting up a phone. I recommend setting up your email account as IMAP, because POP can sometimes erase messages from the server, and you may not intend to do that.
Anyway, once Thunderbird is installed and set up, to sync folders other than your inbox, simply click on them on the left hand side and give it some time for the folder to synchronize. It’s impossible to know how long this will take, due to variables like your internet connection or the size of your folder. Just watch the status bar in the bottom right to know when the sync is finished.
Once completed, create a folder where you would like your messages in that folder to be backed up. If you want, you could for instance create a folder on your desktop, and then create subfolders to match each and every one of your folders in your email account, and back them up one at a time.
Once the folder is created locally, simply highlight and drag emails from the Thunderbird client window to your local folder. To bring everything in the folder over at once, you can use Control A to “Select All,” or hold Shift and click the top, then bottom email. Once you drag everything to the local folder, you will see it create “.eml” files of every individual piece of mail. These are standard email files and are compatible with other email clients, like Outlook and the native Windows 10 Mail client.
If you wanted to move those emails into a new account, you could simply set up that account in Thunderbird, and drag files back to the folder in the other direction!
I have, for more than 5 years now, had an article on here about how to use NTPassword to reset a Windows Password. The website hasn’t moved for years and it’s still online over at http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/ – BUT I wanted to host a mirror here because I can’t imagine a world where that website goes offline and I don’t have access to the files anymore. So, just in case here are some mirrored downloads.
cd140201.zip – Bootable CD image. (md5sum: f274127bf8be9a7ed48b563fd951ae9e)
cd110511.zip – Bootable CD image of previous version. (md5sum: fe0d30a1c540ec6757e748c7c09e2e4f)
With the resurgence of people building “classic” and “retro” gaming rigs, I thought it would be important to reveal what might be my biggest secret. Sometimes I feel like I was the ONLY person on earth who liked Windows Millennium Edition. (more…)
