NGPixel

Let's start: Note that you will need a gigabit switch (around 20-30$, any cheap 5-ports switch will do the job). In my case, I use a D-Link Gigabit 5-ports switch.

A - Disable Internet services in the Bell CONNECTION/Home Hub

A.1 - Browse to http://192.168.2.1/ and login using your hub credentials.

A.2 - Nagivate to the Internet tab. Set both User ID and Password empty. Click Save.

A.3 - If not already done, disable all wireless networks under the Wireless tab. Your router should manage wireless networks, the Bell hub will no longer be able to provide internet.

A.4 - Navigate to the Advanced Settings tab, then Services. Make sure Internet + TV option is selected, and the dropdown next to it is set to DHCP.

A.5 - Reboot your Bell hub. Wait for it to come back before proceeding below.

Your TV should still work, make sure it is still the case. Note that Bell sets both User ID and Password with new values under the Internet tab. This is normal, leave it as is.

B - RE-ARRANGE NETWORK TOPOLOGY

Re-arrange your network to correspond to the following schema:

- Your computer should be plugged into LAN 1 of your router. Plug other wired devices into LAN 2-4 of your devices. - Should you have extra TV receivers, leave the wireless access point plugged into LAN 1 of your Bell Hub. Nothing else should be plugged in the LAN ports of the Bell Hub! You can also plug the TV receivers directly into the LAN ports of the Bell Hub using a wired connection, hence removing the wireless access point completely. This only applies to the Wireless TV receivers, the PVR should stay connected via the coaxial cable! - Do not plug other network devices into port 4-5 of the gigabit switch, they won't work!

You should have TV working fine to this point. If not, reboot your Bell Hub and your TV terminals. Internet should not work yet, this is normal!

C - CONFIGURE YOUR ROUTER TO ACCESS THE INTERNET

C.1 - Browse to http://192.168.1.1/ and login using your router credentials.

C.2 - Navigate to LAN > IPTV in the control panel. Note that while we change settings in the IPTV tab, your router won't have anything to do with your TV services. This is simply where the VLANs are configured, including the Internet VLAN.

C.3 - Set the following options:

VLAN 35 is for Bell Internet services, while VLAN 36 is used by the Bell Home Hub for TV services. We are basically telling the router to communicate with Bell over VLAN 35 for Internet services, while TV services are travelling through their own pipe via VLAN 36, unaffected by internet services data.

C.4 - Click the Apply button and wait for the router to update.

C.5 - Navigate to WAN > Internet Connection.

C.6 - Set the Connection Type to PPPoE.

C.7 - Optional - Set the Connect to DNS Server automatically to No. Fill in DNS Server 1 and 2 using the following addresses:

8.8.8.8

8.8.4.4

C.8 - Under Account Setting, set the username and password provided by Bell for your Internet connection. Username should have the following format: b1xxxx##

C.9 - Leave other fields as default and click Apply. Wait for your router to update.

You should now have a working internet connection! If not, reboot your router.

D - ENABLE PORT 3 AND 4 ON ROUTER

This section is ASUS router specific. By using the IPTV profile configuration, you most likely have a non-working LAN port 3 and port 4 on your router. The VLAN values cannot be set to VID 1 on the IPTV setting page. It forces you to use a value higher than 2. This is fine when the IPTV is used on port 3 and 4. However, in our case, we simply want to define a different VLAN for the WAN port while keeping the standard LAN functionality on all LAN ports. In order to fix this, you need to enable SSH access under the Administration > System. You can now connect via SSH to your router. (You can use an SSL client such as Xshell or Putty) Use your router IP (192.168.1.1 by default) and use your router administration login. Once you're in, type the following commands in order:

nvram set switch_stb_x=0 nvram commit reboot

Which to use?

It all depends on your equipment actually. For example, my Motif XS has unbalanced outputs, so using unbalanced cables with a TS is the best solution as using balanced cables wouldn’t improve anything. For connecting my audio interface to my compressor, I use balanced audio cables (with TRS connections) because the output is balanced. I was previously using unbalanced cables and this is where the humming noise would get introduced. As soon I switched to balanced cables with TRS connectors, the problem went away. Finally, I connected my compressor to my speakers using again balanced audio cables but this time, with XLR connectors.

Can I use unbalanced cables on balanced output, and vice-versa?

1) First, we need to activate the Remote Desktop Services role in the Server Manager utility. To do so, open Server Manager (Start Menu > Administrative Tools > Server Manager) and click Add Roles.

2) At the role selection screen, select the Remote Desktop Services role and click Next.

3) At the Role Services screen, select only the Remote Desktop Session Host service, leaving everything else unchecked, and click Next.

4) At the Authentication Method screen, select Require Network Level Authentication and click Next.

5) Skip through the Licensing Mode and User Groups screen leaving all options by default.

6) Once at the Client Experience screen, you must select all the options (Audio and video playback, Audio recording redirection and Desktop Composition). If the Desktop Composition option is greyed out, continue with the steps below anyway and then follow the instructions at the end of this article after your first reboot to enable Desktop Composition in the Group Policies. This is common on servers connected to a domain.

7) Continue the wizard and complete the installation. You will be asked to restart the machine once completed, do so. Note that after the reboot, you will get a “Remote Desktop licensing mode is not configured” warning popup. Ignore it for now.

8) Now we need to activate some features which are not installed by default in a Windows Server environment. Open Server Manageronce again and click Add Features.

9) Select the Desktop Experience and Quality Windows Audio Video Experience features. Continue the wizard installation.

10) Once the new features installed, we need to start a few services. Start Services (type services.msc in your Start Menu) and locate the service Themes. Right-click on it and select Properties.

11) Change the Startup type to Automatic and then click on the Start button below. Wait for the service to start and close the window.

12) Open Server Manager once again and expand the Roles item in the left sidebar, then Remote Desktop Services and click on RD Session Host Configuration. In the main screen, right-click the connection “RDP-Tcp” and select Properties.

13) Navigate to the Client Settings tab. Uncheck the Limit Maximum Color Depth option as well as any options checked in theRedirection list (no checkbox should be selected). Click OK to apply.

14) You can now return to the desktop, right-click and select Personalize.

15) Select the Windows 7 theme under Aero Themes. You should now get the full Aero Glass experience.

16) Now to fix the annoying licensing popup. Open Server Manager and click Remove Roles. On the Server Roles screen, uncheck theRemote Desktop Services role and complete the wizard. Yes, as crazy as it sounds, it will not disable Aero Glass but simply remove the role management panel, which we don’t need.

Note: Before connecting to a remote desktop, make sure to enable Desktop Composition (under Experience tab) in your remote desktop settings as well as 32bit colors (under the Display tab), otherwise you won’t get Aero Glass even if it’s enabled on the host.

Manually activate Desktop Composition: If the option to choose Desktop Composition during the role installation is greyed out, you must manually activate it in the Group Policy. Open gpedit and enable the “Allow desktop composition for remote desktop sessions” policy found under “ComputerConfiguration\AdministrativeTemplates\WindowsComponents\Remote Desktop Services\Remote Desktop Session Host\Remote Session Environment”.

Important: In the code below, the ctx.listUrlDir variable is used to determine the relative path to the NewForm.aspx file. The variable is actually declared automatically as long as you have the list/document library webpart displayed on the page. Otherwise, you need to replace that variable with the relative path to the NewForm.aspx file.

List – Create New Item

SP.UI.ModalDialog.showModalDialog({ url: ctx.listUrlDir + "/NewForm.aspx?IsDlg=1", title: "Create New Item" dialogReturnValueCallback: function() { window.location = window.location.href; } });

Document Library – Upload New Document

var exppath = getQSParameterByName('RootFolder'); SP.UI.ModalDialog.showModalDialog({ url: ctx.listUrlDir + "/Forms/Upload.aspx?IsDlg=1" + ((exppath != null && exppath.length > 2) ? '&RootFolder=' + exppath : ''), title: "Upload a document", dialogReturnValueCallback: function() { window.location = window.location.href; } });

The getQSParameterByName function code is provided at the end of this post.

Document Library – Create New Item of Custom Type

var exppath = getQSParameterByName('RootFolder'); SP.UI.ModalDialog.showModalDialog({ url: ctx.listUrlDir + "/Forms/Upload.aspx?ContentTypeId=0x012000bd2db3db2b004dda815269e70974b696&IsDlg=1" + ((exppath != null && exppath.length > 2) ? '&RootFolder=' + exppath : ''), title: "Create New Custom Type Document", dialogReturnValueCallback: function() { window.location = window.location.href; } });

You must replace the value of the ContentTypeId parameter with your own!

The getQSParameterByName function code is provided at the end of this post.

Open in Windows Explorer (IE only)

CoreInvoke('NavigateHttpFolder', exppath, '_blank');

In most cases where a Sharepoint modal is involved, you can replicate any built-in function of the ribbon by looking at the URL called (via Firebug) and adapting the scripts above.

The getQSParameterByName function:

The formula is: [rebate] – ( [rebate] * [complete months elapsed] / [contract length] )

Example

So let’s say you bought an iPhone 4 16GB on July 30th 2010 on Fido.

The unsubsidized price of the iPhone 4 16GB is 649$. But you only paid 159$ for it because of the 3 year contract. So 649$ – 159$ = 490$. This is the rebate Fido gave you (490 $). In the event you would cancel your contract right away, themaximum fee you could pay is 490$. Service providers cannot charge you more than the rebate they gave you in the event you cancel your contract at any time.

The whole formula is based on this number. Now divide the rebate by the length of your contract (in months). For a 3 year contract (36 months), you should do 490$ / 36 = 13.61$. This is the amount that is withdrawn from the rebate for every month you complete. So if you cancel after 2 complete months in your contract, the maximum fee you will have to pay is 462.78$ (= 490$ – ( 2 x 13.61$ ) ). The longer you stay in the contract, the lower the maximum fee will be. Obviously, after 36 months, the amount reaches 0$.

So to get back to the formula I wrote earlier, if you cancel after 12 completed months in your 3 years contract, the ECF you will need to pay is:

490 – (490 * 12 / 36) = 326.67$

What is ECF and DECF?

ECF (Early Cancellation Fee) and DECF (Data Early Cancellation Fee) are usually both present if you have Voice + Data plan. The rebate explained earlier is usually split in 2. For the iPhone 4 16GB on Fido, the ECF is 200$ while the DECF is 290$ (for a total of 490$, the maximum fee a service provider can charge you!). If you cancel your contract completely or ugprade to a new phone early, simply follow the formula outlined above as the ECF and DECF is combined.

However, should you want to cancel only the Data plan while keeping your Voice plan, you will need to pay the DECF only. You will need to confirm with your service provider for the exact amount as the ratio is different for every phone and provider. For example, if you want to cancel your Data plan after 12 completed months (of your 3 years contract) and the DECF is 290$, the maximum fee you can pay is:

290 – (290 * 12 / 36) = 193.33$

The same formula applies to Voice plans (ECF).

What if I didn’t get a rebate on the phone/equipment?

In the event you want to cancel a contract but you didn’t get any rebate for the cell phone equipment, the maximum fee you can pay is the lesser of 50$ or 10% of the total amount yet to be paid for the services. For example, let’s say you have a monthly plan of 30$ and you want to cancel after 12 months:

10% of (24 months remaining * 30$ plan) = 72$

But wait! 72$ is exceeding the maximum fee of 50$. Therefor, 50$ is the maximum to paid during a cancellation.

Conclusion

A) Create a new empty VHD

A.1) Launch the Computer Management console (found in Control Panel > Administrative Tools). A.2) Right-click on Disk Management (under Storage) and choose Create VHD. (Note: You might need to click on Disk Management first, then wait for it to load before you can have the contextual menu with the Create VHD option.) A.3) Enter the location of the .VHD file. I HIGHLY recommend to place this file on the root of any disk. Note that you will need to remember the path of this file for use later in this guide. A.4) Enter the disk space (80GB is usually good for most uses) and choose the Fixed size format. A.5) Click OK and wait for the VHD creation to complete (displayed in the window footer). It usually takes about 5-15 minutes to complete.

B) Install Windows 8 on the VHD

B.1) Reboot the computer with the installation disk (or USB drive) inserted and boot from it. B.2) On the first installation screen, choose the language options, then click Install Now. B.3) Accept the license agreement and then choose Custom Installation. B.4) On this screen, a list of available partitions/disks are displayed. But it’s missing the VHD we created earlier. This is because we need to attach it first. B.5) Press SHIFT + F10, a command prompt window will appear. B.6) Type the following command: diskpart B.7) Then type the command (replace win8.vhd with the name of your VHD): select vdisk file=C:win8.vhd —> Got an error? This is because the drive letters may not be assigned in the same order as in Windows. Fortunately, the setup lists them starting from letter C and going up. So try the command again but this time using D:win8.vhd, then E:win8.vhd, etc. until it works. B.8) Once you get a successful message, type the command: attach vdisk B.9) Once your VHD is attached, type exit, then again exit to close the command prompt. B.10) On the screen, click the Refresh button. After a few seconds, your VHD should now appear in the list. B.11) Select the VHD and click Next. (Note: A warning might be displayed at the bottom saying Windows can’t install to this drive. Ignore it!) B.12) Continue to install Windows 8 as usual, following the on-screen instructions.

Isn’t that great when your host and VM can’t talk to each other?

The first thing I get while trying to connect to a VM running on my host is a “Not found” error. Sure enough, my VM has network access and so has my host. My colleagues can ping my VMs (and vice-versa) just fine, but impossible to ping the host from the VM or the VM from the host.

Don’t put your VMs on the same network adapter as your host…

Turns out it’s not a good idea to use the same network adapter for Hyper-V and your host. Even though your VMs have completely different and unique MAC and IP address, the packets are still trying to get in and out of the same physical interface which is a no-go. The solution was to use a second PCI-Express gigabit card (or a PCI) to add a second physical network adapter. The host is using the main network adapter while Hyper-V uses the second adapter. Now it all works perfectly.

Solution 1 – Spotlight works but the index is incomplete or empty:

1) Open System Preferences > Spotlight 2) Under the Privacy tab. Add your Macintosh HD (or whatever your main hard disk is called) to the list. 3) Close the window. Wait a few seconds. Then go back to Spotlight settings and remove the entry you just added. 4) The spotlight index should now begin to re-index completely. (A dot will fade-in/out inside the Spotlight icon in the taskbar) 5) Wait for it to finish and then launch the Mac App Store. You should now see updates in theUpdates tab.

Solution 2 – Spotlight indexing is disabled (frequent on Mac OS X Server)

1) Open a Terminal window. 2) Type the following command: sudo mdutil -i on / 3) A message saying “Indexing enabled.” should appear after a few seconds. 4) Close the Terminal window and the Spotlight indexing should now start automatically. (Again, a dot will appear inside the Spotlight icon during the indexing process) 5) Wait for it to finish and then launch the Mac App Store. You should now see updates in theUpdates tab.

So what needs to be done in order to get this functionnality? Follow these steps:

1) Copy the following modified C# code (notice the tableless property that was added to David Schneider’s solution) in a file called AKS_WebPartZone_Adapter.cs and place it in the AppCodedirectory under your server root directory (like C:Inetpubwwwroot orC:InetpubwwwrootwssVirtualDirectories80).

using System; using System.Data; using System.Configuration; using System.Web; using System.Web.Security; using System.Web.UI; using System.Web.UI.WebControls; using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts; using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls; using System.Text; using System.IO; using Microsoft.SharePoint; using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages; /// WebPartZone Adapter /// Created by David Schneider /// http://blog.sharepoint.ch /// Based on AKS namespace AKSAdapters { public class AKS_WebPartZone_Adapter : System.Web.UI.Adapters.ControlAdapter { protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer) { bool inEditMode = false; System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPartZone wpz = Control as System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPartZone; if (wpz != null && wpz.Attributes["tableless"] != null) { SPWebPartManager swpm = (SPWebPartManager)SPWebPartManager.GetCurrentWebPartManager(wpz.Page); inEditMode = !swpm.GetDisplayMode().AllowPageDesign; } if (inEditMode) { // Render the WebPartZone writer.Indent++; writer.AddAttribute(HtmlTextWriterAttribute.Id, wpz.ID); if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(wpz.CssClass)) { writer.AddAttribute(HtmlTextWriterAttribute.Class, wpz.CssClass); } if (wpz.LayoutOrientation == System.Web.UI.WebControls.Orientation.Horizontal) { writer.AddAttribute(HtmlTextWriterAttribute.Class, "AspNet-WebPartZone-Horizontal"); } else if (wpz.LayoutOrientation == System.Web.UI.WebControls.Orientation.Vertical) { writer.AddAttribute(HtmlTextWriterAttribute.Class, "AspNet-WebPartZone-Vertical"); } writer.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.Div); writer.Indent++; // Render the web parts if (wpz.WebParts.Count > 0) { WebPartCollection wpColl = new WebPartCollection(wpz.WebParts); foreach (System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPart wp in wpColl) { writer.WriteLine(); writer.AddAttribute(HtmlTextWriterAttribute.Class, "AspNet-WebPart"); writer.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.Div); wp.RenderControl(writer); writer.RenderEndTag(); // Div writer.Indent++; } } writer.RenderEndTag(); // Div writer.Indent--; writer.WriteLine(); } else { // If we are editing the page --> render the web part as usual. base.Render(writer); } } } }

2) Edit the compat.browser file which in the AppBrowser directory located in your server directory and add the following piece of code after the opening tag:

3) In your page layouts, add the property tableless=”true” to all your WebPartZones.

In your application load function (private void Window_Loaded in WPF), simply use this code:

if (Properties.Settings.Default.UpdateSettings) { Properties.Settings.Default.Upgrade(); Properties.Settings.Default.UpdateSettings = false; Properties.Settings.Default.Save(); }

It is important to place this code before anything else that use the user settings in the load method. In the above example, UpdateSettings is the user setting variable I created and set toTrue by default. When the application launch, it will check whether the UpdateSettings variable is set to True. If it’s the case, it will perform an upgrade. We then set the variable to False so that it doesn’t perform an upgrade the next time. Finally, we save the new settings. Why does it work? Because we set the user setting to True by default which will only occur after a new installation of the application.