| Aug 7, 2007 @ 8:05 PM |
Tips & Tricks - Is Anybody Missing your XP SP2 Network Diagnostics?
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MusicMonster
Posts: 2,954
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Is Anybody Missing your XP SP2 Network Diagnostics?
I sure was.. They were not a big deal and pretty simple overall, BUT, here's the biggy.. They did solve some problems and they were handly. Referring to the XP Diags that pop up when (for example) you can't get to a given web page.. And it used to bring up a link to "Check out your Network with Diagnostics" or something like that. But alas.. No more.
Well, if you have XP SP2, and MSIE 7.0, and you keep things updated, you'll find they are long-gone from that 404 page. There's no sign of them anywhere now.. I got a bit miffed at MS when they took away that handy little tool. I think I even did a little cussing!!  %&%$@#@)!! Nahhh.. But I felt like it. 
BUT, here's the good news.. They are NOT really gone. The are just not as accessible as they once were. You can go to RUN and type in "C:\WINDOWS\network diagnostic\xpnetdiag.exe" and viola!! There's your old friend again.. So then you just copy that line (which you typed into the RUN box- it has to include the full path), and right click your Desktop creating a new Shortcut(Link) and make that line it. Then those nifty little diagnostics will be right there on your desktop or QuckLaunch bar (if you prefer) forevermore.  Neat eh?
Actually better to make it a QuickLaunch Bar item once your shortcut is created, or even both. NoNo!! Not a WateringHole kinda Bar..   But that would be a good name for a pick-up joint huh? The QuickLaunch Bar? 
Well, just wait till you get next months issue.. In fact, trut' be known, I'll betcha there's LOTS of people here who have a few favorite Tips & Tricks. I already know of some folks who do..
-MM 
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| Aug 9, 2007 @ 9:59 AM |
Tips & Tricks - Is Anybody Missing your XP SP2 Network Diagnostics? |
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MusicMonster
Posts: 2,954
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Methinks this may not be such a good place for a Computer Tips & Tricks thread after all.
Seems like this particular forum is hardly ever used. I didn't really notice that before.. But many of the most recent posts are about 5 months ago. Too bad though. I suspect lots of folks have some good thoughts to share.
Oh well. It is the computer related forum at least.  I suspect such a thing might seem out of place elsewhere.
Whatcha gonna do? 
-MM
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| Aug 9, 2007 @ 1:18 PM |
Tips & Tricks - Is Anybody Missing your XP SP2 Network Diagnostics?
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Kirkish
Posts: 162
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I actually used your tip, and made an icon. Useful utility!
Any other tips will be appreciated by some. There are a few who read in here!!
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| Aug 9, 2007 @ 4:30 PM |
Tips & Tricks - Is Anybody Missing your XP SP2 Network Diagnostics? |
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sealacamp
Posts: 3,154
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Yeah I used it too. I hardly ever have any problems so I don't know when I would use it but it is nice to know it is there if you need it. Good tip MM.
Last diagnostic run time: 08/09/07 16:28:05
HTTP, HTTPS, FTP Diagnostic
HTTP, HTTPS, FTP connectivity
info HTTP: Successfully connected to www.microsoft.com.
info FTP (Passive): Successfully connected to ftp.microsoft.com.
info HTTPS: Successfully connected to www.microsoft.com.
There is the log report for you.
S
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| Aug 18, 2007 @ 6:45 PM |
Tips & Tricks - Is Anybody Missing your XP SP2 Network Diagnostics?
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MusicMonster
Posts: 2,954
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Hey!! There is some activity here after all!!
Glad you all got some good use out of that little proggy. It's not that it's a real killer program or anything, but at times it can be exceptionally useful, such as if your connection gets stalled. It can actually recover it at times, and if not it does give you some pretty good ideas for a solution. It will also identify if the problem is at the web page itself or your connection.
Okay here's another one you might like. There's a little company called SysInternals that was recently acquired by Microsoft. The primary programmer is a major guru named Mark Russinovich, and they have some superb utilities available for diagnosing or for analyzing windows, what it's doing and why, and how it got that way. These utilities are freeware and very very useful. This one in particular is a sophisticated version of the Windows Task Manager and can serve as a replacement for it, if you so choose. The option to replace Task Manager is within the program's menus. But it goes well beyond Task Manager in what it does. In some cases you can even locate malware with it by way of their color coding of running processes. .
Here's the page to read about and download this baby. Called Process Explorer. Another one of their superb utilities is called AutoRuns.exe also located in the same general area. You might want to look into that one while you're there. It's a very thorough analysis of everything that starts up with Windows, why it does so, and the Registry Keys that initiate the processes. You can also control it from that program, usually without editing the Registry. It's a little shocking to realize how many things actually start running whenever we boot up Windows. Many many of them. But it gets to be more and more as time goes by, which is why we often experience system slow-downs as more time goes by..
Give these two a shot and see if they are right for you. I use Process Explorer at least once a day minimum.
Here 'Tis - First the summary and then the Download Page. I'll bet you'll like this one a lot. 
Process Explorer (Now located at Microsoft)
-MM
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| Aug 27, 2007 @ 10:20 PM |
Tips & Tricks - Is Anybody Missing your XP SP2 Network Diagnostics? |
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MusicMonster
Posts: 2,954
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Well, there WAS some activity here anyway.. 
No there was! I saw it myself.. Honest! 
Last tip highly recommended in any case.
That's a real good resource to have. And the price sure is right.
-MM
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| Aug 28, 2007 @ 7:33 AM |
Tips & Tricks - Is Anybody Missing your XP SP2 Network Diagnostics?
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sealacamp
Posts: 3,154
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OK MM I checked out the process explorer now. It looks a lot like task manager to me. Maybe a little easier to read because some of the information is formatted differently. It is ok. But I will still use task manager for managing system programs that I want to stop running.
S
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| Aug 28, 2007 @ 1:05 PM |
Tips & Tricks - Is Anybody Missing your XP SP2 Network Diagnostics? |
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Kirkish
Posts: 162
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Good stuff, any tool that makes process info easier to discern is great in my book. Autoruns is great!! I've been wanting something like that for ages.
*laughing!!* The network tip came in handy recently, I toasted my local area connection while attempting to network two pc's together.
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| Aug 30, 2007 @ 7:54 PM |
Tips & Tricks - Is Anybody Missing your XP SP2 Network Diagnostics?
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MusicMonster
Posts: 2,954
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Well actually there are quite a few more options to Process Explorer than there are in Task Manager. It's a situation quite a bit like Windows Notepad vs Fookes NoteTab. (Discussed below). One is much more extensive than the other. But we have to go with what makes us the most comfortable. I'd recommend keeping it and using it from time to time in any case. I'm sure after a while the extra data it provides, as well as the many extra options for control of your system, will prove themselves out as you become more and more familiar with it. It's really quite an impressive piece of software. However, it's purpose is not entirely intended to replace Task Manager. That is just one option. It can also be used as an expanded stand-alone diagnostic, if one chooses to have it do that. For me, both ways work very well.
Yes Kirkish, Autoruns likewise is very informative and gives us another whole level of control to keep in our toolbox. It contains a great deal of information that everybody should know and be able to control on their own system. I'd also recommend several other utilities featured there by the same fellow, Mark Russenivich. He's a super-programmer. And I have no doubt that's exactly why Gates and MS forked out the big bucks and snatched him up, as MS often does in cases like that. Gosh knows, Billy Gates can afford it.
Here's a good one.. Want to replace that rather primitive NotePad Editor program with something about 25 times more effective and useful? Notetab Lite is completely free and runs circles about Windows Notepad in every way. This one replaces Notepad (also, if you so choose), having much higher capacity and many far more extensive features. I'm not 100% behind everything the author of the program has been doing, for a couple of reasons having to do primarily with his Premium version of the same product. But nonetheless, the program itself is far and away, head and shoulders above Windows Notepad. It's certainly worth a try to see if it works better for you. Once again, as freeware, the price is certainly right and they should be upgrading it pretty soon to a whole new Rev level.
Click Here to get NoteTab Lite from Downloadl.com or to read the reviews. (FreeWare)
Happy Computing!
-MM
[Edited on 8/30/2007 8:05 PM]
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| Aug 31, 2007 @ 7:02 PM |
Tips & Tricks - Is Anybody Missing your XP SP2 Network Diagnostics? |
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sealacamp
Posts: 3,154
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Text pad is free too MM. And it can be used to program in C#, C, C++, and JAVA. Also makes a good tool for HTML, XHTML, or XML. Of course you can just write a letter with it too. It is a great tool and it is recommended by professionals in the programming field. That is how I found out about it.
If you want to look at it you can here: Text Pad
S
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| Sep 1, 2007 @ 10:59 AM |
Tips & Tricks - Is Anybody Missing your XP SP2 Network Diagnostics?
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MusicMonster
Posts: 2,954
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Sounds very similar to NoteTab Seal.
I've heard good things about that one too. But haven't tried it.
The same stuff seems to apply in both cases, apparently.
Mainly, just getting away from Windoze Notepad, and gaining a lot in performance, is pretty easy to do, and not expensive at all.
I'm still trying to figure out just what XML really does for us. But so far I don't quite know the answer to that. Are you pretty familiar with it?
I'm also looking to learn a lot more about Python.
By the way, I just installed MS .NET v2.0 runtimes to accomodate another program I installed. Man that thing is bloatware to the extreme. Something like 280MB disk space. I was in shock. I personally wouldn't recommend it unless we have unlimited free space, and we absolutely have to have it.
-MM
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| Sep 1, 2007 @ 1:32 PM |
Tips & Tricks - Is Anybody Missing your XP SP2 Network Diagnostics? |
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sealacamp
Posts: 3,154
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MM I know a little but there is a lot more to learn. HTML, XHTML, and XML are all variations of a very complex computer markup language called SGML. Having programmed in HTML and XHTML a little I don't really see much difference in them. At least that is now. I have heard that they were quite a bit different in the recent past.
XML was developed for online file transfers. As far as I know that is the only major difference and advantage in XML over HTML or XHTML. Be careful with those programs like site builder. They are hard to manage and add a lot of extra garbage to your pages. Even dream weaver is noted for being top heavy from what I have heard. That is why we were mandated to learn web programming from scratch. The problem comes in when you want to edit your pages. With a bunch of extra garbage it gets very cumbersome and difficult not to mention time consuming. Recently I edited some word formatted web pages and it was very hard to figure out what the heck was going on in there. I did eventually get it but it took 5 times longer than a normally coded web page would have taken.
If you want to get into it there are tons of free programming information online. In fact I use online info when I run into major complications. Doesn't always have the answer but most of the time one is there or at the very least a pointer toward a solution.
Hope this helped out a little.
S
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| Sep 1, 2007 @ 11:22 PM |
Tips & Tricks - Is Anybody Missing your XP SP2 Network Diagnostics?
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MusicMonster
Posts: 2,954
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True.. There are quite a few references one can use online. I also have a book to read about XML specifically. I've used HTML a lot in traditional web design for several years, but just can't quite find a fit for XML into that mix as yet where it makes sense to me. I mainly just need some time to dig into the concept a lot more. People say XML will be big for a long time, that it's revolutionary etc, and that we'll continue to build on that technology..
But big at what? It's not about web design, as in HTML (seemingly), yet most often one creates an XML page using a Web Designer like Dreamweaver or FrontPage. So it is about the Web, somehow. The whole concept just kind of escapes me as to what it's really all about. I'll get it, but need more time to do the research. I'm not sure if I've dealt with XHTML or not. I don't really think so. Mainly just HTML and CSS, and of course a little bit of SHTML, JavaScript etc.
Oh, back to Tips & Tricks etc, here's another good one to know. Do we like FreeWare? I suspect everybody does. There is a web site called GiveAwayOfTheDay which gives away a new licensed version of some (normally paid for) software package every day. Usually they also have a Free Game of the Day, but that has been temporarily suspended for the time being. They have some pretty good stuff you can download and install for free, user reviews and ratings, and a newsletter which tells you what is featured on that particular day, and what has been featured prior to that day. Depending on what one's needs are, it can be a very good resource to have.
Located Here.. Check it out..
-MM
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| Sep 1, 2007 @ 11:48 PM |
Tips & Tricks - Is Anybody Missing your XP SP2 Network Diagnostics? |
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sealacamp
Posts: 3,154
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I was trying to find some stored emails today and they were really hard to find because of the way MSN stores messages and the file extensions are really strange too. After I finally found out where they were I noticed that all the emails are in XML format. I kept digging around and figured out that they are in XML format so that photos and various file types can be sent over the net. So that is one but I am sure there are others of reasons that XML is needed. XML allows these files to be sent and retrieved intact where ever they are going. Apparently HTML won't do this function correctly.
S
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| Sep 2, 2007 @ 7:45 AM |
Tips & Tricks - Is Anybody Missing your XP SP2 Network Diagnostics?
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dazee
Posts: 2,840
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you guys seem to know an awful lot about computers....so hows about answering my problem in my thread....lol....about my macromedia not installing properly...
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| Sep 2, 2007 @ 8:26 AM |
Tips & Tricks - Is Anybody Missing your XP SP2 Network Diagnostics? |
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sealacamp
Posts: 3,154
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Ok I was going to but I thought that the answer would get complicated and it is difficult to troubleshoot a complicated situation through this medium or even the phone. Try Google groups and see if someone else has a related problem and let me know what they say about it. An answer might even be there.
S
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| Sep 5, 2007 @ 12:15 PM |
Tips & Tricks - Is Anybody Missing your XP SP2 Network Diagnostics?
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MusicMonster
Posts: 2,954
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Got to read up on XML and get some kind of a feel for it, if it's going to be as big as they say.. Somehow the concept just escapes me at very fundamental levels, like the basics. Such as, what the heck is it anyway? heh heh
But then I'm a DOS/Assembly, nitty gritty kind of guy who grew up on Hexidecimal, where everything is pretty much black and white. Many of these new concepts and acronyms for Windoze that MS continually dreams up, and never quite explains in depth, are sometimes outside of my realm of logical thought. Not that XML is from Microsoft, but they've sure jumped on it. And many of them are.
I've been giving some serious thought to moving over to Linux, or at least doubling up with a dual-boot situation..
Anyway be sure and check out that Giveaway Of The Day web site. That can be a real good one to know about. They don't have great stuff every day, but they do from time to time.
-MM
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| Sep 5, 2007 @ 1:10 PM |
Tips & Tricks - Is Anybody Missing your XP SP2 Network Diagnostics? |
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Kirkish
Posts: 162
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I took an online class on xml several years ago, but I have no use for it, it's more for enterprise data sharing, you can define your own tags and share them using a data type definition, etc.
css is more useful to me...
I tend to write a script to generate the html, put the page up, and then bring it up so debugging and making changes is fairly simple, just change the appropriate section. The only code generator I've used was Netscape Composer, to learn how to deal with tables and their html settings.
I'm an old Unix-head myself, Linux looks better than learning yet another microsoft op/sys...
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| Sep 6, 2007 @ 8:48 PM |
Tips & Tricks - Is Anybody Missing your XP SP2 Network Diagnostics?
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mystery2u888
Posts: 6,230
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Does anyone know about the ghost software??? I loaded it ......but.....then I could not get into my email or anything......not sure if it is a cookie thing or what....I am stumped......I just let it load up as normal.....   so I finally removed it and back to the drawing board...........  
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| Sep 9, 2007 @ 5:38 PM |
Tips & Tricks - Is Anybody Missing your XP SP2 Network Diagnostics? |
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MusicMonster
Posts: 2,954
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Kirkish, but way down to the nitty gritty regarding XML..
What actually is it? I have still not had the chance to look into it. Is it about web page display in some way as in HTML/CSS/SHTML/XHTML? Or text? Or what does it really do for you? What is it's very fundamental intent? And why did they come up with it? To respond to what specific requirements?
Mystery2u.. I have never used Ghost to any extent. You mean Norton Ghost right? If so, I don't really know why it might affect your computer that way. That seems odd. It's basically a way to back up certain parts of your HardDisk as I recall. I do have it installed, but have never actually put it through it's paces. However no part of it is running in the background. It's just part of Norton System Suite. Seems to me that it should be running in the background, to be useful, but hopefully someone else has a better feel for it than I do.
Have you tried re-installing it a second time? Funny how that sometimes can solve a lot of problems. Windoze is actually not a terribly stable Operating System, and often installations go differently from one time to the next.
-MM
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