Category Archives: Help Desk

Help related topics, tutorials, how tos, documentation, etc.

How To – Resolve iTunes App Update Notification

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Background Knowledge

The Apple’s iTunes software shows notifications of updates available for apps (applications) for iPhones, iPad and iPod Touch by placing a small numeric value in a box beside “Apps” under “Library” within iTunes. As time goes by it appears this numeric value becomes inaccurate as it reports that there is updates yet when you click on “Updates Available” under “Apps” (bottom right corner) there is no updates or only a few updates that does not add up to what it is reporting is available. It should be noted that though this maybe anonying to some it is not in any way harmful to iTunes or the device.

Solution – One

This issue occurs when one or more apps are purchased using more then one iTunes account. Login to each iTunes account and check for app updates. If there are any then allow the updates to be downloaded and installed. One other option would be to delete the app in iTunes and on the device and then download and install under the preferred iTunes account. In most cases this will resolve the problem.

Solution – Two

Be warned this this step is only necessary if the above does not work. Also be aware the steps below will delete all apps (applications) in your iTunes library. Make sure to have the applications backed up before proceeding.

  1. If the first solution didn’t work try going in iTunes under “Library” -> “Apps”.
  2. Highligh one random application and then select all applications by pressing CTRL-A or click on the menu “Edit” -> “Select All”.
  3. Right mouse click on the an application and click on “Delete” or click on the menu “Edit” -> “Delete”.
  4. Click on the device under “Devices” on the left hand side and then click on “Sync” at the bottom right hand corner.

When the sync is completed all the applications installed on the device will be back in the iTunes Library and the Apps update notification should now be corrected.

iTunes – Apps Won’t Download

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Background Knowledge

When trying to download apps (applications) for an iPhone or iPad using iTunes a message appears stating the following.

There was a problem downloading “App Name Here”. The file seems to be corrupted. To redownload the file, choose “Check for Available Downloads” from the Store menu.

It appears that some apps will download fine yet others will not.

Solution

I unfortunately can not give exact steps on how to resolve this issue. However based on my recent experience I can strongly advise that majority of the time this issue is related to a firewall, anti-virius and/or spyware/malware protection software/hardware configuration. These services weather software or hardware are blocking some or all of your app downloads. Refer to your software or hardware logs and configuration so that you can allow this specific traffic through. Once this is done there will no longer be an issue downloading iPhone or iPad apps.

How To – Hard Reset a Motorola Q 9H

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Warnings

Read and fully understand warnings before continuing further!

  • Doing a hard reset will result in loss of personalized settings and all content stored in phone memory.
  • Ensure your mobile phone has at least 75% battery life before preforming a hard reset. If battery life is too low this may result in damaging the mobile phone.
  • Do not remove battery while preforming a hard reset. Doing so may result in damaging the mobile phone.

Solution

  1. Start with the device turned off. If device is locked and you are not aware of the password remove the battery and then re-install the battery.
  2. Hold down the * and E keys at the same time for 5 seconds while turning on the device.

At this stage you will see a message at the top of the screen and then eventually the entire screen will change while the hard reset is being completed. Be patient, this process can take some time.

How To – Setup Sendmail for Masquerading and as a SMTP Smart Host

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Background Knowledge

I have multiple OpenBSD web servers some internal and some public (accessible via the Internet) that uses Sendmail. However on the network there is only one publicly known email server. Therefore I require to Sendmail to function as follows, route all email through an SMTP smart host and when routing mail to the SMTP smart host change the email address hostname (masquerade). For example an email sender of “root@foobar.example.com” would be changed to “root@example.com”.

I’m by no means a Sendmail expert, the steps I explain here is what I’ve learned on my own and with the assistance of Zerberus in IRC Freenode #sendmail channel.

Solution

Alter Sendmail’s configuration file adding the following lines. Refer to Sendmail Configuration Readme for further explanation and How To – Setup Sendmail as a Smart_Host for details on how this process is achieved.

FEATURE(genericstable)dnl
FEATURE(generics_entire_domain)dnl
GENERICS_DOMAIN(`example.com')dnl
MASQUERADE_AS(`example.com')dnl
FEATURE(masquerade_envelope)dnl
FEATURE(masquerade_entire_domain)dnl
MASQUERADE_DOMAIN(`foobar.example.com')dnl
define(`SMART_HOST',`[10.10.15.1]')dnl

You will also need to edit Sendmail’s genericstable as follows. On OpenBSD this is located under “/var/mail/genericstable”.

@foobar.example.com  %1@example.com

Example Configuration File (mc)

divert(-1)
#
# Copyright (c) 1998 Sendmail, Inc.  All rights reserved.
# Copyright (c) 1983 Eric P. Allman.  All rights reserved.
# Copyright (c) 1988, 1993
#       The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
#
# By using this file, you agree to the terms and conditions set
# forth in the LICENSE file which can be found at the top level of
# the sendmail distribution.
#
#

#
#  This configuration only runs sendmail on the localhost interface.
#  This allows mail on the local host to work without accepting
#  connections from the net at large.
#

divert(0)dnl
include(`/usr/share/sendmail/m4/cf.m4')dnl
VERSIONID(`@(#)openbsd-localhost-smarthost.mc $Revision: 1.4 $')
OSTYPE(openbsd)dnl
FEATURE(nouucp, `reject')dnl
FEATURE(`accept_unresolvable_domains')dnl
FEATURE(`no_default_msa')dnl
FEATURE(genericstable)dnl
FEATURE(generics_entire_domain)dnl
GENERICS_DOMAIN(`example.com')dnl
MASQUERADE_AS(`example.com')dnl
FEATURE(masquerade_envelope)dnl
FEATURE(masquerade_entire_domain)dnl
MASQUERADE_DOMAIN(`foobar.example.com')dnl
define(`SMART_HOST',`[10.10.15.1]')dnl
DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Family=inet, address=127.0.0.1, Name=MTA')dnl
DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Family=inet6, address=::1, Name=MTA6, M=O')dnl
DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Family=inet, address=127.0.0.1, Port=587, Name=MSA, M=E')dnl
DAEMON_OPTIONS(`Family=inet6, address=::1, Port=587, Name=MSA6, M=O, M=E')dnl
CLIENT_OPTIONS(`Family=inet6, Address=::')dnl
CLIENT_OPTIONS(`Family=inet, Address=0.0.0.0')dnl
dnl
dnl Some broken nameservers will return SERVFAIL (a temporary failure)
dnl on T_AAAA (IPv6) lookups.
define(`confBIND_OPTS', `WorkAroundBrokenAAAA')dnl
MAILER(local)dnl
MAILER(smtp)dnl

Source: How To – Setup Sendmail as a Smart_Host
Source: Sendmail – Masquerading and Relaying
Source: Sendmail Configuration Readme

How To – Add a Radio Station to MPlayer CE

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Background Knowledge

This how to will explain how to add a radio station to the MPlayer CE application, a Wii Homebrew Channel application.

Note: How to edit the MPlayer_CE configuration files is not covered in this how to.
Note: MPlayer_CE supports the following streaming protocols, HTTP/FTP, RTP/RTSP, MMS/MMST, MPST and SDP.

Solution

  1. Edit the “menu.conf” file located under /apps/mplayer_ce/ on the memory card using your favorite text editor such as Notepad, Metapad, Notepad++, etc.
  2. Browse the contents of the “menu.conf” until you find the following cmdlist radio tag below. 
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    <cmdlist name="radio" title="Radio" ptr="<>" >
<e name="../" ok="menu cancel"/>
</cmdlist>

    We will be adding a new line after the second line shown above and within the cmdlist tag.

  3. Add a new line (radio station) in between the opening tag and closing tag like so. 
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    <e name="OldSchoolFM" ok="loadlist 'http://78.129.250.9/castcontrol/playlist.php?id=104'"/>

    Replace “OldSchoolFM” with the radio station name and then replace “http://78.129.250.9/castcontrol/playlist.php?id=104″ with the radio station stream feed.

  4. Save the file and now test radio station you just added on the Nintendo Wii.

If the radio station does not play go back and ensure you have the correct station stream feed link. If indeed you have the correct stream feed link then it’s possible it is not accessible in the manner you are trying to access it or the protocol for the station is not support by MPlayer_CE.

Example

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<cmdlist name="radio" title="Radio" ptr="<>" >
          <e name="../" ok="menu cancel"/>
	  <e name="OldSchoolFM" ok="loadlist 'http://centova2.cpcustomer.com/tunein.php/janpolet/playlist.pls'"/>
	  <e name="CBC Radio 1" ok="loadlist 'http://radiostreams.cbc.ca/cbc-cbcr1reg-96.m3u'"/>
	  <e name="CBC Radio 2" ok="loadlist 'http://radiostreams.cbc.ca/cbc-cbcr2wpg-128.m3u'"/>
	  <e name="CBC Radio 3 (rock)" ok="loadlist 'http://webradio.cbcradio3.com/rock.m3u'"/>
	  <e name="CBC Radio 3 (electronica)" ok="loadlist 'http://webradio.cbcradio3.com/electronic.m3u'"/>
	  <e name="CBC Radio 3 (Pop)" ok="loadlist 'http://webradio.cbcradio3.com/pop.m3u'"/>
	  <e name="1.FM - Blues" ok="loadlist 'http://blues.1.fm/energyblues128k'"/>
	  <e name=".977 The 80s Channel" ok="loadlist 'http://scfire-ntc-aa01.stream.aol.com:80/stream/1040'"/>
	  <e name="Big R Radio - 80s Metal FM" ok="loadlist 'http://livestream2.bigrradio.com/80sMetalFM'"/>
</cmdlist>

This how to is a tribute to OldSchoolFM, “Let’s Make it Personal!” A dream, a vision, a quality radio station that never got a fair chance.