Saturday, November 26, 2011
Wanadoo/Orange passwords
I wasted ages trying to get friends' Wanadoo broadband working again after changing the password.
First, we tried changing the password on their User Account panel, but it appeared to have failed. However, the old password wouldn't work either. So we called them, and Yes, the new password had been applied. Why wasn't it working? No idea. Checked every letter, and the initial capital. All fine.
But now no internet. After an awful lot of wasted time, I called them again and asked them to reset the password - to "Rotten" (my level of morale). They did (took ages) but still no luck. Then the agent suggested she reset it so that it was all-lower-case ("rotten"), and bingo - everything working again. Why did she suggest this? I suspect that Orange may know they have a problem here. Why can't they fix it, or at least warn users?
They tell you that passwords are case-sensitive, and allow you to set passwords with capitals in them - but then their system falls over when you try to apply those passwords. It may only apply to some setups (this was with a telephone-directory-sized Livebox) but to be on the safe side, my recommendation is always use lower-case-only passwords for Orange/Wanadoo.
First, we tried changing the password on their User Account panel, but it appeared to have failed. However, the old password wouldn't work either. So we called them, and Yes, the new password had been applied. Why wasn't it working? No idea. Checked every letter, and the initial capital. All fine.
But now no internet. After an awful lot of wasted time, I called them again and asked them to reset the password - to "Rotten" (my level of morale). They did (took ages) but still no luck. Then the agent suggested she reset it so that it was all-lower-case ("rotten"), and bingo - everything working again. Why did she suggest this? I suspect that Orange may know they have a problem here. Why can't they fix it, or at least warn users?
They tell you that passwords are case-sensitive, and allow you to set passwords with capitals in them - but then their system falls over when you try to apply those passwords. It may only apply to some setups (this was with a telephone-directory-sized Livebox) but to be on the safe side, my recommendation is always use lower-case-only passwords for Orange/Wanadoo.
Wanadoo/Orange and third-party routers: AVOID
Somewhere deep in their settings, Orange/Wanadoo seem to have some subtle different from a normal ADSL ISP.
Two different-model routers worked fine on my home ISP. At a friend's, I adjusted the MTU to 1492 as instructed on the Orange settings page, changed username and password and ... nothing.
Orange help isn't any help: "We don't support third-party routers". It took them 10 minutes to confirm that the DNS addresses on their spec page are still current.
What is it about their setup that needs modification from a normal-ISP setup? Who knows: they certainly don't seem bothered to tell you.
Monday, November 21, 2011
Windows 7 Taskbar - why the grey stripe?
Every so often, my normally blue Windows 7 taskbar would go greyish at the right-hand end. The extent seemed to vary - was this some graphical indication of the state of my PC? What was it telling me?
It's taken me about a year to work it out: it is a window that I have open on my right-hand screen (I have two, with the main taskbar on the left) which overlaps to the left screen. Even though there is something else in front, filling the right-hand screen, if any window overlaps the join between the screens, it will appear, semi-transparent, in front of the taskbar (but behind the clock text).
Not sure if this is something special to skinnyClock, which I run to get a clock with seconds showing, or universal. Hope it helps some other puzzled soul.
It's taken me about a year to work it out: it is a window that I have open on my right-hand screen (I have two, with the main taskbar on the left) which overlaps to the left screen. Even though there is something else in front, filling the right-hand screen, if any window overlaps the join between the screens, it will appear, semi-transparent, in front of the taskbar (but behind the clock text).
Not sure if this is something special to skinnyClock, which I run to get a clock with seconds showing, or universal. Hope it helps some other puzzled soul.
