Sunday, December 20, 2015
Buffalo WHR-G300N - updated password problem (doesn't work!)
Black mark to Buffalo.
Their WHR-G300N has an 8-character limit on root (admin) password. It does say that in the help text, but some of us think we understand about passwords without reading instructions. And so we paste in a nice secure password of (say) 12 characters, reboot - and find that we can't log in with the new password. Because Buffalo don't cope with a sensibly-long password. And they don't even bother to warn you if you try to paste in too long a password. They don't even truncate the length of password that you type in to match the maximum 8 characters. They simply truncate the password that you save (without any option to see the password entered, of course).
So - make sure your password is max 8 characters. And if you find yourself locked out of an Airstation unit for which you thought you knew the password, try using just the first 8 characters.
Their WHR-G300N has an 8-character limit on root (admin) password. It does say that in the help text, but some of us think we understand about passwords without reading instructions. And so we paste in a nice secure password of (say) 12 characters, reboot - and find that we can't log in with the new password. Because Buffalo don't cope with a sensibly-long password. And they don't even bother to warn you if you try to paste in too long a password. They don't even truncate the length of password that you type in to match the maximum 8 characters. They simply truncate the password that you save (without any option to see the password entered, of course).
So - make sure your password is max 8 characters. And if you find yourself locked out of an Airstation unit for which you thought you knew the password, try using just the first 8 characters.
Thursday, December 03, 2015
Windows 10 - adding a tile for your Printers Folder
Windows 10 has its upsides, but the "Do it our way or suffer" mentality from other new releases persists in access to the Control Panel and its contents.
It has taken me a good while to find out how to add a "Control Panel" tile:
start -> all apps -> windows system [pull-down] -> right click "Control Panel" -> click pin to start
And it took me even longer to work out how to create a tile that takes me straight to my Printers folder. (This mattered to me because opening "Devices and Printers" is very very slow (about 25 seconds) - some suggest ditching the Realtek HD Audio Driver, or testing each device in turn (including reinstalling their drivers) to get to the bottom of it.)
Hold down the "Windows" button on your keyboard (between Ctrl and Alt) and press the letter R, to bring up the "Run" box. In this, type:
shell:PrintersFolder
and press Enter.
Now, drag the Printers icon (not top-left, the next one in - highlighted here - by me - in red) to your desktop:
Now Right-Click the shortcut, and choose "Pin to Start". Wait a few seconds, and it should appear as a new tile on your Start Screen.
Voila!
It has taken me a good while to find out how to add a "Control Panel" tile:
start -> all apps -> windows system [pull-down] -> right click "Control Panel" -> click pin to start
And it took me even longer to work out how to create a tile that takes me straight to my Printers folder. (This mattered to me because opening "Devices and Printers" is very very slow (about 25 seconds) - some suggest ditching the Realtek HD Audio Driver, or testing each device in turn (including reinstalling their drivers) to get to the bottom of it.)
Hold down the "Windows" button on your keyboard (between Ctrl and Alt) and press the letter R, to bring up the "Run" box. In this, type:
shell:PrintersFolder
and press Enter.
Now, drag the Printers icon (not top-left, the next one in - highlighted here - by me - in red) to your desktop:
Now Right-Click the shortcut, and choose "Pin to Start". Wait a few seconds, and it should appear as a new tile on your Start Screen.
Voila!
