Category Archives: IT

HP Officejet 6300 series drivers

One of my clients has a couple of HP Officejet 6300 Series all-in-one printer/scanner/fax units (model 6310 in particular).  These units come with a comprehensive set of software for scanning and image manipulation, in addition to the basic drivers.  I’ve always found the Windows XP software installation rather tricky.  It seems to take far longer [...]
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Mac OS X Leopard, AirPort and wireless channels

Stephen Fry famously freaked out on Twitter a couple of months ago when trying to get a Windows Vista PC to join a wireless network (a couple of those links aren’t for the faint-hearted).  I had exactly the opposite problem yesterday: an Apple MacBook that steadfastly refused to even acknowledge the presence of a specific [...]
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ADSL fault reporting in the UK

I recently had a few problems with my home broadband connection, provided by Demon Internet.  Working with Demon to resolve these, I learnt some useful stuff applicable to anyone whose underlying connection uses BT’s ADSL Max service. Many British ADSL providers use this BT Wholesale service to connect their customers to their own network.  The [...]
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Creating free PDFs using PDFCreator

PDF files have become a de facto standard for information publishing over the past decade or so.  There are lots of good reasons why you might want to create a PDF version of a file.  Here are a few of the most common: You’re sending a document to someone – or publishing it on your [...]
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E-mail Virus Hoaxes

“Hi all, I checked with Norton Anti-Virus, and they are gearing up for this virus!  This is the worst virus announced by CNN.  I checked Snopes (URL above), and  it is for real !! Get this E-mail message sent around to your contacts ASAP.  PLEASE FORWARD THIS WARNING AMONG FRIENDS, FAMILY AND CONTACTS!” I usually [...]
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Laptop Outgoing SMTP Server Settings

I’ve recently moved onto much better tariff for my mobile phone and now have unlimited mobile broadband (HSDPA) access for a minimal fixed monthly cost. The fact that my phone can operate as an internet gateway for my laptop (when connected via Bluetooth or a cable) makes it even better. Having previously not wanted to [...]
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