TITAM - Technical issues that affected me

Sunday, August 13, 2023

Specific emails are never received at a Shaw email address

I recently saw a case where two Shaw email addresses in the same household behaved differently.

One of them would simply not receive any email from a specific sender. The other one had no issues receiving emails from the same sender.

There were no error messages on either side, the email account was not full, and the lost messages were not in Trash or Spam. There were no settings on the problem account that would explain this behavior.

Even stranger, the emails in question never showed up on the problem account even after forwarding the same email from the successful account.

So, the problem account wasn't just rejecting the original sender - there was something in the message itself that caused it to get lost in transit.

Testing showed that the problem Shaw email account was rejecting a specific domain name in the text (i.e. "abcdefg.com").

That is, if the email - ANY email, from anyone - contained the phrase "abcdefg.com", it would be lost; otherwise, it was fine.

The successful account did not show this behavior.

From this, it IS possible for two different Shaw Webmail accounts to behave differently, and it IS possible for Shaw email accounts to silently reject and/or lose emails under certain specific circumstances.

I did not ask Shaw about this because (a) I don't care and (b) I doubt their tech support is equipped to understand / correct this issue. But it's definitely on the Shaw side.

It's not likely that anyone will actually run into this behavior. The domain in question (not actually abcdefg.com) is associated with a Chinese electrical equipment supplier. I read an unconfirmed report that they had a habit of spamming people, so perhaps they're on some kind of blacklist.

(And no, I have no idea why any such blacklist would be used on one Shaw account and not all the others. If you've got a better theory, I'd love to hear it.)

Regardless, I've been on Shaw for decades, and this is the first time I've personally encountered this behavior. So, not impossible, but (hopefully) extremely rare.

It is just barely possible that this has something to do with the Rogers transition. No way to know.

Monday, July 17, 2023

Google Chrome suddenly not working in Windows 10/11

Problem: Chrome starts, then immediately closes. You can see the window momentarily. Usually and suddenly manifests on a kids laptop that had no prior issues whatsoever.

No error messages. Can still see some Chrome-related process running in Task Manager, but nothing useful. Reinstall doesn't help. Chrome works fine on other devices. No known issues with connectivity, cache / hard drive space, etc. Edge works. Firefox will not work.

Solution: Your child(ren) probably got involuntarily signed up for Microsoft Family Safety, which can block all browsers other than Edge.

• Go to the Family Safety parental / Family Organizer account. If you don't know what that is, try here.

• Click your kids account.

• Go to "Content Filters".

• Be sure you're on "Web and search".

• Turn OFF the "Filter settings / Filter inappropriate websites and searches" feature.

Several things baffle me about this, including:

• Why or how this feature suddenly starts working without any changes to the Family Safety account settings; and

• Why Microsoft does not provide any kind of error or troubleshooting message when blocking Chrome. People are just supposed to know this... HOW??? Via divine intervention?

Thank God I ran into this post almost immediately in my searching, or else it would have been another hours-long saga to figure out just what the hell was going on. So maybe that part was divine intervention. I'll take it regardless.

Honestly, Family Safety should be my go-to for all things going wrong at this point - it's a ******* disaster. The Synology router I've been using for years has been flawless, Family Safety is just a dumpster fire. I'm taking my kid off of MFS at the earliest possible opportunity.

And once again, a big you-know-what to Microsoft for shoving this shit down people's throats with zero notice or support. I've seen 13-year-olds that can code better than you. Put up a goddamn error message like it's this millennium, you infuriating wankers.

Thursday, June 29, 2023

How to deal with Microsoft Family Features asking for permissions, and find the parental email / Family Organizer account

Problem

Somebody, somewhere has gotten a message similar to:

"Microsoft Family Features: You'll need to ask an adult in your family if you can use __________"

It's usually a child under 18, but not always. It's usually for a game or app, but can also be for something innocuous, like Google Chrome. Often it worked perfectly before, and for forever, but not now.

You then get a button that says "Ask by email".

You press it and --- nothing happens.

NOTHING. At all. No emails, nothing.

The solutions posted by Microsoft for this issue are incorrect, unintelligible, or both. The "best" ones assume you already understand the system you're having problems with, making them frustrating at best and utter crap at worst.

Solution

If you already know who the "Family Organizer" is, skip to Step 4.

1. Go to https://account.microsoft.com/family and log in to your child's account.

(As setting up the first account is painful, I assume she/he/them/you wrote down the login details. If not, I can't help you.)

2. Look for the name of the "Family organizer". She/he/them will have a Microsoft account.

3. Log out.

4. Go to https://account.microsoft.com/family and log in as the family organizer using her/his/their Microsoft account. (Again, I assume you have these details.)

5. Look for a little popup in the right-hand upper corner that says "XXXX has asked for permission to use ____. Allow?", or similar.

6. Press OK or whatever it is.

As far as I know, this system doesn't actually send emails. Not to your Microsoft account email, not to your alternative email on file in your Microsoft account, not to your kids' Microsoft email, not to your kids' alternative email, nothing/zip/zero/null/nada. I checked every email I have, including spam, didn't get. So don't bother waiting.

This is especially frustrating if you have multiple email accounts and don't know which one you used when signing up for your Microsoft account. You then spend ages looking through all your accounts trying to find this stupid email, which doesn't exist, so of course you don't find it. Which is why you're here!

If you want / need to know that "Family organizer" / parental email, check your own Microsoft account at account.microsoft.com. It's listed right under your name at the top-left corner (in really small and gray text), and also in "Your info" in the menu bar.

For the record, I don't understand the Microsoft account system - at all. I understand Google's system just fine, because it works. Microsoft's system is clunky, lacks obvious features, and basically just sucks, so I don't try to understand it. This post is a stellar example of why I hate it.

[Edit]: OK, 1 of 2 emails has shown up, some significant time after the request was made. The first one is lost forever.

It went to the email address of the "Family organizer", as described three paragraphs above (below the name at the top-left corner of your Microsoft account homepage).

And THANK YOU MICROSOFT YOU DAMN TWITS for setting up YET ANOTHER stupid thing that I didn't want, making it UTTERLY IDIOTIC and making it IMPOSSIBLE TO FIGURE OUT.

Saturday, May 20, 2023

Using 18Tb Seagate SkyHawk AI surveillance drives in Synology NAS

These drives work fine on an RS2416RP+ running DSM 6.2, no issues.

Don't whine they're "surveillance" drives, blah blah. They're hard drives, they work like you expect hard drives to work.

I don't know about DSM 7.x or newer NAS units, but I see no reason why they wouldn't work on them as well.

That's all.

Thursday, February 2, 2023

How to fix Lexus / Toyota "AWD system malfunction 2WD mode engaged"

May be associated with other errors, such as "Check Engine" light, ICS / backup system warning, etc.

Simple fixes that may save you time/money:

1. Check gas cap is tight.

Yes, it's stupid - damn stupid, in fact. But it worked for me and others.

Note the old RX330s had a similar issue, in that it would throw error codes if the gas cap was loose. Happened to me a few time when the weather got really cold. It's all because the car is looking for leaks in the emissions control system and sees that the pressure in the gas tank is not holding steady.

2. If codes do not clear themselves, disconnect battery for 5 min, then reconnect and start.

• Open the door during that 5+ min, to ensure system is fully discharged. Not needed but can't hurt.

• Yellow ICS light (top right-hand corner on RX350) will flash on restart. It will self-reset upon driving, don't worry about it.

3. Recharge battery to full, then retry. Worked for him and others.

It seems a near-dead or weak battery will cause the car to puke lots of codes. If this is your issue, consider replacing your battery, as it's likely on its way out.

I recommend disconnecting the battery while recharging so you can get the benefits of (2) and (3) in one go. Not necessarily required, though.

Some people say this occurs when the gas is low / very low., even to the point of claiming you're risking damage to your fuel pump.

I call BS on this since automakers know people will run their car down past reserve, and a few people will inevitably run out of gas, and the car / fuel pump has to tolerate this gracefully. Honestly, how stupid do you have to be to make a fuel pump system that will be damaged if you run low on gas?

Regardless, you can try filling up (and making sure your gas cap is TIGHT).

Saturday, January 28, 2023

Setting up OpenVPN server on pfsense with DNS-O-Matic DDNS (or other DDNS)

First, follow this tutorial, it's awesome.

A few changes, as follows:

1. If you can't install the OpenVPN Client Export package, update your pfsense. (It's scary but the latest stable version is stable, and will work.) Then the package will install.

2. When doing the Client settings Export (6:35), in "Host Name Resolution:, don't choose "xxx.dnsomatic.com", whatever it is, as DNS-O-Matic will not respond to this type of request.

Instead, choose "other" and type in the domain name associated with your dynamic DNS (i.e. "spacelasers.ca".

3. Once connected on Windows, be aware that Windows File Explorer DOES NOT WORK over a VPN tunnel.

This means that stuff like "\\mynas\drive" typed into Windows will not work, and you will not see your NAS in the Network pane.

Quick fix: run "net use x: \\ip.address.of.server\sharename" to mount the share to a Windows drive.

Example: "net use h: \\192.168.1.10\drive" will mount it to H:\.

Apparently there is some way to automate mounting the network share once OpenVPN connects, but it seems to rely on using some specific OpenVPN client software on Windows. I haven't figured it out yet.

In the meantime, a good old batch file to run the above command will work.

Saturday, January 7, 2023

Quick reference list of all gluten-free items at Disneyland as of January, 2023

I could not find a current / simple reference, and the Disney app is tedious to page through, so I had to put a quick GF reference list together. Hope this helps someone.

All info pulled from the Disneyland app Jan 07, 2023 unless otherwise noted.

Disneyland only - not for Walt Disney World! Breakfast menus, lounges and bars are not listed. All French fries listed here are gluten-free. For those unfamiliar, a "Power Pack" is basically a kids snack pack, it's not a meal. All items are "allergy-friendly", but I've never heard of anyone having any issues.

* = Info from internet

** = Info from last known menu, see bottom of post for copies

** ALWAYS SPECIFY GLUTEN-FREE OPTION TO SERVER. IF IN DOUBT, ASK TO SEE THE CHEF. **

DISNEYLAND

Alien Pizza Planet