Mac/OSX AppleMobileDeviceHelper / SyncServices Error Easy Quick Fix

February 4, 2013 By
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Is your Apple iDevice not being recognized properly in iTunes?
Have an iPhone/iPad that doesn’t want to backup or sync in iTunes?
Does iTunes popup error messages relating to Apple Mobile Device Services, iTunes unable to load class information from Sync Services, or other sync errors?

Doing a simple web search will provide numerous links showing these problems, and Apple has not provided an easy solution to them at the moment. After dealing with these issues a few times – I came up with a simple solution that has worked consistently.

Since iTunes 11 – you cannot easily revert to iTunes 10.7, so downgrading or uninstalling/reinstalling iTunes is not an option.

First Step
(These are taken from, and detailed here : http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1747)

• Disconnect your device from your Mac.
• Choose Go > Go to Folder.
• Enter /System/Library/Extensions and click Go.
• Locate the file AppleMobileDevice.kext and drag it to the Trash.
• Choose Go > Go to Folder.
• Enter /Library/Receipts/ and click Go.
• Locate the file AppleMobileDeviceSupport.pkg and drag it to the Trash.
• Restart the computer.
• Choose Finder > Empty Trash and restart the computer.

Second Step

• Download/install Xcode from the App Store.
• Choose Go > Go to Applications.
• Right Click on the Xcode icon and select Show Package Contents.
• Navigate to /Contents/Resources/Packages/ and install the MobileDevice.pkg
• Connect your device and enjoy a clean backup / sync.

That is it!

Secure your WordPress Installation

January 22, 2013 By
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There are many plugins that can be used to enhance the security of your WordPress website. Additionally you can add some code to your local .htaccess file that will work in conjunction with plugins to really harden your installation against attacks. Below I’ve outlined some specific plugins I have found useful as well as some instructions that can be used to secure your installation.

Ultimate Security Checker by Eugene Pyvovarov is a security plugin that performs simple checks on your WordPress installation and can be used to highlight missed aspects of your installation.

WP Security Scan by WebsiteDefender is another useful WordPress security tool that will give your website a rating dependent on how secure it is.

Better WP Security by Bit51.com is a tool that will automatically ‘harden’ your website against basic WordPress attacks. Be careful with this one as you can harden your website so securely that you may be unable to get back in!

In order to modify your .htaccess file merely FTP into your website and modify the .htaccess file with a text-editor of your choice. I prefer to use WinSCP for FTP as it has a built-in file editor. If you’d like to use WinSCP, you can download it from here.

Once you’ve logged into your FTP modify the .htaccess file located at the root of your installation.

In order to block specific IP addresses from accessing your WordPress site, merely add the following code to the .htaccess file replacing the IP’s I have listed with the ones you’d like to block.

order allow.deny htaccess

Additionally you can add the following code to harden your WordPress install against the use of malicious code that can be injected into your site.

mod_rewrite.c code

Once you’ve added the code listed above merely save the .htaccess file and you should be good to go. I’ve also included a link at the end of this post with good information on other methods you can use to secure your installation.

Hardening WordPress Installation
Courtesy of wordpress.org

Google Docs / Drive Firewall Settings

September 13, 2012 By
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As Jefferson County Schools in Colorado have switched to Google Applications many local schools have some issues with accessing the various Google Applications from behind their firewall or from their location. Google released a document that outlines the various network changes that are necessary in order to allow Google Applications to work at your location.

Google Drive and Sites were designed to work on uninhibited networks. However, for domain and network administrators with specific firewalls and/or servers, the following sites must be accessible for Google Drive and Sites to function properly:

For the following, [N] means any single decimal digit. * means any string not containing a period.

Documents List, Documents, Presentations, and Drawings
http (port 80) connection to docs.google.com, docs[N].google.com and *.docs.google.com.
https (port 443) connection to docs.google.com and docs[N].google.com.
https (port 443) connection to *.docs.google.com.

Spreadsheets
http (port 80) connection to spreadsheet.google.com, spreadsheets.google.com, spreadsheets[N].google.com, and *.spreadsheets.google.com.
https (port 443) connection to spreadsheet.google.com, spreadsheets.google.com and spreadsheets[N].google.com.

Sites
http (port 80) connection to sites.google.com.
https (port 443) connection to sites.google.com.
https (port 443) connection to *.sites.google.com.

All Google Drive products
https (port 443) connection to ssl.gstatic.com.
https (port 443) connection to www.google.com.
https (port 443) connection to *.googleusercontent.com.
https (port 443) connection to gg.google.com.
https (port 443) connection to *.googleapis.com.

The IP addresses that the various domain names resolve to cannot be assumed to fall inside any given address range. IP addresses used by Google Drive may be used by other Google properties. The techniques that Google Drive uses to connect to Google servers depend on the browser, browser version, and networking conditions, among other things. Even if activity to some of the addresses above is not observed in a particular Google Drive product, that doesn’t mean it never will be.


This information was obtained by visiting
http://support.google.com/docs/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1211661

How to Disable SBCore Service – Disabling sbscrexe.exe Event ID 1001 / 1013 / 1014

March 8, 2012 By
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A client recently migrated from a SBS 2003 server to a SBS 2011 installation. During the migration – they discovered legacy applications that weren’t meant to run on a x64 platform. They decided to keep the older SBS 2003 server to run these applications after demoting it from a Domain Controller.

They contacted us after a week – informing us that their older SBS 2003 server keeps rebooting. Looking in the logs we noticed a handful of related events – ID 1001/1013/1014. Looking at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555087 – it explains that they are in violation of the EULA relating to SBS 2003.

They needed to migrate their applications and data over to a new server but couldn’t do so while the system kept rebooting. To allow them to migrate their information, we disabled the C:\WINDOWS\system32\sbscrexe.exe process that was responsible for rebooting the server every 60 minutes.

This was accomplished by:

1) Booting the server into a Linux Live-CD distribution (we used the GParted Live CD found here: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php)

2) Mounting the hard drive partition that contains the Windows installation.

3) Browsing to \WINDOWS\system32\ and either renaming or deleting the sbscrexe.exe file.

4) Rebooting the server into Windows and verifying that the sbscrexe.exe process is no longer running in the task manager.

There are numerous posts online that describe editing permissions on the registry and file while in the Windows environment – we found the Live-CD method to be the easiest and safest for resolving this issue. If you are experiencing issues related to the SBCore service and need help – please don’t hesitate in contacting us.

Windows 7 Print Spooler Error Fix

January 12, 2012 By
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The guide below demonstrates a simple fix for common Windows 7 print spool errors. If the print spooler error persists after troubleshooting there may be additional corruption within your OS or printer driver subsystem. As always, make sure you are using the most updated drivers available from your manufacturers website.   1] To begin, open [...]

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ClearOS Dansguardian accessdenied.php Bypass Script

May 28, 2011 By
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Using Dansguardian on ClearOS, ClarkConnect, or any basic *unix setup, you can configure a .php script to bypass the content filtering software for a set amount of time using a defined username and password. This walkthrough involves the modification of configuration files and general *unix knowledge. If you need additional assistance please don’t hesitate to [...]

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Dell D630/D830 Windows 7 64-bit Touchpad Drivers

May 26, 2011 By
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Ran into an odd issue after installing SP1 for Windows 7 x64 on a Dell D630, the touchpad / pointing stick stopped responding. Looking at driver download page for the D630 / D830 (Windows Vista 64-bit) on Dell’s support site shows there are no drivers provided for the touchpad / pointing stick. I find the [...]

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cleanspl.exe – Print Spooler Cleaner

April 22, 2011 By
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If you’ve experienced problems with the spoolsv.exe crashing on your system, or you have been running into issues with printing in general, the cleanspl.exe tool provided by Microsoft may be able to solve your problems. I have run into issues with HP Laserjet printers, specifically the 10xx models, causing the print spooler on Windows XP [...]

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Netflix N8210 Error Fixed!

April 22, 2011 By

We’ve been having issues at my school since I’ve updated my content filter to the newer version of ClearOS.  I kept receiving a Netflix error N8210 when attempting to ‘Instantly Watch’ a video from their collection. ClearOS uses a form of Squid for the transparent proxy on top of Dansguardian-AV.  The solution below should essentially [...]

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Microsoft Security Essentials

April 1, 2011 By

Many people do not know there is a free anti-virus/malware program provided directly by Microsoft.  Why bother installing a paid application when you can get free protection for your computer directly from the software manufacturer? Microsoft Security Essentials is a free anti-malware solution for your computer provided by Microsoft.  It helps protect against viruses, spyware, [...]

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