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Help

If you have problems with third-party equipment or software you should contact the original supplier and not use us as a solution when you are being fobbed off.

Most problem calls (90%) that we answer are caused by -

1. Computer virus or Trojan. Our commonest call.

Anti-virus software should be installed on ALL your computers. A firewall is not anti-virus software and you should have BOTH, especially if using Broadband. A good indication of problems is when your printing starts going wrong. If you don't have anti-virus software then you can go to the Grisoft web site where you can obtain either FREE or low cost anti-virus software, AVG 8 Free Edition in this case. This is one of many such products and since it is free you have no real excuse for not loading it.

Again for Spyware removal there are several on the market. Currently Microsoft Antispyware seems to be one of the best.

You can check your vulnerability to internet attacks by using the software from sites like www.grc.com

2. Not keeping Windows up to date with all the latest program patches. You should visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com on a regular basis and download these.

(Please note Windows 95 is discontinued some time ago. 98/NT/ME/2000 should be considered as discontinued. There are worrying noises about Windows XP at the present time. You should consider upgrading to XP or Vista or Windows 7 now.)

3. Using old printer drivers especially on Windows XP. The 2000 ones may work but the may be S-L-O-W. Download the latest from the manufacturer on the internet.

4. 'Having a go' at networking. If you rely on your computer system then networks are best installed by an expert. It is worth the money.

If you use Wireless Networking then you MUST use the security features and not leave the system open to third party access. It is recommended that you use the WEP security option with 128 bit encryption as an absolute minimum. If using a passphrase then do not use something that it obvious.

A business using a computer and network must treat this seriously and act in a responsible manner. Buying an using an Uninterruptable Powers Supply and using it on your computer, router and network switch will ensure that you can work through power cuts and fluctuations. Having a decent computer, plenty of memory and disk space, an up to date operating system and anti-virus software will also be a good idea.

Slow dial-up connection speed

Check your speed using a Broadband Speed Checker like [THIS]

Some users cannot obtain a broadband connection owing to their physical location and have to rely on a dial-up.

The use of the Onspeed program, which we have tested, can significantly improve speed at a low cost - around £25 for a year. This uses the redirection of data through its own high speed web servers and compression software to speed the throughput. It is a simple download which then runs a compression program in the background during internet activity.

While not providing a 100% solution it will improve viewing web pages by an average of around 500%. Secure pages i.e. https are not speeded up for security reasons. It will actually work with broadband as well but does not achieve quite the same high level of increase.

The program will work with AOL but you must download and use the Firefox browser instead of the AOL/Microsoft browser. Again this is a simple download. You then simply minimize the AOL screen and run the Firefox browser instead.

If using Norton Internet Security (or any firewall) then you must Permit the Onspeed service to connect to the internet. See HERE for general advice re Norton Firewall.

Zebra/Orion printers - print spurious characters on labels or they go the wrong length

Usually caused by the wrong printer driver or, on some models, moving it into Line Mode. (Should be PAGE mode for label production).

Go to this page for help.

(If using XP with large labels then the Seagull driver works better than the Zebra one).

Unable to send/receive file by FTP

This is normally caused by either the Windows firewall (in XP SP2) or a third-party firewall actually blocking the use of FTP.

If using XP SP2 go into Control Panel and then Windows Firewall. Click on Exceptions. If your program is not in the list then click on Browse and add it. See HERE

If using Norton Personal Firewall, open the Norton Program. Click on Personal Firewall in the list. Choose the Programs tab on the Personal Firewall screen. Look for the program concerned in the list at the bottom of the screen. Alter Internet Access on the program to Permit All. Check that you have done this on ALL the profiles listed in NPF as each user can have different settings. See HERE

Remember that if you are using a firewall program of your own with Windows XP SP2 that you should turn the Windows firewall OFF.

If you are using AOL on broadband, you should only use the AOL approved routers or they will not give you support (and you cannot blame them) - currently the Netgear DG834 is approved. Our experience is that some of the other routers do not work properly or are very 'flaky'.

2003 Small Business Server - File size exceeded allocation message on workstations

Usually there is a lot of space available.

This is due to exceeding your disk space allocation quota for users. This is usually set to 1GB by default when the system was loaded. On the server go into My Computer. Right-click on the C: drive. Click on the 'quotas' tab. Set a higher or, if suitable, set no limits.

Note that this applies to new accounts and you may need to manually change existing ones. You do this is Users found in Computer Administration.

Contact the original installer if you have a problem.

ATWPKT2.SYS error when booting

This comes up in a blue Windows 'kiss of death' screen on boot-up and this message appears -

DRIVER_UNLOADED_WITHOUT_CANCELLING_PENDING _OPERATIONS

This is an AOL problem. The computer reboots and reboots and reboots. The solution is to boot in safe mode by pressing F8 during the boot. Delete or rename the files ATWPKT2.SYS and ATWPKT2.VXD which are located in an AOL directory under \PROGRAM_FILES\COMMON_FILES . These are something to do with the AOL dialer. AOL still works if deleted.

Windows XP - Service Pack 2 quirks

Problem: Windows menu items are 'invisible' or appear to be behind the current screen.

Solution: Click on VIEW. Click on STATUS BAR.

Microsoft say this effect was 'by design'. No comment.

Windows XP - error message 'C:\Windows\System32\Autoexec.nt The file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications' (or similar)

This is caused by a corrupt Windows file. See Microsoft Knowledgebase article 324767.

Communications problems after installing a broadband router

If your network communicates with the internet you may experience communication problems. Outbound communications are normally fine but all inbound may be blocked.

You should look at the settings of the router, usually visible by going into your internet browser and typing 192.168.0.1 on the address line (this may vary from router to router).

If you want a particular PC on your network to be accessed from the internet then you must declare this on the router. If you are using local dynamic IP addresses then you should set an internal static one for a PC running a Web server or FTP server, e.g. 192.168.0.3

Again, this is set in the router. Once this has been done you should allow HTTP access (usually on port 80) to this PC from the router. To allow FTP access (usually on port 21) you should allow access to this PC from the router.

There is no need for you to have Static IP addresses if you use a product like TZO as this redirects your dynamic IP address. As an example, our FTP site is on a dynamic IP address and is rerouted to ftp://www.zipzap.myftpserver.com automatically.

Our local/internal website is on http://www.zipzap.myftpserver.com

Note that if you try to access your Web or FTP server from your own network then this will be blocked. To access our FTP server using an FTP client program we communicate with ftp://192.168.0.5 and not ftp://www.zipzap.myftpserver.com

If we try to go to http://www.zipzap.myftpserver.com from our own network then we get the router control panel page.

A router does what it says - routes. You must, however, tell it what it can and cannot route. We use a Netgear DG834 router. Don't forget that if your router has a firewall then inbound FTP requests may need PASSIVE transfers.

To test the router for inbound communications you should use a PC that is not on your internal network.

Under NO circumstances should you allow full inbound access as this is a security risk.

Slow printing to thermal barcode printer from ParcelTrak.

Right-click on shortcut and go to Properties. Look for a property called Idle Sensitivity. Move the slider to HIGH.

Set BUFFERS to 20 and BUFFER SIZE to 999.

Slow computer which gets slower and slower then runs out of available memory.

So much so that Windows has to increase the Virtual Memory. CPU usage is a constant 100%. Memory problems then occur in all running programs at random. The cause was tracked down to mixing McAfee Firewall V4 and McAfee Spamkiller V5 on the same PC. In this case it was on XP. [CTL][ALT][DEL] was very slow. The computer hung in safe mode when loading MUP.SYS

We have also seen this effect caused by a couple of the HP printer drivers.

ParcelTrak under Windows 3.11 for Workgroups

When you amend consignment dates under Windows 3.11 and save it the date is field is not updated.

Windows 3.11 is not fully 2000 compliant and the problem lies with Winfile.exe (part of Windows). It appears to be connected to Microsoft Knowledgebase Article 85557 which can be viewed at http://support.microsoft.com

The simple solution is to use Windows 98 or later.

ParcelTrak has no known problems with any Windows version.

Incorrect DOS version message when running ParcelTrak

At this point ParcelTrak is making a call to the program COMMAND.COM (part of Windows) in the root directory of the C: drive, in an attempt to rename files, but this program is from an earlier operating system and Windows gives an error. This usually occurs immediately after upgrading Windows 95/98 to NT/2000/XP. The new system places COMMAND.COM in C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\ but the calling program tries to use the original one in C:\. Copy the one in C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\ over the one in C:\ to resolve.

Windows 95/98 - MSVCRT.DLL is incorrectly linked to NTDLL.DLL or similar

This will follow an update where this Windows file has been overwritten, usually by the XP version. Copy MSVCRT.DLL from another computer with the same operating system or see Microsoft Knowledgebase Article 2956551.

Printing issues after installing Windows XP (usually with thermal printers)

You should be made aware that printing in XP is totally different to 95/98 - be warned! When printing to 8 inch by 4 inch thermal labels you MUST declare it as a custom paper size. You do this by clicking on START then PRINTERS. Click on FILE. Go to SERVER PROPERTIES. Go to PAPER SIZES. Click on ADD. Create a new paper size with the new dimensions. Save this. Now go to the PRINTER and PROPERTIES. Choose the new paper size.

Some of the drivers for Zebra printers do not appear to work as expected with custom sizes and cut off some of the printout or print the wrong orientation. You can try the free drivers from those nice people at Seagull Scientific on :- http://www.seagullscientific.com

Printing issues with LPT print redirection with Windows XP/2000/NT

You cannot redirect LPT type prints using Capture Printer Port as with 95/98. You MUST use the NET USE command to redirect. This must be done at a DOS prompt (or in a batch file) and is in the format -

NET USE LPT1: \\Computer\Printer

We have a special program for ParcelTrak for easy redirection. Note that you may need Administrative Rights in XP to use NET USE with LPT1 and you should consider using LPT2 instead.

Customer implant disks read in Windows 98 but not NT/2000/XP (floppy disk read problem)

This is a new problem with some preformatted floppy disks. It is caused by the manufacturers format process. Every disk contains a 'media descriptor byte' which is a small piece on information that identifies the size of the disk to Windows. In the case of these disks the information is missing. Windows 98 does not look for it when reading the disk but Windows NT/2000/XP does. As a result NT/2000/XP reports an error with the disk. The solution is to reformat the disk again (full format).

On XP you may get the message 'No ID address mark was found on the floppy disk'.

Again, this solution can be found on the Microsoft web site.

The keyboard freezes in ParcelTrak but the mouse still works.

This may occur in Windows 95/98 and is NOT a ParcelTrak problem. Go to MY COMPUTER. CONTROL PANEL and then SYSTEM. Click on DEVICE MANAGER. Go to SYSTEM DEVICES. Go to ADVANCED POWER MANAGEMENT. Disable Power Status Polling. If you click on the '?' symbol then on this option it tells you to do this.

Believe it or not this can be found in the Windows Troubleshooter guide!

Compatibility of ParcelTrak with Windows

ParcelTrak works with EVERY version of Windows and any mixture on a network of these.

Our Windows based programs are normally tested with 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista and should work with all Windows versions. Data can be stored on a Linux server, although the programs themselves will not run on it.

Too many open files

This is an operating system error message. It simply means that Windows needs tweaking. It is in the Help Manual!

Get back to a normal Windows screen. Click on START and go to RUN. Type COMMAND on the Run Line and OK. You will now be at C:\WINDOWS\DESKTOP>. Type CD\ and press ENTER. Now type EDIT CONFIG.SYS and press ENTER. You will get a blue screen with writing in it. Look for a line that starts with FILES= . If it exists then alter it to FILES=255. If it does not exist then add it at the bottom under the last line. When done hit the ALT key on the keyboard. It highlights the word FILE. Press ENTER. Go to EXIT and press ENTER. Confirm the SAVE option. When back at the black screen type EXIT and press ENTER. Restart the computer.

In Windows NT, 2000 and XP this file is called CONFIG.NT and is located in the C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32 sub-directory. Just add the line near the top.

In Windows ME add the line perVmFiles=225 in the [386Enh] section of SYSTEM.INI (again this is on the Microsoft web site.)

Does not print (or holds last page in printer) until you exit the program

Usually this is on Windows 98. Does the computer have a network card? If so this is the subject of the Microsoft help page Q140036. You can see this by going to http://support.microsoft.com and typing Q140036 on the query line.

The cure is to click on START. Go to RUN and type SYSTEM.INI on the Run Line. This is now displayed in Notepad. Look for a section marked [Network]. If this does not exist then add it, following after the block marked [386Enh].

[Network]

PrintBufTime=10

[IFSMGR]

PrintBufTime=10

Now click on File and Save. Restart the computer.

Many new printer drivers are HUGE and can occupy a lot of memory in your PC. Many Windows-only printers require large amounts of memory as all the print processing is done by the software instead of the printer - be warned. You should ensure that you have at least 256MB of RAM for many to work properly.

Printing is slow using the Eltron Printer (parallel port)

Use the very latest printer driver from the Zebra website (http://www.zebra.com) . Ensure that the computer has at least 256 MB of memory. Run Scandisk via START, PROGRAMS, ACCESSORIES and SYSTEM TOOLS. Run in a Standard Mode and Fix All Errors. Click on START and go to RUN. Type COMMAND on the Run Line. At C:\WINDOWS\DESKTOP> type CD.. and press ENTER. Now type CD TEMP and press ENTER. You should now be at C:\WINDOWS\TEMP>. Type DEL *.* and press ENTER. Once done type EXIT and press ENTER.

Printing is slow using Eltron Orion (serial port)

The Windows driver supplied by Zebra/Eltron is slow in serial mode. Use our serial printer polling program instead of the standard version. This prints directly to the printer without going through Windows. The only drawback is that you cannot dynamically create graphic images.

I can print reports from Wordpad but not from ParcelTrak.

The first thing to check is that your printer is not a GDI printer as these will only print from a Windows application where the manufacturer has written a driver for that version of Windows. They print text as graphic images and not as text. The Canon BJ1000 is a GDI printer as is the Samsung 4500. Laser printers that are PCL or Postscript are normally fine.

Click on START and go to RUN. Type COMMAND on the run line and OK. At the black screen type CD\ and press ENTER. Now type DIR > PRN and press ENTER. This should print a list of files. If it doesn't then the problem is not within ParcelTrak.

A good reason for not using a GDI printer is that if you have a problem in Windows, then you can restart in DOS mode and still work. If you want to use a GDI or USB printer with ParcelTrak then use the Dosprint program which is available at a very low cost from www.dosprn.com. It is recommended that in the settings you remove the tick from 'wrap long lines' on the first tab and set lines to 66 and characters to 80 on the second by adjusting the margins.

The real problem is that the manufacturer simply has not written the printer driver. Watch out as some manufacturers are only writing drivers for a few versions of Windows and you could find that your printer may not work with future versions! The 64 bit version of Windows XP has very few printer drivers written for it and you should not expect the existing ones to work at all.

My computer date is wrong

Click on MY COMPUTER. Go to CONTROL PANEL. Choose DATE/TIME. Alter date/time here.

German words in print options

The phrase "Anderungen in Document speichern", "Drucken", "Nachste" and similar on buttons when you try to print appear to be caused by accidentally loading a German language based printer driver that overwrites unidrv.dll

Error message when trying to run ParcelTrak or other programs

"16-bit MS-DOS Subsystem path to the program that you are trying to start or install C:\Windows\System32\config.nt The system file is not suitable for running MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows applications. Choose 'Close' to terminate the application."

This is the subject of Microsoft Knowledgebase article Q324767 and simply means that one or more of these Windows files is damaged (probably by a Trojan Horse attack) -

autoexec.nt or config.nt or command.com

Go to http://support.microsoft.com and type this article number on the query line.