Larry Brouwer

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Installing WordPress on my web server

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I spent most of the day installing and configuring WordPress for my personal web site. The site that I’m currently posting this blog entry. I’ve decided that BlogEngine.Net, while a nice blog server, it isn’t best suited for my needs. I need something really lightweight as my web server is not exactly a speedy machine.

This will be a brief summary of my steps from my feeble memory! What I’ve done so far…

Logged into IIS7 Manager Console and used the Web Platform Installer to install WordPress. I installed it several times to different locations before I got it just the way I wanted it. I also installed the latest MySQL Workbench 5.2 beta. This will come in most handy.

I also installed a WordPress instance to begin developing a new web site for Clear Lake Auto Service, a client of mine who really wants to get a new design.

I installed the Arjuna Theme, and began some minor customizations. I read through some of the WordPress online documentation as well to start getting an understanding of the design as I’m sure I’ll want to customize it.

I installed several Plugins. First, the Fast and Secure Contact Form, and second was the SI CAPTCHA Anti-Spam.

I added several pages and customized how the home page works (as a static page). I added several users, my page categories, and began moving the posts over from my Technotes Blog.

One key point I wanted to make note of is that upon first installing WordPress, delete the original page that is listed. Then re-create a new page to show your blogs. This will prevent a problem with duplicate ‘Home’ pages showing if you wish to implement a static home page some time later. I learned this the hard way!

That’s all I can remember for now…

SmarterMail and more Outlook 2007 blank emails

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I was unable to get to my SmarterMail account this morning by going to mail.larrybrouwer.com. I remembered that I had changed SM from using its own web server to IIS7. So I went into the IIS7 Management Console and edited the bindings to add mail.larrybrouwer.com to it, and now it works fine.

Logged into SmarterMail as admin. There are nine (9) reminders. They are File permission warnings for the App_Data directory. Navigated to Settings | Activation | SmarterMail Self Diagnostic. Failed permissions on /MailProcessing/ and /App_Data/. Needs write permission to both. Opened IIS7 Management Console and navigated to Application Pools. Right clicked on SmarterMail Application Pool and selected Advanced Settings… Changed it to NetworkService from ApplicationPoolIdentity. Restarted web site. Reran diagnostics. All passed.

Blank emails re-appeared in my OfficeLive account in Outlook 2007. What a bummer. Googled on ‘microsoft outlook 2007 OfficeLive Connector blank emails’ found a post Outlook Connector probs. It recommended uninstalling and reinstalling antivirus or trying the Outlook Hotmail Connector 32-bit (Beta). I checked my current version and I’m running 12.0.6423.1000. This seems to be the latest production version. I decided to try out the beta version. The new version is 14.0.4514.1008. I was unable to get the blank emails back into my Outlook inbox, so I forwarded them back to myself.

Needed to enable Telnet on my Windows 7 workstation. Go to Start | Control Panel | Programs and Features. Click on ‘turn windows features on or off’ and click on Telnet Client.

Installed WordPress on my development web server. Began configuring it.

Also installed MySQL Workbench 5.1 and 5.2beta.

Researching WordPress for Clear Lake Auto Service

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Today I’m researching WordPress for Clear Lake Auto Service a client of mine. They are looking to upgrade their website to be more easily updated. So, I thought this software to be a perfect fit. They are currently being hosted by c-beyond, and c-beyond allows them to run PHP and MySQL, so it should install quite easily.

To install the WordPress software, I first read through the installation instructions found at installing WordPress. After verifying that c-Beyond’s hosting does meet the requirements, I downloaded the latest WordPress software release download (v2.9.2 as of 4/29/2010) and extracted the wordpress folder to a temp directory.

Next, I logged into the C-Beyond control panel for the web site and initialized the MySql database. I then looked under the AddOns folder, and I noticed that WordPress is already an installable package. So I installed it directly off the C-Beyond site. I then upgraded it to the current version using the auto-upgrade tab already in the software.

Fixing SqlServer Database Mail for HCMGA

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I got a call this morning that Master Gardener’s system is not sending emails. So now I’m in troubleshooting mode. I first logged onto the server and checked the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service. It’s running. I then went into the application and sent out a test message. Did not receive it. I then went into SqlServer Management Studio (SSMS) and logged into prod. Clicked on Management. Then right clicked Database Mail and selected Send Test E-Mail. I sent a test email out from there. I did not receive the email. I then right-clicked and selected View Database Mail Log. There are many errors being displayed. The error message follows:

Message
The mail could not be sent to the recipients because of the mail server failure. (Sending Mail using Account 20 (2010-04-28T09:37:27). Exception Message: Cannot send mails to mail server. (Mailbox unavailable. The server response was: 5.7.1 Unable to relay for [email recipient]).)

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Debugging D-Link DIR-655 router issues

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Today started out with discovering our phone wasn’t working. Since we have Vonage or Voice over IP (VOIP), this usually means our Internet is down. At least I know when the Internet is down! My usual routine for this sort of thing is to first unplug everything (the cable modem, router, switch, and the Vonage router), let it sit for a good minute or so to discharge any kind of inductance build-up (or whatever), and then re-plug everything back in starting from the modem, then the router, then the switch, then the VOIP box.

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Fixed Yahoo Mail pop3 integration with Outlook 2007

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My yahoo mail stopped sending emails through Microsoft Outlook 2007 several days ago. I finally had some time to troubleshoot the problem. I fixed the issue by going into Tools / Options then selecting Mail Setup. Next, click on E-mail Accounts… I then selected my yahoo.com account and clicked Change… I first performed a Test Account Settings … and it gave me a send error. After changing several settings, I found and corrected the problem by clicking on More Settings … I then selected Advanced. In the ‘Use the following type of encrypted connection:’ I changed it from ‘Auto’ to ‘SSL’ and that seemed to fix the problem. Just to let you know, I’ve set up my Yahoo mail to ‘Yahoo Asia’ so I can enable Pop3 without purchasing a Yahoo Plus account. It’s been working great for me until recently, and now it’s working great again!

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Continued BlogEngine.Net installation for HCMGA

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Today, I’m working on getting BlogEngine.Net installed on the Harris County Master Gardener website. I’m trying to test the new post notifications, and I keep getting “You are now unsubscribed” message after entering a new email address. Since I’m using the SQL Server data store, I didn’t think to check the permissions on the “APP_DATA” folder. After looking at the tables, I didn’t see a newsletter table. So I added “NETWORK SERVICE” write permissions to the “APP_DATA” folder and it is now working fine.

So now, after adding a new post, notification emails are not being sent out.

Learning Visual Studio 2010, Silverlight 4, .NET Framework 4

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Installed Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate trial.

Installed Silverlight 4 Tools RC2 for Visual Studio 2010

Stumbled upon Ramp Up, a free learning resource.

Installed Silverlight 4 Toolkit April 2010 from codeplex

Installed Microsoft Expression Blend 4 Release Candidate (RC)

Installed WCF RIA Services Release Candidate 2 for Silverlight 4 and Visual Studio 2010

Installed WCF RIA Services Toolkit April 2010

Installed Silverlight 4 Offline Documentation

Installed Silverlight 4 Training

Installed Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Training Kit

Getting started with Silverlight

Navigate to Tools / Extension Manager and select Online Gallery

Visual Studio 2010 Training videos on channel9

Learning DotNetNuke

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Most of today consisted of learning about DotNetNuke (DNN). I watched several tutorials from DNNCreative Magazine. Most were quite outdated, however, they did provide a good understanding of the DNN structure.

I mainly focused on setting up the blogging module. I first installed the current version (3.5.1), and was frustrated by it not having some of the features that BlogEngine.Net has. After some googling, I discovered that version 4.0.0 RC3 is out on codeplex, so I installed that. So now I have more of the features I would like to see, i.e. categories, and cloud tags.