Posts by Jack Cook7

Try calling up the HP service center where you picked up that notebook.

Hey,

Even I—Jack Cook7, who basically gets along with everyone on this board, especially the mods—have never actually clashed with Ginger. It sounds totally insane, I know, and nobody believes me.

Looking back, what was I thinking? I should've jumped in sooner and played the hero. 😢

Ginger, let's just have a massive forum blowout and trade insults. 🕺

Justice for Djindjic! 🧐

PS: Ginger, once you're out, we can go all out with the insults—super nasty, totally unhinged, the kind of stuff that makes everyone else uncomfortable. Fall and winter are coming, so I figured we should take the chance before I hibernate until spring.

Actually, I don't *have* to hibernate. I'm down to spend the whole fall and winter trading jabs if you are. No biggie.

Kenneth Cruz67 said:Is there anything in the router settings that lets you block IP addresses or domains?🤔

On my Qualcomm gear, I’ve got URL and IP filters where I can block or whitelist specific domains, individual IPs, entire IP ranges, ports, protocols—you name it. You can mix and match everything in like a hundred different ways.

With those little consumer routers, the stuff they offer is pretty basic. If you want serious web filtering, plus things like antivirus, antispam, and malware scanning, you really have to look at dedicated firewalls. Even the smaller ones have decent implementations. The catch is the price tag—it's going to be > $0.67—plus you usually gotta deal with an annual subscription. Another headache with those is managing multiple users with different permissions; you either need them integrated into a domain/LDAP setup, or you're stuck assigning fixed internal IP addresses to everyone.

William Palmer7 said:It works, but honestly, you really need a whitelist solution.

Basically following the logic of "the whole internet is toxic unless..."

Then you just throw Wikipedia and a few other hand-picked sites on the list.

Cold Turkey actually has that built-in.
https://getcoldturkey.com/features/

How do I block the entire Internet?
Wildcards can be used to block the entire Internet. Just add *.* to the website tab of the block list.

Can I just have a whitelist?
Yes. Just block the entire Internet by blocking *.* under the website tab and then add the sites you need to access under the exceptions tab.

How do I block specific pages?
If you'd still want to allow Meta but block a specific page, like a Meta profile, you can do this by adding: meta.com/username

Can I block Google searches?
Yes, use the wildcard feature to block Google searches. For example, here's how to block searches for unicorns: google.*/*q=*unicorns*

Anyway, pretty much any serious software uses web categorization, so you can just block an entire category instead of hunting down individual sites or domains one by one. This is usually what happens on proxy servers or firewalls/appliances, and it assumes there’s some manufacturer service constantly updating those category lists—which usually requires a subscription.

A ton of antivirus programs also have web site filtering baked right in, alongside their malware scanners.

There are plenty of products out there, and some even work on your phone.
https://famisafe.wondershare.com/blo...king-apps.html

And here’s an extension for Chrome.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/d...pcgbh?hl=pt-BR

Drew Allen77 said:It’s totally fine for what they're trying to do.

I’m with you on that, but honestly? For 99.99% of people out there, messing with the etc/hosts file is just a total waste of time.

Plus, I’ve always had a bit of a grudge against using hosts files on individual PCs. That kind of thing really belongs on a dedicated DNS server, don't you think?

Using a GUI utility like the one I mentioned is perfectly fine, though. It’s handy because you can use direct IP addresses from the site's code or set up redirects to land back on a mirror site or whatever.

The real holy grail, though? I haven't found an app yet that can block entire domain providers, or pull a WHOIS lookup to find an owner and then just nuking every single domain they own. Imagine that!

Joseph Lewis6 said:Alright, thanks guys. I figured none of that would actually work anyway lol

Check this out—there's a free blocker here with timers and everything. Just for one user.
https://getcoldturkey.com/blog/free-...-blocker-apps/

You’re looking at this all wrong, man.

Listen, any serious spam operation isn't just running a couple of machines—they’ve got hundreds, even thousands of servers, each one loaded up with tens of thousands of aliases. When you look at IP addresses, entire B-class blocks are basically owned by a handful of massive corporations these days. The whole IPv4 space is pretty much swallowed up by these digital landlords. It’s the exact same story with IPv6, it just hasn't hit the mainstream radar like IPv4 did yet.

That’s just how the game is played.

crimsonridge44 said:Lately, I can't send anything through Mozilla Thunderbird. I'm using my Gmail account, and every single time I try to hit send, it just keeps asking—"Enter your password for xxxxxxx@gmail.com on smtp.gmail.com." Even after I type the password in, it just loops back to the same thing.
Anyone else dealt with this headache?

Look, if your Norton isn't acting up and blocking things, then your ISP or the mail server itself probably has your SMTP traffic flagged and blocked.

Basically, to stop bots and all that annoying SMTP spam, ISPs constantly block outgoing SMTP traffic from their nodes to other providers unless they’re on some kind of whitelist.

So, if you're an internet subscriber in the US with Provider X and you're trying to use an SMTP client for a server hosted by Provider Y, they'll often just block both sides automatically to keep the spam bots at bay.

hollowmason64 said:It isn't about whether the world is perfect or not—if a case has an official filing number, it needs to be handled.
How many times have you filed a formal report like that? I have. And every single time, everything was resolved strictly by the book.

And please, all this talk about calling principals and sitting next to local troublemakers... you're really overthinking it.

Man, I've seen plenty of "filed" cases just vanish into thin air. Most of them just end up as a massive pile of paperwork buried in someone's folder.

As for those "calls to the director," just look at the list of donors for certain local schools and you'll see exactly how those relationships work.

It's honestly kind of cute how much faith you have in the American legal system and the people running it—especially the ones supposed to oversee everything like inspectors and the Department of Labor—when the whole mess is basically set up by American politics.

And even Little Red Riding Hood got her hero moment from the hunter!

hollowmason64 said:The Inspectorate and the City Administration operate independently. If there really isn't any posted operating hours on the door, just file a formal complaint with the Inspectorate. Lay out the whole situation and emphasize that the hours aren't displayed in a visible spot. You could even snap a photo of the entrance when it's quiet.
Once you submit a written complaint, it gets an official case number. No amount of "connections" is going to stop someone from having to process that file and notify you of the inspection results.

In a perfect world, yeah.

But in the real world? Forget about it. The Inspectorate isn't actually there to
protect citizens. Plus, you gotta be careful—you might report someone who turns out to be the principal of the school your kid attends, and then you’ll be stuck sitting next to the biggest headaches in town for years. Uh, ah, how do I know that?

I just happened to spend years sitting in a classroom with the biggest headaches in town. And I "happened" to know exactly why.

Just don't go telling them at the repair shop that you were flipping your laptop upside down and that's why the keys popped off. They'll void your warranty instantly, because I mean, seriously, who on earth flips a laptop over?

I'm not even joking. 🤣

Yeah, I probably got that wrong.

Man, let me take a trip down memory lane for a sec. Remember those glory days when you’d first boot up a PC and get hit with that prompt:
Please Enter Time and Date:.

Once you typed that in, it would politely ask:
"Please Insert BIOS Setup Disk in drive A:".

And then comes the absolute classic error message
"Who's that general Failure Reading disk a and Why is He reading IT"

Seriously, who is to pay more? Those were the good old days when I was young and had a whole bag full of floppies that could fix half the tech universe—and the other half? Well, we just winged it.

Just look at what this whole IT world has turned into today. 👍

😁

wearymason4 said:Wait, I don't get it... even today, when you're using PCs and the battery dies, all your saved settings just vanish. The simplest way to tell is by looking at the date.

Back in the day, it was actually standard practice. If the CMOS battery died and wiped the config parameters, the BIOS PROM would have a specific routine to catch that. It would trigger a "last exit" prompt asking the user to pop in an installation floppy disk. And since those disks were usually proprietary—only available from the manufacturer—it was a sneaky little way to protect their high service fees.

Fast forward to today (well, the last 20 years or so), and things are way more straightforward. You don't run into that hurdle anymore.

wearymason4 said:If the date in your BIOS is acting wonky, you might be looking at a dead CMOS battery that needs swapping out.

Man, that was the standard back in the day—like 25 or even 30 years ago. (Mostly with those old IBM machines).

When that CMOS battery finally kicks the bucket, the PROM defaults to a POST sequence that basically
drags you straight into Setup so you can fix the time and date. Back when you were running an IBM, it would actually force you to grab a floppy disk with the BIOS setup on it just to manually tweak every single setting every time you booted up.

steelfox36 said:So, I’m running into some major headaches with my laptop. Every single time I boot it up, it kicks me straight into the BIOS, and I'm just stuck staring at that blinking little cursor next to the "save exit," "quit without saving," or "yes/no" options.
No matter what button I mash, it eventually force-boots into the pre-installed macOS, but that’s where the real nightmare starts because the mouse clicks are acting totally possessed—sometimes a left click works, sometimes a right click works, and half the time, nothing happens at all. I even tried plugging in an external mouse to see if it was a hardware thing, but nope, same exact glitchy mess. When I try to dig into the settings to hit the recovery option and trigger a full system reset, I get hit with this error message:
"We can't find the recovery environment. Please insert a Windows installation or recovery media and restart your computer using it."
It used to just launch the reinstall process like nothing was wrong, but now it's completely bricked. This unit came with Windows 10 Home already baked in from the factory. Does anyone have any clue what might be causing this mess? 😵

Wait, how are you actually getting into the BIOS setup? Are you hitting F2? Honestly, it sounds like one of your keys might be stuck down, causing it to loop back there.

Alexander Morgan33 said:A cafe can write whatever they want on their website, Google Maps, or even on their front door.

Actually, they can't just do whatever they want with the doors. Local shops, cafes, or public offices like the USPS—they're legally required to have their hours clearly posted at the entrance. If they don't, they're breaking the rules.

But hey, these guys are clearly tripping over themselves because they can't handle the truth.

Back in Washington, D.C., they actually implemented this rule one year where cafes had to close by 11 PM, but clubs could stay open until 1 AM. So, you know how it goes—half the cafes just rebranded themselves as clubs overnight to dodge the curfew! I’m not totally sure if that’s still a thing, though. I was chatting about it with a buddy recently and he just laughed and said, "I bet you won't find a single cafe or club inside Bloomberg's office building..."

As for opening hours—honestly, almost every single cafe and restaurant these days has its own website listing their hours, plus most of them are tagged on Google Maps anyway.

boldraven11 said:Just a solid green screen. No sound, no error messages, nothing. Just pure green everywhere.
The macOS shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Win+B (which basically forces a GPU reset) actually worked for me twice. It would reset the graphics card and everything went back to being totally fine.

Since you’ve already swapped out the GPU and tried different cables, we might be looking at two main culprits here:
1. Motherboard issues messing with the GPU communication. Like, the bus just randomly dumps junk data into the graphics card and freezes the whole thing up.

2. A bad monitor. Honestly? I'd bet on a cold solder joint or some oxidized connectors. I've seen monitors act exactly like this before—they start tinting red or blue and then just go haywire.

3. Maybe something got bumped or shifted with the peripherals or cards on the motherboard. You could try rotating them in the slots and running an auto-detect again.

Basically, throw that monitor onto another PC or a laptop and run it for a few days. If it stays stable, then your motherboard is likely the problem. To narrow it down even more, you could take your current GPU and plug it into a different PC using that same monitor.

It could also be an overheating situation.

If you can still manage to type any basic commands via the keyboard—like hitting restart or something—do it. That'll tell you if the whole system is locked up or if it's strictly a monitor issue. That'd be a huge help.

Richard Johnson said:I'm pretty sure just grabbing a new fan is the smartest move, but man, where am I supposed to find a replacement for a card that's basically a decade old? I've been scouring the web and coming up totally empty.
Do you think I could scavenge a fan from some other GPU? If so, what kind should I be looking for? I've only really been hunting for one that fits my specific card.

Fans are actually pretty standardized. Try to hunt down the specific model number on the fan itself—that'll make your life way easier. If you can't find an exact match, just look up the specs and grab something similar or even slightly beefier. Honestly, you can often find these old fans sitting in junk bins on old, broken cards for next to nothing.

Oh! Something else just popped into my head. Most PCs have multiple fans, including ones meant to help the GPU. A lot of times, they're set up in a way where the airflow actually fights against itself. Just shifting the card in its slot, plugging some holes in the case, or adding a fan to blow fresh air in from the front (or suck hot air out through the back expansion slots) can take a massive load off the existing fans. Map out how the air is moving inside your case and see if you can optimize it. Usually, that CPU cooler is just dumping all its heat right onto the graphics card.