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Monday, July 30, 2007

Another Possible Gizmo (Linksys SPA-2102) Password

A user posted a comment listing another possible password for the ex-SunRocket Linksys SPA-2102 gizmo.

79309925#

Keep me updated on if it works.

Chris

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Even our Gizmos Maker Gives us the Run-Around

A user of dslreports.com received this message from Linksys regarding the Gizmo SPA-2102.


Dear Valued Sipura Customer,

"Linksys' goal is to help SunRocket subscribers to continue to use their Linksys ATA (the SPA2102-R1 Analog Telephone Adapter) equipment. Linksys no longer owns the ATA equipment and we will comply with any appropriate, authorized requests to facilitate the transfer of SunRocket's service. We understand that there are negotiations currently taking place between SunRocket and other 3rd party service providers. However, until we receive the details of any agreements between those companies from an authorized source, in addition to any approvals or consents that may be required from any applicable third party with an interest in those transactions, we are not in a position to re-provision the ATA units."

Sincerely,

Gerald (Badge 18316)
Sipura Support


Honestly, at this point I think the only ones to be angry with is Sherwood Partners, LLC. I think what we should start doing is begin to spam them as they are with us. I still am receiving notices that my service is discontinued, and that they want me to sign up with Teleblend & Packet 8. Why, so that they can recoup their lost investment?

What about my money? What about our gizmos? As investors, they should know that you only invest the money you are willing to lose. When you purchase a service (for instance, a trusting consumer purchasing a years worth of VoiceOverIP Telephone service), you are not spending money you risk to lose, you are paying for a service for which you intend to consume. I have not fully consumed what I paid for, for that I am outraged.

But Sherwood on the other hand, is liquidating assets, is making deals with Packet 8 and Teleblend to recoup funds that they knew from the beginning they might not get back. So why should they get the right to shaft over 200,o00 people to get back this money.

My conclusion, is I am no longer going to focus my frustrations on Teleblend, the exSunRocket employees or executives, or even at Linksys. I am going to the source, I am going to Sherwood for answers. I think they should be held accountable for this disaster and how so many exSunRocket patrons are without phone service, without gizmos and without their money.

Friday, July 27, 2007

HowTo: A PC TuneUp

As more and more users get ridden with viruses, spyware and malware, I make more money. But honestly, I am tired of doing the same things over and over again. So I am writing this self help PC Tune Up post so that I can do less work.

Reboot as necessary.

#1 - Start -> Control Panel -> Ad/Remove Programs
Look for any programs that you never use, never heard of, or are out of date; and get rid of em.

#2 - Right click task bar -> Properties
Uncheck hide inactive icons.
I prefer to "Show Quick Launch", this way I reduce the number of icons on my desktop.
Click "Start Menu" -> Customize
If you have a low resolution, you may wish to use small icons instead of large.
With smaller Icons, you can have a higher number of programs on start menu.
Click "Advanced"
Uncheck "Highlight newly installed programs".
Uncheck "Help and support", comon who really uses it?
Uncheck "List my most recently opened documents", it stores shortcuts of every file you open, these files add up over a year.
Click "Clear List".
Click OK.
Click OK.

#3. - Right click My Computer -> "Properties"
Click Advanced -> "Error Reporting".
Click Disable Error Reporting.
Click OK.
Click Settings.
Uncheck every item all the way down to "Use Background image for each folder type"(dont uncheck this one.)
Click OK.
Click Remote.
Uncheck "Allow remote assistance invitations to be sent from this computer".
Click System Restore.
check "Turn off system restore on all drives".
Click OK

#4 - Start -> Run
In the text box type "regedit" and press "OK".
In the left frame of the window that appears is a "file" tree. We need to navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Explorer\Volume Caches
To do this we are going to click the "plus" sign next to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE", then the "plus" sign next to "SOFTWARE", and etc... till we reach "Volume Caches".
In the left frame we are going to right click on the entry under "Volume Caches" named "Compress Old Files" and select "Delete".

#5. - Open MyComputer -> Right click c: -> properties
Uncheck allow indexing service to index this disk for fast file searching. This is for searching for files, how often do you search for a file? Also, turning this off will not effect google desktop or msn desktop.
Select all subfolders, click ok. If it prompts that a file could not be accessed, choose ignore all.
When that completes, click Disk Cleanup.
Check all boxes and click ok.
Click Tools -> Defragment Now.
Click your C: and click analyze. If it says it needs to be defraged, then do so. If not close.
Click OK on Local Disk Properties to close.

#6. - Start -> Run
In the box, type services.msc. Hit OK.
This is the services manager. These are all of the services that run your windows operating system. The following is a list of services that can be changed to manual instead of automatic, which will prevent them from starting when your computer starts and will only start them when needed.

  • Distributed Link Tracking
  • Error Reporting Service
  • Help and Support
  • Indexing Service
  • IPSec Services - Do not disable if you use a VPN to access your work.
  • Logical disk manager
  • Machine Debug Manager
  • Remote Registry
  • Secondary Logon
  • Security Accounts Manager
  • Security Center
  • System Restore Service
  • TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
  • WebClient
  • Wireless Zero Configuration (Do not disable if you use 802.11b/g wireless internet connection, which includes most laptops)
#7 - free.grisoft.com - If you do not have up to date anti-virus and anti-spyware software.
Go here and download AVG Free Anti-Virus and AVG Free Anti Spyware. Install, Update, and scan.

#8 - Spray inside of case with can of compressed air to clean out any dust and debris.

If anyone else has things that they do for a tuneup that they would like to add, please add a comment.

Chris

Quality of ViaTalk

Ok, so I want to give ViaTalk the benefit of the doubt as being one of the more popular refugee sites for ex-SunRocket customers. But, i feel slightly dissatisfied with the quality of service that I am receiving. Not just quality of phone service, but also quality of customer service. It took them over 3 days to notify me that the paperwork I sent in to have my phone number ported was missing information. Then another 2 days to let me know that the paperwork I resent was correct.

i have had friends and family notify me that it has been dificult or impossible to leave a voicemail for me. As well as call quality has been extremely varied. One day the call quality was so bad, I had to hang up and call the person back using my cell phone. The next day calling the same person, it was crystal clear.

Don't get me wrong, I think ViaTalk can pull through. But it makes me nervous because the VOIP industry has had some rough patches lately. Not to mention one of the most common reasons businesses go under is their inability to handle growth. If ViaTalk is going to stay afloat, they need to get a handle on this large influx of business.

I will post an update regarding ViaTalk's quality of service.

Chris

Facebook Faces a Judge

On Wednesday July 25th, Facebook.com founder Mark Zuckerberg has been accused of stealing the idea, code and concept of facebook.com.

Founders of ConnectU, Divya Narendra and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, have until August 8th to build their case against Zuckerberg and the other founders of Facebook. The Winklevoss twins claim that they went to Zuckerberg in 2002 with their idea, and invited him to their team in September 2003.

"We gave him the HarvardConnect.com code and shared our ideas," said Cameron Winklevoss. "We told him the idea was confidential."

Zuckerberg launched thefacebook.com in February 2004, the twins were shocked and filed a cease-and-desist letter not 6 days after the launch. They hired a developer and launched their website, connectU 3 months later. But by then Facebook's growth was to strong and they could never catch up.

So, I ask my reader's, do you think that Zuckerberg stole the idea/code from ConnectU?

I feel that it is a strong possibility.

Chris

More Nonsense from Teleblend

Our friend over at gizmopasswords.com has been in communications with Lisa Bickford at Teleblend.  Basically, this CxO  of Teleblend has been skipping around the bush, just refusing to answer any questions legitimately or even cough up the truth that they provisioned our SunRocket gizmos.


My response, stay away from Teleblend.

To read the full conversation between DM of gizmopasswords and Lisa Bickford, please visit gizmopasswords.com.

Possible Linksys SPA-2102 Gizmo Password

From a fellow blogger:

SUNROCKX (78676259)


Keep me posted if it works or not.
Chris

Ajax Developer Position Pays $240k. I hope you know how to use a GUN...

  • Title: Web Developer
  • Salary: $200K plus DOE
  • Taxes: No Federal taxes taken out for the contractors that accept a 12 month. (6 month contractors will have taxes taken out)
  • Location: Iraq
  • Start date: ASAP with 2 weeks training (one in Washington DC and another in Ft. Bening GA)
  • # of Openings: 1

Summary:A principal Department of Defense agency is looking for programmers, developers or coders to code, support field deployment and maintenance of a new database application which will be used by Army units in Iraq. Scope These are full-time positions (12/7) located at one of the major US Bases in IRAQ. Deployment will be period of 6-12 months. Training on the application software will begin prior to deployment and will take place in Virginia. These positions are available for full time employment or for independent contractors. These positions are available now.

Can a Coffee Table Change the World?




Microsoft has been working on a project, that they claim can change the world. This product, which is probably the best kept secret they have ever created, a coffee table.

But this is no ordinary coffee table, this coffee table has a built in touch screen display spanning the whole top of the table. This is the ultimate computer for anyone who enjoys entertaining, for anyone who enjoys a clean computer. Surface has not a single cable. You cannot plug into the computer any keyboards, mice, digital cameras, or any peripheral for that matter. So how do you use it? With your fingers.

Place a digital camera on top of your "coffee table" and watch pictures spew out onto the screen. Place your finger on one and drag it over. Take two fingers, place them on opposite corners and drag away or towards each other to increase or decrease the size. Place your cell phone on the table, drag the same photo to it and watch it magically download into your phone.

Open your music player, view the album covers of 20 or so albums, touch one, view the song list, touch a song and enjoy.

Microsoft Surface received its name from "surface computing", which is basically converting a traditional GUI to one that has everyday objects and the user interacts with those objects with a touch screen display.

This new product from Microsoft, is definitely a major innovation on computing as we know it. Probably one of their greatest accomplishments to date.

For more information on Microsoft Surface, see Microsofts website at http://www.microsoft.com/surface/. To read more about how it works, see this article by Glenn Derene, Microsoft Surface: Behind-the-Scenes First Look (with Video). The above picture was taken from Glenn Derene's article, created by Intoaroute.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Nuvio Posts Directions to Provision Gizmos for their Service

Nuvio, a provider of PBX voice service, has setup a section of their website for SunRocket customers. They have posted how to unlock the AC-211-SR, AC-211N-SR, Linksys SPA 2102 and InnoMedia 6328.

Please note, they have not solved the no longer working password problem:

Note: If you have a Linksys SPA-2102, please try to unlock the device using these instructions before signing up for Nuvio service. A small number of customers are reporting difficulty unlocking the Linksys SPA-2102. This is likely due to TeleBlend, in a effort to retain a portion of the SunRocket Customer base having likely reconfigured passwords on the Linksys SPA-2102. Nuvio is currently working on a solution for this issue. Please check this page for updates.


This information can be found at http://direct.nuvio.com/sunrocket/devices.html

Teleblend Claims No Password Change

Mihir Gandhi has spoken with Lisa Bickford from Teleblend. She claims that she is unaware of any changes to the admin passwords that unlock the Gizmos. She stated that the devices were provisioned for use on Teleblend's network, but that passwords were not changed.

So if Teleblend did not provision the password change, then who did? Personally I seem rather skeptical.

Nuvio, another VOIP service provider, has made this statement on their website regarding converting SunRocket customers:

Note: If you have a Linksys SPA-2102, please try to unlock the device using these instructions before signing up for Nuvio service. A small number of customers are reporting difficulty unlocking the Linksys SPA-2102. This is likely due to TeleBlend, in a effort to retain a portion of the SunRocket Customer base having likely reconfigured passwords on the Linksys SPA-2102. Nuvio is currently working on a solution for this issue. Please check this page for updates.


So I guess I am not the only person who feels this way.

Chris

Monday, July 23, 2007

Configuring 2 lines with Innomedia MTA6328-2re & Viatalk

This article was written by Mihir Gandhi, a link to the original post can be found at the bottom.



Adam Nollmeyer commented on my previous post about the 2-line feature offered by Viatalk. I tried it out, and I am glad to report that I have a step-by-step guide on how to get this working.

Before I start - one caveat: for me, line 2 seems to take precedence over line 1. In other words, when someone calls me, the phone connected to line 2 rings, but the phone connected to line 1 does not! Same thing happens for call waiting - only line 2 gets the call. However, I am able to make calls from both lines simultaneously. This may be a Innomedia issue, but I am not certain.

Anyways, here is the step-by-step:

Step 1: Enable line 2 on the Sunrocket/Innomedia MTA6328-2re Gizmo.

a) Enabling the 2nd line is not available via the web interface - it is only available from telnet. Telnet to 192.168.251.1 (in windows, you can do this by going to START -> Run. Type in “telnet 192.168.251.1″ and click OK)
b) Log in using the username ‘admin’ (all lower-case) and password ‘7UprUtew’ (case-sensitive).
c) Type in ‘Mp’ (without quotes, case-sensitive). This option will allow you the configure the phone ports.
d) Follow the on-screen prompts to enable both the ports. When prompted whether you want to save the configuration permanently, select ‘y’.
e) Power-cycle the gizmo by unplugging the power cord, wait 20 seconds, and plug the power cord back in the gizmo. At this point, your gizmo should have both lines up and running.

Step 2: Configure the second line

a) Go to http://192.168.251.1/Voice_adminPage.htm and login using ‘admin’ and ‘7UprUtew’ as the username and password respectively.
b) From the menu bar, go to VoIP -> User Account. For line 1, your ‘username’ must be set to your 11-digit phone number (starting with country code 1). The password was sent to you by viatalk in the activation email. All other fields must be blank (user name, authentication ID, Hot Phone number). Select ‘No’ for the ‘Use hot phone number’ option, and ‘Yes’ for the ‘Fax T38′ option. Click the “Save” button.
c) Repeat step (b) above for line 2 and click the “Save” button.

Step 3: Reboot/Reset/Power-cycle everything

a) Power cycle your cable modem
b) Power cycle your gizmo (If the gizmo is behind a router, then power cycle the router, then the gizmo)
c) Power cycle the phone connected to Line 1
d) Power cycle the phone connected to Line 2

Now everything should be working! Try it out and let me know how it works. One forewarning: For the first few calls, both my phones were ringing. This issue auto-corrected it self after a few calls. So if this happens to you, just wait 10 minutes or so and try again.

ENJOY!



The original post can be found at Mihir Gandhi’s Blog @ http://gandhi.wordpress.com/

Google, is its Future Up or Down?

To take a break from the tragedy that is SunRocket, Google(GOOG) has seen quite a bit of attention lately. Wall Street is in a disarray with the recent posting of earnings. Google missed estimates by one penny per share, the penalty for doing so? Stock price plummets $40 in two trading days.

Personally, I do not see what the big deal is. Many financial analysts are confused whether to say buy / hold / or sell, but I think its quite simple really. Buy, buy, and buy some more.

Since Google has become public, they have acquired 28 companies, that is an average of .8 companies per month. With those companies comes brilliant products and services, not to mention many many patents. So why is Google on a acquisition binge? Quite simple really, they want to revolutionize the way we find information and they want to do it while maintaining strong growth.

Now we all know, that a company that reaches $10 billion dollars in annual revenue in just 10 years of operation needs to keep feeding. If they slow down spending money, slowing down the intake of intellectual property (patents), then they give their competitors (Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL to mention a few) a chance to catch up and steal back some market share. If Google continues this path of obesity, they may very well just drive some of that competition to the ground.

If there is only one thing that history has ever taught us, is that mighty empires never last forever. And in respect to Microsoft, you are witnessing its demise.

Microsoft is standing tall, Google just keeps pushing and pushing, all the while Apple is hiding behind Microsoft on all fours waiting for Google's last push. And collapse, Microsoft is no more.

Bank of America Sympathizes with SunRocket Customers

Supposedly, if you payed for SunRocket's service with your Bank of America Visa, then you are in luck. On your monthly statement you should find a section called "Important Information About This Account". In this section should be a form titled "Customer Statement of Disputed Item".

Fill out the form as follows:

1) Name, Transaction Date, Posting Date, Amount $, Account Number, and Merchant Name should be filled in specific to your info.

2) Disputed amount is calculated by taking your situation to a monthly rate and multiplying by the months remaining on your contract. For example, if you paid $200 for 2 years and have 10 months remaining it would be (200/24)=8.3333333*10 or $83.33

3) Reference number: If you do not know your reference # log in online and click on the specific transaction.

4) Check box #9 and write a short letter explaining the situation, how many months of service you've had and how many months of service remain un-rendered.

5) Sign, Date and list your contact #'s.

6) include the signed form, your letter and any back-up info you feel may apply in an envelope and send to: Billing Inquiries, P.O. Box 15026, Wilmington, DE 19850-5026, USA.

Don't forget, make copies of whatever you send in.

Recoup funds paid to SunRocket

I read on another site that many people are calling their credit card companies and disputing the charges to their account from SunRocket. If your purchase with SunRocket was within 90 days, there is a good chance you will recoup your funds. If it is over 90 days since your purchase, you may have a little bit more work to do, but it still may be possible. Contact your credit card issuer and discuss with them what would be required.

SunRocket will inevitably be going bankrupt so the sooner you report a dispute for services not rendered, the better chance you will be getting your money back.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

SunRocket's Network Being Liquidated?

There are rumors spreading, and I wouldn't be surprised, that the major stakeholders that funded SunRocket originally were the ones that cut the executives off from more funds. They then proceded to take control of the company during its unforeseen demise and begin making deals with Packet 8 and Teleblend. Its interesting because SunRocket is now spamming me this message of how they have a deal with Packet 8 and Teleblend, in fact if I switch to Teleblend, there is no need to port my number? Why is that you ask, because they now run the network...

Which brings me to another thought. If a new service provider has snaggled up SunRocket's assets, that puts many users of the Gizmo (Linksys SPA-2102) in deep water. Chances are the first thing the new owners did was provision the gizmos and change the password. I will keep my ears open on the web to decipher if my theories are correct, and if I discover a new password I will post it here.

There is still hope.

Resolving the Factory Restore Disaster

If you were unfortunate enough to have performed a factory restore on your Linksys SPA-2102, there is one chance for survival that I know of. If your sunrocket service has not completely quit on you, mine was working as of Friday when I switched my settings. You should leave your router on and hooked up as normal overnight. The router should provision itself with sunrockets settings again resetting the admin password back to what I had posted earlier.

I will scour the web and see if I cannot find another solution to this epidemic that has become the "Brinksys" VOIP Router.

Unlocking your Gizmo(Linksys SPA2102) to work with ViaTalk

As promised, here are the directions to unlocking your gizmo(Lynksys SPA-2102 VOIP Router) to work on ViaTalk's servers.

Step 1: Enable web access (perform functions on home phone)
1. dial ****
2. dial 723646#
3. dial 78778839# or 78676259# or 79309925#
4. dial 1#
5. dial 1 to save


Step 2: Remove access restrictions
1. Go to 192.168.0.1/admin/voice/advanced
2. Enter admin for user and 7UprUtew for password
3. Click on system. Delete the contents of Restricted Access Domain so that it is blank.
4. Hit Submit all changes.

Step 3: Load updated firmware
1. Go to http://itrealm.net/spa2102-5.1.9.zip (or from Linksys support) and download to desktop
2. Right click on zip file, extract here.
3. Double click on upg-spa2102-5-1-9.exe
4. Enter 192.168.0.1 for IP hit ok
5. Enter password 7UprUtew hit ok
6. Router stats are displayed, hit upgrade.
7. Hit ok to close utility.

Step 4: Configure Gizmo
1. Go to 192.168.0.1/admin/voice/advanced
2. Enter admin for user and 7UprUtew or qwe%zxc5 for password
3. Click on Line1.
4. Change proxy to the server name provided by viatalk.
5. Change outbound proxy to the server name provided by viatalk.
6. Change display name to whatever you wish.
7. Change password to the password that was provided by viatalk.
8. Set use auth id to no.
9. Set user id to your new viatalk phone number. Don't forget the '1' at the beginning.
10. Click submit all changes to save your settings.
11. Click on provisioning.
12. Delete the contents of both profile rule and upgrade rule so they are blank.
13. Click submit all changes to save your settings.
14. Click on Router.
15. Click on WAN Setup.
16. Change primary ntp server to north-america.pool.org(or pick a different time server from ntp.org)
17. Change secondary ntp server to pool.ntp.org (or pick a different time server from ntp.org)
18. Click submit all changes to save your settings.

All done. You should see your phone settings light up.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Sunrocket Shuts Down

The second largest digital phone service provider, SunRocket Inc., has begun the process of closing its doors. Leaving over 200,000 subscribers without phone service. This action came without any warning to their subscribers.

If you attempt to call SunRocket, you will hear “We are no longer taking customer service or sales calls. Goodbye.”

SunRocket lured in many customers with their offer of digital phone service for a year for $199. As early as Monday the 16th, SunRocket customers began making complaints that they were receiving patchy service or no service at all.

As a subscriber to SunRocket myself, I was very disappointed to hear the news. I quickly researched what was happening. I found ViaTalk, they offered very similar service to SunRocket in comparison of price and features, plus they offered a contract buyout of my remaining SunRocket service. ViaTalk will offer me up to 6 months of their service in match with how many months of service I had remaining with SunRocket. What a deal, I say.

I signed up with them and reconfigured my SunRocket gizmo to work on their service. I just submitted the paperwork to port my SR number. I have already began using their service and I am pleased. I know I need to tweak my settings some because I have not been able to successfully send a fax transmission yet.

I will post in a later article on how to unlock your Linksys SPA-2102 (Gizmo) to work with ViaTalks service.

Doc

Personally, I was a subscriber and my phone service was up and running till I switched over to ViaTalk yesterday.

IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING SUNROCKET

After significant effort by the Company to avoid this result, SunRocket is in the process of discontinuing its operations as you know it. Therefore SunRocket will no longer be able to provide its customers with the phone service that its customers have been accustomed to.

However, two service providers are assisting and offering to provide SunRocket customers the opportunity to sign up for their services. Both providers have agreed to become preferred providers with special pricing for the SunRocket customers to enable them to migrate their telephone service. Of course, there are other providers and each individual customer can make their own decision as to which carrier they wish to transition to.

Emails to the SunRocket customers are currently being sent with more detailed information on how to sign up with the two service providers. The email address of the SunRocket customers that is on record is the address being used to send emails to the customers.

We realize this is a very difficult and uncertain period for the SunRocket customers. With these two preferred providers, the customers will have the opportunity to transfer telephone services.

An affiliate of Sherwood Partners, LLC is managing the process as the Assignee for the benefit of creditors.

Creditors to SunRocket will receive a notice within the next 30 days in regards to the general assignment and for the filing of claims in the liquidation process of SunRocket.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Saitek P2900 Wireless PC Game Pad

I have never purchased anything from Saitek, so I was interested on how well this game pad would perform against the competition. So, I will begin with the install:

Installation
1. Insert the driver CD that came with the device.
2. When the auto run screen opened, select 'Install drivers and SST Programming software.
3. Follow the prompts.
4. Insert the P2900 wireless transmitter into one of your computer's free USB ports.
5. Open the battery compartment on the back of the P2900 and insert one AA battery.
6. Flip the switch on the back side from 'off' --> 'on'
7. If you experience interference, press the 'scan' button to scan for the transmitter.
8. Play!


First try, the installation installed without any hickups. Alright, time to try it out! Launch EA Sports NHL '07. I navigated through the menus and started a game. The controller was recognized with no problems, automatically configured to the controls that I am used to. I was impressed.

What I did notice that I appreciated, was when you load NHL '07, if you dont have your game pad plugged in when you launch the game, your game pad is not recognized in the game. But with the Saitek P2900, the transmitter acts as if the game pad is plugged in all the time. So even if you launch the game with the game pad switched to the 'off' position, you can power it on and begin playing without having to restart the game. Nice feature.

After probably about 30 hours of game play, the controller held strong. Maybe 1 out of ten games, I experienced a 3-6 second frequency interference where the game pad had a hard time responding to my controls. The controls seem to be pretty accurate and precise.

One other note, while playing I realized that what would be the 'start' and 'select' buttons are rather close to the action buttons (X,Triangle, Square, and Circle on the PS2 Controller). I found myself hitting 'start' and 'select' to often. Start paused the game and select pulled my goalie. Rather frustrating. I think it took me about 4-5 games until I began to get used to the button layout.

Conclusion
For the price, I consider this gamepad a no brainer. Despite the learning curve provided by its button layout, this game pad performs well, and is quite convenient.

CSS Bug: IE6 Div Height Less than Line-Height

I had developed a site for a client recently using css positioning for the layout. I was pleased upon completion, that the site did not differ greatly between Mozilla 2.0, IE7, and Opera 9.1. So I finished the site, uploaded it to production and notified the client it was complete.

A week passes by, my client contacts me and says that the website did not look right. I said ok, what browser are you using? IE6. Hrmm.. He stated that the logo had a blue background and that the text was overlapping. I was surprised. So, first I had to view the site in IE6. Both my desktop and laptop had IE7, so I had to resort to my 4 year old daughters computer which I had remember I had not upgraded to IE7. Wow he was right, so I investigated.

I discovered 2 things. The logo did have a slight blue background and where I had used a div to provide a spacer or a dividing line, it displayed in IE6 as 1 standard line in height. So I researched.

I found that IE6 does not support transparent background for .png images which explains the aqua colored background. I changed the image to a .jpg and that resolved that problem.

Next, I learned that when you have an empty div tag, IE6 inserts an empty text-element. So even thought there is no text, it is viewing as if there is an &NBSP in the div.

The workaround:
There are two really. You can use CSS to set the line-height:0px. Or you can enter a html comment into the div tag. I opted for the html comment, and it worked flawlessly.