Author: Stephan

Workaround for 1&1’s mail server problems

If you’re still having problems receiving your emails with 1&1 (1and1 / 1und1), here’s a workaround:

  1. Log in to your control panel and set up email forwarding to an account not run by 1and1 (e.g. Gmail). Unlike POP3 and IMAP access, forwarding seems to be working fine. It is important that you do not delete your mailbox with 1&1, simply set up forwarding in addition to it (in Germany, you can have at least 3 “targets” for each e-mail address, which can be mailboxes, forwarding to another e-mail-address or forwarding by fax or SMS, however, I don’t know if this is the same in the UK).
  2. You can still use your 1&1 account to write emails, outgoing messages are apparently not being delayed.

Of course this won’t give you access to any emails sent to your before you set up forwarding, but at least you’ll be able to receive new messages. Contrary to what 1and1 stated ( 1and1 says problems are over) users are currently still reporting problems ( heise.de – in German) and I’m glad I set up forwarding for my most important accounts yesterday.

I’m also very unhappy with 1&1’s information policy, they should definitely implement a system status page like the one Schlund + Partner (now merged with 1&1) had.

Update 18:40h: 1&1 has confirmed that their email system is having problems again ( heise.de, golem.de – in German). They’ve also set up a customer information page (German, too). According to 1&1’s spokesperson Andreas Maurer (as qouted by heise.de), 1&1 is working to solve the problems as soon as possible but can’t currently predict how long this will take.

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Auf Deutsch: E-Mail-Weiterleitungen sowie der E-Mail-Versand funktionieren ohne Verzögerung, d.h. man kann seine E-Mails zusätzlich zu dem bestehenden Postfach an eine nicht betroffende E-Mail-Adresse weiterleiten lassen und – falls erforderlich – weiterhin über die 1&1-Adresse neue Mails schreiben.

So wird die zusätzliche Weiterleitung eingerichtet:

  1. Beim 1&1 Control-Center einloggen

  2. Paket auswählen

  3. Auf “E-Mail-Einstellungen anzeigen” oder klicken

  4. Auf eine E-Mail-Adresse klicken (wichtigste zuerst)

  5. Neben “Postfach/Weiterleitung” auf “Bearbeiten” klicken

  6. Bei der untersten Nummer (im Beispiel Nr. 3 – nicht dem untersten Auswahlfeld) neben “Postfach / Weiterleitung” “E-Mail-Weiterleitung” auswählen.

  7. Es erscheint ein neues Eingabefeld, dort neben “Adresse” die Weiterleitungsadresse eingeben, unten auf OK klicken

  8. Für andere Adressen wiederholen, nach ca. 5 Minuten sollten neue E-Mails auf der Weiterleitungsadresse eintreffen.

Vor Einrichtung der Weiterleitung eingetroffene E-Mails kann diese Methode natürlich nicht herzaubern, darum sollte auch auf keinen Fall das Postfach durch eine Weiterleitung ersetzt werden! Die Weiterleitung darf nur zusätzlich eingerichtet werden, sonst ist ein E-Mail-Verlust sicher, für den man wirklich nicht 1&1 verantwortlich machen könnte. 😉

The smart way to update WordPress

If you are currently running WordPress 2.0.6 or an earlier version, it is recommended that you update to WordPress 2.0.7. Unlike previous updates, this one is so small that WordPress published a list of files which have changed since 2.0.6. You’ll only have to upload these files and not the complete installation. You can get a ZIP (or a diff file, if you’re able to use it) of the changed files at Mark Jaquith’s blog.

However, what if your current installation is older than 2.0.6? If you still have a copy of the older WordPress version on your local PC, you could use WinMerge (open source, Win32) to identify the changed files and copy them to a directory from which you can then upload them. Simply unzip the latest version of WordPress, run WinMerge, chose File > Open and select the directory containing the previous and current version. Make sure that “Include subfolders” is checked:


WinMerge will then compare all files and show the results in a list. Sort the list by clicking on “ Comparison result” at the top. Now select all files which are different and copy them to an empty directory by right-clicking and choosing Copy > Right to…:


This, of course, assumes you opened the new version’s folder on the right side. You could also unselect certain files you don’t want to change before copying them (e.g. files in the “wp-content” folder).

Now all you have to do is to upload the changed files, overwriting the existing ones. If you want to make a ZIP of changed files available to others, WinMerge can do this, too, but you’ll have to install the 7-zip plugin for this option to become available.

Warning: Using this method you can save a lot of time, but you should be aware of the following limitations:

  1. It won’t delete any files which have become obsolete. Always scroll down in WinMerge’s sorted list to see if any files are no longer part of the newer version.
  2. It won’t “repair” any files which might have been compromised (other than the ones you’ve selected for upload).

Sun Weblog Publisher

Sun’s Weblog Publisher is an extension for StarOffice and OpenOffice which allows you to post on your weblog directly from the comfort of your desktop application. It’s available here for 9,95 US$ (+15% VAT if you live in the EU).

If you can read this text, Weblog Publisher is working with my weblog (which uses WordPress, other blogs are also supported). Installation is rather easy, I recommend reading the instructions you can find under “ Frequently Asked Questions” in the store since they contain more information than the readme.txt file which comes with the software. In my version of OpenOffice (2.1.0), new packages are installed under Tools > Extension Manager and not Package Manager, so don’t let this confuse you.

Now let’s try some things:

A list (with bullets):

  • This
    • That
      • And that as well

A numbered list:

  1. First
  2. Second
  3. Third

Highlighting text

A picture: (edit: stupid me, forgot to add it – but it would have worked, see my wonderful drawing below ;)).

A table:

TodayTomorrowThe day after tomorrow
50%70%10

Vector graphics (grouped):

Different text sizes, fonts, styles and c o l o u r s

French and German special characters: àéäçöüß

(Traditional) Chinese text: ????????????????????????????

Click here to download the original open office file (OpenDocument Text .odt) and compare it to this entry.

Conclusion (edited, you can also download posts and edit them with the Weblog Publisher): Seems to be working quite reasonably well, worth the money IMHO. Things which could still be improved :

  1. The bulleted list (before I opened this post to edit it in WordPress, it contained line breaks at the wrong places)

  2. The Chinese text (transformed into question marks)

  3. I haven’t yet figured out how to add titles to links in OpenOffice – probably not possible?

  4. Some of you might not like that the table doesn’t validate as XHTML 1.0 Transitional
  5. My drawing skills 😉
  6. The post date was placed in the future (some hours ahead) after I edited this entry (more than once). If you can’t see your post anymore, it’s most likely still there, but you’ll have to correct the timestamp (or wait).
  7. Updated on Jan. 22nd (using WordPress, which messed up the some line breaks – and corrected some others): Doesn’t seem to be working with Blogger.com if you’re using your Google account (see comment by Chris).
  8. Like most WYSIWYW web editors, it apparently inserts unnecessary tags, which can also make editing the post in WordPress a bit complicated.
  9. What about updates? As you can see, Sun’s Weblog Publisher isn’t working perfectly yet, however, reading Brad’s post, it seems you’re expected to purchase it again if you want to use the newest version. On the other hand I was able to login at findmyorder.com and download the (identical) product again and I don’t remember having purchased any sort of “extended download service”. I’m therefore currently not sure how updates are being handled by Sun.

List of company registers

Here’s a (recently updated) incomplete list of commercial / companies registers in the EU and Switzerland from my bookmarks. Originally, I planned to include only “official” registers, but I’ve included other sites providing access to the registers’ data (and often further data), too.

You should be able to obtain information on certain types of companies on-line by visiting these sites (for more details, see directive 2003/58/EC). Searching is mostly free, but fees apply in many cases for viewing / downloading documents. Not all registers are equally comprehensive (yet?).

Austria: Firmenbuch (German only)

Belgium: Banque-Carrefour des Entreprises (in French and Dutch, free of charge). See also Coface Services Belgium.

France: The “Registre National du Commerce et des Sociétés (RNCS)” is mantained by the Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle (INPI). Official site: www.euridile.com (in French). See also Infogreffe (in French and English, fees apply), ORT (in French and English and Societe.com (free of charge).

Germany: The brand new Unternehmensregister is currently down now working again (in German), but you can also try the Handelsregister (in German, too, does not include the annual accounts).

Luxembourg: Registre de Commerce et des Sociétés (in French, free of charge).

Switzerland: Central Business Names Index – Zefix (in German, French, Italian, English)

United Kingdom: Companies House (in English)#

Other countries: Have a look at the following lists / websites:

Kostenloses “Open Book” zum Thema Sicherheit

Noch ein (verspätetes) Weihnachtsgeschenk: Das Buch “Sicherheit im Internet” von Krzysztof Janowicz steht bei O’Reilly als kostenloses OpenBook [?] zum (kapitelweisen) Download zur Verfügung (2. Auflage Dezember 2005, Meldung von golem.de).

Da es gut verständlich geschrieben ist und teils detaillierte Tipps enthält, eignet es sich auch als Lektüre für technisch wenig versierte Computernutzer – sofern diese sich für das Thema interessieren.