What to do if you mistakenly configured Outlook for Exchange Server instead of POP/IMAP

Every time you open Outlook, it will try to connect to Exchange Server and fail.

Solution:

Click Windows icon-> Control Panel-> User Account and Family Safety-> Mail

(Or, click Windows icon, type mail in the Search bar. At the top of the menu, if you see the option Mail under Control Panel, click on it)

(If you are using 64 bit version of Windows 7, then look for Mail- 32 Bit icon)

(If you are using Windows XP, click Start-> Control Panel-> Mail)

Click on Show Profiles..

Click on Outlook and click Remove

Click Apply and Ok

Now start Outlook

(It may ask you to type the name of a profile. Type Outlook and click Ok)

You will get the option to setup a new email account

Thunderbird, left pane missing

Probably the pane has been shrunk to zero. At the left hand edge of the ThunderBird window will be a vertical border. Click and drag to the right to expand the pane.

Thunderbird not showing images in an email message

 What to do when Thunderbird do not show the message in proper format:

Open Thunderbird

Click View -> Messege Body As and make sure Original HTML is selected.

For images attached to messages: click View menu and make sure that Display Attachments Inline is checked.

PayPal problem for Indian accounts: Your PAN was found to be invalid after verification

On 30th September, 2011, received an email from PayPal with subject line "Your PAN was found to be invalid" followed by another email informing me that my PayPal account is limited from receiving payments.

I double checked my details. I ensured that "Name on my PayPal account" = "Name on my Bank account"= "Name on my PAN card"

Unsure about what to do, I tried contacting PayPal support via my PayPal account, received an automated reply immediately. Of course it was not applicable for my situation, so I replied back with full details. Waited for two days, did not get any reply and then repeated the same procedure four times with same disappointing results.

Checked different boards/forums and found many people are facing same problem. Then I found PayPal's twitter contact

www.Twitter.com/askpaypal

Contacted @AskPayPal via Twiter, told them about the problem and followed them. Unless you follow them and they follow you back, you both cannot use Twitter's DM (Direct Message) facility. Its kind of private message between two users. If you are required to provide your email address registered with PayPal account, using DM make sense!

Be very cautious when sharing your information with the people you can not see. @AskPayPal will never ask your personal information and passwords. If you are required to add/edit information in your PayPal account, you will receive an email from PayPal with required instructions.

It took a couple of days (to be exact 5 days) to restore my PayPal account!


PayPal's contact number (for Indian Customers):

+1-402-938-3740 (9:00 AM IST to 6:00 PM IST)

Winning ebay auction!

Hello friends,

Last month, my six year old laptop, developed a LCD problem. I decided to opt for another
laptop instead of trying to repair the LCD, not because I am bored with the old one, but
simply because I could not find a suitable replacement LCD screen at an affordable price.
I start searching online for a replacement laptop. After my extensive search through eBay,
something caught my eye: its a Lenovo ThinkPad T60.
I found that the average price for a used T60 on eBay is $180. And if you add
the shipping cost, which is about $60 (from US to India), the total price equates to $240

Add to that, customs duty which will be added when the product reaches India.

I could have purchased a used/refurbished laptop with "Buy It Now" option which would have
saved me some time, but I told myself, why not try my hand at auctions? Who knows, I could
find my desired laptop at a cheaper price!

I soon find out that winning an auction is not that easy, as I initially thought . It is in fact somewhat tricky.

After my 7th try, I managed to buy a T60 at $209 (Price $126 + Shipping $83)

I saved about $31 ($240-$209). Not bad! considering the fact that I had to pay $83 for shipping whereas the standard shipping cost is about $60

The seller shipped the item on 3rd September, 2011 and it arrived at my home address on 20th September, 2011. I had to pay Rs.2307 towards custom duty


What I have learned from this exercise ? Here it is :

1 Before you bid on any item, do your research about the product you want to purchase. Find the price range at which a similar product sold previously. You can find this info from "Completed Listings"

In the upper part of eBay's home page there is a search bar and a "Search" button. Next to the "Search" button is a link that says "Advanced". Click this link.
To view "Completed listings" type the name of the item and click the check-box next to
"Completed listings".  Then click "Search". A list of all completed auctions will appear. From there, find the lowest and highest price.

2 Double check and make sure that the seller ships Internationally. Not all US sellers will ship Internationally.

3 Never place a bid in advance. Wait for the last few minutes of the auction. If you place a
bid in advance, say about two hours before the auction ends, then other users, who are also
looking for the same product will get a chance to increase their bid, effectively increasing
the price of the product.

If you wait for the last few minutes and place a bid, other users will not get a chance to
outbid you. The chances of you winning the auction is much higher if you wait for the last
few minutes.


I hope you will find this information helpful. In case you have questions, feel free to ask via comments...