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  • The Benefits of Smart Grid Business Software

    - by Sylvie MacKenzie, PMP
    Smart Grid Background What Are Smart Grids?Smart Grids use computer hardware and software, sensors, controls, and telecommunications equipment and services to: Link customers to information that helps them manage consumption and use electricity wisely. Enable customers to respond to utility notices in ways that help minimize the duration of overloads, bottlenecks, and outages. Provide utilities with information that helps them improve performance and control costs. What Is Driving Smart Grid Development? Environmental ImpactSmart Grid development is picking up speed because of the widespread interest in reducing the negative impact that energy use has on the environment. Smart Grids use technology to drive efficiencies in transmission, distribution, and consumption. As a result, utilities can serve customers’ power needs with fewer generating plants, fewer transmission and distribution assets,and lower overall generation. With the possible exception of wind farm sprawl, landscape preservation is one obvious benefit. And because most generation today results in greenhouse gas emissions, Smart Grids reduce air pollution and the potential for global climate change.Smart Grids also more easily accommodate the technical difficulties of integrating intermittent renewable resources like wind and solar into the grid, providing further greenhouse gas reductions. CostsThe ability to defer the cost of plant and grid expansion is a major benefit to both utilities and customers. Utilities do not need to use as many internal resources for traditional infrastructure project planning and management. Large T&D infrastructure expansion costs are not passed on to customers.Smart Grids will not eliminate capital expansion, of course. Transmission corridors to connect renewable generation with customers will require major near-term expenditures. Additionally, in the future, electricity to satisfy the needs of population growth and additional applications will exceed the capacity reductions available through the Smart Grid. At that point, expansion will resume—but with greater overall T&D efficiency based on demand response, load control, and many other Smart Grid technologies and business processes. Energy efficiency is a second area of Smart Grid cost saving of particular relevance to customers. The timely and detailed information Smart Grids provide encourages customers to limit waste, adopt energy-efficient building codes and standards, and invest in energy efficient appliances. Efficiency may or may not lower customer bills because customer efficiency savings may be offset by higher costs in generation fuels or carbon taxes. It is clear, however, that bills will be lower with efficiency than without it. Utility Operations Smart Grids can serve as the central focus of utility initiatives to improve business processes. Many utilities have long “wish lists” of projects and applications they would like to fund in order to improve customer service or ease staff’s burden of repetitious work, but they have difficulty cost-justifying the changes, especially in the short term. Adding Smart Grid benefits to the cost/benefit analysis frequently tips the scales in favor of the change and can also significantly reduce payback periods.Mobile workforce applications and asset management applications work together to deploy assets and then to maintain, repair, and replace them. Many additional benefits result—for instance, increased productivity and fuel savings from better routing. Similarly, customer portals that provide customers with near-real-time information can also encourage online payments, thus lowering billing costs. Utilities can and should include these cost and service improvements in the list of Smart Grid benefits. What Is Smart Grid Business Software? Smart Grid business software gathers data from a Smart Grid and uses it improve a utility’s business processes. Smart Grid business software also helps utilities provide relevant information to customers who can then use it to reduce their own consumption and improve their environmental profiles. Smart Grid Business Software Minimizes the Impact of Peak Demand Utilities must size their assets to accommodate their highest peak demand. The higher the peak rises above base demand: The more assets a utility must build that are used only for brief periods—an inefficient use of capital. The higher the utility’s risk profile rises given the uncertainties surrounding the time needed for permitting, building, and recouping costs. The higher the costs for utilities to purchase supply, because generators can charge more for contracts and spot supply during high-demand periods. Smart Grids enable a variety of programs that reduce peak demand, including: Time-of-use pricing and critical peak pricing—programs that charge customers more when they consume electricity during peak periods. Pilot projects indicate that these programs are successful in flattening peaks, thus ensuring better use of existing T&D and generation assets. Direct load control, which lets utilities reduce or eliminate electricity flow to customer equipment (such as air conditioners). Contracts govern the terms and conditions of these turn-offs. Indirect load control, which signals customers to reduce the use of on-premises equipment for contractually agreed-on time periods. Smart Grid business software enables utilities to impose penalties on customers who do not comply with their contracts. Smart Grids also help utilities manage peaks with existing assets by enabling: Real-time asset monitoring and control. In this application, advanced sensors safely enable dynamic capacity load limits, ensuring that all grid assets can be used to their maximum capacity during peak demand periods. Real-time asset monitoring and control applications also detect the location of excessive losses and pinpoint need for mitigation and asset replacements. As a result, utilities reduce outage risk and guard against excess capacity or “over-build”. Better peak demand analysis. As a result: Distribution planners can better size equipment (e.g. transformers) to avoid over-building. Operations engineers can identify and resolve bottlenecks and other inefficiencies that may cause or exacerbate peaks. As above, the result is a reduction in the tendency to over-build. Supply managers can more closely match procurement with delivery. As a result, they can fine-tune supply portfolios, reducing the tendency to over-contract for peak supply and reducing the need to resort to spot market purchases during high peaks. Smart Grids can help lower the cost of remaining peaks by: Standardizing interconnections for new distributed resources (such as electricity storage devices). Placing the interconnections where needed to support anticipated grid congestion. Smart Grid Business Software Lowers the Cost of Field Services By processing Smart Grid data through their business software, utilities can reduce such field costs as: Vegetation management. Smart Grids can pinpoint momentary interruptions and tree-caused outages. Spatial mash-up tools leverage GIS models of tree growth for targeted vegetation management. This reduces the cost of unnecessary tree trimming. Service vehicle fuel. Many utility service calls are “false alarms.” Checking meter status before dispatching crews prevents many unnecessary “truck rolls.” Similarly, crews use far less fuel when Smart Grid sensors can pinpoint a problem and mobile workforce applications can then route them directly to it. Smart Grid Business Software Ensures Regulatory Compliance Smart Grids can ensure compliance with private contracts and with regional, national, or international requirements by: Monitoring fulfillment of contract terms. Utilities can use one-hour interval meters to ensure that interruptible (“non-core”) customers actually reduce or eliminate deliveries as required. They can use the information to levy fines against contract violators. Monitoring regulations imposed on customers, such as maximum use during specific time periods. Using accurate time-stamped event history derived from intelligent devices distributed throughout the smart grid to monitor and report reliability statistics and risk compliance. Automating business processes and activities that ensure compliance with security and reliability measures (e.g. NERC-CIP 2-9). Grid Business Software Strengthens Utilities’ Connection to Customers While Reducing Customer Service Costs During outages, Smart Grid business software can: Identify outages more quickly. Software uses sensors to pinpoint outages and nested outage locations. They also permit utilities to ensure outage resolution at every meter location. Size outages more accurately, permitting utilities to dispatch crews that have the skills needed, in appropriate numbers. Provide updates on outage location and expected duration. This information helps call centers inform customers about the timing of service restoration. Smart Grids also facilitates display of outage maps for customer and public-service use. Smart Grids can significantly reduce the cost to: Connect and disconnect customers. Meters capable of remote disconnect can virtually eliminate the costs of field crews and vehicles previously required to change service from the old to the new residents of a metered property or disconnect customers for nonpayment. Resolve reports of voltage fluctuation. Smart Grids gather and report voltage and power quality data from meters and grid sensors, enabling utilities to pinpoint reported problems or resolve them before customers complain. Detect and resolve non-technical losses (e.g. theft). Smart Grids can identify illegal attempts to reconnect meters or to use electricity in supposedly vacant premises. They can also detect theft by comparing flows through delivery assets with billed consumption. Smart Grids also facilitate outreach to customers. By monitoring and analyzing consumption over time, utilities can: Identify customers with unusually high usage and contact them before they receive a bill. They can also suggest conservation techniques that might help to limit consumption. This can head off “high bill” complaints to the contact center. Note that such “high usage” or “additional charges apply because you are out of range” notices—frequently via text messaging—are already common among mobile phone providers. Help customers identify appropriate bill payment alternatives (budget billing, prepayment, etc.). Help customers find and reduce causes of over-consumption. There’s no waiting for bills in the mail before they even understand there is a problem. Utilities benefit not just through improved customer relations but also through limiting the size of bills from customers who might struggle to pay them. Where permitted, Smart Grids can open the doors to such new utility service offerings as: Monitoring properties. Landlords reduce costs of vacant properties when utilities notify them of unexpected energy or water consumption. Utilities can perform similar services for owners of vacation properties or the adult children of aging parents. Monitoring equipment. Power-use patterns can reveal a need for equipment maintenance. Smart Grids permit utilities to alert owners or managers to a need for maintenance or replacement. Facilitating home and small-business networks. Smart Grids can provide a gateway to equipment networks that automate control or let owners access equipment remotely. They also facilitate net metering, offering some utilities a path toward involvement in small-scale solar or wind generation. Prepayment plans that do not need special meters. Smart Grid Business Software Helps Customers Control Energy Costs There is no end to the ways Smart Grids help both small and large customers control energy costs. For instance: Multi-premises customers appreciate having all meters read on the same day so that they can more easily compare consumption at various sites. Customers in competitive regions can match their consumption profile (detailed via Smart Grid data) with specific offerings from competitive suppliers. Customers seeing inexplicable consumption patterns and power quality problems may investigate further. The result can be discovery of electrical problems that can be resolved through rewiring or maintenance—before more serious fires or accidents happen. Smart Grid Business Software Facilitates Use of Renewables Generation from wind and solar resources is a popular alternative to fossil fuel generation, which emits greenhouse gases. Wind and solar generation may also increase energy security in regions that currently import fossil fuel for use in generation. Utilities face many technical issues as they attempt to integrate intermittent resource generation into traditional grids, which traditionally handle only fully dispatchable generation. Smart Grid business software helps solves many of these issues by: Detecting sudden drops in production from renewables-generated electricity (wind and solar) and automatically triggering electricity storage and smart appliance response to compensate as needed. Supporting industry-standard distributed generation interconnection processes to reduce interconnection costs and avoid adding renewable supplies to locations already subject to grid congestion. Facilitating modeling and monitoring of locally generated supply from renewables and thus helping to maximize their use. Increasing the efficiency of “net metering” (through which utilities can use electricity generated by customers) by: Providing data for analysis. Integrating the production and consumption aspects of customer accounts. During non-peak periods, such techniques enable utilities to increase the percent of renewable generation in their supply mix. During peak periods, Smart Grid business software controls circuit reconfiguration to maximize available capacity. Conclusion Utility missions are changing. Yesterday, they focused on delivery of reasonably priced energy and water. Tomorrow, their missions will expand to encompass sustainable use and environmental improvement.Smart Grids are key to helping utilities achieve this expanded mission. But they come at a relatively high price. Utilities will need to invest heavily in new hardware, software, business process development, and staff training. Customer investments in home area networks and smart appliances will be large. Learning to change the energy and water consumption habits of a lifetime could ultimately prove even more formidable tasks.Smart Grid business software can ease the cost and difficulties inherent in a needed transition to a more flexible, reliable, responsive electricity grid. Justifying its implementation, however, requires a full understanding of the benefits it brings—benefits that can ultimately help customers, utilities, communities, and the world address global issues like energy security and climate change while minimizing costs and maximizing customer convenience. This white paper is available for download here. For further information about Oracle's Primavera Solutions for Utilities, please read our Utilities e-book.

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  • Is there any alternative to TeamViewer VPN? [closed]

    - by Dzmitry Lahoda
    TeamViewer VPN connection mode lets you create a virtual private network (VPN) between two TeamViewer computers. Two computers connected via VPN act as in a common network. This allows you to access the resources of your partner's computer and vice versa. What other programs can do the same thing? EDIT I made VPN connection using TeamViewer. But Test ping button opens console where I just see "destination host is unreachable" or "request timed out".

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  • Win7: Always remember UAC choice for an application

    - by Svish
    I have some applications that I open from time to time, and I always get this UAC message with Do you want to allow the following program from an unknown publisher to make changes to this computer? Is there a way I can mark a single program so that won't ask me that again? Like, I think it is good that it asks me the first time, but some programs I do launch more often, and I am ok with them making changes and don't want to be asked all the time.

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  • How can I resolve "A clock interrupt was not received on a secondary processor within the allocated time interval."?

    - by dimas bimayakti
    I've been troubled by my laptop problem lately. It always blue screen error every time I use it. Every time it becomes blue screen it shows: A clock interrupt was not received on a secondary processor within the allocated time interval. I don't understand what it means, and I even bought a new HDD and RAM, I also haven't install new programs but the blue screen always appears. Is there anyone who has same problem with me and knows how to solve this problem

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  • Identify remote desktop client software and OS when user logs into Windows 2008 R2 Remote Desktop

    - by georged
    We would like to detect what devices & what programs users are using to connect to the Windows 2008 R2 Remote Desktop. In particular, we would like to have an ability to detect the remote devices such as iPads, iPhones & Androids, identify the software used and allow these connections only for certain users based on combination of the client OS + software. If it can be done in powershell to be run as part of the logon script, that'd be ideal.

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  • What is the difference between uninstalling a program through Control Panel, and uninstalling via th

    - by sunpech
    What is the difference between uninstalling a program through Control Panel, and uninstalling via the Program's uninstall.exe? Example: C:\Program Files (x86)\Notepad++\uninstall.exe In general, I read that it's better to uninstall a program via window's Control Panel. But for the programs that have their own uninstall.exe, is there any real difference between the un-installations? Is the Control Panel's cleaner in removing dependencies?

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  • How to disable “smart quotes” in Windows Live Mail?

    - by Indrek
    Windows Live Mail by default changes straight quotation marks (" and ') to typographic quotation marks, aka "smart quotes" (“, ”, ‘ and ’). This often results in the recipient of the email seeing blank rectangles or other symbols instead of the smart quotes, due to encoding problems. Unlike in most programs, there's doesn't seem to be any built-in option to disable this, and searching online for solutions only leads to workarounds, like hitting Backspace immediately after typing a single or double quote, and switching to "Plain text" mode. Is there any way to disable this behaviour?

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  • How to associate document files with MS Office 2010 Beta?

    - by Semyon Perepelitsa
    I've installed MS Office 2010 Beta (OneClick technology). All apps launch from 1 program, Word for example has this link: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\Virtualization Handler\CVH.EXE" "Microsoft Word 2010 (Beta) 2014006204190000" Or OneNote: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\microsoft shared\Virtualization Handler\CVH.EXE" "Microsoft OneNote 2010 (Beta) 2014006204190000" Because of that I can't associate files with Office programs in file properties, they actually associate with “Microsoft Office Client Virtualization Handler” (CVH.EXE). Anyone know another way to do that?

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  • Logitech G15 for gaming

    - by ChrisInEdmonton
    I am about to pick up a new computer today, complete with a Logitech G15 keyboard. I primarily play Team Fortress 2, though certainly not exclusively. I believe I can use Fraps to report on the frame rate of any game I'm playing. Any other cool programs I can use with my G15?

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  • Remove associations with applications in VMWare Fusion

    - by Jim McKeeth
    One of the "features" of VMWare Fusion is that it associates files on the Mac host with programs in the VM. Unfortunately I uninstalled VMWare Fusion, and my Mac still has applications in VMWare Fusion associated with it. How can I remove the associations? I went to the Genius Bar, but they didn't know how to fix it (they cleared my cache, but that didn't do it.) I am running OSX Snow Leopard

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  • This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer

    - by petoeah
    i've just solved the blue screen problem after "preparing your desktop" on windows 2008 server with your help (http://serverfault.com/questions/410570/server-2008-blue-screen-after-login-no-desktop) but unfortuneletly for me i did many things before that through gpedit.msc specifically to restrict user access to windows programs, control panel, regedit, msconfig ... but when i finally can log on even with administrator i cant open anything at all... and the message at title always came up.. please help me i cant open anything, regedit, mmc, any administrative tools ....

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  • New Computer Build Questions

    - by MJ
    I'm in the process of gathering parts and specs for a new machine. I wear many hats, so the machine needs to do a lot. I need at least 2 monitor support, if not three. I also play many online MMOs (wow, aion, war hammer, etc), along with some freelance programming projects. I already have a case which is very large, so it will fit anything. I have 2 other SATA HDs. They are more for storage and basic programs. I feel that the best improvement could be done with a solid state HD, true or not? I'm more of a software/programming guy, so ANY input at all on improving this system build would be appreciated. I have a few questions with this list. AMD or Intel? I don't know enough about either to choose what would best fit me. Thanks! **EDIT: Thanks for the input everyone! Here are some answers: I do a lot of programming and gaming, so I do need things for both. The newer video card covers the gaming aspect, as well as allowing me to have many monitors. (hopefully upgrade to dual 30' or more) I don't need any additional HDs at this time. I have a SATA 160g and 120g from my previous computer, and a NAS system with over 2TB of storage on the homenetwork. I just wanted a fast HD for OS/programs/games. With the memory. I have used G.SKILL before in 2 system builds. It's done excellent for me in them. Very stable. **EDIT2: Made some additional changes. Lowered the power supply down to 750, which saves me more $$. Also changed the SSD to 2 WD 650G HDs. Thinking of doing a CPU upgrade to the 3.4GHZ AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz System Specs - Budget:$1500 CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2GHz MB: GIGABYTE GA-MA790GPT-UD3H AM3 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX Memory: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 1066 Video: DIAMOND 5870PE51G Radeon HD 5870 (Cypress XT) 1GB 256-bit GD Power Supply: XCLIO GREATPOWER 1000W ATX12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready HD:Intel X25-M Mainstream SSDSA2MH080G2C1 2.5" 80GB SATA II MLC Changes: Power Supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V HD: 2x Western Digital Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS 640GB CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz

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  • List all hotfixes applied to windows server

    - by Nick Kavadias
    There used to be a command line tool called QFECheck in Windows Server 2000 that would list them out. Is this the preferred method on windows server 2003/2008? I know they're listed in Add/Remove programs, but it's hard to capture them for an audit this way. Can i do this without having to install an add-on executable?

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  • Why aren't RemoteApp icons showing up

    - by Andy Schneider
    I have a Windows 2008 R2 server running RDS. I have installed and configured RemoteApp to publish applications with RDS Web Access. When I browse to https://servernname.domain.local/RDWeb I can log in and get to the RemoteApp Programs tab, but there are no icons or apps to click on. I have added a bunch of apps in Remote App manager and they are all enabled for RD Web Access. Also, I am an administrator on the server.

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  • Blank Screen After Login on Windows 7

    - by Leigh Riffel
    When unlocking a Windows 7 computer the screen briefly (less than a second) goes blank before showing the screen. Abound once a month (but sometimes within a few days) when I unlock my computer the screen doesn't come back from this brief blackout and stays black. Sometimes after five minutes or so the display will come back. Other times it has been blank for over 20 minutes, so I give up and restart the computer. It seems to happen more often when the computer has been locked for a longer period of time - I lock my computer several times a day, but the problem most happens when I come in at the start of the day. I have updated my video card and monitor drivers. I have two monitors driven by the same graphics card. The computer is a Dell Optiplex 740. When the problem occurs both monitors have a green light on to indicate that they are receiving signal. I've tried unplugging the monitors from the video card and turning the monitors on and off. The screen saver is set to one that is not blank screen. The Windows power settings are set to never turn off the display. When the problem occurs there is no significant disk activity occurring. When the problem occurs I can connect over the network to the hard drive on my computer. When the problem occurs I can't connect over the network with a VNC connection. The VNC client doesn't give an error, but also won't show the screen. The task actually seems to hang as I can see the task, but there is no window for it. This problem occurred when I was running a pre-release version of Windows 7. The hard drive was formatted for release version and the problem still occurs. I've been stopping some of my always running programs to see if one of them may be the culprit, but given the span between failures that will take some time to find the problem if it will even help at all. Some programs I have always running include IE, Firefox, Outlook, Evernote, Kana Reminder, Ditto, Macro Express, Timesnapper, and DisplayFusion. Any ideas appreciated.

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  • Why is Excel 2010/2013 taking 10 seconds open any file?

    - by jbkly
    I have a fast Windows 7 PC with two SSDs and 16GB of RAM, so I'm used to programs loading very fast. But recently, for no reason I can figure out, Excel has started taking way too long to open Excel files (of any size--even blank files). This is occurring with Excel 2010 and with Excel 2013 after I upgraded, hoping to solve the problem. Here a couple scenarios: If I start Excel directly, it opens almost instantly. No problem there. If I start Excel directly, and then open any Excel file (.xls or .xlsx), it loads almost instantly. Still no problem BUT if I attempt to open any Excel file directly, with Excel not running, it consistently takes 10-11 seconds for Excel to start. I get no error messages, just a spinning cursor for 10-11 seconds, and then the file opens. During the delay while Excel is trying to start, I'm not really seeing any discernible spike in CPU or memory usage, other than explorer.exe. This problem is only occurring with Excel, not Word or any other program I'm aware of. I've searched around quite a bit on this question and found various others who have experienced it, but the solutions that worked for them are not working for me. For a few people it was a problem with scanning network drives, but my problem is purely with local files; I have no network drives, and the problem persists even with all network connections disabled. Some people suggested worksheets with corrupted formulas or links, but I'm experiencing this with ANY Excel file: even blank worksheets. Others thought it was a problem with add-ins, but I have all Excel add-ins disabled (as far as I can tell). One person solved it by disabling a "clipboard manager" process that was running in the background, but I don't have that. I've disabled as many startup and background processes as I can, but the problem persists. I've run malware scans, disk cleanup, CCleaner, and installed Excel 2013. I've deleted temporary files, enabled SuperFetch, and edited registry keys. Still can't get rid of the problem. Any ideas? My system details: Windows 7 Professional SP1 64-bit, Excel 2013 32-bit, 16GB RAM, all programs installed on SSD.

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  • Ascii text diagrams

    - by bobobobo
    I'm looking for a program to convert PowerPoint block diagrams to ASCII. I found Ditaa which does the exact opposite of what I want done. Recommendations for great programs that can produce ascii block diagrams? +--------+ +-------+ +-------+ | | --+ block2+-- | | | block | +-------+ |block3 | | | | | | | | | | | | | +---+----+ +-------+ +-------+ : ^ | Lots of work | +-------------------------+ Found FossilDraw which does exactly what I want but speed perf leaves something to be desired..

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  • postgresql service corrupt, how can i re-create service?

    - by pstanton
    Hi all, I recently was tricked into running one of those registry cleaner programs (RegistryBooster). It seemed to work fine until I tried to start my postgres service. For some reason, the 'path to executable' was no longer set on the service properties page, and obviously would not start without a path. How can I either fix the existing service or uninstall/ re-install just the service without re-installing postgres altogether? postgres 8.4 windows xp sp3

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  • How to fix network connection dead on startup, but okay after disable/enable?

    - by bill weaver
    on Startup When my system starts up, the internet connection is dead. This causes various problems with startup items such as updates and auto-start programs failing. However, the connection is fine after going into Network and Sharing, Change adapter settings, then disabling and re-enabling the adapter. Any suggestions on why this is happening and how to fix it? System summary: Windows 7, 64 bit, Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller, Linksys WRT610N router, Sci Atlanta cable modem.

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