Bauer-Power- Information is Power!

Panda Released a Free Cloud Antivirus

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:00:00 +0000

My coworker showed me something interesting today. Before I break it down to you, let me give you a little background of Antivirus. The way it is now, you have Antivirus software, and so do many other people on the internet. If one of them gets infected, a sample of the infection goes back to the Antivirus company’s lab where they reverse engineer it, see what makes it tick, then they release an update for everyone else to remove the infection. Sometimes this process can take a month or two to get out.

Well to remedy the problem, Panda Labs is releasing a free Cloud Antivirus. First of all, why free? Because the more people that have this Antivirus, the better. Why is that? Because Panda has essentially done away with the lab portion of it, and made us the users, the virtual lab. If one of us gets infected, all other users get notified and protected in a matter of minutes rather than waiting for an update from a software company lab. Here is a video from Panda that explains it way better than I can:

So what do you think? The idea sounds like a good one to me. I think I will run it on my laptop for a while to test it out. Will any of you try it? Are you trying it now? How well do you like it? Hit us up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: panda,cloud,antivirus,download,free

I was wrong! HD-8TZ DOES have image stabilization!

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Last night I was messing around with my new Speed HD-8TZ again, when I noticed something really awesome! It actually DOES have image stabilization. When I first did my review last week I remarked that it didn’t have this feature, so I just want to go on record as saying that I realized that was a mistake.

Learning a new toy is always an ongoing process, so I am sure I will learn way more about this pleasantly surprising little HD camera as time goes on. Anyway, if you want to see an example of how the image stability works on this, check out this quick little test video I made last night. I look horrible because it was really late, and I did it spur of the moment minutes before getting ready to turn in.

So what I noticed is the image stabilization works okay, but it isn’t a dramatic decrease in bounciness. If you really want a smooth shot, you certainly will need a tripod, but I find that the image stabilization does do a good enough job at not giving me motion sickness when I watch.

Do you have the Speed HD-8 or the HD-8TZ? Got any tips or tricks you want to share? Hit me up in the comments.

Technorati Tags: speed,hd-8tz,image,motion,stability,stabilization,test,review

ExchangeOAB Folder is Empty!

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:00:00 +0000

Hey guys, El Di Pablo back at ya with another Microsoft Exchange 2007 gotcha! So just when I thought everything was working perfectly with Exchange, my partner in crime was working on some Microsoft OCS stuff, and he noticed some errors in the event log on one of our Exchange servers.

WTF! I just got everything running in perfect harmony with the universe, and all the planets were aligned. Out of no where we start getting OALGen errors like a mutha! Here are some of the errors we were seeing:

Event ID: 9328

OALGen encountered file error 80070005 (internal ID 5050221) while generating the offline address list for address list '\Global Address List'. Make sure there is enough disk space available.
- Default OAB

Event ID: 9373

OALGen detected that the file '\\SERVER\ExchangeOAB\e52e0abd-8188-477e-8340-ef04a15dd47f\3ef5ce35-2ff4-440e-b523-f1f24a759788-data-1.lzx' is corrupted or missing. This indicates data tampering or disk problems. Restore files in this folder from the recent backup or clean up folder content and force a full OAB generation.
- Default OAB

Event ID: 9328

OALGen encountered file error ffffffff (internal ID 505026d) while generating the offline address list for address list '\Global Address List'. Make sure there is enough disk space available.
- Default OAB

Event ID: 9371

OALGen encountered an error while generating the differential downloads of address list '\Global Address List'. The offline address list has not been updated so clients will not be able to download the current set of changes. Check other logged events to find the cause of this error.

I thought no problem, maybe there is a problem with the current Offline Address Book, so I created a new one. When I went to update it, I got the subdirectory with the GUID, but the folder was EMPTY! Again I say… WTF?!?!

I finally got this fixed, and since it was kind of hard to find the solution, I’ll share with you what I did.

On both Exchange 2007 servers I went into \Exchange Server\ and renamed the ExchangeOAB directory to ExchangeOAB_OLD, then I created a new share with the following permissions:

Share Permissions:

Administrators – Owner
System – Owner
Exchange Servers – Reader

NTFS Permissions:

Administrators – Full Control
System – Full Control
Exchange Servers – Read

After that I restarted the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service, and then updated the OAB again. Bam! Fixed! If that doesn’t fix it for you, then your problem is probably a little more advanced, and is most likely related to improper Active Directory container permissions.

Before you do the following, make sure you have good System State backups of your domain controllers! I accept no responsibility if you hose up your Active Directory environment because you accidentally deleted the wrong thing!

Go into ADSI Edit on your Global Catalog server, and connect to the Configuration Naming Context, and do the following:

Browse to CN=Services>CN=Microsoft Exchange>CN=Company>CN=Address Lists Container
Delete the “All Address Lists” and “Offline Address Lists” containers
Force replication to the other Domain Controllers
On your Exchange server, pop in the Exchange Install Disk
Open The Command Prompt as Administrator
Run Setup /prepareSchema
Run Setup /prepareAD
Run Setup /prepareDomain
Wait about 15 minutes, then reboot your Global Catalog servers one at a time, waiting for each one to come back up before bouncing the next one.
After all GC servers are rebooted, reboot your Exchange Servers

If that doesn’t fix your issue, then it is time to tuck tail and call Microsoft because your environment has issues! If you have to call Microsoft, I would love to hear what your fix was in the comments :-)

If one of these tips does fix your issue, I want to know as well. Let your voice be heard below!

Technorati Tags: exchange 2007,windows server 2008,OALGen,OAB,Offline Address Book,Errors,Not generating,Empty Directory,Fix,How-to

Speed HD-8TZ Review

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:00:00 +0000

My new company is a Microsoft partner, and with that we were asked to be a part of the Office 2010 review. Pretty cool right? I am sure many of you techno-thusiasts are on that program too. Well with that, good old Microsoft asked us to take a small HD camera and video our users using Office 2010 for some kind of Microsoft marketing campaign!

They told my company they would reimburse us for a camera up to $200 and suggested the Flip-Mino HD camera. Well, I know that camera sucks so I looked for an alternative. I found this “el-cheapo” Speed HD-8TZ camera on Amazon for $195, just a little cheaper than the Flip-Mino, and with better resolution.

My boss came to me knowing I like to make videos for Bauer-Power and asked if I wanted to take the lead on this project. In return I get to keep the camera. What? Free camera? Hells yeah!

My expectation wasn’t very high because the camera was a virtual no-name (Who has heard of Speed electronics anyway) and it was a low-cost camera. It turns out this thing is actually pretty good! Here is some video I shot with it:

For you technical types, here are the specs:

12.0 MegaPixel (Max) / 5M Sensor
20X Zoom
3" TFT LCD
Resolution: QVGA(30fps), WVGA(60fps), HD 720P(60fps), HD 1080P(30fps)
HDMI Output
Support SDHC Card up to 16GB
White Balance: Auto / Sunny / Cloudy / Tungsten / Fluorescent

Definitely not a bad camera. Much better quality than my Kodak ZI6 I think, and certainly better resolution. I also like that it records fairly well in the dark, which is more than I can say with my ZI6, or my previous HD camera. One thing I don’t like, but is standard in cheap HD cameras, is lack of image stability making a tripod a must!

Do you have a HD-8TZ? Like it? Dislike it? Ever hear of Speed electronics? Hit me up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: speed,hd-8tz,review

Who Wants a Google Voice Invite?

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:00:00 +0000

I got my Google Voice a couple of months ago, and I love it! I get my own personal “vanity” number, I can set up calling rules. It will ring to any phone I want it to (i.e. Work, Home, Cell etc), and I can send texts from my computer. I even read somewhere that you can now use one of your current numbers (i.e. your home number) as your Google voice number!

I just logged on last week, and found out that I have three invitations that I can give out. So you know what came to mind? CONTEST! That’s right, I will hold another Twitter contest! So how do you enter? Simple, you have to do both to get an entry into the contest:

MAKE SURE YOU CLICK THE RETWEET LINK ABOVE TO GET CREDIT FOR TWEETING!

If you want an additional entry in the contest, subscribe to my RSS feed, take a screen shot of Bauer-Power in your RSS reader, post the picture online somewhere and post the link in the comments. This will DOUBLE your chances of winning!

I will enter all my Twitter followers that have retweeted about the contest into an Excel spread sheet (Those of you subscribing to RSS will get an additional entry), then I will use a random number generator to pick the winners! Once the winners have been picked, I will announce it via Twitter!

I will be choosing THREE winners this time, so don’t be shy! If you need a Google voice invite, enter! If your friends need a Google Voice invite, tell them about this contest!

The winners will be announced via Twitter on Monday, November 30th at 2:00PM Pacific time!

Contest for U.S. Residents Only

Technorati Tags: google,voice,invite,contest,twitter

Did You Know You Can Create Disk Images With Windows 7?

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:00:00 +0000

While at work the other day, one of my company's principals came to me saying his computer was acting up. My boss and I went to investigate and we found that his hard drive was making some, what us professionals say, funky noises. You know, the sound a hard drive starts to make shortly before it finally kicks the proverbial bucket?

We knew we had to act quickly, so we grabbed a hard drive from a similar laptop, then using trust PING, we tried to create a quick image of his failing hard drive to put on the new drive. Well, as I found out later, PING didn’t quite mix well with Windows 7 for some reason. The image was successful, but after restarting, the laptop wouldn’t boot up. CRAP!

I remembered there being a feature built into Windows 7 that let you create a disk image. So I decided to boot up his laptop, then I went into the control panel and selected Backup and Restore, and there it was, an option to Create a system image!

I selected that option, and followed the Wizard to backup the system image to an external USB hard drive I had. To restore it is just as easy! You boot up using a Windows 7 DVD and select the option to Repair your computer.

On the next screen, you select the option to Restore your computer using a system image you created earlier and follow the wizard!

It is that simple people! I have been a big fan of system images for a long time. For home use I have used Ghost 9, Ghost 12, PING, DriveImage XML, you name it. Now, I don’t need to any more! I can get my computer the way I want it, and create my base image using the tools built into Windows! Not to mention, it saved the principal’s computer right?

A couple of things I want to note is that if the image was created using the 32 bit version of Windows 7, you have to use the 32 bit install disk to restore. Likewise for 64 bit. Also, when creating the image, Windows gives you the option of creating a restore disk so you don't have to carry around a Windows 7 install disk. Options, options, options. I like that!

Have you tried the Windows 7 system image yet? Like it? Dislike it? Problems? Success stories? Hit us up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: windows 7,ghost,built-in,system image,disk image

Make your own Engrish

sundance.mcclure@gmail.com (TheEpicChocobo) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000

We’ve all seen Engrish.com where Japanese or other countries have some Epic Fails when it comes to English translations. Like the Computer Gaming system “Game in Home Computer. Lets Play Game. Everybody gets off.” or the plastic bag that says “Keep the reach out of children. Do not put the plastic bag in your head to prevent from suffocating.”

Now I know that Engrish.com has a Create your own Engrish. But all it does is tell you to go to babblefish and do it all manually. Who wants to do things manually these days? Not me that’s for sure. So I came across Translation Party.

At Translation Party you just type in any English Phrase and click the button and watch it go. For example it took the phrase You’re about to leave? and turned it into “if so, why stay in this hotel?” the best part is when you randomly start talking to someone completely in Engrish. Of course don’t tell them what you’re doing and sit back and let the laughs come rolling out of your own mouth.

Disclaimer: Laughing by yourself loudly in your office all alone and speaking to people in Engrish may make people think you’re crazy.

By TheEpicChocobo of Make Me A Sammich

Firebug in IE or on the Go

sundance.mcclure@gmail.com (TheEpicChocobo) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Yes folks. One of the best Add-Ons for Firefox has an On The Go version. That is Firebug Lite!!! So I’ve actually known about this for quite some time but I’m just finally now getting around to talking about it. The nice thing about Firebug Lite is that you can just set a bookmarklet in any browser and bam, you got Firebug. They have tested this in IE, Opera and Safari.

Now of course it’s not as good as the original Firefox Add-On so by no means is this meant to be a replacement, but does help especially for any of you that are forced to be stuck on IE6 or to making sure that websites still look good in IE6 this is a must.

With some of the latest updates to Firebug Lite it can now support all of the basic commands of Firebug. So all those useful firebug console commands are yours on the go too.

They also offer the source available for download and to embed where needed. You can also update and add your own CSS files, so you can add your own Firebug Lite “dark version” or whatever to your own site for people to use.

Now just as a quick shout out. I actually found this out because of my wife. She is also a geeky techy gamer like myself.

By TheEpicChocobo of Make Me A Sammich

Outlook 2007 Search Stopped Working. Now What?

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000

I love when you make a change on the network, then immediately afterward every little problem comes up and people want to know if it was because of the change you did. Sometimes it most definitely is, but other times it is completely unrelated. I just finished a project with Exchange 2007, and right afterward , amazingly, one of our executives lost his ability to search using Outlook 2007.

Most often, this is caused when an Office 2003 product, like Front page for instance, gets installed after Office 2007. The 2003 Office install breaks the Windows desktop search component that Outlook 2007 uses. So how do you fix it when you need both Office 2007, and the one 2003 Office product? Actually, it is pretty easy, just time consuming.

First, close out of all Office Applications
Do a repair on Office 2007 by going to Start > Control Panel> Add/Remove Programs (Or Programs and Features in Vista and Windows 7), find Office 2007 and select Change, then Repair.
Once the repair is done, rebuild your index by going to Start > Control Panel> Indexing Options > Advanced> and clicking on Rebuild.

Once you do both of those steps, your search should start working again in Outlook. If this doesn't correct the issue, then you probably will have to re-create the user's Outlook profile.

Did this tip work for you? Did you have to do something else? Let us know about your results in the comments!

Technorati Tags: outlook 2007,desktop,search,not generating,stopped,working,indexing,rebuild

Free/Busy Not Working Exchange 2007

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Here we go again with another Microsoft Exchange 2007 piece. Luckily I am finished with my Exchange 2007 project, so I can get back to wrting a little. Since Exchange 2007 took some getting used to, I thought I would share with you some of the stuff I discovered along the way.

One problem we had was that after doing our setup, users could not access Free/Busy information from Outlook 2007. If they logged into OWA (Outlook Web Access) they could see it fine. For this type of issue there are two things you can check. I will start with the easiest.

If your Outlook 2007 users cannot view Free/Busy information, try the following on your Microsoft Exchange 2007 server:

Go to Start > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager
Expand your way down to Default Web Site and locate EWS
Click on EWS, then double click on Authentication. The default setting should be Windows Authentication Enabled
Expand EWS, and click on BIN. Now click on Authentication. The default setting should be Windows Authentication Enabled
If you had to enable with any of these settings, run the command prompt as Administrator and run iisreset /noforce

Now close out of Outlook on your client workstation, and run Outlook /cleanfreebusy. Open/create a new calendar entry and add a user to it. Look at the Scheduling assistant to see if you can see free/busy information. If you can’t, there is one more thing you can check.

If you migrated users from an Exchange 2003 server, chances might be good that you did not migrate over the Free/Busy public folder information correctly. To check open the Exchange Management Shell (EMS) as administrator and run the following command:

Get-PublicFolder -server CASSERVER "\non_ipm_subtree\SCHEDULE+ FREE BUSY" -recurse | Format-List

You will see a bunch of information, but what you are looking for is two Public folder groups:

\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\SCHEDULE+ FREE BUSY\EX:/o=Company/ou=First Administrative Group - AND
\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\SCHEDULE+ FREE BUSY\EX:/o=Company/ou=Exchange Administrative Group (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)

In my case, we were missing the First Administrative Group. To add it I ran the following from EMS:

Set-PublicFolder –Identity “\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\SCHEDULE+ FREE BUSY\EX:/o=Company/ou=First Administrative Group” –Replicas “CASSERVER\Public Folder Database”

Let that simmer (replicate) through your domain for a while, then go back and try your Outlook /freebusy fix again. You should be good to go.

Did this solution work for you? Did you have to do something else? Have anything to add? Hit me up in the comments.

Technorati Tags: exchange 2007,outlook 2007,free/busy,Error updating public folder with free/busy information on virtual machine,0x80004005

Where is the Startup Folder in Windows 7?

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Now that Windows 7 is out on the market, and the Microsoft marketing machine is in full gear, people are starting to go out and purchase their Windows 7 upgrades to finally release them from the oppression that is Windows Vista, or they finally want to upgrade now that their is a decent replacement for Windows XP. With the upgrade will come a few changes, so getting used to your new operating system will require a little bit of a learning curve.

One item that Windows XP users will have to understand is the location of the Startup folder in Windows 7. For you Vista veterans, you can go about your day, because it is in the same place in Vista as Windows 7. For you XP folks, who haven’t played with Vista or Windows 7 Beta, I’ll give you the low down.

In Windows 7 the location of your personal startup folder is:

%systemdrive%\users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

For all users, you will find the startup folder in:

%systemdrive%\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

I hope this little tid-bit of info helps in your transition!

Know of any other good Windows 7 tips/tricks? Hit us up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: windows 7,how to,startup folder,all users,location,where

The Exchange 2007 Autodiscover Song

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:00:00 +0000

As I mentioned in the previous post, I have been doing a lot of work and research with Exchange 2007 recently. I managed to get all of our outstanding issues resolved, which is a huge load off my shoulders. I hope to share with you some of the stuff I figured out in future posts when i have some time to write them up.

In the mean time, lets talk about Autodiscover. Autodiscover is a new feature to Exchange 2007 that allows clients to automatically figure out their settings. It also helps clients to figure out how to get information like Offline Address Books, where to go for out of office information etc. It is so important that one Exchange developer decided to write a song about it. Here it is, the Autodiscover Song!

Chorus:
>>Autodiscover
>>There is no other
>>Way to decide
>>Where your mailbox is stored

>>Autodiscover
>>Your sister and brother
>>Exchange Admin and mother
>>Will be proud if you do
You may be tempted to wing it
Use a hardcoded link submit it
But performance will suffer
When you're left to your druthers
Should have Autodiscovered
Then all would be well
>>Chorus
Call it once for each mailbox of interest
Pair the link and mailbox for each request
If you encounter errors
Refresh once again
For more information search M-S-D-N for
>>Chorus
Exchange won't exist in a bubble
If you think that it will you're in trouble
Add a site, one or two
And your perf will be through
Unless you step up and decide that your app will just...

>>Chorus
Autodiscover,
Autodiscover,
Just AutoDiscover for me.
It's just plain XML
- David Sterling
Senior Software Development Engineer - EWS

If you are feeling really geeky, you can download the recorded version here: (Autodiscover Song Download)

Via [You Had Me At Ehlo]

Technorati Tags: exchange, autodiscover, song, funny, microsoft

Exchange 2007: Offline Address Book Not Moving from ExchangeOAB to OAB

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Hi all, once again sorry for not updating as regularly as I should. This new job of mine keeps me really, really busy. One of the things I am working on now is migrating users from one Exchange 2007 server to another. During this process I have had to troubleshoot many different things. Hopefully I can find time to write about all of the things I discovered in later posts, but in this post I will talk about something I noticed with the offline address book.

My problem was that when I generated a new address book on the new server the folder with the GUID name wasn’t being created in my \Exchange Server\Client Access\OAB directory. If your users use Outlook 2007, then they download the updated address book from the web, from that directory. If that directory isn’t getting populated by Exchange, you are going to have Offline Address book issues.

If you didn’t already know, when Exchange 2007 generated an offline address book, it creates a copy in \Exchange Server\ExchangeOAB and moves it over to \Exchange Server\Client Access\OAB when it is done. Well it wasn’t doing that on my server.

To fix that, what I had to do was remove the folder with the GUID name from \Exchange Server\Client Access\OAB on both of our Exchange 2007 servers, the restart the MSExchangeFDS service on both servers:

c:\>net stop MSExchangeFDS

c:\>net start MSExchangeFDS

After I restarted the service, the \Exchange Server\Client Access\OAB populated correctly.

What kind of Exchange issues are you seeing in your environment? I have been doing so much research with Exchange lately, maybe I can point you in the right direction. Hit me up in the comments.

Technorati Tags: exchange 2007,offline address book,oab,not generating,exchangeoab,msexchangefds

Exchange 2003 Error Event ID 8063 From MSExchangeAL

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000

I recently completed a project where I had to upgrade all of the domain controllers on one of the Active Directory domains I manage to Windows Server 2008 and raise the functional level to Windows 2008 as well. In order to do that you can either do in place upgrades on all of the domain controllers, or build new ones and transfer all the FSMO roles to them. We went with the later.

We decided to build all new from scratch because it is always better to go with a clean install than do an in place upgrade, and it also gave us the opportunity to clean up the naming conventions of the old domain controllers. (By that I mean, there wasn’t a naming convention in place.)

The upgrade went pretty smooth, with a couple of exceptions. One, a few Sharepoint web parts had one of the old domain controller’s host names hard coded. To fix that we simply created a CNAME record in DNS to point that host name to one of the new domain controllers. The other problem we had was that all of a sudden their Exchange 2003 server was having problems doing lookups on newly created mailboxes. Oops!

I checked the event logs like any other good administrator and saw the following error:

Could not read the root entry on directory ‘<fqdn of domain controller>'. Cannot access configuration information.

The fix is actually pretty easy if you are seeing that error too. The problem was caused because the Recipient Update Service was looking to one of the domain controllers we replaced. To update the domain controller name for the Recipient Update Service in Microsoft Exchange 2003 do the following:

Open Exchange System Manager
Go to Recipients > Recipient Update Services
Right click on each RUS and select properties
Under Windows Domain Controller, click Browse and select the name of your new domain controller.
Click OK, Click Apply Then Click OK again

Wait a few minutes, and check your event viewer again. You should see that error disappear like Roman Polanski when confronted with criminal charges (What? Too soon?)

Technorati Tags: microsoft,exchange,2003,error,event id 8063,mseexchangeal

How To Setup A SSTP VPN in Windows 2008

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000

I was given the task at my company to come up with a reliable, and most importantly secure VPN solution that didn’t require the use of third party agents. Currently they have a couple of VPN solutions in place. One is the somewhat secure PPTP VPN, and the more secure Cisco VPN with IPSEC. We needed something with the same ease of use as PPTP, but with the reliable security of IPSEC.

Enter SSTP, or Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol. It is one of the “new Hotness” VPN technologies from Microsoft. Actually, the newest hotness is DirectAccess, but unless you are willing to start setting up for IPv6, you might want to go with the next best thing…SSTP. SSTP has all the ease of setup that PPTP does, but with the warm blanket of security that SSL provides.

According to Wikipedia, SSTP is:

…a form of VPN tunnel that provides a mechanism to transport PPP or L2TP traffic through an SSL 3.0 channel. SSL provides transport-level security with key-negotiation, encryption and traffic integrity checking. The use of SSL over TCP port 443 allows SSTP to pass through virtually all firewalls and proxy servers.

What you will need:

SSL Certificate (Free 90 Day Cert From Comodo or $12.99 1 Year Cert from GoDaddy FTW!)
Windows 2008 Server
IIS Services (For SSL Certificate Request/Install)
Firewall NAT rule opening up port 443 to your VPN server
Client running Windows Vista SP1 or later

Now you have what you need all set, here is what you need to do:

In Server manager, go to Roles Summary, and click on Add Roles
Click on Web Server (IIS) and click next twice
On the Roles Services page, select all of the Security options and click next, then install, then finish
Follow these instructions for generating a certificate request: (SSL CSR)
Once you have your valid cert from a trusted CA, follow their instructions for installing their certificate in IIS. Here is a link to GoDaddy’s instructions: (GoDaddy SSL Install for IIS7)
In Server manager, go to Roles Summary, and click on Add Roles
Click on Network Policy and Access Services then click next twice
Select Routing and Remote Access services then click next, then click install, then click finish.
Open Routing and Remote Access (Administrator tools> Routing and Remote Access)
Right click on your computer name and select Configure and Enable Routing and remote Access
Click next, Select Custom Configuration (You have to do this if you only have one NIC) and click next
Select all options and click next
Click finish
Expand IPv4, then right click on DHCP Relay agent. Insert the IP Address of your DHCP server.
Right click on your server name, and click properties
select the option for Local Area Network Routing Only
Open up TCP 443 on your firewall and create a NAT rule to your server (Use Google for your particular firewall).

That’s about it people! Now when you want to remote back in on your Windows Vista or better yet, Windows 7 laptop, you just create a new VPN connection like you use to for PPTP, except this time you select SSTP as the protocol!

Now I wrote most of this from memory, so if you get hung up on a step, hit me up in my comments so I can better explain it… or update the post. Good luck, and happy remoting!

Technorati Tags: how to,configure sstp,vpn,windows 2008 server,vista,windows 7,ssl

Installing IE6, IE7 or IE8 on any OS (Windows 7, OS X or Ubuntu)

sundance.mcclure@gmail.com (TheEpicChocobo) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Ok, so this isn’t exactly installing IE6 natively on Windows 7, OS X or Linux but it’s probably a better solution than actually trying to run IE6 natively on Windows 7, OS X or Linux. First things first. Go to:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=21EABB90-958F-4B64-B5F1-73D0A413C8EF&displaylang=en

Download your preferred package IE6-XPSP3.EXE, IE7-XPSP3.EXE or IE8-XPSP3.EXE.

So you’re prob thinking, “umm… dude, OS X and Linux don’t run EXE files dumbass!!” Well you’re pretty much right. Luckily these are really just Zip files so swap out the .exe for .zip or just extract the exe file itself.

Extraction

Windows: Just run the exe file and install it wherever.

Ubuntu: unrar it using unrar e IE6-XPSP3.EXE XP_SP3_IE6/ in the console

OS X: load the file using Zipeg and extract the .vhd file to your hard drive.

Virtual Box

Install Virtual Box if you don’t have it already.

Add the VHD file as a Hard Drive and then create a new XP machine and use that VHD file.

Since this virtual drive was meant for M$ virtual software it won’t have all the drivers you need off hand. So boot up the virtual system and close out of all the stupid prompts when they come up.

Click on Devices in the main Virtual Box window and choose Install Guest Additions.

Run through that setup and reboot when it asks you to.

When it get back up close out of all the popups again and click Start –> Run and type CMD and hit OK.

in there paste

D:\VBoxWindowsAdditions-x86.exe /extract /D=C:\Drivers

and press enter. that’ll extract those into the C:\Drivers directory.

Now click Start –> Right Click on My Computer –> Properties –> Hardware Tab –> Device Manager

Right Click on the Ethernet Controller and chose Update Driver.

When it prompts you for a Windows Disk just paste or browse to C:\Drivers\x86\Network\AMD and choose the Continue Anyway option whenever it comes up.

Reboot

Now you’re good. Open your fancy IE6 and hate your life even more. :)

Goodbye Bauer-Puntu. Hello Open Bauer-Power!

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000

A few months ago, not long after the release of Ubuntu 9.04, I released my 3rd installment of the mildly popular Bauer-Puntu 9.04. In my announcement for that, I noted that 9.04 may be the last version. I am here to tell you that 9.04 will indeed be the last version. It is simply too much of a pain to create an maintain.

That doesn’t mean the end of Bauer-Power slightly customized Linux goodness is going away though. No, it will just be different. The next version of Bauer-Power Linux will be called Open Bauer-Power, and will be based on OpenSUSE 11.1! I wanted to call it Bauer-Puse, but a friend of mine pointed out how that may actually sound vulgar and offend some people. After thinking about it, I think my friend may be correct.

Why is this easier to build than Bauer-Puntu you may ask? Well, for Bauer-Puntu I have to do a lot of customizations, then re-package everything using Remastersys. For Open Bauer-Power I will be using my new invite for SUSE Studio that lets me create my own custom SUSE based distro with just a few mouse clicks online!

Here is a screenshot of my custom boot up splash, login screen etc for Open Bauer-Power:

Open Bauer-Power is not ready to download yet. I want to play with it a bit, and iron out any problems. Rest assured though, I will make it available as a Live-CD as well as a Live-USB like I did with Bauer-Puntu 9.04.

What kind of stuff do you want to see in Open Bauer-Power? Hit me up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: bauer-puntu,open bauer-power,ubuntu,opensuse,linux,suse studio

Error Backing Up Shadow Copy and System State in Backup Exec 12.5

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000

I have been working hard on setting up a new Backup Exec 12.5 server. On of the tedious parts is adding new servers to backup selection lists. Want to know what is more tedious though? When you go to select System State and Shadow Copy Components backups and you get an error!

Man that is frustrating because to fix it requires a registry hack, and a reboot of the server. Do you know what that means? After hours or maintenance window work. Both of which means late nights. Not so bad if you get paid overtime, but it sucks if you are strictly salary.

Anyhoo, enough whining about after hours work. I mean, it goes with the territory right? So what is the error you see? I’m sure there are others, but the ones I’ve been seeing lately say:

Error

An error was encountered while attempting to browse the contents of Shadow Copy Components. A failure occurred accessing the Writer metadata.

Error

An error was encountered while attempting to browse the contents of Systems State. A failure occurred accessing the Writer metadata.

Have you seen that error too? Maybe that is why you are here right? Let me tell you how to fix it.

Open the registry editor on the server having issues.

Start>Run>Regedit

Export the following key to a safe place

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\EventSystem\{26c409cc-ae86-11d1-b616-00805fc79216}\Subscriptions
Delete the key you just exported

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\EventSystem\{26c409cc-ae86-11d1-b616-00805fc79216}\Subscriptions
Reboot

Once the server is rebooted, you should be able to go back into Backup Exec and add the Shadow Copy Components and System State.

Technorati Tags: vss, error, system state, shadow copy components, backup exec, 12.5

VMWare Tools For Linux On The Easy

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Last year, I wrote about how you you go about installing VMWare tools on an Ubuntu virtual machine. That method still works, but it isn’t the optimal nor easiest way of doing it. Not according to my boss anyway.

My boss is the guy who really introduced me to Linux, and really knows his sH!7. He said that if you manually install the VMWare tools pack then later decide to upgrade the kernel it will break your VMWare tools install, and you will have to remember to manually uninstall it, then re-install it. He recommends using your distro’s pre-packaged Open-VM-Tools!

He said that since your distro maintains Open-VM-Tools in their repository, chances are pretty good that they will keep them up to date when they roll out changes to the kernel, and will keep you running smoothly after an upgrade.

To install Open-VM-Tools in Ubuntu it is as simple as using apt-get:

>sudo apt-get install open-vm-tools

One thing I did notice with using this is that for an Ubuntu virtual machine, vSphere shows the tools status as OK:

On Gentoo, my boss’s distro of choice, vShpere shows the VMWare tools status as Unmanaged:

Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Gentoo! Just kidding, all joking aside, my boss assures me that even though it appears as Unmanaged in vSphere you still get all of the benefits as the manual install of VMWare tools such as:

Improved video compatibility & performance
Improved network compatibility & performance
Copy and paste between the host and guest
Improved memory utilization
Improved CPU utilization

Do you use a lot of Linux virtual servers in your environment? Do you already use Open-VM-Tools? Do you manually install the tools? What’s your VM story? Hit us up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: how to,install,vmware tools,linux,ubuntu,apt-get,gentoo

NTFRS Error 13559

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Oh this is not a fun one. I am doing a lot of domain controller maintenance on one of the many Windows active directory domain I manage and I noticed a little problem with replication on one of the domain controllers in the forest.

For those of you not familiar with NtFRS, according to Wikipedia, “File Replication Service is a Microsoft Windows Server service for distributing folders stored in the SYSVOL shared folder on domain controllers and Distributed File System (DFS) shared folders. It is also known as NTFRS after the name of the executable file that runs the service. This service is part of Microsoft's Active Directory.”

The error that I kept seeing was right after the file replication service was trying to start, and it would say:

Event Type:    Error
Event Source:    NtFrs
Event Category:    None
Event ID:    13559
Date:        9/01/2009
Time:        9:19:05 PM
User:        N/A
Computer:    SERVER
Description:
The File Replication Service has detected that the replica root path has changed from "c:\ad\sysvol\domain" to "c:\ad\sysvol\domain". If this is an intentional move then a file with the name NTFRS_CMD_FILE_MOVE_ROOT needs to be created under the new root path.
This was detected for the following replica set:
    "DOMAIN SYSTEM VOLUME (SYSVOL SHARE)"
Changing the replica root path is a two step process which is triggered by the creation of the NTFRS_CMD_FILE_MOVE_ROOT file.
[1] At the first poll which will occur in 60 minutes this computer will be deleted from the replica set.
[2] At the poll following the deletion this computer will be re-added to the replica set with the new root path. This re-addition will trigger a full tree sync for the replica set. At the end of the sync all the files will be at the new location. The files may or may not be deleted from the old location depending on whether they are needed or not.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

You know what though? The fix is actually pretty easy. All you have to do is browse to the directory that is mentioned in the error. In the above case it is c:\ad\sysvol\domain right click in there and create a new text file called NTFRS_CMD_FILE_MOVE_ROOT with no extension. After that, the error will go away, and replication should continue again within a few minutes.

Did that help you with your issue? Are you experiencing another replication issue? Maybe we can help. Hit us up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: Technorati Tags: ntfrs,error,eventid,13559,windows server 2003,replication,active directory

How To Get osTicket To Authenticate With AD

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:15:00 +0000

One of my first tasks at the new gig was to set up an open source ticketing system. We decided on osTicket. My boss said I could use any distro I wanted, the only requirement was that it had to authenticate with AD.

He sent me some links to possibly help get it working, and one was how to set up LDAP authentication in Linux. If you have been reading my blog for a while, then you know that I discovered an even easier way to get Linux to authenticate with AD using Likewise-Open. That was only part of the puzzle though.

We not only had to get Ubuntu (The distro I chose) to authenticate with AD, we had to get osTicket to authenticate with AD using Pam. Here is what we did:

Installed Likewise-Open using my instructions
Installed a few packages:

sudo apt-get install php5-imap postfix php5-pam-auth pecl php_pam mcrypt php5-mcrypt
Modified /include/class.staff.php as follows

sudo nano /var/www/include/class.staff.php

Replace

/*compares user password*/

function check_passwd($password){

return (strlen($this->passwd) && strcmp($this->passwd, MD5($password))==0)?(TRUE):(FALSE);

}

with

/*compares user password*/

function check_passwd($password){

if (pam_auth($this->username, $password, &$error)) {

return TRUE;

} else {

return FALSE;

}

}
Restarted Apache
Done!

Also to control spam since anyone in the world can create a ticket with osTicket without authentication, we also added recaptcha using these instructions here: (Captcha in osTicket)

Do you use osTicket? Like it? Dislike it? Do you have it integrating with AD? Did you do the same thing, or do something different? Let us know in the comments.

Special thanks to henkka on the osTicket forum.

Technorati Tags: osticket,ubuntu,ad authentication,active directory,how to,captcha,recaptcha

How to increase disk space on a Windows VM

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:25:00 +0000

Wow, look at this! Two posts in one week! What the hell happened? I used to bring you daily geeky goodness, but now you are reduced to two lousy articles a week? I digress.

Anyway, back to the purpose of this article which is how one goes about adding more disk space to a Windows virtual machine in VMWare. Now I found this article which talks about doing this using a Knoppix live CD, however I found an easier way, and it is built into Windows.

All you have to do is the following:

Power down you virtual machine
In your VMWare manager (vSphere, etc.) edit the VM’s settings
Increase the provisioned size of the disk and click OK
Power on the virtual machine
Verify in Disk management that the VM sees the new unformatted disk space
Open a command prompt (In Vista/2008 as Administrator)
Run diskpart
Type list volume
Type select volume <volume number>
Type extend
Type exit

That’s it. No live CD. No nothin’! Just more disk space!

Technorati Tags: how to,increase,extend,expand,disk space,windows,vmware,virtual

Troubleshooting Backup Exec 12.5

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:28:00 +0000

I have really been slacking lately on the blog, and for that I want to just apologies right off the bat. I started a new job a couple of weeks ago and that has been keeping me busy as all hell. One of the things I have been working on was getting a new backup server running, and that is where a lot of my time has been spent.

If you have read some of my older posts, I mention using CA Arcserve. That was at my last company, and I am glad that I no longer have to use that sorry piece of crap software any more. At my new company I am using the industry standard, Backup Exec from Symantec. In fact, I am using Backup Exec 12.5 SP2. I thought this software would be all wine and roses, but I found out that it wasn’t going to be that easy.

If you ever have to setup a new Backup Exec server from scratch, here are a couple of things I noticed that may help you out.

My first issue was that Backup Exec could see the tape library, but couldn’t see the tapes in the slots. It just listed all slots as empty. To fix that I had to go into my tape library interface and set the Library Mode to random. I am using an HP Library, so that is what it is called in HP lingo. If you have a different library, check the users manual, or Google search for the proper configuration for your make/model. Once that is set, restart Backup Exec services, and you should see tapes in the slots.

My next issue was that the tape drive didn’t appear under the robotic library. It appeared separate! To fix that I had to manually select the Symantec drivers in device manager for the Tape Library. It turns out that when you select to use the Symantec Drivers during setup, Windows doesn’t automatically change them over. You should see something like this in Device Manager:

If you don’t see that, then you are still using your OEM driver. To change it:

Right click the device, and select Update Driver Software
Select Browse my Computer for driver software
Select Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer
Select Unknown Medium Changer and select Next then Finish
Reboot if necessary

Finally, my last problem was that Backup Exec couldn’t manipulate the tapes correctly. In the library it showed all tapes as Unknown Media. Inventory failed. Disk Erase failed. Nothing worked. In fact, Backup Exec couldn’t even see media that was in the drive. I found out that Backup Exec doesn’t like to start up with a tape in the drive. I went into the library web interface, and manually ejected the tape. Then I restarted Backup Exec services and BAM! Now I can erase and write to media. Tapes no longer show up as Unknown Media, and I can see a tape in the drive!

Have you had any problems with Backup Exec? Care to share any tips/tricks/recommendations? Hit me up in the comments!

Technorati Tags: symantec,backup exec,12.5,issues,cant erase media,cant inventory,slots,cant write

Name that tune in 140 characters or less. Can’t remember that songs title? LyricRat to the rescue.

noreply@blogger.com (El Di Pablo) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 07:00:00 +0000

When ever I start to think about not remembering a song I think back to that episode of Married With Children, way back when, when Al was trying to remember that song that starts hmmm hmmm himmmm…

Well this service might not have helped him but it can help you!

The way Lyric Rat works is simple you either visit their website – located at http://www.lyricRat.com or if you are a twitter head you can tweet right at LyricRat.

For the scope of this article we will be walking through using the website but according to the Lyric Rat website’s instructions here is how you can use it via twitter:

@LyricRat

Lyric Rat is naming that tune in 140 characters or less on Twitter.

Send a tweet to @LyricRat with some lyrics and the Rat will reply with the song title and artist and a link with more info. Just make sure “@LyricRat” is the first thing in your tweet.

Back to the website. Once you are on the Lyric Rat site you can type in as much of the song as you remember. I started off with an old favorite of mine. A little Jay Z tune from back in the day. I picked PART of a line out of the song and typed it into the query box on the home page. Once I was done I hit the Find The Song button and the rat when out and found my song!

I waited patiently for about 45 seconds as I stared at this spinning flash graphic. It was scouring Amazon I can only imagine utilizing the Bing search engine for lyrics and returning the best hit.

Then it returned what I was looking for… The song is called Dead Presidents (back then it wasn’t called part 1!) . Then after a moment a Amazon MP3 player popped up and let me play the song I was looking for. This is awesome. The only thing it was lacking was the full lyrics of the song. But hey it did find what I was looking for so beggars shouldn’t be choosey!

I decided to try some other songs from other genres like an old song called blister in the sun… This search was quick and returned the correct song, artist and a Amazon MP3 player again allowing me to get my listen on right there in my browser without clicking around.

You can see the MP3 player below. All you have to do is click on the play button or the right arrow and it will start playing. You can also click buy to be sent to Amazon to cop that song. I am sure the software’s author is using affiliate links to make money as the site is FREE. Free as in Free beer!

I was having such a good time I decided to throw a stranger less known song at it from the Spin Doctors. But it had NO PROBLEM finding the song in a jiffy.

Are you stumped? Are you in a bar and fighting about what song that is? Well if so feel free to browse on over to Lyric Rat and solve your problems! Do you have another application that does what Lyric Rat does? Do you know of an off-line solution? We would love to hear about it in the comments!

By Karl Gechlik of AskTheAdmin

Technorati Tags: find,lyrics,name that tune,find name of song,lyricrat

Funny people you meet at Walmart

noreply@blogger.com (Philip Truax) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 07:00:00 +0000

Now I don't usually like to deride others, but sometimes it can be funny to see people in public. Peopleofwalmart.com is a new blog where you can post those people who seem to not care what the world thinks of them. There is actually a guy with implants on the site, yes you read that right, a dude with boobs. Classy with a K. Looks like this guy was planning on hiding in the woods after he robbed the bank.

By @PhilipTruax