Lance Spence

How to Create an Active Directory Services Home Lab

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Tue, 05 May 2026 20:00:00 +0000

Purpose:

The purpose of this document is to provide the steps to create one possible setup for an Active Directory Services Home Lab that can be used to practice Microsoft Active Directory Services and Information Security concepts such as Penetration testing (Pen Testing), Threat Detection, and Vulnerability Management. It can be expanded to include Incident Response and other Information Security concepts by adding additional VMs and tools to the network.

Requirements:

While most tutorials and videos use a single host machine running multiple Virtual Machines (VMs), this lab setup will consist of two physical host machines, each running a single VM. The reason for this is that I also use these hosts for other purposes but wanted to create a lab environment that could also be set up to run alongside other software currently running on the hosts. This lab environment will be using VirtualBox 7.x, Windows Server 2025, and Windows 10 Pro. Due to Windows 10 being end of life you can use Windows 11 if you choose. The steps are essentially the same. If possible, I suggest installing both to practice exploitation concepts.

Host 1 for Windows VM with Active Directory Services along with at least 16 GBs of memory, supports Virtualization, and at least 100 GB of disk space.
Host 2 for Windows VM with at least 16 GBs of memory, supports Virtualization, and at least 100 GB of disk space.

Software:

Latest version of VirtualBox:

https://www.virtualbox.org/

Windows Server:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/download-windows-server-2025

Windows 10 Pro:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Windows 11:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows11

Host 1 Setup:

Ensure that your host machine meets the requirements for VirtualBox and can support at least 1 VM. After downloading VirtualBox run the installer, refer to the VirtualBox documentation depending on your Host 1 machine (i.e. Windows, Mac, Linux) and select all defaults during the installation process. Note: I will be setting this lab up using the Bridged Networking option to make it easier for the hosts to communicate with each other.

Select New from the Home screen and enter Windows_Server_2025 for the VM name. I will store the VM in a folder called VMs on my Host 1 machine which is running Linux Mint as the underlying OS. For the purposes of this documentation; however, I will be using a Windows 11 system as the underlying OS as seen in the screenshots. Leave Windows Server 2022 (64-bit) next to OS Version selected, this will not change the actual installation of Windows Server 2025. Select the Windows Server 2025 ISO. Uncheck Proceed with Unattended Installation. Click Next.

Select the maximum amount of memory you can afford to allocate to the VM as well as the maximum number of CPUs you are able to allocate. Select an appropriate size for the Disk Size. Make sure you leave enough resources for your host machine to perform sufficiently. Click Next.

Review the configuration on the Summary screen and if you don't need to make any changes click Finish.

Click Network on the Machines tab and change Adapter 1 from NAT to Bridged Adapter.

Click the green Start arrow to start-up the VM and begin the installation of Windows Server 2025. Depending on the Host machine's specs and the virtual disk size selected, the creation of the VM may take a little while to create.

Host 2 Setup:

Ensure that your machine meets the requirements for VirtualBox and can support at least 1 VM. After downloading VirtualBox run the installer, refer to the VirtualBox documentation depending on your Host 2 machine (i.e. Windows, Mac, Linux) and select all defaults during the installation process. Note: I will be setting this lab up using the Bridged Networking option.

Select New from the Home screen and enter Windows_10Pro for the VM name. I will store the VM in a folder called VMs on my Host 2 machine which is running MacOS as the underlying OS. For the purposes of this documentation; however, I will be using a Windows 11 system as the underlying OS for both VMs, so the screenshots for the Windows 10 Pro VM will be slightly different from the previous screenshots. Leave Windows 10 (64-bit) next to OS Version selected. Select the Windows 10 Pro ISO. Uncheck Proceed with Unattended Installation.

Note: If you choose to install Windows 11 make sure to check Use EFI.

Click Network on the Machines tab and change Adapter 1 from NAT to Bridged Adapter.

Click the green Start arrow to start-up the VM and begin the installation of Windows 10 Pro. Depending on the Host machine's specs and the virtual disk size selected, the creation of the VM may take a little while to create.

Host 1 (Windows Server 2025 Installation):

Select the appropriate settings on the Language and Keyboard settings.

Accept the default selection on the Select setup option screen, check I agree everything will be deleted including files, apps, and settings. Click Next.

On the Choose a licensing method screen, enter a product key if you have one; otherwise select I don't have a product key.

On the Select Image screen, select Windows Server 2025 Standard (Desktop Experience). Click Next.

On the Applicable notices and license terms screen click Accept.

On the Select location to install Windows Server screen, click Next.

On the Ready to install screen, click Install and wait for the installation to complete.

Host 2 (Windows 10 Pro Installation):

Select the appropriate Language, Time, Currency format, and Keyboard format. Click Next.

Click Install now.

On the Activate Windows screen enter a product key if you have one; otherwise select I don't have a product key.

Select Windows 10 Pro on the next screen, if you have an ISO with that contains multiple versions of Windows 10. Click Next.

On the Applicable notices and license terms screen, check I accept the license terms. Click Next.

On the Which type of installation do you want screen, select Custom: Install Windows only (advanced).

On the Where do you want to install Windows screen, click Next.

Wait for the installation to be completed.

Host 1 (Windows Server2025 Setup and Active Directory Services Installation):

When you start the VM you will be presented with a screen where you can enter a product key if you haven't already entered it previously and have one. If you don't have one select Do this later.

On the Customize setting screen enter a strong password for the local Administrator account. Click Finish.

On the next screen that appears after logging in click Accept.

Before we install Active Directory Services, install the VirtualBox Guest Additions to improve your VM experience. Select Insert Guest Additions CD image from the VM's Devices menu. Open Windows Explorer, click on the CD Drive(D:) and double click on the VBoxWindowsAdditions executable to perform the installation.

Select Next, accept the defaults and then click Install. After the installation has completed click Finish to reboot the VM.

Log in as the Administrator. Click Local Server, where we will change the computer name to something more meaningful and assign the server a static IP address before we install Active Directory Services.

Click the current computer name link and then Change in the pop-up window. I will set this to DC01, you can change this to whatever you feel is appropriate. Leave Member of set to WORKGROUP. Click OK. You will be prompted to restart your computer, but we will wait and do that after we've assigned a static IP address, so click OK when the pop-up window appears stating you have to restart the computer to apply the change. Click Close to close the System Properties window. Select Restart Later in the window that pops up for you to restart the computer.

Let's get the current IP address that has been assigned and set it to be static. In the search bar type cmd to open a Command Prompt.

Type ipconfig to get the current IP address that has been assigned.

Note the IP and gateway addresses, because we will use them when we set a static IP address for the server, which is a best practice.

Close or minimize the Command Prompt and click the IPv4 address assigned by DHCP, IPv6 enabled link next to Ethernet.

Right-click on the Ethernet adapter and select Properties.

In the Ethernet Properties select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and select Properties.

On the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties pop-up window select Use the following IP address. Use the values noted from running ipconfig previously. We will also set the DNS servers to be used. In my case I will use the following:

IP address: 10.0.0.38

Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

Default Gateway: 10.0.0.1

Preferred DNS server: 127.0.0.1

Alternate DNS server: 8.8.8.8

Once these values have been set click OK, followed by clicking Close on the Ethernet Properties window. Close the Network Connections window.

Click the Windows Start icon and then select the Power icon, followed by Restart.

To start installing Active Directory Services, we first must add it. Click Add roles and features from the Dashboard, followed by clicking Next.

Leave Role based or feature based installation selected and click Next.

Leave the defaults selected on the next screen and click Next.

On the next screen select Active Directory Domain Services and click Next. Click Add Features when the pop-up window opens.

Click Next.

On the Confirm installation selections screen click Install to install Active Directory Services.

Once installation has completed. Click Close.

Click the yellow triangle next to the flag on the menu bar and select Promote this server to a domain controller.

Select Add a new forest. Give a name to your domain, I will use mydomain.local. Unless you have a registered domain, it is advisable to end your domain name with .local to avoid any type of conflict. Click Next.

On the next screen keep the defaults and enter a strong password for the Directory Services Restore Mode. Click Next.

Click Next on the next screen.

On the next screen keep the default NetBIOS name and click Next.

On the next screen click Next.

Click Next on the Review Options screen.

On the Prerequisites Check screen if there are no errors indicated click Install. The warning regarding the delegation for the DNS server is ok.

A message will pop up stating you will be signed out and the server will restart. This is normal. Once the server has restarted log in, select Active Directory Users and Computers from the Tools menu.

Expand mydomain.local or whatever name you provided for your domain. Right-click on Users and select New User.

Enter the information for a user account to be created in Active Directory. Click Next.

Enter a strong password for the user account. You can elect to have the user change their password after they've successfully logged in or choose any of the other options available. Click Next.

Click Finish to create the user's account.

Host 2 (Windows 10 Pro Installation):

Confirm that your selected region is correct, if not select it and click Yes.

Confirm that your keyboard layout is correct and click Yes.

Click Skip to adding a second keyboard layout.

On the How would you like to set up? Select Set up for an organization. Click Next.

Click Domain join instead.

Enter a name for a user. I will use User1. This is the user I created in Active Directory. Click Next.

Create a strong password and click Next.

Confirm the password for the user and click Next.

Select security questions and answers on the next screen and then click Next.

Choose your privacy settings and click Accept.

Click Skip to customize your experience unless you want to change any of these settings.

Click Not now to skip setting up Cortana.

Let's now set DNS for the Ethernet interface. In the search bar type control panel and select it.

Click Network and Internet.

Click Network and Sharing Center.

Click Ethernet.

Click Properties.

Select Internet Protocol Version (TCP/IPv4) and click Properties.

In the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties window we will only set the DNS. We will set it to the IP address of the Windows Server 2025 server and provide Google's DNS IP address as the alternate, so that we can reach the Domain Controller and get to the Internet. Below are the IP addresses for my Windows Server 2025 server and Google's DNS IP address.

Preferred DNS server: 10.0.0.38

Alternative DNS server: 8.8.8.8

Click Ok then Close to close the properties windows.

Click Close to close the Ethernet Status window.

Close the Network and Sharing Center and enter cmd in the search bar and click Command Prompt.

We will now ping the Domain Controller to make sure we can communicate with it as well as google to make sure we can get out to the Internet. Finally let's make sure that the name of our Active Directory domain can be resolved.

Let's now join our Windows 10 Pro machine to the Active Directory domain.

Type domain into the search bar and click Access work or school.

Click Connect.

Select Join this device to a local Active Directory domain.

Enter mydomain.local for the Domain name or whatever you named your domain and click Next.

Enter the username and password for the admin user on the Windows 2025 server in Active Directory. Click OK.

Enter the name of the user that was previously created in Active Directory and set the Account Type to Standard User and click Next.

You will be prompted to Restart the computer now or later. Once the computer has been restarted the computer will be joined to the Active Directory domain.

Login to the domain as the user that was previously created in Active Directory. You will be prompted to change the password if you didn't change any of the account settings for the user in Active Directory when the account was created.

Enter the password that was set for the user when the account was created in Active Directory and now enter a new password for the user.

Once the desktop has completed its setup, which occurs when logging into the domain for the first time, we will install the VirtualBox Guest Additions to improve the experience.

Select Insert Guest Additions CD image from the VM's Devices menu.

Click on Windows Explorer on the Task Bar.

Click on This PC to expand it. Click on CD Drive (D:). Right-click on VBoxWindowsAdditions and select Run as administrator to install the Guest Additions.

Enter the credentials for the administrator account on the Windows Server 2025 server. Click Yes.

Click Next through the installer to accept the default options.

Click Install.

Click Finish to reboot the VM.

You should have a better experience, as the Guest Additions include an accelerated graphics driver that improves window resizing and responsiveness. The more ram you can supply to your VMs the better the performance will be.

As a final step make sure to check for and install all updates for both Windows Server 2025 and Windows 10 Pro.

You now have an Active Directory setup that you can use to get more familiar with Active Directory and its concepts. You can also practice and get familiar with InfoSec concepts such as Pen Testing, Threat Detection, Incident Response, and Vulnerability Management. Additional VMs can be setup for example, you can create a VM, install a SIEM, and include it in your network to get experience with monitoring various alerts and mitigating risks.

Resetting Root Password in Ubuntu

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 14:32:00 +0000

There are a number of references for how to reset your root password in Ubuntu, if you've forgotten it that reference booting into recovery mode. I've found a simple way to do it that only requires a couple of steps.

Enter the following command: sudo passwd root
You will be prompted to enter your new password twice
Enter su root and your new password

DONE! Very short and to the point!

Stock Purchase Calculator

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Fri, 11 May 2012 02:52:00 +0000

Today I released Stock Purchase Calculator v1.0.0 to Google Play. The application provides a way to quickly get an idea of how many stocks you can buy with a certain amount of money and how much you could make if you sold the stock at a certain price?

The application provides the total purchase and total sell amounts for a given number of stock shares minus broker commissions. In addition both net profit and loss, net change, and the stock symbol for a given company are reported.

The following is a direct link to the application on Google Play:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lancespence.spc&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5sYW5jZXNwZW5jZS5zcGMiXQ..

Displaying User Associated Membership Image

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 22:42:00 +0000

I recently came across a post in the ASP.NET forums where a user had a need to allow users of his web site to upload an image during account creation. The user’s image was then redisplayed upon successful login into the website. I decided to put a little sample together detailing how this could be accomplished.

Database Setup

Let’s start first with the database setup. I’m using SQL Server 2008, but SQL Server 2008 Express, SQL Server 2005, and SQL Server 2005 Express should work equally as well.
Using SQL Server Management Studio I created a new database called TestDB. I then added the ASP.NET Membership, Roles, and Profile providers to the database with the following command:
aspnet_regsql –S . –E –A mrp –d TestDB
You can enter aspnet_regsql /? for a list of available options.
Once I had all of the appropriate tables, stored procedures, views, etc. added to my database I created a table called aspnet_UserImages. This table contains the following columns:

UserId
ImageId
Image

I created a foreign key linking the UserId column from the aspnet_Users table to the UserId of the aspnet_UserImages table. In addition the Delete Rule within the aspnet_UserImages table was set to Cascade. Doing this allows the user’s image associated with the UserId to be deleted from the aspnet_UserImages table when the user’s account is removed via the Web Site Administration Tool or via SQL Server Management Studio directly.

I’ve included two stored procedures along with the sample that insert and retrieve the uploaded image associated with the user’s account. I’ve also included a script that will create the aspnet_UserImages table along with the foreign key constraint mentioned earlier.
New User Registration
I’ve converted the CreateUserWizard to a template and added a FileUpload control to it, so that users can upload an image of their choice at the time they create their account.
The code is pretty straightforward a few things to note though. First I save the user’s entered username into a session variable and later retrieve it when the user logs in, so that it can be used in retrieving the image that is associated with the user’s account. Another thing I’ve done is incorporated code to resize the uploaded image, so that you can control to a degree the amount of space the images will consume within your database. Finally I check the file extension, so that only the types defined are accepted, if a non-supported file type is uploaded the user account is not created.

protected void NewUserWizard_CreatingUser(object sender, LoginCancelEventArgs e)
{
Label invalidFile = (Label)CreateUserWizardStep1.ContentTemplateContainer.FindControl("ErrorLabel");
FileUpload userImage = (FileUpload)CreateUserWizardStep1.ContentTemplateContainer.FindControl("UserImageFileUpload");

// Check whether we have a file to save or not.
if (userImage.HasFile)
{
// Check that the file type is supported.
string fileExtension = Path.GetExtension(userImage.PostedFile.FileName);

switch (fileExtension)
{
case ".gif":
break;
case ".jpg":
case ".jpeg":
break;
case ".png":
break;
default:
invalidFile.Visible = true;
invalidFile.Text = "Supported file types are GIF, JPG, PNG.";
e.Cancel = true;
break;
}
}
}

User login

I have a default.aspx page that the user is redirected to upon successful authentication. This page contains the code that gets the user’s Guid and then passes it to a Generic Handler via querystring, which in turn gets the image associated with the user’s account and displays it.

private void DisplayUserImage()
{
if (Session["UserName"] != null)
{
MembershipUser user = Membership.GetUser(Session["UserName"].ToString());
Guid userGuid = (Guid)user.ProviderUserKey;
UserImage.ImageUrl = "Image.ashx?userGuid=" + userGuid;
}
}

The handler that retrieves the user’s image associated with their account.

public void ProcessRequest (HttpContext context)
{
string userGuid = string.Empty;

// Check that the querystring value is not null.
if (context.Request.QueryString["userGuid"] != null)
{
userGuid = context.Request.QueryString["userGuid"];
}
else
{
throw new ArgumentException("Missing user id.");
}

context.Response.ContentType = "image/jpeg";

// Pass the user's guid in, so that we can get the image associated with the logged in user.
Stream strm = GetImage(userGuid);
byte[] buffer = new byte[2048];
int byteSeq = strm.Read(buffer, 0, 2048);

while (byteSeq > 0)
{
context.Response.OutputStream.Write(buffer, 0, byteSeq);
byteSeq = strm.Read(buffer, 0, 2048);
}
}

public Stream GetImage(string id)
{
using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["MyConnection"].ConnectionString))
{
try
{
using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("GetUserImage", conn))
{
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@UserId", id);

conn.Open();
byte[] img = (byte[])cmd.ExecuteScalar();

try
{
return new MemoryStream(img);
}
catch
{
return null;
}
finally
{
conn.Close();
}
}
}
catch (SqlException sqlEx)
{
throw sqlEx;
}
}
}

public bool IsReusable 
{
get
{
return false;
}
}

MembershipWithImage

Useful .Net Tools

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 02:39:00 +0000

I thought I’d share a small list of free and open source .Net tools that you might find useful during your development efforts. I’ll continue to add to this list as I learn of new tools.
Profiling Tools
Slimetune - http://code.google.com/p/slimtune/
xteprofiler - http://www.xteprofiler.com/
Prof-It for C# - http://dotnet.jku.at/projects/Prof-It/Default.aspx

Decompilers
JustDecompile - http://www.telerik.com/products/decompiling.aspx
dotPeek EAP - http://www.jetbrains.com/decompiler/
ILSpy - http://wiki.sharpdevelop.net/ilspy.ashx

Load Testing Tools
loadUI - http://www.eviware.com/loadUI/whats-new-in-loadui-15.html
openSTA - http://opensta.org/
storm - http://storm.codeplex.com/

Functional Testing Tools
soapUI - http://www.eviware.com/soapUI/what-is-soapui.html
WebAii Testing Framework - http://www.telerik.com/automated-testing-tools/webaii-framework-features.aspx

Pre-populating the Login Control’s Username and Password

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Sun, 23 May 2010 14:22:00 +0000

We’ve all visited websites that provide a test or demo site and allow you to login for the purpose of testing features out using specific user accounts with assigned roles. If you have a website or web application that needs to provide this type of functionality, I’m going to show you how you can save the user a few keystrokes by filling in the Username and Password for them, so that all they have to do is click the Login button.

What I have done is created three accounts: Admin, User, and Guest along with a Default.aspx page which resides under the respective folder. The folder structure is as follows for these accounts:

Admin/Default.aspx

User/Default.aspx

Guest/Default.aspx

I’ve created a login page (Login.aspx) and dropped a Login Control on it. The Login Control has been converted to a template and I’ve added a label and dropdown list to it. The dropdown list contains the user accounts that will be selected for logging in.

Within the Load event of the Login Control I get a reference to the dropdown list and password textbox controls, so that they can be used in selecting the proper user and populating the password textbox. I add an attribute to the password textbox, which sets the password, so that the user does not have to type it in. Something to be mindful of is that the password is viewable in plain text if you view the pages source. Because these accounts are being used to save the user a few of keystrokes for a test or demo site login this isn’t much of an issue.

DropDownList userLogin = (DropDownList)DemoLogin.FindControl("UserDropDownList");
TextBox passwd = (TextBox)DemoLogin.FindControl("Password");
switch (userLogin.SelectedValue)
{
   case "Admin":
       DemoLogin.UserName = userLogin.SelectedValue;
       passwd.Attributes.Add("value", "Adm!n123");
       break;
   case "User":
       DemoLogin.UserName = userLogin.SelectedValue;
       passwd.Attributes.Add("value", "U$er123");
       break;
   case "Guest":
       DemoLogin.UserName = userLogin.SelectedValue;
       passwd.Attributes.Add("value", "Gue$t123");
       break;
   default:
       DemoLogin.UserName = string.Empty;
       passwd.Attributes.Add("value", "");
       break;
}

The only other thing needed is within the Login Control’s LoggedIn event to check the role of the user and then redirect them to the appropriate Default.aspx page.

if (Roles.IsUserInRole(DemoLogin.UserName, "Admin"))
{
   Response.Redirect("~/Admin/Default.aspx");
}
else if (Roles.IsUserInRole(DemoLogin.UserName, "User"))
{
   Response.Redirect("~/User/Default.aspx");
}
else if (Roles.IsUserInRole(DemoLogin.UserName, "Guest"))
{
   Response.Redirect("~/Guest/Default.aspx");
}
else
{
   Response.Redirect("~/Login.aspx");
}

While this is pretty trivial, it does save a few keystrokes by allowing the user to just select the user account they wish to login as and then all they have to do is click the login button.

PopulateLoginSample.zip

Display a list of locked users

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Fri, 07 May 2010 02:48:00 +0000

I’ve created a simple example that both shows how you can display to the user the number of failed login attempts and disable their login after the specified max number of attempts you define. I’ve also created a simplified admin screen that displays all users that currently are locked out and allows you to select and unlock them after logging in as a user with the admin role.
This example uses a Master Page and within the code-behind is where you keep track of the number of failed login attempts. I’ve set the maxInvalidPasswordAttempts = 3 within the web.config as this is where the hard limit is defined.

<add name="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider" connectionStringName="MyAspNetDB" applicationName="/" 

passwordFormat="Hashed"

passwordAttemptWindow="30"

minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="1"

minRequiredPasswordLength="7"

maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="3" 

type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a"/>

Back in the Master Page’s code-behind I’ve defined a member variable called failedLoginCount that will contain the number of failed logins. In addition I’ve added a Page_Init that stores the failedLoginCount in ViewState. I choose to use ViewState because this is a very small amount of information that will be stored, so it won’t inflate the ViewState tremendously.

public int failedLoginCount;


protected void Page_Init(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

ViewState.Add("FailedLoginCount", failedLoginCount + 1);

}


protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

failedLoginCount = (int) ViewState["FailedLoginCount"];

}

Now within the Login Control’s LoggedIn event the role the user is a member of is checked and if they are in the Administrator role they are redirected to the Admin page; otherwise they are assumed to be a standard user and directed to the Standard users page.

protected void Login1_LoggedIn(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

Login logIn = (Login) LoginView1.FindControl("Login1");

if (Roles.IsUserInRole(logIn.UserName, "Administrators"))

{

Response.Redirect("~/Admin/Admin.aspx");

}

else

{

Response.Redirect("~/Standard/Standard.aspx");

}

}

It is within the Login Control’s LoginError event that failedLoginCount is checked to see if it equals the maxInvalidPasswordAttempts value that is defined within the web.config file. I get a reference to the Login control that is contained within a LoginView Control and then set the FailureText letting the user know that their account has been disabled and they need to contact the administrator once their failedLoginCount equals 3. This is followed by locking the user’s account, more formally setting IsApproved to false, which indicates that the user cannot be authenticated. If the failedLoginCount is not equal to 3 the failedLoginCount gets incremented and added to the ViewState key defined as well as the current count is displayed to the user.

protected void Login1_LoginError(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

string emailLink = "<a href=mailto:admin@somesite.com>";

emailLink += "Site Administrator";

emailLink += "</a>";


Login logIn = (Login)LoginView1.FindControl("Login1");


if (failedLoginCount == 3)

{

logIn.FailureText = "Your account has been disabled. Please contact the site administrator: " + emailLink;


MembershipUser user = Membership.GetUser(logIn.UserName);

user.IsApproved = false;

}

else

{

logIn.FailureText = "Failed login attempt [" + ViewState["FailedLoginCount"].ToString() + "]";

failedLoginCount++;

ViewState.Add("FailedLoginCount", failedLoginCount);

}

}

Now for the Admin portion I simply have a GridView Control that displays the list of users on the site whose accounts are currently locked out. A simple SQL query provides the list of users. I’ve coded this in-line, but in a real application I highly suggest that you put this into a Stored Procedure.

SELECT UserName, Email, LastLockoutDate, IsLockedOut 

FROM vw_aspnet_MembershipUsers 

WHERE IsLockedOut = 1

The unlocking of users takes place within the RowUpdating event of the GridView by calling UnlockUser() on the reference to MembershipUser. The following is the code for the admin section.

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

if (!Page.IsPostBack)

{

LockedUsersGridView.DataSource = GetLockedUsers();

LockedUsersGridView.DataBind();

}

}


private DataTable GetLockedUsers()

{

DataTable dt = new DataTable();

SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter();


using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["MyAspNetDB"].ConnectionString))

{

using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("SELECT UserName, Email, LastLockoutDate, IsLockedOut FROM vw_aspnet_MembershipUsers WHERE IsLockedOut = 1", conn))

{

cmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text;


try

{

conn.Open();

da.SelectCommand = cmd;

da.Fill(dt);


if (dt.Rows == null || dt.Rows.Count < 1)

{

LockedUsersLabel.Text = string.Empty;

return dt;

}


cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();

}

catch (SqlException sqlEx)

{

LockedUsersGridView.Rows[0].Cells[0].Text = sqlEx.ToString();

}

}

}


return dt;

}


protected void LockedUsersGridView_SelectedIndexChanging(object sender, GridViewSelectEventArgs e)

{

LockedUsersGridView.PageIndex = e.NewSelectedIndex;

LockedUsersGridView.DataSource = GetLockedUsers();

LockedUsersGridView.DataBind();

}


protected void LockedUsersGridView_RowEditing(object sender, GridViewEditEventArgs e)

{

LockedUsersGridView.EditIndex = e.NewEditIndex;

LockedUsersGridView.DataSource = GetLockedUsers();

LockedUsersGridView.DataBind();

}


protected void LockedUsersGridView_RowCancelingEdit(object sender, GridViewCancelEditEventArgs e)

{

LockedUsersGridView.EditIndex = -1;

LockedUsersGridView.DataSource = GetLockedUsers();

LockedUsersGridView.DataBind();

}


protected void LockedUsersGridView_RowUpdating(object sender, GridViewUpdateEventArgs e)

{

TextBox userName = LockedUsersGridView.Rows[e.RowIndex].FindControl("UserNameTextBox") as TextBox;


if (userName != null)

{

MembershipUser user = Membership.GetUser(userName.Text.Trim());

user.UnlockUser();

Membership.UpdateUser(user);

}


LockedUsersGridView.EditIndex = -1;

LockedUsersGridView.DataSource = GetLockedUsers();

LockedUsersGridView.DataBind();

}


protected void LockedUsersGridView_PageIndexChanging(object sender, GridViewPageEventArgs e)

{

LockedUsersGridView.PageIndex = e.NewPageIndex;

LockedUsersGridView.DataSource = GetLockedUsers();

LockedUsersGridView.DataBind();

}

Hopefully you’ll find this useful as a basis for creating a more advanced admin screen for user management.

DisplayLockedUsers.zip

Optimized Cable Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:11:00 +0000

I just thought I’d take a moment and share the experience I had with Optimized Cable Company. I was searching for a set of HDMI-DVI and DVI-DVI cables for two monitors and decided to try the products of Optimized Cable Company. I found their selection of cables to be of high quality and their prices to be competitive. What prompted me; however, to write about this was the excellent customer service they provided. So often we are quick to post and talk about our bad experiences and rarely do we share the positive experiences we have with companies.

The positive experience I had with Optimized Cable Company is one of those great experiences you rarely hear about. When I ordered my set of cables, which were delivered very quickly (I might add), I realized I had not paid close enough attention to the connectors. One of my monitors had an HDMI connector, while the other had DVI; however, both of my video cards had DVI connectors. When I realized my ordering error I promptly called them and explained my mistake and they said to just send them back the incorrect cable and they would promptly send me the correct cable, which was slightly more expensive than the one I originally ordered. They did an even exchange and I received the cable I intended to purchase at no additional cost to me or hassle.

Based on the quality of the cables I received, prompt delivery, and the ease of doing business with them. I will direct my future needs for cables to them and highly recommend them for all of your cable needs.

Thank you Optimized Cable Company!

Optimized Cable Company

http://www.optimization-world.com/

Linux and USB Hard Drive “fsck died with exit status 8”

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:04:00 +0000

I decided to setup an old AMD 1.7 GHz system I had as a BackupPC server to back up a few machines I have and experienced an issue with a USB 2.0 Hard Drive. I thought I’d share my situation in case someone else runs into a similar situation.

My BackupPC server has 2 internal IDE hard drives and an external USB 2.0 750 GB SATA hard drive, which is used to store the backups. After I had completed the installation of Ubuntu 9.04 Server edition and rebooted I received the following error during the file system checks.

Failed to open the device 'UUID=2b1da3c5-d190-47c9-8f39-760100368e2c' : No Such file or directory

fsck died with exit status 8

...fail!

* File system check failed.

A log is being saved in /var/log/fsck/checkfs if that location is writable.

Please repair the file system manually.

* A maintenance shell will now be started.

CONTROL-D will terminate this shell and resume system boot.

After researching the error and trying various suggestions I realized that all I needed to do was exclude the external USB hard drive from having it’s file system checked during startup. I solved the issue by editing /etc/fstab and setting the entry for the USB hard drive’s PASS column to a 0, which essentially tells fsck to not check the file system.

Before:

# /var was on /dev/sdc1 during installation

UUID=2b1da3c5-d190-47c9-8f39-760100368e2c /var reiserfs relatime 0 2

After:

# /var was on /dev/sdc1 during installation

UUID=2b1da3c5-d190-47c9-8f39-760100368e2c /var reiserfs relatime 0 0

After this little modification to /etc/fstab, I rebooted and once the system came up, I manually mounted the device for my USB 2.0 hard drive as such and all was good.

sudo mount /dev/sdc1

By the way BackupPC setup and configuration can be a little challenging, so I recommend aside from the official documentation the following link, which I’ve found to still be relevant for both Debian and Ubuntu.

http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_backuppc

New Microsoft Charting Control

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:21:00 +0000

Microsoft recently released a much needed charting control for both Winforms and ASP.NET. Looking at the WebSamples Project the controls look very impressive and offer many charting types both in 2D and 3D such as Bar and Column Charts, Line Charts, Area Charts, Pie and Doughnut Charts, Point Charts, Range Charts, Circular Charts, Accumulation Charts, Data Distribution Charts, Price Change Financial Charts, Advanced Financial Charts, and Combinational Charts.

Congratulations to Microsoft for finally offering a nice set of free charting controls. You can read more and get the download links from ScottGu's Blog link below.

http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/11/24/new-asp-net-charting-control-lt-asp-chart-runat-quot-server-quot-gt.aspx

Embedding an image within an email

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:18:00 +0000

Not to long ago I remember seeing a post on the ASP.NET forums where someone had a need to embed an image within an email that they generated from their web application. I decided to put together a short sample that does just that. Using the code I'll provide you can embed an image within your email, so that when you open the email up with in Yahoo's Webmail client or any other Web based email client the image will be displayed in-line as opposed to being sent as an attachment. This code is just a sample and can be further improved, but it should get you started. I have verified that the image is embedded in-line when sent to GMail, Yahoo, and Hotmail.

Here is the Sample's HTML.

NOTE: Make sure to add the attribute ValidateRequest="false" to the Page Directive. This is so that you can embeded HTML into your email message. Also please beware that this will also allow for XSS via Javascript.

    <div>
<div>
<asp:Label ID="ToLabel" runat="server" Style="padding-left: 1.8em" Text="To:" />
<asp:TextBox ID="ToTextBox" runat="server" />
</div>
<div>
<asp:Label ID="FromLabel" runat="server" Style="padding-left: .8em" Text="From:" />
<asp:TextBox ID="FromTextBox" runat="server" />
</div>
<div>
<asp:Label ID="SubjectLabel" runat="server" Text="Subject:" />
<asp:TextBox ID="SubjectTextBox" runat="server" />
</div>
<div>
<asp:Label ID="BodyLabel" runat="server" Style="padding-left: .8em" Text="Body:" />
<asp:TextBox ID="BodyTextBox" runat="server" TextMode="MultiLine" Width="250px" Height="100px" />
<asp:Image ID="SelectedImage" runat="server" style="left: 200px; top: 200px;"
Height="100px" Width="100px" />
</div>
<div>
<br />
<asp:Button ID="SendButton" runat="server" Style="margin-left: 10em"
Text="Send" onclick="SendButton_Click" />
</div>
<div>
<br />
<div style="width: 550px; overflow: scroll; height: 100px;">
<asp:DataList ID="ImageDataList" runat="server" BackColor="White"
BorderColor="#CCCCCC" BorderStyle="None" BorderWidth="1px" CellPadding="4"
ForeColor="Black" GridLines="Horizontal" HorizontalAlign="Center"
RepeatDirection="Horizontal" Height="90px" Width="500px"
onitemcommand="ImageDataList_ItemCommand">
<FooterStyle BackColor="#CCCC99" ForeColor="Black" />
<SelectedItemStyle BackColor="#CC3333" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />
<HeaderStyle BackColor="#333333" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />
<ItemTemplate>
<asp:ImageButton ID="ProfileImageButton" runat="server"
ImageUrl='<%# Eval("FullName") %>' />
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:DataList>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br />
<asp:Label ID="StatusLabel" runat="server" />

Here's the Sample's Code make sure to include the following namespaces.

using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Mail;

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!Page.IsPostBack)
{
StatusLabel.Visible = false;
DirectoryInfo dir = new DirectoryInfo(Server.MapPath("~/Images"));
int total = dir.GetFiles("*.jpg").Length;
if (total > 3)
{
ImageDataList.RepeatColumns = total + 1;
}

ImageDataList.DataSource = dir.GetFiles("*.jpg");
ImageDataList.DataBind();
}
}

protected void SendButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
NetworkCredential loginInfo = new NetworkCredential("username@gmail.com", "yourGMailPassword");
MailMessage msg = new MailMessage();
msg.To.Add(new MailAddress(Server.HtmlEncode(ToTextBox.Text)));
msg.From = new MailAddress(Server.HtmlEncode(FromTextBox.Text));
msg.Subject = Server.HtmlEncode(SubjectTextBox.Text);
msg.Body = BodyTextBox.Text;

AlternateView body = AlternateView.CreateAlternateViewFromString(msg.Subject + "<br /><br />" + msg.Body + "<br /><br /><img src=cid:profile />", null, "text/html");
try
{
LinkedResource profileImg = new LinkedResource(SelectedImage.ImageUrl);
profileImg.ContentId = "profile";
body.LinkedResources.Add(profileImg);
}
catch (ArgumentException argEx)
{
StatusLabel.Visible = true;
StatusLabel.Style.Add("color", "#CC0033");
StatusLabel.Text = "An image was not selected.";
return;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
StatusLabel.Visible = true;
StatusLabel.Style.Add("color", "#CC0033");
StatusLabel.Text = "The following error occurred: " + "<br /><br />" + ex.Message;
}

msg.AlternateViews.Add(body);
msg.IsBodyHtml = true;

SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient("smtp.gmail.com", 587);
client.EnableSsl = true;
client.UseDefaultCredentials = false;
client.Credentials = loginInfo;

try
{
client.Send(msg);
}
catch (SmtpException smtpEx)
{
StatusLabel.Visible = true;
StatusLabel.Style.Add("color", "#CC0033");
StatusLabel.Text = "The following error occurred: " + "<br /><br />" + smtpEx.Message;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
StatusLabel.Visible = true;
StatusLabel.Style.Add("color", "#CC0033");
StatusLabel.Text = "The following error occurred: " + "<br /><br />" + ex.Message;
}

StatusLabel.Visible = true;
StatusLabel.Style.Add("color", "#009966");
StatusLabel.Text = "Email sent successfully.";
}

protected void ImageDataList_ItemCommand(object source, DataListCommandEventArgs e)
{
SelectedImage.ImageUrl = ((ImageButton)e.CommandSource).ImageUrl;
}

Recovering lost AJAX Control Toolkit Controls in VS2008

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 19:10:00 +0000

When using Visual Studio 2008 and you have the AJAX Control Toolkit installed you might have experienced that your AJAX Controls disappear from the Toolbox. If you right-click on a Tab in the Toolbox and select Show All, you'll see that the controls are still there; however, they are all greyed out. This happens when using Visual Studio 2008 and targeting .Net Framework 2.0 in both Web Application Projects and Web Sites. You can resolve this by doing the following for Web Applications and Web Sites.

Web Solutions:

1. Click Project.
2. Select ProjectName Properties.
3. Under Target Framework, change it from .NET Framework 2.0 to .NET Framework 3.5.
4. Click Save.

Web Sites:

1. Click Website.
2. Select Start Options.
3. Select Build and under Target Framework, change it from .NET Framework 2.0 to .NET Framework 3.5.
4. Click OK.

ASP.NET FileUpload Control Issue

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:14:00 +0000

I had an issue with file paths when using the ASP.NET 2.0 FileUpload Control that was giving me a fit for a little while. After some searching on Google, I gained a little more insight and discovered that if you use PostedFile that IE saves the file's complete path, which includes the path location of where the file was uploaded from in addition to the location you are saving files to on the server. If you use PostedFile with Firefox, Opera, or Safari, the file's complete path is trimmed to just the filename and the location you are saving files to on the server.

Instead of using for example:

string path = "/uploads/ + FileUpload1.PostedFile;

Use this:

string path = "/uploads/ + FileUpload1.Filename;

This will assign only the file's filename to the variable path, so if you are saving the paths of files in a database and upload files using IE the path will not also contain the location of the file on the client's machine as well as the location you are saving your files to on the server.

I had never used the FileUpload Control before until recently, so hopefully this will help anyone out using it for the first time.

Sending an Activation Email with ASP.NET 2.0 Expanded

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 01:58:00 +0000

I had a request to show an example that would build on my original "Sending an Activation Email with ASP.NET 2.0" to provide a user with a link to log them in. What follows shows how you can place a link on the final Account Details page that when clicked will take the user to a Login page with their username already pre-filled for them.

Activate.aspx

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true"  CodeFile="Activate.aspx.cs" Inherits="Activate" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head runat="server">
<title>Activation Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<br />
<asp:Table ID="Table1" runat="server" CellPadding="1" CellSpacing="0" GridLines="Both" BorderStyle="Groove" BackColor="BlanchedAlmond" Caption="Account Information">
<asp:TableRow>
<asp:TableCell HorizontalAlign="Right" runat="server">Username:</asp:TableCell>
<asp:TableCell HorizontalAlign="Left" runat="server"><asp:Label ID="ActiviationNameLabel" runat="server" Style="position: static"></asp:Label></asp:TableCell>
</asp:TableRow>
<asp:TableRow>
<asp:TableCell HorizontalAlign="Right" runat="server">Account Created:</asp:TableCell>
<asp:TableCell HorizontalAlign="Left" runat="server"><asp:Label ID="ActivationCreationDateLabel" runat="server" Style="position: static"></asp:Label></asp:TableCell>
</asp:TableRow>
<asp:TableRow>
<asp:TableCell HorizontalAlign="Right" runat="server">Account Status:</asp:TableCell>
<asp:TableCell HorizontalAlign="Left" runat="server"><asp:Label ID="ActivationStatusLabel" runat="server" style="position: static"></asp:Label></asp:TableCell>
</asp:TableRow>
<asp:TableRow>
<asp:TableCell HorizontalAlign="Right" runat="server">
<br />
<asp:HyperLink ID="HyperLink1" runat="server" NavigateUrl="~/Login.aspx">Goto Login Page</asp:HyperLink>
</asp:TableCell>
</asp:TableRow>
</asp:Table>
</form>
</body>
</html>

Activate.aspx.cs

This updated code stores the username in a Session variable, so that it can be used to populate the Username field of the Login Control.

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!Page.IsPostBack)
{
string userID = Request.QueryString["ID"];
Guid gd = new Guid(userID);
MembershipUser user = Membership.GetUser(gd);
user.IsApproved = true;
Roles.AddUserToRole(user.ToString(), "Power Users");
Membership.UpdateUser(user);
ActiviationNameLabel.Text = user.UserName;
ActivationCreationDateLabel.Text = user.CreationDate.ToShortDateString();
if (user.IsApproved)
{
ActivationStatusLabel.Text = "Active";
}
else
{
ActivationStatusLabel.Text = "Pending";
}

Session["UserName"] = user.UserName;
}
}

Login.aspx

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Login.aspx.cs" Inherits="Login" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head runat="server">
<title>Login Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<div style="text-align: center">
<asp:Login ID="Login1" runat="server" BackColor="#F7F6F3" BorderColor="#E6E2D8" BorderPadding="4" BorderStyle="Solid" BorderWidth="1px" Font-Names="Verdana" Font-Size="0.8em" ForeColor="#333333" DestinationPageUrl="~/Main.aspx">
<TextBoxStyle Font-Size="0.8em" />
<LoginButtonStyle BackColor="#FFFBFF" BorderColor="#CCCCCC" BorderStyle="Solid" BorderWidth="1px"
Font-Names="Verdana" Font-Size="0.8em" ForeColor="#284775" />
<InstructionTextStyle Font-Italic="True" ForeColor="Black" />
<TitleTextStyle BackColor="#5D7B9D" Font-Bold="True" Font-Size="0.9em" ForeColor="White" />
</asp:Login>
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>

Login.aspx.cs

This simple Login page retrieves the user's Username from the session and assigns it to the Login controls UserName TextBox. It first checks to see if the session variable is null or empty if it is then the Login Control's UserName TextBox is left blank.

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!Page.IsPostBack)
{
if (!(String.IsNullOrEmpty((string)Session["UserName"])))
{
string username = Session["UserName"].ToString();
Login1.UserName = username;
}
else
{
Login1.UserName = string.Empty;
}
}
}

Main.aspx
Upon successful login the user is redirected to a simple welcome page called Main.aspx.

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Main.aspx.cs" Inherits="Main" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head runat="server">
<title>Main Website Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<div>
<asp:LoginView ID="LoginView1" runat="server">
<LoggedInTemplate>
Welcome
<asp:LoginName ID="LoginName1" runat="server" />
!<br />
<br />
<asp:LoginStatus ID="LoginStatus1" runat="server" LogoutAction="RedirectToLoginPage"
LogoutPageUrl="~/Login.aspx" />
</LoggedInTemplate>
</asp:LoginView>
&nbsp;</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>

Sending an Activation Email with ASP.NET 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:37:00 +0000

Many sites as you've seen send out an email that contains a link to activate your account after you've filled out all requested information. This is primarily seen on Web Forum sites and other sites that require a membership. I'm going to show a quick example of how to do this using ASP.NET and sending the email via Gmail or some other SMTP server such as your hosting company's smtp server. It is assumed that you have already configured your ASPNETDB with Membership and Roles. This is just a basic email activation you can expand upon it and add other features you might want.

Start by dropping a standard CreateUserWizard Control on a page. I've dropped the control on a page called Default.aspx. You can format it later with any of the available Format templates Microsoft has provided or customize it using CSS if you like.

Below is the code-behind for the Default.aspx page. This code essentially grabs the Username, Password, and Email address that was entered through the CreateUserWizard Control puts the information into a StringBuilder object along with a link to the Activate.aspx page. The UserID is a Guid value that is appended to the Activate URL as a query string.

Using a conditional you can select to send the emails via your Hosting Companies SMTP server, a local SMTP server, or a Gmail account.

#define Gmail
#define SMTP

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Mail;
using System.Text;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;

public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{

protected void CreateUserWizard1_CreatedUser(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
StringBuilder bodyMsg = new StringBuilder();
TextBox username = (TextBox)CreateUserWizard1.CreateUserStep.ContentTemplateContainer.FindControl("UserName");
TextBox password = (TextBox)CreateUserWizard1.CreateUserStep.ContentTemplateContainer.FindControl("Password");
TextBox email = (TextBox)CreateUserWizard1.CreateUserStep.ContentTemplateContainer.FindControl("Email");

CreateUserWizard cuw = (CreateUserWizard)sender;
MembershipUser user = Membership.GetUser(cuw.UserName);
Guid userID = (Guid)user.ProviderUserKey;

bodyMsg.Append("Thank you for creating your account.\n\nPlease follow this link to activate: ");
bodyMsg.Append("<br /><br /><a href=http://yourserver/SendEmailConfirmationSample/Activate.aspx?ID=" + userID.ToString() + ">Activate Your Account</a>");
bodyMsg.Append("<br />");
bodyMsg.Append("<br />");
bodyMsg.AppendFormat("UserName: {0}", username.Text);
bodyMsg.Append("<br />");
bodyMsg.AppendFormat("Password: {0}", password.Text);
bodyMsg.Append("<br />");
bodyMsg.AppendFormat("Registered Email: {0}", email.Text);

#if SMTP
// Sending email via local or web hosts smtp server.
NetworkCredential loginInfo = new NetworkCredential("yourusername", "yourpassword");
MailMessage msg = new MailMessage();
msg.From = new MailAddress("youremailaddress");
msg.To.Add(new MailAddress(CreateUserWizard1.Email));
msg.Subject = "Account Information";
msg.Body = bodyMsg.ToString();
msg.IsBodyHtml = true;

SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient("smtpserver", 25);
client.Credentials = loginInfo;
client.Send(msg);
#endif

#if Gmail
// Sending email via Gmail.
NetworkCredential loginInfo = new NetworkCredential("yourUsername@gmail.com", "yourGmailPassword");
MailMessage msg = new MailMessage();
msg.From = new MailAddress("yourUsername@gmail.com");
msg.To.Add(new MailAddress(CreateUserWizard1.Email));
msg.Subject = "Account Information";
msg.Body = bodyMsg.ToString();
msg.IsBodyHtml = true;

SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient("smtp.gmail.com", 587);
client.EnableSsl = true;
client.UseDefaultCredentials = false;
client.Credentials = loginInfo;
client.Send(msg);
#endif

Response.Redirect("~/thankyoupage.aspx");
}
}

Signing Up For A New Account.

The Confirmation email that is sent.

Here you can see the email that I received in my Gmail Inbox.

Here are the contents of the email that was sent.

The Activate.aspx page's code behind gets the ID that was passed in the query string and uses it to link the user to the account that was created, as well as adds the user to the Power Users Role in ASPNETDB. The page then displays the Username, Date the account was created, and the Status of the user's account.

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Activate.aspx.cs" Inherits="Activate" %>



<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">



<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >

<head runat="server">

<title>Activation Page</title>

</head>

<body>

<form id="form1" runat="server">

<br />

<asp:Table ID="Table1" runat="server" CellPadding="1" CellSpacing="0" GridLines="Both" BorderStyle="Groove" BackColor="BlanchedAlmond" Caption="Account Information">

<asp:TableRow runat="server">

<asp:TableCell HorizontalAlign="Right" runat="server">Username:</asp:TableCell>

<asp:TableCell HorizontalAlign="Left" runat="server"><asp:Label ID="ActiviationNameLabel" runat="server" Style="position: static"></asp:Label></asp:TableCell>

</asp:TableRow>

<asp:TableRow runat="server">

<asp:TableCell HorizontalAlign="Right" runat="server">Account Created:</asp:TableCell>

<asp:TableCell HorizontalAlign="Left" runat="server"><asp:Label ID="ActivationCreationDateLabel" runat="server" Style="position: static"></asp:Label></asp:TableCell>

</asp:TableRow>

<asp:TableRow runat="server">

<asp:TableCell HorizontalAlign="Right" runat="server">Account Status:</asp:TableCell>

<asp:TableCell HorizontalAlign="Left" runat="server"><asp:Label ID="ActivationStatusLabel" runat="server" style="position: static"></asp:Label></asp:TableCell>

</asp:TableRow>

</asp:Table>

</form>

</body>

</html>

using System;

using System.Data;

using System.Configuration;

using System.Collections;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.Security;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;

using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;



public partial class Activate : System.Web.UI.Page

{

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

if (!Page.IsPostBack)

{

string userID = Request.QueryString["ID"];

Guid gd = new Guid(userID);

MembershipUser user = Membership.GetUser(gd);

user.IsApproved = true;

Roles.AddUserToRole(user.ToString(), "Power Users");

Membership.UpdateUser(user);



ActiviationNameLabel.Text = user.UserName;

ActivationCreationDateLabel.Text = user.CreationDate.ToShortDateString();

if (user.IsApproved)

{

ActivationStatusLabel.Text = "Active";

}

else

{

ActivationStatusLabel.Text = "Pending";

}

}

}

}

Here are the final Account Details from the Activate.aspx screen.

How-To Auto Collapse Microsoft AJAX Collapsible Panel

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 02:45:00 +0000

Here's a quick tip on how to automatically collapse a Collapsible Panel through code. This is useful in a situation such as having a Collapsible Panel that contains a few controls used in data entry and once the user has entered the data and clicked on a button to submit their data you want the panel to collapse automatically.

You would think that just performing a (control name) CollapsiblePanelExtender1.collapse = True would collapse the panel; however, this will not work by itself. This is due to the fact that there is a short delay between the first rendering of the page and the running of the Javascript to modify it. To have the panel collapse you will need to add one more line, so your code will look like this.

CollapsiblePanelExtender1.Collapsed = True;
CollapsiblePanelExtender1.ClientState = "true";

You can also prevent the PopControlExtender from briefly showing controls it contains by placing the controls within a Panel Control and setting the Panel Control's visibility style to hidden. This will stop the annoying flickering that happens when the page is first rendered.

Cheat Sheets

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 21:05:00 +0000

A co-worker gave me this very useful cheat-sheet resource.

Enjoy!

http://www.ilovejackdaniels.com/cheat-sheets/

Maintaining Control Values Between Pages

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 20:23:00 +0000

Here is a quick example of how you can maintain the values of controls when switching back and forth between different web pages by making use of Session variables. You can use ASP.NET Session variables to pass the values from one web page to another, but if you need to return to the previous page via a button for example the web page will loose the previous values it had. You can maintain those values just as if you had clicked your browser's back button by using Session variables.

Below is a short example that demonstrates this.

Default.aspx

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true"  CodeFile="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="_Default" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head runat="server">
<title>Untitled Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<div>
 <asp:Label ID="FNLabel" runat="server" Text="First Name"></asp:Label>
 &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;
 <asp:Label ID="LNLabel" runat="server" Text="Last Name"></asp:Label><br />
 <asp:TextBox ID="FNTextBox" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
 <asp:TextBox ID="LNTextBox" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>&nbsp;<br />
 <br />
 <asp:DropDownList ID="IncomeDropDownList" runat="server" AutoPostBack="True">
     <asp:ListItem>10K -30K</asp:ListItem>
     <asp:ListItem>31K - 50K</asp:ListItem>
     <asp:ListItem>51K - 70K</asp:ListItem>
     <asp:ListItem>71K - 90K</asp:ListItem>
     <asp:ListItem>91K+</asp:ListItem>
 </asp:DropDownList><br />
 <br />
 <asp:RadioButtonList ID="ResidenceRadioButtonList" runat="server" AutoPostBack="True">
     <asp:ListItem>Apartment</asp:ListItem>
     <asp:ListItem>Mobile Home</asp:ListItem>
     <asp:ListItem>Townhouse</asp:ListItem>
     <asp:ListItem>Single Family House</asp:ListItem>
 </asp:RadioButtonList><br />
 <asp:Calendar ID="AcctStartCalendar" runat="server" BackColor="White" BorderColor="#999999" CellPadding="4" DayNameFormat="Shortest" Font-Names="Verdana" Font-Size="8pt" ForeColor="Black" Height="180px" Width="200px">
     <SelectedDayStyle BackColor="Green" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />
     <TodayDayStyle BackColor="#CCCCCC" ForeColor="Black" />
     <SelectorStyle BackColor="#CCCCCC" />
     <WeekendDayStyle BackColor="#FFFFCC" />
     <OtherMonthDayStyle ForeColor="#808080" />
     <NextPrevStyle VerticalAlign="Bottom" />
     <DayHeaderStyle BackColor="#CCCCCC" Font-Bold="True" Font-Size="7pt" />
     <TitleStyle BackColor="#999999" BorderColor="Black" Font-Bold="True" />
 </asp:Calendar>
 <br />
 <asp:Button ID="SubmitButton"
     runat="server" OnClick="Button1_Click" Text="Submit" /></div>
 <br />
</form>
</body>
</html>

Default.aspx.cs

using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;

public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
  LoadExistingValues();
}
protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
  Session["value1"] = FNTextBox.Text;
  Session["value2"] = LNTextBox.Text;
  Session["value3"] = IncomeDropDownList.SelectedValue;
  Session["value4"] = ResidenceRadioButtonList.SelectedValue;
  Session["value5"] = AcctStartCalendar.SelectedDate;

  Response.Redirect("~/Page2.aspx");
}

private void LoadExistingValues()
{
  if (!Page.IsPostBack)
  {
      if (Session["value1"] != null)
      {
          FNTextBox.Text = Session["value1"].ToString();
          LNTextBox.Text = Session["value2"].ToString();
          IncomeDropDownList.SelectedValue = Session["value3"].ToString();
          ResidenceRadioButtonList.SelectedValue = Session["value4"].ToString();

          AcctStartCalendar.SelectedDate = Convert.ToDateTime((Session["value5"]));
      }
  }
}
}

Page2.aspx

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Page2.aspx.cs" Inherits="Page2" %>

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head runat="server">
<title>Untitled Page</title>
</head>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<div>
   <asp:Label ID="FNLabel" runat="server"></asp:Label>,
   <asp:Label ID="LNLabel" runat="server"></asp:Label><br />
   <br />
   <asp:Label ID="IncomeLabel" runat="server"></asp:Label>
   <br />
   <asp:Label ID="ResidenceLabel" runat="server"></asp:Label><br />
   <br />
   <asp:Calendar ID="AcctSelectionCalendar" runat="server"></asp:Calendar>
   <br />
   <br />
   &nbsp;
   <asp:Button ID="PreButton" runat="server" OnClick="Button1_Click" Text="Return to previous page" /></div>
</form>
</body>
</html>

Page2.aspx.cs

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Collections;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;

public partial class Page2 : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    FNLabel.Text = (Session["value1"]).ToString();
    LNLabel.Text = (Session["value2"]).ToString();
    IncomeLabel.Text = (Session["value3"]).ToString();
    ResidenceLabel.Text = (Session["value4"]).ToString();
    AcctSelectionCalendar.SelectedDate = Convert.ToDateTime((Session["value5"]));

}
protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    Response.Redirect("~/Default.aspx", true);
}
}

This little example should show you how easy it is to maintain the values of controls when navigating back and forth between pages. I have not experimented extensively with other controls, so further tweaking may be required.

Running ASP.NET 2.0 in Integrated Mode on IIS 7

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 13:39:00 +0000

I just wanted to share this blog link that discusses the changes you'll need to be aware of when you running your ASP.NET 2.0 applications in Integrated Mode on IIS 7 on Vista or Windows Server 2008.

http://mvolo.com/blogs/serverside/archive/2007/12/08/IIS-7.0-Breaking-Changes-ASP.NET-2.0-applications-Integrated-mode.aspx

.NET Daily Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:20:00 +0000

I stumbled across this website and thought I'd share it with everyone. Visit this site frequently for some little known tips you might not have ever known about regarding .NET

http://dotnettipoftheday.org/tips/

Resetting Visual Studio 2005 to Original Settings

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 21:17:00 +0000

NOTE: Issuing the following command will clear any custom and environmental settings.

You may come across a situation where your Visual Studio 2005 Environment is non-functional in one manner or another. This recently happened to me when I was trying to reset the environment to the General Environment settings using the Import and Export Settings Wizard. During the process I encountered an error which left the IDE in a state in which it would try to Initialize the Toolbox and after a few seconds close Visual Studio. Thus I was unable to access any of the ToolBox controls.

After a quick search I came across a command that you run from the Visual Studio Command Prompt to reset the IDE to its original install settings. If after exhausting all possible repair options you need to run this command please backup any custom and/or environmental settings you do not want to lose prior to its use.

Then perform the following:

1. Click Start and then select All Programs.
2. Select Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.
3. Select Visual Studio Tools and then Visual Studio 2005 Command Prompt.
4. Enter devenv /resetuserdata.

You will not receive any confirmation of reset completion, so you can use task manager to monitor the devenv process for its completion.

Symbols, Accents, Punctuation, and Foreign Characters

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 02:16:00 +0000

Have you ever needed to type special symbols or characters such as the Registered Trademark Symbol, Copyright Symbol, or perhaps an Umlaut or the Math Division Symbol in a document or web page? Trying to remember the codes that represent them or having to reference some web page that list them can be really impractical. There is a much easier way to access these symbols.

Many people are unaware of a small program that comes with Windows and Linux Distributions that provides them for you along with their associated codes. This same type of program I'm sure comes with OSX as well as other Operating Systems; however, I am unable to verify this due to my lack of access to the numerous number of Operating Systems available.

In Windows 2000/XP/Vista

1. Click the Start Button.
2. Select All Programs.
3. Select Accessories.
4. Select System Tools.
5. Select Character Map.

In Ubuntu Linux (Other Linux Distros may have similar steps)

1. Click Applications from the Task Bar.
2. Select Accessories.
3. Select Character Map.

Whenever you need to make use of a special symbol or foreign character just to mention a couple types; this is a very simple way that is readily available to you. No need to search for the codes for such symbols via the Internet or consult some other reference material.

Accessing Master Page Controls via Content Pages

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 12:48:00 +0000

There are a couple of ways to access the controls of Master Pages in ASP.NET 2.0 from within your content pages. You can do this in a non-strongly typed manner or a strongly type manner. I will provide a sample below that demonstrates each approach.

Non-Strongly Typed

Lets say your Master Page contains a Label that displays the current Date. Within your content page use the FindControl method to locate the control in the Master Page whose property you want to access. Note you must perform an explicit cast.

Label lbl = (Label)Master.FindControl("DateLabel");
lbl.Text = DateTime.Today.ToLongDateString();

Strongly Typed

In the code-behind of your Master Page create a property that accesses the control you want to manipulate.

public string GetCurrentDate
{
get { return DateLabel.Text; }
set { DateLabel.Text = value; }
}

In the HTML source of your content page add the following beneath the Page <%@ Page %><%@ Page %><%@ Page %>directive. Add MasterType before TypeName.

< typename="Site">

Replace "Site" with the class name of your Master Page. You could also re-write the above using VirtualPath in place of TypeName. NOTE: Blogger will not display the percent signs that are between the <> as well it also Strips out the MasterType Directive.

To do this just replace the MasterPage.master with the name of your Master Page.

Finally in the code-behind of your content page you can set the DateLabel to the current date on your Master Page as below:

this.Master.GetCurrentDate = DateTime.Today.ToLongDateString();

Free Web Services and SQL Connection Strings

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:55:00 +0000

I wanted to share the following resources I came across hopefully if you ever need them they'll be helpful to you.

Web Services

http://www.webservicex.net/WCF/default.aspx
http://www.xmethods.net/
http://www.webservicelist.com/

SQL Connection Strings

http://www.connectionstrings.com/
http://www.carlprothman.net/Default.aspx?tabid=81

More Useful C# Code Snippets

noreply@blogger.com (Lance Spence) — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 16:48:00 +0000

Display Pop-Up Error Messages In An ASP.NET Application

I came across an issue in which someone needed to pop-up a Window to display an error message to users in their ASP.NET application. I did some research and discovered this very handy bit of code that will display a JavaScript Alert MessageBox that you can populate with the error message.

Below is an example I created that purposely causes a DivisonByZero Exception and displays this in a JavaScript Alert MessageBox.

int num1 = 10;
int num2 = 0;
int result;

try
{
result = n1 /n2;
}
catch (DivideByZeroException ex)
{
DisplayErrorMsg(ex);
}


private void DisplayErrorMsg(Exception ex)
{
RegisterStartupScript(Guid.NewGuid().ToString(),
string.Format("<script language='Javascript'>alert('{0}');</script>", ex.Message));
}

Populate The Display Text Of A CollapsiblePanel Control From A File

I had the need to populate the text to be displayed in an ASP.NET AJAX CollapsiblePanel Control via a text file as opposed to just embedding the text between a tag of my Content Panel. I had to display a large amount of text that displayed some Terms and Conditions and there was just to much to put between the tags. Besides it really would make the code ugly having all of that text embedded.

The solution I decided to go with was to create a Web User Control and fill the control with the text to be displayed. Then I went back to the page that I was going to display this text on and dropped the Custom Control inside of my CollapsiblePanel's ContentPanel. I then went into the HTML source of the page and surrounded the ContentPanel with a Div tag and sat the height, overflow, and background color.

<ajaxToolkit:CollapsiblePanelExtender ID="CollapsiblePanelExtender1" runat="server"
TargetControlID="ContentPanel"
ExpandControlID="TitlePanel"
CollapseControlID="TitlePanel"
Collapsed="false"
TextLabelID="Label1"
ExpandedText="(Hide Details...)"
CollapsedText="(Show Details)"
ImageControlID="Image1"
CollapsedImage="images/expand.jpg"
ExpandedImage="images/collapse.jpg"
SuppressPostBack="true">
</ajaxToolkit:CollapsiblePanelExtender>

<asp:Panel ID="TitlePanel" runat="server" Height="30px" Width="545px">
<asp:Image ID="Image1" runat="server" ImageUrl="~/images/expand.jpg"/>
Terms and Conditions
<asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" Text="Label">(Show Details ...)</asp:Label>
</asp:Panel>
<asp:Panel ID="ContentPanel" runat="server" Height="0px" Width="545px">                                
<div style="height:150px;overflow:scroll;background-color:ButtonFace;" >
<uc2:Terms ID="Terms1" runat="server" /></div>
</asp:Panel>