e-Tech Software Tech Tips

iPhone OS 3.1 Features

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:28:00 +0000

Apple yesterday seeded iPhone OS 3.1 and iPhone SDK 3.1 betas to developers for testing, and users have been digging through the new releases to document new features. Among the changes found so far:

- Trimming video clips on the iPhone 3GS now offers the ability to save the edited version as a copy rather than simply overwriting the original file.
- Voice Control over Bluetooth is now available, allowing users to Initiate calls and control music playback via Bluetooth headsets.
- MMS is now enabled by default, but still not supported by AT&T.
- iPhone vibrates when rearranging Home screen icons.
- A "Fraud Protection" toggle is now available in Safari settings.
- iPhone startup and shutdown and app launching times have improved.
- New APIs allow developers of third-party application to access and edit videos.
- OpenGL and Quartz have seen improvements.

Setup Entourage 2008 to connect to Exchange 2007

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:47:00 +0000

A couple of weeks ago we went through the process of migrating off of Small Business Server 2003 to Small Business Server 2008. Part of this migration means moving from Exchange Server 2003 to Excange Server 2007. Entourage 2004/2008 wasn't playing nicely with Exchange 2007. I blame Entourage because it is the client rather than the server. Over the past two weeks I have tried various things before finally resolving the issue today. Initially I thought that Entourage connected to Exchange via IMAP but I soon learned that it actually connects via WebDAV in the same manner that OWA does. In the end I had three different items that I needed to have setup properly.

WebDAV has to be enabled on the IIS site where OWA is running.
Exchange 2007 uses a new method for OWA to connect to the CAS backend server, however it has legacy virtual directories for connecting applications that use the Exchange 2003 methodology. The two folders you need to point your Entourage to are "server.domain.com/exchange" for the mail and "server.domain.com/public" for the public folders.
The final piece that you need is to append the user's email address to the mail server address like this: "server.domain.com/exchange/user@domain.com"

MS has this support article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931350/en-us

You cannot connect to your mailbox on Exchange Server when you use Entourage for Mac

SYMPTOMS

When you use Microsoft Entourage 2004 for Mac, you cannot connect to your mailbox on Microsoft Exchange Server.

CAUSE

This issue can occur when the URL that is used by Entourage 2004 to connect to Exchange Server is in the wrong format.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, manually configure the Exchange Server account properties in Entourage. To do this, follow these steps:

Start Entourage.

On the Tools menu, click Accounts.

If you already have configured an account, click Exchange, click the account that you want, and then click Edit. Go to step 6.

If you have not configured an account, click Exchange, and then click New.

If you do not receive the New Account dialog box, go to step 5.

If you receive the New Account dialog box, click Assist me.

Click Configure account manually.

In the various entry boxes, type suitable values. Alternatively, keep previously entered values.

In the Exchange server box, type the value in one of the following formats, as appropriate for the network that you are using:

•	On the internal network, use the following format: `server01.contoso.com`/exchange/`user@contoso.com`
•	On the external network, use the following format: `mail.contoso.com`/exchange/`user@contoso.com`

Important If the mailbox resides on a computer that is running Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, you must provide the name of the computer that is performing the Client Access Server role.

On the Advanced tab, enter other details as necessary. Alternatively, keep previously entered values. Then, click OK.

Exit and then restart Entourage. This makes sure that Entourage uses the newly entered Exchange Server account settings to connect to the mailbox on the server that is running Exchange Server.

Microsoft Response Point Addition

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:10:00 +0000

Within the last 2 months, we've upgraded our phone system to Microsoft Response point (using the Syspine System). This has been an amazing tool. My friend Austin owns Digital Son, and he is a networking/hosting god! His company is Digital Son, and they have significant VoIP experience, and certainly tried to convince me to try the 'real deal' VoIP phone systems instead of the 'training wheel' (response point) version that I felt more comfortable with.

With that being said, my team can't be happier with Response point. It was a major upgrade to our business, and we've gotten lots of comments from customers on how cool it is.

Here are some commands that I thought I'd share.

8* # = Retrieve parked call (not documented on help screen)
*08# = DND Toggle
Speaker Phone = alternate exit from Menu
Mute = Clears out digits on some setting screens

Suggestion: Default 'Hold Recall' timer appears to be 180 seconds,
but the phone drops the call after 120, so you don't get any
warning. To correct, change 'Hold Recall' under 'Preferences' to 30
or 60 seconds. This can also be done from the web interface.
#*IP(47) Gives phone IP address in the display
#*MENU (6368) Shows phone menu in phone display (Adjust
ringing here and much more)
#=Enter
Call History Key takes you back one level
Lift and replace handset to exit phone menu
UP/DOWN arrows to scroll

872# Code to access external paging amplifier
822# Access to auto attendant
886# Access to Voice Mail

Installing Telnet in Vista

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:43:00 +0000

By default, Vista doesn't install the Telnet client. The client is for text-based communication with remote systems. You can install it by following these steps:

1. Click Start then select Control Panel.

2. Select Programs and Features.

3. Select Turn Windows features on or off.

4. Select the Telnet Client option.

5. Click OK.

6. A dialog box will appear to confirm installation. The telnet command should now be available.

Managing email from two different domains on SBS 2003

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:02:00 +0000

This tip has been around for quite some time, and we use it at several of our customers. I'm posting it here so that some of our newer techs will have a good reference location for it.

For E-mail, the first thing you need to do is make sure your Internet domain's MX records are pointing to your SBS server's IP address, feel free to use backup a MX record, or even dynamic dns (I do!), depending on your own situation. For the first email domain, follow the normal SBS wizards (Primarily CEICW) to configure your first and primary domain that you will want to use.

Adding additional domains to Exchange To do this, we're going to edit the default recipient policy:

From Server Management, expand Advanced Management, First Organization, Recipients and select Recipient Policies
Right-click on the Default Policy and choose Properties
On the E-Mail Address (Policy) tab, click the New button
Select SMTP Address from the list and click OK
Type in the name of the domain in the format @domain.com and choose OK. Leave the check box checked
Check the box next to your new domain in the Default Domain Properties window, and click OK

Now that you've added this into the policy, Exchange will become aware of this domain and start responding to mail from it. This change will take effect the next time Exchange updates its policies, but you can force the change.

Select the Recipient Update Service from the console
Right-click on both policies on the right and choose Update Now

This forces Exchange to update the policies now, so you don't have to wait.

You will now be able to notice all of your users have an 3 email addresses:

user@domain.local - added by SBS for your internal domain. It's suggested you keep this email address for this user as it is used by some SBS tools
user@domain1.com - this is the first domain you added using CEICW
user@domain2.com - this is the second domain you just added

That's as far as I went, since I wanted all my users to receive email from both domains, but what if you don't want this? Micro-manage! To micromanage which users have which email addresses simply:

Change to the Users' snap-in and right-click on a user
On the E-mail Addresses snap-in, uncheck the box at the bottom that says Automatically update e-mail addresses based on receipient policy
Remove any email address you don't want the user to receive email at and add any additional email addresses in your configured domains. Don't forget to keep the domain.local e-mail address!
Set the primary one to be the email address the user will send email as

There you have it, if your domain MX records are configured correctly, the SBS box will receive e-mail for both domains!

You can add any number of domains using this process. Moreover, you can add any number of email addresses to a specific user within a given domain using micromanage tactics.

Microsoft Launches CRM Online

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:50:00 +0000

With the price increase for my target market, the launch of CRM Online (formally called CRM Live) is a great solution. This will allow them to take advantage of the benefits of Microsoft CRM without having to purchase an additional server or enterprise license. Read more about it here...

My new MacBook Pro!

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 02:13:00 +0000

About 2 years ago, I decided that I was going to need to get back into the Macintosh World. I've blogged about it here a few times, and for the most part have had an incredibly easy time living with one foot in the Mac side, and the other on the Windows side. All in all, my previous MacBook Pro (1st Gen, 2.1ghz, 2 GB Ram) held up very well. In fact, it's probably the longest I've ever held on to a machine.

When Apple revved the line in February, I new my time for a replacement was coming. The major irritation for me was the lack of RAM, a relatively small HD (when you consider I run two OS's, 32 GIGs of music, etc).

I was considering just going back to the Windows world, and could have certainly gotten a good deal on some decent Windows laptops, but the fact that I held on to the 1st MacBook Pro for so long led me back to just replacing the MacBook Pro with another MacBook Pro.

This time, I got a 2.6 GHZ Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB Ram (already ordered the 4Gb upgrade for $94 vs Apples' $400 price), a 7200 RPM 200gb drive, Nvidia GeForce 8600m 512 video, etc. The biggest change for me is that I replaced the Glossy Screen I had with the Anti Glare screen. So far, the LED screen is way brighter, and the Anti Glare rocks!!!

So, what about my old baby? Well, my wife just got a great replacement for her 12" MacBook that she's been using for about 2 years.

The machine transfer wizard worked amazingly for BOTH machines. No hiccups (well, except for the fact that my Bootcamp partition didn't come across---not that I'd trust it if it had!)

Outlook 2007 with Vista running RPC Over HTTP

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:27:00 +0000

Recently updated workstations now running Outlook 2007 with Vista Business are giving me a Certificate Error when the user name and password is entered. "There is a problem with the proxy server's security certificate. The security certificate is not form a trusted certifying authority. Outlook is unable to connect to the proxy server (Error Code 8)"

You can install the certificates through Internet Explorer running with Administrator privileges but it’s easier to do it using the Certification Manager application. To start the Certification Manager go to the “Start” menu, type certmgr.msc and press enter.
Once inside the Certification Manager, right click on the “Trusted Root Certification Authorities” node, hover over “All Tasks” and then click on “Import…”

This will start the Certificate Import Wizard. Read through the first screen if you want and then click the next button. On the next screen click Browse, locate the certificate that you saved previously and click the next button again.

The next step will allow you choose the certificate store where you want the certificate saved, and this is the important part. I have tried several work flows to figure out where the certificate ends up if you let Windows automatically choose the store but it is never in the Trusted Root Certification Authorities. So, instead of letting Windows automatically choose this we are going to tell it where to put the certificate. Click the “Place all certificates in the following store” radio button and then click the browse button.

Check “Show physical stores” on the popup form and select “Local Computer” under “Trusted Root Certification Authorities”. Click OK.

Finally click next and then click finish to start the import. If everything worked fine then you will get a “The import was successful.” message. Congratulations, you have successfully imported the root certificate!

Don’t be surprised if you don’t see the new certificate in Certification Manager right away, you have click refresh button the toolbar before the certificate will show up in the list.
Have fun!

Private User Settings when using Connect Computer Wizard

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 20:41:00 +0000

Over the last few years, we have come across several machines that give us a 'users data is private' error message when trying to join them to a SBS domain with the Connect Computer Wizard. In most cases, the Private Settings (navigate to the Users' My Documents folder, Right Click on the folder and choose the Sharing and Security). I find that if I check the box to make it Private, let it make the folder private, and then uncheck the box to clear the privacy setting, the wizard will then run perfectly.

Workflow in CRM 4.0

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:03:00 +0000

I've been rebuilding (I wanted to start from Scratch) on some of the workflow processes that we use to run parts of our business. From a professional services standpoint, this process is a simplified workflow that outlines the four stages of our Managed Services sales process with only a couple of tasks at each stage (I can't give away all my secrets you know, hahahah).

The new workflow manager:

I'm very impressed with the built in functionality. The major feature I like is the ability to create and manage workflows from my Desktop instead of having to remote into the server like I did in version 3...

I'm working on a workflow design tutorial that will take some of the best processes I've seen and outline how to work with them in CRM 4.0. I know these won't be applicable to everyone, but with some tweaking they should be a great start. It just seems like workflow examples are almost non existant, so I'll post mine. If anyone has any ideas on examples that they'd like to see, I'd love to have them!

CRM 4.0 Installed on our SBS Server 2003 r2

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:41:00 +0000

Well, we official have CRM 4.0 running on our SBS 2003 r2 server. I had to investigate an issue with SQL Server 2005 during the installation process. There is a hotfix KB936305 that needed to be installed to get SQL Server fully patched. Once we did that the installation worked great...

The outstanding issue that I have relates to the version of Microsoft CRM 4.0 that is allowed to be installed ON the SBS Server. Apparently, after talking with Microsoft Support reps on the private forums, ONLY the Workgroup edition (which is limited to 5 users) is supported on SBS 2003 r2. In my case, the only 'choice' I had when I installed was based on the product key I typed in. I used the Professional 'trial' key, with no problems, but am curious as to how I 'tell' the installation to install the Workgroup (we will have more than 5 users, so we'll need professional----Just like most of my customers).

We already have 1 member server on the domain running our support server, but I'd hate to have to throw a 2nd member server in the mix for maybe 10-15 users of CRM. I'll keep investigating this.

Fixing the SBS Monitoring and VSS errors (and backup not working)

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 19:30:00 +0000

Earlier today I posted that while my SQL Server 2005 upgrade seemed to work fine, the remaining MSDE 2000 instances (monitoring) were throwing errors in the Application log. I figured out how to fix it....

First of all, Microsoft Knowledgebase Article 920899 can be found here, and it fixed my problems. The first go around I missed the following steps, and once I completed that and rebooted the server, the backups worked, the Monitoring worked, etc.

1. Click Start, click Run, type cliconfg, and then click OK.
2. In the Client Network Utility dialog box, click to turn on the Enable shared memory protocol check box, and then click OK.
3. Restart the computer.

Now, I'm getting errors SQLVDI like this "
SQLVDI: Loc=CVDS::Cleanup. Desc=Release(ClientAliveMutex). ErrorCode=(288)Attempt to release mutex not owned by caller.
. Process=4068. Thread=5400. Client. Instance=. VD=. "

but I saw when researching the other issues that this wasn't a huge deal...It's covered via hotfix in KB934396 which can be found here.

The aftermath of upgrading to SBS 2003 r2

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:51:00 +0000

Ok, everything on the Sharepoint side of moving to SQL Server 2005 went very well, BUT now the SBSmonitoring service won't start, and I'm getting errors relating to Volume shadow copy services. In addition, the WSUS services are having problems connecting to the database. I've posted the event information to the microsoft sbs newsgroup, and hope to hear from them soon. It certainly isn't a huge issue, and the Sharepoint seems to work great on 2005.

I've configured the reporting services, and ended up having to go into IIS and reassign the .Net version to the old 1.x and then back to 2.0. Once I did that, I could browse to servername\Reports and get to the Report Manager. I created a new folder in the Report Manager, so that also indicated it was working. I also verified that Reporting Services were working by browsing to servername\ReportServer and saw the test folder with the SQL Version number:

Now that I have verified that all works, I'm off to work on installing CRM 4.0

Microsoft CRM 4.0 SDK now available

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 15:16:00 +0000

The new SDK for Microsoft CRM 4.0 was released recently and you can find it here. If you do any development work with CRM, the SDK's have been a necessary resource. I'm still in the process of upgraing my SBS 2003 server to CRM 4.0, but just yesterday managed to upgrade it from SBS 2003 sp1 to SBS 2003 r2. It was quite the process upgrading the database from 2000 to 2005, but everything went through without a hitch. The microsoft instructions (found here) were just as good as the ones from smallbizserver.net (you have to have a subscription to use these, but they have screen shots)....

What to do when your customers emails are blocked

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 11:47:00 +0000

http://blogs.technet.com/sbs/archive/2008/01/03/what-to-check-when-exchange-cannot-send-email-to-certain-domains.aspx

This is a neat post that describes why your customers might call you and say 'so and so didn't get my email and I sent 50 test ones!'....

The majority of the time, we find that the email issues appear on the remote/recipients server. In the case of our customers we almost always use a smarthost for outbound mail (we like dyndns.com). By setting up an account with DynDns, we get an additional bonus: A backup mail server that will hold our customers incoming mail in case the server isn't available.

e-Tech Software makes Gold Partner!

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 01:50:00 +0000

Well, we've been at this for quite awhile, and our company finally made Microsoft Gold Partner. We've achieved 4 Competencies, and when one of our customers asked Jay what that meant, the answer was "We get to order new shirts!" Yes, that is true (and new business cards).

All in all though, I'm certain it won't push us to change much of our direction. Small Business Server Implementations, Hassle Free Support, and amazing Microsoft CRM implementations will still be the core of our service offering.

As a business owner I've been toying with the idea of purchasing some other support companies so that we can grow our business. The more I learn to focus on the business, the less 'techie' I become. More on this in an upcoming post.

What to do when it all goes wrong

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 16:16:00 +0000

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been doing battle with a 2003 Small Business Server that is out to get me. It's true... Have you ever had one of those customers that just _nothing_ goes right? Well, it's their server, and it's been this way with them on everything we do since the very beginning.

In this case, I've had to join a new laptop to their domain for a new employee. The laptop just had a fit joining through the connect computer wizard. I did all of the things that one is supposed to do: I verified that the wireless NIC was disabled, etc. Eventually, by brute force, we got it joined to the domain. Something still wasn't right.

The laptop connected to exchange with no problem, but whenever this user wanted to access a shared drive, shared printer, etc., a dialog box would open up asking her to authenticate. Nothing would work to login and authenticate. Not her username, not the administrator account information, not domain\username or domain\administrator, etc.

Soooo, it looked like a group policy problem to me, and I did a net share and noticed that the sysvol wasn't there. Not good.

I started focusing my attention on the server. The more I dug into it, the more I noticed conflicting error messages, conflicting symptoms, etc. The Sysvol would show up if I typed Net Share in the command prompt, but if I went to the run menu (from the server) and typed \\servername\sysvol, I got an error. Hmm....

I ran the SBS Best Practice Analyzer and fixed the normal stuff that showed up on that (chimney stack, etc).

Here's what I finally did to solve the problem...

1) Sacrificed a small chicken...

then, I got really serious.

- Disabled RSS as per KB 936594

- Checked for SMB signing policies in gpmc.msc

- Made the changes in Default Domain Controller Policy:

- Microsoft network client: Digitally sign communications (always) DISABLED

- Microsoft network client: Digitally sign communications (if server agrees) ENABLED

- Microsoft network server: Digitally sign communications (always) DISABLED

- Microsoft network server: Digitally sign communications (if client agrees) ENABLED

- Domain member: Digitally encrypt or sign secure channel data (always) DISABLED

- Domain member: Digitally encrypt secure channel data (when it is possible) ENABLED

- Domain member: Digitally sign secure channel data (when it is possible) ENABLED

- Domain member: Require strong (Windows 2000 or later) session key DISABLED

- Did gpupdate /force

- Client machines were able to access shares

I'm not sure what patch, etc changed some of these settings, but after doing this, I could see the sysvol locally. When I went back to the laptop, I rebooted, and had no problems with this user's machine accessing server resources.

I've never had this happen before, but am thankful it is finally resolved.

Setting Up SBS to Sync w/ External Time Source

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 13:28:00 +0000

On many of our SBS Servers we managed, we are getting various 29 errors in the log associated with time sync... It's important that we should configure the SBS 2003 server to send out time sync requests in Client Mode. To set the PDC to request it's time in client mode, please open a command prompt and run the following 4 commands:

w32tm /config /manualpeerlist:time.nist.gov,0x8 /syncfromflags:MANUAL
net stop w32time
net start w32time
w32tm /resync

Here we should use the "0x8" flag which sets the SBS server in Client Mode. These are the valid settings:

0x01 use special poll interval SpecialInterval
0x02 UseAsFallbackOnly
0x04 send request as SymmatricActive mode
0x08 send request as Client mode

To make sure that the clients are time syncing with the server, issue these 2 commands from the command prompt once:

net time /setsntp:servername

w32tm /resync (for XP)

w32tm -once -v (for W2k)

How do you teach people how to leverage technology for their businesses?

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 01:23:00 +0000

Ok, I've been sitting here with a three page document about blogging that I wrote to give to my customers, and I realized that none of my customers will actually read it.

Don't get me wrong, I have some very smart customers that have some of the most successful businesses in Gwinnett County, but they really aren't that interested in anything technology related. Now that I think about it, that's probably why they hired me...

The problem is that I have so many ideas that I want to get across to them about how this can help their businesses that I can't help overwhelming them. I've always been good about explaining very technical things to non technical people, but how in the world do you translate the very things that will help them catalyst their businesses easily without sounding condescending? I'm sure I'll figure it out with the help of my friends and my business coach, but any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

We moved to our new office

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 11:44:00 +0000

I've always wanted e-Tech to grow to the point that I had my own office and team. Over the past few years, we've been a 'virtual team', and all worked out of our houses. We held our meetings at our CEO Centers virtual office, where they answered the phone, etc. It sounded impressive, but for me it just never felt 'real'. Well, after 1 month of being in our new office space, I can't explain how excited I am! It's nice that we were all able to have a team meeting in our own conference room, etc. Very nice!!!!

Testing elusive network problems

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 19:29:00 +0000

In the past, I’ve had quite a few customers that have ‘mysterious’ network issues in their environment. In most cases, they are elusive and difficult to track down. Seriously, it could be anything from old wiring to a faulty switch to a bad network card, etc. The first step is to create a batch file to run at the command prompt to isolate the issue. I tend to run this from each of the machines. Once I’ve executed this, I’ll break out our Test-Um network Kit (http://www.test-um.com/validator/ ) and get serious about isolating the problem.

I've copied a sample run from my network below. Here's
the rundown. Feel free to substitute your addresses in
and run the pings on your network.

Step 1 pings 127.0.0.1 to make sure your network stack
is working. If this is hosed it's most likely a
Windows problem

Step 2 pings the LAN interface of my local machine.
This should show that the adaptor is up and working.
It may be disconnected or have other problems, tho.

Step 3 pings another machine on the local network.
Tests the hub/switch, isolates for possible server
problem.

Step 4 tests the local/backend interface of the
server. If step 3 is ok then look for a bad switch
port, cable to server, other network gear in the way,
or NIC on server.

Step 5 tests local naming.

Step 6 tests the front-end/Internet connection of your
SBS server or other router. This isolates the
connection to your dsl/cable/t1/ oc3 internet
connection.

Step 7 tests internet by IP address, isolating for DNS
problems. 4.2.2.1 is verizon/genuity/ level3/whoever
they are now's public DNS servers.

Step 8 tests for named connection to internet by
pinging google.

Here's output from a similar script on my network:

STEP 1: localhost/network stack
C:\Windows\system32 >ping 127.0.0.1

Pinging 127.0.0.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 127.0.0.1: bytes=32 time<1ms ttl="128" bytes="32" ttl="128" bytes="32" ttl="128" bytes="32" ttl="128" sent =" 4," received =" 4," lost =" 0" minimum =" 0ms," maximum =" 0ms," average =" 0ms">ping 192.168.9.118

Pinging 192.168.9.118 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.9.118: bytes=32 time<1ms ttl="128" bytes="32" ttl="128" bytes="32" ttl="128" bytes="32" ttl="128" sent =" 4," received =" 4," lost =" 0" minimum =" 0ms," maximum =" 0ms," average =" 0ms">ping 192.168.9.50

Pinging 192.168.9.50 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.9.50: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.9.50: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.9.50: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.9.50: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.9.50:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0%
loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 2ms, Maximum = 2ms, Average = 2ms

STEP 4: SBS be
C:\Windows\system32 >ping 192.168.9.101

Pinging 192.168.9.101 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.9.101: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.9.101: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.9.101: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.9.101: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 192.168.9.101:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0%
loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 2ms, Maximum = 3ms, Average = 2ms

STEP 5: SBS by name
C:\Windows\system32 >ping lilbro

Pinging lilbro.CharlandGrap hics.local [192.168.9.101]
with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 192.168.9.101: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.9.101: bytes=32 time=63ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.9.101: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=128
Reply from 192.168.9.101: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 192.168.9.101:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0%
loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 63ms, Average = 16ms

C:\Windows\system32 >

STEP 6: SBS fe
C:\Windows\system32 >ping 24.177.54.186

Pinging 24.177.54.186 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 24.177.54.186: bytes=32 time=15ms TTL=128
Reply from 24.177.54.186: bytes=32 time=36ms TTL=128
Reply from 24.177.54.186: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=128
Reply from 24.177.54.186: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=128

Ping statistics for 24.177.54.186:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0%
loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 2ms, Maximum = 36ms, Average = 13ms

C:\Windows\system32 >

STEP 7: outside by IP
C:\Windows\system32 >ping 4.2.2.1

Pinging 4.2.2.1 with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 4.2.2.1: bytes=32 time=27ms TTL=248
Reply from 4.2.2.1: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=248
Reply from 4.2.2.1: bytes=32 time=16ms TTL=248
Reply from 4.2.2.1: bytes=32 time=17ms TTL=248

Ping statistics for 4.2.2.1:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0%
loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 16ms, Maximum = 27ms, Average = 19ms

STEP 8: Outside by name
C:\Windows\system32 >ping news.google. com

Pinging news.l.google. com [64.233.179. 104] with 32
bytes of data:

Reply from 64.233.179.104: bytes=32 time=73ms TTL=239
Reply from 64.233.179.104: bytes=32 time=94ms TTL=239
Reply from 64.233.179.104: bytes=32 time=115ms TTL=239
Reply from 64.233.179.104: bytes=32 time=136ms TTL=239

Ping statistics for 64.233.179.104:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0%
loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 73ms, Maximum = 136ms, Average = 104ms

C:\Windows\system32 >

Importing the SSL Cert into the Mac Certificate Store

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 13:18:00 +0000

Put an intro here, but the steps for Ken (in the meantime) are:

After you export the OWA certificate and copy the certificate file to the Mac OS X computer, you can add the certificate as a trusted certificate using eithe rhte UNIX interface on the Mac or a third party utility, such as the freeware program CerttoolGUI 0.1. This utility is available at http://macupdate.com (just search for it).

Follow these steps to add the certificate using the CerttoolGUI 0.1:

1) Rename the certificate file to have a .der extension instead of .cer, and then copy the file to the root of the Macintosh HD.
2) Start the CerttoolGUI.
3) Click Add Certificate. The certificate appears in the CerttoolGUI certificate list.
4) Select the certificate, and then click Import Certificates. The certificate state appears as added.
5. Close the CertttoolGUI. Safari will no longer warn about the certificate.

Shared Calendar Entries in Outlook Web Access (OWA)

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 13:46:00 +0000

I know that when your remote, sometimes the OWA tool doesn’t do all the stuff that Outlook does. I have been asked this before, and it’s a neat tip that I thought I’d share....

If you need to look at Someone elses’ shared calendar, just type this into your browser (or bookmark it)...

daily calendar view:
https://servername/exchange/displayname/calendar/?cmd=contents&view=daily

weekly calendar view:
https://servername/exchange/displayname/calendar/?cmd=contents&view=weekly

monthly calendar view:
https://servername/exchange/displayname/calendar/?cmd=contents&view=monthly

Specific date:
https://servername/exchange/displayname/calendar/?cmd=contents&view=daily&d=3&m=5&y=2002

I've used this in the past when offsite to see if I needed to schedule time with one of my team for a customer or prospect...

Windows Firewall interferes with Remote Web Workplace (RWW)

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 11:50:00 +0000

I'm soooooo tired of Windows Firewall. Perhaps I don't understand it well enough, but it just seems to consistantly interfere with things my customers are trying to accomplish. I always have to turn it off, and SBS has a built in policy that grey's it out if the customer is removed from the domain (laptops, etc). Here's what I need to do (I copied this explanation)

The new Windows Firewall Control Panel icon gives you access to configuring on an individual machine. In an enterprise setting, however, not only would it be a major pain to have to set each individual machine's firewall settings, but the system administrators probably need to control exactly which settings are available and used within their network. You can completely manage the new Windows Firewall using Group Policy, making the task of the system administrator much easier.

Updating Group Policy Editor

In order to manage the Group Policy objects for Windows Firewall, you may need to update the version of the Group Policy Editor you are using. If you attempt to edit the settings for Windows Firewall on a computer running Windows 2000, Windows Server 2003, or Windows XP SP1 or prior versions, you may get an error message:
The following entry in the [strings] section is too long and has been truncated.

To update the Group Policy Editor, see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article 842933.

Additionally, if you are running in a Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 environment, you need to obtain the Windows Small Business Server 2003 Update for Windows XP SP2 from the Microsoft download site.

Because of the way Group Policy Objects (GPO) are distributed in a domain environment, once you open an existing GPO from an administrative computer running Windows XP SP2, the domain GPO will be upgraded to include the new .adm. This will cause problems with existing versions of gpedit.msc that haven't been updated, so you will either need to update these, as described in 842933, or only use a Windows XP SP2 computer to manage Group Policy.

Installing the Group Policy Administrative Template

To install and edit the Group Policy Administrative Template for Windows Firewall, follow these steps:

1. Log on to a computer that is a member of the domain and has Windows XP SP2 installed, with an account that is a member of the Domain Admins, Enterprise Admins or Group Policy Creator Owners security groups.

2. Click Start >Run and type mmc to open a new MMC console.

3. On the File menu, select Add/Remove Snap-in.

4. Click Add and select Group Policy Object Editor from the list.

5. In the Select Group Policy Object dialog box, click Browse.

6. Select the Default Domain Policy, as shown here, and click your way back to the main MMC console.

See full-sized image.

7. In the console tree, navigate to Computer Configuration, Administrative Templates, Network, Network Connections and then Windows Firewall, as shown:

See full-sized image.

8. Highlight the policy you want to edit. The default choices are "Domain Profile" or "Standard Profile." The Standard Profile is used when a domain-managed computer is not physically connected to the domain, such as a laptop taken home.

9. Edit the policies for that profile. Note: You should edit both sets of policies to have the desired settings. By default, both policies are the same initially.

Configuring Deployment Settings

By default, the Group Policy settings for the Windows Firewall are "Not Configured" for all objects. This allows the Windows Firewall to use its default settings, which are quite restrictive.

The following table describes the policies that are available.

Policy

Configuration

Behavior

Windows Firewall: Allow authenticated IPSec bypass

Enabled

IPSec traffic is not inspected by the Firewall.

Windows Firewall: Protect all network connections

Not Configured

Local administrators can enable or disable the Windows Firewall on any network connections.

Enabled

Windows Firewall is enabled on all network connections, and a local administrator cannot disable it.

Disabled

Windows Firewall is turned off on all network connections, and local administrators cannot enable it.

Windows Firewall: Do not allow exceptions

Not Configured

Local administrators can control whether the No Exceptions mode is used.

Enabled

No exceptions are allowed. You should enable the Windows Firewall: Protect all network connections setting as well, or local administrators could bypass this setting.

Disabled

Local administrators cannot enable the No exceptions mode.

Windows Firewall: Define program exceptions

Not Configured

Local administrators can configure exceptions. (Overridden by the Windows Firewall: Allow local program exceptions setting.)

Enabled

A list of exceptions is entered in the Group Policy Editor, and these are enabled. Any locally configured exceptions are ignored.

Disabled

No exceptions are configured, and locally configured exceptions are ignored.

Windows Firewall: Allow local program exceptions

Not Configured

Local administrators can add program exceptions.

Enabled

Local administrators can add program exceptions.

Disabled

Local administrators cannot add program exceptions.

Windows Firewall: Allow remote administration exception

Not Configured

Remote administration is not allowed.

Enabled

Unsolicited incoming traffic for remote administration is allowed. Specific details are as configured and cannot be overridden by a local administrator.

Disabled

Remote administration is not allowed. Port 135 is blocked and port 445 is not opened.

Windows Firewall: Allow file and print sharing exception

Not Configured

Local administrators can enable the pre-defined File and Printer Sharing exception. This pre-defined exception opens up ports 137 and 138 for UDP traffic, and ports 139 and 445 for TCP traffic.

Enabled

Ports 137 and 138 are opened for UDP traffic, and ports 139 and 445 are opened for TCP traffic. ICMP Echo messages are enabled.

Disabled

Local administrators cannot enable the pre-defined File and Printer Sharing exception.

Windows Firewall: Allow ICMP exceptions

Not Configured

Local administrators can configure ICMP exceptions.

Enabled

The specified incoming ICMP traffic is allowed.

Disabled

No unsolicited incoming ICMP traffic is allowed, and no local ICMP exceptions are allowed.

Windows Firewall: Allow Remote Desktop exception

Not Configured

Remote desktop connections are disabled, but local administrators can enable the pre-configured Remote Desktop exception.

Enabled

Remote desktop connections are allowed and TCP port 3389 is enabled.

Disabled

Remote desktop connections are disabled, and local administrators cannot enable the pre-configured Remote Desktop exception.

Windows Firewall: Allow UPnP framework exception

Not Configured

The UPnP ports are not opened, but local administrators can enable the pre-configured UPnP Framework exception.

Enabled

Ports UDP 1900 and TCP 2869 are opened.

Disabled

The UPnP ports are not opened, and local administrators cannot enable the pre-configured UPnP Framework exception.

Windows Firewall: Prohibit notifications

Not Configured

Notification messages are displayed to the logged-on user. Local administrators can override the setting

Enabled

Notification messages are not displayed.

Disabled

Notification messages are displayed to the logged-on user. Local administrators cannot override the setting.

Windows Firewall: Allow logging

Not Configured

Logging is not enabled, but can be enabled and configured by a local administrator.

Enabled

Logging is enabled, and the settings for name, location and maximum size of the log file are entered in the Group Policy Editor.

Disabled

Logging is not enabled, and cannot be enabled by a local administrator.

Windows Firewall: Prohibit unicast response to multicast or broadcast requests

Not Configured

The incoming unicast response is accepted if received within 3 seconds. The setting can be overridden by a local administrator.

Enabled

The incoming unicast response is dropped. This cannot be overridden by a local administrator.

Disabled

The incoming unicast response is accepted if received within 3 seconds. This cannot be overridden by a local administrator.

Windows Firewall: Define port exceptions

Not Configured

No port exceptions are configured, but local administrators can configure exceptions.

Enabled

The specified port exceptions are configured, and locally configured exceptions are ignored. For example, to configure all group policy controlled Windows XP SP2 systems to act as Web servers to the local subnet only, you could define a port exception for port 80, as shown here:

Disabled

No excepted ports are configured. Local configuration of exceptions is controlled by the setting of the Windows Firewall: Allow local port exceptions policy.

Windows Firewall: Allow local port exceptions

Not Configured

Local administrators cannot add port exceptions unless the Windows Firewall: Define port exceptions setting is set to Not Configured.

Enabled

Local administrators can add port exceptions.

Disabled

Local administrators cannot add port exceptions.

As you can see, you can control all the settings of the Windows Firewall using Group Policy:

* Where appropriate, you can leave the settings "Not Configured" to allow local administrators to manage their settings as needed using the Control Panel.

* Where this could cause conflicts with other domain applications or policies, you can explicitly enable or disable them, and even configure specific port and program exceptions as part of Group Policy. This allows the domain administrator to enable remote administration from any local subnet machine, or specific machines, while completely disabling all file and print sharing on machines running the Windows Firewall.

* Where an internal application requires specific settings, you can enable them as part of Group Policy so that they are enforced throughout the domain.

Utilizing Entourage with the SBS Server 2003 Exchange Server

noreply@blogger.com (James Sanford) — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 01:06:00 +0000

Ok, I thought for sure I had posted these settings some time ago, but must be losing my mind. I'm pretty sure it's related to the 4 year old.

1. Open the Accounts Window (Tools, Accounts) in Entourage
2. Select the Exchange tab and click new
3. In the basic user information field, click the Configure Account Manually button.
4. In the Account Settings tab, fill in the Account Name, Account ID, Password, Exchange Server, Name, and Email Address fields with the appropriate information.
5. Click on the Mail tab and enter the name of the SBS Server in the SMTP Server field.
6. Click on the Directory tab and enter the name of the SBS Server in the LDAP server field.
7. Click on the Advanced tab and enter servername/public in the Free/Busy Server field, where [Servername] is the name of the SBS Server. (this isn't really going to work, but oh well).
8. Click OK to close the Accounts Window
9. I had to restart the Entourage application

All the information should be downloaded at this point from the Exchange Server. I also have Parallels running, and the windows vm has outlook connecting to the Exchange server as well. This allows me to get to the Microsoft CRM Apps we use.

Have you setup a VPN to your server. Let me see if I can't post an entry about that as well. Again, my brain thought I had posted it until I looked and couldn't find it. It's either the kids or the wine, I don't know which....