Category Archives: Guide

Guide to…. quick info that you could use for emailing to people!

HP Proliant Microserver (Gen8) | Windows Server 2012 R2 Storage Drivers

Leave a Reply

My configuration of the HP Microserver G1810T uses all 4 x HDD disk bays (2 x RAID1) with 1 x HDD (2.5″) attached to the secondary SATA connector on the motherboard.
This 5th disk for the OS was configured under the controller options to use RAID0.

When installing Windows Server 2012 R2 for the first time you will need to specify the B120i controller drivers for Windows to be able to see the disk.
The driver can be downloaded from the HP Microserver webpage and is listed under the “Driver – Storage” section.

The ILO made it easy for me to install Windows remotely from my desktop and attaching virtual media (ISO) and folders. Continue reading →

DNS timeout on Draytek Router

Leave a Reply

DNS timeout 

Having had a problem with my TalkTalk internet connection for months I thought the issue was related to TalkTalk DNS settings however this was actually due to the “UDP flood defense” setting on the Draytek “Firewall” which blocks DNS queries after a threshold value.

The symptoms were that DNS would just stop working, no DNS resolution at all, NSLOOKUPs would simply timeout but ping and IP resolution would function normally. Rebooting the Draytek would magically fix the issue.

The fix was to simply increase the “packet/sec Threshold” or “disable” the setting.
Note: The DoS defense settings are not enabled by default

Draytek_2860_DoS_Defence

Continue reading →

Enabling the “Contact Linking Field” in Outlook 2007/2010/2013

1 Reply

The “Contact linking field” isn’t always displayed by default in Outlook:

Outlook_2007_Appointment_Contacts_Field

To display the “contacts” selection box for an “event” in Outlook 2007

Tools > Options > Contact Options > "Show Contact Activity Information on All Forms"
Outlook_2007_Contact_Options

Continue reading →

WinRM for Event Forwarding

Leave a Reply

Windows Remote Management (WinRM) required by Windows Remote Shell command-line tool, Winrs, event forwarding, and Windows PowerShell 2.0.

WinRM service starts automatically on Windows Server 2008, but must be started manually on Windows Vista.

  • Show WinRM Status: “winrm get winrm/config”
  • Show WinRM Help: “winrm help config”
  • Setup WinRM: “winrm qc” (Quick Config)

Performs the following operations:

  • Starts the WinRM service, and sets the service startup type to auto-start.
  • Configures a listener for the ports that send and receive WS-Management protocol messages using either HTTP or HTTPS on any IP address.
  • Defines ICF exceptions for the WinRM service, and opens the ports for HTTP and HTTPS. (Only for the current user profile)

Reference: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa384372(v=vs.85).aspx

 

Removing “Help Protect and Improve Microsoft Office” prompt from RDS/TS

1 Reply
  1. Users without administration access are unable to select the desired options on the “Help Protect and Improve Microsoft Office” prompt which is display when first loading Microsoft Office 2010 as they required elevated permissions.

This issue can be resolved via a GPO. Unfortunately Office 2010 GPOs are not integrated into the standard GPOs within Windows Server so require an additional download.

Office_2010_Help_Protect_Improve

Continue reading →

NK2 Files & Import

Leave a Reply

NK2 File locations in Windows XP / Windows 7

  • Windows XP: Start -> Run -> “%userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook”
  • Windows 7: Start -> Run -> “%appdata%\Microsoft\Outlook”

Import Outlook nicknames from .NK2 file to Outlook 2010 Profile

  1. Copy *.NK2 to %appdata%\Microsoft\Outlook
  2. Change name of .NK2 file to match the Outlook profile name (This can be checked using “Mail” in control panel)
  3. Start -> Run -> “outlook.exe /importnk2” (This imports the NK2 file into the profile)
  4. Once imported the .nk2 file should get renamed automatically with . file extension
  5. Import of Contacts will merge with current cache (not overwrite)

Automatic tool to do this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/980542

Camera, Shutter, Aperture & DOF

Leave a Reply

SHUTTER

The Cameras shutter controls the length of time the sensor is exposed to light.

Shutter speeds normally operate somewhere between 30 seconds and 1/100 of a second.

Fast shutter speeds (over 1/250 sec) freeze action.

Slow shutter speeds (1 sec – 30 secs) make photography possible in very low light.

For hand held photography a minimum shutter speed of about 1/30 sec is required, below this some means of steadying the camera is required.

APERTURE

The lens aperture controls the quantity of light reaching the cameras sensor.

In dim or gloomy conditions the sensor needs a bigger aperture to let in more light.

In bright conditions a smaller aperture is required.

Aperture is measured in f-stop numbers.

The normal range of apertures is from f/2.8 – f/22

F/2.8 is a BIG aperture letting in more light (in =
gloomy conditions)

F/22 is a SMALL aperture letting in less light (in bright conditions)

DEPTH OF FIELD

Changing the aperture will also control the depth of field.

A big aperture (f/2.8 – f/5.6) will give a small depth of field. This effect will be increased by using a zoom lens, the longer the zoom the shorter the depth of field.

A small aperture (f/16 – f/22) will give a large depth of field. This effect will be increased by using a wide angle lens.

Use big apertures (f/2.8 – f/5.5) for portraits and still life where you want to blur the background.

Use small apertures (f/16 – f/22) for landscapes ar any photo where you want foreground, mid & background sharp.

SCENE MODES

Your cameras scene modes will select shutter and aperture for you depending on the scene mode selected.

If you select ‘portrait’ or ‘macro’ (close-up), the camera will assume a short depth of field is best and choose a big aperture.

If you select ‘sport’ the camera will choose a fast shutter speed to freeze the action.

Selecting ‘landscape’ mode will give a setting with a larger depth of field.

Groups in AD | Domain Local, Global, Universal

Leave a Reply

Domain Local: groups can contain users, global groups and universal groups from anywhere in the AD forest, but can only be used to secure resources within the same domain.

Global: groups can contain only users and groups from within the same domain, but can be used to secure resources anywhere in the forest.

Universal: groups can contain objects from anywhere in the forest, and can be used to secure resources anywhere in the forest.

Group Scope Can Contain Usage
Domain Local
  • User account from any domain in the forest
  • Global or universal from any domain in the forest
  • User accounts, global or universal groups from a trusted forest domain
  • Other domain local groups from the same domain
  • Resources in local domain
Global
  • User accounts in the same domain
  • Other global groups from the same domain
  • Any domain in the forest or trusted forests
Universal
  • Users. Global groups or universal groups from any domain in the forest
  • Any domain in the forest or trusted forests

You can only convert from the following and this will only take place if the correct “member of” groups are related:

  • Domain Local to Universal
  • Global to Universal
  • Universal to Domain Local & Global

BACKUP!

Leave a Reply

DO A STANDALONE BACKUP NOW!

This is something we all overlook and it makes life so much easier if you have a copy just dumped to a network share!

GPO Backup:

GPO Restore:

DHCP Backup:

 

Subnet Mask Reference Sheet

Leave a Reply

Subnet Mask Reference Sheet

  Subnet Mask Hosts
/30 255.255.255.252 4
/29 255.255.255.248 8
/28 255.255.255.240 16
/27 255.255.255.252 32
/26 255.255.255.248 64
/25 255.255.255.128 128
/24 255.255.255.0 256
/23 255.255.254.0 512
/22 255.255.252.0 1024
/21 255.255.248.0 2048
/20 255.255.240.0 4096
/19 255.255.224.0 8192
/18 255.255.192.0 16384
/17 255.255.128.0 32768
/16 255.255.0.0 65536

Site Search (Google)

Leave a Reply

Woo i’m posting more that I did! Thought i’d give the Google search builder a go.

Loading

Querying FSMO roles & ADPREP

Leave a Reply

To find out what domain controller roles are within the organisation:

List all DCs in forest with DN and RDN:

DsQuery Server -o rdn -Forest
DsQuery Server -Forest

List all the DCs in domain:

DsQuery Server -domain domain_name.com

List all the DCs in domain (that are Global Catalog Servers):

DsQuery Server -domain domain_name.com -isgc

List all DCs in forest (that hold FSMO):

DsQuery Server -Forest -hasfsmo schema

Use the “>” to store the output to a text file. The below command will store all the domain controller names in AllDCs.txt.

DsQuery Server -Forest > AllDCs.txt

List FSMO roles using NETDOM

netdom query fsmo

Adding a new Domain Controller to the Domain.

ADPREP commands to upgrade Domain Controllers (In this order)

ADPREP /forestprep
ADPREP /domainprep
ADPREP /domainprep /gpprep
ADPREP /rodcprep
Guide to Windows Server 2008 ADPREP: 
Problems with ADPREP and SYSVOL migration process:

How to view and transfer FSMO roles in Windows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324801

How do I install Active Directory on my Windows Server 2003 server?
http://www.petri.co.il/how_to_install_active_directory_on_windows_2003.htm

Exchange 2007 | Sendas email account using alternate domain

Leave a Reply

I’ve was asked to set up an additional domain name under Exchange 2007. The only issue is that Exchange doesn’t quite handle multiple domain names very well, yes you can add aliases and easily create them within the exchange console, however the problem comes to “sending as” a different domain on the client machine (outlook) I managed to get this method working, although it may not be the best method, I’m couldn’t find any other solutions.

Method 1:

  • Create a new user and mailbox.
  • Set the default email address as email@domain.co.uk
  • Add full send as permissions to the mailbox.
  • Setup redirect so all email to email@domain.co.uk is forwarded to email@domain2.com

This is good, but is messy as multiple user accounts are required…

Method 2 (Preferred Method):

  • Setup a new distribution list email@domain.co.uk (remove the alias from users current profile to do this)
  • Add User as the manager of this list and the only member
  • Set the permissions for full send as via the powershell…

You can change mailbox permissions using two methods but only the powershell method seems to work properly (so probably best to stick to this)

  • 1) Via Powershell: Add-AdPermission “DL” -user “name.surname” -AccessRights extendedright -ExtendedRights “send as”
  • 2) From the “users and computers” selected the distribution group changed to “Advanced” settings and edited the security on the DL to add “user” to Full access”