Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Powershell released

Microsoft released there new scripting tool called "Powershell". This could be benificial to Administrators looking for a good scripting tool that can compete with the different types scripts that run on Unix and Linux.

I have just downloaded the program and documentation, so I hope to have some feed back on it as soon as I have some time.

Here is the link to the Powershell page

Friday, November 17, 2006

Using Group Policy to Configure Windows Firewall


I just recently decided to configure Windows Firewall through group policy. Why just now? well that was because I rolled out most of the XP operating systems with the Firewall configured during installation. Only recently did I discover people, programs whatever had made some changes.

So I decided to create a group policy for the firewall settings so I wouldn't have to walk around to everyones computers and set it up. You can change these policies to the local machine by opening up gepedit.msc or by using Active Directory Users and Computers then right click on your OU and then properties. Then you will be able to access the Group Policy Management Console by the Group policy tab and by clicking Open.

You can find the configuration under the Administrative Templates -> Network -> Network Connections -> Windows Firewall -> Domain Profile.

The different Settings include.
Protect all network connections
Do not allow exceptions
Define program exceptions
Allow local program exceptions
Allow remote administration exception
Allow file and printer sharing exception
Allow ICMP exceptions
Allow Remote Desktop exception
Allow UPnP framework exception
Prohibit notifications
Allow Logging
Prohibit unicast response to multicast or broadcast
Define port exceptions
Allow local port exceptions

These settings helped me keep consistent settings across the Domain.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Outlook 2003 Command Line Switches

Trying to troubleshooting Outlook problems can be a pain, so below are some common command line switches I use.

Just navigate to the Start menu then Run, Type the following with the quotes.
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\Outlook.exe " /switch

/c messageclass
Creates a new item of the specified message class, works for any valid MAPI form. For example:

/c ipm.activity creates a Journal entry
/c ipm.appointment creates an appointment
/c ipm.contact creates a contact
/c ipm.note creates an e-mail message
/c ipm.stickynote creates a note
/c ipm.task creates a task

/CleanClientRules

Starts Outlook and deletes client-based rules. For non-Exchange users.
/CleanFinders

Sets Outlook 2003 Search Folders back to the default state (deletes custom Search Folders)

/CleanFreeBusy

Cleans and regenerates free/busy information.

/CleanProfile

Removes invalid profile keys and recreates default registry keys where applicable.

/Cleanpst

Launches Outlook with a clean Personal Folders file (.pst)

/CleanReminders

Cleans and regenerates reminders.

/CleanRules

Starts Outlook and deletes client- and server-based rules.

/CleanSchedPlus

Deletes all Schedule+ data (free/busy, permissions, and .cal file) from the server.

/CleanServerRules

Starts Outlook and deletes server-based rules. Used only with Exchange server accounts.

/CleanViews

Restores default views.

/FirstRun

Starts Outlook as if it were run for the first time.

/ImportPrf prffilename

Launches Outlook and opens/imports the defined MAPI profile (*.prf). If Outlook is already open, queues the profile to be imported on the next clean launch.

/Profile profilename

Loads the specified profile. If your profile name contains a space, enclose the profile name in quotation marks.

/ResetFolderNames

Resets the language of the default folders to the language of the Outlook client.

/ResetFolders

Restores missing folders for the default delivery location.

/ResetOutlookBar

Rebuilds the Outlook Bar.

/ResetWunderBar

Rebuilds the new Outlook Control Bar in Outlook 2003.

/Rpcdiag

Opens Outlook and displays the remote procedure call (RPC) connection status dialog.

/Sniff

Starts Outlook and forces a detection of new meeting requests in the Inbox, and then adds them to the calendar.


Friday, November 10, 2006

Cool Story about Water Activated Batteries.

Well I have been extremely busy this past week and will probably be even busier next week. So I will just post a link to a story I read that I found very interesting. It's not really a tech article per say, but oh well.

It's about a scientist coming up with a way to activate the power in a battery by adding water. It will help with battery life and storing of the batteries. Hope you find it interesting

Reuters Article

Monday, November 06, 2006

Disable "Manage Your Server" window through the registry

I had an interesting challenge the other day, it was to set up a bunch of employee's on a Terminal Server. One particular program needed to be installed as administrator due to security measures built into the software. To make a long story short I had to install the program under each user as administrator, there was no way to roll it out under group policy. The "Manage your server" pop up got annoying so I had to find a way to disable it for all accounts.

I made changes to these registry settings.
HKEY_USERS\Software\Microsoft\WindowsNT\CurrentVersion\Setup\Welcome\
and right click and change the setting of "srvwiz" to zero.

I would also recommend searching the registry for srvwiz and change the value to zero. I say this if you already logged in as any other user. There are other references to this but I haven't had to make any changes to the other values.

As a side note make sure you back up your registry.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Future with IPTV

With VOIP starting to become mainstream and a lot a large service providers having offerings for internet telephone, the question is what’s next? My guess is IPTV. Hardware for this type of service has started to take off with sales expecting to exceed $6.8B, and subscribers up to 68.9M by 2009, which I read over at IPTV news.

I have yet to find anyone with a set top box that delivers IPTV. But I know of a decent amount of sites that have streaming TV and movies by providing Television over IP. These are great services, but the quality sucks. I still find myself watching episodes of Lost or Heroes the day after if I miss the show because of work.

In an article over at IPTV-Forum they boost that Spain has 200,000 subscribers to MaLigne TV service. Although reading through the article it seems that most early adopters are countries other than the United States. I would guess this is because of the monopoly of the current cable networks.

So will IPTV and TV over IP co-exist? Once the quality and buffering of streaming tv becomes better I know I will find myself watching more shows, news, and movies over the internet than watching normal broadcast TV. I think I’m willing to watch "free" TV with Ads, than pay for TV and still have Ads. If you do a search for online TV there are quite a few listings for streaming video.

Cool links for Streaming TV.

ChannelChooser

Live Online TV

Free Tube

also check out ABC, NBC, and FOX all provide shows the next day.


Saturday, November 04, 2006

The Best Free Windows Software

I've seen a ton of top 10 lists, but after reading comments people leave and looking at my own computer, I realized there are a lot more than 10 free windows applications that I use or consider the best. I decided to compile a "short" list of my own. So if I ever wipe my drive, I will have quick list to retrieve the applications I use. Guess I should call it a top 50+. They are in no particular order.

Firefox
Opera
Thunderbird
Open Office
Gaim
ClamWin
VLC Media Player
Keepass
Cygwin
Eraser
TrueCrypt
FileZilla
7zip
Autoit
PDFcreater
AVG
Avast
Audacity
Tuxpaint
SamSpade
Winscp
Putty
Comodo Anti-virus
Comodo Firewall
R-Firewall
Gimp
Democracy
Trillian
Notepad++
Azureus
uTorrent
VMWare Player
Cdex
Foxit
Juice
Blender
Songbird
K-lite Codec Pack
K-lite Mega Codec Pack
XP Codec Pack
Spybot Search & Destroy
Black light rootkit detector
Rootkit Revealer
Google Web Accelerator
Google Earth
Picasa
DVDFab
Gspot
Ripit4me
Tor
CCleaner
Wireshark
Nmap

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Google going mobile.

Google launched there mobile service for Gmail today. If you have logged into your Gmail account you would have noticed the Ad to point your mobile to www.gmail/app. This is a great idea, people driving around not just talking on the phone but trying to read email. Oh wait guess that's a bad idea. Now all I will need is a video out for my mobile and attach it to my gps screen in my car and I will be all set.

Keeping on the mobile solutions topic, over at Adage.com there is an article about Chad Hurley, annoucing at a OgivlyOne Digital Media Summit that YouTube might go mobile. So how they will make money, it's anyone's guess. I think embedding ad's in the video's they host on YouTube isn't a bad idea but adding them to video's downloaded onto your phone is horrible. The broadband video market will be huge with some estimates in the billions.

Other Articles about Mobile Gmail.
BetaNews
The Inquirer

Articles About Mobile YouTube
Adage.com
Crunch Gear
Tech Crunch

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Samsung Electronics develops 16-chip package

Amazing this is just what I need, a 16GB Flash chip for my Cell Phone or MP3 player.
Samsung Electronics developed the industry's first process to enable production of a 16-chip multi-chip package (MCP) of memory which is a small form factor high density chip, that can enable up to 16GB MCP solution. This 16GB will be the max for the new chip.

" For the new 16-chip process, Samsung introduced wafer-thinning technology that eliminates 24/25 of the thickness of each fabricated wafer to reduce the overall thickness to only 30-microns. This is just 65% the thickness of the 10-Chip MCP wafer (45-microns) Samsung developed in 2005 and similar to the size of a human cell, which measures 20 to 30 microns" Stated Samsung

They claim they will be able to mass produce this chip at a fast pace. So we could this some time soon, even though they did not release details on when the plan on releasing the chip or on the price.

Monday, October 30, 2006

New Seagate Encrypted Drives.

Seagate announced that they will be offering a new line of encrypted drive's using the new DriveTrust Technology. They will initially offer the Momentus line of drives. They will produce the Momentus 5400 FDE.2, which is a 2.5 inch drive that will be available for laptops.

This new line will be available as a 5400rpm drive at 40GB, 80GB, 120GB. They will have the same performance as the drives without the encryption technology. They claim it will be as easy to use as the drives without the DriveTrust technology.

It will be able to protect the whole drive and not just the selected partitions or files.
Seagates new encryption technology will operate independently from the hard drive itself and won't degrade the performance of the drive.

This should be some interesting technology for businesses where there employee's use laptops especially in the financial and govermental sectors where data theft seems to be the norm. It will be interesting to see the actual performance data from the drives. The other interesting thing about this new technology is how it will play with Vista's new BitLocking technology and if you can double encrypt your data without file corruption and performance degragation.

Seagate News

Windows XP add/remove program problems

Last week I came across an interesting problem. I went to uninstall a program from a clients computer that I thought was causing some errors. Actually I know it was causing the errors because Event Log told me so, although I shouldn't put that much trust in Event Viewer but it does provide good answers sometimes. The problem was with Etrust Anti-spam and a corrupted install of Outlook. The whole Etrust package comes with a Anti-virus scanner, Anti-spam, Pest Patrol and a Firewall.

So the first step I tried was repairing the installation. With a big fat failure during repair I turned to uninstalling the application and try re-installing it. This is where my problem lay. Using the normal route of add/remove programs it uninstalled everything but the cause of the problem the Anti-spam software.

My next step was to traverse the registry and find the entry for uninstaller and all other entries for the software. Before doing this make sure you back up your registry to a folder on C:\
So I opened regedt32 and navigated to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall
Then I located the folder for Etrust and removed it. I also did a find for all references to Etrust and the Anti-spam software. Then I deleted the directory under Program Files.

That was basically it except for the re-install. Low and behold it worked just fine after that.
If you ever need to remove a program from add\remove programs that still shows up after you uninstall a program just visit the registry location above and remove the entries. You can also find the Uninstall string in the folder containing the programs registry entry.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Common Stop Codes (Blue Screen of Death, aka BSOD)

I’ve decided to list some of the more common stop codes. In the years I’ve fixed clients PCs I have definitely seen my fair share of Blue Screens.

Some of these can be challenging to troubleshoot and find the exact point of failure. I have also in the past year or so started to use debugging tools to help fix some of these Stop errors.

I would recommend picking up Windbg the windows debugger and playing around with it. It provided both a GUI and command line utility. If you have your computer set to save the Dump logs, you can find a load of helpful information in them.

If these occur write them down and Google them I’ve found specific information for the specific hardware I had installed and a work around to solve the problem, usually video card related. I also recommend checking the Event Viewer this can sometime provide the exact driver that caused the problem.


STOP 0x0000000A IRQL_NOT_LESS_EQUAL
Very common code caused by the kernel-mode process trying to access portions of memory at an IRQL that was too high or a driver attempted to access a memory location to which it did not have permission. I see this a lot with device drivers, most of them from virus scanners.

STOP 0x0000001E KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
Caused when a kernel-mode process tries to execute an illegal or unknown processor instruction. If this error gives you the drivers name try uninstalling the or rolling it back. You might even need to uninstall the offending application or service using this driver.

Stop 0x00000024 NTFT_FILE_SYSEM
Caused by a problem that occurred in the read usual cause is disk corruption. Try using Check disk or some other hardware diagnostics tests.

Stop 0x0000002E DATA_BUS_ERROR
Caused by a parity error in the system memory, usually defective hardware. Typical problems revolve around the memory modules, video cards, or even hard disk corruption. Try replacing this hardware till you find the cause.

Stop 0x00000050 PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA
Causes and exception error when using a reference to an invalid system memory address. Basically defective memory, L2 Ram or video RAM. Could be incompatible software.

Stop 0x0000007B INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE
Caused when Windows lost access to the system partition during the startup process

Stop 0x0000007F UNEXPECTED_KERNEL_MODEL_TRAP
Caused when the CPU generates and error that the kernel does not catch or a bound trap. This could happen when you over clock your CPU, have a defective motherboard, and also may have to do with recently added hardware or drivers.

Comprehensive site about stop codes

Thursday, October 26, 2006

New clarification for Vista licensing.

Thought I would share some news I just learned this morning. An article over at bit-tech claims to have some new information about the dreaded Vista licensing terms. The new information given to them by a Microsoft spokesmen claim that "you will be allowed to re-activate up to 10 times". This is better news than being able to only install twice. During the course of my day I started to think about how long XP has been out and then how many times I have installed it on my machine. I won't give an exact number, but on my home machine it was probably been at least 10 times. In my early noob noob day's of tech I had a job where I had to do a mass deployment of XP machine's. The easy part was the silent install, the hard part was trying to create all of the silent installs for the applications we had. Some of them are easy like Office, but others took me to a whole new level by packaging my own exe's. I believe I re-installed XP close to 10 times in one week before I got the package working. So I hope the Vista volume license keeps on being lenient and that Vista is crash proof or I will be saving for multiple copies of Vista.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Computer Inventory the scripting way!

Working for a small to medium sized company has its benefits, like knowing everyone and being able to work on a ton of interesting projects, always testing your knowledge in many different areas of computing. So when the last Administrator left, he had worked there so long that a complete inventory never was complete. So I decided to record all of the computer assests we had. I got around to maybe 2 or 3 computers before I decided this was a waste of my time doing it by hand and foot.
I decided to pull out the trusty scripting pad and hack away. To make things easy the first thing I decided to do was head over to Microsoft and download the WMI Code Creator. Once downloaded it was all a matter of deciding which items I wanted to include in the report. At first I just wanted to populate a text file and I would have been happy. After a few trial runs I decided a text file just wasn't going to cut. I decided to move to the Excel sheet. Anyway below is the code I came up with. Since I have yet to find an append statement I decided to use a super secret column for counting and just adding one for each time the script is ran. The first part populates the column headers, which I will probably remove so it will import into Access and then upgrade to SQL.
My original program queried the remote computers, but then I realized the firewall's where blocking the the script from accessing the resources. So I decided to change that and just remote in and just run the script locally. If anyone has a better idea drop me an email. or leave it in a comment.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'*******************************************
'* part 1
'* Change the UNC path to whatever you like
'* You are free to use this script, so make any changes
'* you would like
'********************************************

Set objExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
objExcel.Visible = True
objExcel.Workbooks.Add
' Column Headers
' Network information
objExcel.Cells(1, 1).Value = "Machine Name"
objExcel.Cells(1, 2).Value = "IP Address"
objExcel.Cells(1, 3).Value = "MAC Address"
'Bios Information
objExcel.Cells(1, 4).Value = "Bios Manufacturer"
objExcel.Cells(1, 5).Value = "Build Name"
objExcel.Cells(1, 6).Value = "Bios Serial #"
'Memory Information
'objExcel.Cells(1, 7).Value = "Memory Bank Label"
'objExcel.Cells(1, 8).Value = "Memory Capacity"
'Video Information
objExcel.Cells(1, 7).Value = "Video Description"
objExcel.Cells(1, 8).Value = "Video Driver Version"
objExcel.Cells(1, 9).Value = "Installed Display Driver"
'Processor Information
objExcel.Cells(1, 10).Value = "Processor Name"
'CDROM/DVD information
objExcel.Cells(1, 11).Value = "CDROM/DVD Name"
'Basic Computer Information
objExcel.Cells(1, 12).Value = "Computer Manufacturer"
objExcel.Cells(1, 13).Value = "Computer Model"
objExcel.Cells(1, 14).Value = "Computer Total Physical Memory"
objExcel.Cells(1, 15).Value = "Number of Processors"
'Network Adapter Information
objExcel.Cells(1, 16).Value = "Network Adapter Description"
'Disk Drive Information
objExcel.Cells(1, 17).Value = "Disk Drive Name"
objExcel.Cells(1, 18).Value = "Disk Drive Size"
objExcel.Cells(1, 19).Value = 1
'Configure the columns
objExcel.Range("A1:R1").Select
objExcel.Selection.Interior.ColorIndex = 19
objExcel.Selection.Font.ColorIndex = 11
objExcel.Selection.Font.Bold = True
objExcel.Cells.EntireColumn.AutoFit
objExcel.ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs("\\Server\Folder\ComputerInventory.xls")
objExcel.ActiveWorkbook.Close
objExcel.Quit

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

'*********************************************
'Part 2
'Script to gather computer hardware information
'saves information into excel document.
'
'hardcoded the link to the excel document.
'
'*******************************

Set objExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
objExcel.Visible = True
objExcel.Workbooks.Open("
\\Server\Folder\ComputerInventory.xls")
intRowAdapter = 2
intRowCDDVD = 2
intRowMemory = 2
intRowNet = 2
intRow = objExcel.Cells(1, 19).Value + 1
objExcel.Cells(1, 19).Value = intRow

strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")

Set colAdapters = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("SELECT * FROM Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration WHERE IPEnabled = True")
For Each objAdapter in colAdapters
objExcel.Cells(intRow, 1).Value = objAdapter.DNSHostName

If Not IsNull(objAdapter.IPAddress) Then
objExcel.Cells(intRow, 2).Value = objAdapter.IPAddress
End If
objExcel.Cells(intRow, 3).Value = objAdapter.MACAddress
Exit For
Next

'Bios Information
Set colBIOS = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("Select * from Win32_BIOS")
For Each objBIOS in colBIOS
objExcel.Cells(intRow, 4).Value = objBIOS.Manufacturer
objExcel.Cells(intRow, 5).Value = objBIOS.Name
objExcel.Cells(intRow, 6).Value = objBIOS.SerialNumber
Next

'Video Information
Set colVideo = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("Select * from Win32_VideoController")
For Each objVideo in colVideo
objExcel.Cells(intRow, 7).Value = objVideo.Description
objExcel.Cells(intRow, 8).Value = objVideo.DriverVersion
objExcel.Cells(intRow, 9).Value = objVideo.InstalledDisplayDrivers
Next

'Processor Information
Set colProcessor = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("SELECT * from Win32_Processor")
For Each objProcessor in colProcessor
objExcel.Cells(intRow, 10).Value = objProcessor.Name
Next

'CDROM/DVD information
Set colCDROM = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("SELECT * from Win32_CDROMDrive")
For Each objCDROM in colCDROM
objExcel.Cells(intRow, 11).Value = objCDROM.Caption
Next
'Basic Computer Information
Set colCompInfo = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("SELECT * from Win32_ComputerSystem")
For Each objCompInfo in colCompInfo
objExcel.Cells(intRow, 12).Value = objCompInfo.Manufacturer
objExcel.Cells(intRow, 13).Value = objCompInfo.Model
objExcel.Cells(intRow, 14).Value = objCompInfo.TotalPhysicalMemory
objExcel.Cells(intRow, 15).Value = objCompInfo.NumberOfProcessors
Next

'Network Adapter Information
Set colNetworkAdapter = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("SELECT * from Win32_NetworkAdapter")
For Each objNetworkAdapter in colNetworkAdapter
objExcel.Cells(intRow, 16).Value = objNetworkAdapter.Description
Exit For
Next

'Disk Drive Information
Set colDiskDrive = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("SELECT * from Win32_DiskDrive")
For Each objDiskDrive in colDiskDrive
objExcel.Cells(intRow, 17).Value = objDiskDrive.Model
objExcel.Cells(intRow, 18).Value = objDiskDrive.Size
Next

objExcel.Cells.EntireColumn.AutoFit

objExcel.ActiveWorkbook.Save
objExcel.ActiveWorkbook.Close
objExcel.Quit
Set objWMIService = Nothing
Set objExcel = Nothing
Set colAdapters = Nothing
Set colObjects = Nothing
Wscript.Echo "Done"

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Apple's New MacBook Pro - Core2Duo, but is it enough

I have never had a MacBook or any Mac for that. I will admit I do have an iPod but that was because I had $50 dollars worth of free iTunes songs from when Pepsi had the free song give away on the caps, I had everyone I knew who drank Pepsi save them for me. So when Apple upgraded there MacBook line I decided to check it out. I have always been a Windows and Linux geek, I know that in itself is cliche but what can I say but I love all tech.

So I decided to compare the specs from the new MacBook line with the latest Core2Duo's. What I found was suprising. I decided to navigate over to Newegg.com to see what they had. I'm sure if you looked you could find better deals. I started by comparing to the most expensive Sony VAIO with Windows Media Center, well I could buy the 17inch MacBook and only lose 60Gb of hard drive space and 2 lbs, not to shabby. The 15inch MacBooks where less than the most expensive one, but only slightly more by $200 to $500 dollars than the midrange laptops. The budget Toshiba was far slower but had a larger 17'' screen. Below you can find some of the specs to the systems I looked at. With the lasted outcry over vista licensing terms, this could be my next PC or should I say MC.
I will leave you to make the final decision, so my last thought is if you buy a Mac head over to Parallels and buy the Virtual Machine for Mac and you can still install that wonderful Microsoft or Linux Distro.

The 15 inch comes with 2 different types of processors a 2.16Ghz and 2.33Ghz and the 17inch with the 2.33Ghz processors @ 2799.99.

Specs for the Core2Duo MacBook:
  • 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
  • 1440 x 900 pixels
  • 1GB memory
  • 120GB hard drive1
  • 6x double-layer SuperDrive
  • ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics with 128MB SDRAM
  • $1,999.00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
MacBook 15inch 2nd Option
  • 2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
  • 1440 x 900 pixels
  • 2GB memory
  • 120GB hard drive1
  • 6x double-layer SuperDrive
  • ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics with 256MB SDRAM
  • $2,499.00
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Toshiba Satellite

  • Intel Core 2 Duo T5200(1.60GHz)
  • 120GB
  • 1GB DDR2
  • Windows XP Media Center Edition
  • DVD±R/RW
  • 17" WXGA+
  • Video Memory - shared memory
  • $1199.99

ASUS A8JS-4S013P

  • Intel Core 2 Duo T7200(2.00GHz)
  • NVIDIA GeForce Go 7700
  • 100GB
  • 1GB DDR2
  • Windows XP Professional
  • DVD±R/RW
  • 14" WXGA+
  • 512MB
  • $1598.99
Sony VAIO VGN-SZ340P15
  • Intel Core 2 Duo T7600(2.33Ghz)
  • 13.3'' WXGA
  • 2GB DDR2
  • 160GB 5400RPM
  • DVD±R/RW
  • NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 128MB
  • 4.07 lbs
  • $2609.99

Monday, October 23, 2006

Configure IIS6 and PHP

The first time I installed PHP in a Windows environment it was IIS5.1. I used the executable and everything configured without a hitch. Some time down the road I had to install PHP on a Windows Server box, which was a little bit more challenging. With so many tutorials online, some of which didn't work correctly or missed a few minor details I decided to give it a shot and write about the steps I took to configure IIS6.

Steps:
1. Download the zip file from http://www.php.net/downloads.php. The executable only seems to work with XP IIS5.1

2. Unzip the contents int c:\php.

3. Add C:\php to the environment path by right clicking on My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> Environment variables, then add the "c:\php;" to the path. Make sure you include a semi-colon before and after.

4. Open IIS Manager, navigate to the Web Service Extensions, next click and Add a new Web Service Extension. Enter in the Extension name PHP, click add and navigate to C:\php\php5isapi.dll, finally click OK. Remember to set the extension to allow.

5. Right click the web site you want to configure with php, then choose properties and choose the Home Directory Tab. Click the Configuration button and then click add. On the Add/Edit Application Extension Mappings window, click the browse button and locate C:\php\php5isapi.dll in the extension field enter php. You can keep all verbs enabled or limit to GET, POST, HEAD. Place a check in the Script engine and Verify that file exists and choose OK.

6. While you are still in the Properties page choose the Documents tab and index.php or any page you would like to be the default content page.

7. Navigate to C:\php folder, right click and add the default IUSR for the web service to the permissions. Without this you will get a HTTP 400 Error. Sorry no picture for this one.

8. Copy php.ini-dist from c:\php to C:\Windows and rename it php.ini.
Final step is Restart the web server and test it out.

Sunday, October 22, 2006

IE7 Vulnerability

With the recent release of IE7 you would think people would be cheering the upgrade that should have come years ago. This new release from Microsoft also brings a new bug or should I say an old bug that was first reported in November 2003. The error occurs when handling the redirection of URL's with the MHTML URI Handler. This vulnerability can also affect other version of Internet Explorer. Secunia has a proof of concept that can test your browsers vulnerability to this bug. Microsoft originally blamed this problem on Outlook Express and offered patches and work around but did nothing to Internet Explorer. Even with this problem I would still recommend upgrading from IE6.

Reported On BetaNews

Friday, October 20, 2006

Rebuilding the WMI repository

A while back I had to rebuild a corrupt WMI repository. After researching the issue for a couple of days I came across a solution that worked. Props to Todd J Heron, MCSE for coming up with a solution to rebuild the repository. I looked for the link to the original post but couldn’t find it. So I will post it in the hopes that someone having the same problem can find it. If you have the original link please post it in the comments.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

net stop winmgmt
pause
c:
cd c:\windows\system32\wbem
rd /S /Q repository
regsvr32 /s %systemroot%\system32\scecli.dll
regsvr32 /s %systemroot%\system32\userenv.dll
mofcomp cimwin32.mof
mofcomp cimwin32.mfl
mofcomp rsop.mof
mofcomp rsop.mfl
for /f %%s in ('dir /b /s *.dll') do regsvr32 /s %%s
for /f %%s in ('dir /b *.mof') do mofcomp %%s

for /f %%s in ('dir /b *.mfl') do mofcomp %%s
mofcomp exwmi.mof
mofcomp -n:root\cimv2\applications\exchange wbemcons.mof
mofcomp -n:root\cimv2\applications\exchange smtpcons.mof
mofcomp exmgmt.mof

Just cut and paste the above code and save it as a script.

Links
More WMI Information
WMI Diagnosis Utils

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Wireless Troubleshooting Part 2

Microsoft provides a neat little tool that can help track down connection problems. While this is not for the novice it can help to provide some extra information by logging your attempt to connect. You can use tracing to troubleshoot other protocols like PPP. The netsh command can also be used to configure network settings.

The command is:

netsh ras set tracing * enabled

netsh ras set tracing * disabled

then view the logs in C:\windows\tracing

Logs of interest

  • Wzctrace.log
  • Eapol.log
  • Rastls.log
  • Wzcdlg.log
  • Xmlprovi.log
  • Netman.log
  • Netshell.log
Maybe I will write and article about what to look for and how to decifer these log files.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Wireless Troubleshooting

1. I shouldn’t even say this but check and make sure that the wireless adapter is enabled.

2. If don’t see the network you want to connect too, try adding it to the preferred networks by navigating to control panel -> network connections -> right click on the wireless adapter and choose properties -> then click the tab wireless networks then add the SSID. If there is any sort of encryption this is where you want to enter it.

3. If you are getting a limited or no connectivity, make sure that the dhcp server on the wireless router is configured properly. You will need a CAT5 network cable to connect to the wireless router if you don’t already have another machine hooked up to the router.

4. Try the repair option. I found it doesn’t help much if you can’t connect from the get go, but it can help when the connection is dropped.

5. I had some luck once by moving the wireless adapter up the list in advanced setting under network connection and changing the order in adapters and bindings. This was under the toolbar in Network connections.

6. Other things to try would be updating you wireless drivers. If the drivers don't have updates, uninstall the previous ones and try reinstalling the drivers.

7. Updating the BIOS and even just updating windows with the latest patches may help solve the issue. If you just updated windows and found that you couldn’t connect to a wireless, try uninstalling the last patches. On occasions Microsoft patches can break third party software and drivers.

Here are some links that helped me out.

Wireless Forums

Technet Library

Zdnet VideoCast about Wireless troubleshooting

I'm sure there are a lot more, so this is just a starting point.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

One day among many

Welcome!
Well I decided to start blogging. Why, well I might as well keep some sort of log about all the different problems I come across during my life as a Troubleshooting Tech, Administrator, Web developer, Network Admin, Coder and Database Geek.
Just trying to make a living at doing what I love. So I might as well add another Item on my calendar to do during my day.
Well I'll make this one short. Until Tomorrow