technical solutions and commentary

I just found a great free RSS reader. I prefer this client over RSS Bandit, and FeedDemon and being free is a plus. If your looking for a grest free RSS reader take a look at BlogBridge.

To determine the version of the .NET Framework on a machine:

Use Windows Explorer and browse to: ‘%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework’
there are subfolders which reflect the version number for the installed versions of .NET and contain the actual framework components

Use the Registry Editor and browse to: ‘HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\.NETFramework\policy’
there are subfolders which reflect the version number for the installed versions of .NET

The Sprint PPC-6700 phone can be used as a high-sped modem for your laptop via USB or Bluetooth. The instructions and installation files are on the CD-ROM under the OEM folder. I am connected now in downtown Chicago with a connection rate of 230Kbps. Pretty fast and beats paying $10-25 for high-speed internet at the hotel. This phone is awsome.

I am taking a CISSP review class this week to prep for the exam on Saturday. I am always amazed by the 1 or 2 people that have their employers spend thousands of dollars on an instructor led class for them, and then they sit in the class and read and respond to email all day. I wonder what the chances would be of them getting budget approval for a class if their manager knew what they did in class ALL day? What a waste of money and time, not to mention it is rude to the instrutor and a distraction to the rest in the class who are actually there to learn something.

Giving them the benefit of the doubt however, maybe something urgent came up today and tomorrow they will be able to pay attention in class. I guess tomorrow I’ll find out.

If anyone that read this blog has an employeer with the money to send employees to class to work on email, let me know… maybe they can send some coin my way, and I’ll actually pay attention and learn something.

Media Player does not show video, but plays audio during playback. This issue is due to compabiility issues with certain brands of display drivers. There is a simple fix to this issue, by reducing the Video Accelerarion in Media Player.

In Media Player 10*:

• Click ‘Plug-ins’
• Click ‘Options’
• Click the ‘Performance’ tab
• Click ‘Advanced’
• Clear the ‘Use overlays’ check box
• Click ‘OK’
• Click ‘Yes’

*You may also need to change the video acceleration options as in Media Player 11.
In Media Player 11

• Choose the ‘Now Playing’ menu
• Click ‘More Options’ from the drop-down
• Click the ‘Performance’ tab
• In the ‘Video Acceleration’ field, move the slider to the middle or to ‘none’
• Click ‘OK’

Adding a log on banner to a Windows Active Directory network is simple, and should is considered a security best practice.

You can use language similar to this example…

“NOTICE: Unauthorized access to this system is forbidden and will be prosecuted by law. By accessing this system, you agree that your actions may be logged and monitored if unauthorized use is suspected. The security policy dictates the installation of unauthorized software is not allowed, including but not limited to internet based applications and toolbars.”

You can enable this logon banner in Group Policy. This is one of the few changes I would recommened be made in the ‘Default Domain Policy’.

For Windows 2003 Server:
Open the GPO… expand ‘Windows Settings’, ‘Security Settings’, ‘Local Policies’, ‘Security Options’.

“Interactive Logon: Message title for users attempting to log on”.
(Place your message into this policy.)

“Interactive Logon: Message text for users attempting to log on”
(use something like “System Use Notice” for the title of the message box .)

For Windows 2000 Servers:
Open the GPO… ‘Computer Configuration’, ‘Windows Settings’, ‘Security Settings’, ‘Local Policies’, ‘Security Options’

“Message text for users attempting to log on”
(Place your message into this policy.)

“Message title for users attempting to log on”
(use something like “System Use Notice” for the title of the message box .)

Updated post with Windows 2000 settings: June 6, 2006

When you setup Outlook Web Access to require a secure SSL connection in IIS, when a user enters the URL without using the “https://”, they see a generic error that says you must use ‘https:’ to access this page… This built in IIS information page is not always clear to end users. What I have found works well to simplify access OWA for end users is to place a redirect page in the IIS virtual web site root to point users to the secure url and path to the OWA page.

For example tell users to got to “webmail.domain.com”. Then place a redirect page there with meta-refresh tag and value of “0″ for immediate redirection to “https://webmail.domian.com/exchange”. The users should not ever see the redirect page at all and be immediately moved to the correct OWA page.

You can use code similar to this…

Users on a Windows Small Business Server network where experiencing the following issues:

• Roaming profile errors at log on, notification of using a cached user profile.
• Users logged on experiencing intermitent printing issues… able to print to a print device then not able to print minutes later.
• Errors in the event log and at user log on of  reaching a maximum number of concurrent connections… although licensing should have been per user/device.

These issues where caused because of running out of installed and activated licenses packs on the server. Check the SBS licensing.

Other items to verify:

• Make sure users have ownership of their roaming profiles directory on the server.
• Make sure offline folders are disabled for the roaming profiles directory on the server.

The current update for Windows Live Messenger Beta has ‘Rhapsody Music Service’ selecet for install by default. Looks like Microsoft may be joining the crowd with having 3rd party software installed with it’s free services for either a paid endorsement — or possibly it was forced to do this by the court ruling between Real and Microsoft. I would think if it was from a court ruling it wouldn’t be selected by default however.

After installing the Service Pack for Exchange I ran into an issue with OWA not displaying the grahics and not loading mail content. The OWA window shows image blacks with red X’s in them where graphics should be displayed. There is a screen capture below.

This issue was caused by the permissions on the ExchWeb virtual folder in the default IIS website. You need to add ‘Integrated’ and ‘Basic’ authentication for to the directory through IIS.