computer tips

IT pros eye Windows Server 2003 SP2 with caution

2007-05-09T21:33:00.000-07:00

Most IT professionals have since gotten over what they considered bad timing and publicity on Microsoft's part. But despite a series of security and stability updates, they are going slow with their deployments, concerned the service pack won't play nicely with other parts of the network.

"We haven't bothered to test it yet and won't install it until after April 15," said Brian Joyce, IT director for Chattanooga, Tenn.-based accounting firm Joseph Decosimo and Co. He said it would be crazy for a CPA firm to make system changes unless absolutely necessary during tax season, and he has seen nothing in Windows Server 2003 SP2 that looks critical. "It would be way too risky and unnecessary, even if tested, to install it [now]."
Windows Server 2003 SP 2 is a cumulative service pack with such new features as the Scalable Networking Pack to help customers boost performance of Windows Server 2003 workloads like storage and backup. It also includes Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 to help users connect to Wi-Fi hotspots, and improved IPsec filter management.

Eric Case, a support systems analyst with the University of Arizona's Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, said in an email that regardless of the security fixes that come with the package, "service packs tend to break things." Therefore, he too will wait to deploy it.

Eric Nooden, information systems manager for Rockford, Ill.-based Rockford Gastroenterology Associates, said he typically takes a wait-and-see approach to such releases because he doesn't have much of a testing environment. "We'll wait for a month to see whose systems get nixed by the service pack," he said in an email exchange.

Most IT professionals understand that it's unwise to push service packs onto production servers right after they are released, said Edward Ziots, network engineer for a health organization in New England.

"It's not good change management, they haven't been tested and can definitely cause problems or interruptions to service," he said in an email exchange. Still, he said, some will boldly go where no IT administrator should have gone before and apply Windows Server 2003 SP2 without testing first. They will "learn to feel the pain in being the deployment guinea pig," he added.

Though two weeks have passed since its release, some IT pros are still angry that Microsoft released Windows Server 2003 SP2 without little warning so soon after DST kicked in, especially since the company had announced that it would skip its monthly security update this month.
"I'm still steamed that they did it on Patch Tuesday with no heads up," said Susan Bradley, network administrator for Fresno, Calif.-based Tamiyasu, Smith, Horn and Braun Accountancy Corp. She also pointed to a posting in the official blog for SBS support and product group communications acknowledging that there had already been reports of the service pack causing problems.

After installing Windows 2003 SP2 on SBS 2003 with ISA 2004 installed, the blog said, users may experience the following problems:

* They can no longer successfully connect inbound using VPN (Clients get "Error 800: Unable to establish connection").
* They cannot reliably connect to the Internet using SecureNAT.
* Some Outlook clients will fail to connect to the Exchange server, even with ISA 2004 SP2 and KB930414 installed.

The blog outlines steps administrators can take to fix those problems.

In the final analysis, Bradley said, Microsoft should have launched a better public relations campaign to prepare people for the service pack. "To have no pre-release buzz about a service pack is stupid marketing," she said in an email exchange. "Yes, even service packs should have marketing."

Not everyone was bothered by the timing, however. In his opinion, Nooden said, this service pack release was "pretty benign" and that Microsoft shouldn't have called this a service pack "since it looks too small in its updates to really be counted as one."

Keith Gosselin, IT officer for Biddeford Savings Bank in Biddeford, Maine, said he hasn't done anything with the service pack yet because some of his software vendors have requested he hold off until they have had time to test it. But he believes some of that caution may be overblown.

"Software vendors … have kindly and in some cases not so kindly requested we not install the service pack until they have had time to test, which in plain English means they'll wait 90 days or so and then we will just install the service pack without them knowing and most everything will work," he said.

source:http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid14_gci1248907,00.html?track=NL-358&ad=581175&asrc=EM_NLN_1204573&uid=5744046

ADSL Router Troubleshooting

2007-05-06T21:02:00.000-07:00

There is a common trouble on ADSL router, that my be easy to solve without contact any technical support from ISP provider or hardware vendor.
Below is common troubleshooting you can use to solve your ADSL Router problem before you contact any technical support

The ADSL Router Is Not Functional

1. Check to see that the power LED is green and the network cables are connected
correctly. Refer to the Quick Installation Guide for more details.
2. Check to see that the ETH/LAN and PPP/WAN LEDs are green.
3. Check to see that the DSL LED is green.
4. Check the settings on your computer. Again, refer to the Quick Installation Guide for
more details.
5. Check the ADSL router’s settings.
6. From your computer, can you PING the ADSL router? Assuming that the ADSL
router has DHCP enabled and your computer is on the same subnet as the gateway,
you should be able to PING the gateway.
7. Can you PING the WAN IP? Your ISP should have provided the IP address of their
server. If you can ping the ADSL router and your protocols are configured correctly,
you should be able to ping the ISP’s network. If you cannot PING the ISP’s network,
make sure you are using the correct protocols with the correct VPI/VCI values.
8. Make sure NAT is enabled for your connection. If NAT is disabled, the ADSL router
will not route frames correctly (except in Bridge connection).

I Can’t Connect To The ADSL Router.

1. Check to see that the power LED is green and that the network cables are connected
correctly; see the Quick Installation Guide for more details.
2. Make sure that your computer and the ADSL router are on the same network
segment. The ADSL router’s default IP address is 192.168.1.1. If you are running a
Windows based computer, you can open a DOS window and type IPCONFIG; make
sure that the network adapter that is connected to the gateway is within the same
192.168.1.x subnet.
3. Also, your computer’s Subnet Mask should match the gateways subnet mask. The
gateway has a default subnet mask of 255.255.255.0.
4. If this still does not work, press the reset button for 10 seconds. This will place the
gateway into its factory default state. Go through the previous configurations again.
5. Make sure NAT is enabled for your connection. If NAT is disabled, the ADSL router
will not route frames correctly (except in Bridge connection).

The DSL Link LED Continues To Blink And Does Not Stop

1. This means that the ADSL is trying to train but for some reason it cannot establish a
valid connection. The main cause of this is that you are too far away from the central
office. Contact your ADSL Provider for further assistance.
2. Verify that the telephone cable is connected directly to the telephone wall socket and
to the DSL input on the ADSL router.
3. Make sure that for every parallel phone line connected to telephone or fax is installed
with a micro-filter.

Common Problems and Solutions

The DSL Link LED Is Always Off

1. Make sure you have a ADSL service. You should get some kind of information from
your ISP that states that the ADSL service is enabled. You can usually tell if the
service is enabled by listening to the phone line; you will hear some high-pitched
noise. If you do not hear high-pitched noise, contact your ISP.
2. Verify that the telephone cable is connected directly to the telephone wall socket and
the DSL input on the ADSL router.

ADSL and networking Terms

2007-05-06T20:53:00.000-07:00

What Is A Firewall?
A firewall is a protection between the Internet and your local network. It acts similarly to the
firewall in your car, protecting the interior of the car from the engine. Your car's firewall has very
small opening that allow desired connections from the engine into the cabin (gas pedal
connection, etc) but if something happens to your engine, you are protected.
The firewall in the ADSL router is very similar. Only the desired connections that you allow are
passed through the firewall. These connections are normally originating from the local network;
such as web browsing, checking your email, downloading a file, and playing a game. However, in
some cases, you can allow incoming connections so that you can run programs like a web server.
What Is NAT?
NAT stands for Network Address Translation. Another name for it is Internet Connection Sharing.
What does this mean? Your ISP provides you with a single network address for you to access
the Internet through. However, you may have several machines on your local network that want
to access the Internet at the same time. The ADSL router provides NAT functionality that
converts your local network addresses to the single network address provided by your ISP. It
keeps track of all these connections and makes sure that the correct information gets to the
correct local machine.
Occasionally, there are certain programs that don't work well through NAT. Some games and
some specialty applications have a bit of trouble. The ADSL router contains special functionality
to handle the vast majority of these troublesome programs and games. NAT does cause
problems when you want to run a server though. When running a server, please see the DMZ
section below.
What Is A DMZ?
DMZ really stands for Demilitarized Zone. It is a way of separating out part of your local network
so that is more open to the Internet. Suppose that you want to run a web server or a game
server. Normal servers like these are blocked from working by the NAT functionality. The
solution is to "isolate" the single local computer into a DMZ. This makes the single computer look
like it is directly connected to the Internet, and others can access this machine.
Your machine isn't really directly connected to the Internet, and it really has an internal local
network address. When you provide the server’s network address to others, you must provide
the address of the ADSL router. The ADSL router "fakes" the connection to your machine.
You should use the DMZ when you want to run a server that others will access from the Internet.
Internal programs and servers (like print servers, etc) should NOT be connected to the DMZ.
What Is A Gateway?
The Internet is so large that a single network cannot handle all of the traffic and still deliver a
reasonable level of service. To overcome this limitation, the network is broken down into smaller
segments or subnets that can deliver good performance for the stations attached to that segment.
This segmentation solves the problem of supporting a large number of stations but introduces the
problem of getting traffic from one subnet to another.
To accomplish this, devices called routers or gateways are placed between segments. If a
machine wishes to contact another devi ce on the same segment, it transmits to that station
directly using a simple discovery technique. If the target station does not exist on the same
segment as the source station, then the source actually has no idea how to get to the target.
One of the configuration parameters transmitted to each network device is its default gateway.
This address is configured by the network administrators and it informs each personal computer or other network device where to send data if the target station does not reside on the same
subnet as the source. If your machine can reach all stations on the same subnet (usually a
building or a sector within a building) but cannot communicate outside of this area, it is usually
because of an incorrectly configured default gateway.

Decor your drive( C ) background with your photo

2007-04-03T20:38:00.000-07:00

i you boring with your drive background color, which always white. you can change it to more live with your picture or your photo. so when you open the drive like drive C:, the background isn't white but your image like that. also you can implement it on your flashdrive. it will so nice ..

1. open your notepad
2. type or copy several code like below

[ExtShellFolderViews]
{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}={BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}

[{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}]
Attributes=1
IconArea_Image=3.jpg ---> your image
IconArea_Text=1000x000f00001

[.ShellClassInfo]
ConfirmFileOp=0

3. save it as desktop.ini, and save in drive you like. example drive d:
4. copy your image file to same location
5. open your drive from explorer or just open it from mycomputer
6. TA.. TA... nice image show as background

Change your start button with your name

2007-04-03T19:18:00.000-07:00

In this tutorial i'll explain how to change your start button name with your name or what ever you like. in this tutorial you will need additional software, but dont worry this is freeware its call ResourceHacker. you can download it on http://www.angusj.com/resourcehacker. this Software is editing Exe file .

this is the step by step you must follow:

1. open your ResourceHacker
2. find file Explorer.exe that usually on windir\System32
you will get window appear like this

3. go to folder string table
4. change the "start" with your name or what ever you like

5. click compile script
6. save as myexplorer.exe or what ever you like xxx.exe
7. goto registy
8. goto HLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\winlogon
9. change Shell value from explorer.exe with your file myexplorer.exe
10.close registry editor
11.restart your computer

clean up your start up by tweaking registry

2007-03-28T19:21:00.000-07:00

As windows user especially windows Xp must be familiar with Startup software.
Startup software is software or computer program or file that must be running on computer when windows turning on. This startup software can be maddening problem when it been injected by virus, Trojan , worm . Because we cannot clean it if the virus running first before anti virus.

this is practical tips for cleaning your start up :

1. open your favorite registry editor
in this one, i use registry for example, but you can use others if the virus locked your windows to use it. i usually use other one when my computer infected by dangerous virus and my computer cannot running normally. we can use miniPE that will boot our computer from CD, so virus cannot run and we can easily remove it
type on RUN--> regedit and enter
2. on registry editor go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER
3. go to Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
4. you will find any software or file that will be load on startup
5. choose the software of file you don’t want to load on startup
6. and hit delete on you keyboard
7. after that you may check another key on registry with beginning name RUN like RunOnce or Runhidden etc
8. scroll down your mouse on right frame
9. find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\CurrentVersion\Run
10. Do like above for your unwanted software or file
11. after that all, close your registry editor and
12. restart your computer

this tips usually very helpful when your computer infected with serious virus, and your anti virus actually to late to anticipate and make your computer running anomalistic.

when my email dissapear?

2007-03-25T20:24:00.000-07:00

Most Windows user use Outlook express for they email client. because they just use the facilities on windows and they dont need to install additional software for it, just when windows installed it will be default installed to.
but the problem was becoming flooded when you use email for comunication in a big count email everyday and you use it for along time ago.
outlook express has bug and has not solved yet until know. they can easily demaged when you use with a big size email. the usually it be very slow for loading some email and when your force to closed it. it may demaged and your email address can disappear.
but fortunely its not gone for ever, you can recover it

there's a common step when your email message disappear from your mail folder:

1.please make sure you are not compact your folder before do this step
2.find your email folder location.
3.use Advanced outlook express Repair
4.put your email folder path on select DBX files
5.Clik start repair for start repairing your files, and white for minutes depending the size your dbx file
6.after that, go to recovery folder and open your outlook express
7.just drag and drop the email to your email folder

free tools for backup and free up your hard drive space

2007-03-25T18:35:00.000-07:00

Harddrive space can be unpredictable problem for somebody when he use a personal computer with a lot program installed and many image/photo saved in harddisk.
it can make your computer run slower then usually. because they need more free space for running temp directory or virtual memory that use some harddrive space.

there is a few thing you can do for solving this problem:

1. if you use windows XP, you can use NTFS format for your harddrive. it makes XP run smoothly then you use FAT32 format and the great things is you can make compressed saving data automatically whit compress data option on it.

2. windows system backup for free system or data backuping and keep your data save on it. you can use your this option for your old data, backup it and delete your data after you backup it and save your backup with smaller size

3. save your backup data in cd or DVD. it more realiable data backup and free up harddrive space.

4. use compressing data software like Winzip or winrar make your data smaller than the real size, you can get it for free on the internet.

How to create internet connection sharing?

2007-03-13T21:04:00.000-07:00

This is a practical tutorial to setting internet connection sharing on windows Xp. You can use this internet connection sharing to share your dialup, broadband or internet cable connections .

what do you need :
1. for the server you must have 2 Lan card (if you want to share your broadband connection )
2. Hub , if you want to share with more than 1 computer
3. Lan card for every client pc

step by step :

for the server pc
1. go to my network place --> Network connection
2. choose the Lan connection that wil be share ( the one that have internet connection) -->
right click and choose properties
3. go to advanced tab and check the Allow other network user to connect through this computer internet connection
4. click setting button, and choose the type connection that you want to share and clik ok
5. and clik ok to close the Lan connection properties
6. go to 2nd Lan Connection and goto the properties
7. set the internet protocol (tcp/ip) for the ip and subnet mask
like ip : 192.168.100.3 and subnet mask :255.255.255.0
8. click ok to close the 2nd Lan connection properties

for the client pc:
1. go to network connection and goto Lan connection properties
2. set the internet protocol to automatic
3. click ok to close the lan connection properties
4. go to internet explorer
5. go to tool and choose internet options
6. go to connection tab
7. make sure on dialup setting is never dial checked, and
8. on Lan setting -- > Setting
9 uncheck automatically detect and use proxy option
10. check use automatic configuration and fill with 2nd Lan card ip number on server
11. click ok to close
12. restart client computer and it will connected after login

Use windows to Backup your files

2007-02-26T20:13:00.000-08:00

If you won't use any commecial backup, windows have his default utility that you can use to backup your files or documents. it's usually default installed for Windows XP professional, if like to use it on window XP home edition you must installed it first with windows XP CD installer.

how to backup using backup utility:

1. click start --> All Program --> Accessories --> system Tools and Choose Backup
2. Just clik Next to past the opening page, and you will find this windows

and choose " Let me choose what to backup option " and click Next
3. choose what you like to backup with checked and click Next
4. choose where you like to save your backup and clik Next
5. click finish to start backup process

What should you back up?

2006-08-29T23:02:00.000-07:00

There are many ways you can unintentionally lose information on a computer. A child playing the keyboard like a piano, a power surge, lightning, floods. And sometimes equipment just fails.

If you regularly make backup copies of your files and keep them in a separate place, you can get some, if not all, of your information back in the event something happens to the originals on your computer.

Deciding what to back up is highly personal. Anything you cannot replace easily should be at the top of your list. Before you get started, make a checklist of files to back up. This will help you determine what to back up, and also give you a reference list in the event you need to retrieve a backed-up file. Here are some file suggestions from microsoft to get you started:
• Bank records and other financial information
• Digital photographs
• Software you purchased and downloaded from the Internet
• Music you purchased and downloaded from the Internet
• Personal projects
• Your e-mail address book
• Your Microsoft Outlook calendar
• Your Internet Explorer bookmarks

How to backup your computer ?

2006-08-29T21:56:00.000-07:00

Your backup is as important as your data and your time—because that's what it's going to cost you if you lose it,Even if you have hard copies, it's going to cost you time to enter the information again. You have to think of the worst-case scenario and do backups for that,Plan for a hard-drive crash and make sure that base is covered.

there are few things you can do for backing up your data, this is a few tips from microsoft:

1.Copying and duplicating files

The key to a successful backup is getting a copy of your data off your hard drive. Focus on protecting your personal files like letters, projects, sent e-mail messages, your e-mail address book, and any other information that is essential.

Don't try to copy programs like Microsoft Word or Outlook—they can be reinstalled from the original CDs you purchased. Likewise, the operating system software—Windows itself and any software provided by your computer maker—can usually be recovered from the installation or "System Restore" CDs that came with the computer.

A simple backup in Windows XP requires no special software or skills. To copy a file or folder, just right-click on it and select Copy from the pop-up menu that appears. Choose the disk or drive where you want to store the duplicate copy, right-click again, and then select Paste from the pop-up menu. It's that easy.

Your e-mail messages and address book list can be exported and then backed up along with other personal data

2.Storing your information

You should avoid using standard floppy disks for long-term backups of important information. Floppies are less reliable than hard disks and are best for short-term storage of small files.

There are many other options available to protect your personal data, including Zip disks, recordable CDs, DVDs, and tape cartridges. You can even upload your data to an Internet-based file storage service.

To find the solution that's best for you, compare the convenience, price, and ease of use offered by each approach. For example, a 100 MB Zip drive costs much less than a tape drive, but a single tape cartridge can hold as much as 300 Zip disks. And, a tape backup can take place automatically while you sleep.

Label disks clearly, noting the date and time of the backup. Don't erase the previous backup until you have made a newer one.

3.Schedule regular backups

How often should you back up your data? If you use your computer occasionally, a weekly backup might be enough. If you use your computer every day, a daily backup is a good idea.

Finally, whatever backup option you choose, be sure to check that it works. Duplicate a single folder or group of files, and then try to recover those backup files to a different drive or folder. Don't wait until it's too late to find that the restore process doesn't work.