Dangis.net

If you are installing a program which needs to execute other .exe or .bat files, related to the setup process, you may get a “The publisher could not be verified. Are you sure you want to run this software?” – dialog where you must confirm that you allow the execution of the unsigned file. Sometimes, clicking on “Run” doesn’t seem to do anything as the dialog box just sits there. This is often the case if you are running Windows Server 2003 or Windows XP with modified security settings.

If you are absolutely sure you want to allow the execution without confirmation, you can add the server which shares the executable files in the Internet Explorer’s Local Intranet Zone:

1. To do that, open Internet Explorer
2. Click on Tools > Internet Options
3. Go to Security tab > select Local intranet > click on Sites > click on Advanced
4. Add the server using the following syntax – file://servername . Note that this action may reduce system security.

Sometimes there is a need to grant 3^rd party a temporary access to the server. For example when accounting software company needs to be involved in order to resolve a problem with their application.

They usually require admin rights and may be connecting multiple times over the course of a couple of days or even weeks. In such cases it may be of interest for both parties to record Remote Desktop Sessions. It may also prove to be useful as a visual documentation of how something was set up and configured.

A simple and effective way to achieve this would be a method I use, which captures screenshots at a set interval, when a specific user(s) log in.

1. First, create a user account which will be used by the 3^rd party whose activity on your server you want to record.
2. Download a program called AutoScreenShot. You can get it from here or here . Run the program and configure options. I would recommend to set delay between screen captures to 10 – 45 seconds. When you click OK options.ini file which is located in the same directory as AutoScreenShot.exe will update with configuration details similar to the ones below:

[General]

Langage=3
Delay=30
DeleteMore=2000
NoDuplicate=1
TrayIcon=0
[Folder]
Files=C:\Users\dangis \Remote Desktop Session Logs\Images
[Image]
Compress=1
Force_Width=0
Force_Height=0
[Select_user]
admin2=Yes
admin3=Yes

It is pretty self explanatory (Delete options.ini if you need to access and change settings using graphical user interface).

3. Create a script (use Notepad) to launch the program when user logs on and save it as a AutoScreenShot.vbs:

Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject(”WScript.Shell”)
ResultCode = WshShell.Run(”C:\Session logs\Screenshots\AutoScreenShot.exe”, 1, true)

4. Go to properties of the Session logs folder and use Security tab to remove Modify permissions from user accounts set up to be used by 3^rd party IT support people. You will need to go into Advanced in order to achieve this. Make sure you remove Administrators group, etc.

5. Configure computer to execute AutoScreenShot.vbs script when admin2 or admin3 login. If you are on a domain then copy script to C:\Windows\SYSvol\sysvol\[domain].com\scripts located on the domain controller. Go to properties of admin2, etc accounts in Active Directory Users and Computers. Switch to the Profile tab and specify the file name of a Logon script which in my example would be AutoScreenShot.vbs.

6. Obviously test the functionality, process should close when admin2 logs off.  Don’t forget to always inform third party that sessions to the server are monitored via means of screen image capture a couple of times a minute.

Do you get an error when trying to delete a folder even though folder itself appears to be empty?

Do you get a message saying “Cannot remove folder name It is being used by another person or program.

“Close any programs that might be using the file and try again”

“File in use” etc

In other words, you are probably trying to delete a folder which had a document, picture or any other file. Error message means that you probably still have that file open in Word or Media Player for example.

If even closing all programs doesn’t help, then a quick way to find out what’s causing the problem is to download Process Explorer and run it.

Press CTRL + F or Click on File > Find Handle or DLL…

Enter the folder or file name (or both, for example \my pictures\evidence)

It should find related files and tell you which process is preventing you from deleting or moving folders. You can also use PID to identify the exact process and terminate it using Task Manager (You will need to enable PID column from View > Select Columns in Task Manager).

I have been out of work for more than a month and only managed to land a single interview over that time. Has it been slow for others too? Big part of me is enjoying and using this period between the jobs to learn new things and grow, I also acknowledge that I will run out of money in two months time and need an income. After keeping expenses under tight control over Christmas and with job market looking rather dim, I again started doing small private IT support jobs such as building occasional custom PC or resolving computer problems remotely.

My total income over the three weeks since  I’ve been doing it is $300 (two jobs per week). 20% of that came from helping  two customers, who found me through CrossLoop.com remote support service. I already tried it once before and was able to make about $150 monthly which was a cool way for a geek to make some extra.

But that was a year ago, and now i(t’)s 02(:)10 (am) here in London, UK on this windy Sunday night. I am hanging around my favorite hubs – Reddit and Slashdot when a somewhat clumsy CrossLoop window pops up on my operational display – “Dan, I am having serious trouble installing SQL database & ACT software. Do you have experience with both?”

I soon notice that she has already tried requesting support from three other helpers. One of them left a note on the system which said that customer wanted Act 11 (Sage 2009) install which “is a big install and will take 2 hours of time with reboots and setup” . It took me a couple more minutes before I was able to connect and retrieve the computer specifications, which although meeting minimum hardware requirements for ACT! by Sage 2009 (11.0) and Microsoft® SQL Server® 2005 Express, would not be able to run software efficiently. I knew that and so did the previous helper, especially since it was also a laptop which meant much slower hard drive compared to a desktop. The further I dug in to the problem, the darker the clouds got as CrossLoop session disconnected and reconnected a couple of times, “It may be on my end. I have to use my blackberry as a modem to connect to the internet”, Crystal informed me without hesitation. “Hero against my will”, “knight of the 21st century”, I thought to myself as I accelerated warp drives of my spaceship against the warning notifications and recommendations on the operation displays. I see them a lot.

I knew this was hopeless and could understand why three other technicians were not able to help  this customer. Before announcing bad news to Crystal, however, I decided to put my IT Consultant’s hat and see if I can get anywhere as this case had my seemed interesting and had my full attention.

Chat with Crystal

Dan the Expert

Well installing Act is possible on your computer, it will take a couple of hours (less of my actual time as we may be waiting for software to install for a while). But once we get it running it may and probably will be very slow. You won’t be able to have email, internet window and act running at the same time as computer will struggle

Crystal

Ok. I can shut all of that down. If I don’t have internet up how will you work on my machine?

Dan the Expert

Well that’s what makes it difficult and long process. I will have to work while you maintain connection to the internet, and it will be slow

Crystal

Ok. Just tell me what to do. I have time if you do.

Dan the Expert

In most scenarios Act is installed on fast desktop machines or servers. so yours is really on the very slow side. Will you be the only person using Act on this computer?

Crystal

yes.

Dan the Expert

02:52

There won’t be any other people on the network connecting to your computer?

Crystal

No. Don’t have a network set up. This is my laptop. Just want to install ACT on this machine because I always have it with me.

Dan the Expert

Ok fair enough. So you already have it installed on your other (Desktop) computer?

Crystal

No. Just upgraded to Windows 7 so it this version won’t work on there.

Dan the Expert

Is that Windows 7 computer brand new?

Crystal

Fairly. About 6mo. It came with a free upgrade to Win 7. However, this version of ACT says it will only work with XP & Vista.

BINGO! I had a feeling Windows 7 would be able to handle most of what is compatible with Vista, I also knew I had options such as XP mode, if it came to that. Check on Google confirmed that  installing Act 11 on Windows 7 is likely to be trouble free, even though it is not listed as supported OS. The only thing troubling me was that my first attempts to engage remote control link over Crystal’s system were very slow and problematic. I had a feeling this job will involve finding a wormhole with a better connection to customer’s solar system, which when flying solo, can be exhausting and dangerous.

Update: I know the last sentence didn’t make sense. I was so exhausted I had to find another perspective on what I was doing in order to carry on.

On January 21, 2010 Microsoft released a security update for Internet Explorer on Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. The update prevents malicious websites from exploiting vulnerabilities which could allow hackers gain access to your data on the computer.

In other words, if you can see a Start button (Windows Logo)  at the bottom left of your screen, it means that you are running Windows and should be going here to check whether you need the update.

IE 8 Update – KB978207 – administrator notes:

I noticed that one of my Windows 2008 64-bit test servers automatically restarted. I went into event viewer to check the logs and here’s what I found:

Installation Successful: Windows successfully installed the following update: Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 8 for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition (KB978207)

Restart Required: To complete the installation of the following updates, the computer will be restarted within 15 minutes:

- Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 8 for Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 Edition (KB978207)

The process C:\Windows\system32\svchost.exe (DARKTEMPLE) has initiated the restart of computer DARKTEMPLE on behalf of user NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM for the following reason: Operating System: Recovery (Planned)

Reason Code: 0×80020002

Shutdown Type: restart

It can be very useful to be able to start computer remotely. Using Wake-On-Lan (WOL, Magic Packet) feature, I can send a command to my PC over the internet, wait a couple of seconds until its available, connect via RDP, retrieve the documents I need and put it back into standby mode.

If you are run into problems trying to get Wake On Lan to work, refer to one of the other step by step guides, Google, or ask me in the comments section.

Below I will share how I got it to work on a custom port and created a shortcut to send magic packet across the Internet.

To enable Wake On Lan by Magic Packet in Windows 7, open device manager and go into properties of your Ethernet network adapter.

Go to advanced and enable Wake on Magic Packet. Then go to Power Management tab and make sure “Allow this device to wake the computer” and “Only allow a magic packet to wake the computer” options are selected.

Now to have Magic packet forwarded correctly when switching computer on over the Internet, we will need to make sure our network adapter always has the same IP address. You can achieve that by configuring TCP/IP properties with a manual IP or, better yet, enable IP reservation on your router (DHCP server). You also need to write down your Ethernet network adapter’s  MAC address. Refer to this guide if you need help figuring it out.

In your router’s settings, configure it to forward a single UDP port of your choice to your computer’s IP address. Steps required to complete this will vary depending on the router you have. I am using  Netgear DG834GT and chose to use port 2010 as you can see from the pictures below. The local IP address of my computer is 192.168.1.10.

Write down your static external IP address. If it is dynamic, then I suggest you use something like dyndns or similar service to keep a track of it.

There are a couple of utilities, which will allow us to send Magic Packet across the internet. You can do it online http://www.depicus.com/wake-on-lan/woli.aspx ; using GUI http://www.depicus.com/wake-on-lan/wake-on-lan-gui.aspx or Command Line utility http://www.depicus.com/wake-on-lan/wake-on-lan-cmd.aspx.

I will be updating this article with information how to create a shortcut for quick and easy way to send Magic Packet to your computer. I will also include information about how to trouble shoot when Wake on Lan doesn’t seem to work.

Today I remotely resolved a problem for a customer who was trying to install his Canon S900 on a Windows 7 32-bit. Printer works perfectly on his older computer.

When trying to install the printer, Windows 7 couldn’t find the driver. I appropriate driver from Canon, but installing it by running setup.exe didn’t seem have any effect, and because printer driver installations in Windows 7 are handled automatically, there was no way to force driver manually. After some additional troubleshooting I suspected that the available driver was not right.  Downloaded and installed a printer driver for Windows XP instead, rebooted the computer and Canon S900 was successfully detected and installed. Verified that the peripheral is functioning as it’s supposed to, by printing a test page.

You can download required drivers from http://software.canon-europe.com

I came across an Acer laptop which was having problems with wireless connectivity on Windows 7. The user reported that over the past week, the laptop has lost wireless connectivity a dozen of times and that he has to restart the laptop in order to be able to connect again. I actually remembered getting a phone call about a problem from this guy at the beginning of the week and instructing him to restart the computer and call me back if he still has a problem.

So I started troubleshooting. Noticed that laptop connects to an oldish Netgear DG834GT router and suspected that  it’s firmware may be out of date. It was about two years old so I updated it and proceeded to check if the problem has been resolved. It wasn’t. Tried connecting to the wireless network using my laptop – instantly connected and able to access internet. So obviously updating  wireless adapter drivers on the laptop followed next. Quick check in the device manager revealed that wireless network adapter was based on Atheros AR5B91 chip. No point going to Atheros official support website, as for some reason public access to it seems to be disabled. Anyone know why? There’s also unofficial www.atheros.cz where you may be able to find a driver for an older model, but the laptop I was dealing with was only 9 months old. Luckily there are computer enthusiast forums where you can often find the newest driver (Thank you laptopvideo2go.com). The driver I was looking for was found here. Unfortunately, even  updating Atheros AR5B91 network adapter drivers did not help resolve the problem.

Having checked the obvious and busy to attend another problem I attempted a work around, which was to set TCP/IP to use manual configuration. Connectivity has been restored successfully restored and remained solid while I tested it. I verified with the user, that he doesn’t ever use his laptop on any other networks, explained the situation and called it a day.

If you run into a problem with a AR5B91 wireless adapter and the newest driver available is still version 8.0.0.225 (21/09/2009) then I suggest using manual TCP/IP settings as a temporary fix. Will remind myself to check for an updated version of the the Atheros AR5B91 wireless network card driver in a couple of months.

Small enough to carry? – check
Wi-Fi? - check
High-resolution screen (800 x 480)? - check
Decent at displaying internet content? - check
Cheaper than iPhone? – check
GPS? – no
Mobile phone capability? – no… but! there is now Nokia N900!

http://www.nokia.co.uk/find-products/all-phones/nokia-n900

Cost of the single bunk is around £400 a month, far less than renting an apartment in Tokyo. Full story here.