QVLWeb

Excel Tricks

2011-06-30T11:24:00.000-07:00

Issue: Excel can be very useful and having a list of a trick or two can make it more useful.

Quick: Excel Tips

Visual: Learning:
Formula, =REPT(”I”,B2) Where B2 is cell with # of times to repeat. Great for Ad Hoc bar graph.

Sequential Outlook Form IDs

2011-05-21T12:13:00.000-07:00

Do How to do this

Rsync Amazon Cloud Servers

2011-04-28T17:23:00.000-07:00

Issue: Need to sync data between Amazon EC2 servers that use certificates

Quick:

rsync -avz --rsync-path="sudo /usr/bin/rsync" -e "ssh -p 22 -i /PathToKey/MyKey.pem" /LocalDirectory ubuntu@UseInternalIP:/RemoteDirectory/

Visual/Learning:
Found the following information on this website
----Copy of Notes from the website-----------
Remote ssh rsync linux backups with certificates and no passwords

by Greg on Oct.25, 2006, under Backup, Linux, Scripting, Security

Uber quick howto: (based on Debian)

1. Make sure ssh, rsync and sudo are installed and working.

2. Add a user account, on remote system.

2.a Add a certificate with openssl or ssh-keygen (look that up elsewhere)

2.b Make sure the cert is unencrypted with no password. Yes, that is a slight security concern, HOWEVER, if you are very careful to secure that private key, you are ok. In other words, don’t share it or let it out!

2.c Add your public key to your new users /home/username/.ssh/authorized_keys file. (how to’s for this stuff are on the web)

2.d Test this user’s login and make sure it logs you in from your local machine.

3. Now, this new user is unprivileged, so you need to use sudo for running the remote rsync command. Add this to your remote machine /etc/sudoers file:

nameofnewuser remotemachinename=NOPASSWD:/usr/bin/rsyncAbove, you replace with the appropriate names.

4. Copy your private key from the remote machine and save it on the local machine where you will be backing up to. For example, save it in the local user’s .ssh directory. /home/localuseraccount/.ssh/private.key

5. You need to create a script. In the example below, I have an exclude.txt file also, so I can exclude directories and files. Look that up in the rsync how-to’s.

#!/bin/bashrsync -avz --rsync-path="sudo /usr/bin/rsync"

--exclude-from=exclude.txt -e

"ssh -p 22 -i /home/localuseraccount/.ssh/private.key"

remoteuseraccount@remote.server.com:/ /backup/to/pathIn case you didn’t catch that, the section above with the rsync command is all one line!

----End of Copy of Notes from the website-----------

Add Quick Launch Tool Bar

2010-11-08T19:19:00.000-08:00

Issue: Quick Launch tool bar is not on by default in windows 7

Quick: right click add tool bar and past in %AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

Visual: Learning:

Link to details

Realtek audio driver fails to load

2010-08-31T10:24:00.000-07:00

Issue: Install Realtek HD Audio Driver failure !!
Quick: disable and uninstall UAA bus driver first

Visual/Learning:
Start menu
Right Click "My Computer"
Select Properties
Device manager button
You should see the realtek device with an exclamation point (!) next to it
Right Click and select disable
In the same page under System Devices right click and disable "Microsoft UAA bus driver"
now right click and uninstall UAA bus driver
Now right click "sound video and game controllers" and select "scan for hardware changes"
It should find the sound device and let you install the driver.

Snap Server is not accessible error

2010-08-11T11:00:00.000-07:00

Issue: Suddenly started getting message that our snap server 4400 "is not accessible. you might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. The user name could not be found. Reboot fixes it but it comes back again. Getting internal fault in PID errors in the log file of the snap server.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
Windows 7 machine on the network seems to be the source of the problem. As soon as the windows 7 machine tries to get to the snap server it kills it for everybody.

Found work around on this page.
Procedure below fixed it for me:
4. Adjust the security setting on the Windows 7 computer:

1) Click the Start Button, type "gpedit.msc" (without quotation marks) and click OK.
2) In the "Group Policy" window, double click on "Windows Settings" under "Computer Configuration".
3) Double click on "Security Settings"-> "Local Policies"-> "Security Options"
4) In the right panel, double click on the "Network Security: LAN Manager authentication level", please select "Send LM & NTLM Responses".
5) Click Apply and OK.

5. Adjust sharing settings:
1) Go to “Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Network and Sharing Center\Advanced sharing settings”.
2) Under “File sharing connections”, select “Enable File Sharing for Devices that Use 40 or 56-bit encryption”.
Did see the option and did not need to do these steps below for it to work for me.
3) Under “Password protected sharing”, select “Turn off password protected sharing”.

4) Save the changes above.

Virtual CD for CD-less computers

2010-06-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

Issue: I recently bought a little mini computer for the kids that comes without a CD drive. Kids need to run some programs that are CD based.

Quick: Download Free Virtual CD software and run from ISO images

Visual/ Learning:
MagicISO.com has a free tool for creating a virtual software based CD drive.
Download and install the software on the CD-less computer.

Create a ISO image of your CD on another computer that has a CD drive.
I use Nero but you can use any burning software that support creation of ISO files.
I created a share on my computer with the CD rom drive so that I can copy over the network to my other computer.
Connect to the share from the CD-less computer
Copy the ISO file over to the CD-less computer hard disk (wherever is convenient)
Right click the system tray icon for the virtual CD manager
Select Virtual CD/DVD-ROM from the menu
Point it to the ISO file you created for your CD.
You can not access the CD drive and it looks just like you have your CD loaded in a physical CD drive.

Perl - Debugging Scripts

2010-05-19T13:01:00.000-07:00

Issue: Using perl script and you need help finding a problem.

Quick: Use the built in debugger tools

Visual/Learning:
perl -w scriptName    This will give you warnings about the script if there are any.
perl -d scriptName     Will put you in debug mode
w                               Lists code. another w lists the next lines of code and so on
.                                 Resets code listing to current execution point
s                                Steps through code
n                               Steps through code and treats subroutines as a single step
p $variableName      Prints value of the variable
x %data                   Prints array data
x \%data                  Prints better looking array contents
b 20                         Set breakpoint at 20
L                           List all break points
d or D                      Deletes breakpoints
c                              Continues to break point
c 12                        Continues to line 12

Some links to debugger tutorials
Short Tutorial
Longer Tutorial

Regular Expressions Searching

2010-05-13T10:06:00.000-07:00

Issue: a "Regular Expression" is a way of building complex searches but they are also confusing to use. Below are some search expressions that I have found useful. And links to some tutorials.

Quick/Visual/Learning:

/btarget/b - will find the whole word target in a text string (works with start/end line, spaces, special char
examples -- target @target -target-

(^| +)target( +$) - will find target at start/end of line or with spaces before/after. Will not match special characters.
example -- target

Here is a tutorial on regular expression searches

Moved Outlook Cached Names (Autocomplete list) To Another Computer

2010-05-11T12:28:00.000-07:00

Issue: You get a new computer (or Outlook Profile) and now Outlook no longer auto completes the frequently used names that you type into the To field.

Quick: go to drive:\Documents and Settings\user name\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook copy profile name.nk2

Visual/Learning:
Link to Microsoft Tip
-----------text from the link ---------
On the computer with the saved AutoComplete names, go to drive:\Documents and Settings\user name\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.

Note Depending on your file settings, this folder might be hidden. To view the files in this folder, do one of the following:

Microsoft Windows XP
Click Start, and then click My Computer.
On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
Click the View tab, and then, under Advanced settings, under Hidden files and folders, click Show hidden files and folders.

Microsoft Windows 2000
Double-click My Computer on your desktop.
On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
Click the View tab, and then click Show hidden files and folders.
Right-click profile name.nk2, and then click Copy.

Tip You can copy the file to removable media, such as a floppy disk or a CD, and then copy the file to the correct location on the other computer. Or you can attach the file to an e-mail message and send the message to yourself. On the new computer, open the attachment in Outlook, and then save it to the correct location.

On the computer where you want to populate the AutoComplete feature, copy the file to drive:\Documents and Settings\user name\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook.

If the Outlook user profile name is different on the computer where you are moving the .nk2 file, you must rename the file with the same Outlook user profile name after you copy it to the correct folder. For example, if you move Kim Akers.nk2 from the original computer with an Outlook user profile name of Kim Akers, and you copy the Kim Akers.nk2 file to the new computer, you must rename it with the Outlook profile name being used on the new computer.

When prompted about replacing the existing file, click Yes.

Open Outlook to view changes.
------------- End Text from link-------------

Outlook Forms

2010-05-05T11:52:00.000-07:00

Issue:
Quick:
Visual:
Learning:

Attachments need message control box

Do not send to internet

Upadte Existing Outlook Forms

2010-05-05T11:44:00.000-07:00

Issue: You have a bunch of Outlook forms in a folder and you want to update them to a new form layout.

Quick: Download Omsgclas.exe utility

Visual/Learning:
As an example you might have a bunch of help desk forms stored in a folder. Over time the form layout may change to make the form easier to use. The problem is that if you need to open an old form the layout is not updated automatically but is the old, harder to use version of the form.
Microsoft has a knowledge base article on how to fix this (Update existing outlook forms to a new form)

and utility to help as well.

--------------Here is a snipit of text from the Microsoft page on how to do this with a script as well -----
Create a VBScript routine

There are three tasks to this solution.

Create a new item to store the VBScript code.

Enter the VBScript code and save the form.

Run the VBScript code.

Back to the top

Create a new item to store the VBScript code

On the File menu, point to New, and then click Mail Message.

On the Tools menu, point to Forms, and then click Design This Form to enter form design mode.

Back to the top

Enter the VBScript Code and Save the Form

On the Form menu, click View Code.

In the Script Editor, type the following code. You do not need to enter the lines that begin with an apostrophe, since these lines are comments that are ignored when executed.

Sub Item_Open

' Change the following line to your new Message Class

NewMC = "IPM.Contact.MyNewForm"

Set CurFolder = Application.ActiveExplorer.CurrentFolder

Set AllItems = CurFolder.Items

NumItems = CurFolder.Items.Count

' Loop through all of the items in the folder

For I = 1 to NumItems

Set CurItem = AllItems.Item(I)

' Test to see if the Message Class needs to be changed

If CurItem.MessageClass <> NewMC Then

' Change the Message Class

CurItem.MessageClass = NewMC

' Save the changed item

CurItem.Save

End If

Next

MsgBox "Done."

End Sub

On the File menu, click Close.

On the File menu, click Save As. Make sure the default setting for file type is Outlook Template (.oft), and then select a location to save the file. Enter a file name for the form and then click OK.

Close the item by clicking the X in the upper-right corner of the item window and then click No when prompted to save changes.

Back to the top

Run the VBScript code

Open the folder that contains the items you wish to update.

To run the VBScript code, open the item again by using Windows Explorer to locate the file and then double-click the .oft file. The code will run automatically because it was entered into an Item_Open event procedure. If you receive a macro warning, click Enable Macros.

Wait while the code changes the message class for all of the items in the currently selected folder. Depending on the number of items, this may take several minutes. When the code finishes, you should receive a message that says Done.

Note If you wish to edit the VBScript code later to change the name of the message class, hold down the SHIFT key when you open the item. This prevents the VBScript code from executing and you can go into design mode, make changes to the VBScript code, and save the form.

------ End of Snipit from Microsoft page --------------

Remote Access To Computer - Hardware Solutions

2009-10-29T10:36:00.000-07:00

Issue: At times you need to get to the BIOS or need to be able to see the boot process remotely. Here is a review of two possible solutions.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
SecureLinx Spider from Lantronix
IOGEAR GCN1000 PCPortal

Of the two I like what I read about the Spider product. A bit more expense but more flexible in terms of connectors you can get and the setup sounds like it is more straight forward.

Nice - Wake On Lan / Wan Tutorial.

2009-10-29T10:32:00.000-07:00

Issue:
I discuss WOL issues in my verdiem posts but here is another page that has some detailed information.

Quick/Visual/Learning: Wake on wan post

Outlook - Failed due to registry or installation problem

2009-10-28T12:04:00.000-07:00

Issue:
You get the following error: The operation failed due to a registry or installation problem. Restart Outlook and try again. If the problem persists, please reinstall.

Quick:
This is usually a profile problem, you may need to kill the outlook process first.

Visual/Learning:
We got this error when doing a send/receive

This is the error message:

To solve this problem you need to create a new Outlook profile. This was not working for us at first but we needed to kill the Outlook process first.

Press ALT-CNTL-DEL keys and select Task Manager. Find Outlook and end the process if you see it in the list.

Next go to Start / Control Panel and open the Mail configuration icon.

Click on Show Profiles

Click on Add and give the new profile a name.

Select Add a new email account and click next

Select Microsoft Exchange Server and click next

Enter your Exchange server name and you user name and click Next.

Get message that you have enter all the required information.

Now you see this window and you need to select the new profile as the default one form the drop down list. Click OK and you are done.

The error should be gone but you will need to configure this profile to match what you had configured in the old one.

XP disable simple file sharing

2009-10-05T17:22:00.001-07:00

Issue: You want to see the access control list in an XP computer that is in a workgroup.

Quick: Click Start | My Computer | Tools | Folder Options | View

Visual/Learning:
Found good information here

Some Email Tricks

2009-08-27T20:08:00.000-07:00

Issue: Convert pdf to text or get the definition of a word using just email.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
Adobe provides this tool to the impaired but you can use it to convert small pdf files to text. Just send a pdf attachment to pdf2txt@adobe.com and you will get it in your email as text.
You can also use pdf2html@adobe.com if you want it in html form.

Get any definition of a word by sending an email to wsmith@wordsmith.org with a subject, define Yourword .

Google doc will provide you a special code which will enable you to upload word, html and RTF files to your Google Doc account. This is a great way to archive your documents attachments

Outlook Hyperlinks

2009-08-25T19:46:00.001-07:00

Issue: You want to add a link in Outlook to external information.

Quick\Visual\Learning:

My experience is that links in Outlook are not activated until you send the message so do not be surprised if the link does not seem to work at the start.

Here is a link to how to do this and the some text from the link below:
-------------start text from link--------------------
When you type one of the following Internet protocols in the body of a message, Microsoft Outlook creates a hyperlink from the text. If recipients of the message have Internet browsers that support the protocol, they can click the hyperlink to quickly go to the destination

If the Internet address includes spaces, or Chinese, Japanese, or Korean characters, you must enclose the entire address in angle brackets (< >). For example, .

http:// Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). The protocol most commonly used for Web pages.

https:// Hypertext Transfer Protocol, Secure. Designed to provide secure communications using HTTP on the Internet.

file:// Used to open a file on an intranet

ftp:// Used to transfer files over the internet

mailto: Used to send messages to an e-mail address. When the recipient clicks this hyperlink, a new message opens with the mailto e-mail address filled in.

gopher:// A protocol making use of the gopher utility, which finds information and presents it in the form of menus, submenus, and files that can be downloaded and displayed.

news: Used to open an Internet news group

nntp:// Network News Transfer Protocol. Used to retrieve and post specific Usenet news articles on the Internet.

telnet:// Protocol that enables a user to log on from a remote computer and enter commands as if they were using a terminal directly attached to the computer.

Outlook: or Outlook:// A protocol used to open an Outlook folder or an item. Items include e-mail messages, appointments, contacts, tasks, journal entries, notes, posted items, and documents.) or file in Outlook. This protocol is supported only in Outlook.

To add a hyperlink to a location in Outlook, or to an Outlook item, use the following in the text of your message:

Inbox Outlook:Inbox
Contacts Outlook:Contacts
Any folder in your mailbox Outlook:foldername\subfolder
Calendar Outlook:Calendar
A message in your Inbox
A contact in your Contact s folder

-------------end text from link ------------------

Detect Computer Slow Down Due to Disk Access

2009-08-17T10:45:00.000-07:00

Issue:
Slow computer performance

Quick/Visual/Learning:

Found good information at this link on TechRepublic about detecting if the slow down is due to a particular process that is beating on the hard drive.

--------------Begin Info from Link --------------
Disk time percentage and disk queue length
IT professionals think of hard disk corruption or inadequate disk space as the cause of most system performance problems, but disk time is an equally important performance factor. Disk time is represented as a percentage of time that the hard disk is in use. If the hard disk is running 80 percent of the time, for example, you can be sure that system performance is suffering.

Another factor to consider is the average disk queue length, which refers to the number of processes that are waiting to use the hard disk. Using the disk time percentage in conjunction with the disk queue length will tell you not only how much the hard disk is being used but also if the heavy usage is a problem. For example, if the disk time is 40 percent but the average disk queue length has a factor of two or less, then the hard disk is keeping up with the demand that’s being placed on it.

On the other hand, if the percentage of disk time and average disk queue length are both high (above 80 percent disk time and a factor of two or more for the average disk queue length), it means that processes are waiting for the hard disk to become available. Anytime a process has to wait for a component to become available, a user will experience less-than-desirable performance.

Measuring hard disk performance
To accurately diagnose a system’s hard disk, you need to measure the percentage of disk time and the average disk queue length.

Begin by performing a full defragmentation on all the system’s partitions to ensure that all files are contiguous and that the hard disk can perform file reads and writes optimally. Click on the Start menu and select All Programs Accessories System Tools Disk Defragmenter.

Once you’ve defragmented all partitions, run the Performance Monitor utility by opening the Control Panel and clicking Administrative Tools Performance.

Tip
When the Performance Monitor opens, select any counters that are previously running from the bottom of the window and press Delete. Every counter that’s running has a slight, but noticeable, impact on the system’s performance. Therefore, the fewer counters you use, the more accurate your measurements will be.

In the Performance Monitor utility, follow these steps:

Click the Plus icon to open the Add Counters dialog box.
Next, select PhysicalDisk from the Performance Object dropdown list, which will bring up a list of the physical disk counters.
Now, select the %Disk Time counter from the list and click the All Instances radio button to tell the system to measure the performance of all hard drives.
Next, click the Add button to add the counter to the Performance Monitor.
Finally, select Avg. Disk Queue Length from the counter list, select the All Instances radio button, and click the Add button followed by the Close button. When you do, the performance monitor will begin analyzing the disk usage, as shown in Figure A.

Figure A

The numbers beneath the graph refer to the percent of disk time for Drive 0.
As you look at the output, you can see that the lines on the graph correspond to the counters that you’ve installed. For example, in Figure A, the pink line is predominant. You can tell by the legend that the pink line corresponds to the average disk queue length for the C: and D: partitions of Drive 0. You can also tell the exact values of any counter by selecting the counter that you want to examine. It’s best to look at the actual numbers rather than the graph, as the graph can be deceptive if the scale isn’t set correctly.

Narrowing down the suspects

Now it’s time to figure out which process is using all those disk resources. The first thing that I recommend to track down the culprit is to press [Ctrl][Alt][Delete] simultaneously to access the Windows Security dialog box. Next, click Task Manager to bring up the Task Manager utility, which reports on the resource utilization of every process running on the entire system.

While disk usage isn’t one of the factors that Task Manager normally reports, you can configure it to provide this information.

First, select the Processes tab to view the list of processes that are running on your machine.
Next, select the Select Columns command from the View menu. You’ll now see a list of all the resources that you can monitor through the Task Manager.
I recommend deselecting every resource except for I/O Read Bytes and I/O Write Bytes. When you click OK, you’ll see the number of bytes read and written by each process, as shown in
Figure B.

The trick now is to go through the list and look for rapidly changing values. It’s normal for most of the values to occasionally change, but if you see one that is constantly changing, then the process that corresponds to that value is hogging your system’s disk resources.

Figure B

To kill a system resource hog, highlight the process and click End Process.

If the rogue system process is a part of the Windows operating system, there’s a good chance that the excessive disk usage is caused by thrashing.

Swapping vs. thrashing

The process of moving memory blocks between physical and virtual memory is called swapping. Although swapping is inefficient, it’s a perfectly normal process in a Windows environment. Virtual memory is hard disk space that is used as extra memory. Basically, any time Windows needs to read something that exists in virtual memory, it must move that memory block into the system’s physical memory. Thrashing problems are caused by excessive physical and virtual memory swapping.

However, if the disk usage is traced to a non-Windows process, then you may have problems with an individual service.

Be careful
If you eliminate a process you feel is causing excessive disk usage, processor time and memory will also be affected.

The usual suspects
We’ve focused on explaining how excessive disk time usage can degrade system performance, and you have seen some ways to track down the processes that create this problem. By using the Performance Monitor to measure both disk time and average queue length, you can get a sense of whether or not the hard disk is being taxed by the system’s processes. Analyzing the Task Manager further narrows down the possible suspects that may be causing the problem.

------------End Info from Link -----------

Get Directory Listing In LINUX

2009-08-14T19:49:00.000-07:00

Issue: You want to just see the directories in the listing

Quick: ls -p PipeSymbol grep "/"

Windows 2003 Prevent Users From Seeing Objects They Can't Access

2009-07-10T10:12:00.000-07:00

Issue: Hide files and folders when users do not have access to open those objects.

Quick: download Windows Server 2003 Access-based Enumeration.

Visual/Learning:

Windows Server 2008 has the ability to prevent users from seeing files to which they have no access. You can also download a file to add this ability to 2003 server. This is called Access-based Enumeration. Click on the link below to download the file.
Windows Server 2003 Access-based Enumeration

Show Hidden Windows Drivers

2009-06-22T11:24:00.000-07:00

Issue: Old hidden drivers can cause a problem. Here is how to expose them in XP and Vista

Quick/Visual/Learning:
Add an environment variable:
Start/MyComputer/RightClick/Properties/Advanced/Environment Variables button
Add a system variable called:
devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices
Set the value to 1

Go to the Device Manager
Start/MyComputer/RightClick/Manage/Device Manager
Select the View menu/Show Hidden Devices
You can now see and delete hidden device drivers.

Hard Disk Recovery

2009-06-20T11:58:00.000-07:00

Issue: Your hard drive has crashed and you are looking for some help.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
Here is a link to shareware at Zero Assumption Recovery ZAR and a HowTo.

MS Word - Links to Document Sections

2009-06-17T09:58:00.000-07:00

Issue:
You want to create a link in a Microsoft Word document to other areas of the document.

Quick:
Put cursor in area you want to link to, Insert Menu / Bookmark (give bookmark a name) /Add ----Save the document ------ Select text to link to bookmark Insert Menu / Hyperlink / Bookmark button / Select your named bookmark.

Visual/Learning:
In Word put the cursor where you want to jump to.
Select the Insert menu
Select Bookmark

Name the Bookmark
Click on Add Button

Select the text you want to link to your bookmark
Right Click and select Hyperlink

Select the Bookmark... button

Select the Bookmark you created previously.

Here is a link that was helpful

Asus error "System Failed CPU Test"

2009-06-11T21:09:00.000-07:00

Issue:
On boot get voice error through speakers that says "System Failed CPU Test", repeated over and over.

Quick/Visual/Larning:
Turns out that this error was related to the power supply. Replaced the power supply and a dead system fan that may have been pulling extra juice from the power supply as well.

Google Gadget Map Display

2009-06-05T10:54:00.000-07:00

Issue: You want to add a map to a Google site.

Quick: Use Google Docs spreadsheet to enter data and display map in Google Site gadget.

Visual/Learning:
Getting a Google map to display on a Google site is not as easy as you would think. When you open a Google map there is an option to get code in embed in a web page but these have iframe code that Google sites does not allow. Also just putting in the URL in the Google Gadget does not seem to work.

I found the solution that works quite well for what I needed.
Here are the steps to make it work.
Go to Google Docs and create a new spreadsheet.
Enter the addresses in one column and description in the column to the right of the addresses.
Copy the URL of the spreadsheet.

Go to you Google Sites account and open your site.
Edit the page where you want to put the map.
Click Insert
Under Gadgets select More...
Click on the map gadget

Past in the URL of the Google Docs spreadsheet. You should see a preview in the map config window.
Change size setting and whatever else you want.
Click OK

Now you are done and should see a map on the Google site that has all of your locations marked and you can Pan and Zoom around as well.

Other Links
Other Examples
Another

Asterisk PBX System Install - 12 Install H323

2009-06-05T02:12:00.000-07:00

Issue:
I need to connect Asterisk to my Cisco CallManager 3.51 server to allow for phone migration from one system to the other. Since CCM 3.51 does not support SIP I need to get H323 working on Asterisk.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
I found a good link to get me started: Asterisk Cisco CallManager Integration

Talks about integration using either H323 or SIP. CCM 3.51 only supports h323 so I need to get h323 working on Asterisk.

For H323 I found another link: Compiling Asterisk 1.4 with TDM400 and H323 .
Following along using this guide-

The gcc-g++ was already downloaded in Asterisk PBX System Install - 03 Software, as was the kernel-devel module, but not gnutls-devel so I install that one:

#yum install –y gnutls-devel

It is not talked about here but I got an error later on that pwlib needed the fast lexical analyzer generator. After doing some poking around I discovered that I could load this using yum so I will do that now too:

#yum install –y flex

I am not interested in Google Talk so I skip the iksemel download and I already have the correct version of make that is above version 3.80, so on to the section: “Download and install OpenH323 libraries”

Need to download some source files. I will put these in the same place as my other files.
#cd /usr/src
#wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/openh323/pwlib-v1_10_3-src-tar.gz
#tar zxvf pwlib-v1_10_3-src-tar.gz
#cd pwlib_v1_10_3/
#./configure
#make
#export PWLIBDIR=/usr/src/pwlib_v1_10_3

My path in the export command is different then those in the astrecipes link because I downloaded my files to a different directory then he did. The export command creates a shell variable that is also recognized by the kernel. In this case the variable contains the path to our pwlib directory. This is an important step as openh323 needs this path variable.

#cp $PWLIBDIR/lib/libpt_linux_x86_r.so.1.10.3 /usr/lib
Manual copy of the shared library to the system folder. Notice here that we are using the path variable that we created with the export command above.
The full path is:
/usr/src/pwlib_v1_10_3/lib/libpt_linux_x86_r.so.1.10.3 /usr/lib
By using the $PWLIBDIR variable we save a few keystrokes.

Go back one directory to the src directory
#cd ..

Next we do pretty much the same thing to install openh323:

#wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/openh323/openh323-v1_18_0-src-tar.gz
#tar zxvf openh323-v1_18_0-src-tar.gz
#cd openh323_v1_18_0/
#./configure

This next command took several minutes on my machine so be patient.
#make opt

#export OPENH323DIR=/usr/src/openh323_v1_18_0
#cp $OPENH323DIR/lib/libh323_linux_x86_r.so.1.18.0 /usr/lib
#cd ..

The next section is about installing Asterisk which I have already done, but I need to recompile Asterisk to see the h323 stuff.

#cd /usr/src/asterisk-1.4.23.1
#make clean
#./configure
#make menuselect
I see that asterisk now has the chan_h323 option selected. That was a happy little moment.
Press x to exit out of menuselect
You need to run make twice now. The first time you get an error that you need to run it again, so just do it.
#make
#make
#make install
I am not going to "make samples" because that would overwrite the work I have done in my .conf files.

Note - If you run "make samples" by mistake the existing .conf files get written to .conf.old files but just to be safe you should probably save all the work you have done in the .conf files somewhere else once in a while.

#cd ..

To start asterisk type:
#asterisk
Attach to the console with:
#asterisk -vvvvr

It should be running now with H323.

Next time more work to connect to CallManager.
Asterisk PBX Install - Index

Exchange 2003 Non-Delivery Reports

2009-06-02T11:15:00.000-07:00

Issue:
About a year ago (2008) we were getting NDRs because our reverse DNS (RDNS) PTR was not set correctly but we fixed that. Recently our users started getting NDRs of various types again but it is not the reverse pointer this time.

Quick:
Fix FQDN on the SMTP Virtual Server.

Visual:

Learning:
We starting getting a number of different NDR errors and I assume this is because of companies tightening up on thier SPAM filtering.

Errors included:

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:
FOLLOWED BY EMAIL ADDRESS THAT IT FAILED TO SEND TO AND ONE OF THE FOLLOWING REASONS:

You do not have permission to send to this recipient. For assistance, contact your system administrator.
FOLLOWED BY DIFFERENT MESSAGES LIKE:
-Helo command rejected: Host not found
-Client host rejected: cannot find your reverse hostname
-Requested action not taken: message refused
-ETC.

We send email out as:
userName at OurExternalDnsName.com
Our mail server connects as:
InternalDomainName.com

The thought was that perhaps the receiving servers were trying to validate the Internal Domain Name and failing. I changed the name that the SMTP Virtual server connects with and that solved the problem.

See visual above:
In Exchange System Manager
Select the Default SMTP Virtual Server and right click for properties
Select the Delivery Tab and the Advanced button
Change the Fully Qualified Domain Name to the External DNS name for your mail server.

Asterisk PBX System Install - 11 Overhead Paging

2009-06-01T04:59:00.000-07:00

Issue: Access to Valcom paging system

Quick/Visual/Learning:

Overhead paging system
Valcom V-2003A

Our current system requires us to dial *60, at that point you hear a tone, then dial 1 to access the over head speakers and talk into the phone to make the announcement.

Looking at our Cisco routers I see that one of the ports is dedicated to this function.

You can see below that voice port 2/0 is configured as the paging port on the 1760 router.

Cisco 1760 Configuration

voice-port 2/0
trunk-group Outbound 2
input gain 2
output attenuation 2
echo-cancel coverage 32
echo-cancel erl worst-case 0
no vad
no comfort-noise
connection plar 401
impedance complex2
description paging port

To access the port a dial-peer is configured to look for the dial pattern of *60

!
dial-peer voice 86 pots
destination-pattern *60
port 2/0
forward-digits 0
!

Now all I need to do is get Asterisk to connected to the Cisco router and pass the dialed numbers (*60) to the router. I read on page 140 of the Asterisk book that Asterisk saves the dialed extension in a variable ${EXTEN}. So let’s edit extensions.conf file.

I added a context called [overhead-paging]

[overhead-paging]
exten => *60,1,Dial(${OUTBOUNDTRUNK}/${EXTEN})
exten => *60,n,Congestion()
exten => *60,n,Hangup()

As you remember OUTBOUNDTRUNK is my variable for the Cisco router (Post 8). So this connects to the router and passes the dialed number of *60.
If there is a problem Congestion gives a fast busy sound, and the line hangs up.

Under the [internal] context I add overhead-paging to the list of included contexts.

[internal]
include => outbound-local
include => parkedcalls
include => overhead-paging

That’s it. I reload the dialplan and press *60 on one of the phones. This gets passed to the Cisco router. The router matches the *60 to the port for the paging system. I hear the tone, dial 1, and now I can talk over the overhead speakers.

Next problem to work on is Cisco CallManager Intergration

Asterisk PBX System Install - 12 Install H323

Asterisk PBX Install - Index

Asterisk PBX System Install - 10 Conference And Parked Calls

2009-05-27T15:01:00.000-07:00

Issue: Asterisk configuration for call parking and conference rooms.

Quick: features.conf file and meetme.conf file

Visual/Learning:
Lesson learned here was that if you do not have zaptel ztdummy configured correctly then conference rooms are not going to work.

Call Parking - Allows you to send a call to a holding area and then pick that call up from another phone. We use this feature a lot in our company. We sometimes park calls when an urgent call comes in and the person is not at their desk. We just park the call and page the person using our intercom system. They can then take the call from the nearest available phone.

Setup for this feature happens in the features.conf file.
[general] section

parkext => 700 (This is the number where you transfer the call to park it, the system tell you what position the call is in)

parkpos => 701-720 (this provides 20 parking positions 701 to 722)

context => parkedcalls (sets the context for parked calls)

parkingtime => 45 (Set seconds to park, if the call is not picked up before the time limit it is transferred back to the extension that sent the call to parking)

In my extensions.conf file I need to include the parkedcalls context
[internal]
include => parkedcalls

To get this to work you need to restart Asterisk. A simple reload will not get the changes in the features.conf file.

After restarting Asterisk this is how it works.
You get a call and answer it.
Now I use the 'more' softkey to get to the 'trnsfer' softkey and press it.
I dial 700 and I hear the system speaks the numbers 7 0 1 and I press the 'trnsfer' softkey again.

Now using any phone I can dial 701 and I am connected back to the caller.

MeetMe Conferencing
Allows callers to conference by calling a meeting conference number. Conference calls can be protected by passwords as well.

edit meetme.conf
[rooms]
conf => 350,54321

Save this file
350 is the conference room extension, and 54321 is the password for the conference room. You can leave this off if you want like this:
conf => 350

Edit the extensions.conf file.
Under our internal context:
[internal]
exten => 350,1,MeetMe(350)

You can add so function by adding some line before connecting to the conference call. I learned the hard way not to add these lines after connecting the conference all. It did not work and I got an error message in the console that:
" No Zap channel available for conference, user introduction disabled"
So please put the call to the MeetMe conference room last.

exten => 350,1,Playback(conf-thereare)
exten => 350,n,MeetMeCount(350)
exten => 350,n,Playback(conf-peopleinconf)
exten => 350,n,MeetMe(350)

Line one plays a message that "There are currently..."
Line two plays the number of people in the conference call
Line three plays a message "...people in this conference"
Line for connects the call to the conference.

So the first caller dials 35o and hears:
"There are currently zero people in this conference"

The next person to call will here that there is one person, and so on.

Next time connecting to our intercom system.
Asterisk PBX System Install - 11 Overhead Paging
Asterisk PBX Install - Index

XP - Troubleshoot Boot Problems

2009-05-27T13:44:00.000-07:00

Issue: Need a good one stop diagnostic tool for fixing boot problems.

Quick: MSCONFIG

Visual/Learning:
The link below has a lot of good information about this tool.
TechRepulic Link

------ Overview of Info from Link -------------
Start - Run - msconfig to start the tool.
GENERAL TAB
- Diagnostic Startup (Loads only what it needs to run Windows)
- Selective Startup (Deselect startup items to isolate problem)
- Launch System Restore (To go back to restore point)
- Expand file (get a new copy of windows file from cab files)

SYSTEMS.INI AND WIN.INI TABS
Enable and disable sections of code using a check box.
Rearange code sections with 'Move Up' and 'Move Down'

BOOT.INI TAB
Can select boot modes (Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, AlternateShell for cmd prompt)
-Noguiboot (no VGA video driver for boot display)
-Bootlog (enable boot logging)
-Basevideo (forces standard VGA driver)
-Sos (shows driver names as they are loaded)

-Advanced Options Button
--Maxmem (limit memory XP can use to check for bad memory module)
--Numproc (limit number of processors)
--Pcilock (stop XP form assigning sys resources to PCI devices)
--Debug (debugging mode)
---Debugport (port for debuging)
---Baudrate (baud rate for debuging)
---Channel (1394 channel for debug)

SERVICES TAB
-Enable and disable services with check box
-Hide all Windows services with check box (So you just see software added services)

STARTUP TAB
- Prevent items in startup folder from starting with a check box.

------ End Overview of Info from Link -------------

Opening Outlook 2003 Forms In OFT Files

2009-05-08T16:15:00.000-07:00

Issue: Revert back to old behavior to allow .oft files to open.

Quick: Make changes to the registry

Visual/Learning:
In the old days you could open outlook forms as .oft files from Outlook without installing them. Due to security issues Microsoft changed the behavior so that you now have to install the form before you can open it. There are times that it may be helpful to revert back to the old behavior. For one thing it can save a lot of mouse clicks if you work with oft files a lot.

Here is a link on how to revert Outlook 2003 to old behavior.

TEXT FROM LINK
Not recommended: Re-enable the ability to create properties
Three registry keys can be deployed to client computers to disable the blocking of custom properties and revert Outlook to its previous behavior. These registry keys are supported by group policies. The following registry keys can revert Outlook 2003 to its previous behavior:

Note The following registry keys do not revert Outlook 2007 to its previous behavior.
AllowTNEFtoCreateProps (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options\Mail] "AllowTNEFtoCreateProps"=dword:00000000): If the value is 0, TNEF/MIME cannot create new non-Outlook custom properties. This value is the default value. If the value is 1, TNEF/MIME can create new non-Outlook custom properties.
AllowMSGFilestoCreateProps: If the value is 0, .msg files and .oft files cannot create new non-Outlook custom properties. This value is the default value. If the value is 1, .msg files and .oft files can create new non-Outlook custom properties.
DisallowTNEFPreservation: To ease migration to this new behavior, Outlook preserves the original TNEF when custom properties are not created. The original TNEF is saved in a binary stream on the item that is saved. Outlook uses the following property tag to save the stream:
PR_TNEF_UNPROCESSED_PROPS PROG_TAG(PT_BINARY, 0x0e9C).
The HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options\Mail] "DisallowTNEFPreservation "=dword:00000000 registry setting controls whether Outlook creates the PR_TNEF_UNPROCESSED_PROPS property.

Note The PR_TNEF_UNPROCESSED_PROPS property is removed from a message when you embed a message into another message as an attachment. The PR_TNEF_UNPROCESSED_PROPS property is also removed when you forward a message or reply to a message.
END TEXT FROM LINK

Copy this text (between dashed lines) to a file called OFT.reg
------------------------------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options\Mail]
"AllowTNEFtoCreateProps"=dword:00000001
"AllowMSGFilestoCreateProps"=dword:00000001
"DisallowTNEFPreservation"=dword:00000000
----------------------------------------
Save it and then double click on it to upload the registry changes.

Asterisk PBX System Install - 09 Voicemail Macros

2009-05-08T02:32:00.000-07:00

Issue:
Configuring Voicemail in Asterisk

Quick/Visual/Learning:
Voicemail is an important part of any phone system and it seems to work amazingly well in Asterisk with very little configuration.

First you need to define the mailboxes in the voicemail.conf file.
The sample configuration file has a lot of stuff in it but want we need to configure is towards the bottom of the file.

In the sample file there is an example under the context of [default] that looks like:
[default]
1234 => 4242,Example Mailbox,root@localhost

The 1234 part is the extension of the phone
4242 is the password (this can be updated by the user from his phone)
“Example Mailbox” is the name of the mailbox owner and is used in dial by name directory lookups (see page 156 of the book)
root@localhost is the email address where you want to send a copy of any voicemail messages.

Note for more information about sending to a pager etc. look at the book on page 155.

For my use I need to add voicemail for myself. I will do this under the context of [default] and not [internal] (I orignally thought that my voicemail context should match my phone extension context but not true apparently.) I discovered, if I changed the context here, the message waiting light on my phone did not work. (I think the fix for that is to change the mailbox=207 in the sip.conf file to mailbox=207@internal, more on that below)

I add the following line to the voicemail.conf file.

207 => 1234,Jimmy Ezell,jezell@company.com

Pretty simple.
For each additional mailbox I just need to add another line under the [default] context.

Note - The ability to forward voice mail messages to a email account is great but if you need to look for a voicemail message they are stored in: /var/spool/asterisk/voicemail/ContextName/Extension/INBOX

Now we need to make some changes to the extension.conf dialplan file to make use of the voicemail.

To do this we use the voicemail() application like this:
Voicemail(207@default,u)
This will send callers to my voicemail and play the unavailable message. That is what the u means. But what if I want to play the busy message? Use a b instead of the u.

What I really want is for Asterisk to play correct message depending on if I am busy (on the phone) or unavailable (away from my desk). That requires a little programming and that is what we are going to look at now.

First I will show you what gets added and then explain it. Then we will look at a way of creating a macro so that we do not have to type this for each one of our phone extensions.

[internal]
exten => 207,1,Dial(SIP/207,10)
exten => 207,n,GotoIf($["${DIALSTATUS}" = "BUSY"]?busy:unavail)
exten => 207,n(unavail),Voicemail(207@default,u)
exten => 207,n,Hangup()
exten => 207,n(busy),Voicemail(207@default,b)
exten => 207,n,Hangup()

The first part you should know. There is the context of [internal] and the command to dial the phone.
You need to know that if Asterisk fails to connect to my phone it saves the reason in a variable called DIALSTATUS. This happens automatically.

Now if the phone does not pickup we go to the next line with the GotoIf command. The GotoIf command is going to allow us to control what happens next.
GotoIf(Expression?TrueDestination,FalseDestination)
Expression is going to be a comparison test follow by a question mark.
TrueDestinaiton and FalseDestination is going to be a lable that points to another line of the dialplan.

Expressions look like this $[expression], where the expression might be comparing two things like, is DIALSTATUS equal to BUSY? Or something like:
$[DIALSTATUS = “BUSY”]. The BUSY in quotes is what I am checking for.

This expression is not quite right yet. Remember that DIALSTATUS is a variable and we have to write it like this to get the contents of a variable - ${DIALSTATUS}.

So now after replacing DIALSTATUS with $[DIALSTATUS]we have:
$[${DIALSTATUS} = “BUSY”]
This is the expression that will compare the contents of the variable DIALSTATUS with the value of BUSY.

Here is the whole of line 2 for you to look at again.
exten => 207,n,GotoIf($["${DIALSTATUS}" = "BUSY"]?busy:unavail)

If DIALSTATUS is equal to BUSY we are going to go to the TrueDestination (busy) but is it is not equal to BUSY we are going to go to the FalseDestination (unavail).

You can see that (busy) is on the 5th line of our exten 207 dialplan.
exten => 207,n(busy),Voicemail(207@default,b)

So if line 2 is true we jump down to line 5 and we call the Voicemail application and request the busy greeting message.

On the other hand if line 2 is false we jump down to line 3.
exten => 207,n(unavail),Voicemail(207@default,u)

This is where you see the label (unavail) and call the Voicemail application and request the unavailable message.

Great so now Asterisk is able to decide which Voicemail message to play based on whether or not we are on the phone. That is great but I don’t want to have to type all those lines for each extension. That is where macros come in.

Macros are special contexts sections of the extensions.conf file. You start a macro context with the word macro followed by a dash (-) and the name of the macro. So our voicemail macro might start like this:
[macro-voicemail]

The s extension is the only one you can have in the a macro section.

To call a macro you use the Macro() application like this:
[internal]
exten => 207,1,Macro(voicemail,207)

So I replaced 6 lines with one single line that is calling my Macro named “voicemail” and passing it a variable which is my phone extension number “207”.

The Macro will look almost the same as the 6 lines I replaced.

[macro-voicemail]
exten => s,1,Dial(SIP/${ARG1},10)
exten => s,n,GotoIf($["${DIALSTATUS}" = "BUSY"]?busy:unavail)
exten => s,n(unavail),VoiceMail(${MACRO_EXTEN}@default,u)
exten => s,n,Hangup()
exten => s,n(busy),VoiceMail(${MACRO_EXTEN}@default,b)
exten => s,n,Hangup()

Here:
exten=>207 was replaced with the exten=>s (only s is allowed in a macro)
SIP/207 was replaced with SIP/${ARG1}, (ARG1 is the extension number passed to the macro)
207@default was replaced with ${MACRO_EXTEN}@default (Extension the macro was called from)

ARG1 and MACRO_EXTEN hold the same data so I really don't need both, but you can see that there are two ways to get the extension. One way is to pass it into the macro or else use the MACRO_EXTEN. MACRO_EXTEN is automatically loaded by Asterisk with the value of the extension that called the macro.

So with this macro I only need to add one line to the extensions.conf file. So I might add 3 phones under context [internal] like this:
exten => 207,1,Macro(voicemail,207)
exten=> 208,1,Macro(voicemail,208)
exten=> 209,1,Macro(voicemail,209)

To get the messsage waiting light to work you need to add a line to the sip.conf file.
Mailbox=207
If I had used a different voicmail.conf context, other then default, I would have to specify the context like:
mailbox=207@WhatEverTheContextName

Now we need to go to the asterisk console and run the command:
> reload (that will load the voicemail.conf changes as well as the other changes we made)

Should be able to call the extension and leave a voicemail message now.

Back in post 5 we configured the cisco sip dialplan to dial 500. We also configured the SIPDefault.cnf file to assign this number to the message button on the cisco phones.

This is what I am going to setup as now as the number to check voicemail.
In the extensions.conf file:

exten => 500,1,VoiceMailMain(${CALLERID(num)}@default)

500 will now dial voicemail. The CALLERID(num) will match the number I am calling from so that I do not manually have to enter the mailbox number. I will just be prompted for the password.

Next time call parking and MeetMe conference Calls

Asterisk PBX System Install - 10 Conference And Parked Calls

Asterisk PBX Install - Index

Outlook Forms 16 - Update Existing Forms

2009-05-05T16:27:00.000-07:00

Issue:
You want to modify existing Outlook forms to use an updated or different form.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
At times I have had a need to update old Outlook forms to a newer one. I once had a helpdesk form that got changed along the way. The updated form was being stored in the same public folder as the old helpdesk form. The problem was that the people who refered to the data wanted the old forms to have the same look as the new forms. The form message class controls this and is stored in each item, so each item needed to be updated to use the new form instead of the old one. The solution at the time was to write a script that would update the form message class for each message.

I may still have the script I used somewhere but I saw this one and it is much nicer then my old one. I will put the link to it here: Helen Feddema's VB Script method followed by instructions on how to use it below.

Download the file code28.zip and extract the zipped files.

For this example I am going to change a contact form. Here is the standard one:

Here is the updated one with some extra fields for christmas gift list and so on:

Of the downloaded files in the zip, the file that really matters is "Reset Message Class.oft". You can install this in your personal forms library if you want or you can open it in design mode and run it from there. Either way should w0rk.

Next you need to know the names of the old and new message classes. You probably already know this but if you don't you can get it by changing the folder view.
Current View

Go to view/ Arrange By / Current View / Phone List

With the list view up Right Click in the list headings area and a menu will appear. Select Field Chooser

In the Field Chooser Box Select "All Contact Fields" in the drop down.

Select Message Class from the list

Drag the Message Class field to the headings bar.

Now you can see the names of the message classes in the list view.

Now it is time to run the "Reset Message Class.oft" form .
Click the Select Folder button and Select the folder that has the forms you want to change.

Click the Change button and enter the old and new Message Class Names.
Click on Proceed.

It may take a couple of minutes depending on the number of records you have to update so be patient. When done you should see indication of how many items were processed and an OK Button.

Back on the list view of our contacts folder you will see that the Message class has been changed on all of our existing forms.

Go to Outlook Forms Index

Windows Command Line History - Doskey

2009-05-03T09:29:00.000-07:00

Issue: You have typed a lot of command at the command / dos prompt and want to run one of them again without retyping it.

Quick:
F7 - history list
Alt+F7 - Clear History
[characters]F8 - searches for command beginning with the characters you typed

Visual/Learning:

Doskey is the program in Windows that maintains history of dos commands. You can scroll through the list with the up and down arrow key, but you can also get a list of commands by pressing the F7 key.

You can clear the history with ALT-F7 or search for a command that starts with dir by typing dir followed by the F8 key.

Here is a link that has some good information about DosKey.

Asterisk PBX System Install - 08 Outbound Calls

2009-05-01T03:47:00.000-07:00

Issue: Last time we got inbound calls working and it is time to enable outbound calls.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
In our last post we already configured the Cisco 1760 router outbound calls. It was the section of the configuration that looked like:

dial-peer voice 100 pots destination-pattern .T port 0/0 forward-digits all

Where .T is a wildcard that matches all numbers, so Cisco should pass along whatever numbers we send it to our external phone line. Now we just need to tell Asterisk what to send it.

For this I am working again off of Chapter 5 of the book, which is “Dialplan Basics” to learn about pattern matching and variables.

Because we do not know what external number is going to be dialed, we have to get Asterisk to recognize a pattern of numbers that will signal that this is an outside call. We also have to capture what number was dialed and pass that along to the Cisco switch, which is stored in a variable.

Variables are just buckets that hold a piece of information, such as a name or a number. Among other things variables simplify changes. For example if you need to change a sip device and you have called it in several locations of a dialplan then you have to change it in each location. For starters I am going to create a global (seen by the whole dialplan) variable that points to my outbound sip device. The [globals] context is a special context name were you can put these types of variables. Also note that variables are case sensitive.

[globals]
OUTBOUNDTRUNK=SIP/Cisco1760

This sets the contents of our OUTBOUNDTRUNK bucket (variable) to be the name of the Cisco router that I configured in the sip.conf file last time.

To get the contents out of a variable you have to write it like this ${VaribleName}. So per our example, we can use ${OUTBOUNDTRUNK} anywhere in our dialplan where we would normally put the text SIP/Cisco1760.

Now I will look at pattern matching. A typical way of calling an outside number is to dial 9 to get an outside line and then to dial the 7-digit local phone number. I would like Asterisk to match any number that starts with 9 and is followed by 7 digits, like 9XXXXXXX.

To do this you start your pattern with an underscore, and enter your pattern. X matches any number, Z matches 1-9, and N matches 2-9.

So to match a local number the pattern would look like:
_9NXXXXXX
After the 9 we are just going to match numbers 2-9 as a 1 after then 9 would be the pattern for a long-distance call.

One last bit is that we need to pass the number that was dialed to the Cisco 1760 so that the call can be processed. Asterisk has a built in variable that stores this information for us which is ${EXTEN}. We want to pass alone the phone number but not the leading 9, so to strip that off we use ${EXTEN:1}. The 1 says to start with the second number that was dialed. This is position one of the variable. That is a bit confusing but the positions of the variable start with zero like this: 012345678 so position 0 would be the leading 9 and position 1 is the first digit of our local phone number.

Now we should have enough information to update our dialplan.

[outbound-local]
exten => _9NXXXXXX,1,Dial(${OUTBOUNDTRUNK}/${EXTEN:1})
exten => _9NXXXXXX,n,Congestion()
exten => _9NXXXXXX,n,Hangup()

exten => 911,1,Dial(${OUTBOUNDTRUNK}/911)
exten => 9911,1,Dial(${OUTBOUNDTRUNK}/911)

Here we are going to match any local phone number and dial out using our outbound device (Cisco 1760). If this fails for some reason the next step is Congestion(), which play a fast busy tone, and the last step is to hang up the line.

Also we have the options for dialing 911 configured. This is set to work with or without dialing 9 first for an outside line (someone in an emergency might for get to dial 9 first).

Remember that ignorepat is this section of the book does not work with our Cisco phones and you have to use the DIALTEMPLATE file to keep dial tone after pressing 9 (see Asterisk PBX System Install - 05 Cisco SIP Phone)

Our outbound dialing has it’s own context [outbound-local]. Remember contexts are separate from each other. We want our internal users to be able to use this [outbound-loca] context so we need to include it in our [internal] context.

[internal]
include => outbound-local

Time to reload the dialplan.
#asterisk –r
>dialplan reload

Now with these changes we should be able to make an outbound call.

You can also add long distance and 800 number dialing by adding a context like:
[outbound-long-distance]
exten => _91NXXNXXXXXX,1,Dial(${OUTBOUNDTRUNK}/${EXTEN:1})
exten => _91NXXNXXXXXX,n,Congestion()
exten => _91NXXNXXXXXX,n,Hangup()

Remember to include it in the internal context as well.

Next time Voicemail
Asterisk PBX System Install - 09 Voicemail Macros
Asterisk PBX Install - Index

Asterisk PBX System Install - 07 External Line

2009-04-28T10:00:00.000-07:00

Issue:
Configure our Cisco 1760 router to connect inbond phone calls.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
Now to configure the Call router
Using a Cisco 1760 with 2 - 2 port FXO cards (For up to 4 analog phone lines)

Note there are 4 slots on the router and we have some 4 port cards. I assume that we could have up to 16 total phone lines connected to the router in that configuration.

For now I am just going to see if I can get one line working.

Router ip address in this case 172.17.2.1

One of the first problems I had was that as I was looking for help I saw some posts that I needed to configure the router like this:
voice service voip
allow-connections sip to sip

The Problem is allow-connections sip to sip was not an option on my router. It turns out I needed to update my router ios to something above version 12.4.15.T

I got 12.4.15.T.8 which requires 128 RAM and 32 Flash
You should be able to see all this informaiton about your router using command:
> show version

See January 23 post on loading IOS

Below are the bits of my router configuration associated with the voice connection.
An easy way to get these on your router is to enter config t mode on the router and copy the commands right into the command window. You may want to copy them a bit at a time instead of all at once so you can see if any errors show up.

I do not claim to be an expert on routing calls over the Cisco 1760 router. Below is what I came up with and it seems to work. If anyone has insight into what is or is not needed please feel free to submit a comment to this post. I put a few comments below to explain some of what I think is going one with this configuration.
This link was very useful in my testing.

-------------------------------------------------
voice call carrier capacity active
voice rtp send-recv
!
(I had to upgrade my IOS to get the sip to sip options you see below)
voice service voip
allow-connections h323 to sip
allow-connections sip to h323
allow-connections sip to sip
sip
bind control source-interface FastEthernet0/0
bind media source-interface FastEthernet0/0
no call service stop
!
!
voice statistics type csr
!
!
dial-control-mib retain-timer 180
dial-control-mib max-size 250
archive
log config
hidekeys
!
!
(below is the ip address of my Ethernet port on the 172.17.x.x subnet going over to the Cisco switch)
interface FastEthernet0/0
description Voice
ip address 172.17.2.1 255.255.0.0
speed 100
full-duplex
!
!
(connection plar 401 is the extension on the Asterisk server where the router will connect. The description is not needed but is here to remind us that 555.765.2211 is the number of the outside line that we are going to connect to the router. )
voice-port 0/0
input gain 6
output attenuation 0
echo-cancel erl worst-case 0
no vad
no comfort-noise
timing hookflash-out 50
connection plar 401
impedance complex2
description 555.765.2211
station-id name External Caller
station-id number 2211
!
!
dial-peer cor custom
!
!
!
(400 seem to be just an assigned number and I don’t think it matters which you use. Pattern 4.. means that I will be connection to a 3 digit extension starting with a 4. Target ip is the ip of my Asterisk server 172.17.1.31 and 5060 is the standard SIP port. Codec g711ulaw is the same ulaw protocol that we well be setting on Asterisk.)
dial-peer voice 400 voip
destination-pattern 4..
session protocol sipv2
session target ipv4:172.17.1.31:5060
session transport udp
incoming called-number .
dtmf-relay sip-notify rtp-nte
codec g711ulaw
no vad
!
(Distnation .T matches all numbers and is used for outbound calls)
dial-peer voice 100 pots
destination-pattern .T
port 0/0
forward-digits all
!
gateway
timer receive-rtp 1200
!
(sip-server below points to our Asterisk pbx)
sip-ua
retry invite 3
retry response 3
retry bye 3
retry cancel 3
timers trying 1000
sip-server ipv4:172.17.1.31
!
!
telephony-service
fxo hook-flash
max-conferences 4 gain -6
transfer-system full-blind
transfer-pattern ....
!
----------------------------------------------

On the Asterisk server we have to configure the sip.conf file to allow the 1760 router to connect over sip.

#vi sip.conf
i

[general]

[Cisco1760]
context=incoming_calls
type=friend
host=172.17.2.1
dtmfmode=rfc2833
disallow=all
allow=ulaw
insecure=very

[207]
context=internal
type=friend
disallow=all
allow=ulaw
host=dynamic

Esc-Key
:wq

You see above the new section added to the sip.conf file for the Cisco router. The section name "cisco1760" was just a name I picked. The context is different (incoming_calls not the context of internal we used on the phones) so that will need to be configured in the extensions.conf file. This keeps incoming calls separate from our internal phones. There are security reasons for doing it this way. Friend says we can send and receive calls, dtmfmode=rfc2833 allows key tones to get through, Host points to the ip address of the router and it is configured for ulaw which is the same as the router. The line insecure=very is important and needs to be there from what I read.
disallow all does not allow any codecs except for the one we specifically allow which is ulaw.

In extensions.conf we need to configure the incoming_calls context.
[globals]

[general]

[default]

[incoming_calls]
exten => 401,1,Answer
exten => 401,n,Background(main-menu)
exten => 401,n,WaitExten(15)

exten => 1,1,Dial(SIP/207,15)

exten => i,1,Playback(pbx-invalid)
exten => i,n,Goto(incoming_calls,401,1)

exten => t,1,Playback(vm-goodby)
exten => t,n,Hangup()

[internal]

exten => 401,1,Answer
exten => 401,n,Playback(tt-weasels)
exten => 401,n,Hangup()

[phones]
include => internal

Under incoming_calls I added extension 401 and it looks a lot like the 401 under the internal context but they are not the same. Incoming_call and internal contexts are completely separate areas of the dial plan. The calling plan defined under incoming_calls does not communicate with the plan under the internal context. So what does this do?

When the router connects to the Asterisk server as a sip device it is assigned to the incoming_calls context. The router then connects on extension 401 because that is what we configured it to do on the router configuration. The 401 extension program under the incoming_ calls context runs and answers the line. It will play back a message that says “Main Menu” and then it waits 15 seconds for someone to enter a number. It does not tell them what number to press because we have not set that part up yet. This is the bare beginnings of setting up a phone tree for routing calls. Looking at the dial plan you can see that extension 1 has been configured. If 1 is dialed during the waiting period the sip device 207 will be called and connected.

The other 2 extensions in the section are there to help in testing. The i extension is for invalid entries. This message gets played if someone enters a number for an undefined or invalid extension. The t extension is the time out action and just hangs up if no numbers are entered in the allotted time.

So we can use this to test by calling in from somewhere (cell phone maybe) on our outside line 555-765-2211 (of course this is not the real number I am using). I hear the “Main Menu” message. I dial 1 and the 207 phone on my desk rings and I can pick it up and talk pretty cool when you get that working for the first time.

Next time we will get outbound calls working
Asterisk PBX System Install - 08 Outbound Calls
Asterisk PBX Install - Index

Asterisk PBX System Install - 06 Two SIP Phones

2009-04-24T10:52:00.000-07:00

Issue:
The goal for today is to be able to call another extension on the Asterisk server and talk to someone.

Quick/Visual/Learning:

The goal to have a phone connect to Asterisk and have Asterisk respond should have been accomplished last time.
The new goal is to have two ip phones talking to each other.

We well need a second IP phone configured for SIP.
This should be pretty easy since we got everything in place already in the last post.

Plug in the phone and get the MAC Address of the phone
Copy the MAC Address specific file we created last time (my example SIP000d28f35928.cnf)
Edit the copy to configure the names of the phone to be the new extension name (example replace 207 with 222)
Rename the copy to match the MAC Address of the new phone SIPXXXXXXXXXXXX.cnf (Replace Xs with MAC Address)
Now the phone should come up with SIP loaded and the correct extension name (example 222).

Just to test you may want to look at the ip address on the phone and verify that the Asterisk server can ping that address as we did last time.

Now the task is to configure Asterisk so the phones can call each other.

We need to change the sip.conf file to allow the new phone 222 to connect to Asterisk. These files are in the /etc/asterisk directory. Using vi to edit sip.conf we see the contents of the file on the screen. Get into the insert mode and add the same text for 222 as we have for 207
#vi sip.conf
i

[general]

[207]
context=internal
type=friend
disallow=all
allow=ulaw
host=dynamic

[222]
context=internal
type=friend
disallow=all
allow=ulaw
host=dynamic

Esc-Key
:wq

Connect to the Asterisk console and run the command
#asterisk -r
>sip reload

This loads our changes to the sip file. I am now able to dial extension 401 on the extension 222 phone and here the weasels message played but I still cannot dial the other phone extension because it has not been added to the extensions.conf file yet.

This is a good time to talk a bit more about the Dialplan (extensions.conf) file.
When you create an extension for a phone in the extensions.conf file you are creating a program that runs when the extension is called. Each step for our 207 example extension is defined like this:
exten => 207

The first step is always number 1 (must be labeled this way). You could number the next step 2 but instead you can use n for all the steps after 1 and Asterisk will just do them in order. That way you can move things around without having to renumber everything.

exten=>207,1

Next comes the action or program to be performed (Answer the call in this case) :
exten=>207,1,Answer()

Answer does not require any extra information to work. When we dial the extension in this case we do not want Asterisk to Answer we want it to connect us to another phone we are dialing. You do this with the Dial() application and that does require more information.
Inside the parenthasis be can put up to 4 arguments.
Dial(Destination, timeout, option, URL)
All we are going to use is a destination and a timeout.

exten=>207,1,Dial(SIP/207,15)

This tells asterisk to ring the sip phone 207 that is defined in our sip.conf file for 15 seconds. If no one answers the phone the next step will be to hangup the line. (Later we will look at things like voicemail.)

Now lets update our extensions.conf file.

Get out of Asterisk console
>exit
Edit the extensions.conf file and add the phone extensions as you see below in the internal context (section) of the file.
#vi extensions.conf
[globals]

[general]

[default]

[incoming_calls]

[internal]

exten => 207,1,Dial(SIP/207,10)
exten => 207,n,Hangup()

exten => 222,1,Dial(SIP/222,10)
exten => 222,n,Hangup()

exten => 401,1,Answer()
exten => 401,n,Playback(tt-weasels)
exten=> 401,n,Hangup()

[phones]
include => internal

Esc-Key
:wq

Now reload this configuration in Asterisk. Go to the Asterisk console prompt and issue the command dialplan reload.
>dialplan reload

Since we have verbose turned on you should see the plan load with no error messages. These changes tell Asterisk what to do when the phone extension is dialed. When you pick up the phone on 222 and dial 207 Asterisk will connect or dial the SIP device 207 we created in the sip.conf file and complete the call connection. The same thing will happen if we pick up the 207 phone and call 222.

Next time we will look at connecting to an external phone line.
Asterisk PBX System Install - 07 External Line
Asterisk PBX Install - Index

Asterisk PBX System Install - 05 Cisco SIP Phone

2009-04-21T03:43:00.000-07:00

Issue:
We have Cisco phones and need to load the SIP protocol on them and test Asterisk.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
The Cisco phones come loaded with the Cisco proprietary SKINNY protocol loaded. Asterisk apparently does support SKINNY but has better support for SIP. To load SIP on the phone we need to get the SIP files and use a TFTP server to load them.

Here is a link to information that may be helpful if you have problems.
Another good link. And antoher.

If you have access to Cisco support you can get the sip files from them. I got my files from a phone vendor when we were looking at converting our phones over to another sip based phone system.

Once SIP is loaded you are not required to have the TFTP server as you can manually configure the phone but TFTP and DHCP can help to automate the process where there are a lot of changes going on.

For the TFTP server I am going to use TFTPD32, which is an open source TFTP server that runs on windows. It is very easy to use and includes a DHCP server, which allow you to automatically configure the TFTP server settings. You can download it here

Note - If you want to run it all on the Linux CentOS box you can look in the book in chapter 4. There is a section on configuring Cisco 7960 Telephone that tells you how to install and configure a tftp-server. Remember to put the MAC addresses in ALL CAPS.cnf

I will load my downloaded TFTP server on a laptop and plug both the phone and the laptop running TFTP server into my test switch that is not on the network.

OK after you have downloaded the TFTP and put it on a windows machine it is time to configure it. Run the install program. Click Next

Except the default TFTP directory location (or change it if you like). Click Install
When it completes click close.

Put SIP configuration files from Cisco in the TFTP server directory (c:\program files\tftpd32 in my case).
The files I am putting in there from Cisco are (not sure if they are all needed):
P003-07-5-00.bin
P003-07-5-00.sbn
P0S3-07-5-00.bin
P0S3-07-5-00.loads
P0S3-07-5-00.sb2

Start the TFTP server.
In my case I go the start menu and start the TFTPD32 application.

On the TFTP Server Tab I can see the interface and it should be on the same subnet as your Asterisk Server (my example 172.17.X.X).

On the DHCP tab I give it a starting address to hand out to the phones and a pool size. I set it to 10 in this case.

Another important thing to notice here is in the Additional Option settings. Option 66 is the DHCP option that assigns a default tftp server. Here I set the default tftp server to be this one that I am configuring. The window is not big enough to show the whole IP address but it is the same as what is above in the server interface window. This is what tells the phone where to go to find the new configuration files so this is quite important.

At the bottom of the screen click on the setting button. Uncheck the DHCP box to “Ping Address before assignment”. This seems to cause a strange issue where DHCP fills up with requests from the MAC address 46-46-3A-46-46-3A (46:46:3A:46:46:3A 46463A46463A). I think this may be a bug with TFTPD32.

Click on the save button and leave the server up and running.

There are a couple of files that I need to create as well with a text editor (I will use notepad). These text files go into the root of the TFTP server directory as well.

First I need to get the hard coded address of the phone I will be configuring.
Plug an Ethernet cable into the 10/100 sw port on the back of the phone (if you use the wrong port it will not power up). Plug the phone into the Cisco switch. The switch provides power over Ethernet (POE) to power up the phone. Once the screen comes on you will see it trying to configure itself (never ending loop). Press the button with a check mark inside a square on it. See the picture below which points out the button.

This will bring up a setting screen.

Select the Network Configuration option and scroll down to see the MAC Address of the phone and write it down. It will be a 12 digit hexadecimal number that looks like this example here – 000d:28f3:5928

Now we need to configure a configuration file for the Phone:
Using Notepad create a file in this format: SIPMacAddress.cnf

For my example the file will be called SIP000d28f35928.cnf (SIP and address without the colons)

Note here that windows thinks that files that end in .cnf are SpeedDial files and you can not open them by browsing to them in Windows Explorer and opening them. You need to open notepad first and select to see all files and pick the .cnf file that way. Very annoying.

When you save these files in Notepad the first time put the name in "" otherwise it may save as a .txt file which is not what we want. I know, what a pain, if you have a better editor handy feel free to use that one instead.

Here is the contents of my SIP000d228f35928.cnf file:
###############
# Line 1 Setting
line1_name:207
line1_shortname:207
line1_displayname:207
line1_authname:207
#line1_password:takeaguess
################

The name 207 has to be the same name that is in my sip.conf file on the Asterisk server (see previous post). I have made all these names the same as the extension of phone 207.

Note that # indicates when a line is just a comment field and right now I have the password commented out for now.

Another text file for the tftp root directory is SIPDefault.cnf and here is what is contains:
###########################
#Image Version
image_version:POS3-07-5-00 ;

#Proxy Server (this is the ip address of our Asterisk server)
proxy1_address: 172.17.1.31

#Message button assignment to extension 500
messagees_uri: “500”

#Time server ip and time zone settings
sntp_server: 172.22.1.30
time_zone: PST

#Template for phone dialing plan
dial_template: DIALPLAN
###################################
Here is a link to information about what you can put in the SIPDefault.cnf file

While we are at it, another text file to be configured is the DIALPLAN.xml file. This is the file that you see in the dial_template entry above. I still have problems putting code in the blog sometimes so here is a picture of the text in the DIALPLAN.xml file:

Update:
I found out that dial tone is provided by the SIP phone and n0t by Asterisk so you can not use ignorpat => 9 (as mentioned in the book) to keep the dial tone after pressing 9. To get dial tone to continue after pressing 9 you need to add a coma after the nine in this DIALPLAN.xml file:
"9,1.........."TIMEOUT="0" /
"9,......."TIMEOUT="0" /

Without this file the phone will wait a long time before trying to dial the numbers you enter.
This xml file tells the phone to not wait before dialing a 3-digit extension starting with a 2.
Also does not wait on 500, which will be our voicemail number, and numbers that we will later use for dialing outside numbers.

This gets saved into the root of our TFTP server as well.

One last file that needs to be there is a very small text file called "OS79XX.txt". The name should be just as you see it. OS79 followed by 2 Xs .txt.
In that file is a single line:
P003-07-5-00

This tells the phone what version of the .bin and .sbn files to load.

With the TFTP server running and plugged into my Cisco switch, I again plug my phone into the Cisco switch.

Now the phone configures itself. It takes a couple minutes so be patient but it should now load SIP.

When it is done the screen will display the name of the phone and SIP in the upper right corner (example 207SIP)

You can press the CheckMark button you used above and check that it is configured correctly.

Under Network Setup:
DHCP server should point to the one running on our tftp server (example 172.17.1.40)
IP Address should be in the range we assigned to the DHCP server pool above. (example 172.17.1.50)
Mask should be what was set on the DHCP server (example 255.255.0.0)
And the TFTP server should point to the one we configured. (example 172.17.1.40)

On phone as well we can get out of network configuration and look at SIP Configuration and should see under Line 1 Settings:
Names are all set to be the extension (example 207)
Proxy Address is pointing to our Asterisk server (example 172.17.1.31)

Note if you need or want to change any of the settings on the phone manually you will first need to unlock it. Press the check button, and scroll down to the bottom and select "Unlock Config". Use the phone keys to enter the password which is the word cisco.
With skinny loaded on the phone the proceedure is:
Enter the Settings Menu
Select Network Configuration
Enter **# to unlock configuration
Make changes
Enter **# to lock

With all the parts running and plugged into the switch:
-Asterisk server
-Phone
-TFTP Server

Make sure that the devices can see each other.
On the Asterisk server ping the phone using the ip address you saw in the configuration (from the DHCP server)
Using my example
#ping 172.17.1.50

You should see reply messages start to scroll up the screen.
If you see Destination unreachable messages scroll up the screen then asterisk cannot see the phone yet. Verify that Asterisk is on the switch and maybe restart the network services on the server as was discussed in the previous post.

Use CNTRL-C keys to break out of the ping

If the pings worked you should now be able to call extension 401 from the phone. 401 will not dial right away because we did not set that one up in the DIALPLAN.xml file above. If you wait long enough it will dial or you can press the DIAL soft button (third one from the left at the bottom of the phone display).

If all is working Asterisk should playback a message that “weasels have eaten the phone system”. If you got that then congratulations everything is working so far.

Next time we will work on the Asterisk configuration some more.
Asterisk PBX System Install - 06 Two SIP Phones

Asterisk PBX Install - Index

Asterisk PBX & Cisco Install - Index

2009-04-20T14:34:00.000-07:00

1. Asterisk Step by Step
2. CentOS Operating System
3. Asterisk Software Install
4. PBX Test Configuration
5. Loading SIP on Cisco Phones
6. Internal Calls on SIP Phones
7. External Line - Inbound Calls
8. Outbound Calls
9. Voicemail and Macros
10. Conference Calls And Parked Calls
11. Overhead Paging
12. Install H323

Asterisk PBX System Install - 04 PBX Test Config

2009-04-17T05:41:00.000-07:00

Issue: With Asterisk running we want to communicate with it. First step in doing is to configure Asterisk to do something.

Quick/Visual/Learning:

Configuring Asterisk
The first goal is to use a phone to connect to Asterisk and have Asterisk respond.

#cd /etc/asterisk (this is the directory where the asterisk configuration files are)
#mv extensions.conf extensions.conf.sample (mv renames the original sample to extensions.conf.sample)
#touch extensions.conf (This creates a new blank extensions.conf file)

Edit the extensions.conf file to create something we can use to test that the system is working. This is where you setup phone extensions but this is also where you tell Asterisk what to do and how to respond to key presses from the user. This is called the Dialplan for the Asterisk server. There are more details about Dialplans in chapter five of the book but just a quick look for now. Extensions.conf is made up of
-contexts
-extensions
-priorities
-applications

Contexts - are sections set apart by labels in square brackets []. Each section is independent and they do not interact unless you allow them to do so.
Extensions - are not just a phone extension but a set of instructions that are executed when that extension is dialed.
Priorities - determine in what order the extension command are executed.
Applications - execute specific commands like Answering the line or Hanging up the line.

More about this later but for now I just want to configure the file to give me some indication that Asterisk is working. I am going to use the “vi” editing tool so there is some information on how to use it below.

#vi extensions.conf
I like to use vi because it is a common editor on LINUX and UNIX systems but it takes some getting use to.

OK the real truth is, I use vi becuase I took a UNIX class many years ago and that is what I learned how to use. I got an email saying that nano is a good editor. If you want to use it you can install it using yum.

# yum install nano (or emax-nox or vim or any other editor that makes you happy- ;)

Just a quick overview of how vi works if you choose to use it.
I will open a new file called test
#vi test
This opens up a file with the cursor at the top of the file.
In vi there are two modes, Command mode and Insert mode.
You cannot enter text into the file until you get into the Insert mode.
Press the letter i to enter insert mode (use lower case i)
Now you can type some text (you can use the arrow keys to move around)
When you are done you have to go back to Command mode to save and exit.
Press the Esc key to get back to Command mode.
Use the shift key to enter a colon: After the colon, enter wq, which means write and quit like this-
:wq (press enter and you will be out of the vi editor)

Now lets edit our extensions.conf file
------------------------------------------------
#vi extensions.conf

i (you will see the text -- INSERT -- at the bottom of the screen
You can now start entering text.
[globals]

[general]

[default]

[incoming_calls]

[internal]

exten => 401,1,Answer
exten => 401,n,Playback(tt-weasels)
exten=> 401,n,Hangup()

[phones]
include => internal

Esc key to get out of insert mode
:wq Enter key to write and exit
-------------------------------------------

Note if you need to exit vi without saving :q! will force quit with no write.
.

Most of the sections are empty for now. Under the internal context, the commands labeled 401 will execute when extension 401 is dialed. The call will answer, play a sound file, and then hang up the line.

Now we are going to do the same kind of thing with the sip.conf file.

#mv sip.conf sip.conf.sample (mv renames the original sample to sip.conf.sample)
#touch sip.conf (This creates a new blank sip.conf file)
------------------------------------------------------
#vi sip.conf
i

[general]

[207]
context=internal
type=friend
disallow=all
allow=ulaw
host=dynamic

Esc-Key
:wq
---------------------------------------------------

In the sip.conf file under the section [207] is where I configure Asterisk to allow my phone to connect with Asterisk. More about this later when we configure the Cisco 7940 phone to use sip (Session Initiation Protocol) commands. Notice that under [207] is the context of internal. This is the context name I used to setup the 401 test in the extension.conf file.

To recap the sip.conf file is going to allow my phone (extension 207) to connect to asterisk using the context of internal. The extensions.conf file has the 401 extension defined in the same context of “internal” and is configured to play back a sound when I dial that number from my phone.

Now we need to load the new configuration into Asterisk.
If asterisk is not running you can start it by typing at the command line:
#asterisk –vvv (set verbose to 3 which gives you more info in the console screen)
If Asterisk is running you can connect to the Asterisk console by typing “asterisk –r”
#asterisk –r

Your command line changes a bit and you have ServerName*CLI> which indicates you are in the Asterisk Console view.

In asterisk the interface is a bit like cisco command line interface.
>? A question mark will bring up help information
>dialplan ? Will tell you what options you can use with the dialplan command

To load the changes made to extensions.conf type:
>dialplan reload
Some lines of text will show up on the screen. (you may have to press enter to get back to the prompt)

Note: If anyone knows how to keep the console screen from scrolling off before you can read the output please let me know. The workaround is to use the PuTTY program to connect to the asterisk server and launch the Asterisk console. This allows you scroll back the screen.

To load the changes made to the sip.conf file type:
>sip reload
Some lines of text will show up on the screen. (you may have to press enter to get back to the prompt)

To get out of the Asterisk console type exit
>exit

Next we need to Load sip on the phone.

Asterisk PBX System Install - 05 Cisco SIP Phone

Asterisk PBX Install - Index

Asterisk PBX System Install - 03 Software

2009-04-10T17:07:00.000-07:00

Issue:
Packages need to be installed on our Linux CentOS in order to install and run the Asterisk software.

Quick/Visual/Learning: When the computer reboots logon with the root password in the command window. Along with the OS they say I need the following packages:
-Asterisk (along with Extra Sound Files)
-Zaptel Drivers
-PRI Libraries
There are also some Linux packages to be installed, below is the table from the book p.39:

Yum is used to get and install the packages. You need to have a network cable and working internet connection connected to your CentOS box for this to work. Below is an example of what you should see after you type the yum command to download package. You should see that it is downloading some files.

If you are using single processor machine:
-----------single processor commands----------
# rpm -e kernel-devel (removes the kernel-devel module if it is installed)
# yum update kernel* (updates the kernel)
# init 6 (reboot the machine to load the updated kernel)
----------end single processor commands----------

If you are using multi-processor or machine:
------------multi-processor commands-------------
# rpm -e kernel-devel (removes the kernel-devel module if installed)
# rpm -e kernel-smp-devel (removes the kernel-devel module for smp if installed)
# yum update kernel-smp* (update the kernel for smp)
# init 6 (reboot to load the updated kernel)
------------end multi-processor commands-------------

Be sure to reboot the server before installing these packages (important for getting the correct kernel development package).

Here is a list of the packages I installed.

yum install -y gcc
yum install -y ncurses-devel
yum install -y libtermcap-devel
yum install -y kernel-devel (for single processor)
yum install -y kernel-smp-devel (for multi-processor)

If you do not have the right development package installed, you will get an error when you try to compile your software, stating that you do not appear to have the sources for the kernel installed.

yum install -y gcc-c++
yum install -y openssl-devel
yum install -y newt-devel
yum install -y zlib-devel
yum install -y unixODBC-devel
yum install -y libtool
yum install -y make

The wget command is suggested for downloading software files to CentOS.
To download Asterisk 1.4 to the system, first change to the directory where we want to download the files, and run the following commands:
Type cd /usr/src/ to Change Directory to the /usr/src directory
# cd /usr/src/

# wget http://downloads.digium.com/pub/asterisk/asterisk-1.4-current.tar.gz
# wget http://downloads.digium.com/pub/libpri/libpri-1.4-current.tar.gz
# wget http://downloads.digium.com/pub/zaptel/zaptel-1.4-current.tar.gz

Next extract the 3 files
Note: you can use tar zxvf za{Tab} to have the OS complete the filename.

# cd /usr/src/
# tar zxvf zaptel-1.4-current.tar.gz
# tar zxvf libpri-1.4-current.tar.gz
# tar zxvf asterisk-1.4-current.tar.gz

The above commands will extract the files into subfolders under the /usr/src directory

Asterisk includes tools to help build the software modules you need for the phone system. Menuselect is one of these tools that you will see below.

First install Zaptel which handles communication between Asterisk software and the phone hardware.

Note: The book talks about a symbolic folder link named linux-2.4, but it is not needed.

Note: UPPER and lower case matters in Linux commands.

Next we need to compile Zaptel

First do an ls command to find out what the name of the directory is for Zaptel.

#ls
The directory which you may be able to see in the picture below (hard to see because it is in blue) is called zaptel-1.4.12.1
Now to change from the /usr/scr directory to the /usr/scr/zaptel-1.4.12.1 directory I type the command:
#cd /usr/src/zaptel-1.4.12.1
# make clean (I do not think this is really needed unless you need to clean out files from a previous install attempt. If you have any problems try "make distclean" instead of "make clean" to also remove files from menuconfig subdirectory)

# ./configure

# make menuselect

This brings up this menu.
I did not make changes here. (If you are not going to make changes you should not need to run menuselect so you could skip this step)
Just press the x key to save and exit.

# make

# make install

# make config
I do not have any phone hardware installed on the server so is does not find any and no reason for me to edit the file indicated below as I will be using a Cisco call router.

Now I compile libpri (This may not be needed but the book says it does not hurt to install it)
Do an ls command on in the scr directory to get the right directory name
First change to the /usr/src/ directory and then do a listing.
#cd /usr/src/
#ls /usr/src/
#cd /usr/src/libpri-version (fill in the correct version name)
#make clean

#make

#make install

Now with Zzptel and libpri installed it is time to compile Asterisk
#cd /usr/src/
#ls /usr/src/
# cd /usr/src/asterisk-version
# make clean

# ./configure

#make menuselect

For menu navigation use the arrow keys:
Use the up and down arrow keys to move up and down.
Use the right arrow key to select an item
Use the left arrow key to go back
Use the x key to save and exit

Move down to Extras Sound Packages
Use right arrow to get into the submenu

Select the extra sounds GSM file. These will have sound recording that you will need to use with the phone system.

X key to exit the menu

Note : empty brackets [ ] means not going to be installed [*] means will install [xxx] means missing dependency so it can't be installed at this time.

#make install
This command will take a few minutes to run

# make samples

#make config

You should now have Asterisk installed.

Next time we start working on the configuration.

Asterisk PBX System Install - 04 PBX Test Config

Asterisk PBX Install - Index

Asterisk PBX System Install - 02 OS

2009-04-03T06:12:00.000-07:00

Issue:
Install Linux CentOS for our Asterisk PBX

Quick/Visual/Learning:
I am still using the pdf book I downloaded in the first post.

Chapter 3 - Installing Asterisk -
They focus on running CentOS which seems to be a copycat version of RedHat Linux Enterprise. I have no preference for OS so I am going with the one in the book.

I did a google search and found centos.org

I want everything to match the book as best a possible so I downloaded single CD image (iso file) of 4.7 version of CentOS. (version 4.4 is the one they use in the book but I felt better about downloading the last revision of the software)

I picked i386 next because my Dell has a 32 bit Intel processor.

Next you get a big list of sites where you can download the CD image. Pick one and select the Server CD iso which is a little over 600 MB in size.

I use Nero software to burn my iso image to a CD but use whatever tool you like. You can probably search on "free iso burner" and find some options as well.

I put my CentOS 4.7 cd in my Dell server and power on the machine I get a series of install windows.

I selected enter to boot graphical mode

Test CD media (skip this if you think your media is good)

Welcome Screen (click next)

Select Language (click next)

Select keyboard (click next)

Disk partition I selected automatic (click next)

If there is nothing on your drives you will a question about initializing the drive. On a system with existing software the prompt is about if you want to remove all partitions on the system. Click Yes.

Drives listed for use. I selected sda and clicked next

Warning message Click Yes

The system configuration screen for the drives shows. Click on next

Boot loader Screen GRUB. Loads OS from the CentOS cd. Click next

Select the network card eth0 and click on Edit to give the card a static IP address. Unchecked “Configure using DHCP”. I am not going to want the ip address of the PBX to change so I give it a static ip address.

Click OK and at the bottom of this screen configure gateway and DNS information. Click Next

Firewall Screen selected no firewall as the machine is behind our company firewall. Disabled SELinux (Enabled should be OK too)

Get warning about no firewall just click proceed.

Language screen I took the English (USA) default and clicked Next

Selected Time zone and clicked next (note you can click on the map to select area)

Entered the root password twice and next

Package window I clicked on Customized option as I do not want to load a bunch of unneeded stuff. I do load a few things here but you may be able to get away with loading nothing and just downloading the required packages (saved for the next post)

I want to minimize what is running on this server so no desktop packages.

Under Applications I selected text based Internet because I will need to download software to the machine. I also thought that sound support might be handy but maybe not.

Under Servers I only selected configuration tools

Under Development - Development tools
Under System - Administration Tools
Select Next

Click on Next to start the install

You get an install warning that this is the point of no return. Click on next and you see the installation begin

Install completes remove the install cd and you can now reboot the computer.

NEXT POST IS ABOUT INSTALLING ASTERISK AND PACKAGES
Asterisk PBX System Install - 03 Software

Asterisk PBX Install - Index

Cisco Escape Sequence

2009-04-02T11:57:00.000-07:00

Issue: You are doing a traceroute on a Cisco device and can not get out.

Quick: Do this key combination twice ctrl-shft-6
Visual/Learning:

If you have ever done a tracert on a Cisco device you see a message on the screen "Type escape sequence to abort". But the silly thing is they do not tell you what the escape sequence is.

The secret sequence is to press and hold down the Control, Shift, and 6 keys all at the same time. Then release the keys and press them all down a second time. That should get you out of the tracert or ping that you are doing.

Posting Code to Blog

2009-04-01T20:15:00.000-07:00

Issue: You want to post some code to your blog but the it gets all messed up.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
Here are some tools I found to transform your code so it displays correctly;

from Force Monkey site

---Text From Site---
Postable
Then, you simple wrap <code></code> tags around your converted "HTML friendly" text, and wala! It's viewable in a Google Blog post (and can be copied by your readers!):

Here's another site that goes one better, giving you an option to transform the text into standard HTML code with colorized tags:

---End Text From Site---

CentOS RedHat - Network Configure

2009-04-01T11:57:00.000-07:00

Issue: Need to change the network configuration

Quick/Visual/Learning:

The command ifconfig will tell you what your current configuration is:
#ifconfig

If you want to change it you can run netconfig.
#netconfig
This brings up a window where you can enter your desired IP configuration.

When you are done restart the network services.
#service network restart
or
#service network reload
You can manually edit files in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts files ifcfg-eth0

Asterisk PBX & Cisco System Install - 01 Step by Step Example

2009-03-27T10:44:00.000-07:00

Issue:
Configuring Asterisk and connecting with Cisco Call Manager using our existing Cisco hardware.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
Asterisk is an open source VOIP PBX system. The problem we are going to look at is how to make this work with our existing Cisco Equipment.

What we have to work with:
-Cisco 7940 series IP Phones
-Cisco 1760 VOIP router with FXO cards
-Cisco 3550 Catalyst Switch
-POTs line (plain old telephone
-Dell PowerEdge 860 rack mount server

Over a series of posts I will see what it takes to put together a working phone system.

Being that I am not a Linux or Asterisk guru at this point I will look for some online resources for help.

At wwww.asterisk.org there is a link to a free book that you can download as a pdf file so I am going to start there.

Preface - Says this is a book about anybody new to Asterisk and that is me. Here it claims to be a full featured system with features like voicemail, hosted conferencing, music on hold, and the like. Sounds good so far.

Chapter 1 - A Telephony Revolution - Says Asterisk is very flexible but not so simple to configure. I expected as much but let's see if we can figure it out. States there is an active and supportive Asterisk community but warns that they may not be very friendly to those who have not done some work to answer the easy questions themselves.

Where else to go for Help
Mailing lists Located at lists.digium.com
-Asterisk-Dev for developers only - end user questions not welcome here
-Asterisk-Users This is a place where I can go for help (after I have done my home work)
Users Mailing list archive is here
Lists viop-info.org as the best place to go for Asterisk knowledge after the mailing list archives.
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel #asterisk on irc.freenode.net is another source of help.
You may also be able to find local asterisk user groups

To search the mailing list archive for cisco 1760, use google like this:
"cisco 1760" site:http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/

To post to the mailing list you need to send your post from the same email address that you subscribed with and send to:

The books says they are going to cover just the basics of getting things going and that you can build on from there.

Chapter 2 - Preparing a System for Asterisk -
Linux and Asterisk will run on most any hardware but I need it to run well so I'll take a look at this chapter.
I need a system for a small group of about 50 users who are not on the phone a lot. So it looks like my dual core Dell with 2 GB of RAM should be more then up to the task. In fact I think I may build a virtual server as a backup. They mention that large organization can grow Asterisk using multiple servers but probably not a task for the new user to tackle. See page 12 of the book for more information.
There is a lot of stuff in this chapter but I am going to assume for now I am OK and continue on.

NEXT Asterisk PBX System Install - 02 OS

Asterisk PBX Install - Index

Fill Out Paper Form Using Word As Typewriter

2009-03-25T10:44:00.000-07:00

Issue: You need to fill out a paper form and make it look nice.

Quick: Scan Document insert in Header resize set layout "behind text"

Visual/Learning:
Saw this on this blog link and thought it may come in handy.
1. Scan the form into computer as a picture
2. Open word
3. Go to View => Header and Footer

4. Go to menu Insert => Picture and insert the picture of the form into the header area.

5. Size the form picture to fit the page

6. Right click picture select format picture Behind Text

7. Click out side header area and type in text. User returns and spaces to position cursor.

Email Scrambler for Blog Page

2009-03-20T15:12:00.000-07:00

Issue: Want to put your email on a blog or web page but want to avoid bots harvesting your email address.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
This site has a free tool to generate code that will hide your email address in plain view.
Or you could create a jpg picture of your email account and post that to your webpage.

Organizational Forms Library Setup

2009-03-13T12:43:00.000-07:00

Issue: You have an Outlook form and you want to publish it on the Exchange server. Before you can do this for the first time, you must setup the Organizational Forms Library on the server.

Quick: In ESM / Public /Folders (view system folders); Eforms Registry / New / Create Folder

Visual:

Learning:
In order to install forms you need to setup an Orgainzational Form Library in the Exchange server. This is something that you only need to do once. In fact you can only create one library for each language. After it is created the library you can add as many forms as you like.

You also need to give permissons to people who need to add forms to the library.

This Microsoft link explains how to Create the Folders. Somtimes links change so I have also pasted in the text down below. (Skip Down To See How To Add Permissions)
-----------Text form link -----------------
To create an Organizational Forms Library in Exchange Server 2003, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, point to All Programs, click Microsoft Exchange, and then click System Manager.

2. Expand Folders, and then click Public Folders.

3. On the System Manager toolbar, click the Action menu, and then click View System Folders.

4. In the left pane, right-click EForms Registry, point to New, and then click organization form.

5. In the Name box, type the name of the folder.

6.Under E-forms language, click to select the appropriate language.

To create copies of the Organizational Forms Library on other servers, click the Replication tab, and then type the name of server that you want to contain the copy of the Organizational Forms Library.

Note An Organizational Forms Library is a special type of public folder that is listed only with system folders. You can have only one Organizational Forms Library for each language per organization.

To set storage limits for an Organizational Forms Library, click the Limits tab. To create a description of an Organizational Forms Library, click the Details tab. To set permissions for each user, click the Permissions tab. -------------End Text form link ---------------------

For permissions you will want everyone to be able to open the forms but only certian people should be able to install new forms.

Right click on the new Forms folder.
Click on the permissions tab.
Click Client permissions button
Set the default to Reviewer
Add users who need to add forms with rights that allow them to Create items. You can pick a preconfigured role from the drop down list or add individual rights using the check boxes and radial buttons.

Note if you get the error:
"The token supplied to the function is invalid" when trying to get to the folders then you need to turn off "Require secure channel (SSL)" in IIS for Exchadmin folder"

AutoCAD Error - Unable To Save To Drawing

2009-03-11T15:05:00.000-07:00

Issue: Get an error message "Unable to save to drawing . Drawing saved to

Quick: Set .bak file for that drawing to all inherited rights and be sure it is not read only.

Visual/Learning:
Very strange problem showed up. Engineer trying to save a AutoCAD drawing got the following error message:

Saving as any other name works fine but every time he tried to save as that name it removed both the .dwg and .bak files and saved the file as .tmp file.

Verified this behavior on 2 different machines.

Found a link to some information that was helpful stating at the end that the .bak file might be read only.

I check and the .bak file was not read only, but when I right clicked the file and checked the security settings for the file it was not inheriting security from the folder. I set the .bak file to inherit security and now it works.

Still odd because I would think that with the .bak file coming and going it would get the correct security but not the case for some reason.

Outlook Sync With Palm -Categories Fix

2009-03-04T08:48:00.000-08:00

Issue:
You syncronize your palm device but the categories to not sync up on your hand held device.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
Found this link that was helpful.

-----Text From Link----
When I sync my Palm with Outlook, my categories don't transfer over (my todos are listed under the "unfiled" category). How do I get my categories in the handheld to match my categories in Outlook?

You will need to properly configure PocketMirror in order for your categories to transfer.

You will need to do the following:

1. Go to "PocketMirror Settings" by clicking “Start/Programs/PocketMirror/PocketMirror Settings”.
2. From the “Chapura Settings” screen, select the handheld user name you wish to edit, and click on the “Settings” button.
3. From the “Change Synchronization Preferences” screen, select the Outlook application you wish to edit, and click on the “Change” button.
4. From the "Preference Settings for Outlook …” screen, select the “Categories/Folders” topic.
5. From the “Categories/Folders” screen, select how PocketMirror will synchronize your categories/folders. The options are: "Handheld category = Outlook's 'Categories' field", "Handheld category = user-defined field 'PalmPilot' category", or "Handheld category = Outlook folder" (The last option, "Handheld category = Outlook folder" is a feature which is only available with PocketMirror 3.0 Professional.)
6. Exit PocketMirror, and synchronize.

-----End Text From Link----

Ubuntu Video Mode Not Supported

2009-03-01T13:34:00.000-08:00

Issue: Ubuntu Linux server plugged into kvm comes up with error "Video Mode Not Supported" and the screen is blank.

Quick/Visual/Learning: Work around - Login blind with user name and password then video works normally after it is logged in.

Uninstall Problems With AutoCAD Civil3D

2009-02-28T10:46:00.000-08:00

Issue: After uninstalling AutoCAD Civil 3D 2008 we were unable to re-install because the installer thought that the application was already loaded.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
After using add/remove programs to uninstall AutoCAD Civil 3D we had a issue trying to re-install. The box for installing Civil 3d was grayed out. The text under the option said that it was already installed.

After searching for and deleting files from the hard drive and Autodesk registry entries the problem still persisted. In the end the fix turned out to be that we needed to rename or delete the installer directory for the application.

The directory for Civil 3D is the one in the picture above. Look for it in either:

C:\WINNT\Installer\{2CD6BBA0-17C8-4789-9B9B-B36F7E815F6A}

OR C:\Windows\Installer\{2CD6BBA0-17C8-4789-9B9B-B36F7E815F6A}

After renaming the diretory the installer no longer saw the application as already loaded and allowed to check the installation box.

Found this tool "Window installer Cleanup Utility" that is supose to do the cleanup for you.

Outlook Forms Step By Step Index

2009-02-26T08:00:00.000-08:00

As of 7/2009 Currently looking for a new job so I may not be as responsive as normal to comments.

VMware Failed To Lock File Error

2009-02-23T09:52:00.000-08:00

Issue: Running VMware windows guest on a Ubuntu host failed to start with error "Failed to lock the file".

Quick: In the VMguest folder delete the .WRITELOCK files.

Visual/Learning:
Error message looks like this:

"Cannot open the disk '/var/lib/vmware/Virtual Machines/Windows XP
Professional/Windows XP Professional.vmdk' or one of the snapshot
disks it depends on.
Reason: Failed to lock the file."

Go to the directory for the vm guest /vm/GuestDirectory
Delete all the writelock files.
rm *WRITELOCK
Now it starts up.

Install Windows98 On VMware For Old Games

2009-02-20T16:30:00.000-08:00

Issue: You have an old game or program that only runs on Windows 98
Quick/Visual/Learning:

Found a list of howto steps here:

----Text From Link----
1. Install VMware.

2. Start it.

3. Select localhost if asked.

4. Click New Virtual Machine.

5. Next, Select Custom, Next.

6. Select MS Windows and 98 from the list. Next.

7. Select where to create it. Select hard disk which have most of free space.

8. Next, Next, One processor, Next, Enter desired memory. I left it to default (256). Next, Next, Next, Create a new virtual disk, IDE, enter disk size. Next and Done. It creates new virtual disk. Wait…

9. Now double-click the CD-ROM on the Devices list. Use physical device. Host. Select your CDROM drive from the list. Preferably first CD/DVD drive. OK.

10. Put your 98 CD in.

11. Click Edit virtual machine settings. Hardware tab, click Add… Next. Choose Floppy Drive. Next. Use physical floppy drive (If you do not have it, choose Create a blank floppy image.) Next and Done. OK. Now head to http://www.bootdisk.com/bootdisk.htm Select Windows 98 (SE if your 98 is Second Edition). Download it. If you do not have a floppy drive (I have it but it is disconnected), you’ll have to use WinRar to extract the exe. Install WinRar. Right-click the downloaded exe (boot98se.exe) and select Extract to PATH\ (boot98se). Ignore the error. Now open the folder which WinRar created (boot98se). Copy the .IMA file to folder where you created the virtual disk. For example: C:\Virtual Machines\Windows 98. Now back into VMware.

12. If you do not have floppy drive: On Devices list, double-click Floppy. Click Use floppy image. And Browse… Select All Files. Select the copied .IMA file. OK. Now it should boot from ‘floppy’.
IF you have floppy drive: use the exe to create boot diskette and use it to boot your virtual machine.

13. Now Start the virtual machine. Select ‘Start computer with CD-ROM support’ from the Startup menu. Let it to load drivers and stuff…

14. You’ll get ‘Windows 98 has detected that drive C does not ….’ message. Now type fdisk.

15. Answer Y(es). Select 1, Select 1, Answer Y(es). Press Esc, when done. You are back on A:\ prompt. Shutdown the virtual machine. And repower it. Again select CD-ROM support. And wait.

16. Now type format C: answer Y(es). Enter volume label, if you like. Now you have formatted C: drive.

17. Type CDROMDRIVE:\setup.exe, where CDROMDRIVE is most likely E: Press Enter, to let scandisk to.. scan disk. Now just follow onscreen instructions.

18. When it restarts, take out the floppy image , so it will not boot from it.
----End Of Text From Link----

This link may be helpful as well about get CD drive to show up on DOS machine

Self Assigned SSL Certificate For OWA

2009-02-13T05:03:00.000-08:00

Issue:
You want to create and your own SSL certificate without going through a vendor for Outlook Web Access (OWA)

Quick: Use SelfSSL

Visual/Learning:

Download SelfSSL Tool
Put this on your server running IIS and install it per the steps below:

Run the file iis60rkt.exe
Click Next on the welcome screen
Select "I agree" on license page and Next
Enter information on Customer Information page and click Next
On Next window Setup Type select custom then Next
Click Next to take the default install path
On Select Features window you only need to select SelfSSL 1.0 click Next

To finish the install click Next on the overview window

To run the application you will need 3 things:

1.Website ID - Get this from IIS Manager

2.Common Name - this is the name that goes on the browser address line. Normally you would contact your internet service provider and ask them to add a DNS record for the name you want to use.

3.Valid Days - You pick a number of days for it to be valid.

You can find the website ID by looking in IIS Manager (see below). Here the identifier is the default of 1.

Start SelfSSL from the windows start menu.

You get a command prompt. Type selfssl /t /v:365 /n:cn=Owa.MyCompany.com (or whatever you have registered in dns to get to your OWA server)

Here is a link with another method as well Free_SSL_OWA

Here is a link for using Third_Party_SSL_Certificate

Back To Index

Force Windows Safe Boot

2009-02-10T05:59:00.000-08:00

Issue: Need to reboot a remote machine into safe mode with networking support. Or if just want to force your local machine without having to hit the F8 key.

Quick: Add to the boot.ini file - /safeboot:minimal /sos /bootlog /noguiboot

Visual/Learning:
Warning!!! This help shows you how to edit the boot.ini file. Be careful when working with this file. This file tells the computer where to go to boot windows and if you mess that up it wont start windows anymore till it is fixed. So be careful!

The example below shows XP. In XP and later you can run msconfig on the start run line to edit the boot.ini with a gui interface, but it works for windows 2000 as well you just have to edit the boot.ini file manually.

Go to the c:\ folder and open the boot.ini file in notepad.

Note: You may have to unhide system files for the boot.ini file to show up. You can show hidden files by opening a windows explorer window and select tools menu - folder options - view tab - uncheck "hide protected operating system files". You may also need to right click in the boot.ini file and uncheck the box for "read only"

Just take out the added boot.ini switches to boot normal again.

This link shows you all the switches
---Text from the link ------

The Safe-mode boot modes and corresponding switches include:

Mode: Safe Mode
Switch: /safeboot:minimal /sos /bootlog /noguiboot

Mode: Safe Mode with Networking
Switch: /safeboot:network /sos /bootlog /noguiboot

Mode: Safe Mode with Command Prompt
Switch: /safeboot:minimal(alternateshell) /sos /bootlog /noguiboot

Mode: Enable Boot Logging
Switch: /bootlog

Mode: Enable VGA Mode
Switch: /basevideo

Mode: Directory Services Restore Mode (Domain Controllers Only)
Switch: /safeboot:dsrepair /sos

Mode: Debugging Mode
Switch: /debug

NOTE: The /sos /bootlog /noguiboot switches are not required with any of the above settings, but they are useful to help with troubleshooting. These switches are included if you press F8 and choose one of the modes.

---End Text from link----

VM Ware Bios

2009-02-05T06:50:00.000-08:00

Issue: Need to change the boot setting for Virtual Machine running on Windows Host.

Quick: Select the virtual machine console window. Press alt-cntl-del esc-f2

Visual/Learning:
The boot may happen too quickly to hit the and get into the virtual machine bios settings. The following method has worked for me.

Start the virtual machine and select the console window. Press the Alt+Cntl+Del buttons at the same time.

This will cause the Guest machine to reboot but it also causes the Windows Host machine to switch to the Windows Security window.

Quickly press key to get out of the Security window followed by to get into the bios of the guest machine.

You can also add the following line to the small .vmx text file:
bios.bootDelay = "5000"

Perl Script To Identify If Office 2003 SP3 Is Installed

2009-01-31T13:57:00.000-08:00

Issue:
Need to identify which machines have Office 2003 SP3 installed.

Quick: Microsoft Notes indicate files that have changed. Check size of one of the updated files.

Visual/Learning:
Pick one of the updated files to use an indicator that SP3 is loaded. Search for the file to see where it is located on one of the workstations.

The following line of Perl code executes the dos dir command to list one of the files updated by SP3. If I know what the new file size should be, I can do a comparison to check for the service pack. In this case the file size should be 103,256 bytes for the SP3 version of the MCPS.DLL file.

my @results = ( `dir \\\\$workstation\\"c\$\\Program Files\\Microsoft Office\\OFFICE11\\MCPS.DLL"` );

Download Software To A Safe Area

2009-01-28T13:49:00.000-08:00

Issue:
You are looking for a free program to do a task, like convert a sound file, but you want to avoid downloading some nasty malware in the process.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
http://sandboxie.com/ Get a free program here that will allow you to capture and download information into a temporary sandbox. When you are done you close the sandbox and nothing gets written to your hard drive or registry. A pay version of the program allows you to do some extra stuff like automatically launch a sandbox each time you open a browser.

Cisco - Loading New IOS

2009-01-23T01:36:00.000-08:00

Issue: You need to update the IOS on your Cisco Router or Switch

Quick: copy tftp: flash:
Visual/Learning:
It is very easy to do but you need to have a tftp server running to copy the files. You can run it on a workstation or laptop. Here are some links to download free tftp servers that you can get online:
http://tftpd32.jounin.net/tftpd32_download.html
http://www.solarwinds.com/products/freetools/free_tftp_server.aspx

You just need one of these.
I used the tftpd32 program. Just download the file and run it. Launch the install application from the start menu and see something like this:

Run the copy command as shown to copy the file from the tftp server to the cisco device:

router#copy tftp: flash:
Address or name of remote host []? X.X.X.X --> Ip address where the tftp server is and the file is stored
Source filename []? xxxxxx.bin ----> IOS file name (include the extension)
Destination filename [xxxxx.bin]? Just press Enter
Get prompt to Erase flash before copying? [confirm] Just press Enter to confirm.
That will access the TFTP server and start copying the file on to the flash of the router. You will see the router working on the copy.

Once the file is copied, check with a "show flash" that the file is properly stored.
router#show flash
router#config t
router(config)#boot-start-marker
router(config)#boot system flash:xxxxxx.bin -----> the IOS file name.
router(config)#boot-end-marker
router(config)#end
router#wr mem
router#reload
confirm? Yes

You will lose your telnet session at this point and it will take several minutes before you can ping and connect to the router again.

After the reload is done, check if the IOS upgrade has been succesfully done, by running a "show version" and check that the new file is loaded.

Windows MMC Customization

2009-01-19T12:19:00.000-08:00

Issue:
Create a custom Microsfot Management Console with all of your favorite tools or customize one with restricted function for task delegation.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
Here is a link to Step-By-Step Guide

Custom consoles are saved as .msc files that can be shared via email, public file folder, or even through a policy.

Basically:
run mmc
Add your snapins

You can customize access with:
-multiple windows
-Extensions Tab allows you to remove functions
-Create Console Taskpads (with limited function)
--Right click on item in tree and select "New Taskpad"
---Wizard steps through creation of Taskpad

Removing the first Exchange Server 2003

2009-01-14T12:34:00.000-08:00

Issue:
Avoiding problems when removing an Exchange server.

Quick:
Move system folders like (calendar free/busy information)
Rehome the Organizational Forms Folder
Move Public Folders
Move Offline Address list function
Re-Home RUS
Move Routing Group Master function
Move any other connectors
Move Mailboxes
Wait for some time to verify all is well
Uninstall Exchange using Installation Wizard

Visual/Learning:
Links to detailed information
Microsoft KB
MsExchange.Org Tutorial

Add Word Template

2009-01-11T08:33:00.000-08:00

Issue:
Need to add a Word Template file.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
Found the answer here

After the adding the file as indicated below you should see the template under File - New - General Tab

---text from link---
Open Word and click Tools - Templates and Add-Ins. The Template and Add-Ins dialog box opens.

Click the Attach button button and the Attach Template dialog box opens.
Note the directory by clicking the down-arrow next to the Look-in box. Mine was c:\Documents and Settings\Ron\Application Data\Microsoft\Templates.
(Of course clearly where you expected to find it, right?)
Open Explorer and find this directory.
(Note: If you don't see it, don't panic. Click Tools - Folder Options in the Explorer menu bar, then click the View tab and click the radio button next to Show hidden files and folders.)
Copy your template (.dot) file into this directory.
Go back to Word and access the Templates and Add-Ins dialog box again. Click Attach and you should see your new template file. Click it to select it and click Open.
Click OK and you should be in business.
---end text from link---

Free Fax Testing

2009-01-08T10:09:00.000-08:00

Issue:
Need to send a test fax.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
Use this link
http://www.interpage.net/sub-wwwfax.html

Return Fax Test

Telephone Color Code 25 Pair

2009-01-02T09:53:00.000-08:00

Issue:
Tracing cables to punch blocks what is the color code?

Quick:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25-pair_color_code

Visual:
Image from the above link

Outlook Contacts Vcard SMTP Address

2008-12-26T12:02:00.000-08:00

Issue:
You want to create a Vcard from your personal information contact entry to send in your signature but your Exchange server keeps validating and replacing your email address with your name underlined. Clicking the name shows your active directory Information.

Quick:
Type a bogus email address, click off the field, edit the field.

Visual/Learning:
Here is the problem.
You open a contact entry for yourself in outlook so you can create a Vcard.
You type your valid email address in the email field.

Because you have a Microsoft Exchange server your name get authenticated by active directory and your email address changes to your user account name. If you click on it you see you active directory information and the email information is in the exchange format EX. If you send this out as a Vcard the email address will be invalid.
To fix this edit the email field and put some non-existing bogas email address in that field.
Now click off of the field and that bogas address will get underlined. See below.

If you double click on this bogus address you get a properties box and you can edit it with the correct address.

Now with the correct information click on OK

Your contact email field now has the correct information that you can now use to create a Vcard.

Link on How To Use The Vcard Feature In Outlook
---Text from Link---
How to create a vCard
Use the following steps to create a vCard:
-In a Contact folder, click to select the contact for which you want a vCard.
-On the File menu, click Save As.
-In the Save file as type box, click to select VCARD Files (*.vcf).
-In the Save In box, select the folder where you want to save the vCard file, and then click Save.
-This creates a vCard file with the same name as that of the Contact.

How to distribute a vCard
You can distribute a vCard file as you distribute any other computer file.
To do this:
-Open a new message and address it to the recipient.
-On the Insert menu, click File.
-Click to select a vCard (.vcf) file, and then click OK.
NOTE: If you want to include Notes with your vCard, you must insert the .vcf file. If the .vcf is attached to your signature, the Notes field (and other fields) are removed prior from the vCard.

How to automatically process a vCard
With Outlook, you can automatically convert a vCard that was received from an external source to an Outlook Contact record. If the vCard arrives as an e-mail attachment, you can double-click the vCard attachment and then click Save And Close to add it to your default Contact folder. Alternatively, you can create a Contact from a vCard by dragging it to the Contacts folder.

NOTE: If the vCard icon appears as a generic Windows icon, it does not open when you double-click the icon, or you may receive an Open With prompt because the vCard File program is not associated with the .vcf file type.

If you receive the vCard in the form of a file on a disk, you can import it into your default Contact folder by using the Outlook "Import and Export Wizard." To do this, follow these steps:
-On the File menu, click Import And Export.
-Click to select the Import a vCard file (*.vcf) check box, and then click Next.
-Click to select the vCard file, and then click Open.
The vCard data is used to create a Contact record in your default Contacts folder.

How to store a vCard in a secondary contacts folder
If you import a vCard file, or if you open and then save a vCard file, it is placed directly into your default Contacts folder in the default message store.

To store the vCard in a Contacts folder other than the default, you can drag the vCard file to the secondary folder or first import it into the default Contacts folder, and copy it to the secondary folder.

How to include a vCard with your automatic signature
To do this, follow these steps:
-On the Tools menu, click Options.
-On the Mail Format tab, click Signatures.
-Click New to add a new signature.
-Enter a name for your signature, and then click Next.
-Type the desired signature information in the text window.
-In Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and in earlier versions of Outlook, click New vCard from Contact.

In Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, click Business Card, select the contact that you want to add, and then click OK three times.
In the Show Names from the box, select Contacts or another address list.
Click to select the entry for which you want to create a vCard, click OK, click Finish, and then click OK to complete the signature entry.
Note If your vCard contains Notes, UserDefined fields, or Outlook-specific fields, these values are stripped from the vCard that is included with the signature. The Signature Picker specifically includes only those fields in a Contact that are essential to the definition of a vCard.
---End Text From Link

Cisco Router Backup and Restore

2008-12-22T03:40:00.000-08:00

Issue: How to backup and restore Cisco router configuration.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
You need to be able to connect to a TFTP server. If you don’t have one you can download and install SolarWinds free TFTP server. http://www.solarwinds.com/downloads

You can run this on your workstation or laptop.

You can also get information at a link here about these commands.

With your TFTP server running, telnet into the router you want to backup.
Type enable and enter the password

Enter the following command to backup the running configuration
copy system:running-config tftp:

Next you are prompted for the IP address of the TFTP server
Enter the IP and press enter

Next you are prompted to enter the name of the backup file
Make up a name or use the default and press enter
The file gets copied and you see information regarding bytes copied.

To copy the Startup configuration from non-volitle memory enter this command:
copy nvram:startup-config tftp:
And complete using the same steps as noted above.

You can copy a saved configuration back to the router by reversing the order of the command.
copy tftp: system:running-config (copies from the TFTP server to the router)

You can backup the IOS with:
copy flash tftp

Avoid Email Scams

2008-12-19T14:57:00.000-08:00

Issue:

Watch out for and avoid Scam Mail.

Quick/Visual/Learning:

Friendly warning to be suspicious of any email that you get requesting that you either send in information or that you log on to a website to update information. The bad guys use tricks like this to try and get your passwords and logon information so they can steal money from your account.

Below is an example of a fake message from Fidelity asking to update your records so that your account is not suspended. These guys always use language like this to try and scare people into taking action right away. By clicking on the link you go to a fake but very real looking Fidelity web page. When you try to log on to the page they capture your user name and password and now they have what they need to access your account.

Don't be fooled by this kind of stuff. If you are unsure it is best to get the phone number from a reliable source and call the company. If you get stuff in email that you did not request don't trust it even if it appears to come from a friend.

If someone calls me at home asking for personal information I say "No thank you" and hang up. Do the same with this kind of email, delete it.

Make Vista More Like XP

2008-12-17T06:33:00.000-08:00

Issue:
You hate the Vista interface and want it to be more like XP. Here is how to do it.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
The text below is just the meat from this Post from the TechRepublic site.
Note to be careful as always with any registry edits.

---Text from link---

Disable User Access Control (UAC)
1. Access the Control Panel and select Classic View.
2. Locate and click User Accounts.
3. Select the Turn User Account Control on or off and respond appropriately to the UAC.
4. Clear the Use User Account Control (UAC) to help protect your computer.
5. Click OK.
6. Restart Windows

Disable Notificatin Ballons
1. Access the Run dialog box, type Regedit in the Open text box, and click OK.
2. Locate the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced Click on the right-hand pane.
3. Pull down the Edit menu and select the New DWORD (32-bit) Value command
4. Name the new key EnableBalloonTips.
5. Make sure the value is set to 0.
6. Click OK.
7. Log off and then back on.

Disable Windows Defender
1. Access Windows Defender on the Start All Programs menu.
2. Click the Tools button.
3. Click Options in the Settings section.
4. Clear the following check boxes:
a. Automatically scan my computer.
b. Use real-time protection.
c. Scan the contents of archived files and folders for potential threats
d. Use heuristics to detect potentially harmful or unwanted behavior by software that hasn’t been analyzed for risks.
e. Create a restore point before applying actions to detected items.
f. Use Windows Defender.
5. Click Save.
6. Access the Run dialog box, type Services.msc in the Open text box, and click OK.
7. Locate and click the Windows Defender service.
8. Select Disabled in the Startup type drop down, click the Stop button, and then click OK.

Disable TCP/IPv6 and Topology Discovery Mapper
1. Access the Control Panel.
2. Click Network and Sharing Center.
3. Select Manage network connections in the Tasks pane.
4. Right click on Local Area Connection/Wireless Network Connection and select Properties.
5. Clear the Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6) check box.
6. Clear the Link Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O Driver check box.
7. Clear the Link Layer Topology Discovery Mapper Responder check box.
8. Click OK.
9. Access the Run dialog box, type Services.msc in the Open text box, and click OK.
10. Locate and click the Link Layer Topology Discovery Mapper service.
11. Select Disabled in the Startup type drop down, and if it is started, click the Stop button.
12. Click OK

Turn off special Vista features
1. Access the Control Panel.
2. Click Programs and Features.
3. Select Turn Windows Features on or off in the Tasks pane.
4. Clear the check boxes adjacent to any Vista options in your version that are turned on. For example:
a. Expand the Games branch and clear the check boxes next to all of the Vista games such as Chess Titans, Ink Ball, Mahjong Titans, or Purble Place.
b. Expand the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 branch and clear the check box next to XPS Viewer.
c. Expand the Print Services branch and clear Internet Printing Client check box.
d. Clear the Remote Differential Compression check box.
e. Clear the Tablet PC Optional Components check box.
f. Clear the Windows DFS Replication Service check box.
g. Clear the Windows Meeting Space check box.
h. Clear the Windows Ultimate Extras check box.
5. Click OK and wait for the features to be turned off.
6. Restart Windows

Disable Automatic Defragging
1. Access Disk Defragmenter (StartAll ProgramsAccessoriesSystem Tools)
2. Clear the Run on a schedule check box.
3. Click OK.

Enable the Explorer menu bar
1. Access the Control Panel.
2. Click Folder Options.
3. Select the View tab.
4. Select the Always show menus check box.
5. Click OK.

Disable the new Start menu
1. Right-click the Start button and choose Properties.
2. Select the Classic Start menu option
3. Click OK.

Disable the Taskbar thumbnails
1. Right click the Taskbar and choose Properties.
2. Clear the Show window previews check box.
3. Click OK.

Disable the Sidebar
1. Right-click in the Sidebar and choose Properties.
2. Clear the Start Sidebar when Windows starts check box.
3. Click OK.
4. Right-click in the Sidebar again and choose Close Sidebar.

Disable Visual Effects
1. Access the Control Panel.
2. Locate and click System.
3. Select Advanced System Settings in the Tasks pane.
4. Click the Settings button in the Performance panel.
5. On the Visual Effects tab, select the Custom option, and clear every check box in the list.
6. Click OK.

Disable Aero
1. Access the Run dialog box, type Services.msc in the Open text box, and click OK.
2. Locate and click the Desktop Window Manager Session Manager service.
3. Select Disabled in the Startup type drop down, click the Stop button, and then click OK.
---End Text from link---

Another link on restoring the XP backup utility on Vista Restore a lost feature and install XP's Backup Utility into Windows Vista

Cisco VOIP - Remote Functions

2008-12-14T18:49:00.000-08:00

Issue:
How to access administrative features of our Cisco IP phone system from an external phone.

We wanted to be able to access the building overhead intercom system from an outside phone so that security personnel could make contact with people coming in after hours.

Normally we can make announcements to people inside our building by picking up our Cisco IP phone and entering *60 to access the building intercom system.

We were able to do this remotely by setting up a phone extension that forwards all calls to a Cisco Telephone Interface Route Point. The route point in turn accesses the *60 feature.

First lets add the CTI Route Point in Call Manager.
Under Device select “CTI Route Point “

Click on “Add a New CTI Route Point”

Enter the name of the Device and calling search space and location
Click on Insert to add it.

Click on OK in the pop up window to add a directory number for this device

Here I have given the device the number 822.
This device will forward all calls to *60. Remember this is the code we use to get to the intercom system.

Now all I have to do is create a phone extension that forwards all calls to 822.

Now when I call from outside I connect to extension 5555 (number changed a bit) which transfers me straight to the intercom system.

Install Using Logon Script

2008-12-12T01:44:00.000-08:00

Issue:
Automation of software install or upgrade using a logon batch file.

Quick:
Logon script calls batch file to remove old application and install new one.

Visual/Learning:
Looking at one of the user accounts you can see that the Logon script is pointed to a file called patches.bat

Patches.bat is located in the NETLOGON directory of the domain controller.

Patches.bat calls other modules to install and update software. In this case we will look at the module_mapcad.bat

This batch file is also in the NETLOGON directory

Below bat file listing in small text with comments in large text.
------------------

@echo off
rem remove, install or upgrade MapCAD for Land Desktop

This application depends on AutoCAD so the scripts checks to see if the acad.exe file exists. If it does the program jump to the start label otherwise it goes to the end label.

if exist "C:\Program Files\AutoCAD Civil 3D Land Desktop Companion 2008\acad.exe" goto start
goto end

Here is the start label. We next check for the existence of a text file. This file gets written to the drive if a previous install was successful. If it exists we jump to the end, otherwise we continue with the install.

:start
if exist "C:\Program Files\MapCAD\MapCAD-2008v12.05.txt" goto end

This uninstalls a previous version of the software. You can find the right key to uninstall by searching the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall for the name of the application you want to remove. Uninstall using the key name (long hexidecimal number). The -quite part of this does a silent uninstall

rem uninstall the previous version
msiexec.exe /Uninstall {B4AB209A-0493-4E11-BB16-72418BBFA9BF} -quiet

Here the new version is installed. The install files need to be place somewhere where then can be installed. In this case on the logon server.

rem install the new version
call "%logonserver%/netlogon/Mapcad/MapCAD_2008v12.05/MapCAD Suite 2008-LD v12.05 Setup.msi" /quiet /passive

After the install a text file is written as an indication to the script that it has already completed and does not need to run again on the current workstation. Also a tracking file is updated to monitor which workstations have run the script.

echo %computername% %date% %time% "2008v12.05 update" > "C:\Program Files\MapCAD\MapCAD-2008v12.05.txt"
echo 2008v12.05 update %computername% %date% %time% %username% >> \\FileSvr1\Batch-tracking\MapCAD.txt

:end

AutoCAD Drawing Opens Slow

2008-12-08T16:47:00.000-08:00

Issue:
AutoCAD 2008 and 2009 drawings open slow

Quick: Files and xrefs can contain excess scales that slow open to 5 minutes or more.
Use the command "-scalelistedit" ? to see the list, use r to reset to basic list.

Visual/Learning:
Explination and free tool at this site to clean multiple files at once.

Sycronize Windows Files to External Drive

2008-11-30T14:59:00.000-08:00

Issue:
You want to have the same files at home and at work and keep them in Sync

Quick/Visual/Learning:
I have not been very happy with the speed of the synchronization programs I have tried in the past. There are probably some good ones out there somewhere.

As of right now I am using some free utilities to do the job. Robocopy is a fast command-line copy utility from the Windows Resource Kit that you can download here. There are a lot of options and you can get some instructions for those here.

Typically what I do is copy my work files to an external disk to take home and my home files to an external disk to take to work. (I am sure someone has figured out a secure over the Internet windows to windows sync but I have not taken the time yet to find it).

So I use robocopy in a bat file like this:
robocopy "C:\Sync" F:\Sync /mir /z /R:0 /W:0 /v /np /log:Sync2Home.txt

This is fast and works great. Only newer files get updated. The /mir will remove old things from the F drive that I have deleted from my master file copy on the C drive.

The problem is that if I forget and make a change on my F drive those changes get deleted the next time I run the robocopy command. This happens because the /mir trys to make the target look just like the source and extra stuff on the F drive is deleted.

As a workaround for this I decided to use the /xo /xx switches. The /xo command says to not backup files where the source is older. The /xx says not to delete extra files and directories on the destination.

Now changes on the destination do not get wiped out but I need to reconcile any differences. I need to quickly find the problem areas (these get logged to the log file). I use another tool called baregrep to search for destination files marked as Newer or Extra. This tool can be found at baremetalsoft here.

So what I have now in my bat file is this:

robocopy "C:\Sync" F:\Sync /mir /z /R:0 /W:0 /v /xo /xx /np /log:Sync2Home.txt
baregrep "Newer(vertical bar pipe symbol goes here)EXTRA" robologhmhsync.txt

This shows me a list of things I need to fix. If there were a lot of changes this would be too much work but for now my changes are few.

Extra stuff is easy just copy it over to the source drive.
If the file is newer on the destination drive I could just copy it over as well as long as the source file has not changed too since the last backup. Any file that I might change is either going to be a Word, Excel, or a text file.

For text files I can use the dos FC command to find differences.

> fc C:\Sync\File F:\Sync\File /N

Here is a test I did:

C:\>fc t.txt c:/test/t.txt /n
Both of these files had the letter a through p, on letter to a line.
I added a line of text to the source and another line to the destination file.

Comparing files t.txt and C:/TEST/T.TXT
***** t.txt (YOU SEE TEXT WAS INSERTED ON LINE 3)
2: b
3: Text added to Source File
4: c
***** C:/TEST/T.TXT
2: b
3: c
*****

***** t.txt (YOU SEE THAT TEXT WAS INSERTED ON LINE 9)
9: h
10: i
***** C:/TEST/T.TXT
8: h
9: Text added to Destination File
10: i
*****

For Word and Excel file I can use the merge command to merge any changes.

In Excel
For each workbook, Go to Tools>Share Workbook..
On the Edit tab select the check box that says:
"Allow changes by more than one user at a time to enable workbook merging."
Go to Tools and do Merge command and pick the other file.
Cells get updated with note about changes when done.

Tools / Track Changes / "Accept or Reject Changes"
Lets you approve or reject each change.

In Word (Here is a good page for this)
Open source document
Go to Tools menu / Compare and Merge Documents
Merge (legal blackline unchecked)
Changes are updated and you can accept or reject changes.

Standard Outlook Signature File

2008-11-28T01:13:00.000-08:00

Issue:
Implement standard Outlook signature file for all users.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
Open Outlook and create a signature file that you will use as a template.

Note added 4/22/09 Here is a link to a company that sales software that looks like it makes this easy to do and manage. They promote it for email disclaimers but it also does signatures. After watching the demo it looks pretty good.

Enter a name for a blank template file (SigTemplate in this example) and click next

Click on the “Advanced Edit…” Button and click Yes to the warning message.

Enter text in the template as a placeholder. Instead of pressing Enter at the end of each line, use Shift Enter to avoid the blank line problem. Also if you want to specify a color do not leave the font color as auto, change it to what you want (otherwise the color may change on you).

You can insert a logo or picture if needed.

You can right click the logo and select to make it a hyperlink to a web page.
Close and Save the file. Click OK to get out.

You now have the template in your signature file directory. Note: You may need to enable viewing of hidden directories C:\Documents and Setting\UserNameHere\Application Data\Microsoft\Signatures

If you have a logo/picture there will be a directory with the associated picture files. You will need to copy both the .htm file and the directory to each computer where you want to implement the standard signature. Place the files, as indicated before, in the directory

C:\Documents and Setting\UserNameHere\Application Data\Microsoft\Signatures

Be sure to replace UserNameHere with the profile directory name listed in the Documents and Settings folder of the target machine.

Now the new users just needs to open Outlook, select the signature, and edit the signature text.

Here are Example instructions for the workstation users.
--------------------------------------------
New Outlook signatures files have been place on your computer. These files are intended to be a company standard. If you are currently using a different signature file please replace those signature files with these new ones. You will first need to modify the signatures so that they contain your correct job title and name. These are quick changes so please take a couple of minutes and do this now.

Open Outlook and edit the Outlook signature files.

Click on Tools/Options/Mail Format tab/Signatures button.

Edit the SigTemplate file. Do not change the font, just select the text "Name", enter your name, select the text "Title" and enter your title. Enter the correct phone number.Click OK after you making these changes.

Click OK to exit this window and go back to the previous window.

Select the SigTemplate from the "Signature for new messages:" drop down box.
Click OK to finish.

Configuring FTP server

2008-11-26T02:57:00.000-08:00

Issue:
References for configuring FTP servers

Quick: Windows components install IIS, Details check box for FTP

Visual/Learning:
Links with information about FTP configuration.

Windows Server 2003
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Creating-Configuring-FTP.html
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6ws081sa.aspx
http://www.simongibson.com/intranet/ftp2003/ isolation mode

Exchange - Delete Mailbox

2008-11-24T08:53:00.000-08:00

Issue:

Deleting an Exchange mailbox but keeping the network account.

Quick:

Open AD Users and Computers, Select User, Exchange Tasks, Delete Mailbox

Visual/Learning:

Right click on the users and select Exchange Tasks

Wizard opens, click next

Select Delete Mailbox and click Next

Click Next

Click finsihed and your done.

Smoothwall NAT like Modification

2008-11-21T04:54:00.000-08:00

Issue:
Need multiple external RED IP addresses on the Smoothwall firewall server.

Quick:
Install Full Firewall Control modification from sourceforge.net site

Visual/Learning:
First you need to download the modification from the souceforge.net site.

http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=114890

This is the file we downloaded SW3 Full Firewall Control

You can download and copy it to the firewall or you can download it directly to the firewall with the wget command.

First get the path and the name of the file from you browser.

Right click on the file and get properties on the file

Get path and name from the properties page

Now I connect via SSH to the firewall using PuTTY application (port 222)

Next change directory to root directory – cd /

Then change to the tmp directory – cd tmp

Note: If you download some other way, in the end this is where you need to put the downloaded file.

Type the command wget Path/FileName.

After the file downloads you should be able to do a list command and see the file

ð wget http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=114890&package_id=262627&release_id=623482/SW#-Full-Firewall-Control-v1.0.2.tgz

ð ls

Next extract the file using the following tar command.

ð tar zxvf ./Full-Firewall-Control-v1.0.2.tgz -C /

Run this command to install -> sh /tmp/install.sh

That should do it. The firewall will now have controls for doing network address translation.

To uninstall
Login to smoothwall with PuTTY
Go to
/Var/smoothwall/mods/full-firewall directory
Type ./uninstall.pl

Import Exchange GAL To Contacts - 3

2008-11-17T05:57:00.000-08:00

Issue:
Import contact data into Outlook from Excel.

Open Outlook to import the data. Select the contacts folder, File menu, select “Import and Export”.

Select “import from another program” and click Next

Select Microsoft Excel

Select the Excel file to import and click next

Select the target contact folder

Click on the button to “Map Custom Fields”

Below is a short movie on how to map your fields from the spreadsheet. You just need to drag and drop them over.

Click OK and Finished and the data get imported.

Now if you have a mobile device that synchronizes with your contacts list it will show up on your phone.

Import Exchange GAL To Contact - 2

2008-11-14T05:56:00.000-08:00

Issue:

Need to cleanup the Global Address List data for import to Outlook contacts.

Quick/Visual/Learning:

Open the Excel sheet and delete the unneeded column A with the database ID fields. Sort and clean up the data so you have only the entries you are interested in.

Here I have 5 example users after doing the sorting and deleting

Now I need to fix the email address field. The addresses here are in the format that Exchange server understands, but for my contact list I want the SMTP addresses in the format of User@CompanyName.com. I use a formula in Excel to fix these. I know that all my users email addresses are equal to their alias (first initial and last name) at MyCompanyName.com. I over write the address field with the formula =w2 & “@mycompany.com”. W2 is the field that has the alias and & tacks on the text for the “at company name” part of the address.

Like magic the formula builds my email address for me. Now I can copy this field down the sheet and it will generate the addresses for all my users.

Paste into the cells below

More magic, there they all are.

Delete any unneeded fields like E-Mail type.

Save changes to the spreadsheet.

Next posting will show how to import the data to Outlook

Import Exchange GAL To Contacts - 3

Create Email Change Nag Notice

2008-11-12T17:10:00.000-08:00

Create a rule
Jpg01
Blank Rule
Jpg02
Click on next
This is the window that check for conditions.
Have rule look at “specific word in the message header”
Look for the old email address @OldAddress.com
Click OK
Jpg03
Click on next
This is the window where you specify actions
Select “have server reply using a specific message”
Clicking on the text “specific message” brings up a message window.
Enter your notice regarding change of address.

Jpg04

Click on next

This is the window for exceptions
Select except if the subject contains specific words
Add SPAM to the list and click OK
Click finished

Jpg05

Import Exchange GAL To Contacts - 1

2008-11-10T05:56:00.000-08:00

Issue:
Blackberry import of GAL Contacts. While you can do a lookup on the Exchange server global address list, some users wanted to have GAL directly on a Blackberry phone contact list for convenience.

Quick:
Export using Access, Export to Excel, Fix Fields, Import to Outlook

Visual/Learning:
Open Microsoft Access and create a blank database.
Under File select “Get External Data”Select Import

Select the file Type of Exchange()

In the wizard select “Global Address List”

Select to create a New Table and click Finished

Now you see the Global Address List as a new table.

Click on it to open

Here you see users along with distribution lists. Our distribution lists do not have First and Last names or Titles so you see that these fields are blank This is handy because we can later do a sort to remove these if we want.

On the file menu select Export

Select one of the Excel formats in the drop down file type box and save the file to a Excel sheet.

Posting 2 will show how to clean up the address list in Excel

Blank Or Gap In Add/Remove Programs Window

2008-11-07T05:17:00.000-08:00

Issue:
You notice that when you go to the add remove programs window there is a huge gap. Also may have just a blank window.

Quick:
Gap - Autocad issue- Search registry Data only for this acad.exe,-1 or this aclt.exe,-1 and change the negative 1 to just a positive 1
Blank Window - start =>run=> - Regsvr32 appwiz.cpl

Visual:

Learning:

Found link here that has the answer:
---text from link---

The problem, believe it or not, is simply that the entry in the Registry for the AutoCAD uninstaller specifies its icon incorrectly. There's a simple fix. (If there's some other underlying problem such as updates installed in the wrong order, as you've deduced, that won't be corrected; but it will get rid of the huge gap in Add/Remove Programs.)

Using regedit or some other registry editor, search the Data fields for the string aclt.exe . (You do not need to search the Key or Value fields, just Data).

Step through ( in regedit) the entries in which aclt.exe appears watching for one where aclt.exe is followed by a comma and -1 .

When you find such an entry, it should be the data field for a DisplayIcon key. The aclt.exe will be preceded by the full path to that file in your installation, so it will look something like "C:\Program Files\AutoCAD 2002\aclt.exe,-1".

Edit the data string, changing the -1 to 1.

That's it! I've never found more than one of these entries in a registry at one time, but I won't swear that couldn't happen, so you might want to continue searching to make sure.
---end text from link---

Windows - Using Non-Admin Account

2008-11-03T03:29:00.000-08:00

Issue:
Avoid some security risk by using windows without adminstrator rights and still get stuff done.

Quick/Visual:/Learning:]
Found this helpful blog posting => site. I add the text below as well

--- Text from David Wang Blog site ---
HOWTO: Run as normal user (non-admin) on Windows
Sometimes, I wonder and worry about the vast majority of Windows users that run with administrative privileges. Most of them probably do this blindly because it is the default auto-login for Windows XP and do not know any better. This tells a lot about the power of having secure defaults...

However, such unnecessary privilege comes at a great price: spyware / malware / virus / trojan / worm freely misuse such privileges to infect and proliferate. And in knee-jerk response, a whole security industry dedicated to corraling these miscreants spring up and some even enter the Microsoft product line and Windows Update.

But, no one seems to be tackling the fundament security problem:

Users running with more privileges than necessary
Social Engineering and poor computing habits
As I had discussed earlier, the effective computer system security is simply the weakest link amongst Software, Configuration, and Policy. Simply focusing on using Software to compensate for a lack of secure computing practices (Policy) does not improve security. I mean, we can come up with perfectly written Software with no bugs nor security vulnerabilities and Configure the system securely yet functionally, but if the user runs as administrator because "things work better" or blindly follow instructions to get themselves rooted, all the effort is for nothing. This is why I think that such actions do wonders for PR and user perspection (and sometimes, changing perceptions is "the goal"), but it really does not raise the bar.

I do not know about you, but I like making real progress, not perceived progress. So, I am going to show one approach that I use to not run as administrator to safely compute on Windows - both at home and work.

I mean, I really hate personal security software from McAfee, Symnatec, etc because they assume how you want to work (so many people fail to install IIS on Windows XP due to these software packages "breaking" IIS in subtle ways to prevent installation/functionality), and they do not do much more than common sense... so I consider them unnecessary bloatware that gets in my way. Yes, I do not run security software on all of my machines; no virus scan, no email scanner, nada. I just run as normal User with Windows Firewall sealing off all ports and common sense against social engineering. :-)

Securing the Computing Environment
No, I am not going to wait for Windows Vista, LUA, and various other security advancements to help run as non-administrator and secure my computing environment... not when I can do it all right now from Windows 2000 on up.

What I do is basically:

Run as the normal User, with no privileges changes from the default
Run a special "root" console window (that is a different color) as a user with administrative privilege
Leave the Firewall on and do my job as the normal User, and on the special occassions where I need elevated privileges, I launch commands out of the special "root" console window
That is it. It is functionally similar to how LUA will work in Windows Vista, except with GUI dialog boxes instead of console commands. And this is how I create the desktop shortcut to launch my special "root" console window (I actually just copy the same shortcut on all my machines to %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Desktop):

Right Click on the desktop and create a shortcut
Paste in the following as target for the shortcut (in my case, I rename the Administrator to "root"):
%windir% \system32\runas.exe /u:%COMPUTERNAME%\root "cmd /T:3E /k @title root && start /min %windir%\system32\taskmgr.exe"
Choose your shortcut title - I use "root"
Change the icon to something obvious. I use the icon in SHELL32.dll that contains a key with two people.
I change the screen buffer size to 50 Width and 2 Height - so that the shortcut just shows a small window containing:
Enter the password for %COMPUTERNAME%\root:
I also change the shortcut's text and background color to Yellow on Cyan so that it matches the color scheme of the root console window - just so that the window is very obviously different than the white on black of normal console windows.
Now, what are some of the "inconveniences" that I incur by doing this? Well:

I lose the ability to install/uninstall programs as myself. But, I just run "appwiz.cpl" or the program's setup EXE from the root console window and things usually work. If they do not, I consider it a product bug.
I lose the ability to run Windows Update for patches. This is something that I cannot do from the root console window, so I have to login as an administrator and let Windows Update client run every six months or so. Yes, I do this infrequently because I run my computers securely, and I only login once every six months or so, so this is no bother.
I cannot kill any process that I want. But, that is what the TASKMGR.EXE run as root (from my shortcut), or TASKKILL.EXE in the root console window is for.
I cannot Remote Desktop into that machine by default. On Windows XP and later, I just add my User to "Remote Desktop Users" group. On Windows 2000, I have to use the root console window to launch MMC with the "Terminal Services Configuration" snapin, select Properties on the RDP-TCP connection, and add my user to the "Permissions" tab of that connect (Windows XP and later pre-create and populate the "Remote Desktop Users" group into this Permissions list).
I cannot configure networking or Windows Firewall. But, NETSH.EXE on Windows XP/Windows Server 2003 works wonders inside a root console window.
I lose the ability to change the system date/time. But, I just use the DATE or TIME commands in the root console window as necessary.
I can no longer start/stop services. Well, that is what NET START, NET STOP, and SC QUERY commands in the root console window are for...
I cannot change file ACLs to grant myself privileges. But CACLS does that nicely from the root console window.
Overall, I find that the "inconveniences" happen very rarely in my day-to-day activities. You rarely install programs, patch, reconfigure networking, stop/start services, and change system date/time and file ACLs on a daily basis... so it makes sense to not run with administrative privileges

Now, I know that there are cases where you may want to run a program but that program only works when run as administrator... such as games or other older software... but I tend to leave them alone. The way I think about it, until the users revolt with their pocket books, application providers have ZERO incentive to fix/improve their code. So, I do not buy such software and if I do, I bug the heck out of their support staff and complain that their product is insecure because it requires me to run with administrative privileges. Hey, some have listened and changed. :-)

Well, I know that this does not solve all your problems on Windows, but hopefully it can help you solve a good chunk of your security concerns. I am interested in hearing some of your stories regarding this topic...
--- end text from site ---

Outlook - Can't Create Attachment Error

2008-10-31T06:45:00.000-07:00

Issue:
You regularly attach a file using the same file name. After doing it lots of times it stops working with the error message "Can't Create file: NameOfSomeFile, Right-Click the folder you want to create the file in, and then click properties on the shortcut menu to check your permissions for the folder"

Quick: Delete files from Outlook temp folder. Exact path varies but should look like c:\Documents and Settings\YourUserName\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK1D8 Delete all the temp files in this folder.

Visual:

You see in the Outlook Temp folder the file you are trying to attach listed 99 times.

Learning:

Every time you attach a file Outlook makes a copy of that file in the Outlook temp folder. Outlook calls out the "Can't Create file:..." error after you get up to 99 copies of the same file in the temp folder. The easy fix is to just delete these temporary files.

If you can not find the Outlook temp folder, do a search for it. Go to the Start menu, On the Run line enter regedit and select OK, edit menu, select find, check only the Values box and search for OutlookSecureTempFolder. This should find the registry entry with the exact path to the Outlook temp folder.

Add Mail Domain 2 - Telnet Testing

2008-10-29T19:08:00.000-07:00

Issue:
Verifying that mail is working on your new email domain using telnet to port 25

Quick/Visual/Learning:
You probably do not have mx records pointed at your mail server for the new domain so use the telnet command to test connectivity with the mail server.

At a command prompt type:
telnet
set local_echo
open ServerNameOrIpAddress 25 (response 220 site.company.com....)

This puts you in a telnet session. Turning on local echo allows you to see what you are typing. If you have never had the experience; you can get connected to a telnet session and have all your typed text be invisible (not displayed on the screen). Everything still works but it makes the job more difficult. After the open command you are connected to your mail server and sending mail commands just as if it were coming from an outside mail server. If you make a mistake typing just hit enter and start over on that command, as backspaces are not understood.
FYI- if you need to break out of the telnet session with the mail server use the control right bracket key sequence to get out. "CNTL-]" this will dump you back to the telnet window where you can use the "open or o" command to try again.

Continue on with the following commands (you should see responses from the server):

ehlo test.com (response 250 OK)
mail from:YourValidMailAccount@Company.com (response 250 OK - MAIL FROM ...)
rcpt to:YourAccount@NewMailDomainName.com (response 250 OK - Recipient ...)

Use ehlo or helo to tell the server what server is trying to connect. Use a valid address for the "mail from" part so that if it does not work you should get a bounce message back to your mailbox. The rcpt to: part is where you put the address of your mailbox using the new email domain name you are trying to test.
The next command is the word "data" on a line by itself:

data (response 354 Send data...)

No responses will come for the following commands
From: "Bob Example" <bob@example.org>
To: Alice Example <alice@example.com>
Cc: theboss@example.com
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:02:43 -0500
Subject: Test message
Body of test message
. (period and enter key on blank line - response 250 OK)
Quit (response 221 closing connection)

OK, you do not need the lines From:, To:, Cc:, and Date:
For a quick test message I usually just put the line -> Subject:test
Next you have to put a period on a line all by itself (this signals the end of the message)
Type quit on the next line to end the session and the message should get sent.

If this all works you should be OK as long as outside mail server can connect to your smtp mail server. You just need to have you MX records for the mail domain pointed at your server so that mail can come in from outside.

Here is a link to some information about MX records.

Add Mail Domain 1 - Update Mailboxes

2008-10-23T04:37:00.000-07:00

Issue:
Company re-branding requires change to MS Exchange email addresses.

Quick:
Add domain name to users with recipient Policy.

Visual/Learning:
In Exchange System Manager, Select Recipient Policies, right click on "Default Policy" and select properties. Click New... button to add a new address. In this case I added an SMTP address "@a-test.com". Check the box next to the new address and click OK to apply the change.

After changing the policy right click it and select "Apply this Policy Now"
You can force the changes by doing an update. Navigate to the "Recipient Update Service", right click on Recipient Update Service for your domain. Select "Update Now"

You may need to wait 20 minutes or so before you will be able to send mail using the new domain name.

Go To - Add Mail Domain 2

Outlook.exe task does not close

2008-10-20T06:16:00.000-07:00

Issue:

You close Outlook and all office applications but the outlook.exe process is still running under processes.

Quick:

Disable antivirus add-ins, Tools => Options => Other tab => "Advanced Options..." => "Add-In Manager..." => Un-check any antivirus addins.

Visual:

Learning:
Anitivirus programs that scan Outlook email messages may keep Outlook from closing out completely. This will hold pst files open and keep files locked until the process is ended. You should always be careful not to open suspicious attachments anyway, so you should be able to disable the Outlook hook.

Wiping Blackberry Phone

2008-10-16T06:04:00.000-07:00

Issue:
Here is how to wipe the data from a Balckberry Pearl phone. Probably works for other models as well.

Quick/Visual/Learning: Go to Options / Security Settings / General Settings, then click the Menu button and choose "Wipe Handheld". You will be asked to enter the word Blackberry to confirm you want to wipe the device.

Link to Blackberry Pearl Tips Site

Windows Dynamic DNS Not Updating Client IPs

2008-10-13T06:06:00.000-07:00

Issue:
Machines do not update their IP addresses on Windows 2003 Dyanamic DNS.

Quick:

Machine SID has changed and can not update the DNS record. Go into dns and delete the entry for the machine. The machine will automatically register with the correct IP address.

Visual /Learning:

I found some information that helped me here:
http://hdsurvivor.blogspot.com/2006/05/event-id-11163-dnsapi-error.html

----- Text from link to hdsurvivor.blogspot.com ------
Troubleshooting a PC today, that had numerous DnsApi errors in the System event log. The WinXP client was unable to update its host record on the DNS server. The whole error message is listed below. The error was caused by a host record security problem. Our DNS is Active Directory integrated. We allow only secure updates. When a client boots up, gets an IP via DHCP, it then sends a request to the DNS server to create a host record. The reason why it fails, is because the host record already exists, but the WinXP client doesn't have permissions to change it. This particular machine had been imaged recently, and after running sysprep, the machines old domain account was deleted, and a new one was created with a different SID. When I open the DNS console, then the machine's host record, on the security tab was one of those ? {1-5-512-5464} type SID entries, that you commonly see on a security tab in Windows, when the account no longer exists. Well, in this case, it was a computer account, not a user account. After I deleted the host record and reverse-lookup records, I rebooted the client and no more errors in the System event log. Of course, you can also use the ipconfig /registerdns command and get the same results. Note that in the error message below, there is a line that says "Sent update to server: 172.1.1.1", which I thought was important, but its not, its just a red herring. I have no idea why it says that, but that is not the root of the error.
*************************************************************WarningSource: Dns
ApiEvent ID: 11163
Event Time: 5/23/2006 9:00:44 AM
User: n/a
Computer: Somecomputer
Description:
The system failed to register host (A) resource records (RRs) for network adapter with settings:
Adapter Name : {28442B0F-5CC5-4833-B293-823C9FF43614}
Host Name : somecomputer
Primary Domain Suffix : Domain.local
DNS server list :172.27.0.100, 172.27.0.101
Sent update to server : 172.1.1.1
IP Address(es) :172.27.1.132

The reason the system could not register these RRs was because theDNS server failed the update request. The most likely cause of this is that the authoritative DNS server required to process this updaterequest has a lock in place on the zone, probably because a zone transfer is in progress.You can manually retry DNS registration of the network adapter and its settings by typing "ipconfig /registerdns" at the command prompt.If problems still persist, contact your DNS server or network systems administrator.*****************************************************
------- End Of TEXT from Link ------------

Vista - Check Disk Problems

2008-10-11T08:35:00.000-07:00

Issue:
Problems with Check Disk in Vista running all the time or not at all.

Quick:
Set registry BootExecute value to => autocheck autochk *

Visual/Learning:
Saw this tip on the TechRepublic site byGreg Shultz :
-----Text from site-----
To fix the problem requires that you modify the registry. Since editing the registry can be a dangerous operation, it is important that you back it up before you begin.

To launch the Registry Editor, press [Windows]+R to open the Run dialog box. Then type regedit.exe in the Open text box and click OK. You’ll then encounter a UAC and will need to respond appropriately.

When you see the Registry Editor, navigate to the following folder:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControlSession Manager

When you get there, locate the BootExecute value... the default value data of BootExecute value should be

autocheck autochk *

If it reads anything else, simply overwrite the entry with the default value data.

To complete the operation, click OK to close the Edit Multi-String dialog box, close the Registry Editor, and restart your system. Once your system restarts, you can return to the Check Disk GUI, select both the Automatically Fix File System Errors check box and the Scan For And Attempt Recovery Of Bad Sectors check box and click Start. When the system restarts, Check Disk should run normally.

...if resetting the BootExecute value to its default value doesn’t solve the problem and Check Disk runs again at startup, it is possible that the Dirty Bit is stuck. To check the status of the Dirty Bit, you’ll use the Fsutil command.

To begin, right-click on the Command Prompt shortcut and select the Run As Administrator command. When you encounter a UAC, you will need to respond appropriately. Then type:

Fsutil dirty query Y:

Where Y: is the drive letter on your system. The result should tell you that the drive is dirty.

At this point, you’ll use the Chkntfs command to disable the Check Disk operation for the next startup. Type:

Chkntfs /x Y:

Where Y: is the drive letter on your system. The result should tell you that the file system is NTFS.

To continue, close the Command Prompt and restart your system. When your system restarts, it should boot right into Windows — you should not see Check Disk attempt to run. However, if it does, you should open a Command Prompt window and launch Check Disk in full repair mode. Type:

Chkdsk /f /r Y:

Where Y: is the drive letter on your system.

You’ll then be prompted to schedule Check Disk to run at startup. To continue, type Y and press [Enter]. Then, restart Windows and allow Check Disk to run at startup. When it does, it should properly reset the Dirty Bit and Windows should start normally from this point forward.
-----End Text from site-----

Can Not Save To Contact Public Folder

2008-10-09T19:01:00.000-07:00

Issue:

You have created a public folder for company contact information but are unable to create a distribution list in the folder. (or perhaps drag contact to the folder).

Error messages:

"The item could not be saved to this folder. The folder has been deleted or moved, or you do not have permission"

"Can't move the items. The item could not be moved. It was either already moved or deleted, or access was denied"

Quick: Right click folder => properties => Forms tab => Select "Any Form"

Visual:

Learning:

The error comes about because the folder is set to use "Only Forms listed above". If the folder is set this way you will be unable to create distribution lists in the folder because distribution lists use a form that is different form the custom form specified. Also if you drag a contact from a folder that uses the default contact form to this public folder you will get an error.

Cisco - Add/Remove VLAN Port

2008-10-07T19:13:00.000-07:00

Issue:
You need to add or remove a port from a VLAN. In this case the switch is a 2950.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
Telnet to the Switch.
"en" to enter enabled mode
"config t" to enter config mode
"interface fast 0/19" In this example I am configuring port 19
"switchport access vlan 2" In this example I am adding port 19 to VLAN 2

To remove a port from a vlan follow the above steps but on the last step enter:
"no switchport access vlan 2"

Word - Copy Mailing Labels

2008-10-06T05:57:00.000-07:00

Issue:
You have custom labels that you would like to copy to a new computer or user.

Quick:
Export label setting from registry HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Word\Custom Labels. Click on the .reg file to import it onto the new computer.

Visual:

Learning:
This will probably only work for exporting from and to the same version of Word. In this case the export was done on Word 2000.

From Windows go to Start => Run => enter regedit
Locate the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Word\Custom Labels
Note that this will only be there if you have created a custom label.
Select "Custom Labels" folder => Registry menu => "Export Registry File...",
Give it a name and click the Save button
Now you can click on this saved file.reg to import the setting to the new computer or user.

Good Guide to TCP/IP

2008-10-03T17:06:00.000-07:00

Issue:
Have a question about TCP/IP.

Quick/Visual/Learning:
Here is a link to the table of contents of a very Detailed Guide at tcpipguide.com

Exchange Add Hidden Mailbox

2008-10-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

Issue:

After hidding an account of a terminated user, I needed to add the account to the managers mailbox for monitoring of business related mail.

Quick:

Use the Legacy Exchange DN from acitive directory.

Visual/Learning:

Normally this would be just a matter of adding rights to the mailbox under AD Users and Computers => Properties => Exchange Advanced Tab => Mailbox Rights... button, and then adding the mailbox to the managers Outlook account under Tools => Email Accounts => "View or change existing email accounts" => Change Button => More Setting button => Advanced Tab => Add button to add the mailbox from the Global Address List (GAL). But when the account is hidden you do not see it in the GAL listing.

You can still add the maibox by using the Legacy Exchange DN from acitive directory. Now how to find out what it is. The sure fire way is to export the information from Active Directory (see below), but you may be able to guess what it is without doing the export.

Guessing method:

First open Exchange Manager and look at the Org name and the Administrative Group name.

Now you should be able to create a text string like you see below. Replace ORG with the name of you Exchange organization. If the administrative group name is different replace that as well. Also put the users alias at the end as shown. You can find the alias in Active Directory Users and Computers on the Exchange General tab.

Now just type of copy that string into the add mailbox window and the account should get added.

If that did not work you can export Active Directory information using the following command on the Exchange Server, where exportfile.ldf is the file you are exporting to and DomainServer is the name of a domain controller on your network.

You may get a lot of stuff in the file depending on the size of your Active Directory, but you should be able to find a legacyExchangeDN for the hidden account that looks like this:

Word Columns - Horizontal Data

2008-09-29T06:40:00.000-07:00

Issue:
You want to organize your data horizontally but keep it separated into columns.

Quick:

Use a table and hide the border.

Visual/Learning:

When you select columns in Word you normally get Newspaper style columns. Text snakes down one column and then back up to the next column like you see below:

But what if you want horizontal columns? Perhaps you want to do an announcement that looks something like this:

You could do it with tabs but it really does not work all that well. When you have more then one line of text in the second column it is very hard to keep it all looking right. I saw this trick on the techrepublic site that works well.

---Text from link---

Use any method you like to create the table. I usually enter the first few rows and then let Word create the table based on the existing items. If you know the dimensions, you can create the table first and then enter data. It doesn’t really matter. Use the AutoFit format and let Word adjust the table as you enter the columnar data.

When you’re done, turn off the table’s borders as follows:

1. Select the entire table by clicking anywhere inside it. Then, choose Select from the Table menu and choose Table. Or click the double-arrow icon in both Word 2003 and Word 2007.

2. With the table selected, choose Borders And Shading from the Format menu and click the Borders tab. (In Word 2007, choose Borders And Shading from the Borders And Shading drop-down list in the Paragraph group on the Home tab. This list is also available in the Table Styles group on the Design tab.)

3. Click the None option under Setting.

Word will gray out the borders on screen. However, Word won’t print the borders, which you can easily confirm by viewing the document in Print Preview.

Using the table structure allows you to easily move or even delete parallel columns.

---End text from link---

Windows Auto Logon

2008-09-27T11:03:00.000-07:00

Issue:
In a home setting you may want to just have Windows login without prompting for a password.

Quick:
See below for OS specific procedures for Windows 2000, XP, and Vista

Visual/Learning:

Windows 2000 Auto Logon
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/234562
--------Text from link-----------

Preventing the Password Prompt in a Non-Domain System
1. In Control Panel, double-click Users and Passwords.
2. Click to clear the Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer check box.

NOTE: This option does not appear on a system that is a member of a domain.
3. Click the Advanced tab.
4. Click to clear the Require users to press Ctrl-Alt-Del before logging on check box.
Automatic logon is not supported when you are logging on to a domain. You will need to join a workgroup if you want to use the automatic logon feature.
--------End Text from link-----------

Windows XP Auto Logon
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315231
--------Text from link-----------

You can use Registry Editor to add your log on information. To do this, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
3. Using your account name and password, double-click the DefaultUserName entry, type your user name, and then click OK.
4. Double-click the DefaultPassword entry, type your password under the value data box, and then click OK.

If there is no DefaultPassword value, create the value. To do this, follow these steps:
a. In Registry Editor, click Edit, click New, and then click String Value.
b. Type DefaultPassword as the value name, and then press ENTER.
c. Double-click the newly created key, and then type your password in the Value Data box.
If no DefaultPassword string is specified, Windows XP automatically changes the value of the AutoAdminLogon registry key from 1 (true) to 0 (false) to turn off the AutoAdminLogon feature.
5. Double-click the AutoAdminLogon entry, type 1 in the Value Data box, and then click OK.

If there is no AutoAdminLogon entry, create the entry. To do this, follow these steps:
. In Registry Editor, click Edit, click New, and then click String Value.
a. Type AutoAdminLogon as the value name, and then press ENTER.
b. Double-click the newly created key, and then type 1 in the Value Data box.
6. Quit Registry Editor.
7. Click Start, click Restart, and then click OK.
After your computer restarts and Windows XP starts, you can log on automatically.

If you want to bypass the automatic logon to log on as a different user, hold down the SHIFT key after you log off or after Windows XP restarts. Note that this procedure applies only to the first logon. To enforce this setting for future logoffs, the administrator must set the following registry key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

Value:ForceAutoLogon
Type: REG_SZ
Data: 1

You can also use turn on automatic logon without editing the registry in Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition and in Microsoft Windows XP Professional on a computer that is not joined to a domain. To do this, follow these steps: 1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type control userpasswords2, and then click OK.

Note When users try to display help information in the User Accounts window in Windows XP Home Edition, the help information is not displayed. Additionally, users receive the following error message:
Cannot find the Drive:\Windows\System32\users.hlp Help file. Check to see that the file exists on your hard disk drive. If it does not exist, you must reinstall it.
3. Clear the "Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer" check box, and then click Apply.
4. In the Automatically Log On window, type the password in the Password box, and then retype the password in the Confirm Password box.
5. Click OK to close the Automatically Log On window, and then click OK to close the User Accounts window.
--------End Text from link-----------

Windows Vista Auto Logon
http://www.lockergnome.com/windows/2007/02/20/configure-vista-for-automatic-logon/
--------Text from link-----------
If you do not share your computer with any other users and no one else has access to it, you can configure Vista to log you on automatically.

To do so, click Start and type netplwiz in the Search field and then press Enter. Click Continue when the User Account Control window appears. From the User Accounts window that appears, verify that your own user account is selected. Clear the Users must enter a username and password to use this computer option and click OK. Provide the password for your user account when prompted and restart your computer. Vista will automatically log on with your user account.

[tags]vista, automatic logon, automatic login, configure windows[/tags]
--------End Text from link-----------