Continue reading »]]> For Windows 7

Open an Windows Command Prompt and enter the following to disable: - 

sc config lanmanworkstation depend= bowser/mrxsmb10/nsi
sc config mrxsmb20 start= disabled

To enabled, enter the following: -

sc config lanmanworkstation depend= bowser/mrxsmb10/mrxsmb20/nsi
sc config mrxsmb20 start= auto

For Windows Server 2008

Run "regedit" on Windows Server 2008 based computer.

Expand and locate the sub tree as follows.

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters

Add a new REG_DWORD key with the name of "Smb2" (without quotation mark)

Value name: Smb2
Value type: REG_DWORD
0 = disabled
1 = enabled

Set the value to 0 to disable SMB 2.0, or set it to 1 to re-enable SMB 2.0.

Reboot the server.

Continue reading »]]>  

I’ve spent a little time looking at Microsoft Forefront as Microsoft Security Essentials is so good I wanted to know what the “professional” tools brought…

The management software has very odd requirements:-

• Needs to be Windows Server 2008 R2
• Not a Domain Controller
• Configuration Manager 2007

Which is great for enterprise but doesn’t fit Microsoft Small Business Product in anyway, where’s forefront for SBS?

Here’s a screen grab from Microsoft Security Essentials.

Here’s a screen grab from Forefront Client.

Spot the difference, the name.  This is great because the free MSE client is so good it means forefront is just as good.   They downside is requirements for management are to high for small businesses, which is a shame because this could be a killer product.

Continue reading »]]> So your Exchange Server has been running fine for months and all of a sudden it doesn’t want to send or receive external emails.

All else seems OK, the stores are mounted, you can telnet in externally, you can telnet externally.

You could be running into an issue with E2007 once the C:\ drive get below 3GB* E2007 will simply stop receiving/sending e-mails.  There’s not warning to this, no errors, noting in the event logs.

So here’s how to confirm this issue, the obvious answer is if you have less than 3GB* of space on your C:\ drive free some space, 5GB or more, restart the exchange services and see if mail comes in.  If you want to confirm this is the issue, then you need to the following:-

telnet mail.theirdomain.com 25
when you get the 220 line, send it this command:
helo whatever.com
when it replies, send it this command:
mail from: joe@whatever.com
when it replies, send it this command:
rcpt to: someone@theirdomain.com
when it replies, send it this command:
data
when it replies, send it this command:
subject: test
type some more stuff
whatever you want
end with enter then period then enter

if during this process you see the following error:

452 4.3.1 Insufficient system resources

That’s your issue… go free up some space and restart the exchange services, Information Store and Mail Submission worked for me.

* I haven’t been able to confirm at what disk space E2007 will decided to stop sending/receiving mail.  I have observed 3GB or less, but it only starts working with 5GB or more free.

Continue reading »]]>  

VMWare player crashes when you try and run Virtual PC along side…. great.  When I try to open the VHD, it can’t convert.  So now I have to spend time installing Windows XP/Vista clients, which I already have into VMWare…..

I’m actually thinking of building a new PC to run Windows Server 2008 on so I can do X64 Vitalization, with more easy…. just don’t want another box and I’ve spent out on 8GB Ram….  Please MS updated virtual PC to allow x64 Guest’s.

Continue reading »]]>  

I’ would like to be writing about Windows SBS 2008… but I’m having a hard time getting things up and running.

SBS 2008 is a 64bit OS, because Windows Server 2008 is a 64 bit OS, nothing really surprising about this.

So how do we test new software these days, we tend to use virtual machines.

Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 and Virtual Server 2005 SP1 don’t support x64 installs! They will run on 64 bit OS, such as Vista 64bit, but the CPU is only a virtual 32 bit….. come on Microsoft please fix this!

So I downloaded a trial of VMWare Workstation, it installed OK, no problem…. until I installed SBS 2008 RC0, it requires a min off 2gb ram to install… my system had 3gb… so I ordered 4 x 2gb sticks… £25 each so my PC now has 8GB Ram, great.

Apart from I don’t want to have to keep using trails to play around with SBS 2008 RC0, I just want to be able to play around when I have time too.

So posted on Channel9 and 9er,  Hodo,  replied saying I could download VMWare server for free!!

Great, downloaded it this evening and it’s hell….

Problem number 1, had to restart Vista to disable drive signing before VM Server worked….

Problem number 2, VMWare server doesn’t support the use for VMWare’s HDD image it’s to new how annoying, now have to reinstall again.

Problem number 3, after settling for reinstalling, VMWare hung…….

Can’t help feeling that MS and VMWare are “behind” with all this, it shouldn’t be this hard.

I’ve not tried this I assume I could install Windows Server 2008 and with the help of HyperV, get SBS2008 up and running using MS Virtual technologies.

Update: I downloaded and installed VMWare Player which is free and allows me to boot the original Workstation VM that I created.

So I’m happy that I can now evaluate, which out the Workstation timing out….

I really do hope MS fixes this is with Virtual PC…….