OK, so this blog is about why you don’t want to TOUCH an E-Machine! I ended up doing some work for a client, reloading an E-Machine model C2881 that he handed me. Installed was 512 MB of RAM, and after loading XP SP3 and all updates along with removing all the crap that E-Machines puts in their Ghost image (imagine software from 2004 staring you in the face), and loading a couple of simple, newer, open source programs, the thing is running like a 286 SX-25 loaded with Windows Vista.
More RAM, obvious, that and streamline startup. OK, so startup is streamlined, and I used CPU-Z to look at the memory clock so I don’t have to open it up. It uses DDR 2700, great, I know what kind of RAM, but how much will the system handle, so I can send a link to my client to purchase some memory? Off to www.emachines.com (or whatever their site is). I pull down the user manual, which has no tech specs. I look on their page where they claim “specifications”, but it just tells you what the stupid thing shipped with, 512 MB DDR. So I have to pull up a chat with their support, and get this, max memory is coveted! Trade secret from what I was told, take a look at the chat session and see how long it took me to get through to this guy. So here is the secret, in all it’s glory, available for all the world to see.
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When you have trouble reaching outside domains via email, the first place to look is your mail queue. Regardless of mail server version, Exchange, sendmail, take a look at the queue and see if mail is building up. If it is, find out why. I wanted to share an experience I had with my Exchange 2003 server recently, that is important to know if you run into it. We found that we were unable to send email to certain outside domains, such as company2.hk and institution.edu, but we were able to send email to our Gmail just fine.
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This is a utility no admin can be without. This is a third party app, as opposed to the nbtstat command. When run, it will show you detailed information on your network, and machines that are alive on the subnet you are scanning. It also provides MAC addresses etc. Download here. Website here. The syntax is as follows:
nbtscan 192.168.1.0/24
And the results look like:
Doing NBT name scan for addresses from 192.168.1.0/24
IP address NetBIOS Name Server User MAC address
——————————————————————————
192.168.1.2 WHS <server> <unknown> 00-19-66-52-86-72
192.168.1.127 XANETH-DELL <server> <unknown> 00-11-95-bd-ad-0b
192.168.1.129 NATALIE-PC <server> <unknown> 00-19-d1-0e-61-3a
192.168.1.138 HTPC <server> <unknown> 00-13-46-97-9c-dc
Comes in handy when you’re trying to track down the MAC of a particular machine to find out, say, what port it’s connected to on your Cisco Catalyst (sh mac-address-table address 00:00:00:00:00:00).
Had to throw this up there. This is a great wallpaper to put on someone’s laptop after you’ve reloaded Windows XP. Click to preview in full size, right click save image as… It’s 1024×768. Awesome 
So I wanted to add a login script to some servers that runs bginfo.exe, so that we can see what server we are on when we remote desktop, along with other useful info. Tricky, because “logon script” applies to user configuration, not computer configuration, and we’re applying this GPO against computer in AD, not users. If we applied it to users, it would run on every machine the user logged into, and this is not desired.
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So I ran into an issue with Verizon Wireless the other day. Since our Exchange server resides in Hong Kong now (after migration from the U.S.), Verizon Wireless apparently blocks entire countries from sending to their mail servers @verizonwireless.com. I needed to get email to our account rep, as well as send forms to add authorized telecom users to the account, but my emails were timing out. Upon further investigation, at a command prompt using telnet from my mail server in HK, I could see that we were being straight out rejected, though the error given from pluto.verizonwireless.com was less than helpful in that regard. All I got was an error 554 when I tried to telnet to it, and it would disconnect me. Had to assume that our IP block was just blacklisted, which it was.
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THIS is invaluable. We are having to re-install our SharePoint server because of the way it’s installed on a server that is low on disk space. Unfortunately, SP was installed to the second partition, so I can’t really use parititioning tools to make more space available to the system partition without hosing my SP installation. So, the tools needed:
SPIEFolder
http://spiefolder.codeplex.com/
Download from VatOfKnow
I include a download from my site, because I know that notoriously, these software authors replace it with something new eventually, and latest isn’t always greatest. So here it is, archived for your downloading pleasure. However, for now you can download from the author’s site so that you know you are getting a valid copy. I don’t tamper with any of the files I upload, but this site was originally intended for myself, so I can repeat procedures and have all the files and steps available in one place.
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This has been something of a challenge, but only slightly. I had installed Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP), but have seen problems with Win7 crashing using this codec pack. I have finally found a really good one at http://shark007.net/win7codecs.html. Works well, and integrated directly with WMP, so no special players involved.
So, I just recently installed Windows Home Server, and liking it pretty well so far. I know, 3 years late, but better late than never. I have used Acronis in the past for image based backups, as well as daily differentials, and WHS accomplishes the same thing, but has a more hands off approach, which I like, as long as it works. Also a central file storage, with expandable storage pool is nice… So here goes, a list of custom add-ins I’m using for my WHS Console:
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A single pane of glass for your control panel in Windows 7 and Windows Vista. This apparently works fine on 32 bit Vista, but can crash 64 bit Vista. Simply create a new folder and name it:
GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}
That’s all you have to do! Nice…
