nmX.Memnoch

On question 1...have you checked the WINS server to see if they are in fact registered? That'd be my first guess. The other thing to check is if there are any messages in the Event Viewer on those workstations regarding forced browser elections.

It shouldn't hurt anything. Just keep in mind that you want it to have a static IP address since it's a DC. The only thing I can see that could potentially be a problem is a DHCP server. If you use DHCP on the tradeshow laptops/workstations then you'll have to figure out how you want to handle your DHCP server. Obviously you don't want to have to reconfigure your entire network setup at the main office. One way to remedy this would be to just use static IPs on the tradeshow client machines and then you can skip a DHCP server all together. I would recommend just using a private IP range (192.168.x.x). This may make it a bit more difficult for the Denmark team to do remote maintenance/installs though.

Using the Guest account is a Bad Idea. Just create the other account on the other workstation. The logon script is coming...I haven't forgotten. I've been making some functionality changes. I need to get those tested before cleaning it up for you. The big test is coming tomorrow so I should be able to post it this weekend (provided the new code works like I want it to).

All you need to do is configure the profiles in each account to point to the same PST. Get away from the address books. Import those into the Outlook Contacts. Seperate Address Books are a thing of the past. Outlook 2003 will use them, but it's much happier just using Contacts.

That's why I specifically mentioned the Dell 20". It's also why you don't see Dell offering a 22" in the UltraSharp line...you can't get the same clarity because of the native resolution of 22" panels (20" and 22" both use 1680x1050). I honestly think his best bet is going to be the Dell UltraSharp 2007WFP. I don't recommend ViewSonic monitors anymore. Their quality control has gone down hill in the last 5 years or so. I have a friend who purchase one of their CRTs some years ago. The first one had a crack in the casing. He replaced it under warranty...replacement had a crack in the casing (different place so it was a "new" monitor). Replaced it again...you guessed it, 3rd one had a crack in the casing. He kept the 3rd one and it ended up going bad about 2 years later (colors seperated like someone held a magnet up to it for long periods of time). That's just one example...

Nooooooo...you take a chance on slamming the heads in a Bad Way TM. Seriously...put it in a freezer for a few ours. Take it out and immediately try to get it to spin up (while it's still cold/frozen). If it spins up get your data off as quick as you can.

All of my PCs at home are on unless the power goes out, I'm rearranging the office, blowing the dust out, etc, etc. Basically I run 'em 24/7 except for routine maintenance and acts of God.

To access them when not in a domain (and without using the Guest account...blech) you have to create identical accounts on the workstations. So if machine A has an account called JOHN and JOHN has a password of JOHNPWD, then machine B would need an account called JOHN with a password of JOHNPWD. The default drive shares (C$, D$, ADMIN$, etc) are shared strictly for administrative purposes so anyone accessing them must have Admin privs on the workstation (i.e. JOHN would have to be in the Administrators group on the destination PC). The same is true of Remote Registry permissions. Now if you were trying to access a non-admin share then you'd simply need to give JOHN permissions to the non-admin share on the destination PC (and JOHN wouldn't need to be in the Administrators group in this case). Apply the same rules when attempting to map printers between non-domain PCs.

And there's another old saying we in the computer support industry have... If it doesn't fit, get a bigger hamm.....wait, no, that's not it. If it doesn't fit, push har...no, that's not it either. Oh yeah...if it doesn't fit, don't force it!!!!

I know the feeling. At least it didn't go food, drinks, gas in the order...I'm almost positive your girlfriend wouldn't have appreciated that.

Zxian, What did you ever come up with as a final solution for this?

http://www.sitekiosk.com/ It'll let you lock down a lot more than you ever thought possible.

Yeah...best to wait and see what the final specs are gonna be and what kind of motherboard configurations are going to be offered. Personally, I'm partcial to Crucial, Micron Technology's direct memory company. After that I go for Corsair. More often than not you'll find Corsair using Micron's memory chips on their PCB's as well though. The PCB design does have quite a bit to do with stability of the module though. The one thing about Crucial is that they're usually a little slower in bringing the fastest speeds to market. They're also sometimes a little more conservative with their memory timings in the initial offerings. But they are known for selling some of the most compatible, stable memory you can get.

When looking at Dell monitors don't look at anything but the UltraSharp line. Up until a few weeks ago the smallest widescreen UltraSharp you could get was the 24" 2407WFP...and that's way out of your budget. They just came out with the 20" 2007WFP though. The contrast ratio could maybe be a little higher...but then again, it has a higher contrast ratio than the Samsung 226BW that ripken mentioned. And it's within your budget. The Samsung 226BW would be an excellent choice as well. It definitely appears to have the better response time (different manufacturers measure them differently...even between their own product lines sometimes). The only thing I don't like about Samsung LCDs is their pixel defect warranty. For 21-24" monitors they'll only replace it under warranty if you have 17 or more bad pixels. Dell's pixel policy is 6 or more. Or if two adjacent pixels are bad. Another thing...Dell's monitor comes with 3 years warranty with 3 years advanced exchange. With the advanced exchange policy, if you have to get a new monitor under warranty, they send you the new monitor before you have to send the broken one back. That's an awesome policy that can't be overlooked. Those are just some things that you need to look into. Edit: Missed the specs on the 226cw. It has a better contrast ratio than the 226bw (don't look at the DC...or dynamic...numbers).

It won't be reversed. What the other agencies are going through now is just the beginning. Like I said...we've (the Air Force) been doing this for 2+ years. Even the XP firewall is turned on for all of our workstations (forced through GPO). The eventual plan is to even block file/printer sharing on desktops/laptops (there's a management VLAN and allowances for certain IPs so things like SMS can still work). I'll put it to you this way...I can't even run regedit.exe as a regular user. And it's only going to get "worse" with the move to Vista since there are a ton more GPO settings available. http://www.gcn.com/print/26_12/44351-1.html http://www.afmc.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123020383 And mikesw...they don't care about making it easier for you. The focus is soley on security and unless you can come up with a really good justification, you won't be exempt. SDC defines what software can or can't run on a PC so I seriously doubt there are going to be a bunch of contractors testing software...unless they're on the SDC team. BTW...I'm a contractor myself. I work with other contractors who develop software for the Air Force...they're not exempt. As a matter of fact, you should be testing your software in a non-Admin environment to make sure it's SDC compliant! Developers should've been doing this for years...I've always hated the "it requires Admin privs to work" mantra.

If you can't define it to a single PC then you have no choice but to look into 3rd party tools. Active Directory has no built in measures for keeping a user from logging into more than one place at a time.

You have to read between the lines when reading articles on The Inquirer...but they more often than not get reasonably accurate information. I don't like their opinionated articles because their opinions are usually pretty far out there...for example, I'm glad Fuad isn't posting there anymore. http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/networking/cisc...isco-282921.php http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/27/cisco-a...nksys-branding/ http://slashdot.org/articles/07/07/27/0044202.shtml http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=c...G=Google+Search

I knew this was bound to happen... Cisco has decided to kill off the Linksys name and use the Cisco brand across all of their products. http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=41269

Almost wanted to bet . That's why I added the stipulation.

I also work for DoD...USAF to be specific. The security settings that are on your laptop now are part of the Federally mandated Standard Desktop Configuration (SDC). The Air Force started this initiative almost 2 years ago and it has now been signed into law by the president for all US Government organizations. The settings that are on "your" laptop now will be near to impossible to undo. Not only are the settings enforced by Group Policy, but part of SDC incorporates applying a security template directly to the workstation/laptop. Wait until they start enforcing the LUA (limited user access) portion of SDC. When that happens anyone who isn't a systems administrator will no longer have admin access to any workstation, laptop or server. Period. As a matter of fact...those of us who are systems administrators have two accounts; one for day to day tasks (email, web browsing, Office apps, etc) and another for sysadmin purposes. I will say that I don't know where they got the notion of Symantec AV being unsecure. We're using (and are required to use) SAV Corporate Edition 10.

Before reinstalling...take out the new memory and put your old memory back in. I'm willing to bet the crashes stop...unless the new memory corrupted something. If the new memory isn't compatible with your motherboard it can test fine, but still cause crashes.

As cluberti said...he's definitely at least tried to logon to the system. What kind of permissions does his AD account have?

Actually...I don't think it is. I haven't messed with this, but trying giving them the "Allowed to create permanent shared objects" permission. Of course, this still doesn't have anything to do with setting the Security permissions (remember, you have both Share permissions and Security permissions). As a Power User you can't set permissions where you don't already have Full Control. The only way to do that is as an Admin (where you can brute force it when necessary). I would still be pushing them towards using a file server if they care about security and file/share management at all.

It won't be cheap...I can tell you that. Well...I say that based on what our CX3-20 cost us (about $140K USD). But our system was loaded and that included onsite install with a Dell Engineer. Our system has two DAE's (the included one and an extra) with 30x146GB 15K RPM 4Gb/s FC drives. Basically what I'm saying is that we went all out with ours. I honestly can't even begin to guess how much the CX3-10c would cost...but I don't think it'd be near as much as we paid for ours. I do know that Dell is very good about giving some pretty serious discounts to the education sector. At any rate, I do think it would be the better option than purchasing a NAS device (and a good one won't be cheap either) and then realizing a year later that you should've gotten the SAN. I have the same worries as fizban2 about them floating the cash. But what you have to do is figure out how to explain it to them that it's "spend all this now and be done with it or get a half-baked solution that we'll have to upgrade every year".

It's more likely that your motherboard didn't like the memory.