Gekko_uk

Hi, Thanks for your reply. Can you expand a little more on how/what this is and how it benefits me? Thanks

Hello All, I have a 50ish PC network (XP SP2+) connected to a domain. Network layout is around 10 pcs/switch (10/100) with 1GB uplink back to main 1GB switch that has servers attached. Servers are 2008R2 domain controller also acting as DHCP/DNS. I have various GPO's applied to domain, one maps drives, one maps printers and another does Desktop control (background images/restricitons etc). Every morning when people login 1 or 2 systems (on different switches) will fail to map all their drives, if user restarts they map fine. It isnt always the same pcs and sometimes it dosent happen at all. I personally dont think my network is too busy and the server spec is more than enough.... but I am getting annoyed as I cant work out what the reason is? Can anyone shed some light on what would be causing this or a starting point of where to look to fix it? Thanks Andy

Morning All, (well its morning here). I have a problem that is driving me mad... How do I control/modify Power settings on my XP clients accross the company via GPO? I am using Single domain on Server 2008R2. All my XP clients have power managment settings locked/set to Monitor off after 15 and Standby after 15. I would like to make diff polices for different machines. I stumbled accross - and http://www.terranovum.com/projects/energystar/ez_gpo.php. But dont know what to do with them. I did find the "preferences" section in GPO policy editor on Server, but tried to no avail and I did a bit of reading and it only seems to apply to Win Vista > systems. Any help greatly appreciated. .

Thanks for the reply, would you be able to provide more detail as a quick google etc and I am left in a programming coma... Take it as share name is "Databases" and remote server is "server1" ie \\Server1\Databases would be the path. Many Thanks

Hello, Weird one for you... We have a DBA who has a large number of Access Databases stored on a network drive (P Drive). He has asks me daily/hourly who is connected to the shared drive which I find out by logging onto the server and looking at the shares via Computer Managment/Open files & open Sessions. Is it possible for me to have a script he runs on his computer that would return this himself? but just for the P Drive. I had thought about creating a MMC template and giving him access to that but it then lets him see all open files/sessions which for example one might say X:\HR\john_Ross_Offer_of_Redundancy_letter.doc. which for obvious reasons is a big no no! Server is Windows Server 2003 running as DC/File Server, he is on Xp with office 2007. Any help/advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks G

Hello, I am thinking of setting up a wireless access point for general use at local youth club. As far as I know they wont be charging to use it, but we will be wanting to restrtict who can get on it. So just using the basic router WPA is not enough as we will need a diff "key" for every person who asks to use it. Is it possible to set this up? Can keys expire so after 1 hour say the key is useless? Is this done via RADIUS? I have a million more questions but this will at least start the debate. Thanks Andy

Hello, I have to install a new IT system for a company of 1ooish users. Currently they operate across three offices with numbers split as: Office 1 (HQ) 66 Office 2 - 20 Office 3 - 20 Currently Each office has a seperate domain and users have 2 or 3 accounts at each office. Email is currently outsourced to a third pary company and is accessed via pop3 into PST files on each users system. I have proposed Exchange and a linked domain enviroment. Luckily all new hardware is going to be used so existing system can continue to run until I need to copy data accross. Obviously some work will have to also be done with MX records in regard moving from hosting company to in house. few questions for you, be good to get a feel for what people think? Should I go for Windows Server 2008? Not much experience with it more comfortable with 2003, the 64bit stuff is also a worry for me in terms of compatability and tourbleshooting. In relation to exchange I have speced 2 x identical servers to host it on, is it viable to host it at HQ and have other users logging in via either webmail of via VPN's? I have a 12Mb down 833K up connection at head office and 6MB down 333K connections at each office? Should I go for Exchange 2007 or 2003. I have experience with 2003, but 2007 I have done nothing but read up on it. Again, 64bit requirement does concern me as does lack of experience with it. A few others have commented that noone would fit a new exchange server and chose 2003 for it. THanks in advance, I have a feeling I will be coming back to this post/forum a lot over the coming months. Thanks Andy

Smart Sync Pro - http://www.smartsync.com/ Lets you schedule backups from clients/servers/any location to FTP/Network Drives/USB Drives etc etc. Alerts can be setup by email to ensure these are taking place, alerts can detail what has been backed up, if it was completed. I use it accross all our sites etc, quick fix for laptop users who store lots of files locally and only loose their laptops!

I Wouldnt mind a link/copy of said apple wallpaper :-)

Hello, I am needing some help with a dial up connection over ISDN2e. (UK based, BT ISDN line). First we have two of these http://www.sitecom.com/drivers_result.php?...p;productid=104 One at one site and one at another. Both sites have 1 server each running Windows Server 2003 R2 fully patched/updated. One site has been established for around 3 years, some probs but nothing a quick unplug/reconnect couldn’t fix. We commissioned this new site around 6 months ago. Line was fitted and it remained like that for months. Now we have plugged identical modem and server in and we receive a “no dial tone”. We have a dial up connection (over ISDN) within windows which dials a number to connect to a system. I have checked ISDN box and Green light goes solid when modem plugged in. I tried new modems, taking the modems to the other site (connected first time). Took server to other site - connected first time also! Even had BT out who tested line to death and found no faults. I am lost with what else I can try.... any suggestions? Thanks Andy

Many Thanks. Going to give it a go at the weekend!!!

Hi, I have been playing around with VMWARE Server (free one) and I get the idea of it all. My question is: What is the difference between VMware Server - which is free and VMWare workstation? I have 3 "service" boxes at the moment. One is XP Based and moves data around between different network drives (via scripts), one is a Linux Test box and one is a windows 98 box for old software. I was thinking of buying one powerful machine and using VMWARE to "emulate" these three boxes instead. But I dont know if this is the best route to go down. What are peoples thoughts? Would welcome general discussion about experiences with Virtualization in general. Many Thanks Gekko

Hi, Dont know if you have already sorted this... but here is my two bits worth. I do exactly this, for fire/flood reasons. It depends on how large the file sizes are of the files you will be backing up and what connection upload/download rate you have at both ends - it will obviously run at the slowest connection that exists between each site. I have the following setup: 2 x draytek routers on a 8MB adsl Max line (one at office, and one at backup site). Then I have a LAN to LAN vpn between the sites which allows me to map a network drive on Server which exists on server in Backup office. I then use a peice of software - Smart Sync Pro which checks each night for any changes and copies accross what has changed between sites. It has a reporting tool which email's log files to me detailing status/what copied/what never copied etc. It may be an idea to take an exact copy of everything onto another site and put it onto drive that way offline, hence initial backup will be small has the biggest one will be the first one, which you have done already! Cheers Gekko

I know this is an old post... but problems like this always puzzle me. Why have a DC wireless?It creates so many possible problems/issues. Whats the point in having a server connection that has so much interference/possible faults? Uptime of what 10%? The router being far away is the most stupid reason I have heared in my life. OPTION 1. Run ONE cat5e cable to the router - a drum of Cat5e (300 Meters) costs like £22. Put a booster/switch inbetween when you start to have REALLY long lengths. Offices I have setup in the past which span accross multpile floors can be easily cabled using a Patch Panel - and that involves lots and lots of floor/wall points for Data and Comms - We are talking ONE cable. OPTION 2. Run Telephone cable from where the current router is to the server? This costs next to nothing. If you cant handle that have BT or similar come and install a new phone point near the server - again costing around £100 for call out and parts. OPTION 3. Find a phone point nearer to the server and run an extension/cable from that Using wireless as the router is too far away is like puting a light bulb into the socket and turning the house. If you are having a DC in an area away from a router it makes me think it probally isnt a secure room - which puts the DC in danger of being played with by people who have no business doing so. Cleaners love to unplug such things to get the hoovering done! Honestly though - I think you need to sit down and Re-look at the setup in this kind of situation and apply some common sense. God didnt create IT rooms for a laugh!.

Hi, I am a bit of a digital keeper! I would buy bigger Hard drives before deleting a "maybe" file. I have built quiet a collection of MPEG's/AVI's/WMV's of old concerts/TV appearences of fave bands. Now recently while browsing my collection I have found many of the videos to have corruption/jumping playback. Now these clips were perfect before, but on looking at them recently they seem to have "Degraded". Can anyone offer an explenation to this and a way of stopping it from happening? Cheers Gekko

Thanks for the reply, are you sure? As previously (couple of months ago) we had copies of Windows XP Pro suffer a similar fate with "geniuene windows advanatge" popups as we had the same License code accross a group (syspreped/ghosted versions) Cheers Andy

Hi, I have a 40 computer network. we run XP Pro on all connecting to a windows Server 2003 DC. I had my tech make a sysprep image of our standard setup and ghost/blast it onto all the boxes. This worked fine. I then left him to plum them in and the users have been using them now for a week or two. He then dropped into conversation he didnt understand why office wasnt complaining about the same serial being used on all the boxes?! We have 40 x OEM Office 2007 Pro edition Licenses and 40 machines all bought at the same time. But when making his standard image up he installed and activated Office 2007. Hence the prep'ed image has it. Now office update/windows update all runs ok but I am worried that down the line we will get hit with a an update that may spit the dummy and cause corruption etc. Should I worry? I have all the lic's but I am unsure what will happen in the future if anything. I would rather not have to re-install/sysprep machines. Any advice/comments? Cheers Gek PS: Unsure if this was correct place to put this thread, but took a punt that it was better suited than in the W2k3 section.

I have been experiencing ongoing Group policy issues on my win2k3 Network. I have the following error occuring - "Windows cannot query for the list of Group Policy objects. Check the event log for possible messages previously logged by the policy engine that describes the reason for this." I have been experiencing problems such as password renwals not prompting the user. Any ideas. Many thanks Andy

Right, I used google and I have turned it on... for the main directory (also turned it on in local policy). But in the event log it does not list file names. just the folder they have went into. Also, It does not log deletes. - not that I can see. The event ID for deletes (564) does not show up if someone deletes a folder it dosent show up. I have selected full audit/all in the audit window. Any ideas. Cheers Andy

Thanks for the suggestions guys. In relation to the File Audit, could you detail how I go about this? On your point about not having file shares on a DC, does this not cause a problem when setting permissions on those drives/files if they are on a different server? Or do you mean using DFS? Cheers Gekko.

Hi, I have a dell 2900 Server with Raid 5. This server runs WIN2k3 R2 fully updated and as domain/dc/dns. We have a network drive that all users have read/write access to. Recently we have been finding folders going missing. Now this has been happening to all users on the network. I at first put this down to users deleting files... but today I witnessed it happening. A user created a new folder X and saved files into it. After around 3/4 hours they went to add another file to the folder and the folder had gone. If it stays long enough for the backup routine to run then we can copy it back from there onto the network drive. But I am at a loss as to why they disapear. Can anyone help? Anti Virus is disabled on server as is any scans etc. Thanks Andy

Thanks Jim. Never thought about it like that. Would this still work if you had to replace the HD's - keeping the config/size the same but different physical drives? I would image it would. Andy

Hi, I have a Dell 2900 Server with a Raid 5 configuration on it. I wish to make a ghost image of it. Is this possible? I felt that with RAID 5 it wouldnt be possible do to the casting of the data across multiple drives. Many thanks Andy

Hi guys, It has came to my attention that there are still some issues. The lag on the server has now been fixed, but the user accounts still seem to lag behind the server - example - I wanted to do some maintannce on someones account the other day, so I went into AD and right clicked their name and chose reset password and set it to "password". This worked fine. Went to their system and installed the software (sage client) and logged out. I then set in AD for their name - "user must reset password at next login". So next morning they login with password.... but no prompt. They then could not access any network resources etc. If I unticked "user must reset..." and they logged in with password it is fine. This is mirrored accross all PC's - no matter who/what machine it happens. ALso, I have noticed that somtimes when they do manage to get a prompt appearing it wont take any password ie they are told it must be 7 characters and not any one of their X number of password - even when I put in ones which have never been used before and meet all the req criteria it still wont let it happen. Only way around it is to click and un click user must reset password box for that user and the odd restart of the client and it seems to be ok. But this is obviously not ideal. Also, when their password expires, they do not get a prompt, but instead are allowed to login but cannot access any network resources. If they do a ctrl +alt+del and change their password it works.... this is really really weird. if anyone has a hint as to the cause and solution to this I would appreciate it. PS the lag in AD on the server ie browsing it etc has disapaeared. Kind Regards Gekko

Changed to 127.0.0.1 and all is now good! Many Thanks to all of you. Regards Gekko