Archive for the ‘Microsoft’ Category
Terminal Server FTP without admin rights
I’ve just found myself needing to FTP some files to a clients site. The file are in the data directory on our company’s terminal server (which I don’t have admin rights on) and I need them on a SQL Server for a client.
I do have access to a FTP Server but the first step is to get the files up to the FTP Server then download them to the client site. Yes, I could use the command line tool ftp but that is just too painful at this time of day (read: night).
Thus a quick google turned up this: AnyClient – The Free No-Install FTP Client.
It is a java applet. What a lifesaver, nice gui (similar to Filezilla, which is my choice of FTP clients). Anyway, AnyClient is quick and easy to use. Just thought I’d share the find.
Oh, and of course, no admin rights needed, as there is no program installing. Yay!
Catch this train
A good friend of mine, John Cantarella, has been using the training courses provided by Train Signal. I’ve had a look over his sholder at some of this stuff and it’s fantastic.
The Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 R2 training is ‘informal’ in the sense that it actually feels like your in the same room with the guy, him telling me how it all fits together.
I wish I’d had something like this two years ago…. ;-)
Thanks to John for letting me take a look at it – he was able to show me some stuff I didn’t yet know.
What version of SQL Server is running?
[update: SQL2005 versions more info here]
To find out what version of SQL Server your running, do this:
From the command prompt on the SQL Server itself,
osql -E -S %computername%
This will give you a SQL prompt, at which you do the following:
1>exec master..xp_msver 'ProductName'
2>exec master..xp_msver 'ProductVersion'
3>go
This gives you two bits of information, (1) the Product Name & (2) the Product Version – which requires some interpretation, note them both. But first, at the SQL prompt, type quit.
1>quit
The table below will help determine exactly what SQL Server is running.
By finding the file SSNETLIB.DLL and right clicking it, and checking the version number. If the version number of this file is 2000.80.760.0, you have SQL Server 2000 SP3. If the version number of this file is 2000.80.766.0, you have SQL Server 2000 SP3a.
This file is normally found in one of these two locations:
- Default instance: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\Binn\Ssnetlib.dll
- Named instance: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQLServer\MSSQL$<InstanceName>\Binn\Ssnetlib.dll
Of course, Microsoft have more to say and you can find it at: www.support.microsoft.com/kb/321185
Brisbane launch of HEROES happen {here}
I went along to the launch earlier this evening of the Microsoft Server 2008 HEROES happen {here} launch.
Yes it is one month after the offical launch, but tonight I hear more about Small Business Server 2008 and Essential Business Server 2008, both of which have some good features and product inclusions and exclusions.
I take my hat off to one of the presenters, Robbie Upcroft, for his honesty and candor. It was refreshing to see coming from Microsoft. We had some questions for him regarding x64 Exchange 2007 vs x32 Exchange 2003 – as some third party vendors are dragging the chain (read: some LOB application providers are still using 16 bit code in applications), hence could we use SBS 2008/EBS 2008 and use Exchange 2003 instead of Exchange 2007. Answer, yes.
All in all a great evening which helped confirm the direction in which MS is headed with this product set.
Ubuntu VPN goodness
I’m now running Ubuntu 7.10 on my personal laptop (it dual boots with MS Vista Ultimate, but defaults to Ubuntu). Of course I want to do it all, including connecting to MS Windows VPN’s.
The short set of instructions over at tipotheday were spot-on.
My only addition would be to have the Ubuntu 7.10 install CD (or ISO) handy. Personally I used the command line (CLI) version, worked a treat.
Network printers & RDP
Setting up a remote user today, who has a network printer on their local network which they want available to the RDP session (over VPN).
RDP doesn’t by default redirect non COM/LPT/USB ports – i.e. an IP port.
Thankfully, a simple registry edit noted in MS KB 302361 makes it easy to tell XP to redirect other ports.
Downgrade Vista to XP?
Yup, you can.
Microsoft Vista Business & Vista Ultimate come with ‘Downgrade’ rights.
IBM have a page explaining the process, as do a number of other suppliers.
Why would you want to? Well one client I have is about to purchase some new workstations, rather than upgrade all the other workstations to Vista, or have some running Vista and some running XP, it makes sense for all workstations to be on the same OS, with the same apps. By downgrading to XP now, and having the right to revert back to Vista later makes for an easier transition now.
SMB traffic control
I can’t recall which web site I found this via, and have not had time to play further with it, but it looks very interesting: that is tweaking the settings to mimimise network traffic caused by “Server Message Block (SMB)” with Windows Explorer.
If anyone has used these tweaks, I’d like to hear what your experience has been.
Email size limts in Exchange
Have an Microsoft Exchange server and want to change the maximum size of emails that can be sent or recieved?
Here is how: Open up Exchange System Manager, Global Settings, right click Message Delivery, select Properties, Defaults and bingo, you can set both Sending message size and Receiving message size.
Debug Windows authentication issues
Julie, the back room tech, just wrote an article on how to enable debug logging to better solve authentication problems on MS Windows 2000, 2003. No doubt this will also help with tracking down a multitude of other error messages that would otherwise remain unseen.