So I’m trying to troubleshoot a problem where backups of a Windows 2008 server over a 1.5Mbps Wide Area Network (WAN) connection keep failing. Occasionally it will work, but most nights it will fail after running for several hours. We have a number of in-house network troubleshooting tools and I also know there are endless…
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If you’re like me, and are familiar with setting up virtual machines (VMs) on VMware 4 & 5 ESXi servers using Microsoft Windows, then you have probably gotten used to the simplicity and user-friendliness of installing the VMware tools in the operating system. You just open the VM’s console window, log on to the desktop…
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Are you tempted to click on a shortened link in your Twitter feed or a discussion forum, but you are unsure of the trustworthiness of the person who posted it? Usually when that happens, I simply move on. I’ve got more important things to do anyway, so I might as well avoid landing on a…
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It’s important for all workstations and servers to agree what time it is. There’s a long list of reasons for this, including log file synchronization, and avoiding the inevitable end-user complaints when their computer’s time does not match their phone’s time. Unfortunately, when I recently set up a LAN with a number of Windows Server…
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Recently I encountered a database issue on a Microsoft SQL 2008 R2 server that can only be described as a case of a phantom SPID (server process ID). What I mean by phantom is that this SPID was showing a date of 1900-01-01. All external connections to this database had been severed, but every attempt…
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A few weeks ago, David K. Sutton posted his thoughts on passwords on this blog, and since I had coincidentally just finished trying to hack a password around that same time, I thought I might add and/or elaborate a little on what he said, and offer some real world context and numbers. WORKPLACE CRACK Someone…
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Remember Novell? Remember NDS or eDirectory as it later became known? NDS might be mostly dead, in favor of AD (Active Directory), but NDS did have many advantages over AD, and one of them was the ability to assign rights (permissions) via OU membership. Want to give users in a specific OU access to a…
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The Account Lockout Policy in Active Directory is not what it seems. Oh sure, at first glance it appears simple enough. Set a threshold, set a counter, and when that threshold is tripped in the allotted time, account locked out. What could be simpler right? Well, as with most things in IT, what should be simple isn’t….
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