Monday 29 November 2010

ActiveSync only working when Outlook is open

We had a series of issues leading up to this problem and its unknown whether or not we actually caused this however here's how I fixed it in case anybody else see's a similar problem.

The scenario:
Outlook 2010, Exchange 2003(SBS), iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, WM5's and WM6's

All of the above phones were seeing symptoms, the iPhones batteries were reduced by at least 60% and the windows mobiles didnt seem to be picking up all emails.

Whenever Outlook 2010 was open, emails to the phone was brilliant and worked almost perfectly. Once closed, the doors were shut and no more email!

The Fix
Edit this key, no reboots necessary.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\VirusScan
Set ProactiveScanning = 1 (proactive scanning occurs when an item is delivered to a folder, but a request has not been made by a client)

Set ReloadNow = 1 (By default this value is set to zero, by setting this value to "1", Exchange will reload the configuration settings from the registry and reload the Vendor's DLL. Once completed this value is reset to "0" by Exchange.)

This sounds like a really unbelievable fix but it genuinely works and I've tested it on other sites where it has worked also.

Did I solve your problem? Buy me a virtual beer by clicking on a Google ad :). Thanks!


Monday 18 October 2010

I’ve been nominated for the Computer Weekly IT Blog Awards 2010!

It's a great feeling to have been nominated for the Computer Weekly IT Blog Awards 2010 in the Male IT Professional Blogger category, sponsored by IBM.




The voting structure is very simple, number of votes cast, with one vote cast per visitor. So if you’re a reader of this blog, and want to vote for me, visit the Computer Weekly Voting Page for the Male IT Professional 2010 category, hit the big Vote Now button, and pick my name from the list for the Male IT Professional drop-down.

I’m really grateful to those people who took the time and effort to nominate me, and for anyone else who votes for me – I really appreciate it :). Don't forget to vote for some of the other fantastic nominee's in the other categories as you only get one chance to vote.

Thanks

Kris

Wednesday 13 October 2010

Duplicate Name Exists On The Network

Wowzers, this is an annoying message! I spent the better part of Three days trying to crack this for a customer!

Ok so in my scenario, I had 30 PC's coming up with this error at bootup. I think at that point its a fair assumption that there aren't actually 30 PC's all running with duplicate names sitting downstairs in a store cupboard right..?

So first port of call, check the event log. I had something like this:
The name "MYDOMAINNAME/MYPCNAME :0" could not be registered on the Interface with IP address 192.168.1.100. The machine with the IP address 192.168.1.1 did not allow the name to be claimed by this machine.

The SBS in this case was 192.168.1.10 so why is 192.168.1.1 even talking to my machine when it boots up!?

I checked the source of the problem 192.168.1.1 and at first glance couldnt find any problems but then a little more digging and we found out the issue.

192.168.1.1 was a Linux server, named exactly (yes I said exactly) the same as the Internal Domain Name. So guess what, at DHCP request time, it was going off and sourcing DNS and DHCP via a combination of Samba and Windows SBS packets.


I appreciate that this wont be applicable to everyone but when I was trying to find this error where there actually WASNT a numpty who had named two computers the same it came up dry...

By the way, another fix which might help you a little... Put your DC/GC with its domain name Domain.local into hosts and point it to the server IP... Might work?

Monday 11 October 2010

Num Lock not enabled by Default on some new PC's

Strangely enough to mine and I'm sure many other peoples surprise, the commands are no longer in BIOS. See below.

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Keyboard and HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard

0 - Turn all indicators Off (NumLock, CapsLock, ScrollLock)
1 - Turn CapsLock On
2 - Turn NumLock On
3 - Turn CapsLock and NumLock On
4 - Turn ScrollLock On
5 - Turn CapsLock and ScrollLock On
6 - Turn NumLock and ScrollLock On
7 - Turn all indicators On (NumLock, CapsLock, ScrollLock)

In my case, the string value was some 7 or 8 digit number such as 21765430. These entries are the cause of the reboot change in the num lock status. If you want it on when you boot, set the string value to 2 in all the keys with numeric values. Problem solved!


Compliments of @RWheeldon

Tuesday 28 September 2010

MAC Entourage error 18500

Ok, so I dont normally 'do' Mac repairs but this is and was a royal pain so I thought I'd be nice for those AppleFans out there. In fact this is so easy to sort yet it presents what I would describe as 'false' errors.

Scenario:
Mac Mini with Office 2008 connected by HTTP - No new emails arriving and everytime we click send it comes back with a HTTP error.

Fix:
Well let me put your mind at ease first by telling you that its not a MAC problem, or an Office problem. In fact its a server issue. Now if your the troubleshooting type like me, you've probably whizzed onto the SBS ran "IISRESET", maybe checked Alias's, heck even reset the users password.

BUT did you check Licensing..? That's right it would seem that this is an error linked directly to Exchange not allowing any more connections. To test this, simply go into services and stop the "License Logging Service" the users mail will pop up and start working instantly. (Please enable this service again and only use this to test, disabling it is considered violation of Microsoft's Licensing Policies and will be upheld by them if they spot check you.)

So there is your resolution, you need to invest in some Small Business Server Cals :)


Did I solve your problem? Buy me a virtual beer by clicking on a Google ad :). Thanks!

Friday 20 August 2010

Capsule CRM Online Solution

I found this Software from a friend who recommended it and have used it personally and commercially for a CRM package, it's a great package I have to say. It's fully customisable, the support team are fast to respond and it's really simple to use and integrate. In fact I like it that much I even thought I'd promote it a little bit!
So if anyone is looking at this software OR looking for a small to medium CRM solution then this is certainly an option to consider!

Capsule CRM Online Solution

System Features:
Unlimited users
2GB storage per user
50,000 contacts
Unlimited opportunities
Unlimited cases
Integrates with Xero, KashFlow,
FreeAgent, FreshBooks and MailChimp


Get a complete contact view
The contact page gives you a bird’s eye view of everything you know about a contact so that you can keep track of the people, companies and other organizations that you do business with.

■ Share contacts with co-workers ensuring you all have a single up-to-date view of the contact.

■ Categorize contacts using tags that you define and that are relevant to your business such as lead, customer, vendor etc. You can even customize Capsule to record additional information when a tag is applied. E.g. lead source when a person is tagged as a lead.

■ Easily add notes about conversations you've had, meeting outcomes, how the contact is known to you etc.

■ Track all email communications by sending emails from Outlook or any email client into Capsule. The email becomes part of the contact's history along with attachments so it’s easily available in one place. Capsule will automatically create a new contact for you if it doesn't find a match in your account.

■ Attach documents, agreements, proposals and other files.

■ Import contacts from Outlook, Gmail, vCard, spreadsheets and any CSV file

Make sure things get done
Manage your to-do list and calendar using tasks in Capsule to ensure things don't get forgotten.

■ Create tasks for appointments, meetings, phone calls, submission deadlines etc.

■ Link tasks with contacts, opportunities or cases so it's easy to refer back to what the task was about

■ Share tasks with co-workers.

■ If you have standard processes such as the way you approach each sale configure these as "Tracks" in Capsule to enable the same set of tasks to be followed for each sales opportunity or case. Each task in a track can be linked to the previous task. For example, a "call back" task can be set due 5 days after an "initial call" task.


Access your account from anywhere, securely
Serious data security
Our servers are hosted in Amazon's data centers. Amazon take both physical and network security seriously ensuring your data is safe. In addition, information that passes between your computer and our servers is encrypted using a technology called SSL which is the same technology that banks use to protect data.

Controlled access
No-one has access to your account unless you invite them. And unlike desktop applications, if your computer is lost or stolen your data is still safe and secured.



Always backed up
Your data is stored to multiple locations in real time, and in addition we automatically make a further backup of your data every hour.

One master copy
All your users share access to the one master copy of your data on our secure servers so there's no need to email around spreadsheets or worry about who's got the latest version of a document.

Automatic upgrades
There is no software to install with Capsule, and because you access it across the web you are always using the latest version.

Windows, Mac or Linux
Capsule is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux running Firefox (V3+), Internet Explorer (V7+) or Safari (V3+). Just choose your favorite browser and you are ready to go

Tuesday 3 August 2010

Scan to Email - Exchange 2007

I find it amazing really that this is the first encounter I've had with this issue especially since SBS 2008 has been out so long but here we are. We had an issue where a network copier/scanner wouldn't scan to email (internally). Even using credentials to try and authenticate wouldn't work, it turns out that Exchange 2007 is now a lot more secure than 2003 was and so you have to run through the config below to allow relaying from a specific device.

■Open the Exchange Management Console and go to Server Configuration/Hub Transport

■Click “New Receive Connector”

■Give the new connector a meaningful name (“Copier Relay”), select Custom as the type, and you can leave the port as 25 or try a different port it depends how complicated you want your network. Any other free port will be ok though. Follow this through leaving internal network as is and then in the second window you want to setup your copiers IP so that only this can relay using this connector.

■Right-click the new connector, go to Properties make the following settings: Permission Groups Tab; Anonymous Users only. Authentication Tab; Transport Layer Security (TLS) only.

■Open the Exchange Management Shell and run the following command: Get-ReceiveConnector “Copier Relay“ | Add-ADPermission -User “NT AUTHORITY\ANONYMOUS LOGON” -ExtendedRights “ms-Exch-SMTP-Accept-Any-Recipient”. Note that the “Copier Relay” name is what was used in this example and you should change the command to match what you named the new connector.

■Restart the MS Exchange Transport service.(Important)

■Configure the Scanner/Copier/MFP to use the SMTP connector, including the port number you set up.

...and hey-presto it should all work fine.

Did I solve your problem? Buy me a virtual beer by clicking on a Google ad :). Thanks!

Sunday 27 June 2010

iPhone OS4 - Places not working with Geo-tagging bug

I thought I'd write up a post about this, simply because before I figured it out, I was contemplating contacting Apple Support in case I had a dodgy device. Fear not however my dear Apple friends this is not the case.

The problem:
I took a few photo's on my shiny new iPhone 4 and then thought I'd show off the "Places" feature to a few friends, embarrasingly to find that they hadnt been pinned to the map overlay. So typical IT bod I turned it off and on again - and it worked. Trying it again I had the same problem with any new photo's taken.

I did a little bit of research on the problem, obviously quite an annoyance and found out that the Photo's app, has to re-initialise for it to take into account the new photo's geo-tags and then implement them into the Places feature. I also found out that by default ALL apps will run in the background that support multi-tasking (I'm still not 100% sure on this but it does confirm it on and around the apple site).

So, I was left with a dilema. You open the camera, take a photo.
Open Photo's and check the places feature but Hey presto its only re-opened the last session NOT re-initialised the app and so not noticed the new photo's, hence the problem.

The Resolution:
I found out that there is a way to Kill processes on the iPhone, (tested on the 4.0 and 3GS),
If you take a photo, go into photo's, tagging wont work.

If you take a photo, double tap the home button to open the Multi tasking drawer, hold your finger on the app (as if to delete or move on the standard screen) then tap the minus button this actively kills that process.

NOW try re-opening pictures and like magic - it works!

I imagine Apple will fix this, this is by no means a fix just a workaround.

(It's also worth noting that I have to end the camera and the photo's app for Places to re-initialise.)

Love to see if others are experiencing this issue or not...


Did I solve your problem? Buy me a virtual beer by clicking on a Google ad :). Thanks!

Tuesday 22 June 2010

Message size exceeds fixed maximum message size

Now this was really annoying, basically I installed an SBS 2008 box onsite and later found out they needed to send emails with 25MB attachments. "Not a problem" I said as I recalled how easy it was to change this in Exchange 2003, completely oblivious to just how complicated an easy task could have gotten.

At first I just changed the limits in the SBS console window which I thought had solved the problem but this doesnt seem to make much difference. I then started looking into PowerShell and found out that, to get this to work you have to run the following commands.

(all examples based on 25MB incoming limit, default is 10MB)

So...

1) To review the global transport settings enter:
Get-TransportConfig | ft MaxSendSize, MaxReceiveSize

To change global transport settings:
Set-TransportConfig –MaxSendSize 25MB –MaxReceiveSize 25MB

2) To review receive limits:
Get-ReceiveConnector | ft name, MaxMessageSize

To change Receive Settings:
Set-ReceiveConnector “Windows SBS Internet Receive Servername” –MaxMessageSize 25MB

3) To review the send connector settings:
Get-SendConnector | ft name, MaxMessageSize

To change the send connect settings:
Set-SendConnector “Windows SBS Internet Send Servername” –MaxMessageSize 25MB

You can also set individual mailboxes with different settings but I've not had to use this as yet, it's always worked fine with the above.

Did I solve your problem? Buy me a virtual beer by clicking on a Google ad :). Thanks!

Monday 21 June 2010

Free iPad / iPhone 4 ?

This I was quite skeptical about at first but it's all based on clever referral marketing and works quite nicely. Basically it's very simple, if you can get 30 people to come to your site and sign up, you yourself will then be eligible for a FREE device of your choosing with no strings attached.

Now this isnt entirely selfish as it works multi-level, for example if I get a referral that's one point for me as you signed up BUT then also you can now bring other people in and start earning points towards your own iPad's / iPhone's / PC's etc. I started doing this with a friend who now has an iPad and a MacBook air! he barely lifted a finger, granted he has more time than me and is a student but hey!

If you're interested in giving this a go, then please follow this link:
http://tinyurl.com/28877wk

Friday 14 May 2010

Independent Derbyshire Business Exihibition Seminar & Networking Event

Dont miss THE business event of the YEAR - Independent Derbyshire Business Exihibition Seminar & Networking Event

Full Day ** 9th September 2010

Matlock Links are proud sponsors of a local business event held at the lovely New Bath Hotel, Matlock, Derbyshire on Thursday 9th September 2010 from 10am-4pm.

The event is the FIRST EVER independent business to business run event that has been organised in the area and is sure to be a fantastic event

Tickets are only £10 to attend which includes full day access, open networking, free time to browse the exhibition stands from local businesses, speed networking sessions and three key-note speakers (soon to be announced) as well as much more!

Refreshments will be provided throughout the day as well as business lunch and business promotional pack, including delegate list on arrival.

Limited places are available and tickets are sure to sell out fast, so to book your place, please contact us via email info@matlocklinksbusinessclub.co.uk or DM on Twitter @Matlocklinks

Wednesday 5 May 2010

The Conservative Contract with Britain



Our political system needs to change. Politicians must be made more accountable, and we must take power away from Westminster and put it in the hands of people - individuals, families and neighbourhoods.



If you elect a Conservative government on 6 May, we will:

1. Give you the right to sack your MP, so you don't have to wait for an election to get rid of politicians who are guilty of misconduct.

2. Cut the number of MPs by ten per cent, and cut the subsidies and perks for politicians.

3. Cut ministers' pay by five per cent and freeze it for five years.

4. Give local communities the power to take charge of the local planning system and vote on excessive council tax rises.


5. Make government transparent, publishing every item of government spending over £25,000, all government contracts, and all local council spending over £500.



We will change the economy

Gordon Brown's economic incompetence has doubled the national debt, given us record youth unemployment, and widened the gap between rich and poor. Unemployment is still rising, and this year we will spend more on debt interest than on schools. We need to get our economy moving.

If you elect a Conservative government on 6 May, we will:

1. Cut wasteful government spending so we can stop Labour's jobs tax, which would kill the recovery.

2. Act now on the national debt, so we can keep mortgage rates lower for longer.

3. Reduce emissions and build a greener economy, with thousands of new jobs in green industries and advanced manufacturing.


4. Get Britain working by giving unemployed people support to get work, creating 400,000 new apprenticeships and training places over two years, and cutting benefits for those who refuse work.


5. Control immigration, reducing it to the levels of the 1990s - meaning tens of thousands a year, instead of the hundreds of thousands a year under Labour.


We will change society

We face big social problems in this country: family breakdown, educational failure, crime and deep poverty. Labour's big government has failed; we will help build a Big Society where everyone plays their part in mending our broken society.

If you elect a Conservative government on 6 May, we will:

1. Increase spending on health every year, while cutting waste in the NHS, so that more goes to nurses and doctors on the frontline, and make sure you get access to the cancer drugs you need.


2. Support families, by giving married couples and civil partners a tax break, giving more people the right to request flexible working and helping young families with extra Sure Start health visitors.


3. Raise standards in schools, by giving teachers the power to restore discipline and by giving parents, charities and voluntary groups the power to start new smaller schools.


4. Increase the basic state pension, by relinking it to earnings, and protect the winter fuel allowance, free TV licences, free bus travel and other key benefits for older people.

5. Fight back against crime, cut paperwork to get police officers on the street, and make sure criminals serve the sentence given to them in court.


6. Create National Citizen Service for every 16 year old, to help bring the country together.

Sunday 4 April 2010

New Health Product Acai Berry for Weight Loss

I'll be honest I dont usually blog about stuff like this, I hate to cause controversy, especially if people start debating on my blog so I usually avoid it HOWEVER today I thought I would write a little article about something I've been trying and my experience with it, I don't claim to sell it, I'm not going to scream off of the top of hill-tops but I have however used these products and so will share my own success.

There are many people in the world who struggle their entire life to lose weight I actually was not one of these people until well the last year or so when it actually did become a little harder. A lot of people go for surgery which not only proves costly but also endangers their life. There are many techniques such as exercising regularly and controlling eating habits which are definitely effective and have worked. But these require patience and perseverance. If don't have the determination there is a effective technique to speed up the procedure.

Here's the semi-technical bit...

Acai Berry is known to be the one of the best option for reducing weight. Acai Berry is used along with the dieting procedure which helps to maintain the level of vitamins and minerals that are not in abundance in the diet of the person.

The Acai Berry plays a vital role in reducing and maintaining the desired weight. Acai Berry has proven to be very effective remedy for weight loss. It increases the metabolism in the body, which helps in reducing the unwanted fats from the body.

Acai Berry also contains anti oxidants, which plays a vital role in eliminating toxins and accumulated fats from the body, which leads to weight loss. Acai Berry proves to be effective only when the person take his diet wisely on regular basis. The main benefit of Acai Berry is that it takes less time as compared to other substitutes which helps in rapidly shedding the weight from the body.

There are many weight loss solutions, which are costly and can be only used by select class of wealthy people. Acai Berry is a natural product, which is available at reasonable costs and can be used by all class of people. Acai Berry is proven to be long-term resolution for many people as they use it on regular basis in order to remain fit and get rid of unwanted pounds under their belly.

I read several blog posts and several reviews before doing this (Which you are quite welcome to do by the way!) but basically there are two products you need to buy the Acai Berry (which promotes greater metabolism) and the Inner Cleanse (Which clears your body of the nasties it doesnt need - very technically put :P). I managed to lose around a stone of weight in a few weeks, which for me without this would have been a lot harder. Give it a go anyway and see what your thoughts are, please post your stories as well!

Try the Dynamic Duo for Weight Loss & Total Body Detox !

Visit ---> Acai Berry and Colon Cleanse

They offer a 100% money back guarantee also so there really wouldnt be much point in me making the above up, if it didnt work... you'd get your money back...

Thursday 25 February 2010

The installation of this package failed (Office 2007 compatibility pack)

So you receive an attachment from a friend or colleague and can't open it, you're suggested to go to the Microsoft website and download a file. So good so far, you download the file to your machine, run the installer but then get "The installation of this package failed"

I spent a while trying to figure out the problem here, some posts suggesting cleaning Temp files other registry, until I noticed that the Installer is only a bare minimal package with very limited Error codes built in. So first and always rule of thumb with a failed installer specifically if cleaning Temp directories doesnt work...

Check your administrator rights, this will then solve the problem. If you don't have local access to the PC you cannot install the patch.

Hope this helps others in the same situation. If not stop being tight and upgrade to Office 2007 :)

Tuesday 2 February 2010

Outlook 2007 asks for a password everytime you open it

Scenario: SBS 2008
TS 2K3 - 30 users
Outlook 2007


Problem
OK, so to save a lot of people a lot of time!

I spent ages trying to diagnose this issue, we had 30 people all getting this message asking for a username and password whenever they opened outlook. I also noticed that if we setup a new user we had difficulty even getting it setup as autodiscovery seemed to keep failing.

Resolution
Weirdly enough I think it's linked to an update on SBS2008 Ex2007. Check your Exchange to see what rollup it's running (Under Server Configuration - Build No.) You should update it to Rollup V.9 if it isnt already which seems to clear the issue.

Link:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=55320be2-c65c-48bb-bab8-6335aa7d008c&displaylang=en

NOTE
A quick note to some people - when you download the rollup and try to install it you'll probably find you can't due to privelidges. I got it to work by opening CMD with run as administrator, renamed the setup to Exchange then just run exchange.msp in the cmd box.

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