Implementing an RSS Feed into SharePoint 2010 Foundation

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

the signature of the certificate can not be verified Exchange 2003

This took me so long to figure out and there is next to nothing on Google so hopefully this will help a few others like me who have probably reached close to the end of their tether by this point.

Everytime we opened the Public Folders section of Exchange this error was produced and so you couldnt then follow any procedures through. Unfortunately for me, I HAD to get into this console.

The error is quite simply what it says, there IS an error with your IIS SSL Certificate. Remove your SSL Certificate from IIS and you can access the Public folders, re-add the certificate again and it'll fail again.

The ultimate solution is to purchase a correctly signed certificate or if your cushty with CA services, re-issue yourself a shiny new one that matches the server name properly and then install that.

Love to know if anyone finds this useful as I spent hours with no results on the net...

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

A Potential Security Concern Has Been Identified : Access Runtime 2007

We found that in Access 2007 to use a database without the trusted location error bugging the user everytime they open it wasn't quite as simple as you might initially suspect using Access 2007 Pro.

To trust a location you have to specify the path in the registry as Trusted Sources / Access Options isn't to be found in the runtime version of Access.

Navigate to the following Key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Access\Security\Trusted
Locations

Create a string for:
'Path': Specify the full path to the database (excluding *.mdb)
'Description' : The description isnt relevant but from testing it appears it is required as an entry.

Additionally create a DWORD value for
'AllowSubfolders' : 1 to trust any subfolders of Path (Not a requirement)

This should eradicate the error from presenting itself, thereby trusting the database.

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

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!

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

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?

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

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!

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

Sign up now for free

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!

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!