Tag Archives: Server 2008

Adjusting network card properties to fix slow network response

If you have slow or non responsive program properties; such as a database or other network program…Right Click on My Computer, go to Properties, select Hardware, Device Manager, click the + sign on Network, Right Click on your network card, select properties, select the Advanced Tab, Look for Speed   – adjust the value to 100 Full Duplex, 100 Half or even select the 10 settings.  Try it on each of the settings to see which one is optimal for your network.

When computers handshake (exchange data) autosense does not always work.

I’ve had replaced network cards, ran winsock fix and tried everything when the solution was right in front of me.

You should also disable everything under the Advanced Tab except Flow Control.

turnoff

 

For SQL, see our LLMNR Article

Cannot access computer by NetBios name after replacing NIC card

If you have ever replaced a network card on a server or computer and you can no longer access the computer, you should flush any cache on the workstation that is accessing the server.

Insure no other users are logged in -

Open a Command Prompt as an Administrator (Type CMD in the search box)

ipconfig /flushdns

ipconfig /registerdns

nbtstat –s

nbtstat -r

nbtstat –c

nbtstat –R

nbtstat -RR

nbtstat –n

nbtstat -a xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx      (replace the x’s with the IP address of the computer you are accessing – the computer with the new NIC card)

Also insure the NetBIOS over TCP/IP radio button is selected. (See Below)

To enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP on Windows 7 or Server 2008 R2:

  1. Click Start, and then click Network. (click Start, type ncpa.cpl into the search box for Windows 7 or Vista, hit ENTER).
  2. Click on the Network and Sharing Center
  3. Click Manage Network Connections.
  4. Right click on the Local Area Connection select Properties.
  5. Select Internet Protocol version 4 (TCP/IPv4)
  6. Click the Advanced button under the General tab.
  7. Click the WINS tab.
  8. Click Enable NetBIOS Over TCP/IP.
  9. Click OK and Exit the settings.

Password complexity in Windows Server 2008 is grayed out

I do not recommend this but I have seen a non-critical server where simplex passwords could be used (internal network/non-critical or non-sensitive data) – Resetting password complexity in Windows Server 2008 (R2).

If you need to disable password complexity in Windows Server 2008 and it is grayed out under the group policies -

  • Open the group policy management console and edit the GPO on domain level, if you haven’t created one you can use the one that is listed by default.
  • Find password complexity in the policies and change
  • Open a command prompt as an administrator
  • Type gpupdate /force and hit enter

An attempt was made to reference a token that does not exist

When opening manage or the  ”Microsoft Management Console (MMC)“  you recieve
“An attempt was made to reference a token that does not exist”.

Solution:

Open a Command Prompt ( Search for CMD) (right click and run as administrator) and navigate to

c:\windows\System32

Re-register the required DLL files by using the following command:

For /F %s in (‘dir /b *.dll’) do regsvr32 /s %s

 

Also run SFC /SCANNOW from the command prompt (Elevate permission) if the above does not work.

View Open Files on Server 2008

Before rebooting a server, you should see who has open files so you won’t corrupt data or knock a user offline.

Server 2008 has moved where you can view these.

To see the open files, right click on computer.   Select Manage.  Click Roles – File Services – Share and storage management.  Choose Action and then manage open files.

 

Slow Network File Transfer – Server 2008

Here’s a quick tip on increasing network file transfer speed on Server 2008 and Server 2008 R2 that we use.

Change the following information in your server’s registry and reboot.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

Value =DisableTaskOffload
Type = DWORD
Data = 1
Value =EnableTCPChimney
Type = DWORD
Data = 0
Value =EnableTCPA
Type = DWORD
Data = 0
Value =EnableRSS
Type = DWORD
Data = 0

How to make an ODBC connection to an SQL Database

Need to make an ODBC connection to an SQL Database?   First off, what is it?  An ODBC connection uses SQL drivers to connect programs such as Microsoft Access to your database allow you to have a ‘front-end’ to develop forms and to do queries of the database.

I wrote two articles several years ago for Bright Hub.   The first one was how to make a connection and the other was how to setup SQL to experiment and learn SQL.

Using Microsoft Access to Connect to a SQL Database

Setting Up Microsoft SQL 2008 in VirtualBox

Students who have access to DreamSpark can load SQL and Server 2008 on their computers in order to learn Server and SQL.   How do you learn about making queries with SQL’s query analyzer or how to make tables?   Use SQLCourse.com.

Other articles -
Check Your Online Database with SQL Injections – HP Scrawlr

Protecting Your SQL Database with Security Roles

Hardening Your SQL Server

SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008 Encryption

Protecting your SQL Server

Is your SQL connection slow?

MiTeC System Information X – system information about your system.

MiTeC System Information X- full featured system information about your system.  If you need to know exactly what is in your netbook, notebook, desktop or server and you need a free software for residential or commercial use, MiTeC has an excellent system info software you can use.

MiTeC’s System Information X provides very detailed information about your system.

MiTeC also offers an excellent network scanner that provides the following information -

Scan features:

  • Network neighbourhood
  • Ping
  • IP Address
  • MAC Address (even across routers)
  • MAC Vendor
  • Device name
  • Device domain/workgroup
  • Logged user
  • Operating system
  • BIOS, Model and CPU
  • System time and Up time
  • Device description
  • Type flags (SQL server, Domain controller etc.)
  • Remote device date and time
  • Listening TCP and UDP ports and SNMP services.
  • Installed services on device
  • Shared resources
  • Sessions
  • Open Files
  • Running processes
  • Terminal sessions
  • Event Log
  • Installed software
  • SAM accounts
  • WMI and SNMP Queries
  • Powerful WhoIs client

(Don’t forget to see our article on protecting your data -Scanning networks for information)

MiTeC also has an excellent network meter (NetMet) if you wish to keep track of information about your network connection including Session totals, Download and Upload speeds.

MiTeC has dozens of other freeware programs for your toolbox.  Link

The miracle server

What happens when you are in a hurry and you have to replace a server motherboard?   You run the server with the protective plastic shield for three years without incident.    Three years ago we had to replace a motherboard on the fly.   Being under the gun Mike and I hurried through the motherboard installation and got a department up and going within an hour.   Proud of ourselves we discovered three years later as we were repasting our computers that we had left the plastic protective sleeve for the CPU on top of the processor when we assembled the motherboard in late 2008.

(Photo: Neil Spector)

I was so shocked that the motherboard and CPU had survived I looked up at Mike in amusement and asked, “Should we leave it on there?  It’ll probably die if we take it off!”    Of course we removed it and repasted the computer.

Moral to the story – Take your time and double check everything

Verdict – Mike and Steve guilty….. Dawn innocent

Free Microsoft Resources

Want to see how remote access and VPNs work?  Microsoft’s technet has hundreds of demos, virtualizations, books and other materials.  Here’s a lab on vpns - Test Lab Guide: Demonstrate Remote Access VPNs 

So what else is available over at TechNet?

Books, Magazines, and Tech Columns
Customer Relationship Management
Deployment
Exchange Server
Forefront Security
Infrastructure Optimization
Internet Explorer
Interoperability and Migration
Network and Messaging
Microsoft Office
Online Services
Scripting
Security and Updates
Products and Technologies
SharePoint Products 
Solution Accelerators
SQL Server
System Center
Systems Management
Windows
Windows Server
-More (Below)
         Business Intelligence
Common Engineering Criteria
Inside Microsoft.com
IT Showcase
Technet Archive

Elearning and Free Classes

 

Run Virtual Servers – see how systems work

With thousands of free products online, Microsoft has a vast amount of information for home, student/education, educators or enterprise users. Microsoft also offers online discounts.

Run Virtual Servers – see how systems work

SQL Server

SQL Server 2008

Virtual labs

Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

Windows Server 2008 R2

Windows Server 2008

IIS7

Microsoft Office 2010

SharePoint Server 2010

Microsoft Forefront

ISA Server

Exchange Server

SMS

Windows Server 2008

Windows Server 2003

 

 

 

Run VirtualBox on a webserver as a cloud OS

Want to run VirtualBox on a webserver for training or need to run VirtualBox remotely on a webserver?  Need VirtualOSs in the cloud?

Download PHPVirtualBox.  Unzip the files into a folder in your webserver.  Give permissions for web users.  In IIS, right click the folder and give Network Services and the Users permission.  You will also have to give your temp folder permissions.   Rename the config.php-examp to config.php.

If you are running php on your webserver, you can enable the soap.dll in the php.ini file by removing the ; .   Stop and Restart the webserver.

Make sure VirtualBox is installed and an operating system is installed.  Open VirtualBox.

Open notepad and copy and paste the following into a blank workspace.   Save the notepad file as virtualboxweb.bat on your desktop.

cd\
cd\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\
VBoxManage setproperty websrvauthlibrary null
vboxwebsrv.exe >null
pause

Run the batch file.

On a client computer, navigate to http://yourwebaddress/yourfolder/index.htm

Login using admin as the username and password.   Click on file.  Change the login password.    Click on file, log out and now re-log back in to test the password.

You can now run an OS in the cloud.  PHPVirtualBox is an excellent program – information from their website follows-

An open source, AJAX implementation of the VirtualBox user interface written in PHP. As a modern web interface, it allows you to access and control remote VirtualBox instances. Much of its verbage and some of its code is based on the (inactive) vboxweb project. phpVirtualBox was designed to allow users to administer VirtualBox in a headless environment – mirroring the VirtualBox GUI through its web interface.

-phpVirtualBox:

  • is designed to be a web interface replacement of the VirtualBox GUI program
  • is not designed to run in a “hosting” environment where the concept of VM ownership is required – when you are logged in to phpVirtualBox, you have full control over all VMs in the VirtualBox installation
  • aims to perform all VirtualBox administration actions through vboxwebsrv (a SOAP server distributed with VirtualBox)
  • does not directly interact with any files on the VirtualBox host
  • does not have automatic VM start / stop functionality on system boot / shutdown – this functionality is not provided by the VirtualBox API

 

How to increase Active Directory Speed

Active Directory is one of the mostly widely used models to push policies and to secure your enterprise.

Many IT personnel complain of degrading performance after a period of time.   Although Windows tries to keep Active Directory defragged, the Active Directory database can begin to grow even when you delete users and adjust it.  More on this later….

  • Memory (Always use 64bit Windows – Migrate to Server 2008 R2)  - use 8gb or more when possible
  • Memory Speed – Look for HyperX and other high quality memory
  • Motherboard Choice – FSB, Chipset,  ports, controllers  (Motherboard selection should come after CPU)
  • Processor – select multi-core/multi-CPU
  • Power –  We live in a ‘Green’ world but don’t rob your system of power
  • Hard Disks – Use SATA 6.0 for small / medium enterprises and SCSI for large enterprises
    -Put your OS on one drive, active directory on a second drive
  • Defrag Active Directory (2008)
So how do you defrag Active Directory?