Home Networking With XP

Problem: All I was trying to do is share one directory from an XP machine to another user on the home network, running Windows 2000. Both machines were connected to a Linksys router. Simple, eh? That's what I thought.

I did all the normal things:

1. Turned on File and Print Sharing on the XP machine.
2. Made sure both machines were in the same workgroup.
3. Verified that both machines were set to get an IP address via DHCP.
4. The machines were not in a domain but the user needing access to the share had a local userid on both the XP machine and W2K machine (same user name).
5. Unchecked the use simple file sharing box in the folder options, so that we would see the Sharing and Security tabs on the folder and file properties.
6. Shared the directory on the XP machine. Changed the share permissions to allow Everyone Full Control (been burned by that one before).
7. Attempted to set the NTFS permissions, but found that the C drive was FAT32. Ran a Convert to get us on NFTS and then set the NTFS permissions to allow Everyone Full Control.
8. Checked the XP Firewall settings and made sure that file and print sharing was allowed.
9. Yes, I even made sure both machines were plugged into the network.

And..... you guessed it; it didn't work. The W2K user didn't have permission to access the share. It made no sense; Everyone had Full Control.

Solution: A little investigation showed that the user wasn't using a password on either machine. We simply gave her a password on the XP machine and she was able to connect to the share from the W2K machine. Go figure......

Dodged Another Bullet....

Problem: I've been fighting an apparent virus for the past couple of weeks. I'm not sure what it was because I've never seen or heard of the specific symptoms before. Suffice to say that the machine was acting wacky. For instance Internet Explorer seemed okay most of the time during normal surfing. However, when linking to a web site from email, occasionally I would get an unknown error message; the message box wouldn't completely paint and then IE would crash. My printer was also hanging and causing the system to dynamically reboot. Somewhere along the line I tried an XP Repair, but XP Setup didn't give me the Repair option. I started saving stuff for an imminent rebuild but the system degraded so much that I finally couldn't even logon due to recursive BSODs. I really needed to save my email, so I couldn't just blow the system away and rebuild without tyring to save the data.

Solution: After numerous tries and failures at rebooting with the Last Known Good configuration, and unsuccessful attempts to even bring the thing up in Safe Mode, I ran XP Setup. I was thinking all was lost and was prepared to blow away the partition, when suddenly a ray of hope appeared. For some reason this time I got the Repair option during Setup. I ran the Repair, brought the machine up and reinstalled SP2. Once the system appeared to be stable, I backed up my email ........ :o) just in case. (The machine seems to be back to normal, but I'm never sure what "normal" is anymore).

NOTE: I'm using Incredimail for my email client. Incredimail has a very slick backup facility which puts all the email data into a single cab file for transporting to other machines or restoring after disasters. It's much cleaner than another very popular email client that most people use, which has no built-in backup/restore capability.

Outlook Signatures

Problem: A user reported that he was unable to insert a custom signature into a note on Outlook. The "Signature" option was not on the Insert menu.

Solution: The whole problem revolves around the option of using Outlook as your email editor vs using Word as the editor. If you use Outlook as your email editor and you want to insert a custom signature, or choose from a list of custom signatures, simply select "Signature" from the Insert menu when composing the note. If you use Word as your email editor, the "Signature" option will not appear on the Insert menu.

Brand-X Strikes Again ...

Problem: A user requested help with the sound on her machine. It happened to be another one of those brand-x machines that I love so much, loaded with parts that I've never seen or heard of. The sound circuits were integrated so I opened the box to determine the manufacturer of the mother board. It wasn't easy but I found the manufacturer's web site and downloaded the audio driver. At this point you're probably asking, "Why is he giving the solution under the problem statement?" Well, because I haven't gotten to the real problem yet :o( .... I started the installation of the audio driver and began to pack my stuff to leave, when the install process abruptly ended and the system crashed. When it came back up, of course the audio still didn't work. In addition, both the CD reader and the CD-RW devices went yellow in Device Manager. I unpacked my stuff and spent the next 3 hours trying to reload the CD and CD-RW drivers. Nothing worked. I had to revisit the machine the next day. You're right, the drivers didn't magically load by themselves over night. Going on advice I found on the internet, I deleted both devices and let the machine rediscover them. Of course the plug and play process loaded the same old driver and I got the same old message: "The driver may be corrupted or missing. (Code 39)". Now for the real killer; I deleted the devices again and decided to reboot and let the devices get rediscovered during system initialization. The machine came up as far as the logon prompt and permanently hung (please shoot me ...... now......)

Solution: I decided to try Safe Mode. However, when I hit the F8 key I didn't get the normal black screen with Safe Mode and the other choices. I got another short menu of choices for selecting a boot device. Oddly enough it let me choose the CD drive at this point, so I inserted the XP CD and ran a Setup Repair. This allowed me to logon again (whew), after which I was able to reinstall SP2 and get back to normal. Unfortunately this only got me back to square one, with no audio driver. By this time the user was happy to live without sound. That was good enough for me!

After days like this I always hope it's true what they say ..... "That which doesn't kill me makes me stronger"

Scanner Not Recognized

Problem: On an XP workstation, I was able to install the driver for an HP Scanjet 4570c, but the system didn't recognize it. The USB cable was fine and properly connected, and the device was powered on.

Solution: Disconnect the power from the scanner and then reconnect it. You should immediately see the plug and play dialog and the scanner will show up in the device list.
NOTE: This particular scanner was using a USB extension cable, to further complicate the situation. As it turned out, the device wouldn't work even after the above problem was solved until I removed the extension cable.

Stop BITCHIN'!!

Problem: I run into a lot of cynical people in this business! It's hard to put my finger on just why, but I think it has to do with a certain arrogance that builds up over time. Arrogance that grows out of handing lots of what we would call simple problems for 'stupid' users. Anyhow, it's a HUGE mistake to get carried away with this attitude, because sooner or later it's going to get back to the users. The users are not really stupid just because they might not know as much about technology as we do. If you really care about eating, remember who's buying the groceries!!

Solution:

1. First of all decide right now if you really want to be in the business. There are plenty of other job opportunities. The longer you do this with a bad attitude the greater the chance someone will notice, and they're not gonna like what they see. NOTE: there are lots of very smart people in India, Canada and other countries who are willing to do your job right now, cheaper and with a big smile on their face.
2. Think of positive ways to solve the problems. If the routine stuff is getting under your skin, find a way to automate it or somehow limit your personal involvement.
3. In your spare time, if you have any, find ways to make the users see your true value to them. If they're not absolutely delighted to see you when you show up, your not trying very hard. IT people and organizations have always been regarded as a burden; a cost; something to tolerate; and eventually as something that needs to be downsized. Thus, all the outsourcing we've seen in the past several years. It's YOUR job to turn this thing around. If you play your cards right you can get your superiors and/or customers to view you as an assest instead of the typical burden. When you're finally appreciated you'll be a much happier person, and I won't have to worry about you taking the pipe.

Macintosh Network Settings

Problem: I was asked to configure some Macintosh laptops with static IP addresses and a proxy server. This wouldn't normally be a problem except they asked ME to do it. After the configuration the network dialog showed a green light indicating that the machine was connected via the Airport*, but I wasn't getting to the internet.

Solution: Apparently, a reboot is required for the machine to recognize the proxy server. At any rate, I rebooted and it worked.

* For you PC bigots, "Airport" is the cute little name the Apple people give to their wireless routers .... :o)

Security SNAFU

Problem: My newphew asked me to recover his machine this week. He had that dreaded recursive F8 screen on which none of the choices work (Safe Mode, Last Known Good, Normal Startup, etc), and the computer either hangs or reboots over and over again; (Mother of God.....)

Solution: As you probably know, running setup and chosing the repair option is the best way to get back in business. Or in some cases, like when you don't have a CD for the same OS, you can just install another OS in a different directory, in a dual boot arrangement. Either way you don't lose any data. However if you end up doing the dual boot option, you'll have some security issues to deal with. Specifically, the new profile you create when you install the new OS on the system doesn't automatically have access to the old directories and files, even though the new guy has administrative access. What I did to remedy this is have the new userid take ownership of the entire C: drive and then grant himself full control of everything.
Tip: If the machine is not in a domain you will not automatically have the Security tab showing on the directory and file properties dialogs. To show the Security tab:

1. My Computer
2. Tools
3. Folder Options
4. View tab
5. Scroll to the bottom of the 'Advanced Settings'
6. Uncheck the box entitled Use simple file sharing (Recommended)

Server Out Of Disk Space

Problem: We had a Windows 2000 Server that wouldn't finish initializing due to lack of disk space. While the services were starting, Active Directory issued a message saying that it was unable to allocate enough disk space. Unfortunately, answering OK to that message took the system down and restarted the boot sequence.

Solution: We were able to bring the server up in Safe Mode to take a look at the disk space. The System drive has 5 GB of space. We ran the standard Disk Cleanup dialog and got rid of some junk and compressed some old files but didn't really get back much space. We noted that the directories and files at the root of the System drive only accounted for about 2.5 GB of the space. We then showed the hidden files but found that this didn't account for much more of the space. Finally we showed the hidden Operating System files and found that the pagefile.sys file was a whopping 2 GB in size!

This server had been used for an application that required a lot of paging space. Since it was no longer running that application, we determined that the server no longer needed a large page file, and adjusted it down: Control Panel ==> System Properties ==> Advanced tab ==> Performance Settings button ==> Performance Options Advanced tab ==> Virtual Memory Change button ==> Virtual Memory dialog. We noted that the Initial Size of the page file was set to 2000 MB and the Max was set to 3000 MB. We reset the Initial Size down to 500 MB and the Max to 1000 MB. And OH YES, we hit the Set button to impelment the change (easy to miss ... :o)

After a reboot we were back in business....

Winsock Fix

Problem: The user reported that her email had stopped working and that she could no longer get to the internet. Initial network trouble shooting determined that the machine could ping beyond the default gateway but could not get to the internet or to other network resources.

Solution: This is a known Winsock problem that can happen on machines (Win9x,NT,W2K,XP) that have had spyware removed. There is a fix available at the TACKtech site: http://www.tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=257

1. Download and unzip the file
2. Run the extracted executable
3. The dialog has an option to save the registry. Run this first.
4. After the registry is saved, run the fix
5. Reboot

Thanks, Travis!

Brand-X Hardware

Problem: A user reported that one of his machines would not start up. Investigation showed that the machine was repetitively going through the boot cycle, but never completing initialization.

Solution: The first thing to try is reseating the memory. In this case it worked so it was worth the few minutes it took. This was one of those brand-X machines that someone built from components they got at a computer fair. I guess they do this thinking they'll save a lot of money. What I find is that these machines frequently have problems with things like the memory shaking loose. I always cringe when I'm called to work on one because they usually mean trouble. If reseating the memory didn't work in this case, I would have probably had to rebuild it. When this happens, lots of luck finding the drivers for all the weird components. I'm not plugging any particular hardware here, but I'd really rather work on machines with manufacturers names I've heard at least once before.

Peer-to-Peer Print Sharing

Problem: A user reported that her laptop couldn't access her printer. I found that the printer was directly connected to another machine which was serving the printer to 2 other machines in a peer-to-peer relationship. The print "server" and the 2 other machines were all running XP. The laptop in question was running Win 98.

Solution: I don't see many machines running Win 98 anymore and the longer I'm away from these wonderful relics the less I remember about them. So there was a lot of head scratching and fumbling around while trying to make this work. I finally got it to work by checking/adjusting 3 things:

1. I made sure the share name was short enough. Win 9x can handle up to 12 character share names. I used 8 characters.
2. I set the Win 98 workgroup name to the domain name used by the other 3 machines. Before I did this, the Win 98 machine couldn't even locate the printer on the network.
3. I set the Win 98 Client for Microsoft Networks properties to logon to the same domain. I then instructed the user to always logon to the domain with the Win 98 machine. This is the only way the print "server" will let the Win 98 machine use the printer without entering a password every time.

Editorial Comment: I hate peer-to-peer print sharing. For one thing, average users don't seem to understand that the print "server" has to be up and running so their peers can print. They just turn the machine off and go home for the day. Even when the sharing is working it's often very slow. And worst of all, trouble shooting the problems can be extremely time consuming. In the above case, if the user didn't have to pay me to get it working, she could have easily bought another printer for exclusive use by the laptop, and let me get some much needed sleep.

Speak of the Devil......

Problem: I had a power surge at my house over the weekend. As I was checking out some of the electrical problems in my house, I noticed that my monitor had that ugly message: WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM file missing or corrupt.....
I have a surge protector, too! Scary, eh?

The reason I bring this up is to re-emphasize my entry of a few days ago, entitled Gambling With Your Data. Please read that one. If you think it will never happen to you, believe me, it will.

Solution: My hard drive was not damaged, it just had corrupted data. So, I ran XP setup but didn't delete the existing partition. After reinstalling XP I was able to get to all the other data. It's a little messy since the reinstallation gives you a new registry and user profile, but it's better than wiping the system and then restoring everything from backups most of the time. I then did some application reinstalls to re-establish the registry entries.

Luckily, I also had my important stuff backed up on CDs, as well. I didn't need the backups this time, but next time who knows.....

MS Access 97 Issue

Problem: I installed MS Access 97* on a machine today at the request of a user. When I launched the application for an initial test, I got the following message: "Microsoft access cannot start because there is no license for it on this machine".

Solution: This is apparently a known problem caused by a font file, of all things!! Thank God for my IT colleagues who are nice enough to document these things on the internet. Because there isn't any way in HELL that I would have ever figured it out. When I keyed in the message to do a search for the problem, the first hit on the list was: http://www.howtodothings.com/showarticle.asp?article=624 , documented by Peter Morris.

Peter's solution:

1. Find the font named Hatten.TTF in your {windows}\fonts folder (usually c:\windows\fonts).
2. Rename the file to Hatten.TTFX
3. Reinstall MS ACCESS
4. Rename the font file back to Hatten.TTF

The location of the font file was C:\winnt\fonts in my case, but the solution was the same. THANK YOU Peter!!! (If you're not the one who originally found the answer to this, I apologize to him or her; at least thanks to you for documenting it).
*NOTE: If anyone else in the world is still using Access 97, get off of it!! It's 7 years old........ Please!

Synchronizing With Outlook

Problem: The user reported that she was no longer able to synchronize her Palm Tungston E with her Outlook Calendar.

Solution: As it turns out, the handheld was actually synchronizing with Outlook, but with the wrong calendar. This is one of those situations where the handheld belongs to someone else but is being synched on an Admin Assistant's machine. She has no less than 5 calendars in her Outlook profile. It took some searching but we found the calendar that was synching with the handheld and verified that all calendar items were actually matching after a synch. We then opened the Hotsynch Mananger and selected the entry for the Outlook Calendar. We were then able to open the settings for that entry and browse to the correct calendar and selected it for the synchronization.

Note: The Palm One site has a lot of good debugging information.

Read Only For Everyone

Problem: I recently shared a directory on an XP workstation and granted a specific domain user write access to the shared directory (NTFS write access). The user with the write access attempted to create a file in the shared directory and got "access denied".

Solution: I changed the Share permissions from Everyone having Read Only access, to Everyone having Full Control.

If you're an old NT techie you'll remember that before XP Service Pack 1, the default access for shares was Everyone - Full Control. We usually left the share permissions Full Control and assigned the appropriate permissions at the NTFS level. We did this to keep from confusing ourselves with conflicting permissions resulting in problems like the one above. Well, SP1 reversed this default to: Everyone - Read Only, and as we all know, NT security enforces the most restrictive access between the Share permissions and the NTFS permissions. So, when sharing data on XP, make sure the share permissions are either the same or less restrictive than the NTFS permissions. (Then you'll be able to sleep at night..... :o)

Gambling With Your Data

Problem: A user reported that his critical application was down because his machine wouldn't come up. "It says something about 'primary hard disk 0 failure', and just stops".

Solution: If it's really your critical application, and the only copy of the data is on that machine, what you need to do is find a current newspaper, open it to the classified ads and start that long hard search for a new career; outside of IT.
Seriously, it's 2004. If you can't find a way to protect your critical data you don't belong in this business. First of all, truly critical data should NEVER be stored (as the only copy) on a workstation. If you don't have a properly backed up server on which to store it, make copies on anything you can find. Today you have lots of choices:

• CDs
• DVDs
• Zip drives
• Floppies
• PDAs
• USB Flash drives
• Paper, if nothing else

You can even turn on File and Print Sharing and store data on another workstation (This is not ideal, but at least you'll have another copy!).

At any rate, a workstation should be viewed as a "throw-away", a tool that can be trashed on a moment's notice, without having to worry about the data. When the hard drive goes South, and it eventually will, you'll want to be able to drop in a new hard drive, rebuild it and move on.

As they might say at MasterCard, workstations are cheap; critical data? ........ priceless.

No New Mail

Problem: An Outlook/Exchange user reported that she had not recieved any new mail in 3 days.

Solution: This is a frequent complaint with our Outlook users. "No new mail" always means that the user has lost contact with the Exchange server but, it's not always for the same reason. This time the indicator at the bottom right side of the Outlook window showed 'Disconnected'. Sometimes this simply means that the network cable is disconnected, but in today's case it wasn't. The network connectivity was fine; she could get the internet and to her network drives. Further investigation revealed that her Exchange account was set to the wrong server. The Exchange administrator had moved some users to a new server but had not verified that the account information was updated. I shut down the user's Outlook session, opened the Mail dialog in the Control Panel and changed the user's account settings to point to the new Exchange server. When we launched Outlook, viola! New mail (too much new mail.... :o)

Limited Or No Connectivity

Problem: The user reported that she could no longer get to her e-mail or to the internet. "It just stopped working 2 days ago and has not worked since."

Solution: Initial investigation revealed that her network connection was in that new limbo state, reporting that the local connection had "Limited or no connectivity". I think this is new with XP SP2, but I can't say with certainty (That would mean I'd have to do a little research which in turn might require me to read something. No way). Anyhow, I've seen this a couple of times, now, both involving machines that were set to get IP addresses from DHCP. In both cases the machines had "169" addresses, meaning they couldn't contact the DHCP server. Also, in both cases the problem boiled down to a bad network port.

Whatever, this new state of "Limited or no connectivity" does me no good, so far. For me, "Limited or no connectivity" has equated to NO connectivity. I spent a lot of time trying to detemine if there was something I could do to cure the problem. Both times I encountered this I couldn't even ping the default gateway, let alone the DHCP server. So, I think we would be better off if we just got the old familiar red X on the network icon, indicating that the connection is just plain broken. But, that's just my limited opinion.......

Let's Get Back To Basics - What Changed?

Problem: The user reported that she was getting repetitive system crashes, but couldn't tell me exactly what was going on at the time of the problems. She had a recoverable BSOD at one point but didn't capture any of the debugging information. The problem record had the words "Fatal System Error" and 3 Hex strings, and that's about it.

Solution: I searched the internet for any clues related to the Hex strings. Nothing there.
I then wanted to eliminate any hardware issues, so I downloaded the diagnostic utility from Dell, created the floppies and ran the diags. You guessed it; no hardware problems. I then launched every application I could find and saved test files, trying to produce ANY kind of problem. No luck. After an hour of fruitless searching the user finally admitted that Adobe Photo Delux had been added to the machine recently. She had evaluated it and decided not to use it, and asked me to remove it. This I gladly did. I then stood by for awhile and watched her try to reproduce the error she had been seeing, without success.

There's no guarantee that Adobe Photo Delux was causing the problems but I would almost bet it was. It was the only thing that had changed, and so far we haven't seen the problems again since it was removed.

Anyhow, sometimes we forget to ask the most fundamental question when it comes to solving almost any computer problem: "What changed? "

Software SOB Story

Problem: The user reported that regular Domain Users could not use the AutoCAD product that is installed as a component of Autodesk. A message said that the application couldn't write to the registry. No kidding, some software really can be an SOB! I didn't do the installation, but I got the call when it wouldn't work.

Solution: Sorry, but I have to vent a little bit here. So that you know I'm not just picking on Autodesk, I've seen this problem with lots of products. COME ON PEOPLE! Don't you know that many organizations use your products in lab environments where most of the users don't OWN the machine the product is running on and don't have ADMINSTRATIVE PRIVILEGES???? Why in the name of God would you develop an application that writes to the registry every time the procuct is launched?? I did find some documentation that says you can run with Power User rights, and that's true. BUT, we don't want the lab users to be Power Users either. This is no help! (WHEW..... I feel better now).

Anyhow, most of the time we can work around these silly problems with various software packages by giving write access, or sometimes full access to the product's root directory, or to some file. For the Autodesk problem we have the added challenge of trying to find out which registry key the users need to write to. We haven't quite figured it out yet, but when we do I'll edit this post with the final solution.

Stay tuned.........

On second thought, I won't publish the registry key here, just because I don't want to encourage registry hacking. If you have this problem, please bug the vendor.

Moving Mozilla Mail

Problem: A Mozilla mail user gets a new PC and needs to have her local mail folders and address book moved to it.

Solution: Mozilla stores all of it's user specific files in this profile path:
C:\Documents and Settings\Userid\Application Data\Mozilla\Profiles\MozillaProfileName\RandomNameDirectory.slt

Do the following:

1. Copy the contents of the above path from the old machine to some location (like a network drive or zip drive) where you can get to it from the new machine.
2. Install Mozilla on the new machine.
3. Launch the Mozilla mail client and follow the dialog to create the new mail profile and set the application to recieve mail from the server.
4. Stop the application
5. Copy the following items from the saved profile data to the profile path (see above) on the new machine:

• Mail directory
• abook.mab file
• bookmarks.html file (if the user also uses the Mozilla web browser)

6. Launch the mail client; the local folders and address book should now show.

To Rebuild, or Not To Rebuild.....

Problem: Once in awhile you come across a machine that is SO screwed up that it doesn't pay to figure out what's wrong. Unfortunately, you might work on it for a long time with that I-can't-let-this-damn-thing-beat-me! attitude before you realize you're past the point of diminishing returns. Not very cost effective.

Solution: Set a time beyond which you will wipe the system and rebuild it from scratch. Easy, eh?

It's wrong to call this the "solution" because it might not be the solution for you. It's certainly not the only solution, but it could be one that would work if the conditions are right. Anyhow, you have to know enough about your operating environment to make the call on this. That is, you must know enough about the machines you support, the applications they run and the network they are in to know if/when/how to stop recovery efforts and start rebuilding it from scratch.

For purposes of this example, let's assume that the machines in question are all workstations (as opposed to servers), and that the workstations run no critical or peer-to-peer shared applications. Let's also assume that all the workstations run roughly the same set of standard software, like an antivirus package, MS Office, etc. One further assumption: each workstation has at least one network drive where the user can/should keep all his or her working data, even if s/he also keeps a lot of the current data on the C: drive. Using these assumptions, you could say I will spend no more than 1 hour solving a problem before I begin the rebuild process. After all, the rebuild process under the given circumstances could reasonably be done within 2-3 hours (depending on hardware and software configurations). The process could be something like this:

1. Save all the user's data on the network drive, making sure to check the desktop, My Documents and folders and files at the root of the C: drive.
2. Save the user's local email data, such as mail stored on the C: drive and the address book. You'll need to know enough about the email client in use, and the location of the local mail data.
3. Save the user's internet bookmarks.
4. Save the machine's network configuration (write it down).
5. Save the machine's security configuration (write down users and groups that need administrative access).
6. Save the machine's printer configuration (note all the defined printers and make sure you can physically find them).
7. IMPORTANT - If the machine is relatively new, record the device information, especially for the network device, in case the rebuild process doesn't find the drivers you need.
8. Restart the system from the OS installation CD, delete the existing partition and rebuild the OS from the bottom up.
9. Resolve/install any missing drivers that the OS installation didn't find.
10. Reinstall all the standard software, beginning with the antivirus package.
11. Re-enter the network information and download any current upgrades from the LAN or the internet.
12. Redefine the users and groups that need administrative access.
13. Have the user logon, then restore the saved bookmarks.
14. Add the printers.
15. Restore the user's data from the network drive.
16. Restore/reconfigure the user's email settings.

It sounds like a drastic measure if you're not used to doing this, but it's really not. It can take a lot less time than working on some nasty problem for too long and then having to rebuild the system anyhow. You just need to be ready for it by having all the installation CDs in your bag of tricks. Even more time can be saved if the users are informed about keeping their data on the network drive(s) at all times.

It works for me....

From Publisher, to Adobe

Problem: User needed to convert an MS Publisher file to PDF format. There is no direct way to do this. That is, no way to save the Publisher file as a PDF file.

Solution: I talked to a few people who know Publisher and found it's possible to do this, and they pointed me in the right direction (I figured this was better than spending the whole night working on a product I'd never used before). Anyhow, all you have to do is save the Publisher file as a Post Script file. During this process you need to specify which type of printer the PS file will eventually be printed on (even if you never intend to print the PS file); look at the dropdown list and choose a color PS printer. After the PS file is created, open it with Adobe Distiller, which will do the conversion to PDF. Not pretty but it works.

The MS Publisher help dialog has this documented, by the way. So, if you're inclined to read, unlike me, you probably knew this already....

Pop-up Ads

Problem: User reports lots of pop-up ads and slow response time. The system seems to hang for awhile and then runs momentarily, hangs, runs, etc.

Solution: If the machine will run long enough to download some tools, do the following. If not, it might be time for a rebuild:

1. Download and install the free copy of Ad-Aware from Lavasoft. When the product has completed installation and is ready to run, make sure to choose the option to look for updates. It will go back to their web site and automatically download the latest definitions, and then begin running. It will locate/identify objects (processes, registry entries, directories and files) that are known to be associated with ads that you don't want to see. It will then give the option to delete the objects.
2. Download and install the shareware copy of Spybot Search and Destroy from PepiMK Software (Patrick M. Kolla). Go through the dialog and search for bots. The software will identify and list the problem applications and give you the chance to delete them.
3. Download and install the Google Toolbar from the Google web site. It blocks ads that it knows about and gives you the option to allow them, or block them, on a piecemeal basis.

These 3 things usually clean up the system well enough to work. You might have to re-run the first 2 occasionally to keep the definitions up to date.

If there are still some rogue tasks running, causing slow response time you might have to dig a little deeper. I'll give the standard disclaimer: Editing the registry incorrectly can cause permanent damage to the operating system and render it unusable. If you decide to remove or change anything, you do it at your own risk!

Investigate the Run keys in the registry and take the appropriate action to get rid of tasks that should not be running on the system. I won't give detailed instructions for this. If you don't feel comfortable doing it, DON'T. Ask for expert help:

• HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
• There might be other Run keys to check; I declare this an incomplete list.

Roaming Profile Blues

Problem: The user couldn't logoff due to her user profile exceeding the roaming profile size limit. She attempted to delete some profile data but never got the size down under our 30 MB limit. So, she simply turned the machine off. Not good.

Solution: We moved her working data from her Desktop and My Documents folder to her mapped network drive. We also, deleted lots temporary internet files. This got her below the 30 MB limit and able to logoff gracefully. Tip: If you're having trouble determining the size of directories for tasks like this, download the free copy of Treesize from Jam Software. The free version will allow you to quickly see the size of directories on any local drive, listed in direcotry tree format. Then you can go about deleting as necessary.

Same User, New Domain

Problem: User needed to be moved from one domain to another, while preserving all profile settings and files from network drives. The move also included moving the user from one Exchange server to another as an Outlook client.

Solution: For the purpose of this example, assume that the old domain is named X and that the new domain is named Y. Also assume that the user does not have a roaming profile. Finally assume that the administrator performing the move has at least read access to the network drive(s) in the X domain. Then do the following:

1. From the Y Domain administrator's workstation or server....
2. Define a userid in the Y domain named the same as the user in the X domain, and set up the appropriate logon script.
3. Create a personal directory for the new user in the Y domain.
4. Map the user's X domain drive(s) and copy the contents to the new directory in the Y domain.
5. From the user's workstation.....
6. If the user doesn't have administrative access to the machine, grant it now even if it's only temporary.
7. Have the user logon to the X domain as normal.
8. Go to the Control Panel "Mail" icon and look for any data file definitions. If any, make sure the files are on the local C: drive. If not make a copy of them, saving them somewhere on the C: drive. Get out of the Mail dialog.
9. Launch Outlook and export all mail, calendar and contact information from the server to a local .pst file. Then get out of Outlook.
10. Make sure you know the local Administrator's password at this point or you won't be able to logon after the reboot.
11. Go to the My Computer properties, Computer Name tab and change from the X domain to some tempory workgroup name. Before rebooting you can also change the computer name at this point, to the Y domain standard, if necessary (saves you one reboot if you do it now).
12. After the reboot, logon as the local administrator.
13. Go to the My Computer properties, Computer Name tab and change from the temporary workgroup to the Y domain. Before rebooting, add any users or groups from the Y domain desired to have administrative access. Reboot.
14. After the reboot, have the user logon to the Y domain.
15. Launch and configure Outlook to access the new Exchange server. Import the saved .pst file into Outlook. Get out of Outlook.
16. Copy the user's profile information from the userid.X to userid.Y. If you don't want to copy all the profile information, you must copy at least the following directories: Desktop, Favorites, My Documents and the Outlook stuff (path: C:\Documents and Settings\userid.X\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook)
17. Go to the Control Panel "Mail" icon and configure any data file definitions as they were on the X domain. Get out of the Mail dialog.
18. If the user previously had any shortcuts pointing to the old network drives, these of course will no longer work. Make new shortcuts pointing to the new network drive(s).

That should do it....

SP2 - I Love You

Problem: Windows XP with Service Pack 1 installed had a very annoying problem. Most of our users store their data on network drives; we not only encourage this, but demand this to avoid the probability of them losing all their local data when their machine goes South. With SP1 installed, it was taking 30-40 seconds to access a network drive at least the first time they opened it any given day. The access time varied depending on the speed of the server hosting the network drive, but it was never instantanious. Microsoft never admitted that this was a bug (at least I never saw it if they did). The delay was somehow associated with a security fix that was part of SP1. Now, I agree that security fixes are very important, probably much more important than response time, but this fact didn't make the response time issue any less annoying. Sorry. Anyhow, if you have this problem.....

Solution: Apply SP2. Thanks Microsoft!!

Editorial Comment: This one might seem nit-picky if you never saw the problem. However, consider this. If I had a $1 for each hour that I and others (thinking globally, now) spent on trying to resolve this, AND another $1 for each of the accumulated hours all the XP users with network drives spent waiting to access their data, you wouldn't have to listen to me bitch anymore. Wouldn't that be nice??

Automated Software Installation

Problem: It's hard to call software installation a "problem" anymore. It has gotten very easy over the past few years. Today, it's mostly a snap. But, as easy as it is, if you have to install the same load of software on lots of machines, it can be very tedious. Today I had to install the same four products plus multiple upgrades for each product on 15 machines. UGH! It took me several boring hours. Unfortunately, most installations still require some interventions/decision making during the install, so you usually can't just start them and walk away. There's got to be a better way. There is.....

Solution: This is not a comprehesive study of how to automate software installation. I'm sure that if you're into this full time you can find any number of products for sale on the market to help with the automation. I'll only talk about one way that I have used to automate the process, that's sort of quick and dirty, but more important....it's FREE. I like free. The product I use is Auto-It from Hiddensoft. In a nutshell, Auto-It is a fairly simple scripting product that allows you to:

• Execute programs (DOS commands and others)
• Send keystrokes and mouse clicks
• Conditonal processing
• Manipulate windows and check window status
• Some clipboard functions
• Read from and write to the registry
• Manipulate strings and variables

For example: Say you have some software to install that requires some different settings based on the OS it runs under. It uses some number of windows to prompt you for information, not only yes and no stuff, but installation paths, registrations numbers, radio button options, check boxes, etc. Furthermore, the software requires that previous releases be removed first and also depends on prerequisite software that is not part of this package. Finally, it requires a reboot of the host system at the end of the process.

Auto-It can handle all these things.

To continue the example, the script can read the registry to determine which OS is running on the target machine and save the information in a variable to be used later in the script. At the same time it can check the registry for prerequisite software and do conditional processing based on what it finds (stop the process? Issue a message? Install the prereq? etc.). It can also kick off an uninstall process for previous releases, if necessary. Once the preliminaries are done, the script can then start the install process and watch for windows/dialog boxes that need other information. When information is needed the script can fill in boxes, press buttons, etc. When the script senses the end of the install dialog, it can force a reboot. AND, if this isn't enough, you can also compile the script into an executable so you don't need to have Auto-It installed on the machines where you need to run the script!

Very slick and easy to use! Of course, you wouldn't want to bother writing a script unless there is some level of complication in the process, or unless you have lots of mind-numbing installations to do. I sure could have used one today...... :o(

Monitor in Standby Mode

Problem: The user reported that her monitor goes directly into standby mode when the system is started. She gets no error messages, nothing to indicate what might be wrong, just a black screen.

Solution: The first thing to try for this is reseating the memory. If that fixes it, you're done. If not, try replacing the memory with a known good stick of the same type. If this doesn't work, try replacing the video card (or in the case of integrated video, install a non-integrated card. You might have to disable the integrated video to make the new card work. RTFM). If none of this works it's very likely a bad system board (mother board). If the machine is still under warranty, work with the vendor and let them troubleshoot. Unless you have a special deal with the vendor this is the only way you'll get a replacement mother board. If it's not under warranty, don't bother trying to get a new mother board. It's simply too much trouble and probably not worth your time. And, if the new board turns out not to fix the problem, I'll have to worry about you shooting yourself. Not good for you OR me.

When I had this problem we ordered a whole new tower for roughly $420. We chose the same model as before but ordered the smallest disk and least expensive other components. When the tower came in, we brought it up 1 time to make sure it would run then we stripped it and put all the (better) components from the other machine in the new tower. Good as new and didn't lose a scrap of data!

Bad Memory?

Problem: The user reported a memory error at startup. The text of the message was: Instruction at 0x00143A24 referenced memory at 0x000000C7. The memory could not be written. Without any indepth analysis we assumed it was a hardware problem and ordered new memory. When the new memory was installed we got the same error.

Solution: A little internet research showed that this is typically an application error. When I produced the error message again I looked at the title bar of the message, which read: ibmpmsvc.exe - application error. (oops!). This is the IBM Power Management Service. The problem machine is a laptop with no battery; the user always runs with the A/C adapter, so there is no need to use the power management functions. I set the Power Management Service to Manual to circumvent the problem. I know this is not a solid fix for most cases, but it gets around to problem for machines that can live without power management.

Welcome

I always try to learn from my mistakes. The key word here is try; it rarely works.

I've been in the IT world since long before it was called IT, even before there was networking, let alone PCs. You'd think by now that I would know everything. Hah! Just when I'm arrogant enough to think I do, the technology teaches me another tough lesson. But, that's the humbling life of a Techie. If a Techie is not sufficiently humble, I say s/he's not doing anything. If you haven't mistakenly taken down a network or a major operating system at some critical time, delaying the work of thousands of users, you have no right to call yourself a Techie. I have. I'm not proud of it, just very humble and very motivated to get it right the next time.

I'm semi-retired now, but still in the business. The stakes are not as high as they used to be for me; I don't manage major systems or networks any longer. But, I still want to do a good job.
Since the lessons are never ending I need to find a way make the best use of them. This blog site is an effort to organize some of my learning in such a way as to actually give me a fighting chance of finding solutions for problems that I've seen before. That's the goal. If this can help you, as well, that's all the better!