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I ran into this little problem last month while running windows update on several workstations. You know that little yellow shield down by your clock in the taskbar ? For some reason, a few workstations seemed to have locked up. When I peeked into the task manager->Processes, one of the “svchost.exe” processes were consuming 100% CPU. Coincidently, these workstations also had a fresh install of Office 2003 professional.

After MANY hours of monkeying around, I found a ‘remedy’ for this. I use that term loosely because it did work, though I don’t know if there’s a better or more proper fix. This should be performed if you have errands to run or are going to bed…. A watched pot never boils.

This can get you by and operational if you don’t have time to perform the updates:

1. Go to start->run.
2. Type in services.msc and hit return.
3. When the services window pops up highlight the Automatic Updates service.
4. Double click it.
5. Change the startup type to manual, and click the stop button.

Performing the updates:

1. Go to Microsoft Update.
2. Run it.
3. At this point the yellow update icon will show up in your taskbar again and doing any task will seem painfully slow.
4. Go get coffee, or watch a movie.
5. Come back and click to install any updates recommended.
6. Here is where you go to bed, or go shopping.
7. After a few hours the updates will complete and you will be good to go.

*If you disabled the updates as above you’ll want to return them to their original state. If you don’t you will not receive automatic updates in the future.
You can do this by opening the services window, changing the startup type back to Automatic, and clicking the start button.

svchost.exe, cpu, Windows Update

Back in November I spent a little time watching videos to get a free copy of Windows Vista. (Thanks to Things That Make you Go Hmm! ) I did watch all the required video, but maybe MS is only giving out one or the other? I’m sure there were limited copies.

I had since forgot I did so. Last Thursday when I arrived home from work a discreet brown envelope arrived from Microsoft with my name on it! Heres the goods!

I’m always leary of upgrading anything, especially an OS. I hardly have enough time to upgrade, let alone troubleshoot or “un-upgrade”. But I was curious and also a bit excited. So, I decided to upgrade my laptop. Shortly after throwing in the disk I was presented with the agreement screen, along with the new looking backdrop.

Next I was presented with an option to use the upgrade advisor (optional) to see if my system had what it took. Of course it required the .NET framework to be installed in order to use it. This I really disliked. It forced me to the web to install it. This makes me wonder if I wasn’t yet connected, if it would offer to install it from the disk? After some blinking and flashing the advisor gave me the go-ahead.

Shortly after accepting this and proceeding with the upgrade Vista ran a compatability check on my hardware to see if there would be any confilcts. Most of my hardware seemed to check out. The items that didn’t were dell specific. At this point I wondered if Dell is aware of this. I also wondered “Why isnt the OS just backward compatable?”.

I had a loading screen for about an hour and a half with a note on the bottom stating “It can take a few hours to upgrade your computer”. Good thing I had other things to do!

If finally loaded. I knew right off the bat my Dell programs weren’t working right because the volume keys worked, but the visual display of it on my screen did not. It was getting late and didn’t have too much time to look it over really. I looked quickly at the nifty 3D screen chooser, and the new look of the explorer. It also came with a few gadgets running by default. It seemed to have more of a Mac look and feel. Especially explorer. It also seemed to have a larger memory footprint.

I did have a moment while trying out an MMORPG where the system suddenly shut off. When I turned it back on, there was some text on the screen complaining of temperatures, and something possibly blocking the fan. Never have seen this before. I’m guessing it has a lot to do with the dell BIOS, or software talking with Vista properly…

Vista, Windows

I wanted to add the ability to send messages to users on my domain for a few reasons. One of the main reasons is to let them know when the server might be going down etc.

The built in tool that does this is called NET SEND. To use it open a command prompt and type in: net send %computername% %message%. There are many things you can do with this but I’m not going to get into that just yet.

I was successful at it by manually turning on the Messenger service on my workstation. Again command prompt: services.msc. Locate the messenger service and enable it. But I have about 30 users and didn’t want to go to each workstation. So I was on the hunt how to do this using Group Policy from the server. After many blunderings I think I found it, because it does work…

First you want to create a Group policy object and link it to an OU that you will be using the policy for. Give it a friendly name like NET SEND or something. Then here’s the edits to make it go…

***CAUTION***I am a novice at these things so please be careful!

Computer configuration->Administrative Templates->Windows Components->Windows Messenger set the 2 items to ‘disabled’

Computer Configuration->Windows Settings->Security Settings->System Services->Messenger to Automatic.

Then force the group policy to update: (gpupdate /force).

Odly enough someone in IRC tipped me off that sometimes the workstations need to be restarted twice. I’m not sure why that is but it did work.

Now I’m not sure what adverse or unsafe situation this may present. I always make notes of what changes I’ve made, and when. If anyone reading this has any insight to any negative impact this may have by enabling this service please speak up! (I do know messenger in itself could be troublesome if not protected well).

Exchange, net send, windows services

I was having some major issues getting ActiveSync to work with some Treo 700w’s we purchased for our sales force.

A lot of this was because of my inexperience with Exchange 2003, and Windows Mobile 5.

A few days ago after spending about 6 hours on this and some phone time with palm (which is a horrible experience by the way), I discovered that you can’t sync both to the server and to a PC. Technically you can except for the email, but you want that to sync via the server anyways to get up to date email. So I pretty much left all the USB cables in the box.

I was using a “homegrown” certificate for my OWA SSL setup. As a result was also getting a sync code (I can’t recall which it was) that there was a certificate issue with the server. After further searching I found out that homegrown certificates do not play well with wm5 and the treo700w. The palm site recommended a few trusted vendors for this phone on their site. So I went and bought a shiny new certificate from entrust.com. This was a very good experience. The sales/ technical people were extremely friendly and spoke to you in lay mens terms. They were also very professional and knew their stuff.

After requesting and installing the certificate (which only took about 3 hours to get configured and delivered) I was still receiving an error code on the device. Error code 0×85010014. It came with a vague description of the code that there is “a problem with the exchange server”. I was able to get it to sync, but only with SSL disabled. When I enabled it, it timed out. Of course I didn’t want to run with it disabled because I was running OWA too and wanted it to remain secure. At this point I gave up and called in a consultant for help. I had already been working on this project for 3 days and just wanted it fixed.

In a nutshell here’s what he did. First he turned on forms based authentication on the exchange server. Secondly he properly configured OMA by using method 2 in KB817379.

Thats all it took. Apparently my OMA was not setup properly. Using method 2 we kinda rebuilt it. WHEW!

Recap:
Get a trusted public certificate.
Enable forms based authentication.
Make sure OMA is properly installed.
Side note:
You also need to make sure that the mobile services properties are set for mobile devices. (ESM–>Global Settings–>Mobile Services–>Properties)

Treo, 700w, Echange, ActiveSync, 0×85010014

I first had to learn this a few months ago. It wasn’t too easy but I think I’ve learned enough to hopefully help any other unexperienced cablers ;-)

Keep in mind that there are several possible wiring possibilities. You can reverse the wiring of any diagram on 1 end of your cable and make yourself a crossover cable. I also found by trial and error that there is a Cat5e T568B, and a T568A. This matters mostly in how your jacks are wired in your wall. If you are able to pop out your wall jack and check the diagram on the jack to see which you are running.

A Cat 5e Wiring Diagram

You need to make sure that you have cable, cable ends, a wiring diagram, and a network cable crimping tool. Most crimp tools come with built in cutters and strippers. The one I’m using came for free with a 500ft cable. They range from $10-$40. I’ve seen and played with a $25 model since I’ve done this. Personally, I prefer the simpler one.

Cut a good length

The first thing you need to do is strip about 2″ of the shield off. Unfortunately I didn’t know that when I took this picture during my first practice. Then you need to untwist each of the four pairs. ** Caution ** only untwist up to the shield. Twisted pair need to remain twisted to get the most out of it.

Untrimmed

Next, straighten the strands out best you can. Then hold up an end next to the cable. This is a tricky part. Visually measure the length of wire needed to get to the end of the cable end leaving just the right amound of shielded part to go into the cable end. Then cut off the excess. I had to do this about 6 times to get the hang of it.

Trimmed to a proper length

Then using the diagram, put the cables in their proper order, and hold them close together. Hold (Pinch) them tight so they don’t get out of order. Slide them into the clip. Push them firmly in. Push them hard! Some cable ends come with very small harnesses to hold the cables while you do this. This is a very worthwile investment. Ends only cost a few bucks for a package.

Hold em’ tight, and push in

Finally holding the entire assembly place the crimper on it an crimp that sucker! When you are finnished you need to make sure that you can’t pull the end off by hand using a reasonable amount of strength.

Crimp

Cable, Networking, Network Cable