Inbound Ping through the Firewall WS2K8R2 / W7

Start / Control Panel / Windows Firewall / Advanced Settings / Inbound Rules

New Rule / Custom / Protocols and Ports / Protocol type / ICMPv4

Customize / Specific ICMP types / Echo Request / OK

Keep pressing Next until you are asked for a rule name



Type a name for the rule. Press finish.

Change Password from the Command Line

c:\>net user <Username> <New Password> / <optional domain>

Technorati Tags: Win 7,password,dos prompt,CLI

DCOM 10009 Error on SBS2011 after upgrade

In Control Panel/Credentials I found a link to a Terminal Server saved password on a long defunct server. After I deleted the saved credential my 10009 errors disappeared.

SBS 2011 BPA No DNS Records

In the end, using DNS Manager, I deleted _msdcs.<YourDomain>.local from the Forward Lookup Zones, restarted the DNS Service, and ran Fix My Network from the SBS console. Again using DNS Manager I recreated _msdcs.<YourDomain>.local, restarted the DNS Service, and reran Fix My Network. This time when I ran the BPA there were no errors.

The DNS errors may have been there since the migration from SBS 2008 a few months ago but only came to light with the latest release of BPA.

Technorati Tags: SBS 2011,VMware,BPA,No DNS Records

SBS 2011 BPA Shows IPv6 Disabled

The SBS 2011 BPA was showing a bunch of network errors including the IPv6 disabled warning. This is an extremely annoying error because there is not enough information to track where it comes from so it caused a bit of head scratching before I found the root cause.

I am using Fortinet Client Lite and it had installed a miniport network adapter which I was unable to configure nor delete even after un-installing the Fortinet Client. The adapter is visible with device manager. A search of the registry for “Fortinet” uncovered the Fortinet Miniport Adapter which I deleted. I re-ran BPA and the annoying IPv6 message was gone.

If you are not using Fortinet Client and still face this problem. Check the Network Adapters in Device Manager and make sure that they are all configured correctly. BPA seems to check all adapters even the disabled ones.

Technorati Tags: SBS 2011,IPv6,enabled,disabled,BPA,Fortinet

SBS2011 as VMware Guest Loses Router

Occasionally, on restarting SBS2011, after upgrade, I found that it had lost Internet connectivity. The connections to local devices were still perfectly good. I could ping other PCs, connect to shares, use and control network printers, but I couldn’t ping the router/gateway and couldn’t get through to the Internet.

I chased a few red herrings before I came across an article on the VMware forums somewhere referring to IP4 Checksum Offload. The article didn’t directly relate to VMworkstation 8 but it pointed me in the right direction.

Connectivity seems to be quite sensitive and if you face intermittent connectivity issues then here are a couple of recommended steps relating to NIC setup that worked for me.

1. Switch off Auto-negotiate, manually change connection speed until you make the connection, then switch on Auto-negotiate.

2. On all NICs, real and virtual, disable IP4 Checksum Offload.

Technorati Tags: SBS 2011,VMware,Router,No Connectivity,lost Internet,Checksum Offload.

SBS2011 Backup Not Working

 

Apparently, nowadays patching SharePoint is a two stage process. After running the update you need to run the PSCONFIG command from an Administrative Command Prompt. I’ve attached the article with the fix. http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/pl-PL/smallbusinessserver/thread/94c5f178-f020-4d0f-ba7c-11c415d0d862.

I got neither TRUE nor FALSE when I ran the test command but I ran the PSCONFIG command anyway and it fixed my backup problems.

*Excerpt from the article

1. Open an Administrative command prompt.
2. Change directory to C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN
3. Run PSConfig.exe -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -force –cmd applicationcontent -install -cmd installfeatures

*End of Excerpt

Technorati Tags: SBS 2011,Backup,VSS,VSS Writer,Inconsistent shadow copy,VMware,Broken,Not Working,Stopped