IT Blog

Some lesser known Skype tips and tricks

Thu, 13 Feb 2014 18:53:38 +0000

Edit and/or remove messages

I know this works on Windows, but it may also work on Mac, however I haven’t tested this on Mac.

How to locate your BlackBerry PIN and IMEI numbers

Tue, 23 Jul 2013 19:27:16 +0000

On BlackBerry devices with a keyboard you can press the following keys: left shift, alt and H

On newer or other devices, please reference BlackBerry Knowledge Base Article KB05026: (Details below for ease of reference.)

How to change your Windows Password

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 07:20:38 +0000

How to change your password on Windows XP (domain)

If you are working on a company computer and your company has a server then most likely you need to use the domain method. (Domain username are usually in the form of DOMAIN\username or username@domain)

How to choose and remember a secure password

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 07:09:54 +0000

Do not use words or phrases that have personal significance.
- Mix letters, numbers and symbols, and use case sensitivity (upper and lower case letters). This mixture is known as “pseudo-random alpha-numeric combination”; using this, it is almost impossible to “crack” somebody’s password. (i.e. instead of “password,” try “pAsS34%(6*2woRd,” etc.)

Accessing the Windows Internal Database (MICROSOFT##SSEE)

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 06:56:10 +0000

Some Microsoft applications (notably Windows Server Update Services aka WSUS and Windows Sharepoint Services WSS) utilise the Windows Internal Database.

This database can be accessed using either command line tools (such as OSQL and SQLCMD) or Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. The Express version of Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio is free and can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center. The easiest is just to Google for “Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express download” – one of the top results should link to a Microsoft webpage. I recommend you only download this from Microsoft.

How to check your exchange mailbox size in Outlook 2010 and newer

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 10:17:22 +0000

In an Exchange environment you can view your mailbox size and free space from within Outlook.

Start Outlook and click on File:

Remote desktop won't maximize

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 21:02:07 +0000

A frustration that I have been having with Remote Desktop (mstsc.exe) on Windows 7 is that sometimes a window (remote session) just won’t maximize to full screen. It will maximize, but then have scroll bars on the right and/or bottom and not the usual blue bar at the top.

Installation failed with error: 1. Bad state (invalid stored block lenghts)

Sun, 05 Aug 2012 20:43:11 +0000

I recently tried installing Dell Appassure Replay Core on a client’s server and received this error message:

Installation failed with error: 1. Bad state (invalid stored block lenghts)

Problem upgrading company file from Quickbooks 2010 to 2012

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:49:26 +0000

I recently logged a call with Quickbooks South Africa (4th of Jan 2012) with a problem I had getting my Quickbooks 2010 company file to upgrade to Quickbooks 2012.

Sum of all "Deleted Items" folder for an entire Exchange Mailbox Database

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:37:01 +0000

Need a quick and dirty way to check the size of all users's Deleted Items in your Exchange Mailbox Database – here is a nifty powershell script I concocted from a variety of other scripts on the net.

WSUS – Move content and content database SUSDB (SBS 2008+)

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:17:31 +0000

Moving the database (SUSDB)

The following instructions are for moving the SUSDB and should be valid irrespective of if you are using SBS or WSUS as a standalone product.

Server 2008 R2 – Setup external NTP (time) servers

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 22:12:32 +0000

Source: http://defaultreasoning.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/synchronize-time-with-external-ntp-server-on-windows-server-2008-r2/

I can never seem to remember how to do this on 2008, so herewith instructions (copied from above link):

Time synchronization is an important aspect for all computers on the network. By default, the clients computers get their time from a Domain Controller and the Domain Controller gets his time from the domain’s PDC Operation Master. Therefore the PDC must synchronize his time from an external source. I usually use the servers listed at the NTP Pool Project website. Before you begin, don’t forget to open the default UDP 123 port (in- and outbound) on your firewall.

How to forward funny e-mails for dummies – version 1

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 21:06:20 +0000

If you absolutely cannot resist the urge to forward a mail to a colleague or other e-mail contact, please follow these simple pointers on "netiquette":

MSTSC /CONSOLE – Does not work with new RDP Client

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

http://blog.shijaz.com/2008/01/no-more-mstscexe-console.html

To uncap or not to uncap…

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 14:22:16 +0000

Up to recently internet access in South Africa has been billed by the GB – i.e. capped internet, with a few providers such as Internet Solutions offering uncapped solutions to businesses, but at a very high price.

Installing Telnet Client on Vista

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 22:40:17 +0000

Vista,Telnet

By default, Vista doesn't install the Telnet client. Often used for debugging purposes (network connection problems / SMTP diagnostics etc). Install it by following these steps:

Open Control Panel from the Start Menu.

Exchange 2003 (On SBS 2003 R2) problem with OWA: Error 440

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0000

I recently had to reanimate a client’s dead SBS server.

The cause of death was a broken registry hive (SOFTWARE).

A repair installation would not work, safe mode would not work, the server simply would not boot. I kept on getting blue screens:

Skype for Asterisk

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 23:00:03 +0000

For some time now I have been interested in hooking my asterisk server up to Skype – I mean isn’t this the next logical step?

Great way to keep your FreeBSD server secure

Sat, 14 Feb 2009 23:10:43 +0000

Ensure portaudit and portupgrade are installed:

cd /usr/ports/ports-mgmt/portaudit
make install clean

cd /usr/ports/ports-mgmt/portupgrade
make install clean

rehash

then simply run:

portaudit -a

If you already have portaudit installed, ensure your portaudit database is up to date:

Backup Exec – Job Status "Server paused"

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 22:04:23 +0000

I recently encountered a problem with one of our SBS servers running Symantec Backup Exec 12. Jobs would not run and the job status kept saying “Server Paused”. Apart from that there was also a problem with the SCSI card timing out…

K2 RC3 Released

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 05:44:00 +0000

K2 release candidate 3 was released about 3 weeks ago! This is great news for me, because my “live search” functionality is working again!

Disable password expiration on Windows 2000 / XP

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 07:21:59 +0000

I’m writing this article, because many people don’t have the luxury of a server and therefore work on a p2p network. So now you have setup user accounts for all the users on all the computers in your p2p network and everything works great. Users can access files shares and network printers, but every 42 days it stops working due to passwords expiring.

Outlook Filter: Show only unread and / or flagged messages

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 20:50:23 +0000

Have you ever wanted to see a list of all messages in a folder that are either unread or flagged for follow up? Well… If you’re like me then you probably receive 100 + e-mails a day and just can’t read them all at once.

Spyware vs Virii

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 12:52:19 +0000

Spyware and viruses are both forms of unwanted or malicious software, sometimes called “malware.” You need to protect yourself from both.

What’s the difference?

HOW TO: Debug Memory Dumps

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 12:19:35 +0000

When you get a stop error (Blue Screen of Death or BSOD), your computer generates a small file or memory dump usually referred to as a minidump. This BLOG post will explain to you how to analyse these minidump files. This may shed some light on the problem in terms of what caused a particular stop error. It may also give you the driver file name if the stop error was caused by a faulty or incorrectly installed driver.

Disclaimer

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 21:29:01 +0000

The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only. The information is provided by Ravenscroft Online and whilst we endeavour to keep the information up-to-date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.

Veritas Backup Exec – e000fedf – A failure occurred reading an object.

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:29:00 +0000

I have been receiving this error on my SBS 2003 R2 server (with SP1):

Error category : Resource Errors<br /> Error : e000fedf - A failure occurred reading an object.<br /> For additional information regarding this error refer to link V-79-57344-65247

Outlook 2007 – animated GIF (not animated any more)

Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:28:46 +0000

So you’re all excited… you just installed Outlook 2007 and you think it’s great… until your friends start forwarding you all those funny e-mails we all love to receive, but you can’t see the animation in animated GIF images.

SMTP Problem solving

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 17:15:23 +0000

About 2 weeks ago I was assisting a friend of mine to upgrade her server hardware. They had also moved to a new ISP for hosting et al.

Scheduled Disk Defrag

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 16:50:35 +0000

Credit goes out to Doug Knox for this one.

Microsoft Windows offers a built in tool for defragmenting your hard drives. Sometimes it can be hard to defragment many hard drives on remote machines regularly without the help of 3rd party tools. The following is a visual basic script which will allow for this.

Enable/disable Defrag at boot time

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 16:24:11 +0000

Open Regedit (Start/Run/Regedit)

Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Dfrg\BootOptimizeFunction

Select Enable from the list on the right. Right on it and select Modify. Change the value to Y to enable and N to disable.

Problem with Add Remove Programs

Sun, 20 May 2007 17:10:46 +0000

Whilst working on a new site this weekend I almost lost it:

Trying to open Add Remove Program (or run appwiz.cpl) results in:

—————————
Parser Message
—————————
Value creation failed " at line 451
—————————
OK
—————————

Holiday sweet holiday

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 20:44:03 +0000

Hmm, so I never did post that update.

Sorry about that, but I have been extremely busy and am currently on holiday in the beautiful Isle of Man (02/03 till 04/04).

ITBlog.co.za online

Tue, 13 Feb 2007 16:31:18 +0000

Hello World!

I have finally managed to register the domain itblog.co.za and this would be my first BLOG post ever.

The general idea behind this site would be a place where computer users in South Africa (and all over) can post their day to day IT and IS related experiences.

About

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m Samuel Ravenscroft. I run an IT consultancy in Cape Town.

This is my personal blog where I write about practical IT, infrastructure, networking, Windows / Linux, SQL, cloud, homelab — whatever I’m working on at the time. It’s not officially associated with any company.

IT Blog

Some lesser known Skype tips and tricks

Edit and/or remove messages

How to locate your BlackBerry PIN and IMEI numbers

How to change your Windows Password

How to choose and remember a secure password

Accessing the Windows Internal Database (MICROSOFT##SSEE)

How to check your exchange mailbox size in Outlook 2010 and newer

Remote desktop won't maximize

Installation failed with error: 1. Bad state (invalid stored block lenghts)

Problem upgrading company file from Quickbooks 2010 to 2012

Sum of all "Deleted Items" folder for an entire Exchange Mailbox Database

WSUS – Move content and content database SUSDB (SBS 2008+)

Moving the database (SUSDB)

Server 2008 R2 – Setup external NTP (time) servers

How to forward funny e-mails for dummies – version 1

MSTSC /CONSOLE – Does not work with new RDP Client

To uncap or not to uncap…

Installing Telnet Client on Vista

Exchange 2003 (On SBS 2003 R2) problem with OWA: Error 440

Skype for Asterisk

Great way to keep your FreeBSD server secure

Backup Exec – Job Status "Server paused"

K2 RC3 Released

Disable password expiration on Windows 2000 / XP

Outlook Filter: Show only unread and / or flagged messages

Spyware vs Virii

HOW TO: Debug Memory Dumps

Disclaimer

Veritas Backup Exec – e000fedf – A failure occurred reading an object.

Outlook 2007 – animated GIF (not animated any more)

SMTP Problem solving

Scheduled Disk Defrag

Enable/disable Defrag at boot time

Problem with Add Remove Programs

Holiday sweet holiday

ITBlog.co.za online

About

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