Skip navigation

Category Archives: Microsoft

How to determine the MAC address of a remote machine

Sometimes it’s necessary to discover the MAC address of a remote system on a network quickly (for example when setting up DHCP scope reservations). It’s fortunately a really easy process to determine this information.

First of all, ping the remote host, then run an

arp -a

at the command line.  This will give you the MAC details.  The catch is that this only works on the same subnet – when trying to do this on a remote subnet (on the other side of a router, etc) you won’t get a response…there is a solution for this though, as long as the remote host you want to determine the MAC for is a Windows host.

NBTscan is a tool that can do this (and is available from the repositories on most linux distros (or at least on Debian, Ubuntu and Fedora, and is  also downloadable for Windows ;) )

First DNS Hijacks reported

It looks like following Dan Kaminsky’s exploit being made public the first attacks have been reported on DNS servers:

http://www.techcentral.ie/article.aspx?id=12375

I can’t believe that there are many people out there who haven’t yet patched their DNS servers……but it’s worth checking on the Doxpara site (http://www.doxpara.com/)

…that is, of course unless you’re DNS has been hijacked and you are being sent to a spoofed doxpara site ;)

Still bad news for those running Mac DNS servers as Apple still haven’t released a patch, although apparently the Bind team have stated that the BSD version of the patch can be ported….

Further info here:

http://xforce.iss.net/xforce/xfdb/35575

Base64 encoder/decoder

I keep on finding and losing bookmarks of good base64 encoding and decoding sites, so thought I’d link to one here:

http://makcoder.sourceforge.net/demo/base64.php

Useful when trying to test SMTP-Auth on a mailserver and needing to encode usernames and passwords!
:)

Manually Purge User from Blackberry Professional Database

We’re just trialling the Blackberry Professional software here, but with a change of heart as to the test user attempted to delete the user to re-add another.  Unfortunately although the Blackberry Professional Software allows you to delete users, it didn’t successfully purge the user from the database.  This meant that we couldn’t add an alternative user (the software comes with 1 user licence to trial with).

The solution is to manually remove the user from the database.  This can be done using the OSQL command line utility.

osql -E SERVERNAMEDATABASESERVERNAME
1>use BESMgmt
2>select DisplayName from UserConfig
3>go

This will show the DisplayName of the user.  For the sake of this document, we’ll call the user “testuser”.

To delete the user, then enter:

1>use BESMgmt
2>delete from UserConfig where DisplayName=“testuser”
3>go

1>exit

That should remove the user.  On checking within the Blackberry Professional software there is now no longer a user, releasing the licence.
:)

Adding Exchange Public Folders in Evolution

Bit of an awkward fix, unfortunately, as this involves having access to a Windows/Outlook setup, but to add a Public folder that exists on Exchange, it needs to be bookmarked as a favourite for Evolution to pick it up.

For example, we use a public folder for shared (company-wide) contacts here.  To add the folder I just log onto my account on a Windows machine, then added that public folder as a favourite.

After logging out of evolution and back in, I could then see these “public” contacts under the contact folder (CTRL+2).

Using a Blackberry 8310 Curve as a modem on XP

For roaming users who need to connect to services where there is no available WiFi, this is a useful solution.

We use an unlimited data plan with O2 which also has advantages – no further costs for users using the Blackberry as a GPRS modem!

1 – Ensure latest version of Blackberry Desktop Software is installed.

2 – Connect the Blackberry and check that under Device Manager->USB Devices that the Blackberry is listed (if it is not installed correctly, reinstall drivers from:

C:program filescommon filesresearch in motionDrivers

3 – In Device Manager, under ports, you should see an RIM Virtual Serial Port – if not install from the location above.

4 – Next, add a modem in Control panel (using a Standard 33.6 modem). Connect to the virtual serial port listed in step 3.

5 – Under the advanced tab for the modem we just added in the extra initialisation commands box type:

+cgdcont=1,”IP”,”mobile.o2.co.uk”

…assuming o2 is your mobile carrier!

Now set up a new dialup connection using this modem.  Username and password have no significance, just set the phone number to dial as:

*99#

Uncheck the box that says “make this the default internet connection”
:D

The SSL certificate server name is incorrect. ID no: c103b404

This error occurs when trying to view Public Folders in the Exchange System manager when he SSL certificate name differs between the FQDN and the local server name.  The Exchange System Manager will not allow you to view the public folders as it believes the folder name to be incorrect.

This can be resolved using a front-end, back-end scenario, but what if you are stuck with a single Exchange server (ie. SBS) in your environment?

On following a few blogs and sites, the solution seems to be to remove SSL requirement for that particular folder in the IIS Manager.  This didn’t work for me though – and I found a lot of people out there with unresoved issues on Experts Exchange etc.

The end solution was to use the ADSIEdit utility to manually stop the Exchange System Manager from using SSL.

The steps are as follows:

1) Install the ADSIEdit Utility (one of the Windows Server 2003 Support tools) from your SBS2003 CD (CD2) using suptools.msi

2) Run a Microsoft Management console (Start->Run->MMC)

3) Open the ADSIedit.msc (browse to the Support Tools folder)

4) Browse through to

Configuration > Services >  Microsoft Exchange > Domain Name > Administrative Groups >     First Administrative Group > Servers > Servername > Protocols > HTTP > 1 > Exadmin

5) Right click msExchSecureBindings, and click Properties

6) Highlight :443: and click Remove

7) Click OK

8) Restart the Exchange System Attendant and the IIS Admin service

Exchange system manager will now no longer try to use SSL when connecting to the service.

Asset Management and Trouble Ticketing systems

Occasionally you find a piece of software that makes life infinitely easier….this has been a very good week, I’ve found 2!

I’ve just installed GLPI as a trouble ticketing system to assist with management of workflow and to track recurring faults.  It’s an open-source, web based tool that uses apache, php and mysql to track issues and produce good quality reports.

It seems extremely stable in trials so far, but I will keep on using for the next few weeks before I roll out to users in our organisation for fault reporting.

Available from here: http://www.glpi-project.org/spip.php?lang=en

The next find was a tool called OCS Inventory.  It’s another web/mysql app that is used for asset management.  The useful thing about this tool is that it uses an agent installed as a service on workstations that can be deployed using a login script.  This then updates the server on workstation boot with an abundance of information about the workstation, such as hardware info, serial number, installed software, installed printers, logged on user, etc

This has turned into a real time-saver for me! It’s available for download from http://www.ocsinventory-ng.org/

Mail Merge in Office 2007 misses characters

We have a user who runs a regular mail merge, and since migrating to Office 2007 has been experiencing problems merging using an Excel source into a Word document.  The merge fails to display characters following the decimal point.

The resolution is to highlight the merge field in the document template and press ALT+F9.  This will then display

{MERGEFIELD FIELD_NAME}

This needs to be edited to include the number of characters before and after the decimal place using the # switch.  # then defines the number of characters.  It’s worth noting that if no characters exist then Word ignores the #.  To get around this, adding a subsequent .00 ensures that if there is a 0 value after the decimal place then it is included.  Our edited mergefield therefore looks like:

{MERGEFIELD “FIELD_NAME” # £##,###.00}