Logon Server Unavailable Error
I came back from vacation the other day to find that some computers on our primary domain (example.local) were unable to access shares on a secondary domain (test.local) located in another building, accessed via a wireless link). When attempting to open the share (or just browse to the Domain Controller), the following error would appear:
"There are currently no logon servers available to service the logon request."
Google'ing did no good, as there were only vague references to DNS issues and WINS servers (the later of which we don't use). As nothing had changed in the environment recently, I was at a bit of a loss. I could ping the DC (Homer) in question, and even RDP to it, but I couldn't for the life of me access the share. NSLOOKUP behaved normally, but then I had a thought -- the DC that I couldn't access was also acting as a DNS server (the primary one for test.local) with example.local as a Secondary Zone (which, of course, contained the DNS entries for the computers that were having trouble accessing the secondary domain). When I loaded the DNS manager and clicked on that zone, I was immediately greeted with an error stating the following:
Turns out, there *was* a DNS problem!
The problem was that I had removed a DNS server over a year ago and it was still referenced as the primary DNS server for this zone. For some reason, the Windows DNS service had just now decided this was a problem and stopped grabbing copies of the zone from the functional secondary DNS server.
To fix this, I simply right-clicked on the zone, chose Properties, and then removed the offending server IP from the General tab and updated with the correct servers and order. As soon as I finished, the computers had no trouble accessing that DC again. Magic!
Short: Microsoft Hints at MSE Support in WHS
I received an email today welcoming me to the Microsoft Security Essentials beta (which is odd, as I've been in the MSE beta since it was first launched), as the following paragraph jumped out at me as I skimmed it:
Notice to Windows® Home Server customers: Microsoft Security Essentials Beta is not supported on Windows Home Server (WHS). Beta testers who have installed Microsoft Security Essentials Beta on WHS should consider uninstalling Microsoft Security Essentials Beta to avoid potential incompatibility problems. Those who plan to beta test Microsoft Security Essentials Beta unsupported on WHS should wait until the next Windows Home Server update rollup currently scheduled to occur on or about September 1, 2010.
Emphasis mine. It's not a lot to go on, but Microsoft may finally be officially adding support for their own anti-virus product to Windows Home Server. In the words of Jeremy Clarkson, "Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!"
Exchange 2007 OWA/ActiveSync with Two SSL Certificates
Yes, it is possible. It's not pretty by any means (a proper Class 2 SSL Certificate is the best way to go), but it can be done. Click Continue Reading for the process.
Short: Microsoft Security Essentials Upgrade Error 0×80070050
I downloaded the Microsoft Security Essentials Ongoing Beta from Microsoft Connect this evening, and as before it installed normally. However, when I tried to update it to the latest version (the setup file on Connect is very out-of-date) the definitions came in fine but the core product refused to upgrade and only provided the error code 0x80070050.
Event viewer wasn't helpful, a reboot didn't fix it, and neither did uninstalling/reinstalling. On a whim, though, I decided to try to the upgrade through Windows Update (after enabling Microsoft Update) and what do you know, it worked!
TL;DR Version: If you get the 0x80070050 error code while trying to upgrade MSE through the MSE program itself, enable Microsoft Update via the Windows Update Control Panel and do the upgrade from there.
Non-Tech: Unintentional Humour from Valve
When Valve was first leaking details about Steam for Mac, they released a series of images parodying 'classic' Apple ads. This was one:
I get what they're trying to say - the PC is boxy and old-fashioned while the Mac is shiny and new. The unintentional humour is that while the Portal turret does it's job adequately in its game, it's easily defeated. The PC (or Team Fortress 2 turret) on the other hand starts out small and meek, but can be easily upgraded in to a massive powerhouse. That said, which would you rather have? Effective but locked down, or less-than-pretty but easily customizable?
Of course, I could just be reading too much in to things again.
Microsoft Launches “Canadian Open License for Government” Program
According to a letter I received in the mail today (I had no idea people still used 'letters' for communication anymore), Microsoft is launching a new 'Canadian Open License for Government' program.
The Post-It Note is for my own protection - click for a larger view
Details are rather scarce at the moment. The letter indicates that more information is available from http://www.microsoft.ca/licensing, but there isn't even a full article present, just the following text:
Government Open License Program Announcement
On June 1st, 2010, Microsoft is launching the Government Open License program in Canada, which will reduce the cost of Open Licenses for Government organizations by approximately 20 percent. This new Volume License Program will also provide flexibility to Canadian Government organizations as customers will now have a viable option to procure licenses from their reseller of choice at competitive prices.Eligibility
With an initial purchase of five or more licenses, customers can acquire products as needed over the term of their agreement. Government organizations will also have to meet the eligibility definition requirements in order to qualify for the Government Open License Program: English – French.For more information, or to find a Microsoft reseller near you, call the Microsoft Resource Centre at (877) 568-2495.
I called the number listed, and the lady I spoke with said that she had information that was passed to her, but she was unsure if she was allowed to give it out. What did tell me wasn't any different than what the text above said - qualifying Government organizations (definitions of 'qualifying' vary depending on if you are part of the government or how much funding you receive if you're a contractor).
So in short, if you meet Microsoft's definition of a Government organization in Canada, you can now obtain software at a 20% discount.
Rant: Microsoft Telephone Activation
I've blogged about Microsoft Telephone Action before, but now I'm off on a rant....
Click 'Continue Reading' for the wall-of-text!
Windows Cannot Connect to the Printer: 0x0000007e/0×00000006
An HP P4015dn - This morning, the bane of my existence
Windows 7 has been very good to me so far, but this morning I was literally pounding my desk in frustration over a printer issue. I just received two brand-new Dell Optiplex 780's and was in the process of configuring the printers on them when I happened across this little message:
Windows Cannot Connect to the Printer: 0x0000007e
Now here's the situation. The computers are running Windows 7 Professional x64. The printer (an HP P4015dn) is connected to a Windows XP x86 machine and shared normally. Of all of our printers, this is the only one directly shared with a computer due to a wiring issue I have yet to correct (although now I'm going to make an effort to fix it). I have several other computers running XP and Vista (x86 and x64) that already print this computer without issue, so I was rather stumped. Then I realized I had attempted to install the Vista x64 Postscript drivers instead of the Windows 7 ones.
Unfortunately, Windows 7 no longer provides a dedicated 'Printers' control panel, and the 'Devices and Printers' one doesn't have a Server Properties option to let you manage installed drivers. So, I stopped the print spooler service and manually deleted the drivers from C:\Windows\System32\spool\Drivers. When I tried to re-add the printer, though, I got this message:
Windows Cannot Connect to the Printer: 0x00000006
Hmm. Google wasn't much help, so I went to an old standby - I mannually added the network printer by choosing to create a local port (silly, I know). Here's how to get this working:
- In the Devices and Printers control panel, choose Add a Printer.
- In the new window, click Add a local printer.
- On the following screen, select Create a new port, and then choose Local Port from the drop-down list and click Next.
- When asked to enter a Port Name, use the full path to the printer. For example, if your printer share is called Dave and is a computer with the name PrintSrv1, you would enter \\PrintSrv1\Dave as the Port Name. If you receive an error saying The network path was not found, check the computer name and share name, then try again.
- You should be asked to install a driver. Manually download the correct driver (in this case, the HP Universal PostScript driver worked for my HP P4015dn) from the manufacturer's website and extract it to a folder on your computer. Then click the Have Disk... button in the Add Printer wizard and point it to that folder, then click OK and Next.
- Wait for it to install the driver.
At this point, the printer should be installed and functional. Print a test page to make sure everything worked alright, and then do a little dance (as long as no one is looking)!
Office Apps Stuck on Downloading Files from Network Shares
For a while now I was having problems opening Word and Excel (2007 and 2010) documents on my work computer. Most of the time everything would work, but every now-and-again I'd go to open something and Word or Excel would report that it was "Downloading <filename>", and simply get stuck. Although I could click the little 'X' to cancel and close the window, the process for either Word or Excel would stay active, and any attempts to kill it would fail. In the end, I'd have to hard power off the computer to get it to shutdown, and then do a cold boot.
Oh, 'Downloading' message, how I hate thee.
I wasn't really bothered by it until a few of my users started reporting the same problem. I had a look in to it, and after a lot of fiddling, came across two Microsoft Knowledge Base articles that eventually led me to a solution.
By adding the registry value from the first KB article linked above (EnableShellDataCaching), and by removing the Group Policy object that was creating a persistent drive mapping and replacing it with a login script (below) to map the drive, I haven't had any further reports of the problem.
REM Login Script - Paste these lines in to a batch file, and add that .bat file to a GPO
net use z: /deletenet use z: \\server\share
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