Windows 8 to 7 Downgrade

Downgrading Windows 8 to Windows 7 Freezes and hangs – How to install Windows 7: Scenario: I had a brand new HP ProBook 4440s Laptop that came preloaded with Windows 8. Customer wanted to downgrade it to Windows 7 x64 but during the very initial steps of the Windows 7 installation, the Windows installation screen […]

Cisco RV082 Config Example

Example: Cisco RV082 One To One NAT – Access Rules Example Example: Public IP Address: 75.75.75.75 Private IP Address: 192.168.1.10 In this example we will NAT 192.168.1.10 to 75.75.75.75 and open up TCP Port 23 (Telnet) to the inside host from outside. – Login to the Cisco RV 082 through the browser – On the […]

Exchange 2010 Testing the OPTIONS command

Exchange 2010 Testing the OPTIONS command failed – Activesync: Last week we deployed a new Microsoft Exchange 2010 Server on a Windows 2008 R2 Domain Controller (We know! it’s not recommended but due to the client’s budget constraints we had to do it and it worked just fine). We purchased and installed an SSL certificate […]

Symantec Backup Exec backup to USB Disk

Symantec Backup Exec backup to USB Disk – 546 The log file sector size does not match the sector size of the current volume – Microsoft Exchange Information Store (IS) using Granular Restore Technology (GRT). Scenario: You are backing up Exchange 2007 Information Store running on Windows Server 2008 R2 with Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 […]

Reset Juniper Firewall Admin Password

How to Reset Juniper Firewall Admin Password – Reset to Factory Default – Forgotten password: Scenario: You have a Juniper SSG-140 firewall appliance that you’ve forgotten the admin password. You don’t have any other user to login with. You have a backup of the SSG-140 configuration. Resolution: The following instructions will reset the SSG-140 to […]

IP NAT and PAT Examples

Network Address Translation: Cisco – IP NAT and PAT Examples: Example 1: Allow all outgoing traffic PAT local network as 100.100.100.100 Allow incoming SMTP traffic (TCP Port 25) to 192.168.1.5 that will be NAT’d as 100.100.100.101 Default Gateway 100.100.100.102 ! Interface Ethernet0 IP address 100.100.100.101 255.255.255.248 Description Outside-NIC IP nat outside IP virtual-reassembly Interface FastEthernet0 […]

How to Start Active Directory Users and Computers

How to Start Active Directory Users and Computers from Command Line: Go to Start –> Run and Type dsa.msc

OWA Search won’t work

OWA Search won’t work on Exchange 2010 SP1 and SP2 When you search in Outlook Web Access, the search doesn’t bring up anything. One cause of the issue could be that the index folder on the Exchange server needs to be rebuilt . Under Services make sure that the “Microsoft Exchange Indexer Service” is enabled. […]

Cisco ASA 5505 Configuration Example

Cisco ASA 5505 Firewall Configuration Example : ASA Version 8.0(3) ! hostname ASA5505 domain-name domain.local enable password /z4VVuCaYOFObhYQ encrypted no names name 100.100.100.69 mail.domain.com name 192.168.10.10 Server1 ! interface Vlan1 nameif inside security-level 100 ip address 192.168.10.1 255.255.255.0 ! interface Vlan2 nameif outside security-level 0 ip address 100.100.100.67 255.255.255.248 ! interface Ethernet0/0 switchport access vlan […]

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 To 2010 Upgrade

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 To 2010 Requirements and Migration – Exchange 2010 on Windows Server 2008 R2: Prepare: Ask users to clean up their mailboxes, empty deleted items ahead of time so you can cut down on mailbox move time. Prepare: connect the two Exchange servers to the same Gigabit switch to speed up the […]

Windows Updates Error 80071A90

Windows 7 – Windows Updates keeps failing with Error 80071A90: Scenario: When trying to install Windows updates on a Windows 7 PC and after you reboot to apply, Windows reverts back changes and doesn’t apply updates as if nothing has happened! Resolutions: KB2647753 is the fix. Click Here to Download KB2647753 apply it and restart. […]

windows search error

Windows Search and Windows Updates don’t work after replacing laptop drives with a newer bigger cloned Hard Drive or after replacing one of the RAID disks: Scenario: You have a Windows computer and space is running out. You replace it with a newer and bigger cloned/imaged hard drive (cloned with Symantec Ghost for instance). After […]

Default Credentials Ricoh MP C2551

Default Username and Password for Ricoh MP C2551 Printer: User: Admin Password: blank (no password) For security purposes, change it when you can. If you find this article helpful, please send us a note to Mike@bostonIT.com 

How to Stop, Start or force restart iSeries Fax Support

How to Stop, Start or Force Restart iSeries AS400 Enhanced Fax Support: 1- End Fax Support ENDFAXSPT FAXD(*ALL) ENHSRV(*YES) and press ENTER 2- Confirm that the QFAXSBS and QFQSBS subsystems have ended: WRKSBS You might need to wait for a few minutes for them to end 3- Vary off and on the controllers: WRKCFGSTS CFGTYPE(*CTL) […]

Force end writer – AS400 – System i

How to force end stuck iSeries (AS400) Writer: Writer name P8 (for instance) ENDWTR P8 *IMMED CALL QSPENDWA P8 varry off P8 vary on P8 STRPRTWTR P8 After that check Outq for messages

Configure Hot Failover between two Cisco ASA

How to Configure Hot Failover – Cisco ASA 5510, 5500 Series Firewalls – Active/Standby: Two ASAs have identical hardware specs From “Show version” compare the licenses installed. Licenses must match on both ASAs. If you are running ASA IOS 8.3 and above, licenses don’t need to match. Before upgrading to 8.3 (in case you want […]

Room permissions Office 365

Microsoft Hosted Exchange – How to grant a user full permissions on a room mailbox in Office 365: Email address of user to be granted access:    User123@domain.com Room mailbox email address:      Room123@domain.com You need to do that through Powershell.  Powershell is part of Windows 7.  From your Windows 7 machine, run Powershell as admin (right click […]

Windows takes long time to shutdown

Windows Server 2008 Takes Too Long to Restart or Shutdown. Had two identical Lenovo ThinkServer servers loaded with Windows Server 2008 SP1 (not R2) and when restarting or shutting down, it would take over 30 minutes for them to restart. When you press restart in Windows, Keyboard and Mouse appear unresponsive and the screen halts. […]

Quota warning

  Users don’t receive Mailbox Quota Warnings in Microsoft Exchange 2010 SP1/SP2 – Quota Warnings Aren’t Generated This is a design update that Microsoft made in Exchange 2010 Service Pack 1. Prior to Service Pack 1, quota warning messages were generated automatically whenever the mail users hit the quota warning threshold. After Service Pack 1 […]

Disable Open File warning

How to Disable Open File Security Warning in Windows 7 When Openning Files on the Local or Network Drives:   Click Start –> Search or Run, Type gpedit.msc and hit enter In the left pane, click on to expand User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, and Attachment Manager. In the right pane, double click on […]

Remote Web Access is not allowed

Remote Web Access is not allowed for your user account. Contact the person who manages your server. Scenario: We were hired by a customer to help troubleshoot an issue with Remote Web Access (RWA) after they had already migrated to Windows SBS 2011 Essential from Windows Server 2003 SBS. When people go to the RWA […]

Enable ZIP Extension for PHP

How to Enable ZIP Extension for PHP on Linux – Ubuntu – ZIP.SO – PHP.INI – Efront – XAMPP/LAMPP Download XAMMP from: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp-linux.html That contains Apache 2.4.3, MySQL 5.5.27, and PHP 5.4.7. Follow instructions on the site (All it takes is just download and unzip into /opt/lampp. It’s pre-compiled). For Apache, you might want to […]

AnyConnect not able to establish a connection to the specified secure gateway

AnyConnect was not able to establish a connection to the specified secure gateway – Cisco VPN Linux / RedHat and RHEL / Ubuntu, Debian: Scenario: When using the Linux Cisco AnyConnect client x64 (like MAC, Ubuntu, Redhat RHEL and Debian) you might get the error above or if you connect through command like you might […]

Downgrading Windows 8 to Windows 7 Freezes and hangs

Downgrading Windows 8 to Windows 7 Freezes and hangs – How to install Windows 7: Scenario: I had a brand new HP ProBook 4440s Laptop that came preloaded with Windows 8. Customer wanted to downgrade it to Windows 7 x64 but during the very initial steps of the Windows 7 installation, the Windows installation screen […]

The directory service is missing mandatory configuration

The operation failed because: Active Directory Domain Services could not transfer the remaining data in directory partition DC=ForestDnsZones,DC=domain-name,DC=com to Active Directory Domain Controller \\DC.domain-name.com. “The directory service is missing mandatory configuration information, and is unable to determine the ownership of floating single-master operation roles.” Scenario: When trying to demote one of Windows 2008 Domain Controllers, […]

BurFlags – D4

Reinitializing/Forcing File Replication Service FRS using Registry key BurFlags D4: Have you been in the situation where you’re unable to replicate AD changes made across 2003 Domain Controllers? I have been there several times, and the last time was when I was attempting to transfer the Global Catalog role for an Exchange Server migration, however […]

Cisco ASA rommon – Error 15: File not found unable to boot an image

Cisco ASA rommon – Error 15: File not found unable to boot an image: The above error could be occurring on startup because the ASA didn’t have a boot file image, loaded with the wrong boot image or configured to boot from unavailable source. It might also be a hardware issue with the ASA like […]

Windows server 2008 crashes at startup – c00002e2

STOP: c00002e2 Directory Services could not start because of the following error: a device attached to the system is not functioning. Applies to: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 with Exchange 2007 installed on single node. You might face this issue while you are running your daily work, first you will panic and think […]

Recover Deleted Items Outlook 2010

Recover Deleted Items is not available/missing – Outlook 2010 – Exchange and Office 365 Scenario: When you right-click on Deleted Items in Outlook 2010, you don’t see an option to Recover Deleted Items (the way it used to be with Office 2003/2007). Resolutions: To get to “Recover Deleted Items”, please click on the Folder tab […]

Windows Updates Fail – Error 80070216

Windows 7 – Windows Update keeps failing with Error 80070216 Scenario: When trying to install Windows updates on a Windows 7, it keeps failing with the error above. Resolutions: Machine is infected with a rootkit or a virus. Download and run Kaspersky TDSSKiller, then download and run Combofix (you can google them). These two tools […]

Anyconnect Memory Locks up and Cert8

AnyConnect Locks up on Linux before it finally connects because of high memory usage that could go up to 100%. Machine would need to be rebooted to recover. Kubuntu, Ubuntu and Linux. Scenario: When using the Linux Cisco AnyConnect client x64 (like Kubuntu), memory usage gradually starts going up until it’s all used up. Anyconnect […]

Cisco RV082 NAT Example

Cisco RV082 One To One NAT – Access Rules Example Example: Public IP Address: 75.75.75.75 Private IP Address: 192.168.1.10 In this example we will NAT 192.168.1.10 to 75.75.75.75 and open up TCP Port 23 (Telnet) to the inside host from outside. – Login to the Cisco RV 082 through the browser – On the left […]

Backup Exec fails to backup Exchange server with VSS error

Windows Server 2008 R2 – Backup Exec 2010 / 12.5 – AOFO: Initialization failure on: “\\SERVER01\Microsoft Information Store\Information Store”. Advanced Open File Option used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). V-79-10000-11226 – VSS Snapshot error. The Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshot provider selected returned: “Unexpected provider error”. Ensure that all provider services are […]

Cisco AnyConnect VPN Client, Debian 5.0.3 and Firefox

After you connect to VPN using Cisco Anyconnect on Debian 5.0.3, you are able to ping, traceroute and browse the Internet using Google Chrome but Mozilla Firefox, FTP, Dig, Telnet and Thunderbird won’t work Resolution: I had to troubleshoot this issue for a customer. During that I ran Wireshark, tcpdump and Microsoft Network Monitor traces […]