Month: August 2004

This tip was recently offered on the SBS2003 public newsgroup (thanks R Stovall!): Here is the definitive answer as far as I am concerned.  I used to have all kinds of trouble with various clients and servers, but once I figured out the sequence of commands I haven’t had a single problem.  Honest!Run the following on the problem machine:net time /querysntp  (this will tell you what your currently configured time source is)net stop w32timenet time \\(problem-machine) /setsntp:goodsntpservername (more than likely your PDC emulator)net start w32timew32tm /resyncBoom.  Done.  Happy as a clam!PS  You should be able to eliminate the \\(problem-machine) argument … Continue reading Tips to fixing Windows Time Server

Mark Fulton posted recent issue with new SBS2003 installation. After installing Veritas BackupExec 9.1, he got a BSOD. Here’s what he wrote for the resolution: I have been using Veritas BackUp exec for some time on my Win2K network and with the installation of the SBS2003 forest/domain, I bought the new 9.1 version for SBS. Very cost effective, easy back up and restore of Exchange and SQL (including single message restore), etc.After installation of 9.1 and reboot was I surprised with a ‘Blue Screen of Death’ (glad NOT to see too many of those anymore!). I was able to get … Continue reading BSOD after installing Veritas BackupExec 9.1 on SBS2003

To locate the Group Policy setting look in:Administrative Templates – Network – Network Connections – Windows FirewallI found that even though I changed these, the problem still persisted.  I was forced to make a registry change that did the trick:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Policies > Microsoft > WindowsFirewallThen, in the Standard and Domain Profiles, change the EnableFirewall value to zero (0).Good luck!

Thanks to Jonathan for providing these notes: Installing MELL on a Microsoft SBS 2003 Server Step 1: Follow the steps to install MELL on a web server as outlined in the Mell 2.x Deployment Guide located here: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=9240&clcid=0x409 Step 2: Once completed, you’ll note that when trying to access MELL via http://servername/mell/eng, you get the following error: 006~ASP 0175~Disallowed Path Characters~The ‘..’ characters are not allowed in the Path parameter for the MapPath method.When attempting to access the reports via http://servername/mell/eng/reports, you’ll get the following error (if ‘Show  friendly HTTP error messages’ is disabled in IE):   Microsoft VBScript runtime error ‘800a01f4’  Variable is undefined: ‘Session’  /mell/eng/reports/inc/reportfunctions.inc, line 987 To resolve both of … Continue reading Tips to installing MELL – Microsoft e-Learning Library

Doug Neal posted this informative look into the differences between Windows Update (WU) and Microsoft’s Baseline Security Advisor (MBSA): MBSA does one important thing that WU does not: MBSA will check explicit files to ensure a security bulletin and all of the associated files are patched on a machine.  This is far and above the best way to ensure your machine is up-to-date for all security bulletins released by Microsoft.  WU detection may result in incorrect patch status after uninstalling a patch, using System Restore on a machine or performing an in-place repair of the OS.  Since MBSA checks explicit file versions, no … Continue reading MBSA -vs- WU

After installing Exchange SP1 on SBS2003, you may find that to login to OWA you will need to enter Domain\Userid format. Microsoft did release a fix to this and several other small problems. Check it out at: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=0FE89C95-E767-428C-8621-6A586C655EE3&displaylang=en

Here’s a link to a Microsoft KB article (233427) that identifies those files and folders that NTBackup does not include in the backup and restore process: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;233427

Here’s how to change the default OWA graphic on the login page (tip of the hat to Jeff L.): Just change the image at: exchweb/img/logon_logo.gifDimensions are 331 x 62  

Exchange:http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;823166 AD:http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;822158Ray FongMicrosoft SBS Product Support

A question was asked “How can I change the SSL port# used to access OWA?“. This response was provided by Ray Fong (assuming we want to change the port# from 443 to 10001:1. Go to Exchange System Manager, Protocols -> HTTP. Right-click New HTTP Virtual Server.2. Specify “Exchange OWA 10001” for the name.3. Click Advanced, modify, change the port from 80 to 81. SSL port is not available, that’s OK.4. After you click OK and Applied, go back to the same screen. Now remove port 81 and specify 10001 as the SSL port. Click OK all the way.5. Follow the … Continue reading Changing the SSL port number used by OWA