Month: October 2005

Today I’ve got an email with the message “Your web site is better than others”. I’m very happy with this. By the chance I want to visit the comment link in the email, I discovered a very exciting security feature of Outlook 2003 (with Service Pack 2). If the email message is from an address not in the “Safe Senders List”, Outlook 2003 (with Service Pack 2) will block the links in the message. If we click the links, Outlook does not start Internet Explorer to access the URL, but pops up a dialog box (Figure 1).  Figure 1 In … Continue reading Outlook 2003 (with Service Pack 2) Links Blocker

What would happen if we didn’t either use dcpromo to demote the first domain controller before removing it from the domain or move each Operations Master role seperately before removing the computer? We could use command line tool to assign the Operations Master roles to a new DC. Log on to a member server or domain controller with an administrator account. Click “Start”, click “run”, and enter “cmd“ Enter “ntdsutil“ Enter “roles“ Enter “connections“ Enter “connect to server [ServerName]“ Enter “quit“ to return to the roles level Enter “transfer [RoleName] “ Click “Yes“ on the confirmation dialog The commend line … Continue reading Move Operations Master Roles by ntdsutil

By Nuo Yan I’ve been a Windows OneCare Beta tester for several weeks but never had enough time to write an article about this amazing system protection and optimization software. Today, when I finished the latest survey I decided to spend some time to write this article to introduce Windows OneCare. Note: The version of Windows OneCare mentioned in this article is the 0.6.0692.42 build. The features may subject to change in the future versions. Installation  As a beta tester, I installed Windows OneCare through Microsoft BetaPlace. The whole process is web-based on a web site called Windows OneCare live.  I … Continue reading Windows OneCare Beta Preview

Many IT people would add DCs to the existing Windows network some times after the first implement. At the same time, many IT people like to remove some early DCs from the network because their newly added ones are more powerful. However, many IT people meet problems. Their domain no longer functioning properly after removing the early (exactly first) DCs. This is because the first DC is by default the Operations Master. Before removing it from the network, the administrator needs to run “dcpromo” to demote the DC to a member server. During this process it will automatically transfer the Operations Master … Continue reading Don’t Forget The Operations Masters

Virtual PC is a fantastic tool to help us build test or experimental environment of Windows Server System. Suppose now we are building a test environment for Windows Server 2003 and its updates. The purpose is to simulate the company’s real network environment and test the Service Pack and other updates. We setup the workstations, member servers and domain controllers on Virtual PC successfully. The next step is to make the scenario as same as the real life environment. We begin to build the Network Address Translation (NAT) server. At this time, we need 2 NICs on the virtual machine. However, by … Continue reading Add NICs to Existing Virtual PC

Microsoft has changed the way IPSec Monitor runs in Windows Server 2003. Dislike it’s in Windows 2000, we can’t start IPSec Monitor by clicking “start”- “Run” then enter “ipsecmon”. In Windows Server 2003, IPSec Monitor becomes a MMC-based tool. We can start it from MMC: Click “start”- “Run” Enter “MMC” Click “File” – “Add/Remove Snap-in…” Click “Add”, and double-click “IP Security Monitor” Click “Close” and click “OK”. We’re all set. Now we can use the powerful tool to check whether our IPSec configurations functions well or not. In Windows XP, IP Security Monitor starts the same way as it is … Continue reading Where to Find IP Security Monitor in Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP?

It’s not necessary for us to write the search function by ourselves. MSN Search provides codes for site owners. We can add a search box to our blog by adding (and modifying) these codes:<!– Site search from MSN –> <!– Site search from MSN –> <form method=”get” action=”http://search.msn.com/results.aspx”> <tr> <td width=75> <a href=”http://search.msn.com/” target=”_blank”> <img src=”http://search.msn.com/s/affillogo.gif” border=”0″ ALT=”MSN Search”/> </a> </td> <br> <td> <input type=”text” name=”q” size=”10″ /> <input type=”submit” value=”Search”/> <input type=”hidden” name=”q1″ value=”site:msmvps.com/nuoyan”/> </td> </tr> </table> </form> <!– Site Search from MSN –> <A href<!– Site Search from MSN –> Change my URL “http://msmvps.com/nuoyan” to yours, and you will be all set.

We got a few computers (less than 10) in 2 subnets. We have one Windows XP computer with 2 LAN adapters. We want to use this computer as a very simple router in the middle of the two subnets. In NT 4 we can simply open the properties of TCP/IP and check “Enable IP Routing”.  However,  in Windows XP we don’t have this checkbox in TCP/IP properties. To make the same effect, we need to change something in the registry. Click “Start”, click “run” and enter “regedit”. Locate “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters”, we can find a value called “IPEnableRouter”. Let’s double click it and set the value … Continue reading Enabling IP Routing for Windows XP

You got a new computer or server, and you spent a long time configured all network settings. Now you want to make sure the software, hardware and network connections are functioning normally. A buit-in tool in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 can help you. Click “Start”, click “run” and enter “cmd” to open the Command Console. Enter “netsh diag gui”, the Network Diagnostics tool starts (see the figure below). Click on “Scan your system”, the tool will scan the software, hardware and network connections settings. (see the figure below) When the scaning process completes, it will generate a report to … Continue reading Good Network Connections Diagnostics Tool – Windows XP, Windows Server 2003