Draytek Vigor 2760 respond to ping on WAN internet interface

Setting your Draytek Vigor 2760 (or 2760n or 2760Vn) to respond to pings from the internet isn't very obvious. Note this was on my 1st gen 2760n, so firmware v1.2.1.2 - hopefully the 2nd gen with v3.x.x firmware series works the same way. I don't have one to hand to check, so let me know ...

Normally on a Draytek (such as 2830, 2850, 2860 etc) you go into System Maintenance > Management and untick the 'Disable PING from the Internet' box. On the 2760 series that check box doesn't exist. Its still the same menu option, so:

System Maintenance > Management
then for Management List you have to click the + symbol
and move the 'Ping' item from Available to Selected,
for your specific Internet interface (in this case the DSL PVC1)

Simple when you know where to look for it, see diagram.

Note that its worth leaving this off unless you're using it for testing or maybe uptime monitoring.

The other interesting point about the different models of the 2760 is that the older firmware model supports remote dial-in VPN users, whereas the newer v3 doesn't (I think it has LAN-LAN VPN iirc).

Lost or forgetten iPad Restrictions PIN code

A client called having forgotten the 4 digit PIN code to access the Restrictions menu on one of the restaurant iPads. This used to be stored in plain text in one of the files saved to your computer backup by iTunes.

Its still in the same file now, its just encrypted now. There is a crack for it here
http://ios7hash.derson.us/

An extra tip - that 398bc9c ... etc file is a bit hard to spot in the directory. The easiest way on a Windows PC is to click once on one of the files in the directory, so its highlighted. Then start typing 398 and it will quickly jump to it, right-click and use Open With > Notepad

This saves doing a full wipe and reinstall of everything, just to reset the Restrictions code.

SBS 2008 BPA 'log file for the Windows SharePoint Services configuration database is getting large' LinkId=159745

We were running out of disk space on a Small Business Server 2008, giving us Exchange back pressure problems halting email delivery. The SBS2008 Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) reports that 'The log file for the Windows SharePoint Services configuration database is getting large'. For information about how to reduce the size of the log file, see the Knowledge Base at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=159745

Unfortunately that link is now dead, 'This page doesn't exist' and searching MS fails to show the relevant info to fix the problem.

The Microsoft FixIt however is still available for an automatic fix, use this link
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9774317

Gave me an extra 8GB of disk space within seconds.

Update firmware HP OfficeJet 6500A Plus E710n when installer greyed out, 1126 to 1206

Just came across a really cunning trick to update the firmware for an HP OfficeJet 6500A Plus E710n printer / scanner / copier / fax device. Its the All-in-One Plus model, aka product code CN557A.

On the status page, the device was reporting firmware version CIP1FN1126AR - essentially release 1126. Checking HP downloads shows a newer firmware, release 1206. Note that the firmware won't show on the support website if you specify your OS as Windows 10 - choose Win 7 instead.

When you download and run the latest firmware updater from HP, a file called OJ6500-E710n-z_R1206A.exe it spots the printer correctly on the network or WiFi. However the update button is greyed out when you specify the printer you want updated. No matter what compatibility settings / firewall / OS / computer / ethernet / WiFi / USB combination you try it won't let you update.

Here's the cunning bit - go into Control Panel > Printers, find the 6500A to update, right click and make sure its shared, preferably with a short name and no spaces, eg 6500A
 Now use Winzip or 7-Zip to open the OJ6500-E710n-z_R1206A.exe file, locate the .FUL file and extract/copy it to the desktop. I'd right-click and rename it to something much shorter, eg 6500A.FUL

Then start a Command Prompt - easiest way is to go to Start > Search (or Run) and type
     COMMAND

In the black DOS box that comes up, type a couple of commands ...
     CD %USERPROFILE\DESKTOP
     copy /b 6500A.FUL \\PC\6500A
[note that PC is the name of your computer, you can find it in Control Panel > System]

This sends the file as a binary transfer direct to the printer and forces the update. You should see the printer go into an update mode and restart. Takes a few minutes for it to complete

Dell PC offline and disconnected after Windows 10 upgrade, Intel 82579LM network

Had a call from someone who had clicked the WIndows 10 free upgrade option and then found themself offline after the reboot. So they were unable to get online and check for updates or found out what had gone wrong.

It was a Dell PC that used an Intel 82579LM Gigabit network adapter. There was a red cross in the bottom right indicating that the network LAN was disconnected, with no internet available.

Fortunately there was a straightforward fix that didn't involve remote access or having to install anything.

On Windows 10, go to the Search box in the bottom left by the Windows Start icon, type in Device ... you should be prompted with a link to Device Manager (in Control Panel) as the best match. Start the Device Manager and look for the Network Adapters section.

In this case there was an Intel(R) 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection, similar to the one shown in the picture. Right-click on that entry and choose Disable, give it a moment and the right-click again and choose Enable. This effectively turns the network connection off and back on again. After a minute or two it came back to life, emails arrived and Internet Explorer and Chrome were working again.

Microsoft Office Accounting 2009 and Windows 10

Pleased to report that following an upgrade from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, the old copy of Microsoft Office Accounting 2009 which runs on a SQL Server 2008 Express database survived. Definitely looks compatible to me - invoices, customers, reports all still running as before.

There is an outstanding, older issue where you can't export to PDF or Word. This relates to a court case Microsoft lost over XML - bit boring, but Office installs after that date won't work with Office Accounting. I do have an older Win7/Office 2007 laptop install and a virtualised XP install, both still work and will export to PDF and Word correctly.

Note that exporting reports to Excel works ok on all versions.

Glad that the Win 10 upgrade path is a lot smoother than the original Win 7 to Win 8 one, which completely killed the Office Accounting setup, breaking the SQL install. At that time, I managed to get away with reinstalling SQL and recovering the database from backup.

Definitely don't approach a major Windows upgrade without a full backup in place!

Cisco AnyConnect VPN reconnect resulted in different configurations settings error

This error is nothing to do with the Cisco setup or the configuration, well kind of. Its actually down to the packet size of the data on the network. You need to reduce the size of your MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit).

Quickest way is to start a Windows Command Prompt from Start > Programs > Accessories (in Win 7). Make sure you right-click and use Run As Admin.

Then type
   netsh interface ipv4 set subinterface "Local Area Connection" mtu=1300 store=persistent

or use "Wireless Connection" if appropriate.

You can also type
   netsh interface ipv4 show subinterfaces

to get a list of interfaces.

Or download a utility to do the job for you, c/o Cisco
http://sslvpn.emc.com/docs/setMTU.exe

Could be worth experimenting a bit to find what is the most appropriater MTU, using a higher value of 1400 might give slightly better performance.

WindowsUpdate error 0x8007277a, MSE not updating either

Had a laptop that stopped loading Windows Updates following a spyware infection and subsequent clean-up by MBAM. Internet access was ok.

Eventually tracked the fix down to a winsock reset ...

Look in Start > Accessories and find Command Prompt
Right-click and Run As Admin

Then type ...
     netsh winsock reset
     netsh int ipv4 reset

You should get a prompt to restart the computer. We didn't need to, restarting the Windows Update service was sufficient to get everything working again (Start > Control Panel > Admin Tools > Services)

[Just as an aside, we had already run the Microsoft Windows Update Fixit tool and renamed the SoftwareDistribution folder - just in case the above netsh commands don't work on their own]

Can't install Google Chrome - Installer was unable to start

There are several discussion threads on Google and other forums discussing difficulties when reinstalling Google Chrome. You get the standard online ActiveX installer or the standalone installer, but neither will start properly, reporting 'Installer was unable to start'

I tried manually deleting various Google folders from Program Files, Program Files (x86), Common Files and in the registry; HKLM\Software\Google and HKCU\Software\Google.

Still got the error about Google Update installation failing initialization.

Until ... I deleted the HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Google key as well. That cleared the fault up and the installer was able to run successfully.

123-reg auto renew SSL .crt certificate won't load in ISA Server, no key, can't export .pfx

We've got an Exchange Server 2003 as part of an SBS 2003 setup, just hanging in on its last couple of months before it gets upgraded - just before the July 2015 sunset on security updates. You best contact redleg.net if you haven't planned upgrading from Server 2003 yet.

The replacement Alpha SSL certificate came as a plain text email, to save as a .crt file and import. Loaded the MMC, added the Certificates option to manage the Local Computer certificate store, and easily imported into the Personal section. From there, head to IIS Manager > Default Website > Properties > Directory Security > Server Certificate and change to the updated certificate.

Easy enough, however on the SBS 2003 Premium, running ISA server as the firewall, you also need to update the certificate in the ISA Outlook web publishing rule too. Right-lick on the rule > Properties > Listener > Properties > Preferences > SSL > Select

But the new certificate doesn't appear on the list. Thats because it needs to be in PFX format, which also includes the private key. This comes from the original certificate request. If you try and export that certificate in PFX format its greyed out, because the private key is missing. There's a quick and easy way to fix the certificate, which doesn't involve exporting or trying to recombine the certificate and key with openssl (yes tried all that!)

Look at the new certificate details and find the serial number - should eb something like a 36 character hex number. Now start a CMD prompt and use the command
   certutil -repairstore my "serialno"

Then go back to ISA to change the certificate attached to the web publishing rule listener and your new certificate should be on the list.

(I also did a restart of IIS Admin service - not sure whether that was required or not - let me know in the comments below)