Archive for May, 2009
Your Admin goes off the grid…
May 29th
I apologize for the down time yesterday, due to our ISP changing hands. And on top of that I am going away for the weekend with no phone or internet… Scary huh?
Do you guys go off the grid or is your mobile surgically implanted nowadays?
We would love to hear from you in the comments!
The Admin is on his way to the woods! Speak to you on Monday!
DNS is LIFE. Group Policy Tip of the Week.
May 27th
“Why isn’t Group Policy Working on this client?”
“Did You Check the DNS Configuration of the Client?”
One of the most frequently encountered problems with Windows 2000 and above is that things just ’stop working’ when DNS gets out of whack. Specifically, if you’re not seeing Group Policy apply to your client machines, make sure their DNS client is pointing to a Domain Controller or other authoritative source for the domain. If it’s pointing to the wrong place or not pointing anywhere, Group Policy will simply not be downloaded.
As a colleague of mine likes to say, ‘Healthy DNS equals a healthy Active Directory.’
Moreover, in the age of Windows 2003/2008 with its multiple forests with cross-forest trusts, Group Policy could be applying from just about anywhere and everywhere. It’s more important than ever to verify that all DNS server pointers are designed properly and working as they should. For instance, if clients cannot access their ‘home’ Domain Controllers while leveraging a cross-forest trust, they won’t get Group Policy.
Finally, to put a fine point on it, DNS leverages only the fully qualified name. It’s not enough to verify that you can resolve a computer named xppro1 as opposed to xppro1.corp.com. The first is actually the NetBIOS name and not the fully qualified domain name. The second is the fully qualified domain name. If you find yourself in a DNS resolution situation where resolving the NetBIOS name will work, but the fully qualified name will not work, then you have a DNS problem that needs to be addressed.
Another Awesome GP Post by Jeremy from GPAnswers.com
4 Simple Steps to Change Your Computer Sounds
May 26th
Tired of your standard Windows Startup and Shutdown tunes?
If you’re like me, you use your Windows-based computer almost every day. The startup and shutdown sounds have just gotten a little boring to be honest. Here are some simple steps to use your favorite voice, music excerpt, or sound for your computer’s start-up and shutdown sequence. You’ll need two soundbites.
Step 1. Choose the soundbites: Choose the track which you want to play at start-up and shutdown jingles. Key to note:
- It must be in the .WAV format.
- The soundbite shouldn’t be too long otherwise you could be waiting for the bite to end before you begin computing.
Your preferred file is likely an mp3, but regardless, if its not in .WAV format, you can easily convert it using any converter. My preference is audacity, which is an open source music editor <– it allows you to actually select a “soundbite” from any song.
Step 2. Rename the new files. Rename these files as “Windows XP Startup.WAV” and “Windows XP Shutdown.WAV” respectively.
Step 3. Rename the old files.
- Goto “C:\WINDOWS\MEDIA”
- Find the files “Windows XP Startup.WAV” and “Windows XP Shutdown.WAV”, and rename them to Windows XP Startup_old.WAV and Windows XP Shutdown_old.WAV respectively. This step is required for the case if you need to revert back to these sounds, otherwise you can ignore this step and just delete them (not recommended).
Step 4. Save your new files. Just copy your files from step 2 into the directory “C:\WINDOWS\MEDIA”
You now have new startup and shutdown tunes.
Kerry enjoys writing about a variety of topics. Her favorite website is CallCatalog.com which is a reverse phone directory website. You can also read her blog which discusses phone number privacy issues.
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