Citizen Chin's questions

How can I create a login script that will delete the contents of the folder below, each time a user logs off of a PC? (We have a shared PC that about a dozen users use, for a particular program. That program caches their AD login credentials in the directory below, which often creates problems when their AD password is reset. The solution is to clear the folder contents each time the users logs off of the PC).

C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\Identities*.*

So, I've tried to create a script using the 'del' command with the /q switch. But, testing it with a manual execution first from the command prompt, it never works, says the directory cannot be found.

C:\del /q C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\Identities*.*

Is there a way to audit each action performed in an Exchange 2007 mailbox? In this particular case, a user, on many occasions, has complained that items from his contacts have dissapeared. I would like to be able to check an audit log when this happens, so I can tell him definitively what happened; whether he accidentally deleted it, dragged and dropped it, or if someone who has access to his contacts did.

I've set our 2003 Server to log spooler information events, which are then recorded in the system log (Event 10) in Event Viewer. This records the user who sent the print job, along with date/time, file name, and # of pages. What I would like to do, is be able to run a monthly report with stats including the aforementioned properties. Is there a way to enable this in Windows Server, or would I need 3rd party software?

When a resource room is reserved in Outlook (using 2003 with Exch 2007), it automatically is deleted (by Exch presumably) after six months. The scenario is this: At the start of each calendar year, our users will schedule recurring weekly meetings in Outlook for the entire year. But after six months, those blocked off times are shown as available users not included in the original meeting, even though it still shows on the organizer's and attendee's Outlook calendars. This leads to the 3rd party creating a meeting that overlaps with the originals.

I'd like to know how to change the auto delete and extend it to match the duration as set by the meeting creator.

Our company is in the process of deploying Lync to our users. We intend to use GFI LANGuard to deploy the software to client machines. In testing, the installation has gone smooth on both Vista and Win7 systems. But on XP machines, when the install completes, it closes any open MS Office programs. More troubling, is that Outlook is closed, then reopens automatically, but prompts for a new profile to be created. If you cancel this, then reopen Outlook once more, it's fine, it returns to the user's original profile.

So, the issue is that the majority of our PCs run XP. If we push this out with this behavior, users will freak out, and it will just result in desktop visits, thereby negating the advantage of pushing the installer out via LANGuard.

Google searches have not been too helpful. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I've created a GPO to push out an .msi packages to PCs in a particular OU. I've confirmed that:

• the target client PCs firewalls are not blocking traffic
• the folder containing the .msi is shared on the network
• the target PC's have had their GP updated via gpupdate /force

Is a log created which can help point me towards what the problem is? And secondarily, if the install push failed once, will it attempt to run again the next time the target PC's are rebooted?

Can more than one installer (msi, mst) be linked to a GPO to deploy multiple packages at once?

I'm in the midst of setting up GFI LAN Guard for vulnerability scanning and patch management. The first thing I have to get in order is for LG to inventory all of the clients on the network. In order to ensure that this runs successfully, I need to allow certain traffic to be allowed to pass through the clients' Windows Firewall. We don't want to disable the FW fully, just allow the particular LG traffic through.

I've created a GPO which allows the required traffic through, but it includes some potentially sensitive services such as File & Print, WMI, as well as opening port 135. What I am trying to figure out is how to restrict this GPO to only take effect for traffic originating from, or headed to, the IP address of the LG server. Is this possible?

The Group Policy Preferences options are blank when accessed from two PCs (both running Vista SP2). For example, I go to edit/create a GPO and then expand the Preferences menu, then either Windows Settings or Control Panel Settings. When I select a variable beneath either, no options are presented on the right hand side of the screen, it just says 'There are not items to show in this view'.

Unfortunately, are domain controllers are still running Server 2003, which does not offer the ability to work with GPPs - so I can't log on to those in an attempt to duplicate the problem.

What could be causing this and how can I fix it?

Scenario: OU has three GPOs applied to it. There are three sub-OU's beneath this OU, all of which inherit the aforementioned GPOs.

Sub-OU #2 needs to be prevented from inheriting ONE of the three GPOs from the main OU. How can this be done without blocking inheritance on Sub-OU two, which would result in all three GPOs being blocked?

Is there a way to create an MSI file with the product key for the installer? In this particular case, I wish to deploy Office 2003 to a couple dozen workstations, but wish to do so silently, and without any intervention from the user. However, in my testing so far, it runs silently until it needs the product key to continue. Can I somehow 'bundle' the product key into the MSI?

One of our users is requesting a list of the users and groups that have access to two folders on the network, as well as all of the subfolders of both of these folders. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of subfolders. Is there an automated way that I can do this?

We have one domain with OU's for each geographic site. We have five physical sites; one in Asia, two in Europe, and two in the U.S. (not sure if this might have any bearing on the situation).

One site in the U.S. is having problems with client PCs keeping accurate time. The domain controllers (there are two at this particular site) at this site are keeping time just fine.

All other sites are not having any time issues, with either DCs or clients.

I created a GPO for the OU of the U.S. site having time problems. In it, it tells the clients to sync up with one of the DCs at their site. This has not helped.

My first question - what could be causing this problem?

My second question is a general one. Is NTP setup domain wide, or is it handled site by site via local domain controllers?

Is there a way to setup WSUS to e-mail a weekly or monthly report which would indicate the current patch status of each computer under a given WSUS policy?

I'm hoping there is another way to verify that updates are being applied by WSUS, other than having to log in to the WSUS console and browse through all of the clients.

Several of our admins have a bad habit of closing but not logging off from, their remote desktop sessions to multiple servers. We would like to setup a GPO that will automatically log off RDP sessions that have been idle for longer than X.

What I am trying to figure out, is to what I would link the GPO to. Would I link it to the OU which contains the servers, or do I link it to the accounts of the admins themselves?

I need a CSU/DSU to terminate a T1 from our new ISP. It needs to support PPP encapsulation and must have an ethernet output so that we can connect it directly to a switch. What device would you suggest? Thanks!

I just copied the config of our PIX 515 over to a TFTP server. I'm going to need to make some edits to this file before copying it down to a duplicate 515 device. Currently, I'm viewing the config on the TFTP using notepad. It's barely legible. Is there some sort of specialized viewer available that's designed for Cisco config files?

We're currently using Content Catcher, a hosted spam solution. For less than what we pay them per year, we could purchase an anti-spam appliance to run in house. From a simple dollar perspective, it looks like a no brainer.

What are the downsides to running an appliance vs. going with a hosted service?

I've been tasked with redesigning our company's WAN in North America. We have two offices in the U.S., one in NY and one in the midwest. We also have offices in Europe. I won't be touching anything in Europe, with the exception of joining the Euro WAN with the U.S. WAN.

The current topology is as follows:

We have an offsite hosting facility in PA where the WAN, globally, ties together. The internet connection for the two US sites comes in through here, via a PIX firewall. Internet connectivity to NY is fine, but to the midwest office there are latency issues. Each site connects to PA via a T1, and all traffic, both network and internet, is carried over these T1 links.

The future topology:

The off-site hosting facility will be done away with and will in effect be moved to our midwest location. This is where the tying together of the WAN will occur.

I'm looking for suggestions as to how to best design this in terms of speed, cost, and security. Currently, we only have one point of access to the internet in the US, which is via the off-site hosting facility. I'm thinking that for the sake of providing a fast, reliable internet connection to each office, it would be better to have individual connections to each site instead of having one net connection going to midwest, and then pulled over the WAN link to NY. Business class cable connection is what I had in mind, each with their own firewall of course. Then, connect the two offices together with a T1...or are there faster, equally reliable, and less expensive methods to connect the two together?

Please poke holes in my ideas, as I need to better understand what's available from a design perspective.

Our company recently closed down half our office space, which was not being used. We gave back the unused space to the building management and had it walled off. Prior to us closing it off, I jotted down the network jack #'s on the side to be closed and made sure to disconnect them from the switches in our server room.

Today, I'm recreating a spreadsheet which lists all of our current physical network jacks, and where they are located in the resized office.

Two issues:

1) A few of the network jack numbers don't seem to be syncing up with the labels on the relay racks. For example, there is a logged in laptop plugged into jack# 28. So I go to the relay rack, find port 28, and trace it to the switch. Problem is, the port that it's plugged into on the switch, is not lit up, showing it as inactive. But, it most definitely is active and on the network. Is there a way, either by IP or name, to query a Cisco switch to tell you which port# that particular PC is plugged into?

2) There are a few ports on the switches which are lit up, indicating activity, but when I trace them back to the relay rack, they are attached to ports which are no longer in use, or no longer exist. I guess my question is as above, is there a way to display the IP or name of whatever is attached to that port on the switch?