music2myear's questions

I'm attempting to use PsExec to run Expand-Archive on a remote computer, extracting to a folder inside Program Files, but Expand-Archive keeps returning the error:

Expand-Archive : A positional parameter cannot be found that accepts argument 'Files\Folder'

I take this to mean that Expand-Archive gets to the space in "Program Files" and thinks one argument is done and starts trying to interpret the next.

I have used the following variants of the command, all with the same outcome:

Double-quotes around entire Powershell portion, using %programfiles% environment variable:

.\PsExec.exe \\computername /s cmd /c "C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -executionpolicy bypass -command expand-archive c:\temp\bc.zip -destinationpath %programfiles%\Folder"

Single-quotes just around the destination folder path, using %programfiles% environment variable:

.\PsExec.exe \\computername /s cmd /c C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -executionpolicy bypass -command expand-archive c:\temp\bc.zip -destinationpath '%programfiles%\Folder'

Double-quotes just around the destination folder path, using %programfiles% environment variable:

.\PsExec.exe \\computername /s cmd /c C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -executionpolicy bypass -command expand-archive c:\temp\bc.zip -destinationpath "%programfiles%\Folder"

No quotes, using %programfiles% environment variable:

.\PsExec.exe \\computername /s cmd /c C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -executionpolicy bypass -command expand-archive c:\temp\bc.zip -destinationpath %programfiles%\Folder

Double-quotes around fully typed folder path:

.\PsExec.exe \\computername /s cmd /c C:\Windows\system32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -executionpolicy bypass -command expand-archive c:\temp\bc.zip -destinationpath "C:\Program Files\Folder"

I'm testing Microsoft Azure Recovery Services (MARS), and am trying right now to run the MARS MMC plugin on a fully updated Windows 10 (2004) workstation to test restores of other servers in the Recovery Vault.

When I install MARS on this workstation, the installation proceeds just fine, reporting no errors, and finding all necessary dependencies already in place.

But when I attempt to either run Microsoft Azure Backup from the Start Menu, or manually open mmc.exe and add the Microsoft Azure Backup plugin from the list of plugins, MMC reports an unhandled exception:

Type is not resolved for member 'Microsoft.Internal.EnterpriseStorage.Dls.Utils.DlsException,CloudUtils, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=<redacted>'.

Exception Type:  
System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationException

Exception Stack Trace:  
   at Microsoft.ManagementConsole.Internal.IMessageClient.ProcessRequest(Request request)
   at Microsoft.ManagementConsole.Executive.RequestStatus.BeginRequest(IMessageClient messageClient, RequestInfo requestInfo)
   at Microsoft.ManagementConsole.Executive.SnapInRequestOperation.ProcessRequest()
   at Microsoft.ManagementConsole.Executive.Operation.OnThreadTransfer(SimpleOperationCallback callback)

Other plugins load OK in MMC, though I don't have other Azure plugins to try with, and based on the error it seems I'm missing some dependency that would tell the system what this "member" is and how it is to be used/handled, but in searching online I'm unable to find which dependency I need to install or configure, or what else may be the issue.

UPDATE:

I was trying too hard:

The issue is that the Microsoft Azure Backup plugin in mmc appears to have to run as admin, or as the account the registration wizard ran as. I'm going to try a few different scenarios to figure out specifically what the case is, but here's what I've found so far:

Because this workstation wasn't going to be backing up, I skipped the registration wizard during initial install (installer run as local admin) and then attempted to load the client as a regular user, which generated the error I encountered.

Upon installing on a different computer, I went through the registration wizard (initiated by the installer, so running as the same admin account) and then had the wizard open the client once it was complete, which meant the client loaded as admin/the same account that installed and ran the registration wizard. I then opened the client as the regular account and had the same error as on the other computer.

Then I went back to the first computer, initiated the registration wizard as admin, completed this, and confirmed that when I ran the client as admin/the same account that ran the registration wizard it loaded successfully.

Next week I hope to try this again, but getting the registration wizard to run as the regular user account rather than admin, and see if I can get the client to run without requiring local admin.

This question is very like this other: Open a new cmd console on Windows 2012 Server core after closing the last one?

With one key difference that is not addressed in the other and which I have not been able to figure out through web searching. The answer very may well be that this is not possible, but I submit it to your minds to see if there is a chance that it is.

I have several installs of Windows Server without the Desktop Experience. This isn't really "Core" any longer in official Microsoft parlance, but it's what many of us appear to call it. These are running primarily Server 2016 or 2019.

My primary work setup is that I have a particularly powerful desktop computer that remains at one of my offices, and then a laptop I carry to the office I am working in, and I mostly Remote Desktop from the laptop into the desktop to do my work.

This is the where my issue diverges from the existing and good question: I am already working inside on Remote Desktop window, and then I RD into the servers when necessary, and then accidentally close the Command Prompt window.

The problem is that the first RD session captures my CTRL-SHIFT-ESC or CTRL-ALT-END and the nested session doesn't get these key presses.

Right now, the solution is to head back to the laptop's UI (out of the existing RD sessions), open a new RD into the server I'm trying to work in, use the above key combinations to open CMD prompt and reopen CMD.

But is there a way to reopen an accidentally closed CMD window within the nested RD sessions, without having to switch away from these as I have been doing?

I took control of a new VM running Windows Server 2019 (Datacenter) recently. Since that time, on each login to the server (via RDP) the Shutdown Event Tracker shows asking for information about an unexpected shutdown.

Checking the Event Viewer there is no evidence of a restart, unexpected or otherwise, since the previous time I'd seen this message previously and filled it out.

How do I stop this from showing each logon or clear whatever is stuck in the system that is triggering it?

I don't want to NOT see this dialog when it is warranted, I just know it's not warranted in this case and want to know how to stop it from showing up on EVERY logon.

The server is up to date on patches, serving files without much of any additional software except for the Splunk UniversalForwarder mandated by HQ.

Outside contacts at two companies report messages they sent to us return with the following message:

451 Timeout trying to verify RCPT [email protected] for domain

One of the companies is a very large international organization and so I doubt the issue is on their end, necessarily.

I understand this message generally means that my server is disconnecting before responding to the RCPT message from the other server.

I have an Exchange 2007 server and the first people reporting the issue (and the people I've been able to get a copy of the error message from) are running Lotus Domino (I do not recall my Domino support days fondly).

We also use an email backup service through DNSMadeEasy which handles all our incoming messages so that if our server loses contact with the internet for a while, the messages are all received and queued by DNSMadeEasy and upon establishment of the connection the messages are then delivered to us.

Things I have done:

• Tested internal/external email communication using my personal external accounts and had no issues.
• Verified I have no Anti-spam blacklisting configured in Exchange.
• Checked my McAfee Groupshield logs and verified it did not reject any messages from these senders.

Where do I go from here?

Here is the full output (suitably obscured) from Lotus Notes regarding what it thinks the issue is (Sorry for the wall 'o text in the first part, I'm having trouble getting the lines to flow properly):

> Reporting-MTA: x-local-hostname; localdomain
> Authentication-Results: p01c11m085.mxlogic.net; spf=none X-MXL-Hash:
> 51ae20e2194675c6-9ab61e697b19b6b20a310d95e60b43dac243397d
> From: Mail Delivery System <[email protected]>
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Warning: could not send message for past 4 hours
> Message-Id: <[email protected]>
> Date: Tue, 04 Jun 2013 11:16:10 -0600
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> X-MX-Bounce: mod_queue/warn
> X-AnalysisOut: [A:9 a=vypMwE87fLIA:10]
> Received-SPF: None
> X-Spam: [F=0.1384615385; B=0.500(0); spf=0.500; STSI=0.500(-49); STSM=0.300(-49); CM=0.500; MH=0.600(2013060409); S=0.200(2010122901); SC=]
> X-MAIL-FROM: <>
> X-SOURCE-IP: [208.65.144.222]
> X-MIMETrack: Itemize by SMTP Server on TheirCompany-NT/TheirCompany(Release 6.5.1|January 21, 2004) at 06/04/2013 12:16:36 PM,
>                 Serialize by Router on TheirCompany-NT/TheirCompany(Release 6.5.1|January 21, 2004) at 06/04/2013 12:16:38 PM,
>                 Serialize complete at 06/04/2013 12:16:38 PM
> X-Notes-Item: CN=TheirCompany-NT/O=TheirCompany; type=501; flags=44; name=$UpdatedBy
> X-Notes-Item: 8EC07872:EEDBFA2A-86257B80:005EE789; type=4; name=$Orig X-Notes-Item: ; type=501; name=Categories
> X-Notes-Item: ; type=401; name=$Revisions
> X-Notes-Item: CN=TheirCompany-NT/O=TheirCompany; type=501; flags=0; name=RouteServers
> X-Notes-Item: 04-Jun-2013 12:16:36 CDT/04-Jun-2013 12:16:37 CDT; type=401; flags=0; name=RouteTimes
> X-Notes-Item: 0; name=$MsgTrackFlags
> X-Notes-Item: Tue, 4 Jun 2013 12:16:37 -0500; type=400; name=DeliveredDate
> X-Notes-Item: TheirCompany-NT/TheirCompany!!mail/theirnsf.nsf: =?UTF-8?B?4oChODYyNTcxNUQwMDUzNjc2Nyg=?= =?UTF-8?B?OEVDMDc4NzJFRURCRkEyQTg2MjU3QjgwMDA1RUU3ODkp?=; name=$SJOrigin
> X-Notes-Item: [email protected]; name=$SJInternetAddress
> X-Notes-Item: [email protected]; name=$SJEmail
> X-Notes-Item: p01c11o143.mxlogic.net; name=$SJDomain Received: from p01c11m085.mxlogic.net ([208.65.144.247]) by mail.theirdomain.com (Lotus Domino Release 6.5.1) with SMTP id 2013060412163648-12883 ; Tue, 4 Jun 2013 12:16:36 -0500 Received: from unknown [208.65.144.222] (EHLO p01c11q162.mxlogic.net)                 by p01c11m085.mxlogic.net(mxl_mta-7.1.0-2) over TLS secured channel       with ESMTP id 2e02ea15.0.9233563.00-1301.13111517.p01c11m085.mxlogic.net (envelope-from <>);                 Tue, 04 Jun 2013 11:16:18 -0600 (MDT) Received: from unknown [10.1.111.143] (EHLO p01c11o143.mxlogic.net)                 by p01c11q162.mxlogic.net(mxl_mta-7.1.0-3) over TLS secured channel       with ESMTP id 2e02ea15.0.9064.00-2396.25366.p01c11q162.mxlogic.net (envelope-from <>);                 Tue, 04 Jun 2013 11:16:18 -0600 (MDT) Received: FROM queue-bounce BY 01c11o143.mxlogic.net WITH local;                 Tue, 04 Jun 2013 11:16:10 -0600
> X-Notes-Item: Memo; name=Form
> X-Notes-Item: 1; name=$NoteHasNativeMIME Content-Type: multipart/report; report-type=delivery-status; boundary="Q=_941804289-1370366170-p01c11o143.mxlogic.net"
> 
> This is a MIME-formatted message. Portions of this message may be unreadable without a MIME-capable mail program.
> 
> --Q=_941804289-1370366170-p01c11o143.mxlogic.net Content-Type: text/plain
> 
>      ===============================================
>              THIS IS A WARNING MESSAGE ONLY        
>          YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESEND YOUR MESSAGE    
>      ===============================================
> 
> A temporary error occurred while delivering to the following
> address(es):
> 
>  <[email protected]>: 451 Timeout trying verify RCPT
> ([email protected]) for domain (mydomain.com)
> 
> I will continue trying to send the message until it is delivered or
> expires.
> 
> 
> 
> --Q=_941804289-1370366170-p01c11o143.mxlogic.net Content-Type: text/plain
> 
> Included is a copy of the message header:
> ----------------------------------------- Received: from unknown [67.89.110.78] (EHLO mail.theirdomain.com)
>                 by p01c11o143.mxlogic.net(mxl_mta-7.1.0-3)
>                 with ESMTP id ad5eda15.0.73070.00-330.174376.p01c11o143.mxlogic.net (envelope-from
> <[email protected]>);
>                 Tue, 04 Jun 2013 07:05:26 -0600 (MDT) X-MXL-Hash: 51ade6163c8c4185-18c8ce3cbb57672918d5c615db6b50a5e7accd4d To:
> [email protected] Subject: Fw: DELIVERY FAILURE: MIME-Version: 1.0
> X-Mailer: Lotus Notes Release 8.5.2 August 10, 2010 Message-ID:
> <OF52E79DBB.50860208-ON86257B80.0047C79E-86257B80.0047D1CD@theirdomain.com>
> From: [email protected] Date: Tue, 4 Jun 2013 08:04:27 -0500
> X-MIMETrack: Serialize by Router on
> TheirCompany-NT/TheirCompany(Release 6.5.1|January 21, 2004) at
> 06/04/2013 08:05:26 AM,
>                 Serialize complete at 06/04/2013 08:05:26 AM Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="=_alternative
> 0047D1CC86257B80_="
> 
> --Q=_941804289-1370366170-p01c11o143.mxlogic.net--

DHCP server: Server 2008 R2
IP info: 192.168.0.1/22
Subnet: 255.255.252.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.1

According to every calculator out there, 192.168.0.1/22 means I should be able to assign between 192.168.0.1 through 192.168.3.254 as I see fit. 192.168.0.0 being reserved for routing, and 192.168.3.255 for broadcast, leaving 1022 available addresses.

Currently we can only assign IP addresses between 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.2.254. Scope in our DHCP server has this limit, showing a starting address of 192.168.1.1 and an ending address of 192.168.2.254, allowing essentially only half of the addresses to be used.

• Can I change the scope to allow addressing of the rest of our calculated range?
• If so, how do I make this change of scope?
• Will I need to change the gateway address or can that remain at .1.1?

I would prefer to keep a single scope, if at all possible, keeping all the current exclusions and reservations.

UPDATE:

The main scope on the DHCP server already has the correct subnet (255.255.252.0, or /22). This means I'm not actually changing the subnet at all. I'm "simply" expanding the IP start and end addresses to what they ought to have been initially.

Reading this MS article it seems to answer my question: If I were changing the subnet or adding a new one, I'd have to create a new scope, or delete and recreate. However, since I'm only expanding my current start and end IP addresses to fill the existing subnets usable address space, the correct method should simply be to edit the properties of the scope.

Problem server is Windows 2008 R2 VM running on VMWare ESXi 4 host. Single network adapter manually assigned single IP address (192.168.1.11).

When I ping the server from any other network computer, it returns 192.168.1.124 and "Destination host unreachable".

Yesterday I found a second network adapter assigned to this server with an IP of 169.254... indicating it had no real valid IP. Using the MAC addresses I determined which adapter was not needed/not wanted, and removed it using VMWare systems.

This is the network Printer Server and, understandably, nothing is printing right now.

I've looked at the solutions here Why was my ping answered by a different IP address than the one pinged? and they aren't applicable to my situation for the following reasons:

• Output of arp -a on another computer returns the correct IP address (.1.11) assigned to the correct MAC address, the incorrect IP .1.124 is not listed, and the MAC of the network adapter I removed yesterday is not listed at all.

I checked out the Microsoft KB article which listed pretty much my exact symptoms ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/981953 ) and it says to check binding orders and look for hidden adapters. But there are no hidden adapters, and there is only one Network Adapter listed in the Binding Order list.

Essentially, I can communicate from the server TO any other network device, but I cannot communicate from any other network device TO the server.

Help!

UPDATE: Solution found, see this solution for the details.

I'm having trouble determining the proper procedure for installing Exchange 2007 sp3 on a Server 2008 R2 box running Exchange 2007 sp1.

It is not clear on websites I have consulted (Microsoft TechNet and others) whether preparing Active Directory is only required on a NEW install of Exchange 2007 sp3, or if it is required when upgrading an existing Exchange 2007 install to sp3.

Could someone who has experience with this please set me straight?

We recently migrated our file servers from a Windows file server to an EMC VNXe NAS device.

Previously, when a user needed into a critical file that someone else had open and the situation warranted, I'd log into the file server and disconnect any unwanted users from the file.

How is this done in a NAS device such as mine?

UPDATE to clarify what I do and do not have:

The VNXe system has a web management interface that allows management of the disks, shares, users, access, pools, authentication, system status, updates, etc.

It does not have the ability to view file-level share contents.

There is also SSH on the device, but it's been a while since I used a Linux CLI and I don't know where to begin doing this particular task in a Linux CLI.

Running EMC NetWorker server on a Server 2008 R2 w/ sp1 VM running on ESXi host. The VMDK is stored on a VNXe machine along with the VMDKs for all the other VM servers our organization runs. None of the other VMs have this issue:

Each night for the latter half of this week, sometime after 9pm, this server loses its hard drive. Checking the systems in the morning I find this machine sitting at the boot prompt after it has tried PXE and it reports it cannot find a bootable device. Checking the VM settings I find there is no hard drive attached to the machine.

Recovering is as simple as assigning a new hard drive to the system and pointing it to the existing VMDK which is still sitting there on the data store hosted on the VNXe.

The vSphere server doesn't report anything wrong or any errors.

There is no information in the system log on the server itself so I'm pretty sure it has no clue what happened to it.

The issue began as I have begun ramping up backups using the NetWorker system, adding new hosts to backup. Currently I am only backing up virtual hosts using the configured VADP proxy built into the NetWorker server, along with a test SQL server (also a VM) using the installed NetWorker client local to that machine. I was backing up the NetWorker server itself, as the documentation noted there shouldn't be an issue with that, but disabled that backup shortly after finding this issue.

I need to find out how and why the VMDK is becoming unattached from the NetWorker server. It would be nice for someone to tell me explicitly, but maybe help finding the vSphere logs showing everything that goes on with the systems would be a good point in the right direction.

UPDATE: additional details

Backups of the VMs are scheduled to begin at 9pm each night.

From the vSphere logs for this VM:

• 2/21 at 9:00:11pm: Task: Create virtual machine snapshot.
• 2/22 at 2:18:57am: Task: Remove snapshot. This was the first attempted scheduled backup OF this VM FROM itself and indicates the successful and correct operation of the backup system.
• 2/22: I migrate the machine to a different ESXi host (there are three identical hosts in a HA configuration) to better arrange resources.
• 2/22 at 9:00:15pm: Task: Reconfigure virtual machine. This is the first time the HDD is removed from the VM.
• 2/23 around 8:25am: checking the systems I find the HDD missing on this VM for the first time. This leads me to believe the Snapshot operation triggered by the NetWorker scheduled backup is being translated into "remove the HDD from this VM" by the ESXi host.
• 2/23 at 9:00:14pm: Task: Reconfigure virtual machine.
• 2/24 I reattached the HDD and disable all the scheduled backups of this VM in NetWorker.
• 2/24 at 9:31:32pm: Task: Reconfigure virtual machine.
• 2/25 at 9:00:15pm, 2/26 at 9:00:11pm: The same reconfigure virtual machine task removes the HDD from this VM. and I reattach it the following morning.

Based on this log I need to check the following:

• Does the issue persist when the VM is running on a different host?
• Does the issue persist when no backups run at all?

I'll check these and report back on success or failure.

Update 2: troubleshooting report

One more thing I found: In the configuration for each VM client in NetWorker, there is a place to record the ESXi host that VM is on. When I vMotion a VM to a different ESXi host, this value is not updated, even with VM autodetect enabled in NetWorker. So I updated this value in the VM client configuration to the current ESXi host. It would be nice if AutoDetect kept it updated by itself.

So, to report on the troubleshooting I tried yesterday:

First, the HDD was still attached this morning which confirms the issue was being at least triggered by NetWorker. I disabled all backups yesterday, and I moved the NetWorker server to a new ESXi host. I also updated the ESXi host information noted in the previous paragraph.

Today I've re-enabled most of the backups (leaving off high-availability systems like SQL and Exchange.

If the HDD is removed tonight then it is the backup configuration that is the issue.

If the HDD is NOT removed tonight, then it is the host configuration information or the host itself causing the issue.

Update 3: Troubleshooting followup

The HDD was lost again last night, which means the issue is probably the NetWorker configuration.

Just to recap: Last night I ran scheduled backups of several VMs (but not of the NetWorker server) and just after 9pm I saw the same log entries I've noted earlier in the question, resulting in there no longer being a HDD associated with the VM.

There's another thing I'll try: Based on EMC Documentation, the NetWorker server can also be a storage node, and most of the VMs are processing their backups through this node (this is separate from the VADP). I'll disable these through the node backups and see if that makes a difference.

Also, physical system backups and a NDMP backup from our NAS/Network Drives are working OK.

I'll begin isolating the VMs and adding one at a time to the backup to see if I can determine if a particular VM is causing the issue. This is something I should be able to test during work hours.

UPDATE: Testing shines a light

Ok, the problem is whenever I try and backup a VM using VADP.

I tested backing up running and powered off VMs using a variety of settings permutations, and the only determining factor as to whether the NetWorker server lost it's drive was whether or not I had installed the NetWorker client on the target VM and was backing up using the NetWorker client or using the VADP.

When configuring a backup using the client wizard, first you choose whether you are configuring a new VADP proxy, or a VM backup client, or a NetWorker client.

If you choose VM backup client, you then get to choose whether you're backing it up using VADP (this is default) or using the NetWorker client installed on the VM (this is for if you need any special configurations for backup. VADP hits the actual VMDK and integrates with VMWare. NetWorker still "knows" the client is a VM, but can be used to specify particular drives, VSS, and other functions. VADP backs up VMs without using any guest resources, relying entirely on the ESXi host. NetWorker client software uses client resources to run the backup.

So, running a VADP backup of a VM host is what removes the HDD from the NetWorker server. And there are more log entries that show in the vSphere client when the HDD is dropped:

• About 20 seconds after a VADP proxy backup is initiated, vSphere reports an attempt to migrate the NetWorker server from VM2 to VM2
• then the NetWorker server is reset
• then an event states "a ticket of typemks has been acquired"
• then a warning regarding the amount of video memory assigned to the VM
• finally a report that the NetWorker server VM is powered on.

I've got several VMs (Windows Server 2003-2008 R2, application servers, Exchange, SQL, small file servers) residing on ESXi 4.1 hosts. We recently purchased a Data Domain system allowing us to backup our data and have it deduplicated, compressed, and stored at two physical locations. The NetWorker server is connected to the vCenter server allowing for auto-detection of the VMs and backing them up via VADP.

Reading the various manuals for NetWorker (v7.6.3) implementation in a VMWare environment, they reference setting up VADP on the Storage Node in order to maximize minimize the network hops involved in a backup process by running at system bus speed between the VADP appliance and the Storage Node.

In the backup configuration in the NetWorker Admin console, there are options to use a Storage Node or to backup directly to the DataDomain system via the NetWorker server. What are the benefits to backing up using a Storage Node versus directly through the NetWorker server?

After changing our vCenter servers recently, the old vCenter server is still listed in the VMWare vSphere Client login dialog in the IP Address / Name: drop down. Is there a way to remove the old/invalid entries from this dropdown?

I'm a new systems and network admin. My experience has been in the hardware and software of systems and servers, the network part is pretty new to me. I'm familiar with plugging numbers into network configurations, but if you ask me about subnetting or packet droppings (;) you'll see this really lost look flash across my face. I'm learning.

Here's my problem:

Since about two months before taking over the reins here, the previous Network Admin reports they've had issues downloading large files. Well, not really just large files, it's just more frustrating with the large ones. Now that I'm the one doing the downloads (everything from a random driver to the latest distros and SPs from our Technet subscription and Licensing agreement, to multi-gigabyte engineering software packages for our various departments) I have to "baby-sit" the downloads, keeping me chained to my desk for hours at a time.

The downloads will start just fine and get to some random point ranging from a few K to a couple G before the download will stall and fail if I don't pause and restart the download before it fails. Sometimes the pause/restart works right away, the download picks up speed and progresses a bit before the cycle repeats. Sometimes I have to go through several pause/restart cycles before the download starts actually downloading again.

The network and ISP details:

• Fiber internet connection served by our ISP (our local city is our ISP). Download speeds generally even out around 1.1Mbps, with spikes as high as 1.6Mpbs. Sometimes in the midst of pause/restart cycles we'll see speeds as low as a few hundred Kbps, but a few cycles later and it'll speed up again. Speeds from different hosts are pretty consistent.
• There is no proxy in our internal network and no firewall that I am aware of blocking the connection. We use a Cisco 1811W as our gateway, but it has not had any trouble before.

The issue was first noted around September, and there were no changes on our side around that time we can attribute this to.

What should I test, check, etc, to determine whether the problem is on our side or the ISPs?

Update:

I'm watching a wireshark feed filtered for the TCP stream of a large download I've had trouble with for a few days now. Most of the traffic frames are labeled...

Continuation or non-HTTP traffic

...which I assume is just the subsequent packets comprising the download. However, relatively frequently (between every 3-20 seconds) and corresponding pretty much exactly to any dips in the download speed reported by Firefox are large sections of frames labeled...

[TCP Retransmission] Continuation or non-HTTP traffic

There are also a few random frames, usually spread out surrounding the Retransmission packets a few dozen frames on either side, labeled...

[TCP Previous segment lost] Continuation or non-HTTP traffic

...and whadayaknow, the download just failed about halfway through the 3.2GB file. The final frame is a TCP Previous Segment Lost frame. This came immediately after I had to pause the download and attempted to restart it: queue immediate failure.

Final frames in the download were http [ACK] followed by http [FIN, ACK], which I believe indicated a "graceful" TCP connection closure.

I did not see anything else indicating interruption by an intermediary.

Update 2

The issue is observed in all browsers and apps that download and the pause/restart functionality works 99% of the time in all apps that allow pause/restart. Specific apps and browsers I can replicate this easily in: Firefox (current versions), IE (9), iTunes (downloading apps and updates for iOS devices). I'm not sure if these all use the same functionality for the pause/resume function in downloading.

iTunes downloads from servers that all allow restarting (except the iOS update files) and so it does not matter how long I pause the download for. Most sites I'm downloading large files from (MS, PTC, Solidworks, AutoDesk) don't support resuming stopped/canceled downloads (MS does but only from there java-based download manager) and so I can only pause for around 15 seconds max before the download will fail immediately upon attempted resume.

Update 3

Using mturoute (Thanks Tom H), I found the consistent route max MTU is 1500 bytes before fragmentation, and the path carried ICMP payloads with fragmentation of 10000 bytes from end to end without much issue, including the hops through my ISPs devices. So the issue does not appear to be fragmentation or incompatible MTU settings.

ICMP is also not blocked by my ISP, and neither is BitTorrent, though I'm not using BT to download these files.

UPDATE 4

So what I need to look into, judging from the WireShark logs, is how to pin down the cause of the Retransmissions and Previous segment lost frames. How would I isolate the probable source of these?

Is there a way to hide the network path that is displayed by default in a mapped drive name?

We've got Windows 7 and XP machines and we're migrating from a fileserver to a SAN.

Currently in My Computer, the mapped network drives have the full label:

N (\\<servername) (N:)

Can we set something in Group Policy or in the mapping script (VBScript) that will set it to simply:

N:

or

N: (Mapped Drive)

or similar?

I have some old workstations with WindowsXP that I can install pretty much anything on, an office with about 80 people, a wintel environment, an existing Server 2003 file/printer server, and everybody wants to be able to print PDFs, preferably in color, and preferably with the option to add password encryption to those PDFs. Oh, and license costs for Adobe's PDF print server are prohibitive.

I'd rather not have to write code, I'm more of a scripter than a programmer in capability. So PHP or Perl based solutions would probably be a preference, though I'm willing to try anything a few times.

Optimally, I'd like a system where the PDF processing is handled by one (or more) of these old workstations. A shared PDF Printer on the print server that anybody could install would direct jobs sent to it to this old workstation which would process the files, creating the PDF and adding security if so requested, and then drop the resulting file out into the personal network directory of whoever printed the file.

File names aren't important, to prevent dealing with duplicates I'd rather they simply be a string based on date and time.

What sort of libraries or scripts are out there that I should look at? If you've done something like this, how'd you do it? What should I stay away from and why?

Running Domino/Notes R6 (Yes, I know I'm in the 3rd of Dante's rings running Notes).

We've got a discussion group database (I think it's running the version 4 template of the Discussion Group) and somewhere along the line someone created duplicate categories (keywords, tags) for one of the standard reports we run and post daily, so some days the reports end up in one category and and others days they end up in the other.

It has fallen to me to migrate nearly 700 topics in the incorrect category to the correct one and to remove the incorrect category so as to preven this issue going forward.

However, I'm not finding any admin panel or tool that will allow me to either bulk edit all the topics posted in this category or to merge the two categories, or however Notes developers conceived to do such a thing, if indeed they did.

I have admin account access and access to the Domino Administrator in addition to the Notes client, the console, and all other standard notes admin tool thingies.

What do I do?

UPDATE response to two answers below:

OK, looks like I'll have to read up on @Formula and LotusScript. I'll do a bit of self-education and then get back with the results or further questions (more likely the latter).

UPDATE for Ken's solution below:

So, using the Domino Designer, I've created a new agent in the desired Discussion database, set it to run when I select it from the menu on all selected documents. It runs the formula:

FIELD Category := "05. JCG Daily Loan Report";
SELECT @All

The SELECT @ALL was added by the designer automatically.

I select a few of the desired documents, go to Actions and select my agent "Change Category", a process status window shows briefly the status and goes away once complete. However, the documents are not changed.

In the Designer, the Change Category agent has a check in the No Refresh column. Thinking I had to refresh the database view manually, I pressed F9 in the discussion group after running the agent, but this made no difference.

Right-clicking on the agent in the Designer window, I select Log... and it tells me the agent has never been run.

Where have I gone wrong?

UPDATE further information:

Closing and reopening the Designer I not get a log. It reports that of the 6 documents I'd selected, it modified all 6. However, the documents still have the incorrect category.

Looking through the New Main Topic form, I find in Reference both Categories and Category. Should I be running this script against the Categories?

I'm working on setting up Windows Deployment Services on a Windows Server 2003 machine. In my exploration of the various options for configuring this system, I wanted to learn the difference between known and unknow client computers. As I understand it, a known client computer has already had an account added to the domain for that computer, while an unknown does not yet have an account added.

Exploring then how machine accounts are added to the domain before the machine itself connects to that domain, I come upon the concept of a managed versus an unmanaged machine. So far as I can tell, a managed machine must have a GUID set up in the BIOS somewhere while an unmanaged machine does not need this GUID. But I fail to find any reference to what other differences there are between a managed machine and an unmanaged one.

What are the benefits and/or differences of an unmanaged versus a managed machine on an Active Directory Domain?

We have a HP Color LaserJet 4650 running a JetDirect model J3113A JD33, ROM G.07.19, Revision G.08.49, connected at 100Mbps. The memory has been maxed out at 544MB

However, this particular printer seems to have more than it's fair share of slowdowns. No more errors than any other printer in the office, just sometimes it'll take 30 seconds to output a page. This is especially an issue when, once a year or so, we need to print several dozen copies of 40 to 60 page documents for conferences.

The entire office network runs at gigabit, and runs well.

In considering all the various ways we can coax more power out of this machine, I'd like to know, is upgrading this printer to a JetDirect that can run gigabit likely to increase the performance of the machine? Are there internal bottlenecks that will make this a non-solution?

Our office uses Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 for our file server.

In the File Server Management console, under Sessions (Local) many of the users have multiple sessions listed, most of them on the same workstation, each with different Connection Times (durations), ranging for one user from 5 hrs to 20 days.

I have found that a) users logged out of their workstations still retain sessions on the file server, and b) closing one session will end all sessions listed for that user.

I'm currently investigating issues with some files taking extremely long periods of time to load (we've got a fully gigabit network in our office, very fast, very low latency) and am wondering why multiple sessions are listed and what the significance of that is, and if this may have any bearing on possible periodic sluggishness of the server.

Also, is there a way to configure the server to end each session as the user logs off their workstation?

UPDATE: I found the source of the file slowness. Excel patch 2502786 caused slowness when opening network files. The questions regarding multiple sessions is still valid, though.

Without installing any extra software or monitoring applications, can I configure Windows Server 2003 to receive SMNP Traps from our UPS and, based on the message, perform actions (send shutdown commands to non-key servers, initiate scripts, etc).

I've got the SNMP Service and the SNMP Trap Service running on the server. Port 123 is not listening (I've got to figure out if that is a GP security policy pushed from higher-up IT (is that supposed to be TCP or UDP?)). The Community Name is set. And our APC Symmetra system is ready for me to tell it where to send the SNMP Traps.

Using already on the system tools (small executables and plugins are usually OK depending on where they come from), is this possible?