I recently spent a couple of days troubleshooting a number of issues with our Cisco SPA525G wireless SIP phones. After applying a number of updates to our UniFi access points, we started having problems with one of our wireless phones. The web management interface was very slow or unresponsive and the call quality was noticeably worse. Calls would get dropped and the phone kept losing its registration. The problem turned out to be an issue with band steering. Once band steering was turned off, call quality greatly improved and we no longer had issues with the phone registration.
Logon Restrictions and Redirected Folders
I recently ran into an unusual issue in which a user’s folders were not redirecting properly on client running Windows 10 Enterprise preview. Each time the user would attempt to log on to a secondary Windows 10 client, she would encounter an error message stating the the user’s redirected folders were unavailable. She was also receiving warnings regarding her user profile not syncing. When attempting to remote in to a working PC, I encountered an error stating “The system administrator has limited the computers you can log on with.” Bingo! I had earlier added log on to restrictions to her user object in AD to prevent her from logging onto a couple of systems which weren’t ready to be used. Doing so apparently resulted in the odd behavior this user was experiencing. Once these log on restrictions were removed and the use was once again allowed to log on to all computers, these issues went away. Note that these log on restrictions were also preventing folders from being added for newly added users.
Bottom-line, avoid using log on restrictions with Windows 10.
Dell T5810 Alert! Hard Drive Not Found
Apparently the F12 one-time boot menu won’t come up if there is no hard drive present on a Dell T5810. This, even if you are planning to boot to one of the new generation PCIe NVMe SSD cards such as an Intel 750 series card. The solution? Connect a hard drive and later remove it.
Note that after removing that temporary hard drive, I could not get the workstation to boot from the new NVMe drive. The final fix was to re-install Windows on that NVMe drive, this time without that temporary hard drive present. So, the installation steps that worked were
- Install Windows to the NVMe drive with a temporary hard drive present to get past the “hard drive not found” issue, then
- Remove the temporary hard drive and re-install Windows on the NVMe drive a second time.
It’s possible that these extra steps may not be necessary as I wanted to make sure that the temporary hard drive was removed prior to the first reboot after the initial install of Windows completed. I may have simply cut the power too soon.
Name Resolution Issues with .local Domains in Yosemite and iOS 8
It appears that Apple made a significant change to the process by which hosts in .local domains are resolved in Yosemite and iOS8. Basically, Apple now assumes that .local domains are used by the Bonjour service. Prior to the Yosemite release, OS X would resolve names via DNS then Bonjour. In Yosemite and iOS 8, .local domains are resolved first by the Bonjour service. After issuing the following command in the terminal app will allow you to resolve .local FQDNs again.
sudo discoveryutil mdnsactivedirectory yes
This command forces OS X to us regular unicast DNS for .local domains rather than just using mutlicast DNS (mDNS, aka Bonjour) to resolve .local domains.
Using .local domains is very common in many Windows-based networks. I’ve run across this issue with a couple of Mac users who found they could not longer remotely connect in to their office network after installing the Yosemite update.
Thanks to the following discussion thread and blog for the soluttion:
Trouble to access “.local” domain
Solve the problem with the domain .local in Yosemite and iOS 8 (in Russian)
Revit Custom Hatch Generator – hatch22
Here’s a very user friendly custom hatch generator for Revit and AutoCAD:
hatch22-2012 – a Revit fill pattern (hatch pattern) creation tool
Stuck with Hyper-V Connection Window Maximized within RDP Session
Recently I found myself stuck trying to remotely control a Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V server using RDP. Somehow, I managed to reconnect to an RDP session in which I had left one of the Hyper-V connection windows maximized. When I subsequently reconnected, all I could see was that single Hyper-V connection session and nothing else. To make matters worse, I couldn’t see the taskbar for the Hyper-V connect session as I only could see the task bar for my RDP session. Luckily, I happened upon the following fix posted by Nick Aquino on a Technet blog:
I found a workaround: When I RDP to my host and one of my HyperV VM sessions was sitting on the host in Full-Screen mode, I had a problem exiting the VM session so I could access my host. My workaround was to Press CTRL+ALT+END (to simulate a CTRL+ALT+DELETE) on the host and launch Task Manager. This shows the task-bar at the bottom, where I can mouse over and close. When I open the VM session, it will not be in FULL screen mode.
Thank you Nick!
How to configure Brother IntelliFax-4100E for VoIP
Here is the procedure to configure Brother 4100e fax machines to work with faxing over VoIP.
Enter Maintenance Mode:
1. Unplug power from rear of fax machine, hold the Menu button while plugging power back in. Continue to hold the Menu button until “Maintenance” appears in the LCD window.
2. There are no helps for the Maintenance mode. Follow parameter change procedures to the letter.
Changing Baud Rate from Automatic to 9600:
1. Enter 10 (one, zero). This will bring up WSW00 on the LCD window.
2. Change the 00 to 19. If the baud rate is set to automatic, the numbers that appear will be 11100010.
3. Change the 11100010 to 01100010. This sets the baud rate to 9600.
4. Press the “Set” button just below the LCD window.
5. Press “Stop”.
6. Enter 99. This will exit Maintenance mode and make the fax ready to use again.
Changing the Error Correction Mode (ECM):
1. Enter Maintenance Mode (see directions above).
2. Enter 10. This will bring up WSW00 on the LCD window.
3. Change the 00 to 22. If the ECM is turned on, the numbers that appear will be 00000000.
4. Change the 00000000 to 11000000. This turns of ECM.
5. Press the “Set” button just below the LCD window.
6. Press “Stop”.
7. Enter 99. This will exit Maintenance mode and make the fax ready to use again.
via http://www.amazon.com/review/R3251AN6VVQQY/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R3251AN6VVQQY
Windows 7 Local User Logins
Here’s a quick tip. If you want a user account to appear on the initial login screen on a Windows 7 PC that’s not joined to a domain, make sure that user account is a member of the local Users group. If not, that account will not appear on the initial login screen or as an option under Switch User.
Doxie Eye-Fi Helper Re-install
While troubleshooting an issue with my Doxie Go scanner, I needed to remove and re-install the Eye-Fi Center software. Even though the application was successfully removed, the Eye-Fi Helper app in the Windows System Tray kept reporting that it had received X files to date. This should have dropped back down to zero. Turns out, you have to delete the C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Eye-Fi folder as well to completely remove the Eye-Fi apps from your computer and reset all of the counters.
iPhones and Exchange Online/Office 365
When adding an Exchange Online/Office 365 email account to an iPhone, be sure to review the account settings for your contacts and calendars. By default, the iPhone will save new contacts and calendar items to your iCloud account. Unless you’ve fully embraced the Apple ecosystem, you most likely will want to save these new items in your Exchange Online/Office 365 mailbox. Here’s how:
- Settings –> Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
- Scroll down to the Contacts section and press Default Account
- Select your Exchange Online/Office 365 account from the list.
- Press the back arrow in the upper left-hand corner of your screen.
- Scroll down to the Calendars section.
- Press Default Calendar.
- Select the calendar in your Exchange Online/Office 365 mailbox you wish to save new calendar items. Most people just have one calendar so just select Calendar under your mailbox.
That’s it!