How to Install GPMC on Server 2008, 2008 R2, and Windows 7 (via RSAT)

Can You See Me – Open Port Check Tool

Is a free utility for remotely verifying a port is open or closed. It will be useful for users who wish to check to see if a server is running or a firewall or ISP is blocking certain ports.

Setting up a Windows 7 Media Center

Windows XP Power Management and Group Policy Preferences

Windows XP only has one active power scheme for the entire computer and that scheme is based on the current or previously logged on user—that is to say Windows XP power schemes are only user-based. This means the power scheme can change as each user logs on. Also, it means that last logged on user’s power settings are the settings that remain once the user logs off. And yes, each user has its own power configuration; however, the entire operating system only has one active power scheme.

PHP and IE8 Web Slices

Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) shipped with a new feature for web users called Web Slices. … Essentially it lets you add enhanced links to your favorite bar that allow you to preview snippets of content from websites that you frequently visit without having to open up the page. It’s really useful to do little tasks like check on your web based Inbox, check the weather in cities you live or visit, traffic status, stock tickers, headlines, sports, the list goes on and on and you can check the IE add-on gallery for more examples of useful web slices and for inspiration.

How to customize default user profiles in Windows 7 (KB973289)

To customize a default user profile or a mandatory user profile, you must first customize the default user profile. Then, the default user profile can be copied to the appropriate shared folder to make that user profile either the default user profile or a mandatory user profile.

It’s amazing how some companies manage to function, or even survive.

I worked with a company who operated a large IBM Mainframe network.

Now back in the day (late 1980’s), essentially there were two products that could be used to monitor an IBM SNA Network.  The NetMaster product, and the somewhat inferior IBM Netview Product.

You could use either product to detect network problems, but the (free) NetView product required more skill to interpret the information.

The type of errors we’d generally aim to spot were latency and transmission errors.

Latency is a measure of how long it takes for a packet to travel along a network.  With IBM SNA, you would get a broken network connection with a latency of more than 2 seconds.  So you start to worry about traffic taking 1.2+ seconds.

Transmission errors. Much like how static on a phone line makes it hard to talk, high transmission error rates makes it hard for computers to talk on networks.  Eventually, with growing transmission errors, the computers would stop talking.

So in a well managed network, you’d monitor both, with the aim of keeping up times, up.

“We don’t do that here.”, was the comment I heard in the first week I was there.  I was amazed the company managed to function at all.