Tag Archives: Lotus Notes

Some of the nPing functionally is built into the Notes Client, but not much.

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In February 2008, I wrote all about a Lotus Notes diagnostics utility called nPing.  It’s no more.  Go to the web link I provided then and you’ll see this message:

image

Thanks for almost nothing IBM.

You can find SOME of the nPing functionally in the Lotus Notes 8.5.x client, but not much.  Under the Files / Preferences / Notes Port menu option, there is a “Trace” button.

This is what it returns:
Lotus Notes Trace results

Or to dump it out in raw text:

Determining path to server xXXXAPPS02/Server/YYY
Available Ports:  TCPIP LAN0
Checking normal priority connection documents only...
Allowing wild card connection documents...
Enabling name service requests and probes...
Requesting address of xXXXAPPS02/Server/YYY from G0123/Server/NODDY1 on TCPIP
  Using address '10.1.2.32' for G0123/Server/NODDY1 on TCPIP
G0123/Server/NODDY1 has no address for xXXXAPPS02/Server/YYY on TCPIP
Requesting address of xXXXAPPS02/Server/YYY from G0123/Server/NODDY1 on LAN0
  Using address 'G0123' for G0123/Server/NODDY1 on LAN0
Unable to connect to G0123/Server/NODDY1: The server is not responding. The server may be down or you may be experiencing network problems. Contact your system administrator if this problem persists.
Checking for xXXXAPPS02/Server/YYY on TCPIP using address 'xXXXAPPS02'
Connected to server xXXXAPPS02/Server/YYY
Attempting Authenticated Connection
Determining path to server xXXXAPPS02/Server/YYY
Available Ports:  TCPIP LAN0
Checking normal priority connection documents only...
Allowing wild card connection documents...
Checking for xXXXAPPS02/Server/YYY at last known address 'xXXXAPPS02' on TCPIP...
    Using address '176.17.18.62' for xXXXAPPS02/Server/YYY on TCPIP
Connected to server xXXXAPPS02/Server/YYY
Connecting to xXXXAPPS02/Server/YYY over TCPIP
  Using address '176.17.18.62' for xXXXAPPS02/Server/YYY on TCPIP
Connected to server xXXXAPPS02/Server/YYY
Compression is Disabled
Encryption is Disabled

Still happy with AWESync for Lotus Notes

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Especially when someone from the AweSync Dev Team writes:

I’m from AweSync team. Thank you for the review. BTW: if your Lotus Notes username is changed you can contact our support and your product key will be reactivated without any fees. So, you will be able to activate it with a new Lotus Notes username.

(my emphasis)

I’ve used other Lotus Notes related products which expect you to buy a new license.  One product costed $220 per license, which made the pain of changing Lotus Notes account names, well painful.

Now, with the AweSync license at $20, I’d be willing to buy another license if I needed to, as AweSync is a bargain for the price.  AweSync doesn’t have to do that, but I like the fact that they’re willing to.

I’m also chuffed that someone from AweSync found the time to read my post about AweSync and CalSync.  The last company to do that?  LastPass.

Syncing Lotus Notes Calendar to Google Calendar

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There are two ways I know to do it, CalSync and AweSync.

CalSync – Free.
“This is a one-way sync program that will sync your Lotus Notes Calendar to your Google Calendar. No installation is required. Includes many options such as automatic syncing at specified intervals. Requires .NET Framework 2.0 to be installed. ”

CalSyncv17

The good point about this program, is that it is free.  My biggest niggle with the program is that I can’t get CalSync to remember the default Google calendar settings.
Note that CalSync only syncs from Lotus Notes to Google Calendar (ie. it’s a one way sync).

You can download it here.

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Lotus Notes Shell links

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The user reported

In Lotus Notes, when I create an attachment, I click on "My Documents" shortcut, and it should take me to My Documents folder.
BUT Lotus Notes is adding it as an attachment instead."

Create Attachments Lotus Notes links issue

Indeed it is.

Fixed in Lotus Notes 6.5.1, with a setting added to the Notes.INI, FIRE PHASERS SHELL_LINKS=1.

SHELL_Links=1 will cause Lotus Notes to treat the shortcut as a link.

Here’s a summary of how Lotus Notes client behave:

Notes version Change type Change
6.0.4 Notes.ini SHELL_LINKS=1
6.5.1 Notes.ini SHELL_LINKS=1
7.x / 8.x fixed by default, changeable via GUI and Notes.ini NO_SHELL_LINKS=1
8.5.x fixed by default, changeable via GUI and Notes.ini NO_SHELL_LINKS=1 
GUI  change is in File / Preferences / Basic Notes Configuration

About FIRE PHASERS: While I was typing this out, I suddenly remembered the FIRE PHASERS Novell login script command.  I was thinking it would make a good age test for any of your Novell techs.

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Duplicate files and hashing in Visual Basic.

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Duplicate file detection is fairly easy to do, as it turns out, and it goes like this.

  1. Read first file.
  2. Calculate a unique fingerprint, and store the fingerprint.
  3. Read second file.
  4. Calculate a unique fingerprint, and compare the fingerprint to the first files’ fingerprint.
  5. If they equal, the two files are duplicate files.

One way of doing this fingerprinting is to use a hashing algorithm, such as MD5 or SHA-1.  A hashing algorithm should give you a unique fingerprint for each file.  The snippet of code to do that, which I borrowed from the Visual Basic Knowledgebase is below the fold.

Now there are applications, such as DiskState, which scan your hard disk for duplicates by using MD5 hashing.  But they do this:

  1. Read first file.
  2. Do While we have a file to read
       Calculate a MD5 Hash, and store that value in a list, alone with the filename and location
  3. If we have another file, go back to 2.
  4. At this point, we’ve checked all the files on hard disk. 
       Now search though the list, and do we have any hashes that are the same?
  5. If we do, we have duplicate files.

Why do I need to know how to detect duplicate files?

Well I was updating the Lotus Notes Mail Exporter program the other day, and decided to implement some duplicate attachment file checking.  I’m not sure if I’m that happy with how I’ve implemented it, time will tell.  It does give me an idea for some other programs …

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