Network Systems Engineers Consortium
Today Plugins4Automate released Build 1.0.3.62 for Patch Remedy for ConnectWise Automate / LabTech. In this new build they have re worked how they update the Windows 7 and 2008 R2 systems making it more streamline as they raise the level of WUA version between each rollup Microsoft has released.
To read more of what’s new with Patch Remedy and how it can help prevent worms like WannaCry visit the latest blog post on Patch Remedy here
Squidwork’s garage has released version 1 of their new IPBlock for Labtech RMM. IPBlock is a Country based Network Firewall plugin for Windows based systems. When deployed you can select different countries you do not want to have access to your IP address for any Windows Vista / 7 / 2008 or new system and block them from network access to your PC.
How it works:
The plugin launches a script that goes out and refreshes a complete list of all countries and any IP ranges assigned to those countries. It imports them into the local host and stores them in zone files inside the LTSvc directory. Then based on your selection it applies each zone to the Windows firewall as a rule set.
What does this do for me?
This greatly reduces your Internet footprint and attack surface. Preventing access from countries that have large amounts of attacking systems. It also reduces your ability to be fully exploited by Trojans, Virus or Worms as if infected it makes it much harder to “Phone Home” if the attack comes from a Country you have blocked like “China”.
Version 1 only controls the lists that are applied to your PC it does not turn on or off the actual firewall on Windows. You will need to turn on firewall through the Windows control panel for rules to actually take effect. Then to stop the filtering shut down Windows firewall or go into plugin and select “None” and apply for all rule sets placed in by IPBlock to be removed.
Get Version 1.0.3 here
Enjoy Cubert 😎
Microsoft made some changes to the network printing security in Windows 7 and as a result, many non-admin users are not able to install network printers with an Access Denied message.
I did some research on this today, and found a solution. We just need to make a new GPO on the domain level for each client network that is experiencing this problem. These are newer GPO extensions, so its best to create the GPO on a Windows Server 2008 R2 server. Otherwise, you’ll need to find the ADM extensions and install them on the Server 2003 system.
Enjoy,
Cubert 😎
Who has not started a RDP session to a Windows 2008 Server or Windows 7 system and had the previous domain credentials popup as the default login for the next system you touch. Well if you are like me and touch many different customers each day then you have no doubt had the login for your Windows 2008 terminal session show the log on of the previous domain that your were logged in to. This can be a big pain in the “arse” if you know what I mean.
Well here is how to fix that problem:
On your own PC go to the registry key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Terminal Server Client\Servers\127.0.0.1
Right click and select permissions on the 127.0.0.1 folder then set permissions to deny yourself read access to it. As soon as you do this, you should start seeing the right domain name when opening a terminal session to Windows 2008 servers or Windows 7 workstations.
Enjoy
Cubert 😎
This is a very common issue, I seem to hit the never ending “Trying to Connect” cycle of death on just about every other time I use Windows Easy Transfer. It doesn’t matter if your doing a transfer from XP to 7 or from 7 to 7, I’ve seen it time and time again.
I foung the Quick fix that works everytime I’ve used it.
The Guys over at LSP-Fix have a simple little program that fixes winsock issues.
LSP-Fix is a free Windows utility to repair a loss of Internet access associated with certain types of software. This type of software, known as a Layered Service Provider or LSP, typically handles low-level Internet-related tasks, and data is passed through a chain of these programs on its way to and from the Internet. However, due to bugs in the LSP software or deletion of the software, this chain can get broken, causing the Internet connection to become inaccessible or just a wee bit unstable.
Download LSP-Fix here.
I know it doesn’t seem plausible that your winsock is messed up but take it from me, New Laptops out of the box can and will have issues. Download and run the tool and it will corrected the issues and your copy will start working.
LSP-Fix does not delete anything, it only fixes the order of the LSP’s. It does not require a reboot after you run the tool, just run the tool, select fix and then restart your Windows Easy Transfer process. I would suggest that you run it on both the sending and receiving systems, I find that they all seem to need reording.
I hope this helps someon out there.
Cubert
You may have installed a new Windows 2008 server or Windows 7 workstation with a static IP address but networing outside your localnet fails. After you investigate you find by running “ipconfig” that there is 2 default routes listed. You see first 0.0.0.0 and then you see your real default router IP address below the 0.0.0.0 address.
This is preventing you from accessing the Internet as it believes the first route to the internet is your local IP address and it goes nowhere. You need to get the first route out but if you use “route delete” on the next reboot it will right back and you will be left without Internet access so what do you do?
You need to edit the registery and remove the entry listed in the default route key. To do this go to:
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\your interface #\DefaultGateway
You will most likely find if you edit this key 2 IP addresses listed and the one you want being listed as the second IP in the list. Just remove all IP addresses but the real gateway address.
Close and reboot then try to ping out and it should now work.
Enjoy.
Cubert
Winsock 2 accommodates layered protocols. A layered protocol is one that implements only higher level communications functions, while relying on an underlying transport stack for the actual exchange of data with a remote endpoint. LSP aka Layered Service Provider can be a security layer that adds protocol to the connection establishment process. An example of an LSP is the Microsoft Firewall Client Service Provider installed as part of the Internet Secutity and Authentication Server (ISA) on clients. The Microsoft Firewall Client Service Provider installs over the Winsock base providers for TCP and UDP.
To check which LSPs installed on your Windows Vista or Windows 7, use netsh winsock show catalog command.
Sometimes the winsock settings in Windows may get corrupted, causing errors and problems with Internet connectivity. When Winsock corrupts, the networking errors that you may face include unable to access network services, web pages, Windows update services or other odd network behaviors.
Now to reset Winsock we can use a similar cmd “netsh winsock reset”.
What netsh winsock reset command does is it resets Winsock Catalog to a clean state or default configuration. It will remove anyWinsock LSP (Layered Service Providers) previously installed, including any potentially malfunctioning LSP that may cause the loss of network packets or transmission failures. So any previously installed LSPmust be reinstalled. This command does not affect Winsock Name Space Providers.
To repair and reset the Windows Vista or Windows 7
Good luck,
Cubert
Ever get this when logging in to a Vista or Windows 7 system? I seem to get it all the time, here is how to quickly fix it. By the way that is not a typo in my subjectline but how the error shows up when you try logging in. Not sure why but I am guessing that “User Profile Service is a Service and thus the “User Profile Service Service” as the title of this post.
Log in with a admin account and run regedit. Go to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
You will find a key or maybe several keys that have “.bak” extenion on them. You will also find the same key with out the “.bak“, Rename the key without the “.bak” to same name + “.new” then rename the Key with “.bak” removing the “.bak“. Basically we are making the .bak key the original key and so forth.
Now that you have that done we need to edit 2 keys inside of the newly renamed key. Choose the folder without .bak, in the right pane, double click RefCount and type 0 and then click OK, next choose the folder without .bak, in the right pane, double click State and type 0 and then click OK.
Close the regedit and logout and back in as the user profile that was failing. It should allow you in now.
I hope this helps someone out there
Cubert
There is an occasion when you may want to add a non indexed UNC path to a library inside of your Windows 7 system. Normally Windows bitches and complains when you try to hook up a UNC path that is not indexed but by tricking it we can make it happen. Here is how you do it.
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1. Create a
There is an occasion when you may want to add a non indexed UNC path to a library inside of your Windows 7 system. Normally Windows bitches and complains when you try to hook up a UNC path that is not indexed but by tricking it we can make it happen. Here is how you do it.
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1. Create a folder on your hard drive for shares. i.e. c:\share
2. Create another folder in the above share. i.e. c:\share\music
2. Link the Library to this folder.
3. Now delete the music folder but leave the c:\share folder.
4. Use the mklink in an elevated command prompt to make a symbolic link. Name the link the same as the folder you created above.
mklink /d c:\share\music \\server\music
5. Your done. Now you have non-indexed UNC path as a library in Windows 7.
This process works much better than the other option which is to make “Available Offline”. If your like me and have a very large storage server running a OS like Linux or BSD to house all your media then making it available offline is no good. It would require a copy of the entire share be placed on your local drive and that could cost you every piece of free space on my Windows 7 system and then some.
I hope this helps someone out there with large media shares get their library setup.
Enjoy
Cubert
Although GPO can manage this setting, by default it is off. To get your Windows 7 systems to allow domain user login using biometrics (fingerprint) support follow the directions below.
Adding Domain log on access for Biometrics
Goto -> Control Panel ->All Control Panel Items ->Biometric Devices
Select: Change Biometric Settings
Select both:
Allow users to log on to Windowsd using their fingerprints
and
Allow users to log on
Although GPO can manage this setting, by default it is off. To get your Windows 7 systems to allow domain user login using biometrics (fingerprint) support follow the directions below.
Adding Domain log on access for Biometrics
Goto -> Control Panel ->All Control Panel Items ->Biometric Devices
Select: Change Biometric Settings
Select both:
Allow users to log on to Windowsd using their fingerprints
and
Allow users to log on to a domain using their fingerprints
Restart the computer.
Select: ‘Switch user’ at the log on screen and choose the fingerprint icon ( requires you to have first added a set of fingerprints to your account)
Swipe your finger. At this point nothing happens. The screen remained active with the fingerprint icon and a password field.
Now type your password and your’e logged on (this is the final security measure to validate the account against the AD).
Now restart your computer and Bingo! your fingerprint is accepted and password no longer required.
Enjoy the ease of biometrics with Windows 7
