H & S have done an ergonomic assessment with xxxx xxxxxxx this morning.  He has requested that IT remove arms fromxxxx chair for her!  Many thanks.

PROBLEM DETAILS

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ID: 30302

User: c504dutton

Date: 6/11/2010 07:55:33

Title: PC not working

Priority: MEDIUM

Category: Computer Problem

DESCRIPTION

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Read more

Very strange problem occured today.  Strange because BST started a month ago.

User reported “all day” events in calender were spanning todays.

On investigation found time zone to be casablance rather than Greenwich Mean Time : Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London with BST enabled when logged in via an ICA session.  Was correct under an RDP session.

I created a batch file containing

“control.exe timedate.cpl,,/Z (GMT) Greenwich Mean Time : Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London”

This resolved the problem for the user and I initially added it to the domain login script.  On further investigation I found that “Allow time zone redirection” had been enabled within GP.

After removing the workaround batch file and disabling the above GP option, I forced a GP update and the problem was resolved.

User logs call stating that sound not working.

Established that user was recording a video CV and on reviewing the video there was no sound.  However, audio from other sources worked fine.

Worked out the user had muted the microphone and got the user to “un-mute”.

User logged second call stating that the “Video still has no sound”  !!!!!

I like macs I have 2.  I love the iphone despite its drawbacks such as short battery life.

Will I buy an IPAD ?

Probably but not until it has 3G built in.  iphone/ipad OS4 promises a lot for the business such as multi tasking and better integration with Exchange.  Rumour has it that the iphone 4g will have user replaceable batteries solving its battery life problem.  I’m not sure what the hang up with Flash it about for Apple but they need to sort this out, html5 is not the way forward at the moment.

Come on Apple, make peace with Adobe and include flash support in OS4.

Dear I.T.

The light bulb is flickering in the ceiling !!

My Emails seem to have a 30min delay before they arrive to me. Please can you look into this as i have lost out on an order form a client today because of this. Thanks.

All email queues were empty and inbound processing from internet was less than 1 second.

Why do Sales people allways blame the IT department ?

          netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group=”Remote Administration” new enable=yes

Allow remote desktop through firewall

           netsh advfirewall firewall set rule group=”Remote Desktop” new enable=yes

Enable Remote Desktop for Administration, and allow downlevel clients to connect

          cscript %windir%\system32\scregedit.wsf /AR 0

          cscript %windir%\system32\scregedit.wsf /CS 0

Now, run the WinRM configuration script. -q is for quiet.

          winrm quickconfig -q

to turn off firewall completley which from experience is the easiest way to get started but dont forget to re-enable

netsh advfirewall set allprofiles state off

Having been offered a free upgrade on my large number of ADSL branch connections to ADSL2+ I informed the business that the existing performance problems would be resolved in the next few weeks.  I was advised that there would be no business impact and a “seemless” transfer.

One morning a couple of weeks ago several branches started complaing of poor performance.  Ping rates were ramping from 19ms to 900ms then dropping to 19ms before continuing the cycle.  Some sites exhibited totaly loss of connectivity which could only be restored by powering off the router for 20 minutes.  On sites with total loss of connectivity the ISP picked this up on the alerting system they use and asked us to perform standard checks i.e. replace the filter etc etc.

The ISP had not given us a timetable for the upgrade however it dawned on me that this was the possible scenario due to the quantity of problems arrising on what was a previously stable platform.  The ISP confirmed that the affected sites had been upgraded to ADSL2+ however the problems experienced were due to the 10 day training period. 

Whilst I accepted that a training period would cause a slight degredation in performance it should not be causing the issues experienced i.e. within a couple of hours the line should have settled a reasonable amount yet the continuing ramping of ping rates between 19ms and 900ms continued.

An SNR attenuation was applied to the lines which did have a stabalising effect however approx 7 days after the upgrade these sites degraded in performance again.

The CISCO routers were checked for firmware revision between sites exhibiting the fault and working sites that had been upgraded.  Whilst there was no correlation between the fault and the version of IOS the ISP established between CISCO and BT that a patch to resolve the problem was available which we applied to five of the affected sites.

The patch had no effect on the issue and after further discussions it became apparent that BT and CISCO were continuin to work on developing a firmware fix.

The cause of the problem is an incompatibility between the mslam and the cisco router and only effects certain exchanges that are carrying another vendors equipment as the mslam.

Tomorrow we should receive Zyxel routers as a temporary fix on the affected sites until CISCO have created a new release of firmware.

Thanks to people losing the odd megabyte or 2 of important public data this is a topic that has been publicised a lot over the past couple of years. Microsoft have also made efforts in assisting home users in starting with a secure PC out of the box with the built in firewall and “Defender” to control malware. However, unless patched are applied and the system’s are kept upto date PC’s can soon become comprimised. It could also be said that the popularity of wireless and routers rather than “modems” has assisted in the protection of home computers/networks as generally out of the box they offer no direct route to a PC.

Checklist to assist in securing home PC’s

• Ensure that Windows Update is enabled to auto install the latest patched. By default windows try’s to do this at a time when your machine is not turned on i.e. 3am. Change this to a time when you know the machine will be turned on. It’s also an idea to run windows update weekly to ensure that updates are installed. Run the Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT). This will get rid of the vast majority of malicious software and other unwanted software on your computer. Run Full Scan.
• Install an Anti-Virus program. There are many available including very good free ones. Once installed you still need to ensure that it updates itself at least once a day.
• Install a Firewall. As mentioned above Windows XP and Vista have a firewall installed which should be enabled. If you have installed a “Security Suite” then this will probably install its own firewall and disablet the Windows Firewall
• If your firewall does’nt remove spyware then you will also need to install a program to take care of this for you. Again, there are some good free tools available to do this.
• Control SPAM. Outlook has a basic junkmail filer but its not very good. Some “Secuirty Suites” include SPAM control but there are other free ones available.
• Implement user accounts on PCs so that you are not entering your banking details through the same account that a teenager has been playing games through. And don’t use the administrator account except when strictly necessary.
• Change your passwords regularly. Don’t use ones that others could easily guess such as names.

Protecting the family

This is easier said than done. You could ensure that they can only access the internet in a room that you are in. You could use software such as SurfControl to restrict the catagories of websites that they can access, ban them from facebook, free internet games, no email and no MSN. However, this is not realistic and the little darlings will work out how to get round most of these by using next doors unrestricted wireless internet.

The Best method of protection is a combination of securing the home PC and Education.

• Educate the familiy of the dangers on the internet
• Educate the family not to give out personel details and pictures
• Educate the family to get your assistance before registering on MSN or Hotmail etc

At the end of the day it’s your family and only you can decide the level of trust that should be given to each member of the family.