MMC SNAP-IN ERROR

When you install Windows 2003 SP2 or SBS Server R2 you might get errors when you run the Microsoft Management Console. When you open MMC snap-ins, in my case System Manager for Exchange 2003 Server, you will see an error "MMC has detected an error in snap-in. It is recommended you shutdown and restart MMC". According to Microsoft, the source of the problem is that the snap-in is not fully compatible with MMC 3.0, and you most likely have already realized that both Windows 2003 Service Pack 2 and the SBS 2003 R2 Technologies install MMC 3.0. In some of Microsoft's solutions they say you choose the option to ignore and continue running. For POP3 Connector error the hot fix is available through Microsoft updates. Open these URL for instructions; http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;921096 and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947532/en-us . Why Microsoft doesn’t get these fixes patched to the software l wonder. We spend a hell lot of time on the Microsoft support website trying to get a solution and it’s so frustrating.

Task Offloading in Windows

Task offloading to Network Interface Card in Windows is whereby the TCP protocol can offload some of the tasks that are being processed by the system processor. In Windows SBS this feature should be disabled. Couple of network configuration errors will arise if its enabled. Microsoft has a special tool called Windows SBS Server 2003 Best Practices Analyzer, which scans the whole system for errors. And if Task Off Loader is not disabled you will see it on critical error reports. A solution to disable it will be provided in the critical error reports. Microsoft will direct you on how to download the hot fix which will disable the feature. The lesson is, if you run the fix it won’t disable it because it’s not in the registry TCPIP entries. So first you have to edit the registry and manually include DisableTaskOffloader entry in the TCPIP- Parameters and set its value to “1”. Follow this registry key: HKey-Local Machine, System, Current Control Set, Services, TCPIP, Parameters . Issues that may arise can be found by following this link http://support.microsoft.com/kb/948496. And also note that Best Analyzer won’t install on SBS 2003 R2 SP1.

Wireless Issues.

So often we overlook at the simplest solutions which actually might turn the wheel. After setting up ADSL Modem using Mac Power Book G4 all was fine till l removed the Ethernet cable. The laptop couldn’t log on to the wireless network which was set on WEP. IMAC on the same network was connecting fine. All the settings seemed fine until l asked Apple Fundi, who suggested l use WPA instead of WEP, and it worked. Question is why would it not work on WEP and yet the Power Book supports it? And word of advise, when installing Windows 2003 SBS please do it on the site. If you do it off site and setup the domain including DNS and AD DC you might have issues when you deploy it at the client site. If you don't wire it to the network (for maybe security reasons), you might broke something trying to find why it doesn't log in. We learn everyday and I now believe in the statement "Knowledge start when you say you don't know."

iTunes iPhone Sync Crash

URL http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1890897&tstart=0

Issue: Hitting Sync on iTunes to sync iPhone results in crashes by
MobileSync & MobileBackup

Research:
Found that it is a common issue with firmware 2.2.1
Found a discussion with people having the same issue with no resolution.
Found a discussion with a resolution to the backup crash which
mentioned iPhone Configuration Utility (which I installed recently)

Solution:
So using information found on this post (http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8504951
) which mentioned reinstalling iTunes and made reference to the iPhone
config. utility (which I installed recently) this is how I solved the
problem:

The post mentioned deleting the following folders and reinstalling
iTunes:
/System/Library/Extensions/AppleMobileDevice.kext
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DeviceLink.framework
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/MobileDevice.framework
/Library/Receipts/AppleMobileDeviceSupport.pkg

I made a backup of the Frameworks and deleted ONLY the Frameworks
from /System/Library.

Reinstalled iTunes and the Frameworks were recreated :-)

Opened iTunes, hit Sync and everything worked perfectly.

Outlook Express: 0x800c0133

So today I found out that this error is received when a DBX file
(probably Inbox) is corrupted or has reached the limit of 2GB.
Although OE is simple and does the job the problem is that once
messages are deleted the size of the DBX file(s) stays the same
resulting in these errors.

To resolve this error there are two options:

1. This one if for the basic user and easier to talk a person through
on the phone.
Information was found here: http://www.insideoe.com/files/maintain.htm#compact
- Create a new folder and move all emails to this folder
- Click on File and choose Work Offline
- Click on File, go to Folders and choose Compact All folders
# This step does take time as it goes through all folders including
the newly created one with all the emails
# If an error occurs, such as "cannot compact, folder in use", just
close OE, wait a second or two, then re-open OE and begin the process
again.

Working with Windows and supporting users you do learn new thing
everyday, never knew you could compact from the File menu! :)

Always did it the longer way as outlined in point two:

2. This is the more advanced way, I personally prefer this!!!
- Right click on Local Folders and choose Properties
- In the box that pops up, you will see information on the Store
Folder. You can click on the text, hit the Home button on the
keyboard, hold Shift and hit End on the keyboard
- Right click on the highlighted text and choose Copy
- Close OE
- Click on Start and go to Run
- Clear all text from this box and right and choose Paste
- Remove Inbox.DBX from the pasted text, put quotation marks at the
beginning and at the end of the text
- Hit the Run/OK button
- The window will pop up showing you all the files used in OE, the
name of the file is relevant to the name of the folder in OE
- Change the layout to Details and sort by size
- Look for any files that are close to or larger than 2GBs
- These file(s) could be the problem. Make a note of these files,
leave this window open and open OE
- In OE create a new folder or folders and move all messages from the
folder(s) that are bigger than 1.5GB to the new folders relevant to
the old ones
- Once the move is done, close OE
- Go to the OE store location, locate the old DBX file and rename them
- OE will not locate the old files and will automatically create new
ones

OS/X iSync + Nokia

So here's the plan, synchronise a Nokia E90's calendar + contacts to an Apple...sounds simple but as luck will have it OS/X iSync does not support the Nokia E90 unless a plugin is installed. The plugin is required for most of Nokia's new phones, the list of all applicable phones and the plugin download link can be found here: Nokia iSync Support

So thats the beginning, download and install the plugin, connect the phone, open iSync and add a new device, the scan will find it and allows you to add it and setup the scynchronisation options...

The other complication came in the way of Microsoft Entourage, iSync allows you to synchronise ONLY Apple Address Book contacts and ONLY Apple iCal entries. Entourage has a Sync Services preference setting that synchronises the Entourage Address Book with Apple's Address Book and synchronises the Entourage Calendar to iCal ... so once thats setup go back to iSync and choose the relevant Calendar and hit Sync :)

Non Apple Drives in XServe

Seagate drive (with no Apple logo) failed to be recognized by Xserve. After a couple of tests to change a packed up drive, we figure it out that “maybe” Apple actually installs their own firmware on ordinary drives before they can be used on Xserve. That explains the Apple logo. But a Seagate drive comes with 3 year warranty and if you get it from Apple they give you less than 3 years warranty. I think Apple should separate the drive and firmware in that they provide the firmware upgrade then we purchase drives outside Apple. Its only reasonable to get firmware upgrade from Apple and install it to make the hardware compatible. Unless its only Apple who can run the upgrade. And let's not talk about the price differences! SHOCKING!

Use of Non-Apple Drives on xServes

This link provided useful info advising that it should work:

http://ask.metafilter.com/101327/What-do-you-do-when-you-dont-want-to-buy-more-fancy-Apple-drives

Can't download mail on Tiger

One of our clients constantly has a problem whereby users using Tiger cannot download mail from the XServe. If he re-creates an account for them on a Leopard desktop they can download mail. This problem can be resolved by running the following on the server:-

sudo -u cyrusimap /usr/bin/cyrus/bin/reconstruct -i

to reconstruct all the mailboxes on the server.