Exchange 2007/2010 smtprelaytotirg

January 31st, 2010

I installed a Windows 2007 Exchange server in to my 2003 environment this week. All went well apart from that the mail sending from the 2007 test mailboxes ended up in a queue called smtprelaytotirg. The error message given being 451 4.4.0 Primary Target IP Address Responded with (501 5.5.4 Auth Command Cancelled).

This queue is basically where 2007 is failing to deliver because it can’t route correctly.

The resolution in this case for me was easy. All the connectors were in place as they should be, but the transport for SMTP on the original master 2003 Exchange server had limited access to certain IP addresses.

I added the IP address for the new Exchange 2007 server and bang, 20 mins later the queue is empty.

Just a minor hurdle :) Oh, the other one to watch out for is making sure it can resolve either by IP or FQDN for the SMTP server, it’ll fail on netbios or just a single name. Anyone still relying on WINS needs shot in the face with a screw driver.

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HP Proliant DL185 G5 64bit

January 26th, 2010

I’ve just blown away and rebuilt an HP DL185 G5. After installing all of the drivers from the HP website for the model, using Windows Server x64 R2 SP2, there is still 2 devices which are wanting drivers.

One is a raid, the other an Unknown.

The raid driver required is the Broadcom HT1000, you’ll find that easy enough on Google.

The unknown is a bitch to find. HP couldn’t tell me what it was. Turns out it’s for a Remote ILO board, even though the system doesn’t have one. You have to install this beauty to fix it:

IPMI infless Install

Yes, it’s not even for the same model, but it’s a NULL patch to shut it up complaining. It’ll then go in as HP NULL IPMI Controller. The device hardware ID is ACPI\IPI0001\0.

I hope this helps someone :)

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Facebook CSS/Style/Look

January 20th, 2010

With millions of people on Facebook, you would have thought the most they would allow you to do is change the layout to be a little more fun or interesting. Better yet, do the MySpace way and allow you to customise your personal profile.

No, Facebook users, they won’t even give you this little privilege. Well, there’s an awesome hack available for Firefox users called Stylish from those wicked people over at http://userstyles.org.  Go and install the add-on, then restart your Firefox.  Now go to http://userstyles.org and select from one of the many awesome Facebook layouts available.

It only adjusts your Facebook look, it doesn’t affect the page at all for anyone else.  Mine now looks like this:

Facebook Screen Shot

Facebook after Stylish

The Style I’m using is Dark Static, Transparency.

Enjoy folks.

Stylish

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Remove/Delete Gnome shortcuts from Places menu

January 17th, 2010

I’ve noticed this one boggling a few people and a few are frustrated that you can’t just right click and delete from the Gnome Panels Places menu.

To remove the shortcuts which are actually stored as bookmarks within Nautilus (the Gnome file manager), click Places, then click Home Folder. From the dropdown list, click Bookmarks and then click Edit.

Changes you make here directly affect the Places dropdown.

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Working Sysprep 3.0 for Windows 7

January 15th, 2010

I’ve seen a lot of people having issues with Windows 7 sysprep at the moment and Microsoft’s new and ridiculously complicated rollout system. Here’s a quick breakdown of how to make a Windows 7 image:

Create a Windows PE disk with ImageX on it
Create an answer file called unattend.xml using the Windows Installation & Administration Kit (WAIK)
Configure Windows how you want it
Drop the unattend.xml in to c:\windows\system32\sysprep
Drop to a command prompt in that directory and do:
sysprep /oobe /generalize /shutdown /unattend:unattend.xml

Once she’s down, boot on the Windows PE disk and take an image.

Edit my unattend.xml file which is attached using the WAIK and change things like Key, usernames, etc. This version tries to join to a domain, you may want to delete that section.

Good luck!

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Increasing your ADSL speeds via ringwire

January 9th, 2010

I’m amazed that this actually worked, but it’s true!

I live in a little village not to far away from a main town, but due to this some people are on Virgin Media cable and others are not so lucky having to suffer abysmal speeds of British Telecom’s non-financially rewarding 1/2Mbit broadband.  A few of my friends pay for Talk Talk and BT to supply them with up to 8Mbit but can get no where near this speed due to the local hub never being upgraded.

Now, this is not actually the case at all it seems.  There is a ring wire (orange) inside of the Master socket which, when disconnected, seems to increase your speed by a fair amount.

With a Philips screw driver, remove the front panel of the master socket, pocket it out, and then pull the orange wire(s) out of the clamp.  Now, tuck them back neatly and jobs done.

I’ve just witnessed a leap from 0.5Mbit to 3.12Mbit and another similar to 1.6Mbit.  This works and doesn’t effect your phone system, unless you have an old analogue phone which uses the ring wire to literally do just that, ring.  Anything digital doesn’t require this and since most homes are now digital phones it should not be required :)  Happy speed increasing.

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Hacking the ZTE MF627

January 9th, 2010

I found this on my travels and thought it quite interesting so I thought I’d like to share. Its Written by Andrew Williams so all the credit goes to him.

Its been a while since I’ve done a good hack article. so again I’m back onto my favourite topic of 3G modems. Thanks to the generous promotions at 3dongles4free I’ve been able to pickup a new Three dongle for next to nothing. As I’ve already got my E160G I didn’t really need this to be on the Three network.

After a quick search around and a few suggestions from existing mailing lists I’ve found out that a hacked firmware exists and these cheap and cheerful dongles can be flashed to allow any SIM card to be used. This should be a simple job of updating the software and using the new SIM card.

First of all, grab the software pack from Rapidshare, due to the questionable nature of this copy of the firmware no one has been willing to host it on their own hosting, and I’ll keep to that idea. Extract the files from the RAR and you should have a firmware upgrade, and a installation folder for the connection software. As the existing Three connection software is very limited, the software package includes the Telstra version which allows you to define your own settings.

Before you attempt the software upgrade, you need to remove any existing Three software, install the Telstra version and remove your SIM card from the dongle, then simply plug it in and run the firmware upgrade. This process will take around 15-25 minutes and once it’s done it’ll give you a prompt. During the upgrade do not power off your PC or remove the dongle from the USB socket. This will brick your dongle rendering it completely useless.

Now, put in your non-Three SIM card and plug it back into your PC, the Telstra software should start-up and try detect the device, you need to configure the software for your provider’s APN settings, but the PDF document included with the software package will give you all the details you need.

Remember, I take no responsibility for people bricking their equipment, you have been warned.

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Google Chrome on Linux

January 8th, 2010

It’s a New Year, a new decade even.  I thought it was time to try out some news apps.

I’m an avid Opera user, I’ve been using it solid for 6 months for both email and web browsing.  One of the amazing things that I have found with Opera is the speed of rendering pages, especially 9.10, but it’s load time leaves a fair amount to be desired.  The mail handling features however, they are pretty good and handle in a way that’s a little bit like Googlemail.

So everyone had been raving about Google Chrome, well the Windows lot have been anyway.   They’ve also been shouting a fair amount about Safari too although most of this has been abuse rather than actual “wow” factor.  On my lovely Mint Linux 8 box, I fired up Opera, pointed to Google and typed Chrome and then quickly landed on the install page.

I grabbed the 32bit Debian version and installed.  Upon firing up Chrome asked if it was allowed to be the centre of attention, a la Default Browser and I said yes.  I also agreed to it sending all my vitals back to Google under the guise of anonymous usage statistics that I dare say includes my bank details, IP address and passport information.

Google Chrome is plain to look at, it rather looks like Safari if I’m honest (calm down fan-boys).  What caught me is page loading speed, quickly followed by the extensions which are already available for a beta.  In went Adblock, in went Google Mail checker (which is pants), it already had Flash from the OS but it handles Youporn with a lot less pain than Opera, along with The Sun website which is seriously flash heavy.

One thing it suffers with is not smooth scrolling webpages, it’s kind of jittery for that all though there is an extension that supposedly fixes it.  I’ll carry on my testing and post the results later.  Now, I better get me a new email client…

—————————- 09/01/10 ——————————–

I’ve driven Chrome for Linux for approximately 24 hrs, not impressed.  Sorry Google, you’re good, but not that good.  I can’t render pages such as The Sun.com properly without the browser hanging, as well as Kontraband.  The crappy scroll drives me insane and it isn’t fixed with extensions.  This is currently a Google fail.  Back to Opera.

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Broken Vista account

January 7th, 2010

Something that has often made me chuckle about Windows is it’s ability to break the user account you are using.  This often comes via malware or a virus, but it’ll change your accounts Group Policies to stop you launching all the stuff required to fix it such as control panel, user and groups, etc.

One half useful thing about Vista and Windows 7 is the fact that the admin account exists but is disabled and doesn’t have a password set, this is due to having that lovely UAC elevation built in now.  It’s great that MS learnt and ripped off sudo from Unix but it’s poorly implemented, sorry, I digress.

If your account is corrupt, you’re locked out of doing tons of stuff and you just want to get in to the system to start a fresh, try this:

Enable the admin account:

Windows Key + R to get a Run box
Type “net user administrator /active:yes” and press ctrl+shift+enter
You’ll be asked if you want to run this as an admin, of course you do.

Log out and you’ll see Administrator on the welcome screen.  Log in as the admin, there won’t be a password required.  Go to control panel, and create a user, give it admin privs and log back out.  Now log in as your new user.

Disable the admin account:


Windows Key +R again
Type “net user administrator /active:no” and press ctrl+shift+enter
You’ll be asked if you want to run this as an admin, yes again.

Now just copy stuff from your old account in c:\users\oldaccount name and you’re done.

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Facebook Chat Font Codes

January 2nd, 2010

A lot of people have asked how I underline and bold my text when I’m chatting to them in Facebook chat. Facebook only currently support underline and bold, not italic.

To create a BOLD statement, use stars and any text in between them will automatically BOLD. Example: “You *pathetic* imp!” will become “You pathetic imp”!.

To do underscores/underline just use _ as place holders.  Example: _HELLO_ will become HELLO.

Simple really.

You can also try these emoticons in chat:


:) - happy

:( - sad

:P - tongue

:D - grin

:O - gasp

;) - wink

8) - glasses

B) - sunglasses

:3 - cute/cat-like

>:( - grumpy

:/ - unsure

:’( - cry

3:) - devil

O:) - angel

:-* - kiss

^_^ - “kiki”

-_- - squint

O.o - confused

>:O - upset

<3 - heart

:v - Pacman

:|] - robot

:putnam: - Chris Putnam (Facebook Engineer)

(^^^) - Shark

<(") - Penguin

and in your usernames, how about hearts and musical notes?

☺ / ☹  / ♪  / ♫ / ☻ / ♥ /

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