I was having a bit of frustration locating a specific group of email items using Gmail when the following article seemed to be pure gold:

Adding Persistent Searches to Gmail [persistent.info]

Imagine my disgust to discover the Firefox extension whined that only supported version 1.5 when I'm using 1.0.7 (whatever that means).

Anyway, that sparked my interest and I found this solution:

Use the Google toolbar to search Gmail. Then bookmark the resulting page.

Here's a couple examples:

Example with two search labels - one label is specific to my custom labels.

Starred messages - this is a common label for everyone and will show any messages that have been "Starred" either by using the label feature or by clicking the little outline of the star on the individual message.

I'm thinking of making a form that will allow entering your own custom search directly from here, but I'll have to study up on that one first. :)

 

 

( )

About a year ago, I mentioned some trouble with setting up SATA RAID on a new IBM server in this article: Beware SATA drive configuration in new servers !

Since then, I have been lucky enough to not see any until lately. Two were just through my office and below are some notes on their configuration.

• Install hardware.
• Enable SATA RAID in BIOS.
• Boot server and press Ctrl+A as soon as you see:
  Press <Ctrl><A> for Adaptec RAID Configuration Utility
• Choose Array Configuration Utility.
• Select Create Array.
• Select a channel.
• Use Insert to add selected disks to array.
• Press Enter when finished.
• Select an array type while in Array Properties menu and press enter.
  Use RAID 1 for mirroring two drives.
  Use RAID 5 for more than two drives.
  If you only have one drive, you are in the wrong place.
• Type a label for the array and press enter.
• Go with the default array and stripe sizes.
• Leave Caching enabled.
• Select Done
• Allow 30 minutes to 3 hrs for array build to take place.
• Make array bootable by pressing Ctrl+B while array is selected from the Manage Arrays menu.
• Restart server.
• Proceed with ServerGuide installation. Skip RAID configuration by exiting without making changes. Be sure to skip the clear hard drives option during setup.
• As good practice, I recommend making the system drive 30 GB during setup. (if you must, this can be reduced to 20 GB for small drives)
• After server operating system is up, reboot at least once more for good luck. (don't skip this step)
• Follow up with partition and format of remaining drive space. (typically referred to as Data Drive and used for user data as well as application software.

Windows Server 2003 may require Service Pack 1 to be included on the installation CD.

One server I loaded was for a guy who was having trouble getting Windows to load properly. IBM support had replaced all hardware in the box and it still wouldn't boot. I used the steps above and didn't notice any trouble at all. (lucky me!)

 

 

( SATA Mirror )

After installing Per User licenses to a terminal server I was made aware (after 87 days) that they weren't working properly.

Please ensure that the licensing mode on the terminal server is set to Per User. License management is not available for Per User CALs at this time.

Apparently, the default licensing mode is Per Device and has to be switched as mentioned in this Microsoft document which I have quoted below:

Using Terminal Services Configuration

1. Open Terminal Services Configuration.
2. In the console tree, click Server Settings.
3. In the details pane, right-click Licensing Mode, and then click Properties.
4. Select either Per User or Per Device, and then click OK.

A Per Device CAL gives each client computer or device the right to access a terminal server that is running Windows Server 2003. A Per User CAL gives one user the right to access a terminal server from an unlimited number of devices.

Attention, this only applies to Windows Server 2003. Server 2000 only has per device licensing capabilities.

 

 

( )

Reboot !

Reboot the firebox to reset the license count and free up licenses that may not be in use anymore.

I ran into this after changing a DHCP pool for a customer. They had the same number of PCs as before making the change, but they were all at different IP addresses. The firebox continued counting until all the licenses were tied up. Simply cycling the power corrected the issue. Of course you want to warn before knocking down the internet (and any VPN users).

One thing to note: PCs being blocked from web access were stil able to ping across the VPN even though their email and browsers were blocked.

 

 

( )

TMI offers a fast start affiliate program that is free to join and easy to manage.

Below is a link for the service:

For those interested in great deals on wireless products, please feel free to enjoy the following items:

WizYo Affiliate program

 

 

( )

This past week several exciting things came to pass. I linked up a VPN from a WatchGuard firewall router to a LinkSys firewall router (befsx41); configured active directory on a server to participate with a server located over another VPN; reconfigured that silly little PIX to allow RDP access to a couple PCs (without messing up the PIX's sensitive little config); reconfigured licensing on a terminal server to work with user licenses instead of device licenses.

All in all it was a better learning week than most that have been happening lately.

 

 

( )

Apparently, these little firewall routers are supposed to be something special, but the installation Wizard must really be an installation idiot. The silly thing asks all the right questions, but then no traffic is passed to the internet. I get so angry looking at the goofy little Java screens that load slowly and don't accept mouse clicks every time. can you say rant and rave ? :) i am right now haha

I'm sorry, but I just assumed the updated PDM and little installation guide meant this device was finally passed the "12 hr installation" stage

 

 

( )

NFO rewards points for participating in surveys. Points can be redeemed for cash or prizes!

 

 

( )

Local numbers coast to coast. Can't beat the price for dial up internet.

DSL and accelerated dial-up services also offered.

 

 

( )

Two PCs:

explorer.exe crashed with a red X Application Error 0xC0000022 which has many hits, but seemingly only one fix. The permissions checked out fine, but I did locate wininet.dll had beed infected at some point with a virus. Several copies were on the system in various places. Copy most recent version to system32 folder and system is fine.

TaskManager had been disabled by system policy located in registry at HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Policies\Explorer. Delete the bad key and reboot.

Several mentions of I-Worm/Locksky.J were listed in AVG's log for the day this system went down.

---

AVG free found this item during boot on Windows 98:
c:\BTIEIN.DLL @EID_Id_adw Generic.IRY
There was info on creating a disk and performing some steps, but I fixed it by deleting the file.

AVG didn't show up after booting, so I ran an online virus scan. Nothing was found so I rebooted. AVG comes back to life !

 

 

( )

 

 

( )

This is an excellent and inexpensive phone system. I bought one off eBay for under $300 and am very pleased with it.

The best part is that it works with ordinary analog phones (yes cordless phones too) and is perfect for separate voicemail boxes. This one is set to call my call phone whenever I get a message. It is also hooked up to my computer for the music on hold.

Feature set

 

 

( )

In the previous article "WizYo Sytes Net: Possible Aurora adware infestation now takes 30 minutes to boot" I mentioned some ideas, but no solution. Today, I have more information to share. The eventlog had the following errors:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7001
Date:  2/2/2006
Time:  3:18:00 PM
User:  N/A
Computer: NEWFRONT
Description:
The Computer Browser service depends on the Server 
service which failed to start because of the 
following error: 
After starting, the service hung in a start-pending 
state. 

For more information, see Help and Support Center 
at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.


Event Type: Error
Event Source: Service Control Manager
Event Category: None
Event ID: 7022
Date:  2/2/2006
Time:  3:18:00 PM
User:  N/A
Computer: NEWFRONT
Description:
The Server service hung on starting.

For more information, see Help and Support Center 
at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

After removing the File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks along with the IPX protocols, everything works fine. This is what is referred to as the Server service in the above events.
a Server serves files just as file sharing serves files

We did not reinstall that service since no one shares files from this workstation, but it boots like normal and I'm happy.

 

 

( )