Blog: Networking

PROBLEM: COM port redirection is not fully functional via ICA connection. The COM port redirection was occurring (determined by running a net use cmd within the Citrix session) and print was being sent to the printer, but the output on the printer was gibberish – symbols, etc.  In troubleshooting the issue, it was discovered that the COM port redirection was completely functional via an RDP session, and the COM port redirection was fully functional within an ICA session once an RDP session was initiated and information was sent to the redirected COM device. However, upon reboot of the client device, COM port redirection was no longer fully functional within an ICA session.[more]

CAUSE: According to the KB article, http://support.microsoft.com/kb/112841/en-us, the COM port settings for a device can be stored in two different locations – within the Control Panel and within the Command Prompt interface.  The settings used by the device will depend on how the application communicates with the port – via the Control Panel\registry or directly with the COM port via the command interface.  The settings are not dependent on each other and can be changed independently of one another.  COM port redirection via ICA and RDP use the settings set within the port itself.  To add to the complexity, it appears that the RDP protocol automatically sets the client device port settings when a session is initiated to match the settings for the COM port on the host server.  This was the reason that the application was working via RDP and any subsequent ICA session.

MODE.COM queries the port directly.  Default settings (Windows XP, 7E) are the following (MODE.COM did not seem to be available within XPe):

Status for Device COM1:

• Baud: 1200
• Parity: Even
• Data Bits: 7
• Stop Bits: 1
• Timeout: OFF
• XON/XOFF: OFF
• CTS handshaking: OFF
• DSR handshaking: OFF
• DSR sensitivity: OFF
• DTR circuit: ON
• RTS circuit: ON

Applications reset the mode of the COM port(s).  If, for example, you start Terminal and reset COM1 to 14400 baud, 7 data bits, odd parity, then exit Terminal, the new settings remain in effect until the computer is shut down.  Upon rebooting, the default settings are once again in effect.  The Control Panel settings, on the other hand, affect the registry.  An application that is appropriately written can query the registry for these values and use the Control Panel settings.  The default settings in the Ports option of Control Panel\Device Manager are:

Settings for COM1:

• Baud Rate: 9600
• Data Bits: 8
• Parity: None
• Stop Bits: 1
• Flow Control: None   

SOLUTION: You can manually set the COM port settings by using this command: “Mode COM1: 9600,n,8,1”. However, when you restart the system, you will find the settings revert back to the default. To resolve the issue, create a startup task or place a batch file in startup that sets the COM port to the required settings. 

Example: C:\windows\system32\mode.com com1: 9600,n,8,1

A monitoring service reported an Asigra DS-System running low on available disk space. Looking at our storage reports, I was unsure as how we had filled up so much space so quickly. The answer comes from the “Trash” that Asigra creates. When Asigra expires backup data either due to the max generations or retention policies being met, it doesn’t immediately remove the data from the DS-System. Instead, this data is moved to the Asigra  equivalent of the Windows Recycle Bin before being purged. By default, a scheduled job runs monthly to remove data from Trash that is older than 30 days.  This means that data could be in there for potentially 2 months before being removed permanently.  You can run a job to purge the data manually or you can alter the schedule to run more frequently if needed.

1. Open the Exchange Management Console
   • Make sure you are using an Administrator account
2. Open the Web Management Interface
   • Click Toolbox > Message Tracking
   • Use the same Administrator account details to login
3. Choose the User to manage
   • In the top-left corner you should see a link that says 'Manage My Organizaiton'; hover over this link and click on 'Select User' from the drop down
   • From the list, search and select the User's name
4. Edit the user's out of office message
   • A new window/tab should open with basic management options for that user; on the right-hand-side there are a list of shortcuts, click 'Tell people you're on vacation'  This will give you access to both internal and external messages
   • Once complete, remember to save everything and log out

 Spiceworks Article: http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/8375-edit-another-user-s-out-of-office-message-in-exchange-2010-without-editing-permissions

Versions of Outlook prior to 2013 would allow you to create an HTML signature with references to local images (e.g., logo, etc.) that would be converted to embedded images when you sent the email message.  As of Outlook 2013, the links to the images are not converted so, if the image is not accessible to the recipient (such as in a URL or shared file on an internal network), the recipient will only see a broken link reference.

This can be remedied by using the Outlook editor to create the signature with images but the editor doesn't always give you the HTML you would prefer.  An alternative is to make the allowing registry entries to have Outlook embed images like it used to.

Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Outlook\Options\Mail
Value type: REG_DWORD
Value name; Send Pictures With Document
Value: 1

On newer model Cisco small business switches, the interface VLAN mode designation is different than what you might expect:

1. The default mode is "Trunk".  This is not the same as "switchport mode trunk" on enterprise Cisco switches.  This mode can be left as is for plugging in a host, but is actually best used when setting up link aggregation.
2. The "Access" mode is similar to the "switchport mode access" command on enterprise Cisco switches and is the mode that should be used when setting up multiple VLAN access on a switch.
3. The "General" mode is comparable to the "switchport mode trunk" command on enterprise Cisco switches.  This is the mode an interface should be set to when Dot.1Q VLAN tagging needs to be configured.
   

If you ever look at your logs on your Cisco router or switch and they don't seem to match the actual local time of your device, you may need to run the following command to set the logs to use the device's local time: service timestamps log datetime localtime

I was wanting to create an ad-hoc network on a Windows 8 system, but discovered the “Create an ad hoc network” feature available on prior Windows OS systems is not available on Windows 8.  However, I found in Window 8 you can use the Network Shell (netsh) utility to create a virtual wireless network (WLAN).

1. First you need to verify your network interface supports virtualization.  Open a command prompt (with administrative privileges) and run “netsh wlan show drivers” – look to see if “Hosted network supported” is “Yes”
2. Enter the following command to configure the wireless network “netsh wlan set hostednetwork mode=allow ssid=<name> key=<password>
3. Now start the hosted network by running “netsh wlan start hostednetwork”

Crucial M500 SSDs support self-encrypting drive (SED) technology which allows BitLocker for Windows 8 to simply be used for encryption key management rather than software-based encryption.  Out of the box, the drive encrypts all written data and decrypts all read data - and functions like a non-SED drive until key management software like Windows 8 (and Server 2012) BitLocker is used. [more]

When you turn BitLocker on using Windows 8 and a compliant SSD like the M500, you don't have to wait for the whole disk to be rewritten and it's encrypted.  Thus, you can encrypt the whole drive in a couple of minutes or less.  As far as BitLocker and Windows is concerned, it functions just like traditional non-SED drives do regarding pre-boot passwords, recovery keys, etc. 

An interesting spec is Crucial states their SSDs are designed to support 72TB total bytes written (TBW) - which is equal to 40GB per day for 5 years.  It stands to reason that if you don't have to rewrite every byte of an SSD when you use BitLocker to encrypt or decrypt the whole drive, it should help the life expectancy of the drive. 

So, since the drive I/O specs include the hardware encryption overhead, you lose no performance whatsoever when you implement whole disk encryption using BitLocker for Windows 8 on these drives. 

A very basic description of Crucial M500 encryption can be found at

http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-State-Drives-SSD-Knowledge/An-introduction-to-the-encryption-features-of-the-M500/ta-p/128272 

More specs are available (since this is a Micron drive) from:

http://www.micron.com/~/media/Documents/Products/Data%20Sheet/SSD/m500_2_5_ssd.pdf

I had a word doc with about 115 pages of hyperlinks that I was trying to save as a pdf. Word kept freezing up on me and I had a coworker try with the same results.   You can remove all hyperlinks in a Word document by using: ctril+shift+F9.  Once I did this and tried to save again as a pdf it worked fine.